Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 48: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

26 the glasses in the swiftly fading glow of a flamingo sunset, Tony was astonished to see a Cluster of huts, what appeared to be a village of some size, exhibiting a good deal of activity. Clearly in the lower dusk he could distinguish a black, white and red blob at the top of a palm trunk, and as they looked a trumpet call rang out and the pre- war flag came fluttering down. Between the station and the main jungle, which ended as abruptly as a fence, was a low, open space looking like the bed of a dried-up river pocked with pits from which ran wires, gleaming like a spider’s web, up to the lip of the plateau. Unable to guess what they could be, Tony handed the Zeiss to Plessons, who after one look exclaimed: “‘Sufferin’ Moses, if that ain’t the ruddy limit!” “What? What?” “‘W’y, look, gov’nor! Them holes yer see in the grahnd’re di’mond pits! Them blokes must have half a hundred or more black fellas working for ’em. Must be blue clay or I’m a liar! Blimey! It’s a young Kimberley already, that’s what it is! ’Struth! Did yer see up there on the right?” He switched the glasses swiftly about. “That’s it. This here must have been a river afore them volcanoes busted out and blocked both ends of the valley.”’ He stared perplexedly. “Did yer notice that long shed up there? If that ain’t a sorting shed I’ll eat me bloom- in’ boots! Yer see, they dig in the clay, shove it inter baskets and haul it up on them wire stays to the plateau, where it’s broken up and all the di’monds picked aht. See, there’s the dump jus’ ter the left. Crumbs! They must have a dozen fortunes there by the look of it; and fifty more in the grahnd. Look, there’s von Muhlhauser comin’ back—does hisself well in a machila (hammock) my oath!—and our maite.” He laughed. ‘Looks pretty sick if yer arsk me—ol’ slab-sides!”’ “Then the whole column must have re- mained here instead of giving themselves up after the Armistice,” said Tony. “But it’s funny none of the British hit on this place. But say; d’you recollect that yarn that explorer in the Congo told us about an American who disappeared somewhere about here? That would be their game. Wouldn’t dare let anybody go, in case they gave ’em away!” “VYus, that’s abaht it. The old feller Adventure what died must have broke away, but the spiders got him. Cripes! That’s why the blighters don’t burn the spider belt. That’s their barbed-wire entanglement to keep the prisoners in!” “But the prisoners could fire the belt themselves,”’ suggested Tony. “Yus; but the fire itself would give ’em away. The boches would be arter ’em and shoot ’em dahn before they had: half a chance ter burn a path.” “That’s right,” Tony had to admit. “Pretty tough proposition unless they could find the diving suits. If what you say is right, Plessons, they must have a co- lossal fortune here; and they’re sending it out, too, judging from that belt on that fel- low.” He laughed softly. “If Sawyer gets wise to this he’ll go plumb crazy! the skeeters!”’ : : “Me, too,” agreed Plessons. ‘Best thing ter do is ter get back there in the jungle and light a smudge fire and go fossackin’ arahnd that there camp with the moon. We'll want food anyway since that blasted boche pinched the porter.” | KO) the stars. Crawling cautiously, they made their way back a few hundred yards, where in a small cafion between two masses of the ancient débris they trampled another cavern in the dense undergrowth and made a tiny fire, the greenwood smoke of which served as some defense against the mosquitoes. , With the first glow of the moon they were on their way, still hugging the hillside where the growth was thinner. It took about two hours of difficult going to make the verge of the plateau, where they arrived covered in sweat and blood from pests and bushes. Fortunately the twittering hum of the night life, augmented by a frog chorus, helped to smother the crashing of branches and occa- sional stumbles over the uneven ground. The whites’ quarters, which they could distinguish in the moonlight, were -built in parallel lines like barracks and were com- modious enough to house a few hundred men. Lights were burning in only two square huts, one standing by itself at the head of the street, and the other nearer the hillside. A fact in the trespassers’ favor was the absence of the pariah dogs usually attached to every native village. As they approached IT WAS now pitch dark save for CoOMmicbook ) CO =