CHAPTER IX

FORTY YEARS! THE AWAKENING

And then voices in my own tongue, low voices in the tongue I had not

heard for so long; and kind English faces coming and going beside my

bed, and mingling with my dreams.

And there came a time when I awoke to full sanity again, a time when

dreams no longer blended with reality.

I lay in a cool, green-shuttered room, and beside me sat a pleasant-

faced man, dressed in white, who was looking at me intently, and who

nodded vigorously as I looked back at him.

"Better, eh?" he asked "There, don't speak. I can see you are. Take

this, and go to sleep; you have had a bad time, and must get stronger

before you talk."

And strong I got rapidly, and in a few days he told me where I was, and

how I came there.

He was the British Consul at Loanda in Portuguese West Africa, and one

morning about two months before, some natives had brought me in to him

slung in a machilla.

They said they had been paid to bring me in, and that I was sick, and

before he had had time to question them closely they had disappeared,

without anyone finding out where they came from.

Sick and delirious, the Consul had been on the point of sending me to

the Portuguese hospital, when a few words in English caught his

attention, and feeling that he could not leave a fellow-countryman to

the mercy of strangers and foreigners in such a plight, he had seen me

through the stiff bout of brain fever in his own house.

As he told me all this, I decided to tell him all in return; for I now

remembered all that had happened up to the time I had swallowed the

berry; though after that it seemed nothing but a dream.

And first I asked him if the natives had brought anything with me.

"Nothing whatever," he replied, "except a small skin bag of stones!"

He had not opened it, nor did I need to then, for the feel was enough.

And it had been no dream then the crater, the deluge, the priestess,

and the promise she gave me.

Quietly, and as briefly as I could, I told him my story. Half way

through it he stopped me. "Look here," he said, "you mustn't go on like

this. You are wandering again!" and though I assured him I was not, he

felt my pulse and took my temperature. Then he let me go on again, and

though he looked puzzled and uneasy he listened till I was finished.

And then, looking at his pained and startled expression, I could see

that he believed I was lying or mad.

And then and then only I opened the bag. And the diamonds were there

enough to make a dozen men rich many more than the few blue ones I had

with me when I first escaped.

And never was a man more astounded than the Consul; again and again he

made me repeat my story, and at last, in considerable agitation, he got

up and walked to the window, where he stood looking out in silence for

some time.

Then he came back to the bed where I lay, and looked searchingly at me

again.

"You are a young man," he said slowly; "to all appearance you are a

young, strong man in spite of your scarred face and your bent spine,

you look a young man! Now how long were you there in that pit how long

do you think has passed since your terrible experience with the Snake?"

"It all seems like a dream," I answered him, "and I cannot tell. But I

must have been several months in the crater perhaps a year. Since then

I cannot have wandered long."

"Well, then," he questioned, "what month and year was it that you went

to Walfisch Bay, and found Inyati?"

"In 1860," I said; "I landed there in November, 1860. What is it now?"

"Good God, man," he exclaimed, "you must be mistaken. Are you sure it

was 1860?"

"Sure," I repeated, "November, 1860; and it was some time in the

following May that I lost Inyati May, 1861. Last year, was it?"

"Last year! Last year!" he repeated as though dazed in fact I could see

that he was absolutely frightened. "Why man, what you tell me is

incredible impossible! If it were true, you have slept for nearly forty

years. For it is now 1900."

And now it was my turn to be amazed, for truly what he had told me was

incredible . . . surely he must be mad himself!

But he went to the door and called the little Portuguese doctor, who

had also been kindness itself to me.

"Aha," he said as he looked me over and felt my pulse, "now you are

well and have sense again, eh? That is good, it is good that you are

strong very strong never have I see so strong a man never! And if you

have not been strong, you would die, for your head it was quite mad!"

"Look here, Doctor Santos," said the Consul, "our friend has forgotten

a lot of what has happened to him, . . there is a long period about

which his mind is a blank months in fact years!"

"That can be if it is the fever, yes! he will remember again. But his

head have been hurt, it is to be seen, that too may make forget, for

months even a year!"

"Forty years?" suggested the Consul tentatively.

"Ah, you joke, my friend!" replied Santos, "that would not be possible,

he is surely not that age himself?"

And laughing, as he thought, at the Consul's joke, the little man gave

me a few instructions that I did not even hear, and left us.

And the Consul, without a word, handed me a newspaper, and a glance at

it was enough to show that he at least had made no mistake, for it was

dated September, 1900.

And now I was like to go crazy again, with the shock and bewilderment.

Forty years! A lifetime lost. My friends would be dead, or old, old

people who had long forgotten me. Of what use would all this wealth be

to me an old and forgotten friendless man. Old! yes, I must be an old,

old man myself. And yet, now the fever had gone, I felt strong and

vigorous indeed, the doctor had said that I was exceptionally strong

and that I was not forty and the Consul too had said I was a "young,

strong man!"

Surely this was pure hallucination . . . but no! the paper was real

enough. And turning it over I saw that indeed I had slept a lifetime,

for although it was in my own tongue, all it referred to was absolutely

strange to me. New inventions, places I had never heard of, nations

even that were unknown to me; it was as though I read of a new world,

as, uncomprehending, I glanced through this first newspaper that I had

seen for forty years.

The Consul had sat watching me in silence. He saw my agitation, and

realized something of what I felt, for putting out his hand and

grasping mine he said, kindly: "It must be a blow . . . friends all

dead, eh? Well, I'm your friend, anyhow . . . and you'll remember

later. Why, man, you must get that forty years out of your mind you are

surely younger than myself, and will be as strong as a bull in a week

or two. Try and sleep, my friend; you'll remember better to-morrow!"

But well I knew that the memory of those lost years would never return

to me. "Eat and forget forget!" The words were ringing in my ears even

now, as though spoken but yesterday. I had but to close my eyes and the

scene of deluge and destruction, there beneath the Snake, came as a

vivid picture before them and the eyes and voice of the woman that had

bade me forget were with me always. Those burning eyes! They blotted

out every other vision even that of the woman that had waited. God help

me, I could not even remember the semblance of her face always those

eyes of flame came between us. And God help her! If she had waited all

these years she would be an old, old woman but forty years! Surely she

was dead!

When had it been, that awful sleep of mine that had blotted out nearly

half a century, and left me, an anachronism, an outcast a "young,

strong man" still, whilst my schoolmates must be old, toothless gossips

or long since dead and forgotten? It must have been in the crater where

I had fallen that all these years had passed!

The strange berries, mayhap they had robbed me of these years the

berries that stupefied me and gave me pleasant dreams.

What then had the priestess bidden me forget . . . the path? Yes, the

path; and truly my wanderings had been but as a confused dream, a long

weary search it had seemed, hopeless and endless, yet it could have

taken but a few months from that long total of years.

And the thought came to me that though I knew nothing of this way of my

return, yet the spell had not been perfect, for I forgot little of that

other path I had trod with Inyati, and after; and I could, and would,

return!

For as my strength came back, and grew till it was the wonder of all,

so did my longing to return increase.

The eyes the voice that had bidden me go, now seemed to call for me

incessantly . . . all else was a weariness I must go back!

For long I fought it. I even went back to England with Gerard, my good

friend the Consul, who, if he still thought me mad, at least respected

my madness.

For he said nothing of my story to a soul, and he it was that piloted

me as a child through the new conditions of life that I found on all

sides in England; he helped me turn part of my diamonds into a large

fortune, he helped me at length and with reluctance, for he would

rather not have believed in the miracle of my long sleep to find proof

of all I had told him.

There came a day when we stood before the graves of my father and

mother, who had died years after I had left England died mourning me as

dead and from the lips of an old greybeard, who had been my schoolmate,

we heard how that scapegrace son of theirs had gone treasure-seeking

and had never returned all those years ago.

Poor old garrulous fool; he little knew that the deformed, but strong

and vigorous man that asked him of this companion of his youth was that

very "scapegrace" himself transformed, and with age held back from him

by a miracle.

And there came a day, too, when a sweet-voiced, silver-haired old lady,

with her grandchildren playing about her, told these two strangers from

Africa how her lover of long ago had gone there to win her a fortune,

and had never returned, and how she had waited ten long years for him,

till all hope of him had fled, before she married; and how even now she

held his memory in dear regard.

How astonished and delighted she had been at the blazing diamond I had

given her, in memory of that old adventurer, of whom we said we had

heard in far-off Africa; and how I feared as she looked in my eyes,

that she would know. For as she gazed tearfully at me, and stammered

her protests and thanks for she was poor, and it meant wealth to her I

saw her eyes widen as they looked into my own, and she stammered: "You!

. . . who are you? . . . You have his very eyes, are you his son?"

Almost was I tempted to tell her all, but the Consul's warning glance

stayed me; and why, indeed, should I change her sweet memory of me as I

had been, into the horror and dismay she must feel if she knew all?

And so I left her happy, and she blessed me as I went; blessed me as a

mother might do for indeed I was apparently young enough to be her son

and to her amongst all the women of my own land my disfigurements were

as nothing, for she was of those wise and sweet beings that see deeper

than the surface.

And then I came back, for I was as a lost man there in the rush and

worry of a civilization I knew nothing of moreover, never could I rest,

for the eyes of that other being were haunting me and calling me . . .

calling me. . . . Well she had known spirit, woman, witch, or what she

may have been that once I had looked in her eyes I might forget all

else, but her I should forget never.

And so I have sought for years . . . and I cannot find the path.

Again and again I have tried from all sides. West, where Inyati led me,

the dunes have altered; storm after storm has swept them till many of

the pans are filled and covered, and others laid bare; and from the

south it is the same.

Eastward I have tried in vain, for Khama's men are jealous guardians of

the desert border there, and twice I have been turned back, in spite of

my gold.

