A GREAT ART DEALER
Visconti, as he came on board, found Bobby waiting to receive him.
"I have come----" said Visconti.
"I know," cut in Bobby. "You have come to see Mr. Hackett. Follow me,
please."
He led the way down to the cabin, where Martia was sitting on the couch
and Sam standing by the table.
Sam nodded curtly to the visitor and pointed to a seat. Martia did
not even incline her head. She sat looking at this man who had been
pursuing them for so many weeks, looking at him and wondering, for
Visconti seemed completely and entirely at his ease, and, as he sat
down and placed his hat on the floor beside him, might have been a
friend, or at all events some visitor paying a friendly call.
It was Sam who opened the business.
"I didn't see you at Genoa," said Sam, "but I saw your agent, Pirelli.
I daresay he told you what I said about you. Well, what's your
business?"
"Quite simple, captain," replied Visconti. "It has to do with your
cargo. One word. You feel aggrieved that, coming to Hyalos as I did
with an expedition costing much money, only to find that you had
forestalled me--you feel aggrieved, I say, that, this being so, I have
done what I have done. Well, I will explain."
"You never can explain away the fact that you asked me to dinner to
pump me of information," replied Sam. "There is a lady present, so I
can't tell you in plain English what I think of that business. However,
go on."
"I will go on," replied the other, quite unmoved. "I make no apologies.
Business is business, and in this world, captain, there is no such
thing as friendship in business."
"There's honour."
"Perhaps," replied Visconti. "But we will not talk of honour in a
question that has to do with stolen antiques."
"Stolen?" cried Sam.
"Shut up, Sam!" cut in Bobby. "Don't lose your temper. Yes, Mr.
Visconti, go on. Stolen antiques, you were saying."
"Precisely," replied Visconti. "Stolen antiques. Though, believe me, I
do not wish to press that point on you more than just to touch you with
it."
"Like the point of a dagger," said Bobby. "With a threat that the
dagger will be driven home if we don't consent to share the swag."
"The illustration is highly coloured, but not without verisimilitude."
Visconti smiled. "Now let us talk like reasonable men. Stolen is a
nasty word. I do not believe that either of you gentlemen would consent
to theft in the ordinary acceptation of the word. Nor would I. But you
have done what I would have done had I been able. You have taken from
the sea those things that belong to no man, but to which a certain
Government might lay claim."
"No Government could claim them," said Sam, "any more than they could
claim the fish swimming in Hyalos Bay. These things belonged only to
the men who owned them, and they've been dead two thousand years."
"No doubt," said Visconti. "But all the same--and you know it quite
well, captain--if I were to give this information an embargo would be
laid on these things pending enquiry and the decision of the courts.
The law would take them into its hand and years would be spent in
litigation. You would win your case, perhaps, but you would be ruined
with the expenses. That is so, captain. I ask for a just share. My
expedition, which was frustrated, cost me much. Four thousand pounds
would not cover all, including Mr. Pirelli's charges. I am content
with a small share in return for saying nothing. I ask only for the
Aphrodite which you showed to Mr. Pirelli. She will suffice me."
"And if we don't consent?"
"Then," said Visconti, "I will speak. This is no vain threat, captain.
I will speak, and that immediately--tell the whole thing to the
authorities."
"Yes; and what will they say? They will ask you what you were doing at
Hyalos. You can't lie, for you hired those sponge-fishermen from Ægina
to help you."
"I will say I was looking for a new ground for sponge-fishing," replied
Visconti, without turning a hair. "Don't be deceived, captain. I can
answer all enquiries. Well, what shall we say? Will it be silence
and safety for you, or speech? You know me, and you know enough of
me by now to realise that, being set on this matter, I will have no
compunction. It is a gambling game, and if I don't have a share of the
pool I will have my--what the gamblers call--revenge."
Sam looked at Bobby. He knew this scamp was speaking the truth, and
that he would, if baulked, do as he said. He wished that Behrens would
take a hand in the business, and he cast a sidelong glance at the
door of the after-cabin. But the door was still half closed, and the
concealed listener showed no sign.
It was Martia who spoke next.
"May I ask one thing?" said she. "How did you know of Hyalos?"
"That, mademoiselle, is my secret," replied Visconti. "And, quite
honestly, the question has often occurred to me--how did _you_ know of
Hyalos? How was it that our two expeditions coincided?"
As if in answer to this question, the door of the after cabin suddenly
opened and Behrens stood before them.
"Good-day, Visconti," said Behrens.
Visconti, who had been sitting with his back half turned to the door,
rose and stared at the apparition that had suddenly materialised.
Martia, watching, saw him draw back slightly with the movement of
the animal about to attack or be attacked. Instantly she knew that
he feared Behrens, and from then on she watched the proceedings
breathlessly and with the interest that drama only can give to the
gazer.
"Good-day, Visconti," said Behrens, advancing from the door. "Pray take
a seat. This, Mr. Lestrange, is my foreign agent and half-partner,
Gabriel Visconti, to whom, the day before I spoke of the matter to you,
I entrusted the secret of Hyalos, asking him to take the matter up and
work it for me on a half-share basis. He turned the matter down; said
he did not believe there was anything to it; doubted the legality of it
if there was.
"He turned the matter down as far as I was concerned. He wanted it all
for himself. He left England and fitted out his own expedition, not
knowing that I had secured you, Mr. Lestrange, and that I was fitting
out an expedition myself. Silence, Visconti; let me finish speaking! He
met you at Hyalos, found you had forestalled him, and pursued you here,
where he meets old Behrens, the man who has always befriended him and
whom he betrayed. It is very funny."
