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(Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
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VOL. III.
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
A Story.
BY
T. W. SPEIGHT,
AUTHOR OF "BROUGHT TO LIGHT," "FOOLISH MARGARET,"
ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
1869.
[_All rights of Translation and Reproduction are reserved_.]
LONDON:
SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
CONTENTS
OF
THE THIRD VOLUME.
CHAP.
I. THE THIRD REPORT CONTINUED.
II. GEORGE STRICKLAND'S QUEST.
III. AT THE "ROYAL GEORGE."
IV. A LITTLE DINNER FOR THREE.
V. CLEON REDIVIVUS.
VI. PASTILLE-BURNING.
VII. CHASING "LA BELLE ROSE."
VIII. THE CAVE OF ST. LAZARE.
IX. THE VERDICT OF MR. VERMUSEN.
X. HAUNTED.
XI. THE ARRIVAL OF THE DIAMOND AT DUPLEY WALLS.
XII. DE MORTUIS NIL NISI BONUM.
XIII. THE DEPARTURE OF SIR JOHN POLLEXFEN.
XIV. THE TARN OF BEN DULAS.
XV. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
UNDER LOCK AND KEY.
CHAPTER I.
THE THIRD REPORT CONTINUED.
"Five minutes later, Captain Ducie and your hopeful son slunk out of
Bon Repos like the thieves we were, and treading the gravelled pathway
as carefully as two Indians on the war-trail might have done, we came
presently to the margin of the starlit lake. There was no lack of
boats at Bon Repos, and soon I was pulling over the quiet mere in the
direction of Bowness. We managed to find the little pier without much
difficulty. There we disembarked, and then chained up the boat and
left it. By this time the first faint streaks of day were brightening
in the east. There would be no train from Bowness for three or four
hours. Captain Ducie's impatience could not brook such a delay. At his
request I roused the people at one of the hotels. Even then we had to
stand kicking our heels for half an hour before a conveyance and pair
of horses could be got ready for us. But when we were once fairly
under way, no grass was suffered to grow under our horses' feet. The
captain's object was to catch one of the fast up trains at Oxenholme
Junction, some fourteen miles away. This we succeeded in doing, with a
quarter of an hour to spare. A portion of that quarter of an hour was
occupied by me in sending a certain telegram to my respected _pater_.
The day was still young when Captain Ducie and I alighted at
Euston-square.
"I did not know whether it was the captain's intention to give me my
congé as soon as we should reach town, but I certainly knew that it
was not my intention to part from him quite so readily. He had
insisted on my travelling up in the same carriage with himself, and I
had had the free run of his cognac and cigars. During the early part
of the journey he had been silent and thoughtful, but by no means
morose. As the morning advanced, however, his shoulder had begun to
pain him greatly, and by the time we reached London I could see,
although he uttered no complaint, that the agony was almost more than
he could bear. Consequently, I was not surprised as I helped him to
alight from the railway carriage, to hear him say:--
"'Jasmin, my good fellow, I find that it will not do for me to part
from you just yet. This confounded shoulder of mine seems as if it
were going to make a nuisance of itself. You must order a cab and go
with me. I will make your excuses to M. Platzoff.'
"'Right you are, sir,' said I. 'Where shall I tell cabby to drive to?'
"'To the Salisbury Hotel, Fleet-street.'
"Captain Ducie was such an undoubted West-end swell that I was rather
surprised to find him going east of Temple Bar. But my place was to
obey, and not to question his behests.
"'Get into the cab: I want to talk to you,' said he. 'On one or two
points it will be requisite that I should take you into my
confidence,' he began, as soon as we were out of the station. 'And I
have less hesitation in doing this because, from what I have seen of
you, I believe you to be a perfectly trustworthy and straightforward
fellow.'
"It is very kind of you to say so, sir,' I answered respectfully.
"'Now, for certain reasons which I need not detail, I do not want my
presence in London to be known to any one. I am going to an hotel
where I have never been before, and where I am entirely unknown. While
stopping at this hotel I shall pass under the name of Mr. Stonor, a
country gentleman--let us say--of limited means, who is up in town for
the furtherance of some business of a legal character. Can you
remember Mr. Stonor from the country?'
"'I shall not forget it, sir--you may trust me for that.'
