I had my doubts of it, but I didn't air them.
"Have you any clues?" he asked.
"None as yet."
"What do you want me to do?"
"To publish the loss through the channels of the trade, with the request that if any attempt is made to dispose of the pearls we should instantly be notified. The owner's name, and the circumstances of the robbery must be kept secret."
"Very good," he said, making a memo on a pad. "I will attend to it at once, and discreetly. Is there anything else I can do?"
"I hoped that with your knowledge of jewels and the jewel market you could give me something to work on," I said.
"All I know is at your command," said he. He talked at length about jewels and jewel thieves, but it was all in generalities. There was nothing that I could get my teeth into. He gave it as his opinion that the pearls were already on their way abroad, perhaps to India.
"Then you think that the robbery was engineered by experts?"
He spread out his expressive hands. "How can I tell?"