believe. But I feel like getting near the end of my tether, so I must
hurry up.

"Well, one day we'd been out collecting grasshoppers and lizards and all
that kind of beastliness which those fellows eat, and stayed out too
late. We were looking about for a hole or a cave to sleep in--for it
was coldish up there of nights--and it was already dusk. I noticed my
Bushman friends were getting mighty uneasy, and supposed they were
afraid of bogies or something of that kind. There was a half-moon
shining brightly overhead, and I saw we were skirting a deep valley--
though it was more like a hole than a valley, for there seemed no way in
or out. All of a sudden one of the chaps grabbed me by the arm and
pointed downwards. I shan't forget that moment in a hurry. There, ever
so far down it seemed, glowering up through the darkness, shone an Eye.
Yes, an Eye; greenish, but brilliant as a star. I rubbed my eyes and
looked again and again. There it was, each time brighter than ever.
What could the thing be? I own I was puzzled.

"The Bushmen were getting more and more scared, and began to lug me
away. But I took one more look round first. The thing was gone.

"There was no staying to investigate further. They began to threaten me
then--I gathered at last that I was committing a sort of sacrilege, that
it was a demon-haunted place to them, and that it was a devil's eye that
would scorch up whoever looked at it too long--in fact, they called it
the Valley of the Eye--that if I bothered about it I should be killed
for raising their devil. But I puzzled over the thing to myself day and
night, and determined to look into it further.

"At last the opportunity came. I was out on the berg with one of the
fellows one day, trying to get a shot at something, and gradually worked
round to the place. Directly I got near it, he began to show the same
signs of scare, but I paid no heed to him and just began to clamber
down. It was an awful place to get at, though. After a good deal of
dangerous climbing I got to a kind of sloping terrace, all stones and
dry dusty earth. While I was resting I stooped down to pick up a stone,
and at the same time lifted a little bit of carbonised-looking stuff.
Heavens, how I jumped! It was a diamond.

"Didn't I look about for more! I only found one, though; and after a
lot of fossicking round I began to think of going further down, when a
most infernal row overhead altered my mind. There w