However, I wasn"t going to run matters too fine this time and get cornered again, as had been my fate at Oporto, so I loafed amongst the shipping offices during my mornings, and had the good luck to stumble into a berth on one of the American liners. It was only as third mate, to be sure; but then she was a big ship, and I, professionally speaking, was a small man. I hadn"t exactly been schooled for the sea, you know, so you can guess I was feeling pretty comfortable over it.
It"s just spells like those which prove to a man how thoroughly life is worth living.
The end of my tether was not long in coming. A man, when his sh.o.r.e riotings are thoroughly systematic, as mine were, can calculate his days of revelry to a nicety. I had arrived at my last two twenty-lire notes. I was going to finish up with a ten-lire dinner, then spend four lire for entrance and a seat at the Carlo Felice to hear "Cavalleria Rusticana," leaving part of six lire for bed, morning coffee, and other sundries, besides twenty odd to carry on the war with before I got my advance on the steamer. Being stone-broke when you go on board doesn"t matter if you ship forward; but aft, to start with bare pockets may get you a bad name.
I had maundered out to the Campo Santo that last day, and on the road back, just after pa.s.sing through the walls, an Englishman who had lost himself asked the way to the market-place. He was a little bit of a self-important chap, with a gruff, coa.r.s.e voice, and schoolmaster written in large letters all over him. He knew no word of Italian, and was evidently feeling lonely to a degree; and so, as I had no objection to chatting with a countryman, we paced off together and dropped into conversation. He was "doing" North Italy with a circular ticket, and as he had read it all up with much thoroughness beforehand, he was very naturally much disappointed with the reality. "S. Mark"s was too small, and Venice was most unhealthy. The sanitation of that part over the Rialto Bridge, where the butchers" shops were, was a disgrace to the country. The Duomo at Milan was squat, ugly, overrated, and the hotel charges in that city were most exorbitant. Turin might be a good place for shopping, but he had not gone there for that purpose. And Genoa, again, was unsanitary." In fact, he was the stereotyped travelling Briton, so full of melancholy discontent and disappointment that one wondered why he did not commit suicide or go home. And as, add to this, he laid down the law with the true schoolmaster"s dogmaticalness on every conceivable subject that cropped up, from music to tattooing, you can guess that he had in him the makings of a very objectionable beast indeed. However, he was so appallingly ignorant of all the matters he plunged amongst as to be correspondingly amusing, and for that reason alone I didn"t give him the go-by at once.
We were pa.s.sing a bookseller"s shop, where he caught sight of a mangy, leather-bound MS. in the window, and said he"d ask the price. He didn"t know in the least what it was about, and didn"t seem to care; but saying that he would make a good profit out of it at Quaritch"s, went into the shop. I didn"t offer an opinion about his last statement, but just followed. He was demanding "How much?"
"Vous parlez francais, m"sieu"?" asked the bookseller.
"Nong, mais this gentleman here parlez Italiano.--I say, will you translate for me? Ask the fellow what he"ll sell this for."
I did, and the bookseller started a long yarn about the MS. having come out of the Marchese di Somebody-or-other"s library, where it had lain undisturbed for several thousand years. "Signor," said he, "the book is of inestimable value, and I cannot part with it for less than thirty lire."
I repeated the gist of this to my man--Weems was his name, by the way, of New, Oxford, so he said--and told him he could get the thing for about twelve lire, if he cared about it. And, to cut the yarn short, he did buy it for twelve-fifty, and left the shop feeling that he had been swindled out of at least half a crown.
"What"s your purchase about?" I asked when we were in the street again.
He hadn"t looked; didn"t see that it mattered much; the stuff was old, and that was the main thing. All these old MSS. were valuable, and Quaritch was sure to buy it at a good price.
I still had my doubts about that last, but didn"t argue. It was his affair, not mine.
