Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-08

ty Tor any more exertlOn. Presently tile !
ground began to dip a little, then more
and more, and tho mule hobbled on !
quicker and quicker, making the noise
in its throat almost continuously.
Was it coming to water at last? Tom
pulled himself together once more, rub
bed his eyes with the back Of his hand
and looked about him. He saw lakes
and rivers and splashing cascades
whose waters made no sound, but he
had seen these every day-cvery hour
almost--since the thirst madness began,
ever in the skies, not on tho earth, and
he was not quite mad enough yet not to
know that.
But stopl If there was no water on
earth, there surely had been some here
once. He rubbed his eyes harder, till
he even brought little moisture into
them. That cleared his sight, and ho
saw that the mule had brought him to
little shallow valley, and that along
the middle of it there ran u string Of
patches of sand. broken by worn bowlder
sand Jumps of dry baked gray blue
earth that had once been mud.
The mule tottered to one Of the sand
patches and thxlst its nose into the sand
with hoarse, rafting grunt. At the
Same moment it flashed across Toms
half cloudcd mind that water is often
found beneath the dry beds of vanished
African streams. He cut his hand loose,
flung himself down on the sand and be-
gan to dig with his knife fecbly, but
| desperately. Tho mule meanwhile be-
gan scraping with its fore hoofs, and
| this encouraged him to go on. He broke
! the sand up with the knife blade and
scoopcd it out with his hands. Present
! ly the knife blade began to rattle and
clink against pebbles in the sand, and
when the hole was about foot deep
there were moro stones than sand.
He thrust his hands down and
brought up a double handful of them.
He happened to look at them before he
threw them away, and as he did so u
sound something like what tho mule
was making came from his throat The
pebbles were diamonds of all sizes and
colorS, aud in his two hands there no
probably held 600, 600 worth. Ho flung
them away with cry that it would
not have done any one much good to
hear. What were all the diamonds in
the world worth in comparison to half
pint of water?
He thrust his hands into the hole
again. This time lie uttered very diff
fercnt cry, for now tho stones at tho
bottom were wet. He grabbed them up
and threw them out, now with frantic
| cnCrgy-thouSnnds and thousands of
pounds worth of them. The mule put
his nose among them and seemed TO
draw the moisture off them with its
breath. That was all the good they were
just then.
After n few more minutes Of hard
work II little Waterfall liquid wafer
collected at the bottom of the h0lc.
He tried To thrust his head into it so ho
could get his lips to tho water, hat it
was too small, so he made cup of his
hands and put them against his mouth,
and in that instant he passed from tic
torments of hell to the joys OF paradise.
His lips and tongue seemed to melt as
the water touched them, and his thick
ening blood pulsed with new life al
ready.
lie was brought ont of his ecstasy by
the mule thrusting it's nose down into
the hole. He tried to drag it back he
might us we'll havc tried to drag tree
up by its roots. For few mad mo-
ments man and beast fought for tho
, water He kicked it and even struck il
with the knife, but the mule was toe
, busy oven to notice it. Then the dcliri-
1Df Il trlt
short spade and little prospCctor' s pici;
tied between the two bundles ON the
, mules back He cut them adrift and
, went to another patch and began to dig,
leaving his beast to enjoy what he had
{ earned so well.
, Ho soon got to tho water this time.
There WAS plenty of it apparently UNI
, der the whole river bcd-plenty, nC
!, doubt, to wash ont the diamondiferous
earth, perhaps even enough with prop
{ or management to run little crushing
S mill if ever he should come to hard
{ "bluo."
D There is no miracle so great as thc
t change that drink OF sweet, fresh wa
ter will make in II man who is dying
Q with thirst. If the elixir Of life haC
been discovered, it could have made IL
= greater change III man at the point o
5 death, Madness becomes sanity. aGon.
0 becomes delight Of physical existence
= and the desert that was hell bcfOr
t seems paradise in those first few min
4 utes of new life.
In less than half an hour after he ha
S staggered into the valley Tom Burrow
. was sitting on bowldcr with ii
D, pannikin of water in ono hand and
T strip of biltong in the other, enjoyin
f himself thoroughly. The mule ha
L drunk its fill and was now munchin
{ contentedly at some very indigcstibl
D looking herbage that it had found III
a der one of the banks of the undcrgroun
river.
i millions! Millions! Here they az
!. at last, if l can only get them back !!
IL exclaimed the man who half an hou
o before could not have articulated tw
d words distinctly to save his life, and ;
o he said this he turned over with h
d foot couple of spadefuls of sand an
o pebbles and diamonds, which he hu
10 thrown up out of his water hole clo'
t. by the bowldcr.
X 81 wonder what tho folks in can
$, would say to this-and how the dGut
is I'm going get back. Sindbad's vale
l. of diamonds would be fool to this,
N reckon, if it was properly dug up. POI
IN little Shirty-he was right after al