ithin a few yards of where we rested.

Towards daybreak it turned intensely cold--colder than I could have
imagined possible in a tropic land; but we were prepared to bear cold as
well as danger, for a fire would, of course, have been inviting
observation.

Day at last; with a glorious flush of light reaching down the valley,
and making the stalactites on the roof to glisten. But our ideas now
were bent on the object we had in view, and nature's magnificence was
unnoticed.

As soon as the light had penetrated sufficiently, we led the mules
farther in, and secured them in the broad passage, so that they could
reach the water of the stream; our next step being to creep cautiously
to the rocky barrier, and, well sheltering ourselves, to watch long and
carefully for some sign of spies.

We did so for a full hour, but the silence of the place was even awful.
Then the grey dawn brightened into the sweet fresh morning, with the
heavy dew glistening in the sunshine as it dripped from the great tropic
leaves--otherwise all was still; and convinced at length that those who
had hitherto dogged our steps had for this time been eluded, I made a
sign to Tom; and going in about fifty yards, we seized our spades and
began to throw the light soil and sand into the bed of the little
stream, shovelful after shovelful, so as to form a dam, which was at
first washed down nearly as fast as we piled it up; but at last our
efforts were successful, and the dammed-up water began to flow aside,
cutting for itself a new channel through the sand, and making its exit a
few feet nearer the rocky barrier, but taking up its former course on
the other side.

We rested then for a few minutes, faint and hot; but the excitement of
the quest took from us the sense of fatigue, for the water had all
drained away from the bed of the stream, and the little pool close under
the rocky barrier now presented the appearance of a depression whose
bottom was covered with a beautifully clean sand.

I had come provided this time with a longer rod, and, taking it in my
trembling hands, I stood for a few moments upon the sand, anxious, but
dreading to force it down lest it should be to prove that I had been
deceived by my over-sanguine nature.

Then, rousing myself, I thrust the rod down, when, at the depth of four
feet, it came in contact with some obstacle.

Drawing it up I tried again and again, Tom eagerly watching the while,
as I proved to a certainty that