Sand and Diamonds By Victor Rousseau Read online

  gripping

  his

  Presently he paused, turning his

  revolver, Luke began the descent of the little

  attention to the white things that he had seen

  incline leading from the pass into the valley.

  on the floor. They were the bones of animals.

  He followed a narrow trail amid the thorn

  Then he identified the place into which he had

  scrub. The discovery had accentuated Emmy’s

  fallen. It was no natural pit, but a trap

  peril in his mind. He meant to solve the hollowed out by the Bushmen, perhaps a mystery before the night was much older.

  hundred, perhaps five hundred, years before. It

  He reached the level flat of the valley.

  was one of those pitfalls made by a whole

  In front of him two fallen trees formed a knee-

  generation of those indefatigable little hunters, high barrier, the trail winding around it. Luke

  in which they caught their game—the

  stepped aside to follow it.

  antelope, the bush-hog, even the elephant.

  As he did so, the ground yielded

  One might have expected the floor of

  underfoot. He felt himself falling, clutched at

  the pit to be covered with bones, but the game

  the surface of the ground, missed it, and went

  had long since ceased to frequent that region,

  sliding down amid a shower of sand into so that the greater part of the bones had emptiness.

  pulverized and disintegrated, strewing the

  floor with silvery, glistening flakes.

  At the farther side of the pit, however,

  CHAPTER IV

  a heap of fresh bones was gleaming white in

  THE DEATH TRAP

  the moonlight. As Luke approached them he

  started back at the sight of a glistening skull.

  No skull of baboon, that—a human

  FOR just a few moments Luke lay skull unmistakably. Piled up about it were the unconscious, though this was more by reason

  ribs, the long thigh-bones, the bones of human

  of the swiftness and unexpectedness of the fall

  arms. Shreds of clothing still clung to this

  than from the depth into which he had fallen.

  human framework. But it did not need the

  Half-buried by the mass of sand that had presence of those wisps of cloth, fluttering to accompanied him, and by the sandy bottom

  and fro in the night wind, to tell Luke it was

  into which he had plunged, he finally all that remained of Rawlins and Simons.

  struggled out, blowing the grains from his

  Now he began to realize that it was no

  Action Stories

  10

  accident, this fall of his into the sand-pit, but a sending him sprawling.

  cunning trap devised just at the spot where

  Luke scrambled desperately to his feet.

  one who was unwarned must inevitably step

  At its next spring, quick as a flash, the

  into it. Caught in the same trap as himself, the

  monster smashed against Luke’s body. Both

  skeletons of the two troopers lay hunched up

  went sprawling to the floor of the pit. There

  together—but in horrible disarray.

  ensued a nightmare of struggle.

  Surely no man, however hard the death

  With the fetid breath of the foul animal

  agony might have been, could have twisted his

  nauseating and choking him, Luke managed to

  limbs like that ... and that!

  get a grip on the upper and lower jaws,

  It looked as if ghouls had descended

  wrenching and straining to get the head back

  into the pit, and hacked the two troopers limb

  and dislocate the vertebrae. Man and beast

  from limb. Even the bones were splintered and

  rolled over and over among the bones, but

  horribly mutilated. Yet surely no human fiend

  Luke never relaxed his hold.

  would have committed this sacrilege on men

  Failing to break the shaggy neck,

  who were already dead.

  fortified with its masses of matted hair, Luke

  No human fiend! The explanation suddenly shifted his grasp and caught the came to Luke next moment when, from a little

  hyena by the throat. There he clung, with the

  shallow recess at the base of the rocks behind

  jaws spouting venom over him, and the great

  the pile of bones, without a sound, a hideous

  body threshing in an agony of pain.

  shape launched itself at his throat.

  Beaten almost into unconsciousness by

  It was a striped hyena, one of the few

  the monster’s convulsive struggles, dashed to

  denizens of those wastes, which had fallen

  and fro across the heaps of bleaching bones,

  into the pit weeks before, and had gorged

  Luke never relaxed his hold. At length the

  itself, like the vampire that this creature is,

  struggles of the beast grew fainter.

  upon the bodies of the dead men. Now,

  With the last power of his muscles

  famished by its long fast, and mad with terror,

  Luke tightened his grip to the uttermost,

  it had forgotten the instincts that make it the

  flinging the entire weight and tension of his

  most cowardly of all the creatures of prey, the

  body into that grip of his hands, till, after a

  offal-eater that follows the lion to feast on

  convulsive shudder, the creature ceased to

  what the killer leaves. Famished and struggle.

  desperate, the huge grey bulk launched itself

  Staggering to his feet, the sergeant

  at Luke’s throat.

  found his revolver, and extinguished the

  It was Luke’s backward stumble over

  remnants of life with a bullet through the

  the heap of bones that saved him from the

  brain.

  crunching jaws that snapped together as the

  He sank back exhausted. With reviving

  lean shape shot past and over him. Before it

  strength there came to him again the problem

  had recovered itself Luke was upon his feet

  of escape. He began circling the pit, seeking

  again. He turned to face it, and realized what it an egress. His attempts to scramble up the side

  was.

  merely precipitated the fall of a cloud of sand.

