The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-07-27

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to do itG"
The Indian boy smiled sadly: 'It
was the dog in me. senor."
"What does your mother call your
asked Juan.
'tShe should have called him Perro,'
the doctor interrupted, ''for he has a
dogs endurance, and perhaps may
prove equally faithful"
The boy looked at him reproachfuIly,
but he merely rose to his feet, and said,
II the senior is ready"
Up, up. through the broiling sun,
over fields of lava and volcanic Stag,
the trio climbed persistently, until they
stood on the mountains crest and
gazed down into the depths of the era
ter that yawned before them.
sit is there, senior" the boy said sim
ply, pointing toward the black mouth
of a cavern, half obscured by a cloud
of steam that shriIly escaped from some
Unseen crevice.
''It is the mouth of hell" exclaimed
Juan. Even the sturdy doctor shrank
back, but the lust for gold will lead a
man to brave the greatest danger.
"Come, then," he said.
The Indian boy detained him. "Not
that way, senior; g where you would
go. It is nom too sure, senior. Mira"
He took a machete from Juan and
struck it through what seemed to be a
solid rock, but which proved to be but
a moss of light ashes. It was on this
that the doctor would have stepped,
and beneath which, had he done 80, he
might have disappeerd forever.
Testing each foot of the way with
the greatest caution, he took the lead,
now through cloud of white vapor,
now across a bottomless seam from
which a cloud of black smoke poured,
filed with deadly gases, till the mouth
of the cave lay before them.
ut is suicideI" muttered Juan. 81,
for one, will not go further"
Into the cavern the young lad crept,
and the doctor, first lighting a torch
that he took from one of the saddle
bags they had brought, followed after
as best he could.
It was not far that they had to go.
But a few short rods from the entrance
the doctor saw the thing he sought
gold, virgin gold a mass of gold, such
as men might have dreamed of, but
none had ever beheld before.
Mad with the sense of sudden power,
the doctor clutched it. he fondled it;
with tears of joy he kissed it, swearing,
laughing and crying by turn, and
then
There was a sudden trembling Of the
rock, the cavern seemed to sway in
space, and there came a sound as of
the earth splitting in twain from its
centre.
Juan turned and fed. The doctor
threw the gold from him with a curse,
and frantically endeavored to follow,
but the boy held him back.
"No, no, senior, if you would liveI"
he pleaded.
But the doctor did not hear him.
There was the din of chaos without. A
wide crack opened across the cave, and
a sufoc8ting vapor poured through it.
Again the rocky walls trembled and
swayed, and the crack closed it's jaws
with a vicious snap, like some gigantic
animal, enraged that it had not engulf-
ed them.
''YoulOo l"the doctor cried, striving
to free himself and striking the boy
who chung to him. Let loose, I say,
ere l kill you'll"
But the youth would not loosen his
desperate hold. He chung with the
strength CT a demon, and, fighting to
gain each step of the way, the doctor
dragged him to the mouth Of the cave,
where, by a supreme effort, he freed
himself from the grasp of the youth.
Gasping for breath, the doctor rose
to his feet and blindly plunged out of
the hideous place, only to pause at the
entrance, speechless with terror at
what he beheld. The air seemed a
blast from a furnace-the bed of the
crater rose and fell, a boiling, surging,
seething cRuldron, with the rushing
roar Of a tornado.
Huge powders rose to it's surface, to
sweep around the malestrom and dis
appear in the clouds Of steam that in
5ermittently burst from it. As he
peered out through the lurid haze,
with eyes that seemed to him to be
starting from their sockets, a spur Of
rock, a hundred feet high, that crown