Light and found Light and live in Light, then you will believe;
_then_ you will see."

All this he said very solemnly, and standing there in that dusky room
surrounded by the wreck of things that once had been dear to dead men
and women, waving the lantern in his hand and staring--at what was he
staring?--really old Potts looked most impressive. His twisted shape and
ugly countenance became spiritual; he was one who had "found Light and
lived in Light."

"You won't believe me," he went on, "but I pass on to you what a woman
has been telling me. She's a queer sort of woman; I never saw her
like before, a foreigner and dark-hued with strange rich garments and
something on her head. There, that, _that_," and he pointed through the
dirty window-place to the crescent of a young moon which appeared in
the sky. "A fine figure of a woman," he went on, "and oh! heaven, what
eyes--I never saw such eyes before. Big and tender, something like those
of the deer in the park yonder. Proud, too, she is, one who has ruled,
and a lady, though foreign. Well, I never fell in love before, but I
feel like it now, and so would you, young man, if you could see her, and
so I think did someone else in his day."

"What did she say to you?" I asked, for by now I was interested enough.
Who wouldn't be when old Potts took to describing beautiful women?

"It's a little difficult to tell you for she spoke in a strange tongue,
and I had to translate it in my head, as it were. But this is the gist
of it. That you were to have that chest and what was in it. There's a
writing there, she says, or part of a writing for some has gone--rotted
away. You are to read that writing or to get it read and to print it so
that the world may read it also. She said that 'Hubert' wishes you to
do so. I am sure the name was Hubert, though she also spoke of him with
some other title which I do not understand. That's all I can remember,
except something about a city, yes, a City of Gold and a last great
battle in which Hubert fell, covered with glory and conquering. I
understood that she wanted to talk about that because it isn't in the
writing, but you interrupted and of course she's gone. Yes, the price is
L50 and not a farthing less, but you can pay it when you like for I know
you're as honest as most, and whether you pay it or not, you must have
that chest and what's in it and no one else."

"All right," I said, "but don't trust it to the carrier. I'll send a
cart