3 1822 01233 5774 LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA fli 3 ? THE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY 3 1822 01233 5774 1916, (. . If. KMngliam Company Reproduced ty the Xatumal Froeta Company Esther missed the clutching grasp of Blair by a hair s breadth. HE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY A ROMANTIC NOVEL BY ROY L. McCARDELL SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS By fptaal ptriniulan cf tltt Sort* Amariom f*m Corporation <&. G. W. DILLINGHAM CO. NEW YORK The Diamond from the Sky COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 0. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESEETED PUBLISHED FEBRUARY, 1916 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LINOTYPE COMPOSITION, ELECTROTYPES, PRESSWORK AND BINDING BY The J. J. Little & Ives Company 25-435 East 24th Street New York City N. Y. CONTENTS JACE Prologue 1 CHAPTER I A Heritage of Hate . . 5 II "An Eye for an Eye" .... 31 III The Wings of Fear 46 IV The Prodigal s Progress .... 61 V For the Sake of a False Friend ... 77 VI The Queen of Love and Beauty ... 91 VII The Fox and the Pig 107 VIII A Mind in the Past 121 IX A Runaway Match 136 X Old Foes with New Faces . . . .152 XI Over the Hills and Far Away . . .166 XII To the Highest Bidder . . , .182 XIII The Man in the Mask 194 XIV For Love and Money 210 XV Desperate Chances 225 XVI The Path of Peril 239 XVII The King of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts 252 XVIII The Charm against Harm . . . .266 XIX A Jewel for a Queen 282 XX The Soul Stranglers 296 XXI The Lion s Bride 310 XXII The Rose in the Dust . 325 vi Contents CHAPTER XXIII The Double Cross . XXIV The Mad Millionaire . XXV A House of Cards . XXVI The Garden of the Gods . XXVII Mine own People XXVIII On the Wings of the Morning XXIX A Deal with Destiny . XXX The American Earl PAGE 340 353 366 379 392 404 416 428 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO PACE PAGE Esther missed the clutching grasp of Blair by a hair s breadth (See page 264) .... Frontispiece Colonel Stanley bargaining to buy the gypsy s new born baby 28 "I have come for the child" 38 "You have wasted every chance in life I gave you". 63 Quabba and Clarence 87 Hagar ordering Luke to care for Quabba . . . . 116 Esther and Quabba defying Luke Lovell to open the box 147 Joyously the gypsies welcome Esther and Quabba . 189 "Don t you dare to touch her!" cried Luke . . . 227 "The diamond will be yours if I can get my hands upon it " 276 Esther at Arthur s bedside, while Vivian, unnoticed, gives him an injection of the lulling drug . . 299 Luke is " double crossed " 349 Arthur turned to Esther and begged her to forgive him 364 One last "big" night at the Powell mansion . . . 375 At that moment the sinister figure of Luke Lovell stepped into the room 403 So sped the happy year . 431 vii tVQQ UJUt i which he" wore. 4 butcher d XT_ Diamonds Have fi eli obje she was oora. and fed ou Fallen From Sky will k begini. In h Mai, after Dana 5 : fijie : took .wounded Authentic Instances of Me- "It Is of wall on of guilt teors Bringing Precious ings or varied f the court Gems to Earth. bracing led to -add chiefly a request When " Roy L. McCardeli won^a. 1 also to The te Iked out $10, 000 prize Mn a moving picture represe: Southei play contest for a serial moving pic Rehalsa mails tnat ture the central theme of which was iFrance ie matter. the romance and b dramatic events "Then erican and that followed the finding of a, great plates, a pal Nuncio, diamond in a meteor that fell in. .Turkish i i to execute Virginia in Colonial times , .many Moresque ages of her pardon. skeptic s scoffed at what they deem* Metropoll from her cell ed a weird creation of Mr. McCar- Qf the 12 "$s shot in dell s imagination. But diamond^ There ol the and carborundum have -been found faience in meteors; and peridots a semi haa fa also Of Whit- precious stone is- often found in. Italia* them. There are many legends in may the Orient concerning great . and] size n ap done priceless diamonds tlrat have fallen to earth in meteors to enrich. t&0 the pr in thid as urged Collection Jof Asian potentates; ,A\ charactf Miss the Museum of Natural History, The e >lood with New York City, the Foyer collection rus -aE defeat all of meteorites has for its most inter ceptury- anish Min- esting specimen the famous- "fallen a prectc ll s death star" known as the Canyon , Diablo, ong anc >r which which fell at Canyon Diablo, Ari- emerald ^UJdous zona, and in which a large diamond tO 9 ^ was: found embedded in its \mass. V TJ A "D-DfVnTV! .T ,/VTY"IST 1AI. DBSPAT THE DIAMOND FROM THE SKY PROLOGUE "TEE FALLEN STAR" /T is June in Virginia, June in the year of Our Lord 1615! Through the primeval forest, a cavalier rides in haste. His steed drips with foam that stains the handsome trappings of the panting charger. Sir Arthur Stanley, wild and reckless, rides for his life. Though but twenty-two, an adventurous career has been his. Leaving Eton at seventeen in disgrace through an escapade of gallantry, he had gone to the Court of King James I. where as the second son of the powerful Lord Cecil Stanley, of Stanley Castle, War wickshire, he had been feted and courted, beloved of women and the King s favorite. In an evil moment he had gained the disfavor of the gloomy King by some harebrained feat of gallantry and had been forthwith banished from the Court to the uttermost wilds of America, to what was then known as the King s Plan tations of Virginia. In England, among the high and mighty, they still spoke of the wild and dashing Sir Arthur Stanley. In one brief moment he passed from the envied position of King s favorite to the state of an exile. At the i The Diamond from the Sky King s Court they spoke of him and his reckless deeds, they spoke of him "The Fallen Star." And now Sir Arthur Stanley, young and debonaire, "The Fallen Star" rides for his life. Again he has car ried his desperate gallantries too far and in the attempt has failed. He has ridden from Jamestown to carry away by force the beautiful daughter of an Indian Chief, but his fair captive has been wrested from him, and signal fires by night have roused the warlike tribes to seek the desperate white man far in the hostile hills. The Indians, signalled of his coming, await him in ambuscade. As he rides for his life, beneath the spread ing branches of the great oaks across the rocky moun tain trail, an Indian brave drops from an overhanging branch of a great tree, on which he has lain hidden in the leafage, full upon the fleeing horseman. Then ensues a struggle worthy of the reckless ways of white adventurer and desperate savage foeman. Gripped in fierce embrace, as the horse stumbles on under his doubled struggling load, white man and red smite and strive. Finally, with a superhuman effort, the white man grasps the savage with his right hand and arm back of the red man s neck and, exerting all the force of his sinews of steel, he brings the red man, still clutching and smiting, around over the shoulder of his lace-em broidered riding doublet and, holding the savage across his saddle-bow, he throttles him until the tongue of the panting savage lolls from his foaming mouth and his eyes stare in their sockets like those of a man in epi lepsy. Then, with one last effort, the victorious white man Prologue casts his strangled foe down off his horse and turns, spent and worn as he is, to wave the shattered figure a mocking farewell. But now his tired horse staggers and falters and immediately a dozen dusky hands have seized on horse and rider. The cavalier is caught in the trap of the last ambuscade and Sir Arthur Stanley, buffeted and battered, is dragged to the ground, "A Fallen Star" indeed. That night the torture fire is lit and the deep black ness of the moonless night is relieved by its first crim son glow. Suddenly, across the zenith, athwart the sable curtain of the sky, there gleams a meteor. The white man at the stake, with a mighty effort, tears one arm loose from his bounds and points to the blazing ball of fire as it falls. "My sign!" he cries, "A Falling Star!" Not a hundred yards away, with a mighty detonation as it strikes the earth, the blazing meteor falls, hissing and gleaming in seething incandescence. The frightened savages shrink back and cover their terrified faces. "An omen of the Great Spirit s dis pleasure!" they cry. "The Great Spirit sends his burn ing star to protect the brave white warrior!" As debonaire as though advancing to lead a gaillard at a masque at the Court of King James, Sir Arthur Stanley who has wrenched himself loose, kicks aside the futile faggots and walks among the trembling red men who kneel at his feet. A month he stays among them, leading their hunts and feasts. A month he leads them at sunrise and sun set to make their oblations to the meteor and himself two fallen stars. On one of these occasions it is dis- 4 The Diamond from the Sky covered that in the dark bulk of the cooled meteor there gleams a brilliant crystal, half the size of a man s fist it is a diamond beyond estimation of price a gem to be known to the Stanleys for generations to come as "The Diamond from the Sky." The trembling chieftain, at the white man s bidding, digs the great diamond from the soft iron of the cooled meteor and bends to the ground as he presents it to the conquering pale face as the gift of the Great Spirit. The white man s horse has been brought at his command. Taking the diamond from the shaking hand of the kneeling chief, Sir Arthur Stanley steps on the shoulder of the savage and mounts his restive charger. Holding the great jewel in his left hand, the careless cavalier gives a sweeping salutation of fare well, his plumed hat in his strong right hand and rides away enriched but as he came, a gentleman un afraid! Thus was the American branch of the noble line of Stanley in England established in fair Virginia, three centuries agone. "The Diamond from the Sky," by the will of its finder, was left to the eldest born son of the proud Stanley family he founded in Virginia. With the deed that conveyed the diamond, there ran the proviso: ye English* Stanleys are at an ende, and it sballe be- falle that the beire to tbe Earldome of Stanley, in Warwick- shire, sballe be a descendant of my body*, tben be sballe take with bint to bis Earldome ye diamond from ye skye. " CHAPTER I A HERITAGE OF HATE IT is June in Virginia, June in the year of Our Lord 1886. June in beautiful Fairfax County, summer in a land of fair women and brave men, summer in a proud old country side that possesses a landed aris tocracy and feudal traditions. The fields are green, the early blossoming of the honeysuckle gives a fragrance to the air. The thrush sings along the hedgerows and the mocking-bird an swers from the wood. Far off, the Blue Ridge Mountains form emerald furrows to the sky that pale to turquoise against a high horizon of blue and gold. Light, fleecy clouds drift across the zenith in the soft airs of early summer. At such a time, in such a scene and such surround ings, two horsemen meet. Both are men of striking appearance and proud presence and are in the full maturity of their manhood. Each is attired in correct riding clothes of the day and both are mounted on Virginia thoroughbreds. They are Stan leys, cousins in blood. The one on the bay hunter, Judge Lamar Stanley, is smooth of face, and the grim lines of his countenance set more grimly at the ap proach of his kinsman, Colonel Arthur Stanley. The 5 6 The Diamond from the Sky latter rides his chestnut saddler like a soldier. Judge Stanley s seat is that of a huntsman. Even as they ride they differ. Colonel Stanley s face is more kind. A white mustache and imperial add to his soldierly appearance. In the Civil War, now twenty years agone, these kinsmen served the Confed eracy as became their types and tastes. In Richmond, during the war, Judge Lamar Stanley had been high in the councils of the Cabinet of the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis. In the field his cousin Arthur Stanley followed the fortunes of the Confederate arms as a member of the staff of Gen eral Lee. The name of Colonel Stanley as the dashing leader of the Fairfax Light Horse Brigade still holds its place of honor in the gallant annals of the Lost Cause. In their youth, as now in their maturity, these men held a heritage of family hate. Crossing each other in love, crossing each other in martial, civic and social ambitions, their mutual hatred grew with their grow ing years. There were deep causes for all this in the thwarted social ambitions of the Judge. As the scion of the elder branch of the American Stanleys, spring ing from their common ancestor, Sir Arthur Stanley, a gentleman adventurer who had been exiled to Amer ica in 1615, Colonel Stanley held possession of the precious family heirloom, "The Diamond from the Sky." The family tradition ran that this great gem had fallen in a blazing meteor at the feet of Sir Arthur Stanley three centuries ago, just as he was about to be burned at the stake by the Indians whom he had in A Heritage of Hate 7 some way affronted and aroused. The legend also was that the Indians had deemed the falling meteor an omen from the Great Spirit that the white man, about to be tortured, was under the favor of his protection. This legend further stated that Sir Arthur Stanley him self had so accepted "The Diamond from the Sky" as a token of supernatural favor, especially as the Indians had called it "the fallen star," and Sir Arthur Stanley himself had been called "The Fallen Star" after his banishment from the Court of King James for some wild escapade of gallantry when he was but turned of twenty-two. Thus it was that from this old tradition the priceless heirloom of the family was called "The Charm Against Harm" and eke "The Diamond from the Sky." Colonel Arthur Stanley, of Virginia, as head of the elder American branch of the family, held possession of the treasured heirloom. But he had no son to suc ceed to the Earldom in England. He was married to a fair young wife who expected shortly to become a mother. Were this child a girl, it could have no hope for the great English title in the family, nor ever to possess "The Diamond from the Sky." On the other hand, Judge Lamar Stanley had a son, a sturdy boy of three. His proud wife, equally with himself, dreamed of a day when this boy should bear the honors and have the vast estates of the Stanley Earldom. With this great desire for the title there was also the greater desire that always obsessed them the desire for the wonderful, priceless diamond. Such were the hates, hopes and ambitions that had 8 The Diamond from the Sky sundered the Stanley family in Virginia and such were the portentous matters that hinged upon an unborn child this June day in 1886, when these two horse men, kinsmen and bitter enemies, rode down upon each other in a smiling Virginia lane. Neither would swerve his horse a hair s breadth for the other. Into each other, full tilt, their blooded horses charged, and then the superior horsemanship of the soldier, skilled in cavalry encounters, told. A brief plunging shock of horses rearing breast to breast, and the iron grip of the Colonel s hands upon the rein of his saddler caused the well-trained horse to swerve just as the hunter of the Judge had reared his highest. Over went horse and man into the dust of the road. With a mocking laugh and not deigning to look back at his fallen kinsman, who arose and cursed and shook his fist at him, Colonel Stanley rode on. The Judge, discomfited hi the dust, turned as he cursed and kicked at his horse, to see if his fall and humiliation had been witnessed. He saw the dark face of a gipsy grinning at him through a hedge nearby. The hedge was on the property of Judge Stanley. This was the first thought that occurred to the angry, embittered man. Mounted on his horse again, he now saw a gipsy-van on the other side of the hedge. It had been driven through a gap in the hedge and it was evident that the gipsies, to whom the van be longed, were preparing to camp. Judge Stanley, quiv ering with rage, rode into the gap of the hedge and hoarsely ordered off the intruders. "But you see it is like this ! " expostulated the gipsy, "I am alone here with my wife, sir; our people have A Heritage of Hate 9 gone on; my wife is very sick; we can t go further, sir!" "What do I care what ails your wretched wife?" snarled the Judge. "Drive your horses off my land and get out of this County. If you even dare to camp by the roadside I will see you both are committed to jail for a long term. I am Judge in this County ! " "Mebbe you are President of the United States, too!" grumbled the gipsy. "As for camping by the roadside, do you think you own the roads because the gentleman that just rode by knocked you off your horse on to the road?" Roused to a burst of fury at the impudence of the retort, the Judge drove his horse at the gipsy and lashed him cruelly with the heavy riding whip he al ways carried. A wan but handsome young gipsy woman, clutching at her side as though in pain, tot tered out from the van as though to protect the fellow from the sheer brutality of the horseman. In his rage, and even in his calmer moods, Judge Lamar Stanley had never been known to spare man or woman who crossed him. He struck the gipsy woman across the face, leaving a livid weal. To his surprise, she never flinched, but faced him dauntlessly. "The bitterest disappointment of your life and a death for you that will be a buzzard s feast, for that blow!" she said tensely, a light of prophecy in her courageous eyes. The Judge faltered and wheeled his horse, but turn ing to the gipsy man, he cursed him again and bade him be off his land. Then he rode on. Meanwhile, Colonel Stanley had ridden to the vil- 10 The Diamond from the Sky lage of Fairfax and had halted his horse at the gate of a pretty cottage that stood in a garden of old fash ioned flowers somewhat back from the street. A sign by the gate bore the words "Dr. Henry Lee." Rising in his stirrups, the Colonel called, and at the summons the cottage door opened and Doctor Lee came out. The doctor was an amiable man of some fifty years, inclined to corpulence. His iron grey hair and beard and his kindly blue eyes gave him a remark able resemblance to his famous kinsman, General Rob ert E. Lee. The doctor had been a surgeon in the Con federate Army. Some ten years older than the Col onel, he had been the guardian of the other. During the Civil War, the Colonel had saved the doctor s life by carrying him, when wounded, back to the Confederate lines, under a galling fire. The tenderest bonds of friendship and almost filial affec tion existed between the two. A further bond between them, if other were needed, was the mutual hatred they bore to Judge Lamar Stanley who, through some legal chicanery, had im poverished the doctor by some breach of confidence, if not of trust. The doctor and the Colonel clasped hands warmly, and in answer to the physician s ques tion, the Colonel whispered: "Yes, doctor, come at once! My wife will need you to-night." Then, after kindly partings, the Colonel rode away while the doctor called to his colored boy to get out his horse and gig. As the Colonel neared his estates and was within sight of the broad lawns of his Colonial mansion, Stanley Hall, a landmark of the countryside, he was A Heritage of Hate 11 aware of a strange procession approaching. It was a gipsy-van, attached to the back of which was a rickety old buckboard, laden with pots and kettles and a rolled- up shapeless bulk of canvas, a smoke-stained gipsy tent. On the driving seat of the van were two figures, a man and a woman. The man held the reins of his horses loosely and was looking back down the road, bellowing hoarse curses at a disappearing horseman who, even at the distance, the Colonel recognized as his hated cousin, the Judge. As he neared the approaching gipsy outfit, the Col onel, passing to the left, saw that the woman had fainted from pain and weariness. He had but just time to wheel his horse close beside the van and catch her as she was falling from the seat. His quick command brought the husband s atten tion from the object of his curses, and instinctively the gipsy reined his horses hard and brought them to a halt. In a few words, the gipsy explained their miserable situation. The kindly heart of the Colonel was touched. The fainting woman had now revived and was listening apathetically. "So Judge Stanley has ordered you off the earth?" remarked the Colonel. "Well, my good man, that little copse of woods right over there, not far from my house, belongs to me. Camp there as long as you wish and I will see your sick wife gets every attention. She expects a child, you say? Ah, the curse of Eve falls alike in hut and mansion. We expect the same mo mentous event at my house. For that reason, not to mention Judge Stanley has treated you as he usually 12 The Diamond from the Sky treats the helpless, you are doubly welcome. I will send Doctor Lee, our family physician, to attend your wife. You can name the boy after me, Arthur Stan ley. Your name is Harding, you say? Well, you know the name of Stanley is a gipsy name, too. And, by Jove! So is the name of Lee. Why, who knows we may all be kinsfolk?" The Colonel laughed at the idea of the proud Stan leys of Warwickshire in England and Fairfax in Vir ginia, and the proud Lees also, being kinsfolk of gipsies. The gipsy woman now spoke for the first time. "Stranger things than that have been and will be," she said. "For your kind heart I read your fortune. A bitter disappointment and a bitterer triumph over those you hate the most, comes to you, sir," she added. "Well, better fortune than that to the child you ex pect," said the Colonel with a kindly smile. "And here is twenty dollars to buy Christening clothes and found the fortune of my expected namesake if it is a boy." "It will be a boy and you will be aware of him," said the gipsy woman, and she closed her eyes and shivered as in great pain. As the Colonel, sitting on his horse, opened his wal let and extended a banknote toward the gipsy hus band, the look of intense money greed on the face of the man was so marked and cruel in its avariciousness, that the Colonel drew back his gift and, rousing the woman with a gentle touch, proffered the banknote to her. "I do not wish to take your money, though you A Heritage of Hate 13 mean it well," said the gipsy woman. "There is bad luck to me and mine in money from great folks. This has been written long ago. The money the great give to small folks pays for things that money should not buy." "Take it, you fool woman, when the kind gentleman offers it!" snarled the man. "Are poor gipsies to throw money, money that is offered with a kind heart, into the ditch?" Seeing the Colonel still offering the money and that he sat with bared head as though to a great lady, as was the Colonel s way with all women folk, the gipsy s wife muttered her thanks and took the gift reluctantly, and the gipsy man, loud in his protestations of grati tude, turned his horses across the road and drove his caravan to the copse of wood the Colonel had indi cated to him. Bowing again to the gipsy woman, Colonel Stanley gave one last distrustful glance at the husband and rode on his way, whistling the tune of an old Rebel war song. Arriving at the gateway of Stanley Hall, the grand old mansion built by a great-grandson of the original forbear of the family in America, the Colonel again raised his hat as he cantered his horse up the splendid wide driveway, for there on the lawn was a merry party of young folks of the first families of the neigh borhood engaged in a game of croquet that had more romp than the dignity generally ascribed to this now old-fashioned pastime. He smiled to observe that his flower-faced young wife, Esther, in a garden chair, swaddled in silken 14 The Diamond from the Sky shawls and carefully attended by her old colored nurse, Mammy Lucy, was watching the game. At his approach, the game broke up and the happy young people crowded around him and his wife, as the Colonel alighted and addressed the fair mistress of Stanley Hall with tender words and even tenderer at tention. The negro man-servant, Ned, chief factotum and butler of the establishment, appeared on the piazza and called loudly to a half-grown colored lad to take the master s horse. Then the young folks bade their adieus, and the Colonel and the old nurse gently supported the young wife from the lawn to the portals of the great mansion of which she was the beloved mistress. Although he desired a son to whom he could be queath "The Diamond from the Sky" it must not be thought that any overwhelming desire for title or ex alted position for themselves or for their expected child actuated Colonel Stanley and his fair young wife. In fact, the Colonel was not only contented, but he was proud of his position as head of the Stanley family in America and master of Stanley Hall. It was only that the grasping desire of his cousin, the Judge, and the Judge s upstart ambitious wife, to gain both the great jewel and the succession to the English Earl dom of Stanley, led the Colonel to encourage himself in the hope his wife might bear a son to cheat his kins man foe of both these ambitions. For the proud, elder branch of the Stanleys the Lord Stanleys of Warwickshire, England only sur vived in the person of a testy, old bachelor invalid. As A Heritage of Hate 15 the dashing adventurer of three hundred years ago had foreseen, a time had come when the noble house of Stanley must seek its perpetuation from the trans planted line in America. The next of kin and in direct line for the Earldom of Stanley was Colonel Stanley of Virginia and, failing his survivor or his having a son, the Earldom would go to his cousin, Judge Stan ley, or the Judge s son, Blair. This was a matter of much moment to all con cerned, as has been stated; and especially did it con cern the last Lord Stanley, the testy, old invalid. It was a sore point with him that he had always hated women, after a love disappointment in early manhood, and had never married. For now the succession would go to those to whom he sneeringly alluded as his "Yankee relatives." But the valuable jewel of the American Stanleys was a comforting thought, in a measure, to the old Earl. Vast as were the possessions of the Stanleys, this gem of fabulous value, a monarch s ransom, had always been in the possession of the "Yankee relatives" and it gave these "Yankee relatives" a prestige that even an Earl might envy. So there was comfort in that, as has been said. For some time past, the Earl, through his attorney, Marmaduke Smythe, had been in correspondence with the aforesaid "Yankee relatives." Marmaduke Smythe was a long, lean, lank, dry-as-dust British lawyer. He had but one thought in life, and that was to serve with concise dignity the Stanleys of Warwickshire, as their legal representative, both in his London office and upon such occasions as elections, marriages, births 16 The Diamond from the Sky and deaths which called him down to Stanley Castle, He, too, was versed in full knowledge of the fame and fabulous value of "The Diamond from the Sky." He, too, knew the legends concerning it, but to his timid nature far off America was still a wilderness, peopled by savages, and in his mind s eye he saw the American Stanleys half-Indian in appearance and cus toms, going around in buckskins, tomahawking each other to gain or guard the great jewel. Also, in his imagination, Marmaduke Smythe constantly beheld Colonel Stanley, as what he called "the head of the tribe," running amuck through the jungles of Virginia uttering war cries and bearing on his barbaric breast the gleaming totem of the "Yankee relatives" "The Diamond from the Sky." So it had been with much trepidation and much nervous caressing of his scanty black sidewhiskers that Marmaduke Smythe had received orders from his dis tinguished patron, Cecil, eighth Earl of Stanley, to depart for America and arrange for the succession with the heirs apparent and prospective among the "Yankee relatives." In the preliminary correspondence concerning this matter, Lawyer Smythe had been gratified to note that one of the Stanleys near of kin in Virginia, was a Judge. To Lawyer Smythe s insular British under standing, being a Judge in the jungles of Virginia was to be an uncouth, tobacco eating, hoarse-voiced, red- faced individual, who presided over such summary backwoods punitive affairs as hasty lynchings and burnings at the stake "among the aborigines" and white "border ruffians." For minor offenses, such as A Heritage of Hate 17 slicing off a prominent citizen s ears, a Virginia Judge, in the English lawyer s opinion, might exercise clem ency to the extent of decreeing tar and feathers for the offender. Thus it was, with heavy heart and luggage in keep ing, that Lawyer Smythe set out for barbarous America to confer with Lord Stanley s "Yankee relatives." But he first purchased an elephant rifle and a brace of heavy revolvers, which the London gunsmith assured him were the proper thing to arm one s self with for the jungles of Virginia. The feud and its consequent bitter enmities between Colonel Stanley and Judge Lamar Stanley were hardly grasped by the testy old Earl and his timid London lawyer. What they did know of it but further con firmed the opinion of both as to the savage manners and customs of the "Yankee relatives." But the legal mind of Marmaduke Smythe prompted him to rely mostly upon the far off Virginia Judge, crude and rude as the British lawyer imagined the jungle-jurist in Vir ginia must be, and he determined to place himself in contact with the Judge rather than with what he thought might be the more strenuous and militant head of the American Stanleys, the ex-rebel soldier, Colonel Arthur Stanley. The lawyer had written to the Judge and, hard upon the heels of his letter, he had come. His British preju dices, his long held insular opinions, gained through awed reading of Fenimore Cooper s novels, would not permit him to admit that New York was a civilized city. He admitted to himself it was a large place of grotesquely high buildings, populated with hurrying 18 The Diamond from the Sky persons, as he viewed it on his arrival there; though he promptly concluded that New York was an English settlement, in which climatic conditions had instilled the haste and bustle he found so little to his liking. "I had better keep my pistols and elephant rifle at hand," he said to himself, "for in a day or so, I shall be on the veldt or rather in the jungles of Virginia." In such a state of mind he had arrived at the little railroad station of Fairfax, late in the afternoon of the day on which the Judge and the Colonel had encoun tered Matt Harding and his wife, Hagar; the after noon that preceded the night when it was decreed a child would be born to the proud master of Stanley Hall, and also a child in a gipsy tent in the woods nearby. From these births, with an Earldom at stake, and an ownership of one of the most famous jewels of the world concerned, there were to follow many strange decrees of destiny, of which no man, much less a be wildered lawyer from London, could foretell. All that Marmaduke Smythe saw when he alighted from the slow, local train, when his luggage had been deposited beside him by unceremonious hands, was a shambling negro, with a private mail pouch attached to a strap over his ragged shoulder. This negro was joined by several other messengers of his sort, who were likewise busy receiving mail and packages from the station agent who was evidently also the local post master. Lawyer Smythe looked up and down the platform expecting that cowboys or other uncouth backwoods persons would be there to convey him to Judge Stan ley s ranch. He finally summoned up courage to make A Heritage of Hate 19 inquiries of the station agent, as that individual was locking up for the night. "Judge Stanley?" repeated the station agent. "Why, his nigger, Zeke, just got the Judge s mail and has gone. The Judge couldn t have been expecting any body or he would have sent his carriage. But mebbe, Zeke will tell him he saw you, and you will be sent for. You had better wait right here." And he turned the key in the padlock on the station door and trudged away, leaving the bewildered lawyer wondering if wild beasts might be about, for the blackamoors, as he des ignated the darkies he had seen, might possibly be at war, with savage reprisals, with the native red In dians, who undoubtedly were lurking somewhere near in ambush. The summer sun sank slowly behind the Blue Ridge in crimson and golden glory. The roseate after glow fell upon the flower-covered cottage of the good- hearted Doctor Henry Lee like a benediction. The kindly physician felt the glamor of the crimson dusk as he came down the pansy-bordered walk to his gar den gate. His sturdy old sorrel horse stood hitched to the good doctor s gig, free of hitching strap or tether. The horse turned his head and whinnied af fectionately as his bulky master clambered into the capacious vehicle. "Yes, Stonewall," said the doctor, "you are right. A physician s horse has a hard life in country practice; but to-night you will stable at Stanley Hall, which is a grand old inn at which there is nothing to pay, and as 20 The Diamond from the Sky the saying is, there are meals at all hours for man and beast. " The horse shook his head as though he understood and trotted off as the doctor gathered up the reins. In the somber living room that was part law office and chambers of Judge Stanley, the heavy black wal nut bookcases looked upon the Judge and his equally stern-visaged spouse. The early Virginia supper was over, and the Judge and his wife were awaiting the evening mail on the last train down from Richmond. In a few minutes Zeke, the handy colored man of the household, entered with the Judge s mail-bag. From the usual correspondence on legal and other matters the Judge was expecting, he eagerly separated a large form ally addressed envelope bearing English stamps and sealed at the back with a large splotch of dark red wax. The Judge opened it, glanced at it hurriedly and handed it to his wife, remarking as he did so: "It is from the Earl s lawyer, Marmaduke Smythe, you see. He says he may arrive at about the same time this letter reaches us. Why doesn t the fool telegraph if he has reached New York? It would be just like an English lawyer to come by the same train that brings his own letter." Then Judge Stanley turned to the slouchy negro who lingered by the door, expectant of further orders. "Did you see a strange man get off the train looked like an undertaker all English lawyers do?" he asked the negro. "Yes, suh, a strange gemman did get off de train," replied the negro, "but he didn t say nuffin to me, and I didn t say nuffin to him!" A Heritage of Hate 21 "You black scoundrel!" roared the Judge. "That gentleman has come all the way from England to see me on an important matter. Get my horse and put a saddle on the black mare. I will go to the station for him myself!" Then, as the negro lingered, the Judge s words sink ing slowly into his dull mind, his irate master seized his riding whip which was lying near, and drove the darkey from the room with blows. At Stanley Hall, in the old Colonial bedroom of the mistress of the house, the colored nurse, Lucy, was ministering to her mistress while Colonel Stanley stood by solicitously confirming the old colored mammy s words with affirmative nods. "Yes, my honey, de doctor will be here any minute," the nurse was saying. "Ain t de Colonel jest back from goin after him? Bless my soul, honey, dere come Doctor Lee hisself, drivin up wid dat ole red hoss, Stonewall. Why, honey, dat ole hoss Stonewall knows all about doctorin jest as well as anybody. When a nigger is sick he don t call Doctor Lee, he jes go ax dat ole red hoss, Stonewall, what ail him. An dat ole hoss jes shake his head an neighs, which say as plain as words Go to work, nigger, go to work ! Dat s all dat ail you, laziness ! The Colonel s wife smiled faintly and returned the affectionate hand-pat of the faithful old nurse, and lifted her fair face as the Colonel bent over to kiss it. The old nurse softly bustled to the door and admitted the doctor who in his kindly mellow voice was soon reassuring those present, and particularly his fair, frail patient, that all would be well. 22 The Diamond from the Sky In the copse of woods, hardly farther than a stone s throw from the mansion, night was falling darkly with the mutterings of an approaching storm. Over a smouldering fire crouched Matt Harding, the gipsy, puffing at his short black pipe. A cry of pain from the weather-stained tent nearby roused the man, and he arose and sullenly walked over and entered the shabby shelter. In a few moments he emerged and hurried rapidly in the direction of Stanley Hall. As he rapped with the knocker at the great door of the mansion, Ned, the colored butler, opened it, throwing a glare of yel low light upon the sinister face of the gipsy from the prismed hall chandelier. "You can t see nobody in this house, Mister Man!" said the negro butler somewhat gruffly, when Matt Harding had stated his errand. "I don t like your looks nohow," the butler added under his breath. "But I tell you, Colonel Stanley promised me his doctor would be here to-night and that he would at tend my wife. She needs the doctor now. It s a mat ter of life and death. And it s bad luck when a gipsy dies without being able to face the rising sun." "De Colonel s allus doin foolish kindnesses fo po white trash," grumbled the darkey as he shut the door on the strange caller and went reluctantly to bear his message. Mammy Lucy was also indignant, and vented her objections in suppressed whispers when Ned came at the chamber door with word of the caller for the doc tor. But the physician was positive that no harm would come from his absence for an hour or so, and A Heritage of Hate 23 hastened away on his errand of mercy to the woman of the hedges. At the little station of Fairfax, meanwhile, the now frightened London lawyer was wondering whether he should load and cock his elephant rifle and fortify him self behind his luggage. Already he had strapped the cartridge belt that held the holsters of the two great pistols around his spare form. " England/ " he said to himself, " expects every man to do his duty. I hear the war cries of the savage redskins rising round me on all sides in the darkness! But I will sell my life dearly!" The war cries in question arose from the adjacent marshes where a chorus of croaking bullfrogs were making the night hideous. "Ha! The Iroquois chief approaches on horse back!" murmured the shivering Englishman. "I must be careful of treachery. If he comes to parley, all may be well, for, I jolly well was thoughtful enough to bring a bag of beads and trinkets to placate the aborigines ! " As the beat of the horse hoofs drew nearer, the Eng lish lawyer rose with levelled rifle and cried: "Halt! Who goes there? Friend or foe?" Then he stepped back a pace and promptly fell over his luggage, dis charging the elephant gun harmlessly in the air. The approaching horseman was none other than Judge Lamar Stanley, leading the spare horse for his visitor. The saturnine Judge was quick to realize the situation. He laughed grimly as he called out: "It s a friend, don t shoot again!" And then he rode up to the platform and introduced himself to the English- 24 The Diamond from the Sky man and explained matters to the latter s satisfaction. Then the Judge fastened the luggage of his visitor to the two saddle horses, personally taking charge of the cumbersome and most dangerous elephant rifle. It was well he did so, because the awkward, office-bred Eng lishman fell off his horse in getting into the saddle and twice more upon the journey to the Judge s home, and this is not counting his falling off the horse in en deavoring to alight at the Judge s piazza,. In the copse of wood, the pattering night rain fell upon the gipsy tent. But unmindful of the storm nor heeding the lightning flashes that lit up the gloomy scene, Matt Harding crouched by the fire smoking and ruminating on what he deemed his unlucky situation, with the stork inside his tent and the wolf of poverty lurking at its door. The storm passed as quickly as it had come, and the moon shone out refulgently. The flap of the tent opened and the bulky form of the good doctor was seen in the moonlight. He held a small, swaddled ob ject in his arms. The gipsy rose and skulked to ward him. "Matt Harding," said Doctor Lee impressively, "the storm has passed with the miracle of birth; and you may say, as was said of old : Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given! "Them s fine words for rich folk," grumbled the gipsy gruffly, "to me it don t mean nothing but an other mouth to feed." The doctor regarded the man with such a look of sternness on his usually mild face, that the gipsy mut tered he meant no harm but having children was hard A Heritage of Hate 25 on poor folks. Then he gingerly took the child from the doctor and entered the tent with it, after prom ising the departing physician to take good care of it and its mother. The doctor hurried back to Stanley Hall where all were impatiently awaiting him. He smiled reassur ingly at the Colonel s wife, the Colonel and the nurse. "A fine boy has been born to the gipsy woman," he said. "It seems an omen of like good luck to Stanley Hall. We may expect a little Earl to be born here this night," he added gently. The Colonel s wife shook her head and smiled back at the doctor, and the Colonel spoke quickly: "I have no ambitions for any title for a son of mine," he said. "But I wish for a boy if but to thwart my cousin Lamar Stanley, and then, too, The Diamond from the Sky will pass from Stanley Hall, where it has been held over a century and a half, in case a son is never born to us. I would rather see Judge Stanley or his son, the little boy Blair, succeed to the Earldom of Stanley, but I could not rest in my grave if I knew either that villainous scoundrel or any child of his possessed the jewel!" The Colonel s wife sighed and a tear came to her eyes. The old nurse and Doctor Lee regarded her and the Colonel sadly. A bitter expression crept into the face of the negro woman at the mention of Judge Stanley s name. "Don t you worry, honey," she said softly to her mistress, "an don t you worry either, Colonel! De good Lawd don t intend no luck for Jedge Lamar Stan ley. I was a slave gal on his father s place when de 26 The Diamond from the Sky Jedge was a young man. He killed my brother like a dog, an he had me beat insensible when I called him Cain. " If ears burn when we are discussed in our absence, the ears of Judge Stanley should have been afire, as he sat in his living room with his wife and the English lawyer, as the clock struck midnight. But if his ears burned, he gave no sign but impatiently consulted his watch and looked at the clock. "We should have word by now," said the Judge. "He knows it is the family law of the Stanleys that a birth of an heir to The Diamond from the Sky and to the Earldom must both be verified by the next of kin and the family lawyer. He has sent no word!" "I ll tell you why," spoke up the Judge s wife harshly. "A girl has been born at Stanley Hall. I know it!" "That, too, must be verified," said the English law yer mildly, as he fumbled at his scanty sidewhiskers. The Judge s wife had spoken better than she knew. A girl child had been born at Stanley Hall at mid night. The Colonel had blanched at the news, but the young mother had smiled and called her husband to bring "The Diamond from the Sky." Reluctantly he brought the precious heirloom, and the mother with her own weak hands, placed the chain and the locket that contained the jewel around the neck of her new born daughter. "She is heir to Stanley Hall, at least," murmured the mother, weakly, "and until you die," she added, turning to the Colonel, "she may possess it as a A Heritage of Hate 27 Charm Against Harm/ as the Stanleys of our branch have always called it." Then as the Colonel and the doctor turned away to hide their tears, at the pathos of her words, and as the old nurse busied herself at the other end of the room, the young mother drew a slip of folded paper from beneath her pillow and, opening the secret catch at the back of the locket, placed a mother s last mes sage unnoticed beneath the jewel, murmuring as she did so, " a charm against harm/ my little daughter, a charm against harm/ And then she sank back upon her pillow, her babe upon her breast, and on the breast of the babe, "The Diamond from the Sky" gleamed like a star in the lamp-light. The old nurse turned and gazed fixedly at her mis tress; then, with a scream of grief and terror, she threw herself beside the babe and mother. "She is dead!" shrieked the nurse. "My sweet mistress is dead!" It was true, this gentle soul had passed. In the library, a half hour later, Doctor Lee stood over the shattered Colonel. "Listen to the truth," said the doctor. "It is idle for you to rave. I have told you before, you have aneurism of the heart and another attack like this may be your death. You can not hope to live to marry a wife who may yet bear you a son." "I will never marry again!" cried Colonel Stanley in anguish. "I have loved but one woman, could love but one woman, and she is dead ! But, by Heavens, I will cheat Lamar Stanley and all his brood! I have five thousand dollars in yonder safe. I will buy the male child born to the gipsy woman. I will hide away 28 The Diamond from the Sky my own flesh and blood, my little daughter, and have her reared in secret; and the gipsy s brat, at my death, shall be the Earl of Stanley in England and possess The Diamond from the Sky. That will be fine for Lamar Stanley and his vermin offspring!" and he laughed and shook his hands in bitter rage. Seeing that the doctor regarded him incredulously, the Colonel feverishly continued : "I mean it, and you must help me. You hate Lamar Stanley, for he ruined you. Mammy Lucy hates him, he killed her twin brother in cold blood. Come!" and he strode to the strongbox, and took a mass of banknotes and a canvas bag of gold coin from it. In the glow of the camp-fire, Matt Harding gazed greedily at the wealth beyond his wildest dreams that Colonel Stanley had roused him from his fitful slumber to pour into his lap. The gipsy did not count the gold or banknotes; but, swiftly gathering the im port of the proffered bargain, he crammed the money in the bosom of his ragged shirt and crept to the tent. Hagar, roused from her fevered dreams, felt her babe being lifted from her bosom and instinctively clutched for her child. The brutal gipsy seized her by the throat and, as she feebly struggled, he gagged and bound her as hastily as he might, and then emerged panting from the tent, carrying the swaddled babe which he handed to the Colonel and the doctor. "Does my wife object?" he repeated the doctor s question. "Why, say, Governors, she would sell every child she expects to have for half the money. We ll be twenty miles away by sunrise, and fifty miles more by A Heritage of Hate 29 another day. We ll be gipsy kings and queens, and you ll never hear of us again!" Back at Stanley Hall, the doctor and the Colonel entered secretly by the library window and bore the babe upstairs to the waiting nurse. Reluctantly, and yet resolved like all the rest, the faithful colored nurse arrayed the gipsy child in fine linen and hung about its neck the great diamond, while the little daughter, born to Stanley Hall, whimpered beside its fair dead mother. Then Ned, the old colored butler, was de spatched to Judge Stanley s house with word to come and bring the English lawyer as a son and heir was born at Stanley Hall. It was a strange group that gathered in the Colonel s library. The English lawyer and the grim, bitterly disappointed Judge, both silently facing Doctor Lee and Colonel Stanley. A pull at the bell-rope, and the weeping colored nurse entered, bearing the black- haired, dark-eyed babe, a male child in Stanley Hall, presumptive heir to an English Earldom. Blazing on its breast was "The Diamond from the Sky." Over the gipsy camp-fire, within the sound of a hu man call from Stanley Hall, a bereft and frenzied mother tore herself loose from her bonds. Like a tigress she threw herself upon her husband and de manded her child. When he told her of the bargain and showed her the money that came from it, she cursed him and the gold and, seizing a jagged burning billet from the fire, she struck him down and leaving him prone on the ground she rushed to Stanley Hall to regain her firstborn. The gipsy roused himself from the stunning blow 30 The Diamond from the Sky and hastened after her ere she could spoil his greedy schemes. The great door of Stanley Hall stood ajar; for a moment Hagar swayed faintly at the portal. Then she staggered in and down the spacious hall to the door of the library, guided by the sound of men s voices and the cries of a child, her child! Her hands grasped the knob of the door and softly and silently she pushed it open, just as her gipsy husband seized her from behind. The backs of the Judge, the English lawyer, the doctor and the nurse were to the silently struggling gipsies, but Colonel Stanley stood on the other side of the library table facing the door. "Yes," he was saying, "there is the newborn baby, a son, do you hear, a son!" And then his eyes opened wide with horror, for there, struggling at the open door, he saw the gipsy woman and her husband. The man s hand was over the woman s mouth, and with every ef fort he sought to strangle her to silence and close the door. Colonel Stanley clutched at his heart and fell for ward senseless across the library table! CHAPTER II "AN EYE FOR AN EYE" AS Colonel Stanley fell unconscious across the library table, Matt Harding tensely, but silently, closed the library door from the out side. He held his right hand tightly over the mouth of Hagar, thus preventing the weak and an guished mother from making an outcry, as before her eyes, ere the door closed on the scene, she beheld her boy, her firstborn, arrayed in fine linen, a great jewel glowing on his little breast, the centre of some strange aristocratic rite or ceremony. So silent had been the struggle in the hall, that while the keen ears of Judge Stanley had heard but a slight rustle and a gasp, his attention had been so" taken up with the anguish on the face of his kinsman enemy, as the Colonel tottered and fell face forward on the table, that the Judge had hardly heeded these extraneous sounds. As for Marmaduke Smythe, the timid and bewil dered representative of the Earl of Stanley, he, like the Judge, was facing the swooning Colonel and also was unaware of the silent struggle which had been going on in the hallway, the struggle that had caused Colonel Stanley to swoon, because he saw, in his mind s eye, the baring of his plot, his own disgrace at 31 32 The Diamond from the Sky undertaking it and worst of all, the triumph of his enemy of blood ! Like a stoic, Mammy Lucy, holding the false heir, had never stirred or changed attitude, and meanwhile, Doctor Lee stood bending over the Colonel, and with all his skill sought to revive the stricken man. Down the hall to the great open doorway, Matt Harding bore his struggling, silenced wife. The bank notes in his bosom, the price of the sale of his own flesh and blood, rustled, and the gold coins clinked in the dirty pouch in his shirt, as he bore away the frenzied, half-strangled Hagar. By the sheer force of his brutal strength, the gipsy carried the woman to the little copse where their meager camp was pitched. Here he bound her with ropes to the seat of the van, gagged her with his neckerchief, and then hitched his horses and drove off toward the dawn. In the library, the ministrations of Doctor Lee had revived Colonel Stanley. "Brace yourself!" the doctor whispered. "Remember your heart will not stand much of this." "I am all right now," said Colonel Stanley, moisten ing his lips. "You, Doctor, will certify that this is a male child, and I will attest that he is my son, heir at my death to The Diamond from the Sky and also heir to the Earldom of Stanley in like event, at the death of the present Earl." The English lawyer fumbled in his brief-bag and produced the already drawn-up Document of Attesta tion. With a firm hand, but giving the Colonel a sad but searching glance, as he did so, Doctor Lee signed the paper as physician in attendance at the birth. The "An Eye for an Eye" 33 Colonel signed as father of "Arthur Stanley 2nd of Stanley Hall, Virginia." And then it was the turn of Judge Stanley to sign as next of kin. For a minute he faltered, a look of hatred on his face, and then he af fixed his signature and threw down the pen with a bitter curse for what he did. A mocking smile played upon the face of Colonel Stanley. For one brief moment he forgot the flower face of the beloved dead woman upstairs. For one brief moment he forgot the girl child born of their deep love, and whose birthright he had taken away in the fulfillment of his hate for his disappointed and chagrined kinsman. A few stilted farewells and perfunctory congratula tions ensued between the still embarrassed Marmaduke Smythe, and the Colonel and the doctor. There was some evil brooding in the air, and the aura of hate was felt by the English man of law. "It is only a veneer of civilization that thinly covers these crude Yankees, in these wild parts," thought the English lawyer, as he awkwardly mounted his horse and rode down the darkened lanes behind the gloomy Judge. "They jolly well would tomahawk and burn each other at the stake if they had opportunity." And he mumbled to himself: "I shall start back to London to-morrow, if I can, and deuced glad of it!" Uneventfully three years went their round. The supposititious heir at Stanley Hall grew to be a sturdy, little boy of handsome appearance, but of violent and ungovernable temper even as a child. 34 The Diamond from the Sky On the little girl, Esther, reared in secrecy in a closed chamber in the great house, and ministered to only by the silent and faithful Mammy Lucy, the Colonel lav ished and outpoured the great and growing love and affection of his invalided and aging years. For already the hand of death was plain upon him, and every day he rode to the cross upon the grave of his dead wife and prayed that when he met her face to face she would forgive him in the great tenderness of the love they had borne each other in life for the wrong he had done their child. There was another sorrow that weighed him down the fear of the Colonel that the wild gipsy blood in the putative heir might bring him to courses that would disgrace the Stanley name. And so the Colonel drew up a document, which he securely sealed and placed among his papers. Upon the outside he superscribed it: "To be opened in case my son, Arthur Stanley 2nd, ever does anything to disgrace the Stanley name." This document he left by his will to the care of Doc tor Henry Lee, should the physician survive him, as his executor. The Colonel had also realized that he could not long hope to rear his beloved little daughter, like a flower in the dark, secretly at Stanley Hall. He was arrang ing with Doctor Lee, who was a childless widower, that little Esther would be delivered to him and the doctor could give out the story it was an orphan relative he had adopted as his daughter. To this supposed daugh ter of his dearest friend, the Colonel purposed to will "An Eye for an Eye" 35 as much of his means as would have come to a girl child openly acknowledged. Meanwhile, the unhappy young gipsy mother, Hagar, had been borne far away by the brutal and ever watchful Matt Harding. His possession of money soon made Harding a power among the Romany people and, in a year or so, he was ruler of several tribes. His principal henchman, Luke Lovell, a recently arrived English gipsy, aided Matt in keeping watch and ward upon Hagar, without knowing or asking why. Later Matt Harding fell upon evil courses in his Romany prosperity, and drink made an end to him. Hagar succeeded to his gipsy wealth and gipsy power. The King was dead, long live the Queen! Luke Lovell transferred his allegiance and served her well, as he had served the dead Matt Harding. In far away Fairfax, in the grim household of Judge Lamar Stanley, the shadow of cheated hopes and blighted ambitions fell heavy upon the family. The proud and grasping wife and the tyrannical and ruth less Judge had one unifying desire in common that death might strike the lives which lay between Blair, their only child, and both "The Diamond from the Sky" and the Stanley English Earldom. Such was the state of affairs when Hagar and her tribe came back to Virginia, three years after the death of the Colonel s wife and the substitution of her child as the heir of Stanley. Leaving her people camped at a distance, Hagar journeyed to the neighborhood of Stanley Hall, and there from a hidden vantage beheld, with bursting 36 The Diamond from the Sky heart, her son ride forth, the petted and pampered Little Master of Stanley Hall. Colonel Stanley, with the boy, was riding on his daily pilgrimage to the grave of his dead wife. The road led him past the house of Judge Stanley. Look ing from his window after his enemy and the little heir of the Stanleys on his pony at the side of the Colonel, the Judge was surprised to see a gipsy woman stalking after the Colonel and the boy as swiftly and as fur tively as an Indian tracker. Seizing his hat, the Judge silently and swiftly emerged from his house and fol lowed. By the gate of the graveyard, Hagar kept herself out of sight whilst she intently watched the bare-headed figure of the Colonel praying by the grave. She was watching so intently and with a hungering heart, the little boy, that she was not aware of a stealthy foot step behind her, nor was she aware of the presence of the Judge, until his strong hand grasped her wrist and his harsh voice grated on her ear: "Why do you spy upon them?" To the startled Hagar, the cruel face of the Judge was the face of a well-remembered enemy. Her ac count of justice and retribution with Colonel Stanley was between them alone. She would have no confi dence in nor dealing with Judge Stanley. For she knew instinctively that if he hated the Colonel, he equally hated and was prepared to harm the Colonel s supposed son, her child. She did not struggle or attempt to free herself from the grasp of the Judge. But as the Colonel, with the little boy, rode from the grave toward the gate, she "An Eye for an Eye" 37 slipped down beside the Judge and hid with him from the observation of the oncomers, as though she were an accomplice of the Colonel s enemy. Neither would she speak in answer to the Judge s rapid fire of questions when the Colonel and little Ar thur had passed out of sight. She affected a sullen dumbness; nor when the Judge hailed a passing stock- ily built man driving a buckboard, the constable of the district, and gave her in charge as a wandering rnad woman, would Hagar speak a word. That night, with gross disregard of legal procedure, the Judge, alone in his courtroom with his creature, the constable, committed the silent gipsy woman to the county madhouse. He gave instructions to those in charge, through the constable, that when the seem ingly insane woman spoke or was ready to speak, they should send for him. Hagar was taken to the mad house, but no sooner had she arrived there than in a sudden frenzy of fear and rage she screamed and strug gled and tried to escape. The matron and a burly warden overpowered her with difficulty and placed her in a straight- jacket and threw her upon a cot in a cell. Then they locked the clanging door and left her. After her tormentors had departed, a wild idea seized Hagar. She staggered to her feet and gazed around. Above her cot, some eight feet from the floor of the cell, was a small barred window. Hagar listened for a w r hile at the heavy oaken door ; then she backed toward the table on which was a lighted candle. She bent over and placed herself in such a posture that the lacings that held the sleeves of the straight- jacket were placed against the flame of the candle. The 38 The Diamond from the Sky leather thongs in the eyelets at her back smoked and burned. With a great effort, she parted the smoulder ing thongs. To release herself from the straight- jacket, now that she had her arms free, was but the work of a few seconds. Mounting the table she drew up the oaken stool, and with its sturdy legs she pried the bars from their cemented sockets. The ground was only some ten feet below. She held to the ledge of the window a moment and then dropped. She struck the earth without injury, and made off in the darkness, a free woman. On this very night, Colonel Stanley had sent for Doc tor Lee to take away the little girl, Esther, and the old nurse was preparing little Esther for the night journey. In his library, Colonel Stanley gazed in the lamplight at the great jewel and the sealed document he had prepared that would betray the Stanley secret, if need be. Whilst he sat thus musing, he heard the sound of the opening of the long French window behind him, and then he saw Hagar entering disheveled, panting, but resolved to have her own. At this apparition the Colonel arose and faced the wild intruder. "I have come for the child!" said Hagar hoarsely. Colonel Stanley felt a sudden pang through his heart. It was the last shock the doctor had foretold for him. He gave a moaning inarticulate cry and sank back a dead man! Hardly knowing what she did, Hagar swept into her bosom "The Diamond from the Sky" and the sealed document, together with other papers on the table. Then turning, she softly opened the library door and "An Eye for an Eye" 39 as softly crept up the stairway. Led by unerring in stinct, she opened the door upon the landing and en tered the room where the child, her own son, lay sleeping. She noticed the elegance of his surround ings, as the risen moon shone in the window lighting it fully. What should she do? If she left her child here, she would be cheating the cheaters. What would be the gipsy upbringing she could give her son in comparison to all that would be his as heir of Stanley Hall? As she faltered, she heard footsteps outside and, gazing out cautiously, beheld the old colored nurse descending with little Esther, the rightful heir of Stanley Hall. Hagar, following silently, huddled upon the landing place and listened. A wild shriek arose from the col ored nurse as she entered the library and discovered her dead master. Then the bell rang furiously in the servants quarters from the frantic pull on the bell-rope that the old nurse had given in the library. Almost im mediately afterward Hagar could hear that the nurse had been joined by old Ned, the butler. Just at this instant, Doctor Lee drove up outside, and soon the great knocker on the front door was clamoring its iron summons through the house. The two old servants ran to the door and broke the news of the tragedy to the friend of the dead man. Hagar stole unseen down the staircase and into the library once more. There, cloaked and hooded, stood the little girl whimpering: "Wake up, daddy, and kiss me!" Hagar paused. "An Eye for an Eye," she muttered. Then lifting the little girl in her arms and, stifling her cries of fear and alarm, Hagar, with her burden, passed 40 The Diamond from the Sky out of the window by which she had first entered, and closed it after her. As the doctor with the two frightened colored serv ants stood over the dead man in the library, and be fore the old nurse had noticed the absence of the child, Hagar had come around the mansion to the front. Loosening the strap that held the doctor s horse, she entered the carriage, still holding the frightened little girl so that its cries were silenced, and drove away. The next morning the news of his enemy s death reached Judge Stanley. With it were vague rumors and whispered suspicions. Other news came, too, news of the escape of the gipsy mad woman and the disap pearance of Doctor Lee s horse and buggy. The Judge stayed not to rejoice at the death of his enemy. He refused even to tell his wife of what strange business called him hence; with a pistol in its holster at his saddle side he rode swiftly away. In a narrow defile in the Blue Ridge, Judge Stanley tracked down his prey. Hagar had abandoned the doctor s exhausted horse and the now broken gig and, bearing the child on her shoulder, was climbing the rocky gorge, when she was aware of the rattle of horse hoofs and heard the voice of Judge Stanley call upon her to halt. She turned to see the Judge on horseback down be low, his army pistol levelled at her. She held up the child, not so much to shield herself as that its pretty innocence might soften the hard heart of the relentless pursuer; but, whether by accident or design will never be known, the Judge fired, the heavy explosion of the pistol echoing among the rocks. The bullet whistled "An Eye for an Eye" 41 past the flinching Hagar and the terrified child. The horse reared at the sound of the pistol, throwing his rider, breaking the neck of the vengeful Judge and dashing his brains out against a jagged rock. Raising the child to her shoulder again and support ing her there with her strong right hand, Hagar looked down upon her dead persecutor and called upon him again the gipsy s curse the Death of the Vultures she had predicted for him when first they met. Then she climbed over the summit of the ridge with her precious burden, and was gone ! Eighteen years have passed since Judge Stanley s shattered body was found in the mountains, the seal of death upon his lips. Grown to manhood, Arthur Stanley 2nd, master of Stanley Hall, is wasting his substance in riotous living. And Doctor Henry Lee, oppressed with the weight of years, guardian of the heir of Stanley, is wondering what will the harvest be. The old nurse is dead, as is also the old colored fac totum, Ned. There is none alive who knows what really happened on that tragic night and in the tragic time that followed, save the now aged Doctor Lee and the gypsy woman whom he has sought for secretly, but in vain, through all these years. While Arthur Stanley 2nd carouses with his cousin Blair and other wild companions at Stanley Hall, and while Doctor Lee muses in his study and wonders what will the harvest be, the harvest is close at hand. 42 The Diamond from the Sky Fate, weaver of destinies, in the shape of Hagar, comes back. If the doctor has wondered if, in his hate of one dead man and his love for another, he has not done wrong, Hagar, queen of the gipsies, wonders, too, if her vengeance has not gone all awry. Esther Stanley, or as she is known, Esther Harding, is a beautiful and sweetly dispositioned young woman now. The wild mother love Hagar bore for the son who was sold from her, has passed to sweet Esther. So it is that Hagar returns to Virginia resolved again to sacrifice her very heart. A tawdry gipsy camp is no abiding place for a fair young girl of gentle blood. Hagar knows all the documents she took from Stan ley Hall when she abducted Esther, knows them by heart, as she knows every facet on "The Diamond from the Sky," which she took that night from the dead hand of Colonel Stanley. Hagar would see her boy again in his manhood. The wild hope possesses her that he may fall in love with Esther, and that the secret which only two living people know shall rest lightly with the dead, when Esther is mistress by mar riage, if not by right, of Stanley Hall. And so Hagar camps with her tribe not far from Fairfax, and sends a note to Doctor Lee. It reads : "I have come back after eighteen years. I have had my revenge, but I love the girl. What shall be done with her? HAGAR HARDING." Hard on the heels of the returning messenger to the gipsy camp, comes Doctor Lee. He is not surprised, the aged seldom are. They have seen too much. "An Eye for an Eye" 43 Esther now learns from the kindly lips of the doc tor and the tremulous ones of Hagar, that a new life has opened for her, that she must take her place in the society of the country side as the adopted daughter of Doctor Lee, as long ago arranged. This is all she knows, this is all she is told, as, with her belongings, she bids a weeping adieu to the reticent yet kindly gipsy woman she has known as mother all her conscious years. And Esther rides away as the doctor s adopted daughter from the gipsy camp. But there was one thing Doctor Lee, when alone with Hagar, demanded and received, and that was the Stanley heirloom, "The Diamond from the Sky." He will hold it and await the verdict of time. Hardly had the doctor departed bearing Esther with him openly and the diamond secretly, when Luke Lovell, Hagar s headman, is given the command to strike camp. In an instant all is bustle and confusion. Within an hour, Hagar and her tribe are gone from Fairfax. In half a year, though many of the proud women of the neighborhood look askance, Esther, "the girl from nowhere," as she is called, is the belle of the country side. The vine-clad porch of the doctor s old house sees nightly gathered there the young sparks of the county. One lovely night, a night in June, and in the moon light four young men are all paying court to the happy Esther. Chief among them are the Stanley cousins, Arthur and Blair. Some slight attention to Blair rouses Arthur to a temper of jealousy. Prettily re buked by Esther, Arthur leaves in a huff. Then Es- 44 The Diamond from the Sky ther vents her coquettish displeasure upon the until then triumphant Blair, and he, now angry also, arises and departs, leaving the field to two swains where just previously were four. In his study that overlooks the garden at the side, the old doctor is gazing wonderingly by the light of his study lamp at "The Diamond from the Sky," and musing over the strange destiny that has given it and Esther, child of his dearest friends, into his keeping. Sulkily straying by the house in his jealousy and anger, Blair Stanley sees the light gleaming from the study. Curious, and not over-nice in his curiosity, he peers through the window. He starts back, clenching his hands. He remembers now the oft-whispered sus picions of his mother: "Doctor Lee was alone with Colonel Stanley when he died, who else but he has taken and hidden away the Stanley heirloom, The Diamond from the Sky? " The obsession of the desire for this priceless Stanley heirloom had been born and bred in Blair Stanley. He hies away, but that night, when the swains have long departed and the good doctor and the fair Esther have each retired to slumber, Blair Stanley returns prepared to break in and bear away the diamond of discord. At this same hour, at Stanley Hall, the dark-eyed Arthur muses in softened mood of Esther. His guitar lies near him and he picks it up and gently strums it. In his mind s eye he sees himself serenading sweet Esther Lee, as she is called, and begging her gentle pardon in the moonlight, should she come to her win dow and listen. The romantic idea suits the gipsy "An Eye for an Eye" 45 romance in his blood. He takes the guitar and hastens again to the doctor s house. Blair Stanley has clambered through the study win dow, closed it and drawn the shade. He has noise lessly lighted the doctor s study lamp and rifled the drawer of the old secretary and the cashbox it holds. He has seized the precious diamond and clasped it in agitated ecstasy upon his bosom. He hides the chain and locket beneath his collar and under his shirt. Meanwhile, sleeping the light slumber of the aged, the doctor has been roused by the slight noise of the opening of the window. Candle in hand, he de scends to his study and enters just as the last gleam from the diamond in the lamplight is shrouded in the shirt of the thief in the night. There is a quick, sharp struggle. Crazed with fear, yet resolved to do murder rather than lose the long-coveted heirloom, Blair Stan ley, in his maddened, frenzied hate and fright, strangles the doctor till the weak, old man falls across the table, his heart stopped in death. Breathless after the struggle, Blair listens, and upon his startled ear falls the tuneful tinkle of a guitar and the strains of an old love-song serenade. The voice that rises on the night to the tinkle of the guitar, is the deep, rich baritone of Arthur Stanley! Blair sees there is no escape by the way he came the window. Averting his fear-haunted eyes from the pale, fixed accusing orbs of the dead man, Blair turns and fumbles at the knob of the door that leads to the darkened hallway of the house. CHAPTER III THE WINGS OF FEAR CAUGHT like a rat in a trap, with Arthur Stan ley outside the window serenading the dead as well as the living, and Esther stirring over head, Blair Stanley nerved himself with a su preme effort, turned the knob of the study door and stole down the darkened hallway, and as quietly as his trembling fingers would permit, he unbolted the front door and closed it as silently as he could. But Arthur heard the grating of the bolt, the cau tious opening of the door, and hurried from the side to the front of the house, hoping it was Esther who came in answer to his serenade and to receive his con trite pleadings for forgiveness. He reached out to em brace the gentle girl only to find he had clasped the stalwart, struggling frame of a man. The moon broke through a cloud as his prisoner struggled, and its rays illuminated the face of Blair Stanley! "What are you doing here, coming out of Doctor Lee s house at this hour?" gasped the astonished Ar thur. A despicable idea flashed through the brain of Blair in his desperation: "Keep quiet, you fool!" he whis pered. "A girl s good name is at stake!" Arthur winced at the shameful inference, and Blair 46 The Wings of Fear 47 with a rapid movement drew his revolver. He would do a double murder and win an Earldom and "The Diamond from the Sky/ if he could escape without de tection. But the strong hand of his cousin closed upon the pistol. To avoid further shame and scandal, even of inference, Arthur dragged Blair down the pathway and through the silent village street, as the cocks were crowing, presaging the coming of the dawn. Panting and struggling, the cousins stumble off the village highway and into the little village graveyard. Their feet sink into a mound of soft earth by an open and newly dug grave. Trained to revere womanhood, a wild idea of blood vengeance on the dastardly traducer of Esther had crossed the mind of Arthur Stanley. He has wrested Blair s pistol from his grasp, and they stand panting and facing each other with rage and hate in their hearts. In this era of smouldering hostilities the aftermath of the great Civil War between the North and the South young men and even old, went armed. Arthur drew out his own pistol and then a white silk handkerchief which he had in his breast pocket. "For what you have said about Esther, either you or I must die!" said Arthur, afire with maddened rage. "Take one end of this handkerchief and stand across this open grave. Hold the handkerchief in your left hand, as I hold this corner of it. Now take your pistol and when I count to Three! raise and fire, and the one of us left alive will pull the dead man into this grave!" Arthur counted "One!" when the now fearful mur derer essayed to fire. But the other was too quick for 48 The Diamond from the Sky him. Arthur s pistol spoke first and, instinctively tugging the handkerchief as he fires, he drags the wounded Blair into the grave, prone on his face. Aghast, Arthur leaped down after his cousin to see if he were dead. Within the dark confines of the newly dug grave he turned the still form of Blair upon its back to satisfy himself as to whether the heart yet beat. The moon looked down on the pallid face, blood smeared from a welling wound in the head, and there, as Arthur tore at the bosom of Blair, gleaming in the moon rays, with evil glitter, was the marvellous diamond, "The Diamond from the Sky." Arthur Stanley had known its every aspect, for the Stanley archives were full of it in print and manu script, pictured and described, from its finding as it fell in the meteor, and as it was here cut and pol ished and mounted in chain and locket. Hardly realizing what he did, but believing the baleful gem was his by every right, Arthur tore it from the neck of Blair in the grave, clambered out and hastened away. In the newly dug grave, Blair Stanley moaned and stirred. The wound on his forehead was from a glanc ing bullet blow that had stunned and left him seem ingly as dead. With returning consciousness Blair s first impulse was to clutch wildly at his blood-stained and dishevelled shirt. The diamond was gone! The death of Doctor Lee had been all in vain. And Blair Stanley also fled beneath the moon, bootless and in truth blood guilty. At Stanley Hall, Arthur gained access to the library and shuddered again as he saw the stains on his hands The Wings of Fear 49 and on the great jewel, that so bedewed seemed to gleam all the brighter in the glare of the library lamp. He now realized the Stanley heirloom was respon sible for Blair s impugning the good name of Esther, but he did not know that the doctor lay cold in death at the hands of Blair. The wild thought, the wilder hope, that he might go elsewhere and under a new name, still holding to the precious jewel, rehabilitate himself, and then seek out Esther in secret and wed her, now possessed Arthur. It was when he had roused himself to prepare for flight that his eyes fell upon a telegram, which his servant had left upon the library mantel. Mechani cally he opened it and read it. It was from a Rich mond automobile agency, notifying him that the new French racing automobile he had ordered some months previously, had arrived and would be delivered to him early on the morrow. Among Arthur s many extravagances, which the lax administration of estates in Virginia permitted the scapegrace heir, was the buying of this costly French automobile. It was a day when automobiles were rarities and luxuries, and the young spendthrift of Stanley Hall had preened himself in the thought that he would be the first to own one in all Fairfax County. But all this was now dismissed from Arthur s anguished mind as he thought of the stark form of Blair, lying in the grave that had been dug for another. The body would not be found till perhaps near noon. Even then they might not connect Blair s tragic death with the broken guitar and the other signs of struggle in the doctor s garden. 