ly over the gem
with its keen blade. His face was solemn and deep with interest. In
spite of themselves, the two men stood close to him watching the thin,
case-like stuff that he peeled away from the surface.

"This ain't paste," he said excitedly. "It's a kind of silicate.
Lardner must have dipped the gem into it and let the stuff harden as a
protective cover."

Drake took the gem eagerly.

"Then he realized that whatever the power was that this stone has, it
couldn't work unless the diamond itself was clean and unprotected."

The late afternoon sun was fading slowly beyond the far end of the
frozen lake. They turned and went into the cave of the Fox People.
Perhaps the gem would work. But if it didn't, Lardner had died with
the secret on his lips.

"_You'll never get her_," he had said, "_even with the diamond_."

At the edge of the pit they stopped. Silvaris spoke in a faraway,
silencing voice.

"Our lives depend on you. I am no longer able to control myself. In a
few hours we will all be dead...."

He hesitated and the voice trailed off into nothingness. Before their
eyes the man fell away into a light mist. Instead, a large fox stood
at Drake's feet, tail drooping and its eyes staring ahead dully.
Silvaris the Fox King had returned to the stature of his people.

The chamber grew silent as death. The fox turned slowly and walked
down the steps into the marble pit. He mixed quickly with the others
and no movement came from below. The spot of color over the throne
wavered and went out. The cave was black as pitch.

"Now or never," Drake muttered. His tongue was rough and dry. His
hands shook under the weight of the diamond. It and it alone seemed
alive and glittering in the cold unnatural tomb of the cave.

* * * * *

He went toward the bottom of the pit and gently forced his way through
the sleeping animals. Up toward the throne his legs carried him step
by step, and each step was a million years. A torture of uncertainty
and hope.

He lifted the diamond and without hesitation pushed it with all his
strength into the outstretched claws of the marble bear.

The Flaming Diamond suddenly glittered more powerfully than ever
before. The claws seemed to grasp it tightly, as though the power of
the gem must stay where it could never be stolen again.

Bright flames of every hue sprang from the surfaces of the stone. They
bathed his body like colored lightning and he fell back