On the sixth day of that anxious week, a quiet man with a long face and keen eyes arrived in the pal- ace of lac. In a soft voice, he said, "Your uncle Vidura sent me. I am a miner; I tunnel under the ground for precious stones."
Yudhishtira glanced at Bheema. He said nothing yet, because he must be sure the man was not a spy. After a moment, the miner went on, "Vidura said to me, 'Duryodhana means to immolate my nephews in a house of lac in Varanasi. Go and help the Pandavas.' So I have come."
Though they found themselves warming instinctively to the taciturn miner, the Pandavas waited for some sign that they could trust him. Suddenly remembering, the miner brightened and said, "Fire is a more terrible weapon than the sword. Against fire a man should guard himself as the rat does against winter, by burrowing."
Vidura's very words to Yudhishtira outside Hastinapura and the miner spoke in the rough mlech- cha bhasha. Yudhishtira rose and embraced the man, "Welcome, friend! We had to be sure Vidura sent you. These are days of conspiracy and our cousin means to kill us. Did you notice the smell in the air?"
The miner nodded, he was not a man who missed much. "I will dig an underground passage out of here, through which you can escape on the night Purochana sets fire to this place. Duryodhana will believe you are dead and you will have the advantage over your enemies. The people will also suspect foul play and turn away from Duryodhana. You will gain an advantage twice over and time as well, says your uncle Vidura who loves you."
The miner began his task at once. He prised away a flagstone from the central courtyard and started digging. He said his tunnel would lead to the banks of the Ganga. The only trouble was that Purochana was always in the lacquer palace. He pretended to be an eager servitor; while, in fact, he was spying. And of course, he was waiting uneasily for a moonless night.
It was not possible for the miner to dig his tunnel while Purochana was about. Every day, the Pan- davas went hunting with Purochana as their guide. While they were away, the miner worked fever- ishly.
For two weeks he toiled: by day, while the Pandavas were out in the forest with Purochana and by night as well, when Purochana returned to Varanasi to sleep. The miner barely slept a few hours daily and Duryodhana's man never suspected a thing. In fact, the miner made friends with Purochana. He even made him think that he, too, was Duryodhana's man sent by him to keep an eye on the Panda- vas and on Purochana himself.
The tunnel was finished sooner than they expected. The miner's task had been providentially halved: some twenty feet down he struck a natural subterranean rock-tunnel that led straight to the river. All he had to do was excavate his way up through soft earth and make an opening for the Pan- davas and Kunti to come out. By this stroke of luck, he was also able to make a much longer passage.
One night, the miner took Yudhishtira and his brothers a short way down the tunnel to show them how it led into the ground. Meanwhile he also took to drinking with Purochana on some eve- nings in Varanasi. He won the assassin's confidence by speaking slightingly of the Pandavas and prais- ing Duryodhana. And once Purochana confided to the miner that an astrologer had told him the Pandavas should be very careful of their lives on the night of the coming new moon.
The next morning the miner warned Yudhishtira. The Pandava said, "Amavasya is a fortnight away. Before that we must set fire to the palace ourselves, with Purochana in it and escape."
Kunti said, "Let us have a poor-feeding in ten days. We will invite Purochana also and get him drunk until he falls asleep."
"And we set fire to this cursed palace and escape!" cried Bheema, hugging her. "Our enemies should beware of our mother."
