“I piled up some dead cactus and built a bonfire. When it was burning good, I took a flaming stalk and pushed it off into the hole. Down, down, down it went until the flame went out—and I still watched until the embers sprinkled on the rocks below. Seemed the thing wouldn’t ever stop, but later it measured about thirty or forty feet from where I dropped the fire down to that faraway bottom. I kicked the remainder of the fire into the hole and watched it fall. The bats seemed to be scared, and for several minutes none flew out. Soon as the embers died, though, they boiled up again. I watched another hour or so, then went back to camp.” [Illustration: _750 Feet Underground, the Temple of the Sun in the Big Room_] The fence-building crew, camped in the vicinity at the time, heard not a word from their companion about his observation. JIM EXPLORES FARTHER Jim White kept his counsel, waited a couple of days for the opportunity, then gathered together several coils of rope, a kerosene lantern, some wire and a hand-axe. “I got back to the cave about mid-afternoon. You know the opening faces West, and the sun was in the right place to shine down into it. There was enough light so I could see the bottom of the shaft. Off to the right I could see the opening of a huge tunnel, and my imagination started running ahead of me. Where would that tunnel lead? I made up my mind to find out.” [Illustration: _Dazzling White Beauty in the King’s Palace_] Busy with the hand-axe, Jim cut sticks of wood from the shrubs nearby, accumulating a sizeable pile. Next, he picked up the rope and the wire ... and with his newly-cut sticks for steps, Jim White’s rope-ladder-to-adventure was soon lowered into the entrance of the cave. Cautious rung-by-rung descent led the probing cowboy down into blackness until his feet touched something solid. Lighting his lantern, he discovered himself on a narrow ledge—almost at the end of his rope, literally and figuratively! From that precarious spot, Jim could see into the tunnel—only a little farther and he could be on its smooth-looking floor level. Appetite whetted for exploration, the range-toughened man dared a “human-fly” approach, holding onto the rough wall for that final twenty feet or so to wide, level footing! Standing at the entrance to the tunnel, Jim peered ahead by light from his lantern ... a sickly glow against a blackness that seemed solid. Determined to see what was there, dark or no dark, the cowboy summoned his courage and started walking slowly forward. “The tunnel grew larger with every step. It seemed to me that I was wandering into the very core of the Guadalupe Mountains.