Novelist [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] MARTIN DEVERIL'S DIAMOND

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2769, 12 April 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

Novelist [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] MARTIN DEVERIL'S DIAMOND

A NOVEL By ADELINE SERGEANT, Author of " Jacobi's Wife," &c., &e.

CHAPTER' I.—ln a Mountain Pass. The narrow road wound under a wall o£ rock on the one side, and was bordered on the other by a deep ravine. Brilliant sunshine threw into strong relief the fantastic outlines of the jagged crags above the blackness of the shadowy gorge below. Between the two ran the road, hot, dusty, and glaringly ■white beneath the fierceness of a South African noon. The damp ravine itself, damp in shade and thickly wooded, looked temptingly cool and pleasant, but it was inaccessible from the road, for the descent to it was smooth and almost perpendicular. A solitary Englishman, with a gun over his shoulder, glanced aside into the wooded clift with an expression of intense irritation.

" Not the sign of a path !" he muttered to himself, angrily. "They must be down there now ; if I could get down after them I should be sure of a shot." " They " were two bucks which lie had seen at some distance, and which had eluded his murderous designs by making their way from rock to rock to the bottom of the ravine. The Englishman stepped upon a jutting stone and bent as far forward as was possible. But he could see nothing; the quarry had escaped him. A dog, pressing close to the traveller's heels, stood upon the crag with ears pricked and body quivering with excitement. Even he, however, did not offer to take a perilous leap into the abyss. The depth and the darkness were too «reat for such an adventure; man and dog turned disconsolate away. They were followed at some distance by a black man, somewhat scantily clothed in a blanket and a string of beads, but plentifully besmeared with red clay. He had a self-satisfied and contented air ; he showed his white teeth in a perpetual grin, and his shining black countenance seemed positively to radiate good-humour. The Englishman might have been age between twenty-five and forty. " In renlity he was midwav between the two; he was barely thirty-three. He was rather short than tall, robust, but inclined to stoutness —it was this thickness of builcl which gave him an older appearance than was warranted by his face. His skin was brown and ruddy ; his hair and beard were coal - black, close and curling ; his eyes, also very dark, were small and brilliant. His features were good ; in fact, he was rather a handsome fellow,

although he bore about with him I a fiercely swaggering, half-martial sort of air, as of a man who had had many a tussle with fortune, and had long been accustomed to carry his life in his hand. His tweed suit and felt hat were in no way remarkable; they had been well used, but were not exactly shabby ; but he also wore a brightcoloured tie, a brassy-looking watchchain—presumably gold—and a cock's feather in his hat, which was slightly tilted to one side; details of costume which gave to his appearance a touch of vulgar smartness greatly admired by his Kaffir attendant.

He had not gone far along the road which led through the ravine, when unaccustomed sounds fell upon his ear. In the distance he could plainly distinguish the noise of a struggle; he could hear cries, shouts, the shuffling of feet, then the crack of a revolver. But as yet he could not see the persons engaged in combat; a turn in the road concealed them; and as Robert Le Breton had (he said to himself) no wish to be " mixed up in a free fight," he advanced with caution, and examined his own weapon carefully as he went. Then he handed his gun to the Kaffir and produced a loaded revolver. But the Kaffir came to a dead stand at once, as if prepared to run for his life as soon as danger became imminent.

Robert Le Breton reached the point where the road made a sud'den turn. Here, from behind a projectiug crag, he found himself able to see the struggle that still continued, and to estimate its probable result.

" Three men against one," he ejaculated to himself. " That's not fair play. Shouldn't wonder if the old man beat the three of them, after all."

