HILMI'S FRIEND
Nikka fainted as we reached the mouth of the drain, which was
fortunate for him, as it saved him the agony of the slippery climb
over the rocks of the beach and the ruined jetty to the _Curlew_. At
its exit the drain or sewer was blocked by a heap of stones about
four feet high across which it was difficult for men unhindered to
pass in silence, let alone men carrying an inert body. But we
achieved it finally, and stumbled as best we could on to the
precarious footing of the jetty, The _Curlew_ was simply a black
shadow nestling against the rocks.
As we approached, two figures jumped from the deck, and the slighter
of them ran towards us.
"Hugh!" came the whispered call. "Hugh, are you there? Are you
safe? Who are you carrying, Jack? Is it--"
I came first, holding Nikka's feet. Hugh and Watkins, supporting his
shoulders, were indistinguishable in the rear. It struck me as
mildly humorous that Betty's first anxiety should be so ingenuously
revealed.
"Hugh's all right," I answered cautiously. "Nikka's hurt, though.
Keep quiet, you idiot."
"Thank God!" she said inconsequentially, and sat down on the rocks
and commenced to cry softly.
Hugh exploded in a sentimental curse.
"Here, Watty," he growled, "you'll have to manage by yourself."
"Very good, your ludship," muttered Watkins.
I felt Nikka's body sag, and looked back. Watkins was plodding
determinedly after me, panting so loudly under his burden as to lead
me to cast a wary eye at the lightless bulk of Tokalji's house. Hugh
and Betty had melted into a single shadow-figure from which came
vague murmurs and gasped interjections.
"Damn!" I grunted. "What a hell of a time to pick for making love!"
"Quite right, Mister Jack, sir," panted Watkins.
We were both about done up, for Nikka was heavy and we had to use
superhuman care to avoid jouncing or dropping him on the rocks. But
luckily Vernon King reached us, and with his aid, we got Nikka into a
bunk in the tiny cabin. Leaving King to take care of him, Watkins
and I returned to the cockpit. I was fighting mad at Hugh for
philandering and at Betty for picking such an occasion for tears.
But my rage was not proof against the bubbling joy with which they
greeted me as they hopped aboard.
"Meet the new Lady Chesby," whispered Hugh.
"Did you ever hear of such a thing?" said Betty. "Why, I had no more
idea when I climbed out on those rocks--"
"No, I suppose not," I jeered. "Well, children, let me tell you you
chose a poor time for this. If you want my congratulations you must
help us to make a quick get-away."
"He's right," agreed Betty, tearing herself loose from Hugh's arm.
"We are crazy. Jack, you loose the bow line. Watkins, are the
sweeps ready? Prepare to cast off astern, Hugh."
Hugh and I were recouped with brandy and water and sandwiches, and
fifteen minutes later, with the current to help us, we had worked out
into the Marmora; and Betty judged it safe to have Watkins turn over
the engine and switch on the lights. I am bound to say her first
thought then was of Nikka. She put Watkins at the wheel, with orders
to stand west at low speed, and ducked into the cabin with us. The
electric bulb shone down on Nikka's white face beaded with sweat.
His eyes were still closed. King had cut away his coat and shirt,
and was bathing his head with water from the drinking-tank.
"How is he?" asked Betty.
"He has not recovered consciousness yet," answered her father. "To
tell the truth, I haven't tried hard to bring him around. I fear his
shoulder is dislocated."
Betty stooped over Nikka, and felt gingerly of arm and shoulder.
"Yes," she said, "it's dislocated. I have seen dislocations pulled
out in the hospitals during the War. I think I can get his shoulder
back if some of you will hold him down. It is bound to hurt him
cruelly for the moment."
She spoke with crisp authority; her face was all keen intelligence.
And I chuckled at the contrast with the way in which she had come
aboard with Hugh.
"We'll help," Hugh told her now. "What do we do?"
She stationed us, Hugh bearing down on his well shoulder, Vernon King
and I grasping each a leg. She took a deep breath, caught arm and
shoulder in her strong young fingers, tugged, twisted with a
wrench--a moan from Nikka, lying half-conscious--and there was an
audible snap. Betty stepped back, flushed and trembling.
"There," she said, "it's in place, but I wouldn't do it again
to-night for anything."
"Good girl," I said.
