"I think I can best answer your question," was the reply, "by reading you a translation of a paper which is said to have been found in the shaft above, where the bandits have made their rendezvous. How it came into my possession, matters not. I believe there are now enough of us here to prove or disprove its truthfulness, unless some one has been here before us." Seating himself on a jutting boulder, Strong took from his pocket a paper, which he read as follows under the flickering torchlight: "Being about to leave this world, I desire to obtain forgiveness for the great and only crime of my life, hence this confession. "There were five of us. Names do not matter. They were my fellow workmen. We had been entrusted with the output of the Rosario for the year and had promised to guard it with our lives. We heard the soldiers of Maximilian coming. We were not enough to withstand them. We determined to hide the treasure in the western shaft. We carried it to the edge and threw it in. My four companions went down to cover it over with dirt, which I brought from the other shaft and gave them, shovel by shovel. A mad idea seized me. If they were dead, no one but I would know the hiding place of the treasure. I would kill them; but how? I glanced about. Great pieces of rock were on every hand. Without stopping to consider the foulness of the deed I rolled a huge piece to the mouth of the shaft and pushed it in. There was a cry of terror and I heard a voice call out to know what had happened. I said a piece of rock had broken loose and asked what damage it had done. Only one replied. The others had been stricken down. Madly I pushed over another rock and then another and still another. Then there was silence and I fled. The soldiers found me unconscious at the bottom of the shaft. Ere I became conscious, Maximilian was no more. When I returned hither, the mine had been abandoned. Here I have lived for years alone with my misery. Now I die. May God forgive me. JOSE RODRIGUEZ. CHAPTER VI. A FEARFUL EXPERIENCE. "Well?" queried Donald when Strong had finished reading the paper, "what are we going to do about it?" "We are going to find out, if we can, whether Jose Rodriguez told the truth, and if he did, whether any one else has tried to prove it." "What do you think of it, Pedro?" asked Billie, indicating the opening at their feet. "Exactly." "Have you ever been down in it?" asked Adrian of Strong. "No! I did not feel equal to the task and I was afraid to ask help of any of these cutthroats." "What do you think of it, Pedro?" asked Billie, turning to the Mexican lad, who had made no comment whatever. "It's an old tale," was the reply, "this story of the Rosario viejo. I have heard it many times and I presume this shaft has been explored by every prospector in this section. In my opinion it is a huge hoax."