“I suppose he can now wander through these ancestral vaults at will, since there is no one to forbid him,” said Joe.
“I hope he won’t decide to come while we’re here,” remarked Archie, “or our pretty plans will be nipped in the bud.”
“Oh, it isn’t necessary for Mai Lo to lose sleep to enter these vaults,” I replied. “But it is as well to be on our guard, and I’m glad we found the evidences of his visit.”
Entering the alcove before which the table and lamp stood, we looked around with astonishment, for here was more evidence of Mai Lo’s presence in the tomb. This niche was evidently very rich in treasure, and the vases and bowls of gems had been emptied into a great heap in the center of the floor. From this heap some one had been assorting the jewels into varieties and sizes. In one place were pearls, the finest of which had been placed in one row, the next largest in a second row, and so on.
Rubies had been assorted in a similar way on another side of the chih, and emeralds in a third place. No jewels seemed to have been taken away, and from the size of the heap there was much more assorting to be done, and the job was scarcely begun.
The beauty of the row of great pearls appealed to Archie strongly, so he picked them up, one by one, and placed them in the pocket of his jacket.
“If anything should prevent our coming here again,” he remarked, “these pearls will well repay us for our journey to Kai-Nong.”
But he never suspected that they were likely nearly to cost us all our lives.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE TREASURE OF THE ANCIENTS.
From alcove to alcove we went, finding in each a different class of treasure, according to the wealth of the occupant and the period in which he had lived. Here a scholar was laid, and beside him a mass of parchment manuscripts, which either represented a half of his fortune or had been purchased at such high prices that his heir preferred to bury the manuscripts with his ancestor and keep the half of his wealth represented by more tangible assets. In another place we found many painted pictures, in another bales of silks, rotted and fallen to decay. But usually the wealth of these ancestors of Kai Lun Pu consisted of splendid gems and jewelry, ornaments of gold, silver and jade, and in many cases golden coins of the Empire. Well might Prince Kai say that his Ancestral Halls contained enough wealth to ransom a kingdom. To carry it all away with us would have required a railway train or the hold of a steamship.