THE BIG RUBY.
Jack had known the fellow at once, had recognised him instantly as the
small, dark man who had stood in front of him upon Rushmere Heath and
demanded that he should produce his father's letter. An instant
conviction had darted into Jack's mind that these things were
connected, and that this man knew something of his father's
disappearance.
"I've got you this time," cried Jack, and was upon him in a second.
But a most astonishing thing happened. The small, slight man offered
no resistance to Jack's fierce rush, instead, he seemed to give way
before it as a reed gives way before the wind. Then he bent slightly
and laid one small, sinewy hand on Jack's knee, and, in some
mysterious fashion or another, the lad felt that his hold was torn
away, and that he was flying through the air over the little man's
head. All in a heap Jack landed on the dusty floor. As he fell, he
caught a glimpse of Buck's head thrust through the swinging door as he
followed his young leader, and saw the look of surprise on Buck's
face.
"Seize him!" roared Jack, and Buck darted forward as the dark stranger
shot through another door and vanished into a crowd which swarmed on
to the platform from a train which had just drawn up. Jack gathered
himself together, and sprang to his feet, and rushed after his
companion. He soon found Buck, who was hurrying through the groups,
looking about on every hand, and they searched together, but searched
in vain; the mysterious stranger had gone to earth safely amid the
ample cover provided by the mass of bustling passengers. At last they
pulled up and looked at each other.
"No go," said Jack, "he's lost in the crowd. He may be far enough away
by now."
Buck's look of wonder and surprise was striking to behold.
"See here, Jack," he said, laying his hand on his companion's arm.
"How in thunder do you come to know Saya Chone, and jump on him at
sight like a hawk droppin' on a chicken?"
"You know him, Buck?" cried Jack. "You know his name?"
"Know him all right," replied Buck. "But what under the sun is he
doing this distance from home? What brings Saya Chone in Brindisi? The
last time I set eyes on him he was coming into Mogok with a little bag
of rubies to sell to U Saw, the chap they call the Ruby King."
"He comes from Burmah, where you have been?"
"Sure thing," said Buck, nodding his head. "He's a half-caste. Says
his father was a British officer, and prides himself on talking Number
One English."
"He talked English as easily as we do," said Jack, "but with an odd
click of the tongue."
"That's the native strain in him," returned Buck. "But where did you
run up against him and hear his English?"
Jack told his story quickly, and Risley listened with a knitted brow
of attention.
"Say, there's business at the back o' this," murmured Buck, "but where
it fits in beats me at the moment. We don't know enough, Jack, to be
sure which way we're moving."
"We do not, Buck, you are quite right," replied the lad, "and we'll
make a bee-line for London and see the firm for whom father was
working."
"Let's go and see what tar-brush was talking to the interpreter
about," suggested Buck, and they went at once and found the man, who
had returned to his post on the platform. The interpreter readily told
them that the half-caste had offered him a liberal sum in order to
learn what Jack was doing, and what route he intended to follow on
leaving Brindisi, but the man declared that he had made no answer,
had, indeed, been unable to reply to the questions before Jack was on
the scene and making his rush.
"Is it worth while to stop here and put the police on the search for
this fellow, I wonder?" said Jack, as he and his companion returned to
the hotel.
"I doubt it," returned Buck. "There are such numbers of foreigners of
all kinds passing through the port that the police can't keep track of
them all. Besides, it would take time, and if there's some queer game
in the wind, we've lost a good deal now. If you could learn, Jack, how
matters stand between the Professor and the firm that sent him out to
Burmah, it might give you a line to go on. At present we're snuffin'
the wind and pickin' up no scent."
"You're right, Buck, we'll get the baggage together at once."
Again Jack rushed across Italy, France, and the Channel, never pausing
for one instant on the way. It was a little before noon on a Thursday
morning when he saw London again, and, at the terminus, he parted with
Buck.
The latter went with the baggage to Lincoln's Inn to report to Mr.
Buxton, while Jack, too anxious to lose another moment, jumped into a
cab and drove straight to the offices of Messrs Lane & Baumann in Old
Broad Street. He sent his name in, and was shown at once into a large
room where Mr. Lane, the senior partner, sat at his desk.
