Hard by it lay another--and another; each as large as a fair-sized pea.

I took up the three, and rose to my feet again, the light in one hand, the crystals in the palm of the other.
They were diamonds! Diamonds of price! I knew it in a moment.

As I moved the taper to and fro above them, and watched the fire glow and tremble in their depths, I knew that I held in my hand that which would buy the crazy inn and all its contents a dozen times over! They were diamonds! Gems so fine, and of so rare a water--or I had never seen gems--that my hand trembled as I held them, and my head grew hot and my heart beat furiously.

For a moment I thought that I dreamed, that my fancy played me some trick; and I closed my eyes and did not open them again for a minute.

But when I did, there they were, hard, real, and angular.
Convinced at last, in a maze of joy and fear, I closed my hand upon them, and, stealing on tip-toe to the trap-door, laid first my saddle on it and then my bags, and over all my cloak, breathing fast the while.
Then I stole back, and, taking up the light again, began to search the floor, patiently, inch by inch, with naked feet, every sound making me tremble as I crept hither and thither over the creaking boards.