From the north and through it I must have found a path back I have

struggled long, and there fever has killed my men, and pathless forests

have kept me back.

There I left Gerard in a lonely grave; for after he knew that my story

had been true nothing could keep him from joining me. Life in Loanda

was far too tame, with such an adventure in hand. "Hang the diamonds,"

he had said, "I've money enough for my simple needs. But those berries

they are what I want, for I am getting old, and would be young again.

And this woman you dream and rave of perhaps I would see her too!"

Poor friend, he lies there in the thick forest where the fever took him

he had not my strength.

And now I go again this time alone. I have searched these dunes till

but one path remains untried on that path I now travel. And this time I

shall not strive in vain, and again I shall look into those eyes that I

have worshipped so long.

And then? Who knows? I am no trembling fugitive now, but one who fears

not to measure strength with the immortals if needs be. ... If she be

that, I fear nothing . . . and I shall find the way. Seek not to follow

me, my friend of the wilderness . . . for I leave no spoor. . . . This

time I shall find the path.

It was nearly morning when he finished his weird tale; the waning moon

had risen, and threw a faint light over the limitless void of the

desert.

The fire was dying down, and I turned to replenish it; for lions were

numerous in the vicinity. And as I turned back, I saw this strange

acquaintance of mine for the last time. He stood about twenty yards

away, his arms outstretched towards the desert as though in

supplication; a motionless and striking figure in spite of his

deformity.

"I'm going to turn in," I called; but he neither moved nor answered,

and when I looked again he had gone.

"He will be back directly," I thought, and curling myself up on my

blanket I fell asleep immediately.

All too soon my boys called me, and waking, I found that my guest had

gone.

"Which way?" I asked Jantje.

"Nie, baas; ek wiet nie," he said, shaking his head.

"Kambala," said I, impatiently, to the other man; "has the ou baas

gone?"

"Ee-wah t In-koos," he answered in the affirmative; "but where I know

not. Ask thou, master, these Bushmen, they know!"

There were two Bushmen in the camp, who had turned up but the day

before and I made Kambala bring the small, pot-bellied men to where I

sat. I knew their "talk."

"The baas with the scarred face," I said; "whither went he?"

"No! no!" they answered in their clicking tongue, "we know not! Who

knows? Not we 'Khoi Khoian.'"

"Ye are no 'Khoi Khoian' (Hottentots, as Bushmen often like to style

themselves), but San (Bushmen), and of these parts. Therefore, answer

me where is he, that scarred one?"

They squatted on their haunches before me, looking at me furtively from

their little slits of eyes, muttering to each other afraid.

"Master, we fear," they said reluctantly. "He is a great witch, that

'old one' we know him well. Often does he cross the dunes where even we

dare not go where no man goes!"

"Seek him," I ordered.

"No! no!" they said again, "he leaves no spoor and we fear. It is not

well to follow that 'old one'!"

And search as I could, no spoor did I find.

But what I did find, there on my blanket beside my pillow, was a big,

blue, uncut diamond, together with a scrap of paper bearing the one

word "Farewell."

THE SALTING OF THE GREAT NORTH-EASTERN FIELDS

THE SALTING OF THE GREAT NORTH-EASTERN FIELDS

CHAPTER I

To be "broke to the world" was by no means a new experience to Dick

Sydney, and as he sat on the sandy shore near Luderitzbucht and watched

the setting sun turn the broad ocean into molten gold, he was little

troubled by the fact that his last mark had been spent an hour or two

back for a very belated and necessary breakfast, and that he was now

absolutely penniless. Always an optimist, Dick easily outdid the

immortal Micawber in his faith in something turning up just when things

looked their blackest, and he had literally no thought for the morrow,

until his hand, mechanically groping in his pocket for the wherewithal

to fill his pipe, advised him of the fact that even his "baccy" was

finished.

This was serious, for Dick's old battered briar rarely left his mouth;

and whilst the odoriferous Boer equivalent for the "divine weed" held

out, food and drink were but minor considerations. But something must

be done now, so, knocking out the ashes from his last whiff, and with

one more futile grope in his capacious pocket, he stuck his empty pipe

in his mouth, rose, stretched himself, and, glancing once more at the

pageant of the western sky, turned back towards the contemptible

collection of tin shanties, drinking saloons, empty beer-bottles, and

Germans, known as Luderitzbucht.

A few months back, the discovery of diamonds had brought fame to this

wind-swept wilderness, and fame had been immediately followed by the

choicest collection of cosmopolitan scoundreldom that a mining "rush"

had ever been responsible for.

Now Dick Sydney, though a man of variegated experience and a bit of a

"hard case," was still passing honest, and a gentleman; and he soon

found that he stood but little chance in Luderitzbucht. His modest

capital, which he had hoped to increase in this new Diamondopolis, had

vanished within a few weeks of his arrival, swallowed up by shares in

diamond-fields that existed only in the vivid imagination of the

swindling "company-promoters" or so-called "prospectors," who infested

the place; and when his illusions of easily-made wealth had vanished

also, and he had tried to obtain a billet, he had failed utterly.

His knock-about experiences had included several spells of gold-

prospecting and mining in California and other wild spots, and, being

as hard as nails, he was admirably suited to the life of a prospector,

and prospectors were being paid large salaries in those early days of

the diamond rush in German South-West Africa. But, unfortunately for

himself, Dick possessed a constitutional but at times embarrassing

prejudice against lying, and in his numerous applications about

prospecting jobs had made no secret of the fact that his prospecting

had never been for diamonds.

And as a result he had had to stand aside and see all sorts of gentry

taken on for the numerous expeditions that were constantly being

arranged: runaway seamen, cooks, stewards, and stokers from the ships,

gangers and navvies from the railways, ne'er-do-wells of all

descriptions, with but here and there an old "river digger," or genuine

prospector to leaven the lump.

Added to his stubborn and uncompromising honesty, Dick possessed

another trait which severely handicapped him in this German-governed

dust-hole of creation, in that he was uncompromisingly British, and

took no pains to conceal the fact; and here in Luderitzbucht the

arrogance of the German officials, and the way in which they boasted of

Their Army, and Their Kaiser, and Their Beer, and Their Sauerkraut,

and, in short, of every product of their whole blamed Fatherland,

exasperated Dick to a degree. Though not very big, he was a bundle of

muscle and sinew, and already he had been fined heavily for making a

mess of one or two spread-eagled Teutons who had been unwise enough to

mistake his quiet manner for timidity.

Dick strolled back over the low-lying sand-dunes to the little

township, where lights were already twinkling in the stores and beer-

halls; and, passing the largest of these, he suddenly realized that he

was thirsty, and, momentarily forgetting the state of his finance, he

turned into the bar for a bottle of beer. The brightly-lit room was

full of people, naturally mostly Germans, who, whilst imbibing vast

quantities of their national beverage, were singing, bragging and

swearing at the top of their voices, and after the manner of their

kind. At the farther end of the room a big corpulent swashbuckler was

holding forth loudly to a circle of admiring cronies; his peroration

was an introduction to a toast; that toast was "To the Day!"

Dick had heard it frequently of late; in fact, wherever Germans and

beer came together, that toast was being drank at the time.

"The Day!" . . . Dick, and every other Britisher knew what "Day" was

meant, and as a rule took but little notice of these fire-eating gas-

bags; anyway, though he understood German, he spoke it but little. And

so he stood quietly imbibing his bottle of beer whilst Bombastus

Furiosis still held forth. His quiet attitude evidently misled the

orator, whose guttural German became mixed with quite enough English to

make his remarks perfectly understandable to the few Britishers amongst

the crowd.

Boasting and bragging, and with his discourse liberally garnished with

"Donner-wetters," and such-like meteorological expressions dear to the

Teuton, this big chap let the world at large know what would happen on

the great "Day"; when the whole "schwein-hund" Englander nation would,

at long last, be knocked sky-high and to everlasting flinders by the

ineffable and invincible Army of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Dick got tired of the drunken man's blatant boasting, and finished his

beer with the intention of leaving the bar before he lost his temper,

but as he put down the empty mug he realized with consternation that he

had not the wherewithal to pay for the drink! He stood embarrassed and

irresolute. What could he say to excuse himself how explain before this

crowd of contemptuous Germans?

At that moment, however, something happened to put the matter out of

his mind entirely. The orator had gone one better, and was now

describing what various kinds of "schwein-hunden" all Britishers were,

and those in Luderitzbucht in particular, when suddenly a small man,

who had been sitting quietly in a corner of the room, left his seat,

and, walking up to the group, called out, "'Ere, you with the mouth!

Shut yer fat head abaht Englishmen or I'll make yer! I'm English. Wot

yer got to say abaht it?"

A roar of laughter went up from the Germans, any of whom looked big

enough to eat the small man. Dick pushed nearer to the group. He knew

the chap now--he was a little Cockney Jew, a bookmaker, horse-dealer,

and what not, scarcely the kind of chap to be expected to show pluck

and patriotism, yet these are often met with in the most unexpected

places. There he stood, opposite a German big enough to eat him and in

fluent Cockney he proceeded to tell that big man more about himself

than is good for any fat man to know.

Of course it could not last long. The jeering laughter changed to

threats and curses, and then suddenly the colossus made a terrific

round-arm all-embracing swipe at that small man, calculated to

obliterate him once for all. But he wasn't there when it arrived; and,

to Dick's joy and amazement, he saw the little Jew dodge in under the

stroke, and with a spring and a lightning blow on the point bring down

the big bully with a crash to the floor.

"A boxer, by gad!" yelled Dick, capering with excitement; "bravo,

little 'un!" But the small man's victory was only that of a moment. The

next the whole crowd had flung themselves upon him, and the miniature

champion of "Rule Britannia" was borne to the ground in the centre of a

whirl of legs, arms, chairs, bottles, and the other weapons usually

preferred by the German larrikin to bare fists.

