THE RING
As the cab containing Baron Hague drove off along Park Lane, the Baron
heaved a sigh of relief. This incomprehensible Séverac Bablon who had
descended like a simoon upon London was a perturbing presence--a breath
of hot fear that parched the mind! And the house in Park Lane, too,
recently had been made the scene of a unique outrage by this most
singular robber to afford any sense of security.
The Baron was glad to be away from that house, and, as the cab turned
the corner by the Park, was glad to be away from Park Lane. A man with
several thousand pounds' worth of diamonds upon him may be excused a
certain nervousness.
Baron Hague was not intimately acquainted with London; but it seemed to
him, now, that the taxi-driver was pursuing an unfamiliar route. Had he
made some error? Perhaps that fool Adeler had directed him wrongly.
The Baron took up the speaking-tube.
"Hi!" he called. "Hi, you! Is it the Hotel Astoria you take me?"
No notice did the man vouchsafe; looking neither to right nor to left,
but driving straight ahead. Baron Hague snorted with anger. Again he
raised the tube.
A cloud of something seemed to strike him in the face.
He dropped the tube, and reached out towards a window. Vaguely he
wondered to find it immovable. The lights of the thoroughfare--the sound
of the traffic, were fading away, farther, farther, to a remote
distance. He clutched at the cushions--slipping--slipping----
His next impression was of a cell-like room, the floor composed of
blocks of red granite, the walls smoothly plastered. An unglazed window
made a black patch in one wall; and upon a big table covered with books
and papers stood a queer-looking lamp. It was apparently silver, and in
the form of a clutching hand. Within the hand rested a globe of light,
above which was attached a coloured shade. The table was black with
great age, and a carven chair, equally antique, stood by it upon a
coarse fibre mat. The place was the abode of an anchorite, save for a
rich Damascene curtain draped before a recess at one end.
The Baron found himself to be in a heavily cushioned chair, gazing
across at this table--whereat was seated a very dark and singularly
handsome man who wore a garment like an Arab's robe.
This stranger had his large, luminous eyes set fixedly upon the Baron's
face.
"I am dreaming!"
Baron Hague stood up, unsteadily, raising his hand to his head.
There was a faint perfume in the air of the room; and now Hague saw that
the man who sat so attentively watching him was smoking a yellow-wrapped
cigarette. His brain grew clearer. Memory began to return; and he knew
that he was not dreaming. Frantically he thrust his hand into the inside
breast pocket.
"Do not trouble yourself, Baron," the speaker's voice was low and
musical; "the packet of diamonds lies here!"
And as he spoke the man at the table held up the missing packet.
Hague started forward, fists clenched.
"You have robbed me! Gott! you shall be sorry for this! Who the devil
are you, eh?"
"Sit down, Baron," was the reply. "I am Séverac Bablon!"
Baron Hague paused, in the centre of the room, staring, with a sort of
madness, at this notorious free-booter--this suave, devilishly handsome
enemy of Capital.
Then he turned and leapt to the door. It was locked. He faced about.
Séverac Bablon smoked.
"Sit down, Baron," he reiterated.
The head of the great Berlin banking house looked about for a weapon.
None offered. The big, carven, chair was too heavy to wield. With his
fingers twitching, he approached again, closer to the table.
Séverac Bablon stood up, keeping his magnetic gaze upon the
Baron--seeming to pierce to his brain.
"For the last time--sit down, Baron!"
The words were spoken quietly enough, and yet they seemed to clamour
upon the hearer's brain--to strike upon his consciousness as though it
were a gong. Again Hague paused, pulled up short by the force of those
strange eyes. He weighed his chances.
From all that he had heard and read of Séverac Bablon, his accomplices
were innumerable. Where this cell might be situate he could form no
idea, nor by whom or what surrounded. Séverac Bablon apparently was
unarmed (save that his glance was a sword to stay almost any man);
therefore he had others near to guard him. Baron Hague decided that to
resort to personal violence at that juncture would be the height of
unwisdom.
He sat down.
"Now," said Séverac Bablon, in turn resuming his seat, "let us consider
this matter of the million pounds!"
"I will not----" began Hague.
