THE DIVA'S RUBIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13846, 4 September 1908, Page 3

THE DIVA'S RUBIES

BY F. MARION CRAWFORD, Author of '* Arethnaa." " Soprano," " Zoroaster," etc.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

CHAPTER IX. Logothkti reached his lodgings in St. James' Place at six o'clock m tho evening of the day on which he had promised to dine with Van Torp, and the latter's note of excuse was given to him at once. He read it, looked out of the window, glanced at it aga,in, and threw it, into the wastepaper basket without another thought. He did not care in the least about dining with the American millionaire. In fact, ho had looked forward to it rather at- a bore than a pleasure. He saw on his table, with l)i«s letters, a flat and almost square parcel, which the addressed label told him contained the Archaeological Report of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, and he had heard that the new number would contain an account, of a papyrus recently discovered at Oxyrrhynchua, on which some new fragments of Pindar had been found. No dinner that could bo devised, and no company that could be asked to meet, him at it, could be half as delightful as that to the mall who so deeply loved the ancient literature of his country, and he made up his mind at once that be would not even take the trouble to go to a club, but would have a bird and a salad in his rooms. Unhappily for his peace and his anticipated feast of poetry, he looked through his letters to see if there "were one from Margaret, and there was only a coloured postcard from Bayreuth, with the words " Greetings" scrawled beside the address in her large hand. Next to the card, however, there Mas a thick letter addressed in a commercial writing he remembered but could not at once identify, and though it was apparently a business communication, and could therefore have waited till the next morning, when his secretary would come as usual, he opened it out of mere curiosity to know whence it came. It was from Mr. Piiuiey, the jeweller, and it contained a full and conscientious account of the whole affair of the theft, from the moment when Logotheti and Van Torp bad gono out together until Mr. Pinney had locked up the stone in his sale again, and Barakn and Spiro had been lodged in Brixton Gaol. The envelope coii.tained also a cutting from the newspaper similar to the one Margaret had received from Lady Maud. , Logotheti laid the letter on the table, and! looked at his watch. It was now a- ! quarter past six, and old-fashioned shops like Pinner's close rather early in the dull season, when few customers are to be expected and the days are not t-o long as they have been. In the latter part of August, in London, the sun sets soon after seven o'clock, and Logotheti realised that he had no time to lose. As lie drove quietly up towards Bondstreet he ran over the circumstances in his mind, and came to the conclusion that Baraka had probably been the victim of a trick, though he did not exclude the bare possibility that she might be guilty. With all her cleverness and native sense, she might lie little more than a savage who had picked up European manners in Constantinople, where you can pick up any manners you like, Eastern or ■Western. "The merchant who had given her a" letter for Logotheti only knew what she had chosen to tell him, and connived in her deception by speaking of her as a man; and she might have told him anything to account for having some "valuable precious stones to dispose of. But, on the other hand, she might not be a Tartar at all. Anyone, from the Bosphorus to Amur, may speak Tartar, and pretend not to understand anything else. She might be nothing but a clever halfbred Levantine from Smyrna, who had fooled them oil, and really knew French, and even English. The merchant had not '■•VKrached for-th» bearer's - character beroiid saying that "he" had some good rubies to 'sell, called himself a Tartar, and was apparently an honest young fellow. All the rest was Earaka's own story, and Logotheti really knew of nothing in her favour beyond his irnate** conviction that she was innocent. Against that stood the fact that the stolen ruby had been found secreted on her person within a little more than half an hour,«f her having had a chance to take it from Finney's shop. From quite another point of view, Logotheti himself argued as Margaret had done. Baraka knew that he possessed the ruby, since she had sold it to him. She knew that he/meant to have it cut in London. She might easily have been watching him and following him for several days in the hope of getting it back, carrying the bit of bottle glass of the same size about with her, carefully prepared and wrapped in tissue-paper, ready to be substituted for the gem at any moment. She had watched him go into Pinner's, knowing-, very well what he was going for: she had waited till he came out, and had then entered and asked to see any rubies Mr. Pinney had, trusting to the chance that he might "choose to show her Logotheti's, as a curiosity. Chance had favoured her, that was all. She had doubtless recognised the twist on the counter, and the rest had been easy enough. Was not the affair of the Ascot Cup, a much more difficult and dangerous theft, still fresh in everyone's memory? _ Logotheti found Mr. Pinney himself in the act of turning the discs of the safe before going home and leaving his shopman to shut up the place. He smiled with grave satisfaction when Logotheti entered. "I was hoping to see you, sir," he said, "I presume that you had my letter? i wrote out the