The house was very small as compared with the majority of those seen by the boys when they gazed from a distance, and had evidently been unoccupied a long while.
The one room which comprised the entire lower floor was destitute of anything in the way of furniture, and the sides, ceiling and floor were formed of the same soft-looking white stone which appeared to be the only building material in the city.
Poyor did not give his companions much time in which to inspect this portion of the building. With an impatient gesture to the boys who were gazing around them in evident disappointment, he led the way up a narrow flight of stairs to a sort of attic hardly more than six feet high, and with only two narrow slits in the wall to serve as windows.
Here five hammocks had been slung, and on one of them the Indian threw himself without a word of rejoicing or comment upon the ease and safety with which they had entered the city.
"Now what is to be done?" Neal asked as Cummings started toward the stairway.
"I wish to bar the lower door, for it would be exceedingly inconvenient if we should have callers."
"It strikes me that there will be very little chance to get gold if we are to stay shut up here."
"That's just what has been puzzlin' me ever since I saw the place," Jake added. "We're not even in the city, only on the edge, and so far as seein' what's goin' on is concerned, the big tree in the swamp would have been a better place."
"You may find that we are too near the heart of the town," Cummings replied with a grimace. "To-morrow, after Poyor has looked around some, we will decide on a plan. You had better go to sleep while there is a chance, for no one can say when we may be obliged to beat a hasty retreat."
The boys followed this advice for the simple reason that there was nothing else to be done. Teddy had looked through the narrow slit in the wall; but without being able to see anything of interest, and in this city which may have been, and probably was standing when Columbus discovered America, the three who had been literally thrown upon the coast of Yucatan lay down to sleep.
Owing to the strangeness of their surroundings, and the knowledge of the danger which threatened, no one gave himself up to very profound slumber.