CHAPTER XXXII.

A VALUABLE FIND.

As Oliver stood thinking, a bright object lying upon the ground attracted his attention. He picked it up. It proved to be a silver match-box.

“Hello! here is something!” he said, and turned it over in his hands. Upon one side were the initials J. B.

“This must have belonged to James Barr also,” he went on. “I wonder if that skeleton――”

He did not finish. Gus shook his head.

“It looks that way,” he said. “Open the box and see if there is anything in it.”

Oliver did so, and brought forth several pages that had been torn from a diary.

“Here is something,” he said. “Hold the light so that I can see what it is.”

With trembling hands he unfolded the sheets and scanned them over. He had hardly read a dozen lines before he gave a loud cry.

“Oh, what shame, what baseness!” he cried. “This is the dying statement of James Barr, in which he says that Colonel Mendix has enticed him hither and made him a prisoner; that he is dying with a fever, caught some time before, and that the colonel wished to get him out of the way for fear he may expose the fact that the Cortez mine lies wholly within the Aurora mine limits; and that Colonel Mendix, _alias_ Guerotaz, is in reality a Spanish counterfeiter named Guito!”

Oliver was both pained and delighted over the discovery he had made,――pained that James Barr had come to so heartless a death, and delighted to know that he now had the means within his power to cause Colonel Mendix’s immediate arrest, providing, of course, he could gain his own liberty.

“What a rascal that Spaniard is!” he exclaimed. “Just think of his luring poor Barr to his death while the man was sick with the fever! I would like nothing better than to give the brute a sound thrashing, and he deserves a thousand!”

“Never fear but what the law will take care of him,” replied Gus. “They are not letting counterfeiters off so easily, to say nothing of Barr’s death, and this mine swindle.”

“If we were only out of this hole!”

“That’s just it. But gracious, I don’t know how to turn!”

“Let us go back to that watercourse,” suggested Oliver after a moment’s thought. “That must lead somewhere.”

“You are right. I never thought of that; but if there is escape that way, I wonder why Barr didn’t――”

“He was probably too sick with the fever,” said Oliver, partly to keep his own courage up. “Come on. _Nil desperandum!_”

In a few minutes they were back at the watercourse. Here they found a narrow passage, scarcely a foot in height, leading upwards.

“Shall we try it?” he asked.

“Certainly. Try anything.”

So Oliver crawled into the hole on his hands and knees, and Gus followed. They had not gone far before they found the rock giving way in many places to dirt.

“I take that for a good sign,” said Oliver. “I think we are near the top of the hill, but how far from the opening I cannot tell.”

For ten minutes more they continued on their painful journey. Then Oliver came to a halt.

“Nothing but rock ahead,” he said.

Both he and Gus were ready to cry with vexation. Had they taken all this trouble in vain?

“Are you sure?”

“That is all I can see. Wait till I dig over it where there is a bit of dirt.”

Oliver went to digging vigorously. But with his bare hands it was slow work, and he was about to give up in despair, when suddenly his hand struck an opening beyond.

“There is a passage!” he exclaimed. “Wait till I enlarge the opening.”

He worked away for fully quarter of an hour more. Then he squeezed his way through and helped the stout youth to do the same.

“This is better!” remarked Gus, when they found themselves in a much larger passage on the other side of the opening. “Now let us hurry; the stick shows signs of going out.”

There was no need of urging; Oliver was traveling at the height of his speed. Up and up they went, the passage growing wider as they advanced.

“Hold up,” cried Oliver, suddenly stopping short. Then he put the firebrand behind him and peered ahead. “Hurrah! I see the light of evening shining into the other end of this passage. We are out of it at last!”

And such proved to be a fact; for five minutes later they emerged, and found themselves at the very top of the mountain, at a spot where they could look down upon the mine buildings.

“Thank God we are out of that hole!” cried Oliver. “Oh, how good it seems to be in the open air once more!”

“Won’t that Spaniard be taken aback when he learns that we have escaped,” said Gus. “He was so positive he had outwitted you!”

“We must find our way back to camp at once. Mr. Whyland will be getting anxious concerning us.”

“You are right. Let’s see, I think the spot is in that direction.”

“So do I, just beyond the three tall trees.”

A minute later, after a whiff of fresh air, they struck out for the camp. They had hardly appeared in sight when Mr. Whyland came running out to meet them.

“You have been gone longer than I expected!” he exclaimed. “Where are your mules?”

“We have got a long story to tell,” said Oliver and Gus in a breath. And sitting down beside the sheltered fire Mr. Whyland had started, they related their adventures.

Of course the gentleman was much astonished.

“It sounds almost too strange to be true,” he said. “Let me see that statement that was left by James Barr. No doubt it will prove of the utmost importance to us.”

He took the leaves, and by the light of the blazing fire read them aloud. All hands listened with rapt attention.

They contained but little more than what Oliver had intimated, saving the telling of where much of the proof of Colonel Mendix’s villainy could be found,――in San Francisco, and in a number of places in Brazil.

“I guess we have _him_ in _our_ power now,” said Mr. Whyland when the reading was finished. “If only Cottle was here, we might go ahead.”

“I think we can afford to wait a day,” laughed Oliver, he felt so relieved to be safe in camp once more. “Colonel Mendix still thinks we are in the mine pit.”

“That is so. If he saw you now he would think you were a ghost.”

“I would like to play ghost on him and scare him into a fit,” said Gus. “He deserves it.”

“He will get more than a ghost scare when we get after him,” observed Oliver sternly. “He will find out that leaving us there to perish is no light offense.”

“I cannot understand how I was so blind to his real character when I went into the mine deal with him,” put in Mr. Whyland.

“That proves he is a born actor as well as rascal,” said Oliver.

“I can’t help but feel sorry for that James Barr,” observed Gus. “I suppose he trusted Mendix just as much as anybody did.”

“Undoubtedly,” rejoined Oliver. “If he had stood in with the Spaniard, it isn’t likely he would have been left to die in that horrible fashion.”

“I presume you two lads are pretty well fagged out,” said Mr. Whyland a few minutes later. “You had better turn in and try to get a good sleep.”

“Fagged out don’t express it,” yawned Gus. “I am half asleep all over, as the saying goes.”

“You’ll be stiff enough in the morning, I’ll warrant,” laughed the gentleman. “You are not accustomed to such climbing as you had to do in the mine.”

“No.” Gus shuddered. “My, but it was awful! I didn’t dare to think of not getting out for fear my hair would turn white!”

“I can realize now the horror of a cave-in in a coal-mine,” put in Oliver. “It’s one of the most dreadful things that can happen to any one.”

“You are right, my lad,” said Mr. Whyland. “But come, there is no use to dwell upon what you have gone through. Try to forget it, and give your mind and body a chance to recuperate.”

“Well, I’m going to try it, anyway,” grumbled Gus, as he prepared to retire. “If I get a nightmare, just poke me in the ribs somebody.”

“We will!” laughed Oliver.

“You see, I don’t want to go through it again, even in my sleep.”

After this there was quite a bit more of talking, and finally they retired, to rest, if not to sleep.

On the following morning as they were getting breakfast, they were surprised to see a horseman approaching from the direction of the mine.

“Who can it be?” questioned every one.

“Perhaps it’s the colonel,” said Oliver. “Suppose you hide, Mr. Whyland, and let only Gus and I meet him.”

“A good idea.”

The gentleman stepped behind some rocks. As he did so the horseman came nearer, and they saw that it was indeed Colonel Mendix.