human
Well, do you understand it now? he asked.
gpt
Have you discovered Guatavita's secret? I wish I had known it three years ago!
human
Ah! I see--I see! shouted the doctor excitedly.
gpt
There is the well that come out at the bottom of the lake. Here is the magnet that go down there just when the people throw in all the gold. And then it come back here--and no one know except the king and his family. So, every year, they take all the gold of the country. Ah! they are very wise leetle fellows, those kings!
human
Then, if this is true, said Leighton meditatively;
gpt
If it were drained of all its waters, remarked Raoul,
human
I believe that the emptied basin would be found to contain nothing more than a few stray gold ornaments--like the one you fished up just now--that failed to reach the Black Magnet when they were flung into the lake centuries ago.
gpt
Your plans to empty the lake, then, are useless?
human
After what I have learned to-day, added to what I have long suspected, I should say--quite useless.
gpt
But the fabulous amount of treasure those deluded people threw into the lake for centuries----?
human
Has all come up here, where we are standing now, caught by the Black Magnet.
gpt
He fish very well, this leetle stone, said Miranda, caressing it fondly.
human
He catch more, better fish than the whole world.
gpt
Where is all that gold to-day?
human
Ah! Where!
gpt
Good heavens! What is that?