TALES OF ADVENTURE

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 26

TALES OF ADVENTURE

THE COLONEL'S DIAMOND.

(By CAPTAIN JOHN H. CARSON.)

SYNOPSIS. The Colonel has a fictitious title but a real diamond. He has acquired much wealth in a life of adventure, but has lost it all barring the diamond, an excellent wardrobe, aud his native check. He is about to pawn the stone when something falls on his head and he later finds nimseir in hospital. The diamond is gone. McGregor, a raUway contractor, who Is .iv hospital, offers him a job as ganger, and when he gets better he takes on the work, and is known by the gang as Uncle Billie. He is assiduous in his practice' with a revolver. Presumably he hopes to get even with the robber of his diamond. •» H. (Concluded.) Handling real estate had been a speciality with the Colonel; in fact, it was the only business about which he really knew much. He glanced around him thoughtfully, but the place appeared absolutely worthless? "How much do you want for it, suh?" he asked. "Well, I'll take what I gave, and throw in the improvements," replied the man. "They don't amount to much, but I did put a new wire fence round the house and buildings. The wire cost mc thirty-six dollars, not counting the freight, and I hauled it twenty-seven miles through the blistering sand. 1 bought this place from Sam Benton, and it's what they call 'school-land' in Texas." "He took it up from the State, with forty years to pay for it in, and had made two payments when I bought it. Since i then I've made three more payments, and my equity in it is three hundred and fifty dollars. I'll sell it for that. This country doesn't suit mc; I want to go to the city." I used to handle real estate, suh," said the Colonel. "This place is only a couple of miles from the new extension. Why don't you hold it awhile longer? Some day you might sell it to advantage." The consumptive laughed mirthlessly. "Some day I'll be dead," he replied. "I've been here three years, and at first I had some money—not a fortune, of course, but enough to go on with. 1 thought. Now it's all gone, and I'm through. Come what may, mister, I'm going to find a better place to end my days in." The Colonel gazed thoughtfully at the ridge he had crossed. An idea which had been forming in the back of his mind' for months began to take shape. He was dead to his former world —dead and buried, and he didn't much care. He could see now that many of his old friends had been mere sycophants, who promptly forgot him when adversity overtook him. He had been partly reared in a desert country, and he was sure that he could make a success as a turkey farmer. Coyote pelts were paid for in cash by the State, and he knew something about trapping and poisoning the brutes; In addition, the place might have other possibilities. "I'll tell you what 111 do, suh," said the Colonel, presently. "The position I hold with the Construction Company will last about four months longer. I'm a back numbah, so to speak, and 1 might like to live out heah in the desert. I've saved a little money, but I don't want to put it all into a turkey ranch with no prospect of a living in sight. 11l give you a hund'd dollahs cash for the house and ten acres." The man shook his head. "I can't do it, mister," he said. "I need at least three hundred dollars to square myself and have something to go on with until I can get- a job, and I must sell the whole quarter section if I sell at all. Anyway, surveying ten acres and making the transfers would cost at least fifty dollars." The Colonel sat down on the ground and grabbed up a handful of sand, which he allowed to trickle slowly through his fingers. The consumptive stood beside him, with his little boy clutching at his leg and glancing wonderingly at the stranger. Pulling pensively at his moustache, the Colonel gazed around. He had a "hunch"—and he believed in following "hunches" for it was a "hunch" that had first made him rich. He forgot that subsequent "hunches" had impoverished him and that persistent ill-luck had finally landed him in' the surgical ward of a hospital with a broken head and stripped of his last valuable possession. "Well, suh," he said, finally, "I'll be glad to go with you to Mr. McGregor. He's a mighty fine man, and may take you on. I've sometimes thought I'd like to have a bit of this wild land and bury myself in the desert, but I can't buy the whole quarter section. 11l tell you what I'll do. I'll pay you fifty dollahs fo' a six months' option on yo' place at three hundred and fifty dollars. If I don't sell it or buy it in that time, you keep my fifty dollahs." "I'll do it, mister," replied the man. My name's Frank Hobert. When can you draw up the papers and give mc the fifty dollars?" "In the morning, suh, when you come to the camp to apply fo' a job. My name is William Wallace Markley. I've always bean known as 'Colonel,' but at the camp they call mc 'Uncle William' and sometimes TJncle Billie'" "Can't you give mc the money now?" "No, suh," replied the Colonel. "1 have no money with mc." "Well, I don't like telling it to a stranger," said Hobert. "But we've been without flour or meal since tho day before yesterday. Some chile beans and rice is all the grub I've got in the house for the wife and baby, and there's not much left. I was intending to drive over to Summit to-night to see if I could get a little more credit at the store. They've been carrying mc so long now that I hate to ask them, but I must have some rations. If I had a ten-dollar bill I could pay them a little oh account and get what I need." "Have you the deeds?" asked Markley. "They're in the house," replied Hobert. "But I haven't the fifty dollahs with mc." objected the Colonel. "I'd have to give you a chequej suh. The merchant at Summit doesn't know mc, and probably wouldn't cash my. cheque." "You give mc the cheque and I'll drive past your camp and get the com-missary-clerk to cash it," said Hobert, who was anxious to close the deal. "Come right in," he continued, and led the. way into the bouse.

