Evening star., 1895-11-08

look up Sans grounds So we pushed in
land and made the acquaintance of Wan
ga. he was shrewd rascali You'd have
thought he'd been a trader ali his life. He
wasn't going TO show us the grounds for
string of beads-not he. The little fiend
maze us craw up compact whereby he
became an equal partner with us in the
Undertaking. He was to do our camp work
ana fnd food, after showing us the ground
and he was SO particular and suspicious
through 1t all that we We're highly excited
wouldn't be SO cautious over nothing. In
fact, he showed us couple of stones that
ne had found himself, and he had the ru-
dest implements to work with.
wen, the compact made, Wanga took
us to the grounds. There it was on his own
suggestion that We Staked off what YOU
might call claim, though there was no.
6ody within hundred miles or more to
dispute our rights But Wanga said that all
found within the boundaries marked off
should be regarded as common property
and be sacredly reported. which we swore
10. Anything found outside the lines should
vidually. We whites didn't take the dis
tlnction very seriously at first, for as
Wanga was going to do none of the actual
mining 1t was highly improbable that he
"ouid ma anything of value that he could
did, - "u'
Dutton paused and passed his hand across
his brow
resumed. Eve struck 1t pretty rich al
most from the start, and it was a CAV
crowd We four made there tell YOU
whenever We made find it was promptly
conveyed to the camp and put on the
ground. There was no thought of robbery.
least of all from any of ourselves, until
one morning, before we had begun work 1
was strolling around outside the bounda-
ries, ana by the merest accident discovered
the biggest diamond any one of us had
ever seen. didn't think of it at the mo-
ment as my individual property. took it
to the camp and showed it to the others.
They We're greatly excited.
what are you going to call it?' asked
Golding.
Well call it the President said l. in
honor of the greatest country in the
world
1T would make us all rich,' said Sam.
and Wanga looked on with those internal
eyes OF his glistening greedily.
Hold on" said l. all of sudden. This
stone is mine! l found it outside the boun-
dary.'
That don't gov said Sam, hotly.
Il looked at Golding.
would your
You're sure you found 1t outside the
boundary?' he asked
)" of course I em,' answered I can
show you the spot
'Well,' he said, if you say you did, then
you did, and the stone is yours
But. you know. I could See that he
DOUBTED me. Sam was for making more
talk about 1t, but Golding shut him up and
we went tc work. We had cur usual luck
that day, but the enthusiasm seemed to
have gone from the gang. Sam was silent
and glum, Wanga was constantly watch
ing me ana Ben was plainly i'll at ease /
could see clearly enough that We were
coming to the end of our partnership
There was trouble ahead, and it seemed
best to me to fetch it on before we all got
so worked up that none of us could be rea-
sonable. After some days had passed l
suggested at supper. therefore, that we di-
vide and break up.
They accused me OF treachery ct that
they said that made it certain that l had
found the President on common property.
Golding, who was our chief as much as we
had one prevented a violent quarrel but
he didn't seem to take my side as / thought
he ought to, and l told him so after the