The Project Gutenberg Etext of New Arabian Nights

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"Thank Heaven!" cried Lady Vandeleur, "here he is! The bandbox,
Harry - the bandbox!"

But Harry stood before them silent and downcast.

"Speak!" she cried. "Speak! Where is the bandbox?"

And the men, with threatening gestures, repeated the demand.

Harry drew a handful of jewels from his pocket. He was very white.

"This is all that remains," said he. "I declare before Heaven it
was through no fault of mine; and if you will have patience,
although some are lost, I am afraid, for ever, others, I am sure,
may be still recovered."

"Alas!" cried Lady Vandeleur, "all our diamonds are gone, and I owe
ninety thousand pounds for dress!"

"Madam," said the General, "you might have paved the gutter with
your own trash; you might have made debts to fifty times the sum
you mention; you might have robbed me of my mother's coronet and
ring; and Nature might have still so far prevailed that I could
have forgiven you at last. But, madam, you have taken the Rajah's
Diamond - the Eye of Light, as the Orientals poetically termed it -
the Pride of Kashgar! You have taken from me the Rajah's Diamond,"
he cried, raising his hands, "and all, madam, all is at an end
between us!"

"Believe me, General Vandeleur," she replied, "that is one of the
most agreeable speeches that ever I heard from your lips; and since
we are to be ruined, I could almost welcome the change, if it
delivers me from you. You have told me often enough that I married
you for your money; let me tell you now that I always bitterly
repented the bargain; and if you were still marriageable, and had a
diamond bigger than your head, I should counsel even my maid
against a union so uninviting and disastrous. As for you, Mr.
Hartley," she continued, turning on the secretary, "you have
sufficiently exhibited your valuable qualities in this house; we
are now persuaded that you equally lack manhood, sense, and self-
respect; and I can see only one course open for you - to withdraw
instanter, and, if possible, return no more. For your wages you
may rank as a creditor in my late husband's bankruptcy."

Harry had scarcely comprehended this insulting address before the
General was down upon him with another.

"And in the meantime," said that personage, "follow me before the
nearest Inspector of Police. You may impose upon a simple-minded
soldier, sir, but the eye of the law will read your disreputable
secret. If I must spend my old age in poverty through your
underhand intriguing with my wife, I mean at least that you shall
not remain unpunished for your pains; and God, sir, will deny me a
very considerable satisfaction if you do not pick oakum from now
until your dying day."

With that, the General dragged Harry from the apartment, and
hurried him downstairs and along the street to the police-station
of the district.

Here (says my Arabian author) ended this deplorable business of the
bandbox. But to the unfortunate Secretary the whole affair was the
beginning of a new and manlier life. The police were easily
persuaded of his innocence; and, after he had given what help he
could in the subsequent investigations, he was even complemented by
one of the chiefs of the detective department on the probity and
simplicity of his behaviour. Several persons interested themselves
in one so unfortunate; and soon after he inherited a sum of money
from a maiden aunt in Worcestershire. With this he married
Prudence, and set sail for Bendigo, or according to another
account, for Trincomalee, exceedingly content, and will the best of
prospects.

STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN IN HOLY ORDERS

The Reverend Mr. Simon Rolles had distinguished himself in the
Moral Sciences, and was more than usually proficient in the study
of Divinity. His essay "On the Christian Doctrine of the Social
Obligations" obtained for him, at the moment of its production, a
certain celebrity in the University of Oxford; and it was
understood in clerical and learned circles that young Mr. Rolles
had in contemplation a considerable work - a folio, it was said -
on the authority of the Fathers of the Church. These attainments,
these ambitious designs, however, were far from helping him to any
preferment; and he was still in quest of his first curacy when a
chance ramble in that part of London, the peaceful and rich aspect
of the garden, a desire for solitude and study, and the cheapness
of the lodging, led him to take up his abode with Mr. Raeburn, the
nurseryman of Stockdove Lane.

It was his habit every afternoon, after he had worked seven or
eight hours on St. Ambrose or St. Chrysostom, to walk for a while
in meditation among the roses. And this was usually one of the
most productive moments of his day. But even a sincere appetite
for thought, and the excitement of grave problems awaiting
solution, are not always sufficient to preserve the mind of the
philosopher against the petty shocks and contacts of the world.
And when Mr. Rolles found General Vandeleur's secretary, ragged and
bleeding, in the company of his landlord; when he saw both change
colour and seek to avoid his questions; and, above all, when the
former denied his own identity with the most unmoved assurance, he
speedily forgot the Saints and Fathers in the vulgar interest of
curiosity.

