THE SEVEN EMERALDS.
The man stood upon the weir-bridge watching me, a conspicuous man withstrange clothes for river-work upon him, and a haunting activity whichdrove him from the lock to the inn, and again from the inn to the lockwith a crazy restlessness which was maddening. I had been for some hourswhipping the mill-stream, which lies over against the lockhouse atPangbourne; but meeting with no success amongst the chub, which on thisparticular July evening were aggravatingly indifferent even to thesucculent frog, I had punted to the bushes in the open river; and therelit my pipe and fell to speculation upon him who favored me with soclose an attention. I have said that he was a conspicuous man, and tothis I owed it that I had seen him. He wore the straw hat of JesusCollege, Cambridge, and a velvet coat which shone brown and greasy inthe falling sunlight; but his legs were encased in salmon-pink ridingbreeches, and he had brown boots reaching to his knees. Beyond this, hewas singularly handsome, so far as I could judge with the river'sbreadth between us; and his hair was fair with a ridiculous goldenstrain quite unlooked for in one who has grown to manhood. Why hewatched me so closely I could not even conjecture, but the fact was notto be disputed. I had lain by the mill since the forenoon, and since theforenoon he had hugged to the weir-bridge or to the lockhouse, giving noattention to the score of small boats and launches which passed up ordown to Goring or Mapledurham; or even to the many pretty women whobasked upon the cushions of punts or pair-oars. I alone was the objectof his gaze, and for me he seemed to wait through the afternoon anduntil the twilight.
Now, had the man hailed me, I should have gone shorewards at once, formy curiosity had been petted by his attentions until it waxed warm andharassing, but this he did not do; keeping his eyes upon me even when Ihad rested from casting and sat idling in the punt. It would have beeneasy, I concede, to have gone up river toward Goring and so to haveavoided him; but this would have cut short the chance of explanation,and have left ungratified my desire to know who he was, and wherefromcame his embarrassing interest in my failure to ensnare the exasperatingchub. So I sat there, in turn wondering if he were honest or a rogue, anadventurer or an idler, a river-man or a fop from Piccadilly. And as theproblem was beyond me, I left it at last; and taking up my punt-pole Igave three or four vigorous thrusts which sent me immediately to thelanding-stage of the Swan Inn, and thence to my room.
It may be urged that this was an indifferent way of dealing with the manin the velvet coat if I wished to know more of him; but I had taken thatlittle parlor of the inn which juts out upon the hard of the boathouse;and I could see from my open windows both the panorama of the lock andthat of the open reach away towards the islands. It was now close uponthe hour of seven, and the most part of the river lay in cooling shadow.I could hear by no means inharmonious music floating out over the waterfrom a girl's guitar; there were several launches waiting for thelock-gates; and I recall well the face of a very remarkable woman, whopresently came to the landing-stage in a gig, the cushions of which wereof an aggressive yellow, but one which was a striking contrast to herblack hair and ivory-white skin. Quite apart, however, from herindisputable beauty, I had reason to watch this conspicuous oarswoman,for no sooner had she come to the landing-stage than the man in thevelvet coat went to her assistance, and taking a number of bags andbaskets from the boat, accompanied her up the village high street, andso carried her from my view.
Here then, thought I, is the end of my mystery. The man had been waitingfor the return of his wife, when I, with preposterous conceit, plumedmyself that he had been looking to speak with me. What creatures ofideas we are! And when I reflected upon it, certainly it was monstrousabsurd to think that one man should wish to watch another failing tocatch fish through a long summer's afternoon. Indeed, I laughed heartilyat myself as the maid set my dinner, and I put my creel and rod upon thepiano (one puts everything upon the piano in a Thames village) beforedaring the very substantial, if rural, repast served to me.
One dines up river, as most people know, in semi-public state. Loafers,loiterers, fruit-sellers, boatmen--all these congregate near the openwindow, and discuss verbally the dishes which the diner discusses moresubstantially. Custom so stales us that this publicity in no wayinterferes with our pleasure. I have so long learned to tolerate thepresence before my casement of oarsman, pedlar, and even the lesswelcome bargee, that these now are almost as salt to my appetite. Andfor the matter of that, on the evening of which I am writing, the crowdwas less than usual, being composed of one vendor of fruit, three men inobviously Cheapside blazers, and an old woman who sold boot-laces anddiscussed the weather with me through the casement at one and the sametime. She was such a merry old soul, and gave me so much of her historyand of that of her son, who was "fightin' for his quane and counthry" ina place which she could not mind herself of, that I forgot theridiculous romance of the velvet-coated man, and even his existence,until of a sudden he presented himself, no longer watching me upon thebridge, but standing at the casement, and asking to be admitted.
