they needed. A good hunting knife completed the armament of
each.

For clothing they wore on their feet stout mountain shoes and carried
a lighter pair in their kits. They had khaki suits and flannel shirts,
with wide Panama sombreros. At the last moment Stubbs thought to add
two picks, a shovel, and a hundred feet or more of stout rope. Wilson
had made a copy of the map with the directions, and each man wore it
attached to a stout cord about his neck and beneath his clothing.

It was in the early morning of August 21 that the two finally left
Bogova, with a train of six burros loaded with provisions and supplies
for a three months' camping trip, and a native guide.

CHAPTER XIX

_The Spider and the Fly_

The sun came warmly out of a clear sky as they filed out of the
sleeping town. To the natives and the guide they passed readily enough
as American prospectors and so excited no great amount of interest.
The first stage of their journey was as pleasant as a holiday
excursion. Their course lay through the wooded foothills which lie
between the shore and the barren desert. The Cordilleras majestic,
white capped, impressive, are, nevertheless, veritable hogs. They
drink up all the moisture and corral all the winds from this small
strip which lies at their feet. Scarcely once in a year do they spare
a drop of rain for these lower planes. And so within sight of their
white summits lies this stretch of utter desolation.

It was not until the end of the first day's journey that they reached
this barren waste. To the Spanish looters this strip of burning white,
so oddly located, must have seemed a barrier placed by Nature to
protect her stores of gold beyond. But it doubtless only spurred them
on. They passed this dead level in a day and a half of suffocating
plodding, and so reached the second lap of their journey.

The trail lies broad and smooth along the lower ranges, for, even
neglected as it has been for centuries, it still stands a tribute to
the marvelous skill of those early engineers. The two men trudged on
side by side climbing ever higher in a clean, bracing atmosphere. It
would have been plodding work to any who had lesser things at stake,
but as it was the days passed almost as in a dream. With each step,
Wilson felt his feet growing lighter. There was a firmness about his
mouth and a gladness in his eyes which had not been there until now.

On the third day they reached the highest point of the