more
about it. I had completely forgotten the incident when.three or four
months later he turned up and without ado laid a small parcel of stones
on the table. It did not take me long to discover that he had succeeded
in what I had thought to be impossible. But I was more surprised still
when he quoted me a price per carat extremely moderate. I bought all
he had with him, and subsequently arranged to take his entire output.
It was my idea to corner the market; but alas for such hopes, secrets
of that kind are hard to keep, and within the year others were turning
out scientific alexandrites in such quantities that it became
unprofitable to handle them in Europe.
I
managed, however, to arouse a wide interest in these "funny" stones in
China and Japan, and the quantity these two markets absorbed was
amazing. While it lasted I had no cause to complain. There was, and I
believe still is, a shop in Hong Kong kept by two Chinese brothers
where I frequently met a number of prominent Cantonese, both Government
officials connected with Dr. Sun Yat Sen's administration and also not
a few military officers of higher rank.
Several
of these officers were, as the Americans say, "tickled to death" with
alexandrites, the stones that could change sides as effectively as any
Chinese brigand general. All of them bought these scientific
alexandrite novelties of me; not single specimens, but by the handful.
Among these friendly customers was a close-cropped military man who one
day, not so many years later, would acquire a news value as great as
that of the Austrian house-painter's or the Swedish cinema star's. His
name was Chiang Kai Shek.
