Of all the mere feats of cracksmanship which I have seen Raffles
perform, at once the most delicate and most difficult was that which he
accomplished between one and two o'clock on the Tuesday morning, aboard
the North German steamer Uhlan, lying at anchor in Genoa harbor.
Not a hitch occurred. Everything had been foreseen; everything
happened as I had been assured everything must. Nobody was about
below, only the ship's boys on deck, and nobody on the bridge. It was
twenty-five minutes past one when Raffles, without a stitch of clothing
on his body, but with a glass phial, corked with cotton-wool, between
his teeth, and a tiny screw-driver behind his ear, squirmed feet first
through the ventilator over his berth; and it was nineteen minutes to
two when he returned, head first, with the phial still between his
teeth, and the cotton-wool rammed home to still the rattling of that
which lay like a great gray bean within. He had taken screws out and
put them in again; he had unfastened von Heumann's ventilator and had
left it fast as he had found it--fast as he instantly proceeded to make
his own. As for von Heumann, it had been enough to place the drenched
wad first on his mustache, and then to hold it between his gaping lips;
thereafter the intruder had climbed both ways across his shins without
eliciting a groan.
And here was the prize--this pearl as large as a filbert--with a pale
pink tinge like a lady's fingernail--this spoil of a filibustering
age--this gift from a European emperor to a South Sea chief. We gloated
over it when all was snug. We toasted it in whiskey and soda-water
laid in overnight in view of the great moment. But the moment was
greater, more triumphant, than our most sanguine dreams. All we had
now to do was to secrete the gem (which Raffles had prised from its
setting, replacing the latter), so that we could stand the strictest
search and yet take it ashore with us at Naples; and this Raffles was
doing when I turned in. I myself would have landed incontinently, that
night, at Genoa and bolted with the spoil; he would not hear of it, for
a dozen good reasons which will be obvious.
On the whole I do not think that anything was discovered or suspected
before we weighed anchor; but I cannot be sure. It is difficult to
believe that a man could be chloroformed in his sleep and feel no
tell-tale effects, sniff no suspicious odor, in the morning.
Nevertheless, von Heumann reappeared as though nothing had happened to
him, his German cap over his eyes and his mustaches brushing the peak.
And by ten o'clock we were quit of Genoa; the last lean, blue-chinned
official had left our decks; the last fruitseller had been beaten off
with bucketsful of water and left cursing us from his boat; the last
passenger had come aboard at the last moment--a fussy graybeard who
kept the big ship waiting while he haggled with his boatman over half a
lira. But at length we were off, the tug was shed, the lighthouse
passed, and Raffles and I leaned together over the rail, watching our
shadows on the pale green, liquid, veined marble that again washed the
vessel's side.
Von Heumann was having his innings once more; it was part of the design
that he should remain in all day, and so postpone the inevitable hour;
and, though the lady looked bored, and was for ever glancing in our
direction, he seemed only too willing to avail himself of his
opportunities. But Raffles was moody and ill-at-ease. He had not the
air of a successful man. I could but opine that the impending parting
at Naples sat heavily on his spirit.
He would neither talk to me, nor would he let me go.
"Stop where you are, Bunny. I've things to tell you. Can you swim?"
"A bit."
"Ten miles?"
"Ten?" I burst out laughing. "Not one! Why do you ask?"
"We shall be within a ten miles' swim of the shore most of the day."
"What on earth are you driving at, Raffles?"
"Nothing; only I shall swim for it if the worst comes to the worst. I
suppose you can't swim under water at all?"
I did not answer his question. I scarcely heard it: cold beads were
bursting through my skin.
"Why should the worst come to the worst?" I whispered. "We aren't
found out, are we?"
"No."
"Then why speak as though we were?"
"We may be; an old enemy of ours is on board."
"An old enemy?"
"Mackenzie."
"Never!"
"The man with the beard who came aboard last."
"Are you sure?"
"Sure! I was only sorry to see you didn't recognize him too."
I took my handkerchief to my face; now that I thought of it, there had
been something familiar in the old man's gait, as well as something
rather youthful for his apparent years; his very beard seemed
unconvincing, now that I recalled it in the light of this horrible
revelation. I looked up and down the deck, but the old man was nowhere
to be seen.
"That's the worst of it," said Raffles. "I saw him go into the
captain's cabin twenty minutes ago."
"But what can have brought him?" I cried miserably. "Can it be a
coincidence--is it somebody else he's after?"
Raffles shook his head.
"Hardly this time."
"Then you think he's after you?"
"I've been afraid of it for some weeks."
"Yet there you stand!"
"What am I to do? I don't want to swim for it before I must. I begin
to wish I'd taken your advice, Bunny, and left the ship at Genoa. But
I've not the smallest doubt that Mac was watching both ship and station
till the last moment. That's why he ran it so fine."
He took a cigarette and handed me the case, but I shook my head
impatiently.
"I still don't understand," said I. "Why should he be after you? He
couldn't come all this way about a jewel which was perfectly safe for
all he knew. What's your own theory?"
"Simply that he's been on my track for some time, probably ever since
friend Crawshay slipped clean through his fingers last November. There
have been other indications. I am really not unprepared for this. But
it can only be pure suspicion. I'll defy him to bring anything home,
and I'll defy him to find the pearl! Theory, my dear Bunny? I know
how he's got here as well as though I'd been inside that Scotchman's
skin, and I know what he'll do next. He found out I'd gone abroad, and
looked for a motive; he found out about von Heumann and his mission,
and there was his motive cut-and-dried. Great chance--to nab me on a
new job altogether. But he won't do it, Bunny; mark my words, he'll
search the ship and search us all, when the loss is known; but he'll
search in vain. And there's the skipper beckoning the whippersnapper
to his cabin: the fat will be in the fire in five minutes!"
Yet there was no conflagration, no fuss, no searching of the
passengers, no whisper of what had happened in the air; instead of a
stir there was portentous peace; and it was clear to me that Raffles
was not a little disturbed at the falsification of all his predictions.
There was something sinister in silence under such a loss, and the
silence was sustained for hours during which Mackenzie never
reappeared. But he was abroad during the luncheon-hour--he was in our
cabin! I had left my book in Raffles's berth, and in taking it after
lunch I touched the quilt. It was warm from the recent pressure of
flesh and blood, and on an instinct I sprang to the ventilator; as I
opened it the ventilator opposite was closed with a snap.