THE BLACK DIAMOND AGAIN.
While Hester was busy dressing Nancy’s hair Lady Georgina seated herself
near, and began chatting volubly as usual.
“By the way,” she said, after a moment’s pause, “I am told there has been
another robbery in the neighbourhood. The burglars broke into Belton
Priory last night. Fortunately they were heard before they committed much
mischief.”
Nance listened to this information with somewhat languid interest, but
Hester, who was sweeping some of her mistress’s beautiful hair over a
high pillow, started violently, and dropped the pad which she was using
to the floor. When she raised her head again after stooping to pick it
up, her whole face was scarlet.
Lady Georgina, whose bright eyes took in everything, noticed her sudden
increase of colour.
“The ruffians escaped,” she continued, speaking in her quick incisive
voice, “but I believe they carried off very little. Of course, at Castle
Stewart the loss of plate and jewels is considerable. The Belton Priory
people have got off much better. I cannot imagine,” continued the good
lady, tapping her feet impatiently, “what the police are made of in
these days. How is it that they cannot get the faintest trace of these
burglars? It is reported that they belong to a certain gang, called the
Silver Mob.”
“How much you seem to know about burglars,” said Nance, shuddering
slightly as she spoke. “Do they really go about in gangs?”
“I believe so, very often,” said Lady Georgina, after a pause. “They say
the Silver Mob is very well-known to the police; that it has also existed
for a long time. But the members are so clever and so widely scattered,
that it is almost impossible to collect evidence sufficient to arrest any
of them.”
“Well, I hope none of the burglars will come here,” said Nance.
Her hair was finished now, and she rose from her seat. Hester helped her
put on the beautiful dress, and Lady Georgina amused herself hopping
round, pulling out the train, and ejaculating over it in various staccato
exclamations of delight.
A knock was heard at the door, and Rowton put in his head.
“Is the dressing complete?” he asked.
“Yes, pray come in,” called out Nance.
Hester was putting the finishing touches to the beautiful robe. Nance
turned and faced her husband.
“My darling,” he cried, “powder does not look well by daylight.”
“One moment,” said Lady Georgina.
She went to the window, drew down the blinds, pulled the curtains across,
and turned on the electric light.
“Now,” she said, “speak the truth. Was there ever a bonnier, a more
lovely resurrection?”
“Hail! fair dame,” said Rowton.
He fell suddenly on one knee with a fantastic gesture, and kissed the tip
of Nancy’s slender hand.
“You are complete but for your jewels,” he said. “I will fetch them.”
“No; to-night will do,” she answered.
“I think you can leave us now,” said Lady Georgina, turning to Hester,
who was standing submissive and subdued in the background.
“Yes, certainly, Hester, I do not require you any longer,” said Nance.
“Thank you, madam,” replied the girl.
She went softly across the room, opened the door, went out, and shut it
behind her.
Rowton was still busy examining the dress.
“I am going for the jewels,” he repeated. “We must see the effect
complete.”
“It really is not safe, Mr. Rowton, to have jewels lying about at the
present moment,” said Lady Georgina. “We were talking about those
mysterious burglaries which are taking place in the neighbourhood just
when you came in.”
“Ah, of course,” said Rowton. “How clever burglars are in the present
day! Have the police yet got the least inkling as to the scoundrels who
have broken into Castle Stewart?”
“Not they. Police, I think, are born without brains,” said Lady Georgina
in a fretful tone. “But the Stewarts are not the only victims. The
Frasers at Belton Priory have also had their place broken into.”
“You don’t say so!” cried Rowton.
“Yes, it is a fact. The attempted burglary took place last night, between
ten and eleven o’clock. Fortunately, as I say, it was in this case only
an attempted burglary. The old butler gave the alarm, and the ruffians
decamped without doing much mischief. They had only just got into the
butler’s pantry, and had not even begun to attack the safe. I am told
that they made off with some spoons and a few other articles of plate,
but nothing really worth speaking about. The case was very different
at Castle Stewart, and, unless the police get quickly on their scent,
the mischief will never be repaired. Poor Lady Arabella is, I hear,
inconsolable. She has lost, among other treasures, her famous rose
diamond.”
“The police are sure to find the brutes in the end,” said Rowton. He came
close to Nance as he spoke, and softly rearranged the setting of one of
her sleeves. “Did you really say that Lady Arabella had lost her rose
diamond?” he said, turning to Lady Georgina.
“Yes; the old family heirloom, estimated as worth quite sixty thousand
pounds.”
“A gem of that kind will certainly be traced,” said Rowton. “Still,” he
added, “as you say, the whole thing is preposterous. To think of men in
the latter end of the nineteenth century being able to break into a house
in the dead of night and take away jewels out of some of those marvellous
modern safes, quite beats my comprehension. It is a good thing that we
have got one of Clever’s safes here.”
“Yes; you are in luck,” said Lady Georgina. “There’s not a house in the
whole country which contains so much plate and valuables as this.”
