I arrived four hours earlier than my appointment." "I beg to congratulate you on that proceeding! When did you take the Diamond to the bank at the town here ?" "I took it an hour after I had brought it to this house--and three hours before anybody was prepared for seeing me in these parts." "I beg to congratulate you again! Did you bring it back here alone ?" "No.

I happened to ride back with my cousins and the groom." "I beg to congratulate you for the third time! If you ever feel inclined to travel beyond the civilised limits, Mr.Blake, let me know, and I will go with you.

You are a lucky man." Here I struck in.

This sort of thing didn't at all square with my English ideas.
"You don't really mean to say, sir," I asked, "that they would have taken Mr.Franklin's life, to get their Diamond, if he had given them the chance ?" "Do you smoke, Mr.Betteredge ?" says the traveller.
"Yes, sir.
"Do you care much for the ashes left in your pipe when you empty it ?" "No, sir." "In the country those men came from, they care just as much about killing a man, as you care about emptying the ashes out of your pipe.
If a thousand lives stood between them and the getting back of their Diamond--and if they thought they could destroy those lives without discovery--they would take them all.

The sacrifice of caste is a serious thing in India, if you like.