"I'm most horribly sorry," said he, "to intrude upon you at your dinner,but my train leaves for town in ten minutes, and I particularly wantyour opinion upon something which they tell me you know more about thanany man in England."
"By all means," said I. "But your estimate of my opinion is hopelesslyflattering; it concerns jewels, I suppose?"
"Exactly," said he; "and I shall be under very large obligations to youif you will tell me whether two emeralds I have in my pocket are of anyvalue, and if so, where would be the best place to dispose of them?"
He took a little paper box from his coat, and laid it near to my plate.I saw that it was a box which had contained tabloids of nitro-glycerine(a drug prescribed for diseases of the heart); and that it had been soldby a chemist of the name of Benjamin Wain, whose shop was in the HighStreet at Reading. These things I observed with my intuitive habit ofgrasping detail, learnt in long contention with rogues; and then forgotthem as the man opened a screw of tissue paper, and I beheld two of thefinest emeralds I have seen during my career. The stones were perfectlymatched, of a rich velvety, but brilliant color, and came, I did notdoubt after my first sight of them, from the Upper Orinoco or fromColumbia. Their weight I judged to be about five carats each, and I knewthat if they were without a flaw, which very few emeralds are, theywould be worth fifteen hundred pounds at a very low estimate. All thispassed through my mind like a flash; but with admiration of the gems,which brought covetousness in its path, there came at once the otherthought--what is this man doing here with these stones, and how comes itthat he can carry them and yet be unconscious of their value? But this Iendeavored to conceal, and waited for him to speak.
"Well," said he, after a pause, "do you find much the matter withthem?"
"I should want my glass to see," said I with caution; "the light isfailing, and my eyes are not as good as they were."
"You mean a magnifying glass, I suppose?" said he, producing a lens fromhis pocket. "Well, I happen to have one."
Why it was I cannot tell you, but this trifling circumstance I markeddown in my mind as my first sound cause of suspicion against him.Perhaps I coupled it with that spontaneous distrust which I felt whenfirst he spoke, for the very softness of his voice was obviouslyassumed; and now that I saw him near to me, I did not fail to noticethat the velvet coat was much worn, and the rowing club tie he worefrayed beyond respectability. But I took his lens, and, having examinedthe stones long and critically under it, I found them to be without flawor blemish. Then I gave him my opinion.
"They are fine stuff," said I; "do you happen to know where they comefrom?"
I looked him full in the face when I spoke, and observed a slightdrawing of the lines above his mouth. When he answered me I was surethat he had thought out a lie--and with effort.
"I believe they come from Salzburg," he stammered; "at least I haveheard so."
"That could not possibly be," said I; "the worst emeralds we have arethe best product of that mine. I fancy they are from Ve
nezuela."
"Ah, that's the place," said he, "I remember it now; but I've a wretchedhead for geography."
While he said this the train to London steamed out of the railwaystation, which is not a stone's throw from the inn, and he, forgetful ofhis tale to me, sat watching it unconcernedly. I had discovered him in asecond lie, and I waited to entrap him to a third with the practisedpleasure of a cross-examiner.
"Do you sell these stones for yourself or as an agent?" I asked,assuming some authority as I felt surer of him. His hesitation inanswering was merely momentary, but it was enough for my purpose.
"For myself," said he; and then with clumsy maladroitness he added,"They were left to me by my father, and I have never had the heart tooffer them to any one. I'll tell you what, though; if you'll give me athousand pounds for the pair, you shall keep them."
"That's a long price," said I; "and if you don't mind the suggestion, mydinner's getting cold."
I had spoken thus with the design of putting him off; but he wasundisguisedly an ill-bred man, and I saw that I could have bought theemeralds from him for five hundred pounds. My hint--if such you couldcall it--fell upon deaf ears; and he, seeming not to hear it, continuedto argle-bargle, but betraying himself in every word he said.
"Come, now," he cried, "you don't want to be hard upon me; give me acheck for five hundred, and send the balance to Brighton in a week ifyou find them as good as you think. That's a fair offer, isn't it?"
"The offer is fair enough," said I; "but you forget that I did not comehere to buy emeralds. I am in Pangbourne to catch chub, as you saw thisafternoon."
