"'If there were tongues many might praise him,'" repeated Betty.
"What does it matter?" said Hugh dispiritedly. "We're not interested in whether or not the subjects of the Emperor Andronicus were anxious to praise him. I could curse him for putting up a cock-and-bull story on my foolish ancestor.'
"'If there were tongues many might praise him,'" repeated Betty again. "And it was the Emperor Andronicus! The same, Daddy? The one the Instructions speak about?"
"Manifestly, my dear, the date certifies to that."
"Then there must be something in it," she insisted. "'If there were tongues many might praise him.' Don't you see what it means? There were no tongues to praise him. This work was not known at the time. Why? And why was he able to keep it a secret?"
"He may have murdered all the workmen," replied her father slowly. "He was a singularly bloody tyrant, according to the contemporary historians."
"Exactly," triumphed Betty. "And why would he have murdered them, in order to keep this work a secret? You see, he 'built the drain new from the tide-level, probably to this point. That means there was a drain, but it needed repair, and he seized the opportunity to hide his treasure. Hugh, where are those tools? I'm going to get this stone out of the wall."
It was as hard a job as we tackled, despite the softening of the mortar by the moisture of the ages; but after two hours, Hugh and Vernon King were able to pry the slab loose and it fell out with a mighty splash. Hugh thrust in the end of his crowbar, and it struck brickwork. Our torches showed this to be very flimsy, and when it was pounded it rang hollow. The three of us who had two arms apiece went at it with a will, and I was dispatched for reinforcements.
Nikka refused to come himself, but he sent Watty, and the valet helped in the final act of demolition. By the end of the afternoon we had smashed through an embrasure nearly three feet high and four feet long, and Hugh nominated Betty for the honor of leading the way into the dim passage which abutted on the hole. The rest of us crawled in afterward. My uncle and Watkins boosted me up, for my bad shoulder hindered me.
The passage was seven feet high and four feet wide. It led straight back between brick walls into a large chamber the roof of which was upheld by brick piers. The place was musty, foetid even, and very damp, but as our torches struggled through the darkness the rays were captured and juggled by glinting, sheeny heaps that were stacked against the piers and walls. Betty started forward involuntarily. There was a slurring sound, and then a tiny tinkling that died away in a faint murmurous ssssh.