frankly upon the expert for a moment. "Your name has been repeated
to 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 with
Mr. 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 Professor
Henri Moissan in Paris?"

Mr. Czenki's black eyes seemed to be searching the other's face for an
instant, 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, and
stopped at the end. Mr. Latham was at his right, Mr. Schultze at
his left, and Mr. Czenki sat at the far end, facing him. The small
sole-leather grip was on the floor at Mr. Wynne's feet. For a moment
he permitted himself to enjoy the varying expressions of interest on
the faces around the table.

"Gentlemen," he began, then, "you all, probably, have seen my letter
to Mr. Latham, or at least you are aware of its contents, so you
understand that the diamonds which were mailed to you are your
property. I am not a eleemosynary institution for the relief of
diamond merchants," and he smiled a little, "for the gifts are
preliminary to a plain business proposition--a method of
concentrating your attention, and, in themselves, part payment, if
I may say it, for any worry or inconvenience which followed upon
their appearance. There are only five of them in the world, they
are precisely alike, and they are yours. I beg of you to accept
them with my compliments."

Mr. Schultze tilted his chair back a little, the better to study
the young man's countenance.

"I am going to make some remarkable statements," the young man
continued, "but each of those statements is capable of demonstration
here and now. Don't hesitate to interrupt if there is a question in
your mind, because everything I shall say is vital to each of you as
bearing on the utter destruction of the world's traffic in diamonds.
It is coming, gentlemen, it is coming, just as inevitably as that
night follows day, unless you stop it. You _can_ stop it by
concerted action, in a manner which I shall explain later."

He paused and glanced along the table. Only the face of Mr. Czenki
was impassive.

"Since the opening of the fields in South Africa," Mr. Wynne resumed
quietly, "something like five hundred million do