of stone were partly ruined, and of great age. They
followed the uniform plan of those vast and mysterious ruins found so
often in Southern and Central Mexico. The same race that erected the
pyramids on the Teotihuacan might have raised these buildings.

"My home! The quarters of myself and my men," said Carossa,
dramatically, pointing to the largest of the buildings. "We do not know
who built it. It goes far beyond the time of Cortez, but it serves us
now. The peon will not approach it, because Carossa is there and maybe
ghosts too."

"I'm not afraid of ghosts," said Obed White. "Lead on, most noble
captain. We appreciate your hospitality. We did not know that you were
taking us to a palace."

Captain Carossa deigned to be pleased again with himself, and, taking
the lantern from the man in the red serape, he led the way. He entered
the large building by means of a narrow passageway in one of the angles,
passed through an unroofed room, and then came to a door at which both
Ned and Obed gazed with the most intense curiosity. The doorway was made
of only three stones, two huge monolithic door jambs, each seven feet
high, nearly as wide and more than two feet thick. Upon them rested a
lintel also monolithic, but at least twenty feet in length, with a width
of five feet and a thickness of three feet. It was evident to Ned that
mighty workmen had once toiled here.

"Is not that an entrance fit for a king?" said the brigand captain,
again making a dramatic gesture.

"It is fit for Captain Juan Carossa, which is more," said Obed White
with suave courtesy.

Captain Carossa bowed. Once more he deigned to be pleased with himself.
Then he led through the doorway and Ned uttered a little cry of
admiration. They stood in a great room with a magnificent row of
monolithic pillars running down the center. A stone roof had once
covered the room, but it had long since fallen in. The interior of the
walls was plain, made of stones and mortar, once covered with cement,
deep blood red in color, of which a few fragments remained. But the
walls on the outside were covered with splendid panels of mosaic work
varied now and then by sculptured stones. The stone used on the outside
was of a light cream color. But the boy did not see the mosaic panels
until later.

Silent and studious, these vast ruins of a mysterious race made a great
appeal to Ned. He forgot the rough brigands for a moment, and stood
there looking at the walls and grea