"'Now and then,' I answered, 'but I'm not very keen about it. I came out here more for pleasure than business.
"'Well,' he said, 'you may go far before you see a finer stone than this. What will you bid for it?'
"I looked at it. 'It's off-coloured,' I said.
"'It's white,' said he and one or two of his chums.
"'Gentlemen,' I said, 'it is not white. There are two shades of yellow in it. It is worth little or nothing.'
"'Why, if it is yellow it makes it all the more valuable,' said a big fellow with a black beard and corduroy trousers. 'A yellow stone's as good as a white.'
"'Yes,' I answered, 'a pure yellow stone is. But this is neither one nor the other. It's off-colour, and you know that as well as I.'
"'Won't you bid for it, then?' said one of them.
"'I'll bid seventy pounds,' I said, 'but not a penny more.'
"You should have heard the howl they all set up. 'It's worth five hundred,' the fellow cried.
"'All right,' I said, 'keep it and sell it for that; good day,' and I went off. The stone was sent after me that evening with a request for my cheque, and I sold it for a hundred two days afterwards.[1] You see old Van Harmer's training has come in very handy. I just tell you this little anecdote to let you see that though I'm new in the work I'm not to be done. Nothing in the papers here from Russia. I am ready, come when it may. What would you do if there should be any hitch and the affair did not come off? Would you cut and run, or would you stand by your colours and pay a shilling or so in the pound? The more I think of it the more I curse your insanity in getting us into such a mess. Good-bye."
"He is right. It was insanity," said the old merchant leaning his head upon his hands. "It seems unkind of the lad to say so when he is so far away, but he was always
- ↑ It may be well to remark, that this and succeeding incidents occurred in the old Crown Colony days, before the diamond legislation was as strict as it has since become.
