Show HEART OF WORLD A strange story taken from a manuscript Beque bequeathed athea by an old ola mexican indian to his friona friend and ana Com comrade raae an englishman named jones EY BY 11 II RIDER CHAPTER FAREWELL ceased and sat down and so RO great was the astonishment of the council at the tale that she had told that for a awhile o hile none of them spoke at length dimas rose and said maya lady of the He artand and you strangers tr angers you have heard the awful charge that is ib brought against you what do you yon say in answer to it we allo say it is true answered maya we ave were vore forced to choose between our live and tile the doing of this deed and w N c e chose to live it was mattai who hatched thu the plot and executed the forge forgery and now it seems that we must laust suffer for his sin as we well M as for oil our own one word more ignatio ignatic hero here did not enter into this plot willingly but was forced into it by my husband husban 1 and myself and chiefly by myself dimas rawle made tie no answer but at a sign the lw two priests who guarded the altar M aith till drawn drann swords came forward and drove us into the passage that led from tile sanctuary to the hall of the dead where here they shut us in between the double doors leaving caving us in darkness darene here as all was finished I 1 kis knelt elt down to offer my last prayers to leaven heaven r m hile mava alava wept in her ger husband arms taking farewell of him and of her child truly 1 lie I said you were wise wife when you urged us not to enter this country of the heart still what is done cannot be undone and having been happy together fora for a little space I 1 let us die together as bravely a as we may hoping that still together we may awake presently in some new world of peace while ho h spoke the door was opened a and nd the priests with drawn swords I 1 led ed us back into the sanctuary As maya crossed the threshold first of the three of us site she was met by tikal who w with ith a sudden movement but without TO roughness took the child from her arms now we saw what was prepared for us for the stone in front of the altar had been lifted and at our feet the black shaft yawned dawned from froin which ascended a sound of waters they placed us with our backs resting against the altar but tikal stood in front and between him and us ay the mouth of the pit haya layn Il daughter of Zi balbay white man son of tile the ser sea 1 ignalio n 1 I tie the wanderer iva it nid lid mattai the priest whom being dead in the body we summon in the spirit began dimas in a col cold d and terrible voice you by bv your own confession fes sion erht prot agn illy of the gret g ret est crimes vint feat can call be reamed dreamed or of in the wicked brain of man and executed by his impious hands this is the sentence of at the con council neil of the heart that your name mattai be erased from the diat of the officers of 0 tile the heart that yet your IT memory be proclaimed accursed cent se a that your dwelling place be burned with lire fire arid and the site of it strewn with avith salt that your corpse hv hr torn lorn from its grave and laid upon the summit of the pyra reid till the birdson birds of the devour it and thal thai yut i lie be handed tu to the tormenters tor mentors of the lower x world orld to deal with according to their pleasure forever and for aye th this s is the sentence of the council of the flearl upon you maya daughter of Zi balbay man son of the th e son and ignatio the wanderer that your v out names be erased from the roll of the brethren of the heart t and proclaimed ned accursed in the streets of tile city that yon be gagged bound hand and ana foot and chained living to the walls of the sanctuary and there be left before tile the altar of tile the god which you have violated till death from thirst and hunger shall overtake you that your corpses be laid upon the pyramid as a prey to the birds of the air air and that your souls be handed over to the tor ter mentors of the under world to deal with according to their pleasure forever an and d for aye it is spoken let the sentence of tile the council be done but first since this bastard babe i is too young to sin in ind and suffer stiffer punishment let liim him be handed into the keeping of the god that the god may mav deal deal wi with ib him according to his hi pc pleasure asre As the words passed ili his lips and before we fully understood them dazed as we v ere with the terror of our awful doom tikal stepped forward and even now nov I 1 shudder i N lien I 1 write of it holding the poor infant which a at t this thib instant began to wail as though thong ll 11 with pain or tear fear over the mouth of the pit suddenly let it fall into the depths beri beneath cath the bahrick of the agonized mother ran rain round the walls of the holy place and before it had died away tile the senor lad leaped forward leaped like ca a puma rom aero the open well and gri gripped ped tikal by the throat threat and waist ile clr gripped him film and rage giving him strength lie lifted ILI hain I 1 high above his head and hurled buried him down tit the dreadful place ahei wh the child hall had gone before IVI tIlL i hoarse scream tikal danisl I 1 ell and d tor for a moment there was silence hence it wa broken by the