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He took the torch from her and minutely examined the leaden casket

It stood on the concrete floor, h by five long and four wide So far as he could see, there were neither locks nor hinges The cover seemed to have been hermetically sealed on Still visible were the ed line, about three inches froet in here is to cut it open," said Allan at last "If we had anythe solder, that would be better, of course, but there's no way to heat a tool in this crypt I take it the asoline torch, or so As for building a fire in here and heating one of the aeroplane tools, that's out of the question It would stifle us both No, we -knife fro the torch back to Beatrice, knelt by the chest Close under the line of soldering he dug the blade into the soft h the leaden sheet

"Only a quarter of an inch thick," he announced, with satisfaction "This oughtn't to be such a bad job!"

Already he was at work, with infinite care not to shock or jar the precious contents within In his powerful hands the knife laid back the ed line A quarter of an hour sufficed to cut across the entire front

He rested a little while

"Seeirl "Not decayed, either I shouldn't wonder if the lead had preserved things absolutely intact In that case this find is sure to be a rich one"

Again he set to work In an hour froun, the whole top of the lead box--save only that portion against the wall--had been cut off

"Do you dare to irl anxiously

"Better not I think we can raise the cover as it is"

He slit up the front corners, and then with comparative ease bent the entire top upward To the explorer's eyes stood revealed a chest of cedar, its cover held with copper screws

"Now for it!" said the ht to have one of the screw-drivers frouess the knife will do"

With the blade he attacked the screws, one by one, and by dint of laborious patience in about an hour had removed all twenty of them