as hard to believe he had
simply picked up diamonds like so many pebbles. What's more, he couldn't
be sure whether he held a king's ransom in his hand or a few dollars'
worth of industrial abrasives.

"Why didn't Connel clean out all diamonds in the area?" he demanded.

"How could he?" Hartson Brant retorted. "When has he had time for a real
effort? I suspect he has picked up quite a few, but you found those just
by kicking around, which would indicate he hasn't sifted that loose
ground very thoroughly."

David Riddle frowned. "It's odd that Rick found so many. Perhaps he was
lucky enough to kick open a pocket that Connel missed. Diamonds just
don't occur with such frequency, even in Kimberley."

"They were pretty close together," Rick remembered. "It may have been a
pocket, all right."

"There is one other possibility," Riddle added, "and it's staggering to
think of it. These crystals may have come from a single large crystal.
Perhaps the dynamite explosions shattered the big one into a number of
smaller ones."

Scotty gulped. "But the original crystal would have had to be nearly the
size of a grapefruit!"

"True, Scotty. There have been crystals that big, or close to it.
Usually the diamond that is cut from such a crystal is much smaller.
There is considerable loss. But it's a possibility."

Rick said abruptly, "I think we ought to sort of review the situation.
To see where we stand."

"A good idea," his father agreed. "Suppose you start?"

Rick considered. "Well, Connel must have discovered the yellow ground
the very first thing, probably while he was kicking a hole to lay the
charge in. The reason I think so is because of Ruiz. That accident has
always bothered me. Ruiz just wouldn't walk back to the charge while
Connel was ready to set it off. He just wouldn't."

Julius Weiss asked, "Are you implying that Connel deliberately blew Ruiz
up?"

"What else can we make of it?" Rick replied. "That kind of accident just
doesn't happen. Not to an expert. But if Connel found the yellow ground
while setting the charge, and took time to dig a little and be sure
there was blue ground under it, he would certainly have known that he
was standing on top of a volcanic pipe. He might even have picked up a
crystal."

"If word got out, he couldn't exploit the pipe," Scotty added. "So, Ruiz
had to be eliminated. It would have been pretty easy. Connel had the
watch. He could have kept track of the time, then asked Ruiz