50 The Diamond from the Sky Meanwhile, skulking through deserted byways, the dazed and bleeding Blair Stanley had a strange home coming in the night. His mother, always a light sleeper, had descended to admit him at his first cau tious knocking at the door, in the darkness just be fore daylight. "Well?" she asked, pale but composed, as he clung to her, bleeding and shaking. Then in hoarse, dry whispers he told her all the horrid events of the night. "It was Arthur, Arthur Stanley!" Blair moaned. "He shot me. I saw the diamond our diamond The Diamond from the Sky/ of the Stanleys. Doctor Lee had it. I climbed in to get it. He came upon me Doctor Lee did I struggled with him, he dropped over dead, I think. Then Arthur came out side, serenading the girl Esther. He caught me as I came out. He thought you know what he thought about Esther, you know? We fought down the street, no one saw us, it was after midnight. I shot at him when I first came out, but if the shot was heard it roused no one. In the cemetery Arthur shot me and I fell over he thought dead. Curse him! He robbed me of the diamond the diamond that should have been mine as he has robbed me of the title in Eng land of Esther, of everything!" "Then you have failed," said his mother coldly. She expressed no compunction at the death of Doctor Lee, but as she bathed Blair s forehead her lips were firm and set. One life Arthur Stanley s still stood be tween her son and herself and their desires. Then in hushed, grim tones Blair s mother told him again of how the prized and precious heirloom had The Wings of Fear 51 vanished strangely the night Colonel Stanley had ex pired, alone in his library; the Colonel s death preced ing by a few days only the tragic end of Judge Stan ley in the mountain pass, also, it was thought, alone. She had always believed, with a bitter suspicion that encompassed all of the long dead Colonel Stanley s friends, that Doctor Lee had taken the diamond in the confusion attending the Colonel s sudden demise. "You need not blame me that I lost it," said Blair when she had ceased. "It was Arthur s luck to wrest it from me the Devil s luck, that all at Stanley Hall possess! I would have killed him it was in my mind, it was in my heart!" "Well," said his mother, "we must hope for another, better day. Meanwhile, if you are sure that your struggles were not seen, you had better remain in hiding until I can learn what suspicions are aroused. If you are missed, I will say you are gone to Rich mond. Even if Arthur Stanley hears no more of you, he will still think that he has slain you. He will keep silent." The flush of hope came back to the ashen face of Blair Stanley. "I remember now," he said, "we trampled upon Arthur s guitar in the doctor s garden in our struggles. He will be accused of having caused the doctor s death, and who will believe him if he, in turn, blames me? I will keep out of sight, as you say, mother. The very fact that he now has the dia mond and that the doctor had it in his keeping until his death, will damn him. Thinking me dead, he may fly, who knows?" His mother nodded, and then, seeing the dawn was 52 The Diamond from the Sky breaking, she crossed the room to the old-fashioned fireplace and pressed a hidden spring. With wonder ing eyes Blair saw the whole fireplace, from hearth stone to ceiling, turn as on a centre pivot and swing half out into the room and half back into a great recess in the wall. "A hiding place built by your Tory great-grand father," said his mother. "Fairfax was all for the American arms, during the Revolution, all except your great-grandfather. Washington accused him of hiding and harboring spies for King George. But though they searched here they never found them," she added grimly. In the niche behind the chimney, Blair noted a small bench, or pallet, a reading lamp of old design, and sundry other crude comforts. "You will find it comfortable enough," remarked his mother. Noting an inflexion of sarcasm in her tones, Blair faced her resolutely. "I swear to you that neither Arthur Stanley nor the diamond shall always escape me," he said; "you must believe that I am as deter mined and as resolute as my father was, and yet he, too, failed." For one of the few times Blair could remember, his proud, cold mother softened. She gave her attention again to the slight wound above his temple, bound it gently with her handkerchief, kissed him and sighed. The unhappy Blair sobbed and impulsively embraced his mother. For one brief moment he faltered, and then his mother pointed in silence to the hiding place, and he stepped within, and the great chimneypiece The Wings of Fear 53 swung into place, and he was in semi-darkness, hidden and secure. Meanwhile, the dawn had come, and Esther, who had been aroused at the pistol shots, was in great agi tation and alarm. Comforted and encouraged by the first glimpse of daybreak, she had descended to the lower hall of the house. The door of the doctor s study stood ajar, and she glanced within. There in the dim light of the morning sun filtering through the window shades, she saw the doctor in his dressing- gown prone across the table, dead! Nancy, the doctor s cook, was already astir in the kitchen when Esther s cries brought her to the scene; on the heels of the cook came the colored houseboy. After the frenzy of their fright had subsided, the boy ran through the neighborhood arousing it with news of the tragedy. At first Esther and the neighbors had believed the doctor s death had been from natural causes, the peaceful passing in old age; but the disorder of the room, the rifled cashbox on the table, the chisel-marked drawer of the old secretary and the opened window, against which the drawn shade flapped in the early morning air, all mutely told their tale of theft and murder. The sheriff had been sent for and already an eager neighbor had found a crushed guitar in the garden, and the marks of the trampling of the feet of what appeared had been those of several struggling men, in the flowerbeds that bordered the walk to the doctor s gate. The footprints were of well-shod men. No pass ing rough marauders, no outlaw negro desperadoes had 54 The Diamond from the Sky part in the murder and robbery in the doctor s study, nor had any such struggled in deadly combat in his garden. The matter was mystery as well as murder, and the morbid neighbors gathered in and around the cottage of the dead man and whispered greedily. The old procedures of the "crowner s quest" still held strong in Fairfax County, Virginia, long incul cated by its early English traditions; so, at the doc tor s cottage, the first expression of authority by the sheriff was that nothing should be touched in the study where the doctor lay dead, "till the coroner came." The broken guitar had been handed the sheriff and identified as Arthur Stanley s. Now the gossips whispered that he and the doctor had had high words earlier that same day over the fact that Arthur, who had squandered his means, had added to his other extravagances by ordering a costly automobile, without consulting the usually leniently inclined old doctor, who as Arthur s guardian, had borne with the young man s wild extravagance with the patience that was part of Doctor Lee s kindly character. Esther, in the midst of the depressing, morbid tur moil that followed the discovery of the doctor s death, had moved as one in a most unhappy dream. The Judge s widow had arrived upon the scene as soon as she had been sent for. Although her relations with the doctor had been distant and constrained for years, yet the Judge s widow was next of kin. With the usual delay characteristic of the easy-going doctor, he had postponed making out the legal adoption papers for Esther. He had only insisted that she be called Es- The Wings of Fear 55 ther Lee. What her real name was, the polite Vir ginians had not asked, but it was whispered that it was Harding. When questioned by the puzzled sheriff as to what procedure he should follow, after the identification of the broken guitar, found close to the footprints in the flowerbeds, the Judge s widow had coldly replied: "Do your duty!" and the sheriff, with his deputy, set out for Stanley Hall to apprehend Arthur Stanley 2nd on suspicion of the murder of Doctor Henry Lee. At their parting there had been one gift of Hagar s that Esther had since lovingly cherished. It was a pair of carrier pigeons. "Take these, my daughter," Hagar had said, "if you are ever in trouble and need me, send a message by the birds. Their homing place is our gipsy rendez vous in the Blue Ridge. Even if I am not there when the message comes, some of our tribe will be. They will know where I am and fetch me the word." So Esther, under the open espionage of Blair s mother, had taken one of the pigeons from its cage on the porch and had hastily written the message to send by this aerial carrier to Hagar. The message read briefly: "Come at once, dear mother, I need you!" She simply signed it "Esther." She released her feathered messenger, and with a beating heart she saw the bird circle twice above the house top and then dart, high up, swiftly to the west, straight as the arrow flies. The sheriff and his deputy were not long in reaching 56 The Diamond from the Sky Stanley Hall. They alighted with a business-like clat ter, and the sheriff clumped up the steps and across the wide hospitable portico and made the great iron knocker wake the echoes of the silent mansion, then with an indicative gesture of his thumb, he sent his deputy to guard the rear. Joe, the natty and worldly-wise colored man-serv ant of the young master of Stanley Hall, was won dering at the impudent urgency of the clamor as he reached the bottom of the staircase, but he stood stock still, shaken for once out of his usual superior airs and self-possession, when his master, wild-eyed and dishevelled, rushed from the library and seized him, exclaiming as he did so: "Don t open that door! I have killed a man, and they are after me!" With chattering teeth and shaking knees, the erst while dandy darkey clung for support in the weak ness of his fright at the foot of the old Colonial stair case. Still the sheriff hammered at the door, crying sten- toriously: "Open in the name of the law!" and still the frightened darkey clung to the balustrade, in his terror of the awful authority that he was disobeying. One glance from the low French window that looked from the library upon the grounds at the back of Stanley Hall, and Arthur was aware of the watchful deputy, with drawn pistol. At this juncture, the automobile agent from Rich mond came with honking horn up the driveway with two of the first automobiles that had ever essayed the roads of Fairfax. With the agent, who proudly drove the red French racer, was an oily and grimy garage The Wings of Fear 57 mechanic driving a low, old, but powerful garage handy car, battered and scarred from much hard serv ice, but still strong, speedy and dependable. The sheriff hammered and kicked unavailingly at the stout, great door, as these "new-fangled contrap tions," as he called them, drove up to the portico steps. "I am the sheriff," he explained to the wondering automobile man. "I am after a man for murder, and I summon you to aid me!" The taciturn garage me chanic brought a heavy iron jack from his battered old car, and he and the sheriff soon had the stout oak door shattering beneath the blows they dealt it. As the door gave way, Arthur darted past the still quaking negro in the hallway and ran into the dining room. He fled through the dining room into the con servatory at its back, that overlooked the grounds at the rear of Stanley Hall. But here his way was blocked by iron and glass, there was no egress from the conservatory save through the dining room. As he turned to retrace his steps, the sheriff, with the frightened automobile man at his back, appeared at the door of the conservatory with levelled revolver and demanded Arthur s surrender. Arthur made no reply, but seized a heavy rustic chair and with one sweeping, swinging blow, thrust aside the levelled re volver, and then smashed the heavy glass and the metal frames of the rear wall of the conservatory. He leaped unhurt through the aperture thus made and fled around the corner of the house, followed by a fusillade of shots from the sheriff and his deputy. At the front of the house stood the two automobiles deserted. The new French racer was throbbing under 58 The Diamond from the Sky power. The excited dealer had not thought fur ther of the fine new machine when he heard the sheriff s quick summons for assistance, but the more phlegmatic and practical mechanic with him had turned off the power of the old garage car when he had brought the sheriff the jack to smash down the door. Arthur jumped in the purring racer. He had little thought when he had ordered it, in a fit of reckless extravagance, that its first service for him would be in a need like this. He sensed the use of its levers in the instinct of fear and self-preservation, and the machine bounded away at highest speed, and Arthur turned the steering wheel and made the gateway safely. He gave one glance back and saw the mechanic endeavoring to start the other car, while the sheriff stamped and swore futilely. Perhaps it was because the old dependable car failed for once to respond, per haps it was because the sporting instinct in the grimy mechanic was strong and he hoped for a long, stern chase by a practised driver in an old car after a rank amateur in a new French racer in either case, the old car was five minutes in responding to his efforts to start it. Arthur had read enough of automobiles to know it were well for him, if he paused in his flight, not to stop the engine. Looking back again and seeing he was not as yet pursued, a fit of desperate reckless ness encouraged him in the resolve to bid farewell to Esther. By this tune all but a few of the curious neighbors had gone from the doctor s garden, and Esther was The Wings of Fear 59 at the gate engaged in hanging a white wreath upon it in memory of her dear old friend. The meeting, the parting was brief, dramatic and passionate. There was no time for explanations on either side. Arthur held the fair girl to his heart for one brief moment and pledged his love and faith for her, and then was gone. Now came the other car in a cloud of dust. On sped pursuer and pursued; at the railroad crossing the one-armed watchman waves his warning flag. The gates are down, the Richmond Express is thunder ing up. At his highest speed Arthur takes the gates, that smash and splinter at the impact of his swift machine. Athwart the pilot of the locomotive flashes the man in the motor car a touch and go with death so close that the mud-guards at the rear of the racer are shorne as with a knife. So Arthur has passed and is gone, and the express train has checked the pur suit that prudently halts for the swift express. From tragedy to comedy and then to tragedy again : Down the road "The Colored Sons of Liberty" cele brate Emancipation Day with picnicking and oratory. Through the flying darkies, old and young, male and female, flashes the red car, seeming a satanic visitant: "Streaking it like de berry ole devil hisself !" as it was afterward related. The maddened driver has lost control, the speeding car strikes the corner of the im provised grand stand, spilling the darkey orators and others in the air like huckleberries; then zigzagging down the road, almost faster than the eye can fol low, skidding and atilt on two wheels, the automobile flies at a tangent over the high cliffs by the river, and 60 The Diamond from the Sky then man and machine plunge down the sickening height! At early dusk the newly risen moon beholds a quiet face floating down the stream. Half submerged, a dank form drifts on slowly down and the moon sees gleaming on its breast, half hidden, half showing, "The charm against harm" of the Stanleys "The Diamond from the Sky!" CHAPTER IV THE PRODIGAL S PROGRESS THE years had brought naught but a harvest of heartaches for Hagar. The son she had borne had been torn from her ere scarce she had felt his little head against her heart ; and as for the child she had taken in retaliation for the great wrong done her, the child she had nurtured in hate and had grown to love with every fibre of her being sweet Esther, the rightful Stanley of her, too, Hagar was now bereft. In the mountain rendezvous of her gipsy people, while Hagar s sad heart still mourned for both of her children, yet longed the most for Esther, came the homing pigeon to the rocks where it had been reared. Here, Hagar read the call for her that Esther ha4 sent. As Hagar rode hurriedly to Fairfax, she recalled again that Doctor Lee had written her that since Es ther had come into his household, Arthur, the prodigal, had suddenly and strangely changed for the better. His affection for Esther seemed strong and fervent. Then it was that the good doctor had hoped, like Hagar, that this love would ripen to marriage, and the Stanley secret might go to the grave with the only two living beings that shared it now. 61 62 The Diamond from the Sky But all these hopes were to be chilled within the bosom of the gipsy mother. Her air castles crumbled and her heart grew sick and faint; all her dread forebodings at the summons that called her were more than realized when she arrived to find that Doctor Lee lay dead in his study, and that Arthur, her son, accused of the murder of his guardian and friend, had con fessed his guilt by flight! She found, too, that death had claimed the easy-going doctor before he had made provision for Esther, as his adopted daughter, and that Mrs. Stanley was in possession and had coldly informed Esther she was now an intruder. Hagar arrived just in time to spare the shrinking Esther from further humiliation at the hands of Mrs. Stanley. And as they rode sadly home in the dusk and crossed the ford at the river near the gipsy camp the only home that Esther seemed fated to know the hoofs of Hagar s horse that bore them both, splashed water upon an upturned white face, the face of a man in the sedge. And the face was that of Arthur Stanley, son of Hagar! It was nearly dark now, but at Hagar s wild calls, the gipsies came running from their camp not far from the river bank. The unconscious Arthur was borne to Hagar s van, but ere they bore him there, Hagar s hand feeling for his faint heart beats, had closed on and seized the diamond which he had hid den in his breast. Distracting Esther s agonized attention, Hagar had unclasped the great jewel and hidden it in her bosom unseen, scarce knowing why she did so. By the time Arthur had recovered consciousness. The Prodigal s Progress 63 Sheriff Swain and his deputy had reached the camp in their search, and were inquiring for the fugitive. No corpse had been found when the wrecked and over turned auto had been dragged from the river bed, and the sheriff thought that Arthur Stanley, dead or alive, had floated unseen down the river. The wily Hagar bid the impatient sheriff welcome to search the camp, but that astute officer believed the gay Arthur Stanley, if he lived, would seek no hiding place among such folk as gipsies, and so had ridden away with his deputies, on the man hunt. But ere he left the camp, the sheriff had added another burden to Hagar s saddened heart by telling her briefly of the bankruptcy and ruin that had followed swiftly, even on the same day that Arthur had fled, suspected of the murder of Doctor Lee. It was with blazing eyes that Hagar confronted Arthur, when he was strong enough to bear her fierce reproaches. "My sacrifice has been all in vain!" she cried bit terly. "A ruined man and a murderer, you have wasted every chance in life I gave you and for which I bowed my head in bitterness and sorrow! Better had you been bred the poor gipsy you were born, rather than now be a fugitive impostor who has squandered a heritage that was not his!" Arthur regarded her, as though she were, what she seemed to him, an insane harridan who raged at him in half-incoherent frenzy. Then Hagar drew a brass-bound box from its hid ing place, and, opening it, handed him a sealed en- 64 The Diamond from the Sky velope, yellow and musty with age, on the outside of which were the words: "To be opened in case my son, Arthur Stanley 2nd, ever does anything to disgrace the Stanley name." With staring eyes he read the contents. Then he realized that the woman before him had spoken the dreadful truth. For there affixed were the signatures of Colonel Stanley, which he knew weh 1 and Doctor Lee s, also known to him, as witness. "Nothing belongs to you, not even your name, and much less this for which you stained your hands with blood!" cried Hagar hysterically. And she threw down into the open box, with a gesture of disdain, the Stanley diamond. "But I am not guilty of the death of Doctor Lee, he was my friend!" replied Arthur hoarsely. "I did kill my supposed cousin, Blair, and he now lies in a grave dug for another, but not for this!" and he pointed to the baleful jewel. "I killed Blair Stanley because he spoke ill of Esther! Tell me, if I am not Arthur Stanley, who is she? Is she my sister? I ask this, for by every wild deed of my reckless life in the past, and for every good deed I hope to achieve, I love her!" "No matter who she is, you are not good enough to breathe the same air with her!" replied Hagar fiercely. "Make the better man of yourself that you boast you will ! Make a name for yourself in place of the one you have lost, and then return to me for a .mother s blessing and to learn who Esther is!" So s&ying, Hagar, for she felt her fortitude giving The Prodigal s Progress 65 way, walked with dry eyes and head erect from the van. Arthur picked up the diamond by its curious wrought chain of dull old gold. In her agitation, Hagar had forgotten it, and Arthur was of the belief that his gipsy mother had left it there that he might take it and make some temporary use of it to build up his fortunes again. For Arthur believed that Blair still lay dead by his hand in that newly dug grave, and with Blair, the last male Stanley, save the old Earl in England, had perished. When Arthur came out of the van, he saw Esther come toward him from Hagar s side, and was glad to note that his fierce, stern mother did not make any attempt to stay her. "Be a good man, Arthur, and let me be proud of you!" Esther whispered tenderly. And Arthur folded her to his heart and kissed her, and strode away. He looked back once and saw her leaning against a great tree and weeping. But neither he nor the weeping Esther beheld the dark face of Luke Lovell, Hagar s headman, peering at them from behind Hagar s van. It was not until next morning that Hagar sought for the diamond and found it missing. Again her rage at Arthur burned high. Bitter against him in her disappointment of the wreck he had made of his ca reer, all of Hagar s fierce mother love was now cen tred upon Esther. Hagar hated the Stanley name and despised every Stanley possession, but she was re solved since all the Stanley line was near at end, that Esther, defrauded of every other birthright, should have "The Diamond from the Sky." 66 The Diamond from the Sky The diamond gone, Hagar determined to go to Rich mond, the nearest big city, in the hopes of finding Arthur and again securing the Stanley heirloom for Esther, even if it were necessary to give her own son over to the law. All this time at Fairfax, no suspicion had been di rected at Blair in connection with the doctor s murder, nor did any living soul in Fairfax, save Blair and his mother, know of the encounter Blair had had with Arthur in the doctor s garden, nor of the gruesome duel across the open grave at midnight that had fol lowed Blair s cruel ruse to defame Esther s good name that Arthur might not suspect him of murder and rob bery. Blair felt the grisly burden of the real guilt. But in order to be safe, and at his mother s suggestion, he had gone to Richmond, his mother giving the ex cuse that he went to attend to urgent matters, brought about by the doctor s sudden and tragic death. Esther, too, was gone from Fairfax now, and this, with the flight of Arthur and the presence at the scene of the murder of Tom Blake, a noted private detec tive of Richmond, made the country side of old aris tocratic Fairfax County ring with rumors and revived many of the old long-forgotten tales of the tragic and mysterious happenings among the Stanleys in the past. Arriving in Richmond, Arthur Stanley, giving him self the name of John Powell, found humble lodg ings and awaited opportunity to slip from the city when the hue and cry after him had died down. It was necessary for him to have money. To obtain some he resolved to pawn the Stanley diamond, believ- The Prodigal s Progress 67 ing that no living person, save Hagar, knew of its existence. In nearly twenty years, "The Diamond from the Sky" had almost come to be regarded as a myth in Fairfax County. Some there were who claimed it had never existed at all, and others who believed it had been a bit of old trumpery that Col. Stanley had found valueless and destroyed. That the late Judge Stanley and his surviving widow and son had believed in this mysterious and alleged valuable heirloom, had come to be regarded as further proof of the Stanley family eccentricities. It was only when he came out of his hiding place after several days that Arthur dared buy and read a Richmond paper. There were no further accounts from Fairfax of the death of Doctor Lee and the flight of his supposed murderer. Arthur also came to the conclusion that the death of Blair Stanley, and his be ing found shot through the head, had likewise ceased to be a three-day wonder in the newspapers. In Fairfax, like enough, the whole country side was still agog at this double tragedy, Arthur reasoned; but here the papers gave no mention to it now, their one absorbing topic was the ball to be given by Rich mond s society leader, the wealthy Mrs. Burton Ran dolph. Meanwhile, desperate and fear-stricken, Blair Stan ley was endeavoring to forget his peril, present and prospective, in reckless dissipations in Richmond. While his fugitive cousin lay in humble lodgings, Blair Stanley lorded it at a fine hotel, and every night found 68 The Diamond from the Sky him gambling at the exclusive establishment of Mr. Abe Bloom. Within the week, in desperation, finding himself "cleaned out" at Mr. Bloom s luxurious temple of chance, Blair had persuaded that astute gentleman to cash his personal check on the Bank of Fairfax. In a few days this would be returned marked "No Funds" Blair well knew; but he hoped, meanwhile, to recoup his losses, and laugh in Abe Bloom s hawklike face as he "made good the bum check" out of the winnings he expected to gain at Abe s own roulette wheel. But the two thousand dollars went the way of the money his mother had given him back into the cof fers of the gambling-house keeper who had advanced the money on the worthless check. One desperate way was left. Blair resolved to pawn his watch and with the proceeds invoke the wheels of chance again and by a stroke of luck, who knows, win back all and so square himself and the check when it came back. For Blair found Richmond to his liking. Then, too, he worried over the mysteri ous visit to Fairfax of Tom Blake, the detective. Who had hired Blake? There also was the ball to be given by Mrs. Burton Randolph, who was a relative of his mother and had counted upon Blair s presence at this event of the social year in Richmond. Also Blair thought of Vivian Marston! Glorious Vivian, luxurious Vivian ; she had come to Richmond, sworn friend of Mrs. Randolph who had met her the winter before at Palm Beach. It was known of Vivian Marston that she was a wealthy and dashing young The Prodigal s Progress 69 woman, high in the exclusive circles of New York s Four Hundred. Blair Stanley had met her at his mother s cousin s mansion, and Blair had been first among those to fall victim of her charms. Of these two, it was Arthur Stanley who first en tered the pawnshop of Ike Bloom, brother and some said partner of the redoubtable Abe Bloom, king of the Richmond gamblers. The pawnshop was divided into partition spaces, an arrangement that tends to the privacy of those in adversity in Southern cities. Arthur saw the vul ture eyes of Mr. Isaac Bloom gleam when his gaze fastened upon the diamond with its antique chain and curious locket setting. Only too eagerly did the pawnbroker hand over the three hundred dollars Ar thur asked on it, and only too eagerly did Ike Bloom hide the great jewel in his safe. Arthur was about to slip from behind the privacy partitions to the street, when he heard a voice say: "I want fifty dollars on this watch." He staggered, half fainting with fear and joy, against the partition. It was the voice of Blair Stanley, there could be no mistake ! In a revulsion of feeling to find he was not a mur derer, and that Blair was alive and well, Arthur ran around the partition and into the arms of Blair. Some what surprised, but feigning joy also, Blair echoed his supposed cousin s cries of delight. Outside the pawn shop, Blair made haste to explain that Doctor Lee had called him to his study and had given him the Stanley heirloom, and that having done this, the doctor, who became greatly agitated, had fallen dead. 70 The Diamond from the Sky "I was afraid I would be suspected of killing him for the diamond how could I explain when you caught hold of me?" lied Blair glibly. "I did not mean any reflection upon Esther, as you thought I did/ he continued. "I only thought any altercation at such a tune, and the doctor lying dead, might jeopardize her good name. I was too frightened to explain and you were too angry to listen to me. I was only stunned; I got home all right. But there has been a detective hired, and I believe he will find some clue, so I came to Richmond for I knew your evidence would only tend to convict me, and I am innocent!" Arthur reflected that Doctor Lee had known he was the spurious heir, and that the diamond did properly belong to Blair, in consequence. Blair, too, was quick to take advantage of Arthur s joyous and softened mood. "I never will be able to prove I did not kill Doctor Lee," he said, with affected sadness. "True, there would not be any proof to con vict me, but the very suspicion of it would ruin me. You must stand by me, Arthur." And Arthur, in the foolish, impulsive generosity of his nature promised. "I am going far away," he said, "let them believe me guilty!" The relief he felt at seeing Blair alive placed him in the mood to promise anything that Blair might ask. Then, too, with an in ward shame, he realized, that, after all, he was a gipsy impostor and stood in Blair s way, and yet he could not bring himself to be despised of Blair should he tell him the Stanley secret which was also Hagar s and his own. The Prodigal s Progress 71 Blair heaved a sigh of relief and said : "You do not know my mother s cousin, Mrs. Burton Randolph, who gives the grand ball in Richmond to-night. Come, let us have one fling, one good time together, in memory of the old days at Stanley Hall, before you go to the West. I will introduce you under any name you choose! There is going to be a stunning New York girl at the ball lots of money and style I want you to meet her. She s just my sort and I want your approval of her!" Arthur hesitated a moment, and then realized that if the pursuit was still hot on his trail, the last place he would be sought for would be at a high society function. So he shook hands with Blair and ex claimed heartily: "I ll go you, Blair! One good fling before I go West to make my fortune, and if I make it, Blair, I promise you that you shall share it!" For him, the strong affection he bore for Esther and the desire in his heart to do justice to Blair, were now the main motives of his life. And he would have this farewell joyance with Blair. Blair took him first to Mr. Abraham Bloom s pri vate "club," and here, despite Arthur s wiser coun cils, Blair plunged again at roulette and lost the money he had obtained on his watch at the pawnbroker s and half of what Arthur had secured at the same place on the diamond of which, of course, Blair knew nothing. Up to Richmond this night of Mrs. Randolph s ball, came Hagar. She brought with her Esther, from whom she was resolved never again to be parted. Hagar brought also, as half servant, half bodyguard, her lieutenant in her gipsy queenship, Luke Lovell. 72 The Diamond from the Sky She first called, as upon an old acquaintance, on Tom Blake, the detective, returned to Richmond from Fair fax and the Lee murder case. It took but few inquiries with the means at Blake s command, to locate Blair Stanley, cutting a swath in Richmond s gayest circles. It was with surprise Hagar learned, and a happy surprise, too, that Blair Stanley was alive and seemingly uninjured, the while Arthur had believed he had killed him. And then later, in the evening, Blake brought her word that Arthur was with Blair, under an assumed name, and, it was evi dent, was going to the Randolph ball with Blair that night. On many occasions the thrifty Hagar had turned such fashionable functions as the Randolph ball to good account. She knew the idle rich welcomed the diversion of the impromptu appearance of a gipsy fortune teller, on such occasions. As a gipsy fortune teller she determined to appear, and confront Arthur and get the diamond ere he left Richmond to make his way in the world. Meanwhile, a fair vision was on the threshold of Mr. Abraham Bloom s private "club." This fair vision was none other than that stunningly attired and vi vacious woman of the world, Vivian Marston. Abe s "club" was on a quiet side street. The supposed New York society belle ran little risk of being seen by any of Richmond s best society people at four in the after noon, as she hurriedly passed from her waiting cab into the double doorway of the "club house." Mr. Abraham Bloom received the supposed Miss The Prodigal s Progress 73 Marston with an astonishing air of friendly familiar ity. "Surprised to see me in your town, Abe?" asked Vivian gaily. "Well, I met one of your society dames, Mrs. Randolph, at Palm Beach last winter. I made a hit with her, and I am here as her guest. She gives that big blowout you hear so much about, to night. I want to pick up some rich guy in Richmond and marry and settle down among the Southern aris tocracy. I have plenty of fine clothes, but I had to hock my glitter stuff in New York to get the clothes and get here. I want to beg, borrow or steal a fine outfit of jewelry, and I want you to help me get the loan of some unless you get enlargement of the heart and present it to me." "Nix on that generosity stuff, Vi, old girl," replied Mr. Bloom. "Business is bum, there s no money in Richmond except the old Confederate bills they printed here by the ton during the Civil War. But I got a brother who runs a hock shop " "And you and your brother catch them coming and going?" merrily interjected the New York society leader, so called. "After you break the boobs, your brother gets their jewelry." "Never you mind about that, kiddo," replied Mr. Bloom affably, "I ll give you a note to brother Ike to lend you all the ice in the refrigerator. He ll fix you out with sparklers till you ll look like a chande lier." Miss Marston departed from Mr. Abe Bloom s es tablishment, with a compelling note to his brother, the pawnbroker. The best Mr. Ike Bloom had in the 74 The Diamond from the Sky shop was the great diamond recently pawned by a stranger. In a fatal moment Mr. Ike Bloom displayed it to the stunning-looking New York friend of his brother, and that dazzled young woman had eyes for nothing else. "That for me!" she cried. "And it would be a sacri lege to wear anything else with it!" "Be very careful of it," warned the cautious Mr. Isaac Bloom reluctantly, "I don t know where it came from, but when you wear that I know you are wear ing one of the finest diamonds in the world!" "They can t come too good for me, Mr. Bloom!" said Vivian, as she gazed enraptured at the great jewel in its antique setting, and swept it into her purse and departed smiling. That night Vivian Marston, her radiant beauty set off by the great diamond blazing on her fair bosom, was the cynosure of all eyes at Mrs. Randolph s ball, as she stood with her hostess on the receiving line. Arthur and Blair gasped at her beauty, but stared as if turned to stone to see the Stanley jewel gleaming on the bosom of this fair stranger in Richmond. Hagar, brought around by Blake and admitted as soon as her application reached the hostess, gasped, too, to see the diamond flaunted by this dark, luxuri ous stranger. Hagar s first thought was that Arthur had given it to this bold-faced beauty, and her heart again hardened against him. Esther, dazzled by the lights and the luxury, clung timidly to Hagar s arm. She had never seen "the Diamond from the Sky" before, nor had she ever heard its history. The Prodigal s Progress 75 "Shall we have the fortunes first?" asked the hostess of her guest from New York. "It will be great fun and help to get things started." Hagar had given no sign of recognition to Arthur, and he in turn was relieved that his gipsy mother did not seem intent on creating a scene. He stood aloof with Blair, and both of them gazed silently from afar as though fascinated at the great diamond blazing on the breast of Vivian Marston. How came it there? was the thought of both of them. For, in all their reconciliation, they assidu ously avoided discussing this source of family dis sension and hatred. "I have a wondrous fortune to tell this lady," said Hagar huskily, as she indicated Vivian. "Will she go aside and wait for me?" "What fun! You must tell me all your wondrous fortune! Now don t forget!" exclaimed Mrs. Ran dolph, as Vivian Marston smiled and nodded assent to Hagar s request, and glided away to a seat by a low heavily curtained window in the small tea room off the great Randolph parlors. Vivian had just settled herself with the serene self- satisfaction that she was the sensation of the everiing she and the gleaming gem upon her breast. Then she saw Hagar, leaving Esther to be gently patronized by Mrs. Randolph, coming toward her. Miss Marston had only just settled herself back in the low gilt chair against the parted velvet hangings of the window, when she felt a strong hand clutch at her throat, throttling her through the curtains so that she could 76 The Diamond from the Sky not utter any sound. Then a brawny forearm drew back her shapely neck, and the strangling hand loosened its hold on her throat and snatched away the borrowed jewel of which she had been so proud! CHAPTER V FOR THE SAKE OF A FALSE FRIEND HAGAR S hands almost touched "the Diamond from the Sky," as she clutched at it over the shoulder of Vivian Marston, as the jewel disappeared through the velvet window cur tains, clenched in a strong, dark fist. As for Vivian Marston, she caught her breath with a great gulping sob and then she shrieked in wild alarm and pain, for the hands that had so mysteri ously throttled her and snatched from her breast the great borrowed gem, had been no gentle ones. Outside the Randolph mansion, Luke Lovell was scuttling through the darkness, with his glistening booty. Idling on the outside and waiting for his mis tress, Hagar, the gipsy queen, and Esther, Luke had glanced through the low window only to have his gaze fall upon the blazing jewel. Never overscrupulous, Luke had always remembered the whispered gipsy gossip that Matt Harding, the dead husband of Hagar, had made his fortune, now possessed by Hagar, by some bold coup among the wealthy gentle folks, a coup of great daring but one the exact way and why of which no living gipsy now, save Hagar, knew. But here, thought the desperate Luke, was his 77 78 The Diamond from the Sky chance for fortune. He was quick to follow out the evil impulse. The deed was easy, and he, another poor gipsy, had a fortune in his grasp, perhaps by a similar chance as the dead Matt Harding had had. Luke gained the street, with the wild idea to hide the diamond in the first safe nook or cranny, and then to return as quickly as he could to bear the brunt of suspicion and of search. Inside the ballroom all was confusion and alarm, women screamed and fainted and the men, foremost among them Arthur and Blair, surrounded the hysteri cal Vivian Marston, listening to her broken story of being strangled and robbed, in the twinkling of an eye, by two strong hands belonging to an unseen thug. On the doorstep, a frightened flunkey blew a police whistle again and again. One policeman who had been at the portals for some tune, but had sauntered away to give an inspection to his beat, was heard re turning with rapid footsteps in the dark. Far off, in the other direction, another policeman could be heard running to the scene, and sounding his night stick on the sidewalk as he came. Luke saw the gleam of brass buttons under a gas lamp, not a hundred yards away ; he turned to flee in the opposite direction. But coming in this direction was the other accursed policeman, making the night hideous with the pounding of his club upon the pave ment. Luke realized he was trapped. To throw the diamond into the street might mean its finding and his subsequent conviction for its theft. His hand struck something cold, it was an iron mail-box on a lamp-post. Beneath the lamp-post was a circle of For the Sake of a False Friend 79 shade that masked his action. Quick as thought he dropped the jewel with its locket and chain into the mail-box and ran toward the policeman pounding the sidewalk, crying excitedly: "He crossed over here and went through that hedge and lawn!" "Oh, no, he didn t," said the puffing policeman, giving the sinister-looking Luke a glance of quick sus picion, "he ran right into my arms. I got him, Brady!" he added to the other policeman, who now drew near. Together they haled the protesting Luke to the portals of the Randolph mansion, on the front street, and they dragged him in among the excited guests. Here Luke told his story with many vehement as severations as to his own honesty. He said he had strolled to the corner of the house from the front doorstep and had been astounded to see a tall, dark man leap from the ground floor balcony by the side window, dart across the street and through a hedge and across a lawn on the opposite side, and disappear in the dark. He was making after this fleeing marauder, when the policeman grabbed him, he added sullenly. Hagar vouched for her man, and Luke insisted on being searched. This being only fair, the search was made, and the missing jewel was not found. But the police insisted on holding the gipsy, and he was being led away, when as fate would have it, an even greater contretemps was to occur, an even more unenviable notoriety was to attend Richmond s most fashion able function Mrs. Burton Randolph s annual ball. 80 The Diamond from the Sky Sheriff Sam Swain, of Fairfax, appeared in the door way, accompanied by Detective Tom Blake. "I want Arthur Stanley over there for the murder 0f Doctor Henry Lee, of Fairfax!" cried the sheriff. The face of Blair Stanley blanched. "Remember your promise, Arthur!" he whispered. "You cannot go to the gallows for me, you must tell the truth if you are tried. But you can save me if you escape!" Arthur nodded, and, like a flash, broke loose from the grasp of Sheriff Swain. Blair fought as best he could to aid his supposed cousin, but his now hysteri cal relative, the chagrined Mrs. Randolph, threw her arms wildly about him and held and hampered him as she shrieked: "They will kill you, Blair!" Then, too, Vivian Marston added her efforts to restrain him. It was no time for Hagar to speak. She realized that it were better that Arthur escape, if he could, even under the onus of unjust suspicion. One of the policemen released his hold on Luke Lovell and came to the aid of the sheriff. Arthur fought like a madman and the struggle surged from the ballroom to the hall and out down the steps to the sidewalk. Arthur was slowly but surely over powered, when Hagar, who hovered near the fighting men, plucked Detective Blake by the sleeve and gave him a significant sign. Such was the mastery of that look and sign, that the detective relaxed his efforts in aiding his more official brethren of the law. Arthur wrenched himself loose and felled the sheriff and the policeman, and, breaking through the ring of cabmen and flunkies, was gone! Down the street, the quiet, deserted street of Rich- For the Sake of a False Friend 81 mond s fashionable residential neighborhood, he fled. Behind him the sound of the police whistles and the pursuit grew fainter. Arthur, in splendid physical trim, and spurred by excitement, ran like a deer. He slipped down an obscure alley, crossed by the backs of a half score of mansions, and found himself in a mean street that led down to the railroad tracks. The pur suit was left far behind, or else it had gone off on a false scent in another direction. He slackened his pace and regained his breath. "How shall I ever escape in these togs?" he thought to himself ruefully. "They ll have my description broad cast in an hour." But he did not falter for all that, but hurried ,on in the night through the deserted mean streets, and in some fifteen minutes brisk walk, found himself by rare good luck in the railroad yards and by a long freight train, just slowly moving out. With reckless haste he threw himself under a freight car and grasped and drew himself upon the brake beam. It was a strange way to travel for the erstwhile heir of Stanley. He had read of tramps rid ing the brake beams, but he had never thought he would come to do it; and now here he was in the dust and grime, on a creaking, narrow and greasy brake beam just over the cruel wheels that would mangle and grind him to death did he falter and fall. His head ached from the noise and the reaction of all he had passed through in the crowded hour at Mrs. Randolph s ball. Every bone in his body ached as he held to the jolting, creaking brake beam. Cramped and bruised from the position in which he lay on his narrow, perilous perch above the grinding wheels, a 82 The Diamond from the Sky dreadful impulse seized upon him to let go his strain ing grasp and end the now fitful fever of his life under the clanking wheels that ground and groaned beneath him. What was he, after all, but a living falsehood and a cheat? Not a Stanley, of Stanley Hall, spending with a free hand as became a reckless Virginia gentleman, but a gipsy impostor, a cheat, wasting substance that was not his. He was a fugitive from justice and a bankrupt believed, by all who had known him, to be the murderer of a kind and gentle man who had never harmed him, but on the contrary had been his friend and had been one of the agencies by which he, a hedge-born gipsy, had been reared in a mansion under a high name never his! The glamor of his self-sacrifice in shielding Blair and thus making himself a voluntary murder suspect, passed from Arthur. He saw now that in saving Blair he had only done so to save himself from the open shame and humiliation that would come to him in the searching inquiries of a murder trial. The evidence would result in his acquittal of murder, but would leave him stripped of the peacock s feathers of the Stanley heritage that he, the gipsy jackdaw, had worn so long. He saw in the dust and darkness the baleful gleam of "the Diamond from the Sky"; he saw the accusa tive, fierce gaze of his gipsy mother, and then, like a benediction and a saving grace, he saw the sweet face and the sad, wistful eyes of Esther! He grasped the cold iron rod staunchly now. Let For the Sake of a False Friend 83 destiny deal him what it might, he would stand the buffets and fight on for Esther s sake! And what of the diamond? Torn from the fair throat of Vivian Marston, it lies in a mail-box, with no light to gleam upon it and be reflected back intensified. With letters and pack ages and newspapers folded tight, lies "The Diamond from the Sky" without a stamp upon it to make it mail of any class! Then comes the busy mail collector, with his mail- collecting automobile. There is some excitement over at the Randolph mansion. Police whistles are blow ing and a thundering fight is going on on the side walk. But Bob Adams is one of Uncle Sam s mail men. Way for the U. S. mail, which has no time to stop for police, police whistles or shindies on the street! But his attention is attracted to what is going on, and also to some hurrying passers by, and he opens the mail-box and mechanically drags its contents into the open maw of the draw-string canvas mail-bag. Into the sack, while Bob Adams, mail man, looks with averted head toward "the elegant scrap," goes the mail from box 413, and with it goes the Stanley diamond. Bob Adams gets back from his collection route to the post office an hour later. His work is through, and he stops in to see his friend, the sergeant at police headquarters, to learn what the row was all about that caused such a commotion and evidently "put a crimp" in the swell ball given by that grande dame of Richmond, Mrs. Burton Randolph. Meanwhile, on the sorting tables at the post office, 84 The Diamond from the Sky the local collections are being dumped from the mail- bag. The clerk loosens the draw strings and holds the bags up by their bottom corners and shakes out the mail with deft and practised rapidity. On the floor, the emptied mail-bags pile. They see hard serv ice and some are rent and frayed. The inspector comes on his rounds and goes over the empties, marking briskly with a large piece of chalk "Repair ! " on those that need mending and renovation. Out, then, to the loading platform go the, for the time being, condemned mail-bags, and there all night they He in the arc light, with only the eye of the night watchman upon them occasionally. Dawn breaks at a small way-station forty miles from Richmond. Here, the freight train halts for or ders, and here Arthur, so cramped and sore that every fibre of his being aches, crawls from his perilous perch and creeps from under the car into the dusky daylight. Choked with dust, marked and matted with grease and dirt, dishevelled and pitiful in what was his masculine finery of the night before, Arthur limps to a small pool of water between the tracks and is not too dainty to throw himself down beside it and suck up its re freshing coolness to his cracked lips and parched and feverish throat. Then a hasty wash of hands and face by the aid of his handkerchief, ablutions that refresh him greatly, although they have little effect upon the grease and dirt, without the aid of soap. One hasty glance around and Arthur notes no hostile or even friendly glance is on him. The trainmen are busy with their own concerns at water tank and telegraph station, far up For the Sake of a False Friend 85 the track and on the other side of the train. Across from him is an outgoing freight, going out on a branch line. The open door of a freight car seems to call him to its sheltering haven of escape. Arthur darts across the track, realizing what a ridiculous figure he must seem in his stained and dishevelled dress suit, a marked and battered silk hat, still clamped tightly on his head. The outgoing freight gains momentum as Arthur flings himself half into the open doorway. He misses his hold and would have fallen under the wheels, but that two strong and very dirty hands have seized him by the shoulder and another pair, as dirty and as strong, grasp him also and he is hauled into the car, and finds himself safe and on his side, and look ing up into the countenances of three grinning, grimy knights of the road. "You had a close shave of it, bo," wheezes the whiskey voice of the first tramp to seize him. "But I gotcher, Steve!" "It s a plant, Strap!" cautions a little rat-faced hobo who has skulked in the back of the car and has given no hand in hauling Arthur from the jaws of death. "Watcher mean a plant?" asks the one addressed as Strap. "Can t you see it s a railroad bull," retorts the rat- faced tramp, "would any gaycat be wearin the soup and fish?" And he pointed to Arthur s now dirty and dishevelled evening attire. "Maybe de gink got them togs handed to him?" suggests the other tramp, who had assisted Arthur into the "side-door Pullman." 86 The Diamond from the Sky "Aw, can t youz see dem glad rags is hissen? Why, dey are doity, but dey fits him!" says the cynic. "You re right, Scotty," replied the leader of the trio, and without ado he struck Arthur a terrific blow behind the ear that stunned him for the moment and the next instant Arthur was fighting wildly with the three strong and active outcasts. Meanwhile, what of the diamond? Where was it? Bob Adams had swept it into the mail-bag without seeing it, the mail sorter at the post office had given no cry on beholding it fall upon the sorting table, for it had not fallen there and blazed back its sinister gleams to the incandescent light above. Where was "The Diamond from the Sky?" The watchman relieved at dawn on the loading plat form outside, might have known as he stepped across the mail-bags marked "Repair!" But the side of his right brogan just grazed it. The truck driver might have known as he loaded the bags to be repaired, for like many a poor man he held a fortune in his hands, for once at least in his poverty-stricken life, and never knew it. Held by its clasp in the ravellings of the inner seam at the bottom of the bag, the heirloom of the Stanleys rested in the darkness of the soiled interior of the service-worn old mail-bag. The truckman held it in his arms on the top of the last half dozen bags he tossed on his load. But his fingers just missed the feel of it. And so he threw away his fortune, per haps an evil one, and drove away his truck with his mind upon other matters than fortunes or missing gems of price. Copyright, 1916. Q. W. tXlling, i perwutjitm r,f the \^,-fh 7^ T 77 ) Quabba and Clarence. For the Sake of a False Friend 87 Down the city street from his humble lodging place, up a dirty alley in the poorest part of the town, came Quabba, musician and traveller. And he trav elled not alone. With him was his orchestra and his collector of external revenue. True, his orchestra was but the smallest of small hand organs, and his collec tor of external revenue, a monkey; but the organ was a fairly good one, sweet of tone, and the monkey was a Simian of sorts and his name was Clarence. So it was that Quabba was gay of heart and sang to him self as he trudged along. Only a poor Italian gipsy hunchback organ grinder, with his monkey, was Quabba, but his heart was light, his conscience un troubled and his appetite, alas, only too good. The whole wide world was his and no man was his master, and so Quabba, the hunchback, sang and winked at the monkey, Clarence, as if to say: "We haven t a penny, Clarence, but what an appetite we ll have for break fast as soon as we pick up the price of one!" "Hi there, get out of the way!" shouted a rough voice, and Quabba, roused from his reflections, stepped aside just in time to avoid being struck by a passing truck. A jolt of the vehicle threw an empty mail-bag marked with chalk "Repair" from a pile of these at the back of the truck. The hunchback picked up the mail-bag and called after the driver. But that worthy failed to hear the cry and Quabba waved the old mail-bag after him. Then he felt something the size of a walnut in his hand under the dirty canvas of the bag. His sensitive fingers ran along the side seam of the sack and he 88 The Diamond from the Sky could feel, even through the thickness of the canvas, that the object in the bag was a chain and locket. , The hunchback darted into a nearby alley between two warehouses. No one had seen the mail-bag fall from the truck, no one noticed Quabba going up the deserted alley. It was only the work of an instant to loosen the draw string and turn the mail-bag inside out, and there, entangled by its upper clasp in the seam at the bottom of the bag, was the precious dia mond. The itinerant musician thrust the jewel and its chain into one of his pockets, and popped the mail- bag into a garbage can hard by, then whistling softly, his heart beating high, Quabba winked again to the monkey and ceasing to whistle, he whispered: "We are rich men now, Clarence!" He soon afterwards came out from the alley, this hunchback organ grinder with his monkey, and he was the present possessor of the Stanley heirloom, a ransom for a King! In the empty freight car as it bowled along, the combat was over. Spent, worn and battered, Arthur lay bound on the floor of the car, his hands pinioned behind him by the dirty leathern belt of Mr. Strap McGee, gentleman of leisure. "He ain t no bull in plain clothes, if dem is plain clothes!" panted Mr. McGee, as he nursed a swelling eye, "he ain t no railroad dick, eider, he s a welter weight champeen," he added. This also was the opinion of Scotty, the rat-faced little tramp, whose suspicions had caused the combat, and likewise were they the opinions of Chicago Pete, For the Sake of a False Friend 89 the bulbous-nosed third member of the trio of trav ellers. For all these gentlemen bore many signs of the conflict through which they had passed. They had conquered Arthur, but at a frightful cost to the allies. "He busted me snoot!" moaned Chicago Pete; "an jest for dat I ll hand him a shoe full of feet!" and, standing over Arthur, helpless and pinioned, the trav eller from Chicago gave him a brutal kick in the ribs. "An jest for dat we ll frisk him, an swipe his glad rags, too," asserted Mr. Strap McGee. They took some fifty dollars they found upon their victim, for, in addition to having lent Blair money to lose in Mr. Abe Bloom s gambling establishment, Ar thur had generously given him almost all of the rest of the proceeds from the pawning of the diamond. Then the tramps stripped Arthur and proceeded gravely to "shoot craps" for his clothes. They were won by the more fortunate Mr. Strap McGee, more fortunate in the fact that the dice were his and he knew how to manipulate them. Bruised and battered as he was, Arthur could not restrain a laugh at the ludicrous aspect the tramp leader presented in the dirty and dishevelled evening clothes, with the bat tered silk hat perched jauntily on his head. The freight train stopped at a water tank, and the three tramps withdrew with many caustic remarks at parting. Arthur freed himself from his bonds and, with repugnance, donned the frowsy garments of Mr. McGee. Then he, too, sprang from the freight car and made off through a cornfield across the country. He reflected with a smile that the actions of the tramps 90 The Diamond from the Sky would be his salvation. He was right in this, for shortly afterward, Mr. Strap McGee, despite his in dignant protests and explanations, was seized by rail road detectives and held, on a telegraphic description of his attire, as Arthur Stanley, wanted for murder. At sunset, a good-looking young tramp stopped in the dooryard of Alex Smith s farm and asked for work. The farmer put him to chopping wood for his supper, and so well did he acquit himself, and so soon did he gain the good graces of the farmer s wife and the farmer s little girl, that despite the rags of his attire, John Powell, for such was the name Arthur gave, was greeted on the barn floor in the morning, after a restful night in the haymow, with a proffer of steady employment. That same night, by the wayside, Quabba and his external revenue collector, the monkey Clarence, camped beneath a tree. Again Quabba showed his companion the treasure trove, and again he said to the monkey: "We are rich men now, Clarence!" Then he placed the diamond in his pocket again and the monkey snuggled close to him and they fell asleep and had such dreams as man and monkey may. CHAPTER VI THE QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY DAWN breaks upon a waking world in sum mer. The farmer rouses for his early tasks, the poor sluggard and the rich idler sleep on in hard beds and soft. Under a wayside tree the hunchback organ grinder stirs and wakes. But where is Clarence, the monkey? Clarence, the companion and collector of external rev enue for Quabba, is up to some mischief at daybreak, and up the tree for the mischief, is Clarence. At the dawn Clarence had awakened first, and with the awak ening came a monkey s remembrance of something bright and fine to play with, that his master had hid den in his pocket, in the starlight ere he slumbered. Clarence, as crafty and clever as a pickpocket, had little difficulty in securing his pauper master s treas ure without waking him. With the diamond in his hairy, prehensile paw, Clarence had climbed the tree to examine it at his leisure. But an owl in the hollow above the lower branches annoys the Simian lapidar- ist, and when he feels the jerk of his irate master upon his tether, Clarence steals an egg from the owl s nest in the hollow and leaves behind in its place, the great jewel. This to Clarence s monkey mind was a fair ex change and not a robbery. 