Читать книгу Short Stories Volume 3 - John Arthur Barry - Страница 8

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"There's a schooner on the port bow, sir," said the mate of the Alaska, entering the captain's cabin one forenoon with the signalbook in his hand. "Reckon she wants us to stop. Made her number—Lass o' Gowrie—of Sydney—and hoisted the 'urgent' signal."

"All right," replied the captain, who looked weary and out of sorts, "you can go quarter-speed up to her; I'll be on deck in a minute." But before the Alaska approached near enough to speak her the schooner had a boat in the water making rapidly for the steamer.

And presently, on board the latter, when the news got about as to the identity of the two fresh passengers, the story of whose supposed loss and all that had gone before was, of course, familiar to everyone, even the great jewel robbery had to take a back seat for a while as a topic of argument and wonder.

Captain Roberts at once had a large berth in the second saloon allotted to the pair; also, before the Lass o' Gowrie filled on her course again, the skipper had given Barnes a full history of his loss and implored him to use all his skill in discovering the thief.

But at the end of a week's questioning, cross-examination, and general ferreting, all the detective could do was to advise doubling the reward.

"It's a rum go altogether!" he remarked, irritably, to Brown, who, with the moustache and beard he had allowed to grow whilst on the island, looked a very different man to the one who had left San Francisco. "Somebody's got the things planted all right," continued the detective, "and I've a good mind to try a thorough personal search."

"You'll most likely lose them if you do," replied the other. "What will you give me if I tell you who was the thief?"

Barnes stared at this, and remarked, meaningly, "Well, at least it can't be the 'Toff Bird' this time, although it certainly is clean and clever enough for his work."

"All the same," replied Brown, laughing, "I fancy, somehow, that gentleman has had a finger in the pie; and also that I can help you to put your hand upon him, if I please."

Such was the anxiety and scrambling on board to interview and gaze upon the supposed notorious murderer and burglar, that Brown, who appeared nothing loth to satisfy public curiosity, had been kept very busy almost from the moment of his arrival.

The detective, by this time, concerned himself little about his prisoner. They had been so long together and fallen so well into each other's ways, that for days Barnes appeared quite to forget their respective relations as warder and criminal. Occasionally, as just now, he allowed a reference to the fact to escape him. But Brown only laughed and continued, "Well, old man, I want to do you a good turn, and I think you won't be far wrong if you mark down this person as the one you want to get hold of," and he pointed to Lord Wardour's name on the list of passengers he had been consulting.

"Why, you've never even seen him," protested Barnes, contemptuously; "he's about the only man on the ship that hasn't been near you. I know that much, at any rate. And he's given me every possible help in this business during the last week."

"Shouldn't wonder," replied the other, drily. "However, there's my tip. Take it or leave it, as you please. I might tell you more, but then, you know, neither you nor anybody else would believe me."

Meanwhile, Chinese Jimmie was sorely puzzled. One morning, brushing the carpet of Lord Wardour's cabin, he had picked up a minute fragment of torn gold—an incident which, under the circumstances, to his comprehension, quickened by a very lively feeling of hate, seemed more than suspicious. Still, it would not do to make any mistake. His first idea had been to show the thing to the detective. On second thoughts he resolved to play detective himself, helped in his determination by the doing of a little sum that turned £500 sterling into dollars, and represented to him a huge fortune. But it was a big risk, and Jimmie took it, quite understanding such to be the case. The cabin Wardour had secured was a large one, containing two berths, of which he occupied the lower, whilst the upper was filled with a miscellaneous collection of clothes, dirty linen, etc. Under this Jimmie late that same night burrowed till only an eye was visible. His lordship never retired before twelve o'clock; and he trusted to chance to make good his retreat towards morning. Something seemed to tell him that if discovered his days were numbered. Still, he knew the occupant of the cabin rarely disturbed the pile of odds and ends accumulated during the passage, and covered by which he could see everything that took place. Also he knew that a meeting was even now being held in the smoke-room to determine whether or not—the reward having failed—a search of all passengers' effects should be instituted. Therefore he chose this special night.

Untroubled with nerves, Jimmie's heart nevertheless beat a little quicker as the man he hated and suspected at last entered, locked the door behind him, and turned on the electric light. Then drawing a solid leather portmanteau from under the lower bunk he opened it with a Chubb key attached to a steel chain that he took from his pocket. From between the folds of an old mackintosh and some soiled sheets a long, black, opaque eye glared hungrily. Many a time since the discovery of that bit of ragged gold the eye's owner had itched to ransack the inside of that heavy flat box. At last! Sitting on the couch that ran along one side of the cabin, his lordship threw the lid back and drew forth a small, round, metal box. The eye winked with excitement. Then, throwing off his coat, the man took up his position in front of the looking-glass—the eye noticing as he walked that all sign of limp had vanished. Opening the box a pungent odour spread over the berth, tickling Jimmie's nostrils and forcing him to cram a lump of dirty sheet in his mouth to prevent a sneeze. Then the man dabbed his hair here and there with a sort of ointment from the box, paying careful attention, the watcher noticed, to the grey patches, after which he sponged it thoroughly in water. He then, taking off his glasses, critically inspected his face. Then, uncorking a bottle of yellowish liquid, he applied the contents carefully with a brush to his cheeks, forehead, and chin, muttering as he worked.

