"Then further thought won't kill them. Besides, we'll be back before morning--and they can't send out a relief party sooner." "But any moment a storm may come up. You know what that would mean." "Does it look likely?" scoffed Stoddard, waving his hand aloft. "See--there's the moon! She'll be our guide." Professor Prescott looked, saw a slender shallop charting her course among the stars, and for a moment was tempted. But speedily his responsibilities reasserted themselves. "No, I can't do it," he said with finality. "I owe it to the expedition to return as soon as possible. Furthermore, there's the matter of the authorities. We assured the British we would adhere strictly to our one purpose--to scale Kinchinjunga." "A mere formality." "No--a definite order from the Lamas. They closed Mt. Everest, after the last expedition, you will recall. The Lama's scepter is veritably a diamond thunderbolt of power in this region." Whereupon Stoddard's patience snapped. "Listen!" he said. "I hurried away because I knew you'd be anxious, but I'm going back, if I have to--" "And I say you're not!" The professor's patience, too, had snapped. "I'm not going with you, and you're not going back alone! As the leader of this expedition, I forbid it!" The younger man laughed raspingly, as he shook off the hand that clasped his arm, and for a moment it looked as though the two would fight, there on that dizzy ledge above the world. Then Stoddard got control of himself. "Sorry!" he said. "I see I've got to tell you something, Professor. You think I'm merely the geologist of this expedition, but in fact I'm a secret service man from Washington, on the trail of the biggest diamond-smuggling plot in history--and here is where the trail ends!" * * * * * Professor Prescott's astonishment at these words was profound. He stood there blinking up at Stoddard, scarcely believing he had heard aright. "You--you say you are--?" "A detective, if you want. Anyway, if you've read the papers, you must know that for the past year or more the diamond markets of the world have been flooded with singularly perfect stones." "Yes, I recall reading about that. They were thought to be synthetic, were they not?" "By certain imaginative newspaper reporters, not by the experts, for under the microscope they revealed the invariable characteristics of diamonds formed by nature--the tiny flaws and imperfections no artificial means could duplicate." "But didn't I read something, too, about some anonymous Indian rajah who was thought to be raising money by disposing of his jewels?"