oly enough for
anything. Presently I pulled out my purse and emptied its contents into
my hand. There was a half-sovereign, two florins, ninepence in silver,
no coppers--for copper practically does not circulate in South Africa,
which is one of the things that make living so dear there--in all
exactly fourteen and ninepence.

"'There, Harry, my boy!' I said, 'that is the sum total of our worldly
wealth; that hole has swallowed all the rest.'

"'By George!' said Master Harry; 'I say, father, you and I shall have to
let ourselves out to work with the Kaffirs and live on mealie pap,' and
he sniggered at his unpleasant little joke.

"But I was in no mood for joking, for it is not a merry thing to dig
like anything for months and be completely ruined in the process,
especially if you happen to dislike digging, and consequently I resented
Harry's light-heartedness.

"'Be quiet, boy!' I said, raising my hand as though to give him a cuff,
with the result that the half-sovereign slipped out of it and fell into
the gulf below.

"'Oh, bother,' said I, 'it's gone.'

"'There, Dad,' said Harry, 'that's what comes of letting your angry
passions rise; now we are down to four and nine.'

"I made no answer to these words of wisdom, but scrambled down the steep
sides of the claim, followed by Harry, to hunt for my little all. Well,
we hunted and we hunted, but the moonlight is an uncertain thing to look
for half-sovereigns by, and there was some loose soil about, for the
Kaffirs had knocked off working at this very spot a couple of hours
before. I took a pick and raked away the clods of earth with it, in the
hope of finding the coin; but all in vain. At last in sheer annoyance I
struck the sharp end of the pickaxe down into the soil, which was of a
very hard nature. To my astonishment it sunk in right up to the haft.

"'Why, Harry,' I said, 'this ground must have been disturbed!'

"'I don't think so, father,' he answered; 'but we will soon see,' and
he began to shovel out the soil with his hands. 'Oh,' he said presently,
'it's only some old stones; the pick has gone down between them, look!'
and he began to pull at one of the stones.

"'I say, Dad,' he said presently, almost in a whisper, 'it's precious
heavy, feel it;' and he rose and gave me a round, brownish lump about
the size of a very large apple, which he was holding in both his hands.
I took it curiously and held it up to the light. It _was_ very heavy.
The moonlight f