distinguished; and the other bulls were moving restlessly, their hair bristling, their fangs bared.
Then Wolsey played his ace. 'Send the girl to God,' he bellowed, 'or suffer excommunication!'
But the king had now worked himself to such a frenzy that he was beyond reason. 'The guard! The guard!' he screamed. ' Suffolk, call the guard, and take Cardinal Wolsey to the tower! Buckingham, take the girl to the women's quarters or off goes your head.'
The two bulls were still beating their breasts and screaming at one another as Rhonda Terry was dragged from the apartment by the shaggy Buckingham.
Up a circular stone stairway the brute dragged her and along a corridor to a room at the rear of the second floor. It was a large room in the corner of the building, and about its grass strewn floor squatted or lay a number of adult gorillas, while young ones of all ages played about or suckled at their mothers' breasts.
Many of the beasts were slowly eating celery stalks, tender bamboo tips, or fruit; but all activity ceased as Buckingham dragged the American girl into their midst.
'What have you there, Buckingham?' growled an old she.
'A girl we captured at the falls,' replied Buckingham. 'The king commanded that she be brought here, your majesty.' Then he turned to his captive. 'This is Queen Catherine,' he said, 'Catherine of Aragon.'
'What does he want of her?' demanded Catherine peevishly.
Buckingham shrugged his broad shoulders and glanced about the room at the six adult females. 'Your majesties should well be able to guess.'
'Is he thinking of taking that puny, hairless thing for a wife?' demanded another, sitting at a little distance from Catherine of Aragon.
'Of course that's what he's thinking of, Anne Boleyn,' snapped Catherine; 'or he wouldn't have sent her here.'
'Hasn't he got enough wives already?' demanded another.
'That is for the king to decide,' said Buckingham as he quitted the room.
Now the great shes commenced to gather closer to the girl. They sniffed at her and felt of her clothing. The younger ones crowded in, pulling at her skirt. One, larger than the rest, grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her feet from under her; and, as she fell, it danced about the room, grimacing and screaming.
As she tried to rise it rushed toward her; and she struck it in the face, thinking it meant to injure her. Whereupon it ran screaming to Catherine of Aragon, and one of the other shes seized Rhonda by the shoulder and pushed her so violently that she was hurled against the wall.
'How dare you lay hands on the Prince of Wales!' cried the beast that had pushed her.
The Prince of Wales, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn! If not asleep, Rhonda Terry was by this time positive that she had gone mad. What possible explanation could there be for such a mad burlesque in which gorillas acted the parts and spoke with the tongues of men?—what other than the fantasy of sleep or insanity? None.
She sat huddled against the wall where she had fallen and buried her face in her arms.
Chapter Nineteen
Despair
The frightened pony carried Naomi Madison in the wake of its fellows. She could only cling frantically to the saddle, constantly fearful of being brushed to the ground. Presently, where the trail widened into a natural clearing, the horses in front of her stopped suddenly; and the one she rode ran in among them before it stopped too.
Then she saw the reason—Sheykh Ab el-Ghrennem and his followers. She tried to rein her horse around and escape; but he was wedged in among the other horses, and a moment later the little herd was surrounded. Once more she was a prisoner.
The sheykh was so glad to get his horses back that he almost forgot to be angry over the trick that had robbed him of them temporarily. He was glad, too, to have one of his prisoners. She could read the map to them and be useful in other ways if he decided not to sell her.
'Where is the other one?' demanded Atewy.
'She was killed by a lion,' replied Naomi.
Atewy shrugged. 'Well, we still have you; and we have the map. We shall not fare so ill.'
Naomi recalled the cone-shaped volcanic hill and the mountains in the distance. 'If I lead you to the valley of diamonds will you return me to my people?' she asked.
Atewy translated to el-Ghrennem. The old sheykh nodded. 'Tell her we will do that if she leads us to the valley of diamonds,' he said. '
Atewy grinned. 'Lead us to the valley of diamonds,' he said to Naomi, 'and all that you wish will be done.'
Unaccustomed to the strenuous labor of pushing through the jungle on foot that the pursuit of the white girls and their ponies had necessitated, the Arabs made camp as soon as they reached the river.
The following day they crossed to the open plain; and when Naomi called their attention to the volcanic hill and the location of the mountains to the northwest, and they had compared these landmarks with the map, they were greatly elated.
But when they reached the river below the falls the broad and turbulent stream seemed impassable and the cliffs before them unscalable.
They camped that night on the east side of the river, and late into the night discussed plans for crossing to the west side, for the map clearly indicated but a single entrance to the valley of diamonds, and that was several miles northwest of them.
In the morning they started downstream in search of a crossing, but it was two days before they found a place where they dared make the attempt. Even here they had the utmost difficulty in negotiating the river, and consumed most of the day in vain attempts before they finally succeeded in winning to the opposite shore with the loss of two men and their mounts.
The Madison had been almost paralyzed by terror, not alone by the natural hazards of the swift current but by the constant menace of the crocodiles with which the stream seemed alive. Wet to the skin, she huddled close to the fire; and finally, hungry and miserable, dropped into a sleep of exhaustion.
What provisions the Arabs had had with them had been lost or ruined in the crossing, and so much time had been consumed in reaching the west bank that they had been unable to hunt for game before dark. But they were accustomed to a life of privation and hardship, and their spirits were buoyed by the certainty that all felt that within a few days they would be scooping up diamonds by the handfuls from the floor of the fabulous valley that now lay but a short distance to the north.
Coming down the east bank of the river they had consumed much time in unsuccessful attempts to cross the stream, and they had been further retarded by the absence of a good trail. But on the west side of the river they found a wide and well beaten track along which they moved rapidly.
Toward the middle of the afternoon of the first day after crossing the river Naomi called to Atewy who rode near her.
'Look!' she said, pointing ahead. 'There is the red granite column shown on the map. Directly east of it is the entrance to the valley.'
Atewy, much excited, transmitted the information to el-Ghrennem and the others; and broad grins wreathed their usually saturnine countenances.
'And now,' said Naomi, 'that I have led you to the valley, keep your promise to me and send me back to my people.'
'Wait a bit,' replied Atewy. 'We are not in the valley yet.
We must be sure that this is indeed the valley of diamonds.
You must come with us yet a little farther.'
'But that was not the agreement,' insisted the girl. 'I was to lead you to the valley, and that I have done. I am going back to look for my people now whether you send any one with me or not.'
She wheeled her pony to turn back along the trail they had come. She did not know where her people were;
