not to one or of tbe forms just as you or i greet an old acquaintance having gone mysterious and ceremony down on tbe table immediately under tbe and began so far as i could make out to offer up prayers to it tbe spectacle of wicked old creature pouring out evil ones no doubt to tbe enemy of mankind was so tbat it caused us to our inspection now said i in a low voice � one did not dare to speak above a in tbat place � lead us to tbe tbe old creature promptly scrambled down off tbe table my lords are not afraid said up into my face lead on by ic solomon s mines good my lords and she round to the back of the great death here is the chamber let my lords light the lamp and enter and she placed the full of oil upon the floor and leaned herself against the side of the cave i took out a match of which we still had a few in a box and lit the rush and then looked for the doorway but there was nothing before us but the solid rock grinned the way is there my lords do not jest with us i said sternly i jest not my lords see i and she pointed at the rock as she did so on holding up the lamp we perceived that a mass of stone was slowly rising from the floor and vanishing into the rock above where doubtless there was a prepared to receive it the mass was of the width of a good sized door about ten feet high and not less than five feet thick it must have weighed at least twenty or thirty tons and was clearly moved upon some simple balance principle probably the same as that upon which the opening and shutting of an ordinary modem window is arranged how the principle was set in motion of course none of us saw was careful to avoid that but i have little doubt that there was some very simple which was moved ever so little by pressure on a secret spot thereby throwing additional weight on to the hidden and causing the whole huge mass to be lifted from the ground 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 it had filled our excitement was so intense as we saw the way to solomon s treasure chamber at last thrown i for by ic king solomon s mines one began to tremble and shake would it prove a after all i wondered or was old da right and were there vast of wealth stored in that dark place 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 advancing into the doorway but first hear your servant 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 but once has this place been entered since the time that those who stored the stones departed in haste leaving them behind the report of the treasure went down 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 of the king of the 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 came to this place and that by chance the woman learned the secret of the door � a thousand years might ye search but ye should never find it then the white man entered with the woman and found the stones and filled with 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 the old started at the mention of the name by ic solomon s how thou the dead man s name she asked sharply and then without waiting for an answer went on � none knew what happened but it came about that the white man was frightened for he flung down the with the stones and fled out with only the one stone in his hand and that the king took and it is the stone that thou take from s brows have none entered here since i asked peering again down the dark passage none my lords only the secret of the door hath been kept and every king hath opened it though he hath 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 ha mine are true words our eyes met as she said it and i turned sick and cold how did the old know all these things enter my lords if i speak truth the goat skin with the stones will lie upon the floor and if there is truth as to whether it is death to enter here that will ye learn afterwards ha ha ha and she through the doorway bearing the light with her but i confess that once more i hesitated about following oh confound it all said good here goes i am not 