he remarked.
His secretary hesitated.
"But that, Sir Felix, means ruin to all three. They are all poor men."
"That's just what I intend," he answered with a smile. "We shall dothat business ourselves, as soon as they are out of it."
So Mr Stone scribbled rapidly a letter in shorthand, which meant theruin of three honest men, who, believing in the great financier'spromises, had taken upon themselves liabilities which they could notmeet.
Such letters are not infrequent. The great philanthropist, whom theworld looked up to as a model man, who did his utmost for the benefit ofsuffering humanity, and who had been rewarded by his Sovereign,collected his wealth by ways that would often not bear investigation.But being a big man, he was able to do things which a little man wouldfear to do. For were not Challas and Bowen, with their huge operationsand big bank balances, above suspicion?
While dictating another letter, the butler, an elderly and pompousperson, entered announcing: "Mr Jannaway, Sir Felix."
"That will be enough for to-day, Stone," the red-faced man said to thesecretary, who rose at once, and followed the servant out of the room.
Next moment the man who had posed on the previous evening as "CaptainWetherton" entered the room, looking smart and spruce in a well-cut suitof blue serge.
"Well, Jim?" exclaimed the financier anxiously, as he rose to meet hisvisitor. "I've been expecting you all the morning. What news--eh?"
"Oh! It's all right," answered the man cheerily, flinging himself intoan armchair without invitation, apparently quite at home in Challas'shouse.
"Found out anything of interest?" inquired Sir Felix, pushing over thebig silver cigar-box that stood upon the smoking-table.
"Well--I hardly know," he answered hesitatingly. "Where's the girl?"
"In Charlie's rooms. I've had a devil of a scene with her. She'sobdurate."
"A day's confinement there will break her spirit, no doubt," remarkedSir Felix. "Especially if she believes she'll lose her lover."
"I don't know," he answered dubiously. "She's got a mind of her own, Ican tell you. She's a regular little spit-fire."
The red-faced man laughed.
"Well, Jim," he said. "You ought to know how to manage women, surely.Did my scheme work well?"
"Excellently. She got your `wire,' and went to Earl's Court at once. Ifollowed and after a little persuasion she fell into the trap. Whileshe was unconscious, I took the latch-key, and at half-past two letmyself and old Erich into the house in Pembridge Gardens."
"Well--did he find anything?"
"Yes. Griffin has taken photographic copies of the burnt papers, beforegiving them back into Farquhar's hands, and from his copies of variousearly manuscripts of Ezekiel and Deuteronomy it's quite plain that he ismaking a very careful and complete study."
"It seems, then, that Griffin's intention, is to discover the cipher forhimself, and leave the ugly little Doctor out in the cold," Sir Felixremarked with a snap. "But, Jim, this business is ours and nobodyelse's. We must crush anybody and everybody, who attempts in any way todecipher that secret record. When the Dane brought it to me at theRitz, in Paris, I laughed at the idea. Treasure-hunting was never in myline. But," he added with a smile, "I took care to have a complete copyof his precious document made before I gave it back to him the nextmorning, and it is now in the safe over yonder. Like to see it?"
Jim Jannaway, the man who had on the previous night represented himselfto be "Captain Wetherton," the friend of Frank Farquhar, expressedeagerness to see it. Therefore the financier rose, and with the goldmaster-key upon his watch-chain, opened the heavy steel door, and handedhis visitor a typed document bound in a dark green cover--a completecopy of the manuscript which Doctor Diamond had partly burned in thatobscure hotel at the Gare du Nord.
The context of the half intelligible sentences was there--the contextwhich Professor Griffin was longing to obtain. And moreover, as the manturned over the pages, reading swiftly, he came across a geometricalfigure--a plan marked with numbers and corresponding explanations.
"Who made the discovery?" asked Jim Jannaway, late of His Majesty's Armyand now gambler, card-sharper, and swell-mobsman.