account with great care, as you may imagine but I shall be happy to go over the story with you if there is any point that is not clear/' Logotheti did not care to hear it; he wished, to see the ruby. Mr. Pinney turned the di«s again to their places, stuck the little Key into the secret keyhole, which then revealed itself, turned it three times to the left and five times to the right, and opened the heavy iron door. The safe was an old-fashioned one that had belonged to his father before him. H« got out the japanned tin box, opened that, and produced the stone, still in its paper, for it was too thick to be put into one of Mr. Pinney's favourite pill-boxes. i Logotheti undid the paper, took out the big uncut ruby, laid it in the palm of his hand, and looked at it critically, turning it over with one finger from time to time. He took it to the door of the shop,- where the evening light was stronger, and examined it with the greatest care. Still, he did not seem satisfied. *? - " Let me have your lens, Mr. Pinney," he said, "and some "electric light and a sheet of white paper." Mr. Pinney turned up a strong drop light that stood on the counter, and produced the paper and a magnifier. " It's a grand ruby," he said. "1 see it is," Logotheti answered rather curtly. "Do you mean to say," asked the surprised jeweller, " that you had bought it without thoroughly examining it, siryou who are an expert'/" " No, that's not what I mean," answered the Greek, bending over the ruby, and scrutinising it through the strong magnifier. Mr. Pinney felt himself snubbed, which had not happened to him for a long time, and he drew himself up with dignity. A minute passed, and Logotheti did not look up; another, and Mr. Pinney grew nervous; a few seconds more, and lie received a shock that took away his breath. "This i. not mv ruby," said Logotheti, looking up, and speaking with perfect confidence. ~'•■.. , - Not—your—rubv!" Mr. Pinney s jaw dropped. "But—" He could get no furt:her - .' , ' , «. T. " I'm sorry," Logotheti said calmly. " I m very sorry, for several reasons. Bub it's not the stone I brought you, though it's just as large, and most extraordinarily like it." ■ ' " But how do you know, sir.' gasped the jeweller. " Because I'm an expert, as you were good enough to sar just now." "Yes, sir. But 1 am an expert, too; and to the best of mv export belief this is the stone you left with me to be cut the day beJore yesterday. I've examined it moat _ thoroughly," • %.

"No doubt," answered the Greek. " But you hadn't examined mine thoroughly before it was stolen, had you? You had o»dr looked at it with me, on the counter here.' 1 "That is correct, sir," said Mr. Pinney nervously. " That is quite true." "Very well. But I did more than merely look at it tkrough-a lens or weigh it. I did not caw so much about the weight, but I cared very much for the water, and I tried the ruby point on it in the usual way, but it was too hard, and then I scratched it in two places with the diamond, more out of curiosity than for any other reason." "You marked it, sir? 'there's not a single scratch oh this one! Merciful Providence! Merciful Providence "Yes," Logotheti said gravely. "Thegirl spoke, the truth. She had two stones much larger than the rest when she first came to me in Paris, this ONe and another. They were almost exactly alike, and she wanted me to buy both, hut I did not want them, and I took the one 1 thought a little better in colour. This is the other, for she still had it; and, so far as 1 know, it is her legal property, and mine is gone. The thief was one of those two young fellows who came in just when Mr. Van torp and I went out. I remember thinking what nice-looking boys they were!" He laughed rather harshly, for he was more annoyed than his consideration for Mr. Pinney made him care So show. Hr had looked forward to giving Margaret the ruby, mounted just as she wished it; and the ruby was gone, and he did not know where 'no was to find another, except the one that was now in Pinney's hands, but realty belonged to poor Baraka, who could certainly not sell it at present. A much larger "sum of money was gone, too, than any financier could lose with equanimity by such a peculiarly disagreeable mishap as being robbed. There were several reasons why Logotheti was not pleased. So fa* as the money went, he was not sure about the law in such a case, and lie , did not know whether he could claim it of Pinney, who had lva'lr been guilty of gross carelessness after a lifetime ,>f scrupulous caution. Pinney was certainly very well oft', and would not "utter nearly as much by the loss of a few thousand pounds as from the shame of having been robbed in such an impudent fashion of a gem that wis not even his, but had been entrusted to his keeping. "I am deeply humiliated." said the worthy old jeweller. " I have not only been tricked and plundered, but I have been the moans of sending innocent people to prison." . " Von had better be the means of getting them out again as soon as possible," said Logotheti. " You know what to do here in England fat better than I. In my country a stroke of the pen would free Baraka. and perhaps another would exile you to Bagdad, Mr. Pinney!" He spoke lightly, to cheer the old man, but. Mr. Pinney shook his bead. "This; no jesting matter, sir," he said. "I feel deeply humiliated." " He really did, and it was evidently a sort of relief to him to repeat the words. "I suppose," said Logotheti, "that we shall have to make some kind of sworn deposition, or whatever you call it, together, and wo will go and do it at once, if you please. Lock up