“He has just given our friend Hawkins another fifty, on account of the claim in which it was found. So you see he is a generous man, besides being an honest digger, and a jolly good chap,” Jack said.
Mr Moss was much struck with the thirstiness of the river-diggers. The news of the find had very quickly travelled down the banks of the Vaal, and men from various other camps looked into the canteen. When they finished the champagne they set to work at the brandy, and then at the square gin, and the Cape smoke. Nothing seemed to come amiss to them. There was one peculiarity in their manners, which somewhat amazed Mr Moss. They had a curious way of bursting into laughter about nothing at all, as far as he could see. They did not show any envy, but to a man were full of a generous wish to drink with the fortunate finder. Their estimate of the value of the diamond was somewhat vague. One said fifty thou, another laughed at the idea of fifty thousand buying it, and seemed to have quite a contempt for such a paltry sum of money; though he would have had to have searched a long time in the pockets of his trousers before he could find sixpence. “A hundred thou, more like, that’s what it’s worth,” he said, pretty confidently.
“Nice chap he is, to talk about a hundred thou. I think I have spent about enough money on that lot,” Moss thought to himself. He hated spending money, but still he thought that the more delighted he appeared to be about his find, the more genuine the find would seem to be. When the stock-in-trade of the canteen was just giving out, a man from Kimberley, whom Moss knew, came into the canteen. He was a diamond-buyer, of the name of Jacobs, and Moss rejoiced to think that at last he would be able to get a good opinion as to the value of his find.
“Well, Moss, what’s this I hear about your having turned digger, and found all at once? You have wonderful luck; show us the stone,” the new-comer said.
“Well, you can have a look at it, though I don’t suppose it is much in your way,” Moss said, as he gave it him.
“My eye, it’s a big ’un!” said the diamond-buyer, and then his expression changed. “What on earth is your game?” he asked. “Who are you trying to get at?”
“What’s my game? why I want to know how much that is worth. You won’t buy it yourself, I know, because you’re only a small man; but what do you put its price down as?”
“Well, about half-a-crown, may be more, may be less; it’s a pretty clever sell too,” was to the astonishment of Moss the answer he received. “Why, Moss, you don’t mean to say any one has been fooling you with this.”
“Fooling me! What do you mean? Don’t play any tricks with me, for I can’t stand it. Do you mean to tell me that ain’t a diamond?”
“Diamond, of course it ain’t a diamond!—not a real one, that’s to say, it’s a sham ’un. I have never seen one before, but I have heard of ’em before. Joe Aavons, who you know of, got them made for him at home somewhere, and he has sold one or two of ’em at night to illicit diamond-buyers.”