and Jacob Meyer. Moreover, something spoke in her; she could
not hear a voice, but she seemed to see the words written in the air
before her. These were the words:--

"_Clasp the feet of the Christ and draw them to the left. The passage
beneath leads to the chamber where the gold is hid, and thence to the
river bank. That is the secret which ere I depart, I the dead Benita,
pass on to you, the living Benita, as I am commanded. In life and death
peace be to your soul._"

Thrice did this message appear to repeat itself in the consciousness
of Benita. Then, suddenly as she had slept, she woke again with every
letter of it imprinted on her mind. Doubtless it was a dream, nothing
but a dream bred by the fact that her arms were clasping the feet of the
crucifix. What did it say? "Draw them to the left."

She did so, but nothing stirred. Again she tried, and still nothing
stirred. Of course it was a dream. Why had such been sent to mock her?
In a kind of mad irritation she put out all her remaining strength and
wrestled with those stony feet. _They moved a little_--then of a sudden,
without any further effort on her part, swung round as high as the knees
where drapery hung, concealing the join in them. Yes, they swung round,
revealing the head of a stair, up which blew a cold wind that it was
sweet to breathe.

Benita rose, gasping. Then she seized her lantern and ran to the little
tent where her father lay.

XXII

THE VOICE OF THE LIVING

Mr. Clifford was awake again now.

"Where have you been?" he asked querulously in a thin voice. "I wanted
you." Then as the light from the candle shone upon it, he noted the
change that had come over her pale face, and added: "What has happened?
Is Meyer dead? Are we free?"

Benita shook her head. "He was alive a few hours ago, for I could hear
him raving and shouting outside the wall we built. But, father, it has
all come back to me; I believe that I have found it."

"What has come back? What have you found? Are you mad, too, like Jacob?"

"What something told me when I was in the trance which afterwards I
forgot, but now remember. And I have found the passage which leads to
where they hid the gold. It begins behind the crucifix, where no one
ever thought of looking."

This matter of the gold did not seem to interest Mr. Clifford. In his
state all the wealth beneath the soil of Africa would not have appealed
to him. Moreover, he hated the name of that accursed treasure