TWILIGHT LAND

brazen jar, from which he poured a grey powder upon
the blaze. Instantly there leaped up a great flame of
white light and a cloud of smoke, which rose high in the
air, and there spread out until it hid everything from
sight. Then the old man began to mutter spells, and in
answer the earth shook and quaked, and a rumbling as
of thunder filled the air. At last he gave a loud cry, and
instantly the earth split open, and there the young spend-
thrift saw a trap-door of iron, in which was an iron ring
to lift it by.

“Look!” said the old man. “Yonder is the task for
which I have brought you: lift for me that trap-door of
iron, for it is too heavy for me to raise, and I will pay
you well.”

And it was no small task either, for, stout and strong
as the young man was, it was all he could do to lift up
the iron plate. But at last up it swung, and down below
he saw a flight of stone steps leading into the earth.

The old man drew from his bosom’ a copper’ lamp,
which he lit at the fire of the sandal and spice wood
sticks, which had now nearly died away. Then, leading
the way, with the young man following close at his heels,
he descended the stairway that led down below. At the
bottom the two entered a great vaulted room, carved out
of the solid stone, upon the walls of which were painted
strange pictures in bright colours of kings and queens,
genii and dragons. Excepting for these painted figures,
the vaulted room was perfectly bare, only that in the
centre of the floor there stood three stone tables. Upon
the first table stood an iron candlestick with three
branches ; upon the second stood an earthen jar, empty
of everything but dust; upon the third stood a brass

Loz