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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+#4 in our series by Grant Allen
+
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+Title: An African Millionaire
+       Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+Author: Grant Allen
+
+Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4715]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 6, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+********This file should be named 4715-8.txt or 4715-8.zip********
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+This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and
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+This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and
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+
+
+An African Millionaire
+
+Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+By Grant Allen
+
+First published in 1897
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  The Episode of the Mexican Seer
+
+2.  The Episode of the Diamond Links
+
+3.  The Episode of the Old Master
+
+4.  The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle
+
+5.  The Episode of the Drawn Game
+
+6.  The Episode of the German Professor
+
+7.  The Episode of the Arrest of the Colonel
+
+8.  The Episode of the Seldon Gold-Mine
+
+9.  The Episode of the Japanned Dispatch-Box
+
+10.  The Episode of the Game of Poker
+
+11.  The Episode of the Bertillon Method
+
+12.  The Episode of the Old Bailey
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE MEXICAN SEER
+
+
+My name is Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. I am brother-in-law and
+secretary to Sir Charles Vandrift, the South African millionaire and
+famous financier. Many years ago, when Charlie Vandrift was a small
+lawyer in Cape Town, I had the (qualified) good fortune to marry his
+sister. Much later, when the Vandrift estate and farm near Kimberley
+developed by degrees into the Cloetedorp Golcondas, Limited, my
+brother-in-law offered me the not unremunerative post of secretary;
+in which capacity I have ever since been his constant and attached
+companion.
+
+He is not a man whom any common sharper can take in, is Charles
+Vandrift. Middle height, square build, firm mouth, keen eyes--the
+very picture of a sharp and successful business genius. I have only
+known one rogue impose upon Sir Charles, and that one rogue, as the
+Commissary of Police at Nice remarked, would doubtless have imposed
+upon a syndicate of Vidocq, Robert Houdin, and Cagliostro.
+
+We had run across to the Riviera for a few weeks in the season. Our
+object being strictly rest and recreation from the arduous duties
+of financial combination, we did not think it necessary to take our
+wives out with us. Indeed, Lady Vandrift is absolutely wedded to the
+joys of London, and does not appreciate the rural delights of the
+Mediterranean littoral. But Sir Charles and I, though immersed in
+affairs when at home, both thoroughly enjoy the complete change from
+the City to the charming vegetation and pellucid air on the terrace
+at Monte Carlo. We _are_ so fond of scenery. That delicious view
+over the rocks of Monaco, with the Maritime Alps in the rear, and
+the blue sea in front, not to mention the imposing Casino in the
+foreground, appeals to me as one of the most beautiful prospects in
+all Europe. Sir Charles has a sentimental attachment for the place.
+He finds it restores and freshens him, after the turmoil of London,
+to win a few hundreds at roulette in the course of an afternoon
+among the palms and cactuses and pure breezes of Monte Carlo. The
+country, say I, for a jaded intellect! However, we never on any
+account actually stop in the Principality itself. Sir Charles thinks
+Monte Carlo is not a sound address for a financier's letters. He
+prefers a comfortable hotel on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice,
+where he recovers health and renovates his nervous system by taking
+daily excursions along the coast to the Casino.
+
+This particular season we were snugly ensconced at the Hôtel des
+Anglais. We had capital quarters on the first floor--salon, study,
+and bedrooms--and found on the spot a most agreeable cosmopolitan
+society. All Nice, just then, was ringing with talk about a curious
+impostor, known to his followers as the Great Mexican Seer, and
+supposed to be gifted with second sight, as well as with endless
+other supernatural powers. Now, it is a peculiarity of my able
+brother-in-law's that, when he meets with a quack, he burns to
+expose him; he is so keen a man of business himself that it gives
+him, so to speak, a disinterested pleasure to unmask and detect
+imposture in others. Many ladies at the hotel, some of whom had met
+and conversed with the Mexican Seer, were constantly telling us
+strange stories of his doings. He had disclosed to one the present
+whereabouts of a runaway husband; he had pointed out to another the
+numbers that would win at roulette next evening; he had shown a
+third the image on a screen of the man she had for years adored
+without his knowledge. Of course, Sir Charles didn't believe a word
+of it; but his curiosity was roused; he wished to see and judge for
+himself of the wonderful thought-reader.
+
+"What would be his terms, do you think, for a private séance?" he
+asked of Madame Picardet, the lady to whom the Seer had successfully
+predicted the winning numbers.
+
+"He does not work for money," Madame Picardet answered, "but for
+the good of humanity. I'm sure he would gladly come and exhibit for
+nothing his miraculous faculties."
+
+"Nonsense!" Sir Charles answered. "The man must live. I'd pay him
+five guineas, though, to see him alone. What hotel is he stopping at?"
+
+"The Cosmopolitan, I think," the lady answered. "Oh no; I remember
+now, the Westminster."
+
+Sir Charles turned to me quietly. "Look here, Seymour," he
+whispered. "Go round to this fellow's place immediately after
+dinner, and offer him five pounds to give a private séance at once
+in my rooms, without mentioning who I am to him; keep the name quite
+quiet. Bring him back with you, too, and come straight upstairs
+with him, so that there may be no collusion. We'll see just how much
+the fellow can tell us."
+
+I went as directed. I found the Seer a very remarkable and
+interesting person. He stood about Sir Charles's own height, but was
+slimmer and straighter, with an aquiline nose, strangely piercing
+eyes, very large black pupils, and a finely-chiselled close-shaven
+face, like the bust of Antinous in our hall in Mayfair. What gave him
+his most characteristic touch, however, was his odd head of hair,
+curly and wavy like Paderewski's, standing out in a halo round his
+high white forehead and his delicate profile. I could see at a
+glance why he succeeded so well in impressing women; he had the
+look of a poet, a singer, a prophet.
+
+"I have come round," I said, "to ask whether you will consent to
+give a séance at once in a friend's rooms; and my principal wishes
+me to add that he is prepared to pay five pounds as the price of the
+entertainment."
+
+Señor Antonio Herrera--that was what he called himself--bowed to
+me with impressive Spanish politeness. His dusky olive cheeks were
+wrinkled with a smile of gentle contempt as he answered gravely--
+
+"I do not sell my gifts; I bestow them freely. If your friend--your
+anonymous friend--desires to behold the cosmic wonders that are
+wrought through my hands, I am glad to show them to him.
+Fortunately, as often happens when it is necessary to convince
+and confound a sceptic (for that your friend is a sceptic I feel
+instinctively), I chance to have no engagements at all this
+evening." He ran his hand through his fine, long hair reflectively.
+"Yes, I go," he continued, as if addressing some unknown presence
+that hovered about the ceiling; "I go; come with me!" Then he put on
+his broad sombrero, with its crimson ribbon, wrapped a cloak round
+his shoulders, lighted a cigarette, and strode forth by my side
+towards the Hôtel des Anglais.
+
+He talked little by the way, and that little in curt sentences. He
+seemed buried in deep thought; indeed, when we reached the door and
+I turned in, he walked a step or two farther on, as if not noticing
+to what place I had brought him. Then he drew himself up short, and
+gazed around him for a moment. "Ha, the Anglais," he said--and I may
+mention in passing that his English, in spite of a slight southern
+accent, was idiomatic and excellent. "It is here, then; it is here!"
+He was addressing once more the unseen presence.
+
+I smiled to think that these childish devices were intended to
+deceive Sir Charles Vandrift. Not quite the sort of man (as the City
+of London knows) to be taken in by hocus-pocus. And all this, I saw,
+was the cheapest and most commonplace conjurer's patter.
+
+We went upstairs to our rooms. Charles had gathered together a
+few friends to watch the performance. The Seer entered, wrapt in
+thought. He was in evening dress, but a red sash round his waist
+gave a touch of picturesqueness and a dash of colour. He paused for
+a moment in the middle of the salon, without letting his eyes rest
+on anybody or anything. Then he walked straight up to Charles, and
+held out his dark hand.
+
+"Good-evening," he said. "You are the host. My soul's sight tells
+me so."
+
+"Good shot," Sir Charles answered. "These fellows have to be
+quick-witted, you know, Mrs. Mackenzie, or they'd never get on
+at it."
+
+The Seer gazed about him, and smiled blankly at a person or two
+whose faces he seemed to recognise from a previous existence. Then
+Charles began to ask him a few simple questions, not about himself,
+but about me, just to test him. He answered most of them with
+surprising correctness. "His name? His name begins with an S I
+think:--You call him Seymour." He paused long between each clause, as
+if the facts were revealed to him slowly. "Seymour--Wilbraham--Earl
+of Strafford. No, not Earl of Strafford! Seymour Wilbraham
+Wentworth. There seems to be some connection in somebody's mind now
+present between Wentworth and Strafford. I am not English. I do not
+know what it means. But they are somehow the same name, Wentworth
+and Strafford."
+
+He gazed around, apparently for confirmation. A lady came to his
+rescue.
+
+"Wentworth was the surname of the great Earl of Strafford," she
+murmured gently; "and I was wondering, as you spoke, whether
+Mr. Wentworth might possibly be descended from him."
+
+"He is," the Seer replied instantly, with a flash of those dark
+eyes. And I thought this curious; for though my father always
+maintained the reality of the relationship, there was one link
+wanting to complete the pedigree. He could not make sure that
+the Hon. Thomas Wilbraham Wentworth was the father of Jonathan
+Wentworth, the Bristol horse-dealer, from whom we are descended.
+
+"Where was I born?" Sir Charles interrupted, coming suddenly to his
+own case.
+
+The Seer clapped his two hands to his forehead and held it between
+them, as if to prevent it from bursting. "Africa," he said slowly,
+as the facts narrowed down, so to speak. "South Africa; Cape of Good
+Hope; Jansenville; De Witt Street. 1840."
+
+"By Jove, he's correct," Sir Charles muttered. "He seems really to
+do it. Still, he may have found me out. He may have known where he
+was coming."
+
+"I never gave a hint," I answered; "till he reached the door, he
+didn't even know to what hotel I was piloting him."
+
+The Seer stroked his chin softly. His eye appeared to me to have a
+furtive gleam in it. "Would you like me to tell you the number of
+a bank-note inclosed in an envelope?" he asked casually.
+
+"Go out of the room," Sir Charles said, "while I pass it round the
+company."
+
+Señor Herrera disappeared. Sir Charles passed it round cautiously,
+holding it all the time in his own hand, but letting his guests see
+the number. Then he placed it in an envelope and gummed it down
+firmly.
+
+The Seer returned. His keen eyes swept the company with a
+comprehensive glance. He shook his shaggy mane. Then he took
+the envelope in his hands and gazed at it fixedly. "AF, 73549,"
+he answered, in a slow tone. "A Bank of England note for fifty
+pounds--exchanged at the Casino for gold won yesterday at
+Monte Carlo."
+
+"I see how he did that," Sir Charles said triumphantly. "He must
+have changed it there himself; and then I changed it back again.
+In point of fact, I remember seeing a fellow with long hair loafing
+about. Still, it's capital conjuring."
+
+"He can see through matter," one of the ladies interposed. It was
+Madame Picardet. "He can see through a box." She drew a little gold
+vinaigrette, such as our grandmothers used, from her dress-pocket.
+"What is in this?" she inquired, holding it up to him.
+
+Señor Herrera gazed through it. "Three gold coins," he replied,
+knitting his brows with the effort of seeing into the box: "one,
+an American five dollars; one, a French ten-franc piece; one,
+twenty marks, German, of the old Emperor William."
+
+She opened the box and passed it round. Sir Charles smiled a quiet
+smile.
+
+"Confederacy!" he muttered, half to himself. "Confederacy!"
+
+The Seer turned to him with a sullen air. "You want a better sign?"
+he said, in a very impressive voice. "A sign that will convince you!
+Very well: you have a letter in your left waistcoat pocket--a
+crumpled-up letter. Do you wish me to read it out? I will, if you
+desire it."
+
+It may seem to those who know Sir Charles incredible, but, I am
+bound to admit, my brother-in-law coloured. What that letter
+contained I cannot say; he only answered, very testily and
+evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you
+have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply
+suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat
+pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Señor Herrera would
+read it.
+
+I fancied, too, he glanced somewhat anxiously towards Madame
+Picardet.
+
+The Seer bowed courteously. "Your will, señor, is law," he said. "I
+make it a principle, though I can see through all things, invariably
+to respect the secrecies and sanctities. If it were not so, I might
+dissolve society. For which of us is there who could bear the whole
+truth being told about him?" He gazed around the room. An unpleasant
+thrill supervened. Most of us felt this uncanny Spanish American
+knew really too much. And some of us were engaged in financial
+operations.
+
+"For example," the Seer continued blandly, "I happened a few weeks
+ago to travel down here from Paris by train with a very intelligent
+man, a company promoter. He had in his bag some documents--some
+confidential documents:" he glanced at Sir Charles. "You know the
+kind of thing, my dear sir: reports from experts--from mining
+engineers. You may have seen some such; marked _strictly private_."
+
+"They form an element in high finance," Sir Charles admitted coldly.
+
+"Pre-cisely," the Seer murmured, his accent for a moment less
+Spanish than before. "And, as they were marked _strictly private_,
+I respect, of course, the seal of confidence. That's all I wish to
+say. I hold it a duty, being intrusted with such powers, not to use
+them in a manner which may annoy or incommode my fellow-creatures."
+
+"Your feeling does you honour," Sir Charles answered, with some
+acerbity. Then he whispered in my ear: "Confounded clever scoundrel,
+Sey; rather wish we hadn't brought him here."
+
+Señor Herrera seemed intuitively to divine this wish, for he
+interposed, in a lighter and gayer tone--
+
+"I will now show you a different and more interesting embodiment
+of occult power, for which we shall need a somewhat subdued
+arrangement of surrounding lights. Would you mind, señor host--for
+I have purposely abstained from reading your name on the brain of
+any one present--would you mind my turning down this lamp just a
+little? ... So! That will do. Now, this one; and this one. Exactly!
+that's right." He poured a few grains of powder out of a packet into
+a saucer. "Next, a match, if you please. Thank you!" It burnt with a
+strange green light. He drew from his pocket a card, and produced a
+little ink-bottle. "Have you a pen?" he asked.
+
+I instantly brought one. He handed it to Sir Charles. "Oblige me,"
+he said, "by writing your name there." And he indicated a place in
+the centre of the card, which had an embossed edge, with a small
+middle square of a different colour.
+
+Sir Charles has a natural disinclination to signing his name without
+knowing why. "What do you want with it?" he asked. (A millionaire's
+signature has so many uses.)
+
+"I want you to put the card in an envelope," the Seer replied, "and
+then to burn it. After that, I shall show you your own name written
+in letters of blood on my arm, in your own handwriting."
+
+Sir Charles took the pen. If the signature was to be burned as soon
+as finished, he didn't mind giving it. He wrote his name in his
+usual firm clear style--the writing of a man who knows his worth
+and is not afraid of drawing a cheque for five thousand.
+
+"Look at it long," the Seer said, from the other side of the room.
+He had not watched him write it.
+
+Sir Charles stared at it fixedly. The Seer was really beginning to
+produce an impression.
+
+"Now, put it in that envelope," the Seer exclaimed.
+
+Sir Charles, like a lamb, placed it as directed.
+
+The Seer strode forward. "Give me the envelope," he said. He took it
+in his hand, walked over towards the fireplace, and solemnly burnt
+it. "See--it crumbles into ashes," he cried. Then he came back to
+the middle of the room, close to the green light, rolled up his
+sleeve, and held his arm before Sir Charles. There, in blood-red
+letters, my brother-in-law read the name, "Charles Vandrift," in
+his own handwriting!
+
+"I see how that's done," Sir Charles murmured, drawing back. "It's
+a clever delusion; but still, I see through it. It's like that
+ghost-book. Your ink was deep green; your light was green; you made
+me look at it long; and then I saw the same thing written on the
+skin of your arm in complementary colours."
+
+"You think so?" the Seer replied, with a curious curl of the lip.
+
+"I'm sure of it," Sir Charles answered.
+
+Quick as lightning the Seer again rolled up his sleeve. "That's
+your name," he cried, in a very clear voice, "but not your whole
+name. What do you say, then, to my right? Is this one also a
+complementary colour?" He held his other arm out. There, in
+sea-green letters, I read the name, "Charles O'Sullivan Vandrift."
+It is my brother-in-law's full baptismal designation; but he has
+dropped the O'Sullivan for many years past, and, to say the truth,
+doesn't like it. He is a little bit ashamed of his mother's family.
+
+Charles glanced at it hurriedly. "Quite right," he said, "quite
+right!" But his voice was hollow. I could guess he didn't care to
+continue the séance. He could see through the man, of course; but it
+was clear the fellow knew too much about us to be entirely pleasant.
+
+"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I
+say coffee and benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift.
+
+"By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from
+further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better
+suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these
+ladies are not above a cigarette--some of them."
+
+There was a sigh of relief. The lights burned brightly. The Seer for
+the moment retired from business, so to speak. He accepted a partaga
+with a very good grace, sipped his coffee in a corner, and chatted
+to the lady who had suggested Strafford with marked politeness. He
+was a polished gentleman.
+
+Next morning, in the hall of the hotel, I saw Madame Picardet again,
+in a neat tailor-made travelling dress, evidently bound for the
+railway-station.
+
+"What, off, Madame Picardet?" I cried.
+
+She smiled, and held out her prettily-gloved hand. "Yes, I'm off,"
+she answered archly. "Florence, or Rome, or somewhere. I've drained
+Nice dry--like a sucked orange. Got all the fun I can out of it.
+Now I'm away again to my beloved Italy."
+
+But it struck me as odd that, if Italy was her game, she went by the
+omnibus which takes down to the train de luxe for Paris. However,
+a man of the world accepts what a lady tells him, no matter how
+improbable; and I confess, for ten days or so, I thought no more
+about her, or the Seer either.
+
+At the end of that time our fortnightly pass-book came in from
+the bank in London. It is part of my duty, as the millionaire's
+secretary, to make up this book once a fortnight, and to compare
+the cancelled cheques with Sir Charles's counterfoils. On this
+particular occasion I happened to observe what I can only describe
+as a very grave discrepancy,--in fact, a discrepancy of 5000 pounds.
+On the wrong side, too. Sir Charles was debited with 5000 pounds
+more than the total amount that was shown on the counterfoils.
+
+I examined the book with care. The source of the error was obvious.
+It lay in a cheque to Self or Bearer, for 5000 pounds, signed by Sir
+Charles, and evidently paid across the counter in London, as it bore
+on its face no stamp or indication of any other office.
+
+I called in my brother-in-law from the salon to the study. "Look
+here, Charles," I said, "there's a cheque in the book which you
+haven't entered." And I handed it to him without comment, for I
+thought it might have been drawn to settle some little loss on the
+turf or at cards, or to make up some other affair he didn't desire
+to mention to me. These things will happen.
+
+He looked at it and stared hard. Then he pursed up his mouth and
+gave a long low "Whew!" At last he turned it over and remarked,
+"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown,
+haven't we?"
+
+I glanced at the cheque. "How do you mean?" I inquired.
+
+"Why, the Seer," he replied, still staring at it ruefully. "I
+don't mind the five thou., but to think the fellow should have
+gammoned the pair of us like that--ignominious, I call it!"
+
+"How do you know it's the Seer?" I asked.
+
+"Look at the green ink," he answered. "Besides, I recollect the
+very shape of the last flourish. I flourished a bit like that in
+the excitement of the moment, which I don't always do with my
+regular signature."
+
+"He's done us," I answered, recognising it. "But how the dickens
+did he manage to transfer it to the cheque? This looks like your
+own handwriting, Charles, not a clever forgery."
+
+"It is," he said. "I admit it--I can't deny it. Only fancy his
+bamboozling me when I was most on my guard! I wasn't to be taken
+in by any of his silly occult tricks and catch-words; but it never
+occurred to me he was going to victimise me financially in this
+way. I expected attempts at a loan or an extortion; but to collar
+my signature to a blank cheque--atrocious!"
+
+"How did he manage it?" I asked.
+
+"I haven't the faintest conception. I only know those are the
+words I wrote. I could swear to them anywhere."
+
+"Then you can't protest the cheque?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no; it's my own true signature."
+
+We went that afternoon without delay to see the Chief Commissary
+of Police at the office. He was a gentlemanly Frenchman, much less
+formal and red-tapey than usual, and he spoke excellent English
+with an American accent, having acted, in fact, as a detective in
+New York for about ten years in his early manhood.
+
+"I guess," he said slowly, after hearing our story, "you've been
+victimised right here by Colonel Clay, gentlemen."
+
+"Who is Colonel Clay?" Sir Charles asked.
+
+"That's just what I want to know," the Commissary answered, in
+his curious American-French-English. "He is a Colonel, because he
+occasionally gives himself a commission; he is called Colonel Clay,
+because he appears to possess an india-rubber face, and he can
+mould it like clay in the hands of the potter. Real name, unknown.
+Nationality, equally French and English. Address, usually Europe.
+Profession, former maker of wax figures to the Museé Grévin. Age,
+what he chooses. Employs his knowledge to mould his own nose
+and cheeks, with wax additions, to the character he desires to
+personate. Aquiline this time, you say. Hein! Anything like these
+photographs?"
+
+He rummaged in his desk and handed us two.
+
+"Not in the least," Sir Charles answered. "Except, perhaps, as to the
+neck, everything here is quite unlike him."
+
+"Then that's the Colonel!" the Commissary answered, with decision,
+rubbing his hands in glee. "Look here," and he took out a pencil
+and rapidly sketched the outline of one of the two faces--that of
+a bland-looking young man, with no expression worth mentioning.
+"There's the Colonel in his simple disguise. Very good. Now watch
+me: figure to yourself that he adds here a tiny patch of wax to his
+nose--an aquiline bridge--just so; well, you have him right there;
+and the chin, ah, one touch: now, for hair, a wig: for complexion,
+nothing easier: that's the profile of your rascal, isn't it?"
+
+"Exactly," we both murmured. By two curves of the pencil, and a
+shock of false hair, the face was transmuted.
+
+"He had very large eyes, with very big pupils, though," I objected,
+looking close; "and the man in the photograph here has them small
+and boiled-fishy."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "A drop of belladonna
+expands--and produces the Seer; five grains of opium contract--and
+give a dead-alive, stupidly-innocent appearance. Well, you leave
+this affair to me, gentlemen. I'll see the fun out. I don't say I'll
+catch him for you; nobody ever yet has caught Colonel Clay; but
+I'll explain how he did the trick; and that ought to be consolation
+enough to a man of your means for a trifle of five thousand!"
+
+"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le
+Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.
+
+"You bet!" the Commissary replied, and drew himself up like a
+captain of infantry. "Messieurs," he continued, in French, with the
+utmost dignity, "I shall devote the resources of this office to
+tracing out the crime, and, if possible, to effectuating the arrest
+of the culpable."
+
+We telegraphed to London, of course, and we wrote to the bank, with
+a full description of the suspected person. But I need hardly add
+that nothing came of it.
+
+Three days later the Commissary called at our hotel. "Well,
+gentlemen," he said, "I am glad to say I have discovered
+everything!"
+
+"What? Arrested the Seer?" Sir Charles cried.
+
+The Commissary drew back, almost horrified at the suggestion.
+
+"Arrested Colonel Clay?" he exclaimed. "Mais, monsieur, we are only
+human! Arrested him? No, not quite. But tracked out how he did it.
+That is already much--to unravel Colonel Clay, gentlemen!"
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" Sir Charles asked, crestfallen.
+
+The Commissary sat down and gloated over his discovery. It was
+clear a well-planned crime amused him vastly. "In the first place,
+monsieur," he said, "disabuse your mind of the idea that when
+monsieur your secretary went out to fetch Señor Herrera that night,
+Señor Herrera didn't know to whose rooms he was coming. Quite
+otherwise, in point of fact. I do not doubt myself that Señor
+Herrera, or Colonel Clay (call him which you like), came to Nice
+this winter for no other purpose than just to rob you."
+
+"But I sent for him," my brother-in-law interposed.
+
+"Yes; he _meant_ you to send for him. He forced a card, so to
+speak. If he couldn't do that I guess he would be a pretty poor
+conjurer. He had a lady of his own--his wife, let us say, or his
+sister--stopping here at this hotel; a certain Madame Picardet.
+Through her he induced several ladies of your circle to attend his
+séances. She and they spoke to you about him, and aroused your
+curiosity. You may bet your bottom dollar that when he came to
+this room he came ready primed and prepared with endless facts
+about both of you."
+
+"What fools we have been, Sey," my brother-in-law exclaimed. "I see
+it all now. That designing woman sent round before dinner to say I
+wanted to meet him; and by the time you got there he was ready
+for bamboozling me."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "He had your name ready
+painted on both his arms; and he had made other preparations of
+still greater importance."
+
+"You mean the cheque. Well, how did he get it?"
+
+The Commissary opened the door. "Come in," he said. And a young man
+entered whom we recognised at once as the chief clerk in the Foreign
+Department of the Crédit Marseillais, the principal bank all along
+the Riviera.
+
+"State what you know of this cheque," the Commissary said, showing
+it to him, for we had handed it over to the police as a piece of
+evidence.
+
+"About four weeks since--" the clerk began.
+
+"Say ten days before your séance," the Commissary interposed.
+
+"A gentleman with very long hair and an aquiline nose, dark,
+strange, and handsome, called in at my department and asked if I
+could tell him the name of Sir Charles Vandrift's London banker.
+He said he had a sum to pay in to your credit, and asked if we
+would forward it for him. I told him it was irregular for us to
+receive the money, as you had no account with us, but that your
+London bankers were Darby, Drummond, and Rothenberg, Limited."
+
+"Quite right," Sir Charles murmured.
+
+"Two days later a lady, Madame Picardet, who was a customer of ours,
+brought in a good cheque for three hundred pounds, signed by a
+first-rate name, and asked us to pay it in on her behalf to Darby,
+Drummond, and Rothenberg's, and to open a London account with them
+for her. We did so, and received in reply a cheque-book."
+
+"From which this cheque was taken, as I learn from the number,
+by telegram from London," the Commissary put in. "Also, that on
+the same day on which your cheque was cashed, Madame Picardet,
+in London, withdrew her balance."
+
+"But how did the fellow get me to sign the cheque?" Sir Charles
+cried. "How did he manage the card trick?"
+
+The Commissary produced a similar card from his pocket. "Was that
+the sort of thing?" he asked.
+
+"Precisely! A facsimile."
+
+"I thought so. Well, our Colonel, I find, bought a packet of such
+cards, intended for admission to a religious function, at a shop
+in the Quai Massena. He cut out the centre, and, see here--" The
+Commissary turned it over, and showed a piece of paper pasted neatly
+over the back; this he tore off, and there, concealed behind it, lay
+a folded cheque, with only the place where the signature should be
+written showing through on the face which the Seer had presented
+to us. "I call that a neat trick," the Commissary remarked, with
+professional enjoyment of a really good deception.
+
+"But he burnt the envelope before my eyes," Sir Charles exclaimed.
+
+"Pooh!" the Commissary answered. "What would he be worth as a
+conjurer, anyway, if he couldn't substitute one envelope for another
+between the table and the fireplace without your noticing it? And
+Colonel Clay, you must remember, is a prince among conjurers."
+
+"Well, it's a comfort to know we've identified our man, and the
+woman who was with him," Sir Charles said, with a slight sigh of
+relief. "The next thing will be, of course, you'll follow them up
+on these clues in England and arrest them?"
+
+The Commissary shrugged his shoulders. "Arrest them!" he exclaimed,
+much amused. "Ah, monsieur, but you are sanguine! No officer of
+justice has ever succeeded in arresting le Colonel Caoutchouc, as
+we call him in French. He is as slippery as an eel, that man. He
+wriggles through our fingers. Suppose even we caught him, what could
+we prove? I ask you. Nobody who has seen him once can ever swear
+to him again in his next impersonation. He is impayable, this good
+Colonel. On the day when I arrest him, I assure you, monsieur, I
+shall consider myself the smartest police-officer in Europe."
+
+"Well, I shall catch him yet," Sir Charles answered, and relapsed
+into silence.
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DIAMOND LINKS
+
+
+"Let us take a trip to Switzerland," said Lady Vandrift. And any one
+who knows Amelia will not be surprised to learn that we _did_ take a
+trip to Switzerland accordingly. Nobody can drive Sir Charles, except
+his wife. And nobody at all can drive Amelia.
+
+There were difficulties at the outset, because we had not ordered
+rooms at the hotels beforehand, and it was well on in the season;
+but they were overcome at last by the usual application of a golden
+key; and we found ourselves in due time pleasantly quartered in
+Lucerne, at that most comfortable of European hostelries, the
+Schweitzerhof.
+
+We were a square party of four--Sir Charles and Amelia, myself and
+Isabel. We had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the
+lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of
+that incipient mania which shows itself in the form of an insane
+desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and
+unnecessary snowiness, I will venture to assert we all enjoyed
+ourselves. We spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the
+lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb,
+it was on the Rigi or Pilatus--where an engine undertook all the
+muscular work for us.
+
+As usual, at the hotel, a great many miscellaneous people showed a
+burning desire to be specially nice to us. If you wish to see how
+friendly and charming humanity is, just try being a well-known
+millionaire for a week, and you'll learn a thing or two. Wherever
+Sir Charles goes he is surrounded by charming and disinterested
+people, all eager to make his distinguished acquaintance, and all
+familiar with several excellent investments, or several deserving
+objects of Christian charity. It is my business in life, as his
+brother-in-law and secretary, to decline with thanks the excellent
+investments, and to throw judicious cold water on the objects of
+charity. Even I myself, as the great man's almoner, am very much
+sought after. People casually allude before me to artless stories
+of "poor curates in Cumberland, you know, Mr. Wentworth," or widows
+in Cornwall, penniless poets with epics in their desks, and young
+painters who need but the breath of a patron to open to them the
+doors of an admiring Academy. I smile and look wise, while I
+administer cold water in minute doses; but I never report one of
+these cases to Sir Charles, except in the rare or almost unheard-of
+event where I think there is really something in them.
+
+Ever since our little adventure with the Seer at Nice, Sir Charles,
+who is constitutionally cautious, had been even more careful than
+usual about possible sharpers. And, as chance would have it, there
+sat just opposite us at table d'hôte at the Schweitzerhof--'tis
+a fad of Amelia's to dine at table d'hôte; she says she can't bear
+to be boxed up all day in private rooms with "too much family"--a
+sinister-looking man with dark hair and eyes, conspicuous by his
+bushy overhanging eyebrows. My attention was first called to the
+eyebrows in question by a nice little parson who sat at our side,
+and who observed that they were made up of certain large and bristly
+hairs, which (he told us) had been traced by Darwin to our monkey
+ancestors. Very pleasant little fellow, this fresh-faced young
+parson, on his honeymoon tour with a nice wee wife, a bonnie Scotch
+lassie with a charming accent.
+
+I looked at the eyebrows close. Then a sudden thought struck me. "Do
+you believe they're his own?" I asked of the curate; "or are they
+only stuck on--a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it."
+
+"You don't suppose--" Charles began, and checked himself suddenly.
+
+"Yes, I do," I answered; "the Seer!" Then I recollected my blunder,
+and looked down sheepishly. For, to say the truth, Vandrift had
+straightly enjoined on me long before to say nothing of our painful
+little episode at Nice to Amelia; he was afraid if _she_ once heard
+of it, _he_ would hear of it for ever after.
+
+"What Seer?" the little parson inquired, with parsonical curiosity.
+
+I noticed the man with the overhanging eyebrows give a queer sort
+of start. Charles's glance was fixed upon me. I hardly knew what
+to answer.
+
+"Oh, a man who was at Nice with us last year," I stammered out,
+trying hard to look unconcerned. "A fellow they talked about,
+that's all." And I turned the subject.
+
+But the curate, like a donkey, wouldn't let me turn it.
+
+"Had he eyebrows like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I was
+really angry. If this _was_ Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously
+giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to
+catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the chance of
+doing so.
+
+"No, he hadn't," I answered testily; "it was a passing expression.
+But this is not the man. I was mistaken, no doubt." And I nudged
+him gently.
+
+The little curate was too innocent for anything. "Oh, I see," he
+replied, nodding hard and looking wise. Then he turned to his wife
+and made an obvious face, which the man with the eyebrows couldn't
+fail to notice.
+
+Fortunately, a political discussion going on a few places farther
+down the table spread up to us and diverted attention for a moment.
+The magical name of Gladstone saved us. Sir Charles flared up. I
+was truly pleased, for I could see Amelia was boiling over with
+curiosity by this time.
+
+After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the big
+eyebrows sidled up and began to talk to me. If he _was_ Colonel
+Clay, it was evident he bore us no grudge at all for the five
+thousand pounds he had done us out of. On the contrary, he seemed
+quite prepared to do us out of five thousand more when opportunity
+offered; for he introduced himself at once as Dr. Hector Macpherson,
+the exclusive grantee of extensive concessions from the Brazilian
+Government on the Upper Amazons. He dived into conversation with
+me at once as to the splendid mineral resources of his Brazilian
+estate--the silver, the platinum, the actual rubies, the possible
+diamonds. I listened and smiled; I knew what was coming. All he
+needed to develop this magnificent concession was a little more
+capital. It was sad to see thousands of pounds' worth of platinum
+and car-loads of rubies just crumbling in the soil or carried away
+by the river, for want of a few hundreds to work them with properly.
+If he knew of anybody, now, with money to invest, he could recommend
+him--nay, offer him--a unique opportunity of earning, say, 40 per
+cent on his capital, on unimpeachable security.
+
+"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpherson remarked,
+drawing himself up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who had
+command of ready cash, I might choose to put him in the way of
+feathering his nest with unexampled rapidity."
+
+"Exceedingly disinterested of you," I answered drily, fixing my
+eyes on his eyebrows.
+
+The little curate, meanwhile, was playing billiards with Sir
+Charles. His glance followed mine as it rested for a moment on
+the monkey-like hairs.
+
+"False, obviously false," he remarked with his lips; and I'm bound
+to confess I never saw any man speak so well by movement alone;
+you could follow every word though not a sound escaped him.
+
+During the rest of that evening Dr. Hector Macpherson stuck to me
+as close as a mustard-plaster. And he was almost as irritating. I
+got heartily sick of the Upper Amazons. I have positively waded in
+my time through ruby mines (in prospectuses, I mean) till the mere
+sight of a ruby absolutely sickens me. When Charles, in an unwonted
+fit of generosity, once gave his sister Isabel (whom I had the
+honour to marry) a ruby necklet (inferior stones), I made Isabel
+change it for sapphires and amethysts, on the judicious plea that
+they suited her complexion better. (I scored one, incidentally, for
+having considered Isabel's complexion.) By the time I went to bed
+I was prepared to sink the Upper Amazons in the sea, and to stab,
+shoot, poison, or otherwise seriously damage the man with the
+concession and the false eyebrows.
+
+For the next three days, at intervals, he returned to the charge. He
+bored me to death with his platinum and his rubies. He didn't want a
+capitalist who would personally exploit the thing; he would prefer
+to do it all on his own account, giving the capitalist preference
+debentures of his bogus company, and a lien on the concession. I
+listened and smiled; I listened and yawned; I listened and was rude;
+I ceased to listen at all; but still he droned on with it. I fell
+asleep on the steamer one day, and woke up in ten minutes to hear
+him droning yet, "And the yield of platinum per ton was certified
+to be--" I forget how many pounds, or ounces, or pennyweights.
+These details of assays have ceased to interest me: like the man
+who "didn't believe in ghosts," I have seen too many of them.
+
+The fresh-faced little curate and his wife, however, were quite
+different people. He was a cricketing Oxford man; she was a breezy
+Scotch lass, with a wholesome breath of the Highlands about her. I
+called her "White Heather." Their name was Brabazon. Millionaires
+are so accustomed to being beset by harpies of every description,
+that when they come across a young couple who are simple and
+natural, they delight in the purely human relation. We picnicked
+and went excursions a great deal with the honeymooners. They were
+so frank in their young love, and so proof against chaff, that we
+all really liked them. But whenever I called the pretty girl "White
+Heather," she looked so shocked, and cried: "Oh, Mr. Wentworth!"
+Still, we were the best of friends. The curate offered to row us in
+a boat on the lake one day, while the Scotch lassie assured us she
+could take an oar almost as well as he did. However, we did not
+accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence
+upon Amelia's digestive organs.
+
+"Nice young fellow, that man Brabazon," Sir Charles said to me one
+day, as we lounged together along the quay; "never talks about
+advowsons or next presentations. Doesn't seem to me to care two pins
+about promotion. Says he's quite content in his country curacy;
+enough to live upon, and needs no more; and his wife has a little, a
+very little, money. I asked him about his poor to-day, on purpose to
+test him: these parsons are always trying to screw something out of
+one for their poor; men in my position know the truth of the saying
+that we have that class of the population always with us. Would
+you believe it, he says he hasn't any poor at all in his parish!
+They're all well-to-do farmers or else able-bodied labourers, and
+his one terror is that somebody will come and try to pauperise them.
+'If a philanthropist were to give me fifty pounds to-day for use at
+Empingham,' he said, 'I assure you, Sir Charles, I shouldn't know
+what to do with it. I think I should buy new dresses for Jessie, who
+wants them about as much as anybody else in the village--that is to
+say, not at all.' There's a parson for you, Sey, my boy. Only wish
+we had one of his sort at Seldon."
+
+"He certainly doesn't want to get anything out of you," I answered.
+
+That evening at dinner a queer little episode happened. The man
+with the eyebrows began talking to me across the table in his usual
+fashion, full of his wearisome concession on the Upper Amazons. I
+was trying to squash him as politely as possible, when I caught
+Amelia's eye. Her look amused me. She was engaged in making signals
+to Charles at her side to observe the little curate's curious
+sleeve-links. I glanced at them, and saw at once they were a
+singular possession for so unobtrusive a person. They consisted
+each of a short gold bar for one arm of the link, fastened by a
+tiny chain of the same material to what seemed to my tolerably
+experienced eye--a first-rate diamond. Pretty big diamonds, too,
+and of remarkable shape, brilliancy, and cutting. In a moment I
+knew what Amelia meant. She owned a diamond rivière, said to be
+of Indian origin, but short by two stones for the circumference
+of her tolerably ample neck. Now, she had long been wanting two
+diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
+shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
+been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
+extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
+
+The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
+broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
+another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
+turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
+sleeve-links."
+
+"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
+unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
+
+But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
+to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They _are_ good stones,"
+he replied; "very good stones--considering. They're not diamonds
+at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
+paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
+Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
+from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
+thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
+they were only paste--very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
+even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation. But they
+are worth--well, say, fifty shillings at the utmost."
+
+While he spoke Charles looked at Amelia, and Amelia looked at
+Charles. Their eyes spoke volumes. The rivière was also supposed to
+have come from Tippoo's collection. Both drew at once an identical
+conclusion. These were two of the same stones, very likely torn
+apart and disengaged from the rest in the mêlée at the capture of
+the Indian palace.
+
+"Can you take them off?" Sir Charles asked blandly. He spoke in
+the tone that indicates business.
+
+"Certainly," the little curate answered, smiling. "I'm accustomed to
+taking them off. They're always noticed. They've been kept in the
+family ever since the siege, as a sort of valueless heirloom, for
+the sake of the picturesqueness of the story, you know; and nobody
+ever sees them without asking, as you do, to examine them closely.
+They deceive even experts at first. But they're paste, all the same;
+unmitigated Oriental paste, for all that."
+
+He took them both off, and handed them to Charles. No man in England
+is a finer judge of gems than my brother-in-law. I watched him
+narrowly. He examined them close, first with the naked eye, then
+with the little pocket-lens which he always carries. "Admirable
+imitation," he muttered, passing them on to Amelia. "I'm not
+surprised they should impose upon inexperienced observers."
+
+But from the tone in which he said it, I could see at once he had
+satisfied himself they were real gems of unusual value. I know
+Charles's way of doing business so well. His glance to Amelia meant,
+"These are the very stones you have so long been in search of."
+
+The Scotch lassie laughed a merry laugh. "He sees through them
+now, Dick," she cried. "I felt sure Sir Charles would be a judge
+of diamonds."
+
+Amelia turned them over. I know Amelia, too; and I knew from the
+way Amelia looked at them that she meant to have them. And when
+Amelia means to have anything, people who stand in the way may just
+as well spare themselves the trouble of opposing her.
+
+They were beautiful diamonds. We found out afterwards the little
+curate's account was quite correct: these stones _had_ come from
+the same necklet as Amelia's rivière, made for a favourite wife of
+Tippoo's, who had presumably as expansive personal charms as our
+beloved sister-in-law's. More perfect diamonds have seldom been
+seen. They have excited the universal admiration of thieves and
+connoisseurs. Amelia told me afterwards that, according to legend,
+a Sepoy stole the necklet at the sack of the palace, and then fought
+with another for it. It was believed that two stones got spilt
+in the scuffle, and were picked up and sold by a third person--a
+looker-on--who had no idea of the value of his booty. Amelia had
+been hunting for them for several years to complete her necklet.
+
+"They are excellent paste," Sir Charles observed, handing them back.
+"It takes a first-rate judge to detect them from the reality. Lady
+Vandrift has a necklet much the same in character, but composed
+of genuine stones; and as these are so much like them, and would
+complete her set, to all outer appearance, I wouldn't mind giving
+you, say, 10 pounds for the pair of them."
+
+Mrs. Brabazon looked delighted. "Oh, sell them to him, Dick," she
+cried, "and buy me a brooch with the money! A pair of common
+links would do for you just as well. Ten pounds for two paste
+stones! It's quite a lot of money."
+
+She said it so sweetly, with her pretty Scotch accent, that I
+couldn't imagine how Dick had the heart to refuse her. But he
+did, all the same.
+
+"No, Jess, darling," he answered. "They're worthless, I know; but
+they have for me a certain sentimental value, as I've often told
+you. My dear mother wore them, while she lived, as ear-rings; and
+as soon as she died I had them set as links in order that I might
+always keep them about me. Besides, they have historical and family
+interest. Even a worthless heirloom, after all, _is_ an heirloom."
+
+Dr. Hector Macpherson looked across and intervened. "There is a
+part of my concession," he said, "where we have reason to believe a
+perfect new Kimberley will soon be discovered. If at any time you
+would care, Sir Charles, to look at my diamonds--when I get them--it
+would afford me the greatest pleasure in life to submit them to your
+consideration."
+
+Sir Charles could stand it no longer. "Sir," he said, gazing across
+at him with his sternest air, "if your concession were as full of
+diamonds as Sindbad the Sailor's valley, I would not care to turn my
+head to look at them. I am acquainted with the nature and practice
+of salting." And he glared at the man with the overhanging eyebrows
+as if he would devour him raw. Poor Dr. Hector Macpherson subsided
+instantly. We learnt a little later that he was a harmless lunatic,
+who went about the world with successive concessions for ruby mines
+and platinum reefs, because he had been ruined and driven mad by
+speculations in the two, and now recouped himself by imaginary
+grants in Burmah and Brazil, or anywhere else that turned up handy.
+And his eyebrows, after all, were of Nature's handicraft. We were
+sorry for the incident; but a man in Sir Charles's position is such
+a mark for rogues that, if he did not take means to protect himself
+promptly, he would be for ever overrun by them.
+
+When we went up to our salon that evening, Amelia flung herself on
+the sofa. "Charles," she broke out in the voice of a tragedy queen,
+"those are real diamonds, and I shall never be happy again till I
+get them."
+
+"They are real diamonds," Charles echoed. "And you shall have them,
+Amelia. They're worth not less than three thousand pounds. But I
+shall bid them up gently."
+
+So, next day, Charles set to work to higgle with the curate.
+Brabazon, however, didn't care to part with them. He was no
+money-grubber, he said. He cared more for his mother's gift and a
+family tradition than for a hundred pounds, if Sir Charles were to
+offer it. Charles's eye gleamed. "But if I give you _two_ hundred!"
+he said insinuatingly. "What opportunities for good! You could
+build a new wing to your village school-house!"
+
+"We have ample accommodation," the curate answered. "No, I don't
+think I'll sell them."
+
+Still, his voice faltered somewhat, and he looked down at them
+inquiringly.
+
+Charles was too precipitate.
+
+"A hundred pounds more or less matters little to me," he said; "and
+my wife has set her heart on them. It's every man's duty to please
+his wife--isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?--I offer you three hundred."
+
+The little Scotch girl clasped her hands.
+
+"Three hundred pounds! Oh, Dick, just think what fun we could have,
+and what good we could do with it! Do let him have them."
+
+Her accent was irresistible. But the curate shook his head.
+
+"Impossible," he answered. "My dear mother's ear-rings! Uncle
+Aubrey would be so angry if he knew I'd sold them. I daren't face
+Uncle Aubrey."
+
+"Has he expectations from Uncle Aubrey?" Sir Charles asked of
+White Heather.
+
+Mrs. Brabazon laughed. "Uncle Aubrey! Oh, dear, no. Poor dear old
+Uncle Aubrey! Why, the darling old soul hasn't a penny to bless
+himself with, except his pension. He's a retired post captain."
+And she laughed melodiously. She was a charming woman.
+
+"Then I should disregard Uncle Aubrey's feelings," Sir Charles
+said decisively.
+
+"No, no," the curate answered. "Poor dear old Uncle Aubrey! I
+wouldn't do anything for the world to annoy him. And he'd be sure
+to notice it."
+
+We went back to Amelia. "Well, have you got them?" she asked.
+
+"No," Sir Charles answered. "Not yet. But he's coming round, I
+think. He's hesitating now. Would rather like to sell them himself,
+but is afraid what 'Uncle Aubrey' would say about the matter. His
+wife will talk him out of his needless consideration for Uncle
+Aubrey's feelings; and to-morrow we'll finally clench the bargain."
+
+Next morning we stayed late in our salon, where we always
+breakfasted, and did not come down to the public rooms till just
+before déjeûner, Sir Charles being busy with me over arrears of
+correspondence. When we _did_ come down the concierge stepped
+forward with a twisted little feminine note for Amelia. She took
+it and read it. Her countenance fell. "There, Charles," she cried,
+handing it to him, "you've let the chance slip. I shall _never_ be
+happy now! They've gone off with the diamonds."
+
+Charles seized the note and read it. Then he passed it on to me.
+It was short, but final:--
+
+
+"Thursday, 6 a.m.
+
+"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT--_Will_ you kindly excuse our having gone off
+hurriedly without bidding you good-bye? We have just had a horrid
+telegram to say that Dick's favourite sister is _dangerously_ ill of
+fever in Paris. I wanted to shake hands with you before we left--you
+have all been so sweet to us--but we go by the morning train,
+absurdly early, and I wouldn't for worlds disturb you. Perhaps some
+day we may meet again--though, buried as we are in a North-country
+village, it isn't likely; but in any case, you have secured the
+grateful recollection of Yours very cordially, JESSIE BRABAZON.
+
+"P.S.--Kindest regards to Sir Charles and those _dear_ Wentworths,
+and a kiss for yourself, if I may venture to send you one."
+
+
+"She doesn't even mention where they've gone," Amelia exclaimed,
+in a very bad humour.
+
+"The concierge may know," Isabel suggested, looking over my
+shoulder.
+
+We asked at his office.
+
+Yes, the gentleman's address was the Rev. Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+Holme Bush Cottage, Empingham, Northumberland.
+
+Any address where letters might be sent at once, in Paris?
+
+For the next ten days, or till further notice, Hôtel des Deux
+Mondes, Avenue de l'Opéra.
+
+Amelia's mind was made up at once.
+
+"Strike while the iron's hot," she cried. "This sudden illness,
+coming at the end of their honeymoon, and involving ten days' more
+stay at an expensive hotel, will probably upset the curate's budget.
+He'll be glad to sell now. You'll get them for three hundred. It
+was absurd of Charles to offer so much at first; but offered once,
+of course we must stick to it."
+
+"What do you propose to do?" Charles asked. "Write, or telegraph?"
+
+"Oh, how silly men are!" Amelia cried. "Is this the sort of business
+to be arranged by letter, still less by telegram? No. Seymour must
+start off at once, taking the night train to Paris; and the moment
+he gets there, he must interview the curate or Mrs. Brabazon. Mrs.
+Brabazon's the best. She has none of this stupid, sentimental
+nonsense about Uncle Aubrey."
+
+It is no part of a secretary's duties to act as a diamond broker.
+But when Amelia puts her foot down, she puts her foot down--a fact
+which she is unnecessarily fond of emphasising in that identical
+proposition. So the self-same evening saw me safe in the train on
+my way to Paris; and next morning I turned out of my comfortable
+sleeping-car at the Gare de Strasbourg. My orders were to bring back
+those diamonds, alive or dead, so to speak, in my pocket to Lucerne;
+and to offer any needful sum, up to two thousand five hundred
+pounds, for their immediate purchase.
+
+When I arrived at the Deux Mondes I found the poor little curate
+and his wife both greatly agitated. They had sat up all night, they
+said, with their invalid sister; and the sleeplessness and suspense
+had certainly told upon them after their long railway journey. They
+were pale and tired, Mrs. Brabazon, in particular, looking ill and
+worried--too much like White Heather. I was more than half ashamed
+of bothering them about the diamonds at such a moment, but it
+occurred to me that Amelia was probably right--they would now have
+reached the end of the sum set apart for their Continental trip,
+and a little ready cash might be far from unwelcome.
+
+I broached the subject delicately. It was a fad of Lady Vandrift's,
+I said. She had set her heart upon those useless trinkets. And she
+wouldn't go without them. She must and would have them. But the
+curate was obdurate. He threw Uncle Aubrey still in my teeth. Three
+hundred?--no, never! A mother's present; impossible, dear Jessie!
+Jessie begged and prayed; she had grown really attached to Lady
+Vandrift, she said; but the curate wouldn't hear of it. I went up
+tentatively to four hundred. He shook his head gloomily. It wasn't
+a question of money, he said. It was a question of affection. I saw
+it was no use trying that tack any longer. I struck out a new line.
+"These stones," I said, "I think I ought to inform you, are really
+diamonds. Sir Charles is certain of it. Now, is it right for a man
+of your profession and position to be wearing a pair of big gems
+like those, worth several hundred pounds, as ordinary sleeve-links?
+A woman?--yes, I grant you. But for a man, is it manly? And you a
+cricketer!"
+
+He looked at me and laughed. "Will nothing convince you?" he cried.
+"They have been examined and tested by half a dozen jewellers, and
+we know them to be paste. It wouldn't be right of me to sell them
+to you under false pretences, however unwilling on my side. I
+_couldn't_ do it."
+
+"Well, then," I said, going up a bit in my bids to meet him,
+"I'll put it like this. These gems are paste. But Lady Vandrift
+has an unconquerable and unaccountable desire to possess them.
+Money doesn't matter to her. She is a friend of your wife's. As a
+personal favour, won't you sell them to her for a thousand?"
+
+He shook his head. "It would be wrong," he said,--"I might even add,
+criminal."
+
+"But we take all risk," I cried.
+
+He was absolute adamant. "As a clergyman," he answered, "I feel
+I cannot do it."
+
+"Will _you_ try, Mrs. Brabazon?" I asked.
+
+The pretty little Scotchwoman leant over and whispered. She coaxed
+and cajoled him. Her ways were winsome. I couldn't hear what she
+said, but he seemed to give way at last. "I should love Lady
+Vandrift to have them," she murmured, turning to me. "She _is_ such
+a dear!" And she took out the links from her husband's cuffs and
+handed them across to me.
+
+"How much?" I asked.
+
+"Two thousand?" she answered, interrogatively. It was a big rise,
+all at once; but such are the ways of women.
+
+"Done!" I replied. "Do you consent?"
+
+The curate looked up as if ashamed of himself.
+
+"I consent," he said slowly, "since Jessie wishes it. But as a
+clergyman, and to prevent any future misunderstanding, I should
+like you to give me a statement in writing that you buy them on my
+distinct and positive declaration that they are made of paste--old
+Oriental paste--not genuine stones, and that I do not claim any
+other qualities for them."
+
+I popped the gems into my purse, well pleased.
+
+"Certainly," I said, pulling out a paper. Charles, with his
+unerring business instinct, had anticipated the request, and given
+me a signed agreement to that effect.
+
+"You will take a cheque?" I inquired.
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Notes of the Bank of France would suit me better," he answered.
+
+"Very well," I replied. "I will go out and get them."
+
+How very unsuspicious some people are! He allowed me to go off--with
+the stones in my pocket!
+
+Sir Charles had given me a blank cheque, not exceeding two thousand
+five hundred pounds. I took it to our agents and cashed it for notes
+of the Bank of France. The curate clasped them with pleasure. And
+right glad I was to go back to Lucerne that night, feeling that I
+had got those diamonds into my hands for about a thousand pounds
+under their real value!
+
+At Lucerne railway station Amelia met me. She was positively
+agitated.
+
+"Have you bought them, Seymour?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered, producing my spoils in triumph.
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" she cried, drawing back. "Do you think they're
+real? Are you sure he hasn't cheated you?"
+
+"Certain of it," I replied, examining them. "No one can take me in,
+in the matter of diamonds. Why on earth should you doubt them?"
+
+"Because I've been talking to Mrs. O'Hagan, at the hotel, and she
+says there's a well-known trick just like that--she's read of it in
+a book. A swindler has two sets--one real, one false; and he makes
+you buy the false ones by showing you the real, and pretending he
+sells them as a special favour."
+
+"You needn't be alarmed," I answered. "I am a judge of diamonds."
+
+"I shan't be satisfied," Amelia murmured, "till Charles has seen
+them."
+
+We went up to the hotel. For the first time in her life I saw Amelia
+really nervous as I handed the stones to Charles to examine. Her
+doubt was contagious. I half feared, myself, he might break out into
+a deep monosyllabic interjection, losing his temper in haste, as he
+often does when things go wrong. But he looked at them with a smile,
+while I told him the price.
+
+"Eight hundred pounds less than their value," he answered, well
+satisfied.
+
+"You have no doubt of their reality?" I asked.
+
+"Not the slightest," he replied, gazing at them. "They are genuine
+stones, precisely the same in quality and type as Amelia's necklet."
+
+Amelia drew a sigh of relief. "I'll go upstairs," she said slowly,
+"and bring down my own for you both to compare with them."
+
+One minute later she rushed down again, breathless. Amelia is far
+from slim, and I never before knew her exert herself so actively.
+
+"Charles, Charles!" she cried, "do you know what dreadful thing
+has happened? Two of my own stones are gone. He's stolen a couple
+of diamonds from my necklet, and sold them back to me."
+
+She held out the rivière. It was all too true. Two gems were
+missing--and these two just fitted the empty places!
+
+A light broke in upon me. I clapped my hand to my head. "By Jove,"
+I exclaimed, "the little curate is--Colonel Clay!"
+
+Charles clapped his own hand to his brow in turn. "And Jessie," he
+cried, "White Heather--that innocent little Scotchwoman! I often
+detected a familiar ring in her voice, in spite of the charming
+Highland accent. Jessie is--Madame Picardet!"
+
+We had absolutely no evidence; but, like the Commissary at Nice,
+we felt instinctively sure of it.
+
+Sir Charles was determined to catch the rogue. This second deception
+put him on his mettle. "The worst of the man is," he said, "he has a
+method. He doesn't go out of his way to cheat us; he makes us go out
+of ours to be cheated. He lays a trap, and we tumble headlong into
+it. To-morrow, Sey, we must follow him on to Paris."
+
+Amelia explained to him what Mrs. O'Hagan had said. Charles took it
+all in at once, with his usual sagacity. "That explains," he said,
+"why the rascal used this particular trick to draw us on by. If we
+had suspected him he could have shown the diamonds were real, and
+so escaped detection. It was a blind to draw us off from the fact
+of the robbery. He went to Paris to be out of the way when the
+discovery was made, and to get a clear day's start of us. What a
+consummate rogue! And to do me twice running!"
+
+"How did he get at my jewel-case, though?" Amelia exclaimed.
+
+"That's the question," Charles answered. "You _do_ leave it about so!"
+
+"And why didn't he steal the whole rivière at once, and sell the
+gems?" I inquired.
+
+"Too cunning," Charles replied. "This was much better business. It
+isn't easy to dispose of a big thing like that. In the first place,
+the stones are large and valuable; in the second place, they're
+well known--every dealer has heard of the Vandrift rivière, and seen
+pictures of the shape of them. They're marked gems, so to speak. No,
+he played a better game--took a couple of them off, and offered them
+to the only one person on earth who was likely to buy them without
+suspicion. He came here, meaning to work this very trick; he had
+the links made right to the shape beforehand, and then he stole the
+stones and slipped them into their places. It's a wonderfully clever
+trick. Upon my soul, I almost admire the fellow."
+
+For Charles is a business man himself, and can appreciate business
+capacity in others.
+
+How Colonel Clay came to know about that necklet, and to appropriate
+two of the stones, we only discovered much later. I will not here
+anticipate that disclosure. One thing at a time is a good rule in
+life. For the moment he succeeded in baffling us altogether.
+
+However, we followed him on to Paris, telegraphing beforehand to the
+Bank of France to stop the notes. It was all in vain. They had been
+cashed within half an hour of my paying them. The curate and his
+wife, we found, quitted the Hôtel des Deux Mondes for parts unknown
+that same afternoon. And, as usual with Colonel Clay, they vanished
+into space, leaving no clue behind them. In other words, they
+changed their disguise, no doubt, and reappeared somewhere else that
+night in altered characters. At any rate, no such person as the
+Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon was ever afterwards heard of--and,
+for the matter of that, no such village exists as Empingham,
+Northumberland.
+
+We communicated the matter to the Parisian police. They were _most_
+unsympathetic. "It is no doubt Colonel Clay," said the official
+whom we saw; "but you seem to have little just ground of complaint
+against him. As far as I can see, messieurs, there is not much to
+choose between you. You, Monsieur le Chevalier, desired to buy
+diamonds at the price of paste. You, madame, feared you had bought
+paste at the price of diamonds. You, monsieur the secretary, tried
+to get the stones from an unsuspecting person for half their value.
+He took you all in, that brave Colonel Caoutchouc--it was diamond
+cut diamond."
+
+Which was true, no doubt, but by no means consoling.
+
+We returned to the Grand Hotel. Charles was fuming with indignation.
+"This is really too much," he exclaimed. "What an audacious rascal!
+But he will never again take me in, my dear Sey. I only hope he'll
+try it on. I should love to catch him. I'd know him another time,
+I'm sure, in spite of his disguises. It's absurd my being tricked
+twice running like this. But never again while I live! Never again,
+I declare to you!"
+
+"Jamais de la vie!" a courier in the hall close by murmured
+responsive. We stood under the verandah of the Grand Hotel, in the
+big glass courtyard. And I verily believe that courier was really
+Colonel Clay himself in one of his disguises.
+
+But perhaps we were beginning to suspect him everywhere.
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD MASTER
+
+
+Like most South Africans, Sir Charles Vandrift is anything but
+sedentary. He hates sitting down. He must always "trek." He cannot
+live without moving about freely. Six weeks in Mayfair at a time is
+as much as he can stand. Then he must run away incontinently for
+rest and change to Scotland, Homburg, Monte Carlo, Biarritz. "I
+won't be a limpet on the rock," he says. Thus it came to pass that
+in the early autumn we found ourselves stopping at the Métropole
+at Brighton. We were the accustomed nice little family party--Sir
+Charles and Amelia, myself and Isabel, with the suite as usual.
+
+On the first Sunday morning after our arrival we strolled out,
+Charles and I--I regret to say during the hours allotted for Divine
+service--on to the King's Road, to get a whiff of fresh air, and a
+glimpse of the waves that were churning the Channel. The two ladies
+(with their bonnets) had gone to church; but Sir Charles had risen
+late, fatigued from the week's toil, while I myself was suffering
+from a matutinal headache, which I attributed to the close air in
+the billiard-room overnight, combined, perhaps, with the insidious
+effect of a brand of soda-water to which I was little accustomed; I
+had used it to dilute my evening whisky. We were to meet our wives
+afterwards at the church parade--an institution to which I believe
+both Amelia and Isabel attach even greater importance than to the
+sermon which precedes it.
+
+We sat down on a glass seat. Charles gazed inquiringly up and down
+the King's Road, on the look-out for a boy with Sunday papers.
+At last one passed. "Observer," my brother-in-law called out
+laconically.
+
+"Ain't got none," the boy answered, brandishing his bundle in our
+faces. "'Ave a Referee or a Pink 'Un?"
+
+Charles, however, is not a Refereader, while as to the Pink 'Un, he
+considers it unsuitable for public perusal on Sunday morning. It may
+be read indoors, but in the open air its blush betrays it. So he
+shook his head, and muttered, "If you pass an Observer, send him on
+here at once to me."
+
+A polite stranger who sat close to us turned round with a pleasant
+smile. "Would you allow me to offer you one?" he said, drawing a
+copy from his pocket. "I fancy I bought the last. There's a run
+on them to-day, you see. Important news this morning from the
+Transvaal."
+
+Charles raised his eyebrows, and accepted it, as I thought, just a
+trifle grumpily. So, to remove the false impression his surliness
+might produce on so benevolent a mind, I entered into conversation
+with the polite stranger. He was a man of middle age, and medium
+height, with a cultivated air, and a pair of gold pince-nez; his
+eyes were sharp; his voice was refined; he dropped into talk before
+long about distinguished people just then in Brighton. It was clear
+at once that he was hand in glove with many of the very best kind.
+We compared notes as to Nice, Rome, Florence, Cairo. Our new
+acquaintance had scores of friends in common with us, it seemed;
+indeed, our circles so largely coincided, that I wondered we had
+never happened till then to knock up against one another.
+
+"And Sir Charles Vandrift, the great African millionaire," he said
+at last, "do you know anything of _him_? I'm told he's at present
+down here at the Métropole."
+
+I waved my hand towards the person in question.
+
+"_This_ is Sir Charles Vandrift," I answered, with proprietary pride;
+"and _I_ am his brother-in-law, Mr. Seymour Wentworth."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" the stranger answered, with a curious air of drawing
+in his horns. I wondered whether he had just been going to pretend
+he knew Sir Charles, or whether perchance he was on the point of
+saying something highly uncomplimentary, and was glad to have
+escaped it.
+
+By this time, however, Charles laid down the paper and chimed into
+our conversation. I could see at once from his mollified tone that
+the news from the Transvaal was favourable to his operations in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. He was therefore in a friendly and affable
+temper. His whole manner changed at once. He grew polite in return
+to the polite stranger. Besides, we knew the man moved in the best
+society; he had acquaintances whom Amelia was most anxious to secure
+for her "At Homes" in Mayfair--young Faith, the novelist, and Sir
+Richard Montrose, the great Arctic traveller. As for the painters,
+it was clear that he was sworn friends with the whole lot of them.
+He dined with Academicians, and gave weekly breakfasts to the
+members of the Institute. Now, Amelia is particularly desirous
+that her salon should not be considered too exclusively financial
+and political in character: with a solid basis of M.P.'s and
+millionaires, she loves a delicate under-current of literature,
+art, and the musical glasses. Our new acquaintance was extremely
+communicative: "Knows his place in society, Sey," Sir Charles said
+to me afterwards, "and is therefore not afraid of talking freely,
+as so many people are who have doubts about their position." We
+exchanged cards before we rose. Our new friend's name turned out
+to be Dr. Edward Polperro.
+
+"In practice here?" I inquired, though his garb belied it.
+
+"Oh, not medical," he answered. "I am an LL.D. don't you know. I
+interest myself in art, and buy to some extent for the National
+Gallery."
+
+The very man for Amelia's "At Homes"! Sir Charles snapped at him
+instantly. "I've brought my four-in-hand down here with me," he
+said, in his best friendly manner, "and we think of tooling over
+to-morrow to Lewes. If you'd care to take a seat I'm sure Lady
+Vandrift would be charmed to see you."
+
+"You're very kind," the Doctor said, "on so casual an introduction.
+I'm sure I shall be delighted."
+
+"We start from the Métropole at ten-thirty," Charles went on.
+
+"I shall be there. Good morning!" And, with a satisfied smile, he
+rose and left us, nodding.
+
+We returned to the lawn, to Amelia and Isabel. Our new friend passed
+us once or twice. Charles stopped him and introduced him. He was
+walking with two ladies, most elegantly dressed in rather peculiar
+artistic dresses. Amelia was taken at first sight by his manner.
+"One could see at a glance," she said, "he was a person of culture
+and of real distinction. I wonder whether he could bring the P.R.A.
+to my Parliamentary 'At Home' on Wednesday fortnight?"
+
+Next day, at ten-thirty, we started on our drive. Our team has been
+considered the best in Sussex. Charles is an excellent, though
+somewhat anxious--or, might I say better, somewhat careful?--whip.
+He finds the management of two leaders and two wheelers fills his
+hands for the moment, both literally and figuratively, leaving very
+little time for general conversation. Lady Belleisle of Beacon
+bloomed beside him on the box (her bloom is perennial, and applied
+by her maid); Dr. Polperro occupied the seat just behind with myself
+and Amelia. The Doctor talked most of the time to Lady Vandrift: his
+discourse was of picture-galleries, which Amelia detests, but in
+which she thinks it incumbent upon her, as Sir Charles's wife, to
+affect now and then a cultivated interest. Noblesse oblige; and the
+walls of Castle Seldon, our place in Ross-shire, are almost covered
+now with Leaders and with Orchardsons. This result was first arrived
+at by a singular accident. Sir Charles wanted a leader--for his
+coach, you understand--and told an artistic friend so. The artistic
+friend brought him a Leader next week with a capital L; and Sir
+Charles was so taken aback that he felt ashamed to confess the
+error. So he was turned unawares into a patron of painting.
+
+Dr. Polperro, in spite of his too pronouncedly artistic talk, proved
+on closer view a most agreeable companion. He diversified his art
+cleverly with anecdotes and scandals; he told us exactly which
+famous painters had married their cooks, and which had only married
+their models; and otherwise showed himself a most diverting talker.
+Among other things, however, he happened to mention once that he
+had recently discovered a genuine Rembrandt--a quite undoubted
+Rembrandt, which had remained for years in the keeping of a
+certain obscure Dutch family. It had always been allowed to be a
+masterpiece of the painter, but it had seldom been seen for the
+last half-century save by a few intimate acquaintances. It was a
+portrait of one Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and he had bought it
+of her descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+I saw Charles prick up his ears, though he took no open notice.
+This Maria Vanrenen, as it happened, was a remote collateral
+ancestress of the Vandrifts, before they emigrated to the Cape in
+1780; and the existence of the portrait, though not its whereabouts,
+was well known in the family. Isabel had often mentioned it. If it
+was to be had at anything like a reasonable price, it would be a
+splendid thing for the boys (Sir Charles, I ought to say, has two
+sons at Eton) to possess an undoubted portrait of an ancestress
+by Rembrandt.
+
+Dr. Polperro talked a good deal after that about this valuable find.
+He had tried to sell it at first to the National Gallery; but
+though the Directors admired the work immensely, and admitted its
+genuineness, they regretted that the funds at their disposal this
+year did not permit them to acquire so important a canvas at a
+proper figure. South Kensington again was too poor; but the Doctor
+was in treaty at present with the Louvre and with Berlin. Still,
+it was a pity a fine work of art like that, once brought into the
+country, should be allowed to go out of it. Some patriotic patron
+of the fine arts ought to buy it for his own house, or else
+munificently present it to the nation.
+
+All the time Charles said nothing. But I could feel him cogitating.
+He even looked behind him once, near a difficult corner (while the
+guard was actually engaged in tootling his horn to let passers-by
+know that the coach was coming), and gave Amelia a warning glance
+to say nothing committing, which had at once the requisite effect
+of sealing her mouth for the moment. It is a very unusual thing
+for Charles to look back while driving. I gathered from his doing
+so that he was inordinately anxious to possess this Rembrandt.
+
+When we arrived at Lewes we put up our horses at the inn,
+and Charles ordered a lunch on his wonted scale of princely
+magnificence. Meanwhile we wandered, two and two, about the town
+and castle. I annexed Lady Belleisle, who is at least amusing.
+Charles drew me aside before starting. "Look here, Sey," he
+said, "we must be _very_ careful. This man, Polperro, is a chance
+acquaintance. There's nothing an astute rogue can take one in over
+more easily than an Old Master. If the Rembrandt is genuine I
+ought to have it; if it really represents Maria Vanrenen, it's a
+duty I owe to the boys to buy it. But I've been done twice lately,
+and I won't be done a third time. We must go to work cautiously."
+
+"You are right," I answered. "No more seers and curates!"
+
+"If this man's an impostor," Charles went on--"and in spite of what
+he says about the National Gallery and so forth, we know nothing of
+him--the story he tells is just the sort of one such a fellow would
+trump up in a moment to deceive me. He could easily learn who I
+was--I'm a well-known figure; he knew I was in Brighton, and he
+may have been sitting on that glass seat on Sunday on purpose to
+entrap me."
+
+"He introduced your name," I said, "and the moment he found out who
+I was he plunged into talk with me."
+
+"Yes," Charles continued. "He may have learned about the portrait
+of Maria Vanrenen, which my grandmother always said was preserved
+at Gouda; and, indeed, I myself have often mentioned it, as you
+doubtless remember. If so, what more natural, say, for a rogue than
+to begin talking about the portrait in that innocent way to Amelia?
+If he wants a Rembrandt, I believe they can be turned out to order
+to any amount in Birmingham. The moral of all which is, it behoves
+us to be careful."
+
+"Right you are," I answered; "and I am keeping my eye upon him."
+
+We drove back by another road, overshadowed by beech-trees in
+autumnal gold. It was a delightful excursion. Dr. Polperro's heart
+was elated by lunch and the excellent dry Monopole. He talked
+amazingly. I never heard a man with a greater or more varied flow
+of anecdote. He had been everywhere and knew all about everybody.
+Amelia booked him at once for her "At Home" on Wednesday week,
+and he promised to introduce her to several artistic and literary
+celebrities.
+
+That evening, however, about half-past seven, Charles and I strolled
+out together on the King's Road for a blow before dinner. We dine at
+eight. The air was delicious. We passed a small new hotel, very
+smart and exclusive, with a big bow window. There, in evening dress,
+lights burning and blind up, sat our friend, Dr. Polperro, with a
+lady facing him, young, graceful, and pretty. A bottle of champagne
+stood open before him. He was helping himself plentifully to
+hot-house grapes, and full of good humour. It was clear he and the
+lady were occupied in the intense enjoyment of some capital joke;
+for they looked queerly at one another, and burst now and again
+into merry peals of laughter.
+
+I drew back. So did Sir Charles. One idea passed at once through
+both our minds. I murmured, "Colonel Clay!" He answered, "_and_
+Madame Picardet!"
+
+They were not in the least like the Reverend Richard and Mrs.
+Brabazon. But that clinched the matter. Nor did I see a sign of the
+aquiline nose of the Mexican Seer. Still, I had learnt by then to
+discount appearances. If these were indeed the famous sharper and
+his wife or accomplice, we must be very careful. We were forewarned
+this time. Supposing he had the audacity to try a third trick of
+the sort upon us we had him under our thumbs. Only, we must take
+steps to prevent his dexterously slipping through our fingers.
+
+"He can wriggle like an eel," said the Commissary at Nice. We both
+recalled those words, and laid our plans deep to prevent the man's
+wriggling away from us on this third occasion.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Sey," my brother-in-law said, with
+impressive slowness. "This time we must deliberately lay ourselves
+out to be swindled. We must propose of our own accord to buy the
+picture, making him guarantee it in writing as a genuine Rembrandt,
+and taking care to tie him down by most stringent conditions. But
+we must seem at the same time to be unsuspicious and innocent as
+babes; we must swallow whole whatever lies he tells us; pay his
+price--nominally--by cheque for the portrait; and then, arrest him
+the moment the bargain is complete, with the proofs of his guilt
+then and there upon him. Of course, what he'll try to do will be to
+vanish into thin air at once, as he did at Nice and Paris; but, this
+time, we'll have the police in waiting and everything ready. We'll
+avoid precipitancy, but we'll avoid delay too. We must hold our
+hands off till he's actually accepted and pocketed the money; and
+then, we must nab him instantly, and walk him off to the local Bow
+Street. That's my plan of campaign. Meanwhile, we should appear
+all trustful innocence and confiding guilelessness."
+
+In pursuance of this well-laid scheme, we called next day on Dr.
+Polperro at his hotel, and were introduced to his wife, a dainty
+little woman, in whom we affected not to recognise that arch Madame
+Picardet or that simple White Heather. The Doctor talked charmingly
+(as usual) about art--what a well-informed rascal he was, to be
+sure!--and Sir Charles expressed some interest in the supposed
+Rembrandt. Our new friend was delighted; we could see by his
+well-suppressed eagerness of tone that he knew us at once for
+probable purchasers. He would run up to town next day, he said, and
+bring down the portrait. And in effect, when Charles and I took our
+wonted places in the Pullman next morning, on our way up to the
+half-yearly meeting of Cloetedorp Golcondas, there was our Doctor,
+leaning back in his arm-chair as if the car belonged to him. Charles
+gave me an expressive look. "Does it in style," he whispered,
+"doesn't he? Takes it out of my five thousand; or discounts the
+amount he means to chouse me of with his spurious Rembrandt."
+
+Arrived in town, we went to work at once. We set a private detective
+from Marvillier's to watch our friend; and from him we learned that
+the so-called Doctor dropped in for a picture that day at a dealer's
+in the West-end (I suppress the name, having a judicious fear of
+the law of libel ever before my eyes), a dealer who was known to be
+mixed up before then in several shady or disreputable transactions.
+Though, to be sure, my experience has been that picture dealers
+are--picture dealers. Horses rank first in my mind as begetters and
+producers of unscrupulous agents, but pictures run them a very good
+second. Anyhow, we found out that our distinguished art-critic
+picked up his Rembrandt at this dealer's shop, and came down with
+it in his care the same night to Brighton.
+
+In order not to act precipitately, and so ruin our plans, we induced
+Dr. Polperro (what a cleverly chosen name!) to bring the Rembrandt
+round to the Métropole for our inspection, and to leave it with us
+while we got the opinion of an expert from London.
+
+The expert came down, and gave us a full report upon the alleged
+Old Master. In his judgment, it was not a Rembrandt at all, but
+a cunningly-painted and well-begrimed modern Dutch imitation.
+Moreover, he showed us by documentary evidence that the real
+portrait of Maria Vanrenen had, as a matter of fact, been brought
+to England five years before, and sold to Sir J. H. Tomlinson, the
+well-known connoisseur, for eight thousand pounds. Dr. Polperro's
+picture was, therefore, at best either a replica by Rembrandt; or
+else, more probably, a copy by a pupil; or, most likely of all,
+a mere modern forgery.
+
+We were thus well prepared to fasten our charge of criminal
+conspiracy upon the self-styled Doctor. But in order to make
+assurance still more certain, we threw out vague hints to him that
+the portrait of Maria Vanrenen might really be elsewhere, and even
+suggested in his hearing that it might not improbably have got into
+the hands of that omnivorous collector, Sir J. H. Tomlinson. But
+the vendor was proof against all such attempts to decry his goods.
+He had the effrontery to brush away the documentary evidence, and to
+declare that Sir J. H. Tomlinson (one of the most learned and astute
+picture-buyers in England) had been smartly imposed upon by a needy
+Dutch artist with a talent for forgery. The real Maria Vanrenen, he
+declared and swore, was the one he offered us. "Success has turned
+the man's head," Charles said to me, well pleased. "He thinks we
+will swallow any obvious lie he chooses to palm off upon us. But the
+bucket has come once too often to the well. This time we checkmate
+him." It was a mixed metaphor, I admit; but Sir Charles's tropes
+are not always entirely superior to criticism.
+
+So we pretended to believe our man, and accepted his assurances.
+Next came the question of price. This was warmly debated, for form's
+sake only. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had paid eight thousand for his
+genuine Maria. The Doctor demanded ten thousand for his spurious
+one. There was really no reason why we should higgle and dispute,
+for Charles meant merely to give his cheque for the sum and then
+arrest the fellow; but, still, we thought it best for the avoidance
+of suspicion to make a show of resistance; and we at last beat him
+down to nine thousand guineas. For this amount he was to give us a
+written warranty that the work he sold us was a genuine Rembrandt,
+that it represented Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and that he had
+bought it direct, without doubt or question, from that good lady's
+descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+It was capitally done. We arranged the thing to perfection. We had a
+constable in waiting in our rooms at the Métropole, and we settled
+that Dr. Polperro was to call at the hotel at a certain fixed hour
+to sign the warranty and receive his money. A regular agreement on
+sound stamped paper was drawn out between us. At the appointed time
+the "party of the first part" came, having already given us over
+possession of the portrait. Charles drew a cheque for the amount
+agreed upon, and signed it. Then he handed it to the Doctor.
+Polperro just clutched at it. Meanwhile, I took up my post by
+the door, while two men in plain clothes, detectives from the
+police-station, stood as men-servants and watched the windows. We
+feared lest the impostor, once he had got the cheque, should dodge
+us somehow, as he had already done at Nice and in Paris. The moment
+he had pocketed his money with a smile of triumph, I advanced to him
+rapidly. I had in my possession a pair of handcuffs. Before he knew
+what was happening, I had slipped them on his wrists and secured
+them dexterously, while the constable stepped forward. "We have got
+you this time!" I cried. "We know who you are, Dr. Polperro. You
+are--Colonel Clay, alias Señor Antonio Herrera, alias the Reverend
+Richard Peploe Brabazon."
+
+I never saw any man so astonished in my life! He was utterly
+flabbergasted. Charles thought he must have expected to get clear
+away at once, and that this prompt action on our part had taken
+the fellow so much by surprise as to simply unman him. He gazed
+about him as if he hardly realised what was happening.
+
+"Are these two raving maniacs?" he asked at last, "or what do they
+mean by this nonsensical gibberish about Antonio Herrera?"
+
+The constable laid his hand on the prisoner's shoulder.
+
+"It's all right, my man," he said. "We've got warrants out against
+you. I arrest you, Edward Polperro, alias the Reverend Richard
+Peploe Brabazon, on a charge of obtaining money under false
+pretences from Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G., M.P., on his sworn
+information, now here subscribed to." For Charles had had the
+thing drawn out in readiness beforehand.
+
+Our prisoner drew himself up. "Look here, officer," he said, in an
+offended tone, "there's some mistake here in this matter. I have
+never given an alias at any time in my life. How do you know this
+is really Sir Charles Vandrift? It may be a case of bullying
+personation. My belief is, though, they're a pair of escaped
+lunatics."
+
+"We'll see about that to-morrow," the constable said, collaring him.
+"At present you've got to go off with me quietly to the station,
+where these gentlemen will enter up the charge against you."
+
+They carried him off, protesting. Charles and I signed the
+charge-sheet; and the officer locked him up to await his examination
+next day before the magistrate.
+
+We were half afraid even now the fellow would manage somehow to
+get out on bail and give us the slip in spite of everything;
+and, indeed, he protested in the most violent manner against the
+treatment to which we were subjecting "a gentleman in his position."
+But Charles took care to tell the police it was all right; that he
+was a dangerous and peculiarly slippery criminal, and that on no
+account must they let him go on any pretext whatever, till he had
+been properly examined before the magistrates.
+
+We learned at the hotel that night, curiously enough, that there
+really _was_ a Dr. Polperro, a distinguished art critic, whose
+name, we didn't doubt, our impostor had been assuming.
+
+Next morning, when we reached the court, an inspector met us with a
+very long face. "Look here, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid you've
+committed a very serious blunder. You've made a precious bad mess of
+it. You've got yourselves into a scrape; and, what's worse, you've
+got us into one also. You were a deal too smart with your sworn
+information. We've made inquiries about this gentleman, and we find
+the account he gives of himself is perfectly correct. His name _is_
+Polperro; he's a well-known art critic and collector of pictures,
+employed abroad by the National Gallery. He was formerly an official
+in the South Kensington Museum, and he's a C.B. and LL.D., very
+highly respected. You've made a sad mistake, that's where it is; and
+you'll probably have to answer a charge of false imprisonment, in
+which I'm afraid you have also involved our own department."
+
+Charles gasped with horror. "You haven't let him out," he cried, "on
+those absurd representations? You haven't let him slip through your
+hands as you did that murderer fellow?"
+
+"Let him slip through our hands?" the inspector cried. "I only wish
+he would. There's no chance of that, unfortunately. He's in the
+court there, this moment, breathing out fire and slaughter against
+you both; and we're here to protect you if he should happen to fall
+upon you. He's been locked up all night on your mistaken affidavits,
+and, naturally enough, he's mad with anger."
+
+"If you haven't let him go, I'm satisfied," Charles answered.
+"He's a fox for cunning. Where is he? Let me see him."
+
+We went into the court. There we saw our prisoner conversing
+amicably, in the most excited way, with the magistrate (who, it
+seems, was a personal friend of his); and Charles at once went
+up and spoke to them. Dr. Polperro turned round and glared at him
+through his pince-nez.
+
+"The only possible explanation of this person's extraordinary and
+incredible conduct," he said, "is, that he must be mad--and his
+secretary equally so. He made my acquaintance, unasked, on a glass
+seat on the King's Road; invited me to go on his coach to Lewes;
+volunteered to buy a valuable picture of me; and then, at the
+last moment, unaccountably gave me in charge on this silly and
+preposterous trumped-up accusation. I demand a summons for false
+imprisonment."
+
+Suddenly it began to dawn upon us that the tables were turned. By
+degrees it came out that we had made a mistake. Dr. Polperro was
+really the person he represented himself to be, and had been always.
+His picture, we found out, was the real Maria Vanrenen, and a
+genuine Rembrandt, which he had merely deposited for cleaning and
+restoring at the suspicious dealer's. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had been
+imposed upon and cheated by a cunning Dutchman; _his_ picture, though
+also an undoubted Rembrandt, was _not_ the Maria, and was an inferior
+specimen in bad preservation. The authority we had consulted turned
+out to be an ignorant, self-sufficient quack. The Maria, moreover,
+was valued by other experts at no more than five or six thousand
+guineas. Charles wanted to cry off his bargain, but Dr. Polperro
+naturally wouldn't hear of it. The agreement was a legally binding
+instrument, and what passed in Charles's mind at the moment had
+nothing to do with the written contract. Our adversary only
+consented to forego the action for false imprisonment on condition
+that Charles inserted a printed apology in the Times, and paid him
+five hundred pounds compensation for damage to character. So that
+was the end of our well-planned attempt to arrest the swindler.
+
+Not quite the end, however; for, of course, after this, the whole
+affair got by degrees into the papers. Dr. Polperro, who was a
+familiar person in literary and artistic society, as it turned out,
+brought an action against the so-called expert who had declared
+against the genuineness of his alleged Rembrandt, and convicted him
+of the grossest ignorance and misstatement. Then paragraphs got
+about. The World showed us up in a sarcastic article; and Truth,
+which has always been terribly severe upon Sir Charles and all the
+other South Africans, had a pungent set of verses on "High Art in
+Kimberley." By this means, as we suppose, the affair became known
+to Colonel Clay himself; for a week or two later my brother-in-law
+received a cheerful little note on scented paper from our persistent
+sharper. It was couched in these terms:--
+
+
+"Oh, you innocent infant!
+
+"Bless your ingenuous little heart! And did it believe, then, it
+had positively caught the redoubtable colonel? And had it ready a
+nice little pinch of salt to put upon his tail? And is it true its
+respected name is Sir Simple Simon? How heartily we have laughed,
+White Heather and I, at your neat little ruses! It would pay you,
+by the way, to take White Heather into your house for six months
+to instruct you in the agreeable sport of amateur detectives. Your
+charming naivete quite moves our envy. So you actually imagined a
+man of my brains would condescend to anything so flat and stale as
+the silly and threadbare Old Master deception! And this in the
+so-called nineteenth century! O sancta simplicitas! When again
+shall such infantile transparency be mine? When, ah, when? But never
+mind, dear friend. Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
+long at some delightful Philippi.
+
+"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
+
+"ANTONIO HERRERA,
+
+"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
+
+
+Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
+he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth--not even mine--can go on
+standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
+foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
+robs me of when he _is_ Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
+when he _isn't_ Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
+nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
+I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
+spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
+
+"You _must_ need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
+Let us try the Tyrol."
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
+
+
+We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
+Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
+guide and courier.
+
+She is _such_ a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
+are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
+as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Césarine has been all
+over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
+course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
+residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
+in our native English. She is a treasure, that girl; so neat and
+dexterous, and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be
+asked to turn her hand to. She walks the world with a needle-case
+in one hand and an etna in the other. She can cook an omelette on
+occasion, or drive a Norwegian cariole; she can sew, and knit, and
+make dresses, and cure a cold, and do anything else on earth you ask
+her. Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted; while as for her
+coffee (which she prepares for us in the train on long journeys),
+there isn't a chef de cuisine at a West-end club to be named in the
+same day with her.
+
+So, when Amelia said, in her imperious way, "Césarine, we want to go
+to the Tyrol--now--at once--in mid-October; where do you advise us
+to put up?"--Césarine answered, like a shot, "The Erzherzog Johann,
+of course, at Meran, for the autumn, madame."
+
+"Is he ... an archduke?" Amelia asked, a little staggered at such
+apparent familiarity with Imperial personages.
+
+"Ma foi! no, madame. He is an hotel--as you would say in England,
+the 'Victoria' or the 'Prince of Wales's'--the most comfortable
+hotel in all South Tyrol; and at this time of year, naturally, you
+must go beyond the Alps; it begins already to be cold at Innsbruck."
+
+So to Meran we went; and a prettier or more picturesque place, I
+confess, I have seldom set eyes on. A rushing torrent; high hills
+and mountain peaks; terraced vineyard slopes; old walls and towers;
+quaint, arcaded streets; a craggy waterfall; a promenade after
+the fashion of a German Spa; and when you lift your eyes from the
+ground, jagged summits of Dolomites: it was a combination such as
+I had never before beheld; a Rhine town plumped down among green
+Alpine heights, and threaded by the cool colonnades of Italy.
+
+I approved Césarine's choice; and I was particularly glad she
+had pronounced for an hotel, where all is plain sailing, instead
+of advising a furnished villa, the arrangements for which would
+naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the
+wretched secretary. As in any case I have to do three hours' work
+a day, I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well
+be spared me. I tipped Césarine half a sovereign, in fact, for
+her judicious choice. Césarine glanced at it on her palm in her
+mysterious, curious, half-smiling way, and pocketed it at once with
+a "Merci, monsieur!" that had a touch of contempt in it. I always
+fancy Césarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping,
+and thinks very small beer of the modest sums a mere secretary can
+alone afford to bestow upon her.
+
+The great peculiarity of Meran is the number of schlosses (I believe
+my plural is strictly irregular, but very convenient to English
+ears) which you can see in every direction from its outskirts. A
+statistical eye, it is supposed, can count no fewer than forty of
+these picturesque, ramshackled old castles from a point on the
+Küchelberg. For myself, I hate statistics (except as an element in
+financial prospectuses), and I really don't know how many ruinous
+piles Isabel and Amelia counted under Césarine's guidance; but I
+remember that most of them were quaint and beautiful, and that their
+variety of architecture seemed positively bewildering. One would be
+square, with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle; while
+another would rejoice in a big round keep, and spread on either side
+long, ivy-clad walls and delightful bastions. Charles was immensely
+taken with them. He loves the picturesque, and has a poet hidden
+in that financial soul of his. (Very effectually hidden, though, I
+am ready to grant you.) From the moment he came he felt at once
+he would love to possess a castle of his own among these romantic
+mountains. "Seldon!" he exclaimed contemptuously. "They call Seldon
+a castle! But you and I know very well, Sey, it was built in 1860,
+with sham antique stones, for Macpherson of Seldon, at market rates,
+by Cubitt and Co., worshipful contractors of London. Macpherson
+charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price, at
+which one ought to procure a real ancestral mansion. Now, _these_
+castles are real. They are hoary with antiquity. Schloss Tyrol is
+Romanesque--tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up
+in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for _me_!--tenth or eleventh
+century. I could live here, remote from stocks and shares, for ever;
+and in these sequestered glens, recollect, Sey, my boy, there are
+no Colonel Clays, and no arch Madame Picardets!"
+
+As a matter of fact, he could have lived there six weeks, and then
+tired for Park Lane, Monte Carlo, Brighton.
+
+As for Amelia, strange to say, she was equally taken with this new
+fad of Charles's. As a rule she hates everywhere on earth save
+London, except during the time when no respectable person can be
+seen in town, and when modest blinds shade the scandalised face of
+Mayfair and Belgravia. She bores herself to death even at Seldon
+Castle, Ross-shire, and yawns all day long in Paris or Vienna. She
+is a confirmed Cockney. Yet, for some occult reason, my amiable
+sister-in-law fell in love with South Tyrol. She wanted to vegetate
+in that lush vegetation. The grapes were being picked; pumpkins hung
+over the walls; Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray schlosses
+with crimson cloaks; and everything was as beautiful as a dream of
+Burne-Jones's. (I know I am quite right in mentioning Burne-Jones,
+especially in connection with Romanesque architecture, because I
+heard him highly praised on that very ground by our friend and
+enemy, Dr. Edward Polperro.) So perhaps it was excusable that
+Amelia should fall in love with it all, under the circumstances;
+besides, she is largely influenced by what Césarine says, and
+Césarine declares there is no climate in Europe like Meran in
+winter. I do not agree with her. The sun sets behind the hills at
+three in the afternoon, and a nasty warm wind blows moist over
+the snow in January and February.
+
+However, Amelia set Césarine to inquire of the people at the hotel
+about the market price of tumbledown ruins, and the number of such
+eligible family mausoleums just then for sale in the immediate
+neighbourhood. Césarine returned with a full, true, and particular
+list, adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have delighted
+the soul of good old John Robins. They were all picturesque, all
+Romanesque, all richly ivy-clad, all commodious, all historical,
+and all the property of high well-born Grafs and very honourable
+Freiherrs. Most of them had been the scene of celebrated tournaments;
+several of them had witnessed the gorgeous marriages of Holy Roman
+Emperors; and every one of them was provided with some choice and
+selected first-class murders. Ghosts could be arranged for or not,
+as desired; and armorial bearings could be thrown in with the moat
+for a moderate extra remuneration.
+
+The two we liked best of all these tempting piles were Schloss
+Planta and Schloss Lebenstein. We drove past both, and even I
+myself, I confess, was distinctly taken with them. (Besides, when
+a big purchase like this is on the stocks, a poor beggar of a
+secretary has always a chance of exerting his influence and earning
+for himself some modest commission.) Schloss Planta was the most
+striking externally, I should say, with its Rhine-like towers, and
+its great gnarled ivy-stems, that looked as if they antedated the
+House of Hapsburg; but Lebenstein was said to be better preserved
+within, and more fitted in every way for modern occupation. Its
+staircase has been photographed by 7000 amateurs.
+
+We got tickets to view. The invaluable Césarine procured them for
+us. Armed with these, we drove off one fine afternoon, meaning to
+go to Planta, by Césarine's recommendation. Half-way there, however,
+we changed our minds, as it was such a lovely day, and went on up
+the long, slow hill to Lebenstein. I must say the drive through the
+grounds was simply charming. The castle stands perched (say rather
+poised, like St. Michael the archangel in Italian pictures) on a
+solitary stack or crag of rock, looking down on every side upon
+its own rich vineyards. Chestnuts line the glens; the valley of
+the Etsch spreads below like a picture.
+
+The vineyards alone make a splendid estate, by the way; they produce
+a delicious red wine, which is exported to Bordeaux, and there
+bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau
+Monnivet. Charles revelled in the idea of growing his own wines.
+
+"Here we could sit," he cried to Amelia, "in the most literal sense,
+under our own vine and fig-tree. Delicious retirement! For my part,
+I'm sick and tired of the hubbub of Threadneedle Street."
+
+We knocked at the door--for there was really no bell, but a
+ponderous, old-fashioned, wrought-iron knocker. So deliciously
+mediæval! The late Graf von Lebenstein had recently died, we
+knew; and his son, the present Count, a young man of means, having
+inherited from his mother's family a still more ancient and
+splendid schloss in the Salzburg district, desired to sell this
+outlying estate in order to afford himself a yacht, after the manner
+that is now becoming increasingly fashionable with the noblemen and
+gentlemen in Germany and Austria.
+
+The door was opened for us by a high well-born menial, attired in
+a very ancient and honourable livery. Nice antique hall; suits of
+ancestral armour, trophies of Tyrolese hunters, coats of arms of
+ancient counts--the very thing to take Amelia's aristocratic and
+romantic fancy. The whole to be sold exactly as it stood; ancestors
+to be included at a valuation.
+
+We went through the reception-rooms. They were lofty, charming, and
+with glorious views, all the more glorious for being framed by those
+graceful Romanesque windows, with their slender pillars and quaint,
+round-topped arches. Sir Charles had made his mind up. "I must and
+will have it!" he cried. "This is the place for me. Seldon! Pah,
+Seldon is a modern abomination."
+
+Could we see the high well-born Count? The liveried servant
+(somewhat haughtily) would inquire of his Serenity. Sir Charles
+sent up his card, and also Lady Vandrift's. These foreigners know
+title spells money in England.
+
+He was right in his surmise. Two minutes later the Count entered
+with our cards in his hands. A good-looking young man, with the
+characteristic Tyrolese long black moustache, dressed in a
+gentlemanly variant on the costume of the country. His air was a
+jager's; the usual blackcock's plume stuck jauntily in the side of
+the conical hat (which he held in his hand), after the universal
+Austrian fashion.
+
+He waved us to seats. We sat down. He spoke to us in French; his
+English, he remarked, with a pleasant smile, being a négligeable
+quantity. We might speak it, he went on; he could understand pretty
+well; but he preferred to answer, if we would allow him, in French
+or German.
+
+"French," Charles replied, and the negotiation continued thenceforth
+in that language. It is the only one, save English and his ancestral
+Dutch, with which my brother-in-law possesses even a nodding
+acquaintance.
+
+We praised the beautiful scene. The Count's face lighted up with
+patriotic pride. Yes; it was beautiful, beautiful, his own green
+Tyrol. He was proud of it and attached to it. But he could endure
+to sell this place, the home of his fathers, because he had a finer
+in the Salzkammergut, and a pied-à-terre near Innsbruck. For Tyrol
+lacked just one joy--the sea. He was a passionate yachtsman. For
+that he had resolved to sell this estate; after all, three country
+houses, a ship, and a mansion in Vienna, are more than one man can
+comfortably inhabit.
+
+"Exactly," Charles answered. "If I can come to terms with you about
+this charming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch
+Highlands." And he tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who
+harangues his clansmen.
+
+Then they got to business. The Count was a delightful man to do
+business with. His manners were perfect. While we were talking to
+him, a surly person, a steward or bailiff, or something of the sort,
+came into the room unexpectedly and addressed him in German, which
+none of us understand. We were impressed by the singular urbanity
+and benignity of the nobleman's demeanour towards this sullen
+dependant. He evidently explained to the fellow what sort of
+people we were, and remonstrated with him in a very gentle way for
+interrupting us. The steward understood, and clearly regretted his
+insolent air; for after a few sentences he went out, and as he did
+so he bowed and made protestations of polite regard in his own
+language. The Count turned to us and smiled. "Our people," he said,
+"are like your own Scotch peasants--kind-hearted, picturesque, free,
+musical, poetic, but wanting, hélas, in polish to strangers." He
+was certainly an exception, if he described them aright; for he made
+us feel at home from the moment we entered.
+
+He named his price in frank terms. His lawyers at Meran held the
+needful documents, and would arrange the negotiations in detail with
+us. It was a stiff sum, I must say--an extremely stiff sum; but no
+doubt he was charging us a fancy price for a fancy castle. "He will
+come down in time," Charles said. "The sum first named in all these
+transactions is invariably a feeler. They know I'm a millionaire;
+and people always imagine millionaires are positively made of
+money."
+
+I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze
+money out of millionaires than out of other people--which is the
+reverse of the truth, or how could they ever have amassed their
+millions? Instead of oozing gold as a tree oozes gum, they mop it
+up like blotting-paper, and seldom give it out again.
+
+We drove back from this first interview none the less very well
+satisfied. The price was too high; but preliminaries were arranged,
+and for the rest, the Count desired us to discuss all details with
+his lawyers in the chief street, Unter den Lauben. We inquired about
+these lawyers, and found they were most respectable and respected
+men; they had done the family business on either side for seven
+generations.
+
+They showed us plans and title-deeds. Everything quite en régle.
+Till we came to the price there was no hitch of any sort.
+
+As to price, however, the lawyers were obdurate. They stuck out for
+the Count's first sum to the uttermost florin. It was a very big
+estimate. We talked and shilly-shallied till Sir Charles grew angry.
+He lost his temper at last.
+
+"They know I'm a millionaire, Sey," he said, "and they're playing
+the old game of trying to diddle me. But I won't be diddled. Except
+Colonel Clay, no man has ever yet succeeded in bleeding me. And
+shall I let myself be bled as if I were a chamois among these
+innocent mountains? Perish the thought!" Then he reflected a little
+in silence. "Sey," he mused on, at last, "the question is, _are_
+they innocent? Do you know, I begin to believe there is no such
+thing left as pristine innocence anywhere. This Tyrolese Count knows
+the value of a pound as distinctly as if he hung out in Capel Court
+or Kimberley."
+
+Things dragged on in this way, inconclusively, for a week or two.
+_We_ bid down; the lawyers stuck to it. Sir Charles grew half sick
+of the whole silly business. For my own part, I felt sure if the
+high well-born Count didn't quicken his pace, my respected relative
+would shortly have had enough of the Tyrol altogether, and be proof
+against the most lovely of crag-crowning castles. But the Count
+didn't see it. He came to call on us at our hotel--a rare honour for
+a stranger with these haughty and exclusive Tyrolese nobles--and
+even entered unannounced in the most friendly manner. But when it
+came to L. s. d., he was absolute adamant. Not one kreutzer would
+he abate from his original proposal.
+
+"You misunderstand," he said, with pride. "We Tyrolese gentlemen are
+not shopkeepers or merchants. We do not higgle. If we say a thing we
+stick to it. Were you an Austrian, I should feel insulted by your
+ill-advised attempt to beat down my price. But as you belong to a
+great commercial nation--" he broke off with a snort and shrugged
+his shoulders compassionately.
+
+We saw him several times driving in and out of the schloss, and
+every time he waved his hand at us gracefully. But when we tried to
+bargain, it was always the same thing: he retired behind the shelter
+of his Tyrolese nobility. We might take it or leave it. 'Twas still
+Schloss Lebenstein.
+
+The lawyers were as bad. We tried all we knew, and got no forrarder.
+
+At last Charles gave up the attempt in disgust. He was tiring, as I
+expected. "It's the prettiest place I ever saw in my life," he said;
+"but, hang it all, Sey, I _won't_ be imposed upon."
+
+So he made up his mind, it being now December, to return to London.
+We met the Count next day, and stopped his carriage, and told him
+so. Charles thought this would have the immediate effect of bringing
+the man to reason. But he only lifted his hat, with the blackcock's
+feather, and smiled a bland smile. "The Archduke Karl is inquiring
+about it," he answered, and drove on without parley.
+
+Charles used some strong words, which I will not transcribe (I am a
+family man), and returned to England.
+
+For the next two months we heard little from Amelia save her regret
+that the Count wouldn't sell us Schloss Lebenstein. Its pinnacles
+had fairly pierced her heart. Strange to say, she was absolutely
+infatuated about the castle. She rather wanted the place while
+she was there, and thought she could get it; now she thought
+she couldn't, her soul (if she has one) was wildly set upon it.
+Moreover, Césarine further inflamed her desire by gently hinting
+a fact which she had picked up at the courier's table d'hôte at
+the hotel--that the Count had been far from anxious to sell his
+ancestral and historical estate to a South African diamond king.
+He thought the honour of the family demanded, at least, that he
+should secure a wealthy buyer of good ancient lineage.
+
+One morning in February, however, Amelia returned from the Row all
+smiles and tremors. (She had been ordered horse-exercise to correct
+the increasing excessiveness of her figure.)
+
+"Who do you think I saw riding in the Park?" she inquired. "Why,
+the Count of Lebenstein."
+
+"No!" Charles exclaimed, incredulous.
+
+"Yes," Amelia answered.
+
+"Must be mistaken," Charles cried.
+
+But Amelia stuck to it. More than that, she sent out emissaries to
+inquire diligently from the London lawyers, whose name had been
+mentioned to us by the ancestral firm in Unter den Lauben as
+their English agents, as to the whereabouts of our friend; and
+her emissaries learned in effect that the Count was in town and
+stopping at Morley's.
+
+"I see through it," Charles exclaimed. "He finds he's made a
+mistake; and now he's come over here to reopen negotiations."
+
+I was all for waiting prudently till the Count made the first move.
+"Don't let him see your eagerness," I said. But Amelia's ardour
+could not now be restrained. She insisted that Charles should
+call on the Graf as a mere return of his politeness in the Tyrol.
+
+He was as charming as ever. He talked to us with delight about the
+quaintness of London. He would be ravished to dine next evening with
+Sir Charles. He desired his respectful salutations meanwhile to
+Miladi Vandrift and Madame Ventvorth.
+
+He dined with us, almost en famille. Amelia's cook did wonders. In
+the billiard-room, about midnight, Charles reopened the subject.
+The Count was really touched. It pleased him that still, amid the
+distractions of the City of Five Million Souls, we should remember
+with affection his beloved Lebenstein.
+
+"Come to my lawyers," he said, "to-morrow, and I will talk it all
+over with you."
+
+We went--a most respectable firm in Southampton Row; old family
+solicitors. They had done business for years for the late Count, who
+had inherited from his grandmother estates in Ireland; and they were
+glad to be honoured with the confidence of his successor. Glad, too,
+to make the acquaintance of a prince of finance like Sir Charles
+Vandrift. Anxious (rubbing their hands) to arrange matters
+satisfactorily all round for everybody. (Two capital families with
+which to be mixed up, you see.)
+
+Sir Charles named a price, and referred them to his solicitors.
+The Count named a higher, but still a little come-down, and left
+the matter to be settled between the lawyers. He was a soldier and
+a gentleman, he said, with a Tyrolese toss of his high-born head;
+he would abandon details to men of business.
+
+As I was really anxious to oblige Amelia, I met the Count
+accidentally next day on the steps of Morley's. (Accidentally,
+that is to say, so far as he was concerned, though I had been
+hanging about in Trafalgar Square for half an hour to see him.)
+I explained, in guarded terms, that I had a great deal of influence
+in my way with Sir Charles; and that a word from me-- I broke
+off. He stared at me blankly.
+
+"Commission?" he inquired, at last, with a queer little smile.
+
+"Well, not exactly commission," I answered, wincing. "Still, a
+friendly word, you know. One good turn deserves another."
+
+He looked at me from head to foot with a curious scrutiny. For one
+moment I feared the Tyrolese nobleman in him was going to raise its
+foot and take active measures. But the next, I saw that Sir Charles
+was right after all, and that pristine innocence has removed from
+this planet to other quarters.
+
+He named his lowest price. "M. Ventvorth," he said, "I am a Tyrolese
+seigneur; I do not dabble, myself, in commissions and percentages.
+But if your influence with Sir Charles--we understand each other, do
+we not?--as between gentlemen--a little friendly present--no money,
+of course--but the equivalent of say 5 per cent in jewellery, on
+whatever sum above his bid to-day you induce him to
+offer--eh?--c'est convenu?"
+
+"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured.
+
+He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur--or nothing!"
+
+I bowed and withdrew. "Well, five then," I answered, "just to oblige
+your Serenity."
+
+A secretary, after all, can do a great deal. When it came to the
+scratch, I had but little difficulty in persuading Sir Charles, with
+Amelia's aid, backed up on either side by Isabel and Césarine, to
+accede to the Count's more reasonable proposal. The Southampton Row
+people had possession of certain facts as to the value of the wines
+in the Bordeaux market which clinched the matter. In a week or two
+all was settled; Charles and I met the Count by appointment in
+Southampton Row, and saw him sign, seal, and deliver the title-deeds
+of Schloss Lebenstein. My brother-in-law paid the purchase-money
+into the Count's own hands, by cheque, crossed on a first-class
+London firm where the Count kept an account to his high well-born
+order. Then he went away with the proud knowledge that he was owner
+of Schloss Lebenstein. And what to me was more important still,
+I received next morning by post a cheque for the five per cent,
+unfortunately drawn, by some misapprehension, to my order on the
+self-same bankers, and with the Count's signature. He explained in
+the accompanying note that the matter being now quite satisfactorily
+concluded, he saw no reason of delicacy why the amount he had
+promised should not be paid to me forthwith direct in money.
+
+I cashed the cheque at once, and said nothing about the affair, not
+even to Isabel. My experience is that women are not to be trusted
+with intricate matters of commission and brokerage.
+
+Though it was now late in March, and the House was sitting, Charles
+insisted that we must all run over at once to take possession of our
+magnificent Tyrolese castle. Amelia was almost equally burning with
+eagerness. She gave herself the airs of a Countess already. We took
+the Orient Express as far as Munich; then the Brenner to Meran,
+and put up for the night at the Erzherzog Johann. Though we had
+telegraphed our arrival, and expected some fuss, there was no
+demonstration. Next morning we drove out in state to the schloss,
+to enter into enjoyment of our vines and fig-trees.
+
+We were met at the door by the surly steward. "I shall dismiss
+that man," Charles muttered, as Lord of Lebenstein. "He's too
+sour-looking for my taste. Never saw such a brute. Not a smile
+of welcome!"
+
+He mounted the steps. The surly man stepped forward and murmured a
+few morose words in German. Charles brushed him aside and strode on.
+Then there followed a curious scene of mutual misunderstanding. The
+surly man called lustily for his servants to eject us. It was some
+time before we began to catch at the truth. The surly man was the
+_real_ Graf von Lebenstein.
+
+And the Count with the moustache? It dawned upon us now. Colonel
+Clay again! More audacious than ever!
+
+Bit by bit it all came out. He had ridden behind us the first day
+we viewed the place, and, giving himself out to the servants as
+one of our party, had joined us in the reception-room. We asked
+the real Count why he had spoken to the intruder. The Count
+explained in French that the man with the moustache had introduced
+my brother-in-law as the great South African millionaire, while he
+described himself as our courier and interpreter. As such he had
+had frequent interviews with the real Graf and his lawyers in
+Meran, and had driven almost daily across to the castle. The owner
+of the estate had named one price from the first, and had stuck to
+it manfully. He stuck to it still; and if Sir Charles chose to buy
+Schloss Lebenstein over again he was welcome to have it. How the
+London lawyers had been duped the Count had not really the slightest
+idea. He regretted the incident, and (coldly) wished us a very good
+morning.
+
+There was nothing for it but to return as best we might to the
+Erzherzog Johann, crestfallen, and telegraph particulars to the
+police in London.
+
+Charles and I ran across post-haste to England to track down the
+villain. At Southampton Row we found the legal firm by no means
+penitent; on the contrary, they were indignant at the way we had
+deceived them. An impostor had written to them on Lebenstein
+paper from Meran to say that he was coming to London to negotiate
+the sale of the schloss and surrounding property with the
+famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
+demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
+Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
+had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
+Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
+some most excellent forgeries--facsimiles of the originals--which,
+as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
+examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
+plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
+upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
+moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
+his own representation.
+
+He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
+_not_ given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
+unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.
+
+By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
+house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
+thus:--
+
+
+"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,--
+
+"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
+everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
+not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
+might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
+cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
+you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
+rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
+fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
+The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.
+
+"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
+cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present--a German
+dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!
+
+"I kiss your hand.
+
+"No longer
+
+"VON LEBENSTEIN."
+
+
+The other note was to me. It was as follows:--
+
+
+"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,--
+
+"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
+I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
+surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
+foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
+you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend--on your
+own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
+banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, for your future good behaviour.
+If ever you recognise me, and betray me to that solemn old ass, your
+employer, remember, I expose it, and you with it to him. So now we
+understand each other. I had not thought of this little dodge; it
+was you who suggested it. However, I jumped at it. Was it not well
+worth my while paying you that slight commission in return for a
+guarantee of your future silence? Your mouth is now closed. And
+cheap too at the price.--Yours, dear Comrade, in the great
+confraternity of rogues,
+
+"CUTHBERT CLAY, Colonel."
+
+
+Charles laid his note down, and grizzled. "What's yours, Sey?"
+he asked.
+
+"From a lady," I answered.
+
+He gazed at me suspiciously. "Oh, I thought it was the same hand,"
+he said. His eye looked through me.
+
+"No," I answered. "Mrs. Mortimer's." But I confess I trembled.
+
+He paused a moment. "You made all inquiries at this fellow's bank?"
+he went on, after a deep sigh.
+
+"Oh, yes," I put in quickly. (I had taken good care about that,
+you may be sure, lest he should spot the commission.) "They say
+the self-styled Count von Lebenstein was introduced to them by
+the Southampton Row folks, and drew, as usual, on the Lebenstein
+account: so they were quite unsuspicious. A rascal who goes about
+the world on that scale, you know, and arrives with such credentials
+as theirs and yours, naturally imposes on anybody. The bank didn't
+even require to have him formally identified. The firm was enough.
+He came to pay money in, not to draw it out. And he withdrew his
+balance just two days later, saying he was in a hurry to get back
+to Vienna."
+
+Would he ask for items? I confess I felt it was an awkward moment.
+Charles, however, was too full of regrets to bother about the
+account. He leaned back in his easy chair, stuck his hands in his
+pockets, held his legs straight out on the fender before him, and
+looked the very picture of hopeless despondency.
+
+"Sey," he began, after a minute or two, poking the fire,
+reflectively, "what a genius that man has! 'Pon my soul, I
+admire him. I sometimes wish--" He broke off and hesitated.
+
+"Yes, Charles?" I answered.
+
+"I sometimes wish ... we had got him on the Board of the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas. Mag--nificent combinations he would make in the City!"
+
+I rose from my seat and stared solemnly at my misguided
+brother-in-law.
+
+"Charles," I said, "you are beside yourself. Too much Colonel Clay
+has told upon your clear and splendid intellect. There are certain
+remarks which, however true they may be, no self-respecting
+financier should permit himself to make, even in the privacy of
+his own room, to his most intimate friend and trusted adviser."
+
+Charles fairly broke down. "You are right, Sey," he sobbed out.
+"Quite right. Forgive this outburst. At moments of emotion the
+truth will sometimes out, in spite of everything."
+
+I respected his feebleness. I did not even make it a fitting
+occasion to ask for a trifling increase of salary.
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DRAWN GAME
+
+
+The twelfth of August saw us, as usual, at Seldon Castle,
+Ross-shire. It is part of Charles's restless, roving temperament
+that, on the morning of the eleventh, wet or fine, he must set out
+from London, whether the House is sitting or not, in defiance of
+the most urgent three-line whips; and at dawn on the twelfth he must
+be at work on his moors, shooting down the young birds with might
+and main, at the earliest possible legal moment.
+
+He goes on like Saul, slaying his thousands, or, like David, his
+tens of thousands, with all the guns in the house to help him, till
+the keepers warn him he has killed as many grouse as they consider
+desirable; and then, having done his duty, as he thinks, in this
+respect, he retires precipitately with flying colours to Brighton,
+Nice, Monte Carlo, or elsewhere. He must be always "on the trek";
+when he is buried, I believe he will not be able to rest quiet in
+his grave: his ghost will walk the world to terrify old ladies.
+
+"At Seldon, at least," he said to me, with a sigh, as he stepped
+into his Pullman, "I shall be safe from that impostor!"
+
+And indeed, as soon as he had begun to tire a little of counting
+up his hundreds of brace per diem, he found a trifling piece of
+financial work cut ready to his hand, which amply distracted his
+mind for the moment from Colonel Clay, his accomplices, and his
+villainies.
+
+Sir Charles, I ought to say, had secured during that summer a very
+advantageous option in a part of Africa on the Transvaal frontier,
+rumoured to be auriferous. Now, whether it was auriferous or not
+before, the mere fact that Charles had secured some claim on it
+naturally made it so; for no man had ever the genuine Midas-touch
+to a greater degree than Charles Vandrift: whatever he handles turns
+at once to gold, if not to diamonds. Therefore, as soon as my
+brother-in-law had obtained this option from the native vendor (a
+most respected chief, by name Montsioa), and promoted a company
+of his own to develop it, his great rival in that region, Lord
+Craig-Ellachie (formerly Sir David Alexander Granton), immediately
+secured a similar option of an adjacent track, the larger part of
+which had pretty much the same geological conditions as that covered
+by Sir Charles's right of pre-emption.
+
+We were not wholly disappointed, as it turned out, in the result.
+A month or two later, while we were still at Seldon, we received
+a long and encouraging letter from our prospectors on the spot,
+who had been hunting over the ground in search of gold-reefs. They
+reported that they had found a good auriferous vein in a corner of
+the tract, approachable by adit-levels; but, unfortunately, only a
+few yards of the lode lay within the limits of Sir Charles's area.
+The remainder ran on at once into what was locally known as
+Craig-Ellachie's section.
+
+However, our prospectors had been canny, they said; though young
+Mr. Granton was prospecting at the same time, in the self-same
+ridge, not very far from them, his miners had failed to discover
+the auriferous quartz; so our men had held their tongues about it,
+wisely leaving it for Charles to govern himself accordingly.
+
+"Can you dispute the boundary?" I asked.
+
+"Impossible," Charles answered. "You see, the limit is a meridian
+of longitude. There's no getting over that. Can't pretend to deny
+it. No buying over the sun! No bribing the instruments! Besides,
+we drew the line ourselves. We've only one way out of it, Sey.
+Amalgamate! Amalgamate!"
+
+Charles is a marvellous man! The very voice in which he murmured
+that blessed word "Amalgamate!" was in itself a poem.
+
+"Capital!" I answered. "Say nothing about it, and join forces with
+Craig-Ellachie."
+
+Charles closed one eye pensively.
+
+That very same evening came a telegram in cipher from our chief
+engineer on the territory of the option: "Young Granton has somehow
+given us the slip and gone home. We suspect he knows all. But we
+have not divulged the secret to anybody."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said impressively, "there is no time to
+be lost. I must write this evening to Sir David--I mean to My Lord.
+Do you happen to know where he is stopping at present?"
+
+"The Morning Post announced two or three days ago that he was at
+Glen-Ellachie," I answered.
+
+"Then I'll ask him to come over and thrash the matter out with me,"
+my brother-in-law went on. "A very rich reef, they say. I must have
+my finger in it!"
+
+We adjourned into the study, where Sir Charles drafted, I must
+admit, a most judicious letter to the rival capitalist. He pointed
+out that the mineral resources of the country were probably great,
+but as yet uncertain. That the expense of crushing and milling might
+be almost prohibitive. That access to fuel was costly, and its
+conveyance difficult. That water was scarce, and commanded by our
+section. That two rival companies, if they happened to hit upon ore,
+might cut one another's throats by erecting two sets of furnaces or
+pumping plants, and bringing two separate streams to the spot,
+where one would answer. In short--to employ the golden word--that
+amalgamation might prove better in the end than competition; and
+that he advised, at least, a conference on the subject.
+
+I wrote it out fair for him, and Sir Charles, with the air of a
+Cromwell, signed it.
+
+"This is important, Sey," he said. "It had better be registered,
+for fear of falling into improper hands. Don't give it to Dobson;
+let Césarine take it over to Fowlis in the dog-cart."
+
+It is the drawback of Seldon that we are twelve miles from a
+railway station, though we look out on one of the loveliest firths
+in Scotland.
+
+Césarine took it as directed--an invaluable servant, that girl!
+Meanwhile, we learned from the Morning Post next day that young
+Mr. Granton had stolen a march upon us. He had arrived from Africa
+by the same mail with our agent's letter, and had joined his father
+at once at Glen-Ellachie.
+
+Two days later we received a most polite reply from the opposing
+interest. It ran after this fashion:--
+
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE,
+
+"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
+
+"DEAR SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Thanks for yours of the 20th. In reply,
+I can only say I fully reciprocate your amiable desire that nothing
+adverse to either of our companies should happen in South Africa.
+With regard to your suggestion that we should meet in person, to
+discuss the basis of a possible amalgamation, I can only say my
+house is at present full of guests--as is doubtless your own--and
+I should therefore find it practically impossible to leave
+Glen-Ellachie. Fortunately, however, my son David is now at home
+on a brief holiday from Kimberley; and it will give him great
+pleasure to come over and hear what you have to say in favour of an
+arrangement which certainly, on some grounds, seems to me desirable
+in the interests of both our concessions alike. He will arrive
+to-morrow afternoon at Seldon, and he is authorised, in every
+respect, to negotiate with full powers on behalf of myself and the
+other directors. With kindest regards to your wife and sons, I
+remain, dear Sir Charles, yours faithfully,
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE."
+
+
+"Cunning old fox!" Sir Charles exclaimed, with a sniff. "What's he
+up to now, I wonder? Seems almost as anxious to amalgamate as we
+ourselves are, Sey." A sudden thought struck him. "Do you know,"
+he cried, looking up, "I really believe the same thing must have
+happened to _both_ our exploring parties. _They_ must have found a
+reef that goes under _our_ ground, and the wicked old rascal wants
+to cheat us out of it!"
+
+"As we want to cheat him," I ventured to interpose.
+
+Charles looked at me fixedly. "Well, if so, we're both in luck,"
+he murmured, after a pause; "though _we_ can only get to know the
+whereabouts of _their_ find by joining hands with them and showing
+them ours. Still, it's good business either way. But I shall be
+cautious--cautious."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Amelia cried, when we told her of the incident.
+"I suppose I shall have to put the man up for the night--a nasty,
+raw-boned, half-baked Scotchman, you may be certain."
+
+On Wednesday afternoon, about three, young Granton arrived. He was
+a pleasant-featured, red-haired, sandy-whiskered youth, not unlike
+his father; but, strange to say, he dropped in to call, instead of
+bringing his luggage.
+
+"Why, you're not going back to Glen-Ellachie to-night, surely?"
+Charles exclaimed, in amazement. "Lady Vandrift will be _so_
+disappointed! Besides, this business can't be arranged between
+two trains, do you think, Mr. Granton?"
+
+Young Granton smiled. He had an agreeable smile--canny, yet open.
+
+"Oh no," he said frankly. "I didn't mean to go back. I've put up at
+the inn. I have my wife with me, you know--and, I wasn't invited."
+
+Amelia was of opinion, when we told her this episode, that David
+Granton wouldn't stop at Seldon because he was an Honourable.
+Isabel was of opinion he wouldn't stop because he had married an
+unpresentable young woman somewhere out in South Africa. Charles was
+of opinion that, as representative of the hostile interest, he put
+up at the inn, because it might tie his hands in some way to be the
+guest of the chairman of the rival company. And _I_ was of opinion
+that he had heard of the castle, and knew it well by report as the
+dullest country-house to stay at in Scotland.
+
+However that may be, young Granton insisted on remaining at the
+Cromarty Arms, though he told us his wife would be delighted to
+receive a call from Lady Vandrift and Mrs. Wentworth. So we all
+returned with him to bring the Honourable Mrs. Granton up to tea
+at the Castle.
+
+She was a nice little thing, very shy and timid, but by no means
+unpresentable, and an evident lady. She giggled at the end of every
+sentence; and she was endowed with a slight squint, which somehow
+seemed to point all her feeble sallies. She knew little outside
+South Africa; but of that she talked prettily; and she won all
+our hearts, in spite of the cast in her eye, by her unaffected
+simplicity.
+
+Next morning Charles and I had a regular debate with young Granton
+about the rival options. Our talk was of cyanide processes,
+reverberatories, pennyweights, water-jackets. But it dawned upon us
+soon that, in spite of his red hair and his innocent manners, our
+friend, the Honourable David Granton, knew a thing or two. Gradually
+and gracefully he let us see that Lord Craig-Ellachie had sent him
+for the benefit of the company, but that _he_ had come for the
+benefit of the Honourable David Granton.
+
+"I'm a younger son, Sir Charles," he said; "and therefore I have to
+feather my nest for myself. I know the ground. My father will be
+guided implicitly by what I advise in the matter. We are men of the
+world. Now, let's be business-like. _You_ want to amalgamate. You
+wouldn't do that, of course, if you didn't know of something to the
+advantage of my father's company--say, a lode on our land--which you
+hope to secure for yourself by amalgamation. Very well; _I_ can make
+or mar your project. If you choose to render it worth my while, I'll
+induce my father and his directors to amalgamate. If you don't, I
+won't. That's the long and the short of it!"
+
+Charles looked at him admiringly.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you're deep, very deep--for your age. Is this
+candour--or deception? Do you mean what you say? Or do you know some
+reason why it suits your father's book to amalgamate as well as it
+suits mine? And are you trying to keep it from me?" He fingered his
+chin. "If I only knew that," he went on, "I should know how to deal
+with you."
+
+Young Granton smiled again. "You're a financier, Sir Charles," he
+answered. "I wonder, at your time of life, you should pause to ask
+another financier whether he's trying to fill his own pocket--or his
+father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son--and _I_ am
+his youngest."
+
+"You are right as to general principles," Sir Charles replied, quite
+affectionately. "Most sound and sensible. But how do I know you
+haven't bargained already in the same way with your father? You
+may have settled with _him_, and be trying to diddle me."
+
+The young man assumed a most candid air. "Look here," he said,
+leaning forward. "I offer you this chance. Take it or leave it. _Do_
+you wish to purchase my aid for this amalgamation by a moderate
+commission on the net value of my father's option to yourself--which
+I know approximately?"
+
+"Say five per cent," I suggested, in a tentative voice, just to
+justify my presence.
+
+He looked me through and through. "_Ten_ is more usual," he
+answered, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar glance.
+
+Great heavens, how I winced! I knew what his words meant. They were
+the very words I had said myself to Colonel Clay, as the Count von
+Lebenstein, about the purchase-money of the schloss--and in the very
+same accent. I saw through it all now. That beastly cheque! This
+was Colonel Clay; and he was trying to buy up my silence and
+assistance by the threat of exposure!
+
+My blood ran cold. I didn't know how to answer him. What happened
+at the rest of that interview I really couldn't tell you. My brain
+reeled round. I heard just faint echoes of "fuel" and "reduction
+works." What on earth was I to do? If I told Charles my
+suspicion--for it was only a suspicion--the fellow might turn upon
+me and disclose the cheque, which would suffice to ruin me. If I
+didn't, I ran a risk of being considered by Charles an accomplice
+and a confederate.
+
+The interview was long. I hardly know how I struggled through it.
+At the end young Granton went off, well satisfied, if it was young
+Granton; and Amelia invited him and his wife up to dinner at the
+castle.
+
+Whatever else they were, they were capital company. They stopped
+for three days more at the Cromarty Arms. And Charles debated and
+discussed incessantly. He couldn't quite make up his mind what to
+do in the affair; and _I_ certainly couldn't help him. I never was
+placed in such a fix in my life. I did my best to preserve a strict
+neutrality.
+
+Young Granton, it turned out, was a most agreeable person; and so,
+in her way, was that timid, unpretending South African wife of his.
+She was naively surprised Amelia had never met her mamma at Durban.
+They both talked delightfully, and had lots of good stories--mostly
+with points that told against the Craig-Ellachie people. Moreover,
+the Honourable David was a splendid swimmer. He went out in a boat
+with us, and dived like a seal. He was burning to teach Charles
+and myself to swim, when we told him we could neither of us take a
+single stroke; he said it was an accomplishment incumbent upon every
+true Englishman. But Charles hates the water; while, as for myself,
+I detest every known form of muscular exercise.
+
+However, we consented that he should row us on the Firth, and made
+an appointment one day with himself and his wife for four the next
+evening.
+
+That night Charles came to me with a very grave face in my own
+bedroom. "Sey," he said, under his breath, "have you observed?
+Have you watched? Have you any suspicions?"
+
+I trembled violently. I felt all was up. "Suspicions of whom?"
+I asked. "Not surely of Simpson?" (he was Sir Charles's valet).
+
+My respected brother-in-law looked at me contemptuously.
+
+"Sey," he said, "are you trying to take me in? No, _not_ of Simpson:
+of these two young folks. My own belief is--they're Colonel Clay
+and Madame Picardet."
+
+"Impossible!" I cried.
+
+He nodded. "I'm sure of it."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Instinctively."
+
+I seized his arm. "Charles," I said, imploring him, "do nothing
+rash. Remember how you exposed yourself to the ridicule of fools
+over Dr. Polperro!"
+
+"I've thought of that," he answered, "and I mean to ca' caller."
+(When in Scotland as laird of Seldon, Charles loves both to dress
+and to speak the part thoroughly.) "First thing to-morrow I shall
+telegraph over to inquire at Glen-Ellachie; I shall find out
+whether this is really young Granton or not; meanwhile, I shall keep
+my eye close upon the fellow."
+
+Early next morning, accordingly, a groom was dispatched with a
+telegram to Lord Craig-Ellachie. He was to ride over to Fowlis, send
+it off at once, and wait for the answer. At the same time, as it was
+probable Lord Craig-Ellachie would have started for the moors before
+the telegram reached the Lodge, I did not myself expect to see the
+reply arrive much before seven or eight that evening. Meanwhile, as
+it was far from certain we had not the real David Granton to deal
+with, it was necessary to be polite to our friendly rivals. Our
+experience in the Polperro incident had shown us both that too much
+zeal may be more dangerous than too little. Nevertheless, taught
+by previous misfortunes, we kept watching our man pretty close,
+determined that on this occasion, at least, he should neither do us
+nor yet escape us.
+
+About four o'clock the red-haired young man and his pretty little
+wife came up to call for us. She looked so charming and squinted
+so enchantingly, one could hardly believe she was not as simple
+and innocent as she seemed to be. She tripped down to the Seldon
+boat-house, with Charles by her side, giggling and squinting her
+best, and then helped her husband to get the skiff ready. As she did
+so, Charles sidled up to me. "Sey," he whispered, "I'm an old hand,
+and I'm not readily taken in. I've been talking to that girl, and
+upon my soul I think she's all right. She's a charming little lady.
+We may be mistaken after all, of course, about young Granton. In any
+case, it's well for the present to be courteous. A most important
+option! If it's really he, we must do nothing to annoy him or let
+him see we suspect him."
+
+I had noticed, indeed, that Mrs. Granton had made herself most
+agreeable to Charles from the very beginning. And as to one thing he
+was right. In her timid, shrinking way she was undeniably charming.
+That cast in her eye was all pure piquancy.
+
+We rowed out on to the Firth, or, to be more strictly correct, the
+two Grantons rowed while Charles and I sat and leaned back in the
+stern on the luxurious cushions. They rowed fast and well. In a very
+few minutes they had rounded the point and got clear out of sight
+of the Cockneyfied towers and false battlements of Seldon.
+
+Mrs. Granton pulled stroke. Even as she rowed she kept up a brisk
+undercurrent of timid chaff with Sir Charles, giggling all the
+while, half forward, half shy, like a school-girl who flirts with
+a man old enough to be her grandfather.
+
+Sir Charles was flattered. He is susceptible to the pleasures of
+female attention, especially from the young, the simple, and the
+innocent. The wiles of women of the world he knows too well; but a
+pretty little ingénue can twist him round her finger. They rowed on
+and on, till they drew abreast of Seamew's island. It is a jagged
+stack or skerry, well out to sea, very wild and precipitous on the
+landward side, but shelving gently outward; perhaps an acre in
+extent, with steep gray cliffs, covered at that time with crimson
+masses of red valerian. Mrs. Granton rowed up close to it. "Oh, what
+lovely flowers!" she cried, throwing her head back and gazing at
+them. "I wish I could get some! Let's land here and pick them. Sir
+Charles, you shall gather me a nice bunch for my sitting-room."
+
+Charles rose to it innocently, like a trout to a fly.
+
+"By all means, my dear child, I--I have a passion for flowers;"
+which was a flower of speech itself, but it served its purpose.
+
+They rowed us round to the far side, where is the easiest
+landing-place. It struck me as odd at the moment that they seemed
+to know it. Then young Granton jumped lightly ashore; Mrs. Granton
+skipped after him. I confess it made me feel rather ashamed to see
+how clumsily Charles and I followed them, treading gingerly on the
+thwarts for fear of upsetting the boat, while the artless young
+thing just flew over the gunwale. So like White Heather! However,
+we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
+well as we were able in search of the valerian.
+
+Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
+bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
+laughter, and left us there staring at them!
+
+They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
+turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
+"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
+
+"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
+You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
+
+The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
+Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
+he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
+of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manqué."
+
+"A _what_?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
+
+"A coup manqué," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
+"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
+my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
+Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
+principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
+I find myself suspected. The slightest symptom of distrust, and--I
+back out immediately. My plans can only be worked to satisfaction
+when there is perfect confidence on the part of my patient. It is
+a well-known rule of the medical profession. I _never_ try to bleed
+a man who struggles. So now we're off. Ta-ta! Good luck to you!"
+
+He was not much more than twenty yards away, and could talk to us
+quite easily. But the water was deep; the islet rose sheer from I'm
+sure I don't know how many fathoms of sea; and we could neither of
+us swim. Charles stretched out his arms imploringly. "For Heaven's
+sake," he cried, "don't tell me you really mean to leave us here."
+
+He looked so comical in his distress and terror that Mrs.
+Granton--Madame Picardet--whatever I am to call her--laughed
+melodiously in her prettiest way at the sight of him. "Dear Sir
+Charles," she called out, "pray don't be afraid! It's only a
+short and temporary imprisonment. We will send men to take you off.
+Dear David and I only need just time enough to get well ashore and
+make--oh!--a few slight alterations in our personal appearance."
+And she indicated with her hand, laughing, dear David's red wig and
+false sandy whiskers, as we felt convinced they must be now. She
+looked at them and tittered. Her manner at this moment was anything
+but shy. In fact, I will venture to say, it was that of a bold and
+brazen-faced hoyden.
+
+"Then you _are_ Colonel Clay!" Sir Charles cried, mopping his brow
+with his handkerchief.
+
+"If you choose to call me so," the young man answered politely. "I'm
+sure it's most kind of you to supply me with a commission in Her
+Majesty's service. However, time presses, and we want to push off.
+Don't alarm yourselves unnecessarily. I will send a boat to take you
+away from this rock at the earliest possible moment consistent with
+my personal safety and my dear companion's." He laid his hand on his
+heart and struck a sentimental attitude. "I have received too many
+unwilling kindnesses at your hands, Sir Charles," he continued,
+"not to feel how wrong it would be of me to inconvenience you for
+nothing. Rest assured that you shall be rescued by midnight at
+latest. Fortunately, the weather just at present is warm, and I see
+no chance of rain; so you will suffer, if at all, from nothing worse
+than the pangs of temporary hunger."
+
+Mrs. Granton, no longer squinting--'twas a mere trick she had
+assumed--rose up in the boat and stretched out a rug to us. "Catch!"
+she cried, in a merry voice, and flung it at us, doubled. It fell
+at our feet; she was a capital thrower.
+
+"Now, you dear Sir Charles," she went on, "take that to keep you
+warm! You know I am really quite fond of you. You're not half a
+bad old boy when one takes you the right way. You have a human side
+to you. Why, I often wear that sweetly pretty brooch you gave me
+at Nice, when I was Madame Picardet! And I'm sure your goodness to
+me at Lucerne, when I was the little curate's wife, is a thing to
+remember. We're so glad to have seen you in your lovely Scotch
+home you were always so proud of! _Don't_ be frightened, please. We
+wouldn't hurt you for worlds. We _are_ so sorry we have to take this
+inhospitable means of evading you. But dear David--I _must_ call
+him dear David still--instinctively felt that you were beginning to
+suspect us; and he can't bear mistrust. He _is_ so sensitive! The
+moment people mistrust him, he _must_ break off with them at once.
+This was the only way to get you both off our hands while we make
+the needful little arrangements to depart; and we've been driven to
+avail ourselves of it. However, I will give you my word of honour,
+as a lady, you shall be fetched away to-night. If dear David doesn't
+do it, why, I'll do it myself." And she blew another kiss to us.
+
+Charles was half beside himself, divided between alternate terror
+and anger. "Oh, we shall die here!" he exclaimed. "Nobody'd ever
+dream of coming to this rock to search for me."
+
+"What a pity you didn't let me teach you to swim!" Colonel Clay
+interposed. "It is a noble exercise, and very useful indeed in such
+special emergencies! Well, ta-ta! I'm off! You nearly scored one
+this time; but, by putting you here for the moment, and keeping you
+till we're gone, I venture to say I've redressed the board, and I
+think we may count it a drawn game, mayn't we? The match stands at
+three, love--with some thousands in pocket?"
+
+"You're a murderer, sir!" Charles shrieked out. "We shall starve or
+die here!"
+
+Colonel Clay on his side was all sweet reasonableness. "Now, my dear
+sir," he expostulated, one hand held palm outward, "_Do_ you think
+it probable I would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, with
+so little compunction? No, no, Sir Charles Vandrift; I know too well
+how much you are worth to me. I return you on my income-tax paper
+as five thousand a year, clear profit of my profession. Suppose you
+were to die! I might be compelled to find some new and far less
+lucrative source of plunder. Your heirs, executors, or assignees
+might not suit my purpose. The fact of it is, sir, your temperament
+and mine are exactly adapted one to the other. _I_ understand _you_;
+and _you_ do not understand _me_--which is often the basis of the
+firmest friendships. I can catch you just where you are trying to
+catch other people. Your very smartness assists me; for I admit you
+_are_ smart. As a regular financier, I allow, I couldn't hold a
+candle to you. But in my humbler walk of life I know just how to
+utilise you. I lead you on, where you think you are going to gain some
+advantage over others; and by dexterously playing upon your love of
+a good bargain, your innate desire to best somebody else--I succeed
+in besting you. There, sir, you have the philosophy of our mutual
+relations."
+
+He bowed and raised his cap. Charles looked at him and cowered. Yes,
+genius as he is, he positively cowered. "And do you mean to say,"
+he burst out, "you intend to go on so bleeding me?"
+
+The Colonel smiled a bland smile. "Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+answered, "I called you just now the goose that lays the golden
+eggs. You may have thought the metaphor a rude one. But you _are_
+a goose, you know, in certain relations. Smartest man on the Stock
+Exchange, I readily admit; easiest fool to bamboozle in the
+open country that ever I met with. You fail in one thing--the
+perspicacity of simplicity. For that reason, among others, I have
+chosen to fasten upon you. Regard me, my dear sir, as a microbe of
+millionaires, a parasite upon capitalists. You know the old rhyme:
+
+  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
+  And these again have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum!
+
+Well, that's just how I view myself. _You_ are a capitalist and a
+millionaire. In _your_ large way you prey upon society. YOU deal in
+Corners, Options, Concessions, Syndicates. You drain the world
+dry of its blood and its money. You possess, like the mosquito, a
+beautiful instrument of suction--Founders' Shares--with which you
+absorb the surplus wealth of the community. In _my_ smaller way,
+again, _I_ relieve you in turn of a portion of the plunder. I am a
+Robin Hood of my age; and, looking upon _you_ as an exceptionally bad
+form of millionaire--as well as an exceptionally easy form of pigeon
+for a man of my type and talents to pluck--I have, so to speak,
+taken up my abode upon you."
+
+Charles looked at him and groaned.
+
+The young man continued, in a tone of gentle badinage. "I love the
+plot-interest of the game," he said, "and so does dear Jessie here.
+We both of us adore it. As long as I find such good pickings upon
+you, I certainly am not going to turn away from so valuable a
+carcass, in order to batten myself, at considerable trouble, upon
+minor capitalists, out of whom it is difficult to extract a few
+hundreds. It may have puzzled you to guess why I fix upon you so
+persistently. Now you know, and understand. When a fluke finds a
+sheep that suits him, that fluke lives upon him. You are my host: I
+am your parasite. This coup has failed. But don't flatter yourself
+for a moment it will be the last one."
+
+"Why do you insult me by telling me all this?" Sir Charles cried,
+writhing.
+
+The Colonel waved his hand. It was small and white. "Because I _love_
+the game," he answered, with a relish; "and also, because the more
+prepared you are beforehand, the greater credit and amusement is
+there in besting you. Well, now, ta-ta once more! I am wasting
+valuable time. I might be cheating somebody. I must be off at
+once.... Take care of yourself, Wentworth. But I know you _will_.
+You always do. Ten per cent _is_ more usual!"
+
+He rowed away and left us. As the boat began to disappear round the
+corner of the island, White Heather--so she looked--stood up in the
+stern and shouted aloud through her pretty hands to us. "By-bye,
+dear Sir Charles!" she cried. "Do wrap the rug around you! I'll
+send the men to fetch you as soon as ever I possibly can. And thank
+you so much for those lovely flowers!"
+
+The boat rounded the crags. We were alone on the island. Charles
+flung himself on the bare rock in a wild access of despondency.
+He is accustomed to luxury, and cannot get on without his padded
+cushions. As for myself, I climbed with some difficulty to the top
+of the cliff, landward, and tried to make signals of distress with
+my handkerchief to some passer-by on the mainland. All in vain.
+Charles had dismissed the crofters on the estate; and, as the
+shooting-party that day was in an opposite direction, not a soul
+was near to whom we could call for succour.
+
+I climbed down again to Charles. The evening came on slowly. Cries
+of sea-birds rang weird upon the water. Puffins and cormorants
+circled round our heads in the gray of twilight. Charles suggested
+that they might even swoop down upon us and bite us. They did not,
+however, but their flapping wings added none the less a painful
+touch of eeriness to our hunger and solitude. Charles was horribly
+depressed. For myself, I will confess I felt so much relieved at
+the fact that Colonel Clay had not openly betrayed me in the matter
+of the commission, as to be comparatively comfortable.
+
+We crouched on the hard crag. About eleven o'clock we heard human
+voices. "Boat ahoy!" I shouted. An answering shout aroused us to
+action. We rushed down to the landing-place and cooee'd for the men,
+to show them where we were. They came up at once in Sir Charles's
+own boat. They were fishermen from Niggarey, on the shore of the
+Firth opposite.
+
+A lady and gentleman had sent them, they said, to return the boat
+and call for us on the island; their description corresponded to
+the two supposed Grantons. They rowed us home almost in silence to
+Seldon. It was half-past twelve by the gatehouse clock when we
+reached the castle. Men had been sent along the coast each way to
+seek us. Amelia had gone to bed, much alarmed for our safety. Isabel
+was sitting up. It was too late, of course, to do much that night in
+the way of apprehending the miscreants, though Charles insisted upon
+dispatching a groom, with a telegram for the police at Inverness,
+to Fowlis.
+
+Nothing came of it all. A message awaited us from Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, to be sure, saying that his son had not left
+Glen-Ellachie Lodge; while research the next day and later showed
+that our correspondent had never even received our letter. An empty
+envelope alone had arrived at the house, and the postal authorities
+had been engaged meanwhile, with their usual lightning speed, in
+"investigating the matter." Césarine had posted the letter herself
+at Fowlis, and brought back the receipt; so the only conclusion we
+could draw was this--Colonel Clay must be in league with somebody
+at the post-office. As for Lord Craig-Ellachie's reply, that was a
+simple forgery; though, oddly enough, it was written on
+Glen-Ellachie paper.
+
+However, by the time Charles had eaten a couple of grouse, and
+drunk a bottle of his excellent Rudesheimer, his spirits and valour
+revived exceedingly. Doubtless he inherits from his Boer ancestry a
+tendency towards courage of the Batavian description. He was in
+capital feather.
+
+"After all, Sey," he said, leaning back in his chair, "this time
+we score one. He has _not_ done us brown; we have at least detected
+him. To detect him in time is half-way to catching him. Only the
+remoteness of our position at Seldon Castle saved him from capture.
+Next set-to, I feel sure, we will not merely spot him, we will also
+nab him. I only wish he would try on such a rig in London."
+
+But the oddest part of it all was this, that from the moment those
+two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were
+some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them
+vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of
+them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their
+luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail
+stopped short, no spoor lay farther. It was a most singular and
+insoluble mystery.
+
+Charles lived in hopes of catching his man in London.
+
+But for my part, I felt there was a show of reason in one last
+taunt which the rascal flung back at us as the boat receded: "Sir
+Charles Vandrift, we are a pair of rogues. The law protects _you_.
+It persecutes _me_. That's all the difference."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GERMAN PROFESSOR
+
+
+That winter in town my respected brother-in-law had little time
+on his hands to bother himself about trifles like Colonel Clay.
+A thunderclap burst upon him. He saw his chief interest in South
+Africa threatened by a serious, an unexpected, and a crushing
+danger.
+
+Charles does a little in gold, and a little in land; but his
+principal operations have always lain in the direction of diamonds.
+Only once in my life, indeed, have I seen him pay the slightest
+attention to poetry, and that was when I happened one day to
+recite the lines:--
+
+  Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+  The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+He rubbed his hands at once and murmured enthusiastically, "I never
+thought of that. We might get up an Atlantic Exploration Syndicate,
+Limited." So attached is he to diamonds. You may gather, therefore,
+what a shock it was to that gigantic brain to learn that science was
+rapidly reaching a point where his favourite gems might become all
+at once a mere drug in the market. Depreciation is the one bugbear
+that perpetually torments Sir Charles's soul; that winter he stood
+within measurable distance of so appalling a calamity.
+
+It happened after this manner.
+
+We were strolling along Piccadilly towards Charles's club one
+afternoon--he is a prominent member of the Croesus, in Pall
+Mall--when, near Burlington House, whom should we happen to knock
+up against but Sir Adolphus Cordery, the famous mineralogist, and
+leading spirit of the Royal Society! He nodded to us pleasantly.
+"Halloa, Vandrift," he cried, in his peculiarly loud and piercing
+voice; "you're the very man I wanted to meet to-day. Good morning,
+Wentworth. Well, how about diamonds now, Sir Gorgius? You'll have to
+sing small. It's all up with you Midases. Heard about this marvellous
+new discovery of Schleiermacher's? It's calculated to make you
+diamond kings squirm like an eel in a frying-pan."
+
+I could see Charles wriggle inside his clothes. He was most
+uncomfortable. That a man like Cordery should say such things, in
+so loud a voice, on no matter how little foundation, openly in
+Piccadilly, was enough in itself to make a sensitive barometer
+such as Cloetedorp Golcondas go down a point or two.
+
+"Hush, hush!" Charles said solemnly, in that awed tone of voice
+which he always assumes when Money is blasphemed against. "_Please_
+don't talk quite so loud! All London can hear you."
+
+Sir Adolphus ran his arm through Charles's most amicably. There's
+nothing Charles hates like having his arm taken.
+
+"Come along with me to the Athenæum," he went on, in the same
+stentorian voice, "and I'll tell you all about it. Most interesting
+discovery. Makes diamonds cheap as dirt. Calculated to supersede
+South Africa altogether."
+
+Charles allowed himself to be dragged along. There was nothing else
+possible. Sir Adolphus continued, in a somewhat lower key, induced
+upon him by Charles's mute look of protest. It was a disquieting
+story. He told it with gleeful unction. It seems that Professor
+Schleiermacher, of Jena, "the greatest living authority on the
+chemistry of gems," he said, had lately invented, or claimed to
+have invented, a system for artificially producing diamonds, which
+had yielded most surprising and unexceptionable results.
+
+Charles's lip curled slightly. "Oh, I know the sort of thing," he
+said. "I've heard of it before. Very inferior stones, quite small
+and worthless, produced at immense cost, and even then not worth
+looking at. I'm an old bird, you know, Cordery; not to be caught
+with chaff. Tell me a better one!"
+
+Sir Adolphus produced a small cut gem from his pocket. "How's that
+for the first water?" he inquired, passing it across, with a broad
+smile, to the sceptic. "Made under my own eyes--and quite
+inexpensively!"
+
+Charles examined it close, stopping short against the railings in
+St. James's Square to look at it with his pocket-lens. There was no
+denying the truth. It was a capital small gem of the finest quality.
+
+"Made under your own eyes?" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Where,
+my dear sir?--at Jena?"
+
+The answer was a thunderbolt from a blue sky. "No, here in London;
+last night as ever was; before myself and Dr. Gray; and about to be
+exhibited by the President himself at a meeting of Fellows of the
+Royal Society."
+
+Charles drew a long breath. "This nonsense must be stopped," he said
+firmly--"it must be nipped in the bud. It won't do, my dear friend;
+we can't have such tampering with important Interests."
+
+"How do you mean?" Cordery asked, astonished.
+
+Charles gazed at him steadily. I could see by the furtive gleam in
+my brother-in-law's eye he was distinctly frightened. "Where _is_
+the fellow?" he asked. "Did he come himself, or send over a deputy?"
+
+"Here in London," Sir Adolphus replied. "He's staying at my house;
+and he says he'll be glad to show his experiments to anybody
+scientifically interested in diamonds. We propose to have a
+demonstration of the process to-night at Lancaster Gate. Will
+you drop in and see it?"
+
+Would he "drop in" and see it? "Drop in" at such a function! Could
+he possibly stop away? Charles clutched the enemy's arm with a
+nervous grip. "Look here, Cordery," he said, quivering; "this is a
+question affecting very important Interests. Don't do anything rash.
+Don't do anything foolish. Remember that Shares may rise or fall on
+this." He said "Shares" in a tone of profound respect that I can
+hardly even indicate. It was the crucial word in the creed of his
+religion.
+
+"I should think it very probable," Sir Adolphus replied, with the
+callous indifference of the mere man of science to financial
+suffering.
+
+Sir Charles was bland, but peremptory. "Now, observe," he said, "a
+grave responsibility rests on your shoulders. The Market depends
+upon you. You must not ask in any number of outsiders to witness
+these experiments. Have a few mineralogists and experts, if you
+like; but also take care to invite representatives of the menaced
+Interests. I will come myself--I'm engaged to dine out, but I
+can contract an indisposition; and I should advise you to ask
+Mosenheimer, and, say, young Phipson. They would stand for the
+mines, as you and the mineralogists would stand for science. Above
+all, don't blab; for Heaven's sake, let there be no premature
+gossip. Tell Schleiermacher not to go gassing and boasting of
+his success all over London."
+
+"We are keeping the matter a profound secret, at Schleiermacher's
+own request," Cordery answered, more seriously.
+
+"Which is why," Charles said, in his severest tone, "you bawled it
+out at the very top of your voice in Piccadilly!"
+
+However, before nightfall, everything was arranged to Charles's
+satisfaction; and off we went to Lancaster Gate, with a profound
+expectation that the German professor would do nothing worth seeing.
+
+He was a remarkable-looking man, once tall, I should say, from his
+long, thin build, but now bowed and bent with long devotion to study
+and leaning over a crucible. His hair, prematurely white, hung down
+upon his forehead, but his eye was keen and his mouth sagacious. He
+shook hands cordially with the men of science, whom he seemed to
+know of old, whilst he bowed somewhat distantly to the South African
+interest. Then he began to talk, in very German-English, helping out
+the sense now and again, where his vocabulary failed him, by waving
+his rather dirty and chemical-stained hands demonstratively about
+him. His nails were a sight, but his fingers, I must say, had the
+delicate shape of a man's accustomed to minute manipulation. He
+plunged at once into the thick of the matter, telling us briefly in
+his equally thick accent that he "now brobosed by his new brocess
+to make for us some goot and sadisfactory tiamonds."
+
+He brought out his apparatus, and explained--or, as he said,
+"eggsblained"--his novel method. "Tiamonds," he said, "were nozzing
+but pure crystalline carbon." He knew how to crystallise it--"zat
+was all ze secret." The men of science examined the pots and pans
+carefully. Then he put in a certain number of raw materials, and
+went to work with ostentatious openness. There were three distinct
+processes, and he made two stones by each simultaneously. The
+remarkable part of his methods, he said, was their rapidity and
+their cheapness. In three-quarters of an hour (and he smiled
+sardonically) he could produce a diamond worth at current prices
+two hundred pounds sterling. "As you shall now see me berform,"
+he remarked, "viz zis simple abbaradus."
+
+The materials fizzed and fumed. The Professor stirred them. An
+unpleasant smell like burnt feathers pervaded the room. The
+scientific men craned their necks in their eagerness, and looked
+over one another; Vane-Vivian, in particular, was all attention.
+After three-quarters of an hour, the Professor, still smiling, began
+to empty the apparatus. He removed a large quantity of dust or
+powder, which he succinctly described as "by-broducts," and then
+took between finger and thumb from the midst of each pan a small
+white pebble, not water-worn apparently, but slightly rough and
+wart-like on the surface.
+
+From one pair of the pannikins he produced two such stones, and
+held them up before us triumphantly. "Zese," he said, "are genuine
+tiamonds, manufactured at a gost of fourteen shillings and
+siggspence abiece!" Then he tried the second pair. "Zese," he said,
+still more gleefully, "are broduced at a gost of eleffen and
+ninebence!" Finally, he came to the third pair, which he positively
+brandished before our astonished eyes. "And zese," he cried,
+transported, "haff gost me no more zan tree and eightbence!"
+
+They were handed round for inspection. Rough and uncut as they
+stood, it was, of course, impossible to judge of their value. But
+one thing was certain. The men of science had been watching close at
+the first, and were sure Herr Schleiermacher had not put the stones
+in; they were keen at the withdrawal, and were equally sure he had
+taken them honestly out of the pannikins.
+
+"I vill now disdribute zem," the Professor remarked in a casual
+tone, as if diamonds were peas, looking round at the company. And
+he singled out my brother-in-law. "One to Sir Charles!" he said,
+handing it; "one to Mr. Mosenheimer; one to Mr. Phibson--as
+representing the tiamond interest. Zen, one each to Sir Atolphus,
+to Dr. Gray, to Mr. Fane-Fiffian, as representing science. You will
+haff zem cut and rebort upon zem in due gourse. We meet again at
+zis blace ze day afder do-morrow."
+
+Charles gazed at him reproachfully. The profoundest chords of his
+moral nature were stirred. "Professor," he said, in a voice of
+solemn warning, "_Are_ you aware that, _if_ you have succeeded, you
+have destroyed the value of thousands of pounds' worth of precious
+property?"
+
+The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "Fot is dat to me?" he
+inquired, with a curious glance of contempt. "I am not a financier!
+I am a man of science. I seek to know; I do not seek to make a
+fortune."
+
+"Shocking!" Charles exclaimed. "Shocking! I never before in my life
+beheld so strange an instance of complete insensibility to the
+claims of others!"
+
+We separated early. The men of science were coarsely jubilant. The
+diamond interest exhibited a corresponding depression. If this news
+were true, they foresaw a slump. Every eye grew dim. It was a
+terrible business.
+
+Charles walked homeward with the Professor. He sounded him gently as
+to the sum required, should need arise, to purchase his secrecy.
+Already Sir Adolphus had bound us all down to temporary silence--as
+if that were necessary; but Charles wished to know how much
+Schleiermacher would take to suppress his discovery. The German
+was immovable.
+
+"No, no!" he replied, with positive petulance. "You do not
+unterstant. I do not buy and sell. Zis is a chemical fact. We must
+bublish it for the sake off its seoretical falue. I do not care
+for wealse. I haff no time to waste in making money."
+
+"What an awful picture of a misspent life!" Charles observed to me
+afterwards.
+
+And, indeed, the man seemed to care for nothing on earth but the
+abstract question--not whether he could make good diamonds or not,
+but whether he could or could not produce a crystalline form of
+pure carbon!
+
+On the appointed night Charles went back to Lancaster Gate, as I
+could not fail to remark, with a strange air of complete and painful
+preoccupation. Never before in his life had I seen him so anxious.
+
+The diamonds were produced, with one surface of each slightly scored
+by the cutters, so as to show the water. Then a curious result
+disclosed itself. Strange to say, each of the three diamonds given
+to the three diamond kings turned out to be a most inferior and
+valueless stone; while each of the three intrusted to the care of
+the scientific investigators turned out to be a fine gem of the
+purest quality.
+
+I confess it was a sufficiently suspicious conjunction. The three
+representatives of the diamond interest gazed at each other with
+inquiring side-glances. Then their eyes fell suddenly: they avoided
+one another. Had each independently substituted a weak and inferior
+natural stone for Professor Schleiermacher's manufactured pebbles?
+It almost seemed so. For a moment, I admit, I was half inclined to
+suppose it. But next second I changed my mind. Could a man of Sir
+Charles Vandrift's integrity and high principle stoop for lucre's
+sake to so mean an expedient?--not to mention the fact that, even if
+he did, and if Mosenheimer did likewise, the stones submitted to the
+scientific men would have amply sufficed to establish the reality
+and success of the experiments!
+
+Still, I must say, Charles looked guiltily across at Mosenheimer,
+and Mosenheimer at Phipson, while three more uncomfortable or
+unhappy-faced men could hardly have been found at that precise
+minute in the City of Westminster.
+
+Then Sir Adolphus spoke--or, rather, he orated. He said, in his loud
+and grating voice, we had that evening, and on a previous evening,
+been present at the conception and birth of an Epoch in the History
+of Science. Professor Schleiermacher was one of those men of whom
+his native Saxony might well be proud; while as a Briton he must
+say he regretted somewhat that this discovery, like so many
+others, should have been "Made in Germany." However, Professor
+Schleiermacher was a specimen of that noble type of scientific men
+to whom gold was merely the rare metal Au, and diamonds merely the
+element C in the scarcest of its manifold allotropic embodiments.
+The Professor did not seek to make money out of his discovery. He
+rose above the sordid greed of capitalists. Content with the glory
+of having traced the element C to its crystalline origin, he asked
+no more than the approval of science. However, out of deference to
+the wishes of those financial gentlemen who were oddly concerned in
+maintaining the present price of C in its crystalline form--in other
+words, the diamond interest--they had arranged that the secret
+should be strictly guarded and kept for the present; not one of the
+few persons admitted to the experiments would publicly divulge the
+truth about them. This secrecy would be maintained till he himself,
+and a small committee of the Royal Society, should have time to
+investigate and verify for themselves the Professor's beautiful
+and ingenious processes--an investigation and verification which
+the learned Professor himself both desired and suggested.
+(Schleiermacher nodded approval.) When that was done, if the
+process stood the test, further concealment would be absolutely
+futile. The price of diamonds must fall at once below that of paste,
+and any protest on the part of the financial world would, of course,
+be useless. The laws of Nature were superior to millionaires.
+Meanwhile, in deference to the opinion of Sir Charles Vandrift,
+whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody
+could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and
+to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple
+process in public. He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet
+"beautiful." And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must
+congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on
+his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge
+of brilliants and of crystalline science.
+
+Everybody applauded. It was an awkward moment. Sir Charles bit his
+lip. Mosenheimer looked glum. Young Phipson dropped an expression
+which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate
+among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy,
+the meeting separated.
+
+I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided
+Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his
+own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we
+took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned
+back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable.
+
+Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the
+billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload
+Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of
+the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It
+struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning
+out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the
+next few weeks or so.
+
+He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except
+on occasions when he is _very_ angry, my respected connection
+_never_ calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation,
+"Sey"--derived from Seymour--is his usual mode of address to
+me in private.) "_Is_ it likely I would unload, and wreck the
+confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a
+moment? As a director--as Chairman--would it be just or right of
+me? I ask you, sir, _could_ I reconcile it to my conscience?"
+
+"Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You
+will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those
+who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in
+finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators.
+
+At the same time I thought to myself, "_I_ am not a director. No
+trust is reposed in _me_. _I_ have to think first of dear Isabel and
+the baby. Before the crash comes _I_ will sell out to-morrow the
+few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas."
+
+With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine
+my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey,"
+he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my
+brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will
+be upon us to-morrow. If _you_ were to sell out, and operators got to
+know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company
+would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your
+own property. I can't interfere with _that_. I do not dictate to
+you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the
+interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should
+not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore,
+though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give
+you warning: _if_ you sell out those shares of yours, openly or
+secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six
+months' salary in lieu of notice, and--you leave me instantly."
+
+"Very well, Charles," I answered, in a submissive voice; though I
+debated with myself for a moment whether it would be best to stick
+to the ready money and quit the sinking ship, or to hold fast by my
+friend, and back Charles's luck against the Professor's science.
+After a short, sharp struggle within my own mind, I am proud to say,
+friendship and gratitude won. I felt sure that, whether diamonds
+went up or down, Charles Vandrift was the sort of man who would come
+to the top in the end in spite of everything. And I decided to stand
+by him!
+
+I slept little that night, however. My mind was a whirlwind. At
+breakfast Charles also looked haggard and moody. He ordered the
+carriage early, and drove straight into the City.
+
+There was a block in Cheapside. Charles, impatient and nervous,
+jumped out and walked. I walked beside him. Near Wood Street a man
+we knew casually stopped us.
+
+"I think I ought to mention to you," he said, confidentially,
+"that I have it on the very best authority that Schleiermacher,
+of Jena--"
+
+"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and--there's
+not a word of truth in it."
+
+He brushed on in haste. A yard or two farther a broker paused in
+front of us.
+
+"Halloa, Sir Charles!" he called out, in a bantering tone. "What's
+all this about diamonds? Where are Cloetedorps to-day? Is it
+Golconda, or Queer Street?"
+
+Charles drew himself up very stiff. "I fail to understand you,"
+he answered, with dignity.
+
+"Why, you were there yourself," the man cried. "Last night at Sir
+Adolphus's! Oh yes, it's all over the place; Schleiermacher of Jena
+has succeeded in making the most perfect diamonds--for sixpence
+apiece--as good as real--and South Africa's ancient history. In less
+than six weeks Kimberley, they say, will be a howling desert. Every
+costermonger in Whitechapel will wear genuine Koh-i-noors for
+buttons on his coat; every girl in Bermondsey will sport a rivière
+like Lady Vandrift's to her favourite music-hall. There's a slump
+in Golcondas. Sly, sly, I can see; but _we_ know all about it!"
+
+Charles moved on, disgusted. The man's manners were atrocious.
+Near the Bank we ran up against a most respectable jobber.
+
+"Ah, Sir Charles," he said; "you here? Well, this is strange news,
+isn't it? For my part, I advise you not to take it too seriously.
+Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
+it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
+the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
+time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
+Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
+till Sir Adolphus has tested it."
+
+We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
+Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
+discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
+proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
+told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
+proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
+that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
+out the less was he likely to lose by it.
+
+Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
+out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
+at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
+follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.
+
+All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
+murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
+to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
+was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
+and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
+"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
+my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
+is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
+prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
+one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
+the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
+the panic."
+
+All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
+himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
+roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
+but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
+restore public confidence.
+
+"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
+as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
+Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
+and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
+own advantage. A chairman, like Caesar's wife, should be above
+suspicion. So I shall only buy up just enough, now and again, to
+let people see I, at least, have no doubt as to the firm future
+of Cloetedorps."
+
+He went home that night, more harassed and ill than I have ever
+seen him. Next day was as bad. The slump continued, with varying
+episodes. Now, a rumour would surge up that Sir Adolphus had
+declared the whole affair a sham, and prices would steady a little;
+now, another would break out that the diamonds were actually being
+put upon the market in Berlin by the cart-load, and timid old ladies
+would wire down to their brokers to realise off-hand at whatever
+hazard. It was an awful day. I shall never forget it.
+
+The morning after, as if by miracle, things righted themselves of
+a sudden. While we were wondering what it meant, Charles received a
+telegram from Sir Adolphus Cordery:--
+
+"The man is a fraud. Not Schleiermacher at all. Just had a wire
+from Jena saying the Professor knows nothing about him. Sorry
+unintentionally to have caused you trouble. Come round and see me."
+
+"Sorry unintentionally to have caused you trouble." Charles was
+beside himself with anger. Sir Adolphus had upset the share-market
+for forty-eight mortal hours, half-ruined a round dozen of wealthy
+operators, convulsed the City, upheaved the House, and now--he
+apologised for it as one might apologise for being late ten minutes
+for dinner! Charles jumped into a hansom and rushed round to see
+him. How had he dared to introduce the impostor to solid men as
+Professor Schleiermacher? Sir Adolphus shrugged his shoulders. The
+fellow had come and introduced himself as the great Jena chemist;
+he had long white hair, and a stoop in the shoulders. What reason
+had _he_ for doubting his word? (I reflected to myself that on much
+the same grounds Charles in turn had accepted the Honourable David
+Granton and Graf von Lebenstein.) Besides, what object could the
+creature have for this extraordinary deception? Charles knew only
+too well. It was clear it was done to disturb the diamond market,
+and we realised, too late, that the man who had done it was--Colonel
+Clay, in "another of his manifold allotropic embodiments!" Charles
+had had his wish, and had met his enemy once more in London!
+
+We could see the whole plot. Colonel Clay was polymorphic, like the
+element carbon! Doubtless, with his extraordinary sleight of hand,
+he had substituted real diamonds for the shapeless mass that came
+out of the apparatus, in the interval between handing the pebbles
+round for inspection, and distributing them piecemeal to the men of
+science and representatives of the diamond interest. We all watched
+him closely, of course, when he opened the crucibles; but when once
+we had satisfied ourselves that _something_ came out, our doubts were
+set at rest, and we forgot to watch whether he distributed those
+somethings or not to the recipients. Conjurers always depend upon
+such momentary distractions or lapses of attention. As usual, too,
+the Professor had disappeared into space the moment his trick was
+once well performed. He vanished like smoke, as the Count and Seer
+had vanished before, and was never again heard of.
+
+Charles went home more angry than I have ever beheld him. I couldn't
+imagine why. He seemed as deeply hipped as if he had lost his
+thousands. I endeavoured to console him. "After all," I said,
+"though Golcondas have suffered a temporary loss, it's a comfort
+to think that you should have stood so firm, and not only stemmed
+the tide, but also prevented yourself from losing anything at all
+of your own through panic. I'm sorry, of course, for the widows
+and orphans; but if Colonel Clay has rigged the market, at least
+it isn't YOU who lose by it this time."
+
+Charles withered me with a fierce scowl of undisguised contempt.
+"Wentworth," he said once more, "you are a fool!" Then he relapsed
+into silence.
+
+"But you declined to sell out," I said.
+
+He gazed at me fixedly. "Is it likely," he asked at last, "I would
+tell _you_ if I meant to sell out? or that I'd sell out openly through
+Finglemore, my usual broker? Why, all the world would have known,
+and Golcondas would have been finished. As it is, I don't desire to
+tell an ass like you exactly how much I've lost. But I _did_ sell out,
+and some unknown operator bought in at once, and closed for ready
+money, and has sold again this morning; and after all that has
+happened, it will be impossible to track him. He didn't wait for the
+account: he settled up instantly. And he sold in like manner. I know
+now what has been done, and how cleverly it has all been disguised
+and covered; but the most I'm going to tell you to-day is just
+this--it's by far the biggest haul Colonel Clay has made out of me.
+He could retire on it if he liked. My one hope is, it may satisfy
+him for life; but, then, no man has ever had enough of making money."
+
+"_You_ sold out!" I exclaimed. "_You_, the Chairman of the company!
+_You_ deserted the ship! And how about your trust? How about the widows
+and orphans confided to you?"
+
+Charles rose and faced me. "Seymour Wentworth," he said, in his most
+solemn voice, "you have lived with me for years and had every
+advantage. You have seen high finance. Yet you ask me that question!
+It's my belief you will never, never understand business!"
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE ARREST OF THE COLONEL
+
+
+How much precisely Charles dropped over the slump in Cloetedorps
+I never quite knew. But the incident left him dejected, limp, and
+dispirited.
+
+"Hang it all, Sey," he said to me in the smoking-room, a few
+evenings later. "This Colonel Clay is enough to vex the patience of
+Job--and Job had large losses, too, if I recollect aright, from the
+Chaldeans and other big operators of the period."
+
+"Three thousand camels," I murmured, recalling my dear mother's
+lessons; "all at one fell swoop; not to mention five hundred yoke of
+oxen, carried off by the Sabeans, then a leading firm of speculative
+cattle-dealers!"
+
+"Ah, well," Charles meditated aloud, shaking the ash from his
+cheroot into a Japanese tray--fine antique bronze-work. "There were
+big transactions in live-stock even then! Still, Job or no Job, the
+man is too much for me."
+
+"The difficulty is," I assented, "you never know where to have him."
+
+"Yes," Charles mused; "if he were always the same, like Horniman's
+tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd
+stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling
+every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and
+always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey,
+there's no wrestling with him anyhow."
+
+"Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched," I
+acquiesced, "than the Honourable David?"
+
+"Exactly so," Charles murmured. "I invited him myself, for my own
+advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie
+connection."
+
+"Or the Professor?" I went on. "Introduced to us by the leading
+mineralogist of England."
+
+I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.
+
+"Then, women again," he resumed, after a painful pause. "I must meet
+in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on
+my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax
+my attention for one day--or even when I don't relax it--I am
+bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that
+transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest
+girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her.
+She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I
+lose my heart afresh to that different person."
+
+I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.
+
+"No, Sey," my respected connection went on, after another long
+pause, sipping his coffee pensively, "I feel I must be aided in this
+superhuman task by a professional unraveller of cunning disguises. I
+shall go to Marvillier's to-morrow--fortunate man, Marvillier--and
+ask him to supply me with a really good 'tec, who will stop in the
+house and keep an eye upon every living soul that comes near me.
+He shall scan each nose, each eye, each wig, each whisker. He shall
+be my watchful half, my unsleeping self; it shall be his business
+to suspect all living men, all breathing women. The Archbishop of
+Canterbury shall not escape for a moment his watchful regard; he
+will take care that royal princesses don't collar the spoons or walk
+off with the jewel-cases. He must see possible Colonel Clays in the
+guard of every train and the parson of every parish; he must detect
+the off-chance of a Mme. Picardet in every young girl that takes tea
+with Amelia, every fat old lady that comes to call upon Isabel. Yes,
+I have made my mind up. I shall go to-morrow and secure such a man
+at once at Marvillier's."
+
+"If you please, Sir Charles," Césarine interposed, pushing her head
+through the portière, "her ladyship says, will you and Mr. Wentworth
+remember that she goes out with you both this evening to Lady
+Carisbrooke's?"
+
+"Bless my soul," Charles cried, "so she does! And it's now past ten!
+The carriage will be at the door for us in another five minutes!"
+
+Next morning, accordingly, Charles drove round to Marvillier's. The
+famous detective listened to his story with glistening eyes; then he
+rubbed his hands and purred. "Colonel Clay!" he said; "Colonel Clay!
+That's a very tough customer! The police of Europe are on the
+look-out for Colonel Clay. He is wanted in London, in Paris, in
+Berlin. It is le Colonel Caoutchouc here, le Colonel Caoutchouc
+there; till one begins to ask, at last, IS there _any_ Colonel
+Caoutchouc, or is it a convenient class name invented by the Force
+to cover a gang of undiscovered sharpers? However, Sir Charles, we
+will do our best. I will set on the track without delay the best and
+cleverest detective in England."
+
+"The very man I want," Charles said. "What name, Marvillier?"
+
+The principal smiled. "Whatever name you like," he said. "He isn't
+particular. Medhurst he's called at home. _We_ call him Joe. I'll
+send him round to your house this afternoon for certain."
+
+"Oh no," Charles said promptly, "you won't; or Colonel Clay himself
+will come instead of him. I've been sold too often. No casual
+strangers! I'll wait here and see him."
+
+"But he isn't in," Marvillier objected.
+
+Charles was firm as a rock. "Then send and fetch him."
+
+In half an hour, sure enough, the detective arrived. He was an
+odd-looking small man, with hair cut short and standing straight up
+all over his head, like a Parisian waiter. He had quick, sharp eyes,
+very much like a ferret's; his nose was depressed, his lips thin and
+bloodless. A scar marked his left cheek--made by a sword-cut, he
+said, when engaged one day in arresting a desperate French smuggler,
+disguised as an officer of Chasseurs d'Afrique. His mien was
+resolute. Altogether, a quainter or 'cuter little man it has never
+yet been my lot to set eyes on. He walked in with a brisk step,
+eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked
+for what he was wanted.
+
+"This is Sir Charles Vandrift, the great diamond king," Marvillier
+said, introducing us.
+
+"So I see," the man answered.
+
+"Then you know me?" Charles asked.
+
+"I wouldn't be worth much," the detective replied, "if I didn't
+know everybody. And you're easy enough to know; why, every boy in
+the street knows you."
+
+"Plain spoken!" Charles remarked.
+
+"As you like it, sir," the man answered in a respectful tone. "I
+endeavour to suit my dress and behaviour on every occasion to the
+taste of my employers."
+
+"Your name?" Charles asked, smiling.
+
+"Joseph Medhurst, at your service. What sort of work? Stolen
+diamonds? Illicit diamond-buying?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, fixing him with his eye. "Quite another kind
+of job. You've heard of Colonel Clay?"
+
+Medhurst nodded. "Why, certainly," he said; and, for the first time,
+I detected a lingering trace of American accent. "It's my business
+to know about him."
+
+"Well, I want you to catch him," Charles went on.
+
+Medhurst drew a long breath. "Isn't that rather a large order?"
+he murmured, surprised.
+
+Charles explained to him exactly the sort of services he required.
+Medhurst promised to comply. "If the man comes near you, I'll spot
+him," he said, after a moment's pause. "I can promise you that much.
+I'll pierce any disguise. I should know in a minute whether he's
+got up or not. I'm death on wigs, false moustaches, artificial
+complexions. I'll engage to bring the rogue to book if I see him.
+You may set your mind at rest, that, while _I'm_ about you, Colonel
+Clay can do nothing without my instantly spotting him."
+
+"He'll do it," Marvillier put in. "He'll do it, if he says it. He's
+my very best hand. Never knew any man like him for unravelling and
+unmasking the cleverest disguises."
+
+"Then he'll suit me," Charles answered, "for _I_ never knew any man
+like Colonel Clay for assuming and maintaining them."
+
+It was arranged accordingly that Medhurst should take up his
+residence in the house for the present, and should be described to
+the servants as assistant secretary. He came that very day, with a
+marvellously small portmanteau. But from the moment he arrived,
+we noticed that Césarine took a violent dislike to him.
+
+Medhurst was a most efficient detective. Charles and I told him
+all we knew about the various shapes in which Colonel Clay had
+"materialised," and he gave us in turn many valuable criticisms and
+suggestions. Why, when we began to suspect the Honourable David
+Granton, had we not, as if by accident, tried to knock his red wig
+off? Why, when the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon first discussed
+the question of the paste diamonds, had we not looked to see if
+any of Amelia's unique gems were missing? Why, when Professor
+Schleiermacher made his bow to assembled science at Lancaster Gate,
+had we not strictly inquired how far he was personally known
+beforehand to Sir Adolphus Cordery and the other mineralogists?
+He supplied us also with several good hints about false hair and
+make-up; such as that Schleiermacher was probably much shorter than
+he looked, but by imitating a stoop with padding at his back he
+had produced the illusion of a tall bent man, though in reality no
+bigger than the little curate or the Graf von Lebenstein. High heels
+did the rest; while the scientific keenness we noted in his face was
+doubtless brought about by a trifle of wax at the end of the nose,
+giving a peculiar tilt that is extremely effective. In short, I must
+frankly admit, Medhurst made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Sharp as
+Charles is, we realised at once he was nowhere in observation beside
+the trained and experienced senses of this professional detective.
+
+The worst of it all was, while Medhurst was with us, by some curious
+fatality, Colonel Clay stopped away from us. Now and again, to be
+sure, we ran up against somebody whom Medhurst suspected; but
+after a short investigation (conducted, I may say, with admirable
+cleverness), the spy always showed us the doubtful person was
+really some innocent and well-known character, whose antecedents
+and surroundings he elucidated most wonderfully. He was a perfect
+marvel, too, in his faculty of suspicion. He suspected everybody. If
+an old friend dropped in to talk business with Charles, we found out
+afterwards that Medhurst had lain concealed all the time behind the
+curtain, and had taken short-hand notes of the whole conversation,
+as well as snap-shot photographs of the supposed sharper, by means
+of a kodak. If a fat old lady came to call upon Amelia, Medhurst
+was sure to be lurking under the ottoman in the drawing-room, and
+carefully observing, with all his eyes, whether or not she was
+really Mme. Picardet, padded. When Lady Tresco brought her four
+plain daughters to an "At Home" one night, Medhurst, in evening
+dress, disguised as a waiter, followed them each round the room with
+obtrusive ices, to satisfy himself just how much of their complexion
+was real, and how much was patent rouge and Bloom of Ninon. He
+doubted whether Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, was not Colonel Clay
+in plain clothes; and he had half an idea that Césarine herself was
+our saucy White Heather in an alternative avatar. We pointed out
+to him in vain that Simpson had often been present in the very
+same room with David Granton, and that Césarine had dressed Mrs.
+Brabazon's hair at Lucerne: this partially satisfied him, but only
+partially. He remarked that Simpson might double both parts with
+somebody else unknown; and that as for Césarine, she might well
+have a twin sister who took her place when she was Mme. Picardet.
+
+Still, in spite of all his care--or because of all his care--Colonel
+Clay stopped away for whole weeks together. An explanation occurred
+to us. Was it possible he knew we were guarded and watched? Was he
+afraid of measuring swords with this trained detective?
+
+If so, how had he found it out? I had an inkling, myself--but, under
+all the circumstances, I did not mention it to Charles. It was clear
+that Césarine intensely disliked this new addition to the Vandrift
+household. She would not stop in the room where the detective was,
+or show him common politeness. She spoke of him always as "that
+odious man, Medhurst." Could she have guessed, what none of the
+other servants knew, that the man was a spy in search of the
+Colonel? I was inclined to believe it. And then it dawned upon me
+that Césarine had known all about the diamonds and their story; that
+it was Césarine who took us to see Schloss Lebenstein; that it was
+Césarine who posted the letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie! If Césarine
+was in league with Colonel Clay, as I was half inclined to surmise,
+what more natural than her obvious dislike to the detective who was
+there to catch her principal? What more simple for her than to warn
+her fellow-conspirator of the danger that awaited him if he
+approached this man Medhurst?
+
+However, I was too much frightened by the episode of the cheque to
+say anything of my nascent suspicions to Charles. I waited rather
+to see how events would shape themselves.
+
+After a while Medhurst's vigilance grew positively annoying. More
+than once he came to Charles with reports and shorthand notes
+distinctly distasteful to my excellent brother-in-law. "The fellow
+is getting to know too much about us," Charles said to me one day.
+"Why, Sey, he spies out everything. Would you believe it, when I had
+that confidential interview with Brookfield the other day, about the
+new issue of Golcondas, the man was under the easy-chair, though I
+searched the room beforehand to make sure he wasn't there; and he
+came to me afterwards with full notes of the conversation, to assure
+me he thought Brookfield--whom I've known for ten years--was too
+tall by half an inch to be one of Colonel Clay's impersonations."
+
+"Oh, but, Sir Charles," Medhurst cried, emerging suddenly from the
+bookcase, "you must never look upon _any one_ as above suspicion
+merely because you've known him for ten years or thereabouts.
+Colonel Clay may have approached you at various times under many
+disguises. He may have built up this thing gradually. Besides, as to
+my knowing too much, why, of course, a detective always learns many
+things about his employer's family which he is not supposed to know;
+but professional honour and professional etiquette, as with doctors
+and lawyers, compel him to lock them up as absolute secrets in his
+own bosom. You need never be afraid I will divulge one jot of them.
+If I did, my occupation would be gone, and my reputation shattered."
+
+Charles looked at him, appalled. "Do you dare to say," he burst out,
+"you've been listening to my talk with my brother-in-law and
+secretary?"
+
+"Why, of course," Medhurst answered. "It's my business to listen,
+and to suspect everybody. If you push me to say so, how do I know
+Colonel Clay is not--Mr. Wentworth?"
+
+Charles withered him with a look. "In future, Medhurst," he said,
+"you must never conceal yourself in a room where I am without my
+leave and knowledge."
+
+Medhurst bowed politely. "Oh, as you will, Sir Charles," he
+answered; "that's _quite_ at your own wish. Though how can I act
+as an efficient detective, any way, if you insist upon tying my
+hands like that, beforehand?"
+
+Again I detected a faint American flavour.
+
+After that rebuff, however, Medhurst seemed put upon his mettle. He
+redoubled his vigilance in every direction. "It's not my fault," he
+said plaintively, one day, "if my reputation's so good that, while
+I'm near you, this rogue won't approach you. If I can't _catch_ him,
+at least I keep him away from coming near you!"
+
+A few days later, however, he brought Charles some photographs.
+These he produced with evident pride. The first he showed us was a
+vignette of a little parson. "Who's that, then?" he inquired, much
+pleased.
+
+We gazed at it, open-eyed. One word rose to our lips simultaneously:
+"Brabazon!"
+
+"And how's this for high?" he asked again, producing another--the
+photograph of a gay young dog in a Tyrolese costume.
+
+We murmured, "Von Lebenstein!"
+
+"_And_ this?" he continued, showing us the portrait of a lady with a
+most fetching squint.
+
+We answered with one voice, "Little Mrs. Granton!"
+
+Medhurst was naturally proud of this excellent exploit. He replaced
+them in his pocket-book with an air of just triumph.
+
+"How did you get them?" Charles asked.
+
+Medhurst's look was mysterious. "Sir Charles," he answered, drawing
+himself up, "I must ask you to trust me awhile in this matter.
+Remember, there are people whom you decline to suspect. _I_ have
+learned that it is always those very people who are most dangerous
+to capitalists. If I were to give you the names now, you would
+refuse to believe me. Therefore, I hold them over discreetly for
+the moment. One thing, however, I say. I _know_ to a certainty where
+Colonel Clay is at this present speaking. But I will lay my plans
+deep, and I hope before long to secure him. You shall be present
+when I do so; and I shall make him confess his personality openly.
+More than that you cannot reasonably ask. I shall leave it to
+_you_, then, whether or not you wish to arrest him."
+
+Charles was considerably puzzled, not to say piqued, by this curious
+reticence; he begged hard for names; but Medhurst was adamant. "No,
+no," he replied; "we detectives have our own just pride in our
+profession. If I told you now, you would probably spoil all by some
+premature action. You are too open and impulsive! I will mention
+this alone: Colonel Clay will be shortly in Paris, and before long
+will begin from that city a fresh attempt at defrauding you, which
+he is now hatching. Mark my words, and see whether or not I have
+been kept well informed of the fellow's movements!"
+
+He was perfectly correct. Two days later, as it turned out, Charles
+received a "confidential" letter from Paris, purporting to come
+from the head of a second-rate financial house with which he had
+had dealings over the Craig-Ellachie Amalgamation--by this time,
+I ought to have said, an accomplished union. It was a letter of
+small importance in itself--a mere matter of detail; but it paved
+the way, so Medhurst thought, to some later development of more
+serious character. Here once more the man's singular foresight was
+justified. For, in another week, we received a second communication,
+containing other proposals of a delicate financial character, which
+would have involved the transference of some two thousand pounds
+to the head of the Parisian firm at an address given. Both these
+letters Medhurst cleverly compared with those written to Charles
+before, in the names of Colonel Clay and of Graf von Lebenstein.
+At first sight, it is true, the differences between the two seemed
+quite enormous: the Paris hand was broad and black, large and bold;
+while the earlier manuscript was small, neat, thin, and gentlemanly.
+Still, when Medhurst pointed out to us certain persistent twists in
+the formation of his capitals, and certain curious peculiarities in
+the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we
+could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand,
+writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in
+the other with a quill, very large and freely.
+
+This discovery was _most_ important. We stood now within measurable
+distance of catching Colonel Clay, and bringing forgery and fraud
+home to him without hope of evasion.
+
+To make all sure, however, Medhurst communicated with the Paris
+police, and showed us their answers. Meanwhile, Charles continued to
+write to the head of the firm, who had given a private address in
+the Rue Jean Jacques, alleging, I must say, a most clever reason why
+the negotiations at this stage should be confidentially conducted.
+But one never expected from Colonel Clay anything less than
+consummate cleverness. In the end, it was arranged that we three
+were to go over to Paris together, that Medhurst was to undertake,
+under the guise of being Sir Charles, to pay the two thousand pounds
+to the pretended financier, and that Charles and I, waiting with the
+police outside the door, should, at a given signal, rush in with our
+forces and secure the criminal.
+
+We went over accordingly, and spent the night at the Grand, as is
+Charles's custom. The Bristol, which I prefer, he finds too quiet.
+Early next morning we took a fiacre and drove to the Rue Jean
+Jacques. Medhurst had arranged everything in advance with the Paris
+police, three of whom, in plain clothes, were waiting at the foot
+of the staircase to assist us. Charles had further provided himself
+with two thousand pounds, in notes of the Bank of France, in order
+that the payment might be duly made, and no doubt arise as to the
+crime having been perpetrated as well as meditated--in the former
+case, the penalty would be fifteen years; in the latter, three only.
+He was in very high spirits. The fact that we had tracked the rascal
+to earth at last, and were within an hour of apprehending him, was
+in itself enough to raise his courage greatly. We found, as we
+expected, that the number given in the Rue Jean Jacques was that
+of an hotel, not a private residence. Medhurst went in first, and
+inquired of the landlord whether our man was at home, at the same
+time informing him of the nature of our errand, and giving him to
+understand that if we effected the capture by his friendly aid, Sir
+Charles would see that the expenses incurred on the swindler's bill
+were met in full, as the price of his assistance. The landlord
+bowed; he expressed his deep regret, as M. le Colonel--so we
+heard him call him--was a most amiable person, much liked by the
+household; but justice, of course, must have its way; and, with a
+regretful sigh, he undertook to assist us.
+
+The police remained below, but Charles and Medhurst were each
+provided with a pair of handcuffs. Remembering the Polperro case,
+however, we determined to use them with the greatest caution. We
+would only put them on in case of violent resistance. We crept up to
+the door where the miscreant was housed. Charles handed the notes in
+an open envelope to Medhurst, who seized them hastily and held them
+in his hands in readiness for action. We had a sign concerted.
+Whenever he sneezed--which he could do in the most natural
+manner--we were to open the door, rush in, and secure the criminal!
+
+He was gone for some minutes. Charles and I waited outside in
+breathless expectation. Then Medhurst sneezed. We flung the door
+open at once, and burst in upon the creature.
+
+Medhurst rose as we did so. He pointed with his finger. "_This_ is
+Colonel Clay!" he said; "keep him well in charge while I go down
+to the door for the police to arrest him!"
+
+A gentlemanly man, about middle height, with a grizzled beard and a
+well-assumed military aspect, rose at the same moment. The envelope
+in which Charles had placed the notes lay on the table before him.
+He clutched it nervously. "I am at a loss, gentlemen," he said, in
+an excited voice, "to account for this interruption." He spoke with
+a tremor, yet with all the politeness to which we were accustomed in
+the little curate and the Honourable David.
+
+"No nonsense!" Charles exclaimed, in his authoritative way. "We know
+who you are. We have found you out this time. You are Colonel Clay.
+If you attempt to resist--take care--I will handcuff you!"
+
+The military gentleman gave a start. "Yes, I _am_ Colonel Clay," he
+answered. "On what charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bursting with wrath. The fellow's coolness seemed never
+to desert him. "You _are_ Colonel Clay!" he muttered. "You have the
+unspeakable effrontery to stand there and admit it?"
+
+"Certainly," the Colonel answered, growing hot in turn. "I have done
+nothing to be ashamed of. What do you mean by this conduct? How dare
+you talk of arresting me?"
+
+Charles laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Come, come, my
+friend," he said. "That sort of bluff won't go down with us. You
+know very well on what charge I arrest you; and here are the police
+to give effect to it."
+
+He called out "Entrez!" The police entered the room. Charles
+explained as well as he could in most doubtful Parisian what they
+were next to do. The Colonel drew himself up in an indignant
+attitude. He turned and addressed them in excellent French.
+
+"I am an officer in the service of her Britannic Majesty," he said.
+"On what ground do you venture to interfere with me, messieurs?"
+
+The chief policeman explained. The Colonel turned to Charles.
+"_Your_ name, sir?" he inquired.
+
+"You know it very well," Charles answered. "I am Sir Charles
+Vandrift; and, in spite of your clever disguise, I can instantly
+recognise you. I know your eyes and ears. I can see the same man
+who cheated me at Nice, and who insulted me on the island."
+
+"_You_ Sir Charles Vandrift!" the rogue cried. "No, no, sir, you are
+a madman!" He looked round at the police. "Take care what you do!"
+he cried. "This is a raving maniac. I had business just now with Sir
+Charles Vandrift, who quitted the room as these gentlemen entered.
+This person is mad, and you, monsieur, I doubt not," bowing to me,
+"you are, of course, his keeper."
+
+"Do not let him deceive you," I cried to the police, beginning to
+fear that with his usual incredible cleverness the fellow would
+even now manage to slip through our fingers. "Arrest him, as you
+are told. _We_ will take the responsibility." Though I trembled when
+I thought of that cheque he held of mine.
+
+The chief of our three policemen came forward and laid his hand on
+the culprit's shoulder. "I advise you, M. le Colonel," he said, in
+an official voice, "to come with us quietly for the present. Before
+the juge d'instruction we can enter at length into all these
+questions."
+
+The Colonel, very indignant still--and acting the part
+marvellously--yielded and went along with them.
+
+"Where's Medhurst?" Charles inquired, glancing round as we reached
+the door. "I wish he had stopped with us."
+
+"You are looking for monsieur your friend?" the landlord inquired,
+with a side bow to the Colonel. "He has gone away in a fiacre. He
+asked me to give this note to you."
+
+He handed us a twisted note. Charles opened and read it. "Invaluable
+man!" he cried. "Just hear what he says, Sey: 'Having secured
+Colonel Clay, I am off now again on the track of Mme. Picardet.
+She was lodging in the same house. She has just driven away; I know
+to what place; and I am after her to arrest her. In blind haste,
+MEDHURST.' That's smartness, IF you like. Though, poor little woman,
+I think he might have left her."
+
+"Does a Mme. Picardet stop here?" I inquired of the landlord,
+thinking it possible she might have assumed again the same old
+alias.
+
+He nodded assent. "Oui, oui, oui," he answered. "She has just driven
+off, and monsieur your friend has gone posting after her."
+
+"Splendid man!" Charles cried. "Marvillier was quite right. He is
+the prince of detectives!"
+
+We hailed a couple of fiacres, and drove off, in two detachments,
+to the juge d'instruction. There Colonel Clay continued to brazen
+it out, and asserted that he was an officer in the Indian Army, home
+on six months' leave, and spending some weeks in Paris. He even
+declared he was known at the Embassy, where he had a cousin an
+attaché; and he asked that this gentleman should be sent for at once
+from our Ambassador's to identify him. The juge d'instruction
+insisted that this must be done; and Charles waited in very bad
+humour for the foolish formality. It really seemed as if, after all,
+when we had actually caught and arrested our man, he was going by
+some cunning device to escape us.
+
+After a delay of more than an hour, during which Colonel Clay
+fretted and fumed quite as much as we did, the attaché arrived. To
+our horror and astonishment, he proceeded to salute the prisoner
+most affectionately.
+
+"Halloa, Algy!" he cried, grasping his hand; "what's up? What do
+these ruffians want with you?"
+
+It began to dawn upon us, then, what Medhurst had meant by
+"suspecting everybody": the real Colonel Clay was no common
+adventurer, but a gentleman of birth and high connections!
+
+The Colonel glared at us. "This fellow declares he's Sir Charles
+Vandrift," he said sulkily. "Though, in fact, there are two of them.
+And he accuses me of forgery, fraud, and theft, Bertie."
+
+The attaché stared hard at us. "This _is_ Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+replied, after a moment. "I remember hearing him make a speech once
+at a City dinner. And what charge have you to prefer, Sir Charles,
+against my cousin?"
+
+"Your cousin?" Charles cried. "This is Colonel Clay, the notorious
+sharper!"
+
+The attaché smiled a gentlemanly and superior smile. "This is
+Colonel Clay," he answered, "of the Bengal Staff Corps."
+
+It began to strike us there was something wrong somewhere.
+
+"But he has cheated me, all the same," Charles said--"at Nice two
+years ago, and many times since; and this very day he has tricked me
+out of two thousand pounds in French bank-notes, which he has now
+about him!"
+
+The Colonel was speechless. But the attaché laughed. "What he has
+done to-day I don't know," he said; "but if it's as apocryphal as
+what you say he did two years ago, you've a thundering bad case,
+sir; for he was then in India, and I was out there, visiting him."
+
+"Where are the two thousand pounds?" Charles cried. "Why, you've got
+them in your hand! You're holding the envelope!"
+
+The Colonel produced it. "This envelope," he said, "was left with me
+by the man with short stiff hair, who came just before you, and who
+announced himself as Sir Charles Vandrift. He said he was interested
+in tea in Assam, and wanted me to join the board of directors of
+some bogus company. These are his papers, I believe," and he handed
+them to his cousin.
+
+"Well, I'm glad the notes are safe, anyhow," Charles murmured, in a
+tone of relief, beginning to smell a rat. "Will you kindly return
+them to me?"
+
+The attaché turned out the contents of the envelope. They proved to
+be prospectuses of bubble companies of the moment, of no importance.
+
+"Medhurst must have put them there," I cried, "and decamped with the
+cash."
+
+Charles gave a groan of horror. "And Medhurst is Colonel Clay!" he
+exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the Colonel interposed. "I have but one
+personality, and no aliases."
+
+It took quite half an hour to explain this imbroglio. But as soon as
+all was explained, in French and English, to the satisfaction of
+ourselves and the juge d'instruction, the real Colonel shook hands
+with us in a most forgiving way, and informed us that he had more
+than once wondered, when he gave his name at shops in Paris, why
+it was often received with such grave suspicion. We instructed
+the police that the true culprit was Medhurst, whom they had seen
+with their own eyes, and whom we urged them to pursue with all
+expedition. Meanwhile, Charles and I, accompanied by the Colonel
+and the attaché--"to see the fun out," as they said--called at the
+Bank of France for the purpose of stopping the notes immediately. It
+was too late, however. They had been presented at once, and cashed
+in gold, by a pleasant little lady in an American costume, who was
+afterwards identified by the hotel-keeper (from our description) as
+his lodger, Mme. Picardet. It was clear she had taken rooms in the
+same hotel, to be near the Indian Colonel; and it was _she_ who had
+received and sent the letters. As for our foe, he had vanished into
+space, as always.
+
+Two days later we received the usual insulting communication on a
+sheet of Charles's own dainty note. Last time he wrote it was on
+Craig-Ellachie paper: this time, like the wanton lapwing, he had got
+himself another crest.
+
+
+"MOST PERSPICACIOUS OF MILLIONAIRES!--Said I not well, as
+Medhurst, that you must distrust everybody? And the one man
+you never dreamt of distrusting was--Medhurst. Yet see how
+truthful I was! I told you I knew where Colonel Clay was
+living--and I _did_ know, exactly. I promised to take you to
+Colonel Clay's rooms, and to get him arrested for you--and
+I kept my promise. I even exceeded your expectations; for
+I gave you _two_ Colonel Clays instead of one--and you took
+the wrong man--that is to say, the real one. This was a neat
+little trick; but it cost me some trouble.
+
+"First, I found out there _was_ a real Colonel Clay, in the
+Indian Army. I also found out he chanced to be coming home on
+leave this season. I might have made more out of him, no doubt;
+but I disliked annoying him, and preferred to give myself the
+fun of this peculiar mystification. I therefore waited for him
+to reach Paris, where the police arrangements suited me better
+than in London. While I was looking about, and delaying
+operations for his return, I happened to hear you wanted a
+detective. So I offered myself as out of work to my old
+employer, Marvillier, from whom I have had many good jobs in the
+past; and there you get, in short, the kernel of the Colonel.
+
+"Naturally, after this, I can never go back as a detective
+to Marvillier's. But, on the large scale on which I have
+learned to work since I first had the pleasure of making
+your delightful acquaintance, this matters little. To say
+the truth, I begin to feel detective work a cut or two below
+me. I am now a gentleman of means and leisure. Besides, the
+extra knowledge of your movements which I have acquired in
+your house has helped still further to give me various holds
+upon you. So the fluke will be true to his own pet lamb. To
+vary the metaphor, you are not fully shorn yet.
+
+"Remember me most kindly to your charming family, give
+Wentworth my love, and tell Mlle. Césarine I owe her a grudge
+which I shall never forget. She clearly suspected me. You are
+much too rich, dear Charles; I relieve your plethora. I bleed
+you financially. Therefore I consider myself--Your sincerest
+friend,
+
+"CLAY-BRABAZON-MEDHURST,
+
+"Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."
+
+
+Charles was threatened with apoplexy. This blow was severe.
+"Whom can I trust," he asked, plaintively, "when the detectives
+themselves, whom I employ to guard me, turn out to be swindlers?
+Don't you remember that line in the Latin grammar--something about,
+'Who shall watch the watchers?' I think it used to run, 'Quis
+custodes custodiet ipsos?'"
+
+But I felt this episode had at least disproved my suspicions of
+poor Césarine.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE SELDON GOLD-MINE
+
+
+On our return to London, Charles and Marvillier had a difference
+of opinion on the subject of Medhurst.
+
+Charles maintained that Marvillier ought to have known the man
+with the cropped hair was Colonel Clay, and ought never to have
+recommended him. Marvillier maintained that Charles had _seen_
+Colonel Clay half-a-dozen times, at least, to his own never; and
+that my respected brother-in-law had therefore nobody on earth
+but himself to blame if the rogue imposed upon him. The head
+detective had known Medhurst for ten years, he said, as a most
+respectable man, and even a ratepayer; he had always found him the
+cleverest of spies, as well he might be, indeed, on the familiar
+set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief principle. However, the upshot of
+it all was, as usual--nothing. Marvillier was sorry to lose the
+services of so excellent a hand; but he had done the very best
+he could for Sir Charles, he declared; and if Sir Charles was
+not satisfied, why, he might catch his Colonel Clays for himself
+in future.
+
+"So I will, Sey," Charles remarked to me, as we walked back from
+the office in the Strand by Piccadilly. "I won't trust any more to
+these private detectives. It's my belief they're a pack of thieves
+themselves, in league with the rascals they're set to catch, and
+with no more sense of honour than a Zulu diamond-hand."
+
+"Better try the police," I suggested, by way of being helpful.
+One must assume an interest in one's employer's business.
+
+But Charles shook his head. "No, no," he said; "I'm sick of all
+these fellows. I shall trust in future to my own sagacity. We
+learn by experience, Sey--and I've learned a thing or two. One of
+them is this: It's not enough to suspect everybody; you must have
+no preconceptions. Divest yourself entirely of every fixed idea
+if you wish to cope with a rascal of this calibre. Don't jump at
+conclusions. We should disbelieve everything, as well as distrust
+everybody. That's the road to success; and I mean to pursue it."
+
+So, by way of pursuing it, Charles retired to Seldon.
+
+"The longer the man goes on, the worse he grows," he said to me
+one morning. "He's just like a tiger that has tasted blood. Every
+successful haul seems only to make him more eager for another.
+I fully expect now before long we shall see him down here."
+
+About three weeks later, sure enough, my respected connection
+received a communication from the abandoned swindler, with
+an Austrian stamp and a Vienna post-mark.
+
+
+"MY DEAR VANDRIFT.--(After so long and so varied an acquaintance
+we may surely drop the absurd formalities of 'Sir Charles' and
+'Colonel.') I write to ask you a delicate question. Can you kindly
+tell me exactly how much I have received from your various generous
+acts during the last three years? I have mislaid my account-book,
+and as this is the season for making the income tax return, I am
+anxious, as an honest and conscientious citizen, to set down my
+average profits out of you for the triennial period. For reasons
+which you will amply understand, I do not this time give my private
+address, in Paris or elsewhere; but if you will kindly advertise
+the total amount, above the signature 'Peter Simple,' in the Agony
+Column of the Times, you will confer a great favour upon the
+Revenue Commissioners, and also upon your constant friend and
+companion, CUTHBERT CLAY,
+
+"Practical Socialist."
+
+"Mark my word, Sey," Charles said, laying the letter down, "in a
+week or less the man himself will follow. This is his cunning way
+of trying to make me think he's well out of the country and far
+away from Seldon. That means he's meditating another descent. But
+he told us too much last time, when he was Medhurst the detective.
+He gave us some hints about disguises and their unmasking that I
+shall not forget. This turn I shall be even with him."
+
+On Saturday of that week, in effect, we were walking along the road
+that leads into the village, when we met a gentlemanly-looking man,
+in a rough and rather happy-go-lucky brown tweed suit, who had the
+air of a tourist. He was middle-aged, and of middle height; he wore
+a small leather wallet suspended round his shoulder; and he was
+peering about at the rocks in a suspicious manner. Something in
+his gait attracted our attention.
+
+"Good-morning," he said, looking up as we passed; and Charles
+muttered a somewhat surly inarticulate, "Good-morning."
+
+We went on without saying more. "Well, _that's_ not Colonel Clay,
+anyhow," I said, as we got out of earshot. "For he accosted us
+first; and you may remember it's one of the Colonel's most marked
+peculiarities that, like the model child, he never speaks till he's
+spoken to--never begins an acquaintance. He always waits till we
+make the first advance; he doesn't go out of his way to cheat us;
+he loiters about till we ask him to do it."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law responded, in a severe tone, "there
+you are, now, doing the very thing I warned you not to do! You're
+succumbing to a preconception. Avoid fixed ideas. The probability
+is this man _is_ Colonel Clay. Strangers are generally scarce at
+Seldon. If he isn't Colonel Clay, what's he here for, I'd like
+to know? What money is there to be made here in any other way?
+I shall inquire about him."
+
+We dropped in at the Cromarty Arms, and asked good Mrs. M'Lachlan
+if she could tell us anything about the gentlemanly stranger. Mrs.
+M'Lachlan replied that he was from London, she believed, a pleasant
+gentleman enough; and he had his wife with him.
+
+"Ha! Young? Pretty?" Charles inquired, with a speaking glance at me.
+
+"Weel, Sir Charles, she'll no be exactly what you'd be ca'ing a
+bonny lass," Mrs. M'Lachlan replied; "but she's a guid body for
+a' that, an' a fine braw woman."
+
+"Just what I should expect," Charles murmured, "He varies the
+programme. The fellow has tried White Heather as the parson's wife,
+and as Madame Picardet, and as squinting little Mrs. Granton, and
+as Medhurst's accomplice; and now, he has almost exhausted the
+possibilities of a disguise for a really young and pretty woman;
+so he's playing her off at last as the riper product--a handsome
+matron. Clever, extremely clever; but--we begin to see through him."
+And he chuckled to himself quietly.
+
+Next day, on the hillside, we came upon our stranger again,
+occupied as before in peering into the rocks, and sounding them
+with a hammer. Charles nudged me and whispered, "I have it this
+time. He's posing as a geologist."
+
+I took a good look at the man. By now, of course, we had some
+experience of Colonel Clay in his various disguises; and I could
+observe that while the nose, the hair, and the beard were varied,
+the eyes and the build remained the same as ever. He was a trifle
+stouter, of course, being got up as a man of between forty and
+fifty; and his forehead was lined in a way which a less consummate
+artist than Colonel Clay could easily have imitated. But I felt we
+had at least some grounds for our identification; it would not do
+to dismiss the suggestion of Clayhood at once as a flight of fancy.
+
+His wife was sitting near, upon a bare boss of rock, reading a
+volume of poems. Capital variant, that, a volume of poems! Exactly
+suited the selected type of a cultivated family. White Heather and
+Mrs. Granton never used to read poems. But that was characteristic
+of all Colonel Clay's impersonations, and Mrs. Clay's too--for I
+suppose I must call her so. They were not mere outer disguises;
+they were finished pieces of dramatic study. Those two people were
+an actor and actress, as well as a pair of rogues; and in both
+their rôles they were simply inimitable.
+
+As a rule, Charles is by no means polite to casual trespassers on
+the Seldon estate; they get short shrift and a summary ejection.
+But on this occasion he had a reason for being courteous, and he
+approached the lady with a bow of recognition. "Lovely day," he
+said, "isn't it? Such belts on the sea, and the heather smells
+sweet. You are stopping at the inn, I fancy?"
+
+"Yes," the lady answered, looking up at him with a charming smile.
+("I know that smile," Charles whispered to me. "I have succumbed to
+it too often.") "We're stopping at the inn, and my husband is doing
+a little geology on the hill here. I hope Sir Charles Vandrift won't
+come and catch us. He's so down upon trespassers. They tell us at
+the inn he's a regular Tartar."
+
+("Saucy minx as ever," Charles murmured to me. "She said it on
+purpose.") "No, my dear madam," he continued, aloud; "you have
+been quite misinformed. _I_ am Sir Charles Vandrift; and I am _not_
+a Tartar. If your husband is a man of science I respect and admire
+him. It is geology that has made me what I am to-day." And he drew
+himself up proudly. "We owe to it the present development of South
+African mining."
+
+The lady blushed as one seldom sees a mature woman blush--but
+exactly as I had seen Madame Picardet and White Heather. "Oh, I'm
+so sorry," she said, in a confused way that recalled Mrs. Granton.
+"Forgive my hasty speech. I--I didn't know you."
+
+("She did," Charles whispered. "But let that pass.") "Oh, don't
+think of it again; so many people disturb the birds, don't you know,
+that we're obliged in self-defence to warn trespassers sometimes off
+our lovely mountains. But I do it with regret--with profound regret.
+I admire the--er--the beauties of Nature myself; and, therefore,
+I desire that all others should have the freest possible access
+to them--possible, that is to say, consistently with the superior
+claims of Property."
+
+"I see," the lady replied, looking up at him quaintly. "I admire
+your wish, though not your reservation. I've just been reading
+those sweet lines of Wordsworth's--
+
+  And O, ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,
+  Forebode not any severing of our loves.
+
+I suppose you know them?" And she beamed on him pleasantly.
+
+"Know them?" Charles answered. "Know them! Oh, of course, I know
+them. They're old favourites of mine--in fact, I adore Wordsworth."
+(I doubt whether Charles has ever in his life read a line of poetry,
+except Doss Chiderdoss in the Sporting Times.) He took the book
+and glanced at them. "Ah, charming, charming!" he said, in his most
+ecstatic tone. But his eyes were on the lady, and not on the poet.
+
+I saw in a moment how things stood. No matter under what disguise
+that woman appeared to him, and whether he recognised her or not,
+Charles couldn't help falling a victim to Madame Picardet's
+attractions. Here he actually suspected her; yet, like a moth
+round a candle, he was trying his hardest to get his wings singed!
+I almost despised him with his gigantic intellect! The greatest
+men are the greatest fools, I verily believe, when there's a woman
+in question.
+
+The husband strolled up by this time, and entered into conversation
+with us. According to his own account, his name was Forbes-Gaskell,
+and he was a Professor of Geology in one of those new-fangled
+northern colleges. He had come to Seldon rock-spying, he said, and
+found much to interest him. He was fond of fossils, but his special
+hobby was rocks and minerals. He knew a vast deal about cairngorms
+and agates and such-like pretty things, and showed Charles quartz
+and felspar and red cornelian, and I don't know what else, in the
+crags on the hillside. Charles pretended to listen to him with the
+deepest interest and even respect, never for a moment letting him
+guess he knew for what purpose this show of knowledge had been
+recently acquired. If we were ever to catch the man, we must not
+allow him to see we suspected him. So Charles played a dark game.
