y 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