THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5229, 19 March 1904, Page 12

THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR

' (By a Novelist.) j In St. Petersburg Society (here may bo ' met at tlio present time a certain Hussian Princess, who is noted for her beauty, for an ugly defect—she has lost the forefinger of her left hand—ant. for her extraordinary attachment to" the city of Tunis. wher e she has spent at least thfue months of each year since 3800—the year in which she sutfered tho accident that deprived her of a linger. What that ac-1 cideat was, and why she is so passionately attached to Tunis, nobody in Kussia ; seems to know, not even her doting husband, who bows to all her caprices. But ! two persons could explain the matter— ! a Tunisian guide named Abdul, and a! rather mysterious individual who follows j an humble calling in tho little Hue Ben- | Ziad, close to the Tunis bazaars-. This latter is tho Princess’s personal attendant during her yearly visit to Tunis. He accompanies her everywhere, may be seen in tho halp of her hotel) when_sho is at home, on the box of her carriage when

she drives out, close behind her when she is walking. Ho is her shadow in Africa. Only when she goes back to Russia does he return, to his profession in the Rue Ben-Ziad. This is the exact history of the accident which befol the Princess in 1800. In the spring of that year. she arrived one night at Tunis. She had not long been married to an honourable’ mau whom she adored. She was rich, pretty, and popular. Yet her life was clouded by a great fear that sometimes made the darkness of night almost intolerable to her. She dreaded lest, the darkness of blindness should come upon her. Both her mother, now dead. and. her grandfather had .laboured u.uder this defect. They had been born with sight; and had become totally blind ere they reached, the age of forty. Princess Banischefi—as we may call her for the purpose of this story—shuddered when she thought of their fate and that it might be hers. Certain books that she read, certain.conversations on the subject of heredity that she heard in St. Petersburg society fed her terror. Occasionally, too. when she stood under a strong light she felt a slight pain in her eyes. She never spoke of her fear, but fell into a condition of nervous exhaustion that alarmed her husband . and her physician. The latter recommended foreign travel as a tonic. The former who was detained in the capital by political affaire, reluctantly agreed to a separation from his wife. And thus it came about that late one night of spring 1890. the Princess and lier companion the elderly Countess de Rosnikoff, arrived in Tunis at the close of a tour in Algieria and put .up at the Hotel Royal. The bazaars in Tunis a,re among the best that exist in the world of bazaars, and, on the morning after her arrival, the Princess was anxious to explore them with her companion. But Madame de Rosnikoff was fatigued by her journey from Constantine. She beggea the Princess to go without her desiring earnestly to be left in her bedroom with a cup of weak tea and a French, novel. The Princess, therefore, ordered a guide and set forth to the baza.ars. The guide’s name was Abdul. He was a talkative young Eastern, and as ho turned with the Princess into the network of tiny alleys that spreads from the Bab-el-bahar to the bazaars he poured forth a flood of information about the marvels of his native city. The Princess

listened idly. That morning she was cruelly pro-occupied. As she stopped out of the hotel into the bright sunshine she had felt a shqrp pain in her eyes, and now, though she held over her head a large green parasol the pain continued. She looked at the light and thought of tire darkness that might be coming upon her, and the chatter of Abdul sounded vague in her ears. Presently, however, she was forced to attend to him, for ha asked her a direct question. ■

X'xlay they sell jewels by auction, near the Mosquee Bjania-ez-Zitonna,’’ he said. "Would the gracious Princess like to see the market of the jewels?’ The Pi’incess put her baud to her eyes ami assented in a low voice. Abdul turned out of the sunshine into a narrow alley covered with a wooded roof. It was lull of shadows and of squatting men. who held out brown hands to the Princess as she passed. Put she was staring at the shadows and did not see the)merchants of Goblin Market. heaving this alley, Abdul led her abruptly inco a dense crowd of Arabs, who were all talking, gesticulating, and moving hither and thither, apparently under the influence of extreme excitement. Many of them held rings, bracelets or brooches between their fingers, and some extended palms upon which lay quantities' of uncut jewels—turquoises, sapphires and emeralds. At a little distance a grave maxi was noting down something in a book. But the Princess scarcely observed the progress of the jewel auction. Hexattention had been atfci-acted by an extraordinaxy figui'c that scood near her. This was an immensely tall Arab, dressed in a dingy brown robe, and wearing upon his shaven head, which narrowed almost to a point at the back, a red fez with a black tassel. His claw-iiko hands were covered with rings, and his bony wrists with bracelets. But the attention of tile Princess was riveted by liis eyes. They were small and bright, and squinted horribly, k> horribly- that it was almost iniposiblo to tell at what he was looking. These eyes gave to his face an expression of diabolic and ruthless

