Although Mr. Bacon was a wholesale dealer, he also did a considerable
retail trade as well. On the following morning a well-dressed man came
into the store and asked to see some fine diamonds. The clerk who
waited on him showed him a tray full of choice gems from two carats
up to five. The customer looked them over carefully, made several
selections, but the price was always too high for him to pay. He
tried to get the clerk to reduce the figure, but that was out of the
question, as Mr. Bacon had but one price for his goods. Finally the man
said that he would have to go elsewhere. As he started to leave the
sharp-eyed clerk noticed that a five-carat stone was missing from the
tray.
"One minute, sir," said the clerk. "You forgot to return one of the
diamonds you were looking at."
"I did? Nonsense! Do you take me for a thief? I only handled one of
them at a time and after looking it over laid it down on the showcase,
or on that mat."
"Nevertheless, one of the diamonds is missing," said the clerk, pushing
a button under the counter which summoned the manager of the store.
The customer waxed indignant and protested that he had no knowledge
whatever of the diamond. The clerk insisted that he must have it.
"Well, then, you can search me, but I think it's an outrage," said the
man.
The manager took him into his office and went through all his pockets,
and looked him over for a secret pocket, but there was none and the
diamond was not found on him.
"You see, I haven't got it," said the man. "Your clerk's eyesight is
defective. I don't believe there is a diamond missing at all from the
tray. He only thought there was."
Under the circumstances the customer was permitted to leave the store,
though the manager was pretty well satisfied that the clerk had made
no mistake. Dick had seen the man examining the diamonds, but had
noticed no suspicious movement on his part to get away with a gem. In
his opinion the man had been wrongfully accused. Once he had seen the
man put his left hand under the outside ledge of the showcase at the
bottom and hold it there for a moment, but he thought nothing of that.
At any rate, he knew there was no place there where a diamond could be
lodged even temporarily. The clerk looked over the floor on the outside
of the counter, but without result, so he felt sure that the customer
had managed to get away with it somehow. In about half an hour a lady
entered the store and went to the same counter. She wanted to look at
some new style rings. While the clerk was producing a couple of trays,
Dick, who was close by, saw her place her hand under the bottom ledge
of the showcase and run it along there about a foot, an action the
office boy thought strange. When she removed her hand she fumbled for
her pocket. A moment or two later she was looking at the rings the
clerk placed before her. At that juncture the manager called Dick and
sent him down the block with a message. As he was coming back he saw
the man who had been suspected of taking the diamond standing near the
curb about a hundred yards from the store. He seemed to be waiting for
some one.
Down the street came the lady whom Dick had left examining the rings.
She went directly up to the man and handed him something. Dick saw
him hold the article up and pick at it. In another moment he tossed
something away and put his finger and thumb into his vest pocket, then
the couple walked away. The meeting of these two persons struck Dick as
having a suspicious bearing on the missing diamond, though just what
the connection was he could not say. He looked at the place where he
had seen the man toss what the woman had handed him and saw a small,
dark object. He went and picked it up. It proved to be a wad of chewing
gum. Dick was disappointed with his discovery and was about to drop it
when he noticed a deep impression in it that looked like the imprint of
a diamond.
Then the truth came to his bright mind like a flash of inspiration. The
missing diamond had been stuck in the gum. Still that didn't explain
to his mind how the diamond had got there, or how the lady who had
been in the store half an hour after the man had come in possession
of the diamond. The matter puzzled him greatly, but of one thing he
was confident, and that was that the missing diamond was now in the
man's pocket. Under such circumstances he believed that it was his duty
to follow the pair. The couple turned into Nassau street and walked
leisurely northward. Dick kept on behind them in a rather doubtful
frame of mind. They kept straight on, passing the Tribune Building and
the other newspaper offices of the Row, and so on under the Brooklyn
Bridge entrance to the corner of North William, a narrow and short
street that cuts into Park Row at that point. They crossed the head of
this street and walked into a well-known pawnshop that stood there.
"I'll bet the man is going to pawn that diamond," thought Dick. "Well,
I'm going to see if he is."
He immediately followed them into the public room. He found them
standing before the long counter. A clerk came up to them.
"How much will you advance me for a month on that diamond?" asked the
man, taking the unset stone out of his pocket and laying it down on the
counter.
The size of the diamond corresponded with the missing one, and on the
spur of the moment Dick glided to the counter and grabbed it before the
clerk's fingers touched it.
"I don't think this shop will advance you a dollar on a stolen
diamond," he said, stepping back defiantly, ready to maintain his
employer's claim to the stone.
The woman gave a stifled exclamation and looked frightened.
"Give me that diamond!" cried the man.
"No, sir. Will you send for a policeman to settle this matter?" said
Dick to the clerk.
"Do you want me to send for an officer?" the clerk asked the man.
"No; I can settle my own business without a cop butting into it,"
replied the man savagely.
"Call an officer for me, then," said Dick. "I accuse this man of
stealing the diamond he asked you to fix a price on."
"How dare you call me a thief!" roared the man.
"Because that's what you are," answered Dick defiantly.
Customers coming into the pawnshop stopped to see what was going on. As
the case stood, all the advantage lay with Dick, for he had the article
in dispute, and possession is nine points of the law. As the racket was
highly undesirable in the pawnshop, the clerk decided to telephone for
a policeman to come and straighten things out, since neither Dick nor
the man showed any signs of giving in. The man himself realized that
things were growing desperate. The lady said something to him in a low
tone, but he shook his head impatiently. Evidently somebody had told a
policeman of the case, for just at this time an officer appeared.