partment
Enquiries office. There was a bell next to the door which I rang. After
a long wait, a young man in a smock opened it. I said I would like to
see the Hannay diamonds.
"Oh yes. You telephoned yesterday for an appointment, didn't you?" he asked.
I said I hadn't telephoned: I had merely walked in. I asked if I should have telephoned.
"Oh no, it's not necessary," he said, "but somebody from Canada rang up, and I thought it must be you. A lot of people seem to
be interested in those diamonds just now. Just a minute; I'll ask
Dr.-----" His voice trailed off as he disappeared. He had ushered me
through the door info another passage full of more glass cases, but
these contained rocks and minerals instead of dinosaurs. Everything
looked dusty, as it should in a museum. In a little while there
appeared a brisk, crew-cut, spectacled man, walking fast.
"What do you want to know about the Hannay diamonds?" he asked, a trifle aggressively.
I explained that I merely wanted to see them, and, if possible, the equipment.
"Not a trace of the equipment's left," he said, "but we've got the diamonds. Come on up to my office."
We
went out of the enormous room, through the passage, out of the door in
the wooden wall, and back past the dinosaurs. He talked as we went:
"I'm relieved that that's all you want. For a minute I thought you
intended to ask me what I think of them."
He didn't go on, so I asked, "Well, what do you think of them?"
He shrugged and smiled bitterly and didn't reply. For some