"I cannot be mistaken," thought he. "That is Mr. Hartley beyond a
doubt. How comes he in such a pickle? why does he deny his name?
and what can be his business with that black-looking ruffian, my
landlord?"

As he was thus reflecting, another peculiar circumstance attracted
his attention. The face of Mr. Raeburn appeared at a low window
next the door; and, as chance directed, his eyes met those of Mr.
Rolles. The nurseryman seemed disconcerted, and even alarmed; and
immediately after the blind of the apartment was pulled sharply
down.

"This may all be very well," reflected Mr. Rolles; "it may be all
excellently well; but I confess freely that I do not think so.
Suspicious, underhand, untruthful, fearful of observation - I
believe upon my soul," he thought, "the pair are plotting some
disgraceful action."

The detective that there is in all of us awoke and became clamant
in the bosom of Mr. Rolles; and with a brisk, eager step, that bore
no resemblance to his usual gait, he proceeded to make the circuit
of the garden. When he came to the scene of Harry's escalade, his
eye was at once arrested by a broken rosebush and marks of
trampling on the mould. He looked up, and saw scratches on the
brick, and a rag of trouser floating from a broken bottle. This,
then, was the mode of entrance chosen by Mr. Raeburn's particular
friend! It was thus that General Vandeleur's secretary came to
admire a flower-garden! The young clergyman whistled softly to
himself as he stooped to examine the ground. He could make out
where Harry had landed from his perilous leap; he recognised the
flat foot of Mr. Raeburn where it had sunk deeply in the soil as he
pulled up the Secretary by the collar; nay, on a closer inspection,
he seemed to distinguish the marks of groping fingers, as though
something had been spilt abroad and eagerly collected.

"Upon my word," he thought, "the thing grows vastly interesting."

And just then he caught sight of something almost entirely buried
in the earth. In an instant he had disinterred a dainty morocco
case, ornamented and clasped in gilt. It had been trodden heavily
underfoot, and thus escaped the hurried search of Mr. Raeburn. Mr.
Rolles opened the case, and drew a long breath of almost horrified
astonishment; for there lay before him, in a cradle of green
velvet, a diamond of prodigious magnitude and of the finest water.
It was of the bigness of a duck's egg; beautifully shaped, and
without a flaw; and as the sun shone upon it, it gave forth a
lustre like that of electricity, and seemed to burn in his hand
with a thousand internal fires.

He knew little of precious stones; but the Rajah's Diamond was a
wonder that explained itself; a village child, if he found it,
would run screaming for the nearest cottage; and a savage would
prostrate himself in adoration before so imposing a fetish. The
beauty of the stone flattered the young clergyman's eyes; the
thought of its incalculable value overpowered his intellect. He
knew that what he held in his hand was worth more than many years'
purchase of an archiepiscopal see; that it would build cathedrals
more stately than Ely or Cologne; that he who possessed it was set
free for ever from the primal curse, and might follow his own
inclinations without concern or hurry, without let or hindrance.
And as he suddenly turned it, the rays leaped forth again with
renewed brilliancy, and seemed to pierce his very heart.

Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without any
conscious deliverance from the rational parts of man. So it was
now with Mr. Rolles. He glanced hurriedly round; beheld, like Mr.
Raeburn before him, nothing but the sunlit flower-garden, the tall
tree-tops, and the house with blinded windows; and in a trice he
had shut the case, thrust it into his pocket, and was hastening to
his study with the speed of guilt.

The Reverend Simon Rolles had stolen the Rajah's Diamond.

Early in the afternoon the police arrived with Harry Hartley. The
nurseryman, who was beside himself with terror, readily discovered
his hoard; and the jewels were identified and inventoried in the
presence of the Secretary. As for Mr. Rolles, he showed himself in
a most obliging temper, communicated what he knew with freedom, and
professed regret that he could do no more to help the officers in
their duty.

"Still," he added, "I suppose your business is nearly at an end."

"By no means," replied the man from Scotland Yard; and he narrated
the second robbery of which Harry had been the immediate victim,
and gave the young clergyman a description of the more important
jewels that were still not found, dilating particularly on the
Rajah's Diamond.

"It must be worth a fortune," observed Mr. Rolles.

