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diff --git a/23752.txt b/23752.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eeecc31 --- /dev/null +++ b/23752.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7611 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flaw in the Sapphire, by Charles M. Snyder + +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 Flaw in the Sapphire + +Author: Charles M. Snyder + +Release Date: December 6, 2007 [EBook #23752] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE + +BY CHARLES M. SNYDER + +AUTHOR OF "COMIC HISTORY OF GREECE" +"RUNAWAY ROBINSON" "SNAP SHOTS" ETC. + +NEW YORK +THE METROPOLITAN PRESS +1909 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Copyright, 1909, by THE METROPOLITAN PRESS +Registered at Stationers' Hall, London (All Rights Reserved) +Printed in the United States of America + +Press of Wm. G. Hewitt +24-26 Vandewater St. +New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Augustine E. McBee + +A friend who stands since "Auld Lang Syne" + To all that's fine related; +To him, this little book of mine + Is duly dedicated. + + --Charles M. Snyder. +New York, September, 1909. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE + +CHAPTER I + + +Not long since there lived, in the city of Philadelphia, a young man of +singular identity. + +His only parallel was the comedian who is compelled to take himself +seriously and make the most of it, or a tart plum that concludes in a +mellow prune. + +He was the affinity of two celebrated instances to the contrary. + +To those who enjoy the whimsies of paradox he presented an astonishing +resemblance, in countenance, to the late Benjamin Disraeli, and +maintained in speech the unmistakable accent of O'Connell, the Hebrew +statesman's Celtic antagonist. + +For these reasons, until the nature of his business was discovered, he +was regarded with interest by that class which is disposed to estimate +the contents of a book by the character of the binding, or thinks it +can measure a man's ability by the size of his hat. + +On nearer acquaintance, he was relegated to the dubious distinction of +an oddity to whom you would be pleased to introduce your friends if you +had only a satisfactory account of his antecedents. + +He was cheerful, startling, ready and adroit. + +Until betrayed by his brief but effectual familiarities, it was a +curious experience to remark the approach of this singular being and +wonder at the appraising suggestion in his speculative glance. + +Presently you decided that it was the intention of this young man to +address you, and, unconsciously, you accorded him the opportunity, only +to be scandalized the moment afterward by the query, altogether +incongruous in such a promising aspect: + +"Any old clothes to-day?" + +And you passed on, chagrined and wondering. + +For a number of years, while his auditors paused in an attempt to +disentangle the Semite from the Celt, there was scarcely a day in which +he had not subjected himself to the more or less pronounced hazards of +rebuff incident to his invariable query, and there were few citizens of +the sterner sex whom he had not thus addressed. + +Apparently no consideration restrained him. + +None was too dignified, none sufficiently austere to escape his +solicitation; and while, as a rule, he waited until the object of his +regard came to a standstill, he had been known to approach diagonally, +and, at the point of incidence, presenting his query, pass on with a +glance of impassive impersonality when it was evident that his overtures +were futile or worse. + +When successful in his forays, he would convey the results of his +efforts to his father, who, after getting the garments thus secured in a +condition of fictitious newness, displayed them in front of his +establishment, marked with prices which, as he explained to those unwary +enough to venture within the radius of his personality, brought him as +near to nervous prostration as was possible for the parent of such +inconsequent offspring. + +However, no matter what the rewards of such industry, it must not be +imagined that its disabilities did not insist upon due recognition and +ugly ravel, and that such shred and fibre did not obtrude their +unwelcome appeals for repair upon their central figure. + +Shrewd, intelligent, persistent, he soon discovered that the very +qualities which made him successful in his calling rendered him +obnoxious to those who were unable to harmonize his promise with his +condition. + +However, like the majority of his countrymen, outside of those who +constituted the Manhattan police force and provided the country with +justices of the peace, this young man was a philosopher. + +He could always provide a silver lining for a cloud as long as it was +plausible to do so, and when he had exhausted his genial resources, he +looked at facts squarely. + +On this basis he decided, finally, that his was a case of "bricks +without straw," enthusiasm minus its basis, an unhappy conclusion which +was emphasized by his patient attempts to soften his angularities with +the advantages provided by a night school. + +Unfortunately, a business man, with an eye to the bizarre, to whom +Dennis had presented some of his characteristic enterprises, had put the +young Irishman in the way of securing a biography of the Hebrew premier, +whom he provided with such an absurd travesty of likeness, and the "ole +clo' merchant" was so impressed by the resolution and dexterity of the +celebrated statesman, that he became, from that moment, the prey of a +consuming ambition whose direction he could not determine. + +He grew positive daily, however, that, in view of these stimulating +aspirations, he could no longer pursue his embarrassing avocation. + +On the basis, therefore, that the greater the pent the more pronounced +the explosion, the young merchant developed a dangerous readiness to +embrace the first opportunity that presented herself in the hope that +the caress would be returned. + +Presently, the determination to exchange his present humiliations for +future uncertainties advanced him to the point where he informed his +father of his decision, and the latter immediately succumbed to a +collapse which was Hebraic in its despair and entirely Celtic in its +manifestation. + +When this irate parent realized, at last, that this invaluable arm of +his business could not be diverted from its purpose, with cruel celerity +he cut off his son from all further consideration and forbade him the +premises. + +With the previous week's salary in his pocket, which, fortunately, had +been undisturbed, Dennis Muldoon, on the day succeeding this unhappy +interview with his sire, set out for New York City with his few +belongings condensed, with campaigning foresight, in a satchel whose +size and appearance would scarcely inspire the confidence man to claim +previous acquaintance with its owner in order to investigate its +contents later. + +In this manner protected from the insinuating blandishments of the +"buncoes," and guided by his native shrewdness, Dennis finally found +accommodation for his meager impedimenta in an unassuming lodging-house +called The Stag. + +This establishment reflected, in a curious way, the demands of its +patrons. + +Almost the entire first floor was occupied by the glittering details of +a seductive barroom, through which one was compelled to pass, challenged +on every side by alluring labels, before reaching the restaurant +immediately in the rear. + +Above, the floors were divided into numerous sleeping-rooms barely large +enough to accommodate a bed, washstand and one chair--a sordid ensemble, +unrelieved by any other wall decoration than the inevitable +announcement: "This way to the fire escape." + +By a singular coincidence which would have aroused a lively emotion in +the moralist, a Bible occupied a small shelf directly under the +instructions quoted above. + +Dennis, however, was too weary to recognize the grim association, and +shortly after his arrival retired for the night to recuperate his +energies for the uncertainties of the morrow. + +Awakening at dawn with a sincere hope that his dreams of a succession +of disasters were not prophetic, and, despite the appeals of the glitter +and the labels in the bar, breakfasting with his customary +abstemiousness, Dennis issued from The Stag with a determination to make +the effort of his life to secure employment. + +He had no definite plans other than a profound determination to resist +the invitations of Baxter Street, a thoroughfare congested from end to +end with innumerable shops devoted to the species of merchandizing from +which he had so recently escaped. + +Here his talents would have procured for him ready recognition, a +condition which deepened his determination to avoid all possible contact +with these solicitous sons of Shem. + +Beyond a singular desire to enter a large publishing house, Dennis had +no idea as to the direction of his efforts. + +Aside from the fact that books held an unaccountable fascination for +him, he could not explain this predilection, for their influence over +him was in the aggregate. + +He loved to wander, with aimless preoccupation, among closely-packed +shelves, and in pursuance of this indirection was familiar with the +interior of every library in the city of Philadelphia. + +He appeared to have too much respect for the books to touch them, and +was sufficiently in awe of their contents not to attempt to read them. + +He was impressed by the volume of things, and had, unsuspected by +himself, the capacity of the bibliophile to detect and enjoy the subtle +aroma which emanates from leaves and binding. + +In harmony, therefore, with the resolute quality which had secured to +him what success he had enjoyed in his abandoned business, Dennis +decided to exhaust the pleasing possibilities presented by this elevated +industry before applying elsewhere. + +The eclat of possible authorship did not influence him, despite the +encouragement afforded him in the surprising efforts of his imagination +displayed in achievements such as the following, with which he +embellished the front of his father's establishment: + + This Suit + was + $50 + and cheap at that + I'll let it go for + $20 + +and so on indefinitely. + +Urged, then, by the advantages which lubricate the lines of least +resistance, and stimulated by that clarion phrase in his unfailing +campaign document, his copy of Beaconsfield: "I have begun many things +many times and have finally succeeded," Dennis presented himself, about +ten o'clock, at one of the well-known publishing houses. + +With all the alarm which affects the fair debutante at a court +presentation, he beheld the confusing labyrinth of counters, department +aisles and shelves, which combine in such a depressing suggestion of +intellectual plethora and transient futility in this famous edifice. + +Advised by his sensations, Dennis was quite ready to assure himself that +he had entered at the wrong portal, and, returning to the street, he +discovered that the building concluded upon a rearway congested with a +disorderly array of drays, cases and porters. + +Encouraged by the assurance of these more familiar surroundings, Dennis +cast an anxious glance about him to discover one more in authority than +the others. + +His quest was given direction by a familiar accent. + +"Wake up, ye lazy divils! It's dhramin' ye are this marnin'." + +Guided by the sound, Dennis beheld a naturally cheerful Irishman +occupied with the double task of assuming an austere demeanor, and +quickening, with brisk orders, the movements of the porters under his +direction. + +His present difficulties mastered, this vivacious master of ceremonies +turned to look, with an inquiring glance, upon Dennis, who had presented +himself to the attention of the former with the unmistakable appeal of +the candidate in his demeanor. + +"I want a job," said Dennis simply. + +"Phwat?" inquired the foreman sharply, staring at the mosaic of +physiognomy and accent embodied in Dennis. + +"I want a job," repeated Dennis. "I nade wurk." + +There was no mistaking the peculiar burr in the utterance of the last +two words, but the foreman continued to regard the speaker with +suspicious amazement. + +"Phwat are ye, annyway?" he said with guarded brusqueness. + +"A poor man, sir; I nade wurk." + +"Oi don't mane that," with less severity at this frank acknowledgment; +"but where do yez hail from--Limerick or Jerusalem?" + +At this pointed question, which promptly reminded Dennis of the singular +contradiction he presented, he replied, with a genuine Celtic adroitness +that had an immediate effect upon his hearer: + +"Nayther; I got off at the midway junction." + +"Ha, ha!" laughed the foreman, as he appreciated this clever explanation +of the singular compromise presented by Dennis. "Shure, that's not bad. +By the mug ye wear, I wud advise ye to go to Baxther Street, but by the +sound av ye, Oi rickommind th' Broadway squad. Wurrk, is it? Why don't +ye presint that face at th' front? I hear they're shy on editors." + +"Shure!" said Dennis, who believed that he was progressing; "but the +only things I iver wrote were store signs." + +"Ah, ha!" replied the foreman, "so it's handy with th' brush ye are." + +"Yes," answered Dennis. + +"Wait a bit," said the foreman, and pointing to a marking-outfit he +directed Dennis to display his name and address upon a smooth pine board +which he provided for that purpose: + + DENNIS MULDOON, + The Stag Hotel, + Vesey St., + N.Y. + +"Ah, ha!" cried the foreman as he contrasted the name with the +incongruous face of the young man before him, "ye don't have to play it +on a flute, annyway; there's nothin' Sheeny about that." Then, directing +his attention to the character of the work itself, he added: "That's not +bad at all, at all. See here," he said abruptly, as he picked up the +board which Dennis had decorated and fastened it to the warehouse wall +with a nail, "Oi'll kape that for riferince. Oh, Oi mane it," he said +with gruff assurance, as he noted the disappointment which shadowed the +expressive face before him; "an' mebbe ye won't have to wait so long, +nayther." + +"I hope not," said Dennis frankly. + +"Well, ye see," said the foreman, "the prisint incoombent has been +mixin' too much red wid his paint, an' it don't wurrk." + +"You mean he drinks?" asked Dennis with humorous inquiry. + +"Oi do," replied the foreman; "an' now that we have inthroduced th' +subject, excuse a personal quistion: Do ye wet yure whistle in business +hours?" + +"No," answered Dennis promptly, "nor out of them. Father attended to +that part of the business." + +"Well," replied the foreman, "Oi can't talk longer wid ye this marnin'. +Come 'round be th' ind of the wake," and dismissing Dennis with a nod he +withdrew into the warehouse. + +The main feature of discouragement which presented itself to Dennis as +he left this locality to ponder over its possibilities, was that the end +of the week was five days off. + +This was serious. + +His rupture with Muldoon, senior, had left him but poorly provided with +linen and lucre; and a campaign of assault upon the barricades of +prejudice and suspicion, which was involved in the anxious solicitude of +the man seeking employment, demanded every possible accessory of +personal appearance and a reasonably equipped commissariat. + +Anxious, therefore, to subject his meager resources to the least strain +possible, Dennis at last succeeded in securing, in one of the more +pretentious stores on Baxter Street, a contrivance for the relief of +penury and threadbare gentility known at that time by the name of +"dickey." + +This convenience consisted in a series of three shirt bosoms made of +paper to resemble the luxury of linen. + +When the surface first exposed showed symptoms of soil or wear, its +removal revealed a fresh bosom directly under. + +Adjusted to his waistcoat, it was almost impossible to detect the +agreeable sham, which, under favorable auspices, could be made to last +for a week. + +Thus equipped, Dennis proceeded to his hotel, where, after according the +cheerful salutation of the industrious barkeeper the acknowledgment of a +lively Irish nod, in which there was both fellowship and refusal, he +proceeded to the rear, to banquet upon whatever offered the most for his +money. + +During the two days succeeding, Dennis, true to the apprehensive +calculation natural to the unemployed, did not propose to rest upon the +assurances of his Irish friend in the publishing house. + +Anything untoward might occur. + +In fact, he was familiar with this seamy side of Providence. + +He had been so often misled by promises that it was only his wholesome +Celtic faith and prompt capacity to rebound which kept him from becoming +entirely blase. + +His experience, however, left him alert. So he applied industriously at +various establishments for employment, and received his first lessons in +the courteous duplicity which ostentatiously files the application for +future reference, and the cruel kindness of frank rebuff. + +On the morning of the third day of this futile foray, Dennis noticed +that the exposed bosom of his dickey was not altogether presentable. + +It appeared to have registered the record of his applications and +failures, and, as such, was not a good campaign document, so to speak. + +Having progressed in his simple toilet up to the point of embellishment, +he proceeded to tear away the soiled surface, and in doing so discovered +not only the clean bosom beneath, but that the rear of the one just +detached was covered with a block of minute print. + +Drawing the solitary chair close to the window, he read by the light of +early dawn the following extraordinary compilation. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +In the city of ---- there lived one Rodman Raikes, unpopularly known as +the "Fist." + +The title, however, was not in recognition of personal prowess, for no +more cringing, evasive creature ever existed. + +He was little in mind, little in body, and little in his dealings. + +If a principle could ever be concrete, Raikes was the embodiment of the +grasping and the uselessly abstemious. + +He appeared to shun a generous sentiment as one would avoid an infected +locality, and usually walked with head tilted and body bent as if +engaged in following a clue or intent upon the search of some stray +nickel. + +He was thoroughly despised by all who knew him, a sentiment which he +returned with vicious interest, and never neglected an opportunity of +lodging some sneering shaft where it would cause the most irritation. + +His character was so much in harmony with these generalizations that he +had been described as dividing his laughter into chuckles--if the +strident rasp which he indulged could be called by that name--in order +that it might last the longer; and that he grinned in grudging +instalments. + +His obvious possession was an entire row of brick houses, in the most +insignificant of which he dwelt. + +Over this sparse domicile a spinster sister presided, who reflected, on +compulsion, in the manner of a sickly moon, the attenuity and shrivel of +her brother. + +A nephew of Raikes' completed the circuit. + +This young man intruded upon this strange household an aspect so +curiously at variance with that of his rickety elders that he suggested +to the fanciful the grim idea of having exhausted the contents of the +larder and compelled the other two to shift for themselves. + +He was, in the eyes of the disapproving Raikes, offensively plump; an +example of incredible expenditure applied to personal gratification and +gluttonous indulgence. + +The miser behaved as if he appeared to consider it a mark of studied +disrespect to be compelled to contrast his gaunt leanness with the young +man's embonpoint, and was propitiated only by the reflection that he +contributed in no way to his nephew's physical disproportion, since the +latter was able to be at charges for his own welfare from resources +derived from steady outside employment. + +Adjoining the house occupied by Raikes, and connected with it by a +doorway let into the wall, was a series of three dwellings used as a +boarding-establishment by a widow who had seen better days and was +tireless in alluding to them. + +These buildings had been remodeled to communicate with each other, a +continuity that concluded with the Raikes apartments. + +For some reason this miserable man preferred to occupy the portion just +indicated with no other tenants than his gaunt sister and the robust +Robert. + +This arrangement was all the more curious from the fact that Raikes +made no attempt to dispose of, in fact, strangely resented any +suggestion of letting, the lower floor of his end of the row. + +That one of his avaricious disposition could thus forego such a prospect +of advantage was the occasion of much speculation. + +If Robert understood he gave no hint; and if the boarders on the other +side of the partition indulged in curious comment they refrained from +doing so in his presence. + +The suggestion had been made that Raikes secreted something about that +portion of the premises he occupied, but since none had the courage to +investigate such a possibility, the problems it created were permitted +to pass unsolved or serve to tantalize the imagination. + +Regularly, at meal-time, the door leading from the Raikes apartment +would open, and the mean figure of the miser, after presenting itself +for one hesitating, suspicious moment, would slip silently through and +subside into a near-by chair at one of the tables. + +Directly after, the spinster would filter through with the mien of an +apologetic phantom, and Raikes at once established the basis of +indulgence by tentative nibbles of this and that, which were almost +Barmecidian in their meagerness, and the sister, under his sordid +supervision, followed his miserable example. + +With singular perversity, in the midst of reasonable abundance, he +forbore to accept the full measure of his privileges. + +The discipline of denial was essential to the austere economies he +practiced in all other directions, and his sister, rather than submit to +the hardness of his rebukes, acquiesced with dismal resignation. + +Robert was able to endure the table behavior of his uncle no more than +the others, and so occupied a seat in the dining-room surrounded by more +agreeable conditions. + +If this course was intended as a diplomatic frankness to indicate to +Raikes that his nephew did not expect a legacy to follow the demise of +that austere relative, no one could determine. + +The young man, however, continued to sit in whatever portion of the +apartment he pleased and enjoy himself as much as the handicap of his +relationship would permit. + +On this basis, as if to manifest in himself the law of compensation, +Robert grew vicariously robust, and accepted, with cynical good humor, +the irritation of his uncle over his adipose. + +Raikes and his sister had the table at which they sat entirely to +themselves. + +Only on the infrequent occasions of congestion had others been known to +occupy seats at the same board. + +It was more than hungry human nature, as embodied in most of the +inmates, could stand to witness this exasperating refusal to accept a +reasonable measure of what was set before them; a disability to which +the scarcely concealed scowls of the exacting miser added the chill +finishing touch. + +One morning, however, a new boarder arrived. + +Accommodations could not be found for him at the other tables, and, as +was the custom of the widow under such circumstances, he was intruded +upon the society of this morbid duet, after the manner of his +predecessors. + +If the usual rebellion matured at such association on the part of this +recent guest, the landlady expected to be assisted by one of those +vacancies which occur with such incalculable irregularity, yet +reasonable certainty, in establishments of this character. + +At this a prompt transfer would be effected. + +This, however, was an unusual boarder. + +If his presence was obnoxious to Raikes, the latter refused to realize +it; if the miser had his peculiarities, the newcomer did not see them. + +He ate his meals in silence, with an abstemiousness that, unknown to +himself, recommended him as cordially as any consideration might to his +shriveled table companion; made friendly overtures, disguised in +perfunctory courtesies, of passing the bread or the butter when either +was beyond the nervous reach of the eccentric Raikes, and ventured an +impassive suggestion or two as to the probable conduct of the weather. + +In appearance the newcomer was startling. + +His complexion was a berry-brown; his expression, aside from his eyes, +was singularly composed. + +These were uncommonly black and piercing, and peeped from receding +sockets through heavy eyebrows, which hung like an ambush over their +dart and gleam. + +His nose was a decisive aquiline, beneath which his lips, at once firm +and sensitive, pressed together changelessly. + +His figure was tall and spare and usually clad in black, a habit which +emphasized his already picturesque countenance. + +There was an indescribable air about him which suggested event, +transpired or about to transpire, which introduced a sort of eerie +distinction to the commonplace surroundings in which he found himself, +and invited many a glance of curious speculation in his direction. + +All this was not without its effect upon Raikes, and it was remarked, +with the astonishment the occasion justified, that the miser, in the +ensuing days, emerged from his customary austerity to the extent of +reciprocal amenities in the passage of bread and salt. + +However, this was but the beginning. + +Raikes discovered himself, at last, responding, with a degree of chill +urbanity, to the advances of the stranger, and ere the week had +concluded had assumed the initiative in conversation on more than one +occasion. + +By this time one of the inevitable vacancies had occurred at another +table, and the widow, as usual, offered to translate this latest guest +to the unoccupied seat. + +The latter, however, for some strange reason, indicated a desire to +remain in his present surroundings, and when this disposition was +understood by Raikes, the conquest of the miser was complete. + +As if to indorse the perverse aspect of inflexible things, it seemed, +now that Raikes had ventured ever so little beyond his taciturn +defenses, he was encouraged to further boldness. + +The stranger exerted a fascination which, in others, Raikes would have +considered dangerous and which he would have made his customary +instinctive preparations to combat. + +He could not recall a similar instance in all the years of his recent +experience when he was constrained to recognize, nay, surrender to, a +diffusive impulse such as this curious stranger awakened in his mind. + +In yielding to its insinuations, even to the extent already recorded, he +was agreeably conscious of a sort of guilty abandon which, at times, +stupefies the moral qualities ere delivering them into the hands of a +welcome invader. + +For some time Robert, with the others, had enjoyed the entertainment +offered by this transformation of Satyr to Faun, and the inversion +advanced to still further degrees their curious regard of the "Sepoy," a +picturesque description bestowed upon him by the blase boarders. + +Consequently, one evening, when, at the conclusion of the dinner, the +"Sepoy," in response to the invitation of Raikes, was seen to disappear +with the latter through the doorway which led to his apartments, +Robert's interest in the spectacle changed to genuine alarm, until a +moment's reflection upon his uncle's well-known ability to take care of +himself reassured him. + +Intruding the door between themselves and all further speculation, the +strangely-assorted pair proceeded along a dimly-illumed hallway to a +room in which Raikes usually secluded himself. + +As the Sepoy advanced, he could see that, with the exception of two +sleeping-chambers, revealed by their open doors, the apartment in which +he found himself was the only one where any kind of accommodation could +be found, as the balance of the house offered unmistakable evidences of +being unoccupied. + +"Be seated, sir," croaked Raikes, with a voice strangely suggestive of a +raven attempting the modulations of some canary it had swallowed. "I do +not smoke myself, and, therefore, cannot provide you with that sort of +entertainment; still, I have no objection to you enjoying yourself in +that way if," with a cynical shrug of the shoulders by way of apology, +"you have come prepared." + +Accepting this frank inhospitality in the spirit of its announcement, +the stranger, smiling with his curious eyes, produced two cigars, one of +which he offered to Raikes, and which was consistently and promptly +refused. + +"I can't afford it," expostulated the latter. "I never indulge myself +even in temptation; the nearest I will approach to dissipation will be, +with your permission, to enjoy the aroma. I do not propose to rebuke +myself for that." + +"As you please," returned the other as he replaced the weed in his +pocket. "It is my one indulgence; in other respects I challenge any man +to be more abstemious." + +"I have had none," returned Raikes with a rasping lack of emotion, "for +the last ten years. It is too late to begin to cultivate a disability +now." + +"You are wrong," replied the Sepoy. "One's attitude cannot be rigid at +all points; that is bad management. The finest tragedy I ever witnessed +was emphasized by the trivialities of the king's jester. + +"However," he added, as if in support of his theory, "I can, at least, +trouble you for a match." + +While Raikes busied himself in an effort to show the hospitality of the +service indicated, the Sepoy's busy, furtive eyes glanced here and +there about the room with quick, inquiring glances. + +At one end a bedstead stood, which an antiquarian would have accepted +gladly as collateral for a loan. + +Near-by a wardrobe, equally remote if more decrepit, leaned against the +wall to maintain the balance jeopardized by a missing foot. + +One chair, in addition to those occupied by Raikes and his companion, +appeared to extend its worn arms with a weary insistence and dusty +disapproval of their emptiness. + +A table, large enough to accommodate a student's lamp, several account +books and a blotting-pad, completed this uninviting galaxy. + +To the walls, however, the Sepoy directed his closest scrutiny. + +With an incredibly rapid glance he surveyed every possible inch of +space, turning his head cautiously to enable his eyes to penetrate into +the more distant portions. + +Presently, after an amount of rummaging altogether disproportionate to +the nature of his quest, Raikes succeeded in finding a lucifer, which +flared with a reluctance characteristic of the surroundings. + +The Sepoy, availing himself of its blaze, deposited the remainder of the +stick, with elaborate carefulness, upon the table, as if urged by the +thought that his companion might convert it to further uses. + +As Raikes resumed his chair, the Sepoy, recalling his glances from their +mysterious foray, directed them, with curious obliqueness, upon his +companion. + +In no instance that Raikes could recall had the Sepoy looked upon him +directly save in fleeting flashes. + +At such moments Raikes was conscious of a strange tremor, a vanishing +fascination, that he vainly sought to duplicate by attracting the +other's attention, in order to analyze its peculiar influence. + +"May I ask," he ventured after a few inhalations of his vicarious smoke, +"may I ask the nature of your business?" + +"Surely," replied the other. "I am a collector." + +"Of what?" inquired Raikes, dissatisfied with the ambiguity of the +answer. + +"Sapphires," said the Sepoy. + +"Ah!" cried Raikes. + +"Yes," continued the other, regarding the kindling glance of the +avaricious Raikes with a quick, penetrating look that was not without +its effect upon the latter; "yes, and I have had many beautiful +specimens in my time." + +"But where is your establishment?" asked Raikes. + +"Wherever I chance to be," was the reply. + +"Still," ventured Raikes, astonished at this curious rejoinder, "you +have some safe depository for such valuables." + +"Doubtless," replied the other drily; "but I have a few in my room now, +and, by the way, they are pretty fair specimens." + +"Ah!" cried Raikes. "May I see them?" + +"Why not?" assented the Sepoy. "In the meantime," he continued, as he +inserted his hand in his waistcoat pocket, "what do you think of this?" +and describing a glittering semicircle in the air with some brilliant +object he held in his grasp, he deposited upon the table a sapphire of +such extraordinary size and beauty, that Raikes, able as he was to +realize the great value of this gleaming condensation, stared stupidly +at it for a moment, and then, with a cry of almost gibbering avarice, +caught the gem in his trembling hands and burglarized it with his greedy +eyes. + +As Raikes, oblivious of all else, continued to gaze upon the brilliant +with repulsive fascination, a peculiar change transformed the face of +the Sepoy. + +He directed upon the unconscious countenance of his companion a glance +of terrible intensity, moving his hands the while in a weird, sinuous +rhythm, until presently, satisfied with the vacant expression which had +replaced the eager look of the moment before in the eyes of the +tremulous Raikes, the Sepoy began, with an indescribably easy, somnolent +modulation, the following strange recital: + +(To be continued on Dickey No. 2.) + + * * * * * + +"Thunder and lightning!" cried Dennis as he reached the exasperating +announcement in italics at the bottom of the dickey back: + +"Continued on Dickey No. 2." + +"What th' div--now, what do you think of that? An' it's me crazy to hear +what that meerschaum-colored divil was a-goin' to say. 'Dickey No. 2.' +Why, that's the one I have to wear to-day, an' to think the story's on +the back of it." + +Truly was Dennis harassed. + +He had been in many a pickle before, but never in one quite so +exasperating. + +Tantalized, in the first place, by the uncertainty surrounding his +prospective employment, he was now confronted by a predicament which +threatened to jeopardize a vital adjunct to his personal appearance. + +A native curiosity, to which this outrageous tale appealed so +strenuously, prompted him to detach bosom No. 2 regardless. + +An equally characteristic thrift warned him against such an +inconsiderate procedure. + +Finally his good judgment prevailed, and with desperate haste he +adjusted the remaining bosoms of the dickey to his waistcoat, plunged +into his coat, clapped his hat on his head and rushed from the room. + +All that day Dennis continued to receive his instalments of that bitter +instruction in the ways of heedless employers and suspicious +subordinates which, eased by a native good humor, conclude in the +philosopher, or, unrelieved by this genial mollient, develop the cynic. + +By evening he was compelled to admit, as he retraced his steps to The +Stag, that he had not advanced in any way. + +As he was about to pass under one of the dripping extensions of the +elevated, a great splotch of grease detached itself from the ironwork +and struck, with unerring precision, directly in the center of dickey +No. 2. + +"Ah!" exclaimed Dennis as he realized the nature of his mishap, "that +settles it; I'll know what the Sepoy said to-night." A remark which +proved conclusively that the philosophical element was still uppermost +in the mind of this young Irishman. + +After a brief exchange of courtesies with his countryman behind the bar, +and a dinner so modest in the rear room as to arouse the suspicion and +encourage the displeasure of the waiter, Dennis hastened up the +stairway, divested himself of his upper garments, ripped off dickey +bosom No. 2, and began. