"Hah! Dick, lad," whispered Wyatt, grasping his hand, "never more
welcome than now. Not hurt?"
"Oh, no."
"Where have you been?"
"Out. I'll tell you soon, but his highness wants me."
"Yes," cried Wyatt fiercely, "and I'll tell you why. Through her
highness the Ranee's announcement to him, the Rajah, who does not know
what an English gentleman is, charges you with sweeping off as loot the
whole of her valuable gems. Now, then, speak out: tell his highness
what you have to say to that."
"Very little," said Dick coolly; "but I am not surprised."
"What! not surprised that his highness should say that?"
"Of course he would be indignant."
"Hah!" ejaculated the Wazir.
"Well," cried Wyatt, "why do you not tell him it is an insult?"
"Because it would be too childish," said Dick contemptuously. "I take
them! He cannot believe it."
"I do not want to believe it," cried the Rajah excitedly, "but it is
made so clear to me that it was you."
"Absurd!" cried Dick proudly, and he laughed in the Rajah's face. "The
precious stones were taken by some one in the palace."
"Yes," cried Wyatt, "and as an excuse to shift the blame on to us."
"Looks like it," said Dick sharply.
There was a roar of anger at this, and the Wazir and half the officers
present drew their swords.
"It is an insult to us all, gentlemen," cried the Wazir fiercely.
"It is no insult to the gentlemen present, brave officers of the Rajah,"
cried Dick excitedly, "but to one man only--the man who would stand by
and hear the blame laid upon another--the coward, the thief!"
"Ah!" cried the Wazir, frantic with rage. "Then who was it? Let the
Christian dog speak,"--sliding forward threateningly, sword in hand.
"Christian?--yes," cried Dick excitedly. "Dog yourself, and thief!"
"Hah!" yelled the Wazir, and quick as thought he made a tremendous
downward cut at the young officer. But Wyatt was even quicker, he was
prepared, for, as the Wazir raised his sword, his own flashed out from
its sheath as he stood on Dick's right, and in the swift upward cut it
met the Wazir's.
There was a loud clang and a musical jangle as the blade of a tulwar
fell quivering on the marble floor, and the Wazir stood holding the hilt
only of his weapon in his hand, while Wyatt drew back his weapon to his
shoulder a if about to thrust, and Dick drew and stood ready at his
side.
"Stand back," cried Wyatt in a deep, hoarse voice. "I don't strike at
unarmed men."
"I appeal to your highness," cried the Wazir. "I appeal to all who love
me. An insult, an outrage!" he snarled, as his eyes seemed to blaze
with the deadly hatred he felt towards the two Englishmen.
The Rajah looked at him with his own eyes flashing now, and held up his
hand to quell the storm, while the chief Brahmin crept shivering to the
door, to stand half behind the Rajah's guards and cling to the curtains
of rich stuff hanging from the arch.
"Let no man dare to raise a sword again in my presence," cried the Rajah
with dignity, and his officer drew back and imitated the action of Dick
and Wyatt, who thrust their swords back into the scabbards with a clang.
"Mr Darrell, you and your friends came here at my invitation, and I
will defend you to the last. But you have made a terrible charge
against one of the greatest noblemen of my court, the Ranee's old and
trusted friend."
"No more terrible charge than has been made against me, sir--an English
officer, who could not have committed such a paltry theft."
"Neither could this noble officer, my mother's trusted friend."
"Indeed?" said Dick calmly, as Wyatt stood watching his face. "I tell
you, then, sir, that yesterday afternoon I saw him come down the steps
beneath the great temple floor, lamp in one hand, bag in the other."
"What!" cried the Rajah wonderingly.
"And as he stepped hurriedly forward he caught his foot on something,
slipped, and let fall the bag he carried. It fell with a peculiar
sound, and the jerk he made in trying to save it put out the lamp."
The Wazir uttered a scornful laugh and looked round, half of those
present joining in the laugh, half looking grave.
"This was beneath the temple floor?" said the Rajah.
"Yes, sir: and we were in total darkness."
"Yes," said the Rajah excitedly, "go on. But stop! What were you doing
there?"
"I had gone to see the officer on guard there."
"Yes," cried the Rajah: "but how came you to know of the way down
below?"
"The officer we have had there by your instructions to guard the place
found the way."
"Then you were there to find the treasure-cell?" cried the Rajah
excitedly.
"We were there to guard the treasure-cell, sir, by your orders," said
Dick coldly. "Send and see if your place is safe."
"Yes," said the Rajah, drawing a deep breath, "I did send you there. Go
on."
