The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1897-05-27

Potter, q little queer at cards, and this |
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 q 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 chap,
diamond merchant, who was with us,
had put 1t 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 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 IL had indigestion. 1t
had one feather in it's tail almost all
white, by which / knew it, and SO when,
next day, the auction started with it,
I capped Padishah's IS by 30. fancy
was bit too sure and eager with my
bid, and some of the others spotted the
fact that was in the know. And Pa
xlishah went for that particular bird like
an irresponsible lunatic. At last the
Jew diamond merchant got it for
R175, and Padishah said 6 1S0 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 q gun and shot it. Potter made
hades of fuss because he said it
would injure the sale oe the other three,
and Padishah, of course, behaved like
an idiot; but all of us were very much
excited. I can tell you 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
the auction until it was understood
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 bird had been opened and the
diamond recovered, it ought not to be
handed back to the proper owner. Ire.
member I suggested it came under the
laws of the treasure-trove-which was
really the truth of the matter. There
was a hot argument, and we settled II
was certainly foolish to kill the bird or
board the ship. Then the old gentle.
man, going ut large through his lega
talk, tried to make out the sale was {
lottery and illegal, and appealed to tht
captain; but Potter said he sold thu
birds as ostriches. He didn't want t.
sell any diamonds, he said, and didn'
offer that as an inducement. The thre'
birds he put up, to the best of hi
knowledge and belief, did not contai,
diamond. 1t was in the one he kept
SO he hoped.
"Prices ruled high next day all tn,
same. The fact that now there wer,
four chances instead of five of cours
caused a rise. The blessed bird
averaged two hundred and twenty
seven, and, oddly enough, this Padish'
didn't secure one of 'em-not one. H
made too much shindy, and when h
ought to have been hiding he was talk
ing about liens, and, besides, Potter wa
bit down on him. One fell to quie
. little officer chap, another to the littl
Jew, and the third was syndicated b,
the engineers. And then Potter seemed
suddenly sorry for having sold them
and said he'd flung away clear e 1,00C
and that very likely he'd draw blank
, and that he always had been fool; bu
when I went and had bit of talk +
: him, with the idea of getting him t
, hedge on his last chance, found he'
, already sold the bird he'd reserved t
political chap that was on board
, chap who'd been studying Indian MOI
, ais and social questions in his vacation
That last was the 6 300 bird. Well, the.
, landed three of the blessed creature
at Brindisi-though the old gentlema
/ said it was a breach of the custom
: regulations-and Potter and Padisha
> landed too. The Hindoo seemed hal
+, mad as he saw his blessed diamond &c
), ing this way and that, SO to speak. H
kept on saying he'd get an injunctio
l he had injunction on the brain-an
, giving his name and address to tn
, chaps who'd bought the birds, so tina
: they'd know where to send the dis
t mond. None of them wanted hi
name and address and none c
, them would give their own.
8 was fine row, can tell you-on th
g platform. They all went off by diffel
: ent trains. came on to Southampton
Q and there saw the last of the bird
r as I came ashore; it was the one tn