The centre of the group was evidently an elderly man with long, grey hair, who was defending himself with desperate vigour against the attacks of three much younger men, two of whom seemed to be Europeans in mining dress, while the third was a native armed only with a stick. The old man was muscular and active, and parried the blows of his assailants with science which oxcited Le Breton's admiration; but it was clearlj' to be seen that his strength was nearly exhausted and that his enemies were pretty sure of victory. By an almost superhuman effort, however, he dragged the younger and slighter of the miners close to the edge of the ravine. Here they struggled together in deadly conflict. One of the two would assuredly fall into that gloomy chasm. Which of the two would it be ? Le Breton's keen dramatic interest in the situation almost made him forget that he had within his hands the power of deciding the struggle. The possession of fire-arms gave him an incalculable advantage over the combatants, for the shot which he had heard must have come from a revolver which was now nowhere to be seen, and the men were fighting with bludgeons in their hands ; and as Le Breton looked he saw the glitter of a knife. The report of the revolver rang far and wide. Le Breton was seldom known to miss his aim. He had fired at the miner, and the unfortunate man, sorely wounded, fell backwards down the steep incline, crushing through the branches and loosening the stones in his descent with horrible violence. The men in the road involuntarily ceascd their contest, and listened until the sound of his fall was over. With glaring eyes, heaving breasts, and clenched hands they waited for the space of some two seconds only ; but it seemed to them like a century of time. Le Breton, perfectly unmoved, made the most of those two seconds. He emerged from the shelter afforded by the projecting rock, and advanced towards the three men, covering the miner with his revolver as he came near.

" Move one step and I fire." The resolute ring of his voice was perhaps as effective as the glitter of his weapon. The miner cowered in the road ; the black man turned and ran. Lo Breton let him escape— the savage was not worth shooting. He had better game in view now than either a Kaffir or a buck. The old man shook himself as if to be s&re that his limbs were whole and sound, peered cautiously into the ravine, picked up his hat and the pistol which had been thrown into the road, and then turned to his deliverer. " You took gsod aim, sir," he said. " I generally do," returned Le Breu>n. " Got such a thing as a bit of cord about you V The old man shook his head. Le Breton, who by this time had laid upon the miner's shoulders an iron grip, which pressed him down to the very ground, now turned to his attendant and repeated his demand in Kaftir. The black man instantly produced a piece of whipcord, with which he Breton proceeded to secure his prisoner by the wrists " There !" he said, grimly, after a momentary silence. "You won't do much harm to us just at present, I think. If you move a finger I'll chuck you down there after your mate—d'ye hear % They pretty nearly did for you that time, eh, old man V The old man shook his head with a smile. " Very nearly," he said. " But for you I should be lying at the bottom of the ravine, or dead here upon the road.'' Then he glanced at the minor, sitting in the

dust with his hands tied behind him and his head bowed, and a spasm of rage and hate crossed his wrinkled face. "You brute!" he said ; "yea miserable hound ! what have I done to you that you should try to murder me? Did I not stand your friend at Kimberley?" The miner was silent. Le Breton gave him a contemptuous push with his foot. " Speak !" he said, showing the muzzle of his revolver. "Answer, or your life's n#t worth a minute's purchase." "Yes," said the miner, stolidly ; "you stood my friend at Kimborly, sure enough." "Didn't I pay you your wages fairly when no one else would give you work ?" " Yes, you paid me my wages fair enough," he answered. " Then what more did you want? Why should you set upon me in this way, and try to take my life ?" said the old man, with a certain kind of rugged dignity. " What harm had I clone to you V But to this question the miner refused to give any answer. Neither the somewhat violent threats which Le Breton showered upon him, nor the reiterated questions ©f the elder man, produced the slightest effect. Sullen and dogged, his face somewhat blanched at the recollection of his companion's fate, and his cheeks and lips bleeding from his late opponent's blows, he crouched rather than sat in the dusty road awaiting his sentence with sullen composure.

Le Breton now found time to cast a look at the man whose life he had saved by his intervention. He seemed to be about sixty. He was tall, spare, muscular; his face was brown and hale, although very thin. There was certainly not an ounce of superfluous flesh about him, but his whole appearance gave one the idea of iron strength and immense powers of endurance. His hair was iron grey, and so were his eyebrows; his faco was-bare, and his long upper lip, largo prominent chin, and strong square jaw betokened an amount of obstinacy and energy apparently corresponding to the degree of physical force which he possessed. He wore coarse brown clothes, a pair of miner's boots, and a large straw hat, which he had replaced upon his grizzled head. He had a broad leathern belt round his body, with a small jiouch attached to it, and a red necktie with floatingends. Le Breton examined him curiously with his eyes, and then nulled out a brandy flask.

