PENTREDDLE'S STORY
Squire Colpster locked the recovered emerald in his safe and again
repeated his orders that Theodore was to say nothing about it.
Notwithstanding Patricia's doubts--founded upon the different
sensations felt by her when holding the stone--the master of Beckleigh
Hall really believed that he possessed the Mikado Jewel. But he could
not comprehend why it had been forwarded to him, or how the thief had
obtained his address, or why the thief should think that he wanted it.
Had the Squire been less obsessed by the ornament, he might have taken
Patricia's advice with regard to getting rid of it. And in this,
perhaps, he would have been supported by Theodore, who was feeling
uncomfortable, since Granny Lee's statement was always in his mind.
But, as it was, he said nothing to urge his uncle to take such an
extreme course, and the Squire certainly never suggested that the gem
should be sent away. So there it lay in the safe, with its influence,
either for good or bad, ready to become apparent.
Patricia, on her side, put the matter of the emerald out of her mind,
as she did not like to think about occult matters, and, moreover, had
to attend to her duties as housekeeper. A visit to Mara's room in the
afternoon showed that the girl was up and dressed, and apparently
quite her old indifferent self. She said nothing about the Miko dance
in which she had figured, so Patricia did not remind her of it in any
way. Once or twice she asked where Akira was, but on learning that he
had gone sightseeing with Basil, she appeared to be satisfied.
The two gentlemen returned in time for dinner, tired and rather damp
from the moisture of mists they had encountered on the moors. Akira
expressed himself as pleased with the English country, although he
shivered when he mentioned the absence of the sun. Yet, as Basil
reminded him, Japan did not possess a particularly tropical climate.
The conversation took place when the soup arrived, and, as usual, when
any mention was made of the East, Mara grew a delicate rose-pink, and
fixed her eyes eagerly on the diplomatist. Akira gave her an
indifferent glance and answered the sailor's speech.
"In the north of Japan we have very cold weather, but it is
sufficiently warm in the south. But in any case, there is nothing
depressing in my country, such as a foreigner finds in England."
"It is the English climate, to a great extent, which has made us what
we are, Count," observed Colpster seriously.
"I can say the same of Japan. Hardy climates make hardy men, sir. Do
not think that I don't admire your country, for I do; but oh, these
swathing mists and damp fields!" He shivered smilingly.
"At least, we have no earthquakes," put in Patricia with a nod.
"Ah, there you have the advantage of us," answered Akira, wiping his
mouth; "but in some places we can keep earthquakes away."
"What do you mean?" asked Theodore, scenting something occult.
"Yes." Akira guessed what he vaguely felt. "There are laws which
control earth waves."
"Scientific laws?" said Basil quickly.
"You might not call them so," said Akira quietly; "but in the East,
you know, we are aware of natural laws which the West has not yet
learned."
"Well, then, tell us how to control earthquakes," said the Squire,
with a sceptical look on his face.
"Curious you should ask me that, sir. You should ask Miss Carrol."
"Ask me?" Patricia looked amazed.
"You held the Mikado Jewel in your hand," said Akira coolly.
Theodore, Colpster and Patricia exchanged looks, and wondered if the
Japanese was aware that the gem reposed in the library safe. It was
impossible, of course, since he had been absent all day with Basil.
Yet it was strange that he should refer to an object which was
uppermost in their minds. "I don't understand," said Patricia
doubtfully.
"I can explain, Miss Carrol. Had you examined the emerald you would
have seen the sign of the Earth-Spirit graven thereon. That sign shows
that a power to control earth-forces lies in the stone."
"Oh, I can't believe that, Count."
"Yet you felt--so you told me--the radiating rays, which keep back all
earth tremors--steady them, as it were."
Colpster looked up suddenly. "I thought you knew nothing about the
Mikado Jewel, Count," he said sarcastically.
"I know very little, and told you what I did know," replied Akira
quietly; "but this conversation about climates revived a memory of
what one of the Kitzuki priests told me. The emerald has had certain
ceremonies said over it, and has been set on the radiating petals of a
jade chrysanthemum. Thus it possesses a repelling power, and was kept
in the temple to repel earthquakes from shaking the ground upon which
the temple stands."