+He swallowed the geologist whole without question.
+
+Most of that morning we spent with them on the hillside. Charles
+took them everywhere and showed them everything. He pretended to be
+polite to the scientific man, and he was really polite, most polite,
+to the poetical lady. Before lunch time we had become quite friends.
+
+The Clays were always easy people to get on with; and, bar their
+roguery, we could not deny they were delightful companions. Charles
+asked them in to lunch. They accepted willingly. He introduced them
+to Amelia with sundry raisings of his eyebrows and contortions
+of his mouth. "Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell," he said,
+half-dislocating his jaw with his violent efforts. "They're stopping
+at the inn, dear. I've been showing them over the place, and they're
+good enough to say they'll drop in and take a share in our cold
+roast mutton;" which was a frequent form of Charles's pleasantry.
+
+Amelia sent them upstairs to wash their hands--which, in the
+Professor's case, was certainly desirable, for his fingers were
+grimed with earth and dust from the rocks he had been investigating.
+As soon as we were left alone Charles drew me into the library.
+
+"Seymour," he said, "more than ever there is a need for us strictly
+to avoid preconceptions. We must not make up our minds that this man
+is Colonel Clay--nor, again, that he isn't. We must remember that we
+have been mistaken in _both_ ways in the past, and must avoid our
+old errors. I shall hold myself in readiness for either event--and
+a policeman in readiness to arrest them, if necessary!"
+
+"A capital plan," I murmured. "Still, if I may venture a suggestion,
+in what way are these two people endeavouring to entrap us? They
+have no scheme on hand--no schloss, no amalgamation."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law answered in his board-room style, "you
+are a great deal too previous, as Medhurst used to say--I mean,
+Colonel Clay in his character as Medhurst. In the first place, these
+are early days; our friends have not yet developed their intentions.
+We may find before long they have a property to sell, or a company
+to promote, or a concession to exploit in South Africa or elsewhere.
+Then again, in the second place, we don't always spot the exact
+nature of their plan until it has burst in our hands, so to speak,
+and revealed its true character. What could have seemed more
+transparent than Medhurst, the detective, till he ran away with our
+notes in the very moment of triumph? What more innocent than White
+Heather and the little curate, till they landed us with a couple
+of Amelia's own gems as a splendid bargain? I will not take it for
+granted _any_ man is not Colonel Clay, merely because I don't happen
+to spot the particular scheme he is trying to work against me. The
+rogue has so many schemes, and some of them so well concealed, that
+up to the moment of the actual explosion you fail to detect the
+presence of moral dynamite. Therefore, I shall proceed as if there
+were dynamite everywhere. But in the third place--and this is _very_
+important--you mark my words, I believe I detect already the lines
+he will work upon. He's a geologist, he says, with a taste for
+minerals. Very good. You see if he doesn't try to persuade me before
+long he has found a coal mine, whose locality he will disclose for
+a trifling consideration; or else he will salt the Long Mountain
+with emeralds, and claim a big share for helping to discover them;
+or else he will try something in the mineralogical line to _do_ me
+somehow. I see it in the very transparency of the fellow's face;
+and I'm determined this time neither to pay him one farthing on
+any pretext, nor to let him escape me!"
+
+We went in to lunch. The Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, all
+smiles, accompanied us. I don't know whether it was Charles's
+warning to take nothing for granted that made me do so--but I kept
+a close eye upon the suspected man all the time we were at table.
+It struck me there was something very odd about his hair. It
+didn't seem quite the same colour all over. The locks that hung
+down behind, over the collar of his coat, were a trifle lighter and
+a trifle grayer than the black mass that covered the greater part
+of his head. I examined it carefully. The more I did so, the more
+the conviction grew upon me: he was wearing a wig. There was no
+denying it!
+
+A trifle less artistic, perhaps, than most of Colonel Clay's
+get-ups; but then, I reflected (on Charles's principle of taking
+nothing for granted), we had never before suspected Colonel Clay
+himself, except in the one case of the Honourable David, whose red
+hair and whiskers even Madame Picardet had admitted to be absurdly
+false by her action of pointing at them and tittering irrepressibly.
+It was possible that in every case, if we had scrutinised our man
+closely, we should have found that the disguise betrayed itself
+at once (as Medhurst had suggested) to an acute observer.
+
+The detective, in fact, had told us too much. I remembered what he
+said to us about knocking off David Granton's red wig the moment
+we doubted him; and I positively tried to help myself awkwardly
+to potato-chips, when the footman offered them, so as to hit the
+supposed wig with an apparently careless brush of my elbow. But
+it was of no avail. The fellow seemed to anticipate or suspect my
+intention, and dodged aside carefully, like one well accustomed
+to saving his disguise from all chance of such real or seeming
+accidents.
+
+I was so full of my discovery that immediately after lunch I induced
+Isabel to take our new friends round the home garden and show them
+Charles's famous prize dahlias, while I proceeded myself to narrate
+to Charles and Amelia my observations and my frustrated experiment.
+
+"It _is_ a wig," Amelia assented. "_I_ spotted it at once. A very
+good wig, too, and most artistically planted. Men don't notice these
+things, though women do. It is creditable to you, Seymour, to have
+succeeded in detecting it."
+
+Charles was less complimentary. "You fool," he answered, with that
+unpleasant frankness which is much too common with him. "Supposing
+it _is_, why on earth should you try to knock it off and disclose
+him? What good would it have done? If it _is_ a wig, and we spot it,
+that's all that we need. We are put on our guard; we know with whom
+we have now to deal. But you can't take a man up on a charge of
+wig-wearing. The law doesn't interfere with it. Most respectable men
+may sometimes wear wigs. Why, I knew a promoter who did, and also
+the director of fourteen companies! What we have to do next is, wait
+till he tries to cheat us, and then--pounce down upon him. Sooner
+or later, you may be sure, his plans will reveal themselves."
+
+So we concocted an excellent scheme to keep them under constant
+observation, lest they should slip away again, as they did from the
+island. First of all, Amelia was to ask them to come and stop at the
+castle, on the ground that the rooms at the inn were uncomfortably
+small. We felt sure, however, that, as on a previous occasion,
+they would refuse the invitation, in order to be able to slink
+off unperceived, in case they should find themselves apparently
+suspected. Should they decline, it was arranged that Césarine should
+take a room at the Cromarty Arms as long as they stopped there, and
+report upon their movements; while, during the day, we would have
+the house watched by the head gillie's son, a most intelligent
+young man, who could be trusted, with true Scotch canniness, to
+say nothing to anybody.
+
+To our immense surprise, Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell accepted the invitation
+with the utmost alacrity. She was profuse in her thanks, indeed; for
+she told us the Arms was an ill-kept house, and the cookery by no
+means agreed with her husband's liver. It was sweet of us to invite
+them; such kindness to perfect strangers was quite unexpected. She
+should always say that nowhere on earth had she met with so cordial
+or friendly a reception as at Seldon Castle. But--she accepted,
+unreservedly.
+
+"It _can't_ be Colonel Clay," I remarked to Charles. "He would never
+have come here. Even as David Granton, with far more reason for
+coming, he wouldn't put himself in our power: he preferred the
+security and freedom of the Cromarty Arms."
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said sententiously, "you're incorrigible.
+You _will_ persist in being the slave of prepossessions. He may
+have some good reason of his own for accepting. Wait till he shows
+his hand--and then, we shall understand everything."
+
+So for the next three weeks the Forbes-Gaskells formed part of the
+house-party at Seldon. I must say, Charles paid them most assiduous
+attention. He positively neglected his other guests in order to keep
+close to the two new-comers. Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell noticed the fact,
+and commented on it. "You are really too good to us, Sir Charles,"
+she said. "I'm afraid you allow us quite to monopolise you!"
+
+But Charles, gallant as ever, replied with a smile, "We have
+you with us for so short a time, you know!" Which made Mrs.
+Forbes-Gaskell blush again that delicious blush of hers.
+
+During all this time the Professor went on calmly and persistently
+mineralogising. "Wonderful character!" Charles said to me. "He works
+out his parts so well! Could anything exceed the picture he gives
+one of scientific ardour?" And, indeed, he was at it, morning, noon,
+and night. "Sooner or later," Charles observed, "something practical
+must come of it."
+
+Twice, meanwhile, little episodes occurred which are well worth
+notice. One day I was out with the Professor on the Long Mountain,
+watching him hammer at the rocks, and a little bored by his
+performance, when, to pass the time, I asked him what a particular
+small water-worn stone was. He looked at it and smiled. "If there
+were a little more mica in it," he said, "it would be the
+characteristic gneiss of ice-borne boulders, hereabouts. But
+there isn't _quite_ enough." And he gazed at it curiously.
+
+"Indeed," I answered, "it doesn't come up to sample, doesn't it?"
+
+He gave me a meaning look. "Ten per cent," he murmured in a slow,
+strange voice; "ten per cent is more usual."
+
+I trembled violently. Was he bent, then, upon ruining me? "If you
+betray me--" I cried, and broke off.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. He was all pure innocence.
+
+I reflected on what Charles had said about taking nothing for
+granted, and held my tongue prudently.
+
+The other incident was this. Charles picked a sprig of white heather
+on the hill one afternoon, after a picnic lunch, I regret to say,
+when he had taken perhaps a glass more champagne than was strictly
+good for him. He was not exactly the worse for it, but he was
+excited, good-humoured, reckless, and lively. He brought the sprig
+to Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, and handed it to her, ogling a little.
+"Sweets to the sweet," he murmured, and looked at her meaningly.
+"White heather to White Heather." Then he saw what he had done,
+and checked himself instantly.
+
+Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell coloured up in the usual manner. "I--I don't
+quite understand," she faltered.
+
+Charles scrambled out of it somehow. "White heather for luck," he
+said, "and--the man who is privileged to give a piece of it to you
+is surely lucky."
+
+She smiled, none too well pleased. I somehow felt she suspected us
+of suspecting her.
+
+However, as it turned out, nothing came, after all, of the untoward
+incident.
+
+Next day Charles burst upon me, triumphant. "Well, he has shown
+his hand!" he cried. "I knew he would. He has come to me to-day
+with--what do you think?--a fragment of gold, in quartz, from the
+Long Mountain."
+
+"No!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," Charles answered. "He says there's a vein there with distinct
+specks of gold in it, which might be worth mining. When a man begins
+_that_ way you know what he's driving at! And what's more, he's got
+up the subject beforehand; for he began saying to me there had long
+been gold in Sutherlandshire--why not therefore in Ross-shire?
+And then he went at full into the comparative geology of the two
+regions."
+
+"This is serious," I said. "What will you do?"
+
+"Wait and watch," Charles answered; "and the moment he develops a
+proposal for shares in the syndicate to work the mine, or a sum of
+money down as the price of his discovery--get in the police, and
+arrest him."
+
+For the next few days the Professor was more active and ardent than
+ever. He went peering about the rocks on every side with his hammer.
+He kept on bringing in little pieces of stone, with gold specks
+stuck in them, and talking learnedly of the "probable cost of
+crushing and milling." Charles had heard all that before; in
+point of fact, he had assisted at the drafting of some dozens of
+prospectuses. So he took no notice, and waited for the man with the
+wig to develop his proposals. He knew they would come soon; and he
+watched and waited. But, of course, to draw him on he pretended to
+be interested.
+
+While we were all in this attitude of mind, attending on Providence
+and Colonel Clay, we happened to walk down by the shore one day, in
+the opposite direction from the Seamew's island. Suddenly we came
+upon the Professor linked arm-in-arm with--Sir Adolphus Cordery!
+They were wrapped in deep talk, and appeared to be most amicable.
+
+Now, naturally, relations had been a trifle strained between Sir
+Adolphus and the house of Vandrift since the incident of the Slump;
+but under the present circumstances, and with such a matter at stake
+as the capture of Colonel Clay, it was necessary to overlook all
+such minor differences. So Charles managed to disengage the
+Professor from his friend, sent Amelia on with Forbes-Gaskell
+towards the castle, and stopped behind, himself, with Sir Adolphus
+and me, to clear up the question.
+
+"Do you know this man, Cordery?" he asked, with some little
+suspicion.
+
+"Know him? Why, of course I do," Sir Adolphus answered. "He's
+Marmaduke Forbes-Gaskell, of the Yorkshire College, a very
+distinguished man of science. First-rate mineralogist--perhaps
+the best (_but_ one) in England." Modesty forbade him to name the
+exception.
+
+"But are you sure it's he?" Charles inquired, with growing
+doubt. "Have you known him before? This isn't a second case of
+Schleiermachering me, is it?"
+
+"Sure it's he?" Sir Adolphus echoed. "Am I sure of myself? Why, I've
+known Marmy Gaskell ever since we were at Trinity together. Knew him
+before he married Miss Forbes of Glenluce, my wife's second cousin,
+and hyphened his name with hers, to keep the property in the family.
+Know them both most intimately. Came down here to the inn because I
+heard that Marmy was on the prowl among these hills, and I thought he
+had probably something good to prowl after--in the way of fossils."
+
+"But the man wears a wig!" Charles expostulated.
+
+"Of course," Cordery answered. "He's as bald as a bat--in front at
+least--and he wears a wig to cover his baldness."
+
+"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful--taking us in
+like that." And he grew red as a turkey-cock.
+
+Sir Adolphus has no delicacy. He burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, I see," he cried out, simply bursting with amusement. "You
+thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay in disguise! Oh, my stars,
+what a lovely one!"
+
+"_You_, at least, have no right to laugh," Charles responded, drawing
+himself up and growing still redder. "You led me once into a
+similar scrape, and then backed out of it in a way unbecoming a
+gentleman. Besides," he went on, getting angrier at each word,
+"this fellow, whoever he is, has been trying to cheat me on his
+own account. Colonel Clay or no Colonel Clay, he's been salting my
+rocks with gold-bearing quartz, and trying to lead me on into an
+absurd speculation!"
+
+Sir Adolphus exploded. "Oh, this is too good," he cried. "I must
+go and tell Marmy!" And he rushed off to where Forbes-Gaskell was
+seated on a corner of rock with Amelia.
+
+As for Charles and myself, we returned to the house. Half an hour
+later Forbes-Gaskell came back, too, in a towering temper.
+
+"What is the meaning of this, sir?" he shouted out, as soon as
+he caught sight of Charles. "I'm told you've invited my wife
+and myself here to your house in order to spy upon us, under the
+impression that I was Clay, the notorious swindler!"
+
+"I thought you were," Charles answered, equally angry. "Perhaps you
+may be still! Anyhow, you're a rogue, and you tried to bamboozle
+me!"
+
+Forbes-Gaskell, white with rage, turned to his trembling wife.
+"Gertrude," he said, "pack up your box and come away from these
+people instantly. Their pretended hospitality has been a studied
+insult. They've put you and me in a most ridiculous position. We
+were told before we came here--and no doubt with truth--that Sir
+Charles Vandrift was the most close-fisted and tyrannical old
+curmudgeon in Scotland. We've been writing to all our friends to
+say ecstatically that he was, on the contrary, a most hospitable,
+generous, and large-hearted gentleman. And now we find out he's a
+disgusting cad, who asks strangers to his house from the meanest
+motives, and then insults his guests with gratuitous vituperation.
+It is well such people should hear the plain truth now and again in
+their lives; and it therefore gives me the greatest pleasure to tell
+Sir Charles Vandrift that he's a vulgar bounder of the first water.
+Go and pack your box, Gertrude! I'll run down to the Cromarty Arms,
+and order a cab to carry us away at once from this inhospitable
+sham castle."
+
+"You wear a wig, sir; you wear a wig," Charles exclaimed,
+half-choking with passion. For, indeed, as Forbes-Gaskell spoke,
+and tossed his head angrily, the nature of his hair-covering grew
+painfully apparent. It was quite one-sided.
+
+"I do, sir, that I may be able to shake it in the face of a cad!"
+the Professor responded, tearing it off to readjust it; and, suiting
+the action to the word, he brandished it thrice in Charles's eyes;
+after which he darted from the room, speechless with indignation.
+
+As soon as they were gone, and Charles had recovered breath
+sufficiently to listen to rational conversation, I ventured to
+observe, "This comes of being too sure! We made one mistake. We
+took it for granted that because a man wears a wig, he _must_ be
+an impostor--which does not necessarily follow. We forgot that not
+Colonel Clays alone have false coverings to their heads, and that
+wigs may sometimes be worn from motives of pure personal vanity.
+In fact, we were again the slaves of preconceptions."
+
+I looked at him pointedly. Charles rose before he replied. "Seymour
+Wentworth," he said at last, gazing down upon me with lofty scorn,
+"your moralising is ill-timed. It appears to me you entirely
+misunderstand the position and duties of a private secretary!"
+
+The oddest part of it all, however, was this--that Charles, being
+convinced Forbes-Gaskell, though he wasn't Colonel Clay, had been
+fraudulently salting the rocks with gold, with intent to deceive,
+took no further notice of the alleged discoveries. The consequence
+was that Forbes-Gaskell and Sir Adolphus went elsewhere with the
+secret; and it was not till after Charles had sold the Seldon
+Castle estate (which he did shortly afterward, the place having
+somehow grown strangely distasteful to him) that the present
+"Seldon Eldorados, Limited," were put upon the market by Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, who purchased the place from him. Forbes-Gaskell,
+as it happened, had reported to Craig-Ellachie that he had found
+a lode of high-grade ore on an estate unnamed, which he would
+particularise on promise of certain contingent claims to founder's
+shares; and the old lord jumped at it. Charles sold at grouse-moor
+prices; and the consequence is that the capital of the Eldorados
+is yielding at present very fair returns, even after allowing for
+expenses of promotion--while Charles has been done out of a good
+thing in gold-mines!
+
+But, remembering "the position and duties of a private secretary,"
+I refrained from pointing out to him at the time that this loss was
+due to a fixed idea--though as a matter of fact it depended upon
+Charles's strange preconception that the man with the wig, whoever
+he might be, was trying to diddle him.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE JAPANNED DISPATCH-BOX
+
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said next spring, "I'm sick and tired
+of London! Let's shoulder our wallets at once, and I will to
+some distant land, where no man doth me know."
+
+"Mars or Mercury?" I inquired; "for, in our own particular planet,
+I'm afraid you'll find it just a trifle difficult for Sir Charles
+Vandrift to hide his light under a bushel."
+
+"Oh, I'll manage it," Charles answered. "What's the good of being
+a millionaire, I should like to know, if you're always obliged to
+'behave as sich'? I shall travel incog. I'm dog-tired of being
+dogged by these endless impostors."
+
+And, indeed, we had passed through a most painful winter. Colonel
+Clay had stopped away for some months, it is true, and for my own
+part, I will confess, since it wasn't _my_ place to pay the piper, I
+rather missed the wonted excitement than otherwise. But Charles had
+grown horribly and morbidly suspicious. He carried out his principle
+of "distrusting everybody and disbelieving everything," till life
+was a burden to him. He spotted impossible Colonel Clays under a
+thousand disguises; he was quite convinced he had frightened his
+enemy away at least a dozen times over, beneath the varying garb
+of a fat club waiter, a tall policeman, a washerwoman's boy, a
+solicitor's clerk, the Bank of England beadle, and the collector
+of water-rates. He saw him as constantly, and in as changeful forms,
+as mediæval saints used to see the devil. Amelia and I really
+began to fear for the stability of that splendid intellect; we
+foresaw that unless the Colonel Clay nuisance could be abated
+somehow, Charles might sink by degrees to the mental level of a
+common or ordinary Stock-Exchange plunger.
+
+So, when my brother-in-law announced his intention of going away
+incog. to parts unknown, on the succeeding Saturday, Amelia and
+I felt a flush of relief from long-continued tension. Especially
+Amelia--who was _not_ going with him.
+
+"For rest and quiet," he said to us at breakfast, laying down the
+Morning Post, "give _me_ the deck of an Atlantic liner! No letters;
+no telegrams. No stocks; no shares. No Times; no Saturday. I'm sick
+of these papers!"
+
+"The World is too much with us," I assented cheerfully. I regret
+to say, nobody appreciated the point of my quotation.
+
+Charles took infinite pains, I must admit, to ensure perfect
+secrecy. He made me write and secure the best state-rooms--main
+deck, amidships--under my own name, without mentioning his, in
+the Etruria, for New York, on her very next voyage. He spoke of
+his destination to nobody but Amelia; and Amelia warned Césarine,
+under pains and penalties, on no account to betray it to the other
+servants. Further to secure his incog., Charles assumed the style
+and title of Mr. Peter Porter, and booked as such in the Etruria
+at Liverpool.
+
+The day before starting, however, he went down with me to the City
+for an interview with his brokers in Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
+Finglemore, the senior partner, hastened, of course, to receive us.
+As we entered his private room a good-looking young man rose and
+lounged out. "Halloa, Finglemore," Charles said, "that's that scamp
+of a brother of yours! I thought you had shipped him off years and
+years ago to China?"
+
+"So I did, Sir Charles," Finglemore answered, rubbing his hands
+somewhat nervously. "But he never went there. Being an idle young
+dog, with a taste for amusement, he got for the time no further
+than Paris. Since then, he's hung about a bit, here, there, and
+everywhere, and done no particular good for himself or his family.
+But about three or four years ago he somehow 'struck ile': he went
+to South Africa, poaching on your preserves; and now he's back
+again--rich, married, and respectable. His wife, a nice little
+woman, has reformed him. Well, what can I do for you this morning?"
+
+Charles has large interests in America, in Santa Fé and Topekas, and
+other big concerns; and he insisted on taking out several documents
+and vouchers connected in various ways with his widespread ventures
+there. He meant to go, he said, for complete rest and change, on a
+general tour of private inquiry--New York, Chicago, Colorado, the
+mining districts. It was a millionaire's holiday. So he took all
+these valuables in a black japanned dispatch-box, which he guarded
+like a child with absurd precautions. He never allowed that box out
+of his sight one moment; and he gave me no peace as to its safety
+and integrity. It was a perfect fetish. "We must be cautious," he
+said, "Sey, cautious! Especially in travelling. Recollect how that
+little curate spirited the diamonds out of Amelia's jewel-case! I
+shall not let this box out of my sight. I shall stick to it myself,
+if we go to the bottom."
+
+We did _not_ go to the bottom. It is the proud boast of the Cunard
+Company that it has "never lost a passenger's life"; and the captain
+would not consent to send the Etruria to Davy Jones's locker, merely
+in order to give Charles a chance of sticking to his dispatch-box
+under trying circumstances. On the contrary, we had a delightful
+and uneventful passage; and we found our fellow-passengers most
+agreeable people. Charles, as Mr. Peter Porter, being freed for
+the moment from his terror of Colonel Clay, would have felt really
+happy, I believe--had it not been for the dispatch-box. He made
+friends from the first hour (quite after the fearless old fashion
+of the days before Colonel Clay had begun to embitter life for him)
+with a nice American doctor and his charming wife, on their way back
+to Kentucky. Dr. Elihu Quackenboss--that was his characteristically
+American name--had been studying medicine for a year in Vienna, and
+was now returning to his native State with a brain close crammed
+with all the latest bacteriological and antiseptic discoveries. His
+wife, a pretty and piquant little American, with a tip-tilted nose
+and the quaint sharpness of her countrywomen, amused Charles not a
+little. The funny way in which she would make room for him by her
+side on the bench on deck, and say, with a sweet smile, "You sit
+right here, Mr. Porter; the sun's just elegant," delighted and
+flattered him. He was proud to find out that female attention was
+not always due to his wealth and title; and that plain Mr. Porter
+could command on his merits the same amount of blandishments as Sir
+Charles Vandrift, the famous millionaire, on his South African
+celebrity.
+
+During the whole of that voyage, it was Mrs. Quackenboss here, and
+Mrs. Quackenboss there, and Mrs. Quackenboss the other place, till,
+for Amelia's sake, I was glad she was not on board to witness it.
+Long before we sighted Sandy Hook, I will admit, I was fairly sick
+of Charles's two-stringed harp--Mrs. Quackenboss and the
+dispatch-box.
+
+Mrs. Quackenboss, it turned out, was an amateur artist, and she
+painted Sir Charles, on calm days on deck, in all possible
+attitudes. She seemed to find him a most attractive model.
+
+The doctor, too, was a precious clever fellow. He knew something of
+chemistry--and of most other subjects, including, as I gathered, the
+human character. For he talked to Charles about various ideas of
+his, with which he wished to "liven up folks in Kentucky a bit," on
+his return, till Charles conceived the highest possible regard for
+his intelligence and enterprise. "That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!"
+he remarked to me one day. "Has the right sort of grit in him!
+Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on
+my works in South Africa!"
+
+That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it.
+He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the
+Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should
+offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am
+inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to
+visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in
+future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would
+be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint
+and amusing American lady.
+
+"If you offer it to him," I said, "remember, you must disclose your
+personality."
+
+"Not at all," Charles answered. "I can keep it dark for the present,
+till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South
+Africa."
+
+So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he
+broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He
+remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial
+concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu
+fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
+
+"What, dollars?" the lady said, smiling and accentuating the
+tip-tilted nose a little more. "Oh, Mr. Porter, it ain't good
+enough!"
+
+"No, pounds, my dear madam," Charles responded. "Pounds sterling,
+you know. In United States currency, seven thousand five hundred."
+
+"I guess Elihu would just jump at it," Mrs. Quackenboss replied,
+looking at him quizzically.
+
+The doctor laughed. "You make a good bid, sir," he said, in his slow
+American way, emphasising all the most unimportant words: "_But_ you
+overlook one element. I _am_ a man of science, not a speculator. I
+_have_ trained myself for medical work, _at_ considerable cost, _in_
+the best schools of Europe, _and_ I do not propose _to_ fling away
+the results _of_ much arduous labour _by_ throwing myself out
+elastically _into_ a new line of work _for_ which my faculties _may_
+not perhaps equally adapt me."
+
+("How thoroughly American!" I murmured, in the background.)
+
+Charles insisted; all in vain. Mrs. Quackenboss was impressed; but
+the doctor smiled always a sphinx-like smile, and reiterated his
+belief in the unfitness of mid-stream as an ideal place for swopping
+horses. The more he declined, and the better he talked, the more
+eager Charles became each day to secure him. And, as if on purpose
+to draw him on, the doctor each day gave more and more surprising
+proofs of his practical abilities. "I _am_ not a specialist," he said.
+"I just ketch the drift, appropriate the kernel, _and_ let the rest
+slide."
+
+He could do anything, it really seemed, from shoeing a mule to
+conducting a camp-meeting; he was a capital chemist, a very sound
+surgeon, a fair judge of horseflesh, a first class euchre player,
+and a pleasing baritone. When occasion demanded he could occupy a
+pulpit. He had invented a cork-screw which brought him in a small
+revenue; and he was now engaged in the translation of a Polish work
+on the "Application of Hydrocyanic Acid to the Cure of Leprosy."
+
+Still, we reached New York without having got any nearer our goal,
+as regarded Dr. Quackenboss. He came to bid us good-bye at the quay,
+with that sphinx-like smile still playing upon his features. Charles
+clutched the dispatch-box with one hand, and Mrs. Quackenboss's
+little palm with the other.
+
+"_Don't_ tell us," he said, "this is good-bye--for ever!" And his
+voice quite faltered.
+
+"I guess so, Mr. Porter," the pretty American replied, with a
+telling glance. "What hotel do you patronise?"
+
+"The Murray Hill," Charles responded.
+
+"Oh my, ain't that odd?" Mrs. Quackenboss echoed. "The Murray Hill!
+Why, that's just where we're going too, Elihu!"
+
+The upshot of which was that Charles persuaded them, before
+returning to Kentucky, to diverge for a few days with us to Lake
+George and Lake Champlain, where he hoped to over-persuade the
+recalcitrant doctor.
+
+To Lake George therefore we went, and stopped at the excellent hotel
+at the terminus of the railway. We spent a good deal of our time on
+the light little steamers that ply between that point and the road
+to Ticonderoga. Somehow, the mountains mirrored in the deep green
+water reminded me of Lucerne; and Lucerne reminded me of the little
+curate. For the first time since we left England a vague terror
+seized me. _Could_ Elihu Quackenboss be Colonel Clay again, still
+dogging our steps through the opposite continent?
+
+I could not help mentioning my suspicion to Charles--who, strange
+to say, pooh-poohed it. He had been paying great court to Mrs.
+Quackenboss that day, and was absurdly elated because the little
+American had rapped his knuckles with her fan and called him "a
+real silly."
+
+Next day, however, an odd thing occurred. We strolled out together,
+all four of us, along the banks of the lake, among woods just
+carpeted with strange, triangular flowers--trilliums, Mrs.
+Quackenboss called them--and lined with delicate ferns in the
+first green of springtide.
+
+I began to grow poetical. (I wrote verses in my youth before I went
+to South Africa.) We threw ourselves on the grass, near a small
+mountain stream that descended among moss-clad boulders from the
+steep woods above us. The Kentuckian flung himself at full length
+on the sward, just in front of Charles. He had a strange head of
+hair, very thick and shaggy. I don't know why, but, of a sudden, it
+reminded me of the Mexican Seer, whom we had learned to remember as
+Colonel Clay's first embodiment. At the same moment the same thought
+seemed to run through Charles's head; for, strange to say, with
+a quick impulse he leant forward and examined it. I saw Mrs.
+Quackenboss draw back in wonder. The hair looked too thick and close
+for nature. It ended abruptly, I now remembered, with a sharp line
+on the forehead. Could this, too, be a wig? It seemed very probable.
+
+Even as I thought that thought, Charles appeared to form a sudden
+and resolute determination. With one lightning swoop he seized the
+doctor's hair in his powerful hand, and tried to lift it off bodily.
+He had made a bad guess. Next instant the doctor uttered a loud and
+terrified howl of pain, while several of his hairs, root and all,
+came out of his scalp in Charles's hand, leaving a few drops of
+blood on the skin of the head in the place they were torn from.
+There was no doubt at all it was not a wig, but the Kentuckian's
+natural hirsute covering.
+
+The scene that ensued I am powerless to describe. My pen is unequal
+to it. The doctor arose, not so much angry as astonished, white and
+incredulous. "What did you do that for, any way?" he asked, glaring
+fiercely at my brother-in-law. Charles was all abject apology. He
+began by profusely expressing his regret, and offering to make any
+suitable reparation, monetary or otherwise. Then he revealed his
+whole hand. He admitted that he was Sir Charles Vandrift, the famous
+millionaire, and that he had suffered egregiously from the endless
+machinations of a certain Colonel Clay, a machiavellian rogue,
+who had hounded him relentlessly round the capitals of Europe. He
+described in graphic detail how the impostor got himself up with
+wigs and wax, so as to deceive even those who knew him intimately;
+and then he threw himself on Dr. Quackenboss's mercy, as a man who
+had been cruelly taken in so often that he could not help suspecting
+the best of men falsely. Mrs. Quackenboss admitted it was natural to
+have suspicions--"Especially," she said, with candour, "as you're
+not the first to observe the notable way Elihu's hair seems to
+originate from his forehead," and she pulled it up to show us. But
+Elihu himself sulked on in the dumps: his dignity was offended.
+"_If_ you wanted to know," he said, "you might as well have asked me.
+Assault _and_ battery _is_ not the right way to test whether _a_
+citizen's hair is primitive or acquired."
+
+"It was an impulse," Charles pleaded; "an instinctive impulse!"
+
+"Civilised man restrains his impulses," the doctor answered. "You
+_have_ lived too long _in_ South Africa, Mr. Porter--I mean, Sir
+Charles Vandrift, if that's the right way _to_ address such a
+gentleman. You appear to _have_ imbibed the habits _and_ manners
+of the Kaffirs you lived among."
+
+For the next two days, I will really admit, Charles seemed more
+wretched than I could have believed it possible for him to be on
+somebody else's account. He positively grovelled. The fact was,
+he saw he had hurt Dr. Quackenboss's feelings, and--much to my
+surprise--he seemed truly grieved at it. If the doctor would have
+accepted a thousand pounds down to shake hands at once and forget
+the incident--in my opinion Charles would have gladly paid it.
+Indeed, he said as much in other words to the pretty American--for
+he could not insult her by offering her money. Mrs. Quackenboss did
+her best to make it up, for she was a kindly little creature, in
+spite of her roguishness; but Elihu stood aloof. Charles urged him
+still to go out to South Africa, increasing his bait to two thousand
+a year; yet the doctor was immovable. "No, no," he said; "I had half
+decided _to_ accept your offer--_till_ that unfortunate impulse; but
+that settled the question. _As_ an American citizen, I decline _to_
+become the representative _of_ a British nobleman who takes such means
+_of_ investigating questions which affect the hair and happiness _of_
+his fellow-creatures."
+
+I don't know whether Charles was most disappointed at missing the
+chance of so clever a superintendent for the mine at Cloetedorp, or
+elated at the novel description of himself as "a British nobleman;"
+which is not precisely our English idea of a colonial knighthood.
+
+Three days later, accordingly, the Quackenbosses left the Lakeside
+Hotel. We were bound on an expedition up the lake ourselves, when
+the pretty little woman burst in with a dash to tell us they were
+leaving. She was charmingly got up in the neatest and completest of
+American travelling-dresses. Charles held her hand affectionately.
+"I'm sorry it's good-bye," he said. "I have done my best to secure
+your husband."
+
+"You couldn't have tried harder than I did," the little woman
+answered, and the tip-tilted nose looked quite pathetic; "for I just
+hate to be buried right down there in Kentucky! However, Elihu is
+the sort of man a woman can neither drive nor lead; so we've got to
+put up with him." And she smiled upon us sweetly, and disappeared
+for ever.
+
+Charles was disconsolate all that day. Next morning he rose, and
+announced his intention of setting out for the West on his tour of
+inspection. He would recreate by revelling in Colorado silver lodes.
+
+We packed our own portmanteaus, for Charles had not brought even
+Simpson with him, and then we prepared to set out by the morning
+train for Saratoga.
+
+Up till almost the last moment Charles nursed his dispatch-box.
+But as the "baggage-smashers" were taking down our luggage, and a
+chambermaid was lounging officiously about in search of a tip,
+he laid it down for a second or two on the centre table while he
+collected his other immediate impedimenta. He couldn't find his
+cigarette-case, and went back to the bedroom for it. I helped
+him hunt, but it had disappeared mysteriously. That moment lost
+him. When we had found the cigarette-case, and returned to the
+sitting-room--lo, and behold! the dispatch-box was missing!
+Charles questioned the servants, but none of them had noticed it.
+He searched round the room--not a trace of it anywhere.
+
+"Why, I laid it down here just two minutes ago!" he cried. But it
+was not forthcoming.
+
+"It'll turn up in time," I said. "Everything turns up in the
+end--including Mrs. Quackenboss's nose."
+
+"Seymour," said my brother-in-law, "your hilarity is inopportune."
+
+To say the truth, Charles was beside himself with anger. He took
+the elevator down to the "Bureau," as they call it, and complained
+to the manager. The manager, a sharp-faced New Yorker, smiled as
+he remarked in a nonchalant way that guests with valuables were
+required to leave them in charge of the management, in which case
+they were locked up in the safe and duly returned to the depositor
+on leaving. Charles declared somewhat excitedly that he had been
+robbed, and demanded that nobody should be allowed to leave the
+hotel till the dispatch-box was discovered. The manager, quite cool,
+and obtrusively picking his teeth, responded that such tactics might
+be possible in an hotel of the European size, putting up a couple
+of hundred guests or so; but that an American house, with over a
+thousand visitors--many of whom came and went daily--could not
+undertake such a quixotic quest on behalf of a single foreign
+complainant.
+
+That epithet, "foreign," stung Charles to the quick. No Englishman
+can admit that he is anywhere a foreigner. "Do you know who I am,
+sir?" he asked, angrily. "I am Sir Charles Vandrift, of London--a
+member of the English Parliament."
+
+"You may be the Prince of Wales," the man answered, "for all I care.
+You'll get the same treatment as anyone else, in America. But if
+you're Sir Charles Vandrift," he went on, examining his books, "how
+does it come you've registered as Mr. Peter Porter?"
+
+Charles grew red with embarrassment. The difficulty deepened.
+
+The dispatch-box, always covered with a leather case, bore on its
+inner lid the name "Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G.," distinctly
+painted in the orthodox white letters. This was a painful
+contretemps: he had lost his precious documents; he had given a
+false name; and he had rendered the manager supremely careless
+whether or not he recovered his stolen property. Indeed, seeing he
+had registered as Porter, and now "claimed" as Vandrift, the manager
+hinted in pretty plain language he very much doubted whether there
+had ever been a dispatch-box in the matter at all, or whether, if
+there were one, it had ever contained any valuable documents.
+
+We spent a wretched morning. Charles went round the hotel,
+questioning everybody as to whether they had seen his dispatch-box.
+Most of the visitors resented the question as a personal imputation;
+one fiery Virginian, indeed, wanted to settle the point then and
+there with a six-shooter. Charles telegraphed to New York to prevent
+the shares and coupons from being negotiated; but his brokers
+telegraphed back that, though they had stopped the numbers as far
+as possible, they did so with reluctance, as they were not aware of
+Sir Charles Vandrift being now in the country. Charles declared he
+wouldn't leave the hotel till he recovered his property; and for
+myself, I was inclined to suppose we would have to remain there
+accordingly for the term of our natural lives--and longer.
+
+That night again we spent at the Lakeside Hotel. In the small hours
+of the morning, as I lay awake and meditated, a thought broke
+across me. I was so excited by it that I rose and rushed into my
+brother-in-law's bedroom. "Charles, Charles!" I exclaimed, "we have
+taken too much for granted once more. Perhaps Elihu Quackenboss
+carried off your dispatch-box!"
+
+"You fool," Charles answered, in his most unamiable manner (he
+applies that word to me with increasing frequency); "is _that_ what
+you've waked me up for? Why, the Quackenbosses left Lake George
+on Tuesday morning, and I had the dispatch-box in my own hands
+on Wednesday."
+
+"We have only their word for it," I cried. "Perhaps they stopped
+on--and walked off with it afterwards!"
+
+"We will inquire to-morrow," Charles answered. "But I confess I
+don't think it was worth waking me up for. I could stake my life
+on that little woman's integrity."
+
+We _did_ inquire next morning--with this curious result: it turned
+out that, though the Quackenbosses had left the Lakeside Hotel on
+Tuesday, it was only for the neighbouring Washington House, which
+they quitted on Wednesday morning, taking the same train for
+Saratoga which Charles and I had intended to go by. Mrs. Quackenboss
+carried a small brown paper parcel in her hands--in which, under the
+circumstances, we had little difficulty in recognising Charles's
+dispatch-box, loosely enveloped.
+
+Then I knew how it was done. The chambermaid, loitering about the
+room for a tip, was--Mrs. Quackenboss! It needed but an apron to
+transform her pretty travelling-dress into a chambermaid's costume;
+and in any of those huge American hotels one chambermaid more or
+less would pass in the crowd without fear of challenge.
+
+"We will follow them on to Saratoga," Charles cried. "Pay the bill
+at once, Seymour."
+
+"Certainly," I answered. "Will you give me some money?"
+
+Charles clapped his hand to his pockets. "All, all in the
+dispatch-box," he murmured.
+
+That tied us up another day, till we could get some ready cash from
+our agents in New York; for the manager, already most suspicious at
+the change of name and the accusation of theft, peremptorily refused
+to accept Charles's cheque, or anything else, as he phrased it,
+except "hard money." So we lingered on perforce at Lake George in
+ignoble inaction.
+
+"Of course," I observed to my brother-in-law that evening, "Elihu
+Quackenboss was Colonel Clay."
+
+"I suppose so," Charles murmured resignedly. "Everybody I meet seems
+to be Colonel Clay nowadays--except when I believe they _are_, in
+which case they turn out to be harmless nobodies. But who would have
+thought it was he after I pulled his hair out? Or after he persisted
+in his trick, even when I suspected him--which, he told us at
+Seldon, was against his first principles?"
+
+A light dawned upon me again. But, warned by previous ebullitions,
+I expressed myself this time with becoming timidity. "Charles,"
+I suggested, "may we not here again have been the slaves of a
+preconception? We thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay--for
+no better reason than because he wore a wig. We thought Elihu
+Quackenboss wasn't Colonel Clay--for no better reason than because
+he didn't wear one. But how do we know he _ever_ wears wigs? Isn't it
+possible, after all, that those hints he gave us about make-up, when
+he was Medhurst the detective, were framed on purpose, so as to
+mislead and deceive us? And isn't it possible what he said of his
+methods at the Seamew's island that day was similarly designed in
+order to hoodwink us?"
+
+"That is so obvious, Sey," my brother-in-law observed, in a most
+aggrieved tone, "that I should have thought any secretary worth his
+salt would have arrived at it instantly."
+
+I abstained from remarking that Charles himself had not arrived at
+it even now, until I told him. I thought that to say so would serve
+no good purpose. So I merely went on: "Well, it seems to me likely
+that when he came as Medhurst, with his hair cut short, he was
+really wearing his own natural crop, in its simplest form and of
+its native hue. By now it has had time to grow long and bushy. When
+he was David Granton, no doubt, he clipped it to an intermediate
+length, trimmed his beard and moustache, and dyed them all red, to
+a fine Scotch colour. As the Seer, again, he wore his hair much
+the same as Elihu's; only, to suit the character, more combed and
+fluffy. As the little curate, he darkened it and plastered it down.
+As Von Lebenstein, he shaved close, but cultivated his moustache to
+its utmost dimensions, and dyed it black after the Tyrolese fashion.
+He need never have had a wig; his own natural hair would throughout
+have been sufficient, allowing for intervals."
+
+"You're right, Sey," my brother-in-law said, growing almost
+friendly. "I will do you the justice to admit that's the nearest
+thing we have yet struck out to an idea for tracking him."
+
+On the Saturday morning a letter arrived which relieved us a little
+from our momentary tension. It was from our enemy himself--but most
+different in tone from his previous bantering communications:--
+
+
+"Saratoga, Friday.
+
+"SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Herewith I return your dispatch-box,
+intact, with the papers untouched. As you will readily observe,
+it has not even been opened.
+
+"You will ask me the reason for this strange conduct. Let me be
+serious for once, and tell you truthfully.
+
+"White Heather and I (for I will stick to Mr. Wentworth's
+judicious sobriquet) came over on the Etruria with you,
+intending, as usual, to make something out of you. We followed
+you to Lake George--for I had 'forced a card,' after my
+habitual plan, by inducing you to invite us, with the fixed
+intention of playing a particular trick upon you. It formed no
+part of our original game to steal your dispatch-box; that I
+consider a simple and elementary trick unworthy the skill of a
+practised operator. We persisted in the preparations for our
+coup, till you pulled my hair out. Then, to my great surprise,
+I saw you exhibited a degree of regret and genuine compunction
+with which, till that moment, I could never have credited you.
+You thought you had hurt my feelings; and you behaved more
+like a gentleman than I had previously known you to do. You
+not only apologised, but you also endeavoured voluntarily to
+make reparation. That produced an effect upon me. You may not
+believe it, but I desisted accordingly from the trick I had
+prepared for you.
+
+"I might also have accepted your offer to go to South Africa,
+where I could soon have cleared out, having embezzled thousands.
+But, then, I should have been in a position of trust and
+responsibility--and I am not _quite_ rogue enough to rob you
+under those conditions.
+
+"Whatever else I am, however, I am not a hypocrite. I do
+not pretend to be anything more than a common swindler. If
+I return you your papers intact, it is only on the same
+principle as that of the Australian bushranger, who made a
+lady _a present_ of her own watch because she had sung to him
+and reminded him of England. In other words, he did not take
+it from her. In like manner, when I found you had behaved, for
+once, like a gentleman, contrary to my expectation, I declined
+to go on with the trick I then meditated. Which does not mean
+to say I may not hereafter play you some other. _That_ will
+depend upon your future good behaviour.
+
+"Why, then, did I get White Heather to purloin your dispatch-box,
+with intent to return it? Out of pure lightness of heart? Not
+so; but in order to let you see I really meant it. If I had
+gone off with no swag, and then written you this letter, you
+would not have believed me. You would have thought it was
+merely another of my failures. But when I have actually got
+all your papers into my hands, and give them up again of my
+own free will, you must see that I mean it.
+
+"I will end, as I began, seriously. My trade has not quite
+crushed out of me all germs or relics of better feeling; and
+when I see a millionaire behave like a man, I feel ashamed
+to take advantage of that gleam of manliness.
+
+"Yours, with a tinge of penitence, but still a rogue, CUTHBERT CLAY."
+
+The first thing Charles did on receiving this strange communication
+was to bolt downstairs and inquire for the dispatch-box. It had
+just arrived by Eagle Express Company. Charles rushed up to our
+rooms again, opened it feverishly, and counted his documents. When
+he found them all safe, he turned to me with a hard smile. "This
+letter," he said, with quivering lips, "I consider still more
+insulting than all his previous ones."
+
+But, for myself, I really thought there was a ring of truth about
+it. Colonel Clay was a rogue, no doubt--a most unblushing rogue;
+but even a rogue, I believe, has his better moments.
+
+And the phrase about the "position of trust and responsibility"
+touched Charles to the quick, I suppose, in re the Slump in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. Though, to be sure, it was a hit at me as
+well, over the ten per cent commission.
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GAME OF POKER
+
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said, with a deep-drawn sigh, as we
+left Lake George next day by the Rennselaer and Saratoga Railroad,
+"no more Peter Porter for me, _if_ you please! I'm sick of disguises.
+Now that we know Colonel Clay is here in America, they serve no
+good purpose; so I may as well receive the social consideration and
+proper respect to which my rank and position naturally entitle me."
+
+"And which they secure for the most part (except from hotel clerks),
+even in this republican land," I answered briskly.
+
+For in my humble opinion, for sound copper-bottomed snobbery,
+registered A1 at Lloyd's, give _me_ the free-born American citizen.
+
+We travelled through the States, accordingly, for the next four
+months, from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Florida,
+under our own true names, "Confirming the churches," as Charles
+facetiously put it--or in other words, looking into the management
+and control of railways, syndicates, mines, and cattle-ranches. We
+inquired about everything. And the result of our investigations
+appeared to be, as Charles further remarked, that the Sabeans who
+so troubled the sons of Job seemed to have migrated in a body to
+Kansas and Nebraska, and that several thousand head of cattle seemed
+mysteriously to vanish, à la Colonel Clay, into the pure air of the
+prairies just before each branding.
+
+However, we were fortunate in avoiding the incursions of the Colonel
+himself, who must have migrated meanwhile on some enchanted carpet
+to other happy hunting-grounds.
+
+It was chill October before we found ourselves safe back in New
+York, en route for England. So long a term of freedom from the
+Colonel's depredations (as Charles fondly imagined--but I will not
+anticipate) had done my brother-in-law's health and spirits a world
+of good; he was so lively and cheerful that he began to fancy his
+tormentor must have succumbed to yellow fever, then raging in New
+Orleans, or eaten himself ill, as we nearly did ourselves, on a
+generous mixture of clam-chowder, terrapin, soft-shelled crabs,
+Jersey peaches, canvas-backed ducks, Catawba wine, winter cherries,
+brandy cocktails, strawberry-shortcake, ice-creams, corn-dodger,
+and a judicious brew commonly known as a Colorado corpse-reviver.
+However that may be, Charles returned to New York in excellent
+trim; and, dreading in that great city the wiles of his antagonist,
+he cheerfully accepted the invitation of his brother millionaire,
+Senator Wrengold of Nevada, to spend a few days before sailing in
+the Senator's magnificent and newly-finished palace at the upper
+end of Fifth Avenue.
+
+"There, at least, I shall be safe, Sey," he said to me plaintively,
+with a weary smile. "Wrengold, at any rate, won't try to take me
+in--except, of course, in the regular way of business."
+
+Boss-Nugget Hall (as it is popularly christened) is perhaps the
+handsomest brown stone mansion in the Richardsonian style on all
+Fifth Avenue. We spent a delightful week there. The lines had fallen
+to us in pleasant places. On the night we arrived Wrengold gave
+a small bachelor party in our honour. He knew Sir Charles was
+travelling without Lady Vandrift, and rightly judged he would prefer
+on his first night an informal party, with cards and cigars, instead
+of being bothered with the charming, but still somewhat hampering
+addition of female society.
+
+The guests that evening were no more than seven, all told, ourselves
+included--making up, Wrengold said, that perfect number, an octave.
+He was a nouveau riche himself--the newest of the new--commonly
+known in exclusive old-fashioned New York society as the Gilded
+Squatter; for he "struck his reef" no more than ten years ago; and
+he was therefore doubly anxious, after the American style, to be
+"just dizzy with culture." In his capacity of Mæcenas, he had
+invited amongst others the latest of English literary arrivals in
+New York--Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous poet, and leader of the
+Briar-rose school of West-country fiction.
+
+"You know him in London, of course?" he observed to Charles, with
+a smile, as we waited dinner for our guests.
+
+"No," Charles answered stolidly. "I have not had that honour.
+We move, you see, in different circles."
+
+I observed by a curious shade which passed over Senator Wrengold's
+face that he quite misapprehended my brother-in-law's meaning.
+Charles wished to convey, of course, that Mr. Coleyard belonged to
+a mere literary and Bohemian set in London, while he himself moved
+on a more exalted plane of peers and politicians. But the Senator,
+better accustomed to the new-rich point of view, understood Charles
+to mean that _he_ had not the entrée of that distinguished coterie in
+which Mr. Coleyard posed as a shining luminary. Which naturally
+made him rate even higher than before his literary acquisition.
+
+At two minutes past the hour the poet entered. Even if we had not
+been already familiar with his portrait at all ages in The Strand
+Magazine, we should have recognised him at once for a genuine bard
+by his impassioned eyes, his delicate mouth, the artistic twirl of
+one gray lock upon his expansive brow, the grizzled moustache that
+gave point and force to the genial smile, and the two white rows of
+perfect teeth behind it. Most of our fellow-guests had met Coleyard
+before at a reception given by the Lotus Club that afternoon, for
+the bard had reached New York but the previous evening; so Charles
+and I were the only visitors who remained to be introduced to him.
+The lion of the hour was attired in ordinary evening dress, with
+no foppery of any kind, but he wore in his buttonhole a dainty
+blue flower whose name I do not know; and as he bowed distantly to
+Charles, whom he surveyed through his eyeglass, the gleam of a big
+diamond in the middle of his shirt-front betrayed the fact that the
+Briar-rose school, as it was called (from his famous epic), had at
+least succeeded in making money out of poetry. He explained to us a
+little later, in fact, that he was over in New York to look after
+his royalties. "The beggars," he said, "only gave me eight hundred
+pounds on my last volume. I couldn't stand _that_, you know; for a
+modern bard, moving with the age, can only sing when duly wound up;
+so I've run across to investigate. Put a penny in the slot, don't
+you see, and the poet will pipe for you."
+
+"Exactly like myself," Charles said, finding a point in common.
+"_I'm_ interested in mines; and I, too, have come over to look
+after my royalties."
+
+The poet placed his eyeglass in his eye once more, and surveyed
+Charles deliberately from head to foot. "Oh," he murmured slowly. He
+said not a word more; but somehow, everybody felt that Charles was
+demolished. I saw that Wrengold, when we went in to dinner, hastily
+altered the cards that marked their places. He had evidently put
+Charles at first to sit next the poet; he varied that arrangement
+now, setting Algernon Coleyard between a railway king and a magazine
+editor. I have seldom seen my respected brother-in-law so completely
+silenced.
+
+The poet's conduct during dinner was most peculiar. He kept quoting
+poetry at inopportune moments.
+
+"Roast lamb or boiled turkey, sir?" said the footman.
+
+"Mary had a little lamb," said the poet. "I shall imitate Mary."
+
+Charles and the Senator thought the remark undignified.
+
+After dinner, however, under the mellowing influence of some
+excellent Roederer, Charles began to expand again, and grew lively
+and anecdotal. The poet had made us all laugh not a little with
+various capital stories of London literary society--at least two of
+them, I think, new ones; and Charles was moved by generous emulation
+to contribute his own share to the amusement of the company. He was
+in excellent cue. He is not often brilliant; but when he chooses, he
+has a certain dry vein of caustic humour which is decidedly funny,
+though not perhaps strictly without being vulgar. On this particular
+night, then, warmed with the admirable Wrengold champagne--the
+best made in America--he launched out into a full and embroidered
+description of the various ways in which Colonel Clay had deceived
+him. I will not say that he narrated them in full with the same
+frankness and accuracy that I have shown in these pages; he
+suppressed not a few of the most amusing details--on no other
+ground, apparently, than because they happened to tell against
+himself; and he enlarged a good deal on the surprising cleverness
+with which several times he had nearly secured his man; but still,
+making all allowances for native vanity in concealment and addition,
+he was distinctly funny--he represented the matter for once in its
+ludicrous rather than in its disastrous aspect. He observed also,
+looking around the table, that after all he had lost less by
+Colonel Clay in four years of persecution than he often lost by
+one injudicious move in a single day on the London Stock Exchange;
+while he seemed to imply to the solid men of New York, that he
+would cheerfully sacrifice such a fleabite as that, in return for
+the amusement and excitement of the chase which the Colonel had
+afforded him.
+
+The poet was pleased. "You are a man of spirit, Sir Charles," he
+said. "I love to see this fine old English admiration of pluck and
+adventure! The fellow must really have some good in him, after all.
+I should like to take notes of a few of those stories; they would
+supply nice material for basing a romance upon."
+
+"I hardly know whether I'm exactly the man to make the hero of a
+novel," Charles murmured, with complacence. And he certainly didn't
+look it.
+
+"_I_ was thinking rather of Colonel Clay as the hero," the poet
+responded coldly.
+
+"Ah, that's the way with you men of letters," Charles answered,
+growing warm. "You always have a sneaking sympathy with the rascals."
+
+"That may be better," Coleyard retorted, in an icy voice, "than
+sympathy with the worst forms of Stock Exchange speculation."
+
+The company smiled uneasily. The railway king wriggled. Wrengold
+tried to change the subject hastily. But Charles would not be put
+down.
+
+"You must hear the end, though," he said. "That's not quite the
+worst. The meanest thing about the man is that he's also a
+hypocrite. He wrote me _such_ a letter at the end of his last
+trick--here, positively here, in America." And he proceeded to give
+his own version of the Quackenboss incident, enlivened with sundry
+imaginative bursts of pure Vandrift fancy.
+
+When Charles spoke of Mrs. Quackenboss the poet smiled. "The worst
+of married women," he said, "is--that you can't marry them; the
+worst of unmarried women is--that they want to marry you." But when
+it came to the letter, the poet's eye was upon my brother-in-law.
+Charles, I must fain admit, garbled the document sadly. Still, even
+so, some gleam of good feeling remained in its sentences. But
+Charles ended all by saying, "So, to crown his misdemeanours, the
+rascal shows himself a whining cur and a disgusting Pharisee."
+
+"Don't you think," the poet interposed, in his cultivated drawl, "he
+may have really meant it? Why should not some grain of compunction
+have stirred his soul still?--some remnant of conscience made him
+shrink from betraying a man who confided in him? I have an idea,
+myself, that even the worst of rogues have always some good in them.
+I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the affection
+and fidelity of women."
+
+"Oh, I said so!" Charles sneered. "I told you you literary men have
+always an underhand regard for a scoundrel."
+
+"Perhaps so," the poet answered. "For we are all of us human. Let
+him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." And then he
+relapsed into moody silence.
+
+We rose from table. Cigars went round. We adjourned to the
+smoking-room. It was a Moorish marvel, with Oriental hangings.
+There, Senator Wrengold and Charles exchanged reminiscences of
+bonanzas and ranches and other exciting post-prandial topics; while
+the magazine editor cut in now and again with a pertinent inquiry
+or a quaint and sarcastic parallel instance. It was clear he had an
+eye to future copy. Only Algernon Coleyard sat brooding and silent,
+with his chin on one hand, and his brow intent, musing and gazing at
+the embers in the fireplace. The hand, by the way, was remarkable
+for a curious, antique-looking ring, apparently of Egyptian or
+Etruscan workmanship, with a projecting gem of several large facets.
+Once only, in the midst of a game of whist, he broke out with a
+single comment.
+
+"Hawkins was made an earl," said Charles, speaking of some London
+acquaintance.
+
+"What for?" asked the Senator.
+
+"Successful adulteration," said the poet tartly.
+
+"Honours are easy," the magazine editor put in.
+
+"And two by tricks to Sir Charles," the poet added.
+
+Towards the close of the evening, however--the poet still remaining
+moody, not to say positively grumpy--Senator Wrengold proposed a
+friendly game of Swedish poker. It was the latest fashionable
+variant in Western society on the old gambling round, and few of us
+knew it, save the omniscient poet and the magazine editor. It turned
+out afterwards that Wrengold proposed that particular game because
+he had heard Coleyard observe at the Lotus Club the same afternoon
+that it was a favourite amusement of his. Now, however, for a while
+he objected to playing. He was a poor man, he said, and the rest
+were all rich; why should he throw away the value of a dozen golden
+sonnets just to add one more pinnacle to the gilded roofs of a
+millionaire's palace? Besides, he was half-way through with an ode
+he was inditing to Republican simplicity. The pristine austerity
+of a democratic senatorial cottage had naturally inspired him with
+memories of Dentatus, the Fabii, Camillus. But Wrengold, dimly aware
+he was being made fun of somehow, insisted that the poet must take
+a hand with the financiers. "You can pass, you know," he said, "as
+often as you like; and you can stake low, or go it blind, according
+as you're inclined to. It's a democratic game; every man decides for
+himself how high he will play, except the banker; and you needn't
+take bank unless you want it."
+
+"Oh, if you insist upon it," Coleyard drawled out, with languid
+reluctance, "I'll play, of course. I won't spoil your evening.
+But remember, I'm a poet; I have strange inspirations."
+
+The cards were "squeezers"--that is to say, had the suit and the
+number of pips in each printed small in the corner, as well as over
+the face, for ease of reference. We played low at first. The poet
+seldom staked; and when he did--a few pounds--he lost, with singular
+persistence. He wanted to play for doubloons or sequins, and could
+with difficulty be induced to condescend to dollars. Charles looked
+across at him at last; the stakes by that time were fast rising
+higher, and we played for ready money. Notes lay thick on the green
+cloth. "Well," he murmured provokingly, "how about your inspiration?
+Has Apollo deserted you?"
+
+It was an unwonted flight of classical allusion for Charles, and I
+confess it astonished me. (I discovered afterwards he had cribbed
+it from a review in that evening's Critic.) But the poet smiled.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "I am waiting for one now. When it comes,
+you may be sure you shall have the benefit of it."
+
+Next round, Charles dealing and banking, the poet staked on his
+card, unseen as usual. He staked like a gentleman. To our immense
+astonishment he pulled out a roll of notes, and remarked, in a quiet
+tone, "I have an inspiration now. _Half-hearted_ will do. I go five
+thousand." That was dollars, of course; but it amounted to a
+thousand pounds in English money--high play for an author.
+
+Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his--and won
+a thousand.
+
+"Good shot!" Charles murmured, pretending not to mind, though he
+detests losing.
+
+"Inspiration!" the poet mused, and looked once more abstracted.
+
+Charles dealt again. The poet watched the deal with boiled-fishy
+eyes. His thoughts were far away. His lips moved audibly. "Myrtle,
+and kirtle, and hurtle," he muttered. "They'll do for three. Then
+there's turtle, meaning dove; and that finishes the possible. Laurel
+and coral make a very bad rhyme. Try myrtle; don't you think so?"
+
+"Do you stake?" Charles asked, severely, interrupting his reverie.
+
+The poet started. "No, pass," he replied, looking down at his card,
+and subsided into muttering. We caught a tremor of his lips again,
+and heard something like this: "Not less but more republican than
+thou, Half-hearted watcher by the Western sea, After long years I
+come to visit thee, And test thy fealty to that maiden vow, That
+bound thee in thy budding prime For Freedom's bride--"
+
+"Stake?" Charles interrupted, inquiringly, again.
+
+"Yes, five thousand," the poet answered dreamily, pushing forward
+his pile of notes, and never ceasing from his murmur: "For Freedom's
+bride to all succeeding time. Succeeding; succeeding; weak word,
+succeeding. Couldn't go five dollars on it."
+
+Charles turned his card once more. The poet had won again. Charles
+passed over his notes. The poet raked them in with a far-away air,
+as one who looks at infinity, and asked if he could borrow a pencil
+and paper. He had a few priceless lines to set down which might
+otherwise escape him.
+
+"This is play," Charles said pointedly. "_Will_ you kindly attend to
+one thing or the other?"
+
+The poet glanced at him with a compassionate smile. "I told you I
+had inspirations," he said. "They always come together. I can't win
+your money as fast as I would like, unless at the same time I am
+making verses. Whenever I hit upon a good epithet, I back my luck,
+don't you see? I won a thousand on _half-hearted_ and a thousand on
+_budding_; if I were to back _succeeding_, I should lose, to a
+certainty. You understand my system?"
+
+"I call it pure rubbish," Charles answered. "However, continue.
+Systems were made for fools--and to suit wise men. Sooner or later
+you _must_ lose at such a stupid fancy."
+
+The poet continued. "For Freedom's bride to all _ensuing_ time."
+
+"Stake!" Charles cried sharply. We each of us staked.
+
+"_Ensuing_," the poet murmured. "To all _ensuing_ time. First-rate
+epithet that. I go ten thousand, Sir Charles, on _ensuing_."
+
+We all turned up. Some of us lost, some won; but the poet had
+secured his two thousand sterling.
+
+"I haven't that amount about me," Charles said, in that austerely
+nettled voice which he always assumes when he loses at cards;
+"but--I'll settle it with you to-morrow."
+
+"Another round?" the host asked, beaming.
+
+"No, thank you," Charles answered; "Mr. Coleyard's inspirations
+come too pat for my taste. His luck beats mine. I retire from the
+game, Senator."
+
+Just at that moment a servant entered, bearing a salver, with a
+small note in an envelope. "For Mr. Coleyard," he observed; "and
+the messenger said, _urgent_."
+
+Coleyard tore it open hurriedly. I could see he was agitated. His
+face grew white at once.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he said. "I--I must go back instantly. My
+wife is dangerously ill--quite a sudden attack. Forgive me, Senator.
+Sir Charles, you shall have your revenge to-morrow."
+
+It was clear that his voice faltered. We felt at least he was a man
+of feeling. He was obviously frightened. His coolness forsook him.
+He shook hands as in a dream, and rushed downstairs for his
+dust-coat. Almost as he closed the front door, a new guest entered,
+just missing him in the vestibule.
+
+"Halloa, you men," he said, "we've been taken in, do you know? It's
+all over the Lotus. The man we made an honorary member of the club
+to-day is _not_ Algernon Coleyard. He's a blatant impostor. There's
+a telegram come in on the tape to-night saying Algernon Coleyard is
+dangerously ill at his home in England."
+
+Charles gasped a violent gasp. "Colonel Clay!" he shouted, aloud.
+"And once more he's done me. There's not a moment to lose. After
+him, gentlemen! after him!"
+
+Never before in our lives had we had such a close shave of catching
+and fixing the redoubtable swindler. We burst down the stairs in a
+body, and rushed out into Fifth Avenue. The pretended poet had only
+a hundred yards' start of us, and he saw he was discovered. But he
+was an excellent runner. So was I, weight for age; and I dashed
+wildly after him. He turned round a corner; it proved to lead
+nowhere, and lost him time. He darted back again, madly. Delighted
+with the idea that I was capturing so famous a criminal, I redoubled
+my efforts--and came up with him, panting. He was wearing a light
+dust-coat. I seized it in my hands. "I've got you at last!" I cried;
+"Colonel Clay, I've got you!"
+
+He turned and looked at me. "Ha, old Ten Per Cent!" he called out,
+struggling. "It's you, then, is it? Never, never to _you_, sir!" And
+as he spoke, he somehow flung his arms straight out behind him, and
+let the dust-coat slip off, which it easily did, the sleeves being
+new and smoothly silk-lined. The suddenness of the movement threw
+me completely off my guard, and off my legs as well. I was clinging
+to the coat and holding him. As the support gave way I rolled over
+backward, in the mud of the street, and hurt my back seriously. As
+for Colonel Clay, with a nervous laugh, he bolted off at full speed
+in his evening coat, and vanished round a corner.
+
+It was some seconds before I had sufficiently recovered my breath to
+pick myself up again, and examine my bruises. By this time Charles
+and the other pursuers had come up, and I explained my condition to
+them. Instead of commending me for my zeal in his cause--which had
+cost me a barked arm and a good evening suit--my brother-in-law
+remarked, with an unfeeling sneer, that when I had so nearly caught
+my man I might as well have held him.
+
+"I have his coat, at least," I said. "That may afford us a clue."
+And I limped back with it in my hands, feeling horribly bruised and
+a good deal shaken.
+
+When we came to examine the coat, however, it bore no maker's name;
+the strap at the back, where the tailor proclaims with pride his
+handicraft, had been carefully ripped off, and its place was taken
+by a tag of plain black tape without inscription of any sort. We
+searched the breast-pocket. A handkerchief, similarly nameless,
+but of finest cambric. The side-pockets--ha, what was this? I drew
+a piece of paper out in triumph. It was a note--a real find--the
+one which the servant had handed to our friend just before at the
+Senator's.
+
+We read it through breathlessly:--
+
+
+"DARLING PAUL,--I _told_ you it was too dangerous. You should have
+listened to me. You ought _never_ to have imitated any real person. I
+happened to glance at the hotel tape just now, to see the quotations
+for Cloetedorps to-day, and what do you think I read as part of the
+latest telegram from England? 'Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous
+poet, is lying on his death-bed at his home in Devonshire.' By this
+time all New York knows. Don't stop one minute. Say I'm dangerously
+ill, and come away at once. Don't return to the hotel. I am removing
+our things. Meet me at Mary's. Your devoted, MARGOT."
+
+
+"This is _very_ important," Charles said. "This _does_ give us a clue.
+We know two things now: his real name is Paul--whatever else it may
+be, and Madame Picardet's is Margot."
+
+I searched the pocket again, and pulled out a ring. Evidently he had
+thrust these two things there when he saw me pursuing him, and had
+forgotten or neglected them in the heat of the mêlée.
+
+I looked at it close. It was the very ring I had noticed on his
+finger while he was playing Swedish poker. It had a large compound
+gem in the centre, set with many facets, and rising like a pyramid
+to a point in the middle. There were eight faces in all, some of
+them composed of emerald, amethyst, or turquoise. But _one_ face--the
+one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye--was _not_
+a gem at all, but an extremely tiny convex mirror. In a moment I
+spotted the trick. He held this hand carelessly on the table while
+my brother-in-law dealt; and when he saw that the suit and number of
+his own card mirrored in it by means of the squeezers were better
+than Charles's, he had "an inspiration," and backed his luck--or
+rather his knowledge--with perfect confidence. I did not doubt,
+either, that his odd-looking eyeglass was a powerful magnifier which
+helped him in the trick. Still, we tried another deal, by way of
+experiment--I wearing the ring; and even with the naked eye I was
+able to distinguish in every case the suit and pips of the card that
+was dealt me.
+
+"Why, that was almost dishonest," the Senator said, drawing back.
+He wished to show us that even far-Western speculators drew a line
+somewhere.
+
+"Yes," the magazine editor echoed. "To back your skill is legal;
+to back your luck is foolish; to back your knowledge is--"
+
+"Immoral," I suggested.
+
+"Very good business," said the magazine editor.
+
+"It's a simple trick," Charles interposed. "I should have spotted
+it if it had been done by any other fellow. But his patter about
+inspiration put me clean off the track. That's the rascal's dodge.
+He plays the regular conjurer's game of distracting your attention
+from the real point at issue--so well that you never find out what
+he's really about till he's sold you irretrievably."
+
+We set the New York police upon the trail of the Colonel; but of
+course he had vanished at once, as usual, into the thin smoke of
+Manhattan. Not a sign could we find of him. "Mary's," we found an
+insufficient address.
+
+We waited on in New York for a whole fortnight. Nothing came of it.
+We never found "Mary's." The only token of Colonel Clay's presence
+vouchsafed us in the city was one of his customary insulting notes.
+It was conceived as follows:--
+
+
+"O ETERNAL GULLIBLE!--Since I saw you on Lake George, I have run
+back to London, and promptly come out again. I had business to
+transact there, indeed, which I have now completed; the excessive
+attentions of the English police sent me once more, like great
+Orion, "sloping slowly to the west." I returned to America in order
+to see whether or not you were still impenitent. On the day of my
+arrival I happened to meet Senator Wrengold, and accepted his kind
+invitation solely that I might see how far my last communication
+had had a proper effect upon you. As I found you quite obdurate,
+and as you furthermore persisted in misunderstanding my motives, I
+determined to read you one more small lesson. It nearly failed; and
+I confess the accident has affected my nerves a little. I am now
+about to retire from business altogether, and settle down for life
+at my place in Surrey. I mean to try just one more small coup; and,
+when that is finished, Colonel Clay will hang up his sword, like
+Cincinnatus, and take to farming. You need no longer fear me. I have
+realised enough to secure me for life a modest competence; and as
+I am not possessed like yourself with an immoderate greed of gain,
+I recognise that good citizenship demands of me now an early
+retirement in favour of some younger and more deserving rascal. I
+shall always look back with pleasure upon our agreeable adventures
+together; and as you hold my dust-coat, together with a ring and
+letter to which I attach importance, I consider we are quits, and
+I shall withdraw with dignity. Your sincere well-wisher, CUTHBERT
+CLAY, Poet."
+
+
+"Just like him!" Charles said, "to hold this one last coup over my
+head in terrorem. Though even when he has played it, why should I
+trust his word? A scamp like that may say it, of course, on purpose
+to disarm me."
+
+For my own part, I quite agreed with "Margot." When the Colonel was
+reduced to dressing the part of a known personage I felt he had
+reached almost his last card, and would be well advised to retire
+into Surrey.
+
+But the magazine editor summed up all in a word. "Don't believe
+that nonsense about fortunes being made by industry and ability,"
+he said. "In life, as at cards, two things go to produce
+success--the first is chance; the second is cheating."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE BERTILLON METHOD
+
+
+We had a terrible passage home from New York. The Captain told us he
+"knew every drop of water in the Atlantic personally"; and he had
+never seen them so uniformly obstreperous. The ship rolled in the
+trough; Charles rolled in his cabin, and would not be comforted. As
+we approached the Irish coast, I scrambled up on deck in a violent
+gale, and retired again somewhat precipitately to announce to my
+brother-in-law that we had just come in sight of the Fastnet Rock
+Lighthouse. Charles merely turned over in his berth and groaned.
+"I don't believe it," he answered. "I expect it is probably Colonel
+Clay in another of his manifold disguises!"
+
+At Liverpool, however, the Adelphi consoled him. We dined
+luxuriously in the Louis Quinze restaurant, as only millionaires
+can dine, and proceeded next day by Pullman car to London.
+
+We found Amelia dissolved in tears at a domestic cataclysm. It
+seemed that Césarine had given notice.
+
+Charles was scarcely home again when he began to bethink him of
+the least among his investments. Like many other wealthy men, my
+respected connection is troubled more or less, in the background of
+his consciousness, by a pervading dread that he will die a beggar.
+To guard against this misfortune--which I am bound to admit nobody
+else fears for him--he invested, several years ago, a sum of two
+hundred thousand pounds in Consols, to serve as a nest-egg in case
+of the collapse of Golcondas and South Africa generally. It is
+part of the same amiable mania, too, that he will not allow the
+dividend-warrants on this sum to be sent to him by post, but
+insists, after the fashion of old ladies and country parsons, upon
+calling personally at the Bank of England four times a year to claim
+his interest. He is well known by sight to not a few of the clerks;
+and his appearance in Threadneedle Street is looked forward to with
+great regularity within a few weeks of each lawful quarter-day.
+
+So, on the morning after our arrival in town, Charles observed to
+me, cheerfully, "Sey, I must run into the City to-day to claim my
+dividends. There are two quarters owing."
+
+I accompanied him in to the Bank. Even that mighty official, the
+beadle at the door, unfastened the handle of the millionaire's
+carriage. The clerk who received us smiled and nodded. "How much?"
+he asked, after the stereotyped fashion.
+
+"Two hundred thousand," Charles answered, looking affable.
+
+The clerk turned up the books. "Paid!" he said, with
+decision. "What's your game, sir, if I may ask you?"
+
+"Paid!" Charles echoed, drawing back.
+
+The clerk gazed across at him. "Yes, Sir Charles," he answered, in
+a somewhat severe tone. "You must remember you drew a quarter's
+dividend from myself--last week--at this very counter."
+
+Charles stared at him fixedly. "Show me the signature," he said at
+last, in a slow, dazed fashion. I suspected mischief.
+
+The clerk pushed the book across to him. Charles examined the name
+close.
+
+"Colonel Clay again!" he cried, turning to me with a despondent air.
+"He must have dressed the part. I shall die in the workhouse, Sey!
+That man has stolen away even my nest-egg from me."
+
+I saw it at a glance. "Mrs. Quackenboss!" I put in. "Those portraits
+on the Etruria! It was to help him in his make-up! You recollect,
+she sketched your face and figure at all possible angles."
+
+"And last quarter's?" Charles inquired, staggering.
+
+The clerk turned up the entry. "Drawn on the 10th of July,"
+he answered, carelessly, as if it mattered nothing.
+
+Then I knew why the Colonel had run across to England.
+
+Charles positively reeled. "Take me home, Sey," he cried. "I am
+ruined, ruined! He will leave me with not half a million in the
+world. My poor, poor boys will beg their bread, unheeded, through
+the streets of London!"
+
+(As Amelia has landed estate settled upon her worth a hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, this last contingency affected me less to
+tears than Charles seemed to think necessary.)
+
+We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
+once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
+paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
+Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
+twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
+I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
+would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
+
+After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
+reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
+said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
+measuring and registering criminals."
+
+"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
+like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
+step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
+Colonel Clay--"
+
+"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you _did_ catch him,
+you didn't hold him."
+
+I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
+"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
+cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
+had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
+his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
+turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
+into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
+
+"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said. "I was told in New York
+that Dr. Frank Beddersley, of London, was the best exponent of the
+Bertillon system now living in England; and to Beddersley I shall
+go. Or, rather, I'll invite him here to lunch to-morrow."
+
+"Who told you of him?" I inquired. "_Not_ Dr. Quackenboss, I hope;
+nor yet Mr. Algernon Coleyard?"
+
+Charles paused and reflected. "No, neither of them," he answered,
+after a short internal deliberation. "It was that magazine editor
+chap we met at Wrengold's."
+
+"_He's_ all right," I said; "or, at least, I think so."
+
+So we wrote a polite invitation to Dr. Beddersley, who pursued
+the method professionally, asking him to come and lunch with us
+at Mayfair at two next day.
+
+Dr. Beddersley came--a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows,
+and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel
+Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments. He
+was clear and concise. His manner was scientific. He told us at once
+that though the Bertillon method was of little use till the expert
+had seen the criminal once, yet if we had consulted him earlier
+he might probably have saved us some serious disasters. "A man
+so ingenious as this," he said, "would no doubt have studied
+Bertillon's principles himself, and would take every possible
+means to prevent recognition by them. Therefore, you might almost
+disregard the nose, the chin, the moustache, the hair, all of which
+are capable of such easy alteration. But there remain some features
+which are more likely to persist--height, shape of head, neck,
+build, and fingers; the timbre of the voice, the colour of the iris.
+Even these, again, may be partially disguised or concealed; the way
+the hair is dressed, the amount of padding, a high collar round the
+throat, a dark line about the eyelashes, may do more to alter the
+appearance of a face than you could readily credit."
+
+"So we know," I answered.
+
+"The voice, again," Dr. Beddersley continued. "The voice itself may
+be most fallacious. The man is no doubt a clever mimic. He could,
+perhaps, compress or enlarge his larynx. And I judge from what you
+tell me that he took characters each time which compelled him
+largely to alter and modify his tone and accent."
+
+"Yes," I said. "As the Mexican Seer, he had of course a
+Spanish intonation. As the little curate, he was a cultivated
+North-countryman. As David Granton, he spoke gentlemanly Scotch.
+As Von Lebenstein, naturally, he was a South-German, trying to
+express himself in French. As Professor Schleiermacher, he was a
+North-German speaking broken English. As Elihu Quackenboss, he
+had a fine and pronounced Kentucky flavour. And as the poet, he
+drawled after the fashion of the clubs, with lingering remnants
+of a Devonshire ancestry."
+
+"Quite so," Dr. Beddersley answered. "That is just what I should
+expect. Now, the question is, do you know him to be one man, or
+is he really a gang? Is he a name for a syndicate? Have you any
+photographs of Colonel Clay himself in any of his disguises?"
+
+"Not one," Charles answered. "He produced some himself, when he was
+Medhurst the detective. But he pocketed them at once; and we never
+recovered them."
+
+"Could you get any?" the doctor asked. "Did you note the name and
+address of the photographer?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Charles replied. "But the police at Nice showed
+us two. Perhaps we might borrow them."
+
+"Until we get them," Dr. Beddersley said, "I don't know that we can
+do anything. But if you can once give me two distinct photographs of
+the real man, no matter how much disguised, I could tell you whether
+they were taken from one person; and, if so, I think I could point
+out certain details in common which might aid us to go upon."
+
+All this was at lunch. Amelia's niece, Dolly Lingfield, was there,
+as it happened; and I chanced to note a most guilty look stealing
+over her face all the while we were talking. Suspicious as I had
+learned to become by this time, however, I did not suspect Dolly of
+being in league with Colonel Clay; but, I confess, I wondered what
+her blush could indicate. After lunch, to my surprise, Dolly called
+me away from the rest into the library. "Uncle Seymour," she said
+to me--the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am
+not in any way related to her--"_I_ have some photographs of Colonel
+Clay, if you want them."
+
+"_You_?" I cried, astonished. "Why, Dolly, how did you get them?"
+
+For a minute or two she showed some little hesitation in telling me.
+At last she whispered, "You won't be angry if I confess?" (Dolly is
+just nineteen, and remarkably pretty.)
+
+"My child," I said, "why _should_ I be angry? You may confide in me
+implicitly." (With a blush like that, who on earth could be angry
+with her?)
+
+"And you won't tell Aunt Amelia or Aunt Isabel?" she inquired
+somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Not for worlds," I answered. (As a matter of fact, Amelia and
+Isabel are the last people in the world to whom I should dream
+of confiding anything that Dolly might tell me.)
+
+"Well, I was stopping at Seldon, you know, when Mr. David Granton
+was there," Dolly went on; "--or, rather, when that scamp pretended
+he was David Granton; and--and--you won't be angry with me, will
+you?--one day I took a snap-shot with my kodak at him and Aunt
+Amelia!"
+
+"Why, what harm was there in that?" I asked, bewildered. The wildest
+stretch of fancy could hardly conceive that the Honourable David had
+been _flirting_ with Amelia.
+
+Dolly coloured still more deeply. "Oh, you know Bertie Winslow?" she
+said. "Well, he's interested in photography--and--and also in _me_.
+And he's invented a process, which isn't of the slightest practical
+use, he says; but its peculiarity is, that it reveals textures. At
+least, that's what Bertie calls it. It makes things come out so. And
+he gave me some plates of his own for my kodak--half-a-dozen or more,
+and--I took Aunt Amelia with them."
+
+"I still fail to see," I murmured, looking at her comically.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Seymour," Dolly cried. "How blind you men are!
+If Aunt Amelia knew she would never forgive me. Why, you _must_
+understand. The--the rouge, you know, and the pearl powder!"
+
+"Oh, it comes out, then, in the photograph?" I inquired.
+
+"Comes out! I should _think_ so! It's like little black spots all
+over auntie's face. _such_ a guy as she looks in it!"
+
+"And Colonel Clay is in them too?"
+
+"Yes; I took them when he and auntie were talking together, without
+either of them noticing. And Bertie developed them. I've three of
+David Granton. Three beauties; _most_ successful."
+
+"Any other character?" I asked, seeing business ahead.
+
+Dolly hung back, still redder. "Well, the rest are with Aunt
+Isabel," she answered, after a struggle.
+
+"My dear child," I replied, hiding my feelings as a husband, "I will
+be brave. I will bear up even against that last misfortune!"
+
+Dolly looked up at me pleadingly. "It was here in London," she went
+on; "--when I was last with auntie. Medhurst was stopping in the
+house at the time; and I took him twice, tête-à-tête with Aunt
+Isabel!"
+
+"Isabel does not paint," I murmured, stoutly.
+
+Dolly hung back again. "No, but--her hair!" she suggested, in a
+faint voice.
+
+"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a--well, you
+know, a restorer."
+
+Dolly broke into a mischievous sly smile. "Yes, it is," she
+continued. "And, oh, Uncle Sey, where the restorer has--er--restored
+it, you know, it comes out in the photograph with a sort of
+brilliant iridescent metallic sheen on it!"
+
+"Bring them down, my dear," I said, gently patting her head with my
+hand. In the interests of justice, I thought it best not to frighten
+her.
+
+Dolly brought them down. They seemed to me poor things, yet well
+worth trying. We found it possible, on further confabulation, by
+the simple aid of a pair of scissors, so to cut each in two that
+all trace of Amelia and Isabel was obliterated. Even so, however,
+I judged it best to call Charles and Dr. Beddersley to a private
+consultation in the library with Dolly, and not to submit the
+mutilated photographs to public inspection by their joint subjects.
+Here, in fact, we had five patchy portraits of the redoubtable
+Colonel, taken at various angles, and in characteristic unstudied
+attitudes. A child had outwitted the cleverest sharper in Europe!
+
+The moment Beddersley's eye fell upon them, a curious look came over
+his face. "Why, these," he said, "are taken on Herbert Winslow's
+method, Miss Lingfield."
+
+"Yes," Dolly admitted timidly. "They are. He's--a friend of mine,
+don't you know; and--he gave me some plates that just fitted my
+camera."
+
+Beddersley gazed at them steadily. Then he turned to Charles.
+"And this young lady," he said, "has quite unintentionally and
+unconsciously succeeded in tracking Colonel Clay to earth at last.
+They are genuine photographs of the man--as he is--_without_ the
+disguises!"
+
+"They look to me most blotchy," Charles murmured. "Great black lines
+down the nose, and such spots on the cheek, too!"
+
+"Exactly," Beddersley put in. "Those are _differences in texture_.
+They show just how much of the man's face is human flesh--"
+
+"And how much wax," I ventured.
+
+"Not wax," the expert answered, gazing close. "This is some harder
+mixture. I should guess, a composition of gutta-percha and
+india-rubber, which takes colour well, and hardens when applied,
+so as to lie quite evenly, and resist heat or melting. Look here;
+that's an artificial scar, filling up a real hollow; and _this_ is
+an added bit to the tip of the nose; and _those_ are shadows, due
+to inserted cheek-pieces, within the mouth, to make the man look
+fatter!"
+
+"Why, of course," Charles cried. "India-rubber it must be. That's
+why in France they call him le Colonel Caoutchouc!"
+
+"Can you reconstruct the real face from them?" I inquired anxiously.
+
+Dr. Beddersley gazed hard at them. "Give me an hour or two," he
+said--"and a box of water-colours. I _think_ by that time--putting
+two and two together--I can eliminate the false and build up for you
+a tolerably correct idea of what the actual man himself looks like."
+
+We turned him into the library for a couple of hours, with the
+materials he needed; and by tea-time he had completed his first
+rough sketch of the elements common to the two faces. He brought
+it out to us in the drawing-room. I glanced at it first. It was
+a curious countenance, slightly wanting in definiteness, and not
+unlike those "composite photographs" which Mr. Galton produces by
+exposing two negatives on the same sensitised paper for ten seconds
+or so consecutively. Yet it struck me at once as containing
+something of Colonel Clay in every one of his many representations.
+The little curate, in real life, did not recall the Seer; nor
+did Elihu Quackenboss suggest Count von Lebenstein or Professor
+Schleiermacher. Yet in this compound face, produced only from
+photographs of David Granton and Medhurst, I could distinctly trace
+a certain underlying likeness to every one of the forms which the
+impostor had assumed for us. In other words, though he could make
+up so as to mask the likeness to his other characters, he could not
+make up so as to mask the likeness to his own personality. He could
+not wholly get rid of his native build and his genuine features.
+
+Besides these striking suggestions of the Seer and the curate,
+however, I felt vaguely conscious of having seen and observed
+_the man himself_ whom the water-colour represented, at some time,
+somewhere. It was not at Nice; it was not at Seldon; it was not at
+Meran; it was not in America. I believed I had been in a room with
+him somewhere in London.
+
+Charles was looking over my shoulder. He gave a sudden little start.
+"Why, I know that fellow!" he cried. "You recollect him, Sey; he's
+Finglemore's brother--the chap that didn't go out to China!"
+
+Then I remembered at once where it was that I had seen him--at the
+broker's in the city, before we sailed for America.
+
+"What Christian name?" I asked.
+
+Charles reflected a moment. "The same as the one in the note we got
+with the dust-coat," he answered, at last. "The man is Paul
+Finglemore!"
+
+"You will arrest him?" I asked.
+
+"Can I, on this evidence?"
+
+"We might bring it home to him."
+
+Charles mused for a moment. "We shall have nothing against him,"
+he said slowly, "except in so far as we can swear to his identity.
+And that may be difficult."
+
+Just at that moment the footman brought in tea. Charles wondered
+apparently whether the man, who had been with us at Seldon when
+Colonel Clay was David Granton, would recollect the face or
+recognise having seen it. "Look here, Dudley," he said, holding
+up the water-colour, "do you know that person?"
+
+Dudley gazed at it a moment. "Certainly, sir," he answered briskly.
+
+"Who is it?" Amelia asked. We expected him to answer, "Count von
+Lebenstein," or "Mr. Granton," or "Medhurst."
+
+Instead of that, he replied, to our utter surprise, "That's
+Césarine's young man, my lady."
+
+"Césarine's young man?" Amelia repeated, taken aback. "Oh, Dudley,
+surely, you _must_ be mistaken!"
+
+"No, my lady," Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. "He comes
+to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on,
+from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service."
+
+"When will he be coming again?" Charles asked, breathless.
+
+"He's downstairs now, sir," Dudley answered, unaware of the
+bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
+
+Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. "Secure
+that man," he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
+
+"_What_ man?" I asked, amazed. "Colonel Clay? The young man who's
+downstairs now with Césarine?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, with decision; "Dudley!"
+
+I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what
+Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed
+from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door,
+prevented him.
+
+"I--I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles," Dudley cried,
+in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. "It--it wasn't me
+as cheated you." And he certainly didn't look it.
+
+"I daresay not," Charles answered. "But you don't leave this room
+till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your
+speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This villain
+and Césarine have long been accomplices! The man's downstairs with
+her now. If we let Dudley quit the room he'll go down and tell them;
+and before we know where we are, that slippery eel will have
+wriggled through our fingers, as he always wriggles. He _is_ Paul
+Finglemore; he _is_ Césarine's young man; and unless we arrest him
+now, without one minute's delay, he'll be off to Madrid or St.
+Petersburg by this evening!"
+
+"You are right," I answered. "It is now or never!"
+
+"Dudley," Charles said, in his most authoritative voice, "stop here
+till we tell you you may leave the room. Amelia and Dolly, don't let
+that man stir from where he's standing. If he does, restrain him.
+Seymour and Dr. Beddersley, come down with me to the servants' hall.
+I suppose that's where I shall find this person, Dudley?"
+
+"N--no, sir," Dudley stammered out, half beside himself with fright.
+"He's in the housekeeper's room, sir!"
+
+We went down to the lower regions in a solid phalanx of three. On
+the way we met Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, and also the butler,
+whom we pressed into the service. At the door of the housekeeper's
+room we paused, strategically. Voices came to us from within; one
+was Césarine's, the other had a ring that reminded me at once of
+Medhurst and the Seer, of Elihu Quackenboss and Algernon Coleyard.
+They were talking together in French; and now and then we caught
+the sound of stifled laughter.
+
+We opened the door. "Est-il drôle, donc, ce vieux?" the man's
+voice was saying.
+
+"C'est à mourir de rire," Césarine's voice responded.
+
+We burst in upon them, red-handed.
+
+Césarine's young man rose, with his hat in his hand, in a respectful
+attitude. It reminded me at once of Medhurst, as he stood talking
+his first day at Marvillier's to Charles; and also of the little
+curate, in his humblest moments as the disinterested pastor.
+
+With a sign to me to do likewise, Charles laid his hand firmly on
+the young man's shoulder. I looked in the fellow's face: there could
+be no denying it; Césarine's young man was Paul Finglemore, our
+broker's brother.
+
+"Paul Finglemore," Charles said severely, "otherwise Cuthbert Clay,
+I arrest you on several charges of theft and conspiracy!"
+
+The young man glanced around him. He was surprised and perturbed;
+but, even so, his inexhaustible coolness never once deserted him.
+"What, five to one?" he said, counting us over. "Has law and order
+come down to this? Five respectable rascals to arrest one poor
+beggar of a chevalier d'industrie! Why, it's worse than New York.
+_There_, it was only you and me, you know, old Ten per Cent!"
+
+"Hold his hands, Simpson!" Charles cried, trembling lest his enemy
+should escape him.
+
+Paul Finglemore drew back even while we held his shoulders. "No,
+not _you_, sir," he said to the man, haughtily. "Don't dare to lay
+your hands upon me! Send for a constable if you wish, Sir Charles
+Vandrift; but I decline to be taken into custody by a valet!"
+
+"Go for a policeman," Dr. Beddersley said to Simpson, standing
+forward.
+
+The prisoner eyed him up and down. "Oh, Dr. Beddersley!" he said,
+relieved. It was evident he knew him. "If _you've_ tracked me
+strictly in accordance with Bertillon's methods, I don't mind so
+much. I will not yield to fools; I yield to science. I didn't think
+this diamond king had sense enough to apply to you. He's the most
+gullible old ass I ever met in my life. But if it's _you_ who have
+tracked me down, I can only submit to it."
+
+Charles held to him with a fierce grip. "Mind he doesn't break away,
+Sey," he cried. "He's playing his old game! Distrust the man's
+patter!"
+
+"Take care," the prisoner put in. "Remember Dr. Polperro! On what
+charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bubbling with indignation. "You cheated me at Nice,"
+he said; "at Meran; at New York; at Paris!"
+
+Paul Finglemore shook his head. "Won't do," he answered, calmly. "Be
+sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that
+on an extradition warrant."
+
+"Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,"
+Charles cried out excitedly. "Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or
+without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away
+from us!"
+
+At that moment Simpson returned with a convenient policeman, whom he
+had happened to find loitering about near the area steps, and whom I
+half suspected from his furtive smile of being a particular
+acquaintance of the household.
+
+Charles gave the man in charge formally. Paul Finglemore insisted
+that he should specify the nature of the particular accusation.
+To my great chagrin, Charles selected from his rogueries, as best
+within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the matter of the
+payment for the Castle of Lebenstein--made in London, and through
+a London banker. "I have a warrant on that ground," he said. I
+trembled as he spoke. I felt at once that the episode of the
+commission, the exposure of which I dreaded so much, must now
+become public.
+
+The policeman took the man in charge. Charles still held to him,
+grimly. As they were leaving the room the prisoner turned to
+Césarine, and muttered something rapidly under his breath, in
+German. "Of which tongue," he said, turning to us blandly, "in spite
+of my kind present of a dictionary and grammar, you still doubtless
+remain in your pristine ignorance!"
+
+Césarine flung herself upon him with wild devotion. "Oh, Paul,
+darling," she cried, in English, "I will not, I will not! I
+will never save myself at _your_ expense. If they send you to
+prison--Paul, Paul, I will go with you!"
+
+I remembered as she spoke what Mr. Algernon Coleyard had said to us
+at the Senator's. "Even the worst of rogues have always some good
+in them. I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the
+affection and fidelity of women."
+
+But the man, his hands still free, unwound her clasping arms with
+gentle fingers. "My child," he answered, in a soft tone, "I am sorry
+to say the law of England will not permit you to go with me. If it
+did" (his voice was as the voice of the poet we had met), "'stone
+walls would not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'" And bending
+forward, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
+
+We led him out to the door. The policeman, in obedience to Charles's
+orders, held him tight with his hand, but steadily refused, as the
+prisoner was not violent, to handcuff him. We hailed a passing
+hansom. "To Bow Street!" Charles cried, unceremoniously pushing in
+policeman and prisoner. The driver nodded. We called a four-wheeler
+ourselves, in which my brother-in-law, Dr. Beddersley and myself
+took our seats. "Follow the hansom!" Charles cried out. "Don't let
+him out of your sight. After him, close, to Bow Street!"
+
+I looked back, and saw Césarine, half fainting, on the front door
+steps, while Dolly, bathed in tears, stood supporting the
+lady's-maid, and trying to comfort her. It was clear she had not
+anticipated this end to the adventure.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Charles screamed out, in a fresh fever of
+alarm, as we turned the first corner; "where's that hansom gone to?
+How do I know the fellow was a policeman at all? We should have
+taken the man in here. We ought never to have let him get out of
+our sight. For all we can tell to the contrary, the constable
+himself--may only be one of Colonel Clay's confederates!"
+
+And we drove in trepidation all the way to Bow Street.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD BAILEY
+
+
+When we reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our
+prisoner, after all, had _not_ evaded us. It was a false alarm.
+He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to
+make the first formal charge against him.
+
+Of course, on Charles's sworn declaration and my own, the man was
+at once remanded, bail being refused, owing both to the serious
+nature of the charge and the slippery character of the prisoner's
+antecedents. We went back to Mayfair--Charles, well satisfied that
+the man he dreaded was under lock and key; myself, not too well
+pleased to think that the man I dreaded was no longer at large, and
+that the trifling little episode of the ten per cent commission
+stood so near discovery.
+
+Next day the police came round in force, and had a long consultation
+with Charles and myself. They strongly urged that two other persons
+at least should be included in the charge--Césarine and the little
+woman whom we had variously known as Madame Picardet, White Heather,
+Mrs. David Granton, and Mrs. Elihu Quackenboss. If these accomplices
+were arrested, they said, we could include conspiracy as one count
+in the indictment, which gave us an extra chance of conviction. Now
+they had got Colonel Clay, in fact, they naturally desired to keep
+him, and also to indict with him as many as possible of his pals
+and confederates.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty arose. Charles called me aside with a
+grave face into the library. "Seymour," he said, fixing me, "this
+is a serious business. I will not lightly swear away any woman's
+character. Colonel Clay himself--or, rather, Paul Finglemore--is an
+abandoned rogue, whom I do not desire to screen in any degree. But
+poor little Madame Picardet--she may be his lawful wife, and she
+may have acted implicitly under his orders. Besides, I don't know
+whether I could swear to her identity. Here's the photograph the
+police bring of the woman they believe to be Colonel Clay's chief
+female accomplice. Now, I ask you, does it in the least degree
+resemble that clever and amusing and charming little creature,
+who has so often deceived us?"
+
+In spite of Charles's gibes, I flatter myself I do really understand
+the whole duty of a secretary. It was clear from his voice he did
+not _wish_ me to recognise her; which, as it happened, I did not.
+"Certainly, it doesn't resemble her, Charles," I answered, with
+conviction in my voice. "I should never have known her." But I did
+not add that I should no more have known Colonel Clay himself in
+his character of Paul Finglemore, or of Césarine's young man, as
+_that_ remark lay clearly outside my secretarial functions.
+
+Still, it flitted across my mind at the time that the Seer had made
+some casual remarks at Nice about a letter in Charles's pocket,
+presumably from Madame Picardet; and I reflected further that Madame
+Picardet in turn might possibly hold certain answers of Charles's,
+couched in such terms as he might reasonably desire to conceal from
+Amelia. Indeed, I must allow that under whatever disguise White
+Heather appeared to us, Charles was always that disguise's devoted
+slave from the first moment he met it. It occurred to me, therefore,
+that the clever little woman--call her what you will--might be the
+holder of more than one indiscreet communication.
+
+"Under these circumstances," Charles went on, in his austerest
+voice, "I cannot consent to be a party to the arrest of White
+Heather. I--I decline to identify her. In point of fact"--he grew
+more emphatic as he went on--"I don't think there is an atom of
+evidence of any sort against her. Not," he continued, after a
+pause, "that I wish in any degree to screen the guilty. Césarine,
+now--Césarine we have liked and trusted. She has betrayed our trust.
+She has sold us to this fellow. I have no doubt at all that she
+gave him the diamonds from Amelia's rivière; that she took us by
+arrangement to meet him at Schloss Lebenstein; that she opened and
+sent to him my letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie. Therefore, I say, we
+_ought_ to arrest Césarine. But not White Heather--not Jessie; not
+that pretty Mrs. Quackenboss. Let the guilty suffer; why strike at
+the innocent--or, at worst, the misguided?"
+
+"Charles," I exclaimed, with warmth, "your sentiments do you honour.
+You are a man of feeling. And White Heather, I allow, is pretty
+enough and clever enough to be forgiven anything. You may rely upon
+my discretion. I will swear through thick and thin that I do not
+recognise this woman as Madame Picardet."
+
+Charles clasped my hand in silence. "Seymour," he said, after
+a pause, with marked emotion, "I felt sure I could rely upon
+your--er--honour and integrity. I have been rough upon you
+sometimes. But I ask your forgiveness. I see you understand the
+whole duties of your position."
+
+We went out again, better friends than we had been for months.
+I hoped, indeed, this pleasant little incident might help to
+neutralise the possible ill-effects of the ten per cent disclosure,
+should Finglemore take it into his head to betray me to my employer.
+As we emerged into the drawing-room, Amelia beckoned me aside
+towards her boudoir for a moment.
+
+"Seymour," she said to me, in a distinctly frightened tone, "I have
+treated you harshly at times, I know, and I am very sorry for it.
+But I want you to help me in a most painful difficulty. The police
+are quite right as to the charge of conspiracy; that designing
+little minx, White Heather, or Mrs. David Granton, or whatever else
+we're to call her, ought certainly to be prosecuted--and sent to
+prison, too--and have her absurd head of hair cut short and combed
+straight for her. But--and you will help me here, I'm sure, dear
+Seymour--I _cannot_ allow them to arrest my Césarine. I don't pretend
+to say Césarine isn't guilty; the girl has behaved most ungratefully
+to me. She has robbed me right and left, and deceived me without
+compunction. Still--I put it to you as a married man--_can_ any woman
+afford to go into the witness-box, to be cross-examined and teased
+by her own maid, or by a brute of a barrister on her maid's
+information? I assure you, Seymour, the thing's not to be dreamt of.
+There are details of a lady's life--known only to her maid--which
+_cannot_ be made public. Explain as much of this as you think well to
+Charles, and _make_ him understand that _if_ he insists upon arresting
+Césarine, I shall go into the box--and swear my head off to prevent
+any one of the gang from being convicted. I have told Césarine as
+much; I have promised to help her: I have explained that I am her
+friend, and that if _she'll_ stand by _me_, _I'll_ stand by _her_,
+and by this hateful young man of hers."
+
+I saw in a moment how things went. Neither Charles nor Amelia could
+face cross-examination on the subject of one of Colonel Clay's
+accomplices. No doubt, in Amelia's case, it was merely a question
+of rouge and hair-dye; but what woman would not sooner confess to
+a forgery or a murder than to those toilet secrets?
+
+I returned to Charles, therefore, and spent half an hour in
+composing, as well as I might, these little domestic difficulties.
+In the end, it was arranged that if Charles did his best to protect
+Césarine from arrest, Amelia would consent to do her best in return
+on behalf of Madame Picardet.
+
+We had next the police to tackle--a more difficult business. Still,
+even _they_ were reasonable. They had caught Colonel Clay, they
+believed, but their chance of convicting him depended entirely upon
+Charles's identification, with mine to back it. The more they urged
+the necessity of arresting the female confederates, however, the
+more stoutly did Charles declare that for his part he could by no
+means make sure of Colonel Clay himself, while he utterly declined
+to give evidence of any sort against either of the women. It was a
+difficult case, he said, and he felt far from confident even about
+the man. If _his_ decision faltered, and he failed to identify, the
+case was closed; no jury could convict with nothing to convict upon.
+
+At last the police gave way. No other course was open to them. They
+had made an important capture; but they saw that everything depended
+upon securing their witnesses, and the witnesses, if interfered
+with, were likely to swear to absolutely nothing.
+
+Indeed, as it turned out, before the preliminary investigation at
+Bow Street was completed (with the usual remands), Charles had been
+thrown into such a state of agitation that he wished he had never
+caught the Colonel at all.
+
+"I wonder, Sey," he said to me, "why I didn't offer the rascal two
+thousand a year to go right off to Australia, and be rid of him for
+ever! It would have been cheaper for my reputation than keeping him
+about in courts of law in England. The worst of it is, when once the
+best of men gets into a witness-box, there's no saying with what
+shreds and tatters of a character he may at last come out of it!"
+
+"In _your_ case, Charles," I answered, dutifully, "there can be
+no such doubt; except, perhaps, as regards the Craig-Ellachie
+Consolidated."
+
+Then came the endless bother of "getting up the case" with the
+police and the lawyers. Charles would have retired from it
+altogether by that time, but, most unfortunately, he was bound
+over to prosecute. "You couldn't take a lump sum to let me off?"
+he said, jokingly, to the inspector. But I knew in my heart it was
+one of the "true words spoken in jest" that the proverb tells of.
+
+Of course we could see now the whole building-up of the great
+intrigue. It had been worked out as carefully as the Tichborne
+swindle. Young Finglemore, as the brother of Charles's broker,
+knew from the outset all about his affairs; and, after a gentle
+course of preliminary roguery, he laid his plans deep for a campaign
+against my brother-in-law. Everything had been deliberately
+designed beforehand. A place had been found for Césarine as Amelia's
+maid--needless to say, by means of forged testimonials. Through her
+aid the swindler had succeeded in learning still more of the family
+ways and habits, and had acquired a knowledge of certain facts which
+he proceeded forthwith to use against us. His first attack, as the
+Seer, had been cleverly designed so as to give us the idea that we
+were a mere casual prey; and it did not escape Charles's notice now
+that the detail of getting Madame Picardet to inquire at the Crédit
+Marseillais about his bank had been solemnly gone through on purpose
+to blind us to the obvious truth that Colonel Clay was already in
+full possession of all such facts about us. It was by Césarine's
+aid, again, that he became possessed of Amelia's diamonds, that
+he received the letter addressed to Lord Craig-Ellachie, and
+that he managed to dupe us over the Schloss Lebenstein business.
+Nevertheless, all these things Charles determined to conceal in
+court; he did not give the police a single fact that would turn
+against either Césarine or Madame Picardet.
+
+As for Césarine, of course, she left the house immediately after the
+arrest of the Colonel, and we heard of her no more till the day of
+the trial.
+
+When that great day came, I never saw a more striking sight than the
+Old Bailey presented. It was crammed to overflowing. Charles arrived
+early, accompanied by his solicitor. He was so white and troubled
+that he looked much more like prisoner than prosecutor. Outside the
+court a pretty little woman stood, pale and anxious. A respectful
+crowd stared at her silently. "Who is that?" Charles asked. Though
+we could both of us guess, rather than see, it was White Heather.
+
+"That's the prisoner's wife," the inspector on duty replied. "She's
+waiting to see him enter. I'm sorry for her, poor thing. She's a
+perfect lady."
+
+"So she seems," Charles answered, scarcely daring to face her.
+
+At that moment she turned. Her eyes fell upon his. Charles paused
+for a second and looked faltering. There was in those eyes just the
+faintest gleam of pleading recognition, but not a trace of the old
+saucy, defiant vivacity. Charles framed his lips to words, but
+without uttering a sound. Unless I greatly mistake, the words he
+framed on his lips were these: "I will do my best for him."
+
+We pushed our way in, assisted by the police. Inside the court we
+saw a lady seated, in a quiet black dress, with a becoming bonnet.
+A moment passed before I knew--it was Césarine. "Who is--that
+person?" Charles asked once more of the nearest inspector, desiring
+to see in what way he would describe her.
+
+And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir."
+
+Charles started back, surprised. "But--I was told--a lady outside
+was Mrs. Paul Finglemore," he broke in, much puzzled.
+
+"Very likely," the inspector replied, unmoved. "We have plenty that
+way. _When_ a gentleman has as many aliases as Colonel Clay, you can
+hardly expect him to be over particular about having only _one_ wife
+between them, can you?"
+
+"Ah, I see," Charles muttered, in a shocked voice. "Bigamy!"
+
+The inspector looked stony. "Well, not exactly that," he replied,
+"occasional marriage."
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth tried the case. "I'm sorry it's him, Sey,"
+my brother-in-law whispered in my ear. (He said _him_, not _he_,
+because, whatever else Charles is, he is _not_ a pedant; the English
+language as it is spoken by most educated men is quite good enough
+for his purpose.) "I only wish it had been Sir Edward Easy. Easy's a
+man of the world, and a man of society; he would feel for a person
+in _my_ position. He wouldn't allow these beasts of lawyers to
+badger and pester me. He would back his order. But Rhadamanth is one
+of your modern sort of judges, who make a merit of being what they
+call 'conscientious,' and won't hush up anything. I admit I'm afraid
+of him. I shall be glad when it's over."
+
+"Oh, _you'll_ pull through all right," I said in my capacity of
+secretary. But I didn't think it.
+
+The judge took his seat. The prisoner was brought in. Every eye
+seemed bent upon him. He was neatly and plainly dressed, and,
+rogue though he was, I must honestly confess he looked at least a
+gentleman. His manner was defiant, not abject like Charles's. He
+knew he was at bay, and he turned like a man to face his accusers.
+
+We had two or three counts on the charge, and, after some formal
+business, Sir Charles Vandrift was put into the box to bear witness
+against Finglemore.
+
+Prisoner was unrepresented. Counsel had been offered him, but he
+refused their aid. The judge even advised him to accept their help;
+but Colonel Clay, as we all called him mentally still, declined to
+avail himself of the judge's suggestion.
+
+"I am a barrister myself, my lord," he said--"called some nine years
+ago. I can conduct my own defence, I venture to think, better than
+any of these my learned brethren."
+
+Charles went through his examination-in-chief quite swimmingly.
+He answered with promptitude. He identified the prisoner without
+the slightest hesitation as the man who had swindled him under
+the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
+Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
+slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
+anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
+A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
+to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
+be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
+In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.
+
+When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
+to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
+questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
+He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
+himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
+persuasively.
+
+Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.
+
+Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
+then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
+he was seated beside Césarine.
+
+"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
+pouncing upon the prosecutor.
+
+Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
+still whiter. It was--to all outer appearance--the Reverend Richard
+Brabazon in propriâ personâ.
+
+Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
+man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
+shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.
+
+"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
+It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
+We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
+recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them--not
+of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
+Charles's discomfiture.
+
+The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
+second photograph.
+
+"Now, can you tell me who _that_ is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
+brow-beating Old Bailey voice.
+
+With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
+"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
+disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."
+
+This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
+on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
+the jurisdiction.
+
+Even while Charles spoke, a gentleman whom I had noticed before,
+sitting beside White Heather, with a handkerchief to his face,
+rose as abruptly as the parson. Colonel Clay indicated him with
+a graceful movement of his hand. "And _this_ gentleman?" he asked
+calmly.
+
+Charles was fairly staggered. It was the obvious original of the
+false Von Lebenstein.
+
+The photograph went round the box once more. The jury smiled
+incredulously. Charles had given himself away. His overweening
+confidence and certainty had ruined him.
+
+Then Colonel Clay, leaning forward, and looking quite engaging,
+began a new line of cross-examination. "We have seen, Sir Charles,"
+he said, "that we cannot implicitly trust your identifications. Now
+let us see how far we can trust your other evidence. First, then,
+about those diamonds. You tried to buy them, did you not, from a
+person who represented himself as the Reverend Richard Brabazon,
+because you believed he thought they were paste; and if you could,
+you would have given him 10 pounds or so for them. _Do_ you think
+that was honest?"
+
+"I object to this line of cross-examination," our leading counsel
+interposed. "It does not bear on the prosecutor's evidence. It is
+purely recriminatory."
+
+Colonel Clay was all bland deference. "I wish, my lord," he said,
+turning round, "to show that the prosecutor is a person unworthy of
+credence in any way. I desire to proceed upon the well-known legal
+maxim of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. I believe I am permitted
+to shake the witness's credit?"
+
+"The prisoner is entirely within his rights," Rhadamanth answered,
+looking severely at Charles. "And I was wrong in suggesting that
+he needed the advice or assistance of counsel."
+
+Charles wriggled visibly. Colonel Clay perked up. Bit by bit, with
+dexterous questions, Charles was made to acknowledge that he wanted
+to buy diamonds at the price of paste, knowing them to be real; and,
+a millionaire himself, would gladly have diddled a poor curate out
+of a couple of thousand.
+
+"I was entitled to take advantage of my special knowledge," Charles
+murmured feebly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," the prisoner answered. "But, while professing
+friendship and affection for a clergyman and his wife, in straitened
+circumstances, you were prepared, it seems, to take three thousand
+pounds' worth of goods off their hands for ten pounds, if you could
+have got them at that price. Is not that so?"
+
+Charles was compelled to admit it.
+
+The prisoner went onto the David Granton incident. "When you offered
+to amalgamate with Lord Craig-Ellachie," he asked, "had you or
+had you not heard that a gold-bearing reef ran straight from your
+concession into Lord Craig-Ellachie's, and that his portion of the
+reef was by far the larger and more important?"
+
+Charles wriggled again, and our counsel interposed; but Rhadamanth
+was adamant. Charles had to allow it.
+
+And so, too, with the incident of the Slump in Golcondas.
+Unwillingly, shamefacedly, by torturing steps, Charles was compelled
+to confess that he had sold out Golcondas--he, the Chairman of the
+company, after repeated declarations to shareholders and others
+that he would do no such thing--because he thought Professor
+Schleiermacher had made diamonds worthless. He had endeavoured to
+save himself by ruining his company. Charles tried to brazen it out
+with remarks to the effect that business was business. "And fraud is
+fraud," Rhadamanth added, in his pungent way.
+
+"A man must protect himself," Charles burst out.
+
+"At the expense of those who have put their trust in his honour and
+integrity," the judge commented coldly.
+
+After four mortal hours of it, all to the same effect, my respected
+brother-in-law left the witness-box at last, wiping his brow and
+biting his lip, with the very air of a culprit. His character had
+received a most serious blow. While he stood in the witness-box all
+the world had felt it was _he_ who was the accused and Colonel Clay
+who was the prosecutor. He was convicted on his own evidence of
+having tried to induce the supposed David Granton to sell his
+father's interests into an enemy's hands, and of every other shady
+trick into which his well-known business acuteness had unfortunately
+hurried him during the course of his adventures. I had but one
+consolation in my brother-in-law's misfortunes--and that was the
+thought that a due sense of his own shortcomings might possibly make
+him more lenient in the end to the trivial misdemeanours of a poor
+beggar of a secretary!
+
+_I_ was the next in the box. I do not desire to enlarge upon my own
+achievements. I will draw a decent veil, indeed, over the painful
+scene that ensued when I finished my evidence. I can only say I was
+more cautious than Charles in my recognition of the photographs;
+but I found myself particularly worried and harried over other
+parts of my cross-examination. Especially was I shaken about that
+misguided step I took in the matter of the cheque for the Lebenstein
+commission--a cheque which Colonel Clay handed to me with the utmost
+politeness, requesting to know whether or not it bore my signature.
+I caught Charles's eye at the end of the episode, and I venture to
+say the expression it wore was one of relief that I too had tripped
+over a trifling question of ten per cent on the purchase money of
+the castle.
+
+Altogether, I must admit, if it had not been for the police
+evidence, we would have failed to make a case against our man
+at all. But the police, I confess, had got up their part of the
+prosecution admirably. Now that they knew Colonel Clay to be
+really Paul Finglemore, they showed with great cleverness how Paul
+Finglemore's disappearances and reappearances in London exactly
+tallied with Colonel Clay's appearances and disappearances
+elsewhere, under the guise of the little curate, the Seer,
+David Granton, and the rest of them. Furthermore, they showed
+experimentally how the prisoner at the bar might have got himself
+up in the various characters; and, by means of a wax bust, modelled
+by Dr. Beddersley from observations at Bow Street, and aided by
+additions in the gutta-percha composition after Dolly Lingfield's
+photographs, they succeeded in proving that the face as it stood
+could be readily transformed into the faces of Medhurst and David
+Granton. Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up
+on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in
+putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul
+Finglemore.
+
+The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my
+respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the
+case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not
+even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission
+further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound
+to protect their own interests--as secretaries or as principals.
+This I took for forgiveness; and I continued diligently to attend
+the trial, and watch the case in my employer's interest.
+
+The defence was ingenious, even if somewhat halting. It consisted
+simply of an attempt to prove throughout that Charles and I had made
+our prisoner the victim of a mistaken identity. Finglemore put into
+the box the ingenuous original of the little curate--the Reverend
+Septimus Porkington, as it turned out, a friend of his family; and
+he showed that it was the Reverend Septimus himself who had sat to
+a photographer in Baker Street for the portrait which Charles too
+hastily identified as that of Colonel Clay in his personification of
+Mr. Richard Brabazon. He further elicited the fact that the portrait
+of the Count von Lebenstein was really taken from Dr. Julius Keppel,
+a Tyrolese music-master, residing at Balham, whom he put into the
+box, and who was well known, as it chanced, to the foreman of the
+jury. Gradually he made it clear to us that no portraits existed of
+Colonel Clay at all, except Dolly Lingfield's--so it dawned upon
+me by degrees that even Dr. Beddersley could only have been misled
+if we had succeeded in finding for him the alleged photographs of
+Colonel Clay as the count and the curate, which had been shown us
+by Medhurst. Altogether, the prisoner based his defence upon the
+fact that no more than two witnesses directly identified him; while
+one of those two had positively sworn that he recognised as the
+prisoner's two portraits which turned out, by independent evidence,
+to be taken from other people!
+
+The judge summed up in a caustic way which was pleasant to neither
+party. He asked the jury to dismiss from their minds entirely the
+impression created by what he frankly described as "Sir Charles
+Vandrift's obvious dishonesty." They must not allow the fact that he
+was a millionaire--and a particularly shady one--to prejudice their
+feelings in favour of the prisoner. Even the richest--and vilest--of
+men must be protected. Besides, this was a public question. If a
+rogue cheated a rogue, he must still be punished. If a murderer
+stabbed or shot a murderer, he must still be hung for it. Society
+must see that the worst of thieves were not preyed upon by others.
+Therefore, the proved facts that Sir Charles Vandrift, with all his
+millions, had meanly tried to cheat the prisoner, or some other poor
+person, out of valuable diamonds--had basely tried to juggle Lord
+Craig-Ellachie's mines into his own hands--had vilely tried to bribe
+a son to betray his father--had directly tried, by underhand means,
+to save his own money, at the risk of destroying the wealth of
+others who trusted to his probity--these proved facts must not
+blind them to the truth that the prisoner at the bar (if he were
+really Colonel Clay) was an abandoned swindler. To that point alone
+they must confine their attention; and _if_ they were convinced that
+the prisoner was shown to be the self-same man who appeared on
+various occasions as David Granton, as Von Lebenstein, as Medhurst,
+as Schleiermacher, they must find him guilty.
+
+As to that point, also, the judge commented on the obvious strength
+of the police case, and the fact that the prisoner had not attempted
+in any one out of so many instances to prove an alibi. Surely, if
+he were _not_ Colonel Clay, the jury should ask themselves, must it
+not have been simple and easy for him to do so? Finally, the judge
+summed up all the elements of doubt in the identification--and all
+the elements of probability; and left it to the jury to draw their
+own conclusions.
+
+They retired at the end to consider their verdict. While they were
+absent every eye in court was fixed on the prisoner. But Paul
+Finglemore himself looked steadily towards the further end of the
+hall, where two pale-faced women sat together, with handkerchiefs
+in their hands, and eyes red with weeping.
+
+Only then, as he stood there, awaiting the verdict, with a fixed
+white face, prepared for everything, did I begin to realise with
+what courage and pluck that one lone man had sustained so long an
+unequal contest against wealth, authority, and all the Governments
+of Europe, aided but by his own skill and two feeble women! Only
+then did I feel he had played his reckless game through all those
+years with _this_ ever before him! I found it hard to picture.
+
+The jury filed slowly back. There was dead silence in court as the
+clerk put the question, "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty
+or not guilty?"
+
+"We find him guilty."
+
+"On all the counts?"
+
+"On all the counts of the indictment."
+
+The women at the back burst into tears, unanimously.
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth addressed the prisoner. "Have you anything
+to urge," he asked in a very stern tone, "in mitigation of whatever
+sentence the Court may see fit to pass upon you?"
+
+"Nothing," the prisoner answered, just faltering slightly. "I have
+brought it upon myself--but--I have protected the lives of those
+nearest and dearest to me. I have fought hard for my own hand. I
+admit my crime, and will face my punishment. I only regret that,
+since we were both of us rogues--myself and the prosecutor--the
+lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in
+the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according
+to his deserts--to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St.
+George; to me, the Broad Arrow!"
+
+The judge gazed at him severely. "Paul Finglemore," he said, passing
+sentence in his sardonic way, "you have chosen to dedicate to the
+service of fraud abilities and attainments which, if turned from the
+outset into a legitimate channel, would no doubt have sufficed to
+secure you without excessive effort a subsistence one degree above
+starvation--possibly even, with good luck, a sordid and squalid
+competence. You have preferred to embark them on a lawless life of
+vice and crime--and I will not deny that you seem to have had a good
+run for your money. Society, however, whose mouthpiece I am, cannot
+allow you any longer to mock it with impunity. You have broken its
+laws openly, and you have been found out." He assumed the tone of
+bland condescension which always heralds his severest moments. "I
+sentence you to Fourteen Years' Imprisonment, with Hard Labour."
+
+The prisoner bowed, without losing his apparent composure. But his
+eyes strayed away again to the far end of the hall, where the two
+weeping women, with a sudden sharp cry, fell at once in a faint on
+one another's shoulders, and were with difficulty removed from court
+by the ushers.
+
+As we left the room, I heard but one comment all round, thus voiced
+by a school-boy: "I'd a jolly sight rather it had been old Vandrift.
+This Clay chap's too clever by half to waste on a prison!"
+
+But he went there, none the less--in that "cool sequestered vale
+of life" to recover equilibrium; though I myself half regretted it.
+
+I will add but one more little parting episode.
+
+When all was over, Charles rushed off to Cannes, to get away from
+the impertinent stare of London. Amelia and Isabel and I went with
+him. We were driving one afternoon on the hills beyond the town,
+among the myrtle and lentisk scrub, when we noticed in front of us
+a nice victoria, containing two ladies in very deep mourning. We
+followed it, unintentionally, as far as Le Grand Pin--that big pine
+tree that looks across the bay towards Antibes. There, the ladies
+descended and sat down on a knoll, gazing out disconsolately towards
+the sea and the islands. It was evident they were suffering very
+deep grief. Their faces were pale and their eyes bloodshot. "Poor
+things!" Amelia said. Then her tone altered suddenly.
+
+"Why, good gracious," she cried, "if it isn't Césarine!"
+
+So it was--with White Heather!
+
+Charles got down and drew near them. "I beg your pardon," he said,
+raising his hat, and addressing Madame Picardet: "I believe I have
+had the pleasure of meeting you. And since I have doubtless paid in
+the end for your victoria, _may_ I venture to inquire for whom you
+are in mourning?"
+
+White Heather drew back, sobbing; but Césarine turned to him, fiery
+red, with the mien of a lady. "For _him_!" she answered; "for Paul!
+for our king, whom _you_ have imprisoned! As long as _he_ remains
+there, we have both of us decided to wear mourning for ever!"
+
+Charles raised his hat again, and drew back without one word.
+He waved his hand to Amelia and walked home with me to Cannes.
+He seemed deeply dejected.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts!" I exclaimed, at last, in a jocular
+tone, trying feebly to rouse him.
+
+He turned to me, and sighed. "I was wondering," he answered, "if
+_I_ had gone to prison, would Amelia and Isabel have done as much
+for me?"
+
+For myself, I did _not_ wonder. I knew pretty well. For Charles, you
+will admit, though the bigger rogue of the two, is scarcely the kind
+of rogue to inspire a woman with profound affection.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+
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+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
+
+
+Title: An African Millionaire
+       Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+Author: Grant Allen
+
+Posting Date: September 11, 2009 [EBook #4715]
+Release Date: December, 2003
+First Posted: March 6, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Don Lainson and Andrew Sly.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+An African Millionaire
+</H1>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+By Grant Allen
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+First published in 1897
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+1.  <A HREF="#chap01">The Episode of the Mexican Seer</A>
+<BR>
+2.  <A HREF="#chap02">The Episode of the Diamond Links</A>
+<BR>
+3.  <A HREF="#chap03">The Episode of the Old Master</A>
+<BR>
+4.  <A HREF="#chap04">The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle</A>
+<BR>
+5.  <A HREF="#chap05">The Episode of the Drawn Game</A>
+<BR>
+6.  <A HREF="#chap06">The Episode of the German Professor</A>
+<BR>
+7.  <A HREF="#chap07">The Episode of the Arrest of the Colonel</A>
+<BR>
+8.  <A HREF="#chap08">The Episode of the Seldon Gold-Mine</A>
+<BR>
+9.  <A HREF="#chap09">The Episode of the Japanned Dispatch-Box</A>
+<BR>
+10.  <A HREF="#chap10">The Episode of the Game of Poker</A>
+<BR>
+11.  <A HREF="#chap11">The Episode of the Bertillon Method</A>
+<BR>
+12.  <A HREF="#chap12">The Episode of the Old Bailey</A>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+I
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE MEXICAN SEER
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+My name is Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. I am brother-in-law and
+secretary to Sir Charles Vandrift, the South African millionaire and
+famous financier. Many years ago, when Charlie Vandrift was a small
+lawyer in Cape Town, I had the (qualified) good fortune to marry his
+sister. Much later, when the Vandrift estate and farm near Kimberley
+developed by degrees into the Cloetedorp Golcondas, Limited, my
+brother-in-law offered me the not unremunerative post of secretary;
+in which capacity I have ever since been his constant and attached
+companion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He is not a man whom any common sharper can take in, is Charles
+Vandrift. Middle height, square build, firm mouth, keen eyes&mdash;the
+very picture of a sharp and successful business genius. I have only
+known one rogue impose upon Sir Charles, and that one rogue, as the
+Commissary of Police at Nice remarked, would doubtless have imposed
+upon a syndicate of Vidocq, Robert Houdin, and Cagliostro.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had run across to the Riviera for a few weeks in the season. Our
+object being strictly rest and recreation from the arduous duties
+of financial combination, we did not think it necessary to take our
+wives out with us. Indeed, Lady Vandrift is absolutely wedded to the
+joys of London, and does not appreciate the rural delights of the
+Mediterranean littoral. But Sir Charles and I, though immersed in
+affairs when at home, both thoroughly enjoy the complete change from
+the City to the charming vegetation and pellucid air on the terrace
+at Monte Carlo. We <I>are</I> so fond of scenery. That delicious view
+over the rocks of Monaco, with the Maritime Alps in the rear, and
+the blue sea in front, not to mention the imposing Casino in the
+foreground, appeals to me as one of the most beautiful prospects in
+all Europe. Sir Charles has a sentimental attachment for the place.
+He finds it restores and freshens him, after the turmoil of London,
+to win a few hundreds at roulette in the course of an afternoon
+among the palms and cactuses and pure breezes of Monte Carlo. The
+country, say I, for a jaded intellect! However, we never on any
+account actually stop in the Principality itself. Sir Charles thinks
+Monte Carlo is not a sound address for a financier's letters. He
+prefers a comfortable hotel on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice,
+where he recovers health and renovates his nervous system by taking
+daily excursions along the coast to the Casino.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This particular season we were snugly ensconced at the Hôtel des
+Anglais. We had capital quarters on the first floor&mdash;salon, study,
+and bedrooms&mdash;and found on the spot a most agreeable cosmopolitan
+society. All Nice, just then, was ringing with talk about a curious
+impostor, known to his followers as the Great Mexican Seer, and
+supposed to be gifted with second sight, as well as with endless
+other supernatural powers. Now, it is a peculiarity of my able
+brother-in-law's that, when he meets with a quack, he burns to
+expose him; he is so keen a man of business himself that it gives
+him, so to speak, a disinterested pleasure to unmask and detect
+imposture in others. Many ladies at the hotel, some of whom had met
+and conversed with the Mexican Seer, were constantly telling us
+strange stories of his doings. He had disclosed to one the present
+whereabouts of a runaway husband; he had pointed out to another the
+numbers that would win at roulette next evening; he had shown a
+third the image on a screen of the man she had for years adored
+without his knowledge. Of course, Sir Charles didn't believe a word
+of it; but his curiosity was roused; he wished to see and judge for
+himself of the wonderful thought-reader.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What would be his terms, do you think, for a private séance?" he
+asked of Madame Picardet, the lady to whom the Seer had successfully
+predicted the winning numbers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He does not work for money," Madame Picardet answered, "but for
+the good of humanity. I'm sure he would gladly come and exhibit for
+nothing his miraculous faculties."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nonsense!" Sir Charles answered. "The man must live. I'd pay him
+five guineas, though, to see him alone. What hotel is he stopping at?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Cosmopolitan, I think," the lady answered. "Oh no; I remember
+now, the Westminster."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles turned to me quietly. "Look here, Seymour," he
+whispered. "Go round to this fellow's place immediately after
+dinner, and offer him five pounds to give a private séance at once
+in my rooms, without mentioning who I am to him; keep the name quite
+quiet. Bring him back with you, too, and come straight upstairs
+with him, so that there may be no collusion. We'll see just how much
+the fellow can tell us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I went as directed. I found the Seer a very remarkable and
+interesting person. He stood about Sir Charles's own height, but was
+slimmer and straighter, with an aquiline nose, strangely piercing
+eyes, very large black pupils, and a finely-chiselled close-shaven
+face, like the bust of Antinous in our hall in Mayfair. What gave him
+his most characteristic touch, however, was his odd head of hair,
+curly and wavy like Paderewski's, standing out in a halo round his
+high white forehead and his delicate profile. I could see at a
+glance why he succeeded so well in impressing women; he had the
+look of a poet, a singer, a prophet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have come round," I said, "to ask whether you will consent to
+give a séance at once in a friend's rooms; and my principal wishes
+me to add that he is prepared to pay five pounds as the price of the
+entertainment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Señor Antonio Herrera&mdash;that was what he called himself&mdash;bowed to
+me with impressive Spanish politeness. His dusky olive cheeks were
+wrinkled with a smile of gentle contempt as he answered gravely&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do not sell my gifts; I bestow them freely. If your friend&mdash;your
+anonymous friend&mdash;desires to behold the cosmic wonders that are
+wrought through my hands, I am glad to show them to him.
+Fortunately, as often happens when it is necessary to convince
+and confound a sceptic (for that your friend is a sceptic I feel
+instinctively), I chance to have no engagements at all this
+evening." He ran his hand through his fine, long hair reflectively.
+"Yes, I go," he continued, as if addressing some unknown presence
+that hovered about the ceiling; "I go; come with me!" Then he put on
+his broad sombrero, with its crimson ribbon, wrapped a cloak round
+his shoulders, lighted a cigarette, and strode forth by my side
+towards the Hôtel des Anglais.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He talked little by the way, and that little in curt sentences. He
+seemed buried in deep thought; indeed, when we reached the door and
+I turned in, he walked a step or two farther on, as if not noticing
+to what place I had brought him. Then he drew himself up short, and
+gazed around him for a moment. "Ha, the Anglais," he said&mdash;and I may
+mention in passing that his English, in spite of a slight southern
+accent, was idiomatic and excellent. "It is here, then; it is here!"
+He was addressing once more the unseen presence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I smiled to think that these childish devices were intended to
+deceive Sir Charles Vandrift. Not quite the sort of man (as the City
+of London knows) to be taken in by hocus-pocus. And all this, I saw,
+was the cheapest and most commonplace conjurer's patter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went upstairs to our rooms. Charles had gathered together a
+few friends to watch the performance. The Seer entered, wrapt in
+thought. He was in evening dress, but a red sash round his waist
+gave a touch of picturesqueness and a dash of colour. He paused for
+a moment in the middle of the salon, without letting his eyes rest
+on anybody or anything. Then he walked straight up to Charles, and
+held out his dark hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-evening," he said. "You are the host. My soul's sight tells
+me so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good shot," Sir Charles answered. "These fellows have to be
+quick-witted, you know, Mrs. Mackenzie, or they'd never get on
+at it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer gazed about him, and smiled blankly at a person or two
+whose faces he seemed to recognise from a previous existence. Then
+Charles began to ask him a few simple questions, not about himself,
+but about me, just to test him. He answered most of them with
+surprising correctness. "His name? His name begins with an S I
+think:&mdash;You call him Seymour." He paused long between each clause, as
+if the facts were revealed to him slowly. "Seymour&mdash;Wilbraham&mdash;Earl
+of Strafford. No, not Earl of Strafford! Seymour Wilbraham
+Wentworth. There seems to be some connection in somebody's mind now
+present between Wentworth and Strafford. I am not English. I do not
+know what it means. But they are somehow the same name, Wentworth
+and Strafford."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed around, apparently for confirmation. A lady came to his
+rescue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wentworth was the surname of the great Earl of Strafford," she
+murmured gently; "and I was wondering, as you spoke, whether
+Mr. Wentworth might possibly be descended from him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He is," the Seer replied instantly, with a flash of those dark
+eyes. And I thought this curious; for though my father always
+maintained the reality of the relationship, there was one link
+wanting to complete the pedigree. He could not make sure that
+the Hon. Thomas Wilbraham Wentworth was the father of Jonathan
+Wentworth, the Bristol horse-dealer, from whom we are descended.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where was I born?" Sir Charles interrupted, coming suddenly to his
+own case.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer clapped his two hands to his forehead and held it between
+them, as if to prevent it from bursting. "Africa," he said slowly,
+as the facts narrowed down, so to speak. "South Africa; Cape of Good
+Hope; Jansenville; De Witt Street. 1840."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By Jove, he's correct," Sir Charles muttered. "He seems really to
+do it. Still, he may have found me out. He may have known where he
+was coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never gave a hint," I answered; "till he reached the door, he
+didn't even know to what hotel I was piloting him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer stroked his chin softly. His eye appeared to me to have a
+furtive gleam in it. "Would you like me to tell you the number of
+a bank-note inclosed in an envelope?" he asked casually.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go out of the room," Sir Charles said, "while I pass it round the
+company."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Señor Herrera disappeared. Sir Charles passed it round cautiously,
+holding it all the time in his own hand, but letting his guests see
+the number. Then he placed it in an envelope and gummed it down
+firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer returned. His keen eyes swept the company with a
+comprehensive glance. He shook his shaggy mane. Then he took
+the envelope in his hands and gazed at it fixedly. "AF, 73549,"
+he answered, in a slow tone. "A Bank of England note for fifty
+pounds&mdash;exchanged at the Casino for gold won yesterday at
+Monte Carlo."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see how he did that," Sir Charles said triumphantly. "He must
+have changed it there himself; and then I changed it back again.
+In point of fact, I remember seeing a fellow with long hair loafing
+about. Still, it's capital conjuring."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He can see through matter," one of the ladies interposed. It was
+Madame Picardet. "He can see through a box." She drew a little gold
+vinaigrette, such as our grandmothers used, from her dress-pocket.
+"What is in this?" she inquired, holding it up to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Señor Herrera gazed through it. "Three gold coins," he replied,
+knitting his brows with the effort of seeing into the box: "one,
+an American five dollars; one, a French ten-franc piece; one,
+twenty marks, German, of the old Emperor William."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She opened the box and passed it round. Sir Charles smiled a quiet
+smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Confederacy!" he muttered, half to himself. "Confederacy!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer turned to him with a sullen air. "You want a better sign?"
+he said, in a very impressive voice. "A sign that will convince you!
+Very well: you have a letter in your left waistcoat pocket&mdash;a
+crumpled-up letter. Do you wish me to read it out? I will, if you
+desire it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It may seem to those who know Sir Charles incredible, but, I am
+bound to admit, my brother-in-law coloured. What that letter
+contained I cannot say; he only answered, very testily and
+evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you
+have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply
+suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat
+pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Señor Herrera would
+read it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I fancied, too, he glanced somewhat anxiously towards Madame
+Picardet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer bowed courteously. "Your will, señor, is law," he said. "I
+make it a principle, though I can see through all things, invariably
+to respect the secrecies and sanctities. If it were not so, I might
+dissolve society. For which of us is there who could bear the whole
+truth being told about him?" He gazed around the room. An unpleasant
+thrill supervened. Most of us felt this uncanny Spanish American
+knew really too much. And some of us were engaged in financial
+operations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For example," the Seer continued blandly, "I happened a few weeks
+ago to travel down here from Paris by train with a very intelligent
+man, a company promoter. He had in his bag some documents&mdash;some
+confidential documents:" he glanced at Sir Charles. "You know the
+kind of thing, my dear sir: reports from experts&mdash;from mining
+engineers. You may have seen some such; marked <I>strictly private</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They form an element in high finance," Sir Charles admitted coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pre-cisely," the Seer murmured, his accent for a moment less
+Spanish than before. "And, as they were marked <I>strictly private</I>,
+I respect, of course, the seal of confidence. That's all I wish to
+say. I hold it a duty, being intrusted with such powers, not to use
+them in a manner which may annoy or incommode my fellow-creatures."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your feeling does you honour," Sir Charles answered, with some
+acerbity. Then he whispered in my ear: "Confounded clever scoundrel,
+Sey; rather wish we hadn't brought him here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Señor Herrera seemed intuitively to divine this wish, for he
+interposed, in a lighter and gayer tone&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will now show you a different and more interesting embodiment
+of occult power, for which we shall need a somewhat subdued
+arrangement of surrounding lights. Would you mind, señor host&mdash;for
+I have purposely abstained from reading your name on the brain of
+any one present&mdash;would you mind my turning down this lamp just a
+little? ... So! That will do. Now, this one; and this one. Exactly!
+that's right." He poured a few grains of powder out of a packet into
+a saucer. "Next, a match, if you please. Thank you!" It burnt with a
+strange green light. He drew from his pocket a card, and produced a
+little ink-bottle. "Have you a pen?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I instantly brought one. He handed it to Sir Charles. "Oblige me,"
+he said, "by writing your name there." And he indicated a place in
+the centre of the card, which had an embossed edge, with a small
+middle square of a different colour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles has a natural disinclination to signing his name without
+knowing why. "What do you want with it?" he asked. (A millionaire's
+signature has so many uses.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want you to put the card in an envelope," the Seer replied, "and
+then to burn it. After that, I shall show you your own name written
+in letters of blood on my arm, in your own handwriting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles took the pen. If the signature was to be burned as soon
+as finished, he didn't mind giving it. He wrote his name in his
+usual firm clear style&mdash;the writing of a man who knows his worth
+and is not afraid of drawing a cheque for five thousand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look at it long," the Seer said, from the other side of the room.
+He had not watched him write it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles stared at it fixedly. The Seer was really beginning to
+produce an impression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, put it in that envelope," the Seer exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles, like a lamb, placed it as directed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Seer strode forward. "Give me the envelope," he said. He took it
+in his hand, walked over towards the fireplace, and solemnly burnt
+it. "See&mdash;it crumbles into ashes," he cried. Then he came back to
+the middle of the room, close to the green light, rolled up his
+sleeve, and held his arm before Sir Charles. There, in blood-red
+letters, my brother-in-law read the name, "Charles Vandrift," in
+his own handwriting!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see how that's done," Sir Charles murmured, drawing back. "It's
+a clever delusion; but still, I see through it. It's like that
+ghost-book. Your ink was deep green; your light was green; you made
+me look at it long; and then I saw the same thing written on the
+skin of your arm in complementary colours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You think so?" the Seer replied, with a curious curl of the lip.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm sure of it," Sir Charles answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quick as lightning the Seer again rolled up his sleeve. "That's
+your name," he cried, in a very clear voice, "but not your whole
+name. What do you say, then, to my right? Is this one also a
+complementary colour?" He held his other arm out. There, in
+sea-green letters, I read the name, "Charles O'Sullivan Vandrift."
+It is my brother-in-law's full baptismal designation; but he has
+dropped the O'Sullivan for many years past, and, to say the truth,
+doesn't like it. He is a little bit ashamed of his mother's family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles glanced at it hurriedly. "Quite right," he said, "quite
+right!" But his voice was hollow. I could guess he didn't care to
+continue the séance. He could see through the man, of course; but it
+was clear the fellow knew too much about us to be entirely pleasant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I
+say coffee and benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from
+further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better
+suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these
+ladies are not above a cigarette&mdash;some of them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a sigh of relief. The lights burned brightly. The Seer for
+the moment retired from business, so to speak. He accepted a partaga
+with a very good grace, sipped his coffee in a corner, and chatted
+to the lady who had suggested Strafford with marked politeness. He
+was a polished gentleman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next morning, in the hall of the hotel, I saw Madame Picardet again,
+in a neat tailor-made travelling dress, evidently bound for the
+railway-station.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, off, Madame Picardet?" I cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She smiled, and held out her prettily-gloved hand. "Yes, I'm off,"
+she answered archly. "Florence, or Rome, or somewhere. I've drained
+Nice dry&mdash;like a sucked orange. Got all the fun I can out of it.
+Now I'm away again to my beloved Italy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it struck me as odd that, if Italy was her game, she went by the
+omnibus which takes down to the train de luxe for Paris. However,
+a man of the world accepts what a lady tells him, no matter how
+improbable; and I confess, for ten days or so, I thought no more
+about her, or the Seer either.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the end of that time our fortnightly pass-book came in from
+the bank in London. It is part of my duty, as the millionaire's
+secretary, to make up this book once a fortnight, and to compare
+the cancelled cheques with Sir Charles's counterfoils. On this
+particular occasion I happened to observe what I can only describe
+as a very grave discrepancy,&mdash;in fact, a discrepancy of 5000 pounds.
+On the wrong side, too. Sir Charles was debited with 5000 pounds
+more than the total amount that was shown on the counterfoils.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I examined the book with care. The source of the error was obvious.
+It lay in a cheque to Self or Bearer, for 5000 pounds, signed by Sir
+Charles, and evidently paid across the counter in London, as it bore
+on its face no stamp or indication of any other office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I called in my brother-in-law from the salon to the study. "Look
+here, Charles," I said, "there's a cheque in the book which you
+haven't entered." And I handed it to him without comment, for I
+thought it might have been drawn to settle some little loss on the
+turf or at cards, or to make up some other affair he didn't desire
+to mention to me. These things will happen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked at it and stared hard. Then he pursed up his mouth and
+gave a long low "Whew!" At last he turned it over and remarked,
+"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown,
+haven't we?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I glanced at the cheque. "How do you mean?" I inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, the Seer," he replied, still staring at it ruefully. "I
+don't mind the five thou., but to think the fellow should have
+gammoned the pair of us like that&mdash;ignominious, I call it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you know it's the Seer?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look at the green ink," he answered. "Besides, I recollect the
+very shape of the last flourish. I flourished a bit like that in
+the excitement of the moment, which I don't always do with my
+regular signature."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's done us," I answered, recognising it. "But how the dickens
+did he manage to transfer it to the cheque? This looks like your
+own handwriting, Charles, not a clever forgery."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is," he said. "I admit it&mdash;I can't deny it. Only fancy his
+bamboozling me when I was most on my guard! I wasn't to be taken
+in by any of his silly occult tricks and catch-words; but it never
+occurred to me he was going to victimise me financially in this
+way. I expected attempts at a loan or an extortion; but to collar
+my signature to a blank cheque&mdash;atrocious!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did he manage it?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't the faintest conception. I only know those are the
+words I wrote. I could swear to them anywhere."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you can't protest the cheque?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Unfortunately, no; it's my own true signature."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went that afternoon without delay to see the Chief Commissary
+of Police at the office. He was a gentlemanly Frenchman, much less
+formal and red-tapey than usual, and he spoke excellent English
+with an American accent, having acted, in fact, as a detective in
+New York for about ten years in his early manhood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess," he said slowly, after hearing our story, "you've been
+victimised right here by Colonel Clay, gentlemen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is Colonel Clay?" Sir Charles asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just what I want to know," the Commissary answered, in
+his curious American-French-English. "He is a Colonel, because he
+occasionally gives himself a commission; he is called Colonel Clay,
+because he appears to possess an india-rubber face, and he can
+mould it like clay in the hands of the potter. Real name, unknown.
+Nationality, equally French and English. Address, usually Europe.
+Profession, former maker of wax figures to the Museé Grévin. Age,
+what he chooses. Employs his knowledge to mould his own nose
+and cheeks, with wax additions, to the character he desires to
+personate. Aquiline this time, you say. Hein! Anything like these
+photographs?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rummaged in his desk and handed us two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not in the least," Sir Charles answered. "Except, perhaps, as to the
+neck, everything here is quite unlike him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then that's the Colonel!" the Commissary answered, with decision,
+rubbing his hands in glee. "Look here," and he took out a pencil
+and rapidly sketched the outline of one of the two faces&mdash;that of
+a bland-looking young man, with no expression worth mentioning.
+"There's the Colonel in his simple disguise. Very good. Now watch
+me: figure to yourself that he adds here a tiny patch of wax to his
+nose&mdash;an aquiline bridge&mdash;just so; well, you have him right there;
+and the chin, ah, one touch: now, for hair, a wig: for complexion,
+nothing easier: that's the profile of your rascal, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly," we both murmured. By two curves of the pencil, and a
+shock of false hair, the face was transmuted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He had very large eyes, with very big pupils, though," I objected,
+looking close; "and the man in the photograph here has them small
+and boiled-fishy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "A drop of belladonna
+expands&mdash;and produces the Seer; five grains of opium contract&mdash;and
+give a dead-alive, stupidly-innocent appearance. Well, you leave
+this affair to me, gentlemen. I'll see the fun out. I don't say I'll
+catch him for you; nobody ever yet has caught Colonel Clay; but
+I'll explain how he did the trick; and that ought to be consolation
+enough to a man of your means for a trifle of five thousand!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le
+Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You bet!" the Commissary replied, and drew himself up like a
+captain of infantry. "Messieurs," he continued, in French, with the
+utmost dignity, "I shall devote the resources of this office to
+tracing out the crime, and, if possible, to effectuating the arrest
+of the culpable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We telegraphed to London, of course, and we wrote to the bank, with
+a full description of the suspected person. But I need hardly add
+that nothing came of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three days later the Commissary called at our hotel. "Well,
+gentlemen," he said, "I am glad to say I have discovered
+everything!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What? Arrested the Seer?" Sir Charles cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Commissary drew back, almost horrified at the suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Arrested Colonel Clay?" he exclaimed. "Mais, monsieur, we are only
+human! Arrested him? No, not quite. But tracked out how he did it.
+That is already much&mdash;to unravel Colonel Clay, gentlemen!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what do you make of it?" Sir Charles asked, crestfallen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Commissary sat down and gloated over his discovery. It was
+clear a well-planned crime amused him vastly. "In the first place,
+monsieur," he said, "disabuse your mind of the idea that when
+monsieur your secretary went out to fetch Señor Herrera that night,
+Señor Herrera didn't know to whose rooms he was coming. Quite
+otherwise, in point of fact. I do not doubt myself that Señor
+Herrera, or Colonel Clay (call him which you like), came to Nice
+this winter for no other purpose than just to rob you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I sent for him," my brother-in-law interposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; he <I>meant</I> you to send for him. He forced a card, so to
+speak. If he couldn't do that I guess he would be a pretty poor
+conjurer. He had a lady of his own&mdash;his wife, let us say, or his
+sister&mdash;stopping here at this hotel; a certain Madame Picardet.
+Through her he induced several ladies of your circle to attend his
+séances. She and they spoke to you about him, and aroused your
+curiosity. You may bet your bottom dollar that when he came to
+this room he came ready primed and prepared with endless facts
+about both of you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What fools we have been, Sey," my brother-in-law exclaimed. "I see
+it all now. That designing woman sent round before dinner to say I
+wanted to meet him; and by the time you got there he was ready
+for bamboozling me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "He had your name ready
+painted on both his arms; and he had made other preparations of
+still greater importance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean the cheque. Well, how did he get it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Commissary opened the door. "Come in," he said. And a young man
+entered whom we recognised at once as the chief clerk in the Foreign
+Department of the Crédit Marseillais, the principal bank all along
+the Riviera.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"State what you know of this cheque," the Commissary said, showing
+it to him, for we had handed it over to the police as a piece of
+evidence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"About four weeks since&mdash;" the clerk began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Say ten days before your séance," the Commissary interposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A gentleman with very long hair and an aquiline nose, dark,
+strange, and handsome, called in at my department and asked if I
+could tell him the name of Sir Charles Vandrift's London banker.
+He said he had a sum to pay in to your credit, and asked if we
+would forward it for him. I told him it was irregular for us to
+receive the money, as you had no account with us, but that your
+London bankers were Darby, Drummond, and Rothenberg, Limited."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite right," Sir Charles murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two days later a lady, Madame Picardet, who was a customer of ours,
+brought in a good cheque for three hundred pounds, signed by a
+first-rate name, and asked us to pay it in on her behalf to Darby,
+Drummond, and Rothenberg's, and to open a London account with them
+for her. We did so, and received in reply a cheque-book."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From which this cheque was taken, as I learn from the number,
+by telegram from London," the Commissary put in. "Also, that on
+the same day on which your cheque was cashed, Madame Picardet,
+in London, withdrew her balance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But how did the fellow get me to sign the cheque?" Sir Charles
+cried. "How did he manage the card trick?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Commissary produced a similar card from his pocket. "Was that
+the sort of thing?" he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Precisely! A facsimile."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought so. Well, our Colonel, I find, bought a packet of such
+cards, intended for admission to a religious function, at a shop
+in the Quai Massena. He cut out the centre, and, see here&mdash;" The
+Commissary turned it over, and showed a piece of paper pasted neatly
+over the back; this he tore off, and there, concealed behind it, lay
+a folded cheque, with only the place where the signature should be
+written showing through on the face which the Seer had presented
+to us. "I call that a neat trick," the Commissary remarked, with
+professional enjoyment of a really good deception.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he burnt the envelope before my eyes," Sir Charles exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pooh!" the Commissary answered. "What would he be worth as a
+conjurer, anyway, if he couldn't substitute one envelope for another
+between the table and the fireplace without your noticing it? And
+Colonel Clay, you must remember, is a prince among conjurers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, it's a comfort to know we've identified our man, and the
+woman who was with him," Sir Charles said, with a slight sigh of
+relief. "The next thing will be, of course, you'll follow them up
+on these clues in England and arrest them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Commissary shrugged his shoulders. "Arrest them!" he exclaimed,
+much amused. "Ah, monsieur, but you are sanguine! No officer of
+justice has ever succeeded in arresting le Colonel Caoutchouc, as
+we call him in French. He is as slippery as an eel, that man. He
+wriggles through our fingers. Suppose even we caught him, what could
+we prove? I ask you. Nobody who has seen him once can ever swear
+to him again in his next impersonation. He is impayable, this good
+Colonel. On the day when I arrest him, I assure you, monsieur, I
+shall consider myself the smartest police-officer in Europe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I shall catch him yet," Sir Charles answered, and relapsed
+into silence.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+II
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE DIAMOND LINKS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Let us take a trip to Switzerland," said Lady Vandrift. And any one
+who knows Amelia will not be surprised to learn that we <I>did</I> take a
+trip to Switzerland accordingly. Nobody can drive Sir Charles, except
+his wife. And nobody at all can drive Amelia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were difficulties at the outset, because we had not ordered
+rooms at the hotels beforehand, and it was well on in the season;
+but they were overcome at last by the usual application of a golden
+key; and we found ourselves in due time pleasantly quartered in
+Lucerne, at that most comfortable of European hostelries, the
+Schweitzerhof.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were a square party of four&mdash;Sir Charles and Amelia, myself and
+Isabel. We had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the
+lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of
+that incipient mania which shows itself in the form of an insane
+desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and
+unnecessary snowiness, I will venture to assert we all enjoyed
+ourselves. We spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the
+lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb,
+it was on the Rigi or Pilatus&mdash;where an engine undertook all the
+muscular work for us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As usual, at the hotel, a great many miscellaneous people showed a
+burning desire to be specially nice to us. If you wish to see how
+friendly and charming humanity is, just try being a well-known
+millionaire for a week, and you'll learn a thing or two. Wherever
+Sir Charles goes he is surrounded by charming and disinterested
+people, all eager to make his distinguished acquaintance, and all
+familiar with several excellent investments, or several deserving
+objects of Christian charity. It is my business in life, as his
+brother-in-law and secretary, to decline with thanks the excellent
+investments, and to throw judicious cold water on the objects of
+charity. Even I myself, as the great man's almoner, am very much
+sought after. People casually allude before me to artless stories
+of "poor curates in Cumberland, you know, Mr. Wentworth," or widows
+in Cornwall, penniless poets with epics in their desks, and young
+painters who need but the breath of a patron to open to them the
+doors of an admiring Academy. I smile and look wise, while I
+administer cold water in minute doses; but I never report one of
+these cases to Sir Charles, except in the rare or almost unheard-of
+event where I think there is really something in them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ever since our little adventure with the Seer at Nice, Sir Charles,
+who is constitutionally cautious, had been even more careful than
+usual about possible sharpers. And, as chance would have it, there
+sat just opposite us at table d'hôte at the Schweitzerhof&mdash;'tis
+a fad of Amelia's to dine at table d'hôte; she says she can't bear
+to be boxed up all day in private rooms with "too much family"&mdash;a
+sinister-looking man with dark hair and eyes, conspicuous by his
+bushy overhanging eyebrows. My attention was first called to the
+eyebrows in question by a nice little parson who sat at our side,
+and who observed that they were made up of certain large and bristly
+hairs, which (he told us) had been traced by Darwin to our monkey
+ancestors. Very pleasant little fellow, this fresh-faced young
+parson, on his honeymoon tour with a nice wee wife, a bonnie Scotch
+lassie with a charming accent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I looked at the eyebrows close. Then a sudden thought struck me. "Do
+you believe they're his own?" I asked of the curate; "or are they
+only stuck on&mdash;a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't suppose&mdash;" Charles began, and checked himself suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I do," I answered; "the Seer!" Then I recollected my blunder,
+and looked down sheepishly. For, to say the truth, Vandrift had
+straightly enjoined on me long before to say nothing of our painful
+little episode at Nice to Amelia; he was afraid if <I>she</I> once heard
+of it, <I>he</I> would hear of it for ever after.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What Seer?" the little parson inquired, with parsonical curiosity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I noticed the man with the overhanging eyebrows give a queer sort
+of start. Charles's glance was fixed upon me. I hardly knew what
+to answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, a man who was at Nice with us last year," I stammered out,
+trying hard to look unconcerned. "A fellow they talked about,
+that's all." And I turned the subject.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the curate, like a donkey, wouldn't let me turn it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Had he eyebrows like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I was
+really angry. If this <I>was</I> Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously
+giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to
+catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the chance of
+doing so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, he hadn't," I answered testily; "it was a passing expression.
+But this is not the man. I was mistaken, no doubt." And I nudged
+him gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little curate was too innocent for anything. "Oh, I see," he
+replied, nodding hard and looking wise. Then he turned to his wife
+and made an obvious face, which the man with the eyebrows couldn't
+fail to notice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately, a political discussion going on a few places farther
+down the table spread up to us and diverted attention for a moment.
+The magical name of Gladstone saved us. Sir Charles flared up. I
+was truly pleased, for I could see Amelia was boiling over with
+curiosity by this time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the big
+eyebrows sidled up and began to talk to me. If he <I>was</I> Colonel
+Clay, it was evident he bore us no grudge at all for the five
+thousand pounds he had done us out of. On the contrary, he seemed
+quite prepared to do us out of five thousand more when opportunity
+offered; for he introduced himself at once as Dr. Hector Macpherson,
+the exclusive grantee of extensive concessions from the Brazilian
+Government on the Upper Amazons. He dived into conversation with
+me at once as to the splendid mineral resources of his Brazilian
+estate&mdash;the silver, the platinum, the actual rubies, the possible
+diamonds. I listened and smiled; I knew what was coming. All he
+needed to develop this magnificent concession was a little more
+capital. It was sad to see thousands of pounds' worth of platinum
+and car-loads of rubies just crumbling in the soil or carried away
+by the river, for want of a few hundreds to work them with properly.
+If he knew of anybody, now, with money to invest, he could recommend
+him&mdash;nay, offer him&mdash;a unique opportunity of earning, say, 40 per
+cent on his capital, on unimpeachable security.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpherson remarked,
+drawing himself up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who had
+command of ready cash, I might choose to put him in the way of
+feathering his nest with unexampled rapidity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exceedingly disinterested of you," I answered drily, fixing my
+eyes on his eyebrows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little curate, meanwhile, was playing billiards with Sir
+Charles. His glance followed mine as it rested for a moment on
+the monkey-like hairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"False, obviously false," he remarked with his lips; and I'm bound
+to confess I never saw any man speak so well by movement alone;
+you could follow every word though not a sound escaped him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the rest of that evening Dr. Hector Macpherson stuck to me
+as close as a mustard-plaster. And he was almost as irritating. I
+got heartily sick of the Upper Amazons. I have positively waded in
+my time through ruby mines (in prospectuses, I mean) till the mere
+sight of a ruby absolutely sickens me. When Charles, in an unwonted
+fit of generosity, once gave his sister Isabel (whom I had the
+honour to marry) a ruby necklet (inferior stones), I made Isabel
+change it for sapphires and amethysts, on the judicious plea that
+they suited her complexion better. (I scored one, incidentally, for
+having considered Isabel's complexion.) By the time I went to bed
+I was prepared to sink the Upper Amazons in the sea, and to stab,
+shoot, poison, or otherwise seriously damage the man with the
+concession and the false eyebrows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the next three days, at intervals, he returned to the charge. He
+bored me to death with his platinum and his rubies. He didn't want a
+capitalist who would personally exploit the thing; he would prefer
+to do it all on his own account, giving the capitalist preference
+debentures of his bogus company, and a lien on the concession. I
+listened and smiled; I listened and yawned; I listened and was rude;
+I ceased to listen at all; but still he droned on with it. I fell
+asleep on the steamer one day, and woke up in ten minutes to hear
+him droning yet, "And the yield of platinum per ton was certified
+to be&mdash;" I forget how many pounds, or ounces, or pennyweights.
+These details of assays have ceased to interest me: like the man
+who "didn't believe in ghosts," I have seen too many of them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fresh-faced little curate and his wife, however, were quite
+different people. He was a cricketing Oxford man; she was a breezy
+Scotch lass, with a wholesome breath of the Highlands about her. I
+called her "White Heather." Their name was Brabazon. Millionaires
+are so accustomed to being beset by harpies of every description,
+that when they come across a young couple who are simple and
+natural, they delight in the purely human relation. We picnicked
+and went excursions a great deal with the honeymooners. They were
+so frank in their young love, and so proof against chaff, that we
+all really liked them. But whenever I called the pretty girl "White
+Heather," she looked so shocked, and cried: "Oh, Mr. Wentworth!"
+Still, we were the best of friends. The curate offered to row us in
+a boat on the lake one day, while the Scotch lassie assured us she
+could take an oar almost as well as he did. However, we did not
+accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence
+upon Amelia's digestive organs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nice young fellow, that man Brabazon," Sir Charles said to me one
+day, as we lounged together along the quay; "never talks about
+advowsons or next presentations. Doesn't seem to me to care two pins
+about promotion. Says he's quite content in his country curacy;
+enough to live upon, and needs no more; and his wife has a little, a
+very little, money. I asked him about his poor to-day, on purpose to
+test him: these parsons are always trying to screw something out of
+one for their poor; men in my position know the truth of the saying
+that we have that class of the population always with us. Would
+you believe it, he says he hasn't any poor at all in his parish!
+They're all well-to-do farmers or else able-bodied labourers, and
+his one terror is that somebody will come and try to pauperise them.
+'If a philanthropist were to give me fifty pounds to-day for use at
+Empingham,' he said, 'I assure you, Sir Charles, I shouldn't know
+what to do with it. I think I should buy new dresses for Jessie, who
+wants them about as much as anybody else in the village&mdash;that is to
+say, not at all.' There's a parson for you, Sey, my boy. Only wish
+we had one of his sort at Seldon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He certainly doesn't want to get anything out of you," I answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening at dinner a queer little episode happened. The man
+with the eyebrows began talking to me across the table in his usual
+fashion, full of his wearisome concession on the Upper Amazons. I
+was trying to squash him as politely as possible, when I caught
+Amelia's eye. Her look amused me. She was engaged in making signals
+to Charles at her side to observe the little curate's curious
+sleeve-links. I glanced at them, and saw at once they were a
+singular possession for so unobtrusive a person. They consisted
+each of a short gold bar for one arm of the link, fastened by a
+tiny chain of the same material to what seemed to my tolerably
+experienced eye&mdash;a first-rate diamond. Pretty big diamonds, too,
+and of remarkable shape, brilliancy, and cutting. In a moment I
+knew what Amelia meant. She owned a diamond rivière, said to be
+of Indian origin, but short by two stones for the circumference
+of her tolerably ample neck. Now, she had long been wanting two
+diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
+shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
+been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
+extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
+broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
+another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
+turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
+sleeve-links."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
+unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
+to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They <I>are</I> good stones,"
+he replied; "very good stones&mdash;considering. They're not diamonds
+at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
+paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
+Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
+from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
+thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
+they were only paste&mdash;very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
+even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation. But they
+are worth&mdash;well, say, fifty shillings at the utmost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While he spoke Charles looked at Amelia, and Amelia looked at
+Charles. Their eyes spoke volumes. The rivière was also supposed to
+have come from Tippoo's collection. Both drew at once an identical
+conclusion. These were two of the same stones, very likely torn
+apart and disengaged from the rest in the mêlée at the capture of
+the Indian palace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can you take them off?" Sir Charles asked blandly. He spoke in
+the tone that indicates business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," the little curate answered, smiling. "I'm accustomed to
+taking them off. They're always noticed. They've been kept in the
+family ever since the siege, as a sort of valueless heirloom, for
+the sake of the picturesqueness of the story, you know; and nobody
+ever sees them without asking, as you do, to examine them closely.
+They deceive even experts at first. But they're paste, all the same;
+unmitigated Oriental paste, for all that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He took them both off, and handed them to Charles. No man in England
+is a finer judge of gems than my brother-in-law. I watched him
+narrowly. He examined them close, first with the naked eye, then
+with the little pocket-lens which he always carries. "Admirable
+imitation," he muttered, passing them on to Amelia. "I'm not
+surprised they should impose upon inexperienced observers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But from the tone in which he said it, I could see at once he had
+satisfied himself they were real gems of unusual value. I know
+Charles's way of doing business so well. His glance to Amelia meant,
+"These are the very stones you have so long been in search of."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Scotch lassie laughed a merry laugh. "He sees through them
+now, Dick," she cried. "I felt sure Sir Charles would be a judge
+of diamonds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia turned them over. I know Amelia, too; and I knew from the
+way Amelia looked at them that she meant to have them. And when
+Amelia means to have anything, people who stand in the way may just
+as well spare themselves the trouble of opposing her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were beautiful diamonds. We found out afterwards the little
+curate's account was quite correct: these stones <I>had</I> come from
+the same necklet as Amelia's rivière, made for a favourite wife of
+Tippoo's, who had presumably as expansive personal charms as our
+beloved sister-in-law's. More perfect diamonds have seldom been
+seen. They have excited the universal admiration of thieves and
+connoisseurs. Amelia told me afterwards that, according to legend,
+a Sepoy stole the necklet at the sack of the palace, and then fought
+with another for it. It was believed that two stones got spilt
+in the scuffle, and were picked up and sold by a third person&mdash;a
+looker-on&mdash;who had no idea of the value of his booty. Amelia had
+been hunting for them for several years to complete her necklet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are excellent paste," Sir Charles observed, handing them back.
+"It takes a first-rate judge to detect them from the reality. Lady
+Vandrift has a necklet much the same in character, but composed
+of genuine stones; and as these are so much like them, and would
+complete her set, to all outer appearance, I wouldn't mind giving
+you, say, 10 pounds for the pair of them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Brabazon looked delighted. "Oh, sell them to him, Dick," she
+cried, "and buy me a brooch with the money! A pair of common
+links would do for you just as well. Ten pounds for two paste
+stones! It's quite a lot of money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She said it so sweetly, with her pretty Scotch accent, that I
+couldn't imagine how Dick had the heart to refuse her. But he
+did, all the same.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Jess, darling," he answered. "They're worthless, I know; but
+they have for me a certain sentimental value, as I've often told
+you. My dear mother wore them, while she lived, as ear-rings; and
+as soon as she died I had them set as links in order that I might
+always keep them about me. Besides, they have historical and family
+interest. Even a worthless heirloom, after all, <I>is</I> an heirloom."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Hector Macpherson looked across and intervened. "There is a
+part of my concession," he said, "where we have reason to believe a
+perfect new Kimberley will soon be discovered. If at any time you
+would care, Sir Charles, to look at my diamonds&mdash;when I get them&mdash;it
+would afford me the greatest pleasure in life to submit them to your
+consideration."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles could stand it no longer. "Sir," he said, gazing across
+at him with his sternest air, "if your concession were as full of
+diamonds as Sindbad the Sailor's valley, I would not care to turn my
+head to look at them. I am acquainted with the nature and practice
+of salting." And he glared at the man with the overhanging eyebrows
+as if he would devour him raw. Poor Dr. Hector Macpherson subsided
+instantly. We learnt a little later that he was a harmless lunatic,
+who went about the world with successive concessions for ruby mines
+and platinum reefs, because he had been ruined and driven mad by
+speculations in the two, and now recouped himself by imaginary
+grants in Burmah and Brazil, or anywhere else that turned up handy.
+And his eyebrows, after all, were of Nature's handicraft. We were
+sorry for the incident; but a man in Sir Charles's position is such
+a mark for rogues that, if he did not take means to protect himself
+promptly, he would be for ever overrun by them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When we went up to our salon that evening, Amelia flung herself on
+the sofa. "Charles," she broke out in the voice of a tragedy queen,
+"those are real diamonds, and I shall never be happy again till I
+get them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are real diamonds," Charles echoed. "And you shall have them,
+Amelia. They're worth not less than three thousand pounds. But I
+shall bid them up gently."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, next day, Charles set to work to higgle with the curate.
+Brabazon, however, didn't care to part with them. He was no
+money-grubber, he said. He cared more for his mother's gift and a
+family tradition than for a hundred pounds, if Sir Charles were to
+offer it. Charles's eye gleamed. "But if I give you <I>two</I> hundred!"
+he said insinuatingly. "What opportunities for good! You could
+build a new wing to your village school-house!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have ample accommodation," the curate answered. "No, I don't
+think I'll sell them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, his voice faltered somewhat, and he looked down at them
+inquiringly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was too precipitate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A hundred pounds more or less matters little to me," he said; "and
+my wife has set her heart on them. It's every man's duty to please
+his wife&mdash;isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?&mdash;I offer you three hundred."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little Scotch girl clasped her hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Three hundred pounds! Oh, Dick, just think what fun we could have,
+and what good we could do with it! Do let him have them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her accent was irresistible. But the curate shook his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Impossible," he answered. "My dear mother's ear-rings! Uncle
+Aubrey would be so angry if he knew I'd sold them. I daren't face
+Uncle Aubrey."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has he expectations from Uncle Aubrey?" Sir Charles asked of
+White Heather.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Brabazon laughed. "Uncle Aubrey! Oh, dear, no. Poor dear old
+Uncle Aubrey! Why, the darling old soul hasn't a penny to bless
+himself with, except his pension. He's a retired post captain."
+And she laughed melodiously. She was a charming woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I should disregard Uncle Aubrey's feelings," Sir Charles
+said decisively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no," the curate answered. "Poor dear old Uncle Aubrey! I
+wouldn't do anything for the world to annoy him. And he'd be sure
+to notice it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went back to Amelia. "Well, have you got them?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," Sir Charles answered. "Not yet. But he's coming round, I
+think. He's hesitating now. Would rather like to sell them himself,
+but is afraid what 'Uncle Aubrey' would say about the matter. His
+wife will talk him out of his needless consideration for Uncle
+Aubrey's feelings; and to-morrow we'll finally clench the bargain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next morning we stayed late in our salon, where we always
+breakfasted, and did not come down to the public rooms till just
+before déjeûner, Sir Charles being busy with me over arrears of
+correspondence. When we <I>did</I> come down the concierge stepped
+forward with a twisted little feminine note for Amelia. She took
+it and read it. Her countenance fell. "There, Charles," she cried,
+handing it to him, "you've let the chance slip. I shall <I>never</I> be
+happy now! They've gone off with the diamonds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles seized the note and read it. Then he passed it on to me.
+It was short, but final:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Thursday, 6 a.m.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT&mdash;<I>Will</I> you kindly excuse our having gone off
+hurriedly without bidding you good-bye? We have just had a horrid
+telegram to say that Dick's favourite sister is <I>dangerously</I> ill of
+fever in Paris. I wanted to shake hands with you before we left&mdash;you
+have all been so sweet to us&mdash;but we go by the morning train,
+absurdly early, and I wouldn't for worlds disturb you. Perhaps some
+day we may meet again&mdash;though, buried as we are in a North-country
+village, it isn't likely; but in any case, you have secured the
+grateful recollection of Yours very cordially, JESSIE BRABAZON.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"P.S.&mdash;Kindest regards to Sir Charles and those <I>dear</I> Wentworths,
+and a kiss for yourself, if I may venture to send you one."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"She doesn't even mention where they've gone," Amelia exclaimed,
+in a very bad humour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The concierge may know," Isabel suggested, looking over my
+shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We asked at his office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yes, the gentleman's address was the Rev. Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+Holme Bush Cottage, Empingham, Northumberland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Any address where letters might be sent at once, in Paris?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the next ten days, or till further notice, Hôtel des Deux
+Mondes, Avenue de l'Opéra.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia's mind was made up at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Strike while the iron's hot," she cried. "This sudden illness,
+coming at the end of their honeymoon, and involving ten days' more
+stay at an expensive hotel, will probably upset the curate's budget.
+He'll be glad to sell now. You'll get them for three hundred. It
+was absurd of Charles to offer so much at first; but offered once,
+of course we must stick to it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you propose to do?" Charles asked. "Write, or telegraph?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how silly men are!" Amelia cried. "Is this the sort of business
+to be arranged by letter, still less by telegram? No. Seymour must
+start off at once, taking the night train to Paris; and the moment
+he gets there, he must interview the curate or Mrs. Brabazon. Mrs.
+Brabazon's the best. She has none of this stupid, sentimental
+nonsense about Uncle Aubrey."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is no part of a secretary's duties to act as a diamond broker.
+But when Amelia puts her foot down, she puts her foot down&mdash;a fact
+which she is unnecessarily fond of emphasising in that identical
+proposition. So the self-same evening saw me safe in the train on
+my way to Paris; and next morning I turned out of my comfortable
+sleeping-car at the Gare de Strasbourg. My orders were to bring back
+those diamonds, alive or dead, so to speak, in my pocket to Lucerne;
+and to offer any needful sum, up to two thousand five hundred
+pounds, for their immediate purchase.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I arrived at the Deux Mondes I found the poor little curate
+and his wife both greatly agitated. They had sat up all night, they
+said, with their invalid sister; and the sleeplessness and suspense
+had certainly told upon them after their long railway journey. They
+were pale and tired, Mrs. Brabazon, in particular, looking ill and
+worried&mdash;too much like White Heather. I was more than half ashamed
+of bothering them about the diamonds at such a moment, but it
+occurred to me that Amelia was probably right&mdash;they would now have
+reached the end of the sum set apart for their Continental trip,
+and a little ready cash might be far from unwelcome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I broached the subject delicately. It was a fad of Lady Vandrift's,
+I said. She had set her heart upon those useless trinkets. And she
+wouldn't go without them. She must and would have them. But the
+curate was obdurate. He threw Uncle Aubrey still in my teeth. Three
+hundred?&mdash;no, never! A mother's present; impossible, dear Jessie!
+Jessie begged and prayed; she had grown really attached to Lady
+Vandrift, she said; but the curate wouldn't hear of it. I went up
+tentatively to four hundred. He shook his head gloomily. It wasn't
+a question of money, he said. It was a question of affection. I saw
+it was no use trying that tack any longer. I struck out a new line.
+"These stones," I said, "I think I ought to inform you, are really
+diamonds. Sir Charles is certain of it. Now, is it right for a man
+of your profession and position to be wearing a pair of big gems
+like those, worth several hundred pounds, as ordinary sleeve-links?
+A woman?&mdash;yes, I grant you. But for a man, is it manly? And you a
+cricketer!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked at me and laughed. "Will nothing convince you?" he cried.
+"They have been examined and tested by half a dozen jewellers, and
+we know them to be paste. It wouldn't be right of me to sell them
+to you under false pretences, however unwilling on my side. I
+<I>couldn't</I> do it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then," I said, going up a bit in my bids to meet him,
+"I'll put it like this. These gems are paste. But Lady Vandrift
+has an unconquerable and unaccountable desire to possess them.
+Money doesn't matter to her. She is a friend of your wife's. As a
+personal favour, won't you sell them to her for a thousand?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He shook his head. "It would be wrong," he said,&mdash;"I might even add,
+criminal."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But we take all risk," I cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was absolute adamant. "As a clergyman," he answered, "I feel
+I cannot do it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Will <I>you</I> try, Mrs. Brabazon?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The pretty little Scotchwoman leant over and whispered. She coaxed
+and cajoled him. Her ways were winsome. I couldn't hear what she
+said, but he seemed to give way at last. "I should love Lady
+Vandrift to have them," she murmured, turning to me. "She <I>is</I> such
+a dear!" And she took out the links from her husband's cuffs and
+handed them across to me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How much?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two thousand?" she answered, interrogatively. It was a big rise,
+all at once; but such are the ways of women.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Done!" I replied. "Do you consent?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The curate looked up as if ashamed of himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I consent," he said slowly, "since Jessie wishes it. But as a
+clergyman, and to prevent any future misunderstanding, I should
+like you to give me a statement in writing that you buy them on my
+distinct and positive declaration that they are made of paste&mdash;old
+Oriental paste&mdash;not genuine stones, and that I do not claim any
+other qualities for them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I popped the gems into my purse, well pleased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," I said, pulling out a paper. Charles, with his
+unerring business instinct, had anticipated the request, and given
+me a signed agreement to that effect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will take a cheque?" I inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He hesitated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Notes of the Bank of France would suit me better," he answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very well," I replied. "I will go out and get them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How very unsuspicious some people are! He allowed me to go off&mdash;with
+the stones in my pocket!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles had given me a blank cheque, not exceeding two thousand
+five hundred pounds. I took it to our agents and cashed it for notes
+of the Bank of France. The curate clasped them with pleasure. And
+right glad I was to go back to Lucerne that night, feeling that I
+had got those diamonds into my hands for about a thousand pounds
+under their real value!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Lucerne railway station Amelia met me. She was positively
+agitated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you bought them, Seymour?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," I answered, producing my spoils in triumph.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how dreadful!" she cried, drawing back. "Do you think they're
+real? Are you sure he hasn't cheated you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certain of it," I replied, examining them. "No one can take me in,
+in the matter of diamonds. Why on earth should you doubt them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because I've been talking to Mrs. O'Hagan, at the hotel, and she
+says there's a well-known trick just like that&mdash;she's read of it in
+a book. A swindler has two sets&mdash;one real, one false; and he makes
+you buy the false ones by showing you the real, and pretending he
+sells them as a special favour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You needn't be alarmed," I answered. "I am a judge of diamonds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shan't be satisfied," Amelia murmured, "till Charles has seen
+them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went up to the hotel. For the first time in her life I saw Amelia
+really nervous as I handed the stones to Charles to examine. Her
+doubt was contagious. I half feared, myself, he might break out into
+a deep monosyllabic interjection, losing his temper in haste, as he
+often does when things go wrong. But he looked at them with a smile,
+while I told him the price.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eight hundred pounds less than their value," he answered, well
+satisfied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have no doubt of their reality?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not the slightest," he replied, gazing at them. "They are genuine
+stones, precisely the same in quality and type as Amelia's necklet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia drew a sigh of relief. "I'll go upstairs," she said slowly,
+"and bring down my own for you both to compare with them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One minute later she rushed down again, breathless. Amelia is far
+from slim, and I never before knew her exert herself so actively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Charles, Charles!" she cried, "do you know what dreadful thing
+has happened? Two of my own stones are gone. He's stolen a couple
+of diamonds from my necklet, and sold them back to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She held out the rivière. It was all too true. Two gems were
+missing&mdash;and these two just fitted the empty places!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A light broke in upon me. I clapped my hand to my head. "By Jove,"
+I exclaimed, "the little curate is&mdash;Colonel Clay!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles clapped his own hand to his brow in turn. "And Jessie," he
+cried, "White Heather&mdash;that innocent little Scotchwoman! I often
+detected a familiar ring in her voice, in spite of the charming
+Highland accent. Jessie is&mdash;Madame Picardet!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had absolutely no evidence; but, like the Commissary at Nice,
+we felt instinctively sure of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles was determined to catch the rogue. This second deception
+put him on his mettle. "The worst of the man is," he said, "he has a
+method. He doesn't go out of his way to cheat us; he makes us go out
+of ours to be cheated. He lays a trap, and we tumble headlong into
+it. To-morrow, Sey, we must follow him on to Paris."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia explained to him what Mrs. O'Hagan had said. Charles took it
+all in at once, with his usual sagacity. "That explains," he said,
+"why the rascal used this particular trick to draw us on by. If we
+had suspected him he could have shown the diamonds were real, and
+so escaped detection. It was a blind to draw us off from the fact
+of the robbery. He went to Paris to be out of the way when the
+discovery was made, and to get a clear day's start of us. What a
+consummate rogue! And to do me twice running!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did he get at my jewel-case, though?" Amelia exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the question," Charles answered. "You <I>do</I> leave it about so!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And why didn't he steal the whole rivière at once, and sell the
+gems?" I inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Too cunning," Charles replied. "This was much better business. It
+isn't easy to dispose of a big thing like that. In the first place,
+the stones are large and valuable; in the second place, they're
+well known&mdash;every dealer has heard of the Vandrift rivière, and seen
+pictures of the shape of them. They're marked gems, so to speak. No,
+he played a better game&mdash;took a couple of them off, and offered them
+to the only one person on earth who was likely to buy them without
+suspicion. He came here, meaning to work this very trick; he had
+the links made right to the shape beforehand, and then he stole the
+stones and slipped them into their places. It's a wonderfully clever
+trick. Upon my soul, I almost admire the fellow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For Charles is a business man himself, and can appreciate business
+capacity in others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How Colonel Clay came to know about that necklet, and to appropriate
+two of the stones, we only discovered much later. I will not here
+anticipate that disclosure. One thing at a time is a good rule in
+life. For the moment he succeeded in baffling us altogether.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, we followed him on to Paris, telegraphing beforehand to the
+Bank of France to stop the notes. It was all in vain. They had been
+cashed within half an hour of my paying them. The curate and his
+wife, we found, quitted the Hôtel des Deux Mondes for parts unknown
+that same afternoon. And, as usual with Colonel Clay, they vanished
+into space, leaving no clue behind them. In other words, they
+changed their disguise, no doubt, and reappeared somewhere else that
+night in altered characters. At any rate, no such person as the
+Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon was ever afterwards heard of&mdash;and,
+for the matter of that, no such village exists as Empingham,
+Northumberland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We communicated the matter to the Parisian police. They were <I>most</I>
+unsympathetic. "It is no doubt Colonel Clay," said the official
+whom we saw; "but you seem to have little just ground of complaint
+against him. As far as I can see, messieurs, there is not much to
+choose between you. You, Monsieur le Chevalier, desired to buy
+diamonds at the price of paste. You, madame, feared you had bought
+paste at the price of diamonds. You, monsieur the secretary, tried
+to get the stones from an unsuspecting person for half their value.
+He took you all in, that brave Colonel Caoutchouc&mdash;it was diamond
+cut diamond."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Which was true, no doubt, but by no means consoling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We returned to the Grand Hotel. Charles was fuming with indignation.
+"This is really too much," he exclaimed. "What an audacious rascal!
+But he will never again take me in, my dear Sey. I only hope he'll
+try it on. I should love to catch him. I'd know him another time,
+I'm sure, in spite of his disguises. It's absurd my being tricked
+twice running like this. But never again while I live! Never again,
+I declare to you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jamais de la vie!" a courier in the hall close by murmured
+responsive. We stood under the verandah of the Grand Hotel, in the
+big glass courtyard. And I verily believe that courier was really
+Colonel Clay himself in one of his disguises.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But perhaps we were beginning to suspect him everywhere.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+III
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD MASTER
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Like most South Africans, Sir Charles Vandrift is anything but
+sedentary. He hates sitting down. He must always "trek." He cannot
+live without moving about freely. Six weeks in Mayfair at a time is
+as much as he can stand. Then he must run away incontinently for
+rest and change to Scotland, Homburg, Monte Carlo, Biarritz. "I
+won't be a limpet on the rock," he says. Thus it came to pass that
+in the early autumn we found ourselves stopping at the Métropole
+at Brighton. We were the accustomed nice little family party&mdash;Sir
+Charles and Amelia, myself and Isabel, with the suite as usual.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the first Sunday morning after our arrival we strolled out,
+Charles and I&mdash;I regret to say during the hours allotted for Divine
+service&mdash;on to the King's Road, to get a whiff of fresh air, and a
+glimpse of the waves that were churning the Channel. The two ladies
+(with their bonnets) had gone to church; but Sir Charles had risen
+late, fatigued from the week's toil, while I myself was suffering
+from a matutinal headache, which I attributed to the close air in
+the billiard-room overnight, combined, perhaps, with the insidious
+effect of a brand of soda-water to which I was little accustomed; I
+had used it to dilute my evening whisky. We were to meet our wives
+afterwards at the church parade&mdash;an institution to which I believe
+both Amelia and Isabel attach even greater importance than to the
+sermon which precedes it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We sat down on a glass seat. Charles gazed inquiringly up and down
+the King's Road, on the look-out for a boy with Sunday papers.
+At last one passed. "Observer," my brother-in-law called out
+laconically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ain't got none," the boy answered, brandishing his bundle in our
+faces. "'Ave a Referee or a Pink 'Un?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles, however, is not a Refereader, while as to the Pink 'Un, he
+considers it unsuitable for public perusal on Sunday morning. It may
+be read indoors, but in the open air its blush betrays it. So he
+shook his head, and muttered, "If you pass an Observer, send him on
+here at once to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A polite stranger who sat close to us turned round with a pleasant
+smile. "Would you allow me to offer you one?" he said, drawing a
+copy from his pocket. "I fancy I bought the last. There's a run
+on them to-day, you see. Important news this morning from the
+Transvaal."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles raised his eyebrows, and accepted it, as I thought, just a
+trifle grumpily. So, to remove the false impression his surliness
+might produce on so benevolent a mind, I entered into conversation
+with the polite stranger. He was a man of middle age, and medium
+height, with a cultivated air, and a pair of gold pince-nez; his
+eyes were sharp; his voice was refined; he dropped into talk before
+long about distinguished people just then in Brighton. It was clear
+at once that he was hand in glove with many of the very best kind.
+We compared notes as to Nice, Rome, Florence, Cairo. Our new
+acquaintance had scores of friends in common with us, it seemed;
+indeed, our circles so largely coincided, that I wondered we had
+never happened till then to knock up against one another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Sir Charles Vandrift, the great African millionaire," he said
+at last, "do you know anything of <I>him</I>? I'm told he's at present
+down here at the Métropole."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I waved my hand towards the person in question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>This</I> is Sir Charles Vandrift," I answered, with proprietary pride;
+"and <I>I</I> am his brother-in-law, Mr. Seymour Wentworth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, indeed!" the stranger answered, with a curious air of drawing
+in his horns. I wondered whether he had just been going to pretend
+he knew Sir Charles, or whether perchance he was on the point of
+saying something highly uncomplimentary, and was glad to have
+escaped it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By this time, however, Charles laid down the paper and chimed into
+our conversation. I could see at once from his mollified tone that
+the news from the Transvaal was favourable to his operations in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. He was therefore in a friendly and affable
+temper. His whole manner changed at once. He grew polite in return
+to the polite stranger. Besides, we knew the man moved in the best
+society; he had acquaintances whom Amelia was most anxious to secure
+for her "At Homes" in Mayfair&mdash;young Faith, the novelist, and Sir
+Richard Montrose, the great Arctic traveller. As for the painters,
+it was clear that he was sworn friends with the whole lot of them.
+He dined with Academicians, and gave weekly breakfasts to the
+members of the Institute. Now, Amelia is particularly desirous
+that her salon should not be considered too exclusively financial
+and political in character: with a solid basis of M.P.'s and
+millionaires, she loves a delicate under-current of literature,
+art, and the musical glasses. Our new acquaintance was extremely
+communicative: "Knows his place in society, Sey," Sir Charles said
+to me afterwards, "and is therefore not afraid of talking freely,
+as so many people are who have doubts about their position." We
+exchanged cards before we rose. Our new friend's name turned out
+to be Dr. Edward Polperro.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In practice here?" I inquired, though his garb belied it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, not medical," he answered. "I am an LL.D. don't you know. I
+interest myself in art, and buy to some extent for the National
+Gallery."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The very man for Amelia's "At Homes"! Sir Charles snapped at him
+instantly. "I've brought my four-in-hand down here with me," he
+said, in his best friendly manner, "and we think of tooling over
+to-morrow to Lewes. If you'd care to take a seat I'm sure Lady
+Vandrift would be charmed to see you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're very kind," the Doctor said, "on so casual an introduction.
+I'm sure I shall be delighted."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We start from the Métropole at ten-thirty," Charles went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall be there. Good morning!" And, with a satisfied smile, he
+rose and left us, nodding.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We returned to the lawn, to Amelia and Isabel. Our new friend passed
+us once or twice. Charles stopped him and introduced him. He was
+walking with two ladies, most elegantly dressed in rather peculiar
+artistic dresses. Amelia was taken at first sight by his manner.
+"One could see at a glance," she said, "he was a person of culture
+and of real distinction. I wonder whether he could bring the P.R.A.
+to my Parliamentary 'At Home' on Wednesday fortnight?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, at ten-thirty, we started on our drive. Our team has been
+considered the best in Sussex. Charles is an excellent, though
+somewhat anxious&mdash;or, might I say better, somewhat careful?&mdash;whip.
+He finds the management of two leaders and two wheelers fills his
+hands for the moment, both literally and figuratively, leaving very
+little time for general conversation. Lady Belleisle of Beacon
+bloomed beside him on the box (her bloom is perennial, and applied
+by her maid); Dr. Polperro occupied the seat just behind with myself
+and Amelia. The Doctor talked most of the time to Lady Vandrift: his
+discourse was of picture-galleries, which Amelia detests, but in
+which she thinks it incumbent upon her, as Sir Charles's wife, to
+affect now and then a cultivated interest. Noblesse oblige; and the
+walls of Castle Seldon, our place in Ross-shire, are almost covered
+now with Leaders and with Orchardsons. This result was first arrived
+at by a singular accident. Sir Charles wanted a leader&mdash;for his
+coach, you understand&mdash;and told an artistic friend so. The artistic
+friend brought him a Leader next week with a capital L; and Sir
+Charles was so taken aback that he felt ashamed to confess the
+error. So he was turned unawares into a patron of painting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Polperro, in spite of his too pronouncedly artistic talk, proved
+on closer view a most agreeable companion. He diversified his art
+cleverly with anecdotes and scandals; he told us exactly which
+famous painters had married their cooks, and which had only married
+their models; and otherwise showed himself a most diverting talker.
+Among other things, however, he happened to mention once that he
+had recently discovered a genuine Rembrandt&mdash;a quite undoubted
+Rembrandt, which had remained for years in the keeping of a
+certain obscure Dutch family. It had always been allowed to be a
+masterpiece of the painter, but it had seldom been seen for the
+last half-century save by a few intimate acquaintances. It was a
+portrait of one Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and he had bought it
+of her descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw Charles prick up his ears, though he took no open notice.
+This Maria Vanrenen, as it happened, was a remote collateral
+ancestress of the Vandrifts, before they emigrated to the Cape in
+1780; and the existence of the portrait, though not its whereabouts,
+was well known in the family. Isabel had often mentioned it. If it
+was to be had at anything like a reasonable price, it would be a
+splendid thing for the boys (Sir Charles, I ought to say, has two
+sons at Eton) to possess an undoubted portrait of an ancestress
+by Rembrandt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Polperro talked a good deal after that about this valuable find.
+He had tried to sell it at first to the National Gallery; but
+though the Directors admired the work immensely, and admitted its
+genuineness, they regretted that the funds at their disposal this
+year did not permit them to acquire so important a canvas at a
+proper figure. South Kensington again was too poor; but the Doctor
+was in treaty at present with the Louvre and with Berlin. Still,
+it was a pity a fine work of art like that, once brought into the
+country, should be allowed to go out of it. Some patriotic patron
+of the fine arts ought to buy it for his own house, or else
+munificently present it to the nation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the time Charles said nothing. But I could feel him cogitating.
+He even looked behind him once, near a difficult corner (while the
+guard was actually engaged in tootling his horn to let passers-by
+know that the coach was coming), and gave Amelia a warning glance
+to say nothing committing, which had at once the requisite effect
+of sealing her mouth for the moment. It is a very unusual thing
+for Charles to look back while driving. I gathered from his doing
+so that he was inordinately anxious to possess this Rembrandt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When we arrived at Lewes we put up our horses at the inn,
+and Charles ordered a lunch on his wonted scale of princely
+magnificence. Meanwhile we wandered, two and two, about the town
+and castle. I annexed Lady Belleisle, who is at least amusing.
+Charles drew me aside before starting. "Look here, Sey," he
+said, "we must be <I>very</I> careful. This man, Polperro, is a chance
+acquaintance. There's nothing an astute rogue can take one in over
+more easily than an Old Master. If the Rembrandt is genuine I
+ought to have it; if it really represents Maria Vanrenen, it's a
+duty I owe to the boys to buy it. But I've been done twice lately,
+and I won't be done a third time. We must go to work cautiously."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right," I answered. "No more seers and curates!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If this man's an impostor," Charles went on&mdash;"and in spite of what
+he says about the National Gallery and so forth, we know nothing of
+him&mdash;the story he tells is just the sort of one such a fellow would
+trump up in a moment to deceive me. He could easily learn who I
+was&mdash;I'm a well-known figure; he knew I was in Brighton, and he
+may have been sitting on that glass seat on Sunday on purpose to
+entrap me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He introduced your name," I said, "and the moment he found out who
+I was he plunged into talk with me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Charles continued. "He may have learned about the portrait
+of Maria Vanrenen, which my grandmother always said was preserved
+at Gouda; and, indeed, I myself have often mentioned it, as you
+doubtless remember. If so, what more natural, say, for a rogue than
+to begin talking about the portrait in that innocent way to Amelia?
+If he wants a Rembrandt, I believe they can be turned out to order
+to any amount in Birmingham. The moral of all which is, it behoves
+us to be careful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Right you are," I answered; "and I am keeping my eye upon him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We drove back by another road, overshadowed by beech-trees in
+autumnal gold. It was a delightful excursion. Dr. Polperro's heart
+was elated by lunch and the excellent dry Monopole. He talked
+amazingly. I never heard a man with a greater or more varied flow
+of anecdote. He had been everywhere and knew all about everybody.
+Amelia booked him at once for her "At Home" on Wednesday week,
+and he promised to introduce her to several artistic and literary
+celebrities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening, however, about half-past seven, Charles and I strolled
+out together on the King's Road for a blow before dinner. We dine at
+eight. The air was delicious. We passed a small new hotel, very
+smart and exclusive, with a big bow window. There, in evening dress,
+lights burning and blind up, sat our friend, Dr. Polperro, with a
+lady facing him, young, graceful, and pretty. A bottle of champagne
+stood open before him. He was helping himself plentifully to
+hot-house grapes, and full of good humour. It was clear he and the
+lady were occupied in the intense enjoyment of some capital joke;
+for they looked queerly at one another, and burst now and again
+into merry peals of laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I drew back. So did Sir Charles. One idea passed at once through
+both our minds. I murmured, "Colonel Clay!" He answered, "<I>and</I>
+Madame Picardet!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were not in the least like the Reverend Richard and Mrs.
+Brabazon. But that clinched the matter. Nor did I see a sign of the
+aquiline nose of the Mexican Seer. Still, I had learnt by then to
+discount appearances. If these were indeed the famous sharper and
+his wife or accomplice, we must be very careful. We were forewarned
+this time. Supposing he had the audacity to try a third trick of
+the sort upon us we had him under our thumbs. Only, we must take
+steps to prevent his dexterously slipping through our fingers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He can wriggle like an eel," said the Commissary at Nice. We both
+recalled those words, and laid our plans deep to prevent the man's
+wriggling away from us on this third occasion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I tell you what it is, Sey," my brother-in-law said, with
+impressive slowness. "This time we must deliberately lay ourselves
+out to be swindled. We must propose of our own accord to buy the
+picture, making him guarantee it in writing as a genuine Rembrandt,
+and taking care to tie him down by most stringent conditions. But
+we must seem at the same time to be unsuspicious and innocent as
+babes; we must swallow whole whatever lies he tells us; pay his
+price&mdash;nominally&mdash;by cheque for the portrait; and then, arrest him
+the moment the bargain is complete, with the proofs of his guilt
+then and there upon him. Of course, what he'll try to do will be to
+vanish into thin air at once, as he did at Nice and Paris; but, this
+time, we'll have the police in waiting and everything ready. We'll
+avoid precipitancy, but we'll avoid delay too. We must hold our
+hands off till he's actually accepted and pocketed the money; and
+then, we must nab him instantly, and walk him off to the local Bow
+Street. That's my plan of campaign. Meanwhile, we should appear
+all trustful innocence and confiding guilelessness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In pursuance of this well-laid scheme, we called next day on Dr.
+Polperro at his hotel, and were introduced to his wife, a dainty
+little woman, in whom we affected not to recognise that arch Madame
+Picardet or that simple White Heather. The Doctor talked charmingly
+(as usual) about art&mdash;what a well-informed rascal he was, to be
+sure!&mdash;and Sir Charles expressed some interest in the supposed
+Rembrandt. Our new friend was delighted; we could see by his
+well-suppressed eagerness of tone that he knew us at once for
+probable purchasers. He would run up to town next day, he said, and
+bring down the portrait. And in effect, when Charles and I took our
+wonted places in the Pullman next morning, on our way up to the
+half-yearly meeting of Cloetedorp Golcondas, there was our Doctor,
+leaning back in his arm-chair as if the car belonged to him. Charles
+gave me an expressive look. "Does it in style," he whispered,
+"doesn't he? Takes it out of my five thousand; or discounts the
+amount he means to chouse me of with his spurious Rembrandt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Arrived in town, we went to work at once. We set a private detective
+from Marvillier's to watch our friend; and from him we learned that
+the so-called Doctor dropped in for a picture that day at a dealer's
+in the West-end (I suppress the name, having a judicious fear of
+the law of libel ever before my eyes), a dealer who was known to be
+mixed up before then in several shady or disreputable transactions.
+Though, to be sure, my experience has been that picture dealers
+are&mdash;picture dealers. Horses rank first in my mind as begetters and
+producers of unscrupulous agents, but pictures run them a very good
+second. Anyhow, we found out that our distinguished art-critic
+picked up his Rembrandt at this dealer's shop, and came down with
+it in his care the same night to Brighton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In order not to act precipitately, and so ruin our plans, we induced
+Dr. Polperro (what a cleverly chosen name!) to bring the Rembrandt
+round to the Métropole for our inspection, and to leave it with us
+while we got the opinion of an expert from London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The expert came down, and gave us a full report upon the alleged
+Old Master. In his judgment, it was not a Rembrandt at all, but
+a cunningly-painted and well-begrimed modern Dutch imitation.
+Moreover, he showed us by documentary evidence that the real
+portrait of Maria Vanrenen had, as a matter of fact, been brought
+to England five years before, and sold to Sir J. H. Tomlinson, the
+well-known connoisseur, for eight thousand pounds. Dr. Polperro's
+picture was, therefore, at best either a replica by Rembrandt; or
+else, more probably, a copy by a pupil; or, most likely of all,
+a mere modern forgery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were thus well prepared to fasten our charge of criminal
+conspiracy upon the self-styled Doctor. But in order to make
+assurance still more certain, we threw out vague hints to him that
+the portrait of Maria Vanrenen might really be elsewhere, and even
+suggested in his hearing that it might not improbably have got into
+the hands of that omnivorous collector, Sir J. H. Tomlinson. But
+the vendor was proof against all such attempts to decry his goods.
+He had the effrontery to brush away the documentary evidence, and to
+declare that Sir J. H. Tomlinson (one of the most learned and astute
+picture-buyers in England) had been smartly imposed upon by a needy
+Dutch artist with a talent for forgery. The real Maria Vanrenen, he
+declared and swore, was the one he offered us. "Success has turned
+the man's head," Charles said to me, well pleased. "He thinks we
+will swallow any obvious lie he chooses to palm off upon us. But the
+bucket has come once too often to the well. This time we checkmate
+him." It was a mixed metaphor, I admit; but Sir Charles's tropes
+are not always entirely superior to criticism.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So we pretended to believe our man, and accepted his assurances.
+Next came the question of price. This was warmly debated, for form's
+sake only. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had paid eight thousand for his
+genuine Maria. The Doctor demanded ten thousand for his spurious
+one. There was really no reason why we should higgle and dispute,
+for Charles meant merely to give his cheque for the sum and then
+arrest the fellow; but, still, we thought it best for the avoidance
+of suspicion to make a show of resistance; and we at last beat him
+down to nine thousand guineas. For this amount he was to give us a
+written warranty that the work he sold us was a genuine Rembrandt,
+that it represented Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and that he had
+bought it direct, without doubt or question, from that good lady's
+descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was capitally done. We arranged the thing to perfection. We had a
+constable in waiting in our rooms at the Métropole, and we settled
+that Dr. Polperro was to call at the hotel at a certain fixed hour
+to sign the warranty and receive his money. A regular agreement on
+sound stamped paper was drawn out between us. At the appointed time
+the "party of the first part" came, having already given us over
+possession of the portrait. Charles drew a cheque for the amount
+agreed upon, and signed it. Then he handed it to the Doctor.
+Polperro just clutched at it. Meanwhile, I took up my post by
+the door, while two men in plain clothes, detectives from the
+police-station, stood as men-servants and watched the windows. We
+feared lest the impostor, once he had got the cheque, should dodge
+us somehow, as he had already done at Nice and in Paris. The moment
+he had pocketed his money with a smile of triumph, I advanced to him
+rapidly. I had in my possession a pair of handcuffs. Before he knew
+what was happening, I had slipped them on his wrists and secured
+them dexterously, while the constable stepped forward. "We have got
+you this time!" I cried. "We know who you are, Dr. Polperro. You
+are&mdash;Colonel Clay, alias Señor Antonio Herrera, alias the Reverend
+Richard Peploe Brabazon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I never saw any man so astonished in my life! He was utterly
+flabbergasted. Charles thought he must have expected to get clear
+away at once, and that this prompt action on our part had taken
+the fellow so much by surprise as to simply unman him. He gazed
+about him as if he hardly realised what was happening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are these two raving maniacs?" he asked at last, "or what do they
+mean by this nonsensical gibberish about Antonio Herrera?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The constable laid his hand on the prisoner's shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's all right, my man," he said. "We've got warrants out against
+you. I arrest you, Edward Polperro, alias the Reverend Richard
+Peploe Brabazon, on a charge of obtaining money under false
+pretences from Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G., M.P., on his sworn
+information, now here subscribed to." For Charles had had the
+thing drawn out in readiness beforehand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our prisoner drew himself up. "Look here, officer," he said, in an
+offended tone, "there's some mistake here in this matter. I have
+never given an alias at any time in my life. How do you know this
+is really Sir Charles Vandrift? It may be a case of bullying
+personation. My belief is, though, they're a pair of escaped
+lunatics."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll see about that to-morrow," the constable said, collaring him.
+"At present you've got to go off with me quietly to the station,
+where these gentlemen will enter up the charge against you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They carried him off, protesting. Charles and I signed the
+charge-sheet; and the officer locked him up to await his examination
+next day before the magistrate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were half afraid even now the fellow would manage somehow to
+get out on bail and give us the slip in spite of everything;
+and, indeed, he protested in the most violent manner against the
+treatment to which we were subjecting "a gentleman in his position."
+But Charles took care to tell the police it was all right; that he
+was a dangerous and peculiarly slippery criminal, and that on no
+account must they let him go on any pretext whatever, till he had
+been properly examined before the magistrates.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We learned at the hotel that night, curiously enough, that there
+really <I>was</I> a Dr. Polperro, a distinguished art critic, whose
+name, we didn't doubt, our impostor had been assuming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next morning, when we reached the court, an inspector met us with a
+very long face. "Look here, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid you've
+committed a very serious blunder. You've made a precious bad mess of
+it. You've got yourselves into a scrape; and, what's worse, you've
+got us into one also. You were a deal too smart with your sworn
+information. We've made inquiries about this gentleman, and we find
+the account he gives of himself is perfectly correct. His name <I>is</I>
+Polperro; he's a well-known art critic and collector of pictures,
+employed abroad by the National Gallery. He was formerly an official
+in the South Kensington Museum, and he's a C.B. and LL.D., very
+highly respected. You've made a sad mistake, that's where it is; and
+you'll probably have to answer a charge of false imprisonment, in
+which I'm afraid you have also involved our own department."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gasped with horror. "You haven't let him out," he cried, "on
+those absurd representations? You haven't let him slip through your
+hands as you did that murderer fellow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let him slip through our hands?" the inspector cried. "I only wish
+he would. There's no chance of that, unfortunately. He's in the
+court there, this moment, breathing out fire and slaughter against
+you both; and we're here to protect you if he should happen to fall
+upon you. He's been locked up all night on your mistaken affidavits,
+and, naturally enough, he's mad with anger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you haven't let him go, I'm satisfied," Charles answered.
+"He's a fox for cunning. Where is he? Let me see him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went into the court. There we saw our prisoner conversing
+amicably, in the most excited way, with the magistrate (who, it
+seems, was a personal friend of his); and Charles at once went
+up and spoke to them. Dr. Polperro turned round and glared at him
+through his pince-nez.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The only possible explanation of this person's extraordinary and
+incredible conduct," he said, "is, that he must be mad&mdash;and his
+secretary equally so. He made my acquaintance, unasked, on a glass
+seat on the King's Road; invited me to go on his coach to Lewes;
+volunteered to buy a valuable picture of me; and then, at the
+last moment, unaccountably gave me in charge on this silly and
+preposterous trumped-up accusation. I demand a summons for false
+imprisonment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly it began to dawn upon us that the tables were turned. By
+degrees it came out that we had made a mistake. Dr. Polperro was
+really the person he represented himself to be, and had been always.
+His picture, we found out, was the real Maria Vanrenen, and a
+genuine Rembrandt, which he had merely deposited for cleaning and
+restoring at the suspicious dealer's. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had been
+imposed upon and cheated by a cunning Dutchman; <I>his</I> picture, though
+also an undoubted Rembrandt, was <I>not</I> the Maria, and was an inferior
+specimen in bad preservation. The authority we had consulted turned
+out to be an ignorant, self-sufficient quack. The Maria, moreover,
+was valued by other experts at no more than five or six thousand
+guineas. Charles wanted to cry off his bargain, but Dr. Polperro
+naturally wouldn't hear of it. The agreement was a legally binding
+instrument, and what passed in Charles's mind at the moment had
+nothing to do with the written contract. Our adversary only
+consented to forego the action for false imprisonment on condition
+that Charles inserted a printed apology in the Times, and paid him
+five hundred pounds compensation for damage to character. So that
+was the end of our well-planned attempt to arrest the swindler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not quite the end, however; for, of course, after this, the whole
+affair got by degrees into the papers. Dr. Polperro, who was a
+familiar person in literary and artistic society, as it turned out,
+brought an action against the so-called expert who had declared
+against the genuineness of his alleged Rembrandt, and convicted him
+of the grossest ignorance and misstatement. Then paragraphs got
+about. The World showed us up in a sarcastic article; and Truth,
+which has always been terribly severe upon Sir Charles and all the
+other South Africans, had a pungent set of verses on "High Art in
+Kimberley." By this means, as we suppose, the affair became known
+to Colonel Clay himself; for a week or two later my brother-in-law
+received a cheerful little note on scented paper from our persistent
+sharper. It was couched in these terms:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Oh, you innocent infant!
