CHAPTER XI
THE DIVIDED HOUSE
"Superintendent Narkom waitin' upstairs in your room, sir. Comeunexpected and sudden like about five minutes ago," said Dollops, as thekey was withdrawn from the lock and Cleek stepped into the house. "Toldhim you'd jist run round the corner, sir, to get a fresh supply of themcigarettes you're so partial to, so he sat down and waited. And, oh, Isay, guv'ner?"
"Yes?" said Cleek inquiringly, stopping in his two-steps-at-a-timeascent of the stairs.
"Letter come for you, too, sir, whilst you was out. Envellup wrote in alady's hand, and directed to 'Captain Burbage.' Took it up and laid iton your table, sir."
"All right," said Cleek, and resumed his journey up the stairs, passinga moment later into his private room and the presence of MaverickNarkom.
The superintendent, who was standing by the window looking out into thebrilliant radiance of the morning, turned as he heard the door creak,and immediately set his back to the things that had nothing to do withthe conduct of Scotland Yard, and advanced toward his famous ally withthat eagerness and enthusiasm which he reserved for matters connectedwith crime and the law.
"My dear Cleek, such a case; you'll fairly revel in it," he beganexcitedly. "As I didn't expect to find you out at this hour of themorning, I dispensed with the formality of 'phoning, hopped into thecar, and came on at once. Dollops said you'd be back in half a minute,and," looking at his watch, "it's now ten since I arrived."
"Sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. Narkom," broke in Cleek, "but--lookat these," pulling the tissue paper from an oblong parcel he wascarrying in his hand and exposing to view a cluster of lilies of thevalley and La France roses. "They are what detained me. Budleigh, theflorist, had his window full of them, fresh from Covent Garden thismorning, and I simply couldn't resist the temptation. If God ever madeanything more beautiful than a rose, Mr. Narkom, it is yet to bediscovered. Sit down, and while you are talking I'll arrange these inthis vase. No; it won't distract my attention from what you are saying,believe me. Somehow, I can always think better and listen better whenthere are flowers about me, and if----"
He chopped off the sentence suddenly and laid the flowers down upon histable with a briskness born of sudden interest. His eye had fallen uponthe letter of which Dollops had spoken. It was lying face upward uponthe table, so that he could see the clear, fine, characterful hand inwhich it was written and could read clearly the Devonshire postmark.
"My dear Cleek," went on Narkom, accepting the invitation to be seated,but noticing nothing in his eagerness to get to business, "my dearCleek, never have I brought you any case which is so likely to make yourfortune as this, and when I tell you that the reward offered runs wellinto five figures----"
"A moment, please!" interjected Cleek agitatedly. "Don't think me rude,Mr. Narkom, but--your pardon a thousand times. I must read this letterbefore I give attention to anything else, no matter how important!"
Then, not waiting for Narkom to signify his consent to the interruption,as perforce he was obliged to do in the circumstances, he carried theletter over to the window, broke the seal, and read it, his heartgetting into his eyes and his pulses drumming with that kind ofhappiness which fills a man when the one woman in the world writes him aletter.
Even if he had not recognized her handwriting, he must have known fromthe postmark that it was from Ailsa Lorne, for he had no correspondentin Devonshire, no correspondent but Narkom anywhere, for the matter ofthat. His lonely life, the need for secrecy, his plan ofself-effacement, prevented that. But he had known for months that MissLorne was in Devon, that she had gone there as governess in the familyof Sir Jasper Drood, when her determination not to leave England hadcompelled her to resign her position as guide and preceptress to littleLord Chepstow on the occasion of his mother's wedding with CaptainHawksley. And now to have her write to him--to him! A sort of mist gotinto his eyes and blurred everything for a moment. When it had passedand he could see clearly, he set his back to Narkom and read thesewords:
The Priory, Tuesday, June 10th.
DEAR FRIEND:
If you remember, as I so often do, that last day in London, when you put off the demands of your duty to see me safely in the train and on my way to this new home, you will perhaps also remember something that you said to me at parting. You told me that if a time ever came when I should need your friendship or your help, I had but to ask for them. If that is true, and I feel sure that it is, dear Mr. Cleek, I need them now. Not for myself, however, but for one who has proved a kind friend indeed since my coming here, and who, through me, asks your kind aid in solving a deep and distressing mystery and saving a threatened human life. No reward can be offered, I fear, beyond that which comes of the knowledge of having done a good and generous act, Mr. Cleek, for my friend is not in a position to offer one. But I seem to feel that this will weigh little with you, and it emboldens me to make this appeal. So, if no other case prevents, and you really wish to do me a favour, if you can make it convenient to be in the neighbourhood of the lych-gate of Lyntonhurst Church on Wednesday morning at eleven o'clock, you will win the everlasting gratitude of--
Your sincere friend,
AILSA LORNE.
The superintendent heard the unmistakable sound of the letter beingfolded and slid back into its envelope, and very properly concluded thatthe time of grace had expired.
"Now, my dear Cleek, let us get down to business," he began forthwith."This amazing case which I wish you to undertake and will, as I havealready said, bring you a colossal reward----"
"Your pardon, Mr. Narkom," interjected Cleek, screwing round on his heeland beginning to search for a railway guide among the litter of papersand pamphlets jammed into the spaces of a revolving bookcase, "yourpardon, but I can undertake no case, sir--at least, for the present. Iam called to Devonshire, and must start at once. What's that? No, thereis nothing to be won, not a farthing piece. It's a matter of friendship,nothing more."
"But, Cleek! God bless my soul, man, this is madness. You are simplychucking away enough money to keep you for the next three years."
"It wouldn't make any difference if it were enough to keep me for thenext twenty, Mr. Narkom. You can't buy entrance to paradise for all themoney in the world, my friend, and I'm getting a day in it for nothing!Now then," flirting over the leaves of the guide book, "let's see howthe trains run. Dorset--Darsham--Dalby--Devonshire. Good! Here you are.Um-m-m. Too late for that. Can't possibly catch that one, either. Ah,here's the one--1.56--that will do." Then he closed the book, almost ranto the door, and, leaning over the banister, shouted down thestaircase, "Dollops--Dollops, you snail, where are you? Dol---- Oh,there you are at last, eh? Pack my portmanteau. Best clothes, bestboots, best everything I've got, and look sharp about it. I'm off toDevonshire by the 1.56."
And, do all that he might, Narkom could not persuade him to alter hisdetermination. The 1.56 he said he would take; the 1.56 he did take; andnight coming down over the peaceful paths and the leafy loveliness ofDevon found him putting up at the inn of "The Three Desires," hours andhours and hours ahead of the appointed time, to make sure of being atthe trysting place at eleven next morning.
He was. On the very tick of the minute he was there at the oldmoss-grown lych-gate, and there Miss Lorne found him when she drove upin Lady Drood's pony phaeton a little time afterward. She was not alone,however. She had spoken of a friend, and a sharp twitch disturbedCleek's heart when he saw that a young man sat beside her, a handsomeyoung man of two-or three-and-twenty, with a fair moustache, a pair ofstraight-looking blue eyes, and that squareness of shoulder anduprightness of bearing which tells the tale of a soldier.
In another moment she had alighted, her fingers were lying in the closegrasp of Cleek's, and the colour was coming and going in rosy gusts overher smiling countenance.
"
How good of you to come!" she said. "But, there! I knew that you would,if it were within the range of possibility; I said so to Mr. Bridewellas we came along. Mr. Cleek, let me have the pleasure of making youacquainted with Lieutenant Bridewell. His fiancee, Miss Warrington, isthe dear friend of whom I wrote you. Lieutenant Bridewell is home onleave after three years' service in India, Mr. Cleek; but in those threeyears strange and horrible things have happened, are still happening, inhis family circle. But now that you have come---- We shall get at thebottom of the mystery now, lieutenant; I feel certain that we shall. Mr.Cleek will find it out, be sure of that."
"At least, I will endeavour to do so, Mr. Bridewell," said Cleekhimself, as he wrung the young man's hand and decided that he liked hima great deal better than he had thought he was going to do. "What is thedifficulty? Miss Lorne's letter mentioned the fact that not only wasthere a mystery to be probed but a human life in danger. Whose life, mayI ask? Yours?"
"No," he made reply, with a sort of groan. "I wish to heaven it were nomore than that. I'd soon clear out from the danger zone and put an endto the trouble, get rid of that lot at the house and put miles of seabetween them and me, I can tell you. It's my dad they are killing--mydear old dad, bless his heart--and killing him in the most mysteriousand subtle manner imaginable. I don't know how, I don't know why, that'sthe mystery of it, for he hasn't any money nor any expectations, justthe annuity he bought when he got too old to follow his calling (he usedto be a sea captain, Mr. Cleek), and there'd be no sense in getting ridof him for that, because, of course, the annuity dies with him. Butsomebody's got some kind of a motive and somebody's doing it, that'scertain, for when I went out to India three years ago he was a hale andhearty old chap, fit as a fiddle and lively as a cricket, and now, whenI come back on leave, I find him a broken wreck, a peevish, wasted oldman, hardly able to help himself, and afflicted with some horribleincurable disease which seems to be eating him up alive."
"Eating him?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by 'eating' him, Mr.Bridewell? The expression is peculiar."
"Well, it exactly explains the circumstances, Mr. Cleek. If I didn'tknow better, I should think it a case of leprosy. But it isn't. I'veseen cases of leprosy, and this isn't one of them. There's none of thepeculiar odour, for one thing; and, for another, it isn't contagious.You can touch the spots without suffering doing so, although he suffers,dear old boy, and suffers horribly. It's just living decay, Mr.Cleek--just that. Fordyce, that's the doctor who's attending him, youknow, says that the only way he has found to check the thing is byamputation. Already the dear old chap has lost three fingers from theright hand by that means. Fordyce says that the hand itself will have togo in time if they can't check the thing, and then, if that doesn't stopit, the arm will have to go."
