CHAPTER III
As the Sepoy proceeded, Raikes leaned forward in an attitude, the discomfort and unbalance of which he seemed to be entirely unaware.
His only means of maintaining his rigid poise was in the arm which lay, with tense unrest, upon the table.
From his hand, the fingers of which had released their clutch, the stone had rolled and gleamed an unregarded invitation into the eyes of the drawn face above it.
The sickly grin of a long-delayed relaxation beguiled the extremities of his mouth, the grim lips had relaxed their ugly partnership, and his entire figure seemed upon the verge of collapse.
Raikes was listening as never before.
The clink of coin, the dry rattle and abrasion of brilliants, the rustle of bank notes could nothave fascinated him more than the even, somnolent modulations of the speaker.
Every word found easy lodgment in his consciousness. There was not a sound or motion to divert, and the tale was a strange one.
“Ram Lal,” said the Sepoy, “was a native merchant, trading between Meerut and Delhi, who decided to sacrifice the dear considerations of caste for the grosser conditions of gain.
“From the performance of mean and illy-rewarded services to his patron, Prince Otondo, Ram Lal had developed, with the characteristic patience and dangerous silence of the true Oriental, to a figure of some importance, whom it was a satisfaction for the prince to contemplate with a view to future exaction and levy as occasion demanded.
“His royal master resided in the Kutub, a palace situated not far from Delhi on the road to Meerut.
“This pretentious edifice, which had been established in the thirteenth century and which still presented, in some of its unrepaired portions, curious features of the bizarre architectureof that period, had been the dwelling place of a long line of ancient moghuls.
“Its present incumbent, however, regarded with indifference the ravages of time and decay, and satisfied himself with the lavish furnishing of that considerable portion of the palace which he occupied with his dusky retainers.
“To be at charges for all this the princely revenues had been seriously depleted.
“Since he could not look to decrepit relatives in Delhi for further allowances, and as the British Government proved equally obdurate, the prince found it necessary to calculate upon all possible sources of income.
“In such speculations, therefore, the unhappy Ram Lal became an object of logical interest.
“Up to the present the merchant had been undisturbed in the security of his possessions, which were suspected to be enormous.
“His royal patron had contented himself with the avarice of calculation, and, in order that his depredations might be worthy his proposed brigandage, he provided Ram Lal withevery opportunity to develop his hoard to a respectable figure.
“The prince, having enjoyed the advantages of association with sundry British officials, was entirely too sagacious and philosophical to discourage the industry of the merchant at the outset; and with the patience which is enabled to foresee the end from the beginning, he awaited developments.
“In consequence, the merchant attained to everything but the ostentation of his possessions, and only assumed the dignity of his riches in the less calculating confines of his household.
“Even here, however, the subsidy of his liege was active, for among the servants of the merchant were those whose appraising eyes followed every movement, and whose mercenary memories recorded every transaction.
“With all the concern of a silent partner Prince Otondo balanced, in his philosophical mind, the various enterprises of Ram Lal.
“If they met with his august approval, the merchant’s traffic was singularly free from obstruction; if the element of uncertainty wastoo pronounced for the apprehensive potentate, the most surprising occasions for the abandonment of his projects were developed for Ram Lal, whose intelligent mind was inclined to suspect the identity of his providence.
“Prince Otondo did not propose to have his interests jeopardized by precipitation or undue hazard.
“But this unhappy merchant, with perverse and unaware industry, advanced still another claim to the covert regard of his calculating highness.
“Although a widower, there remained, to remind him of his departed blessedness, a daughter, who was, as reported by the mercenaries of the prince, beautiful beyond their limited means of expression.
“The unfortunate Ram Lal, therefore, commending himself to this elevated espionage, first by his ‘ducats’ and next his ‘daughter,’ was in the predicament of the missionary whose embonpoint endears him to his savage congregation and whose edibility is convincing enough to arouse the regret that he is not twins.
“Prince Otondo, whose imagination wasstimulated by this vicarious contemplation of beauty, did not find it difficult to decide that the transits of Ram Lal to and from the British barracks were open to suspicion that demanded some biased investigation.
“Unfortunately, too, the colonel in charge of the British forces at Delhi was equally uneasy concerning the integrity of the merchant, a state of mind which had been judiciously aggravated by the emissaries of Prince Otondo.
“The officer in charge knew that the merchant, with his license of exit and entry, was in an exceptional position to acquaint himself with considerable merchandisable information.
“Ram Lal, therefore, in response to the pernicious industry of his evil genius, like an unstable pendulum, was in danger of detention at either extreme.
“The prince speculated like a Machiavelli upon the advantages of such action on the part of the colonel, and the latter looked to the former to relieve him of the responsibility.
“However, diligence, even when baneful, has its rewards, for one day, when Ram Lal arrived at the British horn of the dilemma, hewas arrested upon a charge framed to suit the emergency and subjected to a military court of investigation.
“At the end of eight days the merchant was released, acquitted, and on the ninth he directed his course homeward.
“The colonel, however, had provided the prince with his opportunity, for when the irritated merchant arrived at his dwelling, he was informed that sundry officials from the palace had searched the premises for evidence of sedition, and, failing in that, had decided to accept all of his portable chattels as a substitute.
“This was depressing enough, but still might have been accepted with the customary Oriental impassiveness had it not been for the fact that the marauders had added his daughter to the collection.
“At any rate, she could not be found, and as she had never ventured from the shelter of the paternal roof without the paternal consent, Ram Lal felt that his deductions as to her whereabouts were entitled to consideration.
“He was unable to get any indorsement ofhis unhappy logic, for the servants had all disappeared.
“He determined, however, to act in accordance with his assumption, and after taking an inventory of whatever had been overlooked in the foray, which was little else than the premises, he seated himself upon a mat beneath a banyan tree in the garden, which concluded the rear of his dwelling, and was presently ells-deep in a profound reflection, which was not only ominous in its outward calm, but curiously prolonged.
