Doctor Morgano stood to one side with his arms folded as if either intensely bored, or considering some mental problem pertaining to ancient forms of worship. Ixtual having partially regained his senses, suddenly threw himself on his knees before the doctor and bent forward until his head touched the pavement. The archæologist abstractly said something in the Maya tongue and, discovering the need for pacifying Ixtual lest the latter go insane, reached over and gently assisted him to his feet. He talked to him in a fatherly sort of way and then said in Spanish:
“Perhaps, it is best that you and the Arab and Juan return to the raft and bring up the provisions and find a place in the outer circle that will do for our quarters. Forget the gods, my son. They do but forgive if you believe you have done them wrong. They are very merciful, otherwise there would be no gods. Go. We shall come later.”
And so, strangely pacified and returning to his normal senses, Ixtual with Benny and Juan accompanying him as if eager to escape, hurried away. Benny went hurriedly with a long, swinging, graceful stride that made me think he had reverted to the burnoose and flowing robes of the desert. Juan was crossing himself, and I have an idea was muttering prayers; but Ixtual, as if obedient to a command, never looked back.
“The poor Indian is upset,” said the doctor. “I can’t imagine such folly, but I suppose that”
“That bally old idol did look as if it was alive; but of course it was all some sort of trickery,” growled Wardy.
“Trickery?” the doctor and I spoke in unison and considerably surprised by his words.
“Why, yes. Trickery! Didn’t you see it open its eyes and glare at us? By Jove! There was something uncanny in the way they scowled and flashed at us, wasn’t there?”
“You haven’t gone balmy, too, have you?” I demanded. “What are you talking about? Rubbish!”
“Rubbish, nothing! If neither you nor the doctor saw that thing’s eyes glare, you must have been looking at something else. I tell you I saw them. It wasn’t as if they opened, but as if they had suddenly come to life and the old chap was pretty sore about something.”
“Ha! We must investigate this,” said the doctor, turning and almost running back into that inner chamber.
We stood looking at that great effigy for some time but could observe nothing unusual about it beyond that majestic and impressive workmanship which I had already noted.
“You see, Wardy,” I jeered, “its eyes are just as they were when we first saw them.”
But as if doubting his own senses, or at least very dissatisfied, Wardy took out his monocle, carefully cleaned it, and frowned upward at that impassive idol. He stepped sideways for a few paces as if to see whether the change of position produced the effect, tried the other side, fell back, then again moved forward.
“I’ll swear I couldn’t have been mistaken,” he murmured. “I saw it too plainly, and was just going to speak when Ixtual went off his crumpet. You were standing about where you are now. I was just about here. The doctor had started up there to Hold on! I believe I’ve got it.”
He shouted the last words and then laughed.
“Doctor,” he said, “would you mind doing just what you did before—if you can remember what it was?”
The savant for an instant blinked as if bewildered by the effort of memory, rubbed his chin, and then said: “Oh, yes! I recall that I was interested in getting to where I could read that tablet above the altar. From where I stood I could not see it. I must look at that now. Whether the eyes of this image shone or not are of the very least importance; but I must see that tablet! Perhaps it is of great scientific value. Who knows, my friends, but what it may contain the very key to that ancient form of worship! We will defer the investigation of your—ummmh—hallucination, and I will continue my great work.”
And with that, as if dismissing us to our own researches, he again advanced toward the image. I was on the point of retorting somewhat sarcastically to his speech, but was silenced by a swift gesture from Wardy which the archæologist did not observe. The doctor, as if forgetting us entirely, again climbed upward to the pulpit and again, finding the tablet too high above his head for close inspection, stepped forward and lifted his hands upward to clutch a projection by which he might lift himself up. And then, for the first time, I saw the eyes of the idol blaze as if filled with wrath! I admit that the sight was terrifying to me, so what must have it been to those superstitious minds that had witnessed it before?