Pawle. "Isn't
it established that beyond yourself and this unknown man nobody but
Ashton knew the secret?"
"There is another matter, though," remarked Viner. He turned to the
visitor. "You said that you and Ashton became very friendly and
confidential during your stay in Marseilles. Pray, did he never show you
anything of a valuable nature which he carried in his pocketbook?"
The barrister's keen eyes suddenly lighted up with recollection.
"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Now you come to suggest it, he did! A diamond!"
"Ah!" said Mr. Pawle. "So you saw that!"
"Yes, I saw it," assented Mr. Perkwite. "He showed it to me as a sort of
curiosity--a stone which had some romantic history attaching to it. But I
was not half as much interested in that as in the other affair."
"All the same," remarked Mr. Pawle, "that diamond is worth some fifty or
sixty thousand pounds, Perkwite--and it's missing!"
Mr. Perkwite looked his astonishment.
"You mean--he had it on him when he was murdered?" he asked.
"So it's believed," replied Mr. Pawle.
"In that case it might form a clue," said the barrister.
"When it's heard of," admitted Mr.
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