Mr.Czenki drew a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars a year from the H.Latham Company, and was worth twice that much.

He was the diamond expert of the firm; and for five or six years his had been the final word as to quality and value.

He had been a laborer in the South African diamond fields--the scar was an assegai thrust--about the time Cecil Rhodes' grip was first felt there; later he was employed as an expert by Barney Barnato at Kimberly, and finally he went to London with Adolph Zeidt.

Mr.Latham nodded as he entered, and took the box from the pigeonhole.
"Here's something I'd like you to look at," he remarked.
Mr.Czenki removed the cover and turned the glittering stone out into his hand.

For a minute or more he stood still, examining it, as he turned and twisted it in his fingers, then walked over to a window, adjusted a magnifying glass in his left eye and continued the scrutiny.