DETECTIVE AND SECRET SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

DETECTIVE AND SECRET SERVICE.

(By EDWIN T. WQODHALL.)

: I can think of no more fascinating subject for investigation'and study than fthe history of certain precious stones ,throughout their vicissitudes—their oft.repeated changes, re-cuttings, reBettings, new owners and sometimes ignominious loss. In the autumn of 1919 a great friend (of mine (a famous financier, now dead, Sbut whose name, in deference to his surviving relatives I must ask to be excused from mentioning) ■ sent for * me through his lawyers and- asked me to trace a diamond which formed the centre of a pendant. It was a .large, pure white Brazilian diamond .and-had iieen recently reset at the financier's request in a: -platinum pendant. The financier had presented it to a famous musical comedy star then appearing on the London stage. She had worn it at ft dinner given in her honour by the financier at- a West End Hotel and, during the dinner, pendant and stone mysteriously disappeared^ At the dinner four people had sat idown—tlie actress, her patron.-and; a certain sporting peer, with another lady. . ,The party had been waited upon by one of the oldest waiters in the hotel who was quite beyond suspicion. I made a complete investigation- into the circumstances and characters ,of all at the table that night and I was simply mystified. The waiter was comfortably situated. He had grown a family and owned four houses,.was the soul of honour and a devout Roman Catholic. * The actress was receiving a salary amounting to nearly a thousand a week, the financier was a millionaire, the sport-, ing peer was immensely-rich and his lady friend had a villa oq the Riviera find owned three racehorses! "She Will Not Be Lost, That One!" The millionaire had -happened to notice the pendant when the fish was served, but when the lady's cloak was brought it had gone. She had never felt the breaking of the chain and the fastenings had been perfectly secure. Her dresser vouched for that. A most diligent search of the room reyeakd nothing at all. I inquired most, closely into the source from which the diamond came and the millionaire told me he had bought it from a certain well known Garden diamond merchant. I interviewed the merchant, producing the credentials of the millionaire. He told me the jewel [had formed part of a parcel bought by Slim in Paris and gave me the name of the vendors. Then I went to the former owner and found him to be an old man of Jewish nationality with.a great name for obtaining rare- stones. To him precious stones "werciv like children. He treated them as a schoolmaster would treat a school full of boys, tending them

IX.—DIAMOND OF DISASTER.

: carefully, . polishing this one,' resetting that, peeling a layer off this- pearl, altering the shape of that diamond' and eventually grieving over them, when they left his control- and departed on their careers of adventure through the world. To him in 'confidence I told the story of the loss. "All! H'm!" he exclaimed in a curious sing-song drone. "Ah! H'm! Host now; but she .will reappear.- Yimcan- > not lose her- likje that. 'No, no. She will not be lost, that one!" I wondered if the oid man were not a little senile, as he laughed more to himself than to me and seemed to fall into: a reverie. v ' "What do* you mean, M'sieu, Gottsburg?" I asked. He atartcd. ' 4 Symbol of a Crown. "M'sieu Woodhall," he declared, "I am going to tell you 1 one of the most astounding stories you ever heard, and here I have a record of dates and times and places and persons." He certainly spoke, truth. . Th<%telling of the story, took a long time, and I do not intend to go into all the deta/ls of it here, but, put briefly, this is the summary of the old diamond merchant's story. The Lipman diamond was mined in Brazil in the year 1865 by a miner called Lipman, who mined his own concession .it SantaOolivia. It was cut in Amsterdam and. |old for a great figure. The miner Lipman was so proud of his diamond that he had it exhibited in Rio de Janeiro, after it returned from. Europe following its cutting. Thieves, thinking the mirier still had the diamond in his possession, followed him out on the long lonely trail to his mountain concession and there murdered him. That was the beginning.- ' ■ ; V . The stone had by now come into the possession of, a well-known SpanishAmerican horse breeder named Don Pedro Esbanzia, who was a Strong sup?, porter of- the ill-fated ex-Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. When that misguided member of • the Hapsburg family - went Over to conquer Mexico, Don Pedro Esbanzia met him at Chihuahua and presented him with the diamond to form the centre stone of the crown of i- Mexico —when it was won. When the officer commanding the firing party Avho shot Maximilian examined the body of the dead would-be Emperor he [ found tied on a ribbon round his neck . a small bag. Inside the bag was a small packet wrapped in a piece of parchment, on which was written in tiny French . characters: . "The two things for which I will live j and die; my .crown and my wife." i There, enclosed'in this piece of parch- 1 merit, - was a- tiny miniature of. his i devoted wife and the symbol of his ] crown —the Lipman diamond. ]

