The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-27
Have you bought them, seymour

Have you bought them, seymour"
she asked.
Yes" l answered, producing my
spoils in triumph.
''Oh, how dreadful" she cried draw
ing back. DO you think they're real2
Are you sure he hasn't cheated you
Certain of it, 1 replied. examining
them. mo one can take me in in the
matter of diamonds. Why on eartn
should you doubt them?"
Because I've been talking to Mrs.
O'Hagan at the hotel, and she says
there's a well known trick just like
that-she's read Of it in a book. i
swindler has two sets-one real, one
false, and he makes you buy the false
ones by showing you the real and pre-
tending he sells them as a special IA
vor''
"You needn't be alarmed" I an
swered. Il am a judge Of diamonds"
I shan't be satisfied" Amelia muir
INJURED, It'll Charles has seen them"
We went UP TO the hotel. For the
first time in her life I saw Amelia
really nervous as I handed the stones
to Charles to examine. Her doubt was
contagious. l half feared myself he
might break out into a deep mOnOsyl-
Liable interjectiOn, losing his temper in
haste. as he often does when things go
wrong. But he looked at them with a
smile while I told him the price.
Eight hundred pounds less than
their value" he answered, well salts
| fed.
''You have no doubt of their reality?'
1 asked.
mot the slightest" he replied. gazing
at them. '"They are genuine stones.
precisely the same in quality and type
as Amelia's necklet."
| Amelia drew a sigh of relief. I'll
/ go upstairs" she said slowly. land
bring down my own for you both to
| compare with them"
One minute later she rushed down
| again, breathless. Amelia is far from
| slim, and never before knew her to
exert herself so actively
Charles, Charles!" she cried, do
you know what dreadful thing has hap
| pened? Two of my stones are gone.
| He's stolen a couple of diamonds from
my necklet and sold them back to me. y
She held out the riviere. 1t was all
| too true. Two gems were missing-and
| these two just fitted the empty places!
| A light broke in upon me. l clapped
my hands to my head. by Jovel" l
! exclaimed, ''the little curate is-Colonel
| Clay!"
Charles clapped his own hand to his
brow in turn. "And Jessie" he cried.
| white Heather-that innocent little
] Scotch woman, I often detected ia
miliar ring in her voice, in spite ofNthe
| charming Highland accent. Jessie is
Madame Picardet."
! We had absolutely no evidence; but,
| like the commissary at Nice, we felt
| instinctively sure of it. Sir Charles was
determined TO catch the rogue. This
second deception put him on his met
tie.
'eThe worst of the man is" he said
''he has a method. He doesn't goeoIt
of his way to cheat us; he makes US go
out of ours to be cheated. He lays n
trap and we tumble headlong into it.
| Tomorrow, Sey, we must follow him
| on to Paris.
Amelia explained to him what Mrs
| O'Hagan had said. Charles took it all
in at once with his usual sagacity.
"That explains, he said, why the ras-
cal used this particular trick to draw
us on by. If we had suspected him he
| could have shown the diamonds were
real and so escaped detection. It was
| a blind to draw US off from the fact
| of the robbery. He went to Paris to be