nding place would he have
plunged? For a moment or so his eyes strained in vain into the gloom.
Slowly faint and then growing detail rewarded him. It was but a small
section offered him because of the angling of the tunnel. But before a
watch could have ticked ten times he knew into what place he would have
fallen, into what regions his glance had penetrated. The light was dim
down yonder but he knew that he was looking down into the gardens of
the golden king of Tezcuco.

"Another way into the hidden place, and one that Zoraida herself knows
nothing of," he thought. "If a man took this drop and then the slide,
he'd land with the breath jolted out of him but there is shrubbery to
fall on and it wouldn't kill him. But in there he'd stay! There would
be no climbing back up the slippery chute."

He withdrew and looked about him again. Expecting pitfalls, he took no
single step without making sure first. He crossed the chamber and upon
the further side he came to a second pit and a second tunnel. This
like the first was steep and smooth; this also gave him a glint of
light at the further end. The light was dim; he made out that the
distant mouth of the tunnel was obscured by a tangle of brush and scrub
trees.

"Another underground garden?" he wondered. "Or the outside world?"

He filled his lungs with the air flowing upward. He fancied that it
had a fresher, sweeter smell, that there was the wholesomeness of
sunlight in it.

"It would be a joke," was his quick thought, "if there were a way out
for us here while Rios watches the canon above!"

It was then that there came to him, faint from far above, Betty's
scream. He whirled and ran. Again he heard her screams, echoing
wildly. As he stumbled on there came to him the muffled sound of a
rifle-shot.

CHAPTER XXI

HOW ONE RETURNS UNWILLINGLY WHITHER HE
WOULD WILLINGLY ENTER BY ANOTHER DOOR

Again and again as he ran Kendric shouted to Betty that he was coming.
Then at last, after an agony of fear and silence, he heard her call in
answer. He stumbled but ran on. When he came where he could see the
square of light marking the hole which led to the level where she was,
he caught his first glimpse of Betty. She was standing by the opening,
tense to the finger tips that were tight about the rifle. He sped up
the steps and to her side. And he was treated to the sight of Ruiz
Rios, lying white-faced on the floor, a hand at his shoulder and th