The officer, who was not of the: usual type Mexican bandit-adventurer, sent the packet with a personal messenger to : Iha newiy-created President, who, in ■ turn,, sent the package intact to the P/nicese-Sophia, then living in Brussels. This unfortunate lady went mad shortly afteV slic heard of the tragic end of her husband, and,, only recently died in Belgium, '*V ; TJje Sinister Trail. There were times when the mad Princess .was quite sane enough to receive distinguished visitors, and npon one such occasion a member of the Russian royal family visited her, and she'sent a message .of friendship and .goodwill to the Czar, insisting that he should accept the diamond—the symbol of "her husband's crown—as a mark of her great esteem. There had been some demur, about accepting the present, but ultimately the Princess had: her way, and the Czar came to . own the fatal diamond. Immediately he came into possession of it. the disastrous Russo-Japanese war broke ; out,'"and was* followed 'by, the Revolution of 1917. The stone remained, in his possession until the overthrow of his dynasty .and the. tragic massacre; of 'his family'and himself. Then it came 'into, the .possessioiri iGotisbui'g, who was relating its history to me.' -He. had bought it with others ,from once-wealthy Russian refugees, and in*"turn had sold ifj ■to aj .Hatton Garden merchant. *1 had listened itro' thia amazing -story, of which I have merely given* the summary with-something approaching awe, because ,the old man did not relate the story as I have done, but centred it in a curious way round the diamond, making the diamond appear the principal actor throughout. He would say, referring to it in the feminine gender: "Well/' I said, after he had finished and I had somewhat recovered from, the eerie f pell v oi listening to this weird old : man. "HoV is it that you did' npt. suffer L'at its hands '■ J • is ' because I i understand-'stones/ They never' strike withoufc%iving a The'ifirst day I displayed the Lipman 'I my .-, glasses agdVbroke a glass. 'Ha! ha!' T said, fyou do -not like to be displayed. Very well, you know best,' and I covered j lier'up, only displaying her when I sold her—and I told my friend in Hattou , Garden of her little peculiarity." - - ] "But," I said, laughing, "do you seriously mean to tell me that an inanimate ' object like can have whims ' and moods, that it can influence events 1 and sometimes prefer darkness and sometimes light, sometimes want to be shown i and sometimes to be hidden?" t

"The laughter of a .fool," quoted the old man, "is his appreciation of wisdom." "I beg yoiir pardon," I apologised, "but your theory seemed so amazing to me." "Inanimate objects!?' The old man repeated my; words scornfully. "Do you call that an inanimate object?" He drew from Sis pocket a magnificent diamond wrapped -in chamois leather, and I gazed into it. had never seen a diamond so large and so truly 'full of fire.-'Little flashes " came ''from its inner; intricate facet : " reflections and, indeed, after listening to the old man's story I began to feel a sort of-creepy feeling that the thing was alive after all. . .. ? I left the oW man after -tracing- the history of the stone, and returned to my hotel to think it out. I

I "What would you do if you had such , a stone?" I asked myself, and answered » at once. i "Either get rid of it or hide it." Then : I thought to myself,, "If our actress . friend knew the story ehe also would either get rid of it or hide it."-.. . •'"7>idn't'You Know That?" * I returned to London determined to investigate the new line of thought. I saw -the diamond merchant in the afternoon in Hatton Garden. The actress was at a matinee. I told him that I had seen old Gottsburg in Paris, and he laughed. '"Queer old chap, isn't lie ?" said the merchant, sweeping a handful of diamonds into a chamois leather bag. 1 agreed and chatted with him. a few miirutes about the story of the diamond. ,v"I had "not gone into the wliole history," he said after he had heard, the story, "but I knew it was from the .Russian collection, of course. Cunning old devil, Gottsburg, he didn't tell me the full story though he certainly told me it was a stone that liked the dark!" "But, seriously, is there anything in that?"- 1 asked. "What?" lie said. "Certain stones liking the dark? Oli! heaven, yes. ■Didn't you know that?" "I certainly did not," I replied. "I don't see 'how that cuu be. A moment ago you said that old Gottsburg did not tell you the full story of the,stone, and you spoke -Us if you rather resented his reticence. Ho you mean that it would have affected your purchase ?" ' . | "Well, it depends," the merchant re-1 plied slowly. "In this case I don't j thihk it would, because I was buying on . commission for our mutual friend the financier, but' I should-'certainly have told him its history. If I had been buying speculatively, well, I simply wouldn't have' bought, that's all." ''Why not?" I asked. "Well, damn it all, man,", the merchant was annoyed, "you heard the yarn, xlidn't-you?" . "Yes.," I replied. "I certainly heard it, but I can't possibly credit such an absurd superstition." That,night, the second niglit after my return from Paris, I visited her at the theatre. . "Well," she greeted nie with a charming smile. "Any luck?" ■ "Yes," I replied. "I think I've found the diamond." ■ , * "What?" she stared at me in bewilder- - ment. yWhere V'

