ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HORN
far away from the capital, but that would make the treasure so much the safer. The Spaniards would never have thought of going to such a lonely, deserted place as this, and the Incas would not have spared any time or trouble necessary to securely hide their treasures."
"If you are right," cried the captain, "this is, indeed, astounding! Treasure in a mound of stone—a mound covered by water, which could be let off! The whole shut up in a cave which must have originally been as dark as pitch! When we come to think of it," he continued excitedly, "it is an amazing hiding-place, no matter what was put into the mound."
"And do you mean," almost screamed Mrs. Cliff, "that that stone thing down there is filled with the wealth of the Incas?—the fabulous gold we read about?"
"I do not know what else it can be," replied Edna. "What I saw when I looked down into the hole was surely gold."
"Yes," said the captain, "it was gold—gold in small bars."
"Why didn't you get a piece, captain?" asked Ralph. "Then we could be sure about it. If that thing is nearly filled, there must be tons of it."
"I did not think," said the captain. "I could not think. I was afraid somebody would come."
"And now tell me this," cried Mrs. Cliff. "Whom does this gold belong to? That is what I want to know. Whose is it?"
"Come, come!" said the captain, "let us stop talking about this thing, and thinking about it. We shall all be maniacs if we don t quiet ourselves a little, and,
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