"I'm afraid I can't agree to that," he replied with a laugh; "I did notsee you catch chub this afternoon--I saw you miss three."
"The bait was poor," I said meaningly; "fish are as canny as men, anddon't take pretty things if they think there's a hook in them."
This I gave him with such a stare that he rose up suddenly from hischair, and, having made a bungling parcel of his jewels, went off byhimself. He had to pass my window as he left the inn, and as he crossedthe road I called after him, saying--
"You'll be losing your train to London."
"Be d----d to that!" said he; and with such a salute he turned the angleof the road, and I lost sight of him.
But I thought much of his emeralds through the night, both in my walkacross the old wooden bridge to Whitchurch, when the river lay dark andgloomy with the sough of the breeze in the reeds and sedge-grass; andagain as I lay in the old wooden "best-bed" of the inn, and contemplatedthe "sampler" which bore witness to the energy of one Jane Atkins, whosework it was. By what chance had the man found me out? Whence came hisseedy clothes and his jewels? Who was the pretty woman who had gone upfrom the hard with him? He had come by the stones fraudulently, ofcourse; had the case been different he would have sent them to London toa house of substance, and there got his price for them. At one time Ifelt that it lay upon me to advise the police in Reading of the offer Ihad received; at another, there came some regret for the stones, and atthe manner of his departure. The season had been one of emeralds. Icould have sold the pair he had for some profit, and, as my greed toldme, I could have bought them cheap. At the end of it I fell asleep todream that I rowed to Mapledurham in an emerald boat, and that a manwith emerald eyes steered me abominably.
On the next day, quite early in the morning, I set out in a dog-cart forReading, having a _rendezvous_ with Barisbroke at the Kennet's mouth,whence we were to start for a day's sport upon that fish-breeding river.My drive took me by the old Bath-road, turning to the left midway up thevillage street; but I had not gone very far upon the Reading-road beforeI saw the handsome woman--the wife, as I assumed, of the velvet-coatedman--now dressed with exceeding poorness, and carrying a heavy bagtowards the biscuit town. At this point the sun beat early upon thesandy way with a shimmer of white and misty light, which promised greatheat of the forenoon; there was scarce a quiver of wind in the woods tothe left of me, and I did not doubt that walking was a great labor. Yet,when I reined in the cob, and asked the woman, if at least I might notcarry her bag to Reading and leave it for her, she thanked me somewhatcurtly, I thought, and evidently resented any notice of her difficulty.It occurred to me, as I drove on, that the man, who had been with her onthe previous day, had really left by the last train for London; but whenI came into Reading, and was about to cross the High Street, to reachEarleigh, I saw the name Benjamin Wain superscribed above a littlechemist's shop, and I stopped at once. I know that a country tradesmanwill gossip like a fishwife; and I asked the man for some preparationwhich he could not possibly find in the pharmacopoeia, and so began tofeel my ground.
"You're well ahead of the times here," said I, looking at his show-case,which was wofully destitute of drugs. "I shouldn't have thought thatyou'd be asked for tabloids in a place like Reading."
"Oh, but we are," said he, readily; "it's a wonderfully advanced town isReading--you won't get much in Regent Street which is not here. I'velived in Reading all my life--and seen changes, sir, indeed I have!"
"You know most of the people then?" said I, with a purpose.
"Ay," said he, "I've born and buried a many, so to speak; seen childrengrow to men and women, and men and women grow to children--you wouldn'tthink it perhaps!"
"No," said I, "you don't show it; but your reputation, if I may say so,goes beyond this place. I was in Pangbourne yesterday, where a tall,yellow-haired man was speaking of you; who is he, I wonder?"
"A tall, yellow-haired man!" he exclaimed, putting his finger in thecenter of his forehead as if in aid of memory; "I didn't know there weresuch in Reading. A tall, yellow--let me see, now----"
"You sold him some tabloids of nitro-glycerine; perhaps that will helpto his identification?" said I.
"Ah, now I know you're wrong," said he; "there's only one man withinfive miles of here who uses that stuff, and he hasn't got yellowhair--ha, ha, he hasn't got any at all."
"Who is he?" I asked with growing curiosity.
"Why, old Jabez Ladd, the miser, out at Yore Park; he takes that stufffor his heart, sir. Wonderful weak heart he has, too; but he hasn't gotyellow hair--no, I may say with conviction that he has no hair at all."
