“I don’t want you to work it with me or for me, but I don’t mind telling you where it is. See here,” said the prospector, pointing in the direction of a distant range of mountains towards which he had been gazing for some time, “do you see that little hump-backed hill standing out by itself? Well, it’s about four hundred yards to the north of it. You will see my old working still, I should say. Now, mates, I am off to Pneil, for I want to see the old place again, and then—”
“Stop, let us talk it over. You had better work the place with us,” said Hardman; “we will forget all about what you have told us, or try to.”
The stranger’s only answer was to wish them good luck at their prospecting, and refusing to listen to Hardman’s persuasions, he started off on his lonely walk.
“I don’t like letting him go off in that state of mind; he means finishing himself, I saw it in his face, I have seen men look like that before,” said Hardman as he watched the tall figure striding over the long flat into the distance.
“Certainly one pities him; but if what he has told us is true, life can’t be much comfort to him, and it’s just as well, if he is going to do it, that he should kill himself before he lets out to any one about that place. What do you think of that part of the story; do you believe it?” answered Mr Timson.
“Believe it! well, I don’t know. It’s a queer story, but I ain’t one of those sharps who always disbelieve any story that’s a bit out of the common. I believe it well enough to mean finding out whether or no it’s true. What do you say?”
“Ah! that’s just what I think. It may be true, and if it is true—”
“If it is true, or near true, we are in a pretty big thing, for the farms out there ain’t on Crown land, and there is no reservation of minerals. Of course we must keep what we have heard quiet and try and learn a bit more. There’s millions who wouldn’t believe the yarn we have heard, but I ain’t one of ’em. If you ask me what I think, well, I think it’s true,” said Hardman, and then he shouted to his Kaffir to outspan the horses so that they could continue their journey to Kimberley. All the way they talked of the strange story they had heard, and the more they talked of it the more hopeful Mr Timson began to grow, and the more splendid were the castles in the air which he built on the foundation of the wonderful diamond mine he was to acquire a part possession of.