Cleek puckered up his brows and began to rub his thumb and forefinger upand down his chin.
"Fordyce seems to have a pronounced penchant for amputation, Mr.Bridewell," he said after a moment. "Competent surgeon, do you think?"
"Who--Fordyce? Lord bless you, yes! One of the 'big pots' in that line.Harley Street specialist in his day. Fell heir to a ton of money, Ibelieve, and gave up practice because it was too wearing. Couldn't getover the love of it, however, so set up a ripping little place downhere, went in for scientific work, honour and glory of the professionand all that sort of thing, you know. God knows what would have becomeof the dad if he hadn't taken up the case! might be in his grave by thistime. Fordyce has been a real friend, Mr. Cleek; I can't be gratefulenough to him for the good he has done: taking the dear old dad into hishome, so to speak, him and Aunt Ruth and--and that pair, the Cordovas."
"The Cordovas? Who are they? Friends or relatives?"
"Neither, I'm afraid. To tell the truth, they're the people I suspect,though God knows why I should, and God forgive me if I'm wrong. They'retwo West Indians, brother and sister, Mr. Cleek. Their father was mateof the _Henrietta_, under my dad, years and years ago. Mutinied, too,the beggar, and was shot down, as he ought to have been, as _any_mutineer ought to be. Left the two children, mere kiddies at the time.Dad took 'em in, and has been keeping them and doing for them eversince. I don't like them--never did like them. Fordyce doesn't likethem, either. Colonel Goshen does, however. He's sweet on the girl, Ifancy."
Cleek's eyebrows twitched upward suddenly, his eyes flashed a sharpglance at the lieutenant, and then dropped again.
"Colonel Goshen, eh?" he said quietly. "Related, by any chance, to that'Colonel Goshen' who testified on behalf of the claimant in the greatTackbun case?"
"Don't know, I'm sure. Never heard of the case, Mr. Cleek."
"Didn't you? It was quite a sensation some eighteen months ago. But youwere in India, then, of course. Fellow turned up who claimed to be thelong-lost Sir Aubrey Tackbun who ran away to sea when a boy some thirtyodd years ago and was lost track of entirely. Lost his case at thatfirst trial, and got sent to prison for conspiracy Is out again now.Claims to have new and irrefutable refutable evidence, and is going tohave a second try for the title and estates. A Colonel Goshen, of theAustralian militia, was one of his strongest witnesses. Wonder if thereis any connection between the two?"
"Shouldn't think so. This Colonel Goshen's an American or he says he is,and I've no reason to doubt him. Deuced nice fellow, whatever he is, andhas been a jolly good friend to the pater. As a matter of fact, it wasthrough him that Fordyce got to know the dad and became interested inhis case, and---- What's that? Lud, no! No possible means of connectingmy old dad with any lost heirs, sir--not a ghost of one. Born here inDevon, married here, lived all his life here, that is, whenever he wason land, and he'll die here, and die soon, too, if you don't get at thebottom of this and save him. And you will, Mr. Cleek, and you will,won't you? Miss Lorne says that you've solved deeper mysteries thanthis, and that you will get at the bottom of it without fail."
"Miss Lorne has more faith in my ability than most people, I fear, Mr.Bridewell. I will try to live up to it, however. But suppose you give methe facts of the case a little more clearly. When and how did it allbegin?"
"I think it was about eight months ago that Aunt Ruth wrote me aboutit," the lieutenant replied. "Aunt Ruth is my late mother's maidensister, Mr. Cleek. My mother died at my birth, and Aunt Ruth brought meup. As I told you, my father retired from the sea some years ago, and,having purchased an annuity, lived on that. He managed to scrape enoughtogether to have me schooled properly and put through Sandhurst, andwhen I got my lieutenancy, and was subsequently appointed to acommission in India, I left him living in the little old cottage where Iwas born. With him were Aunt Ruth and Paul and Lucretia Cordova. Up toabout eight months or so ago he continued to live there, devotinghimself to his little garden and enjoying life on land as much as a manwho loves the sea ever can do. Then, of a sudden, Lucretia Cordova fellin with Colonel Goshen, and introduced him to the pater. A few daysafter that my father seems to have eaten something which disagreed withhim, for he was suddenly seized with all the symptoms of ptomainepoisoning. He rallied, however, but from that point a strange weaknessovercame him, and at the colonel's suggestion he went for a sail roundthe coast with him. He did not improve. The weakness seemed to grow, butwithout any sign of the horrible bodily suffering with which he is nowafflicted.
"Colonel Goshen is a great friend of Dr. Fordyce's, and through thatfriendship managed to interest him in the case to such a degree that hemade a twenty-mile trip especially to see my father. They struck up agreat friendship. Fordyce was certain, he said, that he could cure thedad if he had him within daily reach, and, on the dad saying that hecouldn't afford to come over to this part of the country and keep up twoestablishments, Fordyce came to the rescue, like the jolly brick he is.In other words, his place here being a good deal larger than herequires, he's a bachelor, Mr. Cleek, he put up a sort of partition toseparate it into two establishments, so to speak, put one-half at thedad's disposal rent free, and there he is housed now, and Aunt Ruth andthe two Cordovas with him. Yes, and even me, now; for a
s soon as heheard that I was coming home on leave, Fordyce wouldn't listen to mygoing to 'The Three Desires' for digs, but insisted that I, too, shouldbe taken in, and a clinking suite of rooms in the west wing put at mydisposal.
"But in spite of all his hopes for the dear old dad's eventual cure,things in that direction have grown steadily worse. The horrible maladywhich is now consuming him manifested itself about a fortnight after hisarrival, and it has been growing steadily worse every day. But it isn'tnatural, Mr. Cleek; I know what I am saying, and I say that! Somebody isdoing something to him for some diabolical reason of which I knownothing, and he is dying--dying by inches. Not by poison, I am sure ofthat, for since the hour of my return I have not let him eat or drink asingle thing without myself partaking of it before it goes to him andeating more of it after it has gone to him. But there is no effect in mycase. Nothing does he touch with his hand that I do not touch after him;but the disease never attacks me, yet all the while he grows worse andworse, and the end keeps creeping on. There! that's the case, Mr. Cleek.For God's sake, get at the bottom of it and save my father, if youcan."
Cleek did not reply for a moment. Putting out his hands suddenly, hebegan to drum a thoughtful tattoo upon the post of the lych-gate, hiseyes fixed on the ground and a deep ridge between his puckered brows.But, of a sudden:
"Tell me something," he said. "These Cordovas--what reason have you forsuspecting them?"
"None, only that I dislike them. They're half-castes, for one thing,and--well, you can't trust a half-caste at any time."
"Hum-m-m! Nothing more than that, eh? Just a natural dislike? And yourAunt Ruth; what of her?"
"Oh, just the regulation prim old maid: sour as a lemon and as useful. Agood sort, though. Fond of the pater, careful as a mother of him, temperlike a file, and a heart a good deal bigger than you'd believe at firstblush. Do anything in the world for me, bless her."
"Even to the point of putting up a friend of yours for a couple ofdays?"
"Yes; if I had one in these parts, which I haven't."
"Never count your chickens--you know the rest," said Cleek, with asmile. "A fellow you met out in India, a fellow named George Headland,lieutenant, remember the name, please, has just turned up in theseparts. You met him quite unexpectedly, and if you want to get at thebottom of this case, take him along with you and get your Aunt Ruth toput him up for a day or two."
"Oh, Mr. Cleek!"
"George Headland, if you please, Miss Lorne. There's a great deal in aname, Shakespeare or anybody else to the contrary."
II
It was two o'clock in the afternoon when, after lunching with Cleek atthe inn of "The Three Desires," Lieutenant Bridewell turned up at thedivided house with his friend, "George Headland," and introduced him tothe various occupants thereof; and, forthwith, "Mr. George Headland"proceeded to make himself as agreeable to all parties as he knew how todo. He found Aunt Ruth the very duplicate of what young Bridewell hadprepared him to find, namely, a veritable Dorcas: the very embodiment ofthrift, energy, punctiliousness, with the graceful figure of a ramrodand the martial step of a grenadier; and he decided forthwith that, beshe a monument of all the virtues, she was still just the kind of womanhe would fly to the ends of the earth rather than have to live with forone short week. In brief, he did not like Miss Ruth Sutcliff, and MissRuth Sutcliff did not like him.
Of the two Cordovas, he found the girl Lucretia a mere walking vanitybag: idle, shiftless, eager for compliments, and without two ideas inher vain little head. "Whoever is at the bottom of the affair, sheisn't," was his mental comment. "She is just a gadfly, just a gaudy,useless insect, born without a sting, or the spirit to use one if shehad it."
Her brother Paul was not much better. "A mere lizard, content to bask inthe sunshine and caring not who pays for the privilege so long as hegets it. I can see plainly enough why a fellow like young Bridewellshould dislike the pair of them, and even distrust and suspect them,too; but, unless I am woefully mistaken, they can be counted out of thecase entirely. Who, then, is in it? Or is there really any case at all?Is the old captain's malady a natural one, in spite of all thesesuspicions? I'll know that when I see him."
