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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4715-8.txt b/4715-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7dd0938 --- /dev/null +++ b/4715-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7922 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen +#4 in our series by Grant Allen + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your own disk, +thereby keeping an electronic path open for future readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information +they need to understand what they may and may not do with the etext. +To encourage this, we have moved most of the information to the end, +rather than having it all here at the beginning. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and +further information, is included below. We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +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] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen +********This file should be named 4715-8.txt or 4715-8.zip******** + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. The two independently prepared versions have been +thoroughly compared and had many minor errors corrected to +make this text. + + + +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 +********This file should be named 8frml10.txt or 8frml10.zip******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 8frml11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8frml10a.txt + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen + diff --git a/4715-8.zip b/4715-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..681866d --- /dev/null +++ b/4715-8.zip diff --git a/4715-h.zip b/4715-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..684f184 --- /dev/null +++ b/4715-h.zip diff --git a/4715-h/4715-h.htm b/4715-h/4715-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..874a815 --- /dev/null +++ b/4715-h/4715-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10484 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Don Lainson and Andrew Sly. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</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—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—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. +</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—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— +</P> + +<P> +"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. +</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—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:—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." +</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—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—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—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 <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— +</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—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. +</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—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—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—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—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,—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—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—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!" +</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—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?" +</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—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!" +</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—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—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." +</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—" 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—" 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—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. +</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—'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. +</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—a make-up disguise? They really almost look like it." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't suppose—" 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—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. +</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—" 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—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—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—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." +</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—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. +</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—when I get them—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—isn't it, Mrs. Brabazon?—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:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Thursday, 6 a.m. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DEAR LADY VANDRIFT—<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—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> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"P.S.—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—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—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. +</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?—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!" +</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,—"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—old +Oriental paste—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—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—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." +</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—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—Colonel Clay!" +</P> + +<P> +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!" +</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—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." +</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—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—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—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—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. +</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—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—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. +</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—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—"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." +</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—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." +</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—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." +</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—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—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—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:— +</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—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 <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—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." +</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—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." +</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—tenth or eleventh century." (He had been reading it up +in Baedeker.) "That's the sort of place for <I>me</I>!—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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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. +</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—" 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—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—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— 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—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?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ten per cent is more usual," I murmured. +</P> + +<P> +He was the Austrian hussar again. "Five, monsieur—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—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. +</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:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"HIGH WELL-BORN INCOMPETENCE,— +</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—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:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DEAR GOOD MR. VENTVORTH,— +</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—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, +</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—" 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—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—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—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. +</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—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:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"CRAIG-ELLACHIE LODGE, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"GLEN-ELLACHIE, INVERNESS-SHIRE. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"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, +</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—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—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—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—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—say, a lode on our land—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—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." +</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—or his +father's. Whatever is my father's goes to his eldest son—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—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—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—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. +</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—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—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—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—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—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. +</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—'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. +</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—I <I>must</I> call +him dear David still—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—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>—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—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—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—Founders' Shares—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—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." +</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—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!" +</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—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:— +</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—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." +</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—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?—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—"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—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—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." +</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—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—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—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?—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—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. +</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"—derived from Seymour—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—as Chairman—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—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—" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," Charles said, crustily, "I know that tale, and—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—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 <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:— +</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—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—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—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—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—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—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." +</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—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." +</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—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—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? +</P> + +<P> +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? +</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—whom I've known for ten years—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—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—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—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. +</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—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. +</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—which he could do in the most natural +manner—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—take care—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—and acting the part +marvellously—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—"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—"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 <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!—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 <I>did</I> 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 <I>two</I> 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. +</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—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—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—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—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.—(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—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—a handsome +matron. Clever, extremely clever; but—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—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—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." +</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—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." +</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— +</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—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—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—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—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—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—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—and this is <I>very</I> +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 <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—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—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—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—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—" 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—I don't +quite understand," she faltered. +</P> + +<P> +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." +</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—what do you think?—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—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—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—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—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—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—in front at +least—and he wears a wig to cover his baldness." +</P> + +<P> +"It's disgraceful," Charles exclaimed; "disgraceful—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—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." +</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—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—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! +</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—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—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—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. +</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—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—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—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. +</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—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—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—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—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—trilliums, Mrs. +Quackenboss called them—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—"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—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—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 <I>to</I> accept your offer—<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—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. +</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—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—many of whom came and went daily—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—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—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—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—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. +</P> + +<P> +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. +</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—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—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—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 <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—but most +different in tone from his previous bantering communications:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Saratoga, Friday. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"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. +</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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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. +</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—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. +</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—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—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." +</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?—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—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." +</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"—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?" +</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—high play for an author. +</P> + +<P> +Charles smiled and turned his card. The poet turned his—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—" +</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—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—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—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." +</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—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—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. +</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—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. +</P> + +<P> +We read it through breathlessly:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"DARLING PAUL,—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—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—the +one that turned at a direct angle towards the wearer's eye—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—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. +</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—" +</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—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:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"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." +</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—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—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. +</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—last week—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—" +</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—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." +</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—the dear child calls me Uncle Seymour, though of course I am +not in any way related to her—"<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; "—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!" +</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—and—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—half-a-dozen or more, +and—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—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; "—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—her hair!" she suggested, in a +faint voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Its colour," I admitted, "is in places assisted by a—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—er—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—a friend of mine, +don't you know; and—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—as he is—<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—" +</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—"and a box of water-colours. I <I>think</I> 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." +</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—the chap that didn't go out to China!" +</P> + +<P> +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. +</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—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. +</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—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—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—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—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—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—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—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?" +</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—call her what you will—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—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 +<I>ought</I> 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?" +</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—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." +</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—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 <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—I put it to you as a married man—<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—known only to her maid—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—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—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—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—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. +</P> + +<P> +And once more the answer came, "That's the prisoner's wife, sir." +</P> + +<P> +Charles started back, surprised. "But—I was told—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—"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—to all outer appearance—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—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—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. +</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—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—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—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—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! +</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—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 <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—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—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!" +</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—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." +</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—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—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—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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 4715-h.htm or 4715-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/7/1/4715/ + +Produced by Don Lainson and Andrew Sly. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 4715.txt or 4715.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/7/1/4715/ + +Produced by Don Lainson and Andrew Sly. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. The two independently prepared versions have been +thoroughly compared and had many minor errors corrected to +make this text. + + + +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 +********This file should be named 7frml10.txt or 7frml10.zip******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 7frml11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7frml10a.txt + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +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] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of An African Millionaire, by Grant Allen +********This file should be named 8frml10.txt or 8frml10.zip******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 8frml11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8frml10a.txt + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. The two independently prepared versions have been +thoroughly compared and had many minor errors corrected to +make this text. + + + +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 +********This file should be named 8frml10.txt or 8frml10.zip******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, 8frml11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8frml10a.txt + +This text produced for Project Gutenberg by Don Lainson and +Andrew Sly. 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