d you that I should do?" I cried.

"I!--Oh, nothing, but lie down and say your prayers before you die. But,
were I you, I know the deed that should be done."

I drew near him. His supernatural powers made him an oracle in my eyes;
yet a strange unearthly thrill quivered through my frame as I
said--"Speak!--teach me--what act do you advise?"

"Revenge thyself, man!--humble thy enemies!--set thy foot on the old
man's neck, and possess thyself of his daughter!"

"To the east and west I turn," cried I, "and see no means! Had I gold,
much could I achieve; but, poor and single, I am powerless."

The dwarf had been seated on his chest as he listened to my story. Now
he got off; he touched a spring; it flew open!--What a mine of
wealth--of blazing jewels, beaming gold, and pale silver--was displayed
therein. A mad desire to possess this treasure was born within me.

"Doubtless," I said, "one so powerful as you could do all things."

"Nay," said the monster, humbly, "I am less omnipotent than I seem. Some
things I possess which you may covet; but I would give them all for a
small share, or even for a loan of what is yours."

"My possessions are at your service," I replied, bitterly--"my poverty,
my exile, my disgrace--I make a free gift of them all."

"Good! I thank you. Add one other thing to your gift, and my treasure is
yours."

"As nothing is my sole inheritance, what besides nothing would you
have?"

"Your comely face and well-made limbs."

I shivered. Would this all-powerful monster murder me? I had no dagger.
I forgot to pray--but I grew pale.

"I ask for a loan, not a gift," said the frightful thing: "lend me your
body for three days--you shall have mine to cage your soul the while,
and, in payment, my chest. What say you to the bargain?--Three short
days."

We are told that it is dangerous to hold unlawful talk; and well do I
prove the same. Tamely written down, it may seem incredible that I
should lend any ear to this proposition; but, in spite of his unnatural
ugliness, there was something fascinating in a being whose voice could
govern earth, air, and sea. I felt a keen desire to comply; for with
that chest I could command the world. My only hesitation resulted from a
fear that he would not be true to his bargain. Then, I thought, I shall
soon die here on these lonely sands, and the limbs he covets will be
mine no more:--it is worth the chance. And, besides, I knew that, by all
the rules of art-magic