“For Heaven’s sake!” said a voice at his elbow. ‪“Is it possible there is a person in this place who can speak English too?” Barney turned like a flash. “Tare an’ ’ounds!” he gasped. ‪“Who the divil are yez?” ‪“On the other hand, let me ask the same question.” Barney was facing a young man, tall, straight and handsome. He was dressed in the garb of a native hunter, and carried a rifle. A moment previous he had crept out of a niche in the wall just to Barney’s right. The two white men stood gazing at each other in amazement. ‪“Well, I niver!” gasped Barney. ‪“Yez are not one of these haythins that own this place, are yez?” ‪“No. Are you?” ‪“Divil a bit.” ‪“Who are you?” “Me name is Barney O’Shea, and I’m a respictable Irish gintleman.” ‪“Good! Give me your hand. I am an American, and the Irishman has no better friend.” ‪“Yez talk like a man, yez do,” cried Barney. “I’m delighted to meet yez. But howiver did yez come here?” ‪“Well,” replied the young man, “I was fool enough to step upon a revolving dais in the temple above, and——” ‪“Bejabers. I came here that same way mesilf,” cried Barney. ‪“So? Well, we are in for it.” ‪“Yez are roight.” ‪“But what may I ask has brought you into this part of Yucatan?” “Shure, I come here wid the Steam Man, an’ Misther Frank Reade, Jr., the worruld-famous invintor.” A gurgling cry escaped the other’s lips. ‪“Frank Reade, Jr.?” he gasped. ‪“Do you mean to say that he is near here?” ‪“Well, I lift him when I fell down into this place.” ‪“The deuce!” exclaimed the young man, excitedly. ‪“Why, Frank Reade, Jr., is an old friend of mine. I must see him. Look here, what brought him here?” “Shure, he’s lookin’ for a young man named Tony Buckden who got lost down in this haythin region.” “Well, is this not luck? Look here, man, I am Tony Buckden——” Barney threw up his arms. ‪“The divil yez say?” he exploded, in a hoarse whisper. “Shure, I’d ought to have guessed that, an’ Mr. Frank will be deloighted to see yez.” ‪“And I shall be delighted to see him!” cried the millionaire’s son, for such he was. ‪“So he answered my letter in person?” ‪“Yis.” ‪“And he has the Steam Man here?” ‪“Shure enough.” ‪“Then the success of my plans are assured!” exclaimed Tony, jubilantly. ‪“That is, if we succeed in escaping from here.” ‪“Shure we must do that,” declared Barney, confidently. At this moment there arose a great commotion among the pigmy people. Excited cries arose, and as with one accord they rushed from the place. In less than no time the place was cleared. Tony Buckden and Barney were not a little surprised. ‪“I wonder what that means?” exclaimed the New Yorker. “Bejabers, there’s no tellin’ but that they’ve heard of the Steam Man and that’s phwat has drawn thim away.” “By Jove, I don’t know but that you are right, Barney,” declared Buckden. ‪“At any rate, it looks to me like a very good opportunity to escape.” “Shure, it’s a foine chance.”