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Bless your ingenuous little heart! And did it believe, then, it
+had positively caught the redoubtable colonel? And had it ready a
+nice little pinch of salt to put upon his tail? And is it true its
+respected name is Sir Simple Simon? How heartily we have laughed,
+White Heather and I, at your neat little ruses! It would pay you,
+by the way, to take White Heather into your house for six months
+to instruct you in the agreeable sport of amateur detectives. Your
+charming naivete quite moves our envy. So you actually imagined a
+man of my brains would condescend to anything so flat and stale as
+the silly and threadbare Old Master deception! And this in the
+so-called nineteenth century! O sancta simplicitas! When again
+shall such infantile transparency be mine? When, ah, when? But never
+mind, dear friend. Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
+long at some delightful Philippi.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"ANTONIO HERRERA,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
+he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth&mdash;not even mine&mdash;can go on
+standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
+foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
+robs me of when he <I>is</I> Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
+when he <I>isn't</I> Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
+nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
+I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
+spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You <I>must</I> need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
+Let us try the Tyrol."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+IV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
+Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
+guide and courier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She is <I>such</I> a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
+are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
+as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Césarine has been all
+over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
+course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
+residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
+in our native English. She is a treasure, that girl; so neat and
+dexterous, and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be
+asked to turn her hand to. She walks the world with a needle-case
+in one hand and an etna in the other. She can cook an omelette on
+occasion, or drive a Norwegian cariole; she can sew, and knit, and
+make dresses, and cure a cold, and do anything else on earth you ask
+her. Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted; while as for her
+coffee (which she prepares for us in the train on long journeys),
+there isn't a chef de cuisine at a West-end club to be named in the
+same day with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, when Amelia said, in her imperious way, "Césarine, we want to go
+to the Tyrol&mdash;now&mdash;at once&mdash;in mid-October; where do you advise us
+to put up?"&mdash;Césarine answered, like a shot, "The Erzherzog Johann,
+of course, at Meran, for the autumn, madame."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is he ... an archduke?" Amelia asked, a little staggered at such
+apparent familiarity with Imperial personages.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ma foi! no, madame. He is an hotel&mdash;as you would say in England,
+the 'Victoria' or the 'Prince of Wales's'&mdash;the most comfortable
+hotel in all South Tyrol; and at this time of year, naturally, you
+must go beyond the Alps; it begins already to be cold at Innsbruck."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So to Meran we went; and a prettier or more picturesque place, I
+confess, I have seldom set eyes on. A rushing torrent; high hills
+and mountain peaks; terraced vineyard slopes; old walls and towers;
+quaint, arcaded streets; a craggy waterfall; a promenade after
+the fashion of a German Spa; and when you lift your eyes from the
+ground, jagged summits of Dolomites: it was a combination such as
+I had never before beheld; a Rhine town plumped down among green
+Alpine heights, and threaded by the cool colonnades of Italy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I approved Césarine's choice; and I was particularly glad she
+had pronounced for an hotel, where all is plain sailing, instead
+of advising a furnished villa, the arrangements for which would
+naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the
+wretched secretary. As in any case I have to do three hours' work
+a day, I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well
+be spared me. I tipped Césarine half a sovereign, in fact, for
+her judicious choice. Césarine glanced at it on her palm in her
+mysterious, curious, half-smiling way, and pocketed it at once with
+a "Merci, monsieur!" that had a touch of contempt in it. I always
+fancy Césarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping,
+and thinks very small beer of the modest sums a mere secretary can
+alone afford to bestow upon her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The great peculiarity of Meran is the number of schlosses (I believe
+my plural is strictly irregular, but very convenient to English
+ears) which you can see in every direction from its outskirts. A
+statistical eye, it is supposed, can count no fewer than forty of
+these picturesque, ramshackled old castles from a point on the
+Küchelberg. For myself, I hate statistics (except as an element in
+financial prospectuses), and I really don't know how many ruinous
+piles Isabel and Amelia counted under Césarine's guidance; but I
+remember that most of them were quaint and beautiful, and that their
+variety of architecture seemed positively bewildering. One would be
+square, with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle; while
+another would rejoice in a big round keep, and spread on either side
+long, ivy-clad walls and delightful bastions. Charles was immensely
+taken with them. He loves the picturesque, and has a poet hidden
+in that financial soul of his. (Very effectually hidden, though, I
+am ready to grant you.) From the moment he came he felt at once
+he would love to possess a castle of his own among these romantic
+mountains. "Seldon!" he exclaimed contemptuously. "They call Seldon
+a castle! But you and I know very well, Sey, it was built in 1860,
+with sham antique stones, for Macpherson of Seldon, at market rates,
+by Cubitt and Co., worshipful contractors of London. Macpherson
+charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price, at
+which one ought to procure a real ancestral mansion. Now, <I>these</I>
+castles are real. They are hoary with antiquity. Schloss Tyrol is
+Romanesque&mdash;tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up
+in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for <I>me</I>!&mdash;tenth or eleventh
+century. I could live here, remote from stocks and shares, for ever;
+and in these sequestered glens, recollect, Sey, my boy, there are
+no Colonel Clays, and no arch Madame Picardets!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As a matter of fact, he could have lived there six weeks, and then
+tired for Park Lane, Monte Carlo, Brighton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for Amelia, strange to say, she was equally taken with this new
+fad of Charles's. As a rule she hates everywhere on earth save
+London, except during the time when no respectable person can be
+seen in town, and when modest blinds shade the scandalised face of
+Mayfair and Belgravia. She bores herself to death even at Seldon
+Castle, Ross-shire, and yawns all day long in Paris or Vienna. She
+is a confirmed Cockney. Yet, for some occult reason, my amiable
+sister-in-law fell in love with South Tyrol. She wanted to vegetate
+in that lush vegetation. The grapes were being picked; pumpkins hung
+over the walls; Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray schlosses
+with crimson cloaks; and everything was as beautiful as a dream of
+Burne-Jones's. (I know I am quite right in mentioning Burne-Jones,
+especially in connection with Romanesque architecture, because I
+heard him highly praised on that very ground by our friend and
+enemy, Dr. Edward Polperro.) So perhaps it was excusable that
+Amelia should fall in love with it all, under the circumstances;
+besides, she is largely influenced by what Césarine says, and
+Césarine declares there is no climate in Europe like Meran in
+winter. I do not agree with her. The sun sets behind the hills at
+three in the afternoon, and a nasty warm wind blows moist over
+the snow in January and February.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, Amelia set Césarine to inquire of the people at the hotel
+about the market price of tumbledown ruins, and the number of such
+eligible family mausoleums just then for sale in the immediate
+neighbourhood. Césarine returned with a full, true, and particular
+list, adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have delighted
+the soul of good old John Robins. They were all picturesque, all
+Romanesque, all richly ivy-clad, all commodious, all historical,
+and all the property of high well-born Grafs and very honourable
+Freiherrs. Most of them had been the scene of celebrated tournaments;
+several of them had witnessed the gorgeous marriages of Holy Roman
+Emperors; and every one of them was provided with some choice and
+selected first-class murders. Ghosts could be arranged for or not,
+as desired; and armorial bearings could be thrown in with the moat
+for a moderate extra remuneration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two we liked best of all these tempting piles were Schloss
+Planta and Schloss Lebenstein. We drove past both, and even I
+myself, I confess, was distinctly taken with them. (Besides, when
+a big purchase like this is on the stocks, a poor beggar of a
+secretary has always a chance of exerting his influence and earning
+for himself some modest commission.) Schloss Planta was the most
+striking externally, I should say, with its Rhine-like towers, and
+its great gnarled ivy-stems, that looked as if they antedated the
+House of Hapsburg; but Lebenstein was said to be better preserved
+within, and more fitted in every way for modern occupation. Its
+staircase has been photographed by 7000 amateurs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We got tickets to view. The invaluable Césarine procured them for
+us. Armed with these, we drove off one fine afternoon, meaning to
+go to Planta, by Césarine's recommendation. Half-way there, however,
+we changed our minds, as it was such a lovely day, and went on up
+the long, slow hill to Lebenstein. I must say the drive through the
+grounds was simply charming. The castle stands perched (say rather
+poised, like St. Michael the archangel in Italian pictures) on a
+solitary stack or crag of rock, looking down on every side upon
+its own rich vineyards. Chestnuts line the glens; the valley of
+the Etsch spreads below like a picture.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The vineyards alone make a splendid estate, by the way; they produce
+a delicious red wine, which is exported to Bordeaux, and there
+bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau
+Monnivet. Charles revelled in the idea of growing his own wines.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here we could sit," he cried to Amelia, "in the most literal sense,
+under our own vine and fig-tree. Delicious retirement! For my part,
+I'm sick and tired of the hubbub of Threadneedle Street."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We knocked at the door&mdash;for there was really no bell, but a
+ponderous, old-fashioned, wrought-iron knocker. So deliciously
+mediæval! The late Graf von Lebenstein had recently died, we
+knew; and his son, the present Count, a young man of means, having
+inherited from his mother's family a still more ancient and
+splendid schloss in the Salzburg district, desired to sell this
+outlying estate in order to afford himself a yacht, after the manner
+that is now becoming increasingly fashionable with the noblemen and
+gentlemen in Germany and Austria.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The door was opened for us by a high well-born menial, attired in
+a very ancient and honourable livery. Nice antique hall; suits of
+ancestral armour, trophies of Tyrolese hunters, coats of arms of
+ancient counts&mdash;the very thing to take Amelia's aristocratic and
+romantic fancy. The whole to be sold exactly as it stood; ancestors
+to be included at a valuation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went through the reception-rooms. They were lofty, charming, and
+with glorious views, all the more glorious for being framed by those
+graceful Romanesque windows, with their slender pillars and quaint,
+round-topped arches. Sir Charles had made his mind up. "I must and
+will have it!" he cried. "This is the place for me. Seldon! Pah,
+Seldon is a modern abomination."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Could we see the high well-born Count? The liveried servant
+(somewhat haughtily) would inquire of his Serenity. Sir Charles
+sent up his card, and also Lady Vandrift's. These foreigners know
+title spells money in England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was right in his surmise. Two minutes later the Count entered
+with our cards in his hands. A good-looking young man, with the
+characteristic Tyrolese long black moustache, dressed in a
+gentlemanly variant on the costume of the country. His air was a
+jager's; the usual blackcock's plume stuck jauntily in the side of
+the conical hat (which he held in his hand), after the universal
+Austrian fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He waved us to seats. We sat down. He spoke to us in French; his
+English, he remarked, with a pleasant smile, being a négligeable
+quantity. We might speak it, he went on; he could understand pretty
+well; but he preferred to answer, if we would allow him, in French
+or German.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"French," Charles replied, and the negotiation continued thenceforth
+in that language. It is the only one, save English and his ancestral
+Dutch, with which my brother-in-law possesses even a nodding
+acquaintance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We praised the beautiful scene. The Count's face lighted up with
+patriotic pride. Yes; it was beautiful, beautiful, his own green
+Tyrol. He was proud of it and attached to it. But he could endure
+to sell this place, the home of his fathers, because he had a finer
+in the Salzkammergut, and a pied-à-terre near Innsbruck. For Tyrol
+lacked just one joy&mdash;the sea. He was a passionate yachtsman. For
+that he had resolved to sell this estate; after all, three country
+houses, a ship, and a mansion in Vienna, are more than one man can
+comfortably inhabit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly," Charles answered. "If I can come to terms with you about
+this charming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch
+Highlands." And he tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who
+harangues his clansmen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then they got to business. The Count was a delightful man to do
+business with. His manners were perfect. While we were talking to
+him, a surly person, a steward or bailiff, or something of the sort,
+came into the room unexpectedly and addressed him in German, which
+none of us understand. We were impressed by the singular urbanity
+and benignity of the nobleman's demeanour towards this sullen
+dependant. He evidently explained to the fellow what sort of
+people we were, and remonstrated with him in a very gentle way for
+interrupting us. The steward understood, and clearly regretted his
+insolent air; for after a few sentences he went out, and as he did
+so he bowed and made protestations of polite regard in his own
+language. The Count turned to us and smiled. "Our people," he said,
+"are like your own Scotch peasants&mdash;kind-hearted, picturesque, free,
+musical, poetic, but wanting, hélas, in polish to strangers." He
+was certainly an exception, if he described them aright; for he made
+us feel at home from the moment we entered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He named his price in frank terms. His lawyers at Meran held the
+needful documents, and would arrange the negotiations in detail with
+us. It was a stiff sum, I must say&mdash;an extremely stiff sum; but no
+doubt he was charging us a fancy price for a fancy castle. "He will
+come down in time," Charles said. "The sum first named in all these
+transactions is invariably a feeler. They know I'm a millionaire;
+and people always imagine millionaires are positively made of
+money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze
+money out of millionaires than out of other people&mdash;which is the
+reverse of the truth, or how could they ever have amassed their
+millions? Instead of oozing gold as a tree oozes gum, they mop it
+up like blotting-paper, and seldom give it out again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We drove back from this first interview none the less very well
+satisfied. The price was too high; but preliminaries were arranged,
+and for the rest, the Count desired us to discuss all details with
+his lawyers in the chief street, Unter den Lauben. We inquired about
+these lawyers, and found they were most respectable and respected
+men; they had done the family business on either side for seven
+generations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They showed us plans and title-deeds. Everything quite en régle.
+Till we came to the price there was no hitch of any sort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As to price, however, the lawyers were obdurate. They stuck out for
+the Count's first sum to the uttermost florin. It was a very big
+estimate. We talked and shilly-shallied till Sir Charles grew angry.
+He lost his temper at last.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They know I'm a millionaire, Sey," he said, "and they're playing
+the old game of trying to diddle me. But I won't be diddled. Except
+Colonel Clay, no man has ever yet succeeded in bleeding me. And
+shall I let myself be bled as if I were a chamois among these
+innocent mountains? Perish the thought!" Then he reflected a little
+in silence. "Sey," he mused on, at last, "the question is, <I>are</I>
+they innocent? Do you know, I begin to believe there is no such
+thing left as pristine innocence anywhere. This Tyrolese Count knows
+the value of a pound as distinctly as if he hung out in Capel Court
+or Kimberley."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Things dragged on in this way, inconclusively, for a week or two.
+<I>We</I> bid down; the lawyers stuck to it. Sir Charles grew half sick
+of the whole silly business. For my own part, I felt sure if the
+high well-born Count didn't quicken his pace, my respected relative
+would shortly have had enough of the Tyrol altogether, and be proof
+against the most lovely of crag-crowning castles. But the Count
+didn't see it. He came to call on us at our hotel&mdash;a rare honour for
+a stranger with these haughty and exclusive Tyrolese nobles&mdash;and
+even entered unannounced in the most friendly manner. But when it
+came to L. s. d., he was absolute adamant. Not one kreutzer would
+he abate from his original proposal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You misunderstand," he said, with pride. "We Tyrolese gentlemen are
+not shopkeepers or merchants. We do not higgle. If we say a thing we
+stick to it. Were you an Austrian, I should feel insulted by your
+ill-advised attempt to beat down my price. But as you belong to a
+great commercial nation&mdash;" he broke off with a snort and shrugged
+his shoulders compassionately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We saw him several times driving in and out of the schloss, and
+every time he waved his hand at us gracefully. But when we tried to
+bargain, it was always the same thing: he retired behind the shelter
+of his Tyrolese nobility. We might take it or leave it. 'Twas still
+Schloss Lebenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lawyers were as bad. We tried all we knew, and got no forrarder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last Charles gave up the attempt in disgust. He was tiring, as I
+expected. "It's the prettiest place I ever saw in my life," he said;
+"but, hang it all, Sey, I <I>won't</I> be imposed upon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So he made up his mind, it being now December, to return to London.
+We met the Count next day, and stopped his carriage, and told him
+so. Charles thought this would have the immediate effect of bringing
+the man to reason. But he only lifted his hat, with the blackcock's
+feather, and smiled a bland smile. "The Archduke Karl is inquiring
+about it," he answered, and drove on without parley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles used some strong words, which I will not transcribe (I am a
+family man), and returned to England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the next two months we heard little from Amelia save her regret
+that the Count wouldn't sell us Schloss Lebenstein. Its pinnacles
+had fairly pierced her heart. Strange to say, she was absolutely
+infatuated about the castle. She rather wanted the place while
+she was there, and thought she could get it; now she thought
+she couldn't, her soul (if she has one) was wildly set upon it.
+Moreover, Césarine further inflamed her desire by gently hinting
+a fact which she had picked up at the courier's table d'hôte at
+the hotel&mdash;that the Count had been far from anxious to sell his
+ancestral and historical estate to a South African diamond king.
+He thought the honour of the family demanded, at least, that he
+should secure a wealthy buyer of good ancient lineage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One morning in February, however, Amelia returned from the Row all
+smiles and tremors. (She had been ordered horse-exercise to correct
+the increasing excessiveness of her figure.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who do you think I saw riding in the Park?" she inquired. "Why,
+the Count of Lebenstein."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No!" Charles exclaimed, incredulous.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Amelia answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Must be mistaken," Charles cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Amelia stuck to it. More than that, she sent out emissaries to
+inquire diligently from the London lawyers, whose name had been
+mentioned to us by the ancestral firm in Unter den Lauben as
+their English agents, as to the whereabouts of our friend; and
+her emissaries learned in effect that the Count was in town and
+stopping at Morley's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see through it," Charles exclaimed. "He finds he's made a
+mistake; and now he's come over here to reopen negotiations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was all for waiting prudently till the Count made the first move.
+"Don't let him see your eagerness," I said. But Amelia's ardour
+could not now be restrained. She insisted that Charles should
+call on the Graf as a mere return of his politeness in the Tyrol.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was as charming as ever. He talked to us with delight about the
+quaintness of London. He would be ravished to dine next evening with
+Sir Charles. He desired his respectful salutations meanwhile to
+Miladi Vandrift and Madame Ventvorth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He dined with us, almost en famille. Amelia's cook did wonders. In
+the billiard-room, about midnight, Charles reopened the subject.
+The Count was really touched. It pleased him that still, amid the
+distractions of the City of Five Million Souls, we should remember
+with affection his beloved Lebenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come to my lawyers," he said, "to-morrow, and I will talk it all
+over with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went&mdash;a most respectable firm in Southampton Row; old family
+solicitors. They had done business for years for the late Count, who
+had inherited from his grandmother estates in Ireland; and they were
+glad to be honoured with the confidence of his successor. Glad, too,
+to make the acquaintance of a prince of finance like Sir Charles
+Vandrift. Anxious (rubbing their hands) to arrange matters
+satisfactorily all round for everybody. (Two capital families with
+which to be mixed up, you see.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles named a price, and referred them to his solicitors.
+The Count named a higher, but still a little come-down, and left
+the matter to be settled between the lawyers. He was a soldier and
+a gentleman, he said, with a Tyrolese toss of his high-born head;
+he would abandon details to men of business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I was really anxious to oblige Amelia, I met the Count
+accidentally next day on the steps of Morley's. (Accidentally,
+that is to say, so far as he was concerned, though I had been
+hanging about in Trafalgar Square for half an hour to see him.)
+I explained, in guarded terms, that I had a great deal of influence
+in my way with Sir Charles; and that a word from me&mdash; I broke
+off. He stared at me blankly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Commission?" he inquired, at last, with a queer little smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, not exactly commission," I answered, wincing. "Still, a
+friendly word, you know. One good turn deserves another."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked at me from head to foot with a curious scrutiny. For one
+moment I feared the Tyrolese nobleman in him was going to raise its
+foot and take active measures. But the next, I saw that Sir Charles
+was right after all, and that pristine innocence has removed from
+this planet to other quarters.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He named his lowest price. "M. Ventvorth," he said, "I am a Tyrolese
+seigneur; I do not dabble, myself, in commissions and percentages.
+But if your influence with Sir Charles&mdash;we understand each other, do
+we not?&mdash;as between gentlemen&mdash;a little friendly present&mdash;no money,
+of course&mdash;but the equivalent of say 5 per cent in jewellery, on
+whatever sum above his bid to-day you induce him to
+offer&mdash;eh?&mdash;c'est convenu?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur&mdash;or nothing!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed and withdrew. "Well, five then," I answered, "just to oblige
+your Serenity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A secretary, after all, can do a great deal. When it came to the
+scratch, I had but little difficulty in persuading Sir Charles, with
+Amelia's aid, backed up on either side by Isabel and Césarine, to
+accede to the Count's more reasonable proposal. The Southampton Row
+people had possession of certain facts as to the value of the wines
+in the Bordeaux market which clinched the matter. In a week or two
+all was settled; Charles and I met the Count by appointment in
+Southampton Row, and saw him sign, seal, and deliver the title-deeds
+of Schloss Lebenstein. My brother-in-law paid the purchase-money
+into the Count's own hands, by cheque, crossed on a first-class
+London firm where the Count kept an account to his high well-born
+order. Then he went away with the proud knowledge that he was owner
+of Schloss Lebenstein. And what to me was more important still,
+I received next morning by post a cheque for the five per cent,
+unfortunately drawn, by some misapprehension, to my order on the
+self-same bankers, and with the Count's signature. He explained in
+the accompanying note that the matter being now quite satisfactorily
+concluded, he saw no reason of delicacy why the amount he had
+promised should not be paid to me forthwith direct in money.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I cashed the cheque at once, and said nothing about the affair, not
+even to Isabel. My experience is that women are not to be trusted
+with intricate matters of commission and brokerage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though it was now late in March, and the House was sitting, Charles
+insisted that we must all run over at once to take possession of our
+magnificent Tyrolese castle. Amelia was almost equally burning with
+eagerness. She gave herself the airs of a Countess already. We took
+the Orient Express as far as Munich; then the Brenner to Meran,
+and put up for the night at the Erzherzog Johann. Though we had
+telegraphed our arrival, and expected some fuss, there was no
+demonstration. Next morning we drove out in state to the schloss,
+to enter into enjoyment of our vines and fig-trees.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were met at the door by the surly steward. "I shall dismiss
+that man," Charles muttered, as Lord of Lebenstein. "He's too
+sour-looking for my taste. Never saw such a brute. Not a smile
+of welcome!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He mounted the steps. The surly man stepped forward and murmured a
+few morose words in German. Charles brushed him aside and strode on.
+Then there followed a curious scene of mutual misunderstanding. The
+surly man called lustily for his servants to eject us. It was some
+time before we began to catch at the truth. The surly man was the
+<I>real</I> Graf von Lebenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the Count with the moustache? It dawned upon us now. Colonel
+Clay again! More audacious than ever!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bit by bit it all came out. He had ridden behind us the first day
+we viewed the place, and, giving himself out to the servants as
+one of our party, had joined us in the reception-room. We asked
+the real Count why he had spoken to the intruder. The Count
+explained in French that the man with the moustache had introduced
+my brother-in-law as the great South African millionaire, while he
+described himself as our courier and interpreter. As such he had
+had frequent interviews with the real Graf and his lawyers in
+Meran, and had driven almost daily across to the castle. The owner
+of the estate had named one price from the first, and had stuck to
+it manfully. He stuck to it still; and if Sir Charles chose to buy
+Schloss Lebenstein over again he was welcome to have it. How the
+London lawyers had been duped the Count had not really the slightest
+idea. He regretted the incident, and (coldly) wished us a very good
+morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was nothing for it but to return as best we might to the
+Erzherzog Johann, crestfallen, and telegraph particulars to the
+police in London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles and I ran across post-haste to England to track down the
+villain. At Southampton Row we found the legal firm by no means
+penitent; on the contrary, they were indignant at the way we had
+deceived them. An impostor had written to them on Lebenstein
+paper from Meran to say that he was coming to London to negotiate
+the sale of the schloss and surrounding property with the
+famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
+demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
+Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
+had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
+Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
+some most excellent forgeries&mdash;facsimiles of the originals&mdash;which,
+as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
+examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
+plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
+upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
+moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
+his own representation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
+<I>not</I> given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
+unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
+house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
+thus:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
+everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
+not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
+might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
+cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
+you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
+rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
+fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
+The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
+cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present&mdash;a German
+dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"I kiss your hand.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"No longer
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"VON LEBENSTEIN."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The other note was to me. It was as follows:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
+I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
+surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
+foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
+you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend&mdash;on your
+own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
+banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, for your future good behaviour.
+If ever you recognise me, and betray me to that solemn old ass, your
+employer, remember, I expose it, and you with it to him. So now we
+understand each other. I had not thought of this little dodge; it
+was you who suggested it. However, I jumped at it. Was it not well
+worth my while paying you that slight commission in return for a
+guarantee of your future silence? Your mouth is now closed. And
+cheap too at the price.&mdash;Yours, dear Comrade, in the great
+confraternity of rogues,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"CUTHBERT CLAY, Colonel."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Charles laid his note down, and grizzled. "What's yours, Sey?"
+he asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From a lady," I answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed at me suspiciously. "Oh, I thought it was the same hand,"
+he said. His eye looked through me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," I answered. "Mrs. Mortimer's." But I confess I trembled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He paused a moment. "You made all inquiries at this fellow's bank?"
+he went on, after a deep sigh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes," I put in quickly. (I had taken good care about that,
+you may be sure, lest he should spot the commission.) "They say
+the self-styled Count von Lebenstein was introduced to them by
+the Southampton Row folks, and drew, as usual, on the Lebenstein
+account: so they were quite unsuspicious. A rascal who goes about
+the world on that scale, you know, and arrives with such credentials
+as theirs and yours, naturally imposes on anybody. The bank didn't
+even require to have him formally identified. The firm was enough.
+He came to pay money in, not to draw it out. And he withdrew his
+balance just two days later, saying he was in a hurry to get back
+to Vienna."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would he ask for items? I confess I felt it was an awkward moment.
+Charles, however, was too full of regrets to bother about the
+account. He leaned back in his easy chair, stuck his hands in his
+pockets, held his legs straight out on the fender before him, and
+looked the very picture of hopeless despondency.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sey," he began, after a minute or two, poking the fire,
+reflectively, "what a genius that man has! 'Pon my soul, I
+admire him. I sometimes wish&mdash;" He broke off and hesitated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Charles?" I answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I sometimes wish ... we had got him on the Board of the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas. Mag&mdash;nificent combinations he would make in the City!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I rose from my seat and stared solemnly at my misguided
+brother-in-law.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Charles," I said, "you are beside yourself. Too much Colonel Clay
+has told upon your clear and splendid intellect. There are certain
+remarks which, however true they may be, no self-respecting
+financier should permit himself to make, even in the privacy of
+his own room, to his most intimate friend and trusted adviser."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles fairly broke down. "You are right, Sey," he sobbed out.
+"Quite right. Forgive this outburst. At moments of emotion the
+truth will sometimes out, in spite of everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I respected his feebleness. I did not even make it a fitting
+occasion to ask for a trifling increase of salary.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+V
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE DRAWN GAME
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The twelfth of August saw us, as usual, at Seldon Castle,
+Ross-shire. It is part of Charles's restless, roving temperament
+that, on the morning of the eleventh, wet or fine, he must set out
+from London, whether the House is sitting or not, in defiance of
+the most urgent three-line whips; and at dawn on the twelfth he must
+be at work on his moors, shooting down the young birds with might
+and main, at the earliest possible legal moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He goes on like Saul, slaying his thousands, or, like David, his
+tens of thousands, with all the guns in the house to help him, till
+the keepers warn him he has killed as many grouse as they consider
+desirable; and then, having done his duty, as he thinks, in this
+respect, he retires precipitately with flying colours to Brighton,
+Nice, Monte Carlo, or elsewhere. He must be always "on the trek";
+when he is buried, I believe he will not be able to rest quiet in
+his grave: his ghost will walk the world to terrify old ladies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At Seldon, at least," he said to me, with a sigh, as he stepped
+into his Pullman, "I shall be safe from that impostor!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And indeed, as soon as he had begun to tire a little of counting
+up his hundreds of brace per diem, he found a trifling piece of
+financial work cut ready to his hand, which amply distracted his
+mind for the moment from Colonel Clay, his accomplices, and his
+villainies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles, I ought to say, had secured during that summer a very
+advantageous option in a part of Africa on the Transvaal frontier,
+rumoured to be auriferous. Now, whether it was auriferous or not
+before, the mere fact that Charles had secured some claim on it
+naturally made it so; for no man had ever the genuine Midas-touch
+to a greater degree than Charles Vandrift: whatever he handles turns
+at once to gold, if not to diamonds. Therefore, as soon as my
+brother-in-law had obtained this option from the native vendor (a
+most respected chief, by name Montsioa), and promoted a company
+of his own to develop it, his great rival in that region, Lord
+Craig-Ellachie (formerly Sir David Alexander Granton), immediately
+secured a similar option of an adjacent track, the larger part of
+which had pretty much the same geological conditions as that covered
+by Sir Charles's right of pre-emption.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were not wholly disappointed, as it turned out, in the result.
+A month or two later, while we were still at Seldon, we received
+a long and encouraging letter from our prospectors on the spot,
+who had been hunting over the ground in search of gold-reefs. They
+reported that they had found a good auriferous vein in a corner of
+the tract, approachable by adit-levels; but, unfortunately, only a
+few yards of the lode lay within the limits of Sir Charles's area.
+The remainder ran on at once into what was locally known as
+Craig-Ellachie's section.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, our prospectors had been canny, they said; though young
+Mr. Granton was prospecting at the same time, in the self-same
+ridge, not very far from them, his miners had failed to discover
+the auriferous quartz; so our men had held their tongues about it,
+wisely leaving it for Charles to govern himself accordingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can you dispute the boundary?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Impossible," Charles answered. "You see, the limit is a meridian
+of longitude. There's no getting over that. Can't pretend to deny
+it. No buying over the sun! No bribing the instruments! Besides,
+we drew the line ourselves. We've only one way out of it, Sey.
+Amalgamate! Amalgamate!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles is a marvellous man! The very voice in which he murmured
+that blessed word "Amalgamate!" was in itself a poem.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Capital!" I answered. "Say nothing about it, and join forces with
+Craig-Ellachie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles closed one eye pensively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That very same evening came a telegram in cipher from our chief
+engineer on the territory of the option: "Young Granton has somehow
+given us the slip and gone home. We suspect he knows all. But we
+have not divulged the secret to anybody."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said impressively, "there is no time to
+be lost. I must write this evening to Sir David&mdash;I mean to My Lord.
+Do you happen to know where he is stopping at present?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Morning Post announced two or three days ago that he was at
+Glen-Ellachie," I answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I'll ask him to come over and thrash the matter out with me,"
+my brother-in-law went on. "A very rich reef, they say. I must have
+my finger in it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We adjourned into the study, where Sir Charles drafted, I must
+admit, a most judicious letter to the rival capitalist. He pointed
+out that the mineral resources of the country were probably great,
+but as yet uncertain. That the expense of crushing and milling might
+be almost prohibitive. That access to fuel was costly, and its
+conveyance difficult. That water was scarce, and commanded by our
+section. That two rival companies, if they happened to hit upon ore,
+might cut one another's throats by erecting two sets of furnaces or
+pumping plants, and bringing two separate streams to the spot,
+where one would answer. In short&mdash;to employ the golden word&mdash;that
+amalgamation might prove better in the end than competition; and
+that he advised, at least, a conference on the subject.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I wrote it out fair for him, and Sir Charles, with the air of a
+Cromwell, signed it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is important, Sey," he said. "It had better be registered,
+for fear of falling into improper hands. Don't give it to Dobson;
+let Césarine take it over to Fowlis in the dog-cart."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is the drawback of Seldon that we are twelve miles from a
+railway station, though we look out on one of the loveliest firths
+in Scotland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Césarine took it as directed&mdash;an invaluable servant, that girl!
+Meanwhile, we learned from the Morning Post next day that young
+Mr. Granton had stolen a march upon us. He had arrived from Africa
+by the same mail with our agent's letter, and had joined his father
+at once at Glen-Ellachie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two days later we received a most polite reply from the opposing
+interest. It ran after this fashion:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"DEAR SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT&mdash;Thanks for yours of the 20th. In reply,
+I can only say I fully reciprocate your amiable desire that nothing
+adverse to either of our companies should happen in South Africa.
+With regard to your suggestion that we should meet in person, to
+discuss the basis of a possible amalgamation, I can only say my
+house is at present full of guests&mdash;as is doubtless your own&mdash;and
+I should therefore find it practically impossible to leave
+Glen-Ellachie. Fortunately, however, my son David is now at home
+on a brief holiday from Kimberley; and it will give him great
+pleasure to come over and hear what you have to say in favour of an
+arrangement which certainly, on some grounds, seems to me desirable
+in the interests of both our concessions alike. He will arrive
+to-morrow afternoon at Seldon, and he is authorised, in every
+respect, to negotiate with full powers on behalf of myself and the
+other directors. With kindest regards to your wife and sons, I
+remain, dear Sir Charles, yours faithfully,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"Cunning old fox!" Sir Charles exclaimed, with a sniff. "What's he
+up to now, I wonder? Seems almost as anxious to amalgamate as we
+ourselves are, Sey." A sudden thought struck him. "Do you know,"
+he cried, looking up, "I really believe the same thing must have
+happened to <I>both</I> our exploring parties. <I>They</I> must have found a
+reef that goes under <I>our</I> ground, and the wicked old rascal wants
+to cheat us out of it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As we want to cheat him," I ventured to interpose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles looked at me fixedly. "Well, if so, we're both in luck,"
+he murmured, after a pause; "though <I>we</I> can only get to know the
+whereabouts of <I>their</I> find by joining hands with them and showing
+them ours. Still, it's good business either way. But I shall be
+cautious&mdash;cautious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a nuisance!" Amelia cried, when we told her of the incident.
+"I suppose I shall have to put the man up for the night&mdash;a nasty,
+raw-boned, half-baked Scotchman, you may be certain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On Wednesday afternoon, about three, young Granton arrived. He was
+a pleasant-featured, red-haired, sandy-whiskered youth, not unlike
+his father; but, strange to say, he dropped in to call, instead of
+bringing his luggage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, you're not going back to Glen-Ellachie to-night, surely?"
+Charles exclaimed, in amazement. "Lady Vandrift will be <I>so</I>
+disappointed! Besides, this business can't be arranged between
+two trains, do you think, Mr. Granton?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Young Granton smiled. He had an agreeable smile&mdash;canny, yet open.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh no," he said frankly. "I didn't mean to go back. I've put up at
+the inn. I have my wife with me, you know&mdash;and, I wasn't invited."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia was of opinion, when we told her this episode, that David
+Granton wouldn't stop at Seldon because he was an Honourable.
+Isabel was of opinion he wouldn't stop because he had married an
+unpresentable young woman somewhere out in South Africa. Charles was
+of opinion that, as representative of the hostile interest, he put
+up at the inn, because it might tie his hands in some way to be the
+guest of the chairman of the rival company. And <I>I</I> was of opinion
+that he had heard of the castle, and knew it well by report as the
+dullest country-house to stay at in Scotland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However that may be, young Granton insisted on remaining at the
+Cromarty Arms, though he told us his wife would be delighted to
+receive a call from Lady Vandrift and Mrs. Wentworth. So we all
+returned with him to bring the Honourable Mrs. Granton up to tea
+at the Castle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was a nice little thing, very shy and timid, but by no means
+unpresentable, and an evident lady. She giggled at the end of every
+sentence; and she was endowed with a slight squint, which somehow
+seemed to point all her feeble sallies. She knew little outside
+South Africa; but of that she talked prettily; and she won all
+our hearts, in spite of the cast in her eye, by her unaffected
+simplicity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next morning Charles and I had a regular debate with young Granton
+about the rival options. Our talk was of cyanide processes,
+reverberatories, pennyweights, water-jackets. But it dawned upon us
+soon that, in spite of his red hair and his innocent manners, our
+friend, the Honourable David Granton, knew a thing or two. Gradually
+and gracefully he let us see that Lord Craig-Ellachie had sent him
+for the benefit of the company, but that <I>he</I> had come for the
+benefit of the Honourable David Granton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm a younger son, Sir Charles," he said; "and therefore I have to
+feather my nest for myself. I know the ground. My father will be
+guided implicitly by what I advise in the matter. We are men of the
+world. Now, let's be business-like. <I>You</I> want to amalgamate. You
+wouldn't do that, of course, if you didn't know of something to the
+advantage of my father's company&mdash;say, a lode on our land&mdash;which you
+hope to secure for yourself by amalgamation. Very well; <I>I</I> can make
+or mar your project. If you choose to render it worth my while, I'll
+induce my father and his directors to amalgamate. If you don't, I
+won't. That's the long and the short of it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles looked at him admiringly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Young man," he said, "you're deep, very deep&mdash;for your age. Is this
+candour&mdash;or deception? Do you mean what you say? Or do you know some
+reason why it suits your father's book to amalgamate as well as it
+suits mine? And are you trying to keep it from me?" He fingered his
+chin. "If I only knew that," he went on, "I should know how to deal
+with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Young Granton smiled again. "You're a financier, Sir Charles," he
+answered. "I wonder, at your time of life, you should pause to ask
+another financier whether he's trying to fill his own pocket&mdash;or his
+father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son&mdash;and <I>I</I> am
+his youngest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right as to general principles," Sir Charles replied, quite
+affectionately. "Most sound and sensible. But how do I know you
+haven't bargained already in the same way with your father? You
+may have settled with <I>him</I>, and be trying to diddle me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man assumed a most candid air. "Look here," he said,
+leaning forward. "I offer you this chance. Take it or leave it. <I>Do</I>
+you wish to purchase my aid for this amalgamation by a moderate
+commission on the net value of my father's option to yourself&mdash;which
+I know approximately?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Say five per cent," I suggested, in a tentative voice, just to
+justify my presence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked me through and through. "<I>Ten</I> is more usual," he
+answered, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar glance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Great heavens, how I winced! I knew what his words meant. They were
+the very words I had said myself to Colonel Clay, as the Count von
+Lebenstein, about the purchase-money of the schloss&mdash;and in the very
+same accent. I saw through it all now. That beastly cheque! This
+was Colonel Clay; and he was trying to buy up my silence and
+assistance by the threat of exposure!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My blood ran cold. I didn't know how to answer him. What happened
+at the rest of that interview I really couldn't tell you. My brain
+reeled round. I heard just faint echoes of "fuel" and "reduction
+works." What on earth was I to do? If I told Charles my
+suspicion&mdash;for it was only a suspicion&mdash;the fellow might turn upon
+me and disclose the cheque, which would suffice to ruin me. If I
+didn't, I ran a risk of being considered by Charles an accomplice
+and a confederate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The interview was long. I hardly know how I struggled through it.
+At the end young Granton went off, well satisfied, if it was young
+Granton; and Amelia invited him and his wife up to dinner at the
+castle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whatever else they were, they were capital company. They stopped
+for three days more at the Cromarty Arms. And Charles debated and
+discussed incessantly. He couldn't quite make up his mind what to
+do in the affair; and <I>I</I> certainly couldn't help him. I never was
+placed in such a fix in my life. I did my best to preserve a strict
+neutrality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Young Granton, it turned out, was a most agreeable person; and so,
+in her way, was that timid, unpretending South African wife of his.
+She was naively surprised Amelia had never met her mamma at Durban.
+They both talked delightfully, and had lots of good stories&mdash;mostly
+with points that told against the Craig-Ellachie people. Moreover,
+the Honourable David was a splendid swimmer. He went out in a boat
+with us, and dived like a seal. He was burning to teach Charles
+and myself to swim, when we told him we could neither of us take a
+single stroke; he said it was an accomplishment incumbent upon every
+true Englishman. But Charles hates the water; while, as for myself,
+I detest every known form of muscular exercise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, we consented that he should row us on the Firth, and made
+an appointment one day with himself and his wife for four the next
+evening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That night Charles came to me with a very grave face in my own
+bedroom. "Sey," he said, under his breath, "have you observed?
+Have you watched? Have you any suspicions?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I trembled violently. I felt all was up. "Suspicions of whom?"
+I asked. "Not surely of Simpson?" (he was Sir Charles's valet).
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My respected brother-in-law looked at me contemptuously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sey," he said, "are you trying to take me in? No, <I>not</I> of Simpson:
+of these two young folks. My own belief is&mdash;they're Colonel Clay
+and Madame Picardet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Impossible!" I cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He nodded. "I'm sure of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you know?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Instinctively."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I seized his arm. "Charles," I said, imploring him, "do nothing
+rash. Remember how you exposed yourself to the ridicule of fools
+over Dr. Polperro!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've thought of that," he answered, "and I mean to ca' caller."
+(When in Scotland as laird of Seldon, Charles loves both to dress
+and to speak the part thoroughly.) "First thing to-morrow I shall
+telegraph over to inquire at Glen-Ellachie; I shall find out
+whether this is really young Granton or not; meanwhile, I shall keep
+my eye close upon the fellow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Early next morning, accordingly, a groom was dispatched with a
+telegram to Lord Craig-Ellachie. He was to ride over to Fowlis, send
+it off at once, and wait for the answer. At the same time, as it was
+probable Lord Craig-Ellachie would have started for the moors before
+the telegram reached the Lodge, I did not myself expect to see the
+reply arrive much before seven or eight that evening. Meanwhile, as
+it was far from certain we had not the real David Granton to deal
+with, it was necessary to be polite to our friendly rivals. Our
+experience in the Polperro incident had shown us both that too much
+zeal may be more dangerous than too little. Nevertheless, taught
+by previous misfortunes, we kept watching our man pretty close,
+determined that on this occasion, at least, he should neither do us
+nor yet escape us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About four o'clock the red-haired young man and his pretty little
+wife came up to call for us. She looked so charming and squinted
+so enchantingly, one could hardly believe she was not as simple
+and innocent as she seemed to be. She tripped down to the Seldon
+boat-house, with Charles by her side, giggling and squinting her
+best, and then helped her husband to get the skiff ready. As she did
+so, Charles sidled up to me. "Sey," he whispered, "I'm an old hand,
+and I'm not readily taken in. I've been talking to that girl, and
+upon my soul I think she's all right. She's a charming little lady.
+We may be mistaken after all, of course, about young Granton. In any
+case, it's well for the present to be courteous. A most important
+option! If it's really he, we must do nothing to annoy him or let
+him see we suspect him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had noticed, indeed, that Mrs. Granton had made herself most
+agreeable to Charles from the very beginning. And as to one thing he
+was right. In her timid, shrinking way she was undeniably charming.
+That cast in her eye was all pure piquancy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We rowed out on to the Firth, or, to be more strictly correct, the
+two Grantons rowed while Charles and I sat and leaned back in the
+stern on the luxurious cushions. They rowed fast and well. In a very
+few minutes they had rounded the point and got clear out of sight
+of the Cockneyfied towers and false battlements of Seldon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Granton pulled stroke. Even as she rowed she kept up a brisk
+undercurrent of timid chaff with Sir Charles, giggling all the
+while, half forward, half shy, like a school-girl who flirts with
+a man old enough to be her grandfather.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles was flattered. He is susceptible to the pleasures of
+female attention, especially from the young, the simple, and the
+innocent. The wiles of women of the world he knows too well; but a
+pretty little ingénue can twist him round her finger. They rowed on
+and on, till they drew abreast of Seamew's island. It is a jagged
+stack or skerry, well out to sea, very wild and precipitous on the
+landward side, but shelving gently outward; perhaps an acre in
+extent, with steep gray cliffs, covered at that time with crimson
+masses of red valerian. Mrs. Granton rowed up close to it. "Oh, what
+lovely flowers!" she cried, throwing her head back and gazing at
+them. "I wish I could get some! Let's land here and pick them. Sir
+Charles, you shall gather me a nice bunch for my sitting-room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles rose to it innocently, like a trout to a fly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By all means, my dear child, I&mdash;I have a passion for flowers;"
+which was a flower of speech itself, but it served its purpose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They rowed us round to the far side, where is the easiest
+landing-place. It struck me as odd at the moment that they seemed
+to know it. Then young Granton jumped lightly ashore; Mrs. Granton
+skipped after him. I confess it made me feel rather ashamed to see
+how clumsily Charles and I followed them, treading gingerly on the
+thwarts for fear of upsetting the boat, while the artless young
+thing just flew over the gunwale. So like White Heather! However,
+we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
+well as we were able in search of the valerian.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
+bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
+laughter, and left us there staring at them!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
+turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
+"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
+You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
+Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
+he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
+of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manqué."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A <I>what</I>?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A coup manqué," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
+"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
+my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
+Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
+principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
+I find myself suspected. The slightest symptom of distrust, and&mdash;I
+back out immediately. My plans can only be worked to satisfaction
+when there is perfect confidence on the part of my patient. It is
+a well-known rule of the medical profession. I <I>never</I> try to bleed
+a man who struggles. So now we're off. Ta-ta! Good luck to you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was not much more than twenty yards away, and could talk to us
+quite easily. But the water was deep; the islet rose sheer from I'm
+sure I don't know how many fathoms of sea; and we could neither of
+us swim. Charles stretched out his arms imploringly. "For Heaven's
+sake," he cried, "don't tell me you really mean to leave us here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked so comical in his distress and terror that Mrs.
+Granton&mdash;Madame Picardet&mdash;whatever I am to call her&mdash;laughed
+melodiously in her prettiest way at the sight of him. "Dear Sir
+Charles," she called out, "pray don't be afraid! It's only a
+short and temporary imprisonment. We will send men to take you off.
+Dear David and I only need just time enough to get well ashore and
+make&mdash;oh!&mdash;a few slight alterations in our personal appearance."
+And she indicated with her hand, laughing, dear David's red wig and
+false sandy whiskers, as we felt convinced they must be now. She
+looked at them and tittered. Her manner at this moment was anything
+but shy. In fact, I will venture to say, it was that of a bold and
+brazen-faced hoyden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you <I>are</I> Colonel Clay!" Sir Charles cried, mopping his brow
+with his handkerchief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you choose to call me so," the young man answered politely. "I'm
+sure it's most kind of you to supply me with a commission in Her
+Majesty's service. However, time presses, and we want to push off.
+Don't alarm yourselves unnecessarily. I will send a boat to take you
+away from this rock at the earliest possible moment consistent with
+my personal safety and my dear companion's." He laid his hand on his
+heart and struck a sentimental attitude. "I have received too many
+unwilling kindnesses at your hands, Sir Charles," he continued,
+"not to feel how wrong it would be of me to inconvenience you for
+nothing. Rest assured that you shall be rescued by midnight at
+latest. Fortunately, the weather just at present is warm, and I see
+no chance of rain; so you will suffer, if at all, from nothing worse
+than the pangs of temporary hunger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Granton, no longer squinting&mdash;'twas a mere trick she had
+assumed&mdash;rose up in the boat and stretched out a rug to us. "Catch!"
+she cried, in a merry voice, and flung it at us, doubled. It fell
+at our feet; she was a capital thrower.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, you dear Sir Charles," she went on, "take that to keep you
+warm! You know I am really quite fond of you. You're not half a
+bad old boy when one takes you the right way. You have a human side
+to you. Why, I often wear that sweetly pretty brooch you gave me
+at Nice, when I was Madame Picardet! And I'm sure your goodness to
+me at Lucerne, when I was the little curate's wife, is a thing to
+remember. We're so glad to have seen you in your lovely Scotch
+home you were always so proud of! <I>Don't</I> be frightened, please. We
+wouldn't hurt you for worlds. We <I>are</I> so sorry we have to take this
+inhospitable means of evading you. But dear David&mdash;I <I>must</I> call
+him dear David still&mdash;instinctively felt that you were beginning to
+suspect us; and he can't bear mistrust. He <I>is</I> so sensitive! The
+moment people mistrust him, he <I>must</I> break off with them at once.
+This was the only way to get you both off our hands while we make
+the needful little arrangements to depart; and we've been driven to
+avail ourselves of it. However, I will give you my word of honour,
+as a lady, you shall be fetched away to-night. If dear David doesn't
+do it, why, I'll do it myself." And she blew another kiss to us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was half beside himself, divided between alternate terror
+and anger. "Oh, we shall die here!" he exclaimed. "Nobody'd ever
+dream of coming to this rock to search for me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a pity you didn't let me teach you to swim!" Colonel Clay
+interposed. "It is a noble exercise, and very useful indeed in such
+special emergencies! Well, ta-ta! I'm off! You nearly scored one
+this time; but, by putting you here for the moment, and keeping you
+till we're gone, I venture to say I've redressed the board, and I
+think we may count it a drawn game, mayn't we? The match stands at
+three, love&mdash;with some thousands in pocket?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're a murderer, sir!" Charles shrieked out. "We shall starve or
+die here!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Colonel Clay on his side was all sweet reasonableness. "Now, my dear
+sir," he expostulated, one hand held palm outward, "<I>Do</I> you think
+it probable I would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, with
+so little compunction? No, no, Sir Charles Vandrift; I know too well
+how much you are worth to me. I return you on my income-tax paper
+as five thousand a year, clear profit of my profession. Suppose you
+were to die! I might be compelled to find some new and far less
+lucrative source of plunder. Your heirs, executors, or assignees
+might not suit my purpose. The fact of it is, sir, your temperament
+and mine are exactly adapted one to the other. <I>I</I> understand <I>you</I>;
+and <I>you</I> do not understand <I>me</I>&mdash;which is often the basis of the
+firmest friendships. I can catch you just where you are trying to
+catch other people. Your very smartness assists me; for I admit you
+<I>are</I> smart. As a regular financier, I allow, I couldn't hold a
+candle to you. But in my humbler walk of life I know just how to
+utilise you. I lead you on, where you think you are going to gain some
+advantage over others; and by dexterously playing upon your love of
+a good bargain, your innate desire to best somebody else&mdash;I succeed
+in besting you. There, sir, you have the philosophy of our mutual
+relations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He bowed and raised his cap. Charles looked at him and cowered. Yes,
+genius as he is, he positively cowered. "And do you mean to say,"
+he burst out, "you intend to go on so bleeding me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel smiled a bland smile. "Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+answered, "I called you just now the goose that lays the golden
+eggs. You may have thought the metaphor a rude one. But you <I>are</I>
+a goose, you know, in certain relations. Smartest man on the Stock
+Exchange, I readily admit; easiest fool to bamboozle in the
+open country that ever I met with. You fail in one thing&mdash;the
+perspicacity of simplicity. For that reason, among others, I have
+chosen to fasten upon you. Regard me, my dear sir, as a microbe of
+millionaires, a parasite upon capitalists. You know the old rhyme:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,<BR>
+  And these again have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Well, that's just how I view myself. <I>You</I> are a capitalist and a
+millionaire. In <I>your</I> large way you prey upon society. YOU deal in
+Corners, Options, Concessions, Syndicates. You drain the world
+dry of its blood and its money. You possess, like the mosquito, a
+beautiful instrument of suction&mdash;Founders' Shares&mdash;with which you
+absorb the surplus wealth of the community. In <I>my</I> smaller way,
+again, <I>I</I> relieve you in turn of a portion of the plunder. I am a
+Robin Hood of my age; and, looking upon <I>you</I> as an exceptionally bad
+form of millionaire&mdash;as well as an exceptionally easy form of pigeon
+for a man of my type and talents to pluck&mdash;I have, so to speak,
+taken up my abode upon you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles looked at him and groaned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man continued, in a tone of gentle badinage. "I love the
+plot-interest of the game," he said, "and so does dear Jessie here.
+We both of us adore it. As long as I find such good pickings upon
+you, I certainly am not going to turn away from so valuable a
+carcass, in order to batten myself, at considerable trouble, upon
+minor capitalists, out of whom it is difficult to extract a few
+hundreds. It may have puzzled you to guess why I fix upon you so
+persistently. Now you know, and understand. When a fluke finds a
+sheep that suits him, that fluke lives upon him. You are my host: I
+am your parasite. This coup has failed. But don't flatter yourself
+for a moment it will be the last one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why do you insult me by telling me all this?" Sir Charles cried,
+writhing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel waved his hand. It was small and white. "Because I <I>love</I>
+the game," he answered, with a relish; "and also, because the more
+prepared you are beforehand, the greater credit and amusement is
+there in besting you. Well, now, ta-ta once more! I am wasting
+valuable time. I might be cheating somebody. I must be off at
+once.... Take care of yourself, Wentworth. But I know you <I>will</I>.
+You always do. Ten per cent <I>is</I> more usual!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rowed away and left us. As the boat began to disappear round the
+corner of the island, White Heather&mdash;so she looked&mdash;stood up in the
+stern and shouted aloud through her pretty hands to us. "By-bye,
+dear Sir Charles!" she cried. "Do wrap the rug around you! I'll
+send the men to fetch you as soon as ever I possibly can. And thank
+you so much for those lovely flowers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boat rounded the crags. We were alone on the island. Charles
+flung himself on the bare rock in a wild access of despondency.
+He is accustomed to luxury, and cannot get on without his padded
+cushions. As for myself, I climbed with some difficulty to the top
+of the cliff, landward, and tried to make signals of distress with
+my handkerchief to some passer-by on the mainland. All in vain.
+Charles had dismissed the crofters on the estate; and, as the
+shooting-party that day was in an opposite direction, not a soul
+was near to whom we could call for succour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I climbed down again to Charles. The evening came on slowly. Cries
+of sea-birds rang weird upon the water. Puffins and cormorants
+circled round our heads in the gray of twilight. Charles suggested
+that they might even swoop down upon us and bite us. They did not,
+however, but their flapping wings added none the less a painful
+touch of eeriness to our hunger and solitude. Charles was horribly
+depressed. For myself, I will confess I felt so much relieved at
+the fact that Colonel Clay had not openly betrayed me in the matter
+of the commission, as to be comparatively comfortable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We crouched on the hard crag. About eleven o'clock we heard human
+voices. "Boat ahoy!" I shouted. An answering shout aroused us to
+action. We rushed down to the landing-place and cooee'd for the men,
+to show them where we were. They came up at once in Sir Charles's
+own boat. They were fishermen from Niggarey, on the shore of the
+Firth opposite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A lady and gentleman had sent them, they said, to return the boat
+and call for us on the island; their description corresponded to
+the two supposed Grantons. They rowed us home almost in silence to
+Seldon. It was half-past twelve by the gatehouse clock when we
+reached the castle. Men had been sent along the coast each way to
+seek us. Amelia had gone to bed, much alarmed for our safety. Isabel
+was sitting up. It was too late, of course, to do much that night in
+the way of apprehending the miscreants, though Charles insisted upon
+dispatching a groom, with a telegram for the police at Inverness,
+to Fowlis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing came of it all. A message awaited us from Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, to be sure, saying that his son had not left
+Glen-Ellachie Lodge; while research the next day and later showed
+that our correspondent had never even received our letter. An empty
+envelope alone had arrived at the house, and the postal authorities
+had been engaged meanwhile, with their usual lightning speed, in
+"investigating the matter." Césarine had posted the letter herself
+at Fowlis, and brought back the receipt; so the only conclusion we
+could draw was this&mdash;Colonel Clay must be in league with somebody
+at the post-office. As for Lord Craig-Ellachie's reply, that was a
+simple forgery; though, oddly enough, it was written on
+Glen-Ellachie paper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, by the time Charles had eaten a couple of grouse, and
+drunk a bottle of his excellent Rudesheimer, his spirits and valour
+revived exceedingly. Doubtless he inherits from his Boer ancestry a
+tendency towards courage of the Batavian description. He was in
+capital feather.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After all, Sey," he said, leaning back in his chair, "this time
+we score one. He has <I>not</I> done us brown; we have at least detected
+him. To detect him in time is half-way to catching him. Only the
+remoteness of our position at Seldon Castle saved him from capture.
+Next set-to, I feel sure, we will not merely spot him, we will also
+nab him. I only wish he would try on such a rig in London."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the oddest part of it all was this, that from the moment those
+two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were
+some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them
+vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of
+them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their
+luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail
+stopped short, no spoor lay farther. It was a most singular and
+insoluble mystery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles lived in hopes of catching his man in London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But for my part, I felt there was a show of reason in one last
+taunt which the rascal flung back at us as the boat receded: "Sir
+Charles Vandrift, we are a pair of rogues. The law protects <I>you</I>.
+It persecutes <I>me</I>. That's all the difference."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE GERMAN PROFESSOR
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+That winter in town my respected brother-in-law had little time
+on his hands to bother himself about trifles like Colonel Clay.
+A thunderclap burst upon him. He saw his chief interest in South
+Africa threatened by a serious, an unexpected, and a crushing
+danger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles does a little in gold, and a little in land; but his
+principal operations have always lain in the direction of diamonds.
+Only once in my life, indeed, have I seen him pay the slightest
+attention to poetry, and that was when I happened one day to
+recite the lines:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Full many a gem of purest ray serene<BR>
+  The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rubbed his hands at once and murmured enthusiastically, "I never
+thought of that. We might get up an Atlantic Exploration Syndicate,
+Limited." So attached is he to diamonds. You may gather, therefore,
+what a shock it was to that gigantic brain to learn that science was
+rapidly reaching a point where his favourite gems might become all
+at once a mere drug in the market. Depreciation is the one bugbear
+that perpetually torments Sir Charles's soul; that winter he stood
+within measurable distance of so appalling a calamity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It happened after this manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were strolling along Piccadilly towards Charles's club one
+afternoon&mdash;he is a prominent member of the Croesus, in Pall
+Mall&mdash;when, near Burlington House, whom should we happen to knock
+up against but Sir Adolphus Cordery, the famous mineralogist, and
+leading spirit of the Royal Society! He nodded to us pleasantly.
+"Halloa, Vandrift," he cried, in his peculiarly loud and piercing
+voice; "you're the very man I wanted to meet to-day. Good morning,
+Wentworth. Well, how about diamonds now, Sir Gorgius? You'll have to
+sing small. It's all up with you Midases. Heard about this marvellous
+new discovery of Schleiermacher's? It's calculated to make you
+diamond kings squirm like an eel in a frying-pan."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I could see Charles wriggle inside his clothes. He was most
+uncomfortable. That a man like Cordery should say such things, in
+so loud a voice, on no matter how little foundation, openly in
+Piccadilly, was enough in itself to make a sensitive barometer
+such as Cloetedorp Golcondas go down a point or two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hush, hush!" Charles said solemnly, in that awed tone of voice
+which he always assumes when Money is blasphemed against. "<I>Please</I>
+don't talk quite so loud! All London can hear you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Adolphus ran his arm through Charles's most amicably. There's
+nothing Charles hates like having his arm taken.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come along with me to the Athenæum," he went on, in the same
+stentorian voice, "and I'll tell you all about it. Most interesting
+discovery. Makes diamonds cheap as dirt. Calculated to supersede
+South Africa altogether."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles allowed himself to be dragged along. There was nothing else
+possible. Sir Adolphus continued, in a somewhat lower key, induced
+upon him by Charles's mute look of protest. It was a disquieting
+story. He told it with gleeful unction. It seems that Professor
+Schleiermacher, of Jena, "the greatest living authority on the
+chemistry of gems," he said, had lately invented, or claimed to
+have invented, a system for artificially producing diamonds, which
+had yielded most surprising and unexceptionable results.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles's lip curled slightly. "Oh, I know the sort of thing," he
+said. "I've heard of it before. Very inferior stones, quite small
+and worthless, produced at immense cost, and even then not worth
+looking at. I'm an old bird, you know, Cordery; not to be caught
+with chaff. Tell me a better one!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Adolphus produced a small cut gem from his pocket. "How's that
+for the first water?" he inquired, passing it across, with a broad
+smile, to the sceptic. "Made under my own eyes&mdash;and quite
+inexpensively!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles examined it close, stopping short against the railings in
+St. James's Square to look at it with his pocket-lens. There was no
+denying the truth. It was a capital small gem of the finest quality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Made under your own eyes?" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Where,
+my dear sir?&mdash;at Jena?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The answer was a thunderbolt from a blue sky. "No, here in London;
+last night as ever was; before myself and Dr. Gray; and about to be
+exhibited by the President himself at a meeting of Fellows of the
+Royal Society."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles drew a long breath. "This nonsense must be stopped," he said
+firmly&mdash;"it must be nipped in the bud. It won't do, my dear friend;
+we can't have such tampering with important Interests."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you mean?" Cordery asked, astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gazed at him steadily. I could see by the furtive gleam in
+my brother-in-law's eye he was distinctly frightened. "Where <I>is</I>
+the fellow?" he asked. "Did he come himself, or send over a deputy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here in London," Sir Adolphus replied. "He's staying at my house;
+and he says he'll be glad to show his experiments to anybody
+scientifically interested in diamonds. We propose to have a
+demonstration of the process to-night at Lancaster Gate. Will
+you drop in and see it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would he "drop in" and see it? "Drop in" at such a function! Could
+he possibly stop away? Charles clutched the enemy's arm with a
+nervous grip. "Look here, Cordery," he said, quivering; "this is a
+question affecting very important Interests. Don't do anything rash.
+Don't do anything foolish. Remember that Shares may rise or fall on
+this." He said "Shares" in a tone of profound respect that I can
+hardly even indicate. It was the crucial word in the creed of his
+religion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should think it very probable," Sir Adolphus replied, with the
+callous indifference of the mere man of science to financial
+suffering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Charles was bland, but peremptory. "Now, observe," he said, "a
+grave responsibility rests on your shoulders. The Market depends
+upon you. You must not ask in any number of outsiders to witness
+these experiments. Have a few mineralogists and experts, if you
+like; but also take care to invite representatives of the menaced
+Interests. I will come myself&mdash;I'm engaged to dine out, but I
+can contract an indisposition; and I should advise you to ask
+Mosenheimer, and, say, young Phipson. They would stand for the
+mines, as you and the mineralogists would stand for science. Above
+all, don't blab; for Heaven's sake, let there be no premature
+gossip. Tell Schleiermacher not to go gassing and boasting of
+his success all over London."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are keeping the matter a profound secret, at Schleiermacher's
+own request," Cordery answered, more seriously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Which is why," Charles said, in his severest tone, "you bawled it
+out at the very top of your voice in Piccadilly!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, before nightfall, everything was arranged to Charles's
+satisfaction; and off we went to Lancaster Gate, with a profound
+expectation that the German professor would do nothing worth seeing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was a remarkable-looking man, once tall, I should say, from his
+long, thin build, but now bowed and bent with long devotion to study
+and leaning over a crucible. His hair, prematurely white, hung down
+upon his forehead, but his eye was keen and his mouth sagacious. He
+shook hands cordially with the men of science, whom he seemed to
+know of old, whilst he bowed somewhat distantly to the South African
+interest. Then he began to talk, in very German-English, helping out
+the sense now and again, where his vocabulary failed him, by waving
+his rather dirty and chemical-stained hands demonstratively about
+him. His nails were a sight, but his fingers, I must say, had the
+delicate shape of a man's accustomed to minute manipulation. He
+plunged at once into the thick of the matter, telling us briefly in
+his equally thick accent that he "now brobosed by his new brocess
+to make for us some goot and sadisfactory tiamonds."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He brought out his apparatus, and explained&mdash;or, as he said,
+"eggsblained"&mdash;his novel method. "Tiamonds," he said, "were nozzing
+but pure crystalline carbon." He knew how to crystallise it&mdash;"zat
+was all ze secret." The men of science examined the pots and pans
+carefully. Then he put in a certain number of raw materials, and
+went to work with ostentatious openness. There were three distinct
+processes, and he made two stones by each simultaneously. The
+remarkable part of his methods, he said, was their rapidity and
+their cheapness. In three-quarters of an hour (and he smiled
+sardonically) he could produce a diamond worth at current prices
+two hundred pounds sterling. "As you shall now see me berform,"
+he remarked, "viz zis simple abbaradus."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The materials fizzed and fumed. The Professor stirred them. An
+unpleasant smell like burnt feathers pervaded the room. The
+scientific men craned their necks in their eagerness, and looked
+over one another; Vane-Vivian, in particular, was all attention.
+After three-quarters of an hour, the Professor, still smiling, began
+to empty the apparatus. He removed a large quantity of dust or
+powder, which he succinctly described as "by-broducts," and then
+took between finger and thumb from the midst of each pan a small
+white pebble, not water-worn apparently, but slightly rough and
+wart-like on the surface.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From one pair of the pannikins he produced two such stones, and
+held them up before us triumphantly. "Zese," he said, "are genuine
+tiamonds, manufactured at a gost of fourteen shillings and
+siggspence abiece!" Then he tried the second pair. "Zese," he said,
+still more gleefully, "are broduced at a gost of eleffen and
+ninebence!" Finally, he came to the third pair, which he positively
+brandished before our astonished eyes. "And zese," he cried,
+transported, "haff gost me no more zan tree and eightbence!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were handed round for inspection. Rough and uncut as they
+stood, it was, of course, impossible to judge of their value. But
+one thing was certain. The men of science had been watching close at
+the first, and were sure Herr Schleiermacher had not put the stones
+in; they were keen at the withdrawal, and were equally sure he had
+taken them honestly out of the pannikins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I vill now disdribute zem," the Professor remarked in a casual
+tone, as if diamonds were peas, looking round at the company. And
+he singled out my brother-in-law. "One to Sir Charles!" he said,
+handing it; "one to Mr. Mosenheimer; one to Mr. Phibson&mdash;as
+representing the tiamond interest. Zen, one each to Sir Atolphus,
+to Dr. Gray, to Mr. Fane-Fiffian, as representing science. You will
+haff zem cut and rebort upon zem in due gourse. We meet again at
+zis blace ze day afder do-morrow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gazed at him reproachfully. The profoundest chords of his
+moral nature were stirred. "Professor," he said, in a voice of
+solemn warning, "<I>Are</I> you aware that, <I>if</I> you have succeeded, you
+have destroyed the value of thousands of pounds' worth of precious
+property?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "Fot is dat to me?" he
+inquired, with a curious glance of contempt. "I am not a financier!
+I am a man of science. I seek to know; I do not seek to make a
+fortune."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shocking!" Charles exclaimed. "Shocking! I never before in my life
+beheld so strange an instance of complete insensibility to the
+claims of others!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We separated early. The men of science were coarsely jubilant. The
+diamond interest exhibited a corresponding depression. If this news
+were true, they foresaw a slump. Every eye grew dim. It was a
+terrible business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles walked homeward with the Professor. He sounded him gently as
+to the sum required, should need arise, to purchase his secrecy.
+Already Sir Adolphus had bound us all down to temporary silence&mdash;as
+if that were necessary; but Charles wished to know how much
+Schleiermacher would take to suppress his discovery. The German
+was immovable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no!" he replied, with positive petulance. "You do not
+unterstant. I do not buy and sell. Zis is a chemical fact. We must
+bublish it for the sake off its seoretical falue. I do not care
+for wealse. I haff no time to waste in making money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What an awful picture of a misspent life!" Charles observed to me
+afterwards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, indeed, the man seemed to care for nothing on earth but the
+abstract question&mdash;not whether he could make good diamonds or not,
+but whether he could or could not produce a crystalline form of
+pure carbon!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the appointed night Charles went back to Lancaster Gate, as I
+could not fail to remark, with a strange air of complete and painful
+preoccupation. Never before in his life had I seen him so anxious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The diamonds were produced, with one surface of each slightly scored
+by the cutters, so as to show the water. Then a curious result
+disclosed itself. Strange to say, each of the three diamonds given
+to the three diamond kings turned out to be a most inferior and
+valueless stone; while each of the three intrusted to the care of
+the scientific investigators turned out to be a fine gem of the
+purest quality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I confess it was a sufficiently suspicious conjunction. The three
+representatives of the diamond interest gazed at each other with
+inquiring side-glances. Then their eyes fell suddenly: they avoided
+one another. Had each independently substituted a weak and inferior
+natural stone for Professor Schleiermacher's manufactured pebbles?
+It almost seemed so. For a moment, I admit, I was half inclined to
+suppose it. But next second I changed my mind. Could a man of Sir
+Charles Vandrift's integrity and high principle stoop for lucre's
+sake to so mean an expedient?&mdash;not to mention the fact that, even if
+he did, and if Mosenheimer did likewise, the stones submitted to the
+scientific men would have amply sufficed to establish the reality
+and success of the experiments!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, I must say, Charles looked guiltily across at Mosenheimer,
+and Mosenheimer at Phipson, while three more uncomfortable or
+unhappy-faced men could hardly have been found at that precise
+minute in the City of Westminster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Sir Adolphus spoke&mdash;or, rather, he orated. He said, in his loud
+and grating voice, we had that evening, and on a previous evening,
+been present at the conception and birth of an Epoch in the History
+of Science. Professor Schleiermacher was one of those men of whom
+his native Saxony might well be proud; while as a Briton he must
+say he regretted somewhat that this discovery, like so many
+others, should have been "Made in Germany." However, Professor
+Schleiermacher was a specimen of that noble type of scientific men
+to whom gold was merely the rare metal Au, and diamonds merely the
+element C in the scarcest of its manifold allotropic embodiments.
+The Professor did not seek to make money out of his discovery. He
+rose above the sordid greed of capitalists. Content with the glory
+of having traced the element C to its crystalline origin, he asked
+no more than the approval of science. However, out of deference to
+the wishes of those financial gentlemen who were oddly concerned in
+maintaining the present price of C in its crystalline form&mdash;in other
+words, the diamond interest&mdash;they had arranged that the secret
+should be strictly guarded and kept for the present; not one of the
+few persons admitted to the experiments would publicly divulge the
+truth about them. This secrecy would be maintained till he himself,
+and a small committee of the Royal Society, should have time to
+investigate and verify for themselves the Professor's beautiful
+and ingenious processes&mdash;an investigation and verification which
+the learned Professor himself both desired and suggested.
+(Schleiermacher nodded approval.) When that was done, if the
+process stood the test, further concealment would be absolutely
+futile. The price of diamonds must fall at once below that of paste,
+and any protest on the part of the financial world would, of course,
+be useless. The laws of Nature were superior to millionaires.
+Meanwhile, in deference to the opinion of Sir Charles Vandrift,
+whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody
+could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and
+to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple
+process in public. He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet
+"beautiful." And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must
+congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on
+his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge
+of brilliants and of crystalline science.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody applauded. It was an awkward moment. Sir Charles bit his
+lip. Mosenheimer looked glum. Young Phipson dropped an expression
+which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate
+among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy,
+the meeting separated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided
+Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his
+own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we
+took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned
+back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the
+billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload
+Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of
+the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It
+struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning
+out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the
+next few weeks or so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except
+on occasions when he is <I>very</I> angry, my respected connection
+<I>never</I> calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation,
+"Sey"&mdash;derived from Seymour&mdash;is his usual mode of address to
+me in private.) "<I>Is</I> it likely I would unload, and wreck the
+confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a
+moment? As a director&mdash;as Chairman&mdash;would it be just or right of
+me? I ask you, sir, <I>could</I> I reconcile it to my conscience?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You
+will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those
+who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in
+finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time I thought to myself, "<I>I</I> am not a director. No
+trust is reposed in <I>me</I>. <I>I</I> have to think first of dear Isabel and
+the baby. Before the crash comes <I>I</I> will sell out to-morrow the
+few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine
+my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey,"
+he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my
+brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will
+be upon us to-morrow. If <I>you</I> were to sell out, and operators got to
+know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company
+would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your
+own property. I can't interfere with <I>that</I>. I do not dictate to
+you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the
+interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should
+not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore,
+though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give
+you warning: <I>if</I> you sell out those shares of yours, openly or
+secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six
+months' salary in lieu of notice, and&mdash;you leave me instantly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very well, Charles," I answered, in a submissive voice; though I
+debated with myself for a moment whether it would be best to stick
+to the ready money and quit the sinking ship, or to hold fast by my
+friend, and back Charles's luck against the Professor's science.
+After a short, sharp struggle within my own mind, I am proud to say,
+friendship and gratitude won. I felt sure that, whether diamonds
+went up or down, Charles Vandrift was the sort of man who would come
+to the top in the end in spite of everything. And I decided to stand
+by him!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I slept little that night, however. My mind was a whirlwind. At
+breakfast Charles also looked haggard and moody. He ordered the
+carriage early, and drove straight into the City.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a block in Cheapside. Charles, impatient and nervous,
+jumped out and walked. I walked beside him. Near Wood Street a man
+we knew casually stopped us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think I ought to mention to you," he said, confidentially,
+"that I have it on the very best authority that Schleiermacher,
+of Jena&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and&mdash;there's
+not a word of truth in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He brushed on in haste. A yard or two farther a broker paused in
+front of us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Halloa, Sir Charles!" he called out, in a bantering tone. "What's
+all this about diamonds? Where are Cloetedorps to-day? Is it
+Golconda, or Queer Street?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles drew himself up very stiff. "I fail to understand you,"
+he answered, with dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, you were there yourself," the man cried. "Last night at Sir
+Adolphus's! Oh yes, it's all over the place; Schleiermacher of Jena
+has succeeded in making the most perfect diamonds&mdash;for sixpence
+apiece&mdash;as good as real&mdash;and South Africa's ancient history. In less
+than six weeks Kimberley, they say, will be a howling desert. Every
+costermonger in Whitechapel will wear genuine Koh-i-noors for
+buttons on his coat; every girl in Bermondsey will sport a rivière
+like Lady Vandrift's to her favourite music-hall. There's a slump
+in Golcondas. Sly, sly, I can see; but <I>we</I> know all about it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles moved on, disgusted. The man's manners were atrocious.
+Near the Bank we ran up against a most respectable jobber.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, Sir Charles," he said; "you here? Well, this is strange news,
+isn't it? For my part, I advise you not to take it too seriously.
+Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
+it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
+the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
+time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
+Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
+till Sir Adolphus has tested it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
+Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
+discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
+proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
+told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
+proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
+that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
+out the less was he likely to lose by it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
+out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
+at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
+follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
+murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
+to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
+was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
+and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
+"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
+my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
+is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
+prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
+one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
+the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
+the panic."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
+himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
+roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
+but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
+restore public confidence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
+as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
+Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
+and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
+own advantage. A chairman, like Caesar's wife, should be above
+suspicion. So I shall only buy up just enough, now and again, to
+let people see I, at least, have no doubt as to the firm future
+of Cloetedorps."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He went home that night, more harassed and ill than I have ever
+seen him. Next day was as bad. The slump continued, with varying
+episodes. Now, a rumour would surge up that Sir Adolphus had
+declared the whole affair a sham, and prices would steady a little;
+now, another would break out that the diamonds were actually being
+put upon the market in Berlin by the cart-load, and timid old ladies
+would wire down to their brokers to realise off-hand at whatever
+hazard. It was an awful day. I shall never forget it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The morning after, as if by miracle, things righted themselves of
+a sudden. While we were wondering what it meant, Charles received a
+telegram from Sir Adolphus Cordery:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The man is a fraud. Not Schleiermacher at all. Just had a wire
+from Jena saying the Professor knows nothing about him. Sorry
+unintentionally to have caused you trouble. Come round and see me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sorry unintentionally to have caused you trouble." Charles was
+beside himself with anger. Sir Adolphus had upset the share-market
+for forty-eight mortal hours, half-ruined a round dozen of wealthy
+operators, convulsed the City, upheaved the House, and now&mdash;he
+apologised for it as one might apologise for being late ten minutes
+for dinner! Charles jumped into a hansom and rushed round to see
+him. How had he dared to introduce the impostor to solid men as
+Professor Schleiermacher? Sir Adolphus shrugged his shoulders. The
+fellow had come and introduced himself as the great Jena chemist;
+he had long white hair, and a stoop in the shoulders. What reason
+had <I>he</I> for doubting his word? (I reflected to myself that on much
+the same grounds Charles in turn had accepted the Honourable David
+Granton and Graf von Lebenstein.) Besides, what object could the
+creature have for this extraordinary deception? Charles knew only
+too well. It was clear it was done to disturb the diamond market,
+and we realised, too late, that the man who had done it was&mdash;Colonel
+Clay, in "another of his manifold allotropic embodiments!" Charles
+had had his wish, and had met his enemy once more in London!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We could see the whole plot. Colonel Clay was polymorphic, like the
+element carbon! Doubtless, with his extraordinary sleight of hand,
+he had substituted real diamonds for the shapeless mass that came
+out of the apparatus, in the interval between handing the pebbles
+round for inspection, and distributing them piecemeal to the men of
+science and representatives of the diamond interest. We all watched
+him closely, of course, when he opened the crucibles; but when once
+we had satisfied ourselves that <I>something</I> came out, our doubts were
+set at rest, and we forgot to watch whether he distributed those
+somethings or not to the recipients. Conjurers always depend upon
+such momentary distractions or lapses of attention. As usual, too,
+the Professor had disappeared into space the moment his trick was
+once well performed. He vanished like smoke, as the Count and Seer
+had vanished before, and was never again heard of.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles went home more angry than I have ever beheld him. I couldn't
+imagine why. He seemed as deeply hipped as if he had lost his
+thousands. I endeavoured to console him. "After all," I said,
+"though Golcondas have suffered a temporary loss, it's a comfort
+to think that you should have stood so firm, and not only stemmed
+the tide, but also prevented yourself from losing anything at all
+of your own through panic. I'm sorry, of course, for the widows
+and orphans; but if Colonel Clay has rigged the market, at least
+it isn't YOU who lose by it this time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles withered me with a fierce scowl of undisguised contempt.
+"Wentworth," he said once more, "you are a fool!" Then he relapsed
+into silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you declined to sell out," I said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed at me fixedly. "Is it likely," he asked at last, "I would
+tell <I>you</I> if I meant to sell out? or that I'd sell out openly through
+Finglemore, my usual broker? Why, all the world would have known,
+and Golcondas would have been finished. As it is, I don't desire to
+tell an ass like you exactly how much I've lost. But I <I>did</I> sell out,
+and some unknown operator bought in at once, and closed for ready
+money, and has sold again this morning; and after all that has
+happened, it will be impossible to track him. He didn't wait for the
+account: he settled up instantly. And he sold in like manner. I know
+now what has been done, and how cleverly it has all been disguised
+and covered; but the most I'm going to tell you to-day is just
+this&mdash;it's by far the biggest haul Colonel Clay has made out of me.
+He could retire on it if he liked. My one hope is, it may satisfy
+him for life; but, then, no man has ever had enough of making money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>You</I> sold out!" I exclaimed. "<I>You</I>, the Chairman of the company!
+<I>You</I> deserted the ship! And how about your trust? How about the widows
+and orphans confided to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles rose and faced me. "Seymour Wentworth," he said, in his most
+solemn voice, "you have lived with me for years and had every
+advantage. You have seen high finance. Yet you ask me that question!
+It's my belief you will never, never understand business!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE ARREST OF THE COLONEL
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+How much precisely Charles dropped over the slump in Cloetedorps
+I never quite knew. But the incident left him dejected, limp, and
+dispirited.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hang it all, Sey," he said to me in the smoking-room, a few
+evenings later. "This Colonel Clay is enough to vex the patience of
+Job&mdash;and Job had large losses, too, if I recollect aright, from the
+Chaldeans and other big operators of the period."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Three thousand camels," I murmured, recalling my dear mother's
+lessons; "all at one fell swoop; not to mention five hundred yoke of
+oxen, carried off by the Sabeans, then a leading firm of speculative
+cattle-dealers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, well," Charles meditated aloud, shaking the ash from his
+cheroot into a Japanese tray&mdash;fine antique bronze-work. "There were
+big transactions in live-stock even then! Still, Job or no Job, the
+man is too much for me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The difficulty is," I assented, "you never know where to have him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Charles mused; "if he were always the same, like Horniman's
+tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd
+stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling
+every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and
+always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey,
+there's no wrestling with him anyhow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched," I
+acquiesced, "than the Honourable David?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly so," Charles murmured. "I invited him myself, for my own
+advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie
+connection."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Or the Professor?" I went on. "Introduced to us by the leading
+mineralogist of England."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then, women again," he resumed, after a painful pause. "I must meet
+in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on
+my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax
+my attention for one day&mdash;or even when I don't relax it&mdash;I am
+bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that
+transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest
+girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her.
+She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I
+lose my heart afresh to that different person."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Sey," my respected connection went on, after another long
+pause, sipping his coffee pensively, "I feel I must be aided in this
+superhuman task by a professional unraveller of cunning disguises. I
+shall go to Marvillier's to-morrow&mdash;fortunate man, Marvillier&mdash;and
+ask him to supply me with a really good 'tec, who will stop in the
+house and keep an eye upon every living soul that comes near me.
+He shall scan each nose, each eye, each wig, each whisker. He shall
+be my watchful half, my unsleeping self; it shall be his business
+to suspect all living men, all breathing women. The Archbishop of
+Canterbury shall not escape for a moment his watchful regard; he
+will take care that royal princesses don't collar the spoons or walk
+off with the jewel-cases. He must see possible Colonel Clays in the
+guard of every train and the parson of every parish; he must detect
+the off-chance of a Mme. Picardet in every young girl that takes tea
+with Amelia, every fat old lady that comes to call upon Isabel. Yes,
+I have made my mind up. I shall go to-morrow and secure such a man
+at once at Marvillier's."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you please, Sir Charles," Césarine interposed, pushing her head
+through the portière, "her ladyship says, will you and Mr. Wentworth
+remember that she goes out with you both this evening to Lady
+Carisbrooke's?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bless my soul," Charles cried, "so she does! And it's now past ten!
+The carriage will be at the door for us in another five minutes!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next morning, accordingly, Charles drove round to Marvillier's. The
+famous detective listened to his story with glistening eyes; then he
+rubbed his hands and purred. "Colonel Clay!" he said; "Colonel Clay!
+That's a very tough customer! The police of Europe are on the
+look-out for Colonel Clay. He is wanted in London, in Paris, in
+Berlin. It is le Colonel Caoutchouc here, le Colonel Caoutchouc
+there; till one begins to ask, at last, IS there <I>any</I> Colonel
+Caoutchouc, or is it a convenient class name invented by the Force
+to cover a gang of undiscovered sharpers? However, Sir Charles, we
+will do our best. I will set on the track without delay the best and
+cleverest detective in England."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The very man I want," Charles said. "What name, Marvillier?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The principal smiled. "Whatever name you like," he said. "He isn't
+particular. Medhurst he's called at home. <I>We</I> call him Joe. I'll
+send him round to your house this afternoon for certain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh no," Charles said promptly, "you won't; or Colonel Clay himself
+will come instead of him. I've been sold too often. No casual
+strangers! I'll wait here and see him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he isn't in," Marvillier objected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was firm as a rock. "Then send and fetch him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In half an hour, sure enough, the detective arrived. He was an
+odd-looking small man, with hair cut short and standing straight up
+all over his head, like a Parisian waiter. He had quick, sharp eyes,
+very much like a ferret's; his nose was depressed, his lips thin and
+bloodless. A scar marked his left cheek&mdash;made by a sword-cut, he
+said, when engaged one day in arresting a desperate French smuggler,
+disguised as an officer of Chasseurs d'Afrique. His mien was
+resolute. Altogether, a quainter or 'cuter little man it has never
+yet been my lot to set eyes on. He walked in with a brisk step,
+eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked
+for what he was wanted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is Sir Charles Vandrift, the great diamond king," Marvillier
+said, introducing us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So I see," the man answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you know me?" Charles asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wouldn't be worth much," the detective replied, "if I didn't
+know everybody. And you're easy enough to know; why, every boy in
+the street knows you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Plain spoken!" Charles remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As you like it, sir," the man answered in a respectful tone. "I
+endeavour to suit my dress and behaviour on every occasion to the
+taste of my employers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your name?" Charles asked, smiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Joseph Medhurst, at your service. What sort of work? Stolen
+diamonds? Illicit diamond-buying?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," Charles answered, fixing him with his eye. "Quite another kind
+of job. You've heard of Colonel Clay?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst nodded. "Why, certainly," he said; and, for the first time,
+I detected a lingering trace of American accent. "It's my business
+to know about him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I want you to catch him," Charles went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst drew a long breath. "Isn't that rather a large order?"
+he murmured, surprised.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles explained to him exactly the sort of services he required.
+Medhurst promised to comply. "If the man comes near you, I'll spot
+him," he said, after a moment's pause. "I can promise you that much.
+I'll pierce any disguise. I should know in a minute whether he's
+got up or not. I'm death on wigs, false moustaches, artificial
+complexions. I'll engage to bring the rogue to book if I see him.
+You may set your mind at rest, that, while <I>I'm</I> about you, Colonel
+Clay can do nothing without my instantly spotting him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He'll do it," Marvillier put in. "He'll do it, if he says it. He's
+my very best hand. Never knew any man like him for unravelling and
+unmasking the cleverest disguises."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then he'll suit me," Charles answered, "for <I>I</I> never knew any man
+like Colonel Clay for assuming and maintaining them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was arranged accordingly that Medhurst should take up his
+residence in the house for the present, and should be described to
+the servants as assistant secretary. He came that very day, with a
+marvellously small portmanteau. But from the moment he arrived,
+we noticed that Césarine took a violent dislike to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst was a most efficient detective. Charles and I told him
+all we knew about the various shapes in which Colonel Clay had
+"materialised," and he gave us in turn many valuable criticisms and
+suggestions. Why, when we began to suspect the Honourable David
+Granton, had we not, as if by accident, tried to knock his red wig
+off? Why, when the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon first discussed
+the question of the paste diamonds, had we not looked to see if
+any of Amelia's unique gems were missing? Why, when Professor
+Schleiermacher made his bow to assembled science at Lancaster Gate,
+had we not strictly inquired how far he was personally known
+beforehand to Sir Adolphus Cordery and the other mineralogists?
+He supplied us also with several good hints about false hair and
+make-up; such as that Schleiermacher was probably much shorter than
+he looked, but by imitating a stoop with padding at his back he
+had produced the illusion of a tall bent man, though in reality no
+bigger than the little curate or the Graf von Lebenstein. High heels
+did the rest; while the scientific keenness we noted in his face was
+doubtless brought about by a trifle of wax at the end of the nose,
+giving a peculiar tilt that is extremely effective. In short, I must
+frankly admit, Medhurst made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Sharp as
+Charles is, we realised at once he was nowhere in observation beside
+the trained and experienced senses of this professional detective.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The worst of it all was, while Medhurst was with us, by some curious
+fatality, Colonel Clay stopped away from us. Now and again, to be
+sure, we ran up against somebody whom Medhurst suspected; but
+after a short investigation (conducted, I may say, with admirable
+cleverness), the spy always showed us the doubtful person was
+really some innocent and well-known character, whose antecedents
+and surroundings he elucidated most wonderfully. He was a perfect
+marvel, too, in his faculty of suspicion. He suspected everybody. If
+an old friend dropped in to talk business with Charles, we found out
+afterwards that Medhurst had lain concealed all the time behind the
+curtain, and had taken short-hand notes of the whole conversation,
+as well as snap-shot photographs of the supposed sharper, by means
+of a kodak. If a fat old lady came to call upon Amelia, Medhurst
+was sure to be lurking under the ottoman in the drawing-room, and
+carefully observing, with all his eyes, whether or not she was
+really Mme. Picardet, padded. When Lady Tresco brought her four
+plain daughters to an "At Home" one night, Medhurst, in evening
+dress, disguised as a waiter, followed them each round the room with
+obtrusive ices, to satisfy himself just how much of their complexion
+was real, and how much was patent rouge and Bloom of Ninon. He
+doubted whether Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, was not Colonel Clay
+in plain clothes; and he had half an idea that Césarine herself was
+our saucy White Heather in an alternative avatar. We pointed out
+to him in vain that Simpson had often been present in the very
+same room with David Granton, and that Césarine had dressed Mrs.
+Brabazon's hair at Lucerne: this partially satisfied him, but only
+partially. He remarked that Simpson might double both parts with
+somebody else unknown; and that as for Césarine, she might well
+have a twin sister who took her place when she was Mme. Picardet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, in spite of all his care&mdash;or because of all his care&mdash;Colonel
+Clay stopped away for whole weeks together. An explanation occurred
+to us. Was it possible he knew we were guarded and watched? Was he
+afraid of measuring swords with this trained detective?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If so, how had he found it out? I had an inkling, myself&mdash;but, under
+all the circumstances, I did not mention it to Charles. It was clear
+that Césarine intensely disliked this new addition to the Vandrift
+household. She would not stop in the room where the detective was,
+or show him common politeness. She spoke of him always as "that
+odious man, Medhurst." Could she have guessed, what none of the
+other servants knew, that the man was a spy in search of the
+Colonel? I was inclined to believe it. And then it dawned upon me
+that Césarine had known all about the diamonds and their story; that
+it was Césarine who took us to see Schloss Lebenstein; that it was
+Césarine who posted the letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie! If Césarine
+was in league with Colonel Clay, as I was half inclined to surmise,
+what more natural than her obvious dislike to the detective who was
+there to catch her principal? What more simple for her than to warn
+her fellow-conspirator of the danger that awaited him if he
+approached this man Medhurst?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, I was too much frightened by the episode of the cheque to
+say anything of my nascent suspicions to Charles. I waited rather
+to see how events would shape themselves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a while Medhurst's vigilance grew positively annoying. More
+than once he came to Charles with reports and shorthand notes
+distinctly distasteful to my excellent brother-in-law. "The fellow
+is getting to know too much about us," Charles said to me one day.
+"Why, Sey, he spies out everything. Would you believe it, when I had
+that confidential interview with Brookfield the other day, about the
+new issue of Golcondas, the man was under the easy-chair, though I
+searched the room beforehand to make sure he wasn't there; and he
+came to me afterwards with full notes of the conversation, to assure
+me he thought Brookfield&mdash;whom I've known for ten years&mdash;was too
+tall by half an inch to be one of Colonel Clay's impersonations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but, Sir Charles," Medhurst cried, emerging suddenly from the
+bookcase, "you must never look upon <I>any one</I> as above suspicion
+merely because you've known him for ten years or thereabouts.
+Colonel Clay may have approached you at various times under many
+disguises. He may have built up this thing gradually. Besides, as to
+my knowing too much, why, of course, a detective always learns many
+things about his employer's family which he is not supposed to know;
+but professional honour and professional etiquette, as with doctors
+and lawyers, compel him to lock them up as absolute secrets in his
+own bosom. You need never be afraid I will divulge one jot of them.
+If I did, my occupation would be gone, and my reputation shattered."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles looked at him, appalled. "Do you dare to say," he burst out,
+"you've been listening to my talk with my brother-in-law and
+secretary?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, of course," Medhurst answered. "It's my business to listen,
+and to suspect everybody. If you push me to say so, how do I know
+Colonel Clay is not&mdash;Mr. Wentworth?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles withered him with a look. "In future, Medhurst," he said,
+"you must never conceal yourself in a room where I am without my
+leave and knowledge."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst bowed politely. "Oh, as you will, Sir Charles," he
+answered; "that's <I>quite</I> at your own wish. Though how can I act
+as an efficient detective, any way, if you insist upon tying my
+hands like that, beforehand?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again I detected a faint American flavour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After that rebuff, however, Medhurst seemed put upon his mettle. He
+redoubled his vigilance in every direction. "It's not my fault," he
+said plaintively, one day, "if my reputation's so good that, while
+I'm near you, this rogue won't approach you. If I can't <I>catch</I> him,
+at least I keep him away from coming near you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few days later, however, he brought Charles some photographs.
+These he produced with evident pride. The first he showed us was a
+vignette of a little parson. "Who's that, then?" he inquired, much
+pleased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We gazed at it, open-eyed. One word rose to our lips simultaneously:
+"Brabazon!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And how's this for high?" he asked again, producing another&mdash;the
+photograph of a gay young dog in a Tyrolese costume.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We murmured, "Von Lebenstein!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>And</I> this?" he continued, showing us the portrait of a lady with a
+most fetching squint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We answered with one voice, "Little Mrs. Granton!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst was naturally proud of this excellent exploit. He replaced
+them in his pocket-book with an air of just triumph.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you get them?" Charles asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst's look was mysterious. "Sir Charles," he answered, drawing
+himself up, "I must ask you to trust me awhile in this matter.
+Remember, there are people whom you decline to suspect. <I>I</I> have
+learned that it is always those very people who are most dangerous
+to capitalists. If I were to give you the names now, you would
+refuse to believe me. Therefore, I hold them over discreetly for
+the moment. One thing, however, I say. I <I>know</I> to a certainty where
+Colonel Clay is at this present speaking. But I will lay my plans
+deep, and I hope before long to secure him. You shall be present
+when I do so; and I shall make him confess his personality openly.
+More than that you cannot reasonably ask. I shall leave it to
+<I>you</I>, then, whether or not you wish to arrest him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was considerably puzzled, not to say piqued, by this curious
+reticence; he begged hard for names; but Medhurst was adamant. "No,
+no," he replied; "we detectives have our own just pride in our
+profession. If I told you now, you would probably spoil all by some
+premature action. You are too open and impulsive! I will mention
+this alone: Colonel Clay will be shortly in Paris, and before long
+will begin from that city a fresh attempt at defrauding you, which
+he is now hatching. Mark my words, and see whether or not I have
+been kept well informed of the fellow's movements!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was perfectly correct. Two days later, as it turned out, Charles
+received a "confidential" letter from Paris, purporting to come
+from the head of a second-rate financial house with which he had
+had dealings over the Craig-Ellachie Amalgamation&mdash;by this time,
+I ought to have said, an accomplished union. It was a letter of
+small importance in itself&mdash;a mere matter of detail; but it paved
+the way, so Medhurst thought, to some later development of more
+serious character. Here once more the man's singular foresight was
+justified. For, in another week, we received a second communication,
+containing other proposals of a delicate financial character, which
+would have involved the transference of some two thousand pounds
+to the head of the Parisian firm at an address given. Both these
+letters Medhurst cleverly compared with those written to Charles
+before, in the names of Colonel Clay and of Graf von Lebenstein.
+At first sight, it is true, the differences between the two seemed
+quite enormous: the Paris hand was broad and black, large and bold;
+while the earlier manuscript was small, neat, thin, and gentlemanly.
+Still, when Medhurst pointed out to us certain persistent twists in
+the formation of his capitals, and certain curious peculiarities in
+the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we
+could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand,
+writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in
+the other with a quill, very large and freely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This discovery was <I>most</I> important. We stood now within measurable
+distance of catching Colonel Clay, and bringing forgery and fraud
+home to him without hope of evasion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To make all sure, however, Medhurst communicated with the Paris
+police, and showed us their answers. Meanwhile, Charles continued to
+write to the head of the firm, who had given a private address in
+the Rue Jean Jacques, alleging, I must say, a most clever reason why
+the negotiations at this stage should be confidentially conducted.
+But one never expected from Colonel Clay anything less than
+consummate cleverness. In the end, it was arranged that we three
+were to go over to Paris together, that Medhurst was to undertake,
+under the guise of being Sir Charles, to pay the two thousand pounds
+to the pretended financier, and that Charles and I, waiting with the
+police outside the door, should, at a given signal, rush in with our
+forces and secure the criminal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went over accordingly, and spent the night at the Grand, as is
+Charles's custom. The Bristol, which I prefer, he finds too quiet.
+Early next morning we took a fiacre and drove to the Rue Jean
+Jacques. Medhurst had arranged everything in advance with the Paris
+police, three of whom, in plain clothes, were waiting at the foot
+of the staircase to assist us. Charles had further provided himself
+with two thousand pounds, in notes of the Bank of France, in order
+that the payment might be duly made, and no doubt arise as to the
+crime having been perpetrated as well as meditated&mdash;in the former
+case, the penalty would be fifteen years; in the latter, three only.
+He was in very high spirits. The fact that we had tracked the rascal
+to earth at last, and were within an hour of apprehending him, was
+in itself enough to raise his courage greatly. We found, as we
+expected, that the number given in the Rue Jean Jacques was that
+of an hotel, not a private residence. Medhurst went in first, and
+inquired of the landlord whether our man was at home, at the same
+time informing him of the nature of our errand, and giving him to
+understand that if we effected the capture by his friendly aid, Sir
+Charles would see that the expenses incurred on the swindler's bill
+were met in full, as the price of his assistance. The landlord
+bowed; he expressed his deep regret, as M. le Colonel&mdash;so we
+heard him call him&mdash;was a most amiable person, much liked by the
+household; but justice, of course, must have its way; and, with a
+regretful sigh, he undertook to assist us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The police remained below, but Charles and Medhurst were each
+provided with a pair of handcuffs. Remembering the Polperro case,
+however, we determined to use them with the greatest caution. We
+would only put them on in case of violent resistance. We crept up to
+the door where the miscreant was housed. Charles handed the notes in
+an open envelope to Medhurst, who seized them hastily and held them
+in his hands in readiness for action. We had a sign concerted.
+Whenever he sneezed&mdash;which he could do in the most natural
+manner&mdash;we were to open the door, rush in, and secure the criminal!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was gone for some minutes. Charles and I waited outside in
+breathless expectation. Then Medhurst sneezed. We flung the door
+open at once, and burst in upon the creature.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Medhurst rose as we did so. He pointed with his finger. "<I>This</I> is
+Colonel Clay!" he said; "keep him well in charge while I go down
+to the door for the police to arrest him!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A gentlemanly man, about middle height, with a grizzled beard and a
+well-assumed military aspect, rose at the same moment. The envelope
+in which Charles had placed the notes lay on the table before him.
+He clutched it nervously. "I am at a loss, gentlemen," he said, in
+an excited voice, "to account for this interruption." He spoke with
+a tremor, yet with all the politeness to which we were accustomed in
+the little curate and the Honourable David.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No nonsense!" Charles exclaimed, in his authoritative way. "We know
+who you are. We have found you out this time. You are Colonel Clay.
+If you attempt to resist&mdash;take care&mdash;I will handcuff you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The military gentleman gave a start. "Yes, I <I>am</I> Colonel Clay," he
+answered. "On what charge do you arrest me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was bursting with wrath. The fellow's coolness seemed never
+to desert him. "You <I>are</I> Colonel Clay!" he muttered. "You have the
+unspeakable effrontery to stand there and admit it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," the Colonel answered, growing hot in turn. "I have done
+nothing to be ashamed of. What do you mean by this conduct? How dare
+you talk of arresting me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Come, come, my
+friend," he said. "That sort of bluff won't go down with us. You
+know very well on what charge I arrest you; and here are the police
+to give effect to it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He called out "Entrez!" The police entered the room. Charles
+explained as well as he could in most doubtful Parisian what they
+were next to do. The Colonel drew himself up in an indignant
+attitude. He turned and addressed them in excellent French.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am an officer in the service of her Britannic Majesty," he said.
+"On what ground do you venture to interfere with me, messieurs?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chief policeman explained. The Colonel turned to Charles.
+"<I>Your</I> name, sir?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know it very well," Charles answered. "I am Sir Charles
+Vandrift; and, in spite of your clever disguise, I can instantly
+recognise you. I know your eyes and ears. I can see the same man
+who cheated me at Nice, and who insulted me on the island."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>You</I> Sir Charles Vandrift!" the rogue cried. "No, no, sir, you are
+a madman!" He looked round at the police. "Take care what you do!"
+he cried. "This is a raving maniac. I had business just now with Sir
+Charles Vandrift, who quitted the room as these gentlemen entered.
+This person is mad, and you, monsieur, I doubt not," bowing to me,
+"you are, of course, his keeper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not let him deceive you," I cried to the police, beginning to
+fear that with his usual incredible cleverness the fellow would
+even now manage to slip through our fingers. "Arrest him, as you
+are told. <I>We</I> will take the responsibility." Though I trembled when
+I thought of that cheque he held of mine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chief of our three policemen came forward and laid his hand on
+the culprit's shoulder. "I advise you, M. le Colonel," he said, in
+an official voice, "to come with us quietly for the present. Before
+the juge d'instruction we can enter at length into all these
+questions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel, very indignant still&mdash;and acting the part
+marvellously&mdash;yielded and went along with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where's Medhurst?" Charles inquired, glancing round as we reached
+the door. "I wish he had stopped with us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are looking for monsieur your friend?" the landlord inquired,
+with a side bow to the Colonel. "He has gone away in a fiacre. He
+asked me to give this note to you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He handed us a twisted note. Charles opened and read it. "Invaluable
+man!" he cried. "Just hear what he says, Sey: 'Having secured
+Colonel Clay, I am off now again on the track of Mme. Picardet.
+She was lodging in the same house. She has just driven away; I know
+to what place; and I am after her to arrest her. In blind haste,
+MEDHURST.' That's smartness, IF you like. Though, poor little woman,
+I think he might have left her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Does a Mme. Picardet stop here?" I inquired of the landlord,
+thinking it possible she might have assumed again the same old
+alias.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He nodded assent. "Oui, oui, oui," he answered. "She has just driven
+off, and monsieur your friend has gone posting after her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Splendid man!" Charles cried. "Marvillier was quite right. He is
+the prince of detectives!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We hailed a couple of fiacres, and drove off, in two detachments,
+to the juge d'instruction. There Colonel Clay continued to brazen
+it out, and asserted that he was an officer in the Indian Army, home
+on six months' leave, and spending some weeks in Paris. He even
+declared he was known at the Embassy, where he had a cousin an
+attaché; and he asked that this gentleman should be sent for at once
+from our Ambassador's to identify him. The juge d'instruction
+insisted that this must be done; and Charles waited in very bad
+humour for the foolish formality. It really seemed as if, after all,
+when we had actually caught and arrested our man, he was going by
+some cunning device to escape us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a delay of more than an hour, during which Colonel Clay
+fretted and fumed quite as much as we did, the attaché arrived. To
+our horror and astonishment, he proceeded to salute the prisoner
+most affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Halloa, Algy!" he cried, grasping his hand; "what's up? What do
+these ruffians want with you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It began to dawn upon us, then, what Medhurst had meant by
+"suspecting everybody": the real Colonel Clay was no common
+adventurer, but a gentleman of birth and high connections!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel glared at us. "This fellow declares he's Sir Charles
+Vandrift," he said sulkily. "Though, in fact, there are two of them.
+And he accuses me of forgery, fraud, and theft, Bertie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The attaché stared hard at us. "This <I>is</I> Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+replied, after a moment. "I remember hearing him make a speech once
+at a City dinner. And what charge have you to prefer, Sir Charles,
+against my cousin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your cousin?" Charles cried. "This is Colonel Clay, the notorious
+sharper!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The attaché smiled a gentlemanly and superior smile. "This is
+Colonel Clay," he answered, "of the Bengal Staff Corps."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It began to strike us there was something wrong somewhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he has cheated me, all the same," Charles said&mdash;"at Nice two
+years ago, and many times since; and this very day he has tricked me
+out of two thousand pounds in French bank-notes, which he has now
+about him!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel was speechless. But the attaché laughed. "What he has
+done to-day I don't know," he said; "but if it's as apocryphal as
+what you say he did two years ago, you've a thundering bad case,
+sir; for he was then in India, and I was out there, visiting him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where are the two thousand pounds?" Charles cried. "Why, you've got
+them in your hand! You're holding the envelope!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Colonel produced it. "This envelope," he said, "was left with me
+by the man with short stiff hair, who came just before you, and who
+announced himself as Sir Charles Vandrift. He said he was interested
+in tea in Assam, and wanted me to join the board of directors of
+some bogus company. These are his papers, I believe," and he handed
+them to his cousin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I'm glad the notes are safe, anyhow," Charles murmured, in a
+tone of relief, beginning to smell a rat. "Will you kindly return
+them to me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The attaché turned out the contents of the envelope. They proved to
+be prospectuses of bubble companies of the moment, of no importance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Medhurst must have put them there," I cried, "and decamped with the
+cash."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gave a groan of horror. "And Medhurst is Colonel Clay!" he
+exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the Colonel interposed. "I have but one
+personality, and no aliases."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It took quite half an hour to explain this imbroglio. But as soon as
+all was explained, in French and English, to the satisfaction of
+ourselves and the juge d'instruction, the real Colonel shook hands
+with us in a most forgiving way, and informed us that he had more
+than once wondered, when he gave his name at shops in Paris, why
+it was often received with such grave suspicion. We instructed
+the police that the true culprit was Medhurst, whom they had seen
+with their own eyes, and whom we urged them to pursue with all
+expedition. Meanwhile, Charles and I, accompanied by the Colonel
+and the attaché&mdash;"to see the fun out," as they said&mdash;called at the
+Bank of France for the purpose of stopping the notes immediately. It
+was too late, however. They had been presented at once, and cashed
+in gold, by a pleasant little lady in an American costume, who was
+afterwards identified by the hotel-keeper (from our description) as
+his lodger, Mme. Picardet. It was clear she had taken rooms in the
+same hotel, to be near the Indian Colonel; and it was <I>she</I> who had
+received and sent the letters. As for our foe, he had vanished into
+space, as always.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two days later we received the usual insulting communication on a
+sheet of Charles's own dainty note. Last time he wrote it was on
+Craig-Ellachie paper: this time, like the wanton lapwing, he had got
+himself another crest.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"MOST PERSPICACIOUS OF MILLIONAIRES!&mdash;Said I not well, as
+Medhurst, that you must distrust everybody? And the one man
+you never dreamt of distrusting was&mdash;Medhurst. Yet see how
+truthful I was! I told you I knew where Colonel Clay was
+living&mdash;and I <I>did</I> know, exactly. I promised to take you to
+Colonel Clay's rooms, and to get him arrested for you&mdash;and
+I kept my promise. I even exceeded your expectations; for
+I gave you <I>two</I> Colonel Clays instead of one&mdash;and you took
+the wrong man&mdash;that is to say, the real one. This was a neat
+little trick; but it cost me some trouble.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"First, I found out there <I>was</I> a real Colonel Clay, in the
+Indian Army. I also found out he chanced to be coming home on
+leave this season. I might have made more out of him, no doubt;
+but I disliked annoying him, and preferred to give myself the
+fun of this peculiar mystification. I therefore waited for him
+to reach Paris, where the police arrangements suited me better
+than in London. While I was looking about, and delaying
+operations for his return, I happened to hear you wanted a
+detective. So I offered myself as out of work to my old
+employer, Marvillier, from whom I have had many good jobs in the
+past; and there you get, in short, the kernel of the Colonel.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Naturally, after this, I can never go back as a detective
+to Marvillier's. But, on the large scale on which I have
+learned to work since I first had the pleasure of making
+your delightful acquaintance, this matters little. To say
+the truth, I begin to feel detective work a cut or two below
+me. I am now a gentleman of means and leisure. Besides, the
+extra knowledge of your movements which I have acquired in
+your house has helped still further to give me various holds
+upon you. So the fluke will be true to his own pet lamb. To
+vary the metaphor, you are not fully shorn yet.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Remember me most kindly to your charming family, give
+Wentworth my love, and tell Mlle. Césarine I owe her a grudge
+which I shall never forget. She clearly suspected me. You are
+much too rich, dear Charles; I relieve your plethora. I bleed
+you financially. Therefore I consider myself&mdash;Your sincerest
+friend,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"CLAY-BRABAZON-MEDHURST,
+<BR>
+"Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Charles was threatened with apoplexy. This blow was severe.
+"Whom can I trust," he asked, plaintively, "when the detectives
+themselves, whom I employ to guard me, turn out to be swindlers?
+Don't you remember that line in the Latin grammar&mdash;something about,
+'Who shall watch the watchers?' I think it used to run, 'Quis
+custodes custodiet ipsos?'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But I felt this episode had at least disproved my suspicions of
+poor Césarine.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE SELDON GOLD-MINE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+On our return to London, Charles and Marvillier had a difference
+of opinion on the subject of Medhurst.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles maintained that Marvillier ought to have known the man
+with the cropped hair was Colonel Clay, and ought never to have
+recommended him. Marvillier maintained that Charles had <I>seen</I>
+Colonel Clay half-a-dozen times, at least, to his own never; and
+that my respected brother-in-law had therefore nobody on earth
+but himself to blame if the rogue imposed upon him. The head
+detective had known Medhurst for ten years, he said, as a most
+respectable man, and even a ratepayer; he had always found him the
+cleverest of spies, as well he might be, indeed, on the familiar
+set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief principle. However, the upshot of
+it all was, as usual&mdash;nothing. Marvillier was sorry to lose the
+services of so excellent a hand; but he had done the very best
+he could for Sir Charles, he declared; and if Sir Charles was
+not satisfied, why, he might catch his Colonel Clays for himself
+in future.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So I will, Sey," Charles remarked to me, as we walked back from
+the office in the Strand by Piccadilly. "I won't trust any more to
+these private detectives. It's my belief they're a pack of thieves
+themselves, in league with the rascals they're set to catch, and
+with no more sense of honour than a Zulu diamond-hand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Better try the police," I suggested, by way of being helpful.
+One must assume an interest in one's employer's business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Charles shook his head. "No, no," he said; "I'm sick of all
+these fellows. I shall trust in future to my own sagacity. We
+learn by experience, Sey&mdash;and I've learned a thing or two. One of
+them is this: It's not enough to suspect everybody; you must have
+no preconceptions. Divest yourself entirely of every fixed idea
+if you wish to cope with a rascal of this calibre. Don't jump at
+conclusions. We should disbelieve everything, as well as distrust
+everybody. That's the road to success; and I mean to pursue it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, by way of pursuing it, Charles retired to Seldon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The longer the man goes on, the worse he grows," he said to me
+one morning. "He's just like a tiger that has tasted blood. Every
+successful haul seems only to make him more eager for another.
+I fully expect now before long we shall see him down here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About three weeks later, sure enough, my respected connection
+received a communication from the abandoned swindler, with
+an Austrian stamp and a Vienna post-mark.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"MY DEAR VANDRIFT.&mdash;(After so long and so varied an acquaintance
+we may surely drop the absurd formalities of 'Sir Charles' and
+'Colonel.') I write to ask you a delicate question. Can you kindly
+tell me exactly how much I have received from your various generous
+acts during the last three years? I have mislaid my account-book,
+and as this is the season for making the income tax return, I am
+anxious, as an honest and conscientious citizen, to set down my
+average profits out of you for the triennial period. For reasons
+which you will amply understand, I do not this time give my private
+address, in Paris or elsewhere; but if you will kindly advertise
+the total amount, above the signature 'Peter Simple,' in the Agony
+Column of the Times, you will confer a great favour upon the
+Revenue Commissioners, and also upon your constant friend and
+companion, CUTHBERT CLAY,
+<BR><BR>
+"Practical Socialist."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"Mark my word, Sey," Charles said, laying the letter down, "in a
+week or less the man himself will follow. This is his cunning way
+of trying to make me think he's well out of the country and far
+away from Seldon. That means he's meditating another descent. But
+he told us too much last time, when he was Medhurst the detective.
+He gave us some hints about disguises and their unmasking that I
+shall not forget. This turn I shall be even with him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On Saturday of that week, in effect, we were walking along the road
+that leads into the village, when we met a gentlemanly-looking man,
+in a rough and rather happy-go-lucky brown tweed suit, who had the
+air of a tourist. He was middle-aged, and of middle height; he wore
+a small leather wallet suspended round his shoulder; and he was
+peering about at the rocks in a suspicious manner. Something in
+his gait attracted our attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-morning," he said, looking up as we passed; and Charles
+muttered a somewhat surly inarticulate, "Good-morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went on without saying more. "Well, <I>that's</I> not Colonel Clay,
+anyhow," I said, as we got out of earshot. "For he accosted us
+first; and you may remember it's one of the Colonel's most marked
+peculiarities that, like the model child, he never speaks till he's
+spoken to&mdash;never begins an acquaintance. He always waits till we
+make the first advance; he doesn't go out of his way to cheat us;
+he loiters about till we ask him to do it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law responded, in a severe tone, "there
+you are, now, doing the very thing I warned you not to do! You're
+succumbing to a preconception. Avoid fixed ideas. The probability
+is this man <I>is</I> Colonel Clay. Strangers are generally scarce at
+Seldon. If he isn't Colonel Clay, what's he here for, I'd like
+to know? What money is there to be made here in any other way?
+I shall inquire about him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We dropped in at the Cromarty Arms, and asked good Mrs. M'Lachlan
+if she could tell us anything about the gentlemanly stranger. Mrs.
+M'Lachlan replied that he was from London, she believed, a pleasant
+gentleman enough; and he had his wife with him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ha! Young? Pretty?" Charles inquired, with a speaking glance at me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Weel, Sir Charles, she'll no be exactly what you'd be ca'ing a
+bonny lass," Mrs. M'Lachlan replied; "but she's a guid body for
+a' that, an' a fine braw woman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just what I should expect," Charles murmured, "He varies the
+programme. The fellow has tried White Heather as the parson's wife,
+and as Madame Picardet, and as squinting little Mrs. Granton, and
+as Medhurst's accomplice; and now, he has almost exhausted the
+possibilities of a disguise for a really young and pretty woman;
+so he's playing her off at last as the riper product&mdash;a handsome
+matron. Clever, extremely clever; but&mdash;we begin to see through him."
+And he chuckled to himself quietly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, on the hillside, we came upon our stranger again,
+occupied as before in peering into the rocks, and sounding them
+with a hammer. Charles nudged me and whispered, "I have it this
+time. He's posing as a geologist."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I took a good look at the man. By now, of course, we had some
+experience of Colonel Clay in his various disguises; and I could
+observe that while the nose, the hair, and the beard were varied,
+the eyes and the build remained the same as ever. He was a trifle
+stouter, of course, being got up as a man of between forty and
+fifty; and his forehead was lined in a way which a less consummate
+artist than Colonel Clay could easily have imitated. But I felt we
+had at least some grounds for our identification; it would not do
+to dismiss the suggestion of Clayhood at once as a flight of fancy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His wife was sitting near, upon a bare boss of rock, reading a
+volume of poems. Capital variant, that, a volume of poems! Exactly
+suited the selected type of a cultivated family. White Heather and
+Mrs. Granton never used to read poems. But that was characteristic
+of all Colonel Clay's impersonations, and Mrs. Clay's too&mdash;for I
+suppose I must call her so. They were not mere outer disguises;
+they were finished pieces of dramatic study. Those two people were
+an actor and actress, as well as a pair of rogues; and in both
+their rôles they were simply inimitable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As a rule, Charles is by no means polite to casual trespassers on
+the Seldon estate; they get short shrift and a summary ejection.
+But on this occasion he had a reason for being courteous, and he
+approached the lady with a bow of recognition. "Lovely day," he
+said, "isn't it? Such belts on the sea, and the heather smells
+sweet. You are stopping at the inn, I fancy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," the lady answered, looking up at him with a charming smile.
+("I know that smile," Charles whispered to me. "I have succumbed to
+it too often.") "We're stopping at the inn, and my husband is doing
+a little geology on the hill here. I hope Sir Charles Vandrift won't
+come and catch us. He's so down upon trespassers. They tell us at
+the inn he's a regular Tartar."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+("Saucy minx as ever," Charles murmured to me. "She said it on
+purpose.") "No, my dear madam," he continued, aloud; "you have
+been quite misinformed. <I>I</I> am Sir Charles Vandrift; and I am <I>not</I>
+a Tartar. If your husband is a man of science I respect and admire
+him. It is geology that has made me what I am to-day." And he drew
+himself up proudly. "We owe to it the present development of South
+African mining."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lady blushed as one seldom sees a mature woman blush&mdash;but
+exactly as I had seen Madame Picardet and White Heather. "Oh, I'm
+so sorry," she said, in a confused way that recalled Mrs. Granton.
+"Forgive my hasty speech. I&mdash;I didn't know you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+("She did," Charles whispered. "But let that pass.") "Oh, don't
+think of it again; so many people disturb the birds, don't you know,
+that we're obliged in self-defence to warn trespassers sometimes off
+our lovely mountains. But I do it with regret&mdash;with profound regret.
+I admire the&mdash;er&mdash;the beauties of Nature myself; and, therefore,
+I desire that all others should have the freest possible access
+to them&mdash;possible, that is to say, consistently with the superior
+claims of Property."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I see," the lady replied, looking up at him quaintly. "I admire
+your wish, though not your reservation. I've just been reading
+those sweet lines of Wordsworth's&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  And O, ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,<BR>
+  Forebode not any severing of our loves.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+I suppose you know them?" And she beamed on him pleasantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Know them?" Charles answered. "Know them! Oh, of course, I know
+them. They're old favourites of mine&mdash;in fact, I adore Wordsworth."
+(I doubt whether Charles has ever in his life read a line of poetry,
+except Doss Chiderdoss in the Sporting Times.) He took the book
+and glanced at them. "Ah, charming, charming!" he said, in his most
+ecstatic tone. But his eyes were on the lady, and not on the poet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw in a moment how things stood. No matter under what disguise
+that woman appeared to him, and whether he recognised her or not,
+Charles couldn't help falling a victim to Madame Picardet's
+attractions. Here he actually suspected her; yet, like a moth
+round a candle, he was trying his hardest to get his wings singed!
+I almost despised him with his gigantic intellect! The greatest
+men are the greatest fools, I verily believe, when there's a woman
+in question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The husband strolled up by this time, and entered into conversation
+with us. According to his own account, his name was Forbes-Gaskell,
+and he was a Professor of Geology in one of those new-fangled
+northern colleges. He had come to Seldon rock-spying, he said, and
+found much to interest him. He was fond of fossils, but his special
+hobby was rocks and minerals. He knew a vast deal about cairngorms
+and agates and such-like pretty things, and showed Charles quartz
+and felspar and red cornelian, and I don't know what else, in the
+crags on the hillside. Charles pretended to listen to him with the
+deepest interest and even respect, never for a moment letting him
+guess he knew for what purpose this show of knowledge had been
+recently acquired. If we were ever to catch the man, we must not
+allow him to see we suspected him. So Charles played a dark game.
+He swallowed the geologist whole without question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Most of that morning we spent with them on the hillside. Charles
+took them everywhere and showed them everything. He pretended to be
+polite to the scientific man, and he was really polite, most polite,
+to the poetical lady. Before lunch time we had become quite friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Clays were always easy people to get on with; and, bar their
+roguery, we could not deny they were delightful companions. Charles
+asked them in to lunch. They accepted willingly. He introduced them
+to Amelia with sundry raisings of his eyebrows and contortions
+of his mouth. "Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell," he said,
+half-dislocating his jaw with his violent efforts. "They're stopping
+at the inn, dear. I've been showing them over the place, and they're
+good enough to say they'll drop in and take a share in our cold
+roast mutton;" which was a frequent form of Charles's pleasantry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amelia sent them upstairs to wash their hands&mdash;which, in the
+Professor's case, was certainly desirable, for his fingers were
+grimed with earth and dust from the rocks he had been investigating.
+As soon as we were left alone Charles drew me into the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," he said, "more than ever there is a need for us strictly
+to avoid preconceptions. We must not make up our minds that this man
+is Colonel Clay&mdash;nor, again, that he isn't. We must remember that we
+have been mistaken in <I>both</I> ways in the past, and must avoid our
+old errors. I shall hold myself in readiness for either event&mdash;and
+a policeman in readiness to arrest them, if necessary!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A capital plan," I murmured. "Still, if I may venture a suggestion,
+in what way are these two people endeavouring to entrap us? They
+have no scheme on hand&mdash;no schloss, no amalgamation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law answered in his board-room style, "you
+are a great deal too previous, as Medhurst used to say&mdash;I mean,
+Colonel Clay in his character as Medhurst. In the first place, these
+are early days; our friends have not yet developed their intentions.
+We may find before long they have a property to sell, or a company
+to promote, or a concession to exploit in South Africa or elsewhere.
+Then again, in the second place, we don't always spot the exact
+nature of their plan until it has burst in our hands, so to speak,
+and revealed its true character. What could have seemed more
+transparent than Medhurst, the detective, till he ran away with our
+notes in the very moment of triumph? What more innocent than White
+Heather and the little curate, till they landed us with a couple
+of Amelia's own gems as a splendid bargain? I will not take it for
+granted <I>any</I> man is not Colonel Clay, merely because I don't happen
+to spot the particular scheme he is trying to work against me. The
+rogue has so many schemes, and some of them so well concealed, that
+up to the moment of the actual explosion you fail to detect the
+presence of moral dynamite. Therefore, I shall proceed as if there
+were dynamite everywhere. But in the third place&mdash;and this is <I>very</I>
+important&mdash;you mark my words, I believe I detect already the lines
+he will work upon. He's a geologist, he says, with a taste for
+minerals. Very good. You see if he doesn't try to persuade me before
+long he has found a coal mine, whose locality he will disclose for
+a trifling consideration; or else he will salt the Long Mountain
+with emeralds, and claim a big share for helping to discover them;
+or else he will try something in the mineralogical line to <I>do</I> me
+somehow. I see it in the very transparency of the fellow's face;
+and I'm determined this time neither to pay him one farthing on
+any pretext, nor to let him escape me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went in to lunch. The Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, all
+smiles, accompanied us. I don't know whether it was Charles's
+warning to take nothing for granted that made me do so&mdash;but I kept
+a close eye upon the suspected man all the time we were at table.
+It struck me there was something very odd about his hair. It
+didn't seem quite the same colour all over. The locks that hung
+down behind, over the collar of his coat, were a trifle lighter and
+a trifle grayer than the black mass that covered the greater part
+of his head. I examined it carefully. The more I did so, the more
+the conviction grew upon me: he was wearing a wig. There was no
+denying it!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A trifle less artistic, perhaps, than most of Colonel Clay's
+get-ups; but then, I reflected (on Charles's principle of taking
+nothing for granted), we had never before suspected Colonel Clay
+himself, except in the one case of the Honourable David, whose red
+hair and whiskers even Madame Picardet had admitted to be absurdly
+false by her action of pointing at them and tittering irrepressibly.
+It was possible that in every case, if we had scrutinised our man
+closely, we should have found that the disguise betrayed itself
+at once (as Medhurst had suggested) to an acute observer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The detective, in fact, had told us too much. I remembered what he
+said to us about knocking off David Granton's red wig the moment
+we doubted him; and I positively tried to help myself awkwardly
+to potato-chips, when the footman offered them, so as to hit the
+supposed wig with an apparently careless brush of my elbow. But
+it was of no avail. The fellow seemed to anticipate or suspect my
+intention, and dodged aside carefully, like one well accustomed
+to saving his disguise from all chance of such real or seeming
+accidents.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was so full of my discovery that immediately after lunch I induced
+Isabel to take our new friends round the home garden and show them
+Charles's famous prize dahlias, while I proceeded myself to narrate
+to Charles and Amelia my observations and my frustrated experiment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It <I>is</I> a wig," Amelia assented. "<I>I</I> spotted it at once. A very
+good wig, too, and most artistically planted. Men don't notice these
+things, though women do. It is creditable to you, Seymour, to have
+succeeded in detecting it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was less complimentary. "You fool," he answered, with that
+unpleasant frankness which is much too common with him. "Supposing
+it <I>is</I>, why on earth should you try to knock it off and disclose
+him? What good would it have done? If it <I>is</I> a wig, and we spot it,
+that's all that we need. We are put on our guard; we know with whom
+we have now to deal. But you can't take a man up on a charge of
+wig-wearing. The law doesn't interfere with it. Most respectable men
+may sometimes wear wigs. Why, I knew a promoter who did, and also
+the director of fourteen companies! What we have to do next is, wait
+till he tries to cheat us, and then&mdash;pounce down upon him. Sooner
+or later, you may be sure, his plans will reveal themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So we concocted an excellent scheme to keep them under constant
+observation, lest they should slip away again, as they did from the
+island. First of all, Amelia was to ask them to come and stop at the
+castle, on the ground that the rooms at the inn were uncomfortably
+small. We felt sure, however, that, as on a previous occasion,
+they would refuse the invitation, in order to be able to slink
+off unperceived, in case they should find themselves apparently
+suspected. Should they decline, it was arranged that Césarine should
+take a room at the Cromarty Arms as long as they stopped there, and
+report upon their movements; while, during the day, we would have
+the house watched by the head gillie's son, a most intelligent
+young man, who could be trusted, with true Scotch canniness, to
+say nothing to anybody.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To our immense surprise, Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell accepted the invitation
+with the utmost alacrity. She was profuse in her thanks, indeed; for
+she told us the Arms was an ill-kept house, and the cookery by no
+means agreed with her husband's liver. It was sweet of us to invite
+them; such kindness to perfect strangers was quite unexpected. She
+should always say that nowhere on earth had she met with so cordial
+or friendly a reception as at Seldon Castle. But&mdash;she accepted,
+unreservedly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It <I>can't</I> be Colonel Clay," I remarked to Charles. "He would never
+have come here. Even as David Granton, with far more reason for
+coming, he wouldn't put himself in our power: he preferred the
+security and freedom of the Cromarty Arms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said sententiously, "you're incorrigible.
+You <I>will</I> persist in being the slave of prepossessions. He may
+have some good reason of his own for accepting. Wait till he shows
+his hand&mdash;and then, we shall understand everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So for the next three weeks the Forbes-Gaskells formed part of the
+house-party at Seldon. I must say, Charles paid them most assiduous
+attention. He positively neglected his other guests in order to keep
+close to the two new-comers. Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell noticed the fact,
+and commented on it. "You are really too good to us, Sir Charles,"
+she said. "I'm afraid you allow us quite to monopolise you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Charles, gallant as ever, replied with a smile, "We have
+you with us for so short a time, you know!" Which made Mrs.
+Forbes-Gaskell blush again that delicious blush of hers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During all this time the Professor went on calmly and persistently
+mineralogising. "Wonderful character!" Charles said to me. "He works
+out his parts so well! Could anything exceed the picture he gives
+one of scientific ardour?" And, indeed, he was at it, morning, noon,
+and night. "Sooner or later," Charles observed, "something practical
+must come of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Twice, meanwhile, little episodes occurred which are well worth
+notice. One day I was out with the Professor on the Long Mountain,
+watching him hammer at the rocks, and a little bored by his
+performance, when, to pass the time, I asked him what a particular
+small water-worn stone was. He looked at it and smiled. "If there
+were a little more mica in it," he said, "it would be the
+characteristic gneiss of ice-borne boulders, hereabouts. But
+there isn't <I>quite</I> enough." And he gazed at it curiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Indeed," I answered, "it doesn't come up to sample, doesn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gave me a meaning look. "Ten per cent," he murmured in a slow,
+strange voice; "ten per cent is more usual."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I trembled violently. Was he bent, then, upon ruining me? "If you
+betray me&mdash;" I cried, and broke off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg your pardon," he said. He was all pure innocence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I reflected on what Charles had said about taking nothing for
+granted, and held my tongue prudently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other incident was this. Charles picked a sprig of white heather
+on the hill one afternoon, after a picnic lunch, I regret to say,
+when he had taken perhaps a glass more champagne than was strictly
+good for him. He was not exactly the worse for it, but he was
+excited, good-humoured, reckless, and lively. He brought the sprig
+to Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, and handed it to her, ogling a little.
+"Sweets to the sweet," he murmured, and looked at her meaningly.
+"White heather to White Heather." Then he saw what he had done,
+and checked himself instantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell coloured up in the usual manner. "I&mdash;I don't
+quite understand," she faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles scrambled out of it somehow. "White heather for luck," he
+said, "and&mdash;the man who is privileged to give a piece of it to you
+is surely lucky."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She smiled, none too well pleased. I somehow felt she suspected us
+of suspecting her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, as it turned out, nothing came, after all, of the untoward
+incident.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day Charles burst upon me, triumphant. "Well, he has shown
+his hand!" he cried. "I knew he would. He has come to me to-day
+with&mdash;what do you think?&mdash;a fragment of gold, in quartz, from the
+Long Mountain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No!" I exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Charles answered. "He says there's a vein there with distinct
+specks of gold in it, which might be worth mining. When a man begins
+<I>that</I> way you know what he's driving at! And what's more, he's got
+up the subject beforehand; for he began saying to me there had long
+been gold in Sutherlandshire&mdash;why not therefore in Ross-shire?
+And then he went at full into the comparative geology of the two
+regions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is serious," I said. "What will you do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait and watch," Charles answered; "and the moment he develops a
+proposal for shares in the syndicate to work the mine, or a sum of
+money down as the price of his discovery&mdash;get in the police, and
+arrest him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the next few days the Professor was more active and ardent than
+ever. He went peering about the rocks on every side with his hammer.
+He kept on bringing in little pieces of stone, with gold specks
+stuck in them, and talking learnedly of the "probable cost of
+crushing and milling." Charles had heard all that before; in
+point of fact, he had assisted at the drafting of some dozens of
+prospectuses. So he took no notice, and waited for the man with the
+wig to develop his proposals. He knew they would come soon; and he
+watched and waited. But, of course, to draw him on he pretended to
+be interested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While we were all in this attitude of mind, attending on Providence
+and Colonel Clay, we happened to walk down by the shore one day, in
+the opposite direction from the Seamew's island. Suddenly we came
+upon the Professor linked arm-in-arm with&mdash;Sir Adolphus Cordery!
+They were wrapped in deep talk, and appeared to be most amicable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now, naturally, relations had been a trifle strained between Sir
+Adolphus and the house of Vandrift since the incident of the Slump;
+but under the present circumstances, and with such a matter at stake
+as the capture of Colonel Clay, it was necessary to overlook all
+such minor differences. So Charles managed to disengage the
+Professor from his friend, sent Amelia on with Forbes-Gaskell
+towards the castle, and stopped behind, himself, with Sir Adolphus
+and me, to clear up the question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know this man, Cordery?" he asked, with some little
+suspicion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Know him? Why, of course I do," Sir Adolphus answered. "He's
+Marmaduke Forbes-Gaskell, of the Yorkshire College, a very
+distinguished man of science. First-rate mineralogist&mdash;perhaps
+the best (<I>but</I> one) in England." Modesty forbade him to name the
+exception.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But are you sure it's he?" Charles inquired, with growing
+doubt. "Have you known him before? This isn't a second case of
+Schleiermachering me, is it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sure it's he?" Sir Adolphus echoed. "Am I sure of myself? Why, I've
+known Marmy Gaskell ever since we were at Trinity together. Knew him
+before he married Miss Forbes of Glenluce, my wife's second cousin,
+and hyphened his name with hers, to keep the property in the family.
+Know them both most intimately. Came down here to the inn because I
+heard that Marmy was on the prowl among these hills, and I thought he
+had probably something good to prowl after&mdash;in the way of fossils."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the man wears a wig!" Charles expostulated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," Cordery answered. "He's as bald as a bat&mdash;in front at
+least&mdash;and he wears a wig to cover his baldness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful&mdash;taking us in
+like that." And he grew red as a turkey-cock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Adolphus has no delicacy. He burst out laughing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I see," he cried out, simply bursting with amusement. "You
+thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay in disguise! Oh, my stars,
+what a lovely one!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>You</I>, at least, have no right to laugh," Charles responded, drawing
+himself up and growing still redder. "You led me once into a
+similar scrape, and then backed out of it in a way unbecoming a
+gentleman. Besides," he went on, getting angrier at each word,
+"this fellow, whoever he is, has been trying to cheat me on his
+own account. Colonel Clay or no Colonel Clay, he's been salting my
+rocks with gold-bearing quartz, and trying to lead me on into an
+absurd speculation!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sir Adolphus exploded. "Oh, this is too good," he cried. "I must
+go and tell Marmy!" And he rushed off to where Forbes-Gaskell was
+seated on a corner of rock with Amelia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for Charles and myself, we returned to the house. Half an hour
+later Forbes-Gaskell came back, too, in a towering temper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is the meaning of this, sir?" he shouted out, as soon as
+he caught sight of Charles. "I'm told you've invited my wife
+and myself here to your house in order to spy upon us, under the
+impression that I was Clay, the notorious swindler!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought you were," Charles answered, equally angry. "Perhaps you
+may be still! Anyhow, you're a rogue, and you tried to bamboozle
+me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Forbes-Gaskell, white with rage, turned to his trembling wife.
+"Gertrude," he said, "pack up your box and come away from these
+people instantly. Their pretended hospitality has been a studied
+insult. They've put you and me in a most ridiculous position. We
+were told before we came here&mdash;and no doubt with truth&mdash;that Sir
+Charles Vandrift was the most close-fisted and tyrannical old
+curmudgeon in Scotland. We've been writing to all our friends to
+say ecstatically that he was, on the contrary, a most hospitable,
+generous, and large-hearted gentleman. And now we find out he's a
+disgusting cad, who asks strangers to his house from the meanest
+motives, and then insults his guests with gratuitous vituperation.
+It is well such people should hear the plain truth now and again in
+their lives; and it therefore gives me the greatest pleasure to tell
+Sir Charles Vandrift that he's a vulgar bounder of the first water.
+Go and pack your box, Gertrude! I'll run down to the Cromarty Arms,
+and order a cab to carry us away at once from this inhospitable
+sham castle."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You wear a wig, sir; you wear a wig," Charles exclaimed,
+half-choking with passion. For, indeed, as Forbes-Gaskell spoke,
+and tossed his head angrily, the nature of his hair-covering grew
+painfully apparent. It was quite one-sided.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do, sir, that I may be able to shake it in the face of a cad!"
+the Professor responded, tearing it off to readjust it; and, suiting
+the action to the word, he brandished it thrice in Charles's eyes;
+after which he darted from the room, speechless with indignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As soon as they were gone, and Charles had recovered breath
+sufficiently to listen to rational conversation, I ventured to
+observe, "This comes of being too sure! We made one mistake. We
+took it for granted that because a man wears a wig, he <I>must</I> be
+an impostor&mdash;which does not necessarily follow. We forgot that not
+Colonel Clays alone have false coverings to their heads, and that
+wigs may sometimes be worn from motives of pure personal vanity.
+In fact, we were again the slaves of preconceptions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I looked at him pointedly. Charles rose before he replied. "Seymour
+Wentworth," he said at last, gazing down upon me with lofty scorn,
+"your moralising is ill-timed. It appears to me you entirely
+misunderstand the position and duties of a private secretary!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The oddest part of it all, however, was this&mdash;that Charles, being
+convinced Forbes-Gaskell, though he wasn't Colonel Clay, had been
+fraudulently salting the rocks with gold, with intent to deceive,
+took no further notice of the alleged discoveries. The consequence
+was that Forbes-Gaskell and Sir Adolphus went elsewhere with the
+secret; and it was not till after Charles had sold the Seldon
+Castle estate (which he did shortly afterward, the place having
+somehow grown strangely distasteful to him) that the present
+"Seldon Eldorados, Limited," were put upon the market by Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, who purchased the place from him. Forbes-Gaskell,
+as it happened, had reported to Craig-Ellachie that he had found
+a lode of high-grade ore on an estate unnamed, which he would
+particularise on promise of certain contingent claims to founder's
+shares; and the old lord jumped at it. Charles sold at grouse-moor
+prices; and the consequence is that the capital of the Eldorados
+is yielding at present very fair returns, even after allowing for
+expenses of promotion&mdash;while Charles has been done out of a good
+thing in gold-mines!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, remembering "the position and duties of a private secretary,"
+I refrained from pointing out to him at the time that this loss was
+due to a fixed idea&mdash;though as a matter of fact it depended upon
+Charles's strange preconception that the man with the wig, whoever
+he might be, was trying to diddle him.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+IX
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE JAPANNED DISPATCH-BOX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said next spring, "I'm sick and tired
+of London! Let's shoulder our wallets at once, and I will to
+some distant land, where no man doth me know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mars or Mercury?" I inquired; "for, in our own particular planet,
+I'm afraid you'll find it just a trifle difficult for Sir Charles
+Vandrift to hide his light under a bushel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'll manage it," Charles answered. "What's the good of being
+a millionaire, I should like to know, if you're always obliged to
+'behave as sich'? I shall travel incog. I'm dog-tired of being
+dogged by these endless impostors."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, indeed, we had passed through a most painful winter. Colonel
+Clay had stopped away for some months, it is true, and for my own
+part, I will confess, since it wasn't <I>my</I> place to pay the piper, I
+rather missed the wonted excitement than otherwise. But Charles had
+grown horribly and morbidly suspicious. He carried out his principle
+of "distrusting everybody and disbelieving everything," till life
+was a burden to him. He spotted impossible Colonel Clays under a
+thousand disguises; he was quite convinced he had frightened his
+enemy away at least a dozen times over, beneath the varying garb
+of a fat club waiter, a tall policeman, a washerwoman's boy, a
+solicitor's clerk, the Bank of England beadle, and the collector
+of water-rates. He saw him as constantly, and in as changeful forms,
+as mediæval saints used to see the devil. Amelia and I really
+began to fear for the stability of that splendid intellect; we
+foresaw that unless the Colonel Clay nuisance could be abated
+somehow, Charles might sink by degrees to the mental level of a
+common or ordinary Stock-Exchange plunger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, when my brother-in-law announced his intention of going away
+incog. to parts unknown, on the succeeding Saturday, Amelia and
+I felt a flush of relief from long-continued tension. Especially
+Amelia&mdash;who was <I>not</I> going with him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For rest and quiet," he said to us at breakfast, laying down the
+Morning Post, "give <I>me</I> the deck of an Atlantic liner! No letters;
+no telegrams. No stocks; no shares. No Times; no Saturday. I'm sick
+of these papers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The World is too much with us," I assented cheerfully. I regret
+to say, nobody appreciated the point of my quotation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles took infinite pains, I must admit, to ensure perfect
+secrecy. He made me write and secure the best state-rooms&mdash;main
+deck, amidships&mdash;under my own name, without mentioning his, in
+the Etruria, for New York, on her very next voyage. He spoke of
+his destination to nobody but Amelia; and Amelia warned Césarine,
+under pains and penalties, on no account to betray it to the other
+servants. Further to secure his incog., Charles assumed the style
+and title of Mr. Peter Porter, and booked as such in the Etruria
+at Liverpool.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The day before starting, however, he went down with me to the City
+for an interview with his brokers in Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
+Finglemore, the senior partner, hastened, of course, to receive us.
+As we entered his private room a good-looking young man rose and
+lounged out. "Halloa, Finglemore," Charles said, "that's that scamp
+of a brother of yours! I thought you had shipped him off years and
+years ago to China?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So I did, Sir Charles," Finglemore answered, rubbing his hands
+somewhat nervously. "But he never went there. Being an idle young
+dog, with a taste for amusement, he got for the time no further
+than Paris. Since then, he's hung about a bit, here, there, and
+everywhere, and done no particular good for himself or his family.
+But about three or four years ago he somehow 'struck ile': he went
+to South Africa, poaching on your preserves; and now he's back
+again&mdash;rich, married, and respectable. His wife, a nice little
+woman, has reformed him. Well, what can I do for you this morning?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles has large interests in America, in Santa Fé and Topekas, and
+other big concerns; and he insisted on taking out several documents
+and vouchers connected in various ways with his widespread ventures
+there. He meant to go, he said, for complete rest and change, on a
+general tour of private inquiry&mdash;New York, Chicago, Colorado, the
+mining districts. It was a millionaire's holiday. So he took all
+these valuables in a black japanned dispatch-box, which he guarded
+like a child with absurd precautions. He never allowed that box out
+of his sight one moment; and he gave me no peace as to its safety
+and integrity. It was a perfect fetish. "We must be cautious," he
+said, "Sey, cautious! Especially in travelling. Recollect how that
+little curate spirited the diamonds out of Amelia's jewel-case! I
+shall not let this box out of my sight. I shall stick to it myself,
+if we go to the bottom."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We did <I>not</I> go to the bottom. It is the proud boast of the Cunard
+Company that it has "never lost a passenger's life"; and the captain
+would not consent to send the Etruria to Davy Jones's locker, merely
+in order to give Charles a chance of sticking to his dispatch-box
+under trying circumstances. On the contrary, we had a delightful
+and uneventful passage; and we found our fellow-passengers most
+agreeable people. Charles, as Mr. Peter Porter, being freed for
+the moment from his terror of Colonel Clay, would have felt really
+happy, I believe&mdash;had it not been for the dispatch-box. He made
+friends from the first hour (quite after the fearless old fashion
+of the days before Colonel Clay had begun to embitter life for him)
+with a nice American doctor and his charming wife, on their way back
+to Kentucky. Dr. Elihu Quackenboss&mdash;that was his characteristically
+American name&mdash;had been studying medicine for a year in Vienna, and
+was now returning to his native State with a brain close crammed
+with all the latest bacteriological and antiseptic discoveries. His
+wife, a pretty and piquant little American, with a tip-tilted nose
+and the quaint sharpness of her countrywomen, amused Charles not a
+little. The funny way in which she would make room for him by her
+side on the bench on deck, and say, with a sweet smile, "You sit
+right here, Mr. Porter; the sun's just elegant," delighted and
+flattered him. He was proud to find out that female attention was
+not always due to his wealth and title; and that plain Mr. Porter
+could command on his merits the same amount of blandishments as Sir
+Charles Vandrift, the famous millionaire, on his South African
+celebrity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the whole of that voyage, it was Mrs. Quackenboss here, and
+Mrs. Quackenboss there, and Mrs. Quackenboss the other place, till,
+for Amelia's sake, I was glad she was not on board to witness it.
+Long before we sighted Sandy Hook, I will admit, I was fairly sick
+of Charles's two-stringed harp&mdash;Mrs. Quackenboss and the
+dispatch-box.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Quackenboss, it turned out, was an amateur artist, and she
+painted Sir Charles, on calm days on deck, in all possible
+attitudes. She seemed to find him a most attractive model.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The doctor, too, was a precious clever fellow. He knew something of
+chemistry&mdash;and of most other subjects, including, as I gathered, the
+human character. For he talked to Charles about various ideas of
+his, with which he wished to "liven up folks in Kentucky a bit," on
+his return, till Charles conceived the highest possible regard for
+his intelligence and enterprise. "That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!"
+he remarked to me one day. "Has the right sort of grit in him!
+Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on
+my works in South Africa!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it.
+He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the
+Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should
+offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am
+inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to
+visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in
+future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would
+be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint
+and amusing American lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you offer it to him," I said, "remember, you must disclose your
+personality."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not at all," Charles answered. "I can keep it dark for the present,
+till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South
+Africa."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he
+broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He
+remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial
+concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu
+fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, dollars?" the lady said, smiling and accentuating the
+tip-tilted nose a little more. "Oh, Mr. Porter, it ain't good
+enough!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, pounds, my dear madam," Charles responded. "Pounds sterling,
+you know. In United States currency, seven thousand five hundred."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess Elihu would just jump at it," Mrs. Quackenboss replied,
+looking at him quizzically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The doctor laughed. "You make a good bid, sir," he said, in his slow
+American way, emphasising all the most unimportant words: "<I>But</I> you
+overlook one element. I <I>am</I> a man of science, not a speculator. I
+<I>have</I> trained myself for medical work, <I>at</I> considerable cost, <I>in</I>
+the best schools of Europe, <I>and</I> I do not propose <I>to</I> fling away
+the results <I>of</I> much arduous labour <I>by</I> throwing myself out
+elastically <I>into</I> a new line of work <I>for</I> which my faculties <I>may</I>
+not perhaps equally adapt me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+("How thoroughly American!" I murmured, in the background.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles insisted; all in vain. Mrs. Quackenboss was impressed; but
+the doctor smiled always a sphinx-like smile, and reiterated his
+belief in the unfitness of mid-stream as an ideal place for swopping
+horses. The more he declined, and the better he talked, the more
+eager Charles became each day to secure him. And, as if on purpose
+to draw him on, the doctor each day gave more and more surprising
+proofs of his practical abilities. "I <I>am</I> not a specialist," he said.
+"I just ketch the drift, appropriate the kernel, <I>and</I> let the rest
+slide."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He could do anything, it really seemed, from shoeing a mule to
+conducting a camp-meeting; he was a capital chemist, a very sound
+surgeon, a fair judge of horseflesh, a first class euchre player,
+and a pleasing baritone. When occasion demanded he could occupy a
+pulpit. He had invented a cork-screw which brought him in a small
+revenue; and he was now engaged in the translation of a Polish work
+on the "Application of Hydrocyanic Acid to the Cure of Leprosy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, we reached New York without having got any nearer our goal,
+as regarded Dr. Quackenboss. He came to bid us good-bye at the quay,
+with that sphinx-like smile still playing upon his features. Charles
+clutched the dispatch-box with one hand, and Mrs. Quackenboss's
+little palm with the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Don't</I> tell us," he said, "this is good-bye&mdash;for ever!" And his
+voice quite faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I guess so, Mr. Porter," the pretty American replied, with a
+telling glance. "What hotel do you patronise?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Murray Hill," Charles responded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh my, ain't that odd?" Mrs. Quackenboss echoed. "The Murray Hill!
+Why, that's just where we're going too, Elihu!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The upshot of which was that Charles persuaded them, before
+returning to Kentucky, to diverge for a few days with us to Lake
+George and Lake Champlain, where he hoped to over-persuade the
+recalcitrant doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Lake George therefore we went, and stopped at the excellent hotel
+at the terminus of the railway. We spent a good deal of our time on
+the light little steamers that ply between that point and the road
+to Ticonderoga. Somehow, the mountains mirrored in the deep green
+water reminded me of Lucerne; and Lucerne reminded me of the little
+curate. For the first time since we left England a vague terror
+seized me. <I>Could</I> Elihu Quackenboss be Colonel Clay again, still
+dogging our steps through the opposite continent?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I could not help mentioning my suspicion to Charles&mdash;who, strange
+to say, pooh-poohed it. He had been paying great court to Mrs.
+Quackenboss that day, and was absurdly elated because the little
+American had rapped his knuckles with her fan and called him "a
+real silly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, however, an odd thing occurred. We strolled out together,
+all four of us, along the banks of the lake, among woods just
+carpeted with strange, triangular flowers&mdash;trilliums, Mrs.
+Quackenboss called them&mdash;and lined with delicate ferns in the
+first green of springtide.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I began to grow poetical. (I wrote verses in my youth before I went
+to South Africa.) We threw ourselves on the grass, near a small
+mountain stream that descended among moss-clad boulders from the
+steep woods above us. The Kentuckian flung himself at full length
+on the sward, just in front of Charles. He had a strange head of
+hair, very thick and shaggy. I don't know why, but, of a sudden, it
+reminded me of the Mexican Seer, whom we had learned to remember as
+Colonel Clay's first embodiment. At the same moment the same thought
+seemed to run through Charles's head; for, strange to say, with
+a quick impulse he leant forward and examined it. I saw Mrs.
+Quackenboss draw back in wonder. The hair looked too thick and close
+for nature. It ended abruptly, I now remembered, with a sharp line
+on the forehead. Could this, too, be a wig? It seemed very probable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even as I thought that thought, Charles appeared to form a sudden
+and resolute determination. With one lightning swoop he seized the
+doctor's hair in his powerful hand, and tried to lift it off bodily.
+He had made a bad guess. Next instant the doctor uttered a loud and
+terrified howl of pain, while several of his hairs, root and all,
+came out of his scalp in Charles's hand, leaving a few drops of
+blood on the skin of the head in the place they were torn from.
+There was no doubt at all it was not a wig, but the Kentuckian's
+natural hirsute covering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The scene that ensued I am powerless to describe. My pen is unequal
+to it. The doctor arose, not so much angry as astonished, white and
+incredulous. "What did you do that for, any way?" he asked, glaring
+fiercely at my brother-in-law. Charles was all abject apology. He
+began by profusely expressing his regret, and offering to make any
+suitable reparation, monetary or otherwise. Then he revealed his
+whole hand. He admitted that he was Sir Charles Vandrift, the famous
+millionaire, and that he had suffered egregiously from the endless
+machinations of a certain Colonel Clay, a machiavellian rogue,
+who had hounded him relentlessly round the capitals of Europe. He
+described in graphic detail how the impostor got himself up with
+wigs and wax, so as to deceive even those who knew him intimately;
+and then he threw himself on Dr. Quackenboss's mercy, as a man who
+had been cruelly taken in so often that he could not help suspecting
+the best of men falsely. Mrs. Quackenboss admitted it was natural to
+have suspicions&mdash;"Especially," she said, with candour, "as you're
+not the first to observe the notable way Elihu's hair seems to
+originate from his forehead," and she pulled it up to show us. But
+Elihu himself sulked on in the dumps: his dignity was offended.
+"<I>If</I> you wanted to know," he said, "you might as well have asked me.
+Assault <I>and</I> battery <I>is</I> not the right way to test whether <I>a</I>
+citizen's hair is primitive or acquired."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was an impulse," Charles pleaded; "an instinctive impulse!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Civilised man restrains his impulses," the doctor answered. "You
+<I>have</I> lived too long <I>in</I> South Africa, Mr. Porter&mdash;I mean, Sir
+Charles Vandrift, if that's the right way <I>to</I> address such a
+gentleman. You appear to <I>have</I> imbibed the habits <I>and</I> manners
+of the Kaffirs you lived among."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the next two days, I will really admit, Charles seemed more
+wretched than I could have believed it possible for him to be on
+somebody else's account. He positively grovelled. The fact was,
+he saw he had hurt Dr. Quackenboss's feelings, and&mdash;much to my
+surprise&mdash;he seemed truly grieved at it. If the doctor would have
+accepted a thousand pounds down to shake hands at once and forget
+the incident&mdash;in my opinion Charles would have gladly paid it.
+Indeed, he said as much in other words to the pretty American&mdash;for
+he could not insult her by offering her money. Mrs. Quackenboss did
+her best to make it up, for she was a kindly little creature, in
+spite of her roguishness; but Elihu stood aloof. Charles urged him
+still to go out to South Africa, increasing his bait to two thousand
+a year; yet the doctor was immovable. "No, no," he said; "I had half
+decided <I>to</I> accept your offer&mdash;<I>till</I> that unfortunate impulse; but
+that settled the question. <I>As</I> an American citizen, I decline <I>to</I>
+become the representative <I>of</I> a British nobleman who takes such means
+<I>of</I> investigating questions which affect the hair and happiness <I>of</I>
+his fellow-creatures."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I don't know whether Charles was most disappointed at missing the
+chance of so clever a superintendent for the mine at Cloetedorp, or
+elated at the novel description of himself as "a British nobleman;"
+which is not precisely our English idea of a colonial knighthood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three days later, accordingly, the Quackenbosses left the Lakeside
+Hotel. We were bound on an expedition up the lake ourselves, when
+the pretty little woman burst in with a dash to tell us they were
+leaving. She was charmingly got up in the neatest and completest of
+American travelling-dresses. Charles held her hand affectionately.
+"I'm sorry it's good-bye," he said. "I have done my best to secure
+your husband."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You couldn't have tried harder than I did," the little woman
+answered, and the tip-tilted nose looked quite pathetic; "for I just
+hate to be buried right down there in Kentucky! However, Elihu is
+the sort of man a woman can neither drive nor lead; so we've got to
+put up with him." And she smiled upon us sweetly, and disappeared
+for ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was disconsolate all that day. Next morning he rose, and
+announced his intention of setting out for the West on his tour of
+inspection. He would recreate by revelling in Colorado silver lodes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We packed our own portmanteaus, for Charles had not brought even
+Simpson with him, and then we prepared to set out by the morning
+train for Saratoga.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Up till almost the last moment Charles nursed his dispatch-box.
+But as the "baggage-smashers" were taking down our luggage, and a
+chambermaid was lounging officiously about in search of a tip,
+he laid it down for a second or two on the centre table while he
+collected his other immediate impedimenta. He couldn't find his
+cigarette-case, and went back to the bedroom for it. I helped
+him hunt, but it had disappeared mysteriously. That moment lost
+him. When we had found the cigarette-case, and returned to the
+sitting-room&mdash;lo, and behold! the dispatch-box was missing!
+Charles questioned the servants, but none of them had noticed it.
+He searched round the room&mdash;not a trace of it anywhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, I laid it down here just two minutes ago!" he cried. But it
+was not forthcoming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It'll turn up in time," I said. "Everything turns up in the
+end&mdash;including Mrs. Quackenboss's nose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," said my brother-in-law, "your hilarity is inopportune."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To say the truth, Charles was beside himself with anger. He took
+the elevator down to the "Bureau," as they call it, and complained
+to the manager. The manager, a sharp-faced New Yorker, smiled as
+he remarked in a nonchalant way that guests with valuables were
+required to leave them in charge of the management, in which case
+they were locked up in the safe and duly returned to the depositor
+on leaving. Charles declared somewhat excitedly that he had been
+robbed, and demanded that nobody should be allowed to leave the
+hotel till the dispatch-box was discovered. The manager, quite cool,
+and obtrusively picking his teeth, responded that such tactics might
+be possible in an hotel of the European size, putting up a couple
+of hundred guests or so; but that an American house, with over a
+thousand visitors&mdash;many of whom came and went daily&mdash;could not
+undertake such a quixotic quest on behalf of a single foreign
+complainant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That epithet, "foreign," stung Charles to the quick. No Englishman
+can admit that he is anywhere a foreigner. "Do you know who I am,
+sir?" he asked, angrily. "I am Sir Charles Vandrift, of London&mdash;a
+member of the English Parliament."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may be the Prince of Wales," the man answered, "for all I care.
+You'll get the same treatment as anyone else, in America. But if
+you're Sir Charles Vandrift," he went on, examining his books, "how
+does it come you've registered as Mr. Peter Porter?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles grew red with embarrassment. The difficulty deepened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The dispatch-box, always covered with a leather case, bore on its
+inner lid the name "Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G.," distinctly
+painted in the orthodox white letters. This was a painful
+contretemps: he had lost his precious documents; he had given a
+false name; and he had rendered the manager supremely careless
+whether or not he recovered his stolen property. Indeed, seeing he
+had registered as Porter, and now "claimed" as Vandrift, the manager
+hinted in pretty plain language he very much doubted whether there
+had ever been a dispatch-box in the matter at all, or whether, if
+there were one, it had ever contained any valuable documents.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We spent a wretched morning. Charles went round the hotel,
+questioning everybody as to whether they had seen his dispatch-box.
+Most of the visitors resented the question as a personal imputation;
+one fiery Virginian, indeed, wanted to settle the point then and
+there with a six-shooter. Charles telegraphed to New York to prevent
+the shares and coupons from being negotiated; but his brokers
+telegraphed back that, though they had stopped the numbers as far
+as possible, they did so with reluctance, as they were not aware of
+Sir Charles Vandrift being now in the country. Charles declared he
+wouldn't leave the hotel till he recovered his property; and for
+myself, I was inclined to suppose we would have to remain there
+accordingly for the term of our natural lives&mdash;and longer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That night again we spent at the Lakeside Hotel. In the small hours
+of the morning, as I lay awake and meditated, a thought broke
+across me. I was so excited by it that I rose and rushed into my
+brother-in-law's bedroom. "Charles, Charles!" I exclaimed, "we have
+taken too much for granted once more. Perhaps Elihu Quackenboss
+carried off your dispatch-box!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You fool," Charles answered, in his most unamiable manner (he
+applies that word to me with increasing frequency); "is <I>that</I> what
+you've waked me up for? Why, the Quackenbosses left Lake George
+on Tuesday morning, and I had the dispatch-box in my own hands
+on Wednesday."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have only their word for it," I cried. "Perhaps they stopped
+on&mdash;and walked off with it afterwards!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will inquire to-morrow," Charles answered. "But I confess I
+don't think it was worth waking me up for. I could stake my life
+on that little woman's integrity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We <I>did</I> inquire next morning&mdash;with this curious result: it turned
+out that, though the Quackenbosses had left the Lakeside Hotel on
+Tuesday, it was only for the neighbouring Washington House, which
+they quitted on Wednesday morning, taking the same train for
+Saratoga which Charles and I had intended to go by. Mrs. Quackenboss
+carried a small brown paper parcel in her hands&mdash;in which, under the
+circumstances, we had little difficulty in recognising Charles's
+dispatch-box, loosely enveloped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then I knew how it was done. The chambermaid, loitering about the
+room for a tip, was&mdash;Mrs. Quackenboss! It needed but an apron to
+transform her pretty travelling-dress into a chambermaid's costume;
+and in any of those huge American hotels one chambermaid more or
+less would pass in the crowd without fear of challenge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will follow them on to Saratoga," Charles cried. "Pay the bill
+at once, Seymour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," I answered. "Will you give me some money?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles clapped his hand to his pockets. "All, all in the
+dispatch-box," he murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That tied us up another day, till we could get some ready cash from
+our agents in New York; for the manager, already most suspicious at
+the change of name and the accusation of theft, peremptorily refused
+to accept Charles's cheque, or anything else, as he phrased it,
+except "hard money." So we lingered on perforce at Lake George in
+ignoble inaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," I observed to my brother-in-law that evening, "Elihu
+Quackenboss was Colonel Clay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose so," Charles murmured resignedly. "Everybody I meet seems
+to be Colonel Clay nowadays&mdash;except when I believe they <I>are</I>, in
+which case they turn out to be harmless nobodies. But who would have
+thought it was he after I pulled his hair out? Or after he persisted
+in his trick, even when I suspected him&mdash;which, he told us at
+Seldon, was against his first principles?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A light dawned upon me again. But, warned by previous ebullitions,
+I expressed myself this time with becoming timidity. "Charles,"
+I suggested, "may we not here again have been the slaves of a
+preconception? We thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay&mdash;for
+no better reason than because he wore a wig. We thought Elihu
+Quackenboss wasn't Colonel Clay&mdash;for no better reason than because
+he didn't wear one. But how do we know he <I>ever</I> wears wigs? Isn't it
+possible, after all, that those hints he gave us about make-up, when
+he was Medhurst the detective, were framed on purpose, so as to
+mislead and deceive us? And isn't it possible what he said of his
+methods at the Seamew's island that day was similarly designed in
+order to hoodwink us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is so obvious, Sey," my brother-in-law observed, in a most
+aggrieved tone, "that I should have thought any secretary worth his
+salt would have arrived at it instantly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I abstained from remarking that Charles himself had not arrived at
+it even now, until I told him. I thought that to say so would serve
+no good purpose. So I merely went on: "Well, it seems to me likely
+that when he came as Medhurst, with his hair cut short, he was
+really wearing his own natural crop, in its simplest form and of
+its native hue. By now it has had time to grow long and bushy. When
+he was David Granton, no doubt, he clipped it to an intermediate
+length, trimmed his beard and moustache, and dyed them all red, to
+a fine Scotch colour. As the Seer, again, he wore his hair much
+the same as Elihu's; only, to suit the character, more combed and
+fluffy. As the little curate, he darkened it and plastered it down.
+As Von Lebenstein, he shaved close, but cultivated his moustache to
+its utmost dimensions, and dyed it black after the Tyrolese fashion.
+He need never have had a wig; his own natural hair would throughout
+have been sufficient, allowing for intervals."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're right, Sey," my brother-in-law said, growing almost
+friendly. "I will do you the justice to admit that's the nearest
+thing we have yet struck out to an idea for tracking him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the Saturday morning a letter arrived which relieved us a little
+from our momentary tension. It was from our enemy himself&mdash;but most
+different in tone from his previous bantering communications:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Saratoga, Friday.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT&mdash;Herewith I return your dispatch-box,
+intact, with the papers untouched. As you will readily observe,
+it has not even been opened.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"You will ask me the reason for this strange conduct. Let me be
+serious for once, and tell you truthfully.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"White Heather and I (for I will stick to Mr. Wentworth's
+judicious sobriquet) came over on the Etruria with you,
+intending, as usual, to make something out of you. We followed
+you to Lake George&mdash;for I had 'forced a card,' after my
+habitual plan, by inducing you to invite us, with the fixed
+intention of playing a particular trick upon you. It formed no
+part of our original game to steal your dispatch-box; that I
+consider a simple and elementary trick unworthy the skill of a
+practised operator. We persisted in the preparations for our
+coup, till you pulled my hair out. Then, to my great surprise,
+I saw you exhibited a degree of regret and genuine compunction
+with which, till that moment, I could never have credited you.
+You thought you had hurt my feelings; and you behaved more
+like a gentleman than I had previously known you to do. You
+not only apologised, but you also endeavoured voluntarily to
+make reparation. That produced an effect upon me. You may not
+believe it, but I desisted accordingly from the trick I had
+prepared for you.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"I might also have accepted your offer to go to South Africa,
+where I could soon have cleared out, having embezzled thousands.
+But, then, I should have been in a position of trust and
+responsibility&mdash;and I am not <I>quite</I> rogue enough to rob you
+under those conditions.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Whatever else I am, however, I am not a hypocrite. I do
+not pretend to be anything more than a common swindler. If
+I return you your papers intact, it is only on the same
+principle as that of the Australian bushranger, who made a
+lady <I>a present</I> of her own watch because she had sung to him
+and reminded him of England. In other words, he did not take
+it from her. In like manner, when I found you had behaved, for
+once, like a gentleman, contrary to my expectation, I declined
+to go on with the trick I then meditated. Which does not mean
+to say I may not hereafter play you some other. <I>That</I> will
+depend upon your future good behaviour.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Why, then, did I get White Heather to purloin your dispatch-box,
+with intent to return it? Out of pure lightness of heart? Not
+so; but in order to let you see I really meant it. If I had
+gone off with no swag, and then written you this letter, you
+would not have believed me. You would have thought it was
+merely another of my failures. But when I have actually got
+all your papers into my hands, and give them up again of my
+own free will, you must see that I mean it.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"I will end, as I began, seriously. My trade has not quite
+crushed out of me all germs or relics of better feeling; and
+when I see a millionaire behave like a man, I feel ashamed
+to take advantage of that gleam of manliness.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"Yours, with a tinge of penitence, but still a rogue, CUTHBERT CLAY."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The first thing Charles did on receiving this strange communication
+was to bolt downstairs and inquire for the dispatch-box. It had
+just arrived by Eagle Express Company. Charles rushed up to our
+rooms again, opened it feverishly, and counted his documents. When
+he found them all safe, he turned to me with a hard smile. "This
+letter," he said, with quivering lips, "I consider still more
+insulting than all his previous ones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, for myself, I really thought there was a ring of truth about
+it. Colonel Clay was a rogue, no doubt&mdash;a most unblushing rogue;
+but even a rogue, I believe, has his better moments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the phrase about the "position of trust and responsibility"
+touched Charles to the quick, I suppose, in re the Slump in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. Though, to be sure, it was a hit at me as
+well, over the ten per cent commission.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+X
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE GAME OF POKER
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said, with a deep-drawn sigh, as we
+left Lake George next day by the Rennselaer and Saratoga Railroad,
+"no more Peter Porter for me, <I>if</I> you please! I'm sick of disguises.
+Now that we know Colonel Clay is here in America, they serve no
+good purpose; so I may as well receive the social consideration and
+proper respect to which my rank and position naturally entitle me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And which they secure for the most part (except from hotel clerks),
+even in this republican land," I answered briskly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For in my humble opinion, for sound copper-bottomed snobbery,
+registered A1 at Lloyd's, give <I>me</I> the free-born American citizen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We travelled through the States, accordingly, for the next four
+months, from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Florida,
+under our own true names, "Confirming the churches," as Charles
+facetiously put it&mdash;or in other words, looking into the management
+and control of railways, syndicates, mines, and cattle-ranches. We
+inquired about everything. And the result of our investigations
+appeared to be, as Charles further remarked, that the Sabeans who
+so troubled the sons of Job seemed to have migrated in a body to
+Kansas and Nebraska, and that several thousand head of cattle seemed
+mysteriously to vanish, à la Colonel Clay, into the pure air of the
+prairies just before each branding.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, we were fortunate in avoiding the incursions of the Colonel
+himself, who must have migrated meanwhile on some enchanted carpet
+to other happy hunting-grounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was chill October before we found ourselves safe back in New
+York, en route for England. So long a term of freedom from the
+Colonel's depredations (as Charles fondly imagined&mdash;but I will not
+anticipate) had done my brother-in-law's health and spirits a world
+of good; he was so lively and cheerful that he began to fancy his
+tormentor must have succumbed to yellow fever, then raging in New
+Orleans, or eaten himself ill, as we nearly did ourselves, on a
+generous mixture of clam-chowder, terrapin, soft-shelled crabs,
+Jersey peaches, canvas-backed ducks, Catawba wine, winter cherries,
+brandy cocktails, strawberry-shortcake, ice-creams, corn-dodger,
+and a judicious brew commonly known as a Colorado corpse-reviver.
+However that may be, Charles returned to New York in excellent
+trim; and, dreading in that great city the wiles of his antagonist,
+he cheerfully accepted the invitation of his brother millionaire,
+Senator Wrengold of Nevada, to spend a few days before sailing in
+the Senator's magnificent and newly-finished palace at the upper
+end of Fifth Avenue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, at least, I shall be safe, Sey," he said to me plaintively,
+with a weary smile. "Wrengold, at any rate, won't try to take me
+in&mdash;except, of course, in the regular way of business."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Boss-Nugget Hall (as it is popularly christened) is perhaps the
+handsomest brown stone mansion in the Richardsonian style on all
+Fifth Avenue. We spent a delightful week there. The lines had fallen
+to us in pleasant places. On the night we arrived Wrengold gave
+a small bachelor party in our honour. He knew Sir Charles was
+travelling without Lady Vandrift, and rightly judged he would prefer
+on his first night an informal party, with cards and cigars, instead
+of being bothered with the charming, but still somewhat hampering
+addition of female society.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The guests that evening were no more than seven, all told, ourselves
+included&mdash;making up, Wrengold said, that perfect number, an octave.
+He was a nouveau riche himself&mdash;the newest of the new&mdash;commonly
+known in exclusive old-fashioned New York society as the Gilded
+Squatter; for he "struck his reef" no more than ten years ago; and
+he was therefore doubly anxious, after the American style, to be
+"just dizzy with culture." In his capacity of Mæcenas, he had
+invited amongst others the latest of English literary arrivals in
+New York&mdash;Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous poet, and leader of the
+Briar-rose school of West-country fiction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know him in London, of course?" he observed to Charles, with
+a smile, as we waited dinner for our guests.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," Charles answered stolidly. "I have not had that honour.
+We move, you see, in different circles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I observed by a curious shade which passed over Senator Wrengold's
+face that he quite misapprehended my brother-in-law's meaning.
+Charles wished to convey, of course, that Mr. Coleyard belonged to
+a mere literary and Bohemian set in London, while he himself moved
+on a more exalted plane of peers and politicians. But the Senator,
+better accustomed to the new-rich point of view, understood Charles
+to mean that <I>he</I> had not the entrée of that distinguished coterie in
+which Mr. Coleyard posed as a shining luminary. Which naturally
+made him rate even higher than before his literary acquisition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At two minutes past the hour the poet entered. Even if we had not
+been already familiar with his portrait at all ages in The Strand
+Magazine, we should have recognised him at once for a genuine bard
+by his impassioned eyes, his delicate mouth, the artistic twirl of
+one gray lock upon his expansive brow, the grizzled moustache that
+gave point and force to the genial smile, and the two white rows of
+perfect teeth behind it. Most of our fellow-guests had met Coleyard
+before at a reception given by the Lotus Club that afternoon, for
+the bard had reached New York but the previous evening; so Charles
+and I were the only visitors who remained to be introduced to him.
+The lion of the hour was attired in ordinary evening dress, with
+no foppery of any kind, but he wore in his buttonhole a dainty
+blue flower whose name I do not know; and as he bowed distantly to
+Charles, whom he surveyed through his eyeglass, the gleam of a big
+diamond in the middle of his shirt-front betrayed the fact that the
+Briar-rose school, as it was called (from his famous epic), had at
+least succeeded in making money out of poetry. He explained to us a
+little later, in fact, that he was over in New York to look after
+his royalties. "The beggars," he said, "only gave me eight hundred
+pounds on my last volume. I couldn't stand <I>that</I>, you know; for a
+modern bard, moving with the age, can only sing when duly wound up;
+so I've run across to investigate. Put a penny in the slot, don't
+you see, and the poet will pipe for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly like myself," Charles said, finding a point in common.
+"<I>I'm</I> interested in mines; and I, too, have come over to look
+after my royalties."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet placed his eyeglass in his eye once more, and surveyed
+Charles deliberately from head to foot. "Oh," he murmured slowly. He
+said not a word more; but somehow, everybody felt that Charles was
+demolished. I saw that Wrengold, when we went in to dinner, hastily
+altered the cards that marked their places. He had evidently put
+Charles at first to sit next the poet; he varied that arrangement
+now, setting Algernon Coleyard between a railway king and a magazine
+editor. I have seldom seen my respected brother-in-law so completely
+silenced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet's conduct during dinner was most peculiar. He kept quoting
+poetry at inopportune moments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Roast lamb or boiled turkey, sir?" said the footman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mary had a little lamb," said the poet. "I shall imitate Mary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles and the Senator thought the remark undignified.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After dinner, however, under the mellowing influence of some
+excellent Roederer, Charles began to expand again, and grew lively
+and anecdotal. The poet had made us all laugh not a little with
+various capital stories of London literary society&mdash;at least two of
+them, I think, new ones; and Charles was moved by generous emulation
+to contribute his own share to the amusement of the company. He was
+in excellent cue. He is not often brilliant; but when he chooses, he
+has a certain dry vein of caustic humour which is decidedly funny,
+though not perhaps strictly without being vulgar. On this particular
+night, then, warmed with the admirable Wrengold champagne&mdash;the
+best made in America&mdash;he launched out into a full and embroidered
+description of the various ways in which Colonel Clay had deceived
+him. I will not say that he narrated them in full with the same
+frankness and accuracy that I have shown in these pages; he
+suppressed not a few of the most amusing details&mdash;on no other
+ground, apparently, than because they happened to tell against
+himself; and he enlarged a good deal on the surprising cleverness
+with which several times he had nearly secured his man; but still,
+making all allowances for native vanity in concealment and addition,
+he was distinctly funny&mdash;he represented the matter for once in its
+ludicrous rather than in its disastrous aspect. He observed also,
+looking around the table, that after all he had lost less by
+Colonel Clay in four years of persecution than he often lost by
+one injudicious move in a single day on the London Stock Exchange;
+while he seemed to imply to the solid men of New York, that he
+would cheerfully sacrifice such a fleabite as that, in return for
+the amusement and excitement of the chase which the Colonel had
+afforded him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet was pleased. "You are a man of spirit, Sir Charles," he
+said. "I love to see this fine old English admiration of pluck and
+adventure! The fellow must really have some good in him, after all.
+I should like to take notes of a few of those stories; they would
+supply nice material for basing a romance upon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hardly know whether I'm exactly the man to make the hero of a
+novel," Charles murmured, with complacence. And he certainly didn't
+look it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>I</I> was thinking rather of Colonel Clay as the hero," the poet
+responded coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, that's the way with you men of letters," Charles answered,
+growing warm. "You always have a sneaking sympathy with the rascals."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That may be better," Coleyard retorted, in an icy voice, "than
+sympathy with the worst forms of Stock Exchange speculation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The company smiled uneasily. The railway king wriggled. Wrengold
+tried to change the subject hastily. But Charles would not be put
+down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must hear the end, though," he said. "That's not quite the
+worst. The meanest thing about the man is that he's also a
+hypocrite. He wrote me <I>such</I> a letter at the end of his last
+trick&mdash;here, positively here, in America." And he proceeded to give
+his own version of the Quackenboss incident, enlivened with sundry
+imaginative bursts of pure Vandrift fancy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Charles spoke of Mrs. Quackenboss the poet smiled. "The worst
+of married women," he said, "is&mdash;that you can't marry them; the
+worst of unmarried women is&mdash;that they want to marry you." But when
+it came to the letter, the poet's eye was upon my brother-in-law.
+Charles, I must fain admit, garbled the document sadly. Still, even
+so, some gleam of good feeling remained in its sentences. But
+Charles ended all by saying, "So, to crown his misdemeanours, the
+rascal shows himself a whining cur and a disgusting Pharisee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you think," the poet interposed, in his cultivated drawl, "he
+may have really meant it? Why should not some grain of compunction
+have stirred his soul still?&mdash;some remnant of conscience made him
+shrink from betraying a man who confided in him? I have an idea,
+myself, that even the worst of rogues have always some good in them.
+I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the affection
+and fidelity of women."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I said so!" Charles sneered. "I told you you literary men have
+always an underhand regard for a scoundrel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps so," the poet answered. "For we are all of us human. Let
+him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." And then he
+relapsed into moody silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We rose from table. Cigars went round. We adjourned to the
+smoking-room. It was a Moorish marvel, with Oriental hangings.
+There, Senator Wrengold and Charles exchanged reminiscences of
+bonanzas and ranches and other exciting post-prandial topics; while
+the magazine editor cut in now and again with a pertinent inquiry
+or a quaint and sarcastic parallel instance. It was clear he had an
+eye to future copy. Only Algernon Coleyard sat brooding and silent,
+with his chin on one hand, and his brow intent, musing and gazing at
+the embers in the fireplace. The hand, by the way, was remarkable
+for a curious, antique-looking ring, apparently of Egyptian or
+Etruscan workmanship, with a projecting gem of several large facets.
+Once only, in the midst of a game of whist, he broke out with a
+single comment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hawkins was made an earl," said Charles, speaking of some London
+acquaintance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What for?" asked the Senator.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Successful adulteration," said the poet tartly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Honours are easy," the magazine editor put in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And two by tricks to Sir Charles," the poet added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Towards the close of the evening, however&mdash;the poet still remaining
+moody, not to say positively grumpy&mdash;Senator Wrengold proposed a
+friendly game of Swedish poker. It was the latest fashionable
+variant in Western society on the old gambling round, and few of us
+knew it, save the omniscient poet and the magazine editor. It turned
+out afterwards that Wrengold proposed that particular game because
+he had heard Coleyard observe at the Lotus Club the same afternoon
+that it was a favourite amusement of his. Now, however, for a while
+he objected to playing. He was a poor man, he said, and the rest
+were all rich; why should he throw away the value of a dozen golden
+sonnets just to add one more pinnacle to the gilded roofs of a
+millionaire's palace? Besides, he was half-way through with an ode
+he was inditing to Republican simplicity. The pristine austerity
+of a democratic senatorial cottage had naturally inspired him with
+memories of Dentatus, the Fabii, Camillus. But Wrengold, dimly aware
+he was being made fun of somehow, insisted that the poet must take
+a hand with the financiers. "You can pass, you know," he said, "as
+often as you like; and you can stake low, or go it blind, according
+as you're inclined to. It's a democratic game; every man decides for
+himself how high he will play, except the banker; and you needn't
+take bank unless you want it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, if you insist upon it," Coleyard drawled out, with languid
+reluctance, "I'll play, of course. I won't spoil your evening.
+But remember, I'm a poet; I have strange inspirations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cards were "squeezers"&mdash;that is to say, had the suit and the
+number of pips in each printed small in the corner, as well as over
+the face, for ease of reference. We played low at first. The poet
+seldom staked; and when he did&mdash;a few pounds&mdash;he lost, with singular
+persistence. He wanted to play for doubloons or sequins, and could
+with difficulty be induced to condescend to dollars. Charles looked
+across at him at last; the stakes by that time were fast rising
+higher, and we played for ready money. Notes lay thick on the green
+cloth. "Well," he murmured provokingly, "how about your inspiration?
+Has Apollo deserted you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was an unwonted flight of classical allusion for Charles, and I
+confess it astonished me. (I discovered afterwards he had cribbed
+it from a review in that evening's Critic.) But the poet smiled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," he answered calmly, "I am waiting for one now. When it comes,
+you may be sure you shall have the benefit of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next round, Charles dealing and banking, the poet staked on his
+card, unseen as usual. He staked like a gentleman. To our immense
+astonishment he pulled out a roll of notes, and remarked, in a quiet
+tone, "I have an inspiration now. <I>Half-hearted</I> will do. I go five
+thousand." That was dollars, of course; but it amounted to a
+thousand pounds in English money&mdash;high play for an author.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his&mdash;and won
+a thousand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good shot!" Charles murmured, pretending not to mind, though he
+detests losing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Inspiration!" the poet mused, and looked once more abstracted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles dealt again. The poet watched the deal with boiled-fishy
+eyes. His thoughts were far away. His lips moved audibly. "Myrtle,
+and kirtle, and hurtle," he muttered. "They'll do for three. Then
+there's turtle, meaning dove; and that finishes the possible. Laurel
+and coral make a very bad rhyme. Try myrtle; don't you think so?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you stake?" Charles asked, severely, interrupting his reverie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet started. "No, pass," he replied, looking down at his card,
+and subsided into muttering. We caught a tremor of his lips again,
+and heard something like this: "Not less but more republican than
+thou, Half-hearted watcher by the Western sea, After long years I
+come to visit thee, And test thy fealty to that maiden vow, That
+bound thee in thy budding prime For Freedom's bride&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stake?" Charles interrupted, inquiringly, again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, five thousand," the poet answered dreamily, pushing forward
+his pile of notes, and never ceasing from his murmur: "For Freedom's
+bride to all succeeding time. Succeeding; succeeding; weak word,
+succeeding. Couldn't go five dollars on it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles turned his card once more. The poet had won again. Charles
+passed over his notes. The poet raked them in with a far-away air,
+as one who looks at infinity, and asked if he could borrow a pencil
+and paper. He had a few priceless lines to set down which might
+otherwise escape him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is play," Charles said pointedly. "<I>Will</I> you kindly attend to
+one thing or the other?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet glanced at him with a compassionate smile. "I told you I
+had inspirations," he said. "They always come together. I can't win
+your money as fast as I would like, unless at the same time I am
+making verses. Whenever I hit upon a good epithet, I back my luck,
+don't you see? I won a thousand on <I>half-hearted</I> and a thousand on
+<I>budding</I>; if I were to back <I>succeeding</I>, I should lose, to a
+certainty. You understand my system?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I call it pure rubbish," Charles answered. "However, continue.
+Systems were made for fools&mdash;and to suit wise men. Sooner or later
+you <I>must</I> lose at such a stupid fancy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poet continued. "For Freedom's bride to all <I>ensuing</I> time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stake!" Charles cried sharply. We each of us staked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Ensuing</I>," the poet murmured. "To all <I>ensuing</I> time. First-rate
+epithet that. I go ten thousand, Sir Charles, on <I>ensuing</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We all turned up. Some of us lost, some won; but the poet had
+secured his two thousand sterling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't that amount about me," Charles said, in that austerely
+nettled voice which he always assumes when he loses at cards;
+"but&mdash;I'll settle it with you to-morrow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Another round?" the host asked, beaming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, thank you," Charles answered; "Mr. Coleyard's inspirations
+come too pat for my taste. His luck beats mine. I retire from the
+game, Senator."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just at that moment a servant entered, bearing a salver, with a
+small note in an envelope. "For Mr. Coleyard," he observed; "and
+the messenger said, <I>urgent</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coleyard tore it open hurriedly. I could see he was agitated. His
+face grew white at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I&mdash;I beg your pardon," he said. "I&mdash;I must go back instantly. My
+wife is dangerously ill&mdash;quite a sudden attack. Forgive me, Senator.
+Sir Charles, you shall have your revenge to-morrow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was clear that his voice faltered. We felt at least he was a man
+of feeling. He was obviously frightened. His coolness forsook him.
+He shook hands as in a dream, and rushed downstairs for his
+dust-coat. Almost as he closed the front door, a new guest entered,
+just missing him in the vestibule.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Halloa, you men," he said, "we've been taken in, do you know? It's
+all over the Lotus. The man we made an honorary member of the club
+to-day is <I>not</I> Algernon Coleyard. He's a blatant impostor. There's
+a telegram come in on the tape to-night saying Algernon Coleyard is
+dangerously ill at his home in England."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gasped a violent gasp. "Colonel Clay!" he shouted, aloud.
+"And once more he's done me. There's not a moment to lose. After
+him, gentlemen! after him!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Never before in our lives had we had such a close shave of catching
+and fixing the redoubtable swindler. We burst down the stairs in a
+body, and rushed out into Fifth Avenue. The pretended poet had only
+a hundred yards' start of us, and he saw he was discovered. But he
+was an excellent runner. So was I, weight for age; and I dashed
+wildly after him. He turned round a corner; it proved to lead
+nowhere, and lost him time. He darted back again, madly. Delighted
+with the idea that I was capturing so famous a criminal, I redoubled
+my efforts&mdash;and came up with him, panting. He was wearing a light
+dust-coat. I seized it in my hands. "I've got you at last!" I cried;
+"Colonel Clay, I've got you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He turned and looked at me. "Ha, old Ten Per Cent!" he called out,
+struggling. "It's you, then, is it? Never, never to <I>you</I>, sir!" And
+as he spoke, he somehow flung his arms straight out behind him, and
+let the dust-coat slip off, which it easily did, the sleeves being
+new and smoothly silk-lined. The suddenness of the movement threw
+me completely off my guard, and off my legs as well. I was clinging
+to the coat and holding him. As the support gave way I rolled over
+backward, in the mud of the street, and hurt my back seriously. As
+for Colonel Clay, with a nervous laugh, he bolted off at full speed
+in his evening coat, and vanished round a corner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was some seconds before I had sufficiently recovered my breath to
+pick myself up again, and examine my bruises. By this time Charles
+and the other pursuers had come up, and I explained my condition to
+them. Instead of commending me for my zeal in his cause&mdash;which had
+cost me a barked arm and a good evening suit&mdash;my brother-in-law
+remarked, with an unfeeling sneer, that when I had so nearly caught
+my man I might as well have held him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have his coat, at least," I said. "That may afford us a clue."
+And I limped back with it in my hands, feeling horribly bruised and
+a good deal shaken.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When we came to examine the coat, however, it bore no maker's name;
+the strap at the back, where the tailor proclaims with pride his
+handicraft, had been carefully ripped off, and its place was taken
+by a tag of plain black tape without inscription of any sort. We
+searched the breast-pocket. A handkerchief, similarly nameless,
+but of finest cambric. The side-pockets&mdash;ha, what was this? I drew
+a piece of paper out in triumph. It was a note&mdash;a real find&mdash;the
+one which the servant had handed to our friend just before at the
+Senator's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We read it through breathlessly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"DARLING PAUL,&mdash;I <I>told</I> you it was too dangerous. You should have
+listened to me. You ought <I>never</I> to have imitated any real person. I
+happened to glance at the hotel tape just now, to see the quotations
+for Cloetedorps to-day, and what do you think I read as part of the
+latest telegram from England? 'Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous
+poet, is lying on his death-bed at his home in Devonshire.' By this
+time all New York knows. Don't stop one minute. Say I'm dangerously
+ill, and come away at once. Don't return to the hotel. I am removing
+our things. Meet me at Mary's. Your devoted, MARGOT."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"This is <I>very</I> important," Charles said. "This <I>does</I> give us a clue.
+We know two things now: his real name is Paul&mdash;whatever else it may
+be, and Madame Picardet's is Margot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I searched the pocket again, and pulled out a ring. Evidently he had
+thrust these two things there when he saw me pursuing him, and had
+forgotten or neglected them in the heat of the mêlée.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I looked at it close. It was the very ring I had noticed on his
+finger while he was playing Swedish poker. It had a large compound
+gem in the centre, set with many facets, and rising like a pyramid
+to a point in the middle. There were eight faces in all, some of
+them composed of emerald, amethyst, or turquoise. But <I>one</I> face&mdash;the
+one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye&mdash;was <I>not</I>
+a gem at all, but an extremely tiny convex mirror. In a moment I
+spotted the trick. He held this hand carelessly on the table while
+my brother-in-law dealt; and when he saw that the suit and number of
+his own card mirrored in it by means of the squeezers were better
+than Charles's, he had "an inspiration," and backed his luck&mdash;or
+rather his knowledge&mdash;with perfect confidence. I did not doubt,
+either, that his odd-looking eyeglass was a powerful magnifier which
+helped him in the trick. Still, we tried another deal, by way of
+experiment&mdash;I wearing the ring; and even with the naked eye I was
+able to distinguish in every case the suit and pips of the card that
+was dealt me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, that was almost dishonest," the Senator said, drawing back.
+He wished to show us that even far-Western speculators drew a line
+somewhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," the magazine editor echoed. "To back your skill is legal;
+to back your luck is foolish; to back your knowledge is&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Immoral," I suggested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very good business," said the magazine editor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a simple trick," Charles interposed. "I should have spotted
+it if it had been done by any other fellow. But his patter about
+inspiration put me clean off the track. That's the rascal's dodge.
+He plays the regular conjurer's game of distracting your attention
+from the real point at issue&mdash;so well that you never find out what
+he's really about till he's sold you irretrievably."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We set the New York police upon the trail of the Colonel; but of
+course he had vanished at once, as usual, into the thin smoke of
+Manhattan. Not a sign could we find of him. "Mary's," we found an
+insufficient address.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We waited on in New York for a whole fortnight. Nothing came of it.
+We never found "Mary's." The only token of Colonel Clay's presence
+vouchsafed us in the city was one of his customary insulting notes.
+It was conceived as follows:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="letter">
+"O ETERNAL GULLIBLE!&mdash;Since I saw you on Lake George, I have run
+back to London, and promptly come out again. I had business to
+transact there, indeed, which I have now completed; the excessive
+attentions of the English police sent me once more, like great
+Orion, "sloping slowly to the west." I returned to America in order
+to see whether or not you were still impenitent. On the day of my
+arrival I happened to meet Senator Wrengold, and accepted his kind
+invitation solely that I might see how far my last communication
+had had a proper effect upon you. As I found you quite obdurate,
+and as you furthermore persisted in misunderstanding my motives, I
+determined to read you one more small lesson. It nearly failed; and
+I confess the accident has affected my nerves a little. I am now
+about to retire from business altogether, and settle down for life
+at my place in Surrey. I mean to try just one more small coup; and,
+when that is finished, Colonel Clay will hang up his sword, like
+Cincinnatus, and take to farming. You need no longer fear me. I have
+realised enough to secure me for life a modest competence; and as
+I am not possessed like yourself with an immoderate greed of gain,
+I recognise that good citizenship demands of me now an early
+retirement in favour of some younger and more deserving rascal. I
+shall always look back with pleasure upon our agreeable adventures
+together; and as you hold my dust-coat, together with a ring and
+letter to which I attach importance, I consider we are quits, and
+I shall withdraw with dignity. Your sincere well-wisher, CUTHBERT
+CLAY, Poet."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"Just like him!" Charles said, "to hold this one last coup over my
+head in terrorem. Though even when he has played it, why should I
+trust his word? A scamp like that may say it, of course, on purpose
+to disarm me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For my own part, I quite agreed with "Margot." When the Colonel was
+reduced to dressing the part of a known personage I felt he had
+reached almost his last card, and would be well advised to retire
+into Surrey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the magazine editor summed up all in a word. "Don't believe
+that nonsense about fortunes being made by industry and ability,"
+he said. "In life, as at cards, two things go to produce
+success&mdash;the first is chance; the second is cheating."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE BERTILLON METHOD
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+We had a terrible passage home from New York. The Captain told us he
+"knew every drop of water in the Atlantic personally"; and he had
+never seen them so uniformly obstreperous. The ship rolled in the
+trough; Charles rolled in his cabin, and would not be comforted. As
+we approached the Irish coast, I scrambled up on deck in a violent
+gale, and retired again somewhat precipitately to announce to my
+brother-in-law that we had just come in sight of the Fastnet Rock
+Lighthouse. Charles merely turned over in his berth and groaned.
+"I don't believe it," he answered. "I expect it is probably Colonel
+Clay in another of his manifold disguises!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Liverpool, however, the Adelphi consoled him. We dined
+luxuriously in the Louis Quinze restaurant, as only millionaires
+can dine, and proceeded next day by Pullman car to London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We found Amelia dissolved in tears at a domestic cataclysm. It
+seemed that Césarine had given notice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was scarcely home again when he began to bethink him of
+the least among his investments. Like many other wealthy men, my
+respected connection is troubled more or less, in the background of
+his consciousness, by a pervading dread that he will die a beggar.
+To guard against this misfortune&mdash;which I am bound to admit nobody
+else fears for him&mdash;he invested, several years ago, a sum of two
+hundred thousand pounds in Consols, to serve as a nest-egg in case
+of the collapse of Golcondas and South Africa generally. It is
+part of the same amiable mania, too, that he will not allow the
+dividend-warrants on this sum to be sent to him by post, but
+insists, after the fashion of old ladies and country parsons, upon
+calling personally at the Bank of England four times a year to claim
+his interest. He is well known by sight to not a few of the clerks;
+and his appearance in Threadneedle Street is looked forward to with
+great regularity within a few weeks of each lawful quarter-day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So, on the morning after our arrival in town, Charles observed to
+me, cheerfully, "Sey, I must run into the City to-day to claim my
+dividends. There are two quarters owing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I accompanied him in to the Bank. Even that mighty official, the
+beadle at the door, unfastened the handle of the millionaire's
+carriage. The clerk who received us smiled and nodded. "How much?"
+he asked, after the stereotyped fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two hundred thousand," Charles answered, looking affable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clerk turned up the books. "Paid!" he said, with
+decision. "What's your game, sir, if I may ask you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Paid!" Charles echoed, drawing back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clerk gazed across at him. "Yes, Sir Charles," he answered, in
+a somewhat severe tone. "You must remember you drew a quarter's
+dividend from myself&mdash;last week&mdash;at this very counter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles stared at him fixedly. "Show me the signature," he said at
+last, in a slow, dazed fashion. I suspected mischief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clerk pushed the book across to him. Charles examined the name
+close.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Colonel Clay again!" he cried, turning to me with a despondent air.
+"He must have dressed the part. I shall die in the workhouse, Sey!
+That man has stolen away even my nest-egg from me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw it at a glance. "Mrs. Quackenboss!" I put in. "Those portraits
+on the Etruria! It was to help him in his make-up! You recollect,
+she sketched your face and figure at all possible angles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And last quarter's?" Charles inquired, staggering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clerk turned up the entry. "Drawn on the 10th of July,"
+he answered, carelessly, as if it mattered nothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then I knew why the Colonel had run across to England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles positively reeled. "Take me home, Sey," he cried. "I am
+ruined, ruined! He will leave me with not half a million in the
+world. My poor, poor boys will beg their bread, unheeded, through
+the streets of London!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+(As Amelia has landed estate settled upon her worth a hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, this last contingency affected me less to
+tears than Charles seemed to think necessary.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
+once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
+paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
+Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
+twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
+I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
+would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
+reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
+said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
+measuring and registering criminals."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
+like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
+step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
+Colonel Clay&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you <I>did</I> catch him,
+you didn't hold him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
+"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
+cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
+had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
+his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
+turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
+into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said. "I was told in New York
+that Dr. Frank Beddersley, of London, was the best exponent of the
+Bertillon system now living in England; and to Beddersley I shall
+go. Or, rather, I'll invite him here to lunch to-morrow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who told you of him?" I inquired. "<I>Not</I> Dr. Quackenboss, I hope;
+nor yet Mr. Algernon Coleyard?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles paused and reflected. "No, neither of them," he answered,
+after a short internal deliberation. "It was that magazine editor
+chap we met at Wrengold's."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>He's</I> all right," I said; "or, at least, I think so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So we wrote a polite invitation to Dr. Beddersley, who pursued
+the method professionally, asking him to come and lunch with us
+at Mayfair at two next day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Beddersley came&mdash;a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows,
+and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel
+Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments. He
+was clear and concise. His manner was scientific. He told us at once
+that though the Bertillon method was of little use till the expert
+had seen the criminal once, yet if we had consulted him earlier
+he might probably have saved us some serious disasters. "A man
+so ingenious as this," he said, "would no doubt have studied
+Bertillon's principles himself, and would take every possible
+means to prevent recognition by them. Therefore, you might almost
+disregard the nose, the chin, the moustache, the hair, all of which
+are capable of such easy alteration. But there remain some features
+which are more likely to persist&mdash;height, shape of head, neck,
+build, and fingers; the timbre of the voice, the colour of the iris.
+Even these, again, may be partially disguised or concealed; the way
+the hair is dressed, the amount of padding, a high collar round the
+throat, a dark line about the eyelashes, may do more to alter the
+appearance of a face than you could readily credit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So we know," I answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The voice, again," Dr. Beddersley continued. "The voice itself may
+be most fallacious. The man is no doubt a clever mimic. He could,
+perhaps, compress or enlarge his larynx. And I judge from what you
+tell me that he took characters each time which compelled him
+largely to alter and modify his tone and accent."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," I said. "As the Mexican Seer, he had of course a
+Spanish intonation. As the little curate, he was a cultivated
+North-countryman. As David Granton, he spoke gentlemanly Scotch.
+As Von Lebenstein, naturally, he was a South-German, trying to
+express himself in French. As Professor Schleiermacher, he was a
+North-German speaking broken English. As Elihu Quackenboss, he
+had a fine and pronounced Kentucky flavour. And as the poet, he
+drawled after the fashion of the clubs, with lingering remnants
+of a Devonshire ancestry."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite so," Dr. Beddersley answered. "That is just what I should
+expect. Now, the question is, do you know him to be one man, or
+is he really a gang? Is he a name for a syndicate? Have you any
+photographs of Colonel Clay himself in any of his disguises?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not one," Charles answered. "He produced some himself, when he was
+Medhurst the detective. But he pocketed them at once; and we never
+recovered them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Could you get any?" the doctor asked. "Did you note the name and
+address of the photographer?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Unfortunately, no," Charles replied. "But the police at Nice showed
+us two. Perhaps we might borrow them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Until we get them," Dr. Beddersley said, "I don't know that we can
+do anything. But if you can once give me two distinct photographs of
+the real man, no matter how much disguised, I could tell you whether
+they were taken from one person; and, if so, I think I could point
+out certain details in common which might aid us to go upon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All this was at lunch. Amelia's niece, Dolly Lingfield, was there,
+as it happened; and I chanced to note a most guilty look stealing
+over her face all the while we were talking. Suspicious as I had
+learned to become by this time, however, I did not suspect Dolly of
+being in league with Colonel Clay; but, I confess, I wondered what
+her blush could indicate. After lunch, to my surprise, Dolly called
+me away from the rest into the library. "Uncle Seymour," she said
+to me&mdash;the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am
+not in any way related to her&mdash;"<I>I</I> have some photographs of Colonel
+Clay, if you want them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>You</I>?" I cried, astonished. "Why, Dolly, how did you get them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a minute or two she showed some little hesitation in telling me.
+At last she whispered, "You won't be angry if I confess?" (Dolly is
+just nineteen, and remarkably pretty.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My child," I said, "why <I>should</I> I be angry? You may confide in me
+implicitly." (With a blush like that, who on earth could be angry
+with her?)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you won't tell Aunt Amelia or Aunt Isabel?" she inquired
+somewhat anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not for worlds," I answered. (As a matter of fact, Amelia and
+Isabel are the last people in the world to whom I should dream
+of confiding anything that Dolly might tell me.)
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I was stopping at Seldon, you know, when Mr. David Granton
+was there," Dolly went on; "&mdash;or, rather, when that scamp pretended
+he was David Granton; and&mdash;and&mdash;you won't be angry with me, will
+you?&mdash;one day I took a snap-shot with my kodak at him and Aunt
+Amelia!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, what harm was there in that?" I asked, bewildered. The wildest
+stretch of fancy could hardly conceive that the Honourable David had
+been <I>flirting</I> with Amelia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly coloured still more deeply. "Oh, you know Bertie Winslow?" she
+said. "Well, he's interested in photography&mdash;and&mdash;and also in <I>me</I>.
+And he's invented a process, which isn't of the slightest practical
+use, he says; but its peculiarity is, that it reveals textures. At
+least, that's what Bertie calls it. It makes things come out so. And
+he gave me some plates of his own for my kodak&mdash;half-a-dozen or more,
+and&mdash;I took Aunt Amelia with them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I still fail to see," I murmured, looking at her comically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle Seymour," Dolly cried. "How blind you men are!
+If Aunt Amelia knew she would never forgive me. Why, you <I>must</I>
+understand. The&mdash;the rouge, you know, and the pearl powder!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it comes out, then, in the photograph?" I inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Comes out! I should <I>think</I> so! It's like little black spots all
+over auntie's face. <I>such</I> a guy as she looks in it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Colonel Clay is in them too?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; I took them when he and auntie were talking together, without
+either of them noticing. And Bertie developed them. I've three of
+David Granton. Three beauties; <I>most</I> successful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Any other character?" I asked, seeing business ahead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly hung back, still redder. "Well, the rest are with Aunt
+Isabel," she answered, after a struggle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear child," I replied, hiding my feelings as a husband, "I will
+be brave. I will bear up even against that last misfortune!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly looked up at me pleadingly. "It was here in London," she went
+on; "&mdash;when I was last with auntie. Medhurst was stopping in the
+house at the time; and I took him twice, tête-à-tête with Aunt
+Isabel!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Isabel does not paint," I murmured, stoutly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly hung back again. "No, but&mdash;her hair!" she suggested, in a
+faint voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a&mdash;well, you
+know, a restorer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly broke into a mischievous sly smile. "Yes, it is," she
+continued. "And, oh, Uncle Sey, where the restorer has&mdash;er&mdash;restored
+it, you know, it comes out in the photograph with a sort of
+brilliant iridescent metallic sheen on it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bring them down, my dear," I said, gently patting her head with my
+hand. In the interests of justice, I thought it best not to frighten
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dolly brought them down. They seemed to me poor things, yet well
+worth trying. We found it possible, on further confabulation, by
+the simple aid of a pair of scissors, so to cut each in two that
+all trace of Amelia and Isabel was obliterated. Even so, however,
+I judged it best to call Charles and Dr. Beddersley to a private
+consultation in the library with Dolly, and not to submit the
+mutilated photographs to public inspection by their joint subjects.
+Here, in fact, we had five patchy portraits of the redoubtable
+Colonel, taken at various angles, and in characteristic unstudied
+attitudes. A child had outwitted the cleverest sharper in Europe!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The moment Beddersley's eye fell upon them, a curious look came over
+his face. "Why, these," he said, "are taken on Herbert Winslow's
+method, Miss Lingfield."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," Dolly admitted timidly. "They are. He's&mdash;a friend of mine,
+don't you know; and&mdash;he gave me some plates that just fitted my
+camera."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Beddersley gazed at them steadily. Then he turned to Charles.
+"And this young lady," he said, "has quite unintentionally and
+unconsciously succeeded in tracking Colonel Clay to earth at last.
+They are genuine photographs of the man&mdash;as he is&mdash;<I>without</I> the
+disguises!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They look to me most blotchy," Charles murmured. "Great black lines
+down the nose, and such spots on the cheek, too!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly," Beddersley put in. "Those are <I>differences in texture</I>.
+They show just how much of the man's face is human flesh&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And how much wax," I ventured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not wax," the expert answered, gazing close. "This is some harder
+mixture. I should guess, a composition of gutta-percha and
+india-rubber, which takes colour well, and hardens when applied,
+so as to lie quite evenly, and resist heat or melting. Look here;
+that's an artificial scar, filling up a real hollow; and <I>this</I> is
+an added bit to the tip of the nose; and <I>those</I> are shadows, due
+to inserted cheek-pieces, within the mouth, to make the man look
+fatter!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, of course," Charles cried. "India-rubber it must be. That's
+why in France they call him le Colonel Caoutchouc!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can you reconstruct the real face from them?" I inquired anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Beddersley gazed hard at them. "Give me an hour or two," he
+said&mdash;"and a box of water-colours. I <I>think</I> by that time&mdash;putting
+two and two together&mdash;I can eliminate the false and build up for you
+a tolerably correct idea of what the actual man himself looks like."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We turned him into the library for a couple of hours, with the
+materials he needed; and by tea-time he had completed his first
+rough sketch of the elements common to the two faces. He brought
+it out to us in the drawing-room. I glanced at it first. It was
+a curious countenance, slightly wanting in definiteness, and not
+unlike those "composite photographs" which Mr. Galton produces by
+exposing two negatives on the same sensitised paper for ten seconds
+or so consecutively. Yet it struck me at once as containing
+something of Colonel Clay in every one of his many representations.
+The little curate, in real life, did not recall the Seer; nor
+did Elihu Quackenboss suggest Count von Lebenstein or Professor
+Schleiermacher. Yet in this compound face, produced only from
+photographs of David Granton and Medhurst, I could distinctly trace
+a certain underlying likeness to every one of the forms which the
+impostor had assumed for us. In other words, though he could make
+up so as to mask the likeness to his other characters, he could not
+make up so as to mask the likeness to his own personality. He could
+not wholly get rid of his native build and his genuine features.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Besides these striking suggestions of the Seer and the curate,
+however, I felt vaguely conscious of having seen and observed
+<I>the man himself</I> whom the water-colour represented, at some time,
+somewhere. It was not at Nice; it was not at Seldon; it was not at
+Meran; it was not in America. I believed I had been in a room with
+him somewhere in London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was looking over my shoulder. He gave a sudden little start.
+"Why, I know that fellow!" he cried. "You recollect him, Sey; he's
+Finglemore's brother&mdash;the chap that didn't go out to China!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then I remembered at once where it was that I had seen him&mdash;at the
+broker's in the city, before we sailed for America.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What Christian name?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles reflected a moment. "The same as the one in the note we got
+with the dust-coat," he answered, at last. "The man is Paul
+Finglemore!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will arrest him?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can I, on this evidence?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We might bring it home to him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles mused for a moment. "We shall have nothing against him,"
+he said slowly, "except in so far as we can swear to his identity.
+And that may be difficult."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just at that moment the footman brought in tea. Charles wondered
+apparently whether the man, who had been with us at Seldon when
+Colonel Clay was David Granton, would recollect the face or
+recognise having seen it. "Look here, Dudley," he said, holding
+up the water-colour, "do you know that person?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dudley gazed at it a moment. "Certainly, sir," he answered briskly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is it?" Amelia asked. We expected him to answer, "Count von
+Lebenstein," or "Mr. Granton," or "Medhurst."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instead of that, he replied, to our utter surprise, "That's
+Césarine's young man, my lady."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Césarine's young man?" Amelia repeated, taken aback. "Oh, Dudley,
+surely, you <I>must</I> be mistaken!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, my lady," Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. "He comes
+to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on,
+from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When will he be coming again?" Charles asked, breathless.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's downstairs now, sir," Dudley answered, unaware of the
+bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. "Secure
+that man," he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>What</I> man?" I asked, amazed. "Colonel Clay? The young man who's
+downstairs now with Césarine?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," Charles answered, with decision; "Dudley!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what
+Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed
+from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door,
+prevented him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I&mdash;I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles," Dudley cried,
+in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. "It&mdash;it wasn't me
+as cheated you." And he certainly didn't look it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I daresay not," Charles answered. "But you don't leave this room
+till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your
+speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This villain
+and Césarine have long been accomplices! The man's downstairs with
+her now. If we let Dudley quit the room he'll go down and tell them;
+and before we know where we are, that slippery eel will have
+wriggled through our fingers, as he always wriggles. He <I>is</I> Paul
+Finglemore; he <I>is</I> Césarine's young man; and unless we arrest him
+now, without one minute's delay, he'll be off to Madrid or St.
+Petersburg by this evening!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right," I answered. "It is now or never!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dudley," Charles said, in his most authoritative voice, "stop here
+till we tell you you may leave the room. Amelia and Dolly, don't let
+that man stir from where he's standing. If he does, restrain him.
+Seymour and Dr. Beddersley, come down with me to the servants' hall.
+I suppose that's where I shall find this person, Dudley?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"N&mdash;no, sir," Dudley stammered out, half beside himself with fright.
+"He's in the housekeeper's room, sir!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went down to the lower regions in a solid phalanx of three. On
+the way we met Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, and also the butler,
+whom we pressed into the service. At the door of the housekeeper's
+room we paused, strategically. Voices came to us from within; one
+was Césarine's, the other had a ring that reminded me at once of
+Medhurst and the Seer, of Elihu Quackenboss and Algernon Coleyard.
+They were talking together in French; and now and then we caught
+the sound of stifled laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We opened the door. "Est-il drôle, donc, ce vieux?" the man's
+voice was saying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"C'est à mourir de rire," Césarine's voice responded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We burst in upon them, red-handed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Césarine's young man rose, with his hat in his hand, in a respectful
+attitude. It reminded me at once of Medhurst, as he stood talking
+his first day at Marvillier's to Charles; and also of the little
+curate, in his humblest moments as the disinterested pastor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a sign to me to do likewise, Charles laid his hand firmly on
+the young man's shoulder. I looked in the fellow's face: there could
+be no denying it; Césarine's young man was Paul Finglemore, our
+broker's brother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Paul Finglemore," Charles said severely, "otherwise Cuthbert Clay,
+I arrest you on several charges of theft and conspiracy!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man glanced around him. He was surprised and perturbed;
+but, even so, his inexhaustible coolness never once deserted him.
+"What, five to one?" he said, counting us over. "Has law and order
+come down to this? Five respectable rascals to arrest one poor
+beggar of a chevalier d'industrie! Why, it's worse than New York.
