ic, chimerical!" Mr. Latham burst out
irritably. "It's ridiculous to consider such a thing."

"I beg your pardon," Mr. Czenki apologized. "It is only a
conjecture, of course. I may add that I don't believe that three
stones of the size of the replicas which Mr. Wynne produced here
could have been found anywhere in the world and brought in here--
smuggled in or in the usual way--and the secret held against the
thousands of men who daily watch the diamond fields and market. It
would not be difficult, however, if one man alone knew the source of
the stones, to keep it from the world at large. I beg your pardon,"
he added.

He arose as if to go. Mr. Schultze brought a heavy hand down on the
slim shoulder of the expert, and turned to Mr. Latham.

"Laadham, you are listening to der man who knows more as all of us
pud in a crowd," he declared. "_Mein Gott_, I do believe he's
right!"

Mr. Latham was a cold, unimaginative man of business; he hadn't even
believed in fairies when he was a boy. This was child-talk; he
permitted himself to express his opinion by a jerk of his head, and
was silent. Diamonds like those out of meteors! Bosh!

CHAPTER IX

AND MORE DIAMONDS!

There was a rap on the door, and a clerk thrust his head in.

"Mr. Birnes to see you, sir," he announced.

"Show him in," directed Mr. Latham. "Sit down, both of you, and
let's see what he has to say."

There was an odd expression of hope deferred on the detective's
face when he entered. He glanced inquiringly at Mr. Schultze and
Mr. Czenki, whereupon Mr. Latham introduced them.

"You may talk freely," he added. "We are all interested alike."

The detective crossed his legs and balanced his hat carefully on
a knee, the while he favored Mr. Czenki with a sharp scrutiny. There
was that in the thin, scarred face and in the beady black eyes which
inevitably drew the attention of a stranger, and half a dozen times
as he talked Mr. Birnes glanced at the expert.

He retold the story of the cab ride up Fifth Avenue, and the car trip
back downtown--omitting embarrassing details such as the finding of
two notes addressed to himself--dwelt a moment upon the empty gripsack
which Mr. Wynne carried on the car, and then:

"When you told me, Mr. Latham, that the gripsack had contained
diamonds when Mr. Wynne left here I knew instantly how he got rid of
them. He transferred them to some person in the cab, in accordance
with a carefully prearrang