I m sorry about that Duff smiled at him sympathetically. I tried to

dissuade her, truly I did. She's a very motherly person. Most

concerned about your stomachYou still haven't answered my question. Did

you make any progress with the claims? Oh that -, Duff pulled the

blankets up under his chin. We disposed of that early on in the

proceedings. She'll take a down payment of ten pounds each on them and

give us an option to buy the lot at any time during the next two years

for ten thousand. We arranged that over dinner. The rest of the time

was devoted, in a manner of speaking, to shaking hands over the deal.

Tomorrow afternoon, or rather this afternoon, you and I'll ride across

to Pretoria and get a lawyer to write up an agreement for her to sign.

But right now I need some sleep. Wake me at lunch time. Goodnight,

laddie. Duff and Sean brought the agreement back from Pretoria the

following evening. It was an impressive four-page document full of in

so much as and party of the first part. Candy led them to her bedroom

and they sat around anxiously while she read it through twice.

She looked up at last and said, That seems all right but there is just

one other thing. Sean's heart sank and even Duff's smile was strained.

It had all been too easy so far.

Candy hesitated and Sean saw with faint surprise that she was blushing.

It was a pleasant thing to see the peach of her cheeks turning to ripe

apple and they watched it with interest, their tension lessening

perceptibly. I want the mine named after me.

They nearly shouted with relief. An excellent idea! How about the

Rautenbach Reef Mine? Candy shook her head. I'd rather not he reminded

of him, we'll leave him out of it Very well, let's call it the Candy

Deep. A little premature, I suppose, as we are still at ground level,

but pessimism never pays, suggested Duff. Yes, that's lovely, Candy

enthused, flushing again but this time with pleasure. She scrawled her

name across the bottom of the document while Sean fired out the cork of

the champagne which Duff had bought in Pretoria. They clinked glasses

and Duff gave the toast To Candy and the Candy Deep, may one grow

sweeter and the other deeper with each passing day. We'll need labour,

about ten natives to start with. That'll be your problem, Duff told

Sean. It was the following morning and they were eating breakfast in

front of the tent. Sean nodded but didn't try to answer until he had

swallowed his mouthful of bacon. I'll get Mbejane onto that right away.

He'll be able to get us Zulus, even if he has to drive them here with a

spear at their backs. Good, in the meantime you and I'll ride back to

Pretoria again to buy the basic equipment. Picks, shovels, dynamite and

the like. Duff wiped his mouth and filled his coffee cup. I'll show

you how to start moving -the overburden and stacking the ore in a dump.

We'll pick a site for the mill and then I'll leave you to get on with it

while I head south for the Cape to see my farmer friend. God and. the

weather permitting ours will be the second mill working on these fields.

They brought their purchases back from Pretoria in a small ox wagon.

Mbejane had done his work well. There were a dozen Zulus lined up for

Sean's approval next to the tent with Mbejane standing guard over them

like a cheerful sheepdog. Sean walked down the line stopping to ask

each man his name and joke with him in his own language. He came to the

last in the line. How are you called? My name is Blubi, Nkosi. Sean

pointed at the man's well-rounded paunch bulging out above his

loincloth. If you come to work for me, we'll soon have you delivered of

your child They burst out in delighted laughter and Sean smiled at them

affectionately: proud simple people, tall and bigmuscled, completely

defenceless against a well-timed jest. Through his mind flashed the

picture of a hill in Zululand, a battlefield below it and the flies

crawling in the pit of an empty stomach. He shut the picture out

quickly and shouted above their laughter. So be it then, sixpence a day

and all the food you can eat. Will you sign on to work for me? They

chorused their assent and climbed up onto the back of the wagon. Sean

and Duff took them out to the candy Deep and they laughed and chattered

like children going on a picnic.

it took another week for Duff to instruct Sean in the use of dynamite,

to explain how he wanted the first trenches dug and to mark out the site

for the mill and the dump. They moved the tent up to the mine and

worked twelve hours every day. At night they rode down to Candy's Hotel

to eat a full meal and then Sean rode Home alone. He was so tired by

evening that he hardly envied Duff the comfort of Candy's bedroom;

instead he found himself admiring Duff's stamina Each morning he looked

for signs of fatigue in his partner but, although his face was lean and

punt as ever, his eyes were just as clear and his lopsided smile just as

cheerful. How you do it beats me, Sean told him the day they finished

marking out the mill site.

Duff winked at him. Years of practice, laddie, but between you and me

the ride down to the Cape Will be a welcome rest!

When are you going? Sean asked. Quite frankly I think that every day I

stay on here increases the risk of someone else getting in before us.

Mining machinery is going to be at a premium from now on. You have got

things well in hand now . . . What do you say? I was starting to

think along the same lines, Sean agreed. They walked back to the tent

and sat down in the camp chairs, from where they could look down the

length of the valley. The week before about two dozen wagons had been

outspanned around Candy's Hotel, but now there were at least two hundred

and from where they sat they could count another eight or nine

encampments, some even larger than the one around Candy's place.

Wood and iron buildings were beginning to replace the canvas tents and

the whole veld was crisscrossed with rough roads along which mounted men

and wagons moved without apparent purpose.

The restless movement, the dust clouds raised by the passage of men and

beasts, and the occasional deep crump, crump of dynamite firing in the

workings along the Banket, all heightened the air of excitement, of

almost breathless expectancy that hung over the whole goldfleld.