Séverac Bablon checked him, with a gesture.
"You will not contribute to a fund designed to aid in the defence of
England? That is unjust. You reap large profits from England, Baron. To
mention but one instance--you must draw quite twenty thousand pounds per
annum from the firm of Romilis and Imer, Hatton Garden!"
Baron Hague stared in angry bewilderment.
"I have nothing to do with Romilis and Imer!"
"No? Then you can have no objection to my placing in the proper hands
particulars--which, you will find, have been abstracted from your
notebook--of the manner in which this parcel of diamonds reached Hatton
Garden! I have the letter from your agent in Cape Town, addressed to the
firm, and I have one signed 'Geo. Imer,' addressed to _you_! Finally, I
am a telephone subscriber, and De Beers' number is Bank 5740! Shall I
ring up the London office in the morning and draw their attention to
this parcel, and to the interesting correspondence bearing upon it?"
Baron Hague's large features grew suddenly pinched in appearance. He
leant forward, his hands resting upon his knees. Rôles were reversed.
The great banker found himself seeking for a defence--one that might
satisfy the rogue for whom the police of Europe were seeking!
"Why do you make a victim of _me_?" he gasped. "Antony Elschild is----"
"Mr. Antony Elschild is a member of one of the greatest Jewish families
in Europe, you would say? And his interests are wholly British? He has
recognised that, Baron. I have his cheque for fifty thousand pounds!"
"For _how much_?"
"For fifty thousand pounds! Should you care to see it? I am forwarding
it immediately to the _Gleaner_. Mr. Elschild is my friend. He it was
who proposed that this fund be started by the great capitalists so as to
stimulate smaller subscribers. His name is never absent from such lists,
Baron."
The Baron gulped.
"In Berlin--they would say I was mad!"
"And what will they say in Berlin if I call up De Beers in the morning?
Which reputation is preferable, Baron?"
Hague sat staring, fascinated, at the man in the long robe, who smoked
yellow cigarettes and filled the air with their peculiar fumes. It
seemed to him, suddenly, that he had taken leave of his senses, and that
this cell--this pungent perfume--this man with the soul-searching eyes,
the incisive voice--all were tricks of his senses.
What had he preserved the secret of his connection with the Hatton
Garden firm for all these long years--each year determining to quit
whilst safe, but each year lured on by the prospect of vaster gain--only
to lay it at the feet of this Séverac Bablon, who would ruin him?
Faintly, sounds of occasional traffic penetrated. From a place of
half-shadows beyond the table, Séverac Bablon's luminous eyes watched.
Save for those distant sounds which told of a thoroughfare near by,
silence lay like a fog upon the place, and upon the mind of Baron Hague.
It grew intolerable, this stillness; it bred fear. Who was Séverac
Bablon? What was the secret of his power?
Hague looked up.
"Gott im Himmel!" he said hoarsely. "Who are you? Why do you persecute
those who are Jewish?"
Séverac Bablon stretched his hand over the great carved table, holding
it, motionless, beneath the lamp. From the bezel of the solitary ring
which he wore gleamed iridescent lights, venomous as those within the
eye of a serpent.
A device, which seemed to be formed of lines of fire within the stone,
glowed, redly, through the greenness. The ring was old--incalculably
old--as anyone could see at a glance. And, in some occult fashion, it
_spoke_ to Baron Hague; spoke to that which was within him--stirred up
the Jewish blood and set it leaping madly through his veins.
Back to his mind came certain words of a rabbi, long since gone to his
fathers; before his eyes glittered words which he had had impressed upon
his mind more recently than in those half-forgotten childish days.
And now, he feared. Slowly, he rose from the big cushioned chair. He
feared the man whom all the world knew as Séverac Bablon, and his fear,
for once, was something that did not arise from his purse. It was
something which arose from the green stone--and from the one who
possessed it--who dared to wear it. Hague backed yet farther from the
table, squarely, whereupon, beneath the globular lamp, lay the long
white hand.
"_Gott!_" he muttered. "I am going mad! You cannot be--you----"
"I am _he_!"
Baron Hague's knees began to tremble.
"It is impossible!"
