A COUP.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3011, 4 August 1916, Page 4

A COUP.

TWO YEARS TO BUY A BLACK OPAL. BARGAINING FOR THE FLAME QUEEN. Tho Flamo Queen has come to Brisbane. Sho was discovered out on tho red ridge of Lightning Ledge, near the western border of Queensland, the finest black opal ever unearthed in Australia. Tlie story of her coming to civilisation is romantic.

To tho men who had found her and named her sho was a talisman, a prize, a joy. Her heart is flaming fire set in cool pools, where lurks the sheen from the wild duck's wing. Tho minors loved her; for long they would not part with her. She held their luck in her flaming breast. The fame of her beauty was noised abroad, however, and ono day a man arrived driving a tired pony over the 60 milos of burning country. He saw the Flamo Queen, lie held lier, he coveted her, he bid for her, but he was refused.

Ho thought of his sweltering journey, of tho high, uncomfortable sulky, with its small sideless leather hood: ho looked at his drooping horse, and he tried again. For two years ho bargained. For two years the miners shook their heads, hesitated, looked at their qnecn—she hold their luck. At last, reluctantly, half fearfully, they parted with her.

The Flame Queen was bought; royally, not like an ordinary stone, but in a manner due to her personality. She was conveyed with proper ceremony to Brisbane. Perhaps she will go. to London.