nsidiously to his back, seemed to engulf and overpower him as he
drank his first glass of port. He tried drowsily to answer a question
that had been asked him, but the honeyed luxury that clasped his body
added to the illusion of sleep--jewels, fabrics, wines, and metals
blurred before his eyes into a sweet mist ....

"Yes," he replied with a polite effort, "it certainly is hot enough
for me down there."

He managed to add a ghostly laugh; then, without movement, without
resistance, he seemed to float off and away, leaving an iced dessert
that was pink as a dream .... He fell asleep.

When he awoke he knew that several hours had passed. He was in a great
quiet room with ebony walls and a dull illumination that was too
faint, too subtle, to be called a light. His young host was standing
over him.

"You fell asleep at dinner," Percy was saying. "I nearly did, too--it
was such a treat to be comfortable again after this year of school.
Servants undressed and bathed you while you were sleeping."

"Is this a bed or a cloud?" sighed John. "Percy, Percy--before you go,
I want to apologise."

"For what?"

"For doubting you when you said you had a diamond as big as the
Ritz-Carlton Hotel."

Percy smiled.

"I thought you didn't believe me. It's that mountain, you know."

"What mountain?"

"The mountain the chateau rests on. It's not very big, for a mountain.
But except about fifty feet of sod and gravel on top it's solid
diamond. _One_ diamond, one cubic mile without a flaw. Aren't you
listening? Say----"

But John T. Unger had again fallen asleep.

III

Morning. As he awoke he perceived drowsily that the room had at the
same moment become dense with sunlight. The ebony panels of one wall
had slid aside on a sort of track, leaving his chamber half open to
the day. A large negro in a white uniform stood beside his bed.

"Good-evening," muttered John, summoning his brains from the wild
places.

"Good-morning, sir. Are you ready for your bath, sir? Oh, don't get
up--I'll put you in, if you'll just unbutton your pyjamas--there.
Thank you, sir."

John lay quietly as his pyjamas were removed--he was amused and
delighted; he expected to be lifted like a child by this black
Gargantua who was tending him, but nothing of the sort happened;
instead he felt the bed tilt up slowly on its side--he began to roll,
startled at first, in the direction of the wall, but when he reached
the wall its drapery gave way, and sli