“I didn’t say I had it with me—it’s a pretty big stone, just about the largest you have ever seen, and I mean to get a price for it.”
“Well, bring it out; it’s no good talking about the price of a diamond before one has seen it. You have it on you, I can see,” Le Mert said, for he had noticed Jack’s hand fidgeting at his waist, and guessed he had the diamond on him.
He was right. Jack Enderby undid a leather belt, which he seemed to wear next his skin, and he took the diamond out of it. The half-bantering, cynical expression which the diamond merchant’s face generally wore left it as he looked at the stone. He was well able to judge how valuable it was, though he did not know the exact price it would fetch. It is not easy to say how much you can get any one to pay for a single stone, but Le Mert knew that the answer to that question represented the price of that diamond. He had never seen such a gem before, and did not believe such another existed above-ground. For some time he was silent, looking at the stone and thinking what he could do with it if it were his. It happened that just then his affairs were in a desperate condition. He had been a poor man, and had made a large fortune. Had over speculated—gone in for one or two rather doubtful transactions, and now he was being pushed very hard, and everything pointed to his having to begin the world again at fifty—a ruined man without money or character. He looked at the prize that fortune had thrown ‘that fool Jack Enderby,’ whom he had always despised as a man never able to get or keep money. Then he thought for a second or two, for what he saw reminded him of something.
“That was a devilish lucky shot of yours that brought down the Union Company’s nigger that night, Master Jack. You ought to put up a monument to that poor beggar’s memory, for he did you a good turn,” he said at last.
Jack started and looked at the other as if he thought he was in league with the evil one.
“What on earth do you mean?” he said, snatching up the diamond.
“Don’t be so startled, my friend; I read about the nigger in the Kimberley paper that came a mail or two back, and now I remember it I understand how you managed to find that diamond, it don’t want a very sharp man to guess that much.”
Enderby felt that it was useless to waste any time in trying to argue the other out of his opinion.
“Look here! the question is not how I got it, but what it’s worth,” he said rather sulkily.
“Yes, but the second turns on the first. You have got something worth a good bit of money, but it’s something you can’t go into the open market and sell. But don’t cut up rough! Sit down again, and we will talk over the matter. I ain’t afraid of buying the diamond from you; there is no cursed Diamond Trade Act in force in this country,” Le Mert said, and there followed a good deal of talk about the price of the diamond, but it did not end in anything definite, for the good reason that Enderby did not mean to part with the stone until he was paid for it, and the other had not an available penny in the world beyond five hundred pounds in cash, which he had by him ready for an emergency. It was very aggravating to think of the lot of money he would have made if he had only possessed some thousands.