There was a fairly wide space between the top of the great square shaft and the openings into the first cell and that leading to the terrace front, and here the remains lay literally heaped, looking as if a most desperate encounter had taken place. Further examination proved that the first cell had also been desperately defended, for the combatants had lain in heaps. It was the same with the second, and as the adventurers went on without stopping to investigate, they found a dire repetition of the battle, and proofs that chamber after chamber had been a little battle-field in which many fell, right on to the extreme end of the range, all of which was in far better condition as to its stone-work than the terraces below.
The heaps of gruesome dust ended with the last chamber only, very little being seen to take attention; but on the terrace, and here in the last four or five chambers, the doctor stooped several times to rake away the soft, easily-swept ashes, to point out proofs of his former opinions, many of the relics he uncovered and touched being quite small.
“A horrible massacre,” he said softly. “Children, youths, and these are doubtless the skulls of women.”
“Oughtn’t we to preserve specimens of each to take back? They would be of intense interest to students of the past,” said Bourne gravely.
“How?” replied the doctor. “Touch any of them.—There, you see. They crumble into dust almost at a breath. What we carry away from here must be in our memories. As far as mine is concerned, it is already charged with the knowledge that we have, here the remains of two races of people, the one fierce and barbarous, the other the civilised builders and carvers of this strange city of the past. Here it is, all written down, how, in spite of all their efforts for their protection, dwelling, as they must have been, in the midst of fierce and bloodthirsty tribes, they were attacked, conquered, and massacred to the very last. For I expect when we examine the terraces on the other side of this place, we shall find a repetition of all we have found here. There, enough of horrors for one day.”
“But you’ll come and examine all this again, father?” said Chris excitedly.
“Yes, I should like to come too,” cried Ned.
“What, haven’t you both had enough of these horrors?” said the doctor, raising his eyebrows.
“N–no, father,” said Chris slowly, and as if thinking the while. “It is very horrible, of course, and one almost shivers to think of how the brave people must have fought; but there’s a something about it that seems to draw one on to try and know more, and it is almost like reading of a dreadful battle and a brave defence; only it seems to be so much more true.”
“Yes, and it’s so ancient, father,” said Ned, meeting Bourne’s eyes. “I want to know more, and to try and find some of the swords and spears and battle-axes.”