h the money value these things represented that
appealed to the men. They could not grasp that. Nor was it the
intrinsic beauty of the objects themselves. It was just the thrilling
consciousness of being within that golden zone which had been sought
by so many during so many centuries. Men from the four corners of the
earth had come in search of what now lay within a day's reach of them;
brave men, men who had made history. Yet they had failed; the
mountains had kept their secret and the little blue lake had laughed
at their efforts.

Wilson broke the spell. He was feverish with the desire to go farther.
It was the exciting finish to a long race; the last move in a puzzle
which had challenged men for centuries.

"The map, Stubbs! We mustn't stop here now."

Stubbs put up his pipe and unrolled once more the bit of parchment.
The directions now seemed brutally calm.

"From where the peaks kiss," he read, "take one hundred strides to the
right."

"We must go back to there," said Wilson. "Come on."

He led the way at a run. This starting point was a distance of several
hundred yards from the hut itself. From there Wilson took the stated
number of steps. He stopped with a start upon the brink of a hidden
precipice. The chasm was narrow, scarcely ten feet wide, and from
where he stood slanted so that the bottom could not be seen. But a
little way to the right of here one looked into a sheer drop which
ended in darkness. Wilson wiped his forehead.

"I guess we had better remember what the Priest says about those with
unsteady steps. Another yard and I would have gone down."

But Stubbs was again bending over the map.

"The brave do not falter," it read, "for the seeming is not always the
true. The path leads down twice the length of a man's body, then ten
paces to the left. Again the seeming is not true, for it leads back
again and under."

"Lord!" exclaimed Stubbs, "Why couldn't he put this in plain English.
There is no sense in that."

"The path leads down," repeated Wilson. "That can mean but one thing;
it leads over the edge here."

"To what? You get into that hole an'----"

"Let's have a closer look."

The opposite side was smooth and sloped in so that it was lost beneath
the side upon which they stood. A man dropping over would strike this
slanting surface.

"If we had brought a bit of rope now."

"We'll have to take the next best thing," said Wilson. "Peel off your
coat."

"You don't mean to go o