Evening star., 1924-10-12


NV down with the fever. The
daily toll in the rain and
heat had exhausted my en-
rTsy. The continual strain of the ex-
element and of sleeplesS nights had
also weakened me more than | re-
allied. Quite suddenly | was aroused
one morning with sharp pains down
my back and a feverish head.
| grew steadily hotter until ! was
pcrSpiring profuSely. Then I felt my
body turn cold chilled ice; l
shook for hours. I could see the
branches quiver in the trees to which
my hammock had been temporarily
tied. ! made light of my illness at
first, but old Capt. Peter stayed by
my side.
This jungle fever is bad business"
he kept mumbling. Carries you of
too soon. Doesn't give you chance
Dudley superintended the work
For A moment I forgot my illness
when he brought me newly dug
seven-ca~at gem. It was a beauty
It's bright light blinded my fever
stricken eyes
Then all went black before me and
] slept in a cloud of fantastic dreams
] do not know how long | was un-
conscious. but I awoke to find myself
on the shoulders of three giant
hIdchS peinS carried leuOeriS INTO the
boat
"Wh-y What's the matter?'
] asked feebly
Were going out to the coast"
Dudley said
Are the diamonds tinished?' ]
asked. mystifed by my stupor.
Yes" he answered softly. "All
finished"' fell asleep again.
7 distinctly remember the throbbins 2
beat of the paddle blades against the
side of the boat. for the racket pull
stated through my head like the
pounding of trip hammer. l remem-
ber feeling the boat lunge forward
under the full stroke of the paddlers
! also heard. as though in the far dis
tance. the paddle songs again. as we
raced out of the dark creek. Then
was thrown suddenly out of my ham
mock, which had been suspended un-
der the hood of the boat. l hit the
floor painfully.
I laughed and gigsled and began
to dream. 1t seemed that 1 was
caught III wall OF matted grape
vines. Cold grapejuice was running
out of all the vines. flowing away
Just out of my reach. | could not
taste the soothing juice, although
my parched throat was burning up.
What really happened. as
icdTneu ldleT. was 1nat on comm s
out we had hit that sunken log
which. in our impatience. we had so
heedlessly allowed to settle to the
bottom of the creek when we chop
ped ii in two coming in. The water
in the creek had fallen consid ra b y
and the log was exposed. 1t too
the best part of day to get the
boat past the obstruction. ] learned
afterward how close the difference
Of fap he 1r
death.
A Nd SO on down through the tor
rent of the rapids we plunged
7 dimly remember the cool spray
dashing into my face when we jump
cd a mad falls. But most of the time
7 was dreaming weird phantasms-
though usually about ice cream or
soda water.
To make up for the time lost IN
the creek, Capt. Peter took Il chance
in jumping over several sharp falls.
7 am sorry to this day that l was
not conscious enough to enjoy the
thrills of that trip. Dudley told me
later that for sheer excitement and
constant face-to-face battles with
death he never had seen the equal.
How the captain could steer the
heavy boat through such maelstromS
and how the little bowman could
stand in the bow like a glued statue,
swinging only his arms as he dug
his bow paddle from side to side,
Tending off Precarious rocks, Dudley
,ever understood And Dudley all
tho while guarded our treasure OF
diamonds. He had locked the re-
ceptaclc in which they were kept
within small tin canister. He had
tied d rope around his body and one
end around the canister. He had held
tight TO d life preserver all through
the trip.
We reached the coast on the eve
ming of the fourth day. AS we sped
along on the last lap through the
outskirts of plantations between
Eartika, at the mouth OF the Ma
Zaruni River and GeorgetnMn lick