91 92 The Diamond from the Sky And now his master is wildly excited, too. With a start he remembers his finding of the diamond in the mail-bag and dives into his pocket to find it gone. He looks up to see if the mischievous monkey has de spoiled him of it. But it is evident that Clarence has had no thought of such paltry things as jewels. Clar ence has been robbing a bird s nest. Even now he holds an owl s egg in his paw, and when Quabba gives the monkey s tether another vicious jerk, Clarence squalls in indignation and casts down the owl egg in retaliation, fair into his master s upturned face; nor will he now descend and aid his frantic master in the frenzied search that Quabba makes on the ground. An eager, hysterical search for a jewel of price, so soon found, so soon lost again! At Stanley Hall there is still the notice of bank ruptcy tacked upon the battered and padlocked door. The window shutters are closed, the weeds rankle on the lawn, and already the proud mansion seems going to ruin and decay. A carriage drives up and stops at its portals; from the vehicle alights a gentleman of half-legal, half-real estate agent appearance. He assists two ladies from the carriage. One is a woman of middle age, in rich and matronly black silk, and the other, a fair, young girl, modishly attired. And yet these two, the elder woman and the younger, are gipsies, for it is Hagar Harding and Es ther, her daughter. Since the exciting night at Mrs. Randolph s ball in The Queen of Love and Beauty 93 Richmond, Hagar has had one resolve. With her son a fugitive and "The Diamond from the Sky" van ished as mysteriously as it had come, Hagar has cen tered all her hopes and all her desires on Esther. Hagar has wealth, what need to hoard it further now? So she has come to Fairfax, not as a gipsy woman but as a dowager of means, and has rented the idle man sion from the trustee in bankruptcy. If the plan to rehabilitate Esther as a Stanley failed through the death of Doctor Lee, supposedly at the hands of the fugitive young master of this very mansion, Hagar has leased the place and will see that Esther in this way enters upon the position in life to which she belongs. So eventful have been the past few years of her life, that Esther has ceased to wonder. Always of a gentle and obedient nature, she has assented to every plan that Hagar has proposed. In the death of Doctor Lee, Esther realized she lost a friend, and one who had something to tell her. If this secret is shared by Hagar, whom she supposes is her mother, Esther knows it will be told her in the fullness of time. So these two take up their ways of life in this wise at Stanley Hall, and we may ask what befalls some others whose lives are crossed with theirs. Vivian Marston, from whose fair bosom the dia mond had been snatched the night of the ball, had caught no glimpse of the face of the thief and stran- gler. Search had not revealed the great jewel, and so Luke Lovell had been released. At farmer Smith s, a dozen miles from Stanley Hall, Arthur, the fugitive, labored for his daily bread. The winsome little daughter of the farmer had twined her- 94 The Diamond from the Sky self around Arthur s heart. Happy and hardy and healthy were his days. He followed the plow and faced the sun and sang. He was gaining no fortune in the world s goods, but he was happy in the clean open air life of a farmer s helper, only would a shadow come to his face when he thought of Esther and his bitter mother, Hagar. Was Esther his sister? Or was she, too, a change ling? No matter which, Arthur s love for her was deep and pure as a brother s. He would make a name for himself for her sake, and so he faced the sun at dawn and sang, and so he faced the shadows of twi light and mused of Esther. One day when little Nellie Smith brought him his luncheon to the field, a torn scrap of newspaper that covered a portion of it caught Arthur s eye. It was a front-page "scarehead" of a Richmond paper that in big-type hysterics told of the robbery at Mrs. Ran dolph s ball and the subsequent added excitement of his flight and fight when he was arrested and charged with murder. Then Arthur wondered again if he had done right in protecting Blair. An impulse seized him to go to Fairfax and give himself up and let the whole truth be known. But then he remembered his secret was also Hagar s, and that she had suffered much. So far neither Hagar nor Esther s connection with him was known. No one but he and Hagar knew he was not the heir of Stanley. For though Esther had called him brother, it was plain to Arthur that the sweet girl had only used that word to comfort him. Then also he realized that much in expiation must be endured by him. He felt that when the time The Queen of Love and Beauty 95 came, Hagar would speak, and until then he was bound to silence. All throughout Fairfax, the news of Esther s return had gone abroad. The mystery of her coming as Doc tor Lee s adopted daughter and the mystery of her sudden departure at his death, added fuel to the gossip that went through the country side when it was known that with a handsome, dark woman who gave the name of Hagar Harding and said she was Esther s mother, Doctor Lee s erstwhile ward had returned to Fairfax. With the young men of Fairfax, Esther s gentle ways and piquancy had gone far in the few, short months she had lived beneath Doctor Lee s roof as his adopted daughter; and now when it was known Esther had returned, the young men of the commu nity again sought her out. But the women folk of the proud old Virginia neigh borhood kept aloof from the present occupants of Stanley Hall. Few, except those who understand the ramifications of kith and consanguinity in the old South, can com prehend the strong ties that blood and marriage make in Virginia. The Stanleys, the Randolphs, the Lees, the Beverlys, the Hunters, and the other famous old families loved and hated fiercely, but strictly among themselves. Well sponsored must the stranger come who would gain social recognition in feudal Virginia. After the unpleasant notoriety that had attended Mrs. Randolph s ball in Richmond, Bert Randolph s mother, a first cousin, had invited the chagrined so ciety leader of Virginia s capital to Fairfax and forget- fulness. 96 The Diamond from the Sky "My aunt is a stunner!" Bert Randolph blurted boyishly to Hagar and Esther. "Ralph, here, knows what a good sort she is, and she ll be wild about you, Miss Esther, won t she, Ralph?" And Ralph Hunter, also smitten of Esther, nodded eager assent, for the two young men had ridden over to call upon Esther every day since she and her sup posed mother had occupied Stanley Hall. The gener ous-minded young men were quick to realize that there was a veiled hostility against the strangers who now had taken up their abode at Stanley Hall. "Yes," young Randolph rattled on, "Aunt Burton Randolph is a stunner she s broad-minded, too, not stiff and narrow like our Fairfax women folks. I do not know why she is going to visit Blair Stanley s mother, instead of mine, but, anyway, she will be here to attend the Fairfax Tournament, which comes off in a couple of days. It s the biggest event we have in Fairfax, and poor Arthur Stanley was set on win ning the wreath this year. How he practised for it! He would have won it last year but Blair Stanley, who is older and much heavier than he, beat him out by a nasty bit of interference. Didn t he, Ralph?" Ralph was quick to say he thought Blair had rid den unfairly, and Bert went on with his chatter con cerning his stunning aunt from Richmond, and the tournament shortly to be held. "I will be surprised if Aunt doesn t go wild about you, Miss Esther!" Bert continued. "She loves to have pretty girls around her, and any girl she chaper- ones is made a belle of Richmond, for Aunt Burton Randolph surely queens it in Richmond society. The Queen of Love and Beauty 97 We ll have her call and have you and your mother go with her to the tournament!" While he was speaking, the young Randolph of Fair fax produced a handbill printed in old English text, which read: Olde Cime tournament Gallant gavaliers and Squires and Knights of J airfax County OM1 Bold an Olde time tournament m Ye J airfax Grounds next Saturday Afternoon Jill Riders must Be in mask 1K Uictorious Kn W Sftall rown fiis Cadic Tayrc as Queen of Eove and Beautie "But poor Arthur Stanley won t be here to ride this year," added the good-natured young man, when they had all finished reading the announcement. "The idea of their suspecting he killed Doctor Lee!" chimed in the equally generous-minded Ralph Hun ter. "Why, Arthur, for all his wild ways, had the best and kindest heart in the world and he loved Doctor Lee 98 The Diamond from the Sky like a son, even if they did have some jolly old rows about the way Arthur spent money like water and got in debt!" "But why did Arthur run away? None of us be lieve him guilty, and we may have our faults in Fair fax, but we are all kin and we all stand together, when outsiders make trouble," said young Randolph. "Shut up, you big silly!" cried the other impul sively. "Can t you see you are making Miss Esther cry? Didn t you promise me we wouldn t say any thing about Arthur s troubles? You know Miss Es ther liked him best of all of us." "Oh, pray, do forgive me, Miss Esther!" cried the contrite young Randolph. "But I just can t keep quiet about Arthur. Keeping quiet implies that we believe those awful suspicions!" "I thank you for that," said Esther tremulously, "let us talk about him; we know he is guilty of noth ing except being a reckless boy, with no father and no mother." Hagar spoke up for the first time: "Yes," she said huskily, "he had no mother!" "I ll tell you something about Arthur," spoke up Bert Randolph. "He was going to ride in the tour nament this year and wrest Blair s laurels as the best rider in Fairfax from him. You know why? Well, Arthur was determined to win this year it was when Miss Esther was at Doctor Lee s he told me he was resolved to win, so he could crown Miss Esther Queen of Love and Beauty. "Well, we ll do it for him!" cried young Hunter. "All the girls of Fairfax are wild for the honor. But The Queen of Love and Beauty 99 we ll win it for Miss Esther. One of us will block Blair Stanley and the other will win the wreath." "Ho!" chuckled young Randolph. "Is that the chiv alry of a masked Knight in the Tournament of Fair fax? That s a trick like Blair Stanley played. I am astonished at you, Ralph!" he added, with mock seri ousness. All laughed, relieved of the tension the mention of Arthur s flight under its terrible suspicion had brought upon the little group; and soon after the young men rode away, declaring again that Esther should be crowned at their hands, and the socially powerful fe male relative from Richmond should take the young mistress of Stanley Hall under the benefice of her es teem and patronage. It was about at this same time, on this same after noon, that a glum-faced hunchback organ grinder with a monkey, limped to the doorway of Farmer Smith. Poor Quabba. Well could he realize that riches seldom bring happiness especially when we lose them almost as quickly as they have been gained. But the joy and glee of the little five-year-old daughter of the Smiths cheered Quabba from his gloom. "Kids are always glad to see us, anyway, Clarence," he said, and he played his blithest tunes, and Clarence was prompted to his best comedy bits by the apprecia tion of the small but select audience. When Arthur, working on .the Smith farm under the name of John Powell, came across the fields at sunset with his employer, it was a merry group they found in the dooryard Quabba and Clarence being 100 The Diamond from the Sky regaled with the best from the board, as all wander ing minstrels should be. "I m on my way to the tournament at Fairfax," Quabba explained. "I ve never been there, it s out of the beaten track for us show people. For that very reason it should be a good place to pick up some good money," and Quabba produced a small hand-bill that he had found stuck against some barn hi the locality, for the village merchants of Fairfax thought it well to advertise the tournament to the farmers for miles around. The Fairfax Tournament. Arthur stirred with a sudden resolve. He would go ! An air of mystery had always been made in the masking of the riders. He would go masked, and so would he come from it. He would win the wreath and crown Esther "Queen of Love and Beauty" ! It was a wild risk to take, a dar ing thing to do; but he longed to see Esther and the love of romance and the inclination to the dramatic, were the heritage of his gipsy blood that overcame all caution and discretion. He would go ! Come what might, he would go ! His heart beat like a drum with the wild resolution. Forcing himself to speak with a calmness he was far from feeling, he looked up and said: "If I can be spared for the day, and if you will lend me Starlight, Mr. Smith, and if you will make me a mask, Mrs. Smith, and lend me a plume for my hat, I ll ride and show these Virginia boys how we do it in in Kentucky!" For it was as a young Kentuckian in hard luck, The Queen of Love and Beauty 101 Arthur had explained his plight and presence in that part of the country. Both the farmer and his wife had often discussed the stranger who had come to their door in the guise of a tramp, for they could easily see by his ways and manners that he was no tramp. They judged him by his countenance and gentle courtesy, and whatever was his secret they felt it was no dishonorable one. They both were eager now to accede to Arthur s re quest. On Starlight then, the farmer s blooded saddle horse, in his new cheap best clothes, and with his black silk mask and ostrich plume the farmer s wife had fur nished from her Sunday finery, Arthur rode away the following day with the best wishes of the farmer and his wife and his little girl, "To show," as Farmer Smith expressed it, "those stuck-up Fairfax swells a taste of old Kentucky quality," for Farmer Smith was of Ken tucky extraction, too. Quabba had been gone since the evening before, but Arthur overtook him near Stanley Hall. They waved at each other as Arthur galloped past, and then Arthur reined his horse in a little copse of wood near the mansion. Did he but know it, it was the spot where he had been born ! He had last seen Esther at Hagar s camp, but he was not surprised to catch the nutter of her dress on the balcony that overlooked the garden at the side of Stanley Hall. He had well remembered Hagar s part ing words that she would take Esther to dwell at Stanley Hall in honor, now that he had left there in disgrace ! 102 The Diamond from the Sky Cautious and as quiet as he was in stealing toward the house, the keen ears of Luke Lovell, who was at Stanley Hall that day with messages to Hagar from her gipsy folk, heard his cautious footfall, and from a hiding place saw Arthur throw a hastily scrawled note tied to a stone on to the balcony. The note begged Esther to meet him at the old stile at the top of the hill, back of Stanley Hall. A tryst she hastened to keep, when she found his message. "You must not do this!" Esther said excitedly, when Arthur explained his purpose. But he only laughed, and paid her a compliment for her bright eyes and fair cheeks, set off all the better for her agitation, and the beautiful white frock that she had donned for the tournament. "I will ride wearing your favor, Esther, dear," said Arthur, and he took the white silken sash she wore, and kissed her and rode away, placing on his mask after having adjusted the silken white sash as a scarf. At Stanley Hall, Hagar was waiting impatiently for Esther, the carriage horses restless at the portals of the mansion. "Where have you been?" she asked. "Gathering flowers, I suppose?" For as an excuse for her absence, Esther had hurriedly grasped a handful of roses. Esther did not answer, and Hagar smiled, forgetting her anger at the delay, and ordered the driver to start. At the Fairfax Fair grounds all was rush and excite ment. The gentry were driving in and taking their seats in the gaily decorated grand stand. Already Blair Stanley s mother with her guests, Mrs. Burton Randolph, and the beautiful Miss Vivian Marston, to The Queen of Love and Beauty 103 whom Blair was all attention, had taken their seats and were smiling and nodding to friends and acquaint ances. Sheriff Sam Swain was there, too, and in his heavy, lumbering way, was teasing a hunchback organ grinder, who, with a monkey, had been the subject of much amusement on the tournament grounds. Sheriff Swain was jocularly pretending he would arrest both the musician and his monkey, and he was shaking the official handcuffs at these coin-gathering entertainers. At last the Master of Ceremonies made his an nouncement. The masked knights were to tilt in a general melee with bamboo lances at a small wreath suspended some twelve feet from the ground. Riding at full speed toward this object, the knight who could bear it off on his spear point would be adjudged the victor and the best horseman of all the knights of Fairfax. The winning knight would crown the maid of his choice as "Queen of Love and Beauty," and also, by the presentation of great bouquets ready at hand, the Queen s attendant Ladies of Honor. The bugles sounded. Sheriff Swain, as Knight Sene schal, distributed the lances, and the knights lined up far down the track. The bugles sounded again. Then, with a rush and a roar, on they came, twenty of them abreast, wearing the sashes of their ladies, masked and plumed and all intent upon bearing off the guerdon. Blair Stanley on a bay hunter, wearing the crimson sash favor of Vivian Marston, was in the lead; close behind him was a knight on a black horse with a white star on its forehead. A strange horse to Fair fax, where every horse and man of blood is known. 104 The Diamond from the Sky What horse was it and who was the rider? He wore a snow-white scarf, and sat his horse as became a Virginia gentleman or perhaps a Kentuckian. Blair in the lead, swerved to block the on-coming knights behind him, but the stranger seemed to be prepared for the ruse. He spurred his horse around and crossed in front of Blair. The shock threw the bay hunter over, and Blair fell headlong to the ground whilst the strange knight s spear point lifted the wreath from the wire. Blair, as he fell, caught a glimpse of the horseman who had unseated him, and knew him in stantly. It was Arthur Stanley! Hate raged in the heart of the humiliated Blair. To be unseated in the presence of Vivian Marston, to whom he had boasted he would bear off the wreath and crown her as Queen of Love and Beauty on her first day in Fairfax ! He limped from where he had fallen to where Sheriff Swain stood at the end of the grand-stand, watching the surprising end of the contest. The defeated knights, with the exception of the unhorsed Blair, ranged their horses in a semi-circle and held their lances at salute. Arthur, still masked and bearing the Queen s crown and the bouquets, approached the white-faced, trem bling Esther, and said, in a feigned voice: "I crown thee Queen of Love and Beauty!" Then he presented the bouquets of the Ladies of Honor to the nearest women, Vivian Marston and Mrs. Burton Randolph. At the far end of the grand-stand, the raging Blair, standing by the sheriff, pointed to the victor and said: The Queen of Love and Beauty 105 "That is Arthur Stanley, the murderer of Doctor Lee! Go and get him!" Hardly knowing what he was doing, and angry at the jesting sheriff, and for the sake of the gallant- looking victor, an idea to discomfit that official and the unhorsed informer, seized Quabba. With a deft clutch of his quick fingers, he clasped the open end of one of the handcuffs, which the sheriff was still car rying, to the wrist of Blair. The other end of the handcuff was around the sheriff s wrist, and that eager official and the informer were soon wildly pulling in opposite directions. Leaving his organ, and carrying the frightened monkey in his arms, the nimble hunch back ran through the grand-stand and whispered a warning to Arthur. At this very moment, obedient to a significant look from Blaic s mother, Mrs. Randolph and Vivian Mars- ton had pointedly thrown down the bouquets and had turned their backs on Esther the newly crowned Queen of Love and Beauty. At this open and direct humiliation of the daughter of Hagar, the whole assembly grew still as death, and the hoarse accents of the handcuffed sheriff could be heard shouting: "Stop that man! He is Arthur Stan ley, wanted for murder!" A loud roar burst from the excited throng. Men sprang to their feet and women screamed. Arthur, at the cry from Esther to save himself, ran down the aisle, and, clearing the rail at a bound, vaulted on his horse, snatching the reins from a negro lad who was holding it. At the brusque commands of the sheriff, 106 The Diamond from the Sky however, the masked knights closed in on Arthur and, hemming him in, forced him and his horse, struggling and fighting for life and liberty, toward the grand stand. CHAPTER VII THE FOX AND THE PIG Y ^iHE knights of the tournament, now frenzied with excitement, pressed on Arthur, effectu- M ally barring his way to the gate. These hot headed young Virginians had been the friends, comrades and admirers of Arthur from boyhood, but the death of the greatly esteemed Doctor Lee and Arthur s flight had filled them with bitter resentment against their former companion. The struggle of the young horsemen seeking to stay and capture the now betrayed and unmasked Arthur, took place directly in front of the grand stand. ThQ excited crowd watched the titan struggle of the cen taurs in tense silence, but still above the sounds of struggle rose the hoarse voice of the sheriff as he strug gled excitedly to loosen himself from the handcuffs, with which the tricky Quabba had fastened him to Blair. On his part, Blair held back as though the steel manacle on his wrist was a prophetic stigma. The bold eyes of Vivian Marston were directed in frank admiration toward the superb feats of horseman ship and the display of herculean effort with which Arthur Stanley fought off the encircling cavaliers. Fascinated also, as they watched the struggle below them, Esther and Hagar had forgotten the sting of the humiliation to which they had been subjected. 107 108 The Diamond from the Sky Then suddenly a wild cry rose from the crowded stand ; and men, women and children stood up excitedly and shrieked as Arthur suddenly wheeled his horse and spurred it to the far end of the grand-stand and up the lower stairs and right in among the spectators. When his steed reached the centre aisle, the crowd in panic breaking the seats and benches as they gave way before horse and rider, Arthur turned the gal lant Starlight up this central passage, and waved to Esther and Hagar as he thundered by. Then breast ing his horse at the back rail, he plunged with Star light down from the back of the stand to the ground some fifteen feet below. Never had such a wild feat of horsemanship been beheld in Fairfax, home of wild riders. As with one accord, the panic passed and a tumult of curiosity succeeded. Men and women who had shrunk in alarm from the hoofs reverberating through the wooden ways of the grand-stand, now rushed up the aisles and over the benches, and in wonderment beheld steed and rider, the dizzy leap made in safety, disappearing in the distance. Among those who had rushed up the aisle were Mrs. Lamar Stanley s party and Hagar and Esther. As the gallant horse and rider disappeared in a cloud of dust down the road, Vivian Marston turned, and, with heaving breast and flashing eyes, openly voiced her admiration: "There is a man," she cried, "who is worth a woman s while ! " Esther shrank back at these words, for it seemed to her she felt a chill at her heart and, from that mo- The Fox and the Pig 109 merit, she realized that this woman had crossed her path in life and Arthur s. The mounted knights charged through the gateway in pursuit; the sheriff, tossing the key of the hand cuffs to Blair, had gained his horse and had followed after the pursuers. Shielding and hiding the dangling handcuff upon his wrist as best he could, for in his nervousness he could not open the lock, Blair cursed the grinning hunchback organ grinder, and re joined his mother and her friends. He loosened the handcuff at last, but the mocking Vivian had insisted it be retained as a souvenir of what she termed, "The Leap of the White Knight." So ended the last Masked Tournament of the Knights of Fairfax, and the excited dowagers and maidens were driven to their homes, recounting the exciting events of the day, while their husbands, brothers and fathers, who had come on horseback, were far on their way in pursuit of the fugitive. The day had been too much for Mrs. Burton Ran dolph s "poor nerves," as she expressed it. She re garded her Fairfax relatives with smouldering ani mosity. What had the reckless scions of the Fairfax Stanleys done but break up her ball in Richmond with shameful notoriety? And now, when she had come to Fairfax to forget, another horrid contretemps had oc curred to rack further her already shattered nervous system. She resolved to return to Richmond and seek seclusion and, if possible, forgetfulness there. Some twenty miles away, the Monticello Hunt was riding to hounds. The Monticello Hunt, a rival social organization of the next county, made it a point to 110 The Diamond from the Sky hold a fox hunt always upon the day that the elite of Fairfax held their masked old-time tournament. If you were socially prominent in Monticello you must consider that no such thing as the Fairfax Tourna ment ever took place. In turn, the old families of Fairfax likewise ignored the Monticello Hunt. Arthur s daring and dramatic escape had given him a long lead over his pursuers. This lead he in creased considerably, and he had quieted Starlight to a less strenuous pace on an unfrequented road, some fif teen miles from Fairfax, when he beheld the Monticello Hunt, in full cry after a wary old dog fox, crossing the fields some several hundred yards ahead. Starlight was an old fox hunter. Roused to renewed life and his fatigue passing from him at the baying of the hounds and the cries of the huntsmen, the no longer jaded horse turned briskly from the road and made after the chase. Arthur let his horse follow his bent, noting that the way he was taking across the fields, was a shorter route to the safety and shelter of the Smith farm. A small colored boy driving a fractious pig beheld, with much interest and some alarm, the travel-stained man and horse join in the fox chase. The colored lad had been nearly bowled over by the hunt-stirred Star light, when that eager animal s legs had encountered the rope which was attached to the hind hock of the fractious pig. Just ahead of him now, in a hollow, at the bottom of the field by a sunken fence, Arthur saw the last of the huntsmen taking this fence come a nasty crop per. He fell in a huddled heap, and was strangely The Fox and the Pig 111 still against a storm-felled tree; the hunter s horse stopped with an abrupt jerk, as the fallen reins caught and held him tightly by one of the gnarled branches. Arthur rode over and dismounted. The hunter was dead, his face bruised and disfigured with blood. He had struck the fallen tree head first, breaking his neck. Then Arthur thought of the colored boy with the pig and the pursuit that he had outdistanced. The colored boy would tell which way he had gone. He had been a fool to leave the highway. Then an idea occurred to Arthur. This man was dead and beyond all aid. He hurriedly changed his coat, with its white scarf, and his plumed hat, for the red hunting jacket and velvet cap of the dead fox hunter. Then engaging the bridle of Starlight to the branch of the fallen tree from which he had released the dead hunter s horse, he changed mounts and cantered away. When Sheriff Swain and his posse of tournament riders reached the scene, directed by the colored boy with the fractious pig, they saw a fox hunter in his red coat riding away, far off, but on the ground be fore them lay, to all appearances, the body of Arthur Stanley, killed by a fall from the horse he had ridden so gallantly at the tournament. That night, while Arthur, who told all his story to Farmer Smith, is being sent upon his way with hearty yet sad farewells and expressions of God speed by the farmer and his family, the body of the dead huntsman with the bruised face, is borne into Stanley Hall. With a startled cry, Esther recognizes it is not Ar- 112 The Diamond from the Sky thur, but the silencing hand of Hagar falls upon her lips. "A gipsy trick!" murmurs Hagar. She yearns for the son whom she has disowned, but all of whose secrets she will hold. "Let them find out his ruse in all good time," Hagar mutters to herself. "It will give him the better chance to be far and safely on his way!" And Mrs. Burton Randolph returns to Richmond. Vivian and Blair have quarreled. Vivian realizes Fair fax will be dull while it feasts upon gossip that will not interest her. She decides to return to Richmond with her friend. With a woman s prescience she realizes that Blair s mother intuitively suspects her. So Vivian Marston thinks it best to return to Richmond, too. That night the Monticello Hunt is minus a mem ber. Inquiry and investigation bring some of the huntsmen to Stanley Hall. The dead man is identi fied for who he really is, and is borne away. And the breach is wider yet between Fairfax and Monticello in consequence. The next day Hagar has a visitor at Stanley Hall. It is Detective Tom Blake, of Richmond, and he bears with him a flat portfolio of curious photographs. He and Hagar examine these curious photographs in the library at Stanley Hall, and Esther, outside upon the broad piazza,, is not aware of what passes between the gipsy woman and the astute private detective whom Hagar employs. But the photographs are vital things, vital espe cially to Blair Stanley, raging sulfenly at his mother because of her avowed hostility to the departed Vivian, The Fox and the Pig 113 and all unconscious of the evidence that the photo graphs, now being examined at Stanley Hall, hold against him. It is evidence which proves him guilty of the murder of Doctor Lee, for the photographs are the tell-tale reproductions of Blair Stanley s finger prints. Some were made by Blake from impressions he found on the rifled cashbox and the dead doctor s throat, and one other is the reproduction of the plain mark which his ink-stained thumb, stained by a leaky fountain-pen, made on the bad check he passed on Abe Bloom, gambling-den keeper of Richmond! The check has come back to the vindictive, angry gambler, marked "No Funds!" and when Abe Bloom called upon the Blake Detective Agency to aid him recover the amount of the check, the wily Tom Blake had in his possession the convincing identifica tion he has been seeking the duplicate thumb print of the murderer of Doctor Lee, the thumb print of Blair Stanley, with his signature beside it to attest! The astute detective is working now only for his client and old acquaintance Hagar Harding, who pays him well. There is no reward offered for the appre hension of Blair Stanley or any other man save the innocent Arthur Stanley. Detective Blake knows that Hagar will use the evidence he brings her, in her own time and in her own way. It concerns him no further, for the present at least; and he returns to Richmond, strangely enough on the same train that bears Mrs. Burton Randolph "in a state of nervous depression" and the ever vivacious Vivian Marston. He sits be hind them and smiles grimly as he hears them utter the name of Blair Stanley, "such a dear boy!" 114 The Diamond from the Sky Blair and his mother have returned home from the little station at Fairfax, after seeing their late guests to the train. Blair and his mother are now at dag gers drawn. He asks that she give him money and let him go upon his way in the world, as he wishes to leave Fairfax and never return. "You have been under enough evil influences in fol lowing the promptings of your own reckless ways," says his mother coldly. "This Vivian Marston cannot deceive me for a moment, as she seems to have com pletely deceived our society-leader relative of Rich mond, and," she added bitterly, "as she seems to have also completely deceived and infatuated you! You shall have no money of my saving to waste upon an adventuress, such as I feel sure this woman is. Stay here with me and turn your hand to more useful work than wasting the little money I yet possess!" Blair made no reply, though inwardly he felt wild curses mounting to his lips, but he flung himself in the house leaving his mother alone on the porch ere he might utter them. He was resolved to leave Fairfax, and he was resolved to see and regain the favor of Vivian Marston who had woven her spells around him. There was no time like the present, was his thought. He went rapidly up the steps and into the living room on the second floor, while his mother remained in bitter contemplation on the piazza. Nerved to a des perate undertaking, Blair closed the door of the living room behind him. He pressed the spring, and the Tory hiding place behind the chimney opened. Taking the heavy poker from the fire place that now The Fox and the Pig 115 was swung outward into the room, Blair stepped into the recess and closed the hiding place after him. Here he lit a candle and furiously pried at the old iron-bound chest where, with his father s papers, his mother kept the ready money which she, like her hus band had before her, lent out at heavy interest to such unfortunates as fell into her meshes when their se curities were good. At Stanley Hall, after the departure of Detective Blake, Hagar ordered her carriage. "I am going to pay a call, I will not be long," was all the information she vouchsafed to Esther. But Esther knew that whatever was the errand that called Hagar away, al though a secret, it was one that was for her good, for there was a firm yet loving smile upon the lips of Hagar when she spoke. Luke Lovell, who spent his tune at Stanley Hall partly, and partly, as headman under Hagar, at the gipsy rendezvous some dozen miles away in the hidden fastness of the Blue Ridge, brought around the horse and buggy to the front of Stanley Hall. At this in stant a diversion was caused by the appearance of a hunchback organ grinder, hurrying up the driveway. It was Quabba, his monkey, shrieking with fright, clinging closely to his master. Behind them came Sheriff Sam Swain on horseback, lashing the unfortu nate Quabba with his riding whip. Hagar and Esther both rushed to the rescue of the poor hunchback. "He s lucky I am only chasing him out of the county!" explained the irate sheriff. "But for the trick he played upon me the other day, I would have caught Arthur Stanley! Do you know 116 The Diamond from the Sky what this organ-grinding, monkey-toting, imp of Satan did? Why, he handcuffed me to Blair Stanley, whilst Arthur Stanley, the murderer, who had the nerve to come riding at the masked tournament, got away! I could have this organ-grinding scoundrel sent up for a year for interfering with an officer in discharge of his duty!" "Me no mean any harm," whined Quabba. "You made da joke with me. You try put da handcuffs on me; I only do da joke with you and da other gentle man in putting da handcuffs on you and him." "Young feller!" said the sheriff impressively, "never joke with an officer of the law. It is against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the law and statutes that therein apply!" And having delivered himself of this pseudo-legal dictum, the sher iff touched his hat to Hagar and Esther, and cant ered off. Quabba, it has been said, was a gipsy of Italian stock. A word in Romany fell on his astonished ear from the lips of the grande dame at the portals of this grand house, as Hagar gave orders to Luke that the wandering musician be cared for at the kitchen of Stanley Hall. "They were gipsies, too, these great people!" thought Quabba, but he held his tongue, nor seemed to mark it. Hagar again prepared to go upon her mysterious er rand with, as Esther noticed, the black flat portfolio, which the strange man from Richmond had brought that day. The carriage was waiting, but Hagar s keen eye now noted the horse was slightly lame. Half angrily, she ordered Lovell to take it back to the The Fox and the Pig 117 stable, and after Lovell with the horse and buggy, to gether with Quabba, the latter uttering expressions of his gratitude, had turned the corner of the great house, she kissed Esther fondly and said: "I am not going very far, dear, so it doesn t matter if I walk." Then she kissed Esther again and went upon her way. Little did Esther dream of the strange return this secretive yet loving woman, whom she deemed her mother, was to make to Stanley Hall! At Mrs. Lamar Stanley s, that austere lady sat upon her piazza waiting for Blair to return from inside the house. She had more to say to her son and as she re flected upon the bitter phrasing of the words she would speak, her heart ached dully. What was the use? she kept saying to herself, what was the use? What use the ambition, the cold, calcu- lating ambition that had darkened her life, and had caused the tragic death of her husband eighteen long years ago? What was the use to scheme and plot and hope and hate for a bauble that had disappeared, and an Earldom farther away than even distant Warwick shire? "The Diamond from the Sky" and the Stanley Earl dom were not for her. They were never to be the pos sessions of the son of her body, either, it would seem. Dead men lay between, and a living man a wanderer and a fugitive and the Earl, old and feeble, a helpless invalid for years, still lingered on. And just then the Judge s widow saw Hagar Hard ing, the present mistress of Stanley Hall, coming to ward her! At the sight of Hagar, Mrs. Stanley stiffened, and 118 The Diamond from the Sky instinctively all the old hopes and all the old hatreds leaped again within her withered breast. She rose as if to enter her house and ignore her caller, but Hagar called to her and said: "Do not go, Mrs. Stanley," as she came up the piazza, steps. "I have with me the proofs that your son and not Arthur Stanley is guilty of the murder of Doctor Henry Lee," and she indicated with a meaning gesture the flat, black portfolio she carried, the same portfolio Detective Blake had brought from Richmond. "Hush!" whispered the Judge s widow, tensely. "Come inside!" And she led her strange guest into the house and up to the living room. Here, Hagar without a further word, showed her the photographs of the thumb prints left by the murderer in Doctor Lee s study, and the photograph of the returned, dishonored check, with the fatal inky thumb print of Blair Stan ley by the side of his signature. "I will get my son, he is somewhere about the house," said Mrs. Lamar Stanley, with forced calmness. "What is the price you ask for your silence? I can not think you would come here except to bargain." "My price is an easy one," replied Hagar. "I ask that you and all your friends receive my daughter, Esther, and myself in Fairfax. I have only this to add: Deem me whom you may, my daughter, Esther, is of as high birth and blood as the proudest families of Fairfax!" "What you ask can be arranged, I feel sure," said the Judge s widow, still retaining her cold composure. "Wait here till I find my son!" And Mrs. Stanley bowed and hurried down to the porch where she called The Fox and the Pig 119 loudly for Blair, thinking perhaps he was in the gar den or at the stables. Meanwhile, Blair in the Tory hiding place behind the chimney, had heard every word that had been ut tered in the room. In his hands, he clutched a mass of banknotes. Thrusting them into his pocket, he touched the spring and pushed aside the swinging fire place noiselessly. Hagar stood by the table, her back to the fire place, watching the door. In her hands were the incriminat ing photographs. As she turned at the sound of Blair s advance, he struck her down with the heavy iron poker, and she fell to the floor as though lifeless, in a crumpled heap. Blair stooped to seize the photographs of his guilty thumb prints that had fallen to the floor, and as he did so a gleam of steel on the table caught his eye. It was the sheriff s handcuffs that Vivian Marston had brought to the house with her and left for Blair, as she mockingly said, "as a souvenir of the White Knight s leap!" Hagar moaned and stirred. Blair could hear his mother calling him in the hallway now. He seized the handcuffs and clasped them on the unresisting wrists of Hagar. Picking her up, he thrust her in the Tory s hiding place and hastily swung the wall back into position, leaving the unconscious and manacled Hagar imprisoned near the broken open chest in the darkened niche. Then hearing his mother on the threshold, he turned and fled with the photographs and the stolen money by the door that led to the inner rooms, and was gone! 120 The Diamond from the Sky Far away, a colored boy, who had been driving a pig the day the gentle folks of Fairfax held their tourna ment, is playing he is a hunter after eagles. He has a wooden gun, this colored boy who herds pigs while gentle white folks ride to tournament and to chase the fox; and with his wooden gun he plays a part in the destinies of those concerned in this strange story. For beneath a wayside tree he finds a handful of feathers. "Owls up dar!" cries the mimic hunter, and he drops his wooden gun and climbs the tree. An owl flies from its nest, with a querulous screech. That evening, an obscure negro urchin, whose lot it is that he must attend to swine, leans over a noi some pen and dangles before an unappreciative pig, gorging at his swill, not a pearl, but a diamond, a dia mond of price that fell in a meteor when this land was young! CHAPTER VIII A MIND IN THE PAST AGAIN the dull, aching resentment burned in the bosom of Blair s mother, as with a voice strange to her own ears she called to summon her son to make his part of the bargain with the implacable visitor who waited for them in the sombre living room upstairs with the photographs of his guilt. No answer was returned to her call, and Mrs. Stan ley remembered again the bitter quarrel she had had with Blair over Vivian Marston. Then it was with a fierce resolve, in a sudden re vulsion of desperation and despair, that Mrs. Stanley returned to the living room to tell her strange visitor to do her worst, let the consequences be what they might. For herself, the austere Mrs. Stanley resolved to strive no more for the sake of her dissolute and des perate son. "I will make no bargain with this woman, even to save Blair from the gallows," was her grim thought. "Neither she nor the strange girl who was Doctor Lee s ward, whom she now mothers at Stanley Hall, shall have social countenance from me!" But as she ascended the stairs to make known her resolve, she heard the slam of a door and the sound 121 122 The Diamond from the Sky of hurrying feet from the living room to the chambers at the back of the house. She opened the door from the stair-landing to the living room. The centre table was overturned, and there were other signs of a strug gle, but the room was empty. Then a low moan of pain fell upon the ears of Blair s mother. The sound came from near the floor behind the fire place. Mrs. Stanley listened intently, then pressing the spring, the wall with the fire place turned out, and there in the semi-darkness lay the unconscious figure of Hagar, her wrists manacled with the sheriff s handcuffs. Hagar lay half reclining against the rifled family strongbox. Mrs. Stanley found the key of the handcuffs, which was on the table in the room, and unfastened the manacles on the wrists of the dazed and moaning woman. Then she raised her and dragged her out into the room and closed the hiding place. She was not sur prised that the photographs of the thumb prints were gone. She revived Hagar and regarded the stricken woman, prepared for harsh defiance, yet Mrs. Stanley had no thought of compromise. But the whole expression of Hagar had softened to a pathetic, cowed wistfulness. Her face seemed younger, her eyes moist and pleading. She turned to Mrs. Stan ley with outstretched arms and murmured : "Give me my child!" And then Blair s mother knew that the blow her son had dealt the strange visitor had de prived her of her reason, for the time being at least. Mrs. Stanley had no suspicion of the import of Hagar s words, but she realized the crazed woman was at this time no menace either to herself or her son, A Mind in the Past 123 and wishing to be rid of her at any cost, she led her downstairs and to the door and set her on her way to Stanley Hall. In the gathering twilight, Esther was waiting for Hagar. It was a sad home coming. The dull eyes of Hagar gleamed with recognition of the portals of Stan ley Hall. The face of Esther, the gentle, loving Esther, was the face of a stranger to her. Alarmed and weep ing, Esther led the moaning woman up the broad steps and into the wide hallway. Here a fierce, wild change came over Hagar. She sprang to the door of the library and threw it open. "See, he is in there!" she cried. "They have him in there. The child they stole and sold from me. See, the diamond that blazes on his little breast! Take it off! There is a curse on it for all our race! Take off the fine clothes, give him back his rags! He is my son!" As it had been with Blair Stanley s austere mother, the wistful Esther sensed no importance in the plead ings of Hagar. Now, too, even the crazed mind of Hagar seemed to realize the library was empty and unoccupied, for she gave a wild cry and fell sobbing on Esther s breast. Summoning the servants, Esther had Hagar carried to her chamber. Owing perhaps to the heavy coiffure of the gipsy woman, the blow Blair Stanley had dealt her with the heavy poker had made no cut or external wound. Hagar was soon in a fevered sleep, and Esther then left her bedside at an urgent summons from below. There she found Luke Lovell, the cause of the 124 The Diamond from the Sky tumult. Hearing that Hagar was ill both of mind and body, Lovell had already usurped authority. Even now he was ordering the wandering hunchback organ grinder from the place. But if Quabba was frail, he was courageous. He was insisting he would not leave until he had said farewell to the strange grand lady who had spoken Romany to him, and also farewell to her fair-faced daughter, who had also bidden him to stay and be refreshed. There was something so loyal and true in Quabba s respectful gaze and manner, that, stranger as he was, it made Esther take his hand after sternly dismissing the scowling Lovell, and beg the humble hunchback to stay. "Do not leave us!" she whispered. "Some thing tells me you will be a friend, and we have no friends now, save perhaps our gipsy people!" And even as she spoke, Esther recalled the scene in the grand stand at the tournament, and how this hunch back wanderer had warned Arthur that he had been betrayed. At this juncture, a carriage drove up to Stanley Hall. From this a strange figure alighted, the figure of a tall, lank, serious, side-whiskered Englishman wearing a plaid suit with a heavy mourning band on the arm, and a glistening white tropic helmet. This strange individual had a rifle in the carriage. At the sight of Quabba s chattering monkey the lank Englishman grew wildly excited. "Some of their na tive wild beasts!" he exclaimed, and rushed back to the carriage for the rifle. It took some effort on the part of both Esther and Quabba to reassure the ex cited visitor that Clarence, the monkey, was not at all A Mind in the Past 125 a wild beast of the Virginia jungle, but simply an itinerant organ-grinder s friend, companion and col lector of external revenue. Then the stranger made known his name and errand. "I am Marmaduke Smythe, of London, England, family lawyer and agent of the estate of the Earls of Stanley, of Stanley Castle, Warwickshire," he said. "Lord Cecil Stanley died a month ago, from the in firmities of old age, leaving no heir in England the succession falling to the eldest son of the elder branch of the American Stanleys of this place, Stanley Hall. "I remember it well, for I was here to verify the American heir, nearly twenty years ago. And a beastly experience I had, my dear young lady. I was am bushed by croaking savages and fell off a horse, and was thrown not off the horse but figuratively thrown, into the midst of a terrific and bloodthirsty feud between Colonel Stanley and Judge Stanley, both rip-snorting fire-eaters, as you Yankees way down East in Virginia say ! "So my errand, young lady, in these wild parts of the American border, is to notify young Arthur Stan ley both Colonel Stanley and the Judge being dead that he is the Earl of Stanley, and the title and estates await him." And then it was Esther s painful task, glossing over it as best she could, to tell the strange caller of the accusations against the young man, and of his wild flight and disappearance. "My word!" exclaimed the embarrassed London law yer. "What a dreadful way you Yankees have of tomahawking each other, don t you know! If the 126 The Diamond from the Sky American Earl is a criminal in hiding, I must notify the next of kin, the late Judge s son, whom I distinctly remember as a vicious little beggar who bit me very severely. "In case his Lordship, as I must call the fugitive, is captured by your white cap chaps he will undoubtedly be lynched, as is your invariable custom on the Ameri can frontiers here, I believe. Hence the son of the late Judge will be the Earl of Stanley. "That is, providing of course," the lawyer added, "that the Honourable Blair Stanley, as he would be called with us, has outgrown his vicious propen sities as a child. For I assume if he bites any of your prominent border ruffians, he will be tomahawked or lynched or put an end to in some unpleasant manner. So you must excuse my taking leave, as I must notify the next of kin!" And he raised his tropic helmet politely and walked in a wide circle around the chattering monkey, Clar ence, as though he rather doubted the alleged harmless- ness of the animal he deemed a denizen of the local jungle. At the gloomy threshold of Mrs. Lamar Stanley s house, the lawyer received further confirmation of his personal belief that Blair Stanley would never out grow the sanguinary propensities of his childhood. In the bitter mood that now obsessed her, Blair s mother informed the startled Smythe that her son, now next in line for the proud Stanley Earldom, had fled, no one knew whither, and she hoped never to see his face again. All she would say, in reply to the law yer s nervous pleadings for he dreaded a long search A Mind in the Past 127 for the heirs of Stanley in barbarous America was that Blair might be found at his cousin s, Mrs. Burton Randolph s home, in Richmond; and for that place the English lawyer took the first train from Fairfax. Buoyed by the hope that renewed association with her gipsy tribe might tend to restore her mother to reason, Esther departed that night with Hagar from Stanley Hall. She was accompanied by Quabba, now her faithful attendant, and the sullenly insistent Luke Lovell. It was a sad return of their stricken queen to the grieving Romany people. Hagar recognized the gipsies as gipsies, but she called on the names of those long departed, including the name of her dead husband, Matt Harding, who she evidently deemed was alive and threatening her. For when she spoke his name it was in grim revolt and with bitter maledictions. That night Quabba slept with his monkey beside him at the threshold of Hagar s van. Inside, Esther had sunk in exhausted slumber on her cot beside the fever-dream-afflicted Hagar. Quabba s light slumber was broken by the crunching of a pebble beneath a heavy footfall. He roused up and drew his knife, and the menacing figure of Luke Lovell slunk back from the accusative moonlight into the shadows and was seen no more. That night, at this same hour Arthur Stanley, a fugitive and a wanderer, a stranger in a strange land, by a smouldering camp fire in a far Western desert, dreamed a wild dream that roused him with a shriek. He saw the fear-stricken face of Esther, and near her 128 The Diamond from the Sky the sinister Luke Lovell, with his gnarled great hands stretched as though to clutch and crush her. But one who is in society in Richmond may forget unpleasant things in a ceaseless round of new friv olities. Mrs. Burton Randolph returned from her stay in Fairfax to find her friends in an attitude of delightful commiseration toward her. It had been generally agreed that "poor, dear Mrs. Randolph" was more to be pitied than twitted over the contretemps that had marred her last grand ball in Richmond. The oc casion when a great diamond of fabulous value had been wrenched from the neck of her visitor, and then, following this robbery, a hue and cry after a young man wanted for murder had ensued. Mrs. Randolph confided to her dearest friends that her life seemed fated to be one of turmoil and tragedy. And she told the select few, who told the select many, of the dramatic climax of the tournament at Fairfax, in which the "delightful, romantic young murderer," as she described Arthur Stanley, had turned up in mask to bear off the prize and daringly to escape when he was just about to crown Esther whom Mrs. Ran dolph described as "a pretty, unknown, little creature" as Queen of Love and Beauty. Thus, instead of finding herself pitied in society in Richmond, Mrs. Randolph found herself envied as a social heroine of these delightfully dreadful affairs. So, as the beautiful wistaria was empurpling her house and grounds, Mrs. Burton Randolph announced a wis- A Mind in the Past 129 taria fete, and all Richmond society was nervously ex pectant of more delightfully dreadful happenings to occur. But although the wistaria fete was a wondrously brilliant affair according to the society columns of the Richmond papers no untoward event marred the pleasure of the day somewhat to the disappointment of society, which rather expected such events now at all affairs that Mrs. Randolph graced with her pres ence. Blair Stanley with plenty of money, but keeping away from Mr. Abe Bloom s temple of chance, turned up in Richmond in pursuit of Vivian Marston. He knew the risk he took, as it was evident some one in Richmond had secured from Abe Bloom the check that besides being worthless had the incriminating print of his thumb upon it. For the photograph of this check and thumb print, together with photo graphs of his thumb prints taken from Doctor Lee s study, had been in the possession of Hagar Harding, when Blair had struck her down. But such was his fierce passion for the luxurious and beautiful Vivian Marston that Blair walked in the shadow of shame for her sake. He intimated as much to her when he had led her aside beneath the bower of the purple blossoms at his cousin s wistaria fete. "I have gone to the foot of the gallows for you, Vivian!" he whispered to her, realiz ing this beautiful, languorous woman was one to whom an unscrupulous and desperate deed would appeal. He felt that she, too, had a past and that in wickedness 130 The Diamond from the Sky they were well matched, and for that the desperate Blair loved her all the more. For herself, Vivian Marston had lingered in Rich mond leading an existence that was puritanical and galling to her in the vapid restraints, as she deemed them, of conventional Southern social restrictions. Her one strong, eager, compelling desire a desire that held her in provincial Richmond was her desire for a star her desire for "The Diamond from the Sky!" Once, in all its magnificence, it had blazed upon her breast. Vivian Marston longed again to hold and possess it. Her thoughts were upon it by day, and at night her dreams were bright like gold and red like blood a barbaric background for the dream-diamond of these vivid visions. She had heard its story and knew that after Arthur, Blair was next in claim for its possession. She sank her head upon Blair s shoulder beneath the wistaria boughs. She tempted him with languor ous glance and alluring lips. "Get and give me The Diamond from the Sky/ and I will be yours!" she whispered. And Blair, much as he had longed for the baleful jewel himself, longed more for this woman. "I will never rest till I get it for you!" he replied fiercely. And he would have kissed her to seal the contract, but she drew herself from his arms, and he knew that her caresses were only to be purchased by the great jewel, be the price of the diamond lives, souls or honor! Yet the luxurious and vivacious Vivian was a prac tical person. She did not depend upon the romantic if desperate efforts of a lover alone to secure for her the A Mind in the Past 131 star of her desire. She consulted the business-like and equally eager brothers Bloom. To the gape-mouthed Abraham and Isaac, she confided the romantic story of the diamond and the confirmation of its great in trinsic value, all of which she had learned from Blair Stanley and others, while in Fairfax. "The Diamond from the Sky/ as these Fairfax Stanleys call it, disappeared in Richmond, torn from your neck by the hands of an unseen thief the night of Mrs. Randolph s ball, didn t it?" said Mr. Abe Bloom, the gambler. "Well, then, the chances are a hundred to one it is still hidden in this town. Who ever stole it will want money on it, that s reasonable enough to assume. It will turn up all right, believe me!" "It ith enough to make a man put a thine in hith windowth thaying Higheth Pritheth Paid For Big Diamondth, And No Question ths Athed! " remarked his brother, Mr. Ike Bloom, who lisped when he was excited. He was quite excited when he heard the ro mantic history of the Stanley diamond and its price. But especially did its price excite him. "It shan t thlip through my handth again, if I geth hold of it," he added. "I wouldn t lendth it to the Queen ofth Spthain!" And as he said this, he gave his brother s "lady friend from New York," as he called her, a meaning glance. "Let bygones be bygones!" Mr. Abe Bloom snarled at his brother. "VT didn t lose it on purpose. I have telephoned for Tom Blake, whom I consider the smart est detective in this country. He does what you pay 132 The Diamond from the Sky him to do and keeps his mouth shut. If the big stone is in Richmond, Blake will find it!" In a few moments the suave yet reticent Mr. Blake arrived. Placed in possession of all the facts the Blooms and Vivian could give him, he remarked that he would do his best and the first and last meeting of the syndicate to find "The Diamond from the Sky" broke up, and the detective departed. He was followed shortly afterward by Miss Marston, whose Richmond society friends would have been shocked beyond ex pression did they know she paid more than an oc casional secret visit to the establishment of Mr. Abe Bloom. Meanwhile, where is the diamond? It is not a pearl to be cast before swine, nor is it fated to remain the tinsel plaything of a negro lad who is a herder of swine. It is the fortune of Mr. Strap McGee, hobo, lately released from jail on suspicion of being Arthur Stan ley, a fugitive murderer, that he shall have the dia mond next. In the frayed and dirty dress suit, all the dirtier for its jail stains, Mr. Strap McGee makes across country, cursing his luck. He pauses by a pig pen to play a grim and intensely practical joke on a negro boy bent over the sty. Mr. Strap McGee picks up a barrel stave and applies it to the rear elevation of the bent-over negro lad. Then Mr. McGee notes the boy, in sudden pain and fright, has dropped some bauble plaything into the swill of the swine. Mr. McGee is not fastidious. He fishes out the bauble. The bauble looks good to Mr. McGee and he flees with it at his best speed, followed by a shower of A Mind in the Past 133 stones from the colored pig boy, screaming from pain and because he is being robbed of the sparkling thing he found in an owl s nest. Richmond is not far away, and Mr. Strap McGee has some loose change he won at gaming with dice in jail. He proceeds to imbibe, biding his time to dis pose of the bauble, hidden in his rags. But when he drops into the curio-shop opium-den joss house, main tained by some Chinese acquaintances, his tipsy vanity impels him to show the bauble to the crafty Hung Li, priest, den keeper and tong leader. It is a fatal thing to do, for luck has been bad with Hung Li and his friends. The police have closed their gambling joint and shut down on opium smoking. Hung Li believes that the Dragon of the Sky, the Great God Lung, needs propitiating, and then he will bring back good luck in plenty. Has word of "The Diamond from the Sky" travelled to China and back? The effigy of the Great God Lung is in the joss house sanctuary in the next room, and Lung is the Dragon of the Sky. The body of a stran gled tramp is dropped that night through a trap door, and then "The Diamond from the Sky" is hung about the neck of the Great God Lung ! This night Mrs. Burton Randolph would a-slumming go. Blair and Miss Marston are of the little party, and Tom Blake, the detective, is to be their guide. A significant glance of caution and silence passes be tween the detective and Miss Marston when they meet again. The Chinese quarter with its joss house is the first place the slumming party visits. The wily Hung Li 134 The Diamond from the Sky wishes no visitors to the inner sanctuary of his joss, the Great God Lung, but Blake will not be denied. He says his friends have come especially to pay for and burn incense for good luck before the Great God Lung. And so they enter the sanctuary and behold on the breast of the grotesque idol the jewel of price for which several of them are seeking! Detective as Blake is, and possessing great and evil powers in the eyes of Hung Li in consequence, yet Blake and his friends are forced from the place. The ladies, Mrs. Randolph again in "a state of nerves," are sent home, and Blake from the Barest telephone summons Abe Bloom and his brother. Meanwhile, Marmaduke Smythe, the English law yer, has arrived at the Randolph house seeking Blair Stanley. Determined upon his quest, the lawyer gets directions and arrives at the joss house. Hung Li and his confreres will have none of the British man of law. But the exasperated Marmaduke Smythe will not be denied. He says he knows the persons he is searching for are inside this beastly Chinese place. Here he is reinforced by the excited and money- proffering Abraham and Isaac Bloom and the equally urgent but more self-controlled private detective, Tom Blake. The investing allies, English, Irish and Hebrew, surge in upon the intrenched Chinese. The struggle of the invaders to gain the sanctuary and secure, for money or by force, "The Diamond from the Sky," is now at its fiercest. But all the while a desperate man is climbing the fire escapes at the back of the Chinese den. He has A Mind in the Past 135 noted a curtain-draped window behind the joss. A crash of glass is heard within. The frenzied Hung Li breaks from the invaders and rushes into the sanctu ary, followed by the other Chinese, the two Blooms, the detective and the bewildered Englishman. A hand through the broken glass behind the idol has torn the diamond from the neck of the Great God Lung. With a demoniac scream, the frenzied Hung Li seizes a keen Chinese sword at the foot of the idol and aims a swift blow at the disappearing hand. Woe and bad luck forever for the unfortunate Hung Li! The blow has missed the hand but has severed the head of the Great God Lung. Another slash in ex cited frenzy and down comes the hanging altar lamp to scatter burning oil upon the flimsy furnishings of the sanctuary, and then the whole den itself is a roar ing blaze of fire! CHAPTER IX A RUNAWAY MATCH MRS. BURTON RANDOLPH, society leader, sank back in the taxicab petulantly resolved to have a real good cry and a thoroughly enjoyable crise de nerfs, as soon as she reached her luxurious residence and could give way to her emotions with all the comforts of home. "I don t believe you have any nerves at all, Vivian!" she whimpered to her guest. "I think you have the fortitude of a cowboy or something of that sort, and I shall never forgive Blair Stanley for deserting us and sending us home alone! As for that detective Blake, I am sure if it were I he was depending upon for any pay for taking us to such dreadful places as that Chi nese den, he would never get his money. He at least should have seen us home if Blair Stanley was not gen tleman enough to do so!" "But the diamond!" gasped Vivian Marston. "Didn t you see how it blazed like a coal of fire under that swinging lamp and on the idol s breast? They named it rightly when they called it The Diamond from the Sky! " "I believe you are as crazy about that dreadful old diamond as the silly Stanleys are!" whined Richmond s leading society light. "It may be worth millions, but 136 A Runaway Match 137 I would not touch the awful thing! Not that I am superstitious, but it is bad luck everybody says so. And that idol ugh! I won t sleep for a week for thinking of the horrid thing!" But Vivian Marston, engrossed in the intense and desperate desire for the great jewel that had obsessed her since the day she had first beheld it, said nothing more, but bit her full ripe under lip and clenched her hands until the nails marked her tender palms. She was impatient to reach Mrs. Randolph s house and be alone with her burning longing for the diamond. Arriving there she turned her tottering friend over to the ministrations of her maid and then rushed to her own bedroom. She donned a peignoir, but ever she stood by the window and looked out across the sleep ing city. It was after midnight now. Who would get the diamond? There had been no use to discuss further the jewel of her desire with her silly hostess. It was a gem to be worn by women who dared aspire to it, a star of fire to be wrested from the weak by men who cared for no consequence except to gam it. Who would gain it now? If Blake got it, as agent of Abe Bloom and his brother, the pawnbroker, would she be able to cajole it from those astute Hebrews? She doubted this. But if Blair Stanley got it, Vivian knew it would be hers without dispute. Cunning as Detective Blake was and as astute as were the Blooms, Vivian Marston felt a supreme confi dence in the daring, unscrupulous determination of Blair Stanley to get the diamond to gain her love. "The Diamond from the Sky," crime-stained as it 138 The Diamond from the Sky was, had never been sullied by the hands of traders. Since the day, according to its legend, it had fallen to earth in a meteor and had been held first by Arthur Stanley, gentleman adventurer of Colonial Virginia, three hundred years agone, it had never, so far as she knew, been cheapened or debased by being in the hands of little men who bought and sold its gleaming glory, and appraised it at a price. It had no price, it was a jewel to adorn Beauty at the hands of Daring! And she, a beautiful woman of bold heart, did well to rely on the desperate young man who had already reached up from the knees of murder for "The Dia mond from the Sky." Now further incited by his in fatuation for her, she felt he would not fail. After Blake and Blair had sent Mrs. Randolph and Vivian Marston home, Blake had sought a telephone and notified Abe Bloom that the diamond they sought was on the neck of the Chinese idol. Then it was that Blair Stanley had stolen away and had seized the jewel by swift and daring action in climbing the fire escapes at the back of the den, smashing the window and snatching the gleaming gem. In a shed by the Chinese den, Blair in his quick ex ploration and approach had stumbled upon a motor cycle. In the excitement that followed the fire he had dropped from the last iron ladder at the back of the den and had whirled away on the stolen machine through back alleys and streets to where he knew Vivian Marston would wait for him and the precious guerdon that he was bringing her. He had the diamond and he would have her! He A Runaway Match 139 felt the great gem and the luxurious woman were worth all he had dared for both, and that was much. Arriving beside the Randolph mansion long after midnight, he saw the light shining from Vivian s win dow toward which a wistaria clambered. He drew himself up the gnarled and tenacious vine. Vivian came to the window at the first swaying of the vine. Blair showed her the diamond. "Give it to me," she whispered. But Blair was re solved upon the only price his forbears or himself would accept for this proud possession the favor of a woman they loved. "I will wait for you at the front of the house!" Blair whispered tensely. "We must marry and leave Rich mond to-night. Blake will be hot after us!" Vivian nodded, and Blair slid down the wistaria and hid the stolen motorcycle in the thick vines at the side of the house. In a few minutes Vivian had joined him. A short distance from the Randolph house they hailed a belated taxicab and were driven to the home of the Reverend John Gray, noted in conservative Richmond as "the marrying minister." Meanwhile, driven out by the flames of which the Chinese den was now a seething mass, Detective Blake with the Blooms, hurried away to avoid embarrassing questions from the police and firemen already hurrying to the scene. The frenzied Chinamen pour ing from the place were too excited to stay them. The bewildered Smythe, his respectable gray high hat and his equally respectable frock coat on fire, was brushed aside by Blake and the Messrs. Bloom. 