iver-bed,
keeping as much cover as possible between himself and the place where he
supposed Max to be still working.

Max, in his turn, waited until the other was out of sight and then,
skirting the base of the hill, approached the rocks where, a quarter of
an hour or so before, Moreas had been so mysteriously engaged. He was
quite aware that if by any chance Moreas should return and find him
there, it would put an end to their partnership.

"Let that be as it may," he said to himself, "I'm determined to find out
what it was that brought him here."

When he reached the open space between the rocks, he looked eagerly
about him. No sign, however, of anything unusual was to be discovered
there. He could not see that the ground had been touched, nor could he
find any place where things, such as he was thinking of, could be
hidden. The ground was of a sandy description, bare for the most part,
but varied here and there with tufts of rough grass, some eight to ten
inches in height. After patient investigation he found that one of these
showed signs of having lately been pressed down by a heavy weight.

"Now I think I understand," he said to himself, and immediately resolved
to overhaul the smaller rocks in its neighbourhood.

A few minutes later he uttered a cry of delight, and immediately
replaced the stone he had lifted. Moving to the other side of the circle
he carefully overhauled the neighbourhood, in order to make quite sure
that Moreas was not returning. Nothing was to be seen of him, however.
He accordingly returned to his examination of the hole. As it proved, he
was not wrong in his conjecture. In it reposed what he had quite
expected to find there, namely, a small leather bag, similar to that in
which the diamonds at the camp were kept.

"So, friend Moreas, you turn out to be a thief after all," he said, as
he sat down upon the ground and opened the bag. "You hand over to me,
for the welfare of the syndicate, the small stones you find, while the
more valuable you hide here for your own benefit."

So saying he shot the contents of the bag into the palm of his hand and
studied them attentively. It was impossible to say what the collection
was worth in its entirety, but the total could scarcely have been less
than thirty thousand pounds.

He placed the bag in his pocket, and retraced his steps to the hillside.
Once there he sat down and considered the position. To have taken his
haul back to the camp, as thin