The herald., 1894-03-31
1.-THE American shook his head.
Seven hundred-eight hundredl'
- NIL

Nine hundreds, 900 francsl That
is my last offer. Pause, l beg of you.
! monsieur, before you refuse it. 1t is a
large sum-3, 900 francs And as If he
were convinced that no one could refuse
such price he put the stone once more
among his own treasures and again
turned round for his checkbook.
Thunder, exclaimed the Yankee,
what do you take me for? tell you
Ican't and won't sell you the ring. II
was as good as sold to this British gen.
tleman last night, and it isn't mine to
sell any more. Give me the ring.
So saying the American took the
ring rather sharply from the jeweler' g
hand and replaced it on his finger. The
Frenchman next made me an offer for
the trinket, but as / had not bought it
for myself of course could not sell it,
and we left the shop.
My mind was clear now as to the
prudence of giving $50 for the diamond.
had heard the best jeweler in the town
offer 1000 francs, or e120, for it.
+" Well, l must say you have acted
most honorably, said to the American
when we reached the street. After all,
bargain can't be all on one side, and
had never promised to buy the ring,
so you had a perfect legal right to sell
1t to the FIenchman.'
- You needn't say no more, stran-
ger, said the Yankee as if he were tired
of the subject. You can hev the stona
now if you choose at the price we fixed
on last night. And he held the ring out
to me.
but l had to get my letters of credit
cashed, and l agreed to meet the Amer
Jean i'll the, billiard room in an hours
time and conclude the transaction.
No one was in the billiard room
when entered it, for it was still early
in the day, except the American, who
was standing by the empty fireplace.
The transfer did not occupy more than
five seconds, and the Yankee immedi-
ately proposed drinks. These being dis
cussed, we separated, and saw no more
OF my friend from the States that day.
"That evening after dinner l hap
pened to be sitting not far from the fire.
place in the billiard room when no.
ticed a small round object lying just
inside the marble fender. Curious to
know what it was, l left my seat and
picked 1t up. 1t was jewelers. g ring
case, not an uncommon article certain
ly, yet hardly the sort of thing one Of
ten sees on the floor of billiard room.
"SuddeEly | remembered that the
American had been standing close to
the spot where found it when earlier
in the day | had exchanged my 1900
francs worth of notes for his diamond.
. An uncomfortable feeling crossed my
mind. What did he want with a ring
case? He had been wearing the ring he
sold to me. He might have kept a case
for it of course and might have thrown
it away when he parted with the ring.
81 opened the case. The makers
name was inscribed in gilt letters in
side the lid, and the address given was
Paris. 'Parisl said to myself. He
said the ring had been bought in Brazil.
There was no real ground for suspicion,
yet was uneasy. L went up stairs and
took out the ring. The pattern-you
see it is peculiar one-I remembered
WELL Somehow judged or fancied that
the diamond did not shine as brightly
as it had done the night before.
Next morning l took the ring to
second jeweler and asked him his opin-
ion as to its value. He examined the
diamond carefully and laid it down OH
the glass case before him with one con-
temptuous word:
- Pastel!
Pastel l echoed. 'Impossible!'
Certainly paste, and very good
imitation, he replied, turning away.
My heart sank within me. Eighty
pounds was a sum 1 could i'll afford to
lose.
with faint hope that the second
expert had been mistaken, took the
ring to the jeweler who had offered the
American 5000 francs for it.
He seemed pleased to see me, but as
soon as he had glanced at the ring his
face changed.
This is not the same ring you
showed me yesterday, he said in a tone
that made it plain that he thought l
meant to cheat him. At least, he add
ed, it is not the same stone This is
not stone at all-it is paste.
g So 1 have been told, 1 said sadly.
Are you sure the jewel l showed you
yesterday was genuine diamond?'
. am certain of it, he answered.
1.-THE honorable conduct-as / had
thought it-of the stranger in refusing
to sell to the jeweler was now inteAigi-
Bile. The jeweler meant to keep the real
stone. 1t was not difficult to see how
the fraud had been managed. The
swindler had had two rings made exact
ly alike Of striking and peculiar pat
tern. In one of them he had placed
genuine and very fine diamond. This
was the decoy. In the other he had put
false diamond, closely resembling in
size and shape the genuine one in the
first ring. The one he wore and offered
to sell was the true stone. When he got
it back from the jeweler, he had kept it
and had given me the sham one in ex-
change for my $50. What was to do?
The first thing was to ascertain
whether my friend had left the hotel.
OF course he had-on the afternoon of
the previous day. Still the scent was so
hot that | fancied should have little
difficulty in tracing him. But when |
found him my difficulties would only
begin. OF course he would swear that
he had sold me the ring with the stone
which the jeweler had declared to be
genuine. | might conceivably have sub