THE REVELATION
At five minutes to nine o'clock, Bobby turned into Museum Street.
Looking at his watch and finding himself five minutes too early, he
walked up and down the street opposite Behrens' shop. He was just about
to cross when the side door opened, and a tall, black-bearded man came
out, followed to the door-step by Behrens himself.
"Well, good-night, Visconti," said Behrens.
Bobby crossed over, and Behrens, who was just going in again, held the
door open for him to enter.
"You are to the moment," said the old fellow. "A minute earlier and you
would have been too early, and a minute later I would have had to come
down to open for you. My servant is out. Come up."
He closed the door and led the way upstairs to a sitting-room on the
first floor.
An astonishing place, considering that it was Behrens', for here was
nothing that hinted of antiquity. Big saddle-bag easy chairs, an
Axminster carpet, pictures of the modern French school on the walls,
a centre table with an open tantalus case, a soda syphon and a big
tin of cigarettes, a side table with a coffee apparatus and cups. An
astonishing place.
"Sit down," said Behrens. "Put your hat on the table, make yourself
comfortable. You will have coffee? That is right. I will make you the
coffee. It is Bourbon coffee; fools drink Mocha. Take a cigarette. And
how do you like my apartment? Bourgeois, isn't it? Well, trust me, the
bourgeois knows. Stattenheimer of Bond Street--and I beat him last week
at the Clement sale, as you might have seen in the papers, only young
men don't read the art news in the papers--Well, Stattenheimer, he
lives in Chelsea, in a Jacobean house, where there is no chair you can
sit on with comfort, no pictures; he said my apartment was bourgeois.
'Very well,' said I, 'I am an old bourgeois who takes an interest in
art as a business and a science, that is all I am. My shop is my art
gallery, and I keep my eye fresh by looking at modern things in my
home. I don't sit on my antiques, I sell them.' Here's your coffee."
He handed the cup and took his seat in an arm-chair opposite to his
guest, took off his glasses, wiped them with a silk handkerchief, and
then lit a cigar.
Bobby noticed that everything this old gentleman did, even to the
wiping of his glasses, was done with care and particularity, and
apparently to the exclusion from his mind of all other matters
whatsoever. The cigar-lighting took him a full half-minute. When it was
accomplished he leaned back in his chair and started to talk.
"Did you see that man I was letting out? Well, he's my agent in Italy.
He's going back to Rome to-morrow. He's a pig-headed fellow. Only for
that he might have taken up this business I am going to tell you about
to-night, but he refused it. I went to the trouble of going into the
whole of the plans with him, and he had the impudence to tell me that
it would be a waste of time, that there was nothing in it. Told that
to me, Jacob Behrens, who knew all about time and how not to waste it
before he was born. I did not press the matter with him to-night. I had
you in mind. You are younger than he is, for one thing. Also you are an
Englishman, and all Englishmen love the sea."
"Oh, it's a sea job?" said Bobby.
"Yes, it's a sea job," said the old man with a little chuckle. "Very
much so. A contest with Poseidon which I wish to engage you in. I
do not ask if you are a sailor or used to ship matters. If we come
to terms, we will engage the crew you will require for this matter.
What I do want is a man I can trust, a young man full of life, and an
Englishman. What made me ever think of an Italian for this business I
don't know."
"Well, I believe you can trust me," said Bobby. "But why do you want an
Englishman, especially?"
"Go and ask the gods who made the Great War," said the other. "It is
the British who do things, even impossible things. Well, I didn't ask
you to call to-night to talk of the British, but of our friend Poseidon
and the little matter between myself and him. My son was a naval
officer. I'm a naturalised Jew, and Isaac, my son, was swept into the
net of the Great War. He was in the submarine service, employed in the
Mediterranean, and out there, almost as the last gun was fired, he died
of enteric fever. You can't imagine what that meant to me; you are too
young to imagine the grief of a father for the loss of his only son,
and may you never know it. But there it is: he died.
"Six months before his death he sent me a most interesting
communication and a plan, which we would have worked out together had
he lived.
"Do you know the Greek Islands?"
Behrens rose and went to a bureau near the door, from which he produced
a map.
