“Slowly the night wore away, for with the fear of Handspike Tom before my eyes I did not dare to go to sleep, and at last the dawn came. I got up and watched its growth, till it opened like a flower upon the eastern sky, and the sunbeams began to spring up in splendour from mountain-top to mountain-top. I watched it, and as I did so it flashed upon me, with a complete conviction which I had not felt before, that I had had enough of gold-mining to last me the rest of my natural life, and I then and there made up my mind to clear out of Pilgrims’ Rest and go and shoot buffalo towards Delagoa Bay. Then I turned, took the pick and shovel, and although it was a Sunday morning, woke up Harry and set to work to see if there were any more nuggets about. As I expected, there were none. What we had got had lain together in a little pocket filled with soil that felt quite different from the stiff stuff round and outside the pocket. There was not another trace of gold. Of course it is possible that there were more pocketfuls somewhere about, but all I have to say is I made up my mind that, whoever found them, I should not; and, as a matter of fact, I have since heard that this claim has been the ruin of two or three people, as it very nearly was the ruin of me. “‘Harry,’ I said presently, ‘I am going away this week towards Delagoa to shoot buffalo. Shall I take you with me, or send you down to Durban?’ “‘Oh, take me with you, father!’ begged Harry, ‘I want to kill a buffalo!’ “‘And supposing that the buffalo kills you instead?’ I asked. “‘Oh, never mind,’ he said, gaily, ‘there are lots more where I came from.’ “I rebuked him for his flippancy, but in the end I consented to take him.” CHAPTER II. WHAT WAS FOUND IN THE POOL