Luck at the Diamond Fields

by Dalrymple J. Belgrave

“I don’t mind going into your house, gov’ner, but keep your hands off me, or you’ll have more than you like,” the little man said, emphasising his remarks with a gesture with the knife, which made the attorney feel uncomfortable.

“Now, gov’ner, what’s yer game? If you won’t speak first, I will. Come, you’ve got into this by seeing what you have seen, and I don’t mind speaking out fair. What do you say to halves?” the man said, after he had sat down in a chair in Mr Moss’s sitting-room. “There’s enough for us both, seems to me. Ike Hart told me he could easily have got eight thou, for it, and he intended to have taken it home if he hadn’t been run in.”

“Eight thousand! You’re talking nonsense. Hart was not such a fool as to think that; but let’s have a look at it,” Mr Moss said, as he got a glance at the stone which the other held in his hand.

“No, you don’t, gov’ner,” the man said, as Mr Moss stretched out his hand for the diamond.

The attorney thought for a minute or two. For a second the idea flashed across his mind that it might be a police trap. He had never bought a diamond illegally before, and the laws against having rough diamonds in your possession unless you could account for them, and were either a licensed dealer or buyer, were very strict. If he kept the diamond in his possession, instead of giving it up to the Crown, he would be committing a criminal offence, for which he would be liable to a severe punishment. He did not believe that the police would try to trap him. Besides, he was impressed with his visitor’s manner, and thought that he seemed to be anxious to keep the diamond. Moss looked at the diamond, and thought that it was the biggest stone he had ever seen, and he began to long to get it into his possession. He did not, as he said, know much about diamonds, but no one could have lived a few months on the Diamond Fields without knowing that such a stone as the one he saw was worth a great deal of money. Ike Hart was probably right; it was likely enough that he could have got eight thousand for it, and that it was really worth much more. As Mr Moss looked at it, a reckless greed came over him, and he determined that he would have it.

“Well, I suppose we needn’t quarrel; your offer is a fair one, we will go halves; and as you know me and I don’t know you, I will have the diamond and will give you your share when I sell it; I dare say I can dispose of it more advantageously than you can,” he said, smiling blandly at his visitor.

“Dare say you can, gov’ner; but I sticks to it till I get the pieces for it,” was the answer. And nothing that the attorney could urge would shake his determination.

Mr Moss generally had in a safe in his house a large sum of money in notes and gold. The people who came to borrow from him often preferred money to cheques on bankers, and they would often pay well for change. At that time it happened that he had a thousand sovereigns tied up in canvas bags in his safe, which he had procured for a customer whom he had reason to believe would come to him the next day. So after he had in vain tried to persuade the other to trust him with the diamond, he determined that he would then and there buy him out; and he hoped that the sight of the gold would be more than the other could stand, and that he would be induced to sell very cheap.

Mr Moss opened the safe, eyeing his visitor somewhat mistrustfully as he did so.

“Well, it happens I can buy the stone from you at once. I happen to have a hundred pounds—it’s a good bit of money to pay for one’s own property, for that diamond is my property; but there, it’s your luck. Now hand it over, and let’s have a look,” Moss said, as he held out his hand for the stone.