burn dim. The fat was nearly exhausted.

"Quatermain," said Sir Henry, "what is the time--your watch goes?"

I drew it out, and looked at it. It was six o'clock; we had entered the
cave at eleven.

"Infadoos will miss us," I suggested. "If we do not return to-night he
will search for us in the morning, Curtis."

"He may search in vain. He does not know the secret of the door, nor
even where it is. No living person knew it yesterday, except Gagool.
To-day no one knows it. Even if he found the door he could not break it
down. All the Kukuana army could not break through five feet of living
rock. My friends, I see nothing for it but to bow ourselves to the will
of the Almighty. The search for treasure has brought many to a bad end;
we shall go to swell their number."

The lamp grew dimmer yet.

Presently it flared up and showed the whole scene in strong relief, the
great mass of white tusks, the boxes of gold, the corpse of the poor
Foulata stretched before them, the goat-skin full of treasure, the dim
glimmer of the diamonds, and the wild, wan faces of us three white men
seated there awaiting death by starvation.

Then the flame sank and expired.

CHAPTER XVIII

WE ABANDON HOPE

I can give no adequate description of the horrors of the night which
followed. Mercifully they were to some extent mitigated by sleep, for
even in such a position as ours wearied nature will sometimes assert
itself. But I, at any rate, found it impossible to sleep much. Putting
aside the terrifying thought of our impending doom--for the bravest man
on earth might well quail from such a fate as awaited us, and I never
made any pretensions to be brave--the _silence_ itself was too great to
allow of it. Reader, you may have lain awake at night and thought the
quiet oppressive, but I say with confidence that you can have no idea
what a vivid, tangible thing is perfect stillness. On the surface of
the earth there is always some sound or motion, and though it may in
itself be imperceptible, yet it deadens the sharp edge of absolute
silence. But here there was none. We were buried in the bowels of a
huge snow-clad peak. Thousands of feet above us the fresh air rushed
over the white snow, but no sound of it reached us. We were separated
by a long tunnel and five feet of rock even from the awful chamber of
the Dead; and the dead make no noise. Did we not know it who lay by
poor Foulata's side? The crashing of all the artillery of earth an