Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-09

ticaily does not circulate In South Africa,
which is one of the things that make living
SO dear therein all exactly fourteen and
ninepence
There, Harry my boyp said, that is
the sum total of our worldly wealth; that
hole has swallowed all the rest
By George, said Master Harry, Il say,
father, you and l shall have to let ourselves
out to work with the Kafirs and live on
mealic pap and he staggered at his unpleas-
ant little joke
But was in no mood for Joking, for it is
not a merry thing to dig like anything for
months and be completely ruined in the pro-
cess, especially if you happen TO dislike dig
ging, and consequently / resented Harrys
lightheartedness.
Be quiet, boyr said, raising my hand
as though to give him cuff, with the result
that the half sovereign slipped out of it and
fell into the gulf below.
"'Oh, bother said /, it's gone
There, dad said Harry, that's what
comes of letting your angry passions rise;
now we are down to four and nine
II made no answer to these words of wis
dom, but scrambled down the deep sides of
the claim, followed by Harry, to hunt for
my little all. Well, we hunted and we hunt
ed, but the moonlight is an uncertain thing
TO look for half sovereigns by, and there was
some loose soil about it, for the Kafirs had
knocked off working at the very spot a
couple Of hours before. took a pick and
raked away the clods of earth with it, in the
hope of finding the coin, but all in vain. AT
last, in sheer annoyance, / struck the sharp
pickax down into the soil, which was of a
very hard nature. To my astonishment it
sunk in right up to the heft.
"'Why, Harry said, this ground must
have been disturbed,
!" i don't think SO, father he answered
but we will soon see,' and he began to shovel
out the soil with his hands. 'Ohr he said
presently, it's only some old stones; the pick
has gone down between them. Lookr And
he began to pull at one of the stones
g i say, dad he said presently, almost in
a whisper, it's precious heavy; feel it,; and
he rose and gave me round, brownish lump
about the size of very large apple, which
ne was holding in both his hands. l took it
curiously and held it up to the light. 1t was
very heavy. The moonlight fell upon its
rough and filth encrusted surface, and as
looked curious little thrills of excitement
began to pass through me. But / could not
be sure
0lNS our ". Sdlu.
HE did so; and resting the brown stone
ON my knee scratched at its surface. Great
heavens, 1t was SOFT
Another second and the secret was out;
we had found great nugget of pure gold,
four pounds of it or more. It's gold, lad
said, it's gold, lad, or I'm Dutchman'
Harry, with his eyes starting out of his
head, glared down at the long cleaning vel
low that 7 had Yaoda ,,pof, fa 1r;,.or;,,
metal, and then burst out into yell upon veil
of .exultation, that went ringing away across
the silent claims like the shrieks of somebody
being murdered
1" BE quiet l said, do you want every
thief on the field after youp
Scarcely were the words out of my mouth
when / heard stealthy footstep approach
ing. promptly put the big nugget down
and sat on it, and uncommonly hard it was,
and as did SO ] saw lean, dark face poked
over the edge of the claim and q pair of
beady eyes searching us out. ] knew the
face. 1t belonged to man of very bad char
acter known as Handspike Tom, who had, I
understood, been SO named at the diamond
fields because he had murdered his mate with
q handspike. He was now, no doubt, prowl-
ing about like human hyena to see what he
could steal
"'Is that you, 'unter QuatermainP he said
"'Yes, it's l, Mr.. Tom, / answered po-
litely.
'"'And what might all that there yelling
beF he asked. i was walking along, a-tak-
ing of the evening air and a-thinking on the
stars, when ears owl after owl
"'Well, Mr.. Tom,' answered, that is not
to be wondered at, seeing that, like yourself,
they are nocturnal birds
s's'Owl after owlr he repeated sternly,
taking no notice of my interpretation, and /
stops and says, "Thats murder, and listens
again and thinks, ''No, it amt; that owl is
the owl of hexultation some ones been and
got his fingers into gummy yeller pot, I'll
swear, and gone off lis 'ead in the sucking
of them" Now, 'unter Quatermain, is I
rights Is it nuggets2 Oh, lori and he
smacked his lips audibly-'great big yellow
boys-is it them that you have just been and
tumbled acrossr
"'No,' said boldly, 1T isnt'-the cruel
CLEAN in his black eyes altogether overcom-
ing my aversion to the untruth, for / knew
that if he once found out what it was that
was sitting on-and, by the way, have
heard of rolling in gold being spoken of as
pleasant process, but l certainly do not rec
ommend anybody who values comfort to try
sitting on i'll should run very good chance
of being 'handspiked' before the night was
over.
''If you want to know what it was, Mr..
Tom,' went on, with politest air, although
in agony from the nugget underneath-for /
hold it always best to be polite to a man who
is so ready with handSpike-Iny boy and
have had a slight difference of opinion, and l
was enforcing my view of the matter upon
him; that was ALL
Yes, Mr. Tom,' put i'll Harry, beginning
to weep, for Harry was q smart boy, and saw
the difficulty we were in, that was i'll hal
loed because father beat me-
'''Well, now, did yer, my dear boy; did
yer2 Well, all | can say is that played out
old claim is wonderfully queer sort of place
to come to for to argify at 10 O'CLOCK of night,
and what's more, my sweet youth, if ever l
should ave the argifying of yer'-and he
leered unpleaSantly at Harry-'yer won't
'oller in such jolly sort O way. And now
I'll be saying good night, for don't like dis
turbing of family party. No, amt that
sort of a man, l amt. Good night to yer,
'unter Quatermain; good night to yer, my
argified young one and Mr.. Tom turned
away disappointed, and prowled off else
where, like human jackal, to see what he
could thieve or kill.
''Thanl goodnessr said, as 1 slipped off
the lump of gold Now, then, do you get
up, Harry, and see if that consummate vii
lain has gone Harry did SO, and reported
that he had vanished toward Pilgrims Rest,
and then we set to work, and very carefully,
but trembling with excitement, with our
hands followed out all the space of ground
into which had struck the pick. Yes, as l
had hoped, there was a regular nest of mug
gets twelve in all, running from the size of
a hazelnut to that of hens egg, though of
course the first one was much larger than
that. How they all came there nobody can
say; it, was one of those extraordinary
freaks, with stories of which, at any rate, all
people acquainted with alluvial gold mining
will be familiar. 1t turned out afterward
that the American who had sold me the claim
had in the same way made his plea much
larger one than ours, by the way-out of a
single pocket, and then worked for six months
without seeing color, after which he gave
II nm