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +As the Sepoy proceeded, Raikes leaned forward in an attitude, the +discomfort and unbalance of which he seemed to be entirely unaware. + +His only means of maintaining his rigid poise was in the arm which lay, +with tense unrest, upon the table. + +From his hand, the fingers of which had released their clutch, the stone +had rolled and gleamed an unregarded invitation into the eyes of the +drawn face above it. + +The sickly grin of a long-delayed relaxation beguiled the extremities of +his mouth, the grim lips had relaxed their ugly partnership, and his +entire figure seemed upon the verge of collapse. + +Raikes was listening as never before. + +The clink of coin, the dry rattle and abrasion of brilliants, the rustle +of bank notes could not have fascinated him more than the even, +somnolent modulations of the speaker. + +Every word found easy lodgment in his consciousness. There was not a +sound or motion to divert, and the tale was a strange one. + + * * * * * + +"Ram Lal," said the Sepoy, "was a native merchant, trading between +Meerut and Delhi, who decided to sacrifice the dear considerations of +caste for the grosser conditions of gain. + +"From the performance of mean and illy-rewarded services to his patron, +Prince Otondo, Ram Lal had developed, with the characteristic patience +and dangerous silence of the true Oriental, to a figure of some +importance, whom it was a satisfaction for the prince to contemplate +with a view to future exaction and levy as occasion demanded. + +"His royal master resided in the Kutub, a palace situated not far from +Delhi on the road to Meerut. + +"This pretentious edifice, which had been established in the thirteenth +century and which still presented, in some of its unrepaired portions, +curious features of the bizarre architecture of that period, had been +the dwelling place of a long line of ancient moghuls. + +"Its present incumbent, however, regarded with indifference the ravages +of time and decay, and satisfied himself with the lavish furnishing of +that considerable portion of the palace which he occupied with his dusky +retainers. + +"To be at charges for all this the princely revenues had been seriously +depleted. + +"Since he could not look to decrepit relatives in Delhi for further +allowances, and as the British Government proved equally obdurate, the +prince found it necessary to calculate upon all possible sources of +income. + +"In such speculations, therefore, the unhappy Ram Lal became an object +of logical interest. + +"Up to the present the merchant had been undisturbed in the security of +his possessions, which were suspected to be enormous. + +"His royal patron had contented himself with the avarice of calculation, +and, in order that his depredations might be worthy his proposed +brigandage, he provided Ram Lal with every opportunity to develop his +hoard to a respectable figure. + +"The prince, having enjoyed the advantages of association with sundry +British officials, was entirely too sagacious and philosophical to +discourage the industry of the merchant at the outset; and with the +patience which is enabled to foresee the end from the beginning, he +awaited developments. + +"In consequence, the merchant attained to everything but the ostentation +of his possessions, and only assumed the dignity of his riches in the +less calculating confines of his household. + +"Even here, however, the subsidy of his liege was active, for among the +servants of the merchant were those whose appraising eyes followed every +movement, and whose mercenary memories recorded every transaction. + +"With all the concern of a silent partner Prince Otondo balanced, in his +philosophical mind, the various enterprises of Ram Lal. + +"If they met with his august approval, the merchant's traffic was +singularly free from obstruction; if the element of uncertainty was too +pronounced for the apprehensive potentate, the most surprising occasions +for the abandonment of his projects were developed for Ram Lal, whose +intelligent mind was inclined to suspect the identity of his providence. + +"Prince Otondo did not propose to have his interests jeopardized by +precipitation or undue hazard. + +"But this unhappy merchant, with perverse and unaware industry, advanced +still another claim to the covert regard of his calculating highness. + +"Although a widower, there remained, to remind him of his departed +blessedness, a daughter, who was, as reported by the mercenaries of the +prince, beautiful beyond their limited means of expression. + +"The unfortunate Ram Lal, therefore, commending himself to this elevated +espionage, first by his 'ducats' and next his 'daughter,' was in the +predicament of the missionary whose embonpoint endears him to his savage +congregation and whose edibility is convincing enough to arouse the +regret that he is not twins. + +"Prince Otondo, whose imagination was stimulated by this vicarious +contemplation of beauty, did not find it difficult to decide that the +transits of Ram Lal to and from the British barracks were open to +suspicion that demanded some biased investigation. + +"Unfortunately, too, the colonel in charge of the British forces at +Delhi was equally uneasy concerning the integrity of the merchant, a +state of mind which had been judiciously aggravated by the emissaries of +Prince Otondo. + +"The officer in charge knew that the merchant, with his license of exit +and entry, was in an exceptional position to acquaint himself with +considerable merchandisable information. + +"Ram Lal, therefore, in response to the pernicious industry of his evil +genius, like an unstable pendulum, was in danger of detention at either +extreme. + +"The prince speculated like a Machiavelli upon the advantages of such +action on the part of the colonel, and the latter looked to the former +to relieve him of the responsibility. + +"However, diligence, even when baneful, has its rewards, for one day, +when Ram Lal arrived at the British horn of the dilemma, he was +arrested upon a charge framed to suit the emergency and subjected to a +military court of investigation. + +"At the end of eight days the merchant was released, acquitted, and on +the ninth he directed his course homeward. + +"The colonel, however, had provided the prince with his opportunity, for +when the irritated merchant arrived at his dwelling, he was informed +that sundry officials from the palace had searched the premises for +evidence of sedition, and, failing in that, had decided to accept all of +his portable chattels as a substitute. + +"This was depressing enough, but still might have been accepted with the +customary Oriental impassiveness had it not been for the fact that the +marauders had added his daughter to the collection. + +"At any rate, she could not be found, and as she had never ventured from +the shelter of the paternal roof without the paternal consent, Ram Lal +felt that his deductions as to her whereabouts were entitled to +consideration. + +"He was unable to get any indorsement of his unhappy logic, for the +servants had all disappeared. + +"He determined, however, to act in accordance with his assumption, and +after taking an inventory of whatever had been overlooked in the foray, +which was little else than the premises, he seated himself upon a mat +beneath a banyan tree in the garden, which concluded the rear of his +dwelling, and was presently ells-deep in a profound reflection, which +was not only ominous in its outward calm, but curiously prolonged. + +"The only evidence of mental disquiet which, it was natural to suspect, +disturbed him, was a strange light which gleamed from his eyes at +intervals with baleful significance. + +"At the conclusion of two oblivious hours Ram Lal appeared to have +arrived at some definite purpose. + +"He rose to his feet and strode, with a marked degree of decision, to +his dwelling, where he slept in apparent and paradoxical peace until +morning. + +"Ere the sky was red, or the dews, in harmony with this unhappy man's +dilemma, had been appropriated by the sun from the tiara of dawn, Ram +Lal set out for the palace of the Kutub, in which Prince Otondo was +compelled to reside for the present for some very convincing reasons +provided by the British Government. + +"In a little while the merchant had traversed the short distance +intervening and was admitted through the courtyard gates. + +"The last of the kings of Delhi was a decrepit old man named Dahbur Dhu, +whose sole object in life seemed to be an attempt to reanimate the pomp +and pageantry of a dead dynasty. + +"Pensioned by the British Government, which permitted him to continue +this absurd travesty, if his feeble exasperation over his predicament +and his silly ostentations could be called by that name, this realmless +potentate occupied his waking hours in futile revilings of the hand that +at once smote and sustained him. + +"While not thus engaged, he would gravitate almost to the extreme of +servility in his efforts to exact additional largess from the powers in +control, to expend upon this senile attempt to augment the consideration +of his pageant throne. + +"Several efforts had already been made to remove the irritating presence +of this royal household to Bengal, but the time had not yet arrived when +the British could regard with indifference the native prejudice which +would be aroused by such a procedure. + +"The infirm moghul, therefore, continued his vaudeville, which was +mainly confined within the palace walls at Delhi, and persisted in his +endeavors to augment his revenues. + +"However, to mitigate the nuisance as far as possible, the British +Government consented to recognize his grandson, Prince Otondo, as the +successor to the throne, and yield a degree to the exactions of the +moghul if his young kinsman would agree to remove himself permanently +from Delhi and reside in the Kutub. + +"To this, for a reason which shortly transpired with almost laughable +incongruity, Dahbur Dhu assented, and Prince Otondo established himself +at this royal residence with an outward manifestation of satisfaction, +at least. + +"Despite the fact that the merchant was a familiar figure in this +enclosure, he believed that he remarked an unusual degree of interest +awakened by his presence, and was assured that he detected more than one +sinister and smiling glance directed, with covert insinuation, upon his +impassive countenance. + +"An uneasy suggestion of conspiracy met him at every turn. + +"With that gravid apprehension which creates in advance the very +conditions one desires to combat, Ram Lal prepared himself for a series +of events which made him shudder to contemplate. + +"It seemed to him that the salutes of the swarthy satellites of the +prince were a degree less considerate. + +"He was convinced of a cynical estimation usually accorded to the +destitute. + +"The depression of disaster was upon him. + +"He could only think in the direction of his forebodings, so when at +last he arrived in the familiar ante-chamber and announced himself, his +voice reflected his trepidation and his demeanor had lost a palpable +degree of its customary assurance. + +"While the merchant awaited the response to his request for an audience +with the prince, he made a sorry attempt to assume a cheerful aspect, +with the success of one who is permitted to listen to the details of his +own obsequies. + +"When not thus engaged, he traversed the apartment with intermittent +strides--another Chryses about to make a paternal plea to this Oriental +Agamemnon. + +"He had canvassed his demeanor, reviewed his cautious phrases, and had +even provided a desperate denunciation, which, when he considered the +privileged rascality of his royal auditor, he felt assured would at once +conclude the interview and his liberty. + +"As Ram Lal was about to end his fifth attempt to apprehend the result +of this expected interview, the curtains parted and a stalwart +attendant, impassive and silent, appeared. + +"In response to the eloquent concern betrayed in the glance of the +merchant, the other, holding the curtains aside, indicated, by an +inclination of his turbaned head and a sweep of his hand, the dignity +of which was intended to convey some intimation of the personality of +his master and the proportions of the privileges accorded, that the +merchant was expected to proceed, which he did with trembling +precipitation. + +"As Ram Lal entered the room, his alert glance discerned the figure of +the prince extended, with unceremonious abandon, upon a divan. + +"Advancing, he made profound obeisance to the reclining potentate, who +acknowledged his presence with a spiritless motion of his hand not +unsuggestive of the humiliating degree of his condescension. + +"At this period of his career Prince Otondo presented, in his +personality and surroundings, considerable of the picturesque +magnificence with which the native rulers delighted to surround +themselves. + +"His presence, at once dignified and carelessly amiable, was not the +least vital accessory to the sumptuous abundance, to which he added the +last touch of distinction. + +"A smiling cynicism, which was one of his most engaging characteristics +and an invaluable masquerade for his genuine sentiments, lingered about +his thin, patrician lips. + +"His features balanced with cameo precision, and in his eyes, usually +veiled by lashes effeminately long, the whole gamut of a passionate, +intolerant nature was expressed. + +"'Well, most ancient and honorable!' said the prince, with an +exasperating suggestion in his manner of appreciation of the travesty of +his words, as he gazed upon the merchant with a glance whose speculation +the latter could not determine. 'Well, how speeds thy traffic and thrive +thy caravans?' + +"'Not well, my lord,' answered Ram Lal, 'not well.' + +"'Ah, ha!' exclaimed the prince, with an indescribable insinuation of +biased rebuke in the look with which he challenged further revelations +from the speaker. 'That touches me nearly; this must not be; an +industrious subject may not suffer while there is a remedy at hand.' + +"''Tis on that head I would beseech your majesty!' exclaimed the +merchant, seizing the opportunity provided, with such plausible +ingenuousness, by the august speaker. + +"'Proceed, Ram Lal,' urged the prince, with an amiability which the +merchant had known to be a dangerous prelude in the past. + +"'Great prince!' replied the merchant with the prompt obedience which +contemplates a possible reversal of privilege. + +"'Nine days from home I strayed. + +"'On my return I find my house despoiled of all its store. + +"'And with the rest, O prince, the priceless tokens of thy high regard. + +"'Aside from these, I do not mourn my loss, for it may be repaired. + +"'Nor will I question fate, whose ears are dull to hear, whose eyes +refuse to see the victims of her spleen. + +"'But hear, O prince--my one ewe lamb, my sole delight--my daughter +greets me not. + +"'The empty halls no more re-echo to her tread. + +"'No more sweet mur----' + +"'Enough, Ram Lal,' interrupted the prince. 'I have heard that a needle +thrust into the eye of a bullfinch will make it sing, but I did not +know that misery could transform a merchant to a bard. + +"'Disjoint your phrases a degree. You say your daughter greets you not?' + +"'Yes, O prince,' replied Ram Lal, abashed at this cynical embargo upon +the melancholy luxury of his rhythms; 'yes, and it is of her I would +speak.' + +"'Speak,' urged his august hearer. + +"After a moment's reflection, in the manner of the unwelcome envoy who +has reached the acute juncture of his recital and is about to +disembarrass himself of a dangerous climax, the merchant continued in +sordid Hindustani: + +"'As I have said, O prince, my daughter has been taken from me, and I +come to you in my extremity.' + +"'And why to me, Ram Lal?' demanded the prince, with a gleam in his +glance which was directly responsible for the pacific presentation which +followed. + +"'Because,' replied the merchant with discerning irreverence, 'if it so +please your highness, your providence is practical, and the ways of +Vishnu are tedious.' + +"'Ah!' exclaimed the prince appreciatively; 'that was not so bad for a +merchant; but to the point.' + +"'Little can occur in this cantonment that is not known to your +highness, or that cannot be determined if you so desire. + +"'I ask your august assistance, and I have, as you will see, observed +the proprieties in making my request. + +"'It is a time-honored custom for the suppliant to signalize his +appreciation of the importance of the favor he solicits, is it not so?' + +"'I did not know,' replied the prince, 'that commerce could develop such +an oracle; it is a subtle sense of fitness you express. I am interested. +Proceed.' + +"'I will, your highness,' responded Ram Lal, as he inserted his hand in +one of the folds of the sash which encircled his waist. 'You recall the +stone of Sardis?' + +"'Ah!' exclaimed the prince, his cynical listlessness transformed at +once into the abandon of eagerness. 'What of it, O merchant?' + +"'This,' replied the latter as he withdrew his hand from his sash, 'if +your highness will deign to examine it,' and the speaker extended toward +the incredulous prince a small box of shagreen, which the latter +clutched with the grasp of avarice. + +"'Will his highness deign?' repeated Ram Lal to himself with bitter +irony as the prince pressed back the lid and exposed to view a +magnificent sapphire, the gleam and the glitter of which affected him +like an intoxication. + +"As the prince, oblivious to all else, fixed his avid glance upon the +scintillant stone, an astonishing change transformed the merchant from +the suppliant to a being of marked dignity of bearing and carriage. + +"His eyes, no longer obliquely observant, were directed with baleful +purpose upon the half-closed lids of the fascinated potentate. + +"His hand disengaged itself from the sash, where it had reposed with +something of the suggestion of a guardian of the treasury, and was +gradually extended with sinuous menace over the declining head of the +prince. + +"His long, lithe figure straightened from its servile stoop, and a +palpable degree of the authority which appeared gradually to fade from +the fine countenance before him found an equally congenial residence in +the expression of the merchant. + +"There was command in every feature. + +"As for the prince, his figure appeared to decline in majesty in +proportion to the access of dignity which had added its unwonted +emphasis to the personality of Ram Lal. + +"He leaned inertly forward, one hand resting upon his knee. + +"In his slowly relaxing clutch the brilliant gleamed. His forehead was +moist; his lips dry; his delicate nostrils were indrawn in harmony with +the concentrating lines of his brow, and the next moment, as if in +response to an insinuating pass of the merchant's hand of cobra-like +undulation, the rigid poise recoiled, he settled more easily upon the +divan, and with eyes still fascinated by the entrancing bauble he +listened, with anomalous impassiveness, to the weird proposal of Ram +Lal. + +"'Hearken, O prince! + +"'My daughter has been taken from me by whom I shall not venture to +inquire. + +"'If she is returned to me, I shall be satisfied. + +"'I am here therefore to beseech your highness to see that she is +restored to me. + +"'To-day, as the sun declines, I shall expect her. + +"'If she does not come to me then, O prince, a heaping handful of the +precious stones you hold so dearly will be missing, and in their stead +will be as many pebbles from the fountain in the courtyard. + +"'The sapphire I leave with you as a witness of my plea.' + +"And slowly the merchant retreated toward the door, his eyes fastened +the while upon the prince. + +"As he reached the threshold he paused, and with a voice that seemed to +lodge in the consciousness of his inert auditor like the sigh of Auster +over the daffodils and buttercups of a dream, he repeated: + +"'_To-day as the sun declines._' + +"And the next instant, with an abrupt motion of his hand strangely at +variance with the placid gestures just preceding, the merchant +disappeared through the curtains which screened the doorway. + +"And now," said the Sepoy abruptly, as he moved his chair with a sharp +rasp over the bare floor and transferred his glance at the same time +from the drawn countenance of his rapt auditor to the gleaming gem on +the table, "and now--is it not a beauty?" + +"Ah, ha!" murmured Raikes, disturbed by the abrupt cessation of the +sedative tones of the Sepoy and the abrasion of the chair, "superb!" And +that instant all his keen animation returned. + +Apparently Raikes was not aware of any blanks in his scrutiny and +resumed his regard of the tantalizing facets with knowing sagacity and +an envy that affected him like a hurt. + +"In all my years," he creaked, as his long, prehensile fingers riveted +like a setting to the fascinating bauble, "I have never seen such a gem. + +"The cutting is exquisite; it is a study in intelligent execution; every +facet here cost a pang; how vital it was not to waste an atom of this +precious bulk. + +"What a delicate adjustment of the lines of beauty to the material +consideration; the balance is perfect." And with this confusion of frank +cupidity and rapacious regard, the miser, with a supreme effort, pushed +the stone impatiently toward the Sepoy. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the latter, "it is a pleasure to show the gem to one who +is able to comprehend it. + +"It is even finer than you have discerned. The lapidary was subtle; his +work sustains closer analysis. Have you a stray glass? + +"No? Well, I will send you mine and you can entertain yourself until I +see you again." + +"What!" exclaimed Raikes, "you will leave this stone with me?" + +"Why not?" returned the Sepoy evenly. "You have a due regard for +property. I do not fear that this gem will meet with mishap in your +possession. Besides, it will be a revelation to you under the glass," +and, arising, he stepped to the door, leaving the brilliant upon the +table in the grasp of the astonished Raikes, who was unable to +comprehend such confidence and unconcern. + +Traversing the hallway, the pair reached the door which opened upon the +apartments controlled by the widow. + +As he paused on the threshold to make his adieux to Raikes, the Sepoy, +looking at the former with a marvelously glowing glance, repeated, with +an emphasis so eerie as to occasion a thrill of vague uneasiness in his +companion, the concluding phrase of the singular tale he had related to +Raikes: + +"_To-day as the sun declines._" + +And the moment after he disappeared, leaving the startled miser to gaze, +with greedy contemplation, upon the sapphire which he retained in his +grasp. + +(To be continued on Dickey No. 3.) + + * * * * * + +"Oh, ho!" exclaimed Dennis as the exasperating phrase in italics met his +glance, "an' it's here you are again. Shure, a man would tear his shirt +to tatters for a tale like that," and with appreciative meditation over +the vexatious quandary presented by the cunning of the bosom-maker in +thus adding another ruinous possibility to the inevitable soil and wear, +he added: + +"Shure, the man who put that sthory on the dickey-back knew his +business. Where the dirt laves off the guessin' begins, and betwixt the +two it's another dickey I'll be after--ah, ha, an' it's a fine thing to +have brains like that." + +With this discerning tribute, Dennis turned the last dickey around and +discovered that it was protected in the rear with a sort of oiled paper, +through which the story shadowed dimly. + +Here was the pinch of his dilemma. + +His curiosity was sharpened and his judgment impaired. + +In a variety of ways literature incapacitates a man for the exigencies +of existence. + +Dennis found himself visibly enervated. At last he remembered that the +week had advanced only as far as Thursday. Between that time and the +Fabian Saturday a number of untoward events might occur. + +A more seasoned applicant might present himself to the foreman upon whom +Dennis depended, or, equally grievous, the present bibulous incumbent +might be alarmed into mending his ways. + +Hitherto Dennis had resisted the temptation to present himself to the +attention of the foreman in advance of the date appointed. + +In order, therefore, to master the anxiety which might betray him into +some overt importunity, he decided to devote the day to a persistent +canvass of the possibilities offered by the various wholesale houses. + +Unknown to himself, Dennis had learned that the secret of patience was +doing something else in the meantime. + +However, the practical at last was triumphant, and Dennis, with a +resolution that demanded prompt execution for its continued existence, +adjusted the remaining chapter to his waistcoat in the early morning and +descended to the lower floor. + +On this occasion his solicitous friend behind the bar insisted upon +detaining the young Irishman, who, urged by his solitary predicament and +a degree depressed by the series of rebuffs which by now had developed a +malicious habit, proceeded to the counter and, resting one foot upon +the rail near the floor with a redeeming unfamiliarity, responded to the +inquiry of the barman by admitting that he felt a "wee bit blue." + +This statement led to the revelation that the barman was similarly +affected, and was engaged, at that moment, in the preparation of a +famous antidote greatly in demand by sundry newsgatherers and night +editors in Park Row. + +Dennis watched him with interest and remarked that he set out two +glasses, after the manner of those who are about to compound an +effervescent. + +Such, however, was not the case, and Dennis was startled presently to +see the barman, after filling both glasses with a decoction which caught +the light from a dozen merry angles, push one of them in his direction +with the companionable suggestion: "Have one with me." + +Only once before had Dennis indulged in anything of a stimulating +nature, and the effect upon his head the next morning had been +sufficient to discourage its repetition, and he informed the barman of +this disagreeable feature. + +"Oh!" protested that insinuating Mephisto as he held his glass to the +light the better to concentrate its hypnotic gleam and sparkle upon the +vacillating youth, "there is no headache in this; this is a man's +medicine. Get it down; it will do you good." + +Persuaded by the example before him, duped by his depressions, and weary +of his loneliness, Dennis responded to the dubious suggestion with the +guilty haste of one who has decided to let down the moral bars for a +short but sufficient interval. + +Palliated from its original rawness by the additions of the barman, the +draught was without special bite or pungency in its passage down his +throat, and Dennis was aware of his indiscretion only by an increasing +glow in the pit of his stomach and a disposition to credit the barman +with a degree of amiability beyond that ordinarily manifested by this +functionary. + +The potation, however, had done its work but partially; there remained +the itch of something still to be desired, an elevation yet unattained, +and Dennis saw no other way up the sheer height than by an appeal to the +barman to duplicate his initial effort. + +When this had joined its fluent fellows in their several midsts, Dennis +was inexperienced enough to accept, as a matter of course, the genial +disposition toward the world in general which replaced the depression of +the morning. + +A native eloquence, long disused, began to urge him to a sort of +confused improvisation. + +His data was no longer morose. + +"Holdin' on cud do annything," he assured the barman. + +"It isn't a bad wurrld, at all, if wan looks at it through grane +glasses. + +"Shure, I'm in a bit av a hole at prisint, but not too dape to crawl out +of." + +Then after a pause, to enable himself to "shake hands," so to speak, +with the suddenly developed genial aspect of affairs, he informed the +barman, with the philosophy of his potations, that "A laugh will always +mend a kick, providin' th' kick ain't too hard." + +This pleased the barman, who responded in his characteristic fashion, +and Dennis, in acknowledgment, substituted the price of breakfast as +fitting return of civilities. + +However, this was the climax. + +Dennis could advance no farther. His bibulous friend, with apprehensive +disapproval, offered a few diplomatic suggestions involving the +retirement of the young man to his room, which the latter accepted with +an unbalanced gravity that administered its reproof even through the +callous epidermis of the barman. + +Arrived at his room, Dennis, influenced by his accelerated circulation, +was convinced that the apartment was oppressively warm, and divested +himself of his coat and waistcoat. + +In doing so he detached the dickey from his neck, and as it fell to the +floor the curious tale contained in its predecessors appealed +unmistakably to his enkindled imagination. + +Oblivious of the campaign arranged for the day, heedless of the inner +protest, Dennis, with all the abandon of his condition, hastened to +remove the oil paper from the rear of the dickey, and began a race with +his moral lapse in a feverish perusal of the following. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +When Raikes returned to his room he seemed to himself like a sunset +mocked by the adjacent horizon, with tantalizing suggestions for which +it was reflectively responsible. + +With the proper inspiration, there is a degree of poetry in the worst of +us. + +The knowledge that he would be compelled to restore the gem to its owner +in the morning bestirred another comparison. + +This time his idealism was not so elevated. + +He likened it to a divorce from a vampire which had already digested his +moral qualities. + +The sapphire exhausted him. + +The only parallel irritation was one which Raikes inflicted upon himself +now and then. + +This was on the occasions when he established himself in some +unobtrusive portion of the bank and watched with greedy interest the +impassive tellers handle immense sums of money with an impersonality +which it was impossible for his avarice to comprehend. + +The thievery of his thoughts and the ravin of his envy would have +provided interesting bases of speculation for the reflective magistrate, +since, if, according to the metaphysician, thoughts are things, he +committed crimes daily. + +Had the Sepoy, by entrusting the gem to the custody of this strange +being, intended to harass his shriveled soul, he could not have adopted +a more effective plan. + +The certainty of the sharp bargain which Raikes could drive with such a +commodity in certain localities, affected him with the exasperation +which disturbs the lover who discovers in the eyes of his sweetheart the +embrace to which he is welcome but from which he is restrained by the +presence of her parent. + +The many forms of value to which it could be transformed by the alchemy +of intelligent barter made distracting appeals. + +The facets danced their vivid vertigos into his brain. + +At last, starting to his feet with impatient resolution, he hurried to +a button in the wall, which controlled the radiator valves. + +After a series of complicated movements, he succeeded in swinging aside +the entire iron framework beneath it, revealing, directly in the rear, a +considerable recess. + +In the center of this space a knob protruded surrounded by a combination +lock, which, under Raikes' familiar manipulation, disclosed a further +cavity. + +With an expression not unsuggestive of the mien of the disconsolate +relict who has just made her melancholy deposit in the vault, Raikes +placed the sapphire in this second recess, closed the combination door, +replaced the swinging radiator, and prepared to retire for the remainder +of the night. + +When sleep, if that unrestful and populous trance to which he finally +succumbed can be so designated, came to him, the disorders of his +wakeful hours were emphasized in his dreams. + +He had been haled to court; convicted without defense; sent headless to +Charon, and was obliged, on that account, to make a ventriloquial +request for a passage across the Styx; so that, in the morning, it was +with genuine relief he returned the jewel to its owner and resumed his +wonted meagerness of visage and useless deprivations. + +As the Sepoy pocketed the gem he looked at Raikes with a glance at once +searching and derisive as he asked: + +"Was I not right in calling it a marvel?" + +"Aye!" returned Raikes sourly, "marvel, indeed; but the miracle of it is +that you have it back again. Your trust in human nature would be sublime +were it not so unsupported; it needs the tonic of loss. I hope this is +not habitual?" + +"I will pay you the tribute of assuring you that it is not," replied the +Sepoy. + +"Ah, ha!" returned Raikes with a mirthless grin. "I am to accept the +brief custody of this gem as a recognition of my personal integrity. I +see, I see. Well, I would appreciate the courtesy more if I could +indorse its incaution. However," he added abruptly, "why did you end +that extraordinary tale so inconclusively? I could almost suspect you of +a design to arouse my curiosity as to what is to follow." + +"Ah, you remember, then?" + +"Why not?" asked Raikes. "The narrative is singular enough, God knows, +to make an impression, and sufficiently recent to be definite. I would +not like to think that I could forget things so easily." + +"Very well," said the Sepoy. "Come to my room at ten o'clock to-night; I +am due elsewhere until then." + +With a promptness that attested his interest, Raikes presented himself +at the hour appointed, and his singular host again permitted him to +enjoy a delegate smoke. + +"Here!" he exclaimed abruptly, producing a strong magnifying glass, +"here's a connoisseur whose revelations you may trust. Examine these +facets with its help," and again the Sepoy placed the sapphire within +reach of the covetous Raikes, who promptly availed himself of the +tantalizing privilege. + +Waiting, apparently, until his auditor became absorbed in his +contemplation of the gem, the Sepoy at last began with the same even +modulations which characterized his narrative at the outset: + +"No sooner had Ram Lal disappeared through the curtains than the curious +apathy of the prince vanished and was replaced by a demeanor of +perplexed concentration in the direction pursued by the merchant. + +"The prince had listened without comment or interruption during the +recital of the narrator, his eyes fixed, the while, upon the brilliant. + +"He did not know of the weird gestures of the speaker, nor had he seen +the wonderful transformation of the man. + +"Consequently he was startled for the moment to contemplate the blank so +recently filled by Ram Lal. + +"The sapphire, however, remained. That, at least, was real, and +replacing it in the box, he proceeded, with a degree of absent +preoccupation, to the courtyard, and presently found himself gazing +aimlessly in the fountain basin. + +"Curiously enough, it had not occurred to the prince to resent the +assured attitude of the merchant, or to speculate upon the insinuating +suggestions of complicity which the latter had managed to lodge in the +consciousness of his august auditor. + +"Nor did he feel outraged at the intrusion of the dangerous alternative +proposed by the audacious Ram Lal. + +"He appeared to be seduced by the sapphire and fascinated by the +recital. + +"Slowly he retraced the byways of the strange episode until he resumed, +with singular precision of memory, the words of the merchant, which +explained the presence of the gem: + +"'I have observed the proprieties in making my request. It is a +time-honored custom for the suppliant to signalize his appreciation of +the importance of the favor he solicits.' + +"Ah! a sudden illumination pervaded the mind of the prince. + +"The sapphire was a royal subsidy. + +"What favor could he grant in proportion to the value of such means of +overture? + +"The question established another point of association; unconsciously he +quoted again: + +"'To-day at sundown I shall expect my daughter. If she does not come to +me then, O prince, a heaping handful of the precious stones you hold so +dearly will be missing, and in their stead will be as many pebbles from +the fountain in the courtyard.' + +"'Pebbles for diamonds!' he repeated, and yet the proposition did not +appeal to his cynical humor. There was menace in the suggestion, but his +intolerant spirit did not resent it. + +"In a vague way he was more convinced than alarmed, and did not pause to +puzzle over the anomaly, although reassured somewhat as he reflected +upon the cunning safeguards to his treasury, whose solitary sesame was +known to himself alone. + +"Prince Otondo, like other native rulers at this period, frightened at +the mercenary reforms of the British in other sections, and instructed +by the unhappy comparisons, had concentrated the whole of his fortune +and considerable of his current revenues in jewels. + +"These were portable and could be concealed about his person in any +emergency demanding a hasty abdication on his part. + +"To the shrewd Ram Lal the prince had entrusted the purchase of nearly +all of this costly collection, contenting himself, for the present, +with intelligent calculations as to the percentage of profit which had +accrued to the merchant in these transactions. + +"'Ah, well!' and with an impatient shrug of the shoulders, that was +curiously devoid of its customary insolence, Prince Otondo dismissed +these unfamiliar apprehensions and forbore to wonder at their strange +intrusion upon his wonted complacency. + +"Apparently, a more agreeable occasion of reflection presented itself, +for a smile, half sinister, half genial, illumined the gloom of his fine +countenance. As if in obedience to its suggestion, he turned abruptly +from the fountain and re-entered the palace. + +"Arrived at that portion of the structure set aside for his individual +use, he hurried, with expectant, lithe agility, through an opening in +the wall concealed hitherto by silken hangings, and entered upon a +narrow passageway, which terminated in another undulating subterfuge of +drapery. + +"Pausing outside, the prince lightly touched a gong suspended from the +ceiling and which replied with a solemn chime-like resonance. + +"In response, the curtains parted, and a native woman, pathetically ugly +and servile, appeared and prostrated herself in abject salutation. + +"Following the direction of his hand the cringing creature arose and +hurried along the passageway just traversed by the prince, who, +satisfied as to her departure, parted the curtains and entered a small +ante-chamber, beyond which a sumptuously-appointed apartment extended. + +"At the extreme end, with a demeanor more suggestive of expectation than +alarm or dejection, a young girl reclined upon a divan near the +lattice-screened window. + +"Advised of the approach of her distinguished visitor by an advance +rendered as obvious as possible by the rustling sweep of the parted +curtains and an unwonted emphasis of tread, which avoided the rugs and +sought the tesselated floor for this purpose, the supple figure stood +erect and in an attitude of questioning deference awaited whatever +demonstration might follow this apparently not unexpected advent. + +"As she stood thus in an unconscious pose of virginal dignity, the girl +seemed to express a subtle majesty, in which, at the moment, the prince +was manifestly deficient. + +"A degree taller than her age would warrant, she appeared to the +enamored gaze of the prince the ideal of symmetrical slenderness. + +"Her figure, perfectly proportioned, and chastened, by the ardent rigors +of the climate, of every fraction of superfluous flesh, appeared to bud +and round for the sole purpose of concluding in exquisite tapers. + +"Her eyes, large and luminous and harmoniously fringed with that placid +length of lash usually associated with the sensuous, were saved from +that suspicion by the innocent question and confiding abandon of her +half-parted lips. + +"Her hands, clasped at the moment before her, possessed the +indescribable contour of refinement and high breeding, and manifested a +degree of the tension of her present privileges by a closer interlace of +the fingers than usual. + +"A robe of white, confined loosely to her waist by a vari-colored sash, +which drooped gracefully to catch up the folds in front, clung softly to +her figure in sylphid revelation of the matchless proportions it could +never conceal. + +"'Lal Lu!' exclaimed the prince unevenly, his face reflecting the strife +of