← catalogue

The Flaw in the Sapphire

by Charles M. Snyder · English · Gutenberg #23752 · 322,556 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Flaw in the Sapphire
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: The Flaw in the Sapphire

Author: Charles M. Snyder


        
Release date: December 6, 2007 [eBook #23752]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23752

Credits: Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
        Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE ***




Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net





------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE

BY CHARLES M. SNYDER

AUTHOR OF "COMIC HISTORY OF GREECE"
"RUNAWAY ROBINSON" "SNAP SHOTS" ETC.

NEW YORK
THE METROPOLITAN PRESS
1909

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright, 1909, by THE METROPOLITAN PRESS
Registered at Stationers' Hall, London (All Rights Reserved)
Printed in the United States of America

Press of Wm. G. Hewitt
24-26 Vandewater St.
New York

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Augustine E. McBee

A friend who stands since "Auld Lang Syne"
  To all that's fine related;
To him, this little book of mine
  Is duly dedicated.

                      --Charles M. Snyder.
New York, September, 1909.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




THE FLAW IN THE SAPPHIRE

CHAPTER I


Not long since there lived, in the city of Philadelphia, a young man of
singular identity.

His only parallel was the comedian who is compelled to take himself
seriously and make the most of it, or a tart plum that concludes in a
mellow prune.

He was the affinity of two celebrated instances to the contrary.

To those who enjoy the whimsies of paradox he presented an astonishing
resemblance, in countenance, to the late Benjamin Disraeli, and
maintained in speech the unmistakable accent of O'Connell, the Hebrew
statesman's Celtic antagonist.

For these reasons, until the nature of his business was discovered, he
was regarded with interest by that class which is disposed to estimate
the contents of a book by the character of the binding, or thinks it
can measure a man's ability by the size of his hat.

On nearer acquaintance, he was relegated to the dubious distinction of
an oddity to whom you would be pleased to introduce your friends if you
had only a satisfactory account of his antecedents.

He was cheerful, startling, ready and adroit.

Until betrayed by his brief but effectual familiarities, it was a
curious experience to remark the approach of this singular being and
wonder at the appraising suggestion in his speculative glance.

Presently you decided that it was the intention of this young man to
address you, and, unconsciously, you accorded him the opportunity, only
to be scandalized the moment afterward by the query, altogether
incongruous in such a promising aspect:

"Any old clothes to-day?"

And you passed on, chagrined and wondering.

For a number of years, while his auditors paused in an attempt to
disentangle the Semite from the Celt, there was scarcely a day in which
he had not subjected himself to the more or less pronounced hazards of
rebuff incident to his invariable query, and there were few citizens of
the sterner sex whom he had not thus addressed.

Apparently no consideration restrained him.

None was too dignified, none sufficiently austere to escape his
solicitation; and while, as a rule, he waited until the object of his
regard came to a standstill, he had been known to approach diagonally,
and, at the point of incidence, presenting his query, pass on with a
glance of impassive impersonality when it was evident that his overtures
were futile or worse.

When successful in his forays, he would convey the results of his
efforts to his father, who, after getting the garments thus secured in a
condition of fictitious newness, displayed them in front of his
establishment, marked with prices which, as he explained to those unwary
enough to venture within the radius of his personality, brought him as
near to nervous prostration as was possible for the parent of such
inconsequent offspring.

However, no matter what the rewards of such industry, it must not be
imagined that its disabilities did not insist upon due recognition and
ugly ravel, and that such shred and fibre did not obtrude their
unwelcome appeals for repair upon their central figure.

Shrewd, intelligent, persistent, he soon discovered that the very
qualities which made him successful in his calling rendered him
obnoxious to those who were unable to harmonize his promise with his
condition.

However, like the majority of his countrymen, outside of those who
constituted the Manhattan police force and provided the country with
justices of the peace, this young man was a philosopher.

He could always provide a silver lining for a cloud as long as it was
plausible to do so, and when he had exhausted his genial resources, he
looked at facts squarely.

On this basis he decided, finally, that his was a case of "bricks
without straw," enthusiasm minus its basis, an unhappy conclusion which
was emphasized by his patient attempts to soften his angularities with
the advantages provided by a night school.

Unfortunately, a business man, with an eye to the bizarre, to whom
Dennis had presented some of his characteristic enterprises, had put the
young Irishman in the way of securing a biography of the Hebrew premier,
whom he provided with such an absurd travesty of likeness, and the "ole
clo' merchant" was so impressed by the resolution and dexterity of the
celebrated statesman, that he became, from that moment, the prey of a
consuming ambition whose direction he could not determine.

He grew positive daily, however, that, in view of these stimulating
aspirations, he could no longer pursue his embarrassing avocation.

On the basis, therefore, that the greater the pent the more pronounced
the explosion, the young merchant developed a dangerous readiness to
embrace the first opportunity that presented herself in the hope that
the caress would be returned.

Presently, the determination to exchange his present humiliations for
future uncertainties advanced him to the point where he informed his
father of his decision, and the latter immediately succumbed to a
collapse which was Hebraic in its despair and entirely Celtic in its
manifestation.

When this irate parent realized, at last, that this invaluable arm of
his business could not be diverted from its purpose, with cruel celerity
he cut off his son from all further consideration and forbade him the
premises.

With the previous week's salary in his pocket, which, fortunately, had
been undisturbed, Dennis Muldoon, on the day succeeding this unhappy
interview with his sire, set out for New York City with his few
belongings condensed, with campaigning foresight, in a satchel whose
size and appearance would scarcely inspire the confidence man to claim
previous acquaintance with its owner in order to investigate its
contents later.

In this manner protected from the insinuating blandishments of the
"buncoes," and guided by his native shrewdness, Dennis finally found
accommodation for his meager impedimenta in an unassuming lodging-house
called The Stag.

This establishment reflected, in a curious way, the demands of its
patrons.

Almost the entire first floor was occupied by the glittering details of
a seductive barroom, through which one was compelled to pass, challenged
on every side by alluring labels, before reaching the restaurant
immediately in the rear.

Above, the floors were divided into numerous sleeping-rooms barely large
enough to accommodate a bed, washstand and one chair--a sordid ensemble,
unrelieved by any other wall decoration than the inevitable
announcement: "This way to the fire escape."

By a singular coincidence which would have aroused a lively emotion in
the moralist, a Bible occupied a small shelf directly under the
instructions quoted above.

Dennis, however, was too weary to recognize the grim association, and
shortly after his arrival retired for the night to recuperate his
energies for the uncertainties of the morrow.

Awakening at dawn with a sincere hope that his dreams of a succession
of disasters were not prophetic, and, despite the appeals of the glitter
and the labels in the bar, breakfasting with his customary
abstemiousness, Dennis issued from The Stag with a determination to make
the effort of his life to secure employment.

He had no definite plans other than a profound determination to resist
the invitations of Baxter Street, a thoroughfare congested from end to
end with innumerable shops devoted to the species of merchandizing from
which he had so recently escaped.

Here his talents would have procured for him ready recognition, a
condition which deepened his determination to avoid all possible contact
with these solicitous sons of Shem.

Beyond a singular desire to enter a large publishing house, Dennis had
no idea as to the direction of his efforts.

Aside from the fact that books held an unaccountable fascination for
him, he could not explain this predilection, for their influence over
him was in the aggregate.

He loved to wander, with aimless preoccupation, among closely-packed
shelves, and in pursuance of this indirection was familiar with the
interior of every library in the city of Philadelphia.

He appeared to have too much respect for the books to touch them, and
was sufficiently in awe of their contents not to attempt to read them.

He was impressed by the volume of things, and had, unsuspected by
himself, the capacity of the bibliophile to detect and enjoy the subtle
aroma which emanates from leaves and binding.

In harmony, therefore, with the resolute quality which had secured to
him what success he had enjoyed in his abandoned business, Dennis
decided to exhaust the pleasing possibilities presented by this elevated
industry before applying elsewhere.

The eclat of possible authorship did not influence him, despite the
encouragement afforded him in the surprising efforts of his imagination
displayed in achievements such as the following, with which he
embellished the front of his father's establishment:

                                This Suit
                                  was
                                  $50
                           and cheap at that
                           I'll let it go for
                                  $20

and so on indefinitely.

Urged, then, by the advantages which lubricate the lines of least
resistance, and stimulated by that clarion phrase in his unfailing
campaign document, his copy of Beaconsfield: "I have begun many things
many times and have finally succeeded," Dennis presented himself, about
ten o'clock, at one of the well-known publishing houses.

With all the alarm which affects the fair debutante at a court
presentation, he beheld the confusing labyrinth of counters, department
aisles and shelves, which combine in such a depressing suggestion of
intellectual plethora and transient futility in this famous edifice.

Advised by his sensations, Dennis was quite ready to assure himself that
he had entered at the wrong portal, and, returning to the street, he
discovered that the building concluded upon a rearway congested with a
disorderly array of drays, cases and porters.

Encouraged by the assurance of these more familiar surroundings, Dennis
cast an anxious glance about him to discover one more in authority than
the others.

His quest was given direction by a familiar accent.

"Wake up, ye lazy divils! It's dhramin' ye are this marnin'."

Guided by the sound, Dennis beheld a naturally cheerful Irishman
occupied with the double task of assuming an austere demeanor, and
quickening, with brisk orders, the movements of the porters under his
direction.

His present difficulties mastered, this vivacious master of ceremonies
turned to look, with an inquiring glance, upon Dennis, who had presented
himself to the attention of the former with the unmistakable appeal of
the candidate in his demeanor.

"I want a job," said Dennis simply.

"Phwat?" inquired the foreman sharply, staring at the mosaic of
physiognomy and accent embodied in Dennis.

"I want a job," repeated Dennis. "I nade wurk."

There was no mistaking the peculiar burr in the utterance of the last
two words, but the foreman continued to regard the speaker with
suspicious amazement.

"Phwat are ye, annyway?" he said with guarded brusqueness.

"A poor man, sir; I nade wurk."

"Oi don't mane that," with less severity at this frank acknowledgment;
"but where do yez hail from--Limerick or Jerusalem?"

At this pointed question, which promptly reminded Dennis of the singular
contradiction he presented, he replied, with a genuine Celtic adroitness
that had an immediate effect upon his hearer:

"Nayther; I got off at the midway junction."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the foreman, as he appreciated this clever explanation
of the singular compromise presented by Dennis. "Shure, that's not bad.
By the mug ye wear, I wud advise ye to go to Baxther Street, but by the
sound av ye, Oi rickommind th' Broadway squad. Wurrk, is it? Why don't
ye presint that face at th' front? I hear they're shy on editors."

"Shure!" said Dennis, who believed that he was progressing; "but the
only things I iver wrote were store signs."

"Ah, ha!" replied the foreman, "so it's handy with th' brush ye are."

"Yes," answered Dennis.

"Wait a bit," said the foreman, and pointing to a marking-outfit he
directed Dennis to display his name and address upon a smooth pine board
which he provided for that purpose:

                          DENNIS MULDOON,
                          The Stag Hotel,
                            Vesey St.,
                              N.Y.

"Ah, ha!" cried the foreman as he contrasted the name with the
incongruous face of the young man before him, "ye don't have to play it
on a flute, annyway; there's nothin' Sheeny about that." Then, directing
his attention to the character of the work itself, he added: "That's not
bad at all, at all. See here," he said abruptly, as he picked up the
board which Dennis had decorated and fastened it to the warehouse wall
with a nail, "Oi'll kape that for riferince. Oh, Oi mane it," he said
with gruff assurance, as he noted the disappointment which shadowed the
expressive face before him; "an' mebbe ye won't have to wait so long,
nayther."

"I hope not," said Dennis frankly.

"Well, ye see," said the foreman, "the prisint incoombent has been
mixin' too much red wid his paint, an' it don't wurrk."

"You mean he drinks?" asked Dennis with humorous inquiry.

"Oi do," replied the foreman; "an' now that we have inthroduced th'
subject, excuse a personal quistion: Do ye wet yure whistle in business
hours?"

"No," answered Dennis promptly, "nor out of them. Father attended to
that part of the business."

"Well," replied the foreman, "Oi can't talk longer wid ye this marnin'.
Come 'round be th' ind of the wake," and dismissing Dennis with a nod he
withdrew into the warehouse.

The main feature of discouragement which presented itself to Dennis as
he left this locality to ponder over its possibilities, was that the end
of the week was five days off.

This was serious.

His rupture with Muldoon, senior, had left him but poorly provided with
linen and lucre; and a campaign of assault upon the barricades of
prejudice and suspicion, which was involved in the anxious solicitude of
the man seeking employment, demanded every possible accessory of
personal appearance and a reasonably equipped commissariat.

Anxious, therefore, to subject his meager resources to the least strain
possible, Dennis at last succeeded in securing, in one of the more
pretentious stores on Baxter Street, a contrivance for the relief of
penury and threadbare gentility known at that time by the name of
"dickey."

This convenience consisted in a series of three shirt bosoms made of
paper to resemble the luxury of linen.

When the surface first exposed showed symptoms of soil or wear, its
removal revealed a fresh bosom directly under.

Adjusted to his waistcoat, it was almost impossible to detect the
agreeable sham, which, under favorable auspices, could be made to last
for a week.

Thus equipped, Dennis proceeded to his hotel, where, after according the
cheerful salutation of the industrious barkeeper the acknowledgment of a
lively Irish nod, in which there was both fellowship and refusal, he
proceeded to the rear, to banquet upon whatever offered the most for his
money.

During the two days succeeding, Dennis, true to the apprehensive
calculation natural to the unemployed, did not propose to rest upon the
assurances of his Irish friend in the publishing house.

Anything untoward might occur.

In fact, he was familiar with this seamy side of Providence.

He had been so often misled by promises that it was only his wholesome
Celtic faith and prompt capacity to rebound which kept him from becoming
entirely blase.

His experience, however, left him alert. So he applied industriously at
various establishments for employment, and received his first lessons in
the courteous duplicity which ostentatiously files the application for
future reference, and the cruel kindness of frank rebuff.

On the morning of the third day of this futile foray, Dennis noticed
that the exposed bosom of his dickey was not altogether presentable.

It appeared to have registered the record of his applications and
failures, and, as such, was not a good campaign document, so to speak.

Having progressed in his simple toilet up to the point of embellishment,
he proceeded to tear away the soiled surface, and in doing so discovered
not only the clean bosom beneath, but that the rear of the one just
detached was covered with a block of minute print.

Drawing the solitary chair close to the window, he read by the light of
early dawn the following extraordinary compilation.




CHAPTER II


In the city of ---- there lived one Rodman Raikes, unpopularly known as
the "Fist."

The title, however, was not in recognition of personal prowess, for no
more cringing, evasive creature ever existed.

He was little in mind, little in body, and little in his dealings.

If a principle could ever be concrete, Raikes was the embodiment of the
grasping and the uselessly abstemious.

He appeared to shun a generous sentiment as one would avoid an infected
locality, and usually walked with head tilted and body bent as if
engaged in following a clue or intent upon the search of some stray
nickel.

