Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/112

 same time, it is obvious that it might be made an instrument of both tyranny and dishonesty by fortunate and wealthy diggers to freeze out their less prosperous neighbours by driving them either to abandon their claim, or to sell it at an absurdly low price.

This is what had happened to Tom Burrows. His next neighbours, Macadam and Grünstein, were both richer men than himself, and they owned claims on both sides of his. He had quarrelled with Macadam, and Grünstein disliked him, and wanted to get rid of him for the reasons which he stated to his sweetheart. Hence they put all the kaffir workmen they could hire into their claims, and got out their "blue" at a rate which Burrows, with his two kaffirs and one Bushman, could not possibly keep pace with.

The necessary result was that his ground kept falling into theirs far faster than he could get it removed. His neighbours laid