" You'll be none the worse for a pull ao that," lie said, offering liim the spirit. " You've had some rough work." The man nodded, lifted the flask to his lips, and drained part of its contents without a word. Then he handed it again to Le Breton, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "That's good stuff," he said, approvingly. " W hat about ■ that chap down there, eh ? Shall we go after him 1" " Why should we 1" asked Le Breton. " You don't suppose he'll be alive, do you % The question is, what are we to do with this fool of a fellow ?" " Bring him along to the next town." "You're in no hurry to get on with your journey, then 1 It's a business that will keep us for a couple of weeks, perhaps—or more. No odds to you that, maybe?' "Ay, but it is," said the older man, with a sudden flash of meaning in his face, which Le Breton was not slow to interpret. " I'm bound to Capetown, and England after that. I ain't going to stay hero longer than I need." " Had a haul lately, have you 1 The sooner you got to England the better, then. We can kick this fellow down the kloof to join his friend. Dead men tell no tales." The old man took his chin in his left hand, and stuck out his under lip as he glanced from Le Breton to the miner. " Nay," he said after a little pause, "I don't see my way to doing that. Taking his life in cold blood is a different thing from a fair fight, mind you." "You call it a fair fight when there were three against one, do you ?" said Le Breton, contemptuously. "I don't. I'm not particular to a trifle, however; I'll do the business myself for you if you like." " No," replied thd old man, resolutely. " I'll have no killing, sir, if you please." " What then ? Tie him up and give him three dozen 1 Come, he deserves that at least." " Let him go free. I don't want to soil my hands with the touch of him. He's a blackguard,but it's no concern of mine to punish him. " Now, look here," saidLe Breton, sternly, " I'm not going to stand any foolery. I saved your life, and sent the other fellow down the kloof, didn't I I Do you think that I am going to be such an infernal fool as to let this 'ruffian follow us down to Swellendam—all the way through the tradouio, as if he wouldn't try to cut our throats if he got the chance? No, I know a thing worth two of that, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. "I'll cord him up to this tree here—l don't mean that I'll make him swing, oh 110"—I'll tether him up for an hour or two, that's all ; and when we get to Swellendam we'll send the boy back to set him loose. Even if we don't do that, you may be sure that some traveller will unfasten him." His companion did not openly object, although he looked doubtful.

tie stood aside while Le Breton, with the aid of his Kaffir, dragged rather than led the miner to a tree, which was rooted amongst the stones upon one side of the road. Here Le Breton fastened the man by means of a strap to the trunk of a tree, heeding little enough the fact that the strap was almost too short for the purpose, and that even the buckling of it seemed to cause the prisoner an amount of pain likely, in the course of a short space of time, to be worthy of the name of torture. The position of the miner was also full of discomfort. He stood on uneven ground, where only one foot could rest with any security, and his head was exposed to the beams of the blazing sun. Having tied the cords firmly, Le Breton surveyed his work with satisfaction, and laughed at the expression of the misery visible on the miuer's face. The old man had turned his back upon the scene and gone some distance along the road. Possibly, if he had stayed, he might have seen fit to mitigate the severity of Le Breton's treatment of his prisoner ; but he had not thought it necessary to remain. Le Breton laughed, took out his pipe and lighted it, then puffed the smoke insultingly in the miner's face. " There won't be any travellers until the sun's down now, my fine fellow," he said. " Maybe none till to-morrow morning—or later. I don't intend to send my boy back to set you free. You may stay here till you starve or the sun drives you raving mad for ought I care." The miner replied by an emphatic form of denunciation, at which Le Breton laughed again.

" Poor devil," he said, " you're down on your luck now ; you can afford to swear. I'll do one thing for you ; I'll give you your hat which, is lying in the road, to shield your head and eyes a bit, if you'll tell me why you set upon that old chap down there and what his name is."

