Very slowly and gently the great stone raised itself, till at last it had vanished altogether, and a dark hole presented itself to us in the place which the door had filled.

Our excitement was so intense, as we saw the way to Solomon’s treasure chamber thrown open at last, that I for one began to tremble and shake.  Would it prove a hoax after all, I wondered, or was old Da Silvestra right?  Were there vast hoards of wealth hidden in that dark place, hoards which would make us the richest men in the whole world?  We should know in a minute or two.

“Enter, white men from the Stars,” said Gagool, advancing into the doorway; “but first hear your servant, Gagool the old.  The bright stones that ye will see were dug out of the pit over which the Silent Ones are set, and stored here, I know not by whom, for that was done longer ago than even I remember.  But once has this place been entered since the time that those who hid the stones departed in haste, leaving them behind.  The report of the treasure went down indeed among the people who lived in the country from age to age, but none knew where the chamber was, nor the secret of the door.  But it happened that a white man reached this country from over the mountains—­ perchance he too came ’from the Stars’—­and was well received by the king of that day.  He it is who sits yonder,” and she pointed to the fifth king at the table of the Dead.  “And it came to pass that he and a woman of the country who was with him journeyed to this place, and that by chance the woman learnt the secret of the door—­a thousand years might ye search, but ye should never find that secret.  Then the white man entered with the woman, and found the stones, and filled with stones the skin of a small goat, which the woman had with her to hold food.  And as he was going from the chamber he took up one more stone, a large one, and held it in his hand.”

Here she paused.

“Well,” I asked, breathless with interest as we all were, “what happened to Da Silvestra?”

The old hag started at the mention of the name.

“How knowest thou the dead man’s name?” she asked sharply; and then, without waiting for an answer, went on—­

“None can tell what happened; but it came about that the white man was frightened, for he flung down the goat-skin, with the stones, and fled out with only the one stone in his hand, and that the king took, and it is the stone which thou, Macumazahn, didst take from Twala’s brow.”

“Have none entered here since?” I asked, peering again down the dark passage.

“None, my lords.  Only the secret of the door has been kept, and every king has opened it, though he has not entered.  There is a saying, that those who enter there will die within a moon, even as the white man died in the cave upon the mountain, where ye found him, Macumazahn, and therefore the kings do not enter. Ha! ha! mine are true words.”