Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/74

 III.

THE KING'S ROSE DIAMOND.

I.

by day, stone by stone, the parcel had increased, and every one of the now splendid collection of gems represented not only so many pounds sterling in hard cash, when once successfully translated from the Kimberley Compound and sorting-houses to the outside world, but also many moments of desperate yet skilfully hidden anxiety, during which the fickle needle of Fate had swayed to and fro between two poles of fortune and ruin.

Some men in Frank Ridley's 55