"Mister!" he said. "Let's be getting at something! What do you know, now,
about this here Levendale?"
"Not much," replied Guyler. "But I'm open to tell what I do know. I've
been a bit of a rolling stone, do you see--knocked about the world, pretty
considerable, doing one thing and another, and I've falsified the old
saying, for I've contrived to gather a good bit of moss in my rollings.
Well, now, I was located in Cape Town for a while, some five years ago,
and I met Spencer Levendale there. He was then a dealer in diamonds--can't
say in what way exactly--for I never exactly knew--but it was well known
that he'd made a big pile, buying and selling these goods, and he was a
very rich man. Now I and five other men--all of different nationalities--
were very useful to Levendale in a big deal that he was anxious to carry
through--never mind what it was--and he felt pretty grateful to us, I
reckon. And as we were all warmish men so far as money was concerned, it
wasn't the sort of thing that he could hand out cheques for, so he hit on
the notion of having sets of studs made of platinum--which is, as you're
aware, the most valuable metal known, and on every stud he had a device of
his own invention carefully engraved.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182