swallowed some hours earlier had refreshed them amazingly so they forgot that they had had little food, rest or water, as they ran as hard as they could go along the passage, which presented no difficulties to progress. They had raced about five minutes before they overtook Lang and Mills, and some distance ahead they could see the backs of the Indians marching forward with dignified tread. Nearly a quarter of an hour the white men followed the dark ones through the opening in the dense forest until at last Lang, who was leading, paused and raised his hand. Mills drew close to his partner, but the Flying Buddies remained at a respectful distance. They were on higher ground and could see quite easily what was happening.

The place beyond where the Buddies were standing was like a deep gully whose sides rose steeply, like a wall. Thick vines grew about twenty feet from the bottom and these were woven across the top in an impenetrable mass through which neither rain nor sunshine could pass. The boxes and baskets were placed on the ground in a circle and the men stood behind them, each armed with long and short spears. It looked as if the women were moving about preparing a meal, but suddenly there came a fierce braying of dogs, the thunder of galloping hoofs, hundreds of them, and the deafening clatter of steel. A moment later a huge black brute with powerful hungry jaws leaped in from behind the rocks, and almost instantly a horse and rider raced furiously in after him.

“Great Guns, Bob, he’s in armor,” Jim whispered.

“Bronc and all,” Caldwell added in amazement. It reminded the boys of some historical moving picture in which armored knights and horses suddenly leaped to life and action. For a breathless instant they stood too astonished to speak.

After their leader, a great pack of the dogs rushed along with soldiers protected from head to foot by their coats of mail and helmets. Queer weapons were fired, blunderbusses and heavy cross-bows, long swords flashed and after ten minutes of the wildest confusion the natives were dead, all except a few women and children who were slung up behind the soldiers, while others gathered the treasure in their arms and galloped away with the rich booty, but as they scrambled up the rocks, a number of them were dislodged and came tumbling down. The stones seemed to mark the wall of some natural dam, for instantly there was a terrific boom, boom, and tons of water roared over, sweeping the burdened horses helplessly before it. Snarling and fighting the dogs struggled to swim to safety, but most of them were battered by heavy 

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