the Mines of
Falun. There all the glories which you saw in your dream are waiting
for you. Away, away to Falun!'

"For three days Elis hung and loitered about the streets of Goethaborg,
constantly haunted by the wonderful imagery of his dream, continually
urged by the unknown voice. On the fourth day he was standing at the
gate through which the road to Gefle goes, when a tall man walked
through it, passing him. Elis fancied he recognized in this man the old
miner, and he hastened on after him, but could not overtake him.

"He followed him on and on, without stopping.

"He knew he was on the road to Falun, and this circumstance quieted him
in a curious way; for he felt certain that the voice of destiny had
spoken to him through the old miner, and that it was he who was now
leading him on to his appointed place and fate.

"And, in fact, he many times--particularly if there was any uncertainty
about the road--saw the old man suddenly appear out of some ravine, or
from thick bushes, or gloomy rocks, stalk away before him, without
looking round, and then disappear again.

"At last, after journeying for many weary days, Elis saw, in the
distance, two great lakes, with a thick vapour rising between them. As
he mounted the hill to westward, he saw some towers and black roofs
rising through the smoke. The old man appeared before him, grown to
gigantic size, pointed with outstretched hand towards the vapour, and
disappeared again amongst the rocks.

"'There lies Falun,' said Elis, 'the end of my journey.'

"He was right; for people, coming up from behind him, said the town of
Falun lay between the lakes Runn and Warpann, and that the hill he was
ascending was the Guffrisberg, where the main-shaft of the mine was.

"He went bravely on. But when he came to the enormous gulf, like the
jaws of hell itself, the blood curdled in his veins, and he stood as if
turned to stone at the sight of this colossal work of destruction.

"The main-shaft of the Falun mines is some twelve hundred feet long,
six hundred feet broad, and a hundred and eighty feet deep. Its dark
brown sides go, at first for the most part, perpendicularly down, till
about half way they are sloped inwards towards the centre by enormous
accumulations of stones and refuse. In these, and on the sides, there
peeped out here and there timberings of old shafts, formed of strong
shores set close together and strongly rabbeted at the ends, in the way
that blockhouses ar