urse," he continued dogmatically, "there are no
diamonds in this country, worse luck! so Kramer was laughed at by
everybody." He became madder than ever, sullen and morose. He thought
of nothing but his mad dream of diamonds. A few months previously his
discharge had come, and within a few days he had again disappeared into
the unknown. He had bought a mule, and had gone away laden with water-
bags, laughed and jeered at by his late comrades. He had never been
heard of in the interval. "But," said the lieutenant abruptly, "we must
be off, as we must go on at least two or three hours further east, and
I should suggest, Mr. Halloran, that if you care to do so you could
stay here till our return. You are likely to get a shot here by the
water."

Halloran agreed, and the patrol trotted away over the thick sand that
skirted the mountains eastward. The tale told by Haussmann had a
strange fascination for him. Himself something of a prospector, the
story of the diamonds did not appear so wild and improbable to him as
it did to the matter-of-fact Teuton. He had often wished for a chance
to prospect the slopes of these very mountains, which looked very
promising for gold but diamonds! Was it possible? Choosing a spot among
the rocks where he was somewhat sheltered from the sun and could
command a view of the little pool and its approaches, he sat down to
muse over the story and to await the chance of a possible shot. A
couple of hours passed. The stillness and intense heat combined to make
him drowsy, and he woke with a start to find he had been dreaming of
diamonds as big as tennis balls. "Bad sportsman," he yawned. "I shall
never get a shot this way," and, rubbing his eyes, he peered cautiously
round in search of game. Not a thing in sight in any direction. Stop!
was that a speck moving on a distant spur of the mountain? The
atmosphere was deceptive, but surely it was some animal approaching in
his direction. He had up till then forgotten his binoculars, but he was
now wide awake and, looking first to his rifle, he got out his glasses
and twisted them into focus upon the moving object in the distance. A
startled exclamation rose to his lips as the field-glasses covered the
moving spot; it was a man. Yes running, stumbling, crouching and at
times almost crawling the object which he saw was a white man, naked
except for a few rags. His desperate haste and the glances he threw
back continually showed that he was being pursued. Ev