“What is written on this stone?” he asked Ned. The young engineer bent over the stone, lighted a match and read the inscription.
“I can’t make it all out,” he replied, as the match expired in his hand. “But it seems to be the burial place of someone of importance. They had a custom once of taking a distinguished man and piling a cairn of stones over his grave. Sometimes the custom was for anyone who came past to add a stone to the pile and in that way it grew larger. This is one of those piles, and someone is buried down at the bottom of it.”
“All of which doesn’t bring us any nearer Mr. Sackett,” murmured Jim. “I’d give anything to know where that gentleman went to!”
“It just seems silly!” said Ned, impatiently. “You chase him in here and he simply disappears. That isn’t logical.”
“Look here!” cried Don, who had been moving around the pile of stones, and who was now on the other side. “Shouldn’t all of these stones be covered with moss?”
“I suppose so,” Ned replied. “Why.”
“Because they aren’t covered with moss on this side. The stones here are different than the others, and seem to be looser. Come here and give me a hand.”
The other two boys hastened to Don’s side and found that he was right. The stones to which he pointed had a brighter look than the others, and where the chinks and crevices of the other rocks had long since been stopped up by moss, these rocks were singularly free. Moreover, they were not well placed, and the boys were struck by the same idea.
“Ah, ha!” exclaimed Ned, as he began to tear away the upper stones. “I think I see a thing or two! Help me with these stones.”
The other two went to work with a will and soon the stones were pulled out and tossed to one side. To their intense satisfaction a large opening was revealed.