Soon after Burton had left the camp the Doctor received a letter from
Professor Muirson in which he said, "The only word on the rubbing you
sent me from the last fragment of slab you found means 'Cave,' and I
think it should be placed before the words 'of Hydas'; thus you have a
reference to the 'Cave of Hydas,' in which there is, or was, something
to be carefully guarded."
"Then, putting two and two together, the men who hold Mark a prisoner
are either anxious to learn where this Cave of Hydas is, or they know
where it is and do not wish any one else to obtain the knowledge," said
the Doctor.
"I am inclined to think that Mark is in that very cave at the present
moment," said Tom.
"Quite possible. By the way, Tom, tell the natives who are crowding
about the camp to continue the search for Mark. Burton wishes it to be
kept up for some reason or other," said the Doctor as he went into his
tent.
"Hi! Tom; come here a moment," almost immediately shouted the Doctor;
and as soon as Tom had joined him he said, "I have just found
this--listen: 'I have been asked to say that I am all right, and to
advise you to do what my captors have requested you. Your reply is to be
written on the blank part of this paper and placed where you put the
last. Mark.' There can be no doubt about the writing--it is Mark's, and
my mind is greatly relieved," said the Doctor.
"Mark knows one of his captors understands English or he would have
written more; he was only allowed to write what he was told," said Tom.
The Doctor at once wrote the following reply: "Mark, you are to tell
them that if one of their number will come with you here he may take
away any of the stones we have found."
This answer was written with the object of delay until Burton's return;
and, as before, the Doctor took the paper to the salt spring, while Tom
went to a position where he could watch the goat carry away the message
to the boy; and he had not long to wait, for within a couple of hours
the boy and his goats appeared and slowly passed the place, and, as they
quietly went along from bush to bush cropping the leaves, one took the
letter, and in a few minutes the boy had taken it from the goat.
That night, as soon as it was dark, the mysterious Fakir again entered
the cave he had examined a couple of nights previously. He lit his lamp
as soon as he was inside, and went straight to the far end.
Here he stood for a time and listened; then he flashed his light up the
chimney-shaped opening high above him, the top of which extended far
beyond the reach of his light; then, having satisfied himself that all
was quiet, he put his arm into a narrow crack in the side of the cave
and his fingers grasped two thin ropes; he gave them a sharp jerk, and
instantly there was a rustling, swishing noise as a rope-ladder came
tumbling down.
The Fakir tugged at the ladder, and, finding that it was securely
fastened above, he at once climbed up. When he had gone about forty feet
he found the entrance to another passage; but before venturing to
explore it he carefully drew up the ladder as it had been before.
The Fakir cautiously made his way, frequently stopping to put his ear to
the floor to listen, and keeping a sharp look-out for any side
galleries, of which he passed three, but they were much narrower than
the one he was following.
He had proceeded about three hundred yards when he suddenly closed the
shutter of his lamp; then, after listening a while, he went on in the
dark, and it was well he had turned off his light, for the passage took
an abrupt turn, and he saw the glimmer of a light in the distance and
faintly heard the sound of voices.
Slowly and noiselessly he approached the light, for he concluded it came
from some side cave, and this proved to be the case when he had gone a
little farther.
"I tell you again that you have got all the stones if, as you say, you
have stolen the one Ellison Sahib was taking to Lahore."
The words were spoken in a loud voice, and so suddenly had they broken
the stillness of the dismal place that the Fakir started with surprise,
and then crouched closer to listen.
"What the Sahib says is not true, for we have only got one of the last
you found the other day," said another speaker.
"Then get the rest if you can, for I know nothing about any more. How
long is this farce going to last? My father says he will let you have
any stones he has found if one of you will go with me for them, but I
told you when you first captured me that you would get nothing of value
by keeping me a prisoner," replied Mark, for he it was.
"Then you shall not leave this cave until the other parts of the broken
slab are discovered and in our hands, and I may tell you that it is more
than a hundred years since the slab was broken and some of the parts
stolen and lost. Take him back to his cave"; and the Fakir could hear
footsteps ascending steps and then die away in the distance.
"Now, brothers, hearken," began the speaker who had addressed Mark. "We
have learnt that Koj Burton has almost guessed who we are, and if he
follows up his idea he will surely track us down. Our forefathers
through many generations protected the secret of their work and amassed
wealth in the way we are doing, and, with the exception of the man who
accidentally found his way into this cave and stole the inscribed slab,
no outsider has ever known the secret of the Cave of Hydas--and that man
met his death without having an opportunity of revealing what he had
learnt, although he caused us to lose part of that on which was written
the command to guard the secret of the cave with our lives.
"Are we now going to allow this Koj Burton to bring destruction upon us
and thereby destroy our method of obtaining wealth?" asked the speaker
fiercely.
"Never! never! never!" shouted fully half a dozen voices.
