“Incontrovertible, Tip means,” said Grover.
“—I went back, later, to take wedges out of the lower lever, after we beat your trick tunnel, and picked up the Imitation that Rog’ tells me Mister Clark throwed away. I carried it as far as Bombay, and figured it wasn’t worth anything anyhow, so I left it in the waste-basket in the hotel room.”
The Tibetan lama stared at him sternly.
“That was but an imitation. It was the one taken out that I demand, from the boy who must know where it is.”
“But—I tell you!” Roger was earnest, “I saw Mister Clark exchange the false one. And he dropped the one taken out into his coat, and when we got out of the tunnel and closed the rock, he threw it away, saying it wasn’t any use. Tip, here, found that!”
The lama shook his head.
“The Eye of Om is not in its socket!”
A sudden thought came to Mr. Clark. With a cry of dismay he told them his startling idea.
“It must be that in the excitement, meaning to exchange the imitation for the real—to put back what rightfully belonged there and protect my friend, Doctor Ryder, I must have mixed the gems, and instead of replacing the false one with the real one, I must have put the false one back, and really threw away the true Eye.”
“Then—I throwed it away in Bombay.”