My name is Henry Adams, and in 1854 I was mate of a ship of 1,200 tons
named the _Jessamy Bride_. June of that year found her at Calcutta with
cargo to the hatches, and ready to sail for England in three or four
days.
I was walking up and down the ship's long quarter-deck, sheltered by the
awning, when a young apprentice came aft and said a gentleman wished to
speak to me. I saw a man standing in the gangway; he was a tall,
soldierly person, about forty years of age, with iron-grey hair and
spiked moustache, and an aquiline nose. His eyes were singularly bright
and penetrating. He immediately said:--
"I wanted to see the captain; but as chief officer you'll do equally
well. When does this ship sail?"
"On Saturday or Monday next."
He ran his eye along the decks and then looked aloft: there was
something bird-like in the briskness of his way of glancing.
"I understand you don't carry passengers?"
"That's so, sir, though there's accommodation for them."
"I'm out of sorts, and have been sick for months, and want to see what a
trip round the Cape to England will do for me. I shall be going home,
not for my health only, but on a commission. The Maharajah of Ratnagiri,
hearing I was returning to England on sick-leave, asked me to take
charge of a very splendid gift for Her Majesty the Queen of England. It
is a diamond, valued at fifteen thousand pounds."
He paused to observe the effect of this communication, and then
proceeded:--
"I suppose you know how the Koh-i-noor was sent home?"
"It was conveyed to England, I think," said I, "by H.M.S. _Medea_, in
1850."
"Yes, she sailed in April that year, and arrived at Portsmouth in June.
The glorious gem was intrusted to Colonel Mackieson and Captain Ramsay.
It was locked up in a small box along with other jewels, and each
officer had a key. The box was secreted in the ship by them, and no man
on board the vessel, saving themselves, knew where it was hidden."
"Was that so?" said I, much interested.
"Yes; I had the particulars from the commander of the vessel, Captain
Lockyer. When do you expect your skipper on board?" he exclaimed,
darting a bright, sharp look around him.
"I cannot tell. He may arrive at any moment."
"The having charge of a stone valued at fifteen thousand pounds, and
intended as a gift for the Queen of England, is a deuce of a
responsibility," said he. "I shall borrow a hint from the method adopted
in the case of the Koh-i-noor. I intend to hide the stone in my cabin,
so as to extinguish all risk, saving, of course, what the insurance
people call the acts of God. May I look at your cabin accommodation?"
"Certainly."
I led the way to the companion hatch, and he followed me into the cabin.
The ship had berthing room for eight or ten people irrespective of the
officers who slept aft. But the vessel made no bid for passengers. She
left them to Blackwall Liners, to the splendid ships of Green, Money
Wigram, and Smith, and to the P. & O. and other steam lines. The
overland route was then the general choice; few of their own decision
went by way of the Cape. No one had booked with us down to this hour,
and we had counted upon having the cabin to ourselves.
The visitor walked into every empty berth, and inspected it as carefully
as though he had been a Government surveyor. He beat upon the walls and
bulkheads with his cane, sent his brilliant gaze into the corners and
under the bunks and up at the ceiling, and finally said, as he stepped
from the last of the visitable cabins:--
"This decides me. I shall sail with you."
I bowed and said I was sure the captain would be glad of the pleasure of
his company.
"I presume," said he, "that no objection will be raised to my bringing a
native carpenter aboard to construct a secret place, as in the case of
the Koh-i-noor, for the Maharajah's diamond?"
[Illustration: "A SQUARE MOROCCO CASE."]
"I don't think a native carpenter would be allowed to knock the ship
about," said I.
"Certainly not. A little secret receptacle--big enough to receive this,"
said he, putting his hand in his side pocket and producing a square
Morocco case, of a size to berth a bracelet or a large brooch. "The
construction of a nook to conceal this will not be knocking your ship
about?"
"It's a question for the captain and the agents, sir," said I.
He replaced the case, whose bulk was so inconsiderable that it did not
bulge in his coat when he had pocketed it, and said, now that he had
inspected the ship and the accommodation, he would call at once upon the
agents. He gave me his card and left the vessel.