"Ah, Mr. Haydon," said he, "you have, I hope, come to give us some
news about your father."
"Unfortunately I have not," replied Jack. "I have been in Brindisi
making every inquiry possible, but I have been able to gather no
information whatever as to his whereabouts. I have come here in hopes
that you may give me some idea of what his arrangements were with you,
and from that I might plan a course of action."
"I think my partner had better join us," said Mr. Lane, taking up a
speaking-tube. For a few moments nothing was said. The business man
went on with the letter he was writing, and Jack looked about him. The
office was large and splendidly fitted up. Jack knew nothing of Lane &
Baumann, but it was plain on every hand that it was a large and
wealthy firm. Mr. Lane himself was an elderly gentleman,
irreproachably dressed, and the picture of an important man in the
City.
The door opened and the other partner came in. Jack saw that Mr.
Baumann was much younger, a fat, heavy German with clean-shaven face
and big, round spectacles, through which little, thick-lidded eyes
peered.
"Has he brought some news?" asked Baumann quickly. "What does he say?"
His accent at once betrayed him, though his English was excellent.
"No," said Mr. Lane quietly, "he has brought no news. He comes to
learn of us."
"To learn of us," said Baumann slowly; "and what is it you wish to
learn?" he demanded of Jack.
The latter eyed the German keenly. At the first word he detected an
enemy. Mr. Lane had been gravely polite and non-committal in his
manner. This man showed hostility at once.
"I wish to learn anything that will aid me in discovering the reason
for the mysterious disappearance of my father," replied Jack, firmly.
"Mysterious disappearance," repeated the German, with a sneering
stress upon the words. "_Ach Gott!_ it is no mystery to me when a man
with such a gombanion as that disappears." He was becoming excited,
and his German accent began to thicken.
"Companion," repeated Jack, "I do not understand you. My father had no
companion except Buck Risley, his man, who has now returned to London
with me."
"Had he not, indeed?" said Baumann. "But he had a very close
gombanion, one who might easily lead him astray. _Himmel_, what was it
not worth? I think about it night and day."
"Gently, Baumann, gently," said Mr. Lane. "You are mystifying Mr.
Haydon, and I shall explain to him what you mean. He clearly does not
understand you, and I do not think it is right to keep him in the
dark. Mr. Haydon, do you know why your father went to Burmah for us?"
"I understood that he was going to survey some concession you had
gained," replied Jack.
"My goncession," cried Baumann. "I went over there and saw the place,
and I said to myself, _Himmel_, here is the for rubies, yes, fine
rubies, and I got all rights to dig there."
Mr. Lane quieted his excited partner and turned once more to Jack.
"Exactly," he said; "your father went to survey a concession for us.
My partner had been over the ground, and had returned convinced that
there was a fine field for ruby-mining. We sent your father out to
look carefully over the ground on our behalf, and a short time ago we
received some very startling news from him. He cabled to us that in a
fissure of the rock, where, as everyone knows, the finest rubies are
found, he had made a most marvellous find. He had come across a ruby
of priceless quality, and, as his work was done, he intended to return
at once, bringing the ruby with him in order to place it himself in
our hands."
"And now he has mysteriously disappeared," sneered Baumann. His
meaning was very plain, and Jack leapt to his feet with pale face and
shining eyes.
"Sir!" he cried. "Do you dare to hint that the ruby is the cause of my
father's disappearance?"
The German smiled, and Jack's anger grew.
"It is impossible!" he cried. "My father is the soul of uprightness
and honour. And do you think he would be tempted by a mere stone,
whatever its value? He has handled rubies a hundred and a hundred
times."
"Ay," snarled the German, "but not such a ruby as this. What did he
say himself? What was in his cablegram? 'The finest ruby by far that I
have ever seen or handled!' He says that. He, Haydon, the first living
expert on rubies, the man who knows everything of every big specimen
in existence. _Himmel, Himmel_, what a stone was that! And what time
are we losing! I would set every police of the world on his track. And
we do no nothing, nothing!"
