“Yet you do leave us, sir.”

“I am the most unfortunate man upon the earth; Falcon is one of the happiest.  Would I leave wife and child to go there?  Ah me!  I am dead to those I love.  This is my one chance of seeing my darling again for many a long year perhaps.  Oh, I must not speak of her—­it unmans me.  My good, kind friend, I’ll tell you what to do.  When we are all at supper, let a horse be saddled and left in the yard for me.  I’ll bid you all good-night, and I’ll put fifty miles between us before morning.  Even then he need not be told I am gone; he will not follow me.”

“You are very good, sir,” said Phoebe; “but no.  Too much has been said.  I can’t have him humbled by my brother, nor any one.  He says I am selfish.  Perhaps I am; though I never was called so.  I can’t bear he should think me selfish.  He will go, and so let us have no ill blood about it.  Since he is to go, of course I’d much liever he should go with you than by himself.  You are sure there are no women up there—­to take care of—­you—­both?  You must be purse-bearer, sir, and look to every penny.  He is too generous when he has got money to spend.”

In short, Reginald had played so upon her heart, that she now urged the joint expedition, only she asked a delay of a day or two to equip them, and steel herself to the separation.

Staines did not share those vague fears that overpowered the wife, whose bitter experiences were unknown to him; but he felt uncomfortable at her condition—­for now she was often in tears—­and he said all he could to comfort her; and he also advised her how to profit by these terrible diamonds, in her way.  He pointed out to her that her farm lay right in the road to the diamonds, yet the traffic all shunned her, passing twenty miles to the westward.  Said he, “You should profit by all your resources.  You have wood, a great rarity in Africa; order a portable forge; run up a building where miners can sleep, another where they can feed; the grain you have so wisely refused to sell, grind it into flour.”

“Dear heart! why, there’s neither wind nor water to turn a mill.”

“But there are oxen.  I’ll show you how to make an ox-mill.  Send your Cape cart into Cape Town for iron lathes, for coffee and tea, and groceries by the hundredweight.  The moment you are ready—­for success depends on the order in which we act—­then prepare great boards, and plant them twenty miles south.  Write or paint on them, very large, ’The nearest way to the Diamond Mines, through Dale’s Kloof, where is excellent accommodation for man and beast.  Tea, coffee, home-made bread, fresh butter, etc., etc.’  Do this, and you will soon leave off decrying diamonds.  This is the sure way to coin them.  I myself take the doubtful way; but I can’t help it.  I am a dead man, and swift good fortune will give me life.  You can afford to go the slower road and the surer.”