  Again the hyena leaped. Luke’s There was no niche in the soft rock in which revolver barked too late. The bullet, shot he could set his foot. An attempt to hack a without aiming, merely glanced off the great

  foothold with his jack-knife broke away the

  dome of the rounded skull. The weapon was

  crumbling surface of the rock as fast as he

  knocked from Luke’s hand as the beast shot

  indented it.

  past him again, the outward thrust of its feet

  It was maddening to be trapped like

  Sand and Diamonds

  11

  that, with the upper ground and the thorn

  yelling. “We ain’t going to shoot the feller.

  scrub clearly visible in the light of the moon.

  Let him stew there in the sun tomorrer. Good-

  Sometimes Luke would manage to win a few

  bye, sergeant,” he called mockingly. “We’ll be

  feet upward, and clinging there like a fly on a

  back to see you when the hyenas and the ants

 
wall, would work with infinite care to carve

  have picked you clean. You’ll look as pretty

  out a footrest a little above him. With four or

  as Rawlins and Simons, sergeant.”

  five such niches he could attain the surface.

  More guffaws, and the cavalcade

  Just when hope began to rise the rock would

  receded into the darkness. Luke raged to and

  crumble. Losing his balance he would roll

  fro like the trapped beast that he was, till at

  over and over into the heap of bones beneath.

  last he succumbed to utter weariness.

  Time and again Luke tried, while the

  Dawn came, in splendor of red and

  night wore on, doggedly, desperately, and gold, across the desert. The sun rose. Luke always in vain. As he realized the hopeless

  made another survey of his prison. With the

  nature of his situation it became difficult to

  new day his sanity had come back to him.

  preserve his sanity, to check an impulse to

  Everywhere were the same walls of sandstone

  hurl himself against those walls and beat his

  and the loose sand.

  fists against them.

  He spent the morning in a succession

  There was a brief interval when he did

  of dogged attempts to scale the walls. At last

  yield to this weakness. He pictured Emmy in

  he gave up hope, sat down in the bottom of the

  the power of Van Reenen and realized that,

  pit, and awaited the inevitable.

  come what might, he could hardly hope to

  Rawlins and Simons must have made

  save her.

  the same efforts too, builded the same hopes,

  There was another interval when, lying

  and sunk back into the same despair.

  exhausted among the bones in the moonless

  He knew he would not have very long

  second half of the night, he heard the jingle of

  to wait. As the incredible heat of the desert

  horses’ bits above him, the creak of leather,

  sun beat down upon his head he felt his senses

  the voices of men.

  leaving him. He heard himself babbling. He

  He sprang to his feet and stumbled

  had a curious sense of being two persons, the

  forward, shouting for aid. Mocking laughter

  one collected and resigned, watching and

  came back to him from the edge of the pit. He

  listening to the other one, demented, now

  recognized Hart’s voice.

  raging to and fro, now sunk upon the floor

  “Hello, sergeant,” called the other. among the bones and calling Emmy’s name.

  “Met Rawlins yet?”

  How quiet that other man was lying at

  Hoarse guffaws of mirth met this sally.

  last! The thirst that filled the swollen mouth

  Looking up, Luke distinguished two or three

  like red-hot, searing iron—what had that to do

  other horsemen dimly outlined at Hart’s side.

  with him?

  “Looks pretty, Rawlins does, eh,

  The icy cold of the night wind came at

  sergeant?” Hart shouted. “That feller without

  last, and the two beings were welded into one

  the head is Simons. Hyenas got into the pit

  again. Sick and faint, Luke lay on the floor of

  and made a meal of him. They’ll be coming

  the pit, shivering in his sweat-soaked clothes,

  back for you, sergeant.”

  knowing that only one more day of torture lay

  With a shout of fury Luke loosed a

  between himself and death.

  shot into the dark. He heard cries of alarm.

