“Well, they _are_ pretty noisy over there in the village, for a fact,” admitted Billie, as he caught the sound of wild shouts, and a sort of native song that many voices chanted in unison; “but once let me snuggle down, with my head under my good old blanket, and nothing like that will keep me awake.” “From what I’ve seen of some of your performances,” admitted Adrian, “I reckon you’re right, Billie. But Donald has agreed that we pull up stakes here tomorrow some time, and make a start for home.” “Is that so, Donald?” demanded the fat chum. “Yes, by afternoon we might pull out, though we’ll not get very far by night-time, it may be,” came the answer. Perhaps Billie caught a certain significance about it, for he instantly went on to remark: “Huh! guess you mean to have a look-in at that Sacred Mountain racket, and find out what the old medicine man keeps hidden there?” The others exchanged glances. “Talk a little lower when you’re saying things like that, Billie,” cautioned Donald. “I hope you don’t think there’s a spy ahanging around camp right now, one of those Zuni braves, awanting to hear what we might be saying after our supper?” Billie asked, anxiously, as he sat up, to stare around at the rocks seen beyond the circle of firelight. “No, but sometimes they tell us the walls have ears, and nobody can tell who might catch what we happened to be saying,” Adrian observed. “But answering your question, I’ll just remark that we do mean to make a try to find out about the strange noises they say come out of that mountain at times, when the Witch Doctor is talking with the Great Spirit.” “Yes,” added Donald, “it’s none of our business, that’s right, and perhaps we hadn’t ought to poke in there; but we’ve heard so much that we just feel we can’t go away from here without one good try to solve the mystery.” “But remember, Billie, we haven’t got the same motive that Braddon had,” Adrian hastened to remark, seeing the other smile faintly. “Not much,” added Donald; “if there’s a treasure cave in there it belongs to the Zunis, and we’ll never tell anybody what we’ve discovered.” “Because,” Adrian continued, “that would start a rush of crazy prospectors and miners over this way, and you never could tell what the end would be; all sorts of fights, and in some way or other the Zunis would be turned out of the homes their people have occupied for hundreds and hundreds of years.” “And we couldn’t stand for that, you know, Billie,” said Donald. “Huh! I should say not,” agreed the other. Adrian changed the subject abruptly, showing that whatever he and Donald had settled upon as a part of their future programme, he did not think it wise to continue the discussion of it under the existing conditions. The night wore on.