Finally, he suggested dining together, and (as he had been in Genoa exactly twelve hours) laid down the law without the smallest hesitation as to which was the best place to go to, and what was best to have. By that time I had got about sick of his society, and said bluntly that, as I knew Genoa thoroughly, I was not going anywhere in the Galleria Mazzini, as he suggested, but to somewhere in another direction; and, further, that as his idea of his menu and mine didn"t appear to coincide in any one item, we had better bid one another good afternoon.
But the horror of loneliness loomed near him again, and for one of the few times in his life he changed front without argument. He would grant, upon second thoughts, that I must know best about such a matter, and would take it as a great favour if he might place himself under my guidance. After which, of course, I could not say anything except that I should be proud to act as his _cicerone_.
We had our meal--which was to be my last good one for many a long day to come--and a beauty it was. Even my North of England grammar-school master could not but admit the excellence, although he grumbled at the price. Afterwards we went through into the _caffe_, and I offered him a good cigar, saying that if he had been undergoing a course of the local vegetable he would appreciate it. However, the creature didn"t smoke; and as he also didn"t drink black coffee, and as I did both, he took occasion to point out to me at some length that I was deliberately crumpling up my const.i.tution. To turn the conversation, I suggested over-hauling his recent purchase. He seemed sorry to cut short his sermon, but finding that I was paying no attention, asked what the book was.
"It"s a diary," said I, "written in Spanish, or to be more accurate, Catalan; and," I added rather maliciously, "I"m afraid you won"t get much of a fortune out of Quaritch for it, as there seems to be nothing here except the merest t.i.ttle-tattle."
His face lengthened for a moment at the idea, but the old c.o.c.ksure manner came back again, and he pooh-poohed my valuation with lofty superiority.
"I presume you are not an expert in such matters as these--er--Mr.
Cospatric? No, of course not; it couldn"t be expected. But let me a.s.sure you that I did not make this outlay with my eyes shut. Trust me for knowing what I was about." He turned over some dozen of the yellow pages, looking at them curiously. "That _y_ there standing by itself means "and." H"m, yes. The thing"s clear enough when one looks into it. I don"t profess to translate this old MS. at sight. You see the--ar--the writing"s crabbed; and my time is too much occupied to study it carefully. No, I shall just sell the thing to the man I mentioned as it stands. To return to what I was telling you about the use of tobacco, though. Whether you consider the matter from a scientific or merely from a rational point of view----" And away he steamed again, whilst I conned over the tangled quill-work.
My inattention was purposely obvious. I had got thoroughly sick of the man, and wanted to drive him away. But he had only his own society to fall back upon, and he had evidently the good taste to object strongly to that. And so he preached on.
There was only one other person at our end of the _caffe_, a dark, good-looking man with blue spectacles, who sat at an adjoining table with an _Eco d"Italia_ before him, sipping cognac and sugar. But when Weems tried to drag him into conversation, the curse of the Tower of Babel applied the _cloture_, and, "Ignorant lot, these Italians," said the schoolmaster, going on to show with many statistics and arguments that English, being founded on dead languages, was irrevocably destined by the Fates to become the universal tongue of all terrestrial peoples.
I looked at the clock. Half an hour yet before the doors of the Carlo Felice opened. The steep street outside was wet and miserable. I went back to turning over the old book. The pages were a queer medley, superbly uninteresting most of them, and tedious to spell out. There were the usual Spanish flourishes of lettering and expression, and when one had winnowed away all this chaff, it needed a great deal of hunger to make one appreciate the grain. In fact, I was on the point of closing the old scribble book through sheer weariness, when my eye lit on something which, as I read it further, made me fairly sweat.
Weems droned on with his sermon, and I chucked in question and retort from time to time, just to keep him at it. I was wanting to gain time for a little argument of my own. It was a case of should I keep what I had found to myself, or should I share it with Weems? Common sense said, "Don"t be a fool. If Providence has chucked a good thing in your way, stick it in your own pocket. That self-sufficient idiot will be none the wiser." But the plague one calls Honour kept shoving in all manner of objections. By Jove, how a rational-minded cad would have scored there!