Theodore stole a glance at Patricia, who looked sceptical. "If," he
suggested in a low voice, "if the power, instead of radiating, was
drawn to the emerald you speak of, Count, what would happen?"
Patricia was not quite sure, but she fancied that she saw a subtle
smile on the bronzed face of her neighbour. But it might have been her
fancy or the tricky light of the candles glimmering through their
rosy-coloured shades. However, he replied courteously enough: "In that
case, Mr. Dane--according to occult law, about which I confess I know
little--the earthquake danger, instead of being repelled, would be
drawn to the place where the jewel lay."
"Oh, we never have earthquakes here," said Mara, with a gay laugh.
"If the Mikado Jewel were here, and the power was reversed, as is
suggested by Mr. Dane, you would soon feel an earthquake, or else this
mighty cliff at the back of the house would fall and overwhelm the
place."
Theodore shivered. Granny Lee had mentioned that she had seen him
crushed as flat as a pancake, and he wondered if what Akira so idly
said could really be true. It seemed so, for should the jewel have the
in-drawing power--and that it assuredly had, if Patricia was to be
believed--there was a great chance that Mrs. Lee's prophecy might be
fulfilled. For was not the fatal gem in the house at this moment? Yes,
Theodore shivered again, as he became more certain of belief. The
Mikado Jewel was the "It" which the sibyl had warned him should never
be allowed to enter Beckleigh Hall.
"Oh, it's all rubbish," said the Squire, who, not knowing anything
about the occult, refused to believe what Patricia had told him,
and what Akira had so strangely affirmed. "And even if such is the
case--which I don't believe--the jewel is not here."
Akira laughed and nodded. "Now you can understand why I warned you not
to seek for your family emerald again," he said.
"I'm afraid I'll never see it," said Colpster, lying with great ease.
"From what Theodore thinks, it must be now on its way back to Japan."
"Let us hope so," said Akira politely. "As a native of that country,
and because my religion is Shinto, I regret very much that the gem
should have been stolen. In the hands of ignorant persons it may well
bring about deaths. You understand," he looked at Patricia.
"Not at all," she confessed, and really in her heart she scouted the
idea that the emerald should be endowed with such malignant powers.
"Please do not talk any more about these horrid things. I hate them!"
"So do I," said Basil, who was growing restless at the way in which
his brother eyed Patricia. "Let us change the subject," which was
accordingly done.
After dinner the Squire went into the drawing-room with his family,
but scarcely had he seated himself, to digest his meal, when the
butler entered with the whispered information that a man wished to see
him particularly.
"Who is it, Sims?" asked the old man, impatiently.
"Harry Pentreddle, sir," said Sims, who was an old retainer, and knew
as much about members of the family as they did themselves.
Colpster bounded to his feet, and Theodore, who was standing before
the fire, came hastily forward. Basil and Patricia also looked
startled, as they knew the suggested connection between Pentreddle and
the giving of the jewel. Only Akira and Mara, who were talking quietly
in a corner, appeared unmoved, and continued their conversation. "I'll
go at once," said the Squire, eagerly advancing towards the door.
"Let me come too, uncle," asked Theodore, following.
"No; I shall hear his story--if he has any to tell--myself, and then
can repeat it to you. Stay where you are, Basil, and you, Patricia. I
shall see Harry alone." And he went out hastily, while those left
behind, with the exception of the Japanese and Mara, looked greatly
disappointed.
Mr. Colpster walked quickly into the library, and found seated there
before the fire a thick-set young man, blue-eyed and fair-haired, with
the unmistakable look of a seaman. He rose as the Squire entered the
room, and twisting his cap in his strong brown hands, looked bashful.
In fact, he was a trifle nervous of his reception, and had every
reason to be, for Mr. Colpster, who had known him from babyhood, fell
on him tooth and nail.
