so."

High words followed, the experts became partisans, every one was
dragged in except Dick and the Herr Professor, and the latter, flushed
and rattled and his glasses all awry, was at length appealed to in the
matter.

"Ach, gentlemens," said he, beaming from one to the other, and
absolutely exuding good temper and conciliation; "why quarrel on this
so-splendid an expedition, hein? Let us then return to the Herr
Prospector Junes' choice let us accede to this so good man's request,
hein?"

"Right," snorted Grosman; "but if the damned place is no good don't
blame me and don't condemn the field. I can show you where there are
stones, anyway!"

And so with many a sneer and jeer, and with an atmosphere of extreme
tension pervading the whole party, Junes was allowed to lead the way to
the spot of his choice. He went straight across the foot of the big
dune, and in a few minutes had amply justified himself, for there were
diamonds in abundance the diamonds his confederate Grosman had strewn
there the night before.

Now Solly's instructions to Dick to lie low, and say nothing, no matter
what he found out, had been explicit and insisted upon, and in spite of
his instinct to warn the professor, he might have been content to "lie
low" and go on watching till the trip was over, had it not been for a
certain small but excessively highly-charged black scorpion that found
its way into Dick's sleeping-bag that night; and more than making up in
"cussedness" what it lacked in size, gave him an exceedingly warm time
of it. One sting in particular, on a big vein in his leg, gave him
excruciating pain, and though he applied the universal veldt remedy of
nicotine from his pipe-bowl, the agony was so great and the swelling so
alarming that at length he hobbled off to the professor's tent to see
if that learned man could give him some relief. He found the old
gentleman sleeping soundly and had some difficulty in rousing him; but
that task accomplished, so assiduous was the professor in dressing the
sting, and such kindly interest did he display in both Dick and the
defunct scorpion, that Dick, who had always liked the old chap, almost
made up his mind to tell him all that he had seen and suspected. The
scorpion really settled the question for him, for the professor had
scarcely finished injecting Dick's leg than he turned his attention to
the dead reptile, at which he had already cast many curious glances as
it lay on his little camp