MADGIN JUNIOR'S SECOND REPORT.
"My dear Dad,--Your letter in reply to my first report reached my
hands a week ago. It had been lying three days at the post-office
before I had an opportunity of fetching it. I am glad to find that you
approve of my proceedings, and think, all things considered, that I
have not made bad use of my time. That you are sanguine as to the
ultimate result of my mission here shows a buoyancy of disposition on
your part that would not discredit any dashing young blade of twenty.
I hope that your opinion will be still further confirmed when you
shall have read that which I have now to put down.
"I may just remind you that I have now been at Bon Repos a month all
but two days, and but for a fortunate accident the object for which I
was sent here would still be as far from its accomplishment as on the
day of my arrival. Even now it will rest with you to decide whether
what I have to communicate is of any real value, or advances even by a
single step the great end we have in view. Privately, I may tell you
that I think the same great end all fudge. My faith is very lukewarm
indeed as to the existence of the diamond. But even granting its
existence, the present possessor, whoever he may be, were he aware of
our petty machinations, would laugh them utterly to scorn.
"Your reply to this would probably be that since the unknown possessor
of the diamond is not cognizant of our machinations, we have an
incalculable advantage on our side. To which I venture to observe that
we are tilting at shadows--that both the diamond and its owner are
myths, and have no foundation in fact. And now that I have made my
protest, and so eased my mind, I will proceed with my narration of
what has happened at Bon Repos since the date of my last report.
"The fortunate accident of which I made mention a few lines above is
neither more nor less than the serious illness of Cleon. As a
consequence of this event I have been brought into closer relations
with M. Platzoff. Before entering into particulars, I may just add
that the stranger, Captain Ducie, is still here; but his visit, so
Cleon informs me, is now drawing to a close. As I informed you before,
Cleon, for some reason best known to himself, has contracted an
intense dislike for the captain, and before I had been a week at Bon
Repos he had set me to act as a spy on his actions. I have watched him
as far as it has been possible to do so with safety. What little I
have discovered is not worth setting down here; in fact, I may say
that I have discovered nothing more singular in the captain's mode of
life than would appear upon the surface of any ordinary life that was
closely watched by some one who lacked the key to the motives with
which its purposes were animated. I have, then, made no actual
discovery of facts as regards Captain Ducie. But for all that, a dim
suspicion has grown up in my mind, having birth I cannot tell how or
when, that the captain is not without certain private designs of his
own on M. Platzoff, although of what those designs may consist I have
not the remotest idea. Gentlemanly man as the captain is, there is
about him a certain faint _soupçon_ of the adventurer, and my first
suspicion of some design on Platzoff may have had its rise in that
fact. At all events, I have no better based facts to go upon,--nothing
that I can set down in black and white. For my own sake more than for
Cleon's, I have determined to still retain my watch on the captain.
Time only can tell whether or no my doing so will in any way advance
our interests.
"Cleon had been ailing for some days, but kept going about his duties
as usual. One morning, however, he sent for me, and told me that he
was too ill to rise, and that such portion of his duties for the day
as could not be postponed must be gone through by me in his stead.
Such duties would chiefly be those arising from personal attendance on
M. Platzoff. I could see that he was terribly put about.
"'My master is such a particular man,' he said. 'I have never missed
waiting on him a single day these twenty years. How he will like a
stranger to go through the little indispensable offices of the toilet
for him is more than I dare think of. However, in the present case
there is no help for it, and you may take it as a proof of the
confidence I have in you that I have selected you, a comparative
stranger, to act as my deputy for the time being.'
"He then gave me a silver pass-key, which he told me would open the
whole _suite_ of private rooms occupied by M. Platzoff. He then
impressed certain instructions on my mind, a minute observance of
which, he said, would go some way towards reconciling M. Platzoff to
the temporary loss of his, Cleon's, services. 'The private
apartments,' he finished up by saying, 'consist of four rooms _en
suite_. The first of them is the smoking-room; the second the dressing
and bath room; the third the bedroom; lastly comes a small private
library or sanctum, the walls lined with books, which there will be no
need for you to enter. Take the pass-key and open the doors of the
smoking and dressing-rooms. When you reach the bedroom give three
separate taps at the door with the handle of the key. M. Platzoff will
then bid you enter. But before going in you must speak to him, and
tell him that I am ill, and that I have deputed you, with his
permission, to act in my stead. Even then do not go in till he bids
you enter. Were you to enter unannounced you might come to grief. M.
