“He’s clever all right,” said the Special Agent. “We had almost come to the conclusion that he couldn’t be carrying the gems himself, but must be employing a carrier whom we would not suspect. You see, we have secretly examined his stuff on various occasions. We’ve had secret agents traveling on the boat with him. We’ve tested his cane and his umbrella. We’ve emptied his tube of tooth paste. We’ve even surreptitiously removed the heels of his shoes while he was asleep. We’ve cut open his soap. We’ve looked in every place we could think of. That’s probably why the inspector paid no attention to Simonski’s cane. His canes have been under scrutiny before. But they seemed to be all right.” “So did this one,” said Willie. “If it had not been broken, we should probably never have found the diamonds. The inspector thinks it was made especially for this trip. It was no patent cane that you could open and put together again. You’d have had to chop this cane to get it apart. It had been bored out for a distance lengthwise, from the bottom up. But the diameter of the hole was small. The diamonds, with the thinnest of cotton wrappers, could just be stuffed into it. The end of the opening flared, like the sides of a long, slender cone. A piece of wood had been fashioned to fit this opening exactly, and the bottom of this plug was the ferule of the cane. The plug was glued in tight. It was as solid as veneering on fine furniture. I believe it could never have been pulled out. There wasn’t the slightest mark or crack to show that the cane was ever plugged. It appeared perfectly solid. And it was so slick and fresh that it must have been newly made.” “Likely you are correct. He probably got a new cane on each trip. Doubtless it was done by expert workmen at considerable cost. He could afford to, according to what the inspectors telephoned me about the value of the diamonds seized. But I guess Simonski won’t be buying any more canes soon. He’ll get a prison sentence out of this. Sheridan told me you were sharp, but when I sent you to the Majestic I didn’t think that you would really accomplish anything.” “It was mostly luck,” said Willie. “If the cane had not broken, I doubt if we should have found the diamonds. You never saw a nicer piece of work in your life than that cane.” “Well, luck or no luck, we got Simonski, and that’s the thing we wanted. The department is immensely pleased.” The department was no more pleased than Willie was. He was entirely in earnest when he said that the discovery of the diamonds was due to luck, for, had not Simonski momentarily lost his self-control and the cane been broken, it is doubtful if the gems would have been found. None the less, the seizure helped Willie greatly.