The card bore the name of a military officer of some distinction. Enough
if, in this narrative of a memorable and extraordinary incident, I speak
of him as Major Byron Hood.
The master of the _Jessamy Bride_ was Captain Robert North. This man
had, three years earlier, sailed with me as my chief mate; it then
happened I was unable to quickly obtain command, and accepted the offer
of mate of the _Jessamy Bride_, whose captain, I was surprised to hear,
proved the shipmate who had been under me, but who, some money having
been left to him, had purchased an interest in the firm to which the
ship belonged. We were on excellent terms; almost as brothers indeed. He
never asserted his authority, and left it to my own judgment to
recognise his claims. I am happy to know he had never occasion to regret
his friendly treatment of me.
He came on board in the afternoon of that day on which Major Hood had
visited the ship, and was full of that gentleman and his resolution to
carry a costly diamond round the Cape under sail, instead of making his
obligation as brief as steam and the old desert route would allow.
"I've had a long talk with him up at the agents," said Captain North.
"He don't seem well."
"Suffering from his nerves, perhaps," said I.
"He's a fine, gentlemanly person. He told Mr. Nicholson he was twice
wounded, naming towns which no Christian man could twist his tongue into
the sound of."
"Will he be allowed to make a hole in the ship to hide his diamond in?"
"He has agreed to make good any damage done, and to pay at the rate of a
fare and a half for the privilege of hiding the stone."
"Why doesn't he give the thing into your keeping, sir? This jackdaw-like
hiding is a sort of reflection on our honesty, isn't it, captain?"
He laughed and answered, "No; I like such reflections for my part. Who
wants to be burdened with the custody of precious things belonging to
other people? Since he's to have the honour of presenting the diamond,
let the worry of taking care of it be his; this ship's enough for me."
"He'll be knighted, I suppose, for delivering this stone," said I. "Did
he show it to you, sir?"
"No."
"He has it in his pocket."
"He produced the case," said Captain North. "A thing about the size of a
muffin. Where'll he hide it? But we're not to be curious in _that_
direction," he added, smiling.
Next morning, somewhere about ten o'clock, Major Hood came on board with
two natives; one a carpenter, the other his assistant. They brought a
basket of tools, descended into the cabin, and were lost sight of till
after two. No; I'm wrong. I was writing at the cabin table at half-past
twelve when the Major opened his door, peered out, shut the door swiftly
behind him with an extraordinary air and face of caution and anxiety,
and coming along to me asked for some refreshments for himself and the
two natives. I called to the steward, who filled a tray, which the Major
with his own hands conveyed into his berth. Then, some time after two,
whilst I was at the gangway talking to a friend, the Major and the two
blacks came out of the cabin. Before they went over the side I said:--
"Is the work finished below, sir?"
"It is, and to my entire satisfaction," he answered.
When he was gone, my friend, who was the master of a barque, asked me
who that fine-looking man was. I answered he was a passenger, and then,
not understanding that the thing was a secret, plainly told him what
they had been doing in the cabin, and why.
"But," said he, "those two niggers'll know that something precious is to
be hidden in the place they've been making."
"That's been in my head all the morning," said I.
"Who's to hinder them," said he, "from blabbing to one or more of the
crew? Treachery's cheap in this country. A rupee will buy a pile of
roguery." He looked at me expressively. "Keep a bright look-out for a
brace of well-oiled stowaways," said he.
"It's the Major's business," I answered, with a shrug.
When Captain North came on board he and I went into the Major's berth.
We scrutinized every part, but saw nothing to indicate that a tool had
been used or a plank lifted. There was no sawdust, no chip of wood:
everything to the eye was precisely as before. No man will say we had
not a right to look: how were we to make sure, as captain and mate of
the ship for whose safety we were responsible, that those blacks under
the eye of the Major had not been doing something which might give us
trouble by-and-by?
"Well," said Captain North, as we stepped on deck, "if the diamond's
already hidden, which I doubt, it couldn't be more snugly concealed if
it were twenty fathoms deep in the mud here."
