From out the gloom, in the direction in which the strange being had disappeared, there came a clear, shrill whistle, long-drawn and quavering. Eagerly the gold-hunters watched and listened. "Look there--see that light!" uttered Duplin, after a brief silence. "What can it mean--up there, too?" A small but brilliant point of light had suddenly appeared, as though hanging nearly midway up the cliff, not steady and fixed, but slightly wavering, or moving slowly from side to side. Evidently, it was suspended there by some human agency; but who? "Is there not a human form close beside the light? It seems so to me," whispered Wythe. "Wait. The light is in answer to that whistle. Perhaps Paul's Devil has his home up there, and that is one of its imps," half-laughed Duplin. Still closely watching, the three friends a few moments later saw a tall form uprise beside the light, that, the next instant, vanished from sight. But not before another discovery was made. A human being _had_ been holding the light, and as the wild-man took it, the upper portion of the second person had been distinctly, though momentarily revealed. Duplin was the first to speak, after the disappearance. "Did you see that, boys?" "I saw something--a shadow, or--" "I saw the form of a _woman_!" declared Burr, in a peculiar tone of voice. "So I thought, but was not sure. I don't know what to think of it. There's some deep mystery here," added Paley, reflectively. "I move we expose it, then," impulsively cried Jack. "Who knows--maybe 'tis a princess in disguise--or else carried off and kept in seclusion by some evil genie! An adventure--le's go!" "Easy, rattlepate," laughed Duplin. "You forget what frightful tales Paul told of this creature, and whether they have any foundation in truth or not, if we attempt to solve this affair, we must use caution. If nothing more, he is a madman, and were he to discover our approach, he might do us mischief. One man then--for they must have a cave, or something of the sort--one man then could keep a thousand at bay who tried to reach him by scaling the cliff." "Is it worth the risk?" thoughtfully uttered Wythe. "She answered his signal so promptly, there can be little doubt but she is there by her own free will. Then what right have _we_ to molest them?" "The right of unsatisfied curiosity--and whether you go or not, I'll not rest until I've had a good peep at the angel--for such she must be if _he's_ a devil," cried Tyrrel, springing through the bushes as he spoke. "Wait, Jack--you'll ruin all by your haste. We'll go--but you must not lead the way. You'll be sure to alarm them." "Very well--all I want is to get a good look at them. Lead the way, if you'd rather."