Free at Last,

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 27 July 1907, Page 10

Free at Last,

o "Shall we never shake them off?" I asked in desperation. My dousin shrugged his shoulders. Then we both stared hopelessly out of the window. Our four pursuers stared up at us from the stieet below. It was not me, tho man, they were after, you understand; it was me, the Human Safe, as the public called mo — me, ip whom was hidden the now worldfamous diamond, once the property of kings. To make a long story short, I must explain, to you that inadvertently, | 141 a moment of great emotion, I had' j swallowed the celebrated diamond, that it had lodged in my unfortunte appendix, that I, having a Horror of the knife, refused to be operated upon, and thus allow the precious stone to be restored to its rightful owner. Whp was that rightful owner was an open question. Was it the old Jaw curio-dealer — my late master' — who had originally bought it for a. purely nominal sum? Was it the diplomat who had given him ten times what he had paid for itV Was it the American who had bid ten millions to secure the jewel he only knew of by repuie? Or would it eventually, after all, fall into the clutches of the two astute burglars, who, in various disguises, dogged my footsteps, dptpnnined to kid' nap and kill me, and so secure tlje diamond? Who shall say? All I know is that each of the men I have mentioned glaimed the stono and was determined to obtain possession of it, and that clearly just so long as I refused to ex,noi?e, my Ufe to the terror of the surgeon's knite, as, despite threats and bribes and the arm of the law, I did steadfastly and firmly, just so long was it impossible for -any one of them to compass that end. The diamond was in my position, and there it must remain. Its would-be owners were iv despair. The doctor who had diagnose-i Iho position of the diamond was the only man who cave them a gleam of hove. "Tfiis man," he said, speaking of me, "may refuse to be operated upon ; but, such is the magnitude of the thing he has swallowed, that eventually matters aro bound to become acute ; aud thus, to save his life, it will be necessary to operate and extract the diamond. It was anticipation of this event — that when its day arrived thoy might not fail to be 01) the spot, and so secuis the prize — that caused the rival claimants of the diamond to sink their differences and. make common cause a^nin3t me, vowing that they would never let me out of their sight, that they would follow wheresoever I and my old cousin chose to go, even if it wero to the furthest ends of the earth. Now, originally, in their untanjperpct state, the ends of the earth were fairly wido apart, but of late years the Press has drawn them together in a manner which is really most awkward for a man eager to escape from his fellow-creatures. In consequence of tho glaring and outrageous searchlight cast on me by the halfpenny press, my purshers were for eveT on my tracks. Thanks to the publicity which tho daily papers insistod on giving'to my smallest movements, thnnks to tho horde of reporters who wherever I went settled on me like flies, the lour men who were after me v.ere always at my heels. It was impossible, try as J would, to evade them. Finally, thoy ran us to ground in a little furiiishfd lodging in a back slum in a certain American town. How 1 they found me there Heaven knows, I doVt. This time, we really had flattered ourselves that we had evaded them. But, ns I say, when I looked through the cracks of the Venetian blind there they were, the four of them, stand- ; ing outside a small eafing-house on the ! opposite pavement, determined jiot for one instant to lose sight of me, the Human Safe in which their diamond was entombed. The situation was horrible, i abominable. I had not wanted to swallow their wretched diamond. It was a source • of intense annoyance to' mo; it had caused the terror of a possible operation to overshadow my life ; and I completely I failed to see why, in addition to all this, thoy should claim the riglit to deprive me, a free and innocent; man, ox the privacy of i my existence. Escape from them I must. But how? Roof impossible, back door non-existent ; if we climbed out through the window^ or walked -out through the front door, they would all have been in hot pursuit again. Thero seemed no way out. None. The landlady brought us a- horrid meal of corned b.esf. We ate it with despair in our hearts. Time hung heavily on our I hands, and it was with a fp.eling of thankfulness for any variety that chance might bring that we shouted "Come in" in answer to a knock at our bitting-room door. A young man entered. Wo stared at' him. He was a complete stranger. A newspaper repolter, probably. As I have told you, they never let us alone. Details a3 to the Human Safe were part of the silly seacon slock-iu-trade. They looked upon me, the brutes, as the leci-l tiinate property of the presß, and the public. £U2<l I, f&llj- z-calising -that TTJtiiXout their impertinent importunities I should have heen a free man, loathed tho whole crew. But I was too cautious to treat them otherwise than politely. I knew their power. The young man bowed. We bowed too, "You are the Human Safe ?" he asked. (By this timo I had grown accustomed' to being known by this name, ) 1 bowed again. The young man cleared His throat. "You are doubtless aware that your ctory — the swallowing of a diamond of enormous value by an employee in a curio shop — bm been made into a play, a very successful play. lam the author of the play, also its chief exponent." Wo deigned to make no comment, bat the actor was not the least discomposed. "I have come to ask a favour." Ho paused and stared at me. "It would add enormously to the success of my play if I were able to make up direct from the original Have I your .permission?" As he spoko, he produced i»small black'leather bag from under bis cloak. I looked at my cousin, and my cousin looked at me. I walked to the window and stared out. The four were still thero, standing like gaolers outside the house. Impossible to escape. Time^ as I have said, hung heavily on our hands. "I agree," said my cousin. "Kindly come here?" said tho actor to me. I stood beaide him, and our two faces were reflected back to us from the largo glass over tho fireplace. It would havo been difficult to find two men of more widely divergent types. "Now turn round," he said. "I shall not keep you long." Out from his bag that he had placed beside the lamp on the chimney-piece came certain mysterious powders and paints, certain pencils and brushes and ecissors, and for a quarter of an hour tho man worked on his own face, drawing in lines and wrinkles, colouring the skin, altering the angle of his eyebrows, the curve of his nostrils, and the parting of his hair. "Now !" he said, and lowered the shade of tho lamp. I looked and I gasped. In place of the keen young American, with aquline 1 nose *nd Napoleonic typo of countenance, a man so like me in face that he might have been my twin-bio^ ther looked gravely back at me. I tell you, it gives one a cold shiver down oue'ft Bjyug suddenly to 6ge oars

