THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR

by W. E. Johns

XIV. DISCOVERY (Pages 197 – 209)

“They crossed the Hall of Doom, as Biggles aptly named the place, and found themselves in another large chamber”. Dickpa examines the dust and says it is volcanic ash. He speculates that everyone was gassed. “Yes, that was it. Gassed. Choked to death, suffocated by sulphur fumes forced up by some subterranean disturbance”. Opposite is a heap of fallen masonry that appears to have once been a walled-up doorway shaken down by an earthquake. They look through the door ….. and there it is! The treasure! Tons and tons of gold artefacts. Dickpa says that “a cubic foot of gold – that is, a piece of gold measuring twelve inches in each direction – weighs about eleven hundredweights – over half a ton”. (One imperial hundredweight is eight stone or 112 pounds. Twenty hundredweight is an imperial ton, that is 160 stone, research on the Internet shows that a cubic foot of gold does in fact weigh 548.18 Kilograms or 1206 pounds, that being 86.14 stone so just under the 88 stone of eleven hundredweights). “The room was one vast treasure-chamber. Round the walls were piled ornaments and utensils of every description, all of fine gold. Immense vases, goblets, dishes, ewers, and articles of all shapes and sizes representing plants, sheaves of corn, birds, animals, and even insects, were stacked in tiers, one above the other. There were hundreds of them, more than they could count. The floor was covered with beautifully wrought gold chests; what they contained they could only surmise. Against them leaned swords, shields, lances, daggers, and even agricultural implements, all of the same precious metal. Cubes of golden tiles were neatly arranged at intervals”. The room has a sloping floor leading to …….. nothing. Just a void – an enormous blow-hole of an old volcano. The treasure must have been bought here after the murder of the Inca king and if the Spanish tried to take the place by storm, then the treasure could be cast out and lost forever rather than allowed to fall into the hands of the Spanish. From inside the room, Biggles can see the Condor aircraft. The branches that previously covered it have been removed by Monkeys! Biggles says they have to go down and get it before it is seen by Silas and his crowd. Biggles says he will land the Condor up on the plateau. Biggles takes a heavy tomahawk, with a copper edge and solid gold handle inset with a large emerald. Dickpa takes a ‘quipus’, which appear to be several great fringes of coloured cord, like tassels which hung from gold ornaments. This was how the Incas recorded their history as they had no alphabet or arithmetic symbols. Algy and Smyth also pack some items into their bags. They leave the city and walk to the tree bridge, where Biggles just walks straight across – just as the area is struck by an earthquake! One of the trees drops into the abyss. Biggles, who has fallen to his knees, gets up and sprints for the end of the bridge just as the other tree starts to fall. He jumps and uses his tomahawk to wedge into a narrow crack in the rock just as the other tree drops away. Biggles manages to pull himself up to safety. He shouts across to the others and tells them to return to the temple as they can see the Condor from there. He will go down and fetch it and then fly up to collect them. “With a parting wave he was gone”.