"And I shall have more gold?"

"We shall see; perhaps."

"Then I shall uncover the other," said Nicolas.

He stooped to his knees and lifted a loose board in the floor.

"One moment," said Hal. "Your men outside. We can take no chances with
them. If they knew you had all this gold stored here there would be a
fight. Step outside and tell them to go away."

This time Nicolas obeyed without even hesitating.

While he was outside, Hal whispered quickly to the others:

"There is no use delaying. We'll give his men time to get out of hearing
and then we'll grab him."

"But the gold, what are you going to do with that?" Ivan wanted to know.

Hal smiled a bit.

"I don't know how I happened to think of that," he said, "but now that we
practically have it in our hands, I vote that we turn it over to the
impoverished little kingdom of Montenegro."

"By Jove! Good!" exclaimed Colonel Edwards. "My boy, you have a wonderful
head on your shoulders. I am proud to know you."