t this Benita never knew.

"I answered that it was where it was, and that if they gave it up to
any save the one appointed, then that fate which had befallen my people
would befall theirs also. Yes, I gave it into their keeping until I came
again, since with his dying breath my father had commanded me to reveal
it to none, and I believed that I who was about to die should never come
again.

"Then I made my last prayer, I kissed the golden crucifix that now hangs
upon this breast wherein I dwell," and the hand of the living Benita was
lifted, and moving like the hand of a dead thing, slowly drew out the
symbol from beneath the cloak, held it for a moment in the lamplight,
and let it fall to its place again. "I put my hands before my eyes that
I might not see, and I hurled myself from the pinnacle."

Now the voice ceased, but from the lips came a dreadful sound, such as
might be uttered by one whose bones are shattered upon rocks, followed
by other sounds like those of one who chokes in water. They were so
horrible to hear that Mr. Clifford nearly fainted, and even Jacob Meyer
staggered and turned white as the white face of Benita.

"Wake her! For God's sake, wake her!" said her father. "She is dying, as
that woman died hundreds of years ago."

"Not till she has told us where the gold is. Be quiet, you fool. She
does not feel or suffer. It is the spirit within her that lives through
the past again."

Once more there was silence. It seemed as though the story were all told
and the teller had departed.

"Benita da Ferreira," said Meyer at length, "I command you, tell me, are
you dead?"

"Oh! would that I were dead, as my body is dead!" wailed the lips of
Benita. "Alas! I cannot die who suffer this purgatory, and must dwell on
here alone until the destined day. Yes, yes, the spirit of her who was
Benita da Ferreira must haunt this place in solitude. This is her doom,
to be the guardian of that accursed gold which was wrung from the earth
by cruelty and paid for with the lives of men."

"Is it still safe?" whispered Jacob.

"I will look;" then after a pause, "I have looked. It is there, every
grain of it, in ox-hide bags; only one of them has fallen and burst,
that which is black and red."

"Where is it?" he said again.

"I may not tell you; never, never."

"Is there anyone whom you may tell?"

"Yes."

"Whom?"

"Her in whose breast I lie."

"Tell her then."

"I have told her; she knows."

"And may s