“I don’t know about farming, but I don’t think I shall do so badly with Boschfontein,” answered Timson, who, now that he owned the property, thought there was no reason why he should not have the pleasure of bragging about his wonderfully good bargain. He noticed that his listeners were not impressed, there was something like a smile on their faces.
“How much did you give Bill Hardman for Boschfontein?” asked the first speaker.
“Bill Hardman! I never bought from Bill Hardman, I bought with him, he has a small share in the speculation. So he has been telling you about it, has he? Well, I suppose he won’t make less than four or five hundred thousand pounds, though he only has one-fifth of it. Yes, you may laugh, but you won’t laugh when the place up there is shut up, as it will be when I work the diamond mine on Boschfontein.”
“Here, barman, drinks; open some champagne for Mr Timson; he has gone in for a spec with Bill Hardman, and they have got a diamond mine on Boschfontein which will shut the Kimberley mine,” cried the first speaker.
Mr Timson was no admirer of the prevailing custom, a survival from the early days of the diamond-digging, which demanded that good fortune of any sort should be celebrated by a reckless expenditure in champagne. Still he felt that the occasion was a special one, and after having in vain tried to catch the barman’s eye, and prevent him opening more than one bottle, he made no remonstrance. “Well, gentlemen, we will drink to the health of the Boschfontein mine,” he said, “though I am afraid it will prove rather a bad business for some of my friends here. Three carats of diamonds to a load is a pretty good average, and the mine is as big as Kimberley; it will revolutionise diamond mining, our mine will.”
“Bill Hardman found that mine, I’d bet,” said another man who had just come in and stood listening to Timson. “Why, Boschfontein’s looking up. It wasn’t as rich as that last time.”
“Look here,” said the digger, taking up a dice-box which lay on the bar, “we will throw for this wine, and Mr Timson shall stand out. No, it’s a shame letting him in, he has been let in enough. How much did you pay for Boschfontein?”
“What do you mean?” asked Timson, who began to feel nervous and uncomfortable. “Let in! some of you will only wish that you had been let in in the same way when we begin to work the new mine. Bill Hardman ain’t the sort of man to be taken in so easy.” Then he told them how he had learnt the secret about the mine and became possessed of the Farm Boschfontein.
The others listened to every word of his narrative, no one ordered drinks nor even lifted their glasses to their mouths while he spoke. When he had told them all, and described the finding of the diamonds and the subsequent purchase of the farm Boschfontein, there was a burst of noise, every one beginning to shout or laugh, expressing with much vigour of language their admiration for the smartness of Bill.
“Look here, what was the prospector like? wasn’t he a tall man with a long beard, and a scar across the left side of his face, and a droop in one eye?” asked the digger.