264 THE ADVENTURES OF 



gated rays were reflected in every direction, as if emanating 

 from ten thousand diamonds. The beauty of this scene was 

 quite sufficient to dazzle far less enthusiastic spectators than 

 we were. But it was not long before a repulsive, oppress- 

 ive, thick smoke compelled us to move on, and a few paces 

 through a passage brought us into the centre of an immense 

 hall, lighted by an aperture into the open air. 



I joyfully hailed the blue sky, and then closely examining 

 the ground we were treading on, noticed that it was cover- 

 ed with fragments of baked clay. Removing this, it was 

 not long before we came to a layer of damp charcoal. 

 L'Encuerado went outside and cut some branches, which, 

 when pointed at the end, helped us in our digging. After 

 two hours of hard work, we succeeded in laying bare more 

 than a square yard of black and greasy mould. 



Thoroughly exhausted, in spite of my curiosity being ex- 

 cited, I was compelled to follow Sumichrast out of the cave 

 in order to breathe the fresh air. A fine rain was falling, 

 and I was so devoted to the idea of my excavation in the 

 cave, that I was very glad to use the state- of the weather 

 as a pretext for putting off our departure to the next day. 



My companions had hardly recovered their breath before 

 I summoned them back to work. L'Encuerado, as the hole 

 became larger, was quite excited, and soon fancied that he 

 could perceive gold. The fact is, that every Indian believes 

 that all caves and grottoes contain unheard-of treasures, ei- 

 ther the work of nature or buried by man, and that these 

 treasures are guarded by some malicious genius, who allows 

 the searchers just to catch a glimpse of the hidden riches, 

 but never permits their being carried away. 



" Don't laugh, Tatita," said the Indian to me, with a mys- 

 terious air ; " especially just at this moment." 



He then went on to tell us that a friend of his, who was 

 lending his flocks on the mountain, ran into the thickets in 