+<I>There</I>, it was only you and me, you know, old Ten per Cent!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hold his hands, Simpson!" Charles cried, trembling lest his enemy
+should escape him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Paul Finglemore drew back even while we held his shoulders. "No,
+not <I>you</I>, sir," he said to the man, haughtily. "Don't dare to lay
+your hands upon me! Send for a constable if you wish, Sir Charles
+Vandrift; but I decline to be taken into custody by a valet!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go for a policeman," Dr. Beddersley said to Simpson, standing
+forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The prisoner eyed him up and down. "Oh, Dr. Beddersley!" he said,
+relieved. It was evident he knew him. "If <I>you've</I> tracked me
+strictly in accordance with Bertillon's methods, I don't mind so
+much. I will not yield to fools; I yield to science. I didn't think
+this diamond king had sense enough to apply to you. He's the most
+gullible old ass I ever met in my life. But if it's <I>you</I> who have
+tracked me down, I can only submit to it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles held to him with a fierce grip. "Mind he doesn't break away,
+Sey," he cried. "He's playing his old game! Distrust the man's
+patter!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Take care," the prisoner put in. "Remember Dr. Polperro! On what
+charge do you arrest me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was bubbling with indignation. "You cheated me at Nice,"
+he said; "at Meran; at New York; at Paris!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Paul Finglemore shook his head. "Won't do," he answered, calmly. "Be
+sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that
+on an extradition warrant."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,"
+Charles cried out excitedly. "Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or
+without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away
+from us!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment Simpson returned with a convenient policeman, whom he
+had happened to find loitering about near the area steps, and whom I
+half suspected from his furtive smile of being a particular
+acquaintance of the household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles gave the man in charge formally. Paul Finglemore insisted
+that he should specify the nature of the particular accusation.
+To my great chagrin, Charles selected from his rogueries, as best
+within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the matter of the
+payment for the Castle of Lebenstein&mdash;made in London, and through
+a London banker. "I have a warrant on that ground," he said. I
+trembled as he spoke. I felt at once that the episode of the
+commission, the exposure of which I dreaded so much, must now
+become public.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The policeman took the man in charge. Charles still held to him,
+grimly. As they were leaving the room the prisoner turned to
+Césarine, and muttered something rapidly under his breath, in
+German. "Of which tongue," he said, turning to us blandly, "in spite
+of my kind present of a dictionary and grammar, you still doubtless
+remain in your pristine ignorance!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Césarine flung herself upon him with wild devotion. "Oh, Paul,
+darling," she cried, in English, "I will not, I will not! I
+will never save myself at <I>your</I> expense. If they send you to
+prison&mdash;Paul, Paul, I will go with you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I remembered as she spoke what Mr. Algernon Coleyard had said to us
+at the Senator's. "Even the worst of rogues have always some good
+in them. I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the
+affection and fidelity of women."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the man, his hands still free, unwound her clasping arms with
+gentle fingers. "My child," he answered, in a soft tone, "I am sorry
+to say the law of England will not permit you to go with me. If it
+did" (his voice was as the voice of the poet we had met), "'stone
+walls would not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'" And bending
+forward, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We led him out to the door. The policeman, in obedience to Charles's
+orders, held him tight with his hand, but steadily refused, as the
+prisoner was not violent, to handcuff him. We hailed a passing
+hansom. "To Bow Street!" Charles cried, unceremoniously pushing in
+policeman and prisoner. The driver nodded. We called a four-wheeler
+ourselves, in which my brother-in-law, Dr. Beddersley and myself
+took our seats. "Follow the hansom!" Charles cried out. "Don't let
+him out of your sight. After him, close, to Bow Street!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I looked back, and saw Césarine, half fainting, on the front door
+steps, while Dolly, bathed in tears, stood supporting the
+lady's-maid, and trying to comfort her. It was clear she had not
+anticipated this end to the adventure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Goodness gracious!" Charles screamed out, in a fresh fever of
+alarm, as we turned the first corner; "where's that hansom gone to?
+How do I know the fellow was a policeman at all? We should have
+taken the man in here. We ought never to have let him get out of
+our sight. For all we can tell to the contrary, the constable
+himself&mdash;may only be one of Colonel Clay's confederates!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And we drove in trepidation all the way to Bow Street.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD BAILEY
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+When we reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our
+prisoner, after all, had <I>not</I> evaded us. It was a false alarm.
+He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to
+make the first formal charge against him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course, on Charles's sworn declaration and my own, the man was
+at once remanded, bail being refused, owing both to the serious
+nature of the charge and the slippery character of the prisoner's
+antecedents. We went back to Mayfair&mdash;Charles, well satisfied that
+the man he dreaded was under lock and key; myself, not too well
+pleased to think that the man I dreaded was no longer at large, and
+that the trifling little episode of the ten per cent commission
+stood so near discovery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day the police came round in force, and had a long consultation
+with Charles and myself. They strongly urged that two other persons
+at least should be included in the charge&mdash;Césarine and the little
+woman whom we had variously known as Madame Picardet, White Heather,
+Mrs. David Granton, and Mrs. Elihu Quackenboss. If these accomplices
+were arrested, they said, we could include conspiracy as one count
+in the indictment, which gave us an extra chance of conviction. Now
+they had got Colonel Clay, in fact, they naturally desired to keep
+him, and also to indict with him as many as possible of his pals
+and confederates.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here, however, a difficulty arose. Charles called me aside with a
+grave face into the library. "Seymour," he said, fixing me, "this
+is a serious business. I will not lightly swear away any woman's
+character. Colonel Clay himself&mdash;or, rather, Paul Finglemore&mdash;is an
+abandoned rogue, whom I do not desire to screen in any degree. But
+poor little Madame Picardet&mdash;she may be his lawful wife, and she
+may have acted implicitly under his orders. Besides, I don't know
+whether I could swear to her identity. Here's the photograph the
+police bring of the woman they believe to be Colonel Clay's chief
+female accomplice. Now, I ask you, does it in the least degree
+resemble that clever and amusing and charming little creature,
+who has so often deceived us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In spite of Charles's gibes, I flatter myself I do really understand
+the whole duty of a secretary. It was clear from his voice he did
+not <I>wish</I> me to recognise her; which, as it happened, I did not.
+"Certainly, it doesn't resemble her, Charles," I answered, with
+conviction in my voice. "I should never have known her." But I did
+not add that I should no more have known Colonel Clay himself in
+his character of Paul Finglemore, or of Césarine's young man, as
+<I>that</I> remark lay clearly outside my secretarial functions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, it flitted across my mind at the time that the Seer had made
+some casual remarks at Nice about a letter in Charles's pocket,
+presumably from Madame Picardet; and I reflected further that Madame
+Picardet in turn might possibly hold certain answers of Charles's,
+couched in such terms as he might reasonably desire to conceal from
+Amelia. Indeed, I must allow that under whatever disguise White
+Heather appeared to us, Charles was always that disguise's devoted
+slave from the first moment he met it. It occurred to me, therefore,
+that the clever little woman&mdash;call her what you will&mdash;might be the
+holder of more than one indiscreet communication.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Under these circumstances," Charles went on, in his austerest
+voice, "I cannot consent to be a party to the arrest of White
+Heather. I&mdash;I decline to identify her. In point of fact"&mdash;he grew
+more emphatic as he went on&mdash;"I don't think there is an atom of
+evidence of any sort against her. Not," he continued, after a
+pause, "that I wish in any degree to screen the guilty. Césarine,
+now&mdash;Césarine we have liked and trusted. She has betrayed our trust.
+She has sold us to this fellow. I have no doubt at all that she
+gave him the diamonds from Amelia's rivière; that she took us by
+arrangement to meet him at Schloss Lebenstein; that she opened and
+sent to him my letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie. Therefore, I say, we
+<I>ought</I> to arrest Césarine. But not White Heather&mdash;not Jessie; not
+that pretty Mrs. Quackenboss. Let the guilty suffer; why strike at
+the innocent&mdash;or, at worst, the misguided?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Charles," I exclaimed, with warmth, "your sentiments do you honour.
+You are a man of feeling. And White Heather, I allow, is pretty
+enough and clever enough to be forgiven anything. You may rely upon
+my discretion. I will swear through thick and thin that I do not
+recognise this woman as Madame Picardet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles clasped my hand in silence. "Seymour," he said, after
+a pause, with marked emotion, "I felt sure I could rely upon
+your&mdash;er&mdash;honour and integrity. I have been rough upon you
+sometimes. But I ask your forgiveness. I see you understand the
+whole duties of your position."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We went out again, better friends than we had been for months.
+I hoped, indeed, this pleasant little incident might help to
+neutralise the possible ill-effects of the ten per cent disclosure,
+should Finglemore take it into his head to betray me to my employer.
+As we emerged into the drawing-room, Amelia beckoned me aside
+towards her boudoir for a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seymour," she said to me, in a distinctly frightened tone, "I have
+treated you harshly at times, I know, and I am very sorry for it.
+But I want you to help me in a most painful difficulty. The police
+are quite right as to the charge of conspiracy; that designing
+little minx, White Heather, or Mrs. David Granton, or whatever else
+we're to call her, ought certainly to be prosecuted&mdash;and sent to
+prison, too&mdash;and have her absurd head of hair cut short and combed
+straight for her. But&mdash;and you will help me here, I'm sure, dear
+Seymour&mdash;I <I>cannot</I> allow them to arrest my Césarine. I don't pretend
+to say Césarine isn't guilty; the girl has behaved most ungratefully
+to me. She has robbed me right and left, and deceived me without
+compunction. Still&mdash;I put it to you as a married man&mdash;<I>can</I> any woman
+afford to go into the witness-box, to be cross-examined and teased
+by her own maid, or by a brute of a barrister on her maid's
+information? I assure you, Seymour, the thing's not to be dreamt of.
+There are details of a lady's life&mdash;known only to her maid&mdash;which
+<I>cannot</I> be made public. Explain as much of this as you think well to
+Charles, and <I>make</I> him understand that <I>if</I> he insists upon arresting
+Césarine, I shall go into the box&mdash;and swear my head off to prevent
+any one of the gang from being convicted. I have told Césarine as
+much; I have promised to help her: I have explained that I am her
+friend, and that if <I>she'll</I> stand by <I>me</I>, <I>I'll</I> stand by <I>her</I>,
+and by this hateful young man of hers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw in a moment how things went. Neither Charles nor Amelia could
+face cross-examination on the subject of one of Colonel Clay's
+accomplices. No doubt, in Amelia's case, it was merely a question
+of rouge and hair-dye; but what woman would not sooner confess to
+a forgery or a murder than to those toilet secrets?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I returned to Charles, therefore, and spent half an hour in
+composing, as well as I might, these little domestic difficulties.
+In the end, it was arranged that if Charles did his best to protect
+Césarine from arrest, Amelia would consent to do her best in return
+on behalf of Madame Picardet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had next the police to tackle&mdash;a more difficult business. Still,
+even <I>they</I> were reasonable. They had caught Colonel Clay, they
+believed, but their chance of convicting him depended entirely upon
+Charles's identification, with mine to back it. The more they urged
+the necessity of arresting the female confederates, however, the
+more stoutly did Charles declare that for his part he could by no
+means make sure of Colonel Clay himself, while he utterly declined
+to give evidence of any sort against either of the women. It was a
+difficult case, he said, and he felt far from confident even about
+the man. If <I>his</I> decision faltered, and he failed to identify, the
+case was closed; no jury could convict with nothing to convict upon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last the police gave way. No other course was open to them. They
+had made an important capture; but they saw that everything depended
+upon securing their witnesses, and the witnesses, if interfered
+with, were likely to swear to absolutely nothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, as it turned out, before the preliminary investigation at
+Bow Street was completed (with the usual remands), Charles had been
+thrown into such a state of agitation that he wished he had never
+caught the Colonel at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder, Sey," he said to me, "why I didn't offer the rascal two
+thousand a year to go right off to Australia, and be rid of him for
+ever! It would have been cheaper for my reputation than keeping him
+about in courts of law in England. The worst of it is, when once the
+best of men gets into a witness-box, there's no saying with what
+shreds and tatters of a character he may at last come out of it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In <I>your</I> case, Charles," I answered, dutifully, "there can be
+no such doubt; except, perhaps, as regards the Craig-Ellachie
+Consolidated."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then came the endless bother of "getting up the case" with the
+police and the lawyers. Charles would have retired from it
+altogether by that time, but, most unfortunately, he was bound
+over to prosecute. "You couldn't take a lump sum to let me off?"
+he said, jokingly, to the inspector. But I knew in my heart it was
+one of the "true words spoken in jest" that the proverb tells of.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course we could see now the whole building-up of the great
+intrigue. It had been worked out as carefully as the Tichborne
+swindle. Young Finglemore, as the brother of Charles's broker,
+knew from the outset all about his affairs; and, after a gentle
+course of preliminary roguery, he laid his plans deep for a campaign
+against my brother-in-law. Everything had been deliberately
+designed beforehand. A place had been found for Césarine as Amelia's
+maid&mdash;needless to say, by means of forged testimonials. Through her
+aid the swindler had succeeded in learning still more of the family
+ways and habits, and had acquired a knowledge of certain facts which
+he proceeded forthwith to use against us. His first attack, as the
+Seer, had been cleverly designed so as to give us the idea that we
+were a mere casual prey; and it did not escape Charles's notice now
+that the detail of getting Madame Picardet to inquire at the Crédit
+Marseillais about his bank had been solemnly gone through on purpose
+to blind us to the obvious truth that Colonel Clay was already in
+full possession of all such facts about us. It was by Césarine's
+aid, again, that he became possessed of Amelia's diamonds, that
+he received the letter addressed to Lord Craig-Ellachie, and
+that he managed to dupe us over the Schloss Lebenstein business.
+Nevertheless, all these things Charles determined to conceal in
+court; he did not give the police a single fact that would turn
+against either Césarine or Madame Picardet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for Césarine, of course, she left the house immediately after the
+arrest of the Colonel, and we heard of her no more till the day of
+the trial.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When that great day came, I never saw a more striking sight than the
+Old Bailey presented. It was crammed to overflowing. Charles arrived
+early, accompanied by his solicitor. He was so white and troubled
+that he looked much more like prisoner than prosecutor. Outside the
+court a pretty little woman stood, pale and anxious. A respectful
+crowd stared at her silently. "Who is that?" Charles asked. Though
+we could both of us guess, rather than see, it was White Heather.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the prisoner's wife," the inspector on duty replied. "She's
+waiting to see him enter. I'm sorry for her, poor thing. She's a
+perfect lady."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So she seems," Charles answered, scarcely daring to face her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment she turned. Her eyes fell upon his. Charles paused
+for a second and looked faltering. There was in those eyes just the
+faintest gleam of pleading recognition, but not a trace of the old
+saucy, defiant vivacity. Charles framed his lips to words, but
+without uttering a sound. Unless I greatly mistake, the words he
+framed on his lips were these: "I will do my best for him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We pushed our way in, assisted by the police. Inside the court we
+saw a lady seated, in a quiet black dress, with a becoming bonnet.
+A moment passed before I knew&mdash;it was Césarine. "Who is&mdash;that
+person?" Charles asked once more of the nearest inspector, desiring
+to see in what way he would describe her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles started back, surprised. "But&mdash;I was told&mdash;a lady outside
+was Mrs. Paul Finglemore," he broke in, much puzzled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very likely," the inspector replied, unmoved. "We have plenty that
+way. <I>When</I> a gentleman has as many aliases as Colonel Clay, you can
+hardly expect him to be over particular about having only <I>one</I> wife
+between them, can you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, I see," Charles muttered, in a shocked voice. "Bigamy!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The inspector looked stony. "Well, not exactly that," he replied,
+"occasional marriage."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth tried the case. "I'm sorry it's him, Sey,"
+my brother-in-law whispered in my ear. (He said <I>him</I>, not <I>he</I>,
+because, whatever else Charles is, he is <I>not</I> a pedant; the English
+language as it is spoken by most educated men is quite good enough
+for his purpose.) "I only wish it had been Sir Edward Easy. Easy's a
+man of the world, and a man of society; he would feel for a person
+in <I>my</I> position. He wouldn't allow these beasts of lawyers to
+badger and pester me. He would back his order. But Rhadamanth is one
+of your modern sort of judges, who make a merit of being what they
+call 'conscientious,' and won't hush up anything. I admit I'm afraid
+of him. I shall be glad when it's over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, <I>you'll</I> pull through all right," I said in my capacity of
+secretary. But I didn't think it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The judge took his seat. The prisoner was brought in. Every eye
+seemed bent upon him. He was neatly and plainly dressed, and,
+rogue though he was, I must honestly confess he looked at least a
+gentleman. His manner was defiant, not abject like Charles's. He
+knew he was at bay, and he turned like a man to face his accusers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had two or three counts on the charge, and, after some formal
+business, Sir Charles Vandrift was put into the box to bear witness
+against Finglemore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Prisoner was unrepresented. Counsel had been offered him, but he
+refused their aid. The judge even advised him to accept their help;
+but Colonel Clay, as we all called him mentally still, declined to
+avail himself of the judge's suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am a barrister myself, my lord," he said&mdash;"called some nine years
+ago. I can conduct my own defence, I venture to think, better than
+any of these my learned brethren."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles went through his examination-in-chief quite swimmingly.
+He answered with promptitude. He identified the prisoner without
+the slightest hesitation as the man who had swindled him under
+the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
+Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
+slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
+anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
+A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
+to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
+be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
+In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
+to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
+questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
+He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
+himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
+persuasively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
+then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
+he was seated beside Césarine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
+pouncing upon the prosecutor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
+still whiter. It was&mdash;to all outer appearance&mdash;the Reverend Richard
+Brabazon in propriâ personâ.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
+man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
+shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
+It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
+We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
+recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them&mdash;not
+of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
+Charles's discomfiture.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
+second photograph.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, can you tell me who <I>that</I> is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
+brow-beating Old Bailey voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
+"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
+disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
+on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
+the jurisdiction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even while Charles spoke, a gentleman whom I had noticed before,
+sitting beside White Heather, with a handkerchief to his face,
+rose as abruptly as the parson. Colonel Clay indicated him with
+a graceful movement of his hand. "And <I>this</I> gentleman?" he asked
+calmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was fairly staggered. It was the obvious original of the
+false Von Lebenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The photograph went round the box once more. The jury smiled
+incredulously. Charles had given himself away. His overweening
+confidence and certainty had ruined him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Colonel Clay, leaning forward, and looking quite engaging,
+began a new line of cross-examination. "We have seen, Sir Charles,"
+he said, "that we cannot implicitly trust your identifications. Now
+let us see how far we can trust your other evidence. First, then,
+about those diamonds. You tried to buy them, did you not, from a
+person who represented himself as the Reverend Richard Brabazon,
+because you believed he thought they were paste; and if you could,
+you would have given him 10 pounds or so for them. <I>Do</I> you think
+that was honest?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I object to this line of cross-examination," our leading counsel
+interposed. "It does not bear on the prosecutor's evidence. It is
+purely recriminatory."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Colonel Clay was all bland deference. "I wish, my lord," he said,
+turning round, "to show that the prosecutor is a person unworthy of
+credence in any way. I desire to proceed upon the well-known legal
+maxim of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. I believe I am permitted
+to shake the witness's credit?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The prisoner is entirely within his rights," Rhadamanth answered,
+looking severely at Charles. "And I was wrong in suggesting that
+he needed the advice or assistance of counsel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles wriggled visibly. Colonel Clay perked up. Bit by bit, with
+dexterous questions, Charles was made to acknowledge that he wanted
+to buy diamonds at the price of paste, knowing them to be real; and,
+a millionaire himself, would gladly have diddled a poor curate out
+of a couple of thousand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was entitled to take advantage of my special knowledge," Charles
+murmured feebly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, certainly," the prisoner answered. "But, while professing
+friendship and affection for a clergyman and his wife, in straitened
+circumstances, you were prepared, it seems, to take three thousand
+pounds' worth of goods off their hands for ten pounds, if you could
+have got them at that price. Is not that so?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles was compelled to admit it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The prisoner went onto the David Granton incident. "When you offered
+to amalgamate with Lord Craig-Ellachie," he asked, "had you or
+had you not heard that a gold-bearing reef ran straight from your
+concession into Lord Craig-Ellachie's, and that his portion of the
+reef was by far the larger and more important?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles wriggled again, and our counsel interposed; but Rhadamanth
+was adamant. Charles had to allow it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And so, too, with the incident of the Slump in Golcondas.
+Unwillingly, shamefacedly, by torturing steps, Charles was compelled
+to confess that he had sold out Golcondas&mdash;he, the Chairman of the
+company, after repeated declarations to shareholders and others
+that he would do no such thing&mdash;because he thought Professor
+Schleiermacher had made diamonds worthless. He had endeavoured to
+save himself by ruining his company. Charles tried to brazen it out
+with remarks to the effect that business was business. "And fraud is
+fraud," Rhadamanth added, in his pungent way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A man must protect himself," Charles burst out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At the expense of those who have put their trust in his honour and
+integrity," the judge commented coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After four mortal hours of it, all to the same effect, my respected
+brother-in-law left the witness-box at last, wiping his brow and
+biting his lip, with the very air of a culprit. His character had
+received a most serious blow. While he stood in the witness-box all
+the world had felt it was <I>he</I> who was the accused and Colonel Clay
+who was the prosecutor. He was convicted on his own evidence of
+having tried to induce the supposed David Granton to sell his
+father's interests into an enemy's hands, and of every other shady
+trick into which his well-known business acuteness had unfortunately
+hurried him during the course of his adventures. I had but one
+consolation in my brother-in-law's misfortunes&mdash;and that was the
+thought that a due sense of his own shortcomings might possibly make
+him more lenient in the end to the trivial misdemeanours of a poor
+beggar of a secretary!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+<I>I</I> was the next in the box. I do not desire to enlarge upon my own
+achievements. I will draw a decent veil, indeed, over the painful
+scene that ensued when I finished my evidence. I can only say I was
+more cautious than Charles in my recognition of the photographs;
+but I found myself particularly worried and harried over other
+parts of my cross-examination. Especially was I shaken about that
+misguided step I took in the matter of the cheque for the Lebenstein
+commission&mdash;a cheque which Colonel Clay handed to me with the utmost
+politeness, requesting to know whether or not it bore my signature.
+I caught Charles's eye at the end of the episode, and I venture to
+say the expression it wore was one of relief that I too had tripped
+over a trifling question of ten per cent on the purchase money of
+the castle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Altogether, I must admit, if it had not been for the police
+evidence, we would have failed to make a case against our man
+at all. But the police, I confess, had got up their part of the
+prosecution admirably. Now that they knew Colonel Clay to be
+really Paul Finglemore, they showed with great cleverness how Paul
+Finglemore's disappearances and reappearances in London exactly
+tallied with Colonel Clay's appearances and disappearances
+elsewhere, under the guise of the little curate, the Seer,
+David Granton, and the rest of them. Furthermore, they showed
+experimentally how the prisoner at the bar might have got himself
+up in the various characters; and, by means of a wax bust, modelled
+by Dr. Beddersley from observations at Bow Street, and aided by
+additions in the gutta-percha composition after Dolly Lingfield's
+photographs, they succeeded in proving that the face as it stood
+could be readily transformed into the faces of Medhurst and David
+Granton. Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up
+on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in
+putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul
+Finglemore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my
+respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the
+case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not
+even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission
+further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound
+to protect their own interests&mdash;as secretaries or as principals.
+This I took for forgiveness; and I continued diligently to attend
+the trial, and watch the case in my employer's interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The defence was ingenious, even if somewhat halting. It consisted
+simply of an attempt to prove throughout that Charles and I had made
+our prisoner the victim of a mistaken identity. Finglemore put into
+the box the ingenuous original of the little curate&mdash;the Reverend
+Septimus Porkington, as it turned out, a friend of his family; and
+he showed that it was the Reverend Septimus himself who had sat to
+a photographer in Baker Street for the portrait which Charles too
+hastily identified as that of Colonel Clay in his personification of
+Mr. Richard Brabazon. He further elicited the fact that the portrait
+of the Count von Lebenstein was really taken from Dr. Julius Keppel,
+a Tyrolese music-master, residing at Balham, whom he put into the
+box, and who was well known, as it chanced, to the foreman of the
+jury. Gradually he made it clear to us that no portraits existed of
+Colonel Clay at all, except Dolly Lingfield's&mdash;so it dawned upon
+me by degrees that even Dr. Beddersley could only have been misled
+if we had succeeded in finding for him the alleged photographs of
+Colonel Clay as the count and the curate, which had been shown us
+by Medhurst. Altogether, the prisoner based his defence upon the
+fact that no more than two witnesses directly identified him; while
+one of those two had positively sworn that he recognised as the
+prisoner's two portraits which turned out, by independent evidence,
+to be taken from other people!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The judge summed up in a caustic way which was pleasant to neither
+party. He asked the jury to dismiss from their minds entirely the
+impression created by what he frankly described as "Sir Charles
+Vandrift's obvious dishonesty." They must not allow the fact that he
+was a millionaire&mdash;and a particularly shady one&mdash;to prejudice their
+feelings in favour of the prisoner. Even the richest&mdash;and vilest&mdash;of
+men must be protected. Besides, this was a public question. If a
+rogue cheated a rogue, he must still be punished. If a murderer
+stabbed or shot a murderer, he must still be hung for it. Society
+must see that the worst of thieves were not preyed upon by others.
+Therefore, the proved facts that Sir Charles Vandrift, with all his
+millions, had meanly tried to cheat the prisoner, or some other poor
+person, out of valuable diamonds&mdash;had basely tried to juggle Lord
+Craig-Ellachie's mines into his own hands&mdash;had vilely tried to bribe
+a son to betray his father&mdash;had directly tried, by underhand means,
+to save his own money, at the risk of destroying the wealth of
+others who trusted to his probity&mdash;these proved facts must not
+blind them to the truth that the prisoner at the bar (if he were
+really Colonel Clay) was an abandoned swindler. To that point alone
+they must confine their attention; and <I>if</I> they were convinced that
+the prisoner was shown to be the self-same man who appeared on
+various occasions as David Granton, as Von Lebenstein, as Medhurst,
+as Schleiermacher, they must find him guilty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As to that point, also, the judge commented on the obvious strength
+of the police case, and the fact that the prisoner had not attempted
+in any one out of so many instances to prove an alibi. Surely, if
+he were <I>not</I> Colonel Clay, the jury should ask themselves, must it
+not have been simple and easy for him to do so? Finally, the judge
+summed up all the elements of doubt in the identification&mdash;and all
+the elements of probability; and left it to the jury to draw their
+own conclusions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They retired at the end to consider their verdict. While they were
+absent every eye in court was fixed on the prisoner. But Paul
+Finglemore himself looked steadily towards the further end of the
+hall, where two pale-faced women sat together, with handkerchiefs
+in their hands, and eyes red with weeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Only then, as he stood there, awaiting the verdict, with a fixed
+white face, prepared for everything, did I begin to realise with
+what courage and pluck that one lone man had sustained so long an
+unequal contest against wealth, authority, and all the Governments
+of Europe, aided but by his own skill and two feeble women! Only
+then did I feel he had played his reckless game through all those
+years with <I>this</I> ever before him! I found it hard to picture.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The jury filed slowly back. There was dead silence in court as the
+clerk put the question, "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty
+or not guilty?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We find him guilty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On all the counts?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On all the counts of the indictment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The women at the back burst into tears, unanimously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth addressed the prisoner. "Have you anything
+to urge," he asked in a very stern tone, "in mitigation of whatever
+sentence the Court may see fit to pass upon you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing," the prisoner answered, just faltering slightly. "I have
+brought it upon myself&mdash;but&mdash;I have protected the lives of those
+nearest and dearest to me. I have fought hard for my own hand. I
+admit my crime, and will face my punishment. I only regret that,
+since we were both of us rogues&mdash;myself and the prosecutor&mdash;the
+lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in
+the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according
+to his deserts&mdash;to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St.
+George; to me, the Broad Arrow!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The judge gazed at him severely. "Paul Finglemore," he said, passing
+sentence in his sardonic way, "you have chosen to dedicate to the
+service of fraud abilities and attainments which, if turned from the
+outset into a legitimate channel, would no doubt have sufficed to
+secure you without excessive effort a subsistence one degree above
+starvation&mdash;possibly even, with good luck, a sordid and squalid
+competence. You have preferred to embark them on a lawless life of
+vice and crime&mdash;and I will not deny that you seem to have had a good
+run for your money. Society, however, whose mouthpiece I am, cannot
+allow you any longer to mock it with impunity. You have broken its
+laws openly, and you have been found out." He assumed the tone of
+bland condescension which always heralds his severest moments. "I
+sentence you to Fourteen Years' Imprisonment, with Hard Labour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The prisoner bowed, without losing his apparent composure. But his
+eyes strayed away again to the far end of the hall, where the two
+weeping women, with a sudden sharp cry, fell at once in a faint on
+one another's shoulders, and were with difficulty removed from court
+by the ushers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we left the room, I heard but one comment all round, thus voiced
+by a school-boy: "I'd a jolly sight rather it had been old Vandrift.
+This Clay chap's too clever by half to waste on a prison!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But he went there, none the less&mdash;in that "cool sequestered vale
+of life" to recover equilibrium; though I myself half regretted it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I will add but one more little parting episode.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When all was over, Charles rushed off to Cannes, to get away from
+the impertinent stare of London. Amelia and Isabel and I went with
+him. We were driving one afternoon on the hills beyond the town,
+among the myrtle and lentisk scrub, when we noticed in front of us
+a nice victoria, containing two ladies in very deep mourning. We
+followed it, unintentionally, as far as Le Grand Pin&mdash;that big pine
+tree that looks across the bay towards Antibes. There, the ladies
+descended and sat down on a knoll, gazing out disconsolately towards
+the sea and the islands. It was evident they were suffering very
+deep grief. Their faces were pale and their eyes bloodshot. "Poor
+things!" Amelia said. Then her tone altered suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, good gracious," she cried, "if it isn't Césarine!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So it was&mdash;with White Heather!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles got down and drew near them. "I beg your pardon," he said,
+raising his hat, and addressing Madame Picardet: "I believe I have
+had the pleasure of meeting you. And since I have doubtless paid in
+the end for your victoria, <I>may</I> I venture to inquire for whom you
+are in mourning?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+White Heather drew back, sobbing; but Césarine turned to him, fiery
+red, with the mien of a lady. "For <I>him</I>!" she answered; "for Paul!
+for our king, whom <I>you</I> have imprisoned! As long as <I>he</I> remains
+there, we have both of us decided to wear mourning for ever!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Charles raised his hat again, and drew back without one word.
+He waved his hand to Amelia and walked home with me to Cannes.
+He seemed deeply dejected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A penny for your thoughts!" I exclaimed, at last, in a jocular
+tone, trying feebly to rouse him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He turned to me, and sighed. "I was wondering," he answered, "if
+<I>I</I> had gone to prison, would Amelia and Isabel have done as much
+for me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For myself, I did <I>not</I> wonder. I knew pretty well. For Charles, you
+will admit, though the bigger rogue of the two, is scarcely the kind
+of rogue to inspire a woman with profound affection.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="finis">
+THE END
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: An African Millionaire
+       Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+Author: Grant Allen
+
+Posting Date: September 11, 2009 [EBook #4715]
+Release Date: December, 2003
+First Posted: March 6, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Don Lainson and Andrew Sly.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+An African Millionaire
+
+Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+
+By Grant Allen
+
+First published in 1897
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  The Episode of the Mexican Seer
+
+2.  The Episode of the Diamond Links
+
+3.  The Episode of the Old Master
+
+4.  The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle
+
+5.  The Episode of the Drawn Game
+
+6.  The Episode of the German Professor
+
+7.  The Episode of the Arrest of the Colonel
+
+8.  The Episode of the Seldon Gold-Mine
+
+9.  The Episode of the Japanned Dispatch-Box
+
+10.  The Episode of the Game of Poker
+
+11.  The Episode of the Bertillon Method
+
+12.  The Episode of the Old Bailey
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE MEXICAN SEER
+
+
+My name is Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. I am brother-in-law and
+secretary to Sir Charles Vandrift, the South African millionaire and
+famous financier. Many years ago, when Charlie Vandrift was a small
+lawyer in Cape Town, I had the (qualified) good fortune to marry his
+sister. Much later, when the Vandrift estate and farm near Kimberley
+developed by degrees into the Cloetedorp Golcondas, Limited, my
+brother-in-law offered me the not unremunerative post of secretary;
+in which capacity I have ever since been his constant and attached
+companion.
+
+He is not a man whom any common sharper can take in, is Charles
+Vandrift. Middle height, square build, firm mouth, keen eyes--the
+very picture of a sharp and successful business genius. I have only
+known one rogue impose upon Sir Charles, and that one rogue, as the
+Commissary of Police at Nice remarked, would doubtless have imposed
+upon a syndicate of Vidocq, Robert Houdin, and Cagliostro.
+
+We had run across to the Riviera for a few weeks in the season. Our
+object being strictly rest and recreation from the arduous duties
+of financial combination, we did not think it necessary to take our
+wives out with us. Indeed, Lady Vandrift is absolutely wedded to the
+joys of London, and does not appreciate the rural delights of the
+Mediterranean littoral. But Sir Charles and I, though immersed in
+affairs when at home, both thoroughly enjoy the complete change from
+the City to the charming vegetation and pellucid air on the terrace
+at Monte Carlo. We _are_ so fond of scenery. That delicious view
+over the rocks of Monaco, with the Maritime Alps in the rear, and
+the blue sea in front, not to mention the imposing Casino in the
+foreground, appeals to me as one of the most beautiful prospects in
+all Europe. Sir Charles has a sentimental attachment for the place.
+He finds it restores and freshens him, after the turmoil of London,
+to win a few hundreds at roulette in the course of an afternoon
+among the palms and cactuses and pure breezes of Monte Carlo. The
+country, say I, for a jaded intellect! However, we never on any
+account actually stop in the Principality itself. Sir Charles thinks
+Monte Carlo is not a sound address for a financier's letters. He
+prefers a comfortable hotel on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice,
+where he recovers health and renovates his nervous system by taking
+daily excursions along the coast to the Casino.
+
+This particular season we were snugly ensconced at the Hotel des
+Anglais. We had capital quarters on the first floor--salon, study,
+and bedrooms--and found on the spot a most agreeable cosmopolitan
+society. All Nice, just then, was ringing with talk about a curious
+impostor, known to his followers as the Great Mexican Seer, and
+supposed to be gifted with second sight, as well as with endless
+other supernatural powers. Now, it is a peculiarity of my able
+brother-in-law's that, when he meets with a quack, he burns to
+expose him; he is so keen a man of business himself that it gives
+him, so to speak, a disinterested pleasure to unmask and detect
+imposture in others. Many ladies at the hotel, some of whom had met
+and conversed with the Mexican Seer, were constantly telling us
+strange stories of his doings. He had disclosed to one the present
+whereabouts of a runaway husband; he had pointed out to another the
+numbers that would win at roulette next evening; he had shown a
+third the image on a screen of the man she had for years adored
+without his knowledge. Of course, Sir Charles didn't believe a word
+of it; but his curiosity was roused; he wished to see and judge for
+himself of the wonderful thought-reader.
+
+"What would be his terms, do you think, for a private seance?" he
+asked of Madame Picardet, the lady to whom the Seer had successfully
+predicted the winning numbers.
+
+"He does not work for money," Madame Picardet answered, "but for
+the good of humanity. I'm sure he would gladly come and exhibit for
+nothing his miraculous faculties."
+
+"Nonsense!" Sir Charles answered. "The man must live. I'd pay him
+five guineas, though, to see him alone. What hotel is he stopping at?"
+
+"The Cosmopolitan, I think," the lady answered. "Oh no; I remember
+now, the Westminster."
+
+Sir Charles turned to me quietly. "Look here, Seymour," he
+whispered. "Go round to this fellow's place immediately after
+dinner, and offer him five pounds to give a private seance at once
+in my rooms, without mentioning who I am to him; keep the name quite
+quiet. Bring him back with you, too, and come straight upstairs
+with him, so that there may be no collusion. We'll see just how much
+the fellow can tell us."
+
+I went as directed. I found the Seer a very remarkable and
+interesting person. He stood about Sir Charles's own height, but was
+slimmer and straighter, with an aquiline nose, strangely piercing
+eyes, very large black pupils, and a finely-chiselled close-shaven
+face, like the bust of Antinous in our hall in Mayfair. What gave him
+his most characteristic touch, however, was his odd head of hair,
+curly and wavy like Paderewski's, standing out in a halo round his
+high white forehead and his delicate profile. I could see at a
+glance why he succeeded so well in impressing women; he had the
+look of a poet, a singer, a prophet.
+
+"I have come round," I said, "to ask whether you will consent to
+give a seance at once in a friend's rooms; and my principal wishes
+me to add that he is prepared to pay five pounds as the price of the
+entertainment."
+
+Senor Antonio Herrera--that was what he called himself--bowed to
+me with impressive Spanish politeness. His dusky olive cheeks were
+wrinkled with a smile of gentle contempt as he answered gravely--
+
+"I do not sell my gifts; I bestow them freely. If your friend--your
+anonymous friend--desires to behold the cosmic wonders that are
+wrought through my hands, I am glad to show them to him.
+Fortunately, as often happens when it is necessary to convince
+and confound a sceptic (for that your friend is a sceptic I feel
+instinctively), I chance to have no engagements at all this
+evening." He ran his hand through his fine, long hair reflectively.
+"Yes, I go," he continued, as if addressing some unknown presence
+that hovered about the ceiling; "I go; come with me!" Then he put on
+his broad sombrero, with its crimson ribbon, wrapped a cloak round
+his shoulders, lighted a cigarette, and strode forth by my side
+towards the Hotel des Anglais.
+
+He talked little by the way, and that little in curt sentences. He
+seemed buried in deep thought; indeed, when we reached the door and
+I turned in, he walked a step or two farther on, as if not noticing
+to what place I had brought him. Then he drew himself up short, and
+gazed around him for a moment. "Ha, the Anglais," he said--and I may
+mention in passing that his English, in spite of a slight southern
+accent, was idiomatic and excellent. "It is here, then; it is here!"
+He was addressing once more the unseen presence.
+
+I smiled to think that these childish devices were intended to
+deceive Sir Charles Vandrift. Not quite the sort of man (as the City
+of London knows) to be taken in by hocus-pocus. And all this, I saw,
+was the cheapest and most commonplace conjurer's patter.
+
+We went upstairs to our rooms. Charles had gathered together a
+few friends to watch the performance. The Seer entered, wrapt in
+thought. He was in evening dress, but a red sash round his waist
+gave a touch of picturesqueness and a dash of colour. He paused for
+a moment in the middle of the salon, without letting his eyes rest
+on anybody or anything. Then he walked straight up to Charles, and
+held out his dark hand.
+
+"Good-evening," he said. "You are the host. My soul's sight tells
+me so."
+
+"Good shot," Sir Charles answered. "These fellows have to be
+quick-witted, you know, Mrs. Mackenzie, or they'd never get on
+at it."
+
+The Seer gazed about him, and smiled blankly at a person or two
+whose faces he seemed to recognise from a previous existence. Then
+Charles began to ask him a few simple questions, not about himself,
+but about me, just to test him. He answered most of them with
+surprising correctness. "His name? His name begins with an S I
+think:--You call him Seymour." He paused long between each clause, as
+if the facts were revealed to him slowly. "Seymour--Wilbraham--Earl
+of Strafford. No, not Earl of Strafford! Seymour Wilbraham
+Wentworth. There seems to be some connection in somebody's mind now
+present between Wentworth and Strafford. I am not English. I do not
+know what it means. But they are somehow the same name, Wentworth
+and Strafford."
+
+He gazed around, apparently for confirmation. A lady came to his
+rescue.
+
+"Wentworth was the surname of the great Earl of Strafford," she
+murmured gently; "and I was wondering, as you spoke, whether
+Mr. Wentworth might possibly be descended from him."
+
+"He is," the Seer replied instantly, with a flash of those dark
+eyes. And I thought this curious; for though my father always
+maintained the reality of the relationship, there was one link
+wanting to complete the pedigree. He could not make sure that
+the Hon. Thomas Wilbraham Wentworth was the father of Jonathan
+Wentworth, the Bristol horse-dealer, from whom we are descended.
+
+"Where was I born?" Sir Charles interrupted, coming suddenly to his
+own case.
+
+The Seer clapped his two hands to his forehead and held it between
+them, as if to prevent it from bursting. "Africa," he said slowly,
+as the facts narrowed down, so to speak. "South Africa; Cape of Good
+Hope; Jansenville; De Witt Street. 1840."
+
+"By Jove, he's correct," Sir Charles muttered. "He seems really to
+do it. Still, he may have found me out. He may have known where he
+was coming."
+
+"I never gave a hint," I answered; "till he reached the door, he
+didn't even know to what hotel I was piloting him."
+
+The Seer stroked his chin softly. His eye appeared to me to have a
+furtive gleam in it. "Would you like me to tell you the number of
+a bank-note inclosed in an envelope?" he asked casually.
+
+"Go out of the room," Sir Charles said, "while I pass it round the
+company."
+
+Senor Herrera disappeared. Sir Charles passed it round cautiously,
+holding it all the time in his own hand, but letting his guests see
+the number. Then he placed it in an envelope and gummed it down
+firmly.
+
+The Seer returned. His keen eyes swept the company with a
+comprehensive glance. He shook his shaggy mane. Then he took
+the envelope in his hands and gazed at it fixedly. "AF, 73549,"
+he answered, in a slow tone. "A Bank of England note for fifty
+pounds--exchanged at the Casino for gold won yesterday at
+Monte Carlo."
+
+"I see how he did that," Sir Charles said triumphantly. "He must
+have changed it there himself; and then I changed it back again.
+In point of fact, I remember seeing a fellow with long hair loafing
+about. Still, it's capital conjuring."
+
+"He can see through matter," one of the ladies interposed. It was
+Madame Picardet. "He can see through a box." She drew a little gold
+vinaigrette, such as our grandmothers used, from her dress-pocket.
+"What is in this?" she inquired, holding it up to him.
+
+Senor Herrera gazed through it. "Three gold coins," he replied,
+knitting his brows with the effort of seeing into the box: "one,
+an American five dollars; one, a French ten-franc piece; one,
+twenty marks, German, of the old Emperor William."
+
+She opened the box and passed it round. Sir Charles smiled a quiet
+smile.
+
+"Confederacy!" he muttered, half to himself. "Confederacy!"
+
+The Seer turned to him with a sullen air. "You want a better sign?"
+he said, in a very impressive voice. "A sign that will convince you!
+Very well: you have a letter in your left waistcoat pocket--a
+crumpled-up letter. Do you wish me to read it out? I will, if you
+desire it."
+
+It may seem to those who know Sir Charles incredible, but, I am
+bound to admit, my brother-in-law coloured. What that letter
+contained I cannot say; he only answered, very testily and
+evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you
+have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply
+suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat
+pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Senor Herrera would
+read it.
+
+I fancied, too, he glanced somewhat anxiously towards Madame
+Picardet.
+
+The Seer bowed courteously. "Your will, senor, is law," he said. "I
+make it a principle, though I can see through all things, invariably
+to respect the secrecies and sanctities. If it were not so, I might
+dissolve society. For which of us is there who could bear the whole
+truth being told about him?" He gazed around the room. An unpleasant
+thrill supervened. Most of us felt this uncanny Spanish American
+knew really too much. And some of us were engaged in financial
+operations.
+
+"For example," the Seer continued blandly, "I happened a few weeks
+ago to travel down here from Paris by train with a very intelligent
+man, a company promoter. He had in his bag some documents--some
+confidential documents:" he glanced at Sir Charles. "You know the
+kind of thing, my dear sir: reports from experts--from mining
+engineers. You may have seen some such; marked _strictly private_."
+
+"They form an element in high finance," Sir Charles admitted coldly.
+
+"Pre-cisely," the Seer murmured, his accent for a moment less
+Spanish than before. "And, as they were marked _strictly private_,
+I respect, of course, the seal of confidence. That's all I wish to
+say. I hold it a duty, being intrusted with such powers, not to use
+them in a manner which may annoy or incommode my fellow-creatures."
+
+"Your feeling does you honour," Sir Charles answered, with some
+acerbity. Then he whispered in my ear: "Confounded clever scoundrel,
+Sey; rather wish we hadn't brought him here."
+
+Senor Herrera seemed intuitively to divine this wish, for he
+interposed, in a lighter and gayer tone--
+
+"I will now show you a different and more interesting embodiment
+of occult power, for which we shall need a somewhat subdued
+arrangement of surrounding lights. Would you mind, senor host--for
+I have purposely abstained from reading your name on the brain of
+any one present--would you mind my turning down this lamp just a
+little? ... So! That will do. Now, this one; and this one. Exactly!
+that's right." He poured a few grains of powder out of a packet into
+a saucer. "Next, a match, if you please. Thank you!" It burnt with a
+strange green light. He drew from his pocket a card, and produced a
+little ink-bottle. "Have you a pen?" he asked.
+
+I instantly brought one. He handed it to Sir Charles. "Oblige me,"
+he said, "by writing your name there." And he indicated a place in
+the centre of the card, which had an embossed edge, with a small
+middle square of a different colour.
+
+Sir Charles has a natural disinclination to signing his name without
+knowing why. "What do you want with it?" he asked. (A millionaire's
+signature has so many uses.)
+
+"I want you to put the card in an envelope," the Seer replied, "and
+then to burn it. After that, I shall show you your own name written
+in letters of blood on my arm, in your own handwriting."
+
+Sir Charles took the pen. If the signature was to be burned as soon
+as finished, he didn't mind giving it. He wrote his name in his
+usual firm clear style--the writing of a man who knows his worth
+and is not afraid of drawing a cheque for five thousand.
+
+"Look at it long," the Seer said, from the other side of the room.
+He had not watched him write it.
+
+Sir Charles stared at it fixedly. The Seer was really beginning to
+produce an impression.
+
+"Now, put it in that envelope," the Seer exclaimed.
+
+Sir Charles, like a lamb, placed it as directed.
+
+The Seer strode forward. "Give me the envelope," he said. He took it
+in his hand, walked over towards the fireplace, and solemnly burnt
+it. "See--it crumbles into ashes," he cried. Then he came back to
+the middle of the room, close to the green light, rolled up his
+sleeve, and held his arm before Sir Charles. There, in blood-red
+letters, my brother-in-law read the name, "Charles Vandrift," in
+his own handwriting!
+
+"I see how that's done," Sir Charles murmured, drawing back. "It's
+a clever delusion; but still, I see through it. It's like that
+ghost-book. Your ink was deep green; your light was green; you made
+me look at it long; and then I saw the same thing written on the
+skin of your arm in complementary colours."
+
+"You think so?" the Seer replied, with a curious curl of the lip.
+
+"I'm sure of it," Sir Charles answered.
+
+Quick as lightning the Seer again rolled up his sleeve. "That's
+your name," he cried, in a very clear voice, "but not your whole
+name. What do you say, then, to my right? Is this one also a
+complementary colour?" He held his other arm out. There, in
+sea-green letters, I read the name, "Charles O'Sullivan Vandrift."
+It is my brother-in-law's full baptismal designation; but he has
+dropped the O'Sullivan for many years past, and, to say the truth,
+doesn't like it. He is a little bit ashamed of his mother's family.
+
+Charles glanced at it hurriedly. "Quite right," he said, "quite
+right!" But his voice was hollow. I could guess he didn't care to
+continue the seance. He could see through the man, of course; but it
+was clear the fellow knew too much about us to be entirely pleasant.
+
+"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I
+say coffee and benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift.
+
+"By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from
+further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better
+suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these
+ladies are not above a cigarette--some of them."
+
+There was a sigh of relief. The lights burned brightly. The Seer for
+the moment retired from business, so to speak. He accepted a partaga
+with a very good grace, sipped his coffee in a corner, and chatted
+to the lady who had suggested Strafford with marked politeness. He
+was a polished gentleman.
+
+Next morning, in the hall of the hotel, I saw Madame Picardet again,
+in a neat tailor-made travelling dress, evidently bound for the
+railway-station.
+
+"What, off, Madame Picardet?" I cried.
+
+She smiled, and held out her prettily-gloved hand. "Yes, I'm off,"
+she answered archly. "Florence, or Rome, or somewhere. I've drained
+Nice dry--like a sucked orange. Got all the fun I can out of it.
+Now I'm away again to my beloved Italy."
+
+But it struck me as odd that, if Italy was her game, she went by the
+omnibus which takes down to the train de luxe for Paris. However,
+a man of the world accepts what a lady tells him, no matter how
+improbable; and I confess, for ten days or so, I thought no more
+about her, or the Seer either.
+
+At the end of that time our fortnightly pass-book came in from
+the bank in London. It is part of my duty, as the millionaire's
+secretary, to make up this book once a fortnight, and to compare
+the cancelled cheques with Sir Charles's counterfoils. On this
+particular occasion I happened to observe what I can only describe
+as a very grave discrepancy,--in fact, a discrepancy of 5000 pounds.
+On the wrong side, too. Sir Charles was debited with 5000 pounds
+more than the total amount that was shown on the counterfoils.
+
+I examined the book with care. The source of the error was obvious.
+It lay in a cheque to Self or Bearer, for 5000 pounds, signed by Sir
+Charles, and evidently paid across the counter in London, as it bore
+on its face no stamp or indication of any other office.
+
+I called in my brother-in-law from the salon to the study. "Look
+here, Charles," I said, "there's a cheque in the book which you
+haven't entered." And I handed it to him without comment, for I
+thought it might have been drawn to settle some little loss on the
+turf or at cards, or to make up some other affair he didn't desire
+to mention to me. These things will happen.
+
+He looked at it and stared hard. Then he pursed up his mouth and
+gave a long low "Whew!" At last he turned it over and remarked,
+"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown,
+haven't we?"
+
+I glanced at the cheque. "How do you mean?" I inquired.
+
+"Why, the Seer," he replied, still staring at it ruefully. "I
+don't mind the five thou., but to think the fellow should have
+gammoned the pair of us like that--ignominious, I call it!"
+
+"How do you know it's the Seer?" I asked.
+
+"Look at the green ink," he answered. "Besides, I recollect the
+very shape of the last flourish. I flourished a bit like that in
+the excitement of the moment, which I don't always do with my
+regular signature."
+
+"He's done us," I answered, recognising it. "But how the dickens
+did he manage to transfer it to the cheque? This looks like your
+own handwriting, Charles, not a clever forgery."
+
+"It is," he said. "I admit it--I can't deny it. Only fancy his
+bamboozling me when I was most on my guard! I wasn't to be taken
+in by any of his silly occult tricks and catch-words; but it never
+occurred to me he was going to victimise me financially in this
+way. I expected attempts at a loan or an extortion; but to collar
+my signature to a blank cheque--atrocious!"
+
+"How did he manage it?" I asked.
+
+"I haven't the faintest conception. I only know those are the
+words I wrote. I could swear to them anywhere."
+
+"Then you can't protest the cheque?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no; it's my own true signature."
+
+We went that afternoon without delay to see the Chief Commissary
+of Police at the office. He was a gentlemanly Frenchman, much less
+formal and red-tapey than usual, and he spoke excellent English
+with an American accent, having acted, in fact, as a detective in
+New York for about ten years in his early manhood.
+
+"I guess," he said slowly, after hearing our story, "you've been
+victimised right here by Colonel Clay, gentlemen."
+
+"Who is Colonel Clay?" Sir Charles asked.
+
+"That's just what I want to know," the Commissary answered, in
+his curious American-French-English. "He is a Colonel, because he
+occasionally gives himself a commission; he is called Colonel Clay,
+because he appears to possess an india-rubber face, and he can
+mould it like clay in the hands of the potter. Real name, unknown.
+Nationality, equally French and English. Address, usually Europe.
+Profession, former maker of wax figures to the Musee Grevin. Age,
+what he chooses. Employs his knowledge to mould his own nose
+and cheeks, with wax additions, to the character he desires to
+personate. Aquiline this time, you say. Hein! Anything like these
+photographs?"
+
+He rummaged in his desk and handed us two.
+
+"Not in the least," Sir Charles answered. "Except, perhaps, as to the
+neck, everything here is quite unlike him."
+
+"Then that's the Colonel!" the Commissary answered, with decision,
+rubbing his hands in glee. "Look here," and he took out a pencil
+and rapidly sketched the outline of one of the two faces--that of
+a bland-looking young man, with no expression worth mentioning.
+"There's the Colonel in his simple disguise. Very good. Now watch
+me: figure to yourself that he adds here a tiny patch of wax to his
+nose--an aquiline bridge--just so; well, you have him right there;
+and the chin, ah, one touch: now, for hair, a wig: for complexion,
+nothing easier: that's the profile of your rascal, isn't it?"
+
+"Exactly," we both murmured. By two curves of the pencil, and a
+shock of false hair, the face was transmuted.
+
+"He had very large eyes, with very big pupils, though," I objected,
+looking close; "and the man in the photograph here has them small
+and boiled-fishy."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "A drop of belladonna
+expands--and produces the Seer; five grains of opium contract--and
+give a dead-alive, stupidly-innocent appearance. Well, you leave
+this affair to me, gentlemen. I'll see the fun out. I don't say I'll
+catch him for you; nobody ever yet has caught Colonel Clay; but
+I'll explain how he did the trick; and that ought to be consolation
+enough to a man of your means for a trifle of five thousand!"
+
+"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le
+Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.
+
+"You bet!" the Commissary replied, and drew himself up like a
+captain of infantry. "Messieurs," he continued, in French, with the
+utmost dignity, "I shall devote the resources of this office to
+tracing out the crime, and, if possible, to effectuating the arrest
+of the culpable."
+
+We telegraphed to London, of course, and we wrote to the bank, with
+a full description of the suspected person. But I need hardly add
+that nothing came of it.
+
+Three days later the Commissary called at our hotel. "Well,
+gentlemen," he said, "I am glad to say I have discovered
+everything!"
+
+"What? Arrested the Seer?" Sir Charles cried.
+
+The Commissary drew back, almost horrified at the suggestion.
+
+"Arrested Colonel Clay?" he exclaimed. "Mais, monsieur, we are only
+human! Arrested him? No, not quite. But tracked out how he did it.
+That is already much--to unravel Colonel Clay, gentlemen!"
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" Sir Charles asked, crestfallen.
+
+The Commissary sat down and gloated over his discovery. It was
+clear a well-planned crime amused him vastly. "In the first place,
+monsieur," he said, "disabuse your mind of the idea that when
+monsieur your secretary went out to fetch Senor Herrera that night,
+Senor Herrera didn't know to whose rooms he was coming. Quite
+otherwise, in point of fact. I do not doubt myself that Senor
+Herrera, or Colonel Clay (call him which you like), came to Nice
+this winter for no other purpose than just to rob you."
+
+"But I sent for him," my brother-in-law interposed.
+
+"Yes; he _meant_ you to send for him. He forced a card, so to
+speak. If he couldn't do that I guess he would be a pretty poor
+conjurer. He had a lady of his own--his wife, let us say, or his
+sister--stopping here at this hotel; a certain Madame Picardet.
+Through her he induced several ladies of your circle to attend his
+seances. She and they spoke to you about him, and aroused your
+curiosity. You may bet your bottom dollar that when he came to
+this room he came ready primed and prepared with endless facts
+about both of you."
+
+"What fools we have been, Sey," my brother-in-law exclaimed. "I see
+it all now. That designing woman sent round before dinner to say I
+wanted to meet him; and by the time you got there he was ready
+for bamboozling me."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "He had your name ready
+painted on both his arms; and he had made other preparations of
+still greater importance."
+
+"You mean the cheque. Well, how did he get it?"
+
+The Commissary opened the door. "Come in," he said. And a young man
+entered whom we recognised at once as the chief clerk in the Foreign
+Department of the Credit Marseillais, the principal bank all along
+the Riviera.
+
+"State what you know of this cheque," the Commissary said, showing
+it to him, for we had handed it over to the police as a piece of
+evidence.
+
+"About four weeks since--" the clerk began.
+
+"Say ten days before your seance," the Commissary interposed.
+
+"A gentleman with very long hair and an aquiline nose, dark,
+strange, and handsome, called in at my department and asked if I
+could tell him the name of Sir Charles Vandrift's London banker.
+He said he had a sum to pay in to your credit, and asked if we
+would forward it for him. I told him it was irregular for us to
+receive the money, as you had no account with us, but that your
+London bankers were Darby, Drummond, and Rothenberg, Limited."
+
+"Quite right," Sir Charles murmured.
+
+"Two days later a lady, Madame Picardet, who was a customer of ours,
+brought in a good cheque for three hundred pounds, signed by a
+first-rate name, and asked us to pay it in on her behalf to Darby,
+Drummond, and Rothenberg's, and to open a London account with them
+for her. We did so, and received in reply a cheque-book."
+
+"From which this cheque was taken, as I learn from the number,
+by telegram from London," the Commissary put in. "Also, that on
+the same day on which your cheque was cashed, Madame Picardet,
+in London, withdrew her balance."
+
+"But how did the fellow get me to sign the cheque?" Sir Charles
+cried. "How did he manage the card trick?"
+
+The Commissary produced a similar card from his pocket. "Was that
+the sort of thing?" he asked.
+
+"Precisely! A facsimile."
+
+"I thought so. Well, our Colonel, I find, bought a packet of such
+cards, intended for admission to a religious function, at a shop
+in the Quai Massena. He cut out the centre, and, see here--" The
+Commissary turned it over, and showed a piece of paper pasted neatly
+over the back; this he tore off, and there, concealed behind it, lay
+a folded cheque, with only the place where the signature should be
+written showing through on the face which the Seer had presented
+to us. "I call that a neat trick," the Commissary remarked, with
+professional enjoyment of a really good deception.
+
+"But he burnt the envelope before my eyes," Sir Charles exclaimed.
+
+"Pooh!" the Commissary answered. "What would he be worth as a
+conjurer, anyway, if he couldn't substitute one envelope for another
+between the table and the fireplace without your noticing it? And
+Colonel Clay, you must remember, is a prince among conjurers."
+
+"Well, it's a comfort to know we've identified our man, and the
+woman who was with him," Sir Charles said, with a slight sigh of
+relief. "The next thing will be, of course, you'll follow them up
+on these clues in England and arrest them?"
+
+The Commissary shrugged his shoulders. "Arrest them!" he exclaimed,
+much amused. "Ah, monsieur, but you are sanguine! No officer of
+justice has ever succeeded in arresting le Colonel Caoutchouc, as
+we call him in French. He is as slippery as an eel, that man. He
+wriggles through our fingers. Suppose even we caught him, what could
+we prove? I ask you. Nobody who has seen him once can ever swear
+to him again in his next impersonation. He is impayable, this good
+Colonel. On the day when I arrest him, I assure you, monsieur, I
+shall consider myself the smartest police-officer in Europe."
+
+"Well, I shall catch him yet," Sir Charles answered, and relapsed
+into silence.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DIAMOND LINKS
+
+
+"Let us take a trip to Switzerland," said Lady Vandrift. And any one
+who knows Amelia will not be surprised to learn that we _did_ take a
+trip to Switzerland accordingly. Nobody can drive Sir Charles, except
+his wife. And nobody at all can drive Amelia.
+
+There were difficulties at the outset, because we had not ordered
+rooms at the hotels beforehand, and it was well on in the season;
+but they were overcome at last by the usual application of a golden
+key; and we found ourselves in due time pleasantly quartered in
+Lucerne, at that most comfortable of European hostelries, the
+Schweitzerhof.
+
+We were a square party of four--Sir Charles and Amelia, myself and
+Isabel. We had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the
+lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of
+that incipient mania which shows itself in the form of an insane
+desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and
+unnecessary snowiness, I will venture to assert we all enjoyed
+ourselves. We spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the
+lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb,
+it was on the Rigi or Pilatus--where an engine undertook all the
+muscular work for us.
+
+As usual, at the hotel, a great many miscellaneous people showed a
+burning desire to be specially nice to us. If you wish to see how
+friendly and charming humanity is, just try being a well-known
+millionaire for a week, and you'll learn a thing or two. Wherever
+Sir Charles goes he is surrounded by charming and disinterested
+people, all eager to make his distinguished acquaintance, and all
+familiar with several excellent investments, or several deserving
+objects of Christian charity. It is my business in life, as his
+brother-in-law and secretary, to decline with thanks the excellent
+investments, and to throw judicious cold water on the objects of
+charity. Even I myself, as the great man's almoner, am very much
+sought after. People casually allude before me to artless stories
+of "poor curates in Cumberland, you know, Mr. Wentworth," or widows
+in Cornwall, penniless poets with epics in their desks, and young
+painters who need but the breath of a patron to open to them the
+doors of an admiring Academy. I smile and look wise, while I
+administer cold water in minute doses; but I never report one of
+these cases to Sir Charles, except in the rare or almost unheard-of
+event where I think there is really something in them.
+
+Ever since our little adventure with the Seer at Nice, Sir Charles,
+who is constitutionally cautious, had been even more careful than
+usual about possible sharpers. And, as chance would have it, there
+sat just opposite us at table d'hote at the Schweitzerhof--'tis
+a fad of Amelia's to dine at table d'hote; she says she can't bear
+to be boxed up all day in private rooms with "too much family"--a
+sinister-looking man with dark hair and eyes, conspicuous by his
+bushy overhanging eyebrows. My attention was first called to the
+eyebrows in question by a nice little parson who sat at our side,
+and who observed that they were made up of certain large and bristly
+hairs, which (he told us) had been traced by Darwin to our monkey
+ancestors. Very pleasant little fellow, this fresh-faced young
+parson, on his honeymoon tour with a nice wee wife, a bonnie Scotch
+lassie with a charming accent.
+
+I looked at the eyebrows close. Then a sudden thought struck me. "Do
+you believe they're his own?" I asked of the curate; "or are they
+only stuck on--a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it."
+
+"You don't suppose--" Charles began, and checked himself suddenly.
+
+"Yes, I do," I answered; "the Seer!" Then I recollected my blunder,
+and looked down sheepishly. For, to say the truth, Vandrift had
+straightly enjoined on me long before to say nothing of our painful
+little episode at Nice to Amelia; he was afraid if _she_ once heard
+of it, _he_ would hear of it for ever after.
+
+"What Seer?" the little parson inquired, with parsonical curiosity.
+
+I noticed the man with the overhanging eyebrows give a queer sort
+of start. Charles's glance was fixed upon me. I hardly knew what
+to answer.
+
+"Oh, a man who was at Nice with us last year," I stammered out,
+trying hard to look unconcerned. "A fellow they talked about,
+that's all." And I turned the subject.
+
+But the curate, like a donkey, wouldn't let me turn it.
+
+"Had he eyebrows like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I was
+really angry. If this _was_ Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously
+giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to
+catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the chance of
+doing so.
+
+"No, he hadn't," I answered testily; "it was a passing expression.
+But this is not the man. I was mistaken, no doubt." And I nudged
+him gently.
+
+The little curate was too innocent for anything. "Oh, I see," he
+replied, nodding hard and looking wise. Then he turned to his wife
+and made an obvious face, which the man with the eyebrows couldn't
+fail to notice.
+
+Fortunately, a political discussion going on a few places farther
+down the table spread up to us and diverted attention for a moment.
+The magical name of Gladstone saved us. Sir Charles flared up. I
+was truly pleased, for I could see Amelia was boiling over with
+curiosity by this time.
+
+After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the big
+eyebrows sidled up and began to talk to me. If he _was_ Colonel
+Clay, it was evident he bore us no grudge at all for the five
+thousand pounds he had done us out of. On the contrary, he seemed
+quite prepared to do us out of five thousand more when opportunity
+offered; for he introduced himself at once as Dr. Hector Macpherson,
+the exclusive grantee of extensive concessions from the Brazilian
+Government on the Upper Amazons. He dived into conversation with
+me at once as to the splendid mineral resources of his Brazilian
+estate--the silver, the platinum, the actual rubies, the possible
+diamonds. I listened and smiled; I knew what was coming. All he
+needed to develop this magnificent concession was a little more
+capital. It was sad to see thousands of pounds' worth of platinum
+and car-loads of rubies just crumbling in the soil or carried away
+by the river, for want of a few hundreds to work them with properly.
+If he knew of anybody, now, with money to invest, he could recommend
+him--nay, offer him--a unique opportunity of earning, say, 40 per
+cent on his capital, on unimpeachable security.
+
+"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpherson remarked,
+drawing himself up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who had
+command of ready cash, I might choose to put him in the way of
+feathering his nest with unexampled rapidity."
+
+"Exceedingly disinterested of you," I answered drily, fixing my
+eyes on his eyebrows.
+
+The little curate, meanwhile, was playing billiards with Sir
+Charles. His glance followed mine as it rested for a moment on
+the monkey-like hairs.
+
+"False, obviously false," he remarked with his lips; and I'm bound
+to confess I never saw any man speak so well by movement alone;
+you could follow every word though not a sound escaped him.
+
+During the rest of that evening Dr. Hector Macpherson stuck to me
+as close as a mustard-plaster. And he was almost as irritating. I
+got heartily sick of the Upper Amazons. I have positively waded in
+my time through ruby mines (in prospectuses, I mean) till the mere
+sight of a ruby absolutely sickens me. When Charles, in an unwonted
+fit of generosity, once gave his sister Isabel (whom I had the
+honour to marry) a ruby necklet (inferior stones), I made Isabel
+change it for sapphires and amethysts, on the judicious plea that
+they suited her complexion better. (I scored one, incidentally, for
+having considered Isabel's complexion.) By the time I went to bed
+I was prepared to sink the Upper Amazons in the sea, and to stab,
+shoot, poison, or otherwise seriously damage the man with the
+concession and the false eyebrows.
+
+For the next three days, at intervals, he returned to the charge. He
+bored me to death with his platinum and his rubies. He didn't want a
+capitalist who would personally exploit the thing; he would prefer
+to do it all on his own account, giving the capitalist preference
+debentures of his bogus company, and a lien on the concession. I
+listened and smiled; I listened and yawned; I listened and was rude;
+I ceased to listen at all; but still he droned on with it. I fell
+asleep on the steamer one day, and woke up in ten minutes to hear
+him droning yet, "And the yield of platinum per ton was certified
+to be--" I forget how many pounds, or ounces, or pennyweights.
+These details of assays have ceased to interest me: like the man
+who "didn't believe in ghosts," I have seen too many of them.
+
+The fresh-faced little curate and his wife, however, were quite
+different people. He was a cricketing Oxford man; she was a breezy
+Scotch lass, with a wholesome breath of the Highlands about her. I
+called her "White Heather." Their name was Brabazon. Millionaires
+are so accustomed to being beset by harpies of every description,
+that when they come across a young couple who are simple and
+natural, they delight in the purely human relation. We picnicked
+and went excursions a great deal with the honeymooners. They were
+so frank in their young love, and so proof against chaff, that we
+all really liked them. But whenever I called the pretty girl "White
+Heather," she looked so shocked, and cried: "Oh, Mr. Wentworth!"
+Still, we were the best of friends. The curate offered to row us in
+a boat on the lake one day, while the Scotch lassie assured us she
+could take an oar almost as well as he did. However, we did not
+accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence
+upon Amelia's digestive organs.
+
+"Nice young fellow, that man Brabazon," Sir Charles said to me one
+day, as we lounged together along the quay; "never talks about
+advowsons or next presentations. Doesn't seem to me to care two pins
+about promotion. Says he's quite content in his country curacy;
+enough to live upon, and needs no more; and his wife has a little, a
+very little, money. I asked him about his poor to-day, on purpose to
+test him: these parsons are always trying to screw something out of
+one for their poor; men in my position know the truth of the saying
+that we have that class of the population always with us. Would
+you believe it, he says he hasn't any poor at all in his parish!
+They're all well-to-do farmers or else able-bodied labourers, and
+his one terror is that somebody will come and try to pauperise them.
+'If a philanthropist were to give me fifty pounds to-day for use at
+Empingham,' he said, 'I assure you, Sir Charles, I shouldn't know
+what to do with it. I think I should buy new dresses for Jessie, who
+wants them about as much as anybody else in the village--that is to
+say, not at all.' There's a parson for you, Sey, my boy. Only wish
+we had one of his sort at Seldon."
+
+"He certainly doesn't want to get anything out of you," I answered.
+
+That evening at dinner a queer little episode happened. The man
+with the eyebrows began talking to me across the table in his usual
+fashion, full of his wearisome concession on the Upper Amazons. I
+was trying to squash him as politely as possible, when I caught
+Amelia's eye. Her look amused me. She was engaged in making signals
+to Charles at her side to observe the little curate's curious
+sleeve-links. I glanced at them, and saw at once they were a
+singular possession for so unobtrusive a person. They consisted
+each of a short gold bar for one arm of the link, fastened by a
+tiny chain of the same material to what seemed to my tolerably
+experienced eye--a first-rate diamond. Pretty big diamonds, too,
+and of remarkable shape, brilliancy, and cutting. In a moment I
+knew what Amelia meant. She owned a diamond riviere, said to be
+of Indian origin, but short by two stones for the circumference
+of her tolerably ample neck. Now, she had long been wanting two
+diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
+shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
+been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
+extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
+
+The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
+broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
+another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
+turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
+sleeve-links."
+
+"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
+unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
+
+But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
+to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They _are_ good stones,"
+he replied; "very good stones--considering. They're not diamonds
+at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
+paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
+Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
+from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
+thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
+they were only paste--very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
+even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation. But they
+are worth--well, say, fifty shillings at the utmost."
+
+While he spoke Charles looked at Amelia, and Amelia looked at
+Charles. Their eyes spoke volumes. The riviere was also supposed to
+have come from Tippoo's collection. Both drew at once an identical
+conclusion. These were two of the same stones, very likely torn
+apart and disengaged from the rest in the melee at the capture of
+the Indian palace.
+
+"Can you take them off?" Sir Charles asked blandly. He spoke in
+the tone that indicates business.
+
+"Certainly," the little curate answered, smiling. "I'm accustomed to
+taking them off. They're always noticed. They've been kept in the
+family ever since the siege, as a sort of valueless heirloom, for
+the sake of the picturesqueness of the story, you know; and nobody
+ever sees them without asking, as you do, to examine them closely.
+They deceive even experts at first. But they're paste, all the same;
+unmitigated Oriental paste, for all that."
+
+He took them both off, and handed them to Charles. No man in England
+is a finer judge of gems than my brother-in-law. I watched him
+narrowly. He examined them close, first with the naked eye, then
+with the little pocket-lens which he always carries. "Admirable
+imitation," he muttered, passing them on to Amelia. "I'm not
+surprised they should impose upon inexperienced observers."
+
+But from the tone in which he said it, I could see at once he had
+satisfied himself they were real gems of unusual value. I know
+Charles's way of doing business so well. His glance to Amelia meant,
+"These are the very stones you have so long been in search of."
+
+The Scotch lassie laughed a merry laugh. "He sees through them
+now, Dick," she cried. "I felt sure Sir Charles would be a judge
+of diamonds."
+
+Amelia turned them over. I know Amelia, too; and I knew from the
+way Amelia looked at them that she meant to have them. And when
+Amelia means to have anything, people who stand in the way may just
+as well spare themselves the trouble of opposing her.
+
+They were beautiful diamonds. We found out afterwards the little
+curate's account was quite correct: these stones _had_ come from
+the same necklet as Amelia's riviere, made for a favourite wife of
+Tippoo's, who had presumably as expansive personal charms as our
+beloved sister-in-law's. More perfect diamonds have seldom been
+seen. They have excited the universal admiration of thieves and
+connoisseurs. Amelia told me afterwards that, according to legend,
+a Sepoy stole the necklet at the sack of the palace, and then fought
+with another for it. It was believed that two stones got spilt
+in the scuffle, and were picked up and sold by a third person--a
+looker-on--who had no idea of the value of his booty. Amelia had
+been hunting for them for several years to complete her necklet.
+
+"They are excellent paste," Sir Charles observed, handing them back.
+"It takes a first-rate judge to detect them from the reality. Lady
+Vandrift has a necklet much the same in character, but composed
+of genuine stones; and as these are so much like them, and would
+complete her set, to all outer appearance, I wouldn't mind giving
+you, say, 10 pounds for the pair of them."
+
+Mrs. Brabazon looked delighted. "Oh, sell them to him, Dick," she
+cried, "and buy me a brooch with the money! A pair of common
+links would do for you just as well. Ten pounds for two paste
+stones! It's quite a lot of money."
+
+She said it so sweetly, with her pretty Scotch accent, that I
+couldn't imagine how Dick had the heart to refuse her. But he
+did, all the same.
+
+"No, Jess, darling," he answered. "They're worthless, I know; but
+they have for me a certain sentimental value, as I've often told
+you. My dear mother wore them, while she lived, as ear-rings; and
+as soon as she died I had them set as links in order that I might
+always keep them about me. Besides, they have historical and family
+interest. Even a worthless heirloom, after all, _is_ an heirloom."
+
+Dr. Hector Macpherson looked across and intervened. "There is a
+part of my concession," he said, "where we have reason to believe a
+perfect new Kimberley will soon be discovered. If at any time you
+would care, Sir Charles, to look at my diamonds--when I get them--it
+would afford me the greatest pleasure in life to submit them to your
+consideration."
+
+Sir Charles could stand it no longer. "Sir," he said, gazing across
+at him with his sternest air, "if your concession were as full of
+diamonds as Sindbad the Sailor's valley, I would not care to turn my
+head to look at them. I am acquainted with the nature and practice
+of salting." And he glared at the man with the overhanging eyebrows
+as if he would devour him raw. Poor Dr. Hector Macpherson subsided
+instantly. We learnt a little later that he was a harmless lunatic,
+who went about the world with successive concessions for ruby mines
+and platinum reefs, because he had been ruined and driven mad by
+speculations in the two, and now recouped himself by imaginary
+grants in Burmah and Brazil, or anywhere else that turned up handy.
+And his eyebrows, after all, were of Nature's handicraft. We were
+sorry for the incident; but a man in Sir Charles's position is such
+a mark for rogues that, if he did not take means to protect himself
+promptly, he would be for ever overrun by them.
+
+When we went up to our salon that evening, Amelia flung herself on
+the sofa. "Charles," she broke out in the voice of a tragedy queen,
+"those are real diamonds, and I shall never be happy again till I
+get them."
+
+"They are real diamonds," Charles echoed. "And you shall have them,
+Amelia. They're worth not less than three thousand pounds. But I
+shall bid them up gently."
+
+So, next day, Charles set to work to higgle with the curate.
+Brabazon, however, didn't care to part with them. He was no
+money-grubber, he said. He cared more for his mother's gift and a
+family tradition than for a hundred pounds, if Sir Charles were to
+offer it. Charles's eye gleamed. "But if I give you _two_ hundred!"
+he said insinuatingly. "What opportunities for good! You could
+build a new wing to your village school-house!"
+
+"We have ample accommodation," the curate answered. "No, I don't
+think I'll sell them."
+
+Still, his voice faltered somewhat, and he looked down at them
+inquiringly.
+
+Charles was too precipitate.
+
+"A hundred pounds more or less matters little to me," he said; "and
+my wife has set her heart on them. It's every man's duty to please
+his wife--isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?--I offer you three hundred."
+
+The little Scotch girl clasped her hands.
+
+"Three hundred pounds! Oh, Dick, just think what fun we could have,
+and what good we could do with it! Do let him have them."
+
+Her accent was irresistible. But the curate shook his head.
+
+"Impossible," he answered. "My dear mother's ear-rings! Uncle
+Aubrey would be so angry if he knew I'd sold them. I daren't face
+Uncle Aubrey."
+
+"Has he expectations from Uncle Aubrey?" Sir Charles asked of
+White Heather.
+
+Mrs. Brabazon laughed. "Uncle Aubrey! Oh, dear, no. Poor dear old
+Uncle Aubrey! Why, the darling old soul hasn't a penny to bless
+himself with, except his pension. He's a retired post captain."
+And she laughed melodiously. She was a charming woman.
+
+"Then I should disregard Uncle Aubrey's feelings," Sir Charles
+said decisively.
+
+"No, no," the curate answered. "Poor dear old Uncle Aubrey! I
+wouldn't do anything for the world to annoy him. And he'd be sure
+to notice it."
+
+We went back to Amelia. "Well, have you got them?" she asked.
+
+"No," Sir Charles answered. "Not yet. But he's coming round, I
+think. He's hesitating now. Would rather like to sell them himself,
+but is afraid what 'Uncle Aubrey' would say about the matter. His
+wife will talk him out of his needless consideration for Uncle
+Aubrey's feelings; and to-morrow we'll finally clench the bargain."
+
+Next morning we stayed late in our salon, where we always
+breakfasted, and did not come down to the public rooms till just
+before dejeuner, Sir Charles being busy with me over arrears of
+correspondence. When we _did_ come down the concierge stepped
+forward with a twisted little feminine note for Amelia. She took
+it and read it. Her countenance fell. "There, Charles," she cried,
+handing it to him, "you've let the chance slip. I shall _never_ be
+happy now! They've gone off with the diamonds."
+
+Charles seized the note and read it. Then he passed it on to me.
+It was short, but final:--
+
+
+"Thursday, 6 a.m.
+
+"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT--_Will_ you kindly excuse our having gone off
+hurriedly without bidding you good-bye? We have just had a horrid
+telegram to say that Dick's favourite sister is _dangerously_ ill of
+fever in Paris. I wanted to shake hands with you before we left--you
+have all been so sweet to us--but we go by the morning train,
+absurdly early, and I wouldn't for worlds disturb you. Perhaps some
+day we may meet again--though, buried as we are in a North-country
+village, it isn't likely; but in any case, you have secured the
+grateful recollection of Yours very cordially, JESSIE BRABAZON.
+
+"P.S.--Kindest regards to Sir Charles and those _dear_ Wentworths,
+and a kiss for yourself, if I may venture to send you one."
+
+
+"She doesn't even mention where they've gone," Amelia exclaimed,
+in a very bad humour.
+
+"The concierge may know," Isabel suggested, looking over my
+shoulder.
+
+We asked at his office.
+
+Yes, the gentleman's address was the Rev. Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+Holme Bush Cottage, Empingham, Northumberland.
+
+Any address where letters might be sent at once, in Paris?
+
+For the next ten days, or till further notice, Hotel des Deux
+Mondes, Avenue de l'Opera.
+
+Amelia's mind was made up at once.
+
+"Strike while the iron's hot," she cried. "This sudden illness,
+coming at the end of their honeymoon, and involving ten days' more
+stay at an expensive hotel, will probably upset the curate's budget.
+He'll be glad to sell now. You'll get them for three hundred. It
+was absurd of Charles to offer so much at first; but offered once,
+of course we must stick to it."
+
+"What do you propose to do?" Charles asked. "Write, or telegraph?"
+
+"Oh, how silly men are!" Amelia cried. "Is this the sort of business
+to be arranged by letter, still less by telegram? No. Seymour must
+start off at once, taking the night train to Paris; and the moment
+he gets there, he must interview the curate or Mrs. Brabazon. Mrs.
+Brabazon's the best. She has none of this stupid, sentimental
+nonsense about Uncle Aubrey."
+
+It is no part of a secretary's duties to act as a diamond broker.
+But when Amelia puts her foot down, she puts her foot down--a fact
+which she is unnecessarily fond of emphasising in that identical
+proposition. So the self-same evening saw me safe in the train on
+my way to Paris; and next morning I turned out of my comfortable
+sleeping-car at the Gare de Strasbourg. My orders were to bring back
+those diamonds, alive or dead, so to speak, in my pocket to Lucerne;
+and to offer any needful sum, up to two thousand five hundred
+pounds, for their immediate purchase.
+
+When I arrived at the Deux Mondes I found the poor little curate
+and his wife both greatly agitated. They had sat up all night, they
+said, with their invalid sister; and the sleeplessness and suspense
+had certainly told upon them after their long railway journey. They
+were pale and tired, Mrs. Brabazon, in particular, looking ill and
+worried--too much like White Heather. I was more than half ashamed
+of bothering them about the diamonds at such a moment, but it
+occurred to me that Amelia was probably right--they would now have
+reached the end of the sum set apart for their Continental trip,
+and a little ready cash might be far from unwelcome.
+
+I broached the subject delicately. It was a fad of Lady Vandrift's,
+I said. She had set her heart upon those useless trinkets. And she
+wouldn't go without them. She must and would have them. But the
+curate was obdurate. He threw Uncle Aubrey still in my teeth. Three
+hundred?--no, never! A mother's present; impossible, dear Jessie!
+Jessie begged and prayed; she had grown really attached to Lady
+Vandrift, she said; but the curate wouldn't hear of it. I went up
+tentatively to four hundred. He shook his head gloomily. It wasn't
+a question of money, he said. It was a question of affection. I saw
+it was no use trying that tack any longer. I struck out a new line.
+"These stones," I said, "I think I ought to inform you, are really
+diamonds. Sir Charles is certain of it. Now, is it right for a man
+of your profession and position to be wearing a pair of big gems
+like those, worth several hundred pounds, as ordinary sleeve-links?
+A woman?--yes, I grant you. But for a man, is it manly? And you a
+cricketer!"
+
+He looked at me and laughed. "Will nothing convince you?" he cried.
+"They have been examined and tested by half a dozen jewellers, and
+we know them to be paste. It wouldn't be right of me to sell them
+to you under false pretences, however unwilling on my side. I
+_couldn't_ do it."
+
+"Well, then," I said, going up a bit in my bids to meet him,
+"I'll put it like this. These gems are paste. But Lady Vandrift
+has an unconquerable and unaccountable desire to possess them.
+Money doesn't matter to her. She is a friend of your wife's. As a
+personal favour, won't you sell them to her for a thousand?"
+
+He shook his head. "It would be wrong," he said,--"I might even add,
+criminal."
+
+"But we take all risk," I cried.
+
+He was absolute adamant. "As a clergyman," he answered, "I feel
+I cannot do it."
+
+"Will _you_ try, Mrs. Brabazon?" I asked.
+
+The pretty little Scotchwoman leant over and whispered. She coaxed
+and cajoled him. Her ways were winsome. I couldn't hear what she
+said, but he seemed to give way at last. "I should love Lady
+Vandrift to have them," she murmured, turning to me. "She _is_ such
+a dear!" And she took out the links from her husband's cuffs and
+handed them across to me.
+
+"How much?" I asked.
+
+"Two thousand?" she answered, interrogatively. It was a big rise,
+all at once; but such are the ways of women.
+
+"Done!" I replied. "Do you consent?"
+
+The curate looked up as if ashamed of himself.
+
+"I consent," he said slowly, "since Jessie wishes it. But as a
+clergyman, and to prevent any future misunderstanding, I should
+like you to give me a statement in writing that you buy them on my
+distinct and positive declaration that they are made of paste--old
+Oriental paste--not genuine stones, and that I do not claim any
+other qualities for them."
+
+I popped the gems into my purse, well pleased.
+
+"Certainly," I said, pulling out a paper. Charles, with his
+unerring business instinct, had anticipated the request, and given
+me a signed agreement to that effect.
+
+"You will take a cheque?" I inquired.
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Notes of the Bank of France would suit me better," he answered.
+
+"Very well," I replied. "I will go out and get them."
+
+How very unsuspicious some people are! He allowed me to go off--with
+the stones in my pocket!
+
+Sir Charles had given me a blank cheque, not exceeding two thousand
+five hundred pounds. I took it to our agents and cashed it for notes
+of the Bank of France. The curate clasped them with pleasure. And
+right glad I was to go back to Lucerne that night, feeling that I
+had got those diamonds into my hands for about a thousand pounds
+under their real value!
+
+At Lucerne railway station Amelia met me. She was positively
+agitated.
+
+"Have you bought them, Seymour?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered, producing my spoils in triumph.
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" she cried, drawing back. "Do you think they're
+real? Are you sure he hasn't cheated you?"
+
+"Certain of it," I replied, examining them. "No one can take me in,
+in the matter of diamonds. Why on earth should you doubt them?"
+
+"Because I've been talking to Mrs. O'Hagan, at the hotel, and she
+says there's a well-known trick just like that--she's read of it in
+a book. A swindler has two sets--one real, one false; and he makes
+you buy the false ones by showing you the real, and pretending he
+sells them as a special favour."
+
+"You needn't be alarmed," I answered. "I am a judge of diamonds."
+
+"I shan't be satisfied," Amelia murmured, "till Charles has seen
+them."
+
+We went up to the hotel. For the first time in her life I saw Amelia
+really nervous as I handed the stones to Charles to examine. Her
+doubt was contagious. I half feared, myself, he might break out into
+a deep monosyllabic interjection, losing his temper in haste, as he
+often does when things go wrong. But he looked at them with a smile,
+while I told him the price.
+
+"Eight hundred pounds less than their value," he answered, well
+satisfied.
+
+"You have no doubt of their reality?" I asked.
+
+"Not the slightest," he replied, gazing at them. "They are genuine
+stones, precisely the same in quality and type as Amelia's necklet."
+
+Amelia drew a sigh of relief. "I'll go upstairs," she said slowly,
+"and bring down my own for you both to compare with them."
+
+One minute later she rushed down again, breathless. Amelia is far
+from slim, and I never before knew her exert herself so actively.
+
+"Charles, Charles!" she cried, "do you know what dreadful thing
+has happened? Two of my own stones are gone. He's stolen a couple
+of diamonds from my necklet, and sold them back to me."
+
+She held out the riviere. It was all too true. Two gems were
+missing--and these two just fitted the empty places!
+
+A light broke in upon me. I clapped my hand to my head. "By Jove,"
+I exclaimed, "the little curate is--Colonel Clay!"
+
+Charles clapped his own hand to his brow in turn. "And Jessie," he
+cried, "White Heather--that innocent little Scotchwoman! I often
+detected a familiar ring in her voice, in spite of the charming
+Highland accent. Jessie is--Madame Picardet!"
+
+We had absolutely no evidence; but, like the Commissary at Nice,
+we felt instinctively sure of it.
+
+Sir Charles was determined to catch the rogue. This second deception
+put him on his mettle. "The worst of the man is," he said, "he has a
+method. He doesn't go out of his way to cheat us; he makes us go out
+of ours to be cheated. He lays a trap, and we tumble headlong into
+it. To-morrow, Sey, we must follow him on to Paris."
+
+Amelia explained to him what Mrs. O'Hagan had said. Charles took it
+all in at once, with his usual sagacity. "That explains," he said,
+"why the rascal used this particular trick to draw us on by. If we
+had suspected him he could have shown the diamonds were real, and
+so escaped detection. It was a blind to draw us off from the fact
+of the robbery. He went to Paris to be out of the way when the
+discovery was made, and to get a clear day's start of us. What a
+consummate rogue! And to do me twice running!"
+
+"How did he get at my jewel-case, though?" Amelia exclaimed.
+
+"That's the question," Charles answered. "You _do_ leave it about so!"
+
+"And why didn't he steal the whole riviere at once, and sell the
+gems?" I inquired.
+
+"Too cunning," Charles replied. "This was much better business. It
+isn't easy to dispose of a big thing like that. In the first place,
+the stones are large and valuable; in the second place, they're
+well known--every dealer has heard of the Vandrift riviere, and seen
+pictures of the shape of them. They're marked gems, so to speak. No,
+he played a better game--took a couple of them off, and offered them
+to the only one person on earth who was likely to buy them without
+suspicion. He came here, meaning to work this very trick; he had
+the links made right to the shape beforehand, and then he stole the
+stones and slipped them into their places. It's a wonderfully clever
+trick. Upon my soul, I almost admire the fellow."
+
+For Charles is a business man himself, and can appreciate business
+capacity in others.
+
+How Colonel Clay came to know about that necklet, and to appropriate
+two of the stones, we only discovered much later. I will not here
+anticipate that disclosure. One thing at a time is a good rule in
+life. For the moment he succeeded in baffling us altogether.
+
+However, we followed him on to Paris, telegraphing beforehand to the
+Bank of France to stop the notes. It was all in vain. They had been
+cashed within half an hour of my paying them. The curate and his
+wife, we found, quitted the Hotel des Deux Mondes for parts unknown
+that same afternoon. And, as usual with Colonel Clay, they vanished
+into space, leaving no clue behind them. In other words, they
+changed their disguise, no doubt, and reappeared somewhere else that
+night in altered characters. At any rate, no such person as the
+Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon was ever afterwards heard of--and,
+for the matter of that, no such village exists as Empingham,
+Northumberland.
+
+We communicated the matter to the Parisian police. They were _most_
+unsympathetic. "It is no doubt Colonel Clay," said the official
+whom we saw; "but you seem to have little just ground of complaint
+against him. As far as I can see, messieurs, there is not much to
+choose between you. You, Monsieur le Chevalier, desired to buy
+diamonds at the price of paste. You, madame, feared you had bought
+paste at the price of diamonds. You, monsieur the secretary, tried
+to get the stones from an unsuspecting person for half their value.
+He took you all in, that brave Colonel Caoutchouc--it was diamond
+cut diamond."
+
+Which was true, no doubt, but by no means consoling.
+
+We returned to the Grand Hotel. Charles was fuming with indignation.
+"This is really too much," he exclaimed. "What an audacious rascal!
+But he will never again take me in, my dear Sey. I only hope he'll
+try it on. I should love to catch him. I'd know him another time,
+I'm sure, in spite of his disguises. It's absurd my being tricked
+twice running like this. But never again while I live! Never again,
+I declare to you!"
+
+"Jamais de la vie!" a courier in the hall close by murmured
+responsive. We stood under the verandah of the Grand Hotel, in the
+big glass courtyard. And I verily believe that courier was really
+Colonel Clay himself in one of his disguises.
+
+But perhaps we were beginning to suspect him everywhere.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD MASTER
+
+
+Like most South Africans, Sir Charles Vandrift is anything but
+sedentary. He hates sitting down. He must always "trek." He cannot
+live without moving about freely. Six weeks in Mayfair at a time is
+as much as he can stand. Then he must run away incontinently for
+rest and change to Scotland, Homburg, Monte Carlo, Biarritz. "I
+won't be a limpet on the rock," he says. Thus it came to pass that
+in the early autumn we found ourselves stopping at the Metropole
+at Brighton. We were the accustomed nice little family party--Sir
+Charles and Amelia, myself and Isabel, with the suite as usual.
+
+On the first Sunday morning after our arrival we strolled out,
+Charles and I--I regret to say during the hours allotted for Divine
+service--on to the King's Road, to get a whiff of fresh air, and a
+glimpse of the waves that were churning the Channel. The two ladies
+(with their bonnets) had gone to church; but Sir Charles had risen
+late, fatigued from the week's toil, while I myself was suffering
+from a matutinal headache, which I attributed to the close air in
+the billiard-room overnight, combined, perhaps, with the insidious
+effect of a brand of soda-water to which I was little accustomed; I
+had used it to dilute my evening whisky. We were to meet our wives
+afterwards at the church parade--an institution to which I believe
+both Amelia and Isabel attach even greater importance than to the
+sermon which precedes it.
+
+We sat down on a glass seat. Charles gazed inquiringly up and down
+the King's Road, on the look-out for a boy with Sunday papers.
+At last one passed. "Observer," my brother-in-law called out
+laconically.
+
+"Ain't got none," the boy answered, brandishing his bundle in our
+faces. "'Ave a Referee or a Pink 'Un?"
+
+Charles, however, is not a Refereader, while as to the Pink 'Un, he
+considers it unsuitable for public perusal on Sunday morning. It may
+be read indoors, but in the open air its blush betrays it. So he
+shook his head, and muttered, "If you pass an Observer, send him on
+here at once to me."
+
+A polite stranger who sat close to us turned round with a pleasant
+smile. "Would you allow me to offer you one?" he said, drawing a
+copy from his pocket. "I fancy I bought the last. There's a run
+on them to-day, you see. Important news this morning from the
+Transvaal."
+
+Charles raised his eyebrows, and accepted it, as I thought, just a
+trifle grumpily. So, to remove the false impression his surliness
+might produce on so benevolent a mind, I entered into conversation
+with the polite stranger. He was a man of middle age, and medium
+height, with a cultivated air, and a pair of gold pince-nez; his
+eyes were sharp; his voice was refined; he dropped into talk before
+long about distinguished people just then in Brighton. It was clear
+at once that he was hand in glove with many of the very best kind.
+We compared notes as to Nice, Rome, Florence, Cairo. Our new
+acquaintance had scores of friends in common with us, it seemed;
+indeed, our circles so largely coincided, that I wondered we had
+never happened till then to knock up against one another.
+
+"And Sir Charles Vandrift, the great African millionaire," he said
+at last, "do you know anything of _him_? I'm told he's at present
+down here at the Metropole."
+
+I waved my hand towards the person in question.
+
+"_This_ is Sir Charles Vandrift," I answered, with proprietary pride;
+"and _I_ am his brother-in-law, Mr. Seymour Wentworth."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" the stranger answered, with a curious air of drawing
+in his horns. I wondered whether he had just been going to pretend
+he knew Sir Charles, or whether perchance he was on the point of
+saying something highly uncomplimentary, and was glad to have
+escaped it.
+
+By this time, however, Charles laid down the paper and chimed into
+our conversation. I could see at once from his mollified tone that
+the news from the Transvaal was favourable to his operations in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. He was therefore in a friendly and affable
+temper. His whole manner changed at once. He grew polite in return
+to the polite stranger. Besides, we knew the man moved in the best
+society; he had acquaintances whom Amelia was most anxious to secure
+for her "At Homes" in Mayfair--young Faith, the novelist, and Sir
+Richard Montrose, the great Arctic traveller. As for the painters,
+it was clear that he was sworn friends with the whole lot of them.
+He dined with Academicians, and gave weekly breakfasts to the
+members of the Institute. Now, Amelia is particularly desirous
+that her salon should not be considered too exclusively financial
+and political in character: with a solid basis of M.P.'s and
+millionaires, she loves a delicate under-current of literature,
+art, and the musical glasses. Our new acquaintance was extremely
+communicative: "Knows his place in society, Sey," Sir Charles said
+to me afterwards, "and is therefore not afraid of talking freely,
+as so many people are who have doubts about their position." We
+exchanged cards before we rose. Our new friend's name turned out
+to be Dr. Edward Polperro.
+
+"In practice here?" I inquired, though his garb belied it.
+
+"Oh, not medical," he answered. "I am an LL.D. don't you know. I
+interest myself in art, and buy to some extent for the National
+Gallery."
+
+The very man for Amelia's "At Homes"! Sir Charles snapped at him
+instantly. "I've brought my four-in-hand down here with me," he
+said, in his best friendly manner, "and we think of tooling over
+to-morrow to Lewes. If you'd care to take a seat I'm sure Lady
+Vandrift would be charmed to see you."
+
+"You're very kind," the Doctor said, "on so casual an introduction.
+I'm sure I shall be delighted."
+
+"We start from the Metropole at ten-thirty," Charles went on.
+
+"I shall be there. Good morning!" And, with a satisfied smile, he
+rose and left us, nodding.
+
+We returned to the lawn, to Amelia and Isabel. Our new friend passed
+us once or twice. Charles stopped him and introduced him. He was
+walking with two ladies, most elegantly dressed in rather peculiar
+artistic dresses. Amelia was taken at first sight by his manner.
+"One could see at a glance," she said, "he was a person of culture
+and of real distinction. I wonder whether he could bring the P.R.A.
+to my Parliamentary 'At Home' on Wednesday fortnight?"
+
+Next day, at ten-thirty, we started on our drive. Our team has been
+considered the best in Sussex. Charles is an excellent, though
+somewhat anxious--or, might I say better, somewhat careful?--whip.
+He finds the management of two leaders and two wheelers fills his
+hands for the moment, both literally and figuratively, leaving very
+little time for general conversation. Lady Belleisle of Beacon
+bloomed beside him on the box (her bloom is perennial, and applied
+by her maid); Dr. Polperro occupied the seat just behind with myself
+and Amelia. The Doctor talked most of the time to Lady Vandrift: his
+discourse was of picture-galleries, which Amelia detests, but in
+which she thinks it incumbent upon her, as Sir Charles's wife, to
+affect now and then a cultivated interest. Noblesse oblige; and the
+walls of Castle Seldon, our place in Ross-shire, are almost covered
+now with Leaders and with Orchardsons. This result was first arrived
+at by a singular accident. Sir Charles wanted a leader--for his
+coach, you understand--and told an artistic friend so. The artistic
+friend brought him a Leader next week with a capital L; and Sir
+Charles was so taken aback that he felt ashamed to confess the
+error. So he was turned unawares into a patron of painting.
+
+Dr. Polperro, in spite of his too pronouncedly artistic talk, proved
+on closer view a most agreeable companion. He diversified his art
+cleverly with anecdotes and scandals; he told us exactly which
+famous painters had married their cooks, and which had only married
+their models; and otherwise showed himself a most diverting talker.
+Among other things, however, he happened to mention once that he
+had recently discovered a genuine Rembrandt--a quite undoubted
+Rembrandt, which had remained for years in the keeping of a
+certain obscure Dutch family. It had always been allowed to be a
+masterpiece of the painter, but it had seldom been seen for the
+last half-century save by a few intimate acquaintances. It was a
+portrait of one Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and he had bought it
+of her descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+I saw Charles prick up his ears, though he took no open notice.
+This Maria Vanrenen, as it happened, was a remote collateral
+ancestress of the Vandrifts, before they emigrated to the Cape in
+1780; and the existence of the portrait, though not its whereabouts,
+was well known in the family. Isabel had often mentioned it. If it
+was to be had at anything like a reasonable price, it would be a
+splendid thing for the boys (Sir Charles, I ought to say, has two
+sons at Eton) to possess an undoubted portrait of an ancestress
+by Rembrandt.
+
+Dr. Polperro talked a good deal after that about this valuable find.
+He had tried to sell it at first to the National Gallery; but
+though the Directors admired the work immensely, and admitted its
+genuineness, they regretted that the funds at their disposal this
+year did not permit them to acquire so important a canvas at a
+proper figure. South Kensington again was too poor; but the Doctor
+was in treaty at present with the Louvre and with Berlin. Still,
+it was a pity a fine work of art like that, once brought into the
+country, should be allowed to go out of it. Some patriotic patron
+of the fine arts ought to buy it for his own house, or else
+munificently present it to the nation.
+
+All the time Charles said nothing. But I could feel him cogitating.
+He even looked behind him once, near a difficult corner (while the
+guard was actually engaged in tootling his horn to let passers-by
+know that the coach was coming), and gave Amelia a warning glance
+to say nothing committing, which had at once the requisite effect
+of sealing her mouth for the moment. It is a very unusual thing
+for Charles to look back while driving. I gathered from his doing
+so that he was inordinately anxious to possess this Rembrandt.
+
+When we arrived at Lewes we put up our horses at the inn,
+and Charles ordered a lunch on his wonted scale of princely
+magnificence. Meanwhile we wandered, two and two, about the town
+and castle. I annexed Lady Belleisle, who is at least amusing.
+Charles drew me aside before starting. "Look here, Sey," he
+said, "we must be _very_ careful. This man, Polperro, is a chance
+acquaintance. There's nothing an astute rogue can take one in over
+more easily than an Old Master. If the Rembrandt is genuine I
+ought to have it; if it really represents Maria Vanrenen, it's a
+duty I owe to the boys to buy it. But I've been done twice lately,
+and I won't be done a third time. We must go to work cautiously."
+
+"You are right," I answered. "No more seers and curates!"
+
+"If this man's an impostor," Charles went on--"and in spite of what
+he says about the National Gallery and so forth, we know nothing of
+him--the story he tells is just the sort of one such a fellow would
+trump up in a moment to deceive me. He could easily learn who I
+was--I'm a well-known figure; he knew I was in Brighton, and he
+may have been sitting on that glass seat on Sunday on purpose to
+entrap me."
+
+"He introduced your name," I said, "and the moment he found out who
+I was he plunged into talk with me."
+
+"Yes," Charles continued. "He may have learned about the portrait
+of Maria Vanrenen, which my grandmother always said was preserved
+at Gouda; and, indeed, I myself have often mentioned it, as you
+doubtless remember. If so, what more natural, say, for a rogue than
+to begin talking about the portrait in that innocent way to Amelia?
+If he wants a Rembrandt, I believe they can be turned out to order
+to any amount in Birmingham. The moral of all which is, it behoves
+us to be careful."
+
+"Right you are," I answered; "and I am keeping my eye upon him."
+
+We drove back by another road, overshadowed by beech-trees in
+autumnal gold. It was a delightful excursion. Dr. Polperro's heart
+was elated by lunch and the excellent dry Monopole. He talked
+amazingly. I never heard a man with a greater or more varied flow
+of anecdote. He had been everywhere and knew all about everybody.
+Amelia booked him at once for her "At Home" on Wednesday week,
+and he promised to introduce her to several artistic and literary
+celebrities.
+
+That evening, however, about half-past seven, Charles and I strolled
+out together on the King's Road for a blow before dinner. We dine at
+eight. The air was delicious. We passed a small new hotel, very
+smart and exclusive, with a big bow window. There, in evening dress,
+lights burning and blind up, sat our friend, Dr. Polperro, with a
+lady facing him, young, graceful, and pretty. A bottle of champagne
+stood open before him. He was helping himself plentifully to
+hot-house grapes, and full of good humour. It was clear he and the
+lady were occupied in the intense enjoyment of some capital joke;
+for they looked queerly at one another, and burst now and again
+into merry peals of laughter.
+
+I drew back. So did Sir Charles. One idea passed at once through
+both our minds. I murmured, "Colonel Clay!" He answered, "_and_
+Madame Picardet!"
+
+They were not in the least like the Reverend Richard and Mrs.
+Brabazon. But that clinched the matter. Nor did I see a sign of the
+aquiline nose of the Mexican Seer. Still, I had learnt by then to
+discount appearances. If these were indeed the famous sharper and
+his wife or accomplice, we must be very careful. We were forewarned
+this time. Supposing he had the audacity to try a third trick of
+the sort upon us we had him under our thumbs. Only, we must take
+steps to prevent his dexterously slipping through our fingers.
+
+"He can wriggle like an eel," said the Commissary at Nice. We both
+recalled those words, and laid our plans deep to prevent the man's
+wriggling away from us on this third occasion.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Sey," my brother-in-law said, with
+impressive slowness. "This time we must deliberately lay ourselves
+out to be swindled. We must propose of our own accord to buy the
+picture, making him guarantee it in writing as a genuine Rembrandt,
+and taking care to tie him down by most stringent conditions. But
+we must seem at the same time to be unsuspicious and innocent as
+babes; we must swallow whole whatever lies he tells us; pay his
+price--nominally--by cheque for the portrait; and then, arrest him
+the moment the bargain is complete, with the proofs of his guilt
+then and there upon him. Of course, what he'll try to do will be to
+vanish into thin air at once, as he did at Nice and Paris; but, this
+time, we'll have the police in waiting and everything ready. We'll
+avoid precipitancy, but we'll avoid delay too. We must hold our
+hands off till he's actually accepted and pocketed the money; and
+then, we must nab him instantly, and walk him off to the local Bow
+Street. That's my plan of campaign. Meanwhile, we should appear
+all trustful innocence and confiding guilelessness."
+
+In pursuance of this well-laid scheme, we called next day on Dr.
+Polperro at his hotel, and were introduced to his wife, a dainty
+little woman, in whom we affected not to recognise that arch Madame
+Picardet or that simple White Heather. The Doctor talked charmingly
+(as usual) about art--what a well-informed rascal he was, to be
+sure!--and Sir Charles expressed some interest in the supposed
+Rembrandt. Our new friend was delighted; we could see by his
+well-suppressed eagerness of tone that he knew us at once for
+probable purchasers. He would run up to town next day, he said, and
+bring down the portrait. And in effect, when Charles and I took our
+wonted places in the Pullman next morning, on our way up to the
+half-yearly meeting of Cloetedorp Golcondas, there was our Doctor,
+leaning back in his arm-chair as if the car belonged to him. Charles
+gave me an expressive look. "Does it in style," he whispered,
+"doesn't he? Takes it out of my five thousand; or discounts the
+amount he means to chouse me of with his spurious Rembrandt."
+
+Arrived in town, we went to work at once. We set a private detective
+from Marvillier's to watch our friend; and from him we learned that
+the so-called Doctor dropped in for a picture that day at a dealer's
+in the West-end (I suppress the name, having a judicious fear of
+the law of libel ever before my eyes), a dealer who was known to be
+mixed up before then in several shady or disreputable transactions.
+Though, to be sure, my experience has been that picture dealers
+are--picture dealers. Horses rank first in my mind as begetters and
+producers of unscrupulous agents, but pictures run them a very good
+second. Anyhow, we found out that our distinguished art-critic
+picked up his Rembrandt at this dealer's shop, and came down with
+it in his care the same night to Brighton.
+
+In order not to act precipitately, and so ruin our plans, we induced
+Dr. Polperro (what a cleverly chosen name!) to bring the Rembrandt
+round to the Metropole for our inspection, and to leave it with us
+while we got the opinion of an expert from London.
+
+The expert came down, and gave us a full report upon the alleged
+Old Master. In his judgment, it was not a Rembrandt at all, but
+a cunningly-painted and well-begrimed modern Dutch imitation.
+Moreover, he showed us by documentary evidence that the real
+portrait of Maria Vanrenen had, as a matter of fact, been brought
+to England five years before, and sold to Sir J. H. Tomlinson, the
+well-known connoisseur, for eight thousand pounds. Dr. Polperro's
+picture was, therefore, at best either a replica by Rembrandt; or
+else, more probably, a copy by a pupil; or, most likely of all,
+a mere modern forgery.
+
+We were thus well prepared to fasten our charge of criminal
+conspiracy upon the self-styled Doctor. But in order to make
+assurance still more certain, we threw out vague hints to him that
+the portrait of Maria Vanrenen might really be elsewhere, and even
+suggested in his hearing that it might not improbably have got into
+the hands of that omnivorous collector, Sir J. H. Tomlinson. But
+the vendor was proof against all such attempts to decry his goods.
+He had the effrontery to brush away the documentary evidence, and to
+declare that Sir J. H. Tomlinson (one of the most learned and astute
+picture-buyers in England) had been smartly imposed upon by a needy
+Dutch artist with a talent for forgery. The real Maria Vanrenen, he
+declared and swore, was the one he offered us. "Success has turned
+the man's head," Charles said to me, well pleased. "He thinks we
+will swallow any obvious lie he chooses to palm off upon us. But the
+bucket has come once too often to the well. This time we checkmate
+him." It was a mixed metaphor, I admit; but Sir Charles's tropes
+are not always entirely superior to criticism.
+
+So we pretended to believe our man, and accepted his assurances.
+Next came the question of price. This was warmly debated, for form's
+sake only. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had paid eight thousand for his
+genuine Maria. The Doctor demanded ten thousand for his spurious
+one. There was really no reason why we should higgle and dispute,
+for Charles meant merely to give his cheque for the sum and then
+arrest the fellow; but, still, we thought it best for the avoidance
+of suspicion to make a show of resistance; and we at last beat him
+down to nine thousand guineas. For this amount he was to give us a
+written warranty that the work he sold us was a genuine Rembrandt,
+that it represented Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and that he had
+bought it direct, without doubt or question, from that good lady's
+descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+It was capitally done. We arranged the thing to perfection. We had a
+constable in waiting in our rooms at the Metropole, and we settled
+that Dr. Polperro was to call at the hotel at a certain fixed hour
+to sign the warranty and receive his money. A regular agreement on
+sound stamped paper was drawn out between us. At the appointed time
+the "party of the first part" came, having already given us over
+possession of the portrait. Charles drew a cheque for the amount
+agreed upon, and signed it. Then he handed it to the Doctor.
+Polperro just clutched at it. Meanwhile, I took up my post by
+the door, while two men in plain clothes, detectives from the
+police-station, stood as men-servants and watched the windows. We
+feared lest the impostor, once he had got the cheque, should dodge
+us somehow, as he had already done at Nice and in Paris. The moment
+he had pocketed his money with a smile of triumph, I advanced to him
+rapidly. I had in my possession a pair of handcuffs. Before he knew
+what was happening, I had slipped them on his wrists and secured
+them dexterously, while the constable stepped forward. "We have got
+you this time!" I cried. "We know who you are, Dr. Polperro. You
+are--Colonel Clay, alias Senor Antonio Herrera, alias the Reverend
+Richard Peploe Brabazon."
+
+I never saw any man so astonished in my life! He was utterly
+flabbergasted. Charles thought he must have expected to get clear
+away at once, and that this prompt action on our part had taken
+the fellow so much by surprise as to simply unman him. He gazed
+about him as if he hardly realised what was happening.
+
+"Are these two raving maniacs?" he asked at last, "or what do they
+mean by this nonsensical gibberish about Antonio Herrera?"
+
+The constable laid his hand on the prisoner's shoulder.
+
+"It's all right, my man," he said. "We've got warrants out against
+you. I arrest you, Edward Polperro, alias the Reverend Richard
+Peploe Brabazon, on a charge of obtaining money under false
+pretences from Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G., M.P., on his sworn
+information, now here subscribed to." For Charles had had the
+thing drawn out in readiness beforehand.
+
+Our prisoner drew himself up. "Look here, officer," he said, in an
+offended tone, "there's some mistake here in this matter. I have
+never given an alias at any time in my life. How do you know this
+is really Sir Charles Vandrift? It may be a case of bullying
+personation. My belief is, though, they're a pair of escaped
+lunatics."
+
+"We'll see about that to-morrow," the constable said, collaring him.
+"At present you've got to go off with me quietly to the station,
+where these gentlemen will enter up the charge against you."
+
+They carried him off, protesting. Charles and I signed the
+charge-sheet; and the officer locked him up to await his examination
+next day before the magistrate.
+
+We were half afraid even now the fellow would manage somehow to
+get out on bail and give us the slip in spite of everything;
+and, indeed, he protested in the most violent manner against the
+treatment to which we were subjecting "a gentleman in his position."
+But Charles took care to tell the police it was all right; that he
+was a dangerous and peculiarly slippery criminal, and that on no
+account must they let him go on any pretext whatever, till he had
+been properly examined before the magistrates.
+
+We learned at the hotel that night, curiously enough, that there
+really _was_ a Dr. Polperro, a distinguished art critic, whose
+name, we didn't doubt, our impostor had been assuming.
+
+Next morning, when we reached the court, an inspector met us with a
+very long face. "Look here, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid you've
+committed a very serious blunder. You've made a precious bad mess of
+it. You've got yourselves into a scrape; and, what's worse, you've
+got us into one also. You were a deal too smart with your sworn
+information. We've made inquiries about this gentleman, and we find
+the account he gives of himself is perfectly correct. His name _is_
+Polperro; he's a well-known art critic and collector of pictures,
+employed abroad by the National Gallery. He was formerly an official
+in the South Kensington Museum, and he's a C.B. and LL.D., very
+highly respected. You've made a sad mistake, that's where it is; and
+you'll probably have to answer a charge of false imprisonment, in
+which I'm afraid you have also involved our own department."
+
+Charles gasped with horror. "You haven't let him out," he cried, "on
+those absurd representations? You haven't let him slip through your
+hands as you did that murderer fellow?"
+
+"Let him slip through our hands?" the inspector cried. "I only wish
+he would. There's no chance of that, unfortunately. He's in the
+court there, this moment, breathing out fire and slaughter against
+you both; and we're here to protect you if he should happen to fall
+upon you. He's been locked up all night on your mistaken affidavits,
+and, naturally enough, he's mad with anger."
+
+"If you haven't let him go, I'm satisfied," Charles answered.
+"He's a fox for cunning. Where is he? Let me see him."
+
+We went into the court. There we saw our prisoner conversing
+amicably, in the most excited way, with the magistrate (who, it
+seems, was a personal friend of his); and Charles at once went
+up and spoke to them. Dr. Polperro turned round and glared at him
+through his pince-nez.
+
+"The only possible explanation of this person's extraordinary and
+incredible conduct," he said, "is, that he must be mad--and his
+secretary equally so. He made my acquaintance, unasked, on a glass
+seat on the King's Road; invited me to go on his coach to Lewes;
+volunteered to buy a valuable picture of me; and then, at the
+last moment, unaccountably gave me in charge on this silly and
+preposterous trumped-up accusation. I demand a summons for false
+imprisonment."
+
+Suddenly it began to dawn upon us that the tables were turned. By
+degrees it came out that we had made a mistake. Dr. Polperro was
+really the person he represented himself to be, and had been always.
+His picture, we found out, was the real Maria Vanrenen, and a
+genuine Rembrandt, which he had merely deposited for cleaning and
+restoring at the suspicious dealer's. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had been
+imposed upon and cheated by a cunning Dutchman; _his_ picture, though
+also an undoubted Rembrandt, was _not_ the Maria, and was an inferior
+specimen in bad preservation. The authority we had consulted turned
+out to be an ignorant, self-sufficient quack. The Maria, moreover,
+was valued by other experts at no more than five or six thousand
+guineas. Charles wanted to cry off his bargain, but Dr. Polperro
+naturally wouldn't hear of it. The agreement was a legally binding
+instrument, and what passed in Charles's mind at the moment had
+nothing to do with the written contract. Our adversary only
+consented to forego the action for false imprisonment on condition
+that Charles inserted a printed apology in the Times, and paid him
+five hundred pounds compensation for damage to character. So that
+was the end of our well-planned attempt to arrest the swindler.
+
+Not quite the end, however; for, of course, after this, the whole
+affair got by degrees into the papers. Dr. Polperro, who was a
+familiar person in literary and artistic society, as it turned out,
+brought an action against the so-called expert who had declared
+against the genuineness of his alleged Rembrandt, and convicted him
+of the grossest ignorance and misstatement. Then paragraphs got
+about. The World showed us up in a sarcastic article; and Truth,
+which has always been terribly severe upon Sir Charles and all the
+other South Africans, had a pungent set of verses on "High Art in
+Kimberley." By this means, as we suppose, the affair became known
+to Colonel Clay himself; for a week or two later my brother-in-law
+received a cheerful little note on scented paper from our persistent
+sharper. It was couched in these terms:--
+
+
+"Oh, you innocent infant!
+
+"Bless your ingenuous little heart! And did it believe, then, it
+had positively caught the redoubtable colonel? And had it ready a
+nice little pinch of salt to put upon his tail? And is it true its
+respected name is Sir Simple Simon? How heartily we have laughed,
+White Heather and I, at your neat little ruses! It would pay you,
+by the way, to take White Heather into your house for six months
+to instruct you in the agreeable sport of amateur detectives. Your
+charming naivete quite moves our envy. So you actually imagined a
+man of my brains would condescend to anything so flat and stale as
+the silly and threadbare Old Master deception! And this in the
+so-called nineteenth century! O sancta simplicitas! When again
+shall such infantile transparency be mine? When, ah, when? But never
+mind, dear friend. Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
+long at some delightful Philippi.
+
+"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
+
+"ANTONIO HERRERA,
+
+"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
+
+
+Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
+he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth--not even mine--can go on
+standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
+foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
+robs me of when he _is_ Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
+when he _isn't_ Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
+nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
+I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
+spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
+
+"You _must_ need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
+Let us try the Tyrol."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
+
+
+We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
+Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
+guide and courier.
+
+She is _such_ a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
+are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
+as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Cesarine has been all
+over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
+course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
+residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
+in our native English. She is a treasure, that girl; so neat and
+dexterous, and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be
+asked to turn her hand to. She walks the world with a needle-case
+in one hand and an etna in the other. She can cook an omelette on
+occasion, or drive a Norwegian cariole; she can sew, and knit, and
+make dresses, and cure a cold, and do anything else on earth you ask
+her. Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted; while as for her
+coffee (which she prepares for us in the train on long journeys),
+there isn't a chef de cuisine at a West-end club to be named in the
+same day with her.
+
+So, when Amelia said, in her imperious way, "Cesarine, we want to go
+to the Tyrol--now--at once--in mid-October; where do you advise us
+to put up?"--Cesarine answered, like a shot, "The Erzherzog Johann,
+of course, at Meran, for the autumn, madame."
+
+"Is he ... an archduke?" Amelia asked, a little staggered at such
+apparent familiarity with Imperial personages.
+
+"Ma foi! no, madame. He is an hotel--as you would say in England,
+the 'Victoria' or the 'Prince of Wales's'--the most comfortable
+hotel in all South Tyrol; and at this time of year, naturally, you
+must go beyond the Alps; it begins already to be cold at Innsbruck."
+
+So to Meran we went; and a prettier or more picturesque place, I
+confess, I have seldom set eyes on. A rushing torrent; high hills
+and mountain peaks; terraced vineyard slopes; old walls and towers;
+quaint, arcaded streets; a craggy waterfall; a promenade after
+the fashion of a German Spa; and when you lift your eyes from the
+ground, jagged summits of Dolomites: it was a combination such as
+I had never before beheld; a Rhine town plumped down among green
+Alpine heights, and threaded by the cool colonnades of Italy.
+
+I approved Cesarine's choice; and I was particularly glad she
+had pronounced for an hotel, where all is plain sailing, instead
+of advising a furnished villa, the arrangements for which would
+naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the
+wretched secretary. As in any case I have to do three hours' work
+a day, I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well
+be spared me. I tipped Cesarine half a sovereign, in fact, for
+her judicious choice. Cesarine glanced at it on her palm in her
+mysterious, curious, half-smiling way, and pocketed it at once with
+a "Merci, monsieur!" that had a touch of contempt in it. I always
+fancy Cesarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping,
+and thinks very small beer of the modest sums a mere secretary can
+alone afford to bestow upon her.
+
+The great peculiarity of Meran is the number of schlosses (I believe
+my plural is strictly irregular, but very convenient to English
+ears) which you can see in every direction from its outskirts. A
+statistical eye, it is supposed, can count no fewer than forty of
+these picturesque, ramshackled old castles from a point on the
+Kuechelberg. For myself, I hate statistics (except as an element in
+financial prospectuses), and I really don't know how many ruinous
+piles Isabel and Amelia counted under Cesarine's guidance; but I
+remember that most of them were quaint and beautiful, and that their
+variety of architecture seemed positively bewildering. One would be
+square, with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle; while
+another would rejoice in a big round keep, and spread on either side
+long, ivy-clad walls and delightful bastions. Charles was immensely
+taken with them. He loves the picturesque, and has a poet hidden
+in that financial soul of his. (Very effectually hidden, though, I
+am ready to grant you.) From the moment he came he felt at once
+he would love to possess a castle of his own among these romantic
+mountains. "Seldon!" he exclaimed contemptuously. "They call Seldon
+a castle! But you and I know very well, Sey, it was built in 1860,
+with sham antique stones, for Macpherson of Seldon, at market rates,
+by Cubitt and Co., worshipful contractors of London. Macpherson
+charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price, at
+which one ought to procure a real ancestral mansion. Now, _these_
+castles are real. They are hoary with antiquity. Schloss Tyrol is
+Romanesque--tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up
+in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for _me_!--tenth or eleventh
+century. I could live here, remote from stocks and shares, for ever;
+and in these sequestered glens, recollect, Sey, my boy, there are
+no Colonel Clays, and no arch Madame Picardets!"
+
+As a matter of fact, he could have lived there six weeks, and then
+tired for Park Lane, Monte Carlo, Brighton.
+
+As for Amelia, strange to say, she was equally taken with this new
+fad of Charles's. As a rule she hates everywhere on earth save
+London, except during the time when no respectable person can be
+seen in town, and when modest blinds shade the scandalised face of
+Mayfair and Belgravia. She bores herself to death even at Seldon
+Castle, Ross-shire, and yawns all day long in Paris or Vienna. She
+is a confirmed Cockney. Yet, for some occult reason, my amiable
+sister-in-law fell in love with South Tyrol. She wanted to vegetate
+in that lush vegetation. The grapes were being picked; pumpkins hung
+over the walls; Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray schlosses
+with crimson cloaks; and everything was as beautiful as a dream of
+Burne-Jones's. (I know I am quite right in mentioning Burne-Jones,
+especially in connection with Romanesque architecture, because I
+heard him highly praised on that very ground by our friend and
+enemy, Dr. Edward Polperro.) So perhaps it was excusable that
+Amelia should fall in love with it all, under the circumstances;
+besides, she is largely influenced by what Cesarine says, and
+Cesarine declares there is no climate in Europe like Meran in
+winter. I do not agree with her. The sun sets behind the hills at
+three in the afternoon, and a nasty warm wind blows moist over
+the snow in January and February.
+
+However, Amelia set Cesarine to inquire of the people at the hotel
+about the market price of tumbledown ruins, and the number of such
+eligible family mausoleums just then for sale in the immediate
+neighbourhood. Cesarine returned with a full, true, and particular
+list, adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have delighted
+the soul of good old John Robins. They were all picturesque, all
+Romanesque, all richly ivy-clad, all commodious, all historical,
+and all the property of high well-born Grafs and very honourable
+Freiherrs. Most of them had been the scene of celebrated tournaments;
+several of them had witnessed the gorgeous marriages of Holy Roman
+Emperors; and every one of them was provided with some choice and
+selected first-class murders. Ghosts could be arranged for or not,
+as desired; and armorial bearings could be thrown in with the moat
+for a moderate extra remuneration.
+
+The two we liked best of all these tempting piles were Schloss
+Planta and Schloss Lebenstein. We drove past both, and even I
+myself, I confess, was distinctly taken with them. (Besides, when
+a big purchase like this is on the stocks, a poor beggar of a
+secretary has always a chance of exerting his influence and earning
+for himself some modest commission.) Schloss Planta was the most
+striking externally, I should say, with its Rhine-like towers, and
+its great gnarled ivy-stems, that looked as if they antedated the
+House of Hapsburg; but Lebenstein was said to be better preserved
+within, and more fitted in every way for modern occupation. Its
+staircase has been photographed by 7000 amateurs.
+
+We got tickets to view. The invaluable Cesarine procured them for
+us. Armed with these, we drove off one fine afternoon, meaning to
+go to Planta, by Cesarine's recommendation. Half-way there, however,
+we changed our minds, as it was such a lovely day, and went on up
+the long, slow hill to Lebenstein. I must say the drive through the
+grounds was simply charming. The castle stands perched (say rather
+poised, like St. Michael the archangel in Italian pictures) on a
+solitary stack or crag of rock, looking down on every side upon
+its own rich vineyards. Chestnuts line the glens; the valley of
+the Etsch spreads below like a picture.
+
+The vineyards alone make a splendid estate, by the way; they produce
+a delicious red wine, which is exported to Bordeaux, and there
+bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau
+Monnivet. Charles revelled in the idea of growing his own wines.
+
+"Here we could sit," he cried to Amelia, "in the most literal sense,
+under our own vine and fig-tree. Delicious retirement! For my part,
+I'm sick and tired of the hubbub of Threadneedle Street."
+
+We knocked at the door--for there was really no bell, but a
+ponderous, old-fashioned, wrought-iron knocker. So deliciously
+mediaeval! The late Graf von Lebenstein had recently died, we
+knew; and his son, the present Count, a young man of means, having
+inherited from his mother's family a still more ancient and
+splendid schloss in the Salzburg district, desired to sell this
+outlying estate in order to afford himself a yacht, after the manner
+that is now becoming increasingly fashionable with the noblemen and
+gentlemen in Germany and Austria.
+
+The door was opened for us by a high well-born menial, attired in
+a very ancient and honourable livery. Nice antique hall; suits of
+ancestral armour, trophies of Tyrolese hunters, coats of arms of
+ancient counts--the very thing to take Amelia's aristocratic and
+romantic fancy. The whole to be sold exactly as it stood; ancestors
+to be included at a valuation.
+
+We went through the reception-rooms. They were lofty, charming, and
+with glorious views, all the more glorious for being framed by those
+graceful Romanesque windows, with their slender pillars and quaint,
+round-topped arches. Sir Charles had made his mind up. "I must and
+will have it!" he cried. "This is the place for me. Seldon! Pah,
+Seldon is a modern abomination."
+
+Could we see the high well-born Count? The liveried servant
+(somewhat haughtily) would inquire of his Serenity. Sir Charles
+sent up his card, and also Lady Vandrift's. These foreigners know
+title spells money in England.
+
+He was right in his surmise. Two minutes later the Count entered
+with our cards in his hands. A good-looking young man, with the
+characteristic Tyrolese long black moustache, dressed in a
+gentlemanly variant on the costume of the country. His air was a
+jager's; the usual blackcock's plume stuck jauntily in the side of
+the conical hat (which he held in his hand), after the universal
+Austrian fashion.
+
+He waved us to seats. We sat down. He spoke to us in French; his
+English, he remarked, with a pleasant smile, being a negligeable
+quantity. We might speak it, he went on; he could understand pretty
+well; but he preferred to answer, if we would allow him, in French
+or German.
+
+"French," Charles replied, and the negotiation continued thenceforth
+in that language. It is the only one, save English and his ancestral
+Dutch, with which my brother-in-law possesses even a nodding
+acquaintance.
+
+We praised the beautiful scene. The Count's face lighted up with
+patriotic pride. Yes; it was beautiful, beautiful, his own green
+Tyrol. He was proud of it and attached to it. But he could endure
+to sell this place, the home of his fathers, because he had a finer
+in the Salzkammergut, and a pied-a-terre near Innsbruck. For Tyrol
+lacked just one joy--the sea. He was a passionate yachtsman. For
+that he had resolved to sell this estate; after all, three country
+houses, a ship, and a mansion in Vienna, are more than one man can
+comfortably inhabit.
+
+"Exactly," Charles answered. "If I can come to terms with you about
+this charming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch
+Highlands." And he tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who
+harangues his clansmen.
+
+Then they got to business. The Count was a delightful man to do
+business with. His manners were perfect. While we were talking to
+him, a surly person, a steward or bailiff, or something of the sort,
+came into the room unexpectedly and addressed him in German, which
+none of us understand. We were impressed by the singular urbanity
+and benignity of the nobleman's demeanour towards this sullen
+dependant. He evidently explained to the fellow what sort of
+people we were, and remonstrated with him in a very gentle way for
+interrupting us. The steward understood, and clearly regretted his
+insolent air; for after a few sentences he went out, and as he did
+so he bowed and made protestations of polite regard in his own
+language. The Count turned to us and smiled. "Our people," he said,
+"are like your own Scotch peasants--kind-hearted, picturesque, free,
+musical, poetic, but wanting, helas, in polish to strangers." He
+was certainly an exception, if he described them aright; for he made
+us feel at home from the moment we entered.
+
+He named his price in frank terms. His lawyers at Meran held the
+needful documents, and would arrange the negotiations in detail with
+us. It was a stiff sum, I must say--an extremely stiff sum; but no
+doubt he was charging us a fancy price for a fancy castle. "He will
+come down in time," Charles said. "The sum first named in all these
+transactions is invariably a feeler. They know I'm a millionaire;
+and people always imagine millionaires are positively made of
+money."
+
+I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze
+money out of millionaires than out of other people--which is the
+reverse of the truth, or how could they ever have amassed their
+millions? Instead of oozing gold as a tree oozes gum, they mop it
+up like blotting-paper, and seldom give it out again.
+
+We drove back from this first interview none the less very well
+satisfied. The price was too high; but preliminaries were arranged,
+and for the rest, the Count desired us to discuss all details with
+his lawyers in the chief street, Unter den Lauben. We inquired about
+these lawyers, and found they were most respectable and respected
+men; they had done the family business on either side for seven
+generations.
+
+They showed us plans and title-deeds. Everything quite en regle.
+Till we came to the price there was no hitch of any sort.
+
+As to price, however, the lawyers were obdurate. They stuck out for
+the Count's first sum to the uttermost florin. It was a very big
+estimate. We talked and shilly-shallied till Sir Charles grew angry.
+He lost his temper at last.
+
+"They know I'm a millionaire, Sey," he said, "and they're playing
+the old game of trying to diddle me. But I won't be diddled. Except
+Colonel Clay, no man has ever yet succeeded in bleeding me. And
+shall I let myself be bled as if I were a chamois among these
+innocent mountains? Perish the thought!" Then he reflected a little
+in silence. "Sey," he mused on, at last, "the question is, _are_
+they innocent? Do you know, I begin to believe there is no such
+thing left as pristine innocence anywhere. This Tyrolese Count knows
+the value of a pound as distinctly as if he hung out in Capel Court
+or Kimberley."
+
+Things dragged on in this way, inconclusively, for a week or two.
+_We_ bid down; the lawyers stuck to it. Sir Charles grew half sick
+of the whole silly business. For my own part, I felt sure if the
+high well-born Count didn't quicken his pace, my respected relative
+would shortly have had enough of the Tyrol altogether, and be proof
+against the most lovely of crag-crowning castles. But the Count
+didn't see it. He came to call on us at our hotel--a rare honour for
+a stranger with these haughty and exclusive Tyrolese nobles--and
+even entered unannounced in the most friendly manner. But when it
+came to L. s. d., he was absolute adamant. Not one kreutzer would
+he abate from his original proposal.
+
+"You misunderstand," he said, with pride. "We Tyrolese gentlemen are
+not shopkeepers or merchants. We do not higgle. If we say a thing we
+stick to it. Were you an Austrian, I should feel insulted by your
+ill-advised attempt to beat down my price. But as you belong to a
+great commercial nation--" he broke off with a snort and shrugged
+his shoulders compassionately.
+
+We saw him several times driving in and out of the schloss, and
+every time he waved his hand at us gracefully. But when we tried to
+bargain, it was always the same thing: he retired behind the shelter
+of his Tyrolese nobility. We might take it or leave it. 'Twas still
+Schloss Lebenstein.
+
+The lawyers were as bad. We tried all we knew, and got no forrarder.
+
+At last Charles gave up the attempt in disgust. He was tiring, as I
+expected. "It's the prettiest place I ever saw in my life," he said;
+"but, hang it all, Sey, I _won't_ be imposed upon."
+
+So he made up his mind, it being now December, to return to London.
+We met the Count next day, and stopped his carriage, and told him
+so. Charles thought this would have the immediate effect of bringing
+the man to reason. But he only lifted his hat, with the blackcock's
+feather, and smiled a bland smile. "The Archduke Karl is inquiring
+about it," he answered, and drove on without parley.
+
+Charles used some strong words, which I will not transcribe (I am a
+family man), and returned to England.
+
+For the next two months we heard little from Amelia save her regret
+that the Count wouldn't sell us Schloss Lebenstein. Its pinnacles
+had fairly pierced her heart. Strange to say, she was absolutely
+infatuated about the castle. She rather wanted the place while
+she was there, and thought she could get it; now she thought
+she couldn't, her soul (if she has one) was wildly set upon it.
+Moreover, Cesarine further inflamed her desire by gently hinting
+a fact which she had picked up at the courier's table d'hote at
+the hotel--that the Count had been far from anxious to sell his
+ancestral and historical estate to a South African diamond king.
+He thought the honour of the family demanded, at least, that he
+should secure a wealthy buyer of good ancient lineage.
+
+One morning in February, however, Amelia returned from the Row all
+smiles and tremors. (She had been ordered horse-exercise to correct
+the increasing excessiveness of her figure.)
+
+"Who do you think I saw riding in the Park?" she inquired. "Why,
+the Count of Lebenstein."
+
+"No!" Charles exclaimed, incredulous.
+
+"Yes," Amelia answered.
+
+"Must be mistaken," Charles cried.
+
+But Amelia stuck to it. More than that, she sent out emissaries to
+inquire diligently from the London lawyers, whose name had been
+mentioned to us by the ancestral firm in Unter den Lauben as
+their English agents, as to the whereabouts of our friend; and
+her emissaries learned in effect that the Count was in town and
+stopping at Morley's.
+
+"I see through it," Charles exclaimed. "He finds he's made a
+mistake; and now he's come over here to reopen negotiations."
+
+I was all for waiting prudently till the Count made the first move.
+"Don't let him see your eagerness," I said. But Amelia's ardour
+could not now be restrained. She insisted that Charles should
+call on the Graf as a mere return of his politeness in the Tyrol.
+
+He was as charming as ever. He talked to us with delight about the
+quaintness of London. He would be ravished to dine next evening with
+Sir Charles. He desired his respectful salutations meanwhile to
+Miladi Vandrift and Madame Ventvorth.
+
+He dined with us, almost en famille. Amelia's cook did wonders. In
+the billiard-room, about midnight, Charles reopened the subject.
+The Count was really touched. It pleased him that still, amid the
+distractions of the City of Five Million Souls, we should remember
+with affection his beloved Lebenstein.
+
+"Come to my lawyers," he said, "to-morrow, and I will talk it all
+over with you."
+
+We went--a most respectable firm in Southampton Row; old family
+solicitors. They had done business for years for the late Count, who
+had inherited from his grandmother estates in Ireland; and they were
+glad to be honoured with the confidence of his successor. Glad, too,
+to make the acquaintance of a prince of finance like Sir Charles
+Vandrift. Anxious (rubbing their hands) to arrange matters
+satisfactorily all round for everybody. (Two capital families with
+which to be mixed up, you see.)
+
+Sir Charles named a price, and referred them to his solicitors.
+The Count named a higher, but still a little come-down, and left
+the matter to be settled between the lawyers. He was a soldier and
+a gentleman, he said, with a Tyrolese toss of his high-born head;
+he would abandon details to men of business.
+
+As I was really anxious to oblige Amelia, I met the Count
+accidentally next day on the steps of Morley's. (Accidentally,
+that is to say, so far as he was concerned, though I had been
+hanging about in Trafalgar Square for half an hour to see him.)
+I explained, in guarded terms, that I had a great deal of influence
+in my way with Sir Charles; and that a word from me-- I broke
+off. He stared at me blankly.
+
+"Commission?" he inquired, at last, with a queer little smile.
+
+"Well, not exactly commission," I answered, wincing. "Still, a
+friendly word, you know. One good turn deserves another."
+
+He looked at me from head to foot with a curious scrutiny. For one
+moment I feared the Tyrolese nobleman in him was going to raise its
+foot and take active measures. But the next, I saw that Sir Charles
+was right after all, and that pristine innocence has removed from
+this planet to other quarters.
+
+He named his lowest price. "M. Ventvorth," he said, "I am a Tyrolese
+seigneur; I do not dabble, myself, in commissions and percentages.
+But if your influence with Sir Charles--we understand each other, do
+we not?--as between gentlemen--a little friendly present--no money,
+of course--but the equivalent of say 5 per cent in jewellery, on
+whatever sum above his bid to-day you induce him to
+offer--eh?--c'est convenu?"
+
+"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured.
+
+He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur--or nothing!"
+
+I bowed and withdrew. "Well, five then," I answered, "just to oblige
+your Serenity."
+
+A secretary, after all, can do a great deal. When it came to the
+scratch, I had but little difficulty in persuading Sir Charles, with
+Amelia's aid, backed up on either side by Isabel and Cesarine, to
+accede to the Count's more reasonable proposal. The Southampton Row
+people had possession of certain facts as to the value of the wines
+in the Bordeaux market which clinched the matter. In a week or two
+all was settled; Charles and I met the Count by appointment in
+Southampton Row, and saw him sign, seal, and deliver the title-deeds
+of Schloss Lebenstein. My brother-in-law paid the purchase-money
+into the Count's own hands, by cheque, crossed on a first-class
+London firm where the Count kept an account to his high well-born
+order. Then he went away with the proud knowledge that he was owner
+of Schloss Lebenstein. And what to me was more important still,
+I received next morning by post a cheque for the five per cent,
+unfortunately drawn, by some misapprehension, to my order on the
+self-same bankers, and with the Count's signature. He explained in
+the accompanying note that the matter being now quite satisfactorily
+concluded, he saw no reason of delicacy why the amount he had
+promised should not be paid to me forthwith direct in money.
+
+I cashed the cheque at once, and said nothing about the affair, not
+even to Isabel. My experience is that women are not to be trusted
+with intricate matters of commission and brokerage.
+
+Though it was now late in March, and the House was sitting, Charles
+insisted that we must all run over at once to take possession of our
+magnificent Tyrolese castle. Amelia was almost equally burning with
+eagerness. She gave herself the airs of a Countess already. We took
+the Orient Express as far as Munich; then the Brenner to Meran,
+and put up for the night at the Erzherzog Johann. Though we had
+telegraphed our arrival, and expected some fuss, there was no
+demonstration. Next morning we drove out in state to the schloss,
+to enter into enjoyment of our vines and fig-trees.
+
+We were met at the door by the surly steward. "I shall dismiss
+that man," Charles muttered, as Lord of Lebenstein. "He's too
+sour-looking for my taste. Never saw such a brute. Not a smile
+of welcome!"
+
+He mounted the steps. The surly man stepped forward and murmured a
+few morose words in German. Charles brushed him aside and strode on.
+Then there followed a curious scene of mutual misunderstanding. The
+surly man called lustily for his servants to eject us. It was some
+time before we began to catch at the truth. The surly man was the
+_real_ Graf von Lebenstein.
+
+And the Count with the moustache? It dawned upon us now. Colonel
+Clay again! More audacious than ever!
+
+Bit by bit it all came out. He had ridden behind us the first day
+we viewed the place, and, giving himself out to the servants as
+one of our party, had joined us in the reception-room. We asked
+the real Count why he had spoken to the intruder. The Count
+explained in French that the man with the moustache had introduced
+my brother-in-law as the great South African millionaire, while he
+described himself as our courier and interpreter. As such he had
+had frequent interviews with the real Graf and his lawyers in
+Meran, and had driven almost daily across to the castle. The owner
+of the estate had named one price from the first, and had stuck to
+it manfully. He stuck to it still; and if Sir Charles chose to buy
+Schloss Lebenstein over again he was welcome to have it. How the
+London lawyers had been duped the Count had not really the slightest
+idea. He regretted the incident, and (coldly) wished us a very good
+morning.
+
+There was nothing for it but to return as best we might to the
+Erzherzog Johann, crestfallen, and telegraph particulars to the
+police in London.
+
+Charles and I ran across post-haste to England to track down the
+villain. At Southampton Row we found the legal firm by no means
+penitent; on the contrary, they were indignant at the way we had
+deceived them. An impostor had written to them on Lebenstein
+paper from Meran to say that he was coming to London to negotiate
+the sale of the schloss and surrounding property with the
+famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
+demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
+Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
+had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
+Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
+some most excellent forgeries--facsimiles of the originals--which,
+as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
+examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
+plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
+upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
+moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
+his own representation.
+
+He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
+_not_ given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
+unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.
+
+By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
+house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
+thus:--
+
+
+"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,--
+
+"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
+everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
+not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
+might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
+cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
+you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
+rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
+fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
+The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.
+
+"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
+cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present--a German
+dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!
+
+"I kiss your hand.
+
+"No longer
+
+"VON LEBENSTEIN."
+
+
+The other note was to me. It was as follows:--
+
+
+"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,--
+
+"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
+I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
+surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
+foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
+you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend--on your
+own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
+banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, for your future good behaviour.
+If ever you recognise me, and betray me to that solemn old ass, your
+employer, remember, I expose it, and you with it to him. So now we
+understand each other. I had not thought of this little dodge; it
+was you who suggested it. However, I jumped at it. Was it not well
+worth my while paying you that slight commission in return for a
+guarantee of your future silence? Your mouth is now closed. And
+cheap too at the price.--Yours, dear Comrade, in the great
+confraternity of rogues,
+
+"CUTHBERT CLAY, Colonel."
+
+
+Charles laid his note down, and grizzled. "What's yours, Sey?"
+he asked.
+
+"From a lady," I answered.
+
+He gazed at me suspiciously. "Oh, I thought it was the same hand,"
+he said. His eye looked through me.
+
+"No," I answered. "Mrs. Mortimer's." But I confess I trembled.
+
+He paused a moment. "You made all inquiries at this fellow's bank?"
+he went on, after a deep sigh.
+
+"Oh, yes," I put in quickly. (I had taken good care about that,
+you may be sure, lest he should spot the commission.) "They say
+the self-styled Count von Lebenstein was introduced to them by
+the Southampton Row folks, and drew, as usual, on the Lebenstein
+account: so they were quite unsuspicious. A rascal who goes about
+the world on that scale, you know, and arrives with such credentials
+as theirs and yours, naturally imposes on anybody. The bank didn't
+even require to have him formally identified. The firm was enough.
+He came to pay money in, not to draw it out. And he withdrew his
+balance just two days later, saying he was in a hurry to get back
+to Vienna."
+
+Would he ask for items? I confess I felt it was an awkward moment.
+Charles, however, was too full of regrets to bother about the
+account. He leaned back in his easy chair, stuck his hands in his
+pockets, held his legs straight out on the fender before him, and
+looked the very picture of hopeless despondency.
+
+"Sey," he began, after a minute or two, poking the fire,
+reflectively, "what a genius that man has! 'Pon my soul, I
+admire him. I sometimes wish--" He broke off and hesitated.
+
+"Yes, Charles?" I answered.
+
+"I sometimes wish ... we had got him on the Board of the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas. Mag--nificent combinations he would make in the City!"
+
+I rose from my seat and stared solemnly at my misguided
+brother-in-law.
+
+"Charles," I said, "you are beside yourself. Too much Colonel Clay
+has told upon your clear and splendid intellect. There are certain
+remarks which, however true they may be, no self-respecting
+financier should permit himself to make, even in the privacy of
+his own room, to his most intimate friend and trusted adviser."
+
+Charles fairly broke down. "You are right, Sey," he sobbed out.
+"Quite right. Forgive this outburst. At moments of emotion the
+truth will sometimes out, in spite of everything."
+
+I respected his feebleness. I did not even make it a fitting
+occasion to ask for a trifling increase of salary.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DRAWN GAME
+
+
+The twelfth of August saw us, as usual, at Seldon Castle,
+Ross-shire. It is part of Charles's restless, roving temperament
+that, on the morning of the eleventh, wet or fine, he must set out
+from London, whether the House is sitting or not, in defiance of
+the most urgent three-line whips; and at dawn on the twelfth he must
+be at work on his moors, shooting down the young birds with might
+and main, at the earliest possible legal moment.
+
+He goes on like Saul, slaying his thousands, or, like David, his
+tens of thousands, with all the guns in the house to help him, till
+the keepers warn him he has killed as many grouse as they consider
+desirable; and then, having done his duty, as he thinks, in this
+respect, he retires precipitately with flying colours to Brighton,
+Nice, Monte Carlo, or elsewhere. He must be always "on the trek";
+when he is buried, I believe he will not be able to rest quiet in
+his grave: his ghost will walk the world to terrify old ladies.
+
+"At Seldon, at least," he said to me, with a sigh, as he stepped
+into his Pullman, "I shall be safe from that impostor!"
+
+And indeed, as soon as he had begun to tire a little of counting
+up his hundreds of brace per diem, he found a trifling piece of
+financial work cut ready to his hand, which amply distracted his
+mind for the moment from Colonel Clay, his accomplices, and his
+villainies.
+
+Sir Charles, I ought to say, had secured during that summer a very
+advantageous option in a part of Africa on the Transvaal frontier,
+rumoured to be auriferous. Now, whether it was auriferous or not
+before, the mere fact that Charles had secured some claim on it
+naturally made it so; for no man had ever the genuine Midas-touch
+to a greater degree than Charles Vandrift: whatever he handles turns
+at once to gold, if not to diamonds. Therefore, as soon as my
+brother-in-law had obtained this option from the native vendor (a
+most respected chief, by name Montsioa), and promoted a company
+of his own to develop it, his great rival in that region, Lord
+Craig-Ellachie (formerly Sir David Alexander Granton), immediately
+secured a similar option of an adjacent track, the larger part of
+which had pretty much the same geological conditions as that covered
+by Sir Charles's right of pre-emption.
+
+We were not wholly disappointed, as it turned out, in the result.
+A month or two later, while we were still at Seldon, we received
+a long and encouraging letter from our prospectors on the spot,
+who had been hunting over the ground in search of gold-reefs. They
+reported that they had found a good auriferous vein in a corner of
+the tract, approachable by adit-levels; but, unfortunately, only a
+few yards of the lode lay within the limits of Sir Charles's area.
+The remainder ran on at once into what was locally known as
+Craig-Ellachie's section.
+
+However, our prospectors had been canny, they said; though young
+Mr. Granton was prospecting at the same time, in the self-same
+ridge, not very far from them, his miners had failed to discover
+the auriferous quartz; so our men had held their tongues about it,
+wisely leaving it for Charles to govern himself accordingly.
+
+"Can you dispute the boundary?" I asked.
+
+"Impossible," Charles answered. "You see, the limit is a meridian
+of longitude. There's no getting over that. Can't pretend to deny
+it. No buying over the sun! No bribing the instruments! Besides,
+we drew the line ourselves. We've only one way out of it, Sey.
+Amalgamate! Amalgamate!"
+
+Charles is a marvellous man! The very voice in which he murmured
+that blessed word "Amalgamate!" was in itself a poem.
+
+"Capital!" I answered. "Say nothing about it, and join forces with
+Craig-Ellachie."
+
+Charles closed one eye pensively.
+
+That very same evening came a telegram in cipher from our chief
+engineer on the territory of the option: "Young Granton has somehow
+given us the slip and gone home. We suspect he knows all. But we
+have not divulged the secret to anybody."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said impressively, "there is no time to
+be lost. I must write this evening to Sir David--I mean to My Lord.
+Do you happen to know where he is stopping at present?"
+
+"The Morning Post announced two or three days ago that he was at
+Glen-Ellachie," I answered.
+
+"Then I'll ask him to come over and thrash the matter out with me,"
+my brother-in-law went on. "A very rich reef, they say. I must have
+my finger in it!"
+
+We adjourned into the study, where Sir Charles drafted, I must
+admit, a most judicious letter to the rival capitalist. He pointed
+out that the mineral resources of the country were probably great,
+but as yet uncertain. That the expense of crushing and milling might
+be almost prohibitive. That access to fuel was costly, and its
+conveyance difficult. That water was scarce, and commanded by our
+section. That two rival companies, if they happened to hit upon ore,
+might cut one another's throats by erecting two sets of furnaces or
+pumping plants, and bringing two separate streams to the spot,
+where one would answer. In short--to employ the golden word--that
+amalgamation might prove better in the end than competition; and
+that he advised, at least, a conference on the subject.
+
+I wrote it out fair for him, and Sir Charles, with the air of a
+Cromwell, signed it.
+
+"This is important, Sey," he said. "It had better be registered,
+for fear of falling into improper hands. Don't give it to Dobson;
+let Cesarine take it over to Fowlis in the dog-cart."
+
+It is the drawback of Seldon that we are twelve miles from a
+railway station, though we look out on one of the loveliest firths
+in Scotland.
+
+Cesarine took it as directed--an invaluable servant, that girl!
+Meanwhile, we learned from the Morning Post next day that young
+Mr. Granton had stolen a march upon us. He had arrived from Africa
+by the same mail with our agent's letter, and had joined his father
+at once at Glen-Ellachie.
+
+Two days later we received a most polite reply from the opposing
+interest. It ran after this fashion:--
+
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE,
+
+"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
+
+"DEAR SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Thanks for yours of the 20th. In reply,
+I can only say I fully reciprocate your amiable desire that nothing
+adverse to either of our companies should happen in South Africa.
+With regard to your suggestion that we should meet in person, to
+discuss the basis of a possible amalgamation, I can only say my
+house is at present full of guests--as is doubtless your own--and
+I should therefore find it practically impossible to leave
+Glen-Ellachie. Fortunately, however, my son David is now at home
+on a brief holiday from Kimberley; and it will give him great
+pleasure to come over and hear what you have to say in favour of an
+arrangement which certainly, on some grounds, seems to me desirable
+in the interests of both our concessions alike. He will arrive
+to-morrow afternoon at Seldon, and he is authorised, in every
+respect, to negotiate with full powers on behalf of myself and the
+other directors. With kindest regards to your wife and sons, I
+remain, dear Sir Charles, yours faithfully,
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE."
+
+
+"Cunning old fox!" Sir Charles exclaimed, with a sniff. "What's he
+up to now, I wonder? Seems almost as anxious to amalgamate as we
+ourselves are, Sey." A sudden thought struck him. "Do you know,"
+he cried, looking up, "I really believe the same thing must have
+happened to _both_ our exploring parties. _They_ must have found a
+reef that goes under _our_ ground, and the wicked old rascal wants
+to cheat us out of it!"
+
+"As we want to cheat him," I ventured to interpose.
+
+Charles looked at me fixedly. "Well, if so, we're both in luck,"
+he murmured, after a pause; "though _we_ can only get to know the
+whereabouts of _their_ find by joining hands with them and showing
+them ours. Still, it's good business either way. But I shall be
+cautious--cautious."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Amelia cried, when we told her of the incident.
+"I suppose I shall have to put the man up for the night--a nasty,
+raw-boned, half-baked Scotchman, you may be certain."
+
+On Wednesday afternoon, about three, young Granton arrived. He was
+a pleasant-featured, red-haired, sandy-whiskered youth, not unlike
+his father; but, strange to say, he dropped in to call, instead of
+bringing his luggage.
+
+"Why, you're not going back to Glen-Ellachie to-night, surely?"
+Charles exclaimed, in amazement. "Lady Vandrift will be _so_
+disappointed! Besides, this business can't be arranged between
+two trains, do you think, Mr. Granton?"
+
+Young Granton smiled. He had an agreeable smile--canny, yet open.
+
+"Oh no," he said frankly. "I didn't mean to go back. I've put up at
+the inn. I have my wife with me, you know--and, I wasn't invited."
+
+Amelia was of opinion, when we told her this episode, that David
+Granton wouldn't stop at Seldon because he was an Honourable.
+Isabel was of opinion he wouldn't stop because he had married an
+unpresentable young woman somewhere out in South Africa. Charles was
+of opinion that, as representative of the hostile interest, he put
+up at the inn, because it might tie his hands in some way to be the
+guest of the chairman of the rival company. And _I_ was of opinion
+that he had heard of the castle, and knew it well by report as the
+dullest country-house to stay at in Scotland.
+
+However that may be, young Granton insisted on remaining at the
+Cromarty Arms, though he told us his wife would be delighted to
+receive a call from Lady Vandrift and Mrs. Wentworth. So we all
+returned with him to bring the Honourable Mrs. Granton up to tea
+at the Castle.
+
+She was a nice little thing, very shy and timid, but by no means
+unpresentable, and an evident lady. She giggled at the end of every
+sentence; and she was endowed with a slight squint, which somehow
+seemed to point all her feeble sallies. She knew little outside
+South Africa; but of that she talked prettily; and she won all
+our hearts, in spite of the cast in her eye, by her unaffected
+simplicity.
+
+Next morning Charles and I had a regular debate with young Granton
+about the rival options. Our talk was of cyanide processes,
+reverberatories, pennyweights, water-jackets. But it dawned upon us
+soon that, in spite of his red hair and his innocent manners, our
+friend, the Honourable David Granton, knew a thing or two. Gradually
+and gracefully he let us see that Lord Craig-Ellachie had sent him
+for the benefit of the company, but that _he_ had come for the
+benefit of the Honourable David Granton.
+
+"I'm a younger son, Sir Charles," he said; "and therefore I have to
+feather my nest for myself. I know the ground. My father will be
+guided implicitly by what I advise in the matter. We are men of the
+world. Now, let's be business-like. _You_ want to amalgamate. You
+wouldn't do that, of course, if you didn't know of something to the
+advantage of my father's company--say, a lode on our land--which you
+hope to secure for yourself by amalgamation. Very well; _I_ can make
+or mar your project. If you choose to render it worth my while, I'll
+induce my father and his directors to amalgamate. If you don't, I
+won't. That's the long and the short of it!"
+
+Charles looked at him admiringly.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you're deep, very deep--for your age. Is this
+candour--or deception? Do you mean what you say? Or do you know some
+reason why it suits your father's book to amalgamate as well as it
+suits mine? And are you trying to keep it from me?" He fingered his
+chin. "If I only knew that," he went on, "I should know how to deal
+with you."
+
+Young Granton smiled again. "You're a financier, Sir Charles," he
+answered. "I wonder, at your time of life, you should pause to ask
+another financier whether he's trying to fill his own pocket--or his
+father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son--and _I_ am
+his youngest."
+
+"You are right as to general principles," Sir Charles replied, quite
+affectionately. "Most sound and sensible. But how do I know you
+haven't bargained already in the same way with your father? You
+may have settled with _him_, and be trying to diddle me."
+
+The young man assumed a most candid air. "Look here," he said,
+leaning forward. "I offer you this chance. Take it or leave it. _Do_
+you wish to purchase my aid for this amalgamation by a moderate
+commission on the net value of my father's option to yourself--which
+I know approximately?"
+
+"Say five per cent," I suggested, in a tentative voice, just to
+justify my presence.
+
+He looked me through and through. "_Ten_ is more usual," he
+answered, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar glance.
+
+Great heavens, how I winced! I knew what his words meant. They were
+the very words I had said myself to Colonel Clay, as the Count von
+Lebenstein, about the purchase-money of the schloss--and in the very
+same accent. I saw through it all now. That beastly cheque! This
+was Colonel Clay; and he was trying to buy up my silence and
+assistance by the threat of exposure!
+
+My blood ran cold. I didn't know how to answer him. What happened
+at the rest of that interview I really couldn't tell you. My brain
+reeled round. I heard just faint echoes of "fuel" and "reduction
+works." What on earth was I to do? If I told Charles my
+suspicion--for it was only a suspicion--the fellow might turn upon
+me and disclose the cheque, which would suffice to ruin me. If I
+didn't, I ran a risk of being considered by Charles an accomplice
+and a confederate.
+
+The interview was long. I hardly know how I struggled through it.
+At the end young Granton went off, well satisfied, if it was young
+Granton; and Amelia invited him and his wife up to dinner at the
+castle.
+
+Whatever else they were, they were capital company. They stopped
+for three days more at the Cromarty Arms. And Charles debated and
+discussed incessantly. He couldn't quite make up his mind what to
+do in the affair; and _I_ certainly couldn't help him. I never was
+placed in such a fix in my life. I did my best to preserve a strict
+neutrality.
+
+Young Granton, it turned out, was a most agreeable person; and so,
+in her way, was that timid, unpretending South African wife of his.
+She was naively surprised Amelia had never met her mamma at Durban.
+They both talked delightfully, and had lots of good stories--mostly
+with points that told against the Craig-Ellachie people. Moreover,
+the Honourable David was a splendid swimmer. He went out in a boat
+with us, and dived like a seal. He was burning to teach Charles
+and myself to swim, when we told him we could neither of us take a
+single stroke; he said it was an accomplishment incumbent upon every
+true Englishman. But Charles hates the water; while, as for myself,
+I detest every known form of muscular exercise.
+
+However, we consented that he should row us on the Firth, and made
+an appointment one day with himself and his wife for four the next
+evening.
+
+That night Charles came to me with a very grave face in my own
+bedroom. "Sey," he said, under his breath, "have you observed?
+Have you watched? Have you any suspicions?"
+
+I trembled violently. I felt all was up. "Suspicions of whom?"
+I asked. "Not surely of Simpson?" (he was Sir Charles's valet).
+
+My respected brother-in-law looked at me contemptuously.
+
+"Sey," he said, "are you trying to take me in? No, _not_ of Simpson:
+of these two young folks. My own belief is--they're Colonel Clay
+and Madame Picardet."
+
+"Impossible!" I cried.
+
+He nodded. "I'm sure of it."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Instinctively."
+
+I seized his arm. "Charles," I said, imploring him, "do nothing
+rash. Remember how you exposed yourself to the ridicule of fools
+over Dr. Polperro!"
+
+"I've thought of that," he answered, "and I mean to ca' caller."
+(When in Scotland as laird of Seldon, Charles loves both to dress
+and to speak the part thoroughly.) "First thing to-morrow I shall
+telegraph over to inquire at Glen-Ellachie; I shall find out
+whether this is really young Granton or not; meanwhile, I shall keep
+my eye close upon the fellow."
+
+Early next morning, accordingly, a groom was dispatched with a
+telegram to Lord Craig-Ellachie. He was to ride over to Fowlis, send
+it off at once, and wait for the answer. At the same time, as it was
+probable Lord Craig-Ellachie would have started for the moors before
+the telegram reached the Lodge, I did not myself expect to see the
+reply arrive much before seven or eight that evening. Meanwhile, as
+it was far from certain we had not the real David Granton to deal
+with, it was necessary to be polite to our friendly rivals. Our
+experience in the Polperro incident had shown us both that too much
+zeal may be more dangerous than too little. Nevertheless, taught
+by previous misfortunes, we kept watching our man pretty close,
+determined that on this occasion, at least, he should neither do us
+nor yet escape us.
+
+About four o'clock the red-haired young man and his pretty little
+wife came up to call for us. She looked so charming and squinted
+so enchantingly, one could hardly believe she was not as simple
+and innocent as she seemed to be. She tripped down to the Seldon
+boat-house, with Charles by her side, giggling and squinting her
+best, and then helped her husband to get the skiff ready. As she did
+so, Charles sidled up to me. "Sey," he whispered, "I'm an old hand,
+and I'm not readily taken in. I've been talking to that girl, and
+upon my soul I think she's all right. She's a charming little lady.
+We may be mistaken after all, of course, about young Granton. In any
+case, it's well for the present to be courteous. A most important
+option! If it's really he, we must do nothing to annoy him or let
+him see we suspect him."
+
+I had noticed, indeed, that Mrs. Granton had made herself most
+agreeable to Charles from the very beginning. And as to one thing he
+was right. In her timid, shrinking way she was undeniably charming.
+That cast in her eye was all pure piquancy.
+
+We rowed out on to the Firth, or, to be more strictly correct, the
+two Grantons rowed while Charles and I sat and leaned back in the
+stern on the luxurious cushions. They rowed fast and well. In a very
+few minutes they had rounded the point and got clear out of sight
+of the Cockneyfied towers and false battlements of Seldon.
+
+Mrs. Granton pulled stroke. Even as she rowed she kept up a brisk
+undercurrent of timid chaff with Sir Charles, giggling all the
+while, half forward, half shy, like a school-girl who flirts with
+a man old enough to be her grandfather.
+
+Sir Charles was flattered. He is susceptible to the pleasures of
+female attention, especially from the young, the simple, and the
+innocent. The wiles of women of the world he knows too well; but a
+pretty little ingenue can twist him round her finger. They rowed on
+and on, till they drew abreast of Seamew's island. It is a jagged
+stack or skerry, well out to sea, very wild and precipitous on the
+landward side, but shelving gently outward; perhaps an acre in
+extent, with steep gray cliffs, covered at that time with crimson
+masses of red valerian. Mrs. Granton rowed up close to it. "Oh, what
+lovely flowers!" she cried, throwing her head back and gazing at
+them. "I wish I could get some! Let's land here and pick them. Sir
+Charles, you shall gather me a nice bunch for my sitting-room."
+
+Charles rose to it innocently, like a trout to a fly.
+
+"By all means, my dear child, I--I have a passion for flowers;"
+which was a flower of speech itself, but it served its purpose.
+
+They rowed us round to the far side, where is the easiest
+landing-place. It struck me as odd at the moment that they seemed
+to know it. Then young Granton jumped lightly ashore; Mrs. Granton
+skipped after him. I confess it made me feel rather ashamed to see
+how clumsily Charles and I followed them, treading gingerly on the
+thwarts for fear of upsetting the boat, while the artless young
+thing just flew over the gunwale. So like White Heather! However,
+we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
+well as we were able in search of the valerian.
+
+Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
+bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
+laughter, and left us there staring at them!
+
+They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
+turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
+"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
+
+"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
+You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
+
+The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
+Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
+he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
+of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manque."
+
+"A _what_?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
+
+"A coup manque," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
+"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
+my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
+Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
+principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
+I find myself suspected. The slightest symptom of distrust, and--I
+back out immediately. My plans can only be worked to satisfaction
+when there is perfect confidence on the part of my patient. It is
+a well-known rule of the medical profession. I _never_ try to bleed
+a man who struggles. So now we're off. Ta-ta! Good luck to you!"
+
+He was not much more than twenty yards away, and could talk to us
+quite easily. But the water was deep; the islet rose sheer from I'm
+sure I don't know how many fathoms of sea; and we could neither of
+us swim. Charles stretched out his arms imploringly. "For Heaven's
+sake," he cried, "don't tell me you really mean to leave us here."
+
+He looked so comical in his distress and terror that Mrs.
+Granton--Madame Picardet--whatever I am to call her--laughed
+melodiously in her prettiest way at the sight of him. "Dear Sir
+Charles," she called out, "pray don't be afraid! It's only a
+short and temporary imprisonment. We will send men to take you off.
+Dear David and I only need just time enough to get well ashore and
+make--oh!--a few slight alterations in our personal appearance."
+And she indicated with her hand, laughing, dear David's red wig and
+false sandy whiskers, as we felt convinced they must be now. She
+looked at them and tittered. Her manner at this moment was anything
+but shy. In fact, I will venture to say, it was that of a bold and
+brazen-faced hoyden.
+
+"Then you _are_ Colonel Clay!" Sir Charles cried, mopping his brow
+with his handkerchief.
+
+"If you choose to call me so," the young man answered politely. "I'm
+sure it's most kind of you to supply me with a commission in Her
+Majesty's service. However, time presses, and we want to push off.
+Don't alarm yourselves unnecessarily. I will send a boat to take you
+away from this rock at the earliest possible moment consistent with
+my personal safety and my dear companion's." He laid his hand on his
+heart and struck a sentimental attitude. "I have received too many
+unwilling kindnesses at your hands, Sir Charles," he continued,
+"not to feel how wrong it would be of me to inconvenience you for
+nothing. Rest assured that you shall be rescued by midnight at
+latest. Fortunately, the weather just at present is warm, and I see
+no chance of rain; so you will suffer, if at all, from nothing worse
+than the pangs of temporary hunger."
+
+Mrs. Granton, no longer squinting--'twas a mere trick she had
+assumed--rose up in the boat and stretched out a rug to us. "Catch!"
+she cried, in a merry voice, and flung it at us, doubled. It fell
+at our feet; she was a capital thrower.
+
+"Now, you dear Sir Charles," she went on, "take that to keep you
+warm! You know I am really quite fond of you. You're not half a
+bad old boy when one takes you the right way. You have a human side
+to you. Why, I often wear that sweetly pretty brooch you gave me
+at Nice, when I was Madame Picardet! And I'm sure your goodness to
+me at Lucerne, when I was the little curate's wife, is a thing to
+remember. We're so glad to have seen you in your lovely Scotch
+home you were always so proud of! _Don't_ be frightened, please. We
+wouldn't hurt you for worlds. We _are_ so sorry we have to take this
+inhospitable means of evading you. But dear David--I _must_ call
+him dear David still--instinctively felt that you were beginning to
+suspect us; and he can't bear mistrust. He _is_ so sensitive! The
+moment people mistrust him, he _must_ break off with them at once.
+This was the only way to get you both off our hands while we make
+the needful little arrangements to depart; and we've been driven to
+avail ourselves of it. However, I will give you my word of honour,
+as a lady, you shall be fetched away to-night. If dear David doesn't
+do it, why, I'll do it myself." And she blew another kiss to us.
+
+Charles was half beside himself, divided between alternate terror
+and anger. "Oh, we shall die here!" he exclaimed. "Nobody'd ever
+dream of coming to this rock to search for me."
+
+"What a pity you didn't let me teach you to swim!" Colonel Clay
+interposed. "It is a noble exercise, and very useful indeed in such
+special emergencies! Well, ta-ta! I'm off! You nearly scored one
+this time; but, by putting you here for the moment, and keeping you
+till we're gone, I venture to say I've redressed the board, and I
+think we may count it a drawn game, mayn't we? The match stands at
+three, love--with some thousands in pocket?"
+
+"You're a murderer, sir!" Charles shrieked out. "We shall starve or
+die here!"
+
+Colonel Clay on his side was all sweet reasonableness. "Now, my dear
+sir," he expostulated, one hand held palm outward, "_Do_ you think
+it probable I would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, with
+so little compunction? No, no, Sir Charles Vandrift; I know too well
+how much you are worth to me. I return you on my income-tax paper
+as five thousand a year, clear profit of my profession. Suppose you
+were to die! I might be compelled to find some new and far less
+lucrative source of plunder. Your heirs, executors, or assignees
+might not suit my purpose. The fact of it is, sir, your temperament
+and mine are exactly adapted one to the other. _I_ understand _you_;
+and _you_ do not understand _me_--which is often the basis of the
+firmest friendships. I can catch you just where you are trying to
+catch other people. Your very smartness assists me; for I admit you
+_are_ smart. As a regular financier, I allow, I couldn't hold a
+candle to you. But in my humbler walk of life I know just how to
+utilise you. I lead you on, where you think you are going to gain some
+advantage over others; and by dexterously playing upon your love of
+a good bargain, your innate desire to best somebody else--I succeed
+in besting you. There, sir, you have the philosophy of our mutual
+relations."
+
+He bowed and raised his cap. Charles looked at him and cowered. Yes,
+genius as he is, he positively cowered. "And do you mean to say,"
+he burst out, "you intend to go on so bleeding me?"
+
+The Colonel smiled a bland smile. "Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+answered, "I called you just now the goose that lays the golden
+eggs. You may have thought the metaphor a rude one. But you _are_
+a goose, you know, in certain relations. Smartest man on the Stock
+Exchange, I readily admit; easiest fool to bamboozle in the
+open country that ever I met with. You fail in one thing--the
+perspicacity of simplicity. For that reason, among others, I have
+chosen to fasten upon you. Regard me, my dear sir, as a microbe of
+millionaires, a parasite upon capitalists. You know the old rhyme:
+
+  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
+  And these again have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum!
+
+Well, that's just how I view myself. _You_ are a capitalist and a
+millionaire. In _your_ large way you prey upon society. YOU deal in
+Corners, Options, Concessions, Syndicates. You drain the world
+dry of its blood and its money. You possess, like the mosquito, a
+beautiful instrument of suction--Founders' Shares--with which you
+absorb the surplus wealth of the community. In _my_ smaller way,
+again, _I_ relieve you in turn of a portion of the plunder. I am a
+Robin Hood of my age; and, looking upon _you_ as an exceptionally bad
+form of millionaire--as well as an exceptionally easy form of pigeon
+for a man of my type and talents to pluck--I have, so to speak,
+taken up my abode upon you."
+
+Charles looked at him and groaned.
+
+The young man continued, in a tone of gentle badinage. "I love the
+plot-interest of the game," he said, "and so does dear Jessie here.
+We both of us adore it. As long as I find such good pickings upon
+you, I certainly am not going to turn away from so valuable a
+carcass, in order to batten myself, at considerable trouble, upon
+minor capitalists, out of whom it is difficult to extract a few
+hundreds. It may have puzzled you to guess why I fix upon you so
+persistently. Now you know, and understand. When a fluke finds a
+sheep that suits him, that fluke lives upon him. You are my host: I
+am your parasite. This coup has failed. But don't flatter yourself
+for a moment it will be the last one."
+
+"Why do you insult me by telling me all this?" Sir Charles cried,
+writhing.
+
+The Colonel waved his hand. It was small and white. "Because I _love_
+the game," he answered, with a relish; "and also, because the more
+prepared you are beforehand, the greater credit and amusement is
+there in besting you. Well, now, ta-ta once more! I am wasting
+valuable time. I might be cheating somebody. I must be off at
+once.... Take care of yourself, Wentworth. But I know you _will_.
+You always do. Ten per cent _is_ more usual!"
+
+He rowed away and left us. As the boat began to disappear round the
+corner of the island, White Heather--so she looked--stood up in the
+stern and shouted aloud through her pretty hands to us. "By-bye,
+dear Sir Charles!" she cried. "Do wrap the rug around you! I'll
+send the men to fetch you as soon as ever I possibly can. And thank
+you so much for those lovely flowers!"
+
+The boat rounded the crags. We were alone on the island. Charles
+flung himself on the bare rock in a wild access of despondency.
+He is accustomed to luxury, and cannot get on without his padded
+cushions. As for myself, I climbed with some difficulty to the top
+of the cliff, landward, and tried to make signals of distress with
+my handkerchief to some passer-by on the mainland. All in vain.
+Charles had dismissed the crofters on the estate; and, as the
+shooting-party that day was in an opposite direction, not a soul
+was near to whom we could call for succour.
+
+I climbed down again to Charles. The evening came on slowly. Cries
+of sea-birds rang weird upon the water. Puffins and cormorants
+circled round our heads in the gray of twilight. Charles suggested
+that they might even swoop down upon us and bite us. They did not,
+however, but their flapping wings added none the less a painful
+touch of eeriness to our hunger and solitude. Charles was horribly
+depressed. For myself, I will confess I felt so much relieved at
+the fact that Colonel Clay had not openly betrayed me in the matter
+of the commission, as to be comparatively comfortable.
+
+We crouched on the hard crag. About eleven o'clock we heard human
+voices. "Boat ahoy!" I shouted. An answering shout aroused us to
+action. We rushed down to the landing-place and cooee'd for the men,
+to show them where we were. They came up at once in Sir Charles's
+own boat. They were fishermen from Niggarey, on the shore of the
+Firth opposite.
+
+A lady and gentleman had sent them, they said, to return the boat
+and call for us on the island; their description corresponded to
+the two supposed Grantons. They rowed us home almost in silence to
+Seldon. It was half-past twelve by the gatehouse clock when we
+reached the castle. Men had been sent along the coast each way to
+seek us. Amelia had gone to bed, much alarmed for our safety. Isabel
+was sitting up. It was too late, of course, to do much that night in
+the way of apprehending the miscreants, though Charles insisted upon
+dispatching a groom, with a telegram for the police at Inverness,
+to Fowlis.
+
+Nothing came of it all. A message awaited us from Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, to be sure, saying that his son had not left
+Glen-Ellachie Lodge; while research the next day and later showed
+that our correspondent had never even received our letter. An empty
+envelope alone had arrived at the house, and the postal authorities
+had been engaged meanwhile, with their usual lightning speed, in
+"investigating the matter." Cesarine had posted the letter herself
+at Fowlis, and brought back the receipt; so the only conclusion we
+could draw was this--Colonel Clay must be in league with somebody
+at the post-office. As for Lord Craig-Ellachie's reply, that was a
+simple forgery; though, oddly enough, it was written on
+Glen-Ellachie paper.
+
+However, by the time Charles had eaten a couple of grouse, and
+drunk a bottle of his excellent Rudesheimer, his spirits and valour
+revived exceedingly. Doubtless he inherits from his Boer ancestry a
+tendency towards courage of the Batavian description. He was in
+capital feather.
+
+"After all, Sey," he said, leaning back in his chair, "this time
+we score one. He has _not_ done us brown; we have at least detected
+him. To detect him in time is half-way to catching him. Only the
+remoteness of our position at Seldon Castle saved him from capture.
+Next set-to, I feel sure, we will not merely spot him, we will also
+nab him. I only wish he would try on such a rig in London."
+
+But the oddest part of it all was this, that from the moment those
+two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were
+some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them
+vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of
+them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their
+luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail
+stopped short, no spoor lay farther. It was a most singular and
+insoluble mystery.
+
+Charles lived in hopes of catching his man in London.
+
+But for my part, I felt there was a show of reason in one last
+taunt which the rascal flung back at us as the boat receded: "Sir
+Charles Vandrift, we are a pair of rogues. The law protects _you_.
+It persecutes _me_. That's all the difference."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GERMAN PROFESSOR
+
+
+That winter in town my respected brother-in-law had little time
+on his hands to bother himself about trifles like Colonel Clay.
+A thunderclap burst upon him. He saw his chief interest in South
+Africa threatened by a serious, an unexpected, and a crushing
+danger.
+
+Charles does a little in gold, and a little in land; but his
+principal operations have always lain in the direction of diamonds.
+Only once in my life, indeed, have I seen him pay the slightest
+attention to poetry, and that was when I happened one day to
+recite the lines:--
+
+  Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+  The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+He rubbed his hands at once and murmured enthusiastically, "I never
+thought of that. We might get up an Atlantic Exploration Syndicate,
+Limited." So attached is he to diamonds. You may gather, therefore,
+what a shock it was to that gigantic brain to learn that science was
+rapidly reaching a point where his favourite gems might become all
+at once a mere drug in the market. Depreciation is the one bugbear
+that perpetually torments Sir Charles's soul; that winter he stood
+within measurable distance of so appalling a calamity.
+
+It happened after this manner.
+
+We were strolling along Piccadilly towards Charles's club one
+afternoon--he is a prominent member of the Croesus, in Pall
+Mall--when, near Burlington House, whom should we happen to knock
+up against but Sir Adolphus Cordery, the famous mineralogist, and
+leading spirit of the Royal Society! He nodded to us pleasantly.
+"Halloa, Vandrift," he cried, in his peculiarly loud and piercing
+voice; "you're the very man I wanted to meet to-day. Good morning,
+Wentworth. Well, how about diamonds now, Sir Gorgius? You'll have to
+sing small. It's all up with you Midases. Heard about this marvellous
+new discovery of Schleiermacher's? It's calculated to make you
+diamond kings squirm like an eel in a frying-pan."
+
+I could see Charles wriggle inside his clothes. He was most
+uncomfortable. That a man like Cordery should say such things, in
+so loud a voice, on no matter how little foundation, openly in
+Piccadilly, was enough in itself to make a sensitive barometer
+such as Cloetedorp Golcondas go down a point or two.
+
+"Hush, hush!" Charles said solemnly, in that awed tone of voice
+which he always assumes when Money is blasphemed against. "_Please_
+don't talk quite so loud! All London can hear you."
+
+Sir Adolphus ran his arm through Charles's most amicably. There's
+nothing Charles hates like having his arm taken.
+
+"Come along with me to the Athenaeum," he went on, in the same
+stentorian voice, "and I'll tell you all about it. Most interesting
+discovery. Makes diamonds cheap as dirt. Calculated to supersede
+South Africa altogether."
+
+Charles allowed himself to be dragged along. There was nothing else
+possible. Sir Adolphus continued, in a somewhat lower key, induced
+upon him by Charles's mute look of protest. It was a disquieting
+story. He told it with gleeful unction. It seems that Professor
+Schleiermacher, of Jena, "the greatest living authority on the
+chemistry of gems," he said, had lately invented, or claimed to
+have invented, a system for artificially producing diamonds, which
+had yielded most surprising and unexceptionable results.
+
+Charles's lip curled slightly. "Oh, I know the sort of thing," he
+said. "I've heard of it before. Very inferior stones, quite small
+and worthless, produced at immense cost, and even then not worth
+looking at. I'm an old bird, you know, Cordery; not to be caught
+with chaff. Tell me a better one!"
+
+Sir Adolphus produced a small cut gem from his pocket. "How's that
+for the first water?" he inquired, passing it across, with a broad
+smile, to the sceptic. "Made under my own eyes--and quite
+inexpensively!"
+
+Charles examined it close, stopping short against the railings in
+St. James's Square to look at it with his pocket-lens. There was no
+denying the truth. It was a capital small gem of the finest quality.
+
+"Made under your own eyes?" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Where,
+my dear sir?--at Jena?"
+
+The answer was a thunderbolt from a blue sky. "No, here in London;
+last night as ever was; before myself and Dr. Gray; and about to be
+exhibited by the President himself at a meeting of Fellows of the
+Royal Society."
+
+Charles drew a long breath. "This nonsense must be stopped," he said
+firmly--"it must be nipped in the bud. It won't do, my dear friend;
+we can't have such tampering with important Interests."
+
+"How do you mean?" Cordery asked, astonished.
+
+Charles gazed at him steadily. I could see by the furtive gleam in
+my brother-in-law's eye he was distinctly frightened. "Where _is_
+the fellow?" he asked. "Did he come himself, or send over a deputy?"
+
+"Here in London," Sir Adolphus replied. "He's staying at my house;
+and he says he'll be glad to show his experiments to anybody
+scientifically interested in diamonds. We propose to have a
+demonstration of the process to-night at Lancaster Gate. Will
+you drop in and see it?"
+
+Would he "drop in" and see it? "Drop in" at such a function! Could
+he possibly stop away? Charles clutched the enemy's arm with a
+nervous grip. "Look here, Cordery," he said, quivering; "this is a
+question affecting very important Interests. Don't do anything rash.
+Don't do anything foolish. Remember that Shares may rise or fall on
+this." He said "Shares" in a tone of profound respect that I can
+hardly even indicate. It was the crucial word in the creed of his
+religion.
+
+"I should think it very probable," Sir Adolphus replied, with the
+callous indifference of the mere man of science to financial
+suffering.
+
+Sir Charles was bland, but peremptory. "Now, observe," he said, "a
+grave responsibility rests on your shoulders. The Market depends
+upon you. You must not ask in any number of outsiders to witness
+these experiments. Have a few mineralogists and experts, if you
+like; but also take care to invite representatives of the menaced
+Interests. I will come myself--I'm engaged to dine out, but I
+can contract an indisposition; and I should advise you to ask
+Mosenheimer, and, say, young Phipson. They would stand for the
+mines, as you and the mineralogists would stand for science. Above
+all, don't blab; for Heaven's sake, let there be no premature
+gossip. Tell Schleiermacher not to go gassing and boasting of
+his success all over London."
+
+"We are keeping the matter a profound secret, at Schleiermacher's
+own request," Cordery answered, more seriously.
+
+"Which is why," Charles said, in his severest tone, "you bawled it
+out at the very top of your voice in Piccadilly!"
+
+However, before nightfall, everything was arranged to Charles's
+satisfaction; and off we went to Lancaster Gate, with a profound
+expectation that the German professor would do nothing worth seeing.
+
+He was a remarkable-looking man, once tall, I should say, from his
+long, thin build, but now bowed and bent with long devotion to study
+and leaning over a crucible. His hair, prematurely white, hung down
+upon his forehead, but his eye was keen and his mouth sagacious. He
+shook hands cordially with the men of science, whom he seemed to
+know of old, whilst he bowed somewhat distantly to the South African
+interest. Then he began to talk, in very German-English, helping out
+the sense now and again, where his vocabulary failed him, by waving
+his rather dirty and chemical-stained hands demonstratively about
+him. His nails were a sight, but his fingers, I must say, had the
+delicate shape of a man's accustomed to minute manipulation. He
+plunged at once into the thick of the matter, telling us briefly in
+his equally thick accent that he "now brobosed by his new brocess
+to make for us some goot and sadisfactory tiamonds."
+
+He brought out his apparatus, and explained--or, as he said,
+"eggsblained"--his novel method. "Tiamonds," he said, "were nozzing
+but pure crystalline carbon." He knew how to crystallise it--"zat
+was all ze secret." The men of science examined the pots and pans
+carefully. Then he put in a certain number of raw materials, and
+went to work with ostentatious openness. There were three distinct
+processes, and he made two stones by each simultaneously. The
+remarkable part of his methods, he said, was their rapidity and
+their cheapness. In three-quarters of an hour (and he smiled
+sardonically) he could produce a diamond worth at current prices
+two hundred pounds sterling. "As you shall now see me berform,"
+he remarked, "viz zis simple abbaradus."
+
+The materials fizzed and fumed. The Professor stirred them. An
+unpleasant smell like burnt feathers pervaded the room. The
+scientific men craned their necks in their eagerness, and looked
+over one another; Vane-Vivian, in particular, was all attention.
+After three-quarters of an hour, the Professor, still smiling, began
+to empty the apparatus. He removed a large quantity of dust or
+powder, which he succinctly described as "by-broducts," and then
+took between finger and thumb from the midst of each pan a small
+white pebble, not water-worn apparently, but slightly rough and
+wart-like on the surface.
+
+From one pair of the pannikins he produced two such stones, and
+held them up before us triumphantly. "Zese," he said, "are genuine
+tiamonds, manufactured at a gost of fourteen shillings and
+siggspence abiece!" Then he tried the second pair. "Zese," he said,
+still more gleefully, "are broduced at a gost of eleffen and
+ninebence!" Finally, he came to the third pair, which he positively
+brandished before our astonished eyes. "And zese," he cried,
+transported, "haff gost me no more zan tree and eightbence!"
+
+They were handed round for inspection. Rough and uncut as they
+stood, it was, of course, impossible to judge of their value. But
+one thing was certain. The men of science had been watching close at
+the first, and were sure Herr Schleiermacher had not put the stones
+in; they were keen at the withdrawal, and were equally sure he had
+taken them honestly out of the pannikins.
+
+"I vill now disdribute zem," the Professor remarked in a casual
+tone, as if diamonds were peas, looking round at the company. And
+he singled out my brother-in-law. "One to Sir Charles!" he said,
+handing it; "one to Mr. Mosenheimer; one to Mr. Phibson--as
+representing the tiamond interest. Zen, one each to Sir Atolphus,
+to Dr. Gray, to Mr. Fane-Fiffian, as representing science. You will
+haff zem cut and rebort upon zem in due gourse. We meet again at
+zis blace ze day afder do-morrow."
+
+Charles gazed at him reproachfully. The profoundest chords of his
+moral nature were stirred. "Professor," he said, in a voice of
+solemn warning, "_Are_ you aware that, _if_ you have succeeded, you
+have destroyed the value of thousands of pounds' worth of precious
+property?"
+
+The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "Fot is dat to me?" he
+inquired, with a curious glance of contempt. "I am not a financier!
+I am a man of science. I seek to know; I do not seek to make a
+fortune."
+
+"Shocking!" Charles exclaimed. "Shocking! I never before in my life
+beheld so strange an instance of complete insensibility to the
+claims of others!"
+
+We separated early. The men of science were coarsely jubilant. The
+diamond interest exhibited a corresponding depression. If this news
+were true, they foresaw a slump. Every eye grew dim. It was a
+terrible business.
+
+Charles walked homeward with the Professor. He sounded him gently as
+to the sum required, should need arise, to purchase his secrecy.
+Already Sir Adolphus had bound us all down to temporary silence--as
+if that were necessary; but Charles wished to know how much
+Schleiermacher would take to suppress his discovery. The German
+was immovable.
+
+"No, no!" he replied, with positive petulance. "You do not
+unterstant. I do not buy and sell. Zis is a chemical fact. We must
+bublish it for the sake off its seoretical falue. I do not care
+for wealse. I haff no time to waste in making money."
+
+"What an awful picture of a misspent life!" Charles observed to me
+afterwards.
+
+And, indeed, the man seemed to care for nothing on earth but the
+abstract question--not whether he could make good diamonds or not,
+but whether he could or could not produce a crystalline form of
+pure carbon!
+
+On the appointed night Charles went back to Lancaster Gate, as I
+could not fail to remark, with a strange air of complete and painful
+preoccupation. Never before in his life had I seen him so anxious.
+
+The diamonds were produced, with one surface of each slightly scored
+by the cutters, so as to show the water. Then a curious result
+disclosed itself. Strange to say, each of the three diamonds given
+to the three diamond kings turned out to be a most inferior and
+valueless stone; while each of the three intrusted to the care of
+the scientific investigators turned out to be a fine gem of the
+purest quality.
+
+I confess it was a sufficiently suspicious conjunction. The three
+representatives of the diamond interest gazed at each other with
+inquiring side-glances. Then their eyes fell suddenly: they avoided
+one another. Had each independently substituted a weak and inferior
+natural stone for Professor Schleiermacher's manufactured pebbles?
+It almost seemed so. For a moment, I admit, I was half inclined to
+suppose it. But next second I changed my mind. Could a man of Sir
+Charles Vandrift's integrity and high principle stoop for lucre's
+sake to so mean an expedient?--not to mention the fact that, even if
+he did, and if Mosenheimer did likewise, the stones submitted to the
+scientific men would have amply sufficed to establish the reality
+and success of the experiments!
+
+Still, I must say, Charles looked guiltily across at Mosenheimer,
+and Mosenheimer at Phipson, while three more uncomfortable or
+unhappy-faced men could hardly have been found at that precise
+minute in the City of Westminster.
+
+Then Sir Adolphus spoke--or, rather, he orated. He said, in his loud
+and grating voice, we had that evening, and on a previous evening,
+been present at the conception and birth of an Epoch in the History
+of Science. Professor Schleiermacher was one of those men of whom
+his native Saxony might well be proud; while as a Briton he must
+say he regretted somewhat that this discovery, like so many
+others, should have been "Made in Germany." However, Professor
+Schleiermacher was a specimen of that noble type of scientific men
+to whom gold was merely the rare metal Au, and diamonds merely the
+element C in the scarcest of its manifold allotropic embodiments.
+The Professor did not seek to make money out of his discovery. He
+rose above the sordid greed of capitalists. Content with the glory
+of having traced the element C to its crystalline origin, he asked
+no more than the approval of science. However, out of deference to
+the wishes of those financial gentlemen who were oddly concerned in
+maintaining the present price of C in its crystalline form--in other
+words, the diamond interest--they had arranged that the secret
+should be strictly guarded and kept for the present; not one of the
+few persons admitted to the experiments would publicly divulge the
+truth about them. This secrecy would be maintained till he himself,
+and a small committee of the Royal Society, should have time to
+investigate and verify for themselves the Professor's beautiful
+and ingenious processes--an investigation and verification which
+the learned Professor himself both desired and suggested.
+(Schleiermacher nodded approval.) When that was done, if the
+process stood the test, further concealment would be absolutely
+futile. The price of diamonds must fall at once below that of paste,
+and any protest on the part of the financial world would, of course,
+be useless. The laws of Nature were superior to millionaires.
+Meanwhile, in deference to the opinion of Sir Charles Vandrift,
+whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody
+could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and
+to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple
+process in public. He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet
+"beautiful." And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must
+congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on
+his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge
+of brilliants and of crystalline science.
+
+Everybody applauded. It was an awkward moment. Sir Charles bit his
+lip. Mosenheimer looked glum. Young Phipson dropped an expression
+which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate
+among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy,
+the meeting separated.
+
+I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided
+Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his
+own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we
+took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned
+back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable.
+
+Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the
+billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload
+Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of
+the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It
+struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning
+out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the
+next few weeks or so.
+
+He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except
+on occasions when he is _very_ angry, my respected connection
+_never_ calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation,
+"Sey"--derived from Seymour--is his usual mode of address to
+me in private.) "_Is_ it likely I would unload, and wreck the
+confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a
+moment? As a director--as Chairman--would it be just or right of
+me? I ask you, sir, _could_ I reconcile it to my conscience?"
+
+"Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You
+will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those
+who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in
+finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators.
+
+At the same time I thought to myself, "_I_ am not a director. No
+trust is reposed in _me_. _I_ have to think first of dear Isabel and
+the baby. Before the crash comes _I_ will sell out to-morrow the
+few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas."
+
+With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine
+my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey,"
+he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my
+brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will
+be upon us to-morrow. If _you_ were to sell out, and operators got to
+know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company
+would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your
+own property. I can't interfere with _that_. I do not dictate to
+you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the
+interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should
+not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore,
+though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give
+you warning: _if_ you sell out those shares of yours, openly or
+secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six
+months' salary in lieu of notice, and--you leave me instantly."
+
+"Very well, Charles," I answered, in a submissive voice; though I
+debated with myself for a moment whether it would be best to stick
+to the ready money and quit the sinking ship, or to hold fast by my
+friend, and back Charles's luck against the Professor's science.
+After a short, sharp struggle within my own mind, I am proud to say,
+friendship and gratitude won. I felt sure that, whether diamonds
+went up or down, Charles Vandrift was the sort of man who would come
+to the top in the end in spite of everything. And I decided to stand
+by him!
+
+I slept little that night, however. My mind was a whirlwind. At
+breakfast Charles also looked haggard and moody. He ordered the
+carriage early, and drove straight into the City.
+
+There was a block in Cheapside. Charles, impatient and nervous,
+jumped out and walked. I walked beside him. Near Wood Street a man
+we knew casually stopped us.
+
+"I think I ought to mention to you," he said, confidentially,
+"that I have it on the very best authority that Schleiermacher,
+of Jena--"
+
+"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and--there's
+not a word of truth in it."
+
+He brushed on in haste. A yard or two farther a broker paused in
+front of us.
+
+"Halloa, Sir Charles!" he called out, in a bantering tone. "What's
+all this about diamonds? Where are Cloetedorps to-day? Is it
+Golconda, or Queer Street?"
+
+Charles drew himself up very stiff. "I fail to understand you,"
+he answered, with dignity.
+
+"Why, you were there yourself," the man cried. "Last night at Sir
+Adolphus's! Oh yes, it's all over the place; Schleiermacher of Jena
+has succeeded in making the most perfect diamonds--for sixpence
+apiece--as good as real--and South Africa's ancient history. In less
+than six weeks Kimberley, they say, will be a howling desert. Every
+costermonger in Whitechapel will wear genuine Koh-i-noors for
+buttons on his coat; every girl in Bermondsey will sport a riviere
+like Lady Vandrift's to her favourite music-hall. There's a slump
+in Golcondas. Sly, sly, I can see; but _we_ know all about it!"
+
+Charles moved on, disgusted. The man's manners were atrocious.
+Near the Bank we ran up against a most respectable jobber.
+
+"Ah, Sir Charles," he said; "you here? Well, this is strange news,
+isn't it? For my part, I advise you not to take it too seriously.
+Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
+it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
+the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
+time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
+Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
+till Sir Adolphus has tested it."
+
+We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
+Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
+discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
+proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
+told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
+proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
+that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
+out the less was he likely to lose by it.
+
+Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
+out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
+at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
+follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.
+
+All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
+murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
+to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
+was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
+and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
+"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
+my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
+is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
+prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
+one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
+the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
+the panic."
+
+All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
+himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
+roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
+but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
+restore public confidence.
+
+"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
+as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
+Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
+and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
+own advantage. A chairman, like Caesar's wife, should be above
+suspicion. So I shall only buy up just enough, now and again, to
+let people see I, at least, have no doubt as to the firm future
+of Cloetedorps."
+
+He went home that night, more harassed and ill than I have ever
+seen him. Next day was as bad. The slump continued, with varying
+episodes. Now, a rumour would surge up that Sir Adolphus had
+declared the whole affair a sham, and prices would steady a little;
+now, another would break out that the diamonds were actually being
+put upon the market in Berlin by the cart-load, and timid old ladies
+would wire down to their brokers to realise off-hand at whatever
+hazard. It was an awful day. I shall never forget it.
+
+The morning after, as if by miracle, things righted themselves of
+a sudden. While we were wondering what it meant, Charles received a
+telegram from Sir Adolphus Cordery:--
+
+"The man is a fraud. Not Schleiermacher at all. Just had a wire
+from Jena saying the Professor knows nothing about him. Sorry
+unintentionally to have caused you trouble. Come round and see me."
+
+"Sorry unintentionally to have caused you trouble." Charles was
+beside himself with anger. Sir Adolphus had upset the share-market
+for forty-eight mortal hours, half-ruined a round dozen of wealthy
+operators, convulsed the City, upheaved the House, and now--he
+apologised for it as one might apologise for being late ten minutes
+for dinner! Charles jumped into a hansom and rushed round to see
+him. How had he dared to introduce the impostor to solid men as
+Professor Schleiermacher? Sir Adolphus shrugged his shoulders. The
+fellow had come and introduced himself as the great Jena chemist;
+he had long white hair, and a stoop in the shoulders. What reason
+had _he_ for doubting his word? (I reflected to myself that on much
+the same grounds Charles in turn had accepted the Honourable David
+Granton and Graf von Lebenstein.) Besides, what object could the
+creature have for this extraordinary deception? Charles knew only
+too well. It was clear it was done to disturb the diamond market,
+and we realised, too late, that the man who had done it was--Colonel
+Clay, in "another of his manifold allotropic embodiments!" Charles
+had had his wish, and had met his enemy once more in London!
+
+We could see the whole plot. Colonel Clay was polymorphic, like the
+element carbon! Doubtless, with his extraordinary sleight of hand,
+he had substituted real diamonds for the shapeless mass that came
+out of the apparatus, in the interval between handing the pebbles
+round for inspection, and distributing them piecemeal to the men of
+science and representatives of the diamond interest. We all watched
+him closely, of course, when he opened the crucibles; but when once
+we had satisfied ourselves that _something_ came out, our doubts were
+set at rest, and we forgot to watch whether he distributed those
+somethings or not to the recipients. Conjurers always depend upon
+such momentary distractions or lapses of attention. As usual, too,
+the Professor had disappeared into space the moment his trick was
+once well performed. He vanished like smoke, as the Count and Seer
+had vanished before, and was never again heard of.
+
+Charles went home more angry than I have ever beheld him. I couldn't
+imagine why. He seemed as deeply hipped as if he had lost his
+thousands. I endeavoured to console him. "After all," I said,
+"though Golcondas have suffered a temporary loss, it's a comfort
+to think that you should have stood so firm, and not only stemmed
+the tide, but also prevented yourself from losing anything at all
+of your own through panic. I'm sorry, of course, for the widows
+and orphans; but if Colonel Clay has rigged the market, at least
+it isn't YOU who lose by it this time."
+
+Charles withered me with a fierce scowl of undisguised contempt.
+"Wentworth," he said once more, "you are a fool!" Then he relapsed
+into silence.
+
+"But you declined to sell out," I said.
+
+He gazed at me fixedly. "Is it likely," he asked at last, "I would
+tell _you_ if I meant to sell out? or that I'd sell out openly through
+Finglemore, my usual broker? Why, all the world would have known,
+and Golcondas would have been finished. As it is, I don't desire to
+tell an ass like you exactly how much I've lost. But I _did_ sell out,
+and some unknown operator bought in at once, and closed for ready
+money, and has sold again this morning; and after all that has
+happened, it will be impossible to track him. He didn't wait for the
+account: he settled up instantly. And he sold in like manner. I know
+now what has been done, and how cleverly it has all been disguised
+and covered; but the most I'm going to tell you to-day is just
+this--it's by far the biggest haul Colonel Clay has made out of me.
+He could retire on it if he liked. My one hope is, it may satisfy
+him for life; but, then, no man has ever had enough of making money."
+
+"_You_ sold out!" I exclaimed. "_You_, the Chairman of the company!
+_You_ deserted the ship! And how about your trust? How about the widows
+and orphans confided to you?"
+
+Charles rose and faced me. "Seymour Wentworth," he said, in his most
+solemn voice, "you have lived with me for years and had every
+advantage. You have seen high finance. Yet you ask me that question!
+It's my belief you will never, never understand business!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE ARREST OF THE COLONEL
+
+
+How much precisely Charles dropped over the slump in Cloetedorps
+I never quite knew. But the incident left him dejected, limp, and
+dispirited.
+
+"Hang it all, Sey," he said to me in the smoking-room, a few
+evenings later. "This Colonel Clay is enough to vex the patience of
+Job--and Job had large losses, too, if I recollect aright, from the
+Chaldeans and other big operators of the period."
+
+"Three thousand camels," I murmured, recalling my dear mother's
+lessons; "all at one fell swoop; not to mention five hundred yoke of
+oxen, carried off by the Sabeans, then a leading firm of speculative
+cattle-dealers!"
+
+"Ah, well," Charles meditated aloud, shaking the ash from his
+cheroot into a Japanese tray--fine antique bronze-work. "There were
+big transactions in live-stock even then! Still, Job or no Job, the
+man is too much for me."
+
+"The difficulty is," I assented, "you never know where to have him."
+
+"Yes," Charles mused; "if he were always the same, like Horniman's
+tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd
+stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling
+every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and
+always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey,
+there's no wrestling with him anyhow."
+
+"Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched," I
+acquiesced, "than the Honourable David?"
+
+"Exactly so," Charles murmured. "I invited him myself, for my own
+advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie
+connection."
+
+"Or the Professor?" I went on. "Introduced to us by the leading
+mineralogist of England."
+
+I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.
+
+"Then, women again," he resumed, after a painful pause. "I must meet
+in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on
+my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax
+my attention for one day--or even when I don't relax it--I am
+bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that
+transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest
+girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her.
+She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I
+lose my heart afresh to that different person."
+
+I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.
+
+"No, Sey," my respected connection went on, after another long
+pause, sipping his coffee pensively, "I feel I must be aided in this
+superhuman task by a professional unraveller of cunning disguises. I
+shall go to Marvillier's to-morrow--fortunate man, Marvillier--and
+ask him to supply me with a really good 'tec, who will stop in the
+house and keep an eye upon every living soul that comes near me.
+He shall scan each nose, each eye, each wig, each whisker. He shall
+be my watchful half, my unsleeping self; it shall be his business
+to suspect all living men, all breathing women. The Archbishop of
+Canterbury shall not escape for a moment his watchful regard; he
+will take care that royal princesses don't collar the spoons or walk
+off with the jewel-cases. He must see possible Colonel Clays in the
+guard of every train and the parson of every parish; he must detect
+the off-chance of a Mme. Picardet in every young girl that takes tea
+with Amelia, every fat old lady that comes to call upon Isabel. Yes,
+I have made my mind up. I shall go to-morrow and secure such a man
+at once at Marvillier's."
+
+"If you please, Sir Charles," Cesarine interposed, pushing her head
+through the portiere, "her ladyship says, will you and Mr. Wentworth
+remember that she goes out with you both this evening to Lady
+Carisbrooke's?"
+
+"Bless my soul," Charles cried, "so she does! And it's now past ten!
+The carriage will be at the door for us in another five minutes!"
+
+Next morning, accordingly, Charles drove round to Marvillier's. The
+famous detective listened to his story with glistening eyes; then he
+rubbed his hands and purred. "Colonel Clay!" he said; "Colonel Clay!
+That's a very tough customer! The police of Europe are on the
+look-out for Colonel Clay. He is wanted in London, in Paris, in
+Berlin. It is le Colonel Caoutchouc here, le Colonel Caoutchouc
+there; till one begins to ask, at last, IS there _any_ Colonel
+Caoutchouc, or is it a convenient class name invented by the Force
+to cover a gang of undiscovered sharpers? However, Sir Charles, we
+will do our best. I will set on the track without delay the best and
+cleverest detective in England."
+
+"The very man I want," Charles said. "What name, Marvillier?"
+
+The principal smiled. "Whatever name you like," he said. "He isn't
+particular. Medhurst he's called at home. _We_ call him Joe. I'll
+send him round to your house this afternoon for certain."
+
+"Oh no," Charles said promptly, "you won't; or Colonel Clay himself
+will come instead of him. I've been sold too often. No casual
+strangers! I'll wait here and see him."
+
+"But he isn't in," Marvillier objected.
+
+Charles was firm as a rock. "Then send and fetch him."
+
+In half an hour, sure enough, the detective arrived. He was an
+odd-looking small man, with hair cut short and standing straight up
+all over his head, like a Parisian waiter. He had quick, sharp eyes,
+very much like a ferret's; his nose was depressed, his lips thin and
+bloodless. A scar marked his left cheek--made by a sword-cut, he
+said, when engaged one day in arresting a desperate French smuggler,
+disguised as an officer of Chasseurs d'Afrique. His mien was
+resolute. Altogether, a quainter or 'cuter little man it has never
+yet been my lot to set eyes on. He walked in with a brisk step,
+eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked
+for what he was wanted.
+
+"This is Sir Charles Vandrift, the great diamond king," Marvillier
+said, introducing us.
+
+"So I see," the man answered.
+
+"Then you know me?" Charles asked.
+
+"I wouldn't be worth much," the detective replied, "if I didn't
+know everybody. And you're easy enough to know; why, every boy in
+the street knows you."
+
+"Plain spoken!" Charles remarked.
+
+"As you like it, sir," the man answered in a respectful tone. "I
+endeavour to suit my dress and behaviour on every occasion to the
+taste of my employers."
+
+"Your name?" Charles asked, smiling.
+
+"Joseph Medhurst, at your service. What sort of work? Stolen
+diamonds? Illicit diamond-buying?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, fixing him with his eye. "Quite another kind
+of job. You've heard of Colonel Clay?"
+
+Medhurst nodded. "Why, certainly," he said; and, for the first time,
+I detected a lingering trace of American accent. "It's my business
+to know about him."
+
+"Well, I want you to catch him," Charles went on.
+
+Medhurst drew a long breath. "Isn't that rather a large order?"
+he murmured, surprised.
+
+Charles explained to him exactly the sort of services he required.
+Medhurst promised to comply. "If the man comes near you, I'll spot
+him," he said, after a moment's pause. "I can promise you that much.
+I'll pierce any disguise. I should know in a minute whether he's
+got up or not. I'm death on wigs, false moustaches, artificial
+complexions. I'll engage to bring the rogue to book if I see him.
+You may set your mind at rest, that, while _I'm_ about you, Colonel
+Clay can do nothing without my instantly spotting him."
+
+"He'll do it," Marvillier put in. "He'll do it, if he says it. He's
+my very best hand. Never knew any man like him for unravelling and
+unmasking the cleverest disguises."
+
+"Then he'll suit me," Charles answered, "for _I_ never knew any man
+like Colonel Clay for assuming and maintaining them."
+
+It was arranged accordingly that Medhurst should take up his
+residence in the house for the present, and should be described to
+the servants as assistant secretary. He came that very day, with a
+marvellously small portmanteau. But from the moment he arrived,
+we noticed that Cesarine took a violent dislike to him.
+
+Medhurst was a most efficient detective. Charles and I told him
+all we knew about the various shapes in which Colonel Clay had
+"materialised," and he gave us in turn many valuable criticisms and
+suggestions. Why, when we began to suspect the Honourable David
+Granton, had we not, as if by accident, tried to knock his red wig
+off? Why, when the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon first discussed
+the question of the paste diamonds, had we not looked to see if
+any of Amelia's unique gems were missing? Why, when Professor
+Schleiermacher made his bow to assembled science at Lancaster Gate,
+had we not strictly inquired how far he was personally known
+beforehand to Sir Adolphus Cordery and the other mineralogists?
+He supplied us also with several good hints about false hair and
+make-up; such as that Schleiermacher was probably much shorter than
+he looked, but by imitating a stoop with padding at his back he
+had produced the illusion of a tall bent man, though in reality no
+bigger than the little curate or the Graf von Lebenstein. High heels
+did the rest; while the scientific keenness we noted in his face was
+doubtless brought about by a trifle of wax at the end of the nose,
+giving a peculiar tilt that is extremely effective. In short, I must
+frankly admit, Medhurst made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Sharp as
+Charles is, we realised at once he was nowhere in observation beside
+the trained and experienced senses of this professional detective.
+
+The worst of it all was, while Medhurst was with us, by some curious
+fatality, Colonel Clay stopped away from us. Now and again, to be
+sure, we ran up against somebody whom Medhurst suspected; but
+after a short investigation (conducted, I may say, with admirable
+cleverness), the spy always showed us the doubtful person was
+really some innocent and well-known character, whose antecedents
+and surroundings he elucidated most wonderfully. He was a perfect
+marvel, too, in his faculty of suspicion. He suspected everybody. If
+an old friend dropped in to talk business with Charles, we found out
+afterwards that Medhurst had lain concealed all the time behind the
+curtain, and had taken short-hand notes of the whole conversation,
+as well as snap-shot photographs of the supposed sharper, by means
+of a kodak. If a fat old lady came to call upon Amelia, Medhurst
+was sure to be lurking under the ottoman in the drawing-room, and
+carefully observing, with all his eyes, whether or not she was
+really Mme. Picardet, padded. When Lady Tresco brought her four
+plain daughters to an "At Home" one night, Medhurst, in evening
+dress, disguised as a waiter, followed them each round the room with
+obtrusive ices, to satisfy himself just how much of their complexion
+was real, and how much was patent rouge and Bloom of Ninon. He
+doubted whether Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, was not Colonel Clay
+in plain clothes; and he had half an idea that Cesarine herself was
+our saucy White Heather in an alternative avatar. We pointed out
+to him in vain that Simpson had often been present in the very
+same room with David Granton, and that Cesarine had dressed Mrs.