"Gently, Baumann, gently, you know very well that I do not agree with
you," said Mr. Lane.
Jack turned eagerly to the senior partner. He felt that the whining
German was below both his anger and contempt.
"Sir," said Jack earnestly, "if my father had in his charge a stone so
immensely precious, I fear he has met with foul play."
"Who knew of it?" said Mr. Lane. "Had he mentioned anything about it
to his man?"
"No, he had not," said Jack, and narrated at once what he had heard
from Buck Risley.
"Yes," said Mr. Lane, nodding, "it was the possession of the great
jewel which made him uneasy."
"Who can say what it was worth?" broke in Baumann fiercely. "A big
ruby of perfect colour and without flaw, remember, he said its like
did not exist, is of all stones the most precious. Diamonds, poof!
This ruby was worth a score of great diamonds."
"And if my father had with him so wonderful a stone," urged Jack on
Mr. Lane, "is it not almost certain that someone has learned of its
existence? and again I say that he has met with foul play."
"But who should know of it?" said Mr. Lane. "It is most unlikely that
he should mention it to anyone; and you say, moreover, that his own
companion knew nothing of it."
"But," cried Jack, and thought this point was a clincher, "he cabled
home to you about it, and word of it got abroad, perhaps, from the
telegraph office."
Mr. Lane shook his head. "He cabled to us in cipher," he said; "a
cipher which he had composed himself and wrote down for us before he
started. The paper has been safely locked up in our strong-room, and
it was the only copy in the world, for he told us that, for himself,
he should carry the cipher in his memory."
This was puzzling and baffling, and Jack was silent. In a moment he
put forward another point.
"But we are not sure the ruby has disappeared with my father," he
said; "it may be packed away in his baggage."
Mr. Lane shook his head once more. "No," he said, "that is very
unlikely. Your father would be certain to carry a thing so small and
so valuable on his person. He would never part with it night or day."
Again there was a short interval in which nothing was said. Into this
silence suddenly broke the grumbling roar of Baumann's great voice.
The German had been brooding over the disappearance of the great stone
until he was beside himself.
"_Ach Gott_," he cried furiously to Mr. Lane. "You are foolish. You
still believe in the man and trust him. Me, I do not, I tell you
plainly he is a thief. He is to-day perhaps in Amsterdam, cutting that
noble and splendid stone into many smaller ones, and each of them
still a fortune. Yes, he is a thief!"
"You liar!" roared Jack. "My father is not a thief. How dare you take
such words on your dirty lips in respect of such a man!"
He had bounded to his feet and clenched his fists. Mr. Lane sprang
between them.
"Now, Mr. Haydon," said the elder man, "you must keep the peace.
Baumann is speaking very wildly. I do not agree with him. I know your
father too well."
Respect for Mr. Lane held Jack back, and nothing else. He would dearly
have liked to plant his fist on the German's foaming mouth, but he
commanded himself with an immense effort, and tried to speak calmly.
"The man is mad to say such things," said Jack with trembling lips.
"Why, the whole facts of the case are against any such monstrous idea.
If my father had wished to steal the stone, would he have cabled to
you full particulars and started home? What would have been easier
than to pocket it at once, and say nothing?"
"He was not a thief at first," vociferated the German. "He was honest
when he cabled. But the jewel, the great, big, beautiful jewel itself
corrupted him. He looked at it, and looked at it, till the love of it
filled his heart and he could not part with it. _Himmel_, I have felt
it all. I know what happened as well as if I had been at his side all
the voyage."
"Look here, you foul slanderer," cried Jack. "I'll prove you a liar
out and out. Listen to me. I'll find my father if he still remains in
existence, and I'll prove that you wrong him by your unjust
suspicions." The lad turned to Mr. Lane with flushed face and shining
eyes. "I thank you, sir," he said, "for the trust you still retain in
my father. I will do my very utmost to prove to you that it was well
placed. I cannot promise you anything save that I will do all that
lies in my power to trace your great ruby and discover my father's
fate at the same time."
Jack could say no more. He held out his hand and Mr. Lane shook it,
and the tall English lad strode from the office.