at thus held him as in a vise; and he
answered frankly, for it was his only hope of escape, "Turn over the
stone upon which you stand. Beneath it you will find the treasure you
seek."

Then Loki put his shoulder to the rock, and pushed with all his might.
But it seemed as firm as the mountain, and would not be moved.

"Help us, thou cunning dwarf," he cried--"help us, and thou shalt have
thy life!"

The dwarf put his shoulder to the rock, and it turned over as if by
magic, and underneath was disclosed a wondrous chamber, whose walls
shone brighter than the sun, and on whose floor lay treasures of gold
and glittering gem stones such as no man had ever seen. And Loki, in
great haste, seized upon the hoard, and placed it in the magic net
which he had borrowed from the Ocean-queen. Then he came out of the
chamber; and Andvari again put his shoulder to the rock which lay at
the entrance, and it swung back noiselessly to its place.

"What is that upon thy finger?" suddenly cried Loki. "Wouldst keep
back a part of the treasure? Give me the ring thou hast!"

But the dwarf shook his head, and made answer, "I have given thee all
the riches that the elves of the mountain have gathered since the world
began. This ring I cannot give thee, for without its help we shall
never be able to gather more treasures together."

Loki grew very angry at these words of the dwarf; and he seized the
ring, and tore it by force from Andvari's finger. It was a wondrous
little piece of mechanism shaped like a serpent, coiled, with its tail
in its mouth; and its scaly sides glittered with many a tiny diamond,
and its ruby eyes shone with an evil light. When the dwarf knew that
Loki really meant to rob him of the ring, he cursed it and all who
should ever possess it, saying:

"May the ill-gotten treasure that you have seized to-night be your
bane, and the bane of all to whom it may come, whether by fair means or
by foul! And the ring which you have torn from my hand, may it entail
upon the one who wears it sorrow and untold ills, the loss of friends,
and a violent death!"

Loki was pleased with these words, and with the dark curses which the
dwarf pronounced upon the gold; for he loved wrong-doing for
wrong-doing's sake, and he knew that no curses could ever make his own
life more cheerless than it always had been. So he thanked Andvari for
his curses and his treasures; then, throwing the magic net upon his
shoulder, he sprang again