“ `Thank the Lord, we have left the deep waters (honduras)’ that being the Spanish word for unfathomable depths. So Honduras it was called, and has been to this day.
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“It is a queer land with many traces of an ancient civilization, a civilization which I believe dates back farther than some in the far East. On the sculptured stones in the Copan valley there are characters which seem to resemble very ancient writing, but this pictographic writing is largely untranslatable.
“Honduras, I might add, is about the size of our state of Ohio. It is rather an elevated table-land, though there are stretches of tropical forest, but it is not so tropical a country as many suppose it to be. There is much gold scattered throughout Honduras, though of late it has not been found in large quantities.
“In the old days, however, before the Spaniards came, it was plentiful, so much, so that the natives made idols of it. And it is one of the largest of these idols — by name Quitzel — that I am going to seek.”
“Do you know where it is?” asked Ned.
“Well, it isn’t locked up in a safe deposit box, of that I’m sure,” laughed the professor. “No, I don’t know exactly where it is, except that it is somewhere in an ancient and buried city known as Kurzon. If I knew exactly where it was there wouldn’t be much fun in going after it. And if it was known to others it would have been taken away long ago.
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“No, we’ve got to hunt for the idol of gold in this land of wonders where I hope soon to be. Later on I’ll show you the documents that put me on the track of this idol. Enough now to show you an old map I found, or, rather, a copy of it, and some of the papers that tell of the idol,” and he spread out his packet of papers on the table in front of him, his eyes shining with excitement and pleasure. Mr. Damon, too, leaned eagerly forward.