deference and desire as he disengaged the clasped hands of the maiden +and held them closely in his own, 'what is it to be, the Vale of +Cashmere or the snows of Himalaya?' + +"For a moment the girl gazed with disconcerting directness upon her +ardent companion, as the warmth of his impulse deepened the dusk of his +countenance and threaded the fine white of his eyes with ruddy +suffusions. + +"'O prince!' she replied, veiling her eyes the while with tantalizing +lashes and reflecting, with exquisite duplication, a degree of the color +which burned in the cheeks of her visitor, 'other answer have I none +save that I gave thee yesterday.' + +"With an impatient exclamation the prince released the hands he held in +such vehement grasp, and stood, for a space, with his arms folded, +directing upon the trembling beauty the while a gaze of vivid, glowing +menace which was scarcely to be endured. + +"'Ah!' he cried in a voice of husky contrast to his usual placid +utterance, 'have you reflected, Lal Lu, how futile thy objections may be +if I choose to make them so?' + +"With surprising calmness and a sweet dignity, which was not without its +effect upon the prince, although it sharpened to the refinement of +torture the keenness of his infatuation, Lal Lu replied: + +"'I have said, my lord.' + +"At this reply the prince, exasperated beyond further control, with +ruthless, fervent abandon, caught the trembling Lal Lu in his arms and +held her, palpitating, reproachful, in his savage embrace. + +"Bewildered at the quickness of his action, Lal Lu reposed inertly +within the passionate restraint of his sinewy arms, but the next +instant, transformed into an indignant goddess, struggled, with +surprising strength, from his clasp and held the mortified prince in +chafing repulse by the chaste challenge of her flaming eyes. + +"'Hear me, Prince Otondo!' she cried with unmistakable candor and +disturbing incisiveness of speech: + +"'I love not save where I choose. + +"'Of what avail is it to subdue this frail body? What is the joy of such +a conquest? Where the pleasure in an empty casket?' + +"Abashed, astounded, the prince retreated a space and looked, with +savage intentness, upon the beautiful girl, superb in her denunciation, +enchanting in the rebellious dishevel of her hair, the indignant rebuke +of her eyes. + +"Some reflection of contriteness must have beamed its acknowledgment of +the justice of her virtuous outburst in the glance which held her in its +ardent fascination, for Lal Lu resumed, in a voice sensibly modulated +and with a demeanor curiously softened: + +"'Long have I known of thee, O prince! + +"'Before all others have I placed thee. + +"'Wonder not, then, that I resent the ignoble assumption that my regard +may be compelled. + +"'My love is as royal as thine. + +"'I bestow it where I will; unasked, if its object pleaseth me. + +"'But I make no sign, O prince. + +"'In such a stress a maiden may not speak her mind.' + +"'Peace, Lal Lu!' exclaimed the prince, who, during her initial +reproaches and her subsequent explanations, had recovered his native +dignity of carriage and elevation of demeanor; 'peace! Never before have +I hearkened to such speech as thine. + +"'All my life I have had but to ask, and what I craved was mine. + +"'My wish has been my command. + +"'Hear, then, Lal Lu: Henceforward thou art as safe with me as in thy +father's home.' + +"'Aye! what of him?' interrupted the maiden; 'what of my father, O +prince?' + +"'All is well with him,' replied the prince, manifestly chagrined at the +incautious introduction of this disturbing name and the filial +solicitude it awakened. + +"'He has been assured of thy safety; of him will I speak later. But now, +Lal Lu---- + +"'I acknowledge thy rebuke. I stand before thee, thy sovereign, thy +suppliant. + +"'See!' he exclaimed, 'what I cannot demand, I entreat'; and with an +indescribably fascinating tribute of surrender and yearning, this royal +suitor awaited her reply. + +"Leaning for support against a slender stand near-by, to which she +communicated the trembling fervor which pulsed so warmly through every +fiber of her being, the beautiful Lal Lu looked upon the fine +countenance before her with a light in her eyes that dazzled with its +subtle radiance. + +"'Oh, Lal Lu!' cried the prince as he advanced toward the trembling +maiden with eager precipitation. + +"'One moment, O prince!' exclaimed Lal Lu, extending a restraining hand. + +"'I know not what to say to thee; yet will I meet thy candor with equal +frankness. Yea, Prince Otondo, I love thee indeed. I feel no shame in +the confession. I have loved thee always. I am----' + +"But the prince, after the fashion of lovers, made further speech +impossible; and Lal Lu, with all the exquisite charm of womanly +capitulation, threw her dusky arms about his neck and held his lips to +hers in the only kiss beside her father's she had ever known. + +"For one delirious moment, and then, releasing herself, she stood before +the prince, a very blushing majesty of love, and said: + +"'And now, O prince, I have told thee my secret. Be thou equally +generous and restore me to my father, and then come to me when thou +desirest and I am thine." + +"Concealing his impatience at this last suggestion, the prince, with +wily indirection, said: + +"'It is too late to-day, Lal Lu. Thy father will be here on the morrow; +rest thyself until then,' and fearful lest the maiden would penetrate +his purpose, he added: + +"'Lal Lu, I am compelled to leave thee for a space; I will send thy +woman to thee. Until to-morrow, then, adieu.' And fixing upon her a +glance so ardent that she almost followed him in its fascination, the +prince withdrew from her presence with a reluctance which was +duplicated in the bosom of the bewildered girl, if not so unmistakably +evinced. + +"As the prince retreated toward his apartments, the alarming alternative +proposed by the merchant repeated itself with a sort of wordless +insistence: + +"'Unless Lal Lu shall be returned, a handful of my precious stones shall +be missing. + +"'Ah! + +"'In their place will be as many pebbles! + +"'Impossible!' + +"And secure in his bedchamber, into which none might venture without +ceremonious announcement, the prince hastened to a recess in the wall, +where, in response to a pressure applied to a spot known only to +himself, a cunningly devised panel shot back, revealing a gleaming, +glittering mass of scintillating light and glamor. + +"'Ah, ha!' he gloated, 'no pebbles yet'; and plunging his hands into the +costly heap, he withdrew a motley of diamonds, sapphires, rubies and +opals, and held them, with grudging avarice, to the regard of the +declining sun. + +"'No pebbles yet,' he repeated, as he challenged the fires of the gems +with the fever of his eyes, and sent mimic lightnings hither and thither +by communicating the tremble of his hands and the incidence of the +sunbeams to the glorious confusion of facet and hue; 'no pebbles yet.' + +"As Prince Otondo repeated this obvious reassurance, he replaced the +gems, which seemed to quiver with lambent life, within the compartment, +and withdrawing the shagreen case from his sash, he discharged the +magnificent sapphire it contained upon the apex of the glittering heap, +where it rested with a sort of insolent disproportion to the irradiant +pyramid of brilliants beneath. + +"Regarding the bewildering ensemble for a few moments of exulting +ownership and familiar calculation, the prince closed the panel with the +mien of Paris making restitution of Helen, and, turning aside, prepared +to retire for the night. + +"The ceremony was simple and so promptly observed that ere the radiance +had ceased its revel in his mind the prince found himself reclining upon +his couch, unusually ready to succumb to the sleep which he had so +often sought in vain. + +"The night was hot and stifling, and yet it seemed to the prince that he +had only retired to rise the moment after, so profound had been his +slumber and so quickly had daybreak arrived. + +"For a few moments he lay in that agreeable condition of +semi-realization ere the visages of his wonted obligations had assumed +the definition of their customary insistence, or the menace of a +restrained remorse had reannounced itself, when suddenly, without +introduction or sequence, the phrase 'pebbles for diamonds' slipped into +his consciousness. + +"In a second he was alert and awake; the next instant he found himself +at the panel, reaching tremulously for the concealed spring. + +"At last he found it; the panel shot back, and the prince, after one +searching glance, stood transfixed and uttered a cry of wondering +despair. + +"'The gleaming hoard still shot its varied lightnings. The royal +sapphire still crowned its priceless apex. To his starting eyes his +treasure was not a whit diminished, but directly in front, and at the +base of the precious heap, lay as many as would make a heaping handful +of pebbles." + +As the Sepoy reached this startling climax in his recital, the even +modulations of his voice ceased abruptly. + +Raikes, missing the somnolent monotone, looked up quickly. + +The eyes of the Sepoy were fixed upon him with a gleam in his glance not +unlike that of the sapphire upon which the miser had been engaged during +the whole of this singular narrative. + +"That is a weird tale," he said at last. "Why do you pause at such a +point? What is the conclusion?" + +"That is some distance away yet," replied the Sepoy. "If you care to +continue, I will resume the thread at this time to-morrow evening." + +"Very well," answered Raikes with some impatience, "I will be here. I +must, at least, congratulate you upon your observance of the +proprieties in tale-telling; you manage to pause at the proper places." + +"You are curious, then, to hear the rest?" + +"Naturally," replied Raikes, with the sour candor which distinguished +him. "The situation you describe I can appreciate--the loser confronted +with his loss--and I am to conjecture his attitude until to-morrow +night. Very well, I bid you good evening," and Raikes, with a curt +inclination of the head, which made a travesty of his intention to be +courteous, vanished through the doorway. + + * * * * * + +(The continuation of this remarkable story will be found on Dickey +Series B, which may be bought from almost any haberdasher.) + + * * * * * + +As Dennis reached this announcement his head throbbed violently. + +He had raced so apace with the movement of the tale that he had not +remarked, in his absorption, an unfamiliar congestion about the base of +his brain. + +Directly, however, he was convinced of its disagreeable presence when +this abrupt conclusion, which he had come to expect at the end of each +bosom, materialized to his irritated anticipation. + +He was no longer inclined to admire the calculating genius of the +italicized phrase. + +A temperance lecture was aching its way through his head. His conscience +seemed to have decided to reside in the pit of his stomach, and a sense +of surrender and defeat humiliated him. + +His room looked cell-like. + +The arrow pointing to the fire-escape seemed full of menace. + +His face, reflected from the dingy glass, had never appeared so ugly and +reproachful. + +He needed something to restore his confidence, but was happily unaware +of the nature of the remedy his system demanded. + +It was his first offense. + +He raised the window for a breath of fresh air, and the roaring street +called him. + +There was mockery and invitation in its hubbub. Why not? A little +exercise would bring him around to his point of moral departure. + +So, hastily adjusting the third chapter to his waistcoat and donning the +balance of his garments, he fitted his hat to his head with thoughtful +caution and hurried to the bustling thoroughfare. + +Preoccupied by his gradually lessening disabilities, Dennis did not +remark that the course pursued by him had the house of the publisher as +its terminus, until he stood directly before that august establishment. + +As the young Irishman recognized his surroundings, it did not take him +long to persuade himself, with native superstition, as he considered the +unaware nature of his arrival, that Providence had directed his +footsteps thither, and, with the species of courage that can come from +such a basis, he proceeded to the rearway, where he beheld the Celt in +whom his hopes were centered, berating the porters, with a mien which +offered anything but encouragement to the anxious young man. + +However, he came forward tentatively, and found himself, presently, so +much within the radius of the foreman's range of vision as to be +compelled to accept, with enforced urbanity, the vituperation of the +draymen, who objected to the amount of landscape he occupied with his +bulk and eager personality. + +At last, when the foreman had bullied his lusty understudies into a +certain degree of sullen system, and the drays began to move away with +their mysterious burdens, Dennis ventured to address him. + +Greatly to his relief, the perturbed countenance of the latter softened +perceptibly as he exclaimed: + +"Ah, ha! an' it's there ye are?" + +"Yes," replied Dennis with solicitous abnegation. + +"Well," returned the other, "roll up yer sleeves; yer job's a-waitin' +fur ye." + +With an agility that betrayed the diplomacy of his countenance into +ingenuous exultation, Dennis followed the foreman into the warehouse, +and the latter at once began his instructions as to the system of +marking, and Dennis mastered its simple mysteries with a quickness that +was not only flattering to the discernment of his instructor but an +indorsement of Celtic adjustability in general. + +In the course of the morning Dennis discovered that his predecessor had +put him under obligations by prolonging his debauch, and that his +arrival upon the scene had been most opportune in consequence. + +He was now assured of a position, whose only handicap was the prospect, +delicately insinuated by the foreman for his consideration, of the +possible state of mind of the previous incumbent when he realized that +his niche had been filled, and it did not add to his cheerfulness when +the foreman examined his biceps with an expert touch and remarked: "I +guess that ye can take care of yerself." + +There was nothing belligerent about Dennis, and he trusted that his +predecessor would not regard him from that standpoint. + +In the meantime Saturday arrived, and Dennis, in possession of his +proportion of the week's pay, hurried to The Stag by way of Baxter +Street. + +In this locality he began a search for Series B of the dickies, and was +finally successful, after a number of disappointments and a protracted +hunt. + +With the courage of his recently acquired situation, Dennis proposed to +indulge in a little improvidence. + +He decided that he would follow the singular recital on the dickey backs +and rip off a chapter at a time. + +After a night of fortifying slumber, Dennis arose, breakfasted, and +boarded an elevated train, which presently conveyed him to the vicinity +of Central Park. + +Here, after securing a seat to his fancy, he withdrew Series B from the +wrapper, detached bosom No. 1 and began. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +When Raikes had parted from the Sepoy, a degree of his customary +hardness and assurance was evident in his manner. + +He had been able to comment sagaciously upon the extraordinary +narrative, and had appropriated as much of the sapphire as his greedy +glance and covetous memory could bear away; but now that he pursued his +way along the dimly lighted hallway which led to his apartment, a +singularly thoughtful mood oppressed him. + +This phenomenon, due, in part, to the cessation of the drowsy cadences +of the Sepoy and the absence of the fascination and gleam of the +sapphire, was relegated by Raikes to the overtures of approaching +drowsiness. + +And yet the startling episode which confronted Prince Otondo in the +evening's instalment of this Oriental complication recurred to his mind +again and again. + +Strangely, too, Raikes did not comment upon the singular fact of the +narrative itself. + +Why should the Sepoy take the trouble to relate it to him, and why +should he, of all unconcerned and self-centered men, manifest such an +unusual interest in a recital which lacked every practical feature and +had nothing but the weird to commend it? + +If he asked himself these questions, it was with the impersonality of +lethargy, for they were dismissed as readily as they presented +themselves. + +With such sedative queries, which were gradually diminishing from fabric +to ravel, Raikes finally reached his room and, securely bolting the +door, began to prepare to retire. + +This was not an elaborate proceeding. + +His outer garments removed, he had only to seek the seclusion of the +bedclothes, clad in the remainder of his attire. + +In this manner he economized on the cost of a night-robe and the time it +would consume to don and doff such a superfluity. + +At all events, if such was not his sordid reasoning, the promptness with +which he fell asleep indicated that he did not propose to squander +useless time in wakeful speculation upon the intangible nothings to +which his recollection of the narrative began to fade. + +However, if Raikes had succeeded in passing the boundaries of slumber, +he had admitted, at the same time, extravagances of which he would never +have been guilty in his wakeful hours, for he found himself so engaged +in all sorts of uneasy shiftlessness and inconsiderate expenditure that +when morning came and he awoke, as usual, with the sunrise, he resumed +his customary identity, peevish and unrefreshed. + +For a moment he sat with his knees huddled to his chin, over which his +eyes peered like vermin in the wainscoting, and then, urged by an +impulse whose source he could not determine, he leaped with surprising +agility to the floor and proceeded to the false radiator. + +For a short space of inexplicable indecision he stood with his hands +resting upon the button which released the fastenings in the rear, an +uneasy thoughtfulness converging the ugly wrinkles downward to the root +of his nose and contracting his eyebrows with senile apprehension. + +Suddenly his wonted decision asserted itself. He pressed the button and +the radiator swung toward him; a few moments later the inner +compartments responded to his manipulation, and the last door opened. + +Apparently everything was as he had left it. + +To his rapid enumeration the quantity of the small bags, containing his +beloved coin, remained undisturbed. But, upon nearer regard, one of +them--that within easiest reach--seemed to betray, through its canvas +sides, a variety of unusually sharp angles and definite lines. + +With a suffocating sensation of impending disaster, Raikes grasped the +bag. + +It pended from his tense grip with a frightful lightness. He caught up +its neighbor for further confirmation. It responded with reassuring bulk +and weight. But this one from which all specific gravity seemed to have +departed--what did it contain? + +With trembling hands the terrified man unfastened the cord which bound +it and inverted the bag over the table. + +Instead of the sharp, musical collision and clink of metal, a sodden +succession of thuds smote his ears. + +With a shriek of utter wonderment and alarm, Raikes stood erect and +petrified. + +His hands fell, with inert palsies, to his sides. His eyes seemed about +to start from his head, for, looming dully to his aching gaze, in place +of the coin he had so confidently hidden away, was a rayless, squalid +heap of small, black coals. + +A moment he stood lean and limp; every particle of the fever which +consumed him concentrated in his starting eyes, which turned, with +savage inquiry, toward the fastenings of the door. + +The next instant, with a leap like that of a wild beast, he reached the +threshold, examined the bolt with vivid glance and searching fingers, +then raised his hand to his forehead with a gesture of utter +distraction. + +Nothing had been disturbed. + +Even the check-pin which he had inserted over the bar for additional +security was in place. + +The only other possible means of entrance was by a window at the other +extreme of the room. + +But this was not to be considered, for it opened, with sheer +precipitation, upon the unrelieved front of the house. + +The windows adjacent were removed at a distance which could afford no +possible basis from which to reach the one from which Raikes glared so +grimly. + +Moreover, the shutters had been clasped and the inner sash secured. + +The conclusion was inevitable. + +No one had entered the room during the night. It was impossible for a +stranger to have access to the apartment during the day unobserved, and +the recess behind the radiator was known to himself alone. + +Nevertheless there was the absurd substitution. + +It was incredible! + +The secret repository was of his own construction. + +The room was secure against intrusion. + +And opposed to all this the incontrovertible proof of his loss, a +catastrophe all the more agonizing since the logic of the situation +obliged him to eliminate any one from suspicion. + +Raikes had always considered a loss of this character the climax of +malignant fate. He had never been able to contemplate it without the +mortal shudder which usually communicates its chill to a loving parent +confronted with the prospect of the departure of a dear one. + +The recess in the wall contained all that Raikes held dear in the world; +every spasm of fear, each contraction of the heart, always began and +concluded with the button which moved its protecting bolts. + +But now a new element added its ugly emphasis; there was something +supernatural about the episode. + +Convinced of the impossibility of thievery in any of its ordinary forms, +he was bewildered as to the inexplicable means of his present +predicament. + +His sense of security was shaken. + +He promised himself to stand guard over his belongings jealously that +day, and to make assurance doubly sure at night. + +In the meantime Raikes decided to confide his misfortune to no one. + +There was a meager possibility that the guilty one might be misled by +his silence; he had heard of such cases; he had known of the culprit +offering condolences to the silent victim on the assumption that the +latter had discussed his mishap with others. + +He would wait, and with Raikes to determine was to do. + +With his obnoxious individuality rendered several degrees more +unendurable by his catastrophe, if that was possible, Raikes, having +assumed that portion of his attire in which he had not slept, +double-locked the door of his room from the outside with a brace of keys +that, in all likelihood, had not their duplicates in existence, and +proceeded to the dining-room, whither he had been preceded by his +parchment of a sister. + +At once he began to rustle his exhausted sensibilities with an added +menace, awakened by a manifest desire on the part of the famished woman +to satisfy the cravings of an ungratified hunger with an extra help of +bread and butter. + +As he looked upon the attenuated creature, with a morose reflection of +his loss, the latter, with a rebellion which she could not control, +selected with trembling fortitude a thick slice of bread, which she +buttered liberally and began to devour with pathetic haste, despite the +rebuking gleam of the rat eyes opposite, an episode which, added to his +already perturbed mind, exasperated his brutal temper to the point of +snarling remonstrance, which was fortunately denied its utterance by the +opportune arrival of the Sepoy, who smiled blandly upon the chill +acknowledgment of the shriveled Raikes. + +The Sepoy, at the conclusion of a hearty repast, which the spinster +witnessed with famished envy and Raikes considered with ascetic +disapproval, looked, with a scarcely concealed disdain, into the +furtive, troubled eyes of the miser and said: "I will see you to-night?" + +"Yes," replied Raikes promptly. "I will be there." + +"Very well; I will not return until the time appointed," said the Sepoy. +"I expect to show you a rarity." + +"Another brilliant aggravation?" asked Raikes. + +"Ah!" laughed the Sepoy, "is that your estimation of the sapphire?" + +"Yes," returned Raikes with acid frankness. "To be permitted to +appropriate the gleam and the radiance; to comprehend the cunning of the +facets; to appraise its magnificent bulk intelligently, and witness the +careless possession by another of all these beatitudes, I think that +constitutes an aggravation." + +"It has been known to degenerate into a temptation," continued the +Sepoy, reflecting the cynical humor of the other. + +"Aye!" admitted Raikes, "and has concluded in surrender." + +With this the strangely assorted trio left the table directly, the Sepoy +to his problematical business, the spinster to escape the reprimand +foreshadowed in the eyes of her brother, and Raikes to keep his +treasures under malicious surveillance. + +All that day his diseased mind tortured itself with impossible theories +and absurd speculations, until his attempts to explain the curious +substitution degenerated into a perfect chaos of despair and +bewilderment. + +With an impatience he could not explain, Raikes at last presented +himself at the apartment of the Sepoy as the hour of ten was striking. + +He was greeted by the curious individual within with a demeanor which +somehow offended Raikes with the impression that his prompt eagerness +was the subject of amused calculation. + +His irritation, however, was not permitted to develop, for no sooner had +he seated himself in the chair indicated by his host than the latter +placed upon the table, within easy reach of his harassed visitor, a +small box of leather and directed him to press the spring. + +Anticipating something of the nature of the contents of the case from +the material of which it was made, Raikes, forgetting for the moment the +futility of the day's researches, pressed his bony thumb upon the +spring, and at once the lid flew back like a protest, disclosing the +most superb diamond it had ever been his misfortune to see and not +possess. + +"Ah!" he cried in an ecstasy of tantalized contemplation, "the glass, +the glass! Anything so precious must have had commensurate treatment. +What color, what clarity, what bulk!" and as the unhappy creature +yielded to that species of intoxication which even the grace of God +seems unable to ameliorate, the Sepoy, with the easy poise and balance +of intonation and phrase which had served as such facile vehicles for +the previous instalments, began: + +"When the bewildered prince realized the meaning of the worthless heap +in the recess, and calculated, with familiar appraisement, the immense +loss represented by the senseless substitution, he stood for a moment +destitute of all dignity and as impotent as the meanest of his +household. + +"His thin, fine lips, which usually held such firm partnership and +divided his words with such cynical scission, relaxed separately into +the inane lines of superstitious fear, and the luster of his restless +eyes seemed to have degenerated into that surrounding dullness of sickly +white which would have provided the impressionable Lal Lu with an easy +fortitude to deny the approaches of this semi-potentate. + +"The next instant, like the doubled blade of Toledo steel, the prince +recoiled to his lithe stature, and the customary brightness of his eyes +returned shadowed with a degree of crafty reflection. + +"One by one, lest a stray gem might be collected with the worthless +debris, like the crew of Ulysses clinging to the sheep of the Cyclops, +Prince Otondo removed the pebbles which intruded their sordid presence +in this scintillant treasure-trove like a motley of base subjects in an +assemblage of the nobility. + +"When the last of these worthless objects had been cleared from the +recess, the prince closed the panel, and seating himself before the +rayless heap, surrendered himself to moody reflection, like a disabled +enthusiast confronted by his disillusions. + +"How did these pebbles reach this hiding place? + +"In asking himself the question, the prince had absolute assurance that +it was impossible for any one to enter his sleeping-apartment without +his knowledge. + +"The puzzled man also recollected, with a shudder, which he alone could +explain, that he had taken radical means of making it impossible for the +artisan who had contrived the hidden treasury to reveal its existence. + +"He was positive, too, when he had retired the night before, that his +jewels were undisturbed. + +"Why just this exchange of a handful? + +"For what reason had not double the quantity been removed? Nay, why not +all, since it was possible to abstract a portion? + +"At this question the eerie iteration of the merchant returned to his +mind: + +"'Pebbles for diamonds!' + +"At once the distasteful alternative upon which it was based recurred to +him. + +"A quick radiation illumined his mind, and subsided to darkness as +promptly. + +"Ram Lal! + +"It was he who had indicated the substitution. But the merchant could no +more enter the room in which the prince was seated at this moment than +the most abject menial in the palace. + +"Still, the merchant had been able to predict the disaster. + +"Some sort of association existed, but what it was, considered with the +impracticability of unobserved entrance and exit, was beyond his +comprehension. + +"The incredible condition existed. + +"In the light of its outrageous improbability, and the insuperable +obstacles in the way of its accomplishment, the prince found himself +compelled to dismiss every hypothesis. + +"Still, he could subject Ram Lal to an investigation that would, at +least, extort a confession as to his ability to allude to the episode in +advance. + +"In the meantime, with true Oriental craft, the prince determined to say +nothing of his loss, and present an impassive demeanor to those by whom +he was surrounded. + +"With this purpose the prince proceeded to the apartment beyond, and was +about to strike the gong to summon the servant charged with the +preparation of his morning repast, when his attention was attracted to a +slip of folded paper fluttering from the edge of the table-top and held +in place by a diminutive bronze Buddha. + +"With the weird certainty that this beckoning paper was another +unaccountable feature of the savage perplexity he was compelled to +endure, the prince, approaching, grasped the folded sheet with eager, +trembling hands and exposed its inner surface to his vivid glance. + +"'Ah!' With a burning sensation about his eyes, a fever of harassed +impatience in his brain, and a sense of suffocation and impotent rage, +he read: + + * * * * * + +"'MOST ILLUSTRIOUS! + +"'Unless Lal Lu is returned to her father by nightfall, another handful +of precious stones will be replaced by as many pebbles. + +"'And this to warn thee: + +"'The native troops at Meerut are in revolt. + +"'They have shot the regimental officers, and have put to death every +European they could find. + +"'They are now on their way to Delhi to proclaim Dahbur Dhu, thy +grandfather, sovereign of Hindustan. + +"'The Moghul is old. + +"'Thou art next in succession.' + + * * * * * + +"There was no signature. + +"None was needed; the prince had preserved several specimens of that +chirography at the bottom of various interesting bills of sale. + +"As this bizarre scion of an incredibly ancient regime read this +extraordinary missive, with its exasperating reference to the +restitution of Lal Lu, and considered the prompt realization of the +threatened reprisal which had followed his first failure to comply with +the request of Ram Lal, a sense of fear and futility possessed him. + +"With curious apathy, an unaccountable suggestion of impersonality, +almost, he did not pause to consider the absence of the intolerant +passion which his loss should have occasioned, or to wonder at his +bewildered reception of this implication of further dispossession. + +"The prince appeared to be moving as in a spell; but as he concluded the +remainder of the missive and remembered, at its inspiration, that he +was, indeed, the grandson of the Moghul and the heir-apparent of this +pageant throne of Delhi, a sensible degree of his customary cynical +assurance returned. + +"Hastening to the ante-room, the prince, with alert reanimation, +questioned the stalwart official who stood without. + +"He indicated to his master that the missive had been left upon the +outer sill of the threshold leading from the ante-room to the corridor +which opened upon the courtyard. + +"Beyond this nothing could be learned; but other and more absorbing +information was conveyed to the prince. + +"He learned that several bodies of Sepoys had already passed the palace, +on the highway, in the direction of Delhi. + +"Startled at this rapid confirmation of the statement conveyed in the +strange communication which he had just read, the prince rapidly +reviewed the singular cause of the mutiny. + +"Great Britain had just supplied the native soldiery with the Enfield +rifle. + +"This weapon was rendered formidable by a new cartridge, which, in order +that it might not bind in the barrel bore, was greased in England with +the fat of beef or pork. + +"With incredible indifference to the prejudices of the Sepoys, the +military authorities at Calcutta ordered the low-caste Lascars to +prepare the cartridges in a similar manner. + +"To this direct invitation disaster was not slow to respond. + +"The fat of pigs was sufficient to make a degenerate of a Mohammedan; +and to devour the flesh of cows converted a Hindoo into a Mussulman. + +"In this manner had Tippu Sultan enforced the faith of Islam on hordes +of Brahmins, and with the abomination of pork had the Afghans prevailed +upon the Hindoo Sepoys, captured in the Kabul war, to become +Mohammedans. + +"Exasperated by the unconcealed contempt of the Brahmins, the Lascars, +with an easily understood rancor, managed to convey the startling +information to their detested superiors that the cartridges they bit in +loading the new rifles were greased with the fat of cows, and that they +were, in consequence, defiled, and their boasted caste supremacy was +destroyed. + +"This revelation, so momentous to the Hindoo, found its way first to +Barrackpore by reason of its nearness to Calcutta. + +"At once an indescribable panic ensued, and in a marvelously short time +every native regiment in Bengal was confronted with the possibility of +lost caste, and terrified at the consequent belief that the British +Government was making an attempt to Anglicize them with beef as they +had already attempted to do with beer. + +"The account of the greased cartridges, embellished as it speeded, +traveled, with the rapidity which usually expedites evil rumor, along +the Ganges and Jumna to Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi and Meerut, and +the British authorities were confronted with a revolt which was to cost +thousands of men and countless treasure. + +"As the prince reflected upon the fever of events, and calculated their +possible consequence to himself, the ambition--often napping, seldom in +slumber--which he secretly cherished, awoke to disturbing vividness. + +"His allowance was ample; his retinue, all things considered, +impressive; and the Kutub, although in a state of disrepair in certain +portions, was still unmistakably a royal residence. But he was +thoroughly weary of the massive pile, and increasingly exasperated at +the interdict of Delhi. + +"Certain salacious possibilities within its walls still made their +insidious appeals to him, and he had not forgotten the ceremonious +deference accorded him in the household of the Moghul. + +"At the Kutub he had to contrive his own dissipations and excesses. + +"There was no need to be clandestine. + +"The very frankness of his privileges discouraged his imagination. There +was no spice of jeopardy in them; no preludes of intrigue. + +"To relieve this surfeit, which is the worst of monotonies, eagerly +would the prince have joined the revolting troops, detachments of which +he could perceive from the walls of the Kutub hastening along the +sun-scorched highway to Delhi. + +"But his semi-majesty was cautious. + +"It was characteristic of him that his mature reflections should +frequently place his impulse under obligations; a condition that had +resulted in many a salutary compromise with some proposed moral abandon. + +"Should he show the slightest countenance to the native troops in the +present emergency, the record of such an attitude would constitute +anything but a passport to the continued consideration of the British +Government, upon whose sufferance he not only enjoyed his present +magnificent residence, but the acknowledgment of his right of succession +as well. + +"The prince was not yet inclined to believe that the Sepoys could make +headway against his detested patrons. + +"However, with his mind stimulated by the hazard of the prospect, this +picturesque heir-apparent, who had assured himself, since his perusal of +the unaccountably delivered missive, that Ram Lal had no intention of +making his appearance that day, at least, returned to the apartment +where his morning repast awaited him, which he dispatched with the +preoccupied impersonality of a savant who consults his timepiece in +order to determine the temperature. + +"Advised of the fact that he had finished by a disposition to ignore his +remaining privileges, the prince, as if to pursue the direction of the +unseeing gaze which he projected into space, rose slowly, and with that +moody deliberation which is so often the outward manifestation of an +ignoble as well as an elevated determination, proceeded to the silken +arras and disappeared from view between the folds. + +"Quickly he traversed the passageway leading to the apartments of Lal +Lu; and in response to a light touch upon the gong the same servile +apparition emerged and vanished, with cringing obedience, down the +passage. + +"With a gleam in his eyes, which might have caused a magistrate to +reflect or a moralist to anticipate, that was both sinister and +engaging, eager and speculative, the prince, with a gesture that was not +without its impatient majesty and lithe impressiveness, swept aside the +curtains