7
There is a rough truth, no doubt, in the saying that. adventures occur to the adventurous. But fantastic. things may happen to anyone. No man, for instance,. was ever less fantastically-minded than Lieutenant-Colonel. John Strickland, late of the Coldstream. Guards. He disembarked from the river steamer at. Thabeikyin and motored by the jungle road over the. mountains to the Burma Ruby Mines at Mogok with. the simple romantic wish to buy a jewel for a lady.. Yet in that remote spot, during the sixty hours of. his stay, the first fantastic incident happened to him,. of a whole series which was to reach out across the. oceans and accomplish itself in the fever of lighted cities.
14
Wingrove , a blond giant of a man, received them in. an upstairs room, where he lay in bed with a cradle. lifting the bed-clothes from his broken leg. He was. propped against a heap of pillows, his face and head. showing up against the white linen like a gigantic. orange, and he was reading with the concentration of. a student the latest issue of The Sporting Times obtainable in Mogok. He dropped his newspaper as. his visitors were shown into the room and ordered. chairs to be set for them by the bed.
20
When Strickland came out the next morning to his. breakfast upon the veranda, he saw two strange. natives seated on the ground; and before he had. finished his meal, Captain Thorne ascended the winding. path between the flower-beds and joined him.
27
Strickland related his experience to Captain Thorne. as he sat at his breakfast after his return to the. bungalow. He was well aware that Thorne listened. with a stoical incredulity, but he went on with it to. the end.
34
There is nothing more universal, as there are few. things more intelligible, than a love of precious stones.. So much of beauty and so much of treasure lie packed. in so small and shining a receptacle. Thus even the. correct and punctilious Thorne lingered from his duties. whilst sapphires and rubies and spinels were spread. out before Strickland on a table in the great veranda.
43
Strickland travelled from Plymouth to London on. an evening towards the end of March; and the next. morning, without waiting to answer even one of the. letters piled upon his table, he put the ruby into his. pocket and walked quickly to his club. The gipsy. finds a good share of his pleasure in the first aspect of. the town to which he returns, and if the town is London. his pleasure is enormously increased. The women. and girls with their bright frocks and lovely faces,. their slender elegance, their curiously attractive air. of impertinence, as though each one knew that she. was the unquestioned proprietor of the town and all. its suburbs, their rose-coloured legs, the whole shining,. cultivated look of them, make on this first day each. one of them a miracle to him. There are friends to. be met haphazard on the footways, astonishing news. to be gathered about other friends, gossip to be exchanged,. entertainments to be planned. But on this. morning, though the sun was bright, the air brisk,. and Bond Street a parade, Strickland hardly stopped. to exchange a word with anyone. And more than. once he crossed the road when he saw a loquacious. friend approaching. His business at his club would. brook no delay.
57
With the coming of June, that year, London broke. into flowers and warmth. Its old palaces mellowed a. little more in the golden sunlight, and something of. its old gaiety hesitatingly returned to it. The striped. awnings once more decorated the balconies and from. the lighted windows of a thousand houses, music and. a babel of young voices kept the nights awake. Where. once the waltz had swooned now was heard the moan. of the saxophone and the fox-trot’s lilt. Public. dinners resumed their tyranny and again the voice. of the toast-master was heard in the land.
67
The number of a bachelor’s clubs increases as imperceptibly. as the tale of his years. One of them he. really uses; he occasionally lunches at a second; and. at the others he gets his coat brushed if he happens to. pass the door. It was towards the second kind of. club that John Strickland walked about the hour of. luncheon—a small club housed in a small old mansion. in a quiet street behind a roaring thoroughfare. It. was not identified with any one profession. Indeed, a. catholicity in its membership was the chief reason of. its existence. Cabinet Ministers in distress could take. a meal there safe from the importunities of their followers,. and newspaper editors without being pestered. to reveal their secrets.
75
In a narrow lane at the back of Fleet Street, the great. edifice of The Flame newspaper pulsed and thudded. like an ocean liner. Even at this hour of the afternoon. its passages were thronged with clerks and reporters. and compositors, all of them in a tremendous hurry.. The lifts clanged up and down from the fifth floor to. the basement, vans accumulated round the block, bales. of paper were carried in, and such a clatter and bustle. of affairs permeated the building as convinced Strickland. that surely the country must come to an end. that night unless The Flame was issued before twelve. o’clock. Murchison, however, moved through the. turmoil with an Olympian calm, and led his companion. to his own quiet room upon the first floor. He spoke. upon a telephone.
