Roy Norton

“ We came to it at last and turned to the place where the two flights of steps branched upward, each, as we had learned, leading to the great stone pillars that had once supported the suspended bridge, and stopped.
“This must be the place,” he said, and took from his pocket a leaf torn from his notebook which he consulted under the light of his torch. He read it slowly to himself, and then flared his light about him as if his eyes were seeking some certain mark.
“Ah,” he said softly, “this is it!” and pointed at a small tablet apparently carved into the face of the living rock. ”

“ But this remember for the sake of our lives, that no one must know that we have sought treasure. You have been with me merely as assistants in a great research which I was permitted to undertake because the superstition of an all-but-dead race made it see in me a new messiah and—but I forget! I can speak no more,” he concluded with an unmistakable show of mental harassment, which Wardy and I respected. “Come!” said the doctor, and again plunged ahead. ”

“ The poor burros sweated and panted as with dogged steps they thrust themselves forward upon their absurdly delicate legs while their tiny hoofs clattered on the stone. Higher and higher we climbed. Hotter and hotter shone the sun. ”

“ So we opened the gateways from that land which we had been the first human beings to enter for centuries, took a final look at all it had disclosed and that we were leaving behind, and plunged into the darkness. ”

“ He said that inasmuch as we had been so long without fresh meat of any kind he thought it wise for Ixtual and Benny to take the rifles and try to kill one of the small deer that were to be found in the foothills, and that Juan must remain behind and guard the animals and the entrance. He next observed that besides an emergency supply of food and water, Wardy and I should carry each an empty pack bag because if anything of archæological interest were found he might ask us to carry them out. ”

“ We descended at least a hundred steps, then entered a natural rift or cavern that steeply inclined for a considerable distance the foot of this incline we came to a tunnel made by man, a second flight of a hundred steps, then to another turning that led into a second cleft whose floor was steeply inclined for a considerable distance before it reached a level where the character of the walls on one side altered. ”