any one. He says I
am selfish. Perhaps I am; though I never was called so. I can't bear
he should think me selfish. He WILL go, and so let us have no ill blood
about it. Since he is to go, of course I'd much liever he should go with
you than by himself. You are sure there are no women up there--to take
care of--you--both? You must be purse-bearer, sir, and look to every
penny. He is too generous when he has got money to spend."

In short, Reginald had played so upon her heart, that she now urged the
joint expedition, only she asked a delay of a day or two to equip them,
and steel herself to the separation.

Staines did not share those vague fears that overpowered the wife, whose
bitter experiences were unknown to him; but he felt uncomfortable at her
condition--for now she was often in tears--and he said all he could to
comfort her; and he also advised her how to profit by these terrible
diamonds, in her way. He pointed out to her that her farm lay right
in the road to the diamonds, yet the traffic all shunned her, passing
twenty miles to the westward. Said he, "You should profit by all your
resources. You have wood, a great rarity in Africa; order a portable
forge; run up a building where miners can sleep, another where they
can feed; the grain you have so wisely refused to sell, grind it into
flour."

"Dear heart! why, there's neither wind nor water to turn a mill."

"But there are oxen. I'll show you how to make an ox-mill. Send your
Cape cart into Cape Town for iron lathes, for coffee and tea, and
groceries by the hundredweight. The moment you are ready--for success
depends on the order in which we act--then prepare great boards, and
plant them twenty miles south. Write or paint on them, very large,
'The nearest way to the Diamond Mines, through Dale's Kloof, where is
excellent accommodation for man and beast. Tea, coffee, home-made bread,
fresh butter, etc., etc.' Do this, and you will soon leave off decrying
diamonds. This is the sure way to coin them. I myself take the doubtful
way; but I can't help it. I am a dead man, and swift good fortune will
give me life. You can afford to go the slower road and the surer."

Then he drew her a model of an ox-mill, and of a miner's dormitory, the
partitions six feet six apart, so that these very partitions formed
the bedstead, the bed-sacking being hooked to the uprights. He drew his
model for twenty bedrooms.

The portable forge and the ox-mill pleased Dick Dale most