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
Sand and Diamonds By Victor Rousseau Page 3