“Well, then, what next?” I inquired.
“Let us wait here until darkness falls. It isn’t a very comfortable location, I admit, but it will do for a few hours. Then we will inflate our jackets, rise to a level with the top of the mountain, descend into the city, and take our chances of receiving an affectionate welcome.”
We considered this plan thoughtfully and after discussing it in all its phases decided it was best to follow, under the peculiar circumstances.
CHAPTER XV
WE BECOME PRISONERS OF THE TCHA
Without doubt our presence on the mountain and our declared intention of visiting the hidden city was by this time known to the Tcha. Our best policy would be to appear among them at once, rather than wait for them to formulate a plan to prevent our purpose.
“They can’t be very fierce people, if the others are like the sample we’ve seen,” remarked Archie. “He wasn’t at all a bad looking fellow.”
“I believe I would rather face the Tcha than tackle the Itzaex again,” added Ned Britton. “We know how to deal with white folks.”
“I do not forget that the Tcha killed my father’s followers without mercy,” said Chaka. “But that need not discourage us. We made the journey to gain this hidden city, and my brother Paul’s plan to fly over the mountain seems to me to be wise.”
Our thoughts were none too cheerful as we sat there hour after hour and discussed the forlorn hope, perhaps imagining more terrors than actually existed. It was a big mountain. We could realize that, now we had reached it and were perched like birds upon a narrow ledge of rock, with a dangerous precipice at our feet. There was room for a pretty big city inside the grim walls of this barrier, if it really was hollow and a city of living people existed within it.
We brewed some coffee over an alcohol stove and Paul made enough extra to fill his thermos bottles. In the supply chest—one of the four we carried—was a quantity of food in very condensed form. By boiling water brought from the spring we made some very excellent soup from a small tablet, and a tin of beef, with a biscuit apiece, enabled us to feast in a very satisfactory manner.