tter of great moment had aroused the full energy of his mind.

"Professor! I say, Professor!" he repeated: "Get right up and come here.
Don't sit there like a chuckle-headed chump. Get up, I tell you. Here's
some sort of a show for us. Here's what looks like a way out o' this
God-forsaken hole!"

As I heard these words I did get up, and in a hurry, and so joined Young
where he was kneeling on the floor close beside the rear wall of the
oratory, directly behind where the idol had stood until the thunder-bolt
had dashed it down. It was at this point, apparently, that the lightning
had entered the chamber; for here several of the plates of gold with
which the walls were covered--overlapping each other like
fish-scales--had been loosened, while three of them had been wrenched
entirely from their fastenings and had fallen down. As I joined him,
Young excitedly pointed to the opening thus made, through which was
visible not a solid wall of rock but a dark cavity, and from which was
blowing a soft current of cool air.

"It's a way out! It's a way out! I tell you," he cried. "This suck o'
wind proves it. If we only can get some more o' these blasted plates
loose we'll light out o' this and euchre the Priest Captain an' his
whole d--n outfit yet! Ketch hold here, Professor, an' put your muscle
into it for all you're worth. Grab right here; now!" And Young and I
together pulled at the same plate with all our might and main. But for
all the impression that we made upon it we might as well have tried to
pull down the mountain; the plate did not stir. Young gave a hearty
curse (and I confess that hearing him swearing in that natural way again
was a real comfort to me), and then we took another pull; and all this
while, so much does the thought of saving his life put cheer into a man,
my heart was bounding within me and the hot coursing of my blood seemed
like to burst my veins. Young's fervor was not less than mine, and we
wrenched and tugged together, and never stopped to mark our cut and
bleeding hands.

"We've _got_ t' do it!" Young exclaimed, as we paused at last, without
having loosened the plate in the least degree. "There's some way o'
workin' this thing, I know. It must be some sort of a door, an' if we
only can get th' hang of it we'll be all right. Have you got your wind
again, Professor? Let's try 'f we can't sort o' prize this plate out;
it's a little loose. Just get your fingers under it an' we'll sort o'
pull it up