The Lock and Key Library: Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Modern English

He moved toward the door. When he had taken a couple of steps, he halted. "I--I hope, Tress, that you're--you're going to play no tricks on me?" "Tricks on you! Is it likely that I am going to play tricks upon my oldest friend?" When he had gone--he vanished, it seemed to me, with a somewhat doubtful visage--I took the crystal to the window. I drew the blind. I let the sunshine fall on it. I examined it again, closely and minutely, with the aid of my pocket lens. It _was_ a diamond; there could not be a doubt of it. If, with my knowledge of stones, I was deceived, then I was deceived as never man had been deceived before. My heart beat faster as I recognized the fact that I was holding in my hand what was, in all probability, a fortune for a man of moderate desires. Of course, Pugh knew nothing of what I had discovered, and there was no reason why he should know. Not the least! The only difficulty was that if I kept my own counsel, and sold the stone and utilized the proceeds of the sale, I should have to invent a story which would account for my sudden accession to fortune. Pugh knows almost as much of my affairs as I do myself. That is the worst of these old friends! When I joined Pugh I found him dancing up and down the floor like a bear upon hot plates. He scarcely allowed me to put my nose inside the door before attacking me. "Tress, give me what was in the box." "My dear Pugh, how do you know that there was something in the box to give you?" "I know there was!" "Indeed! If you know that there was something in the box, perhaps you will tell me what that something was." He eyed me doubtfully. Then, advancing, he laid upon my arm a hand which positively trembled. "Tress, you--you wouldn't play tricks on an old friend." "You are right, Pugh, I wouldn't, though I believe there have been occasions on which you have had doubts upon the subject. By the way, Pugh, I believe that I am the oldest friend you have." "I--I don't know about that. There's--there's Brasher." "Brasher! Who's Brasher? You wouldn't compare my friendship to the friendship of such a man as Brasher? Think of the tastes we have in common, you and I. We're both collectors." "Ye-es, we're both collectors." "I make my interests yours, and you make your interests mine. Isn't that so, Pugh?" "Tress, what--what was in the box?" "I will be frank with you, Pugh. If there had been something in the box, would you have been willing to go halves with me in my discovery?" "Go halves! In your discovery, Tress! Give me what is mine!" "With pleasure, Pugh, if you will tell me what is yours." "If--if you don't give me what was in the box I'll--I'll send for the police." "Do! Then I shall be able to hand to them what was in the box in order that it may be restored to its proper owner." "Its proper owner! I'm its proper owner!" "Excuse me, but I don't understand how that can be; at least, until the police have made inquiries. I should say that the proper owner was the person from whom you purchased the box, or, more probably, the person from whom he purchased it, and by whom, doubtless, it was sold in ignorance, or by mistake. Thus, Pugh, if you will only send for the police, we shall earn the gratitude of a person of whom we never heard in our lives--I for discovering the contents of the box, and you for returning them." As I said this, Pugh's face was a study. He gasped for breath. He actually took out his handkerchief to wipe his brow. "Tress, I--I don't think you need to use a tone like that to me. It isn't friendly. What--what was in the box?" "Let us understand each other, Pugh. If you don't hand over what was in the box to the police, I go halves." Pugh began to dance about the floor. "What a fool I was to trust you with the box! I knew I couldn't trust you." I said nothing. I turned and rang the bell. "What's that for?" "That, my dear Pugh, is for breakfast, and, if you desire it, for the police. You know, although you have breakfasted, I haven't. Perhaps while I am breaking my fast, you would like to summon the representatives of law and order." Bob came in. I ordered breakfast. Then I turned to Pugh. "Is there anything you would like?" "No, I--I've breakfasted." "It wasn't of breakfast I was thinking. It was of--something else. Bob is at your service, if, for instance, you wish to send him on an errand." "No, I want nothing. Bob can go." Bob went. Directly he was gone, Pugh turned to me. "You shall have half. What was in the box?" "I shall have half?" "You shall!" "I don't think it is necessary that the terms of our little understanding should be expressly embodied in black and white. I fancy that, under the circumstance, I can trust you, Pugh. I believe that I am capable of seeing that, in this matter, you don't do me. That was in the box." I held out the crystal between my finger and thumb. "What is it?" "That is what I desire to learn." "Let me look at it." "You are welcome to look at it where it is. Look at it as long as you like, and as closely." Pugh leaned over my hand. His eyes began to gleam. He is himself not a bad judge of precious stones, is Pugh. "It's--it's--Tress!