e; in
fact, the man who had guided him to the cave itself. He spoke to
Umballa. He said that he understood the holy one's plight; for to
these yet simple minded village folk Umballa was still the holy one.
Their religion was the same.

"Holy one," he said, "we can best your enemies who follow."

"How?" eagerly.

"Yonder is the chief's bullock cart. I myself will find the bullocks!"

"What then?"

"We shall be on the way south before the others land."

"An extra handful of gold for you! Get the oars out! Let us hurry!"

"More, holy one; these men will obey me."

"They shall be well paid."

Umballa had reached the point where he could not plan without
treachery. He proposed to carry the basket into the jungle somewhere,
bury it and make way with every man who knew the secret; then, at the
proper time, he would return for it with a brave caravan, his own men
or those whose loyalty he could repurchase.

The landing was made, the basket conveyed to the bullock cart, which
was emptied of its bait and leopard trap; the bullocks were brought out
and harnessed--all this activity before the fishing boats had covered
half the distance.

"I see light," murmured Umballa.

He tried to act coolly, but when he spoke his voice cracked and the
blood in his throat nigh suffocated him.

"Sand, holy one!"

"Well, what of sand?"

"You can dig and cover up things in sand and no one can possibly tell.
The sand tells nothing."

They drove the bullocks forward mercilessly till they came to what
Umballa considered a suitable spot. A pit was dug, but not before
Umballa had taken from the basket enough gold to set the men wild.
They were his. He smiled inwardly to think how easily they could have
had all of it! They were still honest.

The sand was smoothed down over the basket. It would not have been
possible for the human eye to discover the spot within a perfect range.
Umballa drove down a broken stick directly over where the basket lay.
He had beaten them; they would find nothing. Now to rid himself of
these simple fools who trusted him.

The man who longed to become the chief's successor was then played upon
by Umballa; to set the two factions at each other's throats; a perfect
elimination. Umballa advised him to rouse his friends, declare that
the white people had taken the gold away from the holy man, to whom it
belonged as agent.

Thus, in this peaceful fishermen's village began the old game of gold
an