"Is there anything more?"

 

"No."

 

"You don't see an entrance down here?"

 

"No."

 

"All right! Then you may as well come up again. Can you climb up?"

 

"Easily."

 

"Well, hail me if you want me to haul."

 

Harry went back to the stump, unwound the rope until it was only half a

turn round it, and then, holding it firmly, stood ready to haul up.

 

 

 

 

CUSCO PERU XV

 

INVESTIGATIONS

 

 

Harry was relieved when, a few minutes later, Bertie's head appeared above

the edge, and directly afterwards he crawled over. "My arms have

strengthened ever so much with our work. I could have done it before, but

it would have been hard work."

 

"Well, so far so good, Bertie. There is no doubt that it is one of the

best hiding-places in the world, and I am not a bit surprised that the

Spaniards never found it. Now we will go back to the edge of the ravine

and have a good look from that side."

 

As they went along he said, "Let us have a look at these bushes, Bertie.

The soil is very thin about here, and I wonder that the trees grew."

 

"These are pines," Bertie said, "and in the mountains we often saw pines

growing among rocks where there did not seem a handful of soil for them."

 

On examining they found several old stumps, and thrusting a ramrod down

Harry found, to his surprise, that the soil was from three to four feet

deep. He tried again a little farther off, and found that it was two feet;

further still, it was only one.

 

"The tree must have stood in a hole in the rock," he said. "Try another

one, Bertie." The same results were obtained. "That explains it, Bert.

Evidently when they planted the trees to prevent this place from being

seen from the hills, they cut away the rock in circles about twelve feet

across and made cup-shaped holes, which they filled up with earth. When

they planted the young trees I dare say at first they watered them. They