“Very neat—­very pretty indeed!” cried the ex-parson, in a quiet tone of critical satisfaction, as a connoisseur might speak of a specimen which interested him.  He was already busy at the door of the safe.

“Well done, Mr. Burt, well done!” cried Williams, in a quivering voice; and going up to the body he kicked it in the side.  “You see I am not afraid, Mr. Burt, am I?”

“Stow your gab!” snarled the navvy.  “Here’s the rum all gettin’ loose.”  Picking up the bottle he took a pull of what was left in it.  “Here’s the bag, parson,” he whispered, pulling a black linen bag from his pocket.  “We haven’t made much noise over the job.”

“Here are the stones,” said Farintosh, in the same quiet voice.  “Hold the mouth open.”  He emptied an avalanche of diamonds into the receptacle.  “Here are some notes and gold.  We may as well have them too.  Now, tie it up carefully.  That’s the way!  If we meet any one on the stairs, take it coolly.  Turn that lamp out, Williams, so that if any one looks in he’ll see nothing.  Come along!”

The guilty trio stole out of the room, bearing their plunder with them, and walked down the passage of the hotel unmolested and unharmed.

The moon, as it rose over the veldt that night, shone on three horsemen spurring it along the Capetown road as though their very lives depended upon their speed.  Its calm, clear rays streamed over the silent roofs of Kimberley and in through a particular window of the Central Hotel, throwing silvery patches upon the carpet, and casting strange shadows from the figure which lay as it had fallen, huddled in an ungainly heap upon the floor.

CHAPTER XXII.

ROBBERS AND ROBBED.

It might perhaps have been as well for the curtailing of this narrative, and for the interests of the world at large if the blow dealt by the sturdy right arm of the navvy had cut short once for all the career of the junior African merchant.  Ezra, however, was endowed with a rare vitality, which enabled him not only to shake off the effects of his mishap, but to do so in an extraordinarily short space of time.  There was a groan from the prostrate figure, then a feeble movement, then another and a louder groan, and then an oath.  Gradually raising himself upon his elbow, he looked around him in a bewildered way, with his other hand pressed to the wound at the back of his head, from which a few narrow little rivulets of blood were still meandering.  His glance wandered vaguely over the table and the chairs and the walls, until it rested upon the safe.  He could see in the moonlight that it was open, and empty.  In a moment the whole circumstances of the case came back to him, and he staggered to the door with a hoarse cry of rage and of despair.

Whatever Ezra’s faults may have been, irresolution or want of courage were not among them.  In a moment he grasped the situation, and realized that it was absolutely essential that he should act, and at once.  The stones must be recovered, or utter and irretrievable ruin stared him in the face.  At his cries the landlord and several attendants, white and black, came rushing into the room.