“You kin s’arch me. Maybe thar’s gold an’ all sorts of plunder.”
“But how could the robbers have placed it there?”
“Easy ernuff.” He gave the body a jerk, and the opening was fully disclosed.
“Why, it’s a large hole,” exclaimed Buffalo Bill, in surprise. “I could go through it easily.”
Bart Angell chuckled. “Of course, Cody, of course. An’ ye’ll have ter go through thar, fer it’s ther only way outer this chamber.” As the expression of surprise still lingered on the face of Buffalo Bill, Angell quickly proceeded: “Manuel Larios war as broad as he war long. Ye wouldn’t think it, lookin’ at him now. I reckon every member of the gang, ’cept him, could get through ther hole, an’ I reckon also that he’d never tried ter crawl in ef he hadn’t been skeered plumb ter death by whoever war pursuin’ him.”
“I don’t believe the pursuer caught up with him,” was Buffalo Bill’s comment.
“Nor I. Bekase why? Ef he had, he’d shore hev explored ther territory on t’other side of the hole. Gimme ther torch, an’ I’ll try ther route.”
“Excuse me,” returned the king of scouts quietly, “but I’ll have to disoblige you.”
So saying, he flattened his body on the hard ground, and, inserting his head in the hole, began to crawl through it. He was at the other end, when an exclamation of surprise escaped him. He was under an overhanging wall, and the light of the torch permitted him to see all about him. Below was what seemed to be a bottomless pit, but his eyes were fixed not on the pit, but upon a large recess in the wall upon one side of him. This recess extended about six feet inward, and was about as wide as it was long. The whole surface was covered with lime coating, and the floor was strewn thickly with human bones. The hand of the scout could have touched some of these bones, and a close inspection induced the belief that they had lain untouched for ages.
Bart Angell was by Buffalo Bill’s side as the latter said: “We’ve struck an Indian sepulcher. But how in the name of the saints did the Indian bearers get the bodies up here?”