We were up and stirring early, and after a good breakfast and a draught of cool water from a sparkling brook near by, we started again in search of the valley of diamonds.  
An hour’s swift run brought us to the slight depression in which stood the great block of red granite we had so eagerly sought. There was no mistaking it, as the German had said; curiously enough, it was the only granite boulder we had seen in this country.
 
A long, horizontal spike of rock near the apex pointed unerringly into the near-by forest, and I dismounted and walked from the boulder slowly in the direction indicated by the guide.
 
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Sure enough, on reaching the forest I found myself confronting a gigantic mahogany tree, standing a little in advance of its fellows; so with a shout of joy I beckoned to my comrades and waited for them to join me. Duncan ran the automobile close up to the edge of the wood, and then stopped the engines and closed the door of the dome so that we could all take part in the discovery of the diamonds.
 
Entering the forest, which was quite open and clear at this one spot, we had no difficulty in finding the dead stump, and then I fell upon my knees and began to remove the thick moss that clung to the ground all around the stump.
 
I was scarcely more excited than the others—if I may except the princess, to whom treasure had no meaning. Moit, Nux and Bry were all bending over me, while in the background the Indian maiden watched us with a plaintive smile. To her this anxiety to secure a collection of pebbles was not quite comprehensible.
 
At first the moss resisted my efforts. Then, as I moved farther around, a great patch of the growth suddenly gave way to my grasp and disclosed a large cavity between two prongs of the stump.
 
I leaned over to look. Then I thrust in my arm to make sure.
 
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The cavity was empty.
 
“Try somewhere else!” cried Moit, hoarsely. He had risked a good deal for the gems which were to enable him to become famous and wealthy, and this disappointment was sufficient to fill his heart with despair, had he not found another treasure in Ilalah which might somewhat mitigate this baffling failure.
 
I worked all around the stump, digging up the moss with my knife and finger-nails; but in every other place the ground was solid. There was but this one vacant cavity, and when at last we knew the truth we stared at each other in absolute dejection.
 
“He must have put them there, though,” I said, hopelessly. “The trouble is that someone else has taken them away.”
 
“Oh, yes; I did it,” said a strange voice at our side.
 
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I turned and found a tiny Indian standing near us. At first I thought it was a child, but looking more closely perceived the lines of age on his thin face and streaks of gray in his hair. Yet so small was his stature that he was no taller than my breast.
 
He wore the ordinary San Blas tunic, striped with purple and yellow, a narrow band of green showing between the two plebeian colors. When first we saw him he had assumed a dignified pose and with folded arms was looking upon us with a calm and thoughtful countenance.
 
“Greetings, Tcharn!” exclaimed the princess, in a pleased and kindly tone.
 
The dwarf, or liliputian, or whatever he might be, advanced to her with marked but somewhat timid respect and touched the fingers of his right hand to the fair brow she bent toward him. Then he retreated a pace and laid his hand upon his heart.
 
“My Princess is welcome to my forest,” he said in his native tongue.
 
“Is it near here, then, that you live, my Tcharn?” she enquired.
 
“Very near, my Princess.”
 
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“But tell us,” I cried, unable to control myself longer, “did you find many of the white pebbles in this cavity, and did you take them all away?”
 
“Yes,” he answered readily, with a nod of his small head; “I found them and I took them away, and they were many.”
 
“But why did you take them?” asked the girl, who, without knowing the value to us of the stones, was able to sympathize with us in our bitter disappointment.
 
Tcharn was thoughtful. He sat upon the stump and for a moment studied the various faces turned toward him.
 
“Some time ago,” said he, “a white man came to this valley, which our laws forbid the whites to enter. Perhaps he did not know that I rule the forest which is my home—that I am the Master Workman of the Techla nation. Why should he know that? But the white beast was well aware that his race is by us hated and detested”—here he cast a sinister glance at Duncan and myself—“and barred from our domain. He sneaked in like a jackal, hiding himself by day while by night he prowled around upon all fours, gathering from off the ground the pebbles which our master the king has forbidden any man to see or to touch.
 
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“Day after day I watched the white man at his unlawful toil. I sent tidings to Nalig-Nad, the king, who laughed at the cowardly intruder, and bade me continue to watch and to notify him if the beast tried to escape.
 
“Finally he saw my face among the trees, and it frightened him. He prepared to run away, and buried all the pebbles he had found under the moss beside this stump. Then he slunk from the valley and I let him go; for the king had been notified and would look after him.”
 
This relation proved to us the honesty of the German’s story. We knew well the rest of the tragic tale, and were just then more deeply interested in the loss of the diamonds.
 
“Why did you dig up the pebbles, when the commands of your king forbade you to touch them?” I asked, in a bitter tone.
 
The little Indian gave me a scornful look and said to Ilalah:
 
“Must I answer the white child, my Princess?”
 
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“It will please me to have you do so,” she answered. “I must tell you, Tcharn, that these white people are my friends. Those who love me will also befriend them, and treat them kindly.”
 
For a time the dwarf stood motionless, frowning and staring stolidly upon the ground. Then he looked up and said:
 
“Does Nalig-Nad also love these whites?”
 
“He hates them, and seeks their destruction,” Ilalah replied.
 
The dwarf smiled.
 
“Then they will be destroyed,” he prophesied.
 
“Not so, my Tcharn,” replied the princess, gently. “The power of these white chieftains is greater than the power of Nalig-Nad.”
 
Tcharn grew thoughtful again.
 
“I saw them approach in a moving house, that seemed alive and yet was not,” he remarked.
 
“That is but one proof of their might,” said she.
 
“And is my Princess now opposed to her father the King?”
 
“Yes, Tcharn, in this one thing.”
 
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“Then,” said he, “I will stand by your side, for my blood is the blood of your dead mother, and not the blood of Nalig-Nad.”
 
“But the pebbles!” I cried, impatiently. “Tell us what you have done with them.”
 
He turned his sombre eyes in my direction.
 
“I carried the pebbles to my own dwelling,” he returned. “They are beautiful, and when the sun kisses them they borrow its light and glow like fireflies at dusk. I love the pebbles; so I took them, and they are mine.”
 
This was exasperating to a degree.
 
“You had no right to do that,” I protested. “Your king has forbidden you to gather the pebbles.”
 
“I did not gather them; I but took them from the place where the white jackal had placed them.”
 
“The king will punish you for keeping them!”
 
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“The king? Ah, the king will not know. And we are opposed to the king just now, the Princess Ilalah and myself,” with a queer smile. “But you are strangers, and therefore you do not know that in my forest even Nalig-Nad dare not molest the Master Workman.”
 
The last words were spoken confidently, and his prompt defiance of the king pleased me.
 
“Who is this man, Ilalah?” asked Duncan.
 
“Tcharn is my mother’s cousin,” she ............