"'Yes, if I had not felt that I could trust you, I should not have
brought you so far, nor have taken you so deeply into my confidence.'
"Father! for the first time these dozen years your son blushed.
"On reaching the hotel Mr. Stonor seemed to care little or nothing
about the size or comfort of the rooms that were shown him. He was
particular on one point only. That point was the fastening of his
bedroom door.
"After rejecting three or four rooms in succession he chose one that
had a stouter lock than ordinary, and that could be reached only
through another room. In this other room it was arranged that I should
sleep, so that no one could obtain access to Mr. Stonor without first
disturbing me.
"Is not this another proof that I acted judiciously in leaving Bon
Repos, and that Captain Ducie, above all men in the world, is the man
I ought to stick to?
"We had no sooner settled about the rooms than Captain Ducie was
obliged to go to bed. He would not allow me to help him off with any
other article of dress than his outer coat. Then he sent me for a
doctor, and when the doctor and I got back he was in bed. The doctor
pronounced the wound in his shoulder to be not a dangerous one, but
one that would necessitate much care and attention. The captain was
condemned to stay in bed for at least a week to come.
"There is no occasion to weary you with too many details. A week--ten
days, passed away and I still remained in attendance on Captain Ducie.
For the first four or five days he did not progress much towards
recovery. He was too fidgety, too anxious in his mind, to get well. I
knew the form which his anxiety had taken when I saw how impatient he
was each morning till he had got the newspaper in his fingers, and
could be left alone to wade through it. At the end of an hour or so he
would ring his bell, and would tell me with a weary look, to take
'that cursed newspaper' away.
"I was just as impatient for the newspaper as he was, and did not fail
to submit its contents each morning to a most painstaking search.
"After the sixth day there was a decided improvement in the condition
of Captain Ducie, and from that date he progressed rapidly towards
recovery. It was on the sixth day that my search through the newspaper
was rewarded by finding a paragraph that interested me almost as much
as it must have interested Captain Ducie. The paragraph in question
was in the shape of an extract from _The Westmoreland Gazette_, and
ran as under:--
"'_The Dangers of Opium-smoking_.--We have to record the sudden death
of M. Paul Platzoff, a Russian gentleman of fortune, who has resided
for several years on the banks of Windermere. M. Platzoff was found
dead in bed on the morning of Wednesday last. From the evidence given
at the inquest it would appear that the unfortunate gentleman had been
accustomed for years to a frequent indulgence in the pernicious
habit of opium-smoking, and the medical testimony went to prove that
he must have died while in one of those trances which make up the
opium-smoker's elysium. At the same time, it is but just to observe
that had not the post-mortem examination revealed the fact of there
having been heart-disease of long standing, the mere fact of the
deceased gentleman having been addicted to opium-smoking would not of
itself have been sufficient to account for his sudden death.'
"There are one or two facts to be noted in connexion with the
foregoing account. In the first place, it is there stated that M.
Platzoff was found dead in bed. When I saw him soon after midnight, he
lay dead on the divan in the smoke-room. But it is possible, that the
use of the word 'bed' in the newspaper account may be a mere verbal
inaccuracy. In the second place, there is not a word said respecting
Cleon. Now, had the valet disappeared precisely at the time of M.
Platzoff's mysterious death, suspicion of some sort would have been
sure to attach to him, and an inquiry would have been set on foot
respecting his whereabouts. Such being the case, the natural
conclusions to be derived from the facts as known to us would seem to
be: First, that Cleon was not out of the way when the body was found,
and that the statements made at the inquest as to the habits of the
deceased were made by him, and by him alone. Secondly, if any fracas
took place between Cleon and Captain Ducie on that fatal night, as
there is every reason to suspect, the mulatto has not seen fit to make
any public mention of it. Captain Ducie's name, in fact, does not seem
to have been once mentioned in connexion with the affair, and if Cleon
either knows or suspects that the captain has the Great Diamond in his
possession, he has doubtless had good reasons of his own for keeping
the knowledge to himself. That some curious underhand game has been
played between him and the captain there cannot, I think, be any
reasonable doubt.
"As soon as I had read the paragraph above quoted, I took the
newspaper up to Captain Ducie, and pointed out the lines to him as if
I had accidentally come across them. I wanted to hear what he would
have to say about the death of Platzoff.
