the whole, as we have seen, on good terms with himself, but there was
one little cloud upon his horizon, which gave pause to his thoughts.
Like many other young fellows, he lodged in the bungalow house of
another man; that is, he had a good bedroom and the run of the
sitting-rooms in the house of Otto Staarbrucker, an Afrikander of mixed
German and Semitic origin, a decent fellow enough, in his way, who ran a
store in Kimberley. This arrangement suited Frank Farnborough well
enough; he paid a moderate rental, took his meals at the "Central," and
preserved his personal liberty intact. But Otto Staarbrucker had a
sister, Nina, who played housekeeper, and played her part very
charmingly. Nina was a colonial girl of really excellent manners and
education. Like many Afrikanders, nowadays, she had been sent to Europe
for her schooling, and having made the most of her opportunities, had
returned to the Cape a very charming and well-educated young woman.
Moreover, she was undeniably attractive, very beautiful most Kimberley
folks thought her. On the mother's side there was blood of the Spanish
Jews in her veins--and Nina, a sparkling yet refined brunette, showed in
her blue-black hair, magnificent eyes, warm complexion, and shapely
figure, some of the best points of that Spanish type.
These two young people had been a good deal together of late--mostly in
the warm evenings, when Kimberley people sit in their verandas--stoeps,
they call them in South Africa--cooling down after the fiery heat of the
corrugated-iron town. It was pleasant to watch the stars, to smoke the
placid pipe, and to talk about Europe and European things to a handsome
girl--a girl who took small pains to conceal her friendliness for the
well set-up, manly Englishman, who treated her with the deference of a
gentleman (a thing not always understood in South Africa), and withal
could converse pleasantly and well on other topics than diamonds,
gambling, and sport Frank Farnborough, as he ruminated over his pipe
this evening out there in the "Central" fore-court--garden, I suppose
one should call it--asked himself a plain question.
"Things are becoming `steep,'" he thought to himself. "I am getting too
fond of Nina, and I half believe she's inclined to like me. She's a
nice and a really good girl, I believe. One could go far for a girl
like her. And yet--that Jewish blood is a fatal objection. It won't
do, I'm afraid, and the people at home would be horrified. I shall have
to chill off a bit, and get rooms elsewhere. I shall be sorry, very
sorry, but I don't like the girl well enough to swallow her relations,
even supposing I were well enough off to marry, which I am not."
As if bent upon forthwith proving his new-found resolve, the young man
soon after rose and betook himself along the Du Toit's Pan road, in the
direction of his domicile. Presently he entered the house and passed
through to the little garden behind. As his form appeared between the
darkness of the garden and the light of the passage, a soft voice,
coming from the direction of a low table on which stood a lamp, said,
"That you, Mr Farnborough?"
"Yes," he returned, as he sat down by the speaker. "I'm here. What are
you doing, I wonder?"
"Oh, I'm just now deep in your `Malay Archipelago.' What a good book it
is, and what a wonderful time Wallace had among his birds and insects;
and what an interesting country to explore! This burnt-up Kimberley
makes one sigh for green islands, and palm-trees and blue seas. Otto
and I will certainly have to go to Kalk Bay for Christmas. There are no
palm-trees, certainly, but there's a delicious blue sea. A year at
Kimberley is enough to try even a bushman."
"Well," returned Frank, "one does want a change from tin shanties and
red dust occasionally. I shall enjoy the trip to Cape Town too. We
shall have a pretty busy time of it with cricket in the tournament week;
but I shall manage to get a dip in the sea now and then, I hope. I
positively long for it."
As Nina leaned back in her big easy-chair, in her creamy Surah silk, and
in the half-light of the lamp, she looked very bewitching, and not a
little pleased, as they chatted together. Her white teeth flashed in a
quick smile to the compliment which Frank paid her, as the conversation
drifted from a butterfly caught in the garden, to the discovery he had
made that she was one of the few girls in Kimberley who understood the
art of arraying herself in an artistic manner. She rewarded Frank's
pretty speech by ringing for tea.
"What a blessing it is," she went on, leaning back luxuriously, "to have
a quiet evening. Somehow, Otto's friends pall upon one. I wish he had
more English friends. I'm afraid my four years in England have rather
spoilt me for Otto's set here. If it were not for you, indeed, and one
or two others now and again, things would be rather dismal. Stocks,
shares, companies, and diamonds, reiterated day after day, are apt to
weary female ears. I sometimes long to shake myself free from it all.
