It was a small gully between granite dykes, which were seamed with quartz reefs, and a big outcrop of hæmatite in the latter had strewn the slopes and bottom of it with black crystals of that very widespread and--in such a place--worthless metal. And amongst all this débris of iron, he swore he had found the stones. There was not the remotest indication of any diamondiferous soil of any kind anywhere near the spot, and unless the diamonds had weathered out of the granite, or had been dropped there by ostriches, they could never have been there at all. Anyway, as Paul said, after we had searched every inch of the locality for hours, “How about those two that Hendrick had buried?” The gentleman now said that the tree was no longer there; which was true, in so far that nothing but a couple of _koker-boomen_ grew within a mile of it. Nor was there any trace of any tree having ever grown there; and reluctantly we were forced to come to the conclusion that we had been fooled again. I am sure that, had Paul had the man on the opposite bank of the river, in German territory, he would have shot him, and I am not sure that we should have tried to prevent him. But there was nothing to be done--he stuck to his tale, and we could not prove it a lie, and there was nothing to be done except--go back! Later, we found that, as the river was very low, the granite bed was exposed in many of the channels into which it was here divided, and in them there were many extraordinary “pot-holes” worn in the hard stone, deep and perfectly circular cavities varying in size from a quart pot to a hogshead, or larger: and we spent a day in emptying some of these, and washing the gravel always found at their bottoms. But we had no luck: garnets, iolite, water opal, and some fine amethysts there were, but never a diamond. And, sadder and poorer men, we made our slow way back to Kakamas, Upington, Prieska, and civilisation. Whilst on my way back, I again heard news as to diamonds having been found by Bushmen in the pans of the Southern Kalahari, and this time the information was so precise that I made up my mind to apply for a permit such as had hitherto never been granted to a prospector, a permit from the Government to search for diamonds in the vast, forbidden “Game Reserve.” CHAPTER XIII GRAVEL TERRACES AT ZENDLING’S DRIFT--SECOND CHRISTMAS AT RICHTERSFELDT--GERMAN POST AT ZENDLING’S--MAKING A RAFT--HIPPO AT THE LORELEI MOUNTAIN. It was obvious, however, that such a permit would take a lot of time and patience to procure, and at any rate would be of no use until the long drought broke. So I made no formal application immediately, but contented myself with taking certain preliminary steps, after which, calculating that at least three months must elapse before I could get any “forrader,” I determined to utilise that period in testing the wonderful gravels near Zendling’s Drift, to which I have already alluded.