The Republican journal., 1881-06-23

taken it as matter of course but the
sound which caused me to stop and take
the pipe out of my mouth was hearty
roar Of laughter. Next moment, Tom
himself emerged from the door, his whole
face radiant with delight. ''Game for
another ten-mile walk, old fellow ?"
"What for another lump of rock salt,
at twelve shillings ton?'
'No more of that, Hal, an you love
me-" grinned Tom. "Now look here,
Jack; what blessed fools we are to be so
tloored by tritie just sit on this stump
for five minutes, and I'll make it as clear
as daylight. You've seen many lump
of rock salt stuck in crag, and so have
|, though we did make such null of
this one. Now, Jack, did any of the
pieces you have ever seen, shine in the
darkness brighter than any freely ?"
"Well, can't say they ever did,
'Td venture to prophesy that if we
waited until night, which we won't do,
we would see that light still glimmering
among the rocks. Therefore, Jack, when
we took away this worthless salt, we took
the wrong crystal 1t is no very strange
thing i'll these hills that piece of rock
should be lying within foot of a diamond.
1t caught our eyes, and we were excited,
and so we made fools of ourselves, and
left the real stone behind. Depend upon
it, Jack, the Sasassa gem is lying within
that magic circle of chalk upon the face
of yonder cliff. Come, old fellow, light
your pipe and stow your revolver, and
We'll be off before that fellow Madison
has time to put two and two together
| don't know that | was very sanguine
this time. | had begun in fact to look
upon the diamond as a most unmtigated
nuisance. However, rather than throw
a damper on Toms expectations, | an
nounced myself eager to start. What q
walk it was. Tom was always a good
mountaineer, but his excitement seemed
to lend him wings that day, while
scrambled along after him as best /
could. When we got within half mile
he broke into the ''double," and never
pulled up until he reached the round
white circle upon the cliff Poor Tom
when | came up, his mood had changed,
and he was standing with his hands in
his pockets, gazing vacantly before him
with rueful countenance.
''Look" he said-''look - and he
pointed at the cliff: Not a sign Of any
thing in the least resembling a diamond
there. The circle included nothing but
llai, slatt-colored stone, with one large
hole, where we had extracted the rock
salt, and one or two smaller depressions.
No sign Of the gem.
'T We been over every inch Of it," said
poor Tom. 1T s not there. Some one
has been here and noticed the chalk, and
taken it. Come home, Jack; | feel sick
and tired. Oh had any man ever luck
like NINE
turned to 60, but took one last look
at the cliff first. Tom was already ten
PAGES of.
"Holloa" cried "don't you see any
change in that circle since yesterday ?"
"What dye mean ?" said Tom.
''Don't you miss thing that was there
before ?"
"The rock salt 2 said Tom.
"No: but the little round knob that we
used for tulcrum. suppose we must
have Wrenched it Off in using the lever.
Let's have a look at what it's made OF. -
Accordingly, at the foot of the cliff we
searched about among the loose stones.
"Here you are, Jack we've done it at
last. We're made men -
turned around, and there was Tom
radiant with delight. and with little
corner of black rock in his hand. At first
sight it seemed to be merely q chip from
the cliff; but near the base there was pro-
jecting from it an object which Tom was
now eNultingly pointing out. 1t looked
at first something like glass eye; but
there was depth and brilliancy about it
such as glass never exhibited. There
was no mistake this time; we had Ger
tainly got possession of d jewel Of great
value: and with light hearts we turned
from the valley bearing away with us the
''tiend" which had so long reigned there.
chambers JOurual