CHAPTER XXII
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN
Never before had Nicky, Tom, or the older men, seen so much treasure as they found at the end of the passage. Cliff had seen the great room filled with gold and precious cloths and metals once before, when the king’s son took him there to inquire about the statuette.
“Where can Caya have left my father?” Cliff said anxiously when he had taken a swift glance around the treasure room; his chums almost forgot their danger, so awed and fascinated were they.
But Mr. Whitley hurried them all to the steps and up them.
The stairway into the ante-room, or rear portion of the Sun Temple were not straight; they curved like steps in a lighthouse tower.
At their top, emerging after spying carefully, the fugitives found themselves in a narrow room, a sort of Priests’ room, running across the back of the edifice, behind the huge placque on which was embossed and enscrolled the massive face with the Sun-rays around it. Therefore the rear room had two doorways, one on each side of the placque, looking into the main temple. Great tapestries screened these doorways. Bill lost no time in spying through into the main room; finding that deserted, he nodded and permitted the others to ascend into the back room, forbidding loud words in case anyone came into the front temple room by chance, though few had the privilege of entry there.
As they entered, single file, they all grew tense again—it seemed that they were betrayed! A huge curtain hung on the wall opposite to the doorways began to quiver.
Bill hurriedly produced his weapon. “Come forth!” he muttered in quichua; the curtain remained without further stir.
“Look out!” gasped Nicky, “he might have a bow’n arrow!”
Of course he spoke in English, and at the sound of the words there came a low whisper.