Dick could stand no more, and the members of that Peace Conference must

have thought about that time that a cyclone had struck them.

It was no time for fancy boxing. Two men who faced Dick went down like

ninepins before a terrific left and right between wind and water; a big

Bavarian hero brandishing a beer-bottle collapsed with a sudden and

acute attack of knee-in-the-stomach; and a strong and handy chair

coming to Dick's hand in the nick of time and used as a flail, and with

strict impartiality, soon did the rest. Berserk with fight, and with

the plucky little Jew to help him, Dick cleared the bar till not a soul

but the frightened bar-keeper and themselves stood within the locked

doors. Outside they could hear the crowd yelling for the police.

"Mein Gott, mein lieber Gott! Who will pay for all der smashes?"

whimpered the bar-keeper, wringing his hands, and looking round at the

trail of the cyclone.

"Tell the truth abaht that big fat 'ed starting the row to the police,

and I'll pay for the smash," said the little Jew. "And while we're

waiting for the police let's have a drink," he continued. "Here's your

health, guv'nor; blimey, but you're a bit useful in a scrap!" By this

time the police were pounding at the door. "My money my money!" again

pleaded the bar-keeper.

"Right-oh!" said the Jew, putting his hand in his pocket. His face

changed; quickly and anxiously he searched for his pocket-book it was

gone! Whilst they had had him on the floor they had improved the

occasion; and his blank stare of dismay was mirrored on Dick's face as

the latter remembered that he too was penniless and owed for a drink!

"Schwein-hunden! Thieves! Robbers! Dam-fools!" yelled the exasperated

bar-keeper, unlocking the door for the police. That night they slept in

a German prison.

CHAPTER II

Sydney could not disguise from himself the fact that the situation was

rather serious. The escapade would probably mean a sentence of a stiff

bout of imprisonment, or a heavy fine, and, as he was penniless, it

would perforce have to be the former.

"Hang that little Yiddisher!" he growled, as he sucked at his empty

pipe; "wish I'd let him get out of his trouble himself. No! I couldn't

have done that. He's a plucky little beggar, and I suppose he's as bad

off as myself now his pocket-book's gone. Still, I suppose something'll

turn up."

His optimism was justified, for about ten o'clock the following morning

he was liberated without more ado, and outside the gaol he found the

little Hebrew who had been the cause of all the trouble.

"I squared 'em," explained the little man, with a grin; "sent a note

along to a pal of mine who knows the ropes, and he soon got us out.

Better come along and have some grub!"

"Look here," said Dick, "I'd better let you know right away that I'm

dead-broke."

"Never mind," said the other; "come along and feed, and then we'll

yap."

A good meal, and a good smoke after it, and the little Jew said

abruptly, "Now then, Mr. Sydney, I've found out a bit about you this

morning, and if you want a job, I think I can get one for you. We want

a straight man for something that's on, and I think you'll do."

"I'm game," said Dick, "if it's a straight deal."

"Straight as a die," replied Solstein or "Solly," as he liked to be

called. "Let's get along the beach, we can talk there!"

Pacing along the sands, with no one to hear them but the sea-gulls, and

with his old briar again charged with some real God-fearing cake

tobacco, Sydney heard what it was that was required of him; and there

and then Solly's offer was accepted.

Two days later an expedition, outfitted regardless of expense in

Johannesburg, left Luderitzbucht to carry out a systematic testing of

certain distant diamond-fields recently discovered and acquired by a

local syndicate, and reported to be fabulously rich, so rich that an

extremely large company talked of acquiring them in turn, and those in

the know hinted at a huge flotation.

Money was therefore no object, and the party was both large and well-

equipped. It consisted of a diamond expert acting on behalf of the

Syndicate; another expert acting on behalf of the would-be purchasers,

and, incidentally, to watch the other chap; a financial representative

of either side to watch proceedings; two prospectors, presumably to

watch each other; a learned professor of geology to give an unbiased

report of the fields; and, lastly, Dick Sydney, ostensibly in charge of

the transport, but in reality to watch the whole caboodle of them.

Striking north-east, the expedition almost immediately entered a

practically untraversed desert of barren sand-dunes, waterless, and

both difficult and dangerous to traverse; and their animals drank

nothing for the first two days. On the third, however, guided by the

discovering syndicate's prospector Grosman, and by two stunted little

Bushmen in his employ, they came to a deep water-hole, where the

precious fluid, though "brak" (alkaline) and stagnant, was still

plentiful and drinkable, and within working distance of which the

newly-discovered "fields" were located. Here the dunes were

interspersed with long narrow "aars," covered with fine gravel and

loose stones, and here and there covered with scrubby vegetation.

Within a few days Sydney had to acknowledge that his first conclusion

that there was not a single honest man in the party besides himself,

was an unjust one, for the harmless and most necessary professor of

geology was a notable exception.

Absorbed in his science, he passed most of his time in his tent poring

over a microscope, taking very little heed, apparently, of what was

going on, and he was obviously without guile and likely to be easily

gulled by even the most transparent roguery. And that the others were

rogues Dick grew more and more convinced, and it would have been hard

to say which of the party he detested the more; Gilderman, the suave

Johannesburg expert, glib, well-dressed and fastidious; Jelder, the

syndicate's expert from the same locality, a rough-voiced, domineering

mining engineer; Zweiter and Spattboom, the "financial" men; or Junes

and Grosman, the two prospectors. On the whole, he thought, were he a

free agent, he would have picked a quarrel with each and all of them

for the sake of giving them individually a thrashing, and in that case

the immaculate Gilderman would have been his first choice.

Each and all of them spoke English, and professed that nationality, but

Dick soon decided that, with the possible exception of Junes, what

wasn't German of the party was certainly Jew!

But still to all appearance everything was fair and above-board. The

prospectors would point out the most likely spots to try for diamonds,

the Ovampo boys would be set to work, and almost invariably they found

diamonds. Occasionally one or other of the "experts" would suggest a

different spot, and usually these sapient individuals would justify

their reputation by finding diamonds also in these spots.

The syndicate's expert was jubilant, the company's expert apparently

well satisfied, and the professor beamed upon the stones as they came

from the sieve, talked learnedly of their origin and the peculiarities

of the deposit they were found in, and passed a great deal of time in

abstruse calculations as to the probable yield of the fields, based

upon the rich finds they were making, and the genuineness of which he,

obviously, never doubted.

Sydney picked up several small stones himself. The experts were always

finding them, so were the financial agents; yet Dick, though for a time

he could find out nothing to confirm his opinion, was convinced that

the whole thing meant a gigantic swindle. A few words in French between

the experts which they did not expect the "man in charge of the

transport" to understand a word here, and a look there, strengthened

this conviction into certainty, but still he had no proof.

Now Dick had heard of, and suffered from, more than one case of

"salting" since he first came to Luderitzbucht, and the quantity of

illicit diamonds in the hands of unscrupulous people made such salting

a comparatively easy matter, but if it were being done in this case, it

was certainly being done very thoroughly and artistically and when?

The whole party moved from place to place practically together in fact,

they kept in sight of each other ostentatiously.

It must be done after dark, if at all, and Dick resolved to watch at

night, as soon as he came to that conclusion. That same night, from his

tiny patrol tent, he watched the lights go out one by one, until the

camp lay silent, and apparently every one was asleep. And as time

passed he was nodding himself, when suddenly a shadow stole silently

from the tent occupied by the two prospectors, crossed to the experts'

tent, and disappeared inside. Dick saw the momentary gleam of an

electric torch and heard the tinkle of a bunch of keys, then the form

reappeared, and, with a glance round, passed silently and rapidly out

of sight across the sand-dunes.

Dick followed, the pale light from a waning moon, occasionally peeping

from behind the clouds, making the pursuit an easy one.

After half an hour of rapid walking the man disappeared over a gigantic

dune that Dick had noticed in the distance the previous evening, and

which he had heard marked the position of the next field to be

examined.

More cautiously now, and keeping well away from the man's actual spoor,

Dick crept up the slope, and peered over the crest down the farther

side.

The moon at that moment shone out clearly, and there, not fifty yards

away from him, Dick could see the figure of Grosman the prospector. He

was walking slowly up and down, now and then throwing his arm out with

the action of a sower, and the seeds he sowed sparkled like dewdrops in

the moonlight.

For he was sowing diamonds--salting!

CHAPTER III

Salting! there was no doubt about it.

The prospector to whom the syndicate owning the fields had entrusted

the important task of locating the most likely spots on which to

demonstrate their richness, had with admirable forethought forestalled

that notoriously fickle jade Fortune and brought the diamonds along

himself, before the remainder of the "testing" party arrived. To-morrow

the whole caboodle of unbiased individuals, representing both his own

party and the enormously wealthy Jo'burg financiers who were

negotiating for the fields with a view to a big flotation, would come

along as per schedule, and would doubtless be greatly impressed by this

fresh proof of the fields' richness!

Dick lay flat on his face on the warm and accommodating sand-dune, and

watched Grosman for some time: he was prodigal with the diamonds, and

this was undoubtedly destined to be an exceptionally rich field.

"The question is," reasoned Dick, "how many of these swabs are in this

swindle. Let's see now, it's no good letting my angry passions run away

with me, and jumping on this chap as I'd like to do. I must reason this

out. The other prospector sleeps in the same tent sometimes disagrees

with this chap as to the best place to test. In that case yes! they've

always tried and found in both places. And they sleep in the same tent.

They're both in it. Same with the experts, both in the same tent, and

they keep the diamonds. That's what this swab went to them to-night

for. And Zweiter and Spattboom, well, no one could be honest with faces

like theirs. Blazes! They're all in it, and all this elaborate business

is just to artistically fool the old professor--he's not part of the

swindle, anyway."