vigilance and cunning. He seemed at the same time to be seeing everything and to bo gazing definitely at nothing. “That is Safti. the jewel doctor,” murmured Abdul in the ear of the Princess. i . "A jewel doctor ? What is that ?” asked the Princess.

“Wien you are sick ie cures you with jewels." ’ > "Anti what can he cure ?’’ said tie Princess, still looking at Safti, who was now bargaining vociferously with a fat Arab for a piece of milk-white jade. “All things. I was sick of a fever that comes with the summer.. He gave me a stone crushed io a powder and I was well. Ho saved from death one of the Bey’s sons, who was dying from hijada. And then, too, he has a stone in a ring whiph can preserve sight to him who is going blind." The Princess started violently. “Impossible!" she cried. “It is true,” said Abdul. .“It is a green stone —like that.” He pointed to an emerald which an Arab was holding up to tho light. • The Princess put her hand to her eyes. They still ached, and her temples were throbbing furiously. “I cannot stay here;” she said. “It is too hot. But—tell tho jewel doctor that I wish to visit him. Where does he live?” In a little street. Hue Ben-Ziad, in a little house. But he is rich.” Abdul spread his arms abroad. “When will the. gracious Princess—” "This afternoon. At—at four o’clock you will take me.” Abdul spoke to Safti, -who turned, squinted horribly at the Princess, and salaamed to her with a curious and contradictory dignity, turning his fingers, covered with jewels, towards the earth. That afternoon, at four, when the venerable Madame do Eosnikoft’ was ■ still drinking her weak tea and reading her French novel, the Princess and Abdul stood before the low wooden door of tbe jewel doctor’s house. Abdul struck upon it and the terrible physician appeared in tho dark aperture looking all ways with his deformed eyes, which fascinated the Princess. Having ascertained that he could speak a little-broken French, like many of the Arabs, she bade Abdul wait outside and entered tho hovel of the jewel doctor, who shut the door close behind her,"-

Tho room in which she found herself I was dork and scented. Faint light from the I street filtered in through an aperture in tho wall, across which was partially I drawn a wooden shutter. Hound the 1 room ran a divan covered with straw I matting, and Safti now conducted the I Princess ceremoniously to this, and handed her a cup of thick coffee, which ho took from a brass tray that was placed upon a stand. As she sipped the coffee and looked at the pointed head j and twisted gaze of Safti, the Princess heard some distant Arab at a street corner singing monotonously a tuneless song, and the scout, the darkness, the reiterated song, and tho till I strange creature standing silently before ber gave to her, in their combination, the atmosphere of a dream. She found it difficult to speak to explain her errand. . _ At length she said; “You are a doctor. I You can cure the sick?” Safti salaamed. ••uHh jewels? Is that possible?" "Jewels aro the only medicine." Safti replied, speaking with sudden volubility. “With tho ruby I cure madness, with the white jade the disease of the hijada, and with tho bloodstone haemorrhage. ~j I have made a man who was ill of fever I wear a topaz, and he rose from bed and i walked happily in the street." I "And with the emerald ” interrupted' I tho Princess: “have you not preserved ; sigljt with an emerald? They told mo Baffi’s expression suddenly became grim and suspicious. “Who said that?" he asked sharply. “Abdul. Is it true? Can it be true?’ Her cheeks were flushed. She spoke almost with violence, laying her hand upon his arm. Safe; seemed to stare hard into the corners of the little room. Perhaps lie was really looking at the Princess, At length lie said: ‘T will give you any price you ask for it ” said the Princess. “You?" said Saf". “But you—’’ ■ Suddenly he lifted his lean hands, took the face of the Princess between them quite gently, and turned it towards the small window. 'She had begun to from-

