This At Once Filled My Head
With Thoughts Of Precious Stones, And As The Spot
Looked Likely Enough, I Started To Dig Vigorously At
The Gravel With My Hunting Knife.
After a few
minutes of this work, I came across what I at first
took to be a magnificent diamond sparkling in
the damp sand:
It was about half an inch long,
and its facets looked as if they had been cut
by an Amsterdam expert. I tested the stone
on my watch glass and found that it cut my
initials quite easily, and though I knew that
quartz would do this as well, it did not seem
to me to have either the general appearance or
angles of any quartz I had ever seen. For a
moment or two I was greatly delighted with my
discovery, and began to have rosy dreams of a
diamond mine; but I am sorry to say that on
closer examination and testing I was forced to
the conclusion that my find was not a diamond,
though unlike any other mineral I had ever come
across.
My hopes of rapidly becoming a millionaire
having thus been dashed to the ground, we
proceeded on our way, getting further and further
into the depths of a gloomy forest. A little
distance on, I noticed through a break in the
trees a huge rhino standing in full view near the
edge of a ravine. Unfortunately he caught sight
of us as well, and before I could take aim, he
snorted loudly and crashed off through the tangled
undergrowth. As I followed up this ravine,
walking stealthily along in the delightful shade of
the overhanging palms, I observed on my left
a little nullah which opened out of the main
channel through a confused mass of jungle and
creeper. Through this tangle there was a
well-defined archway, doubtless made by the regular
passage of rhino and hippo, so I decided to
enter and explore what lay beyond. I had not
gone very far when I came upon a big bay
scooped out of the bank by the stream when in
flood and carpeted with a deposit of fine, soft
sand, in which were the indistinct tracks of
numberless animals. In one corner of this bay,
close under an overhanging tree, stood a little
sandy hillock, and on looking over the top of
this I saw on the other side a fearsome-looking
cave which seemed to run back for a considerable
distance under the rocky bank. Round the
entrance and inside the cavern I was
thunderstruck to find a number of human bones, with
here and there a copper bangle such as the natives
wear. Beyond all doubt, the man-eaters' den!
In this manner, and quite by accident, I stumbled
upon the lair of these once-dreaded "demons",
which I had spent so many days searching
for through the exasperating and interminable
jungle during the time when they terrorised
Tsavo. I had no inclination to explore the
gloomy depths of the interior, but thinking that
there might possibly still be a lioness or cub
inside, I fired a shot or two into the cavern
through a hole in the roof.
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