II

“The necklace was a present from the Queen of England to the Czarina of

Russia,” began the Queen's Messenger. “It was to celebrate the occasion

of the Czar's coronation. Our Foreign Office knew that the Russian

Ambassador in Paris was to proceed to Moscow for that ceremony, and I

was directed to go to Paris and turn over the necklace to him. But when

I reached Paris I found he had not expected me for a week later and was

taking a few days' vacation at Nice. His people asked me to leave the

necklace with them at the Embassy, but I had been charged to get a

receipt for it from the Ambassador himself, so I started at once for

Nice. The fact that Monte Carlo is not two thousand miles from Nice may

have had something to do with making me carry out my instructions so

carefully.

“Now, how the Princess Zichy came to find out about the necklace I don't

know, but I can guess. As you have just heard, she was at one time a spy

in the service of the Russian Government. And after they dismissed her

she kept up her acquaintance with many of the Russian agents in London.

It is probable that through one of them she learned that the necklace

was to be sent to Moscow, and which one of the Queen's Messengers had

been detailed to take it there. Still, I doubt if even that knowledge

would have helped her if she had not also known something which I

supposed no one else in the world knew but myself and one other man.

And, curiously enough, the other man was a Queen's Messenger, too, and a

friend of mine. You must know that up to the time of this robbery I had

always concealed my despatches in a manner peculiarly my own. I got the

idea from that play called 'A Scrap of Paper.' In it a man wants to hide

a certain compromising document. He knows that all his rooms will be

secretly searched for it, so he puts it in a torn envelope and sticks it

up where anyone can see it on his mantle-shelf. The result is that the

woman who is ransacking the house to find it looks in all the unlikely

places, but passes over the scrap of paper that is just under her nose.

Sometimes the papers and packages they give us to carry about Europe are

of very great value, and sometimes they are special makes of cigarettes,

and orders to court-dressmakers. Sometimes we know what we are carrying

and sometimes we do not. If it is a large sum of money or a treaty,

they generally tell us. But, as a rule, we have no knowledge of what the

package contains; so to be on the safe side, we naturally take just as

great care of it as though we knew it held the terms of an ultimatum or

the crown-jewels. As a rule, my confreres carry the official packages

in a despatch-box, which is just as obvious as a lady's jewel-bag in the

hands of her maid. Everyone knows they are carrying something of value.

They put a premium on dishonesty. Well, after I saw the 'Scrap-of-Paper'

play, I determined to put the government valuables in the most unlikely

place that anyone would look for them. So I used to hide the documents

they gave me inside my riding-boots, and small articles, such as money

or jewels, I carried in an old cigar-case. After I took to using my case

for that purpose I bought a new one, exactly like it, for my cigars.

But, to avoid mistakes, I had my initials placed on both sides of the

new one, and the moment I touched the case, even in the dark, I could

tell which it was by the raised initials.

“No one knew of this except the Queen's Messenger of whom I spoke.

We once left Paris together on the Orient Express. I was going to

Constantinople and he was to stop off at Vienna. On the journey I told

him of my peculiar way of hiding things and showed him my cigar-case. If

I recollect rightly, on that trip it held the grand cross of St. Michael

and St. George, which the Queen was sending to our Ambassador. The

Messenger was very much entertained at my scheme, and some months later

when he met the Princess he told her about it as an amusing story. Of

course, he had no idea she was a Russian spy. He didn't know anything

at all about her, except that she was a very attractive woman. It was

indiscreet, but he could not possibly have guessed that she could ever

make any use of what he told her.

“Later, after the robbery, I remembered that I had informed this young

chap of my secret hiding-place, and when I saw him again I questioned

him about it. He was greatly distressed, and said he had never seen the

importance of the secret. He remembered he had told several people of

it, and among others the Princess Zichy. In that way I found out that it

was she who had robbed me, and I know that from the moment I left London

she was following me, and that she knew then that the diamonds were

concealed in my cigar-case.

“My train for Nice left Paris at ten in the morning. When I travel at

night I generally tell the chef de gare that I am a Queen's Messenger,

and he gives me a compartment to myself, but in the daytime I take

whatever offers. On this morning I had found an empty compartment, and

I had tipped the guard to keep everyone else out, not from any fear of

losing the diamonds, but because I wanted to smoke. He had locked the

door, and as the last bell had rung I supposed I was to travel alone, so

I began to arrange my traps and make myself comfortable. The diamonds

in the cigar-case were in the inside pocket of my waistcoat, and as

they made a bulky package, I took them out, intending to put them in my

hand-bag. It is a small satchel like a bookmaker's, or those hand-bags

that couriers carry. I wear it slung from a strap across my shoulders,

and, no matter whether I am sitting or walking, it never leaves me.

