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196
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Gem Trader
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thing, there will be an upward tendency almost before you can ship the stuff out."
I
inspected the goods. My heart was in my mouth. What was I about? Had I
any right to commit myself to such heavy payments? If I bought the
parcel I was staking all upon one throw of the dice; if I did not buy
it my loss on the first purchase would limit my resources severely for
some time to come. As I fumbled with the corn-tongs, idly picking up
first one then another flashing stone, not knowing what decision to
take for the best, a voice said in my ear: "Leap!"
I
turned to my creditor. "All right," I said, "you can invoice the lot to
me, but easy with the whip when you fix the dates of payment."
The same day I received a cable from my brother in Manila: "Market here gone to pieces; buy nothing, ship nothing."
"A
fine kettle of fish," I commented to myself, but ate a hearty
dinner—like the condemned man—and went to a show. What was done was
done. Within a week I sailed from Marseilles, China-bound, carrying
with me in the purser's safe the second folly which was to wash out the
first.
I
was lucky, very lucky. Within ten weeks from the date of my arrival in
China I had liquidated for spot cash all my purchases, and had entered
into an arrangement with my Antwerp supplier whereby we operated
jointly in the Far Eastern markets on a fifty-fifty basis—he to buy the
rough and cut it, I to have sole distribution. For six years the
association held between us, until civil war in
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