Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-03-28
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Jewel I Found.
IOriginal.l

| to get rich Quick and spend my money
all on myself With this in view
| went to Port Natal TO hunt for dia-
monds. l hunted three years. with no
| success. Then il began TO dawn on
| me that instead of winning life OF
| ease L had won not only life of pow
erty. but one of exile.
One day when riding my bicycle
along a newly made road my saddle
| slipped forward, and not having
wrench with which TO tighten the nut
| | dismounted to find stone TO. drive
| the saddle forward. While looking for
4 stone of the proper size my eye fell
on one about as large as small hens
egg, which my practiced eye at once
took for a diamond. / hurried TO my
room with it, tested it and found it to
be a diamond of the first water. In a
twinkling all was changed. My dream
was realized.
1 had a small stone which sold for
enough to take me home and at once
sailed for America. The first day out
on the ocean l did nothing but dream
of my good fortune. 1 would build
me a country house on the seashore
where was born and sit all the long
summer day on my piazza looking at
the ocean. The second day tired of
dreaming and began to long for some
thing to occupy me. On the third l
| felt bored. One morning l noticed
Young girl sitting in a steamer chair.
| 1t was her first appearance on deck
| At any rate l had not seen her before
| wished at once 1 could know and talk
| with her. 1t would relieve that bored
| feeling which had come upon me.
Luckily l had made the acquaintance
| of one who knew her and secured an
| introduction. She had gone to South
! Africa to teach. but her health had be-
come impaired. and she was going
back to where she had started from,
worse off than before.
spent hours with her. / told her
| that | was sufficiently we'll off to do as
/ liked. and what l liked to do was
nothing She did not seem very en-
tnusiastic over my plans for the flu
| ture. Indeed she said that n man with
out an object was 4 cumberer of the
ground. / could not but contrast my
self with this girl, who in face of real
| discOuragements was SO much more
ready to exert herself than /, with
|
in fighting the world.
One night, or. rather, early morning,
7 was playing cards and drinking with
some men i'll the smoking room. There
was a dense fog on the water. and we
should have slowed down. but instead
of doing so kept up an average speed.
Suddenly there was a clang at the ell
| CINE bell, stOppage of the machinery
and a cOmmotion on deck. then Il crash
| forward. and we knew there, had been
| Il collision.
Amid a panic and a scramble for the
boats l saw my girl friend. She was
standing on an upper deck. look ing
down upon the turmoil with remarka-
BILE calmness. Some of the sailors had
seized a boat-fOrN all discipline had
| vanished-and were just cutting loose.
| 1t was the last of the boats. the others
having gone. Tearing my diamond
from my undershirt, in which 1t was
sewed. held it before the eyes of the
man casting off.
"Do you see that? It's diamond
worth a big fortune. I'll give it to you
If you'll take that girl up there with
you
He cast a glance at her and said
quickly, Her, not you; only room for
one"
Dashing away. 1 seized her, carried
her to the boat, put her in, gave the
man my diamond. and she drtfted
away from me, her eyes fixed on mine
in indescribable gratitude till she was
lost to sight.
was one of three men-the sur
vivors Of ten-who were picked Up on
a raft and taken to New York The
newspapers were full of the loss of
our ship. the boat in which l had
placed my girl friend having been
picked up and brought into port a few
days before. We of the raft and those
in this boat were the only ones saved
from the sunken steamer. l noted the
address of the girl l had been the
means Of saving and went TO see her.
All she knew was that / had induced
seaman to take her into the boat
That l had bribed him with fortune
she was ignorant. l did not tell her.
She was full of gratitude. and 1 did
not care TO add to her sense of obliga-
ton by telling her that on her account
/ had put myself back where l was
when started for Port Natal.
We had both gone to the same land
1 to acquire wealth TO enable me to
live in ease. she to make herself use
full in life of ceaseless labor. 1 had
succeeded and given my success that
she might not die: she had failed and
returned to her home in disappoint-
ment. I was still on the threshold OF
life. with health and strength; she an
invalid without the means of gaining
livelihood.
But | had received an all absorb
ing motive My whole being was bent
on expanding my mans strength fol-
this helpless girl. This told her. and
: she accepted what could hardly con
vince her was not a sacrifice.