Evening star., 1936-04-12
Mogoxine section


For an hour longer they labored by
The light of the flaming torches. Then.
nj last, they tested the engine. 1t
sprang into life with a roar which
thrilled them and heralded new hope.
AS Michael cut it off voice sud-
denly addressed them out of the gloom.
well, the world is small place, l
always do say. Fancy meeting you
here"
"Ernest!' exclaimed Michael.
n Good Heavens, Michael!' ejacu-
lated Ernest. you here? Id about
given you and George up for lost. But
where is George? And did you find the
As he spoke Ernest
|stepped into the light of the flares, fol-
|lowed by Ombulike.
u There was sudden heavy silence.
which was broken at last by Michael:
I'm afraid poor George ...
i Ernest was griefstricken. While for
days he had feared Michael and
George had met with disaster in that
.ferrible underground river. he had
never really admitted to himself that
|they must be dead. Now, from
|Michael's murmured words, he knew
|he would never see his brother again.
lille returned to the Van Niekerks'
camp with them and Sarie tried to
comfort him while Michael told of the
discovery of the diamonds, the death
+ |of Henry, and the theft Of the dia-
monds by Philbeach. Meanwhile.
Sandy and Cornelius ordered Ombu-
hike to out-span Ernest's oxen within
the semi-circle of the camp fires.
That night they all sat till late, dis
.cussing their next move. 1t was de-
cided that Sandy. Cornelius, Michael
and Sare would start just before
dawn by plane to surprise the Phil
beach party and rescue Patricia.
Ernest was to return to Zwartveldt
with the ox-wagon and with Willem,
the Van Niekerks' native servant, as
an addition to his party.
Accordingly, before the faintest
beam of daylight had appeared in the
sky. the party was up and ready to
depart. BY the light of their faring
torches they gave the planes motors
Ia last checking over and then took
off swiftly just as dawn was breaking.
They climbed to height of two thou
sand feet. Almost Immediately those
i'm the plane saw the glow Of the camp
fires of Philbeach's party. The journey
that had taken twelve hours for the
slow-moving oxen was covered by the
heroplane in as many minutes.
Cornelius problem now was to land
the plane safely, since they might
easily have bad spill if they came
down on broken ground. They did not
hope to conceal their presence from
those in the camp for the roar of the
engines had given warning of their ap-
proach. Cornelius landed as near the
camp as possible and TAXED the plane
right up to it.
AS the plane bumped and bounded
along, Michael and Sandy leaned from
it with rifles ready. They saw Phil
beach and his two aides look up in
alarm as the aeroplane came to rest
twenty yards from the wagon. The
three men had both heard and seen
The plane some moments before but
had not anticipated that it would
come down practically upon them.
The hands of all three moved in
Btinctively to their belts, but before
they could draw their guns the engines
of the plane were cut off and Michael
shouted:
We've got the three of you covered
and we'll shoot if you move hand"
After that the whole thing was easy.
Philbeach, Schwartz and Plettenberg,
realizing they were at a disadvantage,
were too wise to risk a gun fight. The
Invading party climbed out of the
plane and, while Sandy and Sarie kept
Philbeach and his men covered, Cor
nelius relieved them of their weaDons