Evening star., 1936-04-12

wv of which John Thomas Longs
letter had told his heirs, he mo-
mentarily forgot his fatigue. Eagerly he picked
up some of those strange stones which lay all
about him, glinting DULY in the moonlight.
Soon, however. he put down the few he had
gathered; a sudden exhaustion seized him.
He lay down in the small shelter to which
he had carried the few supplies salvaged from
the raft and was soon sound asleep.
When he awoke the suns rays had already
topped the mountains. On the sandy shores
of the lake into which the great waterfall
thundered ceaselessly. thousands of tiny
points of light struck his eyes from all direc
tions. Standing there, the solitary observer
of that strange, hidden crater, Michael
understood why it had been christened the
place of the Great Glitter" by those native
discoverers who had penetrated to it in past
times and had preserved the legend in their
tribes for posterity. 1t was certainly not
because the place actually gttered-for
diamonds in their rough state have rather
grayish greasy looking coating, and have
certain elusive, sparkle only as the sunlight
strikes them. Therefore, even though in this
case the craters bed was literally Carpeted
with these priceless uncut gems, it was
probably the dazzling vision of unlimited
wealth the diamonds represented that had
appealed to the natives imagination and
inspired their picturesque name for it -
"Place of the Great Glitter
Michael spent the whole morning collecting
the precious stones, contemptuously disre
garding the smaller stuff and those with
reddish hue which he knew to be garnets
until he had picked up as many large speci-
mems as he thought he would be able to
carry Then, instead of trying to sleep through
the midday heat, he stripped off his clothes
and lay down in the shallow waters at the
rivers edge, with his head sheltered from the
sun by slab of projecting rock. He had al
ready made up his mind where he would
attempt to scale the rocky walls which
hemmed him in but it might be hours or
even days before he found his way back to
the camp where Ernest waited. In the latter
case his greatest danger apart from wild
animals, lay in the limited quantity of water
which he would be able to carry He sought,
by soaking his body for an hour, to adjust
the deficit and by these means economic to
the lowest point the ration which it would be
necessary for him to drink during his perilous
journey.
After eating what little he could spare
from the scanty store Of food he had sal
vaged, he made up the rest into packet and
tied it to his belt The diamonds he dis
tributed as evenly as possible about his per-
son and, having filled his water bottle, he
knelt down anc drank again from the river.
After that he took his ground sheet and, form
ing it into bunchy sack filled it with water
and tied its outer edges firmly with piece of
string. He slung the bag upon his back in the
manner of a rucksack and then began the
ascent.
Progress was easy at first, but as the rough
walls grew sleeper Michael's difficulties in
creased. The heat was intense. He labored on
with grim determination and at last with
bleeding fingers hauled himself onto the top
of the precipice where he lay painting and
exhausted.
He pulled himself together again as soon
as ne was able and made his way round the