This cave has been visited before, especially by Antenat, the half-Creole, for on springing from his horse, he ran to a niche in the wall, and took therefrom a little package which, in the light of the fire kindled by his companions, he unwrapped with a curious smile on his dark face. “_Parbleu!_ it is here yet,” he exclaimed, as the contents of the packet were exposed to view. “See, messieurs, what a pretty ring; where is the _petite_ mademoiselle on whose finger it used to shine?” Lilly and Moravy looked at the bauble, beyond all doubt a child’s ring, and then turned their questioning eyes upon the exhibitor. “Where did you get it, Antenat?” they both asked, in one breath. “One day I was sitting on my horse, under the ‘Devil’s Wing,’ when all at once something came down, from the sky, mebbe, and hit me plump on the hand. _Sacre bleu!_ how I started and looked up. I put my hand on my pistol but there was nothing over me but the sharp, black rock and the sky, blue as my mistress’s eyes. Then I looked at the ground, and there lay something that glittered. Down from the saddle went Louis Antenat, and he held in his hand this, _ma chere_ comrades,” and the old fellow held the little ring between thumb and forefinger, before his companion’s eyes. “A curious find,” said Moravy. “And you hid it here?” “Yes.” “Well, it’s a pretty thing. Look here, Lilly; there’s a little diamond set on it, and here are letters on the inner surface.” “Letters?” echoed Antenat, starting. But Moravy bent forward into the stronger firelight, and tried to make out the word engraved on the tiny ring. “As near as I can make out,” he said, as he looked, “the word, ‘Jennie.’ But this is the queerest place for a baby ring with a child’s name on it. Just think of angels in Cut-throat, boys.” Lilly burst into a loud guffaw at his comrade’s attempt at wit; but the lines of thought deepened on Antenat’s face, and taking the ring, he looked at it steadily a long time. “_Parbleu!_ it shall not hide here any more,” he said, suddenly. “When I found it I said I would put it away where nobody would find it, for there are fellows who would sell it for a drink of whisky. Antenat will carry it with him, hereafter. Ah! _ma petite_ Jennie, some day old Louis may have the pleasure of restoring your ring.” The two men did not hear the last sentence, for Lilly had leaped up, and darted toward the mouth of the cave. His figure was unseen for a moment, and then it sprung back into the firelight, and beckoned the others to his side. “There! a ghost with a rope around his neck!” said Lilly. “If we had finished Tom Terror that day I could call the speerit by name, but Tom got off alive, and report says that he’s hyar now, and in the flesh. When I got hyar a minute ago I heerd something come staggering down the canyon, and all at once that thing came in sight, and stopped whar it’s been standing ever since.”