82
The dinner at the Semiramis Hotel was certain to be. one of the most notable events of that season from. the hour when Lord Culalla consented to take the chair.
97
The lights in the side-lamps upon the walls and in. the great crystal chandelier overhead waned and went. out, and with their extinction the clamour of voices. died away. Then from an upper gallery a beam,. mellow and warm and thick as a column, struck down. into the dark cavern of the room and lit up a small. square arena enclosed by the supper-tables, turning. it into a box of gold. A single chord, violent and. imperative like a summons to surrender, burst from. the orchestra, and in that glowing space, now stood. Corinne and her dancing partner.
108
Strickland watched the red tail-light of Madame. Chrestoff’s car dwindle rapidly. Some ten or fifteen. yards away a line of other cars waited against the. kerb. But the pavement in front of the entrance to. the Club was clear, and no one was loitering across. the road. The one likely hiding-place was the line of. motor-cars with their confusing lamps and their close. proximity. Strickland walked slowly along the line.. His big waiter was not lurking anywhere amongst. them. He returned down the line again until he. reached his own car.
120
There was another personage concerned in this story. who sat up late that night. Upon reaching his home. in Grosvenor Square, Mr. Ricardo went into his. library and took down from a bookshelf a volume of. folio size, bound in brown cloth. There was a long. row of such volumes, and on the back of each the. date of a year was printed in gold letters, but no. other title. The particular volume which Mr. Ricardo. laid upon his writing-table bore a date just a decade. old. He drew up his chair and opened the book. It. was filled with newspaper cuttings pasted on to the. white leaves, and like everything else in Mr. Ricardo’s. household, procedure, hours and way of life generally,. most methodically arranged in order of time, with. the names of the journals from which they had been. cut, engrossed above each in an ornamental handwriting.
127
Mr. Ricardo did not resent, as so many people do, a. suggestion by any of his acquaintances that he was. getting old. On the contrary, he recognised certain. advantages in the slow advent of old age. He no. longer had to invent excuses for not playing games. or indulging in violent sports. He received consideration,. too, from the polite people of younger. generations. He was frequently addressed by them. as “sir.” But he did feel the gradual decadence of. the body to be a humiliation; and so a longer and. longer time was allotted in the morning before he was. prepared to face in public the light of day.
140
“ I failed . He refused to see me. I expected it,”. said Strickland.
157
Colonel Strickland loitered in vain in the neighbourhood. of the agency in Shaftesbury Avenue.. Waiters came and waiters stood about the door and. chattered on the kerb; many of them small with. spiky shoes and pomaded hair, but not one of these. was Hospel Roussencq; many of them tall and battered,. but not one of them was Archie Clutter. Those. two had their engagements booked for the moment.. Nor did Strickland know the names by which they went. so that he could ask for them. He drifted up and. down the by-streets and came round again to the. front; and the days passed and his anxiety deepened.. The mere fact that these men no longer solicited. employment frightened him. He had reached the mood. which divined a dangerous plot in everything.
165
If John Strickland had turned to the right when he. came out of Stratton Street the next morning into. Piccadilly, he might very likely have spared himself. the bitter sorrows and perplexities which were so soon. to enmesh him. For, in that case, he would have. gone straight to Ariadne Ferne with his story of the. startling experience which had befallen him on the. previous night. He did, indeed, hesitate for a few. moments upon the pavement as to which way he. should turn. But in the end he turned to the left—in. search of Mr. Angus Trevor, at the offices of The. Flame newspaper.
181
Strickland’s hopes crashed. Trevor had brought. him in a straight line to the very door of the cavern,. but others had been before him with the magic word. upon their lips. The cavern was empty.