140 The Diamond from the Sky They were not interested in the legal representative of the Earls of Stanley or his search for the fugitive heirs to the Stanley title and estates in Warwickshire. Their minds were all upon the heirloom of the Ameri can Stanleys. "Possession is nine points of the law," panted Mr. Abraham Bloom. "The law is that a pawnbroker ain t responsible for pawned articles except to the value of the sum he has advanced on them. If we get hold of his diamond, them Stanleys can whistle for it, eh, Ike?" But Isaac Bloom, pawnbroker, had an actual crise de nerfs such as Mrs. Burton Randolph had never been able to effect. In the words of his more hardened and experienced brother: "Ike was all in!" He moaned in the corner of the taxicab and begged to be "Let out of thith thing!" "It ain t your fire, you should worry," sneered his brother, the cynical gambling-house keeper. "For my fire, when I have ith, I have got an insur ance!" moaned the unhappy Isaac Bloom. "But to thee a fire in which a diamond goeth ath big ath your fist, and worth a million dollars, ith too much, don t you know! A fire by which you almoth loothe your life, as we did well, wordth can t thay it, and I want that you should let me out ath my pawnshop ! " Tom Blake, seasoned to excitement even more than Mr. Abe Bloom, gambling house proprietor, smiled at the collapse of the little pawnbroker. Tom Blake was a plain or garden variety of detective. There was nothing of the Sherlock Holmes in his makeup, but the psychology of crime appealed to Mr. Blake. As he often said himself, he "loved to see the wheels A Runaway Match 141 go round." In this case, as in all his cases, he worked with all the skill of the professional and all the eager interest of an amateur. Yet he worked for his clients, first, last and all the time, and it was perhaps for this reason his business flourished even in so staid a city as quaint old Richmond. Blake had worked for Hagar Harding and solved the mystery of the murder of Doctor Lee. He let it remain with her to inform the authorities as to who was the guilty person. He was working now for Mr. Abe Bloom principally to get "The Diamond from the Sky." When it was in Mr. Bloom s possession it would be up to that astute gentleman, legally or otherwise, to retain it. After leaving the collapsed Ike Bloom in the haven of his pawnshop, Blake and Abe Bloom were driven to the latter s gambling house, and from there to the resi dence of Mrs. Burton Randolph, society leader. "As you say there is $5,000 in it for me, if I get back this diamond for you, I will tell you my theory," said the detective to his gambler client. "Blair Stanley has it, I feel sure. It belongs to his family, you know. If this Arthur Stanley, who has also fled but I can tell you now he is guilty of no crime that I know of^dies, the diamond belongs to Blair Stanley. But Blair does not want it for himself, he wants it for that fair friend of yours from New York, Miss Vivian Marston. Blair is crazy about that dame, and she is crazy to get the diamond. We ll find them at Mrs. Randolph s if we are not too late." But they were too late. Their insistence, however, forced the presence of Mrs. Randolph herself, and just 142 The Diamond from the Sky when she was dropping off in a sweet sleep after hav ing enjoyed her crise de nerjs with all the comforts of home. Thus aroused, Mrs. Randolph was quite in dignant at the detective and also at the presence of Mr. Abe Bloom, Richmond s notorious gambling house keeper. "The idea!" she cried indignantly. "The idea!" But when the cynical Mr. Bloom intimated that Mrs. Randolph s guest, the vivacious Miss Marston, was a friend of his, Mrs. Randolph sensed another impending scandal, and "came down off her perch," as Mr. Bloom afterward described it. She led the way to Miss Mars- ton s chamber. But the bird had flown, and the de tective and gambler hurried away, leaving Mrs. Ran dolph inwardly reproaching herself that she had "taken up" an adventuress and had her as a guest, on the strength of a Palm Beach intimacy ! Suppose this came out in the papers? While Mrs. Randolph was indulging in another lux urious nervous collapse at this crowning contretemps, the detective and gambler were on their way to the railroad station to head off the fugitives. Half way to the depot, the front tire on their taxicab blew out. Tom Blake looked at his watch. "Blair Stanley and the lady and the diamond can t get a train out of Rich mond for over an hour yet," said the detective. "I have a hunch that they know this, and I ll bet two to one they have improved the shining hour by waking up Parson Gray, the marrying minister/ and getting spliced. I have a wedding present a pair of brace lets for the groom." Mr. Abe Bloom did not ask any questions. He re- A Runaway Match 143 alized there might be several reasons that such a piece of punitive jewelry could be clasped about the wrists of Blair Stanley. At the preacher s house, which was near by, neither Blake nor Bloom was surprised to see a waiting taxi- cab. Blake questioned the driver briefly and mounted the steps of the parsonage. The front door was un fastened, and he and Bloom glided silently into the lighted hallway. They could hear the voice of the minister droning: "I now pronounce you man and wife!" Then Blake stepped through the wide doorway to the parlor. Blair Stanley and Vivian were facing the minister, and Blair was extending to his eager-eyed bride the priceless jewel with which he had won her. Blake stepped forward and, with a deftness acquired by long practice, snapped his handcuffs on the wrists of Blair, exclaiming: "We want that diamond and I ar rest you for the murder of Doctor Lee!" Vivian did not scream. She clutched the diamond and drew it to her breast. Blair, roused to a frenzy of fright and rage at the thought of losing Vivian and of being haled off as a murderer, swung his manacled hands with all his strength. For once Tom Blake was caught napping. He was knocked back over a chair and lay a moment stunned. Abe Bloom was next to feel the swinging double blow of the infuriated Blair. Vivian, quick as thought, pressed the button of the electric light switch near the door, and she and Blair rushed from the now darkened room, Blair pausing just inside the hall to draw back the sliding door of the preacher s parlor. 144 The Diamond from the Sky They dashed from the house and were in their taxi- cab and away before the excited and irresolute min ister had thought to turn on the light. The detective, still dizzy from his stunning fall, roused himself and hurried after the fugitives from the house, followed by the astounded Mr. Bloom. The taxicab of the newly married pair was gone. The detective and the gambler ran to their vehicle in the next street, and, finding the bursted tire had been replaced, ordered the driver to make for the depot. On their part, the fugitives had not proceeded to the depot. It was the more subtle Vivian who suggested a daring scheme of escape from the city. Dismissing their taxi near Mr. Ike Bloom s pawn shop, they roused that nervously dozing lender of money on portable property. Mr. Ike Bloom was not loath to admit the fair Vivian for, awakened now, he was horribly frightened at the idea of being alone. But while, chattering some excuse, Vivian lavished her smiles upon the unsuspecting pawnbroker, Blair stepped behind him, and throttled him with the chain of the handcuffs. Then they bound, gagged and blindfolded the un fortunate and fright-enfeebled Ike Bloom. From his varied stock of goods in pawn, the two adventurers were not long in finding a key that opened the hand cuffs, and in selecting complete disguises. Vivian attired herself as a natty youth, crowning her disguise with a curly boy s wig, "hocked" but this same day by a stranded vaudeville actress. Blair arrayed himself in a sombre frock coat, a silk hat and a black cravat. Then he despoiled Mr. Ike Bloom of his tortoise shell A Runaway Match 145 spectacles and donned them. With cosmetic from Vivian s vanity case, he darkened his visage, and the two, taking dress suit cases, with their own and such other attire as struck their fancy, shut the spring lock door on the bound, gagged and blindfolded pawn broker. With the passengers that took the 3.10 A. M. train north was a natty college boy and a bent gentleman of middle age of clerical aspect, evidently the collegian s father. Blake had stepped a few yards away to get a view in the station lights of the faces of a young married couple, leaving Abe Bloom to scan the other pas sengers. "They didn t get on this train/ spluttered Mr. Bloom, "but I wish I had that young feller by the neck who dropped a cigarette in my eye from the car win dow as the train pulled out!" "That young feller" was Vivian Marston. In the gipsy camp, the proximity of the Romany people brought no return of mental health to the af flicted Hagar. In the trying days that followed, the devoted Esther would have given way to despair but for the cheering presence and loyalty of her new and faithful friend and servant, Quabba. Sedition was at work among Hagar s tribe. Every where Luke Lovell was whispering evil counsel. He had determined to wrest the reins of power falling from the hands of Hagar. Once leader of the gipsies, he felt it would be an easy thing to coerce Esther into 146 The Diamond from the Sky marriage and thus be assured of his Romany kingship. Hagar s wealth was a proverb among the gipsies, and while they loved Esther, they listened to Luke when he whispered to them that now that Hagar was bereft of her reason, her wealth belonged to and should be shared by the tribe. The hunchback sought in every way to cheer Esther and at times, while Hagar sat in her van moaning and muttering for a child, a son that none had ever heard had been born to her, Quabba would take Esther for walks upon the mountains, knowing Hagar was safe among the gipsies, attended by the elder women. The favorite spot where Esther and Quabba daily climbed to talk of Arthur and to wonder where he was and when they would hear from him, was on the mountain s top where a great balancing rock swayed to the lightest touch and had menaced the valley be low for centuries. Upon such occasions they took field glasses with them and would watch the roads for miles away, won dering if every distant rider were Arthur returning to them. Upon one such occasion Quabba turned the glasses upon the gipsy village in the hollow at the mountain s foot. There was some excitement in the camp, it was evident. The figure of Luke Lovell on an eminence in the centre of the camp, could be seen plainly. The gipsies had gathered around him and it was evident Luke Lovell was haranguing them to some evil pur pose of his own. Esther and Quabba ran down the mountain, arriving breathlessly at the camp just in time to find Luke A Runaway Match 147 Lovell leading the gipsies to Hagar s van to despoil it of Hagar s supposed wealth and divide it. When Esther and Quabba pushed themselves through the circle of gipsies Luke had brought out the supposed treasure chest from the van without protest from the crazed Hagar. It was a brass-bound box of which Esther had lately carried the key. Esther had seen the box open and had noted it contained only some papers, yellow with age. These she had not deemed it her province to examine until Arthur returned. But now she stepped forward, backed by the active and determined Quabba, and defied Lovell to open the box. "I have the key!" she cried, producing it from her bosom. "And you!" and she turned an indignant glance upon the gipsies, "if you have no respect for your queen or for me, and listen to the evil words of Luke Lovell, I will open the box!" She then unlocked and opened the box, and, before she could prevent it, Luke had thrust his knotted hand in among the documents as if searching for coins or gems. He brought out a bulky time-stained document, the seals broken. It was superscribed: "To be opened in case my son, Arthur Stanley 2nd, ever does anything to disgrace the Stanley name." Esther snatched at the paper, but Luke Lovell had opened and was reading it. At a glance Esther saw enough she and the sinister gipsy both knew the Stanley secret! Quabba struck with his dagger menacingly, and Luke surrendered the paper to Esther s eager grasp. But Luke grinned, secure in a knowledge that was power 148 The Diamond from the Sky and should be, he was resolved upon this, wealth to him, as it had been to his long dead chief, the greedy Matt Harding. Esther covered her eyes with her hands, clutching the document all the tighter as she did so. Arthur was, not her brother he was not the heir of Stanley ! She tottered and would have fallen. Then, too, she sensed what Luke had taken no thought of she was the heir of Stanley! Seeing there were no jewels or gold in the box, as Luke had intimated there would be, a hoarse murmur of rage rose from the emotional gipsies. They loved Esther and they loved the crazed Hagar, who now came feebly from the van and asked in a weak voice: "What is it, my children?" Led by the enraged Quabba, the now infuriated gipsies stoned Luke Lovell from the camp, and by this act banished him from the tribe forever. On the far western plains, the young fortune seeker who had been known in proud Fairfax as the heir of Stanley, learned that fortune was ofttimes hard to find. The hard and lonely work of a herder was his, yet the very day that the Stanley secret became known to Esther and Luke Lovell, Arthur, or, as he is known, "John Powell," tastes new adventure. A camp fire s smoke behind a great rock on his desert range lures him near. Four plotting "long rid ers" are behind the rock, and Arthur hears them plan the robbery of the Overland Limited. He mounts his horse and rides away. The marauders rouse up and fire after him, but they deem him but a passing herder, A Runaway Match 149 who had not been near enough to overhear them, and they depart upon their way to consummate their robbery. It is a congress of tramps, in far away Virginia, that plays a part in the next phase of our strange story. Luke Lovell, the banished gipsy, has fallen in with this convention of seasoned ne er-do-wells. He* arouses their criminal cupidity with his tale of gipsy wealth easy to secure, if they let him lead them in a raid on a near-by gipsy camp, defended only by a dozen timid gipsy men. After the incident of Luke s perfidy, Esther resolved never to leave Hagar or the documents again un guarded. She waited for Arthur s return with impa tient longing. Every day she sent Quabba to the mountain top by the great rocking stone to watch for Arthur s coming, for she felt sure he would come and she would tell him all. It was on sentinel duty here that Quabba saw the desperate tramps, fired by Luke Lovell s tales of treas ure, raid the gipsy camp. Quabba saw through the glasses the outnumbered gipsy men fight valiantly only to be overcome. Through the field glasses he could descry the bulky form of Luke Lovell leading the ragged marauders. He could see Lovell drag Esther from the van, with Hagar clinging feebly to her. Quabba, shaken with fear for Esther, resolved upon a desperate thing. Better death to Esther, he thought, than she should be in the power of the brute Lovell and his brute friends even for an hour ! Seizing a heavy pine branch lying nearby and ap- 150 The Diamond from the Sky plying it as a lever, the half delirious Quabba pries at the rocking stone. It poises a moment on its pivot, and then slowly sways and rolls and roars and rumbles down the mountain side. Gathering impetus with every foot of fall, it starts an avalanche of rocks and dirt and stumps. Mightier, greater, vaster, heavier, grows the landslide started by the ponderous rocking stone, now whirling down the mountain side in a great mass of dirt and rubble, until it seems the very mountain is falling! A roar from the valley below, and then a cloud of dust that rises like a fog, shrouding the scene. The gipsy camp is wiped out, overwhelmed and annihilated. In the far West, the Overland Limited gasps up a steep grade in the desert. Beside it races a wild horse man. He grasps the platform rails of a car that lum bers by him and his horse gallops on, passed and dis tanced by the train, while the daring rider clings and pants in his perilous place. The door of the vestibule opens, and the trainmen refuse to heed the warning of the spent hysterical man clinging perilously to the handrail. It is Arthur and he is desperate that he is doubted, believed to be an outlaw train robber, like those of whom he warns them. Unheeding of his protests, scorning his warning, they thrust him from the plat form and he falls insensible by the track and down the steep embankment, and the train pants on ! Among the passengers to whom it is whispered that a desperate train robber has attempted to board the The Diamond from the Sky 151 train from horseback, are a young married couple, known as Mr. and Mrs. Peyton. Mrs. Peyton, whose husband addresses her as Viv ian, has shown some of the ladies on the Overland a wondrous diamond, set in an antique locket, that her husband gave her as her wedding present. "An old family heirloom," the happy bride explains. CHAPTER X OLD FOES WITH NEW FACES AFFLICTED as he was, Quabba, the hunch back, he of the sunny face and happy heart, was as agile and as sinewy as the monkey Clarence, his companion on his way through the world. But now the hunchback is neither sunny of face nor happy of heart. A tremor of fear, anxiety and remorse shakes him in an ague of terror and confusion. Sending the rocking stone, pried from the perch where it had swayed for centuries, had only meant death for all below, thinks Quabba. Instead of saving his young and old mistress and his gipsy friends from the raid of desperate tramps, led by Luke Lovell, Quabba now believes that he has destroyed those he has loved, as well as their enemies. But, as he ran panting down the mountain side, Quabba sees that some of the gipsies, warned by the clatter and roar of the landslide the massive, bounding, loosened rocking stone has started, have fled to safety. Through the dust that is settling in a cloud over the debris and rubble where the camp had stood, the straining eyes of Quabba mark the ragged figures of some of the assaulting tramps limping away from the scene of destruction, as bootless as they came. 152 Old Foes with New Faces 153 Then, as he came nearer, the anguished Quabba saw that the fleeing gipsies had paused half way up the opposite slope and had nerved themselves to return to their annihilated camp. With an aching heart and a great burning sense of reproach for the rash deed that had worked such ill when he had meant but good, Quabba also saw that Esther and Hagar were not among those hysterical gipsies who were returning to the scene of destruction. When he reached the heaps of rubble and wreckage that had been the camp site, the gipsies had already gathered in a group where the van of Hagar lay over turned, half covered by a mass of rocks and earth. Then his heart beat again with joy as he heard the voice of Esther, tremulous, yet brave for all that, issue from beneath the van. "If you are friends, save us!" was Esther s cry. Strong and willing hands tore at the heaped up rock and rubble, and strained and lifted at the van. Soon it was raised from over the cavity its very over turning had supplied. There were Esther and Hagar trembling but unhurt, save for a few minor scratches and bruises, but in the bottom of the cavity lay the bulky form of Luke Lovell, seemingly stark and life less. Kindly hands drew Hagar and Esther out, and Quabba fell at their feet, uttering incoherent self-ac cusations mingled with equally incoherent thanks givings, while a kindly hand threw a coat across the inanimate face and form of the gipsy outlaw. Then comedy succeeded tragedy. The shrill cries of Clarence, the monkey, were heard voicing his Simian fright and indignation from within the van. The 154 The Diamond from the Sky mercurial gipsies turned from sighs to laughter and even the wan lips of Esther were wreathed with a smile, as Quabba cried excitedly: "I am coming, Clar ence, my son!" and so saying he wrenched open the shattered window of the van and the frightened mon key leaped into his master s arms and began chattering his thanks and joy. The saving of gipsy lives was due to the providen tial fact that the onslaught of the marauding tramps, led by Lovell, had driven the gipsies from the danger zone when the avalanche of stones and earth had struck the camp. How many of the tatterdemalion in vaders lay dead and buried beneath the settled land slide, the philosophical gipsies neither cared nor sought to ascertain. It was found later that Luke Lovell had evidently been only stunned, and not killed, as was at first supposed; for when the gipsies returned, after making rude shelter tents away from the rubble of the landslide, no trace of Lovell could be found. He had recovered consciousness, it was evident, and had stolen away, fearful of the vengeance of his former Romany associates. Quabba deemed it best to keep secret the fact that he had been the genius of the landslide. It had been a fatal success. He affected the philosophy of the gipsies in the matter and agreed with them that some how good had come out of the general destruction, even if it were only their riddance of the unscrupulous Luke Lovell and his ruffian rabble, the tramps. Acknowledged as their princess and reigning over them as regent for the afflicted Hagar, Esther appointed a headman from the gipsies in the place of the deposed Old Foes with New Faces 155 and banished Lovell, and returned with Hagar and Quabba to Stanley Hall, which was still held in Hagar s name in accordance with the terms of the lease she had taken. Luke Lovell, when he had recovered consciousness, had drawn himself unobserved from the hollow beside the now righted van. He had no intention of endeav oring to rejoin such of the tramps who had attacked the camp with him and who might have escaped un hurt from Quabba s landslide. Luke, now knowing the source of the dead Matt Harding s gipsy wealth that was now Hagar s, and of which, since Hagar s sudden affliction, no one knew the hiding place, felt sure that it had not been decreased under Hagar s stewardship while sane. Wherever the treasure was, it was not in Hagar s brass-bound chest. Only documents were in that chest, but they were treasures of themselves, for did not one of them espe cially set forth the fact that Hagar s long dead hus band, the greedy Matt Harding, had trafficked with the great folks of Fairfax in his own flesh and blood and theirs? Here was a fortune to be obtained by himself, as it had been obtained by Matt Harding, Luke Lovell thought. And he limped away unseen from the de stroyed gipsy camp and trudged resolutely to Fairfax, some eight or ten miles away. There was no one at Stanley Hall to pay him for keeping or telling the Stanley secret, but Luke Lovell knew enough of the Stanleys and their feuds to realize his best market would be with Blair Stanley s mother. If Arthur Stanley, so-called, was Hagar s son, a gipsy 156 The Diamond from the Sky changeling, then Blair Stanley was the real heir to the Stanley Earldom, to which, according to the old family tradition, the heir was commanded to carry "The Dia mond from the Sky." But he found Blair Stanley s mother would hold no traffic with him, the sinister-looking gipsy, who waited at her door with a secret to sell. She ordered him to be gone and professed no interest in the ware he hinted he had for sale. Ellen Stanley was in her austere way as unscrupu lous in her family ambition as even the grim Judge Lamar Stanley had been. But she would have no com merce with such as Luke Lovell. She realized only too well that once such a creature had her in his power, even as a confidant, his dominion would be as is al ways the dominion of the ignorant brutal and un tenable. So Blair s mother dismissed the chagrined gipsy in cold disdain. "If you have any secret to sell, take it to some other market!" said the widow Stanley, with cold hauteur. "Unless you leave my premises this instant, I shall have you arrested and committed for attempted black mail. Shout your so-called secret from the housetops, if you please, I am not concerned!" But Luke Lovell, thwarted and discouraged though he was in his first bold bid for the fortune he had be lieved was within his grasp, had no intention of shout ing his secret from the housetops. He must find some one who would pay for it this some one was Blair Stanley, he did not doubt. He resolved to search for Blair in the Far West, where it was rumored he had gone. Old Foes with New Faces 157 Yet if Blair Stanley s mother had refused to traffic with the sinister gipsy, she was shrewd enough to sur mise something of the secret that had become a living thing again after lying dormant for all these years! Why had her husband set off alone to meet his death in the mountains the day after Colonel Stanley had died, nearly twenty years ago? Why had Doctor Lee adopted the gipsy woman s daughter a few months since? Why had this gipsy woman returned recently, in the guise of a woman of means, and taken Stanley Hall? Why had she come with proofs of Blair s guilt of the murder of Doctor Lee and proffered her silence in exchange for social recognition of this girl by the proud families of Fairfax? And now that this gipsy woman was crazed, and all fear of her son s guilt being known, for the time being at least, might be set at rest, Mrs. Stanley resolved to take advantage of these things as she suspicioned them. If this girl was the real heir, the missing heir of Stanley Hall, of which there had been vague whispers for years, why not prepare for and fortify against any possible disgrace that might threaten through her son s rash and dreadful deed the murder of Doctor Lee? Mrs. Stanley resolved to make friends with Hagar s supposed daughter. If Arthur Stanley, so-called, was not the rightful heir, Blair Stanley was. But this left the girl heir to Stanley Hall, and all could be con served and all be well, if Blair might return and marry Esther. Even though Hagar recovered her faculties, she must remain silent as to Blair s guilt were he Esther s hus band, thought Mrs. Stanley. As for Arthur Stanley, 158 The Diamond from the Sky so-called, there was slight fear of his returning and asserting his claims to the Stanley earldom and "The Diamond from the Sky." The shrewd Ellen Stanley guessed now the true cause of Arthur s flight and con tinued absence. It must be because he, too, had learned the Stanley secret! At Stanley Hall, Esther, made a woman and resolute by all the tragic occurrences that had lately befallen her, had resolved it was her duty to examine further into the documents in Hagar s brass-bound box. First she again endeavored to lift the cloud from Hagar s mind by earnest inquiries and kindly beseechings. But, as one in a daze, Hagar would only rouse from her reveries and moan: "My son, give me back my son, my little babe!" So Esther read the documents alone. The proof was plain. She was in her rightful place at Stanley Hall, for she was Esther Stanley. But she resolved, through the love she bore for him she had known as Arthur Stanley, that she would take the secret to the grave. She would spare Arthur the shame she knew his proud spirit would feel. What to her was place and position here in Fairfax among a proud people who, so far as their women folk were concerned, had ostra cized and ignored her? Yet when we are young we have our hopes and dreams. Esther s hope and dream was the return of Arthur, the sharing of the secret with him, and his love. Then all would be well. So it was that Esther was not wholly surprised when Blair Stanley s mother called at Stanley Hall and Old Foes with New Faces 159 strangely proffered her friendship and assistance, even though there were no confidences exchanged between them. Esther suspected that Blair s mother vaguely knew, but in her loneliness, and having no friend save the humble though devoted Quabba, Esther was glad to accept the proffered friendship of her kinswoman, though neither spoke of the tie. Mrs. Stanley suggested that Hagar be taken to Rich mond for treatment for her mental affliction. She also insisted that Esther should go to Richmond and be chaperoned there the while by Mrs. Burton Randolph. It may have been that Mrs. Burton Randolph stood in fear of Mrs. Lamar Stanley, fear that was aug mented in the fact that Blair s mother knew the true character of Vivian Marston, whom Mrs. Randolph had flaunted in the faces of Richmond society as one of New York s Four Hundred. It may have been also that the sweet nature and beauty of Esther and her air of gentle breeding ap pealed to Mrs. Randolph more than her fear of Blair s mother. It had always been Mrs. Randolph s pet di version to have a protegee. It was a distinct relief to have as such an unsophisticated young girl like Esther, after her recent association with the worldly-wise Viv ian Marston. At any event, Mrs. Randolph made Esther a welcome guest, and assisted Blair s mother in securing the leading alienist of Richmond to treat Hagar for her mental infirmity. Quabba had been left behind at Stanley Hall, but Quabba suspicioned that Blair s mother was an old foe with a new face of friendship. As always, he resolved to guard Esther with his ever eager, though humble, 160 The Diamond from the Sky efforts, and Esther and Hagar with Mrs. Stanley were not long in Richmond before the faithful Quabba fol lowed. Mrs. Randolph had suggested to Blair s mother, when she found Mrs. Stanley desired her son s return, to consult with that detective Tom Blake in settling the many claims and debts that were held against the reckless Blair in Richmond. Blake effected a conference between Blair s mother and Abe Bloom, the gambling house keeper, who held the bad check for two thousand dollars he had cashed for Blair, and who was the most pressing claimant against him. At this conference, although the accusation was not made, Mrs. Stanley soon surmised that Blake and Bloom knew of Blair s guilt of the murder of Doctor Lee. It was from Blake and Bloom, through the agency of the inky thumb print on the bad check, that the guilt had been established, his mother soon inferred. She also surmised that it was from this source Hagar had obtained her proofs. In her present condition Hagar was oblivious of such matters now. The only two, then, in all the world who knew were the detective and the gambling-house keeper. It was not necessary to enter into any detailed ar rangements. Mr. Bloom was sententious and explicit. "You make good this unpaid check of your son s," he said, "and me and Blake won t say nothing or cause your son any trouble. But there s one thing else. I ve got to have this big stone what you aristocrats of Fair fax County call The Diamond from the Sky. My brother advanced money on it, and even if he hadn t, Old Foes with New Faces 161 that s my price for keeping my mouth shut/ he added. "And I ll see that Blake here says nothing, neither." "But The Diamond from the Sky has disappeared. We don t know where it is," said Mrs. Stanley coldly, though in her heart she raged at the presumption of the grasping gambler. "It ll turn up, them big stones always do, but that s my price!" retorted Mr. Abe Bloom. "If it ever turns up in other hands you Stanleys can replevin it. No one can dispute your title to it. There ain t another one like it in the world. But when you Stanleys get it, it comes to me! That s understood and agreed, eh, Blake?" There was a strange gleam in the keen eyes of the detective, but he nodded his head and answered quietly: "Yes, that s understood and agreed." Reaching Richmond, it had been no trouble for Quabba, at his old occupation of organ grinder, to find the house of Mrs. Burton Randolph where he knew Esther was stopping in Richmond. He had just reached the house, and had just been ordered to move on by a passing policeman, who evi dently feared the hunchback might disturb the aristo cratic languor of so restricted a neighborhood by his vulgar organ tunes, when a taxicab drove up and Blake and Bloom alighted from it and entered the Ran dolph residence. This visitation was such a surprise to the policeman that he readily vouchsafed the in formation as to who these individuals were, when Quabba inquired. "Them?" said the policeman, "them s two of the wisest guys in Richmond, Tom Blake, who runs the 162 The Diamond from the Sky Blake Detective Agency, and Abe Bloom, the biggest gambler in this burg. I wonder what they are doing calling on this grand dame, Mrs. Burton Randolph. Maybe Abe Bloom and Tom Blake are going into society!" Then ordering Quabba to move on again, he moved on himself. Quabba with his monkey and organ moved on, but only to the side of the house. A detective and a gambling house keeper! These were strange visitors indeed, and suspecting the mo tives of Mrs. Stanley s sudden patronage of Esther as he did, Quabba squatted close by the low window of the reception room and listened. He overheard enough to realize that Blair Stanley s return was being ar ranged, and he knew this boded no good to his fair young mistress. After the detective and gambler had departed, Quabba sent his ambassador and collector of external revenue, Clarence, the monkey, up the wistaria vines to the upper chamber which he surmised might be Esther s. He was right in his surmise. Esther, who like Mrs. Randolph, had withdrawn when visitors on private business had been announced for Mrs. Stanley, was in her room. The chattering of the monkey on her window sill roused Esther from a reverie of Arthur, and with a glad cry she ran to the window and hugged the affectionate little beast and waved a welcome to the smiling Quabba below. Then Quabba laid his finger to his lips as a sign of secrecy, yanked the string to recall his ambas sador, and departed. Old Foes with New Faces 163 Beside the track in the glaring California desert, Arthur Stanley lay stunned. His horse, as all horses he handled, loved him, roused him by nosing at him. Arthur, dazed and aching, mounted his affectionate four-footed friend and again galloped after the train. At the very top of the grade, the ambushed robbers halted the express, with an obstruction on the track too great to be risked by the engineer endeavoring to pass through it. When Arthur arrived upon the scene, two robbers were in the express car and two were going through the Pullmans. Another had compelled the fireman to uncouple the locomotive and covering the engineer had made him drive the detached machine up the track some distance from the standing train. Scarce knowing what he did, Arthur galloped by and mounting the engine at the end of the tender from his horse s back, grappled with the lone robber covering the engineer. A desperate struggle followed by the furnace door. Seizing a large wrench, the engineer aimed a blow at the robber struggling with Arthur but the blow missed foe and hit friend, and Arthur was stretched senseless on the firing board. The robber with a curse jumped from the engine and ran, rejoining his companions. In one of the Pullmans, Vivian Marston, now Mrs. Blair Stanley, was among those held up at pistol s point. An envious woman passenger to whom Vivian had shown the great diamond in the antique locket, had betrayed the fact she possessed it. Despite her pleadings, cajolements and even curses, curses that were chorused by the wildly enraged Blair, the chuck ling robbers bore off the great gem with their other 164 The Diamond from the Sky booty. Laden with a sack of valuables and taking also a hundred thousand dollars in banknotes from the express messenger, the robbers decamped. Within a few hours a California sheriff and his posse of deputies and railroad detectives were hot on their trail, and "John Powell," sheep herder, after being lionized a few brief moments, was back at his lonely occupation. Vivian, despoiled of the jewel for which she would have risked her soul, reproached herself and her raging bridegroom that they did not die gloriously in defend ing it. In her bitter anger Vivian taunts Blair by telling him she only married him to gain "The Dia mond from the Sky," and now that it is gone he must regain it, or see her no more. In vain he protests. She threatens to give him over to the police and deserts him in Los Angeles and wires to Abe Bloom in Rich mond telling of the loss of the diamond and asking for funds. The deserted and raging Blair pawns what pos sessions the train robbers have left him and under his assumed name of Peyton, hides in a mean hotel after writing to his Richmond relative, Mrs. Burton Ran dolph, to intercede for him with his mother, with the result we have seen. Far off in the desert fastnesses the pursuit of the posse after the train robbers is hotly on. A shot and the rearmost saddle of the fleeing outlaws is empty; but as the outlaw falls, "The Diamond from the Sky" that he has clawed out from the sack of valuables gathered in the Pullman, flies from his now nerveless hand and lies glittering but unnoticed by a clump of cacti, as the posse thunders by. Old Foes with New Faces 165 Another shot goes home, and the foremost outlaw falls. Another shot and his riderless horse drops dead in its tracks. As this horse falls the treasure sack from the express car, stuffed with banknotes, falls half under the dying animal. The bulk of its prostrate body masks the treasure sack, conceals it from view of the posse that gallops almost over the dead horse s hoofs as the pursuit of the three surviving desperadoes goes on. And so they go, pursuers and pursued, on and out of our story. For what recks it if there is killing or capture or escape, when the desert holds treasure in the shape of a fortune in cash and the diamond of the Stanleys? A month later, John Powell, sheepherder, is sent to the desert to find a strayed flock. Beneath the skeleton of a buzzards feast a dead horse he finds the stolen money. In a frenzy of delight, he remembers Monte Cristo, which as the wild young master of Stanley Hall he had read with greedy eagerness. And so, like Ed- mond Dantes, he stands erect and cries in the burning desert waste: "The World Is Mine!" "The Diamond from the Sky" is lying near; it gleams in the sun on the desert sand among rattle snakes and cacti, but John Powell, blinded with the treasure that he grasps from the bones of a mouldering horse, sees it not. And there it lies! CHAPTER XI OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY ALTHOUGH raging at Vivian s cool dismissal of him, after admitting she had only married him to gain possession of the diamond, Blair was not wholly pleased at receiving money from his mother in Richmond and word that he might return. He had half a mind not to go back, but he felt sure that there was small hope of getting trace of the diamond now that it had fallen into the clutches of the train robbers. "But if Vivian gets it," he thought "and she will get it if she hears of it such a gem will make its pres ence known she must then send for me, for only as my wife can she hope to have any claim on the Stanley heirloom. And if she will not have me with out the diamond, she will have to have me with it!" So Blair Stanley paid his bill at the second-rate Los Angeles hotel and with his valise in hand proceeded to the depot to take the train back East. He wondered morosely as he wended his way if anything had been heard in Richmond or Fairfax of the missing Arthur Stanley. These thoughts roused remembrance of Arthur s quixotic actions, fleeing, as a fugitive accused of a crime, to save another. And Blair smiled grimly at the thought that he was the other. 166 Over the Hills and Far Away 167 "I would like to see myself be such a fool!" was Blair s inward comment. He had always hated his debonaire alleged cousin, although he had always disguised it, but now his hatred for the fugitive was mingled with contempt. The hotel at which Blair had been stopping was near the depot, and he was musing ironically in this wise and proceeding leisurely toward the station when he was aware that he was being followed by a hulking panhandler. He turned and faced the fellow. It was Luke Lovell, a gipsy that Blair had seen sev eral times in and around Fairfax. The gipsy regarded him eagerly and touched his hat. "It s a surprise to meet you here, Mr. Stanley," said the fellow. "I am out seeing the world, I am not a gipsy any more." "No, you re a tramp now," replied Blair contemptu ously. "I ll admit I have tramped," returned Lovell not at all abashed. "But I have tramped to some good pur pose. I have tramped a couple of thousand miles, believing all the time what has now come true that I would meet you ; and now that I meet you, I can tell you I know something you d give a good many thou sand dollars to hear because it would be worth money, and more than money to you if you knew it!" Blair regarded the gipsy tramp with a sneer. "It is funny," he said, "you gipsies can tell everybody s for tune but your own!" "Gipsies sometimes tell their own fortunes, too," retorted Lovell. Then a sudden idea seized him. "What a fool I am to tramp two thousand miles to 168 The Diamond from the Sky tell you what I know ! " he cried. "Why, if I told you, you d take advantage of it, but you d never give me a cent. The secret I have is one that I will be paid to keep and not to tell!" And laughing sardonically at Blair s amazement and at his own new-found wisdom, the gipsy turned upon his heel and swaggered away. "It s queer what booze will do to them," thought the cynical Blair. "It s a wonder he didn t try to borrow a dollar from me; I believe that s the price the gipsies ask to tell a man s fortune. They tell women s for tunes cheaper." And he shrugged his shoulders and forgot the incident in bitterly musing over Vivian s desertion of him and wondering how his mother would treat him in Richmond. But while her erstwhile husband is gloomily jour neying toward Richmond, the vivacious Vivian, in stalled luxuriously at the best hotel, awaits a reply to her telegram to Mr. Abraham Bloom that she is in Los Angeles, and, having deserted Blair Stanley, hopes to find some trace of the diamond. Of course, she has telegraphed for funds to Mr. Bloom as well. In due time she receives an answering message. Mr. Bloom gallantly notifies her that he is telegraph ing her five hundred dollars and that he expects her to stay near where the train robbery was committed, and endeavor to gain word some way of the great jewel, now outlaw loot. In Richmond Mrs. Stanley still maintains her at titude of kindly interest in Esther, and Mrs. Ran dolph is more interested than ever to have a protegee of Esther s youth, beauty and distinction of appear- Over the Hills and Far Away 169 ance. So, while Hagar is placed in a sanitarium under the best of care, Esther feels that she has at last found friends in her loneliness, and she keeps up heart in the hope that her foster mother will be restored to reason and that Arthur will return and be cleared from the suspicion of guilt that attaches to him since his flight. But Esther little dreams that the habits of thought and the cold ambition of a lifetime are not easily changed. Blair Stanley s mother in her austere way has been kind to Esther, it is true, and the frivolous Mrs. Randolph is kind and also generous. But Mrs. Randolph is as wax in the hands of her calculating relative, and Esther but a factor of Blair s mother s secret purposes. The one real friend, then, that Esther has in Rich mond is Quabba. Both he and Esther have realized it will not do for the humble hunchback organ grinder to be seen in proximity to Mrs. Randolph s latest pro tegee "being introduced into the best circles of Rich mond," as that social light of the old Southern capital would have phrased it. But every day at a certain hour Quabba goes by the Randolph house up the quiet side street. He does not pause to play his vulgar tunes in such hallowed pre cincts. He slips quietly by, yet Esther is at the win dow of her room each day to see him pass, and they have arranged a signal should ever Esther need this humble, faithful friend. The signal is a vase of roses. When this is placed upon the window sill Quabba knows it is a sign that Esther needs him, and day by day he passes and is relieved to see that the signal is not displayed, and all is well. 170 The Diamond from the Sky Esther, for the sake of Arthur, has carefully hidden the documents that she found in Hagar s strong box. She has said no word to those around her that would indicate she deems herself to be other than the daughter of the mentally clouded gipsy woman, whom the surgeons of Richmond hope to restore to reason as soon as she is in condition to undergo the operation that will be necessary to effect this. Yet though she now well knows she is a Stanley, of Stanley Hall, this does not lessen her affection for the afflicted gipsy woman she has known as her mother. Esther does not even attempt to judge the motives that actuated Hagar Harding in revenge for having been deprived of her own child, who was reared as heir of Stanley, while she, Esther, the true Stanley, though a girl and heir to no great title beyond the sea, was brought up in the tawdry surroundings of a gipsy camp. But the thought that she is a Stanley, of Stanley Hall, though it be not known by others nor acknowl edged, brings a glow of pride and courage to Esther s heart and soul. She attributes Mrs. Stanley s sudden and substantial kindness to her to the fact that Mrs. Stanley has more than a suspicion of who she rightly is, yet ever she and Blair s mother tacitly ignore the mat ter, each waiting, perchance, for the other to approach the subject. Esther only knows that her love for Arthur is greater than her pride at being a Stanley, of Stanley Hall. She would rather arm her heart with patience and let events shape themselves as a happy fate may decree. Over the Hills and Far Away 171 Her dreams and hopes are all to one end, and that is that Arthur will return, all clouds of suspicion re moved, and take his place as heir to Stanley. She does not know how to reconcile this hope and dream with Mrs. Stanley s attitude. But at present Mrs. Stanley s attitude is kind and Esther waits, possessing her soul with patience. Meanwhile, in converse with Detective Blake, Law yer Smythe states his opinion of Yankees generally and the Yankee Stanleys in particular. "I can say conscientiously that I do not believe the climate of this country is conducive to a titled aris tocracy. Even the so-called landed gentry are a queer lot," says Lawyer Smythe. "When I was here nearly twenty years ago to verify the birth of the Yankee heir to the earldom, I was in danger of my life, I assure you, from wild beasts and the even wilder natives. I was not surprised to learn of how they ambushed each other with tar and feathers and all that sort of thing. I had hardly returned to England when I learned of Colonel Stanley s dropping dead and Judge Stanley s being shot or tomahawked in the mountains by natives whether relatives or savage redskins or a Blackamoor tribe nobody will ever know. "For my part," the lawyer had added, "I shall make one last effort to find the heir before I return to Eng land and look after the estates, and if this young Ar thur Stanley is caught and hanged for murdering Doc tor Lee, whom I remember as a rather decent old chap, why the next of kin, who is also a ticket-of-leave man or something of that sort, can come over and claim the earldom. 172 The Diamond from the Sky "As for this Diamond from the Sky/ so-called, I have seen it; but I believe it is all a hoax, so far as its being priceless. I believe it is nothing but a jolly old bit of glass, don t you know? I can t conceive why all you Yankees should be all so deucedly set on scalp ing each other and lynching each other and pistoling each other for it! "If I am annoyed much more, I shall jolly well re turn to England, and search the family archives at Stanley Castle, with the hope of establishing a blood line in England, who may get the House of Lords to acknowledge its claim to the earldom and cut out these bloodthirsty Yankee Stanleys and their blooming big diamond!" The taciturn Blake smiles at this outburst by Smythe, and then drops a few cautious words into the surprised ear of the English lawyer. The puz zled Smythe a slave to duty for all his protests buys a ticket for far California and prepares to journey there to seek a man named John Powell, who as Blake hints, may locate for the lawyer the fugitive heir of the Stanley earldom for Blake has but that day received a letter from the missing man so signed a letter in coherently asking for Blake s assistance and silence and begging for news of Hagar and Esther. When Blair returned to Richmond, his mother greeted him with remarkable cordiality, considering the conditions under which he had left both that city and Fairfax. Mr. Abe Bloom, the gambling-house keeper, and his brother, Ike Bloom, the pawnbroker, received him with a cold, businesslike indifference, which was rather strange when it was remembered Over the Hills and Far Away 173 what they both had endured at the hands of Blair. But the Blooms were so obsessed with the desire to secure the Stanley diamond for their very own at any cost, that they had casually remarked they were glad to see him and to "let bygones be bygones." Yet Blair s mother spoke all her bitter mind when she informed him that the price of the silence of the two Mr. Blooms and the detective was that the dia mond must be relinquished to the Blooms if it ever came into the possession, legally or otherwise, of Blair or his mother. Neither Blair nor his mother understood the atti tude, in all this, of Blake, the detective. He appeared to have no scruples one way or the other, but kept his own counsel and worked diligently and silently for his clients and them alone. It did not seem to occur to the detective, at least he gave no sign that it did, that he was compounding a felony in suppressing the evi dence he had secured which undoubtedly fastened the guilt of Doctor Lee s murder on Blair. As regards Vivian, Mrs. Stanley dismissed her from the matter by simply stating to Blair that Mr. Abe Bloom had informed her that the vivacious individual in question had one, if not several, husbands, prior to her marriage to Blair. "The minister who married you to that creature has moved away from Richmond," said Blair s mother, in discussing this distasteful subject to Blair. "There are reasons not necessary to entrust to you that make it desirable you should marry Esther Harding," Mrs. Stanley had added. And Blair looked upon Esther and saw that she 174 The Diamond from the Sky was fair, and while his infatuation for Vivian was still strong, his unscrupulous mind dwelt with pleasure upon the thought that if he married Esther the fact might rouse the jealousy of Vivian. If Vivian were a married woman, married other than to him, what would it matter if he married Esther? It might bring Vivian to terms as nothing else would. And, com forting himself with this perverted philosophy, Blair paid court to Esther. Such were the threads in the web of destiny that were being woven around Esther in Richmond threads at the ends of which sat Abe Bloom and Blair and his mother weaving like spiders and yet with dif ferent purposes in view. Abe Bloom wove for the Stanley diamond. In far Los Angeles his agent, the luxurious Vivian Marston, wove also for the diamond but for herself. Perhaps Mr. Bloom surmised this, but if so he deemed he had the means that held his agent at his mercy. Mrs. Stanley wove her web for some deep purpose of her own, deeper now than it ever had been. If she suspicioned Arthur s claims to the Stanley heritages the Earldom in England and the great diamond so strangely missing, in America were null and void, she said no word, but wove her part of the web in grim purposeful silence. Blair thought only of his own desires, and so he wove also. As for Detective Tom Blake, he helped the weaving, too, but whether he wove for Bloom or for Blair or for Blair s mother or for himself, only Tom Blake knew and he did not deem the time propitious to tell. Over the Hills and Far Away 175 In the far West, a sheepherder who called himself John Powell had found an outlaws stolen plunder un der the skeleton of a horse in the desert. Few who knew Arthur Stanley, the reckless young master of Stanley Hall, would have recognized in this bronzed and shabby sheepherder the dashing scapegrace who had fled under the onus of suspicion of murder. But when John Powell thought of himself as Arthur Stanley, his cheeks burned with shame at the recol lection of all the years he had squandered a heritage not his. He was a gipsy changeling and impostor. Back in Fairfax, let them think him a fugitive mur derer, if they chose. He would bide his time and re turn a rich man, stand his trial and, without impli cating Blair, be cleared. He felt an added shame as he thought of Blair. Bad as Blair was, he, John Powell, Arthur Stanley that had been, had usurped his place. Blair was the rightful heir of Stanley. He, as John Powell, would make name and fortune for him self, and Blair, all in good time, might have the Stan ley earldom and "The Diamond from the Sky"! For the thoughts and the impulses of Arthur s wild na ture were generous. And then his thoughts would turn to Esther and Hagar. In his constant reflections in the solitudes of the great sheep ranges, his heart softened as he thought of Hagar. She had wrought bitterness and woe; yet his heart yearned toward her, for now he realized how she had partaken of the sacrament of sacrifice and suffering through many bitter years. As John Powell, finder of the treasure trove, he carefully laid out his plans. He hid the outlaw loot 176 The Diamond from the Sky beneath some sheltering rocks in the desert. He first took but five hundred dollars of the money and he bided his time in patience until the hue and cry after such of the train robbers, as had escaped, had died down. He resolved he would relinquish his employ ment as an ill-paid sheepherder in the next month and take the stolen treasure with him and make it the capital on which to found a great fortune here in the bustling West. He salved his conscience with the thought that when he had built up John Powell s vast fortune, he would return the stolen money to the ex press company anonymously. Meanwhile, searching now for Arthur Stanley, Luke Lovell journeys again. He cannot travel as fortunates with money travel. Luke Lovell returns by freight. But in the desert the trainmen throw him from his place on the bumpers and mock him as, bruised and sore, he rises in the desert dust to curse them as the freight train bears them on. Down the endless miles of railroad track across the dusty desert he staggers. Blinded by the sun, choking and burning with thirst, and half delirious, he stumbles from the track and makes his way, fe vered with delirium, across the endless desert. Then by a low-growing mass of cacti something gleams before his aching eyes, gleams and dazzles him. Is it a vagary of his thirst madness, or is it again "The Diamond from the Sky," a fortune within his grasp? He lurches forward and snatches up the diamond from where the train robber in his death agony had cast it. But just as Luke s grimy hand closes upon the great Over the Hills and Far Away 177 jewel, a brown lance strikes him. In the ringing of the fever in his brain he has not heard the warning rattle of Death guarding the diamond. But even in his delirium Luke Lovell knows now the thrust of the brown lance. A rattlesnake has bitten him ! With a hoarse scream of despair he convulsively throws up his hands. The diamond flies from his nerveless grasp and settles again in the dust of the desert twenty feet away, and Luke Lovell pitches for ward on his face in his agony, giving himself up as dead. So, half-unconscious, John Powell, sheepherder, finds him, and so John Powell bears him to his lonely camp fire and succors and restores him. Lovell is able to moan his plight. Fortunately the sheepherder has both whiskey and water. He doses the half-uncon scious Luke, and, whether the whiskey or whether the sturdy constitution of the gipsy is to be credited, Luke is brought back from the jaws of death. It is a strange fate, the gipsy thinks, when he can think coherently, that it has been his recent destiny to meet both the real and the usurping heir of Stan ley and to clutch again the priceless Stanley heir loom, "The Diamond from the Sky." He laughs sar donically as he tells Arthur that just a few days since he has met up with Blair in Los Angeles. "I don t know what he had run away from Vir ginia for," growled Luke, "but whatever it was, it has been squared; for I found out he was going back to Richmond. But now that you have saved my life in this God-forsaken desert, I ll do you a favor a big favor. I know something that the other Stanleys 178 The Diamond from the Sky would trade all they have to know. What will you give me if I don t tell them what I know? You didn t kill that old doctor and I know who you really are. What will you give me to keep my mouth shut?" John Powell, once Arthur Stanley, regards the wretch, who thus requites him, with cold scorn. He knows what Luke would tell him. But just at this tune he desires the silence of the treacherous and un grateful gipsy. "I have five hundred dollars," is his reply. "I never desire to be known again as Arthur Stanley. But I have reasons why I do not wish the secret you seem to possess to be spread broadcast. You are all right now, take this money and go to the devil with it! But whether I killed Doctor Lee or not, I will kill you if you ever say one word of what you know or think you know! One thing more, who told you?" "Hagar Harding," lied Luke Lovell glibly. Then, seeing an incredulous look in the other s eyes, he added surlily: "Hagar s gone daffy, that s why she told me. But she don t talk to anybody now, and I know she didn t tell anybody else. They would only think she was raving if she did. Mrs. Stanley has taken her to Richmond to an asylum. Mrs. Stanley has Esther with her. They are at Mrs. Randolph s, where the ball was," added Luke. John Powell sighed to hear this of his mother but all is well with Esther, at least, he thinks for he has not yet heard from Blake. He does not question Lovell further, realizing if Lovell knew anything con cerning Esther, the gipsy would have blurted it out. And so Luke Lovell, gipsy blackmailer, and John Over the Hills and Far Away 179 Powell, sheepherder, part. But as the gipsy goes across the desert to the nearest town and railroad station, he searches, ever searches for "The Diamond from the Sky." He has not told John Powell of the diamond; even now he half believes that it has been but a fig ment of his thirst-maddened, heat-crazed brain. Some miles distant across the arid plain travels a desert Indian family. They have two horses. One the buck rides at his ease, and the other drags a tra- vois the two rude poles fastened to the horse and the ends of which drag across the desert. Lashed to the poles are the Indian s goods and chattels. Beside the travois trudges the squaw. On her back her papoose sleeps, strapped to its board, in the sun. Across the desert the travois scratches its way. The eyes of the squaw fall upon the fresh tracks that it makes. A little spray of the desert sand it scatters, sprinkles over something that glistens brightly in the sun. The squaw stoops down and gathers up "The Diamond from the Sky," and wakes her papoose to shake the new-found gleaming plaything before his beady eyes! So the days pass in Virginia and California alike. John Powell ceases to be a sheepherder and, taking with him nearly a hundred thousand dollars in his battered old valise, unknown to any man, he bids good bye to his friends at the sheep ranch. Pausing only in Los Angeles to buy a becoming outfit of business clothes, he goes to the adjacent oil fields to, as he says to himself grimly, buy himself rich! He writes to Esther guardedly and without signature from Los Angeles. The letter reaches Esther, thanks 180 The Diamond from the Sky to Mrs. Randolph s maid who gives it to her, inform ing her that Mrs. Stanley has issued orders that if any mail should come to Esther it should be delivered to Mrs. Stanley first. Esther has other sorrows now, sorrows in plenty. The persecutions of Blair Stanley have become intol erable; and when Esther has gone, first to ask aid and later to protest defiantly to Blair s mother, Mrs. Stan ley has taunted her with the cruel and surprising re tort that she, Esther, is a beggar on the bounty of the mother of the man who honors her with an offer of marriage! Further, Mrs. Stanley icily reminds Esther that since Hagar has lost her reason, no trace of the sup posed wealth of the gipsy woman can be found. The operation necessary to restore Hagar s mind will cost a thousand dollars. If Esther accepts Blair, Mrs. Stan ley informs her, this money will be forthcoming and the operation will be performed. It is on the point of Esther s tongue to speak and declare herself for what she is, the legitimate daugh ter of the late Colonel Stanley and the heir at least to the depleted estate of Stanley Hall. But she counsels herself to the wisdom of silence. For Ar thur Stanley s sake though in truth he is not Arthur Stanley but Hagar Harding s son Esther keeps silent concerning what she knows of her true status and the written proofs in her dead father s handwriting that she has securely hidden. At their final discussion of Blair s conduct, Esther bowed coldly to Blair s mother and walked away with head erect, compressing her lips Over the Hills and Far Away 181 lest she might blurt out the whole truth in defence and defiance. Safe in her room she impulsively resolves to seek out Arthur and tell him all. She takes the vase of roses and places them on the window sill. That night Quabba waits, shaded from the moon by the wistaria vine, at the side of the Randolph man sion. That night a girlish figure clambers resolutely from the window and down the vines, and Esther Stanley is gone with a hunchback organ grinder. Seeking the one she loves with all her devoted heart over the hills and far away! CHAPTER XII TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER IT was perhaps vanity, and a natural one, that in spired Arthur s resolve to return to Virginia rich in his own right and clear himself of all suspicion, yet sparing Blair from the consequences of being responsible for the death of Doctor Lee. For Blair had assured him this had been the effect of sudden excite ment on an old man s weakened heart, when Blah* had questioned Doctor Lee s possession of the Stanley heirloom. But Arthur s first thought was to employ a portion of the robber plunder to aid Esther and his gipsy mother; then he will save Stanley Hall, the proud old place his prodigality has imperilled. Already he is arranging to employ as his trusted agent in these matters the taciturn Tom Blake, the Richmond detective. Arthur had vividly recalled how at a look from Hagar, Blake had deftly aided him in escaping from the sheriff of Fairfax and the police of Richmond in the exciting encounter at Mrs. Ran dolph s ball. If Blake had his mother s confidence he must be worthy of all trust. Upon reaching Los Angeles with the outlaw loot, the first thing Arthur had done, then, was to wire the 182 To the Highest Bidder 183 Richmond detective in a guarded message. He re ceived a reply in a few hours, which read: "Know you are all right. Will act for you in confidence. Trast me fully." Then it was that Arthur wired ample funds with instructions to Blake to guarantee secretly all ex penses for Hagar s treatment at the sanitarium, ir respective of what Mrs. Stanley might do. From Blake meanwhile he had learned confirmation of Luke Lovell s news, that Esther was seemingly in good hands with Mrs. Stanley at Mrs. Randolph s mansion in Richmond, and from the same source he learned that Stanley Hall, in the due course of the bankruptcy proceedings against the missing Arthur Stanley, was to be sold to the highest bidder. He could save Stanley Hall from strangers, and aid Esther and his gipsy mother, both penniless and on the bounty of strangers; for Hagar in her mental infirmity from the blow that none knew Blair had dealt her, had no means of telling where her supposed wealth was hidden. An awakening to higher ideafs had come to Arthur, and many of his reflections were bitter ones. His use of the stolen plunder even temporarily, was not the honest thing to do, he knew. Yet he hoped good might come out of evil, and resolved to make every effort to found his own fortune and refund with in terest the outlaw loot, as well as Esther s heritage which he had dissipated. While Arthur planned and hoped, Esther s prayers were ever of him. The impulses of her fair young 184 The Diamond from the Sky womanhood were more than generous, they were lov ing and self-sacrificing. She knew she was rightful heir of Stanley Hall, and though by accident of sex, neither "The Diamond from the Sky" nor titled hon ors abroad could come to her, yet, for the sake of a gipsy and a gipsy s son she loved, she would keep silent. So, hi her flight with Quabba, Esther s impulses, loving and self-sacrificing, led her first to Hagar. Outside the sanitarium she handed Quabba the gipsy head-dress she had donned for her flight, and while the hunchback lurked at a distance, she rang the bell at the door of the sanitarium and had been ad mitted. "I am called suddenly from Richmond," Esther ex plained to the house surgeon. "You will pardon the lateness of my call, but I want to see my mother ere I leave the city." "Under ordinary circumstances, Miss Harding," said the house surgeon, "I could not let you see a patient at this hour. But I have good news for you. Your mother shows signs of improvement, and if you do not excite her it may do no harm to let you see her. I can also let out a hope, mind I do not promise this, that in time with rest and quiet she will completely recover; an operation may not be necessary." So kind was his manner, so cheering his words, that Esther could no longer restrain herself. She briefly told the surgeon that conditions were such she was compelled to remove herself from being under fur ther obligations to Mrs. Stanley and the latter s rela tive, the more kindly Mrs. Randolph. To the Highest Bidder 185 "I am going to seek a friend/ said Esther, "a friend who has every reason to assume responsibility for all charges the treatment of my mother incurs. I also pledge myself personally to this. Will you see, even if Mrs. Stanley withdraws her aid, that my mother is not taken from here, that she will continue to re ceive the benefit of the treatment, which will, as you believe and I truly hope, restore her reason?" The house-surgeon regarded Esther with a look of earnest sympathy. "Set your mind at ease, Miss Harding," he replied cordially. "An unknown friend, and I am not at lib erty to give even the name of the agent of this un known friend, has guaranteed all financial responsi bility for your mother s expenses and treatment here. I am authorized to return to Mrs. Stanley what she has paid out for your mother. Besides this, were it otherwise, the case is so interesting and has responded so well to treatment without operation, that we would be inclined to consider it worthy of our attention with out recompense." It was with a glad heart Esther received this cheer ing information and noted a gleam of recognition in those poor eyes of Hagar, eyes so long vacant and in expressive. "Yes, dear," Hagar had murmured, when Esther had folded her in her arms, "I know who you are, but I just cannot remember now. Maybe to-morrow I will remember. They took my boy away, they put a great jewel on his breast, I remember that. Then I remem ber you came and were my baby in his place. I will remember to-morrow. I am tired now, but kiss me, 186 The Diamond from the Sky dear child, for I see by your eyes you love me; yes, I will remember to-morrow who you are." "She will not remember to-morrow," whispered the kindly house surgeon, as he led the weeping Esther away. "It may be many months before she remem bers. Her recovery will be slow, but I feel that I can assure you that in the end it will be complete." It was with a hopeful heart and feeling resolute for her adventuring in search of Arthur, that Esther bid adieu to the kindly head of the sanitarium and rejoined Quabba, who with his own personal at tendant, Clarence, the monkey, waited for her in the shadows up the quiet street. So, trudging side by side, the girl and the hunchback, the latter carrying besides the monkey a small bundle of Esther s hastily packed belongings, took their way from city streets to country lanes, while on them gleamed the light of myriads of diamonds in the sky! In the sudden journey taken to Richmond and in the events that followed after Hagar had been placed in the sanitarium and Blair had returned to persecute her, Esther had taken no heed of the conditions that so vitally affected Stanley Hall. Hagar had leased it, but