"Right you are, mister," he answered, and he drank off his rum and we went out and round to my office. I took him into my private room--I had a young lady clerk in there (she'd remember this man well enough) and he looked at her and then at me. "Send the girl away," he muttered. "There's a matter of undressing--d'ye see?--in getting at what I want to show you." I sent her out of the room, and sat down at my desk. He took off his overcoat, his coat, and his waistcoat, shoved his hand into some secret receptacle that seemed to be hidden in the band of his trousers, somewhere behind the small of his back, and after some acrobatic contortions and twistings, lugged out a sort of canvas parcel, the folds of which he unwrapped leisurely. And suddenly, coming close to me, he laid the canvas down on my blotting-pad and I found myself staring at some dozen or so of the most magnificent pearls I ever set eyes on and a couple of rubies which I knew to be priceless. I was never more astonished in my life, but he was as cool as a cucumber. "What d'ye think o' that lot, mister?" he asked. "I reckon you don't see a little lot o' that quality every day." "No, my friend," said I, "nor every year, either, nor every ten years. Where on earth did you get them--" "Away East," said he, "and I've had 'em some time, not being particular about selling 'em, but I've settled down in England now, and I think I will sell 'em and buy house-property with the money. What do you fix their vally at, now, mister--thereabouts, anyway?" "Good heavens, man!" I said. "They're worth a great deal of money--a great deal." "I'm very well aware o' that, mister," he answered. "Very well aware indeed--nobody better. I seen a deal o' things in my time, and I ain't no fool." "You really want to sell them?" I asked. "If I get the full price," said he. "And that, of course, would be a big 'un." "The thing to do," I said, "would be to find somebody who wants to complete a particularly fine set of pearls--some very rich woman who'd stick at nothing. The same remark applies to the rubies." "Maybe you could come across some customer?" he suggested. "No doubt, in a little time," I answered. "Well," he said, "I'm going up North--I've a bit o' business that way, and I reckon I'll be back here in London in a week or so--I'll call in then, mister, and if you've found anybody that's likely to deal, I'll show 'em the goods with pleasure." "You'd better leave them with me, and let me show them to some possible buyers," I said. But he was already folding up his canvas wrapping again.