fierceness of expression and sullen distrust that had
haunted them when we had first met him on the captain's plateau, when
his sister Juanita was still a captive in the power of Eagle Feather.

"What do you think of our boat, Juarez?"

"You make her?" he inquired.

"Sure," we replied.

He looked "The Captain" over from stem to stern, missing no part of its
construction under Jim's careful explanation.

"Ah," he said finally, with a smile. "She is a Jim Dandy."

We grinned our appreciation of his pun.

"You are a real American," said Tom, "or you would have never thought of
that."

"How did you happen to strike us here?" asked Jim, "instead of at the
crossing of The Fathers as you had first planned."

"I wanted to make a search for some treasure that lies in this canyon,"
he replied. "I have often heard of it through the captives we took from
the southern tribe, the Pai Ute, who in turn had got it from some of
these Indians who build houses in the cliffs.

"I have it down in paper as much as I remember. We will look together if
you agree."

"There will be no trouble about that, Juarez," we said.

He took out a worn piece of paper and studied it carefully.

"It is gold nuggets, bracelets and gems and one gold cross taken from
the early priests by the Indians.

"By tradition it was left hidden in the canyon.

"It is three curves in the river below a great cavern."

"There's the cavern, Juarez, up there," said Jim. "It is five hundred
feet in width and two hundred feet high."

"So far, so well," he replied. "At the third curve you land on the west
bank, you follow up a narrow slit in the wall of the canyon. Beyond it
upon a rock, there is a natural formation like this sign O. That is a
symbol for the Indians of this region. It means a great deal to them,
but nothing to me." There was a note of contempt in his voice.

"It is in the locality of this marked rock that the Indian treasure is
hidden. There you have it."

"But not the treasure, not yet," I said. "I suppose that it is guarded
by some dragon or some evil spell."

"They say so. If the treasure is not removed and we get near it, we will
be struck by blue lightning from red clouds and our bones will be
crushed by some terrible beast or devil; I know not which."

"There is the dragon that guards this treasure," said Jim, pointing to
the river, "and it is certainly a terrible one."

"How much is it all worth?" asked the calculating Tom.

"H