--is it a diamond?" "That question I have already asked myself." "Let me look at it! It will be safe with me! It's mine!" I immediately put the thing behind my back. "Pardon me, it belongs neither to you nor to me. It belongs, in all probability, to the person who sold that puzzle to the man from whom you bought it--perhaps some weeping widow, Pugh, or hopeless orphan--think of it. Let us have no further misunderstanding upon that point, my dear old friend. Still, because you are my dear old friend, I am willing to trust you with this discovery of mine, on condition that you don't attempt to remove it from my sight, and that you return it to me the moment I require you." "You're--you're very hard on me." I made a movement toward my waistcoat pocket. "I'll return it to you!" I handed him the crystal, and with it I handed him my pocket lens. "With the aid of that glass I imagine that you will be able to subject it to a more acute examination, Pugh." He began to examine it through the lens. Directly he did so, he gave an exclamation. In a few moments he looked up at me. His eyes were glistening behind his spectacles. I could see he trembled. "Tress, it's--it's a diamond, a Brazil diamond. It's worth a fortune!" "I'm glad you think so." "Glad I think so! Don't you think that it's a diamond?" "It appears to be a diamond. Under ordinary conditions I should say, without hesitation, that it was a diamond. But when I consider the circumstances of its discovery, I am driven to doubts. How much did you give for that puzzle, Pugh?" "Ninepence; the fellow wanted a shilling, but I gave him ninepence. He seemed content." "Ninepence! Does it seem reasonable that we should find a diamond, which, if it is a diamond, is the finest stone I ever saw and handled, in a ninepenny puzzle? It is not as though it had got into the thing by accident, it had evidently been placed there to be found, and, apparently, by anyone who chanced to solve the puzzle; witness the writing on the scrap of paper." Pugh reexamined the crystal. "It is a diamond! I'll stake my life that it's a diamond!" "Still, though it be a diamond, I smell a rat!" "What do you mean?" "I strongly suspect that the person who placed that diamond inside that puzzle intended to have a joke at the expense of the person who discovered it. What was to be the nature of the joke is more than I can say at present, but I should like to have a bet with you that the man who compounded that puzzle was an ingenious practical joker. I may be wrong, Pugh; we shall see. But, until I have proved the contrary, I don't believe that the maddest man that ever lived would throw away a diamond worth, apparently, shall we say a thousand pounds?" "A thousand pounds! This diamond is worth a good deal more than a thousand pounds." "Well, that only makes my case the stronger; I don't believe that the maddest man that ever lived would throw away a diamond worth more than a thousand pounds with such utter wantonness as seems to have characterized the action of the original owner of the stone which I found in your ninepenny puzzle, Pugh." "There have been some eccentric characters in the world, some very eccentric characters. However, as you say, we shall see. I fancy that I know somebody who would be quite willing to have such a diamond as this, and who, moreover, would be willing to pay a fair price for its possession; I will take it to him and see what he says." "Pugh, hand me back that diamond." "My dear Tress, I was only going--" Bob came in with the breakfast tray. "Pugh, you will either hand me that at once, or Bob shall summon the representatives of law and order." He handed me the diamond. I sat down to breakfast with a hearty appetite. Pugh stood and scowled at me. "Joseph Tress, it is my solemn conviction, and I have no hesitation in saying so in plain English, that you're a thief." "My dear Pugh, it seems to me that we show every promise of becoming a couple of thieves." "Don't bracket me with you!" "Not at all, you are worse than I. It is you who decline to return the contents of the box to its proper owner. Put it to yourself, you have _some_ common sense, my dear old friend!--do you suppose that a diamond worth more than a thousand pounds is to be _honestly_ bought for ninepence?" He resumed his old trick of dancing about the room. "I was a fool ever to let you have the box! I ought to have known better than to have trusted you; goodness knows you have given me sufficient cause to mistrust you! Over and over again! Your character is only too notorious! You have plundered friend and foe alike--friend and foe alike! As for the rubbish which you call your collection, nine tenths of it, I know as a positive fact, you have stolen out and out." "Who stole my Sir Walter Raleigh pipe? Wasn't it a man named Pugh?" "Look here, Joseph Tress!" "I'm looking." "Oh, it's no good talking to you, not the least! You're--you're dead to all the promptings of conscience! May I inquire, Mr. Tress, what it is you propose to do?" "I _propose_ to do nothing, except summon the representatives of law and order. Failing that, my dear Pugh, I had some faint, vague, very vague idea of taking the contents of your ninepenny puzzle to a certain firm in Hatton Garden, who are dealers in precious stones, and to learn from them if they are disposed to give anything for it, and if so, what." "I shall come with you." "With pleasure, on condition that you pay the cab." "I pay the cab! I will pay half." "Not at all. You will either pay the whole fare, or else I will have one cab and you shall have another. It is a three-shilling cab fare from here to Hatton Garden. If you propose to share my cab, you will be so good as to hand over that three shillings before we start." He gasped, but he handed over the three shillings. There are few things I enjoy so much as getting money out of Pugh! On the road to Hatton Garden we wrangled nearly all the way. I own that I feel a certain satisfaction in irritating Pugh, he is such an irritable man. He wanted to know what I thought we should get for the diamond. "You can't expect to get much for the contents of a ninepenny puzzle, not even the price of a cab fare, Pugh." He eyed me, but for some minutes he was silent. Then he began again. "Tress, I don't think we ought to let it go for less than--than five thousand pounds." "Seriously, Pugh, I doubt whether, when the whole affair is ended, we