CHAPTER III
THURSDAY AT THREE
Mr. Latham ran through his afternoon mail with feverish haste andfound--nothing; Mr. Schultze achieved the same result moreponderously. On the following morning the mail still broughtnothing. 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 derdiamond!"
Mr. Latham went. Including himself, there were the heads of the fivegreatest jewel establishments in America, representing, perhaps,one-tenth of the diamond trade of the country, in Mr. Schultze'soffice. He found the other four gathered around a small table, and onthis table--Mr. Latham gasped as he looked--lay four replicas of themysterious diamond in his pocket.
"Pud id down here, Laadham," directed Mr. Schultze. "Dey're alldwins alike--Dweedeldums und Dweedledeeses."
Mr. Latham silently placed the fifth diamond on the table, and fora minute or more the five men stood still and gazed, first at thediamonds, 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 asthe one came to you," he informed Mr. Latham. "Mr. Harris here, ofHarris and Blacklock, learned that I had received such a stone, andbrought the one he had received for comparison. We made someinquiries together and found that a duplicate had been received byMr. Stoddard, of Hall-Stoddard-Higginson. The three of us came hereto see if Mr. Schultze could give us any information, and hetelephoned for you."
Mr. Latham listened blankly.
"It's positively beyond belief," he burst out. "What--what does itmean?"
"Id means," the German importer answered philosophically, "dat ifdiamonds like dese keep popping up like dis, dat in anoder d'reemonths 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; nowcame the definite knowledge that diamonds, even of such great sizeand beauty as these, would grow cheap if they were to be picked outof the void; and realization of this astonishing possibility broughtfive shrewd business brains to a unit of investigation. First itwas necessary to find how many other jewelers had receivedduplicates; then it was necessary to find whence they came. A planwas 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 atwork on the mystery, with the slender clews at hand. They scannedhotel registers, quizzed paper-box manufacturers, pestered stampclerks, bedeviled postal officials, and the sum total of theirknowledge was negative, save in the fact that they established beyondquestion that only these five men had received the diamonds.
And meanwhile the heads of the five greatest jewel houses in NewYork were assiduous in their search for that copperplatesuperscription in their daily mail. On the morning of the eighth dayit came. Mr. Latham was nervously shuffling his unopened personalcorrespondence 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 eagerfingers. 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 uponwere the unemotional Mr. Czenki, Mr. Cawthorne, an Englishman in theemploy of Solomon, Berger and Company, and Mr. Schultze, whogravely admitted that he was the first expert in the land, after Mr.Czenki, and whose opinion of himself was unanimously accepted by theothers. The meeting place was the directors' room of the H. LathamCompany.
At one minute of three o'clock a clerk entered with a card, andhanded it to Mr. Latham.
"'Mr. E. van Cortlandt Wynne,'" Mr. Latham read aloud, and every manin the room moved a little in his chair. Then: "Show him in here,please."
"Now, gendlemens," observed Mr. Schultze sententiously, "ve shall zeevat ve shall zee."
The clerk went out and a moment later Mr. Wynne appeared. He wastall and rather slender, alert of eyes, graceful of person; perfectlyself-possessed and sure of himself, yet without one trace of egotismin manner or appearance--a fair type of the brisk, courteous youngbusiness man of New York. He wore a tweed suit, and in his lefthand carried a small sole-leather grip. For an instant he stood,framed by the doorway, meeting the sharp scrutiny of the assembledjewelers with a frank smile. For a little time no one spoke--merelygazed--and finally:
"Mr. Latham?" queried Mr. Wynne, looking from one to the other.
Mr. Latham came to his feet with a sudden realization of hisresponsibilities as a temporary host, and introductions followed. Mr.Wynne passed along on one side of the table, shaking hands with eachman in turn until he came to Mr. Czenki. Mr. Latham introduced them.
"Mr. Czenki," repeated Mr. Wynne, and he allowed his eyes to restfrankly upon the expert for a moment. "Your name has been repeatedto me so often that I almost feel as if I knew you."
Mr. Czenki bowed without speaking.
"I am assuming that this is the Mr. Czenki who was associated withMr. Barnato and Mr. Zeidt?" the young man went on.
"That is correct, yes," replied the expert.
"And I believe, too, that you once did some special work for ProfessorHenri Moissan in Paris?"
Mr. Czenki's black eyes seemed to be searching the other's face for aninstant, and then he nodded affirmatively.
"I made some tests for him, yes," he volunteered.
Mr. Wynne passed on along the other side of the long table, andstopped at the end. Mr. Latham was at his right, Mr. Schultze athis left, and Mr. Czenki sat at the far end, facing him. The smallsole-leather grip was on the floor at Mr. Wynne's feet. For a momenthe permitted himself to enjoy the varying expressions of interest onthe faces around the table.
