Читать книгу The Green Pearl - Aidan de Brune - Страница 4

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"MR. ROHMER, I am certain that a woman entered my room last night."

Carl Rohmer sat back in his chair and smiled.

During the twenty years he had managed the Hotel Splendide he had listened to stories and theories sufficient to fill a library. Few of the confidences received by him ever became public. It was his uncanny ability to stifle gossip and scandal that had won for him his position in Sydney's largest and most luxurious hotel.

"And, the lady, M'sieu. What did she do?" Rohmer carelessly picked up an ivory, paper-knife from the desk, tapping with the blade, softly and irregularly, on the polished wood.

"You think I had a pipe-dream?" the man on the opposite side of the desk, laughed lightly. "Let me tell you, Mr. Rohmer—"

"Tut, tut!" Rohmer's white hand waved away the suggestion. "I asked the question, Mr. Therrold, in the way of business. It is well to commence at the beginning of the story. M'sieu had supper and retired to his apartments, yes?"

Mark Therrold nodded; A tall; clean-shaven man of about 35 years of age, he seemed strangely perturbed, huddling down in the big lounge chair and running his fingers, continually, through his fast-greying hair.

"My supper, if you call it so, consisted of a few sandwiches and a whisky-soda at the bar," he retorted. "Then I went up to my room. It was a hot night and after a shower I sat I smoking and reading for an hour. Then I turned in."

"And the time?" The hotel manager nodded encouragingly.

"When I went to bed? About 12.30, I should say. I did not look at my watch."

"M'sieu slept well, eh?"

"No. It was too hot to sleep. S'pose I dozed a bit. Anyway, it was some time after I turned in that I had an idea that there was someone in my room."

"The person—a woman, M'sieu suggested—made, some noise?"

"Hardly a sound. I woke suddenly with the idea that there was someone in the room; but I could hear nothing." Therrold shifted restlessly. "I simply felt there, was someone hear. Oh, I can't explain. I had the feeling that there was a woman near."

"A woman?"

"I saw her, later. I lay still, with my eyes half-opened, watching. Shifting restlessly, I managed to roll over so that I could watch the half-lights through the windows. After some considerable time, I saw a shadow lift before the light. I thought she was making for the bathroom, but she came to the side of the bed and bent over me."

"M'sieu says that the lady bent over him as he lay in bed. What then did she do?"

"Nothing. She stood for a minute as if listening to my breathing. Probably wanted to see if I was; asleep. I lay quiet, hoping to find out what she was after, but she seemed to move quite aimlessly around the room. Once I caught a fair view of her. She appeared to be about 25 years of age, and fair. I noticed that her hair was closely cropped, just like a boy's."

"Yes?" The drumming of the paper-knife on the table became insistent. "You say the lady was young—and possibly of good looks and—M'sieu did not say what she wore—possibly evening dress?"

"I shouldn't call it; that, Mr. Rohmer." Therrold laughed. It was a pleasant laugh, and softened the lines of his face. "To my ignorance it appeared to be more like night attire—just a long coloured wrapper, caught up at the side by a button or a hook."

"M'sieu has good eyesight. If I mistake not, he said that the only light came from the window—and the night, it was dark."

Therrold flushed. "The girl bent over me; I saw her quite close. S'pose she wanted to make afire that I was asleep. When I moved, to try and get a clearer view of her, she disappeared."

"M'sieu missed nothing from his room?"

"Not a thing. When I was certain that she had left the room I got up and searched. She had taken nothing."

"M'sieu intrigues!" Rohmer hesitated. "Has M'sieu with him anything of value?"

For a few seconds Therrold did not reply. He stared intently at the little hotel-manager, then let his eyes wander around the beautifully appointed office. Rohmer's room was more like a sitting-room than the nerve centre of a busy hotel. The large desk in the centre of the room, was of rare black oak, in keeping with the other furniture. Around the walls were black-oak bookcases, filled to overflowing. On the bookcases and tables stood rare specimens of china and statuary. The floor was of highly polished parquet blocks, over which were scattered valuable rugs and skins. A few pictures hung oh the walls, but each of them was signed by some noted Australian painter.

The hotel-manager watched his guest carefully. Except for the incessant tap-tap of the paper-knife, he as immobile. Once he glanced across at a tall Japanese screen in a corner—and then a little smile played on his lips.

At length Therrold appeared to have made up his mind to some action. Leaning forward, he pulled from his waistcoat pocket a small enamelled box. From it he took a roll of black velvet and, placing it on the blotting pad before Rohmer, flicked it open.

"A pearl!" The manager learned forward, with a quick whistling intake of his breath. "M'sieu, the Queen of Pearls!"

It seemed as if a ball of lambent fire slay on the small velvet square. The pearl was medium, in size and almost pure oval in shape, containing within its far depths a wonderful green fire, A lover of rare and beautiful jewels, Rohmer, bent worshipfully over it. His fingers twitched as if anxious to lift the beautiful thing and fondle it.

"The Romanoff Green Pearl." Therrold spoke softly. With a pencil he gently rolled the jewel over. The movement seemed to set the iridescent green moving in long, surging waves of colour.

"So!" Rohmer could not take his byes from the jewel. "It is wonderful, Unique! There is not another like it in all the world. M'sieu, I have heard of—this, but I never hoped to see it. Behold—it is priceless—no money can buy it! But so, it is worthless, for who will pay for it—anything? It stands alone—the one green pearl known to men. Ah, you beautiful—beautiful thing!"

