"_I_ want to sell you a diamond. Here it is. What will you give me for
it?"
Taking the crystal from my waistcoat pocket I handed it to the man on the
other side of the counter. Directly, he got it between his fingers, and
saw that it was that he had got, I noticed a sudden gleam come into his
eyes.
"This is--this is rather a fine stone."
Pugh nudged my arm.
"I told you so." I paid no attention to Pugh. "What will you give me for
it?"
"Do you mean, what will I give you for it cash down upon the nail?"
"Just so--what will you give me for it cash down upon the nail?"
The man turned the crystal over and over in his fingers.
"Well, that's rather a large order. We don't often get a chance of buying
such a stone as this across the counter. What do you say to--well--to ten
thousand pounds?"
Ten thousand pounds! It was beyond my wildest imaginings. Pugh gasped. He
lurched against the counter.
"Ten thousand pounds!" he echoed.
The man on the other side glanced at him, I thought, a little curiously.
"If you can give me references, or satisfy me in any way as to your _bona
fides_, I am prepared to give you for this diamond an open check for ten
thousand pounds, or if you prefer it, the cash instead."
I stared; I was not accustomed to see business transacted on quite such
lines as those.
"We'll take it," murmured Pugh; I believe he was too much overcome by his
feelings to do more than murmur. I interposed.
"My dear sir, you will excuse my saying that you arrive very rapidly at
your conclusions. In the first place, how can you make sure that it is a
diamond?"
The man behind the counter smiled.
"I should be very ill-fitted for the position which I hold if I could not
tell a diamond directly I get a sight of it, especially such a stone as
this."
"But have you no tests you can apply?"
"We have tests which we apply in cases in which doubt exists, but in this
case there is no doubt whatever. I am as sure that this is a diamond as I
am sure that it is air I breathe. However, here is a test."
There was a wheel close by the speaker. It was worked by a treadle. It was
more like a superior sort of traveling-tinker's grindstone than anything
else. The man behind the counter put his foot upon the treadle. The wheel
began to revolve. He brought the crystal into contact with the swiftly
revolving wheel. There was a s--s--sh! And, in an instant, his hand was
empty; the crystal had vanished into air.
"Good heavens!" he gasped. I never saw such a look of amazement on a human
countenance before. "It's splintered!"