Platzoff always keeps a loaded revolver close by his pillow. In the
sudden excitement of seeing a strange face near him, he might
unfortunately make use of it. If he bid you not to enter, come back to
me, and I will consider what further must be done. On second thoughts,
I will write a line of explanation for you to take with you. It may
serve to allay any doubts M. Platzoff might feel as to the acceptance
of your services.'
"I gave him pen and ink. Not without difficulty he wrote the following
words, which he read to me after they were written:--"
"'I am too ill this morning to rise from my bed. Unless this were
really the case, you may be sure that my customary services would not
be foregone. I am obliged to send you a stranger--that is, a person
who is a stranger to you. You may place implicit confidence in him. I
hope to be with you again to-morrow.'
"'Cleon.'"
"The style seemed to me a strangely familiar one in which to address
his employer. But Cleon was not a man to do anything without a motive.
In the present case he doubtless knew thoroughly what he was about.
"I took the pass-key, opened and went through the first and second
rooms, and knocked at the door of the third. 'Enter,' said the voice
of M. Platzoff from within. Then in the most respectful tone I could
summon for the occasion I repeated the formula composed for me by
Cleon. There was complete silence for full two minutes. Then M.
Platzoff spoke. 'Come in,' he said, 'and let me see who you are.' I
unlocked and opened the door, and then stood for a few moments on the
threshold. The room was nearly in total darkness. The venetians were
down and thick curtains drawn in front of them. A faint sickly odour
came through the doorway like that of some strongly aromatic drug.
'Come forward and open the blinds,' said a peremptory voice from the
bed. I obeyed, and let in the cheerful daylight. 'I have a line from
Mr. Cleon for you, sir,' I said, 'if you will kindly read it.' 'Give
it me here,' he said. 'Cleon ill! The world must be coming to an end.
I thought that fellow was made of cast-iron and could never get out of
order.'
"I gave him the note. He opened it and read it with the assistance of
his eyeglass. I seized the opportunity for a quiet glance round. If I
were an upholsterer, my dear dad, which, thank goodness, I am not, I
would draw you up a brief inventory of the contents of M. Platzoff's
bedroom. As circumstances are, I can only say that it was by far the
most elegantly-fitted sleeping room which it had ever been my fortune
to enter. In parenthesis I may remark, that in passing through the
smoke-room I had been much struck with the richness and elegance of
its decorations. It is fitted up in a semi-Oriental fashion, and
except that everything in it is real and of the best quality, it looks
more like a theatrical apartment fitted up for stage purposes than a
real room in a country gentleman's house. Since that time I have
become familiarized with the entire _suite_, and have picked up one or
two ideas for interiors which may prove of service to my friend Davis
of the Tabard.
"With an impatient 'Pish!' M. Platzoff tossed the note from him as
soon as he had mastered its contents. He cut quite a comical figure as
he lay there, his yellow skin looking yellower than ordinary in
contrast with the white bed-furniture. His wizened face puckered into
a scowl of perplexity. His blue-black chin-tuft rough and out of
shape, and his cheeks and upper lip grimy for want of a razor. A
conical nightcap like an extinguisher on his head, and his
_robe-de-nuit_ fal-lal'd with lace, as though he were some dainty
bride of twenty. I could have laughed outright, but I took care to do
nothing of the kind.
"'What is your name, sir? and how long have you been at Bon Repos?'
he demanded, with a sort of contemptuous anger in his voice.
"'My name is James Jasmin, sir, at your service; and I have been here
just one month.'
"'One month! one month!' he shrieked. 'Then what, in the fiend's name,
does Cleon mean by writing that he has implicit confidence in you? Who
are you? and where do you come from? How can one have implicit
confidence in a man whom one has only known for four weeks? Cleon must
take me for a fool.'
"'My name I have already told you, sir. Before coming here, I was in
service with Mr. Madgin, of Dupley Walls.'
