"Hee!hee!hee!"went old Gagool behind us,as she flitted about like a vampire bat."There are the bright stones that ye love,white men,as many as ye will;take them,run them through your fingers,eat of them,hee!hee!drink of them,ha!ha!"There was something so ridiculous at that moment to my mind in the idea of eating and drinking diamonds that I began to laugh outrageously,an example which the others,followed,without knowing why.There we stood and shrieked with laughter over the gems which were ours,which had been found for us thousands of years ago by the patient delvers in the great hole yonder,and stored for us by Solomon's long-dead overseer,whose name,perchance,was written in the characters stamped on the faded wax that yet adhered to the lids of the chest.Solomon never got them,nor David,nor Da Silvestra,nor anybody else.We had got them;there before us were millions of pounds'worth of diamonds,and thousands of pounds'
worth of gold and ivory,only waiting to be taken away.
Suddenly the fit passed off,and we stopped laughing."Open the other chests,white men,"croaked Gagool,"there are surely more therein.
Take your fill,white lords!"
Thus adjured,we set to work to pull up the stone lids on the other two,first -not without a feeling of sacrilege-breaking the seals that fastened them.
Hoorah!they were full too,full to the brim;at least the second one was;no wretched Da Silvestra had been filling goat-skins out of that.
As for the third chest,it was only about a fourth full,but the stones were all picked ones;none less than twenty carats,and some of them as large as pigeon-eggs.Some of these biggest ones,however,we could see by holding them up to the light,were a little yellow,"off colored,"as they call it at Kimberley.
What we did not see,however,was the look of fearful malevolence that old Gagool favored us with as she crept,crept like a snake,out of the treasure chamber and down the passage towards the massive door of solid rock.
Hark!Cry upon cry comes ringing up the vaulted path.It is Foulata's voice!
"Oh,Bougwan!Help!help!the rock falls!"
"Leave go,girl!Then -"
"Help!Help!she has stabbed me!
By now we are running down the passage,and this is what the light from the lamp falls on.The door of rock is slowly closing down;it is not three feet from the floor.Near it struggle.Foulata and Gagool.The red blood of the former runs to her knees but still the brave girl holds the old witch,who fights like a wildcat.Ah!she is free!Foulata fails,and Gagool throws herself on the ground,to twist.herself like a snake through the crack of the closing stone,She is under -ah,God!too late!
too late!The stone nips her,and she yells in agony.Down,down,it comes,all the thirty tons of it,slowly pressing her old body against the rock below.Shriek upon shriek,such as we never heard,then a long,sickening crunch ,and the door was shut just as we,rushing down the passage,hurled ourselves against it.It was all done in four seconds.
Then we turned to Foulata.The poor girl was stabbed in the body,and could not,I saw,live long.
"Ah!Bougwan,I die!"gasped the beautiful creature."She crept out -Gagool;I did not see her,I was faint -and the door began to fall;then she came back,and was looking up the path -and I saw her come in through the slowly falling door,and caught her and held her,and she stabbed me,and I die,Bougwan.
"Poor girl!poor girl!"Good cried;and then,as he could do nothing else,he fell to kissing her.
"Bougwan,"she said,after a pause,"is Macumazahn there?it grows so dark,I cannot see.""Here I am,Foulata."
"Macumazahn,be my tongue for a moment,I pray thee,for Bougwan cannot understand me,and before I go into the darkness -I would speak a word.""Say on,Foulata,I will render it."
"Say to my lord,Bougwan,that -I love him,and that I am glad to die because I know that he cannot cumber his life with such as me,for the sun cannot mate with the darkness,nor the white with the black.