Picking up one, Stoddard said laughingly:
"One of Mother Nature's trinkets worth half a million or so!"
Professor Prescott blinked at it a moment, almost in disbelief, then stooped and picked up one for himself—a diamond that would have made the Kohinoor look like a pebble.
There was no doubting its genuineness. Even in the moonlight, it flashed and burned like a thing afire.
But as the professor turned his eyes at last from its dazzling facets, they failed him again—or so he thought—for half hidden behind a jutting crag loomed a huge cylindrical object, seemingly of metal.
or the space of two breaths, he stared speechless, then gasped:
"Good Lord! What's that?"
Following his gaze, Stoddard saw it too.