amagovernmentofficial——youtelltherascal……Eh？What？Friendofyours？“……Hecontinuedwallowingcalmlyinthechair……“Yousaidso；that’sjustit；andIampleasedtogiveyouthehint。Isupposeyou，too，wouldliketogetsomethingoutofit？Don’tinterrupt。YoujusttellhimI’veheardthetale，buttomygovernmentIhavemadenoreport。Notyet。See？Whymakeareport？Eh？Tellhimtocometomeiftheylethimgetaliveoutofthecountry。Hehadbetterlookoutforhimself。Eh？I
promisetoasknoquestions。Onthequiet——youunderstand？You，too——youshallgetsomethingfromme。Smallcommissionforthetrouble。Don’tinterrupt。
Iamagovernmentofficial，andmakenoreport。That’sbusiness。Understand？
Iknowsomegoodpeoplethatwillbuyanythingworthhaving，andcangivehimmoremoneythanthescoundreleversawinhislife。Iknowhissort。“
Hefixedmesteadfastlywithbothhiseyesopen，whileIstoodoverhimutterlyamazed，andaskingmyselfwhetherhewasmadordrunk。Heperspired，puffed，moaningfeebly，andscratchinghimselfwithsuchhorriblecomposurethatIcouldnotbearthesightlongenoughtofindout。Nextday，talkingcasuallywiththepeopleofthelittlenativecourtoftheplace，IdiscoveredthatastorywastravellingslowlydownthecoastaboutamysteriouswhitemaninPatusanwhohadgotholdofanextraordinarygem——namely，anemeraldofanenormoussize，andaltogetherpriceless。TheemeraldseemstoappealmoretotheEasternimaginationthananyotherpreciousstone。Thewhitemanhadobtainedit，Iwastold，partlybytheexerciseofhiswonderfulstrengthandpartlybycunning，fromtherulerofadistantcountry，whencehehadfledinstantlyarrivinginPatusaninutmostdistress，butfrighteningthepeoplebyhisextremeferocity，whichnothingseemedabletosubdue。