Momentarily Biff panicked. Where had he put the pearl? Then he felt his uncle nudge him. “Your inside coat pocket, Biff,” Charles Keene whispered.
Biff’s hand shot into his coat pocket.
“The object referred to,” the referee went on, “is a pearl. A black pearl that must match perfectly the one I hold here.”
At these words, Dietz raised an eyebrow and smirked. He was positive no such pearl existed. If it did, Derek didn’t have it. He had searched Derek carefully. No pearl had been found.
Biff’s hand touched the small box. He pulled it out and stepped forward to the referee’s bench.
“Here, sir.” Biff said, holding the beautiful pearl in the palm of his hand.
The referee took it. Biff couldn’t resist turning around to see Dietz’s reaction. Dietz was grasping Specks’s arm. He seemed about to faint. He swallowed several times, shaking his head as if trying to remove from his vision something he couldn’t believe he was seeing.
The referee was examining the two pearls closely.
“Everything seems to be in order. There can be no doubt that these are matching pearls. Beautiful ones, too. My congratulations to you, young man, and to your father. He has truly made a discovery of great beauty and value.”
The referee placed the papers in a thick manila envelope and handed them over to Biff. “And now, seeing that no one else is here to present a claim, I declare the Claims Division closed for the day,” he said.