e of the World
and was even now in London.

The information may not appear tremendous to those unacquainted with
the source of jewelry; but when I say that the only thief employed by
any West-end jeweller since famous Thangobrind's distressing doom is
this same Neepy Thang, and that for lightness of fingers and swiftness
of stockinged foot they have none better in Paris, it will be
understood why the Bond Street jewellers no longer cared what became
of their old stock.

There were big diamonds in London that summer and a few considerable
sapphires. In certain astounding kingdoms behind the East strange
sovereigns missed from their turbans the heirlooms of ancient wars,
and here and there the keepers of crown jewels who had not heard the
stockinged feet of Thang, were questioned and died slowly.

And the jewellers gave a little dinner to Thang at the Hotel Great
Magnificent; the windows had not been opened for five years and there
was wine at a guinea a bottle that you could not tell from champagne
and cigars at half a crown with a Havana label. Altogether it was a
splendid evening for Thang.

But I have to tell of a far sadder thing than a dinner at a hotel. The
public require jewelry and jewelry must be obtained. I have to tell of
Neepy Thang's last journey.

That year the fashion was emeralds. A man named Green had recently
crossed the Channel on a bicycle and the jewellers said that a green
stone would be particularly appropriate to commemorate the event and
recommended emeralds.

Now a certain money-lender of Cheapside who had just been made a peer
had divided his gains into three equal parts; one for the purchase of
the peerage, country house and park, and the twenty thousand pheasants
that are absolutely essential, and one for the upkeep of the position,
while the third he banked abroad, partly to cheat the native
tax-gatherer and partly because it seemed to him that the days of the
Peerage were few and that he might at any moment be called upon to
start afresh elsewhere. In the upkeep of the position he included
jewelry for his wife and so it came about that Lord Castlenorman
placed an order with two well-known Bond-street jewellers named
Messrs. Grosvenor and Campbell to the extent of L100,000 for a few
reliable emeralds.

But the emeralds in stock were mostly small and shop-soiled and Neepy
Thang had to set out at once before he had had as much as a week in
London. I will briefly sketch his project. N