t do for a million
dollars? Turning to the valet, he said hastily:

"Yes, I'm on. Take me to your party. I'll show you the trail. Quick,
lead the way."

CHAPTER VIII

Traveling to and from the diamond fields in the days immediately
following the first rush was not an unmixed joy. Express wagons drawn
by eight horses or mules and running from Cape Town to Klipdrift once a
week charged passengers sixty dollars a head, the journey across the
plains taking about eight days. Travelers whose business was so urgent
that they could not wait for the regular stage had to hire a team of
their own at a much higher expense.

Kenneth did not mind the cost, if only he was able to make good time.
The trip to the mines had been accomplished without mishap. Everything
had gone as well as could be desired. He had been successful in
securing valuable land options for the company, and at last the two
precious stones were in his possession. That it was a big
responsibility, he fully realized. The very knowledge that he had on
his person gems worth over a million dollars, and this in a wild,
uncivilized country where at any moment he might be followed, ambushed
and killed, and no one the wiser, was not calculated to calm his
nerves. But Kenneth Traynor had never known the meaning of the word
fear. He was ready for any emergency and he went about unarmed, cool
and unruffled. From his demeanor at least no one could guess that he
ever gave a thought to the valuable consignment of which he was the
guardian. Of course, it had been impossible to keep the thing secret.
Everybody at the mines knew he had come out for the purpose of taking
the big stones to America. Even his drivers knew, and so did Francois.
The news was public property and was eagerly discussed over every camp
fire as one of the sensations of the day. All this publicity did not
tend to lessen the risk, and that was why he was so anxious to reach
Cape Town without the least possible delay. He had timed his departure
from the mines so as to just catch the steamer for England, and now,
after all his trouble and careful calculation, the fool mule drivers
had gone and lost the trail. It was most exasperating.

The wagon had come to a halt the night before under shelter of a
fair-sized kopjie. The mules, tormented by the deadly _tetse_ fly,
stood whisking their tails and biting savagely at their hereditary
enemy; the drivers, indifferent and stolid, sat on t