The Major's baggage came on board on the Saturday, and on the Monday we
sailed. We were twenty-four of a ship's company all told: twenty-five
souls in all, with Major Hood. Our second mate was a man named
Mackenzie, to whom and to the apprentices whilst we lay in the river I
had given particular instructions to keep a sharp look-out on all
strangers coming aboard. I had been very vigilant myself too, and
altogether was quite convinced there was no stowaway below, either white
or black, though under ordinary circumstances one never would think of
seeking for a native in hiding for Europe.
On either hand of the _Jessamy Bride's_ cabin five sleeping berths were
bulkheaded off. The Major's was right aft on the starboard side. Mine
was next his. The captain occupied a berth corresponding with the
Major's, right aft on the port side. Our solitary passenger was
exceedingly amiable and agreeable at the start and for days after. He
professed himself delighted with the cabin fare, and said it was not to
be bettered at three times the charge in the saloons of the steamers.
His drink he had himself laid in: it consisted mainly of claret and
soda. He had come aboard with a large cargo of Indian cigars, and was
never without a long, black weed, bearing some tongue-staggering,
up-country name, betwixt his lips. He was primed with professional
anecdote, had a thorough knowledge of life in India, both in the towns
and wilds, had seen service in Burmah and China, and was altogether one
of the most conversible soldiers I ever met: a scholar, something of a
wit, and all that he said and all that he did was rendered the more
engaging by grace of breeding.
Captain North declared to me he had never met so delightful a man in all
his life, and the pleasantest hours I ever passed on the ocean were
spent in walking the deck in conversation with Major Byron Hood.
For some days after we were at sea no reference was made either by the
Major or ourselves to the Maharajah of Ratnagiri's splendid gift to Her
Majesty the Queen. The captain and I and Mackenzie viewed it as tabooed
matter: a thing to be locked up in memory, just as, in fact, it was
hidden away in some cunningly-wrought receptacle in the Major's cabin.
One day at dinner, however, when we were about a week out from Calcutta,
Major Hood spoke of the Maharajah's gift. He talked freely about it; his
face was flushed as though the mere thought of the thing raised a
passion of triumph in his spirits. His eyes shone whilst he enlarged
upon the beauty and value of the stone.
[Illustration: "EXCEEDINGLY AMIABLE AND AGREEABLE."]
The captain and I exchanged looks; the steward was waiting upon us with
cocked ears, and that menial, deaf expression of face which makes you
know every word is being greedily listened to. We might therefore make
sure that before the first dog-watch came round all hands would have
heard that the Major had a diamond in his cabin intended for the Queen
of England, and worth fifteen thousand pounds. Nay, they'd hear even
more than that; for in the course of his talk about the gem the Major
praised the ingenuity of the Asiatic artisan, whether Indian or Chinese,
and spoke of the hiding-place the two natives had contrived for the
diamond as an example of that sort of juggling skill in carving which is
found in perfection amongst the Japanese.
I thought this candour highly indiscreet: charged too with menace. A
matter gains in significance by mystery. The Jacks would think nothing
of a diamond being in the ship as a part of her cargo, which might
include a quantity of specie for all they knew. But some of them might
think more often about it than was at all desirable when they understood
it was stowed away under a plank, or was to be got by tapping about for
a hollow echo, or probing with the judgment of a carpenter when the
Major was on deck and the coast aft all clear.
We had been three weeks at sea; it was a roasting afternoon, though I
cannot exactly remember the situation of the ship. Our tacks were aboard
and the bowlines triced out, and the vessel was scarcely looking up to
her course, slightly heeling away from a fiery fanning of wind off the
starboard bow, with the sea trembling under the sun in white-hot needles
of broken light, and a narrow ribbon of wake glancing off into a hot
blue thickness that brought the horizon within a mile of us astern.
I had charge of the deck from twelve to four. For an hour past the
Major, cigar in mouth, had been stretched at his ease in a folding
chair; a book lay beside him on the skylight, but he scarcely glanced at
it. I had paused to address him once or twice, but he showed no
disposition to chat. Though he lay in the most easy lounging posture
imaginable, I observed a restless, singular expression in his face,
accentuated yet by the looks he incessantly directed out to sea, or
glances at the deck forward, or around at the helm, so far as he might
move his head without shifting his attitude. It was as though his mind
were in labour with some scheme. A man might so look whilst working out
the complicated plot of a play, or adjusting by the exertion of his
memory the intricacies of a novel piece of mechanism.
