“My people,” he said—­and his voice had all the tenderness that they knew so well—­“this is some conspiracy of those to whom we have shown the utmost hospitality.  I would have shielded your king, for he was also my sovereign and I owed him allegiance.  But now that is no longer possible, and the time is come.  Know then, oh my people of Yaque, that which my loyalty has led me wrongfully to conceal:  that in the strange disappearance and return of your sovereign, King Otho, he who will may trace the loss of that which the island has mourned without ceasing.  I accuse your king—­he is no longer mine—­of being now in possession of the Hereditary Treasure of Yaque.”

Then St. George came back with a thrill to actuality.  In the press of the events of this morning, after his awakening in the room of the tombs, he had completely forgotten the soft fire of gems that had burned beneath the hands of old Malakh in that dark chamber under King Abibaal’s tomb.  He and Amory and Jarvo had, with the king, left the chamber by the upper passages, and Amory and Jarvo knew nothing of the jewels.  Yet St. George was certain that he could not have been mistaken, and he listened breathlessly for what the king would say.

King Otho, with a smile, nodded in perfect imperturbability.

“That is true,” he said, “I had forgotten all about it.”

They waited for him to speak, the people in amazed silence, Mrs. Medora Hastings saying unintelligible things in whispers, for which she had a genius.

“It is true,” said King Otho, “that I am responsible for the disappearance of the Hereditary Treasure.  You will find it at this moment in a basement dungeon of the palace on Mount Khalak.  On the very day, three months ago, that I dined with your prince I had made a discovery of considerable importance to me, namely, that the little island of Yaque is richer in most of the radio-active substances than all the rest of the world.  The discovery gave me keener pleasure than I had known in years—­I had suspected it for some time after I found the noctilucous stars on the ceiling of my sitting-room at the palace.  And in the work-shop of the Princess Simyra I came upon a quantity of metallic uranium, and a great many other things which I question the taste of taking the time to describe.  But my experiments there with the very perfect gems of your admirable collection had evidently been antedated by some of your own people, for the apparatus was intact.  I shall be glad to show some charming effects to any one who cares to see them.  I have succeeded in causing the diamonds of Darius to phosphoresce most wonderfully.”

The phosphorescence of the diamonds of Darius was to the people far less important than the joyous fact which they were not slow to grasp, that the Hereditary Treasure was, if they might believe the king’s words, restored to them, and the burden of the tax averted.  They did not understand, nor did they seek to understand; because they knew the inefficiency of details and they also knew the value of mere import.