lever it off. Yes; there it goes. I never thought it could have come so
easily. Now, Jack, the sooner we get back to our hut and then down to
Cape Town, the better."

We wrapped up our treasure, and made our way across the hills toward
home. On the way, Tom told me how, while a law student in the Middle
Temple, he had come upon a dusty pamphlet in the library, by one Jans
van Hounym, which told of an experience very similar to ours, which
had befallen that worthy Dutchman in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and which resulted in the discovery of a luminous diamond. This
tale it was which had come into Tom's head as he listened to honest Dick
Wharton's ghost-story, while the means which he had adopted to verify
his supposition sprang from his own fertile Irish brain.

"We'll take it down to Cape Town," continued Tom, "and if we can't
dispose of it with advantage there, it will be worth our while to ship
for London with it. Let us go along to Madison's first, though; he knows
something of these things, and can perhaps give us some idea of what we
may consider a fair price for our treasure."

We turned off from the track accordingly, before reaching our hut, and
kept along the narrow path leading to Madison's farm. He was at lunch
when we entered; and in a minute we were seated at each side of him,
enjoying South African hospitality.

"Well," he said, after the servants were gone, "what's in the wind now?
I see you have something to say to me. What is it?"

Tom produced his packet, and solemnly untied the handkerchiefs which
enveloped it. "There!" he said, putting his crystal on the table; "what