CHAPTER XIX.

IN AN ANCIENT TEMPLE.

The auto seemed to be bumping along downhill, for at the first evidence of danger Jerry had shut off the power and applied the brake. But the descent was too steep to have the bands hold.

Down and down the adventurers went, through some underground passage, it was evident.

"Are we all here?" called Jerry, his voice sounding strange and muffled in the chamber to which they had come.

"I'm here and all right, but I don't exactly know what has happened," replied the professor.

"The same with me," put in Ned, and Bob echoed his words.

Just then the automobile came to a stop, having reached a level and run along it for a short distance.

"Well, we seem to have arrived," went on Jerry. "I wonder how much good it is going to do us?"

"Supposing we light the search-lamp and see what sort of a place we are in," suggested Professor Snodgrass. "It's so dark in here we might just as well be inside one of the pyramids of Egypt."

The acetylene gas lamp on the front of the auto was lighted, and in its brilliant rays the travelers saw that they were in a large underground passage. It was about twenty feet high, twice as broad and seemed to be hewn out of solid rock.

"This is what makes it so dark," observed the professor. "I knew it must be something like this, for it was still daylight when we tumbled into the hole and we haven't been five minutes down here. Run the auto forward, Jerry."

The car puffed slowly along surely as strange a place as ever an automobile was in. The boys looked eagerly ahead. They saw nothing but the rocky sides and roof of the passage.

"This doesn't look much like an underground city," objected Ned. "I think it's an abandoned railway tunnel."

At that instant Jerry shut off the power and applied the brakes with a jerk.

"What's the matter?" asked the professor.

"There's some sort of a wall or obstruction ahead," was the answer, and Jerry pointed to where, in the glare of the lamp, could be seen a wall that closed up the passageway completely.

"I guess this is the end," remarked Ned, ruefully.

The naturalist got out of the car and ran forward. He seemed to be examining the obstruction carefully. He struck it two or three blows.

"Hurrah!" he cried. "Come on, boys, this is only a big wooden door! We can open it!"

In an instant the three lads had joined him. They found that the passage was closed by a big portal of planks, bolted together and swinging on immense hinges. There was also a huge lock or fastening.

"Can we open the door?" inquired Bob. "It looks as if it was meant to stay shut."

"We'll soon see," answered Jerry.

He ran back to the automobile and got a kit of tools. Then, while Ned held up one of the small oil lamps that was taken off the dashboard of the car, Jerry tackled the lock. It was a massive affair, but time had so rusted it that very little trouble was found in taking it apart so that the door was free.

"Everybody push, now!" called Jerry. "Those hinges are pretty rusty."

They shoved with all their strength, but the door, though it gave slightly, showing that no more locks held it, would not open. It had probably not been used for centuries.

"Looks as if we'd have to stay here," said the professor.

"Not a bit of it," spoke Jerry. "Wait a minute."

He ran back to the auto, and soon the others heard him cranking it up.

"Look out! Stand to one side!" he called.

The auto came forward slowly. Jerry steered the front part of it carefully against the massive door. Once he was close to the portal he turned on full power.

There was a cracking and splintering of wood, and a squeaking as the rusty hinges gave. Then, with the auto pushing against it, the massive door swung to one side. The machine had accomplished what the strength of the boys and the professor could not.

Slowly but surely the portal opened. Wider and wider it swung, until there burst on the astonished gaze of the travelers a flood of light. The sun was shining overhead, though fast declining in the west, but in the bright glare of the slanting beams there was revealed the underground city.

There it stood in all its ancient splendor, most of it, however, but mere ruins of what had been fine buildings. There were rows and rows of houses, stone palaces and what had been beautiful temples. Nearly all of the structures showed traces of elaborate carvings.

But ruin was on every side. The roofs of houses, temples and palaces had fallen in. Walls were crumbling and the streets were filled with debris. As the boys looked, some foxes scampered among the ruins, and shortly afterward a jaguar slunk along, crawling into a hole in a temple wall.

"Grand! Beautiful! Solemn!" exclaimed the professor, in raptures over the discovery. "It is more than I dared to hope for. Think of it, boys! We have at last discovered the buried city of ancient Mexico. How the people back in civilization will open their eyes when they hear this news! My name and yours as well will be covered with glory. Oh, it is marvelous!"

"I guess it will be some time before the people back in Cresville hear of this," observed Jerry. "There doesn't seem to be any way of sending a letter from here. I don't see any telegraph station, and there's not a messenger boy in sight."

"That's funny," said Ned. "You'd think a buried city, a dead one, so to speak, would be just the place where a district messenger would like to come to rest."

"It's a lonesome place here," remarked Bob. "I hope we'll find some one to talk to."

"That's just the beauty of the place," said the professor. "What good would an ancient, ruined, buried city be if people were living in it? I hope there isn't a soul here but ourselves."

"I guess you'll get your desire, all right," remarked Jerry.

The first surprise and wonder over, the travelers advanced a little way into the city and looked about them. They saw that the place, which was several miles square, was down in a hollow, formed of high hills. For this reason the location of the city had remained so long a secret. They had come upon it through one of the underground passages leading into the town, and these, as they afterward learned, were the only means of entering the place. There were four of these passages or tunnels, one entering from each side of the city, north, south, east and west.

But time and change had closed up the outer ends of the tunnels after the city had become deserted, and it remained for Professor Snodgrass and his party to tumble in on one.

It was as if a city had been built inside an immense bowl and on the bottom of it. The sides of the bowl would represent the hills and mountains that girt the ancient town. Then, if four holes were made in the sides of the vessel, close to the bottom, they would be like the four entrances to the old city.

"Supposing we take a ride through the town before dark," suggested Jerry. "We may meet some one."

He started the machine, but after going a short distance it was found that it was impracticable to use the machine to any advantage. The streets were filled with debris and big stones from the ruined houses and fallen hills, and it needed constant twisting and turning to make the journey.

"Let's get out and walk," proposed Ned.

"Then there's a good place to leave the machine," said Bob, pointing to a ruined temple on the left. "We can run it right inside, through the big doors. It's a regular garage."

The suggestion was voted a good one, and Jerry steered the auto into the temple. The place had been magnificent in its day. Even now the walls were covered with beautiful paintings, or the remains of them, and the whole interior and exterior of the place was a mass of fine stone carving.

The roof had fallen away in several places, but there were spots where enough remained to give shelter. The machine was run into a covered corner and then the travelers went outside.

The professor uttered cries of delight at every step, as he discovered some new specimen or relic. They seemed to exist on every side.

"Look out where you're stepping!" called the naturalist, suddenly, as Jerry was about to set his foot down.

"What's the matter--a snake?" asked the boy, jumping back.

"No. But you nearly stepped on and ruined a petrified bug worth thousands of dollars!"

"Great Scott! I'll be careful after this," promised Jerry, as the professor picked up the specimen of a beetle and put it in his box.