The Diamond Master | Page 7

to reassure Mr. Harris, for he sat still.
"The diamonds are now in existence, untold millions of dollars' worth
of them--but there is the tedious work of cutting. They're in existence,
packed away as you pack potatoes--I thrust my two hands into a bag
and bring them out full of stones as perfect as the ones I sent you."
He straightened up again and the deep earnestness of his face relaxed a
little.
"I believe you said, Mr. Wynne, that you could prove any assertion you
might make, here and now?" suggested Mr. Latham coldly. "It occurs
to me that such extraordinary statements as these demand immediate

proof."
Mr. Wynne turned and smiled at him.
"You are quite right," he agreed; and then, to all of them: "It's hardly
necessary to dwell upon the value of colored diamonds--the rarest and
most precious of all--the perfect rose-color, the perfect blue and the
perfect green." He drew a small, glazed white box from his pocket and
opened it. "Please be good enough to look at this, Mr. Czenki."
He spun a rosily glittering object some three-quarters of an inch in
diameter, along the table toward Mr. Czenki. It flamed and flashed as it
rolled, with that deep iridescent blaze which left no doubt of what it
was. Every man at the table arose and crowded about Mr. Czenki, who
held a flamelike sphere in his outstretched palm for their inspection.
There was a tense, breathless instant.
"It's a diamond!" remarked Mr. Czenki, as if he himself had doubted it.
"A deep rose-color, cut as a perfect sphere."
"It's worth half a million dollars if it's worth a cent!" exclaimed Mr.
Solomon almost fiercely.
"And this, please."
Mr. Wynne, from the other end of the table, spun another glittering
sphere toward them--this as brilliantly, softly green as the verdure of
early spring, prismatic, gleaming, radiant. Mr. Czenki's beady eyes
snapped as he caught it and held it out for the others to see, and some
strange emotion within caused him to close his teeth savagely.
"And this!" said Mr. Wynne again.
And a third sphere rolled along the table. This was blue--elusively blue
as a moonlit sky. Its rounded sides caught the light from the windows
and sparkled it back.
And now the three jewels lay side by side in Mr. Czenki's open hand,

the while the five greatest diamond merchants of the United States
glutted their eyes upon them. Mr. Latham's face went deathly white
from sheer excitement, the German's violently red from the same
emotion, and the others--there was amazement, admiration, awe in
them. Mr. Czenki's countenance was again impassive.
CHAPTER IV
THE UNLIMITED SUPPLY
"If you will all be seated again, please?" requested Mr. Wynne, who
still stood, cool and self-certain, at the end of the table.
The sound of his voice brought a returning calm to the others, and they
resumed their seats--all save Mr. Cawthorne, who walked over to a
window with the three spheres in his hand and stood there examining
them under his glass.
"You gentlemen know, of course, the natural shape of the diamond in
the rough?" Mr. Wynne resumed questioningly. "Here are a dozen
specimens which may interest you--the octahedron, the rhombic
dodecahedron, the triakisoctahedron and the hexakisoctahedron." He
spread them along the table with a sweeping gesture of his hand,
colorless, inert pebbles, ranging in size from a pea to a peanut. "And
now, you ask, where do they come from?"
The others nodded unanimously.
"I'll have to state a fact that you all know, as part answer to that
question," replied Mr. Wynne. "A perfect diamond is a perfect diamond,
no matter where it comes from--Africa, Brazil, India or New Jersey.
There is not the slightest variation in value if the stone is perfect. That
being true, it is a matter of no concern to you, as dealers, where these
come from--sufficient it is that they are here, and, being here, they
bring home to you the necessity of concerted action to uphold the
diamond as a thing of value."
"You said der vorld's oudpud had been increased fiftyfold?" suggested

Mr. Schultze. "Do ve understand you prove him by dese?"
The young man smiled slightly and drew a leather packet from an inner
pocket. He stripped it of several rubber bands, and then turned to Mr.
Czenki again.
"Mr. Czenki, I have been told that a few years ago you had an
opportunity of examining the Koh-i-noor. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"I believe the Koh-i-noor was temporarily removed from its setting,
and that you were one of three experts to whom was intrusted the task
of selecting four stones of the identical coloring to be set alongside it?"
"That is correct," Mr. Czenki agreed.
"You held the Koh-i-noor in your hand, and you would be