But if you dislike the thing,
father, why not give it up and try to escape?"

"It is too late, dear," he replied passionately. "Meyer would never
come, and I can't in honour leave him. Also, I should laugh at myself
for the rest of my life; and, after all, why should we not have the gold
if it can be found? It belongs to nobody. We do not get it by robbery,
or murder; nuggets are of no use to Portuguese who have been dead two
hundred years, and whose heirs, if they have any, it is impossible to
discover. Nor can it matter to them whether they lie about singly as
they died or were placed after death, or piled together in a corner. Our
fears were mere churchyard superstitions, which we have caught from that
ghoul of a Molimo. Don't you agree with me?"

"Yes, I suppose so," answered Benita, "though a fate may cling to
certain things or places, perhaps. At any rate, I think that it is of no
use turning back now, even if we had anywhere to turn, so we may as well
go through with the venture and await its end. Give me the water-bottle,
please. I am thirsty."

A while later Jacob Meyer appeared, carrying a great bundle of precious
objects wrapped in one of the gold cere-cloths, which bundle he hid away
behind a stone.

"The cave is much tidier now," he said, as he flicked the thick dust
which had collected on them during his unhallowed task from his hands,
and hair, and garments. Then he drank greedily, and asked:

"Have you two made any plans for our future researches?"

They shook their heads.

"Well, then, I have. I thought them out while I was bone-carting, and
here they are. It is no use our going down below again; for one thing,
the journey is too dangerous, and takes too long; and for another, we
are safer up above, where we have plenty to do."

"But," said Benita, "how about things to eat and sleep on, and the
rest?"

"Simple enough, Miss Clifford; we must get them up. The Kaffirs will
bring them to the foot of the third wall, and we will haul them to its
top with a rope. Of water it seems there is plenty in that well, which
is fed by a spring a hundred and fifty feet down, and the old chain
is still on the roller, so we only need a couple of buckets from the
waggon. Of wood for cooking there is plenty also, growing on the spot;
and we can camp in the cave or outside of it, as we like, according to
the state of the weather. Now, do you rest here while I go down. I will
be back in an hour with some of the gea