"That's praise from Sir Hubert," she acknowledged shyly. "Aren't you
ever going to congratulate me, Jack? Oh, Lordy, though, I've
completely forgotten to tell Dad."
"But that's quite usual, my dear," said my uncle whimsically.
"Don't be a cynic like Jack, old dear," she rebuked him with a kiss.
"You know I really have to tell you when I'm engaged. It happened
very suddenly, and Jack blew me up for letting it interfere with
business."
"I'm inclined to agree with him," said King. "I suppose the young
man concerned is Hugh."
Betty regarded him admiringly.
"Why, Daddy! That's awfully brilliant of you! However did you
guess?"
Her father pinched her ear.
"Occasionally, Elizabeth," he said, "you appear to labor under the
misconception that I fail to take any note concerning the ordinary
routine happenings of the day. But if you prefer, I will base my
apprehension solely on analytical grounds. You leap ashore. You
call for Hugh. You run towards him. You delay your reappearance.
Immediately afterward you announce your engagement. I must maintain
the sequence of causes prior to the effect presents an argument
grounded on irrefutable logic."
"You win on logical as well as mere human grounds, Vernon," I said.
"Bet, I congratulate you, minx though you are. If Nikka--"
And at that moment Nikka opened his eyes, and sat up in the bunk,
bumping his head.
"Ouch!" he yelled. "Where am I? What--"
He rubbed his shoulder reminiscently.
"I'm sore all over, but I have a feeling it hurt worse a little while
ago. How did I get here? And Hugh and Jack?"
So we recounted to him the full story of our rescue, which, in turn,
necessitated chronicling our adventures of the past twenty-four hours
for Betty and her father.
"I imagined, of course, that a mishap such as you describe had
befallen you," remarked King when we had finished. "When Nikka
shouted his warning, Watkins and I held a hasty conference on the
roof and decided that your adjuration must have had sufficient
urgency behind it to warrant our obedience, however reluctant we
might be to abandon you. Upon Watkins' insistence, I preceded him
down the rope. Prior to his own descent, he loosened the grapnel,
with an eye to the possibility of twitching it down, so that when he
was some eight or ten feet from the ground--my estimate, naturally,
is hypothetical, as it was impossible to gain any clear view of his
accident--the rope came free above, and he was precipitated into an
opening in the rocks which we had not hitherto perceived.
"I may say that we later determined in the daylight that it was
practically invisible from the adjacent waters, and the hasty
investigation I was able to make on my own behalf leads me to the
provisional conclusion that we have stumbled upon a genuine
archæological find. The ancient Byzantium, as you doubtless know,
was a city vying with our modern capitals in comfort and hygienic
convenience, and its drainage system must have been--"
"Yes, yes, Daddy," interrupted Betty, "but you are telling about last
night, not the ancient Byzants."
"Byzantines, my dear," corrected her father. "The Byzant was the
standard coin of value of the Eastern Empire, indeed, of the known
world."
"A thousand pardons, old sweetheart, but still, don't you see, you've
left the boys high and dry? Here, you'd better let me carry on."
"Very well," answered King with the docility acquired by any man who
spends much time in Betty's company. "Perhaps your narrative gifts
will secure a more rapid description of our adventures, Elizabeth."
"It's not my 'narrative gifts,' darling Dad. It's that I can stick
to the path. You see, boys, I heard Watkins squawk when he fell.
The only reason Toutou and his friends didn't hear him was that they
were so busy with you. I left the boat and scrambled over the
rocks--nearly scared Dad to death. He thought I was an enemy.
Watkins had disappeared into this opening. He had slid over the
rock-pile that fills it to within three or four feet of the top, and
he bumped his head badly. He thought he was in a cave, and I made
Dad get in after him and look around with a flashlight. So long as
the rope and grapnel had come down, there was no way for Toutou's
gang to trace us, and I was wondering whether we couldn't make future
use of a hiding-place almost in the enemy's camp."
"I say, that was clever of you!" said Hugh admiringly.
We all chuckled, but Betty thanked him with a smile.
