it may have passed through your hands."

He placed the glazed box on the table. For an instant the German
stared at it with amazed eyes, then one fat hand darted toward it,
and he spilled the diamond out on the napkin in his plate. Then he
sat gazing as if fascinated by the lambent, darting flashes deep from
the blue-white heart.

"_Mein Gott_, Laadham!" he exclaimed, and with fingers which shook a
little he lifted the stone and squinted through it toward the light,
with critical eyes. Mr. Latham was leaning forward on the table,
waiting, watching, listening.

"Well?" he queried impatiently, at last.

"Laadham, id is der miracle!" Mr. Schultze explained solemnly, with
his characteristic, whimsical philosophy. "I haf der dupligade of
id, Laadham--der dwin, der liddle brudder. Zee here!"

From an inner pocket he produced a glazed white box, identical with
that which Mr. Latham had just set down, then carefully laid the
cover aside.

"Look, Laadham, look!"

Mr. Latham looked--and gasped! Here was the counterpart of the
mysterious diamond which still lay in Mr. Schultze's outstretched
palm.

"Dey are dwins, Laadham," remarked the German quaintly, finally.
"Id came by der mail in dis morning--yust like das, wrapped in
paper, but mit no marks, no name, no noddings. Id yust came!"

With his right hand Mr. Latham lifted the duplicate diamond from
its cotton bed, and with his left took the other from the German's
hand. Then, side by side, he examined them; color, cutting, diameter,
depth, all seemed to be the same.

"Dwins, I dell you," repeated Mr. Schultze stolidly. "Dweedledum
und Dweedledee, born of der same mudder und fadder. Laadham, id
iss der miracle! Dey are der most beaudiful der world in--yust der
pair of dem."

"Have you made," Mr. Latham began, and there was an odd, uncertain
note in his voice--"Have you made an expert examination?"

"I haf. I measure him, der deepness, der cudding, der facets, und
id iss perfect. Und I take my own judgment of a diamond, Laadham,
before any man der vorld in but Czenki."

"And the weight?"

"Prezizely six und d'ree-sixdeendh carads. Dere iss nod more as a
difference of a d'irty-second bedween dem."

Mr. Latham regarded the importer steadily, the while he fought back
an absurd, nervous thrill in his voice.

"There isn't that much, Schultze. Their weight is exactly the same."

For a long time the two men sat staring at each other unseeingly.
Final