Here was more food for cogitation. Why should a few idle questions
throw the pearl expert at Dunsany's into such visible agitation? I had
to give it up. Perhaps it was a twinge of indigestion or a troublesome
corn. Anyhow I lost sight of it in the greater discovery. Half a
million for the necklace, and Miss Hamerton had told me that buying it
pearl by pearl it had cost her little more than twenty-five thousand!
Meanwhile there was an idea going through my head that I had not quite
nerve enough to open to my client. It must be remembered that though I
was making strides, I was still green at my business. I was not nearly
so sure of myself as my manner might have led you to suppose. To my
great joy Miss Hamerton herself broached the subject.
One afternoon she said, apropos of nothing that had gone before: "I'm
sorry now that I introduced you to my friends. Though I do not see how
I could have seen you without their knowing it."
"Why sorry?" I asked.
She went on with charming diffidence--how was one to resist her when
she pleaded with an humble air: "I have thought--if it would not tie
you down too closely--that you might take a minor rôle in my company."
My heart leaped--but of course I was not going to betray my eagerness
if I could help it.
"As to your friends having seen me," I said, "that doesn't make any
difference. Disguise is part of my business."
"Then will you?" she eagerly asked.
I made believe to consider it doubtfully. "It would tie me down!" I
said.
"Oh, I hope you can arrange it!" she said.
"Could it be managed without exciting comment in the company?"
"Easily. I have thought it all out. I have an assistant stage manager
who plays a small part. By increasing his duties behind, I can in a
perfectly natural way make it necessary to engage somebody to play his
bit. I shall not appear in the matter."
"I have had no experience," I objected.
"I will coach you."
Could I resist that?
"It would be better to put in an operative."
"Oh, no! No one but you!"
"Well, I'll manage it somehow," I said.
She sighed with relief, and started that moment to coach me.
"You are a thug, a desperate character. You appear in only one scene,
a cellar dimly lighted, so you will not be conspicuous from in front.
You must practise speaking in a throaty, husky growl."
In order to prolong the delightful lessons I made out to be a little
stupider than I was.
I was engaged the next day but one through a well-known theatrical
agent where Miss Hamerton had instructed me to apply for a job. Just
how she contrived it I can't say, but I know I came into the company
without anybody suspecting that it was upon the star's recommendation.
In the theatre, of course, she ignored me.
Two nights later I made my debut. Mine was such a very small part no
one in the company paid any attention to me, but for me it was a big
occasion, I can tell you. In the way of business I have faced death on
several occasions with a quieter heart than I had upon first marching
out into view of that thousand-headed creature across the footlights.
With the usual egotism of the amateur I was sure they were all waiting
to guy me. But they didn't. I spoke my half dozen lines without
disaster. I felt as if the real me was sitting up in the flies
watching his body act down below. Indeed, I could write several
chapters upon my sensations that night, but as somebody else has said,
that is another story.
What is more important is the discovery of my first piece of evidence.
At the end of the performance I was crossing the quiet stage on my way
out of the theatre, when I saw a group of stage-hands and some of the
minor members of the company by the stage-door with their heads
together over a piece of paper. I joined the group, taking care not to
bring myself forward. Another happened along, and he asked for me:
"What's the matter?"
Richards answered: "McArdle here found a piece of paper on the stage
with funny writing on it. It's a mystery like."
"Let's have a squint at it," said the newcomer.
I looked over his shoulder. It was a single sheet of cheap note-paper
of the style they call "dimity." It had evidently been torn from a
pad. It seemed to be the last of several sheets of a letter, and it
was written in a cryptogram which made my mouth water. I may say that
I have a passion for this kind of a puzzle. I give it as I first saw
it:
&FQZZDRR CV REW RIPN PFRBQ AT HXV
DGGZT EP FOBQ IVTCVMXK SJQ TZXD EA
TJTI ZK.
S CEDBBWYB SWOCNA VMD Y&F GC AVSNY
NCA &MW&M&L. HZF EDM HYW ZUM IKQ
BSCOAIIQVV ZXK FJOP WOD. KWX DWVXJ.
LEE FVTHV G&HJT LSZAND EBCC BFKY NCAFP
VEDFSF. BSQ ZWVXJ YXM II PL GC DCR FPBV
EA&BO ULS RLZQ WB NELJ KZNEDLKDUAA.
CSQVE VDEV-FBACP! S'WX OS QQTB EHHZXV.