precious manuscripts, and I no longer could see clearly the
painted characters because of the tears of happiness which filled my
eyes.

Young, however, whose longing was only for material treasure, continued
his investigations in anything but a thankful mood. "There ain't no
doubt of it _now_," he said presently in a most melancholy tone. "That
old king o' yours must 'a' been just as crazy as a loon. Look here: this
thing ain't even a fool arrow-head; it's nothin' but a bit o' green
glass! I reckon it's part o' th' bottom of a porter-bottle. Nice sort o'
stuff this is t' call treasure, an' t' take such an all-fired lot o'
trouble t' hide away! Why, I should jedge that that king must 'a' spent
most of his time settin' up nights a-puzzlin' over plans for makin' sure
that he was th' very d----dest biggest fool that ever lived!--an' that's
just what he was, for sure! It's tough, gettin' left this way; but it
wouldn't begin t' be as tough as 't is if 't wasn't for all them
car-loads an' car-loads o' gold right clost by us here that we might 'a'
got away with as easy as rollin' off a log if we'd only ketched on to
this back-door racket in time. An' see here, Professor," he went on in a
very earnest tone, "I don't believe there's anybody in there now; why
shouldn't we just chance things a little an' go back an' get some of it?
We've got our guns; an' even if we do strike a crowd too big for us t'
tackle, an' have t' run for it, we won't be no worse off 'an we are now.
Come, let's try it on!"

While Young spoke I had been looking closely at the object that so
violently had excited his indignation, and instead of replying to him I
asked, "Are there any more pieces of that porter-bottle in the jar?"

"It's full of 'em," he answered with a contemptuous brevity.

"And the next?"

"That's full of 'em too. All th' jars on this side o' th' room are full
of 'em," he added, as he rapidly thrust his hand into one after
another--and so set the dust to flying that we both fell to sneezing as
though we would sneeze our heads off. "Oh come along, Professor: what's
th' use o' foolin' over this rubbish; let's go for th' stuff that's good
for its weight in spot cash every time!"

"Wait till we see what is in these gold vases over here," I answered,
turning as I spoke to the side of the room that as yet we had not
examined.

"What's th' good?" he asked, sulkily. But he lifted down one of the
vases, and with his thumb and finger brought