I had learnt all I needed, for the mere mention of the name Jabez Laddwas sufficient for me. At the man's words a whole freshet of ideasseemed to rush to my mind. I had known the miser for years as one of thehardest jewel buyers in the country; I had sold him thousands of pounds'worth of stuff; I had heard the strangest traditions of his astoundingmeanness and self-denial. They even said that he forbade himself acandle after dusk, and that his fare was oatmeal and brown bread; whilehe lived in a house which would not have been a poor retreat for amillionaire. This I knew, but the words of the apothecary had made otherthings clear to me--one, that the yellow-haired man had got his emeraldsin a box which must have come from Ladd's house, since he alone in theneighborhood took tabloids of nitro-glycerine; another, that the man'svery shabbiness and obvious shuffling pointed very strongly to theconclusion that he should be watched.
Of these things was I sure as I met Barisbroke, and I turned them overin my mind often during the moderate sport of the forenoon, and after.Not that I had any troublesome friendship for Ladd, who was no sort of aman to think about; yet I could not forget that he was a buyer, and itseemed both wise and likely to be profitable to warn him. Possibly I hadreared a fine superstructure of suspicion upon a mere flimsy basis ofprejudice; but in any case I could do no harm, I thought, and might evensell the old scoundrel a parcel of jewels in the attempt. His house, asI then knew, lay over by the hills of Caversham; and I remembered that Icould take it by a circuitous route which would bring me to Pangbourne,after I had passed through Mapledurham and Whitchurch. In the end, Iresolved at least to see the old man; and when I had dined at aridiculously early hour with Barisbroke, I crossed the river by thewhite bridge, and in thirty minutes I was at the gate of Yore Hall.
I am no archaeologist, and have an exceedingly
poor eye for a building;but my first impression of this hall was a pleasing one. It is true thatthe wooden gate of the drive was broken down, and the garden-land beyondit nothing but a tangle of swaying grass, thistle, and undergrowth,preparing one for poor things to come; but the house itself was amassive and even a grand attempt at a towered and battlementedstructure, built in stout stone with Norman windows, and the pretense ofa keep, which gave strength to its air of antiquity. When I came near toit, I saw that many of the gargoyles had fallen from the roof of theleft wing, which seemed to be unfinished, and the parapet was brokenaway and decaying above the porch; while--and this was even moresingular--there did not seem a single curtain to the house. It was nowupon the hour of seven, and a glimmer of sunlight shining redly upon thelatticed casements lit up the facade with a greater brilliance than onelooks to see out of Italy. There were rooks circling and cawing in thegreat elms by the moat which ran round three sides of the house; I couldhear the baying of a hound in the courtyard by the stables--but of manor woman I saw nothing, though I rang the great bell thrice, and birdsfled from the eaves at the clatter, and the rabbits that had sported bythe thicket disappeared in the warren.
Some minutes after the third ring, and when I was preparing to drive offand leave Jabez Ladd to his own affairs, the stable door opened, and agirl came out, dressed, it seemed to me, curiously in a smart whitefrock; but with untidy hair, though much of it; and an exceedinglypretty face, which had been the prettier for a little scouring. Thecreature had great dark eyes like a _grisette_ of Bordeaux; and when shesaw me, stood swaying upon her feet, and laughing as she bit at herapron-strings, as though my advent was an exceedingly humorous thing.Then she said,--
"Is it Mr. Ladd you're wanting?"
I told her that it was.
"You'll not be a county man?" she asked.
"I'm from London," said I, "and my name is Bernard Sutton. Tell Mr.Ladd that I'll not keep him five minutes."
"There's no need," said she, simpering again; "he's been a-bed since themilk."
"In bed!" cried I amazed.
"Yes," said she, "it's over late for company; but if ye'll writesomething I'll run up with it; the housekeeper's away sick."
She seemed to think that all this was a good joke, and wondered, I doubtnot, that I did not simper at her again. I was on the very point ofwhipping up the nag, and leaving such a curious household, when one ofthe landing windows went up with a creak, and Ladd himself, with amuffler round his throat, was visible.
"What d'ye want in my grounds?" he roared. "Here, you hussy, what are yechattering there for?--thought I was asleep did ye--ha!"
"Good evening, Mr. Ladd," said I, quietly; "I'm sorry, but I appear tohave disturbed you. I've a word for your ear if you'll come down."