"Here they are, right from 40 degrees to 36 degrees, from Giura to
Christiana. Look at them and the way they are spread like a net across
the mouth of the Ægean and the road to Constantinople. You can fancy
how useful they were in the war as lurking places for submarines.
Isaac's boat used to hunt round from Milo to Andros and the mouth of
the channel between Negroport and the mainland. Now look here, look at
this small island Polykandros, and this dot south of Polykandros which
is not named on the map, but the name of which is Hyalos. Well, some
time before he died Isaac's boat was ordered south to lie in wait for
an enemy ship, and it anchored in a quiet little bay on the north of
Hyalos.
"Hyalos is a high island, uninhabited, and consisting mainly of rock. A
man was sent ashore to keep watch, and one day, having nothing better
to do, Isaac and a couple of his fellow-officers put off in a small
boat to fish in the bay.
"Here, under water on the eastern side of this bay, they came upon the
ninth wonder of the world--a little Greek town."
Behrens paused to relight the cigar which had gone out.
"I beg your pardon?" said Bobby.
"Town. A little town submerged at a depth of only some five fathoms;
a thing as old as history, yet perfect in its way, preserved in the
lap of the tideless sea and by the reefs that break the storms and
high waves to the north of Hyalos. The reefs have not only protected
the town from the sea and its storms, they have also protected it from
visitation. No ships ever go near Hyalos, not even the fishing vessels
of Nios and Thera. But the British Navy goes everywhere, especially in
war time, and British naval officers are born sportsmen. There were
three other men in the boat with Isaac. It was he who, looking over,
saw first the wonderful thing in the water below--houses, some in
partial decay, some entire; streets, public buildings; an agora--all
quiet down in the glittering water, and flown over by fish instead of
birds.
"Do you know anything of the structure of old Greek cities and houses?
I am not talking about Pompeii, which was Græco-Roman, but of the true
Greek city centuries before Pompeii was destroyed. Well, the house of
the old Greek was simply a courtyard open to the sky, surrounded by a
covered colonnade off which opened rooms. That is roughly what it was.
The courtyard, open to the sky, and the colonnade were the main things;
the rooms might be more or less in number, they were generally small.
"The floor of the courtyard was as a rule done in mosaic work, and in
the centre stood an altar to the Zeus of the home, and in front of the
house before the door of entrance stood as a rule a statue of Hermes or
a cone-shaped pillar indicating Apollo.
"When Isaac looked over first, the boat was floating above a house,
the walls and colonnade of which were intact, and the mosaic-paved
courtyard glimmered up at him, showing its pattern of dolphins and
sea-horses.
"You can fancy his astonishment! Sea-horses prancing beneath the sea
and done in mosaic; dolphins in blue and red, all brilliant in colour
despite the ages that had passed since man's foot had trodden them.
"He held his breath in his surprise whilst the boat drifted across a
street where ruts were still visible, left by the wheels of vehicles
vanished before Christ was born. What I am telling you is the truth.
Just as Mariette entered the tomb of the Apis saw on the sand the
foot mark a man had left three thousand years before, Isaac saw the
wheel-marks of the traffic that once had been in this street given over
to silence and the sea.
"He saw also a Hermes that had fallen down before a house, and then,
calling to his companions, he bade them look.
"Now these men with him were British sailors, men of the highest type
of manhood, and what they saw when they looked over the side of the
boat interested them, yet left them cold. A big living fish would have
appealed to them more than this little dead city where people had loved
and lived and traded before Christ was born or the Roman Empire--for,
mark you this, Hyalos is no Græco-Roman town, but a town submerged in
the flower-time of Greek art.
"Isaac who had the artistic sense and knowledge denied to his
companions, and who, moreover, was my son, knew at once the
extraordinary nature of the find. Knew that they had not only
discovered a dead city, but a very treasure-house of ancient art.
The indifference of the others so vexed him that he said nothing of
this. He sealed the matter in his heart. Isaac was the son of an art
collector, who is also a tradesman. I am quite frank. During the week
that his ship stayed in the bay he brooded over the matter, questioning
his heart as to whether, when the war was over, he would return with
my help, secretly, and recover from this place all he could by diving
operations, or whether he would tell the Greek Government and make the
matter public. He decided on the first course. Hyalos belonged to no
Government. It belonged only to the sea and to antiquity, and its art
treasures to the bold diver who first laid hands upon them.
