A Dash from Diamond City Part 6

"No, don't go," cried Anson, springing forward and grasping his arm.

"Let go!" cried West. "I don't want to be mixed up with any quarrels; but you might have got them over outside. There, I'm off."

"Stop where you are!" cried Ingleborough. "You have a perfect right to hear what I have said, and you're welcome."

"Yes, stop where you are, West," cried Anson, clinging to the young fellow's arm. "I believe that the war scare has sent Ingle off his head. You never heard such a bit of scandal as he is trying to hatch up. I believe it's all out of jealousy."

"No, you do not," said Ingleborough coldly.

"But I do," cried Anson. "It's scandalous. He's trying to ruin me."

"How?"

"By hatching up a story which, if it got to the princ.i.p.als' ears, would mean me being turned off neck and crop, no matter how innocent I am."

"How what?" replied Ingleborough ironically. "Innocent? Why, I've suspected you for some months past."

"Oh, my gracious!" cried Anson. "Hark at him! He does mean it--he must mean it, unless we can bring him to his senses, West. You will help me, won't you?"

"How can I tell till I know what it's all about? What's the quarrel, Ingle?"

"Ask him," answered the young man addressed, frowning.

"Very well, then; I'll ask him. What's the row, Anson?"

"I have hardly patience to tell you, West," was the reply. "But I suppose I must, though it makes my face burn with shame."

"Humph!" grunted Ingleborough.

"Then it is something you are ashamed of?" said West quickly.

"Me? Oh no, West; I'm not ashamed. I've nothing to be ashamed of: only being accused by a fellow-clerk, a brother-clerk, I might say, of doing a terrible thing."

"And did you?" said West sharply.

"I? Good gracious, no! I was out in the main street about half-an-hour ago, being of course interested in the news, when I saw a couple of Kaffirs talking, and it made me wonder what would become of them if it came to fighting, and I naturally enough asked the poor fellows whether they'd stay in Kimberley or go back to their own country."

"Well?" said West, for the speaker stopped.

"Well, that's all as far as I'm concerned," said Anson; "only just then Ingleborough, who is never happy without he's mixing himself up somehow with the police folk, and who must have been watching me in a miserable underhanded way, suddenly pounced upon me; and you'll never believe it, my dear West, he actually accused me of illicit-diamond-buying from the Kaffirs."

"And that means very severe punishment," said West. "Well, were you doing it?"

"Was I? Oh, for shame, West! How could you think such a thing possible? My dear fellow, I couldn't do such a thing? Is it likely?"

"Ingleborough says it is," replied the young man addressed, shortly.

"Yes, but only because he is absurdly jealous of me, and dislikes to see me in the office. It would ruin me for ever if it were reported, and he says he is going to, although I have been begging and praying him not to do such a thing. What do you say?"

"If it's true, and Ingleborough says it is, I don't see how he could help, reporting your conduct to the directors."

"But it isn't true!" cried Anson, almost in a whine. "Oh, West, how can you? You know I couldn't do such a thing!"

"Do you mean to say that you are quite innocent?"

"Oh, quite!" cried Anson. "It was as I told you. I only 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 a.s.sure 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 possible that a man can be so base?"