THE DIAMOND.
Captain Ducie had been six weeks at Bon Repos; his visit would come to
a close in the course of three or four days, but he was still as
ignorant of the hiding-place of the Diamond as on that evening when he
learned for the first time that M. Platzoff had such a treasure in his
possession.
Since the completion of his translation of the stolen MS. he had
dreamed day and night of the Diamond. It was said to be worth a
hundred and fifty thousand pounds. If he could only succeed in
appropriating it, what a different life would be his in time to come!
In such a case, he would of course be obliged to leave England for
ever. But he was quite prepared to do that. He was without any tie of
kindred or friendship that need bind him to his native land. Once safe
in another hemisphere, he would dispose of the Diamond, and the
proceeds would enable him to live as a gentleman ought to live for the
remainder of his days. Truly, a pleasant dream.
But it was only a dream after all, as he himself in his cooler moments
was quite ready to acknowledge. It was nothing but a dream even when
Platzoff wrung from him an unreluctant consent to extend his visit at
Bon Repos for another six weeks. If he stayed for six months, there
seemed no likelihood that at the end of that time he would be one whit
wiser on the one point on which he thirsted for information than he
was now. Still, he was glad for various reasons to retain his pleasant
quarters a little while longer.
Truth to tell, in Captain Ducie M. Platzoff had found a guest so much
to his liking that he could not make up his mind to let him go again.
Ducie was incurious, or appeared to be so; he saw and heard, and asked
no questions. He seemed to be absolutely destitute of political
principles, and therein he formed a pleasant contrast both to M.
Platzoff himself and to the swarm of foreign gentlemen who at
different times found their way to Bon Repos. He was at once a good
listener and a good talker. In fine, he made himself in every way so
agreeable, and was at the same time so thorough a gentleman, that
Platzoff was as glad to retain him as he himself was pleased to stay.
Three out of the Captain's second term of six weeks had nearly come to
an end when, on a certain evening, as he and Platzoff sat together in
the smoke-room, the latter broached a subject which Ducie would have
wagered all he possessed--though that was little enough--that his host
would have been the last man in the world even to hint at.
"I think I have heard you say that you have a taste for diamonds and
precious stones," remarked Platzoff. Ducie had hazarded such a remark
on one or two occasions as a quiet attempt to draw Platzoff out, but
had only succeeded in eliciting a little shrug, and a cold smile, as
though for him such a statement could have no possible interest.
"If I have said so to you I have only spoken the truth," replied
Ducie. "I am passionately fond of gems and precious stones of every
kind. Have you any to show me?"
"I have in my possession a green diamond said to be worth a hundred
and fifty thousand pounds," answered the Russian, quietly.
The simulated surprise with which Captain Ducie received this
announcement was a piece of genuine comedy. His real surprise arose
from the fact of Platzoff having chosen to mention the matter to him
at all.
"Great heaven!" he exclaimed. "Can you be in earnest? Had I heard such
a statement from the lips of any other man than you, I should have
questioned either his sanity or his truth."
"You need not question either one or the other in my case," answered
Platzoff, with a smile. "My assertion is true to the letter. Some
evening when I am less lazy than I am now, you shall see the stone and
examine it for yourself."
"I take it as a great proof of your friendship for me, monsieur," said
Ducie warmly, "that you have chosen to make me the recipient of such a
confidence."
"It _is_ a proof of my friendship," said the Russian. "No one of my
political friends--and I have many that are dear to me, both in
England and abroad--is aware that I have in my possession so
inestimable a gem. But you, sir, are an English gentleman, and my
friend for reasons unconnected with politics; I know that my secret
will be safe in your keeping."
Ducie winced inwardly, but he answered with grave cordiality, "The
event, my dear Platzoff, will prove that your confidence has not been
misplaced."
