The Denison review., 1898-08-19

court, .alI was refused, and Mr.. Grun-
stein congratulated himself OH having
successfully annulled his rivals mys-
terious good fortune and earned for
himself and his fellow conspirators the
10 per cent reward On an enormously
valuable capture.
1t was. however, noticed that the ac-
cusei, so far from recognizing the peril
Gus position in which he stood, seemed
to treat the whole affair as joke, and,
as matter of fact, the magistrate had
more than once to reprove him for un-
seemly hilarity during the giving of the
evidence for the prosecution.
That afternoon the secretary of the De
Beers company received letter through
Inspector Lipinski from the prisoner re-
questing him, in the interests of the
whole diamond trade of the world, to
call upon him that evening and bring
wish him the inspector and one of the
directors of the De Beers whom Tom had
known Intimately before his departure
They went, and, having pledged their
honor to secrecy, they received from him
detailed and circumstantial account
of his adventures, from which only one
particular was omitted anu that was the
locality and exact position of the New
Golconda, which could only be discov-
cred by means of the map which it's
discoverer had made, and which would
be as hard, if not harder, to find than
the river of diamonds itself. There is
10 81,
detail. 1t will be sufficient to say that
! toward its close the prisoner said very
quietly, but with all the air of a man
who knows what he is talking about
and means to stick to what he says:
CHOW, gentlemen, have told you
nearly all that intend you to know for
the present. You can believe me or do
the other thing, just as you please.
Granted that you don't, it is quite pos
/ sible that may be convicted and sent
to the brealwater, but will now give
! you one more fact. II that Happens, 1
! shall not have served 12 months of my
sentence before the markets of the world
will be flooded with diamonds such as
the mines of Kimberley never have pro-
duced and never will. They shall be so
cheap that every servant girl shall be
able to blaze with them if she likes, and
when they are as cheap as or cheaper
than their limitations fancy you will
find the monopoly of the De Beers as .un-
salable commodity as the diamonds
which it then WON'T pay to produce.
"On the other hand, if the prosecu-
tion is withdrawn, as 1 suggest, and
those who have conspired to ruin me are
properly punished, l will conduct an
expedition, half of which shall be Sc
lected by myself and half by you, to the
place have spoken Of. If you find that
have lied to you, we'll, you may shoot
me on the spot and say thata lion got me
for all that care, but if you find that
what l say is correct, and that there
really exists whole valley paved with
diamonds such as you have seen today
to an unknown depth, then you will
give me share in the De Beers consol-
idated mines to the value of 81, 900, 600,
and, in consideration of that, l will
make an agreement with you,giving you
half share in my discovery, which
will be very cheap at the price.
"Our interests will then be identical,
and your control of the diamond mar
ket as intact as it is now. Later on we
can Of course take such steps as we
think fit to astonish the world by the
production OF limited quantity of such
diamonds as it has never even dreamed
Of"
These were weighty words, and the
next morning full meeting Of the di-
rectors of De Beers sat for five hours to
consider them, and in the end, by the
casting vote Of the general manager, it
was decided to accept Mr.. B6irows'
terms.
The next day ON the advice of Inspect
or Lipinski, who had never believed
that the diamonds had come from the
Griqualand mines, they We're submitted
to the inspection of a committee of ex-
perts and they unanimously decided
that no such stones ever had been on il
all probability would be found in Kim.
berley or its neighborhood. On the
strength of this the prosecution was
Withdrawn, Tom Burrows was released
and Mr.. Grunstein and his confederate
made a prompt appearance III the doci
on charge of conspiracy and perjury
and suborning of perjury.
The traveller from Port Elizabeth
broke down before the examination ha(
proceeded ten minutes, offered himself
as queens evidence and gave the whole
, thing away. On strong recomlnenda
tions from the detective department
they were rcmanded for six week.
pending the production Of further evi
dence," and during that six weeks til,
discoverer of the New Golconda redis
covered it in company with very Sc
lect but lavishly equipped expedition.
When they got back to Kimberley
Tom innocence was conclusively estab
lished, and in the end it SO happened
that he and his bride sailed from Cap,
Town on their wedding trip to England
on the same day that Mr.. Grunsteil
and his friend arrived in Cape Tow,