That was it undoubtedly. The old professor, who, simple as a child in

many things, had yet a name famous the world over; he it was that this

precious crowd of scoundrels were deceiving so elaborately he it was

whose word of the genuineness of the finds would carry weight with the

financiers and when the time became ripe would rope in the guileless

public.

Well, he, Dick, would have to take a hand in it, but it would require

caution; moreover, Solly to whom he owed his job had told him at

parting:

"We don't want no experience, just you watch all of these blighters and

find out what their game is, and lie low that's all!"

His diamond sowing finished, Grosman sat down, took off his

veldtschoens and knocked out the sand, loaded up his pipe, and with a

sigh of contentment which the pipeless and tobacco-loving Dick heard

and appreciated, turned back towards the camp.

Luckily Dick old hand on the plains of countries where it is not

considered healthy to be found on the home trail of a man one watches

at night had taken the precaution to crawl aside sufficiently to give

this "Knave of diamonds" a wide berth; and he lay inert and silent as

the dead till Grosman was well on his homeward journey, before

following him to a well-earned spell of sleep.

Following the usual routine, the next morning the two prospectors rode

ahead to locate the best spot for proving this fresh field, the rest of

the expedition following more leisurely. Dick had to confess that they

were most artistic in their methods. On arriving near the high dune,

where he had seen Grosman giving Fortune a friendly lead in the small

hours of the morning, Dick found to his astonishment that they were

being guided to quite a different spot at some distance from the

carefully prepared "jeweller's shop." "What the devil does this mean?"

mused he, as he rode behind with the professor and the others. He could

not be mistaken about the spot, for the dune was too prominent a

landmark yet there were the two prospectors signaling to them from a

place at least half a mile away from the scene of his nocturnal

experience. Trotting across to them they found an argument in full

swing.

"Gentlemen," said the other prospector a tall slab-sided individual

whose English was of a pronounced American flavor. "I don't think this

kind of thing is fair! I'm here earning the company's dollars, and I'm

about tired of being yanked around to try spots that Grosman points

out. I guess I'm here to locate the pay-dirt as well as he is, that's

what the company pays me for, that's what I'm here for, to find out the

truth! No, sir not any I don't."

"Junes," cried Gilderman, "remember your position! I'm sure no one ever

expressed a doubt as to the syndicate's finds and I--"

"But look-ee here, Mr. Gilderman," interrupted the prospector; "you've

got to excuse me. I'm supposed to look into this thing myself, besides

it's for the blamed fool's own benefit. Any fool can see that the

deepest wash runs the other side of that dune, not this."

"Rot," jerked out Grosman; "well, if you want to go to your damned old

place, do so."

High words followed, the experts became partisans, every one was

dragged in except Dick and the Herr Professor, and the latter, flushed

and rattled and his glasses all awry, was at length appealed to in the

matter.

"Ach, gentlemens," said he, beaming from one to the other, and

absolutely exuding good temper and conciliation; "why quarrel on this

so-splendid an expedition, hein? Let us then return to the Herr

Prospector Junes' choice let us accede to this so good man's request,

hein?"

"Right," snorted Grosman; "but if the damned place is no good don't

blame me and don't condemn the field. I can show you where there are

stones, anyway!"

And so with many a sneer and jeer, and with an atmosphere of extreme

tension pervading the whole party, Junes was allowed to lead the way to

the spot of his choice. He went straight across the foot of the big

dune, and in a few minutes had amply justified himself, for there were

diamonds in abundance the diamonds his confederate Grosman had strewn

there the night before.

Now Solly's instructions to Dick to lie low, and say nothing, no matter

what he found out, had been explicit and insisted upon, and in spite of

his instinct to warn the professor, he might have been content to "lie

low" and go on watching till the trip was over, had it not been for a

certain small but excessively highly-charged black scorpion that found

its way into Dick's sleeping-bag that night; and more than making up in

"cussedness" what it lacked in size, gave him an exceedingly warm time

of it. One sting in particular, on a big vein in his leg, gave him

excruciating pain, and though he applied the universal veldt remedy of

nicotine from his pipe-bowl, the agony was so great and the swelling so

alarming that at length he hobbled off to the professor's tent to see

if that learned man could give him some relief. He found the old

gentleman sleeping soundly and had some difficulty in rousing him; but

that task accomplished, so assiduous was the professor in dressing the

sting, and such kindly interest did he display in both Dick and the

defunct scorpion, that Dick, who had always liked the old chap, almost

made up his mind to tell him all that he had seen and suspected. The

scorpion really settled the question for him, for the professor had

scarcely finished injecting Dick's leg than he turned his attention to

the dead reptile, at which he had already cast many curious glances as

it lay on his little camp-table beside his medicine chest. And now he

proceeded to examine it thoroughly, lighting a powerful acetylene lamp

for the purpose.

And scarcely had the strong rays fallen upon the black, wicked,

lobster-like little iniquity than the Herr Professor let off a regular

yell of delight and literally fell upon Dick's neck.

"Ach, meine lieber!" he exclaimed ecstatically. "Aber this is most

wunderbahr! It is of the great fortune, good luck, what you call him?

That he sting you."

"Good luck?" said the surprised Sydney, feeling anything but pleased;

"well, professor, it's the kind of luck that I can very well do

without. Why, the blamed little thing must have been about a thousand

volts strong. Sting! why it must have squirted about a pint of forked

lightning into me! Luck?"

"Of the greatest," said the scientist; "of the most colossal. For it is

a discovery you have of him made he is new he is wonderful wunderschoen

wunderbahr!"

"You're wrong, professor," protested Dick with emphasis. "He discovered

me. He may be new newly charged, anyway!"

"Of a variety entirely new, Herr Sydney," insisted the old professor

impressively; "and much would I have given to have been in your place

to discover him."

"You'd have been welcome," said Dick feelingly; "but why?"

"It is my life-work, my stedenpferd, my 'hobby' you call it, hein? This

study of the arachnids, spiders, scorpions! Geology, you say? True,

that is my work, but this other is different, this I love! Already have

I four large volumes written upon the known varieties of scorpion and

now to have been but almost the discoverer of a new variety, it is hard

to have been so near. But at least I shall be the first to describe, to

classify, that honor you will grant me? It is hard to have been so

near!"

"Believe me, professor, it was a good deal harder to be just where I

was. But I see your point, and feel for you indeed I may say I'm

feeling it quite a lot even now. I'm mighty sorry the electric

gentleman with the red-hot trousers didn't sample you first as you say,

it's real hard he didn't. So do please take the fame and describe all

you want!"

It took a lot of persuasion to make the scientist see it in the light

that Dick did, but after a while he consented to name the new specimen

after himself, and sat down to examine and gloat over his treasure.

But first he showed Dick some of his books, thick tomes full of

illustrations of most weird and undesirable-looking insects, spiders,

scorpions, and the like, and crammed with learned descriptions

bristling with Latin names; and he showed such an innocent delight in

his new acquisition that Dick's mind was made up. He did not like

Germans, but this old chap was so naive, so full of human-kindness, so

innocent and ignorant of all but his science that it would have been

infamous not to have warned him of what was happening. For Dick could

see plainly enough that if nothing were said this poor kind-hearted old

scientist would have to bear the blame when the gigantic swindle was at

length discovered, and the victimized public demanded a scapegoat.

He lifted the fly of the tent and looked out. There was no light in any

of the tents, and the sound of snoring came from them in chorus.

Farther away by the still flickering embers of the campfire could be

dimly seen a dozen or more recumbent forms, where the native boys

huddled. The waning moon was just rising, and except for the snores all

was quiet as only the desert can be; yet Dick, when he turned once more

towards the professor, stood with a warning finger on his lips, and

spoke but in a whisper. For he knew that he and the man he spoke to

were the only honest men in this lonely camp; and that the others would

not hesitate to put either himself or the professor out of the way if

once they suspected that their villainy was known, he never doubted.

Not that he was afraid; but here in the wilds, with six well-armed and

determined men against him, he saw the need for caution. The professor

he did not count not just then!

The old man still sat at his little camp-table, magnifying glass in

hand, and at Dick's low "Hist," he turned a bland, inquiring gaze in

his direction. Dick came close to him, and with head half averted so

that he could listen for the slightest sound outside, he whispered his

story. Not a sound came either from the camp or from his listener till

his brief tale was ended.

"They are all in it all rogues together, sir," he whispered in

conclusion; "and it's part of a big swindle that people will blame you

for."

And for the first time since he began his tale he looked the professor

full in the face. He started with amazement as he did so: for now he

saw not a benign, smiling old scientist, beaming good nature and

affability through his spectacles, but a stern-faced, iron-mouthed man,

whose jaw was set with grim inflexibility, and whose eyes seemed

actually to blaze with fury. The big veins stood out upon his temples,

and the hand that still held the magnifying glass was now clenched in a

grip of iron, that trembled, not from weakness, but from the violence

of his anger and emotion.

Dick saw the man with new eyes: this was no worn-out old scientist,

such as he had deemed him; but a man still strong and vigorous, in

spite of his three-score and ten years, a man in whom the hot blood of

passion could still work wonders. And the younger man realized that if

the strong hand were necessary in this affair, he would by no means

need to play it alone.

"Gott im Himmel!" he muttered hoarsely, as Dick finished. "Diebstahl

und rauberei! . . . and through me! For I have been a fool, and I have

been also to blame. Look you, Herr Sydney, now can I see but too

clearly that I have neglected my work, and looked but little to the

fields themselves but to the diamonds and the gravel they brought with

them. Numskull! dummkopf! That I have been it is but now that I see

also how they have advantage taken of this hobby of mine. Each day they

have brought me spiders, and scorpions, and snakes to examine even now

I have almost a hundred specimens alive! And so they have thrown sand

in my eyes, and would have made a criminal of me even as they are

themselves. Schaendlich und verraetherisch schwein-hunden! But for you,

friend, they would have robbed me of my good name, and shamed me before

the world. But for you, friend!"

