"Well, how do you suppose I'm to trust you? Do you want me to buy a pig in a poke? What kind of property is this? Why hasn't some one tried to find this Carden's relatives?" And having fired this volley of questions, Hall threw himself back in his chair and looked at the old man sharply.
"Well, in the first place this 'ere Carden was a curious kind of a customer. Kept away from everybody 'n nobody knowed who 'e wuz or where he come from. When he died I happened to be the first to find him. I felt sure he had plenty of coin, 'n he had. There was some dust—not much—but he had nearly £20,000 in diamonds sewed in his belt——"
"How do you know?" interrupted Hall.
"Because I seed 'em. I had just found these 'ere papers, an' just as I wuz goin' to undo the belt along comes a crowd from the camp. It wos lucky I didn't touch the dust—they'd a hung me sure! The papers wos down my bootleg, but only the body wos stone cold, an' they'd seen me in camp just afore, they'd swung me up anyhow."
"And you have—actually have these papers yourself? No third party business?"
"Yes, I've got 'em myself! Right here!"
The old man made an involuntary movement with his right hand toward his breast, but checked himself instantly. It was too late, however, for Hall, who was watching his every movement, noted the action and said, with a malicious laugh:
"Rather an unsafe place, isn't it?" and before the old man could reply, continued: "Was there anything else besides these diamonds—and what became of them?"
This question, asked simply to throw the old man off his guard, bore unexpected fruit.
"The Government took charge of the diamonds, but there was a lot of land 'round Melbourne worth twice as much as them."