Show by will C higgins the next morning said the prospector to his burro our entire party went into the tunnel to take a look at the stone man we had discovered the previous day for neither jenkins nor Top feather were with us when we started out on our trip of investigation vesti gation and exploration while the women were full of curiosity to see the old spaniard who had died fifty or a hundred years before our time and who yet looked as if he had only fallen asleep so we trailed along into the old mine workings jim leading and Top teather bringing up the rear while my burro and her colt stood at the mouth of the tunnel as we proceeded and gave us the merry he haw as we passed in probably feeling in high spirits because of the scare they had given us the previous day for I 1 have always believed that animals have some sense of humor and get to feeling tunny sometimes we soon reached the old stone cabin in the big station or room that had been cut in the rock when the early discoverers of the mine were performing active development work and it was with feelings of solemnity that we approached the door from which we all shrank back with a feeling of almost terror when a large bat flew out and almost into our faces we soon recovered our normal condition however and entered the cabin without any ceremony feeling that nothing could harm us for the spirit of the dead man had probably been reincarnated several times since holding intimate relations with the dead spaniard and might now be holding down a job as a prince in india or hob bobbing with the bolshevik over in russia at any rate we felt that the petrified man now belonged to us and we proceeded to take liberties with his cold storage remains much the same as we would handle the carcas of a deer or stray elk the women folk gathered around the couch on which the figure lay and commented upon its appearance but they could not be prevailed upon to touch it almost believing that the dead man would speak to them in protest so lifelike life like was bis appearance after satisfying our curiosity we decided to remove the remains to the mouth of the tunnel but when we undertook to lift him we found that his weight almost exceed our strength to carry and the four men of us had all that we could do to lower him down to the floor of the room with great difficulty we finally managed to get him upon our shoulders two of us at the head and two at the feet and thus burdened we started for the tunnel entrance followed closely by the balance of the party at the portal we stood the petrified man up against the face of the cliff and only the lack of clothing would indicate that he was really very much alive still he looked quite formidable as he stood out there in the sun and when I 1 had placed an old hat on his head and had thrown a blanket over his shoulders he had every appearance of being a sentinel on guard at the mouth of the tunnel and this appearance was accentuated when I 1 attached a revolver to his upraised hand while a rifle in the clutches of the right made him look quite lifelike life like and dangerous being satisfied with the shift we had assigned to the stone man jim art and myself entered reentered re the tunnel the balance of our crowd going back to camp we still had some curiosity regarding the cabin and when we again reached the spot we opened the door and went in on our previous visits we had not investigated the interior to any great extent and we thought now would be a good time to give it a good going over the woodwork of the couch had almost gone into decay but it was with some difficulty that we moved it out from the corner where it had stood for so many years when we had finally accomplished this however we were somewhat surprised to find an iron box or chest in the rubbish with which the floor was littered the chest was quite heavy and it was all that two of us could do to lift it it was quite securely locked and could only be opened with a cold chisel or a sledgehammer As we did not possess the former we decided to resort to the latter method and so we again started for the mouth of the tunnel where we could do our work in daylight here we were joined again by our friends who seemed much interested in the possible or probable contents of the chest art had gone to the camp for a sledgehammer which he secured and when he raised it in the air in order to make an effective blow we all held our breaths in anticipation of the results the box had been made of tempered steel however and it was not before art had struck it several times that the cover parted and we were able to examine its contents on the top we found the faded portrait of what once had been a beautiful woman next were some letters that crumbled into nothingness as we touched them A few pieces of finery were about in the same condition and when we had removed them our eyes rested upon a number of bars and ingots ingols of gold while in a little tin box we found about a double handful of pearls and rubies and also a diamond necklace strung upon fine spun gold wire that was a fortune in itself we were not at all hilarious over our wonderful find although greatly pleased for it seemed as it if the silent sentinel whom we had placed so imposingly at the tunnels mouth was ever looking at us most sternly from under his slouched hat as we desecrated his treasure box we did not care for this however although we felt almost as if we were robbing the dead but then you know finding is keeping when we had emptied the chest of its contents we added our newfound new found riches to our cache of gold nuggets and placer gold under one corner of our block house and then the four of us returned to the cabin in the tunnel for we had not completed our examination of its contents jim had brought a broom with him made from a bunch of willows with which he swept the floor disclosing to our astonishment a slab of rock which evidently served as a covering or trapdoor trap door for some sort of cavity below there was a ring in the slab made of iron but with our united strength we could not lift it art then began looking around for a stake or something of the kind and was fortunate in finding an old crowbar in one corner of the room with this we made greater progress although our progress was slow as the door seemed to be cemented around its edges by the century accumulation of dirt and dust in time we finally accomplished complis hed our purpose but we stepped hastily back as a gust of air came forth that nearly blew our hats off we could not see anything for our lights had been blown out and we knew that we could accomplish com nothing until we could devise some means whereby we could shield our candles so as to enable us to take a peek into the depths below then we remembered the parchment found in the hand of the petrified man and also that jenkins understood spanish and by reading it might be enabled to help solve this mystery and so we returned to camp continued the prospector and our friends were much surprised to hear of our new discovery if such it might be called jenkins produced the parchment and with some difficulty ciphered dis a portion of its contents or that portion relating to the trapdoor under the couch upon which the stoneman reclined this interested us very much for it stated that the cavity below had been sunk to a depth of twenty feet and that from the bottom a drift had been run to the east for a distance of feet the face ending in a large cave in which the former owners of the mine had stored all manner of riches clothing and relics secured from former inhabitants of the land the document stated however that from noon until sunset a strong current of air from some mysterious source prevented admittance to the hidden cache but that from early morning until midday mid day access would be easy and not at all dangerous once the man on the couch had given permission to enter and of this we had now no apprehension for we had his nibs doing sentinel duty on the outside and so we decided to defer further investigation until morning the results of which I 1 will communicate to you at some other time 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector 1 I had prospected in many districts and in many countries during my long years of experience but I 1 must say that I 1 never before had visited a land of so many mysteries and never before had I 1 met with so many thrilling experiences and it is a wonder that I 1 am here to relate them to you and there you are and then some 0 |