hed off one
jewelled face with the haft of my dagger, and a thin trickle of bones
fell inside.... And yet, as we ravened and plundered we would fall into
fits of shivering, for the thing was not of this world. Often a man
would stop and fall to weeping. But the lust of gold consumed us, and
presently we only sorrowed because we had no sumpter mules to aid
its transit, and had a terror of the infernal plain and valley we had
travelled...."

"Captain Bovill made camp in a mead outside the city, and one of us shot
a deer, so that we supped full. He unfolded his purpose, which was that
we should pack about our persons such jewels as were the smallest and
most precious, and some gold likewise as an earnest, and by striking
northward through the mountains seek to reach at a higher point in its
course the river by which we had entered from the sea. I mistrusted the
plan, for the chart had shown but the one way, but the terror of the
road we had come was strong on me and I made no protest. So we packed
our treasure, so that each man staggered under it, and before noon left
the place of the kings."

"And then? Was the road desperate?" Raleigh's pale eyes had the ardour
of a boy's.

"Desperate beyond all telling. An escalade of sheer mountains and a
battling through vales choked with unbelievable thorns. Yet there was
water and food, and the hardships were not beyond mortal endurance.
'Twas not a haunted hell like the way up. Wherefore I knew it would
lead us to disaster, for 'twas not ordained as the path in the chart had
been."

Raleigh laughed. "Faith, you show your mother's race. All Coffyns have
in their souls the sour milk of Jean Calvin."

"Judge if I speak not the truth. Bit by bit we had to cast our burdens
till only the jewels remained. And on the seventh day, when we were in
sight of the river, we met a Spanish party, a convoy from their northern
mines. We marched loosely and blindly, and they came on us unawares. We
had all but reached the river's brink, so had the stream for a defence
on one side, but before we knew they had taken us on flank and rear."

"Many?"

"A matter of three score, fresh and well armed, against nine weary men
mortally short of powder. That marked the end of our madness and we
became again sober Christians. Most notable was Captain Bovill. 'We have
seen what we have seen,' he told us, as we cast up our defences under
Spanish bullets, 'and none shall wrest the secret from us. If God wil