"I was down there yesterday," continued Dick, "for I wished to carefully
inspect the place for reasons of my own, when I was surprised by the
coming of the Wazir."
"Then you played spy upon him," cried the Rajah. "Why did you not speak
openly to him, a gentleman you had often met here, and my friend?"
Wyatt winced a little at the question, for Dick's acts seemed
underhanded. But he brightened up the next moment at his
brother-officer's words.
"Because, sir, the Wazir was not my friend. I looked upon him as my
enemy, and I knew that if he found me there I should have to fight for
my life, perhaps against treachery."
"Go on," said the Rajah, and the Wazir repeated his scornful laugh.
"I waited in silence while I heard him go back in the darkness to the
steps," continued Dick, "and then I heard him set down the lamp, and I
could see him by the sparks he struck busying himself trying to relight
it. But it was long before he could get it to burn."
Dick faced the Rajah, watching his face as he spoke in his simple,
straightforward way, which carried truth in every tone; while Wyatt kept
his eyes fixed upon the Wazir, whose eyelids were half-closed; and at
any moment the English officer was prepared for treachery.
"At last," continued Dick, in the midst of the breathless interest of
the listeners, "the lamp burned out brightly again, and as he came back
towards where I stood looking from behind one of the pillars, I for the
first time knew what the bag contained, for two or three gems had
escaped from the mouth or a hole broken through, and sparkled
brilliantly upon the stone floor."
Dick paused for a moment, and a pent-up sigh escaped from several
present.
"He caught sight of the escaped stones," continued Dick, "and as he
picked up the bag he hurriedly thrust them back into their places, and
rose up to go on, bag and lamp in hand."
"Yes," said the Rajah, for Dick had halted again.
"There is very little more to tell, sir. He went on with the lamp
towards the side of the great vault, and went up to one of the cells
there that was lying open. I distinctly saw him go in and place the bag
in a niche there, come out, and close the door."
"How did he close the door?" said the Rajah sharply. "By sliding a
great slab of stone across the opening and letting fall a block behind
it in the groove," said Dick quietly.
"Hah!" ejaculated the Rajah with a long expiration of the breath.
"Then he went back hastily to the steps. I saw the lamp growing less
till it disappeared, leaving only a pale glow from the top; then it was
extinguished, and I was in the intense darkness once more, as I crept
softly after him and stood and listened till I heard a heavy, gliding
noise and a dull concussion, and then all was still."
Again there was silence, and Dick drew out a handkerchief and wiped his
streaming brow, looking hollow-cheeked and strange.
"I am hot and faint," he said half-apologetically, as if speaking to the
Rajah and Wyatt together: "I have been twenty-four hours without food,
and I am exhausted with trying to find a way out of that place."
"Hah!" cried the Rajah; "then you were shut in?"
"Yes, sir. When I had waited and then went to the top of the stairs,
and then along the narrow passages, I could not find the opening out for
a long time. Then I found that the narrow doorway behind the pillar had
been closed and made fast, and by degrees I grasped the fact that the
whole of the pillar had been thrust back against the passage wall, and
was now fastened there, probably by a block being lowered, or one of the
stone figures being pushed into a groove to keep it shut."
"Then you were a prisoner," said the Rajah.
"Yes, sir, till about an hour ago."
"When the door was opened," cried Wyatt excitedly. "Opened by the
sergeant, who had missed you."
"The sergeant did not know I had gone down below into the great vault,"
said Dick quietly; "and for aught I know, it may be fastened now."
"Then how did you escape?" cried the Rajah.
"I'm devoting my attention, sir, to finding the other way out," said
Dick firmly now.
"What other way out?" cried the Rajah. "There is no other way."
"There is, sir," said Dick quietly; "and but for the fact of my divining
the way in which entrance was secured, I should have been there now, or
till some one had come."
"Another way out?" cried the Rajah.
"Yes, sir; fastened in a similar fashion, as I found at last, by the
drawing back of a square pillar, leaving just room for a man to squeeze
through."
"But where was this?" asked the Rajah excitedly.
"At the extreme end of a long stone passage, hundreds and hundreds of
yards from the temple walls--a strange place rising upward above my
head--a place where I tried for hours till my fingers and nails were
worn like this and bleeding," said the lad, holding out his hands. "But
when at last I discovered the right place to touch, it yielded with the
greatest ease."
"You astound me," cried the Rajah, by whom the charge was for the moment
forgotten in this strange development. "And where did this other
doorway bring you out?"
"In one of the rooms of the old palace, sir," cried Dick firmly. "The
doorway was the one through which your highness's enemies and ours came
to fire our magazine and assassinate all who came in their way."