sor's eyes sparkled as he held the necklace up to the light
and noted the fire and deep, rich colour of the stones.

"Ah!" he ejaculated, "here is wealth with a vengeance, but reduced to
about a tenth part of its original value by the crass ignorance and
stupidity of somebody who did not know what irreparable mischief he was
doing when he chipped and punched those ghastly great holes. I wonder,
now, where they were found! Somewhere not very far from here, I'll be
bound, or they would not have found their way into M'Bongwele's hands.
I must ask Lobelalatutu about these; possibly he may be able to tell us
where they came from, and, if so, there will be an opportunity not only
for each of us to add considerably to our stock of precious stones, but
also for me to acquire a little of that wealth which I so urgently need
for the purpose that I mentioned to you, Sir Reginald, when you were
good enough to invite me to make one of your party on this cruise."

"All right, Professor; I remember," answered Sir Reginald, cheerily.
"If you can learn where these stones were found, we will go there, and
you shall have a full week in which to collect as many as you can."

The next articles in the chest upon which the searchers laid hands,
consisted of a soldier's castoff scarlet coat, buttonless, and very much
the worse for wear; an old pair of blue trousers decorated on the side
seams with tarnish-blackened gold lace; and a most shockingly battered
old cocked hat; all of which they recognised with laughter as gifts
presented by themselves to M'Bongwele upon the occasion of their former
visit. And beneath these, again, they found two pairs of coarse
blue-cloth trousers, a thick pilot-cloth coat, two blue-striped shirts,
a pair of coarse worsted stockings, and one or two other oddments that
had evidently belonged to one or more of the ill-fated party of white
people who had fallen into M'Bongwele's hands, and of whose identity the
searchers were now endeavouring to discover some trace. But the
clothing bore no name, not even of the maker, nor were there any letters
or documents of any kind in the chest to indicate the name or
nationality of the owner. Nor was anything of the kind to be found
anywhere in the hut, although the searchers carefully examined it
throughout and also every article that it contained. The only chance,
therefore, that remained to them was to visit the scene of the wreck,
and endeavour to find some vestige of