192
Now this last house from which Strickland turned. disconsolately away was a great house in South Street,. and the house above all houses at which he had hoped. to discover Ariadne. He had kept it confidently to. the last, since parties given there were gay and broke. up late in consequence. He turned to the right on. leaving it and walked down John Street into the. higher end of Charles Street. His way home lay now. to his left, but he had not proceeded farther than. twenty paces when a small closed and brightly-illuminated. car flashed past him from the direction. of Park Lane, and drew up at the kerb, beneath a. lamp-post a hundred yards or so ahead. The door. was flung open and two young ladies, with cloaks. over their bright evening gowns, sprang out and. hurried along the pavement with every appearance of. extreme agitation. Both of them carried electric. torches, and far away down the street towards Berkeley. Square, now on this side of the roadway, now on that,. the lights of the torches flickered and glanced like. gigantic glow-worms.
203
Julian Ransome was seated at the table with Strickland’s. copy of The Times open in front of him. He. was very correctly dressed in a black cut-away coat,. a high stiff white collar, a dark tie, a double-breasted. waistcoat of a light brown colour, and a pair of dark. grey trousers with fine stripes.
220
Strickland had been just as wrong as he could possibly. be in the matter of Battchilena’s latch-key. Corinne. had picked it up from the carpet whilst Ariadne was. still in the room and had dropped it into a vase upon. her mantelshelf, and there it remained. She had dropped. a poor little broken heart at the same time into the same. porcelain sarcophagus, and there that remained too.
238
A few minutes afterwards Strickland knocked upon. the door. The story told to him was told on the spur. of the moment. Corinne was shattered by the terror. of the ordeal through which she had just passed, her. brain was whirling. She had one clear conviction,. and that rather felt than formulated; that there. would be no wisdom in any confidence she might make. to-night. She might talk wildly and let slip words. which must never be spoken. She must have time to. bring order and quiet into her distracted mind. So,. to give herself that time, she snatched at the first lie. which came to hand.
254
Strickland heard the history of the flight to France. later in the day from Lord Culalla, to whom Ariadne. commended him. Her letter contained only the. briefest epitome. She was more concerned to take. up the tale at Boulogne and recount the journey. through France, in which her gipsy soul had fairly. revelled. Strickland seemed to hear her cry “Ouf!”. draw a long breath, and shake a world of boredom off. her slim shoulders. The two fugitives had slept the. first night at St. Germain-en-Laye, and pushing on. betimes the next morning they had taken their. breakfast at Fontainebleau in the garden of the. famous hotel with the red awnings, in front of the. Castle gates. They reached Moulins that evening and. found a circus in full blast, a proper circus with broad-backed. horses and tissue-paper hoops and sylphs who. jumped through them, and a clown—divine! Ariadne. lost her heart to him—and a strong man to whom. Ariadne would have lost her heart if she had not. already lost it to the clown, and a lady in a silk hat. and a tailored riding outfit who did the haute-école on a brindled steed. On the third day they ran. through Roanne and Valence and Orange, and at. sunset came to the City of the Popes, with its barrack. of a palace frowning on the Rhône. They had slept. a night at the Hôtel de l’Europe, and recrossing the. next morning the long bridge across the river, had. driven for two kilometres along the bank to the. Villa Laure.
274
It was after five o’clock in the afternoon when Strickland. left Culalla’s house at Kew. He drove at once to. the offices of the Air Company and hired an aeroplane. to Avignon. Thence he went to a telegraph office. and dispatched a telegram to Lady Ariadne Ferne at. the Villa Laure, in the following terms
282
Ariadne Ferne set out upon her excursion at a later. hour. Pierre Bochon added to his multifarious duties. that of cleaning her small car, and he had it ready in. the little garage at the side of the house by ten o’clock.. It was at about that hour that Ariadne descended from. her room. She glanced at the few letters waiting for. her on the table in the window. But the envelopes. had not an interesting appearance and she slipped them. all unopened inside the vellum cover of one of those. large illustrated volumes which make so fine an. appearance on a drawing-room table. She called along. the corridor to Denise
301
“ What you want, my dear, is a glass of champagne.. I do, too,” said Strickland. “Culalla is certain to. have got a stock somewhere. Otherwise he couldn’t. set us any examination papers. No champagne, no. answers to conundrums!”
310
Six weeks later, John Strickland was summoned for. the twelfth time from his hotel to the prefecture.
