tio says. As
this was somewhat deep only a tiny bit of illumination escaped, and
you could just detect that when at a certain angle. Stop short, now,
and see for yourselves, for there it is again!"

Thrilled to the bone they stood and gaped. Hugh was pointing with
his disengaged hand, half holding the lantern back of him so that its
glow might not further interfere with their view.

"You're right, Hugh; that's surely what it is," agreed Thad, almost
immediately; and each of the other three went on record with a
corresponding affirmative.

"Then the next thing for us to do is to find some way of climbing up
to that same fissure," the leader explained, showing that he meant to
lose no time in trying to open negotiations with the unknown denizens
of the quarry, whose actions were becoming more and more mysterious
as time passed.

"Which means that we're going to beard the tiger in his den," quoth
Owen, gripping his gun more firmly as he edged a little closer to
Hugh; for since he was the only member of the expedition who could be
said to possess a weapon it was proper that he should be found in the
van at such a crisis.

They walked on, not hastily, and showing no outward sign of the
tumult that must have raged in each boyish heart. Now it was no
longer possible for them to discern that faint glow; but such a
little thing did not daunt them. Hugh had marked well the exact
location of their objective point, and Hugh seldom made mistakes,
those other confident fellows were telling themselves as they
cheerfully trudged along.

The foot of the cliff was at hand. Rains and winds and snow
avalanches had, during the years that had passed since the hands of
men worked those diggings, served to cut loose great quantities of
debris from the face of the height, so that here and there at the
foot irregular pyramids of earth and rocks could be seen. Hugh now
seemed to have turned his attention from above and was bending half
over, as though examining the ground. Owen knew what this meant.
The other anticipated finding a track leading directly to the route
by means of which that cavern halfway up the cliff might be easiest
attained.

And, as often happens, such reasoning proved to be the wisest thing
the searchers could have undertaken, for hardly had half a minute
elapsed than Hugh was heard to give vent to a low ejaculation of
gratification.

No one spoke, but they understood that he had found the trail he was
loo