A stout, jovial-looking person, with reddish hair, sandy complexion, and
watery blue eyes, stood waiting in my office, his wrist attached by
means of a nickel-plated handcuff to that of a keeper. My two visitors
conducted themselves with remarkable unanimity, and with but a single
motion sank into the chairs I offered.
"Well, what's the trouble?" I inquired genially.
The keeper jerked his thumb in the direction of the other, who grinned
apologetically and hitched in my direction. Bending toward me, he
whispered: "I am the victim of one of the most remarkable conspiracies
in history. My story involves personages of the highest rank, and is
stranger than one of Dumas' romances. I am a bill-poster."
Not knowing whether he intended to include himself among the illustrious
persons alluded to, I nodded encouragingly and produced some cigars.
"My name is Riggs," continued the prisoner, as he bit off the end of his
cigar and expelled it through the window. "Got a match?"
The keeper drew a handful from his pocket. I lit a cigar for myself and
assumed an attitude of attention.
"My wife is little Flossie Riggs. Don't know her? Why, she dances at
Proctor's, and all over. I was doing well at my trade, and would have
been doing better, if it hadn't been for that confounded diamond. It was
this way. There was a fellow named Tenney, who posted bills with me
about five years back, and he finally got a job down in the City of
Mexico with a railroad, and I used to correspond with him.
"Among other things, he told me about a great big diamond that the
Emperor Maximilian used to wear in the middle of his crown. According to
Tenney, it was one of the biggest on record. He said that Maximilian was
so stuck on it that he had it taken out and made into a pendant for the
Empress Carlotta, and that she used to wear it around at all the court
functions, and so on. About the same time he took two other diamonds out
of the crown and made them into finger-rings for himself.
"After a while the Mexicans got tired of having an empire and put
Maximilian out of business. They stood him and two of his generals up in
the parade ground at Queretaro and shot 'em. Now when he was stood up to
get shot he had those two rings on his fingers, and the funny part of it
was that when the people rushed up to see whether he was dead or not,
both the rings were gone. Just about that time, while Carlotta was in
prison, the diamond with the big pendant disappeared too. It weighed
thirty-three carats. I got all this from Tenney. I don't know where he
found out about it. But it all happened way back in '67.
"Somehow or other I used to think quite a lot about that diamond--partly
because I was sorry for Max, who looked to have come out at the small
end; and there didn't seem to be any occasion for shooting him anyhow,
that I could see.
"Well, I went on bill-posting, and got a good job with the Hair Restorer
folks and was doing well, as I said, until one day I happened to take up
a paper and read that there were two Mexicans out in St. Louis trying to
sell an enormous diamond, but that the dealers there were all afraid to
buy it. Finally the police got suspicious, and the Mexicans disappeared.
Then all of a sudden it came over me that this must be the diamond that
Tenney had wrote about, for all that it had been lost for nearly forty
years, and I made up my mind that the Mexicans, having failed in St.
Louis, would probably come to New York. I knew they had no right to the
diamond anyway, first because it belonged to Maximilian's heirs, and
second because it hadn't paid no duty; and I said to myself, 'Next time
I write to Tenney he will hear something that will make him sit up.' So
every morning, when I started out with my paste-pot and roll of
posters, I would keep my eye peeled for the two Mexicans.
"But I didn't hear any more about the diamond for a long time, and I had
'most forgot all about it, until one day I was plastering up one of
those yellow-headed Hair Restorer girls in Madison Square, when I saw
two chaps cross over Twenty-third Street toward the Park. They were the
very gazeebos I'd been looking for. Both were dark and thin and short,
and, queerer still, one of them carried a big red case in his hand.
"With my heart rattling against my teeth, I jumped down from the ladder
and started after them. They hurried along the street until they came to
a jeweller's on Broadway, about a block from the Square. They went in,
and I peeked through the window. Presently out they came in a great
hurry. They still had the red case, and I made a dash for the door and
rushed in. There was the store-keeper with eyes bulgin' half-way out of
his head.
"'Say,' says I, 'did those dagoes try to sell you a diamond?'
"'Yes,' says he, 'the biggest I ever saw. They wanted forty thousand
dollars for it, and I offered them fifteen thousand, but they wouldn't
take it.'
