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Then I gingerly put the corpse. out on the quicksand. In doing so—it was lying face downward—I tore the frail and rotten khaki shooting-coat open, disclosing a hideous cavity in the back. I have already told you that the dry sand had, as it were, mummified the body. A moment’s glance showed that the gaping hole had been caused by a gun-shot wound; the gun must have been fired with the muzzle almost touching the back. The shooting-coat, being intact, had been drawn over the body after death, which must have been instantaneous. The secret of the poor wretch’s death was plain to me in a flash. Some one of the crater, presumably Gunga Dass, must have shot him with his own gun—the gun that fitted the brown cartridges. He had never attempted to escape in the face of the rifle-fire from the boat.

I pushed the corpse out hastily, and saw it sink from sight literally in a few seconds. I shuddered as I watched. In a dazed, half-conscious way I turned to peruse the notebook. A stained and discolored slip of paper bad been inserted between the binding and the back, and dropped out as I opened the pages. This is what it contained:—“Four out from crow-clump: three left; nine out; two right; three back; two left; fourteen out; two left; seven out; one left; nine back; two right; six back; four right; seven back. ”The paper had been burned and charred at the edges. What it meant I could not understand. I sat down on the dried bents turning it over and over between my fingers, until I was aware of Gunga Dass standing immediately behind me with glowing eyes and outstretched hands.

“Have you got it?” he panted. “Will you not let me look at it also? I swear that I will return it. ”

“Gotwhat? Returnwhat?” asked.

“That which you have in your hands. It will help us both. ” He stretched out his long, bird-like talons, trembling with eagerness.

“I could never find it,” he continued. “He had secreted it about his person. Therefore I shot him, but nevertheless I was unable to obtain it. ”

Gunga Dass had quite forgotten his little fiction about the rifle-bullet. I received the informationperfectly calmly. Morality is blunted by consorting with the Dead who are alive.

“What onearth are you raving about? What is it you want me to give you?”

“The piece of paper in the notebook. It will help us both. Oh, you fool! You fool!Can you not see what it will do for us? We shall escape!”

His voice rose almost to a scream, and he danced with excitement before me. I own I was moved at the chance of my getting away.

“Don’t skip!Explain yourself. Do you mean to say that this slip of paper will help us? What does it mean?”

“Read it aloud!Read it aloud!I beg and I pray you to read it aloud. ”

I did so. Gunga Dass listened delightedly, and drew an irregular line in the sand with his fingers.

“See now!It was the length of his gun-barrels without the stock. I have those barrels. Four gun-barrels out from the place where I caught crows Straight out; do you follow me? Then three left-Ah! how well I remember when that man worked it out night after nightThen nine out, and so on. Out is always straight before you across the quicksand. He told me so before I killed him. ”

“But if you knew all this why didn’t you get out before?”

“I did notknow it. He told me that he was working it out a year and a half ago, and how he was working it out night after night when the boat bad gone away, and he could get out near the quicksand safely. Then he said that we would get away together. But I was afraid that he would leave me behind one night when he had worked it all out, and so I shot him. Besides, it is not advisable that the men who once get in here should escape. Only I, and Iam a Brahmin. ”