t had locked
them in a prison made of walrus tusks the year before, and had fought with
them later on the submarine. Now if they had recognized Jarvis, what might
they not do? He continued to think of this while the Russian showed them
through the most wonderful greenhouse in all the world.

"You see," said their host, "we built this against the side of the cliff,
at the point where the soft coal mine cropped out. We cut away enough of
the coal to make room for a great stone furnace. From this furnace we ran
heat tunnels of stone through the entire greenhouse. The work is all very
simple. Coal is mined and loaded on trucks of wood, run on wooden tracks.
From there it is shoveled into the furnace. We ran stone troughs through
the greenhouse connecting them to the warm spring. This furnishes water
for use in our homes, and for irrigating the rich soil we have brought
from the tundra. At the same time, it keeps the air here sufficiently
moist."

"What a garden of Eden!" exclaimed Dave. "And you would leave all its
safety and comfort to take a chance in the great disturbed world? Why will
you be so foolish?"

The man turned a look of compassion upon him. "You will never know why,
because you have never known what it is to live without the push and pull
of many human beings striving for mastery all about you. In a
well-populated land, this would all be very wonderful. Here it is nothing.
Nothing!"

As he spoke, the man bent over and opened a small box made of heavy
driftwood.

Having peered into its depth for a second, he uttered a sharp cry:

"The gold! It is gone!"

"Was there much?" asked Dave.

"Around a hundredweight. Who could have taken it? Yesterday we would have
given it away for a song. To-day, with hopes of deliverance at hand, it is
indispensable. Who could the robbers be?"

"The 'eathen, the unnatural, bloody, bloomin' 'eathen," exclaimed Jarvis.
"Find them and you find the gold."

The "unnatural 'eathen" were not to be found. Had the earth opened up and
swallowed them, they could not have more completely vanished from the
region of the City of Gold.

When a search far and wide had been made for them, with no results,
attention was turned to the problem of a journey to other lands, for, even
robbed of their gold as they were, these former exiles were eager to
escape and to try their hand at making a living in more populated lands.

Three days were spent in futile attempts to start that oriental en