The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

624 pearls. A half-hour passed in the examination before he turned to Oakes with a puzzled look upon his face. ‘I cannot imagine, my dear sir, how you ever came by these. I have never seen their like. Would you con- sider it impertinence on my part to ask where they came from and how you came by them?” “Not in the least,” said Oakes frankly. “ They are a part of some loot that came from a Chinese temple during the Boxer troubles of 1900, and belong to a friend of mine, who has asked me to sell them for him, as he has gone away. What are they worth, sir, at a conservative esti- mate?” Mr. Wheeler looked puzzled for a moment and strode up and down the floor, swinging his glasses by their string. “I am sorry to tell you,” he said presently, “that the: very greatest amount that any one would pay for these stones would be at the outside— four hundred pounds—” Marjorie uttered an exclamation of incredulity. Mr. Wheeler turned to her, palms out apologetically. ‘““My dear madame,’ he said qui- etly, “there is not a genuine stone in the lot. It is the most flagrant thing that I have ever seen. Until you told me where they came from I could not understand it. I thought at first that you had purchased them, and I was about to advise you to report the mat- ter at once to the police. When you told me where they came from that explained all—” “TI don’t follow you,” said Oakes, his forehead wrinkled with surprise and disappointment. ‘‘ Are there no genuine stones in China?” “Very few in the Chinese temples. The Chinaman is frankly a person who places great importance upon ap- pearances alone. It is no unusual thing for them, even at their great state dinners and entertainments in Peking, to place handsome favors at temple. THE ARGOSY. the dinner - place of each guest, and then after dinner to request the guests to return them. “It is sometimes exceedingly em- barrassing to the guest who has thought that the favors were personal gifts. They do the same thing in ma- king gifts to their gods in thanks for favorable answers to their prayers. “A valuable or rich gift, we will say, is given by some high official to a temple. A copy of it is at once made and the paste copy is placed on exhibition to show the richness of the The result is that every rich gift has its counterpart in paste, and they are kept in ordinary glass-covered cases where people can see them, while the real gems are kept in an entirely different place. ‘This very deception to which you have fallen a victim shows what a good plan it is for the temple.. Your stones are éach and every one of them—paste. I place the outside valuation at four hundred pounds.” | “Thank you very much,” said Oakes, speaking as a man stunned. ‘Iam sorry to have troubled you. I suppose there is no possibility of a mistake ? ” _ Mr. Wheeler shrugged his shoul- ders. “ Consult any one else. Do not accept my one opinion, but I will stake my reputation upon what I have told you. Good morning, sir.” “If that isn’t the very hardest luck,” said Oakes despondently. “Poor Hemingway had counted so much upon what he would do when we sold those stones! I must cable him at once as soon as the Nova Zem- bla has had time to get to Santa Cruz.” The next.day they went to the mu- seum, but found to their disappoint- ment that “Professor Errol had not been in the office since the day before. Asking for Mr. Norton, they were told by that gentleman that the old professor had been seized with an at- tack of grip as the result of his expo- sure and excitement, which had really been too much for a man of his age, COMicdoo S CO@