The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-18

tO bIlt lnottht a tuC<1 uNh
Tompy.
"'Hold on, my friend, he said; Lets
look at that minute
"The Yankee handed the false stone
over to Tompy, and the latter turned it
over and over in his hand. Presently he
looked up and said
"'You don't want to sell this piece of
glass, do you, stranger
That depends, said the Yankee la
conically, as he neatly extinguished the
bright little fame by larger shower of
nicotine juice than usual.
"Weli, to make short work of it, they
dickered around till, finally, Tompy
traded stone worth five pounds for the
paste jewel. AS soon as the Yankee was
gone, Walters, the Lancashire lad, and /
spoke up.
"'What the devil did you do that for?'
we cried in breath.
"'Never you mind replied Tompy,
coolly. III have some fun out of Mike
McShane and this paste diamond yet
1.-THE next morning, while we were
eating breakfast, we were startled by
terrible racket coming from the other
end of the camp.
"'What's that" | asked.
'"Give it up said Tompy with an odd
sort of smile. Guess you'd better take
look outside
"Walters and rushed for the door,
and Tompy followed more leisurely. A
laughable sight met our eyes. At the
head of crowd Of miners was Mike Nc
Shane, capering about like mad, and yell
ing and singing by turns, but all the
while advancing towards our hut, and
crying:
'Hooray! Hoorayl me bhoys, olive
found it at last, OF said OF would, and yez
see me dhrames have come true. Och!
Nora, me darlint, yer fartune's made
"At that instant happened to look at
Tompy, and saw that he was trying to
beep from laughing, and it Immediately
occurred to me that he had perpetrated
some joke ON Mike, and that the paste
jewel was at the bottom of it. Appar-
emily, Walters thought the same thing,
for he said to Mike, in his quiet way:
"'Let us see your find, Mike
But yez must come with me to the as
sayer's to see how much it's worth.
Thin yez can look at it az long as yez
wants
just then big rawboned Scotchman
spoke up, saying:
The mons bewitched. He's got ma
dammit.
"'Bewitched is it, cried Mike, excit-
eddy, all roight, me bhoys, he SEE dim
bewitched. Come along to the assayer's
office and see.'
SO saying, Mike led the way toward
the government buildings, in which the
assayer's office was established. The
crowd followed, and we joined them, be-
ginning to wonder how this strange joke
would end.
GAS we filed into the low ceilinged
room used by the assayer, that individ-
ual looked up from his work. He was
examining some gold ore that had been
brought in from the Transvaal and was
annoyed at being disturbed.
"'Well, my lads" hesaid impatiently,
what can do for your"
''Taking off his shabby cap, that he
kept twirling nervously in his fingers,
Mike stepped to the front and said:
"'Plaze, yer honor, olive found a dia-
mint in me diggings this marnin'. an
olive brought it down for to find out how
much it is worth and the quality of the
shtone. Begorra! the bhovs say dim
ciane gone crazy, ana have been dnram-
in, but DILL lave it all with yer honor
"Whereupon Mike thrust his hand
into his pocket and, slowly drawing it
forth, deposited on the table sparkling
white stone Of unusual size. Giving it
hasty glance, and taking it for the
Yankees paste jewel, turned to look
at Tompy. could not catch his eye,
however, for he was leaning forward
like the others, breathless with interest.
"'Humphr muttered, 'one might
think to look at him that he knew moth
ing about it. I did not know before
hat Tompy was quite SO deceitful.'
Meanwhile the assayer was examin-
fng the gem very carefully. He turned
1t over in his hand, squinted at it through
magnifying glass, looking for flaws, I
suppose, and, finally held it up between
his thumb and forefinger, that it might
catch the rays of the morning sun, as
they poured in through the square hole
in the wall that answered for window.
The jewel certainly had, or seemed to
have, lot Of fire in it, and could not
help admiring its brilliancy.
"Then the assayer, laying the jewel
gently down upon the table, spoke, say
ing very slowly:
"'That is the finest diamond that
have seen for six months. 1t is of the
finest water, and is absolutely hawless.'
Taking advantage of the yells and
cheers that rose from the half hundred
throats at the assayer's words, Tompy
leaned quickly toward me and whispered:
"'By jove! Mike must have missed the
paste stone, and has really made findr
"Then, before could reply, Mike him.
self rushed up to us, dancing from one
to the other, and began hugging us like
mad, until almost agreed with the old
Scotchman, that he was possessed.
"'Hold on, my good man. said the
assayer kindly, tell us how you came to
find this valuable jewel
Gas the cheers subsidized, Mike cooled
OF little and told the following story
OF his great find:
"Well, bhoys,' he began, addressing
himself to the crowd, 'yez all know az
how how OF wuz forever a sayin' that the
shperrit of the poor fellow phat killed
himself (rest his soul now would some
guide me to the roight sphot to dig. Yis-
terday OF began a new shaft, little fur
ther to the east of the old one. fur seq oi
to meself, There's nothin' loike havin
two oirns in the fire, Moike, me bhoy."
"'Well, last night OF wuz onaisy loike.
and couldn't Shape, SO OF got up to take a
bit of a walk. Oh hadn't no more than
reached the door of the cabin when saw
somethin' movin' from the bushes to me
new shaft.
"'Whistp sez Of, 'uts the ghost of the
former owner come back to look for some
dammit that he didn't find when aloive.
"'Well, me boys, OF laid meself down
close by me hut an watched the ghost
1t wasn't SO dhark but what OF could see
him diggin' away for dear loife in me