teell and Dick rose and bowed politely.

There was nothing to be done. He was ignominiously dismissed like a
lackey caught pilfering. But there was black wrath in his heart as he
picked himself up, and turning to the others, he bowed and said:

"Good night."

CHAPTER VII

Dawn broke over the desert region of the Kalihari. The gray mists of
the South African night slowly dissolved on the approach of the rising
sun, until the crimson glow of the coming day, spreading high in the
eastern heavens, tipped with gold the snow-clad peaks of the
Drachenberg, and then, swiftly inundating the valley like a flood,
chased away the shadows and filled the undulating plains with warmth
and light.

Stretched out near the flickering embers of an expiring camp fire, not
half a day's _trek_ from the Vaal River, lay what, at first view,
appeared to be bundles of rags. A closer inspection showed them to be
the prostrate forms of two men, asleep. Huddled close together, as if
seeking all possible protection from the keen air of the open _veldt_,
they appeared grateful even for the little warmth that still came from
the dying fire. Every now and again a tiny flame, bursting from one of
the smouldering logs, would light up the recumbent figures, revealing a
brief glimpse of the sleepers.

Both bore traces of desperate need. The rags they wore were filthy,
and gave only scant protection from the weather, their emaciated faces
and hollowed cheeks told eloquently of many days of fatigue and hunger;
their feet, long since without shoes, were clumsily protected from the
rocky _veldt_ by pieces of coarse sacking. For weeks they had tramped
across the great, merciless desert, guided only by the stars, often
losing the trail, begging their way from farm to farm, glad to do
little jobs for friendly Boers in return for a meal, always in peril of
attack by hostile Kaffirs, yet never halting, trudging ever onward in
their anxiety to reach the coast. That was the haven they painfully
sought--the open sea where at least there was a chance to die among
their fellows and not perish miserably like dogs on the lonely.
God-forsaken plains, with only the howling jackal and the screaming
vulture to pick their bones.

They had tried and they had lost in the great gamble. Like thousands
of other reckless adventurers attracted to the newly discovered diamond
country, they had rushed out there from England, confident that they,
too, could wrest