"Curse the luck!" the by this time disgusted Jimmie, understanding nothing, heard him say. "To think that, after all, they should have turned up again in such a fashion. It was worth a fortune to me to have got rid of the 'Toff Bird ' and t'other fellow in one act. Hard lines, that's what I call it. However," and he grinned as he spoke, "old Barnes was duty bound to catch somebody, I suppose. The chap that bought the ring, of course—Brown, he gammoned his name was. As if I didn't know! Well, I don't think he'll recognise the seller in 'his lordship!' But what a mug he must have been to let Barnes lumber him like that! Won't there be a row when they find out they've made such a bloomin' mull?" And the speaker chuckled heartily at his own reflection in the mirror.

By now Jimmie's vision of the £500 had vanished. His only thought was to get away unperceived and kick himself. He also wanted to sneeze worse than ever. The pungent, penetrating, chemical odour still titillated his nose, and repression was causing him to suffer acutely. He had shut the watching eye, when a sharp clicking made him re-open it. And what he saw put new power of endurance into his nerves.

His lordship held in his hands a diamond bracelet, and plying a pair of nippers was with practised skill extracting the stones, flashing as he turned them in the electric light. Close to him lay a broad belt of stout flannel that he had just taken off. It contained many small pockets that bulged. And Jimmie needed no information as to their contents. Very rapidly the worker cut and snipped until the diamonds, six in all, were freed from their setting. Then, dropping them into one of the compartments of the belt, he took a needle and thread and stitched the mouth up. Then muttering, "They may search as much as they like now!" he made as though to fasten it around his waist again. But his eye falling on the torn and cut gold, he laid the belt on the couch, gathered up all the pieces, wrapped them in paper, and putting the parcel in the pocket of his pyjama coat, lit a cigar, opened the door, and stepped on deck.

Hardly waiting for him to disappear, Jimmie leaped like a flash from his lair and snatched the precious parcel. But at that moment the long-repressed sneeze burst forth with a dreadful piercing sound that echoed high above the wash of water and thump of the engines. He darted at the door, threw it wide, and was actually over the sill when a pair of strong hands, gripping his throat, forced him back into the cabin, and a voice hoarse with rage muttered in his ear:—

"Oh, you clever beggar! Now, I'll kill you quietly and chuck you overboard, too!"

The yellow face grew black, and the narrow black sunken eyes came out of their sockets in an appalling fashion as the man, tightening his clutch, and intent only on finishing his work, jammed the Chinese silently, grimly, on to the settee. Then all at once Jimmie remembered.

And ceasing to claw futilely at the rigid arms that throttled, he dropped his hand under his loose jumper, and, drawing his knife, struck with all his remaining strength deep between rib and hip. Instantly a change came over the flushed, dark face and the fierce eyes staring into his own; the iron grip relaxed, and Jimmie, tearing himself loose, drew a long, choking breath as the other, groaning, and coughing up blood, sank to his knees on the floor.

For a few minutes Jimmie could do nothing but pant; then, recovering somewhat, he snatched up the belt, already in part stained crimson, and, without another glance at the figure bowed against the couch, he rushed on deck and along it and up the steps of the bridge, whence, eluding the grip of the officer of the watch, he darted into the captain's room and shook him as he lay in his cot and flourished his treasure, crying aloud, "All li, sah, me catchee! He try chokee me. No can do! Me stickee allee same pig. You savee me catchee dollar all li, sah?"

The wounded man lived for nearly two days, during most of which time he alternately jeered at the unhappy Barnes and cursed Jimmie for spoiling what he averred was one of his finest efforts.

"And what made you take my title?" asked Brown on one occasion. "Wasn't it enough to land me in all this trouble without adding to the obligation?"

"Well," replied the other, with a grin, "it was just a matter of chance. I saw you once a long time ago in Auckland, when you were staying at Government House there. Then when I sold you the ring up in Seattle, although you gammoned plain Brown, I recognised you at once. Well, then, I heard you were nabbed; then, after a while, came the news that you and good old Barnsey there were drowned. So, why, as I meant to work this Yankee boat for all she was worth, I thought I couldn't do better than do it as a lord—especially when the chances were that very few people except myself knew what had become of the said lord. See? But you've got a rattling good action against the Government for damages; and as for Barnes, he'll probably get the sack. That was a messed up job at Bezil and Carat's. So long! I don't feel, somehow, as if I could do any more talk."

No case of Brown or Wardour v. the Crown, however, came into any Colonial court of law. The matter was settled quietly by arbitration. And nobody for certain appeared to be aware of the exact amount awarded. Still, the hole made in the Treasury account with the Bank of Carpentaria must have been very considerable. "Heaven knows, Jack," remarked his lordship afterwards to his cousin, Captain D'Arcy, "that although I wanted money badly enough, I didn't, as some people kindly hint, lay myself out to take advantage of the mistake. I told the beggars the truth, and that I was merely a poor devil of a titled Englishman travelling around under his family name. But when I saw how cursedly cocksure they were, the notion entered my mind to make them pay pretty dearly for the tune they danced me to. I have done so. And presently I'll give up wandering and go home and settle at Mount Wardour. I'm able to raise the mortgage now, and then have money to spare. Barnes comes with me. They made a scapegoat of him, but I can find him something better to do over yonder."