"I hev, cap'n. There's jest a chance that I know whar them craped gentlemen air at this very minute--jest a chance of thar bein' thar." The last words were spoken slowly, and in a sort of meditative soliloquy. "Where? Of what place are you speaking?" "A queery place; and ye wouldn't know whar it is if I war to tell ye. To understan the lie o' that shanty, ye'd hev to see it for yourself; which not many ever do, ceptin' them as have got bizness thar--an' they ain't sech as air honest." "A shanty--there's a house? Some solitary dwelling, I suppose?" "Ye may well call it that, cap'n. It sartinly are the most solitariest dwellin' I ever seed; an' what any man ked iver a built it for, beats my recknin'--as I b'lieve it do that o' most others as hev specklated upon it. Lies up thar." I looked in the direction indicated by his gesture. Several dark lists seamed the side of the mountain--at the foot of which we had come to a halt. One of them looked deeper and more cavernous than the rest; though all seemed to trend towards the summit of the slope. The mountain itself went up with a gradual acclivity; its sides forest-covered--except here and there, where the naked porphyry peeped out through the dark green drapery of the pines. Though the sky was moonless, there were stars. By their light I could distinguish something white above and beyond the pine-covered track. It looked like a patch of fleecy cloud. "That ere's the buzzum o' the White Woman," remarked the guide, seeing what my eyes were fixed upon. "She lies jest beyont the big black mountain. There's only a sort o' a ridge atween 'em." "_Ixticihuatl_!" I said, now recognising the snowy summit. "You don't mean that the robbers are gone up there?" "Not so fur as that. If they war, we _shed_ have a climb for it. The place I'm speakin' o' is in that dark gulley ye see straight afore you. It's this side the lower end o' it whar I'm to meet thar messenger, and deliver up the dollars. That's jest why I think we might find them at the shanty I've told ye about." "There can be no harm in our going there?" "I reckon not," answered the guide, reflectingly. "If we don't find 'em thar, we kin get back to the bottom afore daylight, an' then carry out the other plan. Thar's one thing we've got to do, afore we reach that ere shanty. We've got to hev a climb for it; and the last quarter o' a mile 'll hev to be made upon Shanks's mare." "No matter for that," I said, impatient to proceed. "You lead the way. I'll answer for myself and men being able to follow you." "I ain't afeerd beout that," rejoined Don Samuel Bruno. "But mind, cap'n!" added he, in the exercise of his Yankee caution, "I haint said we'll find them thar--only thet it air likely. All events it air worth while tryin'--considerin' sech a sweet gurl as she air in the hands o' sech ruffins. She oughter be tuk from 'em anyhow--an' at any price!"