He was thoroughly despised by all who knew him, a sentiment which he
returned with vicious interest, and never neglected an opportunity of
lodging some sneering shaft where it would cause the most irritation.

His character was so much in harmony with these generalizations that he
had been described as dividing his laughter into chuckles--if the
strident rasp which he indulged could be called by that name--in order
that it might last the longer; and that he grinned in grudging
instalments.

His obvious possession was an entire row of brick houses, in the most
insignificant of which he dwelt.

Over this sparse domicile a spinster sister presided, who reflected, on
compulsion, in the manner of a sickly moon, the attenuity and shrivel of
her brother.

A nephew of Raikes' completed the circuit.

This young man intruded upon this strange household an aspect so
curiously at variance with that of his rickety elders that he suggested
to the fanciful the grim idea of having exhausted the contents of the
larder and compelled the other two to shift for themselves.

He was, in the eyes of the disapproving Raikes, offensively plump; an
example of incredible expenditure applied to personal gratification and
gluttonous indulgence.

The miser behaved as if he appeared to consider it a mark of studied
disrespect to be compelled to contrast his gaunt leanness with the young
man's embonpoint, and was propitiated only by the reflection that he
contributed in no way to his nephew's physical disproportion, since the
latter was able to be at charges for his own welfare from resources
derived from steady outside employment.

Adjoining the house occupied by Raikes, and connected with it by a
doorway let into the wall, was a series of three dwellings used as a
boarding-establishment by a widow who had seen better days and was
tireless in alluding to them.

These buildings had been remodeled to communicate with each other, a
continuity that concluded with the Raikes apartments.

For some reason this miserable man preferred to occupy the portion just
indicated with no other tenants than his gaunt sister and the robust
Robert.

This arrangement was all the more curious from the fact that Raikes
made no attempt to dispose of, in fact, strangely resented any
suggestion of letting, the lower floor of his end of the row.

That one of his avaricious disposition could thus forego such a prospect
of advantage was the occasion of much speculation.

If Robert understood he gave no hint; and if the boarders on the other
side of the partition indulged in curious comment they refrained from
doing so in his presence.

The suggestion had been made that Raikes secreted something about that
portion of the premises he occupied, but since none had the courage to
investigate such a possibility, the problems it created were permitted
to pass unsolved or serve to tantalize the imagination.

Regularly, at meal-time, the door leading from the Raikes apartment
would open, and the mean figure of the miser, after presenting itself
for one hesitating, suspicious moment, would slip silently through and
subside into a near-by chair at one of the tables.

Directly after, the spinster would filter through with the mien of an
apologetic phantom, and Raikes at once established the basis of
indulgence by tentative nibbles of this and that, which were almost
Barmecidian in their meagerness, and the sister, under his sordid
supervision, followed his miserable example.

With singular perversity, in the midst of reasonable abundance, he
forbore to accept the full measure of his privileges.

The discipline of denial was essential to the austere economies he
practiced in all other directions, and his sister, rather than submit to
the hardness of his rebukes, acquiesced with dismal resignation.

Robert was able to endure the table behavior of his uncle no more than
the others, and so occupied a seat in the dining-room surrounded by more
agreeable conditions.

If this course was intended as a diplomatic frankness to indicate to
Raikes that his nephew did not expect a legacy to follow the demise of
that austere relative, no one could determine.

The young man, however, continued to sit in whatever portion of the
apartment he pleased and enjoy himself as much as the handicap of his
relationship would permit.

On this basis, as if to manifest in himself the law of compensation,
Robert grew vicariously robust, and accepted, with cynical good humor,
the irritation of his uncle over his adipose.

Raikes and his sister had the table at which they sat entirely to
themselves.

Only on the infrequent occasions of congestion had others been known to
occupy seats at the same board.

It was more than hungry human nature, as embodied in most of the
inmates, could stand to witness this exasperating refusal to accept a
reasonable measure of what was set before them; a disability to which
the scarcely concealed scowls of the exacting miser added the chill
finishing touch.

One morning, however, a new boarder arrived.

Accommodations could not be found for him at the other tables, and, as
was the custom of the widow under such circumstances, he was intruded
upon the society of this morbid duet, after the manner of his
predecessors.

If the usual rebellion matured at such association on the part of this
recent guest, the landlady expected to be assisted by one of those
vacancies which occur with such incalculable irregularity, yet
reasonable certainty, in establishments of this character.

At this a prompt transfer would be effected.

This, however, was an unusual boarder.

If his presence was obnoxious to Raikes, the latter refused to realize
it; if the miser had his peculiarities, the newcomer did not see them.

He ate his meals in silence, with an abstemiousness that, unknown to
himself, recommended him as cordially as any consideration might to his
shriveled table companion; made friendly overtures, disguised in
perfunctory courtesies, of passing the bread or the butter when either
was beyond the nervous reach of the eccentric Raikes, and ventured an
impassive suggestion or two as to the probable conduct of the weather.

In appearance the newcomer was startling.

His complexion was a berry-brown; his expression, aside from his eyes,
was singularly composed.

These were uncommonly black and piercing, and peeped from receding
sockets through heavy eyebrows, which hung like an ambush over their
dart and gleam.

His nose was a decisive aquiline, beneath which his lips, at once firm
and sensitive, pressed together changelessly.

His figure was tall and spare and usually clad in black, a habit which
emphasized his already picturesque countenance.

There was an indescribable air about him which suggested event,
transpired or about to transpire, which introduced a sort of eerie
distinction to the commonplace surroundings in which he found himself,
and invited many a glance of curious speculation in his direction.

All this was not without its effect upon Raikes, and it was remarked,
with the astonishment the occasion justified, that the miser, in the
ensuing days, emerged from his customary austerity to the extent of
reciprocal amenities in the passage of bread and salt.

However, this was but the beginning.

Raikes discovered himself, at last, responding, with a degree of chill
urbanity, to the advances of the stranger, and ere the week had
concluded had assumed the initiative in conversation on more than one
occasion.

By this time one of the inevitable vacancies had occurred at another
table, and the widow, as usual, offered to translate this latest guest
to the unoccupied seat.

The latter, however, for some strange reason, indicated a desire to
remain in his present surroundings, and when this disposition was
understood by Raikes, the conquest of the miser was complete.

As if to indorse the perverse aspect of inflexible things, it seemed,
now that Raikes had ventured ever so little beyond his taciturn
defenses, he was encouraged to further boldness.

The stranger exerted a fascination which, in others, Raikes would have
considered dangerous and which he would have made his customary
instinctive preparations to combat.

He could not recall a similar instance in all the years of his recent
experience when he was constrained to recognize, nay, surrender to, a
diffusive impulse such as this curious stranger awakened in his mind.

In yielding to its insinuations, even to the extent already recorded, he
was agreeably conscious of a sort of guilty abandon which, at times,
stupefies the moral qualities ere delivering them into the hands of a
welcome invader.

For some time Robert, with the others, had enjoyed the entertainment
offered by this transformation of Satyr to Faun, and the inversion
advanced to still further degrees their curious regard of the "Sepoy," a
picturesque description bestowed upon him by the blase boarders.

Consequently, one evening, when, at the conclusion of the dinner, the
"Sepoy," in response to the invitation of Raikes, was seen to disappear
with the latter through the doorway which led to his apartments,
Robert's interest in the spectacle changed to genuine alarm, until a
moment's reflection upon his uncle's well-known ability to take care of
himself reassured him.

Intruding the door between themselves and all further speculation, the
strangely-assorted pair proceeded along a dimly-illumed hallway to a
room in which Raikes usually secluded himself.

As the Sepoy advanced, he could see that, with the exception of two
sleeping-chambers, revealed by their open doors, the apartment in which
he found himself was the only one where any kind of accommodation could
be found, as the balance of the house offered unmistakable evidences of
being unoccupied.

"Be seated, sir," croaked Raikes, with a voice strangely suggestive of a
raven attempting the modulations of some canary it had swallowed. "I do
not smoke myself, and, therefore, cannot provide you with that sort of
entertainment; still, I have no objection to you enjoying yourself in
that way if," with a cynical shrug of the shoulders by way of apology,
"you have come prepared."

Accepting this frank inhospitality in the spirit of its announcement,
the stranger, smiling with his curious eyes, produced two cigars, one of
which he offered to Raikes, and which was consistently and promptly
refused.

"I can't afford it," expostulated the latter. "I never indulge myself
even in temptation; the nearest I will approach to dissipation will be,
with your permission, to enjoy the aroma. I do not propose to rebuke
myself for that."

"As you please," returned the other as he replaced the weed in his
pocket. "It is my one indulgence; in other respects I challenge any man
to be more abstemious."

"I have had none," returned Raikes with a rasping lack of emotion, "for
the last ten years. It is too late to begin to cultivate a disability
now."

"You are wrong," replied the Sepoy. "One's attitude cannot be rigid at
all points; that is bad management. The finest tragedy I ever witnessed
was emphasized by the trivialities of the king's jester.

"However," he added, as if in support of his theory, "I can, at least,
trouble you for a match."

While Raikes busied himself in an effort to show the hospitality of the
service indicated, the Sepoy's busy, furtive eyes glanced here and
there about the room with quick, inquiring glances.

At one end a bedstead stood, which an antiquarian would have accepted
gladly as collateral for a loan.

Near-by a wardrobe, equally remote if more decrepit, leaned against the
wall to maintain the balance jeopardized by a missing foot.

One chair, in addition to those occupied by Raikes and his companion,
appeared to extend its worn arms with a weary insistence and dusty
disapproval of their emptiness.

A table, large enough to accommodate a student's lamp, several account
books and a blotting-pad, completed this uninviting galaxy.

To the walls, however, the Sepoy directed his closest scrutiny.

With an incredibly rapid glance he surveyed every possible inch of
space, turning his head cautiously to enable his eyes to penetrate into
the more distant portions.

Presently, after an amount of rummaging altogether disproportionate to
the nature of his quest, Raikes succeeded in finding a lucifer, which
flared with a reluctance characteristic of the surroundings.

The Sepoy, availing himself of its blaze, deposited the remainder of the
stick, with elaborate carefulness, upon the table, as if urged by the
thought that his companion might convert it to further uses.

As Raikes resumed his chair, the Sepoy, recalling his glances from their
mysterious foray, directed them, with curious obliqueness, upon his
companion.

In no instance that Raikes could recall had the Sepoy looked upon him
directly save in fleeting flashes.

At such moments Raikes was conscious of a strange tremor, a vanishing
fascination, that he vainly sought to duplicate by attracting the
other's attention, in order to analyze its peculiar influence.

"May I ask," he ventured after a few inhalations of his vicarious smoke,
"may I ask the nature of your business?"

"Surely," replied the other. "I am a collector."

"Of what?" inquired Raikes, dissatisfied with the ambiguity of the
answer.

"Sapphires," said the Sepoy.

"Ah!" cried Raikes.

"Yes," continued the other, regarding the kindling glance of the
avaricious Raikes with a quick, penetrating look that was not without
its effect upon the latter; "yes, and I have had many beautiful
specimens in my time."

"But where is your establishment?" asked Raikes.

"Wherever I chance to be," was the reply.

"Still," ventured Raikes, astonished at this curious rejoinder, "you
have some safe depository for such valuables."

"Doubtless," replied the other drily; "but I have a few in my room now,
and, by the way, they are pretty fair specimens."

"Ah!" cried Raikes. "May I see them?"

"Why not?" assented the Sepoy. "In the meantime," he continued, as he
inserted his hand in his waistcoat pocket, "what do you think of this?"
and describing a glittering semicircle in the air with some brilliant
object he held in his grasp, he deposited upon the table a sapphire of
such extraordinary size and beauty, that Raikes, able as he was to
realize the great value of this gleaming condensation, stared stupidly
at it for a moment, and then, with a cry of almost gibbering avarice,
caught the gem in his trembling hands and burglarized it with his greedy
eyes.

As Raikes, oblivious of all else, continued to gaze upon the brilliant
with repulsive fascination, a peculiar change transformed the face of
the Sepoy.

He directed upon the unconscious countenance of his companion a glance
of terrible intensity, moving his hands the while in a weird, sinuous
rhythm, until presently, satisfied with the vacant expression which had
replaced the eager look of the moment before in the eyes of the
tremulous Raikes, the Sepoy began, with an indescribably easy, somnolent
modulation, the following strange recital:

(To be continued on Dickey No. 2.)

                 *       *       *       *       *

"Thunder and lightning!" cried Dennis as he reached the exasperating
announcement in italics at the bottom of the dickey back:

"Continued on Dickey No. 2."

"What th' div--now, what do you think of that? An' it's me crazy to hear
what that meerschaum-colored divil was a-goin' to say. 'Dickey No. 2.'
Why, that's the one I have to wear to-day, an' to think the story's on
the back of it."

Truly was Dennis harassed.

He had been in many a pickle before, but never in one quite so
exasperating.

Tantalized, in the first place, by the uncertainty surrounding his
prospective employment, he was now confronted by a predicament which
threatened to jeopardize a vital adjunct to his personal appearance.

A native curiosity, to which this outrageous tale appealed so
strenuously, prompted him to detach bosom No. 2 regardless.

An equally characteristic thrift warned him against such an
inconsiderate procedure.

Finally his good judgment prevailed, and with desperate haste he
adjusted the remaining bosoms of the dickey to his waistcoat, plunged
into his coat, clapped his hat on his head and rushed from the room.

All that day Dennis continued to receive his instalments of that bitter
instruction in the ways of heedless employers and suspicious
subordinates which, eased by a native good humor, conclude in the
philosopher, or, unrelieved by this genial mollient, develop the cynic.

By evening he was compelled to admit, as he retraced his steps to The
Stag, that he had not advanced in any way.

As he was about to pass under one of the dripping extensions of the
elevated, a great splotch of grease detached itself from the ironwork
and struck, with unerring precision, directly in the center of dickey
No. 2.

"Ah!" exclaimed Dennis as he realized the nature of his mishap, "that
settles it; I'll know what the Sepoy said to-night." A remark which
proved conclusively that the philosophical element was still uppermost
in the mind of this young Irishman.

After a brief exchange of courtesies with his countryman behind the bar,
and a dinner so modest in the rear room as to arouse the suspicion and
encourage the displeasure of the waiter, Dennis hastened up the
stairway, divested himself of his upper garments, ripped off dickey
bosom No. 2, and began.




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 not have 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 architecture of 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 with every 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 was too
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 was stimulated 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, he was
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 of his 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, had been 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 the powers 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 demeanor had 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 of his 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 his most 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 the opportunity 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 into the 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 its servile 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 motion of 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 a pang; 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 the bosom-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
malicious habit, 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 he informed 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 of money 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 impatient resolution, 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 had managed 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 costly collection, 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 touched a 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
demonstration might 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 vehement grasp, 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, from his 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 ignoble assumption 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
duplicated in 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 challenged the 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 succumb to 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 his
treasure 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 the
proprieties 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.




CHAPTER V


When Raikes had parted from the Sepoy, a degree of his customary
hardness and assurance was evident in his manner.