In the long run Honour, confound it, got a bit of a balancer which helped it to win. I"d a light purse; Weems seemed better off; he must supply the trifle of shot necessary for the pair of us; and together we should split the proceeds. Yes, that would be the idea. And besides, on second thoughts, there"d be lashings and lavings of plunder for both.
No need for a bit of sharp practice on my part after all. So up I spoke:--
"See here, signor, you"ve had the carpet for long enough, so give me a turn. This twaddling old screed which you were going to sell without ever skimming it through holds what means nothing more or less than a thumping great fortune for each of us. You"ve heard of Raymond Lully?
No? Well, he was an old swell who flourished in the twelve hundreds, and who was by trade rake, philosopher, quack, fanatic, organizer, and martyr. He hailed from Mallorca--or Majorca, as you English persist in calling it--and he wrote books on Apologetic Theology, Dogmatic Divinity, and Practical Alchemy. Also he penned this diary, which has evidently been kept pretty snug so far, and thanks to its general dreary tone, no one has read the memorandum on page the last but one."
"Let me see," interrupted Weems, stretching out his hand for the volume.
"It"s of no use to you, as you can"t read Spanish. However, I"ll tell you what"s here; only let me gently remind you first that if it hadn"t been for my knowing the language and conning some of this stuff through, the book would have pa.s.sed out of your hands without your ever having learnt a word about it. Shall I go on now? It"s a bit important."
"Yes, we are practically alone here. That person with the blue spectacles speaks no English, and there is no one else within earshot.
But you are slightly in error about my ignorance of Spanish, Mr.
Cospatric!"
"Yes, yes; you know _y_ means "and," don"t you, and that _si_ stands for "yes," and all the rest? But don"t let"s bother about that now. Just marvel at this wonderful find. If the old gentleman had only written "R. Lully, His Book," on the t.i.tle-page or at the conclusion, some bibliophile would have picked the thing up for a certainty, and read it with the view of finding what I have found; and part of the world"s history would be different. But as it is, Lully happily omitted his signature, and in consequence the memorandum of where the Recipe could be found has never been read since the day it was written."
"But," broke in Weems, "what is this all about? I can"t understand what you are driving at, except that the book is a diary of Raymond Lully"s, whose name, of course, I recollect clearly enough now."
"My dear sir, whilst this old quack was trafficking with alchemy, and trying to discover the elixir vital, or the philosopher"s stone, or some other myth like that, he accidentally found out a method whereby common wood charcoal may be crystallized."
"What!" gasped the schoolmaster, "made into diamonds! Great heavens, how was it done? Tell me quick."
"He doesn"t give it here. This diary was evidently a private one which he carried about with him, and it was liable to be destroyed. So he wrote up the Recipe in a quiet place where no one would stumble on it, and where, as he remarks, he could send his heir to if he thought fit to do such a thing. But still, I don"t think that there is much fear of the secret having been given away. In the first place, we should undoubtedly hear of it if any one was manufacturing real diamonds for the market, as the diamond mines of the world are all known, and their output most strictly regulated. And, in the second place, he had a strong reason of his own for not divulging the formula. Listen, and I"ll read. "If," he says, "diamonds were made common and cheap so that the lower orders of people might obtain them, I can conceive that much dissension would arise. For the n.o.bles, finding their stored gems to have become in a sudden of no richness, would be deeply embittered thereby--they and their woman-kind. And the common folk, being able to flaunt jewels equal to those of their betters, would wax arrogant and dissatisfied; and though being in reality no whit better off than before, would deem themselves the inferiors of none and the superiors to most; in support of which vain dreams they would strive to their own sore detriment. For as in the beginning the sons of Adam were equal, and as of their descendants some rose to be of ruling cla.s.ses through mental and physical fitness, so if all men were to be levelled again to-day, to-morrow they would be uneven once more, and the next day more uneven, the weak getting trampled under foot, and the strong fighting a red path upward with their ruthless sword.""
