“Conditions at home have naturally grown worse instead of better, and now the man who holds the mortgages on the homestead has notified my mother that he will foreclose when next they fall due, in about four months’ time from now. Such is the condition of my family at home, and you may well imagine, my friends, how unhappy their misfortunes and necessities have made me. As the climax of their sad fortunes drew near I have tried to find some means to assist them. It has occupied my thoughts by day and night. But one possible way of relief has occurred to me, suggested by Chaka. It is a desperate chance, perhaps; still, it is a chance, and I have resolved to undertake it.”
He paused for a moment; but no one cared to speak, although we were much interested in the story.
“Nine years ago,” continued Lieutenant Allerton, “while I was ensign on the Maryland, we were cruising on the east coast of the promontory of Yucatan when one evening we observed a small boat being sculled rapidly toward the ship by a young native the color of bronze, who was naked except for a loin cloth. After him darted a motley crowd of boats, in hot pursuit, the occupants screaming wild invectives at their escaping prey.
“Our captain ordered a gig lowered and I was sent out in it, met the fugitive, and took him aboard. We managed to regain the ship before the frantic natives could reach us. However, they shot a myriad of poisoned darts at us and were only driven off when a volley from our men sent them scurrying back to shore in a panic.
“The young fellow I had rescued was Chaka. He seemed to consider me his especial preserver and attached himself to me with a persistency that induced the captain to let me have him in my own room, where we soon became friends. Chaka is very intelligent, as you have doubtless observed. I taught him English and he taught me the Maya tongue. When, some months after, I was transferred, I managed to take Chaka with me and have him enrolled as a seaman. We have been together nine years, and we are better friends than at first.”
He looked up at the Maya, who bowed gravely in acknowledgment.
CHAPTER III
WE UNDERTAKE THE YUCATAN ADVENTURE
“I have learned all of Chaka’s history, as he has learned all of mine,” continued Allerton, resuming his story. “My friend is a royal prince of the Itzaex, the one native tribe of Yucatan that defied the Spanish invaders of the Sixteenth Century and remains unconquered to this day. This tribe dwells in the vast sierras of Yucatan, near the Great Lake, and the Atkayma of the Itzaex has the same importance and power as the Inca of Peru or the Caciques of the Aztecs formerly enjoyed. Chaka is the eldest son of the ruling atkayma; by this time he may even have succeeded to the title of atkayma himself, the head of his people, for his father was an old man when the boy left him. The family of rulers is a sacred one, said to be descended from the sun, and every one of the atkayma’s fifty thousand subjects would die for him without hesitation.
“At the time I rescued Chaka he was an adventurous youth who, ignorant of the name of fear, was leading a band of his people on an expedition to the seacoast, in search of turtles. In some way he became separated from his companions and found himself surrounded by a horde of Mopanes, the hereditary tribal foes of the Itzaex. I am sure the boy rendered a good account of himself before he was forced to leap into a boat and scull out to sea, where his sharp eyes had noted our ship approaching. He had been bred with a horror for the white man, but preferred to take his chances with us rather than be cut down by the Mopanes.
“When he came to know us, and to understand our advanced civilization, the youth decided that he preferred it to the wild, crude life of his own people, and has gladly sacrificed his royal heritage to remain with me. Our friendship has been very sweet to us both, and we are as brothers.”