Part 6 (1/2)
Scotty led the way back to the jeep. Rick got into the driver's seat and started the motor. He backed and turned in the narrow s.p.a.ce Connel's jeep had created, and finally got his wheels straight for the run back.
From somewhere behind them a voice called, ”Parada!”
”Who's that yelling at us to stop?” Rick asked.
”I can't see anyone,” Scotty replied. His eyes were scanning the jungle. ”But I don't know anyone around here we want to talk to. I've got a hunch we should get going.”
Rick felt the same. He released the clutch and the jeep moved ahead.
”Parada!” the voice yelled again, and on the echo came the clear crash of a rifleshot. A jagged star suddenly appeared on the winds.h.i.+eld between them!
Rick reacted instinctively. He shoved the gas pedal to the floor and bent low, the skin of his back crawling with the expectation of a rifle bullet hitting it. The jeep leaped ahead and he steered as best he could. He s.h.i.+fted into second and the vehicle picked up speed. The rifle snapped again and he heard the sound of the slug hitting metal in the rear of the jeep. Then the trail turned and there was heavy jungle growth between them and the unseen sniper.
Not until they reached the second station, a mile away, did Rick slow down. He looked at Scotty, his face grim. ”The place was guarded. What else can you make out of it?”
”Just that,” Scotty agreed. ”The guard must have been making a tour around the shot station. He got back just as we were taking off.”
”Funny he didn't hear the jeep when we came,” Rick said.
”Not very. Sound gets lost pretty fast in this heavy growth. You couldn't hear us a hundred yards away. Probably there's just the one guard, and he goes around the station in a big circle.”
”I'll buy it,” Rick agreed. ”But why? Why guard a chunk of jungle with nothing in it but some torn up yellow ground?”
”When I find out,” Scotty replied, ”I'll let you know first thing.”
CHAPTER X.
THE VOLCANIC PIPE.
HARTSON BRANT and Julius Weiss were still at work in the conference room when Rick and Scotty returned. David Riddle had gone, and the others had evidently not finished placing the tiltometers.
The two listened to Rick's story in silence, then Hartson Brant sighed. ”I don't know how you do it, Rick. But if there's trouble around, you and Scotty will find it. Are you sure the rifleman shot at you?”
”We've got a bullet hole in the winds.h.i.+eld and one just under the rear seat,” Scotty said. ”One might be an accident, but not two.”
”I agree.” Hartson Brant nodded. ”Let's see the samples of earth you brought back, Rick.”
He took both the yellow and blue pieces from his pocket and put them on the table. Hartson Brant and Weiss examined them with interest.
”Unusual,” Weiss said. ”I think you are right in a.s.suming that the yellow is simply an oxidized form of the blue, Rick. But I can't tell you what the material is. I've never seen anything like it before.”
”The grain is pretty fine,” Hartson Brant added. ”It could be igneous or sedimentary in origin. I'm not enough of a rock hound to know. David Riddle can tell us when he returns.”
”Connel would know, too,” Scotty reminded. ”He's a geologist. Wouldn't you think he would have mentioned an unusual formation like this when he found it?”
”Perhaps it's not unusual to a geologist,” Weiss pointed out.
”Where is Riddle?” Rick asked.
”He went to his room a few minutes ago. He should be back shortly. Rick, I think you'd better tell us the whole story. Why do you suspect Connel? Why was it important for you to look at his shot station?”
Rick started at the beginning. ”It wasn't any one thing, it was a series of little offbeat things. We thought it was funny he didn't even want company after Ruiz was hurt. Then he reacted so violently when we proposed swapping stations. It just seemed odd. The theft of the tracings bothered us, too. No ordinary thief would steal papers and leave Dr. Williams' wallet in his pocket, or leave his pocket transistor radio and stuff like that.”
”But you can't connect Connel with the theft of the papers,” Weiss objected.
”No, sir, we can't. But we almost got caught in the stolen dynamite, and he could have set that off. It was while we were on the way to his third station.”
Scotty added, ”Today, when we got to the station, I took a look along the trail. There's only one bend in it. If he was keeping a watch at the bend, he could have seen us arrive at the second station, hurried down the trail, set off the charge, then returned through the jungle to get his jeep.”
”But the fact that he could have, does not mean that he did,” Hartson Brant stated.
”We can't prove it,” Scotty agreed.
Rick continued. ”Then we trailed him to Casa Guevara. He couldn't have been paying a social call, because he wasn't there long enough. And what business does he have with Guevara? I don't know, but I'll bet his business is the reason we can't get Guevara to move.”
”Possibly,” Hartson Brant agreed. ”I can see the reason for your suspicions, but you lack proof of anything, Rick. What motive could Connel have?”
”We hoped to find out at the shot station,” Rick replied. ”But we drew a blank.”
Dr. David Riddle came into the room and joined them. Before anyone could speak, the geologist spotted the samples on the table and sucked in his breath sharply.
”Where did these come from?” he demanded.
”Connel's third shot station,” Rick replied. ”Do you know what the stuff is?”
Riddle sank into a chair and picked up one of the samples, testing it between his fingers. ”Yes,” he said, ”I do. I've seen it only once before, in Africa. It occurs in what is known as a volcanic pipe, actually an ancient channel that gets filled with the stuff for reasons we do not know.”
”A volcanic pipe,” Hartson Brant said softly. ”I'm beginning to see.”
Rick wasn't. ”But what is it?” he asked.
”The most valuable kind of ground in the world,” Riddle said. ”So far as anyone knew up to now, such pipes have occurred only in Africa. The one I saw was at Kimberley. The name came from there. This is kimberlite.”
Rick knew of only one kind of valuable that was a.s.sociated with Kimberley, and the thought was so staggering that he was almost afraid to say it out loud. ”You mean that this is the stuff diamonds are found in?”
”Exactly,” Riddle said.
Rick fished the handful of crystals from his pocket and stared at them unbelievingly. ”Then these,” he said hoa.r.s.ely, ”must be diamonds!”
CHAPTER XI.
EARTHQUAKE!.