Read The Flaming Mountain: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 10

  CHAPTER X

  The Volcanic Pipe

  Hartson Brant and Julius Weiss were still at work in the conference roomwhen Rick and Scotty returned. David Riddle had gone, and the others hadevidently 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, youand Scotty will find it. Are you sure the rifleman shot at you?"

  "We've got a bullet hole in the windshield and one just under the rearseat," Scotty said. "One might be an accident, but not two."

  "I agree." Hartson Brant nodded. "Let's see the samples of earth youbrought back, Rick."

  He took both the yellow and blue pieces from his pocket and put them onthe table. Hartson Brant and Weiss examined them with interest.

  "Unusual," Weiss said. "I think you are right in assuming that theyellow is simply an oxidized form of the blue, Rick. But I can't tellyou what the material is. I've never seen anything like it before."

  "The grain is pretty fine," Hartson Brant added. "It could be igneous orsedimentary in origin. I'm not enough of a rock hound to know. DavidRiddle can tell us when he returns."

  "Connel would know, too," Scotty reminded. "He's a geologist. Wouldn'tyou think he would have mentioned an unusual formation like this when hefound 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 seriesof little offbeat things. We thought it was funny he didn't even wantcompany after Ruiz was hurt. Then he reacted so violently when weproposed swapping stations. It just seemed odd. The theft of thetracings bothered us, too. No ordinary thief would steal papers andleave Dr. Williams' wallet in his pocket, or leave his pocket transistorradio and stuff like that."

  "But you can't connect Connel with the theft of the papers," Weissobjected.

  "No, sir, we can't. But we almost got caught in the stolen dynamite, andhe could have set that off. It was while we were on the way to his thirdstation."

  Scotty added, "Today, when we got to the station, I took a look alongthe trail. There's only one bend in it. If he was keeping a watch atthe bend, he could have seen us arrive at the second station, hurrieddown the trail, set off the charge, then returned through the jungle toget his jeep."

  "But the fact that he could have, does not mean that he did," HartsonBrant stated.

  "We can't prove it," Scotty agreed.

  Rick continued. "Then we trailed him to Casa Guevara. He couldn't havebeen paying a social call, because he wasn't there long enough. And whatbusiness does he have with Guevara? I don't know, but I'll bet hisbusiness is the reason we can't get Guevara to move."

  "Possibly," Hartson Brant agreed. "I can see the reason for yoursuspicions, but you lack proof of anything, Rick. What motive couldConnel have?"

  "We hoped to find out at the shot station," Rick replied. "But we drew ablank."

  Dr. David Riddle came into the room and joined them. Before anyone couldspeak, the geologist spotted the samples on the table and sucked in hisbreath sharply.

  "Where did these come from?" he demanded.

  "Connel's third shot station," Rick replied. "Do you know what the stuffis?"

  Riddle sank into a chair and picked up one of the samples, testing itbetween his fingers. "Yes," he said, "I do. I've seen it only oncebefore, in Africa. It occurs in what is known as a volcanic pipe,actually an ancient channel that gets filled with the stuff for reasonswe 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 asanyone knew up to now, such pipes have occurred only in Africa. The oneI saw was at Kimberley. The name came from there. This is kimberlite."

  Rick knew of only one kind of valuable that was associated withKimberley, and the thought was so staggering that he was almost afraidto say it out loud. "You mean that this is the stuff diamonds are foundin?"

  "Exactly," Riddle said.

  Rick fished the handful of crystals from his pocket and stared at themunbelievingly. "Then these," he said hoarsely, "must be diamonds!"