THE UNLIMITED SUPPLY
"If you will all be seated again, please?" requested Mr. Wynne, who
still stood, cool and self-certain, at the end of the table.
The sound of his voice brought a returning calm to the others, and
they resumed their seats--all save Mr. Cawthorne, who walked over to
a window with the three spheres in his hand and stood there examining
them under his glass.
"You gentlemen know, of course, the natural shape of the diamond in
the rough?" Mr. Wynne resumed questioningly. "Here are a dozen
specimens which may interest you--the octahedron, the rhombic
dodecahedron, the triakisoctahedron and the hexakisoctahedron." He
spread them along the table with a sweeping gesture of his hand,
colorless, inert pebbles, ranging in size from a pea to a peanut.
"And now, you ask, where do they come from?"
The others nodded unanimously.
"I'll have to state a fact that you all know, as part answer to that
question," replied Mr. Wynne. "A perfect diamond is a perfect
diamond, no matter where it comes from--Africa, Brazil, India or New
Jersey. There is not the slightest variation in value if the stone
is perfect. That being true, it is a matter of no concern to you, as
dealers, where these come from--sufficient it is that they are here,
and, being here, they bring home to you the necessity of concerted
action to uphold the diamond as a thing of value."
"You said der vorld's oudpud had been increased fiftyfold?" suggested
Mr. Schultze. "Do ve understand you prove him by dese?"
The young man smiled slightly and drew a leather packet from an inner
pocket. He stripped it of several rubber bands, and then turned to
Mr. Czenki again.
"Mr. Czenki, I have been told that a few years ago you had an
opportunity of examining the Koh-i-noor. Is that correct?"
"Yes."
"I believe the Koh-i-noor was temporarily removed from its setting,
and that you were one of three experts to whom was intrusted the
task of selecting four stones of the identical coloring to be set
alongside it?"
"That is correct," Mr. Czenki agreed.
"You held the Koh-i-noor in your hand, and you would be able to
identify it?"
"_I_ would be able to identify it," said Mr. Cawthorne positively.
He had turned at the window quickly; it was the first time he had
spoken. Mr. Wynne walked around the table to Mr. Czenki, and Mr.
Cawthorne approached them.
"Suppose, then, you gentlemen examine this together," suggested Mr.
Wynne.
He lifted a great glittering jewel from the leather packet and held
it aloft that all might see. Then he carefully placed it on the
table in front of the experts; the others came to their feet and
stood gazing as if fascinated.
"By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Cawthorne.
For a minute or more the two experts studied the huge diamond--one
hundred and six carats and a fraction--beneath their glasses, and
finally Mr. Cawthorne picked it up and led the way toward the window.
Mr. Czenki and the German followed him.
"Gentlemen," and Mr. Cawthorne now turned sharply to face the others,
"this _is_ the Koh-i-noor! Mr. Czenki didn't mention it, but I was
one of the three experts who had opportunity to examine the
Koh-i-noor. This _is_ the Koh-i-noor!"
Startled, questioning eyes were turned upon Mr. Wynne; he was
smiling. There was a question in his face as he regarded Mr. Czenki.
"It is either the Koh-i-noor or an exact duplicate," said Mr. Czenki.
"It _is_ the Koh-i-noor," repeated Mr. Cawthorne doggedly.
"Id seems to me," interposed Mr. Schultze, "dat if der Koh-i-noor vas
missing somebody would haf heard, ain'd id? I haf nod heard. Mr.
Czenki made a misdake der oder day--maybe you make id to-day?"
"You _have_ made a mistake, I assure you, Mr. Cawthorne," remarked
Mr. Wynne quietly. "You identify that as the Koh-i-noor, of course,
by a slight inaccuracy in one of the facets adjoining the _collet_.
That inaccuracy is known to every diamond expert--the mistake you
make is a compliment to that as a replica."
He resumed his position at the end of the table, and Mr. Schultze sat
beside him. Amazement was a thing of the past, as far as he was
concerned. Mr. Czenki dropped into his chair again.
"And now, Mr. Czenki, speaking as an expert, what would you say was
the most perfect diamond the world?" asked Mr. Wynne.
"The five blue-white stones you mailed to these gentlemen," replied
the expert without hesitation.
"Perhaps I should have specified the most perfect diamond known to
the world at large," Mr. Wynne added smilingly.
"The Regent."
Again Mr. Cawthorne looked around, with bewilderment in his eyes.
The others nodded their approval of Mr. Czenki's opinion.
"The Regent, yes," Mr. Wynne agreed; "one hundred and thirty-six and
three-quarter carats, cut as a brilliant, worn by Napoleon in his
sword-hilt, now in the Louvre at Paris, the property of the French
Government--valued at two and a half million dollars." His hand
disappeared into the leather packet again; poised on his finger-tips,
when he withdrew them, was another huge jewel. He dropped it into
Mr. Schultze's hand. "There is further proof that the diamond output
has increased fiftyfold."
Mr. Schultze seemed dazed as he turned and twisted the diamond in his
hand. After a moment he passed it on down the table without a word.
"A duplicate also," and Mr. Wynne glanced at Mr. Cawthorne. "It is
reasonably certain that you would have heard of that if it had
disappeared from the Louvre." He turned to Mr. Schultze again. "I
may add that this fiftyfold increase in output is not confined to
small stones," he went on tauntingly. "They are of all sizes and
values. For instance?"