WITH THAT HE STRIPPED DOWN THE COUNTERPANE, LIFTED THEWATER-JUG FROM ITS WASHSTAND AND EMPTIED ITS CONTENTS OVER THEMATTRESSES]
When he _did_ see him, about an hour after his arrival at the dividedhouse, he did know it, and decided forthwith, whatever the mysteriouscause, foul play was there beyond the question of a doubt. Somebody hada secret reason for destroying this old man's life, and that somebodywas quietly and craftily doing it. But how? By what means? Not bypoison, that was certain, for no poison could have this purely localeffect and confine itself to the right side of the body, the right hand,the right arm, the right shoulder, spread to no other part and simplycorrode the flesh and destroy the bone there as lime or caustic might,and leave the left side wholly unblemished, entirely without attack.Wholly unlike the case of old Mr. Bawdrey, in the affair of the"Nine-fingered Skeleton," this could be no poison that was administeredby touch, injected into the blood through the pores of the skin; forwhatsoever Captain Bridewell touched, his son touched after him, and noevil came of it to him. Then, too, there was no temptation of wealth toinherit, as in old Bawdrey's case, for the little that Captain Bridewellpossessed would die with him. He had no expectations; he stood in noone's way to an inheritance. Why, then, was he being done to death?--andhow?
A dear, kindly, lovable old fellow, with a heart as big as an ox's, ahand ever ready to help those in need, as witness his adoption of themutineering mate's children, a mind as free from guile as any child's,he ought, in the natural order of things, to have not one enemy in theworld, one acquaintance who did not wish him well; and yet----
"I must manage to get a look at that maimed hand somehow and to examinethat peculiar eruption closely," said Cleek to Bridewell, when they werealone together. "I could get so little impression of its character onaccount of the bandages and the sling. Do you think I could get to seeit some time without either?"
"Yes, certainly you can. Fordyce always dresses it in the evening. We'llmake it our business to be about then, and he'll be sure to let you seeit if you like."
"I should, indeed," said Cleek. "And by the way, I haven't seen Dr.Fordyce yet. Isn't he about?"
"Not just at present; be in to tea, though. He's off on his rounds atpresent. Makes a practice of looking after the poor for the simplehumanity of the thing. Never charges for his services. You'll likeFordyce, he's a ripping sort."
And so indeed he seemed to be when, at tea, Cleek met him for the firsttime and found him a jovial, round-faced, apple-cheeked, rollickinglittle man of fifty-odd years.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Headland--very pleased indeed," he said gaily,when young Bridewell introduced them. "Londoner, I can see, by the cutof you, Londoner and soldier, too. No mistaking military training when aman carries himself like that. Londoner myself once upon a time. But noplace like the country for health, and no part of the country likeDevon. Paradise, sir, Paradise. Well, Captain, and how are we to-day,eh? Better?"
"No, I'm afraid not, doctor," replied the old seaman. "Pain's been alittle worse than yesterday. Never was so bad as when I woke up thismorning; and, if you'll pardon my saying it, sir, that lotion you gaveme doesn't seem to have done a bit of good."
"Oho! there's a lotion, is there?" commented Cleek mentally, when heheard this. "I'll have a look at that lotion before I go to bedto-night." Yet, when he did, he found it a harmless thing that ought tohave been beneficial even if it had not.
"I say, Fordyce," put in young Bridewell, remembering Cleek's desire andseeing a chance of gratifying it sooner than he had anticipated, "don'tyou think it would be a good thing to have a look at the pater's armnow? He says the pain's getting up to the shoulder, and so bad at timeshe can hardly bear it. Do look at it, will you? I hate to see himsuffering like this."
"Oh, certainly, of course I will. Just wait until I've had my tea, oldchap," repl
ied the doctor; and, when he had had it, moved over to thedeep chair where the captain sat rocking to and fro and squeezing hislips together in silent agony, and proceeded to remove the bandages. Hehad barely uncovered the maimed hand, however, ere Cleek sauntered overin company with the old seaman's son and stood beside him. He was closeenough now to study the character of the eruption, and the sight of ittightened the creases about his lips, twitched one swift gleam of lightthrough the darkness of his former bewilderment.
"Good God!" he said, swept out of himself for the moment by theappalling realization which surged over him; then, remembering himself,caught the doctor's swiftly given upward look and returned it with oneof innocent blankness. "Awful, isn't it, doctor? Don't think it'ssmallpox, or something of that sort, do you?"
"Rubbish!" responded the doctor, with laughing contempt for such a sillyfool as this. "Smallpox, indeed! Man alive, it isn't the least thinglike it. I should think a child would know that. No, Captain, thereisn't any change in its condition, despite the increased pain, unless itmay be that it is just a shade better than when I dressed it thismorning. There, there, don't worry about its going up to the shoulder,Lieutenant. We'll save the arm, never fear." And then, without examiningthat arm at all, proceeded to rebandage the maimed hand and replace itin the supporting sling; and, afterward, went over and talked with AuntRuth before passing out and going round to his side of the dividedhouse. But so long as he remained in sight, Cleek's narrowed eyesfollowed him and the tense creases seamed Cleek's indrawn, silent lips.But when he broke that silence it was to speak to the captain and to saysome silly, pointless thing about that refuge of the witless--theweather.
"Bridewell," he said ten minutes later, when, upon Aunt Ruth's objectingto it being done indoors, the lieutenant invited him to come outside fora smoke, "Bridewell, tell me something: Where does your father sleep?"
"Dad? Oh, upstairs in the big front room just above us. Why?"
"Nothing, but, I've a whim to see the place, and without anybody'sknowledge. Can you take me there?"
"Certainly. Come along," replied the lieutenant, and led the way roundto a back staircase and up that to the room in question. It was a prettyroom, hung with an artistic pink paper which covered not only theoriginal walls but the wooden partitions which blocked up the doorleading to Dr. Fordyce's own part of the house; and close against thatpartition and so placed that the screening canopy shut out the glarefrom the big bay window, stood a narrow brass bedstead equipped with thefinest of springs, the very acme of luxury and ease in the way of softmattresses, and so piled with down pillows that a king might have enviedit for a resting-place.
Cleek looked at it for a moment in silence, then reached out and laidhis hand upon the papered partition.
"What's on the other side of this?" he queried. "Does it lead into apassage or a room?"
"Into Fordyce's laboratory," replied the lieutenant. "As a matter offact, this used to be Fordyce's own bedroom, the best in the house. Buthe gave it up especially for the dad's use as the view and the air arebetter than in any other room in the place, he says, and he's a greatbeliever in that sort of thing for sick people. Ripping of him, wasn'tit?"
"Very. Suppose you could get your father not to sleep here to-night fora change?"
"Wouldn't like to try. He fairly dotes on that comfortable soft bed.There's not another to compare with it in the house. I'm sure hewouldn't rest half so well on a harder one, and wouldn't give this oneup unless he was compelled to do so by some unforeseen accident."
"Good," said Cleek. "Then there is going to be 'some unforeseenaccident'--look!" With that he stripped down the counterpane, lifted thewater-jug from the washstand and emptied its contents over themattresses, and when the pool of water had been absorbed, replaced thecovering and arranged the bed as before.
"Great Scot, man," began the lieutenant, amazed by this; but Cleek'shand closed sharply on his arm, and Cleek's whispered "Sh-h-h!" soundedclose to his ear. "Keep your father up after everybody else has gone tobed, especially Aunt Ruth," he went on. "If she's not at hand, thedamage can't be repaired for this night at least. Give him your room andyou come in with me. Bridewell, I know the man; I know the means; andwith God's help to-night I'll know the reason as well!"
III
Everything was carried out in accordance with Cleek's plan. The captain,trapped into talking by his son, sat up long after Miss Sutcliff and theone serving maid the house boasted had gone to bed, and when, in time,he, too, retired to his room, the soaked mattress did its work in themost effectual manner. Whimpering like a hurt child over the unexplainedand apparently unexplainable accident, the old man suffered his son tolead him off to his own room; and there, unable to rest on the hardermattress, and suffering agonies of pain, he lay for a long time beforethe door swung open, the glimmer of a bedroom candle tempered thedarkness to a sort of golden dusk, and the very double of Dr. Fordycecame softly into the room. It was Cleek, wrapped in a well-paddeddressing-gown and carrying in addition to the candle a bottle of lotionand a fresh linen bandage.
"Why, doctor," began the old captain, half rising upon the elbow of hisuninjured arm. "Whatever in the world brings you here?"
"Study, my dear old friend, study," returned a voice so like to Dr.Fordyce's own that there was scarcely a shade of difference. "I havebeen sitting up for hours and hours thinking, reading, studying untilnow I am sure, very, very sure, Captain, that I have found a lotion thatwill ease the pain. For a moment after I let myself in by the partitiondoor and found your room empty I didn't know where to turn; butfortunately your moans guided me in the right direction, and here I am.Now then, let us off with that other bandage and on with this new one,and I think we shall soon ease up that constant pain."
"God knows I hope so, doctor, for it is almost unbearable," the old manreplied, and sat holding his lips tightly shut to keep from crying outwhile Cleek undid the bandage and stripped bare the injured arm fromfinger-tips to shoulder. His gorge rose as he saw the thing, and inseeing, knew for certain now that what he had suspected in that firstglance was indeed the truth, and in that moment there was something akinto murder in his soul. He saw with satisfaction, however, that, althoughthe upper part of the arm was much swollen, as yet the progress of decayhad not gone much beyond the wrist; and having seen this and verifiedthe nature of the complaint, he applied the fresh lotion and was forbandaging the arm up and stealing out and away again when he caughtsight of something that made him suck in his breath and set his hearthammering.
The captain, attracted by his movement and the sound of his thickbreathing, opened his pain-closed eyes, looked round and met thequestioning look of his.
"Oh," he said with a smile of understanding. "You are looking at thetattooing near my shoulder, are you? Haven't you ever noticed itbefore?"
"No," said Cleek, keeping his voice steady by an effort. "Who did itand why? There's a name there and a queer sort of emblem. They are notyours, surely?"
