ere sitting
on a heap of sittings watching the poor creatures, who were in an
unspeakably wretched condition. They were perfectly naked, except that
each wore the usual stert reim. In the course of conversation my
friend and I began speculating as to whether one of them would know a
diamond if he saw it.

Just then a certain kind of "sell" was often practiced. One would cut a
piece of alum into the ordinary octahedron form and scrape it so as to
round off the edges. Such a production would make a capital imitation
of a white, frosted stone. The "sell" was practiced thus: You would go
to the sorting table of a friend, stealthily insert the lump of alum
into his heap of gravel, and watch until he found it. The first thing a
man usually did when he found a diamond was to put it into his mouth so
as to remove the dust. The face of a man thus "sold," when he tasted
the alum, was not a pretty sight.

On the occasion in question I happened to have in my pocket a carefully
prepared lump of alum which, had it been a diamond, would have weighed
about fifteen carats. After indicating to my friend what I was about to
do, I walked up close to the heap of clods, bent down as though to tie
my bootlace, and set the mock diamond on the ground. Then I returned to
where I had been sitting. For a minute or so no one was working near
the spot, but soon one of the natives shambled away from his companions
and came towards it. He put his foot on the lump of alum and shambled
on, but the lump had disappeared. My companion wanted to spring up at
once, but I restrained him. The native went on pounding clods for a few
minutes, and then made off as though to pass behind a big heap of
rubbish. We followed and seized him suddenly from behind. He had the
lump of alum firmly grasped between his toes.

Cecil Rhodes's depositing-floor was large and very conveniently
situated close to the edge of the mine. He very kindly gave me a
portion of it to use, thus lightening my labors considerably. But a
catastrophe happened. One Sunday morning a shock was felt; this was
followed by a rumbling roar. There was talk of earthquakes. Soon,
however, we found out what had happened, the whole of the northern
portion of No. 10 Road had collapsed into the chasm on its western
side. Had this happened on a weekday, at least a hundred men would have
lost their lives; probably I would have shared their fate. This
occurrence put a stop to my work. Expensive tackle includi