hich you and I alone of living men have
seen?"

"No." Whatever they were, I said, I would respect his earnings.

"Very well, then," said the old man, "look here! I come hither to pick
up those pretty trifles which yonder lords and ladies have done with,"
and plunging his hand into another bag he brought out a perfect fistful
of splendid gems and jewels, some set and some unset. "They wash from
the hands and wrists of those who have lodgings in the crevices of the
falls above," he explained. "After a time the beach here will be thick
with them. Could I get up whence you came down, they might be gathered
by the sackful. Come! there is an eddy still unsearched, and I will
show you how they lie."

It was very fascinating, and I and that old man set to work amongst the
gravels, and, to be brief, in half an hour found enough glittering
stuff to set up a Fifth Avenue jeweller's shop. But to tell the truth,
now that I had breakfasted, and felt manhood in my veins again, I was
eager to be off, and out of the close, death-tainted atmosphere of that
valley. Consequently I presently stood up and said--

"Look here, old man, this is fine sport no doubt, but just at present I
have a big job on hand--one which will not wait, and I must be going.
See, luck and young eyes have favoured me; here is twice as much gold
and stones as you have got together--it is all yours without a question
if you will show me the way out of this den and afterwards put me on
the road to your big city, for thither I am bound with an errand to
your king, Ar-hap."

The sight of my gems, backed, perhaps, with the mention of Ar-hap's
name, appealed to the old fellow; and after a grunt or two about
"losing a tide" just when spoil was so abundant, he accepted the
bargain, shouldered his belongings, and led me towards the far corner
of the beach.

It looked as if we were walking right against the towering ice wall,
but when we were within a yard or two of it a narrow cleft, only
eighteen inches wide, and wonderfully masked by an ice column, showed
to the left, and into this we squeezed ourselves, the entrance by which
we had come appearing to close up instantly we had gone a pace or two,
so perfectly did the ice walls match each other.

It was the most uncanny thoroughfare conceivable--a sheer, sharp crack
in the blue ice cliffs extending from where the sunlight shone in a
dazzling golden band five hundred feet overhead to where bottom was
touched