'It's a foolish thing for mc to do," said the Colonel, "but I 6aid I would and I will. Whoever thought I should finish up as a hermit in a shack on the desert? One can never tell what life has in store for us, suh," Hobert dug out the deeds and papers from an old trunk, and the Colonel carefully examined them, finding everything to be as represented. With an indelible pencil from his pocket and sheets of paper from a tablet supplied by Hobert's wife, he wrote out the option in duplicate. Then he made out a cheque for fifty dollars and gave it to Hobert with a copy of the option. The man accompanied him to the camp and cashed the cheque, and the Colonel induced the commissary clerk to sell Hobert a supply of flour and groceries. Encountering McGregor, who was passing through the camp, he put in a word for Hobert, and heard the contractor tell him to report for ,duty next day. A week later the Colonel was again sent to the city, and made quite a busy day of it. Before leaving he paid a visit to the bank, where he kept his modest account. On reaching the camp he hunted up Hobert. "I have decided to take your quarter-section, suh," he announced. "I will pay you in full, and henceforth assume all future obligations due to the State.". This suited Hobert excellently; he had been afraid that the Colonel might change his mind. The deeds were made out the following day, and the Colonel gave Hobert a certified cheque for the balance of the purchase-price. "You may continue to live there for the present," he told the consumptive, "and the rent will cost you nothing." "Thanks; but I'm going to move the day after to-morrow," said Hobert. "I've secured quarters for my family at the new station." A week later the-Colonel strolled over to his new possession. He was pleased with his purchase, and was glad that he was once again a landowner, even if the land was a mortgaged quarter-section in the most desolate part of a lonely desert. He glanced through the_ broken and sagging door, and three lizards scurried across the floor to a retreat in the wall. Overhead two vultures wheeled lazily. A coyote slunk away at the Colonel's approach and futively watched the intruder from behind a drab-coloured hummock. A few tfnonths later the railway extension was completed, and the big camp was broken up. Hobert moved his family to the city and was given a permanent job with the Construction Company. for the Colonel, he shifted his scanty belongings to the desert ranch and began to make preparations for trapping coyotes. But fate decreed otherwise. A number of derricks already dotted the desert, and oil prospectors were nosing about all over the country, leasing land that could be had on favourable terms. Before long a derrick was set up within a mile of the Colonel's ranch, and scouts from different Oil companies approached him with tentative offers to lease his land for a small consideration and an eighth royalty. He listened patiently to them all but did not close with any of the offers. Two weeks later the hole that was being drilled near the Colonel's farm "blew in" a five-thousand barrel "gusher," and within a week derricks were being erected in every direction. An oil-scout sought out the Colonel and offered twenty-five thousand dollars for his land in fee, but Markley declined with a smile. A few days later he was in the city, where the president of another company offered him a hundred thousand dollars and a sixth royalty for a lease on a hundred acres. "111.think your offer over, suh," the Colonel told him. By this time wells were being drilled within a short distance of the Colonel's northern boundary line, and oil was struck at fourteen hundred feet in nearly every one of them. Then one of the giants among the producers sent a special train along for the Colonel to come down to the city at once and see-him. When the train arrived the man of much money and few words said: "I'll give you a quarter of a million dollars and a fourth royalty on your hundred and sixty acres." "I'm getting old, suh," replied the Colonel. "But I appreciate your kind offer. The old Colonel knows a little about this business from the days when Spindle Top was first brought in. In fact, I made a few dollahs over it. Now I don't want to be bothered with leases, litigations, and a swarm of lawyers and quit-claim sharks, not to mention having to hire my own gaugers and a lot of men to watch one another and all rob mc. Success, suh, has ruined more men than liquor or even failure. Pahdon the digression! What will you give mc fo' the land in fee—lock, stock, and barrel, and you to keep all royalties?" "Five hundred thousand dollars." "It's not enough, suh." "How much do- you want?" asked the great man. "One million dollahs, suh." *'Tco much!" snorted the magnate. "We'll give you three-fourths of a million." "You heard mc, suh," said the Colonel, quietly. "To-m«.rrow the price will be a million and a quarter. Good day, suh." "Hold on!* # cried the oil-man, "I haven't authority to offer you r so much; seven hundred end fifty thousand was my limit; I'll get in touch with headquarters over the long-dis-tance 'phone." In less than an hour the magnate was authorised to pay the Colonel a million dollars for his hand in fee. Markley had the deeds in his pocket, and the transfer was duly made. Before the banking houses closed for the day he walked out of the office with a certified cheque for one million dollars. "I'm through," he said, to an oil-man at the hotel. "I'm tired, and I want a rest. When I was lucky before, the money didn't do mc much good—all because of my own folly, suh. First of all I'm going to hunt up Frank Hobert and give him fifty thousand dollars; then I'm going away to forget I've got any money." The news of the big deal soon spread around, and the Colonel was the cynosure of all eyes; he was besieged by importunate, callers at bis hotel until he was forced to hide. Finally he slip-