“I took the cigar-case which held the necklace from my inside pocket

and the case which held the cigars out of the satchel, and while I was

searching through it for a box of matches I laid the two cases beside me

on the seat.

“At that moment the train started, but at the same instant there was a

rattle at the lock of the compartment, and a couple of porters lifted

and shoved a woman through the door, and hurled her rugs and umbrellas

in after her.

“Instinctively I reached for the diamonds. I shoved them quickly into

the satchel and, pushing them far down to the bottom of the bag, snapped

the spring-lock. Then I put the cigars in the pocket of my coat, but

with the thought that now that I had a woman as a travelling companion I

would probably not be allowed to enjoy them.

“One of her pieces of luggage had fallen at my feet, and a roll of rugs

had landed at my side. I thought if I hid the fact that the lady was

not welcome, and at once endeavored to be civil, she might permit me

to smoke. So I picked her hand-bag off the floor and asked her where I

might place it.

“As I spoke I looked at her for the first time, and saw that she was a

most remarkably handsome woman.

“She smiled charmingly and begged me not to disturb myself. Then she

arranged her own things about her, and, opening her dressing-bag, took

out a gold cigarette-case.

“'Do you object to smoke?' she asked.

“I laughed and assured her I had been in great terror lest she might

object to it herself.

“'If you like cigarettes,' she said, 'will you try some of these? They

are rolled especially for my husband in Russia, and they are supposed to

be very good.'

“I thanked her, and took one from her case, and I found it so much

better than my own that I continued to smoke her cigarettes throughout

the rest of the journey. I must say that we got on very well. I judged

from the coronet on her cigarette-case, and from her manner, which was

quite as well bred as that of any woman I ever met, that she was someone

of importance, and though she seemed almost too good-looking to be

respectable, I determined that she was some grande dame who was so

assured of her position that she could afford to be unconventional. At

first she read her novel, and then she made some comment on the scenery,

and finally we began to discuss the current politics of the Continent.

She talked of all the cities in Europe, and seemed to know everyone

worth knowing. But she volunteered nothing about herself except that she

frequently made use of the expression, 'When my husband was stationed at

Vienna,' or 'When my husband was promoted to Rome.' Once she said to

me, 'I have often seen you at Monte Carlo. I saw you when you won the

pigeon-championship.' I told her that I was not a pigeon-shot, and she

gave a little start of surprise. 'Oh, I beg your pardon,' she said; 'I

thought you were Morton Hamilton, the English champion.' As a matter

of fact, I do look like Hamilton, but I know now that her object was to

make me think that she had no idea as to who I really was. She needn't

have acted at all, for I certainly had no suspicions of her, and was

only too pleased to have so charming a companion.

“The one thing that should have made me suspicious was the fact that

at every station she made some trivial excuse to get me out of the

compartment. She pretended that her maid was travelling back of us in

one of the second-class carriages, and kept saying she could not imagine

why the woman did not come to look after her, and if the maid did not

turn up at the next stop, would I be so very kind as to get out and

bring her whatever it was she pretended she wanted.

“I had taken my dressing-case from the rack to get out a novel, and had

left it on the seat opposite to mine, and at the end of the compartment

farthest from her. And once when I came back from buying her a cup of

chocolate, or from some other fool-errand, I found her standing at my

end of the compartment with both hands on the dressing-bag. She looked

at me without so much as winking an eye, and shoved the case carefully

into a corner. 'Your bag slipped off on the floor,' she said. 'If you've

got any bottles in it, you had better look and see that they're not

broken.'

“And I give you my word, I was such an ass that I did open the case and

looked all through it. She must have thought I WAS a Juggins. I get hot

all over whenever I remember it. But, in spite of my dulness, and her

cleverness, she couldn't gain anything by sending me away, because what

she wanted was in the hand-bag, and every time she sent me away the

hand-bag went with me.

“After the incident of the dressing-case her manner changed. Either in

my absence she had had time to look through it, or, when I was examining

it for broken bottles, she had seen everything it held.

“From that moment she must have been certain that the cigar-case, in

which she knew I carried the diamonds, was in the bag that was fastened

to my body, and from that time on she probably was plotting how to get

it from me.

