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cigareet. Gerald offered him his case, took one himself, and leaned back waiting till Mr. Chickering had lit up and was ready to begin his narrative. This was not long. Mr. Chickering took a considerable quantity of smoke into his lungs, allowed it to roll forth again in steady volumes through his nostrils, gave a sigh of satisfaction, and began his story. CHAPTER III A STRANGE BTOBY ' You liked those diamonds ?' Gerald nodded. ' Shows your taste, young man, shows your taste. But we can do better than that, you bet, on the Veldt. Just look here.' The stranger thrust a red finger and thumb into a yellow-ochre waistcoat pocket, and fished out something which he placed upon the little table where the coffee-cups stood. The something was a large diamond, one of the largest Gerald had ever seen. It was as large round as a shilling, and it glittered with strange fires. Gerald gave an involuntary cry of surprise. ' What a splendid stone !' he said. 'I believe you, pard,' said Mr. Chickering, leaning back on the sofa and enjoying the wonder of his companion. ' That's a dandy stone, that is, and no mistake about it. But that's not our boss stone nohow. We can go better than that at the Veldt yonder,' and Mr. Chickering made a slight backward motion with his head as if the Veldt were somewhere in the immediate vicinity of St. James's Square. say somewhere up in Jermyn Street. Gerald took the stone in his hands. He was no skilled lapidary, but it needed no skilled lapidary to tell at a glance that such a diamond jwas exceptionally beautiful and exceptionally valuable. ' If you have many more diamonds like that,' he said, with a smile, ' you must be a tolerably rich man.' Mr. Chickering leanedback on the sofa and laughed heartily. ' Waal, yes,' he said ; '...