"The first place Ray came to was C--, and he went to the hotel; and in the evenin' he began talkin' about the stone, and they all laughed at him, because in those days nobody had heard of diamonds in South Africa. So presently he lost his temper, and pulled out the stone and showed it round; but nobody thought it was a diamond, and they all laughed at him the more. Then one of the fellers said: 'If it's a diamond, it ought to cut glass.' "Ray took the stone, and, by Jove, he cut his name on the window, and there it is--I've seen it--on the bar window of that hotel. Well, next day, you bet, he travelled straight back to where the old Boer told him the shepherd had picked up the stone, and he went to a native chief called Jointje, and said to him: 'Jointje,' he said, 'I go a journey. While I go, you go about and send all your "boys" about, and look for all the stones that shine like this one; and when I come back, if you find me plenty, I give you gun.' And Jointje said: 'That all right, Boss.' "And Ray went down to Cape Town, and took the stone to a jeweller, and the jeweller told him it was a diamond of about 30 or 40 carats, and gave him five hundred pound for it. So he bought a waggon and a span of oxen to give to the old Boer, and went back to Jointje. The niggers had collected skinfuls of stones of all kinds, and out of all the skinfuls Ray found three or four diamonds. So he went to work and got another feller to back him, and between them they made the Government move. The rush began, and they found that place near Kimberley; and after that they found De Beers, and after that Kimberley itself." Travers stopped, and looked around him. "Ray made his fortune, I suppose?" "No, Mr. Askew; the unfortunate feller made next to nothin'. He was one of those fellers that never do any good for themselves." "But what has all this to do with the war?" Again Travers looked round, and more slowly than ever, said: "Without that game of marbles, would there have been a Moer-Klip--without the Moer-Klip, would there have been a Kimberley--without Kimberley, would there have been a Rhodes--without a Rhodes, would there have been a Raid--without a Raid, would the Boers have started armin'--if the Boers hadn't armed, would there have been a Transvaal War? And if there hadn't been the Transvaal War, would there have been the incident of those two German ships we held up; and all the general feelin' in Germany that gave the Kaiser the chance to start his Navy programme in 1900? And if the Germans hadn't built their Navy, would their heads have swelled till they challenged the world, and should we have had this war?" He slowly drew a hand from his pocket, and put it on the table. On the little finger was blazing an enormous diamond. "My father," he said, "bought it of the jeweller."