“The only evidence of mental disquiet which, it was natural to suspect, disturbed him, was a strange light which gleamed from his eyes at intervals with baleful significance.
“At the conclusion of two oblivious hours Ram Lal appeared to have arrived at some definite purpose.
“He rose to his feet and strode, with a marked degree of decision, to his dwelling, where he slept in apparent and paradoxical peace until morning.
“Ere the sky was red, or the dews, in harmony with this unhappy man’s dilemma, hadbeen appropriated by the sun from the tiara of dawn, Ram Lal set out for the palace of the Kutub, in which Prince Otondo was compelled to reside for the present for some very convincing reasons provided by the British Government.
“In a little while the merchant had traversed the short distance intervening and was admitted through the courtyard gates.
“The last of the kings of Delhi was a decrepit old man named Dahbur Dhu, whose sole object in life seemed to be an attempt to reanimate the pomp and pageantry of a dead dynasty.
“Pensioned by the British Government, which permitted him to continue this absurd travesty, if his feeble exasperation over his predicament and his silly ostentations could be called by that name, this realmless potentate occupied his waking hours in futile revilings of the hand that at once smote and sustained him.
“While not thus engaged, he would gravitate almost to the extreme of servility in his efforts to exact additional largess from thepowers in control, to expend upon this senile attempt to augment the consideration of his pageant throne.
“Several efforts had already been made to remove the irritating presence of this royal household to Bengal, but the time had not yet arrived when the British could regard with indifference the native prejudice which would be aroused by such a procedure.
“The infirm moghul, therefore, continued his vaudeville, which was mainly confined within the palace walls at Delhi, and persisted in his endeavors to augment his revenues.
“However, to mitigate the nuisance as far as possible, the British Government consented to recognize his grandson, Prince Otondo, as the successor to the throne, and yield a degree to the exactions of the moghul if his young kinsman would agree to remove himself permanently from Delhi and reside in the Kutub.
“To this, for a reason which shortly transpired with almost laughable incongruity, Dahbur Dhu assented, and Prince Otondo established himself at this royal residence with an outward manifestation of satisfaction, at least.
“Despite the fact that the merchant was a familiar figure in this enclosure, he believed that he remarked an unusual degree of interest awakened by his presence, and was assured that he detected more than one sinister and smiling glance directed, with covert insinuation, upon his impassive countenance.
“An uneasy suggestion of conspiracy met him at every turn.
“With that gravid apprehension which creates in advance the very conditions one desires to combat, Ram Lal prepared himself for a series of events which made him shudder to contemplate.
“It seemed to him that the salutes of the swarthy satellites of the prince were a degree less considerate.
“He was convinced of a cynical estimation usually accorded to the destitute.
“The depression of disaster was upon him.
“He could only think in the direction of his forebodings, so when at last he arrived in the familiar ante-chamber and announced himself, his voice reflected his trepidation and his demeanorhad lost a palpable degree of its customary assurance.
“While the merchant awaited the response to his request for an audience with the prince, he made a sorry attempt to assume a cheerful aspect, with the success of one who is permitted to listen to the details of his own obsequies.
“When not thus engaged, he traversed the apartment with intermittent strides—another Chryses about to make a paternal plea to this Oriental Agamemnon.
“He had canvassed his demeanor, reviewed his cautious phrases, and had even provided a desperate denunciation, which, when he considered the privileged rascality of his royal auditor, he felt assured would at once conclude the interview and his liberty.
“As Ram Lal was about to end his fifth attempt to apprehend the result of this expected interview, the curtains parted and a stalwart attendant, impassive and silent, appeared.
“In response to the eloquent concern betrayed in the glance of the merchant, the other, holding the curtains aside, indicated, by an inclination of his turbaned head and a sweep ofhis hand, the dignity of which was intended to convey some intimation of the personality of his master and the proportions of the privileges accorded, that the merchant was expected to proceed, which he did with trembling precipitation.
“As Ram Lal entered the room, his alert glance discerned the figure of the prince extended, with unceremonious abandon, upon a divan.
“Advancing, he made profound obeisance to the reclining potentate, who acknowledged his presence with a spiritless motion of his hand not unsuggestive of the humiliating degree of his condescension.
“At this period of his career Prince Otondo presented, in his personality and surroundings, considerable of the picturesque magnificence with which the native rulers delighted to surround themselves.
“His presence, at once dignified and carelessly amiable, was not the least vital accessory to the sumptuous abundance, to which he added the last touch of distinction.
“A smiling cynicism, which was one of hismost engaging characteristics and an invaluable masquerade for his genuine sentiments, lingered about his thin, patrician lips.
“His features balanced with cameo precision, and in his eyes, usually veiled by lashes effeminately long, the whole gamut of a passionate, intolerant nature was expressed.
“‘Well, most ancient and honorable!’ said the prince, with an exasperating suggestion in his manner of appreciation of the travesty of his words, as he gazed upon the merchant with a glance whose speculation the latter could not determine. ‘Well, how speeds thy traffic and thrive thy caravans?’
“‘Not well, my lord,’ answered Ram Lal, ‘not well.’
“‘Ah, ha!’ exclaimed the prince, with an indescribable insinuation of biased rebuke in the look with which he challenged further revelations from the speaker. ‘That touches me nearly; this must not be; an industrious subject may not suffer while there is a remedy at hand.’
“‘’Tis on that head I would beseech your majesty!’ exclaimed the merchant, seizing theopportunity provided, with such plausible ingenuousness, by the august speaker.
“‘Proceed, Ram Lal,’ urged the prince, with an amiability which the merchant had known to be a dangerous prelude in the past.
“‘Great prince!’ replied the merchant with the prompt obedience which contemplates a possible reversal of privilege.
