'Swore it was a genuine pearl of priceless
value, and was willing to deprive himself of it for the trifling sum of
half a jimmy. But we'd heard that sort of thing before. However, the
curio-man seems to have speculated on the chance of meeting with a
greenhorn, and he seems to have pulled it off. Lucky curio man!'
"I listened patiently to their gibes, and when they had talked
themselves out I told them about the jeweller. They were most
frightfully sick; and when we had taken the pendant to a dealer in gems
who happened to be staying in the town, and he had offered me five
hundred pounds for it, their language wasn't fit for a divinity
students' debating club. Naturally the story got noised abroad, and when
I left, it was the talk of the place. The general opinion was that the
sailor, who was traced to a tea-ship that had put into the harbour, had
stolen it from some Chinese passenger; and no less than seventeen
different Chinamen came forward to claim it as their stolen property.
"Soon after this I returned to England, and, as my nerves were still in
a very shaky state, I came to live with my cousin Alfred, who has a
large house at Weybridge.
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