Yet, as you know, here am I, a sort of prisoner at will."
Frank, who had been pouring out more tea, now placed his chair a little
nearer to his companion's as he handed her her cup.
"Come," he said, "a princess should hardly talk of prisons. Why, you
have all Kimberley at your beck and call, if you like. Why don't you
come down from your pedestal and make one of your subjects happy?"
"Ah!" she returned, with a little sigh, "my prince hasn't come along yet
I must wait."
Frank, I am afraid, was getting a little out of his depth. He had
intended, this evening, to be diplomatic and had manifestly failed. He
looked up into the glorious star-lit sky, into the blue darkness; he
felt the pleasant, cool night air about him; he looked upon the face of
the girl by his side--its wonderful Spanish beauty, perfectly enframed
by the clear light of the lamp. There was a shade of melancholy upon
Nina's face. A little pity, tinged with an immense deal of admiration,
combined with almost overpowering force to beat down Frank's resolutions
of an hour or two back. He bent his head, took the girl's hand into his
own, and lightly kissed it. It was the first time he had ventured so
much, and the contact with the warm, soft, shapely flesh thrilled him.
"Don't be down on your luck, Nina," he said. "Things are not so bad.
You have at all events some one who would give a good deal to be able to
help you--some one who--"
At that moment, just when the depression upon Nina's face had passed, as
passes the light cloud wrack from before the moon, a man's loud, rather
guttural voice was heard from within the house, and a figure passed into
the darkness of the garden. At the sound, the girl's hand was snatched
from its temporary occupancy.
"Hallo! Nina," said the voice of Otto, her brother, "any tea out there?
I'm as thirsty as a salamander."
The tea was poured out, the conversation turned upon indifferent topics,
and for two people the interest of the evening had vanished.
Next morning, early, Frank Farnborough found a note and package awaiting
him. He opened the letter, which ran thus:
"Kimberley--In a dickens of a hurry.
"My dear Frank,--
"Have just got down by post-cart [it was before the railway had been
pushed beyond Kimberley], and am off to catch the train for Cape Town,
so can't possibly see you. I had a good, if rather rough, time in
'Mangwato. Knowing your love of natural history specimens, I send you
with this a small crocodile, which I picked up in a dried, mummified
condition in some bush on the banks of the Mahalapsi River--a dry
watercourse running into the Limpopo. How the crocodile got there, I
don't know. Probably it found its way up the river-course during the
rains, and was left stranded when the drought came. Perhaps it may
interest you; if not, chuck it away. Good-bye, old chap. I shall be at
Kimberley again in two months' time, and will look you up.
"Yours ever,--
"Horace Kentburn."
Frank smiled as he read his friend's characteristic letter, and turned
at once to the parcel--a package of sacking, some three and a half feet
long. This was quickly ripped open, and the contents, a miniature
crocodile, as parched and hard as a sun-dried ox-hide, but otherwise in
good condition, was exposed.
"I know what I'll do with this," said Frank to himself; "I'll soak the
beast in my bath till evening, and then see if I can cut him open and
stuff him a bit; he seems to have been perfectly sun-baked."
The crocodile was bestowed in a long plunge bath, and covered with
water. Frank found it not sufficiently softened that evening, and had
to skirmish elsewhere for a bath next morning in consequence. But the
following evening, on taking the reptile out of soak, it was found to be
much more amenable to the knife; and after dinner, Frank returned to his
quarters prepared thoroughly to enjoy himself. First he got into some
loose old flannels; then tucked up his sleeves, took his treasure
finally out of the bath, carefully dried it, placed it stomach upwards
upon his table, which he had previously covered with brown paper for the
purpose, and then, taking up his sharpest knife, began his operations.
The skin of the crocodile's stomach was now pretty soft and flexible; it
had apparently never been touched with the knife, and Frank made a long
incision from the chest to near the tail. Then, taking back the skin on
either side, he prepared to remove what remained of the long-mummified
interior. As he cut and scraped hither and thither, his knife came
twice or thrice in contact with pieces of gravel. Two pebbles were
found and put aside, and again the knife-edge struck something hard.
"Hang these pebbles!" exclaimed the operator; "they'll ruin my knife.
What the dickens do these creatures want to turn their intestines into
gravel-pits for, I wonder?"
