It was during one of these rests that Pelton noticed crystals of a
bluish, semi-opaque mineral clinging to the rocks about him. These
crystals appeared to become more and more plentiful as they neared the
summit of the volcano. Pelton knew something of mineralogy, but never
in his considerable experience had he encountered such a substance.
Curious to know its nature, he thrust several pieces into his pack;
hoping that some day, if luck was with him, he might analyze them.
Just as the two Americans were starting on the last hundred feet of
climbing that lay between them and their goal a large cloud came over
the declining sun and an ominous gloom settled over the world.
And now the youths peered eagerly over the rim of the crater into "The
Devil's Nest." Five minutes later they had descended fifty feet to its
floor.
They found themselves in a small, circular valley about a thousand
feet across. Everywhere, topping the walls of multi-colored stone that
surrounded it, were pinnacles of the strange blue mineral, pointing
toward the sky like the thin minarets of a city of goblins. On the
summit of the rocky barrier at the western side of the crater was a
huge mass of the crystal that gleamed darkly under the shadow of the
obscuring cloud which hung persistently before the sun.
"This place has more weird beauty than 'The Island of Death'," said
Calhoun. "It would make a fine painting. Somehow, there's something
about it that gives me a creepy feeling."
There were a few patches of hardy grass and several bushes scattered
here and there over the floor of the crater. Suddenly Pelton's
searching eyes fell upon a circular spot of bleached earth, not more
than ten feet across, lying thirty paces away at the center of the
valley. For a moment he scrutinized it intently and then he grasped his
companion violently by the arm. "Look, George!" he cried.
A moment later the two youths were bending over a pair of human
skeletons whitened by years of exposure. With them there lay several
coins, two tarnished brass buckles and the rusted remnants of a few
metal buttons. The owners of those bones had obviously been dead for a
very long time.
"These are evidently the men that Diaz spoke of," said Pelton, "but
what in the name of Heaven could have killed them, George?" There was a
look almost expressive of fear in his face.
"Volcanic gases, probably," essayed Calhoun.
"Impossible, man!" returned Pelton; "This volcano has certainly been
extinct for ages."
Calhoun knelt down beside the skeletons and began to examine them.
"Let's see if there are any marks of violence, fractured skulls, broken
ribs, or anything," he said.
Pelton stepped back from the ghastly patch of earth. Never afterward
was he able to tell exactly why.
And then a miracle happened--a miracle and a tragedy. The setting sun
at last escaped from the cloud that covered it and its ruddy rays,
coming over the summit of a nearby Andean peak, fell upon the mass of
crystal at the western edge of the valley. A beam of bluish light,
like the reflection from the glossy scales of a black serpent and
more evilly gorgeous than the slumbering fires of a thousand opals,
leaped from it. The ray struck Calhoun squarely. He staggered to his
feet, uttered a choking cry, and crumpled lifeless to the earth! A few
moments later the sun dropped behind the mountains and "The Devil's
Nest" was again in shadow.