At six he was off duty. As he was leaving the precinct the desk sergeant
called him back.
"Got change for a dollar, an' I'll settle that pinochle debt," offered
the sergeant.
"I'll take a look." The policeman emptied his coin pocket.
"What's that yuh got there?"
"Which?"
"The red stone?"
"Oh, that? Picked it up on the sidewalk. Some Italian kids dropped it as
they skedaddled."
"Let's have a look."
"Sure." The policeman passed over the stone.
"Gee! That looks like real money. Say, they can do anything with glass
these days."
"They sure can."
A man in civilian clothes--a detective from headquarters--went up to the
desk. "What you guys got there?"
"A ruby this boob picks up off'n the sidewalk," said the sergeant,
winking at the finder, who grinned.
"Let's have a squint at it."
The stone was handed to him. The detective stared at it carefully,
holding it on his palm and rocking it gently under the desk light.
Crimson darts of flame answered to this treatment. He pushed back his
hat.
"Well, you boobs!" he drawled.
"What's the matter?"
"Matter? Why, this is a ruby! A whale of a ruby, an' pigeon blood at
that! I didn't work in the' appraiser's office for nothing. But for
a broken point--kids probably tried to crack it--it would stack up
somewhere between three and four thousand dollars!"
The sergeant and the policemen barked simultaneously: "What?"
"A pigeon blood. Where was it you found it?"
"Holy Moses! On Eightieth."
"Any chance of finding that bunch of kids?"
"Not a chance, not a chance! If I got the hull district here there
wouldn't be nothin' doin'. The kids'd be too scared t' remember
anything. A pigeon-blood ruby, an' I wasn't gonna pick it up at first!"
"Lock it up, sergeant," ordered the detective. "I'll pass the word
to headquarters. Too big for a ring. Probably fallen from a pin. But
there'll be a holler in a few hours. Lost or stolen, there'll be some
big noise. You two boobs!"
"Well, whadda yuh know about that?" whined the policeman. "An' me
thinkin' it was glass!"
But there was no big noise. No one had reported the loss or theft of a
pigeon-blood ruby of unusual size and quality.