was bared and its outlines
revealed themselves.

"But as they grew distinct and I saw what I had uncovered, I fell
back in terror. The stone was about five feet ten inches in height,
and was roughly shaped to represent a human head and neck. But the
face it was that froze my heated blood in horror. Never until I die
shall I forget that hellish expression. It was the smoothly-shaven
face of a man of about fifty years of age, roughly carved after the
fashion of many of the ruins on this mountain. But whoever fashioned
it, the artist must have been a fiend. If ever malignant hate was
expressed in form, it stood before me. Even the blank pupils made
the malevolence seem but the more undying. Every feature, every line
was horrible, every touch of the chisel had added a fresh grace of
devilish spite. It was simply Evil petrified.

"As this awful face, bared of the innocent creeper that for years had
shrouded its ugliness from the light of day, confronted me, a feeling
of such repulsion overcame me that for several minutes I could not
touch it. The neck was loosely set in a sort of socket fixed in the
earth; this was all the monster's pedestal. I saw that it barely
needed a man's strength to send it toppling over. Yet for a moment I
could summon up none. At length I put my hands to it and with an
effort sent it crashing over amid the brushwood.

"The trough in which this colossal head had rested was about four
feet in depth, and narrowed towards the bottom. I put down my hand
and drew out--a human thigh-bone. The touch of this would have
turned me sick again, had not the statue's face already surfeited me
with horror. As it was, I was nerved for any sight. The passion of
my discovery was upon me, and I tossed the mouldering bones out to
right and left.

"But stay. There seemed a great many in the trough. Surely this was
the third thigh-bone that I held now in my hand. Yes, and below,
close to the bottom of the trough, lay two skulls side by side.
There were two, then, buried here. The parchment had only spoken of
one. But I had no time to consider about this. What I sought now
was the Secret, and as I took up the second skull I caught the gleam
of metal underneath it. I put in my hand and drew out a Buckle of
Gold.

"This buckle is formed of two pieces, bound to either end of a thin
belt of rotten linen, and united by hook and socket. Its whole
dimensions are but 3 inches by 2 inches, but insid