“The coincidence,” he said, “the one coincidence allowable in every story. I am surprised that you did not ask me where the guard obtained the ringer.”
I sagged slightly. I wondered whether it would hurt my chest much if I laughed.
“Not … Paul?” I said. “Tell me he didn’t make the first counterfeit.”
“But he did,” said Ragma. “Just from a few advance photos and a written description. Now there is a tribute to his skill. When it came to technique, he really was the best choice.”
I mashed out my cigarette.
“So he got his own counterfeit back to counterfeit?”
“Precisely. Which placed him in a very awkward position. There he was with the real thing, working on an improved counterfeit, now that he had something better than photos and descriptions to go on, and the UN approached him to duplicate his original work.”
“Wait! He had the real one? I thought the guard had taken the real one.”
“I was just getting to that. The guard removed it and transported it to Professor Byler. Byler was afraid that the first counterfeit would not stand close scrutiny, especially from some visiting alien who might have seen it elsewhere and known something concerning its physical makeup-something which perhaps only an alien could detect. At any rate, his intention was to produce a superior replica the second time around and then have the same guard try to exchange it for his earlier model. The second version, he believed, could stand scrutiny for a much longer while. So he was faced with a dilemma at that point: Give them back the first one and a copy, or give them two of the second-generation stones of which he was quite proud. He resolved it by returning the first one and a copy, as he feared the authorities might by then have done a detailed study of its properties and have them on record as its authentic specifications.”
I shook my head.
“But why? Why go through the whole rigamarole in the first place?”
Ragma put out his cigarette and sighed.
“The man possesses a powerful emotional commitment to the British monarchy-“
“The crown jewels!” I said.
“Exactly. The star-stone came and they went. He was obsessed by their departure, by what he considered the unfairness of the deal, the insult to the sovereign.”
“But they are, in effect, still theirs and still available. The British approved their indefinite loan under those terms.”
“We both seem to see it that way,” Ragma said. “He does not. Neither do some of those-such as the guard-who cooperated with him in the venture.”
“What, specifically, did they plan on doing?”
“Their intention was to wait for a time, until your relations with the other races had broadened and the benefits of this association had become firmly fixed in the public mind. At that point they would announce that the starstone was a fake-a fact readily verifiable by extraterrestrial authorities-and then proclaim that they were holding the real one to ransom. The price, of course, was to be the return of the crown jewels.”
“So a screwball group was behind it. That even explains a certain toast I overheard in my apartment. They were doubtless waiting to question me, to learn where to go to steal it back again.”
“Yes. They have been looking for you. But then we have them under surveillance. They are more a nuisance than a threat, actually, and they might possibly even help us to locate the stone if we leave them unmolested. This seems enough to offset the inconveniences involved.”
“What would have happened if everything had gone as they planned it?”
“If the scheme succeeded, then the Earth would be expelled from the trading cycle and probably be blacklisted for normal trade, tourism and cultural and scientific exchanges. It would also seriously impair your chances of eventually being invited to join the formal confederation we possess, an organization roughly equivalent to your own United Nations.”
“And an intelligent man like Paul can’t understand this? It makes me wonder whether we are ready for something of that scope.”
“Oh, he does now. He is the one who gave us all the details as to what had occurred. And do not be too hard on him. Matters of sentiment are seldom mediated by the intellect.”