o the mountains known among
the Kukuanas as the "Three Witches."

"Why does it end?" I asked.

"Who knows?" he answered with a shrug; "the mountains are full of
caves, and there is a great pit between them. It is there that the wise
men of old time used to go to get whatever it was they came for to this
country, and it is there now that our kings are buried in the Place of
Death."

"What was it they came for?" I asked eagerly.

"Nay, I know not. My lords who have dropped from the Stars should
know," he answered with a quick look. Evidently he knew more than he
chose to say.

"Yes," I went on, "you are right, in the Stars we learn many things. I
have heard, for instance, that the wise men of old came to these
mountains to find bright stones, pretty playthings, and yellow iron."

"My lord is wise," he answered coldly; "I am but a child and cannot
talk with my lord on such matters. My lord must speak with Gagool the
old, at the king's place, who is wise even as my lord," and he went
away.

So soon as he was gone I turned to the others, and pointed out the
mountains. "There are Solomon's diamond mines," I said.

Umbopa was standing with them, apparently plunged in one of the fits of
abstraction which were common to him, and caught my words.

"Yes, Macumazahn," he put in, in Zulu, "the diamonds are surely there,
and you shall have them, since you white men are so fond of toys and
money."

"How dost thou know that, Umbopa?" I asked sharply, for I did not like
his mysterious ways.

He laughed. "I dreamed it in the night, white men;" then he too turned
on his heel and went.

"Now what," said Sir Henry, "is our black friend driving at? He knows
more than he chooses to say, that is clear. By the way, Quatermain, has
he heard anything of--of my brother?"

"Nothing; he has asked everyone he has become friendly with, but they
all declare that no white man has ever been seen in the country before."

"Do you suppose that he got here at all?" suggested Good; "we have only
reached the place by a miracle; is it likely he could have reached it
without the map?"

"I don't know," said Sir Henry gloomily, "but somehow I think that I
shall find him."

Slowly the sun sank, then suddenly darkness rushed down on the land
like a tangible thing. There was no breathing-space between the day and
night, no soft transformation scene, for in these latitudes twilight
does not exist. The change from day to night is as quick and as