the cave. The mouth was half concealed by undergrowth. He entered,
not without some apprehension engendered by the legends which make it
famous. I think he showed some boldness in venturing into such a place
alone. I confess that, before I went in, I should want to fire a Gatling
gun into the mouth for a little while, in order to rout out the bears
which usually dwell there. He went in, however. The entrance was low;
but the cave was spacious, not large, but big enough, with a level floor
and a vaulted ceiling. It had long been deserted, but that it was once
the residence of highly civilized beings there could be no doubt. The
dead brands in the centre were the remains of a fire that could not
have been kindled by wild beasts, and the bones scattered about had
been scientifically dissected and handled. There were also remnants of
furniture and pieces of garments scattered about. At the farther end, in
a fissure of the rock, were stones regularly built up, the rem Yins of a
larger fire,--and what the hunter did not doubt was the smelting furnace
of the Spaniards. He poked about in the ashes, but found no silver. That
had all been carried away.

But what most provoked his wonder in this rude cave was a chair I This
was not such a seat as a woodman might knock up with an axe, with rough
body and a seat of woven splits, but a manufactured chair of commerce,
and a chair, too, of an unusual pattern and some elegance. This chair
itself was a mute witness of luxury and mystery. The chair itself might
have been accounted for, though I don't know how; but upon the back of
the chair hung, as if the owner had carelessly flung it there before
going out an hour before, a man's waistcoat. This waistcoat seemed to
him of foreign make and peculiar style, but what endeared it to him was
its row of metal buttons. These buttons were of silver! I forget now
whether he did not say they were of silver coin, and that the coin was
Spanish. But I am not certain about this latter fact, and I wish to cast
no air of improbability over my narrative. This rich vestment the hunter
carried away with him. This was all the plunder his expedition afforded.
Yes: there was one other article, and, to my mind, more significant than
the vest of the hidalgo. This was a short and stout crowbar of iron; not
one of the long crowbars that farmers use to pry up stones, but a short
handy one, such as you would use in digging silver-ore out of the cracks
of rocks.