The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1892-04-09
THE GREAT nESPER.

THE GREAT HESPER.
TALE OF A BIG DIAMOND.
How an Immense Gem Was Lost.
Recovered, and Lost Again.
CHAPTER l..
We landed at Southampton, Sep
TENDER IA, 1885, and q ragged crew
we were.
The "Judge," Joe Brace, led the
way,-a great gaunt man, with long,
long legs, a stoopi in his shoulders, and
q swaying movement of his body and
arms when he walked, as if he had a
load on his back and q long way to
20; a man with a black fell on the
back of his hands, a dark beard
growing high upon his cheek
bones, and a great bush of
~iron-gray hair sticking out all round
his head, and a forelock sticking down
over his BYE. One could see nothing
of his features but a long red nose and
deep-set beady black eyes. His fustian
jacket was worn to rags at the elbows,
and so was mine, as for ~that-split
in the g ans between the shoulders
with the constant strain of the labor
ing arms. Once upon a time his top
boots had been black, but now they
were all the same yellow clay color
with the trousers that were tucked
into them, and just as badly in need
Of repair.
I followed with Van Hoeck. He
held my arm, not for support, but for
guidance, because he was stone blind.
He was thirty or thereabouts, I be-
lieve; but he looked twenty years
older than l., who am now but
twenty-six. Though he was Dutch by
birth he looked like an Asiatic, beinga
small, dark Jew, with all the charac-
teristics Of his people; while I, with
my fair skin, light hair, and large
frame, I'm pretty truein ap~pearanceto
my Northern race. He was better dress
ed than any OF us, for, though he had
accompanied u.s., and roughed it so
far as board andlodging were concern
ed, he had taken only d financial
part in the enterprise, his blindness
naturally debarring him from a lab
orious part. His clothes retained
something of their original appear
ance. Albeit he had worn them day
after day for eighteen months at the
least; whereas mine, what with
exposure to the sun, the sweat
of work, rough usage, and the
strange devices employed in repairing
them, were scarcely recognizable as
Christian clothing. His face gave
more sign of strain and fatigue than
either the Judges or mine, which
might we'll be, seeing how great a re-
lief to the mind physical labor is.
There was a furrow between his brows,
deep lines descending from the inner
angle of the eyes, a pinched look about
the nostrils and feshless cheeks, that
gave a fearful, strenuous eagerness to
the weird expression of his face. And
that expression was wierd, nay, even
repulsive, though his features were
not ill-shaped, and it was due chiefly
to the popularity of his eyes. Most
people of dark complexion like
his, haye a dark iris to the eye;
but his OF a steely gray, and
was the more noticeable because there
was the iris and nothing else; there
was no pupil,-nothing but that gray
patch upon the yeIlowish ball of the
eye. He kept his eyes open when his
mind was p~re-occupied. Often when
he was sitting near me while worked,
have changed my position that l
u.;uLA ro+ go +boeo cLos@lxr w. u,;lo
open to an African sun, yet uncon-
scious of it's glare. There was some
thing terrible in his blindness.
Our rear was brought up by the
kid" The name by constant use
and familiarity had long ceased to be
slangy to my ear.
Poor little Lola! she vas the rag
gedest and most disreputable of the
lot, though it was not for that reason
she walked behind us; indeed, had
she suspected that to follow implied
inferiority, she would have marched
ahead of her own father. That was
her character.
The child wore a ragged red flannel
petticoat, a camisole that had once
been white, and a colored handker-
chief tied loosely round her neck. She
had a string of colored beads upon her
wrist, but neither hat on her head nor
shoe on her foot. Her purple black
hair grew low down on her temple,
and broke into curl over the ears, at
the nape of her neck, and wherever it
was uncontrolled; it was matted to-
gether in a thick, loose plait that fell
down to her waist, and tied at the
end with a strip Of red flannel
torn from her p%etticoat. She
had the prettiest little hands and
feet, a dark olive skin, a large but
beautifully shaped mouth, with the
finest teeth I ever seen, and q pair of
glorious black eyes, full of audacity,
and betraying only too faithfully her
wild and ungovernable disposition.
Properly dressed land washed), she
might have passed Tor q Spanish
princess; in her present condition there
was no mistaking her for anything but
the self-willed little savage she was.
The Kid had, given us a deal of
trodble,-had we foreseen how much,
/ do not think Van Hoeck or l would
haveput in that postscript to the agree
ment which her father, the Judge, in
duced us to subscribe.
"The Kid has eyes in her head to see
with the Judge said in urging her claim
upon our future consideration, lend
she q use EN- as we'll as us in look
in for stones. end likewise, bein' a
female, she kin cook our meals for us;
she kin wash our shuts, end she kin