The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 59: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

{<< = eek eS eee IN JEOPARDY FROM DIAMONDS. 59 customary outrages upon innocent persons to make pretense of earning your salaries, go ahead-——search away—and much good may it do you.”’ If Styne could have seen, as well as he heard, he would have been amused by the blank look of discomfiture upon the faces of the officers. Even Mr. Jacobs grinned appreciatively as he looked at them. They. understood very well that when he invited them to search, he was very sure they would find nothing. No doubt he had heard them coming—stealthy as they had been, until the moment of bursting in his door—and had thrown the diamonds out of the window to an accomplice watching outside. In that case, his resist- ance had been simply to gain time for the other man to get away. ‘* All the same,’’ remarked Perkins, answering the unspoken thoughts of his associates, ‘‘it may be a bluff. We had better search him and do it thoroughly.”’ They did so, but unavailingly. There was not a diamond even so big as a pin’s head in his room—unless he had swallowed it. All the while, he attacked them with sarcasms, gibes and defiance, for he felt himself safe. They heard him without making reply, but to some extent revenged them- selves by taking him away and locking him up in a cell while they planned a further hunt for his accomplice. That a number of valuable diamonds had passed into his possession since nightfall they knew positively. The question. was—what had he done with them ? It seemed to Styne, when quiet reigned again, as if lightning had struck very close to him. ‘‘ Minna,’’ he said, ‘‘ much better it would be to lie out on the veldt, with a lion looking on, than remain where such deeds are done.”’ “But if the man had diamonds that were stolen? ’’ “Did you not hear him say he had not? And they found none. Yet they dragged him away to prison !’’ ‘* That is true.’’ “Tam minded to get the mules out and start at once, without waiting for daylight. ‘The moon is good.’’ ‘Might not such an unusual start provoke suspicion that you are carry- ing off diamonds and so perhaps cause your arrest? ”’ ‘Heavens ! That horrible idea had not occurred to me, but I perceive it is true. We must remain. Well then, let us sleep.” But there was to be no more sleep for the young couple that nicht. Hardly half an hour had elapsed when men came knocking loudly upon Styne’s door, demanding admittance. Hodgson and Moss had evolved the hypothesis that the wary Jew, having scented his danger when they were almost upon him, had thrown his diamonds into some other room, trusting to recover them in the morning, or even electing to abandon them rather than suffer the severe penalty for having them in his possession. And, they reasoned, as he could have had little time to spare, he probably ran no farther than the next room. Search there would clearly be advisable. So, saying nothing to Perkins, of whom the two Englishmen had a professional jealousy, they hurried back to the Transvaal Hotel and to Styne's door. When told that the young Hollander had ordered his team for a very early hour in the (E(0) (E(0) micooo S