while all the
others laughed aloud.

"Are you through?" inquired the commander, further.

"I am. Farewell!"

"Farewell, until we meet again!" replied the Dutchman, and turned to
go; the musicians took the lead again, and the whole procession marched
away in the same order in which it had come, and with the same solemn
song, which grew ever fainter and fainter in the distance, until
finally it was lost in the roar of the breakers.

Falcon now exerted his utmost strength to get out of the hide, and he
at last succeeded in freeing one arm, with which he was able to loosen
the rope that was wound round him, and soon had stepped out of the
hide. Without stopping to look about him, he hastened down to his hut,
and found poor Kaspar Strumpf lying on the ground in an insensible
condition. With some difficulty he restored him to consciousness, and
the good fellow shed tears of joy on once more beholding the friend of
his youth, whom he had given up for lost. But this happy consolation
vanished quickly, when he learned what a desperate undertaking Falcon
now had in mind.

"I would rather cast myself into hell than to look any longer at these
bare walls and reflect on our misery. Follow me, or stay here; I am
going at any rate."

[Illustration]

With these words. Falcon seized a torch, a tinder-box, and a rope, and
hastened away. Kaspar ran after him as fast as he could, and found his
friend standing on the ledge of the rock upon which he had once sought
safety from the storm, and ready to let himself down into the raging
abyss. When Kaspar found that his entreaties had no effect on the
crazed man, he prepared to descend after him; but Falcon ordered him to
remain where he was and hold on to the rope. With an amount of exertion
that could only have been supplied by the blindest of passions, greed,
Falcon clambered down into the cave, and at last came to a projecting
piece of rock, just below which the black waves, crested with foam,
rushed along with a dreadful roar. He looked about him eagerly, and
finally saw something glistening in the water directly beneath where he
stood. He laid down his torch, plunged in, and seized a heavy object
which he managed to bring back with him. It was an iron box filled with
gold pieces. He shouted up to his companion what he had found; but he
would not pay the least attention to Kaspar's entreaties to content
himself with what he had. Falcon believed that this was only the first
fruit