the property, ruined by Arthur s profligacy, was to be sold in bankruptcy proceedings without Esther being aware that this impended. The morning fol lowing her flight, however, Mrs. Stanley received from Fairfax a letter from the referee in bankruptcy in forming her, as a party concerned, of the scheduled sale of Stanley Hall within a few days. Lawyer Smythe, representing the English Stanleys, also received a like notice as he was on the point To the Highest Bidder 187 of departing for the West, disgusted with America in general and the erratic Yankee Stanleys in particular. Smythe deemed his duty called him to the sale and he arranged to be there. Meanwhile, at the Randolph mansion Esther s flight was known. The maid reported that the room was in disorder, and that Esther was gone. Mrs. Ran dolph promptly had an attack of nerves while Blair raged and fumed. Mrs. Stanley alone remained cool in the face of this surprising news. "She has no friends and no money," said Mrs. Stan ley calmly, "she will not go far. We will find her back here or with her gipsy friends before long, I dare say." "The next thing we must do," Mrs. Stanley had counselled Blair, "is to run down to Fairfax for this sale of Stanley Hall. I know of no one in Fairfax with the means or desire to purchase the place. If your father could have only lived to see the day he could have bought in the home of his enemy, at a bankrupt sale, he would have been a happy man. The place will go for a song and I shall buy it." When they arrived at Fairfax they beheld the whole countryside turned out at the auction sale of Stanley Hall. The elder aristocrats came to sigh over the van ishing glory of the old regime; but to the poor whites and the careless colored population it was a fete day and a free picnic. Dog fights and the presence of the eccentric English lawyer, Marmaduke Smythe, en livened the proceedings. As no purchaser of the whole had come forward, the auctioneer was prepared to sell the historic and proud 188 The Diamond from the Sky old place and all the fine, old furnishings it con tained, in separate lots. Pictures, ornaments, rugs had been brought out upon the broad piazza to make the auctioneer s work the easier. Among all these furnishings and chattels, nothing so took the eye of Smythe as a fine mounted deer head that he was informed had been at Stanley Hall for over a century. In fact none knew how old it was. To the lawyer, soon to return to insular England from what he deemed the wilds of America, nothing appealed so much as this. He resolved to purchase the deer head and take it to England as a trophy of good hunting in "the jungles of Virginia." At his request it was put up as first thing to be sold, and he bought it. The jokes and mockery of the crowd nettled the eccentric lawyer beyond endurance, and so, taking his purchase, he mounted his horse and awkwardly bore it away. He had hardly gone when Detective Blake arrived, having driven over from the Fairfax depot, followed in another station carriage by Blair Stanley and his mother and the agitated Mrs. Randolph. Blake asked that the house and the furnishings be offered as a whole, and tendered an opening bid of two thousand dollars. Mrs. Stanley drew her thin lips together and Blair nervously lashed himself to a suppressed and mur derous anger. The Stanleys had not expected competi tive bidding. Blake admitted acting for an unnamed client. Neither Blair nor his mother dared openly affront To the Highest Bidder 189 the interloper, as they deemed him. But they bid desperately to the limit of their resources only to see Stanley Hall and all its furnishings, save the deer head already purchased by the English lawyer, go for twenty thousand dollars to Thomas Blake, the im perturbable agent of the unknown highest bidder. They dared not vent their cold anger upon the smil ing and inscrutable Blake, but Mrs. Stanley turned with a torrent of bitter, contemptuous jibes upon poor Mrs. Randolph, who happened to remark that her poor nerves were shattered and that she wanted to faint. In consequence, Blair and his mother went to their house in Fairfax and did not return with Mrs. Randolph to Richmond. Esther reached the gipsy rendezvous worn and ex hausted, not knowing of the sale of Stanley Hall. The gipsies received her with wild delight, but she only stayed with these sincere though humble friends long enough to make another unavailing search for Hagar s missing hoard. Meanwhile, what of "The Diamond from the Sky"? It gleams upon the breast of a papoose nursed by its stolid mother, i i the glare of the California sun shine, outside an adobe hut. Luke Lovell, it is fated, is to see and gain it again. He has taken up with associates as bad as himself, and has become a "bootlegger" or illicit whiskey ped dler. So it is, with a companion of his own ilk, he passes by the desert Indian s hut and sees the diamond the squaw has found, gleaming in the sunshine, a papoose s playthh g. It is only a bit of glass and tinsel in the mind of the sodden, drink-craving Indian 190 The Diamond from the Sky father; and so, despite the angry protests of the squaw, the glistening ornament is bartered for the vile whiskey of the eager white man. And so the heirloom of the Stanleys moves on again. Santa Barbara on the sea coast, resort for rich tour ists, is not far away, and thither Luke Lovell and his crony bear it, seeking a purchaser able to buy this gem of price. With Arthur Stanley that was, who is John Powell now, how fares it? How have his fortunes, fortunes to be founded on stolen means, prospered? Not well. Arthur has fallen into the hands of oil sharks, and has invested all he has left of the outlaw plunder in The Good Hope Wells. The Good Hope Wells have been a joke of these oil fields. But who is to warn a guileless, young investor? John Powell has played with high stakes in a crooked game and has lost. His men, who laughed at him behind his back for his simplicity, now feel pity for him. Jack Wilson, his foreman, seeks his despair ing young employer and finds him in the shanty that is the office of the Good Hope Wells. "I am sorry, boss," says Jack, "but I ll tell you some thing. There is oil in the Good Hope. We ve struck every indication. If you only had money to drill deeper, the oil is there. That money you sent East would save you!" "It s too late now, Jack, that money saved some thing more to me than these wells." To the Highest Bidder 191 "I m from Pennsylvania," says Wilson. "I believe if we torpedoed our well, as is done in Pennsylvania, we d start the oil. I know it ruins a California well, if they torpedo and the oil doesn t start, and already the shysters are coming to take the property away from you because we haven t yet struck oil, and the last payment is due. So let s do something desperate, boss, let s torpedo the Good Hope Well!" John Powell is desperate and he agrees. The man of law representing the unpaid owners, hears of the plan and arrives with an injunction. But the des perate John Powell defies law, as, when he was known as Arthur Stanley, he defied all order. The lawyer is held back waving the "scrap of paper," the injunction. The nitro-glycerine-charged torpedo is lowered to the bottom of the well, the heavy iron detonator is dropped, and all run for their lives. A throb shakes the earth and the derrick rocks. Then arises a geyser of mud and a spuming fountain of roaring oil and gas! The big Good Hope Well has come in a gusher. John Powell is a millionaire. No such gusher had ever been known in those fields as the long dry and long despised Good Hope became, no oil millionaire secured his millions more quickly than popular, young John Powell did, in consequence. His associates give him "the swellest banquet with cabaret trimmings," that Los Angeles leading and gayest restaurant had ever known. Vivian Marston dines with an elderly admirer at this same restaurant the night of the banquet and, as John Powell s associates toast and praise him for the 192 The Diamond from the Sky pluck and resolution that snatched victory from de feat, Vivian s dark eyes are ever on the young and handsome oil magnate. Her elderly admirer test ily endures the pangs of jealousy. But it is not love or sudden infatuation that draws the dark eyes of Vivian Marston to the young millionaire at the head of his festal board. Vivian remembers where and how she has seen this lauded young favorite of for tune before! John Powell s secretary enters deferentially with a telegram, when the banquet is at its height. It is a telegram that has come to the offices of the Good Hope Oil Company, and the secretary, believing it impor tant, brings it to the feast. Arthur opens it and reads: Esther Harding departed parts unknown. Hagar Hard ing better. Bought in Stanley Hall for twenty thousand dollars you sent. Will keep everything quiet. (Signed) BLAKE. Esther departed for parts unknown ! Arthur crushes the telegram in his nervous grasp. Mechanically he hears the friends that honor "John Powell" chant jovially: "For he s a jolly good fellow!" As one half dazed till the end of the feast, he rises and departs with his happy, felicitating associates, and he is scarcely aware of the dark eyes of a luxurious woman directed searchingly upon him. He bows as he passes, but he has no recollection of who this bold and beautiful woman who smiles at him may be. To the Highest Bidder 193 Walled by the green high hills and the gray and higher mountains at its back, beautiful Santa Bar bara slopes down to the sea. The fronds of stately palms wave in the mild evening air. The vivid scarlet of the flowers and the emerald green of fair lawns beautify the scene below. Fair as the gardens of the Lord seems the scene to the desert-burned eyes of Luke Lovell and his fellow bootlegger, as they stand upon the hill near the old Mission and gaze upon a panorama as of paradise below them. Far off at anchor on the sapphire waters of the bay, a great white yacht rides like a swan upon the tide. "A guy rich enough to own a skiff like that can afford to buy the diamond from us," growls Luke Lovell. And in the oncoming dusk they plod down the hill. That night they untie a rowboat at the water s edge and Luke Lovell pulls upon the oars to bear them out to a purchaser for the great jewel that they bring. But the evil men do who fall beneath this diamond s baleful spell is not yet at end. Luke s companion rises stealthily behind him and strikes him down. There is a hoarse cry in the night, a death struggle on the water. The boat goes over, a drowning man gasps in agony and "The Diamond from the Sky" is sinking in the deep, cold waters of the bay! CHAPTER XIII THE MAN IN THE MASK UNDER the moon and with the boom of the surf falling dully on his ears, spent, panting, chilled to the bone, for here the cold Pacific has no tempering influence of a Gulf Stream, Luke Lovell drew his dripping, heaving bulk up on the sand and for a few anguished, aching moments felt all the qualms of death, ere yet comes the dulling peacefulness of dissolution. Vaguely he heard the ringing of death bells in his ears. Vaguely above the painful spasms of a breast that seemingly was bursting in the agony that at tends him who approaches death and returns again, Luke Lovell heard far off the shouts of men and the reverberations of hurried footsteps along the wooden causeway of the dock. For a few brief moments of anguish, torture and fatigue, the reckless gipsy crawling up from the sea is spurred on subconsciously, not by desire to live, but by the instinct of self-preservation alone, caring little in the dull functions of his mind whether he lives or dies. But with returning breath and life comes fear. Lov ell knew that in the murk waters beneath the moon a brine-strangled corpse weaved with the tide. What 194 The Man in the Mask 195 answer had he to give regarding this dead accom plice? There had been a struggle in the boat, a death combat in the water, a cry across the night, a gurgling, hideous cry, and then silence. And now the shouting crowd upon the pier was searching with eager eyes across the waters for the living or the dead. And "The Diamond from the Sky"? For the first time a thought of it crossed Luke LovelTs benumbed brain. This thought woke him to a pulsing sense of life by the very anguished anger of the recollection that "The Diamond from the Sky" was now the diamond beneath the sea! Then the gipsy shook with an ague of superstitious apprehension more acute than the physical chill that agitated his aching frame. What curse, what strange influences were about this great gem? For years it had been the precious, quiescent pos session of the Stanleys of Stanley Hall, and now it moved like some evil living thing through the evil living hands that grasped for it. It seemed plain now to the terror-stricken mind of the half-drowned gipsy that no evil hand could hold this baleful gem. The Stanley charm against harm was assuredly a charm for harm, a very devil s fetish when in the hands of those who coveted it without right of posses sion. Plainly, in hands alien and evil, "The Diamond from the Sky" would not abide! And with all the terror of the night upon him, Luke Lovell felt relieved that this talisman of woe to him lay darkling at the bottom of the bay. Rested now, he rose to his feet and staggered away in the darkness as he realized the pursuit was coming 196 The Diamond from the Sky in his direction. Let the diamond stay with the dead, let the living answer the enigma of the struggle and cries in the night upon the waters as best they might, Luke Lovell resolved on flight and distance between himself and the great jewel now cast into the deeps! Sunrise finds him far back in the mountains, and such is the influence of the great fear that has been upon him that, in the desperation of his acute if not chronic reformation, Luke Lovell asks for and secures work in the capacity of blacksmith s helper at a forge at the mountain mines. Now while he works and works well, for all gipsies are tinkers and smiths when they do or will work, let us see what has become of the others whose destinies are concerned with the diamond in the sea. John Powell, since striking oil, has become possessed of the touch of Midas. He prospers and waxes in riches and power and is intoxicated with his own suc cess. It is not that he has lost thought and hopes and affection for Esther but Esther is far away and he is young and the adulation that men render and women too is sweet to him. Already in the oil fields of California he is known as "The Golden Man." He dreams of empires, as Cecil Rhodes dreamed and realized in Africa. John Powell s money is not hoarded, his mind is upon mines, fruit farms, vast cattle ranches, manufacturing "plants, and all forms of financial and commercial activities, as well as oil. The quiet lanes of Virginia, the turmoils of his reck less youth that enlivened them, are also far away. Since he found the outlaws plunder in the desert and The Man in the Mask 197 made it the lever with which he moved poverty and hardship from his way, money has become to Arthur a mighty thing. Yet ever in the pleasure haunts he frequents the dark eyes of Vivian Marston are on him. But she keeps aloof and bides her time. Here at last is prey worth waiting for. She resolves to play the game boldly and well. She has need of helpful assistance; her thoughts turn again to Blair. She knows that for some strange reason, inexplicable to both Blair and herself, Arthur Stanley had sacrificed himself, borne even the onus of murder, confessed by flight, to save the guilty Blair. But why? She does not know, nor does she greatly care. She only knows that Arthur would not betray Blair and that Blair could not betray Arthur. She also knows that while Blair secretly hates his supposed cousin, Arthur has sacrificed himself for Blair; and now that Arthur, as John Powell, seems indeed a golden man, Vivian recalls all these things, and thinks it well to have Blair come out to the West as a willing and valuable accomplice in her designs to strip "The Golden Man" of all his gold. In Fairfax, Blair is surprised to receive a brief but amiable letter from Vivian. The letter read: Los Angeles, Sept. 4th. MY DEAR BOY: Am sorry we parted in anger about the diamond. Arthur Stanley, under the name of John Powell, has struck it rich in oil here. You better join me and let us forgive and for get. Lovingly, VIVIAN. 198 The Diamond from the Sky Blair crushed the note and wondered. In the pres ence of Vivian, Blair was as a man under a spell. Yet he remembers with bitterness her light and scorn ful dismissal of him. She had married him, given her self to him for "The Diamond from the Sky." He had risked his life for it and her. Yet when the train robbers had despoiled them of the great gem, she had thrown him aside and mocked him. And now she needed him and sent for him. Blair was young, full-blooded, evilly unscrupulous and passionate. The sweet and beautiful development of Esther s character and person, now that he was re lieved of the intoxicating presence of Vivian, had roused in Blair s breast a longing for Esther that he thought was love. Was it true as Abe Bloom had hinted, and Abe Bloom had known the lady of old, that Vivian Mar- ston possessed perhaps several husbands, and that her marriage, secret and hasty, to Blair in Richmond, was null and void? Blair s mother had taunted him with this, and had lightly dismissed the thoughts of Vivian and the marriage from her mind. It was Blair s mother also who constantly inspired him with thoughts of Esther. The very day the mes sage had come from Vivian to Blair, his mother had received a letter from Lawyer Hunter, in Fairfax, her legal adviser. In this letter, a letter in reply to some queries Mrs. Stanley had made, the lawyer had writ ten: DEAR MRS. STANLEY: In reply to your inquiry : "The Diamond from the Sky" is legally the property of any sole heir of the late Colonel The Man in the Mask 199 Stanley, whether a son or daughter, irrespective of family tradition regarding it and the Earldom of Stanley. Very truly, RALPH HUNTER, SB., Attorney-at-Law. Mrs. Stanley had shown this letter to Blair. "I will tell you my suspicions now," she remarked. "I have reasons to believe that this girl, Esther Hard ing, is the real and only heir to all that Colonel Stan ley died possessed of. We have no proof of this, but I believe the gipsy woman, Hagar Harding, possessed such proof, and the girl now has it. Whatever this proof is, it can be assumed that the girl carries it with her, especially now that she has disappeared. She would not be likely to leave so important a document in any hiding place. "We cannot move in the matter legally, for sus picions are not evidence," Mrs. Stanley went on. "Any law suit might mean the return of Arthur Stanley to tell the truth so far as he knows it, regarding the death of Doctor Lee. You would be implicated. That gam bler, Abe Bloom, and Detective Blake, evidently pos sess proofs of your guilt; for while the gipsy woman Hagar, who has been an imbecile since you struck her, had only photographs of your incriminating thumb prints, it is evident that Blake and the Blooms have the originals. The price of their silence is the diamond when it comes to light. "If this girl is the rightful heir of Stanley, the dia mond can be claimed by her, and if Arthur Stanley is an impostor, the Earldom in England is yours. Had Colonel Stanley not been so bitter in his feud with your father or your father not so bitter with him, 200 The Diamond from the Sky Colonel Stanley would have been too proud not to have accepted the family tradition and turned over the diamond to you as rightful heir, in case the child he expected was a girl. "We are bound to silence owing to your rash and reckless acts. We must make the most of the situation. If a stranger has bought Stanley Hall, the sale is not legal, and if this girl Esther is the real Stanley the estates must be restored to her. What will she care for the family traditions, if the diamond ever comes to light and she is able to prove, or desires to prove, her claim? Doubtless she is even now only keeping silent out of regard to Arthur Stanley. "There is one simple thing to do, Blair, you must marry this girl," Mrs. Stanley continued, while Blair listened in sullen silence. "Then you will have a clear claim to the title and you will also, as her husband, possess Stanley Hall and the diamond. No matter where the diamond may be, it must ultimately come to light. "You can then choose whether you will surrender it to the Blooms as the price of their silence as is now arranged, or buy them off from the wealth that comes to you in England from the Stanley Earldom." Blair was glib in his assent to his mother s plans and all she proposed regarding them and him. The reckless, desperate and unscrupulous ancestor, the first Arthur Stanley who had found the diamond in the fallen meteor three hundred years agone, had a worthy descendant in the equally reckless, desperate and unscrupulous Blair Stanley. Given two things to do, a right thing and a wrong The Man in the Mask 201 one, Blair Stanley would congenitally prefer the wrong, especially were a spice of danger and even lawless dis honor in it. In his relations with women, too, Blair Stanley had much in common with his intrepid and dissolute ancestor. It is to be doubted if Blair gave any thought of the great wrong he might do the gentle Esther in the fur therance of the cold ambitious schemes of his mother and his own impulsive lawless ones. He cared not a whit whether, if he should marry Esther, such an al liance would be bigamous and shameful, in case his marriage with Vivian should later prove legal and bind ing. To get Esther and to get the diamond by any course, as well as to secure the Stanley Earldom, appealed to Blair. The thought of Vivian fighting for her rights as the consort of an Earl appealed to Blair s cynical sense of humor. He was indeed a worthy scion of a line that traced itself from the desperate and unscrupu lous Sir Arthur Stanley, "The Fallen Star." With a meekness almost puritanical in its sleek hy pocrisy, he repeated to his mother that he would do everything that she desired. He prepared himself, at his mother s suggestion, to proceed from Fairfax to Richmond and make amends with their disgruntled relative and society leader, Mrs. Burton Randolph. Blair and his mother realized that Mrs. Randolph had developed a fondness for Esther, which Esther, motherless and alone in the world, had been quick to realize was unselfish and well intentioned. Hence, Mrs. Stanley had recognized they would need the aid of their amiable if silly kinswoman to locate Esther 202 The Diamond from the Sky and bring about her return, to consummate a marriage between Blair and Esther. At the gipsy rendezvous, all of Esther s search for the wealth that it had been supposed Hagar pos sessed, still proved fruitless. Wherever Hagar had hidden it before that sudden, murderous blow had de prived her of her reason, no one knew, and there was no clue to it. The generous Romanys of the tribe pressed their little hoards of money upon Esther, whom they ac knowledged their princess. But Esther refused to ac cept of this. The more canny and practical Quabba, however, took all tribute of this kind, unknown to Esther. He accepted it personally without the in termediate aid of Clarence, the monkey, Quabba s col lector of external revenue. Clarence did well enough in the matter of small contributions, but where the largesse was of these proportions Quabba took it up himself, and he secreted it against coming days of need. Now Esther resolved to journey to California to seek Arthur. She was followed far from the camp by the kindly gipsies and the gipsy children, who loved her as devotedly as their elders; with Quabba she set upon her way afoot, Quabba having been further gladdened by the royal gift of a large street piano and cart and a pony to haul it, the prized possession heretofore of a gipsy musician, lame now, and whose wandering days were over for the present. Starting west and north upon their quest, Esther and Quabba with their quaint equipage took their way. They halted at the farm of Farmer Smith, where Ar- The Man in the Mask 203 thur had worked, and then proceeded on intending to skirt through Richmond to ascertain Hagar s condition again ere striking for the far West. Journeying to Richmond, Blair Stanley beheld Quabba and Esther and the pony and organ cart as his train passed swiftly by them on the road. The reckless Blair had no patience to wait till the train reached the next station. He pulled the airbrake cord, and, with the maledictions of the trainmen ringing hi his ears, coolly alighted, and as the train pulled out again, he hid by the roadside near the track, and after Esther and Quabba had toiled past him, he stealthily trailed them to the outskirts of Richmond. From here he hastened to Mrs. Randolph s, and made his peace and enlisted her sympathy and co operation in regard to Esther. With Mrs. Randolph he hurried to the sanitarium where Hagar was, and, as he had surmised would be the case, they found Esther. The pleas of the good-hearted Mrs. Randolph had no effect in dissuading Esther from her wild plan of searching for Arthur, journeying even across the conti nent on foot with a gipsy hunchback to do so, until she appealed to her through her love for Hagar. "Suppose your mother recovers and needs you?" said Mrs. Randolph earnestly. "Stay with me and be my little adopted daughter again until your mother re covers; you can see she is improving. Let your serv ant go and seek Arthur Stanley. I am sure I do not know what strange reason actuates you in your desire to find him/ she chattered on. "If he cared for you he would let you know where he is. If he is not 204 The Diamond from the Sky guilty of murdering dear old Doctor Lee, why should he run away? Don t you see, a nice young girl can t do such delightful, romantic things? It s all right in books, my dear Esther, but in real life a young girl going across the continent to seek a sweetheart, and without a chaperon, would be talked about!" To be "talked about" was Mrs. Randolph s idea of mundane damnation. Esther realized the sense and sincerity of Mrs. Ran dolph s kindly pleading and agreed to abide by her ad vice. So Quabba took up his lodgings in that part of the town of Richmond with which he was familiar, preparing to start shortly in his search for Arthur, and Esther returned to Mrs. Randolph s. Thus, for rising fortunes in the far West, for an an cient title and a vast estate in England, for an old and honored name in Virginia, and for that baleful gem of price, "The Diamond from the Sky," now lying deep in the cold waters of the Pacific, men and women adventured and schemed, while Fate wove all in her web and Time sifted all their deeds through his cold, impassive hands! With his fortune in the West, Arthur kept Blake, his secret agent in Richmond, well supplied with funds, though cautioned to silence a caution hardly necessary with the taciturn Blake, who was seemingly at the bidding of all, and yet ever the master of his own deep methods. A bootblack, a well grown youth of twenty, loitered by the Randolph mansion the day of Esther s return with Mrs. Randolph and Blair Stanley. The same bootblack hastened later to the private office of Detec- The Man in the Mask 205 tive Tom Blake and breathlessly reported the presence of Esther and of Blair in Richmond. Blake took several banknotes of large denomination from his wallet and enclosed them in a large plain en velope with a note which read : "Sent by Arthur to be used as necessary." Twenty minutes later the bootblack furtively climbed the wistaria vine to Esther s window, and a moment afterward dropped down unseen beside the Randolph mansion and hurried away. A few moments later the light-headed yet kind- hearted Mrs. Randolph was rejoicing as she led Esther to her room and had displayed to her all the nice clothes, just as Esther had left them. "Nothing has been disturbed, my dear, nothing has been taken away or nothing added since you left, or since you returned," Mrs. Randolph prattled on. But in this the kind-hearted Richmond society leader was mistaken. For hardly had she left Esther when the latter found on her bureau by the window the large envelope with the banknotes and the mysterious mes sage. Esther kissed the note, because it indicated the personal proximity of Arthur. The money which was a thousand dollars, hardly concerned her at all, except that she realized it would smooth the path of Quabba to the West in seeking Arthur. That Arthur knew where she was and had strong though secret influences working in her behalf, was all well enough perhaps to his masculine manner of think ing, but in Esther the eternal feminine manifested it- 206 The Diamond from the Sky self in the desire to be near the one she loved. Nothing else mattered. Just then Mrs. Randolph s maid, the smiling Betty, entered with a vase of roses, chattering her happiness at seeing Esther again. Esther, who had secreted the note and the money at Betty s knock, asked the maid to place the flowers in the window. It was the signal for Quabba, and when that faith ful soul stole through the street on the watch for some sign from his young mistress, he saw the signal, and Clarence, the monkey, was sent up the wistaria for Es ther s message. Clarence, the monkey, clambered down again with half the money that had been in the mysteriously placed envelope, and with it a scribbled note, request ing Quabba to go at once to Los Angeles to locate Arthur, for it was there Esther had heard last from him. Quabba smiled, kissed his hand and doffed his cap to his fair young mistress at the window, and hurried away. But much was to happen ere Quabba left Rich mond. Some teasing boys at a street corner annoying Clarence, the monkey, and annoying Quabba, the mas ter, caused the latter to step in the path of a trolley car. Immediately he was struck and tossed aside, hurt, but not badly. Blair Stanley had seen Quabba turn round the cor ner of the Randolph mansion and had followed him at a distance, wondering what might be the hunch back s reason for loitering near Esther. Blair, the trailer, intent upon his own quarry, did not notice The Man in the Mask 207 that he in turn was trailed by a bootblack, a well grown youth of twenty. When Quabba was knocked down by the trolley and bruised and dazed, Blair was among the first to come to his assistance. Quabba was able to give the ad dress of his lodgings and to refuse to go to a hospital. He and Clarence, the monkey, were placed in a taxi and were driven off to the cheers of the multitude, who regarded them in the light of heroes for the dangers they had passed. It was Blair s perverse nature that he saw in the ac cident a reckless way to trap Esther and search her for the Stanley document his mother believed that Esther always carried with her. It has been said that with any two or a dozen ways to do right and one way to do wrong, congenitally Blair would choose the wrong way, especially if it were desperate and evil. He scribbled a note and, seeking a messenger, his eyes lit upon the bootblack. The note was to Esther and was written as though by a stranger, witnessing the accident to Quabba. It gave the address Quabba had given after the accident, and it requested Esther to come to see the injured man, the message reading as though Quabba had asked a stranger to send the word. The bootblack first bore the message to his em ployer, Blake, the detective. That astute man behind the scenes read the note and then ordered his youthful aid to deliver it at the Randolph mansion. Mrs. Randolph plaintively objected to Esther s go ing alone to such a part of the town as the address of 208 The Diamond from the Sky Quabba s lodgings. But it was broad day and Esther laughed at her fears. Meanwhile Blair Stanley proceeded to the lodging house, and, aided by the convincing argument of a ten- dollar note, had no trouble in convincing the blowsy and alcoholic landlady that he was a detective expect ing to trap a woman shoplifter. The landlady took the money and limped down to her basement lair well satisfied with her fee. Blair entered Quabba s room softly and, finding the hunchback dazed with pain, bound and gagged him. It was an adventure just to Blair s liking. He had slipped on a mask before surprising and overpow ering Quabba, and when Esther s light step was heard at the door, directed by the landlady on the basement landing below, Blair, still masked, opened the door and dragged her within ere she had more than lightly knocked. If Blair had expected an easy victim he found he had caught a Tartar. Esther fought like a little tigress and every effort Blair made to search her for the Stan ley document was unavailing. Blair s perverse nature rejoiced in the vigorous de fence of the slight but wiry girl. Quabba struggled to free himself to assist Esther, but just then the door opened and Tom Blake, disguised as a workman, joined in the fray. He owed Blair something on an old score and right merrily he proceeded to pay it off. Blair fought like a madman; Quabba tore himself loose from his bonds, and forgetting the bruises of his accident, joined in the melee. Blair was young and strong; physically he was a match for the detective, The Man in the Mask 209 even though the latter was aided by the active and Jsupple Quabba. The three-sided fight boiled out of Quabba s shabby room and down the rickety old staircase. Half way down the stairs, the balustrade on the upper landing having already given way, the detective and Quabba punching, kicking and shoving, pushed Blair out against the rail. The entire balustrade, bannisters and all, broke out and fell over, and Blair went down with them backward and struck with a heavy thud on the landing at the side of the stairs in the corridor below. Esther with Quabba and Blake ran down the stairs through the dust and wreckage. They paused beside the huddled, insensible form of the masked man. Blake lifted up the mask and laughed. Then, speaking, still as a stranger, he said : "You recognize the gent? Let s take the lady away before the police comes." CHAPTER XIV FOR LOVE AND MONEY OUT from the rickety old mansion, long gone to slattern shabbiness as a lodging house, came Detective Tom Blake in his rough guise of a workingman. He led the dazed and be wildered Esther by the wrist, and, following after her, forgetting in his excitement the hurts he had sustained, came the devoted Quabba. Whimpering inquiries, unheeded by Esther, as to whether she had been hurt .and divided between his worry over his young mistress and the frightened chat ter of Clarence, the monkey who clung desperately to him, Quabba submitted to being hustled after Esther into the taxicab Blake had waiting there. The taxi- cab was driven off at Blake s command, leaving that unexpected ally upon the scene. From the dark and dingy interior of the lodging house came a cloud of dust raised by the falling of the rickety old stairway in the battle royal with Blair. The blowzy and gin-sodden landlady, roused now to an acute perception of trouble to come from the po lice, came to the doorway screaming; and the idle and shabby population of that mean part of Richmond came flocking to the scene, wondering if it were mur der, robbery or both. 210 For Love and Money 211 Blake mingled with the throng as a spectator, wait ing to see if Blair would be brought out from the in terior wreckage, living or dead. At the arrival of the police wagon, the screaming landlady slammed the door and barred it. Inside, among the wreckage of the fallen staircase and landing, Blair, revived from the stunning effects of his fall, pulled himself to his feet, rejoicing that beyond a few bruises he was not injured. He scrambled over the debris and down the cellar steps and over the dirty, littered backyards and away, while the hysterical, frowzy landlady held the fort against the battering police outside. The stout old door held staunchly. But at last it gave way and in poured the police, who gaining no information from the screaming, scratching haridan who endeavored to bar their way, promptly laid hands on her and such of her lodgers as had not fled, and haled them out to the patrol wagon and bore them off. Blake, idling with the crowd, did not disclose him self, but satisfied that Blair had made good his escape and that no notoriety or arrests would follow to stir up matters that he, as agent of Arthur, desired to remain quiescent, returned, smiling inscrutably, to his office. In a back street, the fleeing Blair noted a standing automobile whose driver was stooping over by its front wheel finishing pumping up a tire. Blair promptly bowled over the startled chauffeur and drove off in the commandeered car at breakneck speed. He drew his hat down over his eyes and bent low over the wheel as, half way to Mrs. Randolph s house, he flashed past the taxicab containing Esther and Quabba. Blair grinned to himself, recovering all his evil sangfroid, 212 The Diamond from the Sky to note that the inquisitive monkey, Clarence, at the window of the taxicab, had cut him off from the view of those within as he sped past them. Halting the motor car in front of Mrs. Randolph s house, Blair hastily donned a linen automobile coat and a driver s cap with goggles on the vizor which he found in the car. Having hidden his own hat and dust- covered coat under the seat cushion and wearing the auto togs in question, Blair was the first person to greet Esther and Quabba when their taxicab drew up and they alighted. The taxi driver, evidently in the pay and at the or ders of Blake, drove away without a word, and despite the indignant protests of both Esther and Quabba, Blair outfaced them with his declarations that he was innocent of any lodging-house encounter, but on the contrary had been riding all day in the automobile he had borrowed from a friend. Mrs. Randolph, meeting the excited group in her doorway, promptly fell into a state of nerves at the problem that confronted her when the indignant Quabba and the more than indignant Esther breath lessly presented their charges of brutal perfidy against Blair, who still insistently proclaimed his innocence with an air half indignant and half of puzzled good nature. "I am sure I do not know what to say!" moaned Mrs. Randolph. "But really, Esther, you and this uncouth gipsy person with you, with his horrid monkey, must be mistaken! No Stanley would do such a thing as you charge Blair with, I am sure! And also, Esther, no Stanley would associate with uncouth gipsy persons For Love and Money 213 who constantly fondled spidery monkeys! I begged you not to go without a chaperon, and now see what has happened. She should not have gone without a chaperon, should she, Blair? And as for accusing Blair of such dreadful things, hasn t the poor boy told you that you are mistaken?" Seeing that Mrs. Randolph was utterly unable to believe her kinsman guilty of his despicable actions, and utterly astounded at the cool effrontery of Blair and his brazen denials, Esther kindly dismissed her one faithful, loyal friend, "the uncouth gipsy person with the spidery monkey," as Mrs. Randolph designated Quabba. With head erect and blazing eyes she fol lowed Quabba to the street and gave him quick, whis pered directions to proceed to Los Angeles. "I will follow you," whispered Esther. "I will not stay in this house where Mrs. Randolph, as Blair s cousin, cannot or will not see how villainous and des picable he is." A week after Quabba had departed for the West, taking with him the pony and piano cart, of which he was inordinately proud, together with Clarence, his Simian collector of external revenue, Esther bought her ticket for Los Angeles and journeyed to find Arthur. Quabba had hardly superintended the unloading of his travelling outfit from the express car and secured lodgings for himself, when his young mistress arrived. Little did they know that Blair had followed them, in answer to Vivian s letter to him. Quabba, whose tastes were bohemian, permitted himself a change of costume shortly after arriv ing in Los Angeles. That is, he removed his ear- 214 The Diamond from the Sky rings and donned a cheap straw hat, the very shape and feel of which he detested. Then he sought for John Powell. Under this name, Arthur Stanley was now a leading figure in the wonder city of Los Angeles, and Quabba soon found himself at the offices of the Good Hope Oil Company. A supercilious office boy and a condescending tele phone girl reluctantly informed the strange-looking in quirer that Mr. John Powell had gone far off into the distant Sierras to acquire some mines, for, as the news papers constantly stated: "John Powell, the new oil millionaire, was extensively branching out into other industrial investments." It was this same information, but more agreeably given, that was vouchsafed to Blair when he called at the Powell office later in the day. This was at the sug gestion of Vivian Marston shortly after Blair had joined that vivacious lady, who had married him in haste for the diamond and parted from him in equal celerity at the loss of it. But from the very beginning of their reunion Vivian made their relative positions clear to Blair. "You are a very dear boy," she said, "and there is a refreshing air of youthfulness about your wicked ways, but I cannot be too closely concerned with you in the matters we have in hand. I want The Diamond from the Sky. I don t care where it is or who has it; I would sell my soul for it and I would not care how many lives stood in the way of my desire; no, not even if your life was one of them, my dear boy. And in your way you are most interesting and engaging, for," and she now spoke with dancing eyes and a mocking For Love and Money 215 smile, "y u are the youngest husband I ever had!" Blair s eyes glittered murderously. "You go too far with me, Vivian!" he gasped. "No one knows better than you that there isn t anything I wouldn t dare for you!" "That is just the trouble," she answered coolly. "There isn t anything you would not dare for me or for anything else you desire Esther Harding, for in stance." Blair winced. "Ah," continued Vivian mockingly, "I see that shot went home and it was a chance one. It bears out just what I am telling you and just what you say. There isn t anything you would not dare. You dare everything, that s the trouble. You dare to love me and you dare to love the shy and timid gipsy girl. Well, if we have double lives why may we not have double loves? Now don t scowl, Blair, my dear; you can t frighten me for one moment. Physically you are stronger than I am, and I have no doubt if you had me alone some place you might strangle me, but you could not frighten me. "Let us talk this matter over sensibly. Try to control yourself. You are too rash, too likely to be carried away by your evil passions. There, that is bet ter," she added, as the scowl left Blair s face and a won dering look of puzzled curiosity succeeded the glare of murderous anger in his eyes. "Now listen," said Vivian. "You know how the de sire for the diamond obsessed you, when you saw it in the hands of the old doctor whom you murdered for it. I do not care if this diamond rightfully belongs to you or whether it rightfully belongs to Arthur Stanley, 216 The Diamond from the Sky and I do not care whether your suspicions as to his being in your way wrongfully are correct or not. "I only know that Arthur Stanley is known out here as John Powell, and John Powell has many millions and is making more. You cannot expose him be cause, after all, he knows he is not guilty of the murder of Doctor Lee, and he knows you are. That he has tacitly accepted the guilt by his flight from Virginia and living here under a false name, does not concern me. I only know that you hate him and that he is fond of you. In the minds of those you both know in Vir ginia he is believed to be a murderer, and he lets this onus rest on his name, or rather the name he bore back there, for your sake. "If The Diamond from the Sky rightfully belongs to Arthur Stanley I would marry him for it, just as I married you for it, and if you say a word I will send you to the gallows. As desperate as you are, my dear Blair, I can see you do not wish to go to the gal lows; you do not wish even to be charged and tried and imprisoned for the murder of which you know you are guilty. "If you are the rightful heir to the diamond and the Earldom, all well and good. I want the diamond and I would dearly love to be Lady Stanley. But your recklessness has placed you in your present position. At present you can claim nothing. "So, if you will think it over, you will see that while we had better work together, it must not be as man and wife. You are likely to venture too rashly and I cannot be identified with you. The Diamond from the Sky has disappeared, but John Powell s millions are For Love and Money 217 very tangible. No matter what I do to gain the money or the diamond, you must not interfere. "If all goes well we may gain the diamond, the Earl dom and John Powell s money together. We hold Ar thur Stanley s secret, and that is a good advantage at the start. Now you go and find him; he is at these mines he has just bought. He will be as glad to see you as he was in Richmond. He does not know your true character, as I do. He may make you his manager or partner, for he is generous and will be glad to have his kinsman, if you are his kinsman, and boyhood com rade with him. "Your desire, you say, is to possess me. There is one way; help me to get the diamond, help me to get John Powell in my power we may need his money for all our purposes!" So this was the strange compact to which Blair re luctantly consented, and he departed for the mines in an automobile to throw himself in Arthur s way. Quabba, passing the hotel where Blair and Vivian had their meeting, had a glimpse of their parting in the street. He telephoned to Esther where she was stopping, and Esther resolved to start at once to find Arthur before Blair reached him. Esther thought it best that she go alone. But Quabba, parted with at the depot, took the next train after her, first leaving Clarence, the monkey, and the pony and his other equipment in good hands. There was another seeker for John Powell, "the Golden Man" in Los Angeles. It was none other than Marmaduke Smythe, his methodical British mind compelling him to make every effort to locate the fugi- 218 The Diamond from the Sky tive heir to the Earldom ere he returned to England. Several interviews with Detective Blake in Rich mond had impressed that keen individual with the firm belief that Marmaduke Smythe s loyalty to his trust as legal representative of the noble Stanley family in England, had made it second nature for Smythe to re gard the affairs of the Stanley line paramount to every other thing in the world. Blake had given the timid yet loyal lawyer a letter of introduction to John Powell, couched in guarded terms. So Marmaduke Smythe had departed for "the veldt," as he expressed it, taking with him an elephant rifle, and, as a further incitation to the hunt, the mounted deer head he had bought at the sheriff s sale at Stanley Hall. Smythe had a shawl-strap arrangement with which he carried this incongruous object as hand luggage with him on all his journeyings in barbarous America. So highly had he come to esteem this trophy of the chase, that by some strange mental process, wherein the wish was father to the thought, the English lawyer had come firmly to believe that the deer head he so highly prized was actually the spoil of his own gun. "I figure it out this way," Smythe had explained to Blake. "You remember I was in the wilds of Virginia twenty years ago? I detrained in the dark amid the howls of savages and wild beasts. I fired my gun there was silence. The late Judge Stanley afterwards chaffed me about it, saying I had fired at frogs. But it is very strange that I should not have noticed this deer head at Stanley Hall at that time. It is my belief that in discharging my gun into the jungle I slew this stag. For Love and Money 219 The carcass was found by the natives, doubtless, and the head was mounted by Colonel Stanley. I felt sure it belonged to me when I first saw it at the sale at Stanley Hall. So I purchased it before you bought in the Hall and everything else for this mysterious unknown client of yours." "I guess that s the way it was, Major," the quizzing detective had replied. "Look here, old chap, I wish you would not call me Major, I am in the legal profession, you know, and not in the army ! Our family never went in for the army, you know," the lawyer had expostulated. The detective had then smiled and shaken hands with the lawyer and had replied: "Well, I hear you call some kinds of English lawyers sergeants. It s my mistake, excuse me!" Thus, in due time, Smythe had found himself, with gun and deer head trophy, at the Good Hope offices in Los Angeles. "Always too late, my word!" he ex claimed when he was also informed that John Powell was at his far-distant mining properties in another part of the state. "But I shall follow him, and knock over some big game in the interim," he added. "There ain t no big game in the interim," vouchsafed the office boy. "But there s big game in the mountains, Mister." "Quite so, quite so!" replied Marmaduke Smythe, and took his departure. Where passengers for the Lady Veronica Mines alighted from the train at a small and desolate way sta tion, a daily stage conveyed them to the mines, thirty miles away up the rocky mountain passes. There 220 The Diamond from the Sky was another passenger besides Smythe, who still car ried his gun and the deer head trophy as well as his dress suit case; this passenger was a very pretty young lady in a neat dark-blue costume. Had Marmaduke Smythe a good memory for faces, he might have recol lected his fellow-passenger as a young girl he had seen at Stanley Hail some six months ago. But Marmaduke Smythe was shy with the ladies ; he had hardly looked at the pretty girl who had answered his questions when he had called at Stanley Hall to find the heir of Stan ley. But Esther recognized the lawyer and shrank back into her corner of the seat in the somewhat dim in terior of the rattletrap and battered old stage coach. Alone in the world, and sorely tried, Esther suspected every one, after her experience with Blair and his mother and even the friendly, though wishy-washy, Mrs. Randolph. Lonely, apprehensive, even disheartened, Esther felt that to be coolly received by Arthur would be the last straw. The secret joy she had felt to realize that she was the rightful heir of Stanley, had passed. She had been denied her birthright so long that she could feel no gladness at the thought of being accepted as Esther Stanley rather than Esther Harding, the poor gipsy girl. Only Arthur and the love she bore for him made her steadfast. She felt she could go away and die of a broken heart if he had changed and with his millions had grown arrogant, selfish and cold. In this mood she even regretted she had gone into the wilder ness to seek him. Might she not better have stayed in Los Angeles till he returned, and meet him there? For Love and Money 221 But, then, there was Blair. Blair was seeking Ar thur, too. She remembered Arthur had been Blair s comrade in their wild boyhood and even wilder young manhood. Blair might poison Arthur s mind against her if he could. Blair was despicable enough for such an action, but he could not she was sure of that! So she re solved she would keep on, she would see Arthur. If his eyes lit up with love and joy at the sight of her, she would tell him all and beg his protection from Blair. And so Esther mused as the stage rocked and creaked on its way up the mountain passes to the mines, and Lawyer Smythe dozed in his corner as they jour neyed on. Meanwhile Blair was making his way through the mountains, in the roadster he had hired for the pur pose, over the rough roads which he cursed continually. It is prophetic of his curses and forebodings that the front axle snaps and his car is disabled on the moun tain side. He walks and arrives at the blacksmith shop near the mines, to encounter an old acquaintance Luke Lovell. From Lovell, Blair, after his proffers of friendship and assistance, learns that Arthur Stanley, as John Powell, oil man and mine owner, has left for other mines he is considering purchasing, that lie far across the valley in another range of mountains. Meanwhile Quabba, also, who has disobeyed Esther s commands through his very affection for her, has taken the next train and arrives at the lonely station only to be informed that the stage to the mines does not 222 The Diamond from the Sky meet any train here save the earlier one, in order to avoid a journey that would be made doubly perilous by darkness. A group of fishermen to whom the islands off the sea-coast hereabouts offer big fishing in their waters, have alighted with Quabba. They banter the poor Italian because he is anxious to reach the mines, thirty miles away up the mountains. One proffers him a fishing rod and tells him to be philosophical and angle till the stage shall come on the morrow to bear him to his destination. Quabba, wondering if he may not miss Esther if he goes afoot, irresolutely takes the fishing rod and follows the fisher men. He is told that the mountaineers and miners sometimes come down to the coast for the fishing, and that he may be given a ride back by buckboard or wagon to the mine by one of these who may be return ing. So Quabba plays his luck and goes fishing, not so much for a fish as to angle for a ride to the moun tain mine where Esther has gone seeking Arthur. Quabba meets with no friendly fishermen from the hills, with buckboard or wagon, returning to the mines. So he fishes and wishes he had started after his mistress afoot, let the distance and the roughness of the road be what they may. The sport is good, save that Quabba is annoyed by the aggressive boldness, or friendliness, Quabba can hardly tell which, of a persistent pelican. It is a great fat, white pelican who reminds Quabba very much of a certain pompous, long-nosed, corpulent Southern magistrate, who wore a white waistcoat and mulcted him of ten dollars for playing hand-organ music with- For Love and Money 223 out a license. Quabba remembers this magistrate with extreme distaste, and the pelican resembles him so much that Quabba hates the pestiferous bird all the more in consequence. The stage to the mines, meanwhile, is far away. It is halted at the mountain blacksmith shop. A broken lynch-pin is giving trouble. Luke, in the absence of the blacksmith, whose helper he is, starts to adjust a new lynch-pin. Blair Stanley, within the darkened shop, for he half expected recognition by some one, noted Esther, as Esther shrank back from the window at sight of Luke. Luke in turn was busy with his work at the wheel and gave no attention to the passengers, except one, an Englishman with side whiskers who hung out of the coach and annoyed him with foolish questions. When Luke came into the shop for tools, Blair drew him to one side and whispered: "There is some one in that coach who will ruin our game with Arthur Stan ley. You know what to do!" Luke had a dim remembrance of the English lawyer, and not having seen Esther in the coach, deemed Blair referred to that individual. He nodded grimly to Blair and replaced the broken lynch-pin with the broken lynch-pin and called to the driver, "It s all right!" And grandly he waved aside the driver s proffer of "two bits" a quarter for Blair had paid for the work and evil work it was with a twenty-dollar bill ! Down by the rugged coast line thirty miles away, Quabba was fighting the fight that is the true fisher man s delight with some great, game fish. He had for gotten the pestiferous pelican lurking boldly near. 224 The Diamond from the Sky Far away, along the crest of the mountain, beside a precipitous dizzying declivity, the broken lynch-pin does its work. The wheel comes off and spins away, the coach topples over, the tongue snaps off short and the great swaying vehicle falls over and rolls and gathers momentum as it rolls, while Esther and the English lawyer, huddled in its groaning interior, spun round and round with the rolling coach body, are too terrified to shriek. And then the coach strikes a great boulder and smashes as an egg would smash. A spurt of dust and then stillness. From tragedy to comedy-drama the distance is thirty miles. On the rocky seashore Quabba lands his quarry, a great quivering fish. Caught in its gills and partly hanging, from its mouth, is a chain of antique work manship, and from the chain dangles a great locket set with one glistening, sparkling stone. And then the great white pelican swoops down and bears off the fish and the great glistening jewel "The Diamond from the Sky" is no longer the diamond in the sea! CHAPTER XV DESPERATE CHANCES BOUNDING like a boulder that a mischievous boy will start down the hillside, the coach had rolled and tumbled, while its passengers, Es ther and Lawyer Smythe, held as best they could to the straps and interior trappings, for a few brief seconds of mute horror. Then the crash and all was still. Starting at the far off rumble of the rolling coach down the hillside, Luke and Blair, panting with exer tion and excitement, ran at top speed to the scene. They gave no heed to the driver, bruised and dragged by the bolting, frenzied horses, but sped down the mountain slope to witness their work, nor stayed nor stopped till they stood beside the shattered old coach body. There, prone among the wreckage, lay Esther and Marmaduke Smythe. Esther s eyes were closed, but she had been thrown out providentially, it would seem, with a cushion from the coach that had saved her from hurt or bruise. Like a flash, once the shock and danger of the acci dent had passed, Esther had noted it was Blair Stan ley speeding down the hillside and, close beside him, Luke Lovell. She had turned at the approach of her 225 226 The Diamond from the Sky enemies, stirring as one half unconscious and in pain, and had secreted the Stanley document under a stone, slipping it from her bosom and hiding it, even as she seemed to stir feebly, dazed and pain racked. She knew why Blair Stanley pursued and sought her, she realized the tragic accident to the coach was his work his work and that of his accomplice, Luke Lovell, the gipsy blacksmith! Beside her the insensible English lawyer neither moaned nor stirred, while Esther, her eyes closed again, feigned unconsciousness. She heard Luke Lovell roar angrily, like a sullen beast: "Damn you, Blair Stanley! You knew Esther was in the coach. It wasn t the Englishman you hired me to kill, then ! Though he lies dead enough to suit any body there! You tricked me, you gentleman black guard! I wouldn t have a hair of her head harmed, and I ll have your life for this!" "I swear I didn t see the girl! I was in the shop, you know, when the coach stopped!" lied Blair glibly. "It was the English lawyer I was after. He is going to find Arthur Stanley. If Arthur Stanley goes back to Virginia I will swing for the murder of Doctor Lee!" "You lie and you know you lie!" raged Luke. "The girl is dead. She would never look at me, but I have always loved her; I might have been a better man if she had cared for me!" "You forget that I am fond of Esther, too," mur mured Blair. "But, if she is dead or if she is uncon scious and if she lives, she will have no thought of you or me," he added. "It is she who has the proof we seek to make our fortunes, the proof Arthur Stanley Desperate Chances 227 will give all the millions he has made to keep sup pressed. Esther has the Stanley document/ and as he said this, Blair stooped over the seemingly uncon scious girl. "Don t you touch her! Don t you lay a hand on her!" cried Luke. "I will carry her. She isn t dead, thank God!" Esther stirred and sat up and gazed resolutely at them both. Luke picked her up as though she were a child. "You bring her baggage," he said roughly to Blair, and he nodded his head, indicating the dress suit case that had fallen from the crushed and shat tered coach. In this way Esther was borne to the blacksmith shop. She knew the document was safe from these evil hands, under the rock by the coach, and, bad as she knew Luke Lovell was, she felt no great harm would befall her while he was by. This proved to be the case, for when Esther de clared to them that the Stanley document was not upon her person, Luke believed her and Blair Stanley was constrained to do likewise. "Look in her suit case then," said Luke, and Blair, picking up a chisel, forced the lock. As desperate as was her situation, Esther could hardly restrain a smile when Blair, with an expression of disgust, brought forth from the suit case a pair of striped pajamas, a flask, some shirts and collars and other male belongings, evidently the property of her fellow passenger, the precise Britisher. "We have got the wrong luggage," snarled Blair 228 The Diamond from the Sky to Luke. "You go back to the coach and find hers, and I will guard her here." "I would as soon trust her with a wolf," growled Luke. Then he turned to Esther and held his arms out to her. "You say the word, Miss Esther," he said, "and I will kill this blackguard for you!" But Esther shrank back from tl^ fierce, passionate gipsy. "I hate you, as I hate him!" she said. "You will get no document, you will get nothing, and I do not fear either or both of you. Arthur Stanley will re pay you fittingly for daring to lay a hand upon me!" "We ll tie you up then, Missy," said Luke, shrug ging his shoulders. "If I can t have the lady, I will take the gold. Matt Harding made his fortune out of the Stanley secret, and I will make mine. As for the fellow you threaten us with, he can t help you. We know enough to disgrace him if we expose him here in California and show he is not John Powell, the mil lionaire, but Arthur Stanley, wanted for murder, in Virginia!" Esther scorned to answer. The two worthies, neither trusting the other, tied her securely and went together back to the wrecked coach to find her suit case and, as they hoped, the Stanley document. When the driver had limped down the hill to the wrecked coach and inquired of the recovering Smythe where the young lady passenger was, Smythe had test ily replied: "I do not know where she is gone, but I jolly well know I am going myself!" And gathering up the suit case he thought was his, and taking his gun and the mounted deer head, the trophy that he prized beyond all his possessions, the Desperate Chances 229 English lawyer tottered off into the wilds in the direc tion of the Lady Veronica Mines, as he thought. When Luke and Blair arrived upon the scene they told the driver his young lady passenger was safe at the blacksmith shop, and they had come for her be longings. None could be found, however, and Luke and Blair returned reviling each other. Dusk was falling at the time the accident occurred. It was dark in the blacksmith shop, but Esther felt the braver at the absence of the two men. She struggled and freed herself from the ropes that had bound her, and beat upon the great heavy door of the shop, crying for help. Quabba, mourning his young mistress and bewail ing his fate that he had so strangely found and so strangely lost "The Diamond from the Sky" again, had set out on foot for the mines to find Arthur, but espe cially to find Esther, his young mistress. It was just at nightfall that he reached the forge, some ten miles yet from the mines. It was locked, gloomy and de serted in the darkness. But from within he heard a voice he recognized, the voice of his young mistress crying for help. A sledge stood by the door, left there by Luke while at some outside repair work. Quabba seized it and shattered down the door and soon he was shedding tears of joy as he clasped the hands of Esther. There was no time for explanations now. A word from Esther, and the two sped off through the dark ness, to be followed a few moments later by Blair and Luke, returning to find their fair prisoner had been freed and was gone. 230 The Diamond from the Sky Over the mountains, through the darkness went pur suers and pursued, while by a log near a marsh, Law yer Marmaduke Smythe gathered up some dry trash and lit his fire to camp for the night. He had lost his way, but philosophically he accepted the situation. "I am a lucky beggar, that I thought to bring a tin of biscuit and a flask of brandy in my luggage," he remarked half aloud. And he opened the dress suit case he had borne so far, together with his other im pedimenta of gun and deer head. "My word ! The wrong portmanteau ! " he exclaimed, as in the fire light he brought forth a young lady s dainty nightrobe and boudoir cap. "Well, no matter," he added resignedly, "these will protect me from the drafts in this jungle! Now if I only had a night light in case my fire goes out. I am used to having a night light, and if I had that and my portable bath tub, I could stand the wilderness. "But if the late Lord Cecil Stanley could only see me now!" he added fervently, as he surveyed himself in his strange night attire. "By Jove, this is rough ing it with a vengeance!" The moon came up and, as if waiting for it as a signal, the harsh discordant chorus of croaking marsh frogs sounded on all sides. "Indians! Savage Iroquois!" cried the alarmed law yer, seizing his gun. "But no," he added to himself, "I will not shoot ; their war whoops on every side show they surround me. I will scout off in the darkness like one of those bally astute Western Americans, previous travellers to these wilds have written about. But just Desperate Chances 231 won t I write a book that will thrill all England, when I get back unscalped if I ever do?" And softly dropping the marshmallows which he was toasting, a box of which he had found among Esther s effects, the frightened Smythe stole softly away, but he was not so frightened as to leave his lug gage behind. He bore with him the deer head, the suit case and the gun, and, on higher land, out of ear shot of the savage war cries of the greenskins, he camped, quite uncomfortably, thank you, in the crotch of a large live-oak tree. Day broke on the other side of the mountain at the Lady Veronica Mines. The hoarse whistle at the power plant woke the raucous echoes of the mountain gorge. The miners tumbled from their bunks and stormed the greasy cook house. In the boss s shack the telephone rang and a sleepy assistant foreman took a message from John Powell s chief engineer at the workings on the other side, to which from the Lady Veronica Mines a tunnel was driven four miles through the mountain. The message called for all hands to quit the job and come through to the new workings on the other side. This message is delivered to miners, outside men, the cook-house help, even to the ore strippers who have just begun to load the ore-carrying cradle that carries the ore by cable from the hillside outcrop across the dizzy gorge below to the tipple on the other side of the ravine. The whistle woke Esther and Quabba from where they had fallen exhausted in their flight on the rugged mountain side a mile or more away. It roused, to 232 The Diamond from the Sky their evil purposes in their waking hours, Luke Lovell and Blair Stanley as well. "That is the mine whistle ! " exclaimed Quabba. "If we can reach the mine we will find Arthur Stanley and we will be safe ! " Neither Quabba nor Esther knew, as Blair and Luke did, that Arthur had left the Lady Veronica Mines and had crossed the mountain to his new work ings. From there Arthur Stanley, or John Powell, as California knew him, had ridden across another moun tain range to distant Santa Barbara, where he had ar ranged to take over the palatial steam yacht that was to be delivered to him there. Vivian Marston, in Los Angeles, had kept herself better posted as regards John Powell s comings and goings. Experienced and worldly-wise, Vivian Mars- ton laid her plans well. She knew how telling and effectual a romantic or dramatic first meeting with the youthful and high-spirited type of young man may be. She had met Arthur once, it is true. Thrice she had seen him. The meeting, the passing introduction had left no impression other than, perhaps, the slight est upon Arthur, Vivian was sure. She had also briefly glimpsed him at the tournament at Fairfax and, later, at the restaurant in Los Angeles. But these brief con tacts, she realized, were as nothing. Vivian felt that to impress Arthur properly she must throw herself in his way in some striking manner, at a time when there would be no distraction to militate against the dra matic intensity of the meeting, as she planned it. Vivian felt that every tie that bound Arthur Stanley to his old life in Virginia was broken, now that he was Desperate Chances 233 John Powell, California millionaire, nattered, sought after. Every tie was broken, save perhaps his affec tion for Esther and his mother. But youth and suc cess and flattery lead to forgetfulness, as Vivian knew. Could she but cross his path impressively she felt sure she could hold him, and Esther then would be but a memory, a faint influence no longer to be feared. Seeing in the newspapers that John Powell would go to Santa Barbara, Vivian had gone there also, taking care to avoid the courted young magnate at that place when he too arrived at the magnificent hotel to take command of the costly steam yacht, waiting for him in Santa Barbara Bay. Her prospective prey had come on horseback and had met the yacht broker shortly before she had ar rived at the hotel. He had donned the expensive yacht attire