"I do wish we could tell which of us he's talking to. His eyes are so crooked they overlap," whispered Enid to Bet. The Mexican did not want to make friends with the girls. He answered a few words to their questions then went moodily on with his work. But not for long. Without a master over him, the man grew lazy and before the morning was far advanced he had disappeared in the canyon.
"I thought he'd get tired of it," smiled Kit. "A Mexican miner has to have someone to keep him on the job. And I don't believe that Kie Wicks will spend much time over here."
Ramon was no sooner out of sight than the professor dropped the drill and they rushed for the wall to begin digging there. They had just started to work when Judge Breckenridge rode up.
"Let's have a look at that treasure tunnel, Professor," greeted the
Judge with a laugh. "How much bullion have you found?"
"Not any yet, but who knows?" returned the old man, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Stranger things have happened!" The Judge followed the girls and looked at the wall. "Well, well," he exclaimed, "this certainly looks interesting."
The professor had already begun to pick away the crumbling rock at the small opening, and found that they had hit upon the spot where the mouth of the tunnel had been filled up. After half an hour's work he had opened it sufficiently to look in. Using a flashlight, he could see that the tunnel was very shallow, another wall confronted him and this appeared to be the solid rock of the mountain.
He was about to give up when he noticed a peculiar stone on the floor of the tunnel, or what appeared to be a stone. With the pick he dragged it forward and was able to reach it. Drawing it forth, he stood before the Judge with glowing face.
"See this!" he exclaimed excitedly. "This comes up to any story of buried treasure that I've ever read in my life." He displayed his find, a tiny disc of copper and on it were engraved strange figures and signs. They had no meaning to the group of people that stood about the tunnel. But that little copper plate was telling a story, of that there could be no doubt.
"What do you think of it?" the professor gasped in a hoarse whisper. The old man was almost too excited to speak. He made several attempts then gave up, but he held the disc as if it were a jewel.