He lifted still another jewel from the packet and held it aloft for
an instant.
"The Orloff!" gasped Mr. Solomon.
"No," the young man corrected; "this, too, is a duplicate. The
original is in the Russian sceptre. This is a replica--color, weight
and cutting being identical--one hundred and ninety-three carats,
nearly as large as a pigeon's egg."
Again Mr. Wynne glanced along the table. Suddenly the frank
amazement had vanished from the faces of these men, and he found
only the tense interest of an audience watching a clever juggler.
For a time Mr. Schultze studied the Orloff duplicate, then passed it
along to the experts.
"Der grand Cullinan diamond weighs only two or d'ree pounds," he
questioned in a tone of deep resignation. "Maybe you haf _him_ in
der backage, alretty?"
"Not yet," replied Mr. Wynne, "but I may possibly get that on my next
trip out. Who knows?"
There was a long, tense silence. Mechanically Mr. Czenki placed the
three spheres and the replicas in an orderly little row on the table
in front of him and the uncut stones beside them--six, seven, eight
million dollars' worth of diamonds.
"Gentlemen, are you convinced?" demanded Mr. Wynne suddenly. "Is
there one lingering doubt in any mind here as to the tremendous find
which makes the production of all those possible?"
"Id iss der miracle, Mr. Vynne," admitted the German gravely, after
a little pause. "Dere iss someding before us as nefer vas in der
vorld. I am gonvinced!"
"Up to this moment, gentlemen, the De Beers Syndicate has controlled
the diamond market," Mr. Wynne announced, "but now, from this moment,
I control it. I hold it there, in the palm of my hand, with the
unlimited supply back of me. I am offering you an opportunity to
prevent the annihilation of the market. It rests with you. If I
turn loose a billion dollars' worth of diamonds within the year you
are ruined--all of you. You _know_ that--it's hardly necessary to
tell you. And, gentlemen, I don't care to do it."
"What is your proposition?" queried Mr. Latham quietly. His face was
ghastly white; haggard lines, limned by amazement and realization,
were marked clearly on it. "What is your proposition?" he repeated.
"Wait a minute," interposed Mr. Solomon protestingly, and he turned
to the young man. "The Syndicate controls the market by force of a
reserve stock of ten or fifteen million dollars. Do we understand
that you have more than these ready for market now?"
Mr. Wynne stooped and lifted the small sole-leather grip which had
been unheeded on the floor. He unfastened the catch and turned the
bag upside down upon the table. When he raised it again the
assembled jewelers gazed upon a spectacle unknown and undreamed of
in the history of the world--a great, glittering heap of diamonds,
flashing, colorful, prismatic, radiant, bedazzling. They rattled
like pebbles upon the mahogany table as they slipped and slid one
against another, and then, at rest, resolved themselves into a
steady, multi-colored blaze which was almost blinding.
"Now, gentlemen, on the table before you there are about thirty
million dollars' worth of diamonds," Mr. Wynne announced calmly.
"They are all perfect, every one of them; and they're mine. I know
where they come from; you can't find out. It's none of your
business. Are you satisfied _now_?"
Mr. Latham looked, looked until his eyes seemed bursting from his
head, and then, with an inarticulate little cry, fell forward on the
table with his face on his arms. The German importer came to his
feet with one vast Teutonic oath, then sat down again; Mr. Solomon
plunged his hand into the blazing heap and laughed senselessly. The
others were silent, stunned, overcome. Mr. Wynne walked around the
table and replaced the spheres and replicas in his pocket, after
which he resumed his former position.
"I have stated my case, gentlemen," he continued quietly, very
quietly. "Now for my proposition. Briefly it is this: For a
consideration I will destroy the unlimited supply. I will bind
myself to secrecy, as you must; I will guarantee that no stone from
the same source is ever offered in the market or privately, while you
gentlemen," and his manner was emphatically deliberate, "purchase
from me at one-half the carat price you now pay _one hundred million
dollars' worth of diamonds!_"
He paused. There was not a sound; no one moved.
"You may put them on the market as you may agree, slowly, thus
preventing any material fluctuation in value," he went on. "How to
hold this tremendous reserve secretly and still permit the operation
of the other diamond mines of the world is the great problem you will
have to face."
He leaned over, picked up a handful from the heap and replaced them
in the leather bag. The others he swept off into it, then snapped
the lock.
"I will give you one week to decide what you will do," he said in
conclusion. "If you accept the proposition, then six weeks from next
Thursday at three o'clock I shall expect a cash payment of ten
million dollars for a portion of the stones now cut and ready; within
a year all the diamonds will have been delivered and the transaction
must be closed." He hesitated an instant. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, if
the terms seem hard, but I think, after consideration, you will agree
that I have done you a favor by coming to you instead of going into
the market and destroying it. I will call next Thursday at three for
your answer. That is all. Good day!"
The door opened and closed behind him. A minute, two minutes, three
minutes passed and no one spoke. At last the German came to his feet
slowly with a sigh.
"Anyhow, gendlemens," he remarked, "dat young man has a hell of a lod
of diamonds, ain'd id?"