The Dain Curse

It was a diamond all right, shining in the grass half a dozen feet from the blue brick walk. It was small, not more than a quarter of a carat in weight, and unmounted. I put it in my pocket and began searching the lawn as closely as I could without going at it on all fours.I had covered a couple of square yards of sod when the Leggetts’ front door opened.A woman came out on the broad stone top step and looked down at me with good-humored curiosity.She was a woman of about my age, forty, with darkish blond hair, a pleasant plump face, and dimpled pink cheeks. She had on a lavender-flowered white housedress.I stopped poking at the grass and went up to her, asking: “Is Mr. Leggett in?”“Yes.” Her voice was placid as her face. “You wish to see him?”I said I did.She smiled at me and at the lawn.“You’re another detective, aren’t you?”I admitted that.