Sax Rohmer

“ Your method was far more workmanlike than Sir Michael Cayley's a few minutes earlier. He forgot to look in my watch case, but you didn't!"
Grimsby smiled.
"There's more in a simple thing like searching a man than most people take into consideration," he replied. "I've known a Kaffir in the mines who—excuse me, Miss Klaw—wore no more than Adam, to walk off with stones worth my year's wages."
"I'm prepared to accept your assurance, Inspector," said Sir John, "that none of us had the diamond about our persons."
"My father has accepted it," added Isis Klaw; "and that is conclusive." ”

“ Chinje, with her large handbag open, was waiting outside the door, in the corridor, like some new kind of wicket-keeper. Chinje tossed the diamond through the little square ventilator!
"He had been practising for weeks—ever since he knew that the Committee would meet in that room—tossing peanuts into the square opening of a parrot cage, placed at the same height from the floor as the ventilator over Mr. Anderson's doorway! He had practised until he could do it twelve times without missing. He had nerves like piano wires, yet he was a deadly anxious man; and he knew that a woman cannot catch! ”

“ The Presentation Committee were awaiting the mysterious Moris Klaw but had not anticipated a visit from a pretty woman. They were prepared to adopt toward the man who would seem to have had some foreknowledge of the robbery a certain attitude of suspicion. It was amusing to note the change of front when Isis entered. Moris Klaw singled out the Lord Mayor and the owner of the office with unerring instinct. He removed his hat.
"Good morning, Mr. Anderson!" he said. "Good morning, Sir Michael! Good morning, gentlemen!"
"This is Mr. Moris Klaw," explained Grimsby, "and Miss Klaw. Mr. Searles." ”

“ It is wonderful, snake-like, the power of fascination some Hindus have over women—and always over blondes, Mr. Searles, always blondes. It is a psychological problem."
So ended the case of the Blue Rajah robbery, one of the most brief in the annals of Moris Klaw. The great diamond we found in the girl's handbag, wrapped in a curious little rubber covering, apparently made to fit it.
"You see," explained Moris Klaw, later, to his wondering audience, "this girl—I have yet to find out who she is—was perhaps married to Mr. Chinje. ”

“ Chinje, stepping to the door which opened on the corridor. "Hullo! it is locked!"
Young Mr. Anderson turned to him with a smile.
"Both doors are locked, Mr. Chinje," he said. "For the time being we are virtually prisoners."
"Give me the case," said his father, selecting the key of the door communicating with his private office. "There is no occasion for further delay."
The Lord Mayor turned from the window, through which he had still been vainly peering, and stepped to the table.
"Mr. Anderson!"
"Yes?' said the latter, glancing back, keys in hand.
"Have you the diamond?" ”

“ Mark Anderson—the expert—representing the city, and Mr. Gautami Chinje, representing the Gaekwar of Nizam. I was wondering"—he surveyed the burning end of his cigarette—"if you had time to run down to Wapping yourself and find out from what direction we ought to look for trouble?"
"Sorry, Grimsby," I replied; "I would do it with pleasure, but my evening is fully taken up. Personally, it appears to me that Moris Klaw's warning was a timely one. You seem to be watching the stone pretty closely."
"Like a cat watches a mouse!" he rapped. ”

“ But I hope, amongst all these, to find that other thought-thing—the fear of the robber at the critical moment of his crime! That should be a cogent and forceful thought—keener and therefore stronger to survive, because a thought of danger but of gain, than the thoughts of loss with which this atmosphere is laden. ”

“ There is no coffee but Mocha—a thing you English will never learn. Return in an hour, gentlemen. Isis, ask that no disturbing sound is allowed within or without. That Committee, it can go home. None of it has the diamond."
"And the other gentlemen?" asked Grimsby. "They'll be anxious to get about their business, too. There's Sir John Carron from the India Office and Mr. Gautami Chinje—the Gaekwar's representative."
"Of course—certainly," mused Moris Klaw. "But, of course, too, they will all be anxious to know immediately the result of my inquiries. Listen—Mr. Anderson will remain ”

“ You'll have heard that a committee of commercial magnates has been formed to buy. and on behalf of the City of London to present to the Crown, the big Indian diamond?"
I nodded and pushed the box of cigarettes toward him.
"Well," he continued, thoughtfully selecting one, "they are meeting in Moorgate Street to-morrow morning to complete the deal and formally take over the stone. Sir Michael Cayley, the Lord Mayor, will be present, and he's received a letter, which has been passed on to me."
He fumbled for his pocket-case. Grimsby is a man who will go far. ”

“ Grimsby not only searched the garments but passed his hands all over the persons of the eight, even making them open their mouths and tapping at their teeth with a lead pencil!
"I did some I.D.B. work in South Africa," he explained. "It's wonderful where a clever man can hide a diamond." ”

“ Anderson's," remarked Chinje. "This is mere waste of time."
"Mr. Grimsby," resumed Klaw, placidly, "it is a case to be hushed up, this. There must be no arrests!"
"Eh?" cried Grimsby.
"Sir John Carron will ring up the Commissioner and he will say that Detective-Inspector Grimsby has traced the Blue Rajah, which was stolen, but that, for reasons of state, Detective-Inspector Grimsby will make a confidential report and no arrest!"
"Really——" began Sir John.
"Mr. Klaw," cried Anderson, interrupting excitedly. "You are jesting with men who are faced by a desperate position! ”

“ Indeed, only that I have the power to secure the astral negative, there had been no evidence at all. There is a third accomplice—him who howled in the courtyard; but I fear, as he so cleverly vanished, we shall never know his name. ”

“ Anderson's is the Central London Electric Lighting Company. Many consumers call. Mrs. Chinje was not suspected of any felonious purpose when she was seen in that corridor—and she was seen by a clerk and by an engineer. After my mental negative had told me of a pretty young lady of whom the thief thinks at the moment of his theft, I went to inquire—you recall?—if such a one had been seen near the office. ”

“ Chinje. Who would have been the losers by the robbery? The insurance company, if I do not mistake the case. For the Gaekwar, through his representative, Chinje, had the diamond insured for all the time it was his property and in England, and the Committee had it insured from the time it became their property. It had become their property. The Gaekwar would have got his check. He gets it now; it is in Chinje's pocket-case. The city would have lost its Blue Rajah, and the insurance company would have paid the city for the loss!
"The next office along the corridor from Mr. ”