" Ris name is Deveril—Martin Deveril," the man answered, sullenly. " It's no secret. Put the hat on my head and I'll tell you what I wauted with him." Le Breton did as lie was desired, and the miner continued in low, fierce tones. " He's got a diamond that's worth a fortune iu a bag next his skin. We wanted the diamond." Le Breton's eyes glittered. " Worth—how much V lie said. "Thousands. If you'll loose me we might get it yet and go shares. The old chap's strong, hut so are you. We could settle him easy between lis." Le Breton paused for a moment. Then he answered with a mocking laugh— " Thankee, mate. I go shares with nobody. I run my own concern. If I wank the diamond I reckon I can get ifc without your help." " I'll track you down and make you repent it, if you do." said the miner, with a burst of sudden fury. " All right," said Le Breton, with careless irony. "We shall meet again in that case, so I won't say good-bye." And without further parley he strode away down the road at a good round pace, leaving the minor to the endurance of burning heat, the maddening hum of myriad flies, and the pressure of the cord which bound his wrists, as well as of the thong which fastened him to the tree. His uncertainty as to the long or short duration of his punishment added to its bitterness. It might be over in half-an-hour, thanks to the intervention of some friendly passer-by ; it might last, as Le Breton had predicted, until sunstroke, madness, death alone should bring it to an end. The sun was yet high in the heavens. Its beams fell directly upon the miner's face, which was but slightly shaded by the flapping hat upon the back of his head. The stings and bites of the insects which infest that part of South Africa were not less dificult to support than their incessant hum about his ears; in spite of the most furious efforts he could not get one finger free or change the posture of his limbs for more than one moment at time. Severe cramp soon attacked him, and under the influence of this form of torture the miner no longer preserved the sullen fortitude with which he had borne the earlier portion of his sufferings, He opened his lips aud swore fiercely at everybody concerned in the morning's adventure—at the companion whose fate he had nearly shared, at the Kaffir who had taken to his heels, at the old man whom he had attacked, and at Le Brecon, who had subdued him. Last of all, with the greatest energy aud deliberation, he swore at the diamond which had lured him on! to destruction. But for its delusive glitter he would now be a free man, and his old comrade would not be lying at the bottom of yonder deep ravine with a bullet through his heart. The sun smote fiercely upon his brain. It seemed to him as though that great golden ball in the blue sky were nothing but the diamond itself invested with some strange power of life and death. It was an accursed thing, and would firing sorrow and guilt and shame upon those who became possessed of it. The very sight of it was death, and it was lit by the fires of hell. . Thus he gabbled on, not knowing what ho said; only gazing with

dazzled, unseeing eyes at the brilliant skies above him. Hours passed away, and still no messenger of release came from the man who had bound him and left him there. No traveller's foot was heard upon that lonely road. The sun fell, the shadows shifted from point to point, the air grew cool, hut still the prisoner talked unceasingly and incoherently of the burning heat, of blinding suns, of the terrible glitter of the diamond. It was late at night that a small party of men with an ox-waggon made their slow way into the pass. One marching first, alone, suddenly halted and pointed with his finger to the side of the toad. " What's that ?" he said. In the midnight darkness (for a great deal of African travelling is done by night) they could scarcely see the figure of the solitary man, bound to the trunk of a gaunt and leafless tree j but they could hear his voice, high, strained, monotonous as a stream of words fell wildly from his parched and swollen lips. The travellers listened for a few moments, but heard only a string of senseless utterances which they could not understand. The sun, the diamond, the man who had left him to his fate ; these figured alternately, but without coherence in his speech. Yet even to the untutored minds of the travellers there was something curiously weird in the spectacle of that dimly distinguish able figure, with its fixed wild eyes ; something uncanny in the sound of those imprecations on another's head, which alone awoke the echoes of the unchanging hills. "I wouldn't care to be cursed like that," said the solitary woman of the party, listening with a fearful interest from her station in the oxwaggon to the miner's ravings. "Sunstroke," replied one of the men, reprovingly. "He don't know what lie's saying, poor chap!" Aud then they set to work to release him, taking care, however, not to give entire liberty to his limbs, lest his delirium should lead him to make violent use of them against his liberators. But he was quieter than they had expected ; and when they hud lifted him into the wag-