ped from his room by a back SrUST'aIH £ fter * glanclng «*»s up and down the street, left the hotel through the servants' entrance. m_!f£ r i_? had goDe a block > a - e -«e- ' man took him gently by the arm, pressed an expensive cigar into his hand, and deftly steered him into a palatial jewellery store. *«*u_i n," 1 ,* ,Bt _.« w ? nt , t0 9how y° u some of the beautiful things I have in stock general, he murmured. "I believe I'm correct in thinking you were once a general?" "Not 'general,' suh," replied Markley, with a dry laugh. "They used to call mc 'colonel,' but I'm 'Uncle Billie' now." "Well, if you weren't a general you deserve to be one!" answered the jeweller. With that he took a tray of diamonds from his safe. "Now this stone is a pure white and first-water," he said. '"It weighs ten and eleven-sixteenth carats. I'll sacrifice it. It's worth ten thousand dollars, but the way it came into my possession will enable mc to sell it—or, I should say, give it away—for only eight thousand dollars." The Colonel picked up the big .diamond and looked at it with smilininterest. 6 The sale was as good as made, the jeweller thought, and he tried to appear calm. The diamond had indeed been acquired at a bargain price, and at eight thousand dollars—well, he would make a pretty profit. Meanwhile the Colonel handled the diamond lovingly and, picking up the magnifying-glass, examined a facet cut at an unusual angle on the back of the stone. His heart seemed to skip a beat, and a strange feeling crept over him! With an effort he recovered himself and looked up at the jeweller. "This diamond and myself, suh," he answered, "are old acquaintances. Would you mind telling mc where you bought it?" He paused and passed his hand over his brow, for his head was throbbing just where the thief had hit him in the days of long ago. The jeweller's face flushed, and he began to -stammer, but the Colonel waved his hand airily. "Never mind, suh, never mind," he went on. "I'm not in the market for diamonds, and I never shall be. A man I knew well made a lot of money and bought just such a diamond as this. He wore it on his shirt fc' many years and never had any mo' luck, and eventually he lost everything. But he kept the diamond and had finally decided to pawn it when a couple of thugs knocked ' him cold and took the diamond. "He discovered later that while they were escaping from the city on a freight-train one of them fell between two box-cars and had both legs cut off above the knees. The other man pawned the diamond, but was arested fo' another crime and sent to prison fo' seven years." The Colonel paused and gentiv returned the diamond to the tray. "Would you believe it, suh?" he continued. "The man who had been assaulted and lost his diamond got well, was <»iven a good position by a chance acquaintance, and made mo' money over one deal than he had made in his whole life before. No, my friend; you couldn't give mc that "diamond, even if you offered mc a hund'ed thousand dollahs to take it!"