"I didn't give him time for another word, but turned around and made
another jump for the door. The Mexicans were almost out of sight, but I
could still see them walking toward the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and I
hustled after them tight as I could, picked up two cops on the way down,
and, just as they were turning in at the entrance, we pounced on 'em.
"'You're under arrest!' I yelled, so excited I didn't really know what I
was doing. The fellow with the red case dodged back and handed it over
to a big chap who had joined them. This one didn't appear to want to
take it, and seemed quite peevish at what was happening. He turned out
afterward to have been a General Dosbosco of the Haytien Junta. Well,
the cops grabbed all three of them and collared the leather case. Sure
enough, so help me--! There inside was the big diamond, and not only
that, but a necklace with eighteen stones, and two enormous solitaire
rings. The big stone was yellowish, but the others were pure white,
sparklin' like one of those electric Pickle signs with fifty-seven
varieties. By that time the hurry-up wagon had come, and pretty soon the
whole crew of us, diamonds, Mexicans, cops, paste-pot, and me, were
clattering to the police-station for fair. There I told 'em all about
the diamond, and they telephoned over to Colonel Dudley, at the
Custom-house, and the upshot of the whole matter was that the two
Mexicans were held on a charge of smuggling diamonds into the United
States.
"If you don't believe what I tell you," said Riggs, noticing, perhaps, a
suggestion of incredulity in my face, "just look at these"; and fumbling
in his pocket, he produced some very soiled and crumpled clippings,
containing pictures of Maximilian, the Empress Carlotta, and of a very
large diamond which appeared to be about the size of the "Regent." It
was then that I dimly remembered reading something of a diamond seizure
a short time before, and it was with a renewed interest that I listened
to the continuation of my client's story.
"Well," said Riggs, "that was strange, now, wasn't it?
"You can imagine how I felt when I went home and told little Flossie
about the diamond; that I was entitled to a fifty per cent. informer's
reward; how I was going to give up bill-posting and just be her manager,
and how we could take a bigger flat, and all that; and I thought so much
about it, and talked so much about it, that I began to feel like I was
Rockefeller already, which may account in part for what happened
afterward."
At this point the keeper moved uneasily, and I pushed him another cigar.
"Well," continued Riggs, "I just walked on air that afternoon after
leaving the Custom-house, and went around blabbing like a poor fool
about my good luck. On the way home I stopped in to take a drink. There
were a lot of my acquaintances there, and I had something with most of
them, and then the first thing I knew everything swam before my eyes. I
groped my way into the street and started toward home, but I had only
taken a few steps when a gang of strong-arm men attacked me, knocked me
down, and robbed me. I struggled to my feet and followed them. They
turned and attacked me again. I drew my knife, and then everything got
dark, and the next thing I knew I was in the police-station.
"I'll admit that this part of it does seem a little queer." Riggs
dropped his voice mysteriously and leaned toward me. "But I have no
doubt that I was drugged and beaten for the purpose of getting me locked
up in the Tombs as part of a well-planned scheme. You will see for
yourself later on.
"Next morning, while I was waiting examination in the prison pen, a man
came along who said he was a lawyer and would take my case. I said, All
right, but that he would have to wait for his pay. He laughed, and said
he guessed there would be no trouble about that; and the next thing I
knew I was up before the Judge. My lawyer went up and whispered
something to him, and the magistrate said:
"'Five hundred dollars bail for trial.'
"'Look here,' I spoke up, 'ain't I going to have a chance to tell my
story?'
"'Keep quiet,' said the lawyer from behind his hand; 'this is just a
form. You won't never have to be tried. It's just to get you out.'
"So I said nothing, and went back to the pen and waited; and the next
thing I knew the hurry-up wagon had taken me to the Tombs. I tell you it
was pretty tough bein' chucked in with a lot of thieves and burglars.
The bill of fare ain't above par, you know, and the company's worse. I
sat in my cell and waited and waited for my lawyer to show up, for he
had said he'd be right over. But he didn't come, and I had to spend the
night there. Next morning the keeper told me that my lawyer was in the
counsel-room. So down I went with two niggers, who also had an
appointment with their lawyers. It's a nasty, unventilated hole, and
they lock you and the attorneys all in together. Ever been there?"