o'clock the following morning
he was liberated without more ado, and outside the gaol he found the
little Hebrew who had been the cause of all the trouble.

"I squared 'em," explained the little man, with a grin; "sent a note
along to a pal of mine who knows the ropes, and he soon got us out.
Better come along and have some grub!"

"Look here," said Dick, "I'd better let you know right away that I'm
dead-broke."

"Never mind," said the other; "come along and feed, and then we'll
yap."

A good meal, and a good smoke after it, and the little Jew said
abruptly, "Now then, Mr. Sydney, I've found out a bit about you this
morning, and if you want a job, I think I can get one for you. We want
a straight man for something that's on, and I think you'll do."

"I'm game," said Dick, "if it's a straight deal."

"Straight as a die," replied Solstein or "Solly," as he liked to be
called. "Let's get along the beach, we can talk there!"

Pacing along the sands, with no one to hear them but the sea-gulls, and
with his old briar again charged with some real God-fearing cake
tobacco, Sydney heard what it was that was required of him; and there
and then Solly's offer was accepted.

Two days later an expedition, outfitted regardless of expense in
Johannesburg, left Luderitzbucht to carry out a systematic testing of
certain distant diamond-fields recently discovered and acquired by a
local syndicate, and reported to be fabulously rich, so rich that an
extremely large company talked of acquiring them in turn, and those in
the know hinted at a huge flotation.

Money was therefore no object, and the party was both large and well-
equipped. It consisted of a diamond expert acting on behalf of the
Syndicate; another expert acting on behalf of the would-be purchasers,
and, incidentally, to watch the other chap; a financial representative
of either side to watch proceedings; two prospectors, presumably to
watch each other; a learned professor of geology to give an unbiased
report of the fields; and, lastly, Dick Sydney, ostensibly in charge of
the transport, but in reality to watch the whole caboodle of them.

Striking north-east, the expedition almost immediately entered a
practically untraversed desert of barren sand-dunes, waterless, and
both difficult and dangerous to traverse; and their animals drank
nothing for the first two days. On the third, however, guided by the
discovering syndicate's prospector Grosman, and by two stunted