As he spoke, still in a hoarse whisper, he rose and grasped Dick's

hand, and strong as the latter was he winced at the vigor of that iron

grip.

"And now come!" said he, simply, turning as though to leave the tent.

Dick caught his arm. "No! no!" said he in a tense and eager whisper

"what would you do?"

"Take them bind them disarm them . . . take them prisoners to

Luderitzbucht to pay for their knavery," muttered the old man savagely.

"Six and with arms, you say! And what care I for six such schwein-

hunden? And you, Herr Sydney, I know you are both strong and fearless?"

"Oh, nothing would suit me better than to smash up the whole outfit,

but what good would it do?" urged Dick. "It's their six words against

ours, or rather against mine, so far! And most of 'em are German, as

you know, and well in with the authorities in Luderitzbucht. And I'm

English, what hope will my word have against theirs there? Besides,

sir, the story as it stands will be all against yourself!"

"Donner-wetter, that is wahr! That will never do," said the old man

naively. "What do you advise then?"

"Watch well, and either contrive to catch them yourself on some of the

remaining fields or say nothing till we are safely back in

Luderitzbucht," counseled Dick.

"Never can I so long contain myself with these thieves. Think you the

company spoke of a flotation of 500,000, of half a million pounds, that

these hounds would have caused my name and my report to rob from the

public! Never can I contain myself long, but as you wish, friend, I

will try unless indeed some better plan offers."

Dick crept back quietly to his little patrol tent and tried to sleep,

but pain and excitement kept him wide-eyed; and he had scarcely dropped

off when his Hottentot driver awakened him to tell him that two of the

mules had broken their reins and cleared in the night, apparently

making their way back in a bee-line towards Luderitzbucht.

"I have found their spoor, baas," he said; "but they have gone far and

fast and it will need a horse to catch them."

"Saddle mine, quickly, and I will go back myself," ordered Dick, with a

muttered blessing or two on the defaulters; and within a few minutes he

was cantering over the spoor of yesterday, along which the mules had

bolted. He soon found where they had left the trail, and in the now

clear light of dawn their spoors showed clearly in the soft sand. At

last he caught sight of them grazing on a small patch of Bushman grass

growing in the hollow between two dunes, and after a considerable

amount of trouble managed to secure them, and making them fast to a

convenient bush he climbed a big dune to have a look round and try and

mark out for himself a straight cut back to camp.

He recognized his whereabouts instantly, for scarcely five hundred

yards away rose the big dune that had been the scene of Grosman's

forethought two nights back. The sight of it brought back Dick's

indignation afresh.

"Beastly swabs," he thought, "why they never even take the trouble to

find out if there really are any diamonds in the blessed fields or not?

From what I've seen at Kolman's Kop, this place looks extremely likely.

I wonder whether, after all, they have been a bit too clever? I'll have

a look, anyway."

Between him and the dune where the bogus find had been made there

stretched a wide, flat space of comparatively firm ground a so-called

anp, or shallow vlei, in which at some time water had accumulated. Here

there was very little sand, its place being taken by a deposit of fine

loose grit, made up of a variety of tiny stones all about the size of a

small pea.

The prevailing wind, blowing almost continually in the same direction,

had heaped up this grit in little wave-like ridges and Dick knew that

if there were diamonds there he would find them near the crest of these

little waves.

He went down on his hands and knees at once, and almost immediately his

eye caught the glitter of a diamond. And there was another and another!

And Dick, as he picked up stone after stone, realized that by sheer

luck he had stumbled upon far the richest deposit he had ever seen or

heard of and realized too that these clever scoundrels had over-reached

themselves. There had been no need of salting had they but taken the

trouble to search systematically they must have found this spot, had

they but walked a few hundred yards from the spot they had salted last,

this "Tom Tiddler's Ground" had awaited them!

Incredibly and incalculably rich it was; for Dick, in the hour or so

that he permitted himself the luxury of picking them up, well-nigh

filled his pockets with the glittering little gems, and yet he had

scarcely moved a yard from where he had picked up the first.

The power of the blazing sun, now beating down upon him from high in

the heavens, first admonished him of the fact that it was getting late,

and that he must get back to camp, or probably some one would be coming

to look for him.

"And that would never do," said Dick to himself; "no one must know of

this but the professor."

So, reluctantly leaving his newly-found bonanza, he tied up the double-

handful of diamonds in his old red handkerchief, thrust it in the bosom

of his khaki shirt, and securing the two errant mules he struck across

country to the camp.

He found that during his absence a farther field had been successfully

"tested"; and the meaning look the professor gave him when the latter

rode into camp with the returning party, and voiced his satisfaction at

the morning's "find," left no doubt in Dick's mind but that the old man

had profited by his advice, and would yet fool the would-be foolers!

Itching as he was to impart the news of his splendid discovery to the

professor, he had no opportunity of seeing him alone during the rest of

the day; and he could only try to possess his soul with patience till

night fell and the others were asleep. But that night the professor had

a different plan in view.

"Gentlemens," said the old man when supper was finished, and they sat

smoking by the fire; "now that this so successful expedition arrives at

so near its conclusion, shall we not celebrate our good fortune? To-day

is not our find of diamonds more rich than of ever? Let us drink then

to our great good fortune, to the diamonds we have found, and to those

we hope again to find to-morrow! Come!" He led the way to his tent, and

diving under his bed he hauled out a case of wine. Strong, heady wine

Dick found it, and the warning glance the old man gave him as he filled

his glass the second time, made him sip but lightly of the potent

liquor.

Not so the two experts, or the prospectors, or the other members of the

little coterie of scoundrels; who, safe in the assumption that they had

hoodwinked the professor thoroughly, drank deep and made merry like men

without a care. Bottle after bottle was opened, and soon one of the

experts began to snore; and it was the professor himself who broke up

the merry party by saying: "Gentlemens; to-morrow have we a long day

and a long ride before us to test the other fields. And the Herr

Prospector Junes he must ride before us always, is it not? The test

places to locate together with his comrade. And this so good man see!

He sleeps already! Let us then to rest. But first fill again your

glasses and drink deep. To the diamonds we have found and to the

discovery you will make to-morrow!"

Surely the wine was very potent, for Dick, thanks to the warning

glances of the professor, had drank but little, yet he could scarcely

keep awake; whilst Junes and Grosman were snoring like pigs, and could

scarcely be awakened sufficiently to enable them to stagger to their

tent. Dick barely managed to get to his own before sleep overcame him

too, and his last hazy thought was: "That wine was drugged, the

professor must have got another plan!"

Once, in the night, he had a dim notion that some one was trying to

waken him; that some one was it the professor? was shaking him and

whispering fiercely in his ear, "Wake, man you must help me wake!" But

it all seemed like part of a dream, and he was too overpoweringly

sleepy to be able to rouse and the remembrance of this only came long

after.

But at last he did awake; his head was buzzing and Andreas the

Hottentot was shaking him. "Baas, baas; wake up," he was saying; "I

cannot wake the others! Allemachtag! How they sleep like dead men!"

It was broad daylight; long past the hour when the prospectors should

have ridden on ahead to locate the fields. Their horses, ready saddled,

stood before their tent; and from it came the sound of stertorous

snoring.

Dick walked over and shook the men; and at last they stumbled shakily

to their feet, and made their way to the experts' tent, muttering

something about instructions; but really, as Dick realized, to get the

wherewithal to salt the remaining claims.

Usually this proceeding was carried out long before daylight and with

no one to watch. Now, however, the whole camp was astir; the old

professor was washing in front of his tent in the tiny modicum of water

allowed him for the purpose, boys were hurrying here and there

preparing breakfast; and Dick smiled grimly as he noticed that as Junes

and Grosman entered the experts' tent they carefully closed the fly

behind them.

He looked across at the professor, who had paused in his ablutions to

look in the direction of the tent, and now stood, a comical enough

looking object, his face covered in soap-suds, watching for the

reappearance of the prospectors.

Dick and he exchanged a glance of intelligence, and Dick took a step

towards the old man, intending to whisper to him the news of what he

had found the day before; but before he could do so there came a shout

from the tent, followed by a volley of oaths and ejaculations, the

sound of a scuffle, and out into the open burst the two prospectors,

locked together in a desperate struggle.

"Hound, schwein-hund, robber!" gasped Grosman, as, with his face purple

with rage and exertion he temporarily got the better of his long and

wiry opponent, and bore him back; "scoundrel that you are you could not

play straight even with me! Where are the diamonds hound where have you

hidden them?"

"Yes, where are they? Own up, you thief!" chorused the two experts,

who, pallid and debauched looking, now stood beside the two struggling

men: and Dick now noticed that Gilderman held the small strong box and

that it was open, and empty. The diamonds had gone!

CHAPTER IV

The whole camp had now clustered round the fallen men, the professor

grotesque in his thickly lathered face, Dick intensely interested and

enjoying this fall-out among thieves, the experts and financial men

voluble and uneasy.

And still Grosman knelt upon his slighter opponent, and still he gasped

curses and questions; keeping so tight a grip upon Junes' throat that

his eyes were starting from his head and he could scarce breathe, much

less answer.

"Here loosen him a bit!" said Dick, grasping the big man by the

shoulder. "Do you hear? You'll choke the man and how the blazes can he

answer you when you hold him like that? Now then what's the matter?"

"The diamonds are gone," said the glib Gilderman. "We each have a key

on a chain round our necks. They were safe when we went to bed. The box

was locked then now it is open and the stones are gone."

"He has them, the hound," said Grosman, "we had arranged, schwein-

hund," he yelled again, "it was to have been to-morrow night and you

have stolen them from me; where have you buried them?"