voice of maya crying aloud in accents accent of madness and despair t tot kot ot all the waters of the holy lake lahe shall wash away our sin yet may they berve to averige avenge us upon you voll 6 you murderers of a helpless child As ashe spoke followed bv tile senor and an m self who i think all the company guessed her road mad purpose ma i ran ran round the altar and will I 1 bogli her hands the symbol of f tile heart lay upon it For forbear boar cried lite alic voice of dimas but she did not heed flood liim him aud and before lie or any of us could reach her dragging gm at it with desperate she had torn the ancient symbol tiola its ith bed rl and with a loud anil mocking og laugh cast it down awn upon til the c marble I 1 floor where it shattered into fragments from tho the altar there C came line a sound as ot of harp barp strings brea breaking kinT that was fol lL alval VAl il i l ainu na wore sound the sound of the roar of many waters ply fly div lv cried a I 1 voice the flood me aire loosed and destruction I 1 is upon u us and upon noon tile the people of the heart sow now tile the council i bushed one and all toward the door of the alle tilary but 1 I ignatio by bv tile the grace of rio ivan n remembered the other door the alic secret door doo through gh which we hall had entered that eliat the priest hall had left ajar chii way I 1 cried in ili spanish to the senor and sling seizing maya by the arm I 1 lien TIT e d her knitli N ith me into the gc when all three of us were through I 1 turned to clo close sethe the door and ah at I 1 dili did so I 1 saw an awful sight out of tile mouth month of the pit before the altar sprang a vast column of water which struck the roof of the sanctuary with avith such fearful force that already maready the inas massive sive marble blocks tc to rain down upon 0 the ie e crowd wd of Ligi natives tives who ed and nd in vain to ipen en thi door and escape into the alie hall ol 01 the dead on oil welled we fled before the advancing flood and well was it for us that our course lay upward for otherwise we must just have been drowned as we searched for f or the keys to open the d different if ervrit gat pates arid and doors door blut aut now for fortune tuoc which for so long hall had been our foe befriended us ind tile end of it was that we reached tile the summit of the pyramid just is the dawn began to break the dawn was breaking and seldom perhaps has the light of da day y reve revealed alea a more wonderful or terrible sight to the eves of man outside the rates gates ol of the courtyard of the pyramid vere ivere gathered a great multitude de of people wal waiting tinT to be admitted to celebrate tile feast that on this da day 1 of ili the year wa was to be held according to custom upon p 0 1 the summit of the pyramid ilide indeed e d they should have already been assembled seiri bled there but it was the rule that the pates gates could not be opened until the council had left the sanctuary and this night the council sat gat late As we vve looked at them a cry of fear and wonder rose from the multitude a i rid nd this was illis tile cause of it along that street manfrom the landing place A to tile the great square rushed a vot vast 1 wall all of water twenty feet or more in depth by one hundred broad no now V vc Y c tit fie truth the symbol on tile the altar I 1 know riot not how bow arlas was con connected acted with secret sluice gates shiell which for many gener had protected protect ed the city of the heart hear from flood when it was toru torn from these sluice in to c gates were ere opened an d the waters water s rushing in sought bought their natural ill level ei which was vas higher titan than the housetops of the city 01 on tile of tile the pyramid were e two wo priests r afifi who it tended thega the ssi arod fire n ready for the service i cc to bo ch fed seeing us emerge from the watch house they ran toward us its wringing wringing R their lands hands and asking what dreadful tiling filing had come to pass I 1 replied that we ive did not know but that seeing tile the water avater gather in our prison we auld yuld biad fled from it how we prison had 2 fled they never stopped to ask but i ran dow down tit the stairway of the pyramid aimi only to return again presently for before ui y reached its base their escape was cut off meanwhile the terror thickened ind and the dooin began everywhere the waters spread and gat gathered hired from the io inexhaustible exhaustible reservoir reservoir of the take lake whole streets went down before them to vanish suddenly beneath their foaming face while from the crowd below rose one continuous shriek sin ids of agony maya heard it and casting hersell herself face downward u upon n the surface of the pyramid that she e might not see her handiwork handi worl tit thrust at lier her fingers into her cars while the Is senor and I 1 watched fascinated now we the flood struck the people some thousands of them who were gathered on the rising ground at the gates of the inclosure of the temple and to IQ in an instant they were gone borne away alway as withered leaves are borac before a gale fre a man might count ten the most of the population of the city of the heart had perished for a lutle whilo while some of the more massive houses stood only to vanish one bv