"I shall put myself under the protection of the police if you threaten me," said he, evidently beginning to feel a bit uneasy.
"And I should like to know how the devil you would set about doing that same? Why, my blessed rustic, supposing you knew the lingo, which you don"t, and you went up to the local subst.i.tute for a bobby, and said you wanted to get under his cloak, d"ye know what he"d do? Why, run you in straight away. And in quod you"d stop; there isn"t a soul in the city here who"d say a word for you." Of course all this was a bluff, but I knew the average Briton has an intense belief in official lawlessness on the Continent, and I thought I"d reckoned up this specimen pretty accurately. It looked as if I was right. He changed tack promptly, dropped the dictatorial schoolmaster, and started fawning. I seemed to have mistaken his motives. As a man of science, he naturally took an intense interest in this Recipe, and wished to have the administration of it entirely in his own hands. But, of course, I must have known that as a gentleman he would feel bound to divide any fortune that might proceed from it equally with me.
As a point of fact, I hadn"t understood this. I had also overlooked the item that he was a gentleman, and even then did not recognize it. But I kept these trifles to myself; and as he was evidently trying to bury the hatchet, I got out my spade as well. And for the rest of that evening we were as civil to one another as a couple of smugglers with one load of bales.
We were to work the thing together on his coin and my experience, both of which were equally necessary; and as for the plunder, there"d be a belly-full for the pair of us, and a lot to spare. Thank goodness women existed; and as long as they didn"t die out, the inhabitants of this globe would always buy diamonds, if the market was not over-glutted.
And we"d start by the train which set off westward along the coast at 7.10 the next morning.
When we get comfortably to Mahon, thought I, I"ll tell Mr. Schoolmaster that the proof of the pudding can be found near the Recipe, for, according to the ill.u.s.trious doctor"s account, he has buried in the floor of the Talayot a fist-full of diamonds from his own manufactory.
But as the little chap seems keen enough already, I"ll let that stand over for the present. If at any time he wants an extra spur, it will come in handy.
CHAPTER V.
WANTED, A Pa.s.sAGE.
It had been agreed that we were to start off next morning by the 7.10 train, and half an hour before that time saw me standing before the Columbus statue in the Piazza Acquaverdi. Weems was such a mighty squeamish little creature about the proprieties that I thought an old dunnage-sack would scandalize him, and so had purchased a drab portmanteau for my kit at the cost of half my remaining capital. I intended to have no more breezes with him if it could be avoided.
The minute-hand of the clock above the central entrance of the station crept up to the vertical, and began to droop. Cab after cab rolled up over the flagstones and teemed out people and properties. Still my man came not. He had distinctly said he would be in good time, as he had baggage to be registered, and disliked being hurried. It began to look, in spite of his bragging about never having overslept himself in his life, as if he had been late in turning out.
The clock showed three minutes past the hour, and the big hand, being on the down grade, began to race. I walked through the rank of waiting cabs, and stood by the pillars of the central doorway. If we missed this train we should lose a day. The 9.35 didn"t go through, as we had seen from the time-table overnight. It only landed one at Ma.r.s.eille.
The crowd of incoming people began to lessen, and finally ceased altogether. The last pa.s.senger pa.s.sed through on to the platform, and the officials locked the waiting-room doors. We had missed that blessed train.
I cursed Weems vigorously, and set off to Isotta"s, where he was staying, to beat him up, swinging the drab portmanteau in my fist, as I didn"t want to pay for leaving it, as somehow or other economy seemed to me at that moment to be a strong line.
The Swiss day-porter was just coming down. He was a gorgeous personage who could have saved the architect of Babel his great disappointment, and at first he knew nothing of Mistaire Weem. Evidently the schoolmaster had not been generous. So I inquired in the bureau for my man"s number, intending to beat up his room then and there, but was met by the staggering announcement that the signor had cleared by the Ma.r.s.eille train which left Genoa at 3.30 in the morning. But there was a letter for me.
I tore the limp envelope, and read:--
"GRAND HOTEL ISOTTA, _Genova, Tuesday_.
"DEAR SIR,--Upon consideration I must return to my original decision. I fear I shall have left Genoa before you receive this, but do not trouble to give me any thanks. The balance of the circular ticket is very much at your service.--Yours faithfully,
"R. E. WEEMS.
