“Creepy, then.” He bent and began to lift the stones that had been placed in the opening and toss them to one side.

“You’re going to dig into it? That’s not why we came here. We were just locating sites, photographing them, and describing what’s in them so David Caine can register them.”

“I can’t very well describe what’s here unless I know,” said Sam. “This could be anything.”

“It could be a tomb. Judging from the trench, that’s what whoever beat us here thought.”

“Or it could be a pile of the right-sized rocks for throwing down at invaders. Or a big pile of potsherds, which, as you know, is the most common find at any archaeological site.”

Remi sighed, knelt beside Sam, and began lifting stones from the mound and tossing them aside. They worked until the stones revealed the straight, even sides of an entrance. “A doorway,” she said. “So much for the rock-pile theory and the broken-pot theory.”

“Still have a bad feeling?”

“More and more,” said Remi. “I’m just going along with this to show you what a great sport I am.”

“We’re almost in,” Sam said.

Remi stepped back from the opening and let Sam haul the last few rocks away. Then he said, “We’re in.” He stood, took the flashlight from his pack, aimed it into the opening, and crawled inside.

There was silence. Remi sat still for a minute, listening. Finally, her curiosity overpowered her caution. She took her own flashlight out and entered.

As soon as she was inside, she realized that the space was large and hollow. Her flashlight beam caught white stucco walls covered with realistic murals of old Mayans. There were many glyphs, and between them were pictures of dozens of men in feathered headdresses and wearing jaguar skins. Some carried short spears, round shields, clubs with sharp obsidian teeth. They were going into battle.

When her flashlight reached the floor, Remi jumped and gave a small cry. Lying on the other side of the chamber was a corpse. The body was in a state similar to the mummified man she and Sam had found on Volcán Tacaná in Mexico. His skin was brown and leathery, his body skeletal. He was lying near a second doorway. There were strips of cloth, a tanned belt, and boots on him, and beside him was a broad-brimmed felt hat.

Sam appeared in the second doorway. “I’m sorry, I should have warned you.”

“Every day is Halloween lately,” she said. She knelt by the dead man and gave him a closer look. “What do you suppose got him—a jaguar? His clothes are torn, and he has big wounds.”

“Take a look at his revolver.”

Remi saw the old-fashioned, long-barreled revolver by his right hand. She bent low to look into the front of the cylinder and then rotated it. “He fired all six.”