Chapter 3

The three men strolled into the balcony and leaned out. And it struck
that exceptionally quick observer of human nature, Mr. Blackton, that
both his visitors were a little nervous. Sir Raymond Blantyre
especially was not at his ease, answering the casual remarks of his host
at random. He was a short, stocky little man with a white moustache and
a gold-rimmed eyeglass, which he had an irritating habit of taking in
and out of his eye, and he gave a sigh of relief as the door finally
closed behind the waiter.

“Now perhaps we can come to business. Count–er–I beg your pardon, Mr.
Blackton.”

“The mistake is a natural one,” said his host suavely. “Shall we go
inside the room to avoid any risk of being overheard?”

“I had better begin at the beginning,” said Sir Raymond, waving away his
host’s offer of champagne. “And when I’ve finished, you will see, I
have no doubt, our reasons for disturbing you in this way. Nothing
short of the desperate position in which we find ourselves would have
induced us to seek you out after what Mr. Freyder told my friend
Leibhaus. But that situation is so desperate that we had no
alternative.”

Mr. Blackton’s face remained quite expressionless, and the other, after
a little pause, went on:

“Doubtless you know who we are, Mr. Blackton. I am the President of the
Metropolitan Diamond Syndicate and Mr. Leibhaus is the senior
Vice-President. In the event of my absence at any time, he deputises
for me. I mention these facts to emphasise the point that we are the
heads of that combine, and that you are therefore dealing with the
absolute principals, and not with subordinates.

“Now, I may further mention that although the Metropolitan is our
particular Syndicate, we are both of us considerably interested in other
diamond enterprises. In fact our entire fortune is bound up
irretrievably in the diamond industry–as are the fortunes of several
other men, for whom, Mr. Blackton, I am authorised to speak.

“So that I am in a position to say that not only am I here as
representative of the Metropolitan Syndicate, but I am here as
representative of the whole diamond industry and the enormous capital
locked up in that industry.”

“You make yourself perfectly clear, Sir Raymond,” said Mr. Blackton
quietly. His face was as masklike as ever, but he wondered more and
more what could be coming.

Sir Raymond took out his eyeglass and polished it; then he took a sip of
the champagne which, despite his refusal, his host had poured out for
him.

“That being so, Mr. Blackton, and my position in the matter being fully
understood, I will come to the object of our visit. One day about a
fortnight ago I was dining at the house of a certain Professor Goodman.
You may perhaps have heard of him by name? No!

“Well, he is, I understand, one of the foremost chemists of the day. He
and I have not got much in common, but my wife and his became acquainted
during the war, and we still occasionally dine with one another. There
were six of us at dinner–our four selves, his daughter, and an
extraordinarily inane young man with an eyeglass–who, I gathered, was
engaged to the daughter.

“It was during dinner that my attention was caught by a rather peculiar
ornament that the daughter was wearing. It looked to me like a piece of
ordinary cut glass mounted in a claw of gold, and she was using it as a
brooch. The piece of glass was about the size of a large marble, and it
scintillated so brilliantly as she moved that I could not help noticing
it.

“I may say that it struck me as a distinctly vulgar ornament–the sort
of thing that a housemaid might be expected to wear when she was out. It
surprised me, since the Goodmans are the last people one would expect to
allow such a thing. And, of course, I should have said nothing about it
had not the vapid youth opposite noticed me.

“‘Looking at the monkey nut?’ he said, or something equally foolish.
‘Pretty sound bit of work on the part of the old paternal parent.’

“Professor Goodman looked up and smiled, and the girl took it off and
handed it to me.

“‘What do you think of it, Sir Raymond?’ she asked. ‘I put it on
especially for your benefit to-night.’

“I glanced at it, and to my amazement I found that it was a perfectly
flawless diamond, worth certainly ten to twelve thousand pounds, and
possibly more. I suppose my surprise must have been obvious, because
they all began to laugh.

“‘Well, what is your verdict, Blantyre?’ said the Professor.

“‘I will be perfectly frank,’ I answered. ‘I cannot understand how you
can have placed such a really wonderful stone in such an unworthy
setting.’

“And then the Professor laughed still more.

“‘What would you say was the value of that stone?’ he inquired.

“‘I should be delighted to give Miss Goodman a cheque for ten thousand
pounds for it here and now,’ I said.

“And then he really roared with laughter.

“‘What about it, Brenda?’ he cried. ‘Do you know what that stone cost
me, Blantyre? Five pounds ten shillings and sixpence–and two burnt
fingers.'”

Blackton leaned forward in his chair and stared at the speaker.

“Well–what then?” he said quietly.

Sir Raymond mopped his forehead and took another sip of champagne.

“You’ve guessed it, Mr. Blackton. It was false–or when I say false, it
was not false in the sense that Tecla pearls are false, But it had been
made by a chemical process in Professor Goodman’s laboratory. Otherwise
it was indistinguishable from the genuine article: in fact”–in his
agitation he thumped the table with his fist–“it _was_ the genuine
article!”

Blackton carefully lit another cigar.

“And what did you do?” he inquired. “I presume that you have tested the
matter fully since.”

“Of course,” answered the other. “I will tell you exactly what has
happened. That evening after dinner I sat on talking with the
Professor. Somewhat naturally I allowed no hint of my agitation to show
on my face.

“As you probably know, Mr. Blackton, artificial diamonds have been
manufactured in the past–real diamonds indistinguishable from those
found in nature. But they have been small, and their cost has been
greater when made artificially than if they had been found. And so the
process has never been economically worth while. But this was
altogether different.

“If what Professor Goodman told me was the truth–if he had indeed
manufactured that diamond for five pounds in his laboratory, we were
confronted with the possibility of an appalling crisis. And since he
was the last person to tell a stupid and gratuitous lie, you may imagine
my feelings.