As Bud gasped, Wayne reached into a drawer of his desk and took out a handful of yellowing printed pages. “Perhaps you found what was left of that book, Travels in Remotest Araby. These are the torn-out pages.”
“Is that how you found the mine?” Bud asked.
Wayne shook his head. “Not at all. I was simply making sure no one else would find it. You see,” Wayne went on, after pausing to light a cigar, “I stumbled on these old mine workings months ago. That was when Europa Fabrik first sent me to Kabulistan to wangle a development contract. Needless to say, I kept my discovery secret-even from my own company.”
THE AMIR’S MINE 159
Later, Wayne explained, he had returned to the United States, and tried to buy the patent rights to Tom Swift’s midget power plant. This, he felt, would help convince the Shah that Eu-ropa Fabrik should be given a free hand in developing Kabulistan’s resources.
“Naturally I would have been in charge of the project,” Wayne added with a sly chuckle. “A perfect chance to work the mine secretly-and make myself rich beyond belief!”
He opened another drawer and took out several glinting red gems.
“Just look at these rubies!” Wayne gloated. “Do you realize this mine is worth millions? But you, Tom my boy, ruined my plan with your stubbornness. And your friend Provard copped the contract, instead of Europa Fabrik. Even so, I think I’ll be able to snatch quite a fortune out of these mine workings before anyone finds out what’s going on!”
To keep the local mountaineers away from the site, Wayne went on, he had hired several fake religious mullahs. On his orders, they had revived and spread the old stories about the mine being accursed by Shaitan.