He rode away and soon put twenty miles between him and the diggings.

He came to a little store that bought diamonds and sold groceries and tobacco.  He haltered his horse to a hook, and went in.  He offered a small diamond for sale.  The master was out, and the assistant said there was a glut of these small stones, he did not care to give money for it.

“Well, give me three dozen cigars.”

While they were chaffering, in walked a Hottentot, and said, “Will you buy this?” and laid a clear, glittering stone on the counter, as large as a walnut.

“Yes,” said the young man.  “How much?”

“Two hundred pounds.”

“Two hundred pounds!  Let us look at it;” he examined it, and said he thought it was a diamond, but these large stones were so deceitful, he dared not give two hundred pounds.  “Come again in an hour,” said he, “then the master will be in.”

“No,” said the Hottentot quietly, and walked out.

Staines, who had been literally perspiring at the sight of this stone, mounted his horse and followed the man.  When he came up to him, he asked leave to examine the gem.  The Hottentot quietly assented.

Staines looked at it all over.  It had a rough side and a polished side, and the latter was of amazing softness and lustre.  It made him tremble.  He said, “Look here, I have only one hundred pounds in my pocket.”

The Hottentot shook his head.

“But if you will go back with me to Bulteel’s farm, I’ll borrow the other hundred.”

The Hottentot declined, and told him he could get four hundred pounds for it by going back to Pniel.  “But,” said he, “my face is turned so; and when Squat turn his face so, he going home.  Not can bear go the other way then,” and he held out his hand for the diamond.

Staines gave it him, and was in despair at seeing such a prize so near, yet leaving him.

He made one more effort.  “Well, but,” said he, “how far are you going this way?”

“Ten days.”

“Why, so am I. Come with me to Dale’s Kloof, and I will give the other hundred.  See, I am in earnest, for here is one hundred, at all events.”

Staines made this proposal, trembling with excitement.  To his surprise and joy, the Hottentot assented, though with an air of indifference; and on these terms they became fellow-travellers, and Staines gave him a cigar.  They went on side by side, and halted for the night forty miles from Bulteel’s farm.

They slept in a Boer’s out-house, and the vrow was civil, and lent Staines a jackal’s skin.  In the morning he bought it for a diamond, a carbuncle, and a score of garnets; for a horrible thought had occurred to him, if they stopped at any place where miners were, somebody might buy the great diamond over his head.  This fear, and others, grew on him, and with all his philosophy he went on thorns, and was the slave of the diamond.

He resolved to keep his Hottentot all to himself if possible.  He shot a springbok that crossed the road, and they roasted a portion of the animal, and the Hottentot carried some on with him.