expression Kitwater had used to him in Singapore. "What's better, there
are hundreds more like them down below. I'll tell you what it is, my
friends, we're just the richest men on this earth at the present moment,
and don't you forget it!"

In his excitement he shook hands wildly with his companions. His
ill-humour had vanished like breath off a razor, and now he was on the
best of terms not only with himself, but also with the world in general.

"If I know anything about stones there are at least one hundred thousand
pounds worth in this little parcel," he said enthusiastically, "and what
is more, there is a million or perhaps two millions to be had for the
trouble of looking for them. What do you say if we go below again?"

"No! no!" said Kitwater, "it's too late. We'd better be getting back to
the camp as soon as may be."

"Very well," Hayle replied reluctantly.

They accordingly picked up their iron bars and replaced the stone that
covered the entrance to the subterranean passage.

"I don't like leaving it," said Hayle, "it don't seem to me to be safe,
somehow. Think what there is down there. Doesn't it strike you that it
would be better to fill our pockets while we've the chance? Who knows
what might happen before we can come again?"

"Nonsense," said Kitwater. "Who do you think is going to rob us of it?
What's the use of worrying about it? In the morning we'll come back and
fill up our bags, and then clear out of the place and trek for
civilization as if the devil and all were after us. Just think, my lads,
what there will be to divide."

"A million apiece, at least," said Hayle rapturously, and then in an
awed voice he added, as if he were discomfited by his own significance,
"I never thought to be worth a quarter of that. Somehow it doesn't seem
as if it can be real."

"It's quite real," said Mr. Codd, as he sprinkled some dry dust round
the crack of the stone to give it an appearance of not having been
disturbed. "There's no doubt of it."

When he had finished they picked up their tools and set off on their
return journey to the camp. The sun had disappeared behind the jungle
when they left the courtyard of the Three Elephants' Heads and ascended
the stone steps towards the inner moat. They crossed the bridge, and
entered the outer city in silence. The place was very dreary at that
hour of the day, and to Codd, who was of an imaginative turn of mind, it
seemed as if faces out of the long deserted pas