"Come off it," said Dick savagely for Junes was again choking and this

time he twisted Grosman's arm till he freed the under man's throat.

"Now then, Junes what have you got to say?"

"Liar and thief himself," gasped the half-choked Junes, "he has taken

them while I slept. We had planned . . . Oh! let me up, damn you, and

I'll tell them of your plan, you robbing, thieving swine, that can't

play straight even with your pal! Let me up, you German hog: let me get

a holt on you, and I'll show you. Let me up!"

"Let him up," said Dick, filled with keen enjoyment at seeing these two

unprincipled scoundrels mauling each other, and only regretting the

fact that the equally rascally onlookers did not take a hand; "let him

up, man; give him fair play, and let's hear all about it."

And aided by the strong arm of the still soapy professor, he hauled the

furious Grosman off his prey.

And now comedy changed instantly to tragedy, for the panting Junes,

springing to his feet, drew his revolver and fired point-blank at his

late assailant. Grosman spun half round, his mouth opened in a ghastly

grin, and making two staggering steps, he fell to the ground, whilst

Junes, profiting by the confusion, sprang to his horse and vaulted into

the saddle.

"Hands up," he shouted, covering the group with his revolver. "I shoot

the first man who moves. Grosman, you dog, where are the stones?"

The dying man partly raised himself, and fixed an awful gaze upon his

murderer. "Murderer and thief!" he gasped, "you have them yourself. I

never woke till Sydney shook me!"

"Hell! . . ." said Junes, "I believe you now! There's more roguery here

than even I knew of! Hark you, Gilderman, and you other sharks and keep

your hands up. Professor, and you, Sydney listen! These other men are

thieves all; they've paid us to salt every patch they've tried, so far!

They brought over a thousand carats of diamonds stolen from Kolman's

Kop to do it with; I know who they bought them from! And Grosman and I

thought they deserved to be robbed, and we intended doing so to-night.

But one of these swine must have thought of the same game, and hid the

stones somewhere. Own up, you cowardly blighters which of you has taken

them where are they? Quick! . . . Keep your distance; Sydney this ain't

your trouble, and if you move again I'll put a bullet through you," he

continued; for Dick was edging near with an idea of making a spring at

the armed and desperate man, "and you, professor, help Grosman. ... I'm

sorry I shot you now, Heinriech! Now then, I want those diamonds quick,

you Jo'burg sharps!"

The four scared men raised their voices in a chorus of protestations,

in the middle of which Dick's eye caught sight of something over Junes'

shoulder that caused him to start involuntarily. About half a mile away

a small cloud of dust was rising. Something or somebody was coming, and

quickly too.

Slight as had been Dick's movement, Junes had noted it, and still

covering the group, he swung his horse round till he could glance in

the direction of the little cloud of dust, through which two horsemen

could now be seen; and the glitter of the sun on their rifles showed

them to be armed men, probably mounted police.

A bitter curse broke from Junes' pale lips. "Police, by God!" he said;

"they're too near or I'd shoot all four of you whining swine. Hell! and

I've killed Grosman for nothing!"

And furiously lashing his startled horse he spurred madly away,

striking savagely with his sjambok at the cowering quartette as he

passed.

"A rifle, a rifle" gasped the wounded man, now plainly dying, and his

ghastly face more awful by the look of terrible vindictiveness it now

wore "shoot at the horse!"

But before a rifle was forthcoming the two mounted police rode into

camp. They were bronzed, burly men, arrayed in a corduroy uniform, with

a wide felt hat bearing a large Imperial crown in gilt as a badge, and

were fully armed with Mauser rifles, revolver and light saber.

"Donnerwetter!" exclaimed the leader, a big sergeant, or wachtmeister,

as they cantered up. "What is this, murder?"

"Murder and there goes the murderer!" said the professor.

"And is it you, Brandt?" he exclaimed, as he looked into the sergeant's

face.

"Brandt is my name it is true," said the wachtmeister gruffly, as he

peered at the soap-lathered countenance before him, "but who are you? I

can see naught but soap. . . . Himmel," he shouted joyfully, as the

professor beamed back at him, "I was blind. It is my dear and honored

Herr Professor from Munich! Now, Gott sie dank, I see you again after

all these years!"

"It is indeed I, Brandt," said the professor, "but spur, man, spur, and

bring back that man we must talk later!"

With a sharp word to the trooper, Brandt unslung his rifle and spurred

headlong after the fleeing horseman, now rapidly nearing the shelter of

the dunes.

Meanwhile, the professor and Dick turned their attention to the dying

man, whilst the others resumed the clamor of questions and

recriminations which the arrival of the police had interrupted.

Gilderman, his self-confidence almost restored by the approaching death

of one, and the flight of the other of his accusers, now tried to

brazen matters out.

Thrusting himself before Dick, who was helping dress the wound, he bent

down before Grosman and began loudly, so that all might hear. "Now

then, Grosman, where are those diamonds? It is a most outrageous thing

that you have done, to rob your employers in this manner. And that

ridiculous lie of Junes' about salting! Come, man, tell me where the

diamonds are, and tell these people that Junes made up that yarn as you

know he did and I'll try to save you from the police. Come now own up

where are the stones?"

"You cannot save him from death and the Maker who will judge him," said

the professor sternly as he came from his tent with his medicine chest.

"Man, think shame to pester the man so; men do not lie on their

deathbed"; and as Gilderman did not move he swung him aside by the

collar as though he had been a child.

Gilderman uttered a furious exclamation. "Absurd preposterous

professor, surely you are not mad enough to believe the story this

would-be thief has told?"

"Story?" queried the professor, "what story has he told? Junes, yes!

but this man, so far, has accused you of nothing!"

Gilderman flushed with vexation at the false step he had made.

"But the diamonds?" he insisted, "he confessed they had planned to

steal them. Make him tell you where they are?"

"Maybe the police will bring them back with Junes," said the professor,

going on with his work of dressing the wound. "And if not, you ask?

Well, Herr Gilderman, what does it matter, a thousand carats or so! The

rich fields you found them on are still there; it took but a few hours

to find the stones, surely we can return to those so rich fields and

find again a thousand carats! Hein?"

Gilderman answered nothing, but if looks could have killed the old

professor, who did not even look at him, and Dick, who grinned

maliciously full in his face, both of them would have preceded Grosman.

Just then a faint shot sounded in the direction of the pursuit. It was

followed by another and another . . . then a regular fusillade.

"They are kneeling on the top of the first dune," called Jelder from a

little rise a few yards away. "Now they are mounting again and coming

back."

"Then he's got away," said Dick, "his horse was fresh and they looked

as though they had ridden far."

"Curse him, may he roast in hell," whispered the dying man, "but what

he said was true."

"Hush," said the professor, "do not try to talk now. Save your breath,

man, and tell your story only to the police. And remember I can do but

little for you your time is very short."

By this the police came cantering back into camp. "We hit him," said

the wachtmeister. "I saw him stagger in the saddle just as he got into

the big dunes. His horse was fresh and ours were fagged, it was useless

to follow farther. If he is badly hit we shall find him at the

waterhole, if not, he will run right into the arms of the patrol we

meet there. And now, what is all this about?"

Gilderman took up the tale in voluble German, and it was now evident

that, shaken by the protestations of the dying man, and of his

murderer, he was now suspicious of Jelder, who had held a key to the

box in common with himself. He had been awakened by the outcry that the

prospectors made when they saw the empty box lying by the side of the

bed. His key he remarked pointedly was still fast round his neck

perhaps, he added significantly, Jelder had left his lying about

overnight? Jelder flushed angrily, and drawing his key out by the thin

gold chain that secured it beneath his vest, shook it in Gilderman's

face, when mutual recriminations began without undue loss of time.

The old professor's wine had done its work well in more ways than one.

Their colleagues, Zweiter and Spattboom, instantly took sides, and so

they wrangled and vociferated, what time the big German wachtmeister

made voluminous notes in a big pocket book.

During all this, the old professor said not a word, though there was a

grim twinkle in his eye as he noted the spread of the quarrel.

Aided by Dick, he had now finished attending to the dying man, whom

they had taken into the professor's tent, and who lay gasping

painfully, with the air whistling through the hole Junes' bullet had

made in his lungs. He whispered something hoarsely and painfully to the

professor.

"Come, Herr wachtmeister," the latter called to the big sergeant, "the

man has but little time, and would make a statement."

The sergeant came and knelt by the dying man. "Where are the diamonds,"

he asked, pencil in hand.

"Nein, ich wissen nicht," gasped Grosman, "stoop lower, and I will tell

all ... I know."

"He lies," said Gilderman and Jelder together, crowding near to the

bed. "Herr wachtmeister, why listen to him he lies!"

"Silence," stormed the wachtmeister fiercely, "your time will come to

speak, stand back. And how know you if he lies before he speaks? Back!"

And he forced them to do so, whilst in short, sobbing gasps, the dying

man told of the whole knavery: how they had been bribed to do the

actual salting, how each day Gilderman and Jelder had given them a

certain number of stones to strew in likely places, and find

ostentatiously in sight of the professor, how he and Junes had

conceived the idea of stealing the diamonds and burying them where they

could find them later, and how, when that morning they had overslept

and entered the tent late and seen the strong box lying there empty,

each had instantly suspected the other of stealing a march upon him.

But dying he, Grosman, swore he knew nothing of the stones nor did he

now believe that Junes did!

"Those thieves, those men who first put temptation in our way, they

know, ask them, curse them!" he concluded, whilst the sergeant

peremptorily demanded silence from the accused men, who were storming

angrily at the dying man's denunciation.

"Brietmann," he called to his comrade, "search all the tents

everything! I arrest you all, let no man move till a search has been

made. Now," he continued, rising from the dying man's side, and turning

on them, "which of you has the diamonds?"