that had been sent here for him and was on his way to the wharf, as Vivian watched from the window of her room in the hotel and mused upon her plan. "That is the new yacht the young millionaire, John Powell, has just bought, is it not?" she asked of the attentive hotel maid. The maid was quick to as sent. "Have you seen Mr. Powell, ma am?" the maid asked eagerly. "He is so handsome, all the young la dies at the hotel are dying to meet him!" "He is an old friend of mine," said Vivian, smiling. "Too bad he is gone to his yacht before I saw him. I know he would have taken me aboard." Then, as though the idea had just occurred to her, she clapped her shapely hands and cried: "I know what I will do! I wired here before I came that a sailboat should be hired for me. The clerk told me 234 The Diamond from the Sky the owner of the sailboat had it waiting for me anchored off the dock. If I hurry, I can sail out to the yacht before Mr. Powell will be through look ing it over and getting under way for the trial trip! Here, help me into these clothes!" And with the hotel maid s assistance Vivian quickly attired herself in a fetching sailor costume which set off her rich beauty to advantage, as well she knew. Calling a taxi, she drove to the wharf, to find the sailboat owner waiting for her. Declaring she was a good sailor of pleasure craft and could handle a small boat as well as any man which was true enough Vivian Marston refused the assistance of the bewildered sailboat owner. She had him run up the sail for her, and left him at the wharf and headed her craft in the direction of the graceful yacht anchored far out. With steam up and anchor weighed, the yacht was ready to start off on its first voyage under the command of its new owner, John Powell. Far away in the Sierras, in that wild region where lie the Lady Veronica Mines, owned, like the great white yacht in Santa Barbara Bay, by John Powell, another fair but younger woman seeks also this for tunate young man. Roused from the slumber of ex haustion, Esther and Quabba hastened along the mountain road toward the now deserted mine. By some unfortunate chance the evil pair who pursued, and who had lost them in the flight in the night, now sighted them again. Desperate Chances 235 Quabba was first to sense the renewed pursuit. "There are Blair Stanley and Luke Lovell!" he cried. Esther ran like a fawn beside her faithful protector. "The mine is not far away; we heard the whistle at daybreak quite plainly!" Esther panted. "Arthur is there Arthur will save us!" Nearer and nearer came the speeding Luke and Blair. Quabba seized Esther by the hand and turned sharply down the rocky hillside where the sheds at the mine mouth could be seen at the bottom of the wild gorge far below. Over rock and shrub, by the sheer edge of a mighty precipice, Quabba and Esther fled. But the more sturdy and agile Blair and Luke gain ever on them. Suddenly Quabba holds himself and Esther back with an effort. They have reached the upper anchor age of the cable-carrier across the gorge. Here the empty ore cradle hangs upon its pulleys, just as the ore strippers at the outcrop left it when summoned to proceed through the tunnel to the new workings on the other side. "Quick!" gasped Quabba, clamboring nimbly into the ore-carrier, and helping the almost equally active Esther up beside him. Just as the hand of Luke Lovel clutches at the car rier, Quabba has lifted the catch, and the ore cradle starts across the cable and darts with increasing mo mentum over the deep, wild gorge and the rocky, turbulent stream that roars beneath them. The cable sways, the wheels of the ore cradle hum as they spin. Over the sickening height, borne by the thin line of the cable, go the frightened girl and the devoted 236 The Diamond from the Sky Quabba, while the desperate Blair and his gipsy ac complice curse the fugitives on their swift and perilous flight. At the lower anchorage the other side of the canyon, the aerial tram stops with a sudden shock that almost precipitates its occupants to the ground beneath. Recovering, Quabba and Esther climb out and hasten around from the tipple tracks back to the other side of the gorge to the mine mouth. This time they cross by the trestle built to carry the mine cars from the tunnel to the tipple. Luke and Blair meanwhile have plunged down from the upper anchorage of the aerial tramway to the river and forded their way across as best they can, and reach the other side, only to see their quarry is doubling back over the high trestle to the tunnel mouth. Reaching the mine opening at the trestle end, one glance shows to Quabba and Esther that the work ings here are deserted. There is no help, not even a watchman or mine guard has been left behind in the exodus to the other workings, through the mine tunnel under the mountain. Now, while they halt and hesitate, Luke and Blair have seen the helplessness of the fugitives. "There is no one at the mine; a strike or an acci dent in the tunnel has called away every man," pants Blair. "We will have them yet and, this time, we will not take the girl s word that she hasn t the Stan ley document on her person!" Their pursuers are half across the trestle when Quabba, inspired by despair, notices the little electric Desperate Chances 237 engine by the mine mouth. He has not to speak to Esther as he seats himself in the driver s seat, for she climbs up and sits beside him. A turn of the controller proves the power is on, and the little, low, heavy motor glides off like a thing of life, grinding, and showering sparks from the over head feed wires. In they go, into the darkened heart of the hills. After them, floundering and cursing over the ties and through the mud and water of the mine, panting and swearing, come their relentless pursuers, following the trolley s blue sparks "arcing" far off in the darkness. In Santa Barbara Bay, John Powell s yacht moves swiftly from its anchorage. The owner is at the wheel, receiving his first instructions from his sailing mas ter. John Powell s face is lighted with a smile and his dark eyes dance with excitement. Suddenly there is a loud cry forward. A sailboat with a woman at the helm has laid a course direct across the sharp bow of the great new yacht. Who ever the fair sailor is, it is evident that she has lost her head and cannot change her course now, though seemingly she vainly tries. Too late the veering of the sail, the turning of the helm; the little craft is right across the bow of the yacht and is struck and cut and lies crushed and crumpled and on its side! The new owner sees the woman in the water and hurls himself head first into the bay to save her! Risking death for a diamond, Vivian smiles even in 238 The Diamond from the Sky her perilous position in the water when she sees the reckless Arthur clear the rail. But "The Diamond from the Sky," that lately was the diamond in the sea, lies in an inland marsh in a frog puddle, dropped by the pelican who shook it from the fish that brought it from the depths! CHAPTER XVI THE PATH OF PERIL THE path of peril leads through the heart of the mountains. The path of peril is across the deeps where the dimpling of the waters shows the footsteps of the wind upon the sea. Through the heart of the mountains, in the dark and dripping tunnel of the mine, grinds and groans the dingy little electric motor bearing Esther on the path of peril; beside her the one constant friend and faithful servant, Quabba, the hunchback. Behind them, floundering through the darkness relentless as they are desperate and determined, come the Virginia ne er-do-well and the gipsy outlaw Blair Stanley and Luke Lovell. The desire for a diamond and all it symbolizes of wealth, power and position, inspires the graceless Blair and the greedy gipsy in their relentless pursuit. Where the path of peril lies upon the sea, Vivian Marston floats, feigning unconsciousness, by the crushed and cut-down sailboat she drove across the course of the great white yacht. It is a desperate chance she takes, but "The Diamond from the Sky" is the guerdon of desperate chances. A dozen hands were helping now as Arthur swam, his hand upon the sailor collar of the seemingly un- 239 240 The Diamond from the Sky conscious lady of the sailboat. But the lady of the sailboat, though her eyes were closed, was fully con scious. A faint smile of triumph played upon her lips, her venture upon the path of peril had been a successful one. She had thrown herself into the arms of John Powell in such a dramatic and romantic, yet seemingly unpremeditated manner, that it could not fail to have its effect, she knew. So Vivian sighed with vague contentment and clung, seemingly semi-unconscious, to her rescuer as they were haled into the lifeboat; and when she was car ried up the companionway and into the handsomely furnished cabin of the yacht s owner, she could have laughed aloud for the sheer success of her wild plan. In the mine, the path of peril is dark and fearsome to the timid girl who is driven over it, pursued by the twain who will stop at nothing to prevent her reaching the one she loves with the Stanley document a document they believe she carries with her. The operation of an electric mine motor is simple enough, but when it balks in the inexperienced hands of Quabba, then indeed the dangers of this path of peril grow manifold. "Me don t know what s da matter with him, all the time now, Miss Esther," whimpers Quabba. "Some wire loose, maybe? Eh, what you think?" "We are far ahead of them," says Esther encour agingly; "even if the motor will only do this well, they will not overtake us. It seems to me we have gone miles and miles through this dreadful darkness!" "He stops, he don t go no more!" moans Quabba, as The Path of Peril 241 the little motor grinds and halts, then goes forward a few feet and stops with a jerk. "Do you think you can fix it?" asked Esther eagerly. Quabba s courage returns as he notes in Esther s question a tone of confidence in his ability as an ama teur electrical engineer. "Ha!" he says. "Plenty time I fix the organ. I find what s the matter and fix this!" and he jumps from the seat and under an electric light, in a wide part of the tunnel where the motor has halted, he proceeds to examine it with the air of one who de sires to impress all beholders with his deep knowl edge of electrical mechanics. There was light enough at this point to make any slight repairs, providing poor Quabba was competent to do so. But an intimate knowledge with the mech anism of street pianos is hardly of avail in repair ing balky electric motors. "Do be careful!" cautions Esther. "If anything should happen to you I would never forgive myself. I have heard of men being killed tampering with elec tric wires. And look!" and Esther pointed to a sign at the side where a new heading from the main tun nel was evidently being driven. There, plain in the light from the overhead incandescent bulb, was a dingy yet plain sign of warning that read: "Danger! Blast ready!" Near it was a small black box from which a plunger protruded and to which coils of insulated wire were attached. Even to Esther s inexperienced eyes, the purpose of the grim-looking little box and the coils was apparent. 242 The Diamond from the Sky It was mechanism to set off a blast, and the blast, as the sign warned, was ready. Quabba realized the fact as well as Esther and re doubled his efforts to locate the cause of trouble in the motor and to get out of the danger zone. The young girl and the poor hunchback, fleeing from the danger of human enemies, were now in danger of a horrible death in the deserted mine tunnel at this point. But such a death Esther did not dread as she dreaded the worse fate that might come to her if she fell again into the hands of Blair Stanley. Esther knew that Luke, for all his brutishness, had ever been attached to her. He had protected her in some measure before, but dominated as he was by greed and the stronger, more wicked mind of Blair Stanley, Esther felt no great confidence in Luke LovelFs further protection, if protection it might be called. While Quabba fussed and perspired in his inexperi enced efforts to remedy or find cause of the balking of the motor, Esther sat listening with straining ears to the weird and eerie, subterranean sounds of the ceaseless dripping of the water from the mine roof, and the occasional rattle and fall of loosened earth and rocks in the dark distances of the tunnel. Then there came through the darkness from far off behind them the sound of footfalls through the water that covered the tunnel floor. Like moving stars, she saw the lights of the candles borne by Luke and Blair. She knew it must be they, for the mine and all its workings had been as deserted as a place of the dead. The Path of Peril 243 "They are coming, Quabba!" she cried. "What shall we do?" The hunchback s usual kindly face took on a set expression of murderous determination, strange to Esther s eyes. "This time I kill them!" he exclaimed. "Wait, you see!" Leaving his task of searching for the trouble hi the mechanism of the motor, Quabba slipped around to the back of it and pushed the little machine, with many grunts and straining efforts, from the danger ous spot near the set blast and its warning sign. Pushing and panting, he shoved the heavy little machine over the water-covered tracks a hundred yards or more down the tunnel. Then he rushed back under the electric light by the set blast, and seiz ing the blast battery by its leather handle and uncoil ing the loops of wire, the other ends of which were fastened deep down in the blast holes to the detonator in the dynamite, Quabba slipped back through the darkness, and called to Esther to come around behind the shielding bulk of the motor with him. From the blast battery box, he carried, trailed the length of wire that transmitted the vital spark of the forces of destruction. Now Blair Stanley and Luke Lovell had located them by the single light upon the electric motor. They pressed forward with exultant shouts, then, just as they reached the wide space where the blast was set at the new heading, Quabba, shielded with Esther behind the motor, drove the plunger of the battery down swift and hard. 244 The Diamond from the Sky There was a deafening boom and crash, a burst of fire, the sound of showering rocks, a heavy fall of earth and debris that seemed to heave out and groan and rattle and settle then a choking fog of blast smoke, and silence! Whatever had been the matter with the motor, the shock and jar of the explosion had settled the loos ened wire back in place to a proper contact, for when, shaking with fright and excitement, Quabba had dragged Esther aboard the motor again and turned the lever, the little machine moved forward slowly at first and then, gaining speed, glided smoothly and swiftly out of the smoke and on and on, swifter, faster, until the hunchback and the trembling girl felt a breath of fresh air blow upon them, and saw a gleam of daylight and sped on and out from the dank mouth of the mine into God s good sunlight. The men called to this side of the mountain to the new workings, were astounded at the appearance of so strange a pair bursting out from the tunnel and speeding down the track on the electric motor that had been left at the other and far-off portal of the tunnel. The trackmen dropped their tools, the mine foreman and his wife joined with the throng of miners that surged around the motor and the strange pair that drove it a pallid gipsy hunchback and a half-fainting girl with a face like a flower. They told their strange story to sympathetic ears. Turning Esther over to the ministering attentions of the big-hearted sharer of his joys and sorrows, and leaving Quabba to be helped down from the motor by The Path of Peril 245 hands as kind though rougher than the womanly hands that had assisted Esther, the mine boss and several assistants reversed the motor and drove back into the mine depths to find, dead or alive, the men of whom Esther and Quabba had told. They returned at nightfall, having cleared away the debris of the blast, but finding no trace of Luke Lovell and Blair Stanley, for the wicked have luck alike with the good. At the edge of the blast Blair Stanley had been struck down and hurt slightly, and Luke had borne him back through the choking smoke all the weary way whence they had come, until they, too, reached daylight and safety, as Esther and Quabba had reached it, but on the far side of the mountain mine. That night by the fire in the office shack of the mine boss, Esther and Quabba told again such parts of their story as they cared to tell to the rough but sym pathetic new-found friends around them. Esther told of her search for Arthur, calling him only by the name that he was known by as oil magnate and owner of these newly acquired mines. She also said that he was a friend, a relative, and that, for rea sons she was unable to solve, the desperate men who had tracked her were evidently desirous she should not meet with him. "Mr. John Powell is a fine young man, my dear," said the stout and kindly wife of the mine boss. "I will take good care of you, and in the morning my husband will have one of the boys drive you to the railroad station. Mr. Powell has gone to Santa Bar- 246 The Diamond from the Sky bara. They say he has bought a beautiful new yacht, which is there to meet him. He will protect you and take care of you, I know. As for those rascals you got away from, it is fourteen rough miles across the mountain trail from the north portal of the tunnel. If they escaped with their lives, they will hardly make their way over the mountains to-night." "If they come this way I promise them a warm reception!" remarked the mine boss grimly. "The boys are just naturally pining to get hold of those two fellows. There will be work for the coroner if we catch them!" Esther trembled and gazed into the fire. In the glowing flames she seemed to see the handsome, reso lute face of Arthur gazing at her with the loving, tender expression his eyes had held when last he had clasped her in his arms. Outside, the moon hung like a silver shield over the mountain, its pale reflection softening the rough sides of the rugged canyon to tender grays and blues. The moon shone on the waters of Santa Barbara Bay. It shone down upon the broad white deck of a great yacht that moved majestically across the wa ters. Beneath the moon, the sensuous strains of an alien love song, chanted in a minor key, arose. In snowy white, with flower garlands on their breasts, a Hawaiian orchestra played the "Love Song of the Sky Flowers." It is seductively sweet in the vernacular. In English it may be sung: The Path of Peril 247 "Beloved, the stars are sky-flowers in the night! The flowers are ground-stars, dear, by day. And all the air is soft for your delight, Then let us love, sweetheart, while yet we may!" Beneath the moon, a chaplet of flowers in her hair, setting off her languorous beauty, reclines Vivian Marston. Near her is Arthur Stanley, alias John Powell, enthralled, enraptured under the spell of Vivian s alluring charms, the sensuousness of the Hawaiian love song of the "Sky Flowers" and the magic of the moonlight over all! A day begun dramatically by a flirtation with death, an evening of romance beneath the moon this, too, is a flirtation of death to all that is wholesome, good and true! Under the spell of Vivian s languorous eyes, John Powell treads the Path of Peril in his turn, but the path is not plain to him, for it is hidden by deadly flowers! The flowers on the Path of Peril seem sweet and fair to him; they may be such as are in the chaplet on Vivian s dark locks, for Arthur bends over these and murmurs: "I would give you anything in the world!" An eager glow comes into Vivian s dangerous eyes, a deeper flush suffuses her fair cheeks. "You would give me anything in the world?" she whispers. "Then get me The Diamond from the Sky !" "It has disappeared utterly off the earth," answers Arthur. "If it comes to light, it may not be mine to give ! " And he leans over to clasp her in his arms. But, pouting like a child denied, Vivian holds him 248 The Diamond from the Sky aloof. "You do not care for me," she says with af fected plain tiveness, "or you would promise!" And Arthur, such is the witchery of a wanton woman, such is the magic of the moonlight, promises her. Again the Hawaiian "Love Song of the Sky Flowers" rises, and Vivian sings it soft and low: "Beloved, the stars are sky-flowers in the night! The flowers are ground-stars, dear, by day. And all the air is soft for your delight, Then let us love, sweetheart, while yet we may!" The magic of the moon spreads over the sea. Its magic is over the mountain far away, where Esther dreams of Arthur. Yet the magic of the moon casts no spell over one Frank Durand. In far-away New York, Durand has no dreams or illusions. He is a practical person, is Frank Durand, known in the sphere that he adorns as "the King of Diamonds," for he is the moving spirit of a band of international jewel thieves and swindlers. Mr. Abe Bloom, prosperous gambling-house keeper in Richmond, is almost in despair about the great dia mond that slipped through his fingers. In his despair and desperation, Mr. Bloom has writtten to Mr. Durand, his New York acquaintance of the upper under world. Mr. Bloom s letter to the wily Durand is brief and blunt: MY DEAR DURAND: The last heard of "The Diamond from the Sky" was that train robbers stole it in California. If you and your bunch of The Path of Peril 249 crooks can get it, I have a syndicate to pay you your own price. Further details later. Our mutual friend, Vivian, is after it. Am afraid she will double-cross us. This diamond is worth half a million dollars and is some spark, believe me ! Yours, ABE BLOOM. In his luxurious bachelor apartments, "the King of Diamonds" receives his alert lieutenant, Felix de Vaux, alias Count de Vaux, and shows him the letter from the sententious Mr. Bloom. "So our old friend Vivian is after this diamond?" says the dapper little Count as he turns and faces the framed photograph of Vivian Marston that occupies a place of honor in Durand s apartments. "Vi* was always clever. Remember, she wrote about this stone?" The handsome Durand strokes his close-cropped Vandyke beard and muses. "I always thought that diamond was a myth," he says finally. "So many of these old and supposedly priceless heirlooms turn out to be junk when an expert gets his hands on them." And Mr. Frank Durand placed a peculiar emphasis on the word "expert." "Well," interjected the dapper little Count, "if Abe Bloom says there is such a stone and that it is worth half a million, you can be sure it is a real diamond and worth much more. Abe Bloom and his little brother Ike, the pawnbroker, are two of the best judges of diamonds in the country." "We should know that," assents Durand; "we have paid them well more than once to come on to New York and appraise stones for us when we were 250 The Diamond from the Sky- in doubt. And now, good-night. We start West to morrow. Pleasant dreams about The Diamond from the Sky to you, Felix!" Pleasant dreams about "The Diamond from the Sky"! Vivian Marston, three thousand miles away, dreams of it. Quabba, a humble hunchback organ-grinder, sleeping by a fire in a mine shed, dreams of it, too. No selfish dream is Quabba s. There is one person in all the earth he loves above all others and that one is his fair young mistress, Esther. So Quabba longs and dreams of the great jewel that he has found and lost so strangely twice in his lowly life. He longs for the diamond that he may give it to his fair young mistress as a tribute from her devoted servitor. In his dreams, Quabba beholds Clarence, the mon key, his next best beloved, and from whom he has been long parted. And in his black and hairy paws, Clar ence, the monkey, extends to his master the diamond of his dreams. Then Quabba wakes and sleeps again, perchance again to dream. Far away in the wilderness, Marmaduke Smythe, cursing a fate that led him to lose himself in these trackless wastes, dreams, too, by a dying fire. But his dreams are not of diamonds. He dreams a hor rid savage leers at him through a monocle. A sav age who is a stickler for the niceties. For even in his dreams the timid London lawyer knows that it is night, and he is impressed by the fact that the sav age about to scalp him is attired in a dress coat. The lawyer wakes with a shriek of fear, and on his ears fall the harsh croaking of the unseen enemies who con- The Path of Peril 251 stantly alarm him. Not redskins, as he thinks, but greenskins; not savages in ambush, but frogs in the marsh. Stirred by the frightful memory of hie dream, Marmaduke Smythe springs to his feet and discharges his shotgun into the marsh. "Ha!" he says, "I must jolly well have exterminated the savage Iroquois ! I will reconnoitre ! But caution, Marmaduke, caution!" he counsels himself. "They are silent now ; perhaps they are endeavoring to draw me into an ambuscade!" He creeps forward stealthily and parts the bushes by a marsh puddle. There lies the corpse of his foe- man, a great green frog extremely defunct. Nearby, caught in the low tangle of marsh shrubbery, is a curious gleaming object in the moonlight. The lawyer stoops down and picks it up. It is the spoil the pelican despised when he shook it from the fish that brought it from the depths. Worthless to fish or fowl, the eccentric London lawyer grasps it with a startled cry of wonder and surprise. Marmaduke Smythe has "The Diamond from the Sky"! CHAPTER XVII THE KING OF DIAMONDS AND THE QUEEN OF HEARTS DOWN the rough mountain road, turning abrupt and dangerous curves, skirting the edge of sheer precipices, the buckboard sped on its thirty-mile trip from the south portal of the mine tunnel in the mountain to the small depot that was the nearest rail connection of the mines with civilization. Engaged with his team, the driver had little oppor tunity in the first wild stretches of the rough, steep road from the mines to speak to Esther, although his frank young face was wreathed with a cheerful smile of appreciation at the honor he felt was his in con voying so fair a young woman, and so odd and inter esting a personage as the droll foreign Quabba, en sconced on the back of the buckboard. "Pretty rough road, Miss!" ventured the driver as the horses steadied down to a canter on a level and somewhat wider and safer stretch of the way than they had encountered before. "You see, it s this way," the young miner went on, "John Powell, the millionaire, has bought the mines and he will have a railroad run up the valley and we will tram the ore down to it. But just now the 252 King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 253 ore has to be teamed for thirty miles to the rail road. It is a good thing it s all downhill and only the empty wagons have to come back. We had twenty- horse teams pulling parts of the machinery to the mines." Esther listened to the driver with seeming atten tion, but her thoughts were far away. The old feud of the Stanleys would not down. Girl though she was, Esther felt inspired with blood-hatred, which is as strong as blood s more kindlier ties, and stronger. That Blair was in her thoughts, more in contempt than fear, while of his gipsy companion and accomplice, Luke Lovell, she thought not at all, may not seem strange, if propinquity has the subtle influence it is supposed to have. As the buckboard sped along toward the base of the mountain, Blair Stanley and Luke Lovell had gained the mountain summit in their long and ar duous tramp from the mine portal on the other side of the range. Blair s field-glasses were focussed upon Esther, at the very moment her mind s eye was focussed upon him. "There goes Esther!" cried Blair, putting down the glasses and pointing to the buckboard that moved, a mere speck to the naked eye, along the road far down below. "We can intercept her by dropping straight down this cursedly steep mountain," Blair added. Luke grunted a surly assent and the two desperate adventurers, the gentleman, so called, and the gipsy, started down the rough, straight mountain trail at as brisk a pace as they dared attempt. To Luke Lovell 254 The Diamond from the Sky the thought that his fortune would be made by aid ing Blair in his purposes was tempered with a feel ing that he was disloyal to his Romany ties, for Esther was a gipsy and the daughter of Hagar, Luke believed. Still, as though dominated by Blair s more keen and sinister intellect, the gipsy outlaw followed the des perate Virginia wastrel, seemingly with a brute-like fidelity. As Blair and Luke speed down the mountain over a rocky and half-obliterated trail to intercept Esther, Marmaduke Smythe, guiding himself by the sun, plods along the road at the base of the mountain. Marma duke Smythe is embued with one idea. The idea is that "England, home and beauty," as he expresses it to himself, lies to the East. So at sunrise he has faced the East and plodded from his camp-fire, carrying the suitcase, his gun and the deer head, which more and more he has come to believe is a bona-fide trophy of his prowess as a hunter in the American jungle. "The Diamond from the Sky" means little or noth ing to Marmaduke Smythe. "How it came on the veldt I cannot for the life of me imagine," he muses. "I only know I am a bally ass ever to have left Eng land to find the Yankee heir to the Stanley Earldom. Here," he went on as he plodded wearily along in heavy marching order, "here I come to find the heir for an English Earldom, and find the heirloom of, as his late Lordship was wonted to say so fittingly, the blasted Yankee relatives ! "I shall jolly well soon be relieved of its responsi bility, getting a proper receipt, of course, and return King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 255 to England, which is a safe and proper country to live in," he soliloquizes. "Then, if the American Stan leys want the Stanley Earldom, let them come to Eng land for it. It has brought me twice to this most barbarous country, a country of vast and astonishing distances, but it is the last time! I am going home to die no more, as the Yankee Blackamoors sing in their plantation melodies, way down south in Michigan! These reveries were ended abruptly by a succes sion of pistol shots. The startled lawyer next hears a pounding clatter of hoofs and the rattle of wheels com ing behind him. "Again the savage Iroquois have tracked me down!" he cried and stood stock-still, too frightened to move. Then he felt himself bowled over and his belongings scattered in the dust. The horses attached to a buckboard had gone over him and had knocked him down, but fortunately both hoofs and wheels had missed him, the horses shying to the mountain side of the road. Smythe, picking himself up, saw that the wagon was driven by the pretty girl who had shared the coach with him, just previous to the wreck that had made him what he was now, a wanderer in the wilderness. But hardships and adventure had sharpened the wits of the London lawyer. He gave a willing hand to help bring the horses out of their tangle of harness against the hillside, and was quick to accept the proffer of a lift from the mysterious young lady and the strange foreign-looking hunchback with her. The lawyer briskly piled his chattels on the buck- board and hopped nimbly on the back, and was speed- 256 The Diamond from the Sky ing on, all within the space of a few seconds. He gleaned from the comments of his rescuers that they had been attacked by two men on foot, and that the driver of the vehicle had been shot and lay back in the road, wounded or dead. A cold sweat broke out upon the brow of Marma- duke Smythe. "Actually," he thought to himself, for the vibration of the buckboard slats kept him mute, "actually, these wild Americans seem to take pistoling as an everyday matter, like having muffins for tea at home in England!" Luke and Blair had failed again. They had inter cepted the buckboard and had shot down the brave young miner, who had refused to halt at their sudden shouts when they had sprung out from the brush of the hillside to the road. "They have killed me! Drive on and save your selves!" had been the last words of the driver, and even as he had fallen or had thrown himself from the seat he had struck the horses a quick, heavy blow with the whip. The maddened horses left the pursu ing Luke and Blair far behind. But at a fork in the road, the horses took the wrong turn and went astray. Realizing this, Esther, Smythe and Quabba made camp and waited till daybreak. Around their small camp-fire, which they sheltered with rocks in order not to attract attention, the three, so strangely thrown together, recounted the eventful adventures that had befallen them since the wrecking of the coach. "It is a coincidence, my dear young lady," Marma- duke Smythe remarked finally, "that you are seeking King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 257 for this very elusive young millionaire, John Powell, too. I have a letter for him from that very astute chap, Blake, the Richmond detective. This Blake is a most reticent person, but he assured me that if I came to California and saw this John Powell, the latter would help me to locate Arthur Stanley. It is my duty to locate Arthur Stanley. "Whether he is a ticket-of-leave man or is to be lynched or remain a fugitive, is not in my province to argue. He is the heir to the Stanley Earldom. But frankly, young lady, if England expects me to go any farther in doing my duty in this matter, England is vastly mistaken. I am going back as soon as I can find a train and boat to take me. If you are seeking this John Powell also, will you ask him to con vey this to Arthur Stanley? Oddly enough, although I am not at all surprised at anything that happens to me in America, I found this yesterday when attacked by Indians I heard their war-whoops distinctly on the veldt, or rather in a marsh!" And to the amazement of Esther and Quabba, the English lawyer brought from his breast pocket, in the most matter-of-fact manner, "The Diamond from the Sky." _ Again and again the Englishman explained the strange manner of its finding. Esther and Quabba could not grasp or solve the mystery of the strange reappearance of the priceless Stanley heirloom here in this wild land. As for Smythe, he only asked to be rid of it. "I wish no further responsibilities, and I would not stay on the veldt or in the jungles of America for a leather 258 The Diamond from the Sky hatbox full of Diamonds from the Sky, " he added. "So please deliver it to this Mr. Powell, for Arthur Stanley, with my compliments, exacting, of course, a receipt." As he said the words, he wrote a brief acknowl edgment in his notebook and tendered the book and his fountain pen to Esther, adding: "Please sign, Miss Harding!" But when Esther affixed her name boldly, "Esther Stanley," the lawyer scratched his head in a puzzled manner. But, although he was puzzled, he was not surprised. Nothing that could happen in America ever surprised Marmaduke Smythe. But he bared his head and kissed her hand a gentleman of the old school saluting a daughter of the Stanleys of the blood! Esther clasped the diamond around her neck. By every right and title it belonged to her. The impulse of grim determination that had actuated her father to rob her of her birthright in order that the great gem might never go to Blair Stanley, his enemy s child, was the impulse that made Esther s heart beat resolutely with the same resolve. Yet if the Stanley heirloom was in sooth the Stan ley "Charm Against Harm," Esther Stanley needed its protecting influence now! The next day, the delay and losing their way, giv ing their enemies chance to overtake them on horses stolen from a lonely ranch in the valley, Marmaduke Smythe was jolted from his place at the back of the buckboard. His discomfiture, however, aided Esther and Quabba. For the horses of Luke and Blair had shied off at the squirming figure of the lawyer [King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 259 in the road, and when Blair and Luke had resumed pursuit, Esther and Quabba had reached the little rail road station and safety. In Los Angeles, Vivian Marston still weaves the spell of her charms about Arthur. She is the first to be taken to view the wonderful Aladdin s palace that he, as the millionaire oil man and mine owner, John Powell, has built in Los Angeles. It is a fitting home to house the woman who dreams of possessing "The Diamond from the Sky"! Vivian resolves that this shall be the greatest adven ture of her adventurous career. She does not realize that it is the plan and not the price, the battle and not the victory, the desire and not the accomplishment, that is the motif that actuates all who desperately do or dare. But as a philosopher wisely said, "Everybody has a past!" It is not the things we do nor the things we are going to do that sway our course so much as the things we have done. Vivian was parting with John Powell at the door of her hotel. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks were flushed. Never had she been so interested or so happy. Her admirer s infatuation was complete. Vivian only waited till the diamond was seen again of men. Then she knew it would be hers! But everybody has a past. At the door of her hotel, as she smiled her most dazzling smile in farewell to John Powell, a dapper young Frenchman attired in the height of fashion, stumbled against her. 260 The Diamond from the Sky "A thousand pardons!" he cried, and lifting his hat he bowed sweepingly to Vivian and then to Arthur, waiting at the curb by his limousine. As Vivian blanched, for she recognized the little Frenchman, she felt a card pressed into her hand, the passing of the card being hidden by the stranger s hat. She deftly hid the card in the lace cuff of her sleeve, and the little Frenchman murmured his apologies again, and was gone. Vivian hardly remembered how she had said good bye and reached her room. Strong as was her will and resolution, she felt her hand tremble as she plucked the card from her sleeve. She had hardly need to look. It was a playing card the King of Diamonds! Vivian struck a match and applied it to the corner of the card. The face of the card burned, shrivelled and passed off in smoke. There on the backing in bold masculine handwriting was a message: To THE QUEEN OF HEARTS: You will work with us. We are after "The Diamond from the Sky." (Signed) THE KING OF DIAMONDS. "Frank Durand!" she gasped, "Frank Durand!" She clenched the scorched card till it crumpled to a shapeless mass. Her past had come back. The past of Monte Carlo, and of Egypt; a past that meant the police and flight, a past that meant waste and folly and wealth ill-gained and quickly dissipated; a past that was her youth, a youth of precocious beauty and charm and even more precocious villainies of vel vet and gems! King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 261 And now, Durand, the King of Diamonds, called upon her with all the might and right of these crim inal bonds of old association. Now if she gained "The Diamond from the Sky" this star among jewels would not blaze upon her breast; it would be sold as swag and divided up as plunder by Durand, the international swindler and gem thief, the notorious King of Dia monds. The King of Diamonds! She remembered now her part in the game. She was the Queen of Hearts! The decoy! And Vivian Marston beat her tender hands against the wall until they were bruised and swollen, and bit her lips till the blood came. She knew now whom she had to fight, their cruelty and their cunning. But she resolved to match cruelty and cunning with her beauty and her woman s wit. This time she would stack the cards. The Queen of Hearts would play against her old confederates for "The Diamond from the Sky"! At Santa Barbara, Esther and Quabba arrive and there they learn that the beautiful new yacht belong ing to John Powell is still in the harbor. Esther re solves to visit Arthur on board unannounced, taking with her the Stanley heirloom and the Stanley docu ment. For she has passed by the wrecked coach and recovered the fateful paper where she had hidden it from Blair and Luke. Esther does not know that Blair has knowledge of John Powell and his yacht. But Blair having no cause for secrecy when he arrived in Santa Barbara, has not remained hidden at a hotel as Esther has 262 The Diamond from the Sky the discreet Quabba also keeping from sight so Blair learns John Powell has left the yacht and has returned to Los Angeles on business. Unless Esther has communicated with Arthur, which Blair does not deem likely, Arthur has no rea son as yet to suspect him, Blair knows. In his daring way, Blair is indifferent. He telegraphs to John Pow ell that he has arrived in Santa Barbara and is dis appointed in missing him. Arthur, receiving the telegram, wires Blair to stay on the yacht till he returns. For the sake of the old associations of their wild youth in Virginia and be cause he has the generous desire to make amends for the injustice he thinks he has done Blair, Arthur re joices that his whilom cousin has come West. At present it is Vivian s wish to keep Blair from Los Angeles. The time may come when she may need him there when she battles against Durand, the King of Diamonds, and the rest of "the pack," as they call themselves. How she is to exert her wiles upon Arthur in the proximity of Blair, is a matter that Vivian leaves to time and the place. Blair and the sailing master of the yacht get their telegraphed instructions from John Powell and when Blair goes aboard, he finds the sailing master and a few of the men of one watch aboard, the rest of the crew having been given shore leave in the absence of the owner. "Make yourself at home, Mr. Stanley," says the sailing master. "You will find things in Mr. Powell s cabin." King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 263 "I will need a good deal of fixing up," Blair explains laughingly. "My man and I got lost in the moun tains while hunting," and he indicates Luke, who had come aboard with him. "Let your man go to the forecastle and I will see that he is fitted out," said the sailing master. "As for you, sir, I take it from Mr. Powell s telegram you are to help yourself to what you wish of his things, till your own are sent for." The sailing master led Blair to John Powell s cabin, and then said he would take the launch to the wharf and round up the crew in Santa Barbara. "Which," he added, "won t be hard to do, as Santa Barbara is a temperance town. It is only a question of which one of the movie shows the men are at." As the yacht launch panted to the wharf, the sail ing master and the man running the launch were aware of a Tery pretty girl being rowed in the direction of Johc Powell s yacht by a hunchback of foreign aspect. The sailing master noticed the girl in the rowboat eyed him keenly, but turned as though disappointed, and again directed her gaze toward the yacht. Arriving by the companionway, Esther cautioned Quabba to make no explanation if questioned, as she wished to give Arthur the happy surprise of facing him unannounced. But no sailor on watch barred her way nor were any questions shouted over the rail to Quabba. The yacht swung idly at anchor, and such of the crew as were on the boat were in the forecastle with the gipsy fellow who had come aboard with the friend of the owner. Here the bottle of whiskey that Luke had brought 264 The Diamond from the Sky was augmented by some liquor of the same quality one of the sailors had in his bunk, and a jovial drinking bout was in progress. In John Powell s cabin, Blair had refreshed himself with a bath and had donned fresh linen and a yacht ing suit of the owner s. The two young men were of the same size and John Powell s uniform coat and cap fitted Blair to a nicety. Esther crossed the deck, but saw no sailor or officer in charge. She heard some one stirring abaft and there, in what was evidently the owner s cabin, she noted a tall and stalwart young man in uniform, his back turned to the open door. Esther tiptoed forward, and pulling the diamond out into view upon her neck, her lips framed the word, "Arthur!" Then she found herself gazing horrified into a mirror that reflected the handsome but wicked face of Blair! Esther turned with a cry for help and sped across the deck. There, from the doorway to the forecastle, the bulky form of a leering sodden brute creature faced her. It was Luke Lovell! Esther turned and darted to one side, missing the clutching grasp of Blair Stanley by a hair s breadth. The sudden revulsion from hope and happiness to fear and despair, had driven her to a frenzy of sudden fright. As though upon the wings of fear, she fled. Hardly knowing what she did save that she escaped her ene mies, Esther plunged over the sheer side of the yacht into the sea! Down, down, down she sank into the cold water, King of Diamonds and Queen of Hearts 265 with a pressure upon her heart that seemed about to burst her asunder. The strangling sea water rasped her tender throat. She clutched at her neck instinc tively. Her hands closed upon something hard and cold, colder than the cold depths in which she sank it was the diamond the Stanleys "Charm Against Harm!" CHAPTER XVIII THE CHARM AGAINST HARM QUABBA, in the rowboat by the bottom of the yacht s companionway, hears the struggle upon the deck between Blair and Luke, for instinctively these two have grappled as Esther, to escape them both, plunged over the side. It seems eternity to Quabba and a voyage to the gates of death to the strangling girl ere her head comes to the surface. But though weak, she clutches the rail of the rowboat and Quabba draws her in, wet and dripping and gasping for breath. No need of command for Quabba if Esther could give it. He heads the boat straight for the beach, for already he can see the sailing master on the wharf stairs bringing back the crew from their shore leave to the waiting launch. To Quabba, all who are stran gers are enemies and he heads in a straight line for the beach and the breaking surf, a half mile away. What ever it was that has caused his fair mistress to jump into the sea, it is enough for Quabba to hasten from the anchored yacht and ask no questions. On the deck, Luke and Blair struggle with vicious ferocity. The few half drunken sailors aboard tumble out from the forecastle, wild with excitement and delight at the splendid smashing scrap between the 266 The Charm against Harm 267 burly, heavy-built Luke and the lithe and active Blair. "Hey, Bill!" cries one of the sailors. "It s two old friends with a grudge, for sure!" Sensing the mistake that Luke has made in believ ing he drove Esther into the sea, but joying in the fight and longing to tear the brute gipsy s throat, Blair fights Luke like a demon. "I should worry, it ain t my floating palace they are mussing up!" exclaims another mariner. And he spoke truly in one sense, for like maddened beasts the two men tore at each other, and the snowy deck of the yacht was stained with blood which flowed profusely from both combatants. Against the panelled mahogany of the cabin side the fighters crashed, smashing and splintering glass and woodwork. In sheer tearing rage, they grappled and tore at each other s throats and eyes like madmen, and then with a swirl the two, combining all their strength to dash each other to insensibility and death, plunged from the smashed cabin side at the centre to the stanchion rail. At the heavy impact of the two strong bodies flung against it, the rail bent outward and the stanchions snapped like pipe stems, and the two men locked in death grips went over the side and into the water, kicking, thrusting, cursing. In the water, the more active Blair loosened hold and dived under. Coming to the surface, he waited for the gipsy s head to appear, and when Luke rose to the surface bubbling and gasping for breath, Blair struck him a smashing blow between the eyes and swam to the companionway. Half stunned and half strangled, Luke screamed in 268 The Diamond from the an inarticulate insanity of rage and hate. Then through his dull mind came a realization that Blair, as friend of the owner of the yacht, would have the aid and assistance of the sailors. Leaving the matter for another day to settle, for Luke was of a nature that loved to nurse and cherish his enmity, the gipsy turned and swam strongly and doggedly to the shore. Blair, panting, water soaked and half naked, leaned over the rope railing of the companionway and looked after Luke with that respect one good fighting man has for another. "Hurt, sir?" a sailor asked in whiskey scented ac cents in his ear. "Only a little scratched," said Blair, noting with some satisfaction that the cold sea water had checked the bleeding of his wounds. "The poor fellow must have gone roaring mad," added Blair in explanation. "We had been lost in the woods for some days, and he must have secured some whiskey and gone clean crazy. For the first thing I knew, he sprang upon me fighting like a mad dog!" It was this same explanation that Blair made to the sailing master, when the latter returned in the launch with the sailors from their shore leave. For the sailors left in the forecastle had not seen or known of Esther s boarding the yacht in search of Arthur, or of her wild leap from it when faced by Blair and Luke. Nor had the sailing master, mustering his men at the end of the street leading to the wharf at the time of Esther s leap, known of her presence The Charm against Harm 269 aboard the yacht. The sailing master had seen the rowboat with Quabba and Esther headed straight for the beach, but the rowboat was too far away for even keen sailor eyes to note that the girl was weak and wet. "I have heard of sailors getting homicidal d. t s," said the sailing master, "but I never knew a landsman to get em that quick. He seemed a quiet fellow, but he was a tough looking customer, and you must be some scrapper yourself to have stood him off!" The two sailors who had witnessed the Titan com bat grinned, for it had been a bout to delight the eye. But just then the sailing master gave a sudden cry. "Look at that fool! What is he doing? Trying to commit suicide?" And the sailing master pointed to the beach where the rowboat with the tired, unskilled hands of Quabba on the oars, was negotiating the surf. "Shall we lower a boat, sir?" asked one of the sailors. "There was a woman spilled from the boat with that awkward landlubber!" The sailing master shaded his eyes with his hand and then said, "By George, the girl can swim all right! She is even helping the landlubber. They re all right. See, the fellow with her is asking some one to save the boat. There is quite a bunch of people on the beach now, and our crazy friend sees them, too, and evidently does not desire to be questioned, for he is striking off to land further down the beach!" And the sailing master pointed to the bobbing head of the strongly swimming Luke, a mere speck above the water, half way to the shore. "The people on the beach didn t even see my late 270 The Diamond from the Sky friend of the woods," remarked Blair with a cynical smile. "Oh, well, let the poor fellow go. The cold water will bring him to his senses." And Blair turned and went toward the cabin to make another change in his attire from Arthur s yachting wardrobe. "He s a cool one," said the sailing master admiringly, as he gazed after Blair, who walked in his dripping clothes across the deck whistling. "I ll bet he is a Virginian, that lad. He says he is the owner, Mr. Pow ell s, cousin, and Powell is another fighting daredevil just like him. They breed good men in the West, but there s nothing wrong with the fighting strain they raise in old Virginia!" Luke gained a deserted part of the beach unob served and regained his breath by lying upon the sand in the sun for a few moments. Then he stood up and shook the water from him, as a great dog might have done, and strode off. Luke Lovell had no use for the town. Far away in the Sierras, the Lady Veronica mines and other pros perous and busy diggings called him. By train and on foot, he made his way and by another day Santa Barbara was far behind him. But though he went for work, and to get away from his very hate of Blah- Stanley, Luke Lovell had not deviated one iota from his set, sullen purpose. Work was well enough for a while. But he could remember that when he was but a gipsy stripling of eighteen and had come to America to join his cousin Romanys here, Matt Hard ing was already a rich man, as gipsies go, and was drinking himself to death "like a gentleman." And now Luke was on the edge of his own fortunes, The Charm against Harm 271 he thought. Had he not been first to see the paper that Blair Stanley had pursued and persecuted Esther to obtain? Then, too, Luke Lovell had beheld and possessed "The Diamond from the Sky," the priceless Stanley heirloom ! Luke clenched his hand and looked down as though he expected to see the great gem he had thrice grasped as his own, still burning balefully in his bronzed and brawny grasp. But the diamond was gone, and he clutched at the empty air, and trudged on resolved that the purpose of his life would be to have and to hold it in the very face of death. But he would have no more of Blair Stanley, that he was resolved. Esther, after being thrown upon the beach from the overturned boat with Quabba, thanked those who rushed up to assist her and her companion, and as sured them it had been just an accident of small consequence. Her spirits rose again in thankfulness, and followed by poor Quabba, who half hysterically accused himself of every crime under the calendar in his humiliation at having imperilled his young mistress, Esther reached a quiet part of the beach and, from there, had Quabba summon a conveyance which took her to the hotel on a side street, where she had secured quarters for herself and her servant. Here Esther changed her attire, as did Quabba also, but, as his garments were of the simplest and were much alike in pattern and antiquity, this made but slight change in his appearance. Esther knew she was safe enough in Santa Barbara 272 The Diamond from the Sky or any other city. She would fight Blair Stanley fearlessly along the lines the Stanleys had always fought their feuds among themselves. True, the Stanleys, even in their feuds, had seldom fought women. But Esther, knowing she had the protection of Arthur s love, and having every confidence in the strength, wit and courage of this handsomest of all heroes in her eyes, felt as though Blair was over matched, when all was said and done. Had she met Blair in the streets of Santa Barbara, she might even have bowed to him with a mocking smile. She knew that he was so circumstanced that in the open places of a great city he could say or do nothing to hurt or harm her. It is a practical age, so the young lady who had been pursued through the wilderness by two desperate ruffians in the most melodramatic manner, a day or so ago, and who this very morning had leaped from a yacht to again escape them, walked prosaically to the telegraph office and sent a message to Mr. John Powell, president of the Good Hope Oil Company, Los Angeles. The message seemed one of a dozen matter-of-fact communications the pretty, dark-eyed young lady clerk in the Western Union Office at Santa Barbara handled every day. It read: "Came here to see you. Urgent. Wire instructions. (Signed) ESTHER." "You will probably have an answer in an hour or so," said the clerk, and Esther murmured her thanks and said she would be back, and, such is the prosaic The Charm against Harm 273 life even for beautiful damsels in distress, went shop ping in the interim, while Quabba lurked at a respect ful distance. In the woods and in the wilderness, on the danger ous waters, he could come close to cherish and protect his beloved young mistress. But in the built-up town where romance and devotion seems strange and out of place, convention required that the faithful Quabba must keep aloof. Esther had not asked this, but she knew the prox imity of the queer-looking follower who served her so faithfully would, in a town, bring upon her attention and questioning. Meanwhile at the south portal of the Lady Veronica Mines, there are excitement and alarm. Some ranchers from the valley below have borne back the wounded and half-unconscious young miner who had driven Esther and Quabba when they were attacked by Blair and Luke on the lonely mountain road. Re vived and nursed by the mine foreman s motherly wife, the driver tells his story. "I do not know what became of the young lady and the little Italian man with her," murmurs the young miner, while tears of weakness and vexation welled to his eyes. "I would have died to save her; I did my best!" "Some of the boys saw the tracks of the buckboard turn off on the old road that ain t used no more," said one of the ranchmen. "Tom here rode back and found a camp, but the buckboard and horses and everybody was gone. Them two fellers stole hosses 274 The Diamond from the Sky from San Marcos ranch, and they must have caught the girl and the little Italian feller!" "And I lost a copy of the Police Gazette I was keep ing to read Sunday," growled another. "It s mighty interesting reading, that Police Gazette, especially in a dull country like this where nothing exciting ever happens!" This is the way of the world. Distant fields look the greenest. We think that romance only nourishes beyond the sky line, and lo, it is at either hand! The mine foreman thought the matter of sufficient importance to endeavor to communicate with John Powell, the owner of the mines, in far Los Angeles, by long distance telephone. The beauty and charm of Esther, the strange secrecy of her quest for John Powell had impressed the mine foreman. He was of Scotch extraction and the cost of long distance telephoning to Los Angeles was to his mind a prodigious thing. But well was his desperate extravagance though charged to the company rewarded by the broken, excited thanks of his million aire employer. "Yes, yes, you did right, McKenzie, to call me up to tell me! Oh, damn the expense, man, I ll give you ten thousand dollars if the young lady is all right! Stop all work, arm all the men and search everywhere till the girl is found ! Don t stop to ask any questions and if the men are caught who molested her, string them up or shoot them down or both! I m taking my fastest car and I m making for the mines!" At his office in Los Angeles, Arthur dashed like a madman from the telephone, crying excitedly to his The Charm against Harm 275 secretary as he went that a most urgent matter called him to the mines, and ran from the building to his waiting auto, followed by the bewildered office porter, with his auto cap and coat. He had hardly left before Esther s message from Santa Barbara arrived and within the hour, Esther received the following answer: Los Angeles, 11 A. M. To Miss ESTHER HARDING, SANTA BARBARA, CAL. Replying to your wire. Mr. Powell left for mines seeking you. No way of communicating with him as he is en route in auto. (Signed) E. WHITE, Secretary. Since Hagar s sudden mental affliction, of which only Blair Stanley knew the cause, and guiltily, the wealth Esther s gipsy mother was supposed to possess seemed to have disappeared absolutely, and Esther had been dependent on the generosity a generosity as sudden as it was strange of Blair s mother and the more friendly kindness of Mrs. Randolph in Richmond, until she had received the thousand dollars so mysteriously. With this money, which she knew was from Arthur, Esther with Quabba had come to California in search of him. She was still in sufficient funds, therefore, to continue her quest which was now like a game of hide-and-seek. It was her purpose in life and no other interest held her except that she worried as to Hagar s condition and had wired to the house surgeon of the Richmond sanitarium and received the comforting reply that there was every indication of complete re covery in due time. Upon receipt of the telegram, 276 The Diamond from the Sky Esther and Quabba took a train to the nearest station to return to the mountain mine, and hiring horses here, completed their journey. Blair found time lying heavy on his hands aboard the yacht, and deeming from his telegrams that he was in a chastened frame of mind, Vivian thought it best to have him come to Los Angeles. It was time Blair met Durand, the King of Diamonds, and his accom plice, the dapper Count de Vaux. If everybody has a past, it behooves no one to ask awkward questions. Blair, upon reaching Los Angeles, sullenly at times, and again with some show of fellow ship, accepted association with the debonaire and pol ished Durand and the dapper and cunning Count de Vaux. But alone with Vivian, Blair made his muttered protests. "These old friends of yours have their nerve!" he growled. "To hear them talk you would think that once they got their hands upon the diamond, it would be booty to be sold abroad and the money divided. I like their impudence! Damn them, don t they know the diamond belongs to me lawfully if Arthur Stanley dies, and that it will belong to me and I will give it to you if I can ever get my hands on it, whether he lives or dies?" "Now do keep your temper, my dear boy," coaxed Vivian. "You are not in any position to tell who or what you are. We are in no position to let Durand and de Vaux suspect anything, especially must they never suspect that the man they know or have heard of as John Powell, is Arthur Stanley. They would Copyright, 1916, O. W. IKUingham Camvany The diamond will be yours if I can get my hands upon it." ,The Charm against Harm 277 blackmail him all for themselves. As it is now, we need the help of such a capable pair in getting all we can of the Powell millions, on a share and share alike arrangement. "And don t worry about who is to get the diamond. If it ever comes to light, it will be mine. But mean while, be a nice boy and pretend, as I do, you are going to be on the square with these swell crooks. And we will be on the square with the millions we ll get from your lucky cousin if he is your cousin the so- called John Powell. "But the diamond we ll fight for that when it is found. "I fancy, Blair, my dear, you and I will be a match for our clever friends, Durand and de Vaux, when it comes to the question of who will get The Diamond from the Sky !" Blair grinned his appreciation of Vivian s subtle plan, and seemingly he worked hand in glove with "the pack" from then on. It was payday at Mammoth. Mammoth, as Mr. Peter Huff would say, was "Some burg!" Mr. Huff should have known, he was the proprietor of "Pete s Palace," the one amusement and public accommodation enterprise at Mammoth. It was a great dance-hall, gambling-hell, bar-room and restaurant combined. Money flowed like water at Mammoth, which was in the centre of the newly opened mines in the mountains where John Powell and other magnates were putting in more money than perhaps they ever would get out. 278 The Diamond from the Sky Pete s Palace was a shed-like, roughly built edifice with a great bar, a greater lunch counter, a dancing floor and many sorts of gambling tables. Here were recreation and refreshments, and some forty or fifty more or less charming persons of the fair sex made time pass pleasantly for the male guests of Pete s Palace by dancing with them for "two bits" a dance. These were high prices considering the shortness of the dances, but there was plenty of money on pay nights at Mammoth. But things were at a lull when Frank Durand ar rived at Mammoth. He had received w r ord from some underground source that several of the train robbers who had been in the hold-up in which the diamond was taken from Vivian, consorted at Pete s Palace. A sign in the underworld s fraternal code upon his en trance, and Pete and Durand were soon in conference. A few words were overheard by a hulking gipsy fel low at the bar, and a third person was party to the con versation. This third party was Luke Lovell, who, re tracing his steps in search for work, had encountered at Mammoth the wandering desert Indian. In him, Luke had proof to substantiate to Durand his story of the diamond. "It s at the bottom of the sea!" concluded Luke gruffly, and Durand whistled and wondered, but was not convinced. Mammoth would seem a magnet that draws together many concerned with the Stanley diamond and the Stanley secret. From two worn horses alight Esther and Quabba, tired and hungry. Pete s Palace is getting crowded now; it is the only place in miles that offers refreshment for man and beast, and some of the men The Charm against Harm 279 are beasts. One of these leans against the lunch-coun ter and leers at the worn and exhausted girl who has entered with the foreign-looking little hunchback. Esther has been loath to enter or stay in the place, but she is faint with hunger and Quabba has insisted she must have at least a cup of coffee before they ride further. Arthur, speeding through the wilderness in his high- powered car that goes direct and leaves train systems far behind, has picked up a strange wanderer in the wilds, an exhausted English lawyer, carrying a deer head by a strap-handle, and too tired to talk. Pete s Palace fills up, the dance is at its height. Arthur, who as John Powell has furnished as an employer most of the money that is being spent in Pete s Palace, arrives with the tired lawyer, for refreshment ere speeding on in his feverish search for Esther. He is entering the door when there is an outbreak by the counter that attracts the attention of all. A man who is a beast has grasped the shrinking Esther, say ing, "Come on, sweetheart, and dance!" As he clutches her, the neck of Esther s blouse is loosened and a great diamond dangles out, blazing in the fierce light of the lamps overhead. Durand sees it, Luke Lovell, who has stepped aside at seeing Esther and Quabba enter, sees it. Luke forgets the diamond, and springing to Esther s aid again, strikes down the man who is a beast. There is a wild uproar, and Pete with his ruffianly help, sides with Durand in the bold claim the latter makes for the diamond. It is torn from the neck of Esther and, in the grasp of a woman known as Kansas 280 The Diamond from the Sky Em, some secret spring is touched and the back of the locket opens and a creased paper falls out. It is the woman known as Kansas Em who seizes and reads the paper, calling for silence, which falls in a great dramatic hush. She reads: "Oh, Child of my heart! Not a diamond, but a loving mother s prayer is the true Charm against Harm !" Even a life of shame cannot stamp out the feminine desire for decency and the womanly obsession to pro tect the innocent and the motherless. A quiver shakes the frame of Kansas Em. Two great tears streak the paint upon her sallow cheeks. She turns in fury upon her boss and master. "You damned skunk ! " she cries. "This is a mother s prayer this locket is that poor girl s!" As though this were a signal at which all demoniac passions were to break loose, the dance hall viragoes, in a psychological outburst of emotion and frenzied anger, spring upon the proprietor of the place and all his bullies, scratching, biting like valkyries. Attracted by the commotion and the crowd that sur rounds the lunch counter, John Powell breaks his way through, just as the riot starts. For one brief moment he and Esther gazed into each other s eyes, and for the first, and alas, for the last time, for many bitter days, were clasped in each other s arms. For it was then, as the chroniclers of the combat that followed will tell you : "Hell really broke loose!" Instinctively all took sides, the good element against The Charm against Harm 281 the bad, and even the better element of the bad against the worst. Esther and Arthur were torn apart, men and women fought like maniacs with hands and feet and teeth; every article that could be lifted and smashed was thrown or broken. Arthur struck right and left, performing prodigies of strength in his fren zied efforts to reach the side of Esther again. The lunch counter went over with a crash, the bar toppled and fell, and then the surge of the crowd, as a wave of the combat drove it to one side, tore out the west wall of the rickety frame building, and down smashed the roof, crushing all beneath it, and beneath it was Arthur Stanley, shattered to insensibility. But where was the diamond which had wrought all this? CHAPTER XIX A JEWEL FOR A QUEEN WHERE was "The Diamond from the Sky"? It was not in the grasp of Frank Du- rand, erstwhile King of Diamonds, it was not clasped in the tigress talons of Kansas Em, the dance-hall fury, whose outburst of morbid morality had been the pruning to the powder that had set off the emotional dynamite of maudlin sentimen tality as a cynic might describe it that had resulted in this frenzy of riot and destruction. The hot, fierce combat of men and women, indis criminately striving with each other like beasts, had brought resultant chaos. First, the rickety side wall of the mine-camp den had swayed and smashed out in a surge of the struggling mob. Then down crashed the roof and there were dust and darkness, screams, groans, a smudging of smoke and a crackle of fire. But where was "The Diamond from the Sky"? It was not in Esther s tender hands as Quabba, the ever watchful Italian, drew her from the maelstrom of the melee ere the roof had fallen. It was in the first outburst of Kansas Em s frenzied indignation, after she had read aloud the prayer in the locket a mother s prayer to come so strangely to the light after all these years that the diamond 282 A Jewel for a Queen 283 with its chain had been