Читать книгу The Great Green Diamond; Or, Thief Against Thief - Inspector Stark - Страница 3

Table of Contents

Up the dingy flights of stairs in an old-fashioned down-town office building, Mr. Henry Stolburst mounted with a vigor and energy that belied the signs of age in his visage. Tall, spare, handsome, with remarkably bright and keen eyes, he yet looked older than his thirty-five years. This appearance of age was due to his heavily lined face and his white hair. But close observation would have revealed the fact that the lines on his face were those of care and worry, rather than of age, and the color of his hair was of such a peculiar shade of white that the observer would have felt perplexed by the conflicting evidences of age and youthful vigor.

With never a thought of his appearance, however, Henry Stolburst rapidly climbed the stairs until he stood before a door on which appeared the simple inscription:

BURT CROMWELL

Special Agent

Pausing but a moment, Stolburst opened the door and entered. Burt, although this was but a branch office of his agency, happened to be seated at the desk, and glanced up as his visitor crossed the threshold.

“Mr. Cromwell?” asked the newcomer interrogatively.

“That’s my name.”

The stranger handed Burt his card.

“What!” said the latter, “are you Mr. Henry Stolburst, the African explorer?”

“Yes.”

“I listened to one of your lectures on the Dark Continent with a good deal of interest the other evening.”

“Yes,” smiled Stolburst, “I do know a few interesting facts about Africa.”

“Can I serve you in any way?” asked the detective.

“I trust you can.”

“What do you require?”

“That you save my life.”

Burt looked at his visitor in considerable surprise. Was the man crazy? That thought struck him at once. Having seen Stolburst on the lecture platform, he knew his visitor to be none other than the explorer.

The latter interpreted the other’s inquiring glance.

“You think me bereft of sense?” he quietly asked.

“No,” said Burt; “but how can your life be possibly in danger while you are in a large community like this?”

“Nevertheless, it is. I have fought against savage tribes, and not more savage beasts. Several times have I barely escaped assassination by poison, knife, and other weapons; but never, in the jungles of Africa, was my life in more danger than at the present moment. I am not surprised you should think my statement a very rash one, yet it is true, nevertheless.”

As he spoke, the explorer and lecturer became pale even to the lips.

“Perhaps if I heard your story,” said Burt, “I might more readily understand whether your peril is fancied or not.”

“Would to God it were the former,” said Stolburst, and he gave a great start as he concluded speaking.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing; I only fancied I saw his greenish, snaky eyes looking into mine.”

“Whose eyes?”

“Those of Ajeeb.”

“You don’t mean the chess automaton?”

“This is no jesting matter. The eyes I speak of belong to a living creature.”

“I’m, as yet, in the dark as to this person’s identity.”

“Let me tell you there is in Abyssinia an order known as that of the Blue Nile. It is secretly abetted by the priests, and even the king, who fears it, is a member. This society is ruled by religious fanatics, to whom murder is simply a pastime. The Order of the Blue Nile has command of almost untold riches.

“I incurred the anger of these men, and they have sent right here to this country some of their members, I know not how many, to strike me down.”

“You have not said a single word about this Ajeeb,” remarked the detective.

“He is in New York.”

“Is he any more to be feared than the others?” asked Burt.

“Ajeeb is the head of the society,” replied the traveler.

“You have seen him?”

“How else would I know that he is in this city? He visited me this morning.”

“Did he threaten you?”

A sad smile passed over the face of the man who had so often faced death in many forms.

“No,” he replied, “it was not necessary to threaten me; I know what his pursuit of me means.”

“Tell me all about it, and then I may discover a way to circumvent your enemies.”

“First, I wish you to promise not to disclose any revelations I shall make now or at any other time.”

“Willingly.”

“Well,” said the traveler, “in a jungle near the city of Gondar, which is the chief and capital city of Abyssinia, stands a temple, the existence of which is known to few outside the members of this Order of the Blue Nile. In this temple is an immense wooden idol named Jobu. I never saw a more hideous-looking object than this same idol. His followers say Jobu is over a thousand years old.

“According to their belief, one day or another this monstrosity will be endowed with life, and help his devotees to capture all Africa.

“No European is allowed to gaze upon this idol, in front of whom a fire of perfumed herbs is kept burning night and day. The richest garments and jewels cover the inanimate Jobu. I saw the idol by bribing one of his watchers, for, mind you, Jobu has quite a suite of servants.

“In some way or another the high priest, Ajeeb, heard of the watcher’s infidelity. They have but one manner of punishing their unfortunate victims.

“They are slowly tortured to death!”

Stolburst shivered from head to foot as he finished.

“Why,” said the detective, “they cannot possibly desire to put you to death simply because you gazed upon their idol?”

“No.”

“Other Europeans beside you must have seen Jobu.”

“For that matter,” said the explorer, “I had two white men with me when I visited the infidel shrine.”

“You have not, then, finished your story,” remarked Burt.

“The part most interesting to me is to come,” said Stolburst.

“I am all attention.”

“In the eye of this idol,” continued the explorer, “was a diamond having, queer to say, a distinctively greenish tint. The stone is larger and certainly more valuable than the great British crown jewel. It is claimed I stole the jewel.”

“Did you?” asked the detective.

Stolburst changed color.

“I purchased it,” he said, after a pause, “from the man in charge.”

“You must have known he had no right to dispose of it.”

“People do not have much scruple when they deal with untutored barbarians,” replied Stolburst.

“It is because of the theft you fear Ajeeb?” asked Burt.

“Yes; could I return the stone all would be well.”

“Then you have disposed of it?”

“No.”

“Did you lose it?”

“The diamond was stolen from me by one of my servants, a man named Dick Kidd.”

Burt smiled.

“Kidd,” he said, “seems a peculiarly fitting name for a thief.”

“Now,” said Stolburst, not minding the interruption, “I want you to find this man, and make him give up the stone.”

“Does he know it was stolen?” asked the detective.

“I believe not.”

“If he does,” remarked Burt, “he will refuse to give it up. By the way, is the man in this part of the country?”

“I think both he and his fellow servant, Sam Henry, are here in New York. It was here I engaged them before making my last trip into Africa.”

“How am I to know the pair?”

“I have provided for that.”

Stolburst took from his pocket two photographs, which he handed to the detective.

Burt looked at the photographs attentively.

“I know that fellow; that is, I used to know him. He was a schoolmate of mine, but he went to the bad upon reaching manhood.”

“That,” said the explorer, “is Sam Henry. Do you know the other?”

“No.”

“If you can run across Henry, I guess you’ll find Kidd not far off.”

“I have your word for it that if the diamond eye of the idol is recovered and given you it will be turned over to its proper custodians?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

“Because if the promise were not given I would not move in the matter. Now as to the man you know as Sam Henry, if he is the same party I take him to be, his correct name is Enoch Cook.”

“Do you think you can find him?” asked Stolburst.

“If he is in New York I can.”

“Both he and Kidd are very desperate men. I have seen their courage proven more than a score of times.”

“I never yet saw the man I feared,” remarked Burt, with quiet dignity. “As a boy Enoch Cook was a great boaster. How long was he in your employ?”

“Henry was with me two years.”

“I have missed Enoch from New York just about that length of time.”

“I hope the men are identical; it will make your work so much easier.”

“Did you promise Ajeeb to return the diamond?”

“No,” replied the explorer, with some hesitation.

“Why not?”

“I thought it better to deny ever having had the accursed gem in my possession.”

“Then,” said the detective, “you may have made a fatal mistake.”