iron, and moved slowly on their way, lin l;iy tolerably still upon the straw, only moving his head from side to side, and talking in the! same high-pitched, monotonous voice about tiie diamond—the accursed stone whose brilliancy had tempted iiifu to risk their very souls for the sake of a glittering toy. CHAPTER ll,—Fbiexds ok Foes ? Robert Le Breton overtook the old mail —Martin .Dcvoril, as the miner had called liim—about half a mile further down tho pass. He was sitting upon a stone by the wayside, with a certain yellowness of tint upon his face which excited La Breton's attention. ■' You're used up ?'' lie said, with an interrogative turn to his voice. " 'Tisn't that," said Martin Deveril, shaking his head. "I'm a tough customer still, and not upset so easy as you seem to think. But in that last tussle I got a twist—a crick of some kind —to my foot, and walking don't seem to agree with it very well. So I sat down for a rest." "It's a good long tramp to Swellendam," remarked Le Breton, with an eager flash of his eyes. " Not longer than I can manage,'' said Deveril, with sudden gruffness ; and then he rose and inarched forward with a halting' gait. Le Breton followed, looking at him as he walked with a carefully measuring eye. "You've sprained it," he said, after a few minutes' silence. But his walk became slower and more painful ; byand-by he stopped short and sank down on the bank upon his right hand, (lc crossed one leg over the other and rubbed the injured ankle with his hand. Lu Breton stooped and felt it, too, with an experienced air, 11 Swelling. If you got your boot off it would he less painful." " Yes, young man, but I couldn't walk so well." " And you mean to walk to Swollendam r" Tho old man nodded. " Aud you think you'll got there, tonight ?" queried Le Breton, in a tono of exasperation." '' If I don't," said Martin Deveril, doggedly, " I must camp out." Le Breton's black brows contracted, he pulled his curly black beard, and seemed to reflect. "I'll stay with you," ho remarked, presently, Deveril did not seem grateful. He raised his head and fixed his sharp grey eyes suspiciously upon his new acquaintance. " No call for you to do that," he said, gruffly. " You've been a good friend to me oncc ; I don't expect you to do me a second favour." " No favour at all," said Le Breton, looking up briskly, and smiling so that he showed most of his whito teeth, and even his gums as well. " I like to do a thing thoroughly ; and as I've got you out of one scrape, I'd like to see you safe to the end. You might be set upon a second time you know, by somo of those chaps from Kimberley, I suppose you've something about you to tempt 'em to it, eh ? Been lucky at the mines ?" "That's my own business," Deveril answered, with stiffness. "Just so. Don't wish to intrude ou your affairs. But I am willing to stick to you aud see fair play, if some more of those rowdies try to throttle you. And —look here, old chap—you're not fit to walk very far, you know ; so, suppose I send my boy on to Swcllcndani with order? J;o bring a cart, a gig, anything oil wheels '■•hat he can lind, to carry you back it. ? He can drive like the very devil can my boy." " " That's not a bad plan," the old man admitted. He mused for a little time, still nursing his foot, and then agreed to tha plan proposed. Le Breton should stay with hiin and the Kailir should go to the nearest farm-house, or to the town of Swellendam itself if necessary, and fetch a vehicle of some kind for their use. He added, with resolute independence of manner, that ho would be responsible for all expenses, a speech at which Le Breton greatly laughed, and made a show of producing a handful of gold and silver from his pocket, as if to_ display with some ojtentatiousness the fact that ho was not in want of money. " And now that the boy has gone, Le Breton continued after a time, i: I don't

see what we need hurry ourselves. It's the hottest time of the day. We'd better have a snooze in the shade and a pull at a braudy bottle; that'll put us all right again before we start." Again Deveril agreed with him. They walked on for a little while—the old man with difficulty, which made him glad of the offer of Le Breton's arm ; stopping finally at a small cave-Hke cleft in the rooks, where one or two oak trees cast their mighty arms abroad, aud a tiny stream of water trickled from a crack in the granite and formed a small pool, bordered with grass and flowers. It was a well-known resting-place for travellers, and Deveril sank down upon a fallen log of wood with a sigh of genuine relief. " Foot bad ?" said Le Breton. " Better take your boot off. No? It's about time we had something to eat and drink, I reckon. Got any baccy ?" The old man nodded, aud plunged his hand into the wallet at his side, from which he produced a splendid store of provisions, some tobacco and a pipe. Le Bretou displayed a much larger stock of meat and bread, and the two disposed themselves for a mid-day meal and a comfortable smoke. The younger man broke the silence. "I don't see how you could come through the kloof unarmed if you have any valuables about you," he said, by way of beginning the conversation. "I teas armed," answered Deveril. "They struck my pistol out of my hand into the ravine, and dropped their own into the road in doing so. They were bunglers. I never said I had any valuables about me," he added sharply. "No." Lo Breton shook his head knowingly. " Those fellows had their little game, no doubt. Either they knew you had something valuable on you, 01 they thought you had. Or else they'd a grudge against you." " That was it," said Deveril, in haste. " They had a 'grudge against me. And that was their way of paying it off." His grey eye twinkled as if with some complacency at the thought. Le Breton gave him a furtive glance. " What grudge could they have against you?" he asked. " Oh, general things," replied the old man, vaguely. "Perhaps I had been rough on tliein at the mines; not paid them enough—or something. They both worked for me—sorting the grit, you know. I hold to the river-banks; they were the place for stones, I always said —not the big mine. Those fellows joined me for a bit, both of 'em." '' But I thought you said that you treated thorn well ?" said Lo Breton. " That fellow we left behind owned that you'.-! done the square thing by him, aiul no mista'is. Why, you fluug it in his teeth."