"So here you are at last, Harry," he said, with a frown. "You have
given me a lot of trouble to hunt you out. What do you mean? Just tell
me that. I didn't expect this behaviour from you, Harry. Your mother,
my old servant, has been murdered in a most abominable manner, and
instead of coming to assist me in hunting down the scoundrel who did
it, you go away and hide. Are you not ashamed of yourself?"
Colpster thundered out the words largely, but they did not seem to
produce much effect on the young man. Harry Pentreddle stood where he
was, still twisting his cap, and stared at the Squire with steady blue
eyes. This composure seemed to be not quite natural, nor did the
silence. "Can you not sit down and speak?" demanded Colpster, throwing
himself into his usual arm-chair and getting ready to ask questions.
Harry sat down quietly, and still continued to stare steadily. "I am
not ashamed of myself, sir, because I can explain my conduct fully."
"Then do so," snapped the Squire. "Your mother and father were both my
servants, and you were born at Beckleigh. As your parents are dead, I
have a right to look after you."
"Do you think that I need looking after, sir?" asked Pentreddle, with
a faint smile and a glance at his stalwart figure in the near mirror.
"You know what I mean, Harry. I wish to see you married to Isa and
commanding a ship of your own. I intend to help you to get one."
"It is very good of you, sir."
"Not at all. You were born on the estate. And now that your future is
settled, suppose you tell me why you didn't come back before?"
"If I tell you, sir, will you promise to keep what I say secret?"
"Yes--that is, in a way. I may tell my nephew Theodore, perhaps my
other nephew--I can't say."
"I don't mind anyone in Beckleigh knowing," said Harry hastily, "but I
do not wish the whole world to know."
"I am not acquainted with the whole world," said Colpster dryly, "so
there is no chance of what you say being told to the entire
inhabitants of this planet. Are you satisfied?"
"Quite. Well, then, sir, I went to Amsterdam to wait for a ship which
I know is going to Japan. She is coming from Callao and is late."
"How do you mean late?"
"She is a tramp steamer, and I know her captain. She comes to
Amsterdam to discharge a cargo, and then proceeds to Japan. I can get
an engagement as second mate when she arrives. She is expected every
day. I heard from Isa that you wished to see me, and so I came over.
But I shall go back in two days, as I can't afford to lose the chance
of getting to the Far East."
"Why do you want to go there?"
Harry looked down. "I can't exactly say," he observed in a low voice.
The Squire looked at him keenly, then leaned forward. "Do you go to
Japan to punish the priest who murdered your mother."
The young man dropped his cap and half rose from his chair, only to
fall into it again. He seemed utterly taken by surprise. "What
priest?" he faltered.
"You heard me," said Colpster impatiently. "The one who murdered your
mother--a priest of the Temple of Kitzuki."
"How did you know, sir?" Pentreddle stared open-mouthed.
"By putting two and two together. Martha--your mother, that is--sent
Miss Carrol to get the emerald, and she could only have got it from
you, who had--as you told Theodore--just returned from Japan. By the
way, do you know all about the death?"
"Yes," said Pentreddle, stooping to pick up his cap and thus hide his
emotion, for his lips were trembling. "I read everything in the
papers, and I did not come over because I wished to return to Japan
and to kill the priest who, I believe, is the assassin."
"Are you sure that a priest of Kitzuki killed her?"
"Yes, I feel sure."
"And to obtain possession of the emerald?"
"Yes. I am certain that was the motive for the crime."
"You stole the emerald?"
"Yes," said Pentreddle boldly. "I did." He laughed softly. "It is very
clever of you to guess, unless my poor mother told you."
"She told me nothing," snapped the Squire, with a glare. "All she did
was to ask me for a London holiday. She got it and went to her death.
It was Miss Carrol--you must have read about her in the papers--who
suggested that possibly you might have passed her the emerald."