"Ten fortunes - twenty fortunes," cried the officer.

"The more it is worth," remarked Simon shrewdly, "the more
difficult it must be to sell. Such a thing has a physiognomy not
to be disguised, and I should fancy a man might as easily negotiate
St. Paul's Cathedral."

"Oh, truly!" said the officer; "but if the thief be a man of any
intelligence, he will cut it into three or four, and there will be
still enough to make him rich."

"Thank you," said the clergyman. "You cannot imagine how much your
conversation interests me."

Whereupon the functionary admitted that they knew many strange
things in his profession, and immediately after took his leave.

Mr. Rolles regained his apartment. It seemed smaller and barer
than usual; the materials for his great work had never presented so
little interest; and he looked upon his library with the eye of
scorn. He took down, volume by volume, several Fathers of the
Church, and glanced them through; but they contained nothing to his
purpose.

"These old gentlemen," thought he, "are no doubt very valuable
writers, but they seem to me conspicuously ignorant of life. Here
am I, with learning enough to be a Bishop, and I positively do not
know how to dispose of a stolen diamond. I glean a hint from a
common policeman, and, with all my folios, I cannot so much as put
it into execution. This inspires me with very low ideas of
University training."

Herewith he kicked over his book-shelf and, putting on his hat,
hastened from the house to the club of which he was a member. In
such a place of mundane resort he hoped to find some man of good
counsel and a shrewd experience in life. In the reading-room he
saw many of the country clergy and an Archdeacon; there were three
journalists and a writer upon the Higher Metaphysic, playing pool;
and at dinner only the raff of ordinary club frequenters showed
their commonplace and obliterated countenances. None of these,
thought Mr. Rolles, would know more on dangerous topics than he
knew himself; none of them were fit to give him guidance in his
present strait. At length in the smoking-room, up many weary
stairs, he hit upon a gentleman of somewhat portly build and
dressed with conspicuous plainness. He was smoking a cigar and
reading the FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW; his face was singularly free from
all sign of preoccupation or fatigue; and there was something in
his air which seemed to invite confidence and to expect submission.
The more the young clergyman scrutinised his features, the more he
was convinced that he had fallen on one capable of giving pertinent
advice.

"Sir," said he, "you will excuse my abruptness; but I judge you
from your appearance to be pre-eminently a man of the world."

"I have indeed considerable claims to that distinction," replied
the stranger, laying aside his magazine with a look of mingled
amusement and surprise.

"I, sir," continued the Curate, "am a recluse, a student, a
creature of ink-bottles and patristic folios. A recent event has
brought my folly vividly before my eyes, and I desire to instruct
myself in life. By life," he added, "I do not mean Thackeray's
novels; but the crimes and secret possibilities of our society, and
the principles of wise conduct among exceptional events. I am a
patient reader; can the thing be learnt in books?"

"You put me in a difficulty," said the stranger. "I confess I have
no great notion of the use of books, except to amuse a railway
journey; although, I believe, there are some very exact treatises
on astronomy, the use of the globes, agriculture, and the art of
making paper flowers. Upon the less apparent provinces of life I
fear you will find nothing truthful. Yet stay," he added, "have
you read Gaboriau?"

Mr. Rolles admitted he had never even heard the name.

"You may gather some notions from Gaboriau," resumed the stranger.
"He is at least suggestive; and as he is an author much studied by
Prince Bismarck, you will, at the worst, lose your time in good
society."

"Sir," said the Curate, "I am infinitely obliged by your
politeness."

"You have already more than repaid me," returned the other.

"How?" inquired Simon.

"By the novelty of your request," replied the gentleman; and with a
polite gesture, as though to ask permission, he resumed the study
of the FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.

On his way home Mr. Rolles purchased a work on precious stones and
several of Gaboriau's novels. These last he eagerly skimmed until
an advanced hour in the morning; but although they introduced him
to many new ideas, he could nowhere discover what to do with a
stolen diamond. He was annoyed, moreover, to find the information
scattered amongst romantic story-telling, instead of soberly set
forth after the manner of a manual; and he concluded that, even if
the writer had thought much upon these subjects, he was totally
lacking in educational method. For the character and attainments
of Lecoq, however, he was unable to contain his admiration.

"He was truly a great creature," ruminated Mr. Rolles. "He knew
the world as I know Paley's Evidences. There was nothing that he
could not carry to a termination with his own hand, and against the
largest odds. Heavens!" he broke out suddenly, "is not this the
lesson? Must I not learn to cut diamonds for myself?"

