The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-13
JEUIEZ MYSTERIES.
By MAX PE1MBE.RTON.
1.-THE opal of CasmazoCifcA.
Copyright, 1904

stone, so far as the birth of It's discovery
goes. by hundred years"
I thought that he was glib with his tale
for man who had such a poor one; and
certainly he looked me in the face with
amazing readiness. He had not the eyes
of a rogue, and his manner was not that
of one criminaly restless.
IF you will allow me- said, when I
had looked at the stone for few mo-
ments, II will examine this under the
brighter light there; perhaps you would
like to amuse yourself with this parcel of
rubies.''
This was a favorite little trick of mine.
l had two or three parcels of stones to
show to any man who came to me labor
ing under a sorry and palpably poor story,
and one of these I then took from my
desk and spread upon the table under
the eyes of the Russian. The stones were
all Imitation, and worth no more than
sixpence apiece. If he We're a judge, he
would discover the cheat at the first
sight Of them: If he were a swindler, he
| would endeavor to steal them. In either
case the test was useful And took care
to turn my back upon him while I exam
| ined the opal, to give him every oppor-
tunity Of filling his pockets should he
| choose.
| When had the jewel Under the power
! full light of an unshaded incandescent
lamp I could see that 1t merited all the
! appreciation I had bestowed upon it at
| first sight. 1t was fawless, wanting the
dement, of a single mark which could be
pointed to in depreciation of it's price. For
play of color and radiating generosity Of
hues I have already said that no man
has seen it's equal. put it in the scales,
called Michel to establish my own opin-
| ions, tried it by every test that can be ap-
| piled to gem so fragile and so readily
harmed, and came to- the only conclusion
! possible-that 1t was stone which would
make sensation in any market, and call
bids from all the courts of Europe. It
remained for me to learn the history of
| it, and with that I went back to my desk
and resumed the conversation, first glanc-
/ ing at the sham parcel Of rubies to find
that the man had not even looked OF
| them.
ut is a remarkable OPAL said: 'the
finest ever put before me. You have come
here to sell it, presume?'
EXACTLY. I want five thousand pounds
for it,
"And If make you a bid you are pre-
pared to furnish me with the history both
| of it and Of yourself?'
He shrugged his shoulders contemptous-
ly. IF you think that have stolen it we
had better close the discussion at once.
I am not prepared to tell my history to
every tradesnan deal with
TN that case" said I, you have wasted
your time. 7 buy no jewels that I do not
know all about"
His superciliousness was almost imper-
tinent. 1t would have been quite so if ii
had not been dominated by an absurd and
almost grotesque pride, which accounted
for his temper. I was sure then he was
either an honest man or the best actor
had ever seen.
i,,lx he
less Indifferent tone; II am certain thai
you will then acquit me Of unreasonable
ness. Call here again in a day Or two, ant
we will have a chat about it,"
This softer speech awaited me as little
: as the other. file made no sort of answer
to it, but packing his opal carefully again
he rose abruptly and left the shop. AS HI
went touched my bell twice. and Abe
!; followed him quietly down Piccadilly
while I sent a line to Scotland Yard in
, forming the Commissioners Of the pres
ence Of such man as the Russian In Lon
don, and Of the Gargantuan jewel which
ID he carried Then I went home thru TIL
. fog and the humid night; but my way wa
: lighted by memory of the magnificen
gem I had seen. and the hunger for tn
opal VISA already upon me.
The inquiry at Scotland Yard proved quit
I futile. The police telegra pied to Paris, t
Berlin, to st. Petersburg, to New York
but got no tidings either of a robbery O
Q Of the man whom mere circumstance
: pointed at as a pretender. This SCENE
e to me the more amazing since could no
Y conceive that stone such as this wa
n should not have made a sensation in som
q place. Jewels above all material thing
n do not hide their light under bushels LIE
q there be a great find at Kimberley or j
f. the Burmese mines: let fine emerald @
!, a perfect turquoise be brought to Europe
: and every dealer in the country knows II
xyai re- nd
;, three days have passed. If this man, VIII
. Rugged this small fortune to him, an
: without 1t was q beggar, had been
n worker at Cerwenitza, he would hay
10 told me the fact plainly. But
II spoke of the opal being older even tina
the famous and commonly cite
10 specimen at Vienna. How came it tha
1T he alone had the history Of such an an
n Client gem? There was only one answe
r, to such a questionable history of hi
possession Of it, at any rate, would nc
bear inquiry
l. Such perplexity was not removed b
ID Ahel's account of his journey after Cal
malovitch. He had followed the man frol
ID Ptccadilly to Oxford circus; thence, afte
20 long wait in Regents park, where tn
al Russian sat for at least an hour on
IN seat near the botanical gardens entranc
to a small house in Boscobel place. Tn
IN was evidently a lodginghouse, offerin
G, Lnat 1dre OF SndDDlneSS and dirt Wh1C
ht must perforce be attractive to the need
There was a light burning at the windo
le Of the pretentiously poor drawingroo
Nv when the man arrived and a girl, al
"a parently not more than 25 years of az
"a came down into the hall to greet hif
tn the pair afterward showing at the VIII
of dow for a moment before the blinds we
a drawn. An inquiry by my man for apar
"a ments in the house ELECTED only shr
~ caclIle and a negative from a shufflir
- bag who answered the knock A to-
- Of the little shops in the neighborhot
-, provided the further clue ''that they IA
% for nothing" This suburban estimate
. of personal worth was confirmation
VI my conclusion drawn from the rags b
We meath the astrachan coat. The Russis
~ was poor man; except for the posse
SO sion of the jewel he was near to beil
OK a beggar And yet he had not soug
III to borrow money Of me, and he had p
n the price of $4,000 upon his property
let All these things did not leave my mil
no for the next week. was in daily cor
nd municatfon with Scotland Yard, but a
n solutely to no purpose. Their sharpe
he men handled the case. and confessed tn
n they could make nothing of it. We HI
at the house In Boscobel place watched, bl
no so far as we could learn, Carmalovitc
We as he called himself, never left it. Mea
on while began to think that I had b
let trayed exceedingly poor Judgment In raj
ing the question at ALL AS the da
ICE went by I suffered that stone hung
n which a student of opals alone can kno
,ad began to believe that I had lost by /
Of bo