g with the energy peculiar to all his actions, suddenly struck a
deep vein of almost virgin gold.

To facilitate the disposal at a distance of the disturbed debris, he
threw each shovelful on to a canvas sheet, which he subsequently
dragged among the trees in order to dislodge its contents. After doing
this four times he noticed certain metallic specks in the fifth load
which recalled the presence of the antimony. But the appearance of the
sixth cargo was so remarkable when brought out into the sunlight that
it invited closer inspection. Though his knowledge of geology was
slight--the half-forgotten gleanings of a brief course at Eton--he was
forced to believe that the specimens he handled so dubiously contained
neither copper nor iron pyrites but glittering yellow gold. Their
weight, the distribution of the metal through quartz in a transition
state between an oxide and a telluride, compelled recognition.

Somewhat excited, yet half skeptical, he returned to the excavation and
scooped out yet another collection. This time there could be no
mistake. Nature's own alchemy had fashioned a veritable ingot. There
were small lumps in the ore which would need alloy at the mint before
they could be issued as sovereigns, so free from dross were they.

Iris had gone to Venus's Bath, and would be absent for some time. Jenks
sat down on a tree-stump. He held in his hand a small bit of ore worth
perhaps twenty pounds sterling. Slowly the conjectures already pieced
together in his mind during early days on the island came back to him.

The skeleton of an Englishman lying there among the bushes near the
well; the Golgotha of the poison-filled hollow; the mining tools, both
Chinese and European; the plan on the piece of tin--ah, the piece of
tin! Mechanically the sailor produced it from the breast-pocket of his
jersey. At last the mysterious sign "32/1" revealed its
significance. Measure thirty-two feet from the mouth of the tunnel, dig
one foot in depth, and you came upon the mother-lode of this
gold-bearing rock. This, then, was the secret of the cave.

The Chinese knew the richness of the deposit, and exploited its
treasures by quarrying from the other side of the hill. But their crass
ignorance of modern science led to their undoing. The accumulation of
liberated carbonic acid gas in the workings killed them in scores. They
probably fought this unseen demon with the tenacity of their race,
until the place became accursed and ba