His hand sought the offending stone, which was extracted and brought to
the lamp-light. Now this pebble differed from its predecessors--
differed so materially in shape and touch, that Frank held it closer yet
to the light. He stared hard at the stone, which, as it lay between his
thumb and forefinger, looked not unlike a symmetrical piece of clear
gum-arabic, and then, giving vent to a prolonged whistle, he exclaimed,
in a tone of suppressed excitement, "By all that's holy! A fifty carat
stone! Worth hundreds, or I'm a Dutchman."
He sat down, pushed the crocodile farther from him, brought the lamp
nearer, turned up the wick a little, and then, placing the diamond--for
diamond it was--on the table between him and the lamp, proceeded to take
a careful survey of it, turning it over now and again. The stone
resembled in its shape almost exactly the bull's-eye sweetmeat of the
British schoolboy. It was of a clear, white colour, and when cut would,
as Frank Farnborough very well knew, turn out a perfect brilliant of
fine water. There was no trace of "off-colour" about it, and it was
apparently flawless and perfect. South African diamond experts can tell
almost with certainty from what mine a particular stone has been
produced, and it seemed to Frank that the matchless octahedron in front
of him resembled in character the finest stones of the Vaal River
diggings--from which the choicest gems of Africa have come.
Many thoughts ran through the young man's brain. Here in front of him,
in the compass of a small walnut, lay wealth to the extent of some
hundreds of pounds. Where did that stone come from? Did the crocodile
swallow it with the other pebbles on the Mahalapsi river, or the banks
of the adjacent Limpopo? Why, there might be--nay, probably was--
another mine lying dormant up there--a mine of fabulous wealth. Why
should he not be its discoverer, and become a millionaire? As these
thoughts flashed through his brain, a hand was laid on his shoulder, and
a merry feminine voice exclaimed, "Why, Mr Farnborough, what have you
got there?"
Frank seized the diamond, sprang up with flushed face and excited eyes,
and was confronted with Nina and her brother, both regarding him very
curiously.
Otto Staarbrucker spoke first. "Hullo, Frank! You seem to be mightily
engrossed. What's your wonderful discovery?"
The Englishman looked keenly from one to another of his interrogators,
hesitated momentarily, then made up his mind and answered frankly, but
in a low, intense voice:
"My wonderful discovery is this. Inside that dried-up crocodile I've
found a big diamond. It's worth hundreds anyhow, and there must be more
where it came from. Look at it, but for God's sake keep quiet about
it."
Staarbrucker took the stone from Frank, held it upon his big fat white
palm, and bent down to the lamp-light. Nina's pretty, dark head bent
down too, so that her straying hair touched her brother's as they gazed
earnestly at the mysterious gem. Presently Otto took the stone in his
fingers, held it to the light, weighed it carefully, and then said
solemnly and sententiously, "Worth eight hundred pounds, if it's worth a
red cent!"
Nina broke in, "My goodness, Frank--Mr Farnborough--where did you get
the stone from, and what are you going to do with it?"
"Well, Miss Nina," returned Frank, looking pleasantly at the girl's
handsome, excited face, "I hardly know how to answer you at present.
That crocodile came from up-country, and I suppose the diamond came from
the same locality. It's all tumbled so suddenly upon me, that I hardly
know what to say or what to think. The best plan, I take it, is to have
a good night's sleep on it; then I'll make up my mind in the morning,
and have a long talk with your brother and you. Meanwhile, I know I can
trust to you and Otto to keep the strictest silence about the matter.
If it got known in Kimberley, I should be pestered to death, and perhaps
have the detectives down upon me into the bargain."
"That's all right, Frank, my boy," broke in Staarbrucker, in his big
Teutonic voice; "we'll take care of that. Nina's the safest girl in
Kimberley, and this is much too important a business to be ruined in
that way. Why, there may be a fortune for us all, where that stone came
from, who knows?"
Already Otto Staarbrucker spoke as if he claimed an interest in the
find; and although there was not much in the speech, yet Frank only
resented the patronising tone in which it was delivered.
"Well, I've pretty carefully prospected the interior of this animal,"
said Frank, showing the now perfectly clean mummy. "He's been a good
friend to me, and I'll put him away, and we'll have a smoke."
