Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-10-24

ON AND BEGAN TO PICK UP PEB-
BLES HERE AND THERE.
ing up stones apparently at hap-haz-
ard, but really with the quick selection
Of the expert Some of them were
hardly bigger than a pea, many others
were as large as a marble or a hazel
nut, few even larger.
Now, it is a blessed popularity Of
precious stones, cut or uncut, rough or
polished, set or unset, that a fortune
may be contained in one very small
compass. And although mere size does
not always count in assessing the value
OF stone, yet those which our pros
pector had gathered might be expected
to be worth anywhere from a hundred
to a thousand pounds apiece. For In
knocking about the diamond fields he
had become something of "a connoisseur,
and in picking over this new field he
had with quick decision selected only
the finest specimens, albeit only in the
rough.
The whole claim" when properly
exploited, would doubtless prove to be
very rich, and Of this claim he was
of course the owner by right of dis
covery, in which the drastic mining
laws of the colony would jealousy pro-
tect him.
An hour sufIiced to fill the bag, the
mouth of which he quickly fastened
and flung il on the sand. Then, raising
his clenched fists towards the heavens
cried in voice hoarse with excitement
and triumph:
AT last! At lastl"
With grim smile lifting the
corners of his tawny mustache he gave
the bag a Kick and thus apostrophized
its contents:
There you are. my beautiesl This
is my claim, and I'm one OF the richest
men in South Africa!"
For that dirty canvas bag held twice
q double handful of diamonds, and the
claim would be worth no man could
say how much. Richard Dysart's quest
was ended; he had found a virgin de-
post OF those precious white stones,
for which. not two hundred miles
away, in Kimberly. an army Of white
men and Kaffir slaves were madly tear
ing out the bowels of the continent
Dysart picked up the bag, walked to
where he had thrown down his Win
chester, and turned his face towards
camp. A distant rifle shot rang out at
that instant and apprised him that Joey
had probably brought down their
supper.
"Confound the fellow!" he muttered.
81 wish he hadn't fired the gum"
The sun had DISAPPEARED below the
hills to the westward, and in less than
quarter Of an hour IL would be dark.
Coming in sight of camp, he dis
covered Joey in the act of skinnins
and cutting up a young buck, while
the other boy was tending a cheerful
fire built of drift wood left high and
dry on the river bank.
Flinging himself down by the fire,
the precious bag by his side, Dysart
removed his helmet, barring his white
forehead to the cooling night-breeze,
which was even now briskly tanning
the fire.
AS he sat there, plans for the future
came trooping through his brain. Now
he could 90 home to England. The
weary years of wandering, hardship,
and fll-luck were ali behind him. He
saw himself taking his proper place
once more among his fellows, wealthy
beyond the most sanguine dreams Of
ambition or avarice. No more sleeping
out on the veldt, frozen by night and
roasted by day-for your African des-
ert, even within 20 degrees Of the
equator, is as cold as Labrador between
sunset and sunrise. There was a
gentleman's estate, good society, and
pleasures innumerable at the end OF
the Journeys
And a wife, perhaps-the queenly
Marcia Churchill.
They had laughed at him In Kim
berly when he talked of a new
diamond country away of to the north
east, and no one had faith enough In
MS scheme, based on story heard
from an old Kaffir, to lend him a paltry
100 pounds for an outfit Well, the