“There now,” he said, sitting up and talking quietly to her. “The storm will pass in a short while. We’re not shipping any water. She’s a staunch old barge. We’ll weather this little blow and never lose a mast or a yardarm.”
Since the girl was unquestionably Spanish, it seems probable that she understood not one word that he said. She did understand the steady comforting tone and the kindly touch of his hand. She stopped crying, cuddled down in his arms and, since it was now well into night, she fell asleep.
As Johnny sat there, a motley throng gathered about him. Like him, they came to this open spot for safety. Some, like himself, were fully dressed. Some were in pajamas. The mild moonlight was kind to these last. Some carried things in their hands, things they had salvaged from the doom of their homes. A parrot in a cage, an iron strong box, an alarm clock, a broom; these and many more things, somber, precious, ludicrous, had been brought into the open plaza.
Johnny’s mind began to travel back, to gather up the slender thread of circumstances that had brought him there. He traced it thread by thread. “To-morrow,” he told himself, “will bring something quite new.”
CHAPTER VI
AN EARTHQUAKE WITHIN A CAVE
After leaving Pant to complete his photographic work, Kirk and his giant servant had passed from the small chamber to one very much larger. He had taken one of Pant’s flashlights. As he sent its gleam down the chamber he found it impossible to see the distant wall. The ceiling was low, so low that he was obliged to stoop at times to clear it. The stalactites and stalagmites were found in such numbers that they formed a veritable labyrinth.
“Mustn’t go far,” he told himself. “Might be difficult to find our way back.”
At that moment, as his flashlight painted a white avenue between two rows of natural pillars, he caught a strange yellow gleam a short way before him on the floor.
A few steps and he was at the spot. His hand was on the thing, an ornament of gold of elaborate design, when his foot struck something that crushed in like an ancient gourd.
One horrified glance, and he sprang back.