Evening star., 1924-10-12
Race With Deadly Disease Over Whirlir

] on my burning head.
| L was just half conscious when 1
| was carried into the hospital. My
| hammock had been tied to a long pole
paddlers right through the doorway
of the building. 1 was not too sick
to realize that they were asking
Dudley all sorts of foolish questions,
as it seemed to me, and writing
copious replies on a long sheet OF
printed paper. ! became infuriated
and shouted for bed. The tall
blacks stood like shadows, with my
hammock pole bearing painfully on
tionality, history. personal fortune,
had all to be given and Transcribed
before l could be taken in. Then
came the climax.
I'VE have had three Of those black
water cases." the putty-faced doctor
said. "They were all alike. And SO.
if we are to take him in, you'll have
to give us a deposit"
"A depoSit?" i heard Dudley query.
Yes, deposit of sS5."
why? What for?" Dudley f1ared
up
"A burial feer
The rest | very dimly remember ex-
cept that the black paddlers began
gesticulating and calling the doctor
names for not letting the chief come
in.
T WOKE up to find myself in a cool,
clean bed. There was a delightful
old lady lowering nearby. cracking
ice. and sprinkling cologne on my
head Where is this?" ! asked Dud-
ley.
This is Mrs. Teebo's. She has in
Vi ed lS IN he her p1aSfS" Dnd1Ay
planned.
When I was a little stronger. Dud-
ley drew chair up near the bed and
said:
Have some bad news; they won't let
US take the diamonds home with u.s."
Why" l asked feebly.
They've passed a law in England
that all diamonds found in British
possessions now must be shipped to
England. They may be needed for a
war emergency"
This was a staggering disappoint-
ment. We had planned to carry our
treasure home with US, pick out a
few of the best ones as mementoes
and sell all the rest at the high mar
ket prices in New York.
But that was not all. When the
English steamer came into port on
her way to New York we were noti-
u
able for US. Dudley found out that
they thought l had little chance of
living to reach the States, and they
were fighting shy of a burial at sea.
Gable exchanges with our State De-
partment. however, opened the way
for me. and at last Dudley and I
were on our way back to our native
land.
British Guiana had given US high
=, bA htrN Hrn@
that We would not go back to its sink
hole Of a jungle again for all the gold
and diamonds in the world.
was sincere enough in my reSolu-
tion never to go back to British
Guiana. The fact that l had been
stricken with fever in the dark forest
and that my body had been shaken
with dengue until my weight was re-
duced from 1876 pounds to l27 did not
bother me SO greatly as time went on,
but | could not get out of my head
the phantom of the Georgetown Hos
pital or the remembrance of a pallid
doctor standing over me and refusing
to give me a bed until my burial fee
had been paid.
But l cherished what few diamonds
[ had been able to bring back with
me. | had the most perfect Of the lot
mounted in a small nugget as scarf
II.
were preserved in the rough state.
just as they had come from the
ground One or two other crystals l
kept in my purse. Sometimes would
take them out and hold them in my
hands. As looked into their bright
faces there seemed to be brought
back to me all at once the vision of
my past experiences, the memory OF
those days when Dudley Lewis and l
hA grt u "
of the jungle floor.
x y X
T EXHIBITED the diamonds fire.
L uuently. Yet so few people. I
found, had ever seen a diamond in
the rough that as my friends mar
yeIed at their natural beauty, l
found myself growing less and less
arrogant in my vow never TO go
back to the South. My friends, more
over, continued to be so interested
in my past experiences that l un-
consciously became instilled with
renewed. and in many ways intangi-
BILE. desire to go back to that jungle
country and try my fortune again.
But to do this l needed money.
] felt that, but for my illness, in
time l should have been able to To-
cate the place from which the dia
monds had come. But it would have
required, / believed, several years
of exploration and much larger sum
of money than l then had to spend.
Every day had brought more and
more blacks into the wilderness, sin
gly and in groups. They dug into
the jungle floor haphazardly, like an
excited drove of pigs. roofing up
treasure. And they found diamonds.
The crystals were generally much
larger than the average of those
Dudley and / had first discovered
in the Creek of Desire.