"Israel Hagar," continued the other sternly. "Those before you changed
your ancient name to Hague; but to me you are Israel Hagar! You doubt,
because you dare not believe. But there is that within your soul--that
which you inherit from forefathers who obeyed the great King, from
forefathers who toiled for Pharaoh--there is that within your soul which
tells you _who I am_!"
The Baron could scarcely stand.
"Ach, no!" he groaned. "What do you want? I will do anything--anything;
but let me go!"
"I want you," continued Séverac Bablon, "since you deny the ring, to
draw aside yonder curtain and look upon what it conceals!"
But Hague drew back yet further.
"Ach, no!" he said, huskily. "I deny nothing! I dare not!"
"By which I know that you have recognised in whose presence you stand,
Israel Hagar! Knowing yourself at heart to be a robber, a liar, a
hypocrite, you dare not, being also a Jew, raise that veil!"
Baron Hague offered no defence; made no reply.
"You are found guilty, Israel Hagar," resumed the merciless voice, "of
dragging through the mire of greed--through the sloughs of lust of
gold--a name once honoured among nations. It is such as you that have
earned for the Jewish people a repute it ill deserves. Save for such as
Mr. Antony Elschild, you and your like must have blotted out for ever
all that is glorious in the Jewish name. Despite all, you have succeeded
in staining it--and darkly. I have a mission. It is to erase that stain.
Therefore, when the list appears of those who wish to preserve intact
the British Empire, your name shall figure amongst the rest!"
Hague groaned.
"It will be explained, for the benefit of the curious, and to the glory
of the Jews, that in some measure of recognition of those vast profits
reaped from British ventures, you are desirous of showing your interest
in British welfare!"
"It will be my ruin in Berlin!"
"I should regret to think so. Had you, in the whole of your career,
during the entire period that you have been swelling your money-bags
with British money, devoted one guinea--one paltry guinea--to any
charitable purpose here, I had spared you the risk. As matters stand, I
shall require your cheque for an amount equal to that subscribed by Mr.
Elschild."
"_Fifty thousand pounds!_" gasped Hague.
"Exactly! Pen and ink are on the table. Your cheque book I have left in
your pocket!"
"I won't----"
Hague met the eyes of the incomprehensible man who watched him from
beyond the table; he saw the gleam of the ring, as Séverac Bablon placed
a pen within reach.
"You--must be--mad!"
"You will decidedly be mad, Baron, if you refuse, for I assure you, upon
my word of honour, I shall lay those papers before those whom they will
interest in the morning!"
"And--if--I give you such a----"
"Immediately your cheque is cleared I will return the papers."
"And--the diamonds?"
"I shall consider my course in regard to the diamonds."
"This--is robbery!"
"And your mode of obtaining the diamonds, Baron--what should you term
that?"
"You mean to ruin me!"
"Be good enough either to draw the cheque, payable to the editor of the
_Gleaner_--who will act in this matter, since I cannot appear--or to
decline definitely to do so."
"It will ruin me."
"To decline? I admit that!"
Very shakily, having taken his cheque book from his pocket, Baron Hague
drew and signed a cheque for the fabulous, the atrocious sum of £50,000.
A heavy smell--overpowering--crept to his nostrils as he bent forward
over the table. He mentally ascribed it to the yellow cigarettes.
He laid down the pen with trembling fingers. That same sense of
increasing distances which had heralded the stupor in the cab was coming
upon him again. The cell-like room seemed to be receding. Séverac
Bablon's voice reached him from a remote distance:
"In future, Israel Hagar, seek to make--better use of
your--opportunities."
* * * * *
"Wake up, sir! Hadn't you better be getting home?"
Baron Hague strove to stand. What had happened? Where was he?
"Hold up, sir! Here's a cab waiting! What address, sir?"
The Baron rubbed his eyes and looked dazedly about him. He was half
supported by a police constable.
"Officer! Where am I, eh?"
"_I_ found you sitting on the step of the Burlington Arcade, sir! Where
you'd been before that isn't for me to say! Come on, jump in!"
Hague found himself bundled into the cab.
"Hotel--Astoria!" he mumbled, and his head fell forward on his breast
again.