"Beautiful, yes." Therrold spoke bitterly. "It should be beautiful; bathed in the blood of countless, men and women. Mr. Rohmer, can you realise the misery and sin this overlaid grain of sand has caused through its existence? Can you picture the thousands who have marched to misery and death—because in the depths of the ocean an oyster conceived the only known green pearl? You cannot—nor can I. Yet, if its history were known and published, the whole world would demand its destruction. Wherever it has rested it has caused misery, covetousness and—"

"And, you, m'sieu?" Rohmer lifted inquiring eyes at his guest.

"I?" Therrold shrugged. "Yes, Mr. Rohmer, you can number me among its victims. Five years ago I accepted a commission from the Grand Duke Paul, the heir to the Romanoff Crown, to venture into Russia and recover the Green Pearl. For nearly five years I have lived a life I shudder to remember. I have lived with men—no, beasts, devoid of all human instincts. Men drunk with the lusts of blood and rapine. For over a thousand days I have lived, not knowing if I was to see the morrow's light. I staked my employer's money—my own life—on the quest. Oh, I've succeeded—but at what cost?"

"Behold, you have accomplished!" Rohmer waved his hands over the jewel.

"I entered. Russia from—Europe—intending, when successful to retrace my steps. With almost incredible luck I got in touch with the men who had the jewel. When opportunity offered, I stole the pearl from them—the men who had stolen it from among the Russian Crown jewels. Unluckily, their suspicions against me were aroused. Failing to regain the jewel they denounced me to the rulers of Russia claiming that I had been the original thief—that I had stolen it from among the regalia. I was thrown into prison; my belongings and person were searched again and again—but I had hidden well. I was questioned—tortured. I escaped—and was recaptured; to be again questioned—again tortured. Again I escaped and for months lay hidden within a few miles of my former prison. Then a chance came for me to leave Russia, across the old German frontier.

"The opportunity appeared too easy—or perhaps I was over-suspicious. Yet I accepted the venture. On the frontier I was again arrested and searched; but the pearl was not on me. For a time I thought that they would put me across the frontier. In that case I would have lost, for the pearl was hidden in Russia. One night I was taken from prison and carried into the heart of the empire. Months of questioning and torture followed—and again I escaped. Now I had to retrace my steps to where I had hidden the pearl. It was still there.

"Then a friend warned me not to venture towards the European frontier. I turned east, lacking food; money, and, even clothing; almost dead from the privations and injuries I has sustained at the hands of men who preached a universal brotherhood. Day after day I plodded on, towards the rising sun. Man, if I told you one tithe of what I saw and suffered you would call me a liar.

"One day when I had almost given up hope of getting anywhere, I crossed the borders of the Chinese Empire. There wasn't; much chance—for me; I had evaded the emissaries of the Russian Government, but now I faced the Chinese bandits. News of what I carried seemed to have flown before me. Again and again I was searched—but always managed to conceal the pearl. Even when I got into districts where European influence held sway I found, that. I had enemies, secret and unscrupulous. Then, suddenly, I had to face an added danger—and a strange passport."

"In what, m'sieu?" Rohmer questioned, interestedly.

"I found that the Green Pearl was borne sort of sacred jewel of some long-forgotten Central Asian Empire. This meant, that while: I had not lost my enemies—and indeed they Seemed to multiply the closer I got to the coast—I had friends. It was through those friends I at last managed to get on hoard a boat—bound for Australia; That is all, ex-"

"Except that you have arrived here."

Rohmer gazed curiously at the man who had, into a few short years, crowded the adventures of a lifetime. "Now, m'sieu; as to the woman—the woman of the night. M'sieu suspects—"

Therrold shrugged. "The Soviet commands strange agent, and have a nation's wealth to forward their aims. Then," he hesitated. "There are others."

"The pearl, m'sieu." Rohmer spoke firmly. "You should have deposited it in the safe of the hotel. It is my duty to warn m'sieu, that the proprietors cannot except any risk occasioned. If it were stolen—"

"A not uncommon incident in the life of the Green Pearl," Therrold laughed. "No, Mr.—Rohmer. The pearl has its—home and would be hard to find; even if I did not stand in the way; Point of fact; it has been stolen from me three times since I left Russia. Then I stole it from the men who stole it from the Russian Government. They stole it from the Romanoffs, who probably stole it from some race they conquered. Possibly that race had to record a theft—Who can tell how far back its history goes—of theft and murder, for a jewel weighing only 18 grains. It's safe with me—"

"What's that?" Therrold was on his feet, automatic in hand. The air of weariness had fallen from his shoulders; Again he was the alert Secret Service Agent holding his life of less value than the safety of his charge.

Backing slowly, he came to the corner of the desk so that he commanded not only the screen, from behind which had come the noise that had startled him, but also the alarmed hotel-manager.

"You—behind that screen! Come out, quick! I've got you covered!"

"M'sieu!" Rohmer held out an explanatory hand.

"M'sieu, let me-"

"Be silent!" Therrold spoke impatiently. He turned to the screen again. "Come on out. I shall count three and then fire." He waited a moment. "One—two—"

The screen was swept to one side and a tall, slender, pale-faced girl walked into the room. She held an open note-book in her hand. Falteringly, she came towards the desk, her terror-stricken eyes fixed on the automatic, levelled at her. Therrold's hand dropped to his side. He stared at the girl in amazement.