[Illustration: "STRETCHED AT HIS EASE IN A FOLDING CHAIR."]
On a sudden he started up and went below.
A few minutes after he had left the deck, Captain North came up from his
cabin, and for some while we paced the planks together. There was a
pleasant hush upon the ship; the silence was as refreshing as a fold of
coolness lifting off the sea. A spun-yarn winch was clinking on the
forecastle; from alongside rose the music of fretted waters.
I was talking to the captain on some detail of the ship's furniture;
when Major Hood came running up the companion steps, his face as white
as his waistcoat, his head uncovered, every muscle of his countenance
rigid, as with horror.
"Good God, captain!" cried he, standing in the companion, "what do you
think has happened?" Before we could fetch a breath he cried: "Someone's
stolen the diamond!"
I glanced at the helmsman who stood at the radiant circle of wheel
staring with open mouth and eyebrows arched into his hair. The captain,
stepping close to Major Hood, said in a low, steady voice:--
"What's this you tell me, sir?"
"The diamond's gone!" exclaimed the Major, fixing his shining eyes upon
me, whilst I observed that his fingers convulsively stroked his thumbs
as though he were rolling up pellets of bread or paper.
"Do you tell me the diamond's been taken from the place you hid it in?"
said Captain North, still speaking softly, but with deliberation.
"The diamond never was hidden," replied the Major, who continued to
stare at me. "It was in a portmanteau. _That's_ no hiding-place!"
Captain North fell back a step. "Never was hidden!" he exclaimed.
"Didn't you bring two native workmen aboard for no other purpose than to
hide it?"
"It never was hidden," said the Major, now turning his eyes upon the
captain. "I chose it should be believed it was undiscoverably concealed
in some part of my cabin, that I might safely and conveniently keep it
in my baggage, where no thief would dream of looking for it. Who has
it?" he cried with a sudden fierceness, making a step full of passion
out of the companion-way; and he looked under knitted brows towards the
ship's forecastle.
Captain North watched him idly for a moment or two, and then with an
abrupt swing of his whole figure, eloquent of defiant resolution, he
stared the Major in the face, and said in a quiet, level voice:--
"I shan't be able to help you. If it's gone, it's gone. A diamond's not
a bale of wool. Whoever's been clever enough to find it will know how
to keep it."
[Illustration: "SOMEONE'S STOLEN THE DIAMOND!"]
"I must have it!" broke out the Major. "It's a gift for Her Majesty the
Queen. It's in this ship. I look to you, sir, as master of this vessel,
to recover the property which some one of the people under your charge
has robbed me of!"
"I'll accompany you to your cabin," said the captain; and they went down
the steps.
I stood motionless, gaping like an idiot into the yawn of hatch down
which they had disappeared. I had been so used to think of the diamond
as cunningly hidden in the Major's berth, that his disclosure was
absolutely a shock with its weight of astonishment. Small wonder that
neither Captain North nor I had observed any marks of a workman's tools
in the Major's berth. Not but that it was a very ingenious stratagem,
far cleverer to my way of thinking than any subtle, secret burial of the
thing. To think of the Major and his two Indians sitting idly for hours
in that cabin, with the captain and myself all the while supposing they
were fashioning some wonderful contrivance or place for concealing the
treasure in! And still, for all the Major's cunning, the stone was gone!
Who had stolen it? The only fellow likely to prove the thief was the
steward, not because he was more or less of a rogue than any other man
in the ship, but because he was the one person who, by virtue of his
office, was privileged to go in and out of the sleeping places as his
duties required.
I was pacing the deck, musing into a sheer muddle this singular business
of the Maharajah of Ratnagiri's gift to the Queen of England, with all
sorts of dim, unformed suspicions floating loose in my brains round the
central fancy of the fifteen thousand pound stone there, when the
captain returned. He was alone. He stepped up to me hastily, and said:--
"He swears the diamond has been stolen. He showed me the empty case."
