The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-09-19

credit had been completely restored 1T
De Beers. Tomas, his connection, and,
as ! firmly believed, his confederates,
has been, through his influence, sent ON
a mission to England, and when he went
confess that | thought the game was
up-that Marsden had somehow man
aged to recover the diamond, and that
Tomas had taken it beyond our reach.
'Still | watched and wanted, and as
fine went on | saw that my fears were
| groundless and that the gem was still
| on the weld or in the hills. He kept up
| bTayely for weeks, but at last the strain
began to tell upon him. Picture to your
self the pitiable position of a man of
good family in the old country of ex-
| pensive tastes and very considerable am
bition, living here in Kimberley ON a
salary of some E12 week, worth about
Is in England, and knowing that within
a few miles of him, in a spot that he
alone knew of, there lay concrete for
tune of say fl 100000, which was his for
the picking up if he only dared to go
and take it, and yet he dared not do so.
Yes, it is a pitiess trade this of ours,
and professional thief-catchers can't af-
| ford to have much to do with mercy,
and yet / tell you that as l watched
that man day after day with the fever
|
| bearable anxiety tearing ever harder
and harder at his nerves, pitied him
yes, l pitied him so much that I even
| found himself growing impatient for the
end to come. Fancy THAT detective,
a thief-catcher, getting impatient to see
his victim out of his misery
"Well, | had to wait SIX months-tbat
g., is to say, | had to wait until 5 o'clock
this mOrning-for the end. Soon after
one of my men came and knocked me
up; he brought n note into my bedroom
and l read it in bed. 1t was from
Philip Marsden, asking ME to go and
see him at once and alone. | went, as
you may be sure, with as little delay as
possible | found him IN his sitting
room. The lights were burning. He
was fully dressed and had evidently
been up all night
Even /. who had seen the despair
that comes from crime in most of its
worst forms. was shocked at the look
Of him. Still he greeted me politely and
with perfect compOsure. He affected
not to see the hand that / held out to
him, but asked me quite kindly to sit
down and have chat with him. l sat
down and when | lOked up l saw him
standing in front of me. covering me
with a brace of reyovers. My life, of
course. was absolutely at his mercy. |
and whatever / might have thought of
myself or of the situation, there was OBJ |
viously nothing to do but to sit stili and
wait for developments.
HE began very quietly to tell me why
he had sent for me. He said: want
ed to see you. Mr. Lipinzki, to clear up
this matter about the big diamond. |
have seen for "a long time-in fact from
that Sunday night-that you had worked
out Il pretty correct notion as to the
way that Diamond vanished. You are
quite right; it did fly across the weld to
the Barkly hills. | am bit of a chem
list, you know. and when / had once
made up my mind to steal it-for there
is no use in mmcing words nOw-I saw
that it would .be perfectly absurd to at
tempt TO smuggle such a stone out by
any of the ordinary methods.
AZ dare say you wonder what these
revolvers are for. They are to keep you
there in that chair till I've done, for one
thing. If you attempt to get out of it
or utter a word | shall shoot you. If
you hear me out you will not be injured,
so you may as we'll sit still and keep your
ears open.
""To have any chance of success l
must have had a confederate, and
made young Tomas one. If you look OH
| that little table beside your chair you
will see bit of closed lead piping with
tap in it, and piece of thin sheet in
dia rubber. That is the remains of the
apparatus that | used. ] make them
present to you; you may like to add them
to your collection.
"Tomas, when he went on duty that
Saturday night, took the bit OF tube
charged with compressed hydrogen and
an empty child's toy balloon with him.
Won will remember that that night was
very dark, and that the wind had been
blowing very steadily all day toward the
Barkly hills. Well, wien everything
was ouiet he filed the balloon with gas,
| tied the diamond,
"'But how did he get the diamond out
of the safe? The secretary saw it locked
nm that EVENING" / exclaimed, my curlos-
ity getting the better of my prudence.
+" 1T was not locked up in the safe at
all that night he answered, smiling with
sort of CHASTITY satisfaction. Tomas and
I. as you know, took the tray of dla-
monds to the safe. and, as far as the
secretary sould see, put them in, but as
| he put the tray into its compartment ne
palmed the big diamond as | had taught
him to do in a good many lessons before.
| At the moment that | shut the safe ana
locked it it was in his pocket.
"'The secretary and his friends left
the room; Tomas and I went back to the
tables, and l told him to clean the scales
as wanted to test them. While he was
doing so he slipped the diamond behind
the box and there it lay between the box
and the corner of the wall until it was
wanted.
"'We all left the room as usual, and, as
you know, we were searched. When Lo-
was went ON night duty there was the
diamond ready for it's balloon voyage.
He filled the balloon just so that it
lifted the diamond and no more. Two
| of tho windows were omen on account of