"Then he must die, and I will see that he does so, and in such a manner
that his death cannot in any way be traced to us"; and as the Fakir
heard these words he gripped his revolver more tightly, and a grim
smile played about his mouth.
"If this Koj Burton suspects who we are, do you not think, Appoyas, that
he may also have gained some idea of the Cave of Hydas?" a voice asked.
"It may be so, and we will have the cave well guarded. Do not forget
that to-morrow night at ten o'clock it will be, according to the
records, exactly fifty years since the offerings in the Temple of Atlas
were removed to the Temple of Hydas. This has been done every fifty
years, and only on those occasions is the inner temple opened, and----"
the speaker stopped abruptly, and then, after a moment's pause,
continued--"and, brothers, you may now go."
On hearing the last words so suddenly spoken the Fakir began quickly and
noiselessly to retreat along the passage, but, as no one appeared to be
following, he stopped.
For some minutes he heard men talking, and dimly saw some figures come
into the passage and go in the opposite direction, and in a short time
the sound of footsteps died away and the Fakir was left alone in the
silent darkness.
More than a quarter of an hour he remained motionless; then he felt his
way to the entrance of the side cave in which he had heard the men, and,
finding all still, he turned on his light.
It was a cave-chamber, about twelve feet square; the walls were fairly
smooth, but the roof was uneven--it was evidently an enlarged cave.
From this cave-chamber there was a flight of steps to a passage above,
and the Fakir was on the point of ascending them when he heard quick
footsteps coming along the passage towards him, which caused him to
hurry back into the passage he had left; then, turning off his light, he
waited and listened.
"One of the brothers must have come back for something," the Fakir heard
some one mutter. "It is all right, though; I will return to my
prisoner," and then he went away.
Without venturing to turn on his light the Fakir started for the
rope-ladder; every few paces he paused to listen; he appeared extremely
suspicious, for at times he would halt for three or four minutes and was
constantly feeling his revolver.
At last he had nearly reached the ladder, when suddenly he saw a faint
glimmer as though from a light in the passage below, so, inch by inch,
he approached the edge until he was able to peer down, and almost at the
instant he did so the light below went out; but he had learnt much in
that one glance, and, as the sound of a severe struggle from below
reached him, he quickly lowered the ladder and quietly slipped down.
No sooner had he reached the bottom than he turned on his light for an
instant, which revealed Tom Ellison and a powerful native trying to get
the better of each other, the latter having a knife in his hand, but Tom
was holding him by the wrist and preventing him using it.
In a moment the Fakir had twisted the knife from the man's grasp, and
in a few seconds the man was bound and gagged.
"Well I'm----" began Tom, but the Fakir put his hand over Tom's mouth
and, taking him by the arm, led him to the cave-entrance.
"Speak low, Tom," said the Fakir in a low voice.
"Marvellous! Is it you, Burton? I should never have known you in that
get-up," whispered the surprised Tom.
"Seems like it. But quick's the word, my boy. We must have that man out
before any of his comrades come along, and this must be done without his
discovering who I am. We must blindfold him, for there is a rope-ladder
hanging near him, and on no account must he learn that it is down, and
that we are aware of its existence; as soon as we have him here I will
return and place the ladder as I found it," said Burton.
"Ah, now I understand why you so promptly put out your light when you
had secured the knife," said Tom. "But where shall you take the man? His
comrades will hear about his capture if you take him to the camp," he
added.
"That is the very last thing I wish them to learn. About an hour's walk
from here--but two hours for us to-night, I am afraid--there is a
salt-mine, and to-day I arranged--in case I needed it--to use part of it
as a temporary prison until we make a grand coup on the rest of the
gang. I have a couple of my men waiting near the mine now," explained
Burton.
It was a difficult tramp they had with their prisoner. They kept him
blindfolded, and his hands bound; and each held him by an arm as they
stumbled over the rough ground in the dark, for Burton would not risk
using his lamp lest the light, at that unusual hour, should attract the
attention of the man's friends and cause them to try and discover what
it meant.
When they had safely lodged their prisoner they started for the camp.
"What caused you to go to that cave, Tom?" asked Burton, as they walked
along.
"Oh, the word on that last piece of stone turns out to be 'cave,' and
when thinking the matter over I thought of the place Mark had entered
after the porcupine, so I spotted the place before dark, and then
quietly left the camp after dinner on a private exploring expedition.
That man suddenly sprang upon me just before you so opportunely appeared
on the scene," explained Tom.
"Then that's all right--you were followed from the camp; I was afraid
they had placed a guard over that entrance," said Burton. "I branch off
here, for I cannot enter the camp in this disguise; I want to use it
again, and as a Fakir I do not wish to be seen near the camp; but I hope
to turn up early in the--or rather this morning. I advise you to get all
the rest you can, for I think I can promise you a very lively time
before many hours are over."
As Burton went on alone, he muttered, "Yes, I must have all arrangements
carefully made. I expect we shall have a dangerous tussle, for they are
not the class of men to give in quietly."