“Her anxiety became most apparent. She dropped the great-lady manner,

and her charming condescension went with it. She ceased talking, and,

when I spoke, answered me irritably, or at random. No doubt her mind

was entirely occupied with her plan. The end of our journey was drawing

rapidly nearer, and her time for action was being cut down with the

speed of the express-train. Even I, unsuspicious as I was, noticed

that something was very wrong with her. I really believe that before we

reached Marseilles if I had not, through my own stupidity, given her the

chance she wanted, she might have stuck a knife in me and rolled me out

on the rails. But as it was, I only thought that the long journey had

tired her. I suggested that it was a very trying trip, and asked her if

she would allow me to offer her some of my cognac.

“She thanked me and said, 'No,' and then suddenly her eyes lighted, and

she exclaimed, 'Yes, thank you, if you will be so kind.'

“My flask was in the hand-bag, and I placed it on my lap and, with my

thumb, slipped back the catch. As I keep my tickets and railroad-guide

in the bag, I am so constantly opening it that I never bother to lock

it, and the fact that it is strapped to me has always been sufficient

protection. But I can appreciate now what a satisfaction, and what a

torment, too, it must have been to that woman when she saw that the bag

opened without a key.

“While we were crossing the mountains I had felt rather chilly and had

been wearing a light racing-coat. But after the lamps were lighted

the compartment became very hot and stuffy, and I found the coat

uncomfortable. So I stood up, and after first slipping the strap of the

bag over my head, I placed the bag in the seat next me and pulled off

the racing-coat. I don't blame myself for being careless; the bag was

still within reach of my hand, and nothing would have happened if

at that exact moment the train had not stopped at Arles. It was the

combination of my removing the bag and our entering the station at the

same instant which gave the Princess Zichy the chance she wanted to rob

me.

“I needn't say that she was clever enough to take it. The train ran into

the station at full speed and came to a sudden stop. I had just thrown

my coat into the rack, and had reached out my hand for the bag. In

another instant I would have had the strap around my shoulder. But at

that moment the Princess threw open the door of the compartment and

beckoned wildly at the people on the platform. 'Natalie!' she called,

'Natalie! here I am. Come here! This way!' She turned upon me in the

greatest excitement. 'My maid!' she cried. 'She is looking for me. She

passed the window without seeing me. Go, please, and bring her back.'

She continued pointing out of the door and beckoning me with her other

hand. There certainly was something about that woman's tone which made

one jump. When she was giving orders you had no chance to think of

anything else. So I rushed out on my errand of mercy, and then rushed

back again to ask what the maid looked like.

“'In black,' she answered, rising and blocking the door of the

compartment. 'All in black, with a bonnet!'

“The train waited three minutes at Arles, and in that time I suppose I

must have rushed up to over twenty women and asked, 'Are you Natalie?'

The only reason I wasn't punched with an umbrella or handed over to the

police was that they probably thought I was crazy.

“When I jumped back into the compartment the Princess was seated where

I had left her, but her eyes were burning with happiness. She placed

her hand on my arm almost affectionately, and said, in a hysterical way,

'You are very kind to me. I am so sorry to have troubled you.'

“I protested that every woman on the platform was dressed in black.

“'Indeed, I am so sorry,' she said, laughing; and she continued to laugh

until she began to breathe so quickly that I thought she was going to

faint.

“I can see now that the last part of that journey must have been a

terrible half-hour for her. She had the cigar-case safe enough, but she

knew that she herself was not safe. She understood if I were to open my

bag, even at the last minute, and miss the case, I would know positively

that she had taken it. I had placed the diamonds in the bag at the very

moment she entered the compartment, and no one but our two selves had

occupied it since. She knew that when we reached Marseilles she would

either be twenty thousand pounds richer than when she left Paris, or

that she would go to jail. That was the situation as she must have read

it, and I don't envy her her state of mind during that last half-hour.

It must have been hell.

“I saw that something was wrong, and, in my innocence, I even wondered

if possibly my cognac had not been a little too strong. For she suddenly

developed into a most brilliant conversationalist, and applauded and

laughed at everything I said, and fired off questions at me like a

machine-gun, so that I had no time to think of anything but of what she

was saying. Whenever I stirred, she stopped her chattering and leaned

toward me, and watched me like a cat over a mouse-hole. I wondered how I

could have considered her an agreeable travelling-companion. I thought

I would have preferred to be locked in with a lunatic. I don't like to

think how she would have acted if I had made a move to examine the bag,

but as I had it safely strapped around me again, I did not open it, and

I reached Marseilles alive. As we drew into the station she shook hands

with me and grinned at me like a Cheshire cat.