“‘Nine days from home I strayed.
“‘On my return I find my house despoiled of all its store.
“‘And with the rest, O prince, the priceless tokens of thy high regard.
“‘Aside from these, I do not mourn my loss, for it may be repaired.
“‘Nor will I question fate, whose ears are dull to hear, whose eyes refuse to see the victims of her spleen.
“‘But hear, O prince—my one ewe lamb, my sole delight—my daughter greets me not.
“‘The empty halls no more re-echo to her tread.
“‘No more sweet mur——’
“‘Enough, Ram Lal,’ interrupted the prince. ‘I have heard that a needle thrust intothe eye of a bullfinch will make it sing, but I did not know that misery could transform a merchant to a bard.
“‘Disjoint your phrases a degree. You say your daughter greets you not?’
“‘Yes, O prince,’ replied Ram Lal, abashed at this cynical embargo upon the melancholy luxury of his rhythms; ‘yes, and it is of her I would speak.’
“‘Speak,’ urged his august hearer.
“After a moment’s reflection, in the manner of the unwelcome envoy who has reached the acute juncture of his recital and is about to disembarrass himself of a dangerous climax, the merchant continued in sordid Hindustani:
“‘As I have said, O prince, my daughter has been taken from me, and I come to you in my extremity.’
“‘And why to me, Ram Lal?’ demanded the prince, with a gleam in his glance which was directly responsible for the pacific presentation which followed.
“‘Because,’ replied the merchant with discerning irreverence, ‘if it so please your highness,your providence is practical, and the ways of Vishnu are tedious.’
“‘Ah!’ exclaimed the prince appreciatively; ‘that was not so bad for a merchant; but to the point.’
“‘Little can occur in this cantonment that is not known to your highness, or that cannot be determined if you so desire.
“‘I ask your august assistance, and I have, as you will see, observed the proprieties in making my request.
“‘It is a time-honored custom for the suppliant to signalize his appreciation of the importance of the favor he solicits, is it not so?’
“‘I did not know,’ replied the prince, ‘that commerce could develop such an oracle; it is a subtle sense of fitness you express. I am interested. Proceed.’
“‘I will, your highness,’ responded Ram Lal, as he inserted his hand in one of the folds of the sash which encircled his waist. ‘You recall the stone of Sardis?’
“‘Ah!’ exclaimed the prince, his cynical listlessness transformed at once into the abandon of eagerness. ‘What of it, O merchant?’
“‘This,’ replied the latter as he withdrew his hand from his sash, ‘if your highness will deign to examine it,’ and the speaker extended toward the incredulous prince a small box of shagreen, which the latter clutched with the grasp of avarice.
“‘Will his highness deign?’ repeated Ram Lal to himself with bitter irony as the prince pressed back the lid and exposed to view a magnificent sapphire, the gleam and the glitter of which affected him like an intoxication.
“As the prince, oblivious to all else, fixed his avid glance upon the scintillant stone, an astonishing change transformed the merchant from the suppliant to a being of marked dignity of bearing and carriage.
“His eyes, no longer obliquely observant, were directed with baleful purpose upon the half-closed lids of the fascinated potentate.
“His hand disengaged itself from the sash, where it had reposed with something of the suggestion of a guardian of the treasury, and was gradually extended with sinuous menace over the declining head of the prince.
“His long, lithe figure straightened from itsservile stoop, and a palpable degree of the authority which appeared gradually to fade from the fine countenance before him found an equally congenial residence in the expression of the merchant.
“There was command in every feature.
“As for the prince, his figure appeared to decline in majesty in proportion to the access of dignity which had added its unwonted emphasis to the personality of Ram Lal.
“He leaned inertly forward, one hand resting upon his knee.
“In his slowly relaxing clutch the brilliant gleamed. His forehead was moist; his lips dry; his delicate nostrils were indrawn in harmony with the concentrating lines of his brow, and the next moment, as if in response to an insinuating pass of the merchant’s hand of cobra-like undulation, the rigid poise recoiled, he settled more easily upon the divan, and with eyes still fascinated by the entrancing bauble he listened, with anomalous impassiveness, to the weird proposal of Ram Lal.
“‘Hearken, O prince!
“‘My daughter has been taken from me by whom I shall not venture to inquire.
“‘If she is returned to me, I shall be satisfied.
“‘I am here therefore to beseech your highness to see that she is restored to me.
“‘To-day, as the sun declines, I shall expect her.
“‘If she does not come to me then, O prince, a heaping handful of the precious stones you hold so dearly will be missing, and in their stead will be as many pebbles from the fountain in the courtyard.
“‘The sapphire I leave with you as a witness of my plea.’
“And slowly the merchant retreated toward the door, his eyes fastened the while upon the prince.
“As he reached the threshold he paused, and with a voice that seemed to lodge in the consciousness of his inert auditor like the sigh of Auster over the daffodils and buttercups of a dream, he repeated:
“‘To-day as the sun declines.’
“And the next instant, with an abrupt motionof his hand strangely at variance with the placid gestures just preceding, the merchant disappeared through the curtains which screened the doorway.
“And now,” said the Sepoy abruptly, as he moved his chair with a sharp rasp over the bare floor and transferred his glance at the same time from the drawn countenance of his rapt auditor to the gleaming gem on the table, “and now—is it not a beauty?”
“Ah, ha!” murmured Raikes, disturbed by the abrupt cessation of the sedative tones of the Sepoy and the abrasion of the chair, “superb!” And that instant all his keen animation returned.
Apparently Raikes was not aware of any blanks in his scrutiny and resumed his regard of the tantalizing facets with knowing sagacity and an envy that affected him like a hurt.
“In all my years,” he creaked, as his long, prehensile fingers riveted like a setting to the fascinating bauble, “I have never seen such a gem.