It seemed to him as if he had sailed at once out of his
perplexities; he remembered that he knew a jeweller, one B.
Macculloch, in Edinburgh, who would be glad to put him in the way
of the necessary training; a few months, perhaps a few years, of
sordid toil, and he would be sufficiently expert to divide and
sufficiently cunning to dispose with advantage of the Rajah's
Diamond. That done, he might return to pursue his researches at
leisure, a wealthy and luxurious student, envied and respected by
all. Golden visions attended him through his slumber, and he awoke
refreshed and light-hearted with the morning sun.

Mr. Raeburn's house was on that day to be closed by the police, and
this afforded a pretext for his departure. He cheerfully prepared
his baggage, transported it to King's Cross, where he left it in
the cloak-room, and returned to the club to while away the
afternoon and dine.

"If you dine here to-day, Rolles," observed an acquaintance, "you
may see two of the most remarkable men in England - Prince Florizel
of Bohemia, and old Jack Vandeleur."

"I have heard of the Prince," replied Mr. Rolles; "and General
Vandeleur I have even met in society."

"General Vandeleur is an ass!" returned the other. "This is his
brother John, the biggest adventurer, the best judge of precious
stones, and one of the most acute diplomatists in Europe. Have you
never heard of his duel with the Duc de Val d'Orge? of his exploits
and atrocities when he was Dictator of Paraguay? of his dexterity
in recovering Sir Samuel Levi's jewellery? nor of his services in
the Indian Mutiny - services by which the Government profited, but
which the Government dared not recognise? You make me wonder what
we mean by fame, or even by infamy; for Jack Vandeleur has
prodigious claims to both. Run downstairs," he continued, "take a
table near them, and keep your ears open. You will hear some
strange talk, or I am much misled."

"But how shall I know them?" inquired the clergyman.

"Know them!" cried his friend; "why, the Prince is the finest
gentleman in Europe, the only living creature who looks like a
king; and as for Jack Vandeleur, if you can imagine Ulysses at
seventy years of age, and with a sabre-cut across his face, you
have the man before you! Know them, indeed! Why, you could pick
either of them out of a Derby day!"

Rolles eagerly hurried to the dining-room. It was as his friend
had asserted; it was impossible to mistake the pair in question.
Old John Vandeleur was of a remarkable force of body, and obviously
broken to the most difficult exercises. He had neither the
carriage of a swordsman, nor of a sailor, nor yet of one much
inured to the saddle; but something made up of all these, and the
result and expression of many different habits and dexterities.
His features were bold and aquiline; his expression arrogant and
predatory; his whole appearance that of a swift, violent,
unscrupulous man of action; and his copious white hair and the deep
sabre-cut that traversed his nose and temple added a note of
savagery to a head already remarkable and menacing in itself.

In his companion, the Prince of Bohemia, Mr. Rolles was astonished
to recognise the gentleman who had recommended him the study of
Gaboriau. Doubtless Prince Florizel, who rarely visited the club,
of which, as of most others, he was an honorary member, had been
waiting for John Vandeleur when Simon accosted him on the previous
evening.

The other diners had modestly retired into the angles of the room,
and left the distinguished pair in a certain isolation, but the
young clergyman was unrestrained by any sentiment of awe, and,
marching boldly up, took his place at the nearest table.

The conversation was, indeed, new to the student's ears. The ex-
Dictator of Paraguay stated many extraordinary experiences in
different quarters of the world; and the Prince supplied a
commentary which, to a man of thought, was even more interesting
than the events themselves. Two forms of experience were thus
brought together and laid before the young clergyman; and he did
not know which to admire the most - the desperate actor or the
skilled expert in life; the man who spoke boldly of his own deeds
and perils, or the man who seemed, like a god, to know all things
and to have suffered nothing. The manner of each aptly fitted with
his part in the discourse. The Dictator indulged in brutalities
alike of speech and gesture; his hand opened and shut and fell
roughly on the table; and his voice was loud and heavy. The
Prince, on the other hand, seemed the very type of urbane docility
and quiet; the least movement, the least inflection, had with him a
weightier significance than all the shouts and pantomime of his
companion; and if ever, as must frequently have been the case, he
described some experience personal to himself, it was so aptly
dissimulated as to pass unnoticed with the rest.

At length the talk wandered on to the late robberies and the
Rajah's Diamond.