" That was a little mistake of mine. I spoke in my haste," said the old man, quoting King .David, perhaps unconsciously. 1 I treated 'em shameful, both of them. . They vowed they would ta!<c it out of me, and you see they did—or at least thev tried."

"He's lying," paid Le Breton In him-self, as he. watched tin; old iaan's face, upon which a crafty expression sat somewhat ill. " Want's to tb-ow me off the scent, I suppase. Wonder where h". keeps lh:.t diamond hidden, and if it'.-; worth risking anything for." Aloud he spoke—''They tried, pretty hard. You must have been rough on them, guv'nor. What did you do ?" Deveril was silent fo:' a moment, and rubbed his chin with his hand as he replied —" Weii, you know what the sentence for that is ?" " Flogging and imprisonment," said Le Breton, promptly. A curious look came into his eyes as he said the words. "And you had them brought tip for it, I suppose ?" Deveril started and looked uncertain. " Well—no," he began, slowly ; then changed his tono. " Yes—yes, of course. I told of them, and nearly had them sentenced. But they got off, somehow, and they swore they'd be revenged on me. That's the story, young man." Le Breton smiled as he smoked his pipe. He did not believe a word of Mr Martin Deveril's story. Aud, indeed, there was not very much truth in it. "You didn't tie that fellow up too tight, I hope?" asked the old man with some anxiety of manner. " Oh, no. Why?' "Because I was thinking that if he has to wait until your boy goes to Swellendain and back, and perhaps back to Swellendam again, he'd be pretty considerable tired of waiting." " Good for him," said Le Breton, coolly. " But I don't suppose he'll have to stop so long. The first passer-by will let him loose. In point of fact, I rather expect to see him come roaming down the path 111 search of you at any moment, so I'll just see that my shooting-iron is in good order." "Ay, do," said Deveril, calmly ; aud I'll just get out another little plaything that 1 carry about with me. I couldn't lay hold of it before." He felt in some inner pocket, and presently produced a sheath, from which lie drew a long knife, tine and keen enough to be called a dagger. Its blade Hashed in the sunlight as ho poised it upon his knee. It was a formidable weapon in spite of its apparent slightness. Le Breton's dark eyes sought the old man's face for a moment, and then returned to the knife. " That's a good blade," lie said indifferently. "Not Sheffield make, is it ?" He stretched forth his hand for it, but Deveril kept his fingers upon the shaft. "No," lie said, "it's not Sheffield make, it's from Damascus. You'd better hot meddle with it, you might hurt yourself." "Hurt myself? How?" said Le Breton. " The tip is poisoned," returned Deveril coolly. And then the two men kept silence for a little time. " Well," said the younger of the two with a rather forced laugh, " we're a match for anybody who chooses to assault us, as any rate. Whether we're a match for each other or not is another question." "I hope we need not ask that question," said Martin, grimly. " I should think not. Why, I have saved your life already. It may bo your turn to save mine next," cried Le Breton. " I'm sure you'd do it if you could." But in spite of these cheerily spoken words of confidence, the two men almost unconsciously put themselves into attitudes of self defence. Le Breton's finger was very near the trigger of his revolver ; he was a man who, if necessary, could shoot at a mark without taking his pistol out of his pocket. Deveril's fingers clutched tho handle of his murderous looking knife iu a somewhat sinister fashion ; his bearing showed that lie was ou the alert, and well able to drive his weapon home. But this momcut of mutual suspicion spent itself without result. Le Breton laughed and laid his pistol upon one sine. Martin Deveril looked ashamed, and relaxed his hold upsn hi 3 knife. By this time the old mail's foot had bccomo so painful that he was forced to extricate it from the heavy hoot in which it had bean cased. Le Breton showed some rough surgical knowledge in the way iu which he fingered it aud bound it up ; but to Deveril, who was a shrewd man, it seemed that he exaggerated the importance of the injury aud of the harm likely to ensue upon use of the injured limb. " Walk, if you like, aud if yon can,'

