"And you found all that, Harry! My boy, you were fortunate indeed."
"All that, Uncle!" I said with a smile. "That is not a hundredth part.
I am rich. I? No! We are rich; and now I want your advice. What are
we to do? for I've hidden my treasure again till I can fetch it away in
safety."
"You have done well, then," he said gravely. "But is not this some
delusion, my boy?"
"Are these delusive, Uncle?" I exclaimed, clinking together two of the
sonorous little bars. "Were those delusive which Garcia has carried
off? No, Uncle, I thought once it must be a dream; but it is a solid
reality. I have found the treasures of one of the temples of the Sun--
ingots, plates, sheets, cups, and two great shields besides, all of
solid metal."
"Harry," said my uncle, "it sounds like a wild invention from some
story-teller's pen, and I should laugh in your face but for the proofs
you have given me. But you must not stay here in this country. It is
as much yours as any lucky adventurer's, but your right would be
disputed in a hundred quarters; while, as for the Indians--"
"Disputed, Uncle?" I said interrupting him. "Disputed if it were
known. You know it."
"Does any one else?" said my uncle anxiously.
"Tom was with me. We found it together," I said, "and he helped me to
conceal it again. But I could trust him with my life. In fact, Uncle,"
I said laughing, "we owe one another half-a-dozen lives over our
discovery, for either I was saving his life or he was saving mine all
the time."
"But the Indians, Harry--the Indians! That is a sacred treasure--the
treasure devoted to their gods, hence its remaining so long untouched.
If they knew that you had taken it, no part of South America would hold
you free from their vengeance. They would have your life, sooner or
later."
"Pleasant place this, certainly, Uncle," I said laughing; "what with
Garcia and the Indians."
"I don't think it could become known from those ingots," said my uncle
musingly, "though Garcia will rack his brains to find out how you became
possessed of them. And yet I don't know; you see they have two or three
characters stamped on them that the Indians might know. But were you
seen?"
"Coming from the place, Uncle? Yes, I suppose I must have been watched
constantly. But all the same, I have the treasure hidden away; and as
to the risk from the Indians, I don't feel much alarmed; and you may
depend upon it that they are in the most profound--What's that?"
My uncle uttered an ejaculation at the same moment, for as I spoke,
rapid as the dart of a serpent, a dark shadowy arm was passed under the
blind close to the little table where we sat, and on looking there were
but fifteen of the little ingots left.
"Stop here! I'll go," I exclaimed.
In an instant I had torn aside the blind, pushed open the jalousie, and
leaped out into the outer sunshine, to stand in the glare, looking this
way and that way, but in vain: there were flowers, and trees, and the
bright glare, but not a soul in sight.
I stood for an instant to think; and then, feeling for my pistol to see
if it was there if wanted, I dashed across the plantation towards the
forest, peering in every direction, but without avail; and at last, more
troubled than I cared to own, I returned, dripping with perspiration, to
the hacienda, to meet Tom.
"Say, Mas'r Harry, what's the good o' running yourself all away, like so
much butter? 'Tain't good for the constitution."
"Have you seen any Indians lurking about to-day, Tom, anywhere near the
place?"
"Not half a one, Mas'r Harry, because why? I've been fast asleep ever
since I saw the Don off the premises."
"Keep a good look-out, Tom," I cried.
Then I hurried in to my uncle, who looked troubled.
"I don't like that, Harry," he said. "There were eavesdroppers close at
hand. I thought I would go too, but I saw nothing. Not a man had been
out of the yard. But there, take the gold up to your room and lock it
in the big chest; the key is in it. I put it here for safety till you
got back, and--confound!"
We gazed in blank astonishment, for as my uncle opened his secretary and
laid bare my leather case, which he had locked and strapped up, there it
was with the straps cut through, the lock cut out, and the fifteen
ingots gone!