When The Jaguar Sleeps: A jungle adventure (9 page)

They carried on in silence, moving guardedly and advancing slowly one step after another, but then came to a halt because they suddenly hit a limestone rock wall covered with dense vegetation patched up with moss and lichen. The dark abyss of a cave entrance gaped in front of them. It was surrounded by stone pillars, no doubt chiselled by human hand. There were more footprints here, clearly visible in the freshly dug and upturned soil. The entrance was blocked by two long and thick tree branches crossing one another.

‘It may really be an excavation site but it looks as if there’s no one inside. I wish they would come back soon to do some more digging,’ Florent said hopefully.

‘Well, it seems luck has finally smiled on us. Shall we take a look inside,’ said Didier. ‘Wait! I’ll get the lighter from my backpack.’

Eagerly they moved the branches to one side and guardedly peered inside the cave.

They stepped over the fairly high stone threshold and soon found themselves in a dark open space. Rapidly a piercing damp chill enveloped their bodies. With just the feeble, flickering flame of the lighter for illumination it was impossible to determine the size of the interior. In the deathly silence, their voices echoed off the rock formations and returned to them magnified in strength.

‘Watch out!’ Florent shouted, holding Didier firmly by the arm. They stopped at the last moment. At their feet was a gaping deep dug-out hole in the ground. Beside it lay a few heaps of excavated earth.

Something was glittering brightly within.

Curious, Didier squatted down and leaned in, lowering his lighter. Unfortunately the small flame was too weak to show much.

‘I can’t see anything,’ he said. ‘I’m going outside to look for a piece of dry wood we can set fire to and use as a torch.’

He returned a few minutes later carrying a smoking stick.

Together they crouched down over the edge of the pit, holding the torch above the abyss. The darkness dispersed, as if by magic, and at the bottom appeared a few oblong compartments separated by low stony walls. Steep, narrow stairs led down and in the first section lay a human skeleton. Bones were scattered in all directions, some covered with dug-out earth and bits of broken pottery. In one corner lay some pickaxes and shovels. A bit further some undefined stony structures emerged. Unopened tombs? In the second compartment two more skeletons were visible, the remains chaotically strewn around. Then the source of the brightness they had seen from above came into view. Wrapped in fragments of decayed rags, several objects lay on the ground, glittering like gold.

‘Inca tombs full of hidden treasures,’ Florent whispered. ‘But I doubt that this is an archaeological excavation. It looks all wrong somehow.’

‘You’re right,’ said Didier. ‘Something is definitely amiss. Archaeologists wouldn’t treat unearthed corpses in such an insolent way. They’d show respect. Could it be that tomb robbers have been at work here? Hold the burning stick. I’ll go down and bring one of those shiny objects so that we can look at it more closely.’

He returned holding in his hand a small but heavy figure made from solid gold representing a jaguar poised ready to jump; two gemstones in the colour of emeralds filled the eye sockets. He handed it to Florent.

‘Yes, it’s without doubt a fine example of Pre-Columbian artwork.’ Florent turned the figure over in his hands giving it one more appraising look. ‘And it’s made in exactly the same way as the amulet we found in the hut by the river. This could mean that the tomb robbers here also killed all those people at the village. Which means they are armed,’ he added, sounding suddenly tense and anxious; the realisation sent shivers of dread racing down his spine.

Didier didn’t say anything to it. Instead, he concentrated on studying the cave’s interior. He swept the light around the chamber. The walls were uneven, full of dark hollows, clefts and gaps. He saw the shadows of a fairly significant break between two rocks, and when he approached it, distinguished inside some stone steps descending steeply down. But he did not dare to venture on them. His stick torch had almost completely burnt down and it was getting harder and harder to hold it without burning his fingers. Florent stopped inspecting the golden object and moved closer to him.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Didier turning towards him.

‘What about the treasure? Shouldn’t we do something about it? Shouldn’t we hide all that gold somewhere else, somewhere they won’t be able to find it?’

