"Oh, here's Peter," said Philip, looking up with a smile. "Come on, sluggard, and have something to eat. We are going to Cuavaca by train." "Train!" repeated the doctor, taking his seat. "What train?" "Jack's train, you idiot," said Tim, giving Peter a dig in the ribs. "Your wits are wandering!" "I think yours must be," retorted Peter, addressing the company collectively. "What is the meaning of this early rising?" "We are going to Cuavaca." "Never heard of it." "Then you hear of it now," said Jack, crossly; "how stupid you are, Peter. I will explain: we saw Pepe, the zambo, last night, and on condition that his life is spared, he has promised to guide us to the city of Totatzine by this second secret way." "Oh! and Cuavaca?" "Cuavaca is a town thirty miles inland. The railway line is laid down to that place, and twenty miles beyond. We are taking a thousand troops to Cuavaca, and intend to leave them there, while Pepe shows us the cañon road. Then we will lead them by that way to Totatzine, save Cocom, take Xuarez prisoner, and secure the opal." "But," said Peter, argumentatively, "is the end of your railway near this hidden city? or does a trackless forest lie between the terminus and the cañon road?" Jack made a diagram on the tablecloth with knives and plates. "Look, Peter! This is Tlatonac. This Cuavaca. We go to the latter place by rail. From Cuavaca the railway is constructed another twenty miles, and stops in the middle of a vast forest. Here, according to Pepe, is Totatzine, sunken out of sight in its hollow valley. Between the end of the railway and Totatzine is a distance of twenty miles, more or less----" "Of tangled forest and brushwood!" "Nothing of the sort. Don't I tell you Pepe has promised to show us the secret way--the other secret way? The entrance is from a ruined city, about a mile to the right of the railway works. We find out that city, take our men from Cuavaca to it, and thence march up the cañon road to Totatzine." "Dios! Don Juan!" exclaimed Rafael, who had been looking at Jack's table-map. "It seems to me that if the railway goes on it will pass by and reveal this hidden city." "Not it. Had there been a chance of its doing so, we would have had trouble with the Indians pulling up the rails. No, mi amigo. The line is surveyed a long distance further on. If it turned to the right, it might certainly hit Totatzine; but, as you see, it trends to the left, and if used for a century could never reveal the existence of the sacred city. Ixtlilxochitli saw that, and did not mind the railway passing, so to speak, by his door. The city is too well hidden by its encircling mountains and by the windings of the cañon to be discovered without special exploration." "But it seems to me awfully stupid that the priests should take so much trouble over the one secret way and never bother about the other." This observation of Philip's seemed to strike Jack, and he reflected a few moments before he replied.