290 TTTO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



usually Terdant that day, for vampirus evidently took me for an 

 out-and-out gi-eenhorn. 



I asked for uncut Ceylon diamonds. Yes, lie had some, fifteen 

 shillings per ounce ! (Mr. Ossen's price was one shilling per ounce.) 

 I said I thought I would take an ounce, and looking up quickly at 

 his young hopeful standing near the table, I surprised him in the 

 midst of a significant gi'in, which he instantly sought to extinguish. 



" "What's that boy grinning for ? " I demanded of the dealer. 



Mr. Jocnoos was gi-eatly annoyed by this unfortunate contre- 

 temps, and looked it. 



" Oh, he's a little fool ; don't you mind, sor ; he grins all the 

 time. Go into the other room ! " to the bov, with a black scowl. 



By that time I had had enough of the little game, and to pay 

 ]\Ir. Joonoos for his efforts in trying to swindle me, I selected about 

 seventy i-upees worth of ciystals, sapphires, turquoise and emeralds, 

 and had them wi'apped up. He thought I Avas going to pay cash, 

 but he grumbled openly that I took so little. I ought to have taken 

 " for two hundred or three hundred rujjees anyhow." He declared 

 he ought to have sold £2,000 worth in that time. "When the goods 

 were wi'ai^ped up, I told him to put the parcel aside and keep it 

 until I called again and paid for it. " And when I do," I added, 

 "you will know for sure just how big a fool I am. Ta ta. Try 

 again, ISIi*. Joonoos." 



I left him utterly bewildered at the extent of his failure to make 

 a haul, and never saw him again ; but even to this day it enrages 

 me to think how the wily scoundrel spread his net for me. It is 

 humiliating to think I was ever taken for such a flat. 



On May 16th, I took passage in the superb steamer Yenglse, of 

 the Messageries Maritimes Company, for Singapore, and Ceylon be- 

 came to me a memory of the past. Adieu, lovely isle ! Good-bj'e 

 to your sunny sea and groves of coral, your girdle of yellow sand 

 and cocoa-palms, your scrubby jungle, and troops of fat and saucy 

 monkeys. Farewell to your noble forests and mountains, which I 

 did not see, and your humbug cinnamon gardens, which ai*e not 

 worth seeing, nor lying about either. A fond adieu to Colombo and 

 the good friends who live there. Good-bye, too, to official cussed- 

 ness, to Singhalese laziness, and to Moormen both good and bad. 



My thanks are due to the doctor and the climate which cured 

 me effectually of fever, and without any penalty either. Ceylon 

 holds a mortgage on my affections which will never be lifted in thia 

 "world, I know. Happy Ceylon ! 



