lue had been overlooked. Stooping, I picked up from
the dirt a marvellously-cut ruby, almost the size of a pigeon's egg. But
the majority of the treasure-chests had been emptied. The place had been
visited, and the vast wealth of a nation stolen.

"For the first time in the long, glorious history of my land has the
Treasure-house been entered by thieves," Omar said, as if to himself. "No
mere adventurer can have been here; this great robbery is the result of
some base conspiracy. The treasure of the Sanoms, renowned through the
whole world as the most wondrous collection of magnificent and
unsurpassable gems, has been cleared out and the entrance re-closed in a
manner little short of marvellous. To-day is indeed a sad one for Mo, and
for me. My inheritance has been taken from me."

"By whom?" I inquired, continuing my way, examining one of the few chests
that had apparently not been tampered with. But, as in the gloom I
hastened from one casket to another, my foot suddenly struck against some
object, causing me to lose my balance, and thus tripped, were it not for
the fact that I clutched at the corner of the great chest, I should have
fallen upon my face.

Bending to examine what it was, I was amazed to discover the body of a
male slave, still dressed in the uniform of the servants of the palace,
but rapidly decomposing. It was the faint sickening odour emitted from
the corpse that had greeted our nostrils when we entered the place.

We both bent and looked at him, astounded at discovering, still imbedded
in his back, a long keen knife. He had been struck down from behind and
murdered, while in the act of securing some of the treasure, for his
brown withered fingers still grasped a beautiful necklet of magnificent
pearls, an ornament worth several thousand English pounds.

"That is one of the Naya's personal attendants," observed Omar,
recognizing the dress, but unable to distinguish the features of the
murdered man, so decomposed were they. "He perhaps participated in the
plot, and to secure his silence, or his portion of the booty, his
fellow-conspirators struck him to earth."

"But to whom is due the chief responsibility in this affair?" I asked.
"Surely you have some suspicion?"

"I know not," he answered. "Besides myself only the Naya knew the secret
means by which the treasure might be reached."

"Then in all probability she secured it before her flight!" I cried.

"That may be the truth," he answered in