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CHAPTER TWO

An Amazing Discovery

Afterwards John remembered that first night as a beautiful dream - a dream of music, of beautiful things, of lights and faces. There was a man with white hair who drank from a gold cup. There was a girl with a face like a flower with precious blue jewels in her hair.

There were rooms with walls of gold and there were diamonds of all shapes and sizes everywhere. In the corners of the splendid rooms there were crystal lamps, and on the floors there were fur rugs of different types and colors.

Then they went to dinner. The plates were made of diamonds and there was music everywhere. John was overcome by I the beauty and wealth that surrounded him and he fell asleep.

He woke up several hours later. He was in a large room and Percy was standing over him.

“You fell asleep at dinner,” Percy said. “I almost did too. It was so good to be comfortable again after a year at school. Some servants undressed you and washed you while you were sleeping.”

“Is this a bed or a cloud? It’s so comfortable.” said John. “Percy, before you go I want to apologize,” he added.

“Why?”

“Well, I didn’t really believe you when you said you had a diamond as big as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel.”

Percy smiled. “I thought you didn’t believe me. It’s that mountain, you know.”

“What mountain?”

“The mountain the castle is on. It’s not a very big mountain because, except for some earth on top, it’s solid diamond. One big diamond. Aren’t you listening?”

But John T Unger was asleep.

The next morning he woke up and discovered that the room was filled with sunlight. A servant in a white uniform stood beside his bed.

“Good evening,” said John, trying to remember where he was.

“Good morning, sir. Are you ready for your bath, sir? Don’t get up - I’ll put you in - there. Thank you, sir.”

John’s pajamas were taken off. He expected to be lifted like a child, but this did not happen. Instead he felt the bed move slowly on its side. Then he began to roll down gently into bath water which was the same temperature as his body.

He was surrounded by a blue aquarium and he could see fish swimming. Sunlight came from above through sea-green glass.

“Would you like hot perfumed water this morning, sir, and perhaps cold water to finish?”

“Yes,” agreed John, “as you please.”

“Shall I turn on the moving-picture machine, sir?” asked the servant.

“No, thanks,” answered John politely. He was enjoying the bath so much that he didn’t want any distraction. After a moment he heard music coming from outside.

When the bath was over he was rubbed with oil, alcohol and perfume. Then a servant shaved his face.

“Mr Percy is waiting in your sitting room,” said the servant. “My name is Gygsum, Mr Unger, sir. I will serve you every morning.”

John walked out into the sunshine of his sitting room, where he found breakfast waiting for him. Percy was also there, beautifully dressed, sitting in an armchair.

Percy told John the following story of the Washington family at breakfast.

At the end of the American Civil War, the father of the present Mr Washington, Fitz-Norman Washington, was a twenty-five year old colonel I with about a thousand dollars in gold.

Fitz-Norman was a direct descendant of George Washington.

One day he decided to go west, as many people were doing at that time, and took twenty-four of his best servants with him. After less than a month in Montana, things were not going well. And this is when he made a great discovery.

One day he got lost in the hills, and after a day without food he was very hungry. He saw a squirrel, but because he did not have a gun he had to run after it. He noticed that the squirrel had something shiny in its mouth. Just before it disappeared into a hole, the squirrel dropped a large, perfect diamond.

At last he managed to find his camp, and the next morning he took his servants with him to dig for more diamonds.

Since none of his servants knew what a diamond was or how valuable it was, he did not inform them. He was amazed to discover that the mountain was a single huge diamond.

He filled four bags full of diamonds and went back to town. There he sold six small stones. When he tried to sell a bigger stone the storekeeper fainted and Fitz-Norman was arrested for disturbing the peace.

He escaped from prison and caught the train for New York, where he sold a few medium-sized diamonds. He got about two hundred thousand dollars in gold, but he did not want to sell anymore.

In fact, he left New York just in time because people were talking about the discovery of a diamond mine, and everyone wanted to find diamonds. Young Fitz-Norman returned to Montana.