ond
glance, I started; for of these stones, my child, some had first seen
the day in Africa, some in Brazil; while others, from their peculiar
water and rude workmanship, I divined to be the spoil of ancient
temples. Thus put upon the scent, I made inquiries: Oh, he is cunning,
but I was cunninger than he. He visited, I found, the shop of every
jeweller in town; to one he came with rubies, to one with emeralds, to
one with precious beryl; to all, with this same story of the mine. But
in what mine, what rich epitome of the earth's surface, were there
conjoined the rubies of Ispahan, the pearls of Coromandel, and the
diamonds of Golconda? No, child, that man, for all his yacht and title,
that man must fear and must obey me. To-night, then, as soon as it is
dark, we must take our way through the swamp by the path which I shall
presently show you; thence, across the highlands of the isle, a track is
blazed, which shall conduct us to the haven on the north; and close by
the yacht is riding. Should my pursuers come before the hour at which I
look to see them, they will still arrive too late; a trusty man attends
on the mainland; as soon as they appear, we shall behold, if it be dark,
the redness of a fire--if it be day, a pillar of smoke, on the opposing
headland; and thus warned, we shall have time to put the swamp between
ourselves and danger. Meantime, I would conceal this bag; I would,
before all things, be seen to arrive at the house with empty hands; a
babbling slave might else undo us. For see!" he added; and holding up
the bag, which he had already shown me, he poured into my lap a shower
of unmounted jewels, brighter than flowers, of every size and colour,
and catching, as they fell, upon a million dainty facets, the ardour of
the sun.

I could not restrain a cry of admiration.

"Even in your ignorant eyes," pursued my father, "they command respect.
Yet what are they but pebbles, passive to the tool, cold as death?
Ingrate!" he cried. "Each one of these--miracles of nature's patience,
conceived out of the dust in centuries of microscopical activity, each
one is, for you and me, a year of life, liberty, and mutual affection.
How, then, should I cherish them! and why do I delay to place them
beyond reach! Teresa, follow me."

He rose to his feet, and led me to the borders of the great jungle,
where they overhung, in a wall of poisonous and dusky foliage, the
declivity of the hill on which my father's house stood pla