The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-06-01
one by ono and find the fliamona :


a little. He was u gambling bonnd ,y,s
this Potter, little queer at cards md
TINS KIND OF prize packet business must
have suited him down to tho ground.
Anyhow, he offered for q lark to sell
tho birds separately to separate peoplo
by auction ut u starting price of $50 for
n bird. But ono of them, he said. he
meant to keep for luck.
You must understand this diamond
was valuable one-a little jew chan.
q diamond merchant, who was with ne
had put it at $500 or $4,000 when
Padishah had shown it to him-and
this idea OF an ostrich gamble caught
on. Now, 1T happened that I'd been
having few talks on general subjects
with the man who locked after these
ostriches, and quite incidentally he'd
said one of the birds was ailing, aud he
fancied 1t had indigestion. It had one
feather i'll its tail almost all white, by
which l knew it, and so,>when next day
the auction started with it I capped
Padishah's $50 by 600.
Il fancy was BIT too sure and
eager with my bid, and some of the 9th
ers spotted the fact that was inHthe
know. And Padishah went for that par
ticular bird like an irresponsible luna
tic. AT last the Jew diamond merchant
got it for 9175, and Padishah said $50
just after the hammer came down-so
Potter declared. AT any rate tho Jow
merchant secured it, and there and then
he got gun and shot it. Potter made n
hades of Il fuss because he said it would
injure the sale of the other three, and
Padishah, of course, behaved like an
idiot, but all of us were very much ex-
cited. l can tell you 1 was precious
glad when that dissection was over and
no diamond had turned up-precious
glad. I'd gone to ono forty on that par
ticular bird myself
'"The little Jew was like most Jews
-he didn't make any great fuss over
bad luck, but Potter declined to go on
with tho auction until it was under
stood that the goods could not be deliv-
cred until the sale was over. Tho little
jew wanted to argue that the case was
exceptional, and as the discussion ran
pretty even the thing was postponed
until tho next morning. We had live
ly dinner table that evening, can tell
you, but in the end Potter got his way,
since it would stand to reason he would
be safer if he stuck to all the birds and
that we owed him some consideration
for his sportsmanliSe behavior. And
tho old gentleman whose son was a law
yer said he'd been thinking the thing
over and that it was very doubtful if,
when bird had been opened and tho
diamond recovered, it ought not to be
handed back to the proper owner.
Il remember 1 suggested it came un-
der tho laws of treasure trove-which
was really tho truth of the matter.
There was hot argument, and we set
tied it was certainly foolish to kill the
bird Oh board the ship. Then the old
gentleman, going Mt large through his
legal talk, tried to make out the sale
was lottery and illegal and appealed
to tho captain, but Potter said he sold
the birds as ostriches. He didn't want
to sell any diamonds, he said and didn t
offer that rs an inducement. The three
birds no put up, to the best of his
knowledge and belief, did not contain u
diamond. 1t was in the ono he kept
so he hoped
same. The fact that now there were
four chances instead of five, of course,
caused q rise. The blessed birds aver
aged e227, and oddly enough this Pa.
dishah didn't secure ono of 'em-not
one. He mado too much shindy, and
when he ought to have been bidding no
was talking about liens, and, besides,
Potter was Il bit down on him. One fell
to quiet little officer chap, another to
the little jew, and the third was syndi-
Gated by the engineers, and then Potter
seemed suddenly sorry for having sold
them, and said he'd flung away clear
81, 600 and that very likely he'd draw a
blank, and that he always had been a
fool, but when 1 went and had bit of
talk to him, with the idea of getting
him to hedge ON his last chance, found
he'd already sold the bird he'd reserved
to political chap that was on board
a chap who'd been studying Indian
morals and social questions in his vaca-
ton. That last was the $500 bird.
"Well, they landed three of the bless
ed creatures at Brindisi-though the
old gentleman said it was breach Of
the customs regulations - and Potter
and Padishah landed too Tho Hindoo
seemed half mad as he saw his blessed
diamond going this way and that, SO to
speak. He kept Oh saying he'd get an
injunction-ho had injunction on the
brain-and giving his name and adj
dress to the chaps who'd bought the
birds, so that they'd know where to
send the diamond. Mono of them want
cd his name and address, and none of
them would give his own. 1t was q
fine TOW, 1 can tell you-on the plat