Ama entered the big cavern in the mountain, where I had never before been. We skirted a bathing pool, fed by springs that gushed from the rocks, and quite at the rear end of the place came to a small passage. It was black as ink, but Ama took my hand and drew me after her along the passage, scarcely abating her speed as she went.
The tunnel broadened after the entrance was passed, and inclined upward, making more than one turn. The floor was smooth, and although I could not discern even the girl’s form before me, we made good progress. On and up we went, and the unusual exertion was making me pretty short of breath when a ray of light appeared ahead. Ama made another run for the top and we emerged abruptly upon the very crest of the mountain, only a few hundred feet from the rift.
The ridge was not very wide and we could look down both sides of the mountain from where we stood. There was no time for admiring the view, however, for Ama hurried me along until we came to where Ampax and his men were laboring. They had already driven a hole into the big neck of rock connecting the fragment with the mountain—it looked much bigger here than from below—but I could see it would have taken them a long time to have done the job in their own way.
From below came the wild cries of the attacking savages, mingled with the sound of firearms as our boys bravely opposed them. The Tcha uttered no sounds as they fought, but they were none the less terrible for that.
Approaching Ampax I asked him to drive a deep hole with his bar in the hollow he had already made in the neck of rock. He had no idea what I proposed doing, but Ama ordered him to obey me, and he did. The poor fellow was sweating from every pore with his exertions.
I took the dynamite from the box and carefully lowered it into the hole, attaching a fuse I had found in the parcel. It was not a very long fuse, but it must answer our purpose.
Just then the Itzaex retired for the second time, being repulsed with great loss to both sides. Mounting the big fragment I leaned over the edge and called to Paul that all was ready. At once he withdrew all the Tcha and our own boys from the barrier, making them retreat to a safe distance. The scene of conflict, as I now viewed it, was a veritable slaughter-pen, the dead and dying lying heaped in every direction. It was surely time for a diversion.
I ordered Ampax and his men to run along the ridge, and told Ama to go with them. They were slow to understand me and I could not wait long for them to get out of the way because the Itzaex were already forming for another rush. So I lighted the fuse and ran from the place so fast myself that the miners took warning and hastened after me. Seizing Ama’s arm I dragged her along the ridge until the explosion knocked us all flat upon the rocks and sent three miners flying over the precipice.
The crash that followed the detonation shook the ridge again, and then a hearty cheer went up from the exhausted Tcha who stood below in the valley. I knew then that the pass was blocked and the battle over.