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246 berley the night he got in, and cutting the connection short with the usual, "Well, good-bye for the present, I hope we shall meet again before you leave the colony."

But as the ship got nearer and nearer to Table Bay, a rather awkward problem began to press itself upon his attention. So far his expedition had been entirely successful, and very pleasant to boot, but, just as Table Mountain would soon be looming up before his physical gaze, so there began to loom bigger and bigger before his mental vision the awkward fact that, unless he could get his diamonds into the colony unsuspected, the Cape customs officials would inconsiderately insist on the payment of an ad valorem duty of 30 per cent. on them, and that would come to a sum which it would almost break his German Jewish heart to part with.

Many and varied were the schemes that he revolved in his mind towards the end of the