"--COSPATRIC, ESQ."
The little beast had done me brown.
It was getting on for eight o"clock then. I glanced at a time-table. He was due to leave Ma.r.s.eille at 8.4. By Jove, if I could have trumped up any charge that would have held water a minute I"d have had him arrested by wire. Anything to delay him! I was just savage mad. And I was as helpless as a figure-head.
I swung out into the Via Roma wondering what to do next. Common sense said go and take up my berth on the American steamer, and quit crying for the moon now that it had bounced out of reach again. But I was far too wild to listen to any sane sober plan like that. I couldn"t swim out to Minorca, and I could not fly; but I told myself grimly that I was going somehow, and if Weems had got there first and collared the Recipe, he"d just have to hand over--or--well, it would be the worse for Weems. I shouldn"t buy lavender kid gloves to handle him with.
All that day I hunted about, trying to get a pa.s.sage across to the islands; needless to remark, without success. The mail steamers run there from Valencia and Barcelona only, and though there are occasional orange boats pa.s.sing between Soller in North Mallorca and Ma.r.s.eille, they aren"t to be depended on. By a singular irony of fate, I did come across an old white--painted barque which had just come out of Palma in ballast; but her skipper only told what I knew full well in my own heart, that I might very likely wait three years before I found a craft going the other way.
There seemed nothing for it but to go like a sensible Christian by train round the coast, and then across from one of the two Spanish ports by the regular ramshackle mail steamer. And so I bowed to fate, and converted the drab portmanteau and all its contents into the compactest form. The lot didn"t fetch much. By dint of tedious haggling, I sc.r.a.ped together twenty-three lire thirty; and without selling the clothes on my back, and one other item, which I had rather sell the teeth out of my head than part with, I didn"t see a possibility of getting more by that sort of trade. However, I had only collected this slender store in the hopes of increasing it, and as soon as night came down and such places are open, I marched off to a gambling h.e.l.l which I knew of in the low part of the town near the harbour side. The way lay through many pa.s.sages and up many steps, and it was by no means a place to which the general public were admitted.
In fact, in its style it was far more exclusive than the _salle de jeu_ run by Monsieur Blanc"s successors at Monte. But I had been there before, and knew how to get the _entree_.
The whitewashed walls were grimy, the two naked gas-jets jumped and hooted spasmodically, and those who knew said that the atmosphere was reminiscent of a slaver"s hold. The officials wore their shirt-sleeves rolled up for greater ease in movement, and no gentleman was allowed to enter the room till he had deposited his knife outside the door.
With the fluctuating population of a seaport, one might reasonably expect to find most nationalities represented at such a seductive spot; but, as a point of fact, the operators on that night were almost exclusively Italians. The sailor, take him in the bulk, is a tolerable fool all the world over; but the northerner has some grains of sense though he is a sportsman, and roulette with twenty-six numbers and a zero is a trifle too strong an order even for him.
I had fixed my desires at a hundred and twenty lire. Less would not see me through; more I was not going to try for.
In that a.s.sembly a man who plunges half-lire pieces on every spin of the ball is a man who means business; and the _dilettanti_ soon let me press through to a stool at the table. Going on _pair_ and _impair_ or the colour was not to my taste. Either luck was going to stand by me that evening, or I was going to be broke; so I planked my money haphazard on four numbers every time, and didn"t handicap myself with a system. I"d a distinct suspicion that the bank had even a greater pull than was apparent on the surface; but there was no chance of investigation, and I submitted to the fact that chances all-told stood about two to one against me.
The play was slow, and for ordinary people unexciting, though you can guess it did not send me to sleep. I won a little, and lost a little; but on the whole was able to shove a ten-lire note every now and again into my pocket. It doesn"t do to leave such trifles about in some places.
A clock outside chimed ten, and I could count up sixty-four lire fifty.
What with Italian tobacco and Italian garlic and Italian humanity, the air had got something too awful for words. The arteries inside my skull were playing some devil"s tune of _Thumpetty b.u.mp_ that caused me to see mistily, and to wish for an earthquake which would rearrange terrestrial economy. In short, I couldn"t stand it any longer, and so went out for a few minutes" spell in the open.