“The cutting is exquisite; it is a study in intelligent execution; every facet here cost apang; how vital it was not to waste an atom of this precious bulk.
“What a delicate adjustment of the lines of beauty to the material consideration; the balance is perfect.” And with this confusion of frank cupidity and rapacious regard, the miser, with a supreme effort, pushed the stone impatiently toward the Sepoy.
“Ah!” exclaimed the latter, “it is a pleasure to show the gem to one who is able to comprehend it.
“It is even finer than you have discerned. The lapidary was subtle; his work sustains closer analysis. Have you a stray glass?
“No? Well, I will send you mine and you can entertain yourself until I see you again.”
“What!” exclaimed Raikes, “you will leave this stone with me?”
“Why not?” returned the Sepoy evenly. “You have a due regard for property. I do not fear that this gem will meet with mishap in your possession. Besides, it will be a revelation to you under the glass,” and, arising, he stepped to the door, leaving the brilliant upon the table in the grasp of the astonished Raikes,who was unable to comprehend such confidence and unconcern.
Traversing the hallway, the pair reached the door which opened upon the apartments controlled by the widow.
As he paused on the threshold to make his adieux to Raikes, the Sepoy, looking at the former with a marvelously glowing glance, repeated, with an emphasis so eerie as to occasion a thrill of vague uneasiness in his companion, the concluding phrase of the singular tale he had related to Raikes:
“To-day as the sun declines.”
And the moment after he disappeared, leaving the startled miser to gaze, with greedy contemplation, upon the sapphire which he retained in his grasp.
(To be continued on Dickey No. 3.)
“Oh, ho!” exclaimed Dennis as the exasperating phrase in italics met his glance, “an’ it’s here you are again. Shure, a man would tear his shirt to tatters for a tale like that,” and with appreciative meditation over the vexatious quandary presented by the cunning of thebosom-maker in thus adding another ruinous possibility to the inevitable soil and wear, he added:
“Shure, the man who put that sthory on the dickey-back knew his business. Where the dirt laves off the guessin’ begins, and betwixt the two it’s another dickey I’ll be after—ah, ha, an’ it’s a fine thing to have brains like that.”
With this discerning tribute, Dennis turned the last dickey around and discovered that it was protected in the rear with a sort of oiled paper, through which the story shadowed dimly.
Here was the pinch of his dilemma.
His curiosity was sharpened and his judgment impaired.
In a variety of ways literature incapacitates a man for the exigencies of existence.
Dennis found himself visibly enervated. At last he remembered that the week had advanced only as far as Thursday. Between that time and the Fabian Saturday a number of untoward events might occur.
A more seasoned applicant might present himself to the foreman upon whom Dennis depended,or, equally grievous, the present bibulous incumbent might be alarmed into mending his ways.
Hitherto Dennis had resisted the temptation to present himself to the attention of the foreman in advance of the date appointed.
In order, therefore, to master the anxiety which might betray him into some overt importunity, he decided to devote the day to a persistent canvass of the possibilities offered by the various wholesale houses.
Unknown to himself, Dennis had learned that the secret of patience was doing something else in the meantime.
However, the practical at last was triumphant, and Dennis, with a resolution that demanded prompt execution for its continued existence, adjusted the remaining chapter to his waistcoat in the early morning and descended to the lower floor.
On this occasion his solicitous friend behind the bar insisted upon detaining the young Irishman, who, urged by his solitary predicament and a degree depressed by the series of rebuffs which by now had developed a malicioushabit, proceeded to the counter and, resting one foot upon the rail near the floor with a redeeming unfamiliarity, responded to the inquiry of the barman by admitting that he felt a “wee bit blue.”
This statement led to the revelation that the barman was similarly affected, and was engaged, at that moment, in the preparation of a famous antidote greatly in demand by sundry newsgatherers and night editors in Park Row.
Dennis watched him with interest and remarked that he set out two glasses, after the manner of those who are about to compound an effervescent.
Such, however, was not the case, and Dennis was startled presently to see the barman, after filling both glasses with a decoction which caught the light from a dozen merry angles, push one of them in his direction with the companionable suggestion: “Have one with me.”
Only once before had Dennis indulged in anything of a stimulating nature, and the effect upon his head the next morning had been sufficient to discourage its repetition, and heinformed the barman of this disagreeable feature.
“Oh!” protested that insinuating Mephisto as he held his glass to the light the better to concentrate its hypnotic gleam and sparkle upon the vacillating youth, “there is no headache in this; this is a man’s medicine. Get it down; it will do you good.”
Persuaded by the example before him, duped by his depressions, and weary of his loneliness, Dennis responded to the dubious suggestion with the guilty haste of one who has decided to let down the moral bars for a short but sufficient interval.
Palliated from its original rawness by the additions of the barman, the draught was without special bite or pungency in its passage down his throat, and Dennis was aware of his indiscretion only by an increasing glow in the pit of his stomach and a disposition to credit the barman with a degree of amiability beyond that ordinarily manifested by this functionary.
The potation, however, had done its work but partially; there remained the itch of something still to be desired, an elevation yet unattained,and Dennis saw no other way up the sheer height than by an appeal to the barman to duplicate his initial effort.
When this had joined its fluent fellows in their several midsts, Dennis was inexperienced enough to accept, as a matter of course, the genial disposition toward the world in general which replaced the depression of the morning.
A native eloquence, long disused, began to urge him to a sort of confused improvisation.
His data was no longer morose.
“Holdin’ on cud do annything,” he assured the barman.
“It isn’t a bad wurrld, at all, if wan looks at it through grane glasses.
“Shure, I’m in a bit av a hole at prisint, but not too dape to crawl out of.”
Then after a pause, to enable himself to “shake hands,” so to speak, with the suddenly developed genial aspect of affairs, he informed the barman, with the philosophy of his potations, that “A laugh will always mend a kick, providin’ th’ kick ain’t too hard.”
