He licked his lips and added, “They was beauties an' no mistake.”
“Big Brazilian gem,” he read on. “Eighty thousan' dollars—many valuable gems of the first water—several thousan' small diamonds well worth forty thousan'.”
“What you don't know about jools is worth knowin',” Matt smiled good-humouredly.
“Theory of the sleuths,” Jim read. “Thieves must have known—cleverly kept watch on Bujannoff's actions—must have learned his plan and trailed him to his house with the fruits of his robbery—”
“Clever—hell!” Matt broke out. “That's the way reputations is made... in the noospapers. How'd we know he was robbin' his pardner?”
“Anyway, we've got the goods,” Jim grinned. “Let's look at 'em again.”
He assured himself that the door was locked and bolted, while Matt brought out the bundle in the bandanna and opened it on the table.
“Ain't they beauties, though!” Jim exclaimed at sight of the pearls; and for a time he had eyes only for them. “Accordin' to the experts, worth from fifty to seventy thousan' dollars.”
“An' women like them things,” Matt commented. “An' they'll do everything to get 'em—sell themselves, commit murder, anything.”
“Just like you an' me.”