“I have been looking for you everywhere, captain,” said he.  “What have you been after?  More water?  And you took a lantern to find it, eh?  And you have been ever so far into the cave.  Why didn’t you call me?  Let me have the lantern.  I want to go to explore.”

But the captain did not give him the lantern, nor did he allow him to go to explore.

“No, sir,” said he.  “What we’ve got to do is to hurry outside and help get supper.  We must wait on ourselves to-night.”

When supper was over, that evening, and the little party was sitting out on the plateau, gazing over the ocean at the sunlit sky, Mrs. Cliff declared that she wished they could bring their bedding and spread it on the ground out there, and sleep.

“It is dry enough,” she said, “and warm enough, and if there is really nothing to fear from animals or men, I don’t want ever to go inside of those caves again.  I had such horrible fears and ideas when I was sitting trembling in those dismal vaults, expecting a horde of human devils to burst in upon us at any moment, that the whole place is horrible to me.  Anyway, if I knew that I had to be killed, I would rather be killed out here.”

The captain smiled.  “I don’t think we will give up the caves just yet.  I, for one, most certainly want to go in there again.”  And then he told the story of the stone mound which he had discovered.

“And you believe,” cried Mrs. Cliff, leaning forward, “that it is really the tomb of an ancient king?”

“If it isn’t that, I don’t know what it can be,” said the captain.

“The grave of a king!” cried Ralph.  “A mummy!  With inscriptions and paintings!  Oh, captain, let’s go open it this minute, before those blackies get back.”

The captain shook his head.  “Don’t be in such a hurry,” he said.  “It will not be an easy job to open that mound, and we shall need the help of the blackies, as you call them, if we do it at all.”

“Do it at all!” cried Ralph.  “I’ll never leave this place until I do it myself, if there is nobody else to help.”

Miss Markham sat silent.  She was the only one of the company who had studied the history of South America, and she did not believe that the ancient inhabitants of that country buried their kings in stone tombs, or felt it necessary to preserve their remains in phenomenal secrecy and security.  She had read things, however, about the ancient peoples of this country which now made her eyes sparkle and her heart beat quickly.  But she did not say anything.  This was a case in which it would be better to wait to see what would happen.

“Captain!” cried Ralph, “let’s go to see the thing.  What is the use of waiting?  Edna and Mrs. Cliff won’t mind staying here while you take me to see it.  We can go in ten minutes.”

“No,” said Mrs. Cliff, “there may be no danger, but I am not going to be left here with the sun almost down, and you two out of sight and hearing.”