relics. The gleam was the gleam of gold, and on removing the loose
earth round the roots of the plant, we came on-- No, I will not, I
dare not, describe it. The gold digger would cast it aside; the
naturalist would pause not to heed it; and did I describe it, and
chemistry deign to subject it to analysis, could chemistry alone
detach or discover its boasted virtues?

Its particles, indeed, are very minute, not seeming readily to
crystallize with each other; each in itself of uniform shape and
size, spherical as the egg which contains the germ of life, and
small as the egg from which the life of an insect may quicken.

But Margrave's keen eye caught sight of the atoms upcast by the
light of the moon. He exclaimed to me, "Found! I shall live!"
And then, as he gathered up the grains with tremulous hands, he
called out to the Veiled Woman, hitherto still seated motionless on
the crag. At his word she rose and went to the place hard by,
where the fuel was piled, busying herself there. I had no leisure
to heed her. I continued my search in the soft and yielding soil
that time and the decay of vegetable life had accumulated over the
pre-Adamite strata on which the arch of the cave rested its mighty
keystone.

When we had collected of these particles about thrice as much as a
man might hold in his hand, we seemed to have exhausted their bed.
We continued still to find gold, but no more of the delicate
substance to which, in our sight, gold was as dross.

"Enough," then said Margrave, reluctantly desisting. "What we have
gained already will suffice for a life thrice as long as legend