"Oh, I was a little heroine," she continued. "No movie heroine could
have surpassed me. Dad took a look, and announced that it was one of
the old sewers, and seemed to run inland beneath Tokalji's house. He
wanted to follow it all the way in, but I decided there would be no
opportunity for a rescue that night, and I made him and Watkins come
back to the _Curlew_ with me. We ran the launch to the wharf of a
Greek fisherman I know on the Asiatic shore of the Marmora. He
agreed to take us up to Constantinople in his boat, and to wait there
for us all day to carry us back.
"We discussed the problem going up to Constantinople, and we couldn't
think of anything to do for you, short of going in ourselves and
setting you free. We didn't know how to get into touch with Nikka's
uncle and his Gypsy friends. Manifestly, we didn't want to tell the
police or the British authorities--although we would have done that
if we had been unable to get to you to-night. Watkins said that
'treasure or no treasure 'e wasn't going to see 'is ludship butchered
like 'is uncle, whatever 'is ludship might say any time.' Oh,
Watkins was lyrical, Hugh."
"He's done damned good work," assented Hugh gratefully. "Bless his
old heart. So you just went up to Constantinople, and lay doggo?"
"Just that. We slept most of the day, and after dinner sneaked away,
and boarded the Greek fisherman's ketch. We took the _Curlew_ about
ten, I think, and steered straight for Tokalji's house. And oh,
Hugh, if there hadn't been that opening from your dungeon!" The
tears came into her eyes. "To think what Nikka had to stand! And
you others would have had it, too."
"If there hadn't been that there would have been something else,"
Hugh reassured her. "And now we have a secret way to follow direct
into Tokalji's lair."
"But after you get in you will have a pitched battle before you can
control the place," Nikka pointed out. "I don't see that you are
likely to profit very much by it unless you are willing to put the
issue to the proof by cold steel."
There was no gainsaying this argument, and none of us was inclined to
advocate wholesale slaughter, not even Nikka, with his aching
shoulder and memory of Toutou's brutality. We had hashed over the
subject pretty thoroughly by the time the _Curlew_ was docked,
without discovering a solution of our problem, and from sheer
weariness abandoned the discussion by mutual consent. It was too
late to find one of the variable Pera taxis, and we walked up through
the deserted streets of Galata, tenanted only by homeless refuges.
In the hotel lobby we said good-night--it was really
good-morning--and went to bed to sleep the clock around.
Twenty-four hours rest made us fit. Nikka's arm and shoulder were
still lame, but he had Watkins rub him with liniment that suppled the
strained muscles, and declared that he was as game for a fight as any
of us. And when Watkins brought us an invitation to breakfast in the
Kings' sitting room we were able to muster a degree of optimism,
despite the difficulties of the situation.
"It boils down to this," said Hugh over his second cup of coffee.
"We know that the Instructions are correct and that we have a
desperate crew of criminals to reckon with. Our job is to trick
Toutou's crowd."
"But how?" I asked.
"Ah, that's the question!"
"You can't trick them," snapped Nikka. "They are as clever as we."
"Then what can you do?" demanded Betty.
"Exterminate them."
"Your proposal, Nikka, seems somewhat--er--shall I say savage?"
objected Vernon King.
"We are fighting savages," retorted Nikka swiftly. "I still feel as
I did last night that I don't want to risk any of our lives, treasure
or no treasure, beyond what is essential to our safety. But the fact
remains there is but one kind of treatment those people will
understand. They are clever, remorseless, merciless. You can--"
There was a knock on the door. Watkins answered it. His back
stiffened as he peered through the crack.
"A moment, if you please, sir," he said coldly, refastened the door
and turned to us.
"Mr. 'Ilyer would like a word with your ludship."
Hugh rose, his jaw set.
"I'll talk to him outside," he said.
Watkins reopened the door, and bowed him out. We heard his first icy
words:
"To what am I indebted for this--"
The door closed behind him, and we looked at each other, startled,
uneasy. Nobody said anything. We were all thinking of the
conversation going on in the corridor.
The tense silence lasted for perhaps five minutes. Then the door was
reopened, and Hugh entered.
"Hilyer wants to talk terms," he announced. "In the circumstances, I
didn't feel that we could afford to overlook any chance, and I have
arranged that four of us will meet four of his crowd at Hilmi's house
at three this afternoon."
"I don't trust the dog," I said immediately. "Why go to Hilmi's
house? Why couldn't he talk here?"
"He said the only way he could prove that he has a certain trick up
his sleeve would be for us to go there. He also pointed out that we
need have no fear of treachery, as we only needed to leave word
behind us where we were going."
