years ago--in fact I do not
know how many--there existed somewhere in Peru an ancient city that was
the centre of civilization for this region. Older it was than the
civilization of the Mexicans--the Montezumas--older and more cultured.

"It is many years since I became interested in Peruvian antiquities,
and then I had no idea of the lost city. But some of the antiques I
picked up contained in their inscriptions references to Pelone. At
first I conceived this to be a sort of god, a deity, or perhaps a
powerful ruler. But as I went on in my work of gathering ancient
things from Peru, I saw that the name Pelone referred to a city--a seat
of government, whence everything had its origin.

"Then I got on the track more closely. I examined ancient documents. I
found traces of an ancient language and writings, different from
anything else in the world. I managed to construct an alphabet and to
read some of the documents. From them I learned that Pelone was a city
situated in some fertile valley of the Andes. It had existed for
thousands of years; it was the seat of learning and culture. Much light
would be thrown on the lives of the people who lived in Peru before the
present races inhabited it, if I could but locate Pelone.

"Then I came across two golden tablets on which were graven the
information that Pelone had utterly vanished."

"How?" asked Tom.

"The golden tablets did not say. They simply stated the fact that
Pelone was lost, and one sentence read: 'He who shall find it again
shall be richly rewarded.' But it is not for that that I seek. It is
that I may give to the world the treasures it must contain--the
treasures of an ancient civilization."

"And how do you think the city disappeared?" asked Mr. Titus.

"I do not know. Whether it was destroyed by enemies, whether it was
buried under the ashes of a volcano, whether it still exists, deserted
and solitary in some valley amid the mountain fastnesses of the Andes,
I do not know. But I am certain the city once existed, and it may exist
yet, though it may be in dust-covered ruins. That is what I seek to
find. See! Here are the tablets telling about it. I got them from an
old Peruvian grave."

He took from a box two thin sheets of yellow metal. They were covered
with curious marks, but Tom and the others could make nothing of them.
Only Professor Bumper was able to decipher them.

"And that is the story of the lost city of Pelone--as much as I know,"
he sai