The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-16

change that q drink of sweet, fresh wa
Ter Will make in a man who is dying
with thirst II the elixir of life had
been discovered, it could have made no
greater change i'll a man at the point of
death Madness becomes sanity, agony
becomes delight of physical existence,
and the desert that was ~ hell before
seems paradise i'll those first few min
utes Of new life.
In less than half an hour after he had
staggered into the valley Tom Burrows
was sitting on a bowlder with tin
pannikin of water III one hand and
strip of biltong in the >other, enjoying
himself thoroughly. Tho mule had
drunk its fill and was now munSing
contentedly at some very indigestible
looking heritage that it had found UNI
der. one of the banks of the underground
river.
Millions! Millions Here they are
at last. if I can only get them back''
exclaimed the man who half an hour
before could not have articulated two
words distinctly to save his life, and as
he said this he turned over with his
foot couple of spadefuls of sand and
pebbles and diamonds, which he had
thrown up out of his water hole close
by the bowlder.
wonder what the folks in camp
would say to this-and how the deuce
I'm going to get back. sindbad's valley
OF diamonds would be a fool to this, 1
reckon, if it was properly dug up. Poor
little Shirty-he YVES right after all,
though it was the nlule that got me
here That mule may turn out worth a
good many millions If do get back
yes, but that's the question. Well, I've
found the place anyhew Fancy a river
with diamonds fol pebbles That S what
it comes to. l woadcr wnero this river
goes to?
"Why, what al as anal" he sad
denly cried, iunapiiie up to his feet
or course l shall get bacA. These riy-
ers always come to tie surface some
time or open into saiio other river, and
I'll work along this one tn it does. 1t
may take few months, bat that doesn'
matter now. I'm bouAl to get some
where i'll time =
1t took him nearly four months of in
cessant toll to do IL, oaS Tie hope with
III him was now too strong for hunger
or thirst or WEAKNESS to conquer it, and
SO in the end he and the mule both
reached the sea at Wasliisch bay, and
there he sold the mule that had uncon-
sciously led him TO the new Golconda
which was hidden away in the wilder
ness front all eyes but his, and then
took ship to Port Elizabeth.
Hewould have stopped at Cape Town,
but he knew that to try and sell any of
the rough diamonds that he had brought
with him there would at once land him
IN endless difficulties, FOR of course he
could only account for the possession of
them by telling the truth, which prob
ably no one would believe even if he
had a mind to tell it, which he had not.
But at Port Elizabeth there were plen-
ty of respectable citizens who would
buy few thousand pounds worth of
gems from him without asking ques-
ton provided that he let them have
them cheap enough, and what did that
matter to IMAM who knew how to go
straight to q place where diamonds
were as plentiful as the pebbles by the
seashore?
He had been close on seven months
away, when he at length climbed down
from the front of the coach at the Kim
berley postoffice. Miss Carnegie had, of
course, already been advised of his ar
rival by telegram. and equally of course
she was there to meet him. 1t also hap
pened that an intimate friend and CO.
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