"Why parties of four?" asked Nikka.
"Obviously, we couldn't take Betty," answered Hugh, "and one of us
ought to stay with her."
"If Toutou is there I shall kill him on sight," warned Nikka.
"I told Hilyer we drew the line at that beast. Besides Hilyer and
Hilmi, there will be only Hélène de Cespedes and Serge Vassilievich."
"Humph, I still don't see why we should go out of our way to talk to
them," I grumbled.
"Hilyer seemed in a reasonable frame of mind," argued Hugh. "He said
his crowd are sick of the whole business, that they as well as we are
wasting time, and that we might as well compromise."
"I hope you have no such idea in your head," exclaimed Betty. "You
couldn't trust them, in any event."
"No, I haven't--not yet, anyway," returned Hugh. "I told Hilyer we
had no reason to be discouraged, but he just grinned. He said it was
a stalemate. What I am after is to feel out the enemy's position."
None of us could think up a valid reason for objecting to Hugh's
strategy, so it was agreed that he, Vernon King, Nikka and myself
should keep the appointment at Hilmi's house. Betty said that she
would take Watkins and go for a sail in the _Curlew_, and we all
approved her plan because we considered her safest on the water.
After luncheon we escorted Betty and Watkins to the Man-o'-war Dock,
saw them off and then walked through Pera to Hilmi's house in the Rue
Midhat Pasha. It was a handsome residence in the French style. As
we approached it from the corner, a big automobile halted in front of
the entrance, and Hilmi, himself, appeared in the doorway, ushering
out a stout personage, whose frock-coat, fez and predatory visage
proclaimed the Turkish official. The man scarcely glanced at us,
merely climbed into his machine and drove away. Hilmi, awaiting us
on the doorstep, rubbed his hands together, with an oily smirk of
satisfaction.
"Your servant, gentlemen," he said, with mock humility. "Did you
happen to recognize my guest who departed as you arrived?"
"No," replied Hugh curtly.
Hilmi had a peculiar effect on you. He was a rat. You didn't so
much hate him or desire to kill him as you did hanker to kick him or
stamp on him.
He saw this, and his smirk became a sour grimace.
"Follow me," he snarled.
We passed through a square hall, carpeted and hung with gorgeous
Persian, Bokharan and Chinese rugs, into a salon which was a bizarre
combination of rickety French period furniture and priceless, solid
Oriental stuff. The rugs, as in the hall, were worth a fortune by
themselves. Hilyer, Hélène and Serge Vassilievich were lounging on a
couch, smoking cigarettes and talking in low tones. The men rose as
we came in, Hilyer with a swagger, the Russian with a frown that
presently focussed on my face--it seemed he had never forgotten or
forgiven the beating I gave him in the Gunroom at Chesby.
Hélène lay back against a pile of cushions, languorously at ease,
beautiful as a tigress, a pleasant smile curving her faultless lips.
Other than the smile, she made no move to greet us.
"Sit down, won't you?" said Hilyer, automatically taking charge.
"Glad you came. Cigarettes? Cocktail? I assure you quite all
right; taste 'em myself, if you like. No? Right O! Did they see
your friend, Hilmi?"
"He--" Hilmi pointed a finger at Chesby--"says he did not know him."
"Ah!" Hilyer lighted a fresh cigarette. "Don't take my word for it,
you chaps, but that man was Youssouf Mahkouf Pasha, who is popularly
known in this part of the world as 'The Grand Vizier's Jackal.' You
probably do not see why you should be interested in him and his
presence here to-day. The fact is, however, that his visit to this
house was timed so that you should have an opportunity to see him.
We particularly desired you to see him, knowing that you--ah--" he
smiled agreeably--"might be inclined to doubt the veracity of
whatever we said to you.
"To cut a long story short, Mahkouf Pasha is a particular pal of our
fellow club-member, Hilmi. I don't mind lettin' you in on it that
they've been in several deals together. Now, we owe you a bit on
account. Last night, for instance. But I gather that you yourselves
aren't able to ride clear on the strength of it."
He paused, and Hugh caught him up.
"You have no right to suppose that," Hugh retorted sharply. "We
aren't asking terms. You are."
