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Page 61
It was Rod Norton's privilege to lead his merry party into what for
them was wonderland. Even Florrie, though so much other life had been
passed in San Juan, had never before visited the King's Palace.
Clattering through the street while most folk were asleep, they took
advantage of the cool of the dawn and rode swiftly. Elmer and Florrie
racing on ahead laid aside their accustomed weapons and were, for the
once, utterly flattering to each other. Each wishing to be admired,
admired the other, and was paid back in the coveted coin. Norton and
Virginia, at first a little inclined toward silence, soon grew as
noisily merry as the others, drawing deep enjoyment from the moment.
And at the portals of the King's Palace, reached after four hours in
the saddle, followed by thirty minutes on foot, they stood hushed with
wonder. High upon the southern slope of Mt. Temple they had come
abruptly into the unexpected. Here a rugged plateau had caught and
held through the ages the soil which had weathered down from the cliffs
above; here were trees to replace the weary gray brush, shade instead
of glare, birds as welcome substitutes for droning insects, water and
flowers to make the ca�ons doubly cool and fragrant for him who had
ascended from the dry reaches of sand below the talus.
"It's just like fairy-land!" cried the ecstatic Florrie. "Roddy
Norton, I think you're real mean not to have brought me here ages ago!"
"Ages ago, my dear miss," laughed Norton, "you were too little to
appreciate it. You should thank me for bringing you now."
Down through the middle of the plateau from its hidden source ran the
purling stream which was destined to yield to sun and thirsty earth
long before it twisted down the lower slopes of the hills. Along its
edges the grass was thick and rich, shot through everywhere with little
blue blossoms and the golden gleam of the starflowers. Further promise
of yellow beauty was given by the stalks of the evening-primrose
scattered on every hand, the flowers furled now, sleeping. In the
groves were pines, small cedars, and a sprinkling of sturdy dwarf oaks.
And from their shelter came the welcome sound of a bird's twitter.
"It's always about as you see it," Norton explained. "Too hard to get
to, too small when one makes the climb to afford enough pasturage for
sheep. And now the Palace itself."
Straight ahead the cliffs overhung the farther rim of the plateau. And
there, under the out-jutting roof of rock, an ancient people had
fashioned themselves a home which stood now as when their hands
laboriously set it there. The protected ledge which afforded eternal
foundation was slightly above the plateau's level, to be reached by a
series of "steps" in the rock, steps which were holes worn deep,
perhaps five hundred years ago. The climb was steep, hazardous unless
one went with due precaution, but the four holiday-makers hurried to
begin it.
So close to the edge of the rock ledge did the walls of the ruin stand
that there was barely room to edge along it to come to the narrow
doorway. Holding hands, Norton in the lead, Elmer in the rear, they
made their breathless way. And then they were in the hushed, shaded
anteroom.
The dust of untroubled ages lay upon the surprisingly smooth floor.
Walls of cemented rock rose intact on two sides, broken here and there
on a third, while the cliff itself made the fourth at the rear. And
unusually spacious, wide, and high-ceiled was this room, which may have
had its use when time was younger as a council-chamber. At one end was
another door, small and dark and forbidding, leading to another room.
Beyond lay other quarters, a long line of them, which might have housed
scores in their time.
While Florrie, letting out little shrieks now and then interspersed
with gay cries of delight, led a half-timorous way and Elmer went with
her upon the tour of discovery, Virginia and Norton stood a moment at
the front entrance looking down upon the fertile plateau and across it
to the level miles running out to San Juan and beyond.
"Who were they?" asked Virginia, unconscious of a half-sigh as she
withdrew abstracted eyes from the wide panorama which had filled the
vision of so many other men and women and little children before the
white man came to claim the New World. "They who builded here and
lived and died here. What has become of them? Where did they go?"
"All questions asked a thousand times and never answered. I don't
know. But they were good builders, good engineers, good
pottery-makers, good farmers and hunters and fighters; rather a goodly
crowd, I take it. Come, and I'll share my secret with you while
Florrie and Elmer discover the skeleton a little farther on and stop to
exclaim over it."
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