The scheme, or rather the execution of the scheme, was anything but the work of a far-seeing, skilful and well-informed mind. Nothing can illustrate this better than the supreme folly of planting diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires in the same matrix. A capable rogue would have consulted the history of mining for precious stones and would have readily discovered that they are never found associated in the same formation. This would have enabled him to avoid a raw monstrosity that should have led to exposure at the very start. Much of the other work was raw, as, for instance, the diamond and ruby spangled ant-hills and the flat rock, whose fissures were studded with precious stones. A plain, unornamented diamond field would have presented a far better baited hook. It can be shown by authenticated documentary evidence that Slack and Arnold were the sole beneficiaries of the loot. In fact, some doubt exists whether Slack was a participant at all. Outside the sum that Lent collected, the balance was transmitted to Arnold’s heirs, as the records of Hardin county, Kentucky, prove. Again, if any other actor in the drama had the least foreknowledge of the fraud, he surely would have parted with his interest while the market was booming--before the frail bubble burst. When the coarse diamonds were sent to London, nothing could be more certain than their immediate identification as nearly valueless South African stones. Yet not a share of stock was sold. Every reasonable presumption pointed to the entire good faith of all, so far as the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company and its stockholders were concerned. Finally, it is conceivable only on the basis of downright madness, that any man with wealth, reputation and self-respect, in short, with everything to lose, could have conceived and carried out such a reckless plot. If by any chance it had succeeded, if the diamond company’s stock had been exploited on the stock market, there was not a place upon the earth so desolate and remote but that the vengeance of mankind would have found him out. It was the evident design of a rather crude intelligence utterly regardless of consequences, and counting on obscurity to make good. Nevertheless, no matter how plain a case may seem, no matter how free from doubt or complication, if it be only big enough the world loves to build around it a fairy structure of mystery or romance. Nothing could be more evident than that Arnold and Slack were the architects of their own work. Yet the public saw fit to cast grave suspicion on those who were clearly victims and heavy losers--the only ones who lost a cent. Even Ralston, although he paid over $300,000 to make good the losses of the stockholders, was more or less under a cloud. Lent, Roberts, Dodge and myself were in turn suspected. At last public opinion seemed to settle down to a conviction that the guiding--“the master mind”--was mine.