"Not I. Are you sure that we are on the spot from which it is visible."
"Here, by this flat stone, we were to stand. Try a little more to your right."
"I see nothing yet."
There was a pause, during which we walked about, peering into the obscurity.
"Stay,—I see something!" I exclaimed, in an excited tone. "Come this way—a yard or so—it shines now!" I added, when, after stepping a pace or two to the left, a faint gleam, like the first ray of a small and very distant revolving beacon—a tiny one indeed—stole upon the gloom; and then a steady sparkle, like that of a star, shone through the pitchy blackness that enveloped the whole length and breadth of the hollow.
The hostalero of Orotava had not deceived us, for the diamond was now before us, shining visibly.
Like a star, it seemed to shrink and tremble while we gazed at it, which Hislop did, long and steadily.
"Well, Dick Rodney," said he, "you have first seen the diamond, and shall have the largest share, if we get it."
I laughed at this, and asked,—
"How does it shine thus in the dark?"