"Do you know anything of the prisoner?"
The witness glanced at Harvey Grimm and, meeting his astounded stare, greeted him in friendly fashion.
"Certainly," he replied. "Mr. Harvey Grimm is a valued acquaintance. I engaged him recently to recut and, if possible, to present to me in an altered form a variety of precious stones."
"May I ask your reason for this?" the solicitor enquired.
"It is a matter of almost political history," the witness explained, turning towards the magistrate. "The De Floge collection of diamonds is famous, I believe I may say, throughout the world. They were the subject, at the time of the outbreak of the war, of a lawsuit between the German branch of the De Floge family and my own. During the hearing of the case, the jewels were deposited by common consent at the Antwerp Museum, where anybody who is an expert in these matters will tell you that they have been inspected by connoisseurs from all over the world. With the invasion of our country, my grandfather and I determined to do our best to prevent these jewels, which were worth an immense sum, from falling into the hands of the enemy. The curators of the Antwerp Museum, although they were under a bond, consented, under the circumstances, to hand them over to our branch of the family, and they were transported to my grandfather's chateau, which is very near the French frontier, just before the sack of Antwerp. Subsequently my grandfather and my sister, the Comtesse de Floge, after a series of remarkable adventures, in which the latter especially was concerned, managed to escape to England with the bulk of the jewels. My cousin, however, who represents the German side of our family, has seized our lands and home and has made desperate attempts in various directions to secure also the jewels, which the authorities would now award him as a matter of course. I deemed it wise, bearing all these things in mind, to yield to my grandfather's almost passionate insistence and dispose secretly of as many as possible."
There was a great sensation in court. Mr. Harvey Grimm asked for a chair and sat down.
"Did you," the solicitor for the defence asked, "impose entire secrecy upon Mr. Harvey Grimm?"
"Under the peculiar circumstances of the case, I did," was the prompt reply.
The solicitor turned to the magistrate.
"There is nothing left, your Worship," he said, "but for me to ask you to sanction the immediate release of my client."