asked the two
poor hard-working fellows what they meant to do, and then to my utter
astonishment Ingleborough pounced upon me with that terrible charge.
Help me, my dear friend, to make him see that he has deceived himself!"

"Do you hear, Ingle?" cried West sympathetically. "It is a terrible
charge to bring against a fellow."

"Terrible!" said Ingleborough sternly.

"And you have thought what it means?"

"Of course."

"His dismissal and imprisonment?"

"Yes."

"But--"

"There is no room for buts, my lad," said Ingleborough harshly.
"Diamond-buying from the natives is, as we all well know, penal; and we
know, too, that it is our duty to help to protect the property of our
employers, and to see that the laws are obeyed."

"Of course, my dear Ingleborough," said Anson; "and that's what I have
always tried to do, as you know."

"I know that you have been playing a false game for months--that is, I
feel perfectly sure you have, though I cannot prove it. But this I can
prove: that you were buying stolen diamonds from two natives this
afternoon, all parties choosing the time because you believed the
excitement would secure you from notice."

"Oh, West, hark at him!" cried Anson, in a piteous tone. "Ingleborough,
you don't know how wrong you are!"

"That's true!" said their fellow-clerk.

"Look here, Anson," cried West angrily; "what's the good of going on
like a great girl--oh-ing, and making weak appeals? Why don't you speak
out like a man? Is it true, or is it not, that you bought these
diamonds?"

"It's all a mistake of Ingleborough's and as false as false can be! I
couldn't do such a thing!"

"Nor yet throw them away as soon as you found that you were seen?"

"Of course not!" cried Anson excitedly.

"What are these, then?" cried Ingleborough sternly, as he took a couple
of rough crystals from his trousers pocket and held them out in his hand
to the astonished gaze of his comrades.

"Those?" said Anson, whose face began to turn of a sickly green; "they
look like diamonds."

"Yes: they are the two that you threw away, and which I went and picked
up."

"Oh!" cried Anson, with a piteous groan; "hark at him, West! I wouldn't
have believed that a man could have been so base as to hatch up such a
plot as this to ruin his brother-employe. West, I assure you that I
never set eyes upon those diamonds before in my life. It's all a cruel,
dastardly plot, and I--Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! Is it