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diff --git a/23413.txt b/23413.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac0de23 --- /dev/null +++ b/23413.txt @@ -0,0 +1,782 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Princess And The Jewel Doctor, by Robert Hichens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Princess And The Jewel Doctor + 1905 + +Author: Robert Hichens + +Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23413] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR + +By Robert Hichens + +Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers + +Copyright, 1905 + + +In St. Petersburg society there may be met at the present time a certain +Russian Princess, who is noted for her beauty, for an ugly defect--she +has lost the forefinger of her left hand--and for her extraordinary +attachment to the city of Tunis, where she has spent at least three +months of each year since 1890--the year in which she suffered the +accident that deprived her of a finger. What that accident was, and +why she is so passionately attached to Tunis, nobody in Russia seems to +know, not even her doting husband, who bows to all her caprices. But two +persons could explain the matter--a Tunisian guide named Abdul, and a +rather mysterious individual who follows a humble calling in the Rue +Ben-Ziad, close to the Tunis bazaars. This latter is the Princess's +personal attendant during her yearly visit to Tunis. He accompanies her +everywhere, may be seen in the hall of her hotel when she is at home, on +the box of her carriage when she drives out, close behind her when +she is walking. He is her shadow in Africa. Only when she goes back to +Russia does he return to his profession in the Rue Ben-Ziad. + +This is the exact history of the accident which befell the Princess in +1890. In the spring of that year she arrived one night at Tunis. She +had not long been married to an honourable man whom she adored. She was +rich, pretty, and popular. Yet her life was clouded by a great fear +that sometimes made the darkness of night almost intolerable to her. She +dreaded lest the darkness of blindness should come upon her. Both her +mother, now dead, and her grandfather had laboured under this defect. +They had been born with sight, and had become totally blind ere they +reached the age of forty. Princess Danischeff--as we may call her for +the purpose of this story--trembled when she thought of their fate, +and that it might be hers. Certain books that she read, certain +conversations on the subject of heredity that she heard in Petersburg +society fed her terror. Occasionally, too, when she stood under a strong +light she felt a slight pain in her eyes. She never spoke of her fear, +but she fell into a condition of nervous exhaustion that alarmed her +husband and her physician. The latter recommended foreign travel as a +tonic. The former, who was detained in the capital by political affairs, +reluctantly agreed to a separation from his wife. And thus it came +about, that, late one night of spring, the Princess and her companion, +the elderly Countess de Rosnikoff, arrived in Tunis at the close of a +tour in Algeria, and put up at the Hotel Royal. + +The bazaars of Tunis are among the best that exist in the world of +bazaars, and, on the morning after her arrival, the Princess was anxious +to explore them with her companion. But Madame de Rosnikoff was fatigued +by her journey from Constantine. She begged the Princess to go without +her, desiring earnestly to be left in her bedroom with a cup of weak +tea and a French novel. The Princess, therefore, ordered a guide and set +forth to the bazaars. + +The guide's name was Abdul. He was a talkative young Eastern, and as he +turned with the Princess into the network of tiny alleys that spreads +from the Bab-el-bahar to the bazaars, he poured forth a flood of +information about the marvels of his native city. The Princess listened +idly. That morning she was cruelly pre-occupied. As she stepped out +of the hotel into the bright sunshine she had felt a sharp pain in her +eyes, and now, though she held over her head a large green parasol, the +pain continued. She looked at the light and thought of the darkness that +might be coming upon her, and the chatter of Abdul sounded vague in her +ears. Presently, however, she was forced to attend to him, for he asked +her a direct question. + +"To-day they sell jewels by auction near the Mosquee Djama-ez-Zitouna," +he said. "Would the gracious Princess like to see the market of the +jewels?" + +The Princess put her hand to her eyes and assented in a low voice. Abdul +turned out of the sunshine into a narrow alley covered with a wooden +roof. It was full of shadows and of squatting men, who held out brown +hands to the Princess as she passed. But she was staring at the shadows +and