Transcriber’s note: Table of Contents added by Transcriber and placed into the Public Domain. Contents Page PREFACE CHAPTER I 11 CHAPTER II 18 CHAPTER III 25 CHAPTER IV 32 CHAPTER V 40 CHAPTER VI 45 CHAPTER VII 55 CHAPTER VIII 65 CHAPTER IX 73 CHAPTER X 78 CHAPTER XI 83 CHAPTER XII 89 CHAPTER XIII 98 CHAPTER XIV 109 CHAPTER XV 114 CHAPTER XVI 120 CHAPTER XVII 128 CHAPTER XVIII 139 CHAPTER XIX 146 CHAPTER XX 159 CHAPTER XXI 168 CHAPTER XXII 174 CHAPTER XXIII 180 CHAPTER XXIV 185 CHAPTER XXV 191 CHAPTER XXVI 201 CHAPTER XXVII 206 CHAPTER XXVIII 212 CHAPTER XXIX 217 CHAPTER XXX 224 CHAPTER XXXI 230 CHAPTER XXXII 243 CHAPTER XXXIII 250 CHAPTER XXXIV 255 CHAPTER XXXV 259 CHAPTER XXXVI 267 CHAPTER XXXVII 271 CHAPTER XXXVIII 278 [Illustration: YOURS WITH BEST WISHES, ASBURY HARPENDING JUNE 20, 1915--AGE 76] THE Great Diamond Hoax AND Other Stirring Incidents IN THE LIFE OF ASBURY HARPENDING □□□□ EDITED BY JAMES H. WILKINS □□□□ Copyright by A. HARPENDING, 1913 □□□□ The James H. Barry Co., San Francisco. [Illustration: HARPENDING CREST] To my friend, unassuming John A. Finch, of Spokane, Washington, a man of great ability, possessing, according to my ideals, all the attributes of greatness, as a token of my deep esteem, this book is dedicated. THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. On my return to California, after an absence of many years, my attention was called, for the first time, to the fact that my name had been associated unpleasantly with the great diamond fraud that startled the financial world nearly half a century ago. Plain duty to my family name and reputation compelled me to tell the whole story of that strange incident so far as my knowledge of it extends. I sincerely trust that a candid reading of these pages will satisfy the public that I was only a dupe, along with some of the most distinguished financiers of the last generation. Concerning two of the historians who maligned me, I am without redress. They are dead. The latest author, Mr. John P. Young, repeated the accusation of his predecessors in his history of San Francisco. This gentleman has admitted that he merely copied the story of the earlier works, having no personal knowledge of events at that period, and has handsomely admitted, over his signature, that he unconsciously did me an injustice.