o until he saw him bury his treasure; that he had dug it up and
fled with it, but that as yet he was afraid to attempt to dispose of
it publicly--so valuable a gem being almost certain to attract too
much attention to its owner's antecedents--and he had not been able
to discover any of those obscure channels by which such matters are
conveyed away safely. He added that, in accordance with oriental
practice, he had named his diamond with the fanciful title of "The Eye
of Morning."

While Simon was relating this to me, I regarded the great diamond
attentively. Never had I beheld anything so beautiful. All the glories
of light ever imagined or described seemed to pulsate in its crystalline
chambers. Its weight, as I learned from Simon, was exactly one hundred
and forty carats. Here was an amazing coincidence. The hand of destiny
seemed in it. On the very evening when the spirit of Leeuwenhoek
communicates to me the great secret of the microscope, the priceless
means which he directs me to employ start up within my easy reach! I
determined, with the most perfect deliberation, to possess myself of
Simon's diamond.

I sat opposite to him while he nodded over his glass, and calmly
revolved the whole affair. I did not for an instant contemplate so
foolish an act as a common theft, which would of course be discovered,
or at least necessitate flight and concealment, all of which must
interfere with my scientific plans. There was but one step to be
taken--to kill Simon. After all, what was the life of a little peddling
Jew in comparison with the interests of science? Human beings are taken
every day from the condemned prisons to be experimented on by surgeons.
This man, Simon, was by his own confession a criminal, a robber, and I
believed on my soul a murderer. He deserved death quite as much as any
felon condemned by the laws: why should I not, like government,
contrive that his punishment should contribute to the progress of human
knowledge?

The means for accomplishing everything I desired lay within my reach.
There stood upon the mantelpiece a bottle half full of French laudanum.
Simon was so occupied with his diamond, which I had just restored to
him, that it was an affair of no difficulty to drug his glass. In a
quarter of an hour he was in a profound sleep.

I now opened his waistcoat, took the diamond from the inner pocket in
which he had placed it, and removed him to the bed, on which I laid him
so that his feet hung