"I need hardly inform you," interrupted Weems, "that those crude ideas of political economy are not what we modern thinkers accept. Even John Stuart--but I will tell you about that afterwards. Please let me hear how the diamonds are made. Never mind about the other twaddle. It pains one to listen to it."
"As I told you, the actual Recipe is not in the diary here. Lully wrote it out, so he says, in imperishable form, in a place where he conceived it would pa.s.s down through the centuries absolutely undisturbed. I am not quite so confident about that as he is, as I know the inquisitiveness of the present generation better than he could imagine it. But to cut the story short, he found a way into one of the Talayots of Minorca, carved his secret upon the plaster of the interior, hid the entrance again, and came away. He says that the Talayot was believed by the Minorcans to be solid throughout, and adds that his only confidant, the priest who helped him to gain the internal chamber, died of a fever two days afterwards. Then he mentions the name of the spot--Talaiti de Talt, near Mercadal--and says if you dig a man"s length down in the middle of the side facing seaward, you"ll come across the entrance pa.s.sage. Oddly enough, I"ve been at Mercadal myself, when a brig I was on was weather-bound in Port Mahon; and though I don"t recollect this Talaiti de Talt, it"s very probable I saw it, as we overhauled all the Talayots in the neighbourhood."
"By the way, what is a Talayot? I"m--ar--sorry to confess ignorance----"
That last made me grin, which he saw, and didn"t like a bit. However, I pulled my face together again, and explained. ""Talayot" is a generic term for the groups of prehistoric remains which lie all over the island. There are monoliths, short underground pa.s.sages, duolithic altars, and rude pyramids. Talaiti de Talt is evidently one of these last."
"Old?"
"Tolerably. The race of men who put them up were extinct before the Egyptian pyramid-builders came upon the scene."
"I don"t quite see how that can be. You must understand, Mr.
Cospatric----"
"Oh, what does it matter, man? If it pleases you, I"ll grant that Cheops and Co. took to architecture first. But, anyway, these Minorcan pyramids were up long before Lully"s time, and that"s enough for us.
The Recipe"s there, just waiting to be fetched. We must drink success to this."
A waitress brought us filled gla.s.ses, and we toasted one another. Then I told Weems openly enough about my financial position, and asked him to advance me enough for pa.s.sage money. I said I knew the language and the route and all the rest of it, and the outlay for the pair of us would be very little more than what it would cost him to go alone. In fact, I was going on to sketch out the trip, and tot up the items of cost, when he cut me short, and coldly intimated that he did not intend to part with a cent. He did not even plead poverty. He gave no reason whatever.
I stared at him for a minute or so blankly. That he would refuse what I asked had never occurred to me. At last I blurted out, "Why, good G.o.d, man, I needn"t have told you about the thing at all. If I"d held my tongue, you know very well you"d have parted with the book in absolute ignorance of what it contained."
"I might or might not have looked into it, Mr. Cospatric. That is as may be. But the most ordinary honesty would have compelled you to speak when I did. Perhaps I refused your request too abruptly just now.
Believe me, I am not ungrateful for the service you have rendered. In fact, I should like to prove my obligation. But I could not have you labour under the error that you are ent.i.tled to a half share of whatever profits may accrue. This Recipe is mine, entirely mine, Mr.
Cospatric, and it is not likely that I am going to put you in the way of annexing a share of it. Of course, legally, you have no claim on me; but as you say you are in indigent circ.u.mstances, I am willing to stretch a point, and do more than I otherwise should. I will give you the remainder of my circular ticket. That will take you back to England, let me see--via----"
"You scurvy little blackguard," said I, beginning to lose my temper, "aren"t you afraid of being killed?"
He got very red, and exclaimed pompously, "Don"t you attempt bombast with me, Mr. Cospatric. I am as safe from your personal violence here as I should be at home."
"Then," said I, "you must live at a tolerably lively place, for here there are at least four men knifed every week, and more when things are brisk."