“I say, ever heard the national anthem of Siam?” he inquired and Bob snorted, for he knew the answer.
“Perhaps I haven’t. I’ll bite, what is it?”
“O what an ass-I-am,” Jim chanted. “I never thought of you helping, not once, but I was sort of surprised that you let them get the ‘Lark,’ and that dynamite stuff set. You know, I was scared all over for I thought something awful must have happened to you-all up here—that the Boss and his gang really got you.”
“They didn’t. We got many of them, or they got themselves, but we didn’t get the Boss, as you call him.”
“Gee, wish you’d let me have the dope,” Jim urged.
“Surely. Of course we knew when they were placing the charges, so we set a few charges of our own. We spoiled the first set for them, and Cardow sent for more. We spoiled that, but they did not know it. They heard a noise and the big stone rocked out of place revealing the treasure. That went to their heads and we hoped to have them all inside when the stone returned to its place, but Gordon got suspicious. When he told Cardow that he would tell the Boss it looked ‘too easy’ we were sure the big gun would not come and walk into the trap, so we sprung it without him or Gordon.”
“Oh. But I say—”
“A couple of us went in and put masks on you and the Gonzalas, and the others—those who hadn’t been killed in the struggle to get away, smothered.”
“But gee, Gordon took a pocket full of jewels—”
“When he took them out to show them, they powdered in his hand. All that stuff was fake; arranged to make them ready to cut each other’s throats to get it,” Ynilea explained.