did not see the merchants of Goblin Market. Leaving this alley Abdul +led her abruptly into a dense crowd of Arabs, who were all talking, +gesticulating, and moving hither and thither, apparently under the +influence of extreme excitement. Many of them held rings, bracelets, or +brooches between their fingers, and some extended palms upon which lay +quantities of uncut jewels--turquoises, sapphires, and emeralds. At a +little distance a grave man was noting down something in a book. But +the Princess scarcely observed the progress of the jewel auction. Her +attention had been attracted by an extraordinary figure that stood near +her. This was an immensely tall Arab, dressed in a dingy brown robe, and +wearing upon his shaven head, which narrowed almost to a point at the +back, a red fez with a large black tassel. His claw-like hands were +covered with rings and his bony wrists with bracelets. But the attention +of the Princess was riveted by his eyes. They were small and bright, and +squinted horribly--so horribly, that it was impossible to tell at what +he was looking. These eyes gave to his face an expression of diabolic +and ruthless vigilance and cunning. He seemed at the same time to be +seeing everything and to be gazing definitely at nothing. + +"That is Safti, the jewel doctor," murmured Abdul in the ear of the +Princess. + +"A jewel doctor! What is that?" asked the Princess. + +"When you are sick he cures you with jewels." + +"And what can he cure?" said the Princess, still looking at Safti, +who was now bargaining vociferously with a fat Arab for a piece of +milk-white jade. + +"All things. I was sick of a fever that comes with the summer. He gave +me a stone crushed to a powder, and I was well. He saved from death one +of the Bey's sons, who was dying from hijada. And then, too, he has a +stone in a ring which can preserve sight to him who is going blind." + +The Princess started violently. + +"Impossible!" she cried. + +"It is true," said Abdul. "It is a green stone--like that." + +He pointed to an emerald which an Arab was holding up to the light. + +The Princess put her hand to her eyes. They still ached, and her temples +were throbbing furiously. + +"I cannot stay here," she said. "It is too hot. But---- tell the jewel +doctor that I wish to visit him. Where does he live?" + +"In a little street, Rue Ben-Ziad, in a little house. But he is rich." +Abdul spread his arms abroad. "When will the gracious Princess----?" + +"This afternoon. At--at four o'clock you will take me." + +Abdul spoke to Safti, who turned, squinted horribly at the Princess, and +salaamed to her with a curious and contradictory dignity, turning his +fingers, covered with jewels, towards the earth. + +That afternoon, at four, when the venerable Madame de Rosnikoff was +still drinking her weak tea and reading her French novel, the Princess +and Abdul stood before the low wooden door of the jewel doctor's house. +Abdul struck upon it, and the terrible physician appeared in the dark +aperture, looking all ways with his deformed eyes, which fascinated the +Princess. Having ascertained that he could speak a little broken French, +like many of the Tunisian Arabs, she bade Abdul wait outside, and +entered the hovel of the jewel doctor, who shut close the door behind +her. + +The room in which she found herself was dark and scented. Faint light +from the street filtered in through an aperture in the wall, across +which was partially drawn a wooden shutter. Round the room ran a +divan covered with straw matting, and Safti now conducted the Princess +ceremoniously to this, and handed her a cup of thick coffee, which he +took from a brass tray that was placed upon a stand. As she sipped the +coffee and looked at the pointed head and twisted gaze of Safti, the +Princess heard some distant Arab at a street corner singing monotonously +a tuneless song, and the scent, the darkness, the reiterated song, and +the tall, strange creature standing silently before her gave to her, in +their combination, the atmosphere of a dream. She found it difficult to +speak, to explain her errand. + +At length she said: "You are a doctor? You can cure the sick?" + +Safti salaamed. + +"With jewels? Is that possible?" + +"Jewels are the only medicine," Safti replied, speaking with sudden +volubility. "With the ruby I cure madness, with the white jade the +disease of the hijada, and with the bloodstone haemorrhage. I have +made a man who was ill of fever wear a topaz, and he arose from bed and +walked happily in the street." + +"And with an emerald," interrupted the Princess; "have you not preserved +sight with an emerald? They told me so." + +Safti's expression suddenly became grim and suspicious. + +"Who said that?" he asked sharply. + +"Abdul. Is it true? Can it be true?" + +Her cheeks were flushed. She spoke almost with violence, laying