"Was there ever a stone in it at all?" said I.
"I don't think that," he answered, quickly; "there's no motive under
Heaven to be imagined if the whole thing's a fabrication."
"What then, sir?"
"The case is empty, but I've not made up my mind yet that the stone's
missing."
"The man's an officer and a gentleman."
"I know, I know!" he interrupted, "but still, in my opinion, the stone's
not missing. The long and short of it is," he said, after a very short
pause, with a careful glance at the skylight and companion hatch, "his
behaviour isn't convincing enough. Something's wanting in his passion
and his vexation."
"Sincerity!"
"Ah! I don't intend that this business shall trouble me. He angrily
required me to search the ship for stowaways. Bosh! The second mate and
steward have repeatedly overhauled the lazarette: there's nobody there."
"And if not there, then nowhere else," said I. "Perhaps he's got the
forepeak in his head."
"I'll not have a hatch lifted," he exclaimed, warmly, "nor will I allow
the crew to be troubled. There's been no theft. Put it that the stone is
stolen. Who's going to find it in a forecastle full of men--a thing as
big as half a bean perhaps? If it's gone, it's gone, indeed, whoever
may have it. But there's no go in this matter at all," he added, with a
short, nervous laugh.
We were talking in this fashion when the Major joined us; his features
were now composed. He gazed sternly at the captain and said, loftily:--
"What steps are you prepared to take in this matter?"
"None, sir."
His face darkened. He looked with a bright gleam in his eyes at the
captain, then at me: his gaze was piercing with the light in it. Without
a word he stepped to the side and, folding his arms, stood motionless.
I glanced at the captain; there was something in the bearing of the
Major that gave shape, vague indeed, to a suspicion that had cloudily
hovered about my thoughts of the man for some time past. The captain met
my glance, but he did not interpret it.
When I was relieved at four o'clock by the second mate, I entered my
berth, and presently, hearing the captain go to his cabin, went to him
and made a proposal. He reflected, and then answered:--
"Yes; get it done."
After some talk I went forward and told the carpenter to step aft and
bore a hole in the bulkhead that separated the Major's berth from mine.
He took the necessary tools from his chest and followed me. The captain
was now again on deck, talking with the Major; in fact, detaining him in
conversation, as had been preconcerted. I went into the Major's berth,
and quickly settled upon a spot for an eye-hole. The carpenter then went
to work in my cabin, and in a few minutes bored an orifice large enough
to enable me to command a large portion of the adjacent interior. I
swept the sawdust from the deck in the Major's berth, so that no hint
should draw his attention to the hole, which was pierced in a corner
shadowed by a shelf. I then told the carpenter to manufacture a plug and
paint its extremity of the colour of the bulkhead. He brought me this
plug in a quarter of an hour. It fitted nicely, and was to be withdrawn
and inserted as noiselessly as though greased.
I don't want you to suppose this Peeping-Tom scheme was at all to my
taste, albeit my own proposal; but the truth is, the Major's telling us
that someone had stolen his diamond made all who lived aft hotly eager
to find out whether he spoke the truth or not; for, if he had been
really robbed of the stone, then suspicion properly rested upon the
officers and the steward, which was an _infernal_ consideration:
dishonouring and inflaming enough to drive one to seek a remedy in even
a baser device than that of secretly keeping watch on a man in his
bedroom. Then, again, the captain told me that the Major, whilst they
talked when the carpenter was at work making the hole, had said he would
give notice of his loss to the police at Cape Town (at which place we
were to touch), and declared he'd take care no man went ashore--from
Captain North himself down to the youngest apprentice--till every
individual, every sea-chest, every locker, drawer, shelf and box, bunk,
bracket and crevice had been searched by qualified rummagers.
[Illustration: "THE CARPENTER THEN WENT TO WORK."]
On this the day of the theft, nothing more was said about the diamond:
that is, after the captain had emphatically informed Major Hood that he
meant to take no steps whatever in the matter. I had expected to find
the Major sullen and silent at dinner; he was not, indeed, so talkative
as usual, but no man watching and hearing him would have supposed so
heavy a loss as that of a stone worth fifteen thousand pounds, the gift
of an Eastern potentate to the Queen of England, was weighing upon his
spirits.
