resting bit
of stone carving. These things I gathered together and placed in a heap
near the entrance. I then went back and, taking a small hatchet which I
had brought with me, commenced to dig about in the floor and pretty soon
found this little child mummy.

"By the time I had taken it out I was pretty thirsty and hot, as you may
suppose. I was careful and did not hurry matters, and the cave was like
an oven.

"Wrapping the little mummy carefully in a big handkerchief which I had
tied round my neck, I untied the twine from the ladder, and lowered the
bundle slowly down to Antonio, my Mexican, who was standing at the foot
of the top ladder. It reached him safely, but while he was untying it I
carelessly dropped the end of the string. I went back, however, and
gathered up the other relics, intending to take some of them down with
me and then come back for the rest if I could not manage them all the
first time.

"While I was looking them over I heard a crash and the sound of tumbling
stones, and looking out I saw that the ladder had fallen, and commenced
to curse Antonio for his carelessness; but imagine my horror when I saw
him throw down the bottom ladder and then run as fast as he could
towards the camp. My first and only thought was to pay Antonio for his
treachery. It was evidently his intention to leave me safely housed in a
place from which I could never escape alive, and start off the proud
owner of the two wagons, five horses, and various valuables which he
believed my boxes to contain.

"My revolver was still in my belt, and hastily pulling it I commenced
shooting at the running figure, now some sixty or seventy yards distant.
The first bullet knocked up a cloud of dust about three feet to his
right and a little ahead, the second was still worse, but at the third
he turned sideways, staggered on several paces, and fell among some
loose rocks in a way that must have been unpleasant. He tried to get up
again, but I now had his range pretty well and hit him again with the
sixth shot; after that he lay pretty quiet, although I thought I saw him
move his arm once or twice. I reloaded, having plenty of cartridges in
my belt, and began shooting at him again. This time I hit him three
times out of six shots, and as he had not moved for some minutes I
concluded that he was dead.

"Then I began to think over how I was going to get down. I was very
thirsty and it was tantalizing to see the water down in the valley