Flame is safe now, Steve went on saying to himself. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Pitch kept his word and helped you; now you have to keep yours. Flame is free to go where he pleases. That’s what Pitch said: “You’ll have to let him go where he pleases.”

Steve shuffled his feet through the sand. Yes, when he’d made that promise to Pitch he had thought that maybe the red stallion would come to him, that he wouldn’t have to chase him any longer. He’d figured that Flame would know he was trying to help him, that he was his friend. And several times, when he had been close to him, Steve thought Flame really did understand what he was trying to do. But Flame was gone now, and there was nothing he could do about it. He had promised Pitch not to chase him, and he couldn’t go back on his word.

“I’m puzzled by one thing, Steve,” Pitch was saying. “From all we’ve seen, this hole was definitely the Conquistadores’ main entrance and exit. But if that’s so, how did they get their armies, especially their horses, through this hole? It’s wide enough—it must be about twelve feet wide—but there’s only about four feet of head room there. They couldn’t have brought their horses through here.”

Pitch went closer to the exit, peering at the dark-green moss clinging to the wall above the hole. “I wonder—” he began, then stopped, leaning forward to run his hand through the moss.

Steve saw Pitch’s fingers probe into the heavy growth on the wall. Then they bent until they were clawing, digging. And Pitch didn’t stop until he had a large area cleared of the growth.

“It’s wood underneath!” Pitch shouted. “Wood, Steve, right above the hole!” His hands worked furiously now, clearing away more of the moss.

The import of Pitch’s discovery didn’t register with Steve until Pitch had cleared an area six feet high and as many feet wide above the hole. Then Steve saw the paneled rectangular door and the beamed grooves above and below. It was a sliding panel!

Now Pitch was digging far over on the side of the hole, and finally his frantic fingers found the indentations in the wood by means of which the Conquistadores must have pulled the panel across the grooved supporting beams. Pitch thrust his fingers into the holes and tugged hard, The door didn’t budge. Pitch then called to Steve, who got hold of the lower holes and pulled too. Together they forced the panel through the green moss. Then the door moved easily in the grooves, and before them was the opening to the sea, heightened by all of six feet!