I wouldn't be surprised if it took us
far back into the dim past of the barbaric splendour of the lost
Inca civilization of Peru."
He waved the sheet of paper for emphasis. "You see, some one has
used it here as a sign of terror. Perhaps somehow it bore the
secret of the big fish--who knows? None of the writers and
explorers have ever found it. The most they can say is that it may
be handed down from father to son through a long line. At any
rate, the secret of the hiding-place seems to have been safely
kept. No one has ever found the treasure. It would be strange,
wouldn't it, if it remained for some twentieth-century civilized
man to unearth the thing and start again the curse that historians
say was uttered and seems always to have followed the thing?"
"Kennedy, this affair is getting on my nerves already."
While Craig was speaking the door of the laboratory had opened
without our hearing it, and there stood Norton again. He had
waited until Craig had finished before he had spoken.
We looked at him, startled, ourselves.
"I had some work to do after I left you," went on Norton, without
stopping. "In my letter-box were several letters, but I forgot to
look at them until just now, when I was leaving.
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