He had been able to comment sagaciously upon the extraordinary
narrative, and had appropriated as much of the sapphire as his greedy
glance and covetous memory could bear away; but now that he pursued his
way along the dimly lighted hallway which led to his apartment, a
singularly thoughtful mood oppressed him.

This phenomenon, due, in part, to the cessation of the drowsy cadences
of the Sepoy and the absence of the fascination and gleam of the
sapphire, was relegated by Raikes to the overtures of approaching
drowsiness.

And yet the startling episode which confronted Prince Otondo in the
evening's instalment of this Oriental complication recurred to his mind
again and again.

Strangely, too, Raikes did not comment upon the singular fact of the
narrative itself.

Why should the Sepoy take the trouble to relate it to him, and why
should he, of all unconcerned and self-centered men, manifest such an
unusual interest in a recital which lacked every practical feature and
had nothing but the weird to commend it?

If he asked himself these questions, it was with the impersonality of
lethargy, for they were dismissed as readily as they presented
themselves.

With such sedative queries, which were gradually diminishing from fabric
to ravel, Raikes finally reached his room and, securely bolting the
door, began to prepare to retire.

This was not an elaborate proceeding.

His outer garments removed, he had only to seek the seclusion of the
bedclothes, clad in the remainder of his attire.

In this manner he economized on the cost of a night-robe and the time it
would consume to don and doff such a superfluity.

At all events, if such was not his sordid reasoning, the promptness with
which he fell asleep indicated that he did not propose to squander
useless time in wakeful speculation upon the intangible nothings to
which his recollection of the narrative began to fade.

However, if Raikes had succeeded in passing the boundaries of slumber,
he had admitted, at the same time, extravagances of which he would never
have been guilty in his wakeful hours, for he found himself so engaged
in all sorts of uneasy shiftlessness and inconsiderate expenditure that
when morning came and he awoke, as usual, with the sunrise, he resumed
his customary identity, peevish and unrefreshed.

For a moment he sat with his knees huddled to his chin, over which his
eyes peered like vermin in the wainscoting, and then, urged by an
impulse whose source he could not determine, he leaped with surprising
agility to the floor and proceeded to the false radiator.

For a short space of inexplicable indecision he stood with his hands
resting upon the button which released the fastenings in the rear, an
uneasy thoughtfulness converging the ugly wrinkles downward to the root
of his nose and contracting his eyebrows with senile apprehension.

Suddenly his wonted decision asserted itself. He pressed the button and
the radiator swung toward him; a few moments later the inner
compartments responded to his manipulation, and the last door opened.

Apparently everything was as he had left it.

To his rapid enumeration the quantity of the small bags, containing his
beloved coin, remained undisturbed. But, upon nearer regard, one of
them--that within easiest reach--seemed to betray, through its canvas
sides, a variety of unusually sharp angles and definite lines.

With a suffocating sensation of impending disaster, Raikes grasped the
bag.

It pended from his tense grip with a frightful lightness. He caught up
its neighbor for further confirmation. It responded with reassuring bulk
and weight. But this one from which all specific gravity seemed to have
departed--what did it contain?

With trembling hands the terrified man unfastened the cord which bound
it and inverted the bag over the table.

Instead of the sharp, musical collision and clink of metal, a sodden
succession of thuds smote his ears.

With a shriek of utter wonderment and alarm, Raikes stood erect and
petrified.

His hands fell, with inert palsies, to his sides. His eyes seemed about
to start from his head, for, looming dully to his aching gaze, in place
of the coin he had so confidently hidden away, was a rayless, squalid
heap of small, black coals.

A moment he stood lean and limp; every particle of the fever which
consumed him concentrated in his starting eyes, which turned, with
savage inquiry, toward the fastenings of the door.

The next instant, with a leap like that of a wild beast, he reached the
threshold, examined the bolt with vivid glance and searching fingers,
then raised his hand to his forehead with a gesture of utter
distraction.

Nothing had been disturbed.

Even the check-pin which he had inserted over the bar for additional
security was in place.

The only other possible means of entrance was by a window at the other
extreme of the room.

But this was not to be considered, for it opened, with sheer
precipitation, upon the unrelieved front of the house.

The windows adjacent were removed at a distance which could afford no
possible basis from which to reach the one from which Raikes glared so
grimly.

Moreover, the shutters had been clasped and the inner sash secured.

The conclusion was inevitable.

No one had entered the room during the night. It was impossible for a
stranger to have access to the apartment during the day unobserved, and
the recess behind the radiator was known to himself alone.

Nevertheless there was the absurd substitution.

It was incredible!

The secret repository was of his own construction.

The room was secure against intrusion.

And opposed to all this the incontrovertible proof of his loss, a
catastrophe all the more agonizing since the logic of the situation
obliged him to eliminate any one from suspicion.

Raikes had always considered a loss of this character the climax of
malignant fate. He had never been able to contemplate it without the
mortal shudder which usually communicates its chill to a loving parent
confronted with the prospect of the departure of a dear one.

The recess in the wall contained all that Raikes held dear in the world;
every spasm of fear, each contraction of the heart, always began and
concluded with the button which moved its protecting bolts.

But now a new element added its ugly emphasis; there was something
supernatural about the episode.

Convinced of the impossibility of thievery in any of its ordinary forms,
he was bewildered as to the inexplicable means of his present
predicament.

His sense of security was shaken.

He promised himself to stand guard over his belongings jealously that
day, and to make assurance doubly sure at night.

In the meantime Raikes decided to confide his misfortune to no one.

There was a meager possibility that the guilty one might be misled by
his silence; he had heard of such cases; he had known of the culprit
offering condolences to the silent victim on the assumption that the
latter had discussed his mishap with others.

He would wait, and with Raikes to determine was to do.

With his obnoxious individuality rendered several degrees more
unendurable by his catastrophe, if that was possible, Raikes, having
assumed that portion of his attire in which he had not slept,
double-locked the door of his room from the outside with a brace of keys
that, in all likelihood, had not their duplicates in existence, and
proceeded to the dining-room, whither he had been preceded by his
parchment of a sister.

At once he began to rustle his exhausted sensibilities with an added
menace, awakened by a manifest desire on the part of the famished woman
to satisfy the cravings of an ungratified hunger with an extra help of
bread and butter.

As he looked upon the attenuated creature, with a morose reflection of
his loss, the latter, with a rebellion which she could not control,
selected with trembling fortitude a thick slice of bread, which she
buttered liberally and began to devour with pathetic haste, despite the
rebuking gleam of the rat eyes opposite, an episode which, added to his
already perturbed mind, exasperated his brutal temper to the point of
snarling remonstrance, which was fortunately denied its utterance by the
opportune arrival of the Sepoy, who smiled blandly upon the chill
acknowledgment of the shriveled Raikes.

The Sepoy, at the conclusion of a hearty repast, which the spinster
witnessed with famished envy and Raikes considered with ascetic
disapproval, looked, with a scarcely concealed disdain, into the
furtive, troubled eyes of the miser and said: "I will see you to-night?"

"Yes," replied Raikes promptly. "I will be there."

"Very well; I will not return until the time appointed," said the Sepoy.
"I expect to show you a rarity."

"Another brilliant aggravation?" asked Raikes.

"Ah!" laughed the Sepoy, "is that your estimation of the sapphire?"

"Yes," returned Raikes with acid frankness. "To be permitted to
appropriate the gleam and the radiance; to comprehend the cunning of the
facets; to appraise its magnificent bulk intelligently, and witness the
careless possession by another of all these beatitudes, I think that
constitutes an aggravation."

"It has been known to degenerate into a temptation," continued the
Sepoy, reflecting the cynical humor of the other.

"Aye!" admitted Raikes, "and has concluded in surrender."

With this the strangely assorted trio left the table directly, the Sepoy
to his problematical business, the spinster to escape the reprimand
foreshadowed in the eyes of her brother, and Raikes to keep his
treasures under malicious surveillance.

All that day his diseased mind tortured itself with impossible theories
and absurd speculations, until his attempts to explain the curious
substitution degenerated into a perfect chaos of despair and
bewilderment.

With an impatience he could not explain, Raikes at last presented
himself at the apartment of the Sepoy as the hour of ten was striking.

He was greeted by the curious individual within with a demeanor which
somehow offended Raikes with the impression that his prompt eagerness
was the subject of amused calculation.

His irritation, however, was not permitted to develop, for no sooner had
he seated himself in the chair indicated by his host than the latter
placed upon the table, within easy reach of his harassed visitor, a
small box of leather and directed him to press the spring.

Anticipating something of the nature of the contents of the case from
the material of which it was made, Raikes, forgetting for the moment the
futility of the day's researches, pressed his bony thumb upon the
spring, and at once the lid flew back like a protest, disclosing the
most superb diamond it had ever been his misfortune to see and not
possess.

"Ah!" he cried in an ecstasy of tantalized contemplation, "the glass,
the glass! Anything so precious must have had commensurate treatment.
What color, what clarity, what bulk!" and as the unhappy creature
yielded to that species of intoxication which even the grace of God
seems unable to ameliorate, the Sepoy, with the easy poise and balance
of intonation and phrase which had served as such facile vehicles for
the previous instalments, began:

"When the bewildered prince realized the meaning of the worthless heap
in the recess, and calculated, with familiar appraisement, the immense
loss represented by the senseless substitution, he stood for a moment
destitute of all dignity and as impotent as the meanest of his
household.

"His thin, fine lips, which usually held such firm partnership and
divided his words with such cynical scission, relaxed separately into
the inane lines of superstitious fear, and the luster of his restless
eyes seemed to have degenerated into that surrounding dullness of sickly
white which would have provided the impressionable Lal Lu with an easy
fortitude to deny the approaches of this semi-potentate.

"The next instant, like the doubled blade of Toledo steel, the prince
recoiled to his lithe stature, and the customary brightness of his eyes
returned shadowed with a degree of crafty reflection.

"One by one, lest a stray gem might be collected with the worthless
debris, like the crew of Ulysses clinging to the sheep of the Cyclops,
Prince Otondo removed the pebbles which intruded their sordid presence
in this scintillant treasure-trove like a motley of base subjects in an
assemblage of the nobility.

"When the last of these worthless objects had been cleared from the
recess, the prince closed the panel, and seating himself before the
rayless heap, surrendered himself to moody reflection, like a disabled
enthusiast confronted by his disillusions.

"How did these pebbles reach this hiding place?

"In asking himself the question, the prince had absolute assurance that
it was impossible for any one to enter his sleeping-apartment without
his knowledge.

"The puzzled man also recollected, with a shudder, which he alone could
explain, that he had taken radical means of making it impossible for the
artisan who had contrived the hidden treasury to reveal its existence.

"He was positive, too, when he had retired the night before, that his
jewels were undisturbed.

"Why just this exchange of a handful?

"For what reason had not double the quantity been removed? Nay, why not
all, since it was possible to abstract a portion?

"At this question the eerie iteration of the merchant returned to his
mind:

"'Pebbles for diamonds!'

"At once the distasteful alternative upon which it was based recurred to
him.

"A quick radiation illumined his mind, and subsided to darkness as
promptly.

"Ram Lal!

"It was he who had indicated the substitution. But the merchant could no
more enter the room in which the prince was seated at this moment than
the most abject menial in the palace.

"Still, the merchant had been able to predict the disaster.

"Some sort of association existed, but what it was, considered with the
impracticability of unobserved entrance and exit, was beyond his
comprehension.

"The incredible condition existed.

"In the light of its outrageous improbability, and the insuperable
obstacles in the way of its accomplishment, the prince found himself
compelled to dismiss every hypothesis.

"Still, he could subject Ram Lal to an investigation that would, at
least, extort a confession as to his ability to allude to the episode in
advance.

"In the meantime, with true Oriental craft, the prince determined to say
nothing of his loss, and present an impassive demeanor to those by whom
he was surrounded.

"With this purpose the prince proceeded to the apartment beyond, and was
about to strike the gong to summon the servant charged with the
preparation of his morning repast, when his attention was attracted to a
slip of folded paper fluttering from the edge of the table-top and held
in place by a diminutive bronze Buddha.

"With the weird certainty that this beckoning paper was another
unaccountable feature of the savage perplexity he was compelled to
endure, the prince, approaching, grasped the folded sheet with eager,
trembling hands and exposed its inner surface to his vivid glance.

"'Ah!' With a burning sensation about his eyes, a fever of harassed
impatience in his brain, and a sense of suffocation and impotent rage,
he read:

                 *       *       *       *       *

"'MOST ILLUSTRIOUS!

"'Unless Lal Lu is returned to her father by nightfall, another handful
of precious stones will be replaced by as many pebbles.

"'And this to warn thee:

"'The native troops at Meerut are in revolt.

"'They have shot the regimental officers, and have put to death every
European they could find.

"'They are now on their way to Delhi to proclaim Dahbur Dhu, thy
grandfather, sovereign of Hindustan.

"'The Moghul is old.

"'Thou art next in succession.'

                 *       *       *       *       *

"There was no signature.

"None was needed; the prince had preserved several specimens of that
chirography at the bottom of various interesting bills of sale.

"As this bizarre scion of an incredibly ancient regime read this
extraordinary missive, with its exasperating reference to the
restitution of Lal Lu, and considered the prompt realization of the
threatened reprisal which had followed his first failure to comply with
the request of Ram Lal, a sense of fear and futility possessed him.

"With curious apathy, an unaccountable suggestion of impersonality,
almost, he did not pause to consider the absence of the intolerant
passion which his loss should have occasioned, or to wonder at his
bewildered reception of this implication of further dispossession.

"The prince appeared to be moving as in a spell; but as he concluded the
remainder of the missive and remembered, at its inspiration, that he
was, indeed, the grandson of the Moghul and the heir-apparent of this
pageant throne of Delhi, a sensible degree of his customary cynical
assurance returned.

"Hastening to the ante-room, the prince, with alert reanimation,
questioned the stalwart official who stood without.

"He indicated to his master that the missive had been left upon the
outer sill of the threshold leading from the ante-room to the corridor
which opened upon the courtyard.

"Beyond this nothing could be learned; but other and more absorbing
information was conveyed to the prince.

"He learned that several bodies of Sepoys had already passed the palace,
on the highway, in the direction of Delhi.

"Startled at this rapid confirmation of the statement conveyed in the
strange communication which he had just read, the prince rapidly
reviewed the singular cause of the mutiny.

"Great Britain had just supplied the native soldiery with the Enfield
rifle.

"This weapon was rendered formidable by a new cartridge, which, in order
that it might not bind in the barrel bore, was greased in England with
the fat of beef or pork.

"With incredible indifference to the prejudices of the Sepoys, the
military authorities at Calcutta ordered the low-caste Lascars to
prepare the cartridges in a similar manner.

"To this direct invitation disaster was not slow to respond.

"The fat of pigs was sufficient to make a degenerate of a Mohammedan;
and to devour the flesh of cows converted a Hindoo into a Mussulman.

"In this manner had Tippu Sultan enforced the faith of Islam on hordes
of Brahmins, and with the abomination of pork had the Afghans prevailed
upon the Hindoo Sepoys, captured in the Kabul war, to become
Mohammedans.

