Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-10-19

as possible. lOuuu ullu III lilo oi''iu6 B
room. The lights were burning. He
was fully dressed and had evidently
been up all night.
Even l, who had seen the despair
that comes of 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. I sat down, and
when looked up saw him standing
in front of me, covering me with a
brace of revolvers. My life, of course,
was absolutely at his mercy, and, what
ever might have thought of myself or
the situation, there was obviously moth
ing to do but to sit still and wait for
developments.
He began very quietly to tell me
why he had sent for me. He said: 1
wanted to sec you, Mr.. Lipinzki, to
clear up this matter about the big dia-
mond. l have seen for a long time-1n
fact, from that Sunday night-that you
had worked out pretty correct notion
as to the way that diamond vanished.
You are quite right. 1t did fly across
the veldt to the Barkly hills. lam bit
of q chemist, you know, and when i
had once made up my mind to steal it
for there is no use in mincing words
now-I saw that it would be perfectly
absurd to attempt to smuggle such
stone out by any of the ordinary meth
odS
"'I dare say you wonder what these
revolvers are fer. 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 q sound, l shall shoot you.
If you hear Inc out, you will not be in
jured, so you may as we'll sit still and
keep your ears open.
10 have Gny chance of success l
must have had a confederate, and l
made young Lomas one. If you look on
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 a
present to you. You may like to add
them to your collection.
'Lomas, 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.
You will remember that that night was
very dark and that the wind had been
blowing very steadily all day toward
the Barkly hills. Well. when every
thing was quiet he filled the balloon
with gas, tied the diamond
But how did he get the diamond
out of the safe? The secretary saw it
locked up that EVENING" exclaimed,
my curiosity getting the better OF my
prudence.
90 1t was not locked up in the safe
at all that night, he answered, smiling
with a sort of CHASTITY satisfaction.
'Lomas and 1, as you know, took the
tray of diamonds to the safe, and, as
far as the secretary could see, put them
in, but as he put the tray into it's COM
partment he palmed the big diamond as
/ had taught him to do in good many
lessons before. At the moment that
shut the safe and locked it it was in
his pocket.
1.-THE secretary and his friends left
the room. Lomus and I went back to
the tables, and I 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 1t lay be-
tween the box and the corner OF the
wall until it was wanted.
1--WE all left the room as usual,
and, as you know, we were searched
When Lomas went on night duty, there
was the diamond ready for its balloon
voyage He filled the balloon just SO
that it lifted the diamond and no more
Two of the windows were open on ao-
count oi the heat. He watched his op-
portunity and committed it to the air
about two hours before dawn. You
know what a sudden fall there is in the
temperature here just before daybreak
I calculated upon that to contract the
volume of the gas sufficiently to destroy
the balance and bring the balloon to the
ground, and 1 knew that if Lomas had
obeyed my instructions it would fall
either on the veldt or on this side Of the
hills.
The balloon was bright red and,
to make a long story short, l started
out before daybreak that morning, as
you know, to look for buck. When l
got outside the camp, took compass
bearings and rode straight down tho
wind toward the hills. BY good luck or
go1d calculation or both / must have
followed the course of the balloon al
most exactly, for in three hours after l
left the camp I saw the little red speck
ahead of me up among the stones on the
hillside.
" L lodged about for bit, as though
I were really after buck, in case any
body was watching me. Iworked round
to the red spot, put my foot OH the bal
loon and burst it. I folded the india
rubber up, as didn't like to leave it
there, and put it in my pocketbook.
You remember that when you searched
me you didn't open my pocketbook, as
of course it was perfectly fiat and
the diamond couldn't possibly have
been in it. That's how you missed your
clew, though 1 don't suppose it would
have been much use to you, as you'd al
ready guessed it. However, there it is
at your service now
"'And the diamond?
"As 1 said these three words his
whole manner suddenly changed. So far