"Good heaven, no! My name's Samuel Bridewell and always has been. RedHamish put that thing there--oh, more than five-and-twenty years ago.Him and me was wrecked on a reef in the Indian Ocean when the _BelleBurgoyne_ went down from under us and took all but us down with her. Itmight as well have took Red Hamish, too, poor chap, for he was hurtcruel bad, and he only lived a couple of days afterward. There was justme alone on the reef when the _Kitty Gordon_ come sailin' along, see mysignal of distress, and took me off near done for after eight days'fastin' and thirstin' on that bare scrap of terry firmer as they callsit. I'd have been as dead as Red Hamish himself, I reckon, in anothertwenty-four hours."
"Red Hamish? Good heavens, who was Red Hamish?"
"Never heard him called any other name than just that. Must have hadone, of course; and it's so blessed long ago now I disremember what itwas he put on the back of my shoulder. A great hand at tattooing he was.Fair lived with his injy ink and his prickin' needles. Kept 'em in abelt he wore and had 'em on him when the _Belle Burgoyne_ went down andI managed to drag
him on to the reef, poor chap.
"'Had your call, Red,' I says to him when I got him up beside me. 'Ireckon you're struck for death, old man.' 'I know it,' says he to me.'But better me than you, cap'n', he says, ''cause there ain't nobodywaitin' and watchin' for me to come home to her and the kid. Thoughthere is one woman who'd like to know where I'd gone and when and howdeath found me,' he says, after a moment. 'I'd like to send a word--amessage--a sign just to her, cap'n. She'd know--she'd understandand--well, it's only right that she should.'
"'Well, give it to me, Red,' I says. 'I'll take it to her if I live,old man.' But, bless you, there wasn't anything to write the message on,of course; and it wasn't for a long time that Red hit upon a plan.
"'Cap'n,' he says, 'I've got my inks and my needles. Let me put it onyour shoulder, will you? Just a name and a sign. But she'll understand,she'll know, and that's all I want.' Of course I agreed--who wouldn'tfor a mate at a time like that? So I lays down on my face and Red goesat me with the needles and works till he gets it done.
"'There,' he says when he'd reached the end of it. 'If ever anybodywants to know who died on this here reef, cap'n, there's Red Hamish'sanswer,' he says. 'She'll know, my mother, the only one that cares,'says he, and chucks his belt into the sea and that's all.
"Thanky, doctor, thanky. It does feel better, and I do believe that Ishall sleep now. At first I missed the hummin' of that electric fan inyour laboratory, I fancy, but bless you, sir, I feel quite drowsy andcomfortable now. Remember me to Colonel Goshen when you go back to yourrooms, will you? I see him go round the angle of the buildin' and intoyour side of the house just after you left me to-night, sir, and Ithought likely he'd come round and call, but he didn't. Good-night,sir--good-night, and many thanks!"
But even before he had finished speaking Cleek had gone out of the room,and was padding swiftly along the passage to where Lieutenant Bridewellawaited him.
"Well?" exclaimed the young man breathlessly as the fleet-moving figureflashed in and began tearing off the beard, the dressing-gown, and thedisguising wig. "You found out? You learned something, then?"
"I have learned everything, everything!" said Cleek, and pouncing uponhis portmanteau whisked out a couple of pairs of handcuffs. "Don't stopto ask questions now. Come with me to the partition door and clap thosethings on the wrists of the man that gets by me. There are two of themin there, your Dr. Fordyce and your Colonel Goshen, and I want themboth."
"Good heavens, man, you don't surely mean that they, those two dearfriends----"
"Don't ask questions, come!" rapped in Cleek, then whirled out of theroom and flew down the passage to the partition door, and poundedheavily upon it. "Doctor Fordyce, Doctor Fordyce, open the door, comequickly. Something has happened to Captain Bridewell," he called. "He'snot in his room, not in the house, and it looks as if somebody hadspirited him away!"
A clatter of footsteps on the other side of the partition door answeredthis; then the bolt flashed back, the door whirled open, twofigures--one on the very heels of the other--came tumbling into sight,and then there was mischief!
Cleek sprang, and a click of steel sounded. The doctor, caught in a sortof throttle-hold, went down with him upon the floor; the colonel, unableto check himself in time, sprawled headlong over them, and by the timehe could pull himself to his knees young Bridewell was upon him, andthere were gyves upon his wrists as well as upon the doctor's.
"Got you, you pretty pair!" said Cleek, as he rose to his feet and shuta tight hand upon the collar of the manacled doctor; "got you, you dogs,and your little game is up. Oh, you needn't bluster, doctor; you needn'tcome the outraged innocence, Colonel. You'll, neither of you, bolster upthe rascally claim of your worthy confederate, the Tackbun Claimant; andyour game with the X-rays, your devil's trick of rotting away a man'sarm to destroy tattooed evidence of a rank imposter's guilt is just somuch time wasted and just so many pounds sterling thrown away."
"What's that?" blustered the colonel. "What do you mean? What are youtalking about? Tackbun Claimant? Who's the Tackbun Claimant? Do yourealize to whom you are speaking? Fordyce, who and what is thisinfernally impudent puppy?"
"Gently, gently, Colonel. Name's Cleek, if you are anxious to know it."
"Cleek? Cleek?"
"Precisely, doctor. Cleek of Scotland Yard, Cleek of the Forty Faces, ifyou want complete details. And if there are more that you feel you wouldlike to know, I'll give them to you when I hand you over to theDevonshire police for your part in this rascally conspiracy to cheat thelate Lady Tackbun's nephew out of his lawful rights and to rot off thearm of the man who constitutes the living document which will clearlyestablish them. The lost Sir Aubrey Tackbun is dead, my friend, dead asJulius Caesar, dead beyond the hopes of you and your confederates torevive even the ghost of him now. He died on a coral reef in the IndianOcean five-and-twenty years ago, and the proof of it will last as longas Captain Bridewell can keep his arm and lift his voice to tell hisstory, and I think that will be a good many years, now that your littlescheme is exploded. You'll make no X-ray martyr of that dear old man, sothe money you spent in the instrument on the other side of that boardpartition, the thing whose buzzing you made him believe came from anelectric fan, represents just so many sovereigns thrown away!"
* * * * *
"Yes, it was a crafty plot, a scheme very well laid indeed," said Cleek,when he went next day to the lych-gate to say good-bye again to AilsaLorne. "Undoubtedly a mild poison was used in the beginning, as anexcuse, you know, for the 'colonel' to get him away and into the chargeof the 'doctor,' and, once there, the rest was easy if subtle. The hugeX-ray machine would play always upon the partition whilst the captainwas sleeping, and you know how efficacious that would be when there wasonly a thin board between that powerful influence and the object to beoperated upon. Then, too, the head of the bed was so arranged that thecaptain's right side would always be exposed to the influence, so therewas no possibility of evading it.
"How did I suspect it? Well, to tell you the truth, I never did suspectit until I saw the captain's hand. Then I recognized the marks. I sawthe hand of a doctor, an X-ray martyr, who sacrificed himself to sciencelast year, Miss Lorne, and the marks were identical. Oh, well, I'vesolved the riddle, Miss Lorne, that's the main point, and now--now Imust emulate 'Poor Joe' and move on again."
"And without any reward, without asking any, without expecting any. Howgood of you--how generous!"
He stood a moment, twisting his heel into the turf and breathingheavily. Then, quite suddenly:
"Perhaps I did want one," he said, looking into her eyes. "Perhaps Iwant one still. Perhaps I always hoped that I should get it, and that itwould come from you!"
A rush of sudden colour reddened all her face. She let her eyes fall,and said nothing. But what of that? After all, actions speak louder thanutterances, and Cleek could see that there was a smile upon her lips. Hestretched forth his hand and laid it gently on her arm.
"Miss Lorne," he said very softly, "if, some day when all the wrongs Idid in those other times, are righted, and all the atonement a man canmake on this earth has been made, if then--in that time--I come to youand ask for that reward, do you think--ah! do you think that you canfind it in your heart to give it?"
She lifted up her eyes, the eyes that had saved him, that had lit theway back, that would light it ever to the end of life and, stretchingout her hand, put it into his.
"When that day dawns, come and see," she said, and smiled at him throughhappy tears.
"I will," he made answer. "Wait and I will. Oh, God, what a good, goodthing a real woman is!"
CHAPTER XII
THE RIDDLE OF THE RAINBOW PEARL
"Note for you, sir, messenger just fetched it. Addressed to 'CaptainBurbage,' so it'll be from the Yard," said Dollops, coming into the roomwith a doughnut in one hand and a square envelope in the other.
Cleek, who had been sitting at his writing-table with a litter of foldeddocuments, bits of antique jewelle
ry, and what looked like odds and endsof faded ribbon lying before him, swept the whole collection into thetable drawer as Dollops spoke and stretched forth his hand for theletter.
It was one of Narkom's characteristic communications, albeit somewhatshorter than those communications usually were, a fact which told Cleekat once that the matter was one of immense importance. It ran:
MY DEAR CLEEK:
For the love of goodness don't let anything tempt you into going out to-night. I shall call about ten. Foreign government affair--reward simply enormous. Watch out for me.
Yours, in hot haste.
MAVERICK NARKOM.
"Be on the look-out for the red limousine," said Cleek, glancing over atDollops, who stood waiting for orders. "It will be along at ten. That'sall. You may go."
"Right you are, guv'ner. I'll keep my eyes peeled, sir. Lor'! I do hopeit's summink to do with a restaurant or a cookshop this time. I could dowith a job of that sort, my word, yes! I'm fair famishin'. And, beggin'pardon, but you don't look none too healthy yourself this evening,guv'ner. Ain't et summink wot's disagreed with you, have you, sir?"
"I? What nonsense! I'm as fit as a fiddle. What could make you thinkotherwise?"