"Without doubt many a Greek fisherman had looked down through the
ages and seen what Isaac saw, but without caring or knowing or
understanding, not guessing that here lay a treasure worth all the
fishing fleets of the islands. Without doubt through the future years
the place would be equally neglected, for no one comes to Hyalos,
which is only a rock surrounded by reefs.
"Yes, he felt quite easy in his mind on the question of secretly
looting this place, and during the week of his stay laughed at by
his companions as an antiquarian, he would put out every day in the
smallest boat of the destroyer, and spend hours exploring and mapping
this town where nothing moved but the fish and their shadows. This is
the map he made."
Behrens rose and took from the bureau a large sheet of paper, a
map carefully made, and showing the minute and complicated city in
its entirety. The agora, the streets, a tiny theatre, houses, some
half-ruined, some entire, complete just as when some subsidence slow or
sudden had brought the waters of the sea above the market-place, the
streets, the house tops. Bobby brooded over this thing, fascinated by
the story of Behrens.
"When the destroyer left Hyalos," went on the old man, "she was
ordered north, and was mined off Eubœa, by a floating mine from the
Dardanelles. No one was saved but Isaac and an old quarter-master.
Isaac died later, as I told you, of enteric fever. But he had sent me
home all I have told you and this map. Had Isaac lived he and I would
have gone together to this place, taken divers with us, and reaped
the harvest of the centuries and the sea; but I am too old now; his
death aged me ten years in ten minutes, and I have lost the appetite
for adventure, unless it is the adventure of the sale rooms. Yet I
want to secure from this place some part at least of the treasure it
holds, not from greed, for I am worth most of a million, but for three
reasons. One is sentiment. Isaac had his heart set on this business,
it was his desire that I should profit by it. Another reason is that
it would grieve me to the heart should Gundermann, or François Boucy,
or any of the big men in the world of antiquities get hold of this
business by any chance. Another is the desire for acquisition which is
part of my nature. I am frank with you. I spoke of a risk. There is a
risk of the sea and there is a risk that, should the Greek Government
find you removing things from this place, of which they do not know the
existence, there might be trouble. I cannot tell you the law on the
subject; the case is quite unique, but I can at least say that should
there be trouble, I will stand by you--should you care to take the
matter up and work it for me. I will give you half the worth of the
things recovered, and that may be a very large sum of money. I would,
of course, pay for the expedition."
Bobby was silent for a moment, looking at the map on his knee. The
thing fascinated him, but he was the son of Nicholas Lestrange,
a business man with a level head, despite his losses in post-war
industries. Then he said:
"There's nothing I'd like better, but I can't say right off. I'd like
twenty-four hours to think of it."
"That is only fair," said Behrens. "I do not wish to rush you into
a business that has its dangers. One question you will be asking
yourself--is it honest? Well, I think you can be sure on that point. I
care nothing for what the Greeks might say about the law. Morally, I am
sure that whoever comes first on these treasures, that belong to nobody
by right, since the owners had vanished before Rome was an Empire,
morally I say, I am sure that the first finder of them is entitled to
keep them. Besides," finished the old fellow grimly, "I am no friend of
the Greeks either in the sale room or the world of politics--but that
is another question."
"Oh, I'm not bothering about the morals of it," said the other. "The
stuff's there, whatever it is, to be dredged up by anyone, it seems
to me, and I'm ready to run the risk of the Greeks jumping on us.
It's only I want to think things over. I've done some sea work down
in Devonshire, and can handle a boat. It's only just I want to think
things over. It's a big proposition. Are you sure the treasures,
whatever they are, will be all right and worth anything after being in
the sea all these years?"
"In 1901," said Behrens, "the sponge-fishers off Cape Malea found an
old ship on the sea-floor laden with Greek bronzes and statuary. It was
a ship of the fleet of Sulla, and had been lying there for two-thousand
years. The bronzes and statuary were perfect. In 1905, or thereabouts,
divers brought up from the Lake of Nemi bronze beam-heads and ornaments
from the ship of Calligula. They were perfect, yet Calligula died on
January 24th, forty-one years after the birth of Christ. No, Mr.
