Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/163

 trouble forced their way through the bushes, they found themselves at the mouth of a dark cavern. Poor Veit was not without his misgivings while groping his way through the deep gloom. A cold chill began to come over him, and his hair was getting on end. “I should not be the first,” thought he, “whom Rubezahl has deceived. Who knows on the brink of what abyss I may at this moment be walking, into which the next step may hurl me!” At that moment he began to hear a terrible roaring, rushing noise, as of a torrent dashing into a gulf. The farther he advanced the more was his heart oppressed with fear; but at length, to his great consolation, he perceived in the distance a bluish flame, which, on nearer approach, he found to proceed from a large lamp suspended from the centre of the rocky ceiling of a spacious grotto, throughout which it diffused a brilliant light. On the floor, beneath the lamp, stood an immense copper, brimful of new, hard, glittering dollars. At sight of this treasure all Veit’s fears vanished, and his heart leaped with joy. “Take,” said the Spirit, “what thou needest, be it more or less; and then, if thou canst write, draw up thy note of hand for the amount.” Veit having replied that he could write, scrupulously counted out the hundred dollars, not one more, not one less. The Gnome, affecting to pay no attention