The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1897-05-27
A DEAL IN OsTRICHEs.
BY H. G. WELLS.


Talking of the prices of birds, I've
seen am ostrich that cost 6 300," said
the taxidermist, recalling his youth of
travel. 'Three hundred poundsl"
He looked at me over his spectacles.
"I've seen another that was refused at
fourl"
"No," he said, ''it wasn't any fancy
points. They was just plain ostriches.
A little off color, too-owing to dietary.
And there wasn't amy particular re-
striction of the demand, either. You'd
have thought five ostriches would have
ruled cheap on an East Indiaman. But
the point was, one of 'em had swallowed
q diamond.
'The chap it got it of was Sir
Mohini Padishah, a tremendous swell
"a Piccadilly swell, you might say, up
to the neck of him, and then an ugly
black head and whooping turban. with
this diamond In dt. The blessed bird
pecked suddenly and had it, end when
the chap made a fuss it realized It had
done wrong, I suppose, and went and
mixed itself with the others to preserve
it's incog. It all happened in minute.
I was among the first to arrive, and
there was this heathen going over his
gods, and two sailors and the man who
had charge of the birds laughing fit
to split. It was "a r,mmy way of losing
q Jewel, come to think of it. The man
In charge hadn't been about just at the
moment, 80 THAT he didn't know which
bird 1t was. Clean lost, you see. I
didn't feel half sorry, to tell you the
truth. The beggar had been swagger-
ing over his blessed diamond ever since
be came aboard.
"a thing like that goes from stem to
stern of a ship in no time. Everyone
was talking about it. Padishah went
below to hide his feelings. At dinner
he pigged at q table by himself, him and
two other Hindoos-the captain kind
of jeered at him about 1t, and he got
very excited. He turned round and
talked into my ear. He would not buy
the birds; he would have his diamond.
He demanded his rights as British sub
ject. His diamond must be found. He
was firm upon that. He would appeal
to the house of lords. The man in
charge Of the birds was one of those
wooden-headed chaps you can't get a
new idea into anyway. He refused any
proposal to interfere with the birds
by way Of medicine. His instructions
were to feed them so-and-so and treat
them so-and-so, and it was as much
as Misplace was worth not to feed them
so-and-so and treat them so-and-so.
Padishah had wanted stomach pump
though you can't do that to bird,
you know. This Padishah was full of
bad law, like most of those blessed Ben
gals, and talked of having lien on the
birds, and so forth. But IN old boy
who said his son was a London barrister
argued that what bird swallowed be-
came ipso facto part of the bird, and
that Padishah's only remedy lay in
an action for damages, and even then
1t might be possible to show contribu.
tory negligence. He hadn't any right
Of way about an ostrich that didn't
belong to him. That upset Padishah
extremely, the more so as most of uf
expressed an opinion that that was the
reasonable view. There wasn't any law
yer aboard to settle the matter, so we
all talked pretty free. At last, after
Alden, 1t appears that he came round te
the general opinion, and went privately
to the man in charge and made an offel
tor all five ostriches.
1.-THE next morning there was a fine
ahfndy at breakfast. The man hadn',
any authority to deal with the birds
and nothing on earth would induce hin
to sell; but it seems he told Padishaf
that Eurasian named Potter had al
ready made him an offer, and on thaI
Padishah denounced Potter before vi
all. But think the most of us though
IL rather smart of Potter, and I know
that when Potter said that he'd wire<
at Alden to London to buy the birds
and would have an answer at Suez,
cursed pretty richly at a lost oppor
Z tunity.
"At Suez, Padishah gave way to tear
--actusl wet tears-when Potter becam
the owner of the birds, and offered hin
$50 right on for the Ave, being NOR
than 200 per cent. on what Potter hal
given. Potter said he'd be hanged
he parted with q feather Of them-tha
he meant 10 Kill them on one by on
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