Descendants of the Scythians - Страница 88

Suddenly, Ivan Semenovich shouted loudly:

“Aha, there it is, the place where we encountered the gas!”

The geologist was not mistaken: it was the very place — the familiar crack in the wall; the familiar group of stalagmites. There was not a trace of the noxious gas; the crack was so inviting!

“Oh, there’s one of our lamps sitting right where we left it, and two more over there! Everything’s the same as it was. And no gas. We scrambled outside into the Scythian world through here! Now it’s blocked and sealed by these huge rocks. Remember, they began falling soon after we got through. Difficult to believe that all our adventures started from this very spot.”

Then a short silence fell as everyone looked around in the dying light of Artem’s lamp. Artem checked the fuel and found that there was very little left. Before the light went out altogether Artem climbed onto the stalagmites to retrieve the lamps left there shortly before their egress into the Scythian world. Luckily, all three lamps still had fuel in them as they had been turned out before the explorers had rushed through the opening… It seemed such a long time ago…

Ivan Semenovich was the first to speak again:

“Well, my friends, isn’t it high time to start our way home? What do you think? I reckon we can postpone a more thorough exploration until we come here better equipped. Haven’t we had enough of adventures?”

Artem cast a glance at the geologist and it seemed to him there was some irony lurking in his squinting eyes. Why this smile? Had he remembered something that had yet to be done? But what?

He looked around again, taking in the stalagmites, the wall, the gaping crack…

“Wait!” Artem cried out suddenly. “Wait! There’s one thing we haven’t done yet! We can’t go home yet!”

Dmitro Borisovich stared at him in amazement; Lida also looked at him in some annoyance: what was the restless Artem up to now? Ivan Semenovich alone turned to the young man as though he had expected this outburst.

“We’re not through with this cave yet, my friends!” Artem said impulsively. “You seem to have forgotten the aim of our underground expedition in the first place! Have you forgotten the parchment and what it said? Have you forgotten about Pronis and the story his descendant Ronis told us about him?”

Ivan Semenovich burst into laughter which he had been trying to suppress for some time.

“I have not forgotten,” he said. “But it seems to me that Dmitro Borisovich and Lida have indeed forgotten what it was we came down here to look for. And our Artem was ready to rush back home too!”

“No, I wasn’t! Honest! I… was just thinking of something else at the moment,” Artem said in his defense. “Besides it doesn’t really matter now, Ivan Semenovich! We absolutely must explore it to the end! And to do so, we only have to go through this crack! I’m sure it can’t be far! Let’s go, Ivan Semenovich!”

“Now, if you remember what Pronis’s testament said you would agree that here it does look like the last passage indicated in the plan. We even started digging to get through the rockfall, remember? Shall we go ahead and do some more exploring?” the geologist asked, addressing Lida and the archeologist.

As a matter of fact, the question did not need to be asked, as it was much too tempting to see where this new corridor would lead. Meanwhile, Artem had climbed into the wide crack as he was eager to be the first one in.

“All right, let’s go,” Ivan Semenovich gave the command.

One could easily walk upright through the passage. As he cautiously made his way in, he examined the walls in the light of his lamp. Suddenly he shouted triumphantly:

“See? See? It’s exactly what Pronis’s testament said we would find here!”

He pointed to the picture of a head carved into the rock. It was the head of a Scythian, the fifth head mentioned by the parchment that had been found in the bronze chest! Deep grooves outlined a helmeted Scythian head, gazing at something in the distance.

This newly discovered face differed from the ones the explorers had seen earlier on the walls of the underground passages on their way to the cave. Their severity had a forbidding, even terrifying aspect. But the present visage had a much milder expression and bore a strong resemblance to someone they had seen in the flesh.

Lida was the first to speak, her voice trembling with emotion:

“Oh, doesn’t the head resemble our poor friend Varkan!”