  He had already lapsed into a coma

  The figures disappeared abruptly.

  when through the dark he fancied that he

  “Put up that gun!” he heard Hart heard a voice calling. Through the dark of

  Action Stories

  12

  unconsciousness, by a supreme effort, he big, shining diamonds! You’re lucky not to be struggled back to reality.

  rotting with them two poor fellows,

  A voice was calling him, although not

  policeman. If I hadn’t heard ’em talking, and

  by name, from the edge of the pit above. Luke

  guessed they had another policeman here, the

  sat up dizzily. He was sure it was Hart and his

  hyenas would be crunching your bones now,

  crew, come back to finish him off. But better

  like them poor fellows.”

  that than another day of such torment as he

  Luke pulled himself together and

  had endured!

  observed his companion. Old Pete was drunk,

  Pulling himself together, he took out

  incoherently drunk, and in that condition he

  his revolver and crept forward, crying out of

  was a sort of childish madman. He tapped him

  his swollen throat, and peering craftily about

  on the shoulder.

  him for a sight of his persecutors.

  “Listen,

  Flanagan. You’ve seen

  He heard something swish softly at his

  Emmy?”

  feet. His fingers encountered the strands of a

  “I’ve seen her. Van Reenen’s got her

  rope.

  and old Jan in the nice house I builded me

  Half-incredulous,

  he

  pulled at it. It was

  long ago. He thinks he’s got the diamonds,

  fastened to something above, and held tight.

  too, but old Pete Flanagan was too clever for

  He thought this must be Jantje.

  ’em. Those two poor fellows was calling for

  “Make a noose and sling it about ye.

  days, but Van Reenen wouldn’t let me go to

  I’ll pull ye up,” he hear a familiar voice,

  them.”

  although he could not place it.

  Luke shuddered at the words.

  Luke knotted the rope about his body.

  “Ya! They thought Pete Flanagan was

  Slowly he felt himself being dragged up the

  a harmless old drunkard, so they didn’t kill

  slippery ascent, amid a cloud of sand. Another

  him, only fed him brandy and locked him in

  moment, and he sank down exhausted upon

  the room. Tonight I heard them saying they’d

  the surface under the thorn scrub.

  got another policeman in the pit, and I gave

  He looked into the face peering into

  them the slip, because I knew you’d help me

  his own and recognized it as that of the half-

  get the diamonds.” His voice took on a note of

  mad, wandering prospector, Pete Flanagan.

  frenzy. “Diamonds, big yellow boys I found,

  policeman! We’ll get them, you and me and

  Van Reenen, and share them. That’s why I

  CHAPTER V

  come to you, so as you’ll clean up that nest of

  THE RENDEZVOUS

  thieves and get the diamonds.”

  “Where is it? Where’s this place

  they’re holding Emmy?”

  THE contents of Pete’s flask of water liberally

  “Not far. We’re going to get them

  mixed with raw Cape spirit, soon brought now. You and me, and then the diamonds.

  Luke back to complete consciousness. He Big, fine, white, shining stones, policeman!

  staggered to his feet and caught his rescuer
by

  You and me, and old Jan—”

  the arm.

  He went on babbling incoherently.

  “Emmy Duplessis!” he cried.

  Luke shook off the last traces of his mental

  “Hurray!” yelled Pete. “Emmy and old

  confusion. He was feeling stronger now. Old

  Jan and diamonds! They got the diamonds,

  Pete’s horse was standing near, and that

  policeman, but they won’t have them long.

  reminded Luke of his own. He had no hope of

  You and me and Emmy and old Jan, and the

  finding the animal, of course. Either it had

  Sand and Diamonds

  13

  strayed or Hart and his crowd had roped it in.

  composed of hand-pressed bricks, which

  Nevertheless, he decided to go back to the

  Flanagan had fashioned in the simplest

  pass.

  manner with a wooden square out of earth and

  Explaining to Flanagan, who regarded

  water, evidently the structure that he had made

  him with a look of suspicion, then followed

  for himself during the years that he haunted

  him, Luke went back. Of course there was no

  the desert. Immediately before him, in the

  sign of the horse. Dawn was not far away and

  centre of the clearing, Luke saw a wide hole in

  the moon was down. It was impossible to see

  the ground. At the top was a crude windlass

  far despite the brilliance of the stars. He would for letting down a bucket.

  not wait till day; he was burning to get on and

  Cautiously he went forward. The pit

  find Emmy.

  was of blue earth—the famous diamond earth

  He had left his carbine on the saddle.

  that decomposes into a yellow clay after