d unavailing if a man sought the way to make his
entrance from above? Be sure the way is guarded there, too. Above us
towers Little Quetzel Hill, which is a long dead volcano; the hole you
saw was in the bottom of the cone. If a man sought to come to it,
first he must climb a steep and dangerous mountain flank. The old
kings did not forget so obvious a thing. Captives toiled up there
while their fellows burrowed down here; the hazardous way through
infinite labor continuing through many years, was made infinitely more
hazardous. There are balanced rocks of a thousand tons' weight that
are secure in the outward seeming, placed to hurl to destruction the
adventurer who sets an unwary foot on them; there is a spring, and it
is death to drink of it; there are pits for a man to slide down into
and in the bottoms of these pits are countless venomous snakes; there
are traps set such as men of our time know nothing of. There have been
chance travelers up yonder at infrequent intervals and for every such
traveler there has been a death so that the mountain bears an evil
name. And, further, should a hardy spirit once win to the hole in the
bottom of the volcano's cone and find the way to lower himself hundreds
of feet into the gardens, there is always, night and day, one of
Zoraida's guards at the spot where he must descend, and that guard,
night and day, is armed and eager to grapple with a devil whom he has
been told to expect soon or late."

"I have told you," said Kendric, "that I have no wish to steal that
which is another's."

"One thing I have told you; here is another. I speak it frankly
because I may gain by it and am not in the least afraid of losing,
since your destiny lies in my hands! It is that only a portion of the
great treasure is here with us; another portion was hidden outside."
She put her hand on one of the tinted manuscripts. "The tale is here.
The treasure bearers were trapped in the mountains by the Spanish; they
had no time to come here. One by one they were killed. They hid much
gold where they must. That is the 'loot' of which your friend Barlow
speaks; that is the treasure which the Spanish priests knew of and held
accursed. And that, Senor Jim, I would add to what I have here!"

She amazed him. Her eyes glittered, the fever of gold lust was in her
blood. With all this hers--his eye swept the wealth-laden tables and
chests--she still coveted gold, other gold!

"The third thing," sa