Lith was saying, "the famous collection of
emeralds which has disappeared has always been what you Americans
call 'hoodooed.' They hare always brought ill luck, and, like many
things of the sort to which superstition attaches, they have been
'banked,' so to speak, by their successive owners in museums."
"Are they salable; that is, could any one dispose of the emeralds
or the other curios with reasonable safety and at a good price?"
"Oh, yes, yes," hastened Dr. Lith, "not as collections, but
separately. The emeralds alone cost fifty thousand dollars. I
believe Mr. Spencer bought them for Mrs. Spencer some years before
she died. She did not care to wear them, however, and had them
placed here."
I thought I noticed a shade of annoyance cross the face of the
magnate. "Never mind that," he interrupted. "Let me introduce Miss
White. I think you will find her story one of the most uncanny you
have ever heard."
He had placed a chair for her and, still addressing us but looking
at her, went on: "It seems that the morning the vandalism was
first discovered she and Dr.
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