I had engaged offices in London for seven years. I could see ahead a vast future of activity and success, and I did not want my selected career broken into by outside distractions, however brief. But I commenced to take the appeals of Mr. Ralston more seriously. Casual expressions of opinion such as the one noted by Baron Rothschild began to stir up my imagination a bit. Could it really be true that there was a place where diamonds could be picked up on ant hills? It was very easy to find out the truth, and if the truth happened to correspond with Mr. Ralston’s statements, then everything else in the world in the way of business or enterprise seemed commonplace and cheap. I laid the matter before Alfred Rubery, who usually had a level head. He was surprised at my reluctance. “You have your men safely trapped here,” he said. “There is no possibility of escape, and whether they enjoy for a brief time a sense of fancied freedom, matters not in the least. Make up your mind to go to California and find out what all this cable correspondence means. Personally, I am bored to death, just pining for a little bit of excitement. I will go along with you and we will stir up things again in the Far West.” Pressure came on every side. I must have had a forewarning of disaster to have hesitated so long, but finally I gave way to forces that seemed like fate. I cabled Ralston that I would be at his service for a brief period, but that the proceedings must be short and sweet. Also I made a hurried arrangement of my affairs in London, thinking to take up the thread again in three months at most. Rubery was rejoiced at my decision, and prepared to go along. We turned our backs on London, stayed not on the order of our going when we reached New York, and as fast as steamships and railroads would carry us, arrived in San Francisco some time during the month of May, 1872, prepared to uncover the greatest diamond field in the world or return whence we came with equal expedition. CHAPTER XXVI. DISCOVERERS DECLINE TO REVEAL LOCATION OF DIAMOND FIELD, BUT REPORT OF AGENT SATISFIES PROMOTERS. _Final Proof of Good Faith Is Offered in Form of Bag Filled With Collection of Eye-Dazzling Gems._ When I arrived in San Francisco I lost no time in getting in touch with the principals of the diamond deal. Three prominent men only were concerned in it at that time, W. C. Ralston, George D. Roberts and William M. Lent. From them I learned that the alleged discovery of the diamond fields had been known to them for many months. Two prospectors, Philip Arnold and John Slack, were the original locators. I had known Arnold previously in California. He had been employed by Roberts to look into mining properties in the western country. The later story that he had once been employed by myself in a like capacity was absolutely false. Slack I had known as a plain man about town, of general fair repute.