lean battle."

"Tell me all. What did Robert Bovill seek? And where?"

"We sought the Mountain of God," said the seaman reverently.

"I never heard o't. My own Manoa, maybe, where gold is quarried like
stone."

"Nay, not Manoa. The road to it is from the shore of the Mexican gulf.
There was much gold."

"You found it?"

"I found it and handled it. Enough, could we have brought it off, to
freight a dozen ships. Likewise jewels beyond the imagining of kings."

Raleigh had raised himself on his elbow, his face sharp and eager.

"I cannot doubt you, for you could not lie were it to win salvation. But,
heavens! man, what a tale! Why did I not know of this before I broke my
fortune on Tom Keymis' mine?"

"I alone know of it, the others being dead."

"Who first told you of it?"

"Captain Bovill had the rumour from a dying Frenchman who was landed in
his last hours at Falmouth. The man mentioned no names, but the tale set
the captain inquiring and he picked up the clue in Bristol. But 'twas in
north Ireland that he had the whole truth and a chart of the road."

"These charts!" sighed Raleigh. "I think the fairies have the making of
them, for they bewitch sober men. A scrap of discoloured paper and a rag
of canvas; some quaint lines drawn often in a man's blood, and a cross
in a corner marking 'much gold.' We mortals are eternally babes, and our
heads are turned by toys."

"This chart was no toy, and he who owned it bought it with his life.
Nay, Sir Walter, I am of your mind. Most charts are playthings from the
devil. But this was in manner of speaking sent from God. Only we did not
read it right. We were blind men that thought only of treasure."

"It is the common story," said Raleigh. "Go on, Jasper."

"We landed in the Gulf, at the point marked. It was at the mouth of a
wide river so split up by sand bars that no ship could enter. But by
portage and hard rowing we got our boats beyond the shoals and found
deep water. We had learned beforehand that there were no Spanish posts
within fifty miles, for the land was barren and empty even of Indians.
So for ten days we rowed and poled through a flat plain, sweating
mightily, till we came in sight of mountains. At that we looked for more
comfort, for the road on our chart now led away from the river up a side
valley. There we hoped for fruits, since it was their season, and for
deer; and 'twas time, for our blood was thick with rotten victuals."

The man shivered,