is head.

We pressed in after him, forgetful for the moment of the bag of
diamonds, and found ourselves in King Solomon's treasure chamber.

At first, all that the somewhat faint light given by the lamp revealed
was a room hewn out of the living rock, and apparently not more than
ten feet square. Next there came into sight, stored one on the other to
the arch of the roof, a splendid collection of elephant-tusks. How many
of them there were we did not know, for of course we could not see to
what depth they went back, but there could not have been less than the
ends of four or five hundred tusks of the first quality visible to our
eyes. There, alone, was enough ivory to make a man wealthy for life.
Perhaps, I thought, it was from this very store that Solomon drew the
raw material for his "great throne of ivory," of which "there was not
the like made in any kingdom."

On the opposite side of the chamber were about a score of wooden boxes,
something like Martini-Henry ammunition boxes, only rather larger, and
painted red.

"There are the diamonds," cried I; "bring the light."

Sir Henry did so, holding it close to the top box, of which the lid,
rendered rotten by time even in that dry place, appeared to have been
smashed in, probably by Da Silvestra himself. Pushing my hand through
the hole in the lid I drew it out full, not of diamonds, but of gold
pieces, of a shape that none of us had seen before, and with what
looked like Hebrew characters stamped upon them.

"Ah!" I said, replacing the coin, "we shan't go back empty-handed,
anyhow. There must be a couple of thousand pieces in each box, and
there are eighteen boxes. I suppose this was the money to pay the
workmen and merchants."

"Well," put in Good, "I think that is the lot; I don't see any
diamonds, unless the old Portuguese put them all into his bag."

"Let my lords look yonder where it is darkest, if they would find the
stones," said Gagool, interpreting our looks. "There my lords will find
a nook, and three stone chests in the nook, two sealed and one open."

Before translating this to Sir Henry, who carried the light, I could
not resist asking how she knew these things, if no one had entered the
place since the white man, generations ago.

"Ah, Macumazahn, the watcher by night," was the mocking answer, "ye who
dwell in the stars, do ye not know that some live long, and that some
have eyes which can see through rock? _Ha! ha! ha!_"

"Look in that corne