The extinguished torch was
a piece of resinous pine, and it burned up quickly, giving a flaring
light and sending up a wavering stream of black smoke.

By the light the two men gazed into each other's ghastly faces. Their
eyes were distended with horror. Their mouths were dry and their lips
drawn back from their gleaming teeth. They looked like beasts.

"Curse you, Porfias del Norte!" snarled Ridgeway. "It was you who
brought me to this!"

"Bah! It was your greed for the money I paid you that brought you here."

"Had I not met you----"

"You might have been hanged for some crime. Dying this way will save you
from hanging."

"Don't talk of hanging!" panted Ridgeway. "If ever a man deserved it you
are that man!"

"But I was not born to be hanged."

"Better that than this kind of a death! At least, you would be out in
the open air, with a chance to breathe. I am stifling! I feel these
walls crowding in upon me! They are going to crush me! Keep them off!
keep them off!"

The wretch flung himself on the ground and writhed with agony and fear.

With the torch in his shaking hands, Del Norte stepped forward and
kicked his abject and fear-tortured companion.

"Get up, here!" he snarled. "We will take one more look. We will see
once more if there is any chance of escape."

Although Ridgeway declared there was no hope, he got up. With the
Mexican leading, they passed back into the cave, being forced several
times to bend low in a crouching position to avoid striking their heads
against the rocky roof.

There were three chambers and only one straight passage from chamber to
chamber. It was a simple matter to explore the entire cave. When they
came at last into the third chamber they soon found themselves at the
end of it, with the dank wall of stone before them.

For some moments they stood quite still, staring helplessly at this
wall.

Suddenly a shriek burst from the lips of Ridgeway.

"Doomed!" he cried. "No escape! I feel the mountain collapsing! The
walls are crowding in upon us! It's the end! Oh, for just one more
breath of free air! For just one more sight of the world outside!"

With that cry, he dropped flat on his face and lay still, as if death
had come to claim him, also.

"Get up!" harshly ordered Del Norte, again kicking the man. "Get up, or
I'll leave you here alone. I am going back."

Why he desired to return to what had once been the mouth of the cave he
could not tell, for there he would