It is with reluctance I tell you that, after dinner that day, when he
went to his cabin, I softly withdrew the plug and watched him. I blushed
whilst thus acting, yet I was determined, for my own sake and for the
sake of my shipmates, to persevere. I spied nothing noticeable saving
this: he sat in a folding chair and smoked, but every now and again he
withdrew his cigar from his mouth and talked to it with a singular
smile. It was a smile of cunning, that worked like some baleful, magical
spirit in the fine high breeding of his features; changing his looks
just as a painter of incomparable skill might colour a noble, familiar
face into a diabolical expression, amazing those who knew it only in its
honest and manly beauty. I had never seen that wild, grinning
countenance on him before, and it was rendered the more remarkable by
the movement of his lips whilst he talked to himself, but inaudibly.
A week slipped by; time after time I had the man under observation;
often when I had charge of the deck I'd leave the captain to keep a look
out, and steal below and watch Major Hood in his cabin.
It was a Sunday, I remember. I was lying in my bunk half dozing--we were
then, I think, about a three-weeks' sail from Table Bay--when I heard
the Major go to his cabin. I was already sick of my aimless prying; and
whilst I now lay I thought to myself: "I'll sleep; what is the good of
this trouble? I know exactly what I shall see. He is either in his
chair, or his bunk, or overhauling his clothes, or standing, cigar in
mouth, at the open porthole." And then I said to myself: "If I don't
look now I shall miss the only opportunity of detection that may occur."
One is often urged by a sort of instinct in these matters.
I got up, almost as through an impulse of habit, noiselessly withdrew
the plug, and looked. The Major was at that instant standing with a
pistol-case in his hand: he opened it as my sight went to him, took out
one of a brace of very elegant pistols, put down the case, and on his
apparently touching a spring in the butt of the pistol, the silver plate
that ornamented the extremity sprang open as the lid of a snuff-box
would, and something small and bright dropped into his hand. This he
examined with the peculiar cunning smile I have before described; but
owing to the position of his hand, I could not see what he held, though
I had not the least doubt that it was the diamond.
[Illustration: "SOMETHING SMALL AND BRIGHT DROPPED INTO HIS HAND."]
I watched him breathlessly. After a few minutes he dropped the stone
into the hollow butt-end, shut the silver plate, shook the weapon
against his ear as though it pleased him to rattle the stone, then put
it in its case, and the case into a portmanteau.
I at once went on deck, where I found the captain, and reported to him
what I had seen. He viewed me in silence, with a stare of astonishment
and incredulity. What I had seen, he said, was not the diamond. I told
him the thing that had dropped into the Major's hand was bright, and, as
I thought, sparkled, but it was so held I could not see it.
I was talking to him on this extraordinary affair when the Major came on
deck. The captain said to me: "Hold him in chat. I'll judge for myself,"
and asked me to describe how he might quickly find the pistol-case. This
I did, and he went below.
I joined the Major, and talked on the first subjects that entered my
head. He was restless in his manner, inattentive, slightly flushed in
the face; wore a lofty manner, and being half a head taller than I,
glanced down at me from time to time in a condescending way. This
behaviour in him was what Captain North and I had agreed to call his
"injured air." He'd occasionally put it on to remind us that he was
affronted by the captain's insensibility to his loss, and that the
assistance of the police would be demanded on our arrival at Cape Town.
Presently looking down the skylight, I perceived the captain. Mackenzie
had charge of the watch. I descended the steps, and Captain North's
first words to me were:--
"It's no diamond!"
"What, then, is it?"
"A common piece of glass not worth a quarter of a farthing."
"What's it all about, then?" said I. "Upon my soul, there's nothing in
Euclid to beat it. Glass?"
"A little lump of common glass; a fragment of bull's-eye, perhaps."
"What's he hiding it for?"
"Because," said Captain North, in a soft voice, looking up and around,
"he's mad!"
"Just so!" said I. "That I'll swear to _now_, and I've been suspecting
it this fortnight past."
