Evening star., 1936-04-05
Continued from pose six

ing walls.
That this was the place for which
they had been seeking he did not
doubt - but where were the dia-
monds?
He sat crouched in the sandy hol-
low that he had made for himself on
the lake shore, desperate and desolate.
He cursed himself for fool ever to
have believed the fantastic story that
his uncle had told of the fabulous
wealth to be found herein.
A couple of hours dragged by while
he wrestled with his bitter thoughts
in the semi-darkness. Then the moon
came out from behind the clouds.
drenching the valley with strange
unearthly light. 1t shone as only an
African moon can. with the clarity OF
pale, whitish daylight. With haggard
eyes, Michael looked about him. seek
ing way break in the surfaces; a
cleft by which he might attempt to
scale those seemingly impossible bar
riers which held him imprisoned.
Then, suddenly. his eyes caught a
tiny CLEAN at his feet He looked and
saw dozens, hundreds of round, OBJ
long. irregularly-shaped stones scat
tered along the shore of the lake.
catching and rejecting the moons
pale light
With a staggering heartbeat he
realized the truth. John Long had not
lied. He, Michael, was sitting there
surrounded by enough diamonds to
ransom a dozen kingdoms!
He had found it - the valley of
fabulous wealth - the natives Place
of The Great Glitter.
At the very moment that Michael
stood gloating over the wealth that
lay at his feet. Sandy and the two Van
Niekerks, their faces tense with
anxiety. sat within the protective
circle of their camp fires discussing
their chances of getting out of the
desert alive. They were ten DAYS
march from the nearest native settle
ment - Noro-Kei - without wagon,
oxen or horses.
''Only one thing to dc" Sandy tried
to make his voice sound as cheerful
as possible. We'll have to wait here
until one of the other parties returns
and gives us lift"
'Darn!" exclaimed Sarie. Ito think
of this happening after we've been
kidding ourselves for days that we
had the laugh on the others"
Nonsense" said Cornelius. San
dy is right. It's the only thing to do.
If l thought there was a sporting
chance of our reaching the Noro-kei
pan on foot, I'd risk it - but l am
dead certain we could not make it,"
They sat in glum silence, watching
the Pickering flames and listening to
the night noises. The occasional roar
of lion came from some nearby part
Of the valley - and the hideous laugh
ing bark of hyena rent the stiffness
at intervals. As Sandy stared out into
the darkness between the fires he
thought he caught, now and again,
glimpse of two round. cleaning.
yellow eyes "a leopard. perhaps.
prowling round the camp, ready to
spring should one of these two-legged
creatures that had invaded its solitude
venture beyond the protective circle
of light.
"It's lucky we found this hollow to
camp in." Sandy remarked as some
beast lurking outside the wall of fire
gave low menacing grunt.
TOO bad we can't take a shot at
that fellow" said Cornelius. But a
leopard, if that is one and it probably
is, is too dangerous to risk missing.
There's a lot of game in this valley
small antelope. and gemsbok are fairly
plentiful - and both lions and leop-
ards hunt them"
Snakes, scorpions and spiders are
r