as safe from your personal violence here
as I should be at home."

"Then," said I, "you must live at a tolerably lively place, for here
there are at least four men knifed every week, and more when things are
brisk."

"I shall put myself under the protection of the police if you threaten
me," said he, evidently beginning to feel a bit uneasy.

"And I should like to know how the devil you would set about doing that
same? Why, my blessed rustic, supposing you knew the lingo, which you
don't, and you went up to the local substitute for a bobby, and said
you wanted to get under his cloak, d'ye know what he'd do? Why, run you
in straight away. And in quod you'd stop; there isn't a soul in the
city here who'd say a word for you." Of course all this was a bluff,
but I knew the average Briton has an intense belief in official
lawlessness on the Continent, and I thought I'd reckoned up this
specimen pretty accurately. It looked as if I was right. He changed
tack promptly, dropped the dictatorial schoolmaster, and started
fawning. I seemed to have mistaken his motives. As a man of science, he
naturally took an intense interest in this Recipe, and wished to have
the administration of it entirely in his own hands. But, of course, I
must have known that as a gentleman he would feel bound to divide any
fortune that might proceed from it equally with me.

As a point of fact, I hadn't understood this. I had also overlooked the
item that he was a gentleman, and even then did not recognize it. But I
kept these trifles to myself; and as he was evidently trying to bury
the hatchet, I got out my spade as well. And for the rest of that
evening we were as civil to one another as a couple of smugglers with
one load of bales.

We were to work the thing together on his coin and my experience, both
of which were equally necessary; and as for the plunder, there'd be a
belly-full for the pair of us, and a lot to spare. Thank goodness women
existed; and as long as they didn't die out, the inhabitants of this
globe would always buy diamonds, if the market was not over-glutted.

And we'd start by the train which set off westward along the coast at
7.10 the next morning.

When we get comfortably to Mahon, thought I, I'll tell Mr. Schoolmaster
that the proof of the pudding can be found near the Recipe, for,
according to the illustrious doctor's account, he has buried in the
floor of the Talayot a fist-full of diamonds from his own manufactory.