Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-08-27
Concealing a
Gem
By DONALD cHAMBERLIN

dDOuL 1OF bOulethluB " uO AOE u AfAh8
1 spent IA good deal of time cropping in
the dark. l was OF an adventurous
disposition and longed for new fields.
Finally l settled on a career.
l went out to India to seek my for
tune and found-well, for three years
l found poverty, then found some
thing better. Walking on a street in
Calcutta, | saw at my feet a brilliant
spot emitting the colOrs of the spec
trum. l stopped and picked up, to my
surprise, a diamond. 1t was not one
of enormous proportions, nor yet was 1t
small. 1t was worth not less than $780,
600 nor more than $4,000, but as 1
know. 1t was surely of sufficient value
to take me home to America and give
me a new start.
Nevertheless, l was sufficiently hon
est to look In such mediums as would
serve to advertise its loss. l did not
advertise 1t myself because there is SO
much rascality In that benighted c0un-
try that had l done so l would have
been beset by persons whose object
would have been to get possession OF 1t
surreptitiously. l did not see any ad-
yertisement of a lost diamond, SO l
considered myself its owner. My the
DRY of its loss was this: There had
been a gathering Of Indian ~potentates
In Calcutta. and some one of them had
dropped 1t. These fellows have so
many jewels that the loser may not
have missed 1t, or perhaps IL he did
miss 1t he may have considered 1t be-
meath his dignity to issue any public
notice of the fact.
One incident In It's finding troubled
examining 1t | looked up suddenly to
learn If any II saw me and cou
tered the gaze Of an Indian. There
was q diabolical expression on his face
that told me IL he had a chance he
would murder me to relieve me OF my
find. | put the gem In my vest pocket
and walked away, not looking at the
man to see what became of him.
l had a room In a low grade hostelry
Il could afford nothing better-and
that night In order to make sure of my
gem l tied it to the palm of my hand
and slept with it in my grip. During
the night l heard some one rummaging
In my room. l lay perfectly still, and
by and by whoever vas there went
out. ] had not told any one of my
find and-could not understand who
could have had a motive for robbing
one whose very appearance indicated
poverty.
1 had a friend In Calcutta who was
in good circumstances. I went to him,
told him OF my find and that I wished
to go home. He loaned me the money
to pay my fare, and l sailed for San
Francisco. l had not been out twelve
hours before l recognized in one of
the passengers the man who had seen
me pick up the diamond.
1t is a very uncomfortable feeling to
know that you are cooped up with one
who is determined to relieve you of a
valuable article. 1t seemed to me that,
whatever l did to conceal my diamond,
this Indian would get it from me. I
was sure that he had come on board
for It, and the natives of India are so
stealthy, have so many insidious ways
of securing their ends, that l consid-
cred my property as good as lost.
On the forward lower deck was a
coop containing chickens. They were
of a rare variety and were going to
some American chicken fancier. One
morning, standing before the coop. a
II. NI0n - onnao1lz- wowr Ifn
mond occurred to me. 1t was to let
one of the chickens swallow it. He
would hold 1t In his crop, and l could
shadow him as the Indian was shad-
owing m and In time get 1t away
from him. From my next meal took
away with me some crusts of bread
and, going to the chicken COOP as soon
as l was sure | vas unobserved, be-
gan feeding a stately rooster. He took
down one piece of crust after another.
and among them l fed him my dia-
mond. 1t was rather large for him,
but he got ii down, and l congratulate
ed myself that if it was lost to me that
rascally Indian would not get 1t.
l visited the bird, that was now
worth a small fortune, the same even
ing and went again to the coop the
next morning. He was there in the
evening, but at my morning visit l was
Mortified to see that he was missing
from the coop. l knew that the Indian
had got him, but did not trouble my
self to discover how. Not a word did
/ say to any one on the subject. l met
the Indian later walking the deck and
fancied that there was a look of tri-
umph In his eye. AS for me, l en-
deavored to conceal any evidence OF
knowing that he Ind secured posses
sion of my property. If he was obliged
to kill the rooster for the diamond l
was resolved to kill him before l would
permit him to leave the ship with my
property.
Where did he keep the bird? 1 was
not long in finding out. My stateroom