Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-10
CHAPTER VII (Continued)

vT,HESE speculations and the singular In
i auiry into which they had drawn his COM
nsn,on excited only mild interest in David.
The latter, strangely enough. enchanted with
the picturesque novelty of the cloud-city In
which he found himself, felt less of the
antiouarian's zeal than when Bogota was a
remote geographical possibility.
perhaps II was the stimulus OF mountain
air. a bracing climate that got him out OF
his s,abitual bookishness. Here. at any rate,
there was neither the warmth nor the color
~ the tropics to entice him 20 the indolent
dreaming that one Of his temperament might
easily WELD to In the lowlan's of Colombia.
The peculiar luster Of the gray-sreen Bogota
tableland the cool crystalline atmosphere
invited him to continual physical exercise.
For days at n time he went on long horse
ba acE rides Then, tiring Of this. and feeling
something of the restraint experienced by the
stranger who eXerts himself abnormally In
the rarefed air Of the higher Andes, he fell
into the easy habits Of the Dleasure-loving
Rorotano Muffled warmly In a ruana. he
strolled comfortably about the streets Of the
city amused by the chaffering or poems IN the
market place, enchanted by the quaint and
varied architecture OF the houses and public
bui,d,nps the grotesuue paintings and bas-
reIiefs in the churches: or else he would sit
by the hour In the open window or some cafe
on the Cathedral Esplanade, watching the
gay throns of idlers and politicians for whom
cobwebs of the Museo did not attract this
former dabbler in antiquities who abandoned
himself eagerly to the feetlng impressions
gatbered from an altogether pleasing en-
yironment And Raoul naturally secretive,
gave him the vaguest outline only of the
course and the result Of his studies.
The discovery that made the deepest i'm
nression on Raoul took place under clrcum-
stances which intensified his superstitous
feeling IN regard TO everything connected
with the buried treasure. He was on one Of
numerous trips to Lake -Guatavita. Riding
alone he reached the gloomy body Of water
toward nightfall.' lettering his horse near
The trail at the edge of the plain over which
ha had ridden, he approached the lake on
foot his mind penetrated by the absolute
siIence of the place He had come for no
snacifc purpose except to examine further
tba old Spanish cutting that gashes the great
bju which originally rose solid wall of
rock above the unknown depths of the
waters Through this narrow cleft, on the
instant that II was completed three cen
turtles ago a mighty torrent had hurled itself
into the valley beyond, As this torrent sub
eided and the lake shrank to its present COM
mass. "A wide margin of precpitous shore was
left bare to the scrutiny of treasure seekers
Even after the lapse of centuries this portion
of the lakes basin still shows the ravages
wrought by the Spaniards. 1t remains
gaunt Jagged surface of rock and flnty
gravel unclothed by tree or shrub-an an
cIent sanctuary whose violation defies the
repairs of time.
RaouI smiled contemptuously at these evil
dences of the rude labors of the early Span
iards. With modern scicece to back him he