Evening star., 1936-03-29
THIS WEEK
The Fabulous Valley
THIS WEEK
Continued from page twelve

IL tne STUN Is tneIe lney ii IlnO IL dnu
be back here inside of five days, or less.
All we've got to do is sit pretty here
and take the diamonds away from
them when they turn up again. If
they resist, the boys and I'll attend
to them"
Things had not gone so well with the
Bennetts, either. Their guide, Ombu-
like, had lost his way on the 10th day
out. After a heated argument with him
Michael succeeded in turning the con-
voy in the direction in which he
imagined their goal to lie.
On the day that the party in the
plane met with disaster. the Bennetts
had passed out of the monotonous,
rolling plains and suddenly entered
hilly country. They wound through
great mountainous, treeless gorges
where at times rocky cliffs overhung
their heads and precipices yawned at
their feet. They seemed to be enter
ing one of the circles of Dante's In
ferno. Although in the great sweep of
grassy plains they had seen few traces
of man, it had given them the impress
sion that they might come upon great
herds of cattlewith attcndantranchers,
and indeed had seen an occasional
deserted native village; but here there
was the utter eerie loneliness of nature
in her most unfriendly role. 1t was a
world unrealized by modern man -
primeval, terrible, with something
CHASTITY about it even under the blaz-
ing sun. The rocky cafions shimmered
under the relentless glare; not even a
lizard was to be seen summing itself
upon those white stones.
They halted at midday half way
along one of those endless rocky val
leys, and Ombulike came up to Mi
chael whom, despite his youth, all the
natives had come to regard as the
leader of the party. Ombulike pointed
with his stick to the end of the depres-
sion. He said one word: Water"
At one o'clock they set out again
along the great boulder -strewn valley.
where every stone reflected the torrid
heat, and by a little after three they
rounded great mass of rock to find a
swift, broad channel of water rushing
in swirling eddies below them.
With frantic haste they scrambled
down to rocky ledge and, flinging
themselves upon it, plunged their faces
into the cool, refreshing stream, gulp-
ing up great mouthfuls. When they
had drunk a new strength seemed to
have entered into them all. They
agreed to press on, keeping as close as
possible to the river bank and. after
an hour of following its course through
a stony defile, they came to a place
where it suddenly ended. Vast walls of
rock, several hundred feet in height.
lowered above their heads. They shut
out the sun. and at their base the
rushing waters poured into a great
dark cleft where they disappeared
from view.
Ombulike pointed with his spear to
the entrance of that gloomy cavern
into which the tossing waters surged.
That way" he said, lis the way
Great White Master went Il wait
for him here"
The three white men stood for a
few moments in silence, watching the
roaring current as it frothed and
eddied against the rocks before dis
appearing into the great hole in the
wall.
II don't much like the looks OF
that" said Ernest frankly.
"Nor do l." All the cheerfulness
which had frightened Georges fat
face for the last hour had drained
from it as he went on: Surely there
must be some other way of entering
the Valley than by risking our necks
going into that beastly hole"
There is" Michael pointed up to
tho heaf1;pu ~r,gc uhirh c,,t ehavpIv