e hard work of three long years of
exile! A labor of love that I expected will place my name among the
front ranks of scientists!"

"Exactly!" sneered Eugene. "Just keep back, Professor, please. My men
are not in any too pleasant a mood, and I would not answer for what they
might do to you if you made the first effort to snatch this thing from
my hands. Sit down again, and let us reason together."

"You wretch! Now I begin to see your game. You would threaten to destroy
all my precious work of years, in order to obtain a miserable paper."

At that Eugene laughed loudly.

"It may be all you say, Professor," he remarked; "but it represents a
snug little fortune that I'd like to possess. The future would be mighty
pleasant, once I made that fine hit. And if it appears like so much
trash in your eyes, my dear man, there should no longer be any
hesitation about giving it up to me. Think of the work you have done. It
couldn't be replaced, Professor, I imagine? If now I should deliberately
take a match out of my pocket like this, strike the same, and apply the
busy little flame to these papers, the history of the Zunis, the Hopis,
the Moquis, and their ancestors the cliff dwellers, would be forever
lost to the world, wouldn't it?"

"Stop, you wretch!" cried the excited hermit, who was apparently
greatly alarmed at seeing his precious manuscript in peril.

"Ah! do you then consent to open your mouth, and tell what I want to
know?" demanded his tormentor.

"Is there no other way out?" asked the prisoner of the cave, hopelessly.

"None," replied Eugene, harshly. "My men are watching for the Moqui to
show up every second, and with orders to shoot him on sight. So don't
indulge in any hope that he can save you. There, the match has burned
itself out; but remember, Professor, there are others, plenty of them,
where that came from. I will give you one minute to produce that paper."

The scientist uttered a sigh that was plainly heard.

"I suppose I must yield to fate then," he said, dismally. "But you
promise to return my papers to me after I have complied with your
outrageous demands?"

"To be sure I will, and only too gladly," replied the other, eagerly. "I
don't want to make the terms too hard on you, old man. Only you must
choose now between losing either the fortune, or your work of years. And
perhaps we'd find the document after all, too. Speak up; where is it?"

"Examine that rock stool on which you are seated, an