"That diamond would be better in the sea," observed Prince
Florizel.

"As a Vandeleur," replied the Dictator, "your Highness may imagine
my dissent."

"I speak on grounds of public policy," pursued the Prince. "Jewels
so valuable should be reserved for the collection of a Prince or
the treasury of a great nation. To hand them about among the
common sort of men is to set a price on Virtue's head; and if the
Rajah of Kashgar - a Prince, I understand, of great enlightenment -
desired vengeance upon the men of Europe, he could hardly have gone
more efficaciously about his purpose than by sending us this apple
of discord. There is no honesty too robust for such a trial. I
myself, who have many duties and many privileges of my own - I
myself, Mr. Vandeleur, could scarce handle the intoxicating crystal
and be safe. As for you, who are a diamond hunter by taste and
profession, I do not believe there is a crime in the calendar you
would not perpetrate - I do not believe you have a friend in the
world whom you would not eagerly betray - I do not know if you have
a family, but if you have I declare you would sacrifice your
children - and all this for what? Not to be richer, nor to have
more comforts or more respect, but simply to call this diamond
yours for a year or two until you die, and now and again to open a
safe and look at it as one looks at a picture."

"It is true," replied Vandeleur. "I have hunted most things, from
men and women down to mosquitos; I have dived for coral; I have
followed both whales and tigers; and a diamond is the tallest
quarry of the lot. It has beauty and worth; it alone can properly
reward the ardours of the chase. At this moment, as your Highness
may fancy, I am upon the trail; I have a sure knack, a wide
experience; I know every stone of price in my brother's collection
as a shepherd knows his sheep; and I wish I may die if I do not
recover them every one!"

"Sir Thomas Vandeleur will have great cause to thank you," said the
Prince.

"I am not so sure," returned the Dictator, with a laugh. "One of
the Vandeleurs will. Thomas or John - Peter or Paul - we are all
apostles."

"I did not catch your observation," said the Prince with some
disgust.

And at the same moment the waiter informed Mr. Vandeleur that his
cab was at the door.

Mr. Rolles glanced at the clock, and saw that he also must be
moving; and the coincidence struck him sharply and unpleasantly,
for he desired to see no more of the diamond hunter.

Much study having somewhat shaken the young man's nerves, he was in
the habit of travelling in the most luxurious manner; and for the
present journey he had taken a sofa in the sleeping carriage.

"You will be very comfortable," said the guard; "there is no one in
your compartment, and only one old gentleman in the other end."

It was close upon the hour, and the tickets were being examined,
when Mr. Rolles beheld this other fellow-passenger ushered by
several porters into his place; certainly, there was not another
man in the world whom he would not have preferred - for it was old
John Vandeleur, the ex-Dictator.

The sleeping carriages on the Great Northern line were divided into
three compartments - one at each end for travellers, and one in the
centre fitted with the conveniences of a lavatory. A door running
in grooves separated each of the others from the lavatory; but as
there were neither bolts nor locks, the whole suite was practically
common ground.

When Mr. Rolles had studied his position, he perceived himself
without defence. If the Dictator chose to pay him a visit in the
course of the night, he could do no less than receive it; he had no
means of fortification, and lay open to attack as if he had been
lying in the fields. This situation caused him some agony of mind.
He recalled with alarm the boastful statements of his fellow-
traveller across the dining-table, and the professions of
immorality which he had heard him offering to the disgusted Prince.
Some persons, he remembered to have read, are endowed with a
singular quickness of perception for the neighbourhood of precious
metals; through walls and even at considerable distances they are
said to divine the presence of gold. Might it not be the same with
diamonds? he wondered; and if so, who was more likely to enjoy this
transcendental sense than the person who gloried in the appellation
of the Diamond Hunter? From such a man he recognised that he had
everything to fear, and longed eagerly for the arrival of the day.

In the meantime he neglected no precaution, concealed his diamond
in the most internal pocket of a system of great-coats, and
devoutly recommended himself to the care of Providence.

The train pursued its usual even and rapid course; and nearly half
the journey had been accomplished before slumber began to triumph
over uneasiness in the breast of Mr. Rolles. For some time he
resisted its influence; but it grew upon him more and more, and a
little before York he was fain to stretch himself upon one of the
couches and suffer his eyes to close; and almost at the same
instant consciousness deserted the young clergyman. His last
thought was of his terrifying neighbour.

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