"Why should we steal them, why believe the tale of this thief who owns

he meant to steal them, why believe him against us?" they demanded,

united again now, in their efforts to discredit Grosman.

"One at a time," said the wachtmeister angrily, "and silence, you

others." And he proceeded to catechize and badger them one by one,

filling page after page of his notebook with their replies.

Meanwhile Brietmann searched tent after tent; ransacking bags,

portmanteaux and boxes, shaking out clothing and blankets, and prying

into every conceivable article in a vain endeavor to find the stones;

whilst the indignant quartette under examination broke out again and

again in a storm of impotent wrath.

In the middle of this hubbub the professor's voice was heard for the

first time.

"Hush!" he commanded sternly, "in the name of common humanity, hush! at

least for a minute. The man is dying."

Even as he spoke, Grosman, the death rattle in his throat, in a last

convulsive effort, raised himself on his elbow, and with a terrible

look on his face pointed an accusing finger at Gilderman and the group

round him, and with a last choking attempt at speech fell back dead.

Immediately Brietmann, who had finished his search in the other tents,

and stood looking on, addressed the wachtmeister:

"There is nothing there," he said, "and there remains but this the Herr

Professor's tent to search."

The wachtmeister turned apologetically to the professor:

"The Herr Professor will permit?" he asked.

"And why this indignity, Brandt?" demanded the professor sternly.

"It is my duty, Herr Professor; in such cases I may not discriminate,"

apologized Brandt, "and it is but a matter of form."

"So be it, search!" and the offended professor turned again to the dead

man, ignoring the industrious Brietmann, who emptied bags, unlocked

boxes, peered into jars of chemicals, and generally upset the

scientist's most sacred possessions.

At length, in a dark corner of the tent, Brietmann came to a black box

secured with a big padlock.

"Herr Professor," he called; "this box. It is locked."

The professor simply grunted.

"The key, Herr Professor," he persisted.

"I advise you to leave that box alone," growled the owner.

"It must be opened, nicht warum, wachtmeister?" asked Brietmann of the

sergeant.

"Ja wohl," said the wachtmeister.

"Again I advise you not," said the old man. "Surely there is no need; I

do not wish it opened."

By now every one was looking at the professor with wonder or suspicion,

even Dick could not understand his reluctance to have the box opened.

"Sehr gut," said he, as all eyes were turned on him, "take the key!"

and he flung it over to where Brietmann knelt by the box.

The policeman fumbled with the lock, threw back the lid, and

simultaneously gave vent to a terrific yell, as he flung himself

violently backwards. For from the open box rose the writhing forms of

half a dozen big cobras, their hoods flattened and arched, vicious and

ready to strike, whilst over one of the corners came gliding the broad

flattened head and bloated body of a huge puff-adder.

Within five seconds no one remained in the big tent but the dead man

and the professor, who, laughing softly, proceeded to collect his

straying pets; showing an utter disregard of any danger of being

bitten, accountable for by the fact that he had removed every fang from

the poisonous specimens long before.

Dick had been as lively as any one in making tracks, for he had a

horror of snakes, and as he burst from the tent his foot caught in a

guy-rope and down he went with the big wachtmeister sprawling on top of

him. Both scrambled up in quick time, for each of them imagined he had

snakes crawling all over him, but as Dick rose to his feet, out from

the bosom of his shirt fell the red handkerchief full of diamonds he

had found the day before, and as it fell out rolled a dozen or more of

the little brilliants and lay there flashing and sparkling in the sun-

light.

"Donner-wetter!" yelled the wachtmeister, "the diamonds! Here is the

thief!" And instantly he seized Dick in a formidable grip.

Curses and execrations burst from the other men, who, wildly excited,

crowded round Dick and the diamonds threatening and exulting.

"Thief! Scoundrel! Rascally mule-driver! Schwein-hund!" they cried.

"The handcuffs, Brietmann! Quick!" shouted the sergeant, and Dick

realized instantly the seriousness of his position. He had had no

opportunity of telling the professor of the find he had made; and who

among these rogues each eager to fix the guilt on some one else and

discredit the tale both the dead man and Junes had told would believe

him if he told the story now?

The quantity of diamonds he had found about equaled the stolen contents

of the box, and things could scarcely look blacker for him. He knew the

law was likely to be severe with him, as a Britisher he would probably

get the extreme sentence. There was no one but the professor to appeal

to and, bitter thought, would even he believe him with all this damning

evidence against him? All this passed through his mind in an instant,

as he stood in amazement, too taken aback to speak, and passively

staring at the fallen diamonds.

Then the wachtmeister's grip tightened, as Brietmann hurried up, making

ready the handcuffs as he came.

"I did not steal them!" shouted Dick, finding his tongue at last. "I

will explain. Professor! Professor! I did not steal them!"

"Lying rogue," said, or rather snarled Gilderman, thrusting his face

close to Dick's, and filled with the rage of a lately frightened man.

"Filthy donkey-driver and thief you were too miserable and contemptible

for us even to suspect!"

And secure in the fact that the wachtmeister held Dick, he struck the

latter across the face with his open hand.

Before he had time to draw back things happened.

Dick, blazing with fury at the indignity, wrenched himself free of the

wachtmeister, as though that big man had been a child, struck Gilderman

a terrific smash on the nose that flattened it and him instantly, and

seizing Jelder, who had tried to trip him, he threw that unfortunate

Israelite on the top of his colleague. But now the other men flung

themselves upon Dick simultaneously, and for a short but crowded period

a most memorable scrap took place in and round that little prospecting

camp.

Dick, as he afterwards expressed it, was "all out" in that brief but

brisk encounter, and fought with every limb and muscle he possessed.

Borne down by sheer numbers for a moment, he succeeded in twisting

Brietmann under him, and his knee, judiciously planted in the plump

policeman's embonpoint as they fell, with the weight of the other crowd

on top of them, drove all the wind out of that unfortunate man, who,

for a time, took no further interest in the proceedings.

Dick felt him gasp and subside, and at that very moment his hand came

in contact with the heavy steel handcuffs. Here was a weapon worth

having, and with such odds against him Dick had no hesitation in using

it, and swinging them round blindly at the arms clutching at him, he

felt them meet flesh and bone with a soul-satisfying crunch. A sharp

yelp followed, and Dick felt the scrum above him lighten, as Zweiter

retired from the fray, spitting blood and curses in a polyglot and

highly satisfactory manner.

But now the big wachtmeister, a powerful and athletic man, was less

cumbered by his would-be helpers, and getting a firm grip on Dick with

both arms he gradually forced him down on the unfortunate Brietmann,

whilst Spattboom, his one remaining helper, valiantly clung to Dick's

frantically kicking legs. With a last desperate effort the latter

twisted himself sufficiently to allow his free arm to again swing the

handcuffs, and this time they caught the wachtmeister neatly on the

nose, setting that organ bleeding profusely, and raising the big

Teuton's angry passions to a boiling-over point.

So far, to do him but justice, he had made no attempt to use his

revolver, but now, roused by the blow, and furious at the sight of his

own blood, he immediately released Dick and drew his weapon.

Dick heard the click of the hammer as he cocked it: heard too the

furious "Schwein-hund Englander! I'll shoot you dead for that!" saw the

muzzle thrust within a few inches of his head, and shut his eyes.

And as he did so the wachtmeister was hauled back by the shirt collar

with terrific force, and flung back on the sand with his neck almost

broken, whilst the bullet meant for Dick's brains sang over the

neighboring sand-dune. A vigorous kick sent Dick's remaining assailant

flying, and he scrambled to his feet to see the professor calmly taking

possession of the half-stunned wachtmeister's pistol.

"Enough," he exclaimed, "think shame, Brandt, to shoot an unarmed man!

That would be cowardly, and you are no coward! They taught you not such

unbillig spiel at the gymnasium at Munich."

"Unarmed!" spluttered the wachtmeister, "he has the handcuffs and my

nose is smashed! Herr Professor, you must not stand between me and my

prisoner. With all respect, no! Brietmann, you schwein-hund! . . .

never have I seen such a dummkopf! . . . Secure him, I say!"

"Hold!" roared the professor, "touch him not till I hear what all this

is about. Besides, the man will kill you! Never have I seen a better

fighter or a better fight! And fair play he shall have. And explain I

saw not the beginning of all this, what has the Herr Sydney done?"

"Done," snarled Gilderman, sidling near, his face bruised and

discolored from Dick's first uppercut, "done! why don't you see the

thieving hound has stolen the diamonds there they lay they fell from

his shirt, the dirty thief!"

Apparently for the first time, the professor's glance fell upon the red

handkerchief with the diamonds, and he picked them up, and stood

balancing them in his hand and looking from Dick to Gilderman before he

replied.

"Professor," began Dick, finding his tongue again; "I am no thief that

you can bear witness. I--"

The professor interrupted him with a gesture.

"So," said he slowly, "and it was for this you attacked an unarmed and

innocent man?"

"Innocent," spluttered Jelder, "this is too thick! There lie the

stones, who took them if he didn't?"

"I did," said the professor.

CHAPTER V

There was silence for a few seconds, except for a universal gasp of

wonder, which as far as Dick was concerned was mingled with relief and

admiration.

For here was this wonderful old professor, who had already been a

surprise packet to Dick in several ways, weighing in with a most

finished and artistic lie, just in the nick of time to save him when

everything appeared lost!

"You!" cried Gilderman, as the professor stood, still holding Brandt's

revolver, and smiling blandly at the group of mauled and discomfited

scoundrels; "You?"

"Yes!" he thundered, his jaw setting sternly again. "I, I, who you

thought to dupe. I, who have seen through your perfidious plan from the

first ('Oh, oh!' thought Dick, 'that's for the benefit of the police.')

I, who you would have made the scapegoat for your villainy at the cost

of my name and honor I took the stones.

