If the tale Yasmini told him on the morning of her first visit to Tess had not been enough to determine Mukhum Dass, now, with the lost title-deed recovered, the conviction that Gungadhura wanted the place for secret reasons, and Chamu’s objections to confirm the whole wild story, he became as set on his course and determined to wring the last anna out of the mystery as only a money-lender can be.

“With what money did you repay to me the loan that your son obtained by false pretenses?” he demanded.

“I?  What?  I repaid the loan.  I have the receipt.  That is enough.”

“On the receipt stands written the number of the bank-note.  I have kept the bank-note.  It was stolen from the Princess Yasmini.  Do you wish to go to jail?  Then open that cellar door!”

“Sahib, I never stole the note!” wept Chamu.  “It was thrust into my cummerbund from behind!”

But Mukhum Dass set his face like a flint, and the wretched Chamu knew nothing about the law against compounding felonies.  Wishing he had had curiosity enough himself to search the cellar thoroughly before the door was nailed down, he finally yielded to the money-lender’s threats and between them, with much sweating and grunting, they pushed and pulled the safe from off the trap.  Then came the much more difficult task of drawing nails without an instrument designed for it.  Dick Blaine kept all his tools locked up.

“There is an outside door to the cellar, behind the house,” said Chamu.

“But that is of iron, idiot! and bolts on the inside with a great bar resting in the stonework.  Are there no tools in the garden?”

Chamu did not know, and the money-lender went himself to see.  There Pinga with the vertical smile saw him choose a small crow-bar and return into the house with it.  Pinga passed the word along to another man, who told it to a third, who ran with it hot-foot to Gungadhura’s palace.

Once inside the house again Mukhum Dass lost no time, arguing to himself most likely that with the secret of the treasure of Sialpore in his possession it would not much matter what damage he had done.  He would be able to settle for it.  He broke the hasp of the door, and levered up the trap, splintering it badly and breaking both hinges in the process, while Chamu watched him, growing green with fear.

Then he ordered a lamp and went alone into the cellar, while Chamu, deciding that a desperate situation called for desperate remedies, went up-stairs on business of his own.  It took Mukhum Dass about two minutes to discover the loose stone—­less than two more to raise it—­and about ten seconds to see and pounce on the silver tube.  He was too bent on business to notice the man with the vertical smile peering down at him through the trap.  Pinga escaped from the house after seeing the money-lender hide the tube inside his clothes, and less than a minute later a lean man ran like the wind to Gungadhura’s palace to confirm the first’s report.