Their journey from the Land of Hez to their present position had been a perilous one, indeed.
But by perseverance and pluck they managed to elude the quicksands of the great swamp, and escape from being devoured by the ferocious alligators it contained.
Two weeks more and they reached the home of Leo Malvern.
It is needless to state that the cousins were received with pleasure.
Their relatives had long given them up as dead, and hence their joy at meeting them alive and well.
The wonderful story of their adventures was taken as a joke at first, but when all hands stoutly adhered to it, the relatives of Dick and Leo were forced to believe it.
“There are a few questions I would like ter ask some of you fellows,” said Martin Haypole, a day or two after their arrival at Leo’s home. “First—who built the obelisk at the entrance of Hez? Second—was the legend of Hez true, and was Roderique de Amilo as old as he claimed? Third—was the pool and fountain in the dazzlingly lighted cavern really the Fountain of Youth Ponce de Leon was in search of? And, fourth—was it really the discharge of the cannon that caused the earthquake that wrought such a ruin upon the city of the Naztecs and the Land of Hez?”
As the Yankee asked these questions he knocked the ashes from his pipe and glanced around at his hearers.
“Your questions will never be answered in this world,” replied the professor, gravely. “We can form our own opinions—that is all.”
And so it is. We have stated the incidents of our story in a manner meant to be plain; now we will leave the reader to answer Martin Haypole’s questions.