gold; of a volcano in the Peruvian Cordillera, whose crater was lined with
the noblest of metals, and which once in every hundred years ejected, for
days together, diamonds, and rubies, and dust of gold.

"If that volcano could only be found," said the don, with a convulsive
clutching of his bony fingers, and a greedy glare in his aged eyes. "If
that volcano could only be found! Why, it must be made of gold, and
covered with precious stones! The man who found it would be the richest in
all the world--richer than all the people in the world put together!"

"Did you ever see it, Don Alberto?" I asked.

"Did I ever see it?" he cried, uplifting his withered hands. "If I had
seen that volcano you would never have seen me, but you would have heard
of me. I had it from an Indio whose father once saw it with his own eyes;
but I was too old, too old"--sighing--"to go on the quest. To undertake
such an enterprise a man should be in the prime of life and go alone. A
single companion, even though he were your own brother, might be fatal;
for what virtue could be proof against so great a temptation--millions of
diamonds and a mountain of gold?"

All this roused my curiosity and fired my imagination--not that I believed
it all, for Zamorra was evidently a visionary with a fixed idea, and as
touching his craze, credulous as a child; but in those days South America
had been very little written about and not half explored; for me it had
all the charm and fascination of the unknown--a land of romance and
adventure, abounding in grand scenery, peopled by strange races, and
containing the mightiest rivers, the greatest forests, and highest
mountains in the world.