double stand- there beside one. Tho actor laughed at my expression of amazed terror. "Much obliged," be said, "for the loan of your face. I'm off pow; shall t>g on the stage in a couple of hours, and 1 defy any one to know me from the original of the Human Safe." My cousin started. I wondered what idea had suddenly btrnck him. "Are you driving?" he asked abruptly. "Why, yes," the actor answered, pausing on his way to the door. I could_ not understand why all at oncb mv cousin's attitude to the actor completely changed, and be treated him in a manner at once patronising and deferential. "A very good make-up, certainly^ so far as tho face is concerned ; but the fact) is not exerytbing. What if you had his clothes?" Th,e actor grew scarlet with ejccitement. "You mean you would really bo good enough tp let me have his original clothes to play in?" he stammered. "In exchange for your own." "Magnificent-!" I attempted to protest. After all my clothes were my own property, and I did not see why they should be 6natchcd from me in this unceremonious way. But my cousin waved piy objections aside with brutal decision. "Undress !" he said firmly. Tn five minutes, the change was effected. "There I was, clothed in the actor's i)lue-serge suit red tie, patent-leathex boots, and Homburg hat, and thero ho stood before mb dressed in my shabb> old clothes, that from years of wcai seamed almost part of myself. Then the actor let his head fall forward, slackened the muscles of his legs, mads a step or two in the sort of hesitating, stumbling manner in which I usually moved — and with my own eyes I sq,w — myself ! I assure you it was not tin agreeable experience to see yourself m$ others see you — no, it is not so at all • "Most grateful . . success of play assured . . look in to-night," he said and he flashed out sf the room. We heard him clattering*' downstairs. In an instant .. my cousin had turned down the lamp and had draggrd mo across the darkened room to tho window. "Watch !'' he said. | Our pursuers were still standing on the opnof-ito pavement keeping guard over our frout door. A man camo out of it, with my face, my clothes. . . He Eaid a word to tho cnbby and then swung himself into the vehicle and banged the door. We watched breathlessly. T|ie cab started. With one bound the most active Qf the four sprang on to the back of the cabr ! for all the world as though he had been a street arab, while the threo others j started to run behind the cub, as probably, being all mon of middle age, they had not run for the l^st twenty years. Then my cousin flung himself baci in a chair and. laughed long and loud. I still leant out of the window, watching t}iis curious chase of the wrong man. They turned round a corner to the right i and disappeared from sight. . "Come!" said- my cousin; and in another instant wo were in the street flying for dear life in the opposite direction to that taken by our pursuers. After all those months, free at last ! — Eve Anstruther (from the French), in tho Westminster Gazette.