ble. Holding her soft cheeks with his brown fingers, Safti remained motionless for a long time, during which it seemed to the Princess that he was looking away from her at some distant object. She watched his frightful-'and surreptitious eyes that never told the ruth, she heard the distant Arab's everlasting song, and her dream became a nightmare. At last Safti dropped his hands and said: ‘‘lt may be that some* day you will need my emerald." 1 The Princess felt as if at that moment a bulled entered her heart. “Give it me—give it # me!" she cried. “I am rich. I— 1 v

“I do not sell my medicines,” Safti answered. “Those who use them must live near me here in Tunis. When they are healed they give back to ‘me the jewel that bag saved them. But you—you live far off.” With the swiftness of a woman the Princess saw that persuasion would fie useless. ’ Safti’g face looked bard as brown wood. She seemed to recover from her emotion, and said quietly: “At least you will let me see -the emeSafti went to a small bureau that stood at the back of the room, opened one of its drawers with a key which he drew from beneah his dingy robe, lifted a small silver box carefully out;, returned to the Princess, and put the box into her hand. . ' '

“Open it!” he said. She obeyed, and took out a very small and antique gold ring, in which was set a rather dull emerald. Safti drew it gently from her, and put it upon ’.he forefinger of her left hand. It was so tiny that it would not pass beyond the joint of her finger, and it looked ugly and odd upon the Princess, who wore many beautiful rings. Now that she saw it she felt the superstition that had sprung from her terror dying within her. Safti with his crooked eyes, must have read her thought in her face, fop t e said: . ■

"The Princess is wrong. That medicine could cure her. The one who wears it for three months in each year can never he blind.” Taking the emerald from her finger, he touched her two eyes with it, and t seemed to the Princess that as he did so, the pain she “clt in them withdrew. Her desire for the jewel instantly, returned.

'•'Let me wear it." she said, putting forth all her -charm to soften the doctor. ‘'-Let mo take it with me to Russia. I will make you rich."

Safti shook his head' “Tho Princess may wear It here, ‘-n Tunis'," ho said. '‘Not elsewhere." She began to temporise, hoping to conquer his resistance later. ‘•I may take it with me now?" she ashed. • ; “At a foe."

'•1 will pay it." The jewel doctor wont (o tho door and called in Abdul. Five minutes later tho Princess parsed tho singing Arab at the corner of tho street, line Ben-Ziad. She had signed a paper pledging herself to return the emerald to Sai’d at the end of forty-eight hours, and .to pay 123 i. for her possession, of it during that time. And she wore the emerald on the forefinger of her left hand. On the fallowing morning Madame cfe Pomikoff *aid (o iho Princess: ‘T hate Tunis, it has an evil climate. The tea here is too strong, and I feel sure the drains are bad. Last night I was feverish. lam always feverish when I am near bad drains." The Princess, who had slept well, and had waked with no pain in her eyes, answered these complaints cheerily, made the Countess some tea that was really weak and drove nc>r out in the sunshine to see Carthage. The Countess, did not see it, because there is no longer' a Carthage. She wont to bed that night in a bad humour, and again complained of drains tho next morning. This time the Princess did not heed her, for she w'as thinkiug of tho hour when she must return the emerald l to Safti. “What an ugly ring that is;* said the old Countess. ‘Where did you got Vt? It is too small. Why do you wear it?" “I—l bought It in the bazaars," answered the Princess,

