Page:Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers.djvu/42

32 have not all been cut and polished as has this one.

"Naturally I was much impressed by what I saw, and, after I had made certain tests which convinced me that the stones in the steel box were diamonds, I paid over the money as I had promised. That was my undoing."

"How?"

"As soon as the men got the cash, they had no further use for me. The next I remember is eating a rude meal, while we discussed the future of making diamonds. I knew nothing more until I found myself back in the small hotel at Indian Ridge, whence I had gone some time previous, with the men, to the cave in the mountain."

"What happened?" asked Tom, much surprised by the unexpected outcome of the affair.

"I had been tricked, that was all! As soon as the men had my money they had no further use for me. They did not want me to learn the secret of their diamond making, and they drugged me, carried me away from the cave, and left me in the hotel."

"Didn't you try to find the cave again?"

"I did, but without avail. I spent some time in the Rockies, but no one could tell where