few months at any rate, and the next few months were all he asked. 

[Pg 49]

 The wood‑fire on the hearth flickered redly over the walls, the lamps were lighted in anticipation of his arrival; easy chairs were drawn near the fire; books, papers and magazines were temptingly displayed on the table. 

 "What were we talking about before we came up?" said Hayden, with the effect of mental effort. 

 "Mines," Horace replied promptly. "You were about to tell me of a big find you've made. Go on." 

 "Ah, yes. But"—Hayden laughed a little [Pg 50]ruefully—"you've put the thing entirely too definitely when you say 'a big find I've made.' The bother of it is that I have and I haven't." 

[Pg 50]

 "What do you mean by that?" asked Horace, cocking his head sidewise and looking at his host speculatively. 

 "Just what I say," replied the latter. "You see, it happened down in South America, several months ago. We were running a railroad through a great estate, oh, an enormous estate in the mountains. You could get about any variation of climate and soil you wanted. Well, there was a tradition about the place which I heard again and again, and which gradually grew to haunt my imagination; it was that somewhere on this estate was a lost mine of stupendous value; and that although no one had apparently any idea where it might be located, or had succeeded in finding a trace of it, nevertheless, according to current report, it had been worked within the last quarter of a century, that is, worked in a primitive and intermittent sort of way." 

 [Pg 51]"But," interrupted Penfield, "twenty‑five years! That of course is within the memory of dozens of people. What on earth—" 

[Pg 51]

 "Wait," said Hayden. "Your part of this game is to listen calmly, not interrupt. Don't you suppose I considered all those points? Now to go back into the history of the thing; this is the story that I gathered, here a little, there a little, and gradually pieced together. 

 "This vast estate was one of the holdings of a very ancient and noble Spanish family. It was, as I have said, situated in the mountains, and naturally comprised great tracts of valueless land, barren and rocky, although there were also fertile valleys and broad cultivated plateaus. A great mansion, the home of Don 

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