“Monsieur Sholmes, I am sorry I cannot offer you an easy chair. How would you like that broken box? Or perhaps you would prefer the window ledge? I am sure a glass of beer would be welcome ... light or dark?... But sit down, please.”
“Thank you; we can talk as well standing up.”
“Very well—proceed.”
“I will be brief. The object of my sojourn in France was not to accomplish your arrest. If I have been led to pursue you, it was because I saw no other way to achieve my real object.”
“Which was?”
“To recover the blue diamond.”
“The blue diamond!”
“Certainly; since the one found in Herr Bleichen’s tooth-powder was only an imitation.”
“Quite right; the genuine diamond was taken by the blonde Lady. I made an exact duplicate of it and then, as I had designs on other jewels belonging to the Countess and as the Consul Herr Bleichen was already under suspicion, the aforesaid blonde Lady, in order to avert suspicion, slipped the false stone into the aforesaid Consul’s luggage.”
“While you kept the genuine diamond?”