"M. Platzoff's face turned from yellow to green as I uttered these
words. 'From Dupley Walls, did you say?' he gasped; 'from Dupley Walls
in Midlandshire?'
"'That is the place, sir.' He evidently knew something about Dupley
Walls, but how much or how little, was the question. I felt myself on
the brink of an abyss. Was I about to be kicked out of Bon Repos as an
impostor?
"'But--but I have always understood that a certain Lady Pollexfen was
the owner of Dupley Walls?'
"'Lady Pollexfen is the owner, sir, but she does not live at the hall,
but at a cottage in the park; the house has been let for several years
back to Mr. Madgin.'
"'And how long have you been in the employ of this Mr. Madgin?'
"'Since I was quite a boy, sir.'
"'Then why have you left him?'
"'Because he is about to reside on the Continent, and is about to
break up his English establishment.'
"'Then you are acquainted with Lady Pollexfen?'
"'Only from seeing her frequently, sir. I have never spoken to her.
She is very old now, and lives a very secluded life.'
"'Has she any of her children living with her?'
"'I am not aware that her ladyship has any children. I have heard speak
of one son who died in India many years ago.'
"'Ah!' Then after a pause, 'Well, Mr. James Jasmin, I will accept your
services for the present, but I hope to goodness that Cleon is not
going to be laid up for any length of time. Ring the bell for my
shaving-water, and reach me that dressing-gown.'
"Congratulate me, my dear dad, on the dexterity with which I
extricated myself from a difficulty that in more awkward hands might
readily have proved fatal.
"It is not requisite that I should enter into any details of the minor
duties I had to perform for M. Platzoff. They were the ordinary duties
of a body servant, and it is sufficient to say that I got through them
without making any very egregious blunder. That I am still engaged in
the same capacity is a tolerable proof that M. Platzoff is not
dissatisfied with my services, for Cleon has not yet recovered, and
although somewhat better, is still confined to his bed. Platzoff is
not a difficult man to serve under. He does not treat his people like
dogs, as I have heard of many so-called gentlemen doing. Only attend
well to his minor comforts, and do not keep him waiting for anything,
and you will never hear a wrong word from him.
"Midnight is, with certain exceptions, M. Platzoff's fixed hour for
going to bed. My instructions are to go every night at twelve
precisely; to give a low treble knock on the door of the smoke-room,
and then with the aid of the pass-key to go in. I then relieve M.
Platzoff of his pipe, generally a large Turkish hookah; accompany him
to his dressing-room, and take his instructions for the morning. After
that I put out the lights, and then my duties for the day are over.
"But once, sometimes twice a week, M. Platzoff is in the habit of
smoking opium, or some drug so much like it that I cannot tell the
difference. Whatever it may be, he smokes it till he falls into a sort
of trance in which he is unconscious of everything going on around
him. My instructions are that when, on entering the smoke-room at
midnight, I find him in such a trance, not to disturb him, but to
watch by him till I see certain signs that the trance is abating. As
soon as these signs show themselves, I lift M. Platzoff bodily up and
carry him to bed, and so leave him till morning. One of Cleon's most
important duties was the charging of M. Platzoff's pipe when the
latter was going to have one of his opium séances; but that is too
nice an operation to be entrusted to my unskilled hands, and in the
absence of Cleon is, I presume, gone through by the Russian himself.
"My bedroom adjoins that of Cleon, and on two or three occasions it
has happened that I have been summoned by him in the middle of the
night to answer M. Platzoff's private bell which rings in his room. On
answering this bell as Cleon's deputy, I have found that M. Platzoff,
not being able to sleep, has summoned me to read to him, or to assist
him on with his dressing-gown, and to light his pipe for him.
"'But,' you will perhaps observe, 'what has all this rigmarole to do
with the question of the Great Mogul Diamond?'
"I reply that, in all probability, it has nothing whatever to do with
it. But I think it requisite that you should know the details of my
life at Bon Repos. Secondly, you must let me say what I have to say
after my own fashion. And thirdly, the curious incident I have now to
record would hardly be comprehensible to you without the preliminary
details here given.
