Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-08
THE DIAMOND THIEVES BY ARTHUR -STRINGE
WATCHED the woman. sat
watching her, quietly yet close
ly, from the seclusion of my

male partner noticed that was
studying their movements.
1 had, In fact. been studying them
Tor some time
Then, of a sudden, their surrepti-
tiousaly amorous intimacies no long
er engrossed my attention; for the
man had reached smiiingly into his
pocket, and into the woman's hand
he had quietly and calmly slipped a
diamond that wasn't the sort that Is
passed from hand to hand about mid
night trotteries. as a rule. 1t was, I
saw. a canary colored stone set be-
tween two emeralds. To make 1t
more remarkable, 1t was cut In the
shape Of heart
1t would have looked cheap or
gross. think, II its tinting had been
anything but the tenderest Of butter
cup yellowa without that subli-
mated essence of sunlight to soften
its glitter 1t would surely have
looked as blatant as the diamond al
ligator which the lady herself wore
on her well calcimined and opulent
bosom. You can't take fifteen or
twenty carats of living and flashing
sunset and frame 1t in grass green
and hope for anything much less
conspicuous than a Broadway sky
sign Even from where I sat 1 could
see 1t sparkle and CLINT in the pink
tinted hand hollow cupped SO avari-
ciously and yet 30 abstractedly
about it. For every one Of those
thousand sparkles, told myself
some one had doubtlessly paid a tear
Or somebody, in time to come,
would pay their tear.
Then / looked more closely at the
woman herself She sat a trifie back
from the damask- draped table, with
her knees crossed Her left elbow
rested on her upper knee, and her
we'll powdered chin rested in turn on
her left hand. Her right arm, bare
and rounded and mysteriously volup-
tuous in its unmuscled softness, lay
stretched out on the table, with the
canary colored diamond resting be-
tween the slightly prehensile fingers
She studied that diamond as closely
and as abstractedly as l was study
ing her Verlyn Vachell was a Broad
way actress, the kind who adorn mu-
steal comedy and invade the legiti-
mate only in distinctly minor parts,
which they both overdress and under
act.
had been taught to accept her as
ranging in with that army, by no
means a small one, which accepted
the stage as sort Of auction block,
where paraded beauty may be duly
assessed and duly bestowed upon the
highest bidder. And as she sat there,
studying the jewel in her hand. the
jewel which had just been given to
her by the man who quite as easily
could have given her a million dol
lars; the idea of the auction-block
kept coming back to me again and
again. For / felt that a compact had
been entered into, a trophy had been
sought and won. I couldn't help
thinking of that diamond as a badge.
Of capitulation.
This caused me to glance back at
the man again, the man who in all
such things is Of distinctly minor
Importance. "Cappie" Cairns was
known. not only for his millions but
more for the manner in which he
disposed Of adequately generous slices
Of that same fortune. Yet he trod
softly along the serried cotes Of ad-
venture, always giving an air of
legitimacy to those excursions. He
BACKED" an occasional musical COM
edy. which gave him. his enemies pro-
claimed, an excuse for being inter-
ested in its daughters Of song. He
mixed with the motion picture pro-
ducers for that trim new avenue, ex-
planned the same enemies, led into
the outlands Of arrogant and self
exploiting beauty where big game fell
only to the express rifle Of millions
And all the while the upper layer of
Cappie Cairns associates asserted him
to be the finest of fellows, a family
man, who believed in a bit Of fun to
keep the rust of, but open-handed
to the needy and easy-going with the
AS for the lower layers of Cappie
Cairns friends, their comments were
more restricted, since they had only
and the police to talk to.
1t probably paid them to remember
the legend Of the goose and the golden