Lorinda was gone less than five minutes. “Mother is sleeping, so it’s safe to leave her,” she reported. “Here’s the flash, but I couldn’t find an extra battery.”
Descending into the passageway, the girls retraced their steps to the tiny dugout midway between the thatched roof cottage and the mansion. As they entered the other tunnel, they again heard the throb of jungle drums, and the weird incantation of many guttural voices.
“A chant to the Serpent God!” whispered Lorinda. “Do you hear that high-pitched drum which sounds above the others?”
Penny nodded as she moved forward in the dark, narrow passage.
“It is the Zudi,” Lorinda added. “I would know its tone anywhere! We must recover it, but if what I think is so, it will be a dangerous task!”
CHAPTER
21
CEREMONIAL CAVE
The tunnel sloped gently downward, apparently toward the river beach. As the girls moved along, the pulsing of the drums came with increasing crescendo. They could hear the wailing chant plainly now, an incantation in which many voices were united.
“Better switch off the light,” Lorinda advised in a whisper. “We’re getting close.”
Penny darkened the flashlight, groping her way along the damp, rocky wall. The passage now had widened, and suddenly ahead, she saw the flickering flame of a torch.
In the shadowy light swayed a half dozen celebrants of the weird rites. The room was circular, a cavern carved from the rocks years before by the action of water.