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The sergeant put his helmet on the table, walked to a sideboard where a tray and decanter stood, and poured himself out a stiff dose of whisky without invitation. John Minute watched him without any great resentment. This was not civilized Eastbourne they were in. They were back in the old free-and-easy days of Gwelo, where men did not expect invitations to drink.
They started from Gwelo, with its wide, tree-lined roads, in the freshness of the morning, and leaving the surrounding bare, uninteresting common quickly behind, dived straightway into a track of Rhodesia that is like a vast, undulating park.
Then he wiped his face again a dark, fiercely-burnt face. He was a man over forty; he looked more than his age, or as if he had had very hard times. 'Going far? he asked. 'Not much further now, the boy said cheerfully. 'My station's fifty miles beyond Gwelo. I'm about sick of it. I traveled second class on the boat.
John Minute read the newspapers, particularly that portion of them which dealt with the latest fluctuations in the stock market. "Somebody has been buying Gwelo Deeps," he complained loudly. Jasper looked up. "Gwelo Deeps?" he said. "But they are the shares " "Yes, yes," said the other testily; "I know. They were quoted at a shilling last week; they are up to two shillings and threepence.
"I had no idea you were going in their direction." "I meant to if possible," her father said; and so the trip was decided upon. Three days later the cavalcade started off from Gwelo with great éclat. Two ambulances: one containing the two girls, a driver, a fore-looper, and a small black boy named Gelungwa, who was everything from ladies' maid to general adviser; and the other containing Mr.
"I don't often trouble you, but somehow I had a feeling I'd like to see you to-night. My constable revived old memories, John." "Unpleasant for you, I hope," said John Minute ungraciously. "There's a nice little gold farm four hundred miles north of Gwelo," said Sergeant Smith meditatively.
Jasper took up his paper, but was not to be left to the enjoyment its columns offered, for five minutes later John Minute appeared in the doorway, minus his tie and coat, having been surprised in the act of undressing with an idea which called for development. "Send a cable in the morning to the manager of the Gwelo Deeps and ask him if there is any report.
To his ward he left the sum of two hundred thousand pounds, "a provision which was also made in the previous will, I might add," said the lawyer, and to this he added all his shares in the Gwelo Deep. "To his nephew, Francis Merrill, he left twenty thousand pounds."
"He lured me into the Gwelo Deeps against my better judgment We sank a bore three thousand feet and found everything except gold." He gave one of his brief, rumbling chuckles. "I wish that mine had been a success. Poor old Bill Nuttall! He helped me in some tight places." "And I think you have done your best for his daughter, sir." "She's a nice girl," said John Minute, "a dear girl.
I've got five hundred thousand of them; to be exact," he corrected himself, "I've got a million of them, though half of them are not my property. I am almost tempted to sell." "Perhaps they have found gold," suggested Jasper. John Minute snorted. "If there is gold in the Gwelo Deeps there are diamonds on the downs," he said scornfully.
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