Jeb's Legacy

Sandy Cook, Sam Rivero and Jeb Rockford are working for a large American corporation as metallurgists and prospectors, gathering and analysing South Africa's soil components for mineral traces.
Almost by accident, Sandy overturns a large boulder, revealing a large diamond pipe. The Boer War had just broken out and both the Boers and the British would have been only too pleased to relieve the trio of their huge find to finance the war effort. The prospectors have their own ideas concerning the future of the diamonds. They decide to bury their find and come back to collect when the war is over.
Jeb steps on a snake and is bitten, but as they are too far from civilisation to get medical help, dies as a result.
This leaves Sandy, an Australian, and Sam, an American, to retrieve the diamonds.
Other commercial and government interests get wind of their find and make an all-out effort to stop them.
This leads to using deception and other intriguing methods to get the diamonds out of South Africa, culminating in a lawsuit once the diamonds reach Australia.
Who is the legal owner of the diamonds?