mountains is as old as the hills."

"Yes, I know. I have heard it and read it time after time."

"And don't know any better now, doctor," cried Griggs. "Oh, come, I
say, what is there in this story that makes you more ready to believe it
than any of the others?"

"The simple fact that I have seen and talked with the historian--one who
was ready to give me some tangible idea of the truth of his narration."

"Tangible?" cried Bourne.

"Yes; tangible."

"Why, he had got no specimens with him, had he?"

The doctor made no direct reply to the American's question, but went on
to tell that his patient had concluded his short history by thanking him
for his patient kindness.

"`My life has been a failure, doctor,' he said; `you can make yours a
great success. Mine was used up in discovering the great treasure. It
was the work of years and years. You can go straight to the place by
the bearings I have marked down for you as I came back. There, I give
you that for which I have died, glad to be at rest. It is yours, and
yours alone.'

"I tried to draw his attention to another subject," continued the
doctor, but he smiled.

"`You think I am only a madman,' he said sadly. `In your place I should
have thought the same. You believe that the treasure is only in my
weary brain. I am clearer now, and I can see by the way you look at me;
but it is true. Take the skin belt from round my waist. It is yours.
In it you will find what I brought from the hills. There are a few
ounces, but where I broke the pieces off with a lump of stone--half
gold--there were tons upon tons.'

"I was not aware that he was wearing anything beneath his rags of skin,
but when to satisfy him I cut through and drew away his pouch-like belt,
I could feel inside it pieces of something hard."

"Gold!" cried Griggs excitedly, and the boys' eyes shone with
excitement.

"I don't know," said the doctor quietly.

"What, didn't you look?" cried Wilton.

"No; the exertion he made in trying to lift himself so that I could draw
away the belt was too much for him, and every thought went to the effort
to revive him from his swoon; but it was all in vain, the poor fellow
came to sufficiently to show that he was conscious, and caught my hand
in his to draw it towards where the belt lay. He pressed my fingers
round it, and then lay gazing at me wildly as I bathed his face, till I
awoke to the feet that I was trying to revive the dead."

There was