Indeed, they could even afford to joke a little over the matter now.
'There is something in it, depend upon that,' said Dugald, as the two stood together looking into the hole.
'There doesn't seem to be,' said Archie, quizzingly.
'And I mean to probe it to the bottom.'
'Suppose you commence now, Dugald. Believe me, there is no time like the present. Here are the tools. They look quite antediluvian. Do you think now that it really was a flesh-and-blood Indian we saw here; or was it the ghost of some murdered priest? And has he been digging down here to excavate his own old bones, or have a peep to see that they are safe?'
'Archie,' said Dugald, at last, as if he had not listened to a word of his companion's previous remarks, 'Archie, we won't go shooting to-day.' 242
'No?'
'No, we will go home instead, and bring Moncrieff and my brothers here. I begin to think this is no grave after all.'
'Indeed, Dugald, and why?'
'Why, simply for this reason: Yambo has told me a wonderful blood-curdling story of two hermit priests who lived here, and who had found treasure among the hills, and were eventually murdered and buried in this very ruin. According to the tradition the slaughtering Indians were themselves afterwards killed, and since then strange appearances have taken place from time to time, and until we made a shooting-box of the ruin no Gauchos could be found bold enough to go inside it, nor would any Indian come within half a mile of the place. That they have got more courageous now we had ample evidence last night.'