Next we stretched a copper wire from the palace of the priests to Ama’s pavilion, and set up a telephone at each end. This aroused no end of excitement and all the priests and priestesses soon learned how to use it. Ama called us up every morning, and she used the wire to convey her orders to the priests, instead of communicating with them by messenger, as before.
A pocket electric flash-light excited considerable admiration, as did some clocks and watches. The Tcha still used sundials to mark the time. Some tiny music-boxes, playing one tune, were presented by us to various officials and the gifts won us much favor.
We exhibited all these things with careful deliberation, making them serve as vehicles for many interviews with the lovely priestess. In return she graciously showed us some of the accomplishments of the Tcha.
We were taken to a vast cave where a large volume of water gushed from the rocks with irresistible force. Some inventive Tcha had long ago constructed an electric motor operated by this water power, and it supplied electric lights to all the valley. They did not turn off their lamps, but allowed them to burn until the filament burned out, masking them with shields when the lumination was not required. Archie showed them how to make a cut-off, and also improved the shape of their lamps. So receptive and skillful were the native glass-blowers and artisans generally that they soon reconstructed their entire plant on modern principles.
They made a very superior storage battery, by means of which the chariots of the High Priestess and her nobility were propelled, in much the same fashion as our automobiles. They were clumsy and slow, it is true, but curiously enough this electrical device, and the others that they used, dated from the time of their exodus from Atlantis. The records proved conclusively that electricity was known and utilized on that lost continent.
The gold which was so plentiful in the valley was taken from mines in the center of one of the neighboring mountains, connected with the hidden city by a broad tunnel. The supply was practically inexhaustible. Other metals were found in the walls of Aota, and this accounted for many of the caverns we noticed.
We learned that the beautiful rubies came from the subsoil of the valley itself, and the Tcha skillfully cut and polished them, using them for ornamenting even the most common articles of use. When Ama saw that we admired the rubies she took us to the gem-cutters’ building and gave us a pocketful each of choice and brilliant stones—fully enough plunder to repay us for our eventful journey, had we been able to carry it away. But if we were to be sacrificed to their blood-thirsty god the Sun, we would never need rubies again.
It was very hard for Ama to decide which of the strangers was to be preserved from sacrifice as the reward for saving her life. She seemed to grow quite fond of Chaka, as the days passed by. He often sat at her feet telling, like Othello, the story of his life and adventures, while she listened with fascinated interest. Moreover, he was atkayma of the Itzaex, and therefore far outranked any of the rest of us, who could claim no such high sounding titles.
Chaka was, as I have remarked, an exceedingly handsome fellow, and his soft brown eyes grew expressive whenever he turned them upon the bewitching priestess. Ama was permitted—nay, required—to marry, and being supreme among her race could choose her own husband. I sometimes wondered if it would be the fate of the young atkayma to become the husband of Ama.
But there was Paul, too, and our friend the lieutenant had by this time fallen as desperately in love with the girlish priestess as had Chaka. While he lacked the personal beauty of the Maya chieftain Paul was white, and therefore to my mind a more fitting mate for the beautiful Ama. He also belonged to the powerful American people whom the priestess had come by this time to fully respect, and that was in his favor too. Really, it was all guesswork as to which admirer she might prefer, for the girl treated them with equal frankness and consideration.