THE SOUTHERN STAR (AKA, The Vanished Diamond) The protagonist is a French mining engineer, Cyprien Mere. He moves to the Griquland, South Africa, district to study the formation of diamonds. While he is there he falls in love with wealthy landowner Mr. John Watkins daughter, Alice. He asks him for her hand in marriage but is denied on his lack of money and stature in the community. He decides that he could amass a fortune by mining with a partner, Thomas Steel. They buy a mining claim and proceed to dig. Cyprien hires a team of Africans to mine the claim. The claim collapses when Cypriens team of hired help is digging. He manages to rescue one of them, Mataki. Achieving no great finds, Victor is disheartened for there are many more eligible suitors than he. Alice begs Cyprien to returns to his studies. So Cyprien decides to attempt to artificially make a diamond. His experiment seems to work as a 243 carat (48.6 g) diamond is produced. He gives it to Mr. Watkins for Alice. Mr. Watkins holds a banquet in honor of Cyprien and his accomplishment. The diamond, christened as The Star of the South by Alice, is on display during this banquet. Midway through the banquet, the diamond vanishes as well as Cypriens African hired help, Mataki. Mataki appears to flee with the diamond and Mr. Watkins, enraged, offers Alices hand to whoever brings the diamond back. Cyprien and three other suitors set off to hunt Mataki down. They prepare to travel across the Veld. Cyprien brings along two companions his laundry man, Li and a member of his digging team, Bardik. Along the way, the other three of his companions perish at the hands of animals or disease. Cyprien captures Mataki and Mataki states he does not have the diamond. The only reason he ran was because he was afraid he would be hung unjustly for the diamonds disappearance. Cyprien returns to Griqualand and finds the diamond in the stomach of Alices ostrich, Dada. Cyprien is almost hung because his discovery of making artificial diamonds threatened the livelihood of the miners. He is only saved by Matakis confession. Mataki found the diamond when he was covered by the landslide and stuck it in Cypriens experiment in gratitude. Cyprien is shocked. Not caring about the diamonds origin, Mr. Watkins is glad for the recovery and holds another banquet. Mr. Vandergaart, the original owner of the land bursts in with a certificate saying that the land is once again his. John Watkins is devastated and is even more devastated when the Star of the South disintegrates. Shocked he dies the next day. Cyprien and Alice marry
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:00:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015