CHAPTER VII.
RODERICK DISCOVERS THE BUCKSKIN BAG For one long breath Rod and Wabi stared at their companion, only half believing, yet startled by the strange look in the old warrior's face.
"Twent' t'ousand dead men!" he repeated.

As he raised his hand, partly to give emphasis and partly to brush the cobwebs from his face, the boys saw it trembling in a way that even Wabi had never witnessed before.
"Ugh!" In another instant Wabi was at the window, head and shoulders in, as Mukoki had been before him.

After a little he pulled himself back and as he glanced at Rod he laughed in an odd thrilling way, as though he had been startled, but not so much so as Mukoki, who had prepared him for the sight which had struck his own vision with the unexpectedness of a shot in the back.
"Take a look, Rod!" With his breath coming in little uneasy jerks Rod approached the black aperture.

A queer sensation seized upon him--a palpitation, not of fear, but of something; a very unpleasant feeling that seemed to choke his breath, and made him wish that he had not been asked to peer into that mysterious darkness.

Slowly he thrust his head through the hole.