+Brabazon's hair at Lucerne: this partially satisfied him, but only
+partially. He remarked that Simpson might double both parts with
+somebody else unknown; and that as for Cesarine, she might well
+have a twin sister who took her place when she was Mme. Picardet.
+
+Still, in spite of all his care--or because of all his care--Colonel
+Clay stopped away for whole weeks together. An explanation occurred
+to us. Was it possible he knew we were guarded and watched? Was he
+afraid of measuring swords with this trained detective?
+
+If so, how had he found it out? I had an inkling, myself--but, under
+all the circumstances, I did not mention it to Charles. It was clear
+that Cesarine intensely disliked this new addition to the Vandrift
+household. She would not stop in the room where the detective was,
+or show him common politeness. She spoke of him always as "that
+odious man, Medhurst." Could she have guessed, what none of the
+other servants knew, that the man was a spy in search of the
+Colonel? I was inclined to believe it. And then it dawned upon me
+that Cesarine had known all about the diamonds and their story; that
+it was Cesarine who took us to see Schloss Lebenstein; that it was
+Cesarine who posted the letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie! If Cesarine
+was in league with Colonel Clay, as I was half inclined to surmise,
+what more natural than her obvious dislike to the detective who was
+there to catch her principal? What more simple for her than to warn
+her fellow-conspirator of the danger that awaited him if he
+approached this man Medhurst?
+
+However, I was too much frightened by the episode of the cheque to
+say anything of my nascent suspicions to Charles. I waited rather
+to see how events would shape themselves.
+
+After a while Medhurst's vigilance grew positively annoying. More
+than once he came to Charles with reports and shorthand notes
+distinctly distasteful to my excellent brother-in-law. "The fellow
+is getting to know too much about us," Charles said to me one day.
+"Why, Sey, he spies out everything. Would you believe it, when I had
+that confidential interview with Brookfield the other day, about the
+new issue of Golcondas, the man was under the easy-chair, though I
+searched the room beforehand to make sure he wasn't there; and he
+came to me afterwards with full notes of the conversation, to assure
+me he thought Brookfield--whom I've known for ten years--was too
+tall by half an inch to be one of Colonel Clay's impersonations."
+
+"Oh, but, Sir Charles," Medhurst cried, emerging suddenly from the
+bookcase, "you must never look upon _any one_ as above suspicion
+merely because you've known him for ten years or thereabouts.
+Colonel Clay may have approached you at various times under many
+disguises. He may have built up this thing gradually. Besides, as to
+my knowing too much, why, of course, a detective always learns many
+things about his employer's family which he is not supposed to know;
+but professional honour and professional etiquette, as with doctors
+and lawyers, compel him to lock them up as absolute secrets in his
+own bosom. You need never be afraid I will divulge one jot of them.
+If I did, my occupation would be gone, and my reputation shattered."
+
+Charles looked at him, appalled. "Do you dare to say," he burst out,
+"you've been listening to my talk with my brother-in-law and
+secretary?"
+
+"Why, of course," Medhurst answered. "It's my business to listen,
+and to suspect everybody. If you push me to say so, how do I know
+Colonel Clay is not--Mr. Wentworth?"
+
+Charles withered him with a look. "In future, Medhurst," he said,
+"you must never conceal yourself in a room where I am without my
+leave and knowledge."
+
+Medhurst bowed politely. "Oh, as you will, Sir Charles," he
+answered; "that's _quite_ at your own wish. Though how can I act
+as an efficient detective, any way, if you insist upon tying my
+hands like that, beforehand?"
+
+Again I detected a faint American flavour.
+
+After that rebuff, however, Medhurst seemed put upon his mettle. He
+redoubled his vigilance in every direction. "It's not my fault," he
+said plaintively, one day, "if my reputation's so good that, while
+I'm near you, this rogue won't approach you. If I can't _catch_ him,
+at least I keep him away from coming near you!"
+
+A few days later, however, he brought Charles some photographs.
+These he produced with evident pride. The first he showed us was a
+vignette of a little parson. "Who's that, then?" he inquired, much
+pleased.
+
+We gazed at it, open-eyed. One word rose to our lips simultaneously:
+"Brabazon!"
+
+"And how's this for high?" he asked again, producing another--the
+photograph of a gay young dog in a Tyrolese costume.
+
+We murmured, "Von Lebenstein!"
+
+"_And_ this?" he continued, showing us the portrait of a lady with a
+most fetching squint.
+
+We answered with one voice, "Little Mrs. Granton!"
+
+Medhurst was naturally proud of this excellent exploit. He replaced
+them in his pocket-book with an air of just triumph.
+
+"How did you get them?" Charles asked.
+
+Medhurst's look was mysterious. "Sir Charles," he answered, drawing
+himself up, "I must ask you to trust me awhile in this matter.
+Remember, there are people whom you decline to suspect. _I_ have
+learned that it is always those very people who are most dangerous
+to capitalists. If I were to give you the names now, you would
+refuse to believe me. Therefore, I hold them over discreetly for
+the moment. One thing, however, I say. I _know_ to a certainty where
+Colonel Clay is at this present speaking. But I will lay my plans
+deep, and I hope before long to secure him. You shall be present
+when I do so; and I shall make him confess his personality openly.
+More than that you cannot reasonably ask. I shall leave it to
+_you_, then, whether or not you wish to arrest him."
+
+Charles was considerably puzzled, not to say piqued, by this curious
+reticence; he begged hard for names; but Medhurst was adamant. "No,
+no," he replied; "we detectives have our own just pride in our
+profession. If I told you now, you would probably spoil all by some
+premature action. You are too open and impulsive! I will mention
+this alone: Colonel Clay will be shortly in Paris, and before long
+will begin from that city a fresh attempt at defrauding you, which
+he is now hatching. Mark my words, and see whether or not I have
+been kept well informed of the fellow's movements!"
+
+He was perfectly correct. Two days later, as it turned out, Charles
+received a "confidential" letter from Paris, purporting to come
+from the head of a second-rate financial house with which he had
+had dealings over the Craig-Ellachie Amalgamation--by this time,
+I ought to have said, an accomplished union. It was a letter of
+small importance in itself--a mere matter of detail; but it paved
+the way, so Medhurst thought, to some later development of more
+serious character. Here once more the man's singular foresight was
+justified. For, in another week, we received a second communication,
+containing other proposals of a delicate financial character, which
+would have involved the transference of some two thousand pounds
+to the head of the Parisian firm at an address given. Both these
+letters Medhurst cleverly compared with those written to Charles
+before, in the names of Colonel Clay and of Graf von Lebenstein.
+At first sight, it is true, the differences between the two seemed
+quite enormous: the Paris hand was broad and black, large and bold;
+while the earlier manuscript was small, neat, thin, and gentlemanly.
+Still, when Medhurst pointed out to us certain persistent twists in
+the formation of his capitals, and certain curious peculiarities in
+the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we
+could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand,
+writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in
+the other with a quill, very large and freely.
+
+This discovery was _most_ important. We stood now within measurable
+distance of catching Colonel Clay, and bringing forgery and fraud
+home to him without hope of evasion.
+
+To make all sure, however, Medhurst communicated with the Paris
+police, and showed us their answers. Meanwhile, Charles continued to
+write to the head of the firm, who had given a private address in
+the Rue Jean Jacques, alleging, I must say, a most clever reason why
+the negotiations at this stage should be confidentially conducted.
+But one never expected from Colonel Clay anything less than
+consummate cleverness. In the end, it was arranged that we three
+were to go over to Paris together, that Medhurst was to undertake,
+under the guise of being Sir Charles, to pay the two thousand pounds
+to the pretended financier, and that Charles and I, waiting with the
+police outside the door, should, at a given signal, rush in with our
+forces and secure the criminal.
+
+We went over accordingly, and spent the night at the Grand, as is
+Charles's custom. The Bristol, which I prefer, he finds too quiet.
+Early next morning we took a fiacre and drove to the Rue Jean
+Jacques. Medhurst had arranged everything in advance with the Paris
+police, three of whom, in plain clothes, were waiting at the foot
+of the staircase to assist us. Charles had further provided himself
+with two thousand pounds, in notes of the Bank of France, in order
+that the payment might be duly made, and no doubt arise as to the
+crime having been perpetrated as well as meditated--in the former
+case, the penalty would be fifteen years; in the latter, three only.
+He was in very high spirits. The fact that we had tracked the rascal
+to earth at last, and were within an hour of apprehending him, was
+in itself enough to raise his courage greatly. We found, as we
+expected, that the number given in the Rue Jean Jacques was that
+of an hotel, not a private residence. Medhurst went in first, and
+inquired of the landlord whether our man was at home, at the same
+time informing him of the nature of our errand, and giving him to
+understand that if we effected the capture by his friendly aid, Sir
+Charles would see that the expenses incurred on the swindler's bill
+were met in full, as the price of his assistance. The landlord
+bowed; he expressed his deep regret, as M. le Colonel--so we
+heard him call him--was a most amiable person, much liked by the
+household; but justice, of course, must have its way; and, with a
+regretful sigh, he undertook to assist us.
+
+The police remained below, but Charles and Medhurst were each
+provided with a pair of handcuffs. Remembering the Polperro case,
+however, we determined to use them with the greatest caution. We
+would only put them on in case of violent resistance. We crept up to
+the door where the miscreant was housed. Charles handed the notes in
+an open envelope to Medhurst, who seized them hastily and held them
+in his hands in readiness for action. We had a sign concerted.
+Whenever he sneezed--which he could do in the most natural
+manner--we were to open the door, rush in, and secure the criminal!
+
+He was gone for some minutes. Charles and I waited outside in
+breathless expectation. Then Medhurst sneezed. We flung the door
+open at once, and burst in upon the creature.
+
+Medhurst rose as we did so. He pointed with his finger. "_This_ is
+Colonel Clay!" he said; "keep him well in charge while I go down
+to the door for the police to arrest him!"
+
+A gentlemanly man, about middle height, with a grizzled beard and a
+well-assumed military aspect, rose at the same moment. The envelope
+in which Charles had placed the notes lay on the table before him.
+He clutched it nervously. "I am at a loss, gentlemen," he said, in
+an excited voice, "to account for this interruption." He spoke with
+a tremor, yet with all the politeness to which we were accustomed in
+the little curate and the Honourable David.
+
+"No nonsense!" Charles exclaimed, in his authoritative way. "We know
+who you are. We have found you out this time. You are Colonel Clay.
+If you attempt to resist--take care--I will handcuff you!"
+
+The military gentleman gave a start. "Yes, I _am_ Colonel Clay," he
+answered. "On what charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bursting with wrath. The fellow's coolness seemed never
+to desert him. "You _are_ Colonel Clay!" he muttered. "You have the
+unspeakable effrontery to stand there and admit it?"
+
+"Certainly," the Colonel answered, growing hot in turn. "I have done
+nothing to be ashamed of. What do you mean by this conduct? How dare
+you talk of arresting me?"
+
+Charles laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Come, come, my
+friend," he said. "That sort of bluff won't go down with us. You
+know very well on what charge I arrest you; and here are the police
+to give effect to it."
+
+He called out "Entrez!" The police entered the room. Charles
+explained as well as he could in most doubtful Parisian what they
+were next to do. The Colonel drew himself up in an indignant
+attitude. He turned and addressed them in excellent French.
+
+"I am an officer in the service of her Britannic Majesty," he said.
+"On what ground do you venture to interfere with me, messieurs?"
+
+The chief policeman explained. The Colonel turned to Charles.
+"_Your_ name, sir?" he inquired.
+
+"You know it very well," Charles answered. "I am Sir Charles
+Vandrift; and, in spite of your clever disguise, I can instantly
+recognise you. I know your eyes and ears. I can see the same man
+who cheated me at Nice, and who insulted me on the island."
+
+"_You_ Sir Charles Vandrift!" the rogue cried. "No, no, sir, you are
+a madman!" He looked round at the police. "Take care what you do!"
+he cried. "This is a raving maniac. I had business just now with Sir
+Charles Vandrift, who quitted the room as these gentlemen entered.
+This person is mad, and you, monsieur, I doubt not," bowing to me,
+"you are, of course, his keeper."
+
+"Do not let him deceive you," I cried to the police, beginning to
+fear that with his usual incredible cleverness the fellow would
+even now manage to slip through our fingers. "Arrest him, as you
+are told. _We_ will take the responsibility." Though I trembled when
+I thought of that cheque he held of mine.
+
+The chief of our three policemen came forward and laid his hand on
+the culprit's shoulder. "I advise you, M. le Colonel," he said, in
+an official voice, "to come with us quietly for the present. Before
+the juge d'instruction we can enter at length into all these
+questions."
+
+The Colonel, very indignant still--and acting the part
+marvellously--yielded and went along with them.
+
+"Where's Medhurst?" Charles inquired, glancing round as we reached
+the door. "I wish he had stopped with us."
+
+"You are looking for monsieur your friend?" the landlord inquired,
+with a side bow to the Colonel. "He has gone away in a fiacre. He
+asked me to give this note to you."
+
+He handed us a twisted note. Charles opened and read it. "Invaluable
+man!" he cried. "Just hear what he says, Sey: 'Having secured
+Colonel Clay, I am off now again on the track of Mme. Picardet.
+She was lodging in the same house. She has just driven away; I know
+to what place; and I am after her to arrest her. In blind haste,
+MEDHURST.' That's smartness, IF you like. Though, poor little woman,
+I think he might have left her."
+
+"Does a Mme. Picardet stop here?" I inquired of the landlord,
+thinking it possible she might have assumed again the same old
+alias.
+
+He nodded assent. "Oui, oui, oui," he answered. "She has just driven
+off, and monsieur your friend has gone posting after her."
+
+"Splendid man!" Charles cried. "Marvillier was quite right. He is
+the prince of detectives!"
+
+We hailed a couple of fiacres, and drove off, in two detachments,
+to the juge d'instruction. There Colonel Clay continued to brazen
+it out, and asserted that he was an officer in the Indian Army, home
+on six months' leave, and spending some weeks in Paris. He even
+declared he was known at the Embassy, where he had a cousin an
+attache; and he asked that this gentleman should be sent for at once
+from our Ambassador's to identify him. The juge d'instruction
+insisted that this must be done; and Charles waited in very bad
+humour for the foolish formality. It really seemed as if, after all,
+when we had actually caught and arrested our man, he was going by
+some cunning device to escape us.
+
+After a delay of more than an hour, during which Colonel Clay
+fretted and fumed quite as much as we did, the attache arrived. To
+our horror and astonishment, he proceeded to salute the prisoner
+most affectionately.
+
+"Halloa, Algy!" he cried, grasping his hand; "what's up? What do
+these ruffians want with you?"
+
+It began to dawn upon us, then, what Medhurst had meant by
+"suspecting everybody": the real Colonel Clay was no common
+adventurer, but a gentleman of birth and high connections!
+
+The Colonel glared at us. "This fellow declares he's Sir Charles
+Vandrift," he said sulkily. "Though, in fact, there are two of them.
+And he accuses me of forgery, fraud, and theft, Bertie."
+
+The attache stared hard at us. "This _is_ Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+replied, after a moment. "I remember hearing him make a speech once
+at a City dinner. And what charge have you to prefer, Sir Charles,
+against my cousin?"
+
+"Your cousin?" Charles cried. "This is Colonel Clay, the notorious
+sharper!"
+
+The attache smiled a gentlemanly and superior smile. "This is
+Colonel Clay," he answered, "of the Bengal Staff Corps."
+
+It began to strike us there was something wrong somewhere.
+
+"But he has cheated me, all the same," Charles said--"at Nice two
+years ago, and many times since; and this very day he has tricked me
+out of two thousand pounds in French bank-notes, which he has now
+about him!"
+
+The Colonel was speechless. But the attache laughed. "What he has
+done to-day I don't know," he said; "but if it's as apocryphal as
+what you say he did two years ago, you've a thundering bad case,
+sir; for he was then in India, and I was out there, visiting him."
+
+"Where are the two thousand pounds?" Charles cried. "Why, you've got
+them in your hand! You're holding the envelope!"
+
+The Colonel produced it. "This envelope," he said, "was left with me
+by the man with short stiff hair, who came just before you, and who
+announced himself as Sir Charles Vandrift. He said he was interested
+in tea in Assam, and wanted me to join the board of directors of
+some bogus company. These are his papers, I believe," and he handed
+them to his cousin.
+
+"Well, I'm glad the notes are safe, anyhow," Charles murmured, in a
+tone of relief, beginning to smell a rat. "Will you kindly return
+them to me?"
+
+The attache turned out the contents of the envelope. They proved to
+be prospectuses of bubble companies of the moment, of no importance.
+
+"Medhurst must have put them there," I cried, "and decamped with the
+cash."
+
+Charles gave a groan of horror. "And Medhurst is Colonel Clay!" he
+exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the Colonel interposed. "I have but one
+personality, and no aliases."
+
+It took quite half an hour to explain this imbroglio. But as soon as
+all was explained, in French and English, to the satisfaction of
+ourselves and the juge d'instruction, the real Colonel shook hands
+with us in a most forgiving way, and informed us that he had more
+than once wondered, when he gave his name at shops in Paris, why
+it was often received with such grave suspicion. We instructed
+the police that the true culprit was Medhurst, whom they had seen
+with their own eyes, and whom we urged them to pursue with all
+expedition. Meanwhile, Charles and I, accompanied by the Colonel
+and the attache--"to see the fun out," as they said--called at the
+Bank of France for the purpose of stopping the notes immediately. It
+was too late, however. They had been presented at once, and cashed
+in gold, by a pleasant little lady in an American costume, who was
+afterwards identified by the hotel-keeper (from our description) as
+his lodger, Mme. Picardet. It was clear she had taken rooms in the
+same hotel, to be near the Indian Colonel; and it was _she_ who had
+received and sent the letters. As for our foe, he had vanished into
+space, as always.
+
+Two days later we received the usual insulting communication on a
+sheet of Charles's own dainty note. Last time he wrote it was on
+Craig-Ellachie paper: this time, like the wanton lapwing, he had got
+himself another crest.
+
+
+"MOST PERSPICACIOUS OF MILLIONAIRES!--Said I not well, as
+Medhurst, that you must distrust everybody? And the one man
+you never dreamt of distrusting was--Medhurst. Yet see how
+truthful I was! I told you I knew where Colonel Clay was
+living--and I _did_ know, exactly. I promised to take you to
+Colonel Clay's rooms, and to get him arrested for you--and
+I kept my promise. I even exceeded your expectations; for
+I gave you _two_ Colonel Clays instead of one--and you took
+the wrong man--that is to say, the real one. This was a neat
+little trick; but it cost me some trouble.
+
+"First, I found out there _was_ a real Colonel Clay, in the
+Indian Army. I also found out he chanced to be coming home on
+leave this season. I might have made more out of him, no doubt;
+but I disliked annoying him, and preferred to give myself the
+fun of this peculiar mystification. I therefore waited for him
+to reach Paris, where the police arrangements suited me better
+than in London. While I was looking about, and delaying
+operations for his return, I happened to hear you wanted a
+detective. So I offered myself as out of work to my old
+employer, Marvillier, from whom I have had many good jobs in the
+past; and there you get, in short, the kernel of the Colonel.
+
+"Naturally, after this, I can never go back as a detective
+to Marvillier's. But, on the large scale on which I have
+learned to work since I first had the pleasure of making
+your delightful acquaintance, this matters little. To say
+the truth, I begin to feel detective work a cut or two below
+me. I am now a gentleman of means and leisure. Besides, the
+extra knowledge of your movements which I have acquired in
+your house has helped still further to give me various holds
+upon you. So the fluke will be true to his own pet lamb. To
+vary the metaphor, you are not fully shorn yet.
+
+"Remember me most kindly to your charming family, give
+Wentworth my love, and tell Mlle. Cesarine I owe her a grudge
+which I shall never forget. She clearly suspected me. You are
+much too rich, dear Charles; I relieve your plethora. I bleed
+you financially. Therefore I consider myself--Your sincerest
+friend,
+
+"CLAY-BRABAZON-MEDHURST,
+
+"Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."
+
+
+Charles was threatened with apoplexy. This blow was severe.
+"Whom can I trust," he asked, plaintively, "when the detectives
+themselves, whom I employ to guard me, turn out to be swindlers?
+Don't you remember that line in the Latin grammar--something about,
+'Who shall watch the watchers?' I think it used to run, 'Quis
+custodes custodiet ipsos?'"
+
+But I felt this episode had at least disproved my suspicions of
+poor Cesarine.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE SELDON GOLD-MINE
+
+
+On our return to London, Charles and Marvillier had a difference
+of opinion on the subject of Medhurst.
+
+Charles maintained that Marvillier ought to have known the man
+with the cropped hair was Colonel Clay, and ought never to have
+recommended him. Marvillier maintained that Charles had _seen_
+Colonel Clay half-a-dozen times, at least, to his own never; and
+that my respected brother-in-law had therefore nobody on earth
+but himself to blame if the rogue imposed upon him. The head
+detective had known Medhurst for ten years, he said, as a most
+respectable man, and even a ratepayer; he had always found him the
+cleverest of spies, as well he might be, indeed, on the familiar
+set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief principle. However, the upshot of
+it all was, as usual--nothing. Marvillier was sorry to lose the
+services of so excellent a hand; but he had done the very best
+he could for Sir Charles, he declared; and if Sir Charles was
+not satisfied, why, he might catch his Colonel Clays for himself
+in future.
+
+"So I will, Sey," Charles remarked to me, as we walked back from
+the office in the Strand by Piccadilly. "I won't trust any more to
+these private detectives. It's my belief they're a pack of thieves
+themselves, in league with the rascals they're set to catch, and
+with no more sense of honour than a Zulu diamond-hand."
+
+"Better try the police," I suggested, by way of being helpful.
+One must assume an interest in one's employer's business.
+
+But Charles shook his head. "No, no," he said; "I'm sick of all
+these fellows. I shall trust in future to my own sagacity. We
+learn by experience, Sey--and I've learned a thing or two. One of
+them is this: It's not enough to suspect everybody; you must have
+no preconceptions. Divest yourself entirely of every fixed idea
+if you wish to cope with a rascal of this calibre. Don't jump at
+conclusions. We should disbelieve everything, as well as distrust
+everybody. That's the road to success; and I mean to pursue it."
+
+So, by way of pursuing it, Charles retired to Seldon.
+
+"The longer the man goes on, the worse he grows," he said to me
+one morning. "He's just like a tiger that has tasted blood. Every
+successful haul seems only to make him more eager for another.
+I fully expect now before long we shall see him down here."
+
+About three weeks later, sure enough, my respected connection
+received a communication from the abandoned swindler, with
+an Austrian stamp and a Vienna post-mark.
+
+
+"MY DEAR VANDRIFT.--(After so long and so varied an acquaintance
+we may surely drop the absurd formalities of 'Sir Charles' and
+'Colonel.') I write to ask you a delicate question. Can you kindly
+tell me exactly how much I have received from your various generous
+acts during the last three years? I have mislaid my account-book,
+and as this is the season for making the income tax return, I am
+anxious, as an honest and conscientious citizen, to set down my
+average profits out of you for the triennial period. For reasons
+which you will amply understand, I do not this time give my private
+address, in Paris or elsewhere; but if you will kindly advertise
+the total amount, above the signature 'Peter Simple,' in the Agony
+Column of the Times, you will confer a great favour upon the
+Revenue Commissioners, and also upon your constant friend and
+companion, CUTHBERT CLAY,
+
+"Practical Socialist."
+
+
+"Mark my word, Sey," Charles said, laying the letter down, "in a
+week or less the man himself will follow. This is his cunning way
+of trying to make me think he's well out of the country and far
+away from Seldon. That means he's meditating another descent. But
+he told us too much last time, when he was Medhurst the detective.
+He gave us some hints about disguises and their unmasking that I
+shall not forget. This turn I shall be even with him."
+
+On Saturday of that week, in effect, we were walking along the road
+that leads into the village, when we met a gentlemanly-looking man,
+in a rough and rather happy-go-lucky brown tweed suit, who had the
+air of a tourist. He was middle-aged, and of middle height; he wore
+a small leather wallet suspended round his shoulder; and he was
+peering about at the rocks in a suspicious manner. Something in
+his gait attracted our attention.
+
+"Good-morning," he said, looking up as we passed; and Charles
+muttered a somewhat surly inarticulate, "Good-morning."
+
+We went on without saying more. "Well, _that's_ not Colonel Clay,
+anyhow," I said, as we got out of earshot. "For he accosted us
+first; and you may remember it's one of the Colonel's most marked
+peculiarities that, like the model child, he never speaks till he's
+spoken to--never begins an acquaintance. He always waits till we
+make the first advance; he doesn't go out of his way to cheat us;
+he loiters about till we ask him to do it."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law responded, in a severe tone, "there
+you are, now, doing the very thing I warned you not to do! You're
+succumbing to a preconception. Avoid fixed ideas. The probability
+is this man _is_ Colonel Clay. Strangers are generally scarce at
+Seldon. If he isn't Colonel Clay, what's he here for, I'd like
+to know? What money is there to be made here in any other way?
+I shall inquire about him."
+
+We dropped in at the Cromarty Arms, and asked good Mrs. M'Lachlan
+if she could tell us anything about the gentlemanly stranger. Mrs.
+M'Lachlan replied that he was from London, she believed, a pleasant
+gentleman enough; and he had his wife with him.
+
+"Ha! Young? Pretty?" Charles inquired, with a speaking glance at me.
+
+"Weel, Sir Charles, she'll no be exactly what you'd be ca'ing a
+bonny lass," Mrs. M'Lachlan replied; "but she's a guid body for
+a' that, an' a fine braw woman."
+
+"Just what I should expect," Charles murmured, "He varies the
+programme. The fellow has tried White Heather as the parson's wife,
+and as Madame Picardet, and as squinting little Mrs. Granton, and
+as Medhurst's accomplice; and now, he has almost exhausted the
+possibilities of a disguise for a really young and pretty woman;
+so he's playing her off at last as the riper product--a handsome
+matron. Clever, extremely clever; but--we begin to see through him."
+And he chuckled to himself quietly.
+
+Next day, on the hillside, we came upon our stranger again,
+occupied as before in peering into the rocks, and sounding them
+with a hammer. Charles nudged me and whispered, "I have it this
+time. He's posing as a geologist."
+
+I took a good look at the man. By now, of course, we had some
+experience of Colonel Clay in his various disguises; and I could
+observe that while the nose, the hair, and the beard were varied,
+the eyes and the build remained the same as ever. He was a trifle
+stouter, of course, being got up as a man of between forty and
+fifty; and his forehead was lined in a way which a less consummate
+artist than Colonel Clay could easily have imitated. But I felt we
+had at least some grounds for our identification; it would not do
+to dismiss the suggestion of Clayhood at once as a flight of fancy.
+
+His wife was sitting near, upon a bare boss of rock, reading a
+volume of poems. Capital variant, that, a volume of poems! Exactly
+suited the selected type of a cultivated family. White Heather and
+Mrs. Granton never used to read poems. But that was characteristic
+of all Colonel Clay's impersonations, and Mrs. Clay's too--for I
+suppose I must call her so. They were not mere outer disguises;
+they were finished pieces of dramatic study. Those two people were
+an actor and actress, as well as a pair of rogues; and in both
+their roles they were simply inimitable.
+
+As a rule, Charles is by no means polite to casual trespassers on
+the Seldon estate; they get short shrift and a summary ejection.
+But on this occasion he had a reason for being courteous, and he
+approached the lady with a bow of recognition. "Lovely day," he
+said, "isn't it? Such belts on the sea, and the heather smells
+sweet. You are stopping at the inn, I fancy?"
+
+"Yes," the lady answered, looking up at him with a charming smile.
+("I know that smile," Charles whispered to me. "I have succumbed to
+it too often.") "We're stopping at the inn, and my husband is doing
+a little geology on the hill here. I hope Sir Charles Vandrift won't
+come and catch us. He's so down upon trespassers. They tell us at
+the inn he's a regular Tartar."
+
+("Saucy minx as ever," Charles murmured to me. "She said it on
+purpose.") "No, my dear madam," he continued, aloud; "you have
+been quite misinformed. _I_ am Sir Charles Vandrift; and I am _not_
+a Tartar. If your husband is a man of science I respect and admire
+him. It is geology that has made me what I am to-day." And he drew
+himself up proudly. "We owe to it the present development of South
+African mining."
+
+The lady blushed as one seldom sees a mature woman blush--but
+exactly as I had seen Madame Picardet and White Heather. "Oh, I'm
+so sorry," she said, in a confused way that recalled Mrs. Granton.
+"Forgive my hasty speech. I--I didn't know you."
+
+("She did," Charles whispered. "But let that pass.") "Oh, don't
+think of it again; so many people disturb the birds, don't you know,
+that we're obliged in self-defence to warn trespassers sometimes off
+our lovely mountains. But I do it with regret--with profound regret.
+I admire the--er--the beauties of Nature myself; and, therefore,
+I desire that all others should have the freest possible access
+to them--possible, that is to say, consistently with the superior
+claims of Property."
+
+"I see," the lady replied, looking up at him quaintly. "I admire
+your wish, though not your reservation. I've just been reading
+those sweet lines of Wordsworth's--
+
+  And O, ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,
+  Forebode not any severing of our loves.
+
+I suppose you know them?" And she beamed on him pleasantly.
+
+"Know them?" Charles answered. "Know them! Oh, of course, I know
+them. They're old favourites of mine--in fact, I adore Wordsworth."
+(I doubt whether Charles has ever in his life read a line of poetry,
+except Doss Chiderdoss in the Sporting Times.) He took the book
+and glanced at them. "Ah, charming, charming!" he said, in his most
+ecstatic tone. But his eyes were on the lady, and not on the poet.
+
+I saw in a moment how things stood. No matter under what disguise
+that woman appeared to him, and whether he recognised her or not,
+Charles couldn't help falling a victim to Madame Picardet's
+attractions. Here he actually suspected her; yet, like a moth
+round a candle, he was trying his hardest to get his wings singed!
+I almost despised him with his gigantic intellect! The greatest
+men are the greatest fools, I verily believe, when there's a woman
+in question.
+
+The husband strolled up by this time, and entered into conversation
+with us. According to his own account, his name was Forbes-Gaskell,
+and he was a Professor of Geology in one of those new-fangled
+northern colleges. He had come to Seldon rock-spying, he said, and
+found much to interest him. He was fond of fossils, but his special
+hobby was rocks and minerals. He knew a vast deal about cairngorms
+and agates and such-like pretty things, and showed Charles quartz
+and felspar and red cornelian, and I don't know what else, in the
+crags on the hillside. Charles pretended to listen to him with the
+deepest interest and even respect, never for a moment letting him
+guess he knew for what purpose this show of knowledge had been
+recently acquired. If we were ever to catch the man, we must not
+allow him to see we suspected him. So Charles played a dark game.
+He swallowed the geologist whole without question.
+
+Most of that morning we spent with them on the hillside. Charles
+took them everywhere and showed them everything. He pretended to be
+polite to the scientific man, and he was really polite, most polite,
+to the poetical lady. Before lunch time we had become quite friends.
+
+The Clays were always easy people to get on with; and, bar their
+roguery, we could not deny they were delightful companions. Charles
+asked them in to lunch. They accepted willingly. He introduced them
+to Amelia with sundry raisings of his eyebrows and contortions
+of his mouth. "Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell," he said,
+half-dislocating his jaw with his violent efforts. "They're stopping
+at the inn, dear. I've been showing them over the place, and they're
+good enough to say they'll drop in and take a share in our cold
+roast mutton;" which was a frequent form of Charles's pleasantry.
+
+Amelia sent them upstairs to wash their hands--which, in the
+Professor's case, was certainly desirable, for his fingers were
+grimed with earth and dust from the rocks he had been investigating.
+As soon as we were left alone Charles drew me into the library.
+
+"Seymour," he said, "more than ever there is a need for us strictly
+to avoid preconceptions. We must not make up our minds that this man
+is Colonel Clay--nor, again, that he isn't. We must remember that we
+have been mistaken in _both_ ways in the past, and must avoid our
+old errors. I shall hold myself in readiness for either event--and
+a policeman in readiness to arrest them, if necessary!"
+
+"A capital plan," I murmured. "Still, if I may venture a suggestion,
+in what way are these two people endeavouring to entrap us? They
+have no scheme on hand--no schloss, no amalgamation."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law answered in his board-room style, "you
+are a great deal too previous, as Medhurst used to say--I mean,
+Colonel Clay in his character as Medhurst. In the first place, these
+are early days; our friends have not yet developed their intentions.
+We may find before long they have a property to sell, or a company
+to promote, or a concession to exploit in South Africa or elsewhere.
+Then again, in the second place, we don't always spot the exact
+nature of their plan until it has burst in our hands, so to speak,
+and revealed its true character. What could have seemed more
+transparent than Medhurst, the detective, till he ran away with our
+notes in the very moment of triumph? What more innocent than White
+Heather and the little curate, till they landed us with a couple
+of Amelia's own gems as a splendid bargain? I will not take it for
+granted _any_ man is not Colonel Clay, merely because I don't happen
+to spot the particular scheme he is trying to work against me. The
+rogue has so many schemes, and some of them so well concealed, that
+up to the moment of the actual explosion you fail to detect the
+presence of moral dynamite. Therefore, I shall proceed as if there
+were dynamite everywhere. But in the third place--and this is _very_
+important--you mark my words, I believe I detect already the lines
+he will work upon. He's a geologist, he says, with a taste for
+minerals. Very good. You see if he doesn't try to persuade me before
+long he has found a coal mine, whose locality he will disclose for
+a trifling consideration; or else he will salt the Long Mountain
+with emeralds, and claim a big share for helping to discover them;
+or else he will try something in the mineralogical line to _do_ me
+somehow. I see it in the very transparency of the fellow's face;
+and I'm determined this time neither to pay him one farthing on
+any pretext, nor to let him escape me!"
+
+We went in to lunch. The Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, all
+smiles, accompanied us. I don't know whether it was Charles's
+warning to take nothing for granted that made me do so--but I kept
+a close eye upon the suspected man all the time we were at table.
+It struck me there was something very odd about his hair. It
+didn't seem quite the same colour all over. The locks that hung
+down behind, over the collar of his coat, were a trifle lighter and
+a trifle grayer than the black mass that covered the greater part
+of his head. I examined it carefully. The more I did so, the more
+the conviction grew upon me: he was wearing a wig. There was no
+denying it!
+
+A trifle less artistic, perhaps, than most of Colonel Clay's
+get-ups; but then, I reflected (on Charles's principle of taking
+nothing for granted), we had never before suspected Colonel Clay
+himself, except in the one case of the Honourable David, whose red
+hair and whiskers even Madame Picardet had admitted to be absurdly
+false by her action of pointing at them and tittering irrepressibly.
+It was possible that in every case, if we had scrutinised our man
+closely, we should have found that the disguise betrayed itself
+at once (as Medhurst had suggested) to an acute observer.
+
+The detective, in fact, had told us too much. I remembered what he
+said to us about knocking off David Granton's red wig the moment
+we doubted him; and I positively tried to help myself awkwardly
+to potato-chips, when the footman offered them, so as to hit the
+supposed wig with an apparently careless brush of my elbow. But
+it was of no avail. The fellow seemed to anticipate or suspect my
+intention, and dodged aside carefully, like one well accustomed
+to saving his disguise from all chance of such real or seeming
+accidents.
+
+I was so full of my discovery that immediately after lunch I induced
+Isabel to take our new friends round the home garden and show them
+Charles's famous prize dahlias, while I proceeded myself to narrate
+to Charles and Amelia my observations and my frustrated experiment.
+
+"It _is_ a wig," Amelia assented. "_I_ spotted it at once. A very
+good wig, too, and most artistically planted. Men don't notice these
+things, though women do. It is creditable to you, Seymour, to have
+succeeded in detecting it."
+
+Charles was less complimentary. "You fool," he answered, with that
+unpleasant frankness which is much too common with him. "Supposing
+it _is_, why on earth should you try to knock it off and disclose
+him? What good would it have done? If it _is_ a wig, and we spot it,
+that's all that we need. We are put on our guard; we know with whom
+we have now to deal. But you can't take a man up on a charge of
+wig-wearing. The law doesn't interfere with it. Most respectable men
+may sometimes wear wigs. Why, I knew a promoter who did, and also
+the director of fourteen companies! What we have to do next is, wait
+till he tries to cheat us, and then--pounce down upon him. Sooner
+or later, you may be sure, his plans will reveal themselves."
+
+So we concocted an excellent scheme to keep them under constant
+observation, lest they should slip away again, as they did from the
+island. First of all, Amelia was to ask them to come and stop at the
+castle, on the ground that the rooms at the inn were uncomfortably
+small. We felt sure, however, that, as on a previous occasion,
+they would refuse the invitation, in order to be able to slink
+off unperceived, in case they should find themselves apparently
+suspected. Should they decline, it was arranged that Cesarine should
+take a room at the Cromarty Arms as long as they stopped there, and
+report upon their movements; while, during the day, we would have
+the house watched by the head gillie's son, a most intelligent
+young man, who could be trusted, with true Scotch canniness, to
+say nothing to anybody.
+
+To our immense surprise, Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell accepted the invitation
+with the utmost alacrity. She was profuse in her thanks, indeed; for
+she told us the Arms was an ill-kept house, and the cookery by no
+means agreed with her husband's liver. It was sweet of us to invite
+them; such kindness to perfect strangers was quite unexpected. She
+should always say that nowhere on earth had she met with so cordial
+or friendly a reception as at Seldon Castle. But--she accepted,
+unreservedly.
+
+"It _can't_ be Colonel Clay," I remarked to Charles. "He would never
+have come here. Even as David Granton, with far more reason for
+coming, he wouldn't put himself in our power: he preferred the
+security and freedom of the Cromarty Arms."
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said sententiously, "you're incorrigible.
+You _will_ persist in being the slave of prepossessions. He may
+have some good reason of his own for accepting. Wait till he shows
+his hand--and then, we shall understand everything."
+
+So for the next three weeks the Forbes-Gaskells formed part of the
+house-party at Seldon. I must say, Charles paid them most assiduous
+attention. He positively neglected his other guests in order to keep
+close to the two new-comers. Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell noticed the fact,
+and commented on it. "You are really too good to us, Sir Charles,"
+she said. "I'm afraid you allow us quite to monopolise you!"
+
+But Charles, gallant as ever, replied with a smile, "We have
+you with us for so short a time, you know!" Which made Mrs.
+Forbes-Gaskell blush again that delicious blush of hers.
+
+During all this time the Professor went on calmly and persistently
+mineralogising. "Wonderful character!" Charles said to me. "He works
+out his parts so well! Could anything exceed the picture he gives
+one of scientific ardour?" And, indeed, he was at it, morning, noon,
+and night. "Sooner or later," Charles observed, "something practical
+must come of it."
+
+Twice, meanwhile, little episodes occurred which are well worth
+notice. One day I was out with the Professor on the Long Mountain,
+watching him hammer at the rocks, and a little bored by his
+performance, when, to pass the time, I asked him what a particular
+small water-worn stone was. He looked at it and smiled. "If there
+were a little more mica in it," he said, "it would be the
+characteristic gneiss of ice-borne boulders, hereabouts. But
+there isn't _quite_ enough." And he gazed at it curiously.
+
+"Indeed," I answered, "it doesn't come up to sample, doesn't it?"
+
+He gave me a meaning look. "Ten per cent," he murmured in a slow,
+strange voice; "ten per cent is more usual."
+
+I trembled violently. Was he bent, then, upon ruining me? "If you
+betray me--" I cried, and broke off.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. He was all pure innocence.
+
+I reflected on what Charles had said about taking nothing for
+granted, and held my tongue prudently.
+
+The other incident was this. Charles picked a sprig of white heather
+on the hill one afternoon, after a picnic lunch, I regret to say,
+when he had taken perhaps a glass more champagne than was strictly
+good for him. He was not exactly the worse for it, but he was
+excited, good-humoured, reckless, and lively. He brought the sprig
+to Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, and handed it to her, ogling a little.
+"Sweets to the sweet," he murmured, and looked at her meaningly.
+"White heather to White Heather." Then he saw what he had done,
+and checked himself instantly.
+
+Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell coloured up in the usual manner. "I--I don't
+quite understand," she faltered.
+
+Charles scrambled out of it somehow. "White heather for luck," he
+said, "and--the man who is privileged to give a piece of it to you
+is surely lucky."
+
+She smiled, none too well pleased. I somehow felt she suspected us
+of suspecting her.
+
+However, as it turned out, nothing came, after all, of the untoward
+incident.
+
+Next day Charles burst upon me, triumphant. "Well, he has shown
+his hand!" he cried. "I knew he would. He has come to me to-day
+with--what do you think?--a fragment of gold, in quartz, from the
+Long Mountain."
+
+"No!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," Charles answered. "He says there's a vein there with distinct
+specks of gold in it, which might be worth mining. When a man begins
+_that_ way you know what he's driving at! And what's more, he's got
+up the subject beforehand; for he began saying to me there had long
+been gold in Sutherlandshire--why not therefore in Ross-shire?
+And then he went at full into the comparative geology of the two
+regions."
+
+"This is serious," I said. "What will you do?"
+
+"Wait and watch," Charles answered; "and the moment he develops a
+proposal for shares in the syndicate to work the mine, or a sum of
+money down as the price of his discovery--get in the police, and
+arrest him."
+
+For the next few days the Professor was more active and ardent than
+ever. He went peering about the rocks on every side with his hammer.
+He kept on bringing in little pieces of stone, with gold specks
+stuck in them, and talking learnedly of the "probable cost of
+crushing and milling." Charles had heard all that before; in
+point of fact, he had assisted at the drafting of some dozens of
+prospectuses. So he took no notice, and waited for the man with the
+wig to develop his proposals. He knew they would come soon; and he
+watched and waited. But, of course, to draw him on he pretended to
+be interested.
+
+While we were all in this attitude of mind, attending on Providence
+and Colonel Clay, we happened to walk down by the shore one day, in
+the opposite direction from the Seamew's island. Suddenly we came
+upon the Professor linked arm-in-arm with--Sir Adolphus Cordery!
+They were wrapped in deep talk, and appeared to be most amicable.
+
+Now, naturally, relations had been a trifle strained between Sir
+Adolphus and the house of Vandrift since the incident of the Slump;
+but under the present circumstances, and with such a matter at stake
+as the capture of Colonel Clay, it was necessary to overlook all
+such minor differences. So Charles managed to disengage the
+Professor from his friend, sent Amelia on with Forbes-Gaskell
+towards the castle, and stopped behind, himself, with Sir Adolphus
+and me, to clear up the question.
+
+"Do you know this man, Cordery?" he asked, with some little
+suspicion.
+
+"Know him? Why, of course I do," Sir Adolphus answered. "He's
+Marmaduke Forbes-Gaskell, of the Yorkshire College, a very
+distinguished man of science. First-rate mineralogist--perhaps
+the best (_but_ one) in England." Modesty forbade him to name the
+exception.
+
+"But are you sure it's he?" Charles inquired, with growing
+doubt. "Have you known him before? This isn't a second case of
+Schleiermachering me, is it?"
+
+"Sure it's he?" Sir Adolphus echoed. "Am I sure of myself? Why, I've
+known Marmy Gaskell ever since we were at Trinity together. Knew him
+before he married Miss Forbes of Glenluce, my wife's second cousin,
+and hyphened his name with hers, to keep the property in the family.
+Know them both most intimately. Came down here to the inn because I
+heard that Marmy was on the prowl among these hills, and I thought he
+had probably something good to prowl after--in the way of fossils."
+
+"But the man wears a wig!" Charles expostulated.
+
+"Of course," Cordery answered. "He's as bald as a bat--in front at
+least--and he wears a wig to cover his baldness."
+
+"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful--taking us in
+like that." And he grew red as a turkey-cock.
+
+Sir Adolphus has no delicacy. He burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, I see," he cried out, simply bursting with amusement. "You
+thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay in disguise! Oh, my stars,
+what a lovely one!"
+
+"_You_, at least, have no right to laugh," Charles responded, drawing
+himself up and growing still redder. "You led me once into a
+similar scrape, and then backed out of it in a way unbecoming a
+gentleman. Besides," he went on, getting angrier at each word,
+"this fellow, whoever he is, has been trying to cheat me on his
+own account. Colonel Clay or no Colonel Clay, he's been salting my
+rocks with gold-bearing quartz, and trying to lead me on into an
+absurd speculation!"
+
+Sir Adolphus exploded. "Oh, this is too good," he cried. "I must
+go and tell Marmy!" And he rushed off to where Forbes-Gaskell was
+seated on a corner of rock with Amelia.
+
+As for Charles and myself, we returned to the house. Half an hour
+later Forbes-Gaskell came back, too, in a towering temper.
+
+"What is the meaning of this, sir?" he shouted out, as soon as
+he caught sight of Charles. "I'm told you've invited my wife
+and myself here to your house in order to spy upon us, under the
+impression that I was Clay, the notorious swindler!"
+
+"I thought you were," Charles answered, equally angry. "Perhaps you
+may be still! Anyhow, you're a rogue, and you tried to bamboozle
+me!"
+
+Forbes-Gaskell, white with rage, turned to his trembling wife.
+"Gertrude," he said, "pack up your box and come away from these
+people instantly. Their pretended hospitality has been a studied
+insult. They've put you and me in a most ridiculous position. We
+were told before we came here--and no doubt with truth--that Sir
+Charles Vandrift was the most close-fisted and tyrannical old
+curmudgeon in Scotland. We've been writing to all our friends to
+say ecstatically that he was, on the contrary, a most hospitable,
+generous, and large-hearted gentleman. And now we find out he's a
+disgusting cad, who asks strangers to his house from the meanest
+motives, and then insults his guests with gratuitous vituperation.
+It is well such people should hear the plain truth now and again in
+their lives; and it therefore gives me the greatest pleasure to tell
+Sir Charles Vandrift that he's a vulgar bounder of the first water.
+Go and pack your box, Gertrude! I'll run down to the Cromarty Arms,
+and order a cab to carry us away at once from this inhospitable
+sham castle."
+
+"You wear a wig, sir; you wear a wig," Charles exclaimed,
+half-choking with passion. For, indeed, as Forbes-Gaskell spoke,
+and tossed his head angrily, the nature of his hair-covering grew
+painfully apparent. It was quite one-sided.
+
+"I do, sir, that I may be able to shake it in the face of a cad!"
+the Professor responded, tearing it off to readjust it; and, suiting
+the action to the word, he brandished it thrice in Charles's eyes;
+after which he darted from the room, speechless with indignation.
+
+As soon as they were gone, and Charles had recovered breath
+sufficiently to listen to rational conversation, I ventured to
+observe, "This comes of being too sure! We made one mistake. We
+took it for granted that because a man wears a wig, he _must_ be
+an impostor--which does not necessarily follow. We forgot that not
+Colonel Clays alone have false coverings to their heads, and that
+wigs may sometimes be worn from motives of pure personal vanity.
+In fact, we were again the slaves of preconceptions."
+
+I looked at him pointedly. Charles rose before he replied. "Seymour
+Wentworth," he said at last, gazing down upon me with lofty scorn,
+"your moralising is ill-timed. It appears to me you entirely
+misunderstand the position and duties of a private secretary!"
+
+The oddest part of it all, however, was this--that Charles, being
+convinced Forbes-Gaskell, though he wasn't Colonel Clay, had been
+fraudulently salting the rocks with gold, with intent to deceive,
+took no further notice of the alleged discoveries. The consequence
+was that Forbes-Gaskell and Sir Adolphus went elsewhere with the
+secret; and it was not till after Charles had sold the Seldon
+Castle estate (which he did shortly afterward, the place having
+somehow grown strangely distasteful to him) that the present
+"Seldon Eldorados, Limited," were put upon the market by Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, who purchased the place from him. Forbes-Gaskell,
+as it happened, had reported to Craig-Ellachie that he had found
+a lode of high-grade ore on an estate unnamed, which he would
+particularise on promise of certain contingent claims to founder's
+shares; and the old lord jumped at it. Charles sold at grouse-moor
+prices; and the consequence is that the capital of the Eldorados
+is yielding at present very fair returns, even after allowing for
+expenses of promotion--while Charles has been done out of a good
+thing in gold-mines!
+
+But, remembering "the position and duties of a private secretary,"
+I refrained from pointing out to him at the time that this loss was
+due to a fixed idea--though as a matter of fact it depended upon
+Charles's strange preconception that the man with the wig, whoever
+he might be, was trying to diddle him.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE JAPANNED DISPATCH-BOX
+
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said next spring, "I'm sick and tired
+of London! Let's shoulder our wallets at once, and I will to
+some distant land, where no man doth me know."
+
+"Mars or Mercury?" I inquired; "for, in our own particular planet,
+I'm afraid you'll find it just a trifle difficult for Sir Charles
+Vandrift to hide his light under a bushel."
+
+"Oh, I'll manage it," Charles answered. "What's the good of being
+a millionaire, I should like to know, if you're always obliged to
+'behave as sich'? I shall travel incog. I'm dog-tired of being
+dogged by these endless impostors."
+
+And, indeed, we had passed through a most painful winter. Colonel
+Clay had stopped away for some months, it is true, and for my own
+part, I will confess, since it wasn't _my_ place to pay the piper, I
+rather missed the wonted excitement than otherwise. But Charles had
+grown horribly and morbidly suspicious. He carried out his principle
+of "distrusting everybody and disbelieving everything," till life
+was a burden to him. He spotted impossible Colonel Clays under a
+thousand disguises; he was quite convinced he had frightened his
+enemy away at least a dozen times over, beneath the varying garb
+of a fat club waiter, a tall policeman, a washerwoman's boy, a
+solicitor's clerk, the Bank of England beadle, and the collector
+of water-rates. He saw him as constantly, and in as changeful forms,
+as mediaeval saints used to see the devil. Amelia and I really
+began to fear for the stability of that splendid intellect; we
+foresaw that unless the Colonel Clay nuisance could be abated
+somehow, Charles might sink by degrees to the mental level of a
+common or ordinary Stock-Exchange plunger.
+
+So, when my brother-in-law announced his intention of going away
+incog. to parts unknown, on the succeeding Saturday, Amelia and
+I felt a flush of relief from long-continued tension. Especially
+Amelia--who was _not_ going with him.
+
+"For rest and quiet," he said to us at breakfast, laying down the
+Morning Post, "give _me_ the deck of an Atlantic liner! No letters;
+no telegrams. No stocks; no shares. No Times; no Saturday. I'm sick
+of these papers!"
+
+"The World is too much with us," I assented cheerfully. I regret
+to say, nobody appreciated the point of my quotation.
+
+Charles took infinite pains, I must admit, to ensure perfect
+secrecy. He made me write and secure the best state-rooms--main
+deck, amidships--under my own name, without mentioning his, in
+the Etruria, for New York, on her very next voyage. He spoke of
+his destination to nobody but Amelia; and Amelia warned Cesarine,
+under pains and penalties, on no account to betray it to the other
+servants. Further to secure his incog., Charles assumed the style
+and title of Mr. Peter Porter, and booked as such in the Etruria
+at Liverpool.
+
+The day before starting, however, he went down with me to the City
+for an interview with his brokers in Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
+Finglemore, the senior partner, hastened, of course, to receive us.
+As we entered his private room a good-looking young man rose and
+lounged out. "Halloa, Finglemore," Charles said, "that's that scamp
+of a brother of yours! I thought you had shipped him off years and
+years ago to China?"
+
+"So I did, Sir Charles," Finglemore answered, rubbing his hands
+somewhat nervously. "But he never went there. Being an idle young
+dog, with a taste for amusement, he got for the time no further
+than Paris. Since then, he's hung about a bit, here, there, and
+everywhere, and done no particular good for himself or his family.
+But about three or four years ago he somehow 'struck ile': he went
+to South Africa, poaching on your preserves; and now he's back
+again--rich, married, and respectable. His wife, a nice little
+woman, has reformed him. Well, what can I do for you this morning?"
+
+Charles has large interests in America, in Santa Fe and Topekas, and
+other big concerns; and he insisted on taking out several documents
+and vouchers connected in various ways with his widespread ventures
+there. He meant to go, he said, for complete rest and change, on a
+general tour of private inquiry--New York, Chicago, Colorado, the
+mining districts. It was a millionaire's holiday. So he took all
+these valuables in a black japanned dispatch-box, which he guarded
+like a child with absurd precautions. He never allowed that box out
+of his sight one moment; and he gave me no peace as to its safety
+and integrity. It was a perfect fetish. "We must be cautious," he
+said, "Sey, cautious! Especially in travelling. Recollect how that
+little curate spirited the diamonds out of Amelia's jewel-case! I
+shall not let this box out of my sight. I shall stick to it myself,
+if we go to the bottom."
+
+We did _not_ go to the bottom. It is the proud boast of the Cunard
+Company that it has "never lost a passenger's life"; and the captain
+would not consent to send the Etruria to Davy Jones's locker, merely
+in order to give Charles a chance of sticking to his dispatch-box
+under trying circumstances. On the contrary, we had a delightful
+and uneventful passage; and we found our fellow-passengers most
+agreeable people. Charles, as Mr. Peter Porter, being freed for
+the moment from his terror of Colonel Clay, would have felt really
+happy, I believe--had it not been for the dispatch-box. He made
+friends from the first hour (quite after the fearless old fashion
+of the days before Colonel Clay had begun to embitter life for him)
+with a nice American doctor and his charming wife, on their way back
+to Kentucky. Dr. Elihu Quackenboss--that was his characteristically
+American name--had been studying medicine for a year in Vienna, and
+was now returning to his native State with a brain close crammed
+with all the latest bacteriological and antiseptic discoveries. His
+wife, a pretty and piquant little American, with a tip-tilted nose
+and the quaint sharpness of her countrywomen, amused Charles not a
+little. The funny way in which she would make room for him by her
+side on the bench on deck, and say, with a sweet smile, "You sit
+right here, Mr. Porter; the sun's just elegant," delighted and
+flattered him. He was proud to find out that female attention was
+not always due to his wealth and title; and that plain Mr. Porter
+could command on his merits the same amount of blandishments as Sir
+Charles Vandrift, the famous millionaire, on his South African
+celebrity.
+
+During the whole of that voyage, it was Mrs. Quackenboss here, and
+Mrs. Quackenboss there, and Mrs. Quackenboss the other place, till,
+for Amelia's sake, I was glad she was not on board to witness it.
+Long before we sighted Sandy Hook, I will admit, I was fairly sick
+of Charles's two-stringed harp--Mrs. Quackenboss and the
+dispatch-box.
+
+Mrs. Quackenboss, it turned out, was an amateur artist, and she
+painted Sir Charles, on calm days on deck, in all possible
+attitudes. She seemed to find him a most attractive model.
+
+The doctor, too, was a precious clever fellow. He knew something of
+chemistry--and of most other subjects, including, as I gathered, the
+human character. For he talked to Charles about various ideas of
+his, with which he wished to "liven up folks in Kentucky a bit," on
+his return, till Charles conceived the highest possible regard for
+his intelligence and enterprise. "That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!"
+he remarked to me one day. "Has the right sort of grit in him!
+Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on
+my works in South Africa!"
+
+That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it.
+He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the
+Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should
+offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am
+inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to
+visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in
+future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would
+be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint
+and amusing American lady.
+
+"If you offer it to him," I said, "remember, you must disclose your
+personality."
+
+"Not at all," Charles answered. "I can keep it dark for the present,
+till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South
+Africa."
+
+So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he
+broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He
+remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial
+concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu
+fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
+
+"What, dollars?" the lady said, smiling and accentuating the
+tip-tilted nose a little more. "Oh, Mr. Porter, it ain't good
+enough!"
+
+"No, pounds, my dear madam," Charles responded. "Pounds sterling,
+you know. In United States currency, seven thousand five hundred."
+
+"I guess Elihu would just jump at it," Mrs. Quackenboss replied,
+looking at him quizzically.
+
+The doctor laughed. "You make a good bid, sir," he said, in his slow
+American way, emphasising all the most unimportant words: "_But_ you
+overlook one element. I _am_ a man of science, not a speculator. I
+_have_ trained myself for medical work, _at_ considerable cost, _in_
+the best schools of Europe, _and_ I do not propose _to_ fling away
+the results _of_ much arduous labour _by_ throwing myself out
+elastically _into_ a new line of work _for_ which my faculties _may_
+not perhaps equally adapt me."
+
+("How thoroughly American!" I murmured, in the background.)
+
+Charles insisted; all in vain. Mrs. Quackenboss was impressed; but
+the doctor smiled always a sphinx-like smile, and reiterated his
+belief in the unfitness of mid-stream as an ideal place for swopping
+horses. The more he declined, and the better he talked, the more
+eager Charles became each day to secure him. And, as if on purpose
+to draw him on, the doctor each day gave more and more surprising
+proofs of his practical abilities. "I _am_ not a specialist," he said.
+"I just ketch the drift, appropriate the kernel, _and_ let the rest
+slide."
+
+He could do anything, it really seemed, from shoeing a mule to
+conducting a camp-meeting; he was a capital chemist, a very sound
+surgeon, a fair judge of horseflesh, a first class euchre player,
+and a pleasing baritone. When occasion demanded he could occupy a
+pulpit. He had invented a cork-screw which brought him in a small
+revenue; and he was now engaged in the translation of a Polish work
+on the "Application of Hydrocyanic Acid to the Cure of Leprosy."
+
+Still, we reached New York without having got any nearer our goal,
+as regarded Dr. Quackenboss. He came to bid us good-bye at the quay,
+with that sphinx-like smile still playing upon his features. Charles
+clutched the dispatch-box with one hand, and Mrs. Quackenboss's
+little palm with the other.
+
+"_Don't_ tell us," he said, "this is good-bye--for ever!" And his
+voice quite faltered.
+
+"I guess so, Mr. Porter," the pretty American replied, with a
+telling glance. "What hotel do you patronise?"
+
+"The Murray Hill," Charles responded.
+
+"Oh my, ain't that odd?" Mrs. Quackenboss echoed. "The Murray Hill!
+Why, that's just where we're going too, Elihu!"
+
+The upshot of which was that Charles persuaded them, before
+returning to Kentucky, to diverge for a few days with us to Lake
+George and Lake Champlain, where he hoped to over-persuade the
+recalcitrant doctor.
+
+To Lake George therefore we went, and stopped at the excellent hotel
+at the terminus of the railway. We spent a good deal of our time on
+the light little steamers that ply between that point and the road
+to Ticonderoga. Somehow, the mountains mirrored in the deep green
+water reminded me of Lucerne; and Lucerne reminded me of the little
+curate. For the first time since we left England a vague terror
+seized me. _Could_ Elihu Quackenboss be Colonel Clay again, still
+dogging our steps through the opposite continent?
+
+I could not help mentioning my suspicion to Charles--who, strange
+to say, pooh-poohed it. He had been paying great court to Mrs.
+Quackenboss that day, and was absurdly elated because the little
+American had rapped his knuckles with her fan and called him "a
+real silly."
+
+Next day, however, an odd thing occurred. We strolled out together,
+all four of us, along the banks of the lake, among woods just
+carpeted with strange, triangular flowers--trilliums, Mrs.
+Quackenboss called them--and lined with delicate ferns in the
+first green of springtide.
+
+I began to grow poetical. (I wrote verses in my youth before I went
+to South Africa.) We threw ourselves on the grass, near a small
+mountain stream that descended among moss-clad boulders from the
+steep woods above us. The Kentuckian flung himself at full length
+on the sward, just in front of Charles. He had a strange head of
+hair, very thick and shaggy. I don't know why, but, of a sudden, it
+reminded me of the Mexican Seer, whom we had learned to remember as
+Colonel Clay's first embodiment. At the same moment the same thought
+seemed to run through Charles's head; for, strange to say, with
+a quick impulse he leant forward and examined it. I saw Mrs.
+Quackenboss draw back in wonder. The hair looked too thick and close
+for nature. It ended abruptly, I now remembered, with a sharp line
+on the forehead. Could this, too, be a wig? It seemed very probable.
+
+Even as I thought that thought, Charles appeared to form a sudden
+and resolute determination. With one lightning swoop he seized the
+doctor's hair in his powerful hand, and tried to lift it off bodily.
+He had made a bad guess. Next instant the doctor uttered a loud and
+terrified howl of pain, while several of his hairs, root and all,
+came out of his scalp in Charles's hand, leaving a few drops of
+blood on the skin of the head in the place they were torn from.
+There was no doubt at all it was not a wig, but the Kentuckian's
+natural hirsute covering.
+
+The scene that ensued I am powerless to describe. My pen is unequal
+to it. The doctor arose, not so much angry as astonished, white and
+incredulous. "What did you do that for, any way?" he asked, glaring
+fiercely at my brother-in-law. Charles was all abject apology. He
+began by profusely expressing his regret, and offering to make any
+suitable reparation, monetary or otherwise. Then he revealed his
+whole hand. He admitted that he was Sir Charles Vandrift, the famous
+millionaire, and that he had suffered egregiously from the endless
+machinations of a certain Colonel Clay, a machiavellian rogue,
+who had hounded him relentlessly round the capitals of Europe. He
+described in graphic detail how the impostor got himself up with
+wigs and wax, so as to deceive even those who knew him intimately;
+and then he threw himself on Dr. Quackenboss's mercy, as a man who
+had been cruelly taken in so often that he could not help suspecting
+the best of men falsely. Mrs. Quackenboss admitted it was natural to
+have suspicions--"Especially," she said, with candour, "as you're
+not the first to observe the notable way Elihu's hair seems to
+originate from his forehead," and she pulled it up to show us. But
+Elihu himself sulked on in the dumps: his dignity was offended.
+"_If_ you wanted to know," he said, "you might as well have asked me.
+Assault _and_ battery _is_ not the right way to test whether _a_
+citizen's hair is primitive or acquired."
+
+"It was an impulse," Charles pleaded; "an instinctive impulse!"
+
+"Civilised man restrains his impulses," the doctor answered. "You
+_have_ lived too long _in_ South Africa, Mr. Porter--I mean, Sir
+Charles Vandrift, if that's the right way _to_ address such a
+gentleman. You appear to _have_ imbibed the habits _and_ manners
+of the Kaffirs you lived among."
+
+For the next two days, I will really admit, Charles seemed more
+wretched than I could have believed it possible for him to be on
+somebody else's account. He positively grovelled. The fact was,
+he saw he had hurt Dr. Quackenboss's feelings, and--much to my
+surprise--he seemed truly grieved at it. If the doctor would have
+accepted a thousand pounds down to shake hands at once and forget
+the incident--in my opinion Charles would have gladly paid it.
+Indeed, he said as much in other words to the pretty American--for
+he could not insult her by offering her money. Mrs. Quackenboss did
+her best to make it up, for she was a kindly little creature, in
+spite of her roguishness; but Elihu stood aloof. Charles urged him
+still to go out to South Africa, increasing his bait to two thousand
+a year; yet the doctor was immovable. "No, no," he said; "I had half
+decided _to_ accept your offer--_till_ that unfortunate impulse; but
+that settled the question. _As_ an American citizen, I decline _to_
+become the representative _of_ a British nobleman who takes such means
+_of_ investigating questions which affect the hair and happiness _of_
+his fellow-creatures."
+
+I don't know whether Charles was most disappointed at missing the
+chance of so clever a superintendent for the mine at Cloetedorp, or
+elated at the novel description of himself as "a British nobleman;"
+which is not precisely our English idea of a colonial knighthood.
+
+Three days later, accordingly, the Quackenbosses left the Lakeside
+Hotel. We were bound on an expedition up the lake ourselves, when
+the pretty little woman burst in with a dash to tell us they were
+leaving. She was charmingly got up in the neatest and completest of
+American travelling-dresses. Charles held her hand affectionately.
+"I'm sorry it's good-bye," he said. "I have done my best to secure
+your husband."
+
+"You couldn't have tried harder than I did," the little woman
+answered, and the tip-tilted nose looked quite pathetic; "for I just
+hate to be buried right down there in Kentucky! However, Elihu is
+the sort of man a woman can neither drive nor lead; so we've got to
+put up with him." And she smiled upon us sweetly, and disappeared
+for ever.
+
+Charles was disconsolate all that day. Next morning he rose, and
+announced his intention of setting out for the West on his tour of
+inspection. He would recreate by revelling in Colorado silver lodes.
+
+We packed our own portmanteaus, for Charles had not brought even
+Simpson with him, and then we prepared to set out by the morning
+train for Saratoga.
+
+Up till almost the last moment Charles nursed his dispatch-box.
+But as the "baggage-smashers" were taking down our luggage, and a
+chambermaid was lounging officiously about in search of a tip,
+he laid it down for a second or two on the centre table while he
+collected his other immediate impedimenta. He couldn't find his
+cigarette-case, and went back to the bedroom for it. I helped
+him hunt, but it had disappeared mysteriously. That moment lost
+him. When we had found the cigarette-case, and returned to the
+sitting-room--lo, and behold! the dispatch-box was missing!
+Charles questioned the servants, but none of them had noticed it.
+He searched round the room--not a trace of it anywhere.
+
+"Why, I laid it down here just two minutes ago!" he cried. But it
+was not forthcoming.
+
+"It'll turn up in time," I said. "Everything turns up in the
+end--including Mrs. Quackenboss's nose."
+
+"Seymour," said my brother-in-law, "your hilarity is inopportune."
+
+To say the truth, Charles was beside himself with anger. He took
+the elevator down to the "Bureau," as they call it, and complained
+to the manager. The manager, a sharp-faced New Yorker, smiled as
+he remarked in a nonchalant way that guests with valuables were
+required to leave them in charge of the management, in which case
+they were locked up in the safe and duly returned to the depositor
+on leaving. Charles declared somewhat excitedly that he had been
+robbed, and demanded that nobody should be allowed to leave the
+hotel till the dispatch-box was discovered. The manager, quite cool,
+and obtrusively picking his teeth, responded that such tactics might
+be possible in an hotel of the European size, putting up a couple
+of hundred guests or so; but that an American house, with over a
+thousand visitors--many of whom came and went daily--could not
+undertake such a quixotic quest on behalf of a single foreign
+complainant.
+
+That epithet, "foreign," stung Charles to the quick. No Englishman
+can admit that he is anywhere a foreigner. "Do you know who I am,
+sir?" he asked, angrily. "I am Sir Charles Vandrift, of London--a
+member of the English Parliament."
+
+"You may be the Prince of Wales," the man answered, "for all I care.
+You'll get the same treatment as anyone else, in America. But if
+you're Sir Charles Vandrift," he went on, examining his books, "how
+does it come you've registered as Mr. Peter Porter?"
+
+Charles grew red with embarrassment. The difficulty deepened.
+
+The dispatch-box, always covered with a leather case, bore on its
+inner lid the name "Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G.," distinctly
+painted in the orthodox white letters. This was a painful
+contretemps: he had lost his precious documents; he had given a
+false name; and he had rendered the manager supremely careless
+whether or not he recovered his stolen property. Indeed, seeing he
+had registered as Porter, and now "claimed" as Vandrift, the manager
+hinted in pretty plain language he very much doubted whether there
+had ever been a dispatch-box in the matter at all, or whether, if
+there were one, it had ever contained any valuable documents.
+
+We spent a wretched morning. Charles went round the hotel,
+questioning everybody as to whether they had seen his dispatch-box.
+Most of the visitors resented the question as a personal imputation;
+one fiery Virginian, indeed, wanted to settle the point then and
+there with a six-shooter. Charles telegraphed to New York to prevent
+the shares and coupons from being negotiated; but his brokers
+telegraphed back that, though they had stopped the numbers as far
+as possible, they did so with reluctance, as they were not aware of
+Sir Charles Vandrift being now in the country. Charles declared he
+wouldn't leave the hotel till he recovered his property; and for
+myself, I was inclined to suppose we would have to remain there
+accordingly for the term of our natural lives--and longer.
+
+That night again we spent at the Lakeside Hotel. In the small hours
+of the morning, as I lay awake and meditated, a thought broke
+across me. I was so excited by it that I rose and rushed into my
+brother-in-law's bedroom. "Charles, Charles!" I exclaimed, "we have
+taken too much for granted once more. Perhaps Elihu Quackenboss
+carried off your dispatch-box!"
+
+"You fool," Charles answered, in his most unamiable manner (he
+applies that word to me with increasing frequency); "is _that_ what
+you've waked me up for? Why, the Quackenbosses left Lake George
+on Tuesday morning, and I had the dispatch-box in my own hands
+on Wednesday."
+
+"We have only their word for it," I cried. "Perhaps they stopped
+on--and walked off with it afterwards!"
+
+"We will inquire to-morrow," Charles answered. "But I confess I
+don't think it was worth waking me up for. I could stake my life
+on that little woman's integrity."
+
+We _did_ inquire next morning--with this curious result: it turned
+out that, though the Quackenbosses had left the Lakeside Hotel on
+Tuesday, it was only for the neighbouring Washington House, which
+they quitted on Wednesday morning, taking the same train for
+Saratoga which Charles and I had intended to go by. Mrs. Quackenboss
+carried a small brown paper parcel in her hands--in which, under the
+circumstances, we had little difficulty in recognising Charles's
+dispatch-box, loosely enveloped.
+
+Then I knew how it was done. The chambermaid, loitering about the
+room for a tip, was--Mrs. Quackenboss! It needed but an apron to
+transform her pretty travelling-dress into a chambermaid's costume;
+and in any of those huge American hotels one chambermaid more or
+less would pass in the crowd without fear of challenge.
+
+"We will follow them on to Saratoga," Charles cried. "Pay the bill
+at once, Seymour."
+
+"Certainly," I answered. "Will you give me some money?"
+
+Charles clapped his hand to his pockets. "All, all in the
+dispatch-box," he murmured.
+
+That tied us up another day, till we could get some ready cash from
+our agents in New York; for the manager, already most suspicious at
+the change of name and the accusation of theft, peremptorily refused
+to accept Charles's cheque, or anything else, as he phrased it,
+except "hard money." So we lingered on perforce at Lake George in
+ignoble inaction.
+
+"Of course," I observed to my brother-in-law that evening, "Elihu
+Quackenboss was Colonel Clay."
+
+"I suppose so," Charles murmured resignedly. "Everybody I meet seems
+to be Colonel Clay nowadays--except when I believe they _are_, in
+which case they turn out to be harmless nobodies. But who would have
+thought it was he after I pulled his hair out? Or after he persisted
+in his trick, even when I suspected him--which, he told us at
+Seldon, was against his first principles?"
+
+A light dawned upon me again. But, warned by previous ebullitions,
+I expressed myself this time with becoming timidity. "Charles,"
+I suggested, "may we not here again have been the slaves of a
+preconception? We thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay--for
+no better reason than because he wore a wig. We thought Elihu
+Quackenboss wasn't Colonel Clay--for no better reason than because
+he didn't wear one. But how do we know he _ever_ wears wigs? Isn't it
+possible, after all, that those hints he gave us about make-up, when
+he was Medhurst the detective, were framed on purpose, so as to
+mislead and deceive us? And isn't it possible what he said of his
+methods at the Seamew's island that day was similarly designed in
+order to hoodwink us?"
+
+"That is so obvious, Sey," my brother-in-law observed, in a most
+aggrieved tone, "that I should have thought any secretary worth his
+salt would have arrived at it instantly."
+
+I abstained from remarking that Charles himself had not arrived at
+it even now, until I told him. I thought that to say so would serve
+no good purpose. So I merely went on: "Well, it seems to me likely
+that when he came as Medhurst, with his hair cut short, he was
+really wearing his own natural crop, in its simplest form and of
+its native hue. By now it has had time to grow long and bushy. When
+he was David Granton, no doubt, he clipped it to an intermediate
+length, trimmed his beard and moustache, and dyed them all red, to
+a fine Scotch colour. As the Seer, again, he wore his hair much
+the same as Elihu's; only, to suit the character, more combed and
+fluffy. As the little curate, he darkened it and plastered it down.
+As Von Lebenstein, he shaved close, but cultivated his moustache to
+its utmost dimensions, and dyed it black after the Tyrolese fashion.
+He need never have had a wig; his own natural hair would throughout
+have been sufficient, allowing for intervals."
+
+"You're right, Sey," my brother-in-law said, growing almost
+friendly. "I will do you the justice to admit that's the nearest
+thing we have yet struck out to an idea for tracking him."
+
+On the Saturday morning a letter arrived which relieved us a little
+from our momentary tension. It was from our enemy himself--but most
+different in tone from his previous bantering communications:--
+
+
+"Saratoga, Friday.
+
+"SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Herewith I return your dispatch-box,
+intact, with the papers untouched. As you will readily observe,
+it has not even been opened.
+
+"You will ask me the reason for this strange conduct. Let me be
+serious for once, and tell you truthfully.
+
+"White Heather and I (for I will stick to Mr. Wentworth's
+judicious sobriquet) came over on the Etruria with you,
+intending, as usual, to make something out of you. We followed
+you to Lake George--for I had 'forced a card,' after my
+habitual plan, by inducing you to invite us, with the fixed
+intention of playing a particular trick upon you. It formed no
+part of our original game to steal your dispatch-box; that I
+consider a simple and elementary trick unworthy the skill of a
+practised operator. We persisted in the preparations for our
+coup, till you pulled my hair out. Then, to my great surprise,
+I saw you exhibited a degree of regret and genuine compunction
+with which, till that moment, I could never have credited you.
+You thought you had hurt my feelings; and you behaved more
+like a gentleman than I had previously known you to do. You
+not only apologised, but you also endeavoured voluntarily to
+make reparation. That produced an effect upon me. You may not
+believe it, but I desisted accordingly from the trick I had
+prepared for you.
+
+"I might also have accepted your offer to go to South Africa,
+where I could soon have cleared out, having embezzled thousands.
+But, then, I should have been in a position of trust and
+responsibility--and I am not _quite_ rogue enough to rob you
+under those conditions.
+
+"Whatever else I am, however, I am not a hypocrite. I do
+not pretend to be anything more than a common swindler. If
+I return you your papers intact, it is only on the same
+principle as that of the Australian bushranger, who made a
+lady _a present_ of her own watch because she had sung to him
+and reminded him of England. In other words, he did not take
+it from her. In like manner, when I found you had behaved, for
+once, like a gentleman, contrary to my expectation, I declined
+to go on with the trick I then meditated. Which does not mean
+to say I may not hereafter play you some other. _That_ will
+depend upon your future good behaviour.
+
+"Why, then, did I get White Heather to purloin your dispatch-box,
+with intent to return it? Out of pure lightness of heart? Not
+so; but in order to let you see I really meant it. If I had
+gone off with no swag, and then written you this letter, you
+would not have believed me. You would have thought it was
+merely another of my failures. But when I have actually got
+all your papers into my hands, and give them up again of my
+own free will, you must see that I mean it.
+
+"I will end, as I began, seriously. My trade has not quite
+crushed out of me all germs or relics of better feeling; and
+when I see a millionaire behave like a man, I feel ashamed
+to take advantage of that gleam of manliness.
+
+"Yours, with a tinge of penitence, but still a rogue, CUTHBERT CLAY."
+
+
+The first thing Charles did on receiving this strange communication
+was to bolt downstairs and inquire for the dispatch-box. It had
+just arrived by Eagle Express Company. Charles rushed up to our
+rooms again, opened it feverishly, and counted his documents. When
+he found them all safe, he turned to me with a hard smile. "This
+letter," he said, with quivering lips, "I consider still more
+insulting than all his previous ones."
+
+But, for myself, I really thought there was a ring of truth about
+it. Colonel Clay was a rogue, no doubt--a most unblushing rogue;
+but even a rogue, I believe, has his better moments.
+
+And the phrase about the "position of trust and responsibility"
+touched Charles to the quick, I suppose, in re the Slump in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. Though, to be sure, it was a hit at me as
+well, over the ten per cent commission.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GAME OF POKER
+
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said, with a deep-drawn sigh, as we
+left Lake George next day by the Rennselaer and Saratoga Railroad,
+"no more Peter Porter for me, _if_ you please! I'm sick of disguises.
+Now that we know Colonel Clay is here in America, they serve no
+good purpose; so I may as well receive the social consideration and
+proper respect to which my rank and position naturally entitle me."
+
+"And which they secure for the most part (except from hotel clerks),
+even in this republican land," I answered briskly.
+
+For in my humble opinion, for sound copper-bottomed snobbery,
+registered A1 at Lloyd's, give _me_ the free-born American citizen.
+
+We travelled through the States, accordingly, for the next four
+months, from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Florida,
+under our own true names, "Confirming the churches," as Charles
+facetiously put it--or in other words, looking into the management
+and control of railways, syndicates, mines, and cattle-ranches. We
+inquired about everything. And the result of our investigations
+appeared to be, as Charles further remarked, that the Sabeans who
+so troubled the sons of Job seemed to have migrated in a body to
+Kansas and Nebraska, and that several thousand head of cattle seemed
+mysteriously to vanish, a la Colonel Clay, into the pure air of the
+prairies just before each branding.
+
+However, we were fortunate in avoiding the incursions of the Colonel
+himself, who must have migrated meanwhile on some enchanted carpet
+to other happy hunting-grounds.
+
+It was chill October before we found ourselves safe back in New
+York, en route for England. So long a term of freedom from the
+Colonel's depredations (as Charles fondly imagined--but I will not
+anticipate) had done my brother-in-law's health and spirits a world
+of good; he was so lively and cheerful that he began to fancy his
+tormentor must have succumbed to yellow fever, then raging in New
+Orleans, or eaten himself ill, as we nearly did ourselves, on a
+generous mixture of clam-chowder, terrapin, soft-shelled crabs,
+Jersey peaches, canvas-backed ducks, Catawba wine, winter cherries,
+brandy cocktails, strawberry-shortcake, ice-creams, corn-dodger,
+and a judicious brew commonly known as a Colorado corpse-reviver.
+However that may be, Charles returned to New York in excellent
+trim; and, dreading in that great city the wiles of his antagonist,
+he cheerfully accepted the invitation of his brother millionaire,
+Senator Wrengold of Nevada, to spend a few days before sailing in
+the Senator's magnificent and newly-finished palace at the upper
+end of Fifth Avenue.
+
+"There, at least, I shall be safe, Sey," he said to me plaintively,
+with a weary smile. "Wrengold, at any rate, won't try to take me
+in--except, of course, in the regular way of business."
+
+Boss-Nugget Hall (as it is popularly christened) is perhaps the
+handsomest brown stone mansion in the Richardsonian style on all
+Fifth Avenue. We spent a delightful week there. The lines had fallen
+to us in pleasant places. On the night we arrived Wrengold gave
+a small bachelor party in our honour. He knew Sir Charles was
+travelling without Lady Vandrift, and rightly judged he would prefer
+on his first night an informal party, with cards and cigars, instead
+of being bothered with the charming, but still somewhat hampering
+addition of female society.
+
+The guests that evening were no more than seven, all told, ourselves
+included--making up, Wrengold said, that perfect number, an octave.
+He was a nouveau riche himself--the newest of the new--commonly
+known in exclusive old-fashioned New York society as the Gilded
+Squatter; for he "struck his reef" no more than ten years ago; and
+he was therefore doubly anxious, after the American style, to be
+"just dizzy with culture." In his capacity of Maecenas, he had
+invited amongst others the latest of English literary arrivals in
+New York--Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous poet, and leader of the
+Briar-rose school of West-country fiction.
+
+"You know him in London, of course?" he observed to Charles, with
+a smile, as we waited dinner for our guests.
+
+"No," Charles answered stolidly. "I have not had that honour.
+We move, you see, in different circles."
+
+I observed by a curious shade which passed over Senator Wrengold's
+face that he quite misapprehended my brother-in-law's meaning.
+Charles wished to convey, of course, that Mr. Coleyard belonged to
+a mere literary and Bohemian set in London, while he himself moved
+on a more exalted plane of peers and politicians. But the Senator,
+better accustomed to the new-rich point of view, understood Charles
+to mean that _he_ had not the entree of that distinguished coterie in
+which Mr. Coleyard posed as a shining luminary. Which naturally
+made him rate even higher than before his literary acquisition.
+
+At two minutes past the hour the poet entered. Even if we had not
+been already familiar with his portrait at all ages in The Strand
+Magazine, we should have recognised him at once for a genuine bard
+by his impassioned eyes, his delicate mouth, the artistic twirl of
+one gray lock upon his expansive brow, the grizzled moustache that
+gave point and force to the genial smile, and the two white rows of
+perfect teeth behind it. Most of our fellow-guests had met Coleyard
+before at a reception given by the Lotus Club that afternoon, for
+the bard had reached New York but the previous evening; so Charles
+and I were the only visitors who remained to be introduced to him.
+The lion of the hour was attired in ordinary evening dress, with
+no foppery of any kind, but he wore in his buttonhole a dainty
+blue flower whose name I do not know; and as he bowed distantly to
+Charles, whom he surveyed through his eyeglass, the gleam of a big
+diamond in the middle of his shirt-front betrayed the fact that the
+Briar-rose school, as it was called (from his famous epic), had at
+least succeeded in making money out of poetry. He explained to us a
+little later, in fact, that he was over in New York to look after
+his royalties. "The beggars," he said, "only gave me eight hundred
+pounds on my last volume. I couldn't stand _that_, you know; for a
+modern bard, moving with the age, can only sing when duly wound up;
+so I've run across to investigate. Put a penny in the slot, don't
+you see, and the poet will pipe for you."
+
+"Exactly like myself," Charles said, finding a point in common.
+"_I'm_ interested in mines; and I, too, have come over to look
+after my royalties."
+
+The poet placed his eyeglass in his eye once more, and surveyed
+Charles deliberately from head to foot. "Oh," he murmured slowly. He
+said not a word more; but somehow, everybody felt that Charles was
+demolished. I saw that Wrengold, when we went in to dinner, hastily
+altered the cards that marked their places. He had evidently put
+Charles at first to sit next the poet; he varied that arrangement
+now, setting Algernon Coleyard between a railway king and a magazine
+editor. I have seldom seen my respected brother-in-law so completely
+silenced.
+
+The poet's conduct during dinner was most peculiar. He kept quoting
+poetry at inopportune moments.
+
+"Roast lamb or boiled turkey, sir?" said the footman.
+
+"Mary had a little lamb," said the poet. "I shall imitate Mary."
+
+Charles and the Senator thought the remark undignified.
+
+After dinner, however, under the mellowing influence of some
+excellent Roederer, Charles began to expand again, and grew lively
+and anecdotal. The poet had made us all laugh not a little with
+various capital stories of London literary society--at least two of
+them, I think, new ones; and Charles was moved by generous emulation
+to contribute his own share to the amusement of the company. He was
+in excellent cue. He is not often brilliant; but when he chooses, he
+has a certain dry vein of caustic humour which is decidedly funny,
+though not perhaps strictly without being vulgar. On this particular
+night, then, warmed with the admirable Wrengold champagne--the
+best made in America--he launched out into a full and embroidered
+description of the various ways in which Colonel Clay had deceived
+him. I will not say that he narrated them in full with the same
+frankness and accuracy that I have shown in these pages; he
+suppressed not a few of the most amusing details--on no other
+ground, apparently, than because they happened to tell against
+himself; and he enlarged a good deal on the surprising cleverness
+with which several times he had nearly secured his man; but still,
+making all allowances for native vanity in concealment and addition,
+he was distinctly funny--he represented the matter for once in its
+ludicrous rather than in its disastrous aspect. He observed also,
+looking around the table, that after all he had lost less by
+Colonel Clay in four years of persecution than he often lost by
+one injudicious move in a single day on the London Stock Exchange;
+while he seemed to imply to the solid men of New York, that he
+would cheerfully sacrifice such a fleabite as that, in return for
+the amusement and excitement of the chase which the Colonel had
+afforded him.
+
+The poet was pleased. "You are a man of spirit, Sir Charles," he
+said. "I love to see this fine old English admiration of pluck and
+adventure! The fellow must really have some good in him, after all.
+I should like to take notes of a few of those stories; they would
+supply nice material for basing a romance upon."
+
+"I hardly know whether I'm exactly the man to make the hero of a
+novel," Charles murmured, with complacence. And he certainly didn't
+look it.
+
+"_I_ was thinking rather of Colonel Clay as the hero," the poet
+responded coldly.
+
+"Ah, that's the way with you men of letters," Charles answered,
+growing warm. "You always have a sneaking sympathy with the rascals."
+
+"That may be better," Coleyard retorted, in an icy voice, "than
+sympathy with the worst forms of Stock Exchange speculation."
+
+The company smiled uneasily. The railway king wriggled. Wrengold
+tried to change the subject hastily. But Charles would not be put
+down.
+
+"You must hear the end, though," he said. "That's not quite the
+worst. The meanest thing about the man is that he's also a
+hypocrite. He wrote me _such_ a letter at the end of his last
+trick--here, positively here, in America." And he proceeded to give
+his own version of the Quackenboss incident, enlivened with sundry
+imaginative bursts of pure Vandrift fancy.
+
+When Charles spoke of Mrs. Quackenboss the poet smiled. "The worst
+of married women," he said, "is--that you can't marry them; the
+worst of unmarried women is--that they want to marry you." But when
+it came to the letter, the poet's eye was upon my brother-in-law.
+Charles, I must fain admit, garbled the document sadly. Still, even
+so, some gleam of good feeling remained in its sentences. But
+Charles ended all by saying, "So, to crown his misdemeanours, the
+rascal shows himself a whining cur and a disgusting Pharisee."
+
+"Don't you think," the poet interposed, in his cultivated drawl, "he
+may have really meant it? Why should not some grain of compunction
+have stirred his soul still?--some remnant of conscience made him
+shrink from betraying a man who confided in him? I have an idea,
+myself, that even the worst of rogues have always some good in them.
+I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the affection
+and fidelity of women."
+
+"Oh, I said so!" Charles sneered. "I told you you literary men have
+always an underhand regard for a scoundrel."
+
+"Perhaps so," the poet answered. "For we are all of us human. Let
+him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." And then he
+relapsed into moody silence.
+
+We rose from table. Cigars went round. We adjourned to the
+smoking-room. It was a Moorish marvel, with Oriental hangings.
+There, Senator Wrengold and Charles exchanged reminiscences of
+bonanzas and ranches and other exciting post-prandial topics; while
+the magazine editor cut in now and again with a pertinent inquiry
+or a quaint and sarcastic parallel instance. It was clear he had an
+eye to future copy. Only Algernon Coleyard sat brooding and silent,
+with his chin on one hand, and his brow intent, musing and gazing at
+the embers in the fireplace. The hand, by the way, was remarkable
+for a curious, antique-looking ring, apparently of Egyptian or
+Etruscan workmanship, with a projecting gem of several large facets.
+Once only, in the midst of a game of whist, he broke out with a
+single comment.
+
+"Hawkins was made an earl," said Charles, speaking of some London
+acquaintance.
+
+"What for?" asked the Senator.
+
+"Successful adulteration," said the poet tartly.
+
+"Honours are easy," the magazine editor put in.
+
+"And two by tricks to Sir Charles," the poet added.
+
+Towards the close of the evening, however--the poet still remaining
+moody, not to say positively grumpy--Senator Wrengold proposed a
+friendly game of Swedish poker. It was the latest fashionable
+variant in Western society on the old gambling round, and few of us
+knew it, save the omniscient poet and the magazine editor. It turned
+out afterwards that Wrengold proposed that particular game because
+he had heard Coleyard observe at the Lotus Club the same afternoon
+that it was a favourite amusement of his. Now, however, for a while
+he objected to playing. He was a poor man, he said, and the rest
+were all rich; why should he throw away the value of a dozen golden
+sonnets just to add one more pinnacle to the gilded roofs of a
+millionaire's palace? Besides, he was half-way through with an ode
+he was inditing to Republican simplicity. The pristine austerity
+of a democratic senatorial cottage had naturally inspired him with
+memories of Dentatus, the Fabii, Camillus. But Wrengold, dimly aware
+he was being made fun of somehow, insisted that the poet must take
+a hand with the financiers. "You can pass, you know," he said, "as
+often as you like; and you can stake low, or go it blind, according
+as you're inclined to. It's a democratic game; every man decides for
+himself how high he will play, except the banker; and you needn't
+take bank unless you want it."
+
+"Oh, if you insist upon it," Coleyard drawled out, with languid
+reluctance, "I'll play, of course. I won't spoil your evening.
+But remember, I'm a poet; I have strange inspirations."
+
+The cards were "squeezers"--that is to say, had the suit and the
+number of pips in each printed small in the corner, as well as over
+the face, for ease of reference. We played low at first. The poet
+seldom staked; and when he did--a few pounds--he lost, with singular
+persistence. He wanted to play for doubloons or sequins, and could
+with difficulty be induced to condescend to dollars. Charles looked
+across at him at last; the stakes by that time were fast rising
+higher, and we played for ready money. Notes lay thick on the green
+cloth. "Well," he murmured provokingly, "how about your inspiration?
+Has Apollo deserted you?"
+
+It was an unwonted flight of classical allusion for Charles, and I
+confess it astonished me. (I discovered afterwards he had cribbed
+it from a review in that evening's Critic.) But the poet smiled.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "I am waiting for one now. When it comes,
+you may be sure you shall have the benefit of it."
+
+Next round, Charles dealing and banking, the poet staked on his
+card, unseen as usual. He staked like a gentleman. To our immense
+astonishment he pulled out a roll of notes, and remarked, in a quiet
+tone, "I have an inspiration now. _Half-hearted_ will do. I go five
+thousand." That was dollars, of course; but it amounted to a
+thousand pounds in English money--high play for an author.
+
+Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his--and won
+a thousand.
+
+"Good shot!" Charles murmured, pretending not to mind, though he
+detests losing.
+
+"Inspiration!" the poet mused, and looked once more abstracted.
+
+Charles dealt again. The poet watched the deal with boiled-fishy
+eyes. His thoughts were far away. His lips moved audibly. "Myrtle,
+and kirtle, and hurtle," he muttered. "They'll do for three. Then
+there's turtle, meaning dove; and that finishes the possible. Laurel
+and coral make a very bad rhyme. Try myrtle; don't you think so?"
+
+"Do you stake?" Charles asked, severely, interrupting his reverie.
+
+The poet started. "No, pass," he replied, looking down at his card,
+and subsided into muttering. We caught a tremor of his lips again,
+and heard something like this: "Not less but more republican than
+thou, Half-hearted watcher by the Western sea, After long years I
+come to visit thee, And test thy fealty to that maiden vow, That
+bound thee in thy budding prime For Freedom's bride--"
+
+"Stake?" Charles interrupted, inquiringly, again.
+
+"Yes, five thousand," the poet answered dreamily, pushing forward
+his pile of notes, and never ceasing from his murmur: "For Freedom's
+bride to all succeeding time. Succeeding; succeeding; weak word,
+succeeding. Couldn't go five dollars on it."
+
+Charles turned his card once more. The poet had won again. Charles
+passed over his notes. The poet raked them in with a far-away air,
+as one who looks at infinity, and asked if he could borrow a pencil
+and paper. He had a few priceless lines to set down which might
+otherwise escape him.
+
+"This is play," Charles said pointedly. "_Will_ you kindly attend to
+one thing or the other?"
+
+The poet glanced at him with a compassionate smile. "I told you I
+had inspirations," he said. "They always come together. I can't win
+your money as fast as I would like, unless at the same time I am
+making verses. Whenever I hit upon a good epithet, I back my luck,
+don't you see? I won a thousand on _half-hearted_ and a thousand on
+_budding_; if I were to back _succeeding_, I should lose, to a
+certainty. You understand my system?"
+
+"I call it pure rubbish," Charles answered. "However, continue.
+Systems were made for fools--and to suit wise men. Sooner or later
+you _must_ lose at such a stupid fancy."
+
+The poet continued. "For Freedom's bride to all _ensuing_ time."
+
+"Stake!" Charles cried sharply. We each of us staked.
+
+"_Ensuing_," the poet murmured. "To all _ensuing_ time. First-rate
+epithet that. I go ten thousand, Sir Charles, on _ensuing_."
+
+We all turned up. Some of us lost, some won; but the poet had
+secured his two thousand sterling.
+
+"I haven't that amount about me," Charles said, in that austerely
+nettled voice which he always assumes when he loses at cards;
+"but--I'll settle it with you to-morrow."
+
+"Another round?" the host asked, beaming.
+
+"No, thank you," Charles answered; "Mr. Coleyard's inspirations
+come too pat for my taste. His luck beats mine. I retire from the
+game, Senator."
+
+Just at that moment a servant entered, bearing a salver, with a
+small note in an envelope. "For Mr. Coleyard," he observed; "and
+the messenger said, _urgent_."
+
+Coleyard tore it open hurriedly. I could see he was agitated. His
+face grew white at once.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he said. "I--I must go back instantly. My
+wife is dangerously ill--quite a sudden attack. Forgive me, Senator.
+Sir Charles, you shall have your revenge to-morrow."
+
+It was clear that his voice faltered. We felt at least he was a man
+of feeling. He was obviously frightened. His coolness forsook him.
+He shook hands as in a dream, and rushed downstairs for his
+dust-coat. Almost as he closed the front door, a new guest entered,
+just missing him in the vestibule.
+
+"Halloa, you men," he said, "we've been taken in, do you know? It's
+all over the Lotus. The man we made an honorary member of the club
+to-day is _not_ Algernon Coleyard. He's a blatant impostor. There's
+a telegram come in on the tape to-night saying Algernon Coleyard is
+dangerously ill at his home in England."
+
+Charles gasped a violent gasp. "Colonel Clay!" he shouted, aloud.
+"And once more he's done me. There's not a moment to lose. After
+him, gentlemen! after him!"
+
+Never before in our lives had we had such a close shave of catching
+and fixing the redoubtable swindler. We burst down the stairs in a
+body, and rushed out into Fifth Avenue. The pretended poet had only
+a hundred yards' start of us, and he saw he was discovered. But he
+was an excellent runner. So was I, weight for age; and I dashed
+wildly after him. He turned round a corner; it proved to lead
+nowhere, and lost him time. He darted back again, madly. Delighted
+with the idea that I was capturing so famous a criminal, I redoubled
+my efforts--and came up with him, panting. He was wearing a light
+dust-coat. I seized it in my hands. "I've got you at last!" I cried;
+"Colonel Clay, I've got you!"
+
+He turned and looked at me. "Ha, old Ten Per Cent!" he called out,
+struggling. "It's you, then, is it? Never, never to _you_, sir!" And
+as he spoke, he somehow flung his arms straight out behind him, and
+let the dust-coat slip off, which it easily did, the sleeves being
+new and smoothly silk-lined. The suddenness of the movement threw
+me completely off my guard, and off my legs as well. I was clinging
+to the coat and holding him. As the support gave way I rolled over
+backward, in the mud of the street, and hurt my back seriously. As
+for Colonel Clay, with a nervous laugh, he bolted off at full speed
+in his evening coat, and vanished round a corner.
+
+It was some seconds before I had sufficiently recovered my breath to
+pick myself up again, and examine my bruises. By this time Charles
+and the other pursuers had come up, and I explained my condition to
+them. Instead of commending me for my zeal in his cause--which had
+cost me a barked arm and a good evening suit--my brother-in-law
+remarked, with an unfeeling sneer, that when I had so nearly caught
+my man I might as well have held him.
+
+"I have his coat, at least," I said. "That may afford us a clue."
+And I limped back with it in my hands, feeling horribly bruised and
+a good deal shaken.
+
+When we came to examine the coat, however, it bore no maker's name;
+the strap at the back, where the tailor proclaims with pride his
+handicraft, had been carefully ripped off, and its place was taken
+by a tag of plain black tape without inscription of any sort. We
+searched the breast-pocket. A handkerchief, similarly nameless,
+but of finest cambric. The side-pockets--ha, what was this? I drew
+a piece of paper out in triumph. It was a note--a real find--the
+one which the servant had handed to our friend just before at the
+Senator's.
+
+We read it through breathlessly:--
+
+
+"DARLING PAUL,--I _told_ you it was too dangerous. You should have
+listened to me. You ought _never_ to have imitated any real person. I
+happened to glance at the hotel tape just now, to see the quotations
+for Cloetedorps to-day, and what do you think I read as part of the
+latest telegram from England? 'Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous
+poet, is lying on his death-bed at his home in Devonshire.' By this
+time all New York knows. Don't stop one minute. Say I'm dangerously
+ill, and come away at once. Don't return to the hotel. I am removing
+our things. Meet me at Mary's. Your devoted, MARGOT."
+
+
+"This is _very_ important," Charles said. "This _does_ give us a clue.
+We know two things now: his real name is Paul--whatever else it may
+be, and Madame Picardet's is Margot."
+
+I searched the pocket again, and pulled out a ring. Evidently he had
+thrust these two things there when he saw me pursuing him, and had
+forgotten or neglected them in the heat of the melee.
+
+I looked at it close. It was the very ring I had noticed on his
+finger while he was playing Swedish poker. It had a large compound
+gem in the centre, set with many facets, and rising like a pyramid
+to a point in the middle. There were eight faces in all, some of
+them composed of emerald, amethyst, or turquoise. But _one_ face--the
+one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye--was _not_
+a gem at all, but an extremely tiny convex mirror. In a moment I
+spotted the trick. He held this hand carelessly on the table while
+my brother-in-law dealt; and when he saw that the suit and number of
+his own card mirrored in it by means of the squeezers were better
+than Charles's, he had "an inspiration," and backed his luck--or
+rather his knowledge--with perfect confidence. I did not doubt,
+either, that his odd-looking eyeglass was a powerful magnifier which
+helped him in the trick. Still, we tried another deal, by way of
+experiment--I wearing the ring; and even with the naked eye I was
+able to distinguish in every case the suit and pips of the card that
+was dealt me.
+
+"Why, that was almost dishonest," the Senator said, drawing back.
+He wished to show us that even far-Western speculators drew a line
+somewhere.
+
+"Yes," the magazine editor echoed. "To back your skill is legal;
+to back your luck is foolish; to back your knowledge is--"
+
+"Immoral," I suggested.
+
+"Very good business," said the magazine editor.
+
+"It's a simple trick," Charles interposed. "I should have spotted
+it if it had been done by any other fellow. But his patter about
+inspiration put me clean off the track. That's the rascal's dodge.
+He plays the regular conjurer's game of distracting your attention
+from the real point at issue--so well that you never find out what
+he's really about till he's sold you irretrievably."
+
+We set the New York police upon the trail of the Colonel; but of
+course he had vanished at once, as usual, into the thin smoke of
+Manhattan. Not a sign could we find of him. "Mary's," we found an
+insufficient address.
+
+We waited on in New York for a whole fortnight. Nothing came of it.
+We never found "Mary's." The only token of Colonel Clay's presence
+vouchsafed us in the city was one of his customary insulting notes.
+It was conceived as follows:--
+
+
+"O ETERNAL GULLIBLE!--Since I saw you on Lake George, I have run
+back to London, and promptly come out again. I had business to
+transact there, indeed, which I have now completed; the excessive
+attentions of the English police sent me once more, like great
+Orion, "sloping slowly to the west." I returned to America in order
+to see whether or not you were still impenitent. On the day of my
+arrival I happened to meet Senator Wrengold, and accepted his kind
+invitation solely that I might see how far my last communication
+had had a proper effect upon you. As I found you quite obdurate,
+and as you furthermore persisted in misunderstanding my motives, I
+determined to read you one more small lesson. It nearly failed; and
+I confess the accident has affected my nerves a little. I am now
+about to retire from business altogether, and settle down for life
+at my place in Surrey. I mean to try just one more small coup; and,
+when that is finished, Colonel Clay will hang up his sword, like
+Cincinnatus, and take to farming. You need no longer fear me. I have
+realised enough to secure me for life a modest competence; and as
+I am not possessed like yourself with an immoderate greed of gain,
+I recognise that good citizenship demands of me now an early
+retirement in favour of some younger and more deserving rascal. I
+shall always look back with pleasure upon our agreeable adventures
+together; and as you hold my dust-coat, together with a ring and
+letter to which I attach importance, I consider we are quits, and
+I shall withdraw with dignity. Your sincere well-wisher, CUTHBERT
+CLAY, Poet."
+
+
+"Just like him!" Charles said, "to hold this one last coup over my
+head in terrorem. Though even when he has played it, why should I
+trust his word? A scamp like that may say it, of course, on purpose
+to disarm me."
+
+For my own part, I quite agreed with "Margot." When the Colonel was
+reduced to dressing the part of a known personage I felt he had
+reached almost his last card, and would be well advised to retire
+into Surrey.
+
+But the magazine editor summed up all in a word. "Don't believe
+that nonsense about fortunes being made by industry and ability,"
+he said. "In life, as at cards, two things go to produce
+success--the first is chance; the second is cheating."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE BERTILLON METHOD
+
+
+We had a terrible passage home from New York. The Captain told us he
+"knew every drop of water in the Atlantic personally"; and he had
+never seen them so uniformly obstreperous. The ship rolled in the
+trough; Charles rolled in his cabin, and would not be comforted. As
+we approached the Irish coast, I scrambled up on deck in a violent
+gale, and retired again somewhat precipitately to announce to my
+brother-in-law that we had just come in sight of the Fastnet Rock
+Lighthouse. Charles merely turned over in his berth and groaned.
+"I don't believe it," he answered. "I expect it is probably Colonel
+Clay in another of his manifold disguises!"
+
+At Liverpool, however, the Adelphi consoled him. We dined
+luxuriously in the Louis Quinze restaurant, as only millionaires
+can dine, and proceeded next day by Pullman car to London.
+
+We found Amelia dissolved in tears at a domestic cataclysm. It
+seemed that Cesarine had given notice.
+
+Charles was scarcely home again when he began to bethink him of
+the least among his investments. Like many other wealthy men, my
+respected connection is troubled more or less, in the background of
+his consciousness, by a pervading dread that he will die a beggar.
+To guard against this misfortune--which I am bound to admit nobody
+else fears for him--he invested, several years ago, a sum of two
+hundred thousand pounds in Consols, to serve as a nest-egg in case
+of the collapse of Golcondas and South Africa generally. It is
+part of the same amiable mania, too, that he will not allow the
+dividend-warrants on this sum to be sent to him by post, but
+insists, after the fashion of old ladies and country parsons, upon
+calling personally at the Bank of England four times a year to claim
+his interest. He is well known by sight to not a few of the clerks;
+and his appearance in Threadneedle Street is looked forward to with
+great regularity within a few weeks of each lawful quarter-day.
+
+So, on the morning after our arrival in town, Charles observed to
+me, cheerfully, "Sey, I must run into the City to-day to claim my
+dividends. There are two quarters owing."
+
+I accompanied him in to the Bank. Even that mighty official, the
+beadle at the door, unfastened the handle of the millionaire's
+carriage. The clerk who received us smiled and nodded. "How much?"
+he asked, after the stereotyped fashion.
+
+"Two hundred thousand," Charles answered, looking affable.
+
+The clerk turned up the books. "Paid!" he said, with
+decision. "What's your game, sir, if I may ask you?"
+
+"Paid!" Charles echoed, drawing back.
+
+The clerk gazed across at him. "Yes, Sir Charles," he answered, in
+a somewhat severe tone. "You must remember you drew a quarter's
+dividend from myself--last week--at this very counter."
+
+Charles stared at him fixedly. "Show me the signature," he said at
+last, in a slow, dazed fashion. I suspected mischief.
+
+The clerk pushed the book across to him. Charles examined the name
+close.
+
+"Colonel Clay again!" he cried, turning to me with a despondent air.
+"He must have dressed the part. I shall die in the workhouse, Sey!
+That man has stolen away even my nest-egg from me."
+
+I saw it at a glance. "Mrs. Quackenboss!" I put in. "Those portraits
+on the Etruria! It was to help him in his make-up! You recollect,
+she sketched your face and figure at all possible angles."
+
+"And last quarter's?" Charles inquired, staggering.
+
+The clerk turned up the entry. "Drawn on the 10th of July,"
+he answered, carelessly, as if it mattered nothing.
+
+Then I knew why the Colonel had run across to England.
+
+Charles positively reeled. "Take me home, Sey," he cried. "I am
+ruined, ruined! He will leave me with not half a million in the
+world. My poor, poor boys will beg their bread, unheeded, through
+the streets of London!"
+
+(As Amelia has landed estate settled upon her worth a hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, this last contingency affected me less to
+tears than Charles seemed to think necessary.)
+
+We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
+once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
+paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
+Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
+twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
+I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
+would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
+
+After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
+reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
+said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
+measuring and registering criminals."
+
+"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
+like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
+step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
+Colonel Clay--"
+
+"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you _did_ catch him,
+you didn't hold him."
+
+I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
+"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
+cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
+had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
+his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
+turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
+into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
+
+"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said. "I was told in New York
+that Dr. Frank Beddersley, of London, was the best exponent of the
+Bertillon system now living in England; and to Beddersley I shall
+go. Or, rather, I'll invite him here to lunch to-morrow."
+
+"Who told you of him?" I inquired. "_Not_ Dr. Quackenboss, I hope;
+nor yet Mr. Algernon Coleyard?"
+
+Charles paused and reflected. "No, neither of them," he answered,
+after a short internal deliberation. "It was that magazine editor
+chap we met at Wrengold's."
+
+"_He's_ all right," I said; "or, at least, I think so."
+
+So we wrote a polite invitation to Dr. Beddersley, who pursued
+the method professionally, asking him to come and lunch with us
+at Mayfair at two next day.
+
+Dr. Beddersley came--a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows,
+and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel
+Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments. He
+was clear and concise. His manner was scientific. He told us at once
+that though the Bertillon method was of little use till the expert
+had seen the criminal once, yet if we had consulted him earlier
+he might probably have saved us some serious disasters. "A man
+so ingenious as this," he said, "would no doubt have studied
+Bertillon's principles himself, and would take every possible
+means to prevent recognition by them. Therefore, you might almost
+disregard the nose, the chin, the moustache, the hair, all of which
+are capable of such easy alteration. But there remain some features
+which are more likely to persist--height, shape of head, neck,
+build, and fingers; the timbre of the voice, the colour of the iris.
+Even these, again, may be partially disguised or concealed; the way
+the hair is dressed, the amount of padding, a high collar round the
+throat, a dark line about the eyelashes, may do more to alter the
+appearance of a face than you could readily credit."
+
+"So we know," I answered.
+
+"The voice, again," Dr. Beddersley continued. "The voice itself may
+be most fallacious. The man is no doubt a clever mimic. He could,
+perhaps, compress or enlarge his larynx. And I judge from what you
+tell me that he took characters each time which compelled him
+largely to alter and modify his tone and accent."
+
+"Yes," I said. "As the Mexican Seer, he had of course a
+Spanish intonation. As the little curate, he was a cultivated
+North-countryman. As David Granton, he spoke gentlemanly Scotch.
+As Von Lebenstein, naturally, he was a South-German, trying to
+express himself in French. As Professor Schleiermacher, he was a
+North-German speaking broken English. As Elihu Quackenboss, he
+had a fine and pronounced Kentucky flavour. And as the poet, he
+drawled after the fashion of the clubs, with lingering remnants
+of a Devonshire ancestry."
+
+"Quite so," Dr. Beddersley answered. "That is just what I should
+expect. Now, the question is, do you know him to be one man, or
+is he really a gang? Is he a name for a syndicate? Have you any
+photographs of Colonel Clay himself in any of his disguises?"
+
+"Not one," Charles answered. "He produced some himself, when he was
+Medhurst the detective. But he pocketed them at once; and we never
+recovered them."
+
+"Could you get any?" the doctor asked. "Did you note the name and
+address of the photographer?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Charles replied. "But the police at Nice showed
+us two. Perhaps we might borrow them."
+
+"Until we get them," Dr. Beddersley said, "I don't know that we can
+do anything. But if you can once give me two distinct photographs of
+the real man, no matter how much disguised, I could tell you whether
+they were taken from one person; and, if so, I think I could point
+out certain details in common which might aid us to go upon."
+
+All this was at lunch. Amelia's niece, Dolly Lingfield, was there,
+as it happened; and I chanced to note a most guilty look stealing
+over her face all the while we were talking. Suspicious as I had
+learned to become by this time, however, I did not suspect Dolly of
+being in league with Colonel Clay; but, I confess, I wondered what
+her blush could indicate. After lunch, to my surprise, Dolly called
+me away from the rest into the library. "Uncle Seymour," she said
+to me--the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am
+not in any way related to her--"_I_ have some photographs of Colonel
+Clay, if you want them."
+
+"_You_?" I cried, astonished. "Why, Dolly, how did you get them?"
+
+For a minute or two she showed some little hesitation in telling me.
+At last she whispered, "You won't be angry if I confess?" (Dolly is
+just nineteen, and remarkably pretty.)
+
+"My child," I said, "why _should_ I be angry? You may confide in me
+implicitly." (With a blush like that, who on earth could be angry
+with her?)
+
+"And you won't tell Aunt Amelia or Aunt Isabel?" she inquired
+somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Not for worlds," I answered. (As a matter of fact, Amelia and
+Isabel are the last people in the world to whom I should dream
+of confiding anything that Dolly might tell me.)
+
+"Well, I was stopping at Seldon, you know, when Mr. David Granton
+was there," Dolly went on; "--or, rather, when that scamp pretended
+he was David Granton; and--and--you won't be angry with me, will
+you?--one day I took a snap-shot with my kodak at him and Aunt
+Amelia!"
+
+"Why, what harm was there in that?" I asked, bewildered. The wildest
+stretch of fancy could hardly conceive that the Honourable David had
+been _flirting_ with Amelia.
+
+Dolly coloured still more deeply. "Oh, you know Bertie Winslow?" she
+said. "Well, he's interested in photography--and--and also in _me_.
+And he's invented a process, which isn't of the slightest practical
+use, he says; but its peculiarity is, that it reveals textures. At
+least, that's what Bertie calls it. It makes things come out so. And
+he gave me some plates of his own for my kodak--half-a-dozen or more,
+and--I took Aunt Amelia with them."
+
+"I still fail to see," I murmured, looking at her comically.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Seymour," Dolly cried. "How blind you men are!
+If Aunt Amelia knew she would never forgive me. Why, you _must_
+understand. The--the rouge, you know, and the pearl powder!"
+
+"Oh, it comes out, then, in the photograph?" I inquired.
+
+"Comes out! I should _think_ so! It's like little black spots all
+over auntie's face. _such_ a guy as she looks in it!"
+
+"And Colonel Clay is in them too?"
+
+"Yes; I took them when he and auntie were talking together, without
+either of them noticing. And Bertie developed them. I've three of
+David Granton. Three beauties; _most_ successful."
+
+"Any other character?" I asked, seeing business ahead.
+
+Dolly hung back, still redder. "Well, the rest are with Aunt
+Isabel," she answered, after a struggle.
+
+"My dear child," I replied, hiding my feelings as a husband, "I will
+be brave. I will bear up even against that last misfortune!"
+
+Dolly looked up at me pleadingly. "It was here in London," she went
+on; "--when I was last with auntie. Medhurst was stopping in the
+house at the time; and I took him twice, tete-a-tete with Aunt
+Isabel!"
+
+"Isabel does not paint," I murmured, stoutly.
+
+Dolly hung back again. "No, but--her hair!" she suggested, in a
+faint voice.
+
+"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a--well, you
+know, a restorer."
+
+Dolly broke into a mischievous sly smile. "Yes, it is," she
+continued. "And, oh, Uncle Sey, where the restorer has--er--restored
+it, you know, it comes out in the photograph with a sort of
+brilliant iridescent metallic sheen on it!"
+
+"Bring them down, my dear," I said, gently patting her head with my
+hand. In the interests of justice, I thought it best not to frighten
+her.
+
+Dolly brought them down. They seemed to me poor things, yet well
+worth trying. We found it possible, on further confabulation, by
+the simple aid of a pair of scissors, so to cut each in two that
+all trace of Amelia and Isabel was obliterated. Even so, however,
+I judged it best to call Charles and Dr. Beddersley to a private
+consultation in the library with Dolly, and not to submit the
+mutilated photographs to public inspection by their joint subjects.
+Here, in fact, we had five patchy portraits of the redoubtable
+Colonel, taken at various angles, and in characteristic unstudied
+attitudes. A child had outwitted the cleverest sharper in Europe!
+
+The moment Beddersley's eye fell upon them, a curious look came over
+his face. "Why, these," he said, "are taken on Herbert Winslow's
+method, Miss Lingfield."
+
+"Yes," Dolly admitted timidly. "They are. He's--a friend of mine,
+don't you know; and--he gave me some plates that just fitted my
+camera."
+
+Beddersley gazed at them steadily. Then he turned to Charles.
+"And this young lady," he said, "has quite unintentionally and
+unconsciously succeeded in tracking Colonel Clay to earth at last.
+They are genuine photographs of the man--as he is--_without_ the
+disguises!"
+
+"They look to me most blotchy," Charles murmured. "Great black lines
+down the nose, and such spots on the cheek, too!"
+
+"Exactly," Beddersley put in. "Those are _differences in texture_.
+They show just how much of the man's face is human flesh--"
+
+"And how much wax," I ventured.
+
+"Not wax," the expert answered, gazing close. "This is some harder
+mixture. I should guess, a composition of gutta-percha and
+india-rubber, which takes colour well, and hardens when applied,
+so as to lie quite evenly, and resist heat or melting. Look here;
+that's an artificial scar, filling up a real hollow; and _this_ is
+an added bit to the tip of the nose; and _those_ are shadows, due
+to inserted cheek-pieces, within the mouth, to make the man look
+fatter!"
+
+"Why, of course," Charles cried. "India-rubber it must be. That's
+why in France they call him le Colonel Caoutchouc!"
+
+"Can you reconstruct the real face from them?" I inquired anxiously.
+
+Dr. Beddersley gazed hard at them. "Give me an hour or two," he
+said--"and a box of water-colours. I _think_ by that time--putting
+two and two together--I can eliminate the false and build up for you
+a tolerably correct idea of what the actual man himself looks like."
+
+We turned him into the library for a couple of hours, with the
+materials he needed; and by tea-time he had completed his first
+rough sketch of the elements common to the two faces. He brought
+it out to us in the drawing-room. I glanced at it first. It was
+a curious countenance, slightly wanting in definiteness, and not
+unlike those "composite photographs" which Mr. Galton produces by
+exposing two negatives on the same sensitised paper for ten seconds
+or so consecutively. Yet it struck me at once as containing
+something of Colonel Clay in every one of his many representations.
+The little curate, in real life, did not recall the Seer; nor
+did Elihu Quackenboss suggest Count von Lebenstein or Professor
+Schleiermacher. Yet in this compound face, produced only from
+photographs of David Granton and Medhurst, I could distinctly trace
+a certain underlying likeness to every one of the forms which the
+impostor had assumed for us. In other words, though he could make
+up so as to mask the likeness to his other characters, he could not
+make up so as to mask the likeness to his own personality. He could
+not wholly get rid of his native build and his genuine features.
+
+Besides these striking suggestions of the Seer and the curate,
+however, I felt vaguely conscious of having seen and observed
+_the man himself_ whom the water-colour represented, at some time,
+somewhere. It was not at Nice; it was not at Seldon; it was not at
+Meran; it was not in America. I believed I had been in a room with
+him somewhere in London.
+
+Charles was looking over my shoulder. He gave a sudden little start.
+"Why, I know that fellow!" he cried. "You recollect him, Sey; he's
+Finglemore's brother--the chap that didn't go out to China!"
+
+Then I remembered at once where it was that I had seen him--at the
+broker's in the city, before we sailed for America.
+
+"What Christian name?" I asked.
+
+Charles reflected a moment. "The same as the one in the note we got
+with the dust-coat," he answered, at last. "The man is Paul
+Finglemore!"
+
+"You will arrest him?" I asked.
+
+"Can I, on this evidence?"
+
+"We might bring it home to him."
+
+Charles mused for a moment. "We shall have nothing against him,"
+he said slowly, "except in so far as we can swear to his identity.
+And that may be difficult."
+
+Just at that moment the footman brought in tea. Charles wondered
+apparently whether the man, who had been with us at Seldon when
+Colonel Clay was David Granton, would recollect the face or
+recognise having seen it. "Look here, Dudley," he said, holding
+up the water-colour, "do you know that person?"
+
+Dudley gazed at it a moment. "Certainly, sir," he answered briskly.
+
+"Who is it?" Amelia asked. We expected him to answer, "Count von
+Lebenstein," or "Mr. Granton," or "Medhurst."
+
+Instead of that, he replied, to our utter surprise, "That's
+Cesarine's young man, my lady."
+
+"Cesarine's young man?" Amelia repeated, taken aback. "Oh, Dudley,
+surely, you _must_ be mistaken!"
+
+"No, my lady," Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. "He comes
+to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on,
+from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service."
+
+"When will he be coming again?" Charles asked, breathless.
+
+"He's downstairs now, sir," Dudley answered, unaware of the
+bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
+
+Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. "Secure
+that man," he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
+
+"_What_ man?" I asked, amazed. "Colonel Clay? The young man who's
+downstairs now with Cesarine?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, with decision; "Dudley!"
+
+I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what
+Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed
+from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door,
+prevented him.
+
+"I--I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles," Dudley cried,
+in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. "It--it wasn't me
+as cheated you." And he certainly didn't look it.
+
+"I daresay not," Charles answered. "But you don't leave this room
+till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your
+speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This villain
+and Cesarine have long been accomplices! The man's downstairs with
+her now. If we let Dudley quit the room he'll go down and tell them;
+and before we know where we are, that slippery eel will have
+wriggled through our fingers, as he always wriggles. He _is_ Paul
+Finglemore; he _is_ Cesarine's young man; and unless we arrest him
+now, without one minute's delay, he'll be off to Madrid or St.
+Petersburg by this evening!"
+
+"You are right," I answered. "It is now or never!"
+
+"Dudley," Charles said, in his most authoritative voice, "stop here
+till we tell you you may leave the room. Amelia and Dolly, don't let
+that man stir from where he's standing. If he does, restrain him.
+Seymour and Dr. Beddersley, come down with me to the servants' hall.
+I suppose that's where I shall find this person, Dudley?"
+
+"N--no, sir," Dudley stammered out, half beside himself with fright.
+"He's in the housekeeper's room, sir!"
+
+We went down to the lower regions in a solid phalanx of three. On
+the way we met Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, and also the butler,
+whom we pressed into the service. At the door of the housekeeper's
+room we paused, strategically. Voices came to us from within; one
+was Cesarine's, the other had a ring that reminded me at once of
+Medhurst and the Seer, of Elihu Quackenboss and Algernon Coleyard.
+They were talking together in French; and now and then we caught
+the sound of stifled laughter.
+
+We opened the door. "Est-il drole, donc, ce vieux?" the man's
+voice was saying.
+
+"C'est a mourir de rire," Cesarine's voice responded.
+
+We burst in upon them, red-handed.
+
+Cesarine's young man rose, with his hat in his hand, in a respectful
+attitude. It reminded me at once of Medhurst, as he stood talking
+his first day at Marvillier's to Charles; and also of the little
+curate, in his humblest moments as the disinterested pastor.
+
+With a sign to me to do likewise, Charles laid his hand firmly on
+the young man's shoulder. I looked in the fellow's face: there could
+be no denying it; Cesarine's young man was Paul Finglemore, our
+broker's brother.
+
+"Paul Finglemore," Charles said severely, "otherwise Cuthbert Clay,
+I arrest you on several charges of theft and conspiracy!"
+
+The young man glanced around him. He was surprised and perturbed;
+but, even so, his inexhaustible coolness never once deserted him.
+"What, five to one?" he said, counting us over. "Has law and order
+come down to this? Five respectable rascals to arrest one poor
+beggar of a chevalier d'industrie! Why, it's worse than New York.
+_There_, it was only you and me, you know, old Ten per Cent!"
+
+"Hold his hands, Simpson!" Charles cried, trembling lest his enemy
+should escape him.
+
+Paul Finglemore drew back even while we held his shoulders. "No,
+not _you_, sir," he said to the man, haughtily. "Don't dare to lay
+your hands upon me! Send for a constable if you wish, Sir Charles
+Vandrift; but I decline to be taken into custody by a valet!"
+
+"Go for a policeman," Dr. Beddersley said to Simpson, standing
+forward.
+
+The prisoner eyed him up and down. "Oh, Dr. Beddersley!" he said,
+relieved. It was evident he knew him. "If _you've_ tracked me
+strictly in accordance with Bertillon's methods, I don't mind so
+much. I will not yield to fools; I yield to science. I didn't think
+this diamond king had sense enough to apply to you. He's the most
+gullible old ass I ever met in my life. But if it's _you_ who have
+tracked me down, I can only submit to it."
+
+Charles held to him with a fierce grip. "Mind he doesn't break away,
+Sey," he cried. "He's playing his old game! Distrust the man's
+patter!"
+
+"Take care," the prisoner put in. "Remember Dr. Polperro! On what
+charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bubbling with indignation. "You cheated me at Nice,"
+he said; "at Meran; at New York; at Paris!"
+
+Paul Finglemore shook his head. "Won't do," he answered, calmly. "Be
+sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that
+on an extradition warrant."
+
+"Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,"
+Charles cried out excitedly. "Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or
+without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away
+from us!"
+
+At that moment Simpson returned with a convenient policeman, whom he
+had happened to find loitering about near the area steps, and whom I
+half suspected from his furtive smile of being a particular
+acquaintance of the household.
+
+Charles gave the man in charge formally. Paul Finglemore insisted
+that he should specify the nature of the particular accusation.
+To my great chagrin, Charles selected from his rogueries, as best
+within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the matter of the
+payment for the Castle of Lebenstein--made in London, and through
+a London banker. "I have a warrant on that ground," he said. I
+trembled as he spoke. I felt at once that the episode of the
+commission, the exposure of which I dreaded so much, must now
+become public.
+
+The policeman took the man in charge. Charles still held to him,
+grimly. As they were leaving the room the prisoner turned to
+Cesarine, and muttered something rapidly under his breath, in
+German. "Of which tongue," he said, turning to us blandly, "in spite
+of my kind present of a dictionary and grammar, you still doubtless
+remain in your pristine ignorance!"
+
+Cesarine flung herself upon him with wild devotion. "Oh, Paul,
+darling," she cried, in English, "I will not, I will not! I
+will never save myself at _your_ expense. If they send you to
+prison--Paul, Paul, I will go with you!"
+
+I remembered as she spoke what Mr. Algernon Coleyard had said to us
+at the Senator's. "Even the worst of rogues have always some good
+in them. I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the
+affection and fidelity of women."
+
+But the man, his hands still free, unwound her clasping arms with
+gentle fingers. "My child," he answered, in a soft tone, "I am sorry
+to say the law of England will not permit you to go with me. If it
+did" (his voice was as the voice of the poet we had met), "'stone
+walls would not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'" And bending
+forward, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
+
+We led him out to the door. The policeman, in obedience to Charles's
+orders, held him tight with his hand, but steadily refused, as the
+prisoner was not violent, to handcuff him. We hailed a passing
+hansom. "To Bow Street!" Charles cried, unceremoniously pushing in
+policeman and prisoner. The driver nodded. We called a four-wheeler
+ourselves, in which my brother-in-law, Dr. Beddersley and myself
+took our seats. "Follow the hansom!" Charles cried out. "Don't let
+him out of your sight. After him, close, to Bow Street!"
+
+I looked back, and saw Cesarine, half fainting, on the front door
+steps, while Dolly, bathed in tears, stood supporting the
+lady's-maid, and trying to comfort her. It was clear she had not
+anticipated this end to the adventure.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Charles screamed out, in a fresh fever of
+alarm, as we turned the first corner; "where's that hansom gone to?
+How do I know the fellow was a policeman at all? We should have
+taken the man in here. We ought never to have let him get out of
+our sight. For all we can tell to the contrary, the constable
+himself--may only be one of Colonel Clay's confederates!"
+
+And we drove in trepidation all the way to Bow Street.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD BAILEY
+
+
+When we reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our
+prisoner, after all, had _not_ evaded us. It was a false alarm.
+He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to
+make the first formal charge against him.
+
+Of course, on Charles's sworn declaration and my own, the man was
+at once remanded, bail being refused, owing both to the serious
+nature of the charge and the slippery character of the prisoner's
+antecedents. We went back to Mayfair--Charles, well satisfied that
+the man he dreaded was under lock and key; myself, not too well
+pleased to think that the man I dreaded was no longer at large, and
+that the trifling little episode of the ten per cent commission
+stood so near discovery.
+
+Next day the police came round in force, and had a long consultation
+with Charles and myself. They strongly urged that two other persons
+at least should be included in the charge--Cesarine and the little
+woman whom we had variously known as Madame Picardet, White Heather,
+Mrs. David Granton, and Mrs. Elihu Quackenboss. If these accomplices
+were arrested, they said, we could include conspiracy as one count
+in the indictment, which gave us an extra chance of conviction. Now
+they had got Colonel Clay, in fact, they naturally desired to keep
+him, and also to indict with him as many as possible of his pals
+and confederates.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty arose. Charles called me aside with a
+grave face into the library. "Seymour," he said, fixing me, "this
+is a serious business. I will not lightly swear away any woman's
+character. Colonel Clay himself--or, rather, Paul Finglemore--is an
+abandoned rogue, whom I do not desire to screen in any degree. But
+poor little Madame Picardet--she may be his lawful wife, and she
+may have acted implicitly under his orders. Besides, I don't know
+whether I could swear to her identity. Here's the photograph the
+police bring of the woman they believe to be Colonel Clay's chief
+female accomplice. Now, I ask you, does it in the least degree
+resemble that clever and amusing and charming little creature,
+who has so often deceived us?"
+
+In spite of Charles's gibes, I flatter myself I do really understand
+the whole duty of a secretary. It was clear from his voice he did
+not _wish_ me to recognise her; which, as it happened, I did not.
+"Certainly, it doesn't resemble her, Charles," I answered, with
+conviction in my voice. "I should never have known her." But I did
+not add that I should no more have known Colonel Clay himself in
+his character of Paul Finglemore, or of Cesarine's young man, as
+_that_ remark lay clearly outside my secretarial functions.
+
+Still, it flitted across my mind at the time that the Seer had made
+some casual remarks at Nice about a letter in Charles's pocket,
+presumably from Madame Picardet; and I reflected further that Madame
+Picardet in turn might possibly hold certain answers of Charles's,
+couched in such terms as he might reasonably desire to conceal from
+Amelia. Indeed, I must allow that under whatever disguise White
+Heather appeared to us, Charles was always that disguise's devoted
+slave from the first moment he met it. It occurred to me, therefore,
+that the clever little woman--call her what you will--might be the
+holder of more than one indiscreet communication.
+
+"Under these circumstances," Charles went on, in his austerest
+voice, "I cannot consent to be a party to the arrest of White
+Heather. I--I decline to identify her. In point of fact"--he grew
+more emphatic as he went on--"I don't think there is an atom of
+evidence of any sort against her. Not," he continued, after a
+pause, "that I wish in any degree to screen the guilty. Cesarine,
+now--Cesarine we have liked and trusted. She has betrayed our trust.
+She has sold us to this fellow. I have no doubt at all that she
+gave him the diamonds from Amelia's riviere; that she took us by
+arrangement to meet him at Schloss Lebenstein; that she opened and
+sent to him my letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie. Therefore, I say, we
+_ought_ to arrest Cesarine. But not White Heather--not Jessie; not
+that pretty Mrs. Quackenboss. Let the guilty suffer; why strike at
+the innocent--or, at worst, the misguided?"
+
+"Charles," I exclaimed, with warmth, "your sentiments do you honour.
+You are a man of feeling. And White Heather, I allow, is pretty
+enough and clever enough to be forgiven anything. You may rely upon
+my discretion. I will swear through thick and thin that I do not
+recognise this woman as Madame Picardet."
+
+Charles clasped my hand in silence. "Seymour," he said, after
+a pause, with marked emotion, "I felt sure I could rely upon
+your--er--honour and integrity. I have been rough upon you
+sometimes. But I ask your forgiveness. I see you understand the
+whole duties of your position."
+
+We went out again, better friends than we had been for months.
+I hoped, indeed, this pleasant little incident might help to
+neutralise the possible ill-effects of the ten per cent disclosure,
+should Finglemore take it into his head to betray me to my employer.
+As we emerged into the drawing-room, Amelia beckoned me aside
+towards her boudoir for a moment.
+
+"Seymour," she said to me, in a distinctly frightened tone, "I have
+treated you harshly at times, I know, and I am very sorry for it.
+But I want you to help me in a most painful difficulty. The police
+are quite right as to the charge of conspiracy; that designing
+little minx, White Heather, or Mrs. David Granton, or whatever else
+we're to call her, ought certainly to be prosecuted--and sent to
+prison, too--and have her absurd head of hair cut short and combed
+straight for her. But--and you will help me here, I'm sure, dear
+Seymour--I _cannot_ allow them to arrest my Cesarine. I don't pretend
+to say Cesarine isn't guilty; the girl has behaved most ungratefully
+to me. She has robbed me right and left, and deceived me without
+compunction. Still--I put it to you as a married man--_can_ any woman
+afford to go into the witness-box, to be cross-examined and teased
+by her own maid, or by a brute of a barrister on her maid's
+information? I assure you, Seymour, the thing's not to be dreamt of.
+There are details of a lady's life--known only to her maid--which
+_cannot_ be made public. Explain as much of this as you think well to
+Charles, and _make_ him understand that _if_ he insists upon arresting
+Cesarine, I shall go into the box--and swear my head off to prevent
+any one of the gang from being convicted. I have told Cesarine as
+much; I have promised to help her: I have explained that I am her
+friend, and that if _she'll_ stand by _me_, _I'll_ stand by _her_,
+and by this hateful young man of hers."
+
+I saw in a moment how things went. Neither Charles nor Amelia could
+face cross-examination on the subject of one of Colonel Clay's
+accomplices. No doubt, in Amelia's case, it was merely a question
+of rouge and hair-dye; but what woman would not sooner confess to
+a forgery or a murder than to those toilet secrets?
+
+I returned to Charles, therefore, and spent half an hour in
+composing, as well as I might, these little domestic difficulties.
+In the end, it was arranged that if Charles did his best to protect
+Cesarine from arrest, Amelia would consent to do her best in return
+on behalf of Madame Picardet.
+
+We had next the police to tackle--a more difficult business. Still,
+even _they_ were reasonable. They had caught Colonel Clay, they
+believed, but their chance of convicting him depended entirely upon
+Charles's identification, with mine to back it. The more they urged
+the necessity of arresting the female confederates, however, the
+more stoutly did Charles declare that for his part he could by no
+means make sure of Colonel Clay himself, while he utterly declined
+to give evidence of any sort against either of the women. It was a
+difficult case, he said, and he felt far from confident even about
+the man. If _his_ decision faltered, and he failed to identify, the
+case was closed; no jury could convict with nothing to convict upon.
+
+At last the police gave way. No other course was open to them. They
+had made an important capture; but they saw that everything depended
+upon securing their witnesses, and the witnesses, if interfered
+with, were likely to swear to absolutely nothing.
+
+Indeed, as it turned out, before the preliminary investigation at
+Bow Street was completed (with the usual remands), Charles had been
+thrown into such a state of agitation that he wished he had never
+caught the Colonel at all.
+
+"I wonder, Sey," he said to me, "why I didn't offer the rascal two
+thousand a year to go right off to Australia, and be rid of him for
+ever! It would have been cheaper for my reputation than keeping him
+about in courts of law in England. The worst of it is, when once the
+best of men gets into a witness-box, there's no saying with what
+shreds and tatters of a character he may at last come out of it!"
+
+"In _your_ case, Charles," I answered, dutifully, "there can be
+no such doubt; except, perhaps, as regards the Craig-Ellachie
+Consolidated."
+
+Then came the endless bother of "getting up the case" with the
+police and the lawyers. Charles would have retired from it
+altogether by that time, but, most unfortunately, he was bound
+over to prosecute. "You couldn't take a lump sum to let me off?"
+he said, jokingly, to the inspector. But I knew in my heart it was
+one of the "true words spoken in jest" that the proverb tells of.
+
+Of course we could see now the whole building-up of the great
+intrigue. It had been worked out as carefully as the Tichborne
+swindle. Young Finglemore, as the brother of Charles's broker,
+knew from the outset all about his affairs; and, after a gentle
+course of preliminary roguery, he laid his plans deep for a campaign
+against my brother-in-law. Everything had been deliberately
+designed beforehand. A place had been found for Cesarine as Amelia's
+maid--needless to say, by means of forged testimonials. Through her
+aid the swindler had succeeded in learning still more of the family
+ways and habits, and had acquired a knowledge of certain facts which
+he proceeded forthwith to use against us. His first attack, as the
+Seer, had been cleverly designed so as to give us the idea that we
+were a mere casual prey; and it did not escape Charles's notice now
+that the detail of getting Madame Picardet to inquire at the Credit
+Marseillais about his bank had been solemnly gone through on purpose
+to blind us to the obvious truth that Colonel Clay was already in
+full possession of all such facts about us. It was by Cesarine's
+aid, again, that he became possessed of Amelia's diamonds, that
+he received the letter addressed to Lord Craig-Ellachie, and
+that he managed to dupe us over the Schloss Lebenstein business.
+Nevertheless, all these things Charles determined to conceal in
+court; he did not give the police a single fact that would turn
+against either Cesarine or Madame Picardet.
+
+As for Cesarine, of course, she left the house immediately after the
+arrest of the Colonel, and we heard of her no more till the day of
+the trial.
+
+When that great day came, I never saw a more striking sight than the
+Old Bailey presented. It was crammed to overflowing. Charles arrived
+early, accompanied by his solicitor. He was so white and troubled
+that he looked much more like prisoner than prosecutor. Outside the
+court a pretty little woman stood, pale and anxious. A respectful
+crowd stared at her silently. "Who is that?" Charles asked. Though
+we could both of us guess, rather than see, it was White Heather.
+
+"That's the prisoner's wife," the inspector on duty replied. "She's
+waiting to see him enter. I'm sorry for her, poor thing. She's a
+perfect lady."
+
+"So she seems," Charles answered, scarcely daring to face her.
+
+At that moment she turned. Her eyes fell upon his. Charles paused
+for a second and looked faltering. There was in those eyes just the
+faintest gleam of pleading recognition, but not a trace of the old
+saucy, defiant vivacity. Charles framed his lips to words, but
+without uttering a sound. Unless I greatly mistake, the words he
+framed on his lips were these: "I will do my best for him."
+
+We pushed our way in, assisted by the police. Inside the court we
+saw a lady seated, in a quiet black dress, with a becoming bonnet.
+A moment passed before I knew--it was Cesarine. "Who is--that
+person?" Charles asked once more of the nearest inspector, desiring
+to see in what way he would describe her.
+
+And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir."
+
+Charles started back, surprised. "But--I was told--a lady outside
+was Mrs. Paul Finglemore," he broke in, much puzzled.
+
+"Very likely," the inspector replied, unmoved. "We have plenty that
+way. _When_ a gentleman has as many aliases as Colonel Clay, you can
+hardly expect him to be over particular about having only _one_ wife
+between them, can you?"
+
+"Ah, I see," Charles muttered, in a shocked voice. "Bigamy!"
+
+The inspector looked stony. "Well, not exactly that," he replied,
+"occasional marriage."
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth tried the case. "I'm sorry it's him, Sey,"
+my brother-in-law whispered in my ear. (He said _him_, not _he_,
+because, whatever else Charles is, he is _not_ a pedant; the English
+language as it is spoken by most educated men is quite good enough
+for his purpose.) "I only wish it had been Sir Edward Easy. Easy's a
+man of the world, and a man of society; he would feel for a person
+in _my_ position. He wouldn't allow these beasts of lawyers to
+badger and pester me. He would back his order. But Rhadamanth is one
+of your modern sort of judges, who make a merit of being what they
+call 'conscientious,' and won't hush up anything. I admit I'm afraid
+of him. I shall be glad when it's over."
+
+"Oh, _you'll_ pull through all right," I said in my capacity of
+secretary. But I didn't think it.
+
+The judge took his seat. The prisoner was brought in. Every eye
+seemed bent upon him. He was neatly and plainly dressed, and,
+rogue though he was, I must honestly confess he looked at least a
+gentleman. His manner was defiant, not abject like Charles's. He
+knew he was at bay, and he turned like a man to face his accusers.
+
+We had two or three counts on the charge, and, after some formal
+business, Sir Charles Vandrift was put into the box to bear witness
+against Finglemore.
+
+Prisoner was unrepresented. Counsel had been offered him, but he
+refused their aid. The judge even advised him to accept their help;
+but Colonel Clay, as we all called him mentally still, declined to
+avail himself of the judge's suggestion.
+
+"I am a barrister myself, my lord," he said--"called some nine years
+ago. I can conduct my own defence, I venture to think, better than
+any of these my learned brethren."
+
+Charles went through his examination-in-chief quite swimmingly.
+He answered with promptitude. He identified the prisoner without
+the slightest hesitation as the man who had swindled him under
+the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
+Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
+slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
+anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
+A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
+to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
+be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
+In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.
+
+When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
+to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
+questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
+He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
+himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
+persuasively.
+
+Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.
+
+Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
+then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
+he was seated beside Cesarine.
+
+"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
+pouncing upon the prosecutor.
+
+Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
+still whiter. It was--to all outer appearance--the Reverend Richard
+Brabazon in propria persona.
+
+Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
+man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
+shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.
+
+"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
+It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
+We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
+recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them--not
+of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
+Charles's discomfiture.
+
+The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
+second photograph.
+
+"Now, can you tell me who _that_ is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
+brow-beating Old Bailey voice.
+
+With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
+"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
+disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."
+
+This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
+on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
+the jurisdiction.
+
+Even while Charles spoke, a gentleman whom I had noticed before,
+sitting beside White Heather, with a handkerchief to his face,
+rose as abruptly as the parson. Colonel Clay indicated him with
+a graceful movement of his hand. "And _this_ gentleman?" he asked
+calmly.
+
+Charles was fairly staggered. It was the obvious original of the
+false Von Lebenstein.
+
+The photograph went round the box once more. The jury smiled
+incredulously. Charles had given himself away. His overweening
+confidence and certainty had ruined him.
+
+Then Colonel Clay, leaning forward, and looking quite engaging,
+began a new line of cross-examination. "We have seen, Sir Charles,"
+he said, "that we cannot implicitly trust your identifications. Now
+let us see how far we can trust your other evidence. First, then,
+about those diamonds. You tried to buy them, did you not, from a
+person who represented himself as the Reverend Richard Brabazon,
+because you believed he thought they were paste; and if you could,
+you would have given him 10 pounds or so for them. _Do_ you think
+that was honest?"
+
+"I object to this line of cross-examination," our leading counsel
+interposed. "It does not bear on the prosecutor's evidence. It is
+purely recriminatory."
+
+Colonel Clay was all bland deference. "I wish, my lord," he said,
+turning round, "to show that the prosecutor is a person unworthy of
+credence in any way. I desire to proceed upon the well-known legal
+maxim of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. I believe I am permitted
+to shake the witness's credit?"
+
+"The prisoner is entirely within his rights," Rhadamanth answered,
+looking severely at Charles. "And I was wrong in suggesting that
+he needed the advice or assistance of counsel."
+
+Charles wriggled visibly. Colonel Clay perked up. Bit by bit, with
+dexterous questions, Charles was made to acknowledge that he wanted
+to buy diamonds at the price of paste, knowing them to be real; and,
+a millionaire himself, would gladly have diddled a poor curate out
+of a couple of thousand.
+
+"I was entitled to take advantage of my special knowledge," Charles
+murmured feebly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," the prisoner answered. "But, while professing
+friendship and affection for a clergyman and his wife, in straitened
+circumstances, you were prepared, it seems, to take three thousand
+pounds' worth of goods off their hands for ten pounds, if you could
+have got them at that price. Is not that so?"
+
+Charles was compelled to admit it.
+
+The prisoner went onto the David Granton incident. "When you offered
+to amalgamate with Lord Craig-Ellachie," he asked, "had you or
+had you not heard that a gold-bearing reef ran straight from your
+concession into Lord Craig-Ellachie's, and that his portion of the
+reef was by far the larger and more important?"
+
+Charles wriggled again, and our counsel interposed; but Rhadamanth
+was adamant. Charles had to allow it.
+
+And so, too, with the incident of the Slump in Golcondas.
+Unwillingly, shamefacedly, by torturing steps, Charles was compelled
+to confess that he had sold out Golcondas--he, the Chairman of the
+company, after repeated declarations to shareholders and others
+that he would do no such thing--because he thought Professor
+Schleiermacher had made diamonds worthless. He had endeavoured to
+save himself by ruining his company. Charles tried to brazen it out
+with remarks to the effect that business was business. "And fraud is
+fraud," Rhadamanth added, in his pungent way.
+
+"A man must protect himself," Charles burst out.
+
+"At the expense of those who have put their trust in his honour and
+integrity," the judge commented coldly.
+
+After four mortal hours of it, all to the same effect, my respected
+brother-in-law left the witness-box at last, wiping his brow and
+biting his lip, with the very air of a culprit. His character had
+received a most serious blow. While he stood in the witness-box all
+the world had felt it was _he_ who was the accused and Colonel Clay
+who was the prosecutor. He was convicted on his own evidence of
+having tried to induce the supposed David Granton to sell his
+father's interests into an enemy's hands, and of every other shady
+trick into which his well-known business acuteness had unfortunately
+hurried him during the course of his adventures. I had but one
+consolation in my brother-in-law's misfortunes--and that was the
+thought that a due sense of his own shortcomings might possibly make
+him more lenient in the end to the trivial misdemeanours of a poor
+beggar of a secretary!
+
+_I_ was the next in the box. I do not desire to enlarge upon my own
+achievements. I will draw a decent veil, indeed, over the painful
+scene that ensued when I finished my evidence. I can only say I was
+more cautious than Charles in my recognition of the photographs;
+but I found myself particularly worried and harried over other
+parts of my cross-examination. Especially was I shaken about that
+misguided step I took in the matter of the cheque for the Lebenstein
+commission--a cheque which Colonel Clay handed to me with the utmost
+politeness, requesting to know whether or not it bore my signature.
+I caught Charles's eye at the end of the episode, and I venture to
+say the expression it wore was one of relief that I too had tripped
+over a trifling question of ten per cent on the purchase money of
+the castle.
+
+Altogether, I must admit, if it had not been for the police
+evidence, we would have failed to make a case against our man
+at all. But the police, I confess, had got up their part of the
+prosecution admirably. Now that they knew Colonel Clay to be
+really Paul Finglemore, they showed with great cleverness how Paul
+Finglemore's disappearances and reappearances in London exactly
+tallied with Colonel Clay's appearances and disappearances
+elsewhere, under the guise of the little curate, the Seer,
+David Granton, and the rest of them. Furthermore, they showed
+experimentally how the prisoner at the bar might have got himself
+up in the various characters; and, by means of a wax bust, modelled
+by Dr. Beddersley from observations at Bow Street, and aided by
+additions in the gutta-percha composition after Dolly Lingfield's
+photographs, they succeeded in proving that the face as it stood
+could be readily transformed into the faces of Medhurst and David
+Granton. Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up
+on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in
+putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul
+Finglemore.
+
+The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my
+respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the
+case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not
+even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission
+further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound
+to protect their own interests--as secretaries or as principals.
+This I took for forgiveness; and I continued diligently to attend
+the trial, and watch the case in my employer's interest.
+
+The defence was ingenious, even if somewhat halting. It consisted
+simply of an attempt to prove throughout that Charles and I had made
+our prisoner the victim of a mistaken identity. Finglemore put into
+the box the ingenuous original of the little curate--the Reverend
+Septimus Porkington, as it turned out, a friend of his family; and
+he showed that it was the Reverend Septimus himself who had sat to
+a photographer in Baker Street for the portrait which Charles too
+hastily identified as that of Colonel Clay in his personification of
+Mr. Richard Brabazon. He further elicited the fact that the portrait
+of the Count von Lebenstein was really taken from Dr. Julius Keppel,
+a Tyrolese music-master, residing at Balham, whom he put into the
+box, and who was well known, as it chanced, to the foreman of the
+jury. Gradually he made it clear to us that no portraits existed of
+Colonel Clay at all, except Dolly Lingfield's--so it dawned upon
+me by degrees that even Dr. Beddersley could only have been misled
+if we had succeeded in finding for him the alleged photographs of
+Colonel Clay as the count and the curate, which had been shown us
+by Medhurst. Altogether, the prisoner based his defence upon the
+fact that no more than two witnesses directly identified him; while
+one of those two had positively sworn that he recognised as the
+prisoner's two portraits which turned out, by independent evidence,
+to be taken from other people!
+
+The judge summed up in a caustic way which was pleasant to neither
+party. He asked the jury to dismiss from their minds entirely the
+impression created by what he frankly described as "Sir Charles
+Vandrift's obvious dishonesty." They must not allow the fact that he
+was a millionaire--and a particularly shady one--to prejudice their
+feelings in favour of the prisoner. Even the richest--and vilest--of
+men must be protected. Besides, this was a public question. If a
+rogue cheated a rogue, he must still be punished. If a murderer
+stabbed or shot a murderer, he must still be hung for it. Society
+must see that the worst of thieves were not preyed upon by others.
+Therefore, the proved facts that Sir Charles Vandrift, with all his
+millions, had meanly tried to cheat the prisoner, or some other poor
+person, out of valuable diamonds--had basely tried to juggle Lord
+Craig-Ellachie's mines into his own hands--had vilely tried to bribe
+a son to betray his father--had directly tried, by underhand means,
+to save his own money, at the risk of destroying the wealth of
+others who trusted to his probity--these proved facts must not
+blind them to the truth that the prisoner at the bar (if he were
+really Colonel Clay) was an abandoned swindler. To that point alone
+they must confine their attention; and _if_ they were convinced that
+the prisoner was shown to be the self-same man who appeared on
+various occasions as David Granton, as Von Lebenstein, as Medhurst,
+as Schleiermacher, they must find him guilty.
+
+As to that point, also, the judge commented on the obvious strength
+of the police case, and the fact that the prisoner had not attempted
+in any one out of so many instances to prove an alibi. Surely, if
+he were _not_ Colonel Clay, the jury should ask themselves, must it
+not have been simple and easy for him to do so? Finally, the judge
+summed up all the elements of doubt in the identification--and all
+the elements of probability; and left it to the jury to draw their
+own conclusions.
+
+They retired at the end to consider their verdict. While they were
+absent every eye in court was fixed on the prisoner. But Paul
+Finglemore himself looked steadily towards the further end of the
+hall, where two pale-faced women sat together, with handkerchiefs
+in their hands, and eyes red with weeping.
+
+Only then, as he stood there, awaiting the verdict, with a fixed
+white face, prepared for everything, did I begin to realise with
+what courage and pluck that one lone man had sustained so long an
+unequal contest against wealth, authority, and all the Governments
+of Europe, aided but by his own skill and two feeble women! Only
+then did I feel he had played his reckless game through all those
+years with _this_ ever before him! I found it hard to picture.
+
+The jury filed slowly back. There was dead silence in court as the
+clerk put the question, "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty
+or not guilty?"
+
+"We find him guilty."
+
+"On all the counts?"
+
+"On all the counts of the indictment."
+
+The women at the back burst into tears, unanimously.
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth addressed the prisoner. "Have you anything
+to urge," he asked in a very stern tone, "in mitigation of whatever
+sentence the Court may see fit to pass upon you?"
+
+"Nothing," the prisoner answered, just faltering slightly. "I have
+brought it upon myself--but--I have protected the lives of those
+nearest and dearest to me. I have fought hard for my own hand. I
+admit my crime, and will face my punishment. I only regret that,
+since we were both of us rogues--myself and the prosecutor--the
+lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in
+the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according
+to his deserts--to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St.
+George; to me, the Broad Arrow!"
+
+The judge gazed at him severely. "Paul Finglemore," he said, passing
+sentence in his sardonic way, "you have chosen to dedicate to the
+service of fraud abilities and attainments which, if turned from the
+outset into a legitimate channel, would no doubt have sufficed to
+secure you without excessive effort a subsistence one degree above
+starvation--possibly even, with good luck, a sordid and squalid
+competence. You have preferred to embark them on a lawless life of
+vice and crime--and I will not deny that you seem to have had a good
+run for your money. Society, however, whose mouthpiece I am, cannot
+allow you any longer to mock it with impunity. You have broken its
+laws openly, and you have been found out." He assumed the tone of
+bland condescension which always heralds his severest moments. "I
+sentence you to Fourteen Years' Imprisonment, with Hard Labour."
+
+The prisoner bowed, without losing his apparent composure. But his
+eyes strayed away again to the far end of the hall, where the two
+weeping women, with a sudden sharp cry, fell at once in a faint on
+one another's shoulders, and were with difficulty removed from court
+by the ushers.
+
+As we left the room, I heard but one comment all round, thus voiced
+by a school-boy: "I'd a jolly sight rather it had been old Vandrift.
+This Clay chap's too clever by half to waste on a prison!"
+
+But he went there, none the less--in that "cool sequestered vale
+of life" to recover equilibrium; though I myself half regretted it.
+
+I will add but one more little parting episode.
+
+When all was over, Charles rushed off to Cannes, to get away from
+the impertinent stare of London. Amelia and Isabel and I went with
+him. We were driving one afternoon on the hills beyond the town,
+among the myrtle and lentisk scrub, when we noticed in front of us
+a nice victoria, containing two ladies in very deep mourning. We
+followed it, unintentionally, as far as Le Grand Pin--that big pine
+tree that looks across the bay towards Antibes. There, the ladies
+descended and sat down on a knoll, gazing out disconsolately towards
+the sea and the islands. It was evident they were suffering very
+deep grief. Their faces were pale and their eyes bloodshot. "Poor
+things!" Amelia said. Then her tone altered suddenly.
+
+"Why, good gracious," she cried, "if it isn't Cesarine!"
+
+So it was--with White Heather!
+
+Charles got down and drew near them. "I beg your pardon," he said,
+raising his hat, and addressing Madame Picardet: "I believe I have
+had the pleasure of meeting you. And since I have doubtless paid in
+the end for your victoria, _may_ I venture to inquire for whom you
+are in mourning?"
+
+White Heather drew back, sobbing; but Cesarine turned to him, fiery
+red, with the mien of a lady. "For _him_!" she answered; "for Paul!
+for our king, whom _you_ have imprisoned! As long as _he_ remains
+there, we have both of us decided to wear mourning for ever!"
+
+Charles raised his hat again, and drew back without one word.
+He waved his hand to Amelia and walked home with me to Cannes.
+He seemed deeply dejected.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts!" I exclaimed, at last, in a jocular
+tone, trying feebly to rouse him.
+
+He turned to me, and sighed. "I was wondering," he answered, "if
+_I_ had gone to prison, would Amelia and Isabel have done as much
+for me?"
+
+For myself, I did _not_ wonder. I knew pretty well. For Charles, you
+will admit, though the bigger rogue of the two, is scarcely the kind
+of rogue to inspire a woman with profound affection.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
+#4 in our series by Grant Allen
+
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+
+Title: An African Millionaire
+       Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+Author: Grant Allen
+
+Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4715]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 6, 2002]
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+
+
+An African Millionaire
+
+Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+By Grant Allen
+
+First published in 1897
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  The Episode of the Mexican Seer
+
+2.  The Episode of the Diamond Links
+
+3.  The Episode of the Old Master
+
+4.  The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle
+
+5.  The Episode of the Drawn Game
+
+6.  The Episode of the German Professor
+
+7.  The Episode of the Arrest of the Colonel
+
+8.  The Episode of the Seldon Gold-Mine
+ 
+9.  The Episode of the Japanned Dispatch-Box
+
+10.  The Episode of the Game of Poker
+
+11.  The Episode of the Bertillon Method
+
+12.  The Episode of the Old Bailey 
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE MEXICAN SEER
+
+
+My name is Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. I am brother-in-law and
+secretary to Sir Charles Vandrift, the South African millionaire and
+famous financier. Many years ago, when Charlie Vandrift was a small
+lawyer in Cape Town, I had the (qualified) good fortune to marry his
+sister. Much later, when the Vandrift estate and farm near Kimberley
+developed by degrees into the Cloetedorp Golcondas, Limited, my
+brother-in-law offered me the not unremunerative post of secretary;
+in which capacity I have ever since been his constant and attached
+companion.
+
+He is not a man whom any common sharper can take in, is Charles
+Vandrift. Middle height, square build, firm mouth, keen eyes--the
+very picture of a sharp and successful business genius. I have only
+known one rogue impose upon Sir Charles, and that one rogue, as the
+Commissary of Police at Nice remarked, would doubtless have imposed
+upon a syndicate of Vidocq, Robert Houdin, and Cagliostro.
+
+We had run across to the Riviera for a few weeks in the season. Our
+object being strictly rest and recreation from the arduous duties
+of financial combination, we did not think it necessary to take our
+wives out with us. Indeed, Lady Vandrift is absolutely wedded to the
+joys of London, and does not appreciate the rural delights of the
+Mediterranean littoral. But Sir Charles and I, though immersed in
+affairs when at home, both thoroughly enjoy the complete change from
+the City to the charming vegetation and pellucid air on the terrace
+at Monte Carlo. We _are_ so fond of scenery. That delicious view
+over the rocks of Monaco, with the Maritime Alps in the rear, and
+the blue sea in front, not to mention the imposing Casino in the
+foreground, appeals to me as one of the most beautiful prospects in
+all Europe. Sir Charles has a sentimental attachment for the place.
+He finds it restores and freshens him, after the turmoil of London,
+to win a few hundreds at roulette in the course of an afternoon
+among the palms and cactuses and pure breezes of Monte Carlo. The
+country, say I, for a jaded intellect! However, we never on any
+account actually stop in the Principality itself. Sir Charles thinks
+Monte Carlo is not a sound address for a financier's letters. He
+prefers a comfortable hotel on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice,
+where he recovers health and renovates his nervous system by taking
+daily excursions along the coast to the Casino.
+
+This particular season we were snugly ensconced at the Hotel des
+Anglais. We had capital quarters on the first floor--salon, study,
+and bedrooms--and found on the spot a most agreeable cosmopolitan
+society. All Nice, just then, was ringing with talk about a curious
+impostor, known to his followers as the Great Mexican Seer, and
+supposed to be gifted with second sight, as well as with endless
+other supernatural powers. Now, it is a peculiarity of my able
+brother-in-law's that, when he meets with a quack, he burns to
+expose him; he is so keen a man of business himself that it gives
+him, so to speak, a disinterested pleasure to unmask and detect
+imposture in others. Many ladies at the hotel, some of whom had met
+and conversed with the Mexican Seer, were constantly telling us
+strange stories of his doings. He had disclosed to one the present
+whereabouts of a runaway husband; he had pointed out to another the
+numbers that would win at roulette next evening; he had shown a
+third the image on a screen of the man she had for years adored
+without his knowledge. Of course, Sir Charles didn't believe a word
+of it; but his curiosity was roused; he wished to see and judge for
+himself of the wonderful thought-reader.
+
+"What would be his terms, do you think, for a private seance?" he
+asked of Madame Picardet, the lady to whom the Seer had successfully
+predicted the winning numbers.
+
+"He does not work for money," Madame Picardet answered, "but for
+the good of humanity. I'm sure he would gladly come and exhibit for
+nothing his miraculous faculties."
+
+"Nonsense!" Sir Charles answered. "The man must live. I'd pay him
+five guineas, though, to see him alone. What hotel is he stopping at?"
+
+"The Cosmopolitan, I think," the lady answered. "Oh no; I remember
+now, the Westminster."
+
+Sir Charles turned to me quietly. "Look here, Seymour," he
+whispered. "Go round to this fellow's place immediately after
+dinner, and offer him five pounds to give a private seance at once
+in my rooms, without mentioning who I am to him; keep the name quite
+quiet. Bring him back with you, too, and come straight upstairs
+with him, so that there may be no collusion. We'll see just how much
+the fellow can tell us."
+
+I went as directed. I found the Seer a very remarkable and
+interesting person. He stood about Sir Charles's own height, but was
+slimmer and straighter, with an aquiline nose, strangely piercing
+eyes, very large black pupils, and a finely-chiselled close-shaven
+face, like the bust of Antinous in our hall in Mayfair. What gave him
+his most characteristic touch, however, was his odd head of hair,
+curly and wavy like Paderewski's, standing out in a halo round his
+high white forehead and his delicate profile. I could see at a
+glance why he succeeded so well in impressing women; he had the
+look of a poet, a singer, a prophet.
+
+"I have come round," I said, "to ask whether you will consent to
+give a seance at once in a friend's rooms; and my principal wishes
+me to add that he is prepared to pay five pounds as the price of the
+entertainment."
+
+Senor Antonio Herrera--that was what he called himself--bowed to
+me with impressive Spanish politeness. His dusky olive cheeks were
+wrinkled with a smile of gentle contempt as he answered gravely--
+
+"I do not sell my gifts; I bestow them freely. If your friend--your
+anonymous friend--desires to behold the cosmic wonders that are
+wrought through my hands, I am glad to show them to him.
+Fortunately, as often happens when it is necessary to convince
+and confound a sceptic (for that your friend is a sceptic I feel
+instinctively), I chance to have no engagements at all this
+evening." He ran his hand through his fine, long hair reflectively.
+"Yes, I go," he continued, as if addressing some unknown presence
+that hovered about the ceiling; "I go; come with me!" Then he put on
+his broad sombrero, with its crimson ribbon, wrapped a cloak round
+his shoulders, lighted a cigarette, and strode forth by my side
+towards the Hotel des Anglais.
+
+He talked little by the way, and that little in curt sentences. He
+seemed buried in deep thought; indeed, when we reached the door and
+I turned in, he walked a step or two farther on, as if not noticing
+to what place I had brought him. Then he drew himself up short, and
+gazed around him for a moment. "Ha, the Anglais," he said--and I may
+mention in passing that his English, in spite of a slight southern
+accent, was idiomatic and excellent. "It is here, then; it is here!"
+He was addressing once more the unseen presence.
+
+I smiled to think that these childish devices were intended to
+deceive Sir Charles Vandrift. Not quite the sort of man (as the City
+of London knows) to be taken in by hocus-pocus. And all this, I saw,
+was the cheapest and most commonplace conjurer's patter.
+
+We went upstairs to our rooms. Charles had gathered together a
+few friends to watch the performance. The Seer entered, wrapt in
+thought. He was in evening dress, but a red sash round his waist
+gave a touch of picturesqueness and a dash of colour. He paused for
+a moment in the middle of the salon, without letting his eyes rest
+on anybody or anything. Then he walked straight up to Charles, and
+held out his dark hand.
+
+"Good-evening," he said. "You are the host. My soul's sight tells
+me so."
+
+"Good shot," Sir Charles answered. "These fellows have to be
+quick-witted, you know, Mrs. Mackenzie, or they'd never get on
+at it."
+
+The Seer gazed about him, and smiled blankly at a person or two
+whose faces he seemed to recognise from a previous existence. Then
+Charles began to ask him a few simple questions, not about himself,
+but about me, just to test him. He answered most of them with
+surprising correctness. "His name? His name begins with an S I
+think:--You call him Seymour." He paused long between each clause, as
+if the facts were revealed to him slowly. "Seymour--Wilbraham--Earl
+of Strafford. No, not Earl of Strafford! Seymour Wilbraham
+Wentworth. There seems to be some connection in somebody's mind now
+present between Wentworth and Strafford. I am not English. I do not
+know what it means. But they are somehow the same name, Wentworth
+and Strafford."
+
+He gazed around, apparently for confirmation. A lady came to his
+rescue.
+
+"Wentworth was the surname of the great Earl of Strafford," she
+murmured gently; "and I was wondering, as you spoke, whether
+Mr. Wentworth might possibly be descended from him."
+
+"He is," the Seer replied instantly, with a flash of those dark
+eyes. And I thought this curious; for though my father always
+maintained the reality of the relationship, there was one link
+wanting to complete the pedigree. He could not make sure that
+the Hon. Thomas Wilbraham Wentworth was the father of Jonathan
+Wentworth, the Bristol horse-dealer, from whom we are descended.
+
+"Where was I born?" Sir Charles interrupted, coming suddenly to his
+own case.
+
+The Seer clapped his two hands to his forehead and held it between
+them, as if to prevent it from bursting. "Africa," he said slowly,
+as the facts narrowed down, so to speak. "South Africa; Cape of Good
+Hope; Jansenville; De Witt Street. 1840."
+
+"By Jove, he's correct," Sir Charles muttered. "He seems really to
+do it. Still, he may have found me out. He may have known where he
+was coming."
+
+"I never gave a hint," I answered; "till he reached the door, he
+didn't even know to what hotel I was piloting him."
+
+The Seer stroked his chin softly. His eye appeared to me to have a
+furtive gleam in it. "Would you like me to tell you the number of
+a bank-note inclosed in an envelope?" he asked casually.
+
+"Go out of the room," Sir Charles said, "while I pass it round the
+company."
+
+Senor Herrera disappeared. Sir Charles passed it round cautiously,
+holding it all the time in his own hand, but letting his guests see
+the number. Then he placed it in an envelope and gummed it down
+firmly.
+
+The Seer returned. His keen eyes swept the company with a
+comprehensive glance. He shook his shaggy mane. Then he took
+the envelope in his hands and gazed at it fixedly. "AF, 73549,"
+he answered, in a slow tone. "A Bank of England note for fifty
+pounds--exchanged at the Casino for gold won yesterday at
+Monte Carlo."
+
+"I see how he did that," Sir Charles said triumphantly. "He must
+have changed it there himself; and then I changed it back again.
+In point of fact, I remember seeing a fellow with long hair loafing
+about. Still, it's capital conjuring."
+
+"He can see through matter," one of the ladies interposed. It was
+Madame Picardet. "He can see through a box." She drew a little gold
+vinaigrette, such as our grandmothers used, from her dress-pocket.
+"What is in this?" she inquired, holding it up to him.
+
+Senor Herrera gazed through it. "Three gold coins," he replied,
+knitting his brows with the effort of seeing into the box: "one,
+an American five dollars; one, a French ten-franc piece; one,
+twenty marks, German, of the old Emperor William."
+
+She opened the box and passed it round. Sir Charles smiled a quiet
+smile.
+
+"Confederacy!" he muttered, half to himself. "Confederacy!"
+
+The Seer turned to him with a sullen air. "You want a better sign?"
+he said, in a very impressive voice. "A sign that will convince you!
+Very well: you have a letter in your left waistcoat pocket--a
+crumpled-up letter. Do you wish me to read it out? I will, if you
+desire it."
+
+It may seem to those who know Sir Charles incredible, but, I am
+bound to admit, my brother-in-law coloured. What that letter
+contained I cannot say; he only answered, very testily and
+evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you
+have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply
+suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat
+pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Senor Herrera would
+read it.
+
+I fancied, too, he glanced somewhat anxiously towards Madame
+Picardet.
+
+The Seer bowed courteously. "Your will, senor, is law," he said. "I
+make it a principle, though I can see through all things, invariably
+to respect the secrecies and sanctities. If it were not so, I might
+dissolve society. For which of us is there who could bear the whole
+truth being told about him?" He gazed around the room. An unpleasant
+thrill supervened. Most of us felt this uncanny Spanish American
+knew really too much. And some of us were engaged in financial
+operations.
+
+"For example," the Seer continued blandly, "I happened a few weeks
+ago to travel down here from Paris by train with a very intelligent
+man, a company promoter. He had in his bag some documents--some
+confidential documents:" he glanced at Sir Charles. "You know the
+kind of thing, my dear sir: reports from experts--from mining
+engineers. You may have seen some such; marked _strictly private_."
+
+"They form an element in high finance," Sir Charles admitted coldly.
+
+"Pre-cisely," the Seer murmured, his accent for a moment less
+Spanish than before. "And, as they were marked _strictly private_,
+I respect, of course, the seal of confidence. That's all I wish to
+say. I hold it a duty, being intrusted with such powers, not to use
+them in a manner which may annoy or incommode my fellow-creatures."
+
+"Your feeling does you honour," Sir Charles answered, with some
+acerbity. Then he whispered in my ear: "Confounded clever scoundrel,
+Sey; rather wish we hadn't brought him here."
+
+Senor Herrera seemed intuitively to divine this wish, for he
+interposed, in a lighter and gayer tone--
+
+"I will now show you a different and more interesting embodiment
+of occult power, for which we shall need a somewhat subdued
+arrangement of surrounding lights. Would you mind, senor host--for
+I have purposely abstained from reading your name on the brain of
+any one present--would you mind my turning down this lamp just a
+little? ... So! That will do. Now, this one; and this one. Exactly!
+that's right." He poured a few grains of powder out of a packet into
+a saucer. "Next, a match, if you please. Thank you!" It burnt with a
+strange green light. He drew from his pocket a card, and produced a
+little ink-bottle. "Have you a pen?" he asked.
+
+I instantly brought one. He handed it to Sir Charles. "Oblige me,"
+he said, "by writing your name there." And he indicated a place in
+the centre of the card, which had an embossed edge, with a small
+middle square of a different colour.
+
+Sir Charles has a natural disinclination to signing his name without
+knowing why. "What do you want with it?" he asked. (A millionaire's
+signature has so many uses.)
+
+"I want you to put the card in an envelope," the Seer replied, "and
+then to burn it. After that, I shall show you your own name written
+in letters of blood on my arm, in your own handwriting."
+
+Sir Charles took the pen. If the signature was to be burned as soon
+as finished, he didn't mind giving it. He wrote his name in his
+usual firm clear style--the writing of a man who knows his worth
+and is not afraid of drawing a cheque for five thousand.
+
+"Look at it long," the Seer said, from the other side of the room.
+He had not watched him write it.
+
+Sir Charles stared at it fixedly. The Seer was really beginning to
+produce an impression.
+
+"Now, put it in that envelope," the Seer exclaimed.
+
+Sir Charles, like a lamb, placed it as directed.
+
+The Seer strode forward. "Give me the envelope," he said. He took it
+in his hand, walked over towards the fireplace, and solemnly burnt
+it. "See--it crumbles into ashes," he cried. Then he came back to
+the middle of the room, close to the green light, rolled up his
+sleeve, and held his arm before Sir Charles. There, in blood-red
+letters, my brother-in-law read the name, "Charles Vandrift," in
+his own handwriting!
+
+"I see how that's done," Sir Charles murmured, drawing back. "It's
+a clever delusion; but still, I see through it. It's like that
+ghost-book. Your ink was deep green; your light was green; you made
+me look at it long; and then I saw the same thing written on the
+skin of your arm in complementary colours."
+
+"You think so?" the Seer replied, with a curious curl of the lip.
+
+"I'm sure of it," Sir Charles answered.
+
+Quick as lightning the Seer again rolled up his sleeve. "That's
+your name," he cried, in a very clear voice, "but not your whole
+name. What do you say, then, to my right? Is this one also a
+complementary colour?" He held his other arm out. There, in
+sea-green letters, I read the name, "Charles O'Sullivan Vandrift."
+It is my brother-in-law's full baptismal designation; but he has
+dropped the O'Sullivan for many years past, and, to say the truth,
+doesn't like it. He is a little bit ashamed of his mother's family.
+
+Charles glanced at it hurriedly. "Quite right," he said, "quite
+right!" But his voice was hollow. I could guess he didn't care to
+continue the seance. He could see through the man, of course; but it
+was clear the fellow knew too much about us to be entirely pleasant.
+
+"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I
+say coffee and benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift.
+
+"By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from
+further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better
+suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these
+ladies are not above a cigarette--some of them."
+
+There was a sigh of relief. The lights burned brightly. The Seer for
+the moment retired from business, so to speak. He accepted a partaga
+with a very good grace, sipped his coffee in a corner, and chatted
+to the lady who had suggested Strafford with marked politeness. He
+was a polished gentleman.
+
+Next morning, in the hall of the hotel, I saw Madame Picardet again,
+in a neat tailor-made travelling dress, evidently bound for the
+railway-station.
+
+"What, off, Madame Picardet?" I cried.
+
+She smiled, and held out her prettily-gloved hand. "Yes, I'm off,"
+she answered archly. "Florence, or Rome, or somewhere. I've drained
+Nice dry--like a sucked orange. Got all the fun I can out of it.
+Now I'm away again to my beloved Italy."
+
+But it struck me as odd that, if Italy was her game, she went by the
+omnibus which takes down to the train de luxe for Paris. However,
+a man of the world accepts what a lady tells him, no matter how
+improbable; and I confess, for ten days or so, I thought no more
+about her, or the Seer either.
+
+At the end of that time our fortnightly pass-book came in from
+the bank in London. It is part of my duty, as the millionaire's
+secretary, to make up this book once a fortnight, and to compare
+the cancelled cheques with Sir Charles's counterfoils. On this
+particular occasion I happened to observe what I can only describe
+as a very grave discrepancy,--in fact, a discrepancy of 5000 pounds.
+On the wrong side, too. Sir Charles was debited with 5000 pounds
+more than the total amount that was shown on the counterfoils.
+
+I examined the book with care. The source of the error was obvious.
+It lay in a cheque to Self or Bearer, for 5000 pounds, signed by Sir
+Charles, and evidently paid across the counter in London, as it bore
+on its face no stamp or indication of any other office.
+
+I called in my brother-in-law from the salon to the study. "Look
+here, Charles," I said, "there's a cheque in the book which you
+haven't entered." And I handed it to him without comment, for I
+thought it might have been drawn to settle some little loss on the
+turf or at cards, or to make up some other affair he didn't desire
+to mention to me. These things will happen.
+
+He looked at it and stared hard. Then he pursed up his mouth and
+gave a long low "Whew!" At last he turned it over and remarked,
+"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown,
+haven't we?"
+
+I glanced at the cheque. "How do you mean?" I inquired.
+
+"Why, the Seer," he replied, still staring at it ruefully. "I
+don't mind the five thou., but to think the fellow should have
+gammoned the pair of us like that--ignominious, I call it!"
+
+"How do you know it's the Seer?" I asked.
+
+"Look at the green ink," he answered. "Besides, I recollect the
+very shape of the last flourish. I flourished a bit like that in
+the excitement of the moment, which I don't always do with my
+regular signature."
+
+"He's done us," I answered, recognising it. "But how the dickens
+did he manage to transfer it to the cheque? This looks like your
+own handwriting, Charles, not a clever forgery."
+
+"It is," he said. "I admit it--I can't deny it. Only fancy his
+bamboozling me when I was most on my guard! I wasn't to be taken
+in by any of his silly occult tricks and catch-words; but it never
+occurred to me he was going to victimise me financially in this
+way. I expected attempts at a loan or an extortion; but to collar
+my signature to a blank cheque--atrocious!"
+
+"How did he manage it?" I asked.
+
+"I haven't the faintest conception. I only know those are the
+words I wrote. I could swear to them anywhere."
+
+"Then you can't protest the cheque?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no; it's my own true signature."
+
+We went that afternoon without delay to see the Chief Commissary
+of Police at the office. He was a gentlemanly Frenchman, much less
+formal and red-tapey than usual, and he spoke excellent English
+with an American accent, having acted, in fact, as a detective in
+New York for about ten years in his early manhood.
+
+"I guess," he said slowly, after hearing our story, "you've been
+victimised right here by Colonel Clay, gentlemen."
+
+"Who is Colonel Clay?" Sir Charles asked.
+
+"That's just what I want to know," the Commissary answered, in
+his curious American-French-English. "He is a Colonel, because he
+occasionally gives himself a commission; he is called Colonel Clay,
+because he appears to possess an india-rubber face, and he can
+mould it like clay in the hands of the potter. Real name, unknown.
+Nationality, equally French and English. Address, usually Europe.
+Profession, former maker of wax figures to the Musee Grevin. Age,
+what he chooses. Employs his knowledge to mould his own nose
+and cheeks, with wax additions, to the character he desires to
+personate. Aquiline this time, you say. Hein! Anything like these
+photographs?"
+
+He rummaged in his desk and handed us two.
+
+"Not in the least," Sir Charles answered. "Except, perhaps, as to the
+neck, everything here is quite unlike him."
+
+"Then that's the Colonel!" the Commissary answered, with decision,
+rubbing his hands in glee. "Look here," and he took out a pencil
+and rapidly sketched the outline of one of the two faces--that of
+a bland-looking young man, with no expression worth mentioning.
+"There's the Colonel in his simple disguise. Very good. Now watch
+me: figure to yourself that he adds here a tiny patch of wax to his
+nose--an aquiline bridge--just so; well, you have him right there;
+and the chin, ah, one touch: now, for hair, a wig: for complexion,
+nothing easier: that's the profile of your rascal, isn't it?"
+
+"Exactly," we both murmured. By two curves of the pencil, and a
+shock of false hair, the face was transmuted.
+
+"He had very large eyes, with very big pupils, though," I objected,
+looking close; "and the man in the photograph here has them small
+and boiled-fishy."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "A drop of belladonna
+expands--and produces the Seer; five grains of opium contract--and
+give a dead-alive, stupidly-innocent appearance. Well, you leave
+this affair to me, gentlemen. I'll see the fun out. I don't say I'll
+catch him for you; nobody ever yet has caught Colonel Clay; but
+I'll explain how he did the trick; and that ought to be consolation
+enough to a man of your means for a trifle of five thousand!"
+
+"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le
+Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.
+
+"You bet!" the Commissary replied, and drew himself up like a
+captain of infantry. "Messieurs," he continued, in French, with the
+utmost dignity, "I shall devote the resources of this office to
+tracing out the crime, and, if possible, to effectuating the arrest
+of the culpable."
+
+We telegraphed to London, of course, and we wrote to the bank, with
+a full description of the suspected person. But I need hardly add
+that nothing came of it.
+
+Three days later the Commissary called at our hotel. "Well,
+gentlemen," he said, "I am glad to say I have discovered
+everything!"
+
+"What? Arrested the Seer?" Sir Charles cried.
+
+The Commissary drew back, almost horrified at the suggestion.
+
+"Arrested Colonel Clay?" he exclaimed. "Mais, monsieur, we are only
+human! Arrested him? No, not quite. But tracked out how he did it.
+That is already much--to unravel Colonel Clay, gentlemen!"
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" Sir Charles asked, crestfallen.
+
+The Commissary sat down and gloated over his discovery. It was
+clear a well-planned crime amused him vastly. "In the first place,
+monsieur," he said, "disabuse your mind of the idea that when
+monsieur your secretary went out to fetch Senor Herrera that night,
+Senor Herrera didn't know to whose rooms he was coming. Quite
+otherwise, in point of fact. I do not doubt myself that Senor
+Herrera, or Colonel Clay (call him which you like), came to Nice
+this winter for no other purpose than just to rob you."
+
+"But I sent for him," my brother-in-law interposed.
+
+"Yes; he _meant_ you to send for him. He forced a card, so to
+speak. If he couldn't do that I guess he would be a pretty poor
+conjurer. He had a lady of his own--his wife, let us say, or his
+sister--stopping here at this hotel; a certain Madame Picardet.
+Through her he induced several ladies of your circle to attend his
+seances. She and they spoke to you about him, and aroused your
+curiosity. You may bet your bottom dollar that when he came to
+this room he came ready primed and prepared with endless facts
+about both of you."
+
+"What fools we have been, Sey," my brother-in-law exclaimed. "I see
+it all now. That designing woman sent round before dinner to say I
+wanted to meet him; and by the time you got there he was ready
+for bamboozling me."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "He had your name ready
+painted on both his arms; and he had made other preparations of
+still greater importance."
+
+"You mean the cheque. Well, how did he get it?"
+
+The Commissary opened the door. "Come in," he said. And a young man
+entered whom we recognised at once as the chief clerk in the Foreign
+Department of the Credit Marseillais, the principal bank all along
+the Riviera.
+
+"State what you know of this cheque," the Commissary said, showing
+it to him, for we had handed it over to the police as a piece of
+evidence.
+
+"About four weeks since--" the clerk began.
+
+"Say ten days before your seance," the Commissary interposed.
+
+"A gentleman with very long hair and an aquiline nose, dark,
+strange, and handsome, called in at my department and asked if I
+could tell him the name of Sir Charles Vandrift's London banker.
+He said he had a sum to pay in to your credit, and asked if we
+would forward it for him. I told him it was irregular for us to
+receive the money, as you had no account with us, but that your
+London bankers were Darby, Drummond, and Rothenberg, Limited."
+
+"Quite right," Sir Charles murmured.
+
+"Two days later a lady, Madame Picardet, who was a customer of ours,
+brought in a good cheque for three hundred pounds, signed by a
+first-rate name, and asked us to pay it in on her behalf to Darby,
+Drummond, and Rothenberg's, and to open a London account with them
+for her. We did so, and received in reply a cheque-book."
+
+"From which this cheque was taken, as I learn from the number,
+by telegram from London," the Commissary put in. "Also, that on
+the same day on which your cheque was cashed, Madame Picardet,
+in London, withdrew her balance."
+
+"But how did the fellow get me to sign the cheque?" Sir Charles
+cried. "How did he manage the card trick?"
+
+The Commissary produced a similar card from his pocket. "Was that
+the sort of thing?" he asked.
+
+"Precisely! A facsimile."
+
+"I thought so. Well, our Colonel, I find, bought a packet of such
+cards, intended for admission to a religious function, at a shop
+in the Quai Massena. He cut out the centre, and, see here--" The
+Commissary turned it over, and showed a piece of paper pasted neatly
+over the back; this he tore off, and there, concealed behind it, lay
+a folded cheque, with only the place where the signature should be
+written showing through on the face which the Seer had presented
+to us. "I call that a neat trick," the Commissary remarked, with
+professional enjoyment of a really good deception.
+
+"But he burnt the envelope before my eyes," Sir Charles exclaimed.
+
+"Pooh!" the Commissary answered. "What would he be worth as a
+conjurer, anyway, if he couldn't substitute one envelope for another
+between the table and the fireplace without your noticing it? And
+Colonel Clay, you must remember, is a prince among conjurers."
+
+"Well, it's a comfort to know we've identified our man, and the
+woman who was with him," Sir Charles said, with a slight sigh of
+relief. "The next thing will be, of course, you'll follow them up
+on these clues in England and arrest them?"
+
+The Commissary shrugged his shoulders. "Arrest them!" he exclaimed,
+much amused. "Ah, monsieur, but you are sanguine! No officer of
+justice has ever succeeded in arresting le Colonel Caoutchouc, as
+we call him in French. He is as slippery as an eel, that man. He
+wriggles through our fingers. Suppose even we caught him, what could
+we prove? I ask you. Nobody who has seen him once can ever swear
+to him again in his next impersonation. He is impayable, this good
+Colonel. On the day when I arrest him, I assure you, monsieur, I
+shall consider myself the smartest police-officer in Europe."
+
+"Well, I shall catch him yet," Sir Charles answered, and relapsed
+into silence.
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DIAMOND LINKS
+
+
+"Let us take a trip to Switzerland," said Lady Vandrift. And any one
+who knows Amelia will not be surprised to learn that we _did_ take a
+trip to Switzerland accordingly. Nobody can drive Sir Charles, except
+his wife. And nobody at all can drive Amelia.
+
+There were difficulties at the outset, because we had not ordered
+rooms at the hotels beforehand, and it was well on in the season;
+but they were overcome at last by the usual application of a golden
+key; and we found ourselves in due time pleasantly quartered in
+Lucerne, at that most comfortable of European hostelries, the
+Schweitzerhof.
+
+We were a square party of four--Sir Charles and Amelia, myself and
+Isabel. We had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the
+lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of
+that incipient mania which shows itself in the form of an insane
+desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and
+unnecessary snowiness, I will venture to assert we all enjoyed
+ourselves. We spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the
+lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb,
+it was on the Rigi or Pilatus--where an engine undertook all the
+muscular work for us.
+
+As usual, at the hotel, a great many miscellaneous people showed a
+burning desire to be specially nice to us. If you wish to see how
+friendly and charming humanity is, just try being a well-known
+millionaire for a week, and you'll learn a thing or two. Wherever
+Sir Charles goes he is surrounded by charming and disinterested
+people, all eager to make his distinguished acquaintance, and all
+familiar with several excellent investments, or several deserving
+objects of Christian charity. It is my business in life, as his
+brother-in-law and secretary, to decline with thanks the excellent
+investments, and to throw judicious cold water on the objects of
+charity. Even I myself, as the great man's almoner, am very much
+sought after. People casually allude before me to artless stories
+of "poor curates in Cumberland, you know, Mr. Wentworth," or widows
+in Cornwall, penniless poets with epics in their desks, and young
+painters who need but the breath of a patron to open to them the
+doors of an admiring Academy. I smile and look wise, while I
+administer cold water in minute doses; but I never report one of
+these cases to Sir Charles, except in the rare or almost unheard-of
+event where I think there is really something in them.
+
+Ever since our little adventure with the Seer at Nice, Sir Charles,
+who is constitutionally cautious, had been even more careful than
+usual about possible sharpers. And, as chance would have it, there
+sat just opposite us at table d'hote at the Schweitzerhof--'tis
+a fad of Amelia's to dine at table d'hote; she says she can't bear
+to be boxed up all day in private rooms with "too much family"--a
+sinister-looking man with dark hair and eyes, conspicuous by his
+bushy overhanging eyebrows. My attention was first called to the
+eyebrows in question by a nice little parson who sat at our side,
+and who observed that they were made up of certain large and bristly
+hairs, which (he told us) had been traced by Darwin to our monkey
+ancestors. Very pleasant little fellow, this fresh-faced young
+parson, on his honeymoon tour with a nice wee wife, a bonnie Scotch
+lassie with a charming accent.
+
+I looked at the eyebrows close. Then a sudden thought struck me. "Do
+you believe they're his own?" I asked of the curate; "or are they
+only stuck on--a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it."
+
+"You don't suppose--" Charles began, and checked himself suddenly.
+
+"Yes, I do," I answered; "the Seer!" Then I recollected my blunder,
+and looked down sheepishly. For, to say the truth, Vandrift had
+straightly enjoined on me long before to say nothing of our painful
+little episode at Nice to Amelia; he was afraid if _she_ once heard
+of it, _he_ would hear of it for ever after.
+
+"What Seer?" the little parson inquired, with parsonical curiosity.
+
+I noticed the man with the overhanging eyebrows give a queer sort
+of start. Charles's glance was fixed upon me. I hardly knew what
+to answer.
+
+"Oh, a man who was at Nice with us last year," I stammered out,
+trying hard to look unconcerned. "A fellow they talked about,
+that's all." And I turned the subject.
+
+But the curate, like a donkey, wouldn't let me turn it.
+
+"Had he eyebrows like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I was
+really angry. If this _was_ Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously
+giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to
+catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the chance of
+doing so.
+
+"No, he hadn't," I answered testily; "it was a passing expression.
+But this is not the man. I was mistaken, no doubt." And I nudged
+him gently.
+
+The little curate was too innocent for anything. "Oh, I see," he
+replied, nodding hard and looking wise. Then he turned to his wife
+and made an obvious face, which the man with the eyebrows couldn't
+fail to notice.
+
+Fortunately, a political discussion going on a few places farther
+down the table spread up to us and diverted attention for a moment.
+The magical name of Gladstone saved us. Sir Charles flared up. I
+was truly pleased, for I could see Amelia was boiling over with
+curiosity by this time.
+
+After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the big
+eyebrows sidled up and began to talk to me. If he _was_ Colonel
+Clay, it was evident he bore us no grudge at all for the five
+thousand pounds he had done us out of. On the contrary, he seemed
+quite prepared to do us out of five thousand more when opportunity
+offered; for he introduced himself at once as Dr. Hector Macpherson,
+the exclusive grantee of extensive concessions from the Brazilian
+Government on the Upper Amazons. He dived into conversation with
+me at once as to the splendid mineral resources of his Brazilian
+estate--the silver, the platinum, the actual rubies, the possible
+diamonds. I listened and smiled; I knew what was coming. All he
+needed to develop this magnificent concession was a little more
+capital. It was sad to see thousands of pounds' worth of platinum
+and car-loads of rubies just crumbling in the soil or carried away
+by the river, for want of a few hundreds to work them with properly.
+If he knew of anybody, now, with money to invest, he could recommend
+him--nay, offer him--a unique opportunity of earning, say, 40 per
+cent on his capital, on unimpeachable security.
+
+"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpherson remarked,
+drawing himself up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who had
+command of ready cash, I might choose to put him in the way of
+feathering his nest with unexampled rapidity."
+
+"Exceedingly disinterested of you," I answered drily, fixing my
+eyes on his eyebrows.
+
+The little curate, meanwhile, was playing billiards with Sir
+Charles. His glance followed mine as it rested for a moment on
+the monkey-like hairs.
+
+"False, obviously false," he remarked with his lips; and I'm bound
+to confess I never saw any man speak so well by movement alone;
+you could follow every word though not a sound escaped him.
+
+During the rest of that evening Dr. Hector Macpherson stuck to me
+as close as a mustard-plaster. And he was almost as irritating. I
+got heartily sick of the Upper Amazons. I have positively waded in
+my time through ruby mines (in prospectuses, I mean) till the mere
+sight of a ruby absolutely sickens me. When Charles, in an unwonted
+fit of generosity, once gave his sister Isabel (whom I had the
+honour to marry) a ruby necklet (inferior stones), I made Isabel
+change it for sapphires and amethysts, on the judicious plea that
+they suited her complexion better. (I scored one, incidentally, for
+having considered Isabel's complexion.) By the time I went to bed
+I was prepared to sink the Upper Amazons in the sea, and to stab,
+shoot, poison, or otherwise seriously damage the man with the
+concession and the false eyebrows.
+
+For the next three days, at intervals, he returned to the charge. He
+bored me to death with his platinum and his rubies. He didn't want a
+capitalist who would personally exploit the thing; he would prefer
+to do it all on his own account, giving the capitalist preference
+debentures of his bogus company, and a lien on the concession. I
+listened and smiled; I listened and yawned; I listened and was rude;
+I ceased to listen at all; but still he droned on with it. I fell
+asleep on the steamer one day, and woke up in ten minutes to hear
+him droning yet, "And the yield of platinum per ton was certified
+to be--" I forget how many pounds, or ounces, or pennyweights.
+These details of assays have ceased to interest me: like the man
+who "didn't believe in ghosts," I have seen too many of them.
+
+The fresh-faced little curate and his wife, however, were quite
+different people. He was a cricketing Oxford man; she was a breezy
+Scotch lass, with a wholesome breath of the Highlands about her. I
+called her "White Heather." Their name was Brabazon. Millionaires
+are so accustomed to being beset by harpies of every description,
+that when they come across a young couple who are simple and
+natural, they delight in the purely human relation. We picnicked
+and went excursions a great deal with the honeymooners. They were
+so frank in their young love, and so proof against chaff, that we
+all really liked them. But whenever I called the pretty girl "White
+Heather," she looked so shocked, and cried: "Oh, Mr. Wentworth!"
+Still, we were the best of friends. The curate offered to row us in
+a boat on the lake one day, while the Scotch lassie assured us she
+could take an oar almost as well as he did. However, we did not
+accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence
+upon Amelia's digestive organs.
+
+"Nice young fellow, that man Brabazon," Sir Charles said to me one
+day, as we lounged together along the quay; "never talks about
+advowsons or next presentations. Doesn't seem to me to care two pins
+about promotion. Says he's quite content in his country curacy;
+enough to live upon, and needs no more; and his wife has a little, a
+very little, money. I asked him about his poor to-day, on purpose to
+test him: these parsons are always trying to screw something out of
+one for their poor; men in my position know the truth of the saying
+that we have that class of the population always with us. Would
+you believe it, he says he hasn't any poor at all in his parish!
+They're all well-to-do farmers or else able-bodied labourers, and
+his one terror is that somebody will come and try to pauperise them.
+'If a philanthropist were to give me fifty pounds to-day for use at
+Empingham,' he said, 'I assure you, Sir Charles, I shouldn't know
+what to do with it. I think I should buy new dresses for Jessie, who
+wants them about as much as anybody else in the village--that is to
+say, not at all.' There's a parson for you, Sey, my boy. Only wish
+we had one of his sort at Seldon."
+
+"He certainly doesn't want to get anything out of you," I answered.
+
+That evening at dinner a queer little episode happened. The man
+with the eyebrows began talking to me across the table in his usual
+fashion, full of his wearisome concession on the Upper Amazons. I
+was trying to squash him as politely as possible, when I caught
+Amelia's eye. Her look amused me. She was engaged in making signals
+to Charles at her side to observe the little curate's curious
+sleeve-links. I glanced at them, and saw at once they were a
+singular possession for so unobtrusive a person. They consisted
+each of a short gold bar for one arm of the link, fastened by a
+tiny chain of the same material to what seemed to my tolerably
+experienced eye--a first-rate diamond. Pretty big diamonds, too,
+and of remarkable shape, brilliancy, and cutting. In a moment I
+knew what Amelia meant. She owned a diamond riviere, said to be
+of Indian origin, but short by two stones for the circumference
+of her tolerably ample neck. Now, she had long been wanting two
+diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
+shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
+been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
+extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
+
+The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
+broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
+another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
+turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
+sleeve-links."
+
+"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
+unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
+
+But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
+to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They _are_ good stones,"
+he replied; "very good stones--considering. They're not diamonds
+at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
+paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
+Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
+from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
+thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
+they were only paste--very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
+even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation. But they
+are worth--well, say, fifty shillings at the utmost."
+
+While he spoke Charles looked at Amelia, and Amelia looked at
+Charles. Their eyes spoke volumes. The riviere was also supposed to
+have come from Tippoo's collection. Both drew at once an identical
+conclusion. These were two of the same stones, very likely torn
+apart and disengaged from the rest in the melee at the capture of
+the Indian palace.
+
+"Can you take them off?" Sir Charles asked blandly. He spoke in
+the tone that indicates business.
+
+"Certainly," the little curate answered, smiling. "I'm accustomed to
+taking them off. They're always noticed. They've been kept in the
+family ever since the siege, as a sort of valueless heirloom, for
+the sake of the picturesqueness of the story, you know; and nobody
+ever sees them without asking, as you do, to examine them closely.
+They deceive even experts at first. But they're paste, all the same;
+unmitigated Oriental paste, for all that."
+
+He took them both off, and handed them to Charles. No man in England
+is a finer judge of gems than my brother-in-law. I watched him
+narrowly. He examined them close, first with the naked eye, then
+with the little pocket-lens which he always carries. "Admirable
+imitation," he muttered, passing them on to Amelia. "I'm not
+surprised they should impose upon inexperienced observers."
+
+But from the tone in which he said it, I could see at once he had
+satisfied himself they were real gems of unusual value. I know
+Charles's way of doing business so well. His glance to Amelia meant,
+"These are the very stones you have so long been in search of."
+
+The Scotch lassie laughed a merry laugh. "He sees through them
+now, Dick," she cried. "I felt sure Sir Charles would be a judge
+of diamonds."
+
+Amelia turned them over. I know Amelia, too; and I knew from the
+way Amelia looked at them that she meant to have them. And when
+Amelia means to have anything, people who stand in the way may just
+as well spare themselves the trouble of opposing her.
+
+They were beautiful diamonds. We found out afterwards the little
+curate's account was quite correct: these stones _had_ come from
+the same necklet as Amelia's riviere, made for a favourite wife of
+Tippoo's, who had presumably as expansive personal charms as our
+beloved sister-in-law's. More perfect diamonds have seldom been
+seen. They have excited the universal admiration of thieves and
+connoisseurs. Amelia told me afterwards that, according to legend,
+a Sepoy stole the necklet at the sack of the palace, and then fought
+with another for it. It was believed that two stones got spilt
+in the scuffle, and were picked up and sold by a third person--a
+looker-on--who had no idea of the value of his booty. Amelia had
+been hunting for them for several years to complete her necklet.
+
+"They are excellent paste," Sir Charles observed, handing them back.
+"It takes a first-rate judge to detect them from the reality. Lady
+Vandrift has a necklet much the same in character, but composed
+of genuine stones; and as these are so much like them, and would
+complete her set, to all outer appearance, I wouldn't mind giving
+you, say, 10 pounds for the pair of them."
+
+Mrs. Brabazon looked delighted. "Oh, sell them to him, Dick," she
+cried, "and buy me a brooch with the money! A pair of common
+links would do for you just as well. Ten pounds for two paste
+stones! It's quite a lot of money."
+
+She said it so sweetly, with her pretty Scotch accent, that I
+couldn't imagine how Dick had the heart to refuse her. But he
+did, all the same.
+
+"No, Jess, darling," he answered. "They're worthless, I know; but
+they have for me a certain sentimental value, as I've often told
+you. My dear mother wore them, while she lived, as ear-rings; and
+as soon as she died I had them set as links in order that I might
+always keep them about me. Besides, they have historical and family
+interest. Even a worthless heirloom, after all, _is_ an heirloom."
+
+Dr. Hector Macpherson looked across and intervened. "There is a
+part of my concession," he said, "where we have reason to believe a
+perfect new Kimberley will soon be discovered. If at any time you
+would care, Sir Charles, to look at my diamonds--when I get them--it
+would afford me the greatest pleasure in life to submit them to your
+consideration."
+
+Sir Charles could stand it no longer. "Sir," he said, gazing across
+at him with his sternest air, "if your concession were as full of
+diamonds as Sindbad the Sailor's valley, I would not care to turn my
+head to look at them. I am acquainted with the nature and practice
+of salting." And he glared at the man with the overhanging eyebrows
+as if he would devour him raw. Poor Dr. Hector Macpherson subsided
+instantly. We learnt a little later that he was a harmless lunatic,
+who went about the world with successive concessions for ruby mines
+and platinum reefs, because he had been ruined and driven mad by
+speculations in the two, and now recouped himself by imaginary
+grants in Burmah and Brazil, or anywhere else that turned up handy.
+And his eyebrows, after all, were of Nature's handicraft. We were
+sorry for the incident; but a man in Sir Charles's position is such
+a mark for rogues that, if he did not take means to protect himself
+promptly, he would be for ever overrun by them.
+
+When we went up to our salon that evening, Amelia flung herself on
+the sofa. "Charles," she broke out in the voice of a tragedy queen,
+"those are real diamonds, and I shall never be happy again till I
+get them."
+
+"They are real diamonds," Charles echoed. "And you shall have them,
+Amelia. They're worth not less than three thousand pounds. But I
+shall bid them up gently."
+
+So, next day, Charles set to work to higgle with the curate.
+Brabazon, however, didn't care to part with them. He was no
+money-grubber, he said. He cared more for his mother's gift and a
+family tradition than for a hundred pounds, if Sir Charles were to
+offer it. Charles's eye gleamed. "But if I give you _two_ hundred!"
+he said insinuatingly. "What opportunities for good! You could
+build a new wing to your village school-house!"
+
+"We have ample accommodation," the curate answered. "No, I don't
+think I'll sell them."
+
+Still, his voice faltered somewhat, and he looked down at them
+inquiringly.
+
+Charles was too precipitate.
+
+"A hundred pounds more or less matters little to me," he said; "and
+my wife has set her heart on them. It's every man's duty to please
+his wife--isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?--I offer you three hundred."
+
+The little Scotch girl clasped her hands.
+
+"Three hundred pounds! Oh, Dick, just think what fun we could have,
+and what good we could do with it! Do let him have them."
+
+Her accent was irresistible. But the curate shook his head.
+
+"Impossible," he answered. "My dear mother's ear-rings! Uncle
+Aubrey would be so angry if he knew I'd sold them. I daren't face
+Uncle Aubrey."
+
+"Has he expectations from Uncle Aubrey?" Sir Charles asked of
+White Heather.
+
+Mrs. Brabazon laughed. "Uncle Aubrey! Oh, dear, no. Poor dear old
+Uncle Aubrey! Why, the darling old soul hasn't a penny to bless
+himself with, except his pension. He's a retired post captain."
+And she laughed melodiously. She was a charming woman.
+
+"Then I should disregard Uncle Aubrey's feelings," Sir Charles
+said decisively.
+
+"No, no," the curate answered. "Poor dear old Uncle Aubrey! I
+wouldn't do anything for the world to annoy him. And he'd be sure
+to notice it."
+
+We went back to Amelia. "Well, have you got them?" she asked.
+
+"No," Sir Charles answered. "Not yet. But he's coming round, I
+think. He's hesitating now. Would rather like to sell them himself,
+but is afraid what 'Uncle Aubrey' would say about the matter. His
+wife will talk him out of his needless consideration for Uncle
+Aubrey's feelings; and to-morrow we'll finally clench the bargain."
+
+Next morning we stayed late in our salon, where we always
+breakfasted, and did not come down to the public rooms till just
+before dejeuner, Sir Charles being busy with me over arrears of
+correspondence. When we _did_ come down the concierge stepped
+forward with a twisted little feminine note for Amelia. She took
+it and read it. Her countenance fell. "There, Charles," she cried,
+handing it to him, "you've let the chance slip. I shall _never_ be
+happy now! They've gone off with the diamonds."
+
+Charles seized the note and read it. Then he passed it on to me.
+It was short, but final:--
+
+
+"Thursday, 6 a.m.
+
+"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT--_Will_ you kindly excuse our having gone off
+hurriedly without bidding you good-bye? We have just had a horrid
+telegram to say that Dick's favourite sister is _dangerously_ ill of
+fever in Paris. I wanted to shake hands with you before we left--you
+have all been so sweet to us--but we go by the morning train,
+absurdly early, and I wouldn't for worlds disturb you. Perhaps some
+day we may meet again--though, buried as we are in a North-country
+village, it isn't likely; but in any case, you have secured the
+grateful recollection of Yours very cordially, JESSIE BRABAZON.
+
+"P.S.--Kindest regards to Sir Charles and those _dear_ Wentworths,
+and a kiss for yourself, if I may venture to send you one."
+
+
+"She doesn't even mention where they've gone," Amelia exclaimed,
+in a very bad humour.
+
+"The concierge may know," Isabel suggested, looking over my
+shoulder.
+
+We asked at his office.
+
+Yes, the gentleman's address was the Rev. Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+Holme Bush Cottage, Empingham, Northumberland.
+
+Any address where letters might be sent at once, in Paris?
+
+For the next ten days, or till further notice, Hotel des Deux
+Mondes, Avenue de l'Opera.
+
+Amelia's mind was made up at once.
+
+"Strike while the iron's hot," she cried. "This sudden illness,
+coming at the end of their honeymoon, and involving ten days' more
+stay at an expensive hotel, will probably upset the curate's budget.
+He'll be glad to sell now. You'll get them for three hundred. It
+was absurd of Charles to offer so much at first; but offered once,
+of course we must stick to it."
+
+"What do you propose to do?" Charles asked. "Write, or telegraph?"
+
+"Oh, how silly men are!" Amelia cried. "Is this the sort of business
+to be arranged by letter, still less by telegram? No. Seymour must
+start off at once, taking the night train to Paris; and the moment
+he gets there, he must interview the curate or Mrs. Brabazon. Mrs.
+Brabazon's the best. She has none of this stupid, sentimental
+nonsense about Uncle Aubrey."
+
+It is no part of a secretary's duties to act as a diamond broker.
+But when Amelia puts her foot down, she puts her foot down--a fact
+which she is unnecessarily fond of emphasising in that identical
+proposition. So the self-same evening saw me safe in the train on
+my way to Paris; and next morning I turned out of my comfortable
+sleeping-car at the Gare de Strasbourg. My orders were to bring back
+those diamonds, alive or dead, so to speak, in my pocket to Lucerne;
+and to offer any needful sum, up to two thousand five hundred
+pounds, for their immediate purchase.
+
+When I arrived at the Deux Mondes I found the poor little curate
+and his wife both greatly agitated. They had sat up all night, they
+said, with their invalid sister; and the sleeplessness and suspense
+had certainly told upon them after their long railway journey. They
+were pale and tired, Mrs. Brabazon, in particular, looking ill and
+worried--too much like White Heather. I was more than half ashamed
+of bothering them about the diamonds at such a moment, but it
+occurred to me that Amelia was probably right--they would now have
+reached the end of the sum set apart for their Continental trip,
+and a little ready cash might be far from unwelcome.
+
+I broached the subject delicately. It was a fad of Lady Vandrift's,
+I said. She had set her heart upon those useless trinkets. And she
+wouldn't go without them. She must and would have them. But the
+curate was obdurate. He threw Uncle Aubrey still in my teeth. Three
+hundred?--no, never! A mother's present; impossible, dear Jessie!
+Jessie begged and prayed; she had grown really attached to Lady
+Vandrift, she said; but the curate wouldn't hear of it. I went up
+tentatively to four hundred. He shook his head gloomily. It wasn't
+a question of money, he said. It was a question of affection. I saw
+it was no use trying that tack any longer. I struck out a new line.
+"These stones," I said, "I think I ought to inform you, are really
+diamonds. Sir Charles is certain of it. Now, is it right for a man
+of your profession and position to be wearing a pair of big gems
+like those, worth several hundred pounds, as ordinary sleeve-links?
+A woman?--yes, I grant you. But for a man, is it manly? And you a
+cricketer!"
+
+He looked at me and laughed. "Will nothing convince you?" he cried.
+"They have been examined and tested by half a dozen jewellers, and
+we know them to be paste. It wouldn't be right of me to sell them
+to you under false pretences, however unwilling on my side. I
+_couldn't_ do it."
+
+"Well, then," I said, going up a bit in my bids to meet him,
+"I'll put it like this. These gems are paste. But Lady Vandrift
+has an unconquerable and unaccountable desire to possess them.
+Money doesn't matter to her. She is a friend of your wife's. As a
+personal favour, won't you sell them to her for a thousand?"
+
+He shook his head. "It would be wrong," he said,--"I might even add,
+criminal."
+
+"But we take all risk," I cried.
+
+He was absolute adamant. "As a clergyman," he answered, "I feel
+I cannot do it."
+
+"Will _you_ try, Mrs. Brabazon?" I asked.
+
+The pretty little Scotchwoman leant over and whispered. She coaxed
+and cajoled him. Her ways were winsome. I couldn't hear what she
+said, but he seemed to give way at last. "I should love Lady
+Vandrift to have them," she murmured, turning to me. "She _is_ such
+a dear!" And she took out the links from her husband's cuffs and
+handed them across to me.
+
+"How much?" I asked.
+
+"Two thousand?" she answered, interrogatively. It was a big rise,
+all at once; but such are the ways of women.
+
+"Done!" I replied. "Do you consent?"
+
+The curate looked up as if ashamed of himself.
+
+"I consent," he said slowly, "since Jessie wishes it. But as a
+clergyman, and to prevent any future misunderstanding, I should
+like you to give me a statement in writing that you buy them on my
+distinct and positive declaration that they are made of paste--old
+Oriental paste--not genuine stones, and that I do not claim any
+other qualities for them."