For another two hours, the three sat together on the stoep at the back
of the house, discussing the situation. Staarbrucker fished his hardest
to discover the exact whereabouts of the place from whence the crocodile
had come. Frank fenced with his palpably leading questions, and put him
off laughingly with, "You shall know all about it in good time. For the
present you may take it the beast came from his natural home somewhere
up the Crocodile River." [The Limpopo River is in South Africa
universally known as the Crocodile.] Presently the sitting broke up,
and they retired to their respective rooms. Nina's handshake, as she
said good-night to Frank, was particularly friendly, and Frank himself
thought he had never seen the girl look more bewitching.
"Pleasant dreams," she said, as she turned away; "I'm so glad of your
luck. I suppose to-night you'll be filling your pockets with glorious
gems in some fresh Tom Tiddler's ground. Mind you put your diamond
under your pillow and lock your door. Good-night."
Otto Staarbrucker went to his bedroom too, but not for some hours to
sleep. He had too much upon his mind. Business had been very bad of
late. The Du Toit's Pan mine had been shut down, and had still further
depressed trade at his end of the town, and, to crown all, he had been
gambling in Randt mines, and had lost heavily.
Otto's once flourishing business was vanishing into thin air, and it was
a question whether he should not immediately cut his losses and get out
of Kimberley with what few hundreds he could scrape together, before all
had gone to ruin.
This diamond discovery of Frank Farnborough's somehow strongly appealed
to his imagination. Where that magnificent stone came from, there must
be others--probably quantities of them. It would surely be worth
risking two or three hundred in exploration. Frank was a free,
open-hearted fellow enough, and although not easily to be driven, would
no doubt welcome his offer to find the money for prospecting thoroughly
upon half profits, or some such bargain. It must be done; there seemed
no other reasonable way out of the tangle of difficulties that beset
him. He would speak to Frank about it early in the morning. Comforted
with this reflection, he fell asleep.
They breakfasted betimes at the Staarbruckers, and after the meal, Nina
having gone into the garden, Otto proceeded to open his proposal to the
young Englishman, who had stayed this morning to breakfast. He hinted
first that there might be serious difficulty in disposing of so valuable
a diamond, and, indeed, as Frank already recognised, that was true
enough. The proper course would be to "declare" the stone to the
authorities; but would they accept his story--wildly improbable as it
appeared on the face of it?
No one in England can realise the thick and poisonous atmosphere of
suspicion and distrust in which the immense diamond industry of
Kimberley is enwrapped. Its miasma penetrates everywhere, and protected
as is the industry by the most severe and brutal--nay, even degrading--
laws and restrictions, which an all-powerful "ring" has been able to
force through the Cape Parliament, no man is absolutely safe from it.
And, even Frank, an employe of the great De Beers Company itself, a
servant of proved integrity and some service, might well hesitate before
exposing himself to the tremendous difficulty of proving a strong and
valid title to the stone in his possession.
"Well, Frank," said Staarbrucker, "have you made up your mind about your
diamond? What are you going to do with it?"
"I don't quite know yet," answered Frank, taking his pipe out of his
mouth. "It's an infernally difficult puzzle, and I haven't hit on a
solution. What do you advise?" Here was Otto's opening.
"Well, my boy," he answered, "I've thought a good deal over the matter,
and in my opinion, you'd better keep your discovery to ourselves at
present. Now I'm prepared to make you an offer. I'll find the expenses
of a prospecting trip to the place where your crocodile came from, and
take a competent miner up with us--I know several good men to choose
from--on the condition that, in the event of our finding more stones, or
a mine, I am to stand in halves with you. I suppose such a trip would
cost three hundred pounds or thereabouts. It's a sporting offer; what
do you say to it?"
"No, I don't think I'll close at present," returned Frank; "I'll take
another few hours to think it over. Perhaps I'll mention the matter to
an old friend of mine, and take his advice."
Staarbrucker broke in with some heat: "If you're going to tell all your
friends, you may as well give the show away at once. The thing will be
all over `camp,' and I wash my hands of it. Let me tell you, you're
doing a most imprudent thing."
[Kimberley is still called by its early name of "camp" among old
inhabitants.]
"Really," said Frank, coolly enough, "the stone is mine at present, and
I take the risk of holding it. I haven't asked you to run yourself into
any trouble on my account."