the ruby in the safe again, Mr. Pinney, and we will start directly. I shall not go hack to my lodgings till we have done everything we can possibly do to-night." " Bub you will dine, sir?" Mr. Pinney put that point as only a well-regulated Englishman of his class can. " I shall not dine, and you will not dine," answered Logotheti calmly, " if our dinner is at all likely to keep those people in prison an hour longer than is inevitable." * Mr. Pinney looked graver than ever. He was in the habit of dining early, and it is said that an Englishman does not fight lon an empty stomach, and will eat an excellent breakfast before being hanged. . "You can eat sandwiches in the hansom," said the Greek coldly. "I was thinking of you. sir," Mr. Pinney answered gloomily, as he finished the operation of shutting tho safe; he did not like sandwiches, for his teeth were not strong. " You must also make an effort to trace those two young men who stole the ruby," said Logotheti. " I most certainly shall," . replied the jeweller, "and if it is not found w»jivill .make it good to you, sir, whatever price you set upon it. I am deeply humiliated, biifc nobody shall say that Pinney and Son do not make good any loss their customers sustain through them." " Don't worry about that, Mr. Tinney," said Logotheti, who saw how much distressed the old jeweller really was. ! So they went out and hailed a hansom and drove away. It would be tiresome to give a detailed account of what they did. Mr. Pinney had not been one of the principal jewellers in London for 40 years without having been sometimes in need of the law; and occasionally, also, the law had been in need of him as an expert in very grave cases, some of which required the utmost secrecy as well as the greatest possible tact. He knew his way about in places where Logotheti had never been, 1 and having once abandoned the idea of dinner, he lost/no time; for the vision of dinner, after all was over, rose softly, as the full moon rises on a belated traveller, very pleasant and companionable by the way. Moreover, as the fact that Baraka and Spiro were really innocent had been kept in view, the manner in which they were proved so is of little importance, nor the circumstance of their being let out of Brixton Gaol with a vague expression of regret on the part of the law for having placed faith in what Mr. Pinney had testified " to tire best of his belief," instead of accepting a fairy story which a Tartar girl, caught going about, in men's clothes, told through the broken English of a Stamboul interpreter. The law, being good English law, did not make a fuss about owning that it had been mistaken; though it reprimanded Mr. Pinney openly for his haste, arid he continued to feel deeply humiliated. Ifc-'Was also quite ready to help him to find the real thieves, though that looked rather difficult. For law and order, in their private study, with no one looking on, had felt that there was something very odd about the case. It was strange, for instance, that the committed person should have a large bank account in Paris in his, or hex, own name, and should have made no attempt to conceal the latter when arrested. It was queer that "Baraka" should be known to a number of honourable Paris jewellers as having sold them rubies of excellent quality, but that there should never have been the least suspicion that he, or she, took any that belonged to other people. It was still more extraordinary that " Baraka' should have offered an enormous ruby, of which the description corresponded "remarkably well with the one that had appeared in evidence at the pel ice court-, to two French, dealers in precious stones, who had not bought it, but were bearing it in mind for possible customers, and were informed of Baraka's London address in case they could find a buyer. In the short time since Baraka had been in prison, yards of ciphered telegrams had been exchange* between the London and Paris police ; for the Frenchmen maintained tliat if the Englishmen had not made a mistake, there must have been a big robbery of precious stones somewhere, t* account for those that Baraka was selling; but that, as no such robbery, or robberies, had been heard of anywhere in Europe, America, India, or Australia, the Englishmen were probably wrong, and had locked up the wrong' person. For the French jewellers who had bought the stones all went to the Paris Chief of* Police, and laid the matter before him, being muck afraid that they had purchased stolen goods which had certainly Hot been offered for sale in "market (.overt." The result was that the English police had begun to feel rather nervous about it all, and were extremely glad U. have matters cleared up, and to say so, and to see about the requisite order to set the prisoners at large. Also. Mr. Pinney restored the ruby to her. and all her other belongings were given back to her, even including the smart grey suit of men's clothes in which she had been arrested; and hei luggage and other things which the manager of the hotel where she had been stopping had handed over to the police were all returned; and when Spiro appeared at the hotel to pnv the small bill that had been left owing, he held his head as hiffh. as an Oriental can when he has got the better of anyone, and that is pretty high indeed. Furthermore, Mr. Pinney insisted on giving Logotheti a formal document bv which Messrs. Pinney and Son bound themselves to make good to him, his heirs, or assigns, the loss of a rubv. approximately of a certain weight and quality, which he had lost through their carelessness* ffo be-coatinwed} daily-)