saidLe Breton, "but if yon do, you'll never have a sound leg for the rest of your life ; and that's as much as I can tell you." Martin nursed his foot, and rocked himself backward and forward a little, as though in meditation. " I suppose you have been diamond digging yourself?" he said, presently. "Tried my hand at it," replied Le .Breton, carelessly. •' Found it too much trouble. Got a few stones—mere specks, not worth the bother of looking for. Sent them by post to my girl at Ladywell." " By post,'' repeated the old man, thoughtfully. "Not a very safe wav, eh?" " "Ain't it, though ! Why, the dealers at Kimberley pack up the stones in paper parcels, and send them off to Capetown in the mail cart as if they were sixpenny pebbles. I suppose it's safe enough. Nobody's robbed the mail cart yet that I'm aware of. It's a far safer way of getting them to the colony than carrying them oneself would be. Why, supposing that I had found a good big stone, do you think I'd be such a fool as to take it about with me in my pocket ? I should deserve to be robbed, and murdered afterwards if I was such a fool as that ?" " Just so,'' said Deveril, with a dreamy look in his eyes. '' A man would be a fool, as you say, if he did such a thing." " A fool," repeated Le Breton, with an emphasis oil the adjective. He lay still for a few moments on the grass where he had thrown himself down, and sucked at his pipe. Presently lie burst out once more with a jovial laugh. " Never had the chance, however, and I'm not sorry. Diamonds are ticklish things to deal in, And, having no particular need of money, I don't trouble my head about them." "No particular need of money ! You are not poor then ?" " Well, I'm not rich," said the man, with a sort of coarse frankness. "But I've generally as much as I need, and enough to send to my girl at home " " You've got a wife at home?" " Lord, yes," said Le Breton, in a brutal tone. " I should think I have, old gentleman. Not a bad-looking one either, in some people's opiniou. A clever little woman—l never knew a cleverer. You wouldn't believe it to look at her, f-he'H so delicate-100 king—quite the lady : but with more brains than most ladies. Sharp tongue—lots of spirit. It was her tonjrue that drove me away from England. But she's a clever creature—a good wife, too, in some ways—poor little Polly !" This spcech seemed to be lost npou Martin Uoveril, who lmd bccomo absorbed in thought. When La Breton ceased, he looked up and made known the course of his reflection.

The old man would never have known that I had not given the order; and we could have waited here quietly till nightfall. Then at night I could have settled him. But a carriage—a cart—something on wheels—will be here before night, and my chance will be gone. What a fool I was to suggest such a thing!"

He gnawed hia curly, black beard, crushing" it in his hand and pushing it savagely into his month as he considered

the subject. " I didn't know that he had that knife," lie went on presently. " But for that knife I could do his business now, and throw him down the kloof to the kites and crows along with the miner. I thought of that when I sent the boy off to Swfillendam. I could have done it all before his return, and driven off across the veldt afterwards—got clear away before anybody discovered it. But I daren't tackle him while he has that knife. A poisoned wound is a nasty thing—l wonder how soon the poison works? If I could stick the point of his own knife into him " Le Breton broke off to laugh at the suggestion—" it would serve the old chaD risht. No : I daren't touch

him by daylight so long as he has that knife. In the night-time," Le Breton, added, slowly, with a final bite at his bushy, black beard ; "in the night-time it world be different." He turned his face to the lower end of the ravine. It seemed to him as if wheels could be heard approaching, He listened intently. No, there was no sound as yot. He turned and walked back towards the cave. " I shall miss my chance sure enough if I don't take care," he said to himself. " But night or day I won't leave him now until I have had a try for the diamond. If what the miner said is true it is worth the risk. Bob, my boy, your fortune lies before you—take it." Ho made a pantomimic gesture of seizing something with his right hand, laughed aloud—a little unsteadily this time—and re-entered the cave. (To be continued.)

