-29-

brought out more treasure and buried it close to the shaft entrance to the underground city before we went back to the coast.  I persuaded some university officials and some experts from the Southwest Museum to come out here with me. We got up on the Panamints and I could not find the shaft. A cloudburst had changed all the country around the shaft.  We were out of luck again. The scientists became unreasonably angry with us. They've done everything they can to discredit us ever since."

   Jack watched Thomason and White across the rim of his coffee cup. Bill  said, “An now you can't get into your treasure tunnel.  It's lost again. That's sure too bad."

   Thomason and White smiled. "We can get in all right," said Thomason in a genial voice his cold eyes did not support.  Mrs. White smiled confidently and her husband bobbed his head. Thomason went on "You've forgotten about the old boat landings on the Death Valley side of the Panamint Mountains.  All we have to do is climb the mountain to the openings where the galleries come out of the city on to the old lake shore.  Do you know the mountains along the west side if Death Valley?"

   "I been down there" said Bill.

   Thomason turned to White: "How high do you think those galleries are above the bottom of Death Valley?

   White said, "Somewhere around forty-five hundred or five thousand feet. You looked out of them; what do you think?"

   "That's about right," agreed Thomason. "The openings are right across from Furnace Creek Ranch. We could see the green of the ranch right below us and Furnace Creek Wash across the valley. We'll find those windows in the mountains, all right."