+
+I popped the gems into my purse, well pleased.
+
+"Certainly," I said, pulling out a paper. Charles, with his
+unerring business instinct, had anticipated the request, and given
+me a signed agreement to that effect.
+
+"You will take a cheque?" I inquired.
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Notes of the Bank of France would suit me better," he answered.
+
+"Very well," I replied. "I will go out and get them."
+
+How very unsuspicious some people are! He allowed me to go off--with
+the stones in my pocket!
+
+Sir Charles had given me a blank cheque, not exceeding two thousand
+five hundred pounds. I took it to our agents and cashed it for notes
+of the Bank of France. The curate clasped them with pleasure. And
+right glad I was to go back to Lucerne that night, feeling that I
+had got those diamonds into my hands for about a thousand pounds
+under their real value!
+
+At Lucerne railway station Amelia met me. She was positively
+agitated.
+
+"Have you bought them, Seymour?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered, producing my spoils in triumph.
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" she cried, drawing back. "Do you think they're
+real? Are you sure he hasn't cheated you?"
+
+"Certain of it," I replied, examining them. "No one can take me in,
+in the matter of diamonds. Why on earth should you doubt them?"
+
+"Because I've been talking to Mrs. O'Hagan, at the hotel, and she
+says there's a well-known trick just like that--she's read of it in
+a book. A swindler has two sets--one real, one false; and he makes
+you buy the false ones by showing you the real, and pretending he
+sells them as a special favour."
+
+"You needn't be alarmed," I answered. "I am a judge of diamonds."
+
+"I shan't be satisfied," Amelia murmured, "till Charles has seen
+them."
+
+We went up to the hotel. For the first time in her life I saw Amelia
+really nervous as I handed the stones to Charles to examine. Her
+doubt was contagious. I half feared, myself, he might break out into
+a deep monosyllabic interjection, losing his temper in haste, as he
+often does when things go wrong. But he looked at them with a smile,
+while I told him the price.
+
+"Eight hundred pounds less than their value," he answered, well
+satisfied.
+
+"You have no doubt of their reality?" I asked.
+
+"Not the slightest," he replied, gazing at them. "They are genuine
+stones, precisely the same in quality and type as Amelia's necklet."
+
+Amelia drew a sigh of relief. "I'll go upstairs," she said slowly,
+"and bring down my own for you both to compare with them."
+
+One minute later she rushed down again, breathless. Amelia is far
+from slim, and I never before knew her exert herself so actively.
+
+"Charles, Charles!" she cried, "do you know what dreadful thing
+has happened? Two of my own stones are gone. He's stolen a couple
+of diamonds from my necklet, and sold them back to me."
+
+She held out the riviere. It was all too true. Two gems were
+missing--and these two just fitted the empty places!
+
+A light broke in upon me. I clapped my hand to my head. "By Jove,"
+I exclaimed, "the little curate is--Colonel Clay!"
+
+Charles clapped his own hand to his brow in turn. "And Jessie," he
+cried, "White Heather--that innocent little Scotchwoman! I often
+detected a familiar ring in her voice, in spite of the charming
+Highland accent. Jessie is--Madame Picardet!"
+
+We had absolutely no evidence; but, like the Commissary at Nice,
+we felt instinctively sure of it.
+
+Sir Charles was determined to catch the rogue. This second deception
+put him on his mettle. "The worst of the man is," he said, "he has a
+method. He doesn't go out of his way to cheat us; he makes us go out
+of ours to be cheated. He lays a trap, and we tumble headlong into
+it. To-morrow, Sey, we must follow him on to Paris."
+
+Amelia explained to him what Mrs. O'Hagan had said. Charles took it
+all in at once, with his usual sagacity. "That explains," he said,
+"why the rascal used this particular trick to draw us on by. If we
+had suspected him he could have shown the diamonds were real, and
+so escaped detection. It was a blind to draw us off from the fact
+of the robbery. He went to Paris to be out of the way when the
+discovery was made, and to get a clear day's start of us. What a
+consummate rogue! And to do me twice running!"
+
+"How did he get at my jewel-case, though?" Amelia exclaimed.
+
+"That's the question," Charles answered. "You _do_ leave it about so!"
+
+"And why didn't he steal the whole riviere at once, and sell the
+gems?" I inquired.
+
+"Too cunning," Charles replied. "This was much better business. It
+isn't easy to dispose of a big thing like that. In the first place,
+the stones are large and valuable; in the second place, they're
+well known--every dealer has heard of the Vandrift riviere, and seen
+pictures of the shape of them. They're marked gems, so to speak. No,
+he played a better game--took a couple of them off, and offered them
+to the only one person on earth who was likely to buy them without
+suspicion. He came here, meaning to work this very trick; he had
+the links made right to the shape beforehand, and then he stole the
+stones and slipped them into their places. It's a wonderfully clever
+trick. Upon my soul, I almost admire the fellow."
+
+For Charles is a business man himself, and can appreciate business
+capacity in others.
+
+How Colonel Clay came to know about that necklet, and to appropriate
+two of the stones, we only discovered much later. I will not here
+anticipate that disclosure. One thing at a time is a good rule in
+life. For the moment he succeeded in baffling us altogether.
+
+However, we followed him on to Paris, telegraphing beforehand to the
+Bank of France to stop the notes. It was all in vain. They had been
+cashed within half an hour of my paying them. The curate and his
+wife, we found, quitted the Hotel des Deux Mondes for parts unknown
+that same afternoon. And, as usual with Colonel Clay, they vanished
+into space, leaving no clue behind them. In other words, they
+changed their disguise, no doubt, and reappeared somewhere else that
+night in altered characters. At any rate, no such person as the
+Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon was ever afterwards heard of--and,
+for the matter of that, no such village exists as Empingham,
+Northumberland.
+
+We communicated the matter to the Parisian police. They were _most_
+unsympathetic. "It is no doubt Colonel Clay," said the official
+whom we saw; "but you seem to have little just ground of complaint
+against him. As far as I can see, messieurs, there is not much to
+choose between you. You, Monsieur le Chevalier, desired to buy
+diamonds at the price of paste. You, madame, feared you had bought
+paste at the price of diamonds. You, monsieur the secretary, tried
+to get the stones from an unsuspecting person for half their value.
+He took you all in, that brave Colonel Caoutchouc--it was diamond
+cut diamond."
+
+Which was true, no doubt, but by no means consoling.
+
+We returned to the Grand Hotel. Charles was fuming with indignation.
+"This is really too much," he exclaimed. "What an audacious rascal!
+But he will never again take me in, my dear Sey. I only hope he'll
+try it on. I should love to catch him. I'd know him another time,
+I'm sure, in spite of his disguises. It's absurd my being tricked
+twice running like this. But never again while I live! Never again,
+I declare to you!"
+
+"Jamais de la vie!" a courier in the hall close by murmured
+responsive. We stood under the verandah of the Grand Hotel, in the
+big glass courtyard. And I verily believe that courier was really
+Colonel Clay himself in one of his disguises.
+
+But perhaps we were beginning to suspect him everywhere.
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD MASTER
+
+
+Like most South Africans, Sir Charles Vandrift is anything but
+sedentary. He hates sitting down. He must always "trek." He cannot
+live without moving about freely. Six weeks in Mayfair at a time is
+as much as he can stand. Then he must run away incontinently for
+rest and change to Scotland, Homburg, Monte Carlo, Biarritz. "I
+won't be a limpet on the rock," he says. Thus it came to pass that
+in the early autumn we found ourselves stopping at the Metropole
+at Brighton. We were the accustomed nice little family party--Sir
+Charles and Amelia, myself and Isabel, with the suite as usual.
+
+On the first Sunday morning after our arrival we strolled out,
+Charles and I--I regret to say during the hours allotted for Divine
+service--on to the King's Road, to get a whiff of fresh air, and a
+glimpse of the waves that were churning the Channel. The two ladies
+(with their bonnets) had gone to church; but Sir Charles had risen
+late, fatigued from the week's toil, while I myself was suffering
+from a matutinal headache, which I attributed to the close air in
+the billiard-room overnight, combined, perhaps, with the insidious
+effect of a brand of soda-water to which I was little accustomed; I
+had used it to dilute my evening whisky. We were to meet our wives
+afterwards at the church parade--an institution to which I believe
+both Amelia and Isabel attach even greater importance than to the
+sermon which precedes it.
+
+We sat down on a glass seat. Charles gazed inquiringly up and down
+the King's Road, on the look-out for a boy with Sunday papers.
+At last one passed. "Observer," my brother-in-law called out
+laconically.
+
+"Ain't got none," the boy answered, brandishing his bundle in our
+faces. "'Ave a Referee or a Pink 'Un?"
+
+Charles, however, is not a Refereader, while as to the Pink 'Un, he
+considers it unsuitable for public perusal on Sunday morning. It may
+be read indoors, but in the open air its blush betrays it. So he
+shook his head, and muttered, "If you pass an Observer, send him on
+here at once to me."
+
+A polite stranger who sat close to us turned round with a pleasant
+smile. "Would you allow me to offer you one?" he said, drawing a
+copy from his pocket. "I fancy I bought the last. There's a run
+on them to-day, you see. Important news this morning from the
+Transvaal."
+
+Charles raised his eyebrows, and accepted it, as I thought, just a
+trifle grumpily. So, to remove the false impression his surliness
+might produce on so benevolent a mind, I entered into conversation
+with the polite stranger. He was a man of middle age, and medium
+height, with a cultivated air, and a pair of gold pince-nez; his
+eyes were sharp; his voice was refined; he dropped into talk before
+long about distinguished people just then in Brighton. It was clear
+at once that he was hand in glove with many of the very best kind.
+We compared notes as to Nice, Rome, Florence, Cairo. Our new
+acquaintance had scores of friends in common with us, it seemed;
+indeed, our circles so largely coincided, that I wondered we had
+never happened till then to knock up against one another.
+
+"And Sir Charles Vandrift, the great African millionaire," he said
+at last, "do you know anything of _him_? I'm told he's at present
+down here at the Metropole."
+
+I waved my hand towards the person in question.
+
+"_This_ is Sir Charles Vandrift," I answered, with proprietary pride;
+"and _I_ am his brother-in-law, Mr. Seymour Wentworth."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" the stranger answered, with a curious air of drawing
+in his horns. I wondered whether he had just been going to pretend
+he knew Sir Charles, or whether perchance he was on the point of
+saying something highly uncomplimentary, and was glad to have
+escaped it.
+
+By this time, however, Charles laid down the paper and chimed into
+our conversation. I could see at once from his mollified tone that
+the news from the Transvaal was favourable to his operations in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. He was therefore in a friendly and affable
+temper. His whole manner changed at once. He grew polite in return
+to the polite stranger. Besides, we knew the man moved in the best
+society; he had acquaintances whom Amelia was most anxious to secure
+for her "At Homes" in Mayfair--young Faith, the novelist, and Sir
+Richard Montrose, the great Arctic traveller. As for the painters,
+it was clear that he was sworn friends with the whole lot of them.
+He dined with Academicians, and gave weekly breakfasts to the
+members of the Institute. Now, Amelia is particularly desirous
+that her salon should not be considered too exclusively financial
+and political in character: with a solid basis of M.P.'s and
+millionaires, she loves a delicate under-current of literature,
+art, and the musical glasses. Our new acquaintance was extremely
+communicative: "Knows his place in society, Sey," Sir Charles said
+to me afterwards, "and is therefore not afraid of talking freely,
+as so many people are who have doubts about their position." We
+exchanged cards before we rose. Our new friend's name turned out
+to be Dr. Edward Polperro.
+
+"In practice here?" I inquired, though his garb belied it.
+
+"Oh, not medical," he answered. "I am an LL.D. don't you know. I
+interest myself in art, and buy to some extent for the National
+Gallery."
+
+The very man for Amelia's "At Homes"! Sir Charles snapped at him
+instantly. "I've brought my four-in-hand down here with me," he
+said, in his best friendly manner, "and we think of tooling over
+to-morrow to Lewes. If you'd care to take a seat I'm sure Lady
+Vandrift would be charmed to see you."
+
+"You're very kind," the Doctor said, "on so casual an introduction.
+I'm sure I shall be delighted."
+
+"We start from the Metropole at ten-thirty," Charles went on.
+
+"I shall be there. Good morning!" And, with a satisfied smile, he
+rose and left us, nodding.
+
+We returned to the lawn, to Amelia and Isabel. Our new friend passed
+us once or twice. Charles stopped him and introduced him. He was
+walking with two ladies, most elegantly dressed in rather peculiar
+artistic dresses. Amelia was taken at first sight by his manner.
+"One could see at a glance," she said, "he was a person of culture
+and of real distinction. I wonder whether he could bring the P.R.A.
+to my Parliamentary 'At Home' on Wednesday fortnight?"
+
+Next day, at ten-thirty, we started on our drive. Our team has been
+considered the best in Sussex. Charles is an excellent, though
+somewhat anxious--or, might I say better, somewhat careful?--whip.
+He finds the management of two leaders and two wheelers fills his
+hands for the moment, both literally and figuratively, leaving very
+little time for general conversation. Lady Belleisle of Beacon
+bloomed beside him on the box (her bloom is perennial, and applied
+by her maid); Dr. Polperro occupied the seat just behind with myself
+and Amelia. The Doctor talked most of the time to Lady Vandrift: his
+discourse was of picture-galleries, which Amelia detests, but in
+which she thinks it incumbent upon her, as Sir Charles's wife, to
+affect now and then a cultivated interest. Noblesse oblige; and the
+walls of Castle Seldon, our place in Ross-shire, are almost covered
+now with Leaders and with Orchardsons. This result was first arrived
+at by a singular accident. Sir Charles wanted a leader--for his
+coach, you understand--and told an artistic friend so. The artistic
+friend brought him a Leader next week with a capital L; and Sir
+Charles was so taken aback that he felt ashamed to confess the
+error. So he was turned unawares into a patron of painting.
+
+Dr. Polperro, in spite of his too pronouncedly artistic talk, proved
+on closer view a most agreeable companion. He diversified his art
+cleverly with anecdotes and scandals; he told us exactly which
+famous painters had married their cooks, and which had only married
+their models; and otherwise showed himself a most diverting talker.
+Among other things, however, he happened to mention once that he
+had recently discovered a genuine Rembrandt--a quite undoubted
+Rembrandt, which had remained for years in the keeping of a
+certain obscure Dutch family. It had always been allowed to be a
+masterpiece of the painter, but it had seldom been seen for the
+last half-century save by a few intimate acquaintances. It was a
+portrait of one Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and he had bought it
+of her descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+I saw Charles prick up his ears, though he took no open notice.
+This Maria Vanrenen, as it happened, was a remote collateral
+ancestress of the Vandrifts, before they emigrated to the Cape in
+1780; and the existence of the portrait, though not its whereabouts,
+was well known in the family. Isabel had often mentioned it. If it
+was to be had at anything like a reasonable price, it would be a
+splendid thing for the boys (Sir Charles, I ought to say, has two
+sons at Eton) to possess an undoubted portrait of an ancestress
+by Rembrandt.
+
+Dr. Polperro talked a good deal after that about this valuable find.
+He had tried to sell it at first to the National Gallery; but
+though the Directors admired the work immensely, and admitted its
+genuineness, they regretted that the funds at their disposal this
+year did not permit them to acquire so important a canvas at a
+proper figure. South Kensington again was too poor; but the Doctor
+was in treaty at present with the Louvre and with Berlin. Still,
+it was a pity a fine work of art like that, once brought into the
+country, should be allowed to go out of it. Some patriotic patron
+of the fine arts ought to buy it for his own house, or else
+munificently present it to the nation.
+
+All the time Charles said nothing. But I could feel him cogitating.
+He even looked behind him once, near a difficult corner (while the
+guard was actually engaged in tootling his horn to let passers-by
+know that the coach was coming), and gave Amelia a warning glance
+to say nothing committing, which had at once the requisite effect
+of sealing her mouth for the moment. It is a very unusual thing
+for Charles to look back while driving. I gathered from his doing
+so that he was inordinately anxious to possess this Rembrandt.
+
+When we arrived at Lewes we put up our horses at the inn,
+and Charles ordered a lunch on his wonted scale of princely
+magnificence. Meanwhile we wandered, two and two, about the town
+and castle. I annexed Lady Belleisle, who is at least amusing.
+Charles drew me aside before starting. "Look here, Sey," he
+said, "we must be _very_ careful. This man, Polperro, is a chance
+acquaintance. There's nothing an astute rogue can take one in over
+more easily than an Old Master. If the Rembrandt is genuine I
+ought to have it; if it really represents Maria Vanrenen, it's a
+duty I owe to the boys to buy it. But I've been done twice lately,
+and I won't be done a third time. We must go to work cautiously."
+
+"You are right," I answered. "No more seers and curates!"
+
+"If this man's an impostor," Charles went on--"and in spite of what
+he says about the National Gallery and so forth, we know nothing of
+him--the story he tells is just the sort of one such a fellow would
+trump up in a moment to deceive me. He could easily learn who I
+was--I'm a well-known figure; he knew I was in Brighton, and he
+may have been sitting on that glass seat on Sunday on purpose to
+entrap me."
+
+"He introduced your name," I said, "and the moment he found out who
+I was he plunged into talk with me."
+
+"Yes," Charles continued. "He may have learned about the portrait
+of Maria Vanrenen, which my grandmother always said was preserved
+at Gouda; and, indeed, I myself have often mentioned it, as you
+doubtless remember. If so, what more natural, say, for a rogue than
+to begin talking about the portrait in that innocent way to Amelia?
+If he wants a Rembrandt, I believe they can be turned out to order
+to any amount in Birmingham. The moral of all which is, it behoves
+us to be careful."
+
+"Right you are," I answered; "and I am keeping my eye upon him."
+
+We drove back by another road, overshadowed by beech-trees in
+autumnal gold. It was a delightful excursion. Dr. Polperro's heart
+was elated by lunch and the excellent dry Monopole. He talked
+amazingly. I never heard a man with a greater or more varied flow
+of anecdote. He had been everywhere and knew all about everybody.
+Amelia booked him at once for her "At Home" on Wednesday week,
+and he promised to introduce her to several artistic and literary
+celebrities.
+
+That evening, however, about half-past seven, Charles and I strolled
+out together on the King's Road for a blow before dinner. We dine at
+eight. The air was delicious. We passed a small new hotel, very
+smart and exclusive, with a big bow window. There, in evening dress,
+lights burning and blind up, sat our friend, Dr. Polperro, with a
+lady facing him, young, graceful, and pretty. A bottle of champagne
+stood open before him. He was helping himself plentifully to
+hot-house grapes, and full of good humour. It was clear he and the
+lady were occupied in the intense enjoyment of some capital joke;
+for they looked queerly at one another, and burst now and again
+into merry peals of laughter.
+
+I drew back. So did Sir Charles. One idea passed at once through
+both our minds. I murmured, "Colonel Clay!" He answered, "_and_
+Madame Picardet!"
+
+They were not in the least like the Reverend Richard and Mrs.
+Brabazon. But that clinched the matter. Nor did I see a sign of the
+aquiline nose of the Mexican Seer. Still, I had learnt by then to
+discount appearances. If these were indeed the famous sharper and
+his wife or accomplice, we must be very careful. We were forewarned
+this time. Supposing he had the audacity to try a third trick of
+the sort upon us we had him under our thumbs. Only, we must take
+steps to prevent his dexterously slipping through our fingers.
+
+"He can wriggle like an eel," said the Commissary at Nice. We both
+recalled those words, and laid our plans deep to prevent the man's
+wriggling away from us on this third occasion.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Sey," my brother-in-law said, with
+impressive slowness. "This time we must deliberately lay ourselves
+out to be swindled. We must propose of our own accord to buy the
+picture, making him guarantee it in writing as a genuine Rembrandt,
+and taking care to tie him down by most stringent conditions. But
+we must seem at the same time to be unsuspicious and innocent as
+babes; we must swallow whole whatever lies he tells us; pay his
+price--nominally--by cheque for the portrait; and then, arrest him
+the moment the bargain is complete, with the proofs of his guilt
+then and there upon him. Of course, what he'll try to do will be to
+vanish into thin air at once, as he did at Nice and Paris; but, this
+time, we'll have the police in waiting and everything ready. We'll
+avoid precipitancy, but we'll avoid delay too. We must hold our
+hands off till he's actually accepted and pocketed the money; and
+then, we must nab him instantly, and walk him off to the local Bow
+Street. That's my plan of campaign. Meanwhile, we should appear
+all trustful innocence and confiding guilelessness."
+
+In pursuance of this well-laid scheme, we called next day on Dr.
+Polperro at his hotel, and were introduced to his wife, a dainty
+little woman, in whom we affected not to recognise that arch Madame
+Picardet or that simple White Heather. The Doctor talked charmingly
+(as usual) about art--what a well-informed rascal he was, to be
+sure!--and Sir Charles expressed some interest in the supposed
+Rembrandt. Our new friend was delighted; we could see by his
+well-suppressed eagerness of tone that he knew us at once for
+probable purchasers. He would run up to town next day, he said, and
+bring down the portrait. And in effect, when Charles and I took our
+wonted places in the Pullman next morning, on our way up to the
+half-yearly meeting of Cloetedorp Golcondas, there was our Doctor,
+leaning back in his arm-chair as if the car belonged to him. Charles
+gave me an expressive look. "Does it in style," he whispered,
+"doesn't he? Takes it out of my five thousand; or discounts the
+amount he means to chouse me of with his spurious Rembrandt."
+
+Arrived in town, we went to work at once. We set a private detective
+from Marvillier's to watch our friend; and from him we learned that
+the so-called Doctor dropped in for a picture that day at a dealer's
+in the West-end (I suppress the name, having a judicious fear of
+the law of libel ever before my eyes), a dealer who was known to be
+mixed up before then in several shady or disreputable transactions.
+Though, to be sure, my experience has been that picture dealers
+are--picture dealers. Horses rank first in my mind as begetters and
+producers of unscrupulous agents, but pictures run them a very good
+second. Anyhow, we found out that our distinguished art-critic
+picked up his Rembrandt at this dealer's shop, and came down with
+it in his care the same night to Brighton.
+
+In order not to act precipitately, and so ruin our plans, we induced
+Dr. Polperro (what a cleverly chosen name!) to bring the Rembrandt
+round to the Metropole for our inspection, and to leave it with us
+while we got the opinion of an expert from London.
+
+The expert came down, and gave us a full report upon the alleged
+Old Master. In his judgment, it was not a Rembrandt at all, but
+a cunningly-painted and well-begrimed modern Dutch imitation.
+Moreover, he showed us by documentary evidence that the real
+portrait of Maria Vanrenen had, as a matter of fact, been brought
+to England five years before, and sold to Sir J. H. Tomlinson, the
+well-known connoisseur, for eight thousand pounds. Dr. Polperro's
+picture was, therefore, at best either a replica by Rembrandt; or
+else, more probably, a copy by a pupil; or, most likely of all,
+a mere modern forgery.
+
+We were thus well prepared to fasten our charge of criminal
+conspiracy upon the self-styled Doctor. But in order to make
+assurance still more certain, we threw out vague hints to him that
+the portrait of Maria Vanrenen might really be elsewhere, and even
+suggested in his hearing that it might not improbably have got into
+the hands of that omnivorous collector, Sir J. H. Tomlinson. But
+the vendor was proof against all such attempts to decry his goods.
+He had the effrontery to brush away the documentary evidence, and to
+declare that Sir J. H. Tomlinson (one of the most learned and astute
+picture-buyers in England) had been smartly imposed upon by a needy
+Dutch artist with a talent for forgery. The real Maria Vanrenen, he
+declared and swore, was the one he offered us. "Success has turned
+the man's head," Charles said to me, well pleased. "He thinks we
+will swallow any obvious lie he chooses to palm off upon us. But the
+bucket has come once too often to the well. This time we checkmate
+him." It was a mixed metaphor, I admit; but Sir Charles's tropes
+are not always entirely superior to criticism.
+
+So we pretended to believe our man, and accepted his assurances.
+Next came the question of price. This was warmly debated, for form's
+sake only. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had paid eight thousand for his
+genuine Maria. The Doctor demanded ten thousand for his spurious
+one. There was really no reason why we should higgle and dispute,
+for Charles meant merely to give his cheque for the sum and then
+arrest the fellow; but, still, we thought it best for the avoidance
+of suspicion to make a show of resistance; and we at last beat him
+down to nine thousand guineas. For this amount he was to give us a
+written warranty that the work he sold us was a genuine Rembrandt,
+that it represented Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and that he had
+bought it direct, without doubt or question, from that good lady's
+descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+It was capitally done. We arranged the thing to perfection. We had a
+constable in waiting in our rooms at the Metropole, and we settled
+that Dr. Polperro was to call at the hotel at a certain fixed hour
+to sign the warranty and receive his money. A regular agreement on
+sound stamped paper was drawn out between us. At the appointed time
+the "party of the first part" came, having already given us over
+possession of the portrait. Charles drew a cheque for the amount
+agreed upon, and signed it. Then he handed it to the Doctor.
+Polperro just clutched at it. Meanwhile, I took up my post by
+the door, while two men in plain clothes, detectives from the
+police-station, stood as men-servants and watched the windows. We
+feared lest the impostor, once he had got the cheque, should dodge
+us somehow, as he had already done at Nice and in Paris. The moment
+he had pocketed his money with a smile of triumph, I advanced to him
+rapidly. I had in my possession a pair of handcuffs. Before he knew
+what was happening, I had slipped them on his wrists and secured
+them dexterously, while the constable stepped forward. "We have got
+you this time!" I cried. "We know who you are, Dr. Polperro. You
+are--Colonel Clay, alias Senor Antonio Herrera, alias the Reverend
+Richard Peploe Brabazon."
+
+I never saw any man so astonished in my life! He was utterly
+flabbergasted. Charles thought he must have expected to get clear
+away at once, and that this prompt action on our part had taken
+the fellow so much by surprise as to simply unman him. He gazed
+about him as if he hardly realised what was happening.
+
+"Are these two raving maniacs?" he asked at last, "or what do they
+mean by this nonsensical gibberish about Antonio Herrera?"
+
+The constable laid his hand on the prisoner's shoulder.
+
+"It's all right, my man," he said. "We've got warrants out against
+you. I arrest you, Edward Polperro, alias the Reverend Richard
+Peploe Brabazon, on a charge of obtaining money under false
+pretences from Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G., M.P., on his sworn
+information, now here subscribed to." For Charles had had the
+thing drawn out in readiness beforehand.
+
+Our prisoner drew himself up. "Look here, officer," he said, in an
+offended tone, "there's some mistake here in this matter. I have
+never given an alias at any time in my life. How do you know this
+is really Sir Charles Vandrift? It may be a case of bullying
+personation. My belief is, though, they're a pair of escaped
+lunatics."
+
+"We'll see about that to-morrow," the constable said, collaring him.
+"At present you've got to go off with me quietly to the station,
+where these gentlemen will enter up the charge against you."
+
+They carried him off, protesting. Charles and I signed the
+charge-sheet; and the officer locked him up to await his examination
+next day before the magistrate.
+
+We were half afraid even now the fellow would manage somehow to
+get out on bail and give us the slip in spite of everything;
+and, indeed, he protested in the most violent manner against the
+treatment to which we were subjecting "a gentleman in his position."
+But Charles took care to tell the police it was all right; that he
+was a dangerous and peculiarly slippery criminal, and that on no
+account must they let him go on any pretext whatever, till he had
+been properly examined before the magistrates.
+
+We learned at the hotel that night, curiously enough, that there
+really _was_ a Dr. Polperro, a distinguished art critic, whose
+name, we didn't doubt, our impostor had been assuming.
+
+Next morning, when we reached the court, an inspector met us with a
+very long face. "Look here, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid you've
+committed a very serious blunder. You've made a precious bad mess of
+it. You've got yourselves into a scrape; and, what's worse, you've
+got us into one also. You were a deal too smart with your sworn
+information. We've made inquiries about this gentleman, and we find
+the account he gives of himself is perfectly correct. His name _is_
+Polperro; he's a well-known art critic and collector of pictures,
+employed abroad by the National Gallery. He was formerly an official
+in the South Kensington Museum, and he's a C.B. and LL.D., very
+highly respected. You've made a sad mistake, that's where it is; and
+you'll probably have to answer a charge of false imprisonment, in
+which I'm afraid you have also involved our own department."
+
+Charles gasped with horror. "You haven't let him out," he cried, "on
+those absurd representations? You haven't let him slip through your
+hands as you did that murderer fellow?"
+
+"Let him slip through our hands?" the inspector cried. "I only wish
+he would. There's no chance of that, unfortunately. He's in the
+court there, this moment, breathing out fire and slaughter against
+you both; and we're here to protect you if he should happen to fall
+upon you. He's been locked up all night on your mistaken affidavits,
+and, naturally enough, he's mad with anger."
+
+"If you haven't let him go, I'm satisfied," Charles answered.
+"He's a fox for cunning. Where is he? Let me see him."
+
+We went into the court. There we saw our prisoner conversing
+amicably, in the most excited way, with the magistrate (who, it
+seems, was a personal friend of his); and Charles at once went
+up and spoke to them. Dr. Polperro turned round and glared at him
+through his pince-nez.
+
+"The only possible explanation of this person's extraordinary and
+incredible conduct," he said, "is, that he must be mad--and his
+secretary equally so. He made my acquaintance, unasked, on a glass
+seat on the King's Road; invited me to go on his coach to Lewes;
+volunteered to buy a valuable picture of me; and then, at the
+last moment, unaccountably gave me in charge on this silly and
+preposterous trumped-up accusation. I demand a summons for false
+imprisonment."
+
+Suddenly it began to dawn upon us that the tables were turned. By
+degrees it came out that we had made a mistake. Dr. Polperro was
+really the person he represented himself to be, and had been always.
+His picture, we found out, was the real Maria Vanrenen, and a
+genuine Rembrandt, which he had merely deposited for cleaning and
+restoring at the suspicious dealer's. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had been
+imposed upon and cheated by a cunning Dutchman; _his_ picture, though
+also an undoubted Rembrandt, was _not_ the Maria, and was an inferior
+specimen in bad preservation. The authority we had consulted turned
+out to be an ignorant, self-sufficient quack. The Maria, moreover,
+was valued by other experts at no more than five or six thousand
+guineas. Charles wanted to cry off his bargain, but Dr. Polperro
+naturally wouldn't hear of it. The agreement was a legally binding
+instrument, and what passed in Charles's mind at the moment had
+nothing to do with the written contract. Our adversary only
+consented to forego the action for false imprisonment on condition
+that Charles inserted a printed apology in the Times, and paid him
+five hundred pounds compensation for damage to character. So that
+was the end of our well-planned attempt to arrest the swindler.
+
+Not quite the end, however; for, of course, after this, the whole
+affair got by degrees into the papers. Dr. Polperro, who was a
+familiar person in literary and artistic society, as it turned out,
+brought an action against the so-called expert who had declared
+against the genuineness of his alleged Rembrandt, and convicted him
+of the grossest ignorance and misstatement. Then paragraphs got
+about. The World showed us up in a sarcastic article; and Truth,
+which has always been terribly severe upon Sir Charles and all the
+other South Africans, had a pungent set of verses on "High Art in
+Kimberley." By this means, as we suppose, the affair became known
+to Colonel Clay himself; for a week or two later my brother-in-law
+received a cheerful little note on scented paper from our persistent
+sharper. It was couched in these terms:--
+
+
+"Oh, you innocent infant!
+
+"Bless your ingenuous little heart! And did it believe, then, it
+had positively caught the redoubtable colonel? And had it ready a
+nice little pinch of salt to put upon his tail? And is it true its
+respected name is Sir Simple Simon? How heartily we have laughed,
+White Heather and I, at your neat little ruses! It would pay you,
+by the way, to take White Heather into your house for six months
+to instruct you in the agreeable sport of amateur detectives. Your
+charming naivete quite moves our envy. So you actually imagined a
+man of my brains would condescend to anything so flat and stale as
+the silly and threadbare Old Master deception! And this in the
+so-called nineteenth century! O sancta simplicitas! When again
+shall such infantile transparency be mine? When, ah, when? But never
+mind, dear friend. Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
+long at some delightful Philippi.
+
+"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
+
+"ANTONIO HERRERA,
+
+"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
+
+
+Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
+he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth--not even mine--can go on
+standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
+foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
+robs me of when he _is_ Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
+when he _isn't_ Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
+nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
+I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
+spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
+
+"You _must_ need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
+Let us try the Tyrol."
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
+
+
+We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
+Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
+guide and courier.
+
+She is _such_ a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
+are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
+as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Cesarine has been all
+over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
+course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
+residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
+in our native English. She is a treasure, that girl; so neat and
+dexterous, and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be
+asked to turn her hand to. She walks the world with a needle-case
+in one hand and an etna in the other. She can cook an omelette on
+occasion, or drive a Norwegian cariole; she can sew, and knit, and
+make dresses, and cure a cold, and do anything else on earth you ask
+her. Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted; while as for her
+coffee (which she prepares for us in the train on long journeys),
+there isn't a chef de cuisine at a West-end club to be named in the
+same day with her.
+
+So, when Amelia said, in her imperious way, "Cesarine, we want to go
+to the Tyrol--now--at once--in mid-October; where do you advise us
+to put up?"--Cesarine answered, like a shot, "The Erzherzog Johann,
+of course, at Meran, for the autumn, madame."
+
+"Is he ... an archduke?" Amelia asked, a little staggered at such
+apparent familiarity with Imperial personages.
+
+"Ma foi! no, madame. He is an hotel--as you would say in England,
+the 'Victoria' or the 'Prince of Wales's'--the most comfortable
+hotel in all South Tyrol; and at this time of year, naturally, you
+must go beyond the Alps; it begins already to be cold at Innsbruck."
+
+So to Meran we went; and a prettier or more picturesque place, I
+confess, I have seldom set eyes on. A rushing torrent; high hills
+and mountain peaks; terraced vineyard slopes; old walls and towers;
+quaint, arcaded streets; a craggy waterfall; a promenade after
+the fashion of a German Spa; and when you lift your eyes from the
+ground, jagged summits of Dolomites: it was a combination such as
+I had never before beheld; a Rhine town plumped down among green
+Alpine heights, and threaded by the cool colonnades of Italy.
+
+I approved Cesarine's choice; and I was particularly glad she
+had pronounced for an hotel, where all is plain sailing, instead
+of advising a furnished villa, the arrangements for which would
+naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the
+wretched secretary. As in any case I have to do three hours' work
+a day, I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well
+be spared me. I tipped Cesarine half a sovereign, in fact, for
+her judicious choice. Cesarine glanced at it on her palm in her
+mysterious, curious, half-smiling way, and pocketed it at once with
+a "Merci, monsieur!" that had a touch of contempt in it. I always
+fancy Cesarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping,
+and thinks very small beer of the modest sums a mere secretary can
+alone afford to bestow upon her.
+
+The great peculiarity of Meran is the number of schlosses (I believe
+my plural is strictly irregular, but very convenient to English
+ears) which you can see in every direction from its outskirts. A
+statistical eye, it is supposed, can count no fewer than forty of
+these picturesque, ramshackled old castles from a point on the
+Kuchelberg. For myself, I hate statistics (except as an element in
+financial prospectuses), and I really don't know how many ruinous
+piles Isabel and Amelia counted under Cesarine's guidance; but I
+remember that most of them were quaint and beautiful, and that their
+variety of architecture seemed positively bewildering. One would be
+square, with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle; while
+another would rejoice in a big round keep, and spread on either side
+long, ivy-clad walls and delightful bastions. Charles was immensely
+taken with them. He loves the picturesque, and has a poet hidden
+in that financial soul of his. (Very effectually hidden, though, I
+am ready to grant you.) From the moment he came he felt at once
+he would love to possess a castle of his own among these romantic
+mountains. "Seldon!" he exclaimed contemptuously. "They call Seldon
+a castle! But you and I know very well, Sey, it was built in 1860,
+with sham antique stones, for Macpherson of Seldon, at market rates,
+by Cubitt and Co., worshipful contractors of London. Macpherson
+charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price, at
+which one ought to procure a real ancestral mansion. Now, _these_
+castles are real. They are hoary with antiquity. Schloss Tyrol is
+Romanesque--tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up
+in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for _me_!--tenth or eleventh
+century. I could live here, remote from stocks and shares, for ever;
+and in these sequestered glens, recollect, Sey, my boy, there are
+no Colonel Clays, and no arch Madame Picardets!"
+
+As a matter of fact, he could have lived there six weeks, and then
+tired for Park Lane, Monte Carlo, Brighton.
+
+As for Amelia, strange to say, she was equally taken with this new
+fad of Charles's. As a rule she hates everywhere on earth save
+London, except during the time when no respectable person can be
+seen in town, and when modest blinds shade the scandalised face of
+Mayfair and Belgravia. She bores herself to death even at Seldon
+Castle, Ross-shire, and yawns all day long in Paris or Vienna. She
+is a confirmed Cockney. Yet, for some occult reason, my amiable
+sister-in-law fell in love with South Tyrol. She wanted to vegetate
+in that lush vegetation. The grapes were being picked; pumpkins hung
+over the walls; Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray schlosses
+with crimson cloaks; and everything was as beautiful as a dream of
+Burne-Jones's. (I know I am quite right in mentioning Burne-Jones,
+especially in connection with Romanesque architecture, because I
+heard him highly praised on that very ground by our friend and
+enemy, Dr. Edward Polperro.) So perhaps it was excusable that
+Amelia should fall in love with it all, under the circumstances;
+besides, she is largely influenced by what Cesarine says, and
+Cesarine declares there is no climate in Europe like Meran in
+winter. I do not agree with her. The sun sets behind the hills at
+three in the afternoon, and a nasty warm wind blows moist over
+the snow in January and February.
+
+However, Amelia set Cesarine to inquire of the people at the hotel
+about the market price of tumbledown ruins, and the number of such
+eligible family mausoleums just then for sale in the immediate
+neighbourhood. Cesarine returned with a full, true, and particular
+list, adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have delighted
+the soul of good old John Robins. They were all picturesque, all
+Romanesque, all richly ivy-clad, all commodious, all historical,
+and all the property of high well-born Grafs and very honourable
+Freiherrs. Most of them had been the scene of celebrated tournaments;
+several of them had witnessed the gorgeous marriages of Holy Roman
+Emperors; and every one of them was provided with some choice and
+selected first-class murders. Ghosts could be arranged for or not,
+as desired; and armorial bearings could be thrown in with the moat
+for a moderate extra remuneration.
+
+The two we liked best of all these tempting piles were Schloss
+Planta and Schloss Lebenstein. We drove past both, and even I
+myself, I confess, was distinctly taken with them. (Besides, when
+a big purchase like this is on the stocks, a poor beggar of a
+secretary has always a chance of exerting his influence and earning
+for himself some modest commission.) Schloss Planta was the most
+striking externally, I should say, with its Rhine-like towers, and
+its great gnarled ivy-stems, that looked as if they antedated the
+House of Hapsburg; but Lebenstein was said to be better preserved
+within, and more fitted in every way for modern occupation. Its
+staircase has been photographed by 7000 amateurs.
+
+We got tickets to view. The invaluable Cesarine procured them for
+us. Armed with these, we drove off one fine afternoon, meaning to
+go to Planta, by Cesarine's recommendation. Half-way there, however,
+we changed our minds, as it was such a lovely day, and went on up
+the long, slow hill to Lebenstein. I must say the drive through the
+grounds was simply charming. The castle stands perched (say rather
+poised, like St. Michael the archangel in Italian pictures) on a
+solitary stack or crag of rock, looking down on every side upon
+its own rich vineyards. Chestnuts line the glens; the valley of
+the Etsch spreads below like a picture.
+
+The vineyards alone make a splendid estate, by the way; they produce
+a delicious red wine, which is exported to Bordeaux, and there
+bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau
+Monnivet. Charles revelled in the idea of growing his own wines.
+
+"Here we could sit," he cried to Amelia, "in the most literal sense,
+under our own vine and fig-tree. Delicious retirement! For my part,
+I'm sick and tired of the hubbub of Threadneedle Street."
+
+We knocked at the door--for there was really no bell, but a
+ponderous, old-fashioned, wrought-iron knocker. So deliciously
+mediaeval! The late Graf von Lebenstein had recently died, we
+knew; and his son, the present Count, a young man of means, having
+inherited from his mother's family a still more ancient and
+splendid schloss in the Salzburg district, desired to sell this
+outlying estate in order to afford himself a yacht, after the manner
+that is now becoming increasingly fashionable with the noblemen and
+gentlemen in Germany and Austria.
+
+The door was opened for us by a high well-born menial, attired in
+a very ancient and honourable livery. Nice antique hall; suits of
+ancestral armour, trophies of Tyrolese hunters, coats of arms of
+ancient counts--the very thing to take Amelia's aristocratic and
+romantic fancy. The whole to be sold exactly as it stood; ancestors
+to be included at a valuation.
+
+We went through the reception-rooms. They were lofty, charming, and
+with glorious views, all the more glorious for being framed by those
+graceful Romanesque windows, with their slender pillars and quaint,
+round-topped arches. Sir Charles had made his mind up. "I must and
+will have it!" he cried. "This is the place for me. Seldon! Pah,
+Seldon is a modern abomination."
+
+Could we see the high well-born Count? The liveried servant
+(somewhat haughtily) would inquire of his Serenity. Sir Charles
+sent up his card, and also Lady Vandrift's. These foreigners know
+title spells money in England.
+
+He was right in his surmise. Two minutes later the Count entered
+with our cards in his hands. A good-looking young man, with the
+characteristic Tyrolese long black moustache, dressed in a
+gentlemanly variant on the costume of the country. His air was a
+jager's; the usual blackcock's plume stuck jauntily in the side of
+the conical hat (which he held in his hand), after the universal
+Austrian fashion.
+
+He waved us to seats. We sat down. He spoke to us in French; his
+English, he remarked, with a pleasant smile, being a negligeable
+quantity. We might speak it, he went on; he could understand pretty
+well; but he preferred to answer, if we would allow him, in French
+or German.
+
+"French," Charles replied, and the negotiation continued thenceforth
+in that language. It is the only one, save English and his ancestral
+Dutch, with which my brother-in-law possesses even a nodding
+acquaintance.
+
+We praised the beautiful scene. The Count's face lighted up with
+patriotic pride. Yes; it was beautiful, beautiful, his own green
+Tyrol. He was proud of it and attached to it. But he could endure
+to sell this place, the home of his fathers, because he had a finer
+in the Salzkammergut, and a pied-a-terre near Innsbruck. For Tyrol
+lacked just one joy--the sea. He was a passionate yachtsman. For
+that he had resolved to sell this estate; after all, three country
+houses, a ship, and a mansion in Vienna, are more than one man can
+comfortably inhabit.
+
+"Exactly," Charles answered. "If I can come to terms with you about
+this charming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch
+Highlands." And he tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who
+harangues his clansmen.
+
+Then they got to business. The Count was a delightful man to do
+business with. His manners were perfect. While we were talking to
+him, a surly person, a steward or bailiff, or something of the sort,
+came into the room unexpectedly and addressed him in German, which
+none of us understand. We were impressed by the singular urbanity
+and benignity of the nobleman's demeanour towards this sullen
+dependant. He evidently explained to the fellow what sort of
+people we were, and remonstrated with him in a very gentle way for
+interrupting us. The steward understood, and clearly regretted his
+insolent air; for after a few sentences he went out, and as he did
+so he bowed and made protestations of polite regard in his own
+language. The Count turned to us and smiled. "Our people," he said,
+"are like your own Scotch peasants--kind-hearted, picturesque, free,
+musical, poetic, but wanting, helas, in polish to strangers." He
+was certainly an exception, if he described them aright; for he made
+us feel at home from the moment we entered.
+
+He named his price in frank terms. His lawyers at Meran held the
+needful documents, and would arrange the negotiations in detail with
+us. It was a stiff sum, I must say--an extremely stiff sum; but no
+doubt he was charging us a fancy price for a fancy castle. "He will
+come down in time," Charles said. "The sum first named in all these
+transactions is invariably a feeler. They know I'm a millionaire;
+and people always imagine millionaires are positively made of
+money."
+
+I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze
+money out of millionaires than out of other people--which is the
+reverse of the truth, or how could they ever have amassed their
+millions? Instead of oozing gold as a tree oozes gum, they mop it
+up like blotting-paper, and seldom give it out again.
+
+We drove back from this first interview none the less very well
+satisfied. The price was too high; but preliminaries were arranged,
+and for the rest, the Count desired us to discuss all details with
+his lawyers in the chief street, Unter den Lauben. We inquired about
+these lawyers, and found they were most respectable and respected
+men; they had done the family business on either side for seven
+generations.
+
+They showed us plans and title-deeds. Everything quite en regle.
+Till we came to the price there was no hitch of any sort.
+
+As to price, however, the lawyers were obdurate. They stuck out for
+the Count's first sum to the uttermost florin. It was a very big
+estimate. We talked and shilly-shallied till Sir Charles grew angry.
+He lost his temper at last.
+
+"They know I'm a millionaire, Sey," he said, "and they're playing
+the old game of trying to diddle me. But I won't be diddled. Except
+Colonel Clay, no man has ever yet succeeded in bleeding me. And
+shall I let myself be bled as if I were a chamois among these
+innocent mountains? Perish the thought!" Then he reflected a little
+in silence. "Sey," he mused on, at last, "the question is, _are_
+they innocent? Do you know, I begin to believe there is no such
+thing left as pristine innocence anywhere. This Tyrolese Count knows
+the value of a pound as distinctly as if he hung out in Capel Court
+or Kimberley."
+
+Things dragged on in this way, inconclusively, for a week or two.
+_We_ bid down; the lawyers stuck to it. Sir Charles grew half sick
+of the whole silly business. For my own part, I felt sure if the
+high well-born Count didn't quicken his pace, my respected relative
+would shortly have had enough of the Tyrol altogether, and be proof
+against the most lovely of crag-crowning castles. But the Count
+didn't see it. He came to call on us at our hotel--a rare honour for
+a stranger with these haughty and exclusive Tyrolese nobles--and
+even entered unannounced in the most friendly manner. But when it
+came to L. s. d., he was absolute adamant. Not one kreutzer would
+he abate from his original proposal.
+
+"You misunderstand," he said, with pride. "We Tyrolese gentlemen are
+not shopkeepers or merchants. We do not higgle. If we say a thing we
+stick to it. Were you an Austrian, I should feel insulted by your
+ill-advised attempt to beat down my price. But as you belong to a
+great commercial nation--" he broke off with a snort and shrugged
+his shoulders compassionately.
+
+We saw him several times driving in and out of the schloss, and
+every time he waved his hand at us gracefully. But when we tried to
+bargain, it was always the same thing: he retired behind the shelter
+of his Tyrolese nobility. We might take it or leave it. 'Twas still
+Schloss Lebenstein.
+
+The lawyers were as bad. We tried all we knew, and got no forrarder.
+
+At last Charles gave up the attempt in disgust. He was tiring, as I
+expected. "It's the prettiest place I ever saw in my life," he said;
+"but, hang it all, Sey, I _won't_ be imposed upon."
+
+So he made up his mind, it being now December, to return to London.
+We met the Count next day, and stopped his carriage, and told him
+so. Charles thought this would have the immediate effect of bringing
+the man to reason. But he only lifted his hat, with the blackcock's
+feather, and smiled a bland smile. "The Archduke Karl is inquiring
+about it," he answered, and drove on without parley.
+
+Charles used some strong words, which I will not transcribe (I am a
+family man), and returned to England.
+
+For the next two months we heard little from Amelia save her regret
+that the Count wouldn't sell us Schloss Lebenstein. Its pinnacles
+had fairly pierced her heart. Strange to say, she was absolutely
+infatuated about the castle. She rather wanted the place while
+she was there, and thought she could get it; now she thought
+she couldn't, her soul (if she has one) was wildly set upon it.
+Moreover, Cesarine further inflamed her desire by gently hinting
+a fact which she had picked up at the courier's table d'hote at
+the hotel--that the Count had been far from anxious to sell his
+ancestral and historical estate to a South African diamond king.
+He thought the honour of the family demanded, at least, that he
+should secure a wealthy buyer of good ancient lineage.
+
+One morning in February, however, Amelia returned from the Row all
+smiles and tremors. (She had been ordered horse-exercise to correct
+the increasing excessiveness of her figure.)
+
+"Who do you think I saw riding in the Park?" she inquired. "Why,
+the Count of Lebenstein."
+
+"No!" Charles exclaimed, incredulous.
+
+"Yes," Amelia answered.
+
+"Must be mistaken," Charles cried.
+
+But Amelia stuck to it. More than that, she sent out emissaries to
+inquire diligently from the London lawyers, whose name had been
+mentioned to us by the ancestral firm in Unter den Lauben as
+their English agents, as to the whereabouts of our friend; and
+her emissaries learned in effect that the Count was in town and
+stopping at Morley's.
+
+"I see through it," Charles exclaimed. "He finds he's made a
+mistake; and now he's come over here to reopen negotiations."
+
+I was all for waiting prudently till the Count made the first move.
+"Don't let him see your eagerness," I said. But Amelia's ardour
+could not now be restrained. She insisted that Charles should
+call on the Graf as a mere return of his politeness in the Tyrol.
+
+He was as charming as ever. He talked to us with delight about the
+quaintness of London. He would be ravished to dine next evening with
+Sir Charles. He desired his respectful salutations meanwhile to
+Miladi Vandrift and Madame Ventvorth.
+
+He dined with us, almost en famille. Amelia's cook did wonders. In
+the billiard-room, about midnight, Charles reopened the subject.
+The Count was really touched. It pleased him that still, amid the
+distractions of the City of Five Million Souls, we should remember
+with affection his beloved Lebenstein.
+
+"Come to my lawyers," he said, "to-morrow, and I will talk it all
+over with you."
+
+We went--a most respectable firm in Southampton Row; old family
+solicitors. They had done business for years for the late Count, who
+had inherited from his grandmother estates in Ireland; and they were
+glad to be honoured with the confidence of his successor. Glad, too,
+to make the acquaintance of a prince of finance like Sir Charles
+Vandrift. Anxious (rubbing their hands) to arrange matters
+satisfactorily all round for everybody. (Two capital families with
+which to be mixed up, you see.)
+
+Sir Charles named a price, and referred them to his solicitors.
+The Count named a higher, but still a little come-down, and left
+the matter to be settled between the lawyers. He was a soldier and
+a gentleman, he said, with a Tyrolese toss of his high-born head;
+he would abandon details to men of business.
+
+As I was really anxious to oblige Amelia, I met the Count
+accidentally next day on the steps of Morley's. (Accidentally,
+that is to say, so far as he was concerned, though I had been
+hanging about in Trafalgar Square for half an hour to see him.)
+I explained, in guarded terms, that I had a great deal of influence
+in my way with Sir Charles; and that a word from me-- I broke
+off. He stared at me blankly.
+
+"Commission?" he inquired, at last, with a queer little smile.
+
+"Well, not exactly commission," I answered, wincing. "Still, a
+friendly word, you know. One good turn deserves another."
+
+He looked at me from head to foot with a curious scrutiny. For one
+moment I feared the Tyrolese nobleman in him was going to raise its
+foot and take active measures. But the next, I saw that Sir Charles
+was right after all, and that pristine innocence has removed from
+this planet to other quarters.
+
+He named his lowest price. "M. Ventvorth," he said, "I am a Tyrolese
+seigneur; I do not dabble, myself, in commissions and percentages.
+But if your influence with Sir Charles--we understand each other, do
+we not?--as between gentlemen--a little friendly present--no money,
+of course--but the equivalent of say 5 per cent in jewellery, on
+whatever sum above his bid to-day you induce him to
+offer--eh?--c'est convenu?"
+
+"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured.
+
+He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur--or nothing!"
+
+I bowed and withdrew. "Well, five then," I answered, "just to oblige
+your Serenity."
+
+A secretary, after all, can do a great deal. When it came to the
+scratch, I had but little difficulty in persuading Sir Charles, with
+Amelia's aid, backed up on either side by Isabel and Cesarine, to
+accede to the Count's more reasonable proposal. The Southampton Row
+people had possession of certain facts as to the value of the wines
+in the Bordeaux market which clinched the matter. In a week or two
+all was settled; Charles and I met the Count by appointment in
+Southampton Row, and saw him sign, seal, and deliver the title-deeds
+of Schloss Lebenstein. My brother-in-law paid the purchase-money
+into the Count's own hands, by cheque, crossed on a first-class
+London firm where the Count kept an account to his high well-born
+order. Then he went away with the proud knowledge that he was owner
+of Schloss Lebenstein. And what to me was more important still,
+I received next morning by post a cheque for the five per cent,
+unfortunately drawn, by some misapprehension, to my order on the
+self-same bankers, and with the Count's signature. He explained in
+the accompanying note that the matter being now quite satisfactorily
+concluded, he saw no reason of delicacy why the amount he had
+promised should not be paid to me forthwith direct in money.
+
+I cashed the cheque at once, and said nothing about the affair, not
+even to Isabel. My experience is that women are not to be trusted
+with intricate matters of commission and brokerage.
+
+Though it was now late in March, and the House was sitting, Charles
+insisted that we must all run over at once to take possession of our
+magnificent Tyrolese castle. Amelia was almost equally burning with
+eagerness. She gave herself the airs of a Countess already. We took
+the Orient Express as far as Munich; then the Brenner to Meran,
+and put up for the night at the Erzherzog Johann. Though we had
+telegraphed our arrival, and expected some fuss, there was no
+demonstration. Next morning we drove out in state to the schloss,
+to enter into enjoyment of our vines and fig-trees.
+
+We were met at the door by the surly steward. "I shall dismiss
+that man," Charles muttered, as Lord of Lebenstein. "He's too
+sour-looking for my taste. Never saw such a brute. Not a smile
+of welcome!"
+
+He mounted the steps. The surly man stepped forward and murmured a
+few morose words in German. Charles brushed him aside and strode on.
+Then there followed a curious scene of mutual misunderstanding. The
+surly man called lustily for his servants to eject us. It was some
+time before we began to catch at the truth. The surly man was the
+_real_ Graf von Lebenstein.
+
+And the Count with the moustache? It dawned upon us now. Colonel
+Clay again! More audacious than ever!
+
+Bit by bit it all came out. He had ridden behind us the first day
+we viewed the place, and, giving himself out to the servants as
+one of our party, had joined us in the reception-room. We asked
+the real Count why he had spoken to the intruder. The Count
+explained in French that the man with the moustache had introduced
+my brother-in-law as the great South African millionaire, while he
+described himself as our courier and interpreter. As such he had
+had frequent interviews with the real Graf and his lawyers in
+Meran, and had driven almost daily across to the castle. The owner
+of the estate had named one price from the first, and had stuck to
+it manfully. He stuck to it still; and if Sir Charles chose to buy
+Schloss Lebenstein over again he was welcome to have it. How the
+London lawyers had been duped the Count had not really the slightest
+idea. He regretted the incident, and (coldly) wished us a very good
+morning.
+
+There was nothing for it but to return as best we might to the
+Erzherzog Johann, crestfallen, and telegraph particulars to the
+police in London.
+
+Charles and I ran across post-haste to England to track down the
+villain. At Southampton Row we found the legal firm by no means
+penitent; on the contrary, they were indignant at the way we had
+deceived them. An impostor had written to them on Lebenstein
+paper from Meran to say that he was coming to London to negotiate
+the sale of the schloss and surrounding property with the
+famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
+demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
+Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
+had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
+Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
+some most excellent forgeries--facsimiles of the originals--which,
+as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
+examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
+plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
+upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
+moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
+his own representation.
+
+He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
+_not_ given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
+unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.
+
+By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
+house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
+thus:--
+
+
+"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,--
+
+"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
+everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
+not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
+might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
+cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
+you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
+rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
+fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
+The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.
+
+"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
+cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present--a German
+dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!
+
+"I kiss your hand.
+
+"No longer
+
+"VON LEBENSTEIN."
+
+
+The other note was to me. It was as follows:--
+
+
+"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,--
+
+"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
+I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
+surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
+foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
+you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend--on your
+own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
+banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, for your future good behaviour.
+If ever you recognise me, and betray me to that solemn old ass, your
+employer, remember, I expose it, and you with it to him. So now we
+understand each other. I had not thought of this little dodge; it
+was you who suggested it. However, I jumped at it. Was it not well
+worth my while paying you that slight commission in return for a
+guarantee of your future silence? Your mouth is now closed. And
+cheap too at the price.--Yours, dear Comrade, in the great
+confraternity of rogues,
+
+"CUTHBERT CLAY, Colonel."
+
+
+Charles laid his note down, and grizzled. "What's yours, Sey?"
+he asked.
+
+"From a lady," I answered.
+
+He gazed at me suspiciously. "Oh, I thought it was the same hand,"
+he said. His eye looked through me.
+
+"No," I answered. "Mrs. Mortimer's." But I confess I trembled.
+
+He paused a moment. "You made all inquiries at this fellow's bank?"
+he went on, after a deep sigh.
+
+"Oh, yes," I put in quickly. (I had taken good care about that,
+you may be sure, lest he should spot the commission.) "They say
+the self-styled Count von Lebenstein was introduced to them by
+the Southampton Row folks, and drew, as usual, on the Lebenstein
+account: so they were quite unsuspicious. A rascal who goes about
+the world on that scale, you know, and arrives with such credentials
+as theirs and yours, naturally imposes on anybody. The bank didn't
+even require to have him formally identified. The firm was enough.
+He came to pay money in, not to draw it out. And he withdrew his
+balance just two days later, saying he was in a hurry to get back
+to Vienna."
+
+Would he ask for items? I confess I felt it was an awkward moment.
+Charles, however, was too full of regrets to bother about the
+account. He leaned back in his easy chair, stuck his hands in his
+pockets, held his legs straight out on the fender before him, and
+looked the very picture of hopeless despondency.
+
+"Sey," he began, after a minute or two, poking the fire,
+reflectively, "what a genius that man has! 'Pon my soul, I
+admire him. I sometimes wish--" He broke off and hesitated.
+
+"Yes, Charles?" I answered.
+
+"I sometimes wish ... we had got him on the Board of the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas. Mag--nificent combinations he would make in the City!"
+
+I rose from my seat and stared solemnly at my misguided
+brother-in-law.
+
+"Charles," I said, "you are beside yourself. Too much Colonel Clay
+has told upon your clear and splendid intellect. There are certain
+remarks which, however true they may be, no self-respecting
+financier should permit himself to make, even in the privacy of
+his own room, to his most intimate friend and trusted adviser."
+
+Charles fairly broke down. "You are right, Sey," he sobbed out.
+"Quite right. Forgive this outburst. At moments of emotion the
+truth will sometimes out, in spite of everything."
+
+I respected his feebleness. I did not even make it a fitting
+occasion to ask for a trifling increase of salary.
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DRAWN GAME
+
+
+The twelfth of August saw us, as usual, at Seldon Castle,
+Ross-shire. It is part of Charles's restless, roving temperament
+that, on the morning of the eleventh, wet or fine, he must set out
+from London, whether the House is sitting or not, in defiance of
+the most urgent three-line whips; and at dawn on the twelfth he must
+be at work on his moors, shooting down the young birds with might
+and main, at the earliest possible legal moment.
+
+He goes on like Saul, slaying his thousands, or, like David, his
+tens of thousands, with all the guns in the house to help him, till
+the keepers warn him he has killed as many grouse as they consider
+desirable; and then, having done his duty, as he thinks, in this
+respect, he retires precipitately with flying colours to Brighton,
+Nice, Monte Carlo, or elsewhere. He must be always "on the trek";
+when he is buried, I believe he will not be able to rest quiet in
+his grave: his ghost will walk the world to terrify old ladies.
+
+"At Seldon, at least," he said to me, with a sigh, as he stepped
+into his Pullman, "I shall be safe from that impostor!"
+
+And indeed, as soon as he had begun to tire a little of counting
+up his hundreds of brace per diem, he found a trifling piece of
+financial work cut ready to his hand, which amply distracted his
+mind for the moment from Colonel Clay, his accomplices, and his
+villainies.
+
+Sir Charles, I ought to say, had secured during that summer a very
+advantageous option in a part of Africa on the Transvaal frontier,
+rumoured to be auriferous. Now, whether it was auriferous or not
+before, the mere fact that Charles had secured some claim on it
+naturally made it so; for no man had ever the genuine Midas-touch
+to a greater degree than Charles Vandrift: whatever he handles turns
+at once to gold, if not to diamonds. Therefore, as soon as my
+brother-in-law had obtained this option from the native vendor (a
+most respected chief, by name Montsioa), and promoted a company
+of his own to develop it, his great rival in that region, Lord
+Craig-Ellachie (formerly Sir David Alexander Granton), immediately
+secured a similar option of an adjacent track, the larger part of
+which had pretty much the same geological conditions as that covered
+by Sir Charles's right of pre-emption.
+
+We were not wholly disappointed, as it turned out, in the result.
+A month or two later, while we were still at Seldon, we received
+a long and encouraging letter from our prospectors on the spot,
+who had been hunting over the ground in search of gold-reefs. They
+reported that they had found a good auriferous vein in a corner of
+the tract, approachable by adit-levels; but, unfortunately, only a
+few yards of the lode lay within the limits of Sir Charles's area.
+The remainder ran on at once into what was locally known as
+Craig-Ellachie's section.
+
+However, our prospectors had been canny, they said; though young
+Mr. Granton was prospecting at the same time, in the self-same
+ridge, not very far from them, his miners had failed to discover
+the auriferous quartz; so our men had held their tongues about it,
+wisely leaving it for Charles to govern himself accordingly.
+
+"Can you dispute the boundary?" I asked.
+
+"Impossible," Charles answered. "You see, the limit is a meridian
+of longitude. There's no getting over that. Can't pretend to deny
+it. No buying over the sun! No bribing the instruments! Besides,
+we drew the line ourselves. We've only one way out of it, Sey.
+Amalgamate! Amalgamate!"
+
+Charles is a marvellous man! The very voice in which he murmured
+that blessed word "Amalgamate!" was in itself a poem.
+
+"Capital!" I answered. "Say nothing about it, and join forces with
+Craig-Ellachie."
+
+Charles closed one eye pensively.
+
+That very same evening came a telegram in cipher from our chief
+engineer on the territory of the option: "Young Granton has somehow
+given us the slip and gone home. We suspect he knows all. But we
+have not divulged the secret to anybody."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said impressively, "there is no time to
+be lost. I must write this evening to Sir David--I mean to My Lord.
+Do you happen to know where he is stopping at present?"
+
+"The Morning Post announced two or three days ago that he was at
+Glen-Ellachie," I answered.
+
+"Then I'll ask him to come over and thrash the matter out with me,"
+my brother-in-law went on. "A very rich reef, they say. I must have
+my finger in it!"
+
+We adjourned into the study, where Sir Charles drafted, I must
+admit, a most judicious letter to the rival capitalist. He pointed
+out that the mineral resources of the country were probably great,
+but as yet uncertain. That the expense of crushing and milling might
+be almost prohibitive. That access to fuel was costly, and its
+conveyance difficult. That water was scarce, and commanded by our
+section. That two rival companies, if they happened to hit upon ore,
+might cut one another's throats by erecting two sets of furnaces or
+pumping plants, and bringing two separate streams to the spot,
+where one would answer. In short--to employ the golden word--that
+amalgamation might prove better in the end than competition; and
+that he advised, at least, a conference on the subject.
+
+I wrote it out fair for him, and Sir Charles, with the air of a
+Cromwell, signed it.
+
+"This is important, Sey," he said. "It had better be registered,
+for fear of falling into improper hands. Don't give it to Dobson;
+let Cesarine take it over to Fowlis in the dog-cart."
+
+It is the drawback of Seldon that we are twelve miles from a
+railway station, though we look out on one of the loveliest firths
+in Scotland.
+
+Cesarine took it as directed--an invaluable servant, that girl!
+Meanwhile, we learned from the Morning Post next day that young
+Mr. Granton had stolen a march upon us. He had arrived from Africa
+by the same mail with our agent's letter, and had joined his father
+at once at Glen-Ellachie.
+
+Two days later we received a most polite reply from the opposing
+interest. It ran after this fashion:--
+
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE,
+
+"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
+
+"DEAR SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Thanks for yours of the 20th. In reply,
+I can only say I fully reciprocate your amiable desire that nothing
+adverse to either of our companies should happen in South Africa.
+With regard to your suggestion that we should meet in person, to
+discuss the basis of a possible amalgamation, I can only say my
+house is at present full of guests--as is doubtless your own--and
+I should therefore find it practically impossible to leave
+Glen-Ellachie. Fortunately, however, my son David is now at home
+on a brief holiday from Kimberley; and it will give him great
+pleasure to come over and hear what you have to say in favour of an
+arrangement which certainly, on some grounds, seems to me desirable
+in the interests of both our concessions alike. He will arrive
+to-morrow afternoon at Seldon, and he is authorised, in every
+respect, to negotiate with full powers on behalf of myself and the
+other directors. With kindest regards to your wife and sons, I
+remain, dear Sir Charles, yours faithfully,
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE."
+
+
+"Cunning old fox!" Sir Charles exclaimed, with a sniff. "What's he
+up to now, I wonder? Seems almost as anxious to amalgamate as we
+ourselves are, Sey." A sudden thought struck him. "Do you know,"
+he cried, looking up, "I really believe the same thing must have
+happened to _both_ our exploring parties. _They_ must have found a
+reef that goes under _our_ ground, and the wicked old rascal wants
+to cheat us out of it!"
+
+"As we want to cheat him," I ventured to interpose.
+
+Charles looked at me fixedly. "Well, if so, we're both in luck,"
+he murmured, after a pause; "though _we_ can only get to know the
+whereabouts of _their_ find by joining hands with them and showing
+them ours. Still, it's good business either way. But I shall be
+cautious--cautious."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Amelia cried, when we told her of the incident.
+"I suppose I shall have to put the man up for the night--a nasty,
+raw-boned, half-baked Scotchman, you may be certain."
+
+On Wednesday afternoon, about three, young Granton arrived. He was
+a pleasant-featured, red-haired, sandy-whiskered youth, not unlike
+his father; but, strange to say, he dropped in to call, instead of
+bringing his luggage.
+
+"Why, you're not going back to Glen-Ellachie to-night, surely?"
+Charles exclaimed, in amazement. "Lady Vandrift will be _so_
+disappointed! Besides, this business can't be arranged between
+two trains, do you think, Mr. Granton?"
+
+Young Granton smiled. He had an agreeable smile--canny, yet open.
+
+"Oh no," he said frankly. "I didn't mean to go back. I've put up at
+the inn. I have my wife with me, you know--and, I wasn't invited."
+
+Amelia was of opinion, when we told her this episode, that David
+Granton wouldn't stop at Seldon because he was an Honourable.
+Isabel was of opinion he wouldn't stop because he had married an
+unpresentable young woman somewhere out in South Africa. Charles was
+of opinion that, as representative of the hostile interest, he put
+up at the inn, because it might tie his hands in some way to be the
+guest of the chairman of the rival company. And _I_ was of opinion
+that he had heard of the castle, and knew it well by report as the
+dullest country-house to stay at in Scotland.
+
+However that may be, young Granton insisted on remaining at the
+Cromarty Arms, though he told us his wife would be delighted to
+receive a call from Lady Vandrift and Mrs. Wentworth. So we all
+returned with him to bring the Honourable Mrs. Granton up to tea
+at the Castle.
+
+She was a nice little thing, very shy and timid, but by no means
+unpresentable, and an evident lady. She giggled at the end of every
+sentence; and she was endowed with a slight squint, which somehow
+seemed to point all her feeble sallies. She knew little outside
+South Africa; but of that she talked prettily; and she won all
+our hearts, in spite of the cast in her eye, by her unaffected
+simplicity.
+
+Next morning Charles and I had a regular debate with young Granton
+about the rival options. Our talk was of cyanide processes,
+reverberatories, pennyweights, water-jackets. But it dawned upon us
+soon that, in spite of his red hair and his innocent manners, our
+friend, the Honourable David Granton, knew a thing or two. Gradually
+and gracefully he let us see that Lord Craig-Ellachie had sent him
+for the benefit of the company, but that _he_ had come for the
+benefit of the Honourable David Granton.
+
+"I'm a younger son, Sir Charles," he said; "and therefore I have to
+feather my nest for myself. I know the ground. My father will be
+guided implicitly by what I advise in the matter. We are men of the
+world. Now, let's be business-like. _You_ want to amalgamate. You
+wouldn't do that, of course, if you didn't know of something to the
+advantage of my father's company--say, a lode on our land--which you
+hope to secure for yourself by amalgamation. Very well; _I_ can make
+or mar your project. If you choose to render it worth my while, I'll
+induce my father and his directors to amalgamate. If you don't, I
+won't. That's the long and the short of it!"
+
+Charles looked at him admiringly.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you're deep, very deep--for your age. Is this
+candour--or deception? Do you mean what you say? Or do you know some
+reason why it suits your father's book to amalgamate as well as it
+suits mine? And are you trying to keep it from me?" He fingered his
+chin. "If I only knew that," he went on, "I should know how to deal
+with you."
+
+Young Granton smiled again. "You're a financier, Sir Charles," he
+answered. "I wonder, at your time of life, you should pause to ask
+another financier whether he's trying to fill his own pocket--or his
+father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son--and _I_ am
+his youngest."
+
+"You are right as to general principles," Sir Charles replied, quite
+affectionately. "Most sound and sensible. But how do I know you
+haven't bargained already in the same way with your father? You
+may have settled with _him_, and be trying to diddle me."
+
+The young man assumed a most candid air. "Look here," he said,
+leaning forward. "I offer you this chance. Take it or leave it. _Do_
+you wish to purchase my aid for this amalgamation by a moderate
+commission on the net value of my father's option to yourself--which
+I know approximately?"
+
+"Say five per cent," I suggested, in a tentative voice, just to
+justify my presence.
+
+He looked me through and through. "_Ten_ is more usual," he
+answered, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar glance.
+
+Great heavens, how I winced! I knew what his words meant. They were
+the very words I had said myself to Colonel Clay, as the Count von
+Lebenstein, about the purchase-money of the schloss--and in the very
+same accent. I saw through it all now. That beastly cheque! This
+was Colonel Clay; and he was trying to buy up my silence and
+assistance by the threat of exposure!
+
+My blood ran cold. I didn't know how to answer him. What happened
+at the rest of that interview I really couldn't tell you. My brain
+reeled round. I heard just faint echoes of "fuel" and "reduction
+works." What on earth was I to do? If I told Charles my
+suspicion--for it was only a suspicion--the fellow might turn upon
+me and disclose the cheque, which would suffice to ruin me. If I
+didn't, I ran a risk of being considered by Charles an accomplice
+and a confederate.
+
+The interview was long. I hardly know how I struggled through it.
+At the end young Granton went off, well satisfied, if it was young
+Granton; and Amelia invited him and his wife up to dinner at the
+castle.
+
+Whatever else they were, they were capital company. They stopped
+for three days more at the Cromarty Arms. And Charles debated and
+discussed incessantly. He couldn't quite make up his mind what to
+do in the affair; and _I_ certainly couldn't help him. I never was
+placed in such a fix in my life. I did my best to preserve a strict
+neutrality.
+
+Young Granton, it turned out, was a most agreeable person; and so,
+in her way, was that timid, unpretending South African wife of his.
+She was naively surprised Amelia had never met her mamma at Durban.
+They both talked delightfully, and had lots of good stories--mostly
+with points that told against the Craig-Ellachie people. Moreover,
+the Honourable David was a splendid swimmer. He went out in a boat
+with us, and dived like a seal. He was burning to teach Charles
+and myself to swim, when we told him we could neither of us take a
+single stroke; he said it was an accomplishment incumbent upon every
+true Englishman. But Charles hates the water; while, as for myself,
+I detest every known form of muscular exercise.
+
+However, we consented that he should row us on the Firth, and made
+an appointment one day with himself and his wife for four the next
+evening.
+
+That night Charles came to me with a very grave face in my own
+bedroom. "Sey," he said, under his breath, "have you observed?
+Have you watched? Have you any suspicions?"
+
+I trembled violently. I felt all was up. "Suspicions of whom?"
+I asked. "Not surely of Simpson?" (he was Sir Charles's valet).
+
+My respected brother-in-law looked at me contemptuously.
+
+"Sey," he said, "are you trying to take me in? No, _not_ of Simpson:
+of these two young folks. My own belief is--they're Colonel Clay
+and Madame Picardet."
+
+"Impossible!" I cried.
+
+He nodded. "I'm sure of it."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Instinctively."
+
+I seized his arm. "Charles," I said, imploring him, "do nothing
+rash. Remember how you exposed yourself to the ridicule of fools
+over Dr. Polperro!"
+
+"I've thought of that," he answered, "and I mean to ca' caller."
+(When in Scotland as laird of Seldon, Charles loves both to dress
+and to speak the part thoroughly.) "First thing to-morrow I shall
+telegraph over to inquire at Glen-Ellachie; I shall find out
+whether this is really young Granton or not; meanwhile, I shall keep
+my eye close upon the fellow."
+
+Early next morning, accordingly, a groom was dispatched with a
+telegram to Lord Craig-Ellachie. He was to ride over to Fowlis, send
+it off at once, and wait for the answer. At the same time, as it was
+probable Lord Craig-Ellachie would have started for the moors before
+the telegram reached the Lodge, I did not myself expect to see the
+reply arrive much before seven or eight that evening. Meanwhile, as
+it was far from certain we had not the real David Granton to deal
+with, it was necessary to be polite to our friendly rivals. Our
+experience in the Polperro incident had shown us both that too much
+zeal may be more dangerous than too little. Nevertheless, taught
+by previous misfortunes, we kept watching our man pretty close,
+determined that on this occasion, at least, he should neither do us
+nor yet escape us.
+
+About four o'clock the red-haired young man and his pretty little
+wife came up to call for us. She looked so charming and squinted
+so enchantingly, one could hardly believe she was not as simple
+and innocent as she seemed to be. She tripped down to the Seldon
+boat-house, with Charles by her side, giggling and squinting her
+best, and then helped her husband to get the skiff ready. As she did
+so, Charles sidled up to me. "Sey," he whispered, "I'm an old hand,
+and I'm not readily taken in. I've been talking to that girl, and
+upon my soul I think she's all right. She's a charming little lady.
+We may be mistaken after all, of course, about young Granton. In any
+case, it's well for the present to be courteous. A most important
+option! If it's really he, we must do nothing to annoy him or let
+him see we suspect him."
+
+I had noticed, indeed, that Mrs. Granton had made herself most
+agreeable to Charles from the very beginning. And as to one thing he
+was right. In her timid, shrinking way she was undeniably charming.
+That cast in her eye was all pure piquancy.
+
+We rowed out on to the Firth, or, to be more strictly correct, the
+two Grantons rowed while Charles and I sat and leaned back in the
+stern on the luxurious cushions. They rowed fast and well. In a very
+few minutes they had rounded the point and got clear out of sight
+of the Cockneyfied towers and false battlements of Seldon.
+
+Mrs. Granton pulled stroke. Even as she rowed she kept up a brisk
+undercurrent of timid chaff with Sir Charles, giggling all the
+while, half forward, half shy, like a school-girl who flirts with
+a man old enough to be her grandfather.
+
+Sir Charles was flattered. He is susceptible to the pleasures of
+female attention, especially from the young, the simple, and the
+innocent. The wiles of women of the world he knows too well; but a
+pretty little ingenue can twist him round her finger. They rowed on
+and on, till they drew abreast of Seamew's island. It is a jagged
+stack or skerry, well out to sea, very wild and precipitous on the
+landward side, but shelving gently outward; perhaps an acre in
+extent, with steep gray cliffs, covered at that time with crimson
+masses of red valerian. Mrs. Granton rowed up close to it. "Oh, what
+lovely flowers!" she cried, throwing her head back and gazing at
+them. "I wish I could get some! Let's land here and pick them. Sir
+Charles, you shall gather me a nice bunch for my sitting-room."
+
+Charles rose to it innocently, like a trout to a fly.
+
+"By all means, my dear child, I--I have a passion for flowers;"
+which was a flower of speech itself, but it served its purpose.
+
+They rowed us round to the far side, where is the easiest
+landing-place. It struck me as odd at the moment that they seemed
+to know it. Then young Granton jumped lightly ashore; Mrs. Granton
+skipped after him. I confess it made me feel rather ashamed to see
+how clumsily Charles and I followed them, treading gingerly on the
+thwarts for fear of upsetting the boat, while the artless young
+thing just flew over the gunwale. So like White Heather! However,
+we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
+well as we were able in search of the valerian.
+
+Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
+bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
+laughter, and left us there staring at them!
+
+They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
+turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
+"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
+
+"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
+You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
+
+The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
+Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
+he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
+of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manque."
+
+"A _what_?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
+
+"A coup manque," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
+"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
+my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
+Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
+principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
+I find myself suspected. The slightest symptom of distrust, and--I
+back out immediately. My plans can only be worked to satisfaction
+when there is perfect confidence on the part of my patient. It is
+a well-known rule of the medical profession. I _never_ try to bleed
+a man who struggles. So now we're off. Ta-ta! Good luck to you!"
+
+He was not much more than twenty yards away, and could talk to us
+quite easily. But the water was deep; the islet rose sheer from I'm
+sure I don't know how many fathoms of sea; and we could neither of
+us swim. Charles stretched out his arms imploringly. "For Heaven's
+sake," he cried, "don't tell me you really mean to leave us here."
+
+He looked so comical in his distress and terror that Mrs.
+Granton--Madame Picardet--whatever I am to call her--laughed
+melodiously in her prettiest way at the sight of him. "Dear Sir
+Charles," she called out, "pray don't be afraid! It's only a
+short and temporary imprisonment. We will send men to take you off.
+Dear David and I only need just time enough to get well ashore and
+make--oh!--a few slight alterations in our personal appearance."
+And she indicated with her hand, laughing, dear David's red wig and
+false sandy whiskers, as we felt convinced they must be now. She
+looked at them and tittered. Her manner at this moment was anything
+but shy. In fact, I will venture to say, it was that of a bold and
+brazen-faced hoyden.
+
+"Then you _are_ Colonel Clay!" Sir Charles cried, mopping his brow
+with his handkerchief.
+
+"If you choose to call me so," the young man answered politely. "I'm
+sure it's most kind of you to supply me with a commission in Her
+Majesty's service. However, time presses, and we want to push off.
+Don't alarm yourselves unnecessarily. I will send a boat to take you
+away from this rock at the earliest possible moment consistent with
+my personal safety and my dear companion's." He laid his hand on his
+heart and struck a sentimental attitude. "I have received too many
+unwilling kindnesses at your hands, Sir Charles," he continued,
+"not to feel how wrong it would be of me to inconvenience you for
+nothing. Rest assured that you shall be rescued by midnight at
+latest. Fortunately, the weather just at present is warm, and I see
+no chance of rain; so you will suffer, if at all, from nothing worse
+than the pangs of temporary hunger."
+
+Mrs. Granton, no longer squinting--'twas a mere trick she had
+assumed--rose up in the boat and stretched out a rug to us. "Catch!"
+she cried, in a merry voice, and flung it at us, doubled. It fell
+at our feet; she was a capital thrower.
+
+"Now, you dear Sir Charles," she went on, "take that to keep you
+warm! You know I am really quite fond of you. You're not half a
+bad old boy when one takes you the right way. You have a human side
+to you. Why, I often wear that sweetly pretty brooch you gave me
+at Nice, when I was Madame Picardet! And I'm sure your goodness to
+me at Lucerne, when I was the little curate's wife, is a thing to
+remember. We're so glad to have seen you in your lovely Scotch
+home you were always so proud of! _Don't_ be frightened, please. We
+wouldn't hurt you for worlds. We _are_ so sorry we have to take this
+inhospitable means of evading you. But dear David--I _must_ call
+him dear David still--instinctively felt that you were beginning to
+suspect us; and he can't bear mistrust. He _is_ so sensitive! The
+moment people mistrust him, he _must_ break off with them at once.
+This was the only way to get you both off our hands while we make
+the needful little arrangements to depart; and we've been driven to
+avail ourselves of it. However, I will give you my word of honour,
+as a lady, you shall be fetched away to-night. If dear David doesn't
+do it, why, I'll do it myself." And she blew another kiss to us.
+
+Charles was half beside himself, divided between alternate terror
+and anger. "Oh, we shall die here!" he exclaimed. "Nobody'd ever
+dream of coming to this rock to search for me."
+
+"What a pity you didn't let me teach you to swim!" Colonel Clay
+interposed. "It is a noble exercise, and very useful indeed in such
+special emergencies! Well, ta-ta! I'm off! You nearly scored one
+this time; but, by putting you here for the moment, and keeping you
+till we're gone, I venture to say I've redressed the board, and I
+think we may count it a drawn game, mayn't we? The match stands at
+three, love--with some thousands in pocket?"
+
+"You're a murderer, sir!" Charles shrieked out. "We shall starve or
+die here!"
+
+Colonel Clay on his side was all sweet reasonableness. "Now, my dear
+sir," he expostulated, one hand held palm outward, "_Do_ you think
+it probable I would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, with
+so little compunction? No, no, Sir Charles Vandrift; I know too well
+how much you are worth to me. I return you on my income-tax paper
+as five thousand a year, clear profit of my profession. Suppose you
+were to die! I might be compelled to find some new and far less
+lucrative source of plunder. Your heirs, executors, or assignees
+might not suit my purpose. The fact of it is, sir, your temperament
+and mine are exactly adapted one to the other. _I_ understand _you_;
+and _you_ do not understand _me_--which is often the basis of the
+firmest friendships. I can catch you just where you are trying to
+catch other people. Your very smartness assists me; for I admit you
+_are_ smart. As a regular financier, I allow, I couldn't hold a
+candle to you. But in my humbler walk of life I know just how to
+utilise you. I lead you on, where you think you are going to gain some
+advantage over others; and by dexterously playing upon your love of
+a good bargain, your innate desire to best somebody else--I succeed
+in besting you. There, sir, you have the philosophy of our mutual
+relations."
+
+He bowed and raised his cap. Charles looked at him and cowered. Yes,
+genius as he is, he positively cowered. "And do you mean to say,"
+he burst out, "you intend to go on so bleeding me?"
+
+The Colonel smiled a bland smile. "Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+answered, "I called you just now the goose that lays the golden
+eggs. You may have thought the metaphor a rude one. But you _are_
+a goose, you know, in certain relations. Smartest man on the Stock
+Exchange, I readily admit; easiest fool to bamboozle in the
+open country that ever I met with. You fail in one thing--the
+perspicacity of simplicity. For that reason, among others, I have
+chosen to fasten upon you. Regard me, my dear sir, as a microbe of
+millionaires, a parasite upon capitalists. You know the old rhyme:
+
+  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
+  And these again have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum!
+
+Well, that's just how I view myself. _You_ are a capitalist and a
+millionaire. In _your_ large way you prey upon society. YOU deal in
+Corners, Options, Concessions, Syndicates. You drain the world
+dry of its blood and its money. You possess, like the mosquito, a
+beautiful instrument of suction--Founders' Shares--with which you
+absorb the surplus wealth of the community. In _my_ smaller way,
+again, _I_ relieve you in turn of a portion of the plunder. I am a
+Robin Hood of my age; and, looking upon _you_ as an exceptionally bad
+form of millionaire--as well as an exceptionally easy form of pigeon
+for a man of my type and talents to pluck--I have, so to speak,
+taken up my abode upon you."
+
+Charles looked at him and groaned.
+
+The young man continued, in a tone of gentle badinage. "I love the
+plot-interest of the game," he said, "and so does dear Jessie here.
+We both of us adore it. As long as I find such good pickings upon
+you, I certainly am not going to turn away from so valuable a
+carcass, in order to batten myself, at considerable trouble, upon
+minor capitalists, out of whom it is difficult to extract a few
+hundreds. It may have puzzled you to guess why I fix upon you so
+persistently. Now you know, and understand. When a fluke finds a
+sheep that suits him, that fluke lives upon him. You are my host: I
+am your parasite. This coup has failed. But don't flatter yourself
+for a moment it will be the last one."
+
+"Why do you insult me by telling me all this?" Sir Charles cried,
+writhing.
+
+The Colonel waved his hand. It was small and white. "Because I _love_
+the game," he answered, with a relish; "and also, because the more
+prepared you are beforehand, the greater credit and amusement is
+there in besting you. Well, now, ta-ta once more! I am wasting
+valuable time. I might be cheating somebody. I must be off at
+once.... Take care of yourself, Wentworth. But I know you _will_.
+You always do. Ten per cent _is_ more usual!"
+
+He rowed away and left us. As the boat began to disappear round the
+corner of the island, White Heather--so she looked--stood up in the
+stern and shouted aloud through her pretty hands to us. "By-bye,
+dear Sir Charles!" she cried. "Do wrap the rug around you! I'll
+send the men to fetch you as soon as ever I possibly can. And thank
+you so much for those lovely flowers!"
+
+The boat rounded the crags. We were alone on the island. Charles
+flung himself on the bare rock in a wild access of despondency.
+He is accustomed to luxury, and cannot get on without his padded
+cushions. As for myself, I climbed with some difficulty to the top
+of the cliff, landward, and tried to make signals of distress with
+my handkerchief to some passer-by on the mainland. All in vain.
+Charles had dismissed the crofters on the estate; and, as the
+shooting-party that day was in an opposite direction, not a soul
+was near to whom we could call for succour.
+
+I climbed down again to Charles. The evening came on slowly. Cries
+of sea-birds rang weird upon the water. Puffins and cormorants
+circled round our heads in the gray of twilight. Charles suggested
+that they might even swoop down upon us and bite us. They did not,
+however, but their flapping wings added none the less a painful
+touch of eeriness to our hunger and solitude. Charles was horribly
+depressed. For myself, I will confess I felt so much relieved at
+the fact that Colonel Clay had not openly betrayed me in the matter
+of the commission, as to be comparatively comfortable.
+
+We crouched on the hard crag. About eleven o'clock we heard human
+voices. "Boat ahoy!" I shouted. An answering shout aroused us to
+action. We rushed down to the landing-place and cooee'd for the men,
+to show them where we were. They came up at once in Sir Charles's
+own boat. They were fishermen from Niggarey, on the shore of the
+Firth opposite.
+
+A lady and gentleman had sent them, they said, to return the boat
+and call for us on the island; their description corresponded to
+the two supposed Grantons. They rowed us home almost in silence to
+Seldon. It was half-past twelve by the gatehouse clock when we
+reached the castle. Men had been sent along the coast each way to
+seek us. Amelia had gone to bed, much alarmed for our safety. Isabel
+was sitting up. It was too late, of course, to do much that night in
+the way of apprehending the miscreants, though Charles insisted upon
+dispatching a groom, with a telegram for the police at Inverness,
+to Fowlis.
+
+Nothing came of it all. A message awaited us from Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, to be sure, saying that his son had not left
+Glen-Ellachie Lodge; while research the next day and later showed
+that our correspondent had never even received our letter. An empty
+envelope alone had arrived at the house, and the postal authorities
+had been engaged meanwhile, with their usual lightning speed, in
+"investigating the matter." Cesarine had posted the letter herself
+at Fowlis, and brought back the receipt; so the only conclusion we
+could draw was this--Colonel Clay must be in league with somebody
+at the post-office. As for Lord Craig-Ellachie's reply, that was a
+simple forgery; though, oddly enough, it was written on
+Glen-Ellachie paper.
+
+However, by the time Charles had eaten a couple of grouse, and
+drunk a bottle of his excellent Rudesheimer, his spirits and valour
+revived exceedingly. Doubtless he inherits from his Boer ancestry a
+tendency towards courage of the Batavian description. He was in
+capital feather.
+
+"After all, Sey," he said, leaning back in his chair, "this time
+we score one. He has _not_ done us brown; we have at least detected
+him. To detect him in time is half-way to catching him. Only the
+remoteness of our position at Seldon Castle saved him from capture.
+Next set-to, I feel sure, we will not merely spot him, we will also
+nab him. I only wish he would try on such a rig in London."
+
+But the oddest part of it all was this, that from the moment those
+two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were
+some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them
+vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of
+them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their
+luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail
+stopped short, no spoor lay farther. It was a most singular and
+insoluble mystery.
+
+Charles lived in hopes of catching his man in London.
+
+But for my part, I felt there was a show of reason in one last
+taunt which the rascal flung back at us as the boat receded: "Sir
+Charles Vandrift, we are a pair of rogues. The law protects _you_.
+It persecutes _me_. That's all the difference."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GERMAN PROFESSOR
+
+
+That winter in town my respected brother-in-law had little time
+on his hands to bother himself about trifles like Colonel Clay.
+A thunderclap burst upon him. He saw his chief interest in South
+Africa threatened by a serious, an unexpected, and a crushing
+danger.
+
+Charles does a little in gold, and a little in land; but his
+principal operations have always lain in the direction of diamonds.
+Only once in my life, indeed, have I seen him pay the slightest
+attention to poetry, and that was when I happened one day to
+recite the lines:--
+
+  Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+  The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+He rubbed his hands at once and murmured enthusiastically, "I never
+thought of that. We might get up an Atlantic Exploration Syndicate,
+Limited." So attached is he to diamonds. You may gather, therefore,
+what a shock it was to that gigantic brain to learn that science was
+rapidly reaching a point where his favourite gems might become all
+at once a mere drug in the market. Depreciation is the one bugbear
+that perpetually torments Sir Charles's soul; that winter he stood
+within measurable distance of so appalling a calamity.
+
+It happened after this manner.
+
+We were strolling along Piccadilly towards Charles's club one
+afternoon--he is a prominent member of the Croesus, in Pall
+Mall--when, near Burlington House, whom should we happen to knock
+up against but Sir Adolphus Cordery, the famous mineralogist, and
+leading spirit of the Royal Society! He nodded to us pleasantly.
+"Halloa, Vandrift," he cried, in his peculiarly loud and piercing
+voice; "you're the very man I wanted to meet to-day. Good morning,
+Wentworth. Well, how about diamonds now, Sir Gorgius? You'll have to
+sing small. It's all up with you Midases. Heard about this marvellous
+new discovery of Schleiermacher's? It's calculated to make you
+diamond kings squirm like an eel in a frying-pan."
+
+I could see Charles wriggle inside his clothes. He was most
+uncomfortable. That a man like Cordery should say such things, in
+so loud a voice, on no matter how little foundation, openly in
+Piccadilly, was enough in itself to make a sensitive barometer
+such as Cloetedorp Golcondas go down a point or two.
+
+"Hush, hush!" Charles said solemnly, in that awed tone of voice
+which he always assumes when Money is blasphemed against. "_Please_
+don't talk quite so loud! All London can hear you."
+
+Sir Adolphus ran his arm through Charles's most amicably. There's
+nothing Charles hates like having his arm taken.
+
+"Come along with me to the Athenaeum," he went on, in the same
+stentorian voice, "and I'll tell you all about it. Most interesting
+discovery. Makes diamonds cheap as dirt. Calculated to supersede
+South Africa altogether."
+
+Charles allowed himself to be dragged along. There was nothing else
+possible. Sir Adolphus continued, in a somewhat lower key, induced
+upon him by Charles's mute look of protest. It was a disquieting
+story. He told it with gleeful unction. It seems that Professor
+Schleiermacher, of Jena, "the greatest living authority on the
+chemistry of gems," he said, had lately invented, or claimed to
+have invented, a system for artificially producing diamonds, which
+had yielded most surprising and unexceptionable results.
+
+Charles's lip curled slightly. "Oh, I know the sort of thing," he
+said. "I've heard of it before. Very inferior stones, quite small
+and worthless, produced at immense cost, and even then not worth
+looking at. I'm an old bird, you know, Cordery; not to be caught
+with chaff. Tell me a better one!"
+
+Sir Adolphus produced a small cut gem from his pocket. "How's that
+for the first water?" he inquired, passing it across, with a broad
+smile, to the sceptic. "Made under my own eyes--and quite
+inexpensively!"
+
+Charles examined it close, stopping short against the railings in
+St. James's Square to look at it with his pocket-lens. There was no
+denying the truth. It was a capital small gem of the finest quality.
+
+"Made under your own eyes?" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Where,
+my dear sir?--at Jena?"
+
+The answer was a thunderbolt from a blue sky. "No, here in London;
+last night as ever was; before myself and Dr. Gray; and about to be
+exhibited by the President himself at a meeting of Fellows of the
+Royal Society."
+
+Charles drew a long breath. "This nonsense must be stopped," he said
+firmly--"it must be nipped in the bud. It won't do, my dear friend;
+we can't have such tampering with important Interests."
+
+"How do you mean?" Cordery asked, astonished.
+
+Charles gazed at him steadily. I could see by the furtive gleam in
+my brother-in-law's eye he was distinctly frightened. "Where _is_
+the fellow?" he asked. "Did he come himself, or send over a deputy?"
+
+"Here in London," Sir Adolphus replied. "He's staying at my house;
+and he says he'll be glad to show his experiments to anybody
+scientifically interested in diamonds. We propose to have a
+demonstration of the process to-night at Lancaster Gate. Will
+you drop in and see it?"
+
+Would he "drop in" and see it? "Drop in" at such a function! Could
+he possibly stop away? Charles clutched the enemy's arm with a
+nervous grip. "Look here, Cordery," he said, quivering; "this is a
+question affecting very important Interests. Don't do anything rash.
+Don't do anything foolish. Remember that Shares may rise or fall on
+this." He said "Shares" in a tone of profound respect that I can
+hardly even indicate. It was the crucial word in the creed of his
+religion.
+
+"I should think it very probable," Sir Adolphus replied, with the
+callous indifference of the mere man of science to financial
+suffering.
+
+Sir Charles was bland, but peremptory. "Now, observe," he said, "a
+grave responsibility rests on your shoulders. The Market depends
+upon you. You must not ask in any number of outsiders to witness
+these experiments. Have a few mineralogists and experts, if you
+like; but also take care to invite representatives of the menaced
+Interests. I will come myself--I'm engaged to dine out, but I
+can contract an indisposition; and I should advise you to ask
+Mosenheimer, and, say, young Phipson. They would stand for the
+mines, as you and the mineralogists would stand for science. Above
+all, don't blab; for Heaven's sake, let there be no premature
+gossip. Tell Schleiermacher not to go gassing and boasting of
+his success all over London."
+
+"We are keeping the matter a profound secret, at Schleiermacher's
+own request," Cordery answered, more seriously.
+
+"Which is why," Charles said, in his severest tone, "you bawled it
+out at the very top of your voice in Piccadilly!"
+
+However, before nightfall, everything was arranged to Charles's
+satisfaction; and off we went to Lancaster Gate, with a profound
+expectation that the German professor would do nothing worth seeing.
+
+He was a remarkable-looking man, once tall, I should say, from his
+long, thin build, but now bowed and bent with long devotion to study
+and leaning over a crucible. His hair, prematurely white, hung down
+upon his forehead, but his eye was keen and his mouth sagacious. He
+shook hands cordially with the men of science, whom he seemed to
+know of old, whilst he bowed somewhat distantly to the South African
+interest. Then he began to talk, in very German-English, helping out
+the sense now and again, where his vocabulary failed him, by waving
+his rather dirty and chemical-stained hands demonstratively about
+him. His nails were a sight, but his fingers, I must say, had the
+delicate shape of a man's accustomed to minute manipulation. He
+plunged at once into the thick of the matter, telling us briefly in
+his equally thick accent that he "now brobosed by his new brocess
+to make for us some goot and sadisfactory tiamonds."
+
+He brought out his apparatus, and explained--or, as he said,
+"eggsblained"--his novel method. "Tiamonds," he said, "were nozzing
+but pure crystalline carbon." He knew how to crystallise it--"zat
+was all ze secret." The men of science examined the pots and pans
+carefully. Then he put in a certain number of raw materials, and
+went to work with ostentatious openness. There were three distinct
+processes, and he made two stones by each simultaneously. The
+remarkable part of his methods, he said, was their rapidity and
+their cheapness. In three-quarters of an hour (and he smiled
+sardonically) he could produce a diamond worth at current prices
+two hundred pounds sterling. "As you shall now see me berform,"
+he remarked, "viz zis simple abbaradus."
+
+The materials fizzed and fumed. The Professor stirred them. An
+unpleasant smell like burnt feathers pervaded the room. The
+scientific men craned their necks in their eagerness, and looked
+over one another; Vane-Vivian, in particular, was all attention.
+After three-quarters of an hour, the Professor, still smiling, began
+to empty the apparatus. He removed a large quantity of dust or
+powder, which he succinctly described as "by-broducts," and then
+took between finger and thumb from the midst of each pan a small
+white pebble, not water-worn apparently, but slightly rough and
+wart-like on the surface.
+
+From one pair of the pannikins he produced two such stones, and
+held them up before us triumphantly. "Zese," he said, "are genuine
+tiamonds, manufactured at a gost of fourteen shillings and
+siggspence abiece!" Then he tried the second pair. "Zese," he said,
+still more gleefully, "are broduced at a gost of eleffen and
+ninebence!" Finally, he came to the third pair, which he positively
+brandished before our astonished eyes. "And zese," he cried,
+transported, "haff gost me no more zan tree and eightbence!"
+
+They were handed round for inspection. Rough and uncut as they
+stood, it was, of course, impossible to judge of their value. But
+one thing was certain. The men of science had been watching close at
+the first, and were sure Herr Schleiermacher had not put the stones
+in; they were keen at the withdrawal, and were equally sure he had
+taken them honestly out of the pannikins.
+
+"I vill now disdribute zem," the Professor remarked in a casual
+tone, as if diamonds were peas, looking round at the company. And
+he singled out my brother-in-law. "One to Sir Charles!" he said,
+handing it; "one to Mr. Mosenheimer; one to Mr. Phibson--as
+representing the tiamond interest. Zen, one each to Sir Atolphus,
+to Dr. Gray, to Mr. Fane-Fiffian, as representing science. You will
+haff zem cut and rebort upon zem in due gourse. We meet again at
+zis blace ze day afder do-morrow."
+
+Charles gazed at him reproachfully. The profoundest chords of his
+moral nature were stirred. "Professor," he said, in a voice of
+solemn warning, "_Are_ you aware that, _if_ you have succeeded, you
+have destroyed the value of thousands of pounds' worth of precious
+property?"
+
+The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "Fot is dat to me?" he
+inquired, with a curious glance of contempt. "I am not a financier!
+I am a man of science. I seek to know; I do not seek to make a
+fortune."
+
+"Shocking!" Charles exclaimed. "Shocking! I never before in my life
+beheld so strange an instance of complete insensibility to the
+claims of others!"
+
+We separated early. The men of science were coarsely jubilant. The
+diamond interest exhibited a corresponding depression. If this news
+were true, they foresaw a slump. Every eye grew dim. It was a
+terrible business.
+
+Charles walked homeward with the Professor. He sounded him gently as
+to the sum required, should need arise, to purchase his secrecy.
+Already Sir Adolphus had bound us all down to temporary silence--as
+if that were necessary; but Charles wished to know how much
+Schleiermacher would take to suppress his discovery. The German
+was immovable.
+
+"No, no!" he replied, with positive petulance. "You do not
+unterstant. I do not buy and sell. Zis is a chemical fact. We must
+bublish it for the sake off its seoretical falue. I do not care
+for wealse. I haff no time to waste in making money."
+
+"What an awful picture of a misspent life!" Charles observed to me
+afterwards.
+
+And, indeed, the man seemed to care for nothing on earth but the
+abstract question--not whether he could make good diamonds or not,
+but whether he could or could not produce a crystalline form of
+pure carbon!
+
+On the appointed night Charles went back to Lancaster Gate, as I
+could not fail to remark, with a strange air of complete and painful
+preoccupation. Never before in his life had I seen him so anxious.
+
+The diamonds were produced, with one surface of each slightly scored
+by the cutters, so as to show the water. Then a curious result
+disclosed itself. Strange to say, each of the three diamonds given
+to the three diamond kings turned out to be a most inferior and
+valueless stone; while each of the three intrusted to the care of
+the scientific investigators turned out to be a fine gem of the
+purest quality.
+
+I confess it was a sufficiently suspicious conjunction. The three
+representatives of the diamond interest gazed at each other with
+inquiring side-glances. Then their eyes fell suddenly: they avoided
+one another. Had each independently substituted a weak and inferior
+natural stone for Professor Schleiermacher's manufactured pebbles?
+It almost seemed so. For a moment, I admit, I was half inclined to
+suppose it. But next second I changed my mind. Could a man of Sir
+Charles Vandrift's integrity and high principle stoop for lucre's
+sake to so mean an expedient?--not to mention the fact that, even if
+he did, and if Mosenheimer did likewise, the stones submitted to the
+scientific men would have amply sufficed to establish the reality
+and success of the experiments!
+
+Still, I must say, Charles looked guiltily across at Mosenheimer,
+and Mosenheimer at Phipson, while three more uncomfortable or
+unhappy-faced men could hardly have been found at that precise
+minute in the City of Westminster.
+
+Then Sir Adolphus spoke--or, rather, he orated. He said, in his loud
+and grating voice, we had that evening, and on a previous evening,
+been present at the conception and birth of an Epoch in the History
+of Science. Professor Schleiermacher was one of those men of whom
+his native Saxony might well be proud; while as a Briton he must
+say he regretted somewhat that this discovery, like so many
+others, should have been "Made in Germany." However, Professor
+Schleiermacher was a specimen of that noble type of scientific men
+to whom gold was merely the rare metal Au, and diamonds merely the
+element C in the scarcest of its manifold allotropic embodiments.
+The Professor did not seek to make money out of his discovery. He
+rose above the sordid greed of capitalists. Content with the glory
+of having traced the element C to its crystalline origin, he asked
+no more than the approval of science. However, out of deference to
+the wishes of those financial gentlemen who were oddly concerned in
+maintaining the present price of C in its crystalline form--in other
+words, the diamond interest--they had arranged that the secret
+should be strictly guarded and kept for the present; not one of the
+few persons admitted to the experiments would publicly divulge the
+truth about them. This secrecy would be maintained till he himself,
+and a small committee of the Royal Society, should have time to
+investigate and verify for themselves the Professor's beautiful
+and ingenious processes--an investigation and verification which
+the learned Professor himself both desired and suggested.
+(Schleiermacher nodded approval.) When that was done, if the
+process stood the test, further concealment would be absolutely
+futile. The price of diamonds must fall at once below that of paste,
+and any protest on the part of the financial world would, of course,
+be useless. The laws of Nature were superior to millionaires.
+Meanwhile, in deference to the opinion of Sir Charles Vandrift,
+whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody
+could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and
+to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple
+process in public. He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet
+"beautiful." And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must
+congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on
+his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge
+of brilliants and of crystalline science.
+
+Everybody applauded. It was an awkward moment. Sir Charles bit his
+lip. Mosenheimer looked glum. Young Phipson dropped an expression
+which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate
+among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy,
+the meeting separated.
+
+I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided
+Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his
+own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we
+took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned
+back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable.
+
+Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the
+billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload
+Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of
+the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It
+struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning
+out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the
+next few weeks or so.
+
+He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except
+on occasions when he is _very_ angry, my respected connection
+_never_ calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation,
+"Sey"--derived from Seymour--is his usual mode of address to
+me in private.) "_Is_ it likely I would unload, and wreck the
+confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a
+moment? As a director--as Chairman--would it be just or right of
+me? I ask you, sir, _could_ I reconcile it to my conscience?"
+
+"Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You
+will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those
+who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in
+finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators.
+
+At the same time I thought to myself, "_I_ am not a director. No
+trust is reposed in _me_. _I_ have to think first of dear Isabel and
+the baby. Before the crash comes _I_ will sell out to-morrow the
+few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas."
+
+With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine
+my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey,"
+he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my
+brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will
+be upon us to-morrow. If _you_ were to sell out, and operators got to
+know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company
+would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your
+own property. I can't interfere with _that_. I do not dictate to
+you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the
+interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should
+not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore,
+though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give
+you warning: _if_ you sell out those shares of yours, openly or
+secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six
+months' salary in lieu of notice, and--you leave me instantly."
+
+"Very well, Charles," I answered, in a submissive voice; though I
+debated with myself for a moment whether it would be best to stick
+to the ready money and quit the sinking ship, or to hold fast by my
+friend, and back Charles's luck against the Professor's science.
+After a short, sharp struggle within my own mind, I am proud to say,
+friendship and gratitude won. I felt sure that, whether diamonds
+went up or down, Charles Vandrift was the sort of man who would come
+to the top in the end in spite of everything. And I decided to stand
+by him!
+
+I slept little that night, however. My mind was a whirlwind. At
+breakfast Charles also looked haggard and moody. He ordered the
+carriage early, and drove straight into the City.
+
+There was a block in Cheapside. Charles, impatient and nervous,
+jumped out and walked. I walked beside him. Near Wood Street a man
+we knew casually stopped us.
+
+"I think I ought to mention to you," he said, confidentially,
+"that I have it on the very best authority that Schleiermacher,
+of Jena--"
+
+"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and--there's
+not a word of truth in it."
+
+He brushed on in haste. A yard or two farther a broker paused in
+front of us.
+
+"Halloa, Sir Charles!" he called out, in a bantering tone. "What's
+all this about diamonds? Where are Cloetedorps to-day? Is it
+Golconda, or Queer Street?"
+
+Charles drew himself up very stiff. "I fail to understand you,"
+he answered, with dignity.
+
+"Why, you were there yourself," the man cried. "Last night at Sir
+Adolphus's! Oh yes, it's all over the place; Schleiermacher of Jena
+has succeeded in making the most perfect diamonds--for sixpence
+apiece--as good as real--and South Africa's ancient history. In less
+than six weeks Kimberley, they say, will be a howling desert. Every
+costermonger in Whitechapel will wear genuine Koh-i-noors for
+buttons on his coat; every girl in Bermondsey will sport a riviere
+like Lady Vandrift's to her favourite music-hall. There's a slump
+in Golcondas. Sly, sly, I can see; but _we_ know all about it!"
+
+Charles moved on, disgusted. The man's manners were atrocious.
+Near the Bank we ran up against a most respectable jobber.
+
+"Ah, Sir Charles," he said; "you here? Well, this is strange news,
+isn't it? For my part, I advise you not to take it too seriously.
+Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
+it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
+the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
+time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
+Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
+till Sir Adolphus has tested it."
+
+We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
+Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
+discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
+proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
+told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
+proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
+that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
+out the less was he likely to lose by it.
+
+Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
+out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
+at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
+follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.
+
+All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
+murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
+to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
+was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
+and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
+"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
+my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
+is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
+prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
+one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
+the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
+the panic."
+
+All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
+himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
+roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
+but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
+restore public confidence.
+
+"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
+as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
+Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
+and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
+own advantage. A chairman, like Caesar's wife, should be above
+suspicion. So I shall only buy up just enough, now and again, to
+let people see I, at least, have no doubt as to the firm future
+of Cloetedorps."
+
+He went home that night, more harassed and ill than I have ever
+seen him. Next day was as bad. The slump continued, with varying
+episodes. Now, a rumour would surge up that Sir Adolphus had
+declared the whole affair a sham, and prices would steady a little;
+now, another would break out that the diamonds were actually being
+put upon the market in Berlin by the cart-load, and timid old ladies
+would wire down to their brokers to realise off-hand at whatever
+hazard. It was an awful day. I shall never forget it.
+
+The morning after, as if by miracle, things righted themselves of
+a sudden. While we were wondering what it meant, Charles received a
+telegram from Sir Adolphus Cordery:--
+
+"The man is a fraud. Not Schleiermacher at all. Just had a wire
+from Jena saying the Professor knows nothing about him. Sorry
+unintentionally to have caused you trouble. Come round and see me."
+
+"Sorry unintentionally to have caused you trouble." Charles was
+beside himself with anger. Sir Adolphus had upset the share-market
+for forty-eight mortal hours, half-ruined a round dozen of wealthy
+operators, convulsed the City, upheaved the House, and now--he
+apologised for it as one might apologise for being late ten minutes
+for dinner! Charles jumped into a hansom and rushed round to see
+him. How had he dared to introduce the impostor to solid men as
+Professor Schleiermacher? Sir Adolphus shrugged his shoulders. The
+fellow had come and introduced himself as the great Jena chemist;
+he had long white hair, and a stoop in the shoulders. What reason
+had _he_ for doubting his word? (I reflected to myself that on much
+the same grounds Charles in turn had accepted the Honourable David
+Granton and Graf von Lebenstein.) Besides, what object could the
+creature have for this extraordinary deception? Charles knew only
+too well. It was clear it was done to disturb the diamond market,
+and we realised, too late, that the man who had done it was--Colonel
+Clay, in "another of his manifold allotropic embodiments!" Charles
+had had his wish, and had met his enemy once more in London!
+
+We could see the whole plot. Colonel Clay was polymorphic, like the
+element carbon! Doubtless, with his extraordinary sleight of hand,
+he had substituted real diamonds for the shapeless mass that came
+out of the apparatus, in the interval between handing the pebbles
+round for inspection, and distributing them piecemeal to the men of
+science and representatives of the diamond interest. We all watched
+him closely, of course, when he opened the crucibles; but when once
+we had satisfied ourselves that _something_ came out, our doubts were
+set at rest, and we forgot to watch whether he distributed those
+somethings or not to the recipients. Conjurers always depend upon
+such momentary distractions or lapses of attention. As usual, too,
+the Professor had disappeared into space the moment his trick was
+once well performed. He vanished like smoke, as the Count and Seer
+had vanished before, and was never again heard of.
+
+Charles went home more angry than I have ever beheld him. I couldn't
+imagine why. He seemed as deeply hipped as if he had lost his
+thousands. I endeavoured to console him. "After all," I said,
+"though Golcondas have suffered a temporary loss, it's a comfort
+to think that you should have stood so firm, and not only stemmed
+the tide, but also prevented yourself from losing anything at all
+of your own through panic. I'm sorry, of course, for the widows
+and orphans; but if Colonel Clay has rigged the market, at least
+it isn't YOU who lose by it this time."
+
+Charles withered me with a fierce scowl of undisguised contempt.
+"Wentworth," he said once more, "you are a fool!" Then he relapsed
+into silence.
+
+"But you declined to sell out," I said.
+
+He gazed at me fixedly. "Is it likely," he asked at last, "I would
+tell _you_ if I meant to sell out? or that I'd sell out openly through
+Finglemore, my usual broker? Why, all the world would have known,
+and Golcondas would have been finished. As it is, I don't desire to
+tell an ass like you exactly how much I've lost. But I _did_ sell out,
+and some unknown operator bought in at once, and closed for ready
+money, and has sold again this morning; and after all that has
+happened, it will be impossible to track him. He didn't wait for the
+account: he settled up instantly. And he sold in like manner. I know
+now what has been done, and how cleverly it has all been disguised
+and covered; but the most I'm going to tell you to-day is just
+this--it's by far the biggest haul Colonel Clay has made out of me.
+He could retire on it if he liked. My one hope is, it may satisfy
+him for life; but, then, no man has ever had enough of making money."
+
+"_You_ sold out!" I exclaimed. "_You_, the Chairman of the company!
+_You_ deserted the ship! And how about your trust? How about the widows
+and orphans confided to you?"
+
+Charles rose and faced me. "Seymour Wentworth," he said, in his most
+solemn voice, "you have lived with me for years and had every
+advantage. You have seen high finance. Yet you ask me that question!
+It's my belief you will never, never understand business!"
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE ARREST OF THE COLONEL
+
+
+How much precisely Charles dropped over the slump in Cloetedorps
+I never quite knew. But the incident left him dejected, limp, and
+dispirited.
+
+"Hang it all, Sey," he said to me in the smoking-room, a few
+evenings later. "This Colonel Clay is enough to vex the patience of
+Job--and Job had large losses, too, if I recollect aright, from the
+Chaldeans and other big operators of the period."
+
+"Three thousand camels," I murmured, recalling my dear mother's
+lessons; "all at one fell swoop; not to mention five hundred yoke of
+oxen, carried off by the Sabeans, then a leading firm of speculative
+cattle-dealers!"
+
+"Ah, well," Charles meditated aloud, shaking the ash from his
+cheroot into a Japanese tray--fine antique bronze-work. "There were
+big transactions in live-stock even then! Still, Job or no Job, the
+man is too much for me."
+
+"The difficulty is," I assented, "you never know where to have him."
+
+"Yes," Charles mused; "if he were always the same, like Horniman's
+tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd
+stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling
+every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and
+always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey,
+there's no wrestling with him anyhow."
+
+"Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched," I
+acquiesced, "than the Honourable David?"
+
+"Exactly so," Charles murmured. "I invited him myself, for my own
+advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie
+connection."
+
+"Or the Professor?" I went on. "Introduced to us by the leading
+mineralogist of England."
+
+I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.
+
+"Then, women again," he resumed, after a painful pause. "I must meet
+in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on
+my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax
+my attention for one day--or even when I don't relax it--I am
+bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that
+transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest
+girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her.
+She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I
+lose my heart afresh to that different person."
+
+I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.
+
+"No, Sey," my respected connection went on, after another long
+pause, sipping his coffee pensively, "I feel I must be aided in this
+superhuman task by a professional unraveller of cunning disguises. I
+shall go to Marvillier's to-morrow--fortunate man, Marvillier--and
+ask him to supply me with a really good 'tec, who will stop in the
+house and keep an eye upon every living soul that comes near me.
+He shall scan each nose, each eye, each wig, each whisker. He shall
+be my watchful half, my unsleeping self; it shall be his business
+to suspect all living men, all breathing women. The Archbishop of
+Canterbury shall not escape for a moment his watchful regard; he
+will take care that royal princesses don't collar the spoons or walk
+off with the jewel-cases. He must see possible Colonel Clays in the
+guard of every train and the parson of every parish; he must detect
+the off-chance of a Mme. Picardet in every young girl that takes tea
+with Amelia, every fat old lady that comes to call upon Isabel. Yes,
+I have made my mind up. I shall go to-morrow and secure such a man
+at once at Marvillier's."
+
+"If you please, Sir Charles," Cesarine interposed, pushing her head
+through the portiere, "her ladyship says, will you and Mr. Wentworth
+remember that she goes out with you both this evening to Lady
+Carisbrooke's?"
+
+"Bless my soul," Charles cried, "so she does! And it's now past ten!
+The carriage will be at the door for us in another five minutes!"
+
+Next morning, accordingly, Charles drove round to Marvillier's. The
+famous detective listened to his story with glistening eyes; then he
+rubbed his hands and purred. "Colonel Clay!" he said; "Colonel Clay!
+That's a very tough customer! The police of Europe are on the
+look-out for Colonel Clay. He is wanted in London, in Paris, in
+Berlin. It is le Colonel Caoutchouc here, le Colonel Caoutchouc
+there; till one begins to ask, at last, IS there _any_ Colonel
+Caoutchouc, or is it a convenient class name invented by the Force
+to cover a gang of undiscovered sharpers? However, Sir Charles, we
+will do our best. I will set on the track without delay the best and
+cleverest detective in England."
+
+"The very man I want," Charles said. "What name, Marvillier?"
+
+The principal smiled. "Whatever name you like," he said. "He isn't
+particular. Medhurst he's called at home. _We_ call him Joe. I'll
+send him round to your house this afternoon for certain."
+
+"Oh no," Charles said promptly, "you won't; or Colonel Clay himself
+will come instead of him. I've been sold too often. No casual
+strangers! I'll wait here and see him."
+
+"But he isn't in," Marvillier objected.
+
+Charles was firm as a rock. "Then send and fetch him."
+
+In half an hour, sure enough, the detective arrived. He was an
+odd-looking small man, with hair cut short and standing straight up
+all over his head, like a Parisian waiter. He had quick, sharp eyes,
+very much like a ferret's; his nose was depressed, his lips thin and
+bloodless. A scar marked his left cheek--made by a sword-cut, he
+said, when engaged one day in arresting a desperate French smuggler,
+disguised as an officer of Chasseurs d'Afrique. His mien was
+resolute. Altogether, a quainter or 'cuter little man it has never
+yet been my lot to set eyes on. He walked in with a brisk step,
+eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked
+for what he was wanted.
+
+"This is Sir Charles Vandrift, the great diamond king," Marvillier
+said, introducing us.
+
+"So I see," the man answered.
+
+"Then you know me?" Charles asked.
+
+"I wouldn't be worth much," the detective replied, "if I didn't
+know everybody. And you're easy enough to know; why, every boy in
+the street knows you."
+
+"Plain spoken!" Charles remarked.
+
+"As you like it, sir," the man answered in a respectful tone. "I
+endeavour to suit my dress and behaviour on every occasion to the
+taste of my employers."
+
+"Your name?" Charles asked, smiling.
+
+"Joseph Medhurst, at your service. What sort of work? Stolen
+diamonds? Illicit diamond-buying?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, fixing him with his eye. "Quite another kind
+of job. You've heard of Colonel Clay?"
+
+Medhurst nodded. "Why, certainly," he said; and, for the first time,
+I detected a lingering trace of American accent. "It's my business
+to know about him."
+
+"Well, I want you to catch him," Charles went on.
+
+Medhurst drew a long breath. "Isn't that rather a large order?"
+he murmured, surprised.
+
+Charles explained to him exactly the sort of services he required.
+Medhurst promised to comply. "If the man comes near you, I'll spot
+him," he said, after a moment's pause. "I can promise you that much.
+I'll pierce any disguise. I should know in a minute whether he's
+got up or not. I'm death on wigs, false moustaches, artificial
+complexions. I'll engage to bring the rogue to book if I see him.
+You may set your mind at rest, that, while _I'm_ about you, Colonel
+Clay can do nothing without my instantly spotting him."
+
+"He'll do it," Marvillier put in. "He'll do it, if he says it. He's
+my very best hand. Never knew any man like him for unravelling and
+unmasking the cleverest disguises."
+
+"Then he'll suit me," Charles answered, "for _I_ never knew any man
+like Colonel Clay for assuming and maintaining them."
+
+It was arranged accordingly that Medhurst should take up his
+residence in the house for the present, and should be described to
+the servants as assistant secretary. He came that very day, with a
+marvellously small portmanteau. But from the moment he arrived,
+we noticed that Cesarine took a violent dislike to him.
+
+Medhurst was a most efficient detective. Charles and I told him
+all we knew about the various shapes in which Colonel Clay had
+"materialised," and he gave us in turn many valuable criticisms and
+suggestions. Why, when we began to suspect the Honourable David
+Granton, had we not, as if by accident, tried to knock his red wig
+off? Why, when the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon first discussed
+the question of the paste diamonds, had we not looked to see if
+any of Amelia's unique gems were missing? Why, when Professor
+Schleiermacher made his bow to assembled science at Lancaster Gate,
+had we not strictly inquired how far he was personally known
+beforehand to Sir Adolphus Cordery and the other mineralogists?
+He supplied us also with several good hints about false hair and
+make-up; such as that Schleiermacher was probably much shorter than
+he looked, but by imitating a stoop with padding at his back he
+had produced the illusion of a tall bent man, though in reality no
+bigger than the little curate or the Graf von Lebenstein. High heels
+did the rest; while the scientific keenness we noted in his face was
+doubtless brought about by a trifle of wax at the end of the nose,
+giving a peculiar tilt that is extremely effective. In short, I must
+frankly admit, Medhurst made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Sharp as
+Charles is, we realised at once he was nowhere in observation beside
+the trained and experienced senses of this professional detective.
+
+The worst of it all was, while Medhurst was with us, by some curious
+fatality, Colonel Clay stopped away from us. Now and again, to be
+sure, we ran up against somebody whom Medhurst suspected; but
+after a short investigation (conducted, I may say, with admirable
+cleverness), the spy always showed us the doubtful person was
+really some innocent and well-known character, whose antecedents
+and surroundings he elucidated most wonderfully. He was a perfect
+marvel, too, in his faculty of suspicion. He suspected everybody. If
+an old friend dropped in to talk business with Charles, we found out
+afterwards that Medhurst had lain concealed all the time behind the
+curtain, and had taken short-hand notes of the whole conversation,
+as well as snap-shot photographs of the supposed sharper, by means
+of a kodak. If a fat old lady came to call upon Amelia, Medhurst
+was sure to be lurking under the ottoman in the drawing-room, and
+carefully observing, with all his eyes, whether or not she was
+really Mme. Picardet, padded. When Lady Tresco brought her four
+plain daughters to an "At Home" one night, Medhurst, in evening
+dress, disguised as a waiter, followed them each round the room with
+obtrusive ices, to satisfy himself just how much of their complexion
+was real, and how much was patent rouge and Bloom of Ninon. He
+doubted whether Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, was not Colonel Clay
+in plain clothes; and he had half an idea that Cesarine herself was
+our saucy White Heather in an alternative avatar. We pointed out
+to him in vain that Simpson had often been present in the very
+same room with David Granton, and that Cesarine had dressed Mrs.
+Brabazon's hair at Lucerne: this partially satisfied him, but only
+partially. He remarked that Simpson might double both parts with
+somebody else unknown; and that as for Cesarine, she might well
+have a twin sister who took her place when she was Mme. Picardet.
+
+Still, in spite of all his care--or because of all his care--Colonel
+Clay stopped away for whole weeks together. An explanation occurred
+to us. Was it possible he knew we were guarded and watched? Was he
+afraid of measuring swords with this trained detective?
+
+If so, how had he found it out? I had an inkling, myself--but, under
+all the circumstances, I did not mention it to Charles. It was clear
+that Cesarine intensely disliked this new addition to the Vandrift
+household. She would not stop in the room where the detective was,
+or show him common politeness. She spoke of him always as "that
+odious man, Medhurst." Could she have guessed, what none of the
+other servants knew, that the man was a spy in search of the
+Colonel? I was inclined to believe it. And then it dawned upon me
+that Cesarine had known all about the diamonds and their story; that
+it was Cesarine who took us to see Schloss Lebenstein; that it was
+Cesarine who posted the letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie! If Cesarine
+was in league with Colonel Clay, as I was half inclined to surmise,
+what more natural than her obvious dislike to the detective who was
+there to catch her principal? What more simple for her than to warn
+her fellow-conspirator of the danger that awaited him if he
+approached this man Medhurst?
+
+However, I was too much frightened by the episode of the cheque to
+say anything of my nascent suspicions to Charles. I waited rather
+to see how events would shape themselves.
+
+After a while Medhurst's vigilance grew positively annoying. More
+than once he came to Charles with reports and shorthand notes
+distinctly distasteful to my excellent brother-in-law. "The fellow
+is getting to know too much about us," Charles said to me one day.
+"Why, Sey, he spies out everything. Would you believe it, when I had
+that confidential interview with Brookfield the other day, about the
+new issue of Golcondas, the man was under the easy-chair, though I
+searched the room beforehand to make sure he wasn't there; and he
+came to me afterwards with full notes of the conversation, to assure
+me he thought Brookfield--whom I've known for ten years--was too
+tall by half an inch to be one of Colonel Clay's impersonations."
+
+"Oh, but, Sir Charles," Medhurst cried, emerging suddenly from the
+bookcase, "you must never look upon _any one_ as above suspicion
+merely because you've known him for ten years or thereabouts.
+Colonel Clay may have approached you at various times under many
+disguises. He may have built up this thing gradually. Besides, as to
+my knowing too much, why, of course, a detective always learns many
+things about his employer's family which he is not supposed to know;
+but professional honour and professional etiquette, as with doctors
+and lawyers, compel him to lock them up as absolute secrets in his
+own bosom. You need never be afraid I will divulge one jot of them.
+If I did, my occupation would be gone, and my reputation shattered."
+
+Charles looked at him, appalled. "Do you dare to say," he burst out,
+"you've been listening to my talk with my brother-in-law and
+secretary?"
+
+"Why, of course," Medhurst answered. "It's my business to listen,
+and to suspect everybody. If you push me to say so, how do I know
+Colonel Clay is not--Mr. Wentworth?"
+
+Charles withered him with a look. "In future, Medhurst," he said,
+"you must never conceal yourself in a room where I am without my
+leave and knowledge."
+
+Medhurst bowed politely. "Oh, as you will, Sir Charles," he
+answered; "that's _quite_ at your own wish. Though how can I act
+as an efficient detective, any way, if you insist upon tying my
+hands like that, beforehand?"
+
+Again I detected a faint American flavour.
+
+After that rebuff, however, Medhurst seemed put upon his mettle. He
+redoubled his vigilance in every direction. "It's not my fault," he
+said plaintively, one day, "if my reputation's so good that, while
+I'm near you, this rogue won't approach you. If I can't _catch_ him,
+at least I keep him away from coming near you!"
+
+A few days later, however, he brought Charles some photographs.
+These he produced with evident pride. The first he showed us was a
+vignette of a little parson. "Who's that, then?" he inquired, much
+pleased.
+
+We gazed at it, open-eyed. One word rose to our lips simultaneously:
+"Brabazon!"
+
+"And how's this for high?" he asked again, producing another--the
+photograph of a gay young dog in a Tyrolese costume.
+
+We murmured, "Von Lebenstein!"
+
+"_And_ this?" he continued, showing us the portrait of a lady with a
+most fetching squint.
+
+We answered with one voice, "Little Mrs. Granton!"
+
+Medhurst was naturally proud of this excellent exploit. He replaced
+them in his pocket-book with an air of just triumph.
+
+"How did you get them?" Charles asked.
+
+Medhurst's look was mysterious. "Sir Charles," he answered, drawing
+himself up, "I must ask you to trust me awhile in this matter.
+Remember, there are people whom you decline to suspect. _I_ have
+learned that it is always those very people who are most dangerous
+to capitalists. If I were to give you the names now, you would
+refuse to believe me. Therefore, I hold them over discreetly for
+the moment. One thing, however, I say. I _know_ to a certainty where
+Colonel Clay is at this present speaking. But I will lay my plans
+deep, and I hope before long to secure him. You shall be present
+when I do so; and I shall make him confess his personality openly.
+More than that you cannot reasonably ask. I shall leave it to
+_you_, then, whether or not you wish to arrest him."
+
+Charles was considerably puzzled, not to say piqued, by this curious
+reticence; he begged hard for names; but Medhurst was adamant. "No,
+no," he replied; "we detectives have our own just pride in our
+profession. If I told you now, you would probably spoil all by some
+premature action. You are too open and impulsive! I will mention
+this alone: Colonel Clay will be shortly in Paris, and before long
+will begin from that city a fresh attempt at defrauding you, which
+he is now hatching. Mark my words, and see whether or not I have
+been kept well informed of the fellow's movements!"
+
+He was perfectly correct. Two days later, as it turned out, Charles
+received a "confidential" letter from Paris, purporting to come
+from the head of a second-rate financial house with which he had
+had dealings over the Craig-Ellachie Amalgamation--by this time,
+I ought to have said, an accomplished union. It was a letter of
+small importance in itself--a mere matter of detail; but it paved
+the way, so Medhurst thought, to some later development of more
+serious character. Here once more the man's singular foresight was
+justified. For, in another week, we received a second communication,
+containing other proposals of a delicate financial character, which
+would have involved the transference of some two thousand pounds
+to the head of the Parisian firm at an address given. Both these
+letters Medhurst cleverly compared with those written to Charles
+before, in the names of Colonel Clay and of Graf von Lebenstein.
+At first sight, it is true, the differences between the two seemed
+quite enormous: the Paris hand was broad and black, large and bold;
+while the earlier manuscript was small, neat, thin, and gentlemanly.
+Still, when Medhurst pointed out to us certain persistent twists in
+the formation of his capitals, and certain curious peculiarities in
+the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we
+could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand,
+writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in
+the other with a quill, very large and freely.
+
+This discovery was _most_ important. We stood now within measurable
+distance of catching Colonel Clay, and bringing forgery and fraud
+home to him without hope of evasion.
+
+To make all sure, however, Medhurst communicated with the Paris
+police, and showed us their answers. Meanwhile, Charles continued to
+write to the head of the firm, who had given a private address in
+the Rue Jean Jacques, alleging, I must say, a most clever reason why
+the negotiations at this stage should be confidentially conducted.
+But one never expected from Colonel Clay anything less than
+consummate cleverness. In the end, it was arranged that we three
+were to go over to Paris together, that Medhurst was to undertake,
+under the guise of being Sir Charles, to pay the two thousand pounds
+to the pretended financier, and that Charles and I, waiting with the
+police outside the door, should, at a given signal, rush in with our
+forces and secure the criminal.
+
+We went over accordingly, and spent the night at the Grand, as is
+Charles's custom. The Bristol, which I prefer, he finds too quiet.
+Early next morning we took a fiacre and drove to the Rue Jean
+Jacques. Medhurst had arranged everything in advance with the Paris
+police, three of whom, in plain clothes, were waiting at the foot
+of the staircase to assist us. Charles had further provided himself
+with two thousand pounds, in notes of the Bank of France, in order
+that the payment might be duly made, and no doubt arise as to the
+crime having been perpetrated as well as meditated--in the former
+case, the penalty would be fifteen years; in the latter, three only.
+He was in very high spirits. The fact that we had tracked the rascal
+to earth at last, and were within an hour of apprehending him, was
+in itself enough to raise his courage greatly. We found, as we
+expected, that the number given in the Rue Jean Jacques was that
+of an hotel, not a private residence. Medhurst went in first, and
+inquired of the landlord whether our man was at home, at the same
+time informing him of the nature of our errand, and giving him to
+understand that if we effected the capture by his friendly aid, Sir
+Charles would see that the expenses incurred on the swindler's bill
+were met in full, as the price of his assistance. The landlord
+bowed; he expressed his deep regret, as M. le Colonel--so we
+heard him call him--was a most amiable person, much liked by the
+household; but justice, of course, must have its way; and, with a
+regretful sigh, he undertook to assist us.
+
+The police remained below, but Charles and Medhurst were each
+provided with a pair of handcuffs. Remembering the Polperro case,
+however, we determined to use them with the greatest caution. We
+would only put them on in case of violent resistance. We crept up to
+the door where the miscreant was housed. Charles handed the notes in
+an open envelope to Medhurst, who seized them hastily and held them
+in his hands in readiness for action. We had a sign concerted.
+Whenever he sneezed--which he could do in the most natural
+manner--we were to open the door, rush in, and secure the criminal!
+
+He was gone for some minutes. Charles and I waited outside in
+breathless expectation. Then Medhurst sneezed. We flung the door
+open at once, and burst in upon the creature.
+
+Medhurst rose as we did so. He pointed with his finger. "_This_ is
+Colonel Clay!" he said; "keep him well in charge while I go down
+to the door for the police to arrest him!"
+
+A gentlemanly man, about middle height, with a grizzled beard and a
+well-assumed military aspect, rose at the same moment. The envelope
+in which Charles had placed the notes lay on the table before him.
+He clutched it nervously. "I am at a loss, gentlemen," he said, in
+an excited voice, "to account for this interruption." He spoke with
+a tremor, yet with all the politeness to which we were accustomed in
+the little curate and the Honourable David.
+
+"No nonsense!" Charles exclaimed, in his authoritative way. "We know
+who you are. We have found you out this time. You are Colonel Clay.
+If you attempt to resist--take care--I will handcuff you!"
+
+The military gentleman gave a start. "Yes, I _am_ Colonel Clay," he
+answered. "On what charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bursting with wrath. The fellow's coolness seemed never
+to desert him. "You _are_ Colonel Clay!" he muttered. "You have the
+unspeakable effrontery to stand there and admit it?"
+
+"Certainly," the Colonel answered, growing hot in turn. "I have done
+nothing to be ashamed of. What do you mean by this conduct? How dare
+you talk of arresting me?"
+
+Charles laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Come, come, my
+friend," he said. "That sort of bluff won't go down with us. You
+know very well on what charge I arrest you; and here are the police
+to give effect to it."
+
+He called out "Entrez!" The police entered the room. Charles
+explained as well as he could in most doubtful Parisian what they
+were next to do. The Colonel drew himself up in an indignant
+attitude. He turned and addressed them in excellent French.
+
+"I am an officer in the service of her Britannic Majesty," he said.
+"On what ground do you venture to interfere with me, messieurs?"
+
+The chief policeman explained. The Colonel turned to Charles.
+"_Your_ name, sir?" he inquired.
+
+"You know it very well," Charles answered. "I am Sir Charles
+Vandrift; and, in spite of your clever disguise, I can instantly
+recognise you. I know your eyes and ears. I can see the same man
+who cheated me at Nice, and who insulted me on the island."
+
+"_You_ Sir Charles Vandrift!" the rogue cried. "No, no, sir, you are
+a madman!" He looked round at the police. "Take care what you do!"
+he cried. "This is a raving maniac. I had business just now with Sir
+Charles Vandrift, who quitted the room as these gentlemen entered.
+This person is mad, and you, monsieur, I doubt not," bowing to me,
+"you are, of course, his keeper."
+
+"Do not let him deceive you," I cried to the police, beginning to
+fear that with his usual incredible cleverness the fellow would
+even now manage to slip through our fingers. "Arrest him, as you
+are told. _We_ will take the responsibility." Though I trembled when
+I thought of that cheque he held of mine.
+
+The chief of our three policemen came forward and laid his hand on
+the culprit's shoulder. "I advise you, M. le Colonel," he said, in
+an official voice, "to come with us quietly for the present. Before
+the juge d'instruction we can enter at length into all these
+questions."
+
+The Colonel, very indignant still--and acting the part
+marvellously--yielded and went along with them.
+
+"Where's Medhurst?" Charles inquired, glancing round as we reached
+the door. "I wish he had stopped with us."
+
+"You are looking for monsieur your friend?" the landlord inquired,
+with a side bow to the Colonel. "He has gone away in a fiacre. He
+asked me to give this note to you."
+
+He handed us a twisted note. Charles opened and read it. "Invaluable
+man!" he cried. "Just hear what he says, Sey: 'Having secured
+Colonel Clay, I am off now again on the track of Mme. Picardet.
+She was lodging in the same house. She has just driven away; I know
+to what place; and I am after her to arrest her. In blind haste,
+MEDHURST.' That's smartness, IF you like. Though, poor little woman,
+I think he might have left her."
+
+"Does a Mme. Picardet stop here?" I inquired of the landlord,
+thinking it possible she might have assumed again the same old
+alias.
+
+He nodded assent. "Oui, oui, oui," he answered. "She has just driven
+off, and monsieur your friend has gone posting after her."
+
+"Splendid man!" Charles cried. "Marvillier was quite right. He is
+the prince of detectives!"
+
+We hailed a couple of fiacres, and drove off, in two detachments,
+to the juge d'instruction. There Colonel Clay continued to brazen
+it out, and asserted that he was an officer in the Indian Army, home
+on six months' leave, and spending some weeks in Paris. He even
+declared he was known at the Embassy, where he had a cousin an
+attache; and he asked that this gentleman should be sent for at once
+from our Ambassador's to identify him. The juge d'instruction
+insisted that this must be done; and Charles waited in very bad
+humour for the foolish formality. It really seemed as if, after all,
+when we had actually caught and arrested our man, he was going by
+some cunning device to escape us.
+
+After a delay of more than an hour, during which Colonel Clay
+fretted and fumed quite as much as we did, the attache arrived. To
+our horror and astonishment, he proceeded to salute the prisoner
+most affectionately.
+
+"Halloa, Algy!" he cried, grasping his hand; "what's up? What do
+these ruffians want with you?"
+
+It began to dawn upon us, then, what Medhurst had meant by
+"suspecting everybody": the real Colonel Clay was no common
+adventurer, but a gentleman of birth and high connections!
+
+The Colonel glared at us. "This fellow declares he's Sir Charles
+Vandrift," he said sulkily. "Though, in fact, there are two of them.
+And he accuses me of forgery, fraud, and theft, Bertie."
+
+The attache stared hard at us. "This _is_ Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+replied, after a moment. "I remember hearing him make a speech once
+at a City dinner. And what charge have you to prefer, Sir Charles,
+against my cousin?"
+
+"Your cousin?" Charles cried. "This is Colonel Clay, the notorious
+sharper!"
+
+The attache smiled a gentlemanly and superior smile. "This is
+Colonel Clay," he answered, "of the Bengal Staff Corps."
+
+It began to strike us there was something wrong somewhere.
+
+"But he has cheated me, all the same," Charles said--"at Nice two
+years ago, and many times since; and this very day he has tricked me
+out of two thousand pounds in French bank-notes, which he has now
+about him!"
+
+The Colonel was speechless. But the attache laughed. "What he has
+done to-day I don't know," he said; "but if it's as apocryphal as
+what you say he did two years ago, you've a thundering bad case,
+sir; for he was then in India, and I was out there, visiting him."
+
+"Where are the two thousand pounds?" Charles cried. "Why, you've got
+them in your hand! You're holding the envelope!"
+
+The Colonel produced it. "This envelope," he said, "was left with me
+by the man with short stiff hair, who came just before you, and who
+announced himself as Sir Charles Vandrift. He said he was interested
+in tea in Assam, and wanted me to join the board of directors of
+some bogus company. These are his papers, I believe," and he handed
+them to his cousin.
+
+"Well, I'm glad the notes are safe, anyhow," Charles murmured, in a
+tone of relief, beginning to smell a rat. "Will you kindly return
+them to me?"
+
+The attache turned out the contents of the envelope. They proved to
+be prospectuses of bubble companies of the moment, of no importance.
+
+"Medhurst must have put them there," I cried, "and decamped with the
+cash."
+
+Charles gave a groan of horror. "And Medhurst is Colonel Clay!" he
+exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the Colonel interposed. "I have but one
+personality, and no aliases."
+
+It took quite half an hour to explain this imbroglio. But as soon as
+all was explained, in French and English, to the satisfaction of
+ourselves and the juge d'instruction, the real Colonel shook hands
+with us in a most forgiving way, and informed us that he had more
+than once wondered, when he gave his name at shops in Paris, why
+it was often received with such grave suspicion. We instructed
+the police that the true culprit was Medhurst, whom they had seen
+with their own eyes, and whom we urged them to pursue with all
+expedition. Meanwhile, Charles and I, accompanied by the Colonel
+and the attache--"to see the fun out," as they said--called at the
+Bank of France for the purpose of stopping the notes immediately. It
+was too late, however. They had been presented at once, and cashed
+in gold, by a pleasant little lady in an American costume, who was
+afterwards identified by the hotel-keeper (from our description) as
+his lodger, Mme. Picardet. It was clear she had taken rooms in the
+same hotel, to be near the Indian Colonel; and it was _she_ who had
+received and sent the letters. As for our foe, he had vanished into
+space, as always.
+
+Two days later we received the usual insulting communication on a
+sheet of Charles's own dainty note. Last time he wrote it was on
+Craig-Ellachie paper: this time, like the wanton lapwing, he had got
+himself another crest.
+
+
+"MOST PERSPICACIOUS OF MILLIONAIRES!--Said I not well, as
+Medhurst, that you must distrust everybody? And the one man
+you never dreamt of distrusting was--Medhurst. Yet see how
+truthful I was! I told you I knew where Colonel Clay was
+living--and I _did_ know, exactly. I promised to take you to
+Colonel Clay's rooms, and to get him arrested for you--and
+I kept my promise. I even exceeded your expectations; for
+I gave you _two_ Colonel Clays instead of one--and you took
+the wrong man--that is to say, the real one. This was a neat
+little trick; but it cost me some trouble.
+
+"First, I found out there _was_ a real Colonel Clay, in the
+Indian Army. I also found out he chanced to be coming home on
+leave this season. I might have made more out of him, no doubt;
+but I disliked annoying him, and preferred to give myself the
+fun of this peculiar mystification. I therefore waited for him
+to reach Paris, where the police arrangements suited me better
+than in London. While I was looking about, and delaying
+operations for his return, I happened to hear you wanted a
+detective. So I offered myself as out of work to my old
+employer, Marvillier, from whom I have had many good jobs in the
+past; and there you get, in short, the kernel of the Colonel.
+
+"Naturally, after this, I can never go back as a detective
+to Marvillier's. But, on the large scale on which I have
+learned to work since I first had the pleasure of making
+your delightful acquaintance, this matters little. To say
+the truth, I begin to feel detective work a cut or two below
+me. I am now a gentleman of means and leisure. Besides, the
+extra knowledge of your movements which I have acquired in
+your house has helped still further to give me various holds
+upon you. So the fluke will be true to his own pet lamb. To
+vary the metaphor, you are not fully shorn yet.
+
+"Remember me most kindly to your charming family, give
+Wentworth my love, and tell Mlle. Cesarine I owe her a grudge
+which I shall never forget. She clearly suspected me. You are
+much too rich, dear Charles; I relieve your plethora. I bleed
+you financially. Therefore I consider myself--Your sincerest
+friend,
+
+"CLAY-BRABAZON-MEDHURST,
+
+"Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."
+
+
+Charles was threatened with apoplexy. This blow was severe.
+"Whom can I trust," he asked, plaintively, "when the detectives
+themselves, whom I employ to guard me, turn out to be swindlers?
+Don't you remember that line in the Latin grammar--something about,
+'Who shall watch the watchers?' I think it used to run, 'Quis
+custodes custodiet ipsos?'"
+
+But I felt this episode had at least disproved my suspicions of
+poor Cesarine.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE SELDON GOLD-MINE
+
+
+On our return to London, Charles and Marvillier had a difference
+of opinion on the subject of Medhurst.
+
+Charles maintained that Marvillier ought to have known the man
+with the cropped hair was Colonel Clay, and ought never to have
+recommended him. Marvillier maintained that Charles had _seen_
+Colonel Clay half-a-dozen times, at least, to his own never; and
+that my respected brother-in-law had therefore nobody on earth
+but himself to blame if the rogue imposed upon him. The head
+detective had known Medhurst for ten years, he said, as a most
+respectable man, and even a ratepayer; he had always found him the
+cleverest of spies, as well he might be, indeed, on the familiar
+set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief principle. However, the upshot of
+it all was, as usual--nothing. Marvillier was sorry to lose the
+services of so excellent a hand; but he had done the very best
+he could for Sir Charles, he declared; and if Sir Charles was
+not satisfied, why, he might catch his Colonel Clays for himself
+in future.
+
+"So I will, Sey," Charles remarked to me, as we walked back from
+the office in the Strand by Piccadilly. "I won't trust any more to
+these private detectives. It's my belief they're a pack of thieves
+themselves, in league with the rascals they're set to catch, and
+with no more sense of honour than a Zulu diamond-hand."
+
+"Better try the police," I suggested, by way of being helpful.
+One must assume an interest in one's employer's business.
+
+But Charles shook his head. "No, no," he said; "I'm sick of all
+these fellows. I shall trust in future to my own sagacity. We
+learn by experience, Sey--and I've learned a thing or two. One of
+them is this: It's not enough to suspect everybody; you must have
+no preconceptions. Divest yourself entirely of every fixed idea
+if you wish to cope with a rascal of this calibre. Don't jump at
+conclusions. We should disbelieve everything, as well as distrust
+everybody. That's the road to success; and I mean to pursue it."
+
+So, by way of pursuing it, Charles retired to Seldon.
+
+"The longer the man goes on, the worse he grows," he said to me
+one morning. "He's just like a tiger that has tasted blood. Every
+successful haul seems only to make him more eager for another.
+I fully expect now before long we shall see him down here."
+
+About three weeks later, sure enough, my respected connection
+received a communication from the abandoned swindler, with
+an Austrian stamp and a Vienna post-mark.
+
+
+"MY DEAR VANDRIFT.--(After so long and so varied an acquaintance
+we may surely drop the absurd formalities of 'Sir Charles' and
+'Colonel.') I write to ask you a delicate question. Can you kindly
+tell me exactly how much I have received from your various generous
+acts during the last three years? I have mislaid my account-book,
+and as this is the season for making the income tax return, I am
+anxious, as an honest and conscientious citizen, to set down my
+average profits out of you for the triennial period. For reasons
+which you will amply understand, I do not this time give my private
+address, in Paris or elsewhere; but if you will kindly advertise
+the total amount, above the signature 'Peter Simple,' in the Agony
+Column of the Times, you will confer a great favour upon the
+Revenue Commissioners, and also upon your constant friend and
+companion, CUTHBERT CLAY,
+
+"Practical Socialist."
+
+"Mark my word, Sey," Charles said, laying the letter down, "in a
+week or less the man himself will follow. This is his cunning way
+of trying to make me think he's well out of the country and far
+away from Seldon. That means he's meditating another descent. But
+he told us too much last time, when he was Medhurst the detective.
+He gave us some hints about disguises and their unmasking that I
+shall not forget. This turn I shall be even with him."
+
+On Saturday of that week, in effect, we were walking along the road
+that leads into the village, when we met a gentlemanly-looking man,
+in a rough and rather happy-go-lucky brown tweed suit, who had the
+air of a tourist. He was middle-aged, and of middle height; he wore
+a small leather wallet suspended round his shoulder; and he was
+peering about at the rocks in a suspicious manner. Something in
+his gait attracted our attention.
+
+"Good-morning," he said, looking up as we passed; and Charles
+muttered a somewhat surly inarticulate, "Good-morning."
+
+We went on without saying more. "Well, _that's_ not Colonel Clay,
+anyhow," I said, as we got out of earshot. "For he accosted us
+first; and you may remember it's one of the Colonel's most marked
+peculiarities that, like the model child, he never speaks till he's
+spoken to--never begins an acquaintance. He always waits till we
+make the first advance; he doesn't go out of his way to cheat us;
+he loiters about till we ask him to do it."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law responded, in a severe tone, "there
+you are, now, doing the very thing I warned you not to do! You're
+succumbing to a preconception. Avoid fixed ideas. The probability
+is this man _is_ Colonel Clay. Strangers are generally scarce at
+Seldon. If he isn't Colonel Clay, what's he here for, I'd like
+to know? What money is there to be made here in any other way?
+I shall inquire about him."
+
+We dropped in at the Cromarty Arms, and asked good Mrs. M'Lachlan
+if she could tell us anything about the gentlemanly stranger. Mrs.
+M'Lachlan replied that he was from London, she believed, a pleasant
+gentleman enough; and he had his wife with him.
+
+"Ha! Young? Pretty?" Charles inquired, with a speaking glance at me.
+
+"Weel, Sir Charles, she'll no be exactly what you'd be ca'ing a
+bonny lass," Mrs. M'Lachlan replied; "but she's a guid body for
+a' that, an' a fine braw woman."
+
+"Just what I should expect," Charles murmured, "He varies the
+programme. The fellow has tried White Heather as the parson's wife,
+and as Madame Picardet, and as squinting little Mrs. Granton, and
+as Medhurst's accomplice; and now, he has almost exhausted the
+possibilities of a disguise for a really young and pretty woman;
+so he's playing her off at last as the riper product--a handsome
+matron. Clever, extremely clever; but--we begin to see through him."
+And he chuckled to himself quietly.
+
+Next day, on the hillside, we came upon our stranger again,
+occupied as before in peering into the rocks, and sounding them
+with a hammer. Charles nudged me and whispered, "I have it this
+time. He's posing as a geologist."
+
+I took a good look at the man. By now, of course, we had some
+experience of Colonel Clay in his various disguises; and I could
+observe that while the nose, the hair, and the beard were varied,
+the eyes and the build remained the same as ever. He was a trifle
+stouter, of course, being got up as a man of between forty and
+fifty; and his forehead was lined in a way which a less consummate
+artist than Colonel Clay could easily have imitated. But I felt we
+had at least some grounds for our identification; it would not do
+to dismiss the suggestion of Clayhood at once as a flight of fancy.
+
+His wife was sitting near, upon a bare boss of rock, reading a
+volume of poems. Capital variant, that, a volume of poems! Exactly
+suited the selected type of a cultivated family. White Heather and
+Mrs. Granton never used to read poems. But that was characteristic
+of all Colonel Clay's impersonations, and Mrs. Clay's too--for I
+suppose I must call her so. They were not mere outer disguises;
+they were finished pieces of dramatic study. Those two people were
+an actor and actress, as well as a pair of rogues; and in both
+their roles they were simply inimitable.
+
+As a rule, Charles is by no means polite to casual trespassers on
+the Seldon estate; they get short shrift and a summary ejection.
+But on this occasion he had a reason for being courteous, and he
+approached the lady with a bow of recognition. "Lovely day," he
+said, "isn't it? Such belts on the sea, and the heather smells
+sweet. You are stopping at the inn, I fancy?"
+
+"Yes," the lady answered, looking up at him with a charming smile.
+("I know that smile," Charles whispered to me. "I have succumbed to
+it too often.") "We're stopping at the inn, and my husband is doing
+a little geology on the hill here. I hope Sir Charles Vandrift won't
+come and catch us. He's so down upon trespassers. They tell us at
+the inn he's a regular Tartar."
+
+("Saucy minx as ever," Charles murmured to me. "She said it on
+purpose.") "No, my dear madam," he continued, aloud; "you have
+been quite misinformed. _I_ am Sir Charles Vandrift; and I am _not_
+a Tartar. If your husband is a man of science I respect and admire
+him. It is geology that has made me what I am to-day." And he drew
+himself up proudly. "We owe to it the present development of South
+African mining."
+
+The lady blushed as one seldom sees a mature woman blush--but
+exactly as I had seen Madame Picardet and White Heather. "Oh, I'm
+so sorry," she said, in a confused way that recalled Mrs. Granton.
+"Forgive my hasty speech. I--I didn't know you."
+
+("She did," Charles whispered. "But let that pass.") "Oh, don't
+think of it again; so many people disturb the birds, don't you know,
+that we're obliged in self-defence to warn trespassers sometimes off
+our lovely mountains. But I do it with regret--with profound regret.
+I admire the--er--the beauties of Nature myself; and, therefore,
+I desire that all others should have the freest possible access
+to them--possible, that is to say, consistently with the superior
+claims of Property."
+
+"I see," the lady replied, looking up at him quaintly. "I admire
+your wish, though not your reservation. I've just been reading
+those sweet lines of Wordsworth's--
+
+  And O, ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,
+  Forebode not any severing of our loves.
+
+I suppose you know them?" And she beamed on him pleasantly.
+
+"Know them?" Charles answered. "Know them! Oh, of course, I know
+them. They're old favourites of mine--in fact, I adore Wordsworth."
+(I doubt whether Charles has ever in his life read a line of poetry,
+except Doss Chiderdoss in the Sporting Times.) He took the book
+and glanced at them. "Ah, charming, charming!" he said, in his most
+ecstatic tone. But his eyes were on the lady, and not on the poet.
+
+I saw in a moment how things stood. No matter under what disguise
+that woman appeared to him, and whether he recognised her or not,
+Charles couldn't help falling a victim to Madame Picardet's
+attractions. Here he actually suspected her; yet, like a moth
+round a candle, he was trying his hardest to get his wings singed!
+I almost despised him with his gigantic intellect! The greatest
+men are the greatest fools, I verily believe, when there's a woman
+in question.
+
+The husband strolled up by this time, and entered into conversation
+with us. According to his own account, his name was Forbes-Gaskell,
+and he was a Professor of Geology in one of those new-fangled
+northern colleges. He had come to Seldon rock-spying, he said, and
+found much to interest him. He was fond of fossils, but his special
+hobby was rocks and minerals. He knew a vast deal about cairngorms
+and agates and such-like pretty things, and showed Charles quartz
+and felspar and red cornelian, and I don't know what else, in the
+crags on the hillside. Charles pretended to listen to him with the
+deepest interest and even respect, never for a moment letting him
+guess he knew for what purpose this show of knowledge had been
+recently acquired. If we were ever to catch the man, we must not
+allow him to see we suspected him. So Charles played a dark game.
+He swallowed the geologist whole without question.
+
+Most of that morning we spent with them on the hillside. Charles
+took them everywhere and showed them everything. He pretended to be
+polite to the scientific man, and he was really polite, most polite,
+to the poetical lady. Before lunch time we had become quite friends.
+
+The Clays were always easy people to get on with; and, bar their
+roguery, we could not deny they were delightful companions. Charles
+asked them in to lunch. They accepted willingly. He introduced them
+to Amelia with sundry raisings of his eyebrows and contortions
+of his mouth. "Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell," he said,
+half-dislocating his jaw with his violent efforts. "They're stopping
+at the inn, dear. I've been showing them over the place, and they're
+good enough to say they'll drop in and take a share in our cold
+roast mutton;" which was a frequent form of Charles's pleasantry.
+
+Amelia sent them upstairs to wash their hands--which, in the
+Professor's case, was certainly desirable, for his fingers were
+grimed with earth and dust from the rocks he had been investigating.
+As soon as we were left alone Charles drew me into the library.
+
+"Seymour," he said, "more than ever there is a need for us strictly
+to avoid preconceptions. We must not make up our minds that this man
+is Colonel Clay--nor, again, that he isn't. We must remember that we
+have been mistaken in _both_ ways in the past, and must avoid our
+old errors. I shall hold myself in readiness for either event--and
+a policeman in readiness to arrest them, if necessary!"
+
+"A capital plan," I murmured. "Still, if I may venture a suggestion,
+in what way are these two people endeavouring to entrap us? They
+have no scheme on hand--no schloss, no amalgamation."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law answered in his board-room style, "you
+are a great deal too previous, as Medhurst used to say--I mean,
+Colonel Clay in his character as Medhurst. In the first place, these
+are early days; our friends have not yet developed their intentions.
+We may find before long they have a property to sell, or a company
+to promote, or a concession to exploit in South Africa or elsewhere.
+Then again, in the second place, we don't always spot the exact
+nature of their plan until it has burst in our hands, so to speak,
+and revealed its true character. What could have seemed more
+transparent than Medhurst, the detective, till he ran away with our
+notes in the very moment of triumph? What more innocent than White
+Heather and the little curate, till they landed us with a couple
+of Amelia's own gems as a splendid bargain? I will not take it for
+granted _any_ man is not Colonel Clay, merely because I don't happen
+to spot the particular scheme he is trying to work against me. The
+rogue has so many schemes, and some of them so well concealed, that
+up to the moment of the actual explosion you fail to detect the
+presence of moral dynamite. Therefore, I shall proceed as if there
+were dynamite everywhere. But in the third place--and this is _very_
+important--you mark my words, I believe I detect already the lines
+he will work upon. He's a geologist, he says, with a taste for
+minerals. Very good. You see if he doesn't try to persuade me before
+long he has found a coal mine, whose locality he will disclose for
+a trifling consideration; or else he will salt the Long Mountain
+with emeralds, and claim a big share for helping to discover them;
+or else he will try something in the mineralogical line to _do_ me
+somehow. I see it in the very transparency of the fellow's face;
+and I'm determined this time neither to pay him one farthing on
+any pretext, nor to let him escape me!"
+
+We went in to lunch. The Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, all
+smiles, accompanied us. I don't know whether it was Charles's
+warning to take nothing for granted that made me do so--but I kept
+a close eye upon the suspected man all the time we were at table.
+It struck me there was something very odd about his hair. It
+didn't seem quite the same colour all over. The locks that hung
+down behind, over the collar of his coat, were a trifle lighter and
+a trifle grayer than the black mass that covered the greater part
+of his head. I examined it carefully. The more I did so, the more
+the conviction grew upon me: he was wearing a wig. There was no
+denying it!
+
+A trifle less artistic, perhaps, than most of Colonel Clay's
+get-ups; but then, I reflected (on Charles's principle of taking
+nothing for granted), we had never before suspected Colonel Clay
+himself, except in the one case of the Honourable David, whose red
+hair and whiskers even Madame Picardet had admitted to be absurdly
+false by her action of pointing at them and tittering irrepressibly.
+It was possible that in every case, if we had scrutinised our man
+closely, we should have found that the disguise betrayed itself
+at once (as Medhurst had suggested) to an acute observer.
+
+The detective, in fact, had told us too much. I remembered what he
+said to us about knocking off David Granton's red wig the moment
+we doubted him; and I positively tried to help myself awkwardly
+to potato-chips, when the footman offered them, so as to hit the
+supposed wig with an apparently careless brush of my elbow. But
+it was of no avail. The fellow seemed to anticipate or suspect my
+intention, and dodged aside carefully, like one well accustomed
+to saving his disguise from all chance of such real or seeming
+accidents.
+
+I was so full of my discovery that immediately after lunch I induced
+Isabel to take our new friends round the home garden and show them
+Charles's famous prize dahlias, while I proceeded myself to narrate
+to Charles and Amelia my observations and my frustrated experiment.
+
+"It _is_ a wig," Amelia assented. "_I_ spotted it at once. A very
+good wig, too, and most artistically planted. Men don't notice these
+things, though women do. It is creditable to you, Seymour, to have
+succeeded in detecting it."
+
+Charles was less complimentary. "You fool," he answered, with that
+unpleasant frankness which is much too common with him. "Supposing
+it _is_, why on earth should you try to knock it off and disclose
+him? What good would it have done? If it _is_ a wig, and we spot it,
+that's all that we need. We are put on our guard; we know with whom
+we have now to deal. But you can't take a man up on a charge of
+wig-wearing. The law doesn't interfere with it. Most respectable men
+may sometimes wear wigs. Why, I knew a promoter who did, and also
+the director of fourteen companies! What we have to do next is, wait
+till he tries to cheat us, and then--pounce down upon him. Sooner
+or later, you may be sure, his plans will reveal themselves."
+
+So we concocted an excellent scheme to keep them under constant
+observation, lest they should slip away again, as they did from the
+island. First of all, Amelia was to ask them to come and stop at the
+castle, on the ground that the rooms at the inn were uncomfortably
+small. We felt sure, however, that, as on a previous occasion,
+they would refuse the invitation, in order to be able to slink
+off unperceived, in case they should find themselves apparently
+suspected. Should they decline, it was arranged that Cesarine should
+take a room at the Cromarty Arms as long as they stopped there, and
+report upon their movements; while, during the day, we would have
+the house watched by the head gillie's son, a most intelligent
+young man, who could be trusted, with true Scotch canniness, to
+say nothing to anybody.
+
+To our immense surprise, Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell accepted the invitation
+with the utmost alacrity. She was profuse in her thanks, indeed; for
+she told us the Arms was an ill-kept house, and the cookery by no
+means agreed with her husband's liver. It was sweet of us to invite
+them; such kindness to perfect strangers was quite unexpected. She
+should always say that nowhere on earth had she met with so cordial
+or friendly a reception as at Seldon Castle. But--she accepted,
+unreservedly.
+
+"It _can't_ be Colonel Clay," I remarked to Charles. "He would never
+have come here. Even as David Granton, with far more reason for
+coming, he wouldn't put himself in our power: he preferred the
+security and freedom of the Cromarty Arms."
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said sententiously, "you're incorrigible.
+You _will_ persist in being the slave of prepossessions. He may
+have some good reason of his own for accepting. Wait till he shows
+his hand--and then, we shall understand everything."
+
+So for the next three weeks the Forbes-Gaskells formed part of the
+house-party at Seldon. I must say, Charles paid them most assiduous
+attention. He positively neglected his other guests in order to keep
+close to the two new-comers. Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell noticed the fact,
+and commented on it. "You are really too good to us, Sir Charles,"
+she said. "I'm afraid you allow us quite to monopolise you!"
+
+But Charles, gallant as ever, replied with a smile, "We have
+you with us for so short a time, you know!" Which made Mrs.
+Forbes-Gaskell blush again that delicious blush of hers.
+
+During all this time the Professor went on calmly and persistently
+mineralogising. "Wonderful character!" Charles said to me. "He works
+out his parts so well! Could anything exceed the picture he gives
+one of scientific ardour?" And, indeed, he was at it, morning, noon,
+and night. "Sooner or later," Charles observed, "something practical
+must come of it."
+
+Twice, meanwhile, little episodes occurred which are well worth
+notice. One day I was out with the Professor on the Long Mountain,
+watching him hammer at the rocks, and a little bored by his
+performance, when, to pass the time, I asked him what a particular
+small water-worn stone was. He looked at it and smiled. "If there
+were a little more mica in it," he said, "it would be the
+characteristic gneiss of ice-borne boulders, hereabouts. But
+there isn't _quite_ enough." And he gazed at it curiously.
+
+"Indeed," I answered, "it doesn't come up to sample, doesn't it?"
+
+He gave me a meaning look. "Ten per cent," he murmured in a slow,
+strange voice; "ten per cent is more usual."
+
+I trembled violently. Was he bent, then, upon ruining me? "If you
+betray me--" I cried, and broke off.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. He was all pure innocence.
+
+I reflected on what Charles had said about taking nothing for
+granted, and held my tongue prudently.
+
+The other incident was this. Charles picked a sprig of white heather
+on the hill one afternoon, after a picnic lunch, I regret to say,
+when he had taken perhaps a glass more champagne than was strictly
+good for him. He was not exactly the worse for it, but he was
+excited, good-humoured, reckless, and lively. He brought the sprig
+to Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, and handed it to her, ogling a little.
+"Sweets to the sweet," he murmured, and looked at her meaningly.
+"White heather to White Heather." Then he saw what he had done,
+and checked himself instantly.
+
+Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell coloured up in the usual manner. "I--I don't
+quite understand," she faltered.
+
+Charles scrambled out of it somehow. "White heather for luck," he
+said, "and--the man who is privileged to give a piece of it to you
+is surely lucky."
+
+She smiled, none too well pleased. I somehow felt she suspected us
+of suspecting her.
+
+However, as it turned out, nothing came, after all, of the untoward
+incident.
+
+Next day Charles burst upon me, triumphant. "Well, he has shown
+his hand!" he cried. "I knew he would. He has come to me to-day
+with--what do you think?--a fragment of gold, in quartz, from the
+Long Mountain."
+
+"No!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," Charles answered. "He says there's a vein there with distinct
+specks of gold in it, which might be worth mining. When a man begins
+_that_ way you know what he's driving at! And what's more, he's got
+up the subject beforehand; for he began saying to me there had long
+been gold in Sutherlandshire--why not therefore in Ross-shire?
+And then he went at full into the comparative geology of the two
+regions."
+
+"This is serious," I said. "What will you do?"
+
+"Wait and watch," Charles answered; "and the moment he develops a
+proposal for shares in the syndicate to work the mine, or a sum of
+money down as the price of his discovery--get in the police, and
+arrest him."
+
+For the next few days the Professor was more active and ardent than
+ever. He went peering about the rocks on every side with his hammer.
+He kept on bringing in little pieces of stone, with gold specks
+stuck in them, and talking learnedly of the "probable cost of
+crushing and milling." Charles had heard all that before; in
+point of fact, he had assisted at the drafting of some dozens of
+prospectuses. So he took no notice, and waited for the man with the
+wig to develop his proposals. He knew they would come soon; and he
+watched and waited. But, of course, to draw him on he pretended to
+be interested.
+
+While we were all in this attitude of mind, attending on Providence
+and Colonel Clay, we happened to walk down by the shore one day, in
+the opposite direction from the Seamew's island. Suddenly we came
+upon the Professor linked arm-in-arm with--Sir Adolphus Cordery!
+They were wrapped in deep talk, and appeared to be most amicable.
+
+Now, naturally, relations had been a trifle strained between Sir
+Adolphus and the house of Vandrift since the incident of the Slump;
+but under the present circumstances, and with such a matter at stake
+as the capture of Colonel Clay, it was necessary to overlook all
+such minor differences. So Charles managed to disengage the
+Professor from his friend, sent Amelia on with Forbes-Gaskell
+towards the castle, and stopped behind, himself, with Sir Adolphus
+and me, to clear up the question.
+
+"Do you know this man, Cordery?" he asked, with some little
+suspicion.
+
+"Know him? Why, of course I do," Sir Adolphus answered. "He's
+Marmaduke Forbes-Gaskell, of the Yorkshire College, a very
+distinguished man of science. First-rate mineralogist--perhaps
+the best (_but_ one) in England." Modesty forbade him to name the
+exception.
+
+"But are you sure it's he?" Charles inquired, with growing
+doubt. "Have you known him before? This isn't a second case of
+Schleiermachering me, is it?"
+
+"Sure it's he?" Sir Adolphus echoed. "Am I sure of myself? Why, I've
+known Marmy Gaskell ever since we were at Trinity together. Knew him
+before he married Miss Forbes of Glenluce, my wife's second cousin,
+and hyphened his name with hers, to keep the property in the family.
+Know them both most intimately. Came down here to the inn because I
+heard that Marmy was on the prowl among these hills, and I thought he
+had probably something good to prowl after--in the way of fossils."
+
+"But the man wears a wig!" Charles expostulated.
+
+"Of course," Cordery answered. "He's as bald as a bat--in front at
+least--and he wears a wig to cover his baldness."
+
+"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful--taking us in
+like that." And he grew red as a turkey-cock.
+
+Sir Adolphus has no delicacy. He burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, I see," he cried out, simply bursting with amusement. "You
+thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay in disguise! Oh, my stars,
+what a lovely one!"
+
+"_You_, at least, have no right to laugh," Charles responded, drawing
+himself up and growing still redder. "You led me once into a
+similar scrape, and then backed out of it in a way unbecoming a
+gentleman. Besides," he went on, getting angrier at each word,
+"this fellow, whoever he is, has been trying to cheat me on his
+own account. Colonel Clay or no Colonel Clay, he's been salting my
+rocks with gold-bearing quartz, and trying to lead me on into an
+absurd speculation!"
+
+Sir Adolphus exploded. "Oh, this is too good," he cried. "I must
+go and tell Marmy!" And he rushed off to where Forbes-Gaskell was
+seated on a corner of rock with Amelia.
+
+As for Charles and myself, we returned to the house. Half an hour
+later Forbes-Gaskell came back, too, in a towering temper.
+
+"What is the meaning of this, sir?" he shouted out, as soon as
+he caught sight of Charles. "I'm told you've invited my wife
+and myself here to your house in order to spy upon us, under the
+impression that I was Clay, the notorious swindler!"
+
+"I thought you were," Charles answered, equally angry. "Perhaps you
+may be still! Anyhow, you're a rogue, and you tried to bamboozle
+me!"
+
+Forbes-Gaskell, white with rage, turned to his trembling wife.
+"Gertrude," he said, "pack up your box and come away from these
+people instantly. Their pretended hospitality has been a studied
+insult. They've put you and me in a most ridiculous position. We
+were told before we came here--and no doubt with truth--that Sir
+Charles Vandrift was the most close-fisted and tyrannical old
+curmudgeon in Scotland. We've been writing to all our friends to
+say ecstatically that he was, on the contrary, a most hospitable,
+generous, and large-hearted gentleman. And now we find out he's a
+disgusting cad, who asks strangers to his house from the meanest
+motives, and then insults his guests with gratuitous vituperation.
+It is well such people should hear the plain truth now and again in
+their lives; and it therefore gives me the greatest pleasure to tell
+Sir Charles Vandrift that he's a vulgar bounder of the first water.
+Go and pack your box, Gertrude! I'll run down to the Cromarty Arms,
+and order a cab to carry us away at once from this inhospitable
+sham castle."
+
+"You wear a wig, sir; you wear a wig," Charles exclaimed,
+half-choking with passion. For, indeed, as Forbes-Gaskell spoke,
+and tossed his head angrily, the nature of his hair-covering grew
+painfully apparent. It was quite one-sided.
+
+"I do, sir, that I may be able to shake it in the face of a cad!"
+the Professor responded, tearing it off to readjust it; and, suiting
+the action to the word, he brandished it thrice in Charles's eyes;
+after which he darted from the room, speechless with indignation.
+
+As soon as they were gone, and Charles had recovered breath
+sufficiently to listen to rational conversation, I ventured to
+observe, "This comes of being too sure! We made one mistake. We
+took it for granted that because a man wears a wig, he _must_ be
+an impostor--which does not necessarily follow. We forgot that not
+Colonel Clays alone have false coverings to their heads, and that
+wigs may sometimes be worn from motives of pure personal vanity.
+In fact, we were again the slaves of preconceptions."
+
+I looked at him pointedly. Charles rose before he replied. "Seymour
+Wentworth," he said at last, gazing down upon me with lofty scorn,
+"your moralising is ill-timed. It appears to me you entirely
+misunderstand the position and duties of a private secretary!"
+
+The oddest part of it all, however, was this--that Charles, being
+convinced Forbes-Gaskell, though he wasn't Colonel Clay, had been
+fraudulently salting the rocks with gold, with intent to deceive,
+took no further notice of the alleged discoveries. The consequence
+was that Forbes-Gaskell and Sir Adolphus went elsewhere with the
+secret; and it was not till after Charles had sold the Seldon
+Castle estate (which he did shortly afterward, the place having
+somehow grown strangely distasteful to him) that the present
+"Seldon Eldorados, Limited," were put upon the market by Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, who purchased the place from him. Forbes-Gaskell,
+as it happened, had reported to Craig-Ellachie that he had found
+a lode of high-grade ore on an estate unnamed, which he would
+particularise on promise of certain contingent claims to founder's
+shares; and the old lord jumped at it. Charles sold at grouse-moor
+prices; and the consequence is that the capital of the Eldorados
+is yielding at present very fair returns, even after allowing for
+expenses of promotion--while Charles has been done out of a good
+thing in gold-mines!
+
+But, remembering "the position and duties of a private secretary,"
+I refrained from pointing out to him at the time that this loss was
+due to a fixed idea--though as a matter of fact it depended upon
+Charles's strange preconception that the man with the wig, whoever
+he might be, was trying to diddle him.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE JAPANNED DISPATCH-BOX
+
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said next spring, "I'm sick and tired
+of London! Let's shoulder our wallets at once, and I will to
+some distant land, where no man doth me know."
+
+"Mars or Mercury?" I inquired; "for, in our own particular planet,
+I'm afraid you'll find it just a trifle difficult for Sir Charles
+Vandrift to hide his light under a bushel."
+
+"Oh, I'll manage it," Charles answered. "What's the good of being
+a millionaire, I should like to know, if you're always obliged to
+'behave as sich'? I shall travel incog. I'm dog-tired of being
+dogged by these endless impostors."
+
+And, indeed, we had passed through a most painful winter. Colonel
+Clay had stopped away for some months, it is true, and for my own
+part, I will confess, since it wasn't _my_ place to pay the piper, I
+rather missed the wonted excitement than otherwise. But Charles had
+grown horribly and morbidly suspicious. He carried out his principle
+of "distrusting everybody and disbelieving everything," till life
+was a burden to him. He spotted impossible Colonel Clays under a
+thousand disguises; he was quite convinced he had frightened his
+enemy away at least a dozen times over, beneath the varying garb
+of a fat club waiter, a tall policeman, a washerwoman's boy, a
+solicitor's clerk, the Bank of England beadle, and the collector
+of water-rates. He saw him as constantly, and in as changeful forms,
+as mediaeval saints used to see the devil. Amelia and I really
+began to fear for the stability of that splendid intellect; we
+foresaw that unless the Colonel Clay nuisance could be abated
+somehow, Charles might sink by degrees to the mental level of a
+common or ordinary Stock-Exchange plunger.
+
+So, when my brother-in-law announced his intention of going away
+incog. to parts unknown, on the succeeding Saturday, Amelia and
+I felt a flush of relief from long-continued tension. Especially
+Amelia--who was _not_ going with him.
+
+"For rest and quiet," he said to us at breakfast, laying down the
+Morning Post, "give _me_ the deck of an Atlantic liner! No letters;
+no telegrams. No stocks; no shares. No Times; no Saturday. I'm sick
+of these papers!"
+
+"The World is too much with us," I assented cheerfully. I regret
+to say, nobody appreciated the point of my quotation.
+
+Charles took infinite pains, I must admit, to ensure perfect
+secrecy. He made me write and secure the best state-rooms--main
+deck, amidships--under my own name, without mentioning his, in
+the Etruria, for New York, on her very next voyage. He spoke of
+his destination to nobody but Amelia; and Amelia warned Cesarine,
+under pains and penalties, on no account to betray it to the other
+servants. Further to secure his incog., Charles assumed the style
+and title of Mr. Peter Porter, and booked as such in the Etruria
+at Liverpool.
+
+The day before starting, however, he went down with me to the City
+for an interview with his brokers in Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
+Finglemore, the senior partner, hastened, of course, to receive us.
+As we entered his private room a good-looking young man rose and
+lounged out. "Halloa, Finglemore," Charles said, "that's that scamp
+of a brother of yours! I thought you had shipped him off years and
+years ago to China?"
+
+"So I did, Sir Charles," Finglemore answered, rubbing his hands
+somewhat nervously. "But he never went there. Being an idle young
+dog, with a taste for amusement, he got for the time no further
+than Paris. Since then, he's hung about a bit, here, there, and
+everywhere, and done no particular good for himself or his family.
+But about three or four years ago he somehow 'struck ile': he went
+to South Africa, poaching on your preserves; and now he's back
+again--rich, married, and respectable. His wife, a nice little
+woman, has reformed him. Well, what can I do for you this morning?"
+
+Charles has large interests in America, in Santa Fe and Topekas, and
+other big concerns; and he insisted on taking out several documents
+and vouchers connected in various ways with his widespread ventures
+there. He meant to go, he said, for complete rest and change, on a
+general tour of private inquiry--New York, Chicago, Colorado, the
+mining districts. It was a millionaire's holiday. So he took all
+these valuables in a black japanned dispatch-box, which he guarded
+like a child with absurd precautions. He never allowed that box out
+of his sight one moment; and he gave me no peace as to its safety
+and integrity. It was a perfect fetish. "We must be cautious," he
+said, "Sey, cautious! Especially in travelling. Recollect how that
+little curate spirited the diamonds out of Amelia's jewel-case! I
+shall not let this box out of my sight. I shall stick to it myself,
+if we go to the bottom."
+
+We did _not_ go to the bottom. It is the proud boast of the Cunard
+Company that it has "never lost a passenger's life"; and the captain
+would not consent to send the Etruria to Davy Jones's locker, merely
+in order to give Charles a chance of sticking to his dispatch-box
+under trying circumstances. On the contrary, we had a delightful
+and uneventful passage; and we found our fellow-passengers most
+agreeable people. Charles, as Mr. Peter Porter, being freed for
+the moment from his terror of Colonel Clay, would have felt really
+happy, I believe--had it not been for the dispatch-box. He made
+friends from the first hour (quite after the fearless old fashion
+of the days before Colonel Clay had begun to embitter life for him)
+with a nice American doctor and his charming wife, on their way back
+to Kentucky. Dr. Elihu Quackenboss--that was his characteristically
+American name--had been studying medicine for a year in Vienna, and
+was now returning to his native State with a brain close crammed
+with all the latest bacteriological and antiseptic discoveries. His
+wife, a pretty and piquant little American, with a tip-tilted nose
+and the quaint sharpness of her countrywomen, amused Charles not a
+little. The funny way in which she would make room for him by her
+side on the bench on deck, and say, with a sweet smile, "You sit
+right here, Mr. Porter; the sun's just elegant," delighted and
+flattered him. He was proud to find out that female attention was
+not always due to his wealth and title; and that plain Mr. Porter
+could command on his merits the same amount of blandishments as Sir
+Charles Vandrift, the famous millionaire, on his South African
+celebrity.
+
+During the whole of that voyage, it was Mrs. Quackenboss here, and
+Mrs. Quackenboss there, and Mrs. Quackenboss the other place, till,
+for Amelia's sake, I was glad she was not on board to witness it.
+Long before we sighted Sandy Hook, I will admit, I was fairly sick
+of Charles's two-stringed harp--Mrs. Quackenboss and the
+dispatch-box.
+
+Mrs. Quackenboss, it turned out, was an amateur artist, and she
+painted Sir Charles, on calm days on deck, in all possible
+attitudes. She seemed to find him a most attractive model.
+
+The doctor, too, was a precious clever fellow. He knew something of
+chemistry--and of most other subjects, including, as I gathered, the
+human character. For he talked to Charles about various ideas of
+his, with which he wished to "liven up folks in Kentucky a bit," on
+his return, till Charles conceived the highest possible regard for
+his intelligence and enterprise. "That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!"
+he remarked to me one day. "Has the right sort of grit in him!
+Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on
+my works in South Africa!"
+
+That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it.
+He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the
+Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should
+offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am
+inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to
+visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in
+future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would
+be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint
+and amusing American lady.
+
+"If you offer it to him," I said, "remember, you must disclose your
+personality."
+
+"Not at all," Charles answered. "I can keep it dark for the present,
+till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South
+Africa."
+
+So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he
+broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He
+remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial
+concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu
+fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
+
+"What, dollars?" the lady said, smiling and accentuating the
+tip-tilted nose a little more. "Oh, Mr. Porter, it ain't good
+enough!"
+
+"No, pounds, my dear madam," Charles responded. "Pounds sterling,
+you know. In United States currency, seven thousand five hundred."
+
+"I guess Elihu would just jump at it," Mrs. Quackenboss replied,
+looking at him quizzically.
+
+The doctor laughed. "You make a good bid, sir," he said, in his slow
+American way, emphasising all the most unimportant words: "_But_ you
+overlook one element. I _am_ a man of science, not a speculator. I
+_have_ trained myself for medical work, _at_ considerable cost, _in_
+the best schools of Europe, _and_ I do not propose _to_ fling away
+the results _of_ much arduous labour _by_ throwing myself out
+elastically _into_ a new line of work _for_ which my faculties _may_
+not perhaps equally adapt me."
+
+("How thoroughly American!" I murmured, in the background.)
+
+Charles insisted; all in vain. Mrs. Quackenboss was impressed; but
+the doctor smiled always a sphinx-like smile, and reiterated his
+belief in the unfitness of mid-stream as an ideal place for swopping
+horses. The more he declined, and the better he talked, the more
+eager Charles became each day to secure him. And, as if on purpose
+to draw him on, the doctor each day gave more and more surprising
+proofs of his practical abilities. "I _am_ not a specialist," he said.
+"I just ketch the drift, appropriate the kernel, _and_ let the rest
+slide."
+
+He could do anything, it really seemed, from shoeing a mule to
+conducting a camp-meeting; he was a capital chemist, a very sound
+surgeon, a fair judge of horseflesh, a first class euchre player,
+and a pleasing baritone. When occasion demanded he could occupy a
+pulpit. He had invented a cork-screw which brought him in a small
+revenue; and he was now engaged in the translation of a Polish work
+on the "Application of Hydrocyanic Acid to the Cure of Leprosy."
+
+Still, we reached New York without having got any nearer our goal,
+as regarded Dr. Quackenboss. He came to bid us good-bye at the quay,
+with that sphinx-like smile still playing upon his features. Charles
+clutched the dispatch-box with one hand, and Mrs. Quackenboss's
+little palm with the other.
+
+"_Don't_ tell us," he said, "this is good-bye--for ever!" And his
+voice quite faltered.
+
+"I guess so, Mr. Porter," the pretty American replied, with a
+telling glance. "What hotel do you patronise?"
+
+"The Murray Hill," Charles responded.
+
+"Oh my, ain't that odd?" Mrs. Quackenboss echoed. "The Murray Hill!
+Why, that's just where we're going too, Elihu!"
+
+The upshot of which was that Charles persuaded them, before
+returning to Kentucky, to diverge for a few days with us to Lake
+George and Lake Champlain, where he hoped to over-persuade the
+recalcitrant doctor.
+
+To Lake George therefore we went, and stopped at the excellent hotel
+at the terminus of the railway. We spent a good deal of our time on
+the light little steamers that ply between that point and the road
+to Ticonderoga. Somehow, the mountains mirrored in the deep green
+water reminded me of Lucerne; and Lucerne reminded me of the little
+curate. For the first time since we left England a vague terror
+seized me. _Could_ Elihu Quackenboss be Colonel Clay again, still
+dogging our steps through the opposite continent?
+
+I could not help mentioning my suspicion to Charles--who, strange
+to say, pooh-poohed it. He had been paying great court to Mrs.
+Quackenboss that day, and was absurdly elated because the little
+American had rapped his knuckles with her fan and called him "a
+real silly."
+
+Next day, however, an odd thing occurred. We strolled out together,
+all four of us, along the banks of the lake, among woods just
+carpeted with strange, triangular flowers--trilliums, Mrs.
+Quackenboss called them--and lined with delicate ferns in the
+first green of springtide.
+
+I began to grow poetical. (I wrote verses in my youth before I went
+to South Africa.) We threw ourselves on the grass, near a small
+mountain stream that descended among moss-clad boulders from the
+steep woods above us. The Kentuckian flung himself at full length
+on the sward, just in front of Charles. He had a strange head of
+hair, very thick and shaggy. I don't know why, but, of a sudden, it
+reminded me of the Mexican Seer, whom we had learned to remember as
+Colonel Clay's first embodiment. At the same moment the same thought
+seemed to run through Charles's head; for, strange to say, with
+a quick impulse he leant forward and examined it. I saw Mrs.
+Quackenboss draw back in wonder. The hair looked too thick and close
+for nature. It ended abruptly, I now remembered, with a sharp line
+on the forehead. Could this, too, be a wig? It seemed very probable.
+
+Even as I thought that thought, Charles appeared to form a sudden
+and resolute determination. With one lightning swoop he seized the
+doctor's hair in his powerful hand, and tried to lift it off bodily.
+He had made a bad guess. Next instant the doctor uttered a loud and
+terrified howl of pain, while several of his hairs, root and all,
+came out of his scalp in Charles's hand, leaving a few drops of
+blood on the skin of the head in the place they were torn from.
+There was no doubt at all it was not a wig, but the Kentuckian's
+natural hirsute covering.
+
+The scene that ensued I am powerless to describe. My pen is unequal
+to it. The doctor arose, not so much angry as astonished, white and
+incredulous. "What did you do that for, any way?" he asked, glaring
+fiercely at my brother-in-law. Charles was all abject apology. He
+began by profusely expressing his regret, and offering to make any
+suitable reparation, monetary or otherwise. Then he revealed his
+whole hand. He admitted that he was Sir Charles Vandrift, the famous
+millionaire, and that he had suffered egregiously from the endless
+machinations of a certain Colonel Clay, a machiavellian rogue,
+who had hounded him relentlessly round the capitals of Europe. He
+described in graphic detail how the impostor got himself up with
+wigs and wax, so as to deceive even those who knew him intimately;
+and then he threw himself on Dr. Quackenboss's mercy, as a man who
+had been cruelly taken in so often that he could not help suspecting
+the best of men falsely. Mrs. Quackenboss admitted it was natural to
+have suspicions--"Especially," she said, with candour, "as you're
+not the first to observe the notable way Elihu's hair seems to
+originate from his forehead," and she pulled it up to show us. But
+Elihu himself sulked on in the dumps: his dignity was offended.
+"_If_ you wanted to know," he said, "you might as well have asked me.
+Assault _and_ battery _is_ not the right way to test whether _a_
+citizen's hair is primitive or acquired."
+
+"It was an impulse," Charles pleaded; "an instinctive impulse!"
+
+"Civilised man restrains his impulses," the doctor answered. "You
+_have_ lived too long _in_ South Africa, Mr. Porter--I mean, Sir
+Charles Vandrift, if that's the right way _to_ address such a
+gentleman. You appear to _have_ imbibed the habits _and_ manners
+of the Kaffirs you lived among."
+
+For the next two days, I will really admit, Charles seemed more
+wretched than I could have believed it possible for him to be on
+somebody else's account. He positively grovelled. The fact was,
+he saw he had hurt Dr. Quackenboss's feelings, and--much to my
+surprise--he seemed truly grieved at it. If the doctor would have
+accepted a thousand pounds down to shake hands at once and forget
+the incident--in my opinion Charles would have gladly paid it.
+Indeed, he said as much in other words to the pretty American--for
+he could not insult her by offering her money. Mrs. Quackenboss did
+her best to make it up, for she was a kindly little creature, in
+spite of her roguishness; but Elihu stood aloof. Charles urged him
+still to go out to South Africa, increasing his bait to two thousand
+a year; yet the doctor was immovable. "No, no," he said; "I had half
+decided _to_ accept your offer--_till_ that unfortunate impulse; but
+that settled the question. _As_ an American citizen, I decline _to_
+become the representative _of_ a British nobleman who takes such means
+_of_ investigating questions which affect the hair and happiness _of_
+his fellow-creatures."
+
+I don't know whether Charles was most disappointed at missing the
+chance of so clever a superintendent for the mine at Cloetedorp, or
+elated at the novel description of himself as "a British nobleman;"
+which is not precisely our English idea of a colonial knighthood.
+
+Three days later, accordingly, the Quackenbosses left the Lakeside
+Hotel. We were bound on an expedition up the lake ourselves, when
+the pretty little woman burst in with a dash to tell us they were
+leaving. She was charmingly got up in the neatest and completest of
+American travelling-dresses. Charles held her hand affectionately.
+"I'm sorry it's good-bye," he said. "I have done my best to secure
+your husband."
+
+"You couldn't have tried harder than I did," the little woman
+answered, and the tip-tilted nose looked quite pathetic; "for I just
+hate to be buried right down there in Kentucky! However, Elihu is
+the sort of man a woman can neither drive nor lead; so we've got to
+put up with him." And she smiled upon us sweetly, and disappeared
+for ever.
+
+Charles was disconsolate all that day. Next morning he rose, and
+announced his intention of setting out for the West on his tour of
+inspection. He would recreate by revelling in Colorado silver lodes.
+
+We packed our own portmanteaus, for Charles had not brought even
+Simpson with him, and then we prepared to set out by the morning
+train for Saratoga.
+
+Up till almost the last moment Charles nursed his dispatch-box.
+But as the "baggage-smashers" were taking down our luggage, and a
+chambermaid was lounging officiously about in search of a tip,
+he laid it down for a second or two on the centre table while he
+collected his other immediate impedimenta. He couldn't find his
+cigarette-case, and went back to the bedroom for it. I helped
+him hunt, but it had disappeared mysteriously. That moment lost
+him. When we had found the cigarette-case, and returned to the
+sitting-room--lo, and behold! the dispatch-box was missing!
+Charles questioned the servants, but none of them had noticed it.
+He searched round the room--not a trace of it anywhere.
+
+"Why, I laid it down here just two minutes ago!" he cried. But it
+was not forthcoming.
+
+"It'll turn up in time," I said. "Everything turns up in the
+end--including Mrs. Quackenboss's nose."
+
+"Seymour," said my brother-in-law, "your hilarity is inopportune."
+
+To say the truth, Charles was beside himself with anger. He took
+the elevator down to the "Bureau," as they call it, and complained
+to the manager. The manager, a sharp-faced New Yorker, smiled as
+he remarked in a nonchalant way that guests with valuables were
+required to leave them in charge of the management, in which case
+they were locked up in the safe and duly returned to the depositor
+on leaving. Charles declared somewhat excitedly that he had been
+robbed, and demanded that nobody should be allowed to leave the
+hotel till the dispatch-box was discovered. The manager, quite cool,
+and obtrusively picking his teeth, responded that such tactics might
+be possible in an hotel of the European size, putting up a couple
+of hundred guests or so; but that an American house, with over a
+thousand visitors--many of whom came and went daily--could not
+undertake such a quixotic quest on behalf of a single foreign
+complainant.
+
+That epithet, "foreign," stung Charles to the quick. No Englishman
+can admit that he is anywhere a foreigner. "Do you know who I am,
+sir?" he asked, angrily. "I am Sir Charles Vandrift, of London--a
+member of the English Parliament."
+
+"You may be the Prince of Wales," the man answered, "for all I care.
+You'll get the same treatment as anyone else, in America. But if
+you're Sir Charles Vandrift," he went on, examining his books, "how
+does it come you've registered as Mr. Peter Porter?"
+
+Charles grew red with embarrassment. The difficulty deepened.
+
+The dispatch-box, always covered with a leather case, bore on its
+inner lid the name "Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G.," distinctly
+painted in the orthodox white letters. This was a painful
+contretemps: he had lost his precious documents; he had given a
+false name; and he had rendered the manager supremely careless
+whether or not he recovered his stolen property. Indeed, seeing he
+had registered as Porter, and now "claimed" as Vandrift, the manager
+hinted in pretty plain language he very much doubted whether there
+had ever been a dispatch-box in the matter at all, or whether, if
+there were one, it had ever contained any valuable documents.
+
+We spent a wretched morning. Charles went round the hotel,
+questioning everybody as to whether they had seen his dispatch-box.
+Most of the visitors resented the question as a personal imputation;
+one fiery Virginian, indeed, wanted to settle the point then and
+there with a six-shooter. Charles telegraphed to New York to prevent
+the shares and coupons from being negotiated; but his brokers
+telegraphed back that, though they had stopped the numbers as far
+as possible, they did so with reluctance, as they were not aware of
+Sir Charles Vandrift being now in the country. Charles declared he
+wouldn't leave the hotel till he recovered his property; and for
+myself, I was inclined to suppose we would have to remain there
+accordingly for the term of our natural lives--and longer.
+
+That night again we spent at the Lakeside Hotel. In the small hours
+of the morning, as I lay awake and meditated, a thought broke
+across me. I was so excited by it that I rose and rushed into my
+brother-in-law's bedroom. "Charles, Charles!" I exclaimed, "we have
+taken too much for granted once more. Perhaps Elihu Quackenboss
+carried off your dispatch-box!"
+
+"You fool," Charles answered, in his most unamiable manner (he
+applies that word to me with increasing frequency); "is _that_ what
+you've waked me up for? Why, the Quackenbosses left Lake George
+on Tuesday morning, and I had the dispatch-box in my own hands
+on Wednesday."
+
+"We have only their word for it," I cried. "Perhaps they stopped
+on--and walked off with it afterwards!"
+
+"We will inquire to-morrow," Charles answered. "But I confess I
+don't think it was worth waking me up for. I could stake my life
+on that little woman's integrity."
+
+We _did_ inquire next morning--with this curious result: it turned
+out that, though the Quackenbosses had left the Lakeside Hotel on
+Tuesday, it was only for the neighbouring Washington House, which
+they quitted on Wednesday morning, taking the same train for
+Saratoga which Charles and I had intended to go by. Mrs. Quackenboss
+carried a small brown paper parcel in her hands--in which, under the
+circumstances, we had little difficulty in recognising Charles's
+dispatch-box, loosely enveloped.
+
+Then I knew how it was done. The chambermaid, loitering about the
+room for a tip, was--Mrs. Quackenboss! It needed but an apron to
+transform her pretty travelling-dress into a chambermaid's costume;
+and in any of those huge American hotels one chambermaid more or
+less would pass in the crowd without fear of challenge.
+
+"We will follow them on to Saratoga," Charles cried. "Pay the bill
+at once, Seymour."
+
+"Certainly," I answered. "Will you give me some money?"
+
+Charles clapped his hand to his pockets. "All, all in the
+dispatch-box," he murmured.
+
+That tied us up another day, till we could get some ready cash from
+our agents in New York; for the manager, already most suspicious at
+the change of name and the accusation of theft, peremptorily refused
+to accept Charles's cheque, or anything else, as he phrased it,
+except "hard money." So we lingered on perforce at Lake George in
+ignoble inaction.
+
+"Of course," I observed to my brother-in-law that evening, "Elihu
+Quackenboss was Colonel Clay."
+
+"I suppose so," Charles murmured resignedly. "Everybody I meet seems
+to be Colonel Clay nowadays--except when I believe they _are_, in
+which case they turn out to be harmless nobodies. But who would have
+thought it was he after I pulled his hair out? Or after he persisted
+in his trick, even when I suspected him--which, he told us at
+Seldon, was against his first principles?"
+
+A light dawned upon me again. But, warned by previous ebullitions,
+I expressed myself this time with becoming timidity. "Charles,"
+I suggested, "may we not here again have been the slaves of a
+preconception? We thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay--for
+no better reason than because he wore a wig. We thought Elihu
+Quackenboss wasn't Colonel Clay--for no better reason than because
+he didn't wear one. But how do we know he _ever_ wears wigs? Isn't it
+possible, after all, that those hints he gave us about make-up, when
+he was Medhurst the detective, were framed on purpose, so as to
+mislead and deceive us? And isn't it possible what he said of his
+methods at the Seamew's island that day was similarly designed in
+order to hoodwink us?"
+
+"That is so obvious, Sey," my brother-in-law observed, in a most
+aggrieved tone, "that I should have thought any secretary worth his
+salt would have arrived at it instantly."
+
+I abstained from remarking that Charles himself had not arrived at
+it even now, until I told him. I thought that to say so would serve
+no good purpose. So I merely went on: "Well, it seems to me likely
+that when he came as Medhurst, with his hair cut short, he was
+really wearing his own natural crop, in its simplest form and of
+its native hue. By now it has had time to grow long and bushy. When
+he was David Granton, no doubt, he clipped it to an intermediate
+length, trimmed his beard and moustache, and dyed them all red, to
+a fine Scotch colour. As the Seer, again, he wore his hair much
+the same as Elihu's; only, to suit the character, more combed and
+fluffy. As the little curate, he darkened it and plastered it down.
+As Von Lebenstein, he shaved close, but cultivated his moustache to
+its utmost dimensions, and dyed it black after the Tyrolese fashion.
+He need never have had a wig; his own natural hair would throughout
+have been sufficient, allowing for intervals."
+
+"You're right, Sey," my brother-in-law said, growing almost
+friendly. "I will do you the justice to admit that's the nearest
+thing we have yet struck out to an idea for tracking him."
+
+On the Saturday morning a letter arrived which relieved us a little
+from our momentary tension. It was from our enemy himself--but most
+different in tone from his previous bantering communications:--
+
+
+"Saratoga, Friday.
+
+"SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Herewith I return your dispatch-box,
+intact, with the papers untouched. As you will readily observe,
+it has not even been opened.
+
+"You will ask me the reason for this strange conduct. Let me be
+serious for once, and tell you truthfully.
+
+"White Heather and I (for I will stick to Mr. Wentworth's
+judicious sobriquet) came over on the Etruria with you,
+intending, as usual, to make something out of you. We followed
+you to Lake George--for I had 'forced a card,' after my
+habitual plan, by inducing you to invite us, with the fixed
+intention of playing a particular trick upon you. It formed no
+part of our original game to steal your dispatch-box; that I
+consider a simple and elementary trick unworthy the skill of a
+practised operator. We persisted in the preparations for our
+coup, till you pulled my hair out. Then, to my great surprise,
+I saw you exhibited a degree of regret and genuine compunction
+with which, till that moment, I could never have credited you.
+You thought you had hurt my feelings; and you behaved more
+like a gentleman than I had previously known you to do. You
+not only apologised, but you also endeavoured voluntarily to
+make reparation. That produced an effect upon me. You may not
+believe it, but I desisted accordingly from the trick I had
+prepared for you.
+
+"I might also have accepted your offer to go to South Africa,
+where I could soon have cleared out, having embezzled thousands.
+But, then, I should have been in a position of trust and
+responsibility--and I am not _quite_ rogue enough to rob you
+under those conditions.
+
+"Whatever else I am, however, I am not a hypocrite. I do
+not pretend to be anything more than a common swindler. If
+I return you your papers intact, it is only on the same
+principle as that of the Australian bushranger, who made a
+lady _a present_ of her own watch because she had sung to him
+and reminded him of England. In other words, he did not take
+it from her. In like manner, when I found you had behaved, for
+once, like a gentleman, contrary to my expectation, I declined
+to go on with the trick I then meditated. Which does not mean
+to say I may not hereafter play you some other. _That_ will
+depend upon your future good behaviour.
+
+"Why, then, did I get White Heather to purloin your dispatch-box,
+with intent to return it? Out of pure lightness of heart? Not
+so; but in order to let you see I really meant it. If I had
+gone off with no swag, and then written you this letter, you
+would not have believed me. You would have thought it was
+merely another of my failures. But when I have actually got
+all your papers into my hands, and give them up again of my
+own free will, you must see that I mean it.
+
+"I will end, as I began, seriously. My trade has not quite
+crushed out of me all germs or relics of better feeling; and
+when I see a millionaire behave like a man, I feel ashamed
+to take advantage of that gleam of manliness.
+
+"Yours, with a tinge of penitence, but still a rogue, CUTHBERT CLAY."
+
+The first thing Charles did on receiving this strange communication
+was to bolt downstairs and inquire for the dispatch-box. It had
+just arrived by Eagle Express Company. Charles rushed up to our
+rooms again, opened it feverishly, and counted his documents. When
+he found them all safe, he turned to me with a hard smile. "This
+letter," he said, with quivering lips, "I consider still more
+insulting than all his previous ones."
+
+But, for myself, I really thought there was a ring of truth about
+it. Colonel Clay was a rogue, no doubt--a most unblushing rogue;
+but even a rogue, I believe, has his better moments.
+
+And the phrase about the "position of trust and responsibility"
+touched Charles to the quick, I suppose, in re the Slump in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. Though, to be sure, it was a hit at me as
+well, over the ten per cent commission.
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GAME OF POKER
+
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said, with a deep-drawn sigh, as we
+left Lake George next day by the Rennselaer and Saratoga Railroad,
+"no more Peter Porter for me, _if_ you please! I'm sick of disguises.
+Now that we know Colonel Clay is here in America, they serve no
+good purpose; so I may as well receive the social consideration and
+proper respect to which my rank and position naturally entitle me."
+
+"And which they secure for the most part (except from hotel clerks),
+even in this republican land," I answered briskly.
+
+For in my humble opinion, for sound copper-bottomed snobbery,
+registered A1 at Lloyd's, give _me_ the free-born American citizen.
+
+We travelled through the States, accordingly, for the next four
+months, from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Florida,
+under our own true names, "Confirming the churches," as Charles
+facetiously put it--or in other words, looking into the management
+and control of railways, syndicates, mines, and cattle-ranches. We
+inquired about everything. And the result of our investigations
+appeared to be, as Charles further remarked, that the Sabeans who
+so troubled the sons of Job seemed to have migrated in a body to
+Kansas and Nebraska, and that several thousand head of cattle seemed
+mysteriously to vanish, a la Colonel Clay, into the pure air of the
+prairies just before each branding.
+
+However, we were fortunate in avoiding the incursions of the Colonel
+himself, who must have migrated meanwhile on some enchanted carpet
+to other happy hunting-grounds.
+
+It was chill October before we found ourselves safe back in New
+York, en route for England. So long a term of freedom from the
+Colonel's depredations (as Charles fondly imagined--but I will not
+anticipate) had done my brother-in-law's health and spirits a world
+of good; he was so lively and cheerful that he began to fancy his
+tormentor must have succumbed to yellow fever, then raging in New
+Orleans, or eaten himself ill, as we nearly did ourselves, on a
+generous mixture of clam-chowder, terrapin, soft-shelled crabs,
+Jersey peaches, canvas-backed ducks, Catawba wine, winter cherries,
+brandy cocktails, strawberry-shortcake, ice-creams, corn-dodger,
+and a judicious brew commonly known as a Colorado corpse-reviver.
+However that may be, Charles returned to New York in excellent
+trim; and, dreading in that great city the wiles of his antagonist,
+he cheerfully accepted the invitation of his brother millionaire,
+Senator Wrengold of Nevada, to spend a few days before sailing in
+the Senator's magnificent and newly-finished palace at the upper
+end of Fifth Avenue.
+
+"There, at least, I shall be safe, Sey," he said to me plaintively,
+with a weary smile. "Wrengold, at any rate, won't try to take me
+in--except, of course, in the regular way of business."
+
+Boss-Nugget Hall (as it is popularly christened) is perhaps the
+handsomest brown stone mansion in the Richardsonian style on all
+Fifth Avenue. We spent a delightful week there. The lines had fallen
+to us in pleasant places. On the night we arrived Wrengold gave
+a small bachelor party in our honour. He knew Sir Charles was
+travelling without Lady Vandrift, and rightly judged he would prefer
+on his first night an informal party, with cards and cigars, instead
+of being bothered with the charming, but still somewhat hampering
+addition of female society.
+
+The guests that evening were no more than seven, all told, ourselves
+included--making up, Wrengold said, that perfect number, an octave.
+He was a nouveau riche himself--the newest of the new--commonly
+known in exclusive old-fashioned New York society as the Gilded
+Squatter; for he "struck his reef" no more than ten years ago; and
+he was therefore doubly anxious, after the American style, to be
+"just dizzy with culture." In his capacity of Maecenas, he had
+invited amongst others the latest of English literary arrivals in
+New York--Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous poet, and leader of the
+Briar-rose school of West-country fiction.
+
+"You know him in London, of course?" he observed to Charles, with
+a smile, as we waited dinner for our guests.
+
+"No," Charles answered stolidly. "I have not had that honour.
+We move, you see, in different circles."
+
+I observed by a curious shade which passed over Senator Wrengold's
+face that he quite misapprehended my brother-in-law's meaning.
+Charles wished to convey, of course, that Mr. Coleyard belonged to
+a mere literary and Bohemian set in London, while he himself moved
+on a more exalted plane of peers and politicians. But the Senator,
+better accustomed to the new-rich point of view, understood Charles
+to mean that _he_ had not the entree of that distinguished coterie in
+which Mr. Coleyard posed as a shining luminary. Which naturally
+made him rate even higher than before his literary acquisition.
+
+At two minutes past the hour the poet entered. Even if we had not
+been already familiar with his portrait at all ages in The Strand
+Magazine, we should have recognised him at once for a genuine bard
+by his impassioned eyes, his delicate mouth, the artistic twirl of
+one gray lock upon his expansive brow, the grizzled moustache that
+gave point and force to the genial smile, and the two white rows of
+perfect teeth behind it. Most of our fellow-guests had met Coleyard
+before at a reception given by the Lotus Club that afternoon, for
+the bard had reached New York but the previous evening; so Charles
+and I were the only visitors who remained to be introduced to him.
+The lion of the hour was attired in ordinary evening dress, with
+no foppery of any kind, but he wore in his buttonhole a dainty
+blue flower whose name I do not know; and as he bowed distantly to
+Charles, whom he surveyed through his eyeglass, the gleam of a big
+diamond in the middle of his shirt-front betrayed the fact that the
+Briar-rose school, as it was called (from his famous epic), had at
+least succeeded in making money out of poetry. He explained to us a
+little later, in fact, that he was over in New York to look after
+his royalties. "The beggars," he said, "only gave me eight hundred
+pounds on my last volume. I couldn't stand _that_, you know; for a
+modern bard, moving with the age, can only sing when duly wound up;
+so I've run across to investigate. Put a penny in the slot, don't
+you see, and the poet will pipe for you."
+
+"Exactly like myself," Charles said, finding a point in common.
+"_I'm_ interested in mines; and I, too, have come over to look
+after my royalties."
+
+The poet placed his eyeglass in his eye once more, and surveyed
+Charles deliberately from head to foot. "Oh," he murmured slowly. He
+said not a word more; but somehow, everybody felt that Charles was
+demolished. I saw that Wrengold, when we went in to dinner, hastily
+altered the cards that marked their places. He had evidently put
+Charles at first to sit next the poet; he varied that arrangement
+now, setting Algernon Coleyard between a railway king and a magazine
+editor. I have seldom seen my respected brother-in-law so completely
+silenced.
+
+The poet's conduct during dinner was most peculiar. He kept quoting
+poetry at inopportune moments.
+
+"Roast lamb or boiled turkey, sir?" said the footman.
+
+"Mary had a little lamb," said the poet. "I shall imitate Mary."
