by name and by
sight; and all my plans have gone perfectly until now. This is why
it was necessary for me to keep away from out there as it was for you
to keep away from here; why we could not afford to take chances by an
interchange of letters or by telephone calls. When I left you in the
cab I knew you would get away safely, because they did not know you
were there, in the first place; and then it was the beginning of the
chase and I forced them to center their attention on me. But now it
different. Come here to the window a minute."

He led her across the room unresistingly. On the opposite side of
the street, staring at the house, was a man.

"That man is a private detective," Mr. Wynne informed her. "His name
is Sutton, and he is only one of thirty or forty whose sole business
in life, right now, is to watch me, to keep track of and follow any
person who comes here. He saw you enter, and you couldn't escape
him going out. There's another on the roof of the house next door.
His name is Claflin. These men, or others from the same agency, are
here all the time. There are two more at my office downtown; still
others are searching customs records, examining the books of the
express companies, probing into my private affairs. And they're all
in the employ of the men with whom I am dealing. Do you understand
now?"

"I didn't dream of such a thing," the girl faltered slowly. "I knew,
of course, that--Gene, I shouldn't have come if--if only I could have
heard from him."

"My dear girl, it's a big game we are playing--a hundred-million-dollar
game! And we shall win it, unless--we _shall_ win it, in spite of
them. Naturally the diamond dealers don't want to be compelled to put
up one hundred million dollars. They reason that if the stones I
showed them came from new fields, and the supply is unlimited, as I
told them, that the diamond market is on the verge of collapse, anyway;
and as they look at it they are compelled to know where they came from.
As a matter of fact, if they did know, or if the public got one inkling
of the truth, the diamond market would be wrecked, and all the diamond
dealers in the world working together couldn't prevent it. If they
succeed in doing this thing they feel they must do, they will only
bring disaster upon themselves. It would do no good to tell them so;
I merely laid my plans and am letting them alone. So, you see, my
dear, it is a big game--a big game!"

CHAPT