For at that moment, as Tom shook the dark native cloth garment left in
his hands by the fleeing Indian, the sixteen ingots fell to the ground,
to be instantly secured.

"Harry," said my uncle, "I told you we had to deal with a cunning enemy.
That fellow was in the space between the ceiling and roof of my
bed-room. How he got there I can't tell; but," he added with a shudder,
"I fear if he had not been dislodged some of us would not have seen the
morning's light."

"But pursuit, Uncle," I cried. "Let us try and overtake him."

"No--no," he said uneasily. "We should only be led into a trap in the
forest, and we are too weak for that. I'm afraid, Harry, that this
affair is going to assume dimensions greater than we think for. It is
evident that the Indians suspected you of having been at their sacred
treasure, and despatched a spy to watch if their suspicions were
correct. I tried to bring him down, but I had only a momentary glance
and I must have missed him. No, Harry, there must be no pursuit but
plenty of scheming for defence, if we wish to hold that which we have
got. As I said before, there is no knowing where this will end. Which
way did he go?"

"Right away towards the forest, sir," said Tom.

"Perhaps only to slip back and watch by some other path," muttered my
uncle. "Give me the bars, Harry, and I'll take them in, while you and
Tom walk cautiously round before coming to me. Go one each way, right
round, so as to meet again here, and then come in and we will talk
matters over a little. But stay--tell me--did you see anything of the
Indians, do you say, as you came back?"

I repeated the incident of being surrounded, and the way in which Tom
presented a stalactite to the principal man.

My uncle smiled grimly.

"Tom," he said, "you must look out, or that stalactite will come back
with interest. I'm afraid that we English do not give the Indians
credit for all the brain they possess. They may have once been a
simple, childlike race, but long oppression has roused something more in
their breasts. You must look out, lads--look out."

My uncle left us, and Tom started one way, I the other, to look
watchfully and carefully round for danger; although, to my way of
thinking, it was decidedly a work of supererogation there in broad
daylight, with the sun pouring down his intensely bright beams. There
was the creeper-overhung verandah on one side, which, at a glance, I
could see was untenanted;