"I notice you aren't refusing to discuss terms," said Hilyer with a
glint in his eye.
Yassilievich jerked a remark which we could not understand from the
corner of his mouth, but Hilyer waved it aside.
"Go at the narrow ditch first, Serge. There'll be plenty of time for
the water-jump. I'm not tryin' to bluff you and your friends,
Chesby. I don't have to. As I told you this morning, I have an ace
in my sleeve. Bein' a gambler, that's my habit."
"So I've heard," said Hugh with cutting emphasis.
Hilyer never changed color, only eyed him curiously.
"You do get down on a fellow, don't you?" he commented. "As you know
by now, there's but one way to dust me. You tried it once, and I
haven't forgotten. I've a convenient memory of my own.
"Well, never mind. The fact is, you are stumped just is much as we
are. We are plugging around the course, and neither one of us can
jockey a horse clear of the field. It's damn nonsense. Gets nobody
anywhere. Sensible thing to do is to lay cards on the table, and
make a deal."
"Put down your hand," said Hugh evenly.
"The treasure is somewhere around Tokalji's house," answered Hilyer
promptly. "That's certain. To get to it you've got to get into
Tokalji's house. What's more, you've got to be able to stay a while
in Tokalji's house. And you can't do it. You haven't got a chance
of doing it! But let's suppose a miracle happened, and you found the
chance." He dropped his cigarette, and leaned forward, driving his
clenched fist into his palm to emphasize every word. "Still, we've
got you stopped. How? Hilmi's friend, Mahkouf Pasha. We've made
arrangements with him, whereby in the event that we give up hope of
any better deal, we denounce you and your treasure to him. He will
then convey the information to the Imperial Government, and in return
for his public service and for our assistance, he and we will be
presented with a stipulated percentage of the treasure, as recovered."
He sat back on the couch, and crossed his knees.
"Those are good cards, providing they are played right," Hugh
admitted. "But how is the Imperial Government going to secure the
treasure's location from us?"
"If they don't secure the information, nevertheless you won't get the
treasure. To be quite plain with you, our plan, in the event of the
contingency I have outlined, would be to give you an opportunity to
get to the treasure before calling in the Government."
"Yes, that would be the way to do it," said Hugh, nodding
impersonally. "What's your proposition?"
"Seventy-five per cent. to us, twenty-five per cent. to you."
Hugh laughed.
"I thought you wanted to talk business," he jeered.
Hélène tossed away her cigarette.
"You're playing it too fine, Montey," she remarked. "Will you talk
on a fifty-fifty basis, Lord Chesby?"
Hugh turned to her.
"I don't know," he said frankly. "I want to think it over. I'll
admit that by calling in the Turkish Government, you could stall
me--and yourselves. But how can I trust you? What guarantees can
you give us?"
"No guarantees we could give you would be binding," she answered with
an insolent smile. "What's more, we don't have to give guarantees.
We hold the whip-hand. You've no alternative but to trust us. As to
thinking it over--" she flung a glance at Hilyer, who nodded--"come
back to-morrow. We'll give you that long."
"I'll take as long as I choose," returned Hugh, with a flash of
temper--he, like the rest of us, was becoming restive under the
realization that they did hold the whip-hand. "And understand me, I
mean what I say when I tell you that any compromise between us will
be based on what we consider satisfactory guarantees."
Hilyer yawned lazily.
"Don't like it, do you? Doesn't feel comfortable to be spurred.
Well, suit yourselves. So far as we are concerned, remember, we'd
rather come to terms with you. We stand to get more out of you than
from the Turkish Government. But if you try to trick us we won't be
beyond denouncing you, even at the cost of losing any share at all."
His teeth clicked and his drawl became a measured threat.
"Incidentally, this is not the only ace we have up our sleeve. Our
terms will be stiffer to-morrow than they are to-day, and
progressively so from then on."
"That goes," added Hélène de Cespedes, rearing her lithe body erect,
all pretense of languor gone. "That's legal tender, Lord Chesby.
You people are backing a losing game. The cards are stacked against
you. You lose, no matter what you do."
"We'll see about that," said Hugh, rising, a spot of red on each
cheek bone the one sign of the white-hot anger that seethed within
him.
"Must you go?" asked Hilyer, his drawl resumed. "Au 'voir, then.
Hilmi, will you see 'em out?"