this chamber now first opened since time began.

It was like many he had seen before, but considerably larger. Holding
his light at arm's length, above his head, a million little eyes
twinkled back at him as the rays shot to and fro on the pointed facets
of the rock crystals which hung from the roof and started out of the
walls and ground.

The gleaming fingers seemed all pointed straight at him. Was it in
mockery or in acknowledgment of his prowess?

For, in among the pointing fingers, it seemed to him that the
silver-bearing veins ran thick as the setting of an ancient jewel,
twisted and curling and winding in and out so that his eyes were dazzled
with the wonder of it all.

"A man! A man at last! Since time began we have awaited him, and this
is he at last!" so those myriad eyes and pointing fingers seemed to cry
to him.

And up above, the roar and growl of the sea sounded closer than ever
before.

But he had found his treasure and he heeded nought beside. Here, of a
surety, he said to himself, was the silver heart from which the
scattered veins had been projected. He had found what he had sought with
such labours and persistency. What else mattered?

And then, without a moment's warning--the end.