"In the St. James' safe deposit," I replied, watching her closely and noting the change of colour in her "face. "How did you get in?" she asked at last, knowing that I had hy some means got possession of her secret and being too sensible to keep up a useless blufl'. ' "Never mind that," I said. "Tell me why you hid it or, rather, I .what particularly caused you to fear the stone?*'' — "Plow perfectly wonderful," she said. "How on earth, did you find out that I feared .the stone?"

T repeated to her the story of the diamond. As did so, her eyes openeu wider and wider. Three times were wl* interrupted by her dresser, annouueiug callers", hut three , times was she sent away. Too engrossed was the actress in listening to the story of the Lipmaii diamond. .

"Heavens!" she exclaimed,>vhen I had finished. "I knew that it must be an unlucky stone, but I never dreamt that it was as evil as that. On the day that I got it I was admiring the effect of it in a mirror, when 1 happened to catch a glimpse of 'Tom' my mascot, you know, a great Persian cat. His eyes were staring widely, his fur all ruffled up, and his tail twice too big. I thought it was a dog or something disturbing him, and I turned to stroke him; but no, he jumped back, spitting. My dear Mr. Woodhall, his eyes were fixed on the diamond! 'Tom' is a lucky cat, and all the things that he likes are lucky. I was disturbed. I visited Madame Zara, the palmist and seer, who is wonderfully good. She told me, that I had obtained possession of something to which was attached tragedy and bad luck. She said I could minimise the effect by not displaying it. Immediately after my visit to her I met my great friend who had given me the "diamond by arrangement at the X Hotel. "Now this is very secret." The actress leant forward and cast a furtive glance in the direction of the door.

Diamond Bane. "When we crpssed the foyer of the she whispered, "1 saw standing there a woman whom 1 detest. She is not pretty, but has a strange fascination fv men. Frequently she has tried to attract my friend, hut he told me he disliked her even as X did. But that night, Mr. Woodhall, I saw his face in I the mirror as he turned to look after j her. Then I knew that the stone was, indeed, unlucky! I determined to hide |it in my bag, to begin with, and in the safe deposit afterwards. I did so. It remains in the St. James' safe deposit.*' Before I left her she decided to tell the financier the reason for her deception, using, of course, the mirror I incident, not that of the hotel fctyer. Two days later he sent, for me and, in his characteristic way, dismissed' the whole affair with a few. words and a laugh. "Keep it to yourself," he adjured me. | "These women can he damned silly about old witches' tales and the ljke. I'll keep the stone . and get her something else. I'll bet I know someone whose greed will be 'stronger than her superstition. How much do I owe you?" We settled my fee, and I left him. 'In 1926 I met him.again in connection with another and much more serious matter, and I reminded- him about the "stone. * - . * "Oli, yes!" he said, "the stone! • Well, do" you know,'■Woodhall," he said quietly, with an unusually sad look in his eyes, "if I Were inclined to be superstitious I would certainly put that stone among the unlucky ones. I-gave it to a little ■rirl some time ago who did rather well in one of my shows.... She subsequently went on tour with a company, and in Manchester underwent an operation for peritonitis-—and at her request the stone was returned to mc after——~ The millionaire did not finish his sentence, and T could see that he was strongly moved. I

Certainly the Lipman diamond brought iiim no luck! From that time onwards everything went wrong witli hiuf. Financial disasters followed cue another in quick succession. Inside, a year of our meeting he was dead. I often wonder if I shall come, across that baneful stone again? i