smile, "but if so they
meant nothing."

"No, I understand, just like a lovers' quarrel. But look here,
you left some diamonds on the table which I took to keep the
Kaffirs out of temptation. I will fetch them."

"Did I? Well, probably I left some I.O.U.'s also which might
serve for pipelights. So suppose we set the one against the
other. I don't know the value of either the diamonds or the
pipelights, it may be less or more, but for God's sake don't let
me see the beastly things again. There's no need, I have
plenty."

"I must speak to Anscombe," I answered. "The money at stake was
his, not mine."

"Speak to whom you will," he replied, and I noted that the
throbbing vein upon his forehead indicated a rising temper. "But
never let me see those diamonds again. Throw them into the
gutter if you wish, but never let me see them again, or there
will be trouble."

Then he flung out of the room, leaving his breakfast almost
untasted.

Reflecting that this queer old bird probably did not wish to be
cross-questioned as to his possession of so many uncut diamonds,
or that they were worth much less than the sum he had lost, or
possibly that they were not diamonds at all but glass, I went to
report the matter to Anscombe. He only laughed and said that as
I had got the things I had better keep them until something
happened, for we had both got it into our heads that something
would happen before we had done with that establishment.

So I went to put the stones away as safely as I could. While I
was doing so I heard the rumble of wheels, and came out just in
time to see a Cape cart, drawn by four very good horses and
driven by a Hottentot in a smart hat and a red waistband, pull up
at the garden gate. Out of this cart presently emerged a neatly
dressed lady, of whom all I could see was that she was young,
slender and rather tall; also, as her back was towards me, that
she had a great deal of auburn hair.

"There!" said Anscombe. "I knew that something would happen.
Heda has happened. Quatermain, as neither her venerated parent
nor her loving fiance, for such I gather he is, seems to be
about, you had better go and give her a hand."

I obeyed with a groan, heartily wishing that Heda hadn't
happened, since some sense warned me that she would only add to
the present complications. At the gate, having given some
instructions to a very stout young coloured woman who, I took it,
was her maid, about a basket o