r it.

Taking out another one, he started with one in each hand for his wagon,
by which Ulrich was waiting, like the patient, honest soul he was.

Nothing that Barnwell did surprised him. He honestly believed him to be
more than an ordinary man, and capable of doing anything short of
raising the dead; and when he him approaching with those unique bags in
his hand, his curiosity was not aroused sufficiently to make him ask any
questions.

Barnwell understood and had faith in him of the strongest kind.

Setting down the bags by the side of the wagon, he wiped the
perspiration from his brow, and then, taking a peculiar key from his
pocket, he proceeded to throw back the wagon-seat and to unlock the iron
chest beneath it.

Now, Ulrich had never known that such a contrivance existed in the wagon
before, although understanding that it was a very heavy vehicle; but he
evinced no surprise, asked no questions.

Getting up into the wagon, Barnwell told him to hand the bags up to him,
and without a word he did so.

Barnwell stowed them carefully away in the large iron box. Then closing
it and locking it again, he motioned Ulrich to follow him.

The horses were securely fastened, and there was not a sound, even of
birds, in that desolate locality, so all was safe.

Without exchanging a word, they went back to the cave and brought each
two more of the bags, which were placed in the strong-box.

It was but little past noon when they began, and for two hours they
robbed that golden cell of its treasures and transferred it to the
wagon.

The bags were in an excellent state of preservation, for the place was
perfectly dry, and besides, they had evidently been prepared with some
unusual treatment which made them almost indestructible.

Finally the chamber was emptied, and Barnwell could but think of the
toil and risk in transporting so much gold to such a far-off place. It
seemed to him almost as marvelous as that it had remained there all
those years without being recovered. But Batavsky was no ordinary man,
and undoubtedly knew exactly what he was doing.

Ulrich's face was a study.

Had they been transporting bags of stones it could not have been more
stolid.

He worshiped the young American, and for him it was to obey without a
question, and this he readily did.

He often looked upon his position as an exalted one, as compared with
what it would have been had Barnwell not saved him from a debtor's
prison, which is