n by
hobgoblins than by men. Farewell," said he, and he left her standing,
and walked to the sea-side of that island.

It was all bare in the strong sun; there was no sign of man, only the
beach was trodden, and all about him as he went the voices talked and
whispered, and the little fires sprang up and burned down. All tongues
of the earth were spoken there; the French, the Dutch, the Russian, the
Tamil, the Chinese. Whatever land knew sorcery, there were some of its
people whispering in Keola's ear. That beach was thick as a cried fair,
yet no man seen; and as he walked he saw the shells vanish before him,
and no man to pick them up. I think the devil would have been afraid to
be alone in such a company: but Keola was past fear and courted death.
When the fires sprang up, he charged for them like a bull. Bodiless
voices called to and fro; unseen hands poured sand upon the flames; and
they were gone from the beach before he reached them.

"It is plain Kalamake is not here," he thought, "or I must have been
killed long since."

With that he sat him down in the margin of the wood, for he was tired,
and put his chin upon his hands. The business before his eyes continued:
the beach babbled with voices, and the fires sprang up and sank, and the
shells vanished and were renewed again even while he looked.

"It was a by-day when I was here before," he thought, "for it was
nothing to this."

And his head was dizzy with the thought of these millions and millions
of dollars, and all these hundreds and hundreds of persons culling them
upon the beach and flying in the air higher and swifter than eagles.

"And to think how they have fooled me with their talk of mints," says
he, "and that money was made there, when it is clear that all the new
coin in all the world is gathered on these sands! But I will know better
the next time!" said he.

And at last, he knew not very well how or when, sleep fell on Keola, and
he forgot the island and all his sorrows.

Early the next day, before the sun was yet up, a bustle woke him. He
awoke in fear, for he thought the tribe had caught him napping; but it
was no such matter. Only, on the beach in front of him, the bodiless
voices called and shouted one upon another, and it seemed they all
passed and swept beside him up the coast of the island.

"What is afoot now?" thinks Keola. And it was plain to him it was
something beyond ordinary, for the fires were not lighted nor the shells
take