This pleased the barman, who responded in his characteristic fashion, and Dennis, in acknowledgment,substituted the price of breakfast as fitting return of civilities.
However, this was the climax.
Dennis could advance no farther. His bibulous friend, with apprehensive disapproval, offered a few diplomatic suggestions involving the retirement of the young man to his room, which the latter accepted with an unbalanced gravity that administered its reproof even through the callous epidermis of the barman.
Arrived at his room, Dennis, influenced by his accelerated circulation, was convinced that the apartment was oppressively warm, and divested himself of his coat and waistcoat.
In doing so he detached the dickey from his neck, and as it fell to the floor the curious tale contained in its predecessors appealed unmistakably to his enkindled imagination.
Oblivious of the campaign arranged for the day, heedless of the inner protest, Dennis, with all the abandon of his condition, hastened to remove the oil paper from the rear of the dickey, and began a race with his moral lapse in a feverish perusal of the following.
CHAPTER IV
When Raikes returned to his room he seemed to himself like a sunset mocked by the adjacent horizon, with tantalizing suggestions for which it was reflectively responsible.
With the proper inspiration, there is a degree of poetry in the worst of us.
The knowledge that he would be compelled to restore the gem to its owner in the morning bestirred another comparison.
This time his idealism was not so elevated.
He likened it to a divorce from a vampire which had already digested his moral qualities.
The sapphire exhausted him.
The only parallel irritation was one which Raikes inflicted upon himself now and then.
This was on the occasions when he established himself in some unobtrusive portion of the bank and watched with greedy interest the impassive tellers handle immense sums ofmoney with an impersonality which it was impossible for his avarice to comprehend.
The thievery of his thoughts and the ravin of his envy would have provided interesting bases of speculation for the reflective magistrate, since, if, according to the metaphysician, thoughts are things, he committed crimes daily.
Had the Sepoy, by entrusting the gem to the custody of this strange being, intended to harass his shriveled soul, he could not have adopted a more effective plan.
The certainty of the sharp bargain which Raikes could drive with such a commodity in certain localities, affected him with the exasperation which disturbs the lover who discovers in the eyes of his sweetheart the embrace to which he is welcome but from which he is restrained by the presence of her parent.
The many forms of value to which it could be transformed by the alchemy of intelligent barter made distracting appeals.
The facets danced their vivid vertigos into his brain.
At last, starting to his feet with impatientresolution, he hurried to a button in the wall, which controlled the radiator valves.
After a series of complicated movements, he succeeded in swinging aside the entire iron framework beneath it, revealing, directly in the rear, a considerable recess.
In the center of this space a knob protruded surrounded by a combination lock, which, under Raikes’ familiar manipulation, disclosed a further cavity.
With an expression not unsuggestive of the mien of the disconsolate relict who has just made her melancholy deposit in the vault, Raikes placed the sapphire in this second recess, closed the combination door, replaced the swinging radiator, and prepared to retire for the remainder of the night.
When sleep, if that unrestful and populous trance to which he finally succumbed can be so designated, came to him, the disorders of his wakeful hours were emphasized in his dreams.
He had been haled to court; convicted without defense; sent headless to Charon, and was obliged, on that account, to make a ventriloquial request for a passage across the Styx;so that, in the morning, it was with genuine relief he returned the jewel to its owner and resumed his wonted meagerness of visage and useless deprivations.
As the Sepoy pocketed the gem he looked at Raikes with a glance at once searching and derisive as he asked:
“Was I not right in calling it a marvel?”
“Aye!” returned Raikes sourly, “marvel, indeed; but the miracle of it is that you have it back again. Your trust in human nature would be sublime were it not so unsupported; it needs the tonic of loss. I hope this is not habitual?”
“I will pay you the tribute of assuring you that it is not,” replied the Sepoy.
“Ah, ha!” returned Raikes with a mirthless grin. “I am to accept the brief custody of this gem as a recognition of my personal integrity. I see, I see. Well, I would appreciate the courtesy more if I could indorse its incaution. However,” he added abruptly, “why did you end that extraordinary tale so inconclusively? I could almost suspect you of a design to arouse my curiosity as to what is to follow.”
“Ah, you remember, then?”
“Why not?” asked Raikes. “The narrative is singular enough, God knows, to make an impression, and sufficiently recent to be definite. I would not like to think that I could forget things so easily.”
“Very well,” said the Sepoy. “Come to my room at ten o’clock to-night; I am due elsewhere until then.”
With a promptness that attested his interest, Raikes presented himself at the hour appointed, and his singular host again permitted him to enjoy a delegate smoke.
“Here!” he exclaimed abruptly, producing a strong magnifying glass, “here’s a connoisseur whose revelations you may trust. Examine these facets with its help,” and again the Sepoy placed the sapphire within reach of the covetous Raikes, who promptly availed himself of the tantalizing privilege.
Waiting, apparently, until his auditor became absorbed in his contemplation of the gem, the Sepoy at last began with the same even modulations which characterized his narrative at the outset:
“No sooner had Ram Lal disappeared through the curtains than the curious apathy of the prince vanished and was replaced by a demeanor of perplexed concentration in the direction pursued by the merchant.
“The prince had listened without comment or interruption during the recital of the narrator, his eyes fixed, the while, upon the brilliant.
“He did not know of the weird gestures of the speaker, nor had he seen the wonderful transformation of the man.
“Consequently he was startled for the moment to contemplate the blank so recently filled by Ram Lal.
“The sapphire, however, remained. That, at least, was real, and replacing it in the box, he proceeded, with a degree of absent preoccupation, to the courtyard, and presently found himself gazing aimlessly in the fountain basin.
“Curiously enough, it had not occurred to the prince to resent the assured attitude of the merchant, or to speculate upon the insinuating suggestions of complicity which the latter hadmanaged to lodge in the consciousness of his august auditor.