"He's under the spell of some sort of mania," continued the captain; "he
believes he's commissioned to present a diamond to the Queen; possibly
picked up a bit of stuff in the street that started the delusion, then
bought a case for it, and worked out the rest as we know."
"But why does he want to pretend that the stone was stolen from him?"
"He's been mastered by his own love for the diamond," he answered.
"That's how I reason it. Madness has made his affection for his
imaginary gem a passion in him."
"And so he robbed himself of it, you think, that he might keep it?"
"That's about it," said he.
After this I kept no further look-out upon the Major, nor would I ever
take an opportunity to enter his cabin to view for myself the piece of
glass as the captain described it, though curiosity was often hot in me.
We arrived at Table Bay in twenty-two days from the date of my seeing
the Major with the pistol in his hand. His manner had for a week before
been marked by an irritability that was often beyond his control. He had
talked snappishly and petulantly at table, contradicted aggressively,
and on two occasions gave Captain North the lie; but we had carefully
avoided noticing his manner, and acted as though he were still the high
bred, polished gentleman who had sailed with us from Calcutta.
The first to come aboard were the Customs people. They were almost
immediately followed by the harbour-master. Scarcely had the first of
the Custom House officers stepped over the side when Major Hood, with a
very red face, and a lofty, dignified carriage, marched up to him, and
said in a loud voice:--
"I have been robbed during the passage from Calcutta of a diamond worth
fifteen thousand pounds, which I was bearing as a gift from the
Maharajah of Ratnagiri to Her Majesty the Queen of England."
The Customs man stared with a lobster-like expression of face: no image
could better hit the protruding eyes and brick-red countenance of the
man.
"I request," continued the Major, raising his voice into a shout, "to be
placed at once in communication with the police at this port. No person
must be allowed to leave the vessel until he has been thoroughly
searched by such expert hands as you and your _confrères_ no doubt are,
sir. I am Major Byron Hood. I have been twice wounded. My services are
well known, and I believe duly appreciated in the right quarters. Her
Majesty the Queen is not to suffer any disappointment at the hands of
one who has the honour of wearing her uniform, nor am I to be compelled,
by the act of a thief, to betray the confidence the Maharajah has
reposed in me."
He continued to harangue in this manner for some minutes, during which I
observed a change in the expression of the Custom House officers' faces.
Meanwhile Captain North stood apart in earnest conversation with the
harbour-master. They now approached; the harbour-master, looking
steadily at the Major, exclaimed:--
"Good news, sir! Your diamond is found!"
"Ha!" shouted the Major. "Who has it?"
"You'll find it in your pistol-case," said the harbour-master.
The Major gazed round at us with his wild, bright eyes, with a face
a-work with the conflict of twenty mad passions and sensations. Then
bursting into a loud, insane laugh, he caught the harbour-master by the
arm, and in a low voice and a sickening, transforming leer of cunning,
said: "Come, let's go and look at it."
[Illustration: "I HAVE BEEN ROBBED."]
We went below. We were six, including two Custom House officers. We
followed the poor madman, who grasped the harbour-master's arm, and on
arriving at his cabin we stood at the door of it. He seemed heedless of
our presence, but on his taking the pistol-case from the portmanteau,
the two Customs men sprang forward.
"That must be searched by us," one cried, and in a minute they had it.
With the swiftness of experienced hands they found and pressed the
spring of the pistol, the silver plate flew open, and out dropped a
fragment of thick, common glass, just as Captain North had described the
thing. It fell upon the deck. The Major sprang, picked it up, and
pocketed it.
"Her Majesty will not be disappointed, after all," said he, with a
courtly bow to us, "and the commission the Maharajah's honoured me with
shall be fulfilled."
* * * * *
The poor gentleman was taken ashore that afternoon, and his luggage
followed him. He was certified mad by the medical man at Cape Town, and
was to be retained there, as I understood, till the arrival of a steamer
for England. It was an odd, bewildering incident from top to bottom. No
doubt this particular delusion was occasioned by the poor fellow, whose
mind was then fast decaying, reading about the transmission of the
Koh-i-noor, and musing about it with a mad-man's proneness to dwell upon
little things.
[Illustration]