FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  
she was arranging her hair preparatory to posing her hat upon it. "Well, my dear, just think! They've discovered a Kafir boy in the compound who has been stealing thousands of pounds' worth of diamonds for months, and passing them to someone outside. They caught him in the act this afternoon." "How frightfully exciting!" Rosanne had put her hat on now, but was still manoeuvring to get it at exactly the correct angle over her right eye. "How did he do it?" "He made a little tunnel from under his sleeping-bunk to the outside of the compound wall, about a yard and a half long, and through that he would push a parcel of diamonds by means of a stick with a flat piece of tin at the end of it, something like a little rake and exactly the same length as the tunnel. He always pushed a little heap of earth through first, so as to cover the diamonds up from any eyes but those of his confederate outside. When the confederate had removed the diamonds, he pushed back the earth against the tin rake, which the boy always left in place until he had another packet of diamonds ready to put through. In this way the hole was never exposed, except during the few moments, once a week, when the boy was putting in a fresh packet." "But how awfully thrilling!" exclaimed Rosanne. "Yes; isn't it? What they want to do now is to catch the confederate who is, of course, the real culprit, for encouraging an ignorant Kafir to steal." "Who could it possibly be?" "Goodness knows! Such heaps of people come inside this outer compound, tradespeople, servants with messages, and so on. But just think of it, Nan! Thousands of pounds' worth, and the Kafir boy only got ten pounds for each packet he pushed through." "Well, what would a Kafir do with thousands of pounds, anyway?" said Rosanne, laughing irrelevantly. "I think ten pounds was quite enough." "That's true--too much for the wretch, indeed! However, he has confessed and told everything he could to help our people to trap the other wretch. Unfortunately, that is not very much." "No?" "No; he says he has never seen the man who fetches the diamonds. The only one he has ever seen was a man he is not able to describe because he is so ordinary-looking, who came to his kraal in Basutoland about seven months ago, and made the whole plan with him to come and work on contracts of three months at a time as a compound-boy, steal as many diamonds as he could, and pass them out
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
diamonds
 
pounds
 
compound
 

Rosanne

 
months
 

confederate

 

pushed

 

packet

 
wretch
 

people


tunnel

 
thousands
 

contracts

 

inside

 

tradespeople

 

Thousands

 

messages

 

servants

 
culprit
 

encouraging


ignorant

 

Goodness

 

possibly

 

ordinary

 
Unfortunately
 

describe

 
confessed
 

Basutoland

 

fetches

 

laughing


irrelevantly

 

However

 
removed
 

sleeping

 

correct

 

parcel

 

manoeuvring

 

posing

 

preparatory

 

arranging


discovered

 

afternoon

 

frightfully

 

exciting

 

caught

 

stealing

 

passing

 

moments

 

exposed

 

exclaimed