The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1870-10-20
DIAMOND CUT DIA-
MOND.


The Ledger had just been run, and
the greatest "morap ever known up
set thousands of hearts which. five
minutes before, had been throbbing
wildly with hope and excitement,
were now pulsating with feeble, dull
sickly beat, as those who had thought
/ TO recOup themselves for the losses
sustained at EPSON, Ascot and Good
wood, realized the fact that their
struggles had but sunk them deeper
in the mire, and summoned all their
fOrtitude to preserve an external
appearance of cheerful Indifference
Three men who had worked their
way through the crowd, and, were al
ready leaving the Doncaster Town
Moor, however, did not seem to
think it necessary any longer to put q
painful cOnstraint upon their features.
| Two of them hurried along aTm-in-
arm, with their hats pulled forward
over their scowling heads; the third
walked by their side, muttering ours
es as he tore up a whole handful of
| list-keepers' tickets.
An old gipsey woman accOsted
/ them
''Tell your fortunes, my pretty gen.
tleman? come, give Sally sixpenee
4 for luck, just little sixpence; for a
good fortune she'll tell you. If you
are not lucky at the races you will
be with ladies. Come, just n little bit
of silver. You have got a wicked eye,
sir.n
"Get out, you cursed old hag," cried
| the man who was nearest her; but
she still persisted in her solicitation,
till at last one them pushed trough
Iy one side "Hold your witches
| tongue, you? I should like to have
you fogged at the carts tail through
every street in Doncaster."
The woman staggered back and
nearly fell, but recovering her bal
ance, she shook her fist at them, and
screamed with rage:
"Ah, ah! You strike the old gypsy;
you curse the old gypsy. l cannot
strike you back, for l am old and fee
BILE; but I can curse you back-curse
you, curse you, curse you, you Welsh
/ ers and horse nObblers! All, / know
ye, Baldock and Hammel, the biggest
! thieves on the turf, and your fool and
dupe, Banham, whom you've made
as big a rascal as yourselves. I know
him, tool Yahi Who uObbled Fall
| laden? He's under your thumb, is
he, and you are partners now, seek
ing fortune together? Well, mark
me: the day you find fortune you'll
find hell"
And with this horrible curse she
ceased, being separated from the vic
TINS of her tongue by the fast-gather-
ing crowd.
a week afterwards the three men
were assembled in the parlOr of lit
tie village inn which nestled at the
foot Cf the Cotswold Hills. A quiet
neighborhOod, perhaps the most pri-
mitive in certain respects in England;
the MaypOle, for instance, still -four,
ishes on every green, and bursts out
into garlands and ribbons with each
recurring spring, as though Calvanism
had not forgot and conquered at WOT-
eester within view of the heights above.
The village, however, was too small
for green or Maypole either; too
small for church, chapel or school,
Indeed it consisted merely of q dozen
cottages on one side of the rough road
which led up to the squire's house, a
substantial hOspitable mansion once,
but now ruinOus and dismantled. IL
was the visitors who gathered to it,
particularly in the hunting season, in
It's palmy days, who supported the
inn, which was comfortable place,
absurdedly disproportioned now to
the requirements of the neighbOr-
hood. But it was also a farmhouse,
and the tenant did not keep up his Ii
censef for the convenience of the
shepherds, or to reIieve the thirst of
chance pedestrians who might stray
that way in search of the picturesque,
but because it suited his purposes 10
have a snug out-Of-the-way retreat to
which certain friends of his might re-
pair when it was prudent for them to
withdraw for a while from the notice of
a prying world. For though so quiet
a spot, il was very accessible a walk
of three miles brought you to the high
road, along which a coach passed dali
" to and from Cheltenham, which
was only some twelve miles distant.
The gypsy woman, however she
came to know them, had named the
men correctly. BaldOck, a short,
wiry man, about forty, witR cunning
eyes, low forehead, sensual mouth,
was the landlord OF the inn, and ten
ant of the small farm attached to it.
The inn had not many guests, and
the farm grew more weeds than corn,
FED more rabbits than sheep; but on
the other hand, he paid no rent. He
was an instance of how the natural
disposition of q man viii force its way
in spite of circumstances for, born
sud bred in that quiet place, with an
honest career before him, he had pre-
fsrred to be poacheT, hOrse-watch-
eT, frequenter fprize-fights, a betting
list keeper of the sort which starts in
business without capital, a low scamp
generally. Hammel was not more I
than five-and-twenty, but upon his
blOated face and figure vice had set its
seal as effectually as age. He, too, I
had fair chance, being the son of
respectable tTadesman, who had Civ
en- him a decent education, and was
broken-hearted when ''fell in with I
bad company" as they call it. Save 7.
the mark The bad company fell in .
with worse when he Joined it. For
the last three years he had been the .
cOngenial partner of BaldOck.r
The third man, Banham, was crig- I
inally of much higher social position .
than either of his companions, for he .
was 6aldOekis landlord, and had once .
owned considerable. estate in the .
neighborhood. Indeed, it was his
good old father who had exercised
that hospitality at the mansion close