“A day wasted and the Priest on his way! He said within a day, didn’t he, Stubbs? Lord! we’ve got to get out of here; we’ve got to get to her. He’ll kill them both–––”
Wilson struggled to his feet and plunged towards the exit to the cave. Stubbs was upon him in a second and bore him down.
“Gawd, man, h’ain’t yer any sense left at all?”
A second later he repented his sharp speech, and added,
“There, lay still a moment, lad. I knows how yer feel, but we might’s well look aroun’ an’ find out how much bigger damned fools we are. Ye’ve gotter git yer strength before ye can move back over that course.”
“The treasure is there,” whispered Wilson; “but, Stubbs, I want more water––buckets of it.”
“What’s there?”
“Diamonds––diamonds, and not a drop of water.”
Stubbs did not believe it. He took it to be the hallucination of a man weak with thirst. But one thing was settled in his mind: if the cave were empty, he wouldn’t waste any more time here. Danger was increasing with every minute. He pawed his way 276 into the rear of the cave and had not gone ten feet before he stumbled over the same pile Wilson had found. He seized a handful of the stones and made his way back to the light.
The jewels sparkled in his rough palm like chips from the stars themselves. They were of all sizes from a beechnut to a pecan. Even roughly cut and polished as they were, they still flashed back their rainbow hues with pointed brilliancy. He picked out a large yellow diamond which even in this dim light glowed like molten gold in a fog; another which imprisoned the purple of the night sky; and another tinged with the faint crimson of an afterglow. Jumbled together in his hand, they were a scintillating pile of tiny, living stars, their rays fencing in a dazzling play of light. Even to Stubbs, who knew nothing of the stones, they were so fascinating that he turned them over and over with his finger to watch their twinkling iridescence.