"Oh, I dunno, sir--only---- Well, if you don't mind my sayin' of it,sir, whenever you gets to unlocking of that drawer and lookin' at themthings you keep in there--wotever they is--you always gets a sort ofsolemncholy look in the eyes, and you gets white about the gills, andyour lips has a pucker to 'em that I don't like to see."
"Tommy rot! Imagination's a splendid thing for a detective to possess,Dollops, but don't let yours run away with you in this fashion, my lad,or you'll never rise above what you are. Toddle along now, and look outfor Mr. Narkom's arrival. It's after nine already, so he'll soon behere."
"Anybody a-comin' with him, sir?"
"I don't know, he didn't say. Cut along now; I'm busy!" said Cleek.Nevertheless, when Dollops had gone and the door was shut and he had theroom to himself again, and, if he really did have any business on hand,there was no reason in the world why he should not have set about it, heremained sitting at the table and idly drumming upon it with hisfinger-tips, a deep ridge between his brows and a far-away expression inhis fixed, unwinking eyes. And so he was still sitting when, somethinglike twenty minutes later, the sharp "Toot-toot!" of a motor hornsounded.
Narkom's note lay on the table close to his elbow. He took it up,crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into his waste basket. "A foreigngovernment affair," he said with a curious one-sided smile. "A strangecoincidence, to be sure!" Then, as if obeying an impulse, he opened thedrawer, looked at the litter of things he had swept into it, shut it upagain, and locked it securely, putting the key into his pocket andrising to his feet. Two minutes later, when Narkom pushed open the doorand entered the room, he found Cleek leaning against the edge of themantelpiece and smoking a cigarette with the air of one whose feet trodalways upon rose petals, and who hadn't a thought beyond the affairs ofthe moment, nor a care for anything but the flavour of Egyptian tobacco.
"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't think what a relief it was to catch you.I had but a moment in which to dash off the note, and I was on thornswith fear that it would miss you; that on a glorious night like thisyou'd be off for a pull up the river or something of that sort," saidthe superintendent as he bustled in and shook hands with him. "You aresuch a beggar for getting off by yourself and mooning."
"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Narkom, I came within an ace of doingthe very thing you speak of," replied Cleek. "It's full moon, for onething, and it's primrose time for another. Happily for your desire tocatch me, however, I--er--got interested in the evening paper and thatdelayed me."
"Very glad, dear chap; very glad indeed," began Narkom. Then, as his eyefell upon the particular evening paper in question lying on thewriting-table, a little crumpled from use, but with a certain"displayed-headed" article of three columns' length in full view, heturned round and stared at Cleek with an air of awe and mystification."My dear fellow, you must be under the guardianship of some uncannyfamiliar. You surely must, Cleek!" he went on. "Do you mean to tell methat is what kept you at home? That you have been reading about thepreparations for the forthcoming coronation of King Ulric ofMauravania?"
"Yes; why not? I am sure it makes interesting reading, Mr. Narkom. Thekingdom of Mauravania has had sufficient ups and downs to inspire anovelist, so its records should certainly interest a mere reader. To befrank, I found the account of the amazing preparations for thecoronation of his new Majesty distinctly entertaining. They are anexcitable and spectacular people, those Mauravanians, and this time theyseem bent upon outdoing themselves."
"But, my dear Cleek, that you should have chosen to stop at home andread about that particular affair! Bless my soul, man, it's--it'samazing, abnormal, uncanny! Positively uncanny, Cleek!"
"My dear Mr. Narkom, I don't see where the uncanny element comes in, Imust confess," replied Cleek with an indulgent smile. "Surely anEnglishman must always feel a certain amount of interest in Mauravanianaffairs. Have the goodness to remember that there should be anEnglishman upon that particular throne. Aye, and there would be, too,but for one of those moments of weak-backed policy, of a desire upon thepart of the 'old-woman' element which sometimes prevails in Englishpolitics to keep friendly relations with other powers at any cost.
"Brush up your history, Mr. Narkom, and give your memory a fillip.Eight-and-thirty years ago Queen Karma of Mauravania had an Englishconsort and bore him two daughters and one son. You will perhaps recallthe mad rebellion, the idiotic rising which disgraced that reign. Thatwas the time for England to have spoken. But the peace party had it bythe throat; they, with their mawkish cry for peace, peace at any price,drowned the voices of men and heroes, and, the end was what it was!Queen Karma was deposed, she and her children fled, God knows how, Godknows where, and left a dead husband and father, slain like a hero andan Englishman, fighting for his own and with his face to the foe.Avenge his death? Nonsense! declared the old women. He had no right todefy the will of Heaven, no right to stir up strife with a friendlypeople and expect his countrymen to embroil themselves because of hislust for power. It would be a lasting disgrace to the nation if Englandallowed a lot of howling, bloodthirsty meddlers to persuade it tointerfere!
"The old women had their way. Queen Karma and her children vanished; heruncle Duke Sforza came to the throne as Alburtus III., and eight monthsago his son, the present King Ulric, succeeded him. The father had beena bad king, the son a bad crown prince. Mauravania has paid the price.Let her put up with it! I don't think in the light of these things, Mr.Narkom, there is any wonder that an Englishman finds interest in readingof the affairs of a country over which an Englishman's son might, andought to, have ruled. As for me, I have no sympathy, my friend, withMauravania or her justly punished people."
"Still, my dear fellow, that should not count when the reward for takingup this case is so enormous, and I dare say it will not."
"Reward? Case?" repeated Cleek. "What do you mean by that?"
"That I am here to enlist your services in the cause of King Ulric ofMauravania," replied Narkom impressively. "Something has happened,Cleek, which if not cleared up before the coronation day, now only onemonth hence, as you must have read, will certainly result in hisMajesty's public disgrace, and may result in his overthrow and death!His friend and chief adviser Count Irma has come all the way fromMauravania, and is at this moment downstairs in this house, to put thecase in your hands and to implore you to help and to save his royalmaster!"
"His royal master? The son of the man who drove an Englishman's wifeand an Englishman's children into exile--poverty--misery--despair?" saidCleek, pulling himself up. "I won't take it, Mr. Narkom! If he offers memillions, I'll lift no hand to help or to save Mauravania's king!"
The response to this came from an unexpected quarter.
"But to save Maura
vania's queen, monsieur? Will you do nothing for her?"said an excited, an imploring voice. And as Cleek, startled by theinterruption, switched round and glanced in the direction of the sound,the half-closed door swung inward and a figure, muffled to the veryeyes, moved over the threshold into the room. "Have pardon, monsieur, Icould not but overhear," went on the newcomer, turning to Narkom. "Ishould scarcely be worthy of his Majesty's confidence and favour had Iremained inactive. I simply had to come up unbidden. _Had_ to,monsieur"--turning to Cleek--"and so----" His words dropped offsuddenly. A puzzled look first expanded and then contracted his eyes,and his lips tightened curiously under the screen of his white, militarymoustache. "Monsieur," he said, presently putting into words the senseof baffling familiarity which perplexed him. "Monsieur, you then are thegreat, the astonishing Cleek? You, monsieur? Pardon, but surely I havehad the pleasure of meeting monsieur before? No, not here, for I havenever been in England until to-day; but, in my own country, inMauravania. Surely, monsieur, I have seen you there?"
"To the contrary," said Cleek, speaking the simple truth, "I have neverset foot in Mauravania in all my life, sir. And as you have overheard mywords you may see that I do not intend to even now. The difficulties ofMauravania's king do not in the least appeal to me."
"Ah, but Mauravania's queen, monsieur, Mauravania's queen."
"The lady interests me no more than does her royal spouse."
"But, monsieur, she must if you are honest in what you say, and yoursympathies are all with the deposed and exiled ones, the ex-Queen Karmaand her children. Surely, monsieur, you who seem to know so well thehistory of that sad time cannot be ignorant of what has happened sinceto her ex-Majesty and her children?"
"I know only that Queen Karma died in France, in extreme poverty,befriended to the last by people of the very humblest birth and of nottoo much respectability. What became of her son I do not know; but herdaughters, the two princesses, mere infants at the time, were sent, oneto England, where she subsequently died, and the other to Persia, where,I believe, she remained up to her ninth year, and then went no one seemsto know where."
"Then, monsieur, let me tell you what became of her. The late KingAlburtus discovered her whereabouts, and, to prevent any possibletrouble in the future, imprisoned her in the Fort of Sulberga up to theyear before his death. Eleven months ago she became the Crown PrinceUlric's wife. She is now his consort. And by saving her, monsieur, youwho feel so warmly upon the subject of the rights of her family'ssuccession, will be saving her, helping Mauravania's queen, anddefeating those who are her enemies."
Cleek sucked in his breath and regarded the man silently, steadily, fora long time. Then:
"Is that true, count?" he asked. "On your word of honour as a soldierand a gentleman, is that true?"
"As true as Holy Writ, monsieur. On my word of honour. On my hopes ofheaven!"
"Very well, then," said Cleek quietly. "Tell me the case, count. I'lltake it."
"Monsieur, my eternal gratitude. Also the reward is----"
"We will talk about that afterward. Sit down, please, and tell me whatyou want me to do."
"Oh, monsieur, almost the impossible," said the count despairfully. "Theoutwitting of a woman who must in very truth be the devil's owndaughter, so subtle, so appalling are the craft and cunning of her.That, for one thing. For another, the finding of a paper which, ifpublished, as the woman swears it shall be if her terms are not accededto, will be the signal for his Majesty's overthrow. And, for thethird"--emotion mastered him; his voice choked and failed; he deportedhimself for a moment like one afraid to let even his own ears hear thething spoken of aloud, then governed his cowardice and went on--"For thethird thing, monsieur," he said, lowering his tone until it was almost awhisper, "the recovery--the restoration to its place of honour beforethe coronation day arrives of that fateful gem, Mauravania's pride andglory, 'the Rainbow Pearl!'"
