Fifty-eight pearls belonging to the necklace, valued at £135,000, which
was despatched by the owner, Mr. Max Mayer, from London to Paris and stolen in the post, were picked up on Tuesday morning in the street at Highbury by a working man and handed over to the police. The pearls had been underwritten by Lloyd's, whose agents had offered £10,000 reward for their recovery, with the result that four men are now under arrest in consequence of the information given by two Parisian dealers in precious stones acting as intermediaries on behalf of the underwriters. Of the sixty-one pearls originally forming the necklace only two are missing ; two other separate pearls which were in the package have not yet been recovered —indeed it is stated that the finder tried unsuccessfully to sell one pearl as a marble in a public-house and threw it away. Pearls have the great disadvantage, as compared with diamonds, from the point of view of the thief, that they can- not be disguised, a fact which sheds some light on the action of the bolder in throwing the necklace into the gutter. An interesting question is now raised as to the bestowal of the reward.
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