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"I am correct in my facts, if that is what you mean," said I.
"The stiletto is an English heirloom, and bears on its blade,
among other devices, that of Mr. Grey's family on the female
side. But that is not all I want to say. If the blow was struck
to obtain the diamond, the shock of not finding it on his victim
must have been terrible. Now Mr. Grey's heart, if my whole theory
is not utterly false, was set upon obtaining this stone. Your eye
was not on him as mine was when you made your appearance in the
hall with the recovered jewel. He showed astonishment, eagerness,
and a determination which finally led him forward, as you know,
with the request to take the diamond in his hand. Why did he want
to take it in his hand? And why, having taken it, did he drop
it--a diamond supposed to be worth an ordinary man's fortune?
Because he was startled by a cry he chose to consider the
traditional one of his family proclaiming death? Is it likely,
sir? Is it conceivable even that any such cry as we heard could,
in this day and generation, ring through such an assemblage,
unless it came with ventriloquial power from his own lips? You
observed that he turned his back; that his face was hidden from
us. Discreet and reticent as we have all been, and careful in our
criticisms of so bizarre an event, there still must be many to
question the reality of such superstitious fears, and some to ask
if such a sound could be without human agency, and a very guilty
agency, too. Inspector, I am but a child in your estimation, and
I feel my position in this matter much more keenly than you do,
but I would not be true to the man whom I have unwittingly helped
to place in his present unenviable position if I did not tell you
that, in my judgment, this cry was a spurious one, employed by
the gentleman himself as an excuse for dropping the stone."
"And why should he wish to drop the stone?"
"Because of the fraud he meditated. Because it offered him an
opportunity for substituting a false stone for the real. Did you
not notice a change in the aspect of this jewel dating from this
very moment? Did it shine with as much brilliancy in your hand
when you received it back as when you passed it over?"
"Nonsense! I do not know; it is all too absurd for argument." Yet
he did stop to argue, saying in the next breath: "You forget that
the stone has a setting. Would you claim that this gentleman of
family, place and political distinction had planned this hideous
crime with sufficient premeditation to have provided himself with
the exact counterpart of a brooch which it is highly improbable
he ever saw? You would make him out a Cagliostro or something
worse. Miss Van Arsdale, I fear your theory will topple over of
its own weight."
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