hat shown in places with metallic gleams.

While Jim and Juarez busied themselves near the entrance with the
digging into and examination of some mounds of earth which excited their
curiosity, Jo and Tom with the burning fagot penetrated deeper into the
tunnel, for such it seemed to be. It presented at the start nothing out
of the ordinary. It was simply as Jo put it, an enlarged burrow of
irregular width and height, varying in width from six to eight feet and
in height the same. The sides were of earth with here and there a stone.
Whether of natural formation or an artificial construction the boys
could not determine.

"Doesn't seem to be anything worth seeing in here," said Tom, who was
in the lead and carrying the torch. "We might as well go back."

"Oh, go on a little further," urged Jo. "Perhaps we shall find
something."

"I'll bet, if we do, it's something we don't want," objected Tom.

"Well, we needn't take it if we don't want it," retorted Jo. "Let me go
ahead."

As Jo spoke, pressing forward they came to a sudden enlargement along
the way, the walls receding on either side. Jo raised his torch for a
better view when a grinning skull flashed out of the darkness, nodding
and bobbing at them, while a rattling and whirring noise resounded
through the cavern.

With a cry of astonishment, Jo let fall the torch which was quenched
as it fell upon the floor, and at the same time something big and
indescribable struck him full in the face.

So confused were they by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the
attack, and encompassed as they were by the absolute blackness, the
first thought of the boys was to run to the entrance of the cave, and
this they set about to do with the greatest possible promptness.

But both boys as they started were grappled by unseen antagonists with
whom they were locked in a deadly embrace, struggling and straining
as they wrestled in the darkness, until Tom almost at the point of
exhaustion was roused to a frenzy by the rattling of bones and the feel
of a skeleton hand on his arm. With a sudden, not to be denied effort,
he threw off his adversary and rushed wildly through the cave, followed
by Jo, who had bested his opponent.

In the meantime, Jim and Juarez were still poking in the little mounds
near the cave's mouth and wholly unconscious of the trying experience
of the two explorers. The commotion and sound of rapidly moving feet
aroused them, and almost immediately Jo and Tom