"Last night, or rather about two o'clock this morning, came one of
those untimely summonses of which I have made mention above. I was
aroused by Cleon's tapping on the wall that divides our bedrooms. I
shuffled into a few clothes, anathematizing M. Platzoff and the whole
business as I did so, and then hurried into Cleon's room. As I
expected, M. Platzoff's bell had just rung, and it was requisite that
I should go and ascertain what was wanted. I took my pass-key and
went. I passed first through the smoking-room, next through the
dressing-room, and so into the bedroom, which, to my intense
astonishment, I found lighted up with a pair of wax candles, although
I had left it in utter darkness barely a couple of hours before. What
added to my surprise was the fact that the door between the bedroom
and the library was open, and that the latter apartment was also
lighted up. Having noted these things with a first intuitive glance
round, my second glance went to the bed in search of M. Platzoff. He
was not on it. On passing round the foot of the bed, I found him lying
with his face on the floor. I lifted him up and saw at once that he
was in some sort of a fit. I was frightened, but did not lose my
presence of mind. I had several times carried him out of the
smoking-room when he was in one of his opium trances, and I had no
difficulty now in lifting him up, and laying him on the bed. As I
turned round with the body in my arms I saw something reflected in a
large mirror opposite that nearly caused me to drop M. Platzoff to the
ground. What I saw was the reflection from the lighted-up library of
an oblong opening like a doorway in the bookshelves with which its
walls were lined--an opening which, had it been there, I should hardly
have missed noticing before, although I had not been above three or
four times in the room. As soon as I had laid the unconscious Russian
on his bed, I stole on tip-toe into the library. I had not been
mistaken. There _was_ an opening in the wall formed by the sinking
into a deep recess of a portion of the bookcase. In the recess thus
formed was an iron door, now shut. As I looked, this question, without
any consciousness on my own part, was put to me: _Can this be the
entrance to some secret room in which the Diamond is hidden?_
"I had no time to consider the probability or otherwise of this
question. Certain sounds from the other room drew me back at once to
the side of M. Platzoff. Signs of returning consciousness were
visible. I propped him up with the pillows, and sprinkled water
on his face, and chafed his hands. Slowly he came back to life.
'Better--better--all right now,' were his first words; then
turning his lack-lustre eyes on me, 'Who are you?' he said. 'Ah, I
remember--Jasmin,' he continued before I could reply. Then all of a
sudden a frightened look came into his face, and he began to fumble
nervously in the pocket of his velvet dressing-gown. 'What have you
lost, sir? Is it anything I can find for you?' I asked. 'No, no,' he
replied excitedly; 'only my key--only my key. Ah! here it is,' he
cried a moment later, as he brought into view from one of his pockets
a curiously-shaped key, the like of which I had never seen before.
With a great sigh of relief he sank back on his pillows.
"'Go and wake up Wrigley, and tell him to give you some cognac,' he
said next minute. 'A little brandy is all I need at present.'
"I left the room to carry out his request, and was not away more than
five minutes. As I handed him the cognac I glanced stealthily at the
mirror. The opening in the library wall was no longer visible. The
mirror reflected an unbroken array of shelves closely packed with
books. M. Platzoff had evidently felt himself strong enough to get out
of bed and fasten the secret door during my absence.
"He drank a little of the brandy and then told me that I might go back
to bed. I proffered to sit up in the next room during the remainder of
the night. But he would not hear of it: only, he said, he would have
the lights kept burning. I had got my hand on the door when he called
me back. 'Look here, Jasmin,' he said. 'It is my particular wish that
not to any one shall you say a single word respecting what has
happened to-night. Not even to Cleon must you mention it. Obey me in
this, and you will find that I shall not forget you. Disobey me, and I
shall be sure to hear of it. What say you?'
"Of course I promised all he asked, and he seemed tolerably easy in
his mind when I left him. I satisfied Cleon's curiosity with a
passable excuse, and then went back to bed.
"M. Platzoff is lying later than usual this morning. Consequently I
have an hour or two to myself, which I now employ in finishing this
report. Write to me as soon as possible after receipt of it, and let
me have your opinion as to what my next step ought to be. Cleon will
be able to resume his duties in two or three days, and when that event
takes place I shall be relegated to my old position, and shall have
little or no personal communication with M. Platzoff.
"Your affectionate Son,
"J.M."