As Kate watched the Kafirs fill the buckets with the diamondiferous
soil, she understood the fascination which kept men tarrying in that hot
climate, hoping that some lucky turn of the pick or spade might unearth
for them a fortune.
While they were standing on the ledge of blue stuff extending from the
tunnel, Donald moved a short distance from them when a stone fell at his
feet. It was thrown in such a manner, that he knew it was not
accidental. His countenance never changed, and he stood perfectly still
for several minutes, then strolled leisurely back to the mouth of the
tunnel. As he did so, a Kafir's voice in a low tone said: "Ba-a-as!"
Donald wheeled, and there in a dark angle of the excavation where it led
into an inner chamber, stood a native who had been pushing the cars
through the tunnel as the party entered it.
He held up between his thumb and finger something white, like a large
lump of alum. Donald stood a few seconds with his hands in his pockets,
eyeing him intently, then took a few steps, looked down the tunnel and
listened attentively for any sound in the opposite direction; the next
moment he had made three strides toward the boy and taken the diamond
from his hand, when two shadows fell across his pathway. He glanced up
and beheld Dainty and Schwatka. He closed his hand over the gem and put
it in his pocket. The two men looked at each other without speaking,
and then as Herr Schwatka's eyes filled with a fine scorn they fell on
Dainty, and there was an instantaneous change of expression in them,
which he concealed by turning his face. Speaking in a bantering tone,
he said:
"Donald prefers darkness to light! I think, Mrs Laure, that if he does
not regain his sunny disposition, you will have to take him away from
the camp for a vacation."
Dainty had observed the look which passed between her husband and
Schwatka, but did not understand its meaning.
She had not perceived the diamond in Donald's hand, for she had been
picking her way to the entrance of the tunnel, and had approached it
with her eyes cast down, until her companion came to a standstill.
She understood the meaning of that look later. How often a cloud passes
over us surcharged with power, to which we are indifferent, until it is
revealed to us by some lightning flash of memory.
The Kafir had immediately taken hold of his car, and wheeled it into an
inner chamber, but not before Dainty had noted that he was a Fingo boy,
who often came to the house on errands for Donald. The beads, earrings,
and ornaments with which the natives adorn themselves, and also the
style of wearing the hair, distinguish one tribe of Kafirs from another;
and these peculiarities were well known to Dainty.
As Miss Darcy joined them, they returned to the shaft, entered the
elevator, and soon arrived at the Company's office.
The day's "wash-up" of the diamonds was next seen, and the assorting of
them on the "sorting" table (which is very agreeable work to those who
are looking for a prize--and find it, but a little tedious if the
labours result in failure) was gone through, and some fine brilliants
found.
It was about five o'clock in the afternoon on their return home that
they strolled through the diamond market, a street of one-story houses
built of corrugated iron, with the interiors very simply finished. They
visited the offices of several diamond buyers, representing Parisian,
English, Viennese, and Holland houses in this branch of trade. They
were of all nations, those of Jewish origin predominating, and the
visitors were received with the utmost courtesy.
The contents of their safes, stored with precious stones awaiting the
departure of the English mail, packets of gems containing from ten to
one hundred carats weight, were freely exhibited; and Kate almost wished
that she too might enter the fascinating trade of buying and selling
diamonds.
Proceeding on their way to the hotel, they passed through the market
square which was strewn with the merchandise of the country. It was
difficult to say whether the mine they had recently left was even as
interesting as the exhibit of wealth lying before them, brought from a
great distance in the interior; that delightful unknown country, with
its lions, leopards, ivory, and impregnable strongholds of savage chiefs
and adventurous traders.
The life of this latter class is as interesting to contemplate as are
the fruits of their labour and skill. They go into the strange country
where the 'Tse fly stings their horses to death, and where they must
fight the still more deadly fevers. If they survive and manage to crawl
out yellow and wan, the fervid life still holds out its charms for them,
and they return to it again with the same eagerness; the voice of
adventure drowns the admonitory tones of ease and safety.
On the corner of the market square, sat a Coolie woman, about thirty
years of age, of diminutive form. In her native costume of many
bright-hued silk handkerchiefs draped around her limbs, neck, and head,
with the gold ring hanging from the nose, the earrings surrounding the
entire outer edge of the ear, bracelets, anklets, and armlets, she
presented a perfect type of this semi-barbaric country.
Sitting there beside her basket of oranges and melons, she fitted like a
mosaic into the strange scene before them.
A little farther on was a trader's wagon, about fourteen feet long, and
four and a half feet wide, piled high with skins of the leopard, silver
jackal, tiger, hyena, and rare black fox. These skins, or karosses, as
they are called, were as soft to the touch as a velvet robe, and had
none of that hard thickness which characterise the cured skins of our
wild animals. The natives are experts in the curing of these skins, and
deliver them to the traders sewed together as neatly as a Parisian
kid-glove, with thread made from the sinews of wild animals.
As they strolled along, the next objects which attracted their attention
were the large-sized oxen with their enormously long and graceful horns.
These animals are the especial pride of the Boer farmer, who cares more
for his span of sixteen handsomely-matched oxen than for any other
object, animate or inanimate, on his farm. The particular cattle which
attracted their notice were beautifully spotted black and white, with
hides shining like satin. As Kate approached one of them, and reached
out her hand, she could not touch the line of his back-bone, even when
standing on tip-toe.
They stood there, huge creatures, with their horns towering in the air.
They would have made a fortune for the brush of a Bonheur.
It can hardly excite wonder that such animals gain so much affection.
The trader's wagon to which they were yoked was loaded with ivory tusks,
valuable furs, ostrich feathers, and other rich and singular
merchandise. One feather, a yard long and half a yard wide from tip to
tip, passed into Kate's possession. It was a plume no less beautiful
than rare.
"These feathers," said Kate, regarding the gift with admiration, "do not
look like the flossy, saucy, flirty things which appear on ladies' hats,
strewing coquettish shadows over the face. They resemble those ugly
awkward trailing bits of vanity which weep from their hats after a heavy
rain, when they have neglected to carry that everyday English article of
dress, an umbrella! They are as ugly as the bird from which they are
plucked, until some unconscionable merchant brings the tempting
merchandise to town, and places it in the hands of the milliner. Then
the great play of `My Milliner's Bill' is enacted, husbands and fathers
are ruined by its representation, while the women, pretty pieces of
vanity, get free tickets to the show."