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Show "Uncle James Us 'much. Xud There's another thing to make the gods laugh 1 A fine old cock like Uncle James devoting de-voting his whole life to following a will-o'-the-wisp and then losing it for nothing, it it's oh, H 1, I suppose it's really funny !" We climbed wearily up the thirty steps to the garden level. As I reached the surface the first object my eyes encountered was Betty, sitting on the red stone and poring over a sheet of paper. "Hullo !" she called, loking up with s' . j siisr TREASURE nil her accustomed vivacity. "Do yon recognize this paper, Hugh?" She fluttered it at him. "Looks like my handwriting," he ad initted. "It's the copy of the Instructions you sent me, which I remailed to myself my-self Poste Restante. I remembered it this morning when we were iu Pera and called for it at the post office while you were packing the bags at the hotel. I thought we might need it." "What good can It do?" asked Hugh heavily. "There's nn important point In It, which nobody has appreciated up to this time. It becomes doubly important im-portant in view of what we have jusi seen." "The elided portion!" exclaimed Nikka. "Exactly ! Look !" And she spread the paper before us. Hugh had faithfully copied his uncle's translation of the old Latin, setting down also the several lines of dots by which Lord Chesby had indicated the words which had been smudged out by moisture and handling at some past time. They appeared, you will recall, at the conclusion of the explicit directions direc-tions : "Underfoot is a red stone an nil square. Raise the" And then nothing distinguishable until the concluding line of farewell. "Well?" demanded Betty triumphantly triumphant-ly as we all studied the cryptic dots. Hugh shook his head. Betty, you were a brick to remember remem-ber it," he said, "but honestly, what use is it? Whatever wort's are miss- to our efforts Tnuch s77oneYTluTn had the capstone, and Hugh, kneeling amongst the debris, peered down into a yawning Hole in the pavement. "Careful !" warned King. "A compartment com-partment which has been sealed for centuries will be full of carbonic-acid gas." Hugh sniffed. "It's as damp as as that beastly drain," he said. "But it smells reasonably rea-sonably sweet." We poked our torches into the hole. All they showed was a steep flight of stairs descending straight into blackness. black-ness. "Most extraordinary!" mumbled Vernon Ver-non King. "Byzantine masonry, beyond be-yond a doubt. Observe the squaring of the blocks, and the composition of the mortar. This is no such slovenly work as Turkish masons do. The master-builders of old laid these stones." "If it's safe, what are we waiting for?" I barked. Our nerves were on edge. "Oh, take your time," said Hugh impatiently, im-patiently, and he lowered himself, feet first. The others followed him, one by one, i and I brought up the rear, ashamed ot myself for the temper I had exhibited. CHAPTER XIII Continued. - "Huro !" lie erected e. I .mm-b luck you had to stop a bullet. ' WL-rp all mre or less cut up, but you d u,e worst of it, although my uncle, 1 is a practical surgeon in a crude jv claims the bullet missed the ' k0,"c0 WatUins told me. Any news? n-:ie police" v0 the storm covered the shooting. B.vVlias been to Pera with Betty in ,'7 Curlew this morning, and they Hard no comments. One of Wasso ip-ali's men stopped in at the corner 'ffee shop, and made sure there was a local gossip. The only danger, T think, is from Mrs. Hilyer. We've got to risk that." "Aren't you all worn out? 'o. Too much excitement, I expect. We're' just going to eat. Then Betty Insists on going after the treasure again." Kara sidled up to him, with a ven--. mm glance at me, and ejaculated a remark soto voice. Nikka laughed, ami pushed her behind him. She heed-e.l heed-e.l Mm like a dog that is contented mill a rebuke, so long as notice is taken by its master. ! "She said," Nikka translated, "that I outfit not to talk with you any longer. long-er. She wants me to pay attention to iw." "Humph!" 1 growled, returning Kara's look with interest. "Help me up, will you? Thanks! What are you going to do with her?" "Tame ner, I expect," he answered cheerfully. "I've begun by taking her knife away from her. She wanted to slick Betty because I talked more than fire minutes to Bet about you." "A sweet job I She'll end by sticking stick-ing you." "Perhaps," agreed Nikka equably. "Come and get some breakfast A cup of coffee will help you to take a more charitable view of a wild little gypsy Jirl." i Hugh, Betty, and Vernon King welcomed wel-comed us as we entered the atrium, where a low table of packing boxes bad been rigged. Wasso Mikali and lils men were either guarding the pilsnnors or else keeping watch on the 1 street entrance. Kara scowled at all "I us, but squatted determinedly behind be-hind Nikka, We talked very little. The one idea In the mind of each of us was to get t the red stone, which we could see ing are unimportant. They must have been or somebody would have rewritten rewrit-ten them." "That does not necessarily follow," spoke up Vernon King. "Old documents, docu-ments, especially those inscribed on parchment, are tricky records. It frequently fre-quently happens that some isolated portion will be spoiled, while the other parts of the same sheet may retain their integrity. Moreover, we should not lose sight of the possibility that the person who last concealed the parchment, the Lady Jane Chesby of whom you have spoken, seems not to .have been Inclined to attach much importance im-portance to it. . She would have been the last one to attempt to make good Its