"Not me: not Abe Pike. Oh, no! I tole you how he flattened out ole Harkins, an' stove in my partner's ribs, an' laid out another chap what j'ined the company with a yeller horse, an' skeered off that Port Elizabeth fellow what tried to `jump' my claim. Well, that showed this yer walkin' diamond mine were dangerous, but, lor' bless yer, the _schreik_ he gave me was somethin' that sent the everlastin' shivers up an' down my backbone. I'll tell you how 'twas. When the company was busted up I was the only chap what held shares, an' as there was no market for 'em I calkerlated to do the prospectin' myself. So I went on a reg'lar expedition into the bush with a new castin' o' bullets, a horn o' powder, a tin box o' caps--them being muzzle-loading days--an' a kit o' one sheepskin kaross, with a roll o' tobacco, five pounds o' coffee, an' sugar, an' as much Boer meal as I could buy, with a pot an' _cometje_. I reckoned to shoot my own meat an' pick up berries, besides gettin' a square meal at a farmhouse now an' ag'in. So I sot out into the Addo, an' gettin' to the middle of it, planted my kit in a holler tree. That was a Sunday. Then I scouted aroun'. Monday I seed nothin'. Tuesday I came on a family party o' two tigers an' their cubs. The ole woman, steppin' on her toes, marched me off the premises, an' I darsn't shoot for fear o' skeerin' the elephant. I had to march back'ards, an' the thorns they jest had a picnic with my shirt, I tell you; an' I got sich a cramp in my stummick that I couldn't hunt any more that day. Wednesday I came on elephant spoor--fresh spoor--and follered it for four hours without ever seein' a patch o' the animile. Thursday I came on spoor ag'in within twenty yards o' where I camped. Yes, sirree; that crittur had come up as near as that, and he'd stood there for a long time, maybe watchin' me. Well, I lit out on the tracks and follered 'em in an' out an' roun' about all through the mornin' into the afternoon, the tracks keeping so fresh that I kep' on with the trigger at full cock. In the evenin' the spoor led me right back to my holler tree, and blow me if that crittur hadn't been overhauling my goods. Yes, that's so. The kettle it were hung twenty feet from the ground. The kaross it were peppered all over with holes, where he'd drove his tusk through. The Boer meal were all eaten up, except for a sprinkle here and there; and the tobacco were chewed up and spat out. I dried it and smoked it, and it had a flavour of boots most terrible. Well, I tell you, this made me _quei_, but when I seed, arter looking more carefully, that this yer fool elephant were my diamon' mine itself I jes' picked up. 'Cos, what's the loss of a few shillin's worth of things when that diamon' 'ud bring in enough to buy up a whole street full o' grocers' shops." "How did you know it was the elephant you wanted?"