Desmond was somewhat impressed by the words of Creedon, but still insisted that he would like to conduct an exploration.

“You will only go over the ground that I have already gone over.”

“I know that, but I propose to look around all the same.”

Desmond had been doing considerable thinking.  He questioned Creedon again and again, and made out that the old Mexican had lived in the cave along with Creedon for months at a time, and as he learned, the old man had thrown out a great many hints.  These hints meant something; and then again, if he had hidden his wealth in the cave he had done it so securely and well that he had no idea of its ever being discovered until such time as he saw fit to disclose the fact.  Desmond knew how there were some strange conformations in the rocks; the very place they were in was a testimony to the strange freaks that nature in its upheavals can and does create.

Brooks had nothing to say about the matter, and Creedon did remark finally: 

“Of course, as I’ve said, it can do no harm, but be careful you don’t strike—­”

Desmond here interrupted, and said: 

“I ain’t afraid of ghosts; I’ve met one and I’ve got used to them.”

“I don’t mean a ghost, I mean a crevice; go very slow and carefully, or you may become a ghost yourself.”

Right here we wish to exchange a few words with our readers in regard to these rock conformations.  Right in the State of New York, in Ulster County, and in what is called the Shawangunk Mountains, there are some of the most wonderful caves and crevices, and in some of these caves during the winter the snow drifts down, and in the spring becomes a solid mass of ice, and the writer remembers upon one occasion after a long and weary scramble over rocks under the face of a cliff which towers up and overlooks counties, being shown a rock cave where there was a solid mass of ice, which, in its contour resembled a ship.  The ice must have been at least sixty feet in length, twenty feet broad, and fully forty feet high, and adjoining it were all manner of caves.  These caves are within a few miles of several settlements, and possibly at the time of the visit of the writer had not been entered by over a dozen persons.  In these mountains are some very remarkable rock conformations, and we merely mention this fact to the lads in the East, who may think that these stories of rock caverns are exaggerated.  There are probably hundreds of caves in the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains that have never been entered or explored since the days when the early settlers may have found them while bear hunting.

Desmond had been raised, as we have stated, near the mountains, and probably had explored many rock caverns, and it is because of this fact probably that he was not surprised when led to the cave where he first beheld the girl Amy Brooks.  That cave still exists and is well known to many of the people living in its vicinity, and in our description we adhered to almost absolute accuracy.