which the walls were squared so as to give the
effect of a small room. He drew nearer step by step and again was
forced to kneel and then feel his way forward with his hands for the
floor under him grew steadily steeper so that it was difficult to keep
from sliding down the incline. When he saw his way sufficiently
clearly he did slide the last three or four feet. And now, as again
his torch flared and the air freshened in his nostrils, he saw that
which put an eager excitement in his blood. The small room had every
appearance of an ancient storeroom. He saw objects piled on the floor,
objects of strange designs, cups and pitchers and vessels of various
shapes. He caught one up and it was heavy. He clanked two together
and the mellow, bell-like sound had the golden note.

"Solid gold," he muttered. And as something upon one of the
vessels--it was a drinking goblet of ornate design--caught the light
and shone back at him like imprisoned fire, "Encrusted with precious
stones!"

He put the things down and looked further. There was a big chest. As
his foot struck it it burst asunder and tumbled its contents to the
floor. From the disordered heap there shone forth from countless
places the colorful glow of jewels. He passed to another chest, a
smaller one placed as in a position of honor upon a square tablet of
rock. He held his torch close and looked in; he thrust in his hand and
withdrew it filled with pearls. Even he, no connoisseur like Barlow,
would have staked his life on their genuineness. They were of many
sizes but more large ones among them than small; their soft, rich
loveliness dimmed even those of Zoraida's wearing.

"A man could carry a million dollars out of here in his hands!"

He went on. But what he held in his hand he thrust into his pocket as
he went. The remembrance of Zoraida's rattlesnakes came to him
abruptly. Thus he moved with renewed caution and thus he was saved
from a misadventure. For even so he almost stepped to a fall. Between
two heaps of tumbled articles was a square hole, sheer and black,
several feet across. He stooped over it. The air came up with a rush.
At first he could see only a little way. Then he made out that the
shaft went straight down only a few feet and then slanted away in a
great chute like the floor down which he had already come, only so much
steeper that he knew had he fallen there would have been no return
possible for him. To what eventual la