were very rich people," continued Miriam,
glancing at Meschines, and then letting her
eyes wander across the garden, blooming
with roses and fragrant with orange-trees,
and so across the trellised vines towards the
soft outline of the mountains eastward. "A
great part of their wealth was in the form
of jewels and precious stones. When Cortez
took the city, one of the priests, who
was a relative of our family, put the jewels
in a box, and hid them in a certain place in
the desert."

"And does Kamaiakan know where the
place is?" asked the general.

"He can know, when the time comes."

"Which will be, perhaps, when you are
ready for your dowry," observed the
professor, genially.

"A spell was put upon the spot," Miriam
went on, with a certain imaginative seriousness;
for she loved romance and mystery so
well, and was of a temperament so poetical,
that the wildest fairy-tales had a sort of
reality for her. "No one can find the
treasure while the spell remains. But
Kamaiakan understands the spell, and the