"No," returned the other, "but you are under my roof, and if it became
known that I and my sister knew of this find, and of its concealment, we
should be practically in the same hole as yourself. Now, my dear boy,
take my advice, keep your discovery to yourself till we meet this
evening, and let us settle to run this show together. You won't get a
better offer, I'm sure of it."
"Understand, I promise nothing," said Frank, who scarcely relished
Staarbrucker's persistency. "I'll see you again to-night."
After dinner that evening, the two men met again. Frank reopened the
topic, which had meantime been engrossing Staarbrucker's thoughts to the
exclusion of all else.
Frank at once declared his intention of going to see the manager next
day, to tell him of the find and take his advice.
Otto Staarbrucker made a gesture of intense annoyance. "You are never
going to play such an infernal fool's game as that, surely?" he burst
out. "I've made you a liberal offer to prospect thoroughly at my own
expense the place where that stone came from, on half shares. If you
accept my offer, well and good. If you don't, I shall simply tell your
little story to the detective department, and see what they think of it.
Think it well over. I'll come and see you to-morrow morning, early."
He turned on his heel, and went out of the house.
Frank had felt a little uncomfortable during Otto's speech, but now he
was angry--so indignant at the turn affairs had taken, and at the
threat, idle though it was, held out to him, that he determined next day
to quit the house and have done with the man altogether. He had never
liked him. True, there was Nina. Nina--so utterly different from her
brother. He should be sorry indeed to leave her. She had a very warm
corner in his heart. He would miss the pleasant evenings spent in her
company. What should he do without her merry _camaraderie_, her kindly,
unselfish ways, the near presence of her bewitching face, and her
evident preference for his company? At that moment Nina entered the
room. Frank looked, as he felt, embarrassed, and the girl saw it at
once.
"What's the matter, Frank? You ought to look happy with that eight
hundred pound diamond of yours; yet you don't. Aren't things going as
you like, or what is it?"
"No," answered Frank, reddening, "things are not going quite right.
Your brother has made me a proposition, which I don't quite see in his
light, and we've rather fallen out about it. However, my tiff with Otto
need make no difference between you and me. We haven't quarrelled, and
I hope you won't let our old friendship be broken on that account."
"Indeed, no," returned Nina, "why should it? But I shall see Otto and
talk to him; I can't have you two falling out about a wretched diamond,
even although it is a big one. Since you came here, things have been so
much pleasanter, and,"--the girl paused, and a flush came to her face,
"well, we can't afford to quarrel, can we? Friends--real friends, I
mean--are none too plentiful in Kimberley."
Nina spoke with a good deal of embarrassment for her, and a good deal of
feeling, and she looked so sweet, such an air of tenderness and of
sympathy shone in her eyes, that Frank was visibly touched.
"Nina," he said, "I'm really sorry about this affair. Perhaps in the
morning it may blow over. I hope so. I have had something on my mind
lately, which perhaps you can guess at, but which I won't enter upon
just now. Meanwhile, don't say anything to your brother about this row.
Let us see what happens to-morrow. Heaven knows I don't want to
quarrel with any one belonging to you."
Early next morning, while Frank sat up in bed sipping his coffee and
smoking a cigarette, the door opened, and Otto Staarbrucker entered the
room. He had been thinking over matters a good deal during the night,
and had made up his mind that somehow he and Frank must pull together
over this diamond deal. His big, florid face was a trifle solemn, and
he spoke quietly for him. But he found Frank as firm as ever against
his utmost entreaties.
"I've thought it all out," Frank said; "I don't like your plan, and I
mean to show our manager the stone to-day, and tell him all about it. I
think it will be best in the long-run." He spoke quietly, but with a
mind obviously quite made up.
The blood ran to Otto's head again; all his evil passions were getting
the upper hand. "Frank, take care," he said. "You are in a dangerous
position about this diamond. I don't think you quite realise it. Once
more I warn you; don't play the fool. Make up your mind to come in with
me and we'll make our fortunes over it."
Frank began to get angry too. "It's no use harping on that string
further," he said, "I'm not coming in with you under any circumstances,
and you may as well clearly understand it, and take no for an answer."
Then, half throwing off the light bed-clothing, "I must get up and have
breakfast."
Otto glared at him for a second or two before he spoke. "For the last
time I ask you, are you coming in with me?"
There was clear threat in the deliberation of his tones, and Frank grew
mad under it.
"Oh, go to the dickens," he burst out, "I've had enough of this. Clear
out of it; I want to get up."