ment of listening to this strange letter--concerning which
not the least strange matter was, that between the writing and the
reading of it had passed three hundred and fifty years--I had forgotten
my own discoveries, and that my purpose was to show him the pictured
paper and the curious piece of gold. But as he spoke of the migration
this matter was called to my mind suddenly; and then in an instant the
conviction thrilled through me that the clew which would lead us to the
hidden city was in my possession.

"God already has worked that other miracle," I cried, joyfully. "Here is
the token, and here is the map that shows the way!" and, so speaking, I
opened the snake-skin bag that I had taken from the breast of the dead
Cacique and drew forth its precious contents.

For myself, I needed no additional proof that here was all that was
needful to guide us to the hidden city. Yet was I glad that in so grave
a matter we should have added to absolute conviction the weight of
absolute proof. And this we had most clearly; for Fray Antonio, cooler
than I, compared the drawing in the letter with the engraving upon the
piece of gold, and found the two to be essentially identical, save that
the engraving lacked the sign of the arrow pointing the way.

"And now," I cried, enthusiastically, "for such discoveries in
archaeology as the world has never known!"

"And now," said Fray Antonio, speaking slowly and reverently, "for such
glorious work in God's service as has been granted but rarely to man to
do!"

V.

THE ENGINEER AND THE LOST-FREIGHT MAN.

That the weight of a strange destiny was pressing upon us, neither Fray
Antonio nor I for a moment doubted. It was something more than chance,
we believed, that had brought us together, and that thereafter, by such
extraordinary means, had put into our hands, in places far asunder, yet
at almost precisely the same moment, these two ancient papers; either of
which, alone, would have been meaningless; but the two of which,
together, pointed clearly the way to a discovery so wonderful that the
like of it was not to be found in all the history of the world.

At the moment that I comprehended how great an adventure was before me,
and what honorable fame I was like to get out of it, I determined that I
would keep the whole matter secret from my fellow-archaeologists until I
could tell them, not what I intended doing, but what I actually had
done--for I had no desire to divide w