Bobby heaved a deep sigh. All at once he remembered where he had heard
Visconti's name before. The thing had worried him for weeks, but it was
clear now. It was in Museum Street, on the evening when he had called
to see Behrens, who had come to his front door to let out a visitor.
He saw in a flash of memory the tall figure of a man departing in the
lamplight, and he heard again Behrens' voice:
"Good-night, Visconti."
Everything was clear now, including the fact that the meeting of the
two expeditions was no fortuitous happening.
Meanwhile, Behrens had taken his seat at the table almost opposite to
his antagonist, who was still standing despite the invitation to be
seated.
"Well," said Behrens, "what have you to say?"
"Only this," replied the other, who having recovered from the shock of
the meeting seemed quite himself again. "How do you know that in this
matter I was not working for you as well as myself?"
Behrens laughed.
"All I can say," he replied, "is that you have been working in a queer
way. You said to me, 'There is nothing in this affair; it would not
pay to go into it, the sea has eaten these things long ago.' Then you
go off. Not a word from you. And the next I hear is that you have been
into this affair up to the ears."
"A man may change his mind," said Visconti. "In fact, that is what I
did. On second thoughts I changed my mind. I said to myself: 'Well, let
us see. It is a gamble with nearly all the numbers zeros. Yet there is
a chance.'"
"Why, then, did you not write to me and say that you were taking the
chance?"
"A man may be too proud to acknowledge an alteration of mind," said
Visconti; and Behrens laughed again.
Martia, who was watching and listening intently, noticed to her
surprise that the tone of the discussion between the two art dealers
was taking a more amicable trend. The anger and irritation had gone
from Behrens' voice and manner, though she saw at once that he did not
believe a word the other was saying. As for Visconti, he was quite
affable and calm.
She did not know that Visconti was Behrens' right-hand man in
Continental affairs, and that Behrens was an absolutely indispensable
factor in the business life of Visconti; that they were a sort of
Siamese twins. She could not appreciate the fact that though Behrens
was an honest man as men go, roguery in the domain of art dealing was
to him a lesser thing than roguery in ordinary life.
He had always found Visconti honest in money matters, but this was not
so much a money matter as an art deal. The temptation had been too
strong for Visconti to let run straight. It was a terrible temptation.
All this was evidently present now in the mind of Behrens, inclining
him to make allowances. Besides that, he did not want to break with the
other. He was too valuable.
"If you say that you went into this matter on my account, as well as
your own," said Behrens, "I cannot say that is not so, but I can say
this: going into it as you did, without my knowledge or consent, leaves
me in this position: I am quite outside your deal, which was undertaken
on your own account, and I am not responsible for any of the money you
spent. On the other hand, you are quite outside my deal and are not
responsible for any of the money I have spent. Also you do not share
in the profits. Yet I am not hard, and I will make you a concession."
Visconti leaned slightly forward.
"Another man," went on Behrens, "might say to you that your story is
open to a shade of doubt, and that doubt between principal and agent
is so undesirable that business relationship must be suspended. But
I am not an ordinary man. I am Jacob Behrens. I am worth to you many
thousand pounds a year. You are useful to me. And I say to you, Gabriel
Visconti, that I will forget your story, I will not dismiss you as my
agent, I will say nothing as long as you run straight. But should you
breathe one word of this matter, either through negligence or malice,
I will dismiss you as my agent and I will crush you, Gabriel Visconti.
Like _that_!"
The terrible old man jabbed his thumb on the table as though he were
crushing a fly.
"I will say nothing," said Visconti; and he meant it.
"One moment more," went on the other. "You do not know Jacob Behrens.
Know him now. These things that have come into my possession I hold in
trust for the world and for Greece, if she chooses to claim them. After
my death all this will be known. Not one penny will I make from them.
That is all I wish to say."
Visconti sighed. He was beaten, utterly beaten, yet he had got off
lightly. If Behrens had broken off business relationship with him it
would have been ruin, or nearly as bad.
"I will say nothing," he repeated, "only this. This
gentleman"--indicating Sam--"gave me to understand that he had taken
everything of value from the bay at Hyalos. May there not be something
left, some little statue, something worth another search?"
"There may," said Behrens. "In fact there is. But nothing more must be
taken. The tomb is sealed, unless it be my will that after my death the
matter of Hyalos is made known as part of my gift to the world with
these marbles."
Visconti sighed again.
He knew at once that all was over, that he was up against something
harder than granite--the will of Behrens; Behrens, who desired a
monument to his name and who had chosen to erect it not only from the
fragments of art salved from Hyalos but from Hyalos itself.
Then suddenly Behrens broke out:
"I will not have the world flooded with these things. Beware, Visconti."
"Be assured," said the other. "I will say nothing. Well, I will not
stay longer. I will call upon you in London on ordinary business in a
day or so. And we are to consider this incident closed?"
"Yes."
Visconti bowed to Martia.
"We have had a keen fight, and I am beaten, captain," said he, turning
to Sam; "but I bear you no grudge."
He bowed to Bobby. Then, hat in hand, he left the saloon and reached
the deck. The others came up to see him off.
"There goes a great rogue," said Sam as they watched the boat reach the
steps of the quay and Visconti stepping off.
"No, captain," said old Behrens, "only a great art dealer."