Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-06-20
: 1he KING Of :
 DIAMONDS.
By Louis Tracy.

Author of .Winss of the Morning" 'The Pillar o
 Light,' Etc.

A >~>~>>>>><><>>><><<><<><<>< longed to enter, or would fortune con- sign him to Portland again-perchance to the scaffold? He could not say. He would not feel safe until Philip Anson was a myth and Victor Grenier a reality, with many thousands in the bank. -, ..,,- ,.,. =.
 Already he was planning plausible lies to keep Mason out of his fair share of the plumber. A few more forged letters would easily establish the fact that he was unable to obtain bigger haul than, say, f50,0O0.
 And what did Mason want with f25.- GOO? He was gnarled man, with crude tastes. Twenty, fifteen, ten thousand would be ample for his wants. The sooner he drank himself to death the better.
 With each fresh cigar Mason's moie- ty shrank in dimensions. The murder was a mere affair of vengeful blow, but this steady sucking of the million aires riches required finesse, dashing adroitness, the superb impotence of s Cagliostro. ... ..
 But if his confederate's interests suf- fered, the total fixed in Grenier's origi- nal scheme in nowise became affected.
 He meant to have hundred thou sand pounds, and he firmly decided not to go beyond that amount. His letter to the bankers named f150.000 and he calculated that by stopping short at two-thirds of the available sum he would not give any grounds for suspicion or personal inquiry.
 Yet he would shirk nothing. Mir. Alb ingdon and Miss Atherley must be avoided at all events. Others he would face blithely. He took care to have ever-en the table in his sitting room goodly supply of wines and spirits.
 If any one sought an interview, it might ee helpful to sham a slight de- gree of intoxication. The difference between Philip drunk and Philip sober would then be accounted for readily.
 But rest-that was denied him. It was one thing to harden himself against surprise, quite another to for get that disfgured corpse swirling about in the North sea.
 He wished now that Philip Anson had not been cast forth naked. It was a blunder not to dress him, to provide him with means of Identification with some unknown Smith or Jones.
 When he closed his eyes he could see shadowy form wavering helplessly in green depths. Never before were his hands smeared with blood. He had touched every crime save murder.
 Physically he was a coward. In plotting the attack on Philip he had taxed his ingenuity for weeks to dis cover some means where he need not become Mason's actual helper. He re- jected project after project. The thing might be bungled. so he must attend to each part of the undertaking himself short of using bludgeon.
 He slept again and dreamed of long flights through space pursued by de- mons. How he longed for day! How slowly the hours passed after dawn until the newspapers were obtainable with their columns of emptiness for him.
 A letter came from Evelyn. It was trihe reserved, with an impulse to tears concealed in it:
 asked mother for $50, so the Blue Atom incident has ended, but l don't think will ever understand the mood in Perhaps your letter now in the post-I matters somewhat.
 He consigned Blue Atom to a sultry cline and began to ask himself why MT. Abingdon had not written. The ex-magistrates reticence annoyed him. A letter even remonstrating with him would be grateful. This silence was irritating: it savored of doubt, and doubt was the one phase of thought he wished to keep out of MT. Abingdon's mind at that moment.
 As for Evelyn, she mistrusted even his telegrams. while a bank had ac- cepted his signature without reserva- tion. He would punish her with zest. Philip Anson's memory would be pois- oned in her heart long before she real ized that he was dead.