Lestrange, you need not fear that the treasures of Hyalos are not worth
taking. The only thing you need trouble about is the expedition. Should
you take this matter up, I will do the paying; you will have to do the
leading. You will have to get the proper men together and a small ship,
an outfit for diving, and so forth. The men must be selected: men who
will not talk, and men who will be content with a salary, not a share
in the business. Have you any idea how to set about all this?"
"Not the slightest," said Bobby.
"Good--you at least know where you stand, and will be open to
suggestions."
"I haven't the slightest idea how the thing is to be done," said Bobby;
"but I'm perfectly sure if I tackle it I'll do it. With your help, of
course."
"Good. And you will have this great assistance--the treasure you are
after is neither gold nor silver; the things you go to seek will not
rouse the demon of cupidity in the breast of any ordinary Englishman of
the seafaring type. They are indeed useless to any man except a person
like myself, who is able to dispose of them. And there are only four
persons like myself in Europe, that is to say men who have the American
market in their hands, and who are known and trusted by the great
American connoisseurs--not that I am likely to dispose of the treasures
in my lifetime. I buy these valuables not yet recovered from the sea,
and it is I who will pay you half their worth. A good bargain for me,
Mr. Lestrange, and I venture to say a good bargain for you. They may
be worth five, ten, twenty thousand pounds or half a million, it is all
the same. You shall receive your half, and the valuer shall be Jacob
Behrens, who though working for his own hand, will be just with you."
"That I am certain of," said Bobby. A new flame was burning in his
breast, not lit by cupidity, but by the challenge in this affair. He
would have to get this expedition together and lead it, choose his
men, get the vessel and equipment, and bring the thing to a triumphant
conclusion. The difficulties were not the least attractive part of the
affair, and Behrens would back him financially.
He sat for a moment brooding. Then he looked up.
"I'll do it," he said. "I asked for twenty-four hours to think it over.
I don't want them. If you are willing, I'll clinch the matter now."
"Think twice," said Behrens. "I would not have you go into this matter
without full consideration. There are the risks of the sea and the
risk of trouble with Governments, not only the Greek, but the British
Government. Nothing, I am sure, would please the British Government
more than to spoil a little deal like this, quite forgetting that
Britain herself stole the Elgin marbles, not from under the sea, but
from their only true setting, the Acropolis of Athens. So if you obtain
these things and bring them in safety to the English coast, you will
still have the difficulty of landing them unknown to the Custom House.
There is no duty on objects of art, but, all the same, questions would
be asked."
"I know," said Bobby. "I can see the whole clearly. All the same I'll
take the business on."
"I bind you to nothing," said Behrens, "and if to-morrow or next day
you should wish to withdraw, you are at liberty. Having said that,
I would like also to say that I think you have chosen rightly. Any
Government risk would only amount to a fine and confiscation; the fine
would fall on me. The sea risks are only what any young man ought to be
prepared to face.
"Now, as to the money side of the business. I am prepared to allocate a
sum of three thousand pounds to be used for ship hire and so forth, all
accounts to be presented to me for payment. I believe that amount will
cover the business. I will deduct it from the amount at which I value
any treasure found before dividing that amount with you. Have you need
of ready money?"
"No," said Bobby. "I have about fifty pounds loose in the bank--enough
to carry on with."
"Well," said Behrens, "any money you may spend in this business make a
note of, and I will refund it. You understand the position? There are
three thousand pounds for you to use. I am not going to tie your arms.
I trust you to spend nothing foolishly. I give you _carte blanche_ so
that you may make your dispositions, hire your men, hire your ship,
get your diving apparatus and so forth. You say you have been used to
fishing on the Devonshire coast. I would advise you to go there for
your men and your vessel. They are honest men down there."
"Thanks," said Bobby. "It's nice to be trusted like that, and I shan't
waste your money. Yes, I might try Devonshire. Anyhow, I'll think the
whole thing over and get to work as quickly as possible. I'll keep you
informed of what I am doing."
Half an hour later he was in the street.
It was twenty minutes past eleven. In two hours and twenty minutes the
course of his life had been changed; he had been turned from a humdrum
existence to face Adventure and the deep sea, with a chance of making a
fortune at a single coup, and with a credit of three thousand pounds to
back him.