k they were for building, sir?" said the American.

"Yes; don't you?"

"No, sir," was the reply. "It seems to fit with my idea."

"What do you think, then?" said the doctor.

"I think the same as I did before, sir. Those are powder and shot."

"What!" cried the boys, in a breath.

"Ammunition to cast down at an attacking force?" said the doctor
eagerly.

"Looks like it, sir. You see, they've used most from close to where the
enemy was coming up the steps. Perhaps I'm wrong, though. Let's see
what's been going on here. But first of all, is there another floor
higher up the cliff?"

A careful search only seemed to prove that they were now on a level with
the highest terrace and range of chambers, while close by the top of the
steps there was ample endorsement of Chris's exclamation about the
fighting that had gone on.

There was a fairly wide space between the top of the great square shaft
and the openings into the first cell and that leading to the terrace
front, and here the remains lay literally heaped, looking as if a most
desperate encounter had taken place. Further examination proved that
the first cell had also been desperately defended, for the combatants
had lain in heaps. It was the same with the second, and as the
adventurers went on without stopping to investigate, they found a dire
repetition of the battle, and proofs that chamber after chamber had been
a little battle-field in which many fell, right on to the extreme end of
the range, all of which was in far better condition as to its stone-work
than the terraces below.

The heaps of gruesome dust ended with the last chamber only, very little
being seen to take attention; but on the terrace, and here in the last
four or five chambers, the doctor stooped several times to rake away the
soft, easily-swept ashes, to point out proofs of his former opinions,
many of the relics he uncovered and touched being quite small.

"A horrible massacre," he said softly. "Children, youths, and these are
doubtless the skulls of women."

"Oughtn't we to preserve specimens of each to take back? They would be
of intense interest to students of the past," said Bourne gravely.

"How?" replied the doctor. "Touch any of them.--There, you see. They
crumble into dust almost at a breath. What we carry away from here must
be in our memories. As far as mine is concerned, it is already charged
with the knowledge that we have, here the remains of two races of
p