St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-12-08

sprang for his rifle, which lay beside
him on the ground; but he was too late.
Before his fingers closed upon its
shining barrel he tumbled forward to
the earth with ball through his brain.
The whole affair was over in ten sec
onds. Mr.. Smith repocketed his pis-
tolls, and taking off his spectacles re-
garded our astonished faces with a
benevolent smile.
Deadly weapons come handy some.
times, after all, gentlemen he re-
marked.
And I noticed o curious change in
his voice and manner So, too, did
Macarthur, who stood for a moment
looking at him with seeming perplex-
ity in the midst of his evident stupe.
faction.
Meanwhile, Ned, who was of a
practical turn, began taking from the
capacious pockets of the taller of the
two outlaws the valuables and money
of which our little company had been
despoiled, at the eager suggestion of
| the two diamond-brokers, who had been
| literally paralyzed with terror during
the entire scene through which we had
passed, both of them having been re-
Iieved of large amounts.
Of course they insisted upon receiy-
| ing their own property first. Then
came ours. And, at the same time,
| from bit of wash-leather in the same
| pocket rolled diamond, of such pc
culiar shape, size and color-for it was
| one of those rare gems, perfect rose
| I,o, I'D hot ID
| uttered simultaneous cry of astonish-
ment and delight, as well we might, for
| it was our stolen diamond!
'sYou are in luck, gentlemen"
quietly remarked Mr.. Smith, who had
| been watching the whole procedure,
while Macarthur stood looking on with
| covetous eyes. II see that this is the
stone that you had stolen from you in
camp some days since. 1 had glimpse
| of it the morning Mr.. Girard here
nodding at Ned-'.was showing it to
| Jacobs, the broker, ON the corner of
| Krall street. l should know it among .
| thousand y
Macarthur, who, with his recovered
revolvers, which he had buckled on,
had assumed his usual air of braggado.
| clio, was heard to express considerable
| dissatisfaction.
! "One diamond is like another!" he
growled.
And his idea was that under the cir
cumstances the whole had sort of
common interest in this one, to which
| the brokers gave ready assent.
ed like to see any one try to take
itt' said Ned, with dangerous CLEAN
in his eyes.
And little Mr.. Smith, nodding APP
proyingly, removed from the dead
| mans body the money-belt of which
Mr.. Macarthur had been deprived.
But instead of handing it to that
gentleman, he buckled 1t about his own
waist, with an agreeable smile.
"What the deuce does this mean?"
yelled Macarthur, whose face was pur-
pie with rage, when, no less to his own
than to our own establishment, his arms
| were pinioned by the little colporteur,
who seemed to have the strength of
two ordinary men. And in another in
slant his wrists were adorned with a
pair of shining steel handouts.
"It's no use kicking, William
quietly remarked his captor, removing
a faded flaxen wig from his own head
and exposing to view q short crop of
stubby black hair. 81 didn't mean to
have pulled you till we got to Yelling
ton, but this little affair has, so to
speak, precipitated matters little. y
And after we were all again en- route,
having left word at the next station as
to the disposition of the outlaws bodies,
the pseudo Mr.. Smith informed us that
the scowling prisoner on the seat oppo-
site, who was kept in bounds by the
sight of cooked revolver in the capt
or's hands, was one William Hardy,
with dozen aliases, whom he-Denni-
son Hunt, the then best known detect
i've in England-had followed from
Liverpool to the very heart of South
Africa, reward of fl, 900 having been
offered for his apprehension as principal
in a great London bank robbery.
..But never thought | should be the
lost property said Mr.. Smith, with
his customary placid smile, as, after the
wearisome journey, we alighted in front
of the Digger's Retreat at Wellington,
with dust -begrimed faces and stitlened
limbs, four days later.
And, to his credit be it said, the de-
tective would not accept penny of
recompense from either of us.
THE excitement of the little scrim-
mage was enough he said, as we
shook hands at parting.
"A baby girl born to Mrs. Augusta
Nilsson Lundberg on the steamship
Germanic, during its recent voyage to
New York, has a grateful burden to
hoo =. 4bro,,,.b 1;fo The Iro,,nrr M ut hor