For some time everybody contemplated the picture that seemed to stand out from the wall in bold relief. The features of the face definitely resembled those of Varkan. Everyone was overcome by a fresh wave of memories. But Ivan Semenovich took them out of their reverie:

“Sorry, but we don’t have much time! Don’t forget there’s not much fuel left in our lamps, and without light we won’t be able to get out of here. We’ll come back soon, and we’ll surely visit the place where… we parted for ever. Let’s move on, my friends!”

A few steps further, the passage forked. Discovering a small representation of a wild boar on the wall, Artem knew where to turn. He remembered well the instructions of the parchment. The explorers moved on without examining the carving.

A few more steps through the passage, which had narrowed, and the light from Artem’s lamp revealed a fantastic sight. Artem stopped dead in his tracks, jerked the lamp higher. The rest stopped behind him, dumbfounded.

The narrow passage widened abruptly to form a cavern whose floor was covered with a layer of what looked like pebble-sized stones, shimmering a dull yellow in the light of the lamps. The same glitter shone from spots in the walls of the cavern which resembled an oddly-shaped room. The remains of an ancient bronze spade could be seen among the glittering stones.

Ivan Semenovich made a step forward, picked up one of the stones and examined it closely. Then he looked at his friends and said in an awed voice, pronouncing each word very clearly, distinctly, and slowly as though emphasizing by this the great importance of each word.

“These are gold nuggets, my friends. And this must be the gold deposit once discovered by Pronis! The deposit the Scythians could not get to!”

“The great treasure his descendant Ronis told us about!” Artem cried out impulsively.

The geologist ran his eyes around the cavern, its floor, walls and ceiling.

“It’s so great a treasure I wouldn’t dare to even estimate its value,” he said at last, his voice revealing how stunned he was by the discovery. “There must have been an immensely, unimaginably rich vein of gold running through this place. Sometime in the distant past, part of it must have crumbled and fallen down here in a shower of gold nuggets! It’s… it’s unbelievable! Expedition upon expedition will soon be coming here! Not only for the gold of course! We have made some mind-boggling discoveries: this unheard of subterranean cavity the presence of which no one could suspect, the Scythians living deep in the earth, and all the other enigmatic phenomena we have encountered… all of it is worth studying thoroughly. And it’s not a matter of archeology only, Dmitro Borisovich! The mass of puzzles we have come across can be cracked only by joint effort. The whole thing is a great scientific problem in itself! Besides, economically… such a tremendous amount of gold in one little place… Our country will benefit greatly from this discovery, my friends!”

“So, this is the treasure Pronis wrote about…” Dmitro Borisovich said in a low voice, more to himself than to anybody else.

“The treasure that has been waiting for centuries to be discovered,” Lida said.

Ivan Semenovich cast a last glance at the gold nuggets scattered on the floor of the cavern.

“Now, let’s get started, my friends,” he said with a sigh. “We are much too tired after all we’ve had to go through. We have to get back to the surface, and it’s still a long way, mind you, and uphill too! We’ll take a short rest and then come back here. Besides we have to inform the scientific world and the authorities of our discoveries. Artem, my friend, put a couple of these nuggets into your bag as samples and material evidence so we won’t think it was all a dream when we get back to the surface… nothing but a fantastic dream…” the geologist said, overcome with emotion.

They turned and began to walk back to their great stalactite cave, past the pictures of the boar and the Scythian head. Artem lagged behind, letting his friends go ahead to have one more look at the face. It did indeed resemble his blood brother!

“Varkan, Varkan!” he whispered mournfully.

Artem, his eyes half-closed, summoned up memories of recent events: the camp fire in the forest… he and Dmitro Borisovich listening to the conversation of Ronis and Varkan, their heated arguments, their plans… the reflections from the fire playing on the energetic face of the Scythian… Ronis leaving… Varkan sitting with them by the fire… the silent forest… heavy, massive clouds moving across the low underground sky… the quiet, friendly voice of the bold Varkan.

“Artem! What’s holding you up? Come on!” Ivan Semenovich called out to him from a distance.

“My dear Artem, where are you?” This time it was Lida’s voice, so gentle and soothing that was a pleasure to hear.

Artem roused himself from his reveries.

“I’m here, I’m here! I’ll be with you in a minute!” he shouted back.