"Come, Herr wachtmeister, take your revolver and listen. There is no

need for further concealment. I drugged these men last night, and took

the stones foreseeing clearly that these scoundrels would quarrel when

the loss was discovered and they realized that they could salt no more

nor take back the lying 'proof' they relied upon for their scheme. And

it fell out as I had believed though I did not foresee that murder

would be done before I could prevent it. . . . And I gave them to the

Herr Sydney to guard for me for he was the only honest man among this

crowd of scoundrels and I am an old and feeble man!"

The big wachtmeister rubbed his throttled throat feelingly, and grunted

dissent, whilst the accused and desperate quartette broke into angry

protestations.

"Deny it as you like," said the professor, "Grosman swore it with his

dying breath, Junes swore it after he had shot him, Sydney saw the

salting with his own eyes."

"The word of a murderer, a delirious man, and a thief against that of

four gentlemen!" Gilderman exclaimed, bluffing desperately for the

benefit of the wachtmeister and Brietmann; who had pulled themselves

together, and stood looking with lowering brows from one to the other.

"Gentlemen! Lieber Gott! Then gentlemen, if you still persist in your

innocence, it is but of the simplest thing for you to prove it. The

Herr wachtmeister will take us all back to Luderitzbucht, and on the

way, what is simpler than to again test the rich spots from which you

obtained so easily these thousand carats, hein? If you found these

there there will be others, nicht warum? And then I will say that I am

sorry! And meanwhile the wachtmeister can keep the stones. And I will

answer for this last 'theft' I, whose name is worth more than a

thousand such 'gentlemen' as these! And now, Herr wachtmeister or

rather shall I say my dear pupil of the old Muenchener days? I regret

that I have hurt your throat, but I am sure you would rather that, than

be guilty of shooting an innocent and unarmed man who, I am sure, was

first assaulted by these gentlemen."

"Ja wohl," grumbled the wachtmeister; "that is true, that coward there

struck him after I had seized his arms. Aber donner-wetter, Herr

Professor, why not have told me this there in the tent long ago? It

would have saved me a broken nose from this 'innocent, unarmed'

Englander of yours, and an almost broken neck from yourself! Tausend! I

remember that grip of yours in the gymnasium of old! Lieber Gott! but

the years have not weakened it. And with this devil incarnate of an

Englander to aid you, what had you to fear from six such as these? Why

did you not bundle the whole lot back and have them locked up?"

"They were all armed, and we were not," said the professor.

"Then we will disarm them," said Brandt, and covering them with his

revolver he made Brietmann do so taking away the revolver that each man

carried, and taking not the slightest notice of their protests.

"And now you are under arrest," he told them, "and at any attempt to

escape you will be shot."

Then blowing a whistle, he summoned the camp boys who, in mortal fear

of the police, had obeyed their first order to remain with the horses

some distance away; and who would have seen the white men kill each

other till none were left, before daring to disobey that order and told

them harshly to bury Grosman, and prepare to strike camp and trek

immediately.

Dick, who had stood as one in a dream, and let the professor do all the

talking, now shook himself together sufficiently to hand over the

handcuffs to Brietmann who only glared at him and apologized to Brandt

for the unlucky blow he had given him.

"I bear no malice, friend Englander," said the wachtmeister, "but you

have broken my nose. And some day I should like to meet you in friendly

ringen-spiel, I think I would pay you in full for that blow!"

"Nothing would suit me better," said Dick eagerly, for he regretted the

blow almost, but not quite, as much as the wachtmeister, and he was a

past master at wrestling. "Whenever you like, Herr Brandt; shall we try

a fall now?"

"Himmel, no!" said the big fellow, "I have had plenty for one day if

you have not. We must postpone the pleasure."

Dick set about the business of striking camp, and for a time was fully

occupied. Meanwhile his mind was in a whirl. That the professor had

invented a plausible lie on the spur of the instant to save him, was of

course obvious; but it was apparently not all lie, for he had certainly

drugged the wine the previous evening!

But the stones, who had got them? He could have sworn that Junes had

told the truth as he rode away murderer though he was! And Grosman,

would a dying man lie?

He was itching to get near the professor alone, to tell him his own

story, possibly the old man believed him to be the thief although he

had lied to save him.

Altogether the whole thing was a puzzle. Meanwhile he went on with his

work. Tents were struck, packs made up, and pack animals laden, and

soon all that remained of the camp was the trestle, on which, covered

with a sheet, lay the still form of Grosman. The wachtmeister sang out

a brief order, two of the Hottentots rapidly shoveled out a shallow

grave in the sand, barely covering the murdered man. Dick stood by with

his hat off he had barely escaped a bullet himself but an hour before!

"Poor beggar," he thought, "shot and buried like a dog, and all because

these bigger scoundrels tempted him to run crooked. And he was some

woman's son, someone will mourn him. Buried like a dog!"

But it was not so; for looking up he saw the professor, bareheaded,

standing beside the grave, prayer-book in hand; and he stood silent and

respectful whilst the old man read a short solemn prayer for the dead

in his native German.

Then mounting their horses they trotted after the already moving

cavalcade, leaving the forlorn little mound and the dead ashes of the

camp fire alone marking where their camp had stood.

The police officers rode ahead, the four conspirators, silent and

dejected, a short distance behind them, and Dick and the professor

brought up the rear. Gradually they fell farther behind, till well out

of earshot of the others, and Dick at last had the chance to tell the

story of how he found the stones.

"Professor," he began, in low eager tones, "I cannot thank you enough

for inventing that story to save me. But you must not think I am a

thief! These are not the stones from the box I did not steal them."

"I know that," interrupted the professor, "but where got you these?"

"This side the big dune where I first saw Grosman salting two days ago.

They lie there in thousands. I got these in an hour or so."

"Now Gott sie Dank!" said the professor joyfully. "These rascals then

have too clever been, and the ground is in truth rich! Gott sie Dank!

Our trip has not been in vain. But neither the police nor these knaves

must know . . . and we must ride on quick. For I bade them test the

ground again where they salted and that is the first place, and they

must find nothing."

"We are nearly there," said Dick, "and it's risky. For where they

salted is barely 300 yards from where the stones lie thick. But we must

take them to where they picked their own up and they won't search far

they are too down at mouth for that. But, professor, where are the real

stones? Who stole them? Who has them?"

"Ach, that is the mystery," replied the professor, and spurred his

horse on before Dick could ask him any more.

An hour later they came to the big dune, the scene of Grosman's

salting, and here Dick, with mixed feelings, stood by whilst Gilderman

made his last attempt at bluff setting the boys to work with sieves,

whilst he and his colleagues searched all around the vicinity of that

last "rich find," and, of course, finding nothing; whilst had he known

it, but a bare stone's throw or two away they were lying in abundance.

Dick could almost have found it in his heart to pity him, as the

despairing, cadaverous wretch at length gave up the hopeless search.

Late that evening, as they approached the first waterhole, the

wachtmeister pointed significantly to a saddled horse cropping quietly

near by, whilst as they got nearer the pits, five or six big vultures

flapped lazily away. "I knew I hit him," said the wachtmeister

significantly.

"Junes," thought Dick; "now if they find he really has the stones what

will happen then?"

Junes it was: they found all that the vultures had left of him lying

there by the water, with a ghastly bullet-hole through back and

shoulder. The marvel was that he had lived to ride so far. But there

were no diamonds, and Dick was more mystified than ever. A few

pencilled words, scrawled on the leaf of a pocket-book, again telling

the tale of the salting and naming Gilderman as the chief conspirator,

lay pinned to the dead man's shirt, and the wachtmeister, as he read

it, called out grimly to them to come and look at another piece of

their work.

Reluctantly they came closer to the awful thing that had once been

Junes, whilst the police sergeant, long since inured to such sights all

too frequent in the desert read aloud the note, and asked them if they

still denied the testimony of the two dead men. Gilderman in vain

endeavoured to brazen it out, and the wachtmeister, changing his

tactics, forced him and the others to look close at what had been a

face, and identify it as that of Junes.

The terrible plan succeeded, for at the gruesome sight, the little

bravado left in them gave way entirely. Gilderman, physically sick,

staggered away a yard or two and fell in a faint, and Jelder,

whimpering like a child, broke down utterly. "Gott in Himmel," he

cried, "what a death! I can't stand any more of this! Yes, it is true

we were all in it, but the plan was Gilderman's."

Again the wachtmeister made notes; and in their efforts to stand in as

well as possible, each now tried to further implicate the other, till

the sergeant closed his book and roughly bade them be silent, and keep

their precious tale for the Richter in Windhuk, who would try them.

As they rode into Luderitzbucht a week later, one of the first men that

Dick saw was Solly, who in the excitement of the past few weeks he had

almost forgotten the existence of. But as he saw the little Jew, who

had stood by him before and who had been instrumental in getting him

his job, he remembered that Solly would expect a full account of all

that had happened, and the question was should he tell him of the

stones he had found, or only of the salting?

However, he had neither time nor opportunity to say anything then, for

encountering the little cavalcade just as the wachtmeister led it up to

the police station, he opened his little twinkling eyes wide at the

sight of the four dejected and most obvious prisoners, gave Dick a wink

which expressed volumes, and made off in a bee line towards the

telegraph station. There he sent a most innocent wire to a small retail

tobacconist in Kimberley a wire that apparently conveyed nothing more

than a complaint as to the quality of certain cigars that Solly had

received. Strangely enough, however, within an hour or two of its

receipt certain gentlemen vitally connected with diamonds and all

concerned in them knew that they had no reason to fear the great

"North-Eastern" diamond fields, as they had been salted.

Meanwhile the wachtmeister handed over Gilderman and Co. to the officer

in charge at the police station, where they were detained in common

with the diamonds--Dick's diamonds!