+
+Charles and the Senator thought the remark undignified.
+
+After dinner, however, under the mellowing influence of some
+excellent Roederer, Charles began to expand again, and grew lively
+and anecdotal. The poet had made us all laugh not a little with
+various capital stories of London literary society--at least two of
+them, I think, new ones; and Charles was moved by generous emulation
+to contribute his own share to the amusement of the company. He was
+in excellent cue. He is not often brilliant; but when he chooses, he
+has a certain dry vein of caustic humour which is decidedly funny,
+though not perhaps strictly without being vulgar. On this particular
+night, then, warmed with the admirable Wrengold champagne--the
+best made in America--he launched out into a full and embroidered
+description of the various ways in which Colonel Clay had deceived
+him. I will not say that he narrated them in full with the same
+frankness and accuracy that I have shown in these pages; he
+suppressed not a few of the most amusing details--on no other
+ground, apparently, than because they happened to tell against
+himself; and he enlarged a good deal on the surprising cleverness
+with which several times he had nearly secured his man; but still,
+making all allowances for native vanity in concealment and addition,
+he was distinctly funny--he represented the matter for once in its
+ludicrous rather than in its disastrous aspect. He observed also,
+looking around the table, that after all he had lost less by
+Colonel Clay in four years of persecution than he often lost by
+one injudicious move in a single day on the London Stock Exchange;
+while he seemed to imply to the solid men of New York, that he
+would cheerfully sacrifice such a fleabite as that, in return for
+the amusement and excitement of the chase which the Colonel had
+afforded him.
+
+The poet was pleased. "You are a man of spirit, Sir Charles," he
+said. "I love to see this fine old English admiration of pluck and
+adventure! The fellow must really have some good in him, after all.
+I should like to take notes of a few of those stories; they would
+supply nice material for basing a romance upon."
+
+"I hardly know whether I'm exactly the man to make the hero of a
+novel," Charles murmured, with complacence. And he certainly didn't
+look it.
+
+"_I_ was thinking rather of Colonel Clay as the hero," the poet
+responded coldly.
+
+"Ah, that's the way with you men of letters," Charles answered,
+growing warm. "You always have a sneaking sympathy with the rascals."
+
+"That may be better," Coleyard retorted, in an icy voice, "than
+sympathy with the worst forms of Stock Exchange speculation."
+
+The company smiled uneasily. The railway king wriggled. Wrengold
+tried to change the subject hastily. But Charles would not be put
+down.
+
+"You must hear the end, though," he said. "That's not quite the
+worst. The meanest thing about the man is that he's also a
+hypocrite. He wrote me _such_ a letter at the end of his last
+trick--here, positively here, in America." And he proceeded to give
+his own version of the Quackenboss incident, enlivened with sundry
+imaginative bursts of pure Vandrift fancy.
+
+When Charles spoke of Mrs. Quackenboss the poet smiled. "The worst
+of married women," he said, "is--that you can't marry them; the
+worst of unmarried women is--that they want to marry you." But when
+it came to the letter, the poet's eye was upon my brother-in-law.
+Charles, I must fain admit, garbled the document sadly. Still, even
+so, some gleam of good feeling remained in its sentences. But
+Charles ended all by saying, "So, to crown his misdemeanours, the
+rascal shows himself a whining cur and a disgusting Pharisee."
+
+"Don't you think," the poet interposed, in his cultivated drawl, "he
+may have really meant it? Why should not some grain of compunction
+have stirred his soul still?--some remnant of conscience made him
+shrink from betraying a man who confided in him? I have an idea,
+myself, that even the worst of rogues have always some good in them.
+I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the affection
+and fidelity of women."
+
+"Oh, I said so!" Charles sneered. "I told you you literary men have
+always an underhand regard for a scoundrel."
+
+"Perhaps so," the poet answered. "For we are all of us human. Let
+him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." And then he
+relapsed into moody silence.
+
+We rose from table. Cigars went round. We adjourned to the
+smoking-room. It was a Moorish marvel, with Oriental hangings.
+There, Senator Wrengold and Charles exchanged reminiscences of
+bonanzas and ranches and other exciting post-prandial topics; while
+the magazine editor cut in now and again with a pertinent inquiry
+or a quaint and sarcastic parallel instance. It was clear he had an
+eye to future copy. Only Algernon Coleyard sat brooding and silent,
+with his chin on one hand, and his brow intent, musing and gazing at
+the embers in the fireplace. The hand, by the way, was remarkable
+for a curious, antique-looking ring, apparently of Egyptian or
+Etruscan workmanship, with a projecting gem of several large facets.
+Once only, in the midst of a game of whist, he broke out with a
+single comment.
+
+"Hawkins was made an earl," said Charles, speaking of some London
+acquaintance.
+
+"What for?" asked the Senator.
+
+"Successful adulteration," said the poet tartly.
+
+"Honours are easy," the magazine editor put in.
+
+"And two by tricks to Sir Charles," the poet added.
+
+Towards the close of the evening, however--the poet still remaining
+moody, not to say positively grumpy--Senator Wrengold proposed a
+friendly game of Swedish poker. It was the latest fashionable
+variant in Western society on the old gambling round, and few of us
+knew it, save the omniscient poet and the magazine editor. It turned
+out afterwards that Wrengold proposed that particular game because
+he had heard Coleyard observe at the Lotus Club the same afternoon
+that it was a favourite amusement of his. Now, however, for a while
+he objected to playing. He was a poor man, he said, and the rest
+were all rich; why should he throw away the value of a dozen golden
+sonnets just to add one more pinnacle to the gilded roofs of a
+millionaire's palace? Besides, he was half-way through with an ode
+he was inditing to Republican simplicity. The pristine austerity
+of a democratic senatorial cottage had naturally inspired him with
+memories of Dentatus, the Fabii, Camillus. But Wrengold, dimly aware
+he was being made fun of somehow, insisted that the poet must take
+a hand with the financiers. "You can pass, you know," he said, "as
+often as you like; and you can stake low, or go it blind, according
+as you're inclined to. It's a democratic game; every man decides for
+himself how high he will play, except the banker; and you needn't
+take bank unless you want it."
+
+"Oh, if you insist upon it," Coleyard drawled out, with languid
+reluctance, "I'll play, of course. I won't spoil your evening.
+But remember, I'm a poet; I have strange inspirations."
+
+The cards were "squeezers"--that is to say, had the suit and the
+number of pips in each printed small in the corner, as well as over
+the face, for ease of reference. We played low at first. The poet
+seldom staked; and when he did--a few pounds--he lost, with singular
+persistence. He wanted to play for doubloons or sequins, and could
+with difficulty be induced to condescend to dollars. Charles looked
+across at him at last; the stakes by that time were fast rising
+higher, and we played for ready money. Notes lay thick on the green
+cloth. "Well," he murmured provokingly, "how about your inspiration?
+Has Apollo deserted you?"
+
+It was an unwonted flight of classical allusion for Charles, and I
+confess it astonished me. (I discovered afterwards he had cribbed
+it from a review in that evening's Critic.) But the poet smiled.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "I am waiting for one now. When it comes,
+you may be sure you shall have the benefit of it."
+
+Next round, Charles dealing and banking, the poet staked on his
+card, unseen as usual. He staked like a gentleman. To our immense
+astonishment he pulled out a roll of notes, and remarked, in a quiet
+tone, "I have an inspiration now. _Half-hearted_ will do. I go five
+thousand." That was dollars, of course; but it amounted to a
+thousand pounds in English money--high play for an author.
+
+Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his--and won
+a thousand.
+
+"Good shot!" Charles murmured, pretending not to mind, though he
+detests losing.
+
+"Inspiration!" the poet mused, and looked once more abstracted.
+
+Charles dealt again. The poet watched the deal with boiled-fishy
+eyes. His thoughts were far away. His lips moved audibly. "Myrtle,
+and kirtle, and hurtle," he muttered. "They'll do for three. Then
+there's turtle, meaning dove; and that finishes the possible. Laurel
+and coral make a very bad rhyme. Try myrtle; don't you think so?"
+
+"Do you stake?" Charles asked, severely, interrupting his reverie.
+
+The poet started. "No, pass," he replied, looking down at his card,
+and subsided into muttering. We caught a tremor of his lips again,
+and heard something like this: "Not less but more republican than
+thou, Half-hearted watcher by the Western sea, After long years I
+come to visit thee, And test thy fealty to that maiden vow, That
+bound thee in thy budding prime For Freedom's bride--"
+
+"Stake?" Charles interrupted, inquiringly, again.
+
+"Yes, five thousand," the poet answered dreamily, pushing forward
+his pile of notes, and never ceasing from his murmur: "For Freedom's
+bride to all succeeding time. Succeeding; succeeding; weak word,
+succeeding. Couldn't go five dollars on it."
+
+Charles turned his card once more. The poet had won again. Charles
+passed over his notes. The poet raked them in with a far-away air,
+as one who looks at infinity, and asked if he could borrow a pencil
+and paper. He had a few priceless lines to set down which might
+otherwise escape him.
+
+"This is play," Charles said pointedly. "_Will_ you kindly attend to
+one thing or the other?"
+
+The poet glanced at him with a compassionate smile. "I told you I
+had inspirations," he said. "They always come together. I can't win
+your money as fast as I would like, unless at the same time I am
+making verses. Whenever I hit upon a good epithet, I back my luck,
+don't you see? I won a thousand on _half-hearted_ and a thousand on
+_budding_; if I were to back _succeeding_, I should lose, to a
+certainty. You understand my system?"
+
+"I call it pure rubbish," Charles answered. "However, continue.
+Systems were made for fools--and to suit wise men. Sooner or later
+you _must_ lose at such a stupid fancy."
+
+The poet continued. "For Freedom's bride to all _ensuing_ time."
+
+"Stake!" Charles cried sharply. We each of us staked.
+
+"_Ensuing_," the poet murmured. "To all _ensuing_ time. First-rate
+epithet that. I go ten thousand, Sir Charles, on _ensuing_."
+
+We all turned up. Some of us lost, some won; but the poet had
+secured his two thousand sterling.
+
+"I haven't that amount about me," Charles said, in that austerely
+nettled voice which he always assumes when he loses at cards;
+"but--I'll settle it with you to-morrow."
+
+"Another round?" the host asked, beaming.
+
+"No, thank you," Charles answered; "Mr. Coleyard's inspirations
+come too pat for my taste. His luck beats mine. I retire from the
+game, Senator."
+
+Just at that moment a servant entered, bearing a salver, with a
+small note in an envelope. "For Mr. Coleyard," he observed; "and
+the messenger said, _urgent_."
+
+Coleyard tore it open hurriedly. I could see he was agitated. His
+face grew white at once.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he said. "I--I must go back instantly. My
+wife is dangerously ill--quite a sudden attack. Forgive me, Senator.
+Sir Charles, you shall have your revenge to-morrow."
+
+It was clear that his voice faltered. We felt at least he was a man
+of feeling. He was obviously frightened. His coolness forsook him.
+He shook hands as in a dream, and rushed downstairs for his
+dust-coat. Almost as he closed the front door, a new guest entered,
+just missing him in the vestibule.
+
+"Halloa, you men," he said, "we've been taken in, do you know? It's
+all over the Lotus. The man we made an honorary member of the club
+to-day is _not_ Algernon Coleyard. He's a blatant impostor. There's
+a telegram come in on the tape to-night saying Algernon Coleyard is
+dangerously ill at his home in England."
+
+Charles gasped a violent gasp. "Colonel Clay!" he shouted, aloud.
+"And once more he's done me. There's not a moment to lose. After
+him, gentlemen! after him!"
+
+Never before in our lives had we had such a close shave of catching
+and fixing the redoubtable swindler. We burst down the stairs in a
+body, and rushed out into Fifth Avenue. The pretended poet had only
+a hundred yards' start of us, and he saw he was discovered. But he
+was an excellent runner. So was I, weight for age; and I dashed
+wildly after him. He turned round a corner; it proved to lead
+nowhere, and lost him time. He darted back again, madly. Delighted
+with the idea that I was capturing so famous a criminal, I redoubled
+my efforts--and came up with him, panting. He was wearing a light
+dust-coat. I seized it in my hands. "I've got you at last!" I cried;
+"Colonel Clay, I've got you!"
+
+He turned and looked at me. "Ha, old Ten Per Cent!" he called out,
+struggling. "It's you, then, is it? Never, never to _you_, sir!" And
+as he spoke, he somehow flung his arms straight out behind him, and
+let the dust-coat slip off, which it easily did, the sleeves being
+new and smoothly silk-lined. The suddenness of the movement threw
+me completely off my guard, and off my legs as well. I was clinging
+to the coat and holding him. As the support gave way I rolled over
+backward, in the mud of the street, and hurt my back seriously. As
+for Colonel Clay, with a nervous laugh, he bolted off at full speed
+in his evening coat, and vanished round a corner.
+
+It was some seconds before I had sufficiently recovered my breath to
+pick myself up again, and examine my bruises. By this time Charles
+and the other pursuers had come up, and I explained my condition to
+them. Instead of commending me for my zeal in his cause--which had
+cost me a barked arm and a good evening suit--my brother-in-law
+remarked, with an unfeeling sneer, that when I had so nearly caught
+my man I might as well have held him.
+
+"I have his coat, at least," I said. "That may afford us a clue."
+And I limped back with it in my hands, feeling horribly bruised and
+a good deal shaken.
+
+When we came to examine the coat, however, it bore no maker's name;
+the strap at the back, where the tailor proclaims with pride his
+handicraft, had been carefully ripped off, and its place was taken
+by a tag of plain black tape without inscription of any sort. We
+searched the breast-pocket. A handkerchief, similarly nameless,
+but of finest cambric. The side-pockets--ha, what was this? I drew
+a piece of paper out in triumph. It was a note--a real find--the
+one which the servant had handed to our friend just before at the
+Senator's.
+
+We read it through breathlessly:--
+
+
+"DARLING PAUL,--I _told_ you it was too dangerous. You should have
+listened to me. You ought _never_ to have imitated any real person. I
+happened to glance at the hotel tape just now, to see the quotations
+for Cloetedorps to-day, and what do you think I read as part of the
+latest telegram from England? 'Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous
+poet, is lying on his death-bed at his home in Devonshire.' By this
+time all New York knows. Don't stop one minute. Say I'm dangerously
+ill, and come away at once. Don't return to the hotel. I am removing
+our things. Meet me at Mary's. Your devoted, MARGOT."
+
+
+"This is _very_ important," Charles said. "This _does_ give us a clue.
+We know two things now: his real name is Paul--whatever else it may
+be, and Madame Picardet's is Margot."
+
+I searched the pocket again, and pulled out a ring. Evidently he had
+thrust these two things there when he saw me pursuing him, and had
+forgotten or neglected them in the heat of the melee.
+
+I looked at it close. It was the very ring I had noticed on his
+finger while he was playing Swedish poker. It had a large compound
+gem in the centre, set with many facets, and rising like a pyramid
+to a point in the middle. There were eight faces in all, some of
+them composed of emerald, amethyst, or turquoise. But _one_ face--the
+one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye--was _not_
+a gem at all, but an extremely tiny convex mirror. In a moment I
+spotted the trick. He held this hand carelessly on the table while
+my brother-in-law dealt; and when he saw that the suit and number of
+his own card mirrored in it by means of the squeezers were better
+than Charles's, he had "an inspiration," and backed his luck--or
+rather his knowledge--with perfect confidence. I did not doubt,
+either, that his odd-looking eyeglass was a powerful magnifier which
+helped him in the trick. Still, we tried another deal, by way of
+experiment--I wearing the ring; and even with the naked eye I was
+able to distinguish in every case the suit and pips of the card that
+was dealt me.
+
+"Why, that was almost dishonest," the Senator said, drawing back.
+He wished to show us that even far-Western speculators drew a line
+somewhere.
+
+"Yes," the magazine editor echoed. "To back your skill is legal;
+to back your luck is foolish; to back your knowledge is--"
+
+"Immoral," I suggested.
+
+"Very good business," said the magazine editor.
+
+"It's a simple trick," Charles interposed. "I should have spotted
+it if it had been done by any other fellow. But his patter about
+inspiration put me clean off the track. That's the rascal's dodge.
+He plays the regular conjurer's game of distracting your attention
+from the real point at issue--so well that you never find out what
+he's really about till he's sold you irretrievably."
+
+We set the New York police upon the trail of the Colonel; but of
+course he had vanished at once, as usual, into the thin smoke of
+Manhattan. Not a sign could we find of him. "Mary's," we found an
+insufficient address.
+
+We waited on in New York for a whole fortnight. Nothing came of it.
+We never found "Mary's." The only token of Colonel Clay's presence
+vouchsafed us in the city was one of his customary insulting notes.
+It was conceived as follows:--
+
+
+"O ETERNAL GULLIBLE!--Since I saw you on Lake George, I have run
+back to London, and promptly come out again. I had business to
+transact there, indeed, which I have now completed; the excessive
+attentions of the English police sent me once more, like great
+Orion, "sloping slowly to the west." I returned to America in order
+to see whether or not you were still impenitent. On the day of my
+arrival I happened to meet Senator Wrengold, and accepted his kind
+invitation solely that I might see how far my last communication
+had had a proper effect upon you. As I found you quite obdurate,
+and as you furthermore persisted in misunderstanding my motives, I
+determined to read you one more small lesson. It nearly failed; and
+I confess the accident has affected my nerves a little. I am now
+about to retire from business altogether, and settle down for life
+at my place in Surrey. I mean to try just one more small coup; and,
+when that is finished, Colonel Clay will hang up his sword, like
+Cincinnatus, and take to farming. You need no longer fear me. I have
+realised enough to secure me for life a modest competence; and as
+I am not possessed like yourself with an immoderate greed of gain,
+I recognise that good citizenship demands of me now an early
+retirement in favour of some younger and more deserving rascal. I
+shall always look back with pleasure upon our agreeable adventures
+together; and as you hold my dust-coat, together with a ring and
+letter to which I attach importance, I consider we are quits, and
+I shall withdraw with dignity. Your sincere well-wisher, CUTHBERT
+CLAY, Poet."
+
+
+"Just like him!" Charles said, "to hold this one last coup over my
+head in terrorem. Though even when he has played it, why should I
+trust his word? A scamp like that may say it, of course, on purpose
+to disarm me."
+
+For my own part, I quite agreed with "Margot." When the Colonel was
+reduced to dressing the part of a known personage I felt he had
+reached almost his last card, and would be well advised to retire
+into Surrey.
+
+But the magazine editor summed up all in a word. "Don't believe
+that nonsense about fortunes being made by industry and ability,"
+he said. "In life, as at cards, two things go to produce
+success--the first is chance; the second is cheating."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE BERTILLON METHOD
+
+
+We had a terrible passage home from New York. The Captain told us he
+"knew every drop of water in the Atlantic personally"; and he had
+never seen them so uniformly obstreperous. The ship rolled in the
+trough; Charles rolled in his cabin, and would not be comforted. As
+we approached the Irish coast, I scrambled up on deck in a violent
+gale, and retired again somewhat precipitately to announce to my
+brother-in-law that we had just come in sight of the Fastnet Rock
+Lighthouse. Charles merely turned over in his berth and groaned.
+"I don't believe it," he answered. "I expect it is probably Colonel
+Clay in another of his manifold disguises!"
+
+At Liverpool, however, the Adelphi consoled him. We dined
+luxuriously in the Louis Quinze restaurant, as only millionaires
+can dine, and proceeded next day by Pullman car to London.
+
+We found Amelia dissolved in tears at a domestic cataclysm. It
+seemed that Cesarine had given notice.
+
+Charles was scarcely home again when he began to bethink him of
+the least among his investments. Like many other wealthy men, my
+respected connection is troubled more or less, in the background of
+his consciousness, by a pervading dread that he will die a beggar.
+To guard against this misfortune--which I am bound to admit nobody
+else fears for him--he invested, several years ago, a sum of two
+hundred thousand pounds in Consols, to serve as a nest-egg in case
+of the collapse of Golcondas and South Africa generally. It is
+part of the same amiable mania, too, that he will not allow the
+dividend-warrants on this sum to be sent to him by post, but
+insists, after the fashion of old ladies and country parsons, upon
+calling personally at the Bank of England four times a year to claim
+his interest. He is well known by sight to not a few of the clerks;
+and his appearance in Threadneedle Street is looked forward to with
+great regularity within a few weeks of each lawful quarter-day.
+
+So, on the morning after our arrival in town, Charles observed to
+me, cheerfully, "Sey, I must run into the City to-day to claim my
+dividends. There are two quarters owing."
+
+I accompanied him in to the Bank. Even that mighty official, the
+beadle at the door, unfastened the handle of the millionaire's
+carriage. The clerk who received us smiled and nodded. "How much?"
+he asked, after the stereotyped fashion.
+
+"Two hundred thousand," Charles answered, looking affable.
+
+The clerk turned up the books. "Paid!" he said, with
+decision. "What's your game, sir, if I may ask you?"
+
+"Paid!" Charles echoed, drawing back.
+
+The clerk gazed across at him. "Yes, Sir Charles," he answered, in
+a somewhat severe tone. "You must remember you drew a quarter's
+dividend from myself--last week--at this very counter."
+
+Charles stared at him fixedly. "Show me the signature," he said at
+last, in a slow, dazed fashion. I suspected mischief.
+
+The clerk pushed the book across to him. Charles examined the name
+close.
+
+"Colonel Clay again!" he cried, turning to me with a despondent air.
+"He must have dressed the part. I shall die in the workhouse, Sey!
+That man has stolen away even my nest-egg from me."
+
+I saw it at a glance. "Mrs. Quackenboss!" I put in. "Those portraits
+on the Etruria! It was to help him in his make-up! You recollect,
+she sketched your face and figure at all possible angles."
+
+"And last quarter's?" Charles inquired, staggering.
+
+The clerk turned up the entry. "Drawn on the 10th of July,"
+he answered, carelessly, as if it mattered nothing.
+
+Then I knew why the Colonel had run across to England.
+
+Charles positively reeled. "Take me home, Sey," he cried. "I am
+ruined, ruined! He will leave me with not half a million in the
+world. My poor, poor boys will beg their bread, unheeded, through
+the streets of London!"
+
+(As Amelia has landed estate settled upon her worth a hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, this last contingency affected me less to
+tears than Charles seemed to think necessary.)
+
+We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
+once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
+paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
+Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
+twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
+I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
+would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
+
+After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
+reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
+said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
+measuring and registering criminals."
+
+"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
+like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
+step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
+Colonel Clay--"
+
+"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you _did_ catch him,
+you didn't hold him."
+
+I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
+"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
+cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
+had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
+his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
+turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
+into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
+
+"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said. "I was told in New York
+that Dr. Frank Beddersley, of London, was the best exponent of the
+Bertillon system now living in England; and to Beddersley I shall
+go. Or, rather, I'll invite him here to lunch to-morrow."
+
+"Who told you of him?" I inquired. "_Not_ Dr. Quackenboss, I hope;
+nor yet Mr. Algernon Coleyard?"
+
+Charles paused and reflected. "No, neither of them," he answered,
+after a short internal deliberation. "It was that magazine editor
+chap we met at Wrengold's."
+
+"_He's_ all right," I said; "or, at least, I think so."
+
+So we wrote a polite invitation to Dr. Beddersley, who pursued
+the method professionally, asking him to come and lunch with us
+at Mayfair at two next day.
+
+Dr. Beddersley came--a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows,
+and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel
+Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments. He
+was clear and concise. His manner was scientific. He told us at once
+that though the Bertillon method was of little use till the expert
+had seen the criminal once, yet if we had consulted him earlier
+he might probably have saved us some serious disasters. "A man
+so ingenious as this," he said, "would no doubt have studied
+Bertillon's principles himself, and would take every possible
+means to prevent recognition by them. Therefore, you might almost
+disregard the nose, the chin, the moustache, the hair, all of which
+are capable of such easy alteration. But there remain some features
+which are more likely to persist--height, shape of head, neck,
+build, and fingers; the timbre of the voice, the colour of the iris.
+Even these, again, may be partially disguised or concealed; the way
+the hair is dressed, the amount of padding, a high collar round the
+throat, a dark line about the eyelashes, may do more to alter the
+appearance of a face than you could readily credit."
+
+"So we know," I answered.
+
+"The voice, again," Dr. Beddersley continued. "The voice itself may
+be most fallacious. The man is no doubt a clever mimic. He could,
+perhaps, compress or enlarge his larynx. And I judge from what you
+tell me that he took characters each time which compelled him
+largely to alter and modify his tone and accent."
+
+"Yes," I said. "As the Mexican Seer, he had of course a
+Spanish intonation. As the little curate, he was a cultivated
+North-countryman. As David Granton, he spoke gentlemanly Scotch.
+As Von Lebenstein, naturally, he was a South-German, trying to
+express himself in French. As Professor Schleiermacher, he was a
+North-German speaking broken English. As Elihu Quackenboss, he
+had a fine and pronounced Kentucky flavour. And as the poet, he
+drawled after the fashion of the clubs, with lingering remnants
+of a Devonshire ancestry."
+
+"Quite so," Dr. Beddersley answered. "That is just what I should
+expect. Now, the question is, do you know him to be one man, or
+is he really a gang? Is he a name for a syndicate? Have you any
+photographs of Colonel Clay himself in any of his disguises?"
+
+"Not one," Charles answered. "He produced some himself, when he was
+Medhurst the detective. But he pocketed them at once; and we never
+recovered them."
+
+"Could you get any?" the doctor asked. "Did you note the name and
+address of the photographer?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Charles replied. "But the police at Nice showed
+us two. Perhaps we might borrow them."
+
+"Until we get them," Dr. Beddersley said, "I don't know that we can
+do anything. But if you can once give me two distinct photographs of
+the real man, no matter how much disguised, I could tell you whether
+they were taken from one person; and, if so, I think I could point
+out certain details in common which might aid us to go upon."
+
+All this was at lunch. Amelia's niece, Dolly Lingfield, was there,
+as it happened; and I chanced to note a most guilty look stealing
+over her face all the while we were talking. Suspicious as I had
+learned to become by this time, however, I did not suspect Dolly of
+being in league with Colonel Clay; but, I confess, I wondered what
+her blush could indicate. After lunch, to my surprise, Dolly called
+me away from the rest into the library. "Uncle Seymour," she said
+to me--the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am
+not in any way related to her--"_I_ have some photographs of Colonel
+Clay, if you want them."
+
+"_You_?" I cried, astonished. "Why, Dolly, how did you get them?"
+
+For a minute or two she showed some little hesitation in telling me.
+At last she whispered, "You won't be angry if I confess?" (Dolly is
+just nineteen, and remarkably pretty.)
+
+"My child," I said, "why _should_ I be angry? You may confide in me
+implicitly." (With a blush like that, who on earth could be angry
+with her?)
+
+"And you won't tell Aunt Amelia or Aunt Isabel?" she inquired
+somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Not for worlds," I answered. (As a matter of fact, Amelia and
+Isabel are the last people in the world to whom I should dream
+of confiding anything that Dolly might tell me.)
+
+"Well, I was stopping at Seldon, you know, when Mr. David Granton
+was there," Dolly went on; "--or, rather, when that scamp pretended
+he was David Granton; and--and--you won't be angry with me, will
+you?--one day I took a snap-shot with my kodak at him and Aunt
+Amelia!"
+
+"Why, what harm was there in that?" I asked, bewildered. The wildest
+stretch of fancy could hardly conceive that the Honourable David had
+been _flirting_ with Amelia.
+
+Dolly coloured still more deeply. "Oh, you know Bertie Winslow?" she
+said. "Well, he's interested in photography--and--and also in _me_.
+And he's invented a process, which isn't of the slightest practical
+use, he says; but its peculiarity is, that it reveals textures. At
+least, that's what Bertie calls it. It makes things come out so. And
+he gave me some plates of his own for my kodak--half-a-dozen or more,
+and--I took Aunt Amelia with them."
+
+"I still fail to see," I murmured, looking at her comically.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Seymour," Dolly cried. "How blind you men are!
+If Aunt Amelia knew she would never forgive me. Why, you _must_
+understand. The--the rouge, you know, and the pearl powder!"
+
+"Oh, it comes out, then, in the photograph?" I inquired.
+
+"Comes out! I should _think_ so! It's like little black spots all
+over auntie's face. _such_ a guy as she looks in it!"
+
+"And Colonel Clay is in them too?"
+
+"Yes; I took them when he and auntie were talking together, without
+either of them noticing. And Bertie developed them. I've three of
+David Granton. Three beauties; _most_ successful."
+
+"Any other character?" I asked, seeing business ahead.
+
+Dolly hung back, still redder. "Well, the rest are with Aunt
+Isabel," she answered, after a struggle.
+
+"My dear child," I replied, hiding my feelings as a husband, "I will
+be brave. I will bear up even against that last misfortune!"
+
+Dolly looked up at me pleadingly. "It was here in London," she went
+on; "--when I was last with auntie. Medhurst was stopping in the
+house at the time; and I took him twice, tete-a-tete with Aunt
+Isabel!"
+
+"Isabel does not paint," I murmured, stoutly.
+
+Dolly hung back again. "No, but--her hair!" she suggested, in a
+faint voice.
+
+"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a--well, you
+know, a restorer."
+
+Dolly broke into a mischievous sly smile. "Yes, it is," she
+continued. "And, oh, Uncle Sey, where the restorer has--er--restored
+it, you know, it comes out in the photograph with a sort of
+brilliant iridescent metallic sheen on it!"
+
+"Bring them down, my dear," I said, gently patting her head with my
+hand. In the interests of justice, I thought it best not to frighten
+her.
+
+Dolly brought them down. They seemed to me poor things, yet well
+worth trying. We found it possible, on further confabulation, by
+the simple aid of a pair of scissors, so to cut each in two that
+all trace of Amelia and Isabel was obliterated. Even so, however,
+I judged it best to call Charles and Dr. Beddersley to a private
+consultation in the library with Dolly, and not to submit the
+mutilated photographs to public inspection by their joint subjects.
+Here, in fact, we had five patchy portraits of the redoubtable
+Colonel, taken at various angles, and in characteristic unstudied
+attitudes. A child had outwitted the cleverest sharper in Europe!
+
+The moment Beddersley's eye fell upon them, a curious look came over
+his face. "Why, these," he said, "are taken on Herbert Winslow's
+method, Miss Lingfield."
+
+"Yes," Dolly admitted timidly. "They are. He's--a friend of mine,
+don't you know; and--he gave me some plates that just fitted my
+camera."
+
+Beddersley gazed at them steadily. Then he turned to Charles.
+"And this young lady," he said, "has quite unintentionally and
+unconsciously succeeded in tracking Colonel Clay to earth at last.
+They are genuine photographs of the man--as he is--_without_ the
+disguises!"
+
+"They look to me most blotchy," Charles murmured. "Great black lines
+down the nose, and such spots on the cheek, too!"
+
+"Exactly," Beddersley put in. "Those are _differences in texture_.
+They show just how much of the man's face is human flesh--"
+
+"And how much wax," I ventured.
+
+"Not wax," the expert answered, gazing close. "This is some harder
+mixture. I should guess, a composition of gutta-percha and
+india-rubber, which takes colour well, and hardens when applied,
+so as to lie quite evenly, and resist heat or melting. Look here;
+that's an artificial scar, filling up a real hollow; and _this_ is
+an added bit to the tip of the nose; and _those_ are shadows, due
+to inserted cheek-pieces, within the mouth, to make the man look
+fatter!"
+
+"Why, of course," Charles cried. "India-rubber it must be. That's
+why in France they call him le Colonel Caoutchouc!"
+
+"Can you reconstruct the real face from them?" I inquired anxiously.
+
+Dr. Beddersley gazed hard at them. "Give me an hour or two," he
+said--"and a box of water-colours. I _think_ by that time--putting
+two and two together--I can eliminate the false and build up for you
+a tolerably correct idea of what the actual man himself looks like."
+
+We turned him into the library for a couple of hours, with the
+materials he needed; and by tea-time he had completed his first
+rough sketch of the elements common to the two faces. He brought
+it out to us in the drawing-room. I glanced at it first. It was
+a curious countenance, slightly wanting in definiteness, and not
+unlike those "composite photographs" which Mr. Galton produces by
+exposing two negatives on the same sensitised paper for ten seconds
+or so consecutively. Yet it struck me at once as containing
+something of Colonel Clay in every one of his many representations.
+The little curate, in real life, did not recall the Seer; nor
+did Elihu Quackenboss suggest Count von Lebenstein or Professor
+Schleiermacher. Yet in this compound face, produced only from
+photographs of David Granton and Medhurst, I could distinctly trace
+a certain underlying likeness to every one of the forms which the
+impostor had assumed for us. In other words, though he could make
+up so as to mask the likeness to his other characters, he could not
+make up so as to mask the likeness to his own personality. He could
+not wholly get rid of his native build and his genuine features.
+
+Besides these striking suggestions of the Seer and the curate,
+however, I felt vaguely conscious of having seen and observed
+_the man himself_ whom the water-colour represented, at some time,
+somewhere. It was not at Nice; it was not at Seldon; it was not at
+Meran; it was not in America. I believed I had been in a room with
+him somewhere in London.
+
+Charles was looking over my shoulder. He gave a sudden little start.
+"Why, I know that fellow!" he cried. "You recollect him, Sey; he's
+Finglemore's brother--the chap that didn't go out to China!"
+
+Then I remembered at once where it was that I had seen him--at the
+broker's in the city, before we sailed for America.
+
+"What Christian name?" I asked.
+
+Charles reflected a moment. "The same as the one in the note we got
+with the dust-coat," he answered, at last. "The man is Paul
+Finglemore!"
+
+"You will arrest him?" I asked.
+
+"Can I, on this evidence?"
+
+"We might bring it home to him."
+
+Charles mused for a moment. "We shall have nothing against him,"
+he said slowly, "except in so far as we can swear to his identity.
+And that may be difficult."
+
+Just at that moment the footman brought in tea. Charles wondered
+apparently whether the man, who had been with us at Seldon when
+Colonel Clay was David Granton, would recollect the face or
+recognise having seen it. "Look here, Dudley," he said, holding
+up the water-colour, "do you know that person?"
+
+Dudley gazed at it a moment. "Certainly, sir," he answered briskly.
+
+"Who is it?" Amelia asked. We expected him to answer, "Count von
+Lebenstein," or "Mr. Granton," or "Medhurst."
+
+Instead of that, he replied, to our utter surprise, "That's
+Cesarine's young man, my lady."
+
+"Cesarine's young man?" Amelia repeated, taken aback. "Oh, Dudley,
+surely, you _must_ be mistaken!"
+
+"No, my lady," Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. "He comes
+to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on,
+from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service."
+
+"When will he be coming again?" Charles asked, breathless.
+
+"He's downstairs now, sir," Dudley answered, unaware of the
+bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
+
+Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. "Secure
+that man," he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
+
+"_What_ man?" I asked, amazed. "Colonel Clay? The young man who's
+downstairs now with Cesarine?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, with decision; "Dudley!"
+
+I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what
+Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed
+from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door,
+prevented him.
+
+"I--I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles," Dudley cried,
+in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. "It--it wasn't me
+as cheated you." And he certainly didn't look it.
+
+"I daresay not," Charles answered. "But you don't leave this room
+till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your
+speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This villain
+and Cesarine have long been accomplices! The man's downstairs with
+her now. If we let Dudley quit the room he'll go down and tell them;
+and before we know where we are, that slippery eel will have
+wriggled through our fingers, as he always wriggles. He _is_ Paul
+Finglemore; he _is_ Cesarine's young man; and unless we arrest him
+now, without one minute's delay, he'll be off to Madrid or St.
+Petersburg by this evening!"
+
+"You are right," I answered. "It is now or never!"
+
+"Dudley," Charles said, in his most authoritative voice, "stop here
+till we tell you you may leave the room. Amelia and Dolly, don't let
+that man stir from where he's standing. If he does, restrain him.
+Seymour and Dr. Beddersley, come down with me to the servants' hall.
+I suppose that's where I shall find this person, Dudley?"
+
+"N--no, sir," Dudley stammered out, half beside himself with fright.
+"He's in the housekeeper's room, sir!"
+
+We went down to the lower regions in a solid phalanx of three. On
+the way we met Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, and also the butler,
+whom we pressed into the service. At the door of the housekeeper's
+room we paused, strategically. Voices came to us from within; one
+was Cesarine's, the other had a ring that reminded me at once of
+Medhurst and the Seer, of Elihu Quackenboss and Algernon Coleyard.
+They were talking together in French; and now and then we caught
+the sound of stifled laughter.
+
+We opened the door. "Est-il drole, donc, ce vieux?" the man's
+voice was saying.
+
+"C'est a mourir de rire," Cesarine's voice responded.
+
+We burst in upon them, red-handed.
+
+Cesarine's young man rose, with his hat in his hand, in a respectful
+attitude. It reminded me at once of Medhurst, as he stood talking
+his first day at Marvillier's to Charles; and also of the little
+curate, in his humblest moments as the disinterested pastor.
+
+With a sign to me to do likewise, Charles laid his hand firmly on
+the young man's shoulder. I looked in the fellow's face: there could
+be no denying it; Cesarine's young man was Paul Finglemore, our
+broker's brother.
+
+"Paul Finglemore," Charles said severely, "otherwise Cuthbert Clay,
+I arrest you on several charges of theft and conspiracy!"
+
+The young man glanced around him. He was surprised and perturbed;
+but, even so, his inexhaustible coolness never once deserted him.
+"What, five to one?" he said, counting us over. "Has law and order
+come down to this? Five respectable rascals to arrest one poor
+beggar of a chevalier d'industrie! Why, it's worse than New York.
+_There_, it was only you and me, you know, old Ten per Cent!"
+
+"Hold his hands, Simpson!" Charles cried, trembling lest his enemy
+should escape him.
+
+Paul Finglemore drew back even while we held his shoulders. "No,
+not _you_, sir," he said to the man, haughtily. "Don't dare to lay
+your hands upon me! Send for a constable if you wish, Sir Charles
+Vandrift; but I decline to be taken into custody by a valet!"
+
+"Go for a policeman," Dr. Beddersley said to Simpson, standing
+forward.
+
+The prisoner eyed him up and down. "Oh, Dr. Beddersley!" he said,
+relieved. It was evident he knew him. "If _you've_ tracked me
+strictly in accordance with Bertillon's methods, I don't mind so
+much. I will not yield to fools; I yield to science. I didn't think
+this diamond king had sense enough to apply to you. He's the most
+gullible old ass I ever met in my life. But if it's _you_ who have
+tracked me down, I can only submit to it."
+
+Charles held to him with a fierce grip. "Mind he doesn't break away,
+Sey," he cried. "He's playing his old game! Distrust the man's
+patter!"
+
+"Take care," the prisoner put in. "Remember Dr. Polperro! On what
+charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bubbling with indignation. "You cheated me at Nice,"
+he said; "at Meran; at New York; at Paris!"
+
+Paul Finglemore shook his head. "Won't do," he answered, calmly. "Be
+sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that
+on an extradition warrant."
+
+"Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,"
+Charles cried out excitedly. "Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or
+without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away
+from us!"
+
+At that moment Simpson returned with a convenient policeman, whom he
+had happened to find loitering about near the area steps, and whom I
+half suspected from his furtive smile of being a particular
+acquaintance of the household.
+
+Charles gave the man in charge formally. Paul Finglemore insisted
+that he should specify the nature of the particular accusation.
+To my great chagrin, Charles selected from his rogueries, as best
+within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the matter of the
+payment for the Castle of Lebenstein--made in London, and through
+a London banker. "I have a warrant on that ground," he said. I
+trembled as he spoke. I felt at once that the episode of the
+commission, the exposure of which I dreaded so much, must now
+become public.
+
+The policeman took the man in charge. Charles still held to him,
+grimly. As they were leaving the room the prisoner turned to
+Cesarine, and muttered something rapidly under his breath, in
+German. "Of which tongue," he said, turning to us blandly, "in spite
+of my kind present of a dictionary and grammar, you still doubtless
+remain in your pristine ignorance!"
+
+Cesarine flung herself upon him with wild devotion. "Oh, Paul,
+darling," she cried, in English, "I will not, I will not! I
+will never save myself at _your_ expense. If they send you to
+prison--Paul, Paul, I will go with you!"
+
+I remembered as she spoke what Mr. Algernon Coleyard had said to us
+at the Senator's. "Even the worst of rogues have always some good
+in them. I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the
+affection and fidelity of women."
+
+But the man, his hands still free, unwound her clasping arms with
+gentle fingers. "My child," he answered, in a soft tone, "I am sorry
+to say the law of England will not permit you to go with me. If it
+did" (his voice was as the voice of the poet we had met), "'stone
+walls would not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'" And bending
+forward, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
+
+We led him out to the door. The policeman, in obedience to Charles's
+orders, held him tight with his hand, but steadily refused, as the
+prisoner was not violent, to handcuff him. We hailed a passing
+hansom. "To Bow Street!" Charles cried, unceremoniously pushing in
+policeman and prisoner. The driver nodded. We called a four-wheeler
+ourselves, in which my brother-in-law, Dr. Beddersley and myself
+took our seats. "Follow the hansom!" Charles cried out. "Don't let
+him out of your sight. After him, close, to Bow Street!"
+
+I looked back, and saw Cesarine, half fainting, on the front door
+steps, while Dolly, bathed in tears, stood supporting the
+lady's-maid, and trying to comfort her. It was clear she had not
+anticipated this end to the adventure.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Charles screamed out, in a fresh fever of
+alarm, as we turned the first corner; "where's that hansom gone to?
+How do I know the fellow was a policeman at all? We should have
+taken the man in here. We ought never to have let him get out of
+our sight. For all we can tell to the contrary, the constable
+himself--may only be one of Colonel Clay's confederates!"
+
+And we drove in trepidation all the way to Bow Street.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD BAILEY
+
+
+When we reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our
+prisoner, after all, had _not_ evaded us. It was a false alarm.
+He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to
+make the first formal charge against him.
+
+Of course, on Charles's sworn declaration and my own, the man was
+at once remanded, bail being refused, owing both to the serious
+nature of the charge and the slippery character of the prisoner's
+antecedents. We went back to Mayfair--Charles, well satisfied that
+the man he dreaded was under lock and key; myself, not too well
+pleased to think that the man I dreaded was no longer at large, and
+that the trifling little episode of the ten per cent commission
+stood so near discovery.
+
+Next day the police came round in force, and had a long consultation
+with Charles and myself. They strongly urged that two other persons
+at least should be included in the charge--Cesarine and the little
+woman whom we had variously known as Madame Picardet, White Heather,
+Mrs. David Granton, and Mrs. Elihu Quackenboss. If these accomplices
+were arrested, they said, we could include conspiracy as one count
+in the indictment, which gave us an extra chance of conviction. Now
+they had got Colonel Clay, in fact, they naturally desired to keep
+him, and also to indict with him as many as possible of his pals
+and confederates.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty arose. Charles called me aside with a
+grave face into the library. "Seymour," he said, fixing me, "this
+is a serious business. I will not lightly swear away any woman's
+character. Colonel Clay himself--or, rather, Paul Finglemore--is an
+abandoned rogue, whom I do not desire to screen in any degree. But
+poor little Madame Picardet--she may be his lawful wife, and she
+may have acted implicitly under his orders. Besides, I don't know
+whether I could swear to her identity. Here's the photograph the
+police bring of the woman they believe to be Colonel Clay's chief
+female accomplice. Now, I ask you, does it in the least degree
+resemble that clever and amusing and charming little creature,
+who has so often deceived us?"
+
+In spite of Charles's gibes, I flatter myself I do really understand
+the whole duty of a secretary. It was clear from his voice he did
+not _wish_ me to recognise her; which, as it happened, I did not.
+"Certainly, it doesn't resemble her, Charles," I answered, with
+conviction in my voice. "I should never have known her." But I did
+not add that I should no more have known Colonel Clay himself in
+his character of Paul Finglemore, or of Cesarine's young man, as
+_that_ remark lay clearly outside my secretarial functions.
+
+Still, it flitted across my mind at the time that the Seer had made
+some casual remarks at Nice about a letter in Charles's pocket,
+presumably from Madame Picardet; and I reflected further that Madame
+Picardet in turn might possibly hold certain answers of Charles's,
+couched in such terms as he might reasonably desire to conceal from
+Amelia. Indeed, I must allow that under whatever disguise White
+Heather appeared to us, Charles was always that disguise's devoted
+slave from the first moment he met it. It occurred to me, therefore,
+that the clever little woman--call her what you will--might be the
+holder of more than one indiscreet communication.
+
+"Under these circumstances," Charles went on, in his austerest
+voice, "I cannot consent to be a party to the arrest of White
+Heather. I--I decline to identify her. In point of fact"--he grew
+more emphatic as he went on--"I don't think there is an atom of
+evidence of any sort against her. Not," he continued, after a
+pause, "that I wish in any degree to screen the guilty. Cesarine,
+now--Cesarine we have liked and trusted. She has betrayed our trust.
+She has sold us to this fellow. I have no doubt at all that she
+gave him the diamonds from Amelia's riviere; that she took us by
+arrangement to meet him at Schloss Lebenstein; that she opened and
+sent to him my letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie. Therefore, I say, we
+_ought_ to arrest Cesarine. But not White Heather--not Jessie; not
+that pretty Mrs. Quackenboss. Let the guilty suffer; why strike at
+the innocent--or, at worst, the misguided?"
+
+"Charles," I exclaimed, with warmth, "your sentiments do you honour.
+You are a man of feeling. And White Heather, I allow, is pretty
+enough and clever enough to be forgiven anything. You may rely upon
+my discretion. I will swear through thick and thin that I do not
+recognise this woman as Madame Picardet."
+
+Charles clasped my hand in silence. "Seymour," he said, after
+a pause, with marked emotion, "I felt sure I could rely upon
+your--er--honour and integrity. I have been rough upon you
+sometimes. But I ask your forgiveness. I see you understand the
+whole duties of your position."
+
+We went out again, better friends than we had been for months.
+I hoped, indeed, this pleasant little incident might help to
+neutralise the possible ill-effects of the ten per cent disclosure,
+should Finglemore take it into his head to betray me to my employer.
+As we emerged into the drawing-room, Amelia beckoned me aside
+towards her boudoir for a moment.
+
+"Seymour," she said to me, in a distinctly frightened tone, "I have
+treated you harshly at times, I know, and I am very sorry for it.
+But I want you to help me in a most painful difficulty. The police
+are quite right as to the charge of conspiracy; that designing
+little minx, White Heather, or Mrs. David Granton, or whatever else
+we're to call her, ought certainly to be prosecuted--and sent to
+prison, too--and have her absurd head of hair cut short and combed
+straight for her. But--and you will help me here, I'm sure, dear
+Seymour--I _cannot_ allow them to arrest my Cesarine. I don't pretend
+to say Cesarine isn't guilty; the girl has behaved most ungratefully
+to me. She has robbed me right and left, and deceived me without
+compunction. Still--I put it to you as a married man--_can_ any woman
+afford to go into the witness-box, to be cross-examined and teased
+by her own maid, or by a brute of a barrister on her maid's
+information? I assure you, Seymour, the thing's not to be dreamt of.
+There are details of a lady's life--known only to her maid--which
+_cannot_ be made public. Explain as much of this as you think well to
+Charles, and _make_ him understand that _if_ he insists upon arresting
+Cesarine, I shall go into the box--and swear my head off to prevent
+any one of the gang from being convicted. I have told Cesarine as
+much; I have promised to help her: I have explained that I am her
+friend, and that if _she'll_ stand by _me_, _I'll_ stand by _her_,
+and by this hateful young man of hers."
+
+I saw in a moment how things went. Neither Charles nor Amelia could
+face cross-examination on the subject of one of Colonel Clay's
+accomplices. No doubt, in Amelia's case, it was merely a question
+of rouge and hair-dye; but what woman would not sooner confess to
+a forgery or a murder than to those toilet secrets?
+
+I returned to Charles, therefore, and spent half an hour in
+composing, as well as I might, these little domestic difficulties.
+In the end, it was arranged that if Charles did his best to protect
+Cesarine from arrest, Amelia would consent to do her best in return
+on behalf of Madame Picardet.
+
+We had next the police to tackle--a more difficult business. Still,
+even _they_ were reasonable. They had caught Colonel Clay, they
+believed, but their chance of convicting him depended entirely upon
+Charles's identification, with mine to back it. The more they urged
+the necessity of arresting the female confederates, however, the
+more stoutly did Charles declare that for his part he could by no
+means make sure of Colonel Clay himself, while he utterly declined
+to give evidence of any sort against either of the women. It was a
+difficult case, he said, and he felt far from confident even about
+the man. If _his_ decision faltered, and he failed to identify, the
+case was closed; no jury could convict with nothing to convict upon.
+
+At last the police gave way. No other course was open to them. They
+had made an important capture; but they saw that everything depended
+upon securing their witnesses, and the witnesses, if interfered
+with, were likely to swear to absolutely nothing.
+
+Indeed, as it turned out, before the preliminary investigation at
+Bow Street was completed (with the usual remands), Charles had been
+thrown into such a state of agitation that he wished he had never
+caught the Colonel at all.
+
+"I wonder, Sey," he said to me, "why I didn't offer the rascal two
+thousand a year to go right off to Australia, and be rid of him for
+ever! It would have been cheaper for my reputation than keeping him
+about in courts of law in England. The worst of it is, when once the
+best of men gets into a witness-box, there's no saying with what
+shreds and tatters of a character he may at last come out of it!"
+
+"In _your_ case, Charles," I answered, dutifully, "there can be
+no such doubt; except, perhaps, as regards the Craig-Ellachie
+Consolidated."
+
+Then came the endless bother of "getting up the case" with the
+police and the lawyers. Charles would have retired from it
+altogether by that time, but, most unfortunately, he was bound
+over to prosecute. "You couldn't take a lump sum to let me off?"
+he said, jokingly, to the inspector. But I knew in my heart it was
+one of the "true words spoken in jest" that the proverb tells of.
+
+Of course we could see now the whole building-up of the great
+intrigue. It had been worked out as carefully as the Tichborne
+swindle. Young Finglemore, as the brother of Charles's broker,
+knew from the outset all about his affairs; and, after a gentle
+course of preliminary roguery, he laid his plans deep for a campaign
+against my brother-in-law. Everything had been deliberately
+designed beforehand. A place had been found for Cesarine as Amelia's
+maid--needless to say, by means of forged testimonials. Through her
+aid the swindler had succeeded in learning still more of the family
+ways and habits, and had acquired a knowledge of certain facts which
+he proceeded forthwith to use against us. His first attack, as the
+Seer, had been cleverly designed so as to give us the idea that we
+were a mere casual prey; and it did not escape Charles's notice now
+that the detail of getting Madame Picardet to inquire at the Credit
+Marseillais about his bank had been solemnly gone through on purpose
+to blind us to the obvious truth that Colonel Clay was already in
+full possession of all such facts about us. It was by Cesarine's
+aid, again, that he became possessed of Amelia's diamonds, that
+he received the letter addressed to Lord Craig-Ellachie, and
+that he managed to dupe us over the Schloss Lebenstein business.
+Nevertheless, all these things Charles determined to conceal in
+court; he did not give the police a single fact that would turn
+against either Cesarine or Madame Picardet.
+
+As for Cesarine, of course, she left the house immediately after the
+arrest of the Colonel, and we heard of her no more till the day of
+the trial.
+
+When that great day came, I never saw a more striking sight than the
+Old Bailey presented. It was crammed to overflowing. Charles arrived
+early, accompanied by his solicitor. He was so white and troubled
+that he looked much more like prisoner than prosecutor. Outside the
+court a pretty little woman stood, pale and anxious. A respectful
+crowd stared at her silently. "Who is that?" Charles asked. Though
+we could both of us guess, rather than see, it was White Heather.
+
+"That's the prisoner's wife," the inspector on duty replied. "She's
+waiting to see him enter. I'm sorry for her, poor thing. She's a
+perfect lady."
+
+"So she seems," Charles answered, scarcely daring to face her.
+
+At that moment she turned. Her eyes fell upon his. Charles paused
+for a second and looked faltering. There was in those eyes just the
+faintest gleam of pleading recognition, but not a trace of the old
+saucy, defiant vivacity. Charles framed his lips to words, but
+without uttering a sound. Unless I greatly mistake, the words he
+framed on his lips were these: "I will do my best for him."
+
+We pushed our way in, assisted by the police. Inside the court we
+saw a lady seated, in a quiet black dress, with a becoming bonnet.
+A moment passed before I knew--it was Cesarine. "Who is--that
+person?" Charles asked once more of the nearest inspector, desiring
+to see in what way he would describe her.
+
+And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir."
+
+Charles started back, surprised. "But--I was told--a lady outside
+was Mrs. Paul Finglemore," he broke in, much puzzled.
+
+"Very likely," the inspector replied, unmoved. "We have plenty that
+way. _When_ a gentleman has as many aliases as Colonel Clay, you can
+hardly expect him to be over particular about having only _one_ wife
+between them, can you?"
+
+"Ah, I see," Charles muttered, in a shocked voice. "Bigamy!"
+
+The inspector looked stony. "Well, not exactly that," he replied,
+"occasional marriage."
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth tried the case. "I'm sorry it's him, Sey,"
+my brother-in-law whispered in my ear. (He said _him_, not _he_,
+because, whatever else Charles is, he is _not_ a pedant; the English
+language as it is spoken by most educated men is quite good enough
+for his purpose.) "I only wish it had been Sir Edward Easy. Easy's a
+man of the world, and a man of society; he would feel for a person
+in _my_ position. He wouldn't allow these beasts of lawyers to
+badger and pester me. He would back his order. But Rhadamanth is one
+of your modern sort of judges, who make a merit of being what they
+call 'conscientious,' and won't hush up anything. I admit I'm afraid
+of him. I shall be glad when it's over."
+
+"Oh, _you'll_ pull through all right," I said in my capacity of
+secretary. But I didn't think it.
+
+The judge took his seat. The prisoner was brought in. Every eye
+seemed bent upon him. He was neatly and plainly dressed, and,
+rogue though he was, I must honestly confess he looked at least a
+gentleman. His manner was defiant, not abject like Charles's. He
+knew he was at bay, and he turned like a man to face his accusers.
+
+We had two or three counts on the charge, and, after some formal
+business, Sir Charles Vandrift was put into the box to bear witness
+against Finglemore.
+
+Prisoner was unrepresented. Counsel had been offered him, but he
+refused their aid. The judge even advised him to accept their help;
+but Colonel Clay, as we all called him mentally still, declined to
+avail himself of the judge's suggestion.
+
+"I am a barrister myself, my lord," he said--"called some nine years
+ago. I can conduct my own defence, I venture to think, better than
+any of these my learned brethren."
+
+Charles went through his examination-in-chief quite swimmingly.
+He answered with promptitude. He identified the prisoner without
+the slightest hesitation as the man who had swindled him under
+the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
+Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
+slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
+anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
+A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
+to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
+be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
+In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.
+
+When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
+to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
+questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
+He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
+himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
+persuasively.
+
+Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.
+
+Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
+then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
+he was seated beside Cesarine.
+
+"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
+pouncing upon the prosecutor.
+
+Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
+still whiter. It was--to all outer appearance--the Reverend Richard
+Brabazon in propria persona.
+
+Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
+man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
+shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.
+
+"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
+It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
+We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
+recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them--not
+of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
+Charles's discomfiture.
+
+The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
+second photograph.
+
+"Now, can you tell me who _that_ is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
+brow-beating Old Bailey voice.
+
+With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
+"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
+disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."
+
+This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
+on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
+the jurisdiction.
+
+Even while Charles spoke, a gentleman whom I had noticed before,
+sitting beside White Heather, with a handkerchief to his face,
+rose as abruptly as the parson. Colonel Clay indicated him with
+a graceful movement of his hand. "And _this_ gentleman?" he asked
+calmly.
+
+Charles was fairly staggered. It was the obvious original of the
+false Von Lebenstein.
+
+The photograph went round the box once more. The jury smiled
+incredulously. Charles had given himself away. His overweening
+confidence and certainty had ruined him.
+
+Then Colonel Clay, leaning forward, and looking quite engaging,
+began a new line of cross-examination. "We have seen, Sir Charles,"
+he said, "that we cannot implicitly trust your identifications. Now
+let us see how far we can trust your other evidence. First, then,
+about those diamonds. You tried to buy them, did you not, from a
+person who represented himself as the Reverend Richard Brabazon,
+because you believed he thought they were paste; and if you could,
+you would have given him 10 pounds or so for them. _Do_ you think
+that was honest?"
+
+"I object to this line of cross-examination," our leading counsel
+interposed. "It does not bear on the prosecutor's evidence. It is
+purely recriminatory."
+
+Colonel Clay was all bland deference. "I wish, my lord," he said,
+turning round, "to show that the prosecutor is a person unworthy of
+credence in any way. I desire to proceed upon the well-known legal
+maxim of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. I believe I am permitted
+to shake the witness's credit?"
+
+"The prisoner is entirely within his rights," Rhadamanth answered,
+looking severely at Charles. "And I was wrong in suggesting that
+he needed the advice or assistance of counsel."
+
+Charles wriggled visibly. Colonel Clay perked up. Bit by bit, with
+dexterous questions, Charles was made to acknowledge that he wanted
+to buy diamonds at the price of paste, knowing them to be real; and,
+a millionaire himself, would gladly have diddled a poor curate out
+of a couple of thousand.
+
+"I was entitled to take advantage of my special knowledge," Charles
+murmured feebly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," the prisoner answered. "But, while professing
+friendship and affection for a clergyman and his wife, in straitened
+circumstances, you were prepared, it seems, to take three thousand
+pounds' worth of goods off their hands for ten pounds, if you could
+have got them at that price. Is not that so?"
+
+Charles was compelled to admit it.
+
+The prisoner went onto the David Granton incident. "When you offered
+to amalgamate with Lord Craig-Ellachie," he asked, "had you or
+had you not heard that a gold-bearing reef ran straight from your
+concession into Lord Craig-Ellachie's, and that his portion of the
+reef was by far the larger and more important?"
+
+Charles wriggled again, and our counsel interposed; but Rhadamanth
+was adamant. Charles had to allow it.
+
+And so, too, with the incident of the Slump in Golcondas.
+Unwillingly, shamefacedly, by torturing steps, Charles was compelled
+to confess that he had sold out Golcondas--he, the Chairman of the
+company, after repeated declarations to shareholders and others
+that he would do no such thing--because he thought Professor
+Schleiermacher had made diamonds worthless. He had endeavoured to
+save himself by ruining his company. Charles tried to brazen it out
+with remarks to the effect that business was business. "And fraud is
+fraud," Rhadamanth added, in his pungent way.
+
+"A man must protect himself," Charles burst out.
+
+"At the expense of those who have put their trust in his honour and
+integrity," the judge commented coldly.
+
+After four mortal hours of it, all to the same effect, my respected
+brother-in-law left the witness-box at last, wiping his brow and
+biting his lip, with the very air of a culprit. His character had
+received a most serious blow. While he stood in the witness-box all
+the world had felt it was _he_ who was the accused and Colonel Clay
+who was the prosecutor. He was convicted on his own evidence of
+having tried to induce the supposed David Granton to sell his
+father's interests into an enemy's hands, and of every other shady
+trick into which his well-known business acuteness had unfortunately
+hurried him during the course of his adventures. I had but one
+consolation in my brother-in-law's misfortunes--and that was the
+thought that a due sense of his own shortcomings might possibly make
+him more lenient in the end to the trivial misdemeanours of a poor
+beggar of a secretary!
+
+_I_ was the next in the box. I do not desire to enlarge upon my own
+achievements. I will draw a decent veil, indeed, over the painful
+scene that ensued when I finished my evidence. I can only say I was
+more cautious than Charles in my recognition of the photographs;
+but I found myself particularly worried and harried over other
+parts of my cross-examination. Especially was I shaken about that
+misguided step I took in the matter of the cheque for the Lebenstein
+commission--a cheque which Colonel Clay handed to me with the utmost
+politeness, requesting to know whether or not it bore my signature.
+I caught Charles's eye at the end of the episode, and I venture to
+say the expression it wore was one of relief that I too had tripped
+over a trifling question of ten per cent on the purchase money of
+the castle.
+
+Altogether, I must admit, if it had not been for the police
+evidence, we would have failed to make a case against our man
+at all. But the police, I confess, had got up their part of the
+prosecution admirably. Now that they knew Colonel Clay to be
+really Paul Finglemore, they showed with great cleverness how Paul
+Finglemore's disappearances and reappearances in London exactly
+tallied with Colonel Clay's appearances and disappearances
+elsewhere, under the guise of the little curate, the Seer,
+David Granton, and the rest of them. Furthermore, they showed
+experimentally how the prisoner at the bar might have got himself
+up in the various characters; and, by means of a wax bust, modelled
+by Dr. Beddersley from observations at Bow Street, and aided by
+additions in the gutta-percha composition after Dolly Lingfield's
+photographs, they succeeded in proving that the face as it stood
+could be readily transformed into the faces of Medhurst and David
+Granton. Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up
+on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in
+putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul
+Finglemore.
+
+The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my
+respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the
+case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not
+even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission
+further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound
+to protect their own interests--as secretaries or as principals.
+This I took for forgiveness; and I continued diligently to attend
+the trial, and watch the case in my employer's interest.
+
+The defence was ingenious, even if somewhat halting. It consisted
+simply of an attempt to prove throughout that Charles and I had made
+our prisoner the victim of a mistaken identity. Finglemore put into
+the box the ingenuous original of the little curate--the Reverend
+Septimus Porkington, as it turned out, a friend of his family; and
+he showed that it was the Reverend Septimus himself who had sat to
+a photographer in Baker Street for the portrait which Charles too
+hastily identified as that of Colonel Clay in his personification of
+Mr. Richard Brabazon. He further elicited the fact that the portrait
+of the Count von Lebenstein was really taken from Dr. Julius Keppel,
+a Tyrolese music-master, residing at Balham, whom he put into the
+box, and who was well known, as it chanced, to the foreman of the
+jury. Gradually he made it clear to us that no portraits existed of
+Colonel Clay at all, except Dolly Lingfield's--so it dawned upon
+me by degrees that even Dr. Beddersley could only have been misled
+if we had succeeded in finding for him the alleged photographs of
+Colonel Clay as the count and the curate, which had been shown us
+by Medhurst. Altogether, the prisoner based his defence upon the
+fact that no more than two witnesses directly identified him; while
+one of those two had positively sworn that he recognised as the
+prisoner's two portraits which turned out, by independent evidence,
+to be taken from other people!
+
+The judge summed up in a caustic way which was pleasant to neither
+party. He asked the jury to dismiss from their minds entirely the
+impression created by what he frankly described as "Sir Charles
+Vandrift's obvious dishonesty." They must not allow the fact that he
+was a millionaire--and a particularly shady one--to prejudice their
+feelings in favour of the prisoner. Even the richest--and vilest--of
+men must be protected. Besides, this was a public question. If a
+rogue cheated a rogue, he must still be punished. If a murderer
+stabbed or shot a murderer, he must still be hung for it. Society
+must see that the worst of thieves were not preyed upon by others.
+Therefore, the proved facts that Sir Charles Vandrift, with all his
+millions, had meanly tried to cheat the prisoner, or some other poor
+person, out of valuable diamonds--had basely tried to juggle Lord
+Craig-Ellachie's mines into his own hands--had vilely tried to bribe
+a son to betray his father--had directly tried, by underhand means,
+to save his own money, at the risk of destroying the wealth of
+others who trusted to his probity--these proved facts must not
+blind them to the truth that the prisoner at the bar (if he were
+really Colonel Clay) was an abandoned swindler. To that point alone
+they must confine their attention; and _if_ they were convinced that
+the prisoner was shown to be the self-same man who appeared on
+various occasions as David Granton, as Von Lebenstein, as Medhurst,
+as Schleiermacher, they must find him guilty.
+
+As to that point, also, the judge commented on the obvious strength
+of the police case, and the fact that the prisoner had not attempted
+in any one out of so many instances to prove an alibi. Surely, if
+he were _not_ Colonel Clay, the jury should ask themselves, must it
+not have been simple and easy for him to do so? Finally, the judge
+summed up all the elements of doubt in the identification--and all
+the elements of probability; and left it to the jury to draw their
+own conclusions.
+
+They retired at the end to consider their verdict. While they were
+absent every eye in court was fixed on the prisoner. But Paul
+Finglemore himself looked steadily towards the further end of the
+hall, where two pale-faced women sat together, with handkerchiefs
+in their hands, and eyes red with weeping.
+
+Only then, as he stood there, awaiting the verdict, with a fixed
+white face, prepared for everything, did I begin to realise with
+what courage and pluck that one lone man had sustained so long an
+unequal contest against wealth, authority, and all the Governments
+of Europe, aided but by his own skill and two feeble women! Only
+then did I feel he had played his reckless game through all those
+years with _this_ ever before him! I found it hard to picture.
+
+The jury filed slowly back. There was dead silence in court as the
+clerk put the question, "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty
+or not guilty?"
+
+"We find him guilty."
+
+"On all the counts?"
+
+"On all the counts of the indictment."
+
+The women at the back burst into tears, unanimously.
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth addressed the prisoner. "Have you anything
+to urge," he asked in a very stern tone, "in mitigation of whatever
+sentence the Court may see fit to pass upon you?"
+
+"Nothing," the prisoner answered, just faltering slightly. "I have
+brought it upon myself--but--I have protected the lives of those
+nearest and dearest to me. I have fought hard for my own hand. I
+admit my crime, and will face my punishment. I only regret that,
+since we were both of us rogues--myself and the prosecutor--the
+lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in
+the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according
+to his deserts--to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St.
+George; to me, the Broad Arrow!"
+
+The judge gazed at him severely. "Paul Finglemore," he said, passing
+sentence in his sardonic way, "you have chosen to dedicate to the
+service of fraud abilities and attainments which, if turned from the
+outset into a legitimate channel, would no doubt have sufficed to
+secure you without excessive effort a subsistence one degree above
+starvation--possibly even, with good luck, a sordid and squalid
+competence. You have preferred to embark them on a lawless life of
+vice and crime--and I will not deny that you seem to have had a good
+run for your money. Society, however, whose mouthpiece I am, cannot
+allow you any longer to mock it with impunity. You have broken its
+laws openly, and you have been found out." He assumed the tone of
+bland condescension which always heralds his severest moments. "I
+sentence you to Fourteen Years' Imprisonment, with Hard Labour."
+
+The prisoner bowed, without losing his apparent composure. But his
+eyes strayed away again to the far end of the hall, where the two
+weeping women, with a sudden sharp cry, fell at once in a faint on
+one another's shoulders, and were with difficulty removed from court
+by the ushers.
+
+As we left the room, I heard but one comment all round, thus voiced
+by a school-boy: "I'd a jolly sight rather it had been old Vandrift.
+This Clay chap's too clever by half to waste on a prison!"
+
+But he went there, none the less--in that "cool sequestered vale
+of life" to recover equilibrium; though I myself half regretted it.
+
+I will add but one more little parting episode.
+
+When all was over, Charles rushed off to Cannes, to get away from
+the impertinent stare of London. Amelia and Isabel and I went with
+him. We were driving one afternoon on the hills beyond the town,
+among the myrtle and lentisk scrub, when we noticed in front of us
+a nice victoria, containing two ladies in very deep mourning. We
+followed it, unintentionally, as far as Le Grand Pin--that big pine
+tree that looks across the bay towards Antibes. There, the ladies
+descended and sat down on a knoll, gazing out disconsolately towards
+the sea and the islands. It was evident they were suffering very
+deep grief. Their faces were pale and their eyes bloodshot. "Poor
+things!" Amelia said. Then her tone altered suddenly.
+
+"Why, good gracious," she cried, "if it isn't Cesarine!"
+
+So it was--with White Heather!
+
+Charles got down and drew near them. "I beg your pardon," he said,
+raising his hat, and addressing Madame Picardet: "I believe I have
+had the pleasure of meeting you. And since I have doubtless paid in
+the end for your victoria, _may_ I venture to inquire for whom you
+are in mourning?"
+
+White Heather drew back, sobbing; but Cesarine turned to him, fiery
+red, with the mien of a lady. "For _him_!" she answered; "for Paul!
+for our king, whom _you_ have imprisoned! As long as _he_ remains
+there, we have both of us decided to wear mourning for ever!"
+
+Charles raised his hat again, and drew back without one word.
+He waved his hand to Amelia and walked home with me to Cannes.
+He seemed deeply dejected.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts!" I exclaimed, at last, in a jocular
+tone, trying feebly to rouse him.
+
+He turned to me, and sighed. "I was wondering," he answered, "if
+_I_ had gone to prison, would Amelia and Isabel have done as much
+for me?"
+
+For myself, I did _not_ wonder. I knew pretty well. For Charles, you
+will admit, though the bigger rogue of the two, is scarcely the kind
+of rogue to inspire a woman with profound affection.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+Title: An African Millionaire
+       Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+Author: Grant Allen
+
+Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4715]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 6, 2002]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+
+
+An African Millionaire
+
+Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
+
+By Grant Allen
+
+First published in 1897
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+1.  The Episode of the Mexican Seer
+
+2.  The Episode of the Diamond Links
+
+3.  The Episode of the Old Master
+
+4.  The Episode of the Tyrolean Castle
+
+5.  The Episode of the Drawn Game
+
+6.  The Episode of the German Professor
+
+7.  The Episode of the Arrest of the Colonel
+
+8.  The Episode of the Seldon Gold-Mine
+ 
+9.  The Episode of the Japanned Dispatch-Box
+
+10.  The Episode of the Game of Poker
+
+11.  The Episode of the Bertillon Method
+
+12.  The Episode of the Old Bailey 
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE MEXICAN SEER
+
+
+My name is Seymour Wilbraham Wentworth. I am brother-in-law and
+secretary to Sir Charles Vandrift, the South African millionaire and
+famous financier. Many years ago, when Charlie Vandrift was a small
+lawyer in Cape Town, I had the (qualified) good fortune to marry his
+sister. Much later, when the Vandrift estate and farm near Kimberley
+developed by degrees into the Cloetedorp Golcondas, Limited, my
+brother-in-law offered me the not unremunerative post of secretary;
+in which capacity I have ever since been his constant and attached
+companion.
+
+He is not a man whom any common sharper can take in, is Charles
+Vandrift. Middle height, square build, firm mouth, keen eyes--the
+very picture of a sharp and successful business genius. I have only
+known one rogue impose upon Sir Charles, and that one rogue, as the
+Commissary of Police at Nice remarked, would doubtless have imposed
+upon a syndicate of Vidocq, Robert Houdin, and Cagliostro.
+
+We had run across to the Riviera for a few weeks in the season. Our
+object being strictly rest and recreation from the arduous duties
+of financial combination, we did not think it necessary to take our
+wives out with us. Indeed, Lady Vandrift is absolutely wedded to the
+joys of London, and does not appreciate the rural delights of the
+Mediterranean littoral. But Sir Charles and I, though immersed in
+affairs when at home, both thoroughly enjoy the complete change from
+the City to the charming vegetation and pellucid air on the terrace
+at Monte Carlo. We _are_ so fond of scenery. That delicious view
+over the rocks of Monaco, with the Maritime Alps in the rear, and
+the blue sea in front, not to mention the imposing Casino in the
+foreground, appeals to me as one of the most beautiful prospects in
+all Europe. Sir Charles has a sentimental attachment for the place.
+He finds it restores and freshens him, after the turmoil of London,
+to win a few hundreds at roulette in the course of an afternoon
+among the palms and cactuses and pure breezes of Monte Carlo. The
+country, say I, for a jaded intellect! However, we never on any
+account actually stop in the Principality itself. Sir Charles thinks
+Monte Carlo is not a sound address for a financier's letters. He
+prefers a comfortable hotel on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice,
+where he recovers health and renovates his nervous system by taking
+daily excursions along the coast to the Casino.
+
+This particular season we were snugly ensconced at the Hôtel des
+Anglais. We had capital quarters on the first floor--salon, study,
+and bedrooms--and found on the spot a most agreeable cosmopolitan
+society. All Nice, just then, was ringing with talk about a curious
+impostor, known to his followers as the Great Mexican Seer, and
+supposed to be gifted with second sight, as well as with endless
+other supernatural powers. Now, it is a peculiarity of my able
+brother-in-law's that, when he meets with a quack, he burns to
+expose him; he is so keen a man of business himself that it gives
+him, so to speak, a disinterested pleasure to unmask and detect
+imposture in others. Many ladies at the hotel, some of whom had met
+and conversed with the Mexican Seer, were constantly telling us
+strange stories of his doings. He had disclosed to one the present
+whereabouts of a runaway husband; he had pointed out to another the
+numbers that would win at roulette next evening; he had shown a
+third the image on a screen of the man she had for years adored
+without his knowledge. Of course, Sir Charles didn't believe a word
+of it; but his curiosity was roused; he wished to see and judge for
+himself of the wonderful thought-reader.
+
+"What would be his terms, do you think, for a private séance?" he
+asked of Madame Picardet, the lady to whom the Seer had successfully
+predicted the winning numbers.
+
+"He does not work for money," Madame Picardet answered, "but for
+the good of humanity. I'm sure he would gladly come and exhibit for
+nothing his miraculous faculties."
+
+"Nonsense!" Sir Charles answered. "The man must live. I'd pay him
+five guineas, though, to see him alone. What hotel is he stopping at?"
+
+"The Cosmopolitan, I think," the lady answered. "Oh no; I remember
+now, the Westminster."
+
+Sir Charles turned to me quietly. "Look here, Seymour," he
+whispered. "Go round to this fellow's place immediately after
+dinner, and offer him five pounds to give a private séance at once
+in my rooms, without mentioning who I am to him; keep the name quite
+quiet. Bring him back with you, too, and come straight upstairs
+with him, so that there may be no collusion. We'll see just how much
+the fellow can tell us."
+
+I went as directed. I found the Seer a very remarkable and
+interesting person. He stood about Sir Charles's own height, but was
+slimmer and straighter, with an aquiline nose, strangely piercing
+eyes, very large black pupils, and a finely-chiselled close-shaven
+face, like the bust of Antinous in our hall in Mayfair. What gave him
+his most characteristic touch, however, was his odd head of hair,
+curly and wavy like Paderewski's, standing out in a halo round his
+high white forehead and his delicate profile. I could see at a
+glance why he succeeded so well in impressing women; he had the
+look of a poet, a singer, a prophet.
+
+"I have come round," I said, "to ask whether you will consent to
+give a séance at once in a friend's rooms; and my principal wishes
+me to add that he is prepared to pay five pounds as the price of the
+entertainment."
+
+Señor Antonio Herrera--that was what he called himself--bowed to
+me with impressive Spanish politeness. His dusky olive cheeks were
+wrinkled with a smile of gentle contempt as he answered gravely--
+
+"I do not sell my gifts; I bestow them freely. If your friend--your
+anonymous friend--desires to behold the cosmic wonders that are
+wrought through my hands, I am glad to show them to him.
+Fortunately, as often happens when it is necessary to convince
+and confound a sceptic (for that your friend is a sceptic I feel
+instinctively), I chance to have no engagements at all this
+evening." He ran his hand through his fine, long hair reflectively.
+"Yes, I go," he continued, as if addressing some unknown presence
+that hovered about the ceiling; "I go; come with me!" Then he put on
+his broad sombrero, with its crimson ribbon, wrapped a cloak round
+his shoulders, lighted a cigarette, and strode forth by my side
+towards the Hôtel des Anglais.
+
+He talked little by the way, and that little in curt sentences. He
+seemed buried in deep thought; indeed, when we reached the door and
+I turned in, he walked a step or two farther on, as if not noticing
+to what place I had brought him. Then he drew himself up short, and
+gazed around him for a moment. "Ha, the Anglais," he said--and I may
+mention in passing that his English, in spite of a slight southern
+accent, was idiomatic and excellent. "It is here, then; it is here!"
+He was addressing once more the unseen presence.
+
+I smiled to think that these childish devices were intended to
+deceive Sir Charles Vandrift. Not quite the sort of man (as the City
+of London knows) to be taken in by hocus-pocus. And all this, I saw,
+was the cheapest and most commonplace conjurer's patter.
+
+We went upstairs to our rooms. Charles had gathered together a
+few friends to watch the performance. The Seer entered, wrapt in
+thought. He was in evening dress, but a red sash round his waist
+gave a touch of picturesqueness and a dash of colour. He paused for
+a moment in the middle of the salon, without letting his eyes rest
+on anybody or anything. Then he walked straight up to Charles, and
+held out his dark hand.
+
+"Good-evening," he said. "You are the host. My soul's sight tells
+me so."
+
+"Good shot," Sir Charles answered. "These fellows have to be
+quick-witted, you know, Mrs. Mackenzie, or they'd never get on
+at it."
+
+The Seer gazed about him, and smiled blankly at a person or two
+whose faces he seemed to recognise from a previous existence. Then
+Charles began to ask him a few simple questions, not about himself,
+but about me, just to test him. He answered most of them with
+surprising correctness. "His name? His name begins with an S I
+think:--You call him Seymour." He paused long between each clause, as
+if the facts were revealed to him slowly. "Seymour--Wilbraham--Earl
+of Strafford. No, not Earl of Strafford! Seymour Wilbraham
+Wentworth. There seems to be some connection in somebody's mind now
+present between Wentworth and Strafford. I am not English. I do not
+know what it means. But they are somehow the same name, Wentworth
+and Strafford."
+
+He gazed around, apparently for confirmation. A lady came to his
+rescue.
+
+"Wentworth was the surname of the great Earl of Strafford," she
+murmured gently; "and I was wondering, as you spoke, whether
+Mr. Wentworth might possibly be descended from him."
+
+"He is," the Seer replied instantly, with a flash of those dark
+eyes. And I thought this curious; for though my father always
+maintained the reality of the relationship, there was one link
+wanting to complete the pedigree. He could not make sure that
+the Hon. Thomas Wilbraham Wentworth was the father of Jonathan
+Wentworth, the Bristol horse-dealer, from whom we are descended.
+
+"Where was I born?" Sir Charles interrupted, coming suddenly to his
+own case.
+
+The Seer clapped his two hands to his forehead and held it between
+them, as if to prevent it from bursting. "Africa," he said slowly,
+as the facts narrowed down, so to speak. "South Africa; Cape of Good
+Hope; Jansenville; De Witt Street. 1840."
+
+"By Jove, he's correct," Sir Charles muttered. "He seems really to
+do it. Still, he may have found me out. He may have known where he
+was coming."
+
+"I never gave a hint," I answered; "till he reached the door, he
+didn't even know to what hotel I was piloting him."
+
+The Seer stroked his chin softly. His eye appeared to me to have a
+furtive gleam in it. "Would you like me to tell you the number of
+a bank-note inclosed in an envelope?" he asked casually.
+
+"Go out of the room," Sir Charles said, "while I pass it round the
+company."
+
+Señor Herrera disappeared. Sir Charles passed it round cautiously,
+holding it all the time in his own hand, but letting his guests see
+the number. Then he placed it in an envelope and gummed it down
+firmly.
+
+The Seer returned. His keen eyes swept the company with a
+comprehensive glance. He shook his shaggy mane. Then he took
+the envelope in his hands and gazed at it fixedly. "AF, 73549,"
+he answered, in a slow tone. "A Bank of England note for fifty
+pounds--exchanged at the Casino for gold won yesterday at
+Monte Carlo."
+
+"I see how he did that," Sir Charles said triumphantly. "He must
+have changed it there himself; and then I changed it back again.
+In point of fact, I remember seeing a fellow with long hair loafing
+about. Still, it's capital conjuring."
+
+"He can see through matter," one of the ladies interposed. It was
+Madame Picardet. "He can see through a box." She drew a little gold
+vinaigrette, such as our grandmothers used, from her dress-pocket.
+"What is in this?" she inquired, holding it up to him.
+
+Señor Herrera gazed through it. "Three gold coins," he replied,
+knitting his brows with the effort of seeing into the box: "one,
+an American five dollars; one, a French ten-franc piece; one,
+twenty marks, German, of the old Emperor William."
+
+She opened the box and passed it round. Sir Charles smiled a quiet
+smile.
+
+"Confederacy!" he muttered, half to himself. "Confederacy!"
+
+The Seer turned to him with a sullen air. "You want a better sign?"
+he said, in a very impressive voice. "A sign that will convince you!
+Very well: you have a letter in your left waistcoat pocket--a
+crumpled-up letter. Do you wish me to read it out? I will, if you
+desire it."
+
+It may seem to those who know Sir Charles incredible, but, I am
+bound to admit, my brother-in-law coloured. What that letter
+contained I cannot say; he only answered, very testily and
+evasively, "No, thank you; I won't trouble you. The exhibition you
+have already given us of your skill in this kind more than amply
+suffices." And his fingers strayed nervously to his waistcoat
+pocket, as if he was half afraid, even then, Señor Herrera would
+read it.
+
+I fancied, too, he glanced somewhat anxiously towards Madame
+Picardet.
+
+The Seer bowed courteously. "Your will, señor, is law," he said. "I
+make it a principle, though I can see through all things, invariably
+to respect the secrecies and sanctities. If it were not so, I might
+dissolve society. For which of us is there who could bear the whole
+truth being told about him?" He gazed around the room. An unpleasant
+thrill supervened. Most of us felt this uncanny Spanish American
+knew really too much. And some of us were engaged in financial
+operations.
+
+"For example," the Seer continued blandly, "I happened a few weeks
+ago to travel down here from Paris by train with a very intelligent
+man, a company promoter. He had in his bag some documents--some
+confidential documents:" he glanced at Sir Charles. "You know the
+kind of thing, my dear sir: reports from experts--from mining
+engineers. You may have seen some such; marked _strictly private_."
+
+"They form an element in high finance," Sir Charles admitted coldly.
+
+"Pre-cisely," the Seer murmured, his accent for a moment less
+Spanish than before. "And, as they were marked _strictly private_,
+I respect, of course, the seal of confidence. That's all I wish to
+say. I hold it a duty, being intrusted with such powers, not to use
+them in a manner which may annoy or incommode my fellow-creatures."
+
+"Your feeling does you honour," Sir Charles answered, with some
+acerbity. Then he whispered in my ear: "Confounded clever scoundrel,
+Sey; rather wish we hadn't brought him here."
+
+Señor Herrera seemed intuitively to divine this wish, for he
+interposed, in a lighter and gayer tone--
+
+"I will now show you a different and more interesting embodiment
+of occult power, for which we shall need a somewhat subdued
+arrangement of surrounding lights. Would you mind, señor host--for
+I have purposely abstained from reading your name on the brain of
+any one present--would you mind my turning down this lamp just a
+little? ... So! That will do. Now, this one; and this one. Exactly!
+that's right." He poured a few grains of powder out of a packet into
+a saucer. "Next, a match, if you please. Thank you!" It burnt with a
+strange green light. He drew from his pocket a card, and produced a
+little ink-bottle. "Have you a pen?" he asked.
+
+I instantly brought one. He handed it to Sir Charles. "Oblige me,"
+he said, "by writing your name there." And he indicated a place in
+the centre of the card, which had an embossed edge, with a small
+middle square of a different colour.
+
+Sir Charles has a natural disinclination to signing his name without
+knowing why. "What do you want with it?" he asked. (A millionaire's
+signature has so many uses.)
+
+"I want you to put the card in an envelope," the Seer replied, "and
+then to burn it. After that, I shall show you your own name written
+in letters of blood on my arm, in your own handwriting."
+
+Sir Charles took the pen. If the signature was to be burned as soon
+as finished, he didn't mind giving it. He wrote his name in his
+usual firm clear style--the writing of a man who knows his worth
+and is not afraid of drawing a cheque for five thousand.
+
+"Look at it long," the Seer said, from the other side of the room.
+He had not watched him write it.
+
+Sir Charles stared at it fixedly. The Seer was really beginning to
+produce an impression.
+
+"Now, put it in that envelope," the Seer exclaimed.
+
+Sir Charles, like a lamb, placed it as directed.
+
+The Seer strode forward. "Give me the envelope," he said. He took it
+in his hand, walked over towards the fireplace, and solemnly burnt
+it. "See--it crumbles into ashes," he cried. Then he came back to
+the middle of the room, close to the green light, rolled up his
+sleeve, and held his arm before Sir Charles. There, in blood-red
+letters, my brother-in-law read the name, "Charles Vandrift," in
+his own handwriting!
+
+"I see how that's done," Sir Charles murmured, drawing back. "It's
+a clever delusion; but still, I see through it. It's like that
+ghost-book. Your ink was deep green; your light was green; you made
+me look at it long; and then I saw the same thing written on the
+skin of your arm in complementary colours."
+
+"You think so?" the Seer replied, with a curious curl of the lip.
+
+"I'm sure of it," Sir Charles answered.
+
+Quick as lightning the Seer again rolled up his sleeve. "That's
+your name," he cried, in a very clear voice, "but not your whole
+name. What do you say, then, to my right? Is this one also a
+complementary colour?" He held his other arm out. There, in
+sea-green letters, I read the name, "Charles O'Sullivan Vandrift."
+It is my brother-in-law's full baptismal designation; but he has
+dropped the O'Sullivan for many years past, and, to say the truth,
+doesn't like it. He is a little bit ashamed of his mother's family.
+
+Charles glanced at it hurriedly. "Quite right," he said, "quite
+right!" But his voice was hollow. I could guess he didn't care to
+continue the séance. He could see through the man, of course; but it
+was clear the fellow knew too much about us to be entirely pleasant.
+
+"Turn up the lights," I said, and a servant turned them. "Shall I
+say coffee and benedictine?" I whispered to Vandrift.
+
+"By all means," he answered. "Anything to keep this fellow from
+further impertinences! And, I say, don't you think you'd better
+suggest at the same time that the men should smoke? Even these
+ladies are not above a cigarette--some of them."
+
+There was a sigh of relief. The lights burned brightly. The Seer for
+the moment retired from business, so to speak. He accepted a partaga
+with a very good grace, sipped his coffee in a corner, and chatted
+to the lady who had suggested Strafford with marked politeness. He
+was a polished gentleman.
+
+Next morning, in the hall of the hotel, I saw Madame Picardet again,
+in a neat tailor-made travelling dress, evidently bound for the
+railway-station.
+
+"What, off, Madame Picardet?" I cried.
+
+She smiled, and held out her prettily-gloved hand. "Yes, I'm off,"
+she answered archly. "Florence, or Rome, or somewhere. I've drained
+Nice dry--like a sucked orange. Got all the fun I can out of it.
+Now I'm away again to my beloved Italy."
+
+But it struck me as odd that, if Italy was her game, she went by the
+omnibus which takes down to the train de luxe for Paris. However,
+a man of the world accepts what a lady tells him, no matter how
+improbable; and I confess, for ten days or so, I thought no more
+about her, or the Seer either.
+
+At the end of that time our fortnightly pass-book came in from
+the bank in London. It is part of my duty, as the millionaire's
+secretary, to make up this book once a fortnight, and to compare
+the cancelled cheques with Sir Charles's counterfoils. On this
+particular occasion I happened to observe what I can only describe
+as a very grave discrepancy,--in fact, a discrepancy of 5000 pounds.
+On the wrong side, too. Sir Charles was debited with 5000 pounds
+more than the total amount that was shown on the counterfoils.
+
+I examined the book with care. The source of the error was obvious.
+It lay in a cheque to Self or Bearer, for 5000 pounds, signed by Sir
+Charles, and evidently paid across the counter in London, as it bore
+on its face no stamp or indication of any other office.
+
+I called in my brother-in-law from the salon to the study. "Look
+here, Charles," I said, "there's a cheque in the book which you
+haven't entered." And I handed it to him without comment, for I
+thought it might have been drawn to settle some little loss on the
+turf or at cards, or to make up some other affair he didn't desire
+to mention to me. These things will happen.
+
+He looked at it and stared hard. Then he pursed up his mouth and
+gave a long low "Whew!" At last he turned it over and remarked,
+"I say, Sey, my boy, we've just been done jolly well brown,
+haven't we?"
+
+I glanced at the cheque. "How do you mean?" I inquired.
+
+"Why, the Seer," he replied, still staring at it ruefully. "I
+don't mind the five thou., but to think the fellow should have
+gammoned the pair of us like that--ignominious, I call it!"
+
+"How do you know it's the Seer?" I asked.
+
+"Look at the green ink," he answered. "Besides, I recollect the
+very shape of the last flourish. I flourished a bit like that in
+the excitement of the moment, which I don't always do with my
+regular signature."
+
+"He's done us," I answered, recognising it. "But how the dickens
+did he manage to transfer it to the cheque? This looks like your
+own handwriting, Charles, not a clever forgery."
+
+"It is," he said. "I admit it--I can't deny it. Only fancy his
+bamboozling me when I was most on my guard! I wasn't to be taken
+in by any of his silly occult tricks and catch-words; but it never
+occurred to me he was going to victimise me financially in this
+way. I expected attempts at a loan or an extortion; but to collar
+my signature to a blank cheque--atrocious!"
+
+"How did he manage it?" I asked.
+
+"I haven't the faintest conception. I only know those are the
+words I wrote. I could swear to them anywhere."
+
+"Then you can't protest the cheque?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no; it's my own true signature."
+
+We went that afternoon without delay to see the Chief Commissary
+of Police at the office. He was a gentlemanly Frenchman, much less
+formal and red-tapey than usual, and he spoke excellent English
+with an American accent, having acted, in fact, as a detective in
+New York for about ten years in his early manhood.
+
+"I guess," he said slowly, after hearing our story, "you've been
+victimised right here by Colonel Clay, gentlemen."
+
+"Who is Colonel Clay?" Sir Charles asked.
+
+"That's just what I want to know," the Commissary answered, in
+his curious American-French-English. "He is a Colonel, because he
+occasionally gives himself a commission; he is called Colonel Clay,
+because he appears to possess an india-rubber face, and he can
+mould it like clay in the hands of the potter. Real name, unknown.
+Nationality, equally French and English. Address, usually Europe.
+Profession, former maker of wax figures to the Museé Grévin. Age,
+what he chooses. Employs his knowledge to mould his own nose
+and cheeks, with wax additions, to the character he desires to
+personate. Aquiline this time, you say. Hein! Anything like these
+photographs?"
+
+He rummaged in his desk and handed us two.
+
+"Not in the least," Sir Charles answered. "Except, perhaps, as to the
+neck, everything here is quite unlike him."
+
+"Then that's the Colonel!" the Commissary answered, with decision,
+rubbing his hands in glee. "Look here," and he took out a pencil
+and rapidly sketched the outline of one of the two faces--that of
+a bland-looking young man, with no expression worth mentioning.
+"There's the Colonel in his simple disguise. Very good. Now watch
+me: figure to yourself that he adds here a tiny patch of wax to his
+nose--an aquiline bridge--just so; well, you have him right there;
+and the chin, ah, one touch: now, for hair, a wig: for complexion,
+nothing easier: that's the profile of your rascal, isn't it?"
+
+"Exactly," we both murmured. By two curves of the pencil, and a
+shock of false hair, the face was transmuted.
+
+"He had very large eyes, with very big pupils, though," I objected,
+looking close; "and the man in the photograph here has them small
+and boiled-fishy."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "A drop of belladonna
+expands--and produces the Seer; five grains of opium contract--and
+give a dead-alive, stupidly-innocent appearance. Well, you leave
+this affair to me, gentlemen. I'll see the fun out. I don't say I'll
+catch him for you; nobody ever yet has caught Colonel Clay; but
+I'll explain how he did the trick; and that ought to be consolation
+enough to a man of your means for a trifle of five thousand!"
+
+"You are not the conventional French office-holder, M. le
+Commissaire," I ventured to interpose.
+
+"You bet!" the Commissary replied, and drew himself up like a
+captain of infantry. "Messieurs," he continued, in French, with the
+utmost dignity, "I shall devote the resources of this office to
+tracing out the crime, and, if possible, to effectuating the arrest
+of the culpable."
+
+We telegraphed to London, of course, and we wrote to the bank, with
+a full description of the suspected person. But I need hardly add
+that nothing came of it.
+
+Three days later the Commissary called at our hotel. "Well,
+gentlemen," he said, "I am glad to say I have discovered
+everything!"
+
+"What? Arrested the Seer?" Sir Charles cried.
+
+The Commissary drew back, almost horrified at the suggestion.
+
+"Arrested Colonel Clay?" he exclaimed. "Mais, monsieur, we are only
+human! Arrested him? No, not quite. But tracked out how he did it.
+That is already much--to unravel Colonel Clay, gentlemen!"
+
+"Well, what do you make of it?" Sir Charles asked, crestfallen.
+
+The Commissary sat down and gloated over his discovery. It was
+clear a well-planned crime amused him vastly. "In the first place,
+monsieur," he said, "disabuse your mind of the idea that when
+monsieur your secretary went out to fetch Señor Herrera that night,
+Señor Herrera didn't know to whose rooms he was coming. Quite
+otherwise, in point of fact. I do not doubt myself that Señor
+Herrera, or Colonel Clay (call him which you like), came to Nice
+this winter for no other purpose than just to rob you."
+
+"But I sent for him," my brother-in-law interposed.
+
+"Yes; he _meant_ you to send for him. He forced a card, so to
+speak. If he couldn't do that I guess he would be a pretty poor
+conjurer. He had a lady of his own--his wife, let us say, or his
+sister--stopping here at this hotel; a certain Madame Picardet.
+Through her he induced several ladies of your circle to attend his
+séances. She and they spoke to you about him, and aroused your
+curiosity. You may bet your bottom dollar that when he came to
+this room he came ready primed and prepared with endless facts
+about both of you."
+
+"What fools we have been, Sey," my brother-in-law exclaimed. "I see
+it all now. That designing woman sent round before dinner to say I
+wanted to meet him; and by the time you got there he was ready
+for bamboozling me."
+
+"That's so," the Commissary answered. "He had your name ready
+painted on both his arms; and he had made other preparations of
+still greater importance."
+
+"You mean the cheque. Well, how did he get it?"
+
+The Commissary opened the door. "Come in," he said. And a young man
+entered whom we recognised at once as the chief clerk in the Foreign
+Department of the Crédit Marseillais, the principal bank all along
+the Riviera.
+
+"State what you know of this cheque," the Commissary said, showing
+it to him, for we had handed it over to the police as a piece of
+evidence.
+
+"About four weeks since--" the clerk began.
+
+"Say ten days before your séance," the Commissary interposed.
+
+"A gentleman with very long hair and an aquiline nose, dark,
+strange, and handsome, called in at my department and asked if I
+could tell him the name of Sir Charles Vandrift's London banker.
+He said he had a sum to pay in to your credit, and asked if we
+would forward it for him. I told him it was irregular for us to
+receive the money, as you had no account with us, but that your
+London bankers were Darby, Drummond, and Rothenberg, Limited."
+
+"Quite right," Sir Charles murmured.
+
+"Two days later a lady, Madame Picardet, who was a customer of ours,
+brought in a good cheque for three hundred pounds, signed by a
+first-rate name, and asked us to pay it in on her behalf to Darby,
+Drummond, and Rothenberg's, and to open a London account with them
+for her. We did so, and received in reply a cheque-book."
+
+"From which this cheque was taken, as I learn from the number,
+by telegram from London," the Commissary put in. "Also, that on
+the same day on which your cheque was cashed, Madame Picardet,
+in London, withdrew her balance."
+
+"But how did the fellow get me to sign the cheque?" Sir Charles
+cried. "How did he manage the card trick?"
+
+The Commissary produced a similar card from his pocket. "Was that
+the sort of thing?" he asked.
+
+"Precisely! A facsimile."
+
+"I thought so. Well, our Colonel, I find, bought a packet of such
+cards, intended for admission to a religious function, at a shop
+in the Quai Massena. He cut out the centre, and, see here--" The
+Commissary turned it over, and showed a piece of paper pasted neatly
+over the back; this he tore off, and there, concealed behind it, lay
+a folded cheque, with only the place where the signature should be
+written showing through on the face which the Seer had presented
+to us. "I call that a neat trick," the Commissary remarked, with
+professional enjoyment of a really good deception.
+
+"But he burnt the envelope before my eyes," Sir Charles exclaimed.
+
+"Pooh!" the Commissary answered. "What would he be worth as a
+conjurer, anyway, if he couldn't substitute one envelope for another
+between the table and the fireplace without your noticing it? And
+Colonel Clay, you must remember, is a prince among conjurers."
+
+"Well, it's a comfort to know we've identified our man, and the
+woman who was with him," Sir Charles said, with a slight sigh of
+relief. "The next thing will be, of course, you'll follow them up
+on these clues in England and arrest them?"
+
+The Commissary shrugged his shoulders. "Arrest them!" he exclaimed,
+much amused. "Ah, monsieur, but you are sanguine! No officer of
+justice has ever succeeded in arresting le Colonel Caoutchouc, as
+we call him in French. He is as slippery as an eel, that man. He
+wriggles through our fingers. Suppose even we caught him, what could
+we prove? I ask you. Nobody who has seen him once can ever swear
+to him again in his next impersonation. He is impayable, this good
+Colonel. On the day when I arrest him, I assure you, monsieur, I
+shall consider myself the smartest police-officer in Europe."
+
+"Well, I shall catch him yet," Sir Charles answered, and relapsed
+into silence.
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DIAMOND LINKS
+
+
+"Let us take a trip to Switzerland," said Lady Vandrift. And any one
+who knows Amelia will not be surprised to learn that we _did_ take a
+trip to Switzerland accordingly. Nobody can drive Sir Charles, except
+his wife. And nobody at all can drive Amelia.
+
+There were difficulties at the outset, because we had not ordered
+rooms at the hotels beforehand, and it was well on in the season;
+but they were overcome at last by the usual application of a golden
+key; and we found ourselves in due time pleasantly quartered in
+Lucerne, at that most comfortable of European hostelries, the
+Schweitzerhof.
+
+We were a square party of four--Sir Charles and Amelia, myself and
+Isabel. We had nice big rooms, on the first floor, overlooking the
+lake; and as none of us was possessed with the faintest symptom of
+that incipient mania which shows itself in the form of an insane
+desire to climb mountain heights of disagreeable steepness and
+unnecessary snowiness, I will venture to assert we all enjoyed
+ourselves. We spent most of our time sensibly in lounging about the
+lake on the jolly little steamers; and when we did a mountain climb,
+it was on the Rigi or Pilatus--where an engine undertook all the
+muscular work for us.
+
+As usual, at the hotel, a great many miscellaneous people showed a
+burning desire to be specially nice to us. If you wish to see how
+friendly and charming humanity is, just try being a well-known
+millionaire for a week, and you'll learn a thing or two. Wherever
+Sir Charles goes he is surrounded by charming and disinterested
+people, all eager to make his distinguished acquaintance, and all
+familiar with several excellent investments, or several deserving
+objects of Christian charity. It is my business in life, as his
+brother-in-law and secretary, to decline with thanks the excellent
+investments, and to throw judicious cold water on the objects of
+charity. Even I myself, as the great man's almoner, am very much
+sought after. People casually allude before me to artless stories
+of "poor curates in Cumberland, you know, Mr. Wentworth," or widows
+in Cornwall, penniless poets with epics in their desks, and young
+painters who need but the breath of a patron to open to them the
+doors of an admiring Academy. I smile and look wise, while I
+administer cold water in minute doses; but I never report one of
+these cases to Sir Charles, except in the rare or almost unheard-of
+event where I think there is really something in them.
+
+Ever since our little adventure with the Seer at Nice, Sir Charles,
+who is constitutionally cautious, had been even more careful than
+usual about possible sharpers. And, as chance would have it, there
+sat just opposite us at table d'hôte at the Schweitzerhof--'tis
+a fad of Amelia's to dine at table d'hôte; she says she can't bear
+to be boxed up all day in private rooms with "too much family"--a
+sinister-looking man with dark hair and eyes, conspicuous by his
+bushy overhanging eyebrows. My attention was first called to the
+eyebrows in question by a nice little parson who sat at our side,
+and who observed that they were made up of certain large and bristly
+hairs, which (he told us) had been traced by Darwin to our monkey
+ancestors. Very pleasant little fellow, this fresh-faced young
+parson, on his honeymoon tour with a nice wee wife, a bonnie Scotch
+lassie with a charming accent.
+
+I looked at the eyebrows close. Then a sudden thought struck me. "Do
+you believe they're his own?" I asked of the curate; "or are they
+only stuck on--a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it."
+
+"You don't suppose--" Charles began, and checked himself suddenly.
+
+"Yes, I do," I answered; "the Seer!" Then I recollected my blunder,
+and looked down sheepishly. For, to say the truth, Vandrift had
+straightly enjoined on me long before to say nothing of our painful
+little episode at Nice to Amelia; he was afraid if _she_ once heard
+of it, _he_ would hear of it for ever after.
+
+"What Seer?" the little parson inquired, with parsonical curiosity.
+
+I noticed the man with the overhanging eyebrows give a queer sort
+of start. Charles's glance was fixed upon me. I hardly knew what
+to answer.
+
+"Oh, a man who was at Nice with us last year," I stammered out,
+trying hard to look unconcerned. "A fellow they talked about,
+that's all." And I turned the subject.
+
+But the curate, like a donkey, wouldn't let me turn it.
+
+"Had he eyebrows like that?" he inquired, in an undertone. I was
+really angry. If this _was_ Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously
+giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to
+catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the chance of
+doing so.
+
+"No, he hadn't," I answered testily; "it was a passing expression.
+But this is not the man. I was mistaken, no doubt." And I nudged
+him gently.
+
+The little curate was too innocent for anything. "Oh, I see," he
+replied, nodding hard and looking wise. Then he turned to his wife
+and made an obvious face, which the man with the eyebrows couldn't
+fail to notice.
+
+Fortunately, a political discussion going on a few places farther
+down the table spread up to us and diverted attention for a moment.
+The magical name of Gladstone saved us. Sir Charles flared up. I
+was truly pleased, for I could see Amelia was boiling over with
+curiosity by this time.
+
+After dinner, in the billiard-room, however, the man with the big
+eyebrows sidled up and began to talk to me. If he _was_ Colonel
+Clay, it was evident he bore us no grudge at all for the five
+thousand pounds he had done us out of. On the contrary, he seemed
+quite prepared to do us out of five thousand more when opportunity
+offered; for he introduced himself at once as Dr. Hector Macpherson,
+the exclusive grantee of extensive concessions from the Brazilian
+Government on the Upper Amazons. He dived into conversation with
+me at once as to the splendid mineral resources of his Brazilian
+estate--the silver, the platinum, the actual rubies, the possible
+diamonds. I listened and smiled; I knew what was coming. All he
+needed to develop this magnificent concession was a little more
+capital. It was sad to see thousands of pounds' worth of platinum
+and car-loads of rubies just crumbling in the soil or carried away
+by the river, for want of a few hundreds to work them with properly.
+If he knew of anybody, now, with money to invest, he could recommend
+him--nay, offer him--a unique opportunity of earning, say, 40 per
+cent on his capital, on unimpeachable security.
+
+"I wouldn't do it for every man," Dr. Hector Macpherson remarked,
+drawing himself up; "but if I took a fancy to a fellow who had
+command of ready cash, I might choose to put him in the way of
+feathering his nest with unexampled rapidity."
+
+"Exceedingly disinterested of you," I answered drily, fixing my
+eyes on his eyebrows.
+
+The little curate, meanwhile, was playing billiards with Sir
+Charles. His glance followed mine as it rested for a moment on
+the monkey-like hairs.
+
+"False, obviously false," he remarked with his lips; and I'm bound
+to confess I never saw any man speak so well by movement alone;
+you could follow every word though not a sound escaped him.
+
+During the rest of that evening Dr. Hector Macpherson stuck to me
+as close as a mustard-plaster. And he was almost as irritating. I
+got heartily sick of the Upper Amazons. I have positively waded in
+my time through ruby mines (in prospectuses, I mean) till the mere
+sight of a ruby absolutely sickens me. When Charles, in an unwonted
+fit of generosity, once gave his sister Isabel (whom I had the
+honour to marry) a ruby necklet (inferior stones), I made Isabel
+change it for sapphires and amethysts, on the judicious plea that
+they suited her complexion better. (I scored one, incidentally, for
+having considered Isabel's complexion.) By the time I went to bed
+I was prepared to sink the Upper Amazons in the sea, and to stab,
+shoot, poison, or otherwise seriously damage the man with the
+concession and the false eyebrows.
+
+For the next three days, at intervals, he returned to the charge. He
+bored me to death with his platinum and his rubies. He didn't want a
+capitalist who would personally exploit the thing; he would prefer
+to do it all on his own account, giving the capitalist preference
+debentures of his bogus company, and a lien on the concession. I
+listened and smiled; I listened and yawned; I listened and was rude;
+I ceased to listen at all; but still he droned on with it. I fell
+asleep on the steamer one day, and woke up in ten minutes to hear
+him droning yet, "And the yield of platinum per ton was certified
+to be--" I forget how many pounds, or ounces, or pennyweights.
+These details of assays have ceased to interest me: like the man
+who "didn't believe in ghosts," I have seen too many of them.
+
+The fresh-faced little curate and his wife, however, were quite
+different people. He was a cricketing Oxford man; she was a breezy
+Scotch lass, with a wholesome breath of the Highlands about her. I
+called her "White Heather." Their name was Brabazon. Millionaires
+are so accustomed to being beset by harpies of every description,
+that when they come across a young couple who are simple and
+natural, they delight in the purely human relation. We picnicked
+and went excursions a great deal with the honeymooners. They were
+so frank in their young love, and so proof against chaff, that we
+all really liked them. But whenever I called the pretty girl "White
+Heather," she looked so shocked, and cried: "Oh, Mr. Wentworth!"
+Still, we were the best of friends. The curate offered to row us in
+a boat on the lake one day, while the Scotch lassie assured us she
+could take an oar almost as well as he did. However, we did not
+accept their offer, as row-boats exert an unfavourable influence
+upon Amelia's digestive organs.
+
+"Nice young fellow, that man Brabazon," Sir Charles said to me one
+day, as we lounged together along the quay; "never talks about
+advowsons or next presentations. Doesn't seem to me to care two pins
+about promotion. Says he's quite content in his country curacy;
+enough to live upon, and needs no more; and his wife has a little, a
+very little, money. I asked him about his poor to-day, on purpose to
+test him: these parsons are always trying to screw something out of
+one for their poor; men in my position know the truth of the saying
+that we have that class of the population always with us. Would
+you believe it, he says he hasn't any poor at all in his parish!
+They're all well-to-do farmers or else able-bodied labourers, and
+his one terror is that somebody will come and try to pauperise them.
+'If a philanthropist were to give me fifty pounds to-day for use at
+Empingham,' he said, 'I assure you, Sir Charles, I shouldn't know
+what to do with it. I think I should buy new dresses for Jessie, who
+wants them about as much as anybody else in the village--that is to
+say, not at all.' There's a parson for you, Sey, my boy. Only wish
+we had one of his sort at Seldon."
+
+"He certainly doesn't want to get anything out of you," I answered.
+
+That evening at dinner a queer little episode happened. The man
+with the eyebrows began talking to me across the table in his usual
+fashion, full of his wearisome concession on the Upper Amazons. I
+was trying to squash him as politely as possible, when I caught
+Amelia's eye. Her look amused me. She was engaged in making signals
+to Charles at her side to observe the little curate's curious
+sleeve-links. I glanced at them, and saw at once they were a
+singular possession for so unobtrusive a person. They consisted
+each of a short gold bar for one arm of the link, fastened by a
+tiny chain of the same material to what seemed to my tolerably
+experienced eye--a first-rate diamond. Pretty big diamonds, too,
+and of remarkable shape, brilliancy, and cutting. In a moment I
+knew what Amelia meant. She owned a diamond rivière, said to be
+of Indian origin, but short by two stones for the circumference
+of her tolerably ample neck. Now, she had long been wanting two
+diamonds like these to match her set; but owing to the unusual
+shape and antiquated cutting of her own gems, she had never
+been able to complete the necklet, at least without removing an
+extravagant amount from a much larger stone of the first water.
+
+The Scotch lassie's eyes caught Amelia's at the same time, and she
+broke into a pretty smile of good-humoured amusement. "Taken in
+another person, Dick, dear!" she exclaimed, in her breezy way,
+turning to her husband. "Lady Vandrift is observing your diamond
+sleeve-links."
+
+"They're very fine gems," Amelia observed incautiously. (A most
+unwise admission if she desired to buy them.)
+
+But the pleasant little curate was too transparently simple a soul
+to take advantage of her slip of judgment. "They _are_ good stones,"
+he replied; "very good stones--considering. They're not diamonds
+at all, to tell you the truth. They're best old-fashioned Oriental
+paste. My great-grandfather bought them, after the siege of
+Seringapatam, for a few rupees, from a Sepoy who had looted them
+from Tippoo Sultan's palace. He thought, like you, he had got a good
+thing. But it turned out, when they came to be examined by experts,
+they were only paste--very wonderful paste; it is supposed they had
+even imposed upon Tippoo himself, so fine is the imitation. But they
+are worth--well, say, fifty shillings at the utmost."
+
+While he spoke Charles looked at Amelia, and Amelia looked at
+Charles. Their eyes spoke volumes. The rivière was also supposed to
+have come from Tippoo's collection. Both drew at once an identical
+conclusion. These were two of the same stones, very likely torn
+apart and disengaged from the rest in the mêlée at the capture of
+the Indian palace.
+
+"Can you take them off?" Sir Charles asked blandly. He spoke in
+the tone that indicates business.
+
+"Certainly," the little curate answered, smiling. "I'm accustomed to
+taking them off. They're always noticed. They've been kept in the
+family ever since the siege, as a sort of valueless heirloom, for
+the sake of the picturesqueness of the story, you know; and nobody
+ever sees them without asking, as you do, to examine them closely.
+They deceive even experts at first. But they're paste, all the same;
+unmitigated Oriental paste, for all that."
+
+He took them both off, and handed them to Charles. No man in England
+is a finer judge of gems than my brother-in-law. I watched him
+narrowly. He examined them close, first with the naked eye, then
+with the little pocket-lens which he always carries. "Admirable
+imitation," he muttered, passing them on to Amelia. "I'm not
+surprised they should impose upon inexperienced observers."
+
+But from the tone in which he said it, I could see at once he had
+satisfied himself they were real gems of unusual value. I know
+Charles's way of doing business so well. His glance to Amelia meant,
+"These are the very stones you have so long been in search of."
+
+The Scotch lassie laughed a merry laugh. "He sees through them
+now, Dick," she cried. "I felt sure Sir Charles would be a judge
+of diamonds."
+
+Amelia turned them over. I know Amelia, too; and I knew from the
+way Amelia looked at them that she meant to have them. And when
+Amelia means to have anything, people who stand in the way may just
+as well spare themselves the trouble of opposing her.
+
+They were beautiful diamonds. We found out afterwards the little
+curate's account was quite correct: these stones _had_ come from
+the same necklet as Amelia's rivière, made for a favourite wife of
+Tippoo's, who had presumably as expansive personal charms as our
+beloved sister-in-law's. More perfect diamonds have seldom been
+seen. They have excited the universal admiration of thieves and
+connoisseurs. Amelia told me afterwards that, according to legend,
+a Sepoy stole the necklet at the sack of the palace, and then fought
+with another for it. It was believed that two stones got spilt
+in the scuffle, and were picked up and sold by a third person--a
+looker-on--who had no idea of the value of his booty. Amelia had
+been hunting for them for several years to complete her necklet.
+
+"They are excellent paste," Sir Charles observed, handing them back.
+"It takes a first-rate judge to detect them from the reality. Lady
+Vandrift has a necklet much the same in character, but composed
+of genuine stones; and as these are so much like them, and would
+complete her set, to all outer appearance, I wouldn't mind giving
+you, say, 10 pounds for the pair of them."
+
+Mrs. Brabazon looked delighted. "Oh, sell them to him, Dick," she
+cried, "and buy me a brooch with the money! A pair of common
+links would do for you just as well. Ten pounds for two paste
+stones! It's quite a lot of money."
+
+She said it so sweetly, with her pretty Scotch accent, that I
+couldn't imagine how Dick had the heart to refuse her. But he
+did, all the same.
+
+"No, Jess, darling," he answered. "They're worthless, I know; but
+they have for me a certain sentimental value, as I've often told
+you. My dear mother wore them, while she lived, as ear-rings; and
+as soon as she died I had them set as links in order that I might
+always keep them about me. Besides, they have historical and family
+interest. Even a worthless heirloom, after all, _is_ an heirloom."
+
+Dr. Hector Macpherson looked across and intervened. "There is a
+part of my concession," he said, "where we have reason to believe a
+perfect new Kimberley will soon be discovered. If at any time you
+would care, Sir Charles, to look at my diamonds--when I get them--it
+would afford me the greatest pleasure in life to submit them to your
+consideration."
+
+Sir Charles could stand it no longer. "Sir," he said, gazing across
+at him with his sternest air, "if your concession were as full of
+diamonds as Sindbad the Sailor's valley, I would not care to turn my
+head to look at them. I am acquainted with the nature and practice
+of salting." And he glared at the man with the overhanging eyebrows
+as if he would devour him raw. Poor Dr. Hector Macpherson subsided
+instantly. We learnt a little later that he was a harmless lunatic,
+who went about the world with successive concessions for ruby mines
+and platinum reefs, because he had been ruined and driven mad by
+speculations in the two, and now recouped himself by imaginary
+grants in Burmah and Brazil, or anywhere else that turned up handy.
+And his eyebrows, after all, were of Nature's handicraft. We were
+sorry for the incident; but a man in Sir Charles's position is such
+a mark for rogues that, if he did not take means to protect himself
+promptly, he would be for ever overrun by them.
+
+When we went up to our salon that evening, Amelia flung herself on
+the sofa. "Charles," she broke out in the voice of a tragedy queen,
+"those are real diamonds, and I shall never be happy again till I
+get them."
+
+"They are real diamonds," Charles echoed. "And you shall have them,
+Amelia. They're worth not less than three thousand pounds. But I
+shall bid them up gently."
+
+So, next day, Charles set to work to higgle with the curate.
+Brabazon, however, didn't care to part with them. He was no
+money-grubber, he said. He cared more for his mother's gift and a
+family tradition than for a hundred pounds, if Sir Charles were to
+offer it. Charles's eye gleamed. "But if I give you _two_ hundred!"
+he said insinuatingly. "What opportunities for good! You could
+build a new wing to your village school-house!"
+
+"We have ample accommodation," the curate answered. "No, I don't
+think I'll sell them."
+
+Still, his voice faltered somewhat, and he looked down at them
+inquiringly.
+
+Charles was too precipitate.
+
+"A hundred pounds more or less matters little to me," he said; "and
+my wife has set her heart on them. It's every man's duty to please
+his wife--isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?--I offer you three hundred."
+
+The little Scotch girl clasped her hands.
+
+"Three hundred pounds! Oh, Dick, just think what fun we could have,
+and what good we could do with it! Do let him have them."
+
+Her accent was irresistible. But the curate shook his head.
+
+"Impossible," he answered. "My dear mother's ear-rings! Uncle
+Aubrey would be so angry if he knew I'd sold them. I daren't face
+Uncle Aubrey."
+
+"Has he expectations from Uncle Aubrey?" Sir Charles asked of
+White Heather.
+
+Mrs. Brabazon laughed. "Uncle Aubrey! Oh, dear, no. Poor dear old
+Uncle Aubrey! Why, the darling old soul hasn't a penny to bless
+himself with, except his pension. He's a retired post captain."
+And she laughed melodiously. She was a charming woman.
+
+"Then I should disregard Uncle Aubrey's feelings," Sir Charles
+said decisively.
+
+"No, no," the curate answered. "Poor dear old Uncle Aubrey! I
+wouldn't do anything for the world to annoy him. And he'd be sure
+to notice it."
+
+We went back to Amelia. "Well, have you got them?" she asked.
+
+"No," Sir Charles answered. "Not yet. But he's coming round, I
+think. He's hesitating now. Would rather like to sell them himself,
+but is afraid what 'Uncle Aubrey' would say about the matter. His
+wife will talk him out of his needless consideration for Uncle
+Aubrey's feelings; and to-morrow we'll finally clench the bargain."
+
+Next morning we stayed late in our salon, where we always
+breakfasted, and did not come down to the public rooms till just
+before déjeûner, Sir Charles being busy with me over arrears of
+correspondence. When we _did_ come down the concierge stepped
+forward with a twisted little feminine note for Amelia. She took
+it and read it. Her countenance fell. "There, Charles," she cried,
+handing it to him, "you've let the chance slip. I shall _never_ be
+happy now! They've gone off with the diamonds."
+
+Charles seized the note and read it. Then he passed it on to me.
+It was short, but final:--
+
+
+"Thursday, 6 a.m.
+
+"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT--_Will_ you kindly excuse our having gone off
+hurriedly without bidding you good-bye? We have just had a horrid
+telegram to say that Dick's favourite sister is _dangerously_ ill of
+fever in Paris. I wanted to shake hands with you before we left--you
+have all been so sweet to us--but we go by the morning train,
+absurdly early, and I wouldn't for worlds disturb you. Perhaps some
+day we may meet again--though, buried as we are in a North-country
+village, it isn't likely; but in any case, you have secured the
+grateful recollection of Yours very cordially, JESSIE BRABAZON.
+
+"P.S.--Kindest regards to Sir Charles and those _dear_ Wentworths,
+and a kiss for yourself, if I may venture to send you one."
+
+
+"She doesn't even mention where they've gone," Amelia exclaimed,
+in a very bad humour.
+
+"The concierge may know," Isabel suggested, looking over my
+shoulder.
+
+We asked at his office.
+
+Yes, the gentleman's address was the Rev. Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+Holme Bush Cottage, Empingham, Northumberland.
+
+Any address where letters might be sent at once, in Paris?
+
+For the next ten days, or till further notice, Hôtel des Deux
+Mondes, Avenue de l'Opéra.
+
+Amelia's mind was made up at once.
+
+"Strike while the iron's hot," she cried. "This sudden illness,
+coming at the end of their honeymoon, and involving ten days' more
+stay at an expensive hotel, will probably upset the curate's budget.
+He'll be glad to sell now. You'll get them for three hundred. It
+was absurd of Charles to offer so much at first; but offered once,
+of course we must stick to it."
+
+"What do you propose to do?" Charles asked. "Write, or telegraph?"
+
+"Oh, how silly men are!" Amelia cried. "Is this the sort of business
+to be arranged by letter, still less by telegram? No. Seymour must
+start off at once, taking the night train to Paris; and the moment
+he gets there, he must interview the curate or Mrs. Brabazon. Mrs.
+Brabazon's the best. She has none of this stupid, sentimental
+nonsense about Uncle Aubrey."
+
+It is no part of a secretary's duties to act as a diamond broker.
+But when Amelia puts her foot down, she puts her foot down--a fact
+which she is unnecessarily fond of emphasising in that identical
+proposition. So the self-same evening saw me safe in the train on
+my way to Paris; and next morning I turned out of my comfortable
+sleeping-car at the Gare de Strasbourg. My orders were to bring back
+those diamonds, alive or dead, so to speak, in my pocket to Lucerne;
+and to offer any needful sum, up to two thousand five hundred
+pounds, for their immediate purchase.
+
+When I arrived at the Deux Mondes I found the poor little curate
+and his wife both greatly agitated. They had sat up all night, they
+said, with their invalid sister; and the sleeplessness and suspense
+had certainly told upon them after their long railway journey. They
+were pale and tired, Mrs. Brabazon, in particular, looking ill and
+worried--too much like White Heather. I was more than half ashamed
+of bothering them about the diamonds at such a moment, but it
+occurred to me that Amelia was probably right--they would now have
+reached the end of the sum set apart for their Continental trip,
+and a little ready cash might be far from unwelcome.
+
+I broached the subject delicately. It was a fad of Lady Vandrift's,
+I said. She had set her heart upon those useless trinkets. And she
+wouldn't go without them. She must and would have them. But the
+curate was obdurate. He threw Uncle Aubrey still in my teeth. Three
+hundred?--no, never! A mother's present; impossible, dear Jessie!
+Jessie begged and prayed; she had grown really attached to Lady
+Vandrift, she said; but the curate wouldn't hear of it. I went up
+tentatively to four hundred. He shook his head gloomily. It wasn't
+a question of money, he said. It was a question of affection. I saw
+it was no use trying that tack any longer. I struck out a new line.
+"These stones," I said, "I think I ought to inform you, are really
+diamonds. Sir Charles is certain of it. Now, is it right for a man
+of your profession and position to be wearing a pair of big gems
+like those, worth several hundred pounds, as ordinary sleeve-links?
+A woman?--yes, I grant you. But for a man, is it manly? And you a
+cricketer!"
+
+He looked at me and laughed. "Will nothing convince you?" he cried.
+"They have been examined and tested by half a dozen jewellers, and
+we know them to be paste. It wouldn't be right of me to sell them
+to you under false pretences, however unwilling on my side. I
+_couldn't_ do it."
+
+"Well, then," I said, going up a bit in my bids to meet him,
+"I'll put it like this. These gems are paste. But Lady Vandrift
+has an unconquerable and unaccountable desire to possess them.
+Money doesn't matter to her. She is a friend of your wife's. As a
+personal favour, won't you sell them to her for a thousand?"
+
+He shook his head. "It would be wrong," he said,--"I might even add,
+criminal."
+
+"But we take all risk," I cried.
+
+He was absolute adamant. "As a clergyman," he answered, "I feel
+I cannot do it."
+
+"Will _you_ try, Mrs. Brabazon?" I asked.
+
+The pretty little Scotchwoman leant over and whispered. She coaxed
+and cajoled him. Her ways were winsome. I couldn't hear what she
+said, but he seemed to give way at last. "I should love Lady
+Vandrift to have them," she murmured, turning to me. "She _is_ such
+a dear!" And she took out the links from her husband's cuffs and
+handed them across to me.
+
+"How much?" I asked.
+
+"Two thousand?" she answered, interrogatively. It was a big rise,
+all at once; but such are the ways of women.
+
+"Done!" I replied. "Do you consent?"
+
+The curate looked up as if ashamed of himself.
+
+"I consent," he said slowly, "since Jessie wishes it. But as a
+clergyman, and to prevent any future misunderstanding, I should
+like you to give me a statement in writing that you buy them on my
+distinct and positive declaration that they are made of paste--old
+Oriental paste--not genuine stones, and that I do not claim any
+other qualities for them."
+
+I popped the gems into my purse, well pleased.
+
+"Certainly," I said, pulling out a paper. Charles, with his
+unerring business instinct, had anticipated the request, and given
+me a signed agreement to that effect.
+
+"You will take a cheque?" I inquired.
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Notes of the Bank of France would suit me better," he answered.
+
+"Very well," I replied. "I will go out and get them."
+
+How very unsuspicious some people are! He allowed me to go off--with
+the stones in my pocket!
+
+Sir Charles had given me a blank cheque, not exceeding two thousand
+five hundred pounds. I took it to our agents and cashed it for notes
+of the Bank of France. The curate clasped them with pleasure. And
+right glad I was to go back to Lucerne that night, feeling that I
+had got those diamonds into my hands for about a thousand pounds
+under their real value!
+
+At Lucerne railway station Amelia met me. She was positively
+agitated.
+
+"Have you bought them, Seymour?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," I answered, producing my spoils in triumph.
+
+"Oh, how dreadful!" she cried, drawing back. "Do you think they're
+real? Are you sure he hasn't cheated you?"
+
+"Certain of it," I replied, examining them. "No one can take me in,
+in the matter of diamonds. Why on earth should you doubt them?"
+
+"Because I've been talking to Mrs. O'Hagan, at the hotel, and she
+says there's a well-known trick just like that--she's read of it in
+a book. A swindler has two sets--one real, one false; and he makes
+you buy the false ones by showing you the real, and pretending he
+sells them as a special favour."
+
+"You needn't be alarmed," I answered. "I am a judge of diamonds."
+
+"I shan't be satisfied," Amelia murmured, "till Charles has seen
+them."
+
+We went up to the hotel. For the first time in her life I saw Amelia
+really nervous as I handed the stones to Charles to examine. Her
+doubt was contagious. I half feared, myself, he might break out into
+a deep monosyllabic interjection, losing his temper in haste, as he
+often does when things go wrong. But he looked at them with a smile,
+while I told him the price.
+
+"Eight hundred pounds less than their value," he answered, well
+satisfied.
+
+"You have no doubt of their reality?" I asked.
+
+"Not the slightest," he replied, gazing at them. "They are genuine
+stones, precisely the same in quality and type as Amelia's necklet."
+
+Amelia drew a sigh of relief. "I'll go upstairs," she said slowly,
+"and bring down my own for you both to compare with them."
+
+One minute later she rushed down again, breathless. Amelia is far
+from slim, and I never before knew her exert herself so actively.
+
+"Charles, Charles!" she cried, "do you know what dreadful thing
+has happened? Two of my own stones are gone. He's stolen a couple
+of diamonds from my necklet, and sold them back to me."
+
+She held out the rivière. It was all too true. Two gems were
+missing--and these two just fitted the empty places!
+
+A light broke in upon me. I clapped my hand to my head. "By Jove,"
+I exclaimed, "the little curate is--Colonel Clay!"
+
+Charles clapped his own hand to his brow in turn. "And Jessie," he
+cried, "White Heather--that innocent little Scotchwoman! I often
+detected a familiar ring in her voice, in spite of the charming
+Highland accent. Jessie is--Madame Picardet!"
+
+We had absolutely no evidence; but, like the Commissary at Nice,
+we felt instinctively sure of it.
+
+Sir Charles was determined to catch the rogue. This second deception
+put him on his mettle. "The worst of the man is," he said, "he has a
+method. He doesn't go out of his way to cheat us; he makes us go out
+of ours to be cheated. He lays a trap, and we tumble headlong into
+it. To-morrow, Sey, we must follow him on to Paris."
+
+Amelia explained to him what Mrs. O'Hagan had said. Charles took it
+all in at once, with his usual sagacity. "That explains," he said,
+"why the rascal used this particular trick to draw us on by. If we
+had suspected him he could have shown the diamonds were real, and
+so escaped detection. It was a blind to draw us off from the fact
+of the robbery. He went to Paris to be out of the way when the
+discovery was made, and to get a clear day's start of us. What a
+consummate rogue! And to do me twice running!"
+
+"How did he get at my jewel-case, though?" Amelia exclaimed.
+
+"That's the question," Charles answered. "You _do_ leave it about so!"
+
+"And why didn't he steal the whole rivière at once, and sell the
+gems?" I inquired.
+
+"Too cunning," Charles replied. "This was much better business. It
+isn't easy to dispose of a big thing like that. In the first place,
+the stones are large and valuable; in the second place, they're
+well known--every dealer has heard of the Vandrift rivière, and seen
+pictures of the shape of them. They're marked gems, so to speak. No,
+he played a better game--took a couple of them off, and offered them
+to the only one person on earth who was likely to buy them without
+suspicion. He came here, meaning to work this very trick; he had
+the links made right to the shape beforehand, and then he stole the
+stones and slipped them into their places. It's a wonderfully clever
+trick. Upon my soul, I almost admire the fellow."
+
+For Charles is a business man himself, and can appreciate business
+capacity in others.
+
+How Colonel Clay came to know about that necklet, and to appropriate
+two of the stones, we only discovered much later. I will not here
+anticipate that disclosure. One thing at a time is a good rule in
+life. For the moment he succeeded in baffling us altogether.
+
+However, we followed him on to Paris, telegraphing beforehand to the
+Bank of France to stop the notes. It was all in vain. They had been
+cashed within half an hour of my paying them. The curate and his
+wife, we found, quitted the Hôtel des Deux Mondes for parts unknown
+that same afternoon. And, as usual with Colonel Clay, they vanished
+into space, leaving no clue behind them. In other words, they
+changed their disguise, no doubt, and reappeared somewhere else that
+night in altered characters. At any rate, no such person as the
+Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon was ever afterwards heard of--and,
+for the matter of that, no such village exists as Empingham,
+Northumberland.
+
+We communicated the matter to the Parisian police. They were _most_
+unsympathetic. "It is no doubt Colonel Clay," said the official
+whom we saw; "but you seem to have little just ground of complaint
+against him. As far as I can see, messieurs, there is not much to
+choose between you. You, Monsieur le Chevalier, desired to buy
+diamonds at the price of paste. You, madame, feared you had bought
+paste at the price of diamonds. You, monsieur the secretary, tried
+to get the stones from an unsuspecting person for half their value.
+He took you all in, that brave Colonel Caoutchouc--it was diamond
+cut diamond."
+
+Which was true, no doubt, but by no means consoling.
+
+We returned to the Grand Hotel. Charles was fuming with indignation.
+"This is really too much," he exclaimed. "What an audacious rascal!
+But he will never again take me in, my dear Sey. I only hope he'll
+try it on. I should love to catch him. I'd know him another time,
+I'm sure, in spite of his disguises. It's absurd my being tricked
+twice running like this. But never again while I live! Never again,
+I declare to you!"
+
+"Jamais de la vie!" a courier in the hall close by murmured
+responsive. We stood under the verandah of the Grand Hotel, in the
+big glass courtyard. And I verily believe that courier was really
+Colonel Clay himself in one of his disguises.
+
+But perhaps we were beginning to suspect him everywhere.
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD MASTER
+
+
+Like most South Africans, Sir Charles Vandrift is anything but
+sedentary. He hates sitting down. He must always "trek." He cannot
+live without moving about freely. Six weeks in Mayfair at a time is
+as much as he can stand. Then he must run away incontinently for
+rest and change to Scotland, Homburg, Monte Carlo, Biarritz. "I
+won't be a limpet on the rock," he says. Thus it came to pass that
+in the early autumn we found ourselves stopping at the Métropole
+at Brighton. We were the accustomed nice little family party--Sir
+Charles and Amelia, myself and Isabel, with the suite as usual.
+
+On the first Sunday morning after our arrival we strolled out,
+Charles and I--I regret to say during the hours allotted for Divine
+service--on to the King's Road, to get a whiff of fresh air, and a
+glimpse of the waves that were churning the Channel. The two ladies
+(with their bonnets) had gone to church; but Sir Charles had risen
+late, fatigued from the week's toil, while I myself was suffering
+from a matutinal headache, which I attributed to the close air in
+the billiard-room overnight, combined, perhaps, with the insidious
+effect of a brand of soda-water to which I was little accustomed; I
+had used it to dilute my evening whisky. We were to meet our wives
+afterwards at the church parade--an institution to which I believe
+both Amelia and Isabel attach even greater importance than to the
+sermon which precedes it.
+
+We sat down on a glass seat. Charles gazed inquiringly up and down
+the King's Road, on the look-out for a boy with Sunday papers.
+At last one passed. "Observer," my brother-in-law called out
+laconically.
+
+"Ain't got none," the boy answered, brandishing his bundle in our
+faces. "'Ave a Referee or a Pink 'Un?"
+
+Charles, however, is not a Refereader, while as to the Pink 'Un, he
+considers it unsuitable for public perusal on Sunday morning. It may
+be read indoors, but in the open air its blush betrays it. So he
+shook his head, and muttered, "If you pass an Observer, send him on
+here at once to me."
+
+A polite stranger who sat close to us turned round with a pleasant
+smile. "Would you allow me to offer you one?" he said, drawing a
+copy from his pocket. "I fancy I bought the last. There's a run
+on them to-day, you see. Important news this morning from the
+Transvaal."
+
+Charles raised his eyebrows, and accepted it, as I thought, just a
+trifle grumpily. So, to remove the false impression his surliness
+might produce on so benevolent a mind, I entered into conversation
+with the polite stranger. He was a man of middle age, and medium
+height, with a cultivated air, and a pair of gold pince-nez; his
+eyes were sharp; his voice was refined; he dropped into talk before
+long about distinguished people just then in Brighton. It was clear
+at once that he was hand in glove with many of the very best kind.
+We compared notes as to Nice, Rome, Florence, Cairo. Our new
+acquaintance had scores of friends in common with us, it seemed;
+indeed, our circles so largely coincided, that I wondered we had
+never happened till then to knock up against one another.
+
+"And Sir Charles Vandrift, the great African millionaire," he said
+at last, "do you know anything of _him_? I'm told he's at present
+down here at the Métropole."
+
+I waved my hand towards the person in question.
+
+"_This_ is Sir Charles Vandrift," I answered, with proprietary pride;
+"and _I_ am his brother-in-law, Mr. Seymour Wentworth."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" the stranger answered, with a curious air of drawing
+in his horns. I wondered whether he had just been going to pretend
+he knew Sir Charles, or whether perchance he was on the point of
+saying something highly uncomplimentary, and was glad to have
+escaped it.
+
+By this time, however, Charles laid down the paper and chimed into
+our conversation. I could see at once from his mollified tone that
+the news from the Transvaal was favourable to his operations in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. He was therefore in a friendly and affable
+temper. His whole manner changed at once. He grew polite in return
+to the polite stranger. Besides, we knew the man moved in the best
+society; he had acquaintances whom Amelia was most anxious to secure
+for her "At Homes" in Mayfair--young Faith, the novelist, and Sir
+Richard Montrose, the great Arctic traveller. As for the painters,
+it was clear that he was sworn friends with the whole lot of them.
+He dined with Academicians, and gave weekly breakfasts to the
+members of the Institute. Now, Amelia is particularly desirous
+that her salon should not be considered too exclusively financial
+and political in character: with a solid basis of M.P.'s and
+millionaires, she loves a delicate under-current of literature,
+art, and the musical glasses. Our new acquaintance was extremely
+communicative: "Knows his place in society, Sey," Sir Charles said
+to me afterwards, "and is therefore not afraid of talking freely,
+as so many people are who have doubts about their position." We
+exchanged cards before we rose. Our new friend's name turned out
+to be Dr. Edward Polperro.
+
+"In practice here?" I inquired, though his garb belied it.
+
+"Oh, not medical," he answered. "I am an LL.D. don't you know. I
+interest myself in art, and buy to some extent for the National
+Gallery."
+
+The very man for Amelia's "At Homes"! Sir Charles snapped at him
+instantly. "I've brought my four-in-hand down here with me," he
+said, in his best friendly manner, "and we think of tooling over
+to-morrow to Lewes. If you'd care to take a seat I'm sure Lady
+Vandrift would be charmed to see you."
+
+"You're very kind," the Doctor said, "on so casual an introduction.
+I'm sure I shall be delighted."
+
+"We start from the Métropole at ten-thirty," Charles went on.
+
+"I shall be there. Good morning!" And, with a satisfied smile, he
+rose and left us, nodding.
+
+We returned to the lawn, to Amelia and Isabel. Our new friend passed
+us once or twice. Charles stopped him and introduced him. He was
+walking with two ladies, most elegantly dressed in rather peculiar
+artistic dresses. Amelia was taken at first sight by his manner.
+"One could see at a glance," she said, "he was a person of culture
+and of real distinction. I wonder whether he could bring the P.R.A.
+to my Parliamentary 'At Home' on Wednesday fortnight?"
+
+Next day, at ten-thirty, we started on our drive. Our team has been
+considered the best in Sussex. Charles is an excellent, though
+somewhat anxious--or, might I say better, somewhat careful?--whip.
+He finds the management of two leaders and two wheelers fills his
+hands for the moment, both literally and figuratively, leaving very
+little time for general conversation. Lady Belleisle of Beacon
+bloomed beside him on the box (her bloom is perennial, and applied
+by her maid); Dr. Polperro occupied the seat just behind with myself
+and Amelia. The Doctor talked most of the time to Lady Vandrift: his
+discourse was of picture-galleries, which Amelia detests, but in
+which she thinks it incumbent upon her, as Sir Charles's wife, to
+affect now and then a cultivated interest. Noblesse oblige; and the
+walls of Castle Seldon, our place in Ross-shire, are almost covered
+now with Leaders and with Orchardsons. This result was first arrived
+at by a singular accident. Sir Charles wanted a leader--for his
+coach, you understand--and told an artistic friend so. The artistic
+friend brought him a Leader next week with a capital L; and Sir
+Charles was so taken aback that he felt ashamed to confess the
+error. So he was turned unawares into a patron of painting.
+
+Dr. Polperro, in spite of his too pronouncedly artistic talk, proved
+on closer view a most agreeable companion. He diversified his art
+cleverly with anecdotes and scandals; he told us exactly which
+famous painters had married their cooks, and which had only married
+their models; and otherwise showed himself a most diverting talker.
+Among other things, however, he happened to mention once that he
+had recently discovered a genuine Rembrandt--a quite undoubted
+Rembrandt, which had remained for years in the keeping of a
+certain obscure Dutch family. It had always been allowed to be a
+masterpiece of the painter, but it had seldom been seen for the
+last half-century save by a few intimate acquaintances. It was a
+portrait of one Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and he had bought it
+of her descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+I saw Charles prick up his ears, though he took no open notice.
+This Maria Vanrenen, as it happened, was a remote collateral
+ancestress of the Vandrifts, before they emigrated to the Cape in
+1780; and the existence of the portrait, though not its whereabouts,
+was well known in the family. Isabel had often mentioned it. If it
+was to be had at anything like a reasonable price, it would be a
+splendid thing for the boys (Sir Charles, I ought to say, has two
+sons at Eton) to possess an undoubted portrait of an ancestress
+by Rembrandt.
+
+Dr. Polperro talked a good deal after that about this valuable find.
+He had tried to sell it at first to the National Gallery; but
+though the Directors admired the work immensely, and admitted its
+genuineness, they regretted that the funds at their disposal this
+year did not permit them to acquire so important a canvas at a
+proper figure. South Kensington again was too poor; but the Doctor
+was in treaty at present with the Louvre and with Berlin. Still,
+it was a pity a fine work of art like that, once brought into the
+country, should be allowed to go out of it. Some patriotic patron
+of the fine arts ought to buy it for his own house, or else
+munificently present it to the nation.
+
+All the time Charles said nothing. But I could feel him cogitating.
+He even looked behind him once, near a difficult corner (while the
+guard was actually engaged in tootling his horn to let passers-by
+know that the coach was coming), and gave Amelia a warning glance
+to say nothing committing, which had at once the requisite effect
+of sealing her mouth for the moment. It is a very unusual thing
+for Charles to look back while driving. I gathered from his doing
+so that he was inordinately anxious to possess this Rembrandt.
+
+When we arrived at Lewes we put up our horses at the inn,
+and Charles ordered a lunch on his wonted scale of princely
+magnificence. Meanwhile we wandered, two and two, about the town
+and castle. I annexed Lady Belleisle, who is at least amusing.
+Charles drew me aside before starting. "Look here, Sey," he
+said, "we must be _very_ careful. This man, Polperro, is a chance
+acquaintance. There's nothing an astute rogue can take one in over
+more easily than an Old Master. If the Rembrandt is genuine I
+ought to have it; if it really represents Maria Vanrenen, it's a
+duty I owe to the boys to buy it. But I've been done twice lately,
+and I won't be done a third time. We must go to work cautiously."
+
+"You are right," I answered. "No more seers and curates!"
+
+"If this man's an impostor," Charles went on--"and in spite of what
+he says about the National Gallery and so forth, we know nothing of
+him--the story he tells is just the sort of one such a fellow would
+trump up in a moment to deceive me. He could easily learn who I
+was--I'm a well-known figure; he knew I was in Brighton, and he
+may have been sitting on that glass seat on Sunday on purpose to
+entrap me."
+
+"He introduced your name," I said, "and the moment he found out who
+I was he plunged into talk with me."
+
+"Yes," Charles continued. "He may have learned about the portrait
+of Maria Vanrenen, which my grandmother always said was preserved
+at Gouda; and, indeed, I myself have often mentioned it, as you
+doubtless remember. If so, what more natural, say, for a rogue than
+to begin talking about the portrait in that innocent way to Amelia?
+If he wants a Rembrandt, I believe they can be turned out to order
+to any amount in Birmingham. The moral of all which is, it behoves
+us to be careful."
+
+"Right you are," I answered; "and I am keeping my eye upon him."
+
+We drove back by another road, overshadowed by beech-trees in
+autumnal gold. It was a delightful excursion. Dr. Polperro's heart
+was elated by lunch and the excellent dry Monopole. He talked
+amazingly. I never heard a man with a greater or more varied flow
+of anecdote. He had been everywhere and knew all about everybody.
+Amelia booked him at once for her "At Home" on Wednesday week,
+and he promised to introduce her to several artistic and literary
+celebrities.
+
+That evening, however, about half-past seven, Charles and I strolled
+out together on the King's Road for a blow before dinner. We dine at
+eight. The air was delicious. We passed a small new hotel, very
+smart and exclusive, with a big bow window. There, in evening dress,
+lights burning and blind up, sat our friend, Dr. Polperro, with a
+lady facing him, young, graceful, and pretty. A bottle of champagne
+stood open before him. He was helping himself plentifully to
+hot-house grapes, and full of good humour. It was clear he and the
+lady were occupied in the intense enjoyment of some capital joke;
+for they looked queerly at one another, and burst now and again
+into merry peals of laughter.
+
+I drew back. So did Sir Charles. One idea passed at once through
+both our minds. I murmured, "Colonel Clay!" He answered, "_and_
+Madame Picardet!"
+
+They were not in the least like the Reverend Richard and Mrs.
+Brabazon. But that clinched the matter. Nor did I see a sign of the
+aquiline nose of the Mexican Seer. Still, I had learnt by then to
+discount appearances. If these were indeed the famous sharper and
+his wife or accomplice, we must be very careful. We were forewarned
+this time. Supposing he had the audacity to try a third trick of
+the sort upon us we had him under our thumbs. Only, we must take
+steps to prevent his dexterously slipping through our fingers.
+
+"He can wriggle like an eel," said the Commissary at Nice. We both
+recalled those words, and laid our plans deep to prevent the man's
+wriggling away from us on this third occasion.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Sey," my brother-in-law said, with
+impressive slowness. "This time we must deliberately lay ourselves
+out to be swindled. We must propose of our own accord to buy the
+picture, making him guarantee it in writing as a genuine Rembrandt,
+and taking care to tie him down by most stringent conditions. But
+we must seem at the same time to be unsuspicious and innocent as
+babes; we must swallow whole whatever lies he tells us; pay his
+price--nominally--by cheque for the portrait; and then, arrest him
+the moment the bargain is complete, with the proofs of his guilt
+then and there upon him. Of course, what he'll try to do will be to
+vanish into thin air at once, as he did at Nice and Paris; but, this
+time, we'll have the police in waiting and everything ready. We'll
+avoid precipitancy, but we'll avoid delay too. We must hold our
+hands off till he's actually accepted and pocketed the money; and
+then, we must nab him instantly, and walk him off to the local Bow
+Street. That's my plan of campaign. Meanwhile, we should appear
+all trustful innocence and confiding guilelessness."
+
+In pursuance of this well-laid scheme, we called next day on Dr.
+Polperro at his hotel, and were introduced to his wife, a dainty
+little woman, in whom we affected not to recognise that arch Madame
+Picardet or that simple White Heather. The Doctor talked charmingly
+(as usual) about art--what a well-informed rascal he was, to be
+sure!--and Sir Charles expressed some interest in the supposed
+Rembrandt. Our new friend was delighted; we could see by his
+well-suppressed eagerness of tone that he knew us at once for
+probable purchasers. He would run up to town next day, he said, and
+bring down the portrait. And in effect, when Charles and I took our
+wonted places in the Pullman next morning, on our way up to the
+half-yearly meeting of Cloetedorp Golcondas, there was our Doctor,
+leaning back in his arm-chair as if the car belonged to him. Charles
+gave me an expressive look. "Does it in style," he whispered,
+"doesn't he? Takes it out of my five thousand; or discounts the
+amount he means to chouse me of with his spurious Rembrandt."
+
+Arrived in town, we went to work at once. We set a private detective
+from Marvillier's to watch our friend; and from him we learned that
+the so-called Doctor dropped in for a picture that day at a dealer's
+in the West-end (I suppress the name, having a judicious fear of
+the law of libel ever before my eyes), a dealer who was known to be
+mixed up before then in several shady or disreputable transactions.
+Though, to be sure, my experience has been that picture dealers
+are--picture dealers. Horses rank first in my mind as begetters and
+producers of unscrupulous agents, but pictures run them a very good
+second. Anyhow, we found out that our distinguished art-critic
+picked up his Rembrandt at this dealer's shop, and came down with
+it in his care the same night to Brighton.
+
+In order not to act precipitately, and so ruin our plans, we induced
+Dr. Polperro (what a cleverly chosen name!) to bring the Rembrandt
+round to the Métropole for our inspection, and to leave it with us
+while we got the opinion of an expert from London.
+
+The expert came down, and gave us a full report upon the alleged
+Old Master. In his judgment, it was not a Rembrandt at all, but
+a cunningly-painted and well-begrimed modern Dutch imitation.
+Moreover, he showed us by documentary evidence that the real
+portrait of Maria Vanrenen had, as a matter of fact, been brought
+to England five years before, and sold to Sir J. H. Tomlinson, the
+well-known connoisseur, for eight thousand pounds. Dr. Polperro's
+picture was, therefore, at best either a replica by Rembrandt; or
+else, more probably, a copy by a pupil; or, most likely of all,
+a mere modern forgery.
+
+We were thus well prepared to fasten our charge of criminal
+conspiracy upon the self-styled Doctor. But in order to make
+assurance still more certain, we threw out vague hints to him that
+the portrait of Maria Vanrenen might really be elsewhere, and even
+suggested in his hearing that it might not improbably have got into
+the hands of that omnivorous collector, Sir J. H. Tomlinson. But
+the vendor was proof against all such attempts to decry his goods.
+He had the effrontery to brush away the documentary evidence, and to
+declare that Sir J. H. Tomlinson (one of the most learned and astute
+picture-buyers in England) had been smartly imposed upon by a needy
+Dutch artist with a talent for forgery. The real Maria Vanrenen, he
+declared and swore, was the one he offered us. "Success has turned
+the man's head," Charles said to me, well pleased. "He thinks we
+will swallow any obvious lie he chooses to palm off upon us. But the
+bucket has come once too often to the well. This time we checkmate
+him." It was a mixed metaphor, I admit; but Sir Charles's tropes
+are not always entirely superior to criticism.
+
+So we pretended to believe our man, and accepted his assurances.
+Next came the question of price. This was warmly debated, for form's
+sake only. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had paid eight thousand for his
+genuine Maria. The Doctor demanded ten thousand for his spurious
+one. There was really no reason why we should higgle and dispute,
+for Charles meant merely to give his cheque for the sum and then
+arrest the fellow; but, still, we thought it best for the avoidance
+of suspicion to make a show of resistance; and we at last beat him
+down to nine thousand guineas. For this amount he was to give us a
+written warranty that the work he sold us was a genuine Rembrandt,
+that it represented Maria Vanrenen of Haarlem, and that he had
+bought it direct, without doubt or question, from that good lady's
+descendants at Gouda, in Holland.
+
+It was capitally done. We arranged the thing to perfection. We had a
+constable in waiting in our rooms at the Métropole, and we settled
+that Dr. Polperro was to call at the hotel at a certain fixed hour
+to sign the warranty and receive his money. A regular agreement on
+sound stamped paper was drawn out between us. At the appointed time
+the "party of the first part" came, having already given us over
+possession of the portrait. Charles drew a cheque for the amount
+agreed upon, and signed it. Then he handed it to the Doctor.
+Polperro just clutched at it. Meanwhile, I took up my post by
+the door, while two men in plain clothes, detectives from the
+police-station, stood as men-servants and watched the windows. We
+feared lest the impostor, once he had got the cheque, should dodge
+us somehow, as he had already done at Nice and in Paris. The moment
+he had pocketed his money with a smile of triumph, I advanced to him
+rapidly. I had in my possession a pair of handcuffs. Before he knew
+what was happening, I had slipped them on his wrists and secured
+them dexterously, while the constable stepped forward. "We have got
+you this time!" I cried. "We know who you are, Dr. Polperro. You
+are--Colonel Clay, alias Señor Antonio Herrera, alias the Reverend
+Richard Peploe Brabazon."
+
+I never saw any man so astonished in my life! He was utterly
+flabbergasted. Charles thought he must have expected to get clear
+away at once, and that this prompt action on our part had taken
+the fellow so much by surprise as to simply unman him. He gazed
+about him as if he hardly realised what was happening.
+
+"Are these two raving maniacs?" he asked at last, "or what do they
+mean by this nonsensical gibberish about Antonio Herrera?"
+
+The constable laid his hand on the prisoner's shoulder.
+
+"It's all right, my man," he said. "We've got warrants out against
+you. I arrest you, Edward Polperro, alias the Reverend Richard
+Peploe Brabazon, on a charge of obtaining money under false
+pretences from Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G., M.P., on his sworn
+information, now here subscribed to." For Charles had had the
+thing drawn out in readiness beforehand.
+
+Our prisoner drew himself up. "Look here, officer," he said, in an
+offended tone, "there's some mistake here in this matter. I have
+never given an alias at any time in my life. How do you know this
+is really Sir Charles Vandrift? It may be a case of bullying
+personation. My belief is, though, they're a pair of escaped
+lunatics."
+
+"We'll see about that to-morrow," the constable said, collaring him.
+"At present you've got to go off with me quietly to the station,
+where these gentlemen will enter up the charge against you."
+
+They carried him off, protesting. Charles and I signed the
+charge-sheet; and the officer locked him up to await his examination
+next day before the magistrate.
+
+We were half afraid even now the fellow would manage somehow to
+get out on bail and give us the slip in spite of everything;
+and, indeed, he protested in the most violent manner against the
+treatment to which we were subjecting "a gentleman in his position."
+But Charles took care to tell the police it was all right; that he
+was a dangerous and peculiarly slippery criminal, and that on no
+account must they let him go on any pretext whatever, till he had
+been properly examined before the magistrates.
+
+We learned at the hotel that night, curiously enough, that there
+really _was_ a Dr. Polperro, a distinguished art critic, whose
+name, we didn't doubt, our impostor had been assuming.
+
+Next morning, when we reached the court, an inspector met us with a
+very long face. "Look here, gentlemen," he said, "I'm afraid you've
+committed a very serious blunder. You've made a precious bad mess of
+it. You've got yourselves into a scrape; and, what's worse, you've
+got us into one also. You were a deal too smart with your sworn
+information. We've made inquiries about this gentleman, and we find
+the account he gives of himself is perfectly correct. His name _is_
+Polperro; he's a well-known art critic and collector of pictures,
+employed abroad by the National Gallery. He was formerly an official
+in the South Kensington Museum, and he's a C.B. and LL.D., very
+highly respected. You've made a sad mistake, that's where it is; and
+you'll probably have to answer a charge of false imprisonment, in
+which I'm afraid you have also involved our own department."
+
+Charles gasped with horror. "You haven't let him out," he cried, "on
+those absurd representations? You haven't let him slip through your
+hands as you did that murderer fellow?"
+
+"Let him slip through our hands?" the inspector cried. "I only wish
+he would. There's no chance of that, unfortunately. He's in the
+court there, this moment, breathing out fire and slaughter against
+you both; and we're here to protect you if he should happen to fall
+upon you. He's been locked up all night on your mistaken affidavits,
+and, naturally enough, he's mad with anger."
+
+"If you haven't let him go, I'm satisfied," Charles answered.
+"He's a fox for cunning. Where is he? Let me see him."
+
+We went into the court. There we saw our prisoner conversing
+amicably, in the most excited way, with the magistrate (who, it
+seems, was a personal friend of his); and Charles at once went
+up and spoke to them. Dr. Polperro turned round and glared at him
+through his pince-nez.
+
+"The only possible explanation of this person's extraordinary and
+incredible conduct," he said, "is, that he must be mad--and his
+secretary equally so. He made my acquaintance, unasked, on a glass
+seat on the King's Road; invited me to go on his coach to Lewes;
+volunteered to buy a valuable picture of me; and then, at the
+last moment, unaccountably gave me in charge on this silly and
+preposterous trumped-up accusation. I demand a summons for false
+imprisonment."
+
+Suddenly it began to dawn upon us that the tables were turned. By
+degrees it came out that we had made a mistake. Dr. Polperro was
+really the person he represented himself to be, and had been always.
+His picture, we found out, was the real Maria Vanrenen, and a
+genuine Rembrandt, which he had merely deposited for cleaning and
+restoring at the suspicious dealer's. Sir J. H. Tomlinson had been
+imposed upon and cheated by a cunning Dutchman; _his_ picture, though
+also an undoubted Rembrandt, was _not_ the Maria, and was an inferior
+specimen in bad preservation. The authority we had consulted turned
+out to be an ignorant, self-sufficient quack. The Maria, moreover,
+was valued by other experts at no more than five or six thousand
+guineas. Charles wanted to cry off his bargain, but Dr. Polperro
+naturally wouldn't hear of it. The agreement was a legally binding
+instrument, and what passed in Charles's mind at the moment had
+nothing to do with the written contract. Our adversary only
+consented to forego the action for false imprisonment on condition
+that Charles inserted a printed apology in the Times, and paid him
+five hundred pounds compensation for damage to character. So that
+was the end of our well-planned attempt to arrest the swindler.
+
+Not quite the end, however; for, of course, after this, the whole
+affair got by degrees into the papers. Dr. Polperro, who was a
+familiar person in literary and artistic society, as it turned out,
+brought an action against the so-called expert who had declared
+against the genuineness of his alleged Rembrandt, and convicted him
+of the grossest ignorance and misstatement. Then paragraphs got
+about. The World showed us up in a sarcastic article; and Truth,
+which has always been terribly severe upon Sir Charles and all the
+other South Africans, had a pungent set of verses on "High Art in
+Kimberley." By this means, as we suppose, the affair became known
+to Colonel Clay himself; for a week or two later my brother-in-law
+received a cheerful little note on scented paper from our persistent
+sharper. It was couched in these terms:--
+
+
+"Oh, you innocent infant!
+
+"Bless your ingenuous little heart! And did it believe, then, it
+had positively caught the redoubtable colonel? And had it ready a
+nice little pinch of salt to put upon his tail? And is it true its
+respected name is Sir Simple Simon? How heartily we have laughed,
+White Heather and I, at your neat little ruses! It would pay you,
+by the way, to take White Heather into your house for six months
+to instruct you in the agreeable sport of amateur detectives. Your
+charming naivete quite moves our envy. So you actually imagined a
+man of my brains would condescend to anything so flat and stale as
+the silly and threadbare Old Master deception! And this in the
+so-called nineteenth century! O sancta simplicitas! When again
+shall such infantile transparency be mine? When, ah, when? But never
+mind, dear friend. Though you didn't catch me, we shall meet before
+long at some delightful Philippi.
+
+"Yours, with the profoundest respect and gratitude,
+
+"ANTONIO HERRERA,
+
+"Otherwise RICHARD PEPLOE BRABAZON."
+
+
+Charles laid down the letter with a deep-drawn sigh. "Sey, my boy,"
+he mused aloud, "no fortune on earth--not even mine--can go on
+standing it. These perpetual drains begin really to terrify me. I
+foresee the end. I shall die in a workhouse. What with the money he
+robs me of when he _is_ Colonel Clay, and the money I waste upon him
+when he _isn't_ Colonel Clay, the man is beginning to tell upon my
+nervous system. I shall withdraw altogether from this worrying life.
+I shall retire from a scheming and polluted world to some untainted
+spot in the fresh, pure mountains."
+
+"You _must_ need rest and change," I said, "when you talk like that.
+Let us try the Tyrol."
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE TYROLEAN CASTLE
+
+
+We went to Meran. The place was practically decided for us by
+Amelia's French maid, who really acts on such occasions as our
+guide and courier.
+
+She is _such_ a clever girl, is Amelia's French maid. Whenever we
+are going anywhere, Amelia generally asks (and accepts) her advice
+as to choice of hotels and furnished villas. Césarine has been all
+over the Continent in her time; and, being Alsatian by birth, she of
+course speaks German as well as she speaks French, while her long
+residence with Amelia has made her at last almost equally at home
+in our native English. She is a treasure, that girl; so neat and
+dexterous, and not above dabbling in anything on earth she may be
+asked to turn her hand to. She walks the world with a needle-case
+in one hand and an etna in the other. She can cook an omelette on
+occasion, or drive a Norwegian cariole; she can sew, and knit, and
+make dresses, and cure a cold, and do anything else on earth you ask
+her. Her salads are the most savoury I ever tasted; while as for her
+coffee (which she prepares for us in the train on long journeys),
+there isn't a chef de cuisine at a West-end club to be named in the
+same day with her.
+
+So, when Amelia said, in her imperious way, "Césarine, we want to go
+to the Tyrol--now--at once--in mid-October; where do you advise us
+to put up?"--Césarine answered, like a shot, "The Erzherzog Johann,
+of course, at Meran, for the autumn, madame."
+
+"Is he ... an archduke?" Amelia asked, a little staggered at such
+apparent familiarity with Imperial personages.
+
+"Ma foi! no, madame. He is an hotel--as you would say in England,
+the 'Victoria' or the 'Prince of Wales's'--the most comfortable
+hotel in all South Tyrol; and at this time of year, naturally, you
+must go beyond the Alps; it begins already to be cold at Innsbruck."
+
+So to Meran we went; and a prettier or more picturesque place, I
+confess, I have seldom set eyes on. A rushing torrent; high hills
+and mountain peaks; terraced vineyard slopes; old walls and towers;
+quaint, arcaded streets; a craggy waterfall; a promenade after
+the fashion of a German Spa; and when you lift your eyes from the
+ground, jagged summits of Dolomites: it was a combination such as
+I had never before beheld; a Rhine town plumped down among green
+Alpine heights, and threaded by the cool colonnades of Italy.
+
+I approved Césarine's choice; and I was particularly glad she
+had pronounced for an hotel, where all is plain sailing, instead
+of advising a furnished villa, the arrangements for which would
+naturally have fallen in large part upon the shoulders of the
+wretched secretary. As in any case I have to do three hours' work
+a day, I feel that such additions to my normal burden may well
+be spared me. I tipped Césarine half a sovereign, in fact, for
+her judicious choice. Césarine glanced at it on her palm in her
+mysterious, curious, half-smiling way, and pocketed it at once with
+a "Merci, monsieur!" that had a touch of contempt in it. I always
+fancy Césarine has large ideas of her own on the subject of tipping,
+and thinks very small beer of the modest sums a mere secretary can
+alone afford to bestow upon her.
+
+The great peculiarity of Meran is the number of schlosses (I believe
+my plural is strictly irregular, but very convenient to English
+ears) which you can see in every direction from its outskirts. A
+statistical eye, it is supposed, can count no fewer than forty of
+these picturesque, ramshackled old castles from a point on the
+Küchelberg. For myself, I hate statistics (except as an element in
+financial prospectuses), and I really don't know how many ruinous
+piles Isabel and Amelia counted under Césarine's guidance; but I
+remember that most of them were quaint and beautiful, and that their
+variety of architecture seemed positively bewildering. One would be
+square, with funny little turrets stuck out at each angle; while
+another would rejoice in a big round keep, and spread on either side
+long, ivy-clad walls and delightful bastions. Charles was immensely
+taken with them. He loves the picturesque, and has a poet hidden
+in that financial soul of his. (Very effectually hidden, though, I
+am ready to grant you.) From the moment he came he felt at once
+he would love to possess a castle of his own among these romantic
+mountains. "Seldon!" he exclaimed contemptuously. "They call Seldon
+a castle! But you and I know very well, Sey, it was built in 1860,
+with sham antique stones, for Macpherson of Seldon, at market rates,
+by Cubitt and Co., worshipful contractors of London. Macpherson
+charged me for that sham antiquity a preposterous price, at
+which one ought to procure a real ancestral mansion. Now, _these_
+castles are real. They are hoary with antiquity. Schloss Tyrol is
+Romanesque--tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up
+in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for _me_!--tenth or eleventh
+century. I could live here, remote from stocks and shares, for ever;
+and in these sequestered glens, recollect, Sey, my boy, there are
+no Colonel Clays, and no arch Madame Picardets!"
+
+As a matter of fact, he could have lived there six weeks, and then
+tired for Park Lane, Monte Carlo, Brighton.
+
+As for Amelia, strange to say, she was equally taken with this new
+fad of Charles's. As a rule she hates everywhere on earth save
+London, except during the time when no respectable person can be
+seen in town, and when modest blinds shade the scandalised face of
+Mayfair and Belgravia. She bores herself to death even at Seldon
+Castle, Ross-shire, and yawns all day long in Paris or Vienna. She
+is a confirmed Cockney. Yet, for some occult reason, my amiable
+sister-in-law fell in love with South Tyrol. She wanted to vegetate
+in that lush vegetation. The grapes were being picked; pumpkins hung
+over the walls; Virginia creeper draped the quaint gray schlosses
+with crimson cloaks; and everything was as beautiful as a dream of
+Burne-Jones's. (I know I am quite right in mentioning Burne-Jones,
+especially in connection with Romanesque architecture, because I
+heard him highly praised on that very ground by our friend and
+enemy, Dr. Edward Polperro.) So perhaps it was excusable that
+Amelia should fall in love with it all, under the circumstances;
+besides, she is largely influenced by what Césarine says, and
+Césarine declares there is no climate in Europe like Meran in
+winter. I do not agree with her. The sun sets behind the hills at
+three in the afternoon, and a nasty warm wind blows moist over
+the snow in January and February.
+
+However, Amelia set Césarine to inquire of the people at the hotel
+about the market price of tumbledown ruins, and the number of such
+eligible family mausoleums just then for sale in the immediate
+neighbourhood. Césarine returned with a full, true, and particular
+list, adorned with flowers of rhetoric which would have delighted
+the soul of good old John Robins. They were all picturesque, all
+Romanesque, all richly ivy-clad, all commodious, all historical,
+and all the property of high well-born Grafs and very honourable
+Freiherrs. Most of them had been the scene of celebrated tournaments;
+several of them had witnessed the gorgeous marriages of Holy Roman
+Emperors; and every one of them was provided with some choice and
+selected first-class murders. Ghosts could be arranged for or not,
+as desired; and armorial bearings could be thrown in with the moat
+for a moderate extra remuneration.
+
+The two we liked best of all these tempting piles were Schloss
+Planta and Schloss Lebenstein. We drove past both, and even I
+myself, I confess, was distinctly taken with them. (Besides, when
+a big purchase like this is on the stocks, a poor beggar of a
+secretary has always a chance of exerting his influence and earning
+for himself some modest commission.) Schloss Planta was the most
+striking externally, I should say, with its Rhine-like towers, and
+its great gnarled ivy-stems, that looked as if they antedated the
+House of Hapsburg; but Lebenstein was said to be better preserved
+within, and more fitted in every way for modern occupation. Its
+staircase has been photographed by 7000 amateurs.
+
+We got tickets to view. The invaluable Césarine procured them for
+us. Armed with these, we drove off one fine afternoon, meaning to
+go to Planta, by Césarine's recommendation. Half-way there, however,
+we changed our minds, as it was such a lovely day, and went on up
+the long, slow hill to Lebenstein. I must say the drive through the
+grounds was simply charming. The castle stands perched (say rather
+poised, like St. Michael the archangel in Italian pictures) on a
+solitary stack or crag of rock, looking down on every side upon
+its own rich vineyards. Chestnuts line the glens; the valley of
+the Etsch spreads below like a picture.
+
+The vineyards alone make a splendid estate, by the way; they produce
+a delicious red wine, which is exported to Bordeaux, and there
+bottled and sold as a vintage claret under the name of Chateau
+Monnivet. Charles revelled in the idea of growing his own wines.
+
+"Here we could sit," he cried to Amelia, "in the most literal sense,
+under our own vine and fig-tree. Delicious retirement! For my part,
+I'm sick and tired of the hubbub of Threadneedle Street."
+
+We knocked at the door--for there was really no bell, but a
+ponderous, old-fashioned, wrought-iron knocker. So deliciously
+mediæval! The late Graf von Lebenstein had recently died, we
+knew; and his son, the present Count, a young man of means, having
+inherited from his mother's family a still more ancient and
+splendid schloss in the Salzburg district, desired to sell this
+outlying estate in order to afford himself a yacht, after the manner
+that is now becoming increasingly fashionable with the noblemen and
+gentlemen in Germany and Austria.
+
+The door was opened for us by a high well-born menial, attired in
+a very ancient and honourable livery. Nice antique hall; suits of
+ancestral armour, trophies of Tyrolese hunters, coats of arms of
+ancient counts--the very thing to take Amelia's aristocratic and
+romantic fancy. The whole to be sold exactly as it stood; ancestors
+to be included at a valuation.
+
+We went through the reception-rooms. They were lofty, charming, and
+with glorious views, all the more glorious for being framed by those
+graceful Romanesque windows, with their slender pillars and quaint,
+round-topped arches. Sir Charles had made his mind up. "I must and
+will have it!" he cried. "This is the place for me. Seldon! Pah,
+Seldon is a modern abomination."
+
+Could we see the high well-born Count? The liveried servant
+(somewhat haughtily) would inquire of his Serenity. Sir Charles
+sent up his card, and also Lady Vandrift's. These foreigners know
+title spells money in England.
+
+He was right in his surmise. Two minutes later the Count entered
+with our cards in his hands. A good-looking young man, with the
+characteristic Tyrolese long black moustache, dressed in a
+gentlemanly variant on the costume of the country. His air was a
+jager's; the usual blackcock's plume stuck jauntily in the side of
+the conical hat (which he held in his hand), after the universal
+Austrian fashion.
+
+He waved us to seats. We sat down. He spoke to us in French; his
+English, he remarked, with a pleasant smile, being a négligeable
+quantity. We might speak it, he went on; he could understand pretty
+well; but he preferred to answer, if we would allow him, in French
+or German.
+
+"French," Charles replied, and the negotiation continued thenceforth
+in that language. It is the only one, save English and his ancestral
+Dutch, with which my brother-in-law possesses even a nodding
+acquaintance.
+
+We praised the beautiful scene. The Count's face lighted up with
+patriotic pride. Yes; it was beautiful, beautiful, his own green
+Tyrol. He was proud of it and attached to it. But he could endure
+to sell this place, the home of his fathers, because he had a finer
+in the Salzkammergut, and a pied-à-terre near Innsbruck. For Tyrol
+lacked just one joy--the sea. He was a passionate yachtsman. For
+that he had resolved to sell this estate; after all, three country
+houses, a ship, and a mansion in Vienna, are more than one man can
+comfortably inhabit.
+
+"Exactly," Charles answered. "If I can come to terms with you about
+this charming estate I shall sell my own castle in the Scotch
+Highlands." And he tried to look like a proud Scotch chief who
+harangues his clansmen.
+
+Then they got to business. The Count was a delightful man to do
+business with. His manners were perfect. While we were talking to
+him, a surly person, a steward or bailiff, or something of the sort,
+came into the room unexpectedly and addressed him in German, which
+none of us understand. We were impressed by the singular urbanity
+and benignity of the nobleman's demeanour towards this sullen
+dependant. He evidently explained to the fellow what sort of
+people we were, and remonstrated with him in a very gentle way for
+interrupting us. The steward understood, and clearly regretted his
+insolent air; for after a few sentences he went out, and as he did
+so he bowed and made protestations of polite regard in his own
+language. The Count turned to us and smiled. "Our people," he said,
+"are like your own Scotch peasants--kind-hearted, picturesque, free,
+musical, poetic, but wanting, hélas, in polish to strangers." He
+was certainly an exception, if he described them aright; for he made
+us feel at home from the moment we entered.
+
+He named his price in frank terms. His lawyers at Meran held the
+needful documents, and would arrange the negotiations in detail with
+us. It was a stiff sum, I must say--an extremely stiff sum; but no
+doubt he was charging us a fancy price for a fancy castle. "He will
+come down in time," Charles said. "The sum first named in all these
+transactions is invariably a feeler. They know I'm a millionaire;
+and people always imagine millionaires are positively made of
+money."
+
+I may add that people always imagine it must be easier to squeeze
+money out of millionaires than out of other people--which is the
+reverse of the truth, or how could they ever have amassed their
+millions? Instead of oozing gold as a tree oozes gum, they mop it
+up like blotting-paper, and seldom give it out again.
+
+We drove back from this first interview none the less very well
+satisfied. The price was too high; but preliminaries were arranged,
+and for the rest, the Count desired us to discuss all details with
+his lawyers in the chief street, Unter den Lauben. We inquired about
+these lawyers, and found they were most respectable and respected
+men; they had done the family business on either side for seven
+generations.
+
+They showed us plans and title-deeds. Everything quite en régle.
+Till we came to the price there was no hitch of any sort.
+
+As to price, however, the lawyers were obdurate. They stuck out for
+the Count's first sum to the uttermost florin. It was a very big
+estimate. We talked and shilly-shallied till Sir Charles grew angry.
+He lost his temper at last.
+
+"They know I'm a millionaire, Sey," he said, "and they're playing
+the old game of trying to diddle me. But I won't be diddled. Except
+Colonel Clay, no man has ever yet succeeded in bleeding me. And
+shall I let myself be bled as if I were a chamois among these
+innocent mountains? Perish the thought!" Then he reflected a little
+in silence. "Sey," he mused on, at last, "the question is, _are_
+they innocent? Do you know, I begin to believe there is no such
+thing left as pristine innocence anywhere. This Tyrolese Count knows
+the value of a pound as distinctly as if he hung out in Capel Court
+or Kimberley."
+
+Things dragged on in this way, inconclusively, for a week or two.
+_We_ bid down; the lawyers stuck to it. Sir Charles grew half sick
+of the whole silly business. For my own part, I felt sure if the
+high well-born Count didn't quicken his pace, my respected relative
+would shortly have had enough of the Tyrol altogether, and be proof
+against the most lovely of crag-crowning castles. But the Count
+didn't see it. He came to call on us at our hotel--a rare honour for
+a stranger with these haughty and exclusive Tyrolese nobles--and
+even entered unannounced in the most friendly manner. But when it
+came to L. s. d., he was absolute adamant. Not one kreutzer would
+he abate from his original proposal.
+
+"You misunderstand," he said, with pride. "We Tyrolese gentlemen are
+not shopkeepers or merchants. We do not higgle. If we say a thing we
+stick to it. Were you an Austrian, I should feel insulted by your
+ill-advised attempt to beat down my price. But as you belong to a
+great commercial nation--" he broke off with a snort and shrugged
+his shoulders compassionately.
+
+We saw him several times driving in and out of the schloss, and
+every time he waved his hand at us gracefully. But when we tried to
+bargain, it was always the same thing: he retired behind the shelter
+of his Tyrolese nobility. We might take it or leave it. 'Twas still
+Schloss Lebenstein.
+
+The lawyers were as bad. We tried all we knew, and got no forrarder.
+
+At last Charles gave up the attempt in disgust. He was tiring, as I
+expected. "It's the prettiest place I ever saw in my life," he said;
+"but, hang it all, Sey, I _won't_ be imposed upon."
+
+So he made up his mind, it being now December, to return to London.
+We met the Count next day, and stopped his carriage, and told him
+so. Charles thought this would have the immediate effect of bringing
+the man to reason. But he only lifted his hat, with the blackcock's
+feather, and smiled a bland smile. "The Archduke Karl is inquiring
+about it," he answered, and drove on without parley.
+
+Charles used some strong words, which I will not transcribe (I am a
+family man), and returned to England.
+
+For the next two months we heard little from Amelia save her regret
+that the Count wouldn't sell us Schloss Lebenstein. Its pinnacles
+had fairly pierced her heart. Strange to say, she was absolutely
+infatuated about the castle. She rather wanted the place while
+she was there, and thought she could get it; now she thought
+she couldn't, her soul (if she has one) was wildly set upon it.
+Moreover, Césarine further inflamed her desire by gently hinting
+a fact which she had picked up at the courier's table d'hôte at
+the hotel--that the Count had been far from anxious to sell his
+ancestral and historical estate to a South African diamond king.
+He thought the honour of the family demanded, at least, that he
+should secure a wealthy buyer of good ancient lineage.
+
+One morning in February, however, Amelia returned from the Row all
+smiles and tremors. (She had been ordered horse-exercise to correct
+the increasing excessiveness of her figure.)
+
+"Who do you think I saw riding in the Park?" she inquired. "Why,
+the Count of Lebenstein."
+
+"No!" Charles exclaimed, incredulous.
+
+"Yes," Amelia answered.
+
+"Must be mistaken," Charles cried.
+
+But Amelia stuck to it. More than that, she sent out emissaries to
+inquire diligently from the London lawyers, whose name had been
+mentioned to us by the ancestral firm in Unter den Lauben as
+their English agents, as to the whereabouts of our friend; and
+her emissaries learned in effect that the Count was in town and
+stopping at Morley's.
+
+"I see through it," Charles exclaimed. "He finds he's made a
+mistake; and now he's come over here to reopen negotiations."
+
+I was all for waiting prudently till the Count made the first move.
+"Don't let him see your eagerness," I said. But Amelia's ardour
+could not now be restrained. She insisted that Charles should
+call on the Graf as a mere return of his politeness in the Tyrol.
+
+He was as charming as ever. He talked to us with delight about the
+quaintness of London. He would be ravished to dine next evening with
+Sir Charles. He desired his respectful salutations meanwhile to
+Miladi Vandrift and Madame Ventvorth.
+
+He dined with us, almost en famille. Amelia's cook did wonders. In
+the billiard-room, about midnight, Charles reopened the subject.
+The Count was really touched. It pleased him that still, amid the
+distractions of the City of Five Million Souls, we should remember
+with affection his beloved Lebenstein.
+
+"Come to my lawyers," he said, "to-morrow, and I will talk it all
+over with you."
+
+We went--a most respectable firm in Southampton Row; old family
+solicitors. They had done business for years for the late Count, who
+had inherited from his grandmother estates in Ireland; and they were
+glad to be honoured with the confidence of his successor. Glad, too,
+to make the acquaintance of a prince of finance like Sir Charles
+Vandrift. Anxious (rubbing their hands) to arrange matters
+satisfactorily all round for everybody. (Two capital families with
+which to be mixed up, you see.)
+
+Sir Charles named a price, and referred them to his solicitors.
+The Count named a higher, but still a little come-down, and left
+the matter to be settled between the lawyers. He was a soldier and
+a gentleman, he said, with a Tyrolese toss of his high-born head;
+he would abandon details to men of business.
+
+As I was really anxious to oblige Amelia, I met the Count
+accidentally next day on the steps of Morley's. (Accidentally,
+that is to say, so far as he was concerned, though I had been
+hanging about in Trafalgar Square for half an hour to see him.)
+I explained, in guarded terms, that I had a great deal of influence
+in my way with Sir Charles; and that a word from me-- I broke
+off. He stared at me blankly.
+
+"Commission?" he inquired, at last, with a queer little smile.
+
+"Well, not exactly commission," I answered, wincing. "Still, a
+friendly word, you know. One good turn deserves another."
+
+He looked at me from head to foot with a curious scrutiny. For one
+moment I feared the Tyrolese nobleman in him was going to raise its
+foot and take active measures. But the next, I saw that Sir Charles
+was right after all, and that pristine innocence has removed from
+this planet to other quarters.
+
+He named his lowest price. "M. Ventvorth," he said, "I am a Tyrolese
+seigneur; I do not dabble, myself, in commissions and percentages.
+But if your influence with Sir Charles--we understand each other, do
+we not?--as between gentlemen--a little friendly present--no money,
+of course--but the equivalent of say 5 per cent in jewellery, on
+whatever sum above his bid to-day you induce him to
+offer--eh?--c'est convenu?"
+
+"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured.
+
+He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur--or nothing!"
+
+I bowed and withdrew. "Well, five then," I answered, "just to oblige
+your Serenity."
+
+A secretary, after all, can do a great deal. When it came to the
+scratch, I had but little difficulty in persuading Sir Charles, with
+Amelia's aid, backed up on either side by Isabel and Césarine, to
+accede to the Count's more reasonable proposal. The Southampton Row
+people had possession of certain facts as to the value of the wines
+in the Bordeaux market which clinched the matter. In a week or two
+all was settled; Charles and I met the Count by appointment in
+Southampton Row, and saw him sign, seal, and deliver the title-deeds
+of Schloss Lebenstein. My brother-in-law paid the purchase-money
+into the Count's own hands, by cheque, crossed on a first-class
+London firm where the Count kept an account to his high well-born
+order. Then he went away with the proud knowledge that he was owner
+of Schloss Lebenstein. And what to me was more important still,
+I received next morning by post a cheque for the five per cent,
+unfortunately drawn, by some misapprehension, to my order on the
+self-same bankers, and with the Count's signature. He explained in
+the accompanying note that the matter being now quite satisfactorily
+concluded, he saw no reason of delicacy why the amount he had
+promised should not be paid to me forthwith direct in money.
+
+I cashed the cheque at once, and said nothing about the affair, not
+even to Isabel. My experience is that women are not to be trusted
+with intricate matters of commission and brokerage.
+
+Though it was now late in March, and the House was sitting, Charles
+insisted that we must all run over at once to take possession of our
+magnificent Tyrolese castle. Amelia was almost equally burning with
+eagerness. She gave herself the airs of a Countess already. We took
+the Orient Express as far as Munich; then the Brenner to Meran,
+and put up for the night at the Erzherzog Johann. Though we had
+telegraphed our arrival, and expected some fuss, there was no
+demonstration. Next morning we drove out in state to the schloss,
+to enter into enjoyment of our vines and fig-trees.
+
+We were met at the door by the surly steward. "I shall dismiss
+that man," Charles muttered, as Lord of Lebenstein. "He's too
+sour-looking for my taste. Never saw such a brute. Not a smile
+of welcome!"
+
+He mounted the steps. The surly man stepped forward and murmured a
+few morose words in German. Charles brushed him aside and strode on.
+Then there followed a curious scene of mutual misunderstanding. The
+surly man called lustily for his servants to eject us. It was some
+time before we began to catch at the truth. The surly man was the
+_real_ Graf von Lebenstein.
+
+And the Count with the moustache? It dawned upon us now. Colonel
+Clay again! More audacious than ever!
+
+Bit by bit it all came out. He had ridden behind us the first day
+we viewed the place, and, giving himself out to the servants as
+one of our party, had joined us in the reception-room. We asked
+the real Count why he had spoken to the intruder. The Count
+explained in French that the man with the moustache had introduced
+my brother-in-law as the great South African millionaire, while he
+described himself as our courier and interpreter. As such he had
+had frequent interviews with the real Graf and his lawyers in
+Meran, and had driven almost daily across to the castle. The owner
+of the estate had named one price from the first, and had stuck to
+it manfully. He stuck to it still; and if Sir Charles chose to buy
+Schloss Lebenstein over again he was welcome to have it. How the
+London lawyers had been duped the Count had not really the slightest
+idea. He regretted the incident, and (coldly) wished us a very good
+morning.
+
+There was nothing for it but to return as best we might to the
+Erzherzog Johann, crestfallen, and telegraph particulars to the
+police in London.
+
+Charles and I ran across post-haste to England to track down the
+villain. At Southampton Row we found the legal firm by no means
+penitent; on the contrary, they were indignant at the way we had
+deceived them. An impostor had written to them on Lebenstein
+paper from Meran to say that he was coming to London to negotiate
+the sale of the schloss and surrounding property with the
+famous millionaire, Sir Charles Vandrift; and Sir Charles had
+demonstratively recognised him at sight as the real Count von
+Lebenstein. The firm had never seen the present Graf at all, and
+had swallowed the impostor whole, so to speak, on the strength of
+Sir Charles's obvious recognition. He had brought over as documents
+some most excellent forgeries--facsimiles of the originals--which,
+as our courier and interpreter, he had every opportunity of
+examining and inspecting at the Meran lawyers'. It was a deeply-laid
+plot, and it had succeeded to a marvel. Yet, all of it depended
+upon the one small fact that we had accepted the man with the long
+moustache in the hall of the schloss as the Count von Lebenstein on
+his own representation.
+
+He held our cards in his hands when he came in; and the servant had
+_not_ given them to him, but to the genuine Count. That was the one
+unsolved mystery in the whole adventure.
+
+By the evening's post two letters arrived for us at Sir Charles's
+house: one for myself, and one for my employer. Sir Charles's ran
+thus:--
+
+
+"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,--
+
+"I only just pulled through! A very small slip nearly lost me
+everything. I believed you were going to Schloss Planta that day,
+not to Schloss Lebenstein. You changed your mind en route. That
+might have spoiled all. Happily I perceived it, rode up by the short
+cut, and arrived somewhat hurriedly and hotly at the gate before
+you. Then I introduced myself. I had one more bad moment when the
+rival claimant to my name and title intruded into the room. But
+fortune favours the brave: your utter ignorance of German saved me.
+The rest was pap. It went by itself almost.
+
+"Allow me, now, as some small return for your various welcome
+cheques, to offer you a useful and valuable present--a German
+dictionary, grammar, and phrase-book!
+
+"I kiss your hand.
+
+"No longer
+
+"VON LEBENSTEIN."
+
+
+The other note was to me. It was as follows:--
+
+
+"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,--
+
+"Ha, ha, ha; just a W misplaced sufficed to take you in, then! And
+I risked the TH, though anybody with a head on his shoulders would
+surely have known our TH is by far more difficult than our W for
+foreigners! However, all's well that ends well; and now I've got
+you. The Lord has delivered you into my hands, dear friend--on your
+own initiative. I hold my cheque, endorsed by you, and cashed at my
+banker's, as a hostage, so to speak, for your future good behaviour.
+If ever you recognise me, and betray me to that solemn old ass, your
+employer, remember, I expose it, and you with it to him. So now we
+understand each other. I had not thought of this little dodge; it
+was you who suggested it. However, I jumped at it. Was it not well
+worth my while paying you that slight commission in return for a
+guarantee of your future silence? Your mouth is now closed. And
+cheap too at the price.--Yours, dear Comrade, in the great
+confraternity of rogues,
+
+"CUTHBERT CLAY, Colonel."
+
+
+Charles laid his note down, and grizzled. "What's yours, Sey?"
+he asked.
+
+"From a lady," I answered.
+
+He gazed at me suspiciously. "Oh, I thought it was the same hand,"
+he said. His eye looked through me.
+
+"No," I answered. "Mrs. Mortimer's." But I confess I trembled.
+
+He paused a moment. "You made all inquiries at this fellow's bank?"
+he went on, after a deep sigh.
+
+"Oh, yes," I put in quickly. (I had taken good care about that,
+you may be sure, lest he should spot the commission.) "They say
+the self-styled Count von Lebenstein was introduced to them by
+the Southampton Row folks, and drew, as usual, on the Lebenstein
+account: so they were quite unsuspicious. A rascal who goes about
+the world on that scale, you know, and arrives with such credentials
+as theirs and yours, naturally imposes on anybody. The bank didn't
+even require to have him formally identified. The firm was enough.
+He came to pay money in, not to draw it out. And he withdrew his
+balance just two days later, saying he was in a hurry to get back
+to Vienna."
+
+Would he ask for items? I confess I felt it was an awkward moment.
+Charles, however, was too full of regrets to bother about the
+account. He leaned back in his easy chair, stuck his hands in his
+pockets, held his legs straight out on the fender before him, and
+looked the very picture of hopeless despondency.
+
+"Sey," he began, after a minute or two, poking the fire,
+reflectively, "what a genius that man has! 'Pon my soul, I
+admire him. I sometimes wish--" He broke off and hesitated.
+
+"Yes, Charles?" I answered.
+
+"I sometimes wish ... we had got him on the Board of the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas. Mag--nificent combinations he would make in the City!"
+
+I rose from my seat and stared solemnly at my misguided
+brother-in-law.
+
+"Charles," I said, "you are beside yourself. Too much Colonel Clay
+has told upon your clear and splendid intellect. There are certain
+remarks which, however true they may be, no self-respecting
+financier should permit himself to make, even in the privacy of
+his own room, to his most intimate friend and trusted adviser."
+
+Charles fairly broke down. "You are right, Sey," he sobbed out.
+"Quite right. Forgive this outburst. At moments of emotion the
+truth will sometimes out, in spite of everything."
+
+I respected his feebleness. I did not even make it a fitting
+occasion to ask for a trifling increase of salary.
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE DRAWN GAME
+
+
+The twelfth of August saw us, as usual, at Seldon Castle,
+Ross-shire. It is part of Charles's restless, roving temperament
+that, on the morning of the eleventh, wet or fine, he must set out
+from London, whether the House is sitting or not, in defiance of
+the most urgent three-line whips; and at dawn on the twelfth he must
+be at work on his moors, shooting down the young birds with might
+and main, at the earliest possible legal moment.
+
+He goes on like Saul, slaying his thousands, or, like David, his
+tens of thousands, with all the guns in the house to help him, till
+the keepers warn him he has killed as many grouse as they consider
+desirable; and then, having done his duty, as he thinks, in this
+respect, he retires precipitately with flying colours to Brighton,
+Nice, Monte Carlo, or elsewhere. He must be always "on the trek";
+when he is buried, I believe he will not be able to rest quiet in
+his grave: his ghost will walk the world to terrify old ladies.
+
+"At Seldon, at least," he said to me, with a sigh, as he stepped
+into his Pullman, "I shall be safe from that impostor!"
+
+And indeed, as soon as he had begun to tire a little of counting
+up his hundreds of brace per diem, he found a trifling piece of
+financial work cut ready to his hand, which amply distracted his
+mind for the moment from Colonel Clay, his accomplices, and his
+villainies.
+
+Sir Charles, I ought to say, had secured during that summer a very
+advantageous option in a part of Africa on the Transvaal frontier,
+rumoured to be auriferous. Now, whether it was auriferous or not
+before, the mere fact that Charles had secured some claim on it
+naturally made it so; for no man had ever the genuine Midas-touch
+to a greater degree than Charles Vandrift: whatever he handles turns
+at once to gold, if not to diamonds. Therefore, as soon as my
+brother-in-law had obtained this option from the native vendor (a
+most respected chief, by name Montsioa), and promoted a company
+of his own to develop it, his great rival in that region, Lord
+Craig-Ellachie (formerly Sir David Alexander Granton), immediately
+secured a similar option of an adjacent track, the larger part of
+which had pretty much the same geological conditions as that covered
+by Sir Charles's right of pre-emption.
+
+We were not wholly disappointed, as it turned out, in the result.
+A month or two later, while we were still at Seldon, we received
+a long and encouraging letter from our prospectors on the spot,
+who had been hunting over the ground in search of gold-reefs. They
+reported that they had found a good auriferous vein in a corner of
+the tract, approachable by adit-levels; but, unfortunately, only a
+few yards of the lode lay within the limits of Sir Charles's area.
+The remainder ran on at once into what was locally known as
+Craig-Ellachie's section.
+
+However, our prospectors had been canny, they said; though young
+Mr. Granton was prospecting at the same time, in the self-same
+ridge, not very far from them, his miners had failed to discover
+the auriferous quartz; so our men had held their tongues about it,
+wisely leaving it for Charles to govern himself accordingly.
+
+"Can you dispute the boundary?" I asked.
+
+"Impossible," Charles answered. "You see, the limit is a meridian
+of longitude. There's no getting over that. Can't pretend to deny
+it. No buying over the sun! No bribing the instruments! Besides,
+we drew the line ourselves. We've only one way out of it, Sey.
+Amalgamate! Amalgamate!"
+
+Charles is a marvellous man! The very voice in which he murmured
+that blessed word "Amalgamate!" was in itself a poem.
+
+"Capital!" I answered. "Say nothing about it, and join forces with
+Craig-Ellachie."
+
+Charles closed one eye pensively.
+
+That very same evening came a telegram in cipher from our chief
+engineer on the territory of the option: "Young Granton has somehow
+given us the slip and gone home. We suspect he knows all. But we
+have not divulged the secret to anybody."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said impressively, "there is no time to
+be lost. I must write this evening to Sir David--I mean to My Lord.
+Do you happen to know where he is stopping at present?"
+
+"The Morning Post announced two or three days ago that he was at
+Glen-Ellachie," I answered.
+
+"Then I'll ask him to come over and thrash the matter out with me,"
+my brother-in-law went on. "A very rich reef, they say. I must have
+my finger in it!"
+
+We adjourned into the study, where Sir Charles drafted, I must
+admit, a most judicious letter to the rival capitalist. He pointed
+out that the mineral resources of the country were probably great,
+but as yet uncertain. That the expense of crushing and milling might
+be almost prohibitive. That access to fuel was costly, and its
+conveyance difficult. That water was scarce, and commanded by our
+section. That two rival companies, if they happened to hit upon ore,
+might cut one another's throats by erecting two sets of furnaces or
+pumping plants, and bringing two separate streams to the spot,
+where one would answer. In short--to employ the golden word--that
+amalgamation might prove better in the end than competition; and
+that he advised, at least, a conference on the subject.
+
+I wrote it out fair for him, and Sir Charles, with the air of a
+Cromwell, signed it.
+
+"This is important, Sey," he said. "It had better be registered,
+for fear of falling into improper hands. Don't give it to Dobson;
+let Césarine take it over to Fowlis in the dog-cart."
+
+It is the drawback of Seldon that we are twelve miles from a
+railway station, though we look out on one of the loveliest firths
+in Scotland.
+
+Césarine took it as directed--an invaluable servant, that girl!
+Meanwhile, we learned from the Morning Post next day that young
+Mr. Granton had stolen a march upon us. He had arrived from Africa
+by the same mail with our agent's letter, and had joined his father
+at once at Glen-Ellachie.
+
+Two days later we received a most polite reply from the opposing
+interest. It ran after this fashion:--
+
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE,
+
+"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE.
+
+"DEAR SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Thanks for yours of the 20th. In reply,
+I can only say I fully reciprocate your amiable desire that nothing
+adverse to either of our companies should happen in South Africa.
+With regard to your suggestion that we should meet in person, to
+discuss the basis of a possible amalgamation, I can only say my
+house is at present full of guests--as is doubtless your own--and
+I should therefore find it practically impossible to leave
+Glen-Ellachie. Fortunately, however, my son David is now at home
+on a brief holiday from Kimberley; and it will give him great
+pleasure to come over and hear what you have to say in favour of an
+arrangement which certainly, on some grounds, seems to me desirable
+in the interests of both our concessions alike. He will arrive
+to-morrow afternoon at Seldon, and he is authorised, in every
+respect, to negotiate with full powers on behalf of myself and the
+other directors. With kindest regards to your wife and sons, I
+remain, dear Sir Charles, yours faithfully,
+
+"CRAIG-ELLACHIE."
+
+
+"Cunning old fox!" Sir Charles exclaimed, with a sniff. "What's he
+up to now, I wonder? Seems almost as anxious to amalgamate as we
+ourselves are, Sey." A sudden thought struck him. "Do you know,"
+he cried, looking up, "I really believe the same thing must have
+happened to _both_ our exploring parties. _They_ must have found a
+reef that goes under _our_ ground, and the wicked old rascal wants
+to cheat us out of it!"
+
+"As we want to cheat him," I ventured to interpose.
+
+Charles looked at me fixedly. "Well, if so, we're both in luck,"
+he murmured, after a pause; "though _we_ can only get to know the
+whereabouts of _their_ find by joining hands with them and showing
+them ours. Still, it's good business either way. But I shall be
+cautious--cautious."
+
+"What a nuisance!" Amelia cried, when we told her of the incident.
+"I suppose I shall have to put the man up for the night--a nasty,
+raw-boned, half-baked Scotchman, you may be certain."
+
+On Wednesday afternoon, about three, young Granton arrived. He was
+a pleasant-featured, red-haired, sandy-whiskered youth, not unlike
+his father; but, strange to say, he dropped in to call, instead of
+bringing his luggage.
+
+"Why, you're not going back to Glen-Ellachie to-night, surely?"
+Charles exclaimed, in amazement. "Lady Vandrift will be _so_
+disappointed! Besides, this business can't be arranged between
+two trains, do you think, Mr. Granton?"
+
+Young Granton smiled. He had an agreeable smile--canny, yet open.
+
+"Oh no," he said frankly. "I didn't mean to go back. I've put up at
+the inn. I have my wife with me, you know--and, I wasn't invited."
+
+Amelia was of opinion, when we told her this episode, that David
+Granton wouldn't stop at Seldon because he was an Honourable.
+Isabel was of opinion he wouldn't stop because he had married an
+unpresentable young woman somewhere out in South Africa. Charles was
+of opinion that, as representative of the hostile interest, he put
+up at the inn, because it might tie his hands in some way to be the
+guest of the chairman of the rival company. And _I_ was of opinion
+that he had heard of the castle, and knew it well by report as the
+dullest country-house to stay at in Scotland.
+
+However that may be, young Granton insisted on remaining at the
+Cromarty Arms, though he told us his wife would be delighted to
+receive a call from Lady Vandrift and Mrs. Wentworth. So we all
+returned with him to bring the Honourable Mrs. Granton up to tea
+at the Castle.
+
+She was a nice little thing, very shy and timid, but by no means
+unpresentable, and an evident lady. She giggled at the end of every
+sentence; and she was endowed with a slight squint, which somehow
+seemed to point all her feeble sallies. She knew little outside
+South Africa; but of that she talked prettily; and she won all
+our hearts, in spite of the cast in her eye, by her unaffected
+simplicity.
+
+Next morning Charles and I had a regular debate with young Granton
+about the rival options. Our talk was of cyanide processes,
+reverberatories, pennyweights, water-jackets. But it dawned upon us
+soon that, in spite of his red hair and his innocent manners, our
+friend, the Honourable David Granton, knew a thing or two. Gradually
+and gracefully he let us see that Lord Craig-Ellachie had sent him
+for the benefit of the company, but that _he_ had come for the
+benefit of the Honourable David Granton.
+
+"I'm a younger son, Sir Charles," he said; "and therefore I have to
+feather my nest for myself. I know the ground. My father will be
+guided implicitly by what I advise in the matter. We are men of the
+world. Now, let's be business-like. _You_ want to amalgamate. You
+wouldn't do that, of course, if you didn't know of something to the
+advantage of my father's company--say, a lode on our land--which you
+hope to secure for yourself by amalgamation. Very well; _I_ can make
+or mar your project. If you choose to render it worth my while, I'll
+induce my father and his directors to amalgamate. If you don't, I
+won't. That's the long and the short of it!"
+
+Charles looked at him admiringly.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you're deep, very deep--for your age. Is this
+candour--or deception? Do you mean what you say? Or do you know some
+reason why it suits your father's book to amalgamate as well as it
+suits mine? And are you trying to keep it from me?" He fingered his
+chin. "If I only knew that," he went on, "I should know how to deal
+with you."
+
+Young Granton smiled again. "You're a financier, Sir Charles," he
+answered. "I wonder, at your time of life, you should pause to ask
+another financier whether he's trying to fill his own pocket--or his
+father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son--and _I_ am
+his youngest."
+
+"You are right as to general principles," Sir Charles replied, quite
+affectionately. "Most sound and sensible. But how do I know you
+haven't bargained already in the same way with your father? You
+may have settled with _him_, and be trying to diddle me."
+
+The young man assumed a most candid air. "Look here," he said,
+leaning forward. "I offer you this chance. Take it or leave it. _Do_
+you wish to purchase my aid for this amalgamation by a moderate
+commission on the net value of my father's option to yourself--which
+I know approximately?"
+
+"Say five per cent," I suggested, in a tentative voice, just to
+justify my presence.
+
+He looked me through and through. "_Ten_ is more usual," he
+answered, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar glance.
+
+Great heavens, how I winced! I knew what his words meant. They were
+the very words I had said myself to Colonel Clay, as the Count von
+Lebenstein, about the purchase-money of the schloss--and in the very
+same accent. I saw through it all now. That beastly cheque! This
+was Colonel Clay; and he was trying to buy up my silence and
+assistance by the threat of exposure!
+
+My blood ran cold. I didn't know how to answer him. What happened
+at the rest of that interview I really couldn't tell you. My brain
+reeled round. I heard just faint echoes of "fuel" and "reduction
+works." What on earth was I to do? If I told Charles my
+suspicion--for it was only a suspicion--the fellow might turn upon
+me and disclose the cheque, which would suffice to ruin me. If I
+didn't, I ran a risk of being considered by Charles an accomplice
+and a confederate.
+
+The interview was long. I hardly know how I struggled through it.
+At the end young Granton went off, well satisfied, if it was young
+Granton; and Amelia invited him and his wife up to dinner at the
+castle.
+
+Whatever else they were, they were capital company. They stopped
+for three days more at the Cromarty Arms. And Charles debated and
+discussed incessantly. He couldn't quite make up his mind what to
+do in the affair; and _I_ certainly couldn't help him. I never was
+placed in such a fix in my life. I did my best to preserve a strict
+neutrality.
+
+Young Granton, it turned out, was a most agreeable person; and so,
+in her way, was that timid, unpretending South African wife of his.
+She was naively surprised Amelia had never met her mamma at Durban.
+They both talked delightfully, and had lots of good stories--mostly
+with points that told against the Craig-Ellachie people. Moreover,
+the Honourable David was a splendid swimmer. He went out in a boat
+with us, and dived like a seal. He was burning to teach Charles
+and myself to swim, when we told him we could neither of us take a
+single stroke; he said it was an accomplishment incumbent upon every
+true Englishman. But Charles hates the water; while, as for myself,
+I detest every known form of muscular exercise.
+
+However, we consented that he should row us on the Firth, and made
+an appointment one day with himself and his wife for four the next
+evening.
+
+That night Charles came to me with a very grave face in my own
+bedroom. "Sey," he said, under his breath, "have you observed?
+Have you watched? Have you any suspicions?"
+
+I trembled violently. I felt all was up. "Suspicions of whom?"
+I asked. "Not surely of Simpson?" (he was Sir Charles's valet).
+
+My respected brother-in-law looked at me contemptuously.
+
+"Sey," he said, "are you trying to take me in? No, _not_ of Simpson:
+of these two young folks. My own belief is--they're Colonel Clay
+and Madame Picardet."
+
+"Impossible!" I cried.
+
+He nodded. "I'm sure of it."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Instinctively."
+
+I seized his arm. "Charles," I said, imploring him, "do nothing
+rash. Remember how you exposed yourself to the ridicule of fools
+over Dr. Polperro!"
+
+"I've thought of that," he answered, "and I mean to ca' caller."
+(When in Scotland as laird of Seldon, Charles loves both to dress
+and to speak the part thoroughly.) "First thing to-morrow I shall
+telegraph over to inquire at Glen-Ellachie; I shall find out
+whether this is really young Granton or not; meanwhile, I shall keep
+my eye close upon the fellow."
+
+Early next morning, accordingly, a groom was dispatched with a
+telegram to Lord Craig-Ellachie. He was to ride over to Fowlis, send
+it off at once, and wait for the answer. At the same time, as it was
+probable Lord Craig-Ellachie would have started for the moors before
+the telegram reached the Lodge, I did not myself expect to see the
+reply arrive much before seven or eight that evening. Meanwhile, as
+it was far from certain we had not the real David Granton to deal
+with, it was necessary to be polite to our friendly rivals. Our
+experience in the Polperro incident had shown us both that too much
+zeal may be more dangerous than too little. Nevertheless, taught
+by previous misfortunes, we kept watching our man pretty close,
+determined that on this occasion, at least, he should neither do us
+nor yet escape us.
+
+About four o'clock the red-haired young man and his pretty little
+wife came up to call for us. She looked so charming and squinted
+so enchantingly, one could hardly believe she was not as simple
+and innocent as she seemed to be. She tripped down to the Seldon
+boat-house, with Charles by her side, giggling and squinting her
+best, and then helped her husband to get the skiff ready. As she did
+so, Charles sidled up to me. "Sey," he whispered, "I'm an old hand,
+and I'm not readily taken in. I've been talking to that girl, and
+upon my soul I think she's all right. She's a charming little lady.
+We may be mistaken after all, of course, about young Granton. In any
+case, it's well for the present to be courteous. A most important
+option! If it's really he, we must do nothing to annoy him or let
+him see we suspect him."
+
+I had noticed, indeed, that Mrs. Granton had made herself most
+agreeable to Charles from the very beginning. And as to one thing he
+was right. In her timid, shrinking way she was undeniably charming.
+That cast in her eye was all pure piquancy.
+
+We rowed out on to the Firth, or, to be more strictly correct, the
+two Grantons rowed while Charles and I sat and leaned back in the
+stern on the luxurious cushions. They rowed fast and well. In a very
+few minutes they had rounded the point and got clear out of sight
+of the Cockneyfied towers and false battlements of Seldon.
+
+Mrs. Granton pulled stroke. Even as she rowed she kept up a brisk
+undercurrent of timid chaff with Sir Charles, giggling all the
+while, half forward, half shy, like a school-girl who flirts with
+a man old enough to be her grandfather.
+
+Sir Charles was flattered. He is susceptible to the pleasures of
+female attention, especially from the young, the simple, and the
+innocent. The wiles of women of the world he knows too well; but a
+pretty little ingénue can twist him round her finger. They rowed on
+and on, till they drew abreast of Seamew's island. It is a jagged
+stack or skerry, well out to sea, very wild and precipitous on the
+landward side, but shelving gently outward; perhaps an acre in
+extent, with steep gray cliffs, covered at that time with crimson
+masses of red valerian. Mrs. Granton rowed up close to it. "Oh, what
+lovely flowers!" she cried, throwing her head back and gazing at
+them. "I wish I could get some! Let's land here and pick them. Sir
+Charles, you shall gather me a nice bunch for my sitting-room."
+
+Charles rose to it innocently, like a trout to a fly.
+
+"By all means, my dear child, I--I have a passion for flowers;"
+which was a flower of speech itself, but it served its purpose.
+
+They rowed us round to the far side, where is the easiest
+landing-place. It struck me as odd at the moment that they seemed
+to know it. Then young Granton jumped lightly ashore; Mrs. Granton
+skipped after him. I confess it made me feel rather ashamed to see
+how clumsily Charles and I followed them, treading gingerly on the
+thwarts for fear of upsetting the boat, while the artless young
+thing just flew over the gunwale. So like White Heather! However,
+we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
+well as we were able in search of the valerian.
+
+Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
+bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
+laughter, and left us there staring at them!
+
+They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
+turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
+"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
+
+"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
+You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
+
+The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
+Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
+he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
+of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manqué."
+
+"A _what_?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
+
+"A coup manqué," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
+"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
+my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
+Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
+principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
+I find myself suspected. The slightest symptom of distrust, and--I
+back out immediately. My plans can only be worked to satisfaction
+when there is perfect confidence on the part of my patient. It is
+a well-known rule of the medical profession. I _never_ try to bleed
+a man who struggles. So now we're off. Ta-ta! Good luck to you!"
+
+He was not much more than twenty yards away, and could talk to us
+quite easily. But the water was deep; the islet rose sheer from I'm
+sure I don't know how many fathoms of sea; and we could neither of
+us swim. Charles stretched out his arms imploringly. "For Heaven's
+sake," he cried, "don't tell me you really mean to leave us here."
+
+He looked so comical in his distress and terror that Mrs.
