ied out long ago," Dick replied.

"Well, anyhow, some day we will go hunting in the high mountains.
Maybe we can find one or two animals that are extinct everywhere else."

"We'll certainly do that little thing," said Dick. He held his torch
closer to the wall to examine a large crack in the surface. It was of
rotten, crumbling stone in the fissure and as Dick pried at it with his
flint knife, a handful of fragments dropped out.

Dan stooped to look at them. He rose to his feet with his eyes bright
with excitement.

"Do you know what this is?" he exclaimed. "Quartz! Rotten quartz!
And it's heavy with gold."

Dick stared at the glittering bits of ore and echoed: "Gold!"

"We have stumbled on the place where all that metal comes from," said
Dan. "This is a mine. See how the passage goes on at a right angle.
It was dug to follow the ledge of gold."

"I wonder. These people don't value gold. They use it the way we use
any common metal."

"It's the only metal they know," said Dan. "And it's common here as
old iron is with us."

Raal showed no interest in their find. Gold was nothing more to him
than lead or tin. He picked up a yellow nugget from the floor and
carelessly threw it away again.

"I don't think the tribe hollowed this tunnel for gold," said Dick. "I
believe they cut it for use as a temple. And from the rock that was
dumped outside they collected the gold that happened to be mixed with
the crushed stone."

"What a find!" Dan repeated over and over. "Why, Dick, this would lead
to a gold rush if the news ever got out. Just like the California and
Yukon stampedes."

"I hope nobody lets the word get out!"

"If Jess Slythe knew about it, he'd be here with an army of ruffians,"
said Dan.

"And kill off all the tribesmen. It would be a tragedy."

By this time the boys had reached the square dark chamber, with the
stone block on which the idol of the ape-god had once been worshipped.
Here the seams of ore were richer and thicker than in the tunnel and
the floor of the room was heavy with glinting particles of yellow.

"Jiminy crickets!" gasped Dan Carter. "Gold dust! Think of it, Dick,
the place is carpeted with gold dust! We're rich! Millionaires!"

But Dick was not happy. He had not come there to make money but to
discover an ancient tribe. The secret of the gold would mean the
slaughter of those people, if the word spread.

When he left the cave he had resolved to swear Dan