deficiencies." "But where could the treasure be that we have not looked?" demanded Hugh. "The directions are explicit. We followed them faithfully. So far as they exist we have verified their accuracy. But we have uncovered no place which could have served as a treasure chamber." "Yes, Hugh, the directions are explicit," ex-plicit," retorted Betty. "And as you say, so far as we have them they have proved correct. They left us in the passage under the red stone which He Lowered Himself, Feet First, The pitch of the stairs was so sharp that we had to bend only a little in passing under the rim of the opening. They were barely wide enough for one man, and I counted thirty of them before they terminated in a passage that led off at right angles, with an appreciable downward slope. "Hold up!" Hugh called back to us a moment later. "Here's an opening into another passage. There's a step down. Why, this is the drain again I" We joined him, incredulous, only to be convinced at once that he was right The passage debouched on the sewer some distance inland from the grating of the dungeon. "My G dl" groaned Hugh. "And we've gone through everything for this I Was there ever such a sell I" The vaulted roof echoed his words. The "drip-drip" of slime and fungi was a melancholy punctuation for them. But the reaction loosened our taut nerves. The one thought of all of us was to comfort Hugh. "There may be some explanation," said Nikka. "Perhaps we overlooked something," ends at. the drain. And why was that passage built? Why, to get into the drain !" "And the treasure was In the drain?" protested Hugh. "That's absurd, Bet." "It would have been washed away long ago," I scoffed. "That place is full of water at very high tides." "1 didn't say it was heaped on the flood and left there," returned Betty. "Where would it be?" asked Nikka. "That's what we have to find out." "What about the grating in the floor of the dungeon?" I cut in. "If they wanted to get into the drain " "But no man who had hidden a treasure in the drain would have relied re-lied on a drainage grating in a dun geon for means of access to it," answered an-swered Betty. "That dungeon was a place for getting get-ting rid of special prisoners," interrupted inter-rupted King. "When the drain was actively in use, the water must often have backed up into the dungeon. 1 agree with Elizabeth that an emperor hiding a vast treasure would not have utilized the grating for access to it." (To Be Continued) iMi where we sat, and we choked ten our food as rapidly as possible. 1 forgot completely my injured shoul-ilfr. shoul-ilfr. V.'atkins actually hurried himself to Passing the eggs. Betty and Hugh crumbled n few bits of toast, and strained over their coffee. Vernon Bug clone nte placidly, with the zest 1 1 a man who feels he has done a Ul job well. At last, Betty could wind II no longer, and she sprang up 'Hh tin Imitation of Kara's scowl so altlniil that everybody, except Kara, tashed. ; "Daddy, you've bad time for two breakfasts," she decreed. "That's enough. Besides, 1 won't have you get-'H get-'H fat In your old age. Come 1 Every-Myl Every-Myl We've got our chance, our nce that we began to think was M ; flgilmmerlng. The treasure of Bucoleon Is at our feet-under our meiln- PP with the red stone I" 11 she goes!" assented Hugh. wwbars, chisels, mallets, picks and "DPoured, and Hugh paced Lion w froui tl,e fountain of the sWieu ?,C,ak'u,ations Indicated the first (1 ro,,g,lly estimated on Period Vi" t0 tlle garden. We all ! hearts it Witl1 nmd,y beating Mil. "to VV1'f re,,1y true! We were bv ti,e ly hare the secret covered that t, r St0Ile' t0 Brnsp the prize cealed V 0t Anaro"i-'us had con-feetltT con-feetltT centuries before, the men h fnorntlon nfter generation The ih ;f,ftriren for vain. 'H st ' oxll"nrated us, and when m ni rQ nsile and seized a chisel super- to'idi, but t 'gy' 1 Wlls mable to do tre in ' cxPer!cnced a sharp pleas- t,'T"i'0hnn,i t'ire.aCt 0t holQinS !!tcl one' 1'6 head of chisel upon i;l a nnnf , others raInei blows (l'r convor ,' 6 Cmil(3 not take lime Tprniln Kilt : We worked. Even c,:, who had millions at his red Tun,ed to the lure of 1,0 dipped Seeret' and Panted Jotftl e h f rUen mortar from the Working g ' latter 0) "V'nmls U s a S!(ncnid,t , n,iiu'tes before the bnr under 1 lUn,f tiP of a crow-Etrue crow-Etrue of ?n Se- FolIowed then a ?4 K snln 6 duratin, but in the rlow H vv, Up and Wfs overturned. S,ena lTu 0Dd st0De of e(iual l""81' Hie ,wUe' "nmortared, al-eik, al-eik, f ases 'sifted Sn!ithisxieh3ed "It is a most unusual archeological discovery," offered King. "There is an explanation," cried Betty. "We have overlooked something. some-thing. I know it TUere must be." "It's no go," answered Hugh despondently. de-spondently. "I've brought you on a wild-goose chase." We all looked rather white and wan In the cold light of the electric torches. "It's not your fault, old man," I said after a moment's silence, trying dismally dis-mally to be cheerful. "The lead looked good. We followed It because we hoped it would make you rich. We failed, and that's that." Betty stared wildly from one to the otlier of us. "You all make me tired," she exclaimed. ex-claimed. "Why should we give up hope? now long have we looked, so far? What Oh, let me by! I intisl think !" She brushed by me into the fake passage, and the echo of her footfalls reached us as she ascended to the garden. "We might as well follow her," said Hugh. "I'm awfully sorry, you chaps. You risked your lives for this rotten show. My poor deluded ancestor I I expect most of these buried treasure stories are bunk, anyway. In fact, 1 Jin. ve a dim recollection of telling poor |