All four now being safely landed at the bottom of the kloof, the question which instantly absorbed their attention was, Where was the gold? Poeskop led the way, and, walking swiftly, at a pace certainly exceeding four miles an hour, they hastened towards the far end of the valley.
"Hullo!" cried Tom, as a handsome little reddish antelope, spotted and lined with white, bounded away from one patch of bush to another. "Bushbuck, by all that's wonderful! We've seen pallah. I wonder what other kind of game is shut up in this kloof."
Almost as the words came out of his mouth he was answered, for a magnificent bull koodoo strolled out of a thorn grove by the river a hundred yards away, and, with a family party of hornless cows and young animals, stood staring at the intruders, who now in their turn halted to gaze at the spectacle.
"You beauties!" said Mr. Blakeney enthusiastically. "It seems a shame almost to intrude upon you! And, indeed, we won't shoot here unless we are absolutely driven to it. It's a place of enchantment, and we ought not to bring death here if we can help it."
Forward they went again. After walking twenty minutes, Poeskop crossed the river at a shallow ford where a sandbank ran out into the stream, and stopping, said, "Baas, I think we shall find the gelt here."
Chapter XVI.
GATHERING GOLD.
Instantly they all set to work with a feverish intensity which almost surprised themselves. Poeskop was hunting about on the big spit of sand and shingle, quartering the surface very much as a pointer quarters its ground in search of game. In less than five minutes he had found what he expected, and, holding up between his right finger and thumb a flattish object, which shone perceptibly in the strong sunlight, exclaimed,--
"Here so, baas! Here is de gelt!"
One and all of the trio searching near him forsook their task and rushed up to him. Mr. Blakeney took the piece of metal from the Bushman's outstretched hand. It was a flattish nugget, pale yellow in colour, smooth and rounded as to its edges, manifestly much water-worn, and measuring about three inches in length by one in breadth. He examined it very closely, weighed it in his open palm, and said quietly,--