"Hullo," cried he, in his cracked and piercing voice; "why it's you, isit? egad, I thought you were the butcher! What's your business?--I'mbiding in bed, as you can see."
"I can't shout," said I, "and my business is private."
"Won't it wait?" he snarled. "You haven't come to sell me anything?"
"I don't sell stuff in the street," said I; "come down and I'll talk toyou. But if you don't want to hear--well, go to bed."
His curiosity got the better of him at this point, and he snapped outthe words, "I'm coming down," and then disappeared from the window. Buthe had no intention of opening the front door, as I found presently whenof a sudden he appeared at a casement upon the ground floor, and resumedthe conversation.
"You're not asking after my health," said he, "but I'll let you knowthat I'm eat up with cold; can ye have done with it straight off?"
"Yes," said I, leaning over from the dog-cart to spare my voice. "Do youknow a tall man with yellow hair who's got two emeralds to sell?"
At these words his face whitened in the sunlight, and he opened hisgreat mouth as though to speak, but no sound came. Then quickly he drewa small box from his pocket, such as I had seen in the hands of thevelvet-coated man, and took a tabloid from it.
"I'll be about letting you in," said he, as he went to shut down thecasement.
But I said, "I think not, there's a drive of five miles to Whitchurchbefore me, and this horse trips."
"For the love of God," cried he, suddenly putting off allself-restraint, "don't go till I've heard you--man, my life may dependupon it!"
"How's that?" said I.
"I'm going to tell you," said he; "and if ye'll stay, we'll crack abottle of port together."
He had whetted my curiosity now, and presently I heard him nagging atthe pretty girl who had first greeted me. After that he threw thestable door wide open, and dressed only, as I could see, in a loosedressing-gown and a pair of carpet slippers, he led the horse to a stallthat had the half of a roof; crying to the maid to get her down to thehouse of a man he named, there to beg a feed of corn and the loan of aboy. But while he was doing it, he shivered incessantly, and seemedeaten up with fear.
"You appear to think that I'm putting up with you," said I, when I heardhis orders; "there's no need to look after the nag--I shan't be here tenminutes."
"Not ten minutes!" he exclaimed, still with quavering voice. "Oh, butyou will--when you've heard my talk. Would you see me murdered?"
I did not answer, being in the main amused at his attempts to get thehorse out of the trap, and particularly to unbuckle the very stiffbelly-band. The girl had gone tripping off with herself to the villageas I thought; but though at that time I had no intention of stayingbeyond an hour with him, I unshafted the animal myself, and tethered thebeast to the rickety manger, throwing my own rug across his loins; thenI followed Ladd through a black and smoke-washed kitchen to a dingyapartment near the hall, and, the place being shuttered, he kindled acommon paraffin lamp, which might have cost a shilling but would havebeen dear at two.
"I'll be getting the port," said he, casting a wistful look at me in thehope, perhaps, that I should decline his invitation to a glass, "you'llnot mind refreshment after your drive?"
"Thanks; you may be sure I won't," said I; and while he was gonefumbling down the passage, I saw that his dining-room had once been afine apartment, oak-panelled and spacious; and that ancestors, whoserubicund jowls spoke of "two-bottle" men, now seemed to survey theeconomy below with agony unspeakable. For the rest, there was little inthe room but depressing Victorian chairs in mahogany, and a piano with ahigh back, such as our grandmothers played upon.
When Ladd came back, he had a bottle in his hand. I smiled openly when Isaw that it was a pint; but he decanted it with a fine show ofgenerosity, and pushing a glass to me, took up the matter whichinterested him at once.
"Where did ye see my nephew?" he asked, while I sipped the wine withsatisfaction; "it'll have been in London, perhaps?"
"I saw him--if he was your nephew--at Pangbourne last night," said I;"he had a pretty woman with him, and wanted to sell me two emeralds."
"That must have been the wife he married in San Francisco," cried he,"but she has no sinecure; you didn't hear that I paid his passage abroadlast spring after he'd robbed me of a thousand----Well and it wasemeralds he wanted to sell you?"
"Two of the finest I have ever seen," said I, "and matching perfectly."
The import of the emeralds had evidently been lost upon him until thistime; but now of a sudden he realized that he might be concerned in thebusiness, and his agitation was renewed. "I wonder what emeralds theywere?" he asked as if of himself; then turning to me, he exclaimed,"Will you come upstairs with me a minute?"
