Part 6 (2/2)
”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?”
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