“Nor did he feel outraged at the intrusion of the dangerous alternative proposed by the audacious Ram Lal.
“He appeared to be seduced by the sapphire and fascinated by the recital.
“Slowly he retraced the byways of the strange episode until he resumed, with singular precision of memory, the words of the merchant, which explained the presence of the gem:
“‘I have observed the proprieties in making my request. It is a time-honored custom for the suppliant to signalize his appreciation of the importance of the favor he solicits.’
“Ah! a sudden illumination pervaded the mind of the prince.
“The sapphire was a royal subsidy.
“What favor could he grant in proportion to the value of such means of overture?
“The question established another point of association; unconsciously he quoted again:
“‘To-day at sundown I shall expect my daughter. If she does not come to me then,O prince, a heaping handful of the precious stones you hold so dearly will be missing, and in their stead will be as many pebbles from the fountain in the courtyard.’
“‘Pebbles for diamonds!’ he repeated, and yet the proposition did not appeal to his cynical humor. There was menace in the suggestion, but his intolerant spirit did not resent it.
“In a vague way he was more convinced than alarmed, and did not pause to puzzle over the anomaly, although reassured somewhat as he reflected upon the cunning safeguards to his treasury, whose solitary sesame was known to himself alone.
“Prince Otondo, like other native rulers at this period, frightened at the mercenary reforms of the British in other sections, and instructed by the unhappy comparisons, had concentrated the whole of his fortune and considerable of his current revenues in jewels.
“These were portable and could be concealed about his person in any emergency demanding a hasty abdication on his part.
“To the shrewd Ram Lal the prince had entrusted the purchase of nearly all of this costlycollection, contenting himself, for the present, with intelligent calculations as to the percentage of profit which had accrued to the merchant in these transactions.
“‘Ah, well!’ and with an impatient shrug of the shoulders, that was curiously devoid of its customary insolence, Prince Otondo dismissed these unfamiliar apprehensions and forbore to wonder at their strange intrusion upon his wonted complacency.
“Apparently, a more agreeable occasion of reflection presented itself, for a smile, half sinister, half genial, illumined the gloom of his fine countenance. As if in obedience to its suggestion, he turned abruptly from the fountain and re-entered the palace.
“Arrived at that portion of the structure set aside for his individual use, he hurried, with expectant, lithe agility, through an opening in the wall concealed hitherto by silken hangings, and entered upon a narrow passageway, which terminated in another undulating subterfuge of drapery.
“Pausing outside, the prince lightly toucheda gong suspended from the ceiling and which replied with a solemn chime-like resonance.
“In response, the curtains parted, and a native woman, pathetically ugly and servile, appeared and prostrated herself in abject salutation.
“Following the direction of his hand the cringing creature arose and hurried along the passageway just traversed by the prince, who, satisfied as to her departure, parted the curtains and entered a small ante-chamber, beyond which a sumptuously-appointed apartment extended.
“At the extreme end, with a demeanor more suggestive of expectation than alarm or dejection, a young girl reclined upon a divan near the lattice-screened window.
“Advised of the approach of her distinguished visitor by an advance rendered as obvious as possible by the rustling sweep of the parted curtains and an unwonted emphasis of tread, which avoided the rugs and sought the tesselated floor for this purpose, the supple figure stood erect and in an attitude of questioning deference awaited whatever demonstrationmight follow this apparently not unexpected advent.
“As she stood thus in an unconscious pose of virginal dignity, the girl seemed to express a subtle majesty, in which, at the moment, the prince was manifestly deficient.
“A degree taller than her age would warrant, she appeared to the enamored gaze of the prince the ideal of symmetrical slenderness.
“Her figure, perfectly proportioned, and chastened, by the ardent rigors of the climate, of every fraction of superfluous flesh, appeared to bud and round for the sole purpose of concluding in exquisite tapers.
“Her eyes, large and luminous and harmoniously fringed with that placid length of lash usually associated with the sensuous, were saved from that suspicion by the innocent question and confiding abandon of her half-parted lips.
“Her hands, clasped at the moment before her, possessed the indescribable contour of refinement and high breeding, and manifested a degree of the tension of her present privileges by a closer interlace of the fingers than usual.
“A robe of white, confined loosely to her waist by a vari-colored sash, which drooped gracefully to catch up the folds in front, clung softly to her figure in sylphid revelation of the matchless proportions it could never conceal.
“‘Lal Lu!’ exclaimed the prince unevenly, his face reflecting the strife of deference and desire as he disengaged the clasped hands of the maiden and held them closely in his own, ‘what is it to be, the Vale of Cashmere or the snows of Himalaya?’
“For a moment the girl gazed with disconcerting directness upon her ardent companion, as the warmth of his impulse deepened the dusk of his countenance and threaded the fine white of his eyes with ruddy suffusions.
“‘O prince!’ she replied, veiling her eyes the while with tantalizing lashes and reflecting, with exquisite duplication, a degree of the color which burned in the cheeks of her visitor, ‘other answer have I none save that I gave thee yesterday.’
“With an impatient exclamation the prince released the hands he held in such vehementgrasp, and stood, for a space, with his arms folded, directing upon the trembling beauty the while a gaze of vivid, glowing menace which was scarcely to be endured.
“‘Ah!’ he cried in a voice of husky contrast to his usual placid utterance, ‘have you reflected, Lal Lu, how futile thy objections may be if I choose to make them so?’
“With surprising calmness and a sweet dignity, which was not without its effect upon the prince, although it sharpened to the refinement of torture the keenness of his infatuation, Lal Lu replied:
“‘I have said, my lord.’
“At this reply the prince, exasperated beyond further control, with ruthless, fervent abandon, caught the trembling Lal Lu in his arms and held her, palpitating, reproachful, in his savage embrace.
