"It is substantially a repetition of what you told us," said Elwood, "save that we managed a little better in the morning than you did. That is to say, we did not go the wrong way into the wood, as I suppose you did; and thus, at sunrise, sure enough, we saw the wonderful city, which Monella avers can be no other than Manoa--or, as the Spaniards called it, El Dorado! We saw its palaces, and towers, and spires, glistening and glittering in the sun--a marvellous sight! So, Jack, old boy, you can be at ease; you are not yet 'a dreamer of dreams.'" "But your intelligence, all the same, makes me feel quite dazed," answered Jack. "Are you _really_ sure about it? Are you certain--do you feel confident that--er--well, that it won't all have melted into thin air by the time we get up there?" "Scarcely. It is too substantial for that." "Then it means this--that the mountain _is_ inhabited after all," said the puzzled Jack. "If so, what sort of a reception are they likely to give us?" "Well, that of course remains to be seen. But, meantime, it is certain that all your clever theories about the place 'not having been peopled for hundreds of years' are fallacious." Jack presently asked Monella what he purposed doing next. "We must put away our stores," was the reply, "and then arrange our plans for making our presence known to the inhabitants, whoever they may be, of the mountain." "Yes, and then, if they speak the same language that you have been teaching me," Leonard put in, "Jack will have reason to be sorry he has not stuck to it a little more, I fancy." Of late, Jack had practically dropped all efforts in this direction, particularly during the last fortnight; while Elwood had neglected no opportunity for using it in his converse with Monella. Elwood had, in consequence, got so far as to be able to speak it fairly well; but Jack was much behind him. "By Jupiter! But I begin to think there is wisdom in what you say," was Jack's response. "I must do my best to make up for lost time." The night passed without incident. The Indians stayed on through the following day, and Matava even yielded so far as to enter the dreaded cavern, and take a look into the canyon. Elwood managed to persuade him to do thus much, that he might take back to his friends at Georgetown a description of the scene. Matava was rather afraid of the puma, but the animal was quite friendly. The Indian evidently believed that Elwood and his friends were going to their destruction, and would never again be seen by mortal eyes. However, at Monella's suggestion, he made for them during the day a more substantial ladder, which the nails and tools brought with the stores enabled him easily to do. He also made some poles or struts to form bars to close the stone from within, and, with much perseverance, cut slots in the rock and in the stone to receive them. When completed, and the struts put in their places, the stone was firmly fixed and could not be moved from the outside.