ig8 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



'Ariseep, questioned as to the tunnel, said, that 

 upon first discovering it which he had done quite 

 by accident while hunting rock-rabbits he had 

 once been through, years before, and as he had 

 found the passage long and dangerous, and the 

 valley beyond appeared to him less interesting than 

 his present abiding place, he had never repeated 

 the journey. However, he gave us warning that 

 snakes abounded, and might not impossibly be 

 encountered in the twenty minutes' crawl, which, 

 as Klaas had told me, it would take to get through. 

 This opinion, translated by Klaas, was not of a 

 nature to fortify me in the undertaking, yet, rather 

 than leave the diamonds unexploited, I felt prepared 

 to brave the terrors of this uncanny passage. 



" It was now three o'clock ; the sun was marching 

 steadily across the brassy firmament, on his eastward 

 trek, and we had no time to lose. 



" ' In you go, Klaas,' said I, and, nothing loth, 

 Klaas dived into the bowels of the mountain, I at 

 his heels. For five minutes, by dint of stooping, 

 and an occasional hands-and-knees creep upon the 

 flooring of the tunnel, sometimes on smooth sand, 

 sometimes over protruding rock and rough gravel, 

 we got along very comfortably. Then the roof of 

 the dark avenue for it was pitch dark now - 

 suddenly lowered, and we had to crawl along, 

 especially I, as being taller and bulkier than Klaas, 

 like serpents, upon our bellies. It was unpleasant, 

 deuced unpleasant, I can tell you, boxed up like this 

 beneath the heart of the mountain. The very 

 thought seemed to make the oppression a million 

 times more oppressive. It seemed that the frightful 

 pile of rock, towering far above us, was bodily 