“Bewildered at the quickness of his action, Lal Lu reposed inertly within the passionate restraint of his sinewy arms, but the next instant, transformed into an indignant goddess, struggled, with surprising strength, fromhis clasp and held the mortified prince in chafing repulse by the chaste challenge of her flaming eyes.
“‘Hear me, Prince Otondo!’ she cried with unmistakable candor and disturbing incisiveness of speech:
“‘I love not save where I choose.
“‘Of what avail is it to subdue this frail body? What is the joy of such a conquest? Where the pleasure in an empty casket?’
“Abashed, astounded, the prince retreated a space and looked, with savage intentness, upon the beautiful girl, superb in her denunciation, enchanting in the rebellious dishevel of her hair, the indignant rebuke of her eyes.
“Some reflection of contriteness must have beamed its acknowledgment of the justice of her virtuous outburst in the glance which held her in its ardent fascination, for Lal Lu resumed, in a voice sensibly modulated and with a demeanor curiously softened:
“‘Long have I known of thee, O prince!
“‘Before all others have I placed thee.
“‘Wonder not, then, that I resent the ignobleassumption that my regard may be compelled.
“‘My love is as royal as thine.
“‘I bestow it where I will; unasked, if its object pleaseth me.
“‘But I make no sign, O prince.
“‘In such a stress a maiden may not speak her mind.’
“‘Peace, Lal Lu!’ exclaimed the prince, who, during her initial reproaches and her subsequent explanations, had recovered his native dignity of carriage and elevation of demeanor; ‘peace! Never before have I hearkened to such speech as thine.
“‘All my life I have had but to ask, and what I craved was mine.
“‘My wish has been my command.
“‘Hear, then, Lal Lu: Henceforward thou art as safe with me as in thy father’s home.’
“‘Aye! what of him?’ interrupted the maiden; ‘what of my father, O prince?’
“‘All is well with him,’ replied the prince, manifestly chagrined at the incautious introduction of this disturbing name and the filial solicitude it awakened.
“‘He has been assured of thy safety; of him will I speak later. But now, Lal Lu——
“‘I acknowledge thy rebuke. I stand before thee, thy sovereign, thy suppliant.
“‘See!’ he exclaimed, ‘what I cannot demand, I entreat’; and with an indescribably fascinating tribute of surrender and yearning, this royal suitor awaited her reply.
“Leaning for support against a slender stand near-by, to which she communicated the trembling fervor which pulsed so warmly through every fiber of her being, the beautiful Lal Lu looked upon the fine countenance before her with a light in her eyes that dazzled with its subtle radiance.
“‘Oh, Lal Lu!’ cried the prince as he advanced toward the trembling maiden with eager precipitation.
“‘One moment, O prince!’ exclaimed Lal Lu, extending a restraining hand.
“‘I know not what to say to thee; yet will I meet thy candor with equal frankness. Yea, Prince Otondo, I love thee indeed. I feel no shame in the confession. I have loved thee always. I am——’
“But the prince, after the fashion of lovers, made further speech impossible; and Lal Lu, with all the exquisite charm of womanly capitulation, threw her dusky arms about his neck and held his lips to hers in the only kiss beside her father’s she had ever known.
“For one delirious moment, and then, releasing herself, she stood before the prince, a very blushing majesty of love, and said:
“‘And now, O prince, I have told thee my secret. Be thou equally generous and restore me to my father, and then come to me when thou desirest and I am thine.”
“Concealing his impatience at this last suggestion, the prince, with wily indirection, said:
“‘It is too late to-day, Lal Lu. Thy father will be here on the morrow; rest thyself until then,’ and fearful lest the maiden would penetrate his purpose, he added:
“‘Lal Lu, I am compelled to leave thee for a space; I will send thy woman to thee. Until to-morrow, then, adieu.’ And fixing upon her a glance so ardent that she almost followed him in its fascination, the prince withdrew from her presence with a reluctance which was duplicatedin the bosom of the bewildered girl, if not so unmistakably evinced.
“As the prince retreated toward his apartments, the alarming alternative proposed by the merchant repeated itself with a sort of wordless insistence:
“‘Unless Lal Lu shall be returned, a handful of my precious stones shall be missing.
“‘Ah!
“‘In their place will be as many pebbles!
“‘Impossible!’
“And secure in his bedchamber, into which none might venture without ceremonious announcement, the prince hastened to a recess in the wall, where, in response to a pressure applied to a spot known only to himself, a cunningly devised panel shot back, revealing a gleaming, glittering mass of scintillating light and glamor.
“‘Ah, ha!’ he gloated, ‘no pebbles yet’; and plunging his hands into the costly heap, he withdrew a motley of diamonds, sapphires, rubies and opals, and held them, with grudging avarice, to the regard of the declining sun.
“‘No pebbles yet,’ he repeated, as he challengedthe fires of the gems with the fever of his eyes, and sent mimic lightnings hither and thither by communicating the tremble of his hands and the incidence of the sunbeams to the glorious confusion of facet and hue; ‘no pebbles yet.’
“As Prince Otondo repeated this obvious reassurance, he replaced the gems, which seemed to quiver with lambent life, within the compartment, and withdrawing the shagreen case from his sash, he discharged the magnificent sapphire it contained upon the apex of the glittering heap, where it rested with a sort of insolent disproportion to the irradiant pyramid of brilliants beneath.
“Regarding the bewildering ensemble for a few moments of exulting ownership and familiar calculation, the prince closed the panel with the mien of Paris making restitution of Helen, and, turning aside, prepared to retire for the night.
“The ceremony was simple and so promptly observed that ere the radiance had ceased its revel in his mind the prince found himself reclining upon his couch, unusually ready to succumbto the sleep which he had so often sought in vain.
“The night was hot and stifling, and yet it seemed to the prince that he had only retired to rise the moment after, so profound had been his slumber and so quickly had daybreak arrived.