"The devil only knows," laughed Sir Felix. "He says he did himself.The fellow was hard up and I gave him a hundred francs, but I believedthe whole thing to be a huge hoax, until I consulted old Erich and hebegan to puzzle his brains. Then I saw that there might be something init. My only fear is that Griffin and his friends may get ahead of us.But you've done well, Jim. You always do."
"I do the dirty work of the firm," laughed the man addressed, removinghis cigar from his lips, "and devilish dirty work it is at times."
"Well, you can't complain of the pay. Isn't it better to live as youare, a gentleman of means, than as I found you five years ago, a `crook'who might be arrested at any moment?"
"I don't complain at all, my dear fellow. Only--"
"Only what?"
"Well, I really don't see your object in enticing the girl to Charlie'srooms. It might be awkward for us."
Sir Felix laughed, snapping his fingers.
"What? Are you growing afraid?" he asked.
"Not at all, only I can't see your object."
"The object is simply to compromise her," he said grimly. "She's aconfounded pretty girl. I saw her at the theatre with her aunt a weekago, and she was at Lady Ena's wedding the other day, with her lover,Frank Farquhar. Of that man we must be wary. With his confoundednewspapers, he has power," he added.
"That's the very reason why I fear we are treading on dangerous ground."
"Bosh! leave all to me. The girl is in Charlie's rooms, there let herstay for the present," answered the man whom the world believed to be apillar of the church, and a devout philanthropist.
Jim Jannaway saw that this man whom he served--the man who held him inhis toils--had some mysterious evil design upon the unfortunate girl.He could not, however, discern exactly what it was. He had ordered himto keep her in that upstairs room, "and break her spirit," as he put it.
The midnight search of the Professor's study had revealed that he was inactive pursuit of the truth. That meant Sir Felix taking steps tocheckmate his efforts. Ever since the first moment it had been known bya chance visit to the hotel while Jules Blanc was lying there dead, thatthe fragments of the strange document had fallen into Doctor Diamond'shands, private inquiry agents, employed by Sir Felix, had been silentlywatching the movements of the deformed Doctor, Frank Farquhar, and hisfriend, the Professor. All had been reported to the red-faced mansitting there at his ease--the man who controlled financial interestsworth millions.
Sir Felix had been convinced by the foreign expert he had consulted thatthere really was something in the theory of the unknown discovery, andhe intended that none should learn the truth except himself. He had JimJannaway, the unscrupulous, at his elbow, ready to do any dirty work, ormake any risky move which he ordered. In a day Jim could, if he wished,summon up half a dozen of the most dangerous characters in London, palsof his, to assist him, for be it said he always paid well--with SirFelix's money, of course.
Against such a combination as Challas and Bowen, though Mr Thomas J.Bowen lived in New York and was seldom in London, no private personcould stand. The great firm, with their agents all over the world,gathered confidential information from everywhere, and could plot tocrush any one who attempted to carry through a business that was againsttheir interests.
Hence any attempt on the part of Doctor Diamond, or Professor Griffin,to solve the problem in face of the opposition of Sir Felix, wasforedoomed to failure, if not to disaster. But alas! both men were inignorance of the fact that a complete copy of the dead man's documentwas in the possession of the man whose hatred of the Jews, his enemiesin business, was notorious; and who would therefore go to any length inorder to secure, for his own satisfaction, the sacred relics and vesselsof Solomon's Temple--providing they still existed.
C
HAPTER SIXTEEN.
OWEN LEARNS THE TRUTH.
When the Professor seated himself at the breakfast-table and the news ofMiss Gwen's absence was broken to him by Laura, the parlour-maid, hestarted up in surprise.
"Miss Gwen went out late last night instead of going to bed, sir, andtook the latch-key," the girl was compelled to admit.
The old man pursed his thin lips. His daughter was not in the habit ofgoing out on midnight escapades.
"Late last night Miss Gwen received a telegram, sir," the girl added."It seemed to excite her very much; she dressed