"Exasperated by the unconcealed contempt of the Brahmins, the Lascars,
with an easily understood rancor, managed to convey the startling
information to their detested superiors that the cartridges they bit in
loading the new rifles were greased with the fat of cows, and that they
were, in consequence, defiled, and their boasted caste supremacy was
destroyed.

"This revelation, so momentous to the Hindoo, found its way first to
Barrackpore by reason of its nearness to Calcutta.

"At once an indescribable panic ensued, and in a marvelously short time
every native regiment in Bengal was confronted with the possibility of
lost caste, and terrified at the consequent belief that the British
Government was making an attempt to Anglicize them with beef as they
had already attempted to do with beer.

"The account of the greased cartridges, embellished as it speeded,
traveled, with the rapidity which usually expedites evil rumor, along
the Ganges and Jumna to Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi and Meerut, and
the British authorities were confronted with a revolt which was to cost
thousands of men and countless treasure.

"As the prince reflected upon the fever of events, and calculated their
possible consequence to himself, the ambition--often napping, seldom in
slumber--which he secretly cherished, awoke to disturbing vividness.

"His allowance was ample; his retinue, all things considered,
impressive; and the Kutub, although in a state of disrepair in certain
portions, was still unmistakably a royal residence. But he was
thoroughly weary of the massive pile, and increasingly exasperated at
the interdict of Delhi.

"Certain salacious possibilities within its walls still made their
insidious appeals to him, and he had not forgotten the ceremonious
deference accorded him in the household of the Moghul.

"At the Kutub he had to contrive his own dissipations and excesses.

"There was no need to be clandestine.

"The very frankness of his privileges discouraged his imagination. There
was no spice of jeopardy in them; no preludes of intrigue.

"To relieve this surfeit, which is the worst of monotonies, eagerly
would the prince have joined the revolting troops, detachments of which
he could perceive from the walls of the Kutub hastening along the
sun-scorched highway to Delhi.

"But his semi-majesty was cautious.

"It was characteristic of him that his mature reflections should
frequently place his impulse under obligations; a condition that had
resulted in many a salutary compromise with some proposed moral abandon.

"Should he show the slightest countenance to the native troops in the
present emergency, the record of such an attitude would constitute
anything but a passport to the continued consideration of the British
Government, upon whose sufferance he not only enjoyed his present
magnificent residence, but the acknowledgment of his right of succession
as well.

"The prince was not yet inclined to believe that the Sepoys could make
headway against his detested patrons.

"However, with his mind stimulated by the hazard of the prospect, this
picturesque heir-apparent, who had assured himself, since his perusal of
the unaccountably delivered missive, that Ram Lal had no intention of
making his appearance that day, at least, returned to the apartment
where his morning repast awaited him, which he dispatched with the
preoccupied impersonality of a savant who consults his timepiece in
order to determine the temperature.

"Advised of the fact that he had finished by a disposition to ignore his
remaining privileges, the prince, as if to pursue the direction of the
unseeing gaze which he projected into space, rose slowly, and with that
moody deliberation which is so often the outward manifestation of an
ignoble as well as an elevated determination, proceeded to the silken
arras and disappeared from view between the folds.

"Quickly he traversed the passageway leading to the apartments of Lal
Lu; and in response to a light touch upon the gong the same servile
apparition emerged and vanished, with cringing obedience, down the
passage.

"With a gleam in his eyes, which might have caused a magistrate to
reflect or a moralist to anticipate, that was both sinister and
engaging, eager and speculative, the prince, with a gesture that was not
without its impatient majesty and lithe impressiveness, swept aside the
curtains which guarded the entrance to the small ante-room and stepped
within."

                 *       *       *       *       *

As the Sepoy reached this point of the narrative, arranged, perhaps,
with shrewd malice to tantalize his eager listener, an expression of
libidinous expectation and depraved absorption deepened upon the
countenance of the latter, who, like an animal deprived of its prey,
looked up suddenly as the narrator paused, with an exasperation which he
made little attempt to conceal.

"Hell!" he muttered, "why do you pause? It is not late. This is an
irritating trick of yours to leave off at the crucial juncture."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Sepoy mirthlessly. "You have attended me, then?
Well, I can't admit you with the prince until to-morrow evening. I have
much to do ere I retire."

"This is my dismissal, I presume," responded Raikes sourly as he
replaced the gem, from which he seemed unable to remove his thieving
eyes.

"Here, take this damned thing; it has demoralized me," and placing the
shagreen case, with its priceless contents, in the hands of the
evilly-smiling Sepoy, he disappeared through the doorway.

Arrived at the door which opened upon his room, Raikes was assured, by
the familiar response of the locks to the pressure of his extraordinary
keys, that his precautions of a few hours before had been undisturbed.

Moreover, his sister, seated in her room in a chair so placed as to
command a view of the doorway opposite, and looking more effaced than
ever from the weary vigil which her heartless brother had imposed upon
her during his absence, advised him of the customary isolation and
depression which distinguished this barren household.

Within, Raikes began to make himself secure for the night.

He double-locked the door, placed the heavy bar in the iron shoulders,
over which he inserted a stout iron pin.

A brief investigation convinced him that it was out of the question to
open the shutters from without.

Satisfied upon these points, Raikes proceeded to the radiator, which for
a trembling space of apprehension he forbore to open.

However, since it was certainty he wanted, the valves shortly swung
toward him, the inner door responded to the sesame of his touch, and the
recess containing the tenets of his religion was exposed to view.

With trembling hands, which indicated the latent fear which unnerved
him, and eyes aching with anxiety, the wretched man examined bag after
bag of his precious coin with the solicitude one sees manifested by
parents whose children are rendered doubly dear by the taking away of
one of their number.

"Ah!" With a sigh, the relief of which almost concluded in physical
collapse, Raikes was able to assure himself that his rapid inventory
revealed no further loss.

Replacing his treasure with the indisposition he usually manifested to
leave the vicinity of his hoard, the miser closed the various
compartments with more than his accustomed certitude and began to
prepare to respond to the lassitude of sleep which, for some
unaccountable reason, was unusually insistent.

With the easy partition of attire already noted, Raikes presently found
himself ready to tuck himself away for the night, which he did after
rolling his bedstead directly in front of the false radiator.

This unusual measure of precaution consummated, Raikes, with the first
sense of security he had felt for the last twenty-four hours, presently
succumbed to a sleep remarkable for its quick approach and its
subsequent soundness.

Until early dawn, with the relaxation which is commonly the reward of
innocence, Raikes slept away in unconscious travesty.

And when at last he opened his eyes he was as alertly awake as he had
been profoundly asleep.

With a promptness due to his retiring forebodings, his habitual unrest
and suspicion returned to him.

He was as vitally alive to the disturbing conditions of the day before
as if they had been the subjects of an all-night meditation.

But the confidence of his bolts and bars, the recollection of his
unusual measures of safety, reassured him somewhat.

It was, therefore, with a degree of composure he approached the door and
satisfied himself that the bar and the locks had been undisturbed.

With equal assurance he rolled the bedstead from the radiator and
pressed the button which operated the concealed spring, with a
deliberation in which no suggestion of uneasiness appeared.

A quick revolution or so and the inner recess was revealed.

To his rapid accounting the quantity of bags was the same, and their
relative positions, which he had so carefully arranged the night before,
were undisturbed--but this one, that within easiest reach! What was it
caused those sharp suggestions in its accustomed rotundity--those
angular points?

In a quiver the man was transformed.

With a cry such as must have been forced from the Jew of old, compelled
by the rough levies of his time to part at once with his teeth and his
treasure, Raikes grasped the bag, which came away in his clutch with the
agonizing lightness that had preceded his first loss.

Quickly he unfastened the mouth of the fateful packet and inverted it
over the table.

The next instant there rattled to view a soulless, sodden shower of
lack-luster, heart-breaking coals.

(To be continued on Dickey No. 2, Series B.)

                 *       *       *       *       *

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Dennis, "an' it's there ye are again," as the
familiar phrase at the bottom of bosom No. 1 met his glance.

But it did not exasperate him on this occasion, for the young man, true
to his determination to be liberal with himself, had still bosoms No. 2
and No. 3 at his disposal.

As he was about to separate No. 2 from its duplicate, his eyes, glancing
aimlessly about for the moment, caught sight of a trim female figure
sitting not far away on a bench diagonally opposite.

Hovering near her, a man, of a species Dennis had not seen before on the
street corners of New York, seemed determined to intrude upon her
attention.

Convinced of his purpose, the lady, for such she unmistakably appeared,
rose from the seat as the fellow was about to raise his hat as a
preliminary to further overtures, and sought another bench directly
opposite the one from which Dennis had been a witness to her apparent
persecution.

The intruder, however, refusing evidently to believe that the action of
the lady had a personal application, deliberately walked past this new
resting place and surveyed its occupant with insolent estimation.

A short distance away his pace slackened; he was about to return.

With genuine Irish impulse, Dennis, rising hurriedly, proceeded to the
bench occupied by the disturbed lady, and, with a bow that was not
deficient in grace and evident good intention, said:

"Excuse me, but say the wurrd, madam, and I'll see that you are troubled
no more with that loafer."

For an instant, with an expression of countenance that suggested a fear
that the flight from one intrusion was but the introduction to another,
the lady looked upon Dennis with an astonishment that was partly the
result of his picturesque contrasts of voice and visage.

Then, with fine intuition realizing, in the ingenuous face of the young
Irishman, the unmistakable evidence of kindly impulse, she said, with a
modulation in which Dennis was able to detect the accent of good
breeding:

"I thank you, sir; I am tired; that man annoys me; but I would rather
move on than be the cause of a disturbance."

"If you will permit me," responded Dennis promptly, "I will sit beside
you long enough to indicate that you have met a friend; then I think
that he will move off."

The lady looked at Dennis with an uncertain smile, in which there was
just enough restraint to urge the young man to add hastily: "An' when he
is gone for good, I will go too."

"Oh, I was not thinking of that, I assure you!" the lady hastened to
say. "That would be rather ungrateful on my part. I accept your
suggestion. May I ask you to be seated?" and Dennis promptly complied.

As he had predicted, the fellow, who had witnessed the conversation, was
compelled to accept its ostensible suggestion, and departed finally with
a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders and a Tammany tilt of his hat over
his eyebrows.

In yielding to his gallant impulse, Dennis was unaware of the fact that
he held, with not exactly picturesque abandon, bosom No. 1 in his right
hand and the other two in his left, which gave him the appearance of
having disposed, in some violent way, of the remainder of several
shirts.

Awakened by the puzzled amusement depicted in the curious gaze with
which the lady surveyed the various bosoms which he held, and encouraged
by the impromptu nature of the entire episode, Dennis, as he realized
the spectacle which he presented, indulged himself in a frank laugh, in
which his companion seemed inclined to join.

The next moment he apologized, and, yielding to the obligation enforced
by the situation, explained his possession of the dickey bosoms and the
curious story which had gone before.

As he proceeded with the candor of genuine enthusiasm, and related the
incredible narrative in his rich, Irish brogue, which affected his
hearer, as it did every one else, with such singular sentiments in
contrast with his remarkable countenance, all traces of punctilious
restraint and artificial reticence vanished, and with the mien of one
who proposes to extract all the entertainment possible from an
undreamed-of experience, the lady urged Dennis to continue.

"I can't do that unless I read the balance from the dickey," said
Dennis. "Would you mind?"

"I should like it very much," replied the lady with gratifying
readiness.

"Well, then," said Dennis, "here goes," and with his musical voice,
which was one of his most inviting characteristics, the young man, on
the basis of all that had preceded the bosom from which he was about to
read, and which he had narrated to his auditor with refreshing _verve_
and an ingenuousness whose vitalizing effect upon her sensibilities he
was far from suspecting, began.




CHAPTER VI


Whoever has witnessed Kean's superb delineation of the ruthless Richard
in the scene where, in the illusion of his dying agony, swordless, he
continues to lunge and feint, may comprehend the frightful mental
overturn which prompted Raikes to sink inertly into a chair near the
table, and with foam-flecked lips fall to counting, one by one, the
miserable coals in the dull heap before him.

A silly smile overspread his sharp features like an apologetic sunbeam
intruding upon a bleak landscape.

A gleam of shrewd transaction shone in his eyes.

The clutch of unwonted acquisition contracted his hands.

Slowly he made partition of the large from the small coals; regretfully
he acknowledged the presence of the lesser bits as, with a chuckle of
greedy appreciation, he grouped the relative piles.

"Ha, ha! ha, ha! ha, ha!" What a laugh! What a frightful mockery of
mirth! "Ha, ha! ha, ha!" and raising both hands above his head he
brought them down upon the table with the lax inertia of utter collapse,
and fell forward upon his extended arms, his face buried in the squalid
heap beneath.

For a dreary hour he lay there without the twitch of a muscle, the well
of a sigh.

Like a Cyclop's eye the button at the bottom of the concave in the wall
seemed to stare with wonder upon this unfamiliar Raikes, who could thus
permit the radiator to swing open so heedlessly, and the inner recess to
expose its golden glut.

Suddenly there came a sharp rap upon the door, then a pause; but its
quick reverberations were unheeded by the prostrate man.

Again the thuds were administered to the echoing panels, and still no
response.

"Uncle, I say, uncle!" cried a man's voice. "Uncle!" and the shout was
followed by a vigorous kick upon the woodwork; "Uncle! Uncle!"

At this last appeal Raikes stirred uneasily, and as the assault was
continued with still greater stress, he managed finally to stagger
uncertainly to his feet.

As he raised his head to listen to the clamor without, the meanness of
his face, emphasized by the smudges of the coal in which it had so
recently reposed, presented itself to the scandalized eye in the wall.

The miserable creature depicted the last degree of absurdity, and yet
the ugly pathos of it all would have moved to pity.

"Uncle, I say!" and at the sound of the voice, which he recognized as
that of his lusty nephew, Raikes, with a return of his accustomed
intelligence, which had received its kindly repairs at the hands of
nature during his brief coma, cried sharply: "Well, well!"

"Ah!" exclaimed the voice outside with an unmistakable accent of relief
in its tone as it added, with unlettered eagerness: "It's me--Bob!"

However, if his reawakened animation had revived his deadened spirit,
it also restored the appreciation of his disaster, as, with a glance of
vivid comprehension, he looked from the coal heap to the register,
toward which he leaped with astonishing agility.

In an instant the inner recess was secure; in another the radiator was
replaced, and Raikes, proceeding to the door, raised the bar, unlocked
the catches and exclaimed, "Enter!"

As the breezy Bob crossed the threshold, the question of his eyes was
instantly transformed to an expression of utter astonishment as he
beheld the extraordinary blend of soil and pallor upon the countenance
of his uncle.

"For the Lord's sake!" he cried, "what ails your face?" and strongly
tempted to laugh at the absurd spectacle, and as urgently impelled to
restrain himself by the glittering eyes of the raging Raikes, he added,
by way of apology for his noisy intrusion:

"We knew that you were in here, but could not make you hear us. You are
almost two hours beyond your usual time."

Directly in the rear of the young man stood the spinster, who gazed
with widened eyes and parted lips upon her brother's soiled visage.

