“Rock-salt be d—­d! a diamond.”

“Taste it!” said Madison.

Tom put it to his lips, dashed it down with a dreadful exclamation, and rushed out of the room.

I felt sad and disappointed enough myself; but presently, remembering what Tom had said about the pistol, I, too left the house, and made for the hut, leaving Madison open-mouthed with astonishment.  When I got in, I found Tom lying in his bunk with his face to the wall, too dispirited apparently to answer my consolations.  Anathematising Dick and Madison, the Sasassa demon, and everything else, I strolled out of the hut, and refreshed myself with a pipe after our wearisome adventure.  I was about fifty yards from the hut, when I heard issuing from it the sound which of all others I least expected to hear.  Had it been a groan or an oath, I should have taken it as a matter of course; but the sound which caused me to stop and take the pipe out of my mouth was a hearty roar of laughter!  Next moment Tom himself emerged from the door, his whole face radiant with delight.  “Game for another ten-mile walk, old fellow?”

“What! for another lump of rock-salt, at twelve shillings a ton?”

“‘No more of that, Hal, an you love me,’ " grinned Tom.  “Now look here, Jack.  What blessed fools we are to be so floored by a trifle!  Just sit on this stump for five minutes, and I’ll make it as clear as daylight.  You’ve seen many a lump of rock-salt stuck in a crag, and so have I, though we did make such a mull of this one.  Now, Jack, did any of the pieces you have ever seen shine in the darkness brighter than any fire-fly?”

“Well, I can’t say they ever did.”

“I’d venture to prophesy that if we waited until night, which we won’t do, we would see that light still glimmering among the rocks.  Therefore, Jack, when we took away this worthless salt, we took the wrong crystal.  It is no very strange thing in these hills that a piece of rock-salt should be lying within a foot of a diamond.  It caught our eyes, and we were excited, and so we made fools of ourselves, and left the real stone behind.  Depend upon it, Jack, the Sasassa gem is lying within that magic circle of chalk upon the face of yonder cliff.  Come, old fellow, light your pipe and stow your revolver, and we’ll be off before that fellow Madison has time to put two and two together.”

I don’t know that I was very sanguine this time.  I had begun, in fact, to look upon the diamond as a most unmitigated nuisance.  However, rather than throw a damper on Tom’s expectations, I announced myself eager to start.  What a walk it was!  Tom was always a good mountaineer, but his excitement seemed to lend him wings that day, while I scrambled along after him as best I could.

When we got within half a mile he broke into the “double,” and never pulled up until he reached the round white circle upon the cliff.  Poor old Tom! when I came up, his mood had changed, and he was standing with his hands in his pockets, gazing vacantly before him with a rueful countenance.