Trickery Read online

  ‘I am too shocked to be really enjoying it yet,’ Robert Sandy said. ‘Give me a moment or two to recover.’

  ‘Mind you,’ Harry Gold said, ‘one wouldn’t expect much less from the King of the Saudis. Did you save the young prince’s life?’

  ‘I suppose I did, yes.’

  ‘Then that explains it.’ Harry Gold had put the diamond back on to the fold of white paper on his desk, and he sat there looking at it with the eyes of a man who loved what he saw. ‘My guess is that this stone came from the treasure-chest of old King Ibn Saud of Arabia. If that is the case, then it will be totally unknown in the trade, which makes it even more desirable. Are you going to sell it?’

  ‘Oh gosh, I don’t know what I am going to do with it,’ Robert Sandy said. ‘It’s all so sudden and confusing.’

  ‘May I give you some advice.’

  ‘Please do.’

  ‘If you are going to sell it, you should take it to auction. An unseen stone like this would attract a lot of interest, and the wealthy private buyers would be sure to come in and bid against the trade. And if you were able to reveal its provenance as well, telling them that it came directly from the Saudi Royal Family, then the price would go through the roof.’

  ‘You have been more than kind to me,’ Robert Sandy said. ‘When I do decide to sell it, I shall come first of all to you for advice. But tell me, does a diamond really cost twice as much in the shops as it does in the trade?’

  ‘I shouldn’t be telling you this,’ Harry Gold said, ‘but I’m afraid it does.’

  ‘So if you buy one in Bond Street or anywhere else like that, you are actually paying twice its intrinsic worth?’

  ‘That’s more or less right. A lot of young ladies have received nasty shocks when they’ve tried to re-sell jewellery that has been given to them by gentlemen.’

  ‘So diamonds are not a girl’s best friend?’

  ‘They are still very friendly things to have,’ Harry Gold said, ‘as you have just found out. But they are not generally a good investment for the amateur.’

  Outside in The High, Robert Sandy mounted his bicycle and headed for home. He was feeling totally light headed. It was as though he had just finished a whole bottle of good wine all by himself. Here he was, solid old Robert Sandy, sedate and sensible, cycling through the streets of Oxford with more than half a million dollars in the pocket of his old tweed jacket! It was madness. But it was true.

  He arrived back at his house in Acacia Road at about half past four and parked his bike in the garage alongside the car. Suddenly he found himself running along the little concrete path that led to the front door. ‘Now stop that!’ he said aloud, pulling up short. ‘Calm down. You’ve got to make this really good for Betty. Unfold it slowly.’ But oh, he simply could not wait to give the news to his lovely wife and watch her face as he told her the whole story of his afternoon. He found her in the kitchen packing some jars of home-made jam into a basket.

  ‘Robert!’ she cried, delighted as always to see him. ‘You’re home early! How nice!’

  He kissed her and said, ‘I am a bit early, aren’t I?’

  ‘You haven’t forgotten we’re going to the Renshaws for the week-end? We have to leave fairly soon.’

  ‘I had forgotten,’ he said. ‘Or maybe I hadn’t. Perhaps that’s why I’m home early.’

  ‘I thought I’d take Margaret some jam.’

  ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Very good. You take her some jam. That’s a very good idea to take Margaret some jam.’

  There was something in the way he was acting that made her swing round and stare at him. ‘Robert,’ she said, ‘what’s happened? There’s something the matter.’

  ‘Pour us each a drink,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a bit of news for you.’

  ‘Oh darling, it’s not something awful, is it?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s something funny. I think you’ll like it.’

  ‘You’ve been made Head of Surgery!’

  ‘It’s funnier than that,’ he said. ‘Go on, make a good stiff drink for each of us and sit down and I’ll tell you.’

  ‘It’s a bit early for drinks,’ she said, but she got the ice-tray from the fridge and started making his whisky and soda. While she was doing this, she kept glancing up at him nervously. She said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you quite like this before. You are wildly excited about something and you are pretending to be very calm. You’re all red in the face. Are you sure it’s good news?’

  ‘I think it is,’ he said, ‘but I’ll let you judge that for yourself.’ He sat down at the kitchen table and watched her as she put the glass of whisky in front of him.

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Come on. Let’s have it.’

  ‘Get a drink for yourself first,’ he said.

  ‘My goodness, what is this?’ she said, but she poured some gin into a glass and was reaching for the ice-tray when he said, ‘More than that. Give yourself a good stiff one.’

  ‘Now I am worried,’ she said, but she did as she was told and then added ice and filled the glass up with tonic. ‘Now then,’ she said, sitting down beside him at the table, ‘get it off your chest.’

  Robert began telling his story. He started with the Prince in the consulting-room and he spun it out long and well so that it took a good ten minutes before he came to the diamond.

  ‘It must be quite a whopper,’ she said, ‘to make you go all red in the face and funny-looking.’

  He reached into his pocket and took out the little black pouch and put it on the table. ‘There it is,’ he said. ‘What do you think?’

  She loosened the silk cord and tipped the stone into her hand. ‘Oh, my God!’ she cried. ‘It’s absolutely stunning!’

  ‘It is, isn’t it.’

  ‘It’s amazing.’

  ‘I haven’t told you the whole story yet,’ he said, and while his wife rolled the diamond from the palm of one hand to the other, he went on to tell her about his visit to Harry Gold in The High. When he came to the point where the jeweller began to talk about value, he stopped and said, ‘So what do you think he said it was worth?’

  ‘Something pretty big,’ she said. ‘It’s bound to be. I mean just look at it!’

  ‘Go on then, make a guess. How much?’

  ‘Ten thousand pounds,’ she said. ‘I really don’t have any idea.’

  ‘Try again.’

  ‘You mean, it’s more?’

  ‘Yes, it’s quite a lot more.’

  ‘Twenty thousand pounds!’

  ‘Would you be thrilled if it was worth as much as that?’

  ‘Of course, I would, darling. Is it really worth twenty thousand pounds?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And the rest.’

  ‘Now don’t be a beast, Robert. Just tell me what Mr Gold said.’

  ‘Take another drink of gin.’

  She did so, then put down the glass, looking at him and waiting.

  ‘It is worth at least half a million dollars and very probably over a million.’

  ‘You’re joking!’ Her words came out in a kind of gasp.

  ‘It’s known as a pear-shape,’ he said. ‘And where it comes to a point at this end, it’s as sharp as a needle.’

  ‘I’m completely stunned,’ she said, still gasping.

  ‘You wouldn’t have thought half a million, would you?’

  ‘I’ve never in my life had to think in those sort of figures,’ she said. She stood up and went over to him and gave him a huge hug and a kiss. ‘You really are the most wonderful and stupendous man in the world!’ she cried.

  ‘I was totally bowled over,’ he said. ‘I still am.’

  ‘Oh Robert!’ she cried, gazing at him with eyes bright as two stars. ‘Do you realize what this means? It means we can get Diana and her husband out of that horrid little flat and buy them a small house!’

  ‘By golly, you’re right!’

  ‘And we can buy a decent flat for John and give him a better allowance all the w