He did not wait for me to answer, but led the way up bare stone steps toa landing off which there led two long passages; and in a big and notuncomfortable bedroom he showed me three safes, one a little one, whichhe opened, and took therefrom a case containing seven emeralds of a sizeand quality apparently similar to the two I had seen at Pangbourne. Butwhen he gave them to me to examine I saw at once that five of them weregenuine and two were false.
"Well," said he, after I had looked at them long and closely, "how d
oyou like them?"
"I like them well enough," said I; "at least, I like five of them, butthe other two are glass!"
At this he cried, "Oh, my God!" and clutched the stones from me with thetrembling fingers of a madman. When he had seen them for himself--beingjudge enough to follow me in my conclusions--he began to roar out oathsand complaints most pitifully, cursing his nephew as I have never hearda man cursed before or since. In my endeavor to calm him, I asked how itcould possibly be that this fellow he feared had got access to his safe;but he poured out only an incoherent tale, begging me to send for thepolice, then not to leave him, then falling to prophecy, and declaringthat he would be murdered before the month was out. It was altogetherthe most moving sight I have ever seen--pointing strongly to theconclusion that the man was mad; and, in fact, where his jewels wereconcerned, sanity was not his strong point.
By and by he got sufficient reason to tell me that he had theadministration of some of his nephew's property, and that in his work hehad first fallen foul of a man, headstrong, vindictive, by no meanshonest, and, in some moods, dangerous. Yet, even knowing his relative'scharacter and the threats he had urged against him, he could not tellhow the safe was broken, or by what means the emeralds had gone. He wasnot even aware that his nephew was in England; and I had been the firstto bring intelligence of his coming. I asked him, naturally, if thesetwo stones represented the whole of his loss, and at that he fell offagain to his raving, but took two keys of the larger safes from a secretdrawer in the smaller as I could see; and began to pour upon the fadedbed-cover a wealth of treasure which might have bought a city. Here wererubies of infinite perfection, diamonds set in a hundred shapes, ropesof pearls, boxes of opals, bracelets of every known pattern, ringsscarce to be numbered, aigrettes, necklaces--in short, such a stupendousshow that the dark and dingy bedroom was lighted with wondrous light, amyriad rays flashing up from the bed, until the whole place seemedtouched with a wand, and changed to a chamber of a thousand colors.Before the bed of jewels the old man stood chattering and moaning; nowbathing, as it were, in the gems, now letting them ripple over hishands, or addressing tender endearments to them; or clutching them withnervous avidity as though he feared even my companionship.
In the midst of this strange scene, and while we were both heldspellbound by the wondrous vision of wealth, a sudden exclamation drewthe miser from his employment. It came from the girl who had been sentto the village, she now standing in the doorway of the bedroom, andcrying, "Oh, good Lord!" as she saw the glitter of the gems. But Laddturned upon her at the words, and grasped her by the wrists, crying outas he had cried when first he knew that he was robbed.
"You hussy," he hissed, bending her by the arms backward almost to thefloor; "what do you watch me for? What do you mean by coming here? Whereare the emeralds you have stolen? Tell me, wench; do you hear? Tell me,or I shall hurt you!"
He held her in so firm a grasp that I feared she would suffocate, andwent to pull him off; at which action he turned to cry out against me;but the anger had played upon him so that he fainted suddenly all acrossthe bed, and amongst the jewels. The girl, whom he had forced upon thefloor, now rose impudently, and said,--
"Did ye ever see the like of him?--but I'll make him pay for it! Oh, youneedn't look, he's that way often. He'll come to in a minute; but hewon't find me in the house to-morrow--wages or no wages."
"Do what you like," I cried to her angrily, "but don't chatter. Have yougot any brandy in the house?"
"Brandy! and for him!" said she, arranging her dress which he had torn."Is it me that should be running for it? Not if I know it; brandy, Ilike that!"
"Then leave the room," I exclaimed imperatively; and with that she wentoff, banging the door behind her, and I was alone with the man and hisjewels. I think it was the strangest situation I have ever known. Somethousands of pounds' worth of gems lay scattered upon the coverlet, uponthe sheets, and even upon the carpet. Ladd himself lay like the figureupon a tomb, white and motionless; there was only the light of a commonparaffin lamp; and three parts of the room lay in darkness. My firstthought was for the man's life, and remembering that I had a flask in mypocket, I forced brandy between his clenched teeth, and laid him flatupon his back. In a few moments there was a perceptible, though veryquick beat of his pulse, and after that, when he had taken more of thespirit, he opened his eyes, and endeavored to raise himself; but Iforbade him roughly, and gathering up his gems I bundled them in thegreater safe, and turned the key upon them. He however, watched me withglazing eyes, scarce being able, for lack of strength, to utter a word;but he motioned for me to give him the key, and this he placed under thepillow of his bed, and fell presently into a gentle sleep, which was ofgood omen.
