The bridge of light

LOOKING back upon it now I can scarcely believe it ever happened, and find it difficult to convince myself that I actually passed through such amazing and almost incredible expe...

THE “that” which Fray José gave me to serve as an open sesame to the Mayan priest was a strange combination of the old and the new, of the pagan and the Christian. Upon a sheet...

OLD Katchilcan seemed to take it as a matter of course that I would set out to carry the codex to Mictolan. That, however, was only natural, for he believed implicitly in the pr...

MY question was soon answered. The cañon narrowed and swung sharply to one side. Rounding the bend, we halted in dismay. Before us the walls met in a sheer cliff. At its base wa...

I HAD been overconfident when I had assumed that it would be possible to go around the lake and that it formed no real bar to our progress. Everywhere, the water extended for mi...

WITH the dawning of another day, our courage returned. And as soon as it was light enough to see we rose and peered about--still a bit fearfully--in search of the living nightma...

SOON the valley became narrower and deeper, with precipitous cliffs on either side, until coming through a fairly thick wood, I found farther progress barred by a sheer cliff. B...

VERY gently she drew herself from my embrace and spoke; to my surprise and delight, using a dialect of Zutugil, and fervently I thanked heaven--and Fray José--that I had learned...

RECLINING on robes of the most magnificent feather-work, within the litter of carved wood covered with gold plates and mosaic work of precious stones, Itza and myself were borne...

I HAD already noticed the gigantic size of vegetable products, and I had assumed that their size was partly, if not wholly, due to the fact that there was no darkness in the val...

THE home of Nohul Voh was on the outskirts of the city, a strange cylindrical structure of massive stones, topping a low mound in the center of a field, in which were growing gi...

WHEN I rejoined Itza and Azcopil in the outer chamber, my chest bore a beautifully tattooed clan-mark of the Tutul Zius, and I felt as if a live scorpion was under my shirt. Noh...

THERE was one man in Mictolan who had not been fooled by my involuntary rôle as a priest of Kukulcan. Old Nohul Voh chuckled over it when I next saw him.

AS I had agreed to do, I told Nohul Voh and taught him much in exchange for what he told me. And I have no doubt that he felt he had much the best of the bargain. He was fascina...

I HAD begun to think that the Bridge of Light had vanished forever. That as soon as I had appeared as the bearer of the Book of Kukulcan, the amazing span had ceased to exist, o...

AS if in a trance, I heard him stammer out the terrible news. She had been alone in the palace with the princesses, Tutuil and Mitchi Ina. She had left them to go into the patio...

THE mystery of Itza’s disappearance was solved. A segment of the circular flagging about the fountain was movable; it could be opened by means of the lever within the tunnel, an...

BEFORE us was a dark passageway. Flashing the strange red glow from my bamboo tube upon the stone walls and floor, with nerves tense, noiselessly, we moved forward, while at our...

ITZA was unconscious but unharmed. She had fainted and had been spared the maddening horror of lying on the altar and the awful suspense of awaiting sacrifice. Swiftly I tore aw...

THERE is little more to tell, for our adventures really ended when we crossed the Bridge of Light. I had come through the Cave of the Bats in the dark, blindly, wandering, lost....