Then came Guy’s monster nugget to be dealt with. It weighed exactly twelve pounds ten ounces. At a liberal estimate the thin coating of quartz running down one side, and other impurities with which it was coated, could not possibly exceed two pounds. This would leave a weight of gold of nine pounds ten ounces, or, reduced to ounces, one hundred and eighteen ounces. At £3, 15s. per ounce, then, "Poeskop’s Pride" was worth £442 at the least. Adding this sum to the £350, the value of the smaller nuggets, a total of £792 would represent the value of the day’s work. "Not by any means a bad day’s work, even for four hard-working men like ourselves," said Mr. Blakeney, with a smile, as he looked round at his audience--the two lads and Poeskop. "I should think not, indeed," added Guy. Mr. Blakeney now went to the wagon, and produced a bottle of champagne which, with five others, he had brought for such high occasions as the present; and as medicine, if occasion needed. Opening the bottle--it was Giesler ’eighty-nine, a first-rate brand--he poured out a tot all round in the _kommetjes_, or little earthenware basins, used by the Boers and most up-country trekkers for coffee. Then they pledged one another, and drank to the complete success of the expedition. Poeskop, as pioneer of the grand discovery, was served out with a drink of the same excellent liquor. He had never tasted or even seen champagne before, and the effervescing wine, getting into his broad nostrils, set him off in so violent a fit of sneezing that he upset the remainder of his tot. "My baas," he said presently, after he had somewhat recovered, "I don’t think I like this medicine. It is not so good as ’pain-killer’ [a drug beloved of all African natives], and I would much rather have a _soupje_ of Cango brandwein." The Bushman’s struggles with his champagne, and his plaintive speech after the mishap, were received with much laughter. "All right, Poeskop," said Mr. Blakeney, "you shall have the Cango." Going to the locker of the wagon, he brought out a bottle of the good Cape brandy of that name, and, pouring out a dram, handed it to the Bushman. Poeskop, smacking his broad lips over this liquor, was at once satisfied, and expressed himself as more than well pleased at the exchange. The rest of the men were, in honour of the evening, also each served out with a tot of the same spirit. At ten o’clock a merry evening beneath the stars came to an end, and all sought their resting places.