"I did, although at the time in the fog and darkness I believed it was
my mother. Only when reading about her death did I know that she had
been kept at home with a sprained ankle. She----"
"Wait a bit," said Colpster, throwing up his hand; "you are confusing
me. I want to hear all from the beginning." He paused, and seeing that
Pentreddle looked nervous and was beginning to twist his cap again,
swiftly made up his mind to a course of action to suggest confidence.
"Wait a bit," said Colpster again, and went to the safe. When he
returned to the table he placed the Mikado Jewel under the lamp.
Harry rose and bent over it quite speechless with astonishment. "I
thought it was snatched from Miss Carrol in the Park," he gasped.
"So it was. But someone--the thief, I presume--sent it to me. It
arrived here without details. You are sure that it is the Jewel?" he
asked quickly.
"Yes, it's the Jewel right enough," answered Pentreddle, returning to
his seat. "But how did the thief know you wanted it?"
"I can't say, and I am not even aware if the thief sent it. All I know
is that there lies the Luck of the Colpsters, and that I have shown it
to you, so that you may see I repose confidence in you. And in return,
Harry," the Squire leaned forward and touched the young man's knee, "I
wish to hear all about the theft of the emerald from the Kitzuki
Temple."
Pentreddle thought for a few moments, while he looked at the winking
green ornament under the lamplight. Then he glanced at his watch and
nodded. "I must get away soon," he said briskly. "I am staying at
Hendle and a friend of mine is waiting on the Moor Road with a trap.
It won't take me long to tell you everything, sir."
Colpster leaned back and placed the tips of his fingers together. "I
am ready to hear you," he said quietly and bending his head.
Harry began his story in a hurry. "My mother, as you know, sir, nursed
your nephews. Mr. Basil was always her favourite, but she never could
abide Mr. Theodore. She learned from you, sir, that you intended to
leave the estates to the nephew who got back the emerald, which is the
family luck."
"Yes. Such was my intention. Well?"
"My mother," went on the sailor, twirling his cap, "was determined
that Mr. Theodore would never inherit, so, as she knew that I was
going to Japan, she asked me to steal the emerald."
"You had no right to steal it. I would have forbidden Martha
suggesting such a thing," said the Squire angrily.
Pentreddle nodded. "I know. For that reason my mother kept the affair
a secret. I readily agreed to do what she wanted, as Mr. Basil has
always been kind to me, whereas Mr. Theodore----" he halted.
"Oh, go on," said Colpster, with a cynical smile. "I know that Mr.
Theodore is not a favourite with anyone."
"How can he be, sir, when he behaves so badly? He insulted me and--but
that is neither here nor there, sir, and I have no time to talk of
that matter. I told my mother that I would get the emerald somehow,
and when I landed at Nagasaki, I set about looking for it."
"But in what way?"
"Well, you see, sir, my mother learned from you all about the giving
of the emerald to that Shogun chap, and then she told me how Miss
Mara, in some funny way, knew that it was at the Temple of Kitzuki. I
went there on the chance, and a man who kept a tea-shop told me all
about the jewel. He said that it had been given to the temple by a
Mikado. I thought it was a Shogun."
"The Shogun, who got it from Will Adams, gave it to the Mikado, and he
presented it to the temple," explained Colpster. "Go on."
"Oh, that's it, is it, sir? Well, then," he went on, twirling his cap,
"I got a sight of the Jewel in the temple and stole it."
"But how, when it was so carefully guarded?"
"I don't think it was guarded over-much," said Pentreddle
thoughtfully. "You see, sir, the tea-shop man told me that the emerald
was under the spell of the Earth Spirit--he called him some queer name
I can't remember--to keep away earthquakes. No Japanese would dare to
touch the jewel, and it lay--as I saw--on a small altar near the
shrine. I managed to stop inside the temple after dark, and stole it."
"How did you get away?" said the Squire, wondering at this daring.
"I'll tell you that another day, sir, as it is getting late. I did
manage to get away and stow the Jewel on board my ship; but I was
followed."
"Followed? By whom?"
"Japanese. I suppose they were priests. I was nearly knifed at
Nagasaki and once I was drugged. But I had hidden the emerald away,
and they could not find it. When I got to the Port of London I thought
that I was safe; but I soon found that I was dogged there also."