But I didn"t luxuriate over-long. The thought occurred to me that Weems was already at Cerbere, and in another hour and forty minutes would be having his baggage examined by an individual in green cotton gloves at Port Bou, previous to pursuing his career of conquest down into Spain.
And by this time my grudge against that schoolmaster person had grown to be a very big one indeed. So I gave up parading the muddy paving-stones, and turned back into the _biscazza_.
A new arrival had turned up during my absence, a long, lean Englishman named Haigh, whom I had met casually once before. His nerves seemed in a delicate condition, for when the water-logged gas jumped, he jumped too, and, moreover, tried to do it as un.o.btrusively as possible, as if conscious and not over-proud of the failing. But he was gambling keenly and coolly enough, picking his notes one by one from a leather pocket-book, blinking over them to make sure of their value, and watching them unfailingly gathered up by the grimy paw of the croupier without an outward sign of regret.
I looked on a minute, thinking what a queer fish he was, and then elbowing in to the table started afresh on my own trading.
Fortune seemed to have improved by the rest. Three rattles of the pea brought my total up to a hundred and fifteen francs in Greek, French, and Italian money.
A hundred and twenty was certainly the original goal, but I had a precious great mind then to let the other five slide. In fact, I drew away from the table intending to stop. But instead of quitting the place there and then, I was fool enough to argue the position out solemnly to myself, with the result that I eventually decided the whole affair from beginning to end to be entirely of the nature of a gamble, and naturally felt bound to test whether the luck was going to hold any longer.
Indecision"s my strong point, and many"s the time I"ve had to pay for it. If I"d cleared out on the first impulse, I should have been comparatively affluent. As it was, ten more minutes beside that greasy baize cleared me down to the lining.
However, if I had made a donkey of myself, it wasn"t an altogether novel experience, and I was philosopher enough not to weep over it. So I crammed my fists into my pockets by way of ballast, and sauntered to the door for a trifle of property which the regulations had made me leave there.
Whilst I was picking my own particular weapon from amongst the armoury Haigh joined me, announcing that he also was cleaned out; and adding that he was not altogether sorry, as those flickering gas-jets bothered him.
The observation, if slightly illogical, was very explanatory; and so thinking that he"d be none the worse for being looked after, I said I"d stroll back up into the town with him. As we went up through the narrow streets he imparted a long detail of woe; but he maundered over it considerably, and whether the lady who was mostly in question was his own wife, or some one else"s wife, or no wife at all, was a point still hidden from me when we sheered up in front of his hotel. Here he got more mournful still, and quitted the tale of his past ill-treatment for a more pressing question of the present.
"Yes, here we are, old chap, and I"m awfully sorry I can"t ask you in to have something. But the fact is, I"m not in very good odour there just at present. My bill d"ye see"s been galloping for the last three weeks, and at lunch to-day the proprietor fellow said he couldn"t wait any longer for my remittances. He said that if they didn"t come by evening he"d rather I went, leaving my baggage behind by way of souvenir. I"m afraid the two portmanteaus aren"t worth very much, as I"ve--er--disposed of most of the contents, and supplied the weight by pieces of iron kentledge done up in one or other of the daily papers. I had a notion that I should have raised funds this evening, but circ.u.mstances intervened which--er--you understand, made me somewhat worse off than before. Of course if I went in there they might put me up again for to-night; but that proprietor fellow might be about, and I shouldn"t care to meet him. He"s such a nasty way of looking at a chap.
So I think, on the whole, I shall just go down and sleep on my boat."
"Your boat?" I repeated in a dazed sort of way.
"Yes," said Haigh, blinking at me anxiously; "just a little cutter I"ve got down there in the harbour. But I say, dear chappie, you aren"t taking it unkindly that I don"t ask you in here, are you? "Pon my honour, if I weren"t dead stony broke I"d give you a drink either in this place or----"
"d.a.m.n your drinks, you lucky man. If your boat and my knowledge doesn"t transmogrify us from a pair of stone-brokes into a couple of bloated millionaires, I"m a Dutchman. Come along, man. Come along now."
CHAPTER VI.