The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-05-07

ne WdS IL SdInDllnS mound, was This
Potter, little queer at cards, and thi.
kind OF prize-packet business must have
suited him down to the ground ANY.
how, he offered, for lark, to sell the
birds separately to separate people by
auction ut starting price of 6 80 for a
bird. But one of them, he said, he
meant to keep for luck
You must understand this diamond
was valuable one-a little Jew chan
a diamond merchant, who was with us,
had put it at three or four thousand
when Padishah had shown it to him
and this idea of an ostrich gamble
caught on. Now it happened that I'd
been having a few talks on general
subjects with the man who looked after
these ostriches, and quite incidentally
he'd said one of the birds was ailing
and he fancied it had indigestion. II
had one feather in it's tail almost all
white, by which / knew it, and so when,
next day, the auction started with it.
l capped Padishah's SIS by 90. / fancy ]
was a bit too sure and eager with my
bid, and some of the others spotted the
fact that / was in the know. And Pa
dishah went for that particular bird like
an irresponsible lunatic. At last the
Jew diamond merchant got it for
e175, and Padishah said $50 just
after the hammer came down-so Pot
ter declared. At any rate the Jew mer
chant secured it, and there and then
he got gun and shot it. Potter made
a hades of Il fuss because he said ii
would I'M ure the sale OF the other three
and PadiShah, of course, behaved like
an idiot; but all of US were very much
excited. [ can tell you L was precious
glad when that dissection was over
and no diamond had turned up-pre.
cious glad. I'd gone TO one-forty on that
particular 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
that the goods could not be delivered
until the sale was over. The little Jew
wanted to argue that the case was eX-
ceptiOnal, and as the discussion ran
pretty even, the thing was postponed
until the 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 sportsman-like behavior. And
the old gentleman whose son was law
yer said he'd been thinking the thing
over and that it was very doubtful if,
when a bird had been opened and the
diamond recovered, it ought not to be
handed back to the proper owner. / re-
member [ suggested it came under the
laws of the treaSure-trove-whic was
really the truth of the matter. There
was hot argument, and we settled it
was certainly foolish to kill the bird on
board the ship. Then the old gentle
man, going at large through his legal
talk, tried to make out the sale was a
lottery and illegal, and appealed to the
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 as ali inducement. The three
birds he put up, to the best of his
knowledge and belief, did not contain
a diamond. 1t was in the one he kept
SO he hoped
Prices raled high next day all the
same The fact that now there were
four chances instead of five of course
caused a rise. The blessed birds
averaged two hundred and twenty.
seven, and, oddly enough, this Padisha
didn't secure one OF 'em-not one. He
made too much shindy, and when he
ought to have been hiding he was talk
ing about liens, and, besides. Potter was
bit down on him. Cne fell to a quiet
little officer chap, another to the little
jew, and the third was Syndicated by
the engineers. And then Potter seemed
suddenly sorry for having sold them
and said he'd flung away a clear 6 900
and that very likely he'd draw a blank
and that he always had been fool; but
when I went and had a. 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
a political chap that was on board-a
chap who'd been studying Indian NOR
ais and social questions in his vacation.
That last was the e 300 bird. Well, they
landed three of the blessed creatures
at Brindisi-though the old gentleman
said it was a breach of the customs
reguIations-and Potter and Padishah
landed too. The Hindoo seemed half
mad as he saw his blessed diamond 90
ing this way and that, so to speak. He
kept on saying he'd get an injunction
he had injunction on the brain-and
giving his name and address to the
chaps who'd bought the birds, so that
they'd know where to send the dia-
mond. None of them wanted his
name and address and none of
them would give their own. Il
was fine row, can tell you-on the
platform. They all went off by differ
ent trains. | came on to Southampton,
and there l saw the last of the birds,
as / came ashore; it was the one the