The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-01

to him. He became a favorite from one
end of the ship to the other He was in
deed a genial master of the art of enter.
tanning He had discovered my hobby
while in the lazareete, and insisted on my
reading aloud to him as often as possible
Nor did it take him long to find that the
captains hobby was farming, and this
subject he introduced at all hours of the
day and night-especially when he thought
the old man was in need of being cheer
ed up.
We crossed 1.-The line" a few days after
his appearance, and he declared that Nep-
tune should come aboard. taking his
black paint shave with delightful good
humor; while 1 was guilty of making a
slight cold the excuse for not following
his example.
We enjoyed fine weather until reaching
the latitude of the mouth Uf the Rio de
la Plata, where we had several days of
heavy gales. Mr.. Lazareete had been a
delightful companion before, but none of
us fully appreciated his worth until the
ship was rolling and plunging in the
heavy seas of the South Atlantic.
He seemed to be everywhere at once
comforting the captain, whose old nerves
refused to stand the severe strain Of
rough weather; lending the sailors a hand
with ropes; helping the cook to tie his
pots and pans on the galley range. He
was a pleasing combination of leading
man, first light comedian and general
utility-whlIe the writer played the part
! of walking gentleman.
The afternoon that we spent in sight of
| Cape Horn 1 went to Mr. Lazareete's
! room to get a book I had left there
| Thinking he was on deck, I opened the
| door without knocking. He wos sitting
!
rested on his knees.
He looked up, giving such start that
the box and its contents fell to the floor.
Before my bewildered eyes diamonds
We're shining from the pine boards like
stars from a cloudless sky
/ Mr.. Lazareete burst out laughing. At
| last he managed to say: my dear fell
low, how you startled me! L had no idea
! it was you. Help me to pick up these lit
! tie pebbles, and then I'll explain" When
| all were in the box he continued: ''Well,
old man, you've found me out at last
| the truth is I'm a diamond fiend.
! hadn't the slightest reason for not show
ing them to you, but you fully under
stand the danger of letting their presence
become generally known I was going to
take them to Brazil to show them to my
! cousin, who has long wanted to see them.
Risky baggage for a stowaway, wasn't it?
| L natter myself 1t raCner line c0lleC-
ton" He looked affectionately at the gilt
tering stones as they lay in their bed of
! black velvet
This sudden revelation made his adverN
| ture more like the arabian Nights" than
| ever. When 1 was able to speak I ex-
! hausted my stock of adjectives in striving
to express my admiration.
After that our conversation dealt large
| ly with diamonds. Many were the anec-
dotes he told; indeed, there was some tale
! connected with each stone. The largest
had been given to him by the dusky queen
of a South African tribe and had caused
him to flee from the wrath of her duskier
/ husband another had been conferred upon
! him by the car of Russia for knocking
out the brains of would-be assassin.
! Thus the stories went on in a varied and
| interesting stream. He said many of the
stones had been deliberately mounted, but
| that he preferred the more simple back
| ground of black velvet In this I quite
| agreed with him. OF course I kept his
secret. and L felt pride in being his only
| confidant.
And so we sailed through the South Pa
cific. the days differing only in the ever
increasing glory of the sunsets-succeed-
ing one another IN az infinite variety OF
colors
did it ever occur to SDu that it takes
very clever man to be successful
thief?" suddenly exclaimed Mr.. Lazareets
one night about a week after my dfscov-
cry. as we were seated on the quarter
deck.
Without waiting for an answer he pro
ceeded to recount tales of diamond rob
berries, more or less connected with hi.