The agent Lohe, who for each able-bodied Chinaman whom he secured, received a hundred sapecks, agreed to tell Lihoa the road for the reason that he was “his cousin and was glad to do him a little service”.  He pictured to him a land, bearing the barbaric name Australia, which the “devils from the West” had discovered many days’ journey away beyond the islands to the south, where the gold lay in the fields like the stones on the island of Hongkong, and where great nuggets, as large as a man’s head, were to be had.  This Goldland “the devils from the West” wanted for themselves, but the priest of the God, in whose cell he had just been, said that this gold could be taken away only by the sons of the Celestial Kingdom, that the treasures of this land belonged to the Chinese, and not to the barbarians of the West.  The sly discoverers of the Goldland had come to get the Chinese to bring these lumps of gold to their ships, where the men from the West and the sons of the Celestial Kingdom would divide the spoils.  The rich Natse was out in search of three hundred men to bring this gold from the distant land to the south.  Of course, each one of the three hundred fortunate enough to go would receive his own weight in gold, and for him and his entire family there would be a life of wealth and honor on his return home.

Thus Lohe explained the situation.

“More than a hundred pounds of gold, and wealth and honor,” repeated Lihoa, on whom the story of the gold which the God had said was to be given to the Chinese and not to the hated barbarians from the West, had made a deep impression.

“Have you heard it, my people?  We can all become as rich as rich Natse, and even richer, if we go on the ship to the southland.”

“Yes”, said one of the oyster carriers, “if all that is true—­”

“And if we are not drowned on the long journey,” put in another.

“Or, if ‘the devils from the West’ do not kill us for our money after we have brought all the gold from the land to the ship for them,” put in the third fish carrier.

“Yes, but if I knew that I would surely come back with some of the gold, I would go,” added the fourth.

“There, just see how sharp you all are!” said Lohe.  “Just such doubts as these troubled my friends and myself, so we are here to consult the priest of the God of the Golden Fish, who surely knows.  We have promised to have a new fish made of solid gold to replace the gilded wooden one, if he counsels us well and has a care over us while on the way.  The priest is now in his cell burning incense before the God, and when the moon reaches that constellation in the middle of the heavens, he will tell us the God’s answer.”

The moon had almost reached the place designated.  Lihoa and his followers with the rest of the men seated themselves on the mossy rocks before the sanctuary, to await the answer of the spirit.  The nearer the time came the quieter they were; until at last they scarcely dared breathe.  The rim of the moon touched the constellation:  no sound was heard in the cave.  Softly the silver beams of light fell upon the bare rocks and cast over the “waters of the sea a shimmering bridge that stretched from the foot of the hill away into the darkness.