The Press., 1895-06-13


 opened it, and the light of the lantern gleamed upon collection of gems such as I have read of and thought about when I was little lad at Pershore. It was blind ing to look upon them. When we had feasted our eyes, we took them all out and made list of them. There were 14S dia- monds of the first water, including one which has been called, believe, The Great Mogul' and is said to be the second largest stone in existence. Then there were 97 very fine emeralds and 170 rubies, some of which, however, were small. There were 40 carbuncles, BIO sapphires, 61 agates and a great quantity of beryls, ony yxes, CatseyeS, turquOises and other stones, the very names of which did not know at the time, though l have become more familiar with them since. Besides this there were nearly 300 very fine pearls, 12 of which were set in gold coronet. By the way, these last had been taken out ot the chest and were not there when I re- covered it.
 After we had counted our treasures we put them back into the chest and carried them to the gateway to show them to Mo hammed Singh. Then wesolemnly renew ed our oath to stand by each other and be true to our secret. We agreed to conceal our loot in a safe place until the country should be at peace again, and then to dt vide it equally among ourselves. There was no use of dividing it at present, for il gems of such value were found upon us il would cause suspicion, and there was nI privacy in the fort nor any place where WI could keep them. We carried the box
 therefore, into the same hall where we hat
 buried the body, and there, under certain
 bricks in the best preserved wall, we mad'
 8 hollow and put our treasure. We mad'
 careful note of the place, and next day drew four plans, one for each of us, and put the sign of the four of us at tho bot tom, for we had sworn that we should each always act for all, so that none might take advantage. That is an oath that can put my hand to my heart and swear that have never broken.
 Well, there no use my telling you, gCn- tlemen, what came of the Indian mutiny. After Wilson took Delhi and Sir Colin re. lieved Lucknow, the back of the business was broken. Fresh troops came pouring in, and Mana Sahib made himself scarce over the frontier. A flying column under Colonel Greathed came round to Agra and cleared the Pandies away from it. Peace seemed to be settling upon the country, and we four were beginning to hope that the time was at hand when we might safe ly go off with our shares of the plunder. In a moment, however, our hopes were shattered by our being arrested as the murderers of Achmet
 Ut came about in this way. When the rajah put his jewels into the hands of Achmet, he did it because he knew that he was trusty man. They are suspicious folk in the east, however, so what does this rajah do but take a second even more trusty servant and set him to play the spy upon tho first This second man was or dered never to let Achmet out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow. He went after him that night and saw him pass through the doorway Of course he thought he had taken refuge in the fort and applied for admission there himself next day, but could find no trace of ACh- met. This seemed to him so strange that he spoke about it to a sergeant of guides, who brought it to the ears of the com mandant. A thorough search was quickly made, and the body was discovered. Thus at the very moment that we thought that all was safe we were all four seized and brought to trial on a charge of murder, three of us because we had held the gate that night and the fourth because he was known to have been in company of the murdered man. Not word about the jewels came out at the trial, for the rajah had been deposed and driven out of India, so no one had any particular interest in them. The murder, however, was clearly made out, and it was certain that we must all have been concerned in it. The three Sikhs got penal servitude for life, afid was condemned to death, though my Sen tenCe was aftcrward cOmmuted into the same as the others.
 Ut was rather a queer position that we found ourselves in then. There we were all four tied by the leg and with precious little chance of ever getting out again, while we each held a secret which might have put each of us in palace if we could only have made use of it. It was enough to make man eat his heart out to Have to stand the kick and the cuff of every petty jack in office, to have rice to eat and wa ter to drink, when that gorgeous fortune was ready for him outside, just waiting to be picked up. It might have driven me mad, buy 1 was always a pretty stubborn one, so just held on and bided my time.
 At last it seemed to me to have come. was changed from Agra to Madras, and from there to Blair island in the Anda- mans. There are very few white convicts at this settlement, and as I had behaved we'll from the first I soon found myself a sort of privileged person. I was given a hut in Hope Town, which is small place on the slopes of Mount Harriet, and was left pretty much to myself. It is dreary, fever stricken place, and all beyond our little clearings was infested with wild cannibal natives, who were ready enough fn hlnI1 a Y0OiCOnnH of a chance. There was digging and ditching and yam planting and dozen other things to be done, so we were busy enough all day, though in the evening we had little time to ourselves. Among other things, I learned to dispense drugs for the surgeon and picked up smattering of his knowl- edge. All the time l was on the lookout for a chance of escape, but it is hundreds of miles from any other land, and there is little or no wind in those seas, so it was a terribly difficult job to get away.
 'The surgeon, Dr. SOmerton, was fast sporting young chap and the other young officers would meet in his room of an evening and play cards. The surgery, where I used to make up my drugs, was next to his sitting room, with small win dow between us Often, if felt lonesome, used to turn out the lamp in the surgery, and then, standing there, I could hear their talk and watch their play. am fond of hand at cards myself, and it was al most as good as having one to watch the others. There was Major Sholto Captain M Orstan and Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who were in command of the native troops, and there was the surgeon himself and two or three prison officials-crafty old hands-Who played a nice, sly, safe game. A very snug little party they used to make.
 Well, there was ono thing which very soon struck me, and that was that soldiers used always to lose and tho civilians to win. Mind, don't say that there was anything unfair, but so it was These prison chaps had done little clso than play cards ever since they had been at the An damans, and they knew each others game to point, while the others just played to pass the time and threw their cards down anyhcw. Night after night the sol dlers got up poorer mon, and the poorer they got the more keen they were to play Major Sholto was the hardest hit. He used to pay in notes and gold at first, but