Giving the rope a vigorous shake, as had been agreed upon, he saw another figure begin to descend, and in a short time Pedro stood beside him. Strong was next to descend, then came Ambrosio, and after him Adrian and Donald in the order named—Donald having determined to be the last, that he might be sure that everything was safe above ground.
"I should have given you this," was Strong's first remark upon alighting at Billie's side, and he drew from his pocket an electric torch. "But it slipped my mind."
"We all have them in our trunk in the City of Mexico," replied Billie, "but I doubt if either of us has one with him."
"This is sufficient, for I shall light some torches I have prepared as soon as we are ready for our work."
When Donald had descended, Strong led the way through a lateral about thirty or forty feet, at the end of which another vertical shaft had been sunk. Around the mouth of this Strong had set a number of torches, which he now proceeded to light. By their glare it was possible to see part way down the hole.
"The thing I hope to find," explained Strong, "is at the bottom of that hole, if it exists at all."
"What is that?" asked Billie.
"I think I can best answer your question," was the reply, "by reading you a translation of a paper which is said to have been found in the shaft above, where the bandits have made their rendezvous. How it came into my possession, matters not. I believe there are now enough of us here to prove or disprove its truthfulness, unless some one has been here before us."
Seating himself on a jutting boulder, Strong took from his pocket a paper, which he read as follows under the flickering torchlight:
"Being about to leave this world, I desire to obtain forgiveness for the great and only crime of my life, hence this confession.