The legendary diamond was found in his stomach."
"Ghastly," Sally-Anne shuddered.
"Perhaps," Craig agreed with her. "But every noble diamond has a sanguine history. Emperors and rajahs and sultans have intrigued and mounted campaigns for them, others have used starvation or boiling oil or hot irons to prick out eyes, women have used poison or prostituted themselves, palaces have been looted and temples have been profaned. Each stone seems to have left a comet's train of blood and savagery behind it. And yet none of these terrible deeds and misfortunes ever seemed to discourage those who lusted for them. Indeed when ShahShuja stood before Runjeet Singh, "The Lion of the Punjab", starved to a skeleton and with his wives and family broken and mutilated by the tortures that had at last forced him to give up the Great Mogul, the man who had once been his dearest friend, gloating over the huge stone in his fist, asked, "Tell me, Shah-Shuja, what price do you put upon it?"
"Even then ShahShuja, broken and vanquished, knowing himself at the very threshold of ignoble death, could Still answer, "It is the price of fortune. For the Great Mogul has always been the bosom talisman of those who have triumphed mightily."" Tungata grunted as the tale ended, and prodded the pile of treasure in the firelight before him with a spurning finger. "I wish one of these could bring us just a little of that good fortune." And Craig had run out of stories, his throat had closed painfully from cold and talking and the searing tear gas, and none of the others could think of anything to say to cheer them. They ate the unappetizing scorched maize cakes in silence and then lay down as close to the fire as they could get. Craig lay and listened to the others sleeping, but despite his fatigue, his brain spun in circles, chasing its tail and keeping him awake.
The only way out of the cavern was back through the subterranean lake and up the grand gallery, but how long would the Shana guard that exit? How long could they last out here? There was food for a day or two, water seepage from the cavern roof would give them drink, but the batteries of the two lamps were failing, the light they gave J;
was turning yellow and dull, the timber from the ladder might feed the fire for a few days more, and then the cold and the darkness. How long before it drove them crazy? How long before they were forced to attempt that terrible swim back through the shaft into the arms of the waiting troopers at the Craig broodings were violently interrupted. The rock on which he lay shuddered and jumped under him, and he scrambled to his hands and knees.
From the shadows of the cavern roof one of the great stalactities, twenty tons of gleaming limestone, snapped off likea ripe fruit in a high wind, and crashed to the floor barely ten paces from where they lay. It filled the cavern with billows of limestone dust. Sarah awoke screaming with terror, and Tungata was thrashing around him and shouting as he came up from deep sleep.
The earth tremor lasted for seconds only, and then the stillness, the utter silence of the earth's depths, fell over them again and they looked into each other's frightened faces across the smouldering fire.
"What the hell was that?" Sally-Anne asked, and Craig was reluctant to answer. He looked to Tungata.
"The Shana-" Tungata. said softly" - I think they have dynamited the grand gallery. They have sealed us off."
"Oh my God." Slowly Sally' Anne covered her mouth with both hands.
"Buried alive." Sarah Aid it for them.
he shaft was just over 160 feet deep from the edge of the platform to water level. Tungata plumbed it with the nylon rope before Craig began the descent. It was deep enough to kill or maim anybody who slipped and fell into the chasm.
They secured the end of the rope to one of the poles wedged like an anchor in the opening of the tunnel that led to the crystal cavern, and Craig abseiled down the rope to the water at the bottom of the shaft once more. Gingerly he committed his weight to the rickety remains of the ladder work as he neared the surface of the water and then lowered himself into the water.
Craig made one dive. It was enough to confirm their worst fears. The tunnel leading into the grand gallery was blocked by a heavy fall of rock. He could not even penetrate as far as the remains of the wall built by the witch-doctors. It was sealed off with loose rock that had fallen from the roof, and it was dangerously unstable. His groping hands brought down another avalanche of rumbling rolling rock all around him.
He backed out of the tunnel, and fled thankfully back to the surface. He clung to the timber ladder work panting wildly from the terror of almost being pinned in the tunnel.
Tupho, are you all right?"
"Okay!" Craig yelled back up the shaft.
"But you were right. The tunnel has been dynamited. There is no way out.
When he climbed back to the platform, they were waiting for him. Their expressions were grim and taut in the firelight.
"What are we going to do?" Sally Anne asked.
"The first thing to do is to explore the cavern minutely." Craig was still gasping from the swim and the climb. "Every corner and nook, every opening and branch of every tunnel. We will work in pairs. Sam and Sarah, start working from the left use the lamps with care, save the batteries." Three hours later by Craig's Rolex, they met back at the fire. The lanterns were giving out only a feeble yellow glow by now, the batteries drained and on the point of failing.
"We found one tunnel at the back of the altar," Craig reported. "It looked good for quite a way, but then it pinched out completely. And you? Anything?" Craig was cleaning a scrape on Sally-Anne's knee where she had fallen on the treacherous footing. "Nothing," Tungata admitted. Craig bound the knee with a strip torn from the tail of Sally-Anne's shirt. "We found a couple of likely leads, but they all petered out."