ld about her
waist by a girdle of the same material. The upper half of her body was
bare. Her hair hung in a tangled mass over her shoulders and down her
back. None of us had any covering for our feet.

We crossed the stream, using the spears as staffs; but instead of
advancing across the middle of the cavern we turned to the left,
hugging the wall. Harry urged us on, saying that he had already
searched carefully for an exit on that side, but we went slowly,
feeling for a break in the wall. It was absolutely smooth, which led
me to believe that the cavern had at one time been filled with water.

We reached the farther wall and, turning to the right, were about to
follow it.

"This is senseless," said Harry impatiently. "I tell you I have
examined this side, too; every inch of it."

"And the one ahead of us, at right angles to this?" I asked.

"That too," he answered.

"And the other--the one to the right of the stream?"

"No. I--I didn't go there."

"Why didn't you say so?" I demanded.

"Because I didn't want to," he returned sullenly. "You can go there if
you care to; I don't. It was from there that--it came."

I did not answer, but pushed forward, not, however, leaving the wall.
Perhaps it was cowardly; you are welcome to the word if you care to use
it. Myself, I know.

Another half-hour and we reached the end of the lane by which we had
first entered the cavern. We stood gazing at it with eyes of desire,
but we knew how little chance there was of the thing being unguarded at
the farther end. We knew then, of course, and only too well, why the
Incas had not followed us into the cavern.

"Perhaps they are gone," said Harry. "They can't stay there forever.
I'm going to find out."

He sprang on the edge of a boulder at the mouth of the passage and
disappeared on the other side. In fifteen minutes he returned, and I
saw by the expression on his face that there was no chance of escape in
that direction.

"They're at the other end," he said gloomily; "a dozen of 'em. I
looked from behind a rock; they didn't see me. But we could never get
through."

We turned then, and proceeded to the third wall and followed it. But
we really had no hope of finding an exit since Harry had said that he
had previously explored it. We were possessed, I know, by the same
thought: should we venture to follow the fourth wall? Alone, none of
us would have dared; but the presence of the others lessened the fea