in that, and we'll
follow it up, but not without a good plan."

He filled his pipe, and stared into the fire for some time.

"Clearly," he said, "what we should do first is to find out if any
one leaves the valley for the pool. As far as we know, there is the
gorge up which we came, but there may be openings direct from the
valley into the underground passages. We will leave the pool alone,
as if we had had enough of it, and examine the interior cliffs."

CHAPTER XIX

THE MAKER OF LAWS

The discovery made as to the source of Deadman's Pool gave a new
interest to the valley, and the boys played the role of detectives
under an arrangement to report the results of their investigations
at night. Each spent a day of careful observation, and at the camp-
fire each wore a look of preoccupation.

"Any success?"

They nodded their heads.

"I met the chief's mother at the council tree," said Mr. Hume, "and
she said she would pay us a visit in the morning. She has been ill,
or she would have come before."

"Well," said Venning, "I met a boy five minutes after I left the
cave, and he stuck to me like a leech."

"One followed me also," muttered Compton.

"Seems to me we are under police inspection."

"Yes; there were boys everywhere."

"Anyway, I found a 'splash' beetle."

"Eh!"

"A beetle that has developed the protective instinct till it looks
like a splash of white on a rock. Here it is;" and Venning displayed
his find.

"Doesn't help us much."

"No; but when I took it off the rock I could hear a faint rumbling
from below, over here to the left, between our gorge and the canon
where the river disappears."

"Come, that's something."

"Yes; but as far as I could make out, there was not an opening in
the cliff on that side big enough to hold a swallow's nest."

"Better luck to-morrow. Now, lads, if that old woman puts any
leading questions about the pool, don't give yourselves away."

But when the chief's mother came up the next day, she never breathed
a word about the pool. She talked of the "good white man" who had
lived in the cave when Muata was a boy.

"Often have I sat here and talked with him, and well do I remember
his teaching."

"Let us hear, mother," said Compton.

"He taught us how to till the land, so that it would produce other
crops than manioc. The men he showed how to win iron from the rock,
and how to forge the spear-heads and the hoes for the tilling.
Medicine he made from