AWAY! AWAY!
"Action is the word!" said I, suddenly jumping up; and, having seized
a spade, and provided myself with a large sack, which I carried across
my shoulders, I set off for the diamond-fields. Unrecognised by a
soul, I went to work on my own account; and the brilliant things I
saw--far more brilliant than even the witticisms of WOLFFY, or the
sarcasms of ARTHUR B! Into my sack go thousands of diamonds! The sack
is full! _Aladdin_ and the Lamp not in it with me! "Hallo!" shouts
a voice, gruffly. I could see no one. "_Vox et praeterea nil_," as we
used to say at Eton. Suddenly I felt myself collared. I made a gallant
attempt at resistance. A spade is a spade I know, but what is a
spade and one against twenty with pistols and daggers, headed by the
redoubtable Filliblusterer THOMAS TIDDLER himself? "Strip him!" said
T.T., shortly.
[Illustration]
Will you believe that the only way in which in this country they
arrive at implicitly believing every word you utter, is by denuding
you of all your clothes, so as to get at the naked truth, holding you
up by the heels for the purpose of shaking the diamonds out of you, in
case any are concealed in your hair, mouth, ears, eyes and so forth.
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