Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/221

Rh drop yer,' he jeered. "Jest so long as you pl'y straight, my bucko, we'll do the syme."

Healy said nothing and they rigged the rope as Larkin had suggested, after Stone and he had reached the final ledge. Healy came up slowly and carefully but they managed it successfully and then let down the line for the bundles and for Harvey, who ascended handily. Stone hauled in the rope at the last and coiled it to take with them.

Then he led the way to the back of the horseshoe.

"Now whereas your door?" asked Larkin. "Or do I push a bell?"

"You're not so far wrong," answered Stone. He scanned closely the face of the rock on which the rays of the full moon beat powerfully.

"Ah!" he ejaculated at last with an emotion that showed the stress he was under. "Here it is." He traced with his fingers a crude but effectively designed symbol chiselled deeply in the cliff. The edges were weatherworn, some of it was badly flaked, but they made out clearly enough the shape of a bird that might have been meant for either crow or eagle, big-taloned, with a great beak. Between beak and claws it held an object that looked not unlike a bone, a shaft ending in a ring at the lower end with the top flattened out into the shape of a spade. It was probably intended for a rattlesnake, with the ring to represent the rattles.

Stone pushed heavily on the boss within the circle without result.

"Nobody 'ome!" nervously jested Larkin.