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"An area now una Salada"

"How does this swamp fit into the picture?" asked Gunn

Pitt's face glowed like a corporate executive officer about to announce a fat dividend to his stockholders "The island where the Incas and the Chachapoyas buried Huascar's golden chain is no longer an island"

Then he sat down and sipped his brandy, allowing the revelation to penetrate and blossom

As if responding to a drill sergeant's cos Pitt hadthe ancient shoreline Shannon pointed to a sh rock outcropping halfway between the marsh and the foothills of the Las Tinajas Mountains

"What does the snake signify?"

"A kind of `X marks the spot,' " answered Pitt

Gunn closely exanated a s to the contour elevations, tops out at slightly less than five hundred meters"

"Or about sixteen hundred feet," Giordino tallied

"What is it called?" Loren wondered

"Cerro el Capirote," Pitt answered "Capirote in English means a tall, pointed ceremonial hat, or e used to call a dunce cap"

"So you think this high pinnacle in the ers asked Pitt

"If you study the maps closely, you'll find several other s from the desert floor beside the swaeneral description But I' my money on Cerro el Capirote"

"What brings you to such an unco decision?" Shannon queried

"I put myself in the Incas' shoes, or sandals as it were, and selected the best spot to hide as at the tireatest treasure If I were General Nay island at the upper end of a sea as far away from the hated Spanish conquerors as I could find Cerro el Capirote was about as far as he could go in the early fifteen hundreds, and its height "