TWILIGHT LAND

who wore a red cap and who seemed to be the chief of
them, walked solemnly up to a great rock that stood in
the hillside, and, breaking a switch from a shrub that
grew in a cleft, struck the face of the stone, crying in a
loud voice, ‘I command thee to open, in the name of the
red Aldebaran !” :

Instantly, creaking and groaning, the face of the rock
opened like a door, gaping blackly. Then, one after
another, the three old men entered, and nothing was left
but the dull light of their torches, cane on the walls of
the passage-way.

What happened inside the cavern the fagot-maker could
neither see nor hear, but minute after minute passed
while he sat as in a maze at all thathad happened. Then
presently he heard a deep thundering voice and a voice as
of one of the old men in answer. Then there came a
sound swelling louder and louder, as though a great crowd
of people were gathering together, and with the voices
came the noise of the neighing of horses and the trampling
of hoofs. Then at last there came pouring from out the
rock a great crowd of horses laden with bales and bundles
of rich stuffs and chests and caskets of gold and silver
and jewels, and each horse was led by a slave clad in a
dress of cloth of gold, sparkling and glistening with pre-
cious gems. When all these had come out from the
cavern, other horses followed, upon each of which sat a
beautiful damsel, more lovely than the fancy of man could
picture. Beside the damsels marched a guard, each man
clad in silver armour, and each bearing a drawn sword that
flashed in the brightening day more keenly than the
lightning. So they all came. pouring forth from the
cavern until it seemed as though the whole woods below

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