After this the Russian went on to tell Ducie that the MS. lost at the
time of the railway accident had reference to the great Diamond; that
it contained secret instructions, addressed to a very dear friend of
the writer, as to the disposal of the Diamond after his, Platzoff's,
death; all of which was quite as well known to Ducie as to the Russian
himself; but the captain sat with his pipe between his lips, and
listened with an appearance of quiet interest that impressed his host
greatly.
That night Ducie's mind was too excited to allow of sleep. He was
about to be shown the great Diamond; but would the mere fact of seeing
it advance him one step towards obtaining possession of it? Would
Platzoff, when showing him the stone, show him also the place where it
was ordinarily kept. His confidence in Ducie would scarcely carry him
as far as that. In any case, it would be something to have seen the
Diamond, and for the rest, Ducie must trust to the chapter of
accidents and his own wits. On one point he was fully determined, to
make the Diamond his own at any cost, if the slightest possible chance
of doing so were afforded him. He was dazzled by the magnitude of the
temptation; so much so, indeed, that he never seemed to realize in his
own mind the foulness of the deed by which alone it could become his
property. Had any man hinted that he was a thief either in act or
intention, he would have repudiated the term with scorn--would have
repudiated it even in his own mind, for he made a point of hoodwinking
and cozening himself as though he were some other person, whose good
opinion must on no account be forfeited.
Captain Ducie awaited with hidden impatience the hour when it should
please M. Platzoff to fulfil his promise. He had not long to wait.
Three evenings later, as they sat in the smoke-room, said Platzoff,
"To-night you shall see the Great Mogul Diamond. No eyes save my own
have seen it for ten years. I must ask you to put yourself for an hour
or two under my instructions. Are you minded so to do?"
"I shall be most happy to carry out your wishes in every way,"
answered Ducie. "Consider me as your slave for the time being."
"Attend then, if you please. This evening you will retire to your own
rooms at eleven o'clock. Precisely at one-thirty a.m., you will come
back here. You will be good enough to come in your slippers, because
it is not desirable that any of the household should be disturbed by
our proceedings. I have no further orders at present."
"Your lordship's wishes are my commands," answered Ducie with a mock
salaam.
They sat talking and smoking till eleven; then Ducie left his host as
if for the night. He lay down for a couple of hours on the sofa in his
dressing-room. Precisely at one thirty he was on his way back to the
smoke-room, his feet encased in a pair of Indian moccasins. A minute
later he was joined by Platzoff in dressing-gown and slippers.
"I need hardly tell you, my dear Ducie," began the latter, "that with
a piece of property in my possession no larger than a pigeon's egg,
and worth so many thousands of pounds, a secure place in which to
deposit that property (since I choose to have it always near me) is an
object of paramount importance. That secure place of deposit I have at
Bon Repos. This you may accept as one reason for my having lived in
such an out-of-the-world spot for so many years. It is a place known
to myself alone. After my death it will become known to one person
only--to the person into whose possession the Diamond will pass when I
shall be no longer among the living, The secret will be told him that
he may have the means of finding the Diamond, but not even to him
will it become known till after my decease. Under these circumstances,
my dear Ducie, you will, I am sure, excuse me for keeping the
hiding-place of the Diamond a secret still--a secret even from you.
Say--will you not?"
With a malediction at his heart, but with a smile on his lips, Captain
Ducie made reply. "Pray offer no excuses, my dear Platzoff, where none
are needed. What I want is to see the Diamond itself, not to know
where it is kept. Such a piece of information would be of no earthly
use to me, and it would involve a responsibility which, under any
circumstances, I should hardly care to assume."
"It is well; you are an English gentleman," said the Russian, with a
ceremonious inclination of the head, "and your words are based on
wisdom and truth. It is necessary that I should blindfold you: oblige
me with your handkerchief."
Ducie with a smile handed over his handkerchief, and Platzoff
proceeded to blindfold him--an operation which was rapidly and
effectually performed by the deft fingers of the Russian.
"Now, give me your hand, and come with me, but do not speak till you
are spoken to."
