CHAPTER XXIX

For the second time I held the casket in my hand, but even now it was impossible for me to look at it. I had to keep my eye on the duke. I picked it up and walked to the table near which the duke was seated.

“Tell me,” I asked laughingly, “did you bring me to this room for the sheer joy of gloating over my nearness to this toy that I have been struggling to possess for the past month, knowing how impossibly far it was from me? Did it afford you so much pleasure to play with me, to tease me, that you pushed your game so dangerously far? If so, you are an artist, my dear duke.”

“Mr. Hume is generous in his compliments.”

“Or,” I continued, thrusting my face nearer to his, “am I mistaken in thinking that most of your words and deeds are spoken and acted with some purpose in view?”

“For example?” he asked lightly.

“For example,” I repeated, “it was hardly for love of me that you spoke to me this afternoon.”

290“Hardly,” he sneered, pale with rage and disappointment. “Rather because I hated you so much that I wished to amuse myself at your expense.”

“Or is there a third possibility?” I continued scornfully. “That you wished to avenge yourself? While you were taunting me with St. Hilary’s perfidy, or his supposed perfidy, the idea occurred to you that if you could induce me to come to your rooms, if you could hold me there while you sent Luigi for the gendarmes, you might have me committed to jail for assault, perhaps, or complicity in breaking into your rooms. On the whole, I am inclined to think that this view of the case is the most reasonable.”

“As you will, Mr. Hume,” he answered, his lips white and trembling.

“Now listen to me, Duke da Sestos. Granting that I am correct, the gendarmes will be here presently. Luigi has been gone some time. Before they come, I wish to put the case clearly before you. This casket and these jewels belong neither to me nor to you. They are the property of the state. When your gendarmes come, be sure I shall make that clear.”

“Pooh! I have always known that you were a fool,” he cried contemptuously.

“Ah, I thought you would listen to reason,” 291I said quickly. “Now tell me frankly: Why have you been so keen on this hunt for the casket? Was it to please Miss Quintard or to please yourself?”

“Why not both? In pleasing myself perhaps I should be pleasing Miss Quintard.”

“And perhaps not,” I replied drily. “A truthful answer, duke, if you please. We have no time to lose–if you care anything for the baubles in this casket.”

“Well, then, for myself,” he said, looking at me curiously.

“And if I had not surprised you just now, you would have taken your casketful of jewels to London or Paris to dispose of them at leisure?”

“Perhaps,” he assented insolently.

“Or would you have taken this casket to Miss Quintard and apologized for making a slight error?”

“Why could I not have done both?” he cried. “Yes, Mr. Hume, even if you give it to the gendarmes, the casket is mine–legally and morally. The state will grant my claim, and then––”

“That is the point I was coming to. Supposing you were offered a share of these baubles–I do not say how great a share–is it possible that you could be induced to give up the casket?”

292“I have heard there is an English proverb that it is better to have a bird in one’s hand than two birds in the bushes.”

“But allow me to remind you that in this instance the bird is in my hands.”

“For the present,” he interrupted with a meaning glance.

“Come, come,” I cried sharply, “we have had enough of this quibbling. I make you a sporting proposition. I will give you a share of these jewels for the casket.”

“I am afraid,” he said suspiciously, “my share would be rather a small one.”

“It would be one-third,” I said quietly. “I am not a thief. I covet no stolen property, and these stones were stolen. The price of blood is on them. Whether they were stolen to-day or five hundred years ago, the moral aspect of the case is the same. But I want that casket, and I must have it.”

“Who gets the other two-thirds?” demanded the duke, like a greedy glutton. “St. Hilary, I suppose.”

“If he can prove to me that he has played fair.”

The duke thought a minute. “Very well, I agree.”

I emptied the chambers of the revolver’s cartridges. 293I put them into my pocket. I pushed the weapon carefully under the newspapers again.

“And now that the strain of the past five minutes is over, I suppose I may have a look at my casket?”

“With pleasure.” The duke bowed sardonically.

In shape and size it was not unlike the pseudo da Sestos casket with which the duke had attempted to deceive Jacqueline.

It was of bronze, overlaid with plaques of gold, enriched with cloisonné enameled work and precious stones, cut for the most part en cabochon. The cover rose to an apex. At the apex was a knob of wrought gold, in shape a monster’s head, the eyes formed of minute rubies. At the four corners of the cover were large semi-precious stones of chalcedony, rock-crystal, carbuncle, and turquoise. From these four stones to the knob of gold ran lines of pearls.

The sides of the casket were composed of rectangular plaques, alternately covered with symmetrical designs in colored cloisonné enamel, partly opaque and partly translucent. These plaques were studded with pearls framed with a cunning design of scrolls and filigree work.

294“It would fetch a thousand pounds at Christie’s any day,” I mused.

“Will you tell me how long that toy must tick before the cover can be opened?” interrupted the duke.

“When did you set the mechanism?”

“At precisely twenty-five minutes to seven.”

“Then in half an hour the casket will be opened.”

There was a loud knock on the door.

“Ah, your gendarmes,” I said coolly.