which guarded the entrance to the small ante-room and stepped +within." + + * * * * * + +As the Sepoy reached this point of the narrative, arranged, perhaps, +with shrewd malice to tantalize his eager listener, an expression of +libidinous expectation and depraved absorption deepened upon the +countenance of the latter, who, like an animal deprived of its prey, +looked up suddenly as the narrator paused, with an exasperation which he +made little attempt to conceal. + +"Hell!" he muttered, "why do you pause? It is not late. This is an +irritating trick of yours to leave off at the crucial juncture." + +"Ha, ha!" laughed the Sepoy mirthlessly. "You have attended me, then? +Well, I can't admit you with the prince until to-morrow evening. I have +much to do ere I retire." + +"This is my dismissal, I presume," responded Raikes sourly as he +replaced the gem, from which he seemed unable to remove his thieving +eyes. + +"Here, take this damned thing; it has demoralized me," and placing the +shagreen case, with its priceless contents, in the hands of the +evilly-smiling Sepoy, he disappeared through the doorway. + +Arrived at the door which opened upon his room, Raikes was assured, by +the familiar response of the locks to the pressure of his extraordinary +keys, that his precautions of a few hours before had been undisturbed. + +Moreover, his sister, seated in her room in a chair so placed as to +command a view of the doorway opposite, and looking more effaced than +ever from the weary vigil which her heartless brother had imposed upon +her during his absence, advised him of the customary isolation and +depression which distinguished this barren household. + +Within, Raikes began to make himself secure for the night. + +He double-locked the door, placed the heavy bar in the iron shoulders, +over which he inserted a stout iron pin. + +A brief investigation convinced him that it was out of the question to +open the shutters from without. + +Satisfied upon these points, Raikes proceeded to the radiator, which for +a trembling space of apprehension he forbore to open. + +However, since it was certainty he wanted, the valves shortly swung +toward him, the inner door responded to the sesame of his touch, and the +recess containing the tenets of his religion was exposed to view. + +With trembling hands, which indicated the latent fear which unnerved +him, and eyes aching with anxiety, the wretched man examined bag after +bag of his precious coin with the solicitude one sees manifested by +parents whose children are rendered doubly dear by the taking away of +one of their number. + +"Ah!" With a sigh, the relief of which almost concluded in physical +collapse, Raikes was able to assure himself that his rapid inventory +revealed no further loss. + +Replacing his treasure with the indisposition he usually manifested to +leave the vicinity of his hoard, the miser closed the various +compartments with more than his accustomed certitude and began to +prepare to respond to the lassitude of sleep which, for some +unaccountable reason, was unusually insistent. + +With the easy partition of attire already noted, Raikes presently found +himself ready to tuck himself away for the night, which he did after +rolling his bedstead directly in front of the false radiator. + +This unusual measure of precaution consummated, Raikes, with the first +sense of security he had felt for the last twenty-four hours, presently +succumbed to a sleep remarkable for its quick approach and its +subsequent soundness. + +Until early dawn, with the relaxation which is commonly the reward of +innocence, Raikes slept away in unconscious travesty. + +And when at last he opened his eyes he was as alertly awake as he had +been profoundly asleep. + +With a promptness due to his retiring forebodings, his habitual unrest +and suspicion returned to him. + +He was as vitally alive to the disturbing conditions of the day before +as if they had been the subjects of an all-night meditation. + +But the confidence of his bolts and bars, the recollection of his +unusual measures of safety, reassured him somewhat. + +It was, therefore, with a degree of composure he approached the door and +satisfied himself that the bar and the locks had been undisturbed. + +With equal assurance he rolled the bedstead from the radiator and +pressed the button which operated the concealed spring, with a +deliberation in which no suggestion of uneasiness appeared. + +A quick revolution or so and the inner recess was revealed. + +To his rapid accounting the quantity of bags was the same, and their +relative positions, which he had so carefully arranged the night before, +were undisturbed--but this one, that within easiest reach! What was it +caused those sharp suggestions in its accustomed rotundity--those +angular points? + +In a quiver the man was transformed. + +With a cry such as must have been forced from the Jew of old, compelled +by the rough levies of his time to part at once with his teeth and his +treasure, Raikes grasped the bag, which came away in his clutch with the +agonizing lightness that had preceded his first loss. + +Quickly he unfastened the mouth of the fateful packet and inverted it +over the table. + +The next instant there rattled to view a soulless, sodden shower of +lack-luster, heart-breaking coals. + +(To be continued on Dickey No. 2, Series B.) + + * * * * * + +"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Dennis, "an' it's there ye are again," as the +familiar phrase at the bottom of bosom No. 1 met his glance. + +But it did not exasperate him on this occasion, for the young man, true +to his determination to be liberal with himself, had still bosoms No. 2 +and No. 3 at his disposal. + +As he was about to separate No. 2 from its duplicate, his eyes, glancing +aimlessly about for the moment, caught sight of a trim female figure +sitting not far away on a bench diagonally opposite. + +Hovering near her, a man, of a species Dennis had not seen before on the +street corners of New York, seemed determined to intrude upon her +attention. + +Convinced of his purpose, the lady, for such she unmistakably appeared, +rose from the seat as the fellow was about to raise his hat as a +preliminary to further overtures, and sought another bench directly +opposite the one from which Dennis had been a witness to her apparent +persecution. + +The intruder, however, refusing evidently to believe that the action of +the lady had a personal application, deliberately walked past this new +resting place and surveyed its occupant with insolent estimation. + +A short distance away his pace slackened; he was about to return. + +With genuine Irish impulse, Dennis, rising hurriedly, proceeded to the +bench occupied by the disturbed lady, and, with a bow that was not +deficient in grace and evident good intention, said: + +"Excuse me, but say the wurrd, madam, and I'll see that you are troubled +no more with that loafer." + +For an instant, with an expression of countenance that suggested a fear +that the flight from one intrusion was but the introduction to another, +the lady looked upon Dennis with an astonishment that was partly the +result of his picturesque contrasts of voice and visage. + +Then, with fine intuition realizing, in the ingenuous face of the young +Irishman, the unmistakable evidence of kindly impulse, she said, with a +modulation in which Dennis was able to detect the accent of good +breeding: + +"I thank you, sir; I am tired; that man annoys me; but I would rather +move on than be the cause of a disturbance." + +"If you will permit me," responded Dennis promptly, "I will sit beside +you long enough to indicate that you have met a friend; then I think +that he will move off." + +The lady looked at Dennis with an uncertain smile, in which there was +just enough restraint to urge the young man to add hastily: "An' when he +is gone for good, I will go too." + +"Oh, I was not thinking of that, I assure you!" the lady hastened to +say. "That would be rather ungrateful on my part. I accept your +suggestion. May I ask you to be seated?" and Dennis promptly complied. + +As he had predicted, the fellow, who had witnessed the conversation, was +compelled to accept its ostensible suggestion, and departed finally with +a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders and a Tammany tilt of his hat over +his eyebrows. + +In yielding to his gallant impulse, Dennis was unaware of the fact that +he held, with not exactly picturesque abandon, bosom No. 1 in his right +hand and the other two in his left, which gave him the appearance of +having disposed, in some violent way, of the remainder of several +shirts. + +Awakened by the puzzled amusement depicted in the curious gaze with +which the lady surveyed the various bosoms which he held, and encouraged +by the impromptu nature of the entire episode, Dennis, as he realized +the spectacle which he presented, indulged himself in a frank laugh, in +which his companion seemed inclined to join. + +The next moment he apologized, and, yielding to the obligation enforced +by the situation, explained his possession of the dickey bosoms and the +curious story which had gone before. + +As he proceeded with the candor of genuine enthusiasm, and related the +incredible narrative in his rich, Irish brogue, which affected his +hearer, as it did every one else, with such singular sentiments in +contrast with his remarkable countenance, all traces of punctilious +restraint and artificial reticence vanished, and with the mien of one +who proposes to extract all the entertainment possible from an +undreamed-of experience, the lady urged Dennis to continue. + +"I can't do that unless I read the balance from the dickey," said +Dennis. "Would you mind?" + +"I should like it very much," replied the lady with gratifying +readiness. + +"Well, then," said Dennis, "here goes," and with his musical voice, +which was one of his most inviting characteristics, the young man, on +the basis of all that had preceded the bosom from which he was about to +read, and which he had narrated to his auditor with refreshing _verve_ +and an ingenuousness whose vitalizing effect upon her sensibilities he +was far from suspecting, began. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Whoever has witnessed Kean's superb delineation of the ruthless Richard +in the scene where, in the illusion of his dying agony, swordless, he +continues to lunge and feint, may comprehend the frightful mental +overturn which prompted Raikes to sink inertly into a chair near the +table, and with foam-flecked lips fall to counting, one by one, the +miserable coals in the dull heap before him. + +A silly smile overspread his sharp features like an apologetic sunbeam +intruding upon a bleak landscape. + +A gleam of shrewd transaction shone in his eyes. + +The clutch of unwonted acquisition contracted his hands. + +Slowly he made partition of the large from the small coals; regretfully +he acknowledged the presence of the lesser bits as, with a chuckle of +greedy appreciation, he grouped the relative piles. + +"Ha, ha! ha, ha! ha, ha!" What a laugh! What a frightful mockery of +mirth! "Ha, ha! ha, ha!" and raising both hands above his head he +brought them down upon the table with the lax inertia of utter collapse, +and fell forward upon his extended arms, his face buried in the squalid +heap beneath. + +For a dreary hour he lay there without the twitch of a muscle, the well +of a sigh. + +Like a Cyclop's eye the button at the bottom of the concave in the wall +seemed to stare with wonder upon this unfamiliar Raikes, who could thus +permit the radiator to swing open so heedlessly, and the inner recess to +expose its golden glut. + +Suddenly there came a sharp rap upon the door, then a pause; but its +quick reverberations were unheeded by the prostrate man. + +Again the thuds were administered to the echoing panels, and still no +response. + +"Uncle, I say, uncle!" cried a man's voice. "Uncle!" and the shout was +followed by a vigorous kick upon the woodwork; "Uncle! Uncle!" + +At this last appeal Raikes stirred uneasily, and as the assault was +continued with still greater stress, he managed finally to stagger +uncertainly to his feet. + +As he raised his head to listen to the clamor without, the meanness of +his face, emphasized by the smudges of the coal in which it had so +recently reposed, presented itself to the scandalized eye in the wall. + +The miserable creature depicted the last degree of absurdity, and yet +the ugly pathos of it all would have moved to pity. + +"Uncle, I say!" and at the sound of the voice, which he recognized as +that of his lusty nephew, Raikes, with a return of his accustomed +intelligence, which had received its kindly repairs at the hands of +nature during his brief coma, cried sharply: "Well, well!" + +"Ah!" exclaimed the voice outside with an unmistakable accent of relief +in its tone as it added, with unlettered eagerness: "It's me--Bob!" + +However, if his reawakened animation had revived his deadened spirit, +it also restored the appreciation of his disaster, as, with a glance of +vivid comprehension, he looked from the coal heap to the register, +toward which he leaped with astonishing agility. + +In an instant the inner recess was secure; in another the radiator was +replaced, and Raikes, proceeding to the door, raised the bar, unlocked +the catches and exclaimed, "Enter!" + +As the breezy Bob crossed the threshold, the question of his eyes was +instantly transformed to an expression of utter astonishment as he +beheld the extraordinary blend of soil and pallor upon the countenance +of his uncle. + +"For the Lord's sake!" he cried, "what ails your face?" and strongly +tempted to laugh at the absurd spectacle, and as urgently impelled to +restrain himself by the glittering eyes of the raging Raikes, he added, +by way of apology for his noisy intrusion: + +"We knew that you were in here, but could not make you hear us. You are +almost two hours beyond your usual time." + +Directly in the rear of the young man stood the spinster, who gazed +with widened eyes and parted lips upon her brother's soiled visage. + +"Well," snarled Raikes, "I am all right, you see; now leave me until I +get myself in shape to make an appearance." + +As the door closed behind the pair, Raikes hurried to the mirror, and +above the crack which extended, like a spasm, diagonally across its +surface he beheld his bloodless cheeks and forehead, and below, the dry +slit of his mouth and his chin spattered with black and white. + +As he witnessed the sorry sight, the unhappy man, unable for the moment +to account for his plight, stood aghast, until his gaze, penetrating to +the rear of his smudged physiognomy, beheld the reflection of the coal +heaps upon the table. + +At once a savage grin distorted his features into the degree of ugliness +not already accomplished by its dusky resting place of the hour +previous. A grin that was scarcely human and almost diabolical, as if +the miserable creature had caught sight of the shriveled soul peering +through the chinks which imprisoned his rat eyes and found a malignant +enjoyment in the contemplation of its contemptible littleness. + +From this debasing inspection Raikes turned slowly to the washstand to +remove the grime from his face, with an impersonal deliberation that was +not only unnatural under the circumstances, but which awakened the eerie +suggestion that he was expending his effort upon another than himself. + +From this moment he became strangely calm; the sharp decision of his +lips was never so pronounced. + +A baleful, unwavering gleam distinguished his glance. He had evidently +arrived at some determination, one that levied upon the last limit of +his endurance. + +All that day the unhappy man sat in his room, sullen and pondering. + +The timid offers of nourishment made by his sister were either ignored +or refused with such an ill grace that she finally forbore further +overtures and left him to his morose reflections, to improve her +opportunities of enjoying, unrebuked, the privileges of the table, +until, by nightfall, an indigestion, which she welcomed on account of +its occasion, disturbed her with its unfamiliar pangs. + +In response to his nephew's concern as to his condition Raikes replied +by saying: "I may have something to tell you by eleven o'clock to-night; +will you be on hand?" + +"Sure!" answered Bob with breezy goodwill. + +From time to time Raikes glanced at the clock. + +His last scrutiny had revealed the hour of nine. Sixty interminable +minutes more remained ere he could see the Sepoy. + +Slowly the leaden hands crawled over the indifferent face. + +At last the half hour struck. + +A strange impatience possessed him. + +Perhaps the Sepoy might begin a little earlier than usual. He could, at +least, suggest such a courtesy by his precipitation; it was far better +than this unendurable wait. + +With this anticipation he decided to proceed to the apartment of this +singular narrator. + +After taking his usual precautions, which seemed more or less of a +mockery in view of the succession of disasters which had overtaken him, +and again establishing the spinster in a position where she could +maintain an unobstructed view of the entrance to his room, Raikes +proceeded hurriedly along the various passageways, which finally +concluded in his point of destination. + +He rapped gently upon the door, which he discovered to be slightly ajar. + +There was no response. + +His second attempt to attract attention was pronounced enough to urge +the door aside and enable him to make a comprehensive survey of the +interior. + +It was unoccupied; and of his last assault upon the panel the only +recognition was a sullen echo in the hallway. + +About to retire, his glance fell upon the table in the center of the +room. + +At once a sudden trembling seized him. + +A burning fever surged through his veins; an irresistible impulse +overwhelmed; for there, in inconceivable negligence, lay the shagreen +case which he had so reluctantly returned to its owner only the night +before. + +And then--the malign agreement of his outward husk with his inner +degradation was revealed. + +His eyes, already criminal, reflected the kaleidoscopic succession of +temptation and surrender; desire and thievery. + +He scanned the passageway without in either direction. + +No one was in sight. + +A silence of respectable retirement prevailed that enabled him to hear +his heartbeats almost, which surged along his veins to his ears and +stifled the final gasp of the still, small voice within. + +The next instant, with a lithe animal leap of astonishing quickness, +Raikes, darting into the apartment, grasped the precious case and +retreated as rapidly over the threshold. + +Scarcely had the stealthy rogue vanished from the room when the door of +a closet in the rear opened softly and revealed the Sepoy. + +Upon his face a smile, surely evil, otherwise inscrutable, appeared, as +he proceeded to the chair by the table, turned down the light in the +lamp a trifle, and abstracted from his waistcoat pocket a small red +case, the contents of which he examined with absorbed attention. + +Arrived at his room, Raikes was elated to discover that he was not due +at the Sepoy's apartment until twenty minutes later. + +"What a providence!" he murmured. + +He would arrive late; he would make his approach as ostensible as +possible; he would apologize for his tardiness. + +His alibi would be perfect. + +During these proposed depravities Raikes had closed and fastened the +door, seated himself at the table, and pressed the spring which detained +the lid of the shagreen case. + +In a dazzling instant it flew open. + +"Ah!" A very riot of irradiation and gleam met his eyes. + +Here was rehabilitation! Here was amendment! + +The diamond was a liberal equivalent for his losses. + +Another glance at the clock revealed to him that he had exhausted ten +minutes in his exultation. + +This left a balance of ten minutes for a compunction or two. + +Apparently he did not realize his opportunity, for half of the remaining +time was consumed in the intoxication of the facets and the glamor, the +thrill of intelligent valuation; and the other half to a grim +calculation as to the usury that might accrue after the account with his +losses was balanced. + +These perjured figures were scarcely arranged to his satisfaction when +the clock struck ten. + +The strokes seemed like as many separate accusations. + +"Bah! what are they to me?" he asked himself. He had been robbed; he had +found a way to restitution; a man's providence must measure to his +necessities. + +To arrive at these conclusions put him five minutes in arrears. Five +more for a leisurely arrival would be ten; enough to apologize for; +sufficient for his purposes. + +He consumed as much time as possible secreting the stone in the recess. +That accomplished, Raikes emerged from his room and proceeded down the +hallway. + +When he reached the apartment occupied by the Sepoy he breathed a sigh +of relief. + +The door was closed. + +In response to his rap upon the panel, a voice which he recognized as +that of the Sepoy cried: "Come in!" + +With a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, where, with him, the +only conscience he had was located, Raikes complied with these +instructions, and, closing the door softly, established himself, in his +customary expectant attitude, in the chair indicated by his host. + +"I have been told," began the latter abruptly, "that there is a flaw in +the sapphire." + +"What!" exclaimed Raikes with genuine concern. Two things he could +comprehend: a loss and the abuse of property. The announcement of the +Sepoy awakened the same misgiving which commonly affected his mind at a +suggestion of defective title. + +"Yes," continued the Sepoy; "it was pointed out to me. But I am not +convinced, or it may be that I refuse to be. A man often elects to be +blind when confronted with a suggestion of disaster. I want to be candid +with myself. I require your assistance. While I continue the narrative, +kindly see if you can discover any sign of blemish." + +Raikes, only too willing to engage himself upon anything which would +assist his attempt at outward poise, seized the glass offered him and +began a close inspection of the gem, as the Sepoy, with an indescribably +insinuating modulation, resumed: + + * * * * * + +"As the prince advanced, Lal Lu, advised of his approach by the hasty +exit of the waiting-woman and the soft alarm of the gong in the +passageway, stood ready to receive him. + +"A slight flush suffused her cheeks, a brighter luster beamed from her +eyes. + +"With a fervor which was evidently unembarrassed by any anticipation of +denial, the prince approached the trembling Lal Lu, who seemed to his +enamored glance unspeakably bewitching in the graceful attitude, of +which she was thoroughly unconscious, which she had naturally assumed, +and which gave unmistakable expression to the hope, trepidation and +regard awakened by his presence. + +"And yet his eagerness was not reflected. + +"There was little in the demeanor of the beautiful girl that was +responsive; no indication of the sweet surrender that doubly endears, +and which makes such irresistible appeals for protection and sensitive +understanding to a man worthy of the name; and what evidences of +confusion she betrayed were rather those which commonly prelude the +execution of unwelcome resolution; a suggestion of a lurking disposition +to readmit the Peri into Paradise, restrained by a knowledge of +conditions unfulfilled. + +"With the rapid interchange and subtle apprehension characteristic of a +passion which has no definite assurances as to its right to monopolize +the regard of the object of jealous consideration, the prince was +compelled to acknowledge, in these vague suggestions, an intangible but +no less real succession of barriers opposed to his ardent advances, and +with a scarcely concealed and certainly undiplomatic irritation he +paused before Lal Lu and demanded: + +"'What is it, Lal Lu? Thou art not glad to see me. I expected a +reception other than this.' + +"'My father?' demanded Lal Lu, ignoring the question and the yearning +intonation of his address, each word of which was like a caress; 'my +father, what of him?' + +"'Ah!' muttered the prince with deepening choler at the disturbing +conditions introduced by the name, and a gleam strangely suggestive of +menace. 'Why speak of him now? Is not the present enough?' + +"Lal Lu gazed upon the speaker with astonishment. How could he so easily +forget what he had said the day before? And with a scarcely perceptible +tightening of her beautiful lips, she said: + +"'Dost remember thy promise to give me news of him to-day?' + +"'I do,' replied the prince. 'I received word that he will not be here +to-day.' + +"'Who told thee so?' demanded Lal Lu. + +"'A writing so informed me.' + +"'Is it with thee?' + +"'No,' replied the prince. 'It is in my cabinet. Is not my word +sufficient?' + +"To this Lal Lu did not reply, but searched his countenance with a +scrutiny which he found it difficult to endure, as he cried with renewed +animation: + +"'Oh, Lal Lu, be not so cold! Hearken! The native regiments of Meerut +are in revolt and on their way to Delhi. + +"'It is their purpose to re-establish Dahbur Dhu, my grandfather, upon +the throne of the moghuls. + +"'As thou knowest, I am next in succession, and Dahbur Dhu is feeble and +decrepit. + +"'The British are not in sufficient force to withstand a combined +attack. + +"'See, then, Lal Lu, what this means for me; what it means for thee.' + +"'Oh!' repeated the girl with curious emphasis, 'what it means for thee, +I know; but what it means for me'--and she paused with disconcerting +deliberation as she added--'thou hast not said.' + +"'Everything, my own!' exclaimed the prince with generous +ardor--'everything! Thou hast but to command and thy will is done.' + +"'Everything?' re-echoed Lal Lu with a questioning stress which the +prince could not ignore--'everything?' + +"'I have said,' replied the prince. + +"'Am I then to be thy queen?' + +"For a moment, a vital moment, the prince hesitated, but brief as the +pause, scarcely the durance of an eye-flash, Lal Lu saw it, and gazed +upon the prince with a disconcerting directness as he added, with the +haste we note in the accused who attempt to distract suspicion by the +utterance of glib generalities: + +"'My queen! Thou art always that!' + +"'Hold, Prince Otondo!' exclaimed Lal Lu as the prince seemed about to +surrender to an impulse to clasp her in his arms--'hold! Thy answers +suit me not. Reply, then, to this: Thy wife--am I to be thy wedded +wife?' + +"An expression like that of a peevish child tantalized by obstacles +intruded to enhance its appreciation of favor withheld brightened his +eyes and sent sullen lines converging in his forehead. + +"His hands clenched and opened; a faint suggestion of disdain curled his +thin lips; the amiable inclination of his figure was transformed to an +erect intolerance--and Lal Lu was answered. + +"When the unfortunate girl could no longer doubt the unlovely evidence +provided by the prince, and apprehended the humiliating significance of +his hesitation, a majesty surer than his own, a presence superb in its +elevation, encompassed her, and she gazed upon the perturbed man with an +expression from which every trace of tenderness appeared to have +vanished. + +"With an angry sweep of his arm, as if to banish with a peremptory +gesture the kneeling envoys of compunction, manliness and nobility, the +prince stepped forward. + +"'What is that?' At this moment the gong in the passageway responded to +three measured strokes. + +"'Confusion!' muttered the prince. 'What does this mean?' and turning +abruptly, he hastened to the doorway, swept aside the curtains, and +revealed the trembling figure of the wrinkled crone who had quitted the +apartment at his entrance. + +"'What now?' cried the exasperated prince as he fixed his eyes, vivid +with rage at the unwelcome interruption, upon the miserable creature. + +"In reply the woman raised her shriveled hand, with a gesture that was +not without its weird impressiveness, and pointed to his apartments. + +"'Speak!' he demanded with a modification of his intensity, which he +perceived deprived the waiting-woman of the power of speech. + +"'A messenger,' she croaked, 'from the palace of the moghul; he must +speak with thee at once.' + +"With one long glance of such concentrated determination that it caused +the beautiful girl to tremble anew, the prince vanished through the +portal and hastened along the passageway. + +"Scarcely had he departed when the demeanor of the waiting-woman +underwent a startling transformation. + +"An incredible degree of energy quickened in the recoil of her bent form +to a disproportionate erectness of stature. + +"Beneath level, unwavering lids, her eyes emitted gleams which had +pierced the retreating figure with deadly viciousness had they been +poniards. + +"The servile vanished, the abject; and she stood, the silent embodiment +of evil, restrained purpose. + +"The next instant, with an angry gesture that was vaguely significant of +future requital and present impotence, the vindictive creature swept +aside the curtains and re-entered the room leading to the apartment +occupied by Lal Lu. + +"As she approached the disturbed beauty, the tension in her mien +relaxed, and she regarded the _distrait_ countenance before her with a +glance that was anything but unfriendly, in so far as it was possible to +determine the nature of the sentiment in hiding behind that austere +visage. + +"Directly she stood by the table which Lal Lu had interposed as a sort +of barricade against advances of her impetuous lover, and with an +attempt at a smile, which could as readily find acceptance as a +repentant scowl, this singular being inserted her hand in the folds of +the tunic which defended her parchment bosom, and produced from that +barren demesne a folded missive, which she placed in the hands of the +astonished Lal Lu. + +"With trembling haste she exposed the inner surface of the paper, and +with a glad heart and filial trust read: + +"'Be not afraid; relief is at hand.' + +"There was no signature; none was needed. + +"In a moment Lal Lu recognized her father's familiar chirography, and as +she reflected upon his well-known sagacity and resourceful boldness, her +hope and courage renewed their belated assurances. + +"'Who gave you this?' she asked. + +"The waiting-woman, after a brief hesitation, in which inclination and +restraint left their disturbing traces, replied: + +"'That I must not reveal.' + +"'At least,' insisted Lal Lu, whose quick glance had detected the +irresolution of the instant preceding, 'at least, tell me this: Was it +my father?' + +"'No,' replied the other promptly. With a barely perceptible grin of +amusement at this ingenuous betrayal of the author of the few words +which had awakened such animation, she added: + +"'One sent by him, it may be.' + +"'True,' assented the girl. + +"'And now,' exclaimed the woman with a return of her vindictive aspect, +which the harassed beauty, unaware of its inspiration, witnessed with +vague misgiving and a futile attempt to associate herself with its ugly +manifestation; 'and now, I would ask a question of you.' + +"'Yes?' responded Lal Lu, perplexed at the baleful emphasis which +preceded this announcement. + +"'Well, then,' continued the woman with startling and uncompromising +abruptness, 'am I wrong in thinking that you would defend your honor +with your life?' + +"Before the astonished Lal Lu could reply, or encouraged, it may be, by +some subtle confirmation in the look which shot from the distended eyes +of the young girl, the eccentric speaker, again inserting her hands in +the folds of her tunic, withdrew a short, slender poniard, at sight of +which Lal Lu recoiled. + +"'Ha, ha!' laughed the withered creature mirthlessly as she gazed with +unsmiling eyes upon the shrinking beauty. 'Be not afraid; this weapon is +intended for you, but not to your hurt.' + +"'What, then?' asked Lal Lu breathlessly, unable to adjust the peaceful +assurance of the grim-visaged woman with the menace of the glittering +blade. + +"'Listen!' exclaimed the woman impressively: 'I know Prince Otondo of +old; he meditates no good for you. Were I in your place, I would receive +his detested advances upon the point of this blade. Your protestations +he will not heed, but this'--and the speaker advanced the dagger with a +savage gesture which caused a shudder to pervade the trembling frame of +Lal Lu--'this is an argument he can understand.' + +"'Oh,' cried the terrified girl, 'I could not!' + +"'You could not?' repeated the other with chilling emphasis. 'Ha, ha! +you could not! But you will submit to the advances of this monster! + +"'Believe me, you are not the sole object of his regard. + +"'There have been others caged within these walls who have been less +obdurate than you, or whose resistance has availed them nothing.' + +"'Alas!' exclaimed Lal Lu with an inexpressibly melancholy accent, as she +considered the empty pedestal from which her ideal had fallen, and +recalled with a shudder the caress which she had permitted and bestowed +in that fervid interview with the prince. 'Can this be true?' + +"'Aye!' exclaimed the woman with savage affirmation. 'Do not doubt it. +Sooner than submit to the embraces of that wretch I would turn that +weapon against myself.' + +"'Oh!' exclaimed Lal Lu with a superb gesture and the light of +unmistakable resolution in her eyes, 'that I can do; but the other----' +And the poor girl trembled at the spectacle pictured in her mind. + +"'Well,' exclaimed the woman, 'I will leave this dagger here; do as you +will; I have done for you what I could,' and she turned to depart, +unmindful, apparently, of Lal Lu's tremulous 'And I am grateful to you.' + + * * * * * + +"When the prince arrived at the apartment in which he accorded his +audiences, if the attention he bestowed upon the meager assemblages +which presented themselves occasionally can be dignified by that +description, he found awaiting him a Hindoo, whom he recognized at once, +and whose presence invariably preceded the recital of important +information. + +"To the degree that Prince Otondo had reason to suspect that his +grandfather had certain of his servants subsidized at the Kutub, he +measured secretly by similar secret embassies at the Delhi palace. + +"The egotistical old moghul, with a vanity which even his anomalous +situation with the British had not impaired, wished to assure himself +that he would be worthily succeeded, and the prince was equally +solicitous concerning the advancing senility of the moghul. + +"In such bloodless intrigues this picturesque pair kept their servants +engaged, until this germ of mutual distrust infected every dependent in +the two households with that singular propensity to conspire which the +studious historian of this mysterious country cannot have failed to +record. + +"On this basis certain shrewd spirits among the British intruders at +this period were able to discover more of the character of the people +under their unwelcome rule, in a single establishment of native +servants, than in the general observations of a hundred English +households. + +"Awaiting, therefore, the conclusion of the ceremonies of approach, upon +which he always insisted and which were shortly to be rendered so +absurd, the prince at last, calling the Hindoo by name, demanded the +occasion of his presence. + +"'It is an ill service, O prince,' replied the Hindoo, 'which I am about +to render you.' + +"'What, then?' exclaimed the prince. 'To the point, to the point!' + +"'Your grandfather----' + +"'Is dead?' inquired the prince with badly disguised eagerness. + +"'Nay; worse.' + +"'Proceed!' demanded the prince. 'What can be worse?' + +"'Your grandfather,' replied the messenger, in evident haste to conclude +a disagreeable task, 'has taken to himself a young wife.' + +"'Ah!' cried the prince, startled into a degrading abandonment of his +customary elevation of demeanor. 'The dotard, the imbecile! Married? To +whom?' + +"'A daughter of the house of Nadis Shah, Rani Rue.' + +"'I know her!' cried the prince savagely. 'Implacable, ambitious, +unscrupulous. What will she not attempt with that old driveller?' Then, +evidently impressed by something shadowed in the expression of his +ill-omened Mercury, he exclaimed: 'You have more to tell me?' + +"The Hindoo bowed his head in perturbed affirmation. + +"'Quickly, then!' demanded his august listener. + +"'The British forces have concentrated at the cantonment without the +walls of Delhi; a detachment is even now on the way to your palace, +which they propose to seize and garrison.' + +"'Ah!' murmured the prince, 'the freshet is turning to a deluge. Is +there more?' + +"'Yes, O prince,' returned the Hindoo; 'the British intend to hold you as +a hostage for the safety of the English resident, who is a prisoner at +the palace in Delhi.' + +"'So!' exclaimed this royal reprobate as he reflected upon the +picturesque possibilities to himself, in view of the sanguinary +temptation which the helpless resident would present to the ambitious +Queen Rani Rue. 'How far in advance of the detachment are you?' + +"'About one hour's march.' + +"'This is short reckoning. You have hastened with leaden feet.' + +"'Nay, your highness,' cried the Hindoo, 'I came the instant I heard. +There is still time to escape, and the way is known to you alone.' + +"'So be it,' returned the prince as an expression of savage +determination compressed his thin lips and ignited baleful fires in his +restless eyes. 