'■ I'm half sorry you're not what I took you to be," he said, bending his grizzled brcuv.s upon Le Breton, with an air of i-erious calculation. "I thought that maybe a fc.v pounds might be of sqrvico to you. And I was to suggest Ilia! — for a cc.ii.-i.Jt rat.iou —It might b j worth your while to walk on to Swi-llcu-dain for mo and see that, your Khflfir boy was doing his work nil I'd give twenty pounds and welcome for the u-e of ill rap and pair of horses that would take m-j into the town before sutiso 1 . I— I've an appointment to keep." . " I tell you wtiat it is,'' said Lo Breton, with a specious appearance of hurt pride aud wounded feeling, " you don't trust me ; that's wheie it is. You think I've got designs on you. If the truth were known, I daresay you're carrying a parcel of diamonds about you, and you're afraid I shall steal them." The old man perceptibly chuuued colour at this accusation. " Well," continued Lo Breton, " that boats all I I wouldn't have thought that yon were that sort of mean fellow, always thinking evil of everyone you met Did I save your life just now or did I not ?'' "You did—you did." "And now you think I'm not to be trusted to walk with you through the kloof ? If that's tho way you treated your men at the mines, I don't wonder that they thought you'd been rougli upon them. Now look here; you see ray Derringer. You may take it yourself and keep it, or you may throw it down the kloof. Then perhaps you'll feel safer. But as to leaving you alone, with a game leg, aud nobody to see that you aiu'fc attacked by another party of ruffians from the mines—why, that I won't do, old man, you may take your oath on it." " Sit down," said Martin. " I won't take your pistol from you. I don't distrust you. I've seen so many strange things iu my life, and met with so much ingratitude aud baseness, and meanness from men"—ho spoko fiercely — " that now I never trust them more than I'm obliged. But you'vo ao honest sort of way with you, and I like you." Ho extended his hand, though with a manifest effort. Le Breton took it without hesitation and wrung it manfully, " That'll something like," he said blithely. " Now then wo shall get along. You ain't going to pass in your checks just yet, old man " " A.ro you an American ! J " said Deveril with some sharpness. He was struck by tho form of expression which Le Breton had used. " Do I look like a Yankee r" said Lo Breton, with the heartiest of laughs. "Not I. Englishman born and bred— true blue—John Bull every inch me!"— and he slapped his broad chest with the rollicking- honhommic which seemed natural to him. " I've beeu in Dixie's land, that's true ; and much good it did me : I've been in every quarter of- the globe, and well nigh every country, aud yet you see I haven't made my fortune yet." " How soon will your boy be back ? " said the old man, with one of those sudden changes of subject which Bhowed the listener plainly that his mind was ill at ease. Le Breton, however, affected not to notice his abruptness. "Not for au hour or two. But I'll walk down the pass a little way aud see whether there are any signs of him." Ho rose, stretched himself, picked up his revolver, and stepped out into the sunlight. The old man, assured by the sound of his companion's receding footsteps'hat he was left alone, immediately began a hurried search amongst his garments for some object he seemed to prize, A small leather bag, tied round his neck, was what he sought. His fingers closed upon it convulsively. Ho gave two or three tugs to the cords which secured it, as if to ascertain whether it had been loosened or weakened by tho strain to which his recent struggles had subjected it; but he found that the knot was still linn aud the cord unbroken. His face cleared at this discovery, and his eyes grew calmer; ho had beou Ruft'oriug anxiety lost his treasure should not be safe. As soon as Robert Lc Breton left the resting place which he had found for his uew companion, his faec underwent a sudden and striking change. The expression of hearty good-humour aud slightly coarse joviality which had characterised it; gave way to one of violent anger, At a safe distance from the cave he stopped short, stamped fiercely on the ground, and uttered one or two furious and blasphemous ejaculations of disgnst, at the world iu general, and himself in particular, " What an idiot—what a fool, I was ho muttered, bitterly, when the first paroxysm of rage was past. " Why did I tell the boy to bring the carriage at all?