ure we'd all stay
together. I'd hear a bird go whizzing away at a distance, and it
appeared to me that there was no call for it to light out with us two
or three hundred feet away from it; and then there were queer noises
which I couldn't just place as coming from birds. I don't know why I
noticed these things, but I did, just the same, though I didn't say
anything to the other boys, because they'd probably thought I was
losing my nerve. And, besides, there wasn't time to talk.

"It took us more than an hour to reach the level where the village was,
and it was long after midnight when we, keeping in the shadow of the
cliff, started toward the bridge over the canyon, which led to the cave
where we thought we'd find the treasure.

"We'd got pretty near the bridge, Taggart and me in the lead, Nebraska
and Taylor stringing along behind, when I heard a sudden scuffling and
looked around. It wasn't so dark on the level as it had been in the
woods, and I saw a dozen dark figures grouped around Nebraska and
Taylor. The dark figures were all about us, and more were coming from
the huts, all yelling like devils. And they were men, too; they'd been
hiding in the huts; they'd discovered us the day before and suspected
what we came for. I found that out later.

"Well, for a few minutes there was plenty of excitement. Taylor and
Nebraska had got pretty well behind us, and the Toltecs had cut them
off. Taggart showed yellow. I started back to help Nebraska and
Taylor, who had their knives out--I could see them shining--when
Taggart grabbed me.

"'Let's run for the bridge, you fool!' he said. 'It's every man for
himself now!'

"While I was scuffling with Taggart, trying to get away from him and
get back to the boys, a figure detached itself from the bunch around
them and came flying toward us. It was a woman, I could see that in an
instant. Taggart saw her coming, too; he must have known it was a
woman, but he pulled out his knife, and when she came close enough to
us he drove at her with it. He missed her because I shoved him away.
He fell, and, while he was on the ground, the woman--or girl, because
she wasn't more than eighteen or nineteen--grabbed me by the arm and
jabbered to me in Spanish, of which I'd learned a little.

"'They're going to kill all of you!' she said. 'They've been watching
you for two days. They left me to watch you yesterday. I don't want
them to kill you--I like you! Come!'

"She pull