Steve was impatient to get to his story of Flame, and managed to tell it only by replying brusquely to Pitch’s frequent questions. Pitch gave him his soup and made him eat it while the beans were being heated. Then, as Steve told Pitch of his chase through the chasm and tunnel into the cavern, Pitch’s queries stopped altogether.

Steve’s soup cooled as he told Pitch about coming upon Flame in the smaller chamber. He had to omit details he himself couldn’t remember, and Pitch did not question him, for he knew the boy would have told him had he been able to do so. It was enough, Pitch thought, that Steve hadn’t been killed!

“But Flame’s safe now,” Steve concluded, his eyes bright and steady. “He won’t sink any deeper until we get there. And we can get him out, Pitch.”

“What good would it do, Steve?” Pitch asked quietly after a long silence. “Why should you take any more chances? I don’t think we should go any further with this business.”

“Pitch! You don’t mean what you’re saying, do you? You can’t mean it!” Steve’s eyes mirrored the intensity he was feeling.

Pitch bent over the fire. He didn’t like what he saw in Steve’s eyes, but he felt that he was responsible for it. He was the one who had suggested they come to this island! He was the one who had kindled the boy’s enthusiasm with tales of Spanish conquest. Yes, and they had found more than they had bargained for—much more! For here was a lost world untouched by man for centuries! A lost world with treasures for which many men would give their lives. And he and Steve had found it. But what price must they pay for their discovery? Already they had lived a lifetime in their few hours of groping about the death-black tunnels. They had survived to find this valley, but now Steve had undergone another terrible experience. How much could the boy take? He was no longer the same Steve who had set out for this island. He was no longer a boy but a man—very much a man. Without turning around, Pitch listened to part of what Steve was saying.

“Can’t you understand, Pitch?” Steve asked. “We can’t leave him there to die! It’s worse than if I’d done nothing and he’d been pulled down by the quicksand, because he’d be gone by now. You can’t let him die a living death over that pit, Pitch! I can’t! I’ll have to go back alone if you won’t come. And if I can’t get him up by myself, I’ll drop the chain.”