The others insisted on returning to the coast without delay, and when we arrived there they gladly sold their shares in the ruby to me." There was rather a long silence when the explorer had finished his narration.

The long hand of the clock on the mantelpiece was creeping past the half-hour, but the circle round the dining-room table had been so enthralled by the story that nobody had noted the passage of time.
"What a ghastly adventure, Mr.Musard!" began one of the ladies, with a mirthless little laugh.

"Did you never discover anything more about the two dead men in the cave ?" "No," replied Musard.

"As I said, there were no papers or any clue to throw light on their identity.

The skeletons must have lain there for many years, for the bones were crumbling into decay." "You have never revisited the spot ?" asked Sir Philip.
"I was in the Ureweras two years later with a Maori guide, investigating copper deposits for the New Zealand Government, but I did not go back to the valley." "Would it not have been possible to give the poor things--the skeletons, I mean--Christian burial ?" Mrs.Spicer asked timidly.
"It was impossible to dig a grave in the solid rock.