ly the German, with a prodigious Teutonic sigh, replaced the
diamond from Mr. Latham's right hand in one of the glazed boxes and
carefully stowed it away in a cavernous pocket; Mr. Latham
mechanically disposed of the other in the same manner.

"Whose are they?" he demanded at length. "Why are they sent to us
like this, with no name, no letter of explanation? Until I saw the
stone you have I believed this other had been sent to me by some
careless fool for setting, perhaps, and that a letter would follow
it. I merely brought it here on the chance that it was one of your
importations and that you could identify it. But since you have
received one under circumstances which seem to be identical, now--"
He paused helplessly. "What does it mean?"

Mr. Schultze shrugged his huge shoulders and thoughtfully flicked
the ashes from his cigar into the consomme.

"You know, Laadham," he said slowly, "dey don't pick up diamonds
like dose on der streed gorners. I didn't believe dere vas a stone
of so bigness in der Unided States whose owner I didn't know id vas.
Dose dat are here I haf bring in myself, mostly--dose I did not I haf
kept drack of. I don'd know, Laadham, I don'd know. Der longer I
lif der more I don'd know."

The two men completed a scant luncheon in silence.

"Obviously," remarked Mr. Latham as he laid his napkin aside, "the
diamonds were sent to us by the same person; obviously they were sent
to us with a purpose; obviously we will, in time, hear from the
person who sent them; obviously they were intended to be perfectly
matched; so let's see if they are. Come to my office and let Czenki
examine the one you have." He hesitated an instant. "Suppose you
let me take it. We'll try a little experiment."

He carefully placed the jewel which the German handed to him, in an
outside pocket, and together they went to his office. Mr. Czenki
appeared, in answer to a summons, and Mr. Latham gave him the
German's box.

"That's the diamond you examined for me this morning, isn't it?" he
inquired.

Mr. Czenki turned it out into his hand and scrutinized it
perfunctorily.

"Yes," he replied after a moment.

"Are you quite certain?" Mr. Latham insisted.

Something in the tone caused Mr. Czenki to raise his beady black
eyes questioningly for an instant, after which he walked over to a
window and adjusted his magnifying glass again. For a moment or more
he stood there, then:

"It's the same stone," he announc