2o6 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



keep the vermin from him. Then laying myself 

 within 'Ariseep's kraal, I waited for the slothful 

 dawn. As it came, I rose, called 'Ariseep from his 

 hut, and bade farewell to him as best I could, for we 

 neither of us understood one another. I noticed, by- 

 the-by^, that no sign of grief seemed to trouble the 

 old man. Probably, he was too aged, and had seen 

 too much of death to think much about the matter. 



" The rest of my story is soon finished. I made 

 my way back to camp, told my men what had 

 happened, and indeed took some of them back with 

 me to Klaas's grave, and made them exhume his 

 body to satisfy themselves of the cause of death ; for 

 these men are sometimes very suspicious ; then 

 we covered him again securely against wandering 

 beasts and birds. 



" I trekked back to the Old Colony, sold off my 

 things, and came home. The diamonds I had 

 brought away, realised in, England ;^22,ooo. I have 

 never dreamt of going to the fatal valley again ; 

 nothing on earth would tempt me, after that ill- 

 starred journey, heavy with the fate of Klaas, and the 

 Bechuana boy, Amazi. As for the tunnel, I would 

 not venture once more into its recesses for all the 

 diamonds in Africa, even if they lay piled in heaps 

 at the other end of it. Except old 'Ariseep, Klaas 

 had no relation that I knew of, and it was useless 

 to think of spending the diamond money in that 

 quarter. The old fellow had, so far as I could make 

 him understand me, utterly refused to accompany 

 me from the kloof, where he evidently meant to end 

 his days ; even if he had come, what could I have 

 done for him ? At his time of life, and with his 

 peculiar habits, he could hardly have begun the 



