Luke looked up at the towering headframe and took a deep breath. The stink of dynamite. The shattering roar of the blast-hole drills. It all conspired to take him back to that terrible day at Hills End when Angus died. Normally he avoided visiting the mine at all costs, but Tau was away on his honeymoon with Sizani, and somebody had to inspect the new works.
Luke had decided to sink a third shaft in a last-ditch attempt to make the operation more profitable. With only a trickle of small, substandard diamonds coming in, he’d been barely breaking even. He certainly wasn’t making enough for Eli to extend him more credit, and more credit was exactly what he needed. When they discovered a new pipe of diamond-bearing blue ground, he’d put the last of his borrowed funds into it.
The engineer started the motor and the windlass ground into action. Fighting the inevitable claustrophobia, he stepped into the cage and began his halting journey underground. The new shaft wasn’t finished, only extending one level down, but so far the men had done a good job. The reef walls were dry, tiered for stability and the pumping equipment was operational.
The cage hit dirt. Luke started off down the short tunnel, glad it was so shallow. It meant some natural light from the surface still penetrated the gloom. Not enough though. He switched on his new patent-pending battery-powered lamp, the very latest in mine safety. Electric lamps were odourless, smokeless and emitted less heat than combustion-powered lighting. They could be instantly turned on and off, and avoided fire risk. He’d provided one for each of his miners.
Everything looked good. The modern tram trolley system was in place. It removed ore for crushing, speeding up production and lightening his workers’ load. The rock walls looked promising. Pure Kimberlite, the name given to such coarse blue ground after rich finds were made at Kimberley. Everything was in place to make this mine a success. Everything except the diamonds.
Luke turned to go, well-satisfied with the inspection and eager to return to daylight. He’d almost reached the cage when something caught his eye: a glint reflecting in lamplight on the tunnel wall a few feet above his head. He found a ladder and used his pocketknife to prise the shiny object out. This wasn’t possible. A diamond? Or was somebody fooling him with a piece of glass?
Heart racing, Luke returned to the surface to inspect his find. It looked real enough, except for its improbable size; it was as big as the palm of his hand. Luke took it to Scotty in the mine office, whose job it was to weigh and assess every diamond.
Scotty whistled through his teeth and cleaned the stone. Released from its grimy prison, it shimmered with the light of a thousand stars. ‘This came from the new shaft?’ He examined the crystal with a jeweller’s loupe more slowly than Luke had ever seen. ‘No detectable flaws, exceptional clarity, and it has that rare blue-white quality so treasured by buyers.’
Luke swallowed hard. The year before, a large diamond had been discovered at the struggling Toti Mine, after many years of fruitless operation. The Pietersen Diamond weighed in at over six ounces, or more than eight hundred and fifty carats. Thomas Pietersen became an overnight millionaire.
‘Now for the weight.’ When Scotty looked up from the scales, his eyes shone with tears. ‘Fifteen ounces. Fifteen fucking ounces. That’s two thousand, one hundred and twenty-five carats.’
What?
Two years of digging up spotty little pebbles, as Tau called them. Two years of worrying about Themba’s animals, and people’s jobs, and when the money would run out. And now this? He would be rich again. Not just rich – wealthy beyond measure. He hadn’t been able to send his family much money lately. He pictured Mama and Becky in the little cottage behind the school. He could buy them a mansion now. Hell, he could buy them the whole school. And to think Herman Smit had lost this miracle of a mine for the sake of a four-carat stone.
Luke exhaled. The engagement ring that would never grace Belle’s finger lay at home, in the darkness of his desk drawer. He would take it out tonight, let its light shine. In a very real way, Belle and that ring were responsible for his change of fortune. How he longed to share this news with her. But that was impossible. She didn’t even know he was alive. For her sake, and the sake of their son, it had to stay that way. A wave of emptiness washed over him, and he closed his eyes. Strange, how all the money in the world couldn’t buy him what he most wanted.
‘Congratulations, Colonel.’ Scotty kissed the stone. ‘You have just unearthed the biggest diamond in the world.’
Expert analysis in Cape Town confirmed it – the Buchanan Diamond was the largest, rough gem-quality stone ever found. The papers were full of the discovery. It was front-page international news.
‘See how perfectly smooth it is on one side?’ The buyer from Rothschild’s bank ran his finger down the diamond’s shining surface. ‘Sheared off from a much larger stone by natural forces deep underground. It is only a fragment, Colonel, probably less than half of an octahedral crystal. The other portion, and more stones like them, still await discovery in your mine. Cecil Rhodes himself will be green with envy.’
The buyer was right. Shaft three produced gem after gem of exceptional size and quality, though none equalled the sheer grandeur of that first find. The price of diamonds increased exponentially according to their weight. With stones of over one hundred carats, Luke could ask what he liked. For princes and potentates, price proved no object.
At just twenty-seven years of age, Colonel Lucas Buchanan had become a household name, and joined the illustrious ranks of South Africa’s richest men.