CHAPTER XXXVII
DIPLOMACY
Mrs. May crossed rapidly and noiselessly to the door and closed it. Notthat there was any need for caution, seeing that the primitive householdhad been abed long ago. But precaution is never wasted.
There was coffee in the grate kept hot by means of a spirit lamp. Mrs.May poured out a cup and handed it to her guest.
She lay back in her chair watching him with a keen glance and the easy,natural insolence, the cruel cutting superiority of the great over thesmall.
The man stood, his hands thrust into the folds of his loose sleeves, apicture of patient resignation.
"How did you get here?" the princess asked.
"At the great house in London I asked, O mistress," Ben Heer replied. "Icame over, as thou knowest, to do certain work. There was yet anotherone with me. And when my work was done I came on to tell what thy slavehad accomplished."
"You have proofs of what you say?"
"Else I had not been here. For two years we have followed up the trackof the victim. It was as if we had searched for one single perch in thewhole of a great lake of water. But we never tired and never slept bothat the same time. Then at last we got near, and it came to the knowledgeof the prey that we were upon him. That was long before the last coldweather that nearly starved us."
The man paused and shivered. The princess nodded with carelesssympathy. She had never tried a winter in England, but she could imaginewhat it was.
"He knew us at last," Ben Heer resumed. "He met us face to face in thepublic street, and he knew that his hour had come. A night later he wasin Paris. At the same time we were in Paris also. He tried Rome, Vienna,Berlin. So did we. Then he came back to London again. When he did so weknew that he had bowed his face before the All-seeing, and prayed thatthe end might come speedily."
The princess followed all this with impatience. But the man was speakingafter the manner of his kind and could not be hurried.
He would go on to the end without omitting a single detail and theprincess was forced to listen. Despite the Western garb and theevidences of Western life and custom about her, she was no longer Mrs.May, but Princess Zara.
She had only to close her eyes and the droning intonation andpassionless voice of the speaker took her back to Lassa again. And theday was near, ah! the day was near, when the goal would be reached.
"Once we had him and once he escaped," Ben Heer went on. "He was a braveman was Voski, and nothing could break down those nerves of iron. Heknew that the end was near. It was in a big house--a house near toLondon--that we found him.
"There were servants, and they were glad to have their fortunes told. Itwas their evening meal on the table when we got there, and the man VoskiSahib was out. Then, behold, after that evening meal the servants slepttill the dawn, and at midnight the master returned. He came into hisstudy and the bright flash of the lightning came at the touch of hisfingers."
"Electric light," the princess said impatiently. "Go on."
"Then he saw us. We knew that he had no weapon. The door we barred. ThenVoski, he sit down and light a cigar, smiling, smiling all the time.When we look at him we see that he moves not so much as a littlefinger. There was no sign of fear, except that he look at a little boxon the table now and then."
"Ah," the princess cried. "You got it, eh?"
Ben Heer made no direct reply. He was not to be hurried. He meant todescribe a sordid murder in his own cold-blooded way. Probably he didnot regard the thing as a crime at all; he had been acting under theblessing of the priests.
"'You have come for it?' he asked.
"We bowed low with respect, saying that we had come for it. He lay backin his chair, making a sign for me to approach. Previously we had toldhim that it was useless for him to call out to the servants."
"You did not tell those servants their fortunes in your present garb?"
"No, no, my mistress. We no such pigs as that.... Sahib Voski bid meapproach. My friend had the 'pi' ready on the cloth.... It was held tothe head of the other. And so he died peacefully in his chair."
"Ah, so you say. Where are your proofs?"
Ben Heer slowly withdrew a white packet from the folds of his dress.
"What better proof could the slave of my illustrious mistress have?" heasked. "It is here--the precious stone with the secrets of the godswritten on it. Behold!"
With a slightly dramatic gesture a glittering fragment of something thatlooked like green jade was held on high. The princess grasped it eagerlyand devoured it with her eyes. Words were pouring in a liquid streamfrom her lips; she was transformed almost beyond recognition.
"At last," she murmured, "at last! But the other one--your companion.How did he die? You say he is dead. How?"
Ben Heer shook his head sadly.
"I cannot say," he replied. "It might have been some scheme on the partof Sahib Voski. When we got back to our room in London we were bothdreadfully ill. For days I lie, and when I get better they tell me mypoor friend is dead and buried.
"Then I understood why Voski Sahib smile and smile in that strange way.It was witchcraft, perhaps, or some devil we do not know in theEast--but there is the stone."
The princess was regarding the shining stone with a besotted enthusiasmthat seemed grotesquely out of place with her dress and surroundings.Perhaps this suddenly flashed upon her, for she carefully locked up thestone.
"You have done well, Ben Heer," she said, "and shall not go unrewarded.The worst part of our task is over, the rest is easy."
"Then the princess goes not back to Lassa?" Ben Heer asked.
"Oh, not yet, not yet. Not till they are destroyed, root and branch tothe smallest twig on the tree. I have not spared myself and I am notgoing to spare others. Yet there remain those of the accursed raceyonder, the Ravenspurs. They know too much, they have that which Irequire. I will kill them off--they shall die----"
"As my mistress slew her husband when his life was of no more value toher?"
"Ah, so you know that. You would not reproach me, Ben Heer?"
"Does the slave reproach the master who keeps his carcass from thekennel?" Ben Heer asked, as he bowed low. "My mistress was right; herhands were washed whiter than the snow in the blood of the Christian. Itwas well; it was just."
"Then you shall help me, for there is much to be done. Take this ring.Place it on your finger and go to the others. They are outside waiting.Give them the call, thus."
The princess made a faint noise like the drowsy call of a bird and BenHeer caught it up at once. He had heard it many times before. Then heslipped out like a cat in the darkness, and presently the call came fromthe gloom. A moment later it was answered and then all was still again.
Mrs. May, who had discarded the princess for a moment, closed herwindow, drew the blinds and lighted a cigarette. It was a glad night forher.
"So those two are out of the way," she murmured. "The road is clear atlast--clear to the vengeance that must be mine. And with the vengeancecomes the wealth that should make me a feared and dreaded power in theEast. Give me but the wealth and Lassa shall be my footstool."