King Solomon's Mines
counter-weights, probably the same as that by which the opening and
shutting of an ordinary modern window is arranged. How the principle
was set in motion, of course none of us saw; Gagool was careful to
avoid this; but I have little doubt that there was some very simple
lever, which was moved ever so little by pressure at a secret spot,
thereby throwing additional weight on to the hidden counter-balances,
and causing the monolith 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 the door had filled.
Our excitement was so intense, as we saw the way to Solomon’s treasure
chamber thrown open at last, that I for one began to tremble and shake.
Would it prove a hoax after all, I wondered, or was old Da Silvestra
right? Were there vast hoards of wealth hidden in that dark place,
hoards 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 Gagool, advancing into the
doorway; “but first hear your servant, Gagool 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, for that was done
longer ago than even I remember. But once has this place been entered
since the time that those who hid the stones departed in haste, leaving
them behind. The report of the treasure went down indeed 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 by the king of that 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 journeyed to this place, and that by chance the woman
learnt the secret of the door—a thousand years might ye search, but ye
should never find that secret. Then the white man entered with the
woman, and found the stones, and filled with stones 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 Silvestra?”
The old hag started at the mention of the name.
“How knowest thou the dead man’s name?” she asked sharply; and then,
without waiting for an answer, went on—
“None can tell what happened; but it came about that the white man was
frightened, for he flung down the goat-skin, with the stones, and fled
out with only the one stone in his hand, and that the king took, and it
is the stone which thou, Macumazahn, didst take from Twala’s brow.”
“Have none entered here since?” I asked, peering again down the dark
passage.
“None, my lords. Only the secret of the door has been kept, and every
king has opened it, though he has 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, Macumazahn, and
therefore the kings do not enter. _Ha! ha!_ mine are true words.”
Our eyes met as she said it, and I turned sick and cold. How did the
old hag 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 ye will learn afterwards. _Ha! ha! ha!_” and she
hobbled 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 going to be
frightened by that old devil;” and followed by Foulata, who, however,
evidently did not at all like the business, for she was shivering with
fear, he plunged into the passage after Gagool—an example which we
quickly followed.
A few yards down the passage, in the narrow way hewn out of the living
rock, Gagool had paused, and was waiting for us.
“See, my lords,” she said, holding the light before her, “those who
stored the treasure here fled in haste, and bethought them to guard
against any who should find the secret of the door, but had not the
time,” and she pointed to large square blocks of stone, which, to the
height of two courses (about two feet three), had been placed across
the passage with a view to walling it up. Along the side of the passage
were similar blocks ready for use, and, most curious of all, a heap of
mortar and a couple of trowels, which tools, so far as we had time to
examine them, appeared to be of a similar shape and make to those used
by workmen to this day.
Here Foulata, who had been in a state of great fear and agitation
throughout, said that she felt faint and could go no farther, but would
wait there. Accordingly we set her down on the unfinished wall, placing
the basket of provisions by her side, and left her to recover.
Following the passage for about fifteen paces farther, we came suddenly
to an elaborately painted wooden door. It was standing wide open.
Whoever was last there had either not found the time to shut it, or had
forgotten to do so.
_Across the threshold of this door lay a skin bag, formed of a
goat-skin, that appeared to be full of pebbles._
“_Hee! hee!_ white men,” sniggered Gagool, as the light from the lamp
fell upon it. “What did I tell you, that the white man who came here
fled in haste, and dropped the woman’s bag—behold it! Look within also
and ye will find a water-gourd amongst the stones.”
Good stooped down and lifted it. It was heavy and jingled.
“By Jove! I believe it’s full of diamonds,” he said, in an awed
whisper; and, indeed, the idea of a small goat-skin full of diamonds is
enough to awe anybody.
“Go on,” said Sir Henry impatiently. “Here, old lady, give me the
lamp,” and taking it from Gagool’s hand, he stepped through the doorway
and held it high above his head.
We pressed in after him, forgetful for the moment of the bag of
diamonds, and found ourselves in King Solomon’s treasure chamber.
At first, all that the somewhat faint light given by the lamp revealed
was a room hewn out of the living rock, and apparently not more than
ten feet square. Next there came into sight, stored one on the other to
the arch of the roof, a splendid collection of elephant-tusks. How many
of them there were we did not know, for of course we could not see to
what depth they went back, but there could not have been less than the
ends of four or five hundred tusks of the first quality visible to our
eyes. There, alone, was enough ivory to make a man wealthy for life.
Perhaps, I thought, it was from this very store that Solomon drew the
raw material for his “great throne of ivory,” of which “there was not
the like made in any kingdom.”
On the opposite side of the chamber were about a score of wooden boxes,
something like Martini-Henry ammunition boxes, only rather larger, and
painted red.
“There are the diamonds,” cried I; “bring the light.”
Sir Henry did so, holding it close to the top box, of which the lid,
rendered rotten by time even in that dry place, appeared to have been
smashed in, probably by Da Silvestra himself. Pushing my hand through
the hole in the lid I drew it out full, not of diamonds, but of gold
pieces, of a shape that none of us had seen before, and with what
looked like Hebrew characters stamped upon them.
“Ah!” I said, replacing the coin, “we shan’t go back empty-handed,
anyhow. There must be a couple of thousand pieces in each box, and
there are eighteen boxes. I suppose this was the money to pay the
workmen and merchants.”
“Well,” put in Good, “I think that is the lot; I don’t see any
diamonds, unless the old Portuguese put them all into his bag.”
“Let my lords look yonder where it is darkest, if they would find the
stones,” said Gagool, interpreting our looks. “There my lords will find
a nook, and three stone chests in the nook, two sealed and one open.”
Before translating this to Sir Henry, who carried the light, I could
not resist asking how she knew these things, if no one had entered the
place since the white man, generations ago.
“Ah, Macumazahn, the watcher by night,” was the mocking answer, “ye who
dwell in the stars, do ye not know that some live long, and that some
have eyes which can see through rock? _Ha! ha! ha!_”
“Look in that corner, Curtis,” I said, indicating the spot Gagool had
pointed out.
“Hullo, you fellows,” he cried, “here’s a recess. Great heavens! see
here.”
We hurried up to where he was standing in a nook, shaped something like
a small bow window. Against the wall of this recess were placed three
stone chests, each about two feet square. Two were fitted with stone
lids, the lid of the third rested against the side of the chest, which
was open.
“_See!_” he repeated hoarsely, holding the lamp over the open chest. We
looked, and for a moment could make nothing out, on account of a
silvery sheen which dazzled us. When our eyes grew used to it we saw
that the chest was three-parts full of uncut diamonds, most of them of
considerable size. Stooping, I picked some up. Yes, there was no doubt
of it, there was the unmistakable soapy feel about them.
I fairly gasped as I dropped them.
“We are the richest men in the whole world,” I said. “Monte Christo was
a fool to us.”
“We shall flood the market with diamonds,” said Good.
“Got to get them there first,” suggested Sir Henry.
We stood still with pale faces and stared at each other, the lantern in
the middle and the glimmering gems below, as though we were
conspirators about to commit a crime, instead of being, as we thought,
the most fortunate men on earth.
“_Hee! hee! hee!_” cackled old Gagool behind us, as she flitted about
like a vampire bat. “There are the bright stones 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!_”
At that moment there was something so ridiculous to my mind at 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 that 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, or 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! _Ha! ha!_ take your fill.”
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 burglarious 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. A good many of these bigger ones,
however, we could see by holding them up to the light, were a little
yellow, “off coloured,” as they call it at Kimberley.