They finally went away and held a
council of war, which seemed to leave them undecided. They evidently
hadn't figured on the girl turning traitor. If she hadn't they'd have
got me and Taggart in short order.
"We'd got where the treasure was, all right, but it was a mighty bad
outlook for us. We were kind of anxious about the bridge, being afraid
the Toltecs would get it back into place; but the girl, who called
herself Ezela, showed us that getting the bridge back wasn't possible
without help from our side. She said that the priest she'd dumped down
into the canyon was the only one with the tribe at the time; the others
had gone to a distant village. She said, too, that there was a secret
passage from the cave; she'd discovered it, and no one but her and the
priests knew anything about it, but that the Toltecs would send runners
for the priests and we'd have to get out before they came, or they'd
lay for us at the outlet.
"Well, we hustled. We felt bad about Nebraska and Taylor, and were
determined not to leave without some of the treasure, and after Ezela
showed us where it was I kept her busy talking while Taggart got about
as much as he could carry. Ezela offered no objections; on the other
hand, when Taggart came back she told me to get some of the treasure
too. Taggart hadn't taken enough to miss; there were millions of
dollars' worth of gold and diamonds in the room, where they'd raised a
kind of an altar, and I had my choice.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96