one in silence as it seemed tor for now the roar of the waters covered all other sounds before the sun was well up it was finished and on the ancient and beautt beautiful ful city heart of the world there remained nothing to be seen except c lit the tops of the trees and the up upper p er parts of the pyramids of worship ship ris rising aboa the level oft of the he lake the golden city was no more presently maya rose to her knees and looked out from beneath the hollo hollow w of her hand for the light was dazzle dazzling in 9 there upon the while summit of tile the pyramid anaid then she flung her arms above her head and uttered a I 1 great and bitter bilter be behold erT cry to d in my y handiwork she said and the harvest of my sin 0 my father that dream which was sent son tto to hall haunt tit lnor m sleep was vas dreadful but it did not touch the truth 0 my father the people whom you yon v have saved are arc dead and lost losic is tile the city that you loved and it is I 1 who have destroyed thera 0 my father my father your curse has haa found me out indeed and I 1 am accursed ic such hueh words as these she spoke then began to laugh and turning to the senor said where is f tile child husband ife if could not answer her but she took no note of it only site she bent her ter arais ami looking locking them and crooning as though the difant lay upon her breast li then came first to him and next net to me sayin sj yin i lodic is lie not a it vreny by u ly y ami oam I 1 not happy to be the of it such a boy ov weariness son ow and chook had turned her brain and she he irs i rs raad mad we led her to tile watch I 1 ii rf ie where there was shelter hl ter aud and ii LA i t who had returned grave gave u ns i an fn a oon as we could make maket bern andr and nd that I 1 wo needed it for they too lee avci were 41 I 1 alost mad ind here her last illness bellid her it began with a hardening of the breast which changed pro pre cutly to force two dayland days and night with breaking hearts we nursed ivr iv irr r there I all the pyramid striving riot not to listen to her mad ravings and piteous talk ti lk about the child and at dawn upon the third day she died before she died her senses returned to her ter and site she spoke to her husband beautiful and tender nords which seem too ito v to co set down she turned to tiie the senor and in a gaspin gasping gand and broken voice prayed of liim him nat not to forget her let or her child I 1 heard him answer that this she need not fe fear ir as his happiness died with her and ten oven if lie should escape lie thought that tha t they by would not be parted for very I 1 ion nor or could any other woman take lake lur hr place in his feirt she blessed liim him and the 11 him ili his face with lie her r dring dying hands and unable to bear more of such auch a sight I 1 left them together an hour later the senor came from the and though lie did not speak one glance at his face was enough to tell mo me that all was over inns did mava lady of the heart the last of the ancient royal blood of the I 1 he indian princes ma myself alf alone ex cx coated a ver very V m c of and beautiful woman though at times time headstrong and capricious now while maya lay dying we learned that some indians still lived on the mainland mi inland men and women who hall had been sent there to tend the crops for we saw aw a canoe hovering round what once bad been the island of the heart it was wa manned bv three alirie in lians liam and was advancing toward us and IV we L signaled to them to paddle round to the tops steps ol oi tile the p pyramid hamid they lid did and taking with us all tle food and such few articles of anine valne as were to be found in the watch house the four of us embarked though not without difficulty for tile the ran so strong 11 round the crumbling angles of alie pyramid that it was hard to bring the thee cancle anoe up on to the stairs from the indians wo we learned that those on shore were so bo overwhelmed with horror at the catastrophe v aich had fallen upon their linly holy city that they did not dare to approach thi the place where it bad stood but when last night they saw tl the I 1 e great flam of maya s pyre they knew that men cutill lived on the iho pl pi amid v iino no is as they thought were signaling signaling to them for help belp and ventured Zut out to sae e them they asked us ho how it ft on me about thil lim I 1 tile tho waters had overwhelmed the cit which hall had stood among them satel s belv y from the beginning of time J 0 replied that tha t we did not know and ill tin priests with us now that thoi had with wi aih their lives seemed too pi in 0 01 grated to wll WIT ota that wi tv had beten been imprisoned in the oi the pyran pyra mirl rift even ii if they kam t tl i it this was wasso so on reaching the shore wo io i o fand lit ala gathering n g of abc indians perhaps there may mar been tn conr hun deed and fifty of them tile thu olf ilo all bivort of the people of all tho I 1 icart heart openmouthed open mouthed and almost wi hoil comment they liste listened llod to tile the ter terrific talc of till the s 1 l daen anil biter tion ol of tile the tit ct then we bcd ou our faco face to tile in pil pd on oil t c second day crossed alic n saidy for ma 1 a hid told us it the seer secret c t ol |