"Well," snarled Raikes, "I am all right, you see; now leave me until I
get myself in shape to make an appearance."

As the door closed behind the pair, Raikes hurried to the mirror, and
above the crack which extended, like a spasm, diagonally across its
surface he beheld his bloodless cheeks and forehead, and below, the dry
slit of his mouth and his chin spattered with black and white.

As he witnessed the sorry sight, the unhappy man, unable for the moment
to account for his plight, stood aghast, until his gaze, penetrating to
the rear of his smudged physiognomy, beheld the reflection of the coal
heaps upon the table.

At once a savage grin distorted his features into the degree of ugliness
not already accomplished by its dusky resting place of the hour
previous. A grin that was scarcely human and almost diabolical, as if
the miserable creature had caught sight of the shriveled soul peering
through the chinks which imprisoned his rat eyes and found a malignant
enjoyment in the contemplation of its contemptible littleness.

From this debasing inspection Raikes turned slowly to the washstand to
remove the grime from his face, with an impersonal deliberation that was
not only unnatural under the circumstances, but which awakened the eerie
suggestion that he was expending his effort upon another than himself.

From this moment he became strangely calm; the sharp decision of his
lips was never so pronounced.

A baleful, unwavering gleam distinguished his glance. He had evidently
arrived at some determination, one that levied upon the last limit of
his endurance.

All that day the unhappy man sat in his room, sullen and pondering.

The timid offers of nourishment made by his sister were either ignored
or refused with such an ill grace that she finally forbore further
overtures and left him to his morose reflections, to improve her
opportunities of enjoying, unrebuked, the privileges of the table,
until, by nightfall, an indigestion, which she welcomed on account of
its occasion, disturbed her with its unfamiliar pangs.

In response to his nephew's concern as to his condition Raikes replied
by saying: "I may have something to tell you by eleven o'clock to-night;
will you be on hand?"

"Sure!" answered Bob with breezy goodwill.

From time to time Raikes glanced at the clock.

His last scrutiny had revealed the hour of nine. Sixty interminable
minutes more remained ere he could see the Sepoy.

Slowly the leaden hands crawled over the indifferent face.

At last the half hour struck.

A strange impatience possessed him.

Perhaps the Sepoy might begin a little earlier than usual. He could, at
least, suggest such a courtesy by his precipitation; it was far better
than this unendurable wait.

With this anticipation he decided to proceed to the apartment of this
singular narrator.

After taking his usual precautions, which seemed more or less of a
mockery in view of the succession of disasters which had overtaken him,
and again establishing the spinster in a position where she could
maintain an unobstructed view of the entrance to his room, Raikes
proceeded hurriedly along the various passageways, which finally
concluded in his point of destination.

He rapped gently upon the door, which he discovered to be slightly ajar.

There was no response.

His second attempt to attract attention was pronounced enough to urge
the door aside and enable him to make a comprehensive survey of the
interior.

It was unoccupied; and of his last assault upon the panel the only
recognition was a sullen echo in the hallway.

About to retire, his glance fell upon the table in the center of the
room.

At once a sudden trembling seized him.

A burning fever surged through his veins; an irresistible impulse
overwhelmed; for there, in inconceivable negligence, lay the shagreen
case which he had so reluctantly returned to its owner only the night
before.

And then--the malign agreement of his outward husk with his inner
degradation was revealed.

His eyes, already criminal, reflected the kaleidoscopic succession of
temptation and surrender; desire and thievery.

He scanned the passageway without in either direction.

No one was in sight.

A silence of respectable retirement prevailed that enabled him to hear
his heartbeats almost, which surged along his veins to his ears and
stifled the final gasp of the still, small voice within.

The next instant, with a lithe animal leap of astonishing quickness,
Raikes, darting into the apartment, grasped the precious case and
retreated as rapidly over the threshold.

Scarcely had the stealthy rogue vanished from the room when the door of
a closet in the rear opened softly and revealed the Sepoy.

Upon his face a smile, surely evil, otherwise inscrutable, appeared, as
he proceeded to the chair by the table, turned down the light in the
lamp a trifle, and abstracted from his waistcoat pocket a small red
case, the contents of which he examined with absorbed attention.

Arrived at his room, Raikes was elated to discover that he was not due
at the Sepoy's apartment until twenty minutes later.

"What a providence!" he murmured.

He would arrive late; he would make his approach as ostensible as
possible; he would apologize for his tardiness.

His alibi would be perfect.

During these proposed depravities Raikes had closed and fastened the
door, seated himself at the table, and pressed the spring which detained
the lid of the shagreen case.

In a dazzling instant it flew open.

"Ah!" A very riot of irradiation and gleam met his eyes.

Here was rehabilitation! Here was amendment!

The diamond was a liberal equivalent for his losses.

Another glance at the clock revealed to him that he had exhausted ten
minutes in his exultation.

This left a balance of ten minutes for a compunction or two.

Apparently he did not realize his opportunity, for half of the remaining
time was consumed in the intoxication of the facets and the glamor, the
thrill of intelligent valuation; and the other half to a grim
calculation as to the usury that might accrue after the account with his
losses was balanced.

These perjured figures were scarcely arranged to his satisfaction when
the clock struck ten.

The strokes seemed like as many separate accusations.

"Bah! what are they to me?" he asked himself. He had been robbed; he had
found a way to restitution; a man's providence must measure to his
necessities.

To arrive at these conclusions put him five minutes in arrears. Five
more for a leisurely arrival would be ten; enough to apologize for;
sufficient for his purposes.

He consumed as much time as possible secreting the stone in the recess.
That accomplished, Raikes emerged from his room and proceeded down the
hallway.

When he reached the apartment occupied by the Sepoy he breathed a sigh
of relief.

The door was closed.

In response to his rap upon the panel, a voice which he recognized as
that of the Sepoy cried: "Come in!"

With a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, where, with him, the
only conscience he had was located, Raikes complied with these
instructions, and, closing the door softly, established himself, in his
customary expectant attitude, in the chair indicated by his host.

"I have been told," began the latter abruptly, "that there is a flaw in
the sapphire."

"What!" exclaimed Raikes with genuine concern. Two things he could
comprehend: a loss and the abuse of property. The announcement of the
Sepoy awakened the same misgiving which commonly affected his mind at a
suggestion of defective title.

"Yes," continued the Sepoy; "it was pointed out to me. But I am not
convinced, or it may be that I refuse to be. A man often elects to be
blind when confronted with a suggestion of disaster. I want to be candid
with myself. I require your assistance. While I continue the narrative,
kindly see if you can discover any sign of blemish."

Raikes, only too willing to engage himself upon anything which would
assist his attempt at outward poise, seized the glass offered him and
began a close inspection of the gem, as the Sepoy, with an indescribably
insinuating modulation, resumed:

                 *       *       *       *       *

"As the prince advanced, Lal Lu, advised of his approach by the hasty
exit of the waiting-woman and the soft alarm of the gong in the
passageway, stood ready to receive him.

"A slight flush suffused her cheeks, a brighter luster beamed from her
eyes.

"With a fervor which was evidently unembarrassed by any anticipation of
denial, the prince approached the trembling Lal Lu, who seemed to his
enamored glance unspeakably bewitching in the graceful attitude, of
which she was thoroughly unconscious, which she had naturally assumed,
and which gave unmistakable expression to the hope, trepidation and
regard awakened by his presence.

"And yet his eagerness was not reflected.

"There was little in the demeanor of the beautiful girl that was
responsive; no indication of the sweet surrender that doubly endears,
and which makes such irresistible appeals for protection and sensitive
understanding to a man worthy of the name; and what evidences of
confusion she betrayed were rather those which commonly prelude the
execution of unwelcome resolution; a suggestion of a lurking disposition
to readmit the Peri into Paradise, restrained by a knowledge of
conditions unfulfilled.

"With the rapid interchange and subtle apprehension characteristic of a
passion which has no definite assurances as to its right to monopolize
the regard of the object of jealous consideration, the prince was
compelled to acknowledge, in these vague suggestions, an intangible but
no less real succession of barriers opposed to his ardent advances, and
with a scarcely concealed and certainly undiplomatic irritation he
paused before Lal Lu and demanded:

"'What is it, Lal Lu? Thou art not glad to see me. I expected a
reception other than this.'

"'My father?' demanded Lal Lu, ignoring the question and the yearning
intonation of his address, each word of which was like a caress; 'my
father, what of him?'

"'Ah!' muttered the prince with deepening choler at the disturbing
conditions introduced by the name, and a gleam strangely suggestive of
menace. 'Why speak of him now? Is not the present enough?'

"Lal Lu gazed upon the speaker with astonishment. How could he so easily
forget what he had said the day before? And with a scarcely perceptible
tightening of her beautiful lips, she said:

"'Dost remember thy promise to give me news of him to-day?'

"'I do,' replied the prince. 'I received word that he will not be here
to-day.'

"'Who told thee so?' demanded Lal Lu.

"'A writing so informed me.'

"'Is it with thee?'

"'No,' replied the prince. 'It is in my cabinet. Is not my word
sufficient?'

"To this Lal Lu did not reply, but searched his countenance with a
scrutiny which he found it difficult to endure, as he cried with renewed
animation:

"'Oh, Lal Lu, be not so cold! Hearken! The native regiments of Meerut
are in revolt and on their way to Delhi.

"'It is their purpose to re-establish Dahbur Dhu, my grandfather, upon
the throne of the moghuls.

"'As thou knowest, I am next in succession, and Dahbur Dhu is feeble and
decrepit.

"'The British are not in sufficient force to withstand a combined
attack.

"'See, then, Lal Lu, what this means for me; what it means for thee.'

"'Oh!' repeated the girl with curious emphasis, 'what it means for thee,
I know; but what it means for me'--and she paused with disconcerting
deliberation as she added--'thou hast not said.'

"'Everything, my own!' exclaimed the prince with generous
ardor--'everything! Thou hast but to command and thy will is done.'

"'Everything?' re-echoed Lal Lu with a questioning stress which the
prince could not ignore--'everything?'

"'I have said,' replied the prince.

"'Am I then to be thy queen?'

"For a moment, a vital moment, the prince hesitated, but brief as the
pause, scarcely the durance of an eye-flash, Lal Lu saw it, and gazed
upon the prince with a disconcerting directness as he added, with the
haste we note in the accused who attempt to distract suspicion by the
utterance of glib generalities:

"'My queen! Thou art always that!'

"'Hold, Prince Otondo!' exclaimed Lal Lu as the prince seemed about to
surrender to an impulse to clasp her in his arms--'hold! Thy answers
suit me not. Reply, then, to this: Thy wife--am I to be thy wedded
wife?'

"An expression like that of a peevish child tantalized by obstacles
intruded to enhance its appreciation of favor withheld brightened his
eyes and sent sullen lines converging in his forehead.

"His hands clenched and opened; a faint suggestion of disdain curled his
thin lips; the amiable inclination of his figure was transformed to an
erect intolerance--and Lal Lu was answered.

"When the unfortunate girl could no longer doubt the unlovely evidence
provided by the prince, and apprehended the humiliating significance of
his hesitation, a majesty surer than his own, a presence superb in its
elevation, encompassed her, and she gazed upon the perturbed man with an
expression from which every trace of tenderness appeared to have
vanished.

"With an angry sweep of his arm, as if to banish with a peremptory
gesture the kneeling envoys of compunction, manliness and nobility, the
prince stepped forward.

"'What is that?' At this moment the gong in the passageway responded to
three measured strokes.

"'Confusion!' muttered the prince. 'What does this mean?' and turning
abruptly, he hastened to the doorway, swept aside the curtains, and
revealed the trembling figure of the wrinkled crone who had quitted the
apartment at his entrance.

"'What now?' cried the exasperated prince as he fixed his eyes, vivid
with rage at the unwelcome interruption, upon the miserable creature.

"In reply the woman raised her shriveled hand, with a gesture that was
not without its weird impressiveness, and pointed to his apartments.

"'Speak!' he demanded with a modification of his intensity, which he
perceived deprived the waiting-woman of the power of speech.

"'A messenger,' she croaked, 'from the palace of the moghul; he must
speak with thee at once.'

"With one long glance of such concentrated determination that it caused
the beautiful girl to tremble anew, the prince vanished through the
portal and hastened along the passageway.

"Scarcely had he departed when the demeanor of the waiting-woman
underwent a startling transformation.

"An incredible degree of energy quickened in the recoil of her bent form
to a disproportionate erectness of stature.

"Beneath level, unwavering lids, her eyes emitted gleams which had
pierced the retreating figure with deadly viciousness had they been
poniards.

"The servile vanished, the abject; and she stood, the silent embodiment
of evil, restrained purpose.

"The next instant, with an angry gesture that was vaguely significant of
future requital and present impotence, the vindictive creature swept
aside the curtains and re-entered the room leading to the apartment
occupied by Lal Lu.

"As she approached the disturbed beauty, the tension in her mien
relaxed, and she regarded the _distrait_ countenance before her with a
glance that was anything but unfriendly, in so far as it was possible to
determine the nature of the sentiment in hiding behind that austere
visage.

"Directly she stood by the table which Lal Lu had interposed as a sort
of barricade against advances of her impetuous lover, and with an
attempt at a smile, which could as readily find acceptance as a
repentant scowl, this singular being inserted her hand in the folds of
the tunic which defended her parchment bosom, and produced from that
barren demesne a folded missive, which she placed in the hands of the
astonished Lal Lu.

"With trembling haste she exposed the inner surface of the paper, and
with a glad heart and filial trust read:

"'Be not afraid; relief is at hand.'

"There was no signature; none was needed.

"In a moment Lal Lu recognized her father's familiar chirography, and as
she reflected upon his well-known sagacity and resourceful boldness, her
hope and courage renewed their belated assurances.

"'Who gave you this?' she asked.

"The waiting-woman, after a brief hesitation, in which inclination and
restraint left their disturbing traces, replied:

"'That I must not reveal.'

"'At least,' insisted Lal Lu, whose quick glance had detected the
irresolution of the instant preceding, 'at least, tell me this: Was it
my father?'

"'No,' replied the other promptly. With a barely perceptible grin of
amusement at this ingenuous betrayal of the author of the few words
which had awakened such animation, she added:

"'One sent by him, it may be.'

"'True,' assented the girl.

"'And now,' exclaimed the woman with a return of her vindictive aspect,
which the harassed beauty, unaware of its inspiration, witnessed with
vague misgiving and a futile attempt to associate herself with its ugly
manifestation; 'and now, I would ask a question of you.'

"'Yes?' responded Lal Lu, perplexed at the baleful emphasis which
preceded this announcement.

"'Well, then,' continued the woman with startling and uncompromising
abruptness, 'am I wrong in thinking that you would defend your honor
with your life?'

"Before the astonished Lal Lu could reply, or encouraged, it may be, by
some subtle confirmation in the look which shot from the distended eyes
of the young girl, the eccentric speaker, again inserting her hands in
the folds of her tunic, withdrew a short, slender poniard, at sight of
which Lal Lu recoiled.

