172 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



about the only grateful native I ever heard of, and 

 seemed as if he couldn't do enough for me. 



" One day, after he had got over his wound, he 

 came to me, and said, ' Sieur ! you said one day that 

 you would like to know whether there are diamonds 

 anywhere else than at New Rush (as Kimberley 

 was then called). Well, sieur, I have been working 

 at New Rush, and I know what diamonds are 

 like ; and I can tell you where you can find as many 

 of them in a week's search as you may like to pick 

 up. Allemaghte ! Ja, it is as true, sieur, as a wilde 

 honde on a hartebeest's spoor." 



" ' What the devil do you mean, Klaas ! ' said I, 

 turning sharply round for I was mending the 

 dissel-boom (waggon pole) to see if the Bushman was 

 joking. But, on the contrary, Klaas's little weazened 

 monkey-face wore an expression perfectly serious and 

 apparently truthful. The statement seemed strange, 

 for I knew the little beggar was not given to 

 ' blowing,' as so many of the Kaffirs and Totties are. 



" ' Ja, sieur, it is truth ; if ye will so trek with me to 

 the Groote (Orange) Rivier, three or four days beyond 

 the falls, I will show you a place where there are 

 hundreds and hundreds of diamonds, big ones, too, 

 many of them, to be found lying about in the gravel. 

 I have played with them, and with other " mooi 

 steins," too, often and often as a boy, when I used to 

 poke about here and there, up and down the Groote 

 Rivier. My father and grandfather lived near the 

 place I speak of, and I know the way to the " vallei," 

 where these diamonds are, well, though no one but 

 myself knows of them ; for I found them by a 

 chance, and, selfish like, never told of my child's 

 secret. I will take you to the place if you like.' 



