d to say, "Look at this crazy
vagabond, how he spends his time!"

I was too weak and ill, though, to resent it, and gladly sought my bed,
which I did not leave for a couple of days, being tended most
affectionately during that time by Mrs Landell.

We had made our entrance to the hacienda by night, as I had wished on
account of our appearance, and it was well we did so, for an inspection
of the clothes I had worn displayed such a scarecrow suit as would have
ensured the closing of any respectable door in my face.

But if, when I rose from my couch, my clothes were worn, so was not my
spirit, and during the long hours I had lain there my brain had been as
active as ever concerning the buried treasures.

The terrors of the cave were great, certainly, but then I reasoned that
three parts of them were due to ignorance. Had we been acquainted with
the geography of the place, as we were now, and taken common
precautions, we might have saved ourselves the hairbreadth escapes and
agony of mind that had so told upon us--we need not have risked our
lives by the great gulf, nor yet in the vault of the troubled waters.
With a short portable ladder and a knotted rope the ascent to the rift
over the torrent in the great amphitheatre would have been easy. And
altogether it seemed to me that another visit, well prepared for, would
not be either arduous or terrible.

The visit, of course, would be to search for the treasure; and calm
reflection seemed to teach me that it was very probable that we had now
hit upon the part that appeared likely to have been used for the
purpose--so I thought. I could not feel that the timid, superstitious
Indians would ever have penetrated so far as we did, but the soft earth
of the bird-chamber seemed, after all, a most likely place.

"What! going again, Mas'r Harry?" said Tom when I broached the subject.

"Yes, Tom," I said; "I want to explore this bird-chamber part of the
cave. And besides, we need run no risks this time--we need not go into
the terrible parts."

"Very good, Mas'r Harry; only reck'lect about the pitcher as goes so
often to the well getting broken at last."

"But you'll go with me, Tom?" I said.

"Go with you, Mas'r Harry? Course I will! I should just like to catch
you going without me. Don't you get coming none of them games."

The result of this was that one morning, soon after sunrise, Tom and I
were climbing over the rocks that barred the mouth of the cave. We h