I'd have come
through and taken my chance with the three of them, only even as
I looked at him his jaw dropped, and I knew that he was gone. I
got into his room that same night, though, and I searched his
papers to see if there was any record of where he had hidden our
jewels. There was not a line, however: so I came away, bitter
and savage as a man could be. Before I left I bethought me that
if I ever met my Sikh friends again it would be a satisfaction to
know that I had left some mark of our hatred: so I scrawled down
the sign of the four of us, as it had been on the chart, and I
pinned it on his bosom. It was too much that he should be taken
to the grave without some token from the men whom he had robbed
and befooled.
"We earned a living at this time by my exhibiting poor Tonga at
fairs and other such places as the black cannibal. He would eat
raw meat and dance his war-dance: so we always had a hatful of
pennies after a day's work. I still heard all the news from
Pondicherry Lodge, and for some years there was no news to hear,
except that they were hunting for the treasure. At last,
however, came what we had waited for so long. The treasure had
been found.
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