I should mention that it was now full dark outside, and, as I judged,about the hour of ten. I had got the man's jewels into his safe for him,and he was sleeping; but where the bewitching little hussy was I didnot know; or what was the value of the old man's fears about his nephew.It was clear to me, however, that he had been robbed, probably by theimmediate agency of the girl who acted as his servant; and it wasequally obvious that I had no alternative but to stay by him, even ifprospect of probable business in the future had not moved me to do so.An inspection of his room by the flickering light of the lamp disclosedto me a small dressing-room leading from it, this containing a sofa; andwhen I had quite assured myself that my patient, as I chose to regardhim, slept easily, and that his pulse was no longer intermittent norfaint, I took my boots off and lay down upon the hard horsehairantiquity which was to serve me for bed. Strange to say, in half an hourI fell into a dreamless sleep, for I was heavy with fatigue, and hadwalked many hours upon the Kennett's bank; but when I awoke, the roomwas utterly dark, and the screams of a dying man rang in my ears.
In moments of emergency one's individuality asserts itself in curiousactions. I am somewhat stolid, and a poor subject for panics, and Iremember on this particular occasion that my first act was to draw on myboots with deliberation, and even to turn in the tags carefully before Istruck a match, and got a sight of the scene which I remember so wellthough many months have passed since its happening. When I had light, Ifound Ladd standing by the door of his large safe, which was open, butthere was a deep crimson stain upon his shirt, and he no longer hadthe voice to scream. In fact, he was dying then; and presently he fellprone with a deep gasp, and I knew that he was dead. In the same instanta black shadow, as of a man, passed between me and the flicker of thelight; and as the match went out the door of the chamber swung upon itshinges, and the assassin passed from the room.
Now, Ladd had scarce fallen before I was in the dark passage, listeningwith great tension of the ear for a sound of the hiding man's footstep.But the place was as still as the grave; and then there came upon me thehorrid thought that the fellow lurked with me about the room's door, andpresently would serve me as he had served the other. Cold with fear atthe possibility, I struck a match, and advanced along the passage, usinghalf a box of lucifers in the attempt. At the corner I came suddenlyupon a cranny; and as the light died away, two gleaming eyes shot upglances to mine, and a man sprang out flashing a blade in the air, butrushing past me, and fleeing like the wind towards the southernwing--the unfinished one. So swift did he go that I saw nothing of hisface, and it seemed scarce a moment before I heard a door open, andanother great cry, followed by a splashing of water and utter silence.
"Two gleaming eyes shot up glances to mine."
--_Page 179_]
This second cry took, I think, what little nerve I had left; and whilethe echo of it was still in the passages my last match went out. Theplace was now black with unbroken darkness; every step that I tookappeared to reach mysterious stairs and to send me staggering; but atlast a sudden patch of moonlight from a corner encouraged me to go on,and I reached the spot where the man had disappeared. At that point adoor creaked and banged upon its hinges, but the white light comingthrough it saved me from the fate of him who had gone before. It showedme at a
glance that the door was built in a side of the unfinished wallof the wing, and that the man, who evidently had mistaken it for theentrance to the back staircase, which I saw a few feet farther on, hadcrashed down fifty feet into the moat below, carrying, as I supposed,his plunder in his hands. Then I knew the meaning of the gurgling cryand the horrid thud; and terror seemed to strike me to my very marrow.
How I got out of the house I do not know to this day. Thrice I made acircuit of winding corridors only to find myself again before the roomwhere Ladd's body lay in the circle of moonlight which the windowfocused upon the safe; thrice I reached doors which seemed to giveaccess to the yard; but led only into gloomy shuttered chambers wherecurious shapes of the yellow rays came through the dusty crevices. Atlast, however, I reached the frowsy kitchen, and the yard, and stood aminute to breathe the chill night air, and to think what was to be done;whither first to go; to whom to appeal. The whine of a voice from thestable seemed to answer me. I entered the roofless shanty, and therefound the dark-eyed girl sitting upon a rotting garden roller, andquivering in every limb. She too was dressed ready to accompany the manwho then lay in the moat, I did not doubt; but at the first sight of meshe started up with blanched face, and clinging to me she cried,--"Takeme away; oh, my God, take me away from it!" and rather incoherently shemuttered that she was innocent, and protested it in a score of phrases.I saw a flush of dawn-light upon her babyish face as she spoke, and itoccurred to me when I was putting the horse to the dog-cart that she wasunmistakably pretty, and that her customary occupation was not that of ahousemaid. But I only said to her,--
"Keep anything you have to say for the police. I am going to fetchthem." And with that I drove off, and the last I saw of my lady showedher as she sat moaning on the straw, her hair tumbling upon hershoulders, and her face buried in her hands.
