Some fifteen or more bona fide offers were made to purchase a concession for $200,000 cash and a royalty to the parent company of 20 per cent. Not only that, but the purchasers of such concession would have been able to place stock on the market and sell the shares like hot cakes. Quite a few million could have been gathered in from that source alone. Why not? Even granting that the element of gambling was strong, nevertheless, such a property had a far better backing of apparent value than nine-tenths of the wildcat mining schemes launched every week on the stock exchange. Not only that, but three other diamond and ruby companies were organized, each with fairly representative men behind them. One of these companies exposed to public view a gem that looked like the headlight of a locomotive, seen through a fog after dark. It was known as the Staunton ruby, and was generally conceded by experts to be a genuine stone of high quality. No one seemed able to give more than a guess at its value, but the opinion was unanimous that only some rich and powerful nation could purchase it, to adorn a scepter or a crown. All of these companies were merely marking time, waiting till the great, proved, unquestioned company should say “play ball” and start a speculative market for everyone. But no such misfortune happened. On November 11 a telegram was received from Clarence King by the president of the San Francisco and New York Mining and Commercial Company dated from a small station in Wyoming stating that the diamond fields were fraudulent and plainly “salted.” This, of course, caused a wild excitement among the officers of the company. They held a hurried meeting. They were simply stunned. King was reached by wire at once, and agreed to take a party in and prove his statements. A party was at once organized for this purpose. The members were Henry Janin, D. D. Colton, John W. Bost and E. M. Fry. Clarence King was a geologist and engineer in the service of the United States Government, a man of some professional distinction and of talent in the literary line. It is worthy of note here that some years after the diamond story broke, King wrote a perfervid narrative entitled “Mountaineering in the High Sierras.” In it he described an ascent of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in California, and dragged himself through a series of hair-breadth escapes that put every Alpine adventure in the shade. A geologist by the name of W. A. Goodyear knew something of the region, visited Mount Whitney, made the ascent on a mule with settled habits of reflection and never dismounted till he reached the top, proving that King had never been there at all. All of this Goodyear described in a widely circulated magazine. The laugh that followed broke King’s heart. He died a few months later.