o the prodigious braying,
that echoed thunderously from the cliffs around us, with which El Sabio
welcomed the advent of the god of day.

"It is a good sign, senor," said Pablo, "when El Sabio brays thus nobly
at sunrise. He does not do it often, but when he does I know beyond a
doubt that I am to have a lucky day."

"An' I must say," Young struck in, "that for a man who expects t' have
t' eat his boots in th' course of a day or two I'm feelin' this mornin'
most uncommonly chipper myself. For one thing, I mean t' have another
look around that idol. I'm not at all sure that he's not th' tippin'-up
kind. Maybe we didn't put enough weight on him yesterday; or he may do
his tippin' up from th' other end. Anyhow, I'm goin' t' have another
whack at him as soon as I've eat my breakfast; an' that's a performance
that won't take long t' get through with, considerin' how thunderin'
little there is t' eat."

Truly, the eating of our breakfast did not consume much time; and, so
short did Young make our rations, I am not sure that we were not
hungrier at the end of it than we were at its beginning. When we
finished, the sun was still low in the east; and the bright rays struck
full upon the statue of Chac-Mool, on the great stone altar, and into
the depths of the niche that had been hollowed behind it in the face of
the cliff. We observed that the idol was so placed that the very first
rays of the sun, coming through a cleft between two great peaks to the
eastward, shone brightly upon it, while yet all the rest of the valley
save the cliff above the niche remained in shade.

With the strong sunlight deeply penetrating it, the recess behind the
altar no longer was filled with the black shadows that had obscured it
on the previous afternoon; and even the hole into which Young so nearly
had fallen was plainly visible. Taking advantage of the better light,
the lost-freight agent--who certainly had found a fitting berth in that
department of railway service, for such a man for hunting for things,
and for finding them, I never came across--made a more careful
examination of the deeper portion of the recess, and presently he gave a
shout that told of a discovery.

As we gathered around him he pointed in great excitement to a row of
metal pegs, which were fixed in the rock one above the other,
diagonally; and then to the point in the roof of the recess towards
which these pegs tended. Even with the strong light that now aided us
it wa