+Granton--Madame Picardet--whatever I am to call her--laughed
+melodiously in her prettiest way at the sight of him. "Dear Sir
+Charles," she called out, "pray don't be afraid! It's only a
+short and temporary imprisonment. We will send men to take you off.
+Dear David and I only need just time enough to get well ashore and
+make--oh!--a few slight alterations in our personal appearance."
+And she indicated with her hand, laughing, dear David's red wig and
+false sandy whiskers, as we felt convinced they must be now. She
+looked at them and tittered. Her manner at this moment was anything
+but shy. In fact, I will venture to say, it was that of a bold and
+brazen-faced hoyden.
+
+"Then you _are_ Colonel Clay!" Sir Charles cried, mopping his brow
+with his handkerchief.
+
+"If you choose to call me so," the young man answered politely. "I'm
+sure it's most kind of you to supply me with a commission in Her
+Majesty's service. However, time presses, and we want to push off.
+Don't alarm yourselves unnecessarily. I will send a boat to take you
+away from this rock at the earliest possible moment consistent with
+my personal safety and my dear companion's." He laid his hand on his
+heart and struck a sentimental attitude. "I have received too many
+unwilling kindnesses at your hands, Sir Charles," he continued,
+"not to feel how wrong it would be of me to inconvenience you for
+nothing. Rest assured that you shall be rescued by midnight at
+latest. Fortunately, the weather just at present is warm, and I see
+no chance of rain; so you will suffer, if at all, from nothing worse
+than the pangs of temporary hunger."
+
+Mrs. Granton, no longer squinting--'twas a mere trick she had
+assumed--rose up in the boat and stretched out a rug to us. "Catch!"
+she cried, in a merry voice, and flung it at us, doubled. It fell
+at our feet; she was a capital thrower.
+
+"Now, you dear Sir Charles," she went on, "take that to keep you
+warm! You know I am really quite fond of you. You're not half a
+bad old boy when one takes you the right way. You have a human side
+to you. Why, I often wear that sweetly pretty brooch you gave me
+at Nice, when I was Madame Picardet! And I'm sure your goodness to
+me at Lucerne, when I was the little curate's wife, is a thing to
+remember. We're so glad to have seen you in your lovely Scotch
+home you were always so proud of! _Don't_ be frightened, please. We
+wouldn't hurt you for worlds. We _are_ so sorry we have to take this
+inhospitable means of evading you. But dear David--I _must_ call
+him dear David still--instinctively felt that you were beginning to
+suspect us; and he can't bear mistrust. He _is_ so sensitive! The
+moment people mistrust him, he _must_ break off with them at once.
+This was the only way to get you both off our hands while we make
+the needful little arrangements to depart; and we've been driven to
+avail ourselves of it. However, I will give you my word of honour,
+as a lady, you shall be fetched away to-night. If dear David doesn't
+do it, why, I'll do it myself." And she blew another kiss to us.
+
+Charles was half beside himself, divided between alternate terror
+and anger. "Oh, we shall die here!" he exclaimed. "Nobody'd ever
+dream of coming to this rock to search for me."
+
+"What a pity you didn't let me teach you to swim!" Colonel Clay
+interposed. "It is a noble exercise, and very useful indeed in such
+special emergencies! Well, ta-ta! I'm off! You nearly scored one
+this time; but, by putting you here for the moment, and keeping you
+till we're gone, I venture to say I've redressed the board, and I
+think we may count it a drawn game, mayn't we? The match stands at
+three, love--with some thousands in pocket?"
+
+"You're a murderer, sir!" Charles shrieked out. "We shall starve or
+die here!"
+
+Colonel Clay on his side was all sweet reasonableness. "Now, my dear
+sir," he expostulated, one hand held palm outward, "_Do_ you think
+it probable I would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, with
+so little compunction? No, no, Sir Charles Vandrift; I know too well
+how much you are worth to me. I return you on my income-tax paper
+as five thousand a year, clear profit of my profession. Suppose you
+were to die! I might be compelled to find some new and far less
+lucrative source of plunder. Your heirs, executors, or assignees
+might not suit my purpose. The fact of it is, sir, your temperament
+and mine are exactly adapted one to the other. _I_ understand _you_;
+and _you_ do not understand _me_--which is often the basis of the
+firmest friendships. I can catch you just where you are trying to
+catch other people. Your very smartness assists me; for I admit you
+_are_ smart. As a regular financier, I allow, I couldn't hold a
+candle to you. But in my humbler walk of life I know just how to
+utilise you. I lead you on, where you think you are going to gain some
+advantage over others; and by dexterously playing upon your love of
+a good bargain, your innate desire to best somebody else--I succeed
+in besting you. There, sir, you have the philosophy of our mutual
+relations."
+
+He bowed and raised his cap. Charles looked at him and cowered. Yes,
+genius as he is, he positively cowered. "And do you mean to say,"
+he burst out, "you intend to go on so bleeding me?"
+
+The Colonel smiled a bland smile. "Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+answered, "I called you just now the goose that lays the golden
+eggs. You may have thought the metaphor a rude one. But you _are_
+a goose, you know, in certain relations. Smartest man on the Stock
+Exchange, I readily admit; easiest fool to bamboozle in the
+open country that ever I met with. You fail in one thing--the
+perspicacity of simplicity. For that reason, among others, I have
+chosen to fasten upon you. Regard me, my dear sir, as a microbe of
+millionaires, a parasite upon capitalists. You know the old rhyme:
+
+  Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
+  And these again have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum!
+
+Well, that's just how I view myself. _You_ are a capitalist and a
+millionaire. In _your_ large way you prey upon society. YOU deal in
+Corners, Options, Concessions, Syndicates. You drain the world
+dry of its blood and its money. You possess, like the mosquito, a
+beautiful instrument of suction--Founders' Shares--with which you
+absorb the surplus wealth of the community. In _my_ smaller way,
+again, _I_ relieve you in turn of a portion of the plunder. I am a
+Robin Hood of my age; and, looking upon _you_ as an exceptionally bad
+form of millionaire--as well as an exceptionally easy form of pigeon
+for a man of my type and talents to pluck--I have, so to speak,
+taken up my abode upon you."
+
+Charles looked at him and groaned.
+
+The young man continued, in a tone of gentle badinage. "I love the
+plot-interest of the game," he said, "and so does dear Jessie here.
+We both of us adore it. As long as I find such good pickings upon
+you, I certainly am not going to turn away from so valuable a
+carcass, in order to batten myself, at considerable trouble, upon
+minor capitalists, out of whom it is difficult to extract a few
+hundreds. It may have puzzled you to guess why I fix upon you so
+persistently. Now you know, and understand. When a fluke finds a
+sheep that suits him, that fluke lives upon him. You are my host: I
+am your parasite. This coup has failed. But don't flatter yourself
+for a moment it will be the last one."
+
+"Why do you insult me by telling me all this?" Sir Charles cried,
+writhing.
+
+The Colonel waved his hand. It was small and white. "Because I _love_
+the game," he answered, with a relish; "and also, because the more
+prepared you are beforehand, the greater credit and amusement is
+there in besting you. Well, now, ta-ta once more! I am wasting
+valuable time. I might be cheating somebody. I must be off at
+once.... Take care of yourself, Wentworth. But I know you _will_.
+You always do. Ten per cent _is_ more usual!"
+
+He rowed away and left us. As the boat began to disappear round the
+corner of the island, White Heather--so she looked--stood up in the
+stern and shouted aloud through her pretty hands to us. "By-bye,
+dear Sir Charles!" she cried. "Do wrap the rug around you! I'll
+send the men to fetch you as soon as ever I possibly can. And thank
+you so much for those lovely flowers!"
+
+The boat rounded the crags. We were alone on the island. Charles
+flung himself on the bare rock in a wild access of despondency.
+He is accustomed to luxury, and cannot get on without his padded
+cushions. As for myself, I climbed with some difficulty to the top
+of the cliff, landward, and tried to make signals of distress with
+my handkerchief to some passer-by on the mainland. All in vain.
+Charles had dismissed the crofters on the estate; and, as the
+shooting-party that day was in an opposite direction, not a soul
+was near to whom we could call for succour.
+
+I climbed down again to Charles. The evening came on slowly. Cries
+of sea-birds rang weird upon the water. Puffins and cormorants
+circled round our heads in the gray of twilight. Charles suggested
+that they might even swoop down upon us and bite us. They did not,
+however, but their flapping wings added none the less a painful
+touch of eeriness to our hunger and solitude. Charles was horribly
+depressed. For myself, I will confess I felt so much relieved at
+the fact that Colonel Clay had not openly betrayed me in the matter
+of the commission, as to be comparatively comfortable.
+
+We crouched on the hard crag. About eleven o'clock we heard human
+voices. "Boat ahoy!" I shouted. An answering shout aroused us to
+action. We rushed down to the landing-place and cooee'd for the men,
+to show them where we were. They came up at once in Sir Charles's
+own boat. They were fishermen from Niggarey, on the shore of the
+Firth opposite.
+
+A lady and gentleman had sent them, they said, to return the boat
+and call for us on the island; their description corresponded to
+the two supposed Grantons. They rowed us home almost in silence to
+Seldon. It was half-past twelve by the gatehouse clock when we
+reached the castle. Men had been sent along the coast each way to
+seek us. Amelia had gone to bed, much alarmed for our safety. Isabel
+was sitting up. It was too late, of course, to do much that night in
+the way of apprehending the miscreants, though Charles insisted upon
+dispatching a groom, with a telegram for the police at Inverness,
+to Fowlis.
+
+Nothing came of it all. A message awaited us from Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, to be sure, saying that his son had not left
+Glen-Ellachie Lodge; while research the next day and later showed
+that our correspondent had never even received our letter. An empty
+envelope alone had arrived at the house, and the postal authorities
+had been engaged meanwhile, with their usual lightning speed, in
+"investigating the matter." Césarine had posted the letter herself
+at Fowlis, and brought back the receipt; so the only conclusion we
+could draw was this--Colonel Clay must be in league with somebody
+at the post-office. As for Lord Craig-Ellachie's reply, that was a
+simple forgery; though, oddly enough, it was written on
+Glen-Ellachie paper.
+
+However, by the time Charles had eaten a couple of grouse, and
+drunk a bottle of his excellent Rudesheimer, his spirits and valour
+revived exceedingly. Doubtless he inherits from his Boer ancestry a
+tendency towards courage of the Batavian description. He was in
+capital feather.
+
+"After all, Sey," he said, leaning back in his chair, "this time
+we score one. He has _not_ done us brown; we have at least detected
+him. To detect him in time is half-way to catching him. Only the
+remoteness of our position at Seldon Castle saved him from capture.
+Next set-to, I feel sure, we will not merely spot him, we will also
+nab him. I only wish he would try on such a rig in London."
+
+But the oddest part of it all was this, that from the moment those
+two people landed at Niggarey, and told the fishermen there were
+some gentlemen stranded on the Seamew's island, all trace of them
+vanished. At no station along the line could we gain any news of
+them. Their maid had left the inn the same morning with their
+luggage, and we tracked her to Inverness; but there the trail
+stopped short, no spoor lay farther. It was a most singular and
+insoluble mystery.
+
+Charles lived in hopes of catching his man in London.
+
+But for my part, I felt there was a show of reason in one last
+taunt which the rascal flung back at us as the boat receded: "Sir
+Charles Vandrift, we are a pair of rogues. The law protects _you_.
+It persecutes _me_. That's all the difference."
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GERMAN PROFESSOR
+
+
+That winter in town my respected brother-in-law had little time
+on his hands to bother himself about trifles like Colonel Clay.
+A thunderclap burst upon him. He saw his chief interest in South
+Africa threatened by a serious, an unexpected, and a crushing
+danger.
+
+Charles does a little in gold, and a little in land; but his
+principal operations have always lain in the direction of diamonds.
+Only once in my life, indeed, have I seen him pay the slightest
+attention to poetry, and that was when I happened one day to
+recite the lines:--
+
+  Full many a gem of purest ray serene
+  The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.
+
+He rubbed his hands at once and murmured enthusiastically, "I never
+thought of that. We might get up an Atlantic Exploration Syndicate,
+Limited." So attached is he to diamonds. You may gather, therefore,
+what a shock it was to that gigantic brain to learn that science was
+rapidly reaching a point where his favourite gems might become all
+at once a mere drug in the market. Depreciation is the one bugbear
+that perpetually torments Sir Charles's soul; that winter he stood
+within measurable distance of so appalling a calamity.
+
+It happened after this manner.
+
+We were strolling along Piccadilly towards Charles's club one
+afternoon--he is a prominent member of the Croesus, in Pall
+Mall--when, near Burlington House, whom should we happen to knock
+up against but Sir Adolphus Cordery, the famous mineralogist, and
+leading spirit of the Royal Society! He nodded to us pleasantly.
+"Halloa, Vandrift," he cried, in his peculiarly loud and piercing
+voice; "you're the very man I wanted to meet to-day. Good morning,
+Wentworth. Well, how about diamonds now, Sir Gorgius? You'll have to
+sing small. It's all up with you Midases. Heard about this marvellous
+new discovery of Schleiermacher's? It's calculated to make you
+diamond kings squirm like an eel in a frying-pan."
+
+I could see Charles wriggle inside his clothes. He was most
+uncomfortable. That a man like Cordery should say such things, in
+so loud a voice, on no matter how little foundation, openly in
+Piccadilly, was enough in itself to make a sensitive barometer
+such as Cloetedorp Golcondas go down a point or two.
+
+"Hush, hush!" Charles said solemnly, in that awed tone of voice
+which he always assumes when Money is blasphemed against. "_Please_
+don't talk quite so loud! All London can hear you."
+
+Sir Adolphus ran his arm through Charles's most amicably. There's
+nothing Charles hates like having his arm taken.
+
+"Come along with me to the Athenæum," he went on, in the same
+stentorian voice, "and I'll tell you all about it. Most interesting
+discovery. Makes diamonds cheap as dirt. Calculated to supersede
+South Africa altogether."
+
+Charles allowed himself to be dragged along. There was nothing else
+possible. Sir Adolphus continued, in a somewhat lower key, induced
+upon him by Charles's mute look of protest. It was a disquieting
+story. He told it with gleeful unction. It seems that Professor
+Schleiermacher, of Jena, "the greatest living authority on the
+chemistry of gems," he said, had lately invented, or claimed to
+have invented, a system for artificially producing diamonds, which
+had yielded most surprising and unexceptionable results.
+
+Charles's lip curled slightly. "Oh, I know the sort of thing," he
+said. "I've heard of it before. Very inferior stones, quite small
+and worthless, produced at immense cost, and even then not worth
+looking at. I'm an old bird, you know, Cordery; not to be caught
+with chaff. Tell me a better one!"
+
+Sir Adolphus produced a small cut gem from his pocket. "How's that
+for the first water?" he inquired, passing it across, with a broad
+smile, to the sceptic. "Made under my own eyes--and quite
+inexpensively!"
+
+Charles examined it close, stopping short against the railings in
+St. James's Square to look at it with his pocket-lens. There was no
+denying the truth. It was a capital small gem of the finest quality.
+
+"Made under your own eyes?" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Where,
+my dear sir?--at Jena?"
+
+The answer was a thunderbolt from a blue sky. "No, here in London;
+last night as ever was; before myself and Dr. Gray; and about to be
+exhibited by the President himself at a meeting of Fellows of the
+Royal Society."
+
+Charles drew a long breath. "This nonsense must be stopped," he said
+firmly--"it must be nipped in the bud. It won't do, my dear friend;
+we can't have such tampering with important Interests."
+
+"How do you mean?" Cordery asked, astonished.
+
+Charles gazed at him steadily. I could see by the furtive gleam in
+my brother-in-law's eye he was distinctly frightened. "Where _is_
+the fellow?" he asked. "Did he come himself, or send over a deputy?"
+
+"Here in London," Sir Adolphus replied. "He's staying at my house;
+and he says he'll be glad to show his experiments to anybody
+scientifically interested in diamonds. We propose to have a
+demonstration of the process to-night at Lancaster Gate. Will
+you drop in and see it?"
+
+Would he "drop in" and see it? "Drop in" at such a function! Could
+he possibly stop away? Charles clutched the enemy's arm with a
+nervous grip. "Look here, Cordery," he said, quivering; "this is a
+question affecting very important Interests. Don't do anything rash.
+Don't do anything foolish. Remember that Shares may rise or fall on
+this." He said "Shares" in a tone of profound respect that I can
+hardly even indicate. It was the crucial word in the creed of his
+religion.
+
+"I should think it very probable," Sir Adolphus replied, with the
+callous indifference of the mere man of science to financial
+suffering.
+
+Sir Charles was bland, but peremptory. "Now, observe," he said, "a
+grave responsibility rests on your shoulders. The Market depends
+upon you. You must not ask in any number of outsiders to witness
+these experiments. Have a few mineralogists and experts, if you
+like; but also take care to invite representatives of the menaced
+Interests. I will come myself--I'm engaged to dine out, but I
+can contract an indisposition; and I should advise you to ask
+Mosenheimer, and, say, young Phipson. They would stand for the
+mines, as you and the mineralogists would stand for science. Above
+all, don't blab; for Heaven's sake, let there be no premature
+gossip. Tell Schleiermacher not to go gassing and boasting of
+his success all over London."
+
+"We are keeping the matter a profound secret, at Schleiermacher's
+own request," Cordery answered, more seriously.
+
+"Which is why," Charles said, in his severest tone, "you bawled it
+out at the very top of your voice in Piccadilly!"
+
+However, before nightfall, everything was arranged to Charles's
+satisfaction; and off we went to Lancaster Gate, with a profound
+expectation that the German professor would do nothing worth seeing.
+
+He was a remarkable-looking man, once tall, I should say, from his
+long, thin build, but now bowed and bent with long devotion to study
+and leaning over a crucible. His hair, prematurely white, hung down
+upon his forehead, but his eye was keen and his mouth sagacious. He
+shook hands cordially with the men of science, whom he seemed to
+know of old, whilst he bowed somewhat distantly to the South African
+interest. Then he began to talk, in very German-English, helping out
+the sense now and again, where his vocabulary failed him, by waving
+his rather dirty and chemical-stained hands demonstratively about
+him. His nails were a sight, but his fingers, I must say, had the
+delicate shape of a man's accustomed to minute manipulation. He
+plunged at once into the thick of the matter, telling us briefly in
+his equally thick accent that he "now brobosed by his new brocess
+to make for us some goot and sadisfactory tiamonds."
+
+He brought out his apparatus, and explained--or, as he said,
+"eggsblained"--his novel method. "Tiamonds," he said, "were nozzing
+but pure crystalline carbon." He knew how to crystallise it--"zat
+was all ze secret." The men of science examined the pots and pans
+carefully. Then he put in a certain number of raw materials, and
+went to work with ostentatious openness. There were three distinct
+processes, and he made two stones by each simultaneously. The
+remarkable part of his methods, he said, was their rapidity and
+their cheapness. In three-quarters of an hour (and he smiled
+sardonically) he could produce a diamond worth at current prices
+two hundred pounds sterling. "As you shall now see me berform,"
+he remarked, "viz zis simple abbaradus."
+
+The materials fizzed and fumed. The Professor stirred them. An
+unpleasant smell like burnt feathers pervaded the room. The
+scientific men craned their necks in their eagerness, and looked
+over one another; Vane-Vivian, in particular, was all attention.
+After three-quarters of an hour, the Professor, still smiling, began
+to empty the apparatus. He removed a large quantity of dust or
+powder, which he succinctly described as "by-broducts," and then
+took between finger and thumb from the midst of each pan a small
+white pebble, not water-worn apparently, but slightly rough and
+wart-like on the surface.
+
+From one pair of the pannikins he produced two such stones, and
+held them up before us triumphantly. "Zese," he said, "are genuine
+tiamonds, manufactured at a gost of fourteen shillings and
+siggspence abiece!" Then he tried the second pair. "Zese," he said,
+still more gleefully, "are broduced at a gost of eleffen and
+ninebence!" Finally, he came to the third pair, which he positively
+brandished before our astonished eyes. "And zese," he cried,
+transported, "haff gost me no more zan tree and eightbence!"
+
+They were handed round for inspection. Rough and uncut as they
+stood, it was, of course, impossible to judge of their value. But
+one thing was certain. The men of science had been watching close at
+the first, and were sure Herr Schleiermacher had not put the stones
+in; they were keen at the withdrawal, and were equally sure he had
+taken them honestly out of the pannikins.
+
+"I vill now disdribute zem," the Professor remarked in a casual
+tone, as if diamonds were peas, looking round at the company. And
+he singled out my brother-in-law. "One to Sir Charles!" he said,
+handing it; "one to Mr. Mosenheimer; one to Mr. Phibson--as
+representing the tiamond interest. Zen, one each to Sir Atolphus,
+to Dr. Gray, to Mr. Fane-Fiffian, as representing science. You will
+haff zem cut and rebort upon zem in due gourse. We meet again at
+zis blace ze day afder do-morrow."
+
+Charles gazed at him reproachfully. The profoundest chords of his
+moral nature were stirred. "Professor," he said, in a voice of
+solemn warning, "_Are_ you aware that, _if_ you have succeeded, you
+have destroyed the value of thousands of pounds' worth of precious
+property?"
+
+The Professor shrugged his shoulders. "Fot is dat to me?" he
+inquired, with a curious glance of contempt. "I am not a financier!
+I am a man of science. I seek to know; I do not seek to make a
+fortune."
+
+"Shocking!" Charles exclaimed. "Shocking! I never before in my life
+beheld so strange an instance of complete insensibility to the
+claims of others!"
+
+We separated early. The men of science were coarsely jubilant. The
+diamond interest exhibited a corresponding depression. If this news
+were true, they foresaw a slump. Every eye grew dim. It was a
+terrible business.
+
+Charles walked homeward with the Professor. He sounded him gently as
+to the sum required, should need arise, to purchase his secrecy.
+Already Sir Adolphus had bound us all down to temporary silence--as
+if that were necessary; but Charles wished to know how much
+Schleiermacher would take to suppress his discovery. The German
+was immovable.
+
+"No, no!" he replied, with positive petulance. "You do not
+unterstant. I do not buy and sell. Zis is a chemical fact. We must
+bublish it for the sake off its seoretical falue. I do not care
+for wealse. I haff no time to waste in making money."
+
+"What an awful picture of a misspent life!" Charles observed to me
+afterwards.
+
+And, indeed, the man seemed to care for nothing on earth but the
+abstract question--not whether he could make good diamonds or not,
+but whether he could or could not produce a crystalline form of
+pure carbon!
+
+On the appointed night Charles went back to Lancaster Gate, as I
+could not fail to remark, with a strange air of complete and painful
+preoccupation. Never before in his life had I seen him so anxious.
+
+The diamonds were produced, with one surface of each slightly scored
+by the cutters, so as to show the water. Then a curious result
+disclosed itself. Strange to say, each of the three diamonds given
+to the three diamond kings turned out to be a most inferior and
+valueless stone; while each of the three intrusted to the care of
+the scientific investigators turned out to be a fine gem of the
+purest quality.
+
+I confess it was a sufficiently suspicious conjunction. The three
+representatives of the diamond interest gazed at each other with
+inquiring side-glances. Then their eyes fell suddenly: they avoided
+one another. Had each independently substituted a weak and inferior
+natural stone for Professor Schleiermacher's manufactured pebbles?
+It almost seemed so. For a moment, I admit, I was half inclined to
+suppose it. But next second I changed my mind. Could a man of Sir
+Charles Vandrift's integrity and high principle stoop for lucre's
+sake to so mean an expedient?--not to mention the fact that, even if
+he did, and if Mosenheimer did likewise, the stones submitted to the
+scientific men would have amply sufficed to establish the reality
+and success of the experiments!
+
+Still, I must say, Charles looked guiltily across at Mosenheimer,
+and Mosenheimer at Phipson, while three more uncomfortable or
+unhappy-faced men could hardly have been found at that precise
+minute in the City of Westminster.
+
+Then Sir Adolphus spoke--or, rather, he orated. He said, in his loud
+and grating voice, we had that evening, and on a previous evening,
+been present at the conception and birth of an Epoch in the History
+of Science. Professor Schleiermacher was one of those men of whom
+his native Saxony might well be proud; while as a Briton he must
+say he regretted somewhat that this discovery, like so many
+others, should have been "Made in Germany." However, Professor
+Schleiermacher was a specimen of that noble type of scientific men
+to whom gold was merely the rare metal Au, and diamonds merely the
+element C in the scarcest of its manifold allotropic embodiments.
+The Professor did not seek to make money out of his discovery. He
+rose above the sordid greed of capitalists. Content with the glory
+of having traced the element C to its crystalline origin, he asked
+no more than the approval of science. However, out of deference to
+the wishes of those financial gentlemen who were oddly concerned in
+maintaining the present price of C in its crystalline form--in other
+words, the diamond interest--they had arranged that the secret
+should be strictly guarded and kept for the present; not one of the
+few persons admitted to the experiments would publicly divulge the
+truth about them. This secrecy would be maintained till he himself,
+and a small committee of the Royal Society, should have time to
+investigate and verify for themselves the Professor's beautiful
+and ingenious processes--an investigation and verification which
+the learned Professor himself both desired and suggested.
+(Schleiermacher nodded approval.) When that was done, if the
+process stood the test, further concealment would be absolutely
+futile. The price of diamonds must fall at once below that of paste,
+and any protest on the part of the financial world would, of course,
+be useless. The laws of Nature were superior to millionaires.
+Meanwhile, in deference to the opinion of Sir Charles Vandrift,
+whose acquaintance with that fascinating side of the subject nobody
+could deny, they had consented to send no notices to the Press, and
+to abstain from saying anything about this beautiful and simple
+process in public. He dwelt with horrid gusto on that epithet
+"beautiful." And now, in the name of British mineralogy, he must
+congratulate Professor Schleiermacher, our distinguished guest, on
+his truly brilliant and crystalline contribution to our knowledge
+of brilliants and of crystalline science.
+
+Everybody applauded. It was an awkward moment. Sir Charles bit his
+lip. Mosenheimer looked glum. Young Phipson dropped an expression
+which I will not transcribe. (I understand this work may circulate
+among families.) And after a solemn promise of death-like secrecy,
+the meeting separated.
+
+I noticed that my brother-in-law somewhat ostentatiously avoided
+Mosenheimer at the door; and that Phipson jumped quickly into his
+own carriage. "Home!" Charles cried gloomily to the coachman as we
+took our seats in the brougham. And all the way to Mayfair he leaned
+back in his seat, with close-set lips, never uttering a syllable.
+
+Before he retired to rest, however, in the privacy of the
+billiard-room, I ventured to ask him: "Charles, will you unload
+Golcondas to-morrow?" Which, I need hardly explain, is the slang of
+the Stock Exchange for getting rid of undesirable securities. It
+struck me as probable that, in the event of the invention turning
+out a reality, Cloetedorp A's might become unsaleable within the
+next few weeks or so.
+
+He eyed me sternly. "Wentworth," he said, "you're a fool!" (Except
+on occasions when he is _very_ angry, my respected connection
+_never_ calls me "Wentworth"; the familiar abbreviation,
+"Sey"--derived from Seymour--is his usual mode of address to
+me in private.) "_Is_ it likely I would unload, and wreck the
+confidence of the public in the Cloetedorp Company at such a
+moment? As a director--as Chairman--would it be just or right of
+me? I ask you, sir, _could_ I reconcile it to my conscience?"
+
+"Charles," I answered, "you are right. Your conduct is noble. You
+will not save your own personal interests at the expense of those
+who have put their trust in you. Such probity is, alas! very rare in
+finance!" And I sighed involuntarily; for I had lost in Liberators.
+
+At the same time I thought to myself, "_I_ am not a director. No
+trust is reposed in _me_. _I_ have to think first of dear Isabel and
+the baby. Before the crash comes _I_ will sell out to-morrow the
+few shares I hold, through Charles's kindness, in the Cloetedorp
+Golcondas."
+
+With his marvellous business instinct, Charles seemed to divine
+my thought, for he turned round to me sharply. "Look here, Sey,"
+he remarked, in an acidulous tone, "recollect, you're my
+brother-in-law. You are also my secretary. The eyes of London will
+be upon us to-morrow. If _you_ were to sell out, and operators got to
+know of it, they'd suspect there was something up, and the company
+would suffer for it. Of course, you can do what you like with your
+own property. I can't interfere with _that_. I do not dictate to
+you. But as Chairman of the Golcondas, I am bound to see that the
+interests of widows and orphans whose All is invested with me should
+not suffer at this crisis." His voice seemed to falter. "Therefore,
+though I don't like to threaten," he went on, "I am bound to give
+you warning: _if_ you sell out those shares of yours, openly or
+secretly, you are no longer my secretary; you receive forthwith six
+months' salary in lieu of notice, and--you leave me instantly."
+
+"Very well, Charles," I answered, in a submissive voice; though I
+debated with myself for a moment whether it would be best to stick
+to the ready money and quit the sinking ship, or to hold fast by my
+friend, and back Charles's luck against the Professor's science.
+After a short, sharp struggle within my own mind, I am proud to say,
+friendship and gratitude won. I felt sure that, whether diamonds
+went up or down, Charles Vandrift was the sort of man who would come
+to the top in the end in spite of everything. And I decided to stand
+by him!
+
+I slept little that night, however. My mind was a whirlwind. At
+breakfast Charles also looked haggard and moody. He ordered the
+carriage early, and drove straight into the City.
+
+There was a block in Cheapside. Charles, impatient and nervous,
+jumped out and walked. I walked beside him. Near Wood Street a man
+we knew casually stopped us.
+
+"I think I ought to mention to you," he said, confidentially,
+"that I have it on the very best authority that Schleiermacher,
+of Jena--"
+
+"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and--there's
+not a word of truth in it."
+
+He brushed on in haste. A yard or two farther a broker paused in
+front of us.
+
+"Halloa, Sir Charles!" he called out, in a bantering tone. "What's
+all this about diamonds? Where are Cloetedorps to-day? Is it
+Golconda, or Queer Street?"
+
+Charles drew himself up very stiff. "I fail to understand you,"
+he answered, with dignity.
+
+"Why, you were there yourself," the man cried. "Last night at Sir
+Adolphus's! Oh yes, it's all over the place; Schleiermacher of Jena
+has succeeded in making the most perfect diamonds--for sixpence
+apiece--as good as real--and South Africa's ancient history. In less
+than six weeks Kimberley, they say, will be a howling desert. Every
+costermonger in Whitechapel will wear genuine Koh-i-noors for
+buttons on his coat; every girl in Bermondsey will sport a rivière
+like Lady Vandrift's to her favourite music-hall. There's a slump
+in Golcondas. Sly, sly, I can see; but _we_ know all about it!"
+
+Charles moved on, disgusted. The man's manners were atrocious.
+Near the Bank we ran up against a most respectable jobber.
+
+"Ah, Sir Charles," he said; "you here? Well, this is strange news,
+isn't it? For my part, I advise you not to take it too seriously.
+Your stock will go down, of course, like lead this morning. But
+it'll rise to-morrow, mark my words, and fluctuate every hour till
+the discovery's proved or disproved for certain. There's a fine
+time coming for operators, I feel sure. Reports this way and that.
+Rumours, rumours, rumours. And nobody will know which way to believe
+till Sir Adolphus has tested it."
+
+We moved on towards the House. Black care was seated on Sir
+Charles's shoulders. As we drew nearer and nearer, everybody was
+discussing the one fact of the moment. The seal of secrecy had
+proved more potent than publication on the housetops. Some people
+told us of the exciting news in confidential whispers; some
+proclaimed it aloud in vulgar exultation. The general opinion was
+that Cloetedorps were doomed, and that the sooner a man cleared
+out the less was he likely to lose by it.
+
+Charles strode on like a general; but it was a Napoleon brazening
+out his retreat from Moscow. His mien was resolute. He disappeared
+at last into the precincts of an office, waving me back, not to
+follow. After a long consultation he came out and rejoined me.
+
+All day long the City rang with Golcondas, Golcondas. Everybody
+murmured, "Slump, slump in Golcondas." The brokers had more business
+to do than they could manage; though, to be sure, almost every one
+was a seller and no one a buyer. But Charles stood firm as a rock,
+and so did his brokers. "I don't want to sell," he said, doggedly.
+"The whole thing is trumped up. It's a mere piece of jugglery. For
+my own part, I believe Professor Schleiermacher is deceived, or else
+is deceiving us. In another week the bubble will have burst, and
+prices will restore themselves." His brokers, Finglemores, had only
+one answer to all inquiries: "Sir Charles has every confidence in
+the stability of Golcondas, and doesn't wish to sell or to increase
+the panic."
+
+All the world said he was splendid, splendid! There he stationed
+himself on 'Change like some granite stack against which the waves
+roll and break themselves in vain. He took no notice of the slump,
+but ostentatiously bought up a few shares here and there so as to
+restore public confidence.
+
+"I would buy more," he said, freely, "and make my fortune; only,
+as I was one of those who happened to spend last night at Sir
+Adolphus's, people might think I had helped to spread the rumour
+and produce the slump, in order to buy in at panic rates for my
+own advantage. A chairman, like Caesar's wife, should be above
+suspicion. So I shall only buy up just enough, now and again, to
+let people see I, at least, have no doubt as to the firm future
+of Cloetedorps."
+
+He went home that night, more harassed and ill than I have ever
+seen him. Next day was as bad. The slump continued, with varying
+episodes. Now, a rumour would surge up that Sir Adolphus had
+declared the whole affair a sham, and prices would steady a little;
+now, another would break out that the diamonds were actually being
+put upon the market in Berlin by the cart-load, and timid old ladies
+would wire down to their brokers to realise off-hand at whatever
+hazard. It was an awful day. I shall never forget it.
+
+The morning after, as if by miracle, things righted themselves of
+a sudden. While we were wondering what it meant, Charles received a
+telegram from Sir Adolphus Cordery:--
+
+"The man is a fraud. Not Schleiermacher at all. Just had a wire
+from Jena saying the Professor knows nothing about him. Sorry
+unintentionally to have caused you trouble. Come round and see me."
+
+"Sorry unintentionally to have caused you trouble." Charles was
+beside himself with anger. Sir Adolphus had upset the share-market
+for forty-eight mortal hours, half-ruined a round dozen of wealthy
+operators, convulsed the City, upheaved the House, and now--he
+apologised for it as one might apologise for being late ten minutes
+for dinner! Charles jumped into a hansom and rushed round to see
+him. How had he dared to introduce the impostor to solid men as
+Professor Schleiermacher? Sir Adolphus shrugged his shoulders. The
+fellow had come and introduced himself as the great Jena chemist;
+he had long white hair, and a stoop in the shoulders. What reason
+had _he_ for doubting his word? (I reflected to myself that on much
+the same grounds Charles in turn had accepted the Honourable David
+Granton and Graf von Lebenstein.) Besides, what object could the
+creature have for this extraordinary deception? Charles knew only
+too well. It was clear it was done to disturb the diamond market,
+and we realised, too late, that the man who had done it was--Colonel
+Clay, in "another of his manifold allotropic embodiments!" Charles
+had had his wish, and had met his enemy once more in London!
+
+We could see the whole plot. Colonel Clay was polymorphic, like the
+element carbon! Doubtless, with his extraordinary sleight of hand,
+he had substituted real diamonds for the shapeless mass that came
+out of the apparatus, in the interval between handing the pebbles
+round for inspection, and distributing them piecemeal to the men of
+science and representatives of the diamond interest. We all watched
+him closely, of course, when he opened the crucibles; but when once
+we had satisfied ourselves that _something_ came out, our doubts were
+set at rest, and we forgot to watch whether he distributed those
+somethings or not to the recipients. Conjurers always depend upon
+such momentary distractions or lapses of attention. As usual, too,
+the Professor had disappeared into space the moment his trick was
+once well performed. He vanished like smoke, as the Count and Seer
+had vanished before, and was never again heard of.
+
+Charles went home more angry than I have ever beheld him. I couldn't
+imagine why. He seemed as deeply hipped as if he had lost his
+thousands. I endeavoured to console him. "After all," I said,
+"though Golcondas have suffered a temporary loss, it's a comfort
+to think that you should have stood so firm, and not only stemmed
+the tide, but also prevented yourself from losing anything at all
+of your own through panic. I'm sorry, of course, for the widows
+and orphans; but if Colonel Clay has rigged the market, at least
+it isn't YOU who lose by it this time."
+
+Charles withered me with a fierce scowl of undisguised contempt.
+"Wentworth," he said once more, "you are a fool!" Then he relapsed
+into silence.
+
+"But you declined to sell out," I said.
+
+He gazed at me fixedly. "Is it likely," he asked at last, "I would
+tell _you_ if I meant to sell out? or that I'd sell out openly through
+Finglemore, my usual broker? Why, all the world would have known,
+and Golcondas would have been finished. As it is, I don't desire to
+tell an ass like you exactly how much I've lost. But I _did_ sell out,
+and some unknown operator bought in at once, and closed for ready
+money, and has sold again this morning; and after all that has
+happened, it will be impossible to track him. He didn't wait for the
+account: he settled up instantly. And he sold in like manner. I know
+now what has been done, and how cleverly it has all been disguised
+and covered; but the most I'm going to tell you to-day is just
+this--it's by far the biggest haul Colonel Clay has made out of me.
+He could retire on it if he liked. My one hope is, it may satisfy
+him for life; but, then, no man has ever had enough of making money."
+
+"_You_ sold out!" I exclaimed. "_You_, the Chairman of the company!
+_You_ deserted the ship! And how about your trust? How about the widows
+and orphans confided to you?"
+
+Charles rose and faced me. "Seymour Wentworth," he said, in his most
+solemn voice, "you have lived with me for years and had every
+advantage. You have seen high finance. Yet you ask me that question!
+It's my belief you will never, never understand business!"
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE ARREST OF THE COLONEL
+
+
+How much precisely Charles dropped over the slump in Cloetedorps
+I never quite knew. But the incident left him dejected, limp, and
+dispirited.
+
+"Hang it all, Sey," he said to me in the smoking-room, a few
+evenings later. "This Colonel Clay is enough to vex the patience of
+Job--and Job had large losses, too, if I recollect aright, from the
+Chaldeans and other big operators of the period."
+
+"Three thousand camels," I murmured, recalling my dear mother's
+lessons; "all at one fell swoop; not to mention five hundred yoke of
+oxen, carried off by the Sabeans, then a leading firm of speculative
+cattle-dealers!"
+
+"Ah, well," Charles meditated aloud, shaking the ash from his
+cheroot into a Japanese tray--fine antique bronze-work. "There were
+big transactions in live-stock even then! Still, Job or no Job, the
+man is too much for me."
+
+"The difficulty is," I assented, "you never know where to have him."
+
+"Yes," Charles mused; "if he were always the same, like Horniman's
+tea or a good brand of whisky, it would be easier, of course; you'd
+stand some chance of spotting him. But when a man turns up smiling
+every time in a different disguise, which fits him like a skin, and
+always apparently with the best credentials, why, hang it all, Sey,
+there's no wrestling with him anyhow."
+
+"Who could have come to us, for example, better vouched," I
+acquiesced, "than the Honourable David?"
+
+"Exactly so," Charles murmured. "I invited him myself, for my own
+advantage. And he arrived with all the prestige of the Glen-Ellachie
+connection."
+
+"Or the Professor?" I went on. "Introduced to us by the leading
+mineralogist of England."
+
+I had touched a sore point. Charles winced and remained silent.
+
+"Then, women again," he resumed, after a painful pause. "I must meet
+in society many charming women. I can't everywhere and always be on
+my guard against every dear soul of them. Yet the moment I relax
+my attention for one day--or even when I don't relax it--I am
+bamboozled and led a dance by that arch Mme. Picardet, or that
+transparently simple little minx, Mrs. Granton. She's the cleverest
+girl I ever met in my life, that hussy, whatever we're to call her.
+She's a different person each time; and each time, hang it all, I
+lose my heart afresh to that different person."
+
+I glanced round to make sure Amelia was well out of earshot.
+
+"No, Sey," my respected connection went on, after another long
+pause, sipping his coffee pensively, "I feel I must be aided in this
+superhuman task by a professional unraveller of cunning disguises. I
+shall go to Marvillier's to-morrow--fortunate man, Marvillier--and
+ask him to supply me with a really good 'tec, who will stop in the
+house and keep an eye upon every living soul that comes near me.
+He shall scan each nose, each eye, each wig, each whisker. He shall
+be my watchful half, my unsleeping self; it shall be his business
+to suspect all living men, all breathing women. The Archbishop of
+Canterbury shall not escape for a moment his watchful regard; he
+will take care that royal princesses don't collar the spoons or walk
+off with the jewel-cases. He must see possible Colonel Clays in the
+guard of every train and the parson of every parish; he must detect
+the off-chance of a Mme. Picardet in every young girl that takes tea
+with Amelia, every fat old lady that comes to call upon Isabel. Yes,
+I have made my mind up. I shall go to-morrow and secure such a man
+at once at Marvillier's."
+
+"If you please, Sir Charles," Césarine interposed, pushing her head
+through the portière, "her ladyship says, will you and Mr. Wentworth
+remember that she goes out with you both this evening to Lady
+Carisbrooke's?"
+
+"Bless my soul," Charles cried, "so she does! And it's now past ten!
+The carriage will be at the door for us in another five minutes!"
+
+Next morning, accordingly, Charles drove round to Marvillier's. The
+famous detective listened to his story with glistening eyes; then he
+rubbed his hands and purred. "Colonel Clay!" he said; "Colonel Clay!
+That's a very tough customer! The police of Europe are on the
+look-out for Colonel Clay. He is wanted in London, in Paris, in
+Berlin. It is le Colonel Caoutchouc here, le Colonel Caoutchouc
+there; till one begins to ask, at last, IS there _any_ Colonel
+Caoutchouc, or is it a convenient class name invented by the Force
+to cover a gang of undiscovered sharpers? However, Sir Charles, we
+will do our best. I will set on the track without delay the best and
+cleverest detective in England."
+
+"The very man I want," Charles said. "What name, Marvillier?"
+
+The principal smiled. "Whatever name you like," he said. "He isn't
+particular. Medhurst he's called at home. _We_ call him Joe. I'll
+send him round to your house this afternoon for certain."
+
+"Oh no," Charles said promptly, "you won't; or Colonel Clay himself
+will come instead of him. I've been sold too often. No casual
+strangers! I'll wait here and see him."
+
+"But he isn't in," Marvillier objected.
+
+Charles was firm as a rock. "Then send and fetch him."
+
+In half an hour, sure enough, the detective arrived. He was an
+odd-looking small man, with hair cut short and standing straight up
+all over his head, like a Parisian waiter. He had quick, sharp eyes,
+very much like a ferret's; his nose was depressed, his lips thin and
+bloodless. A scar marked his left cheek--made by a sword-cut, he
+said, when engaged one day in arresting a desperate French smuggler,
+disguised as an officer of Chasseurs d'Afrique. His mien was
+resolute. Altogether, a quainter or 'cuter little man it has never
+yet been my lot to set eyes on. He walked in with a brisk step,
+eyed Charles up and down, and then, without much formality, asked
+for what he was wanted.
+
+"This is Sir Charles Vandrift, the great diamond king," Marvillier
+said, introducing us.
+
+"So I see," the man answered.
+
+"Then you know me?" Charles asked.
+
+"I wouldn't be worth much," the detective replied, "if I didn't
+know everybody. And you're easy enough to know; why, every boy in
+the street knows you."
+
+"Plain spoken!" Charles remarked.
+
+"As you like it, sir," the man answered in a respectful tone. "I
+endeavour to suit my dress and behaviour on every occasion to the
+taste of my employers."
+
+"Your name?" Charles asked, smiling.
+
+"Joseph Medhurst, at your service. What sort of work? Stolen
+diamonds? Illicit diamond-buying?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, fixing him with his eye. "Quite another kind
+of job. You've heard of Colonel Clay?"
+
+Medhurst nodded. "Why, certainly," he said; and, for the first time,
+I detected a lingering trace of American accent. "It's my business
+to know about him."
+
+"Well, I want you to catch him," Charles went on.
+
+Medhurst drew a long breath. "Isn't that rather a large order?"
+he murmured, surprised.
+
+Charles explained to him exactly the sort of services he required.
+Medhurst promised to comply. "If the man comes near you, I'll spot
+him," he said, after a moment's pause. "I can promise you that much.
+I'll pierce any disguise. I should know in a minute whether he's
+got up or not. I'm death on wigs, false moustaches, artificial
+complexions. I'll engage to bring the rogue to book if I see him.
+You may set your mind at rest, that, while _I'm_ about you, Colonel
+Clay can do nothing without my instantly spotting him."
+
+"He'll do it," Marvillier put in. "He'll do it, if he says it. He's
+my very best hand. Never knew any man like him for unravelling and
+unmasking the cleverest disguises."
+
+"Then he'll suit me," Charles answered, "for _I_ never knew any man
+like Colonel Clay for assuming and maintaining them."
+
+It was arranged accordingly that Medhurst should take up his
+residence in the house for the present, and should be described to
+the servants as assistant secretary. He came that very day, with a
+marvellously small portmanteau. But from the moment he arrived,
+we noticed that Césarine took a violent dislike to him.
+
+Medhurst was a most efficient detective. Charles and I told him
+all we knew about the various shapes in which Colonel Clay had
+"materialised," and he gave us in turn many valuable criticisms and
+suggestions. Why, when we began to suspect the Honourable David
+Granton, had we not, as if by accident, tried to knock his red wig
+off? Why, when the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon first discussed
+the question of the paste diamonds, had we not looked to see if
+any of Amelia's unique gems were missing? Why, when Professor
+Schleiermacher made his bow to assembled science at Lancaster Gate,
+had we not strictly inquired how far he was personally known
+beforehand to Sir Adolphus Cordery and the other mineralogists?
+He supplied us also with several good hints about false hair and
+make-up; such as that Schleiermacher was probably much shorter than
+he looked, but by imitating a stoop with padding at his back he
+had produced the illusion of a tall bent man, though in reality no
+bigger than the little curate or the Graf von Lebenstein. High heels
+did the rest; while the scientific keenness we noted in his face was
+doubtless brought about by a trifle of wax at the end of the nose,
+giving a peculiar tilt that is extremely effective. In short, I must
+frankly admit, Medhurst made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Sharp as
+Charles is, we realised at once he was nowhere in observation beside
+the trained and experienced senses of this professional detective.
+
+The worst of it all was, while Medhurst was with us, by some curious
+fatality, Colonel Clay stopped away from us. Now and again, to be
+sure, we ran up against somebody whom Medhurst suspected; but
+after a short investigation (conducted, I may say, with admirable
+cleverness), the spy always showed us the doubtful person was
+really some innocent and well-known character, whose antecedents
+and surroundings he elucidated most wonderfully. He was a perfect
+marvel, too, in his faculty of suspicion. He suspected everybody. If
+an old friend dropped in to talk business with Charles, we found out
+afterwards that Medhurst had lain concealed all the time behind the
+curtain, and had taken short-hand notes of the whole conversation,
+as well as snap-shot photographs of the supposed sharper, by means
+of a kodak. If a fat old lady came to call upon Amelia, Medhurst
+was sure to be lurking under the ottoman in the drawing-room, and
+carefully observing, with all his eyes, whether or not she was
+really Mme. Picardet, padded. When Lady Tresco brought her four
+plain daughters to an "At Home" one night, Medhurst, in evening
+dress, disguised as a waiter, followed them each round the room with
+obtrusive ices, to satisfy himself just how much of their complexion
+was real, and how much was patent rouge and Bloom of Ninon. He
+doubted whether Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, was not Colonel Clay
+in plain clothes; and he had half an idea that Césarine herself was
+our saucy White Heather in an alternative avatar. We pointed out
+to him in vain that Simpson had often been present in the very
+same room with David Granton, and that Césarine had dressed Mrs.
+Brabazon's hair at Lucerne: this partially satisfied him, but only
+partially. He remarked that Simpson might double both parts with
+somebody else unknown; and that as for Césarine, she might well
+have a twin sister who took her place when she was Mme. Picardet.
+
+Still, in spite of all his care--or because of all his care--Colonel
+Clay stopped away for whole weeks together. An explanation occurred
+to us. Was it possible he knew we were guarded and watched? Was he
+afraid of measuring swords with this trained detective?
+
+If so, how had he found it out? I had an inkling, myself--but, under
+all the circumstances, I did not mention it to Charles. It was clear
+that Césarine intensely disliked this new addition to the Vandrift
+household. She would not stop in the room where the detective was,
+or show him common politeness. She spoke of him always as "that
+odious man, Medhurst." Could she have guessed, what none of the
+other servants knew, that the man was a spy in search of the
+Colonel? I was inclined to believe it. And then it dawned upon me
+that Césarine had known all about the diamonds and their story; that
+it was Césarine who took us to see Schloss Lebenstein; that it was
+Césarine who posted the letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie! If Césarine
+was in league with Colonel Clay, as I was half inclined to surmise,
+what more natural than her obvious dislike to the detective who was
+there to catch her principal? What more simple for her than to warn
+her fellow-conspirator of the danger that awaited him if he
+approached this man Medhurst?
+
+However, I was too much frightened by the episode of the cheque to
+say anything of my nascent suspicions to Charles. I waited rather
+to see how events would shape themselves.
+
+After a while Medhurst's vigilance grew positively annoying. More
+than once he came to Charles with reports and shorthand notes
+distinctly distasteful to my excellent brother-in-law. "The fellow
+is getting to know too much about us," Charles said to me one day.
+"Why, Sey, he spies out everything. Would you believe it, when I had
+that confidential interview with Brookfield the other day, about the
+new issue of Golcondas, the man was under the easy-chair, though I
+searched the room beforehand to make sure he wasn't there; and he
+came to me afterwards with full notes of the conversation, to assure
+me he thought Brookfield--whom I've known for ten years--was too
+tall by half an inch to be one of Colonel Clay's impersonations."
+
+"Oh, but, Sir Charles," Medhurst cried, emerging suddenly from the
+bookcase, "you must never look upon _any one_ as above suspicion
+merely because you've known him for ten years or thereabouts.
+Colonel Clay may have approached you at various times under many
+disguises. He may have built up this thing gradually. Besides, as to
+my knowing too much, why, of course, a detective always learns many
+things about his employer's family which he is not supposed to know;
+but professional honour and professional etiquette, as with doctors
+and lawyers, compel him to lock them up as absolute secrets in his
+own bosom. You need never be afraid I will divulge one jot of them.
+If I did, my occupation would be gone, and my reputation shattered."
+
+Charles looked at him, appalled. "Do you dare to say," he burst out,
+"you've been listening to my talk with my brother-in-law and
+secretary?"
+
+"Why, of course," Medhurst answered. "It's my business to listen,
+and to suspect everybody. If you push me to say so, how do I know
+Colonel Clay is not--Mr. Wentworth?"
+
+Charles withered him with a look. "In future, Medhurst," he said,
+"you must never conceal yourself in a room where I am without my
+leave and knowledge."
+
+Medhurst bowed politely. "Oh, as you will, Sir Charles," he
+answered; "that's _quite_ at your own wish. Though how can I act
+as an efficient detective, any way, if you insist upon tying my
+hands like that, beforehand?"
+
+Again I detected a faint American flavour.
+
+After that rebuff, however, Medhurst seemed put upon his mettle. He
+redoubled his vigilance in every direction. "It's not my fault," he
+said plaintively, one day, "if my reputation's so good that, while
+I'm near you, this rogue won't approach you. If I can't _catch_ him,
+at least I keep him away from coming near you!"
+
+A few days later, however, he brought Charles some photographs.
+These he produced with evident pride. The first he showed us was a
+vignette of a little parson. "Who's that, then?" he inquired, much
+pleased.
+
+We gazed at it, open-eyed. One word rose to our lips simultaneously:
+"Brabazon!"
+
+"And how's this for high?" he asked again, producing another--the
+photograph of a gay young dog in a Tyrolese costume.
+
+We murmured, "Von Lebenstein!"
+
+"_And_ this?" he continued, showing us the portrait of a lady with a
+most fetching squint.
+
+We answered with one voice, "Little Mrs. Granton!"
+
+Medhurst was naturally proud of this excellent exploit. He replaced
+them in his pocket-book with an air of just triumph.
+
+"How did you get them?" Charles asked.
+
+Medhurst's look was mysterious. "Sir Charles," he answered, drawing
+himself up, "I must ask you to trust me awhile in this matter.
+Remember, there are people whom you decline to suspect. _I_ have
+learned that it is always those very people who are most dangerous
+to capitalists. If I were to give you the names now, you would
+refuse to believe me. Therefore, I hold them over discreetly for
+the moment. One thing, however, I say. I _know_ to a certainty where
+Colonel Clay is at this present speaking. But I will lay my plans
+deep, and I hope before long to secure him. You shall be present
+when I do so; and I shall make him confess his personality openly.
+More than that you cannot reasonably ask. I shall leave it to
+_you_, then, whether or not you wish to arrest him."
+
+Charles was considerably puzzled, not to say piqued, by this curious
+reticence; he begged hard for names; but Medhurst was adamant. "No,
+no," he replied; "we detectives have our own just pride in our
+profession. If I told you now, you would probably spoil all by some
+premature action. You are too open and impulsive! I will mention
+this alone: Colonel Clay will be shortly in Paris, and before long
+will begin from that city a fresh attempt at defrauding you, which
+he is now hatching. Mark my words, and see whether or not I have
+been kept well informed of the fellow's movements!"
+
+He was perfectly correct. Two days later, as it turned out, Charles
+received a "confidential" letter from Paris, purporting to come
+from the head of a second-rate financial house with which he had
+had dealings over the Craig-Ellachie Amalgamation--by this time,
+I ought to have said, an accomplished union. It was a letter of
+small importance in itself--a mere matter of detail; but it paved
+the way, so Medhurst thought, to some later development of more
+serious character. Here once more the man's singular foresight was
+justified. For, in another week, we received a second communication,
+containing other proposals of a delicate financial character, which
+would have involved the transference of some two thousand pounds
+to the head of the Parisian firm at an address given. Both these
+letters Medhurst cleverly compared with those written to Charles
+before, in the names of Colonel Clay and of Graf von Lebenstein.
+At first sight, it is true, the differences between the two seemed
+quite enormous: the Paris hand was broad and black, large and bold;
+while the earlier manuscript was small, neat, thin, and gentlemanly.
+Still, when Medhurst pointed out to us certain persistent twists in
+the formation of his capitals, and certain curious peculiarities in
+the relative length of his t's, his l's, his b's, and his h's, we
+could see for ourselves he was right; both were the work of one hand,
+writing in the one case with a sharp-pointed nib, very small, and in
+the other with a quill, very large and freely.
+
+This discovery was _most_ important. We stood now within measurable
+distance of catching Colonel Clay, and bringing forgery and fraud
+home to him without hope of evasion.
+
+To make all sure, however, Medhurst communicated with the Paris
+police, and showed us their answers. Meanwhile, Charles continued to
+write to the head of the firm, who had given a private address in
+the Rue Jean Jacques, alleging, I must say, a most clever reason why
+the negotiations at this stage should be confidentially conducted.
+But one never expected from Colonel Clay anything less than
+consummate cleverness. In the end, it was arranged that we three
+were to go over to Paris together, that Medhurst was to undertake,
+under the guise of being Sir Charles, to pay the two thousand pounds
+to the pretended financier, and that Charles and I, waiting with the
+police outside the door, should, at a given signal, rush in with our
+forces and secure the criminal.
+
+We went over accordingly, and spent the night at the Grand, as is
+Charles's custom. The Bristol, which I prefer, he finds too quiet.
+Early next morning we took a fiacre and drove to the Rue Jean
+Jacques. Medhurst had arranged everything in advance with the Paris
+police, three of whom, in plain clothes, were waiting at the foot
+of the staircase to assist us. Charles had further provided himself
+with two thousand pounds, in notes of the Bank of France, in order
+that the payment might be duly made, and no doubt arise as to the
+crime having been perpetrated as well as meditated--in the former
+case, the penalty would be fifteen years; in the latter, three only.
+He was in very high spirits. The fact that we had tracked the rascal
+to earth at last, and were within an hour of apprehending him, was
+in itself enough to raise his courage greatly. We found, as we
+expected, that the number given in the Rue Jean Jacques was that
+of an hotel, not a private residence. Medhurst went in first, and
+inquired of the landlord whether our man was at home, at the same
+time informing him of the nature of our errand, and giving him to
+understand that if we effected the capture by his friendly aid, Sir
+Charles would see that the expenses incurred on the swindler's bill
+were met in full, as the price of his assistance. The landlord
+bowed; he expressed his deep regret, as M. le Colonel--so we
+heard him call him--was a most amiable person, much liked by the
+household; but justice, of course, must have its way; and, with a
+regretful sigh, he undertook to assist us.
+
+The police remained below, but Charles and Medhurst were each
+provided with a pair of handcuffs. Remembering the Polperro case,
+however, we determined to use them with the greatest caution. We
+would only put them on in case of violent resistance. We crept up to
+the door where the miscreant was housed. Charles handed the notes in
+an open envelope to Medhurst, who seized them hastily and held them
+in his hands in readiness for action. We had a sign concerted.
+Whenever he sneezed--which he could do in the most natural
+manner--we were to open the door, rush in, and secure the criminal!
+
+He was gone for some minutes. Charles and I waited outside in
+breathless expectation. Then Medhurst sneezed. We flung the door
+open at once, and burst in upon the creature.
+
+Medhurst rose as we did so. He pointed with his finger. "_This_ is
+Colonel Clay!" he said; "keep him well in charge while I go down
+to the door for the police to arrest him!"
+
+A gentlemanly man, about middle height, with a grizzled beard and a
+well-assumed military aspect, rose at the same moment. The envelope
+in which Charles had placed the notes lay on the table before him.
+He clutched it nervously. "I am at a loss, gentlemen," he said, in
+an excited voice, "to account for this interruption." He spoke with
+a tremor, yet with all the politeness to which we were accustomed in
+the little curate and the Honourable David.
+
+"No nonsense!" Charles exclaimed, in his authoritative way. "We know
+who you are. We have found you out this time. You are Colonel Clay.
+If you attempt to resist--take care--I will handcuff you!"
+
+The military gentleman gave a start. "Yes, I _am_ Colonel Clay," he
+answered. "On what charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bursting with wrath. The fellow's coolness seemed never
+to desert him. "You _are_ Colonel Clay!" he muttered. "You have the
+unspeakable effrontery to stand there and admit it?"
+
+"Certainly," the Colonel answered, growing hot in turn. "I have done
+nothing to be ashamed of. What do you mean by this conduct? How dare
+you talk of arresting me?"
+
+Charles laid his hand on the man's shoulder. "Come, come, my
+friend," he said. "That sort of bluff won't go down with us. You
+know very well on what charge I arrest you; and here are the police
+to give effect to it."
+
+He called out "Entrez!" The police entered the room. Charles
+explained as well as he could in most doubtful Parisian what they
+were next to do. The Colonel drew himself up in an indignant
+attitude. He turned and addressed them in excellent French.
+
+"I am an officer in the service of her Britannic Majesty," he said.
+"On what ground do you venture to interfere with me, messieurs?"
+
+The chief policeman explained. The Colonel turned to Charles.
+"_Your_ name, sir?" he inquired.
+
+"You know it very well," Charles answered. "I am Sir Charles
+Vandrift; and, in spite of your clever disguise, I can instantly
+recognise you. I know your eyes and ears. I can see the same man
+who cheated me at Nice, and who insulted me on the island."
+
+"_You_ Sir Charles Vandrift!" the rogue cried. "No, no, sir, you are
+a madman!" He looked round at the police. "Take care what you do!"
+he cried. "This is a raving maniac. I had business just now with Sir
+Charles Vandrift, who quitted the room as these gentlemen entered.
+This person is mad, and you, monsieur, I doubt not," bowing to me,
+"you are, of course, his keeper."
+
+"Do not let him deceive you," I cried to the police, beginning to
+fear that with his usual incredible cleverness the fellow would
+even now manage to slip through our fingers. "Arrest him, as you
+are told. _We_ will take the responsibility." Though I trembled when
+I thought of that cheque he held of mine.
+
+The chief of our three policemen came forward and laid his hand on
+the culprit's shoulder. "I advise you, M. le Colonel," he said, in
+an official voice, "to come with us quietly for the present. Before
+the juge d'instruction we can enter at length into all these
+questions."
+
+The Colonel, very indignant still--and acting the part
+marvellously--yielded and went along with them.
+
+"Where's Medhurst?" Charles inquired, glancing round as we reached
+the door. "I wish he had stopped with us."
+
+"You are looking for monsieur your friend?" the landlord inquired,
+with a side bow to the Colonel. "He has gone away in a fiacre. He
+asked me to give this note to you."
+
+He handed us a twisted note. Charles opened and read it. "Invaluable
+man!" he cried. "Just hear what he says, Sey: 'Having secured
+Colonel Clay, I am off now again on the track of Mme. Picardet.
+She was lodging in the same house. She has just driven away; I know
+to what place; and I am after her to arrest her. In blind haste,
+MEDHURST.' That's smartness, IF you like. Though, poor little woman,
+I think he might have left her."
+
+"Does a Mme. Picardet stop here?" I inquired of the landlord,
+thinking it possible she might have assumed again the same old
+alias.
+
+He nodded assent. "Oui, oui, oui," he answered. "She has just driven
+off, and monsieur your friend has gone posting after her."
+
+"Splendid man!" Charles cried. "Marvillier was quite right. He is
+the prince of detectives!"
+
+We hailed a couple of fiacres, and drove off, in two detachments,
+to the juge d'instruction. There Colonel Clay continued to brazen
+it out, and asserted that he was an officer in the Indian Army, home
+on six months' leave, and spending some weeks in Paris. He even
+declared he was known at the Embassy, where he had a cousin an
+attaché; and he asked that this gentleman should be sent for at once
+from our Ambassador's to identify him. The juge d'instruction
+insisted that this must be done; and Charles waited in very bad
+humour for the foolish formality. It really seemed as if, after all,
+when we had actually caught and arrested our man, he was going by
+some cunning device to escape us.
+
+After a delay of more than an hour, during which Colonel Clay
+fretted and fumed quite as much as we did, the attaché arrived. To
+our horror and astonishment, he proceeded to salute the prisoner
+most affectionately.
+
+"Halloa, Algy!" he cried, grasping his hand; "what's up? What do
+these ruffians want with you?"
+
+It began to dawn upon us, then, what Medhurst had meant by
+"suspecting everybody": the real Colonel Clay was no common
+adventurer, but a gentleman of birth and high connections!
+
+The Colonel glared at us. "This fellow declares he's Sir Charles
+Vandrift," he said sulkily. "Though, in fact, there are two of them.
+And he accuses me of forgery, fraud, and theft, Bertie."
+
+The attaché stared hard at us. "This _is_ Sir Charles Vandrift," he
+replied, after a moment. "I remember hearing him make a speech once
+at a City dinner. And what charge have you to prefer, Sir Charles,
+against my cousin?"
+
+"Your cousin?" Charles cried. "This is Colonel Clay, the notorious
+sharper!"
+
+The attaché smiled a gentlemanly and superior smile. "This is
+Colonel Clay," he answered, "of the Bengal Staff Corps."
+
+It began to strike us there was something wrong somewhere.
+
+"But he has cheated me, all the same," Charles said--"at Nice two
+years ago, and many times since; and this very day he has tricked me
+out of two thousand pounds in French bank-notes, which he has now
+about him!"
+
+The Colonel was speechless. But the attaché laughed. "What he has
+done to-day I don't know," he said; "but if it's as apocryphal as
+what you say he did two years ago, you've a thundering bad case,
+sir; for he was then in India, and I was out there, visiting him."
+
+"Where are the two thousand pounds?" Charles cried. "Why, you've got
+them in your hand! You're holding the envelope!"
+
+The Colonel produced it. "This envelope," he said, "was left with me
+by the man with short stiff hair, who came just before you, and who
+announced himself as Sir Charles Vandrift. He said he was interested
+in tea in Assam, and wanted me to join the board of directors of
+some bogus company. These are his papers, I believe," and he handed
+them to his cousin.
+
+"Well, I'm glad the notes are safe, anyhow," Charles murmured, in a
+tone of relief, beginning to smell a rat. "Will you kindly return
+them to me?"
+
+The attaché turned out the contents of the envelope. They proved to
+be prospectuses of bubble companies of the moment, of no importance.
+
+"Medhurst must have put them there," I cried, "and decamped with the
+cash."
+
+Charles gave a groan of horror. "And Medhurst is Colonel Clay!" he
+exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the Colonel interposed. "I have but one
+personality, and no aliases."
+
+It took quite half an hour to explain this imbroglio. But as soon as
+all was explained, in French and English, to the satisfaction of
+ourselves and the juge d'instruction, the real Colonel shook hands
+with us in a most forgiving way, and informed us that he had more
+than once wondered, when he gave his name at shops in Paris, why
+it was often received with such grave suspicion. We instructed
+the police that the true culprit was Medhurst, whom they had seen
+with their own eyes, and whom we urged them to pursue with all
+expedition. Meanwhile, Charles and I, accompanied by the Colonel
+and the attaché--"to see the fun out," as they said--called at the
+Bank of France for the purpose of stopping the notes immediately. It
+was too late, however. They had been presented at once, and cashed
+in gold, by a pleasant little lady in an American costume, who was
+afterwards identified by the hotel-keeper (from our description) as
+his lodger, Mme. Picardet. It was clear she had taken rooms in the
+same hotel, to be near the Indian Colonel; and it was _she_ who had
+received and sent the letters. As for our foe, he had vanished into
+space, as always.
+
+Two days later we received the usual insulting communication on a
+sheet of Charles's own dainty note. Last time he wrote it was on
+Craig-Ellachie paper: this time, like the wanton lapwing, he had got
+himself another crest.
+
+
+"MOST PERSPICACIOUS OF MILLIONAIRES!--Said I not well, as
+Medhurst, that you must distrust everybody? And the one man
+you never dreamt of distrusting was--Medhurst. Yet see how
+truthful I was! I told you I knew where Colonel Clay was
+living--and I _did_ know, exactly. I promised to take you to
+Colonel Clay's rooms, and to get him arrested for you--and
+I kept my promise. I even exceeded your expectations; for
+I gave you _two_ Colonel Clays instead of one--and you took
+the wrong man--that is to say, the real one. This was a neat
+little trick; but it cost me some trouble.
+
+"First, I found out there _was_ a real Colonel Clay, in the
+Indian Army. I also found out he chanced to be coming home on
+leave this season. I might have made more out of him, no doubt;
+but I disliked annoying him, and preferred to give myself the
+fun of this peculiar mystification. I therefore waited for him
+to reach Paris, where the police arrangements suited me better
+than in London. While I was looking about, and delaying
+operations for his return, I happened to hear you wanted a
+detective. So I offered myself as out of work to my old
+employer, Marvillier, from whom I have had many good jobs in the
+past; and there you get, in short, the kernel of the Colonel.
+
+"Naturally, after this, I can never go back as a detective
+to Marvillier's. But, on the large scale on which I have
+learned to work since I first had the pleasure of making
+your delightful acquaintance, this matters little. To say
+the truth, I begin to feel detective work a cut or two below
+me. I am now a gentleman of means and leisure. Besides, the
+extra knowledge of your movements which I have acquired in
+your house has helped still further to give me various holds
+upon you. So the fluke will be true to his own pet lamb. To
+vary the metaphor, you are not fully shorn yet.
+
+"Remember me most kindly to your charming family, give
+Wentworth my love, and tell Mlle. Césarine I owe her a grudge
+which I shall never forget. She clearly suspected me. You are
+much too rich, dear Charles; I relieve your plethora. I bleed
+you financially. Therefore I consider myself--Your sincerest
+friend,
+
+"CLAY-BRABAZON-MEDHURST,
+
+"Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."
+
+
+Charles was threatened with apoplexy. This blow was severe.
+"Whom can I trust," he asked, plaintively, "when the detectives
+themselves, whom I employ to guard me, turn out to be swindlers?
+Don't you remember that line in the Latin grammar--something about,
+'Who shall watch the watchers?' I think it used to run, 'Quis
+custodes custodiet ipsos?'"
+
+But I felt this episode had at least disproved my suspicions of
+poor Césarine.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE SELDON GOLD-MINE
+
+
+On our return to London, Charles and Marvillier had a difference
+of opinion on the subject of Medhurst.
+
+Charles maintained that Marvillier ought to have known the man
+with the cropped hair was Colonel Clay, and ought never to have
+recommended him. Marvillier maintained that Charles had _seen_
+Colonel Clay half-a-dozen times, at least, to his own never; and
+that my respected brother-in-law had therefore nobody on earth
+but himself to blame if the rogue imposed upon him. The head
+detective had known Medhurst for ten years, he said, as a most
+respectable man, and even a ratepayer; he had always found him the
+cleverest of spies, as well he might be, indeed, on the familiar
+set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief principle. However, the upshot of
+it all was, as usual--nothing. Marvillier was sorry to lose the
+services of so excellent a hand; but he had done the very best
+he could for Sir Charles, he declared; and if Sir Charles was
+not satisfied, why, he might catch his Colonel Clays for himself
+in future.
+
+"So I will, Sey," Charles remarked to me, as we walked back from
+the office in the Strand by Piccadilly. "I won't trust any more to
+these private detectives. It's my belief they're a pack of thieves
+themselves, in league with the rascals they're set to catch, and
+with no more sense of honour than a Zulu diamond-hand."
+
+"Better try the police," I suggested, by way of being helpful.
+One must assume an interest in one's employer's business.
+
+But Charles shook his head. "No, no," he said; "I'm sick of all
+these fellows. I shall trust in future to my own sagacity. We
+learn by experience, Sey--and I've learned a thing or two. One of
+them is this: It's not enough to suspect everybody; you must have
+no preconceptions. Divest yourself entirely of every fixed idea
+if you wish to cope with a rascal of this calibre. Don't jump at
+conclusions. We should disbelieve everything, as well as distrust
+everybody. That's the road to success; and I mean to pursue it."
+
+So, by way of pursuing it, Charles retired to Seldon.
+
+"The longer the man goes on, the worse he grows," he said to me
+one morning. "He's just like a tiger that has tasted blood. Every
+successful haul seems only to make him more eager for another.
+I fully expect now before long we shall see him down here."
+
+About three weeks later, sure enough, my respected connection
+received a communication from the abandoned swindler, with
+an Austrian stamp and a Vienna post-mark.
+
+
+"MY DEAR VANDRIFT.--(After so long and so varied an acquaintance
+we may surely drop the absurd formalities of 'Sir Charles' and
+'Colonel.') I write to ask you a delicate question. Can you kindly
+tell me exactly how much I have received from your various generous
+acts during the last three years? I have mislaid my account-book,
+and as this is the season for making the income tax return, I am
+anxious, as an honest and conscientious citizen, to set down my
+average profits out of you for the triennial period. For reasons
+which you will amply understand, I do not this time give my private
+address, in Paris or elsewhere; but if you will kindly advertise
+the total amount, above the signature 'Peter Simple,' in the Agony
+Column of the Times, you will confer a great favour upon the
+Revenue Commissioners, and also upon your constant friend and
+companion, CUTHBERT CLAY,
+
+"Practical Socialist."
+
+"Mark my word, Sey," Charles said, laying the letter down, "in a
+week or less the man himself will follow. This is his cunning way
+of trying to make me think he's well out of the country and far
+away from Seldon. That means he's meditating another descent. But
+he told us too much last time, when he was Medhurst the detective.
+He gave us some hints about disguises and their unmasking that I
+shall not forget. This turn I shall be even with him."
+
+On Saturday of that week, in effect, we were walking along the road
+that leads into the village, when we met a gentlemanly-looking man,
+in a rough and rather happy-go-lucky brown tweed suit, who had the
+air of a tourist. He was middle-aged, and of middle height; he wore
+a small leather wallet suspended round his shoulder; and he was
+peering about at the rocks in a suspicious manner. Something in
+his gait attracted our attention.
+
+"Good-morning," he said, looking up as we passed; and Charles
+muttered a somewhat surly inarticulate, "Good-morning."
+
+We went on without saying more. "Well, _that's_ not Colonel Clay,
+anyhow," I said, as we got out of earshot. "For he accosted us
+first; and you may remember it's one of the Colonel's most marked
+peculiarities that, like the model child, he never speaks till he's
+spoken to--never begins an acquaintance. He always waits till we
+make the first advance; he doesn't go out of his way to cheat us;
+he loiters about till we ask him to do it."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law responded, in a severe tone, "there
+you are, now, doing the very thing I warned you not to do! You're
+succumbing to a preconception. Avoid fixed ideas. The probability
+is this man _is_ Colonel Clay. Strangers are generally scarce at
+Seldon. If he isn't Colonel Clay, what's he here for, I'd like
+to know? What money is there to be made here in any other way?
+I shall inquire about him."
+
+We dropped in at the Cromarty Arms, and asked good Mrs. M'Lachlan
+if she could tell us anything about the gentlemanly stranger. Mrs.
+M'Lachlan replied that he was from London, she believed, a pleasant
+gentleman enough; and he had his wife with him.
+
+"Ha! Young? Pretty?" Charles inquired, with a speaking glance at me.
+
+"Weel, Sir Charles, she'll no be exactly what you'd be ca'ing a
+bonny lass," Mrs. M'Lachlan replied; "but she's a guid body for
+a' that, an' a fine braw woman."
+
+"Just what I should expect," Charles murmured, "He varies the
+programme. The fellow has tried White Heather as the parson's wife,
+and as Madame Picardet, and as squinting little Mrs. Granton, and
+as Medhurst's accomplice; and now, he has almost exhausted the
+possibilities of a disguise for a really young and pretty woman;
+so he's playing her off at last as the riper product--a handsome
+matron. Clever, extremely clever; but--we begin to see through him."
+And he chuckled to himself quietly.
+
+Next day, on the hillside, we came upon our stranger again,
+occupied as before in peering into the rocks, and sounding them
+with a hammer. Charles nudged me and whispered, "I have it this
+time. He's posing as a geologist."
+
+I took a good look at the man. By now, of course, we had some
+experience of Colonel Clay in his various disguises; and I could
+observe that while the nose, the hair, and the beard were varied,
+the eyes and the build remained the same as ever. He was a trifle
+stouter, of course, being got up as a man of between forty and
+fifty; and his forehead was lined in a way which a less consummate
+artist than Colonel Clay could easily have imitated. But I felt we
+had at least some grounds for our identification; it would not do
+to dismiss the suggestion of Clayhood at once as a flight of fancy.
+
+His wife was sitting near, upon a bare boss of rock, reading a
+volume of poems. Capital variant, that, a volume of poems! Exactly
+suited the selected type of a cultivated family. White Heather and
+Mrs. Granton never used to read poems. But that was characteristic
+of all Colonel Clay's impersonations, and Mrs. Clay's too--for I
+suppose I must call her so. They were not mere outer disguises;
+they were finished pieces of dramatic study. Those two people were
+an actor and actress, as well as a pair of rogues; and in both
+their rôles they were simply inimitable.
+
+As a rule, Charles is by no means polite to casual trespassers on
+the Seldon estate; they get short shrift and a summary ejection.
+But on this occasion he had a reason for being courteous, and he
+approached the lady with a bow of recognition. "Lovely day," he
+said, "isn't it? Such belts on the sea, and the heather smells
+sweet. You are stopping at the inn, I fancy?"
+
+"Yes," the lady answered, looking up at him with a charming smile.
+("I know that smile," Charles whispered to me. "I have succumbed to
+it too often.") "We're stopping at the inn, and my husband is doing
+a little geology on the hill here. I hope Sir Charles Vandrift won't
+come and catch us. He's so down upon trespassers. They tell us at
+the inn he's a regular Tartar."
+
+("Saucy minx as ever," Charles murmured to me. "She said it on
+purpose.") "No, my dear madam," he continued, aloud; "you have
+been quite misinformed. _I_ am Sir Charles Vandrift; and I am _not_
+a Tartar. If your husband is a man of science I respect and admire
+him. It is geology that has made me what I am to-day." And he drew
+himself up proudly. "We owe to it the present development of South
+African mining."
+
+The lady blushed as one seldom sees a mature woman blush--but
+exactly as I had seen Madame Picardet and White Heather. "Oh, I'm
+so sorry," she said, in a confused way that recalled Mrs. Granton.
+"Forgive my hasty speech. I--I didn't know you."
+
+("She did," Charles whispered. "But let that pass.") "Oh, don't
+think of it again; so many people disturb the birds, don't you know,
+that we're obliged in self-defence to warn trespassers sometimes off
+our lovely mountains. But I do it with regret--with profound regret.
+I admire the--er--the beauties of Nature myself; and, therefore,
+I desire that all others should have the freest possible access
+to them--possible, that is to say, consistently with the superior
+claims of Property."
+
+"I see," the lady replied, looking up at him quaintly. "I admire
+your wish, though not your reservation. I've just been reading
+those sweet lines of Wordsworth's--
+
+  And O, ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,
+  Forebode not any severing of our loves.
+
+I suppose you know them?" And she beamed on him pleasantly.
+
+"Know them?" Charles answered. "Know them! Oh, of course, I know
+them. They're old favourites of mine--in fact, I adore Wordsworth."
+(I doubt whether Charles has ever in his life read a line of poetry,
+except Doss Chiderdoss in the Sporting Times.) He took the book
+and glanced at them. "Ah, charming, charming!" he said, in his most
+ecstatic tone. But his eyes were on the lady, and not on the poet.
+
+I saw in a moment how things stood. No matter under what disguise
+that woman appeared to him, and whether he recognised her or not,
+Charles couldn't help falling a victim to Madame Picardet's
+attractions. Here he actually suspected her; yet, like a moth
+round a candle, he was trying his hardest to get his wings singed!
+I almost despised him with his gigantic intellect! The greatest
+men are the greatest fools, I verily believe, when there's a woman
+in question.
+
+The husband strolled up by this time, and entered into conversation
+with us. According to his own account, his name was Forbes-Gaskell,
+and he was a Professor of Geology in one of those new-fangled
+northern colleges. He had come to Seldon rock-spying, he said, and
+found much to interest him. He was fond of fossils, but his special
+hobby was rocks and minerals. He knew a vast deal about cairngorms
+and agates and such-like pretty things, and showed Charles quartz
+and felspar and red cornelian, and I don't know what else, in the
+crags on the hillside. Charles pretended to listen to him with the
+deepest interest and even respect, never for a moment letting him
+guess he knew for what purpose this show of knowledge had been
+recently acquired. If we were ever to catch the man, we must not
+allow him to see we suspected him. So Charles played a dark game.
+He swallowed the geologist whole without question.
+
+Most of that morning we spent with them on the hillside. Charles
+took them everywhere and showed them everything. He pretended to be
+polite to the scientific man, and he was really polite, most polite,
+to the poetical lady. Before lunch time we had become quite friends.
+
+The Clays were always easy people to get on with; and, bar their
+roguery, we could not deny they were delightful companions. Charles
+asked them in to lunch. They accepted willingly. He introduced them
+to Amelia with sundry raisings of his eyebrows and contortions
+of his mouth. "Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell," he said,
+half-dislocating his jaw with his violent efforts. "They're stopping
+at the inn, dear. I've been showing them over the place, and they're
+good enough to say they'll drop in and take a share in our cold
+roast mutton;" which was a frequent form of Charles's pleasantry.
+
+Amelia sent them upstairs to wash their hands--which, in the
+Professor's case, was certainly desirable, for his fingers were
+grimed with earth and dust from the rocks he had been investigating.
+As soon as we were left alone Charles drew me into the library.
+
+"Seymour," he said, "more than ever there is a need for us strictly
+to avoid preconceptions. We must not make up our minds that this man
+is Colonel Clay--nor, again, that he isn't. We must remember that we
+have been mistaken in _both_ ways in the past, and must avoid our
+old errors. I shall hold myself in readiness for either event--and
+a policeman in readiness to arrest them, if necessary!"
+
+"A capital plan," I murmured. "Still, if I may venture a suggestion,
+in what way are these two people endeavouring to entrap us? They
+have no scheme on hand--no schloss, no amalgamation."
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law answered in his board-room style, "you
+are a great deal too previous, as Medhurst used to say--I mean,
+Colonel Clay in his character as Medhurst. In the first place, these
+are early days; our friends have not yet developed their intentions.
+We may find before long they have a property to sell, or a company
+to promote, or a concession to exploit in South Africa or elsewhere.
+Then again, in the second place, we don't always spot the exact
+nature of their plan until it has burst in our hands, so to speak,
+and revealed its true character. What could have seemed more
+transparent than Medhurst, the detective, till he ran away with our
+notes in the very moment of triumph? What more innocent than White
+Heather and the little curate, till they landed us with a couple
+of Amelia's own gems as a splendid bargain? I will not take it for
+granted _any_ man is not Colonel Clay, merely because I don't happen
+to spot the particular scheme he is trying to work against me. The
+rogue has so many schemes, and some of them so well concealed, that
+up to the moment of the actual explosion you fail to detect the
+presence of moral dynamite. Therefore, I shall proceed as if there
+were dynamite everywhere. But in the third place--and this is _very_
+important--you mark my words, I believe I detect already the lines
+he will work upon. He's a geologist, he says, with a taste for
+minerals. Very good. You see if he doesn't try to persuade me before
+long he has found a coal mine, whose locality he will disclose for
+a trifling consideration; or else he will salt the Long Mountain
+with emeralds, and claim a big share for helping to discover them;
+or else he will try something in the mineralogical line to _do_ me
+somehow. I see it in the very transparency of the fellow's face;
+and I'm determined this time neither to pay him one farthing on
+any pretext, nor to let him escape me!"
+
+We went in to lunch. The Professor and Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, all
+smiles, accompanied us. I don't know whether it was Charles's
+warning to take nothing for granted that made me do so--but I kept
+a close eye upon the suspected man all the time we were at table.
+It struck me there was something very odd about his hair. It
+didn't seem quite the same colour all over. The locks that hung
+down behind, over the collar of his coat, were a trifle lighter and
+a trifle grayer than the black mass that covered the greater part
+of his head. I examined it carefully. The more I did so, the more
+the conviction grew upon me: he was wearing a wig. There was no
+denying it!
+
+A trifle less artistic, perhaps, than most of Colonel Clay's
+get-ups; but then, I reflected (on Charles's principle of taking
+nothing for granted), we had never before suspected Colonel Clay
+himself, except in the one case of the Honourable David, whose red
+hair and whiskers even Madame Picardet had admitted to be absurdly
+false by her action of pointing at them and tittering irrepressibly.
+It was possible that in every case, if we had scrutinised our man
+closely, we should have found that the disguise betrayed itself
+at once (as Medhurst had suggested) to an acute observer.
+
+The detective, in fact, had told us too much. I remembered what he
+said to us about knocking off David Granton's red wig the moment
+we doubted him; and I positively tried to help myself awkwardly
+to potato-chips, when the footman offered them, so as to hit the
+supposed wig with an apparently careless brush of my elbow. But
+it was of no avail. The fellow seemed to anticipate or suspect my
+intention, and dodged aside carefully, like one well accustomed
+to saving his disguise from all chance of such real or seeming
+accidents.
+
+I was so full of my discovery that immediately after lunch I induced
+Isabel to take our new friends round the home garden and show them
+Charles's famous prize dahlias, while I proceeded myself to narrate
+to Charles and Amelia my observations and my frustrated experiment.
+
+"It _is_ a wig," Amelia assented. "_I_ spotted it at once. A very
+good wig, too, and most artistically planted. Men don't notice these
+things, though women do. It is creditable to you, Seymour, to have
+succeeded in detecting it."
+
+Charles was less complimentary. "You fool," he answered, with that
+unpleasant frankness which is much too common with him. "Supposing
+it _is_, why on earth should you try to knock it off and disclose
+him? What good would it have done? If it _is_ a wig, and we spot it,
+that's all that we need. We are put on our guard; we know with whom
+we have now to deal. But you can't take a man up on a charge of
+wig-wearing. The law doesn't interfere with it. Most respectable men
+may sometimes wear wigs. Why, I knew a promoter who did, and also
+the director of fourteen companies! What we have to do next is, wait
+till he tries to cheat us, and then--pounce down upon him. Sooner
+or later, you may be sure, his plans will reveal themselves."
+
+So we concocted an excellent scheme to keep them under constant
+observation, lest they should slip away again, as they did from the
+island. First of all, Amelia was to ask them to come and stop at the
+castle, on the ground that the rooms at the inn were uncomfortably
+small. We felt sure, however, that, as on a previous occasion,
+they would refuse the invitation, in order to be able to slink
+off unperceived, in case they should find themselves apparently
+suspected. Should they decline, it was arranged that Césarine should
+take a room at the Cromarty Arms as long as they stopped there, and
+report upon their movements; while, during the day, we would have
+the house watched by the head gillie's son, a most intelligent
+young man, who could be trusted, with true Scotch canniness, to
+say nothing to anybody.
+
+To our immense surprise, Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell accepted the invitation
+with the utmost alacrity. She was profuse in her thanks, indeed; for
+she told us the Arms was an ill-kept house, and the cookery by no
+means agreed with her husband's liver. It was sweet of us to invite
+them; such kindness to perfect strangers was quite unexpected. She
+should always say that nowhere on earth had she met with so cordial
+or friendly a reception as at Seldon Castle. But--she accepted,
+unreservedly.
+
+"It _can't_ be Colonel Clay," I remarked to Charles. "He would never
+have come here. Even as David Granton, with far more reason for
+coming, he wouldn't put himself in our power: he preferred the
+security and freedom of the Cromarty Arms."
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said sententiously, "you're incorrigible.
+You _will_ persist in being the slave of prepossessions. He may
+have some good reason of his own for accepting. Wait till he shows
+his hand--and then, we shall understand everything."
+
+So for the next three weeks the Forbes-Gaskells formed part of the
+house-party at Seldon. I must say, Charles paid them most assiduous
+attention. He positively neglected his other guests in order to keep
+close to the two new-comers. Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell noticed the fact,
+and commented on it. "You are really too good to us, Sir Charles,"
+she said. "I'm afraid you allow us quite to monopolise you!"
+
+But Charles, gallant as ever, replied with a smile, "We have
+you with us for so short a time, you know!" Which made Mrs.
+Forbes-Gaskell blush again that delicious blush of hers.
+
+During all this time the Professor went on calmly and persistently
+mineralogising. "Wonderful character!" Charles said to me. "He works
+out his parts so well! Could anything exceed the picture he gives
+one of scientific ardour?" And, indeed, he was at it, morning, noon,
+and night. "Sooner or later," Charles observed, "something practical
+must come of it."
+
+Twice, meanwhile, little episodes occurred which are well worth
+notice. One day I was out with the Professor on the Long Mountain,
+watching him hammer at the rocks, and a little bored by his
+performance, when, to pass the time, I asked him what a particular
+small water-worn stone was. He looked at it and smiled. "If there
+were a little more mica in it," he said, "it would be the
+characteristic gneiss of ice-borne boulders, hereabouts. But
+there isn't _quite_ enough." And he gazed at it curiously.
+
+"Indeed," I answered, "it doesn't come up to sample, doesn't it?"
+
+He gave me a meaning look. "Ten per cent," he murmured in a slow,
+strange voice; "ten per cent is more usual."
+
+I trembled violently. Was he bent, then, upon ruining me? "If you
+betray me--" I cried, and broke off.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. He was all pure innocence.
+
+I reflected on what Charles had said about taking nothing for
+granted, and held my tongue prudently.
+
+The other incident was this. Charles picked a sprig of white heather
+on the hill one afternoon, after a picnic lunch, I regret to say,
+when he had taken perhaps a glass more champagne than was strictly
+good for him. He was not exactly the worse for it, but he was
+excited, good-humoured, reckless, and lively. He brought the sprig
+to Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell, and handed it to her, ogling a little.
+"Sweets to the sweet," he murmured, and looked at her meaningly.
+"White heather to White Heather." Then he saw what he had done,
+and checked himself instantly.
+
+Mrs. Forbes-Gaskell coloured up in the usual manner. "I--I don't
+quite understand," she faltered.
+
+Charles scrambled out of it somehow. "White heather for luck," he
+said, "and--the man who is privileged to give a piece of it to you
+is surely lucky."
+
+She smiled, none too well pleased. I somehow felt she suspected us
+of suspecting her.
+
+However, as it turned out, nothing came, after all, of the untoward
+incident.
+
+Next day Charles burst upon me, triumphant. "Well, he has shown
+his hand!" he cried. "I knew he would. He has come to me to-day
+with--what do you think?--a fragment of gold, in quartz, from the
+Long Mountain."
+
+"No!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," Charles answered. "He says there's a vein there with distinct
+specks of gold in it, which might be worth mining. When a man begins
+_that_ way you know what he's driving at! And what's more, he's got
+up the subject beforehand; for he began saying to me there had long
+been gold in Sutherlandshire--why not therefore in Ross-shire?
+And then he went at full into the comparative geology of the two
+regions."
+
+"This is serious," I said. "What will you do?"
+
+"Wait and watch," Charles answered; "and the moment he develops a
+proposal for shares in the syndicate to work the mine, or a sum of
+money down as the price of his discovery--get in the police, and
+arrest him."
+
+For the next few days the Professor was more active and ardent than
+ever. He went peering about the rocks on every side with his hammer.
+He kept on bringing in little pieces of stone, with gold specks
+stuck in them, and talking learnedly of the "probable cost of
+crushing and milling." Charles had heard all that before; in
+point of fact, he had assisted at the drafting of some dozens of
+prospectuses. So he took no notice, and waited for the man with the
+wig to develop his proposals. He knew they would come soon; and he
+watched and waited. But, of course, to draw him on he pretended to
+be interested.
+
+While we were all in this attitude of mind, attending on Providence
+and Colonel Clay, we happened to walk down by the shore one day, in
+the opposite direction from the Seamew's island. Suddenly we came
+upon the Professor linked arm-in-arm with--Sir Adolphus Cordery!
+They were wrapped in deep talk, and appeared to be most amicable.
+
+Now, naturally, relations had been a trifle strained between Sir
+Adolphus and the house of Vandrift since the incident of the Slump;
+but under the present circumstances, and with such a matter at stake
+as the capture of Colonel Clay, it was necessary to overlook all
+such minor differences. So Charles managed to disengage the
+Professor from his friend, sent Amelia on with Forbes-Gaskell
+towards the castle, and stopped behind, himself, with Sir Adolphus
+and me, to clear up the question.
+
+"Do you know this man, Cordery?" he asked, with some little
+suspicion.
+
+"Know him? Why, of course I do," Sir Adolphus answered. "He's
+Marmaduke Forbes-Gaskell, of the Yorkshire College, a very
+distinguished man of science. First-rate mineralogist--perhaps
+the best (_but_ one) in England." Modesty forbade him to name the
+exception.
+
+"But are you sure it's he?" Charles inquired, with growing
+doubt. "Have you known him before? This isn't a second case of
+Schleiermachering me, is it?"
+
+"Sure it's he?" Sir Adolphus echoed. "Am I sure of myself? Why, I've
+known Marmy Gaskell ever since we were at Trinity together. Knew him
+before he married Miss Forbes of Glenluce, my wife's second cousin,
+and hyphened his name with hers, to keep the property in the family.
+Know them both most intimately. Came down here to the inn because I
+heard that Marmy was on the prowl among these hills, and I thought he
+had probably something good to prowl after--in the way of fossils."
+
+"But the man wears a wig!" Charles expostulated.
+
+"Of course," Cordery answered. "He's as bald as a bat--in front at
+least--and he wears a wig to cover his baldness."
+
+"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful--taking us in
+like that." And he grew red as a turkey-cock.
+
+Sir Adolphus has no delicacy. He burst out laughing.
+
+"Oh, I see," he cried out, simply bursting with amusement. "You
+thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay in disguise! Oh, my stars,
+what a lovely one!"
+
+"_You_, at least, have no right to laugh," Charles responded, drawing
+himself up and growing still redder. "You led me once into a
+similar scrape, and then backed out of it in a way unbecoming a
+gentleman. Besides," he went on, getting angrier at each word,
+"this fellow, whoever he is, has been trying to cheat me on his
+own account. Colonel Clay or no Colonel Clay, he's been salting my
+rocks with gold-bearing quartz, and trying to lead me on into an
+absurd speculation!"
+
+Sir Adolphus exploded. "Oh, this is too good," he cried. "I must
+go and tell Marmy!" And he rushed off to where Forbes-Gaskell was
+seated on a corner of rock with Amelia.
+
+As for Charles and myself, we returned to the house. Half an hour
+later Forbes-Gaskell came back, too, in a towering temper.
+
+"What is the meaning of this, sir?" he shouted out, as soon as
+he caught sight of Charles. "I'm told you've invited my wife
+and myself here to your house in order to spy upon us, under the
+impression that I was Clay, the notorious swindler!"
+
+"I thought you were," Charles answered, equally angry. "Perhaps you
+may be still! Anyhow, you're a rogue, and you tried to bamboozle
+me!"
+
+Forbes-Gaskell, white with rage, turned to his trembling wife.
+"Gertrude," he said, "pack up your box and come away from these
+people instantly. Their pretended hospitality has been a studied
+insult. They've put you and me in a most ridiculous position. We
+were told before we came here--and no doubt with truth--that Sir
+Charles Vandrift was the most close-fisted and tyrannical old
+curmudgeon in Scotland. We've been writing to all our friends to
+say ecstatically that he was, on the contrary, a most hospitable,
+generous, and large-hearted gentleman. And now we find out he's a
+disgusting cad, who asks strangers to his house from the meanest
+motives, and then insults his guests with gratuitous vituperation.
+It is well such people should hear the plain truth now and again in
+their lives; and it therefore gives me the greatest pleasure to tell
+Sir Charles Vandrift that he's a vulgar bounder of the first water.
+Go and pack your box, Gertrude! I'll run down to the Cromarty Arms,
+and order a cab to carry us away at once from this inhospitable
+sham castle."
+
+"You wear a wig, sir; you wear a wig," Charles exclaimed,
+half-choking with passion. For, indeed, as Forbes-Gaskell spoke,
+and tossed his head angrily, the nature of his hair-covering grew
+painfully apparent. It was quite one-sided.
+
+"I do, sir, that I may be able to shake it in the face of a cad!"
+the Professor responded, tearing it off to readjust it; and, suiting
+the action to the word, he brandished it thrice in Charles's eyes;
+after which he darted from the room, speechless with indignation.
+
+As soon as they were gone, and Charles had recovered breath
+sufficiently to listen to rational conversation, I ventured to
+observe, "This comes of being too sure! We made one mistake. We
+took it for granted that because a man wears a wig, he _must_ be
+an impostor--which does not necessarily follow. We forgot that not
+Colonel Clays alone have false coverings to their heads, and that
+wigs may sometimes be worn from motives of pure personal vanity.
+In fact, we were again the slaves of preconceptions."
+
+I looked at him pointedly. Charles rose before he replied. "Seymour
+Wentworth," he said at last, gazing down upon me with lofty scorn,
+"your moralising is ill-timed. It appears to me you entirely
+misunderstand the position and duties of a private secretary!"
+
+The oddest part of it all, however, was this--that Charles, being
+convinced Forbes-Gaskell, though he wasn't Colonel Clay, had been
+fraudulently salting the rocks with gold, with intent to deceive,
+took no further notice of the alleged discoveries. The consequence
+was that Forbes-Gaskell and Sir Adolphus went elsewhere with the
+secret; and it was not till after Charles had sold the Seldon
+Castle estate (which he did shortly afterward, the place having
+somehow grown strangely distasteful to him) that the present
+"Seldon Eldorados, Limited," were put upon the market by Lord
+Craig-Ellachie, who purchased the place from him. Forbes-Gaskell,
+as it happened, had reported to Craig-Ellachie that he had found
+a lode of high-grade ore on an estate unnamed, which he would
+particularise on promise of certain contingent claims to founder's
+shares; and the old lord jumped at it. Charles sold at grouse-moor
+prices; and the consequence is that the capital of the Eldorados
+is yielding at present very fair returns, even after allowing for
+expenses of promotion--while Charles has been done out of a good
+thing in gold-mines!
+
+But, remembering "the position and duties of a private secretary,"
+I refrained from pointing out to him at the time that this loss was
+due to a fixed idea--though as a matter of fact it depended upon
+Charles's strange preconception that the man with the wig, whoever
+he might be, was trying to diddle him.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE JAPANNED DISPATCH-BOX
+
+
+"Sey," my brother-in-law said next spring, "I'm sick and tired
+of London! Let's shoulder our wallets at once, and I will to
+some distant land, where no man doth me know."
+
+"Mars or Mercury?" I inquired; "for, in our own particular planet,
+I'm afraid you'll find it just a trifle difficult for Sir Charles
+Vandrift to hide his light under a bushel."
+
+"Oh, I'll manage it," Charles answered. "What's the good of being
+a millionaire, I should like to know, if you're always obliged to
+'behave as sich'? I shall travel incog. I'm dog-tired of being
+dogged by these endless impostors."
+
+And, indeed, we had passed through a most painful winter. Colonel
+Clay had stopped away for some months, it is true, and for my own
+part, I will confess, since it wasn't _my_ place to pay the piper, I
+rather missed the wonted excitement than otherwise. But Charles had
+grown horribly and morbidly suspicious. He carried out his principle
+of "distrusting everybody and disbelieving everything," till life
+was a burden to him. He spotted impossible Colonel Clays under a
+thousand disguises; he was quite convinced he had frightened his
+enemy away at least a dozen times over, beneath the varying garb
+of a fat club waiter, a tall policeman, a washerwoman's boy, a
+solicitor's clerk, the Bank of England beadle, and the collector
+of water-rates. He saw him as constantly, and in as changeful forms,
+as mediæval saints used to see the devil. Amelia and I really
+began to fear for the stability of that splendid intellect; we
+foresaw that unless the Colonel Clay nuisance could be abated
+somehow, Charles might sink by degrees to the mental level of a
+common or ordinary Stock-Exchange plunger.
+
+So, when my brother-in-law announced his intention of going away
+incog. to parts unknown, on the succeeding Saturday, Amelia and
+I felt a flush of relief from long-continued tension. Especially
+Amelia--who was _not_ going with him.
+
+"For rest and quiet," he said to us at breakfast, laying down the
+Morning Post, "give _me_ the deck of an Atlantic liner! No letters;
+no telegrams. No stocks; no shares. No Times; no Saturday. I'm sick
+of these papers!"
+
+"The World is too much with us," I assented cheerfully. I regret
+to say, nobody appreciated the point of my quotation.
+
+Charles took infinite pains, I must admit, to ensure perfect
+secrecy. He made me write and secure the best state-rooms--main
+deck, amidships--under my own name, without mentioning his, in
+the Etruria, for New York, on her very next voyage. He spoke of
+his destination to nobody but Amelia; and Amelia warned Césarine,
+under pains and penalties, on no account to betray it to the other
+servants. Further to secure his incog., Charles assumed the style
+and title of Mr. Peter Porter, and booked as such in the Etruria
+at Liverpool.
+
+The day before starting, however, he went down with me to the City
+for an interview with his brokers in Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
+Finglemore, the senior partner, hastened, of course, to receive us.
+As we entered his private room a good-looking young man rose and
+lounged out. "Halloa, Finglemore," Charles said, "that's that scamp
+of a brother of yours! I thought you had shipped him off years and
+years ago to China?"
+
+"So I did, Sir Charles," Finglemore answered, rubbing his hands
+somewhat nervously. "But he never went there. Being an idle young
+dog, with a taste for amusement, he got for the time no further
+than Paris. Since then, he's hung about a bit, here, there, and
+everywhere, and done no particular good for himself or his family.
+But about three or four years ago he somehow 'struck ile': he went
+to South Africa, poaching on your preserves; and now he's back
+again--rich, married, and respectable. His wife, a nice little
+woman, has reformed him. Well, what can I do for you this morning?"
+
+Charles has large interests in America, in Santa Fé and Topekas, and
+other big concerns; and he insisted on taking out several documents
+and vouchers connected in various ways with his widespread ventures
+there. He meant to go, he said, for complete rest and change, on a
+general tour of private inquiry--New York, Chicago, Colorado, the
+mining districts. It was a millionaire's holiday. So he took all
+these valuables in a black japanned dispatch-box, which he guarded
+like a child with absurd precautions. He never allowed that box out
+of his sight one moment; and he gave me no peace as to its safety
+and integrity. It was a perfect fetish. "We must be cautious," he
+said, "Sey, cautious! Especially in travelling. Recollect how that
+little curate spirited the diamonds out of Amelia's jewel-case! I
+shall not let this box out of my sight. I shall stick to it myself,
+if we go to the bottom."
+
+We did _not_ go to the bottom. It is the proud boast of the Cunard
+Company that it has "never lost a passenger's life"; and the captain
+would not consent to send the Etruria to Davy Jones's locker, merely
+in order to give Charles a chance of sticking to his dispatch-box
+under trying circumstances. On the contrary, we had a delightful
+and uneventful passage; and we found our fellow-passengers most
+agreeable people. Charles, as Mr. Peter Porter, being freed for
+the moment from his terror of Colonel Clay, would have felt really
+happy, I believe--had it not been for the dispatch-box. He made
+friends from the first hour (quite after the fearless old fashion
+of the days before Colonel Clay had begun to embitter life for him)
+with a nice American doctor and his charming wife, on their way back
+to Kentucky. Dr. Elihu Quackenboss--that was his characteristically
+American name--had been studying medicine for a year in Vienna, and
+was now returning to his native State with a brain close crammed
+with all the latest bacteriological and antiseptic discoveries. His
+wife, a pretty and piquant little American, with a tip-tilted nose
+and the quaint sharpness of her countrywomen, amused Charles not a
+little. The funny way in which she would make room for him by her
+side on the bench on deck, and say, with a sweet smile, "You sit
+right here, Mr. Porter; the sun's just elegant," delighted and
+flattered him. He was proud to find out that female attention was
+not always due to his wealth and title; and that plain Mr. Porter
+could command on his merits the same amount of blandishments as Sir
+Charles Vandrift, the famous millionaire, on his South African
+celebrity.
+
+During the whole of that voyage, it was Mrs. Quackenboss here, and
+Mrs. Quackenboss there, and Mrs. Quackenboss the other place, till,
+for Amelia's sake, I was glad she was not on board to witness it.
+Long before we sighted Sandy Hook, I will admit, I was fairly sick
+of Charles's two-stringed harp--Mrs. Quackenboss and the
+dispatch-box.
+
+Mrs. Quackenboss, it turned out, was an amateur artist, and she
+painted Sir Charles, on calm days on deck, in all possible
+attitudes. She seemed to find him a most attractive model.
+
+The doctor, too, was a precious clever fellow. He knew something of
+chemistry--and of most other subjects, including, as I gathered, the
+human character. For he talked to Charles about various ideas of
+his, with which he wished to "liven up folks in Kentucky a bit," on
+his return, till Charles conceived the highest possible regard for
+his intelligence and enterprise. "That's a go-ahead fellow, Sey!"
+he remarked to me one day. "Has the right sort of grit in him!
+Those Americans are the men. Wish I had a round hundred of them on
+my works in South Africa!"
+
+That idea seemed to grow upon him. He was immensely taken with it.
+He had lately dismissed one of his chief superintendents at the
+Cloetedorp mine, and he seriously debated whether or not he should
+offer the post to the smart Kentuckian. For my own part, I am
+inclined to connect this fact with his expressed determination to
+visit his South African undertakings for three months yearly in
+future; and I am driven to suspect he felt life at Cloetedorp would
+be rendered much more tolerable by the agreeable society of a quaint
+and amusing American lady.
+
+"If you offer it to him," I said, "remember, you must disclose your
+personality."
+
+"Not at all," Charles answered. "I can keep it dark for the present,
+till all is arranged for. I need only say I have interests in South
+Africa."
+
+So, one morning on deck, as we were approaching the Banks, he
+broached his scheme gently to the doctor and Mrs. Quackenboss. He
+remarked that he was connected with one of the biggest financial
+concerns in the Southern hemisphere; and that he would pay Elihu
+fifteen hundred a year to represent him at the diggings.
+
+"What, dollars?" the lady said, smiling and accentuating the
+tip-tilted nose a little more. "Oh, Mr. Porter, it ain't good
+enough!"
+
+"No, pounds, my dear madam," Charles responded. "Pounds sterling,
+you know. In United States currency, seven thousand five hundred."
+
+"I guess Elihu would just jump at it," Mrs. Quackenboss replied,
+looking at him quizzically.
+
+The doctor laughed. "You make a good bid, sir," he said, in his slow
+American way, emphasising all the most unimportant words: "_But_ you
+overlook one element. I _am_ a man of science, not a speculator. I
+_have_ trained myself for medical work, _at_ considerable cost, _in_
+the best schools of Europe, _and_ I do not propose _to_ fling away
+the results _of_ much arduous labour _by_ throwing myself out
+elastically _into_ a new line of work _for_ which my faculties _may_
+not perhaps equally adapt me."
+
+("How thoroughly American!" I murmured, in the background.)
+
+Charles insisted; all in vain. Mrs. Quackenboss was impressed; but
+the doctor smiled always a sphinx-like smile, and reiterated his
+belief in the unfitness of mid-stream as an ideal place for swopping
+horses. The more he declined, and the better he talked, the more
+eager Charles became each day to secure him. And, as if on purpose
+to draw him on, the doctor each day gave more and more surprising
+proofs of his practical abilities. "I _am_ not a specialist," he said.
+"I just ketch the drift, appropriate the kernel, _and_ let the rest
+slide."
+
+He could do anything, it really seemed, from shoeing a mule to
+conducting a camp-meeting; he was a capital chemist, a very sound
+surgeon, a fair judge of horseflesh, a first class euchre player,
+and a pleasing baritone. When occasion demanded he could occupy a
+pulpit. He had invented a cork-screw which brought him in a small
+revenue; and he was now engaged in the translation of a Polish work
+on the "Application of Hydrocyanic Acid to the Cure of Leprosy."
+
+Still, we reached New York without having got any nearer our goal,
+as regarded Dr. Quackenboss. He came to bid us good-bye at the quay,
+with that sphinx-like smile still playing upon his features. Charles
+clutched the dispatch-box with one hand, and Mrs. Quackenboss's
+little palm with the other.
+
+"_Don't_ tell us," he said, "this is good-bye--for ever!" And his
+voice quite faltered.
+
+"I guess so, Mr. Porter," the pretty American replied, with a
+telling glance. "What hotel do you patronise?"
+
+"The Murray Hill," Charles responded.
+
+"Oh my, ain't that odd?" Mrs. Quackenboss echoed. "The Murray Hill!
+Why, that's just where we're going too, Elihu!"
+
+The upshot of which was that Charles persuaded them, before
+returning to Kentucky, to diverge for a few days with us to Lake
+George and Lake Champlain, where he hoped to over-persuade the
+recalcitrant doctor.
+
+To Lake George therefore we went, and stopped at the excellent hotel
+at the terminus of the railway. We spent a good deal of our time on
+the light little steamers that ply between that point and the road
+to Ticonderoga. Somehow, the mountains mirrored in the deep green
+water reminded me of Lucerne; and Lucerne reminded me of the little
+curate. For the first time since we left England a vague terror
+seized me. _Could_ Elihu Quackenboss be Colonel Clay again, still
+dogging our steps through the opposite continent?
+
+I could not help mentioning my suspicion to Charles--who, strange
+to say, pooh-poohed it. He had been paying great court to Mrs.
+Quackenboss that day, and was absurdly elated because the little
+American had rapped his knuckles with her fan and called him "a
+real silly."
+
+Next day, however, an odd thing occurred. We strolled out together,
+all four of us, along the banks of the lake, among woods just
+carpeted with strange, triangular flowers--trilliums, Mrs.
+Quackenboss called them--and lined with delicate ferns in the
+first green of springtide.
+
+I began to grow poetical. (I wrote verses in my youth before I went
+to South Africa.) We threw ourselves on the grass, near a small
+mountain stream that descended among moss-clad boulders from the
+steep woods above us. The Kentuckian flung himself at full length
+on the sward, just in front of Charles. He had a strange head of
+hair, very thick and shaggy. I don't know why, but, of a sudden, it
+reminded me of the Mexican Seer, whom we had learned to remember as
+Colonel Clay's first embodiment. At the same moment the same thought
+seemed to run through Charles's head; for, strange to say, with
+a quick impulse he leant forward and examined it. I saw Mrs.
+Quackenboss draw back in wonder. The hair looked too thick and close
+for nature. It ended abruptly, I now remembered, with a sharp line
+on the forehead. Could this, too, be a wig? It seemed very probable.
+
+Even as I thought that thought, Charles appeared to form a sudden
+and resolute determination. With one lightning swoop he seized the
+doctor's hair in his powerful hand, and tried to lift it off bodily.
+He had made a bad guess. Next instant the doctor uttered a loud and
+terrified howl of pain, while several of his hairs, root and all,
+came out of his scalp in Charles's hand, leaving a few drops of
+blood on the skin of the head in the place they were torn from.
+There was no doubt at all it was not a wig, but the Kentuckian's
+natural hirsute covering.
+
+The scene that ensued I am powerless to describe. My pen is unequal
+to it. The doctor arose, not so much angry as astonished, white and
+incredulous. "What did you do that for, any way?" he asked, glaring
+fiercely at my brother-in-law. Charles was all abject apology. He
+began by profusely expressing his regret, and offering to make any
+suitable reparation, monetary or otherwise. Then he revealed his
+whole hand. He admitted that he was Sir Charles Vandrift, the famous
+millionaire, and that he had suffered egregiously from the endless
+machinations of a certain Colonel Clay, a machiavellian rogue,
+who had hounded him relentlessly round the capitals of Europe. He
+described in graphic detail how the impostor got himself up with
+wigs and wax, so as to deceive even those who knew him intimately;
+and then he threw himself on Dr. Quackenboss's mercy, as a man who
+had been cruelly taken in so often that he could not help suspecting
+the best of men falsely. Mrs. Quackenboss admitted it was natural to
+have suspicions--"Especially," she said, with candour, "as you're
+not the first to observe the notable way Elihu's hair seems to
+originate from his forehead," and she pulled it up to show us. But
+Elihu himself sulked on in the dumps: his dignity was offended.
+"_If_ you wanted to know," he said, "you might as well have asked me.
+Assault _and_ battery _is_ not the right way to test whether _a_
+citizen's hair is primitive or acquired."
+
+"It was an impulse," Charles pleaded; "an instinctive impulse!"
+
+"Civilised man restrains his impulses," the doctor answered. "You
+_have_ lived too long _in_ South Africa, Mr. Porter--I mean, Sir
+Charles Vandrift, if that's the right way _to_ address such a
+gentleman. You appear to _have_ imbibed the habits _and_ manners
+of the Kaffirs you lived among."
+
+For the next two days, I will really admit, Charles seemed more
+wretched than I could have believed it possible for him to be on
+somebody else's account. He positively grovelled. The fact was,
+he saw he had hurt Dr. Quackenboss's feelings, and--much to my
+surprise--he seemed truly grieved at it. If the doctor would have
+accepted a thousand pounds down to shake hands at once and forget
+the incident--in my opinion Charles would have gladly paid it.
+Indeed, he said as much in other words to the pretty American--for
+he could not insult her by offering her money. Mrs. Quackenboss did
+her best to make it up, for she was a kindly little creature, in
+spite of her roguishness; but Elihu stood aloof. Charles urged him
+still to go out to South Africa, increasing his bait to two thousand
+a year; yet the doctor was immovable. "No, no," he said; "I had half
+decided _to_ accept your offer--_till_ that unfortunate impulse; but
+that settled the question. _As_ an American citizen, I decline _to_
+become the representative _of_ a British nobleman who takes such means
+_of_ investigating questions which affect the hair and happiness _of_
+his fellow-creatures."
+
+I don't know whether Charles was most disappointed at missing the
+chance of so clever a superintendent for the mine at Cloetedorp, or
+elated at the novel description of himself as "a British nobleman;"
+which is not precisely our English idea of a colonial knighthood.
+
+Three days later, accordingly, the Quackenbosses left the Lakeside
+Hotel. We were bound on an expedition up the lake ourselves, when
+the pretty little woman burst in with a dash to tell us they were
+leaving. She was charmingly got up in the neatest and completest of
+American travelling-dresses. Charles held her hand affectionately.
+"I'm sorry it's good-bye," he said. "I have done my best to secure
+your husband."
+
+"You couldn't have tried harder than I did," the little woman
+answered, and the tip-tilted nose looked quite pathetic; "for I just
+hate to be buried right down there in Kentucky! However, Elihu is
+the sort of man a woman can neither drive nor lead; so we've got to
+put up with him." And she smiled upon us sweetly, and disappeared
+for ever.
+
+Charles was disconsolate all that day. Next morning he rose, and
+announced his intention of setting out for the West on his tour of
+inspection. He would recreate by revelling in Colorado silver lodes.
+
+We packed our own portmanteaus, for Charles had not brought even
+Simpson with him, and then we prepared to set out by the morning
+train for Saratoga.
+
+Up till almost the last moment Charles nursed his dispatch-box.
+But as the "baggage-smashers" were taking down our luggage, and a
+chambermaid was lounging officiously about in search of a tip,
+he laid it down for a second or two on the centre table while he
+collected his other immediate impedimenta. He couldn't find his
+cigarette-case, and went back to the bedroom for it. I helped
+him hunt, but it had disappeared mysteriously. That moment lost
+him. When we had found the cigarette-case, and returned to the
+sitting-room--lo, and behold! the dispatch-box was missing!
+Charles questioned the servants, but none of them had noticed it.
+He searched round the room--not a trace of it anywhere.
+
+"Why, I laid it down here just two minutes ago!" he cried. But it
+was not forthcoming.
+
+"It'll turn up in time," I said. "Everything turns up in the
+end--including Mrs. Quackenboss's nose."
+
+"Seymour," said my brother-in-law, "your hilarity is inopportune."
+
+To say the truth, Charles was beside himself with anger. He took
+the elevator down to the "Bureau," as they call it, and complained
+to the manager. The manager, a sharp-faced New Yorker, smiled as
+he remarked in a nonchalant way that guests with valuables were
+required to leave them in charge of the management, in which case
+they were locked up in the safe and duly returned to the depositor
+on leaving. Charles declared somewhat excitedly that he had been
+robbed, and demanded that nobody should be allowed to leave the
+hotel till the dispatch-box was discovered. The manager, quite cool,
+and obtrusively picking his teeth, responded that such tactics might
+be possible in an hotel of the European size, putting up a couple
+of hundred guests or so; but that an American house, with over a
+thousand visitors--many of whom came and went daily--could not
+undertake such a quixotic quest on behalf of a single foreign
+complainant.
+
+That epithet, "foreign," stung Charles to the quick. No Englishman
+can admit that he is anywhere a foreigner. "Do you know who I am,
+sir?" he asked, angrily. "I am Sir Charles Vandrift, of London--a
+member of the English Parliament."
+
+"You may be the Prince of Wales," the man answered, "for all I care.
+You'll get the same treatment as anyone else, in America. But if
+you're Sir Charles Vandrift," he went on, examining his books, "how
+does it come you've registered as Mr. Peter Porter?"
+
+Charles grew red with embarrassment. The difficulty deepened.
+
+The dispatch-box, always covered with a leather case, bore on its
+inner lid the name "Sir Charles Vandrift, K.C.M.G.," distinctly
+painted in the orthodox white letters. This was a painful
+contretemps: he had lost his precious documents; he had given a
+false name; and he had rendered the manager supremely careless
+whether or not he recovered his stolen property. Indeed, seeing he
+had registered as Porter, and now "claimed" as Vandrift, the manager
+hinted in pretty plain language he very much doubted whether there
+had ever been a dispatch-box in the matter at all, or whether, if
+there were one, it had ever contained any valuable documents.
+
+We spent a wretched morning. Charles went round the hotel,
+questioning everybody as to whether they had seen his dispatch-box.
+Most of the visitors resented the question as a personal imputation;
+one fiery Virginian, indeed, wanted to settle the point then and
+there with a six-shooter. Charles telegraphed to New York to prevent
+the shares and coupons from being negotiated; but his brokers
+telegraphed back that, though they had stopped the numbers as far
+as possible, they did so with reluctance, as they were not aware of
+Sir Charles Vandrift being now in the country. Charles declared he
+wouldn't leave the hotel till he recovered his property; and for
+myself, I was inclined to suppose we would have to remain there
+accordingly for the term of our natural lives--and longer.
+
+That night again we spent at the Lakeside Hotel. In the small hours
+of the morning, as I lay awake and meditated, a thought broke
+across me. I was so excited by it that I rose and rushed into my
+brother-in-law's bedroom. "Charles, Charles!" I exclaimed, "we have
+taken too much for granted once more. Perhaps Elihu Quackenboss
+carried off your dispatch-box!"
+
+"You fool," Charles answered, in his most unamiable manner (he
+applies that word to me with increasing frequency); "is _that_ what
+you've waked me up for? Why, the Quackenbosses left Lake George
+on Tuesday morning, and I had the dispatch-box in my own hands
+on Wednesday."
+
+"We have only their word for it," I cried. "Perhaps they stopped
+on--and walked off with it afterwards!"
+
+"We will inquire to-morrow," Charles answered. "But I confess I
+don't think it was worth waking me up for. I could stake my life
+on that little woman's integrity."
+
+We _did_ inquire next morning--with this curious result: it turned
+out that, though the Quackenbosses had left the Lakeside Hotel on
+Tuesday, it was only for the neighbouring Washington House, which
+they quitted on Wednesday morning, taking the same train for
+Saratoga which Charles and I had intended to go by. Mrs. Quackenboss
+carried a small brown paper parcel in her hands--in which, under the
+circumstances, we had little difficulty in recognising Charles's
+dispatch-box, loosely enveloped.
+
+Then I knew how it was done. The chambermaid, loitering about the
+room for a tip, was--Mrs. Quackenboss! It needed but an apron to
+transform her pretty travelling-dress into a chambermaid's costume;
+and in any of those huge American hotels one chambermaid more or
+less would pass in the crowd without fear of challenge.
+
+"We will follow them on to Saratoga," Charles cried. "Pay the bill
+at once, Seymour."
+
+"Certainly," I answered. "Will you give me some money?"
+
+Charles clapped his hand to his pockets. "All, all in the
+dispatch-box," he murmured.
+
+That tied us up another day, till we could get some ready cash from
+our agents in New York; for the manager, already most suspicious at
+the change of name and the accusation of theft, peremptorily refused
+to accept Charles's cheque, or anything else, as he phrased it,
+except "hard money." So we lingered on perforce at Lake George in
+ignoble inaction.
+
+"Of course," I observed to my brother-in-law that evening, "Elihu
+Quackenboss was Colonel Clay."
+
+"I suppose so," Charles murmured resignedly. "Everybody I meet seems
+to be Colonel Clay nowadays--except when I believe they _are_, in
+which case they turn out to be harmless nobodies. But who would have
+thought it was he after I pulled his hair out? Or after he persisted
+in his trick, even when I suspected him--which, he told us at
+Seldon, was against his first principles?"
+
+A light dawned upon me again. But, warned by previous ebullitions,
+I expressed myself this time with becoming timidity. "Charles,"
+I suggested, "may we not here again have been the slaves of a
+preconception? We thought Forbes-Gaskell was Colonel Clay--for
+no better reason than because he wore a wig. We thought Elihu
+Quackenboss wasn't Colonel Clay--for no better reason than because
+he didn't wear one. But how do we know he _ever_ wears wigs? Isn't it
+possible, after all, that those hints he gave us about make-up, when
+he was Medhurst the detective, were framed on purpose, so as to
+mislead and deceive us? And isn't it possible what he said of his
+methods at the Seamew's island that day was similarly designed in
+order to hoodwink us?"
+
+"That is so obvious, Sey," my brother-in-law observed, in a most
+aggrieved tone, "that I should have thought any secretary worth his
+salt would have arrived at it instantly."
+
+I abstained from remarking that Charles himself had not arrived at
+it even now, until I told him. I thought that to say so would serve
+no good purpose. So I merely went on: "Well, it seems to me likely
+that when he came as Medhurst, with his hair cut short, he was
+really wearing his own natural crop, in its simplest form and of
+its native hue. By now it has had time to grow long and bushy. When
+he was David Granton, no doubt, he clipped it to an intermediate
+length, trimmed his beard and moustache, and dyed them all red, to
+a fine Scotch colour. As the Seer, again, he wore his hair much
+the same as Elihu's; only, to suit the character, more combed and
+fluffy. As the little curate, he darkened it and plastered it down.
+As Von Lebenstein, he shaved close, but cultivated his moustache to
+its utmost dimensions, and dyed it black after the Tyrolese fashion.
+He need never have had a wig; his own natural hair would throughout
+have been sufficient, allowing for intervals."
+
+"You're right, Sey," my brother-in-law said, growing almost
+friendly. "I will do you the justice to admit that's the nearest
+thing we have yet struck out to an idea for tracking him."
+
+On the Saturday morning a letter arrived which relieved us a little
+from our momentary tension. It was from our enemy himself--but most
+different in tone from his previous bantering communications:--
+
+
+"Saratoga, Friday.
+
+"SIR CHARLES VANDRIFT--Herewith I return your dispatch-box,
+intact, with the papers untouched. As you will readily observe,
+it has not even been opened.
+
+"You will ask me the reason for this strange conduct. Let me be
+serious for once, and tell you truthfully.
+
+"White Heather and I (for I will stick to Mr. Wentworth's
+judicious sobriquet) came over on the Etruria with you,
+intending, as usual, to make something out of you. We followed
+you to Lake George--for I had 'forced a card,' after my
+habitual plan, by inducing you to invite us, with the fixed
+intention of playing a particular trick upon you. It formed no
+part of our original game to steal your dispatch-box; that I
+consider a simple and elementary trick unworthy the skill of a
+practised operator. We persisted in the preparations for our
+coup, till you pulled my hair out. Then, to my great surprise,
+I saw you exhibited a degree of regret and genuine compunction
+with which, till that moment, I could never have credited you.
+You thought you had hurt my feelings; and you behaved more
+like a gentleman than I had previously known you to do. You
+not only apologised, but you also endeavoured voluntarily to
+make reparation. That produced an effect upon me. You may not
+believe it, but I desisted accordingly from the trick I had
+prepared for you.
+
+"I might also have accepted your offer to go to South Africa,
+where I could soon have cleared out, having embezzled thousands.
+But, then, I should have been in a position of trust and
+responsibility--and I am not _quite_ rogue enough to rob you
+under those conditions.
+
+"Whatever else I am, however, I am not a hypocrite. I do
+not pretend to be anything more than a common swindler. If
+I return you your papers intact, it is only on the same
+principle as that of the Australian bushranger, who made a
+lady _a present_ of her own watch because she had sung to him
+and reminded him of England. In other words, he did not take
+it from her. In like manner, when I found you had behaved, for
+once, like a gentleman, contrary to my expectation, I declined
+to go on with the trick I then meditated. Which does not mean
+to say I may not hereafter play you some other. _That_ will
+depend upon your future good behaviour.
+
+"Why, then, did I get White Heather to purloin your dispatch-box,
+with intent to return it? Out of pure lightness of heart? Not
+so; but in order to let you see I really meant it. If I had
+gone off with no swag, and then written you this letter, you
+would not have believed me. You would have thought it was
+merely another of my failures. But when I have actually got
+all your papers into my hands, and give them up again of my
+own free will, you must see that I mean it.
+
+"I will end, as I began, seriously. My trade has not quite
+crushed out of me all germs or relics of better feeling; and
+when I see a millionaire behave like a man, I feel ashamed
+to take advantage of that gleam of manliness.
+
+"Yours, with a tinge of penitence, but still a rogue, CUTHBERT CLAY."
+
+The first thing Charles did on receiving this strange communication
+was to bolt downstairs and inquire for the dispatch-box. It had
+just arrived by Eagle Express Company. Charles rushed up to our
+rooms again, opened it feverishly, and counted his documents. When
+he found them all safe, he turned to me with a hard smile. "This
+letter," he said, with quivering lips, "I consider still more
+insulting than all his previous ones."
+
+But, for myself, I really thought there was a ring of truth about
+it. Colonel Clay was a rogue, no doubt--a most unblushing rogue;
+but even a rogue, I believe, has his better moments.
+
+And the phrase about the "position of trust and responsibility"
+touched Charles to the quick, I suppose, in re the Slump in
+Cloetedorp Golcondas. Though, to be sure, it was a hit at me as
+well, over the ten per cent commission.
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE GAME OF POKER
+
+
+"Seymour," my brother-in-law said, with a deep-drawn sigh, as we
+left Lake George next day by the Rennselaer and Saratoga Railroad,
+"no more Peter Porter for me, _if_ you please! I'm sick of disguises.
+Now that we know Colonel Clay is here in America, they serve no
+good purpose; so I may as well receive the social consideration and
+proper respect to which my rank and position naturally entitle me."
+
+"And which they secure for the most part (except from hotel clerks),
+even in this republican land," I answered briskly.
+
+For in my humble opinion, for sound copper-bottomed snobbery,
+registered A1 at Lloyd's, give _me_ the free-born American citizen.
+
+We travelled through the States, accordingly, for the next four
+months, from Maine to California, and from Oregon to Florida,
+under our own true names, "Confirming the churches," as Charles
+facetiously put it--or in other words, looking into the management
+and control of railways, syndicates, mines, and cattle-ranches. We
+inquired about everything. And the result of our investigations
+appeared to be, as Charles further remarked, that the Sabeans who
+so troubled the sons of Job seemed to have migrated in a body to
+Kansas and Nebraska, and that several thousand head of cattle seemed
+mysteriously to vanish, à la Colonel Clay, into the pure air of the
+prairies just before each branding.
+
+However, we were fortunate in avoiding the incursions of the Colonel
+himself, who must have migrated meanwhile on some enchanted carpet
+to other happy hunting-grounds.
+
+It was chill October before we found ourselves safe back in New
+York, en route for England. So long a term of freedom from the
+Colonel's depredations (as Charles fondly imagined--but I will not
+anticipate) had done my brother-in-law's health and spirits a world
+of good; he was so lively and cheerful that he began to fancy his
+tormentor must have succumbed to yellow fever, then raging in New
+Orleans, or eaten himself ill, as we nearly did ourselves, on a
+generous mixture of clam-chowder, terrapin, soft-shelled crabs,
+Jersey peaches, canvas-backed ducks, Catawba wine, winter cherries,
+brandy cocktails, strawberry-shortcake, ice-creams, corn-dodger,
+and a judicious brew commonly known as a Colorado corpse-reviver.
+However that may be, Charles returned to New York in excellent
+trim; and, dreading in that great city the wiles of his antagonist,
+he cheerfully accepted the invitation of his brother millionaire,
+Senator Wrengold of Nevada, to spend a few days before sailing in
+the Senator's magnificent and newly-finished palace at the upper
+end of Fifth Avenue.
+
+"There, at least, I shall be safe, Sey," he said to me plaintively,
+with a weary smile. "Wrengold, at any rate, won't try to take me
+in--except, of course, in the regular way of business."
+
+Boss-Nugget Hall (as it is popularly christened) is perhaps the
+handsomest brown stone mansion in the Richardsonian style on all
+Fifth Avenue. We spent a delightful week there. The lines had fallen
+to us in pleasant places. On the night we arrived Wrengold gave
+a small bachelor party in our honour. He knew Sir Charles was
+travelling without Lady Vandrift, and rightly judged he would prefer
+on his first night an informal party, with cards and cigars, instead
+of being bothered with the charming, but still somewhat hampering
+addition of female society.
+
+The guests that evening were no more than seven, all told, ourselves
+included--making up, Wrengold said, that perfect number, an octave.
+He was a nouveau riche himself--the newest of the new--commonly
+known in exclusive old-fashioned New York society as the Gilded
+Squatter; for he "struck his reef" no more than ten years ago; and
+he was therefore doubly anxious, after the American style, to be
+"just dizzy with culture." In his capacity of Mæcenas, he had
+invited amongst others the latest of English literary arrivals in
+New York--Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous poet, and leader of the
+Briar-rose school of West-country fiction.
+
+"You know him in London, of course?" he observed to Charles, with
+a smile, as we waited dinner for our guests.
+
+"No," Charles answered stolidly. "I have not had that honour.
+We move, you see, in different circles."
+
+I observed by a curious shade which passed over Senator Wrengold's
+face that he quite misapprehended my brother-in-law's meaning.
+Charles wished to convey, of course, that Mr. Coleyard belonged to
+a mere literary and Bohemian set in London, while he himself moved
+on a more exalted plane of peers and politicians. But the Senator,
+better accustomed to the new-rich point of view, understood Charles
+to mean that _he_ had not the entrée of that distinguished coterie in
+which Mr. Coleyard posed as a shining luminary. Which naturally
+made him rate even higher than before his literary acquisition.
+
+At two minutes past the hour the poet entered. Even if we had not
+been already familiar with his portrait at all ages in The Strand
+Magazine, we should have recognised him at once for a genuine bard
+by his impassioned eyes, his delicate mouth, the artistic twirl of
+one gray lock upon his expansive brow, the grizzled moustache that
+gave point and force to the genial smile, and the two white rows of
+perfect teeth behind it. Most of our fellow-guests had met Coleyard
+before at a reception given by the Lotus Club that afternoon, for
+the bard had reached New York but the previous evening; so Charles
+and I were the only visitors who remained to be introduced to him.
+The lion of the hour was attired in ordinary evening dress, with
+no foppery of any kind, but he wore in his buttonhole a dainty
+blue flower whose name I do not know; and as he bowed distantly to
+Charles, whom he surveyed through his eyeglass, the gleam of a big
+diamond in the middle of his shirt-front betrayed the fact that the
+Briar-rose school, as it was called (from his famous epic), had at
+least succeeded in making money out of poetry. He explained to us a
+little later, in fact, that he was over in New York to look after
+his royalties. "The beggars," he said, "only gave me eight hundred
+pounds on my last volume. I couldn't stand _that_, you know; for a
+modern bard, moving with the age, can only sing when duly wound up;
+so I've run across to investigate. Put a penny in the slot, don't
+you see, and the poet will pipe for you."
+
+"Exactly like myself," Charles said, finding a point in common.
+"_I'm_ interested in mines; and I, too, have come over to look
+after my royalties."
+
+The poet placed his eyeglass in his eye once more, and surveyed
+Charles deliberately from head to foot. "Oh," he murmured slowly. He
+said not a word more; but somehow, everybody felt that Charles was
+demolished. I saw that Wrengold, when we went in to dinner, hastily
+altered the cards that marked their places. He had evidently put
+Charles at first to sit next the poet; he varied that arrangement
+now, setting Algernon Coleyard between a railway king and a magazine
+editor. I have seldom seen my respected brother-in-law so completely
+silenced.
+
+The poet's conduct during dinner was most peculiar. He kept quoting
+poetry at inopportune moments.
+
+"Roast lamb or boiled turkey, sir?" said the footman.
+
+"Mary had a little lamb," said the poet. "I shall imitate Mary."
+
+Charles and the Senator thought the remark undignified.
+
+After dinner, however, under the mellowing influence of some
+excellent Roederer, Charles began to expand again, and grew lively
+and anecdotal. The poet had made us all laugh not a little with
+various capital stories of London literary society--at least two of
+them, I think, new ones; and Charles was moved by generous emulation
+to contribute his own share to the amusement of the company. He was
+in excellent cue. He is not often brilliant; but when he chooses, he
+has a certain dry vein of caustic humour which is decidedly funny,
+though not perhaps strictly without being vulgar. On this particular
+night, then, warmed with the admirable Wrengold champagne--the
+best made in America--he launched out into a full and embroidered
+description of the various ways in which Colonel Clay had deceived
+him. I will not say that he narrated them in full with the same
+frankness and accuracy that I have shown in these pages; he
+suppressed not a few of the most amusing details--on no other
+ground, apparently, than because they happened to tell against
+himself; and he enlarged a good deal on the surprising cleverness
+with which several times he had nearly secured his man; but still,
+making all allowances for native vanity in concealment and addition,
+he was distinctly funny--he represented the matter for once in its
+ludicrous rather than in its disastrous aspect. He observed also,
+looking around the table, that after all he had lost less by
+Colonel Clay in four years of persecution than he often lost by
+one injudicious move in a single day on the London Stock Exchange;
+while he seemed to imply to the solid men of New York, that he
+would cheerfully sacrifice such a fleabite as that, in return for
+the amusement and excitement of the chase which the Colonel had
+afforded him.
+
+The poet was pleased. "You are a man of spirit, Sir Charles," he
+said. "I love to see this fine old English admiration of pluck and
+adventure! The fellow must really have some good in him, after all.
+I should like to take notes of a few of those stories; they would
+supply nice material for basing a romance upon."
+
+"I hardly know whether I'm exactly the man to make the hero of a
+novel," Charles murmured, with complacence. And he certainly didn't
+look it.
+
+"_I_ was thinking rather of Colonel Clay as the hero," the poet
+responded coldly.
+
+"Ah, that's the way with you men of letters," Charles answered,
+growing warm. "You always have a sneaking sympathy with the rascals."
+
+"That may be better," Coleyard retorted, in an icy voice, "than
+sympathy with the worst forms of Stock Exchange speculation."
+
+The company smiled uneasily. The railway king wriggled. Wrengold
+tried to change the subject hastily. But Charles would not be put
+down.
+
+"You must hear the end, though," he said. "That's not quite the
+worst. The meanest thing about the man is that he's also a
+hypocrite. He wrote me _such_ a letter at the end of his last
+trick--here, positively here, in America." And he proceeded to give
+his own version of the Quackenboss incident, enlivened with sundry
+imaginative bursts of pure Vandrift fancy.
+
+When Charles spoke of Mrs. Quackenboss the poet smiled. "The worst
+of married women," he said, "is--that you can't marry them; the
+worst of unmarried women is--that they want to marry you." But when
+it came to the letter, the poet's eye was upon my brother-in-law.
+Charles, I must fain admit, garbled the document sadly. Still, even
+so, some gleam of good feeling remained in its sentences. But
+Charles ended all by saying, "So, to crown his misdemeanours, the
+rascal shows himself a whining cur and a disgusting Pharisee."
+
+"Don't you think," the poet interposed, in his cultivated drawl, "he
+may have really meant it? Why should not some grain of compunction
+have stirred his soul still?--some remnant of conscience made him
+shrink from betraying a man who confided in him? I have an idea,
+myself, that even the worst of rogues have always some good in them.
+I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the affection
+and fidelity of women."
+
+"Oh, I said so!" Charles sneered. "I told you you literary men have
+always an underhand regard for a scoundrel."
+
+"Perhaps so," the poet answered. "For we are all of us human. Let
+him that is without sin among us cast the first stone." And then he
+relapsed into moody silence.
+
+We rose from table. Cigars went round. We adjourned to the
+smoking-room. It was a Moorish marvel, with Oriental hangings.
+There, Senator Wrengold and Charles exchanged reminiscences of
+bonanzas and ranches and other exciting post-prandial topics; while
+the magazine editor cut in now and again with a pertinent inquiry
+or a quaint and sarcastic parallel instance. It was clear he had an
+eye to future copy. Only Algernon Coleyard sat brooding and silent,
+with his chin on one hand, and his brow intent, musing and gazing at
+the embers in the fireplace. The hand, by the way, was remarkable
+for a curious, antique-looking ring, apparently of Egyptian or
+Etruscan workmanship, with a projecting gem of several large facets.
+Once only, in the midst of a game of whist, he broke out with a
+single comment.
+
+"Hawkins was made an earl," said Charles, speaking of some London
+acquaintance.
+
+"What for?" asked the Senator.
+
+"Successful adulteration," said the poet tartly.
+
+"Honours are easy," the magazine editor put in.
+
+"And two by tricks to Sir Charles," the poet added.
+
+Towards the close of the evening, however--the poet still remaining
+moody, not to say positively grumpy--Senator Wrengold proposed a
+friendly game of Swedish poker. It was the latest fashionable
+variant in Western society on the old gambling round, and few of us
+knew it, save the omniscient poet and the magazine editor. It turned
+out afterwards that Wrengold proposed that particular game because
+he had heard Coleyard observe at the Lotus Club the same afternoon
+that it was a favourite amusement of his. Now, however, for a while
+he objected to playing. He was a poor man, he said, and the rest
+were all rich; why should he throw away the value of a dozen golden
+sonnets just to add one more pinnacle to the gilded roofs of a
+millionaire's palace? Besides, he was half-way through with an ode
+he was inditing to Republican simplicity. The pristine austerity
+of a democratic senatorial cottage had naturally inspired him with
+memories of Dentatus, the Fabii, Camillus. But Wrengold, dimly aware
+he was being made fun of somehow, insisted that the poet must take
+a hand with the financiers. "You can pass, you know," he said, "as
+often as you like; and you can stake low, or go it blind, according
+as you're inclined to. It's a democratic game; every man decides for
+himself how high he will play, except the banker; and you needn't
+take bank unless you want it."
+
+"Oh, if you insist upon it," Coleyard drawled out, with languid
+reluctance, "I'll play, of course. I won't spoil your evening.
+But remember, I'm a poet; I have strange inspirations."
+
+The cards were "squeezers"--that is to say, had the suit and the
+number of pips in each printed small in the corner, as well as over
+the face, for ease of reference. We played low at first. The poet
+seldom staked; and when he did--a few pounds--he lost, with singular
+persistence. He wanted to play for doubloons or sequins, and could
+with difficulty be induced to condescend to dollars. Charles looked
+across at him at last; the stakes by that time were fast rising
+higher, and we played for ready money. Notes lay thick on the green
+cloth. "Well," he murmured provokingly, "how about your inspiration?
+Has Apollo deserted you?"
+
+It was an unwonted flight of classical allusion for Charles, and I
+confess it astonished me. (I discovered afterwards he had cribbed
+it from a review in that evening's Critic.) But the poet smiled.
+
+"No," he answered calmly, "I am waiting for one now. When it comes,
+you may be sure you shall have the benefit of it."
+
+Next round, Charles dealing and banking, the poet staked on his
+card, unseen as usual. He staked like a gentleman. To our immense
+astonishment he pulled out a roll of notes, and remarked, in a quiet
+tone, "I have an inspiration now. _Half-hearted_ will do. I go five
+thousand." That was dollars, of course; but it amounted to a
+thousand pounds in English money--high play for an author.
+
+Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his--and won
+a thousand.
+
+"Good shot!" Charles murmured, pretending not to mind, though he
+detests losing.
+
+"Inspiration!" the poet mused, and looked once more abstracted.
+
+Charles dealt again. The poet watched the deal with boiled-fishy
+eyes. His thoughts were far away. His lips moved audibly. "Myrtle,
+and kirtle, and hurtle," he muttered. "They'll do for three. Then
+there's turtle, meaning dove; and that finishes the possible. Laurel
+and coral make a very bad rhyme. Try myrtle; don't you think so?"
+
+"Do you stake?" Charles asked, severely, interrupting his reverie.
+
+The poet started. "No, pass," he replied, looking down at his card,
+and subsided into muttering. We caught a tremor of his lips again,
+and heard something like this: "Not less but more republican than
+thou, Half-hearted watcher by the Western sea, After long years I
+come to visit thee, And test thy fealty to that maiden vow, That
+bound thee in thy budding prime For Freedom's bride--"
+
+"Stake?" Charles interrupted, inquiringly, again.
+
+"Yes, five thousand," the poet answered dreamily, pushing forward
+his pile of notes, and never ceasing from his murmur: "For Freedom's
+bride to all succeeding time. Succeeding; succeeding; weak word,
+succeeding. Couldn't go five dollars on it."
+
+Charles turned his card once more. The poet had won again. Charles
+passed over his notes. The poet raked them in with a far-away air,
+as one who looks at infinity, and asked if he could borrow a pencil
+and paper. He had a few priceless lines to set down which might
+otherwise escape him.
+
+"This is play," Charles said pointedly. "_Will_ you kindly attend to
+one thing or the other?"
+
+The poet glanced at him with a compassionate smile. "I told you I
+had inspirations," he said. "They always come together. I can't win
+your money as fast as I would like, unless at the same time I am
+making verses. Whenever I hit upon a good epithet, I back my luck,
+don't you see? I won a thousand on _half-hearted_ and a thousand on
+_budding_; if I were to back _succeeding_, I should lose, to a
+certainty. You understand my system?"
+
+"I call it pure rubbish," Charles answered. "However, continue.
+Systems were made for fools--and to suit wise men. Sooner or later
+you _must_ lose at such a stupid fancy."
+
+The poet continued. "For Freedom's bride to all _ensuing_ time."
+
+"Stake!" Charles cried sharply. We each of us staked.
+
+"_Ensuing_," the poet murmured. "To all _ensuing_ time. First-rate
+epithet that. I go ten thousand, Sir Charles, on _ensuing_."
+
+We all turned up. Some of us lost, some won; but the poet had
+secured his two thousand sterling.
+
+"I haven't that amount about me," Charles said, in that austerely
+nettled voice which he always assumes when he loses at cards;
+"but--I'll settle it with you to-morrow."
+
+"Another round?" the host asked, beaming.
+
+"No, thank you," Charles answered; "Mr. Coleyard's inspirations
+come too pat for my taste. His luck beats mine. I retire from the
+game, Senator."
+
+Just at that moment a servant entered, bearing a salver, with a
+small note in an envelope. "For Mr. Coleyard," he observed; "and
+the messenger said, _urgent_."
+
+Coleyard tore it open hurriedly. I could see he was agitated. His
+face grew white at once.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he said. "I--I must go back instantly. My
+wife is dangerously ill--quite a sudden attack. Forgive me, Senator.
+Sir Charles, you shall have your revenge to-morrow."
+
+It was clear that his voice faltered. We felt at least he was a man
+of feeling. He was obviously frightened. His coolness forsook him.
+He shook hands as in a dream, and rushed downstairs for his
+dust-coat. Almost as he closed the front door, a new guest entered,
+just missing him in the vestibule.
+
+"Halloa, you men," he said, "we've been taken in, do you know? It's
+all over the Lotus. The man we made an honorary member of the club
+to-day is _not_ Algernon Coleyard. He's a blatant impostor. There's
+a telegram come in on the tape to-night saying Algernon Coleyard is
+dangerously ill at his home in England."
+
+Charles gasped a violent gasp. "Colonel Clay!" he shouted, aloud.
+"And once more he's done me. There's not a moment to lose. After
+him, gentlemen! after him!"
+
+Never before in our lives had we had such a close shave of catching
+and fixing the redoubtable swindler. We burst down the stairs in a
+body, and rushed out into Fifth Avenue. The pretended poet had only
+a hundred yards' start of us, and he saw he was discovered. But he
+was an excellent runner. So was I, weight for age; and I dashed
+wildly after him. He turned round a corner; it proved to lead
+nowhere, and lost him time. He darted back again, madly. Delighted
+with the idea that I was capturing so famous a criminal, I redoubled
+my efforts--and came up with him, panting. He was wearing a light
+dust-coat. I seized it in my hands. "I've got you at last!" I cried;
+"Colonel Clay, I've got you!"
+
+He turned and looked at me. "Ha, old Ten Per Cent!" he called out,
+struggling. "It's you, then, is it? Never, never to _you_, sir!" And
+as he spoke, he somehow flung his arms straight out behind him, and
+let the dust-coat slip off, which it easily did, the sleeves being
+new and smoothly silk-lined. The suddenness of the movement threw
+me completely off my guard, and off my legs as well. I was clinging
+to the coat and holding him. As the support gave way I rolled over
+backward, in the mud of the street, and hurt my back seriously. As
+for Colonel Clay, with a nervous laugh, he bolted off at full speed
+in his evening coat, and vanished round a corner.
+
+It was some seconds before I had sufficiently recovered my breath to
+pick myself up again, and examine my bruises. By this time Charles
+and the other pursuers had come up, and I explained my condition to
+them. Instead of commending me for my zeal in his cause--which had
+cost me a barked arm and a good evening suit--my brother-in-law
+remarked, with an unfeeling sneer, that when I had so nearly caught
+my man I might as well have held him.
+
+"I have his coat, at least," I said. "That may afford us a clue."
+And I limped back with it in my hands, feeling horribly bruised and
+a good deal shaken.
+
+When we came to examine the coat, however, it bore no maker's name;
+the strap at the back, where the tailor proclaims with pride his
+handicraft, had been carefully ripped off, and its place was taken
+by a tag of plain black tape without inscription of any sort. We
+searched the breast-pocket. A handkerchief, similarly nameless,
+but of finest cambric. The side-pockets--ha, what was this? I drew
+a piece of paper out in triumph. It was a note--a real find--the
+one which the servant had handed to our friend just before at the
+Senator's.
+
+We read it through breathlessly:--
+
+
+"DARLING PAUL,--I _told_ you it was too dangerous. You should have
+listened to me. You ought _never_ to have imitated any real person. I
+happened to glance at the hotel tape just now, to see the quotations
+for Cloetedorps to-day, and what do you think I read as part of the
+latest telegram from England? 'Mr. Algernon Coleyard, the famous
+poet, is lying on his death-bed at his home in Devonshire.' By this
+time all New York knows. Don't stop one minute. Say I'm dangerously
+ill, and come away at once. Don't return to the hotel. I am removing
+our things. Meet me at Mary's. Your devoted, MARGOT."
+
+
+"This is _very_ important," Charles said. "This _does_ give us a clue.
+We know two things now: his real name is Paul--whatever else it may
+be, and Madame Picardet's is Margot."
+
+I searched the pocket again, and pulled out a ring. Evidently he had
+thrust these two things there when he saw me pursuing him, and had
+forgotten or neglected them in the heat of the mêlée.
+
+I looked at it close. It was the very ring I had noticed on his
+finger while he was playing Swedish poker. It had a large compound
+gem in the centre, set with many facets, and rising like a pyramid
+to a point in the middle. There were eight faces in all, some of
+them composed of emerald, amethyst, or turquoise. But _one_ face--the
+one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye--was _not_
+a gem at all, but an extremely tiny convex mirror. In a moment I
+spotted the trick. He held this hand carelessly on the table while
+my brother-in-law dealt; and when he saw that the suit and number of
+his own card mirrored in it by means of the squeezers were better
+than Charles's, he had "an inspiration," and backed his luck--or
+rather his knowledge--with perfect confidence. I did not doubt,
+either, that his odd-looking eyeglass was a powerful magnifier which
+helped him in the trick. Still, we tried another deal, by way of
+experiment--I wearing the ring; and even with the naked eye I was
+able to distinguish in every case the suit and pips of the card that
+was dealt me.
+
+"Why, that was almost dishonest," the Senator said, drawing back.
+He wished to show us that even far-Western speculators drew a line
+somewhere.
+
+"Yes," the magazine editor echoed. "To back your skill is legal;
+to back your luck is foolish; to back your knowledge is--"
+
+"Immoral," I suggested.
+
+"Very good business," said the magazine editor.
+
+"It's a simple trick," Charles interposed. "I should have spotted
+it if it had been done by any other fellow. But his patter about
+inspiration put me clean off the track. That's the rascal's dodge.
+He plays the regular conjurer's game of distracting your attention
+from the real point at issue--so well that you never find out what
+he's really about till he's sold you irretrievably."
+
+We set the New York police upon the trail of the Colonel; but of
+course he had vanished at once, as usual, into the thin smoke of
+Manhattan. Not a sign could we find of him. "Mary's," we found an
+insufficient address.
+
+We waited on in New York for a whole fortnight. Nothing came of it.
+We never found "Mary's." The only token of Colonel Clay's presence
+vouchsafed us in the city was one of his customary insulting notes.
+It was conceived as follows:--
+
+
+"O ETERNAL GULLIBLE!--Since I saw you on Lake George, I have run
+back to London, and promptly come out again. I had business to
+transact there, indeed, which I have now completed; the excessive
+attentions of the English police sent me once more, like great
+Orion, "sloping slowly to the west." I returned to America in order
+to see whether or not you were still impenitent. On the day of my
+arrival I happened to meet Senator Wrengold, and accepted his kind
+invitation solely that I might see how far my last communication
+had had a proper effect upon you. As I found you quite obdurate,
+and as you furthermore persisted in misunderstanding my motives, I
+determined to read you one more small lesson. It nearly failed; and
+I confess the accident has affected my nerves a little. I am now
+about to retire from business altogether, and settle down for life
+at my place in Surrey. I mean to try just one more small coup; and,
+when that is finished, Colonel Clay will hang up his sword, like
+Cincinnatus, and take to farming. You need no longer fear me. I have
+realised enough to secure me for life a modest competence; and as
+I am not possessed like yourself with an immoderate greed of gain,
+I recognise that good citizenship demands of me now an early
+retirement in favour of some younger and more deserving rascal. I
+shall always look back with pleasure upon our agreeable adventures
+together; and as you hold my dust-coat, together with a ring and
+letter to which I attach importance, I consider we are quits, and
+I shall withdraw with dignity. Your sincere well-wisher, CUTHBERT
+CLAY, Poet."
+
+
+"Just like him!" Charles said, "to hold this one last coup over my
+head in terrorem. Though even when he has played it, why should I
+trust his word? A scamp like that may say it, of course, on purpose
+to disarm me."
+
+For my own part, I quite agreed with "Margot." When the Colonel was
+reduced to dressing the part of a known personage I felt he had
+reached almost his last card, and would be well advised to retire
+into Surrey.
+
+But the magazine editor summed up all in a word. "Don't believe
+that nonsense about fortunes being made by industry and ability,"
+he said. "In life, as at cards, two things go to produce
+success--the first is chance; the second is cheating."
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE BERTILLON METHOD
+
+
+We had a terrible passage home from New York. The Captain told us he
+"knew every drop of water in the Atlantic personally"; and he had
+never seen them so uniformly obstreperous. The ship rolled in the
+trough; Charles rolled in his cabin, and would not be comforted. As
+we approached the Irish coast, I scrambled up on deck in a violent
+gale, and retired again somewhat precipitately to announce to my
+brother-in-law that we had just come in sight of the Fastnet Rock
+Lighthouse. Charles merely turned over in his berth and groaned.
+"I don't believe it," he answered. "I expect it is probably Colonel
+Clay in another of his manifold disguises!"
+
+At Liverpool, however, the Adelphi consoled him. We dined
+luxuriously in the Louis Quinze restaurant, as only millionaires
+can dine, and proceeded next day by Pullman car to London.
+
+We found Amelia dissolved in tears at a domestic cataclysm. It
+seemed that Césarine had given notice.
+
+Charles was scarcely home again when he began to bethink him of
+the least among his investments. Like many other wealthy men, my
+respected connection is troubled more or less, in the background of
+his consciousness, by a pervading dread that he will die a beggar.
+To guard against this misfortune--which I am bound to admit nobody
+else fears for him--he invested, several years ago, a sum of two
+hundred thousand pounds in Consols, to serve as a nest-egg in case
+of the collapse of Golcondas and South Africa generally. It is
+part of the same amiable mania, too, that he will not allow the
+dividend-warrants on this sum to be sent to him by post, but
+insists, after the fashion of old ladies and country parsons, upon
+calling personally at the Bank of England four times a year to claim
+his interest. He is well known by sight to not a few of the clerks;
+and his appearance in Threadneedle Street is looked forward to with
+great regularity within a few weeks of each lawful quarter-day.
+
+So, on the morning after our arrival in town, Charles observed to
+me, cheerfully, "Sey, I must run into the City to-day to claim my
+dividends. There are two quarters owing."
+
+I accompanied him in to the Bank. Even that mighty official, the
+beadle at the door, unfastened the handle of the millionaire's
+carriage. The clerk who received us smiled and nodded. "How much?"
+he asked, after the stereotyped fashion.
+
+"Two hundred thousand," Charles answered, looking affable.
+
+The clerk turned up the books. "Paid!" he said, with
+decision. "What's your game, sir, if I may ask you?"
+
+"Paid!" Charles echoed, drawing back.
+
+The clerk gazed across at him. "Yes, Sir Charles," he answered, in
+a somewhat severe tone. "You must remember you drew a quarter's
+dividend from myself--last week--at this very counter."
+
+Charles stared at him fixedly. "Show me the signature," he said at
+last, in a slow, dazed fashion. I suspected mischief.
+
+The clerk pushed the book across to him. Charles examined the name
+close.
+
+"Colonel Clay again!" he cried, turning to me with a despondent air.
+"He must have dressed the part. I shall die in the workhouse, Sey!
+That man has stolen away even my nest-egg from me."
+
+I saw it at a glance. "Mrs. Quackenboss!" I put in. "Those portraits
+on the Etruria! It was to help him in his make-up! You recollect,
+she sketched your face and figure at all possible angles."
+
+"And last quarter's?" Charles inquired, staggering.
+
+The clerk turned up the entry. "Drawn on the 10th of July,"
+he answered, carelessly, as if it mattered nothing.
+
+Then I knew why the Colonel had run across to England.
+
+Charles positively reeled. "Take me home, Sey," he cried. "I am
+ruined, ruined! He will leave me with not half a million in the
+world. My poor, poor boys will beg their bread, unheeded, through
+the streets of London!"
+
+(As Amelia has landed estate settled upon her worth a hundred and
+fifty thousand pounds, this last contingency affected me less to
+tears than Charles seemed to think necessary.)
+
+We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
+once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
+paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
+Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
+twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
+I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
+would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
+
+After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
+reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
+said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
+measuring and registering criminals."
+
+"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
+like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
+step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
+Colonel Clay--"
+
+"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you _did_ catch him,
+you didn't hold him."
+
+I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
+"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
+cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
+had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
+his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
+turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
+into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
+
+"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said. "I was told in New York
+that Dr. Frank Beddersley, of London, was the best exponent of the
+Bertillon system now living in England; and to Beddersley I shall
+go. Or, rather, I'll invite him here to lunch to-morrow."
+
+"Who told you of him?" I inquired. "_Not_ Dr. Quackenboss, I hope;
+nor yet Mr. Algernon Coleyard?"
+
+Charles paused and reflected. "No, neither of them," he answered,
+after a short internal deliberation. "It was that magazine editor
+chap we met at Wrengold's."
+
+"_He's_ all right," I said; "or, at least, I think so."
+
+So we wrote a polite invitation to Dr. Beddersley, who pursued
+the method professionally, asking him to come and lunch with us
+at Mayfair at two next day.
+
+Dr. Beddersley came--a dapper little man, with pent-house eyebrows,
+and keen, small eyes, whom I suspected at sight of being Colonel
+Clay himself in another of his clever polymorphic embodiments. He
+was clear and concise. His manner was scientific. He told us at once
+that though the Bertillon method was of little use till the expert
+had seen the criminal once, yet if we had consulted him earlier
+he might probably have saved us some serious disasters. "A man
+so ingenious as this," he said, "would no doubt have studied
+Bertillon's principles himself, and would take every possible
+means to prevent recognition by them. Therefore, you might almost
+disregard the nose, the chin, the moustache, the hair, all of which
+are capable of such easy alteration. But there remain some features
+which are more likely to persist--height, shape of head, neck,
+build, and fingers; the timbre of the voice, the colour of the iris.
+Even these, again, may be partially disguised or concealed; the way
+the hair is dressed, the amount of padding, a high collar round the
+throat, a dark line about the eyelashes, may do more to alter the
+appearance of a face than you could readily credit."
+
+"So we know," I answered.
+
+"The voice, again," Dr. Beddersley continued. "The voice itself may
+be most fallacious. The man is no doubt a clever mimic. He could,
+perhaps, compress or enlarge his larynx. And I judge from what you
+tell me that he took characters each time which compelled him
+largely to alter and modify his tone and accent."
+
+"Yes," I said. "As the Mexican Seer, he had of course a
+Spanish intonation. As the little curate, he was a cultivated
+North-countryman. As David Granton, he spoke gentlemanly Scotch.
+As Von Lebenstein, naturally, he was a South-German, trying to
+express himself in French. As Professor Schleiermacher, he was a
+North-German speaking broken English. As Elihu Quackenboss, he
+had a fine and pronounced Kentucky flavour. And as the poet, he
+drawled after the fashion of the clubs, with lingering remnants
+of a Devonshire ancestry."
+
+"Quite so," Dr. Beddersley answered. "That is just what I should
+expect. Now, the question is, do you know him to be one man, or
+is he really a gang? Is he a name for a syndicate? Have you any
+photographs of Colonel Clay himself in any of his disguises?"
+
+"Not one," Charles answered. "He produced some himself, when he was
+Medhurst the detective. But he pocketed them at once; and we never
+recovered them."
+
+"Could you get any?" the doctor asked. "Did you note the name and
+address of the photographer?"
+
+"Unfortunately, no," Charles replied. "But the police at Nice showed
+us two. Perhaps we might borrow them."
+
+"Until we get them," Dr. Beddersley said, "I don't know that we can
+do anything. But if you can once give me two distinct photographs of
+the real man, no matter how much disguised, I could tell you whether
+they were taken from one person; and, if so, I think I could point
+out certain details in common which might aid us to go upon."
+
+All this was at lunch. Amelia's niece, Dolly Lingfield, was there,
+as it happened; and I chanced to note a most guilty look stealing
+over her face all the while we were talking. Suspicious as I had
+learned to become by this time, however, I did not suspect Dolly of
+being in league with Colonel Clay; but, I confess, I wondered what
+her blush could indicate. After lunch, to my surprise, Dolly called
+me away from the rest into the library. "Uncle Seymour," she said
+to me--the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am
+not in any way related to her--"_I_ have some photographs of Colonel
+Clay, if you want them."
+
+"_You_?" I cried, astonished. "Why, Dolly, how did you get them?"
+
+For a minute or two she showed some little hesitation in telling me.
+At last she whispered, "You won't be angry if I confess?" (Dolly is
+just nineteen, and remarkably pretty.)
+
+"My child," I said, "why _should_ I be angry? You may confide in me
+implicitly." (With a blush like that, who on earth could be angry
+with her?)
+
+"And you won't tell Aunt Amelia or Aunt Isabel?" she inquired
+somewhat anxiously.
+
+"Not for worlds," I answered. (As a matter of fact, Amelia and
+Isabel are the last people in the world to whom I should dream
+of confiding anything that Dolly might tell me.)
+
+"Well, I was stopping at Seldon, you know, when Mr. David Granton
+was there," Dolly went on; "--or, rather, when that scamp pretended
+he was David Granton; and--and--you won't be angry with me, will
+you?--one day I took a snap-shot with my kodak at him and Aunt
+Amelia!"
+
+"Why, what harm was there in that?" I asked, bewildered. The wildest
+stretch of fancy could hardly conceive that the Honourable David had
+been _flirting_ with Amelia.
+
+Dolly coloured still more deeply. "Oh, you know Bertie Winslow?" she
+said. "Well, he's interested in photography--and--and also in _me_.
+And he's invented a process, which isn't of the slightest practical
+use, he says; but its peculiarity is, that it reveals textures. At
+least, that's what Bertie calls it. It makes things come out so. And
+he gave me some plates of his own for my kodak--half-a-dozen or more,
+and--I took Aunt Amelia with them."
+
+"I still fail to see," I murmured, looking at her comically.
+
+"Oh, Uncle Seymour," Dolly cried. "How blind you men are!
+If Aunt Amelia knew she would never forgive me. Why, you _must_
+understand. The--the rouge, you know, and the pearl powder!"
+
+"Oh, it comes out, then, in the photograph?" I inquired.
+
+"Comes out! I should _think_ so! It's like little black spots all
+over auntie's face. _such_ a guy as she looks in it!"
+
+"And Colonel Clay is in them too?"
+
+"Yes; I took them when he and auntie were talking together, without
+either of them noticing. And Bertie developed them. I've three of
+David Granton. Three beauties; _most_ successful."
+
+"Any other character?" I asked, seeing business ahead.
+
+Dolly hung back, still redder. "Well, the rest are with Aunt
+Isabel," she answered, after a struggle.
+
+"My dear child," I replied, hiding my feelings as a husband, "I will
+be brave. I will bear up even against that last misfortune!"
+
+Dolly looked up at me pleadingly. "It was here in London," she went
+on; "--when I was last with auntie. Medhurst was stopping in the
+house at the time; and I took him twice, tête-à-tête with Aunt
+Isabel!"
+
+"Isabel does not paint," I murmured, stoutly.
+
+Dolly hung back again. "No, but--her hair!" she suggested, in a
+faint voice.
+
+"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a--well, you
+know, a restorer."
+
+Dolly broke into a mischievous sly smile. "Yes, it is," she
+continued. "And, oh, Uncle Sey, where the restorer has--er--restored
+it, you know, it comes out in the photograph with a sort of
+brilliant iridescent metallic sheen on it!"
+
+"Bring them down, my dear," I said, gently patting her head with my
+hand. In the interests of justice, I thought it best not to frighten
+her.
+
+Dolly brought them down. They seemed to me poor things, yet well
+worth trying. We found it possible, on further confabulation, by
+the simple aid of a pair of scissors, so to cut each in two that
+all trace of Amelia and Isabel was obliterated. Even so, however,
+I judged it best to call Charles and Dr. Beddersley to a private
+consultation in the library with Dolly, and not to submit the
+mutilated photographs to public inspection by their joint subjects.
+Here, in fact, we had five patchy portraits of the redoubtable
+Colonel, taken at various angles, and in characteristic unstudied
+attitudes. A child had outwitted the cleverest sharper in Europe!
+
+The moment Beddersley's eye fell upon them, a curious look came over
+his face. "Why, these," he said, "are taken on Herbert Winslow's
+method, Miss Lingfield."
+
+"Yes," Dolly admitted timidly. "They are. He's--a friend of mine,
+don't you know; and--he gave me some plates that just fitted my
+camera."
+
+Beddersley gazed at them steadily. Then he turned to Charles.
+"And this young lady," he said, "has quite unintentionally and
+unconsciously succeeded in tracking Colonel Clay to earth at last.
+They are genuine photographs of the man--as he is--_without_ the
+disguises!"
+
+"They look to me most blotchy," Charles murmured. "Great black lines
+down the nose, and such spots on the cheek, too!"
+
+"Exactly," Beddersley put in. "Those are _differences in texture_.
+They show just how much of the man's face is human flesh--"
+
+"And how much wax," I ventured.
+
+"Not wax," the expert answered, gazing close. "This is some harder
+mixture. I should guess, a composition of gutta-percha and
+india-rubber, which takes colour well, and hardens when applied,
+so as to lie quite evenly, and resist heat or melting. Look here;
+that's an artificial scar, filling up a real hollow; and _this_ is
+an added bit to the tip of the nose; and _those_ are shadows, due
+to inserted cheek-pieces, within the mouth, to make the man look
+fatter!"
+
+"Why, of course," Charles cried. "India-rubber it must be. That's
+why in France they call him le Colonel Caoutchouc!"
+
+"Can you reconstruct the real face from them?" I inquired anxiously.
+
+Dr. Beddersley gazed hard at them. "Give me an hour or two," he
+said--"and a box of water-colours. I _think_ by that time--putting
+two and two together--I can eliminate the false and build up for you
+a tolerably correct idea of what the actual man himself looks like."
+
+We turned him into the library for a couple of hours, with the
+materials he needed; and by tea-time he had completed his first
+rough sketch of the elements common to the two faces. He brought
+it out to us in the drawing-room. I glanced at it first. It was
+a curious countenance, slightly wanting in definiteness, and not
+unlike those "composite photographs" which Mr. Galton produces by
+exposing two negatives on the same sensitised paper for ten seconds
+or so consecutively. Yet it struck me at once as containing
+something of Colonel Clay in every one of his many representations.
+The little curate, in real life, did not recall the Seer; nor
+did Elihu Quackenboss suggest Count von Lebenstein or Professor
+Schleiermacher. Yet in this compound face, produced only from
+photographs of David Granton and Medhurst, I could distinctly trace
+a certain underlying likeness to every one of the forms which the
+impostor had assumed for us. In other words, though he could make
+up so as to mask the likeness to his other characters, he could not
+make up so as to mask the likeness to his own personality. He could
+not wholly get rid of his native build and his genuine features.
+
+Besides these striking suggestions of the Seer and the curate,
+however, I felt vaguely conscious of having seen and observed
+_the man himself_ whom the water-colour represented, at some time,
+somewhere. It was not at Nice; it was not at Seldon; it was not at
+Meran; it was not in America. I believed I had been in a room with
+him somewhere in London.
+
+Charles was looking over my shoulder. He gave a sudden little start.
+"Why, I know that fellow!" he cried. "You recollect him, Sey; he's
+Finglemore's brother--the chap that didn't go out to China!"
+
+Then I remembered at once where it was that I had seen him--at the
+broker's in the city, before we sailed for America.
+
+"What Christian name?" I asked.
+
+Charles reflected a moment. "The same as the one in the note we got
+with the dust-coat," he answered, at last. "The man is Paul
+Finglemore!"
+
+"You will arrest him?" I asked.
+
+"Can I, on this evidence?"
+
+"We might bring it home to him."
+
+Charles mused for a moment. "We shall have nothing against him,"
+he said slowly, "except in so far as we can swear to his identity.
+And that may be difficult."
+
+Just at that moment the footman brought in tea. Charles wondered
+apparently whether the man, who had been with us at Seldon when
+Colonel Clay was David Granton, would recollect the face or
+recognise having seen it. "Look here, Dudley," he said, holding
+up the water-colour, "do you know that person?"
+
+Dudley gazed at it a moment. "Certainly, sir," he answered briskly.
+
+"Who is it?" Amelia asked. We expected him to answer, "Count von
+Lebenstein," or "Mr. Granton," or "Medhurst."
+
+Instead of that, he replied, to our utter surprise, "That's
+Césarine's young man, my lady."
+
+"Césarine's young man?" Amelia repeated, taken aback. "Oh, Dudley,
+surely, you _must_ be mistaken!"
+
+"No, my lady," Dudley replied, in a tone of conviction. "He comes
+to see her quite reg'lar; he have come to see her, off and on,
+from time to time, ever since I've been in Sir Charles's service."
+
+"When will he be coming again?" Charles asked, breathless.
+
+"He's downstairs now, sir," Dudley answered, unaware of the
+bombshell he was flinging into the midst of a respectable family.
+
+Charles rose excitedly, and put his back against the door. "Secure
+that man," he said to me sharply, pointing with his finger.
+
+"_What_ man?" I asked, amazed. "Colonel Clay? The young man who's
+downstairs now with Césarine?"
+
+"No," Charles answered, with decision; "Dudley!"
+
+I laid my hand on the footman's shoulder, not understanding what
+Charles meant. Dudley, terrified, drew back, and would have rushed
+from the room; but Charles, with his back against the door,
+prevented him.
+
+"I--I've done nothing to be arrested, Sir Charles," Dudley cried,
+in abject terror, looking appealingly at Amelia. "It--it wasn't me
+as cheated you." And he certainly didn't look it.
+
+"I daresay not," Charles answered. "But you don't leave this room
+till Colonel Clay is in custody. No, Amelia, no; it's no use your
+speaking to me. What he says is true. I see it all now. This villain
+and Césarine have long been accomplices! The man's downstairs with
+her now. If we let Dudley quit the room he'll go down and tell them;
+and before we know where we are, that slippery eel will have
+wriggled through our fingers, as he always wriggles. He _is_ Paul
+Finglemore; he _is_ Césarine's young man; and unless we arrest him
+now, without one minute's delay, he'll be off to Madrid or St.
+Petersburg by this evening!"
+
+"You are right," I answered. "It is now or never!"
+
+"Dudley," Charles said, in his most authoritative voice, "stop here
+till we tell you you may leave the room. Amelia and Dolly, don't let
+that man stir from where he's standing. If he does, restrain him.
+Seymour and Dr. Beddersley, come down with me to the servants' hall.
+I suppose that's where I shall find this person, Dudley?"
+
+"N--no, sir," Dudley stammered out, half beside himself with fright.
+"He's in the housekeeper's room, sir!"
+
+We went down to the lower regions in a solid phalanx of three. On
+the way we met Simpson, Sir Charles's valet, and also the butler,
+whom we pressed into the service. At the door of the housekeeper's
+room we paused, strategically. Voices came to us from within; one
+was Césarine's, the other had a ring that reminded me at once of
+Medhurst and the Seer, of Elihu Quackenboss and Algernon Coleyard.
+They were talking together in French; and now and then we caught
+the sound of stifled laughter.
+
+We opened the door. "Est-il drôle, donc, ce vieux?" the man's
+voice was saying.
+
+"C'est à mourir de rire," Césarine's voice responded.
+
+We burst in upon them, red-handed.
+
+Césarine's young man rose, with his hat in his hand, in a respectful
+attitude. It reminded me at once of Medhurst, as he stood talking
+his first day at Marvillier's to Charles; and also of the little
+curate, in his humblest moments as the disinterested pastor.
+
+With a sign to me to do likewise, Charles laid his hand firmly on
+the young man's shoulder. I looked in the fellow's face: there could
+be no denying it; Césarine's young man was Paul Finglemore, our
+broker's brother.
+
+"Paul Finglemore," Charles said severely, "otherwise Cuthbert Clay,
+I arrest you on several charges of theft and conspiracy!"
+
+The young man glanced around him. He was surprised and perturbed;
+but, even so, his inexhaustible coolness never once deserted him.
+"What, five to one?" he said, counting us over. "Has law and order
+come down to this? Five respectable rascals to arrest one poor
+beggar of a chevalier d'industrie! Why, it's worse than New York.
+_There_, it was only you and me, you know, old Ten per Cent!"
+
+"Hold his hands, Simpson!" Charles cried, trembling lest his enemy
+should escape him.
+
+Paul Finglemore drew back even while we held his shoulders. "No,
+not _you_, sir," he said to the man, haughtily. "Don't dare to lay
+your hands upon me! Send for a constable if you wish, Sir Charles
+Vandrift; but I decline to be taken into custody by a valet!"
+
+"Go for a policeman," Dr. Beddersley said to Simpson, standing
+forward.
+
+The prisoner eyed him up and down. "Oh, Dr. Beddersley!" he said,
+relieved. It was evident he knew him. "If _you've_ tracked me
+strictly in accordance with Bertillon's methods, I don't mind so
+much. I will not yield to fools; I yield to science. I didn't think
+this diamond king had sense enough to apply to you. He's the most
+gullible old ass I ever met in my life. But if it's _you_ who have
+tracked me down, I can only submit to it."
+
+Charles held to him with a fierce grip. "Mind he doesn't break away,
+Sey," he cried. "He's playing his old game! Distrust the man's
+patter!"
+
+"Take care," the prisoner put in. "Remember Dr. Polperro! On what
+charge do you arrest me?"
+
+Charles was bubbling with indignation. "You cheated me at Nice,"
+he said; "at Meran; at New York; at Paris!"
+
+Paul Finglemore shook his head. "Won't do," he answered, calmly. "Be
+sure of your ground. Outside the jurisdiction! You can only do that
+on an extradition warrant."
+
+"Well, then, at Seldon, in London, in this house, and elsewhere,"
+Charles cried out excitedly. "Hold hard to him, Sey; by law or
+without it, blessed if he isn't going even now to wriggle away
+from us!"
+
+At that moment Simpson returned with a convenient policeman, whom he
+had happened to find loitering about near the area steps, and whom I
+half suspected from his furtive smile of being a particular
+acquaintance of the household.
+
+Charles gave the man in charge formally. Paul Finglemore insisted
+that he should specify the nature of the particular accusation.
+To my great chagrin, Charles selected from his rogueries, as best
+within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the matter of the
+payment for the Castle of Lebenstein--made in London, and through
+a London banker. "I have a warrant on that ground," he said. I
+trembled as he spoke. I felt at once that the episode of the
+commission, the exposure of which I dreaded so much, must now
+become public.
+
+The policeman took the man in charge. Charles still held to him,
+grimly. As they were leaving the room the prisoner turned to
+Césarine, and muttered something rapidly under his breath, in
+German. "Of which tongue," he said, turning to us blandly, "in spite
+of my kind present of a dictionary and grammar, you still doubtless
+remain in your pristine ignorance!"
+
+Césarine flung herself upon him with wild devotion. "Oh, Paul,
+darling," she cried, in English, "I will not, I will not! I
+will never save myself at _your_ expense. If they send you to
+prison--Paul, Paul, I will go with you!"
+
+I remembered as she spoke what Mr. Algernon Coleyard had said to us
+at the Senator's. "Even the worst of rogues have always some good
+in them. I notice they often succeed to the end in retaining the
+affection and fidelity of women."
+
+But the man, his hands still free, unwound her clasping arms with
+gentle fingers. "My child," he answered, in a soft tone, "I am sorry
+to say the law of England will not permit you to go with me. If it
+did" (his voice was as the voice of the poet we had met), "'stone
+walls would not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.'" And bending
+forward, he kissed her forehead tenderly.
+
+We led him out to the door. The policeman, in obedience to Charles's
+orders, held him tight with his hand, but steadily refused, as the
+prisoner was not violent, to handcuff him. We hailed a passing
+hansom. "To Bow Street!" Charles cried, unceremoniously pushing in
+policeman and prisoner. The driver nodded. We called a four-wheeler
+ourselves, in which my brother-in-law, Dr. Beddersley and myself
+took our seats. "Follow the hansom!" Charles cried out. "Don't let
+him out of your sight. After him, close, to Bow Street!"
+
+I looked back, and saw Césarine, half fainting, on the front door
+steps, while Dolly, bathed in tears, stood supporting the
+lady's-maid, and trying to comfort her. It was clear she had not
+anticipated this end to the adventure.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Charles screamed out, in a fresh fever of
+alarm, as we turned the first corner; "where's that hansom gone to?
+How do I know the fellow was a policeman at all? We should have
+taken the man in here. We ought never to have let him get out of
+our sight. For all we can tell to the contrary, the constable
+himself--may only be one of Colonel Clay's confederates!"
+
+And we drove in trepidation all the way to Bow Street.
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE EPISODE OF THE OLD BAILEY
+
+
+When we reached Bow Street, we were relieved to find that our
+prisoner, after all, had _not_ evaded us. It was a false alarm.
+He was there with the policeman, and he kindly allowed us to
+make the first formal charge against him.
+
+Of course, on Charles's sworn declaration and my own, the man was
+at once remanded, bail being refused, owing both to the serious
+nature of the charge and the slippery character of the prisoner's
+antecedents. We went back to Mayfair--Charles, well satisfied that
+the man he dreaded was under lock and key; myself, not too well
+pleased to think that the man I dreaded was no longer at large, and
+that the trifling little episode of the ten per cent commission
+stood so near discovery.
+
+Next day the police came round in force, and had a long consultation
+with Charles and myself. They strongly urged that two other persons
+at least should be included in the charge--Césarine and the little
+woman whom we had variously known as Madame Picardet, White Heather,
+Mrs. David Granton, and Mrs. Elihu Quackenboss. If these accomplices
+were arrested, they said, we could include conspiracy as one count
+in the indictment, which gave us an extra chance of conviction. Now
+they had got Colonel Clay, in fact, they naturally desired to keep
+him, and also to indict with him as many as possible of his pals
+and confederates.
+
+Here, however, a difficulty arose. Charles called me aside with a
+grave face into the library. "Seymour," he said, fixing me, "this
+is a serious business. I will not lightly swear away any woman's
+character. Colonel Clay himself--or, rather, Paul Finglemore--is an
+abandoned rogue, whom I do not desire to screen in any degree. But
+poor little Madame Picardet--she may be his lawful wife, and she
+may have acted implicitly under his orders. Besides, I don't know
+whether I could swear to her identity. Here's the photograph the
+police bring of the woman they believe to be Colonel Clay's chief
+female accomplice. Now, I ask you, does it in the least degree
+resemble that clever and amusing and charming little creature,
+who has so often deceived us?"
+
+In spite of Charles's gibes, I flatter myself I do really understand
+the whole duty of a secretary. It was clear from his voice he did
+not _wish_ me to recognise her; which, as it happened, I did not.
+"Certainly, it doesn't resemble her, Charles," I answered, with
+conviction in my voice. "I should never have known her." But I did
+not add that I should no more have known Colonel Clay himself in
+his character of Paul Finglemore, or of Césarine's young man, as
+_that_ remark lay clearly outside my secretarial functions.
+
+Still, it flitted across my mind at the time that the Seer had made
+some casual remarks at Nice about a letter in Charles's pocket,
+presumably from Madame Picardet; and I reflected further that Madame
+Picardet in turn might possibly hold certain answers of Charles's,
+couched in such terms as he might reasonably desire to conceal from
+Amelia. Indeed, I must allow that under whatever disguise White
+Heather appeared to us, Charles was always that disguise's devoted
+slave from the first moment he met it. It occurred to me, therefore,
+that the clever little woman--call her what you will--might be the
+holder of more than one indiscreet communication.
+
+"Under these circumstances," Charles went on, in his austerest
+voice, "I cannot consent to be a party to the arrest of White
+Heather. I--I decline to identify her. In point of fact"--he grew
+more emphatic as he went on--"I don't think there is an atom of
+evidence of any sort against her. Not," he continued, after a
+pause, "that I wish in any degree to screen the guilty. Césarine,
+now--Césarine we have liked and trusted. She has betrayed our trust.
+She has sold us to this fellow. I have no doubt at all that she
+gave him the diamonds from Amelia's rivière; that she took us by
+arrangement to meet him at Schloss Lebenstein; that she opened and
+sent to him my letter to Lord Craig-Ellachie. Therefore, I say, we
+_ought_ to arrest Césarine. But not White Heather--not Jessie; not
+that pretty Mrs. Quackenboss. Let the guilty suffer; why strike at
+the innocent--or, at worst, the misguided?"
+
+"Charles," I exclaimed, with warmth, "your sentiments do you honour.
+You are a man of feeling. And White Heather, I allow, is pretty
+enough and clever enough to be forgiven anything. You may rely upon
+my discretion. I will swear through thick and thin that I do not
+recognise this woman as Madame Picardet."
+
+Charles clasped my hand in silence. "Seymour," he said, after
+a pause, with marked emotion, "I felt sure I could rely upon
+your--er--honour and integrity. I have been rough upon you
+sometimes. But I ask your forgiveness. I see you understand the
+whole duties of your position."
+
+We went out again, better friends than we had been for months.
+I hoped, indeed, this pleasant little incident might help to
+neutralise the possible ill-effects of the ten per cent disclosure,
+should Finglemore take it into his head to betray me to my employer.
+As we emerged into the drawing-room, Amelia beckoned me aside
+towards her boudoir for a moment.
+
+"Seymour," she said to me, in a distinctly frightened tone, "I have
+treated you harshly at times, I know, and I am very sorry for it.
+But I want you to help me in a most painful difficulty. The police
+are quite right as to the charge of conspiracy; that designing
+little minx, White Heather, or Mrs. David Granton, or whatever else
+we're to call her, ought certainly to be prosecuted--and sent to
+prison, too--and have her absurd head of hair cut short and combed
+straight for her. But--and you will help me here, I'm sure, dear
+Seymour--I _cannot_ allow them to arrest my Césarine. I don't pretend
+to say Césarine isn't guilty; the girl has behaved most ungratefully
+to me. She has robbed me right and left, and deceived me without
+compunction. Still--I put it to you as a married man--_can_ any woman
+afford to go into the witness-box, to be cross-examined and teased
+by her own maid, or by a brute of a barrister on her maid's
+information? I assure you, Seymour, the thing's not to be dreamt of.
+There are details of a lady's life--known only to her maid--which
+_cannot_ be made public. Explain as much of this as you think well to
+Charles, and _make_ him understand that _if_ he insists upon arresting
+Césarine, I shall go into the box--and swear my head off to prevent
+any one of the gang from being convicted. I have told Césarine as
+much; I have promised to help her: I have explained that I am her
+friend, and that if _she'll_ stand by _me_, _I'll_ stand by _her_,
+and by this hateful young man of hers."
+
+I saw in a moment how things went. Neither Charles nor Amelia could
+face cross-examination on the subject of one of Colonel Clay's
+accomplices. No doubt, in Amelia's case, it was merely a question
+of rouge and hair-dye; but what woman would not sooner confess to
+a forgery or a murder than to those toilet secrets?
+
+I returned to Charles, therefore, and spent half an hour in
+composing, as well as I might, these little domestic difficulties.
+In the end, it was arranged that if Charles did his best to protect
+Césarine from arrest, Amelia would consent to do her best in return
+on behalf of Madame Picardet.
+
+We had next the police to tackle--a more difficult business. Still,
+even _they_ were reasonable. They had caught Colonel Clay, they
+believed, but their chance of convicting him depended entirely upon
+Charles's identification, with mine to back it. The more they urged
+the necessity of arresting the female confederates, however, the
+more stoutly did Charles declare that for his part he could by no
+means make sure of Colonel Clay himself, while he utterly declined
+to give evidence of any sort against either of the women. It was a
+difficult case, he said, and he felt far from confident even about
+the man. If _his_ decision faltered, and he failed to identify, the
+case was closed; no jury could convict with nothing to convict upon.
+
+At last the police gave way. No other course was open to them. They
+had made an important capture; but they saw that everything depended
+upon securing their witnesses, and the witnesses, if interfered
+with, were likely to swear to absolutely nothing.
+
+Indeed, as it turned out, before the preliminary investigation at
+Bow Street was completed (with the usual remands), Charles had been
+thrown into such a state of agitation that he wished he had never
+caught the Colonel at all.
+
+"I wonder, Sey," he said to me, "why I didn't offer the rascal two
+thousand a year to go right off to Australia, and be rid of him for
+ever! It would have been cheaper for my reputation than keeping him
+about in courts of law in England. The worst of it is, when once the
+best of men gets into a witness-box, there's no saying with what
+shreds and tatters of a character he may at last come out of it!"
+
+"In _your_ case, Charles," I answered, dutifully, "there can be
+no such doubt; except, perhaps, as regards the Craig-Ellachie
+Consolidated."
+
+Then came the endless bother of "getting up the case" with the
+police and the lawyers. Charles would have retired from it
+altogether by that time, but, most unfortunately, he was bound
+over to prosecute. "You couldn't take a lump sum to let me off?"
+he said, jokingly, to the inspector. But I knew in my heart it was
+one of the "true words spoken in jest" that the proverb tells of.
+
+Of course we could see now the whole building-up of the great
+intrigue. It had been worked out as carefully as the Tichborne
+swindle. Young Finglemore, as the brother of Charles's broker,
+knew from the outset all about his affairs; and, after a gentle
+course of preliminary roguery, he laid his plans deep for a campaign
+against my brother-in-law. Everything had been deliberately
+designed beforehand. A place had been found for Césarine as Amelia's
+maid--needless to say, by means of forged testimonials. Through her
+aid the swindler had succeeded in learning still more of the family
+ways and habits, and had acquired a knowledge of certain facts which
+he proceeded forthwith to use against us. His first attack, as the
+Seer, had been cleverly designed so as to give us the idea that we
+were a mere casual prey; and it did not escape Charles's notice now
+that the detail of getting Madame Picardet to inquire at the Crédit
+Marseillais about his bank had been solemnly gone through on purpose
+to blind us to the obvious truth that Colonel Clay was already in
+full possession of all such facts about us. It was by Césarine's
+aid, again, that he became possessed of Amelia's diamonds, that
+he received the letter addressed to Lord Craig-Ellachie, and
+that he managed to dupe us over the Schloss Lebenstein business.
+Nevertheless, all these things Charles determined to conceal in
+court; he did not give the police a single fact that would turn
+against either Césarine or Madame Picardet.
+
+As for Césarine, of course, she left the house immediately after the
+arrest of the Colonel, and we heard of her no more till the day of
+the trial.
+
+When that great day came, I never saw a more striking sight than the
+Old Bailey presented. It was crammed to overflowing. Charles arrived
+early, accompanied by his solicitor. He was so white and troubled
+that he looked much more like prisoner than prosecutor. Outside the
+court a pretty little woman stood, pale and anxious. A respectful
+crowd stared at her silently. "Who is that?" Charles asked. Though
+we could both of us guess, rather than see, it was White Heather.
+
+"That's the prisoner's wife," the inspector on duty replied. "She's
+waiting to see him enter. I'm sorry for her, poor thing. She's a
+perfect lady."
+
+"So she seems," Charles answered, scarcely daring to face her.
+
+At that moment she turned. Her eyes fell upon his. Charles paused
+for a second and looked faltering. There was in those eyes just the
+faintest gleam of pleading recognition, but not a trace of the old
+saucy, defiant vivacity. Charles framed his lips to words, but
+without uttering a sound. Unless I greatly mistake, the words he
+framed on his lips were these: "I will do my best for him."
+
+We pushed our way in, assisted by the police. Inside the court we
+saw a lady seated, in a quiet black dress, with a becoming bonnet.
+A moment passed before I knew--it was Césarine. "Who is--that
+person?" Charles asked once more of the nearest inspector, desiring
+to see in what way he would describe her.
+
+And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir."
+
+Charles started back, surprised. "But--I was told--a lady outside
+was Mrs. Paul Finglemore," he broke in, much puzzled.
+
+"Very likely," the inspector replied, unmoved. "We have plenty that
+way. _When_ a gentleman has as many aliases as Colonel Clay, you can
+hardly expect him to be over particular about having only _one_ wife
+between them, can you?"
+
+"Ah, I see," Charles muttered, in a shocked voice. "Bigamy!"
+
+The inspector looked stony. "Well, not exactly that," he replied,
+"occasional marriage."
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth tried the case. "I'm sorry it's him, Sey,"
+my brother-in-law whispered in my ear. (He said _him_, not _he_,
+because, whatever else Charles is, he is _not_ a pedant; the English
+language as it is spoken by most educated men is quite good enough
+for his purpose.) "I only wish it had been Sir Edward Easy. Easy's a
+man of the world, and a man of society; he would feel for a person
+in _my_ position. He wouldn't allow these beasts of lawyers to
+badger and pester me. He would back his order. But Rhadamanth is one
+of your modern sort of judges, who make a merit of being what they
+call 'conscientious,' and won't hush up anything. I admit I'm afraid
+of him. I shall be glad when it's over."
+
+"Oh, _you'll_ pull through all right," I said in my capacity of
+secretary. But I didn't think it.
+
+The judge took his seat. The prisoner was brought in. Every eye
+seemed bent upon him. He was neatly and plainly dressed, and,
+rogue though he was, I must honestly confess he looked at least a
+gentleman. His manner was defiant, not abject like Charles's. He
+knew he was at bay, and he turned like a man to face his accusers.
+
+We had two or three counts on the charge, and, after some formal
+business, Sir Charles Vandrift was put into the box to bear witness
+against Finglemore.
+
+Prisoner was unrepresented. Counsel had been offered him, but he
+refused their aid. The judge even advised him to accept their help;
+but Colonel Clay, as we all called him mentally still, declined to
+avail himself of the judge's suggestion.
+
+"I am a barrister myself, my lord," he said--"called some nine years
+ago. I can conduct my own defence, I venture to think, better than
+any of these my learned brethren."
+
+Charles went through his examination-in-chief quite swimmingly.
+He answered with promptitude. He identified the prisoner without
+the slightest hesitation as the man who had swindled him under
+the various disguises of the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon,
+the Honourable David Granton, Count von Lebenstein, Professor
+Schleiermacher, Dr. Quackenboss, and others. He had not the
+slightest doubt of the man's identity. He could swear to him
+anywhere. I thought, for my own part, he was a trifle too cocksure.
+A certain amount of hesitation would have been better policy. As
+to the various swindles, he detailed them in full, his evidence to
+be supplemented by that of bank officials and other subordinates.
+In short, he left Finglemore not a leg to stand upon.
+
+When it came to the cross-examination, however, matters began
+to assume quite a different complexion. The prisoner set out by
+questioning Sir Charles's identifications. Was he sure of his man?
+He handed Charles a photograph. "Is that the person who represented
+himself as the Reverend Richard Peploe Brabazon?" he asked
+persuasively.
+
+Charles admitted it without a moment's delay.
+
+Just at that moment, a little parson, whom I had not noticed till
+then, rose up, unobtrusively, near the middle of the court, where
+he was seated beside Césarine.
+
+"Look at that gentleman!" the prisoner said, waving one hand, and
+pouncing upon the prosecutor.
+
+Charles turned and looked at the person indicated. His face grew
+still whiter. It was--to all outer appearance--the Reverend Richard
+Brabazon in propriâ personâ.
+
+Of course I saw the trick. This was the real parson upon whose outer
+man Colonel Clay had modelled his little curate. But the jury was
+shaken. And so was Charles for a moment.
+
+"Let the jurors see the photograph," the judge said, authoritatively.
+It was passed round the jury-box, and the judge also examined it.
+We could see at once, by their faces and attitudes, they all
+recognised it as the portrait of the clergyman before them--not
+of the prisoner in the dock, who stood there smiling blandly at
+Charles's discomfiture.
+
+The clergyman sat down. At the same moment the prisoner produced a
+second photograph.
+
+"Now, can you tell me who _that_ is?" he asked Charles, in the regular
+brow-beating Old Bailey voice.
+
+With somewhat more hesitation, Charles answered, after a pause:
+"That is yourself as you appeared in London when you came in the
+disguise of the Graf von Lebenstein."
+
+This was a crucial point, for the Lebenstein fraud was the one count
+on which our lawyers relied to prove their case most fully, within
+the jurisdiction.
+
+Even while Charles spoke, a gentleman whom I had noticed before,
+sitting beside White Heather, with a handkerchief to his face,
+rose as abruptly as the parson. Colonel Clay indicated him with
+a graceful movement of his hand. "And _this_ gentleman?" he asked
+calmly.
+
+Charles was fairly staggered. It was the obvious original of the
+false Von Lebenstein.
+
+The photograph went round the box once more. The jury smiled
+incredulously. Charles had given himself away. His overweening
+confidence and certainty had ruined him.
+
+Then Colonel Clay, leaning forward, and looking quite engaging,
+began a new line of cross-examination. "We have seen, Sir Charles,"
+he said, "that we cannot implicitly trust your identifications. Now
+let us see how far we can trust your other evidence. First, then,
+about those diamonds. You tried to buy them, did you not, from a
+person who represented himself as the Reverend Richard Brabazon,
+because you believed he thought they were paste; and if you could,
+you would have given him 10 pounds or so for them. _Do_ you think
+that was honest?"
+
+"I object to this line of cross-examination," our leading counsel
+interposed. "It does not bear on the prosecutor's evidence. It is
+purely recriminatory."
+
+Colonel Clay was all bland deference. "I wish, my lord," he said,
+turning round, "to show that the prosecutor is a person unworthy of
+credence in any way. I desire to proceed upon the well-known legal
+maxim of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. I believe I am permitted
+to shake the witness's credit?"
+
+"The prisoner is entirely within his rights," Rhadamanth answered,
+looking severely at Charles. "And I was wrong in suggesting that
+he needed the advice or assistance of counsel."
+
+Charles wriggled visibly. Colonel Clay perked up. Bit by bit, with
+dexterous questions, Charles was made to acknowledge that he wanted
+to buy diamonds at the price of paste, knowing them to be real; and,
+a millionaire himself, would gladly have diddled a poor curate out
+of a couple of thousand.
+
+"I was entitled to take advantage of my special knowledge," Charles
+murmured feebly.
+
+"Oh, certainly," the prisoner answered. "But, while professing
+friendship and affection for a clergyman and his wife, in straitened
+circumstances, you were prepared, it seems, to take three thousand
+pounds' worth of goods off their hands for ten pounds, if you could
+have got them at that price. Is not that so?"
+
+Charles was compelled to admit it.
+
+The prisoner went onto the David Granton incident. "When you offered
+to amalgamate with Lord Craig-Ellachie," he asked, "had you or
+had you not heard that a gold-bearing reef ran straight from your
+concession into Lord Craig-Ellachie's, and that his portion of the
+reef was by far the larger and more important?"
+
+Charles wriggled again, and our counsel interposed; but Rhadamanth
+was adamant. Charles had to allow it.
+
+And so, too, with the incident of the Slump in Golcondas.
+Unwillingly, shamefacedly, by torturing steps, Charles was compelled
+to confess that he had sold out Golcondas--he, the Chairman of the
+company, after repeated declarations to shareholders and others
+that he would do no such thing--because he thought Professor
+Schleiermacher had made diamonds worthless. He had endeavoured to
+save himself by ruining his company. Charles tried to brazen it out
+with remarks to the effect that business was business. "And fraud is
+fraud," Rhadamanth added, in his pungent way.
+
+"A man must protect himself," Charles burst out.
+
+"At the expense of those who have put their trust in his honour and
+integrity," the judge commented coldly.
+
+After four mortal hours of it, all to the same effect, my respected
+brother-in-law left the witness-box at last, wiping his brow and
+biting his lip, with the very air of a culprit. His character had
+received a most serious blow. While he stood in the witness-box all
+the world had felt it was _he_ who was the accused and Colonel Clay
+who was the prosecutor. He was convicted on his own evidence of
+having tried to induce the supposed David Granton to sell his
+father's interests into an enemy's hands, and of every other shady
+trick into which his well-known business acuteness had unfortunately
+hurried him during the course of his adventures. I had but one
+consolation in my brother-in-law's misfortunes--and that was the
+thought that a due sense of his own shortcomings might possibly make
+him more lenient in the end to the trivial misdemeanours of a poor
+beggar of a secretary!
+
+_I_ was the next in the box. I do not desire to enlarge upon my own
+achievements. I will draw a decent veil, indeed, over the painful
+scene that ensued when I finished my evidence. I can only say I was
+more cautious than Charles in my recognition of the photographs;
+but I found myself particularly worried and harried over other
+parts of my cross-examination. Especially was I shaken about that
+misguided step I took in the matter of the cheque for the Lebenstein
+commission--a cheque which Colonel Clay handed to me with the utmost
+politeness, requesting to know whether or not it bore my signature.
+I caught Charles's eye at the end of the episode, and I venture to
+say the expression it wore was one of relief that I too had tripped
+over a trifling question of ten per cent on the purchase money of
+the castle.
+
+Altogether, I must admit, if it had not been for the police
+evidence, we would have failed to make a case against our man
+at all. But the police, I confess, had got up their part of the
+prosecution admirably. Now that they knew Colonel Clay to be
+really Paul Finglemore, they showed with great cleverness how Paul
+Finglemore's disappearances and reappearances in London exactly
+tallied with Colonel Clay's appearances and disappearances
+elsewhere, under the guise of the little curate, the Seer,
+David Granton, and the rest of them. Furthermore, they showed
+experimentally how the prisoner at the bar might have got himself
+up in the various characters; and, by means of a wax bust, modelled
+by Dr. Beddersley from observations at Bow Street, and aided by
+additions in the gutta-percha composition after Dolly Lingfield's
+photographs, they succeeded in proving that the face as it stood
+could be readily transformed into the faces of Medhurst and David
+Granton. Altogether, their cleverness and trained acumen made up
+on the whole for Charles's over-certainty, and they succeeded in
+putting before the jury a strong case of their own against Paul
+Finglemore.
+
+The trial occupied three days. After the first of the three, my
+respected brother-in-law preferred, as he said, not to prejudice the
+case against the prisoner by appearing in court again. He did not
+even allude to the little matter of the ten per cent commission
+further than to say at dinner that evening that all men were bound
+to protect their own interests--as secretaries or as principals.
+This I took for forgiveness; and I continued diligently to attend
+the trial, and watch the case in my employer's interest.
+
+The defence was ingenious, even if somewhat halting. It consisted
+simply of an attempt to prove throughout that Charles and I had made
+our prisoner the victim of a mistaken identity. Finglemore put into
+the box the ingenuous original of the little curate--the Reverend
+Septimus Porkington, as it turned out, a friend of his family; and
+he showed that it was the Reverend Septimus himself who had sat to
+a photographer in Baker Street for the portrait which Charles too
+hastily identified as that of Colonel Clay in his personification of
+Mr. Richard Brabazon. He further elicited the fact that the portrait
+of the Count von Lebenstein was really taken from Dr. Julius Keppel,
+a Tyrolese music-master, residing at Balham, whom he put into the
+box, and who was well known, as it chanced, to the foreman of the
+jury. Gradually he made it clear to us that no portraits existed of
+Colonel Clay at all, except Dolly Lingfield's--so it dawned upon
+me by degrees that even Dr. Beddersley could only have been misled
+if we had succeeded in finding for him the alleged photographs of
+Colonel Clay as the count and the curate, which had been shown us
+by Medhurst. Altogether, the prisoner based his defence upon the
+fact that no more than two witnesses directly identified him; while
+one of those two had positively sworn that he recognised as the
+prisoner's two portraits which turned out, by independent evidence,
+to be taken from other people!
+
+The judge summed up in a caustic way which was pleasant to neither
+party. He asked the jury to dismiss from their minds entirely the
+impression created by what he frankly described as "Sir Charles
+Vandrift's obvious dishonesty." They must not allow the fact that he
+was a millionaire--and a particularly shady one--to prejudice their
+feelings in favour of the prisoner. Even the richest--and vilest--of
+men must be protected. Besides, this was a public question. If a
+rogue cheated a rogue, he must still be punished. If a murderer
+stabbed or shot a murderer, he must still be hung for it. Society
+must see that the worst of thieves were not preyed upon by others.
+Therefore, the proved facts that Sir Charles Vandrift, with all his
+millions, had meanly tried to cheat the prisoner, or some other poor
+person, out of valuable diamonds--had basely tried to juggle Lord
+Craig-Ellachie's mines into his own hands--had vilely tried to bribe
+a son to betray his father--had directly tried, by underhand means,
+to save his own money, at the risk of destroying the wealth of
+others who trusted to his probity--these proved facts must not
+blind them to the truth that the prisoner at the bar (if he were
+really Colonel Clay) was an abandoned swindler. To that point alone
+they must confine their attention; and _if_ they were convinced that
+the prisoner was shown to be the self-same man who appeared on
+various occasions as David Granton, as Von Lebenstein, as Medhurst,
+as Schleiermacher, they must find him guilty.
+
+As to that point, also, the judge commented on the obvious strength
+of the police case, and the fact that the prisoner had not attempted
+in any one out of so many instances to prove an alibi. Surely, if
+he were _not_ Colonel Clay, the jury should ask themselves, must it
+not have been simple and easy for him to do so? Finally, the judge
+summed up all the elements of doubt in the identification--and all
+the elements of probability; and left it to the jury to draw their
+own conclusions.
+
+They retired at the end to consider their verdict. While they were
+absent every eye in court was fixed on the prisoner. But Paul
+Finglemore himself looked steadily towards the further end of the
+hall, where two pale-faced women sat together, with handkerchiefs
+in their hands, and eyes red with weeping.
+
+Only then, as he stood there, awaiting the verdict, with a fixed
+white face, prepared for everything, did I begin to realise with
+what courage and pluck that one lone man had sustained so long an
+unequal contest against wealth, authority, and all the Governments
+of Europe, aided but by his own skill and two feeble women! Only
+then did I feel he had played his reckless game through all those
+years with _this_ ever before him! I found it hard to picture.
+
+The jury filed slowly back. There was dead silence in court as the
+clerk put the question, "Do you find the prisoner at the bar guilty
+or not guilty?"
+
+"We find him guilty."
+
+"On all the counts?"
+
+"On all the counts of the indictment."
+
+The women at the back burst into tears, unanimously.
+
+Mr. Justice Rhadamanth addressed the prisoner. "Have you anything
+to urge," he asked in a very stern tone, "in mitigation of whatever
+sentence the Court may see fit to pass upon you?"
+
+"Nothing," the prisoner answered, just faltering slightly. "I have
+brought it upon myself--but--I have protected the lives of those
+nearest and dearest to me. I have fought hard for my own hand. I
+admit my crime, and will face my punishment. I only regret that,
+since we were both of us rogues--myself and the prosecutor--the
+lesser rogue should have stood here in the dock, and the greater in
+the witness-box. Our country takes care to decorate each according
+to his deserts--to him, the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St.
+George; to me, the Broad Arrow!"
+
+The judge gazed at him severely. "Paul Finglemore," he said, passing
+sentence in his sardonic way, "you have chosen to dedicate to the
+service of fraud abilities and attainments which, if turned from the
+outset into a legitimate channel, would no doubt have sufficed to
+secure you without excessive effort a subsistence one degree above
+starvation--possibly even, with good luck, a sordid and squalid
+competence. You have preferred to embark them on a lawless life of
+vice and crime--and I will not deny that you seem to have had a good
+run for your money. Society, however, whose mouthpiece I am, cannot
+allow you any longer to mock it with impunity. You have broken its
+laws openly, and you have been found out." He assumed the tone of
+bland condescension which always heralds his severest moments. "I
+sentence you to Fourteen Years' Imprisonment, with Hard Labour."
+
+The prisoner bowed, without losing his apparent composure. But his
+eyes strayed away again to the far end of the hall, where the two
+weeping women, with a sudden sharp cry, fell at once in a faint on
+one another's shoulders, and were with difficulty removed from court
+by the ushers.
+
+As we left the room, I heard but one comment all round, thus voiced
+by a school-boy: "I'd a jolly sight rather it had been old Vandrift.
+This Clay chap's too clever by half to waste on a prison!"
+
+But he went there, none the less--in that "cool sequestered vale
+of life" to recover equilibrium; though I myself half regretted it.
+
+I will add but one more little parting episode.
+
+When all was over, Charles rushed off to Cannes, to get away from
+the impertinent stare of London. Amelia and Isabel and I went with
+him. We were driving one afternoon on the hills beyond the town,
+among the myrtle and lentisk scrub, when we noticed in front of us
+a nice victoria, containing two ladies in very deep mourning. We
+followed it, unintentionally, as far as Le Grand Pin--that big pine
+tree that looks across the bay towards Antibes. There, the ladies
+descended and sat down on a knoll, gazing out disconsolately towards
+the sea and the islands. It was evident they were suffering very
+deep grief. Their faces were pale and their eyes bloodshot. "Poor
+things!" Amelia said. Then her tone altered suddenly.
+
+"Why, good gracious," she cried, "if it isn't Césarine!"
+
+So it was--with White Heather!
+
+Charles got down and drew near them. "I beg your pardon," he said,
+raising his hat, and addressing Madame Picardet: "I believe I have
+had the pleasure of meeting you. And since I have doubtless paid in
+the end for your victoria, _may_ I venture to inquire for whom you
+are in mourning?"
+
+White Heather drew back, sobbing; but Césarine turned to him, fiery
+red, with the mien of a lady. "For _him_!" she answered; "for Paul!
+for our king, whom _you_ have imprisoned! As long as _he_ remains
+there, we have both of us decided to wear mourning for ever!"
+
+Charles raised his hat again, and drew back without one word.
+He waved his hand to Amelia and walked home with me to Cannes.
+He seemed deeply dejected.
+
+"A penny for your thoughts!" I exclaimed, at last, in a jocular
+tone, trying feebly to rouse him.
+
+He turned to me, and sighed. "I was wondering," he answered, "if
+_I_ had gone to prison, would Amelia and Isabel have done as much
+for me?"
+
+For myself, I did _not_ wonder. I knew pretty well. For Charles, you
+will admit, though the bigger rogue of the two, is scarcely the kind
+of rogue to inspire a woman with profound affection.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen
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