a fair assumption, I think,
that there is a pearl in each one of all these little pitch-covered
balls. As to what you called bits of green glass, they are neither more
nor less than extraordinarily fine emeralds; I should say that the
smallest of them must be worth more dollars than you could carry at a
single load. Of course, all the emeralds and pearls together are not
worth a single one of these manuscripts"--here Young gave a sceptical
grunt--"but in the way of vulgar material riches I am confident that the
value of what is in these jars is greater than that of all the gold
together that we saw in the Valley of Aztlan. Without a shadow of doubt,
you and I at this moment are standing in the midst of the most enormous
treasure that ever has been brought together since the world was made!"

"Honest Injun, Professor?"

"Certainly," I answered; "and if this is your notion of getting 'left'
on a treasure-hunt," I continued, "it assuredly is not mine."

"Left?" Young repeated after me, while his eyes ranged exultantly over
the rows of jars in which this vast wealth was contained. "Well, I
should smile! I take it all back about that old king bein' crazy. He was
just as level-headed as George Washington an' Dan'l Webster rolled into
one. These pots full of arrow-heads an' such stuff was only one of his
little jokes, showin' that he must 'a' been a good-natured, comical old
cuss, th' kind I always did like, anyway. Left? Not much we ain't left!
We've just everlastin'ly got there with all four feet to onct!
Professor, shake!"

EPILOGUE.

Throughout my whole life I have been saddened, as each well-defined
section of it has come to an end, by the thought that during the period
that has then slipped away from me forever I have wasted more
opportunities than I have improved. As I write these final lines,
therefore, I feel a sorrowful regret, which, in a way, is akin to the
regret that weighed upon me when Young and I, having carried into the
cave the contents of the treasure-chamber, removed the prop wherewith
was upheld the swinging statue, and so suffered to fall into place again
that ponderous mass of stone. From below, where we were, lifting it was
impossible; and by heaping fragments of rock under the forward end of it
we presently made it equally immovable from above. Thus for outlet or
for inlet that way was irrevocable barred; and as I write now I know
that I am not less irrevocable severing myself from one p