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FIRE IN THE EARTH
hazy mind. He puts the native to work sifting the upturned gravel. He is convinced it is blue ground. He is light. The native comes up with a dirt-encrusted stone about the size of a hen's egg. The native knows what Jonker is too flab­bergasted, too hazy, to know: that this hen's egg is a dia­mond. But Mrs. Jonker has no illusions about it.
She puts Jonker to bed. She places the diamond in a stock­ing and ties it around her neck. She summons relatives and asks them to stand guard, with rifles, around the house throughout the night. The next morning she deposits it with the officials at the Diamond Corporation. Jacobus Jonker is thereupon given a check for $350,000. His wife sees he doesn't spend it all in one night.
The stone weighed 726 carats. The Diamond Corpora­tion sold it, through dealers, to a New York importer, who had it cut into twelve stones, the respective weights of, which are: No. 1, 125 carats; No. 2, 40.46 carats; No. 3, 35.45 carats—and all the way down to about 5.30 carats. The largest stone, originally 142.9 carats, lacked brilliancy and fire and was recut to the 125-carat size. Even today, in spite of its shining glory, it has not that sparkle one finds in lesser stones. This may be because of its size.
Some of the stones were sold to the young Maharajah of Indore, others to New York brokers and individuals. At this writing the big 125-carat stone remains unsold. It is valued by the owner at $1,000,000 retail. Whether anyone will be able to pay $1,000,000 for anything, much less a dia­mond, is a question.
Another great South African stone is the Jubilee, found in the Jagersfontein mine in the Orange Free State in 1895. Roughly—and that is meant literally—it was a flattened oc­tahedron of 650.8 carats. It was supposed to be entirely flawless and perfect in color, something to be doubted, since
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