s all up with yours truly."

"Get who with the first shot. Who are you talking about?"

"This cougar! Hurry Ned, he's creeping nearer!"

Tom heard a movement behind him. He dared not turn his head, but he
knew it was his chum. Then he heard a gasp and he knew that Ned had
seen the beast. Then all Tom could do was to wait. And it was not
easy waiting. At any moment the beast might spring, and, as far as
he was concerned it would be all over.

Nearer and nearer crept the brute. Again Tom felt that queer
sensation down his spine.

"Hurry, Ned," he whispered.

"All right," came back the reassuring answer.

There was a moment of silence.

Crack! A sliver of flame cut the darkness. There was a report that
sounded like a cannon, and it was followed by an unearthly scream.
Instinctively Tom leaped back as he saw the greenish eyes change
color.

The young inventor felt a shower of dirt thrown over him by the
claws of the dying cougar, and then he realized that he was safe. He
raced toward the tent, to be met by Ned, and the next instant the
camp was in wild commotion.

"Bless my slippers!" cried Mr. Damon. "What has happened. Tell me at
once?"

"Fo' de lob of chicken!" yelled Eradicate from a tent he had all to
himself--the cook tent.

"Santa Maria! Ten thousand confusions! What is it?" fairly screamed
Delazes.

"Are you all right, Tom?" called Ned.

"Sure. It was a good shot."

And then came explanations. Wood was thrown on the fire, and as the
Mexicans gathered around the blaze they saw, twitching in the death
throes, a big cougar, or some animal allied to it. Neither Tom nor
his friends had ever seen one just like it, and the Mexican name for
it meant nothing to them. But it was dead, and Tom was saved and the
way he grasped Ned's hand showed how grateful he was, even if he did
not say much.

Soon the excitement died out, after Tom had related his experience,
and though it was some time before he and the others got to sleep
again, they did finally, and the camp was once more quiet.

An early start was made the next day, for Tom had reconsidered his
determination to assemble the balloon and explore in that air craft,
And the reason for his reconsideration was this:

They had not gone far on their journey before they met a solitary
Mexican, and of him they asked the usual question about the plain of
the temple.

He knew nothing, as might have been expected, but he stated that
there was a large villag