I drew a skin bag from the pocket of my coat, and poured some out upon
the table, which he examined carefully.

"Ring money," he said presently, "might be Anglo-Saxon, might be
anything; date absolutely uncertain, but from its appearance I should
say slightly alloyed with silver; yes, there is a bit which has
oxydized--undoubtedly old, that."

Then he produced the signet from his pocket, and examined the ring and
the stone very carefully through a powerful glass.

"Seems all right," he said, "and although I have been greened in my
time, I don't make many mistakes nowadays. What do you say, Adams? Must
have it back? A sacred trust! Only lent to you! All right, take it by
all means. _I_ don't want the thing. Well, it is a risky job, and if any
one else had proposed it to me, I'd have told him to go to--Mur. But,
Adams, my boy, you saved my life once, and never sent in a bill, because
I was hard up, and I haven't forgotten that. Also things are pretty hot
for me here just now over a certain controversy of which I suppose
you haven't heard in Central Africa. I think I'll go. What do you say,
Oliver?"

"Oh!" said Captain Orme, waking up from a reverie, "if you are
satisfied, I am. It doesn't matter to me where I go."



CHAPTER II