Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-07-22

was talking to him in his dingy Of
fee aud was struck by the almost in.
credibly careless way in which he
dealt with some valuable diamonds.
Yes, he owned that he was careless.
He assured me that he never registered
any letter or parcel, however valuable,
aud yet had never lostanything in the
post. He did not keep light burn.
ing all night or use an electric alarm
OF any kind or give any special orders
to the police. Yet he never lost any
thing by burglary. "And yet this
place is perfectly simple--outer door,
passage, inner door to clerks room,
opening into my own Office, which in
turn opens into the strong room. It's
wonderful that the burglars never try
it."
suggested that he had used pre-
cautions of his own-watchmen, pri-
vate detectives.
Montagu Morton smiled. "Ahl" he
said. ever hear Of Roynal?"
have heard of him. Seeing that
Roynal advertised his detective agency
in every morning paper every day 1t
would have been difficult not to hear
of him, and said so.
Montagu Morton unlocked and
opened drawer in his writing table.
He took out leather tray, divided
into compartments, and from one Of the
compartments produced green stone,
which he handed me. "What do you
make Of that?"
can emerald"
"All green stones are emeralds to
you," said Morton. ut is not IN
emerald. 1t is an opal-a curious sort
of opal - and worth whatever / can
get for it. would give CT or fS for
II myself, but then never give what
thing is worth = otherwise I could
not live. However, that is not the
point; the point is that il it had not
been for Roynal the stone would not
have been in my possession today"
And then Montagu Morton told me
the story which here tell again.
When n grocer has his silk umbrella
stolen by a tramp he goes 10 the po-
lice. When an English countess
lends a pearl necklace to her sister-in-
law and the sister-in-law returns il
with the four principal pearls re-
moved and excellent limitations substi-
tuted, the countess goes to Roynal
She wants her pearls Just rs much as
the grocer wants his umbrella--prob-
ably even more-but the countess
does not want publicity and scandal.
Roynal, engaged on these pearls,
called on Morton for omeinformation,
which Morton gave him with his GUS
tomary good nature. Az he talked,
Roynal saw an opportunity for extern.
sion OF business. He mostly divided
his time between complaining he had
too much to do and endeavoring to
get still more. He rarely worked on
q case himself; he had any amount OF
assistants, clever naturally and trained
by himself to do the actual work. 1t
was only case of exceptional difficulty
and importance that would secure Roy
nails personal attention.
II having become quite obvious TO
Roynal that Montagu Morton must be
frequently and urgently in need OF
detective agency to take care Of him,
he took especial pains not to mention
the fact at the time. But on the fol-
lowing day he instructed an emissary
and despatched him. The emissary
was very fashionably dressed and in
face was little like Napoleon. And
the card he sent in to Mr.. Morton, by
the hands OF Mr.. Morton's clerk, bore
the name of Mr.. Michael Hayvers and
in the left-hsnd corner "Mr. Roynal's
Detective Agency" Introduced into
the presence OF Mr.. Morton, Mr.. Hay
vers began hesitatingly.
He was sure that Mr.. Morton would
DO glal to hear that the real pearls had
been recovered and that Mr.. Roynal
was taking them to the countess that
morning. Mr.. Roynal had desired
Mr.. Hayvers to thank Mr.. Morton
very warmly for the valuable informa-
ton which he had so kindly given.
''It has since struck Mr.. Roynal
that his detective agency would be OF
constant use to you, Mr.. Morton, in
your business"
eyes? And in what way?"
''In tracing the history Of any gem
when you thought that necessary. In
finding ont the financial position Of
any purchaser far more quickly, surely |
aud delica.ely than from the usual
methods. In exercising the closest
supervision over any workman en-
trusted with tho cutting or setting Of
valuable gems. In representing YOU
at auctions and manipulating the auc-
ton in. your favor-in a thousand |
ways tina; would save you time, trouble !
and expense"
"Thsre are only two objections.
Firstly, YOUR terms are known to be