her hand +upon his arm. Safti seemed to stare hard into the corners of the little +room. Perhaps he was really looking at the Princess. At length he said: +"It is true." + +"I will give any price you ask for it," said the Princess. + +"You!" said Safti. "But you--" + +Suddenly he lifted his lean hands, took the face of the Princess between +them quite gently, and turned it towards the small window. She had +begun to tremble. Holding her soft cheeks with his brown fingers, Safti +remained motionless for a long time, during which it seemed to the +Princess that he was looking away from her at some distant object. She +watched his frightful and surreptitious eyes, that never told the truth, +she heard the distant Arab's everlasting song, and her dream became a +nightmare. At last Safti dropped his hands and said: + +"It may be that some day you will need my emerald." + +The Princess felt as if at that moment a bullet entered her heart. + +"Give it me--give it me!" she cried. "I am rich. I------" + +"I do not sell my medicines," Safti answered. "Those who use them must +live near me, here in Tunis. When they are healed they give back to me +the jewel that has saved them. But you--you live far off." + +With the swiftness of a woman the Princess saw that persuasion would be +useless. Safti's face looked hard as brown wood. She seemed to recover +from her emotion, and said quietly: + +"At least you will let me see the emerald?" + +Safti went to a small bureau that stood at the back of the room, opened +one of its drawers with a key which he drew from beneath his dingy robe, +lifted a small silver box carefully out, returned to the Princess, and +put the box into her hand. + +"Open it," he said. + +She obeyed, and took out a very small and antique gold ring, in which +was set a rather dull emerald. Safti drew it gently from her, and put it +upon the forefinger of her left hand. It was so tiny that it would not +pass beyond the joint of the finger, and it looked ugly and odd upon the +Princess, who wore many beautiful rings. Now that she saw it she felt +the superstition that had sprung from her terror dying within her. +Safti, with his crooked eyes, must have read her thought in her face, +for he said: + +"The Princess is wrong. That medicine could cure her. The one who wears +it for three months in each year can never be blind." + +Taking the emerald from her finger, he touched her two eyes with it, and +it seemed to the Princess that, as he did so, the pain she felt in them +withdrew. Her desire for the jewel instantly returned. + +"Let me wear it," she said, putting forth all her charm to soften the +jewel doctor. "Let me take it with me to Russia. I will make you rich." + +Safti shook his head. + +"The Princess may wear it here, in Tunis," he replied. "Not elsewhere." + +She began to temporise, hoping to conquer his resistance later. + +"I may take it with me now?" she asked. + +"At a fee." + +"I will pay it." + +The jewel doctor went to the door, and called in Abdul. Five minutes +later the Princess passed the singing Arab at the corner of the street, +Rue Ben-Ziad. She had signed a paper pledging herself to return the +emerald to Safti at the end of forty-eight hours, and to pay 125 francs +for her possession of it during that time. And she wore the emerald on +the forefinger of her left hand. + +On the following morning Madame de Rosnikoff said to the Princess: + +"I hate Tunis. It has an evil climate. The tea here is too strong, and +I feel sure the drains are bad. Last night I was feverish. I am always +feverish when I am near bad drains." + +The Princess, who had slept well, and had waked with no pain in her +eyes, answered these complaints cheerily, made the Countess some tea +that was really weak, and drove her out in the sunshine to see Carthage. +The Countess did not see it, because there is no longer a Carthage. She +went to bed that night in a bad humour, and again complained of drains +the next morning. This time the Princess did not heed her, for she was +thinking of the hour when she must return the emerald to Safti. + +"What an ugly ring that is," said the old Countess. "Where did you get +it? It is too small. Why do you wear it?" + +"I--I bought it in the bazaars," answered the Princess. + +"My dear, you wasted your money," said the companion; and she went to +bed with another French novel. + +That afternoon the Princess implored Safti to sell her the emerald, +and as he persistently declined she renewed her lease of it for another +forty-eight hours. As she left the jewel doctor's home she did not +notice that he spoke some words in a low and eager voice to Abdul, +pointing towards her as he did so. Nor did she see the strange bustle of +varied life in the street as she walked slowly under the great Moorish +arch of the Porte de France. She was deeply thoughtful. + +Since