'Await me without; I will join you presently.' + +"As the Hindoo turned to obey, the prince darted, with lithe haste, into +the inner room and pressed the spring in the wall. + +"Slowly the panel rolled aside and revealed the glittering pyramid of +gems within. + +"From the depths, just in the rear of the priceless heap, he withdrew a +sort of jacket, separated upon its upper edge into a series of openings +similar to the partitions of a cartridge-belt. + +"Into these, with a sort of clumsy trepidation, he began to pack the +almost elusive portions of the gleaming mass of brilliants from the +recess. + +"At the conclusion of fifteen vital minutes the prince had deposited the +last of the gems in the receptacles of this curious jacket, and, if the +reports of the Hindoo were to be credited, the advancing British were +that much nearer the Kutub. + +"With desperate rapidity he disengaged the folds of the delicate cambric +which covered the upper portion of his body, inserting the precious +jacket beneath, and after adjusting it to his figure, strapped it +securely in place and rearranged his attire into non-committal contours. + +"'And now,' he cried with an expression of savage determination, 'and +now for the rarest gem of all!' and darting through the silken hangings +which concealed his extreme of the passageway leading to the apartments +of Lal Lu, he hastened along that dingy bypath and presently reached the +threshold from which he had issued but a short time before with such +little credit to himself. + +"Without pausing to announce himself or consider the impropriety of his +abrupt intrusion and its possible influence upon Lal Lu, the impetuous +heir-apparent swept aside the curtains and rushed into the room. + +"Startled at the rattling rings which held the hangings in place, and +the impetuous swish of its folds, Lal Lu sprang to her feet and gazed +with indignant rebuke upon the inconsiderate prince. + +"Heedless of the unconcealed disdain of her glance and ignoring the +presence of the furtive-eyed waiting-woman, he cried: + +"'Lal Lu, the time for further parley is past. The Kutub is shortly to +be attacked by the British. We must fly--come!' and the speaker advanced +with unreflective haste to the side of the palpitating girl. + +"In an instant, however, his headlong progress was checked as Lal Lu, +with a superb gesture, raised the gleaming dagger above her head and +cried, encouraged by the lowering eyes of the evilly-expectant +waiting-woman: 'With thee--never! I will die first!' + +"As the prince recoiled a step at sight of the flashing blade, Lal Lu, +with contemptuous emphasis, exclaimed: 'Be not afraid, Prince Otondo, +this is not for thee. Advance but a step and it will be but an empty +casket that awaits thee!' + +"Never had Lal Lu appeared so desirable in the eyes of this royal rogue, +and never had he been more resolute to possess her. + +"With misleading quiet, therefore, he gazed upon the upraised hand which +menaced the one unattained object of his desire. Quickly he measured +the distance between them. Slowly he removed one foot behind the other. +Lightly he pressed the slipper's point upon the tessellated floor, and +then with a leap of incredible quickness, he darted forward, caught the +descending arm of Lal Lu in his grasp, and, with his disengaged hand, +wrenched the dagger from her and threw it away from him into the center +of the apartment. + +"But as rapidly as he had moved, the prince had not been able to prevent +the incision which the dagger's point made in his wrist and from which a +thin stream of blood issued. + +"'Ah, ha, my beauty!' he cried as he released the struggling girl and +retreated a step, the better to enjoy her discomfiture; 'ah, ha! I like +thy spirit. I would not have thee mar the lovely casket which contains +it. Here!' he called to the waiting-woman, who had witnessed the episode +and into whose quick eyes, which had detected the slight wound upon the +wrist of the prince, there crept a strange, inexplicable expression of +leering triumph, 'here, guard this maiden for a space. Your life shall +pay the penalty if aught befalls her in my absence. + +"'I shall return presently with the help I need to overcome such +elevated objection'; and turning abruptly, the prince hastened toward +the doorway, pausing a second to regain possession of the dagger which +he had cast from him during the brief struggle. + +"'Alas!' cried the unhappy girl, 'what shall I do? He has gone to get +some of his creatures to help him in his evil purposes.' + +"For a moment a tense silence prevailed. + +"The next instant, with eerie, jubilant interruption, the waiting-woman +made the very air shudder with a laugh of such shrill exultation and +riotous abandon that Lal Lu, for a moment forgetful of her own +extremity, gazed with unconcealed amazement and alarm upon the almost +hysterical creature. + +"'Ha, ha!' she raved; 'be not afraid, Lal Lu. This royal pest, this +insolent prince, will trouble you no more; you will never see him +again.' + +"'Ha!' exclaimed Lal Lu. 'You seem strangely positive. What do you +mean?' + +"'Did you see that scratch which the point of your dagger made upon the +wrist of the prince?' + +"'No,' replied Lal Lu, shrinking from the picture presented to her mind. + +"'Well,' returned the grim-visaged woman with a return to her customary +austerity, 'I did. The wound was slight; only a few easily subdued drops +of blood followed; but, believe me, maiden, it will be sufficient.' + +"'What do you mean?' demanded Lal Lu. + +"'This,' returned the weird creature with repulsive, evil joy, which she +made no attempt to disguise: 'The point of that dagger was steeped in +the most deadly poison known in India. In twenty minutes, ha, ha! it is +the prince who will be the empty casket.'" + + * * * * * + +As the Sepoy reached this point in his narrative he paused with +startling abruptness. + +Raikes, no longer under the influence of the seductive cadences, looked +up sharply. + +"Well?" inquired the Sepoy as he met the inquiring glance of his furtive +auditor, "what of the flaw in the sapphire? Can you trace the blemish?" + +"Devil seize me!" exclaimed Raikes, as he offered, by this apostrophe, +an invitation which was certain, at no distant date, to be accepted. + +"Devil seize me if I have thought of the sapphire!" and he began at once +an apologetic inspection of the brilliant with the magnifying glass. + +"Ha, ha!" laughed the Sepoy. "I must congratulate myself upon my powers +of narration." + +"Aye!" replied Raikes, as he continued his examination of the flaming +bauble, "and also upon your irritating habit of concluding at the +anxious moment. But see here," and he held the sapphire up to view; "I +can see nothing wrong; possibly the light is bad. The searching glare of +day is required to discover a blemish such as you speak of." + +"Suppose you return to-morrow, then, directly after breakfast?" +suggested the Sepoy. + +"I want your judgment. I dare not trust my own; my blindness may be +voluntary." + +"Very well, then," assented Raikes, who, now that he had nothing upon +which to fasten his eyes, felt an easily comprehended uneasiness to +leave the Sepoy. "I will be here at that time"; and with his customary +emotionless adieux the guilty creature slipped through the doorway and +speeded like a shriveled shadow along the various passages. + +As he was about to enter his room he was hailed by his nephew. + +"Uncle, you wanted to see me." + +"True," replied Raikes, with a start of recollection, "I do; but suppose +we postpone the interview until to-morrow." + +"Very well," replied the young man easily, and Raikes, entering his +room, fastened the door with his usual elaborate precaution. + +His first movement was to disclose the interior of the recess containing +his coin and his conscience. + +A rapid examination convinced him that no further depredations had been +committed upon the former, and the latter he secreted in the pocket of +his waistcoat along with the diamond, which flashed its unregarded +rebuke into his eager eyes. + +At this juncture the singular drowsiness which had overtaken him so +persistently in the past few days began to steep his dulling senses. + +Warned by its approach, Raikes began to put into execution a newly +conceived plan of retiring for the night and effective vigil over his +treasure-trove. + +Hastily drawing a chair before the radiator, and placing directly in +front of that the table, from which with a savage sweep of the arm he +swept the dull heap of coals rattling to the floor, Raikes established +himself in the seat so provided and, leaning forward, awaited the final +blandishments of the drowsiness which was not long in lulling him into +that profound degree of slumber which is commonly supposed to be the +reward of sound morals and Christian resignation. + +(To be continued on Dickey No. 3, Series B.) + + * * * * * + +During the reading of this impossible helter-skelter of unrestrained +imagination and composite style, the expression in the countenance of +the listening woman had developed from its original sadness to an +unmistakable geniality. + +The pensive droop of her lips, little by little, nestled away into a +smiling seriousness, and when Dennis, confronted with the habitual +conclusion in italics, looked up with a grimace of recognition, his +glance was met by a pair of kindly blue eyes, in which he believed he +traced a charming suggestion of unaffected good fellowship. + +Altogether unsuspected by himself, Dennis, with his intent, intelligent +countenance, and the contrasting vivacity of his rich, Irish accent, had +awakened an interest in the mind of his companion which months of adroit +approach could not have achieved. + +His genuineness was unquestionable. + +His entire absorption in the story, his delightful and unconscious +elimination of self, supplied this tired woman with elements of mental +refreshment and genuine enjoyment which circumstances had compelled her +to decide no longer existed. + +Encouraged, therefore, by this unmistakable interest and the amiable +attitude of attention which Dennis, with characteristic ingenuousness, +accepted as a tribute to the narrative, he exclaimed: + +"An' isn't it great, now? Did you ever hear such a tale as that?" + +"I never did," was the smiling reply. + +"An' wasn't that Raikes a div--a tight one, I mean?" + +"He was, indeed," assented the lady, as she reviewed this sordid +character and the incidents surrounding him, and contrasted the tumult +of phrase and situation with her genial Addison and her placid Irving. + +"An' would you like to hear the rest?" asked Dennis, as he produced the +remaining bosom of Series B. + +"Yes," replied the lady, "I believe I would. But just a moment before +you begin," and regarding this oblivious young man with an expression in +which a degree of speculation still lingered to tantalize its suggestion +of frank indorsement, she hazarded: + +"You have not lived in New York long?" + +Wondering at the acuteness of this observation, Dennis responded by +according to her the exact time of his brief residence. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the lady, "I thought so." + +"May I ask," inquired Dennis, wondering if, like the visitor from the +bucolic district, he supplied unconscious data in his appearance for +classification, "may I ask how you are able to tell that I'm here for a +short time only?" + +"Well," returned his companion with a degree of hesitation exquisitely +refined as it shadowed through her fine countenance, and which she +presently conquered as she replied to his question with that shade of +frankness which, in the well-bred, can never be mistaken for anything +else: "It requires about a year's residence in this bedlam to replace +the genuine with the artificial; I see no evidence of such an unhappy +transformation in you." + +"Oh, I see," responded Dennis. "An' you never will, either." + +"I am almost prepared to believe that," answered the lady with a +reassuring cordiality which somehow indicated to this young man that she +had already become convinced of more than she was willing to +acknowledge. + +"You may do so entirely," said Dennis simply. + +"Now, one question more," continued his companion, "and do not consider +me inquisitive, since I may have something to suggest to your advantage +if your reply is satisfactory. What is your business?" + +Dennis blushed. + +"My business?" he repeated with a droll accent and an amusing grimace; +and then, encouraged by the friendly invitation and subtle encouragement +in the manner of his sweet-faced listener, with a straightforward +recital which the lady had expected from him, and which advanced him +several leagues in her estimation, Dennis recounted his experiences from +the time of his arrival up to the present moment. + +"It isn't much," he concluded apologetically, "not anywhere as +interesting as the dickey back; but it's all there is, an' it's true, +every word." + +"It is more than you suspect," dissented his hearer. "You have enabled +me to come to a decision, at least, and may help me to solve a vexed +problem. In the meantime, let us finish the story. While you are reading +my mind will clear; I will make my suggestion when you conclude." + +Wondering, and yet with a prompt confidence which conveyed an agreeable +flattery which the cleverest diplomacy could not have achieved, Dennis, +holding his absurd medium at a level which permitted him to receive the +stimulation of a sympathetic glance now and then, began. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Considering the unaccustomed position in which Raikes had placed himself +in arranging to retire the night before, he awoke with considerable +astonishment to the realization that he had passed a night of +undisturbed slumber. + +Aside from a slight disposition to stretch his lean limbs unduly, and a +feeling of insecurity attending his first efforts to stand, he was not +aware of any inconvenience from his singular siesta. + +At last, after having re-established his creaking equilibrium and +resumed his accustomed furtive regard of things, he was suddenly +reminded by the shifted position of the furniture of the purpose of this +makeshift barricade. + +At once the shuddering dread which had attended his recent visits to the +secret recess returned with numbing chills and sinking spirit. + +He advanced his bony hand, gnarled and mean with useless abstemiousness +and miserable abnegations, and revolved the button in the concave. In +response, the false register swung back; in another tense moment the +inner space was revealed, and his treasury laid bare. + +For an instant, in the manner of an apprehensive child who postpones as +long as possible some unwelcome confirmation, Raikes closed his eyes, +and when he opened them again they rested, with unerring precision, upon +a bag somewhat detached from the others, which protruded at its sides +with those frightful points and angles with which he had become so +unhappily familiar of late. + +With a smothered cry he sprang forward, gripped the bag in a trembling, +faltering clutch, and dropped it with a groan to the floor, where it +fell with a heart-breaking, distracting lightness, which, nevertheless, +smote like a mighty weight upon his bursting heart. + +"My God!" he cried, "this is incredible!" and the miserable creature +stood for a moment with an appalling vacancy shadowing in his +countenance, which was illumed for one fitful moment with a ray of hope +as he inserted his hand in his waistcoat pocket to assure himself that +the diamond which he had placed in that receptacle the night before at +least was safe. + +The diamond--ah, yes! + +There was still some consolation in that. + +Its value still maintained a close proportion to his loss. If there was +no gain there was, at least, a sort of evil restitution. + +But his exploring fingers found only an empty pocket. + +In a palsy of fear, and with the demeanor of one who feels the first +twinge of a mortal affliction and awaits in fearful silence the grewsome +confirmation of another, he stood without sound or motion, his set, +staring eyes directed with unseeing intensity upon the vacant air. + +The next instant, with feverish animation and impotent apprehension, +five writhing fingers leaped from their futile search, like scotched +reptiles, into the opposite pocket and withdrew the two useless keys +with which he fastened his abortive latch on the door. + +And then, with a frightful glitter in his eyes, an ugly ooze about his +bloodless lips, a flickering effort of his shriveled fingers to adjust +themselves to some ribald rhythm, Raikes began to sing, with the dry +rasp and ancient husk of a galvanized sphinx: + + "And her name it was Dinah, + Scarce sixteen years old; + She'd a very large fortune + In greenbacks and gold. + Sing turi-li-luri---- + +Ha, ha! ha, ha!" and supporting himself along the wall he made his way +slowly to the threshold, unfastened the locks, removed the heavy bar, +opened the door, and cried out in a voice that was not human, that +shuddered its way along the chill passage through the shrinking air: + +"Robert--Robert!" and then, reeling, stumbling toward a near-by chair, +he fell ere he could reach it, in utter collapse to the floor, and lay +there--shriveled, grotesque, in no way pathetic, in all points +contemptible, as his nephew, in response to his uncle's unearthly +summons, rushed into the room, followed by the wide-eyed spinster. + +For three days during the week that followed Raikes lay oblivious to the +considerations of loss or gain. + +The utmost of the young medical attendant, who had been selected on the +basis of the small charges incident to a beginning practice, had failed +to restore the emaciated man to his suspended consciousness, until, +toward the morning of the fourth day, the spinster, who sat near-by in +weary vigil, was startled to behold the dull eyes of her brother +fastened upon her with the faraway, questioning look of one returning +from the confines of the nether to the sharp realities of existence. + +"Rodman?" she inquired with anxious interrogation. + +In response the thin lips of the sufferer moved slowly. + +Approaching the bed, his sister, leaning over the unfortunate Raikes, +heard him articulate with difficulty "Water!" + +Supporting his head with one hand, the spinster supplied his +feebly-sighed request, and when the last difficult swallow conveyed the +refreshing draught along his fevered throat, she restored his head to +the pillow and awaited developments. + +As she sat at the bedside in an attitude of fearful expectation, it was +evident that some transformation, more wholesome than subtle, had +manifested itself in the mien and physique of his nurse. + +A large degree of her pitiful attenuity had vanished; a legible vestige +of placid well-being seemed to have replaced the hunger of her eyes; +there was a vague, unsubstantial promise of possible comeliness in the +restoration of her cheeks. + +Aware of these changes herself, and fearful lest her brother's sharp +eyes would discover them, the spinster recalled, with a sort of troubled +gratification, the occasion of the improvement. + +Undisturbed by the rebuking glances of the abstemious Raikes, and +secretly abetted by the amused Sepoy, the poor woman had enjoyed the +privileges of the table with a relish and surrender which had begun to +result in the manner indicated. + +For several days previous to the catastrophe which had concluded in the +prostration of her brother, the spinster had supplied the cravings of +her appetite with a gusto that was a revelation to her, and which would +have evoked a profound rebuke from the wretched creature on the bed. + +It was therefore with secret misgiving and a qualified delight she heard +her brother at last call feebly: "Sarah!" + +In answer to the exhausted interrogation in his utterance of the name, +his sister hastened to recount to him the incident of his collapse and +his subsequent unconsciousness. + +Little by little his intelligence began to resume its abandoned +functions, and at last he recalled the whole evil situation. + +"Where's Robert?" he said. "I want him." + +"I will send him to you," exclaimed his sister, and she hastened from +the room. + +"Well, uncle!" exclaimed Robert as he entered with a cheerfulness he was +far from feeling as he witnessed that emaciated countenance; "better, I +see." + +"I congratulate you upon your imagination," replied Raikes, with a +feeble attempt at his customary incivility; "but lock the door and +listen to me carefully." + +These instructions complied with, Robert seated himself in the chair +just vacated by the spinster, which provided his uncle an unobstructed +view of the embonpoint and general aspect of well-being which were so +obnoxious to the singular man on the bed. + +"In the first place," resumed Raikes weakly, "move the bed around so +that I can see the register in the wall." + +The wondering Robert did as he was ordered. + +"Take hold of the button that moves the valves and pull it toward you." + +Robert followed these instructions minutely, and to his astonishment and +the miser's consternation the radiator itself swung away from the wall. + +"What!" cried the startled invalid as he beheld this confirmation of his +fear that he had neglected to spring the catch that held the radiator +on the occasion of the mishap which resulted in his confinement to the +bed, "Look within. Is the inner compartment closed?" + +"No!" replied Robert. + +"My God!" groaned Raikes as he realized that his treasury had been thus +unguarded during his illness. "Tell me how many bags there are." + +Robert removed them one by one, and deposited them on the table. + +As the miser followed the movements of his nephew with anxious notation, +a sigh of unutterable relief welled from the innermost depths of his +bosom. + +The bags had been untouched! + +There was no further loss, and the clinking weight assured him that his +nocturnal visitor had made no more of his gross substitutions. + +"Listen, Robert," said Raikes with laborious amiability, as his +astonished nephew seated himself near the bedside, "it has been my +purpose to conceal this hiding place from any living soul, but I find +that I have not succeeded. + +"Some one has made three visits to that recess and helped himself to as +many bags of coin." + +Robert, remembering his uncle's well-known secrecy and the unusual +precautions taken by him to secure his room from intrusion, looked his +incredulity, which stimulated Raikes into exclaiming: + +"Ah, but you do not know how incredible it is. Wait until you hear all. +You will wonder what human agency could penetrate these locks, open the +doors of this hiding place, extract the plunder, restore the locks to +their original condition, and re-issue into the passageway without +disturbing the latches or the crossbar. My losses are supernatural. Now +follow me carefully and confess that you have not heard anything so +ghastly, so unreal as what I am about to relate." + +As Raikes proceeded in his narrative, his nephew was at first inclined +to receive these weird confidences as features of the unhappy man's +condition, but as the latter progressed, with a constantly increasing +degree of his customary emotionless lucidity, his sincerity became +apparent. + +"And now," concluded Raikes, "what have you to say to all this? Is it +not worthy of a Poe or a Maupassant? I tell you, I must have some +explanation of this mystery or I shall go mad." + +During this singular recital the young man's mind, stimulated by the +eerie perplexities and the unhappy denouement, had been busy. + +It was not difficult to convince himself of the futility of any of his +own speculations; the nearness of the calamity affected him, in a +degree, as it did the withered invalid. + +He had a sound brain, nourished by a well sustained body; his +intelligence was apt and rapid, but these unheard-of complications +demanded a morbid analysis of which he was incapable. + +On this basis, however, as his uncle had proceeded, Robert had been able +to develop a suggestion; he could offer that, at least. + +In reply, therefore, to the feverish questions of his uncle, the young +man said: + +"In so far as I am able to see, your disasters have narrowed your range +of discernment. They are too recent; they affect you too nearly. Under +such conditions we take counsel of our prejudices instead of our +judgment. Your thoughts are apt to return to the central feature of your +loss. It is not natural to expect one to dismiss such a consideration in +order to make way for others which might help you in your search. + +"On my part, the incident is new and stimulating, but the ideas it +awakens lead to nothing. However, I should not regard the case as +impossible until I had tried at least one means of solution." + +"What is that?" demanded Raikes, diverted, if not convinced, by the +sensible observations of his nephew. + +"You have heard of Gratz?" inquired Robert. + +"Of the secret service?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah!" cried the old man; "to submit the case to him means another in the +secret, with little prospect of advantage." + +"I am not so sure about that," returned Robert. "Do you recall the +Dupont mystery?" + +Raikes nodded. + +"Well," continued Robert, "you must also remember the Belmont scandal. +Gratz certainly let daylight into that." + +"Ah," cried Raikes, "I do not like your suggestions; they encourage me +and alarm me at the same time. Think of the cost." + +Irritated at the intrusion of this frugal proviso at this juncture, +Robert exclaimed with some warmth: "Yes, but think, also, how +insignificant that would be if he discovered the thief and recovered the +money." + +"If--if----" repeated Raikes with impatience. + +"And I can say this," continued Robert: "It is the ambition of Gratz to +be appointed chief of the bureau to which he belongs. Whatever can be +placed to his credit in the meantime will serve as an additional reason +for his advancement. + +"I believe that he would be more persuaded to undertake the case with +this prospect in view than for a mercenary reason." + +"But," interrupted Raikes, "can you get him?" + +"I think I can answer for that," replied Robert. "I know him very well. +If you will consent to leave the matter in my hands, I will attend to +Gratz." + +"Well," exclaimed Raikes, as Robert concluded, "have it your own way; +anything is better than this killing suspense. I do not believe that I +could endure a repetition of the incidents of the last few nights. But +return the bags before you go, and shut the radiator; it will lock in +closing." + +When Robert at last reached the dining-room he discovered his aunt at +the table, seated opposite the Sepoy. + +Instructing the spinster to resume her vigil until his return, Robert +proceeded to his own table, and from that point of observation occupied +himself, during the next twenty minutes, partly with his breakfast and +partly in regarding this illy-assorted duet. + +The Sepoy was as gravely urbane as ever; his browns and blacks +intermingled harmoniously; his eyes were bright; his teeth still +suggestive of restrained sarcasm in their dull, red sheaths, as, with +grave courtesy, he made himself agreeable to his companion by abetting +her newly-awakened appetite with recommendations of the steak and +eulogies of the butter. + +The spinster was no longer ravenous; the advantages she had enjoyed +during the absence of her domestic Argus had made her cravings more +equable, and she accepted the edible suggestions of the Sepoy with an +approach to placid satisfaction that hinted at the imminence of +repletion. + +This disposition to make the most of her privileges, with what composure +she could assume, would have added the basis of a serious relapse on the +part of the invalid could he have witnessed the phenomenon. + +It was remarkable how promptly the poor creature evinced the effects of +her nourishment. + +Beginning, as already indicated, with a logical indigestion, she +progressed to the point of a possible filling out of the crevices of her +countenance, and her eyes certainly had lost the expression of appeal +characteristic of the mendicant in the doorway. + +All this, minutely noted by her watchful nephew, was thoroughly enjoyed +with a sort of chuckling collusion and vicarious gratification. + +On her return to the invalid she was requested by him to provide +whatever nourishment was needed, and then to leave him alone for a +couple of hours. + +These instructions fulfilled, the spinster sought the retirement of her +room, surrendered herself to the enjoyment of reminiscent digestion, and +Raikes began to pull himself together. + +His method was characteristic. + +On the basis that he could not afford to enjoy himself like any normally +constituted being, he assured his mind that he could not submit to the +expense of illness. + +According to his rigid logic, sickness was more the result of indulgence +than self-denial. + +He proposed to have the credit of his abnegations. + +Therefore he directed his perverse will to the contemplation of the +rational aspect of his condition, and presently had managed to convince +himself that if he did not entertain the belief of suffering, this +untoward condition would cease to exist. + +As this singular being combatted all that was unwelcome to this point of +view, the grim lines tightened about the corners of his mouth, the deep +fissures in his forehead established a communication with the obstinate +wrinkles at the root of his nose, and by noon he was well on his way to +the mastery of his indisposition, and by nightfall he scandalized the +young medical attendant by standing up to receive him. + +Extending to himself a chuckling tribute of his resolution, he received +the incredulity of his nephew as additional indorsement when the latter +made his appearance that evening, accompanied by the colorless negation +of a man whom he could scarcely persuade himself to believe was the +celebrated Gratz. + +However, no more ideal countenance could have been created for the +purposes to which it was applied by its owner. + +Pallid, expressionless, vacant, it was as nearly a canvas upon which to +delineate almost anything in the range of emotion as it was possible for +a visage of flesh and blood to be. + +As to the details of features, these were altogether subordinate, and as +devoid of physiognomical meaning as the dull integument which +encompassed them. + +It had about the same amount of character as a bald baby. + +One received the impression that a seismic disturbance might awaken some +show of emotion, but design--never. + +And yet, behind that pale disguise, between sleepy, level lids, two +points of concentrated fire and ceaseless animation gleamed their +startling significance to any one able to comprehend. + +In stature he was adjusted to his visage. + +His frame was lean enough to repudiate the incredible agility and +recuperative strength it housed, and his carriage was consistently "out +of plumb." + +Altogether it was an identity that would have been overlooked in any +gathering, and was almost nondescript enough to establish an eligibility +to the most exclusive function. + +This unpromising ensemble, however, was not misleading to Raikes, who +had looked up quickly at the first appearance of the detective, and had +seen the sharp, penetrating glance with which Gratz had for an instant +surveyed the apartment. + +Moreover, the very leanness of the famous official appealed to him. + +Here, at least, were none of the obnoxious evidences of repletion which +he viewed with such disapprobation in his sturdier nephew. + +The man's attire, too, commended him to the starved graces of his spare +host. It was as characterless as it was possible for fabric to be, and +considered with his meager physique and vacant physiognomy, was a +fitting complement to both; an adjustment of component detail too +consistent to have been the needless aspect it was designed to present. + +With a voice in which the character had been trained away as surely as +the charity from the opinions of the social elite, this descendant of +Lecocq accosted his patron, and with business-like brevity indicated +that he was already familiar with the situation as outlined by Robert, +and if Mr. Raikes would consent to reply to a few questions it would +facilitate matters. + +His hearer indicated that he was entirely at the disposal of the +detective. + +With characteristic concentration, therefore, Gratz began: + +"Do you suspect anybody in particular?" + +"No." + +"That is singular," commented Gratz. "May I ask why? Under such +circumstances the mind generally proceeds in some unhappy direction." + +"Not in this instance," returned Raikes. "Before I suspect any one, I +must assign to him supernatural powers, almost. I will have to explain +how it is possible for any one to enter this room, penetrate that +recess, make the substitution, and retire, leaving the door in the same +condition, precisely as left by me the night before." + +"That is the point," replied Gratz. Then, after a moment's reflection, +he inquired: "Am I at liberty to nose around this room?" + +"Help yourself," answered Raikes. + +With this assent, Gratz hurried to the window, examined the sash, +considered the sheer depths immediately below, its lack of vicinity to +other windows, and last, the strong fastenings, to disturb which would +involve a degree of rasp and wrench sufficient to disturb the slumbers +of a Rip Van Winkle. + +With a countenance as impassive as ever, he returned to Raikes and said: + +"Now for the hiding place." + +With a grimace of reluctant acquiescence, Raikes, closely regarded by +the detective, proceeded to the button in the concave, which he moved +with slow manipulation for the edification of the alert watcher, who +witnessed, without comment, the displacement of the register and the +subsequent revelation of the inner compartment. + +"Remove the bags." + +At the conclusion of this labor, this impenetrable being produced a +small rod of steel from one of his pockets, one end of which concluded +in a round knob. + +With this he proceeded to rap the walls of the inner recess, a +proceeding of which Raikes inquired the purpose. + +"I want to ascertain," replied Gratz, "if there is any vacancy on the +other side." + +"I could have saved you all that trouble," replied Raikes. "This is a +false radiator, the real flue is on the other side of the room. + +"The rear of this small safe backs up against nearly two feet of solid +brickwork. + +"Exactly behind that is a room occupied by one no more burglarious than +a dressmaker's apprentice." + +"Thank you," replied Gratz. "Your information is helpful, but I am never +satisfied to rely upon description when investigation is possible. + +"Whatever deductions I make from this examination I do not want +disturbed, so all the doubts they dissipate are not likely to intrude +upon my calculations again." + +After a few further taps, in which Raikes could see no better purpose +than to retire from an embarrassing position with some show of satisfied +motive, Gratz directed that the bags be returned. + +For the next few minutes he busied himself with the locks, upon which he +experimented with the extraordinary keys which Raikes had given him. He +shot the bolts backward and forward; noted the stout bar and the +precautions for keeping it in place, and then resumed the seat near the +table. + +After a few moments he said: + +"Tell me what has occurred to you between sunrise and sunset during the +last three days." + +Raikes recounted his usual round of petty detail, which had no possible +bearing upon the problem. + +When he had concluded this meager resume, Gratz continued: + +"Now tell me about the nights." + +Raikes complied with a statement of his careful precautions; the watch +of his sister upon the doorway during his absence, and his visits to the +room of the Sepoy. + +"The Sepoy?" inquired Gratz. "Why do you call him that?" + +"On account of his swarthy complexion, his bright eyes, and his general +alien aspect," replied Robert. + +"Describe him to me as carefully as you can," said Gratz. + +When Robert had concluded his brief delineation, Raikes hastened to +inquire: "Why do you ask about him so particularly? He could no more +enter my room, under the conditions I have described to you, than you +could." + +"I realize that," admitted the detective, "but I gather from what you +have just said that you visit this Sepoy, as you call him, with some +degree of regularity. May I ask if you have business transactions with +him?" + +"I have not," replied Raikes. + +Then, in response to the unchanging look of inquiry in the countenance +of the detective, he added: + +"The Sepoy has been telling me an extraordinary story. It has been too +elaborate to confine to one sitting, and my purpose in re-visiting him +was to get at the conclusion. It is most interesting, and apparently +interminable." + +"Would you object to relating it to me?" inquired Gratz. + +"Heavens!" cried Raikes, aghast at the prospect of the extended effort +which this would impose upon him. "Is it necessary?" + +"I would not be surprised," replied Gratz. "At any rate, if your story +is more mysterious than the predicament which confronts us, it must be +worth hearing." + +With an ill grace, after making the elaborate arrangements which usually +precede a protracted campaign, Raikes hastened to comply with the +request of the detective. + +As he proceeded, he was startled to note, now that he made his first +conscious effort to review the weird recital of the Sepoy, just how +vividly the incidents presented themselves. + +Aside from the phraseology, he recounted, in precise order, the +incredible incidents, and by the time he had reached the climax in the +first division of his effort his hearers were interested enough to +hasten through a light meal, which, at the suggestion of Gratz, had been +sent to the room they occupied. + +With something of the calculation of the Sepoy, or remembering, perhaps, +the effect which his abrupt terminations had upon him, Raikes contrived +his irritating pauses with remorseless enjoyment and the ostensible +purpose of stimulating his sorely taxed energies with draughts of +brandy and water. + +In this way Raikes consumed the time until the hour of eleven, which +enabled him to develop the narrative to the point at which the Sepoy had +concluded. + +"And now," exclaimed Raikes with unmistakable relief, as he signified +that his hearers were in possession of all he knew, "and now will you +kindly tell me what you expect to gain by this tedious task you have +imposed upon me?" + +Gratz did not reply at once, but after a few moments of reflection, he +asked, apparently ignoring the question of the narrator: "Will you give +me the keys of this building you occupy, and indicate to me the means of +rummaging about the other building on the opposite side of the wall?" + +"If it is necessary," replied Raikes with grudging assent. + +"Why else should I make the request?" suggested Gratz with emotionless +directness of speech and a momentary gleam of the eyes. + +"True!" responded Raikes. + +"Now," exclaimed Gratz, when the various keys were placed in his hand, +"you can sleep in peace to-night, and bolt your doors with all the +assurance in the world, for I guarantee that your property will be +undisturbed." + +Then turning to Robert, he said: "I want you to guide me for a short +while, and as soon as I get my bearings you can retire." + +At this the two bade the thoroughly exhausted Raikes good-night and +departed from the room, which the miser hastily secured with his usual +precautions. + +Without, Robert soon discovered that his services were no longer +required, and at the suggestion of the detective he retired, after +indicating to this curious official that when he had concluded his +investigations he would find a cot in his room which he was at liberty +to occupy. + +As dawn began to make its appearance on the ensuing morning, Robert was +disturbed by a curious dream. + +He appeared to be alone upon a fragile raft in the midst of a +destructive sea. + +Bit by bit the hastily joined structure upon which he rode the waters +so insecurely began to disintegrate, until but one scarcely sufficing +plank remained. + +To this, however, he clung with rapidly failing strength, shouting at +intervals with what vim remained, in an attempt to attract the attention +of the keepers of the light, not far away. + +But with devilish perversity, an immense fog-horn sent forth a heavy +blast seaward precisely at the moments he raised his voice. + +No matter how far apart or how near he planned the intervals, he was +bound to coincide with the deafening horn. + +At last in despair he desisted in his efforts, and the monster horn, +with hoarse mockery, continued its grewsome noises at dismal intervals, +until one, more stentorian than the others, caused the very tempest to +hush, and Robert awoke to discover Gratz the cause of his fictitious +misery, sleeping upon the cot near the foot of his bed, emitting a +series of snores which had managed to communicate their odious telepathy +to his slumbering consciousness. + +As this singular being lay there in the relaxation and undisguise to +which the most diplomatic must submit at times, his countenance, so +impassive in his wakeful hours, depicted singular lines of +determination. + +An expression of tense anxiety contracted his features; resolution held +the thin lips in rigid partnership; there was a hint of purpose in the +solitary wrinkle which corrugated his forehead; the general aspect was +impressive, its suggestion indefatigable. + +In this paradoxical fashion, the emotions, concealed during the day, +revealed themselves at night. + +What in others would have concluded in a vacant mien and colorless +repose, in him expressed all that he was so sedulous to conceal. + +Scarcely had Robert placed his feet upon the floor when Gratz opened his +eyes, awakened partly by the sounds of rising and partly by his tumult +of snores, and in an instant the flaccid mask descended over his face, +and Gratz was his apathetic self again. + +"Well?" inquired Robert. + +"You have said it," replied Gratz; "it is well." + +"You have succeeded, then?" demanded Robert breathlessly. + +"I believe so; but do not question me further just now. I want to see +your uncle before I go." + +A few moments later the two presented themselves before the closed door +leading to the apartment occupied by Raikes, whom they fancied they +could hear stirring about within. + +In answer to their raps, he opened the door and they entered. + +"What news?" demanded Raikes. + +"The best, I hope; but I will not communicate it to you until to-morrow +morning." