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“You’re–you’re very hard on me.” I made a movement toward my waistcoat pocket. “I’ll return it to you!”

I handed him the crystal, and with it I handed him my pocket lens.

“With the aid of that glass I imagine that you will be able to subject it to a more acute examination, Pugh.”

He began to examine it through the lens. Directly he did so, he gave an exclamation. In a few moments he looked up at me. His eyes were glistening behind his spectacles. I could see he trembled.

“Tress, it’s–it’s a diamond, a Brazil diamond. It’s worth a fortune!”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Glad I think so! Don’t you think that it’s a diamond?”

“It appears to be a diamond. Under ordinary conditions I should say, without hesitation, that it was a diamond. But when I consider the circumstances of its discovery, I am driven to doubts. How much did you give for that puzzle, Pugh?”

“Ninepence; the fellow wanted a shilling, but I gave him ninepence. He seemed content.”

“Ninepence! Does it seem reasonable that we should find a diamond, which, if it is a diamond, is the finest stone I ever saw and handled, in a ninepenny puzzle? It is not as though it had got into the thing by accident, it had evidently been placed there to be found, and, apparently, by anyone who chanced to solve the puzzle; witness the writing on the scrap of paper.”

Pugh re-examined the crystal.

“It is a diamond! I’ll stake my life that it’s a diamond!”

“Still, though it be a diamond, I smell a rat!”

“What do you mean?”

“I strongly suspect that the person who placed that diamond inside that puzzle intended to have a joke at the expense of the person who discovered it. What was to be the nature of the joke is more than I can say at present, but I should like to have a bet with you that the man who compounded that puzzle was an ingenious practical joker. I may be wrong, Pugh; we shall see. But, until I have proved the contrary, I don’t believe that the maddest man that ever lived would throw away a diamond worth, apparently, shall we say a thousand pounds?”

“A thousand pounds! This diamond is worth a good deal more than a thousand pounds.”

“Well, that only makes my case the stronger; I don’t believe that the maddest man that ever lived would throw away a diamond worth more than a thousand pounds with such utter wantonness as seems to have characterized the action of the original owner of the stone which I found in your ninepenny puzzle, Pugh.”

“There have been some eccentric characters in the world, some very eccentric characters. However, as you say, we shall see. I fancy that I know somebody who would be quite willing to have such a diamond as this, and who, moreover, would be willing to pay a fair price for its possession; I will take it to him and see what he says.”

“Pugh, hand me back that diamond.”

“My dear Tress, I was only going–“

Bob came in with the breakfast tray.

“Pugh, you will either hand me that at once, or Bob shall summon the representatives of law and order.”

He handed me the diamond. I sat down to breakfast with a hearty appetite. Pugh stood and scowled at me.

“Joseph Tress, it is my solemn conviction, and I have no hesitation in saying so in plain English, that you’re a thief.”

“My dear Pugh, it seems to me that we show every promise of becoming a couple of thieves.”

“Don’t bracket me with you!”

“Not at all, you are worse than I. It is you who decline to return the contents of the box to its proper owner. Put it to yourself, you have SOME common sense, my dear old friend I–do you suppose that a diamond worth more than a thousand pounds is to be HONESTLY bought for ninepence?”