The record. [volume] (St. Maries, Idaho) 1913-1918, 1914-01-30

moved by the hope Of reward or the
splendid position the act would give
him with the management Anyway.
be went that very evening to the su-
perintendent's house and told him the
story. Not having got any promise
from him to keep his mouth shut.
took pains to bury my treasure where
no one would find It.
Early the next morning 1 was called
to HartweIrs Office. He told me he
mad understood that I had a valuable
stone In my possession and demand
ed it.
1 acknowledged / had a stone, but
had found It outside the mines. He
gave me my choice Of giving It up or
standing trial. ! knew what standing
trial meant. had a valuable dia-
mond in my possession which there
was every reason to suppose came
from the company's mines and
would be convicted. / agreed to give
up the gem on a promise Of not be-
Ing prosecuted. ! was only discharged.
Having told where the stone was to
be found. went TO Jim. and from
the way I talked to him he was con
vinced that had really found the
diamond and knew be had deprived me
Of it.
He was very much cut up and
volunteered to do what he could to
mend matters by telling Hartwell that
be had done me an injustice.
Don't make fool Of yourself sec
ond time" retorted: IF you really
wish to undo what you have done do
1t In another way"
How
well. the diamond is mine and I'm
going to have it You've got Hart
wells confidence. Learn from him
whore he keeps 1t and advise me-"
you're crazy. Do you suppose
you can ever get possession Of a dia-
mond in the hands of the diamond
company
"You do what say"
Jim was so upset at having acted
with such haste that he finally con-
scented to do as ! asked. That's the
trouble with these frightfully con-
scientious people. They swing as far
IN one direction as the other. After
all, it isn't the conscience that's bad.
It's the Judgment, Or more likely, the
impulse. Jim. who was in high IA
vOr with the company on account of
having peached on me, was given
e5OO for telling on me. He offered
me all the money paid him for my for
giveness. needed money to carry out
my plan to get my diamond. so l &C
cepted 1t as a loan, promising to re-
turn 1t if / succeeded In getting my
property. By this time jim, who was
thoroughly repentant agreed to help
me all he could.
One day he came to me and said
that diamonds were sent periodically
to England. They were taken to the
coast. where they were shipped by
steamer l at once made inquiries
about the route with a view to finding
some weak point on which / might
operate and learned, among other
things, that the gems were shipped
just In time to catch the mail steamer
for Europe. If through any delay they
did not reach the coast before the YES
sci sailed they were locked up In the
postollce till the departure of the next
ship.
asked Jim to find out for me when
my stone would be shipped. and he
tried to do so, but only learned that
it was still at Kimberley. at once
started over the route lc Rng for some
point where I might - wait and
catch the convoy mapping. l came to
stream where the carriers must be
ferned over. 1t occurred to me that
something might be done here, but
after racklng my brain l could hit
upon no plan that seemed feasible.
went on, but as / proceeded l formed
a scheme a part Of which pertained to
this ferry. Reaching the coast, | at
once went to the postoflice to look over
the ground there.
l had nearly all of Jim Benton's
600 in my pocket and was well dress
ed. l represented myself as post
office official. whose duties were to
travel about and make reports on diff
ferent postohices. But l made no pre-
tense at supervising the postmaster at
this point. Instead, l invited him to
dinner and treated him sumptuously.
This gave me access to his office. ]
learned where diamonds were locked
when delayed in transportation.