Many people have tried
to open it, but the mass of sand pours down on them and they have
been discouraged."
"No one has ever stumbled on the secret?" queried Kennedy.
She shook her head. "There have been those who have sought, there
are even those who are seeking, the point just where to bore into
the mounds. If they could find it, they plan to construct a well-
timbered tunnel to keep back the sand and to drive it at the right
point to obtain this fabulous wealth."
She vouchsafed the last information with a sort of quiet assurance
that conveyed the idea, without her saying it directly, that any
such venture was somehow doomed to failure, that desecrators were
merely toying with fate.
All through her story one could see that she felt deeply the
downfall and betrayal of her brother, followed by the tragedy to
him after the age-old secret had slipped from his grasp. Was there
still to be vengeance for his downfall? Surely, I thought to
myself, Don Luis de Mendoza could not have been in possession of
the secret, unless he had arrived at it, with Lockwood, in some
other way than by deciphering the almost illegible marks of the
dagger. I thought of Whitney. Had he perhaps had something to do
with the nasty business?
I happened to glance at a huge pile of works on mining engineering
on the table, the property of Alfonso.
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