As Meinik said, the gems were of little use to the robbers, since they were afraid to try and dispose of them; and their owners had themselves broken the law in having purchased them, and had doubtless given sums bearing no proportion to their real value.

Therefore he thanked Meinik very heartily; and also, after they had had their meal, the rest of the band, who made very light of the matter.
The things were useless to them, they said.

If it had been silver, or even lead, it would have been different; but to endeavour to sell rubies they had to risk their lives.

The goods that they had got that day would fetch them far more money than the rubies, and could be sold without difficulty and, as soon as the war was over and they could go down to their villages, the band would break up.
They had enough silver and lead hidden away to keep them for years, even if they never did any work, whatever.
"What do you do with it, when you get back ?" "We hide it.

It would never do to enter a village with ten or twelve pounds' weight of silver, and three or four times as much lead, for the headman might take it into his head to have us searched.