“'I cannot tell you,' she said, 'how much I have to thank you for.' What

do you think of that for impudence?

“I offered to put her in a carriage, but she said she must find Natalie,

and that she hoped we would meet again at the hotel. So I drove off by

myself, wondering who she was, and whether Natalie was not her keeper.

“I had to wait several hours for the train to Nice; and as I wanted to

stroll around the city I thought I had better put the diamonds in the

safe of the hotel. As soon as I reached my room I locked the door,

placed the hand-bag on the table, and opened it. I felt among the things

at the top of it, but failed to touch the cigar-case. I shoved my hand

in deeper, and stirred the things about, but still I did not reach it.

A cold wave swept down my spine, and a sort of emptiness came to the pit

of my stomach. Then I turned red-hot, and the sweat sprung out all over

me. I wet my lips with my tongue, and said to myself, 'Don't be an ass.

Pull yourself together, pull yourself together. Take the things out, one

at a time. It's there, of course, it's there. Don't be an ass.'

“So I put a brake on my nerves and began very carefully to pick out the

things, one by one, but, after another second, I could not stand it, and

I rushed across the room and threw out everything on the bed. But the

diamonds were not among them. I pulled the things about and tore them

open and shuffled and rearranged and sorted them, but it was no use. The

cigar-case was gone. I threw everything in the dressing-case out on the

floor, although I knew it was useless to look for it there. I knew that

I had put it in the bag. I sat down and tried to think. I remembered I

had put it in the satchel at Paris just as that woman had entered the

compartment, and I had been alone with her ever since, so it was she

who had robbed me. But how? It had never left my shoulder. And then I

remembered that it had--that I had taken it off when I had changed

my coat and for the few moments that I was searching for Natalie. I

remembered that the woman had sent me on that goose-chase, and that at

every other station she had tried to get rid of me on some fool-errand.

“I gave a roar like a mad bull, and I jumped down the stairs, six steps

at a time.

“I demanded at the office if a distinguished lady of title, possibly a

Russian, had just entered the hotel.

“As I expected, she had not. I sprang into a cab and inquired at two

other hotels, and then I saw the folly of trying to catch her without

outside help, and I ordered the fellow to gallop to the office of the

Chief of Police. I told my story, and the ass in charge asked me to calm

myself, and wanted to take notes. I told him this was no time for taking

notes, but for doing something. He got wrathy at that, and I demanded

to be taken at once to his Chief. The Chief, he said, was very busy, and

could not see me. So I showed him my silver greyhound. In eleven years

I had never used it but once before. I stated, in pretty vigorous

language, that I was a Queen's Messenger, and that if the Chief of

Police did not see me instantly he would lose his official head. At that

the fellow jumped off his high horse and ran with me to his Chief--a

smart young chap, a colonel in the army, and a very intelligent man.

“I explained that I had been robbed, in a French railway-carriage, of

a diamond-necklace belonging to the Queen of England, which her Majesty

was sending as a present to the Czarina of Russia. I pointed out to him

that if he succeeded in capturing the thief he would be made for life,

and would receive the gratitude of three great powers.

“He wasn't the sort that thinks second thoughts are best. He saw Russian

and French decorations sprouting all over his chest, and he hit a

bell, and pressed buttons, and yelled out orders like the captain of a

penny-steamer in a fog. He sent her description to all the city-gates,

and ordered all cabmen and railway-porters to search all trains

leaving Marseilles. He ordered all passengers on outgoing vessels to be

examined, and telegraphed the proprietors of every hotel and pension to

send him a complete list of their guests within the hour. While I was

standing there he must have given at least a hundred orders, and sent

out enough commissaires, sergeants de ville, gendarmes, bicycle-police,

and plain-clothes Johnnies to have captured the entire German army.

When they had gone he assured me that the woman was as good as arrested

already. Indeed, officially, she was arrested; for she had no more

chance of escape from Marseilles than from the Chateau D'If.

“He told me to return to my hotel and possess my soul in peace. Within

an hour he assured me he would acquaint me with her arrest.

