The Washington times., 1919-07-15

(which the old Maya, back on the
barking sands. undoubtedly holds
in that sacred tassel OF his" Leon
cia said. Except for these two
statues and the bones on the floor.
this place is bare"
AS she spoke she advanced to
look the male statue over more
closely. The grotesque ear cen
tered her attention, and she point
ed into it as she added: IT don't
know about the key, but there is
the keyhole."
True enough, the elephantine ear,
instead OF EMBEDDING an orifce, as
an ear Of such size should. was
completely blocked up save for a
small aperture that not too re-
motely resembled a key-hole. They
wandered vainly about the cham
Der. tapping the walls and floor,
seeking for cunningly hidden pas
sageways or unguessable clues to
the hiding place of the treasure.
Bones of TERRA caliente men,
two idols, two emeralds of enor-
nous size, two rubies ditto, and
ourselves are all the place con-
tains,' Francis summed up. only a
couple of things remain for US to do:
Go back and bring up Ricardo and the
mules to make camp outside and
bring up the old gentleman and his
sacred knots il we nave to carry
him"
You wait with Leoncia, and I'll
go back and bring them up" Henry
volunteered when they had thread
ed the long passages and the ave-
nues OF the erect dead and won to
the sunshine and the sky outside
the face Of the cliff.
A Warning.
Back on the barking sands the
peon and his father knelt in the
circle so noisily drawn by the old
mans forefnger. A local rain squaH
beat upon them, and though the
peon shiyered the old man prayed
on obliyious to what might happen
to his skin in the way Of wind and
water. 1t was because the peon
shivered and was uncomfortable
that he observed two things which
his father missed.
First, he saw Alvarez Torres and
Jose Mancheno cautiously venture
out from the jungle upon the sand
Next, he saw a miracle. The
miracle was that the pair OF them
trudged steadily across the sand
without causing the slightest sound
to arise from their progress. When
they had disappeared ahead he
touched his finger tentatively to the
sand and aroused no ghostIy
whispering. He thrust his finger
into the sand, yet all was silent. as
was it silent when he buffeted the
sand heartily with the fiat of his
palm. The passing shower had
rendered the sand dumb.
He shook his father cut OF his
prayers, announcing:
1.-The sand no longer is noisy. II
is as silent as the grave. And I
have seen the enemy OF the rich
Gringo pass across the sand with
out sound. He is not devoid OF
sin. this Alvarez Torres. yet did the
sand make no sound. The sand has
died. The voice OF the sand Is not.
Where the sinful may walk you and
l. old father, may walk.
Inside the circle the old Maya.
with trembling fOrefnger in the
sand traced further cabalistic char
acters: and the sand did not shout
back at him. Outside the circle IL
was the same-becauSe the sand
had become wet, and because il was
the way OF the sand to be vocal only
when it was bone-dry under the
sun.
He fingered the knots OF the sa-
cred writing tassel. eft says" he
reported, that when the sand no
longer talks il is safe to proceed.
So far 7 have obeyed all instruction.
In order to obey further instruc-
tions let us now proceed.
SO we'll did they proceed that.
shortly beyond the barking sands,
they overlook Torres and Mancheno.
which worthy pair skunk of into
the brush on one side. watched the
priest and his son go by, and took
up into their trail we'll in the rear,
while Henry. taking a short cut.
missed both couples.