The horizontal displacement was not more than six feet, and it was through this that the tunnel ran.
The walls of the passage were smooth, and the floor was like polished glass, a fact which the boy was at first at a loss to account for.

On the north side the wall was dark and there were no traces of gold, while that on the south showed spots of precious metal.
Nestor proceeded down the incline until there was little more rope left, as the boys called out from above, and then came to an opening.
He was now nearly 400 feet from the gold chamber.

When he looked out of the round opening to which he had come he saw that beyond ran a deep gully, or canyon.

At the point where the opening cut the wall of the canyon, however, there was a gradual descent for perhaps 400 feet to the bottom of the break in the mountain.
Elsewhere the walls of the canyon seemed to stand perpendicular, and Nestor was for a moment puzzled to account for the filling of the break at that particular spot, as if a rude stairway had been laid to the ground below.

Then the truth flashed upon him.