"First and foremost you must understand," he said, "that it's all due to
Coddy here. We heard something of it from an old Siamese in Hanoi, but
we never put much trust in it. Then Coddy began to look around, to hunt
up some of his fusty records, and after awhile he began to think that
there might be something in the story after all. You see it's this way:
you know Sengkor-Wat?"

"Sengkor how much?"

"Sengkor-Wat--the old ruin at the back of Burmah; near the Chinese
Border. Such a place as you never dreamt of. Tumble-down palaces,
temples, and all that sort of thing--lying out there all alone in
the jungle."

"I've seen Amber," said Hayle, with the air of a man who makes a remark
that cannot be lightly turned aside. "After that I don't want any more
ruined cities. I've got no use for them."

"No, but you've got a use for other things, haven't you? You can use
rubies as big as pigeon's eggs, I suppose. You've got a use for
sapphires, the like of which mortal man never set eyes on before."

"That's certainly so," Hayle replied. "But what has this Sengkor-Wat to
do with it?"

"Everything in the world," Kitwater replied. "That's where those rubies
are, and what's more, that's where we are going to find them."

"Are you joking, or is this sober earnest?"