"Bless my chimney!" cried Mr. Damon. "That's some sort of a building."
"The ruined temple," said Tom softly. "We've found it at last," and he headed the balloon for it and put on full speed.
Chapter XVIII Finding The Tunnel
In silence, broken only by the noise of the motor, did the gold-seekers approach the temple. As they neared it they could see its vast proportions, and they noted that it was made of some white stone, something like marble. Then, too, as they drew closer, they could see the desolate ruin into which it had fallen.
"Looks as if a dynamite explosion had knocked it all apart," observed Ned.
"It certainly does," agreed Mr. Damon.
"Maybe Cortez, or some of those early explorers, blew it up with gunpowder after fighting the Aztecs, or whatever the natives were called in those days," suggested Tom.
"Bless my bookcase! You don't mean to say you think this temple goes back to those early days," spoke Mr. Damon.
"Yes, and probably farther," declared Tom. "It must be very ancient, and the whole country about here is desolate. Why, the way the woods have grown up everywhere but on this plain shows that it must be three or four hundred years ago. There must have been a city around the temple, probably Poltec, and yet there isn't a trace of it that we have seen as we came along. Oh, yes, this is very ancient."