“True,” said Rowton, tapping his fingers on the back of Nancy’s
chair. “Well,” he added, starting as if from a reverie, “as we have
the treasures we must use them. There will be a good lot of plate out
to-night, and Nance must wear her jewels—or, at least, jewels suitable to
her dress. I’ll go and fetch them.”
He left the room.
In a few moments he returned with an old leather case, which he unlocked,
and exhibited before Lady Georgina’s delighted eyes a magnificent
selection of pearls, rubies, and diamonds.
“Pearls are the right ornaments for that dress,” he said, glancing at his
young wife, “and I think,” he added, “I have got the very thing.”
As he spoke he touched a secret spring in the box. A drawer flew open,
revealing a single string of pearls, each nearly the size of a robin’s
egg. Rowton lifted it out and clasped it round Nancy’s soft white neck.
“There,” he said, “you are complete now. Anything further would spoil the
effect.”
Nancy went up to the glass to examine herself.
“Are these heirlooms?” she asked.
“Of course, dearest. Lady Georgina, don’t you remember them?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I saw them last on your mother’s neck. I was a tiny
child at the time, but the unusual size of the pearls attracted me. What
is the matter, Mrs. Rowton?—you look disturbed.”
“It is our house-warming, and I want to wear one of your presents to
me,” said Nance, going up to her husband. “You spoke of a black diamond.
I have not seen it yet.”
“A black diamond!” cried Lady Georgina; “you surely do not mean to say,
you lucky people, that you possess a priceless treasure of that sort.
There are only a few really valuable black diamonds in the whole world.”
“Strange as it may seem,” said Rowton in a careless tone, “I happened to
pick one up when I was abroad. It is a strange gem, and I was able to
get it cheap. Yes, Nance, you shall wear the black diamond, if you like
to-night. I’ll fetch it at once.”
When he left the room, Lady Georgina went to the door and locked it.
“I want to say something to you,” she said, lowering her voice to a
whisper as she approached Nancy’s side. “You must be very careful about
your jewels. Don’t leave those pearls about when you go downstairs. I
agree with you in not liking that maid of yours. What is more, I begin to
suspect her.”
“Suspect her? What about?” asked Mrs. Rowton.
“I cannot exactly say. But did you notice how she changed colour, how
evidently confused she was when I spoke about the big robbery at Castle
Stewart, and the attempted one at Belton Priory?”
“No, I observed nothing,” said Nance.
“You have no suspicion in you, child; but I tell you I am certain Hester
Winsome is not straight. Half these burglaries are committed through the
connivance of girls like her. Ah, here comes your husband with the black
diamond. I really am devoured by curiosity.”
Lady Georgina flew to unlock the door. Rowton came back bearing a small
case in his hand. He touched the spring, and the case flew open. An
enormous diamond of the purest water, but in colour as black as coal, lay
on its satin bed within. The diamond was set in heavy gold, to which a
pin was attached; and the gem was evidently meant to be worn in the hair.
Without a word, but nevertheless with fingers which slightly trembled,
Rowton lifted the treasure from its bed, and placed it in his wife’s
powdered locks.
“There,” he said, “come and see yourself once again in the glass. I
guessed that this queer stone would fit you to perfection. You are so
fair that the sort of devildom of the thing comes out all the better from
contrast.”
“Upon my word, that diamond looks almost uncanny,” cried Lady Georgina.
“What possessed you to get it for your wife?”
“Because of its rarity, and because I am rather fond of the uncanny,”
said Rowton, with a slight laugh. “The price of this gem, like a good
woman, is above rubies.”
“Well, it certainly is magnificent,” said Lady Georgina. “It will be
remarked by everyone in the room.”
“Why not? I mean it to be,” answered Rowton.
“Those tiresome burglars who are hovering round the neighbourhood had
better not get wind of it,” continued Lady Georgina. “If they do, they
are certain to have a try for this house and its treasures.”
“I am afraid that fact will not prevent Nance from wearing her husband’s
present,” said the master of the Heights in a careless tone. “It sends
out queer rays, does it not?—rays not of day but night.”
“Adrian, I am half afraid of it,” said Nance.
She put up her hand, took the pin from her hair, and looked at the
sparkling dark gem with a frightened expression on her face.
“You poor dear little mass of superstition,” said Rowton; “what can there
be to frighten you in your husband’s present?”
“Not in your present,” she answered, “only I wish it were not black.”
“Wear it for my sake, sweetheart,” he said. “I have taken a fancy to it.
It has a queer incomprehensible look. You take my fancy in it.” He sank
his voice as he spoke until it thrilled with suppressed passion.
“Then I will wear it gladly for you,” she said in as low a whisper.
Lady Georgina turned and walked to the window.
“It is tiresome sometimes being in the room alone with such a pair of
crazy lovers,” she murmured to herself.
Aloud, she said, after a moment’s pause, turning and speaking to Rowton:
“Have you ever heard of the Silver Mob?”
“The Silver Mob!” he replied. “No, I can’t say that I have. Who are they?
What are they?”
“A notorious gang of burglars. They say that the robberies in this
neighbourhood are being committed by them.”