A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 193 



it, and overhanging it, was a kind of canopy of 

 stalactite of the same brilliant opalescent colours. 

 It was wonderful ! Klaas here began to caper and 

 dance in the most fantastic fashion, and then 

 suddenly ceasing, he said, ' Now, sieur, I will soon 

 show you the diamonds ; they are there,' pointing to 

 a dark corner of the glen, ' right through the rock.' 



" ' What made you call that shining stone up 

 there " De paarl " ? ' said I, as I gazed in admiration 

 at the beautiful ball of crystal. 



" ' Well, sieur, I was once with a wine Boer at 

 the Paarl down in the Old Colony, and a man told 

 me why they called the mountain there " De paarl " ; 

 and he told me, too, what the pretty gems were 

 that I saw in the young vrouw's best ring when 

 she wore it ; and I then knew what a paarl was, 

 and that it came from a fish that grows in the sea. 

 And I remembered then the great shining stone 

 that I found up here, when I was a boy, on the 

 Groote Rivier, and I thought to myself, " Ah ! Klaas, 

 that was the finest paarl ye ever saw, that near 

 where the pretty white stones lay." I mean the 

 diamonds yonder, sieur.' 



"At last, then, we were within grasp of the famous 

 stones, concerning whose reality I had even to the 

 last had secret misgivings. It was a startling 

 thought. Just beyond there, somewhere through 

 the rock walls, whose secret approach at present 

 Klaas only knew, lay ' Sindbad's Valley.' Could 

 it be true ? Could I actually be within touch of 

 riches unspeakable ; riches, in comparison with 

 which the wealth of Croesus seemed but a beggar's 

 hoard ? 



" I sat down on a rock, and lit a pipe, just to 



13 



