Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-21

"After bit" DAYTON went on,
1--WE got UP there, however. Rotten
country. One can see why the original
inhabitants moved out. Regular tum-
bic of hills and draws--or canons, as
you folks call 'em.
Not much water and what there
was pretty poor stuff. We logged
along, though. getting deeper and
deeper into the jumbo of hills, and the
guides seemed to know where they
were going, though I'm blessed if |
could have told from one day to
another.
Then one day we came to plGe
where there was Il ruin, way up in the
side wall of cliff 1t looked like u
rather poor spot to have taken SO
much effort to reach. but Wingarde
was delighted to get there. The next
morning we tried TO get up TO the
thing. There'd been sort of road
along the cliff once, but it was pretty
well gone to pieces, and we had the
deuce OF a time from the start
After a bit, though what, with the
Indians help and a good bit of work
with ropes and some grapples we'd
brought, managed TO get up on the
ledge where the ruin stood and pull
the professor up on sling. Then
we had a look at the place.
1T wasn't much but a tumble Of
stones. They must have built without
mortar, just pling the stones up in a
thick wall and climbing them up with
mud maybe Anyway, the thing was
pretty much fallen TO pieces, though
We did find sort of central space,
which might once have been big
room.
and right in the center of that
there was a hlackish sort of stone.
about six feet long and three feet
wide and maybe three feet high. It
looked just like big piece of cut
stone ia me but when Wingarde saw
il he let out n whoop, and ran over
and stood leaning his hands on its top
The altar, Spencer he said, Here
we have 1.-THE old sacrificial altar
az know made some remark about
having sacrificed lot to reach IT, and
being glad If II was up to specifica-
tions. for he grinned and began count
ing the number of handspans in the
things length. A bit after he was
down on his hands and knees, digging
alongside it.
Il guess there must have been a
good deal of sand and dirt blown up
there in the years since the old place
had boon falling down. because he
scooped ont quite a hole before he
called me to come and help him pull
out stone.
~ went over and found he'd uncov-
cred what looked like Loose slab Of
rock set on edge inst below the bot
tom of the biz stone. Between us we
got il loosencd up and it came away,
leaving a sort Of hole under what
Wincarde called The altar.
"He thrust in his hand and hogan
to tumble around, frowning and twist.
ing his face. and then after a bit he
uttered an exclamation and pulled out
something about as big as a hens egg.
He gave it squirt and yelled till |
jumped.
"Then he handed it over and |
jumped again The thing he held was
an emerald That's right, really, It
was an emerald with one side ilattcn-
ed and u sort Of rough picture of a
face, with a lot of lines raying off from
1t, cut into the smoothed.olf surface"
A sort Of sigh escaped the man at
my elbow 80 large as hens egg,
senior" he said in voice of the deep
est interest "They had such inta-
clio stones but so large as a hens
egg'
"The Eye of Quelzal." said Dual.
"Dos," Kissed Laredo. "Senor 1850
you mean"
THAT there was such stone. The
conduistalores sought to find it, but
il was never found. Proceed, Mr.
Dayton"
Laredo was breathing audibly M
DAYTON resumed
"That wasn't all Wngarde found
There was bally little idol in the
hole under the altar / was made out
of bronze, with a round sort of face, n
flat nose, and thick lips, Rotten look
Ing old god. It had a sort of handle
attached to it. too. which. | reckon
the priests must have held il by when
they were doing their mumming.'
did it," said Semi. "s9em TO have
long hair falling to its shoulders and
a sort of draped headdress. some
thing like the pictures YOU have seer
| Of Egyptians at times?"
sPrccisely." nodded Dayton. 81
remember Winearde said It reminded
him of some Egy ptian images, he haf
! found"
at was an image of Quetzal," sait
Semi Duel