r, and
could not find it. It belongs to little Hans. Will you sell it us? We
are not experts, but we think it may be a diamond. We will risk ten
pounds on it."

"Ten pounds!" said the farmer. "Nay, we rob not travellers, mine
vriend."

"But if it is a diamond, it is worth a hundred. See how it gains fire in
the dusk."

In short, they forced the ten pounds on him, and next day went to work
on another kopje.

But the simple farmer's conscience smote him. It was a slack time; so
he sent four Hotteatots, with shovels, to help these friendly maniacs.
These worked away gayly, and the white men set up a sorting table, and
sorted the stuff, and hammered the nodules, and at last found a little
stone as big as a pea that refracted the light. Staines showed this to
the Hottentots, and their quick eyes discovered two more that day, only
smaller.

Next day, nothing but a splinter or two.

Then Staines determined to dig deeper, contrary to the general
impression. He gave his reason: "Diamonds don't fall from the sky. They
work up from the ground; and clearly the heat must be greater farther
down."

Acting on this, they tried the next strata, but found it entirely
barren. After that, however, they came to a fresh layer of carbonate,
and here, Falcon hammering a large lump of conglomerate, out leaped, all
of a sudden, a diamond big as a nut, that ran along the earth, gleaming
like a star. It had polished angles and natural facets, and even a
novice, with an eye in his head, could see it was a diamond of the
purest water. Staines and Falcon shouted with delight, and made the
blacks a present on the spot.

They showed the prize, at night, and begged the farmer to take to
digging. There was ten times more money beneath his soil than on it.

Not he. He was a farmer: did not believe in diamonds. Two days
afterwards, another great find. Seven small diamonds.

Next day, a stone as large as a cob-nut, and with strange and beautiful
streaks. They carried it home to dinner, and set it on the table, and
told the family it was worth a thousand pounds. Bulteel scarcely looked
at it; but the vrow trembled and all the young folk glowered at it.

In the middle of dinner, it exploded like a cracker, and went literally
into diamond-dust.

"Dere goes von tousand pounds," said Bulteel, without moving a muscle.

Falcon swore. But Staines showed fortitude. "It was laminated," said he,
"and exposure to the air was fatal."

Owing to the in