diamonds Barnato had and got the right
sized bucket. Rhodes immediately strode from the room, got the time he
wanted and consummated the consolidation which made the name DeBeers
synonymous with the diamond output of the world. One trifling feature of
this deal was the check for $26,000,000 which Rhodes gave for some of
the Barnato interests acquired.

The deal with Barnato illustrated the practical operation of one of the
rules which guided Rhodes' business life. He once said, "Never fight
with a man if you can deal with him." He lived up to this maxim even
with the savage Matabeles from whom he wrested Rhodesia.

Not long after the organization of the diamond trust Rhodes gave another
evidence of his business acumen. He saw that the disorganized marketing
of the output would lead to instability of price. He therefore formed
the Diamond Syndicate in London, composed of a small group of middlemen
who distribute the whole Kimberley output. In this way the available
supply is measured solely by the demand.

Rhodes had a peculiar affection for Kimberley. One reason perhaps was
that it represented the cornerstone of his fortune. He always referred
to the mines as his "bread and cheese." He made and lost vast sums
elsewhere and scattered his money about with a lavish hand. The diamond
mines did not belie their name and gave him a constant meal-ticket.

In Kimberley he made some of the friendships that influenced his life.
First and foremost among them was his association with Doctor,
afterwards Sir, Starr Jameson, the hero of the famous Raid and a
romantic character in African annals. Jameson came to Kimberley to
practice medicine in 1878. No less intimate was Rhodes' life-long
attachment for Alfred Beit, who arrived at the diamond fields from
Hamburg in 1875 as an obscure buyer. He became a magnate whose
operations extended to three continents. Beit was the balance wheel in
the Rhodes financial machine.

The diamond mines at Kimberley are familiar to most readers. They differ
from the mines in German South-West Africa and the Congo in that they
are deep level excavations. The Kimberley mine, for example, goes down
3,000 feet. To see this almost grotesque gash in the earth is to get the
impression of a very small Grand Canyon of the Colorado. It is an
awesome and terrifying spectacle for it is shot through with green and
brown and purple, is more than a thousand feet wide at the top, and
converges to a visible point a