“I thanked him, and complimented him on his energy, and left him. But I

didn't share in his confidence. I felt that she was a very clever woman,

and a match for any and all of us. It was all very well for him to be

jubilant. He had not lost the diamonds, and had everything to gain if he

found them; while I, even if he did recover the necklace, would only

be where I was before I lost them, and if he did not recover it I was a

ruined man. It was an awful facer for me. I had always prided myself on

my record. In eleven years I had never mislaid an envelope, nor missed

taking the first train. And now I had failed in the most important

mission that had ever been intrusted to me. And it wasn't a thing that

could be hushed up, either. It was too conspicuous, too spectacular. It

was sure to invite the widest notoriety. I saw myself ridiculed all over

the Continent, and perhaps dismissed, even suspected of having taken the

thing myself.

“I was walking in front of a lighted cafe, and I felt so sick and

miserable that I stopped for a pick-me-up. Then I considered that if I

took one drink I would probably, in my present state of mind, not want

to stop under twenty, and I decided I had better leave it alone. But

my nerves were jumping like a frightened rabbit, and I felt I must

have something to quiet them, or I would go crazy. I reached for my

cigarette-case, but a cigarette seemed hardly adequate, so I put it back

again and took out this cigar-case, in which I keep only the strongest

and blackest cigars. I opened it and stuck in my fingers, but, instead

of a cigar, they touched on a thin leather envelope. My heart stood

perfectly still. I did not dare to look, but I dug my finger-nails into

the leather, and I felt layers of thin paper, then a layer of cotton,

and then they scratched on the facets of the Czarina's diamonds!

“I stumbled as though I had been hit in the face, and fell back into one

of the chairs on the sidewalk. I tore off the wrappings and spread out

the diamonds on the cafe-table; I could not believe they were real. I

twisted the necklace between my fingers and crushed it between my palms

and tossed it up in the air. I believe I almost kissed it. The women in

the cafe stood up on the chairs to see better, and laughed and screamed,

and the people crowded so close around me that the waiters had to form a

body-guard. The proprietor thought there was a fight, and called for

the police. I was so happy I didn't care. I laughed, too, and gave the

proprietor a five-pound note, and told him to stand everyone a drink.

Then I tumbled into a fiacre and galloped off to my friend the Chief of

Police. I felt very sorry for him. He had been so happy at the chance I

gave him, and he was sure to be disappointed when he learned I had sent

him off on a false alarm.

“But now that I had found the necklace, I did not want him to find the

woman. Indeed, I was most anxious that she should get clear away, for,

if she were caught, the truth would come out, and I was likely to get a

sharp reprimand, and sure to be laughed at.

“I could see now how it had happened. In my haste to hide the diamonds

when the woman was hustled into the carriage, I had shoved the cigars

into the satchel, and the diamonds into the pocket of my coat. Now that

I had the diamonds safe again, it seemed a very natural mistake. But I

doubted if the Foreign Office would think so. I was afraid it might not

appreciate the beautiful simplicity of my secret hiding-place. So, when

I reached the police-station, and found that the woman was still at

large, I was more than relieved.

“As I expected, the Chief was extremely chagrined when he learned of my

mistake, and that there was nothing for him to do. But I was feeling so

happy myself that I hated to have anyone else miserable, so I suggested

that this attempt to steal the Czarina's necklace might be only the

first of a series of such attempts by an unscrupulous gang, and that I

might still be in danger.

“I winked at the Chief, and the Chief smiled at me, and we went to Nice

together in a saloon-car with a guard of twelve carabineers and twelve

plain-clothes men, and the Chief and I drank champagne all the way.

We marched together up to the hotel where the Russian Ambassador was

stopping, closely surrounded by our escort of carabineers, and delivered

the necklace with the most profound ceremony. The old Ambassador was

immensely impressed, and when we hinted that already I had been made the

object of an attack by robbers, he assured us that his Imperial Majesty

would not prove ungrateful.

“I wrote a swinging personal letter about the invaluable services of

the Chief to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and they gave him

enough Russian and French medals to satisfy even a French soldier. So,

though he never caught the woman, he received his just reward.”

The Queen's Messenger paused and surveyed the faces of those about him

in some embarrassment.

“But the worst of it is,” he added, “that the story must have got about;

for, while the Princess obtained nothing from me but a cigar-case and

five excellent cigars, a few weeks after the coronation the Czar sent

me a gold cigar-case with his monogram in diamonds. And I don't know yet

whether that was a coincidence, or whether the Czar wanted me to know

that he knew that I had been carrying the Czarina's diamonds in my

pig-skin cigar-case. What do you fellows think?”