"'Ha, ha!' laughed the withered creature mirthlessly as she gazed with
unsmiling eyes upon the shrinking beauty. 'Be not afraid; this weapon is
intended for you, but not to your hurt.'

"'What, then?' asked Lal Lu breathlessly, unable to adjust the peaceful
assurance of the grim-visaged woman with the menace of the glittering
blade.

"'Listen!' exclaimed the woman impressively: 'I know Prince Otondo of
old; he meditates no good for you. Were I in your place, I would receive
his detested advances upon the point of this blade. Your protestations
he will not heed, but this'--and the speaker advanced the dagger with a
savage gesture which caused a shudder to pervade the trembling frame of
Lal Lu--'this is an argument he can understand.'

"'Oh,' cried the terrified girl, 'I could not!'

"'You could not?' repeated the other with chilling emphasis. 'Ha, ha!
you could not! But you will submit to the advances of this monster!

"'Believe me, you are not the sole object of his regard.

"'There have been others caged within these walls who have been less
obdurate than you, or whose resistance has availed them nothing.'

"'Alas!' exclaimed Lal Lu with an inexpressibly melancholy accent, as she
considered the empty pedestal from which her ideal had fallen, and
recalled with a shudder the caress which she had permitted and bestowed
in that fervid interview with the prince. 'Can this be true?'

"'Aye!' exclaimed the woman with savage affirmation. 'Do not doubt it.
Sooner than submit to the embraces of that wretch I would turn that
weapon against myself.'

"'Oh!' exclaimed Lal Lu with a superb gesture and the light of
unmistakable resolution in her eyes, 'that I can do; but the other----'
And the poor girl trembled at the spectacle pictured in her mind.

"'Well,' exclaimed the woman, 'I will leave this dagger here; do as you
will; I have done for you what I could,' and she turned to depart,
unmindful, apparently, of Lal Lu's tremulous 'And I am grateful to you.'

                 *       *       *       *       *

"When the prince arrived at the apartment in which he accorded his
audiences, if the attention he bestowed upon the meager assemblages
which presented themselves occasionally can be dignified by that
description, he found awaiting him a Hindoo, whom he recognized at once,
and whose presence invariably preceded the recital of important
information.

"To the degree that Prince Otondo had reason to suspect that his
grandfather had certain of his servants subsidized at the Kutub, he
measured secretly by similar secret embassies at the Delhi palace.

"The egotistical old moghul, with a vanity which even his anomalous
situation with the British had not impaired, wished to assure himself
that he would be worthily succeeded, and the prince was equally
solicitous concerning the advancing senility of the moghul.

"In such bloodless intrigues this picturesque pair kept their servants
engaged, until this germ of mutual distrust infected every dependent in
the two households with that singular propensity to conspire which the
studious historian of this mysterious country cannot have failed to
record.

"On this basis certain shrewd spirits among the British intruders at
this period were able to discover more of the character of the people
under their unwelcome rule, in a single establishment of native
servants, than in the general observations of a hundred English
households.

"Awaiting, therefore, the conclusion of the ceremonies of approach, upon
which he always insisted and which were shortly to be rendered so
absurd, the prince at last, calling the Hindoo by name, demanded the
occasion of his presence.

"'It is an ill service, O prince,' replied the Hindoo, 'which I am about
to render you.'

"'What, then?' exclaimed the prince. 'To the point, to the point!'

"'Your grandfather----'

"'Is dead?' inquired the prince with badly disguised eagerness.

"'Nay; worse.'

"'Proceed!' demanded the prince. 'What can be worse?'

"'Your grandfather,' replied the messenger, in evident haste to conclude
a disagreeable task, 'has taken to himself a young wife.'

"'Ah!' cried the prince, startled into a degrading abandonment of his
customary elevation of demeanor. 'The dotard, the imbecile! Married? To
whom?'

"'A daughter of the house of Nadis Shah, Rani Rue.'

"'I know her!' cried the prince savagely. 'Implacable, ambitious,
unscrupulous. What will she not attempt with that old driveller?' Then,
evidently impressed by something shadowed in the expression of his
ill-omened Mercury, he exclaimed: 'You have more to tell me?'

"The Hindoo bowed his head in perturbed affirmation.

"'Quickly, then!' demanded his august listener.

"'The British forces have concentrated at the cantonment without the
walls of Delhi; a detachment is even now on the way to your palace,
which they propose to seize and garrison.'

"'Ah!' murmured the prince, 'the freshet is turning to a deluge. Is
there more?'

"'Yes, O prince,' returned the Hindoo; 'the British intend to hold you as
a hostage for the safety of the English resident, who is a prisoner at
the palace in Delhi.'

"'So!' exclaimed this royal reprobate as he reflected upon the
picturesque possibilities to himself, in view of the sanguinary
temptation which the helpless resident would present to the ambitious
Queen Rani Rue. 'How far in advance of the detachment are you?'

"'About one hour's march.'

"'This is short reckoning. You have hastened with leaden feet.'

"'Nay, your highness,' cried the Hindoo, 'I came the instant I heard.
There is still time to escape, and the way is known to you alone.'

"'So be it,' returned the prince as an expression of savage
determination compressed his thin lips and ignited baleful fires in his
restless eyes. 'Await me without; I will join you presently.'

"As the Hindoo turned to obey, the prince darted, with lithe haste, into
the inner room and pressed the spring in the wall.

"Slowly the panel rolled aside and revealed the glittering pyramid of
gems within.

"From the depths, just in the rear of the priceless heap, he withdrew a
sort of jacket, separated upon its upper edge into a series of openings
similar to the partitions of a cartridge-belt.

"Into these, with a sort of clumsy trepidation, he began to pack the
almost elusive portions of the gleaming mass of brilliants from the
recess.

"At the conclusion of fifteen vital minutes the prince had deposited the
last of the gems in the receptacles of this curious jacket, and, if the
reports of the Hindoo were to be credited, the advancing British were
that much nearer the Kutub.

"With desperate rapidity he disengaged the folds of the delicate cambric
which covered the upper portion of his body, inserting the precious
jacket beneath, and after adjusting it to his figure, strapped it
securely in place and rearranged his attire into non-committal contours.

"'And now,' he cried with an expression of savage determination, 'and
now for the rarest gem of all!' and darting through the silken hangings
which concealed his extreme of the passageway leading to the apartments
of Lal Lu, he hastened along that dingy bypath and presently reached the
threshold from which he had issued but a short time before with such
little credit to himself.

"Without pausing to announce himself or consider the impropriety of his
abrupt intrusion and its possible influence upon Lal Lu, the impetuous
heir-apparent swept aside the curtains and rushed into the room.

"Startled at the rattling rings which held the hangings in place, and
the impetuous swish of its folds, Lal Lu sprang to her feet and gazed
with indignant rebuke upon the inconsiderate prince.

"Heedless of the unconcealed disdain of her glance and ignoring the
presence of the furtive-eyed waiting-woman, he cried:

"'Lal Lu, the time for further parley is past. The Kutub is shortly to
be attacked by the British. We must fly--come!' and the speaker advanced
with unreflective haste to the side of the palpitating girl.

"In an instant, however, his headlong progress was checked as Lal Lu,
with a superb gesture, raised the gleaming dagger above her head and
cried, encouraged by the lowering eyes of the evilly-expectant
waiting-woman: 'With thee--never! I will die first!'

"As the prince recoiled a step at sight of the flashing blade, Lal Lu,
with contemptuous emphasis, exclaimed: 'Be not afraid, Prince Otondo,
this is not for thee. Advance but a step and it will be but an empty
casket that awaits thee!'

"Never had Lal Lu appeared so desirable in the eyes of this royal rogue,
and never had he been more resolute to possess her.

"With misleading quiet, therefore, he gazed upon the upraised hand which
menaced the one unattained object of his desire. Quickly he measured
the distance between them. Slowly he removed one foot behind the other.
Lightly he pressed the slipper's point upon the tessellated floor, and
then with a leap of incredible quickness, he darted forward, caught the
descending arm of Lal Lu in his grasp, and, with his disengaged hand,
wrenched the dagger from her and threw it away from him into the center
of the apartment.

"But as rapidly as he had moved, the prince had not been able to prevent
the incision which the dagger's point made in his wrist and from which a
thin stream of blood issued.

"'Ah, ha, my beauty!' he cried as he released the struggling girl and
retreated a step, the better to enjoy her discomfiture; 'ah, ha! I like
thy spirit. I would not have thee mar the lovely casket which contains
it. Here!' he called to the waiting-woman, who had witnessed the episode
and into whose quick eyes, which had detected the slight wound upon the
wrist of the prince, there crept a strange, inexplicable expression of
leering triumph, 'here, guard this maiden for a space. Your life shall
pay the penalty if aught befalls her in my absence.

"'I shall return presently with the help I need to overcome such
elevated objection'; and turning abruptly, the prince hastened toward
the doorway, pausing a second to regain possession of the dagger which
he had cast from him during the brief struggle.

"'Alas!' cried the unhappy girl, 'what shall I do? He has gone to get
some of his creatures to help him in his evil purposes.'

"For a moment a tense silence prevailed.

"The next instant, with eerie, jubilant interruption, the waiting-woman
made the very air shudder with a laugh of such shrill exultation and
riotous abandon that Lal Lu, for a moment forgetful of her own
extremity, gazed with unconcealed amazement and alarm upon the almost
hysterical creature.

"'Ha, ha!' she raved; 'be not afraid, Lal Lu. This royal pest, this
insolent prince, will trouble you no more; you will never see him
again.'

"'Ha!' exclaimed Lal Lu. 'You seem strangely positive. What do you
mean?'

"'Did you see that scratch which the point of your dagger made upon the
wrist of the prince?'

"'No,' replied Lal Lu, shrinking from the picture presented to her mind.

"'Well,' returned the grim-visaged woman with a return to her customary
austerity, 'I did. The wound was slight; only a few easily subdued drops
of blood followed; but, believe me, maiden, it will be sufficient.'

"'What do you mean?' demanded Lal Lu.

"'This,' returned the weird creature with repulsive, evil joy, which she
made no attempt to disguise: 'The point of that dagger was steeped in
the most deadly poison known in India. In twenty minutes, ha, ha! it is
the prince who will be the empty casket.'"

                 *       *       *       *       *

As the Sepoy reached this point in his narrative he paused with
startling abruptness.

Raikes, no longer under the influence of the seductive cadences, looked
up sharply.

"Well?" inquired the Sepoy as he met the inquiring glance of his furtive
auditor, "what of the flaw in the sapphire? Can you trace the blemish?"

"Devil seize me!" exclaimed Raikes, as he offered, by this apostrophe,
an invitation which was certain, at no distant date, to be accepted.

"Devil seize me if I have thought of the sapphire!" and he began at once
an apologetic inspection of the brilliant with the magnifying glass.

"Ha, ha!" laughed the Sepoy. "I must congratulate myself upon my powers
of narration."

"Aye!" replied Raikes, as he continued his examination of the flaming
bauble, "and also upon your irritating habit of concluding at the
anxious moment. But see here," and he held the sapphire up to view; "I
can see nothing wrong; possibly the light is bad. The searching glare of
day is required to discover a blemish such as you speak of."

"Suppose you return to-morrow, then, directly after breakfast?"
suggested the Sepoy.

"I want your judgment. I dare not trust my own; my blindness may be
voluntary."

"Very well, then," assented Raikes, who, now that he had nothing upon
which to fasten his eyes, felt an easily comprehended uneasiness to
leave the Sepoy. "I will be here at that time"; and with his customary
emotionless adieux the guilty creature slipped through the doorway and
speeded like a shriveled shadow along the various passages.

As he was about to enter his room he was hailed by his nephew.

"Uncle, you wanted to see me."

"True," replied Raikes, with a start of recollection, "I do; but suppose
we postpone the interview until to-morrow."

"Very well," replied the young man easily, and Raikes, entering his
room, fastened the door with his usual elaborate precaution.

His first movement was to disclose the interior of the recess containing
his coin and his conscience.

A rapid examination convinced him that no further depredations had been
committed upon the former, and the latter he secreted in the pocket of
his waistcoat along with the diamond, which flashed its unregarded
rebuke into his eager eyes.

At this juncture the singular drowsiness which had overtaken him so
persistently in the past few days began to steep his dulling senses.

Warned by its approach, Raikes began to put into execution a newly
conceived plan of retiring for the night and effective vigil over his
treasure-trove.

Hastily drawing a chair before the radiator, and placing directly in
front of that the table, from which with a savage sweep of the arm he
swept the dull heap of coals rattling to the floor, Raikes established
himself in the seat so provided and, leaning forward, awaited the final
blandishments of the drowsiness which was not long in lulling him into
that profound degree of slumber which is commonly supposed to be the
reward of sound morals and Christian resignation.

(To be continued on Dickey No. 3, Series B.)

                 *       *       *       *       *

During the reading of this impossible helter-skelter of unrestrained
imagination and composite style, the expression in the countenance of
the listening woman had developed from its original sadness to an
unmistakable geniality.

The pensive droop of her lips, little by little, nestled away into a
smiling seriousness, and when Dennis, confronted with the habitual
conclusion in italics, looked up with a grimace of recognition, his
glance was met by a pair of kindly blue eyes, in which he believed he
traced a charming suggestion of unaffected good fellowship.

Altogether unsuspected by himself, Dennis, with his intent, intelligent
countenance, and the contrasting vivacity of his rich, Irish accent, had
awakened an interest in the mind of his companion which months of adroit
approach could not have achieved.

His genuineness was unquestionable.

His entire absorption in the story, his delightful and unconscious
elimination of self, supplied this tired woman with elements of mental
refreshment and genuine enjoyment which circumstances had compelled her
to decide no longer existed.

Encouraged, therefore, by this unmistakable interest and the amiable
attitude of attention which Dennis, with characteristic ingenuousness,
accepted as a tribute to the narrative, he exclaimed:

"An' isn't it great, now? Did you ever hear such a tale as that?"

"I never did," was the smiling reply.

"An' wasn't that Raikes a div--a tight one, I mean?"

"He was, indeed," assented the lady, as she reviewed this sordid
character and the incidents surrounding him, and contrasted the tumult
of phrase and situation with her genial Addison and her placid Irving.

"An' would you like to hear the rest?" asked Dennis, as he produced the
remaining bosom of Series B.

"Yes," replied the lady, "I believe I would. But just a moment before
you begin," and regarding this oblivious young man with an expression in
which a degree of speculation still lingered to tantalize its suggestion
of frank indorsement, she hazarded:

"You have not lived in New York long?"

Wondering at the acuteness of this observation, Dennis responded by
according to her the exact time of his brief residence.

"Ah!" exclaimed the lady, "I thought so."

"May I ask," inquired Dennis, wondering if, like the visitor from the
bucolic district, he supplied unconscious data in his appearance for
classification, "may I ask how you are able to tell that I'm here for a
short time only?"

"Well," returned his companion with a degree of hesitation exquisitely
refined as it shadowed through her fine countenance, and which she
presently conquered as she replied to his question with that shade of
frankness which, in the well-bred, can never be mistaken for anything
else: "It requires about a year's residence in this bedlam to replace
the genuine with the artificial; I see no evidence of such an unhappy
transformation in you."

