At Johannesburg the gold was safely and quietly disposed of. Mr. Blakeney had roughly estimated the value of the treasure, after making due deductions, at about £58,000. The gold turned out to be singularly free from impurities, and the price realized for it amounted to £62,000. After setting apart, therefore, Poeskop's £1,000, paying each of their men their wages and the sum of £100 by way of bonus, and a further bonus of £50 to Quasip, there remained for division between Guy Hardcastle and Mr. Blakeney the sum of rather more than £60,000, which, as all parties agreed, furnished a sufficiently handsome return for the risks, labours, and hardships of less than a year's adventure. From Mr. Blakeney's share had to be deducted, according to agreement, Tom's portion of £5,000.
At Bamborough Farm, whither they returned at once after disposing of their gold at Johannesburg, their reception was a memorable one. It was a joyful meeting, indeed, after their long absence--an absence accentuated by the fact that, during many months, Mrs. Blakeney and her children had had no communication of any kind from the trekkers. For this she had been to some extent prepared; yet, none the less, those long months of silence and of doubt had been very trying to her and her girls. Some happy weeks of reunion had passed before the wanderers had told the tale of their adventures in full, and completely satisfied the natural curiosity of their hearers.
Guy Hardcastle and Tom Blakeney took part in the Boer War, fighting in the same colonial contingent, and each retiring at the close of the great struggle with the rank of captain. Their adventures in that stirring campaign cannot, for lack of space, be related here.
Guy is now settled on a fine farm in British Bechuanaland, adjoining his uncle's ranch. Here he has built himself a roomy and most comfortable homestead, and, having induced his fair cousin, Ella Blakeney, to become his partner and his helpmate for life, has settled down to an existence for which he is admirably fitted. He and his wife mean, however, by no means to grow rusty in their Bechuanaland home. They pay an occasional visit to Cape Town or its marine suburbs, and during their honeymoon made a trip of some duration to the Old Country; this trip they intend to repeat at intervals.
Tom, who looked after their place for them during their absence, is a near neighbour of theirs, living, thus far, as a bachelor on a farm of his own within a few miles of their own homestead and of Bamborough. For the present he vows that his adventures are by no means ended, and that he has no intention of settling down to married life. Of these declarations, however, his sisters, who know Tom and his idiosyncrasies fairly well, are profoundly sceptical.
THE END.
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