"Gentlemen," he began, then, "you all, probably, have seen my letterto Mr. Latham, or at least you are aware of its contents, so youunderstand that the diamonds which were mailed to you are yourproperty. I am not a eleemosynary institution for the relief ofdiamond merchants," and he smiled a little, "for the gifts arepreliminary to a plain business proposition--a method ofconcentrating your attention, and, in themselves, part payment, ifI may say it, for any worry or inconvenience which followed upontheir appearance. There are only five of them in the world, theyare precisely alike, and they are yours. I beg of you to acceptthem with my compliments."
Mr. Schultze tilted his chair back a little, the better to studythe young man's countenance.
"I am going to make some remarkable statements," the young mancontinued, "but each of those statements is capable of demonstrationhere and now. Don't hesitate to interrupt if there is a question inyour mind, because everything I shall say is vital to each of you asbearing on the utter destruction of the worl
d's traffic in diamonds.It is coming, gentlemen, it is coming, just as inevitably as thatnight follows day, unless you stop it. You _can_ stop it byconcerted action, in a manner which I shall explain later."
He paused and glanced along the table. Only the face of Mr. Czenkiwas impassive.
"Since the opening of the fields in South Africa," Mr. Wynne resumedquietly, "something like five hundred million dollars' worth ofdiamonds have been found there; and we'll say arbitrarily that allthe other diamond fields of the world, including Brazil andAustralia, have produced another five hundred million dollars' worth--in other words, since about 1868 a billion dollars' worth ofdiamonds has been placed upon the market. Gentlemen, that representsmillions and millions of carats--forty, fifty, sixty million caratsin the rough, say. Please bear those figures in mind a moment.
"Now, suddenly, and as yet secretly, the diamond output of the worldhas been increased fiftyfold--that is, gentlemen, within the year Ican place _another_ billion dollars' worth of diamonds, at theprices that hold now, in the open market; and within still anotheryear I can place still another billion in the market; and on and onindefinitely. To put it differently, I have found the unlimitedsupply."
"_Mein Gott_, vere _iss_ id?" demanded the German breathlessly.
Heedless of the question, Mr. Wynne leaned forward on the table, andgazed with half-closed eyes into the faces before him. Incredulitywas the predominant expression, and coupled with that was amazement.Mr. Harris, with quite another emotion displaying itself on his face,pushed back his chair as if to rise; a slight wrinkle in his brow wasall the evidence of interest displayed by Mr. Czenki.
"I am not crazy, gentlemen," Mr. Wynne went on after a moment, andthe perfectly normal voice seemed to reassure Mr. Harris, for he satstill. "The diamonds are now in existence, untold millions ofdollars' worth of them--but there is the tedious work of cutting.They're in existence, packed away as you pack potatoes--I thrust mytwo hands into a bag and bring them out full of stones as perfect asthe ones I sent you."
He straightened up again and the deep earnestness of his face relaxeda little.
"I believe you said, Mr. Wynne, that you could prove any assertion youmight make, here and now?" suggested Mr. Latham coldly. "It occursto me that such extraordinary statements as these demand immediateproof."
Mr. Wynne turned and smiled at him.
"You are quite right," he agreed; and then, to all of them: "It'shardly necessary to dwell upon the value of colored diamonds--therarest and most precious of all--the perfect rose-color, the perfectblue and the perfect green." He drew a small, glazed white box fromhis 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 indiameter, along the table toward Mr. Czenki. It flamed and flashedas it rolled, with that deep iridescent blaze which left no doubt ofwhat it was. Every man at the table arose and crowded about Mr.Czenki, who held a flamelike sphere in his outstretched palm fortheir inspection. There was a tense, breathless instant.
"It's a diamond!" remarked Mr. Czenki, as if he himself had doubtedit. "A deep rose-color, cut as a perfect sphere."
"It's worth half a million dollars if it's worth a cent!" exclaimedMr. Solomon almost fiercely.
"And this, please."
Mr. Wynne, from the other end of the table, spun another glitteringsphere toward them--this as brilliantly, softly green as the verdureof early spring, prismatic, gleaming, radiant. Mr. Czenki's beadyeyes snapped as he caught it and held it out for the others to see,and some strange emotion within caused him to close his teethsavagely.
"And this!" said Mr. Wynne again.
And a third sphere rolled along the table. This was blue--elusivelyblue as a moonlit sky. Its rounded sides caught the light from thewindows 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 Statesglutted their eyes upon them. Mr. Latham's face went deathly whitefrom sheer excitement, the German's violently red from the sameemotion, and the others--there was amazement, admiration, awe inthem. Mr. Czenki's countenance was again impassive.
The Diamond Master Page 3