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Raikes with manifest disappointment. + +"But," continued Gratz, as he noted the expression on the face of the +other, "at that time I fancy that I shall not only have solved the +mystery but I will also secure the thief." + +"Do you know him, then?" asked Raikes. + +"You are wrong," replied Gratz. "Unless I am seriously mistaken, there +are two." + +"Two!" repeated Raikes incredulously. + +"Yes--but listen: I am anxious to hear the conclusion of that +remarkable story you began last night." + +"But," objected Raikes, "I have already told you all I know." + +"I am aware of that," answered the detective, "but your friend, the +Sepoy, will doubtless oblige you with the balance. Arrange with him at +breakfast-time for a continuation. I will return either to-night or +to-morrow morning to hear it." + +"But----" began Raikes. + +"Do not refuse to do as I ask," urged Gratz impressively. "It may be +useful; I'm inclined to think it will." + +"Very well," answered Raikes. "I will do as you suggest." + +"And," continued Gratz, "I need not assure you that if a living soul +learns of my presence here last night, I can do nothing for you." + +"I understand," said Raikes. + +"And I," added Robert. + +With this Gratz departed, and Raikes prepared to make his appearance in +the dining-room. + +Advised of the intention of her brother to breakfast at the table, the +spinster had hastened to precede him, and by the time Raikes presented +himself she had managed to bestow a couple of furtive biscuits in her +pocket, and had devoured another couple, lavishly buttered, accompanied +by a fairly liberal cut of beefsteak. + +Consequently, when Raikes conveyed his customary intimation that she was +at liberty to begin, the spinster obediently proceeded to add a moderate +breakfast to the one she had already enjoyed. + +Trembling lest her brother would remark the developing suggestions of +well-being which had resulted from her recent regimen, she welcomed with +genuine relief the advent of the Sepoy, to whom Raikes transferred his +speculative glance. + +"Well!" exclaimed the Sepoy, "you have had quite a siege, I hear." + +"I have," replied Raikes shortly; then added with a sort of grim humor: +"My physician has recommended a little diversion, and I have just +thought of a simple way of following his advice." + +"What is that?" asked the Sepoy. + +"I would like to present myself at the usual hour and hear the +conclusion of the story, for I judge, from the predicament of Prince +Otondo, that the end is not far off." + +"Ah, you remember?" exclaimed the Sepoy. + +"Decidedly!" replied Raikes. + +"Very well, then," returned the other. "Come at ten and I will gather +the tangled threads together." + +During the balance of that day Raikes devoted his powers of +concentration to the consummation of the treatment to which he had +subjected himself, and this, together with the prospect of the recovery +of his property, resulted in a condition which made the visits of the +astonished physician no longer necessary. + +With an eagerness intensified to a childish impatience, almost, by the +vague suggestions of Gratz that the story would be personally +interesting, and exhausting his mind with futile speculations as to the +manner of its application to the unnatural conditions which distressed +him so, Raikes at last concluded his contemplation of the clock, and +promptly upon the stroke of ten, hastened from his room and hurried to +the apartment occupied by the Sepoy. + +Seating himself in the chair indicated by his host, he shortly found +that he was unable to avoid recalling his recent guilty appropriation of +the diamond, and a degree of confusion, which he could not entirely +disguise, manifested itself in his difficulty of adjusting his eyes to +the inscrutable gaze of the Sepoy. + +On this occasion the narrator, as hitherto, did not provide his auditor +with a brilliant to look upon during the progress of the story--an +omission that was radiantly repaired by the two lambent gems in the eyes +of the former. + +Upon these the shifting gaze of the restless listener finally fastened +itself with a fascination which he found it impossible to resist, and +the Sepoy, with all the modulated lights and shadows of ardor, +animation, lethargy, somnolence, peace, with which he complemented his +sedative phrases, began: + +(_The conclusion of this interesting tale will be found on Bosom No. 1, +Dickey Series C_.) + +As Dennis looked up from his reading, a pair of eyes of unclouded blue, +vivid with interest and altogether friendly, met his animated glance. + +With alert intuition his sweet-faced auditor believed that she +discovered a shadow of vexation in the ingenuous countenance of the +reader. + +"What is it?" she asked. + +To Dennis, in his absorption, it seemed impossible that the question +could refer to anything else than the habitual disability at the end of +each chapter, and he answered promptly: + +"'Tis the way the dickey ends--to be concluded in Series C--an' it's me +here an' Series C in Baxter Street, so I can't read the rest; it's too +bad, so it is." + +"So it is," repeated the lady softly, with a dexterous parody of his +concluding words, but with a subtle intimation in her manner that she +did not consider the inconvenient termination such a misfortune, after +all, and that it somehow suggested an alternative that was not +displeasing. + +"Do you want to hear the rest?" asked Dennis frankly. + +"I do, indeed," replied his companion with an adroitly conveyed +insinuation of disappointed expectation that seemed to place the +responsibility of measuring to this agreeable emergency entirely upon +Dennis. + +The same degree of sensitiveness which leaves an Irishman so open to +offense, enables him, with equal celerity, to comprehend a hint, and +Dennis, when he realized that the lady understood that the continuation +of the tale involved a subsequent reading, exclaimed, with a delicious +paraphrase of Sancho Panza: "God bless the man who first invented +'_Continued in our next!_'" + +Presently the one certain that her telepathy had not miscarried, and the +other equally convinced that his reception of the message was accredited +to him, the conversation was given an abrupt direction by an apparently +alien question: + +"Do you know anything about flowers?" asked his companion. + +"Only the difference between a rose and a cauliflower," replied Dennis +with a twinkle in his eye, to which the lady responded with a shade of +disappointment. + +"An' why flowers?" asked Dennis. + +"Listen!" answered the lady with a slight return of her original +sadness. + +"Eleven months ago I was left a widow. + +"My husband's estate consisted of a moderate amount of life insurance, a +prosperous business, and no debts. + +"He was a florist. + +"The establishment is located in the heart of a very fashionable +district. + +"There has scarcely been a function of the elite in this section which +my husband has not supplied with floral decorations. + +"His taste was exquisite, and his taste was his undoing, for he added +refinement to refinement until he began to lose sight of the practical +side of existence. + +"By degrees he became as attenuated as some of the tendrils he +cultivated with such absorption, and as frail as an orchid. + +"The intrusion of a pronounced scent was sufficient to induce a serious +nervous disturbance, and he could no more endure disproportionate and +sharp distinctions of color than a lapidary could tolerate a serious +unevenness of facets. + +"I was compelled to paper his room with a delicate shade of lavender. + +"The furniture was stained a light buff, and the upholstering was a +delicate cretonne livened by exquisite tracings of wisteria. + +"The carpet was light blue, surrounded by a border of deeper blue, +lightly emphasized by suggestions of trailing arbutus. + +"Despite all this," continued the lady sadly as she paused to enjoy an +intentness of interest on the part of the bewildered Dennis, so profound +that the dickey backs had been permitted to fall unregarded to the +ground, and their printed extravagances, by contrast with this unusual +recital, relegated to the most prosaic of occurrences, "despite all +these precautions, the most carefully guarded recesses are not entirely +secure. + +"For one day an elaborately protected package arrived during my absence, +and my husband opened it. + +"At once a pungent, overpowering sweetness filled the air, and the very +surfeit of its fragrance threw my husband into a convulsion of delight +which ended in a stupor so replete that we were able only to restore the +poor man to consciousness by hypodermics of--what was to him a most +violent stimulant--Cambric Tea." + +Dennis looked his astonishment at these accumulating refinements, and in +the pause that followed the narration of this last episode he inquired, +with the appreciative hesitation of one who is reluctant to advance lest +he destroy the dew-gemmed tracery of a fragile spider's web. + +"An' what kind of flowers did all this?" + +"Cape Jessamine," replied the lady; "and we were never able to discover +who sent them. + +"His physicians claimed that his disorder was paralleled by similar +disturbances instanced in pathological records, but that the +contributing causes were different and that my husband's particular +debility was not induced by his devotion to flowers but aggravated by +it. + +"To further complicate matters, the physician assured me that to deprive +the invalid of his floral diversions would be to remove his remaining +impulse to continued existence. + +"He went on to say that he had reached the limit of his skill, and that +nothing further was to be done than to surround the sufferer with placid +considerations and neutral odors, and intimated that he disliked to +contemplate the possible result of a second contact with Cape Jessamine. + +"In a short time it became evident that I possessed merely the essence +of a husband, and one day, as he wafted--that's the word, for his step +seemed to be almost devoid of specific gravity--so I repeat, one day, as +he wafted to the room in which he usually experimented with his floral +attenuations, I happened to be engaged in the dwelling adjoining the +conservatory and into which it opened. + +"Presently, my duties concluded, I proceeded in the direction taken by +my husband. + +"As I advanced I grew momently conscious of a ravishing fragrance which +seemed to pervade and invite the consciousness to all varieties of +agreeable surrender. + +"Ah!--in a moment I recognized this pungent delight: Cape Jessamine! + +"Aware of the consequences to him should he inhale anything so +transporting, I hastened forward. + +"The fragrance grew stronger as I hurried on. It seemed to envelop every +delicate, fainting scent in the conservatory, and as I placed my hand +upon the door-latch leading to the section where I was positive my +husband would be found, I knew that I had traced the occasion to its +source. + +"In another second I had opened the door, and there, a few feet away, +lay my unfortunate husband. + +"I hurried to his side. + +"His countenance, which exhibited that singular placidity which +sometimes comes with death, was as serene as a lily, and gave no +evidence of the convulsion that must have ensued. + +"He was dead. + +"All about him, distributed with devilish malignity and criminal intent, +were various clusters of the flowers that had transported him, +literally." + +"My God!" exclaimed Dennis. "What a situation!" + +"Wasn't it?" exclaimed the widow. "It almost equals the story on the +dickeys." + +"Equals!" exclaimed Dennis with profound conviction. "I don't know that +I care to read the balance of the story after this. Do you know the +guilty party?" + +"I think so," answered the widow; "but you can judge for yourself as I +proceed. + +"Now follow me closely." + +There was no need of this advice, for Dennis would not have missed a +word for the world, and gazed upon the sweet-faced narrator with a sort +of superstitious admiration as she continued: + +"Since his death the patronage is larger than ever. + +"I now find myself confronted with what is equivalent to an +embarrassment of riches on the one hand, and a famine of intelligent +help on the other." + +At this statement Dennis attempted not to appear too deeply interested. + +"I employ a manager, the one we have always had, who desires to become +a partner in the business; but his proposition is handicapped by the +character of the consideration he is willing to offer for such an +interest. + +"In other words, he considers that a proposal of marriage is an +equivalent for any financial objection I may suggest." + +Despite his efforts, Dennis looked troubled. + +The lady smiled and continued: + +"I received this proposition two months since. Its suddenness surprised +a plan which I have been perfecting for a long time. + +"In order to avoid any interruption to my purposes, I permitted the +manager to believe that I was impressed with his offer, but desired a +little time for consideration." + +"An' true, now," asked Dennis with genuine Irish impulse, "an' true, +now, were you?" + +The lady smiled again. "Wait," she urged, "you shall see. + +"I have never trusted this man. He is not only personally obnoxious to +me, but I fear that I cannot rely upon his business integrity. + +"Little by little, I have gathered together the threads of the business, +and I now have a strong legal grip upon the situation, which enables me +to decline this alliance with no possible jeopardy to the property. + +"But one consideration restrains me: I need a man of enterprise and +address to succeed him. And now," she added with a simple, business-like +directness, "I have a suggestion to offer: + +"You ransack Baxter Street to-morrow for Dickey Series C, and come with +it to this address," and she placed a small card in his hand. + +"We can reach the end of the story, in which I am exceedingly +interested, and when we have set our minds at rest on that point, I will +give myself the pleasure of listening to whatever recommendations you +may offer as to your fitness to take the place of the retiring +management." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Dennis as he went through an absurd pantomime of +punching himself, "an' is it awake you are, Dennis Muldoon?" + +At this the lady, with a cordial smile, indicated that the interview was +at an end, and as she turned to depart, said: "You will come, then, +to-morrow night?" + +And Dennis, hat in hand, with an unmistakable deference of attitude and +demeanor, cheerily responded with a query that required no further +answer than a rosy acknowledgment: + +"Will a duck swim?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +On the succeeding morning it seemed to the foreman of the shipping +department of the publishers that his new marker did not manifest the +same enthusiasm for his work which had distinguished his earlier +efforts. + +It looked to him as if Dennis handled his paint-brush with the mien of +one who considered his occupation a diversion rather than a means of +livelihood. + +As the day advanced and Dennis located an "e" in the spot designed for +an "i," and concluded an address with Detroit in place of Duluth, the +foreman was more than ever convinced that something was wrong, and asked +the young man if he was not feeling well. + +"Sure!" exclaimed Dennis, a degree too cheerily, the foreman thought, in +view of his delinquencies with the brush, "sure; but why do you ask?" + +"Well," returned the foreman, "iv'ry thing's wid you this mornin' but +yure head," and he pointed out several blunders which Dennis had made. + +"Sure, an' I'm sorry for that," he said with blushing contriteness; "it +will not happen again." + +The foreman, however, had told the truth only in part, for Dennis had +left not only his head behind him, but a considerable portion of his +heart. + +All day he continued to think about the sweet-faced woman who had +listened with such gratifying attention to the story, and more than +once, in his agreeable preoccupation, had he noted an impulse to +substitute the address she had provided for the one demanded by the +shipping invoices. + +"To-night at eight," he repeated to himself over and over, like the +refrain of a popular ballad, invariably concluding, by way of chorus: +"Oh, I'll be there; oh, I'll be there." + +Therefore, as soon as his day's duties were over, Dennis speeded to +Baxter Street in search of Dickey Series C. + +After a foray in a half dozen separate establishments, where neckties, +collars and all the accessories were offered in place of what he +required, he succeeded at last in securing the missing series. + +At The Stag he was so full of emotion and anticipation that there was +little room for such a substantial consideration as supper, so, +dismissing that he proceeded to his room, and after indulging in the +luxury of one of the few genuine shirts which remained to him, he +anticipated his appointment a half hour by boarding the elevated, which +carried him shortly to a point within three blocks of his destination. + +In order that he might not appear too anxious or come into a premature +collision with social usage, Dennis obliged himself to walk slowly in +the vicinity indicated by the address. + +The general aspect of his immediate surroundings looked promising and +offered a comfortable assurance that his visit would not introduce him +to a disappointment. + +At last, from the opposite side of the street, he was able to measure, +with an approving glance, a prepossessing dwelling of four stories and +a mansard. + +The front was of brown stone and differed but little from its neighbors, +but to Dennis it seemed that it possessed an identity which was largely +the recollection of the lingering presence of its owner. + +Directly alongside, a large conservatory extended rearward an indefinite +length. + +The glittering front was picturesque with clusters of ingeniously +disposed electric lights within, which revealed to advantage a mass of +varied plants and flowers in prosperous abundance. + +Charmed by the glow and color, and stimulated by the dancing lights, +Dennis presented himself "on the minute" before the door of the adjacent +dwelling. + +In response to his ring, a trim, bright-eyed maid appeared, who, +accepting his name in place of his card with an amiable lack of +surprise, instructed him to enter, which he did, with alert, observing +eyes. + +Although Dennis was not much of a judge of the elaborate surroundings in +which he found himself, he figured it out that the business of a +florist must be a profitable one, and speculated, with wondering +calculation, upon the length of time and the degree of application +demanded to enable him to possess similar advantages. + +Acting upon the parting instructions of the widow, Dennis had already +canvassed his eligible points and was prepared to give an account of +himself that was little short of eulogy. + +At this juncture in his reflections the hangings at the parlor entrance +parted with a musical swish that was suggestive of feminine approach, +and the widow advanced into the room, with one slender hand extended in +cordial informality. + +If this woman had seemed charming to him in the park, she was certainly +bewitching now. + +The street costume in which she had first appeared was replaced by a +gown of some clinging white fabric, which shimmered the light with a +thousand blending radiations and fitted to every movement and contour +like an embrace conscious of its privileges. + +A delicate collar of filmy lace surrounded her neck like the intricate +etchings of frost upon frost, and this was fastened with a solitary +pearl as chaste as the exquisite skin with which it managed to offer +only the faintest contrast. + +Her head, crowned with a wavy nimbus of Titian auburn, was superbly set +upon her fine, symmetrical shoulders. + +As she flashed upon the vision of this palpitating young man through the +parting curtains, like a dramatic climax or the goddess of reward, or +denunciation, she seemed to Dennis, whose mythology was centralized from +that moment, like another Aphrodite churned into lovely being by the +sea. + +At the entrance of this beautiful woman Dennis had risen to his feet, +and stood for a moment, offering, with his helpless silence, a +compliment whose genuineness she thoroughly enjoyed. + +When at last his tongue resumed its function, Dennis, like many another +with even more self-possession and experience, uttered just the words +which were intended for concealment, as he stammered: + +"An' it's no wonder, at all, at all." + +The exclamation, however, was barely above a whisper, and it was only by +following the motion of his lips and a shrewd intuition as to the rest +which enabled the widow to realize what he had uttered, as she asked, +smiling to note that the young man had neglected to release her hand: + +"And what is it that is no wonder?" + +At this question, Dennis, deserted for the moment by his customary +adroitness, was unable to do anything else than respond, without evasion +or subterfuge: + +"Well, I was thinkin' it's no wonder the manager wanted to go into the +business." + +"Ah!" laughed the widow with genuine enjoyment and a sensible +realization of the spirit which urged his exclamation and its +explanation, "that is Irish, I am sure"; and with that Dennis began to +feel more at home, although still subdued by the accumulation of +practical beatitudes. + +"Tell me," he said, when each was agreeably established, Dennis upon a +comfortable divan and his listener in a chair which supplied its +fascinating occupant with a sort of solicitous support, which Dennis +assured himself would be poetry realized if he could be permitted to +share, "tell me, shall I recite my abilities first or read the story?" + +"Suppose," suggested his hearer, "we hear the story first and reserve +your catalogue as a climax, like the dessert after the banquet." + +"All right!" assented Dennis, as he produced a circular bundle, from +which he extracted his absurd medium. + +"One moment," suggested his hearer, as she arranged an electric cluster +in a manner that enabled her to witness every alternation of expression +in that mobile countenance--"now." + +Withdrawing his gaze from the sweet face of his auditor with a +reluctance sufficiently marked to advance him several leagues further in +her good graces, Dennis, directing his attention to the closely-printed +dickey, began, with racy Irish emphasis, as follows: + + * * * * * + +"With a bound the prince swept aside the curtains and reached his room. + +"Advancing to the gong, which was suspended by silken cords near the +divan, he struck it sharply several times. + +"There was no response. + +"He repeated his summons with the added vigor of his irritation at the +delay. + +"Only the sullen echo answered. + +"With impatient incredulity the prince was about to hasten to the +ante-room in which his faithful Sepoy had always been found, when a +strange trembling seized his limbs. + +"A confusion obscured his mind; his sight grew dim. + +"Alarmed at this unusual sensation, the prince asserted himself against +its depressing influence with all his customary resolution, and was +finally able to reach the ante-room. + +"It was deserted! + +"He hastened to the passageway outside. + +"Not a soul was visible; an unearthly stillness prevailed. + +"'Ah!' he cried with sudden realization, 'my messenger has been too +liberal with his news; they have heard of the British advance.' + +"Thirty vital minutes had passed, and away in the dim distance an +animated spot of red and gleam began to emerge. + +"Again that inexplicable numbness and alarming physical weakness. + +"With trembling hands he supported himself along the walls and finally +reached the apartment in which he held his mimic court. + +"A burning thirst began to parch his lips and throat; he hastened to the +carafe in which the water for his use was usually held. + +"It was empty. + +"'Ah!' the prince groaned aloud; the veins of his forehead knotted; a +sharp, strained look appeared in his eyes, and he shivered with a mortal +chill. + +"A stinging, sharp surge attracted his attention to his right wrist. + +"It was swollen beyond its usual size, and a bluish discoloration +surrounded the livid line where the dagger point had penetrated. + +"He placed his hands together and noted their disproportion, considered +the wounded arm, and then--he remembered. + +"'The dagger!' he gasped, and a new horror charged his bloodshot eyes as +he recalled the devilish craft employed by the natives to envenom their +weapons. + +"'Poisoned! and by Lal Lu!' + +"At this thought the malignant light of a fearful determination illumed +his features and revealed their frightful distortion. + +"'I shall not--go--alone!' he sighed, and repossessing himself of the +fatal dagger, which he had cast upon the table on entering the room, he +rose from the chair, looked with fearful purpose upon the curtains which +disguised the entrance to the secret passageway from which he had +emerged but a short time before, took one step forward, and then fell +inertly on to the couch from which he had risen in the excitement of his +malignant impulse. + +"'Ha!' The faint sound of an alien air smote his ears. + +"'The bagpipes!' he muttered; 'the Scots, the hellish Highlanders.' + +"Nearer and nearer the lively air was borne to him. + +"His raging pulse thrummed through his palpitating veins a rhythmic, +mocking accompaniment to the swelling music. + +"His frame stiffened and stretched as though subjected to the distortion +of the ancient rack. + +"The agony was unendurable. With a final conscious effort he reached for +the poisoned weapon to bring his sufferings to a summary conclusion, but +his failing will could no longer vitalize his palsied arm, and with a +gasp that seemed to rend his tortured body, to the weird orchestration +of that refrain which was destined in the near future to herald such joy +at Lucknow, 'The Campbells Are Coming, Hi-ay, Hi-ay!' the spirit of +Prince Otondo returned to Him who gave it, to be put into what repair +was possible for such a proposition. + +"As the last writhing rigor ceased to convulse his frame, the prince +lurched forward, and his body collapsed into an attitude not unlike that +of one engaged in some dejecting reflection. + +"By a singular nervous caprice he had raised his hands to his face, +which he had clutched in his agony, and his elbows rested upon the table +in grewsome support of his head. + +"This ghastly calm, however, of which he was the center, was to be +interrupted. + +"A trumpet blast sounded without the gate; a clamor of voices filled the +air. + +"The bagpipes, in anticipation of some show of resistance, had ceased +their stirring strains; within, the silence of an ambuscade prevailed. + +"Suddenly, through the unguarded entrance rushed a body of red-coated +soldiers; but their advance was unopposed; the courtyard was abandoned. + +"One danger alone remained--an attack from within. But there was none to +receive the detested intruders but the pulseless master, from whom all +majesty had departed. + +"Over the grounds they swarmed, through the doors, along the +passageways. + +"Abreast of the leading officer appeared the turbaned head and +white-robed figure of Ram Lal. + +"As the two entered the apartment and gazed upon its silent occupant, +with the same impulse both came to a standstill, impressed by the +unnatural attitude and the chill undemonstration of the richly-clad +figure. + +"'It is the prince!' cried Ram Lal. + +"At once the officer turned to command the curious detachment which had +followed them to remain without, and placing a sergeant on guard in the +ante-room, he resumed his investigation of the dead man. + +"He had not seen the quick approach of Ram Lal, nor the rapid movement +of his searching hand. + +"It was over in an instant, but in that instant Ram Lal had assured +himself of the presence of the precious jacket beneath the cambric +folds. + +"'He is dead!' he cried to the officer, as the latter approached to +discover some reason for this shocking sight. + +"'He is still warm,' exclaimed the other, as he placed his hand, with +careless familiarity, upon the cheek of the prince. + +"'Let us see,' he continued, 'if his heart still beats.' + +"As the officer knelt in order to accommodate his head to the leaning +position of the body, Ram Lal stood as one transfixed. + +"His hand crept slowly to the dagger upon the table, which he grasped +with an expression of desperate determination as the officer placed his +ear close to the riches concealed beneath the tunic of the prince. + +"Kneeling thus, with scarcely a hand-breadth between him and wealth such +as he had never dared to dream of, with the menacing figure of the +merchant directly above him, prepared to strike at the least indication +of suspicion of the jacket and its priceless contents, the pair +presented a striking tableau of the sardonic jest in which fate +sometimes indulges in providing such nearness of opportunity and such a +threat to its embrace. + +"'There is something thick about the body!' exclaimed the kneeling +officer. + +"Ram Lal crept nearer. + +"'Yes,' he replied with a stifled voice, as he shot a quick glance +toward the curtained doorway, on the other side of which the sergeant +was posted, 'yes, the prince was of a phthisical tendency. + +"'He was compelled to protect himself against inequalities of +temperature.' + +"At this instant the quick eye of the merchant detected the livid +scratch on the dead man's arm. 