ere the
road ran for more than a score or so of yards ahead. But at last I
traced its sweep close by where a great single-slab altar stood on its
massive pillar, with a sacred stone-circle jutting out of the bushes
around it. On the other side was the pyramid, sorely broken by man and
the weather, but still showing dressed gray stone courses in patches
amongst the rank scrub which bristled over it. Even from there I could
make out that the general contour of its base was circular, and not
square as I had somehow or other expected, and I began to see trouble
in finding that side "nearest the sea" where Lully had dug into the
entrance-way.

As I drew nearer, the tumbled nature of the stone-work disclosed itself
further, and I began to have fears lest the central chamber should have
caved in and hidden the Recipe effectually and for always by crumbling
its lettering into dust. But then I called to mind other Talayots I had
seen before near Mahon and Alayor and Mercadal and Ciudadella, where
the entering passage led from aboveground by a rapid incline, and where
the cavity, when it existed, had doubtless been near the apex; and from
this I took heart, thinking that whether or no there had been a chamber
in the upper part of the building, and whether or no it existed still,
didn't particularly matter to me. The Diary had certainly pointed to a
room stowed away beneath the very keel of the edifice; and as long as
that stood firm, the rest might telescope to any extent for all I
cared.

By this time my leisurely pace had brought me up alongside the Talayot,
which loomed big and squat at the other side of the wall. I turned and
looked behind me. The fat woman at the farm was out of sight. Then I
climbed the wall, and from the top glanced down the road which led from
Alayor, and saw a sight which made me curse like a kicked
_arriero_. Walking briskly up the stony track was a little man in
unmistakably British tweeds. "An infernal prying tourist," thought I,
"by all the powers of evil. Bear-led by a native, and coming to see
Talaiti de Talt for a thousand. If he sees me he'll spot me at once and
want to chum, and then he'll get inquisitive and won't go away."

Down I dropped into cover.

CHAPTER X.

WITH A THREE-ANGLED HOE.

It is curious how no two people can speak the same words with identical
intonation. Perhaps this is noticeable to some men more than to others.
I know some folks never forget a face, others a