The litter now ascended the height:  its bearers halted; a lean hand tore the curtains aside, and Margrave descended leaning, this time, not on the Black-veiled Woman, but on the White-robed Skeleton.

There, as he stood, the moon shone full on his wasted form; on his face, resolute, cheerful, and proud, despite its hollowed outlines and sicklied hues.  He raised his head, spoke in the language unknown to me, and the armed men and the litter bearers grouped round him, bending low, their eyes fixed on the ground.  The Veiled Woman rose slowly and came to his side, motioning away, with a mute sign, the ghastly form on which he leaned, and passing round him silently, instead, her own sustaining arm.  Margrave spoke again a few sentences, of which I could not even guess the meaning.  When he had concluded, the armed men and the litter bearers came nearer to his feet, knelt down, and kissed his hand.  They then rose, and took from the bierlike vehicle the coffer and the fuel.  This done, they lifted again the litter, and again, preceded by the armed men, the procession descended down the sloping hillside, down into the valley below.

Margrave now whispered, for some moments, into the ear of the hideous creature who had made way for the Veiled Woman.  The grim skeleton bowed his head submissively, and strode noiselessly away through the long grasses—­the slender stems, trampled under his stealthy feet, relifting themselves as after a passing wind.  And thus he, too, sank out of sight down into the valley below.  On the tableland of the hill remained only we three—­Margrave, myself, and the Veiled Woman.

She had reseated herself apart, on the gray crag above the dried torrent.  He stood at the entrance of the cavern, round the sides of which clustered parasital plants, with flowers of all colors, some among them opening their petals and exhaling their fragrance only in the hours of night; so that, as his form filled up the jaws of the dull arch, obscuring the moonbeam that strove to pierce the shadows that slept within, it stood now—­wan and blighted—­as I had seen it first, radiant and joyous, literally “framed in blooms.”

IV

“So,” said Margrave, turning to me, “under the soil that spreads around us lies the gold which to you and to me is at this moment of no value, except as a guide to its twin-born—­the regenerator of life!”

“You have not yet described to me the nature of the substance which we are to explore, nor the process by which the virtues you impute to it are to be extracted.”

“Let us first find the gold, and instead of describing the life-amber, so let me call it, I will point it out to your own eyes.  As to the process, your share in it is so simple that you will ask me why I seek aid from a chemist.  The life-amber, when found, has but to be subjected to heat and fermentation for six hours; it will be placed in a small caldron which that coffer contains, over the fire which that fuel will feed.  To give effect to the process, certain alkalies and other ingredients are required; but these are prepared, and mine is the task to commingle them.  From your science as chemist I need and ask naught.  In you I have sought only the aid of a man.”