‘No, I don’t think we should. We can’t afford to waste our time. Let’s go.’

‘Wait! I don’t think we should leave right now… not like that… without doing something first. We could at least take some of that gold and carry it away with us. My backpack isn’t that heavy. I can manage to carry some more weight. Don’t you want to check what else we may find here? Such a discovery is unique. It’s huge. We should mark this place, try to remember its location so that we can tell later other people where to look for it.’

‘I don’t want to waste time. We’d better hurry up and try to reach the river as soon as possible. Otherwise we may never get out of the jungle alive. You seem to forget we haven’t found our way out yet. Let’s go.’

‘But why can’t we spend the night here?’

‘Spend the night here? Are you out of your mind? And what if the grave robbers return? Do you expect them to treat us in a friendly way, maybe even help us find the way out?’

‘Maybe I do. Wait a moment, let me explain. My idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. What I mean is that we should stay because these people could really lead us out of here. The digging’s fresh. And the way they left everything, all that gold, and all those tools scattered carelessly around. It looks as if they were going to come back soon to collect the unearthed treasure. We could hide somewhere around, wait until they do and later, when they leave, follow them. That way we would definitely head in the right direction and come across some populated settlement. Do you get my point?’

‘Yes, I can see there’s a certain logic in what you say but I am not quite convinced it would work the way you expect it to. Do you really believe they would travel all the way here on foot? What are we going to do if they only walk a short distance and then take a boat or a plane? Maybe that abandoned village with the dead bodies is where they are going to leave their boat. What then? It won’t help much if we follow them to that place. And it may only prove to be very dangerous. Come on, be reasonable, listen to me. We must get the hell out of here before it’s too late, right now.’

They edged towards the exit, cautiously putting their feet on the slippery and bumpy ground, poorly visible in the unsteady flame of the torch. Florent suddenly stopped, put his fingers behind his right ear and stood still, listening carefully.

‘Can you hear it?’ he whispered.

‘What?’

‘Some voices. Somebody’s coming.’

‘No, nothing. You’re imagining it.’

‘Keep quiet! Listen!’

‘Ok, no need to shout at me.’

They lingered uncertainly near the cave’s entrance, and then even Didier’s less sensitive ears picked up a murmur of conversation coming from afar. The voices grew louder every instant and were accompanied by thunderous outbursts of laughter echoing dully and rebounding from the rocky walls around.

‘They are near. We don’t have time to leave. It’s too late, they’ll see us.’ Didier spoke through clenched teeth, his whole body tensed in paralysing fear. ‘We’d better hide somewhere inside.’

The voices were close now. Didier hardly had time to throw down their burning torch and stamp vigorously on its smouldering remains, when they heard footsteps coming from outside of the cave entrance. They could now even catch snippets of conversation, a few whole sentences. They were spoken in Spanish, a language both Didier and Florent knew well.

‘Hey, José, look! Someone was here after we left,’ one of the newcomers shouted. ‘The branches blocking the entrance have been moved.’

‘Damn it, you are right. Indians?’

‘Maybe. It’s hard to say. We better be careful, maybe they are still inside and have laid a trap for us. Let’s check if anybody is hiding in there.’

Reacting on instinct, Florent and Didier hurried back towards the stone steps they had seen earlier. They reached out to the rock wall for support, running their hands over the cold, wet stone. They were almost there when they saw someone’s dark bulk silhouetted against the brightly lit entrance to the cave. Quickly, they managed to squeeze undetected into a small gap behind one of the rock formations. Behind the first man followed others, each carrying a flashlight, shining it around. Beams of light criss-crossed the cave, but fortunately their hiding place remained in darkness. They could see now that the stairs were only a small distance away. Silently and very, very slowly, they moved bit by bit towards them, not taking their eyes from the group of strangers for a moment.

