"I would prefer that, said Tess. "My husband is a mining engineer.
I think he would hate to abandon a true lead for a whim of some one's else."

Yasmini's bright eyes gleamed intelligence. She was only learning in
those days to bend people to her own imperious will and to use others'
virtues for own ends as readily as their vices. She recognized the
necessity of yielding to Tess's compunctions, more than suspecting
that Dick Blaine would color his own views pretty much to suit his wife's
in any case. And with a lightning ability peculiar to her she saw how to
improve her own plan by yielding.

"That is settled, then," she said lazily. "Your husband shall continue to
dig near the fort, if he so wishes. But let him show Samson sahib some
specimens of the gold--how little it is--how feeble--how uncertain. Be
sure he does that, please. That will be the end of Gungadhura. And
now it is time to escape from here, and for you to help me."

Tess resigned herself to the inevitable. Whatever the consequences,
she was not willing to leave Yasmini to starve or be poisoned.

"I'm ready!" she said. "What's the plan?"

"I shall leave all the maids behind. They have food enough for the
morning. In the morning, after it is known that I have escaped, word
shall be sent to Samson sahib that the women in this palace have
nothing but poisoned food to eat. He must beard Gungadhura about
that or lose his own standing with the English."

"But how will you escape?"