‘‘My dear, you wasted your money," said tho companion, and she went to bed with another French novel. That afternoon the Princess implored Safti to self her the emerald, ond as he persistently declined, she renewed her

leas© of it for another forty-eight hours. As she left-the jewel doctor's house she did not notice that he spoke some words in a low eager voice to* Abdul, pointing towards her 4s he did*so. Is'or did die see the strange bustle of varied liie in the street as she walked slowly under the great MoorisTi Arch the Porte de Prance. She was deeply thoughtful. . Since she had worn the ugly ring of Safti she had suffered no pain from her eyes, and a strange certainty had gradually come upon her that while the emerald wagin her possession she would be safe from the terrible disease of she had so long lived in terror. Yet Safti would not let her have the_ring. And she could not live for ever in Tunis. Already she had prolonged her stay abroad, and was due in Itussia, where her anxious husband awaited her. She knew not what to do. Suddenly an idea occurred to her. It made her flush red c\nd tinjglo with 'shame. She glanced up, end -saw the lustrous eyes of Abdul fixed intently upon her. As_ he left her at the door of her hotel he said;

"The Princess will stay long in Tunis?" 'Another week at least, Abdul, ’ she answered carelessly. “You can go home now. I. shall not want you any more toaJ'ud she walked into the hotel without looking at him again. When she was in her room she sent for a list of the steamers sailing daily from Tunis for the different ports of Africa and Europe. Presently she came to the bedside of Madame de Rosnikoff. "Countess,” she sard. "You are no better?”

“How can I be? The drains are bad, and the tea here is too strong.” ‘•There is a boat that leaves for Sicily at midnight—for Marseilles. Shall we go in her?” Tbe old lady bounded on her pillow. “Straight on by Italy to Russia?” “Straight on by Italy to Russia?"-she cried, joyfully. ■■■■ ' The Princess nodded. A fierce excitement shone in her pretty eyes, and her littlo hands were trembling as she looked down at the dull emerald of Safti. At -eleven o’clock that night the Princess and the Countess got into a carriage, drove to the edge of the huge salt lake, bv which Tunis lies, and went on board tile Stella d’ltalia. The sky was starless. The winds were still, and it was very dark. As the ship glided- out from the

shore the old Countess hurried below. But the .Princess remained on deck, leaning upon the bulwark and gazing at the fading lights of the city where {Jafti dwelt. Two flames Seemed burning m her heart, a fierce flame of joy, a fierce flame of contempt for herself. For was she not a common thief? She looked at Sai'ti's ring on her finger, and flushed scarlet in the darkness. ' Yet she was joyful, triumphant, as she heard the beating of the ship’s heart, and saw the lights of Tunis growing fainter in the distance, and felt the onward movement of the Stella, d’ltalia through the night. She felt herself nearer to Russia with each throb of the machinery. And from Russia she would expiate her sin. From Russia sho would compensate Safti forms loss. The lights of Tunis grew fainter. She thought of the open sea. But suddenly she felc that the ship was slowing down. The engines beat more feebly, then ceased to heat. The ship glided on for a moment in silence, and stopped. A cold fear ran over the princess. She called to a sailor.

“Why," she said. “Why tlo we stop? Is anything wrong " lie pointed to some'lights on the port side.

“Wo are off Hanimam-Lif, madam," he said. “We are going lie to for naif an hour to take in cargo." To the X'riucess that half-hour seemed all eternity. She remained upon deck, and whenever she heard the splash of oars as a boat drew near, or tie guttural sound of an Arab voice, she trembled, and, staring into the blackness, fancied that sho saw .the tall figure, the pointed head, and the deformed eyes of the jewel doctor. The cargo was all got on board. The boats drew. off. And once again the ship shuddered as the heart of her Began to heat, and the ebon water ran backward from her prow. Then tho Princess was glad. She laid the band on which shone Safti’s emerald upon the bulwark, and gazed towards the sea, turning her back upon the lights of liammam-Lif. Sho thought of safety, of Russia. She did not hear a soft stop drawing near upon the dock behiud her. She did not see- tho flash, of steel descending to tho bulwark on which her hand was laid.

But, suddenly, the horrible cry of a woman in agony, rang through, fhe night. It wag instantly succeeded by a splash in the’water, as a tall figure dived over the vessel’s side. When, the sun rose ,on tho following day over the minarets of Tunis tho Stella (ITtalia, with the Princess on board, was far out at sea.

The emerald of Safti was once more in the little house in the Kuo Ben-Ziad. It was still'-, upon the Princess’s finger.