f the hill and
approached the open spot where their camp was situated.

"What did I tell you?" said Kitwater, as he looked about the camp and
could discover no traces of their two native servants. "It was one of
our prowling rascals you saw, and when he comes back I'll teach him to
come spying on us. If I know anything of the rattan, he won't do
it again."

Hayle shrugged his shoulders. While the fact that their servants were
not at the camp to anticipate their return was certainly suspicious, he
was still as convinced as ever that the man he had seen slipping through
the ruins was no Burman, but a true son of the Celestial Empire.

Worn out by the excitement of the day, Kitwater anathematized the
servants for not having been there to prepare the evening meal, but
while he and Hayle wrangled, Mr. Codd had as usual taken the matter into
his own hands, and, picking up a cooking-pot, had set off in the
direction of the stream, whence they drew their supply of water. He had
not proceeded very far, however, before he uttered a cry and came
running back to the camp. There was a scared expression upon his face as
he rejoined his companions.

"They've not run away," he cried, pointing in the direction whence he
had come. "They're dead!"

"Dead?" cried Kitwater and Hayle together. Then the latter added, "What
do you mean by that?"

"What I say," Codd replied. "They're both lying in the jungle back
there with their throats cut."

"Then I was right after all," Hayle found time to put in. "Come, Kit,
let us go and see. There's more than we bargained for at the back of
all this."

They hurried with Codd to the spot where he had discovered the bodies,
to find that his tale was too true. Their two unfortunate servants were
to be seen lying one on either side of the track, both dead and
shockingly mutilated. Kitwater knelt beside them and examined them
more closely.

"Chinese," he said laconically. Then after a pause he continued, "It's a
good thing for us we had the foresight to take our rifles with us
to-day, otherwise we should have lost them for a certainty. Now we shall
have to keep our eyes open for trouble. It won't be long in coming, mark
my words."

"You don't think they watched us at work in that courtyard, do you?"
asked Hayle anxiously, as they returned to the camp. "If that's so,
they'll have every atom of the remaining treasure, and we shall be
done for."

He spoke as if until that moment they had received