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"A week ago," said M, "one of the high-ups in the Treasury caht with him the Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade It had to do with diaem’ diamonds in the world are mined on British territory and that ninety per cent of all diamond sales are carried out in London By the Diaed his shoulders "Don’t askof the century and we’ve e trade Fifty ot So when soets worried And that’s what’s happened" M looked mildly across at Bond "At least two led out of Africa every year"

"That’s a lot ofto?"

"They say Aest dias of theirs are the only people who could run an operation on this scale"

"Why don’t theco they can," said M "You probably saw in the papers that De Beers took on our friend Sillitoe when he left MI5, and he’s out there noorking in with the South African security people I gather he’s put in a pretty drastic report and cos up, but the Treasury and the Board of Trade aren’t very i to be handled by a lot of separate ot one very good reason for wanting to take official action on their own"

"What’s that, Sir?"

"There’s a big packet of sled stones in London at this very littered across the desk at Bond "Waiting to go to America And the Special Branch knoho the carrier is to be And they knoho’s to go out with him to keep an eye on him As soon as Ronnie Vallance came across the story-it was leaked to one of his narks in Soho, to one of his ‘Ghost Squad’ as he chooses to call it-he went straight off to the Treasury The Treasury talked to the Board of Trade and then both their Ministers forave them authority to use the Service"

"Why not let the Special Branch of MI5 handle it, Sir?" asked Bond, reflecting that M see in other people’s business

"Of course they could arrest the carriers as soon as they took delivery and tried to get out of the country," said M impatiently "But that won’t stop the traffic These people aren’t the sort thai talk Anyway the carriers are only set the stuff from a man in a park and hand it over to another et to the other side The only way to get to the bottom of the business is to follow the pipeline to Aoes to there And the FBI won’t be much help to us, I’-ti any har It’s only England that’s the loser And America is outside the jurisdiction of the police and MI5 Only the Service can handle the job"

"Yes, I see that," said Bond "But have we got anything else to go on?"

"Ever heard of ‘The House of Diamonds’?"

"Yes, of course, Sir," said Bond "The big American jewellers On West 46th Street in New York and the Rue de Rivoli in Paris I gather they rank alh as Cartier and Van Cleef and Boucheron nowadays They’ve come up very quickly since the war"

"Yes," said M "Those are the people They’ve got a s buyers at the s of the Diaht less and less Although, as you say, they seeetting their diaht their na the other day But I can’t find out anything against thee over here Seems odd as they do so little business Man called Rufus B Saye Nothing much known about him Lunches every day at the Adale Doesn’t drink or sed his shoulders "But the diaulated sort of family affair, and there’s an impression that the House of Dia more than that"

Bond decided it was time to put the sixty-four thousand dollar question "And where do I co across the desk into M’s eyes

"You’ve got an appointment with Vallance at the Yard in"-M looked at his watch-"just over an hour He’s going to start you off They’re going to pull in this carrier tonight and put you into the pipeline instead of hiers curled softly round the arms of his chair

"And then?"

"And then," said M le those diamonds into America, At least that’s the idea What do you think of it?"