Early the next day the youth resorted to the harbor, where he found the noble awaiting him. They went on board a ship, which soon put out to sea, and sailed and sailed until it approached an island. On this island were high mountains, and by the shore was a splendid castle. The ship cast anchor, and the noble and the merchant’s son were rowed to the castle, where they were met by the noble’s wife and daughter. After the greetings were over they sat down at table and began to eat, drink, and be merry. “Today we’ll feast,” said the noble, “and tomorrow we’ll work.”
The noble’s daughter was beautiful beyond anything that pen can tell, and the merchant’s son fell in love with her. Nor could she help liking him, for he was lively, sturdy, and handsome. At length she found an opportunity to call him secretly into an adjacent room, and gave him a flint and steel. “Use these, if you should be in great danger,” said she, “and they will bring you help.”
Next day the noble mounted a handsome steed and had his laborer mount an old rackabones, and they set off for the mountains. They went up and up till there rose before them a smooth wall of rock near the summit of the loftiest peak, and they could go no farther. “I am thirsty after all this climbing,” said the noble. “We will dismount and have something to drink.”
He handed the merchant’s son a flask that contained a sleeping potion, and the youth drank without any suspicion that he was being drugged. It made him very drowsy, and he sat down by a tree and was soon fast asleep. Then the noble killed the wretched nag on which the youth had ridden, removed its entrails, put the young man and his spade inside of the body, and sewed it up. That done, he went and hid in the bushes. In a little while there flew down a host of black, iron-beaked crows. They took up the carcass and carried it to the mountain-top, where they began to peck and eat it. Presently they had eaten their way in to where lay the merchant’s son. Then he awoke, beat off the crows, looked hither and thither, and said, “Where am I?”
The noble at the foot of the precipice heard him and shouted: “You are on the golden mountain. Take your spade and dig gold and throw it down to me.”
Then the youth saw that the whole mountain-top was composed of gold, and he dug and dug, and threw the gold down to the noble, who loaded it on to his horse. When the noble had all the horse could carry, he bawled out: “That’ll do. Thanks for your labor. Good-by!”
“But what is to become of me?” the merchant’s son shouted back.
“You will have to get along as best you can,” replied the noble. “Ninety-nine of your sort have already perished on this mountain-top. You will just make up a hundred.”
Thus spoke the noble and departed.
“What is to be done now?” thought the merchant’s son. “To get down the steep, slippery sides of this mountain summit is impossible. I shall starve to death.”