"When we asked the former Sultan in Madrid why he had trusted my husband and myself with such a valuable gem he replied with a smile:
'You have good faces.'
"He showed us other precious stones in his collection, including some very fine emeralds in square shape and very large, but he said that he would not part with them."
When asked the value placed upon the diamond by the customs appraisers after they had examined it. Mr, Withram said:
"T have tried in vain in London and Paris at the principal jewellers to get an idea of what it is we They told me that because of its immense size there was no method of determining its value.
The appraisers on the pier at the foot of West Fourteenth Street, where the Aquitania was berthed at 11 o'clock, said the diamond was like a valuable oil painting. {n the ordinary way it might be worth $20,000 for cutting up and making into smaller stones, while a collector of precious stones might value it at half a million dollars.
The dia~ond was taken in charge by the customs officials at the pi and will be locked up in the sao at the Custom House at Bowling Green until to-morrow mozuing Then it will be taken to the Appraiser's Stores at Washington and Christopher Streets for valua-ion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.