Cleek clamped his jaws together like a bloodhound snapping, and over hishardened face there came a slow-creeping, unnatural pallor.
"Has that been lost?" he said in a low, bleak voice. "Has he, thisprecious royal master of yours, this usurper--has he parted with thatthing; the wondrous Rainbow Pearl?"
"Monsieur knows of the gem then?"
"Know of it? Who does not? Its fame is world-wide. Wars have been foughtfor it, lives sacrificed for it. It is more valuable than England'sKoh-i-noor, and more important to the country and the crown that possessit. The legend runs, does it not? that Mauravania falls when the RainbowPearl passes into alien hands. An absurd belief, to be sure, but who canargue with a superstitious people or hammer wisdom into the minds ofbabies? And _that_ has been lost, that gem so dear to Mauravania'speople, so important to Mauravania's crown?"
"Yes, monsieur--ah, the good God help my country!--yes!" said the countbrokenly. "It has passed from his Majesty's hands; it is no longer amongthe crown jewels of Mauravania and a Russian has it."
"A Russian?" Cleek's cry was like to nothing so much as the snarl of awild animal. "A Russian to hold it--and Russia the sworn enemy ofMauravania! God help your wretched king, Count Irma, if this were knownto his subjects."
"Ah, monsieur, it is that we dread; it is that against which westruggle," replied the count. "If that jewel were missing on thecoronation day, if it were known that a Russian holds it--Dear God! thepopulace would rise, monsieur, and tear his Majesty to pieces."
"He deserves no better!" said Cleek through his close-shut teeth. "To aRussian--a Russian! As heaven hears me, but for his queen---- Well, letit pass. Tell me how did this Russian get the jewel, and when?"
"Oh, long ago, monsieur, long ago; many months before King Alburtusdied."
"Was it his hand that gave it up?"
"No, monsieur. He died without knowing of its loss, without suspectingthat the stone in the royal palace is but a sham and an imitation,"replied the count. "It all came of the youth, the recklessness, thefolly of the crown prince. Monsieur may have heard of his--his many wildescapades, his thoughtless acts, his--his----"
"Call them dissipations, count, and give them their real name. His actsas crown prince were a scandal and a disgrace. To whom did he part withthis gem, a woman?"
"Monsieur, yes! It was during the time he was stopping inParis--incognito to all but a trusted few. He--he met the woman there,became fascinated with her, bound to her, an abject slave to her."
"A slave to a Russian? Mauravania's heir and a Russian?"
"Monsieur, he did not know that until afterward. In a mad freak--therewas to be a masked ball--he yielded to the lady's persuasions to let herwear the famous Rainbow Pearl for that one night. He journeyed back toMauravania and abstracted it from among the royal jewels, putting a mereimitation in its place so that it should not be missed until he couldreturn the original. Monsieur, he was never able to return it at anytime, for once she got it, the Russian made away with it in some secretmanner and refused to give it up. Her price for returning it was hisroyal father's consent to ennoble her, to receive her at the Mauravaniancourt, and so to alter the constitution that it would be possible forher to become the crown prince's wife."
"The proposition of an idiot. The thing could not possibly be done."
"No, monsieur, it could not. So the crown prince broke from her and bentall his energies upon the recovery of the pearl and the keeping of itsloss a secret from the king and his people. Bravos, footpads, burglars,all manner of men, were employed before he left Paris. The woman's housewas broken into, the woman herself waylaid and searched, but nothingcame of it, no clue to the lost jewel could be found."
"Why, then, did he not appeal to the police?"
"Monsieur, he--he dared not. In one of his moments of madnesshe--she--that is---- Oh, monsieur, remember his youth! It appears thatthe woman had got him to put into writing something which, if madepublic, would cause the people of Mauravania to rise as one man and todo with him as wolves do with things that are thrown to them in theirfury."
"The dog! Some treaty with a Russian,
of course!" said Cleekindignantly. "Oh, fickle Mauravania, how well you are punished for yourtreasonable choice! Well, go on, count. What next?"
"Of a sudden, monsieur, the woman disappeared. Nothing was heard of her,no clue to her whereabouts discovered for two whole years. She was asone dead and gone until last week."
"Oho! She returned then?"
"Yes, monsieur. Without hint or warning she turned up in Mauravania,accompanied by a disreputable one-eyed man who has the manner andappearance of one bred in the gutters of Paris, albeit he is wellclothed, well looked after, and she treats him and his wretchedcollection of parakeets with the utmost consideration."
"Parakeets?" put in Narkom excitedly. "My dear Cleek, couldn't aparakeet be made to swallow a pearl?"
"Perhaps; but not this one, Mr. Narkom," he made reply. "It is quite thesize of a pigeon's egg, I believe; is it not, count?"
"Yes, monsieur, quite. To see it is to remember it always. It has thechanging lights of the rainbow and----"
"Never mind that; go on with the story, please. This woman and thisone-eyed man appeared last week in Mauravania, you say?"
"Yes, monsieur; and with them a bodyguard of at least ten servants. Herdemand now is that his Majesty make her his morganatic wife; that heestablish her at the palace, under the same roof with his queen; andthat she be allowed to ride with them in the state carriage on thecoronation day. Failing that, she swears that she will not only publishthe contents of that dreadful letter, but send the original to the chiefof the Mauravanian police and appear in public at the coronation withthe Rainbow Pearl upon her person."
"The Jezebel! What steps have you taken, count, to prevent this?"
"All that I can imagine, monsieur. To prevent her from getting intoclose touch with the public, I have thrown open my own house to her andreceived her and her retinue under my own roof rather than allow them tobe quartered at an hotel. Also, this has given me the opportunity tohave her effects and those of her followers secretly searched; but noclue to the letter, no clue to the pearl has anywhere been discovered."
"Still, she must have both with her, otherwise she could not carry outher threat. No doubt she suspects what motive you had in taking her intoyour own house, count. A woman like that is no fool. But tell me, doesshe show no anxiety, no fear of a search?"
"None, monsieur. She knows that my people search her effects; indeed shehas told me so. But it alarms her not a whit. As she told me two daysago, I shall find nothing; but if I did it would be useless, for, on themoment anything of hers was touched, her servants would see that thefinder never carried it from the house."
"Oho!" said Cleek with a strong rising inflection. "A little searchingparty of her own, eh? The lady is clever, at all events. The momenteither pearl or letter should be removed from its hiding-place herservants would allow nobody to leave the house without being searched tothe very skin?"
"Yes, monsieur. So if by any chance you were to discover either----"
"My friend, set your mind at rest," interposed Cleek. "If I find either,or both, they will leave the house with me, I promise you. Mr.Narkom"--he turned to the superintendent--"keep an eye on Dollops forme, will you? There are reasons why I can't take him, can't takeanybody, with me in the working out of this case. I may be a couple ofdays or I may be a week, I can't say as yet, but I start with Count Irmafor Mauravania in the morning. And, Mr. Narkom."
"Yes, old chap?"
"Do me a favour, please. Be at Charing Cross station when the first boattrain leaves to-morrow morning, will you, and bring me a small pot ofextract of beef, a very small pot, the smallest they make, not biggerthan a shilling nor thicker than one if they make them that size. What'sthat? Hide the pearl in it? What nonsense! I don't want one half bigenough for that. Besides, they'd be sure to find it when they searchedme if I tried any such fool's trick as that. Dollops isn't the onlycreature in the world that gets hungry, my friend, and beef extract isvery sustaining, very, I assure you, sir."
II
"A Beautiful city, count, an exceedingly beautiful city," said Cleek, asthe carriage which had been sent to meet them at the station rolled intothe broad Avenue des Arcs, which is at once the widest and most ornatethoroughfare the capital city of Mauravania boasts. "Ah, what aheritage! No wonder King Ulric is so anxious to retain his sovereignty;no wonder this--er--Madame Tcharnovetski, I think you said the nameis----"
"Yes, monsieur. It is oddly spelled, but it is pronounced a littlebroader than you give it, quite as though it were writtenShar-no-_vet_-skee, in fact, with the accent on the third syllable."
"Ah, yes. Thanks very much. No wonder she is anxious to become a powerhere. Mauravania is a fairyland in very truth; and this beautiful avenuewith its arches, its splendid trees, its sculpture, its---- Ah!_cocher_, pull up at once. Stop, if you please, stop!"
"_Oui_, monsieur," replied the driver, reining in his horses andglancing round. "_Dix mille pardons_, m'sieur, there is somethingamiss?"
"Yes; very much amiss, from the dog's point of view," replied Cleek,indicating by a wave of the hand a mongrel puppy which crouched, forlornand hungry, in the shadow of an imposing building. "He should be aSocialist among dogs, that little fellow, count. The mere accident ofbirth has made him what he is, and that poodled monstrosity the ladyyonder is leading the pet and pride of a thoughtless mistress. I wantthat little canine outcast, count, and with your permission I willappropriate him and give him his first carriage ride." With that, hestepped down from the vehicle, whistled the cur to him, and taking it upin his arms, returned with it to his seat.
"Monsieur, you are to me the most astonishing of men," said the count,noticing how he patted the puppy and settled it in his lap as thecarriage resumed its even rolling down the broad, beautiful avenue. "Onemoment upholding the rights of birth, the next rebelling against theinjustice of it. Are your sympathies with the unfortunate so keen,monsieur, that even this stray cur may claim them?"
"Perhaps," replied Cleek enigmatically. "You must wait and see, count.Just now I pity him for his forlornity; to-morrow, next day, a weekhence, I may hold it a better course to put an end to his hopeless lotby chloroforming him into a painless and peaceful death."
