Opening this, he took out a diamond which he had brought up from the cave of light, and placed it on the middle of the table.
"This," he said, "is a fragment of the mass of diamond into which I descended.

I have called it 'The Great Stone of Sardis.'" Nobody spoke, nobody seemed to breathe.

The huge diamond, of the form and size of a large lemon, lay glowing upon the dark cloth, its irregular facets--all of them clean-cut and polished, the results of fracture--absorbed and reflected the light, and a halo of subdued radiance surrounded the great gem like a tender mist.
"I brought away a number of fragments of the diamond," said Clewe, his voice sounding as if he spoke into an empty hall, "and some of them have been tested by two of the gentlemen present.

Here are the stones which have been tested." And he laid some small pieces on the cloth.

"They are of the same material as the large one.