"'Some strange news here, sir, about M. Platzoff,' I said.
Here is an account of----.'
"He interrupted me with a wave of his hand. 'I have seen it, Jasmin, I
have seen it, and terribly shocked I was to have such news of my
friend. So strangely sudden, too! I always suspected that he would do
himself an injury with that beastly drug which he would persist in
smoking, but I never dreamed of anything so terrible as this. I
suppose it will be requisite for you to go down to Bon Repos for a
time, Jasmin. There will be your wages, and your luggage and things to
look after. What articles of mine were left behind I make you a
present of. I hope to be sufficiently recovered in the course of three
or four days to be able to spare you, and I will of course pay your
fare back to Westmoreland, and remunerate you for the time you have
been in my service. For myself, I intend spending the next few months
somewhere on the Continent.'
"I replied that I was in no hurry to go down to Bon Repos; that,
indeed, there was no particular necessity for me to go at all that the
amount due to me for wages was very trifling, and that my clothes and
other things would no doubt be forwarded by Cleon to any address I
might choose to send him.
"But the captain would not hear of this. I must go down to Bon Repos
and look after my interests on the spot, he said; and he would arrange
to spare me in a few days. His motive for taking such a special
interest in my affairs was not difficult to discover. He wanted
thoroughly to break the link between himself and me. By sending me
down to Bon Repos he would secure two or three clear days in which to
complete whatever arrangements he might think necessary, and would,
besides, insure himself from being watched or spied upon by me. Not
that he doubted my fidelity in the least, but it seemed to me that of
late he had grown suspicious of everybody; and, in any case, he was
desirous of severing even the faintest tie that connected him in any
way with M. Platzoff and Bon Repos. Such, at least, was the conclusion
at which I arrived in my own mind. But it may have been an erroneous
one.
"Although Captain Ducie was desirous of getting rid of me, I did not
mean to lose sight of him quite so readily. Each day that passed over
my head confirmed me more fully in my belief that he had the Great
Mogul Diamond concealed somewhere about his person. I had no one
strong positive bit of evidence on which to base such a belief. It was
rather by the aggregation of a hundred minute points all tending one
way that I was enabled to build up my suspicions into a certainty.
"If he had made himself master of the Diamond, he had done so
illegally. He had stolen the gem, and I should have felt no more
compunction in dispossessing him of it than I should have felt in
picking a sovereign out of the gutter. But the prospect of making the
gem my own seemed even more remote now, if that were possible, than
when I was at Bon Repos. Nothing went farther towards confirming my
belief that the captain had the Diamond by him than the fact of his
taking so many and such unusual precautions to insure himself against
a surprise from any one either by day or night. As already stated, I
slept in the room that opened immediately out of his, so that no one
could reach him except by passing through my room. Then, he always
slept with the door of his bedroom double locked, and with his face
turned to the window, the blind pertaining to which was drawn to the
top, leaving the view clear and unobstructed. In addition, Captain
Ducie always kept a loaded revolver under his pillow, and I had heard
too much of his skill with that weapon to doubt that he would make an
efficient use of it should such a need ever arise. What chance, then,
did there seem for ce pauvre Jacques ever being able to coax the
Diamond out of the hands of this man, who had no more right to it than
had the Grand Turk? Still, I put a good face on the matter, and would
not allow myself to despair.
"After the sixth day Captain Ducie improved rapidly. On the tenth day
he said to me: 'This is the last day that I shall require your
services. You had better arrange to start by the nine forty-five train
to-morrow morning for Windermere.'
"The captain was not the sort of man to whom one could say that one
did not want to go to Windermere, that one had no intention of going
there. The slightest opposition from an inferior in position only
confirmed him the more obstinately in his own views. All, therefore,
that I said was: I am entirely at your service, sir, to go or stay as
may suit you best.' All the same, I had no intention of going.
