"If that be the case," returned the baronet, "then here goes to help you. But, mind, I am a rich man already; and not a single stone will I accept until all three of you are perfectly satisfied that you have abundantly sufficient for all your requirements." "Very well," said the colonel. "Go ahead with that understanding if you like. I feel pretty confident that, even upon such terms, you will be able to take back to England, if all goes well, sufficient gems to make the future Lady Elphinstone--should there ever be such a personage--a diamond suite which shall cause her to be the envied of all beholders." Sir Reginald laughed gleefully. "I have never yet met a woman charming enough to induce me to yield up my freedom of action and movement for her sake, and I do not think it likely I ever shall," he said. Lethbridge shook his head a little doubtfully, but he was just then so busy digging down into the gravel with his hunting-knife that he had no breath to waste in the words of a disclaimer. The baronet moved away to a distance of some twenty feet, and began poking about the gravel in a very careless, half-hearted sort of way, occasionally picking up and slipping into one of his capacious pockets such crystals as he thought likely to be of value. Half an hour of this work sufficed him; and, rising to his feet, he cried: "Spell, ho! as our friend Mildmay would probably observe. Now, Lethbridge," as he sauntered up to his companion, "let us compare the results of our labour." With this he flung himself down upon the gravel, and, plunging his hand into his pocket three or four times, produced a goodly little heap of gems of all sizes, ranging from that of a pea up to stones of fully one ounce in weight. Meanwhile the colonel brought his collection to light, and a very fine one it was, the stones being nearly twice as many as those gathered by the baronet, though many of them were much smaller. "Is that all?" asked Sir Reginald. "_All_?" echoed Lethbridge; "why, my dear sir, what would you have? If, after we have quite exhausted the ground here, my share amounts to such a handsome collection as this, I can assure you I shall be exceedingly well satisfied. You have made a most excellent haul too, but I think mine is the more valuable of the two." "Perhaps," said the baronet, "_this_ will go some way toward equalising our finds." And as he spoke he quietly slipped his hand into his pocket and smilingly produced a stone fully as large as a hen's egg. The colonel took it into his hands and critically examined it for several minutes. It was most unmistakably a diamond, and that, too, of the very finest water, without the faintest trace of a flaw of any kind. He remained silent so long that Sir Reginald grew impatient and finally blurted out: "Well, man, what is it? Is it a diamond, or is it merely a worthless piece of crystal? Why don't you speak?"