Chapter 11 The Place of Death

A few days later Ignosi called all the people together and they publicly recognized him as king. After this we spoke to him, and said that we now wanted to go to the mines.

' My friends,' he answered,' I have discovered this. There is a great cave deep in the mountain where the dead kings of the land are put. There you will find Twala's body, with the kings who went before him. There, too, is a deep hole. That is where men found the valuable stones long ago. And there, in the Place of Death, is a secret room which is known only to Gagool.

'But there is a story in the land that many, many years ago a white man crossed the mountains. He was led by a woman to the secret room and he was shown the diamonds that are hidden in it. But the woman told the king about him, and he was chased back to the mountains.'

'The story is true, Ignosi.We found the white man,' I said.

'Yes, we found him,' answered Ignosi. 'And now, if you can reach that secret room, and the stones are there, you can take them, my brothers.'

' First we must find the secret room,' I said.

' There is only one person who can show it to you — Gagool,' he replied.

' And if she will not ?'

' Then she must die,' answered Ignosi.' I have saved her life for this.' He ordered two men to bring Gagool to him.

In a few minutes she came, shouting at her guards.

' Leave her,' said the king.

'What do you want, Ignosi?' she said.'If you touch me, I will kill you with my magic'.

' Your magic could not save Twala, and it cannot hurt me,' was the answer.' You must tell me the way to the secret room where the shining stones are hidden.'

' Ha! ha!' she cried.' Nobody else knows its secret, and I will never tell you.'

Slowly Ignosi cut her with his spear.

' I will show it,' cried Gagool.' Let me live and I will show you.'

' Tomorrow you will go with Infadoos and my white brothers. If you fail, you will die — slowly.'

' I will not fail, Ignosi. I always keep my promise. Once before, a woman showed the secret room to a white man, and bad things happened to him.' Her eyes shone. 'Her name was Gagool too. Perhaps I was that woman.'

'That was hundreds of years ago,' I said.

'Perhaps. Perhaps it was my mother's mother who told me. Her name was Gagool. You will find a bag full of stones in the place. The man filled the bag, but he never took it away. Bad luck came to him.'

Our group contained the three of us, Foulata, Infadoos and Gagool.We marched along Solomon's great road to the foot of the middle hill, and stopped. Then, for an hour and a half, we climbed up a path. At last we saw in front of us a huge hole in the ground, about 300 feet deep.

' What is this ?' Sir Henry wanted to know.

' This must be Solomon's diamond mine,' I said.

We moved closer to the three huge figures that we had seen on the other side of the mine. They were human shapes, cut out of the rock. These were the Silent Ones.

In front of us was a wall of rock about eighty feet high. Gagool carried a lamp in her hand. She gave us one bad look, then moved towards this wall. We followed her until we came to a narrow door.

' Now, white men from the stars,' she said,' are you ready ? I will obey the orders of my lord the king, and show you the place where the bright stones are kept.'

' We are ready,' I said.

' Good! Good! Your hearts must be strong. Are you coming too, Infadoos ?'

' No,' replied Infadoos,' it is not right for me to enter there. But be careful with my lords. If a hair of them is hurt, Gagool, you die. Do you hear ?'

'I hear. I will obey the orders of the king. I have obeyed the orders of many kings, and in the end they obeyed mine. Ha! ha! I am going to look at their faces again now!'

Gagool went through the door. The three of us followed, and Foulata came too.The path was narrow, just wide enough for two people. When we had gone about 150 feet, we saw that the way was growing faintly light. A minute later -we were in the most wonderful place that anyone has ever seen.

It was a huge cave. There were no windows, but a little light came in from above. Great columns stood at the sides, formed by water falling from the roof. The water carried salts, which in time became as hard as ice. High above us, hanging from the roof, we could see the points of huge icy needles.

Gagool led us straight to the end of the great silent cave, where we found another doorway.

' Are you ready to enter the Place of Death, white men ?' asked Gagool.

' We are,' said Good, trying not to look afraid.

After about twenty steps we found ourselves in a room about forty feet long and thirty feet wide. It had been cut out of the mountain by the work of many hands. It was darker than the great cave, and at first I could only see a large stone table along the whole length of it. A huge white figure sat at one end of the table, and other figures sat around it.

My eyes began to see more clearly in the dark, and I saw a terrible sight. Death himself sat at the end of the table, holding a great white spear in his bony fingers.The figure was formed from human bones, and was about sixteen feet high. This must be the White Death in Jose da Silvestra's letter.

' What are those ?' asked Good, pointing to the other figures round the table.

' Hee! hee! hee!' laughed Gagool.' Bad luck comes to men who enter the Hall of the Dead. Hee! hee! Come and see the man you killed.'

The old woman caught Sir Henry's coat in her thin fingers and led him towards the table. We followed.

Then she stopped and pointed at the centre of the table. Sitting there, without clothes, was the body of Twala, the last king of the Kukuanas. Its head was on its knees. Over the body was a thin glassy covering which made it appear even more terrible. At first we could not understand this. Then we saw that the water fell slowly from the roof on to the neck and over the dead body. Like those wonderful columns and needles in the great cave, Twala's body was changing into stone!

I looked at the white forms round the stone table. They were human bodies once, now stone. There they sat for centuries, and for centuries they stayed the same.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 699