n his neck and brawny arms like whipcord, and
still the obstinate buckle declined to be coerced. The more it
resisted, the more determined he was to make it obey. Go in it must,
if sheer strength would do it. The vice-president of the
Americo-African Mining Company was no weakling. A six-foot athlete and
captain of the Varsity football team in his college days, his muscles
had been toughened in a thousand lively scrimmages and in later life
plenty of golf, rowing and other out-of-door sports had kept him in
condition. When he pulled hard something had to give way. It did in
this instance. There was a tearing, rending sound and the strap broke
off short. With a gesture of despair he turned to his wife as men are
wont to do when in trouble.

"Wouldn't that jar you?" he cried, as he threw the broken strap away.
"What the deuce am I going to do now?"

"Why don't you let Francois attend to such things?" answered his wife
calmly. "He understands packing so much better than you. You're so
strong, you break everything."

She looked fondly at her husband's tall, athletic figure. He turned to
her with a smile.

"I guess you're right," he said. "But where the devil is Francois?"

"I don't know. I sent him downstairs to tell the cook to have some
nice sandwiches ready when you come home after the director's meeting
tonight, but that's an hour ago----"

His ill humor gone, Kenneth looked up and smiled at her. Putting his
arm about her, fondly he said:

"Dear little wife. You're always thinking of the comfort of others.
You're the most unselfish, the most adorable, the most----"

"Stop, Kenneth, don't be foolish or I shall believe you----"

His face red from his recent exertions, he sat down on the arm of a
chair to rest a little. Full of the coming journey, he had already
forgotten his wife's anxiety. The great business schemes he had in
mind dwarfed for the time being every other consideration. He could
think and talk of nothing but diamonds. Huge crystals, worth untold
millions as big as a fist, flashed at him from every corner of the
room. Fabulous fortunes had been made in the diamond mines of South
Africa. Why should he not be as successful as others? The romance of
the Cullinan might be repeated, even surpassed. Well he recalled how
he had been thrilled by the sensational story of the discovery of that
colossal gem, more than three times the size of the Excelsior, the
wonder of the modern worl