she had worn the ugly ring of Safti she had suffered no pain from +her eyes, and a strange certainty had gradually come upon her that, +while the emerald was in her possession, she would be safe from the +terrible disease of which she had so long lived in terror. Yet Safti +would not let her have the ring. And she could not live for ever in +Tunis. Already she had prolonged her stay abroad, and was due in Russia, +where her anxious husband awaited her. She knew not what to do. Suddenly +an idea occurred to her. It made her flush red and tingle with shame. +She glanced up, and saw the lustrous eyes of Abdul fixed intently upon +her. As he left her at the door of the hotel he said, + +"The Princess will stay long in Tunis?" + +"Another week at least, Abdul," she answered carelessly. "You can go +home now. I shall not want you any more to-day." + +And she walked into the hotel without looking at him again. When she was +in her room she sent for a list of the steamers sailing daily from Tunis +for the different ports of Africa and Europe. Presently she came to the +bedside of Madame de Rosnikoff. + +"Countess," she said, "you are no better?" + +"How can I be? The drains are bad, and the tea here is too strong." + +"There is a boat that leaves for Sicily at midnight--for Marsala. Shall +we go in her?" + +The old lady bounded on her pillow. + +"Straight on by Italy to Russia?" she cried joyfully. + +The Princess nodded. A fierce excitement shone in her pretty eyes, and +her little hands were trembling as she looked down at the dull emerald +of Safti. + +***** + +At eleven o'clock that night the Princess and the Countess got into a +carriage, drove to the edge of the huge salt lake by which Tunis lies +and went on board the Stella d'Italia. + +The sky was starless. The winds were still, and it was very dark. As the +ship glided out from the shore the old Countess hurried below. But the +Princess remained on deck, leaning upon the bulwark, and gazing at the +fading lights of the city where Safti dwelt. Two flames seemed burning +in her heart, a fierce flame of joy, a fierce flame of contempt--of +contempt for herself. For was she not a common thief? She looked at +Safti's ring on her finger, and flushed scarlet in the darkness. Yet she +was joyful, triumphant, as she heard the beating of the ship's heart, +and saw the lights of Tunis growing fainter in the distance, and felt +the onward movement of the _Stella d'Italia_ through the night. She +felt herself nearer to Russia with each throb of the machinery. And from +Russia she would expiate her sin. From Russia she would compensate Safti +for his loss. The lights of Tunis grew fainter. She thought of the open +sea. + +But suddenly she felt that the ship was slowing down. The engines beat +more feebly, then ceased to beat. The ship glided on for a moment in +silence, and stopped. A cold fear ran over the Princess. She called to a +sailor. + +"Why," she said, "why do we stop? Is anything wrong?" + +He pointed to some lights on the port side. + +"We are off Hammam-Lif, madame," he said. "We are going to lie to for +half-an-hour to take in cargo." + +To the Princess that half-hour seemed all eternity. She remained upon +deck, and whenever she heard the splash of oars as a boat drew near, or +the guttural sound of an Arab voice, she trembled, and, staring into the +blackness, fancied that she saw the tall figure, the pointed head, and +the deformed eyes of the jewel doctor. But the minutes passed. The +cargo was all got on board. The boats drew off. And once again the ship +shuddered as the heart of her began to beat, and the ebon water ran +backward from her prow. + +Then the Princess was glad. She laid the hand on which shone Safti's +emerald upon the bulwark, and gazed towards the sea, turning her back +upon the lights of Hammam-Lif. She thought of safety, of Russia. She did +not hear a soft step drawing near upon the deck behind her. She did not +see the flash of steel descending to the bulwark on which her hand was +laid. + +But suddenly the horrible cry of a woman in agony rang through the +night. It was instantly succeeded by a splash in the water, as a tall +figure dived over the vessel's side. + +When the sun rose on the following day over the minarets of Tunis the +_Stella d'ltalia_, with the Princess on board, was far out at sea. + +The emerald of Safti was once more in the little house in the Rue +Ben-Ziad. + +It was still upon the Princess's finger. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Princess And The Jewel Doctor, by +Robert Hichens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR *** + +***** This file should be named 23413.txt or 23413.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/1/23413/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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