The Diamond Master | Page 4

Laadham, before
any man der vorld in but Czenki."
"And the weight?"
"Prezizely six und d'ree-sixdeendh carads. Dere iss nod more as a
difference of a d'irty-second bedween dem."

Mr. Latham regarded the importer steadily, the while he fought back an
absurd, nervous thrill in his voice.
"There isn't that much, Schultze. Their weight is exactly the same."
For a long time the two men sat staring at each other unseeingly.
Finally the German, with a prodigious Teutonic sigh, replaced the
diamond from Mr. Latham's right hand in one of the glazed boxes and
carefully stowed it away in a cavernous pocket; Mr. Latham
mechanically disposed of the other in the same manner.
"Whose are they?" he demanded at length. "Why are they sent to us
like this, with no name, no letter of explanation? Until I saw the stone
you have I believed this other had been sent to me by some careless
fool for setting, perhaps, and that a letter would follow it. I merely
brought it here on the chance that it was one of your importations and
that you could identify it. But since you have received one under
circumstances which seem to be identical, now--" He paused helplessly.
"What does it mean?"
Mr. Schultze shrugged his huge shoulders and thoughtfully flicked the
ashes from his cigar into the consomme.
"You know, Laadham," he said slowly, "dey don't pick up diamonds
like dose on der streed gorners. I didn't believe dere vas a stone of so
bigness in der Unided States whose owner I didn't know id vas. Dose
dat are here I haf bring in myself, mostly--dose I did not I haf kept
drack of. I don'd know, Laadham, I don'd know. Der longer I lif der
more I don'd know."
The two men completed a scant luncheon in silence.
"Obviously," remarked Mr. Latham as he laid his napkin aside, "the
diamonds were sent to us by the same person; obviously they were sent
to us with a purpose; obviously we will, in time, hear from the person
who sent them; obviously they were intended to be perfectly matched;
so let's see if they are. Come to my office and let Czenki examine the
one you have." He hesitated an instant. "Suppose you let me take it.

We'll try a little experiment."
He carefully placed the jewel which the German handed to him, in an
outside pocket, and together they went to his office. Mr. Czenki
appeared, in answer to a summons, and Mr. Latham gave him the
German's box.
"That's the diamond you examined for me this morning, isn't it?" he
inquired.
Mr. Czenki turned it out into his hand and scrutinized it perfunctorily.
"Yes," he replied after a moment.
"Are you quite certain?" Mr. Latham insisted.
Something in the tone caused Mr. Czenki to raise his beady black eyes
questioningly for an instant, after which he walked over to a window
and adjusted his magnifying glass again. For a moment or more he
stood there, then:
"It's the same stone," he announced positively.
"Id iss der miracle, Laadham, when Czenki make der mistake!" the
German exploded suddenly. "Show him der odder von."
Mr. Czenki glanced from one to the other with quick, inquisitive glance;
then, without a word, Mr. Latham produced the second box and opened
it. The expert stared incredulously at the two perfect stones and finally,
placing them side by side on a sheet of paper, returned to the window
and sat down. Mr. Latham and Mr. Schultze stood beside him, looking
on curiously as he turned and twisted the jewels under his powerful
glass.
"As a matter of fact," asked Mr. Latham pointedly at last, "you would
not venture to say which of those stones it was you examined this
morning, would you?"
"No," replied Mr. Czenki curtly, "not without weighing them."

"And if the weight is identical?"
"No," said Mr. Czenki again. "If the weight is the same there is not the
minutest fraction of a difference between them."
CHAPTER III
THURSDAY AT THREE
Mr. Latham ran through his afternoon mail with feverish haste and
found--nothing; Mr. Schultze achieved the same result more
ponderously. On the following morning the mail still brought nothing.
About eleven o'clock Mr. Latham's desk telephone rang.
"Come to my offiz," requested Mr. Schultze, in gutteral excitement.
"Mein Gott, Laadham, der--come to my offiz, Laadham, und bring der
diamond!"
Mr. Latham went. Including himself, there were the heads of the five
greatest jewel establishments in America, representing, perhaps,
one-tenth of the diamond trade of the country, in Mr. Schultze's office.
He found the other four gathered around a small table, and on this
table--Mr. Latham gasped as he looked--lay four replicas of the
mysterious diamond in his pocket.
"Pud id down here, Laadham," directed Mr. Schultze. "Dey're all