"Monsieur, I cannot follow you, you speak in riddles."
"I deal in riddles, count; you must wait for the solution of them, I'mafraid."
"I wish I could grasp the solution of one which puzzles me a great deal,monsieur. What is it that has happened to your countenance? You havedone nothing to put on a disguise; yet, since we left the train andentered the landau, some subtle change has occurred. What is it? Howhas it come about? The night before last, when I saw you for the firsttime, your face was one that impressed me with a sense of familiarity,now, monsieur, you are like a different man.'"
"I am a different man, count. Like this puppy here, I am a waif and astray; yet, at the same time, I have my purpose and am part of acarefully laid scheme."
The count made no reply. He could not comprehend the man at all, and attimes, but for the world-wide reputation of him, he would have believedhim insane. Not a question as to the great and important case he was on,but merely incomprehensible remarks, trifling fancies, apparentlyaimless whims! Two nights ago a pot of beef extract; to-day a mongrelpuppy; and all the time the hopes of a kingdom, the future of a monarchresting in his hands!
For twenty minutes longer the landau rolled on; then it came to a haltunder the broad porte-cochere of the Villa Irma, and two minutes afterthat Cleek and the count stood in the presence of Madame Tcharnovetski,her purblind associate, and her retinue of servant-guards.
A handsome woman, this madame, a woman of about two-and-thirty, with thetar-black eyes and the twilight-coloured tresses of Northern Russia;bold as brass, flippant as a French cocotte, steel-nerved andcalm-blooded as a professional gambler. It had been her whim that allthe women of the count's family should be banished from the house duringher stay; that the great salon of the villa, a wondrous apartment, hungin blue and silver, and lit by a huge
crystal chandelier, should be putat her disposal night and day; that the electric lights should bereplaced with dozens of wax candles (after the manner of the ballroomsof her native Russia); that her one-eyed companion, with his wicker cageof screeching parakeets should come and go when and where and how helisted, and that an electric alarm bell be connected with her sleepingapartment and his.
"Your hirelings will tamper with his birds and his effects in the night,I know that, Monsieur le Comte," she had said when she demanded this."He is a nervous fellow, this poor Clopin; I wish him to be able to ringfor help if you and your men go too far."
Clopin was sitting by the window chattering to his birds when Cleekentered, and a glance at him was sufficient to decide two points: firsthe was not disguised, nor was his partial blindness in any way a sham,for an idiot could have seen that the droop of the left eyelid over thestaring, palpably artificial eye which glazed over the empty socketbeneath was due to perfectly natural causes; and, second, that the manwas indeed what the count had said he resembled, namely, a gutter-bredoutcast.
"French," was Cleek's silent comment upon him. "One of those charlatanswho infest the streets of Paris with their so-called 'fortune-tellingbirds,' who, for ten centimes, pick out an envelope with their beaks asa means of telling you what the future is supposed to hold. What hasmade a woman like this pick up with a fellow of his stamp? Hum-m-m!Puppy, I think you are a good move," stroking the ears of the mongreldog; "a very much better move than a cage of useless parakeets that aremeant to throw suspicion in the wrong direction and have a seed-cup solarge and so obviously overfilled that it is safe to say there isnothing hidden in it and never has been. And madame has a fancy for waxlights," his gaze travelling upward to the glittering chandelier."Hum-m-m! How well they know, these women whose beauty is going off,that wax-lights show less of Time's ravages than gas or electricity.Candles in the chandelier; candles in the sconces; candles on themantelpiece. This room should be very charming when it is lighted atnight."
It was--as he learned later. Just now things not quite so charmingfilled the bill, for madame was jeering at him in a manner not to bemisunderstood.
"A police spy, that is what you are, monsieur!" she said, coming up tohim and impudently snapping her fingers under his nose. "Such a foolthis white-headed old dotard of a count, to think that he can take me inwith a silly yarn about going to visit a nephew and bringing him backhere to stay. Monsieur, you are a police spy. Well, good luck to you.Get what the Mauravanian king wants, if--you--can!"
"Madame," replied Cleek, with a deeply deferential bow and with anaccent that seemed born of Paris, "Madame, that is what I mean to do, Iassure you."
"Ah, do you?" she answered, with a scream of laughter. "You hear that,Clopin? You hear that, my good servitors? This silly French noodle isgoing to get the things in spite of us. Oho, but you have a fine opinionof yourself, monsieur. You need work fast, too, pretty boaster, I cantell you. For the royal jewellers will require the Rainbow Pearl verysoon to fix it in its place in the crown for the coronation ceremony,and if that thing his Majesty holds is offered to them, how long, thinkyou, will it be before all Mauravania knows that it is an imitation?Look you," waxing suddenly vicious, "I'll make it shorter still, thetime you have to strive. Monsieur le Comte, take this message to hisMajesty from me. If in three days he does not promise to accede to mydemands and give me a public proof of it over his royal seal, I leaveMauravania. The pearl and the letter leave with me, and they shall notcome back until I return with them for the coronation."
"For the love of God, madame," said the count, "don't make it harderstill. Oh, wait, wait, I beseech you!"
"Not an hour longer than I have now said!" she flung back at him. "Ihave waited until I am tired of it, and my patience is worn out. Threedays, count; three days, monsieur with the puppy dog; three days, andnot an instant longer, do you hear?"
"Quite enough, madame," replied Cleek, with a courtly bow. "I promise tohave them in two!"
She threw back her head and fairly shook with laughter.
"Of a truth, monsieur, you are a candid boaster!" she cried. "Look you,my good fellows, and you too, my poor dumb Clopin, pretty monsieur herewill have the letter and the pearl in two days' time. Look to it that henever leaves this house at any minute from this time forth that you donot search him from top to toe. If he resists--ah, well, a pistol may gooff accidentally, and things that Mauravania's king would give his lifeto keep hidden will come to light if any charge of murder is preferred.Monsieur the police spy, I wish you joy of your task."
"Madame, I _shall_ take joy in it," Cleek replied. "But why should wetalk of unpleasant things when the future looks so bright? Come, may wenot give ourselves a pleasant evening? Look, there is a piano, and----Count, hold my puppy for me, and please see that no one feeds him at anytime. I am starving him so that he may devour some of Clopin'sparakeets, because I hate the sight of the little beasts. Thank you.Madame, do you like music? Listen, then; I'll sing you Mauravania'snational anthem: 'God guard the throne; God shield the right!'" and,dropping down upon the seat before the open instrument, he did so.
That night was ever memorable at the Villa Irma, for the detectiveseemed somehow to have given place to the courtier, and so merry was hismood, so infectious his good nature, that even madame came under thespell of it. She sang with him, she even danced a Russian polka withhim; she sat with him at dinner, and flirted with him in the salonafterward; and when the time came for her to retire, it was he who tookher bedroom candle from the shelf and put in into her hand.
"Of a truth, you are a charming fellow, monsieur," she said, when hebent and kissed her hand. "What a pity you should be a police spy andupon so hopeless a case."
"Hopeless cases are my delight, madame. Believe me, I shall not fail."
"Only three days, remember, _cher ami_--only three days!"
"Madame is too kind. I have said it: two will do. On the morning of thethird madame's passport will be ready and the Rainbow Pearl be in theroyal jewellers' hands. A thousand pleasant dreams, _bon soir_!" Andbowed her out and kissed his hand to her as she went up the stairs tobed.
III
Thrice during the next twenty-four hours Cleek, who seemed to havebecome so attached to the mongrel dog that he kept it under his armcontinually, had reason to leave the house, and thrice was he seized bymadame's henchmen, bundled unceremoniously into a convenient room, andsearched to the very skin before he was suffered to pass beyond thethreshold. And if so much as a pin had been hidden upon his person, itmust have been discovered.
"You see, monsieur, how hopeless it is!" said the count despairfully."One dare not rebel; one dare not lift a finger, or the woman speaks andhis Majesty's ruin falls. Oh, the madness of that boast of yours! Onlyanother twenty-four hours, only another day and then God help hisMajesty!"
"God has helped him a great deal better than he deserves, count,"replied Cleek. "By to-morrow night at ten o'clock be in the square ofthe Aquisola, please. Bring with you the passports of madame and hercompanions, also a detachment of the Royal Guard, and his Majesty'scheque for the reward I am to receive."
"Monsieur! You really hope to get the things? You really do?"
"Oh, I do more than 'hope,' count, I have succeeded. I knew last nightwhere both pearl and letter were. To-morrow night--ah, well, letto-morrow tell its own tale. Only be in the square at the hour Imention, and when I lift a lighted candle and pass it across the salonwindow, send the guard here with the passports. Let them remain outside,within sight, but not within range of hearing what is said and done. Youalone are to enter, remember that."
"To receive the jewel and the letter?" eagerly. "Or, at least to haveyou point out the hiding-place of them?"
"No; we should be shot down like dogs if I undertook a mad thing likethat."
"Then, monsieur, how are we to seize them? How get them into ourpossession, his Majesty and I?"
"From my hand, count; this hand which held them both before I went tobed last night."
"Monsieur!" The count fell back from him as if from some supernaturalpresence. "You found them? You held them? You took possession of themlast night? How did you get them out of the house?"
"I have not done so yet."
"But can you? Oh, monsieur, wizard though you are, can you get them pasther guards? Can you, monsieur, can you?"
"Watch for the light at the window, count. It will not be waved unlessit is safe for you to come and the pearl is already out of the house."
"And the letter, monsieur, the damning letter?"
Cleek smiled one of his strange, inscrutable smiles.
