of here as fast as we can, but keep a grip on yourself; watch your step.”

“How are we going to manage it?”

“Search me, but the thing to hang on to is the fact that we are going to make it somehow.”

Bob tried to grin but it was a sickly effort, and again they glanced down at the scene below. They could see the tall Indian walking indifferently across the terrace while Mills was just getting the heavy lid off the box which had been dragged from the foundation of ancient stones. It was doubtless the removal of this support which had caused the huge thing to fall and destroy the dwarf; but the lone white man in possession of the treasure appeared to be absolutely unaffected by the tragedy. He finally succeeded in removing the cover and when it was tossed aside the sun shone brightly upon what appeared to be a wonderful collection of glittering jewels. Greedily he plunged in his hands, tossing the trinkets up as a miser might, and then he danced about the marvelous find.

“Come along,” Jim caught the younger boy’s sleeve and the pair turned away from the scene.

They made no comment as they climbed back to the terrace, walked thoughtfully toward the natural stairway, and at last began to climb again. On reaching the top they proceeded to the last elevation and arriving there found that it was a huge plateau which had been leveled carefully. There were several streams which ran as if they had been guided around some gardens and then the water tumbled over the edge in a sparkling fall whose spray leaped back fully twenty feet.

Taking a careful survey of their surroundings, the boys saw that to their left was a strip of woods and through the tops of the trees which were not very tall ones they could see a second clear space beyond. Between them and the clearing there was a shallow ravine which they could see grew deeper and wider as it twisted toward the ruins of the ancient city. In one place they saw a wall which had evidently been built to re-enforce the land and prevent the soil from being washed away, but in places the stone work had fallen and the action of water had left a deep, gravel wash. There was little dry timber on the site where they were making their observations and for some unexplainable reason neither of them cared to build their signal fire so near the ruined temple and its tragedies.

“Let’s go a bit further back, set a course through those woods, and get on that bare place,” Jim suggested.

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