'Ha!' he cried, with an intonation which +caused the officer to forego his examination for the moment and regard +the merchant attentively. + +"'Here!' cried the latter, pointing to the discolored and swollen wrist, +'here! There is no need to look for further sign of life; his heart will +beat no more. This dagger has been inserted in the poison sac of the +cobra--and here is the result!' + +"As the officer rose to regard the wound, and understood its +significance, he shuddered and looked upon the hapless heir-apparent +with a sort of bluff compassion, but he made no further attempt to +pursue his investigations, and Ram Lal was spared one sanguinary entry +upon the book of his recording angel. + +"'At least,' said the officer, as if in continuation of some unexpressed +idea, 'let us do ourselves the honor of disposing the prince upon his +bed'; and Ram Lal supporting the head and shoulders and the officer +grasping the feet, they carried the stiffened form to the bed. + +"'May I ask the privilege,' said Ram Lal, 'of composing the features and +the body of the prince?' + +"'Surely,' replied the officer, as he bestowed a departing glance upon +this last descendant of the long line of moghuls with a degree of +deference that was the result of his military training and his own +subjection to discipline, 'surely he is sadly in need of such a +service.' + +"For his arms, although disengaged somewhat by their efforts, and the +clutch of the distorted fingers, though not so distended, still pointed +upward in a sort of eerie, rigid salutation to the subdued watchers. + +"The eyes, too, which but a short time before had been so vivid with the +contentions of restraint and desire, stared with a ghastly lack of +speculation. + +"As the officer turned to leave Ram Lal undisturbed in the performance +of this last duty to the dead, the merchant, presently assured that he +would be free from intrusion for a time sufficient for his ostensible +purposes, approached the body, tore aside the delicate fabric, which +covered the breast, and with surprising dexterity released the +fastenings which held the jacket to the body, wrenched it away with +desperate haste, and in an incredibly short time had secured this +treasure-trove around his own loins beneath the folds of his linen. + +"Then, with a grin of malignant triumph, he murmured: 'This is more +speedy, O prince, than pebbles for diamonds--and now for Lal Lu.' + +"With this the merchant darted to the hangings from which the prince had +issued with such desperate purpose, cast them ruthlessly aside, hurried +along the passageway, shouting as he speeded: 'Lal Lu--Lal Lu!' + +"A joyful cry responded. + +"'Here, father, here!' and Lal Lu, who had recognized her father's call, +rushed toward the entrance just as the merchant crossed its threshold, +and in a moment she was enfolded in his protecting embrace." + + * * * * * + +"Is that all?" asked Raikes as the Sepoy paused. + +"Isn't it enough?" laughed the narrator. "The villain punished, the +righteous rewarded, the maiden rescued. It seems to me that all the +proprieties are preserved." + +"True," assented Raikes. "You are to be congratulated upon your +consistency. But as usual your art is a bit too refined. You still +discontinue with a question unsolved." + +"Name it," replied the Sepoy; "perhaps I can clear up the difficulty at +once." + +"Well," returned Raikes, "there is all that wealth concealed about the +person of Ram Lal; I am interested to know if he retained it, to what +use he put it. If it is inconsistent in your narrative to reply to these +questions, waive your formalities for once." + +"Why not?" laughed the Sepoy. "Still, I can only approximate to your +request. There was a report that Ram Lal and his daughter disappeared +shortly after the raid upon the Kutub. + +"It is also said that a dealer in precious stones opened an +establishment on the Strand in London, and that his description +corresponded in so many points with that of Ram Lal that it is safe to +infer that the twain are identical." + +"That is better," sighed Raikes. "I will assume that the report is +correct since it relieves my mind on one point, at any rate. However, +there is one question more: Can you tell me how that substitution was +made?" + +"Pebbles for diamonds?" + +"Yes." + +"To do so requires another story, which I cannot tell you to-night," +replied the Sepoy. "How about to-morrow evening?" + +"If that's the only way?" queried Raikes. + +"It is," the Sepoy assured him. + +"I will be here, then," said Raikes, "but I must leave you now; I will +see you at breakfast-time." + +With this Raikes departed and made his way along the dim passages to his +room. + +Arrived at this point, and taking his customary precautions for the night, +Raikes prepared to retire. + +Since the process involved such little attention to detail in its almost +aboriginal readiness, it was not long before Raikes was tucked away in +his uneasy rest. + +Possibly a half hour later a series of labored snores announced his +successful escape from the disturbing realities of the day and his +stentorian entrance upon more fictitious complications. + +Just across the hallway, in the room occupied by his nephew, conditions +were more animated, for Robert, giving his admiring and somewhat +incredulous attention to the alert Gratz, sat with his eyes bright with +the acknowledgment of the purport of the speaker. + +Just a trace of excitement appeared in the manner of the detective. + +He had witnessed the return of the sleepy Raikes to his room, and was +relieved to be able to assure himself that the miser was altogether +unaware of his presence. + +Gratz was about to provide himself with the confirmation of a theory +which he dared not discuss in advance. + +The possibilities of failure were numerous enough to provide him with +the element of fascination, and its bizarre unfamiliarity piqued his +imagination. + +If he was not mistaken in his calculations, he would be in possession, +before morning, of some interesting data which would make a startling +addition to the criminal records to which his past activities had +contributed. + +The suggestion which stimulated him was the last which would occur to a +wholly sensible man and the first which would be likely to present +itself to a genius for speculation and morbid analysis. + +Consequently silence upon these somewhat abstruse reasonings was his +safeguard against ridicule in the event of failure. + +However, he had intimated to Robert that events would transpire during +the night which would be illuminative, but he could not be persuaded to +indicate to the curious youth just what to expect. + +Whatever was to occur, Robert was assured that he would witness; in +fact, he would be a necessary feature to the mysterious plans of the +detective. + +Stimulated, therefore, by these occult hints and the lively prospect +they introduced, the young man developed a clandestine emotion of weird +anticipation, which he readily accredited to an unsuspected fitness for +intrigue. + +Gratz, in the meantime, having primed the young enthusiast, maintained +an irritating silence, and when an hour had passed in this spiritless +fashion Robert was electrified by the solitary word "Now!" from the lips +of the enigmatical Gratz. + +Unable to comprehend the significance of the subdued exclamation, Robert +nevertheless followed the detective with confiding docility, and the +pair hastened down a flight of stairs which conducted them to the main +hallway. + +From this Gratz proceeded to a door directly beneath the stairway which +they had just traversed, and which opened upon another short series of +steps that concluded in the cellar. + +Descending these, the two hastened along the chill floor and presently +paused by the main coal-bin in which the widow stored her fuel. + +With an impressive injunction to silence, Gratz indicated the course +which Robert was expected to pursue, and in the recess created by a +flight of disused stairs the two secreted themselves. + +It was pitch dark. + +Neither of the watchers could see the other, and communication was only +maintained by the reassuring pressure of the hand of the detective upon +the arm of the excited Robert. + +At last the latter ventured to inquire in a whisper what it was that +Gratz expected to discover. + +"The solution of the puzzle," replied the other in the same tone. + +"The thief?" asked Robert. + +"No, the accessory," was the reply; "but do not ask any further +questions; you will be treated to the surprise of your life in a little +while, unless I am much mistaken." + +Scarcely had the detective uttered these words when the faint click of a +door-latch was borne to their ears from the direction of the stairway +they had just descended. + +The next moment a dim ray of light flickered into the darkness, and a +figure vaguely shadowed its grotesque disproportion on the walls just +behind as it crept, with cautious lightness, step by step down the +stairs. + +At last it reached the floor and moved in the direction of the bin. + +The light, which was furnished by a candle, was raised in the air at +about the height of a man's face, and directly behind it a man's face +appeared. + +"Great heavens!" whispered Robert as the strange figure advanced, "it is +uncle!" + +"Steady, now!" whispered the detective; "not a word or you will ruin +everything." + +Revealed by the weird light, the miserable countenance of the miser had +never looked so contemptible. + +The sputtering flame seemed to have the power to betray all the miserly +emotions and mean parsimonies usually concealed behind its starved +pallor. + +The lips had fallen inanely apart with an absurd look of silly wonder. + +The eyes were wide open and stared directly ahead with the most +unnatural expression or lack of it that Robert had ever beheld in the +visage of mortal man. + +Even the detective, accustomed as he was to all sorts of uncommon +spectacles, could not repress a slight disposition to shudder. + +One bony hand grasped the candlestick, and the other held some sort of +round object, to which Robert directed his attention. + +By the sudden motion he made the detective knew that the young man had +discovered what this object was, and pressed his arm warningly. + +_It was one of the canvas bags from the recess in the wall._ + +Just before the opening of the bin his uncle paused, like a speculative +phantom, as if to consider its next doleful move. + +His entire countenance, upon nearer view, like the canvas which the +painter has roughly outlined, was suggestive of anything, according to +the fancy of the beholder. + +Upon this spiritless blank Robert depicted, with a morbid genius and the +stimulation of his unnatural surroundings, all that was reminiscent of +his uncle's littleness. + +But this uneasy transit from the room upstairs to the bin below, the +vacant, irresponsible ensemble, the inscrutable determination to fulfill +some strange obligation, enforced by what influence or moral unrest he +could not tell, culminated in the mind of the young man in the only +possible explanation: + +His uncle was engaged in the unaware execution of some fixed idea. + +He was responding to an uncontrollable, secret impulse, and Robert, +guiding himself by the touch of his hand in order to locate his lips as +close to the ear of the detective as he might, whispered with +conviction: + +"Somnambulist!" + +"No," replied Gratz--"worse; be silent." + +Amazed and wondering what could possibly be worse, and rummaging through +the garret of all his unusual experiences, Robert could find nothing to +correspond to this inexplicable phenomenon; and it was with a sort of +superstitious distraction that he beheld his uncle discard his transient +hesitation and proceed with ghostly purpose to the opening of the bin. + +Advancing, Raikes placed the candle upon the bed of coals and began to +unfasten the cord which secured the mouth of the bag which he carried. + +Robert had never beheld anything so ghastly as his uncle's eyes, intent +but unseeing; nor so frightful as his motions, direct but +unintelligent, like those of a midnight marionette controlled by +invisible strings. + +In a few moments his efforts were successful, and the incredulous Robert +beheld his uncle invert his precious burden and send a clinking, +intrinsic shower of coin to the floor. + +Apparently this familiar sound had penetrated in some degree to his +inner consciousness. + +An expression of vague uneasiness, of troubled irresolution, clouded his +eyes, but this semi-intellection and its transient phasis subsided to +his original apathy as, with a sigh of helpless impersonality, he began +to collect, with a silly, childish selection, as if to balance, by the +size of the individual coals, the proportion of the discharged gold, +handfuls of these dusky diamonds and substitute the sordid heaps in the +bag. + +This weird absurdity concluded, Raikes, repossessing himself of the +candle, turned wearily and retraced the path of his ghostly journey. + +In a little while his shuffling footfalls had concluded with the doorway +at the top of the cellar stairs, the latch was heard to click into +place, and all was still. + +"Now," whispered Gratz with concentrated emphasis, "not a word--not a +sound from this moment. We have seen the accessory, now for the +principal." + +In reply Robert pressed his hand upon the arm of the detective to +indicate that his instructions were understood and would be obeyed, and +in a silence through which he felt that his heart-throbs must certainly +be audible, the watchers awaited developments. + +The obscurity and silence which prevailed, and the vault-like chill and +dampness, harmonized so fully with the unnatural spectacle which he had +just witnessed, and the grim expectation of something untoward still to +come, that Robert was prepared to reconsider his views of the earlier +portion of the evening as to his fitness for secret investigation and +criminal analysis. + +He no longer felt the exultation of this association with relentless and +cunning pursuit, and began to wonder how any normal human being could +adopt a profession which embraced all these cheerless handicaps when +there were so many occupations into which a little sunlight and +geniality penetrated now and then. + +He had about decided that such industry was the manifestation of a +disease, and that his silent companion was a desperate incurable, when +his diagnosis was suddenly interrupted. + +The detective pressed the shoulders of his companion, communicating a +slight impulse toward the opposite end of the cellar, and Robert, in +obedience to its intimation, turned and beheld an approaching light. + +It had the unreal appearance of a detached eye of some malignant +Cyclops, glancing in a ghastly, bodiless way, from object to object, and +concentrating itself at last in a definite course along the floor. + +To witness the approach of this stealthy, gleam, without visible means +of support or guidance, caused the young man's flesh to creep and his +heart to throb almost to the point of suffocation. + +If it requires experience to become a successful narrator, Robert was +certainly in a way to accumulate a budget of startling data. + +Nothing, hitherto, in his life could explain the marvel, but Gratz, with +trained certainty, knew that he gazed upon the disk of a dark lantern +which, exposing all else to view, shielded, with its distracting flash, +the object of this midnight quest. + +With an assurance that indicated a definite purpose, the figure at last +stood within the door of the coal bin. + +At once the searching gleam began to dance hither and thither upon the +floor, and finally, with unerring pause, fell directly upon the heap of +glittering coin. + +"Ah!" exclaimed a voice. + +In its concentrated emphasis there was the unmistakable accent of +certitude, of expectation gratified. + +The next instant the light was placed upon the floor with a tilt that +sent its rays upon the treasure, and the unknown began to collect the +gold with oblivious haste and bestow it in some receptacle near-by. + +Suddenly Robert felt his companion move forward noiselessly, at the same +time he recognized the intimation of a detaining hand; and then he +stood alone. + +Scarcely had he adjusted himself to these startling conditions when he +heard a sharp, metallic snap, and beheld a sudden flood of light +directed upon the kneeling figure. + +There was a cry of desperate amazement, the quick clink of scattering +coin, and the next instant a wild, rage-distorted face shot into view. + +"My God!" cried Robert. + +It was the Sepoy! + +"Hands up!" commanded a voice which the young man recognized as that of +Gratz; "hands up, or you are a dead man. There are five bullets in +reserve for you if you budge from where you stand." + +With an imprecation that was charged with malignant venom, the Sepoy +looked upon the gleaming barrel of a pistol which was advancing into the +light, recognized his helplessness, and with snarling obedience elevated +his arms in the air. + +"Robert!" called Gratz. + +The young man, trembling, hurried to the opening. + +"Get behind me," directed Gratz; "put your hand in my coat pocket; +you'll find a pair of bracelets there for our friend here." + +With shaking hands Robert followed these sharply delivered instructions, +and withdrew a set of handcuffs, gaping at the fastenings to receive a +pair of guilty wrists. + +"Now move around to the rear of this gentleman," continued the +relentless Gratz, "and snap them on his wrists." + +Somehow Robert managed to obey these commands. + +He reached to the uplifted hands of the Sepoy, embraced his wrists with +the handcuffs, and closed them with a snap. + +(To be continued on Bosom No. 2, Series C.) + +Unknown to himself, Dennis, stimulated by the lively succession of +incidents, had spurred his enunciation in a racy adjustment to these +animated conditions. + +His eyes appeared to have appropriated the sparkle which had intensified +the glance of the Sepoy of whom he had just read, and when he arrived +at the familiar legend at the bottom of the bosom, his expression, vivid +with all these communicated emotions, was duplicated in the sweet, +absorbed face of his bewitching listener, who, in order the better to +follow his rapid utterance, leaned, with the exquisite intoxication of +her presence, in rapt nearness to the reader. + +Consequently, when Dennis looked up from his reading, he was transported +along the highway of a sympathetic glance into deeps of dazzling blue. + +For a moment he abandoned himself to the enchanting witchery with the +dreamful enjoyment of the voluptuary inhaling the odors of a scented +bath. + +He seemed to be on the best of terms with some well-disposed harlequin. + +Scarcely had the excitement of one series of events developed to its +climax when he was whisked to another. + +His providence was working overtime in his behalf, and being at heart +sound and genuine, the weight of his obligations to all these auspices +warned him not to be too prodigal with his privileges; so, with an +effort, the stress of which communicated some of its rigors to his +countenance, he closed his eyes for one ascetic moment and came bravely +to earth again. + +Suspecting something of the nature of his confusion, as a lovely woman +will, and secretly applauding his undemonstrative deference, which, in +the cynical atmosphere to which she was habituated, came to her like a +refreshing zephyr, the widow asked him with an engaging smile of +encouragement: + +"Of what were you thinking, Mr. Muldoon?" + +"Mr. Muldoon!" he repeated to himself with an endeavor to reflect the +intonation of personal distinction which issued so entrancingly from the +Cupid's bow of a mouth. He had not been so ceremoniously addressed since +he knew not when, and never realized that his homely name had such music +in it. "Oh!" he thought, "if she would only say 'Dennis,' it would be +like grand opera." + +"Why," replied Dennis with simple frankness. "I was thinking, for one +thing--for one thing"--but encouraged by her smiling invitation he +stammered--"how beautiful you are!" and added to himself, or it looked +as though he might express his sentiments that way: "There, you've done +it!" + +"Ah!" exclaimed his companion, with a rosy enjoyment of this unstudied +situation and frank appreciation, "and what was the other?" + +"I don't know how to tell you the other," answered Dennis. Then with an +unreflective inspiration: "Did you ever read about Launcelot and +Guinevere?" + +"Ye-yes," was the apprehensive answer. + +"Well," continued Dennis with a naive remembrance only of the chivalry +of this idyllic indiscretion, "when I look at you I can understand how a +knight could battle for a queen." + +There was silence for a moment, but in the interval the lady did not +laugh, though her eyes were bright as she said: + +"You are a strange boy." + +"Oh!" cried Dennis, "tell me, have I offended? I would not do that for +the world." + +"I am sure of that," replied the widow, "and I believe that you mean +what you say." + +"Oh, I do, I do!" exclaimed Dennis impulsively; then, with a realization +of the thin surface over which he was making such rapid strides despite +the danger signals of conventionality, and with a diplomacy born of his +native good sense, he glided, with cheerful Celtic sagacity, to safer +footing by asking abruptly: "May I recommend myself"--as if he had not +already done so--"for the position you offer?" + +"Ah!" exclaimed the widow, from whom no alternation of his mobile +countenance seemed to escape, "it is your turn now; I must not receive +all the honors." + +"Well," replied Dennis, altogether aware of the graceful courtesy of +this exquisite woman, and constituted by nature, if not by past +association, to accord it due appreciation, "well, there isn't much to +say, but here's my outfit: + +"I am sorry to have to begin badly. I don't know anything about flowers. +I can't tell you, even, the difference between a shamrock and a +clover." + +"All that can be easily remedied," his listener reassured him; "but +proceed." + +"But there's one thing I'm sure about," continued Dennis. "You can rely +upon me, an' that's better." + +"It is, indeed," answered the widow. + +"I am anxious to do the best I can for myself," resumed Dennis. "I have +just one way of doing it, and that is to do the best I can for others." + +"That is real business principle," exclaimed his companion, "and very +rare. What else?" + +"I guess that's about all," answered Dennis, "an' it don't sound so very +much, does it?" + +"More than you think," answered the widow. "Now listen to me: + +"I need such service as I hope from you very much. Would you like to +come and help me here?" + +"Oh!" cried Dennis. + +"I am answered," responded his companion, "When can you come?" + +"At once!" cried Dennis--"or no, wait a bit; that wouldn't be fair to +my present employer. But I can tell him to look out for somebody else +right away; surely he can fill my place within a week. Suppose I say +next Monday?" + +"Very well, that will suit," answered the widow; "but you have not asked +me what your salary will be." + +Dennis blushed, and his blush was appreciated. To enjoy the genial +inspiration of such an association would be a perquisite which, other +things being only approximately even, would repair any possible +shortage. + +"Will twenty dollars a week and your board satisfy you for the present?" + +Dennis held his breath and pictured the contrast. + +His present employment brought him just ten dollars and the association +of a barkeeper--would it satisfy him? However, he managed to say, +without too great a show of emotion: "It is more than I expected." + +"Well, then, that point is settled," said the widow with a brisk +business air, which provided such a sharp contrast to her delightful +womanly qualities and caused Dennis to wonder at the graceful +alternation of the one with the other. "Now as to board: In the rear of +the conservatory is a suite of rooms as cozy as any young man could +wish. At the end of the week I expect to have them vacated. + +"They are occupied just now by the manager, but he has already been +notified through my attorney, and all will be in readiness for you by +next Monday. + +"It has been somewhat difficult to make him comprehend my purpose; it is +so different from what he expected. He is incautious enough to demand a +reason." + +"There is one," ventured Dennis boldly, "if I may venture to suggest +it." + +"Surely!" replied the widow, remarking Dennis curiously. + +"Well," replied the young man as he recalled the astonishing array of +details surrounding the death of the aesthetic proprietor, "just enclose +him a note with two words in it." + +"And those?" queried the widow as Dennis paused. + +"Cape Jessamine." + +For a space Dennis feared that he had offended. A shade of depression +darkened the lovely features before him, but his companion looked into +his apprehensive eyes reassuringly as she said: "You have penetration." + +His momentary embarrassment, however, introduced another perturbation, +for in glancing away for an instant to reassemble himself, so to speak, +his eyes fell upon the clock, which at that very moment chimed the hour +of eleven. + +This was startling! + +Dennis was familiar enough with social usage, or, at least, had the +practical good sense to realize that he had exceeded the limits of good +taste by an hour, and began to make disconcerted preparations for +departure. + +Perceiving his embarrassment, his companion relieved him with genial +tact by asking: "And what about bosom No. 2? I want to hear the rest of +that story." + +"Ah!" exclaimed Dennis, brightening, "when shall it be?" + +"How will Wednesday evening suit?" suggested the widow. + +And Dennis, with a mien which plainly indicated that he considered the +time represented in the space that must elapse between the delightful +present and the evening appointed embodied his views of a brief +eternity, assured the widow that he would be on hand, and added: "I will +not read a line until then." + +"Leave the story here, then, and I will put it away until you make your +appearance. I promise, too, that I will not read it in the meantime," +and the widow received the remaining bosoms from Dennis with an +extravagant show of gravity, which caused them both to laugh, in view of +its absurd occasion, as she bestowed them in a music rack and turned to +conduct him to the entrance. + +"Good-by!" she said, and once more extended her hand, which Dennis +received with an unmistakable indication of his appreciation of the +exceptional favor. + +"Good-by!" he responded as he prepared to descend the steps, "good-by!" +and added to himself, with a fervor which conveyed some intimation of +his sentiments if it did not suggest his words: + +"An' may the saints preserve you!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When Dennis retired for the night at The Stag, his transit from his +room, which had never seemed so contracted as now, to the Land of Nod +was somewhat delayed by reason of the exhilarating conditions through +which he had just passed. + +Toward midnight, however, his pulse had resumed its normal, and the +young man, reaching his drowsy destination at last, began a series of +the most surprising horticultural experiments until, what with orchids +as big as a barrel, and geraniums which could be reached only by a +ladder, he had converted the silvery strand of the dreamful domain into +a forest of atrocious color and floral monstrosity. + +Awakening on the succeeding morning, Dennis, accepting the sense of +general lassitude which oppressed him as an indication of the arduous +nature of his efforts in his dreams, began to prepare for the activities +of the day. + +On this occasion he was compelled to attire himself in the shirt which +he had worn on the occasion of his visit the evening before, since his +remaining bosoms, along with his heart, were in the possession of the +beautiful widow. + +But the extravagance of such indulgence did not alarm him now. + +Under the circumstances, what did a shirt more or less matter? + +Was he not about to be admitted into paradise and receive twenty dollars +per week besides? + +"Shirt, ha!" he exclaimed with a touch of Celtic wit; "it's a robe of +white I want." However, he compromised on a new necktie, and almost +ventured the length of patent leathers. + +Stimulated by the prospect of all this beatitude, Dennis proceeded to +the dining-room and revived the spirit of the discouraged waiter by +ordering a liberal breakfast. + +At the conclusion of the meal he further celebrated his disposition to +mortgage providence by the bestowal of a gratuity moderate enough to +renew the waiter's original unflattering estimation. + +Had his father witnessed this imprudence he would have been prepared to +believe that Dennis was under the influence of a danseuse, and the +proportions of the breakfast could only have indicated a determination +to commit suicide by repletion. + +On his way to the street Dennis paused to inform the barman of his +intended departure. + +As an indication of his sentiments at this announcement, the barman, who +was engaged in the mixture of a mysterious decoction, said, as he poured +an amber-colored fluid into the glass: "This wan is fur grief at the +goin', an' this wan"--pouring from another bottle--"is fur good luck +when ye git there," and he pushed the mixture toward Dennis. + +But the young Irishman, remembering his recent experience, declined with +thanks. + +"No?" queried the barman. "Well, an' that's not a bad idea at all. It's +the right sthart fur a bad day an' a bad sthart fur a right wan. 'Tis +th' divil's own way av showin' wan's sintimints." Then, reaching for +the glass, he added: "I'll do th' honors fur th' two av us"; and with +the singular tendency, so often noted under such circumstances, to +swallow with haste that which it required such trouble to prepare, the +barman bolted the contents of the glass and looked his appreciation +through moist eyes. + +As Dennis neared the establishment of his employer, he recalled his +obligation. + +He must begin the day by informing the foreman of his changed +intentions. + +He disliked the idea of the possible friction involved in the +performance of this disagreeable duty, but there seemed to be no other +way out of the dilemma. + +His announcement, however, was to be less embarrassing than he +anticipated. + +His providence was about to take a short nap. + +As he approached the foreman, he discovered that individual, several +degrees less breezy than usual, engaged in an animated conversation with +a young man whose prevailing expression was so penitential that Dennis, +with prompt Celtic intuition, decided that he was gazing upon his +predecessor in office. + +He was assured of this by the glance of belligerent appraisement with +which the young fellow surveyed him from head to foot, in response to +some suggestive indication from the foreman. + +He seemed, to the apprehensive eyes of Dennis, to be calculating his +chances in the event of a physical contest. + +And this recalled what the foreman had said about his biceps. + +"You want to see me?" queried the latter with an expression in which the +sunshine seemed overdue. + +"Yes," answered Dennis as his employer stepped aside to hear what he had +to say. + +As Dennis proceeded the look of perplexity which he had noted upon the +face of his listener seemed to give way to one of unmistakable relief, +and when Dennis had stated his case he exclaimed: "Shure, now, it's an +aisy way out av a bad muss, so it is. Here, Phil!" he shouted, turning +to the young fellow in the background, who had witnessed this brief +interview with scowling interest, "here, you two can t'row th' gloves +down an' shake; Muldoon here wants to hand yure job back to ye." + +At this announcement, the disfavor in the countenance of the other +disappeared and was replaced by an expression which indicated that he +regarded such liberality as something in the nature of a freak. + +Some evidences of his debauch still clung to him. + +His eyes were moist and heavy-lidded; his lips dry and tremulous, and +the hand which he extended to Dennis shook somewhat. + +"Come, now!" exclaimed the foreman, "that's well over"; and addressing +the one he called Phil he added: "Now get to work." + +Dennis looked his astonishment. + +He had not calculated upon such a prompt acceptance of his resignation. +He felt that he presented an absurd appearance, and that the foreman did +not appear to his usual bluff advantage. + +"Come this way," said the latter to Dennis, who followed him into his +office with a strange sinking at heart. + +"I did not mean to hand over everything right off!" exclaimed Dennis. + +"Well," replied the foreman, "Phil's wife came here early this mornin' +an' put up a few tears, an' Phil made all sorts av promises; an' you +have no children an' he has, an--oh, the divil!" cried the foreman, +weary of the series of explanations in which he was getting involved. "I +can't kape th' two av ye, an' Phil there is an ould hand at th' +paint-pot." + +"Then," cried Dennis, "you mean that I must leave at once?" + +"That's about th' size of it." + +"Why," exclaimed Dennis, indignant at this injustice, "I tried to be +fair with you, and you haven't----" + +"Here," interrupted the foreman, in evident haste to conclude a +disagreeable interview; "there's no use talking about it, it's got to be +done"; and turning to a drawer in the desk he extracted Monday's pay and +placed it in the young man's hand. + +At that moment a burly porter filled up the doorway. + +"What is it?" asked the foreman, glad of the interruption, as he +hastened, with unnecessary and suspicious promptness, to attend to the +wants of the intruder. + +In a little while Dennis realized that he waited in vain for the return +of the foreman, and that, in so far as he was concerned, he was out of a +job. + +Dennis had been, at various times in his life, subjected to some rugged +experiences, but could not recall any treatment quite so heartless as +this. + +It upset all his calculations. + +He must exist somehow between the unhappy realities of the present and +the blissful expectations of the approaching Monday. + +He recalled, with the self-accusation of a repentant prodigal, his +needlessly elaborate breakfast, the extravagance of the necktie. + +His return led him past the cheap amusement district of the Bowery. + +Never had their tawdry invitations seemed so alluring. + +By that singular perversity which opens up every suggestion of riotous +expenditure to destitution, the poor fellow felt inclined to indulge +himself regardless. + +An obese nymph pictured in the foam of a beer sign, apparently +elaborated with a whitewash brush and finished in the throes of an +epileptic fit, solicited a share of his patronage. + +Long rows of slot machines offered all sorts of libidinous suggestions +in placards, which proposed to debauch his morals for a penny a sight. + +And with absurd propriety a vender of shoddy jewels presented the chance +of his lifetime in bizarre decoration. + +But somehow Dennis reached Broadway at last, and faced the unpleasant +prospect of the next few days with despairing calculation. + +As Dennis looked up and down this busy thoroughfare, with its thousands +speeding oppositely in preoccupied interest, as if all that was vital +and worthy was to be found at either extreme of its splendid distances, +he paused for a moment to account his meager finances. + +He found that he possessed just four one-dollar bills and about eighty +cents in small change. + +Since he was compelled to pay a half dollar each night in advance for +his lodgings, a little over two dollars would remain to him. + +With rigid economy and almost miserly abstemiousness this sum would +suffice for his meals, unless he developed a mania for Delmonico's, and +for his carfare, provided he did not venture outside the possibilities +of the elevated. + +As he was about to return his resources to his pocket there was a rattle +and clamor up the street, and looking in that direction he beheld a +glittering engine, drawn by a splendid team of white horses, speed along +with plunging dash and portent rumble. + +Along the sidewalk directly in his rear the usual mob of men and boys +who have nothing more to do apparently than to attend fires and scramble +with a morbid curiosity to behold the misery of some victim of accident, +ran in scuffling uproar. + +With a pathetic realization of his own idleness, Dennis turned to join +the speeding throng, when suddenly he became aware of a desperate clutch +at his hand, heard the rattle of scattering change at his feet, and +felt the bills which he held slip away from his grasp and disappear in +the rush. + +It was over in a second. Apparently no one noticed him or his loss. He +was as abandoned as the unfortunate marooned by rushing waters; as +unheeded as a lame lamb in the multitude of the flock. + +Not a head turned, and by the time he realized precisely what had +happened and prepared to give chase to the thief, a score of other men +and boys formed an unconscious barricade between the unfortunate boy and +the rogue. + +His suddenly created interest in the fire vanished and was replaced by +the despair of his own disaster. + +The nap of his providence was developing into a sound slumber, and since +this deity never gets up before noon Dennis had still two hours of +despair before him. + +And what despair! + +Of his pitiful hoard of a few moments since only a few dimes and nickels +remained. + +And just across the street was the Third National Bank with barrels of +them. + +The whimsies of the contrast almost amused him; but there was not enough +of the Tapley about him to detect its humor. + +Again he counted his resources. + +Fifty-eight cents! + +He could lodge to-night, at any rate, and dine on one of those sidewalk +pretzels. + +"The darkest hour is just before the dawn." Dennis tried to cheer +himself with this reflection, but the only dawn upon which he could +calculate was five days off. + +In vain the poor fellow adjured his brains for some homely suggestion, +some meager inspiration. + +Nothing responded but his destitution, like the echo of a groan; and +through such mental straits he arrived, at last, at The Stag. + +He decided that he would do nothing radical until the following day. + +He could afford a night's rest, at least, and that might revive his +numbed faculties. + +As he reached the office he glanced at the proprietor. + +Could he persuade that cynical-visaged individual to trust him until he +received his first week's pay? + +Would he be credited if he related his prospects? + +As a measure in this assurance, would not the proprietor feel justified +in calling upon the widow for indorsement of the statement of the young +man? + +This would never do. + +He could not endure the humiliation of such a revelation. + +The poor fellow got little encouragement from the face of the +proprietor. + +This was suspicious and hard. It had scarcely the perfunctory smile of +the professional boniface. + +The prospect of having to address that forbidding ensemble was +disheartening. + +Suddenly his reflections were interrupted. + +The proprietor waved a beckoning hand to him. + +Dennis hurried to the desk. + +"A letter for you," said the proprietor, as he placed in the young man's +hand an envelope addressed in a handwriting which he recognized at +once. + +"'Dennis Muldoon'; yes, that's mine," and hastening to an unoccupied +seat in a remote portion of the office, Dennis hastily opened the +envelope and withdrew a short letter, and--ye gods! was it possible?--a +postal order for twenty-five dollars. + + Philadelphia. + + DEAR DENNIS: + + It's a hard row you have to hoe, I'm a-think-in', and it's a bad + spot you have to hoe it in. I know New York of old, and it's a + lonesome place for a poor lad. + + I send you the week's wages due you, and an extry five to come + back with in case your dreams don't come true. + + I've got over my mad, my boy, and I'll be glad to see you. + + Run over annyhow; it's a dull place without you. The mother misses + you bad. + + Come Saturday if you can; I've got a business proposition I want + to make. + + Tell me how you're getting on, annyway. + + THE OLD MAN. + +"Oh, ho!" cried Dennis. His providence was wide awake now, had made its +toilet, and was ready for business. + +For a long while Dennis sat with the letter in his hand, gazing, with +unseeing eyes, upon its eccentric chirography. + +His exultation had not fully materialized. + +To grope in the valley of despair one moment and skip along the summit +of beatitude the next was a little too much for immediate comprehension. + +Somewhat in the manner of the metaphysician, he was inclined to believe, +since his misfortune was no longer a reality, that his prosperity might +be equally immaterial, and in unaware corroboration he made a minute +tear in the edge of the postal order to establish its tangibility. + +In the evening, influenced perhaps by his comparative weal, Dennis +decided that he would purchase a ticket to the Olympus, and climbing the +rear approach to that elevation, found himself seated shortly with the +gallery gods, viewing with uncritical contrasts the relative merits of +the clown, the harlequin and the columbine. + +Between the acts his roving glance found a sudden destination and his +elation went into abrupt decline, for seated in one of the boxes, her +glass surveying the house in all sorts of disconcerting directions, sat +the beautiful widow. + +Instinctively Dennis crouched into his seat. + +Fortunately he was able by thus collapsing within himself, to escape the +radius of her vision, which was interrupted by the railing extending +around the balcony. + +It would never do to be discovered in his present situation. The +elevation was degrading, and Dennis understood the unhappy paradox. + +It emphasized the social distinctions too much, and caused the distance +from where he sat to the placid beauty below to appear immeasurable. + +But this was not the least of his perturbations. + +Near the widow a gentleman sat, solicitous, engaging, persistent. + +A certain air of distinction rendered doubly obnoxious the assumption of +proprietorship which Dennis believed he remarked, and while the young +man was able to comfort himself with the discovery that his bewitching +companion devoted more attention to the stage and the house than to her +escort, still, as Dennis contemplated the faultless attire of the +gentleman in the box and contrasted it with his own modest apparel, he +felt unaccountably depressed. + +All this was revealed by the furtive glances which the young Irishman +ventured over the gallery rail. + +A strange foreboding overwhelmed him. + +The bewildering tinsel of the stage no longer diverted, and he would +have been astonished to analyze the reason why. + +As the last curtain fell and Dennis was no longer able to adjust his +gloomy contemplation to incongruous orchestration, he hastened from the +theater, scrambled down the precipitate stairs and hastened to The Stag. + +It was midnight before he slept, and scarcely morning when he awoke. + +He dressed himself like an automaton, and breakfasted like an anchorite. + +He left the hotel without his personal knowledge, and traversed half the +length of Broadway without volition. His mind was making the visit in +advance of the appointed time, and his torpid body alone observed the +social usages. + +By noon the patent leathers were a reality; by six-thirty he had assumed +a clean shirt and his new necktie. + +When the clock struck seven he hastened to the elevated; a half hour +later found him parading the street opposite the conservatory, and at +eight he arrived with a promptness which, persistently observed, +commends a young man to a junior partnership. + +When the widow finally presented herself, Dennis was more than ever +convinced, by the richness of her attire, that the business must be in a +flourishing condition. + +For some unknown reason the beautiful woman was dressed entirely in +black with the exception of some exquisite traceries in white about her +throat and wrists. + +Had his life depended upon it Dennis could never have described the +fabric of her gown. + +He only knew that it was distinguished by a sort of subdued sheen; that +it rustled with an entrancing swish and suggestion of femininity as she +moved, and that it was adjusted to her shapely figure as though her +delightful personality had been moulded into it. + +A slim wonder of a white hand was extended to him, a bright smile +illumed her bewildering eyes and bent the Cupid bow of her lips into a +curve which sent an intangible arrow into the young man's heart as she +said with musical simplicity: + +"I am glad to see you." + +To this Dennis made no direct reply. + +His eyes gleamed their idealized eloquence, however; his attitude +presented unmistakable shades of deference, and to save himself further +revelation he collapsed into the chair indicated by his hostess. + +Apparently the widow extracted the same enjoyment from these ingenuous +acknowledgments as ever, for she did not immediately resume the +conversation. + +Fortunately, Dennis assembled himself, so to speak, and realized his +psychological moment. + +"Shure," he said as he became aware of his involuntary self-revelations, +"'shure, an' you would know that I am glad to see you if I was deaf and +dumb." + +The widow laughed heartily at this, as she replied: + +"I'm afraid that you have kissed the blarney stone, Mr. Muldoon." + +Having no response for this, Dennis substituted: "I saw you at the +theater last night," and a palpable degree of joy left his countenance +at the announcement. