Falcon was a bold, daring man; he had prepared himself beforehand for extraordinary occurrences; but when he saw this innumerable crowd pressing in on him as if to crush him by their numbers, his courage failed him, great drops of sweat stood out on his forehead, and he thought he would perish in a spasm of fright. But one may imagine his horror when, as he chanced to turn his eyes, he saw, sitting motionless and erect, close by his head, the little old man in the yellow linen suit, looking just as he had the first time except that now, as if making fun of the whole assembly, he, too, had a pipe in his mouth. In the mortal fright that now took possession of him, Falcon cried out to the leader of this assembly: "In the name of whomsoever you serve, who are you? and what do you want with me?" The tall man drew three whiffs, even more gravely than before; then gave the pipe to his servant and answered very coldly: "I am Alfred Frank van Swelder, commander of the ship _Carmilhan_, of Amsterdam, which, on the voyage home from Batavia, went to the bottom with man and mouse on this rocky coast. These are my officers, those my passengers, and beyond, my brave crew who were all drowned with me. Why have you summoned us from our dwellings deep in the sea? Why do you disturb our rest?" "I wish to know where the treasure of the _Carmilhan_ lies." "On the bottom of the sea." "Where?" "In the cave of Steenfoll." "How can I recover it?" "A goose dives into the abyss for a herring; is not the treasure of the _Carmilhan_ of as much value?" "How much of it shall I recover?" "More than you will ever spend." The little man in yellow grinned horribly at this reply, while all the others laughed aloud. "Are you through?" inquired the commander, further. "I am. Farewell!" "Farewell, until we meet again!" replied the Dutchman, and turned to go; the musicians took the lead again, and the whole procession marched away in the same order in which it had come, and with the same solemn song, which grew ever fainter and fainter in the distance, until finally it was lost in the roar of the breakers. Falcon now exerted his utmost strength to get out of the hide, and he at last succeeded in freeing one arm, with which he was able to loosen the rope that was wound round him, and soon had stepped out of the hide. Without stopping to look about him, he hastened down to his hut, and found poor Kaspar Strumpf lying on the ground in an insensible condition. With some difficulty he restored him to consciousness, and the good fellow shed tears of joy on once more beholding the friend of his youth, whom he had given up for lost. But this happy consolation vanished quickly, when he learned what a desperate undertaking Falcon now had in mind. "I would rather cast myself into hell than to look any longer at these bare walls and reflect on our misery. Follow me, or stay here; I am going at any rate." [Illustration]