Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/201

 of linen paper with tissue paper inside. And when he looked in most of all he discovered a little cut stone.

"Gee Christmas!" he gasped. "What's this? Those diamonds!"

He shook out the folded papers, and examined the brilliant pebbles which Delia had taken out of their papers and neglected to fold in again. There were hundreds of the brilliants, including a number of rubies. There was no denying their genuineness. The papers were all marked, with the weights, with their price, and with symbols to indicate their quality.

Murdong stared at them in dismay. There was something uncanny in their flashing there in the bright lamplight. First he had learned about them from the headlines in the newspapers, and now he saw vividly that those newspapers were there because they told about the diamonds.

His imagination had been a blessing, as he viewed the river in its broad, beautiful moods. Now the lonesomeness taunted him, and he seemed to feel, if he did not hear, the demoniacal laughter of the river spirits, rejoicing in his predicament.

"She said she'd meet me down in Spanish Moss Bend," he sobbed. "And these are stolen—she didn't do it. Who did it, if she didn't do it? That's why she ordered me to go away, and that's why she kissed