“To think,” Doris told herself as two hours later she lay beneath the blankets awaiting sleep, “that up those steps in days long gone by one passed gorgeously attired dukes and earls with their women all aglitter with jewels. And now here we are, just two girls and one old black woman, all alone with all the ruined magnificence. Here we are and to-morrow—Oh, you glorious to-morrow!”
To-morrow they would explore the mysterious pile of brick and stone that had once been a king’s palace.
“Treasure,” she whispered. “That magic word treasure. There was treasure aplenty here in those all but forgotten days. Who knows but it lies hidden away here still? Who knows—”
Her thoughts broke short off. There had come a faint scratching sound from the palm fronds above her.
“Blackbird. Some old blackbird,” she told herself. She was not quite satisfied with this. A tropical blackbird, she remembered, was always talking to himself and fluttering in and out among the branches. The thing troubled her. It was night and the jungle was new to her. She thought of snakes. Snakes, she remembered, glided about in trees. She had seen a picture of a huge one hanging over a limb.
“But everyone says there are no dangerous creatures in the Haitian jungle, not even snakes,” she reassured herself. She settled back in her place. The rustling for the time had ceased. “Just some bird,” she told herself once more.
Her right hand went to her left wrist. There something gave forth a jingling sound. Doris was not given to wearing jewelry. Notwithstanding this, before starting on this trip she had surprised her companions by putting on her three bracelets and even borrowing two others from Dot. Dot hadn’t asked why she wanted to wear them, but she had wondered about it. They were on her wrist still.
“Seems sort of foolish,” she told herself. “I’m glad I brought them though, for you really never can tell. They say that monkeys travel far. And if we found him it really might work. And if—Why! What was that?” Something had hit her hand.
“It was thrown or dropped,” she told herself, now quite genuinely alarmed. “Who could have done that?”
“Perhaps,” she thought as her heart gave a leap, “there are natives about these ruins.” She thought of the black face the others had seen at the top of the cliff by Deception Bay. With an unsteady hand she drew a flashlight from her pocket. Having snapped it on, she set its circle of light searching for the thing that had struck her hand. A half minute of this, then she gave forth a low chuckle.