So Ducie laid a finger in the Russian's thin cold palm, and the latter
taking a small bronze hand-lamp, conducted his bandaged companion from
the room.
In two minutes after leaving the smoke-room Ducie's geographical ideas
of the place were completely at fault. Platzoff led him through so
many corridors and passages, turning now to the right hand, and now to
the left,--he guided him up and down so many flights of stairs, now of
stone and now of wood, that he lost his reckoning entirely, and felt
as though he were being conducted through some place far more spacious
than Bon Repos. He counted the number of stairs in each flight that he
went up or down. In two or three cases the numbers tallied, which
induced him to think that Platzoff was conducting him twice over the
same ground, in order perhaps the more effectually to confuse his
ideas as to the position of the place to which he was being led.
After several minutes spent thus in silent perambulation of the old
house, they halted for a moment while Platzoff unlocked a door, after
which they passed forward into a room, in the middle of which Ducie
was left standing while Platzoff relocked the door, and then busied
himself for a minute in trimming the lamp he had brought with him,
which had been his only guide through the dark and silent house, for
the servants had all gone to bed more than an hour ago.
Ducie thus left to himself for a little while had time for reflection.
The floor on which he was standing was covered with a thick soft
carpet, consequently he was in one of the best rooms in the house.
The atmosphere of this room was penetrated with a very faint aroma of
pot-pourri, so faint that unless Captain Ducie's nose had been more
than ordinarily keen he would never have perceived it. To the best of
his knowledge there was only one room in Bon Repos that was permeated
with the peculiar scent of pot-pourri. That room was M. Platzoff's
private study, to which access was obtained through his bedroom. Ducie
had been only twice into this room, but he remembered two facts in
connexion with it. First, the scent already spoken of: secondly, that
besides the door which opened into it from the bedroom, there was
another door which he had noticed as being shut and locked both times
that he was there. If the room in which they now were was really M.
Platzoff's study, they had probably obtained access to it through the
second door.
While silently revolving these thoughts in his mind, Captain Ducie's
fingers were busy with the formation of two tiny paper pellets, each
no bigger than a pea. Unseen by Platzoff he contrived to drop these
pellets on the carpet.
"I must really apologize," said the Russian, next moment, "for keeping
you waiting so long; but this lamp will not burn properly."
"Don't hurry yourself on my account," said Ducie. "I am quite jolly.
My eyes are ready bandaged: I am only waiting for the axe and the
block."
"We are not going to dispose of you in quite so summary a fashion,"
said the Russian. "One minute more and your eyesight shall be restored
to you."
Ducie's quick ears caught a low click, as though some one had touched
a spring. Then there was a faint rumbling, as though something were
being rolled back on hidden wheels.
"Lend me your hand again, and bend that tall figure of yours. Step
carefully. There is another staircase to descend--the last and the
steepest of all."
Keeping fast hold of Platzoff's hand, Ducie followed slowly and
cautiously, counting the steps as he went down. They were of stone,
and were twenty-two in number. At the bottom of the staircase another
door was unlocked. The two passed through, and the door was shut and
relocked behind them.
"Be blind no longer!" said Platzoff, taking off the handkerchief and
handing it to Ducie with a smile. A few seconds elapsed before the
latter could discern anything clearly. Then he saw that he was in a
small vaulted chamber about seven feet in height, with a flagged
floor, but without furniture of any kind save a small table of black
oak on which Platzoff's lamp was now burning. The atmosphere of this
dungeon had struck him with a sudden chill as he went in. At each end
was a door, both of iron. The one that had opened to admit them was
set in the thick masonry of the wall; the one at the opposite end
seemed built into the solid rock.
