“But I didn’t think it,” Eva hastened to say. “I knew there was something wrong. I was worried—dreadfully afraid. Carrero met my father soon after we got to Valparaiso, and offered him the boat. It seemed just the thing. We had it fitted out, and started, and we joined it at Talhuna. We were three days out before father suspected anything wrong.
“He didn’t tell me much, but he gave me a little pistol to wear always. I could feel danger in the air. Father decided to go on to La Carolina, and take aboard two or three men whom he knew well, but Carrero refused to go. He seemed to know the way to this place, and he ran the boat into the bay early this morning, and demanded that father lead them to the emeralds. He offered to share them equally.
“Of course father refused. They argued and threatened for hours. Finally they put me ashore, and said that I would stay there till the emeralds were found.”
“The devils!” Lang exclaimed. “I’ll maroon Carroll for this.”
“Oh, I wasn’t afraid, for myself,” said Eva. “I knew they wouldn’t dare keep me here long. I climbed up the bank in the fog, and walked about, and then I smelled smoke, and came upon your fire. Do you know, I just knew at once that it was your camp. I sat down and waited. I’d been here hours. Then I saw you coming. I shall never forget how you looked—as if you’d come from the dead.”
“From the dead? So I had!” cried Lang. He sat up and burst the knotted strings around his ankles. A stream of wet, rolling, twinkling crystals rolled out, pebbles and bits of rock and chips of ice along with them. Eva gave a little, startled cry.
“I’ve been through hell and the glacier. I think I bored the glacier from end to end. I came from the dead, all right, and I brought back what I went for. Here they are—the emeralds!”
“The emeralds—those little stones? And so few?”
“So few? They may be worth a million dollars—sure to be, if they’re all perfect. But they aren’t. And there’s a lot of rubbish mixed with them. I couldn’t sort them there in the dark.”
A shudder went through him at the memory of that ghastly ice cavern. It seemed unreal now as a distant nightmare. He began to pick out pieces of rock and discard them. Eva turned the stones over in her fingers with more respect.