knocked from the dance-hall Amazon s hand. A strong arm had struck a mighty blow against the wrist of Kansas Em, and the dangling diamond had flown, a streak of white fire in the blazing lamplight, over the heads of the struggling, maddened men and women. Arthur, gasping and wild-eyed at sight of Esther, had fought to her side once more and had held out his arms to embrace her. Then like a mighty wave, the mass of stark-mad and heaving humanity had broken upon them and torn them apart. Pushed to the outskirts of the combat, Quabba had plucked Esther from the storm of blows, and had led her, dazed, to safety. Ahead of them spurted the agile English lawyer, Marmaduke Smythe, still hold ing fast to his most cherished possession, the mounted deer head, and on one of the horns of the deer head dangled the "Diamond from the Sky" ! When the riot had broken loose, Smythe had stood his ground, and angered at what he had designated as "the bally impertinence" of some unknown who had smashed a plate upon his head, he had struck out smartly, hitting every skull in sight. But when the surge of the crowd had borne him against the side wall and men and women had turned like beasts to rend each other, the lawyer, taking advantage of being near the doorway, had darted out into the night. In the excitement and the struggle he had not noted that the diamond had been hurled through the air, when Peter Huff, struggling for it like all the rest, had struck the arm of Kansas Em. Over the heads of the 284 The Diamond from the Sky crowd the diamond had flashed and fallen and fastened upon the deer horn, and so the lawyer had borne it from the scene of struggle unnoticed by any one, even himself. Scarcely knowing what he did, the panic-stricken Smythe darted into the first haven of safety he en countered. It was a barrel that Pete s bartender had converted into a kennel for a puppy given him that very day. Meanwhile the anger of the riot had turned to hor ror and fear. Those who had not been imprisoned or crushed by the falling roof of the dance-hall dragged themselves from the debris. Some ran wildly through the muddy streets of the little town crying for help and calling "Fire!" Others plucked at the ruins with torn and bleeding hands, and still others fought at each other s throat. Durand had not seen where the diamond had fallen, but instinctively he had torn through the little knot that fought around him at the beginning of the fray and had struck Luke a mighty blow between the eyes with all his strength and skill, for Durand had been a boxer in his earlier years. But Luke had shaken him self as a dog might do, and had closed in on Durand. This fellow has the diamond!" Durand had shouted above the din of the fight, and Huff and he, struggling with Luke, had broken to the outer edge of the fight and then to the door and down the muddy street, before the side wall went out or the roof had fallen. Luke was nearly a match for the two, but finally they beat him to his knees and searched him near the bar- A Jewel for a Queen 285 rel where the hiding lawyer lay. Then with curses of disappointment, Durand and Huff rushed back to the dance-hall just as the roof fell, and Luke, staggering to his feet, made off in the darkness, firm again in the belief that the devil himself dwelt in "The Diamond from the Sky," even though a mother s prayer had been all these years hidden behind it. The lawyer, peering cautiously from his hiding place, hears a clink and clatter against the side of the barrel into which he has crept to hide. In the darkness and on his hands and knees, he clutches the deer head closer, feels it to ascertain if it has been injured and his trembling hand closes upon the Stanley heirloom! In the blazing dance-hall ruins several people lay crushed to death s stillness beneath the wreckage. With these there is one stalwart man in auto costume whose face, blanched in death or unconsciousness, is cameo-like. It is John Powell, once Arthur Stanley! A great timber is across his chest and he is crushed and sorely shattered. Esther is sick and faint. "I am not hurt," she replies tremulously to Quabba s question, "but where is Ar thur? Has he escaped? Is he killed?" "Is he your friend?" asked Kansas Em, who is helping to hold her. "Why, that s the boss, Mr. John Powell, the millionaire, who has just bought the mines around here. He had just arrived when hell broke loose. Is he your friend?" Esther could have said that the young man known as John Powell was her only friend in all the world, save the poor Italian, Quabba, and a gipsy woman bereft of reason, in far off Richmond. But Esther did 286 The Diamond from the Sky not answer. She sped to the ruins and fought her way through several groups of men and women, beginning the work of rescue in the face of the flames. Where the roof had fallen, its upper end had been stayed and supported in some measure by the upturned lunch counter near the east wall. Where the west wall had given way and fallen out, that edge of the shattered roof rested, crushed and splintered, flat in the debris at that side. The crackling fire shed its light among the ruins and down in such interstices where Esther thrust herself in search of Arthur. Those who were pinned in the wreckage and were conscious of the added peril of fire, screamed and begged for aid and succor. Those who had escaped unhurt and others of the town of Mam moth who had not been in the dance-hall, flung them selves upon the wreckage with their bare hands and such tools as had come first to hand, and sought to save where just a few moments before many had sought to slay. There was no cry from the pinioned man whom Esther sought, and whom she found. As one dead he lay, half covered by the wreckage but with face un- scarred and undisfigured. Already the red edges of fire are creeping near him. Esther grasps his shoulders, but the task is beyond her strength until Quabba and their friend, the out cast Kansas Em, join their efforts with hers. Together they drag the unconscious man from the burning ruins of the dance hall. Now men are arriving with stretchers from the mine, and upon one of these Arthur is placed. And A Jewel for a Queen 287 then Esther, her strength and resolution leaving her, feels a deadly numbness come over her. Mammoth is a lawless community, and Peter Huff, the den keeper, is one of its most lawless arbiters. But he has the gamblers temperament. The destruction of his gambling hall is but the adverse turn of a card to him. "The Diamond from the Sky," since Durand has told him of it, now fills the mind of Peter Huff. If the lost jewel of price only can be recovered from the ruins or from him who has it, it will be well worth the loss of a hundred rough, tawdry dens like this, he thinks. Even toward Kansas Em, the whilom proprietor of the den has assumed an air of letting bygones be by gones. To the adventurous and philosophical tempera ment of the den keeper, the whole affair is a matter of predestination. "Joint keeper s luck," he calls it. "Easy come and easy go! In a gamble for a fortune, in a play for a stake worth half a million, I lose a dump worth five thousand the odds were worth it, even to lose!" says Mr. Huff. Then he turns to the late insurgent inmate of his den and says gruffly: "Well, Em, you pulled a fine bone for your boss when you started this scrap over your young lady friend there!" Here Pete looked keenly into the white face of the fainting Esther. Pete was not altogether lost to the higher humanities. "Why, she s only a kid," he says, "and she s all in ! Take her to your place and fix her up. We ve sent for the doctor; he s over at the other 288 The Diamond from the Sky mine. We ll need the coroner, too and the under taker!" he added. "I m a doctor," spoke up Durand, stooping ever Arthur, and thrusting aside several of the rough group who had gathered around the stretcher. "There are other people to help besides this one/ remarked Durand to these. "Hustle; I ll take care of Mr. Powell!" "You think he ll live?" asked Huff. "Are you really a doctor?" "He is very badly injured internally," replied Du rand. "Several ribs are broken and one of his arms. He should be taken to a hospital, as I think an opera tion is necessary. Yes, I am a doctor; I have a Heidel berg degree to prove it, but you must excuse me if I haven t it with me to clear up your doubts!" "Oh, don t be sore at me!" retorted Mr. Huff; "I don t care whether you re a hoss-doctor, a human- doctor or no doctor. But as Mr. Powell s death may mean the stopping of these works, you use your own judgment as to whether we will try to take care of him here or get him to Los Angeles. You had better at tend to him and I ll stick around here and search every body, living or dead, and dig in those ruins when they re cool enough, for that big stone you say is called The Diamond from the Sky. Don t worry about me, I ll be on the square." "Of course, you ll be on the square," replied Durand menacingly. "How could you dispose of it without getting into the penitentiary, unless you hand it over to me if you find it? Don t worry about being square with me, worry about my being square with you!" A Jewel for a Queen 289 And thus having thoroughly subjugated Mr. Peter Huff, Durand turned to minister to the unconscious John Powell again. It was no idle boast of Durand s that he was a physi cian and the possessor of a Heidelberg degree. But he had debased his great talents and his aptitude in this high profession. Mixed in several scandals, he had been forced to fly successively from New York, Paris and Vienna, Of late years he had ceased using his medical knowledge and connections, even in smuggling and dealing in narcotic drugs. He had found that while the results had been profitable, there was some thing more exciting in the desperate profession of inter national gem crook sensational success in this line having secured for him the pseudonym of "The King of Diamonds." And John Powell was badly injured. How badly, Durand had only been able to surmise at his first super ficial examination. But Durand believed that his pa tient s youth and strong constitution would enable him to stand a hurried journey to Los Angeles ere the reac tion from shock set in. Then, too, a daring scheme was formulating in Durand s mind. Crushed and helpless John Powell, the millionaire, as Durand knew him was wholly at his mercy. Surely when John Powell recovered strength and consciousness, common gratitude would impel him to retain the services of the physician who had saved his life by hastening with his shattered form from the wilderness to the care and conveniences of the city. Hastily but skillfully improvising an ambulance by the aid of the stretcher and John Powell s high-powered 290 The Diamond from the Sky roadster, and taking with him a mechanic to aid him in running and caring for the great car, Durand de parted from Mammoth with his still unconscious patient swathed in blankets. When Esther had recovered, the improvised auto mobile ambulance was gone. Esther knew nothing of Durand, save what Peter Huff could tell her in answer to her frantic inquiries. "He s a doctor, kid, that s all I know," Mr. Huff had replied. "He s a big doctor, too, and an old friend of your friend, Mr. Powell ; at least he s a friend of friends of his. You ought to be thankful. Doctor Durand told me Mr. Powell wouldn t have a chance for his life unless he was taken to a hospital at once and operated on." There were tears in Kansas Em s worldly-wise eyes at Esther s sorrow and distress, and the virago of the dance-hall comforted the innocent-minded younger woman as best she could. "If you re not satisfied, you go follow them," she whispered. "Have you any money, pet?" And Kan sas Em involuntarily made a movement as though to search her stocking, then she flushed, turned and angrily ordered Mr. Peter Huff out of her cabin. "Yes, thank you," murmured Esther, "I have quite enough money. I will have Quabba get our horses from the stable and we will ride to the station and take the first train to Los Angeles." "You will think some time of me, won t you?" asked Kansas Em huskily. "Here is the prayer from the locket. Did you know that was in it?" "No," said Esther, "I don t think any one knew it. 291 There seemed to be a secret spring that was touched." A secret spring was touched in the sinful breast of Kansas Em. "Your mother put it there when you were a baby," she murmured. "I know it, I felt it; there is a faint perfume like lavender about it. A mother s prayer!" Em sobbed as she took the paper from her bosom, where she had thrust it when the fight had begun in the dance-hall. "Even a sinner like I am is made the better by it," continued Em. "And will you pray for me?" "Always," said Esther brokenly, as she took the crumpled paper with its vague, old-tune perfume. Then Esther put her arms around the outcast elder woman and kissed her. And so these two met, and so they parted. It would be well if we could speak of an outcast redeemed, a Magdalen repentant and reformed. But Esther went her way in the world with her mother s prayer pro tecting her, and Pete s Palace was rebuilt and flourished within the fortnight and Kansas Em was the dance-hall belle in a few days, just the same. She lived her life till she died her death, and wept maudlin tears when she was drunk, when the pianist played sentimental songs of home and mother. The next morning, Marmaduke Smythe was twenty miles from Mammoth. With cheerful obstinacy he strikes eastward, guided by the sun. Passing horsemen, in answer to his questions, have told him the nearest railroad station lies to the westward. But Marmaduke Smythe has had all he wishes of the West. England, home and beauty lie eastward, he knows, and eastward 292 The Diamond from the Sky he holds his course with that sublime English obstinacy that somehow muddles through. But "The Diamond from the Sky"? Of all the world, Marmaduke Smythe is unmoved by its powers for good or ill. Whether it be baleful to those who have no claim or right to it and whether it be truly a charm against harm for Stanleys of the blood, means and matters nothing to Marmaduke Smythe. He feels it his duty to surrender it to the Stanley heir, but meanwhile it is a responsibility that preys upon him, a responsibility he does not deem should be his. He halts by a signpost that reads: "Twenty Miles to Mammoth!" He mops his brow and thinks, and truly, it s a long, long twenty miles that he has come, bearing with him by its shawl-strap handle the deer head that he bought at the auction at Stanley Hall. Personally, the deer head is far more to Marmaduke Smythe than all the diamonds in the world. He w r ould be rid of the diamond, but though he has long lost his way and all his other luggage, he still clings to the deer head trophy, as an Englishman will cling to what he prizes most, be it his accent, his monocle or his belief that Britons never will be slaves. Some thirty feet from the road, in a straight line with the signpost, is a great live oak tree, with many orifices. One particularly arrests the attention of Smythe as he walks toward the tree. It is a hole some few feet from the ground. Smythe hides the diamond in the dark, soft recesses of this hole in the live oak bole, makes a careful memorandum of the hiding place and nearby landmarks and his paced measurement to the road and signboard. Then he goes his way. A Jewel for a Queen 293 His way leads him to where two children come tod dling down the road with their dolls and playthings. A glass of milk would refresh him, Smythe thinks. The children indicate their dooryard to the gaunt but kindly stranger, and there Smythe makes his way and is regaled with milk, bread, butter and honey by the rancher s kindly wife, the mother of the little children. The children go down the road to play "house," as is their custom, beneath the live oak. A re-arrange ment of the "parlor furniture" means that the sofa shall be moved from under the mantelpiece. The sofa is the stone beneath the hole in which the diamond lies, and the mantelpiece is the tree. Toodles, standing on the "sofa," sees the gleaming locket far back in the hole. She is a girl child, she knows its use, and with cries of appreciation and delight she seizes it, brings it forth and hangs it around her dolly s neck. Immediately her little sister Polly de mands it, nay, even grasps it. A slap, a scream and Toodles jerks away the necklace and walks indignantly away, with both her doll and her treasure trove, while little Polly patters down the road to run home and tell mama. At the ruins of his dance hall, Peter Huff watches the diggers with a keen glance that never wavers. The dead that are brought from the charred debris are noth ing to Peter Huff. He has them searched, as he had the living and the wounded searched to find "The Diamond from the Sky." A little old, squat-built workman arouses the sus picion of Peter Huff, for the little old workman has furtively picked up and secreted some shining object. 294 The Diamond from the Sky Forced to disgorge, the workman shows a still warm silver dollar. With a bitter curse of disappointment and anger, Pete smashes the little old digger in the face and knocks him sprawling. The old fellow picks himself up and stanches his bleeding nose on his dirty blue handkerchief. "You think I had the diamond that was lost last night, eh?" he asks. "Well, I ll tell you, since you ve been so handy with your fist; one of the boys says he s seen that stranger with the side whiskers running out with the diamond when the fight broke loose!" There is such an air of sincerity about the little old fellow s words that Peter Huff feels a gambler s "hunch." He rushes from the work at the promptings of the hunch, and commandeers the cheap, old auto mobile of a friend, and with this friend starts in pursuit of the fugitive stranger, with the side-whiskers. So remarkable a figure as Smythe, not to mention the impedimenta of the deer s head, has left a blazed trail. Twenty-one miles from Mammoth, Smythe is over taken and held up at the pistol s point. The diamond is not on his person, but Pete and his pal find the memorandum of its hiding place. Back there they bear the protesting Smythe. The hole is searched, but the diamond is gone. Pete and his pal part from the lawyer with curses and return to Mammoth. They pass Toodles, aged four, crying from a bee sting inflicted in the apiary back of the ranch house. Then Toodles runs crying home to mother, as little Polly did before her. The glistening doll ornament she found has been cast aside and forgotten by Toodles. She had been A Jewel for a Queen 295 engrossed with it as she crossed the bee yard, till tres passing too near a swarming hive, she had been stung. The diamond, flung aside by the child in pain, lies on the alighting board of the beehive, while the workers of the hive push out the drones and sting them to death against the bauble at the doorway. None think to show it to their sovereign bee, and there it lies although a jewel for a queen! In Los Angeles, the newspapers printed in large type, on their front pages, stories of the dramatic first home-coming to his great mansion, shattered, insen sible, more dead than alive, of John Powell, the young oil and mining magnate. The papers spoke feelingly of the skill and untiring attention of the celebrated physician, Doctor Durand, and of the care and attention of friends of the injured man, including a favorite cousin, Mr. Blair Stanley, of Virginia, who had recently arrived and taken complete charge of Mr. Powell s affairs. The papers also mentioned briefly that a very pretty and agitated young woman called to inquire as to Mr. Powell s condition, but refused to give her name to the servant, who informed her that no one could be ad mitted to Mr. Powell s bedside except Doctor Durand, and the nurse in charge, Miss Marston. CHAPTER XX THE SOUL STRANGLERS JOHN POWELL S business went on in the more or less capable hands of Blair Stanley, kinsman and associate, and as the bulletins from the sick room announced hopeful progress, the ac cident to "The Golden Man" ceased to be a three days wonder. Other sensational happenings and events of interest supplanted it in the Los Angeles newspapers, and John Powell and his affairs gave no further con cern save to those who were personally interested. Esther, after her first rebuff at the portals of the Powell mansion, returned again and again and was persistent in her demands to see the injured man. So persistent was she that finally the man-servant, who answered the door, could no longer refuse her, and though he knew his position was in jeopardy, he re ported to Miss Marston, the nurse, that he was fearful the young lady who called would create a scene unless she was granted at least some specific information. It was not as a timid pleader Esther had come to the so-called Powell mansion on this last occasion. She was determined to see Arthur. Tactfully she had waited, with the watchful Quabba lingering near, until she had seen Durand and his shadow and accomplice, the dapper Count de Vaux, leave the premises. Blair 296 The Soul Stranglers 297 Stanley, she knew, was at Arthur s office in full charge of his affairs. Esther had no desire to bring notoriety and ruin upon the injured man, by any premature disclosure of his real identity, if she could avoid it. But she was determined to go even to this length were it necessary, and were she again denied access to the one of all the world she loved with every fibre of her brave and loyal little heart. Some intuitive sense of Esther s attitude must have impressed Vivian Marston, for she did not upbraid the man-servant; instead she said: "I will see the young lady," and followed the servant from the sickroom where John Powell lay in fevered sleep. But Esther had not waited in the spacious hall of the mansion. When the servant had gone upstairs she slipped into the library and when Vivian Marston and the servant came down the broad stairway together and had advanced to the small reception room off the hall, where they supposed the persistent visitor waited, Esther glided softly around behind them and ran lightly up the stairs. As lightly as she ran, the quick ear of Vivian heard her, and to the surprise of the man-servant, who stood stock still at these strange proceedings, Vivian sped after Esther and detained her at the door of the sick room. Vivian was in her costume as nurse, a masquerade she had assumed in furtherance of the plot against the helpless Arthur. She spoke as one having authority. "You cannot go in there!" she said tensely. "Mr. 298 The Diamond from the Sky Powell is at death s door. Any intrusion or excitement would be his death!" "He is not Mr. Powell. You know who he is and you know who I am, and I will see him!" replied Esther firmly. "These private matters should be left till the patient is able to decide if he wishes to see you or not," answered Vivian. "We will not prevent your seeing him when he is able to see any one. It is a matter of life and death. Excitement would kill him now, and scandal will ruin him, if he lives. You know that." "I will be quiet, I promise!" panted Esther. And then the gross effrontery of the woman occurred to her. "Who are you, that you should bar my way?" asked Esther in a low but steady voice. "And who are these others that would deny me access to one who is nearer and dearer to me than to all of you, yes, to all the rest of the world?" "I tell you, those are matters to be decided by him, and only when he is in condition to decide them per sonally. If you love him, if he is dear to you, why should you risk his life or his reason?" reiterated Vivian. Esther faltered. Then the Stanley spirit asserted itself. "Better he die with a true friend by him than live with such as you and your associates ministering to him!" she said scornfully. Vivian was cool and kept her wits. "That, too, will be a matter for Arthur Mr. Powell, to decide, when he is able to decide it," replied Vivian. "Will you be lieve me if I permit you to enter and see for your self that he is delirious?" < The Soul Stranglers 299 Esther bowed assent. If her enemies, for she knew they were her enemies, were fighting fairly, it behooved her to do as much. Vivian, without further parley, opened the door and entered the room with Esther. It was as she had said. Arthur lay with eyes closed, tossing in a fevered sleep. Esther knelt by the bedside and her hand caressed the poor bandaged arm near her. Her gaze was upon the fevered, anguished countenance of the suffering man. She paid no heed to Vivian who passed by the foot of the bed and took a small instrument from the table there. Then Vivian passed softly to the back of the bed between the injured man and the win dow. She laid a hand as though soothingly upon the free arm of the unconscious Arthur. It was in this manner the two women the one who loved him above all else and the one who loved him not at all waited in the silence of the sickroom. Then his eyes opened and he saw her. "Esther," he murmured, "is it you, dear?" "Yes," she whispered, "it is Esther!" He smiled and was about to try to speak again. Then Vivian moved slightly. A film passed over Arthur s dark eyes, they closed and he lay still. The drug lulled him. "You see, he is very weak," said Vivian quietly. "This meeting has been a shock to him. Is your regard for him so selfish that you would cause his death to gratify your desire to intrude further?" Esther s fortitude gave way. Arthur was so wan, she feared even now that the hand of death was on him. She rose to her feet and slowly left the room, followed 300 The Diamond from the Sky by Vivian, who closed the door behind her. A heavy dread fell upon the heart of Esther at this it seemed to her that the door of all her hopes for happiness with Arthur had closed forever. Callous as Vivian Marston was, the grief and heart ache that the deep-blue, steadfast eyes of Esther ex pressed so poignantly, stirred in the breast of the worldly woman some tender memory of her youth. "I am a trained nurse," she said, "and Doctor Durand is a physician. Our friend is having the best of care and treatment. When he is well enough you shall see him. Till then we must abide by the doctor s orders. Believe me, I am your friend and mean no > harm to you or him. On the contrary, I will do all I can for both of you!" And such is the strangeness of these perverse natures, that tears welled to Vivian s eyes, and for a few mo ments she felt sanctified by her own sympathy. How ever, when Esther had departed Vivian forgot the stirring of her better emotions and gave strict orders to the man-servant not to admit this caller again, under penalty of dismissal. Esther returned to her hotel sad at heart and torn with conflicting emotions. Duty called her to Rich mond where Hagar was slowly but surely recovering her reason ; and duty, and stronger still, her deep and ardent love for Arthur, held her here a love that grew stronger despite the strange destiny that seemed forever keeping them apart. Esther had been in communication with Blake, the Richmond detective, whom she had trusted as one disinterested and influential friend. This night The Soul Stranglers 301 she wired him again that the condition of their friend she had wired him previously of Arthur s being in jured would keep her, for the time, in Los Angeles. And while she slept that night, perchance to dream of happier days to come, a strange conclave the stranglers of a soul was gathered in the luxuriously appointed library of the young millionaire who lay, in delirium from his injuries and opiates, upstairs. First, there were Durand and his jackal, Felix, Count de Vaux. Then there was Vivian, her enticing charms doubled by the becoming nurse s uniform she wore; also there was Blair Stanley, silent and sullen while the other three chattered of their plans and strategies. From a millionaire s luxurious library to the wild outdoors is a distance that may be bridged quickly by thought. But the soul stranglers who plot for a for tune in money and "The Diamond from the Sky" have no thought of a rude camp-fire in the woods not twenty miles from where the man whose means, mind and heart-happiness they plot against was injured, and by those injuries placed helpless in their hands. But by the rude camp-fire are two paste-spattered, overall-clad, circus billposters; and they are pertinent to the plotters in the shattered man s library, in far Los Angeles. For the/, though they do not know it, are near to one great object for which the plotters seek to strangle a soul the great and long desired diamond. The diamond lies unnoticed since early forenoon on the alighting board of one of the many beehives in the apiary of Rancher Jones. It lies where his little four- year-old daughter dropped it when a testy bee had 302 The Diamond from the Sky stung her after she had found the diamond where Lawyer Smythe had hidden it. The billposters are camped in the woods beneath a great dead tree not five hundred yards from the bee- yard or apiary of Rancher Jones. For some days the billposters, with their wagons and paraphernalia, have made the straggling barns and wayside hoardings of this thinly settled region blossom gaudily with the bills announcing the appearance of Santley s Stupendous Circus. The circus is playing the towns and cities large enough to meet the requirements of what its proprietor calls "a regular show." Santley s Stupendous Circus is a regular show, and if it is too big to play small places such as Mammoth and vicinity, yet Mammoth and vicinity are apprised of the place of the show, and the day and date. Their fire has been slow in starting, but now it burns well. As the billposter, who is called Jack Williams, bestirs himself to mix some pancake flour, the other billposter, whose name is Ben Burk, fumes over the rough cuisine. He wipes his eyes, which are still wa tering from the acrid smoke of the fire. "There is no syrup," says the billposter named Burk, as he searches among the dirty tins of the larder and holds the syrup can and shakes it by a doubting ear. "I told you not to make flapjacks!" "What s your kick about molasses, bo?" asks the pancake expert, turning from the whitish mass he is stirring. "Didn t we pass a beeyard not a quarter of a mile down the road? Take a plate and a knife and slip down in the dark the bees are union bees and The Soul Stranglers 303 won t be working at night and swipe some honey ! ? The other looks at the flapjack maker disgustedly. "I should think you d be sick of cooking and stirring paste to sling up bills with all day, without mixing and cooking paste to eat at night!" he grumbles. "Beat it! Make yourself useful and go get some honey. We have lots of time before we have a fire hot enough for flapjacks," says the other. "If I do not cook flapjacks you won t have anything to eat but bacon the bread s all gone. Close your trap, and go swipe some honey. When I saw those beehives I got to thinking of flapjacks and honey. Anyway, I ve got to go for water for coffee. It s almost as far for water as it is for honey. Beat it!" So the billposter named Burk, still grumbling, takes plate and knife as he is bidden and moves off in the darkness to rifle the sweet store of the busy bees be yond. The moon shines vaguely just above the sky line, its dim light barely throwing a shadow as Burk skulks across the field, after coming out of the wood, and en ters the rancher s beeyard. He rocks an occasional hive as he passes, and the murmur of the disturbed bees sounds dully from within them. None of the hives he rocks seems heavy enough to presage a store worth rob bing, and Burk with plate and knife still skulks along. He pauses at last by one that rocks with weighty re sistance, and he is about to life the cap piece when he sees something gleaming opalescent in the moonlight on the alighting board of the rocking hive. Burk stoops over and picks it up. In the dim light from the moon he sees it is a large locket attached to a curious chain 304 The Diamond from the Sky of dull old gold of ancient workmanship. But the face of the locket is what has gleamed beneath the wan moon rays. Burk gasps at the sight of it. Was ever a diamond of such a size? Burk is a billposter and knows little of diamonds. He cannot tell diamonds from paste, per haps; but he can tell paste from diamonds. "I wonder if it s a fake?" he gasps. "Why, a real sparkler of this size would be worth some money!" Then, as if prompted by some old burlesque buffoon ery, he holds the shining object against his moistened tongue. "Anyway, it ain t alum," he says. Burk, the billposter, knows alum ; it is used in paste. The great white stone gleams so brightly, as the moon s light increases, that the rough billposter is half convinced. "Oh, lordy! Suppose it is a real diamond?" he whispers hoarsely. And he forgets that he has dropped the plate and knife and is wandering unconsciously away from the hives and honey. When he reaches the fire beneath the dead tree he notices his partner is absent. He holds the locket in the fire-light and is rewarded by a blazing dazzle, re flecting the crimson glare of the flames, from the faceted stone as large as an English walnut. Then he hears a step behind him and springs guiltily to his feet. It is Jack Williams back from the spring with a pail of water for their coffee. "What s the excitement? Whatcha hiding there?" asks Jack Williams suspiciously. Burk brings the chain and locket into view. "Some thing I found," he answers. "Think it s worth any- The Soul Stranglers 305 thing? Suppose it was a real diamond, and as big as that? Hullygee!" Williams takes it and examines it scornfully. "A diamond, that size?" he asks. "You re daffy! They ain t made that big. It s what the fake jewelry guys call a piece of big slum ! " "But there s nothing cheap looking about it; that chain ain t brass nor the locket either," says Burk. "Let s give it the real test!" remarks Williams, and going over to the wagon he removes a piece of glass from one of the sides of the large square lantern that is part of their equipment. The uppermost facet of the stone in the locket is drawn down across the glass. A low gritting, slightly hissing sound follows. The amateur lapidary bends the deeply scratched pane of glass; it severs clear and straight along the line of the deep scratch. They stare at it dumfounded. Then Williams says hoarsely: "It s a real diamond! We are rich men, Ben!" With an oath Burk snatches the chain and diamond from the shaking hands of Williams. "You ain t got no claim on it!" he cries with hoarse greediness. "Who found it? Did you? Naw! I found it and it s mine and I don t have to share with nobody!" "Well, keep it, you damned hog!" cries the other. "There s lots of junk will cut glass. I have been good enough pal to you when you were sick and broke and up against it ; and if that thing is worth anything, I suppose you are yellow dog enough to hog it all! But this shows me just what you are. If the thing 306 The Diamond from the Sky is worth ten pins or ten millions, I want no part of it you dirty, cheap four-flusher and sneaking swine!" And they make no coffee and cook no cakes, nor bite nor sup with each other, but with hatred and greed in their hearts they lie for the last time side by side. One of them clutches the cursed jewel of murder and dis sension and the other cannot sleep for an aching anguish to wrest it from the wretched man who found it. In the library of the Powell mansion in far Los Angeles, the soul stranglers speak of this diamond and wonder when it will come into their greedy hands. "I came out here to get that stone," says Durand. "It will turn up, it always does. Meanwhile here are fat pickings. You," and he turned to Blair, "get every thing in your hands at the office that this poor boob upstairs has. I will take care that if he ever recovers in mind or body, he will never cause us any trouble. Once morphine gets them, that s the end. We will have him lie down, sit up, roll over and play dead just as we say. Talk of black magic, it s nothing to white magic morphine sulphate ! " And Durand held up a phial, with a red label, in which some small white tablets rattled. Blair, who had been fretting and fuming in sulky silence, now sprang to his feet, his face contorted with anger and disgust. "You white-livered buzzards!" cried the Virginian. "If you are going to kill him, kill him like men!" And Blair s hands tensed as though he clutched some hated enemy by the throat. "I do not claim to be a saint! But, by Heavens, I The Soul Stranglers 307 cannot sit still and look at your pink nails and smiling faces, while you talk of dragging down the very soul of a battered, shattered man to a living state of degra dation worse than death if he recovers!" he went on. "I hate him, and I have always hated him. He stands in my way. But I will have no part in murdering his manhood with drugs feeding him slow poison of body, soul and mind, w r ith a smiling face. Damn you, I spit on you all!" And Blair glared menacingly at both Durand and de Vaux as though about to spring upon them. "Yes, a fine bunch of cold-blooded, cowardly mur derers for money you two are!" hissed Blair, as Du rand and de Vaux regarded him in silent amazement. "And as for you," and Blair turned upon Vivian in her nurse s garb and seized her by the wrist, "take off this masquerade! Let us kick out these vermin, and when he is well and strong, I ll kill him, like a South erner kills his enemy man to man and face to face!" "You are a fine one to spout heroics!" sneered Vivian. "Do you forget " Then Vivian checked herself, for though she sneered she admired Blair. He was a man, for all his congenital perversity. She had no in tention of taunting him now for his having murdered a weak old man Doctor Lee for "The Diamond from the Sky." Vivian reflected, too, that even this guilt of Blair s was a crime of sudden passion for possession of the diamond, and panic at detection in the theft of it. After all, it was not the cold, insidious, slow murder the strangling of a soul the others purposed. Her face softened, a look of admiration came into her eyes, she 308 The Diamond from the Sky threw her arms around Blair and kissed him passion ately. Durand and de Vaux slipped from the room, and Vivian held Blair in her embrace and worked him to her will. But his heart was never in the dastard scheme the drug thugs planned and carried through. In the wilderness, twenty miles from the mining town of Mammoth, two men slept in blankets beneath a dead tree burning at its base. Not far away, the English lawyer, foot-sore from his wanderings, had crouched in slumber beneath the shelter of a bush. In the night, bird and beast prey one upon another, even as man does. An owl flew from the bush. Some furry marauder of the night pur sued it. The worn Englishman awoke and fled in panic. Beneath the dead tree Jack Williams, billposter, woke from his fitful dreams of the diamond and the desire that possessed him for it. He saw the great dead tree was burned almost through at the bottom and that it wavered. It was on his lips to scream a warning to his sleeping comrade but thoughts of the diamond prevented ! There was a crackle, a tearing sound and then the great dead tree bent over and crashed down, crushing the sleeping man beneath it. A shower of sparks rose in the air from the ruptured base, where the fire had eaten until the tree had fallen. Ere yet his writhing comrade died, Williams had despoiled him of the jewel crushed against his breast The Soul Stranglers 309 by the fallen tree upon him. Then with trembling hands the murderer, for such he was, hitched the horse to the wagon and drove off in the night, holding the baleful diamond ever and anon in the light of the lan tern on the stanchion by the wagon seat. Marmaduke Smythe, of London, legal representative of the Earls of Stanley, ran in panic through the woods. His flight was arrested by a dead tree across his path ; the base of this fallen tree burned and smouldered. Smythe looked down over it in the moonlight and saw the upturned, contorted face of a dead man another who had gained in life and lost in death "The Dia mond from the Sky" ! CHAPTER XXI THE LION S BRIDE EVER before him in the darkness the contorted face of a dead man, and ever jangling in his breast the crystal and metal trumpery that cost his comrade s life ! A cold sweat was on the forehead of Williams, the billposter, as he saw these things and felt these things, and brutally lashed the wretched horse galloping with the rickety wagon over the rough mountain road in the stifling darkness. Through sheer fatigue the tortured beast would set tle to a jogging trot, and then the sweating man would bring forth the metal and crystal trumpery from his breast and hold it in the flickering light of the lantern on the wagon stanchion. The crystal glistened in the light, and then the conscience-anguished man would fancy the red rays were gleams of blood, and once again his fears would tear his frenzied soul and he would rise and lash the horse with rein and whip like a mad man. Once he did this just as the front wheels struck a stump or boulder. The rickety wheel crashed, the wagon went over and the man was flung out head first on the road. With the collapse of the wheel the lantern jolted out, broke and clattered in the road, 310 The Lion s Bride 311 as the wagon toppled over and the frenzied horse, relieved of his dragging burden, sprang with a flash of renewed strength and galloped off until, entangled in the sundered harness, it tripped and fell heavily and lay heaving and helpless. Then, cursing the deed he had done, and the trump ery he had done it for, Williams roused himself and wiped away the blood that ran into his eyes from a deep cut in his forehead, and limped off into the night but still holding fast to the great diamond. Meanwhile, Marmaduke Smythe fled from the burn ing fallen tree and the dead man beneath it. He ran, forgetting his own fears and misery at the haunting memory of this phantom of the night. The moon came from behind a cloud and dimly revealed the gray roof and dull white walls of the ranch house by the beeyard. Toward it Smythe ran wildly and reaching its door, he hammered furiously with both fists and, forgetting the stolid composure of a lifetime, screamed loudly, he knew not what. The rancher, roused, came down to the door in answer to the clamoring summons in the night, be hind him his frightened wife holding high a lamp. Frayed and tattered, more like a tramp than a prim man of the law, the half hysterical Englishman told his broken story of a dead man lying beneath a burn ing tree, and then as though he would put the horrid occurrence behind him, the strange messenger turned and fled again. And yet for all his fright and all his panic, the Eng lishman had clung instinctively to the deer head that had been his impedimenta, beloved and cherished, since 312 The Diamond from the Sky the sale at Stanley Hall how long ago that was, whether days or weeks or months, Marmaduke Smythe could not have told. "It was all a horrid nightmare," he afterward would say. "America is all right for the Americans," he would add, "but it is too deucedly weird, wild and mur derous for a British subject to retain any desire to so journ there. Had it not been my bounden duty, as legal representative of the Earls of Stanley, to find the American heir, I would never have visited or loi tered in such utterly impossible wildernesses and crude communities, I assure you!" But the worst of Marmaduke Smythe s hardships in darkest America were over. By dawn he reached a distant ranch and encountered a bewhiskered farmer driving to the nearest town. Smythe and his precious deer head rode some twenty miles in more or less com fort, and he arrived dusty, tattered and torn, at a fair sized city. At the straggling outskirts of the town he plucked up courage again, and then when they drove up a business street, the sign "King George Hotel" above a some what middle class hostelry to have so high sounding a name attracted his attention. Smythe clutched the arm of the old rancher who drove him. "If you will stop here, I will alight, thank you!" he said. The farmer stopped his horse at the curb. Smythe paid him and thanked him again and crossed the street, carrying his deer head trophy, also dusty and travel marked. The Lion s Bride 313 The day clerk loitering at the doorway smiled at the eccentric looking figure before him. "I have been lost in the wilderness and suffered un told hardships for a fortnight," stammered Smythe. "Could I secure a room and bawth?" "Sure!" said the matter-of-fact hotel clerk. "You can have two rooms and two bawths/ if you pay for them." Marmaduke Smythe took off his hat, pressed it in a reverential manner to his breast, gazed again at the sign at the doorway of the hotel and cried fervently: "God Save the King!" Then a dizziness overcame him, his eyes closed and he swooned back stiffly on his heels. Hogan, the head porter, passing by with a hand truck, deftly followed the quick gesture of the clerk and ran the truck under the heels of the swooning Smythe, as he fell stiffly back, still holding, however, to the deer head with tenacious grip. Thus was Lawyer Marmaduke Smythe, out of the wilderness at last, delivered safely to a room and "bawth," while the day clerk signed the register for him as "Lord Saveus, London, Eng." In Los Angeles Esther resolutely stayed on, deter mined to see Arthur again despite the efforts she knew were being made by those who surrounded the in jured man to prevent it. She did not trust to Vivian s promise that she should see Arthur when he was conscious or recovered. Day by day she called at the Powell mansion, as Arthur s beautiful residence was known, and day by day she 314 The Diamond from the Sky received word from the impassive-faced man-servant that Mr. Powell could see no one. Then one day she was told that Mr. Powell had been taken early that morning to a sanitarium and that his condition was still serious, so far as the results of his mental injuries were concerned, but that physi cally he had improved. This statement was true only in so far as it was the desire of Durand and Vivian to have John Powell removed from the city. But weak-willed as he was under the drug addiction, their patient was stub bornly set against leaving Los Angeles. He hardly dared mention the name of Esther or ask questions concerning her, for since his physical and mental weakness had been augmented by the drugs, which he now used, as he thought, in secret, the whole effort of Durand, de Vaux, Vivian, and even Blair, had been to convince him that his recollections of having seen Esther were but the manifestations of periodic insanity, caused by his injuries. Besides a slight concussion of the brain, his collar bone and right arm had been badly fractured, and the working of bone splinters from these injuries had caused the direst physical anguish. To deaden these agonies, Durand in his role as physician and Vivian Marston in her masquerade as nurse, had administered pain-deadening drugs. But as Arthur had gained strength, they had refused him morphine when the pains came on him. They refused him and counselled him against the danger of drug addiction, but they had weakened his will and the plotters took good care that The Lion s Bride 315 the drug was where he could gain, as he supposed, secret access to it. And so the soul stranglers had achieved their dread ful purpose. Between their concerted suggestion and the use of drugs, Arthur became convinced that his obsession regarding Esther was a manifestation of madness, and he grew terrified at the thought of it and endeavored to keep Esther from his mind. A revulsion and distaste for his business affairs took possession of him. He was weak in mind and body, except when an occasional flash of his old spirit rose above the dulling forgetful ness of drugs and physical weakness. It was but rarely Vivian and Blair had chance to consult, for Durand distrusted Blair, and ever his spy ing accomplice, de Vaux, was by. "How is Arthur?" asked Blair upon one of the few occasions he and Vivian were alone. "I mean how is he really?" Blair added. "For I don t believe a word that cursed Du rand says in his smug, fake-doctor phraseology." "Arthur grows stronger bodily every day," said Vivian, "but his dope-taking makes him a mental weak ling. He whines continually and sometimes he cries like a little child. This is when he thinks of Esther." Blair scowled. "And then you all turn in and tell the poor devil that any thought of Esther, any re membrance of seeing her since he left Virginia, is a sign that one of his crazy fits is on him?" he asked. "Yes, what between his hurts and the dope he now takes on the sly, he thinks he is helpless in our hands," replied Vivian. "It is the only way we could 316 The Diamond from the Sky work it. A little more drugging and suggestion, and we could permit the girl to kneel at his feet and beg him to speak to her, and he would only be frantic with the thought that he had an insane spell and was seeing things." Bad as Blair was, there was something in the Stanley blood that made such a slow-working, soul-wrecking conspiracy revolting to him. He sprang from his seat, his face working with rage. "I ll have no more of this!" he cried. "Whether Ar thur Stanley is the actual heir to the Stanley Earldom in England and The Diamond from the Sky/ or whether he is a gipsy changeling, as Luke Lovell hints, I do not care. I have hated him since boyhood, and I hate him now ! He stands in my way, but he always fought fair. This way of dragging his manhood out of him with drugs, is not mine!" "You re a nice one to talk!" cried Vivian. "I sup pose you hate this job?" And with an expressive ges ture she indicated the luxurious private offices of the Good Hope Oil Company, the headquarters of John Powell s oil, mining and other industrial ventures of which Blair Stanley, as a relative and a supposed business associate and interested capitalist from the East, had taken full charge. Blair winced. The shot had gone home. If Arthur Stanley, as "John Powell," recovered in body and health, if he shook off the shackles of morphine and rid himself of the harpies who surrounded him, it would mean the end of the power and authority that had become sweet to Blair. The Lion s Bride 317 Vivian laughed as she noted Blair s changed expres sion. "You see," she said, "you may hate Durand and you may despise de Vaux, but after all it was a good thing for you that Durand was present when Arthur was injured and saved his life and brought him back. Du rand has played fair with you and put you in the saddle here. So it was lucky for you he and de Vaux came West to find The Diamond from the Sky !" At these words Blair burst into a rage again and he grasped Vivian by the wrist. "They shall never have that!" he cried fiercely. "The Powell millions, made in oil or mines, are just as any other dirty money to me. But the diamond belongs to the Stanleys alone! It came from no human hand, but fell from the stars in a molten meteor. It was born of a miracle to our adventurer ancestor. If a hundred lives stand in my way, The Diamond from the Sky shall never be the vulgar swag of thieves, cut up to be made marketable and hawked through the jewel marts of the world!" At this juncture, a telegram was delivered to Blair. It was from Mrs. Randolph. It announced that Blair s mother was dying, stricken with paralysis, and begged him to return home at once. Vivian threw her arms around him. "Blair," she cried, "they must never have the diamond! I would suffer myself to be cut to bits rather than it should meet a shameful fate like that! Your first duty is to me ! You must not leave me here to fight Durand and de Vaux alone even for a dying mother!" And these two looked into each other s eyes and un- 318 The Diamond from the Sky derstood and trusted each other fully, for they both remembered the night of the Randolph ball the first time in a generation the Stanley diamond had blazed upon the breast of a fair woman, and that woman was yivian Marston! In many things they could and would be the accom plices of the suave Durand, the King of Diamonds, and the rest of "the pack," but this priceless gem was the Stanley heritage and, base as Blair was, his honor, though rooted in dishonor, stood. He would have died a thousand deaths ere "The Diamond from the Sky" should be partitioned and debased; and yet he would have clasped it, whole and priceless, around the neck of the woman he loved with a kiss. That was the Stanley way the wicked Stanley way! For the sake of this woman and a great jewel, they schemed for, Blair gave no further heed to his filial duty ! "The big blow off" of Santley s Stupendous Circus, as its proprietor would say, was undoubtedly La Belle, the Lady of Lions. Splinters, the clown, was a big hit, too. But La Belle s act with the fierce, great Nubian lion, Lance lot, was the "blow off." It was the last act on the bill and sent the crowds away thrilled and satisfied. Of herself, La Belle was new to the show this sea son, and Splinters was her husband. She was bold and handsome, and Splinters, the clown, was tormented with many a bitter pang of jealousy through her co quetries. Sam Santley, proprietor of Santley s Stupendous Cir- The Lion s Bride 319 cus, was what is known as a working boss. Through devious ways, luck at gambling, and by the exercise of sharp practices, he had gained his way from card shark to ownership of a show that bore his name. Six foot of that coarse type that is known as "handsome" in the flash circles of the show business, Santley per sonally supervised his own show from "big top" to cook tent. He acted as ringmaster and announcer when the star acts were on. Between times, he looked care fully after the nickels and dimes that paid for ciga rettes and bottled beer in the "privilege tent" and "privilege car" as closely as he looked after the quar ters and dollars that bought the "broads" at the ticket wagon. When Sam Santley published his call for show peo ple in the amusement journals, there was one line that was always in the advertising. This line read : "Booz ers and chasers do not write. You will not last a minute!" Translated from circus jargon, this delphic utter ance meant that drunkards and male flirts need not endeavor to join with Santley s circus. The reason of this was that Mr. Sam Santley attended to all these matters of Bacchus and Venus himself. He sold beer to the "grifters," "kinkers" and "razor- backs" that is, the sure-thing gamblers and pick pockets and the others of the show. But when there was hard drinking to be done with that show, Sam Santley did it himself and got murderously and then soddenly drunk, only to be up, more or less red-eyed and trembling, and yet alert and on the job, when the "big tops went up on the lot" the following morning. 320 The Diamond from the Sky And as for the ladies the "Janes," he called them Mr. Santley also monopolized the fair. Woe to any of his circus people who transgressed the bounds of strict morality with his show! But with himself it was another matter, and Sam Santley looked with long ing eyes on La Belle, the Lady of Lions. The show had reached Los Angeles, playing up through Lower California and the Texas border. Bus iness looked good, and Sam Santley himself walked from the performers entrance of the "big top" highly pleased with himself and the world in general. In the performers entrance, La Belle, the Lady of Lions, had given him a smile. Splinters, the clown, had seen it, and his face had contorted in jealous hatred under his bismuth make-up. Then Sam Santley had strode to the "privilege tent," where his advertising men, and the followers of the circus generally, met for social converse when "on the lot." When the performance was going on in the big tent, there was a lull for the grinders, door- talkers and shillabars, not to mention the plate-board, cane and doll-rack men and other purveyors of amuse ment out and in the side-shows. This lull was taken advantage of by dropping in to the "privilege tent" for bottled beer and perhaps a brisk "pass" or two at craps. All these things paid Sam Santley. He sold the bottled beer at a profit, and no temporary game with the crap dice was so short but what the official "pass picker" swept in Mr. Santley s percentage. At the entrance of the "privilege tent," Sam Sant ley in his ringmaster s costume is accosted by a grimy, The Lion s Bride 321 shambling, shaking man, in a stained and tattered suit of paste-marked overalls: "What s the matter with you ? Get out of the way ! " growls Santley. The creature before him moistens his lips and mum bles: "I am Williams, boss, Jack Williams. I was out with the bill-posting outfit, don t you remember?" "Why aren t you out with it now?" snarls Santley. "Got drunk, I suppose, and quit the job cold, and now you re here with a hang-over, panhandling! Get off the lot before you re kicked off! As for any money, you don t get a jitney! Beat it!" "But listen, boss! I wasn t drunk, I didn t quit! I walked a hundred miles like a crazy man! A tree fell on the wagon in the woods, way back in the inte rior, and killed Ben Burk and the horse, and smashed the wagon " "Come in, and tell me!" interrupted Santley. For the loss of a horse and bill-posting wagon was some thing to worry about. That Burk had been killed, did not matter much. Bill-posters cost nothing. It is different with horses and wagons. Then seeing Williams was shaking, as with ague, Santley ordered a drink of whiskey from his private stock for him. Williams gulped it down and told his story as best suited him. But he said no word re garding the trumpery that had been the real cause of the death of Burk, the bill-poster, and the loss of the horse and wagon. A game of craps attracted Santley s attention after he had made a mental calculation that, after all, the horse was a foundered old bit of crowbait, and the 322 The Diamond from the Sky wagon a rickety affair that could be replaced in the bill-posting department at slight cost. "A hundred dollars, at the outside, is the loss," thought Santley to himself. He always had been lucky at dice. The cynical idea occurred to him that he might here in a brief moment recoup this loss. He drew a roll of bills from his pocket, tossed a hundred-dollar note on the crap table and growled: "Why shoot for chicken feed?" Ragged, unkempt, without a dollar in his pocket, and realizing Santley would absolve himself from any wages that might be due, because of the loss of the horse and wagon, the miserable bill-poster eyed the hundred-dollar banknote hungrily. Instinctively his hand searched his clothes, and instinctively, and as if drawn by fate, the wretched man brought forth "The Diamond from the Sky." Santley eyed the chain and the jewel in the locket curiously. He thought how it would adorn the fair throat of the coquettish La Belle, the Lady of Lions. "I shoot a hundred bucks against the junk!" he growled, and tossed the dice to Williams. The necklace with the great diamond clattered to the table. Williams seized the dice with trembling hand and rolled them along the table top. "Come, Seven ! " he gasped, and snapped the thumb and finger of the casting hand. The dice rolled, paused, spun, rocked and settled. Two aces were uppermost. A losing first throw ! Santley chuckled, swept the stakes up in his hairy paw, and laughed hoarsely at the chalk-faced, trem bling wretch who had lost the guerdon for which he The Lion s Bride 323 had reached up from the knees of murder "The Dia mond from the Sky!" That night, it blazed upon the breast of a false woman. That night, Splinters, the clown, crept in the cage of Lancelot, the lion, and whispered into his ears the secret and the shame. And the lion nodded as though he understood. The next day, Quabba learned through a fellow- countryman, the gardener at the Powell mansion, that Mr. John Powell had not been taken to a sanitarium to convalesce. In fact, Quabba learned that, physi cally, Mr. John Powell had so far recovered that, at the doctor s order, he could now be taken out, and to divert him, his friends were to take him to the circus that very afternoon. Esther received the information late, and had arrived with Quabba and entered the great tent when the performance was well under way. At the end of the aisle near where she sat, and at the very edge of the hippodrome track, was the private box containing Arthur, Blair, Vivian, Durand and de Vaux. All eyes were turned upon the arena where Santley was an nouncing the thrilling and sensational act to follow: "La Belle, the Lady of Lions, and Lancelot, the su perb, untamed Nubian King of Beasts!" Esther crept slowly down by the box to speak to Arthur, when suddenly all in that box rose to their feet with a gasp of astonishment, for there on the breast of the woman in the lion s cage, gleaming and dazzling in a shaft of sunlight, blazed "The Diamond from the Sky"! Then a loud cry of horror arose and the vast audi- 324 The Diamond from the Sky ence heaved as a wave heaves, for the lion had sprung at the woman ere her smirk could change to a look of fear, and had struck her down and with his cruel claws rent her fair bosom and tore away the gleam ing jewel there. Santley shrieked and sprang forward, and just then the clown, Splinters, standing behind him, drew a pistol from his pierrot garb and shot him through the back ! The lion s paw drew away, bearing the diamond with it to the cage edge, and a hand reached for it and then the crowd surged out in panic, screaming hoarsely in horror, and Arthur and Esther were torn apart from each other by the human wave. CHAPTER XXII THE ROSE IN THE DUST WITH the pandemonium that followed the swift death meted to the Lady of Lions, struck down in her sins, every evil passion broke loose in the panic at Santley s circus. Santley, struck down in his sins, also, and Splinters, the clown, dead by his own hand after the venge ance of his frenzied brain, were trod upon and further disfigured as the crowd fought and struggled. Show men at the performers entrance, hearing the pistol shots and the hoarse cries of the crowd as it rose to its feet and surged for the exits, imagined a murderous altercation between town roughs and the circus men had broken loose. The circus men s rallying cry, "Hey, Rube!" was raised. The canvas men, the vicious swindlers, the agile acrobats all those who knew a tragedy had hap pened but had not sensed what it was seized tent pegs and stakes, drew forth brass knuckles and slung- shots and struck sickening blows right and left at every head in sight. Roughs cut the ropes and tore down the half- vacated seats and added to the general frenzy of fright, destruction and panic. 325 326 The Diamond from the Sky But from the first tragic happening, the death of La Belle under the lion s paw, a greedy eye had been upon the blazing "Diamond from the Sky." As the paw of Lancelot, the lion, drew away from the scarred, dead breast of his faithless mistress, the chain to the diamond locket became entangled in his cruel, blood-stained claws. As the lion, roaring in his maddened rage, faced the frenzied throng at his cage bars, the diamond dangled out over the dead faces of Santley and Splinters. Foremost in the throng seeking escape from the scene of horror was Sankey, the stableman where Quabba kept his outfit. Sankey was holidaying here at the circus, as were half of the townsfolk. He had seen the diamond glittering on the breast of the fair and faithless La Belle; he had seen the lion strike her down and drag the diamond to the cage edge; he swiftly strode across the bodies of the dead men out side the cage, snatched at the bloody bauble and drew it from the claws of the lion. The fight and the panic surged about him. Others, as greedy and grasping in the face of death as Sankey, snatched too at the great, gleaming jewel in their ef forts to despoil the despoiler. The maelstrom of the struggle was where Sankey was fighting to keep the diamond, just beneath the box where stood the agitated party with John Powell. Durand grasped at the diamond as it passed be neath him; Blair sprang out of the box to try to seize it, but some one struck him a stunning blow from behind and so, at the head of the surging throng, all desperately struggling for it, the accursed heirloom of The Rose in the Dust 327 the Stanleys passed close by Esther and Quabba like the gleaming thing of evil that it was, in evil hands. Earlier in the day Smythe, freshly clothed, rested and revived after his wandering in the wilderness, had called at the offices of the Good Hope Oil Com pany. Here he had met Blair and Vivian Marston. They gave him no clue that the man he sought as "John Powell," for information regarding Arthur Stanley, was Arthur Stanley himself. Smythe had never met the man he sought except once, briefly in the wilderness, and here taciturnity on both sides in a casual meeting had prevented either knowing the purpose or name of the other. Briefly, at the office, Smythe had discussed with Blair and Vivian the kindred subject of the Stanley Earl dom and "The Diamond from the Sky." Smythe had no interest in the diamond ; it was but an heirloom of doubtful value in his eyes, an heirloom pertaining to the American Stanleys only. But the English title concerned him much, and he had informed Blair that until it was proved definitely that the fugitive Arthur Stanley was dead, the claim of Blair to both the dia mond and the Stanley Earldom in England could not be allowed. But Blair, Smythe admitted, was next of kin and next in succession. After leaving the offices of the Good Hope Oil Com pany, the English lawyer had visited the Powell man sion, hoping to gain further information there, but learning that the injured Mr. Powell was so far re covered that his friends had taken him to the circus, he also went thither. 