that there really _was_ a
stack of long dark curved objects piled in the angle. To get at these
it was necessary for him to climb over the heap of gold bricks, which
formed a kind of barrier across the corner, and in so doing his eye fell
upon one brick quite at the rear of the stack which was very
considerably larger than the others.

Reaching the mysterious stack in the corner he selected one of the long
curved objects and, brushing the dust from it as well as he could,
proceeded to scrape through the remaining coat of dirt with his knife.
By this means he soon reached a hard bone-like substance, upon which he
presently scraped a white surface, when the expenditure of a few more
matches revealed the fact that he had been operating upon an elephant's
tusk, of which nearly a hundred he thought must be stacked in that dark
corner.

On his return to the lighter part of the cave where he had left Sibylla,
his attention was again attracted by the extra large brick-like parcel,
which he thought he might as well examine. He accordingly raised it
from the floor to carry it further forward into the light, when, though
tolerably heavy, the comparative ease with which he lifted it at once
assured him that, whatever else it might be, it certainly was not gold.

The grimy cloth wrapping was soon removed, and a casket of discoloured
but still recognisable brass of elaborate and curious workmanship was
disclosed. The lid was not secured in any way, otherwise than by the
hinges; and so perfect had been the protection afforded by the wax-cloth
wrapping that these worked without difficulty. The lid was quickly
raised, and the casket--which measured about fifteen inches long by nine
inches wide, and perhaps ten inches deep--was found to contain a number
of neat wax-cloth parcels. The first which came to hand--and which, by
the way, was by far the largest one--was at once opened, and there
before the eyes of the admiring pair, fresh as if just removed from the
shell, lay some two hundred or more magnificent pearls--magnificent not
only in respect of their unusual size, but also of their exquisite
lustre and perfect globular form. Needless to say that in presence of
these superb and incomparable gems Sibylla's admiration of the
embroidered muslins dwindled away to insignificance, and her minute
examination of the pearls plunged her into a perfect trance of delight.
The other parcels were found to contain rubies, sapphires, emeralds