"A bit of curiosity, eh?"
"Not idle curiosity, Mr. Detective," replied Yada. "I wanted to know, to
make certain, which of the two Chinamen it really was who was there--dead.
I saw him. Now I know. Chen Li!"
"Well?" said Ayscough.
Yada suddenly twisted round in his chair, and slowly glanced at the
listening men on either side of the desk. They were cool, bold, half-
insolent eyes which received face after face, showing no recognition of
any until they encountered Melky Rubinstein's watchful countenance. And to
Melky, Yada accorded a slight nod--and turned to Ayscough again.
"Which," he asked calmly, "which of these gentlemen is the owner of the
diamond? Which is the one who has lost eighty thousand pounds in bank-
notes? That is what I want to know before I say more."
In the silence which followed upon Ayscough's obvious doubt about
answering this direct question, Levendale let out a sharp, half-irritable
exclamation:
"In God's name!" he said, "who is this young man? What does he know about
the diamond and the money?"
Yada turned and faced his questioner--and suddenly smiling, thrust his
hand in his breast pocket and drew out a card-case.
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