The Irish standard., 1909-08-28


heard her slip off her light shoes.
Il will go before you," she said;
and she stepped into the pool and
walked slowly through the water.
The traveller followed her as he
was, for he was unwilling to leave
behind him anything he valued, and
what he had was mostly in the peck
cts Of his coat, and could not be
much hurt by water. Even his
pressed herbs and flowers would dry
again, his cartridges were quite wa
terproof, his letters were in an i'm
pervious case, and his money was in
coin. When he entered the pool he
took his revolver from it's place and
he held it above the water in front of
him as he went on. With his other
hand he carried the sack he had
brought, which was one of those that
are made of Bokhara carpet and are
meant to sling on camel.
Baraka was almost up to her neck
In the water when she reached the
other side of the pool; moment
later she disappeared under the rock,
and the traveller bent his knees to
shorten himself, for there was only
room for his head above the surface,
and he held up his revolver before his
face to keep the weapon dry, and also
to feel his way, lest he should strike
against any jutting projection of the
stone and hurt himself. He counted
the steps he took, and made them as
nearly as possible Of equal length. He
felt that he was walking on perfectly
smooth sand, into which his heavily
shod feet sank very little. There
was plenty of air, for the gentle
draught followed him from the en-
trance and chilled the back of his
neck, which had got wet; yet it
seemed hard to breathe and as he
made his way forward his magma
ton pictured the death he must die
if the rock should fall in behind him.
He was glad that the faint odor of Ba-
raka's wet hair came to his nostrils
In the thick darkness, and 1t was very
pleasant to hear her voice when she
spoke at last.
1T Is not far" she said quietly. II
begin to see the starlight on the wa
ter"
The passage did not widen or grow
higher as 1t went on. If it had been
dry, it would have been a commodious
cave. open at each end, wide at the
bottom and narrowing to sharp
angle above. But the pool was fed by
spring that never failed nor even
ebbed, though it must sometimes have
overfiowed down the ravine through
which the two had reached the pool.
They came out from under the rock
at last, and were in the refreshing out
er air. The still water widened al
most to circle. tiny lake at the bot
tom of sort of crater of white stone
that collected and concentrated the
dim light. On two sides there were
little crescent beaches of snow-white
sand, that cleaned like silver. The
traveller looked about him and upward
to see If there was any way of
climbing up; but as far as he could
make out in the half darkness the
steep rock was as smooth as if 1t had
been cut with tools, and it sloped
away at sharp angle like the sides
of funnel
Baraka went up towards the right,
and the bottom shelved, so that pres
emily the water was down to her
waist and then she. stood still and
pointed to dark hollow just above
the little beach. Her wet garment
chung to her, and with her left hand
she began to wiring the water from her
haid behind her head.
"The rubies are there" she said,
thousands upon thousands of them.
Fill the sack quickly, but do not take
more than you can carry, for they are
very heavy"
The traveller waded out upon the
beach, and the water from his clothes
ran down in small rivulets and made
little round holes in the white sand.
He put down his revolver in dry
place, and both his hands felt for the
precious stones in the shadowy hol-
low loosening small fragments of a
sort of brittle crust in which they
seemed to be clustered.
you cannot choose" Baraka said,
for you cannot see, but have been
here by daylight and have seen. The
largest are on the left side of the hol-
low, near the top"
BY the stars the traveller could see
the pieces little, as he broke them
out, for the white rocks collected the
light; he could see many dark crys-
tails, but as to what they were he had
to trust the girl.
do not take more than you can
carry" she repeated, "for you must
not throw them away to tighten the
burden"
"You can carry some of them," an.
swered the traveller.
He broke up the crust of crystals
with small geologist's hammer and
tore them out like a mailman, and his
hands were bleeding. for though he
was philosopher the thirst for wealth
had come upon him when he felt the
riches of empires in his grasp, and
the time was short; and although he
knew that he might some day come