the three months had expired, at an hotel in Paris where Vanderdellen would be staying at the time and where he would call for it.
"'I heard nothing more about the mysterious diamonds and their still more mysterious vendor,' continued Mr. Sedley, amidst intense excitement, 'for Vanderdellen and I soon parted company after that, he going one way and I another. But at the beginning of July I met him in Paris, and on the 4th I dined with him at the Elysee Palace Hotel, where he was staying.
"'Mr. Cornelius R. Shee was there too, and Vanderdellen related to him during dinner the history of his mysterious purchase of the Black Diamonds, adding that the vendor had called upon him that very day as arranged, and that he (Vanderdellen) had had no hesitation in handing him over the agreed price of £500,000, which he thought a very low one. Both Mr. Shee and I agreed that the whole thing must have been clear and above board, for jewels of such fabulous value could not have been stolen since last spring without the hue and cry being in every paper in Europe.
"'It is my opinion, therefore,' said Mr. Albert V.B. Sedley, at the conclusion of this remarkable evidence, 'that Mr. Vanderdellen bought those diamonds in perfect good faith. He would never have wittingly subjected his wife to the indignity of being seen in public with stolen jewels round her neck. If after July 5th he did happen to hear that a parure of black diamonds had been stolen in England at the date, he could not possibly think that there could be the slightest connection between these and those he had purchased more than three months ago.'
"And, amidst indescribable excitement, Mr. Albert V.B. Sedley stepped back into his place.
"That he had spoken the truth from beginning to end no one could doubt for a single moment. His own social position, wealth, and important commercial reputation placed him above any suspicion of commiting perjury even for the sake of a dead friend. Moreover, the story told by Vanderdellen at the dinner in Paris was corroborated by Mr. Cornelius R. Shee in every point.
"But there! a dead man's words are not evidence in a court of law. Unfortunately, Mr. Vanderdellen had not shown the diamonds to his friends at the time. He had certainly drawn enormous sums of money from his bank about the end of June and beginning of July, amounting in all to just over a million sterling; and there was nothing to prove which special day he had paid away a sum of £500,000, whether before or after the burglary at Eton Chase.
"He had made extensive purchases in Paris of pictures, furniture, and other works of art, all of priceless value, for the decoration of his new palace in Fifth Avenue, and no diary of private expenditure was produced in Court. Mrs. Vanderdellen herself had said that after her husband's death, as all his affairs were in perfect order, she had destroyed his personal and private diaries.
"Thus the counsel for the plaintiff was able to demolish the whole edifice of the defence bit by bit, for it rested on but very ephemeral foundations: a story related by a dead man.
"Judgment was entered for the plaintiff, although everyone's sympathy, including that of judge and of jury, was entirely for the defendant, who had so nobly determined to vindicate her husband's reputation.
"But Mrs. Vanderdellen proved to the last that she was no ordinary every-day woman. She had kept one final sensation up her sleeve. Two days after she had legally been made to give up the Black Diamonds, she offered to purchase them back for £500,000. Her bid was accepted, and during last autumn, on the occasion of the last Royal visit to London and the consequent grand society functions, no one was more admired, more fêted and envied, than beautiful Mrs. Vanderdellen as she entered a drawing-room exquisitely gowned, and adorned with the parure, of which an empress might have been proud."
(At this point you should attempt to solve the mystery for yourselves.)
The man in the corner had paused, and was idly tapping his fingers on the marble-topped table of the A.B.C. shop.
"It was a curious story, wasn't it?" said the funny creature after a while. "More like a romance than a reality."
"It is absolutely bewildering," I said.
"What is your theory?" he asked.
"What about?" I retorted.
"Well, there are so many points, aren't there, of which only one is quite clear, namely, that the parure of black diamonds disappeared from Eton Chase, Chislehurst, on July 5th, 1902, and that the next time they were seen they were on the neck and head of Mrs. Vanderdellen, the widow of one of the richest men of modern times, whilst the story of how her husband came by them was to all intents and purposes legally disbelieved."
