CHAPTER XIX
AN APE-LIKE BAND
Johnny spent the remainder of that night in the most curious place he had yet seen in Haiti—at the mouth of a cave. How far back the cave extended into the mountain he had no notion. He did know that the night air at this high altitude was crisp and cool, that his thick bed of mats was comfortable and the home-woven blankets ample for warmth. This, however, did not at once induce sleep. The day had been too full of adventure and fresh revelation for that.
When he realized that their every act at the Citadel had been watched through the “magic telescope” it gave him a peculiar feeling.
“And yet,” he told himself, “we have done nothing but look about. We have not removed a stone from its place in the ancient walls.
“Well enough that we didn’t,” he mused. “That little man told me that the ‘Rope of Gold’ has never been at the Citadel. Wonder how he knows.”
The natural answer to this question came to him as something of a shock. “If a man knows for sure that a thing is not in a certain place and never has been there, he needs must know where it has been and where it is now,” he told himself. “And if only he would tell me,” he added. “But that, of course, is not to be expected.”
There were other problems to be studied out. He had been brought to this spot for a purpose. What could that purpose be? Were these bronze men afraid that he and Curlie would chance upon some of the ancient treasure? Did they propose to break up their search by holding him prisoner? If so, where did this strange white man come in? To this question he could form no answer, so still puzzling over it he fell asleep.
* * * * * * * *
As you know, when Curlie Carson, with his heavily laden donkeys, took the trail in search of Johnny Thompson, he left his laboratory stripped of all contents. It was well that he did, for only two hours after he left, a band of blacks, some fifty in number, came scrambling up the trail that leads to the Citadel. They were led by a black man with a face of such fierce ugliness as one seldom sees on land or sea.
Arrived at the Citadel, they scattered as if in search of someone. When two of them came upon Curlie’s abandoned laboratory they let out a cry and at once the entire band swarmed around them.