"Oh, I see," responded Dennis. "An' you never will, either."

"I am almost prepared to believe that," answered the lady with a
reassuring cordiality which somehow indicated to this young man that she
had already become convinced of more than she was willing to
acknowledge.

"You may do so entirely," said Dennis simply.

"Now, one question more," continued his companion, "and do not consider
me inquisitive, since I may have something to suggest to your advantage
if your reply is satisfactory. What is your business?"

Dennis blushed.

"My business?" he repeated with a droll accent and an amusing grimace;
and then, encouraged by the friendly invitation and subtle encouragement
in the manner of his sweet-faced listener, with a straightforward
recital which the lady had expected from him, and which advanced him
several leagues in her estimation, Dennis recounted his experiences from
the time of his arrival up to the present moment.

"It isn't much," he concluded apologetically, "not anywhere as
interesting as the dickey back; but it's all there is, an' it's true,
every word."

"It is more than you suspect," dissented his hearer. "You have enabled
me to come to a decision, at least, and may help me to solve a vexed
problem. In the meantime, let us finish the story. While you are reading
my mind will clear; I will make my suggestion when you conclude."

Wondering, and yet with a prompt confidence which conveyed an agreeable
flattery which the cleverest diplomacy could not have achieved, Dennis,
holding his absurd medium at a level which permitted him to receive the
stimulation of a sympathetic glance now and then, began.




CHAPTER VII


Considering the unaccustomed position in which Raikes had placed himself
in arranging to retire the night before, he awoke with considerable
astonishment to the realization that he had passed a night of
undisturbed slumber.

Aside from a slight disposition to stretch his lean limbs unduly, and a
feeling of insecurity attending his first efforts to stand, he was not
aware of any inconvenience from his singular siesta.

At last, after having re-established his creaking equilibrium and
resumed his accustomed furtive regard of things, he was suddenly
reminded by the shifted position of the furniture of the purpose of this
makeshift barricade.

At once the shuddering dread which had attended his recent visits to the
secret recess returned with numbing chills and sinking spirit.

He advanced his bony hand, gnarled and mean with useless abstemiousness
and miserable abnegations, and revolved the button in the concave. In
response, the false register swung back; in another tense moment the
inner space was revealed, and his treasury laid bare.

For an instant, in the manner of an apprehensive child who postpones as
long as possible some unwelcome confirmation, Raikes closed his eyes,
and when he opened them again they rested, with unerring precision, upon
a bag somewhat detached from the others, which protruded at its sides
with those frightful points and angles with which he had become so
unhappily familiar of late.

With a smothered cry he sprang forward, gripped the bag in a trembling,
faltering clutch, and dropped it with a groan to the floor, where it
fell with a heart-breaking, distracting lightness, which, nevertheless,
smote like a mighty weight upon his bursting heart.

"My God!" he cried, "this is incredible!" and the miserable creature
stood for a moment with an appalling vacancy shadowing in his
countenance, which was illumed for one fitful moment with a ray of hope
as he inserted his hand in his waistcoat pocket to assure himself that
the diamond which he had placed in that receptacle the night before at
least was safe.

The diamond--ah, yes!

There was still some consolation in that.

Its value still maintained a close proportion to his loss. If there was
no gain there was, at least, a sort of evil restitution.

But his exploring fingers found only an empty pocket.

In a palsy of fear, and with the demeanor of one who feels the first
twinge of a mortal affliction and awaits in fearful silence the grewsome
confirmation of another, he stood without sound or motion, his set,
staring eyes directed with unseeing intensity upon the vacant air.

The next instant, with feverish animation and impotent apprehension,
five writhing fingers leaped from their futile search, like scotched
reptiles, into the opposite pocket and withdrew the two useless keys
with which he fastened his abortive latch on the door.

And then, with a frightful glitter in his eyes, an ugly ooze about his
bloodless lips, a flickering effort of his shriveled fingers to adjust
themselves to some ribald rhythm, Raikes began to sing, with the dry
rasp and ancient husk of a galvanized sphinx:

    "And her name it was Dinah,
      Scarce sixteen years old;
    She'd a very large fortune
      In greenbacks and gold.
    Sing turi-li-luri----

Ha, ha! ha, ha!" and supporting himself along the wall he made his way
slowly to the threshold, unfastened the locks, removed the heavy bar,
opened the door, and cried out in a voice that was not human, that
shuddered its way along the chill passage through the shrinking air:

"Robert--Robert!" and then, reeling, stumbling toward a near-by chair,
he fell ere he could reach it, in utter collapse to the floor, and lay
there--shriveled, grotesque, in no way pathetic, in all points
contemptible, as his nephew, in response to his uncle's unearthly
summons, rushed into the room, followed by the wide-eyed spinster.

For three days during the week that followed Raikes lay oblivious to the
considerations of loss or gain.

The utmost of the young medical attendant, who had been selected on the
basis of the small charges incident to a beginning practice, had failed
to restore the emaciated man to his suspended consciousness, until,
toward the morning of the fourth day, the spinster, who sat near-by in
weary vigil, was startled to behold the dull eyes of her brother
fastened upon her with the faraway, questioning look of one returning
from the confines of the nether to the sharp realities of existence.

"Rodman?" she inquired with anxious interrogation.

In response the thin lips of the sufferer moved slowly.

Approaching the bed, his sister, leaning over the unfortunate Raikes,
heard him articulate with difficulty "Water!"

Supporting his head with one hand, the spinster supplied his
feebly-sighed request, and when the last difficult swallow conveyed the
refreshing draught along his fevered throat, she restored his head to
the pillow and awaited developments.

As she sat at the bedside in an attitude of fearful expectation, it was
evident that some transformation, more wholesome than subtle, had
manifested itself in the mien and physique of his nurse.

A large degree of her pitiful attenuity had vanished; a legible vestige
of placid well-being seemed to have replaced the hunger of her eyes;
there was a vague, unsubstantial promise of possible comeliness in the
restoration of her cheeks.

Aware of these changes herself, and fearful lest her brother's sharp
eyes would discover them, the spinster recalled, with a sort of troubled
gratification, the occasion of the improvement.

Undisturbed by the rebuking glances of the abstemious Raikes, and
secretly abetted by the amused Sepoy, the poor woman had enjoyed the
privileges of the table with a relish and surrender which had begun to
result in the manner indicated.

For several days previous to the catastrophe which had concluded in the
prostration of her brother, the spinster had supplied the cravings of
her appetite with a gusto that was a revelation to her, and which would
have evoked a profound rebuke from the wretched creature on the bed.

It was therefore with secret misgiving and a qualified delight she heard
her brother at last call feebly: "Sarah!"

In answer to the exhausted interrogation in his utterance of the name,
his sister hastened to recount to him the incident of his collapse and
his subsequent unconsciousness.

Little by little his intelligence began to resume its abandoned
functions, and at last he recalled the whole evil situation.

"Where's Robert?" he said. "I want him."

"I will send him to you," exclaimed his sister, and she hastened from
the room.

"Well, uncle!" exclaimed Robert as he entered with a cheerfulness he was
far from feeling as he witnessed that emaciated countenance; "better, I
see."

"I congratulate you upon your imagination," replied Raikes, with a
feeble attempt at his customary incivility; "but lock the door and
listen to me carefully."

These instructions complied with, Robert seated himself in the chair
just vacated by the spinster, which provided his uncle an unobstructed
view of the embonpoint and general aspect of well-being which were so
obnoxious to the singular man on the bed.

"In the first place," resumed Raikes weakly, "move the bed around so
that I can see the register in the wall."

The wondering Robert did as he was ordered.

"Take hold of the button that moves the valves and pull it toward you."

Robert followed these instructions minutely, and to his astonishment and
the miser's consternation the radiator itself swung away from the wall.

"What!" cried the startled invalid as he beheld this confirmation of his
fear that he had neglected to spring the catch that held the radiator
on the occasion of the mishap which resulted in his confinement to the
bed, "Look within. Is the inner compartment closed?"

"No!" replied Robert.

"My God!" groaned Raikes as he realized that his treasury had been thus
unguarded during his illness. "Tell me how many bags there are."

Robert removed them one by one, and deposited them on the table.

As the miser followed the movements of his nephew with anxious notation,
a sigh of unutterable relief welled from the innermost depths of his
bosom.

The bags had been untouched!

There was no further loss, and the clinking weight assured him that his
nocturnal visitor had made no more of his gross substitutions.

"Listen, Robert," said Raikes with laborious amiability, as his
astonished nephew seated himself near the bedside, "it has been my
purpose to conceal this hiding place from any living soul, but I find
that I have not succeeded.

"Some one has made three visits to that recess and helped himself to as
many bags of coin."

Robert, remembering his uncle's well-known secrecy and the unusual
precautions taken by him to secure his room from intrusion, looked his
incredulity, which stimulated Raikes into exclaiming:

"Ah, but you do not know how incredible it is. Wait until you hear all.
You will wonder what human agency could penetrate these locks, open the
doors of this hiding place, extract the plunder, restore the locks to
their original condition, and re-issue into the passageway without
disturbing the latches or the crossbar. My losses are supernatural. Now
follow me carefully and confess that you have not heard anything so
ghastly, so unreal as what I am about to relate."

As Raikes proceeded in his narrative, his nephew was at first inclined
to receive these weird confidences as features of the unhappy man's
condition, but as the latter progressed, with a constantly increasing
degree of his customary emotionless lucidity, his sincerity became
apparent.

"And now," concluded Raikes, "what have you to say to all this? Is it
not worthy of a Poe or a Maupassant? I tell you, I must have some
explanation of this mystery or I shall go mad."

During this singular recital the young man's mind, stimulated by the
eerie perplexities and the unhappy denouement, had been busy.

It was not difficult to convince himself of the futility of any of his
own speculations; the nearness of the calamity affected him, in a
degree, as it did the withered invalid.

He had a sound brain, nourished by a well sustained body; his
intelligence was apt and rapid, but these unheard-of complications
demanded a morbid analysis of which he was incapable.

On this basis, however, as his uncle had proceeded, Robert had been able
to develop a suggestion; he could offer that, at least.

In reply, therefore, to the feverish questions of his uncle, the young
man said:

"In so far as I am able to see, your disasters have narrowed your range
of discernment. They are too recent; they affect you too nearly. Under
such conditions we take counsel of our prejudices instead of our
judgment. Your thoughts are apt to return to the central feature of your
loss. It is not natural to expect one to dismiss such a consideration in
order to make way for others which might help you in your search.

"On my part, the incident is new and stimulating, but the ideas it
awakens lead to nothing. However, I should not regard the case as
impossible until I had tried at least one means of solution."

"What is that?" demanded Raikes, diverted, if not convinced, by the
sensible observations of his nephew.

"You have heard of Gratz?" inquired Robert.

"Of the secret service?"

"Yes."

"Ah!" cried the old man; "to submit the case to him means another in the
secret, with little prospect of advantage."

"I am not so sure about that," returned Robert. "Do you recall the
Dupont mystery?"

Raikes nodded.

"Well," continued Robert, "you must also remember the Belmont scandal.
Gratz certainly let daylight into that."

"Ah," cried Raikes, "I do not like your suggestions; they encourage me
and alarm me at the same time. Think of the cost."

Irritated at the intrusion of this frugal proviso at this juncture,
Robert exclaimed with some warmth: "Yes, but think, also, how
insignificant that would be if he discovered the thief and recovered the
money."

"If--if----" repeated Raikes with impatience.

"And I can say this," continued Robert: "It is the ambition of Gratz to
be appointed chief of the bureau to which he belongs. Whatever can be
placed to his credit in the meantime will serve as an additional reason
for his advancement.

"I believe that he would be more persuaded to undertake the case with
this prospect in view than for a mercenary reason."

"But," interrupted Raikes, "can you get him?"

"I think I can answer for that," replied Robert. "I know him very well.
If you will consent to leave the matter in my hands, I will attend to
Gratz."

"Well," exclaimed Raikes, as Robert concluded, "have it your own way;
anything is better than this killing suspense. I do not believe that I
could endure a repetition of the incidents of the last few nights. But
return the bags before you go, and shut the radiator; it will lock in
closing."

When Robert at last reached the dining-room he discovered his aunt at
the table, seated opposite the Sepoy.

Instructing the spinster to resume her vigil until his return, Robert
proceeded to his own table, and from that point of observation occupied
himself, during the next twenty minutes, partly with his breakfast and
partly in regarding this illy-assorted duet.

The Sepoy was as gravely urbane as ever; his browns and blacks
intermingled harmoniously; his eyes were bright; his teeth still
suggestive of restrained sarcasm in their dull, red sheaths, as, with
grave courtesy, he made himself agreeable to his companion by abetting
her newly-awakened appetite with recommendations of the steak and
eulogies of the butter.

The spinster was no longer ravenous; the advantages she had enjoyed
during the absence of her domestic Argus had made her cravings more
equable, and she accepted the edible suggestions of the Sepoy with an
approach to placid satisfaction that hinted at the imminence of
repletion.

This disposition to make the most of her privileges, with what composure
she could assume, would have added the basis of a serious relapse on the
part of the invalid could he have witnessed the phenomenon.

It was remarkable how promptly the poor creature evinced the effects of
her nourishment.

Beginning, as already indicated, with a logical indigestion, she
progressed to the point of a possible filling out of the crevices of her
countenance, and her eyes certainly had lost the expression of appeal
characteristic of the mendicant in the doorway.

All this, minutely noted by her watchful nephew, was thoroughly enjoyed
with a sort of chuckling collusion and vicarious gratification.

On her return to the invalid she was requested by him to provide
whatever nourishment was needed, and then to leave him alone for a
couple of hours.

These instructions fulfilled, the spinster sought the retirement of her
room, surrendered herself to the enjoyment of reminiscent digestion, and
Raikes began to pull himself together.

His method was characteristic.

On the basis that he could not afford to enjoy himself like any normally
constituted being, he assured his mind that he could not submit to the
expense of illness.

According to his rigid logic, sickness was more the result of indulgence
than self-denial.

He proposed to have the credit of his abnegations.

Therefore he directed his perverse will to the contemplation of the
rational aspect of his condition, and presently had managed to convince
himself that if he did not entertain the belief of suffering, this
untoward condition would cease to exist.

As this singular being combatted all that was unwelcome to this point of
view, the grim lines tightened about the corners of his mouth, the deep
fissures in his forehead established a communication with the obstinate
wrinkles at the root of his nose, and by noon he was well on his way to
the mastery of his indisposition, and by nightfall he scandalized the
young medical attendant by standing up to receive him.

Extending to himself a chuckling tribute of his resolution, he received
the incredulity of his nephew as additional indorsement when the latter
made his appearance that evening, accompanied by the colorless negation
of a man whom he could scarcely persuade himself to believe was the
celebrated Gratz.

However, no more ideal countenance could have been created for the
purposes to which it was applied by its owner.

Pallid, expressionless, vacant, it was as nearly a canvas upon which to
delineate almost anything in the range of emotion as it was possible for
a visage of flesh and blood to be.

