Colonel Thorndykes Secret | Page 9

advice to you is,
either sell them directly you get them into your hands, or go straight to
Amsterdam and sell them there to one of the diamond cutters, who will
turn them out so that they will be altered beyond all recognition. Don't

sell more than two stones at most to any one man; then they will never
come out as a bracelet again, and the hunt will be over."
"I would almost rather leave them alone altogether, George."
"Well, they are worth 50,000 pounds if they are worth a penny, and a
great deal more I should say; but you cannot leave them alone without
leaving everything alone, for all my gems are with them, and 52,000
pounds in gold. Of course, if you like you can, when you get the box,
pick those diamonds out and chuck them away, but if you do you must
do it openly, so that anyone watching you may see you do it, otherwise
the search will go on."
Two days later, as Ramoo was helping the Colonel to the sofa, the
latter was seized with a violent fit of coughing, then a rush of blood
poured from his lips. His brother and Ramoo laid him on the sofa
almost insensible.
"Run and get some water, Ramoo," John Thorndyke said.
As Ramoo left the room the Colonel feebly placed his snuffbox in his
brother's hand with a significant glance; then he made several desperate
efforts to speak, and tried to struggle up into a sitting position; another
gush of blood poured from him, and as it ceased he fell back dead.
John Thorndyke was bitterly grieved at the death of his brother, and it
was not until he went up to his room that night that he thought of the
snuffbox that he had dropped into his pocket as his brother handed it to
him. He had no doubt that it contained the instructions as to the treasure.
It was of Indian manufacture. He emptied the snuff from it, but it
contained nothing else. He was convinced that the secret must be
hidden there, and after in vain endeavoring to find a spring, he took a
poker and hammered it, and as it bent a spring gave way, and showed a
very shallow false bottom.
In this was a thin gold coin, evidently of considerable antiquity, and a
small piece of paper, on which was written the word "Masulipatam."
John Thorndyke looked at it in bewilderment; that it was connected

with the secret he felt certain, but alone it was absolutely useless.
Doubtless his brother had intended to give him the key of the riddle,
when he had so desperately striven to speak. After in vain thinking the
matter over he said:
"Well, thank goodness; there is nothing to be done about the matter for
another thirteen or fourteen years; it is of no use worrying about it
now." He went to an old fashioned cabinet, and placed the coin and
piece of paper in a very cunningly devised secret drawer. The next
morning he went out into the garden and dropped the battered snuffbox
into the well, and then dismissed the subject from his mind.
CHAPTER II
Standing some two miles out of Reigate is the village of Crowswood, a
quiet place and fairly well to do, thanks in no small degree to Squire
Thorndyke, who owned the whole of the, parish, and by whom and his
tenants the greater portion of the village were employed. Greatly had
the closing of the Manor House, after the death of old Squire
Thorndyke, been felt. There were no more jellies, soups, and other
comforts to be looked for in time of sickness, no abatement of rent
when the breadwinner was sick or disabled, no check to the drunkards,
whom the knowledge that they would be turned out of their cottage at a
week's notice kept in some sort of order. When, therefore, after ten
years of absence of all government, John Thorndyke, after the death of
his brother, the Colonel, came down and took possession, he found the
place sadly changed from what it had been when he had left it twenty
years before. His first act was to dismiss Newman; who, completely
unchecked, had, he found, been sadly mismanaging affairs. It was not
long, however, before his hand made itself felt. Two out of the three
public houses were shut up in six months, a score of their habitual
frequenters had, weeks before, been turned out of their houses, an order
had been issued that unless a cottage was kept in good order and the
garden bright and blooming with flowers in the summer a fresh tenant
would be found for it. Every child must be sent to the village school;
the Squire was