Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-06-24

yer saiu 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.
81 remember / suggested it came un-
der the laws of treasure trove-which
was really the truth of the matter.
There was hot argument, and we set
tied it was certainly foolish TO kill the
bird on board the ship. Then the old
gentleman, going at large through his
legal talk, tried to make out the sale
was 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 an inducement. The three
birds he put up, to the best of his
knowledge and belief, did not contain q
diamond. 1t was in the one he kept
SO he hoped.
''Prices ruled 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 aver
aged e227, and oddly enough this Pa
dishah didn't secure one Of 'em-not
one. He made too much shindy, and
when he ought to have been bidding he
was talking about liens, and, besides,
Potter was 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 a clear
G. I, 900 and that very likely he'd draw
blank, and that he always had been a
fool, but when went and had bit of
a talk to him, with the idea of getting
him to hedge ON his last chance, l 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-
tion. 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. The Hindoo
seemed half mad as be saw his blessed
diamond going 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 ad-.
dress to the chaps who'd bought the
birds, so that they'd know where to
send the diamond. None of them want
ed his name and address, and none of
them would give his own. 1t was a
fine row, can tell you-on the plat
form. They all went off by different
trains. came on to Southampton, and
there l saw the last of the birds, as I
came ashore. 1t was thu one the engi-
neers bought, and it was standing up
near the bridge in kind Of crate and
looking as leggy and silly setting for
valuable diamond as ever you saw-if
it was a setting for valuable diamond.
''How did it end? Oh, like that.
Well-perhaps. Yes, there's one more
thing that may throw light on it, A
week or SO after landing I was down
Regent street doing bit of shopping,
and who should l see arm in arm and
having purple time of it but Padishah
and Potter. If you come to think of it
"Yes. I've thought that. Only, you
see, there's no doubt the diamond was
real. And Padishah was an eminent
Hindoo. I've seen his name in the papers
often. But whether the bird swallowed
the diamond certainly is another Iaat-
ter, as you say. "-Argonaut.