o," replied
Billie, "but I doubt if either of us has one with him."

"This is sufficient, for I shall light some torches I have
prepared as soon as we are ready for our work."

When Donald had descended, Strong led the way through a lateral
about thirty or forty feet, at the end of which another vertical
shaft had been sunk. Around the mouth of this Strong had set a
number of torches, which he now proceeded to light. By their
glare it was possible to see part way down the hole.

"The thing I hope to find," explained Strong, "is at the bottom
of that hole, if it exists at all."

"What is that?" asked Billie.

"I think I can best answer your question," was the reply, "by
reading you a translation of a paper which is said to have been
found in the shaft above, where the bandits have made their
rendezvous. How it came into my possession, matters not. I
believe there are now enough of us here to prove or disprove its
truthfulness, unless some one has been here before us."

Seating himself on a jutting boulder, Strong took from his
pocket a paper, which he read as follows under the flickering
torchlight:

"Being about to leave this world, I desire to obtain forgiveness
for the great and only crime of my life, hence this confession.

"There were five of us. Names do not matter. They were my fellow
workmen. We had been entrusted with the output of the Rosario for
the year and had promised to guard it with our lives. We heard
the soldiers of Maximilian coming. We were not enough to
withstand them. We determined to hide the treasure in the western
shaft. We carried it to the edge and threw it in. My four
companions went down to cover it over with dirt, which I brought
from the other shaft and gave them, shovel by shovel. A mad idea
seized me. If they were dead, no one but I would know the hiding
place of the treasure. I would kill them; but how? I glanced
about. Great pieces of rock were on every hand. Without stopping
to consider the foulness of the deed I rolled a huge piece to the
mouth of the shaft and pushed it in. There was a cry of terror
and I heard a voice call out to know what had happened. I said a
piece of rock had broken loose and asked what damage it had done.
Only one replied. The others had been stricken down. Madly I
pushed over another rock and then another and still another. Then
there was silence and I fled. The soldiers found me unconscious
at the bottom o