the moon and almost matched the sun.  It was observable that each smiled scornfully at the madness of every other in anticipating better fortune than the past, yet nourished a scarcely-hidden conviction that he would himself be the favored one.  As if to allay their too sanguine hopes, they recurred to the Indian traditions that a spirit kept watch about the gem and bewildered those who sought it either by removing it from peak to peak of the higher hills or by calling up a mist from the enchanted lake over which it hung.  But these tales were deemed unworthy of credit, all professing to believe that the search had been baffled by want of sagacity or perseverance in the adventurers, or such other causes as might naturally obstruct the passage to any given point among the intricacies of forest, valley and mountain.

In a pause of the conversation the wearer of the prodigious spectacles looked round upon the party, making each individual in turn the object of the sneer which invariably dwelt upon his countenance.

“So, fellow-pilgrims,” said he, “here we are, seven wise men and one fair damsel, who doubtless is as wise as any graybeard of the company.  Here we are, I say, all bound on the same goodly enterprise.  Methinks, now, it were not amiss that each of us declare what he proposes to do with the Great Carbuncle, provided he have the good hap to clutch it.—­What says our friend in the bearskin?  How mean you, good sir, to enjoy the prize which you have been seeking the Lord knows how long among the Crystal Hills?”

“How enjoy it!” exclaimed the aged Seeker, bitterly.  “I hope for no enjoyment from it:  that folly has past long ago.  I keep up the search for this accursed stone because the vain ambition of my youth has become a fate upon me in old age.  The pursuit alone is my strength, the energy of my soul, the warmth of my blood and the pith and marrow of my bones.  Were I to turn my back upon it, I should fall down dead on the hither side of the notch which is the gateway of this mountain-region.  Yet not to have my wasted lifetime back again would I give up my hopes of is deemed little better than a traffic with the evil one.  Now, think ye that I would have done this grievous wrong to my soul, body, reputation and estate without a reasonable chance of profit?”

“Not I, pious Master Pigsnort,” said the man with the spectacles.  “I never laid such a great folly to thy charge.”

“Truly, I hope not,” said the merchant.  “Now, as touching this Great Carbuncle, I am free to own that I have never had a glimpse of it, but, be it only the hundredth part so bright as people tell, it will surely outvalue the Great Mogul’s best diamond, which he holds at an incalculable sum; wherefore I am minded to put the Great Carbuncle on shipboard and voyage with it to England, France, Spain, Italy, or into heathendom if Providence should send me thither, and, in a word, dispose of the gem to the best bidder among the potentates of the earth, that he may place it among his crown-jewels.  If any of ye have a wiser plan, let him expound it.”