"Dag-gone!" Monk grinned. "I don't believe anything will ever stump Doc!"
The Mayans were string about below. Hundreds of them had gone into the pyramid, Doc reflected. There must be something in the nature of an underground room, or perhaps passages below.
"If they throw the gas bottles," Doc told Renny, "they won't rush the steps until they know the fumes have blown away. So when you see them coming, you'll know it is safe to open the secret door and roll rocks down the stairs. You can tell the Mayans to pass up rocks, using sign talk."
"Where you goin'?" Renny wanted to know.
"To explore. I am very curious about this place!"
Chapter 20. GOLDEN VAULTS
Doc Savage took Johnny and Monk with him as he wended into the depths of the golden pyramid.
He was surprised at the amount of wear the steps underfoot showed. In spots, they were pitted to half their depth. It must have taken thousands of human feet to do that.
The sovereign of the Mayans, King Chaac, had said only he knew of the existence of this place. That meant it had not been used extensively for generations — possibly not for hundreds of years. For information about a place such as this would be handed down from father to son for ages.
At a spot which Doc's expert sense of distance told him was several feet below the surface of the surrounding ground, they entered a large room.
Doc noted a cleverly constructed stone pipe which bore the water that fed the pool on top of the pyramid. This crossed the room and vanished into another, larger chamber beyond.
This latter was a gigantic hallway, narrow and low of roof, but of unfathomable length. In fact, it was more of a tremendous tunnel. It stretched some hundreds of yards, then was lost in a turn upward.
Down the middle of it ran the finely constructed stone conduit carrying water.
In this subterranean corridor, King Chaac and pretty Princess Monja waited with their subjects.
The entrancing young Mayan princess had retained her nerve remarkably well during the attack. Her golden skin was a trifle pale, but there was no nervousness in her manner.
King Chaac was maintaining a mien befitting a ruler.
Doc drew the aged Mayan sovereign aside.
"Would you care to guide Johnny and Monk and myself into the depths of this cavern?"
The Mayan hesitated. "I would, gladly! But my people — they might think I had deserted them in their need."
That was good reasoning, Doc admitted. He had about decided to go on alone with Monk and Johnny when King Chaac spoke again.
"My daughter, Princess Monja, knows as much of these underground passages as I do. She can guide you."
That was agreeable to Doc. It seemed very welcome to Princess Monja, too.
They set off at once.
"This has the appearance of having been built and used centuries ago," Doc offered.
Princess Monja nodded. "It was. When the Mayan race was in its glory, rulers of all this great region, they built this tunnel and the pyramid outside. A hundred thousand men were kept working steadily through the span of many lifetimes, according to the history handed down to my father and myself."
Johnny murmured wonderingly. Johnny had been taking notes on bits of little-known Mayan lore, intending to write a book if he ever got time. He probably never would.
Princess Monja continued. "This has been a guarded secret for centuries. It has been handed down through the rulers of the Mayans in the Valley of the Vanished. Only the rulers! Until a few minutes ago, when the attack came, only my father and myself knew of it."
"But why all the secrecy?" Johnny inquired.
"Because word of its existence might reach the outer world."
"Huh?" Johnny was puzzled.
Princess Monja smiled slyly. "Wait. I will show you why knowledge that this existed would inflame the outside world."
They had reached the upswing in the tunnel, having covered many hundred yards. Doc knew they were far under the wails of the chasm that hid the Valley of the Vanished.
Suddenly Princess Monja halted. She pointed and spoke in a voice low and husky.
"There is the reason! There is the gold you are to have, Mr. Savage. The gold you are to expend in doing good throughout the world!"
Johnny and Monk were staring. Their eyes protruded. They were stunned until they could not even voice astonishment.
Doc Savage himself, in spite of his marvelous self-control, felt his head swim.
It was unbelievable!
Before then, the corridor had widened. It became a vast room. Solid rock made walls, floor, roof.
The rock showed veinings of gold! It was the same kind of rock of which the pyramid was made!
But it was not this that stunned them.
It was the row after row of deep niches cut into the walls. Literally hundreds of thousands of the cupboardlike recesses.
In each was stacked golden vessels, plaques, goblets, amulets. Everything the ancient Mayans had made of the precious yellow metal could be seen.
"This is the storeroom," said Princess Monja in a low voice. "Legend has it forty thousand artisans were continuously employed making the articles, which were then stored here."
Doc, Monk, and Johnny hardly heard her. Sight of this fabulous wealth had knocked them blind, deaf, and dumb to everything else.
For the niches held only a fraction of the hoard here! It lay on the floor in heaps. Great stacks of the raw, rich gold! And the treasure cavern stretched far beyond the limits to which their wick-in-a-bowl lamp projected light.
Doc shut his eyes tightly. His bronze lips worked. He was experiencing one of the great moments of his life.
Here was wealth beyond dream. The ransom of kings! But no king could ever pay a ransom such as this! It was enough to buy and sell realms.
Doc's brain raced. This was the legacy his father had left him. He was to use it in the cause to which his life was dedicated — to go here and there, from one end of the world to the other, looking for excitement and adventure; striving to help those who need help; punishing those who deserve it.
To what better use could it be put?
Pretty Princess Monja, in whose life here in the Valley of the Vanished, gold meant not a thing, spoke.
"The metal was taken from deeper within the mountain. Much yet remains. Much more, indeed, than you see stacked here."
Gradually, the three adventurers snapped the trance which had seized them. They moved forward.
Ahead of them ran the stone pipe which fed water to the pyramid pool.
Monk started to count his steps the length of the treasure vault. He got to three hundred and lost track, his faculties upset by looking at so much gold. The piles seemed to get higher.
Their route narrowed abruptly. The tunnel floor slanted upward steeply. A couple of hundred feet, they nearly crawled. Then they came to a tiny lake, where the stone pipe ended. This was in a small room.
The walls of this room had been but partially hewn by human hands. Water had excavated a great deal. The stream ran on the floor.
Ahead stretched the cavern. It seemed to go on infinitely.
Doc now realized the cavern was partially the work of the underground stream. It probably extended for miles. Originally, the Mayans had found gold in the stream mouth. They had ventured into the cavern, knowing it must have washed out of there.
And they had found this fabulous lode.
Princess Monja put a query. "Do you wish to go on?"
"Of course," Doc replied. "We are seeking an outlet. Some manner in which the Mayans can escape starvation or surrender."
They continued into the depths. The air was quite cool. There was a wide path, hewn by human hands.