emembered that in the Russian language "erweldt" signified
west, a thing he had not thought of before.

With a glad cry he retraced his steps to the point indicated, and then
began to examine the walls, which he found more broken than those on the
other side.

There were faint indications of mosses in one or two places, and on
sounding them he came upon one large rock that did not seem so firm as
the others.

Holding his candle closer, he saw what might have been cement or
something of the kind, and with a throbbing heart he drew a stout
burglar's jimmy from his bag and began prying into a seam.

It was a powerful tool, worked by a powerful man, and soon the rock,
which was fully two feet square, but of irregular shape, began to show
signs of getting loose.

"Ah! this must be it," said he, as he saw bits of cement crumble and
fall.

But it was no child's-play to move that stone, weighing, as it probably
did, five hundred pounds, and held by the cement that had hardened for
more than thirty years.

Little by little, however, he worked one end of it partially free, and
saw that it stood out at least three inches beyond where it was, and in
addition to this, the cement had now lost its hold, and with one
powerful last effort the rock fell with an echoing thud some three feet
to the bottom of the cave.

Within there was a rough chamber, five or six feet in irregular diameter
every way; and if this was the Devil's Cave, as it was called, this one
must surely have been his oven, so very like one was it.

Reaching in to allow his candle to light the place, he saw numerous
bags, made of reindeer hide tanned without removing the hair.

"Thank heaven I have found it! Batavsky was as true as steel, and I will
be true to his memory!" said Barnwell, holding the candle aloft.

It was fully a minute before he could summon sufficient courage to
proceed further, so startled were his nerve over the sudden fruition of
his hopes.

Then, mastering his emotions, he reached in and lifted one of the bags
from its long resting-place.

It weighed fully ten pounds, and when he set it down upon the sill of
the opening, there was a confused rattling and clinking inside of the
hair-covered bag, a sound that only one coined metal in the world will
emit--gold.

There was no need of opening it to make sure that the contents were
genuine. The sound told that; and old Batavsky's truth, proved up to the
point, was a further guarantee fo