"By whom?" asked Colpster once more.
"Japanese," said Pentreddle again. "Wherever I went I met Japanese.
They swarmed all round me. I had written to my mother saying that I
would give her the emerald if she came to London. She did, and wrote
asking me to go to The Home of Art. But I knew better than to do that,
sir. I felt certain that if I gave the jewel to my mother she would
run a chance of being killed. There was one big chap with a scar
across his cheek. I believe he killed my poor mother."
"What makes you think that, Harry?" asked Colpster eagerly.
"Because I was loafing round The Home of Art one evening trying to
catch a glimpse of my mother, when I saw the beast watching me and the
house."
"Was the man with the scar a priest?"
"He just was," said the sailor vigorously; "a Shinto priest. I saw him
in the temple at Kitzuki. Then I was certain that I was being followed
by the priests, and wrote and told my mother that I could only give
her the emerald secretly. She replied, saying that the whole household
at The Home of Art had an appointment to see some play----"
"I know all that," said the Squire impatiently. "Skip that."
"Well, then, sir, my mother said, that being alone she could leave the
house at night without suspicion being aroused. She told me to meet
her at nine o'clock at the right-hand corner of the Bayswater side of
the Serpentine Bridge, and to look for a red light. But, of course, as
I learned later, she was kept in by her sprained foot, and sent Miss
Carrol."
"Why did you not speak to Miss Carrol?"
"I hadn't a chance," said Harry simply. "I guessed that I was being
followed."
"By the priest with the scar?"
"No. By a smaller and slighter-built chap. He dodged at my heels in
the fog, so I had just time to shove the box into Miss Carrol's
hand--into my mother's hands, as I thought--and then run off in the
hope the little beast would follow me."
"He did, didn't he?"
"For a time. Then I fancy his suspicions must have been aroused by the
red light, and by my stopping for a moment. I lost him, or he lost me
in the fog, and then, instead of returning to my lodgings in Pimlico,
I made for Limehouse Docks. I heard next morning of the death."
"Why didn't you then come to The Home of Art?"
"What was the good, sir," remonstrated Pentreddle. "I should only have
been knifed by those Japanese, and there would have been two murders
instead of one. No, sir; I wasn't such a fool, as my going to The Home
of Art wouldn't have brought my mother back to life. I bunked over to
Amsterdam and lay low. Then I read in the papers how Miss Carrol had
been robbed of the gem."
Colpster nodded. "You should have returned then."
"It was of no use, sir," said the sailor gloomily. "I knew that the
emerald must have got back into the hands of the priests, and that
they would return to Kitzuki, in Japan. I was certain, and I am now,
that the big man with the scar on his cheek stabbed my mother, so I
waited for the ship I told you about to go back to Japan and kill him.
Then Isa wrote me and said if you saw me you could help me. But,"
Pentreddle looked at the emerald, "it seems to me that things are more
muddled up than ever. Here is the Mikado Jewel, but where are the
priests?"
Colpster pinched his nether lip and looked perplexed. "I can't say. By
the way, Theodore met you in London?"
"Yes, sir. By chance in Pimlico."
"Why didn't you give him the emerald?"
"Why?" Harry looked astonished. "Because it was to prevent Mr.
Theodore becoming your heir that my mother took all this trouble, and
so met with her death." He rose to his feet. "I'll go now, sir."
The Squire rose also, "Yes, unless you prefer to stay here for the
night."
"No, sir. I want to get back to Hendle. I'll come and see you again if
you want to hear more."
"I think it will be as well. I should like you to repeat this story in
the presence of my nephews. Meanwhile, good-night," and the Squire,
having shaken hands with the sailor, sent him away. He wished to be
alone to think over things, and while doing so he put away the Mikado
Jewel in the safe.
Ten minutes later he returned to the drawing-room. "Where is Count
Akira?"
"Akira was tired and went early to bed," said Basil. "I'm off too,
uncle."