will not go, my friends. Your eyes,
accustomed to these things in the great world outside, dare not ignore
their worth. And I tell ye that all the treasure now going to the vessel
could not purchase the thousandth part of my real treasure, which I will
not show, until I know my man." She glanced at Pearse as she spoke, and
saw rising greed in his eyes. He had seen the real treasure; he was ripe
for her hand. Milo and his slaves returned for another chest, and
Dolores waited until they had gone; then she glided swiftly toward the
passage, and turned at the door.

"I shall return in fifteen minutes, gentlemen," she said. "Then my man
must be ready, or I will drop the great rock at the entrance, and leave
ye all three caged here until ye die. For go I will, mated or mateless,
with all my treasure, ere the sun sinks into the western sea." And as
she left them she flashed a look of appeal at John Pearse.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SLUMBERING SAVAGE.

Pearse followed her with his eyes until she vanished into the passage;
then with muttering lips and harshly working features he strode down the
chamber to the great tapestry behind which lay the powder store. The
suspicion had come to him that Dolores was fooling them all regarding
her real treasure; for he believed she had shown him everything, and if
those heavy chests contained but a tithe of the whole, life was certain
that the gems around the walls were not what she meant when she said she
had still a thousand times greater riches than the chests contained.

He tore aside the tapestry, and tried to see through the gloom of the
cavern. His eyes could not pierce the blackness, and he looked around
for a light, while Venner and Tomlin walked toward him with sudden
interest in their faces. Over the tall Hele clock a lantern hung; a
gaudy thing of beaten gold, in which an oil wick burned, gleaming out in
multicolored light through openings glazed with turquoise and sapphire,
ruby, and emerald. He took this down, and impatiently tore away the side
of it to secure a stronger light. Again he went to the powder store, and
now Venner and Tomlin were at his back, peering over his shoulder or
under his arms in curiosity as to his quest.

And, sensing their presence, he swung around upon them savagely,
muffling the cry that answered the message of his eyes. Flinging the
lantern down, he trampled it out, and with snarling teeth he faced them,
his rapier flickering from the sheath