uese hospital, when a few words in English caught his
attention, and feeling that he could not leave a fellow-countryman to
the mercy of strangers and foreigners in such a plight, he had seen me
through the stiff bout of brain fever in his own house.

As he told me all this, I decided to tell him all in return; for I now
remembered all that had happened up to the time I had swallowed the
berry; though after that it seemed nothing but a dream.

And first I asked him if the natives had brought anything with me.
"Nothing whatever," he replied, "except a small skin bag of stones!"

He had not opened it, nor did I need to then, for the feel was enough.
And it had been no dream then the crater, the deluge, the priestess,
and the promise she gave me.

Quietly, and as briefly as I could, I told him my story. Half way
through it he stopped me. "Look here," he said, "you mustn't go on like
this. You are wandering again!" and though I assured him I was not, he
felt my pulse and took my temperature. Then he let me go on again, and
though he looked puzzled and uneasy he listened till I was finished.
And then, looking at his pained and startled expression, I could see
that he believed I was lying or mad.

And then and then only I opened the bag. And the diamonds were there
enough to make a dozen men rich many more than the few blue ones I had
with me when I first escaped.

And never was a man more astounded than the Consul; again and again he
made me repeat my story, and at last, in considerable agitation, he got
up and walked to the window, where he stood looking out in silence for
some time.

Then he came back to the bed where I lay, and looked searchingly at me
again.

"You are a young man," he said slowly; "to all appearance you are a
young, strong man in spite of your scarred face and your bent spine,
you look a young man! Now how long were you there in that pit how long
do you think has passed since your terrible experience with the Snake?"

"It all seems like a dream," I answered him, "and I cannot tell. But I
must have been several months in the crater perhaps a year. Since then
I cannot have wandered long."

"Well, then," he questioned, "what month and year was it that you went
to Walfisch Bay, and found Inyati?"

"In 1860," I said; "I landed there in November, 1860. What is it now?"

"Good God, man," he exclaimed, "you must be mistaken. Are you sure it
was 1860?"

"Sure," I repeated, "November, 1860; and it