s some time before I could make out among the black shadows of the
roof a small opening; but the longer that I looked at it the more
distinct it grew.

"We've struck th' trail once more," Young cried. "We've struck it sure.
It don't look promisin', but here it is--for if this ain't th' King's
symbol carved right by th' first of these pegs, then you're all at
liberty t' kick me right smack over th' top of that idol for a d----n
fool! Hurrah!"

Pablo could not understand what Young was saying, but it was easy to
perceive from his gestures the nature of the happy discovery that he had
made. In a tone in which deference and triumph were curiously blended,
Pablo said to me: "Did I not tell you, senor, that a good thing always
happens when El Sabio brays at the rising sun?"

Before Pablo had ended this short but exultant deliverance, Young was
half-way up to the roof of the cave, treading gingerly upon the metal
bolts and testing each one before he trusted his weight to it. In a
couple of minutes he reached the roof and disappeared through the hole;
and almost instantly he called down to us: "We're solid--here's a
regular staircase. Come along!"

We followed him promptly enough; while our hearts thrilled, and all our
bodies trembled, with the gladness that possessed us as we found this
way opening to us from the valley wherein we had thought that surely we
must die. In a little chamber, cut in the rock above the opening into
which the ladder of bolts led us, Young was waiting for us; and from
this chamber a spiral stair-way ascended that was dimly lighted by
crevices cut from it out to the face of the cliff. With Young leading
us, up this we went; at first rapidly, but, later, slowly and wearily,
for it seemed as though the stair would never end. Yet though our bodies
were heavy our spirits were very light; for we know by the wearisome
length of it that the stair must lead to the very top of the towering
cliffs by which we had believed ourselves to be irrevocably shut in. And
at last there was a gleaming of light above us; and this grew stronger
and stronger until we came out with a shout of joy into the glad
sunlight--and saw far below us the valley that we once more thought
beautiful, now that it no longer held us fast.

In the depth below us we could discern El Sabio, looking no bigger then
a rabbit; and he must have caught the sound of our shouting with those
long ears of his, for there came up to us faintly from him