But he was not disposed to yield to such a fate without a struggle.
So he made a brave and a resolute fight, as the reader has seen.
But the villain triumphed, and we now see Royal Harding clinging vainly to the face of the precipice, with death in its most awful form yawning below him.
It did not seem as if any human power could save him.
Lester Vane was making his way with all haste to Quito.
He would charter a vessel, have the treasure transported to the coast, and sail away to the United States.
As Harding thought of all this he groaned with awful horror and despair.
“Oh,” he moaned; “is this to be my unkind fate? Will nothing save me?”
Then he thought of Mabel Dane; and his eyes flashed.
“And he thinks he can win her heart!” he muttered, “but he will learn better when he meets her. Mabel is too sweet and true to ever play me false!”