"Before we go any farther," said Platzoff, "I may as well explain to
you how it happens that a respectable old country-house like Bon Repos
has such a suspicious-looking hiding-place about its premises. You
must know that I bought the house, many years ago, of the last
representative of an old north-country family. He was a bachelor, and
in him the family died out. Three years after I had come to reside
here the old man, at that time on his death-bed, sent me a letter and
a key. The letter revealed to me the secret of the place we are now
exploring, of which I had no previous knowledge; the key is that of
the two iron doors. It seems that the old man's ancestors had been
deeply implicated in the Jacobite risings of last century. The house
had been searched several times, and on one occasion occupied by
Hanoverian troops. As a provision against such contingencies this
hiding-place (a natural one as far as the cavern beyond is concerned,
which has probably existed for thousands of years) was then first
connected with the interior of the house, and rendered practicable at
a moment's notice; and here on several occasions, certain members of
the family, together with their plate and title-deeds, lay concealed
for weeks at a time. The old gentleman gave me a solemn assurance that
the secret existed with him alone; all who had been in any way
implicated in the earlier troubles having died long ago. As the
property had now become mine by purchase, he thought it only right
that before he died these facts should be brought to my knowledge. You
may imagine, my dear Ducie, with what eagerness I seized upon this
place as a safe depository for my Diamond, which, up to that time, I
had been obliged to carry about my person. And now, forward to the
heart of the mystery!"
Having unlocked and flung open the second iron door, Platzoff took up
his lamp, and, closely followed by Ducie, entered a narrow winding
passage in the rock. After following this passage, which tended
slightly downwards for a considerable distance, they emerged into a
large cavernous opening in the heart of the hill.
Platzoff's first act was, by means of a long crook, to draw down
within reach of his hand a large iron lamp that was suspended from the
roof by a running chain. This lamp he lighted from the hand-lamp he
had brought with him. As soon as released, it ascended to its former
position, about ten feet from the ground. It burned with a clear white
flame that lighted up every nook and cranny of the place. The sides of
the cave were of irregular formation. Measuring by the eye, Ducie
estimated the cave to be about sixty yards in length, by a breadth, in
the widest part, of twenty. In height it appeared to be about forty
feet. The floor was covered with a carpet of thick brown sand, but
whether this covering was a natural or an artificial one Ducie had no
means of judging. The atmosphere of the place was cold and damp, and
the walls in many places dripped with moisture; in other places they
scintillated in the lamplight as though thousands of minute gems were
embedded in their surface.
In the middle of the floor, on a pedestal of stones loosely piled
together, was a hideous idol, about four feet in height, made of wood,
and painted in various colours. In the centre of its forehead gleamed
the great Diamond.
"Behold!" was all that Platzoff said, as he pointed to the idol. Then
they both stood and gazed in silence.
Many contending emotions were at work just then in Ducie's breast,
chief of which was a burning, almost unconquerable desire to make that
glorious gem his own at every risk. In his ear a fiend seemed to be
whispering.
"All you have to do," it seemed to say, "is to grip old Platzoff
tightly round the neck for a couple of minutes. His thread of life is
frail, and would be easily broken. Then possess yourself of the
Diamond and his keys. Go back by the way you came and fasten
everything behind you. The household is all abed, and you could get
away unseen. Long before the body of Platzoff would be discovered, if
indeed it were ever discovered, you would be far away and beyond all
fear of pursuit. Think! That tiny stone is worth a hundred and fifty
thousand pounds."
This was Ducie's temptation. It shook him inwardly as a reed is shaken
by the wind. Outwardly he was his ordinary quiet impassive self, only
gazing with eyes that gleamed on the gleaming gem, which shone like a
new-fallen star on the forehead of that hideous image.
The spell was broken by Platzoff, who, going up to the idol, and
passing his hand through an orifice at the back of the skull, took the
Diamond out of its resting-place, close behind the hole in the
forehead, through which it was seen from the front. With thumb and
forefinger he took it daintily out, and going back to Ducie dropped it
into the outstretched palm of the latter.
