“I am more used to that sort of thing. Do you all agree to being searched by me?” All did. The previous performance was repeated. 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.” But no diamond was found! The better to bring home to those who read these records the truly amazing nature of this circumstance, I will explain again, here, the construction and furniture of the apartment. It was a small room, some fourteen feet by eighteen. It contained eight oak chairs and an oak table; a red carpet; its walls were distempered and bare, save for the framed photograph previously mentioned. The one window was closed and fastened. The door opening on the corridor was double-locked. Save when it had been opened to admit Grimsby, the door communicating with the next office had also been locked throughout the course of the meeting. There was no fireplace. Ventilation was provided for by a small, square ventilator above the corridor door. Having convinced himself that the diamond was not upon the person of any one present, Inspector Grimsby took but two or three minutes to satisfy himself that it was not concealed elsewhere. “Gentlemen,” he said, slowly, “the Blue Rajah is not in this room!” The Lord Mayor glared. He was a director of the company with which the diamond was insured. “My good man,” he said, “it isn’t humanly possible for anything--anything--to have gone out of this room since we entered it!” “I’m disposed to agree with you, sir,” replied Grimsby. “But at the same time I’ll stake my reputation that the diamond isn’t inside these four walls! Although my search of you gentlemen was a mere formality, I assure you it was thorough. I’ve searched a few score Kaffirs and I know my business. As to the room itself, it’s as bare as a drawing board. A child could find the smallest bead in it inside twenty seconds. You can take it from me as a stone certainty that the diamond has gone!” “Then we are wasting precious time!” cried Sir Michael. “Commence the pursuit at once, Inspector!” Grimsby’s jaw shot out doggedly. “If you could give me a hint where to begin, sir,” he said, “I shouldn’t waste another second!” “Hang it all, that’s your business, my man!” “I know it is, sir. But I’m only a poor human policeman, after all. We sha’n’t gain anything by getting angry, shall we? This room, to all intents and purposes, is a locked box from which something has been abstracted without lifting the lid. That’s a conjuring trick, and as puzzling to me as it is to you.” Sir Michael softened. Inspector Grimsby is not a man who can be browbeaten.