"What I intended was to bid farewell to Captain Ducie, take a cab to
the station, go quietly in at one gate and out at another. But the
captain spoiled this little plan next morning by announcing his
intention of going with me to the station. He was evidently anxious to
see with his own eyes that I really left London, and this of course
only made me the not more determined to go. I had only a few minutes
in which to make my arrangements. It was necessary that I should take
some one at least partially into my confidence, and I could think of
no one who would suit my purpose better than Dickson, the one-eyed
night-porter at the hotel. He was fast asleep in bed at that hour of
the morning, but I went up to his room and roused him. He was a
quick-witted fellow enough where anything crooked was concerned, while
in the simple straightforward matters of daily life he was often
unaccountably stupid. His one eye gleamed brightly when I put half a
sovereign into his hand, and told him what I wanted him to do for me.
I left him fully satisfied that he would do it.
"A cab was ordered, my modest portmanteau was tossed on to the roof,
Captain Ducie was shut up inside, and with myself on the box beside
the driver, away we rattled to Euston-square. The captain went himself
and took a ticket for me to Windermere. He had already given me a
handsome douceur in return for my services from the date of our
leaving Bon Repos. He now saw me safely into the carriage, gave me my
ticket, and nodded a kindly farewell. He did not move from his post on
the platform till he saw the train fairly under way. So parted Captain
Ducie and your unworthy son.
"At Wolverton, which was the first station at which the train stopped,
I got out and gave up my ticket, with a pretence to the railway people
that I had unfortunately left some important papers in town and that I
must go back by the first train. Back I went accordingly, and reached
Euston station in less than five hours after I had left it.
"My first object was to thoroughly disguise myself: no very difficult
task to a person of my profession. My first visit was to the peruquier
of the Royal Tabard. Here I was dispossessed of the charming little
imperial which I had been cultivating for the last month or two, and
from which I did not part without a pang of regret. Next, I had my
hair cut very close, and was fitted with a jet-black wig that could be
termed nothing less than a triumph of mind over matter. When my
eyebrows had been dyed to match, and when I had purchased and put
on a pair of cheap spectacles, and had arrayed myself in a suit of
ultra-respectable black, I felt that I could defy the keen eyes of
Captain Ducie with impunity. Having exchanged my portmanteau for one
of a different size and colour, I took a cab, and drove boldly to the
Salisbury Hotel. It was satisfactory to find that Dickson passed me
without recognising me, and I shall never forget the puzzled look that
came into the fellow's face when I took him on one side and asked him
for news of the captain.
"The captain had ordered his bill, Dickson told me when he had
sufficiently recovered from his surprise, and had himself packed his
own luggage, but without addressing it. A cab was to be in readiness
for him at half-past eight that evening. I ordered a second cab to be
in waiting for me at the corner of the street at the same hour.
Meanwhile I kept carefully out of the captain's way.
"At 8.35 p.m. my cab was following that of the captain down the
Strand, and in a little while we both drew up at the Waterloo
terminus. Ducie's luggage consisted of one large portmanteau only,
which the cabman handed over to one of the porters.
"'Where shall I label your luggage for, sir?' asked the man: it was
too large to be taken into the carriage.
"The captain hesitated for a moment, while the man waited with his
paste-can in his hand.
"'For Jersey,' he said at last.
"'Right you are, sir,' said the man. 'Bill, a Jersey label.'
"I went at once and secured a ticket for that charming little spot.
"I did not lose sight of the captain till I saw him fairly seated in
his carriage and locked up by the guard. I travelled down in the next
compartment but one.
"I need not detain you with any account of our journey by rail, nor of
our after-voyage from Southampton to St. Helier.
"The fact of my dating this communication from a Jersey hotel is a
sufficient proof of my safe arrival. We reached here yesterday
afternoon, the captain never suspecting for a moment that he had James
Jasmin, his ex-valet, for a fellow-passenger. We are lodged at
different hotels, but the one at which I am staying is so nearly
opposite that of the captain, and has so excellent a view into the
private sitting-room where he has taken up his quarters, that I see
almost as much of him, both indoors and out, as I did during the time
I acted as his valet. His reasons for coming here are best known to
himself; but be they what they may, I do not feel inclined to alter my
opinion one jot that he has brought the G. M. D. to this place with
him.
"Whether, after all this time and trouble, I am any nearer the object
for the attainment of which you first engaged me, remains for you to
judge. In any case, send me instructions; tell me what I am to do or
attempt next. Or do what would be infinitely better--come here in
person, and talk over the affair with
"Your affectionate son,
"James Madgin."