In total they counted seven men. A tall, well-built blond man with a crew-cut towered above the rest. From the confident way he addressed the other men they concluded that he was their leader. All the others were smaller, dark-haired, but also muscular and strong-built.

Were there others – perhaps left on guard outside? It was quite possible but there was no way of telling it from where Didier and Florent stood. Apart from the flashlights they had brought big lamps which they put down on the rocky shelves. Very soon the whole cave interior was brightly illuminated.

Didier and Florent appraised the strangers and didn’t like what they saw. They looked dangerous. Three of them had machine guns, slung across their backs, and the blond one had something that looked like a pistol in a shoulder holster. The man who had entered first stopped abruptly in the middle of the cave, sniffing around like a dog.

‘What is it Antonio?’ the leader asked.

‘I can smell smoke. Wood was burnt here not long ago.’

‘Indeed, you’re right,’ he agreed after sniffing the air himself. Then, suddenly, he turned on the man, his face twisted in anger, his eyes narrowed to slits as he was watching him closely. ‘It’s your fault. You were careless. I told you to get rid of the bodies immediately, to throw them into the river, but you disobeyed me and left them in the hut. If anybody ever learns about our discovery I’ll make you pay dearly for it.’

‘Relax, Brian, don’t worry. I am sure no one saw the bodies. They were only in the hut two days, and now they’re at the bottom of the river, or in the belly of caimans and piranhas.’ Antonio laughed throatily. ‘It will be Indians, the savages who inhabit this area, who have been poking around in the cave. At first when we came here, they followed us all the time. Once they saw we were armed they didn’t dare to come close. They were just curious, must have entered the cave as soon as we had left. They consider themselves the guardians of the ancient Inca tombs and treasures,’ he said calmly, clearly not intimidated.

‘Well, enough talking for the time being. Get down in the dugout and set to work. We have already lost a lot of time,’ Brian commanded. ‘José, go and check every corner of the cave again. Make sure there is nobody here but us. I cannot say why, but I have a bad feeling.’

Holding the flashlight firmly in his hand, José examined bit by bit the interior. The wide beam moved gradually up and down the rough stone walls, dark splits and along some large boulders, then stopped for a moment beside Florent and Didier. Overwhelmed by an increasing feeling of panic, their bodies froze and they stood there motionless, huddled against the cold, moist rock wall, hardly daring to breath. Paralysed with fear they awaited the approaching silhouette. Their eyes were filled with terror now that they had no doubts as to the identity of the newcomers; they were certainly not archaeologists.

‘José, can you see anything?’ Brian Steinwall asked.

‘No, nothing suspicious up to now,’ José shouted back, turning his face towards Brian and aiming the flashlight in his direction.

It was enough to buy them a moment’s opportunity: Didier and Florent stealthily charged to the nearby stairs. They descended gradually, putting their feet very carefully on each steep step, and at last disappeared into a dark corridor below leading further into the deep underground maze of the cave. Upstairs José resumed his search; he moved his flashlight back, pointing its beam at the very spot that had just been occupied, but was now just an empty cavity staring back at him.

Overcoming the fear gripping their bodies, Florent and Didier were moving warily, following the stone passage that stretched ahead of them, desperately feeling blindly their way along it, running their hands over the rough surface of the bordering stone walls. They ventured deeper and deeper into the secret labyrinth surrounded by an impenetrable darkness, dense and soft as a velvet robe.

Above them, José put his feet on the first upper step of the stairs and illuminated the whole staircase with his flashlight, but not seeing anything suspicious, he moved away.

‘I’ve checked everywhere. No one is here but us,’ he called again to Brian.

‘What about down in the underground chambers?

‘I can’t imagine anybody staying down there for long. It is such an unpleasant place.’

‘Check it!’

José loitered because he did not feel like going into the depths if there was any real danger. He descended a few steps cautiously and swept the strong light of his torch around the corridor. Then, thankfully, he heard the reassuring voice of Antonio coming from the bottom of the dugout.