"Well, for some months I dug away patiently at my claim, till the very sight of a pick or of a washing-trough became hateful to me.A hundred times a day I lamented my own folly in having invested eight hundred pounds, which was about all that I was worth at the time, in this gold-mining.But like other better people before me, I had been bitten by the gold bug, and now was forced to take the consequences.I bought a claim out of which a man had made a fortune--five or six thousand pounds at least--as I thought, very cheap; that is, I gave him five hundred pounds down for it.It was all that I had made by a very rough year's elephant-hunting beyond the Zambesi, and I sighed deeply and prophetically when I saw my successful friend, who was a Yankee, sweep up the roll of Standard Bank notes with the lordly air of the man who has made his fortune, and cram them into his breeches pockets.'Well,'
I said to him--the happy vendor--'it is a magnificent property, and Ionly hope that my luck will be as good as yours has been.'
"He smiled; to my excited nerves it seemed that he smiled ominously, as he answered me in a peculiar Yankee drawl: 'I guess, stranger, as Iain't the one to make a man quarrel with his food, more especial when there ain't no more going of the rounds; and as for that there claim, well, she's been a good nigger to me; but between you and me, stranger, speaking man to man, now that there ain't any filthy lucre between us to obscure the features of the truth, I guess she's about worked out!'
"I gasped; the fellow's effrontery took the breath out of me.Only five minutes before he had been swearing by all his gods--and they appeared to be numerous and mixed--that there were half a dozen fortunes left in the claim, and that he was only giving it up because he was downright weary of shovelling the gold out.
"'Don't look so vexed, stranger,' went on my tormentor, 'perhaps there is some shine in the old girl yet; anyway you are a downright good fellow, you are, therefore you will, I guess, have a real A1opportunity of working on the feelings of Fortune.Anyway it will bring the muscle up upon your arm, for the stuff is uncommon stiff, and, what is more, you will in the course of a year earn a sight more than two thousand dollars in value of experience.'
"Then he went just in time, for in another moment I should have gone for him, and I saw his face no more.
"Well, I set to work on the old claim with my boy Harry and half a dozen Kaffirs to help me, which, seeing that I had put nearly all my worldly wealth into it, was the least that I could do.And we worked, my word, we did work--early and late we went at it--but never a bit of gold did we see; no, not even a nugget large enough to make a scarf-pin out of.The American gentleman had secured it all and left us the sweepings.
"For three months this went on, till at last I had paid away all, or very near all, that was left of her little capital in wages and food for the Kaffirs and ourselves.When I tell you that Boer meal was sometimes as high as four pounds a bag, you will understand that it did not take long to run through our banking account.
"At last the crisis came.One Saturday night I had paid the men as usual, and bought a muid of mealie meal at sixty shillings for them to fill themselves with, and then I went with my boy Harry and sat on the edge of the great hole that we had dug in the hill-side, and which we had in bitter mockery named Eldorado.There we sat in the moonlight with our feet over the edge of the claim, and were melancholy 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 Iresented 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 fell upon its rough and filth-encrusted surface, and as I looked, curious little thrills of excitement began to pass through me.But I could not be sure.