* * * * *
The trial of this woman, and her acquittal by the jury, are wellremembered in Caversham; nor is the mystery of Jabez Ladd's jewels andtheir disappearance by any means an infrequent topic for alehouses. Whatbecame of the precious stones which Arthur Vernon Ladd, the old man'snephew, took from the safe on the night he murdered his uncle, one manalone knows--and that is myself. The people of the town will tell youthat the moat was dragged and drained with no result. I myself saw thebody of the murderer--the velvet-coated man of Pangbourne; but althoughat least a couple of thousand pounds worth of jewels were missing fromthe safe, there was not one of them about him, or to be found upon the_concrete_ bottom of the moat into which he had dropped with the bloodof Ladd fresh upon his hands. In vain the police searched the girl--hername was Rachel Peters, she said--and her boxes; equally in vain the oldhouse was ransacked from top to bottom. The thing was a black mystery;it was gossip not only for inns and beerhouses, but for the county. Thereport of it spread even to America, and to this moment it has remainedunsolved.
The jewels being undiscoverable, and Ladd having been murdered to myknowledge by his nephew, the girl, Rachel Peters, was, as I have said,discharged. She returned to the old house for her boxes, and immediatelydisappeared from the knowledge of the county. Ten months later I saw herdancing on the stage of an opera house in Florida, and she was wearing_five of the seven emeralds_ which Ladd had lost! The spectacle seemedso amazing to me that I sought her out between the acts, and found heras full of _chic_ and _verve_ as a Parisian _soubrette_. Nor did shedisguise anything from me, telling me everything over a cigarette with arelish and a sparkle which was astounding to see.
"Yes," said she--but I give her story in plain words, for her way oftelling it is not to be written down--"I had known Vernon Ladd foryears. I doubt if there was a worse man in Europe; but I was frightenedof him, and I entered old Ladd's service at his wish to help him tosteal the jewels. We got at the emeralds first, because they were in thesmall safe; but we didn't know where the keys of the other safe were,and we put two sham emeralds in the case to keep the old boy quiet whilewe worked. That night you came to the house Vernon Ladd was alreadyinside, concealed behind the old man's bed; and he watched you open thegreat safe and spread the jewels. The mischief of it was that Ladd wokeup five minutes too soon, and caught the boy by the throat--you knowwhat he got for that, for you saw it and you know how Vernon mistook thedoor, and went down in a hurry. Well, when you'd gone for the police, Iran round to the back of the house, and what should I see but the bag ofjewels stuck on a ledge just under the landing window. He'd dropped themas he fell, and there they were lying so plain that one could have seenthem a mile off. I just ran up and reached them with my arm, but when Iwas in the stable again, and thinking of hiding them, I heard youdriving up the road, and I slipped the bag in the first thing handy--itwas your own fishing creel.
"No, you never found them, did you? just because they were hanging upthere plain for every one to see. When the judge discharged me at theCourt, I went again to the house to get my box, never thinking to seethe stones; but you'd gone away without the creel, and it was the firstthing I touched lying in the straw of the stable. You may be sure itdidn't lie there long. I'd saved up enough money for a passage to theStates, and when I got here I started as an actress, as I was before,and I sold the things one by one. These emeralds are all that'sleft--and if you're a brick, you'll buy them!"
This was her story. She was a clever woman, and having been dischargedon the accusation of robbing the dead miser Ladd, could not be sent toher trial again. Her invitation for me to buy the emeralds was tempting.I had already purchased two from the unhappy lady of Pangbourne, who wasmarried to the velvet-coated Vernon Ladd, and is now living in seclusionin Devonshire. The other five would have made the set of great value.Ladd had no heirs; it was altogether a nice point. I debated it.
THE PURSUIT OF THE TOPAZ.