"Ask me that to-morrow, count," he said. "You shall hear something, youand madame, that will surprise you both," then twisted round on his heeland walked hurriedly away. And all that day and all that night he dancedattendance upon madame, and sang to her, and handed her bedroom candleto her as he had done the night before, and gave back jest for jest andreturned her merry badinage in kind.
Nor did he change in that when the fateful to-morrow came. From morningtill night he was at her side, at her beck and call; doing nothing thatwas different from the doings of yesterday, save that at evening helocked the mongrel dog up in his room instead of carrying him about. Andthe dog, feeling its loneliness or, possibly, famishing, for he hadgiven it not a morsel of food since he found it, howled and howled untilthe din became unbearable.
"Monsieur, I wish you would silence that beast or else feed it," saidmadame pettishly. "The howling of the wretched thing gets on my nerves.Give it some food for pity's sake."
"Not I," said Cleek. "Do you not remember what I said, madame? I amgetting it hungry enough to eat one or perhaps all of Clopin's wretchedlittle parakeets."
"You think they have to do with the hiding of the paper or the pearl,_cher ami_? Eh?"
"I am sure of it. He would not carry the beastly little things about fornothing."
"Ah, you are clever, you are very, very clever, monsieur," she madeanswer, with a laugh. "But he must begin his bird-eating quickly, thatnuisance-dog, or it will be too late. See, it is already half-past nine;I retire to my bed in another hour and a half, as always, and then yourlast hope he is gone--z-zic! like that; for it will be the end of thesecond day, monsieur, and your promise not yet kept. Pestilence,monsieur," with a little outburst of temper, "do stop the little beasthis howl. It is unbearable! I would you to sing to me like last night,but the noise of the dog is maddening."
"Oh, if it annoys you like that, madame," said Cleek, "I'll take himround to the stable and tie him up there, so we may have the songundisturbed. Your men will not want to search me, of course, when I ammerely popping out and popping in again like that, I am sure?"
Nevertheless they did, for although they had heard and did not stir whenhe left the room and ran up for the dog, when he came down with it underhis arm and made to leave the house, he was pounced upon, dragged intoan adjoining apartment by half a dozen burly fellows, stripped to thebuff, and searched, as the workers in a diamond mine are searched,before they suffered him to leave the house. There was neither a sign ofa pearl nor a scrap of a letter to be found upon him, they made sure ofthat before they let him go.
"An enterprising lot, those lackeys of yours, madame," he said, when hereturned from tying the dog up in the stable and rejoined her in thesalon. "It will be an added pleasure to get the better of them, I canassure you."
"_Oui_, if you can!" she answered, with a mocking laugh. "Clopin, _cherami_, your poor little parakeets are safe for the night, unless monsieurgrows desperate and eats them for himself."
"Even that, if it were necessary to get the pearl, madame," said Cleek,with the utmost sang-froid. "Faugh!" looking at his watch, "a goodtwenty minutes wasted by the zealousness of those idiotic searchers ofyours. Ten minutes to ten! Just time for one brief song. Let us make haywhile the sun lasts, madame, for it goes down suddenly here inMauravania; and for some of us it never comes up again!" Then, throwinghimself upon the piano-seat, he ran his fingers across the keys andbroke into the stately measures of the national anthem. And, of asudden, while the song was yet in progress, the clock in the corridorjingled its musical chimes and struck the first note of the hour.
He jumped to his feet and lifted both hands above his head.
"Mauravania!" he cried. "Oh, Mauravania! For thee! For thee!" Thenjumped to the mantelpiece, and, catching up a lighted candle, flashed ittwice across the window's width, and broke again into the national hymn.
"Monsieur," cried out madame, "monsieur, what is the meaning of that?Have you lost your wits? You give a signal! For what? To whom?"
"To the guards of Mauravania's king, madame, in honour of his safeescape from you!" he made reply; then twitched back the window curtainsuntil the whole expanse of glass was bared. "Look! do you see them, doyou, Madame?" he said. "His Majesty of Mauravania sends MadameTcharnovetski a command to leave his kingdom, since he no longer hascause to fear a wasp whose sting has been plucked out."
Her swift glance flashed to the fireplace, then to the corner whereClopin still sat with his jabbering parakeets, then flashed back toCleek, and she laughed in his face.
"I think not, monsieur," she said, with a swaggering air. "Truly, Ithink not, my excellent friend."
"What a pity you only think so, madame! As for me---- Ah, welcome,count, welcome a thousand times. The paper, my friend; you have broughtthe paper? Good! good! Quick, give it to me. Madame, yourpassport--yours and your people's. You leave Mauravania by the midnighttrain, and you have but little time to pack your effects. Your passport,madame, and your bedroom candle. Oh, yes, the paper is still round it,see!" slipping off a sheet of white notepaper that was wrapped round thefull length of the candle from top to bottom, "but if you will examineit, madame, you will find it is blank. I burned the real letter thenight before last when I put this in its place."
"You what?" she snapped; then caught the tube-shaped covering he hadstripped from the candle, uncurled it, and screamed.
"Blank, madame, quite blank, you see," said Cleek serenely. "For one soclever in other things, you should have been more careful. A littlepinch of powder in the punch at dinner-time--just that--and on the firstnight, too! It was so easy afterward to get into your room, remove thereal paper, and wrap the candle in a blank piece while you slept."
"You, you dog!" she snapped out viciously. "You drugged me?"
"Yes, madame; you and the one-eyed man as well! Oh, don't exciteyourself; don't pull at the poor wretch like that. The glass eye willcome out quite easily, but--I assure you there is only a small lump ofbeeswax in the socket now. I removed the Rainbow Pearl from poorMonsieur Clopin's blind eye ten minutes after I burnt the letter,madame, and it passed out of this house to-night! A clever idea to pickup a one-eyed pauper, madame, and hide the pearl in the empty socket ofthe lost eye, but it was too bad you had to supply a glass eye to keepit in, after the lid and the socket had withered and shrunk from so manyyears of emptiness. It worried the poor man, madame; he was alwaysfeeling it, always afraid that the lump behind would force it out; and,what is an added misfortune for your plans, the glass shell did notallow you to see the change when the pearl vanished and the bit ofbeeswax took its place. Madame Tcharnovetski, your passport. I knowenough of the King of Mauravania to be sure that your life will not besafe if you are not past the frontier before daybreak!"
* * * * *
"Monsieur le comte--no! I thank you, but I cannot wait to be presentedto his Majesty, for I, too, leave Mauravania tonight, and, like madameyonder, return to other and more promising fields," said Cleek, an hourlater, as he stood on the terrace of the Villa Irma and watched the slowprogress down the moonlit avenue of the carriage which was bearingMadame Tcharnovetski and her effects to the railway station. "Give methe cheque, please; I have earned that, and there is good use for it. Ithank you, count. Now do an act of charity, my friend: give the littledog in the stable a good meal, and then have a surgeon chloroform himinto a peaceful and a mercif
ul death. They will find the Rainbow Pearlin his intestines when they come to dissect the body. I starved him,count, starved him purposely, poor little wretch, so that he would behungry enough to snap at anything in the way of food and bolt itinstantly. Tonight, when I went up to take him out to the stable, athick smearing of beef extract over the surface of the pearl wassufficient; he swallowed it in a gulp! For a double reason, count, thereshould be a cur quartered on the royal arms of this country aftertonight."
His voice dropped off into silence. The carriage containing madame hadswung out through the gateway, and its shadow no longer blotted thebroad, unbroken space of moonlit avenue. He turned and looked far out,over the square of the Aquisola, along the light-lined esplanade, to thepalace gates and the fluttering flag that streamed against the sky aboveand beyond them.
"Oh, Mauravania!" he said. "An Englishman's heritage! Dear country, howbeautiful! My love to your Queen, my prayers for you."
"Monsieur!" exclaimed the count, "monsieur, what juggle is this? Yourface is again the face of that other night, the face that stirs memoryyet does not rivet it. Monsieur, speak, I beg of you. What are you? Whoare you?"
"Cleek," he made answer. "Just Cleek! It will do. Oh, Mauravania, dearland of desolated hopes, dear grave of murdered joys!"
"Monsieur!"
"Hush! Let me alone. There are things too sacred; and this----" Hishands reached outward as if in benediction; his face, upturned, was as aface transfigured, and something that shone as silver gleamed in thecorner of his eye. "Mauravania!" he said. "Oh, Mauravania! Mycountry--my people--good-bye!"
"Monsieur! Dear Heaven--_Majesty_!"
Then came a rustling sound, and when Cleek had mastered himself andlooked down, a figure with head uncovered knelt on one knee at his feet.
"Get up, count," he said, with a little shaky laugh. "I appreciate thehonour, but your fancy is playing you a trick. I tell you I never setfoot in Mauravania before, my friend."
"I know, I know. How should you, Majesty, when it was as a child atQueen Karma's breast Mauravania last saw---- Don't leave like this!Majesty! Majesty! 'God guard the right'--the pearl and the kingdom arehere."
"Wrong, my good friend. The kingdom is there, where you found me inEngland; and so, too, is the pearl. For there is no kingdom like thekingdom of love, count, and no pearl like a good woman."
"But, Majesty----"
"Good-night, count, and many thanks for your hospitality. You are alittle upset to-night, but no doubt you will be all right again in themorning. I will walk to the station and alone, if it is all the same toyou."
"Majesty!"
"Dreams, count, dreams. The riddle is solved, my friend. Good luck toyour country and good-bye!"
And, setting his back to the palace and the lights and the flutteringflag, and his face to the land that held her, turned and went hisway--to the West--to England--to those things which are higher thancrowns and better than sceptres and more precious than thrones andermine.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Inconsistent hyphenation of kitbag/kit-bag, tomorrow/to-morrow andtonight/to-night has been retained. Minor typographical correctionsare documented in the associated HTML version.
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