Ducie turned the Diamond over and over, and held it up before the
light between his forefinger and thumb, and tried the weight of it on
his palm. It was in the simple form of a table diamond, with only
sixteen facets in all, and was just as it had left the fingers of some
Indian cutter a couple of centuries ago. It glowed with a green fire,
deep, yet tender, that flashed through its facets and smote the duller
lamplight with sparkles of intense brilliancy. This, then, was the
wondrous gem that many a time and oft had felt the touch of great
Aurengzebe's hand! Ducie seemed to be examining it most closely; but,
in truth, at that very moment he was debating in his own mind the
terrible question of murder or no murder, and scarcely saw the stone
itself at all.
"Ami, you do not seem to admire my Diamond!" said the Russian
presently, with a touch of pathos in his voice.
Ducie pressed the Diamond back into Platzoff's hands. "I admire it so
much," said he, "that I cannot enter into any commonplace terms of
admiration. I will talk to you to-morrow respecting it. At present I
lack fitting words."
The Russian took back the stone, pressed it to his lips, and then went
and replaced it in the forehead of the idol.
"Who is your friend there?" said Ducie, with a desperate attempt to
wrench his thoughts away from that all-absorbing temptation.
"I am not sufficiently learned in Hindu mythology to tell you his name
with certainty," answered Platzoff. "I take him to be no less a
personage than Vishnu. He is seated upon the folds of the snake Jesha,
whose seven heads bend over him to afford him shade. In one hand he
holds a spray of the sacred lotus. He is certainly hideous enough to
be a very great personage. Do you know, my dear Ducie," went on
Platzoff, "I have a very curious theory with regard to that Hindu
gentleman, whoever he may be. Many years ago he was worshipped in some
great Eastern temple, and had, priests and acolytes without number to
attend to his wants; and then, as now, the great Diamond shone in his
forehead. By some mischance the Diamond was lost or stolen--in any
case, he was dispossessed of it. From that moment he was an unhappy
idol. He derived pleasure no longer from being worshipped, he could
rest neither by night nor day--he had lost his greatest treasure. When
he could no longer endure this state of wretchedness he stole out of
the temple one fine night unknown to any one, and set out on his
travels in search of the missing Diamond. Was it simple accident or
occult knowledge, that directed his wanderings after a time to the
shop of a London curiosity dealer, where I saw him, fell in love with
him, and bought him? I know not: I only know that he and his darling
Diamond were at last re-united, and here they have remained ever
since. You smile as if I had been relating a pleasant fable. But tell
me if you can how it happens that in the forehead of yonder idol there
is a small cavity lined with gold into which the Diamond fits with the
most exact nicety. That cavity was there when I bought the idol and
has in no way been altered since. The shape of the Diamond, as you
have seen for yourself, is rather peculiar. Is it therefore possible
that mere accident can be at the bottom of such a coincidence? Is not
my theory of the Wandering Idol much more probable as well as far more
poetical? You smile again. You English are the greatest sceptics in
the world. But it is time to go. We have seen all there is to be seen,
and the temperature of this place will not benefit my rheumatism."
So the lamp was put out, and Idol and Diamond were left to darkness
and solitude. In the vaulted room, at the entrance to the winding way
that led to the cavern, Ducie's eyes were again bandaged. Then up the
twenty-two stone stairs, and so into the carpeted room above, where
was the scent of _pot-pourri_. From this room they came by many
passages and flights of stairs back to the smoking-room, where Ducie's
bandage was removed. One last pipe, a little desultory conversation,
and then bed.
M. Platzoff being out of the way for an hour or two next afternoon,
Captain Ducie contrived to pay a surreptitious visit to his host's
private study. On the carpet he found one of the two paper pellets
which he had dropped from his fingers the previous evening. There,
too, was the same faint, sickly smell that had filled his nostrils
when the handkerchief was over his eyes, which he now traced to a huge
china jar in one corner, filled with the dried leaves of flowers
gathered long summers before.