“And, as host, may I receive my guests?”

“Do,” I urged, and seated myself in his chair, the casket on my knees.

He opened the door. Two impossibly solemn gendarmes entered, precisely alike as two files. Keeping step, each with each, their hands on their sword hilts, they advanced to the middle of the room and saluted. Old Luigi stood discreetly without. I hope it is no disgrace to confess that I awaited the duke’s orders with some trepidation.

“We have received word,” said the duke calmly, and he waved his hand toward me, “that an American gentleman, returning from the bal masqué at the C?sarini Palace, early this morning, was assaulted by ruffians near the Calle Bianca Madonna, and knocked insensible. He 295was then carried to an empty house in the Jewish quarter. It is the third right-hand house on the quay of the Mestre Canal as you enter it. Release the gentleman. Tell him that his friend, Signore Hume, wishes to speak with him here. See that he comes. That is all.”

The gendarmes saluted as one man, spun about on their heels and marched from the room, their red and white plumes nodding.

“The gentleman to be found in the Jewish quarter is, of course, St. Hilary. It requires no great imagination to guess that you had him confined there. It would interest me to know how you managed last night.”

“Oh, believe me, nothing could have been simpler,” replied the duke. “I knew, you may be sure, that you were not spying on Miss Quintard and myself in the tower. As a matter of fact, I was bitterly disappointed when you showed yourself; for, frankly, Mr. St. Hilary and you had been seen ascending the tower, and it was known that you were concealed somewhere. But we had not thought of the beams up there. When you were discovered I had presence of mind enough not to rout out your friend. All we had to do, then, was to watch him. We made our way into the sala after you, and, lying concealed until the dramatic moment, my Punchinello 296took care of your friend, while I took care of your casket.”

“But how did you know we were to take the casket that night?”

“You have been watched for a week. It is so much easier and more sensible to reap where others have sown than to dirty one’s own fingers with the plow.”

“Then,” I said with a sigh of relief, “St. Hilary played fair?”

“So far as I know,” replied the duke indifferently. “But I hear him coming up the stairs. You can ask him for yourself.”

The door burst open, and St. Hilary rushed in. A bandage stained with blood and dirt was wrapped about his head. He was still in my ulster and golf cap. He looked as if he had spent a few bad quarters of an hour.

“You are just in time, St. Hilary,” I cried, “to see the casket opened.”

“What! You have beaten him after all!” He glared at the duke.

“With neatness and despatch,” generously complimented the duke.

St. Hilary did not answer. He stood looking down at the casket, holding his watch in his hand. It was now six-thirty. The clock on the Piazza told the half-hour.

297“Did you set the mechanism at six thirty-five precisely?” I asked anxiously.

“At six thirty-five precisely,” answered the duke, frowning too in anxiety.

“Tut, tut! Do you expect the accuracy of a watch of the twentieth century in this mechanism?” replied St. Hilary irritably. “It may be several minutes before the casket opens.”

“In that case, I fear, Mr. Hume, that you may have to delay fulfilling your promise to Miss Quintard.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Do you forget that she leaves Venice at seven-thirty?”

“What are you talking about?” asked St. Hilary roughly, his eyes fixed on the casket.

“The duke has just been reminding me that the casket is legally his, and that, if necessary, he will lay his claim before the state.”

“But we are not fools enough to care a straw about his claim,” growled the dealer. “We have beaten him at his own game. It is too late for him to cry out.”

“On the contrary,” I said coolly, “the duke has induced me to recognize that claim.”

“Yes, I have exchanged my casket for a share of its contents,” added the duke suavely.

For a moment St. Hilary forgot to keep his 298eye on the casket. He glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Surrendered his claim! To you? By heavens, do you think, Hume, that you can ignore me?”

“I have not ignored you, St. Hilary. If you lose the casket, you have two-thirds of the gems. It is better, I should think, to have that two-thirds than to have any trouble with the state.”

“Precisely,” beamed the duke.

“Very well,” agreed the dealer grudgingly.

It was now a quarter to seven. Still we could hear the muffled tick.

“It really looks as if Mr. Hume would miss his train,” mocked the duke.

At that instant there was a loud click. The duke started perceptibly. St. Hilary, pale with excitement, flung up his hands. I threw back the cover.

The room seemed suddenly irradiated with a flash of multi-colored light. Five great gems glowed in their compartments of purple velvet in the topmost tray. St. Hilary and the duke uttered cries of joy. If I must confess it, these stones affected me hardly more than a display in any jeweler’s window in Bond Street or Fifth Avenue.

“The minutes are more precious to me than 299those gems,” I cried. “Take out the trays, or I shall empty the contents of the casket on the table.”

“When once we have closed the shutters,” said St. Hilary.

He started to go to the windows, but noticing that the duke did not move, he halted suspiciously. They were like two beasts with their prey between them.

“I will close the shutters for you,” I said, laughing grimly at the greed that distorted their faces.

As I left the room with the casket in a bag which the duke procured for me, my last look caught a glimpse of the two men seated one on each side of the table. A lighted candle was at each elbow, and the trays of gems lay between them.