“How did Gungadhura get in here?” wondered Tess.

“Through the hole at the end of the mine-shaft, I suppose,” said Dick.  “I built up the lower one—­he came one day and saw me doing it—­but left a space at the top that looked too small for a man to crawl through.  Then I blocked the mouth of the tunnel afterward, and shut him in, I suppose.  He’s had the men’s rice and water-bottles, and they left a lot of faggots in the tunnel, too, I remember.  That accounts for the smell of smoke.”

“But what was the digging I’ve heard o’ nights?” demanded Tom.  “I’m not the only one.  The British garrison was scared out of its wits.”

Utirupa was hunting about with a lantern in his hand, watching the dog go sniffing in the shadows.

“Come and see what he has done!” he called suddenly, and Yasmini ran to his side.

In a corner of the vault one of the great facing stones had been removed, disclosing a deep fissure in the rock.  One of Dick Blaine’s crow-bars that he had left in the tunnel lay beside it.

“He must have found that by tapping,” said Tom Tripe.

“Yes, but look why he wanted it!” Yasmini answered.  “Tom, could you be as malicious as that?”

“As what, Your Ladyship?”

“See, he has poured gold into the fissure, hoping to close it up again so that nobody could find it!”

“But why didn’t he work his way out with the crow-bar?” Dick objected from his perch between the bags of bullion.

“What was his life worth to him outside?” Yasmini asked.  “Samson knew who murdered Mukhum Dass.  He would have been a prisoner for the rest of his life to all intents and purposes.  No!  He preferred to hide the treasure again, and then wait here for me, suspecting that I knew where it is and would come for it!  Only we came too soon, before he had it hidden!”

But it was Patali afterward, between boasting and confession, who explained that Dick was Gungadhura’s real objective after all.  He preferred vengeance on the American even to a settled account with Yasmini.  He must have found the treasure by accident after crawling into the unsealed crack in the wall to wait there against Dick’s coming.

“The money must stay here, and be removed little by little,” said Utirupa.

“First of all Blaine sahib’s share of it!” Yasmini added.  “Who shall count it?  Who!”

“Never mind the money now,” Tess answered.  “Dick’s alive!  When did you first know you’d found the treasure, Dick?”

“Not until the day that Gungadhura found me closing up the fault, and asked me to dig at the other place.  The princess told me I was on the trail of it that night that you went with her by camel; but I didn’t know I’d found it till the day that Gungadhura came.”

“How did you know where it was?” Tess asked, and Yasmini laughed.