“For a few moments he lay in that agreeable condition of semi-realization ere the visages of his wonted obligations had assumed the definition of their customary insistence, or the menace of a restrained remorse had reannounced itself, when suddenly, without introduction or sequence, the phrase ‘pebbles for diamonds’ slipped into his consciousness.
“In a second he was alert and awake; the next instant he found himself at the panel, reaching tremulously for the concealed spring.
“At last he found it; the panel shot back, and the prince, after one searching glance, stood transfixed and uttered a cry of wondering despair.
“‘The gleaming hoard still shot its varied lightnings. The royal sapphire still crowned its priceless apex. To his starting eyes histreasure was not a whit diminished, but directly in front, and at the base of the precious heap, lay as many as would make a heaping handful of pebbles.”
As the Sepoy reached this startling climax in his recital, the even modulations of his voice ceased abruptly.
Raikes, missing the somnolent monotone, looked up quickly.
The eyes of the Sepoy were fixed upon him with a gleam in his glance not unlike that of the sapphire upon which the miser had been engaged during the whole of this singular narrative.
“That is a weird tale,” he said at last. “Why do you pause at such a point? What is the conclusion?”
“That is some distance away yet,” replied the Sepoy. “If you care to continue, I will resume the thread at this time to-morrow evening.”
“Very well,” answered Raikes with some impatience, “I will be here. I must, at least, congratulate you upon your observance of theproprieties in tale-telling; you manage to pause at the proper places.”
“You are curious, then, to hear the rest?”
“Naturally,” replied Raikes, with the sour candor which distinguished him. “The situation you describe I can appreciate—the loser confronted with his loss—and I am to conjecture his attitude until to-morrow night. Very well, I bid you good evening,” and Raikes, with a curt inclination of the head, which made a travesty of his intention to be courteous, vanished through the doorway.
(The continuation of this remarkable story will be found on Dickey Series B, which may be bought from almost any haberdasher.)
As Dennis reached this announcement his head throbbed violently.
He had raced so apace with the movement of the tale that he had not remarked, in his absorption, an unfamiliar congestion about the base of his brain.
Directly, however, he was convinced of its disagreeable presence when this abrupt conclusion,which he had come to expect at the end of each bosom, materialized to his irritated anticipation.
He was no longer inclined to admire the calculating genius of the italicized phrase.
A temperance lecture was aching its way through his head. His conscience seemed to have decided to reside in the pit of his stomach, and a sense of surrender and defeat humiliated him.
His room looked cell-like.
The arrow pointing to the fire-escape seemed full of menace.
His face, reflected from the dingy glass, had never appeared so ugly and reproachful.
He needed something to restore his confidence, but was happily unaware of the nature of the remedy his system demanded.
It was his first offense.
He raised the window for a breath of fresh air, and the roaring street called him.
There was mockery and invitation in its hubbub. Why not? A little exercise would bring him around to his point of moral departure.
So, hastily adjusting the third chapter to his waistcoat and donning the balance of his garments, he fitted his hat to his head with thoughtful caution and hurried to the bustling thoroughfare.
Preoccupied by his gradually lessening disabilities, Dennis did not remark that the course pursued by him had the house of the publisher as its terminus, until he stood directly before that august establishment.
As the young Irishman recognized his surroundings, it did not take him long to persuade himself, with native superstition, as he considered the unaware nature of his arrival, that Providence had directed his footsteps thither, and, with the species of courage that can come from such a basis, he proceeded to the rearway, where he beheld the Celt in whom his hopes were centered, berating the porters, with a mien which offered anything but encouragement to the anxious young man.
However, he came forward tentatively, and found himself, presently, so much within the radius of the foreman’s range of vision as to be compelled to accept, with enforced urbanity,the vituperation of the draymen, who objected to the amount of landscape he occupied with his bulk and eager personality.
At last, when the foreman had bullied his lusty understudies into a certain degree of sullen system, and the drays began to move away with their mysterious burdens, Dennis ventured to address him.
Greatly to his relief, the perturbed countenance of the latter softened perceptibly as he exclaimed:
“Ah, ha! an’ it’s there ye are?”
“Yes,” replied Dennis with solicitous abnegation.
“Well,” returned the other, “roll up yer sleeves; yer job’s a-waitin’ fur ye.”
With an agility that betrayed the diplomacy of his countenance into ingenuous exultation, Dennis followed the foreman into the warehouse, and the latter at once began his instructions as to the system of marking, and Dennis mastered its simple mysteries with a quickness that was not only flattering to the discernment of his instructor but an indorsement of Celtic adjustability in general.
In the course of the morning Dennis discovered that his predecessor had put him under obligations by prolonging his debauch, and that his arrival upon the scene had been most opportune in consequence.
He was now assured of a position, whose only handicap was the prospect, delicately insinuated by the foreman for his consideration, of the possible state of mind of the previous incumbent when he realized that his niche had been filled, and it did not add to his cheerfulness when the foreman examined his biceps with an expert touch and remarked: “I guess that ye can take care of yerself.”
There was nothing belligerent about Dennis, and he trusted that his predecessor would not regard him from that standpoint.
In the meantime Saturday arrived, and Dennis, in possession of his proportion of the week’s pay, hurried to The Stag by way of Baxter Street.
In this locality he began a search for Series B of the dickies, and was finally successful, after a number of disappointments and a protracted hunt.
With the courage of his recently acquired situation, Dennis proposed to indulge in a little improvidence.
He decided that he would follow the singular recital on the dickey backs and rip off a chapter at a time.
After a night of fortifying slumber, Dennis arose, breakfasted, and boarded an elevated train, which presently conveyed him to the vicinity of Central Park.
Here, after securing a seat to his fancy, he withdrew Series B from the wrapper, detached bosom No. 1 and began.