ourse, is fery usual pishness. 'But he will rise, Samuel,' Denson says.
'I know him quite well, and them tiamonts is as good as sold with a
good profit for me; and a good one for you, too, I bet,' he says. I was
putting the lot to him for fifteen t'ousant pounds, and it would have
been a nice profit in that for me. And then Denson he chaffs me and he
says, 'Ah! Samuel,' he says, 'wasn't you afraid my customer and me would
hook it out o' the window with all your stones?' I don't like that sort
o' joke in pishness, you see, but I say, 'All right--I wasn't afraid o'
that. The window was a mile too high, and besides I could see it from
where I was a-sitting.' And so I could, you see, plain enough to see if
it was opened."

The ground-glass partition, in fact, cut off a part of the window of the
outer office, which, being at an angle with the inner room, gave a side
view of the window that lighted that apartment.

"Denson laughed at that," Samuel went on. "'Ha-ha!' says he, 'I never
thought of that. Then you could see the American's hat hanging up just
by the window--rum hat, ain't it?' And that was quite true, for I had
noticed it--a big, grey wideawake, almost white."

Hewitt nodded approvingly. "You are quite right," he said, "to tell me
everything you recollect, even of the most trivial sort; the smallest
thing may be very valuable. So you took your diamonds away the first
time, last week. What next?"

"Well, I came again, just the same, to-day, by appointment. Just the
same I sat in that place, and just the same Denson took the case into
the inner room. 'He's come to buy this time, I can see,' Denson whispers,
and winks. 'But he'll fight hard over the price. We'll see!' and off he
goes into the other room. Well, I waited. I waited and I waited a long
time. I looked out sideways at the window, and there I see the
American's big wideawake hat hanging up just inside the other window,
same as last time. So I think they are a long time settling the price,
and I wait some more. But it is such a very long time, and I begin to
feel uneasy. Of course, I know you cannot sell fifteen t'ousant wort' of
tiamonts in five minutes--that is not reasonable pishness. But I could
hear nothing at all now--not a sound. And the boy--the boy that came
down to call me up--he wasn't come back. But there I could see the big
wideawake hat still hanging inside the window, and of course I knew
there was only one door out of the inner room, right