The Diamond Master | Page 5

dwins
alike--Dweedeldums und Dweedledeeses."
Mr. Latham silently placed the fifth diamond on the table, and for a
minute or more the five men stood still and gazed, first at the diamonds,
then at one another, and then again at the diamonds. Mr. Solomon, the
crisply spoken head of Solomon, Berger and Company, broke the
silence.
"These all came yesterday morning by mail, one to each of us just as
the one came to you," he informed Mr. Latham. "Mr. Harris here, of
Harris and Blacklock, learned that I had received such a stone, and
brought the one he had received for comparison. We made some

inquiries together and found that a duplicate had been received by Mr.
Stoddard, of Hall-Stoddard-Higginson. The three of us came here to see
if Mr. Schultze could give us any information, and he telephoned for
you."
Mr. Latham listened blankly.
"It's positively beyond belief," he burst out. "What--what does it
mean?"
"Id means," the German importer answered philosophically, "dat if
diamonds like dese keep popping up like dis, dat in anoder d'ree
months dey vill nod be vorth more as five cents a bucketful."
The truth of the observation came to the four others simultaneously.
Hitherto there had been only the sense of wonder and admiration; now
came the definite knowledge that diamonds, even of such great size and
beauty as these, would grow cheap if they were to be picked out of the
void; and realization of this astonishing possibility brought five shrewd
business brains to a unit of investigation. First it was necessary to find
how many other jewelers had received duplicates; then it was necessary
to find whence they came. A plan was adopted, and an investigation
ordered to begin at once.
"Dere iss someding back of id, of course," declared Mr. Schultze.
"_Vas iss?_ Dey are nod being send for our healdh!"
During the next six days half a score of private detectives were at work
on the mystery, with the slender clews at hand. They scanned hotel
registers, quizzed paper-box manufacturers, pestered stamp clerks,
bedeviled postal officials, and the sum total of their knowledge was
negative, save in the fact that they established beyond question that
only these five men had received the diamonds.
And meanwhile the heads of the five greatest jewel houses in New
York were assiduous in their search for that copperplate superscription
in their daily mail. On the morning of the eighth day it came. Mr.
Latham was nervously shuffling his unopened personal correspondence

when he came upon it--a formal white square envelope, directed by that
same copperplate hand which had directed the boxes. He dropped into
his chair, and opened the envelope with eager fingers. Inside was this
letter:
MY DEAR SIR:
One week ago I took the liberty of sending to you, and to each of four
other leading jewelers of this city whose names you know, a single
large diamond of rare cutting and color. Please accept this as a gift
from me, and be good enough to convey my compliments to the other
four gentlemen, and assure them that theirs, too, were gifts.
Believe me, I had no intention of making a mystery of this. It was
necessary definitely to attract your attention, and I could conceive of no
more certain way than in this manner. In return for the value of the
jewels I shall ask that you and the four others concerned give me an
audience in your office on Thursday afternoon next at three o'clock;
that you make known this request to the others; and that three experts
whose judgment you will all accept shall meet with us.
I believe you will appreciate the necessity of secrecy in this matter, for
the present at least. Respectfully,
E. VAN CORTLANDT WYNNE
They were on hand promptly, all of them--Mr. Latham, Mr. Schultze,
Mr. Solomon, Mr. Stoddard and Mr. Harris. The experts agreed upon
were the unemotional Mr. Czenki, Mr. Cawthorne, an Englishman in
the employ of Solomon, Berger and Company, and Mr. Schultze, who
gravely admitted that he was the first expert in the land, after Mr.
Czenki, and whose opinion of himself was unanimously accepted by
the others. The meeting place was the directors' room of the H. Latham
Company.
At one minute of three o'clock a clerk entered with a card, and handed
it to Mr. Latham.

"'Mr. E. van Cortlandt Wynne,'" Mr. Latham read aloud, and every man
in the room moved a little in his chair. Then: "Show him in here,
please."
"Now, gendlemens," observed Mr. Schultze sententiously, "ve shall zee
vat ve shall zee."
The clerk went out and a moment later Mr. Wynne appeared. He was
tall and rather slender, alert of eyes, graceful of person; perfectly
self-possessed and sure of himself, yet without one trace of