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the widow, regarding him curiously. "Where were you?" + +"In th' lobby," replied Dennis unblushingly. + +"What did you think of the performance?" asked his companion after a +moment. + +Dennis looked her directly in the eyes with the light of inspiration in +his glance as he said: + +"I did not see it." + +The widow gazed at the young man for one searching moment, reddened +slightly, and, rising, proceeded to the music rack, from which she +extracted bosoms Nos. 2 and 3. + +"Suppose we read the story," was her reply. + +As the widow extended the bosoms toward him, Dennis could not avoid the +thought which had presented itself to him on the day before, that this +woman had not only two bosoms of his in her possession, but his heart as +well; and a certain degree of the animation of this reflection found its +way into his eyes. + +"Well," inquired this observing woman, "what is it?" + +Dennis flushed as he replied: "I'll tell you by-and-by," and added: +"Will you do me a great favor?" + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"Why," answered Dennis, "I would like to hear you read bosom No. 2." + +"Why?" + +"Well," replied the young man, with a sincerity that was unmistakable, +"I think it would sound like a song then." + +"Very well," she assented, "let me have it"; and with a voice that +reflected, to this young man's ears, at least, at one moment the +rippling of silver brooks, the trill of woodbirds, the sigh of zephyrs +scented with daffodils, and the next the full, round resonance of an +animated day in June, she read: + + * * * * * + +"Now!" exclaimed Gratz as the familiar click assured him that the +handcuffs were in place, "now you can lower your hands and come over +here." + +As the Sepoy advanced into the light, Gratz instructed Robert to pick up +the remaining coins and restore them to the bag. + +During all this time the Sepoy had not uttered a word, but his fierce +eyes, which stared with savage intentness in the direction of the disk +of light, from the rear of which issued that implacable voice, were +vital with rage and impotent menace. + +As he gazed thus with his distorted countenance concentrated into a look +of bitter speculation in his futile attempt to discover by whom he was +addressed in this tone of insolent authority, there was something +frightful in the quest and uncertainty of the disturbed features. + +An unnatural luster, partly the reflection of his somber eyes and partly +from the tawny hue of his saturnine visage, added an inexpressible +degree of malignant rancor to his expression. + +His hands, which he was compelled by the manacles to hold directly in +front of him in an absurd travesty of penitential clasp, gripped each +other in his consuming resentment until the tendons of his wrist stood +out with the tense distinction of whipcords. + +While Robert was engaged in restoring the coins to the bag, the only +sound came from the derisive click and fall of the gold-pieces as they +chinked their mockery into the ears of the raging prisoner. + +As the last coin joined its fellows a neighboring clock chimed the hour +of two. + +"Good!" exclaimed Gratz; "there is time to settle this business before +morning"; and turning to the Sepoy he added: "I will trouble you to +precede me to your room." + +There was something unreal in the silence which the Sepoy still +maintained and the enforced apathy with which he proceeded to obey +these instructions, and Robert, unaccustomed to such episodes as this, +in which he was a contributing factor, was more affected than if he had +witnessed some violent demonstration or listened to a raging +vituperation. + +The transit of the trio from the cellar to the apartment of the Sepoy +was effected without attracting further regard, and the balance of the +boarders slept away in snoring oblivion and provided another instance of +the frail partition which separates the violent from the placid. + +Arrived at the room of their swarthy prisoner, Gratz provided the +uncomfortable Robert with the relief he required by instructing him to +hasten to his uncle and summon him to the scene, and to avoid giving him +any of the details of what had transpired. + +Glad to escape the depression of the gloomy vicinity, and the unabashed +directness of the Sepoy's glance, the young man hurried away. + +If the terrible concentration which the Sepoy resumed, with his luminous +eyes upon the countenance of the detective, affected the latter, there +was certainly no such evidence. + +It was as dull and lifeless as ever; the eyelids had fallen to their +accustomed suggestion of ambush, and it seemed scarcely possible that +the sharp directions of a few moments since could issue from such +flaccid lips, and so much determination could dominate such an +insignificant figure. + +Apparently exasperated by the undemonstration of this negative aspect, +the Sepoy was near the limit of his repression. + +The lines about his lips relaxed somewhat, the pupils of his eyes +reduced their staring diameter, and his head was inclined forward a +trifle. + +Gratz concluded that his companion had decided to speak. + +He was not mistaken. + +"Can I be spared the humiliation of meeting that old dotard you have +sent for?" + +"I do not see how," replied Gratz. + +"What do you gain by it?" asked the Sepoy. + +"I cannot tell that in advance; possibly nothing," replied Gratz. + +"That is likely," replied the Sepoy quietly. + +"We shall see," exclaimed the detective. "I am working out a theory; I +need the assistance of all concerned." + +"Look at me!" exclaimed the Sepoy abruptly. "I will credit you with +being something of a physiognomist. Do you see any evidences of +determination in my face?" + +"And if I do?" queried Gratz. + +"Only this," was the reply: "No matter what your object may be, I will +oppose it with all the resolution and dexterity at my command, if you +conduct your inquiries as you contemplate." + +In reply Gratz offered an exasperating shrug of the shoulders. + +"There is no mystery to be solved," he said. "I have no further facts to +discover; I know that you have managed to secure three separate bags of +coin from Raikes, and I am aware of your process." + +"If you know all this," replied the other with curious calmness, "why do +you----" + +The question was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. + +"Now!" exclaimed Gratz, as if with sudden determination, "I will try to +grant your request in part. Retire into your bedchamber, leave the door +open, and listen. + +"I will place Raikes and his nephew where they cannot see you, but I +will sit here where I can note your slightest move." + +The Sepoy arose hastily and entered the bedchamber, seating himself +according to the direction of the detective. + +At that moment there was a knock upon the door. + +In answer to the salutation of the detective Raikes and his nephew +entered. + +Seating themselves in the chairs indicated, they awaited with intense +curiosity the proceedings of this enigmatical man. + +Noting the alert questioning in the eyes of the young man, and the +half-awakened inquiry in the sordid countenance of Raikes, Gratz, in +order to prevent the intrusion of any disturbing remark upon his present +purpose, said impressively: + +"I must ask you both to listen without interruption. When I want you to +speak I will question you"; and fastening his strange eyes upon the +blinking Raikes, he added: "Now we will proceed. + +"You have lost four bags of coin." + +"Three!" corrected Raikes, despite his instructions to silence. + +"Pardon me," continued Gratz, "and please do not interrupt. I said +four--and here is the fourth," and he pointed to the bag upon the table. + +The miser's jaw dropped helplessly, and he stared at the bag with a +superstitious terror. + +"But," continued Gratz, "what seems so incredible to you is merely the +logical outcome of a cunningly established sequence," and the speaker +shot an incredibly quick glance at the silent figure in the adjoining +room. + +"Now attend me closely. + +"During the last few evenings you have heard some very curious +narratives." + +Raikes nodded with gloomy corroboration. + +"A series of well-arranged events have introduced a startling +episode--the substitution of pebbles for diamonds." + +Again Raikes nodded. + +"At this point in the narrative the first instalment concludes. Am I +right?" + +"Yes," answered Raikes. + +"Then," continued Gratz, "you went directly to your room; you retired. +In the morning you are prompted, with more than your usual eagerness, to +open your private safe." + +"Right!" exclaimed Raikes in indorsement of this relentless resume. + +"You find the locks undisturbed; the contents apparently as you left +them on retiring. Some difference in the conformity of one of the bags +urges a nearer examination. You discover that this indicates a +difference in the contents. You grasp it; it comes away in your hands +with startling lightness. You discharge its deposit upon the table--a +shower of coals follows." + +"Yes, yes!" stammered Raikes with impatient eagerness. + +"Well, you are convinced, by an examination of the fastenings of the +door, an inspection of the window, that no human being could have +effected an entrance from either direction. + +"The next evening is a repetition of the history of the night before. + +"The strange Indian narrative, another gem to examine--an additional +loss on the succeeding morning." + +Raikes nodded savagely. + +"On the following night the same unhappy series of events occur, +followed by the loss of the third bag." + +"But why all this again?" inquired Raikes. + +"That concerns me," exclaimed the detective with another rapid glance at +the undemonstrative figure in the next room. "You must follow my +instructions or you will conclude as badly as you have begun. Now," +continued Gratz, "it is incredible to me that, with the astuteness with +which you are credited, that having such a good standpoint to begin +with, you did not proceed upon that basis." + +"I?" questioned the astonished Raikes. "What standpoint had I?" + +"Elimination," replied Gratz. + +"Several puzzling possibilities were retired permanently. + +"Recall the details as we have enumerated them: An impossible door; the +window equally out of the question; the substitution of the coals for +the coin. + +"It is very simple. The outside agency unfeasible, we must look within. +There is but one conclusion----" + +"And that?" interrupted Raikes. + +"An accessory." + +"Ah!" cried Raikes, "unthinkable!" + +"Not at all," replied Gratz; "there was an accessory--yourself!" + +At this announcement Raikes seemed about to collapse into his original +helplessness. The facts of his losses were extraordinary enough, but +this was too much. + +But Gratz hurried on, explained the unconscious visits of his astounded +hearer to the cellar, and all that followed. + +"Then," exclaimed Raikes, when he had concluded, "I have been the victim +of hypnotic suggestion." + +"Precisely!" replied Gratz. "The story was merely the medium of +transmission, and through this weird conduit the story-teller conveyed +his instructions to your subconsciousness." + +"But," demanded Raikes, "why this substitution of coals? It strikes me +that a scheme so clever as all this would scarcely be jeopardized by +such an absurdity." + +"That contingency," answered Gratz, "was never intended. In your +condition of mind, having discharged the coin upon the floor of the bin, +a mental idiosyncrasy of years insisted upon recognition. + +"In some inexplicable way you retained enough of your mental identity to +preserve some manifestation of the law of equivalents. In other words, +having parted with something, you demanded something in return. + +"With as much deliberation, therefore, as you manifested in contributing +to your loss, you attempted to reimburse yourself by filling the bag +with coal. + +"In some occult way you assured yourself that you were engaged in a +transaction where one commodity took the place of another. + +"To this freak of mentality the idea of the pebbles in the story being +substituted for the diamonds contributed; and what was intended by the +narrator as a consistency of detail, to be explained later on, made an +unforeseen appeal to your native cupidity and provided me with a very +satisfactory clue. + +"Moreover, the narrator assisted himself by allowing you to contemplate +some brilliants--a sapphire, a diamond. + +"In such demonstrations a centralizing object is an almost indispensable +adjunct; and putting the two together, the stories, the brilliants, it +is not difficult to see that you have received your instructions in the +manner indicated, and obeyed them with unexpected consistency." + +For a moment there was silence, which was sharply disturbed by an +unexpected and apparently unsuggested query from Gratz. + +"Were you ever," he asked, looking directly at Raikes, "in this +apartment during the absence of its occupant?" + +"No!" stammered Raikes, apparently very much astonished at the question. + +"You lie!" + +Raikes and his nephew sprang to their feet, their eyes bulging in the +direction of the bedroom. + +In the doorway stood the Sepoy. + +"You lie!" he repeated, "you miserable husk, you! You were here one +evening in my absence, or, at least, what you supposed was my absence," +and raising his manacled hands the speaker pointed to the closet. "I was +there," he said. + +"Ah--ah!" faltered Raikes chokingly. + +"And now," continued the Sepoy, "let us get to the end of this business. +It ought to be a simple proceeding. You want three missing bags of gold; +they will be forthcoming on one condition." + +"And what is that?" cried Raikes, beginning to withdraw into himself as +if he expected a sharp bargain. + +"That you leave the details of the transaction in the hands of this +gentleman," answered the Sepoy, pointing to Gratz. "You had better +consent," he added as he analyzed the hesitation of the startled Raikes, +"or I shall describe, with photographic minuteness, all that occurred in +the few short moments of your visit." + +Raikes regarded Gratz helplessly. + +During all this conversation the detective had been doing some rapid +thinking and had decided upon his course, so nodding to Raikes, he said: +"Leave the matter to me; I will restore your coin to you in the morning. +See that neither of you leaves the house until then, or speak to a soul +before I see you." + +Whatever objections may have been forming in the mind of the miser were +quickly dissipated by a look from the Sepoy, and without another word +Raikes and his nephew departed. + +"Well," inquired Gratz, when the two were again alone, "what have you to +say to me that you do not want Raikes to hear?" + +"You will know shortly," replied the Sepoy after a few moments of +reflection, with his eyes directed upon the handcuffs. "I do not have to +resort to your elaborate reasoning to discover the nature of your +profession. These," holding up his hands, "are unmistakable." + +"Yes," answered Gratz drily, "they require no trope or metaphor to +illustrate their application." + +"However," continued the Sepoy, "I have just listened to the deductions +of an unusual acumen for analysis along abstract lines." + +Gratz bowed his acknowledgments. + +"That is simple," he said, "when there is such a liberal supply of +data." + +"True," responded the Sepoy. "That was an oversight on my part. Still, +your constructive application, too, is no less convincing." + +"But to what does all this lead?" inquired Gratz with a degree of +impatience. "Suppose we admit that there is an exquisite balance +maintained between my analysis and my synthesis, and have done with it. +You have some appeal to make to one or both of these faculties." + +"Your penetration is the peer of your reasoning. Listen: Will you do me +the favor of assuming that your comprehensive resume of a few moments +ago is all I care to hear on the subject?" asked the Sepoy. + +"I understand," replied Gratz. + +"Very well, then," continued the Sepoy. "I will extend to you the +courtesy of offering no denial to anything you have said." + +"That," laughed Gratz, "is the height of affability, under the +circumstances; but proceed." + +"Good!" responded the Sepoy. "I have a suggestion to make. It is +understood, in the first place, that Raikes is to recover his coin; on +that point he will be fully satisfied. But there still remains the +recognition of your services to him; you will have more difficulty in +convincing him of his obligation than you had in persuading me of your +acumen." + +"Ah!" murmured Gratz; "it is coming." + +"Are you any judge of brilliants?" inquired the Sepoy abruptly. + +"Somewhat," answered Gratz; "I have seen a few in my time." + +"Well," continued the Sepoy, "kindly put your hand in my right vest +pocket and withdraw a small case of shagreen which you will find there." + +Gratz obeyed. + +"Now," continued the Sepoy, "press the spring." + +As Gratz complied with this instruction, the lid of the shagreen case +flew open and revealed the superb sapphire which had radiated such +insidious depravity into the mind of the miser. + +"What do you think of that?" inquired the Sepoy. + +For a moment or so Gratz did not reply. The mastery of its cutting, its +magnificent bulk, its unrivaled purity overwhelmed him. "I have never +seen one like it," he said finally, "if it is genuine." + +"Oh, you need not doubt it!" exclaimed the Sepoy, "or, if you do, you +can assure yourself on that point. Now follow me. Six bags of Raikes' +coin could not buy that." + +"You set its value high," suggested Gratz. + +"Naturally; its like does not exist. Money has never been able to +purchase it. There is just one consideration I can accept for it." + +"And that?" inquired Gratz as the Sepoy paused. + +"A lapse of memory," replied the Sepoy. + +"A lapse of memory!" repeated Gratz. + +"Yes. Unlock these handcuffs and forget that you have done so." + +A sudden irradiation seemed to shoot from the gem. It was the impulse +communicated by the trembling hand of the detective, who, either to +conceal the flush that was gradually transforming his pallid face, or +from his reluctance to remove his gaze, continued to hold the brilliant +in much the same oblivious regard as that bestowed upon it by the +unhappy Raikes. + +Gratz was having the struggle of his life. + +The veins fretted through his temples with frightful distinction; his +forehead was moist with a profuse perspiration; his breath labored with +intermittent entrance and egress. + +His well-known apathy, his exasperating negation of demeanor, where were +they now? + +Gradually, however, in the manner of disheartened stragglers whipped +again into the firing line, there shadowed in his expression evidences +of moral recovery which the Sepoy did not like. + +The professional instincts of the detective, reinspired by his better +nature, were making some very obvious appeals. + +The eclat of this singular case beckoned. He seemed to brace himself +morally and physically as he leaned back in his chair and again looked +at his desperate companion. + +At once the Sepoy, upon whom no vestige of this mental tumult was lost, +again restored the ebbing temptation to its flood by exclaiming: + +"Here is a more convincing reason still," and raising his hands to his +breast, in order to give the detective easier access to the point +designated beneath his arms, he said: "Reach into the pocket on the +left." + +For a moment Gratz hesitated. If he had found the first subsidy +difficult to refuse, how might he resist the second, or, he added to +himself, with a sort of usurious exaltation, the depravity of the two +combined? + +Curiosity, too, without which no detective is truly fit for his calling, +moved him, so with the impatient impulse we so often witness when +rectitude is about to subject itself to the persuasions of the evil one +for the ostensible purpose of combating them and the private +determination to yield, Gratz extended a trembling hand toward the +Sepoy, who had drawn himself to the extreme limit of his sinewy height, +the better to accommodate his figure to the intent search of the +detective, and then---- + +Just as Gratz managed to insert his trembling fingers over the edge of +the pocket rim, a pair of tense, sinewy hands shot upward and with +incredible dexterity encircled the throat of the detective. + +The surprise was complete. + +The hands of the unfortunate man flew out wildly, grasping at nothing, +and the next instant closed upon the wrists of the Sepoy. + +But the recoil was too late. The frightful grasp concentrated its deadly +pressure. + +The livid face of the detective grew purple. His eyes seemed about to +bulge from their sockets. His grip relaxed from the wrists of his +antagonist, and then all vigor seemed to vanish from his body, and he +sank inertly to the floor. + +As the malignant Sepoy bestowed the stiffening body upon the carpet, he +released his horrible clutch upon the detective's throat, and, despite +his manacles, began with desperate agility to search the silent man's +waistcoat pockets. + +From one futile quest his implacable hands leaped to another, the length +of chain which held the two handcuffs together rattling an eerie +accompaniment to his eagerness. + +At last he withdrew a tiny key. + +Grasping the precious bit of steel in his right hand the Sepoy inserted +it in the latch-hole of the left manacle; a quick turn, and the steel +clasp relaxed its obnoxious embrace. + +It was but the work of a second to repeat these operations on his right +arm, and the Sepoy was free. + +"Ha!" The breath seemed to whistle from his lungs with one sharp, +exulting impulse. + +He stretched his superb figure to its utmost, and with the smile of a +re-embodied Lucifer restored the sapphire to its case. + +For a brief space he gazed upon the man extended upon the floor, and +then, urged by some devilish impulse, if one might judge from the +expression of his countenance, he knelt by the prostrate body and placed +his ear to the pulseless breast. + +The next instant, stimulated, apparently, by some unexpected endorsement +of a vague possibility, he was upon his feet and had darted to a small +cabinet near-by. + +His hasty foray among its drawers was rewarded with a small bottle, the +stopper of which he removed. + +With a quick motion of the head to escape the full force of the pungent +odor of ammonia which issued, the Sepoy returned to the unfortunate +Gratz, and wetting the tip of his handkerchief with a few drops from the +vial, he passed it gently to and fro under the nostrils of the +detective. + +Repeating these maneuvers several times, the Sepoy believed that he +remarked a faint twitching of the eyelids. + +At this manifestation he seized a sheet of paper and directed a mimic +breeze upon the drawn face. + +Again he attempted an enforced inhalation of the strong odor, this time +from the bottle itself. + +The result was startling. + +There was a scarcely perceptible attempt to turn the head; a spasmodic +throb in the throat. + +Renewing his efforts with the paper, the Sepoy, encouraged by what he +saw, placed his arms beneath the body and lifted it to a semi-reclining +attitude, so that it rested, with a tilt forward, against a chair-arm. + +From the table the evilly-smiling man took the handcuffs, and grasping +the unresisting arms of the unfortunate Gratz, bent them with cruel +force until the hands met behind the gradually stiffening back. + +There was a sharp click, and the next instant the manacles embraced the +wrists of the detective. + +Again the Sepoy placed the bottle so that a concentration of the +stinging odor, which by now permeated the atmosphere of the entire room, +could attack the sensitive nasal membranes more directly, and +unmistakable evidences of imminent reanimation quickened the twitching +features. + +Again he lifted the uneasy figure and placed it upon the reclining +chair, into which it collapsed helplessly with a nerveless huddle. + +A few minutes more of alternate fan and bottle resulted in the opening +of the eyes and the utterance of a choking gasp. + +Assured now, the Sepoy rushed to the bedroom, threw aside the coverlets +and possessed himself of one of the sheets. + +With the aid of his pocket-knife he ripped this into several lengths, +with which he returned to the rapidly reviving Gratz. + +In his grim struggle for reanimation the firm lines about the mouth of +the unfortunate man had finally relaxed, and into this ugly opening the +Sepoy inserted a strip of the sheet and secured it in a rigid knot +behind the neck of his victim. + +With a few dexterous turns and knots he bound the body to the chair with +the remaining lengths of linen, and hastening to the washstand grasped a +water pitcher and deluged the face of the now thoroughly awakened Gratz. + +From the look in his eyes it was evident that his senses had not only +fully returned, but that he was perfectly aware of the changed +conditions and their relative humiliations. + +For a moment an expression vaguely suggestive of admiration shadowed +through the slightly flushed countenance, and the next instant it +returned to its customary apathy, from which it was not again disturbed +during the bitter ordeal to which the helpless Gratz was subjected. + +"And now," exclaimed the Sepoy with a frightful grin of malice, "I trust +that your senses are sufficiently restored to receive a farewell +suggestion or two. You will notice," he went on with evil emphasis, +"that I say 'farewell suggestions,' for I assure you that you will never +set eyes on me again. + +"A little previous to the change which resulted in your present +predicament, I extended to you the courtesy of all sorts of tribute to +your acumen. + +"Now--note my liberality--I do not insist upon a reciprocal indorsement +of my dexterity, since I see"--pointing to the gag which he had inserted +in the mouth of the detective--"since I see, with deep regret, that you +have an impediment in your speech. + +"I excuse you in advance. + +"Still, I cannot resist the temptation of chiding your indifference to +such a brilliant argument as this," and the Sepoy caused the sapphire +to scintillate its mocking rebuke into the eyes of the wretched Gratz. + +"I must also improve the occasion by calling your attention to the +reprimand offered by your plight to your curiosity, for you see to what +a pass it has brought you. + +"However, since it would be a malice of which I am incapable not to +gratify it, I will show you what it was I had in reserve," and the Sepoy +produced the small shagreen case with which Raikes had been on such +questionable terms of familiarity, and pressing back the lid revealed +the splendid diamond to the still impassive Gratz. + +With a continuation of his elaborate courtesy and his purposely stilted +phrasing, the Sepoy said: "If the sapphire was argument, this was +certainly conviction. The moral barrier which could withstand the +assault of the first, must, unquestionably, have yielded to the +insidious attack of the second. + +"But since you have managed to place yourself beyond the reach of such +considerations, I will be compelled to discontinue my futile eloquence +and leave you to your more mature reflections. + +"Observe!" he continued, as he replaced the sapphire in the case and +restored the latter to the right-hand pocket of his waistcoat, "I place +the argument in this repository"; and treating the diamond in like +manner, he deposited that in the left-hand pocket and added: "And place +the conviction on this side. + +"It is not often that one is the embodiment of _belles-lettres_, having +such details of logic so easily within reach." + +During all this travesty of demeanor and phrase, with its tantalizing +mockery and its crafty insinuation, Gratz had betrayed no emotion +whatever, nor did his eyes lose one whit of their usual placidity as he +beheld the Sepoy, with a sort of lithe, animal rapidity, produce a small +traveling-case from the wardrobe and return with it to the bag of coin +on the table. + +"You see," continued the Sepoy as he was about to deposit the bag in the +case, "I have left room for this. I anticipated its addition to my +paraphernalia and made preparations accordingly. + +"Notice how neatly it fits in. And now I offer you my sympathy for the +miscarriage of your plans. + +"This, to a man of sentiment and enterprise, is always obnoxious. I feel +myself indebted to you for some exceedingly intelligent mental +processes, and, believe me, I part with you with a feeling so nearly +resembling regret that I will not do you the discourtesy of doubting +that the sentiment is genuine. + +"I leave you to make explanations to your clients in whatsoever way you +may see fit. I salute you!" and the next instant the Sepoy had slipped +through the doorway into the hall, along which he hurried until he +reached the main entrance of the house. + +To make his way through this into the vestibule and thence into the +street was the work of the next few moments, and with a grin of +malicious triumph he descended the steps which led to the pave. + +Scarcely had his feet touched the ground when a man from either side of +the stone balustrade stepped out, and each grasped an arm of the +scowling Sepoy. + +"A moment, please!" exclaimed one of the men, as he snapped back the +shield of a small lantern he carried and directed its searching light +into the distorted countenance. + +"Ah!" exclaimed his captor to the fellow on the other side of the +prisoner, "this is the chap, Tom." + +"Now, mister, you can walk back. Not a word; you may be all right and we +may be all wrong; it can soon be settled in there." + +"One question, please," begged the Sepoy. "Who are you? By what right do +you detain me?" + +"One at a time, mister," replied the man with the lantern. "There's a +man inside who can answer these questions for you." + +A sudden light penetrated the mind of the Sepoy. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "I +understand." + +"That's good, mister; it will save a deal of explanation." + +"These men, then," muttered the Sepoy to himself, "are the subordinates +of the detective within." + +At that moment the moon slipped out from behind a mask of cloud and +silhouetted the three. + +By its light the prisoner examined the grim countenances before him. +"Surely," he decided, "there is nothing in these features to indicate a +strenuous moral objection to the bribery of the contents of my +traveling-case," and at the thought of the absurd discrepancy between +his present predicament and the cynical altitudes of a short time since, +and as he considered the humiliation awaiting him when he was compelled +once more to face the detective, he decided to venture on another +attempt to purchase his freedom. + +With this thought he was about to place the case he carried on the +ground, when one of the men, remarking his movement and mistaking its +purpose, cried: "Here; none of that!" + +"But," expostulated the Sepoy, "you do not----" + +"Shut up!" replied the fellow coarsely. "Come inside and show us where +you have left the chief. You here, the boss in there--something's +wrong." + +With a muttered curse, and urged by no ceremonious hands, the Sepoy +reascended the steps. + +Having in his haste to escape neglected to latch the doors, the raging +Sepoy had no difficulty in conducting his captors along the hallway to +his room. + +In a few moments this strangely assorted trio reached the apartment in +which the Sepoy had but a short time before disported himself, so to +speak, with such waspish reprisal, and delivered such a farrago of +ridicule and cynicism upon the defenseless head of the silent figure +bound to the chair. + +At sight of this extraordinary spectacle the two understrappers came to +a standstill and looked upon the Sepoy with a species of respect. + +Never before had they beheld their chief in such a predicament; the +means of its accomplishment must have been amazingly clever, and the +agent himself somewhat of a marvel. + +However, while one of the men stood guard over the Sepoy, with a renewal +of his watchfulness awakened by what he saw, the other proceeded to +unfasten the gag and remove the strips which bound the unfortunate +Gratz. + +After a pause of inscrutable regard of the Sepoy, who, despite the +embarrassing denouement, managed to maintain a fair degree of composure, +Gratz, addressing the man who had released him, said: + +"You will find the key of these handcuffs on the table yonder." + +Obedient to the direction of the detective's glance, the man proceeded +to the table, found the object of his quest, and inserting it in the +handcuffs detached them from the hands of the still impassive Gratz. + +"Now," continued the latter calmly, "I will transfer these ornaments to +that gentleman. Secure him precisely as you found me, with the exception +of the gag." + +Presently this was done. + +At this, turning to his subordinates, the detective said: "Leave me with +this gentleman for a while; I will call you in case of need." + +As the pair passed through the doorway, Gratz, with no intimation of +triumph or exultation in his manner, addressed the unhappy Sepoy, with +an emphasis, however, which implied that he had not forgotten the +experience to which he had been subjected. + +"And _now_ what have you to say?" + +The Sepoy looked his questioner directly in the eyes, with a glance that +was subtle in its insinuation and eloquent of collusive suggestion, and +replied: + +"The sapphire is still in my right waistcoat pocket, and the diamond in +the left." + + THE END + + + + +As the beautiful reader reached this singular conclusion, which came +with an abruptness that indicated the decrepit imagination of the author +and his overworked vocabulary, she looked up from the absurd vehicle of +all this hectic style and incident and beheld in the eyes of her auditor +a suggestion of the light that is indigenous to neither land nor sea. + +To Dennis, who had in his composition the material of a poet, if not the +finish, the melodious intonations of the widow had seemed like the +incongruous orchestration of birds in the treetops to some minor +tragedy among the denizens of the underbrush. + +Her elocution was exquisite and provided the bizarre narrative with a +refinement which contrasted with its crudities, like Valenciennes lace +on a background of calico. + +"Well," she said smilingly, after she had subjected his ingenuous glance +to the rapid analysis of her intuition, with a satisfaction which it +startled her to recognize, "what do you think of it?" + +"Is that the end?" asked Dennis. + +"Yes, it is the end." + +With a shade of emphasis, intended by Dennis to indicate that the words +of the reply of the widow were suggestive of other finalities which he +did not like to consider, he said: + +"That is no end; it looks to me as though the author has struck his +limits." + +"No," objected the widow, "I fancy that he has left the subject open so +that the reader can solve the riddle in his own way." + +"There is no riddle!" exclaimed Dennis. + +"No?" inquired the widow; "and that splendid sapphire, that magnificent +diamond to tempt the detective?" + +"They will not tempt him," said Dennis with simple conviction and a +degree of feeling that might lead one to suppose that he was an +indispensable element in the situation. "He will recollect his +professional pride; he will remember that he is a man." + +"Oh!" exclaimed the widow with an indescribable intonation. + +"Don't you think that I am right?" asked Dennis. + +"Yes," replied his companion with a pronounced emphasis on the personal +pronoun which followed, "yes, _you_ are right"; and as she considered +the frank revelation of character in his reply and contrasted it with +the possible disclosures of similar situations among the majority of men +she knew, she added: + +"I am glad that we have read the story." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Flaw in the Sapphire, by Charles M. 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