As to the details of features, these were altogether subordinate, and as
devoid of physiognomical meaning as the dull integument which
encompassed them.

It had about the same amount of character as a bald baby.

One received the impression that a seismic disturbance might awaken some
show of emotion, but design--never.

And yet, behind that pale disguise, between sleepy, level lids, two
points of concentrated fire and ceaseless animation gleamed their
startling significance to any one able to comprehend.

In stature he was adjusted to his visage.

His frame was lean enough to repudiate the incredible agility and
recuperative strength it housed, and his carriage was consistently "out
of plumb."

Altogether it was an identity that would have been overlooked in any
gathering, and was almost nondescript enough to establish an eligibility
to the most exclusive function.

This unpromising ensemble, however, was not misleading to Raikes, who
had looked up quickly at the first appearance of the detective, and had
seen the sharp, penetrating glance with which Gratz had for an instant
surveyed the apartment.

Moreover, the very leanness of the famous official appealed to him.

Here, at least, were none of the obnoxious evidences of repletion which
he viewed with such disapprobation in his sturdier nephew.

The man's attire, too, commended him to the starved graces of his spare
host. It was as characterless as it was possible for fabric to be, and
considered with his meager physique and vacant physiognomy, was a
fitting complement to both; an adjustment of component detail too
consistent to have been the needless aspect it was designed to present.

With a voice in which the character had been trained away as surely as
the charity from the opinions of the social elite, this descendant of
Lecocq accosted his patron, and with business-like brevity indicated
that he was already familiar with the situation as outlined by Robert,
and if Mr. Raikes would consent to reply to a few questions it would
facilitate matters.

His hearer indicated that he was entirely at the disposal of the
detective.

With characteristic concentration, therefore, Gratz began:

"Do you suspect anybody in particular?"

"No."

"That is singular," commented Gratz. "May I ask why? Under such
circumstances the mind generally proceeds in some unhappy direction."

"Not in this instance," returned Raikes. "Before I suspect any one, I
must assign to him supernatural powers, almost. I will have to explain
how it is possible for any one to enter this room, penetrate that
recess, make the substitution, and retire, leaving the door in the same
condition, precisely as left by me the night before."

"That is the point," replied Gratz. Then, after a moment's reflection,
he inquired: "Am I at liberty to nose around this room?"

"Help yourself," answered Raikes.

With this assent, Gratz hurried to the window, examined the sash,
considered the sheer depths immediately below, its lack of vicinity to
other windows, and last, the strong fastenings, to disturb which would
involve a degree of rasp and wrench sufficient to disturb the slumbers
of a Rip Van Winkle.

With a countenance as impassive as ever, he returned to Raikes and said:

"Now for the hiding place."

With a grimace of reluctant acquiescence, Raikes, closely regarded by
the detective, proceeded to the button in the concave, which he moved
with slow manipulation for the edification of the alert watcher, who
witnessed, without comment, the displacement of the register and the
subsequent revelation of the inner compartment.

"Remove the bags."

At the conclusion of this labor, this impenetrable being produced a
small rod of steel from one of his pockets, one end of which concluded
in a round knob.

With this he proceeded to rap the walls of the inner recess, a
proceeding of which Raikes inquired the purpose.

"I want to ascertain," replied Gratz, "if there is any vacancy on the
other side."

"I could have saved you all that trouble," replied Raikes. "This is a
false radiator, the real flue is on the other side of the room.

"The rear of this small safe backs up against nearly two feet of solid
brickwork.

"Exactly behind that is a room occupied by one no more burglarious than
a dressmaker's apprentice."

"Thank you," replied Gratz. "Your information is helpful, but I am never
satisfied to rely upon description when investigation is possible.

"Whatever deductions I make from this examination I do not want
disturbed, so all the doubts they dissipate are not likely to intrude
upon my calculations again."

After a few further taps, in which Raikes could see no better purpose
than to retire from an embarrassing position with some show of satisfied
motive, Gratz directed that the bags be returned.

For the next few minutes he busied himself with the locks, upon which he
experimented with the extraordinary keys which Raikes had given him. He
shot the bolts backward and forward; noted the stout bar and the
precautions for keeping it in place, and then resumed the seat near the
table.

After a few moments he said:

"Tell me what has occurred to you between sunrise and sunset during the
last three days."

Raikes recounted his usual round of petty detail, which had no possible
bearing upon the problem.

When he had concluded this meager resume, Gratz continued:

"Now tell me about the nights."

Raikes complied with a statement of his careful precautions; the watch
of his sister upon the doorway during his absence, and his visits to the
room of the Sepoy.

"The Sepoy?" inquired Gratz. "Why do you call him that?"

"On account of his swarthy complexion, his bright eyes, and his general
alien aspect," replied Robert.

"Describe him to me as carefully as you can," said Gratz.

When Robert had concluded his brief delineation, Raikes hastened to
inquire: "Why do you ask about him so particularly? He could no more
enter my room, under the conditions I have described to you, than you
could."

"I realize that," admitted the detective, "but I gather from what you
have just said that you visit this Sepoy, as you call him, with some
degree of regularity. May I ask if you have business transactions with
him?"

"I have not," replied Raikes.

Then, in response to the unchanging look of inquiry in the countenance
of the detective, he added:

"The Sepoy has been telling me an extraordinary story. It has been too
elaborate to confine to one sitting, and my purpose in re-visiting him
was to get at the conclusion. It is most interesting, and apparently
interminable."

"Would you object to relating it to me?" inquired Gratz.

"Heavens!" cried Raikes, aghast at the prospect of the extended effort
which this would impose upon him. "Is it necessary?"

"I would not be surprised," replied Gratz. "At any rate, if your story
is more mysterious than the predicament which confronts us, it must be
worth hearing."

With an ill grace, after making the elaborate arrangements which usually
precede a protracted campaign, Raikes hastened to comply with the
request of the detective.

As he proceeded, he was startled to note, now that he made his first
conscious effort to review the weird recital of the Sepoy, just how
vividly the incidents presented themselves.

Aside from the phraseology, he recounted, in precise order, the
incredible incidents, and by the time he had reached the climax in the
first division of his effort his hearers were interested enough to
hasten through a light meal, which, at the suggestion of Gratz, had been
sent to the room they occupied.

With something of the calculation of the Sepoy, or remembering, perhaps,
the effect which his abrupt terminations had upon him, Raikes contrived
his irritating pauses with remorseless enjoyment and the ostensible
purpose of stimulating his sorely taxed energies with draughts of
brandy and water.

In this way Raikes consumed the time until the hour of eleven, which
enabled him to develop the narrative to the point at which the Sepoy had
concluded.

"And now," exclaimed Raikes with unmistakable relief, as he signified
that his hearers were in possession of all he knew, "and now will you
kindly tell me what you expect to gain by this tedious task you have
imposed upon me?"

Gratz did not reply at once, but after a few moments of reflection, he
asked, apparently ignoring the question of the narrator: "Will you give
me the keys of this building you occupy, and indicate to me the means of
rummaging about the other building on the opposite side of the wall?"

"If it is necessary," replied Raikes with grudging assent.

"Why else should I make the request?" suggested Gratz with emotionless
directness of speech and a momentary gleam of the eyes.

"True!" responded Raikes.

"Now," exclaimed Gratz, when the various keys were placed in his hand,
"you can sleep in peace to-night, and bolt your doors with all the
assurance in the world, for I guarantee that your property will be
undisturbed."

Then turning to Robert, he said: "I want you to guide me for a short
while, and as soon as I get my bearings you can retire."

At this the two bade the thoroughly exhausted Raikes good-night and
departed from the room, which the miser hastily secured with his usual
precautions.

Without, Robert soon discovered that his services were no longer
required, and at the suggestion of the detective he retired, after
indicating to this curious official that when he had concluded his
investigations he would find a cot in his room which he was at liberty
to occupy.

As dawn began to make its appearance on the ensuing morning, Robert was
disturbed by a curious dream.

He appeared to be alone upon a fragile raft in the midst of a
destructive sea.

Bit by bit the hastily joined structure upon which he rode the waters
so insecurely began to disintegrate, until but one scarcely sufficing
plank remained.

To this, however, he clung with rapidly failing strength, shouting at
intervals with what vim remained, in an attempt to attract the attention
of the keepers of the light, not far away.

But with devilish perversity, an immense fog-horn sent forth a heavy
blast seaward precisely at the moments he raised his voice.

No matter how far apart or how near he planned the intervals, he was
bound to coincide with the deafening horn.

At last in despair he desisted in his efforts, and the monster horn,
with hoarse mockery, continued its grewsome noises at dismal intervals,
until one, more stentorian than the others, caused the very tempest to
hush, and Robert awoke to discover Gratz the cause of his fictitious
misery, sleeping upon the cot near the foot of his bed, emitting a
series of snores which had managed to communicate their odious telepathy
to his slumbering consciousness.

As this singular being lay there in the relaxation and undisguise to
which the most diplomatic must submit at times, his countenance, so
impassive in his wakeful hours, depicted singular lines of
determination.

An expression of tense anxiety contracted his features; resolution held
the thin lips in rigid partnership; there was a hint of purpose in the
solitary wrinkle which corrugated his forehead; the general aspect was
impressive, its suggestion indefatigable.

In this paradoxical fashion, the emotions, concealed during the day,
revealed themselves at night.

What in others would have concluded in a vacant mien and colorless
repose, in him expressed all that he was so sedulous to conceal.

Scarcely had Robert placed his feet upon the floor when Gratz opened his
eyes, awakened partly by the sounds of rising and partly by his tumult
of snores, and in an instant the flaccid mask descended over his face,
and Gratz was his apathetic self again.

"Well?" inquired Robert.

"You have said it," replied Gratz; "it is well."

"You have succeeded, then?" demanded Robert breathlessly.

"I believe so; but do not question me further just now. I want to see
your uncle before I go."

A few moments later the two presented themselves before the closed door
leading to the apartment occupied by Raikes, whom they fancied they
could hear stirring about within.

In answer to their raps, he opened the door and they entered.

"What news?" demanded Raikes.

"The best, I hope; but I will not communicate it to you until to-morrow
morning."

"Ah!" exclaimed Raikes with manifest disappointment.

"But," continued Gratz, as he noted the expression on the face of the
other, "at that time I fancy that I shall not only have solved the
mystery but I will also secure the thief."

"Do you know him, then?" asked Raikes.

"You are wrong," replied Gratz. "Unless I am seriously mistaken, there
are two."

"Two!" repeated Raikes incredulously.

"Yes--but listen: I am anxious to hear the conclusion of that
remarkable story you began last night."

"But," objected Raikes, "I have already told you all I know."

"I am aware of that," answered the detective, "but your friend, the
Sepoy, will doubtless oblige you with the balance. Arrange with him at
breakfast-time for a continuation. I will return either to-night or
to-morrow morning to hear it."

"But----" began Raikes.

"Do not refuse to do as I ask," urged Gratz impressively. "It may be
useful; I'm inclined to think it will."

"Very well," answered Raikes. "I will do as you suggest."

"And," continued Gratz, "I need not assure you that if a living soul
learns of my presence here last night, I can do nothing for you."

"I understand," said Raikes.

"And I," added Robert.

With this Gratz departed, and Raikes prepared to make his appearance in
the dining-room.

Advised of the intention of her brother to breakfast at the table, the
spinster had hastened to precede him, and by the time Raikes presented
himself she had managed to bestow a couple of furtive biscuits in her
pocket, and had devoured another couple, lavishly buttered, accompanied
by a fairly liberal cut of beefsteak.

Consequently, when Raikes conveyed his customary intimation that she was
at liberty to begin, the spinster obediently proceeded to add a moderate
breakfast to the one she had already enjoyed.

Trembling lest her brother would remark the developing suggestions of
well-being which had resulted from her recent regimen, she welcomed with
genuine relief the advent of the Sepoy, to whom Raikes transferred his
speculative glance.

"Well!" exclaimed the Sepoy, "you have had quite a siege, I hear."

"I have," replied Raikes shortly; then added with a sort of grim humor:
"My physician has recommended a little diversion, and I have just
thought of a simple way of following his advice."

"What is that?" asked the Sepoy.

"I would like to present myself at the usual hour and hear the
conclusion of the story, for I judge, from the predicament of Prince
Otondo, that the end is not far off."

"Ah, you remember?" exclaimed the Sepoy.

"Decidedly!" replied Raikes.

"Very well, then," returned the other. "Come at ten and I will gather
the tangled threads together."

During the balance of that day Raikes devoted his powers of
concentration to the consummation of the treatment to which he had
subjected himself, and this, together with the prospect of the recovery
of his property, resulted in a condition which made the visits of the
astonished physician no longer necessary.

With an eagerness intensified to a childish impatience, almost, by the
vague suggestions of Gratz that the story would be personally
interesting, and exhausting his mind with futile speculations as to the
manner of its application to the unnatural conditions which distressed
him so, Raikes at last concluded his contemplation of the clock, and
promptly upon the stroke of ten, hastened from his room and hurried to
the apartment occupied by the Sepoy.

Seating himself in the chair indicated by his host, he shortly found
that he was unable to avoid recalling his recent guilty appropriation of
the diamond, and a degree of confusion, which he could not entirely
disguise, manifested itself in his difficulty of adjusting his eyes to
the inscrutable gaze of the Sepoy.

On this occasion the narrator, as hitherto, did not provide his auditor
with a brilliant to look upon during the progress of the story--an
omission that was radiantly repaired by the two lambent gems in the eyes
of the former.

Upon these the shifting gaze of the restless listener finally fastened
itself with a fascination which he found it impossible to resist, and
the Sepoy, with all the modulated lights and shadows of ardor,
animation, lethargy, somnolence, peace, with which he complemented his
sedative phrases, began:

(_The conclusion of this interesting tale will be found on Bosom No. 1,
Dickey Series C_.)

As Dennis looked up from his reading, a pair of eyes of unclouded blue,
vivid with interest and altogether friendly, met his animated glance.

With alert intuition his sweet-faced auditor believed that she
discovered a shadow of vexation in the ingenuous countenance of the
reader.

"What is it?" she asked.

To Dennis, in his absorption, it seemed impossible that the question
could refer to anything else than the habitual disability at the end of
each chapter, and he answered promptly:

"'Tis the way the dickey ends--to be concluded in Series C--an' it's me
here an' Series C in Baxter Street, so I can't read the rest; it's too
bad, so it is."

"So it is," repeated the lady softly, with a dexterous parody of his
concluding words, but with a subtle intimation in her manner that she
did not consider the inconvenient termination such a misfortune, after
all, and that it somehow suggested an alternative that was not
displeasing.

"Do you want to hear the rest?" asked Dennis frankly.

"I do, indeed," replied his companion with an adroitly conveyed
insinuation of disappointed expectation that seemed to place the
responsibility of measuring to this agreeable emergency entirely upon
Dennis.

The same degree of sensitiveness which leaves an Irishman so open to
offense, enables him, with equal celerity, to comprehend a hint, and
Dennis, when he realized that the lady understoo

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/23752