328 The Diamond from the Sky He arrived, as he usually arived anywhere in bewil dering America, too late. The circus performance was ending in tragedy and panic, and the fleeing, fighting, frenzied mob which poured out from the pandemonium within, bowled the English lawyer over and trampled upon him. When he recovered from the excitement and jostling, the police were in possession and the place deserted except by the disorganized employes faint-heartedly endeavoring to repair the damage. The protection of the box had preserved John Pow ell and his party from injury. The watchful Quabba had drawn Esther aside at the first outbreak of the panic and the riot. A slash in the canvas walls of the tent gave Quabba and Esther egress to safety, and Quabba had led his dazed young mistress away. After John Powell had been conveyed by Durand and the others to their waiting motor car, the convalescent, through excitement and drugs, collapsed. But he re vived when he reached his fine new mansion, and de manded that Esther be sought for. "I am not crazy!" he vehemently declared. "I saw Esther there and I want you to take me to her!" "Now calm yourself, Mr. Powell," said Durand soothingly. "The excitement you have witnessed has brought on another attack of this recurrent hallucina tion. A man cannot suffer concussion of the brain and other injuries, as you have, and hope to escape serious mental as well as physical reactions. There, there! We must give you something to quiet you!" And the hypocritical and unscrupulous swindler ad ministered a liberal dose of the drug to which he had The Rose in the Dust 329 permitted his patient to become secretly, as he thought, addicted. Vivian added her blandishments to the soothing hypocrisies of Durand, and de Vaux, the jackal, kept up a murmur of feigned concern and sympathy. Only Blair stood aloof. These ways were not his, but Blair coveted the power of the Powell millions, which Arthur s incapacity had placed him in the position of administering, and so he gave his negative aid to the despicable plot to ruin his benefactor bodily, mentally, spiritually and financially. By the drug, and the aided power of concerted suggestion, the conspirators succeeded in impressing Arthur again that his seeing Esther had been but an illusion of his disordered mind. They further calmed him by convincing him there had been an accident at the circus that had caused the excitement, and that the triple tragedies he had witnessed were also figments of his mania and hysteria. Guarded as John Powell was and supplied with soul- and body-destroying drugs, it was easy for the cabal to keep newspapers, visitors and other sources of in formation from him. The servants had their orders, and even John Powell s private secretary had been sent away by Blair to be the manager of some dis tant properties, so that Arthur might by no chance gain any information of the presence of Esther in Los Angeles. It was not wholly easy to convince their victim, even under these conditions, though he was weak-willed and his physical strength only returned to him in a measure. But to keep him from thinking, Durand 330 The Diamond from the Sky and the others incited him to one folly after another, as his strength came slowly back. Already they arranged for a tally-ho party to the races on the morrow. They feared to go too far in their efforts to drive Esther from Los Angeles. These efforts they at present confined to keeping the two sep arated, and to augmenting John Powell s fear of com plete mental collapse under the threat of the recur rent hallucinations, which they endeavored to convince him his encounters with Esther were. On the other hand, the conspirators knew Esther s high spirit; they hoped she would become discouraged and perhaps disgusted at Arthur s eccentric treatment of her the cause of which she was not likely to sus pect and return to Richmond and Hagar. But Esther was resolved upon solving the strange mystery of Arthur s conduct. At each encounter, since they had been parted in the mining town of Mammoth just before Arthur was so grievously in jured, he had been delighted at the sight of her, but then, almost immediately afterward, some strange in fluence had overcome him and he had regarded her with a fear-haunted expression lapsing into vacuity; and then fate, in the shape of those who surrounded him, or tragic excitement such as had occurred before, had separated them again. True as steel herself, Esther s staunch heart would not permit her to believe Arthur was base or forget ful. She felt the call of Hagar, recovering slowly amongst strangers. But Esther determined to see and have an understanding first with Arthur before she returned. Yet she did not wish to intrude upon him, The Rose in the Dust 331 if, now that he was rich and powerful, as "John Pow ell," he did not desire it. But the diamond? Sankey, the stableman, had fought his way out of the panic and melee. Of those who had seen him seize the jewel from the lion s paw, several had been separated from him in the struggle and confusion and others had been struck down by the circus men wielding stakes and bludgeons and shouting the circus men s battle-cry, "Hey, Rube!" Hiding the diamond in the pocket of his sweater- coat, his hand clasped upon it, Sankey seemed to be but one of the many frightened, fleeing spectators speeding from the scene of tragedy and riot. Pant ing, he gained the street, swung himself aboard a crowded street-car and made his way back to the mean neighborhood where his stable was situated. Here he threw the nervous monkey, Clarence, tied to the stall of Quabba s pony, into fits, as he rushed into the place, clambered up the ladder and hid his booty beneath some hay in a corner of the loft. Quabba had seen Esther safely to her hotel and had returned to the congenial quarters where he lodged the stable uttering lamentations in the reaction of the excitement he had been through. At the entrance to the stableyard, he met the po liceman on post who already had heard of the riot call that had brought the reserves to the scene of the tragedy and battle at the circus. The policeman discussed the whole exciting affair with Quabba. The two came down the alley together, and Sankey, the 332 The Diamond from the Sky stableman, peering panic-stricken from, a crack in the loft wall, saw them and his guilty conscience prompted the harrowing thought that he had been identified as the thief who had dragged the diamond from the claws of the lion, and that the search for him was on. Quabba and the policeman called him by name, but Sankey did not answer; he lay trembling in the loft in an ague of fear. When Quabba and the po liceman left the stable, without looking up into the loft, and walked up the alley to the street, Sankey dropped down the ladder, climbed the back fence and hid in another part of town, leaving the precious dia mond beneath the hay. Sankey reasoned that if he were located and searched, the diamond would not be found upon him and he would take the first oppor tunity of again possessing himself of it and would then secretly steal away with it by night, to parts unknown. Parting from the policeman, Quabba returned to the stable angrily muttering Italian maledictions on the absent and neglectful Sankey; for Clarence, the monkey, was chattering with hunger. The pony had not been watered and his hayrack was empty. Quabba attended to Clarence, watered the pony and then clambered to the loft and shoved down some hay into the empty rack. He gave full measure of hay to the pony, but he little imagined that in such gen erous helping he had shoved the priceless diamond down into the rack, which fell and lay hidden at the bottom, just over the manger. That very morning Arthur, distrusting himself and suspicious of those around him, had written a tele gram to Blake. Of all those with whom he dealt. The Rose in the Dust 333 Arthur had the most confidence in this astute and se cretive confidential agent of his, in far-off Richmond. Arthur also was sure he could trust his English butler, Parker. Taking advantage of a moment when he was alone, he had scribbled his telegram. It read : "Answer at once. Is Esther Harding in Los Angeles? Also wire condition of Hagar Harding." He signed the telegram with the name he was known by in the West, "John Powell." Then he handed it to Parker, who faithfully promised he would send it off secretly and that none should know. Parker kept his word. When Blake received this strange message he was somewhat puzzled, for he knew Esther had been in the West for several weeks. He had learned also of Ar thur s injuries and surmised that Esther was kept from the injured man, for he knew, too, that Blair and Vi vian were also in Los Angeles, and he suspected them. Blake telegraphed promptly in reply: "Answering your wire, Miss Esther Harding Is in Los Angeles. Hagar Harding continues to improve." This telegram was delivered at the offices of the Good Hope Oil Company. Blair, of course, in the absence of the injured Arthur, received all business and per sonal communications. Blair, at the suggestion of Vivian, who was present, opened the envelope with the utmost care, without even tearing the gummed flap. They both were dumfounded for a moment, and then Vivian, pointing to the first 334 The Diamond from the Sky line of the message, whispered : "There is a purple rib bon on the typewriter over there, and the type seems the same style as that of the machine on which this telegram was written, which is also purple. If the word not were added at the end of the first line, the message would be altered so as to read: Answering your wire, Miss Esther Harding is not in Los Angeles. Hagar Harding continues to improve. "Vi, you are a genius!" cried Blair. They put the telegram in the typewriter, adjust ing the message carefully on the first line and Vivian firmly struck the keys and the entire import of the message was changed. Then Blair carefully re-sealed it in its envelope and sent it by the office boy to Mr. Powell. "That will convince him he is dippy, for sure!" said Blair. "But he must be pretty cunning at that, to get a telegram out to Blake without Durand or de Vaux knowing of it, for they watch him like hawks." "Since The Diamond from the Sky turned up so tragically at the circus, Durand has forgotten his pa tient," said Vivian. "I believe Durand might have been on the level, and that he would have become a famous physician and far richer at the practice of his profession than he ever will become as a crook, clever as he is if it were not for one thing, diamonds!" "He certainly is foolish about them," remarked Blair. "Here is all this business millions at stake and Durand is content that I have full charge and he does not question whether I will cheat or play fair when we divide. All he thinks of is the diamond ; he The Rose in the Dust 335 would sell his soul for a diamond, especially for such a big diamond as The Diamond from the Sky !" "Who wouldn t?" murmured Vivian. "I have sold my soul, and you have sold yours for it! Yet it has never rested in our grasp!" "But it will!" said Blair fervently. "It belongs to us, to you and me. I am a Stanley, and the rightful heir, and you are my wife! As for that smooth swindler, Durand, and his shadow, the tricky de Vaux, the diamond never shall be dirty spoil for them!" "You want to be careful, cunning and daring, then!" said Vivian. "I know Durand of old. He goes through blood and fire for a diamond of price. It is an obsession with him. He was born so marked. His mother was waiting-maid to a French banker s wife, and murdered her mistress for a diamond neck lace a few months before Durand was born. He was born in prison." "He is likely to die there," replied Blair grimly. "He had better keep his hands off The Diamond from the Sky !" "And we had better get our hands on it," said Viv ian. "What witchery is in it? It comes and goes like a devil s talisman." "It will only rest and stay with a true Stanley," muttered Blair. Vivian regarded him strangely, but said nothing. If this were true, why had the diamond avoided Blair, as though it were a living thing that wriggled from his grasp? John Powell was clay in the hands of the conspirators again when the doctored message from Blake reached 336 The Diamond from the Sky him. He believed now that it was true as those around him inferred his obsession that Esther was near was a symptom of recurrent insanity. He shuddered and grew sick at the thought. "Oh, God, spare me from madness!" he prayed in agony. "Let me recover in body and mind to make a man of myself, to return to Esther whole and sound and clean and honorable, as I promised her and my poor mother that I would! "Base, unworthy profligate as I have been, my gipsy mother sacrificed her youth and every happiness in life, and she now lies in a madhouse, as I lie mad in a mansion!" And then in his weakness and in his strength he bat tled with the drug desire that clutched him by the soul yes, he battled and he lost! That afternoon the soft California air of late sum mer brought the spice of fruit and flower across the green lawns of the shining, new Powell mansion, where dwelt "The Golden Man" all envied. Luck and for tune had been his, except for an accident, from the injuries of which, as the newspapers stated, his friends were pleased to learn he was recovering. As planned, John Powell, "The Golden Man," went to the races on his costly and shining tally-ho. Four thoroughbred coach horses, in gold-mounted harness, tossed their heads in pride. An English coachman, and a guard blew "the yard of brass," adding swagger to the turnout. With the convalescing millionaire went his closest friends; his private physician, the eminent Doctor Frank Durand; also his cousin, Mr. Blair Stanley, an The Rose in the Dust 337 Eastern capitalist associated with him and managing his affairs; the Count de Vaux, of Paris, and Miss Vivian Marston who, it was rumored, was a young lady of splendid family from New York, who had taken up nursing and was called into the case by Doctor Du- rand, and who had aided that skilled physician in re storing his wealthy patient back to health. This and much more the papers reported. And this and much more Esther read. These are fine friends, she thought. Fine friends, indeed, and he, the gipsy changeling, lords it well among them! For the first time a sense of injustice and indigna tion burned in Esther s bosom. She will make the test and prove him what he is. He is the gipsy, and she is the true Stanley. She will go as the gipsy and con front the so-called gentleman, who once again bears a name that is not his own! Esther put on her gipsy dress and took her tam bourine and walked afoot beside Quabba, the humble mountebank. The daughter of the Stanleys, the fair young mistress of Stanley Hall, walked in the dust with a mountebank and a monkey, beside the mounte bank s pony and street organ! She starts off to meet a gentleman with his coach and four. But as she walked along, she wondered bit terly if the mountebank was not the gentleman, and the gentleman the mountebank. For Arthur Stanley as John Powell has been called "The Golden Man" but the poor hunchback who trudged in the dust be side her has proved that in honor and loyalty he has a heart of gold! Toward them came the tally-ho. John Powell in 338 The Diamond from the Sky high spirits, despite his recent injuries, demanded to drive the horses and, sitting beside Vivian, he displaced Blair. Vivian smiled at him and handed him a rose from the bunch at her belt as a guerdon for his horse manship. And just at that moment Esther stepped close by the wheel horse and called up to him: "Arthur!" He drew the horses to a halt. A look of glad, wild joy came to his eyes, which was instantly succeeded by a glare of horror. Vivian lashed the off horse with the whip which she seized, the rose fell from John Powell s shaking hand and the horses dashed away the coach was gone in a cloud of dust. In the dust of the road lay the rose. Quabba stooped and picked it up and handed it to the broken-hearted girl who leaned in her gipsy finery against the pony cart weeping. The rose in the dust to a rose in the dust ! Luke Lovell, returned for blackmail and revenge, ran to the coach and clung to it and shook his fist and cursed the more exalted gipsy who was master of a coach and four. But the master of the coach and four sank back fainting among his friends. What use is wealth to a madman? He had seen a flower by the wayside and a rose in the dust, and he deemed that what he had seen were but the visions of a mind diseased! That night Quabba s pony in his stall munched at his hay and knew naught of human heartaches. The rats scampered and annoyed him, and something fell from the hayrack, but was somehow caught and held The Rose in the Dust 339 fast and dangled at his nose. The pony nibbled at it, but it was not good to eat. As a foolish thing, indeed, the pony regarded it. And yet it is that baleful thing for which bauble-loving men and women have bartered honor and taken life. It is "The Diamond from the Sky"! Into whose hands will it come next? CHAPTER XXIII THE DOUBLE CROSS LET the coachman take the reins!" cried Du- rand, subconsciously changing from his care less air of race-goer to the grave demeanor of physician. "Lend a hand, Blair," he added, as the coachman worked around from the back seat by the groom to the driver s place on the tally-ho. Blair and Vivian, assisting as best they could, aided Durand in dragging Arthur from the box seat to the second one. Here he collapsed, murmuring: "Esther! How plainly I saw her in her gipsy dress. She spoke to me the hunchback fellow was with her!" "It was imagination " said Vivian soothingly to the stricken man, as the pseudo-physician, Durand, ad ministered the all-too-handy hypodermic. "A touch of sun, wasn t it, Doctor?" "Yes," said Durand in equally soothing accents, "I think it was the sun, and too much exertion. We shouldn t have let you drive, Mr. Powell ; you are not strong enough yet." Blair said nothing. He pitied Arthur that in so short a time his character had been so weakened from his hurts and the drugs administered that he could be convinced that the evidence of his own eyes was but the phantom of a disordered imagination. 340 The Double Cross 341 Neither the coachman nor the groom had under stood the significance of their master s collapse at the sight of two gipsy musicians with pony piano cart and monkey, by the roadside. The coachman and groom, like the other servants at the Powell mansion, only knew their master had never been mentally the same since he had been injured at the mines, and since his first home-coming to his grand new mansion, a bat tered, shattered, insensible form on a stretcher. In a few moments the effect of the stimulating drug had calmed Arthur and he was sitting with closed eyes on the second seat, with Blair and Vivian and Durand. A passing auto, coming in the same direction, slowed beside the coach and the occupants called to the driver and the tally-ho party that there was a man on behind. "He looks like a tough customer, too!" added the driver of the car. The groom on the rear seat looked down and ordered the tough-looking customer to get off. Luke Lovell growled a curse back at the groom and held on. The coachman with practised dexterity lashed the whip behind the coach at a signal from the groom. The thong cut Luke across the face twice before he could shield himself. Again and again the lash cut and stung him cruelly on neck and shoul ders and, despite his hardihood and determination to stand the onslaught, he was compelled to let go and drop off. It was a quiet suburban residence street. He limped to the sidewalk and sat in the shade of a tree by the curb, and near him a leaking fire-hydrant trickled. He 342 The Diamond from the Sky mopped his brow and the burning cuts across his face with the cooling water. The pain slowly subsided, and he looked about him. There, far off down the street, yet distinct to the keen eyes of the gipsy, were a man and a woman plodding by a pony piano cart. He recognized who they were instantly Esther and Quabba. Old emotions, old fealties stirred in him at the sight. Esther, daughter of Hagar, Queen of the Gipsies! Esther, whom he had always gazed upon with pride and a dull longing! Esther was not for him, he knew that. But yet there stirred in him the old sense of affection, and mingled with it was a sense of shame. Bad as the brute gipsy was, there always had been something fine and tender in his regard for Esther. To injure her had been no part of all his wild plans to make money out of what he knew now was the Stan ley secret and Hagar s! Luke s mental processes were slow, but he was quick to realize he had best have time to think of how he had better meet Esther again, if he wished to regain her confidence as he now desired to do. He rose from the curb, even while cogitating upon these things, and concealed himself behind a tree. But he could have stood in plain view upon the sidewalk for all he would have been seen, for Esther and Quabba, their heads bowed low, trudged on beside the patient pony, nor looked to right or left. Meanwhile the smart tally-ho had rattled on, and ere long it had arrived at the Powell mansion and the master of the mansion had been assisted off by his whilom friends. The Double Cross 343 Such is the power of suggestion upon a drug- weakened mind that John Powell, after entering his luxurious home, soon threw aside all depression and worry. Physically his strength had almost fully re turned, and the plotters rejoiced to see that under the stimulant administered and their cajolements, the panic-stricken remembrance of his encounter with Esther had been dismissed by him as an illusion. A half hour later, Esther and Quabba parted at the alley entrance that led to Sankey s stables. Esther put on her cloak again to cover her gipsy attire and removed her headdress, and thus garbed looked like a passing shop-girl; nor did she attract undue atten tion as she slipped quietly to her room by the entrance to the hotel on the side street. Quabba stood gazing after his young mistress wist fully until she had turned from the street some short distance away. He was startled by a hand being placed upon his shoulder, and turning he saw the swarthy face of Luke Lovell. Santley, the coarse-grained tyrant, lay dead in the morgue downtown. Beside him was Splinters; and near them was the disfigured body of La Belle. And all because of a woman s coquetry and "The Dia mond from the Sky" ! The new manager of the circus was optimistic. He was inclined to believe that the tragedy would be "great press stuff for the show." But unfortunately the triple tragedy and the panic and riot which fol lowed it, aroused and brought the creditors who were 344 The Diamond from the Sky numerous down upon the show, and it was seized and attached for debt. The disconsolate performers and attaches, their salaries long in arrear, realizing that it was a bad season for the circus business and being fully aware, too, that the amount from a sheriff s auc tion would pay little if any of their salaries, talked between themselves, and Bill Hull, the acrobat, remem bered the great diamond Santley gave La Belle before the lion, Lancelot, killed her. Gossip as to the value of this great gem had been considerable round and about the circus since Williams, the bill-poster, had brought it in from the woods where he had said he found it. "Listen!" said Bill Hull to the other performers. "If this diamond is recovered, it might sell for enough so that all salaries could be paid." Bill Hull also remembered that Sankey, the stableman, was one who had snatched at the diamond. He knew Sankey, for in a previous season, with a smaller show, some of the animals had been stabled at Sankey s. Bill Hull, without further words, informed the sheriff, and putting on an overcoat to hide his tights for the sheriff s seizure had stopped the show led the way to Sankey s stable. With the sheriff and the acrobat went a policeman and the manager of the circus pro tern. They reached the stable yard in an auto just pre vious to the arrival of Quabba, with his monkey and pony and street-piano cart that he stabled there. While Quabba faced Luke Lovell at the alley s mouth, the sheriff with the acrobat and the two others went into the stable. Sankey had been in the loft searching vainly for the diamond. As he came down the ladder The Double Cross 345 he faced the sunlight from the open door, and there between him and the daylight gleaming like a star dangled from the hayrack over the pony s empty stall the very jewel for which he had been searching! Just as Sankey grasped the diamond, the sheriff and his party were at the door and caught him. Out from the place they struggled ; the diamond glittering in the sun. In wresting it from the desperate stableman, it was passed almost against the eyes of Quabba and Luke Lovell, who had hurried upon the scene from the alley mouth at the first sounds of the struggle. How well they knew that dazzling jewel! It had been a for tune for them both, a fortune briefly held and quickly lost! The next day the newspapers rang with the account of the recovery of the diamond, the aftermath of the great circus tragedy. The value of the diamond could hardly be estimated, the Los Angeles papers said. There were conflicting stories as to how it came into the possession of the dead circus proprietor. This only was known, it would be sold at the sheriff s auction as an asset of the Santley Circus, bankrupt. Homer Graydon, millionaire, read the story. Ho mer Graydon was old in years, but, as he said, "young at heart." Wicked at heart would have been the truer saying. On her arrival in Los Angeles, Vivian Marston had attracted the attention of Homer Graydon, who considered himself a connoisseur of fair women. Since the accident to John Powell, Graydon had seen little of her, for it was said that she was an old friend of the injured man, and an old friend of Blair Stanley. 346 The Diamond from the Sky She was also an old friend, it appeared, of Doctor Durand, Powell s private physician. "In fact, Vi," said Graydon to that fair charmer, "you seem to be an old friend to everybody but me!" Vivian smiled. She had met Graydon in the park by telephone appointment. Now that her charge was recovered, Miss Marston, who so capably nursed him, had time for her social engagements again. She was forced to be tactful in social matters, however, for Blair was jealous and Durand was suspicious. But Graydon was too good a friend to lose, according to Miss Marston s way of thinking, and unknown to the others concerned, she had driven to the park and had kept her secret appointment with the old roue. "You have been cruel and neglectful of me, Vi," continued Graydon. "But here is something in the paper that may interest you. You are crazy about diamonds and I remember your telling me of a won derful one that broke your heart when it was taken from you by train robbers. It was a wild story, and I cannot say I believed it. But there seems to be strange tragedies about big diamonds. Here, the paper says, is a wonderful one that caused a triple murder the other day at the circus." Vivian paled, as he showed her the newspaper ac count. "Yes, I know," she said. "I was there. It was a wonderful diamond, and," she faltered, "a dreadful tragedy." But she did not tell him the diamond was the self same gem she had lost. Homer Graydon was a mate rialist. He was skeptical of much he saw and he believed but little of what he heard. The Double Cross 347 "He, he!" cackled Graydon. "The papers are full of wild yarns about the circus owner who gave the diamond to the lady lion tamer, and the clown, her husband, told his friend, the lion, that the lady was unfaithful. The lion killed the lady, and the husband killed the giver of the jewel. Then the lion pawed the diamond from the dead woman s neck, and a stableman stole it. Romantic, to say the least, eh, what?" "I was there," repeated Vivian. "I saw it all. The papers speak the truth." "Well, if you will be a good little girl, I ll go to the auction and buy this wonderful diamond for you," chuckled the old bon vivant. "Will you?" asked Vivian eagerly. "I will, if you promise to give up these old friends who have recently monopolized you. Old friends? Pooh! Never mind old friends, stick to good friends and you ll wear diamonds!" "I will stick to good friends who get me the dia mond!" retorted Vivian. "It is well enough to criti cise my old friends, as you call them, but they have promised me the diamond, too." "I ll get it for you ; I ll outbid them if it costs every cent I have!" cried Graydon excitedly. Vivian smiled at this compliment to her charms, and she thought of the others who also would bid for the diamond for her sake. Let the cost be what it may the diamond would be hers, no matter who bought it! Then Vivian bade good-bye to Graydon and drove away. During her absence from the Powell mansion there were callers she might have recognized. The first 348 The Diamond from the Sky was Luke Lovell, set and determined upon what he called "having a square deal." Luke Lovell had encountered Blair earlier in the day and his suave manner puzzled Luke, for Blair told him that he, Luke, was well within his rights in de manding a share of the spoils John Powell s wealth. "Call at the house," Blair had said, "and kick up a row. You ll get yours, for I ll back you up." And when Luke had departed from the office, Blair had called up the police and told them a threatening fellow was hanging around the Powell mansion evi dently bent on blackmail. Another caller at the Powell house was Marmaduke Smythe. Flushed with wine and enlivened with drugs, Arthur was wild and boastful. Smythe produced a newspaper and was speaking of the circus tragedy and the recovery of the great diamond, when suddenly Arthur dashed down his wine glass and stood erect. "It is The Diamond from the Sky !" he cried. "I will buy it at the auction. If you are the lawyer of the Earls of Stanley, listen : I am the Earl ! I am not John Powell, but Arthur Stanley, of Stanley Hall!" Blair, Durand and de Vaux, who were all present, started in surprise at this announcement. The law yer s jaw dropped, he stepped back a pace and fell backward over his chair. Just at that moment the servant announced that a rough fellow was at the door, who demanded to see Mr. Powell and Mr. Blair Stanley. The party left the library and crossed to the door. Luke had followed The Double Cross 349 the butler in, and Blair and Durand, without ado, seized the gipsy and thrust him out. A policeman was waiting and Luke, struggling and protesting, was thrown into an automobile and taken to the station house, the others going along as com plaining witnesses. At the station house, Luke, strangely silent now, was searched. A clasp knife and some silver corns were all that was found upon him, but the policeman fished from an obscure pocket a small, creased, stained slip of paper. It was a broken Manila band such as are put around packages of banknotes. Printed on it were the words: WELLS FARGO EXPRESS $5OO Over the heads of those closest to him Luke glanced fixedly at Arthur, who blanched and trembled, for it was a paper band such as had been around the train- robber treasure Arthur had come upon in the desert, the funds upon which he had founded the great John Powell fortune! It had been among the banknotes Arthur had given to Luke. It had been hidden among them and Luke had held on to it, when the money was gone, as evi dence against Arthur, for he had his suspicions as to where the monev had come from. 350 The Diamond from the Sky "This looks like train-robber stuff!" said the desk sergeant. Then Durand spoke up. "I remember this fellow," he said, pointing to Luke. "I met him at a place said to be a train-robbers hangout at the mining town of Mammoth, where Mr. Powell here was injured some weeks ago." "We ll hold him till we find out," said the sergeant. "Lock him up!" And Luke was taken away. By the aid of the police-station messenger Luke man aged to have word of his plight sent to Quabba, and he asked that Esther be brought to see him. Quabba telephoned to Esther immediately. She had just received a telegram from the convalescing Hagar, asking her to return to Richmond, and in reply had wired that she would come, guardedly adding that Arthur seemed to be under evil influences here and that she was discouraged regarding him. Arriving at the station house, Esther entered and briefly explained that Luke had been a servant of her mother in Virginia for years, and that she knew him to be honest. Quabba waited outside for her. More strange com pany, thought the sergeant. But Esther spoke of Tom Blake, the famous Richmond detective, and the ser geant absolved her from suspicion, especially when she winsomely smiled and admitted she was of gipsy blood. At the cell bars Luke Lovell seized Esther s hand and kissed it, while contrite tears rolled down his bronzed cheeks. Briefly he explained what had hap pened. The Double Cross 351 "There is but one thing to do," said Esther. "Tell the truth. I am tired of subterfuge and deception. I am going back to my mother in Richmond. She has recovered and she needs me. I cannot shield Arthur at the expense of wronging any one, much as I have loved him and much as others have loved him. If he has done evil things, he is not worthy of further sacrifice and silence. I know Blair Stanley to be wicked, as are all those who live in luxury with Arthur. So tell the truth!" "No, Miss Esther," said Luke huskily, "I will keep silent. They have double-crossed me and I will have revenge in my own way the gipsy s way." "There is only one course to follow, my poor Luke," said Esther gently, "and that is the open and truthful course." "Do not mix up in this," replied Luke earnestly. "Go back to Hagar and ask her to forgive me and for get I ever rebelled against her. I will attend to my enemies and to hers. I will not harm Arthur if I can help it, but on Blair Stanley and the others I will have my revenge for their treachery. Tell Hagar that when I can get away I shall return to her and again serve her and you faithfully, my little mistress!" Luke s determination and contrition were so evident that Esther made no further attempt to change his mind. She invoked a blessing on the rugged gipsy and left him, convinced that his loyalty to her and Hagar was what it had been before money greed had led him to evil courses and companions. 352 The Diamond from the Sky At the circus the auction was on. John Powell and his quondam friends were there. Also, gloved and as though just from a bandbox, was the old beau, Homer Graydon. Vivian divided her smiles impartially. The tents, the animals, the circus equipment gener ally, brought a few listless bids and went at paltry sums. Then came the event of the sale, the one valu able asset, the great diamond. "How much am I offered, gentlemen?" cried the auc tioneer. "Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Arthur. "Mr. Powell bids ten thousand!" cried the auction eer gaily. "What else do I hear?" "Fifteen thousand!" shouted Homer Graydon. There was a buzz of excitement as Mr. Powell, the mad young millionaire, doubled the bid. Higher and higher rose the price proffered for "The Diamond from the Sky." The crowd gasped as the bids went up and up, as though it were the Kohinoor. "Going, going " droned the auctioneer. "The last call am I offered any more? Going, going are you all done?" CHAPTER XXIV THE MAD MILLIONAIRE ARE you all through, gentlemen?" reiterated the auctioneer. "I am offered seventy thou sand dollars for this magnificent diamond. Its previous history is unknown, but local experts have pronounced it to be worth ten times the sum you offer! "Where did it come from? That I cannot tell you, but by the decree of the Court it is adjudged an asset of the Santley Circus, bankrupt. As such the purchaser s title will be valid. "Am I offered any more? Seventy thousand, seventy thousand, seventy thousand!" Homer Graydon, wealthy spendthrift as he was, grew ashen-faced. It would cramp him to raise seventy thousand dollars, but Vivian Marston gave him an alluring smile, and, as his pride was also at stake, he made an effort to smile back at her and nodded to John Powell as if to say: "Go higher if you can!" The rival bidder laughed recklessly. Once again he felt all the daring carelessness of his wild youth as Arthur Stanley of Stanley Hall. "Eighty thousand!" he cried. Vivian was in a flutter of unholy delight to realize she was the inspiration of the money-mad rivalry be- 353 354 The Diamond from the Sky tween John Powell and Homer Graydon, as they eagerly bid for the bauble that had been a talisman of death. "Eighty thousand I am bid by Mr. Powell!" chanted the auctioneer. "Come, come, Mr. Graydon, do not let superstition stop you ! The lion would have killed the lady and the jealous husband would have killed Sam Santley even had this diamond not figured in the case. All great diamonds have their dramatic history. Remember the Kohinoor and the Orloff diamond. This diamond may be a lucky stone for all we know, despite what has happened!" Arthur knew better, Blair knew better and so did Vivian and the English lawyer, Smythe. So did Du- rand, the international diamond thief and swindler. And so did his accomplice and jackal, the dapper Count de Vaux. But Homer Graydon only knew that Vivian Marston s favor depended on the diamond. "Eighty-five thousand dollars!" he cried, then he gulped and grew ashen-pale again. To raise eighty- five thousand dollars cash to pay for this bauble to give a woman would be his ruin. "Ninety thousand!" cried John Powell. Homer Graydon gave the auctioneer a negative jerk of the head in reply to his inquiring gaze. "Ninety thousand! Ninety thousand! Are you all done? Ninety thousand, once! Ninety thousand, twice! Ninety thousand for the last time!" He paused. "Going, going gone! Sold to Mr. John Pow ell for ninety thousand dollars!" Arthur scribbled a check as the crowd buzzed and swayed around him. Vivian gave an hysterical laugh The Mad Millionaire 355 and clutched Arthur by the arm as the auctioneer handed him the jewel. Then, as the purchaser and his little coterie of friends passed through the dis persing crowd, Vivian deliberately looked Homer Gray- don in the face and turned her back upon him. In her room at her modest hotel, Esther debated nervously with herself. The rank injustice done Luke, who had been railroaded to prison by Blair Stanley and Frank Durand, while Arthur had never interfered, made her more bitter than she had been at the strange attitude Arthur had taken toward her since his re covery from his injuries. Rumors that his mind was affected as a result of his hurts were rife in Los Angeles, where those who had formerly called him "The Golden Man" now designated him as John Pow ell, "the mad millionaire." For herself Esther would never again intrude upon him, surrounded as he was by sycophants and para sites who worked him evil. But for Luke Lovell, done a great injustice, she would make one last appeal be fore she returned to Richmond and Hagar. The remorse and contrition of Luke, that he had been disloyal to her and Hagar, Esther felt was genu ine. She determined to take the English lawyer, Smythe, into her confidence, and found occasion to send him a message by the faithful Quabba. Lawyer Smythe, who also was preparing to leave Los Angeles, had shipped his precious deer head by ex press, with much misgiving and forboding of harm be- 356 The Diamond from the Sky falling it ere it reached his dearly beloved England, where he was shortly to follow. Like Esther, the eccentric but loyal English lawyer was becoming discouraged and dismayed at the puz zling conduct of the American heir to the Stanley Earldom. Here was the heir, a fugitive from justice in Vir ginia, flourishing under the name of "John Powell," a thousand leagues from Stanley Hall, Virginia. "I confess it is an enigma to me," he explained to Esther. "Of course, Blair Stanley, as the next in suc cession, cannot become the Earl of Stanley so long as Arthur Stanley lives. That Arthur Stanley lives under another name only adds to the confusion of the whole bally thing!" Then Esther told him about Luke and, because he had a kindly heart in his queer body, the English law yer accompanied Esther to the prison on the next vis iting day. They found Luke still contrite and tender toward Esther and his gipsy sovereign, Hagar. He begged to be remembered to Hagar and pleaded that she be as sured that once he was out of prison and had taken his revenge he would return to the tribe and serve faithfully as headman again. But he was obdurate in his sullen determination to have his revenge in his own way. "Go back to Virginia, Miss Esther," he said, "and leave the matter of my enemies to me. They have so much influence a poor gipsy could get no justice against them in the courts. If I told my story, it wouldn t be listened to. But I can t be held here for- The Mad Millionaire 357 ever, and I will have a better revenge in a better way!" And in this frame of mind, mingled with his tender attitude toward her, Esther and the English lawyer left him. Luke looked strange and grim with his cropped head and shaven face and in his prison garb. He was not the rugged, picturesque figure Esther had known since childhood. He seemed another being, a graven-faced, implacable personification of a venge ance that could wait to strike. Hardly had the newspaper sensation of John Pow ell s purchase of the diamond died down than "the mad millionaire" broke into print again. Now the newspapers announced that to celebrate his recovery from his recent injuries, Mr. John Pow ell would give a great fete, the first formal house- warming of his grand new mansion. At this fete, the papers stated, the great diamond that had caused the tragedy at the Santley Circus would figure in a sen sational surprise. It was Vivian who had suggested the fete, which was to be a costume affair. Arthur, tormented as he was with the devilish suggestion of insane delusions, and addicted to evil drugs, welcomed any excitement, any dissipation to make him forget the attacks of remorse and shame and the dread anxiety of madness that ever and anon obsessed him. Like many others in the same situation, he believed his evil companions were his good friends and true, for ever they fed his vanities and flattered and fawned upon him. Vivian lived in an elysium of reckless and costly lux ury. There were high revels nightly by the mad mil- 358 The Diamond from the Sky lionaire and his friends in the gay resorts of Los Angeles, and now there was to come the crowning ef fort in wasteful and luxurious prodigality the Powell costume ball. Arthur abandoned all business affairs to Blair. Now that he had the diamond, Vivian was exerting every wile to obtain it. And Arthur had promised that he would present it to her fittingly at the fete. But there is no honor among thieves. Already Du- rand was planning to cheat Blair, after Arthur, as John Powell, was ruined. Durand broached this to Vivian, who played her cards tactfully and seemingly encouraged him. Her one desire was "The Diamond from the Sky," and that was to be hers on the night of the fete. She could hardly wait for it. The night came as all nights will. , Esther had decided the best way to intercede for Luke would be to intrude upon Arthur at this fete, and make him promise to secure Luke s release from prison. Smythe accompanied Esther in a taxicab to the fete. He was attired as a knight in armor, but persisted in canying his great English umbrella. He explained that he did not wish to become wet and get rusted in his armor, in case it rained. When informed that the rainy season in this part of the country was yet some months off, he had replied that rain knew no seasons. He had seen it rain in London when even the Times had predicted fair weather. So he would run no risk and would take his umbrella. "I feel better when I carry something," he added. "When I carried my game trophy, the deer head, I did not need an umbrella. In fact, it did not rain while The Mad Millionaire 359 I carried it, which was remarkable. So now I shall carry the umbrella, especially as I have shipped the deer head to London and I do hope it will not be stolen or injured in transit." At the Powell mansion, entering with the crush of maskers, Esther and Smythe found that the butler, ar rayed as a gorgeous major domo, was receiving the guests; as the host was to make his entrance in some novel and surprising manner, it was whispered. In fact, the costume fete was a lavish Bohemian revel. Wine flowed, punch was served on every side and the guests made themselves at home and joined in the dance and revels as they listed. An Hungarian band played in the grand ballroom, and a string or chestra in the conservatory. Attentive servants were at every hand giving every care to the guests. Smythe, a humoresque figure in his helmet and armor and with the incongruous crook-handle umbrella, led Esther to the one quiet spot in all the bedlam of romp and revelry. This was a small upstairs recep tion or tea room, plainly but richly furnished and with a large window which overlooked the lawns and flower garden. A wide-branched palm in a handsome jardiniere screened a small divan or settee near the centre of the room. Beside it was a small ornate table. A great door led to the billiard room and, through the billiard room, gave ingress and egress to this quiet spot. A few couples strayed out and in, but for the most part Esther was alone after Smythe left her, promis ing to see to it that the master of the house was ad vised that a lady wished to speak to him there. 360 The Diamond from the Sky In the great ballroom the gay set of Los Angeles were hilarious with wine and music. Blair, a handsome and striking figure in the full dress uniform of a Con federate officer, forgot his schemes and plans and en joyed himself with all the abandon of his reckless nature. Durand arrayed in a conventionalized costume as the King of Diamonds looked like that court card come to life. "I am running true to form/ he whispered to Vivian. " The pack called me the King of Diamonds, and here I am, you see, costumed for the part!" "You wouldn t have dared to dress in that character abroad," laughed Vivian. "The police of Europe look too constantly for the King of Diamonds!" "You are right, my dear girl," replied Durand care lessly. "But speaking of Europe, even the carnival at Monte Carlo was no gayer scene than this. Cer tainly our friend, the whilom John Powell, is giving a princely fete. But what is this big surprise he is to spring?" "I haven t the least idea," confessed Vivian. "He is very secretive of late." Then her brow knit in a slight frown, as she remem bered that Arthur had promised to give her the dia mond this night, but when she had sent him a note by her maid he had only returned her word that the jewel would be given her later in the evening. Where was he, what was his surprise? Would she be pre sented with the diamond before the envious eyes of this revelling throng? She hoped so. Such a public The Mad Millionaire 361 bestowal appealed to Vivian Marston s sense of the sensational. "I thought you would come as The Queen of Hearts/ remarked Durand, interrupting her train of thought. "When we despoiled Europe you were known in the pack as The Queen of Hearts/ as I was known as The King of Diamonds. De Vaux, too, is chary of our old pseudonyms. He touted for our victims at the select and exclusive clubs in the various capitals of Europe so he was called The Knave of Clubs. But he, too, seems to wish to forget. There he is in the costume of a Zouave, dancing with a dark-eyed Oriental houri." "Let us forget the past and our pasts!" said Vivian bitterly. Then Durand exchanged a smile with a charmer attired as a Neapolitan flower girl and whirled away in the dance with her. Outside, Quabba and the gardener peered through the windows at the gay scene, in company with chauf feurs and coachmen. Upstairs, Esther waited, nervous and impatient, half regretting she had come. Then she remembered Luke unjustly in prison and her reso lution returned. In the ballroom below, Smythe, her eccentric yet faithful knight, wandered about seeking the master of the mansion. Suddenly the music stopped. There was a fanfare of trumpets and the rays of a calcium light were turned from the gallery toward the great purple velvet curtains at the end of the ballroom. These were drawn aside by two slim young girls in the costumes of Tudor pages, and there, between the parted velvet curtains, full in 362 The Diamond from the Sky the great pencil of light directed at him, sat the figure of a cavalier on a great white horse with crimson trap pings. Immovable as a statue stood rider and steed. Then the band crashed a march and through the ballroom to the centre came rider and horse. Here they paused and the rider made a sweeping bow to the hushed as semblage. It was Arthur Stanley of Stanley Hall, Virginia, but known here, save to a few, as John Powell, rightly, "the mad millionaire!" He took from his neck a great gleaming diamond in a curious locket and chain. He held it in the fierce light beating on him and it blazed and sparkled. "Friends, my dear and welcome guests!" he cried in a ringing voice, "I will tell you a strange story of the first finding of a great gem such as this. A gem known as The Diamond from the Sky! And there he told, and with a poetic diction he must have practised, the story of the adventurer, Sir Arthur Stanley, sometime called "The Fallen Star," founder of the Stanley family in Virginia and finder of "The Diamond from the Sky!" While the revellers hung spellbound at the story, he told of how three hundred years ago this reckless Sir Arthur, younger son of the first Earl of Stanley in England, had been banished to America to the English settlements in Virginia and had gone far up the Rappa- hannock River trails to steal away an Indian Princess. He told of Sir Arthur s capture by the savage redmen, his torture by stake and fire and then the fall of the meteor in the night that had saved his life and denied The Mad Millionaire 363 him. For the Indians had taken it as a sign of the Great Spirit s displeasure. Then he told of the finding of the great diamond in the cooled meteor and of his ancestor bearing it away and consigning it to his heirs to be worn when a de scendant of his would be called to the English Earldom. "It is called The Diamond from the Sky/ The Charm Against Harm/ " concluded the speaker dra matically. "For none save a true descendant of the gentleman adventurer who found it, or the woman he loves can possess it, lest it bring disaster and death!" Then the speaker dismounted and a groom led the horse away. The crowd cheered ; and the band striking up a lilting measure, the dance went on. Removing his plumed hat and wig, John Powell led Vivian upstairs to the reception room that they might be alone. As they ascended the stairs, a great uproar of laughter arose in the ballroom. Marmaduke Smythe had been standing on a chair to see, and to hear better the story of "The Diamond from the Sky." In mov ing to get down to convey Esther s message to the dis mounted speaker, Smythe had broken an electric light wall bracket and as a result his metal armor had short- circuited a live wire. He was rescued with a smoking plume, hardly the worse for the electrical mishap, when Vivian and Arthur entered the room where Esther waited. They did not see the slight figure behind the palm. Vivian threw her arms around Arthur and kissed him passionately. "Give me the diamond, Arthur dear," she murmured. But Arthur drew back with a startled cry, for there looking full at them with scornful gaze was Esther! 364 The Diamond from the Sky Vivian realized the subterfuge that Esther was an apparition would no longer avail. She shrieked: "Choose between us!" Arthur thrust her from him and through the door, the one entrance to the room, and turned the bronze bolt, while Vivian screamed and beat outside in rage and baffled desire for the diamond. But ere Arthur had thrust her from the room, Vivian s clawing grasp had ripped his velvet sleeve and lacey shirt, and his arm was bare to the elbow as he extended "The Diamond from the Sky" to Esther, and wildly cried, he knew not why, for her to take it and to forgive him. But Esther s eyes were wide and wild, her gaze was upon his naked arm, scarred and marked from the needle thrusts of his drug addiction. She had read of such things in the newspapers. Now she knew "That is the reason!" she gasped in horror and dis gust. And with indignant fervor she snatched the dia mond from his grasp and threw it from her as an evil thing. Stricken with shame and remorse, Arthur bowed his head on the table and sobbed. He had not seen or cared where the diamond had been flung, nor had Esther. It had hurtled through the open window and had fallen, only to be caught in the trembling branch of a rosebush far beneath. Vivian s screams had not disturbed the noisy revel lers in the ballroom, showering confetti and singing as they danced and drinking the wine that was prof fered on every hand, but Durand and Blair, mindful of the diamond, had followed. They found Vivian The Mad Millionaire 365 hysterically sobbing at the door of the little room, and Blair burst it in. That gallant though grotesque knight, Marmaduke Smythe, was close behind the intruders. A strange tableau met their eyes the pale, indignant Esther and the dishevelled Arthur, the latter hiding his face and sobbing in his shame. "Where is the diamond? Where is it?" shrieked Vivian, shaking Arthur by the shoulder. The grotesque but loyal knight, Marmaduke Smythe, gave his arm to Esther and they walked proudly out in silence and left the schemers and their victim. Below, the gaiety in the ballroom was at its height. Outside the dawn crimsoned in the East and a hand reached to the rosebush beneath the window and bore away "The Diamond from the Sky!" CHAPTER XXV A HOUSE OF CARDS THE miracle of dawn crimsoned all the East, the last boisterous revellers were departing from the fete of the "mad millionaire." Only the butler, as major domo, had speeded the parting guests, who had revelled and cared noth ing at heart for host or mansion that had entertained them with a Belshazzarian feast. And it was a Belshazzarian feast and the handwrit ing of destruction was on the wall. In the small reception room upstairs, the unhappy wretch who had been called "The Golden Man" sobbed like the drug-weakling he was. Vivian, her hair in disorder and vixen-like in her anger and greed, shook him by the shoulder and cried again and again: "Where is the diamond?" Blair, noting the open window, left Durand and Vivian by the side of Arthur and crossed over to it. There, down below was Angelo, the Italian gardener, up at dawn to his work, plucking "The Diamond from the Sky" from the rosebush, just where it had fallen when it had been thrown through the window by the indignant Esther when Arthur had proffered it to her. "Hi, there, you!" called Blair. "Don t take that! I am coming down for it!" 366 A House of Cards 367 The gardener, like the remainder of the servants, bore a sullen dislike to the whilom friends who sur rounded their master; he growled an unintelligible reply. Durand, who sensed that the diamond had been found, sprang from the room and made for the stair way with Blair beside him. They ran from the front of the house to the back. But the gardener, who had picked up a heavy stick which was lying by the rose bush, kept them off. "I take to the boss!" he said. Nor would he be shaken from this resolve. And Durand and Blair, cursing his stubbornness, escorted him into the house and to Arthur. Vivian, now realizing that the diamond was re covered, had ceased her vixenish demands, and was again resorting to wiles and cajolement. But Arthur, shaken with shame and wholly unnerved that they had deceived him as regards Esther s presence in the city, his shame augmented by the realization that Esther knew how he had fallen in his drug addiction, took the diamond and staggered from the room, with a few muttered thanks to the gardener. Reaching his suite, he locked the diamond in a cabinet by the great rear window of his bedroom and then, pacing up and down, fought the devil of drug desire, for Esther s sake and lost again! The English lawyer, Smythe, a knight in armor in all sooth, escorted the shaken Esther to her hotel, hav ing picked up the watching and waiting Quabba in front of the Powell mansion and taken him with them in the taxicab. 368 The Diamond from the Sky "I will see you safely back to Richmond," Smythe had said gently. "Your mother, you say, has recovered and you wish to return to her. I am going back to England resolved to let the American heir or heirs to the Stanley Earldom claim the title when he or they may choose." "But what shall I do about Luke Lovell?" asked Esther. "All his life, except for the brief revolt, he served my mother faithfully." "I would suggest," said Smythe, "that our friend Quabba here stay behind us and see what he can do. He may secure Lovell s release by appealing to Arthur Stanley, or, as he calls himself now, John Powell. "I have no faith in Arthur now," said Esther wearily. "He has fallen into evil ways through evil associations." But in her steadfast heart Esther resolved to say noth ing to Smythe now nor to Hagar later, regarding Ar thur s drug addiction. "Well," suggested the English lawyer, "our friend Quabba can keep us posted, and we may be able to take up the matter of endeavoring to secure Lovell s release from this unjust incarceration, after we return to Richmond." Quabba, who might have liked Luke, except for the quarrel between them at Luke s revolt, eagerly agreed to the plan though he was loath to part even tem porarily from his young mistress. But he realized that a humble wanderer such as he, was no companion for Esther, and he felt happy that she would return to Hagar looked after by that kindly gentleman, the eccentric lawyer. The next day Esther, accompanied by Smythe, left A House of Cards 369 Los Angeles for Richmond. Quabba, to whom the lawyer had given a sufficiency of money, stayed be hind. He was an Italian gipsy and his new friend and compatriot, the gardener at the Powell mansion, was at the train with him when he bade his respectful adieus to his young mistress and Mr. Smythe. On the way back from the depot, the gardener thought that Quabba needed cheering up, so he led him to the garden-restaurant La Bella Napoli. It was a humble place, an arbored resort frequented by Italian working people. Signora Solari made them welcome. "She has no good looks," whispered Quabba s friend, "but you should see her daughter Rosa! Ah, Rosa is a charmer, and how she will smile at you if you pay for the better wine ! You should see her ! " It was fated that Quabba was to see the ravishing Rosa. De Vaux, a lady killer, to his way of thinking, also had seen the ravishing Rosa. She had smiled at de Vaux in passing and he had followed her to the garden La Bella Napoli. A citizen of the world, the dapper Count spoke Italian charmingly. He knew well how to ingratiate himself into the favor of the landlady s daughter and the landlady. De Vaux ordered the high- priced Chianti on which there was a good profit. From their table in the garden, Quabba and the Powell gardener noted all this, but kept their distance, unseen and unnoticed by the languishing de Vaux. Fate was playing into the hands of Quabba. Cesare, the contractor, had joined Quabba and his friend at 370 The Diamond from the Sky their table in the corner. He had a grievance, had Cesare, the contractor. He proclaimed it. "Look you," he said, "I get a contract, a good con tract, to fix a roof, and I can t get any of these lazzaroni to go on the work ! " Questioned why by Quabba, Cesare shrugged his shoulders and said : "There are two reasons the loafers give me. One is that it is a non-union job,, and the other is it is work at the prison and that they do not like. They fear the prison, maybe for good reasons." Quabba sat erect. The prison ! Luke Lovell was in the prison! "Me, observe me! Roofing! That is my trade!" cried Quabba. "Angelo here will tell you!" Angelo, who knew nothing at all of the matter, roundly swore that Quabba was the best roofer that ever left Italy, and Quabba and the contractor shook hands upon a compact. At the Powell mansion suspicion, plot and counter plot, were the aftermath of the grand fete. Arthur announced that he would return to his business affairs and had hinted that he was prepared to pay Durand handsomely for his professional services, and would be relieved if he and his familiar de Vaux would go about their affairs. He drew a check for a large sum and gave it to Durand. But Durand had no intention of departing without the great diamond, word of which had drawn him to this place. Durand had held threats over Vivian of disclosing their former swindling and other evil asso- A House of Cards 371 ciations to both Blair and Arthur, did she not aid him and keep silent. On her part Vivian promised Durand, but in her heart she was resolved that she alone would have the diamond, and day by day her murderous hatred of this tyrant master of her past grew and fattened, the while he seemingly cowed her to his will. John Powell s return to his office was made a happy affair by his employes. His desk bore a large horse shoe of flowers, and his secretary, on behalf of the office force, welcomed him back to health and business in an earnest little speech. Arthur, speaking as John Powell, their employer, thanked them feelingly and alluded to the loyalty and service of his kinsman from Virginia, Mr. Blair Stanley, who had so ably managed affairs in his absence. The little audience applauded and the business of the day was resumed. Arthur was grateful to Blair. He had been angry when he realized he had been deceived regarding Esther by all who surrounded him in his great mansion, since the day he had been brought home shattered and insensible. But Vivian and Blair pleaded, with signifi cant hints, that they had thought it best to accept Durand s suggestion, as Arthur s physician, that his patient be not unduly excited while convalescing. The hints inferred also that this was to shield Esther from the knowledge of the drug weakness of which she had learned, despite the efforts of all, when she had en countered Arthur face to face at the costume ball. Arthur reluctantly concluded Blair and Vivian had meant well, but it began to dawn upon him that Du- 372 The Diamond from the Sky rand was responsible for the drug addiction that now mastered him. "He had better let me die," Arthur confessed to Blair. "I shall get rid of him and his creature, de Vaux, and you and Vivian will help me cure myself, won t you, Blair? I want to go back to Esther clean and whole. I will divide all I have with you and Vivian if you will only help me ; say you will ! " And Arthur clung to Blair and pleaded, and Blair glibly promised. Handsomely paid for his services, good and bad, Durand affected to accept his dismissal philosophi cally. He proposed "One good night of it" before he left with de Vaux for the East, and the one good night took the form of a poker game in the Powell library. In Richmond at the Riverside Sanitarium, Hagar had recovered almost entirely. The clot upon her brain, caused by the cruel blow Blair had struck her, had been absorbed. Her memory came back to her. But the death, after a stroke of paralysis, of Blair s mother, and meditation during her convalescence had brought Hagar s gipsy nature to a state of meek for giveness. The sorrows she had undergone, the disap pointment Arthur, her profligate son, had been to her, chastened Hagar s once proud spirit. Through Esther s letters, she knew that Arthur in all his wealth and luxury had surrounded himself with evil company and that Blair and the adventuress, Vivian Marston, were among his familiars and para sites. A House of Cards 373 But one thing she did not know, and that was that Arthur had fallen into the clutches of the drug habit. Reunited at the sanitarium, Hagar and Esther em braced, and wept when they spoke of Arthur. "It is greed that has changed him," said Hagar softly, "money greed; that was his father s curse." And Hagar s mind reverted to that dreadful night of physi cal and mental anguish when Arthur had been born to her, and his unnatural father had sold his newborn child to Colonel Stanley to further the family ambi tions and family hatreds of the Stanleys. "It was money greed that led poor Luke Lovell to revolt and to evil courses," continued Hagar. "I am happy to know Luke is contrite of heart in all save his present desire for vengeance on Arthur and his associates." "Luke is very bitter at them all," replied Esther. "He asks your forgiveness, mother dear, and longs to return and serve you faithfully again. But he will not be stirred from his determination to have vengeance." " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord ; I will repay ! said Hagar softly, as her hands subconsciously closed upon the Bible she was holding in her lap. Marked and set apart as the gipsies are by their care free mode of life, their few vices are apparent and ex aggerated, their many virtues and finer feelings un known to the outer world. Inherently of a finer fibre and of a deeper spiritual nature, Hagar in her conva lescence had turned her mind to meditation and to the reading of the Scriptures. "We will return home, to your home, my dear child, to Stanley Hall," whispered Hagar when she regained 374 The Diamond from the Sky her composure. "There we will discuss the plans I have meditated upon since my recovery and in your absence. Perhaps this good friend will go with us and give us the benefit of his counsel/ and she turned to the sympathetic Smythe who had accompanied Esther from the West, and again thanked him brokenly for his kindness to and his protection of Esther. On a prison roof in far away Los Angeles Quabba, burning his fingers with a plumber s furnace, was re ceiving a verbal castigation from Cesare, the Italian contractor. "You a fine bum roofer!" the contractor was declar ing scornfully. "You no good for a damn!" Quabba shrugged his shoulders and replied: "Ha, what you tink you get for a scab job, a jeweller?" "All right, to-morrow I fire you and hire the monkey you have. He gotta da more brains!" And the con tractor spat in disgust and threw down the loop of scaffold rope he was carrying and hobbled away. Quabba raised his voice in singsong protest, mingling Romany expressions with his jargon of Italian and broken English, and he did so with a purpose and that purpose had its effect. At his cell window below the eaves of the prison roof, the ears of the shaved and shorn Luke Lovell caught the gipsy jargon. Luke tapped three times upon the bar at his win dow. Quabba heard and understood. He tapped three times in reply upon the gutter. Then taking a ball of cord from his pocket he tied a hacksaw to it and, A House of Cards 375 peering over the roof to note no watchful eye was ob serving, he lowered the tool of liberty to the cell win dow. It was drawn safely within. Quabba then whis pered over the gutter edge in Romany that he had a rope end tied to the cord and that the other end was fastened to the chimney. Further directions as to where Quabba would wait for the prisoner with a change of clothing were also whispered in the gipsy tongue. At the Powell mansion "the last night" is being duly celebrated. De Vaux is not there, but Durand and Blair and Vivian are with Arthur in the library plying him with liquor and encouraging him to wild and foolish play at cards. Durand has the money for the generous check that Arthur had given him. But the arch crook is not con tent with this. Congenitally he is a diamond thief, and big diamonds, rare diamonds, valuable diamonds, are his obsession. Not to buy them, not to keep them but to steal them! In the cabinet in John Powell s room is the mar vellous jewel. John Powell, whom he has snatched from the jaws of death and made a drug fiend of has given Durand his conge as physician and associate, but ere he goes upon his way Durand, the King of Dia monds, as the thief world knows him, intends to have "The Diamond from the Sky." Outside, disguised in shabby clothing and hiding in the shrubbery, is Durand s one faithful ally, de Vaux, the jackal, "The Knave of Clubs" of "the pack." Du- 376 The Diamond from the Sky rand has talked over his plan with Vivian, but he does not trust her. He does not fear Blair, nor even John Powell, the millionaire, once he has the diamond in his hands and is safely away. Durand has lived too close to them all not to be aware that there are certain things in the lives of the two young Virginians that would make them avoid any too close inquiry into their records. "Everybody has a past generally a bad one," said the cynic philosopher, and Durand mentally repeated the cynic s philosophy. What John Powell had done in the days when he was Arthur Stanley, Durand does not know nor care. Whatever it is, it is enough, that once he, Durand, has the great diamond no legal process to recover it will be dared. So while the card game for stakes without limit was at its height, Durand deftly took occasion to sift a sleeping powder into the wine-glass of John Powell, whose tongue was thick and whose taste was deadened with his indulgence in wine. The game broke up at last, owing to the sleepy lan guor of the host, who was led away, and the others re tired shortly afterwards. Vivian had betrayed Durand to Blair. She knows that once Durand has the diamond it will be taken abroad to Holland and sold and dissevered. Hidden in her room after midnight, Blair and Vivian heard Durand creep down the hall. They gave him tune to enter and to work in the room of the drugged and unconscious master of the house; then, on noise less feet, the desperate Blair stole in upon "The King A House of Cards 377 of Diamonds." Unseen, unheard, Blair crept behind Durand, in the semi-darkness of Arthur s room, as the arch -thief pried open the cabinet. Durand took the diamond and gloated over it in the gleam of a hand flashlight, but at that moment and without a word Blair dealt him a blow with all his strength with the slungshot he carried. The blow glanced and Durand, no mean antagonist even for the stalwart Blair, closed in upon his assailant. They cursed and swayed and struggled. Blair held too closely to Durand and consequently was not able to give full swing to his deadly weapon, but he rained blow after blow upon the diamond thief at close range. The costly furnishings of the room were overturned and shattered, and the noise roused Arthur from his drugged slumber. He arose dazed yet wide-eyed from his bed. Vivian in a tremor of anxiety in the doorway switched on the lights full and bright. "Kill him!" she cried tigerishly to Blair. "Kill him, the dog! Kill him!" Aided by the light, Blair seized Durand by the throat, and with his weapon arm now free, he brought the slungshot down with sickening force upon the skull of the bleeding crook and then thrust the battered "King of Diamonds" from him with a mighty effort. Flung like a sack, the arch-thief, weak and stunned, fell against the low, wide window and through it down the sheer height to the lawn below and struck full upon his guilty, shattered head and broke his neck. But he carried with him to his death, clutched with a grip Blair could not loosen, the Stanley heir loom. 378 The Diamond from the Sky As Durand lay broken and dead upon the ground, a skulking figure crouched over him in the shadow. A hand wrested the diamond from the relaxing grasp of the dead swindler. There was a thudding of hurried feet across the lawn and the watcher was gone, and with him went the precious diamond. CHAPTER XXVI THE GARDEN OF THE GODS THROWING back the great bronze bolt on the ornate front door of the Powell mansion, Blair Stanley darted from the vestibule and around the house to the back, closely followed by Vivian Marston and the trembling and shaking master of the mansion. There beneath the high window lay the battered body of Frank Durand, physician, arch-crook the erst while "King of Diamonds." His neck was broken and already the congealing blood upon face and head marked where the cruel blows of Blair s slungshot had fallen. But the grasp of Durand s shapely right hand had relaxed and the diamond was gone. Arthur covered his eyes to keep out the gruesome sight. "We must think what account is to be given of this!" whispered Vivian, the quickest witted of the trio. Then she spoke as though directly to Arthur. "Did you see the struggle? It must have been de Vaux who killed him." Arthur had been too dazed from the effect of the sleeping powder and the drinking earlier in the night to have anything but a confused recollection of what 379 380 The Diamond from the Sky had occurred. He was still so shaken he hardly com prehended Vivian s question. Then Blair spoke up. "I heard the fight in your room and rushed in," he said. "De Vaux was beating Durand with a slungshot, I think. Yes, here it is!" and he picked up the ugly weapon from where it lay beside the dead man. "I found the switch by the door and turned the lights on full, and it was all over. De Vaux passed me and ran down the stairs and out!" chimed in Vivian. Then she sobbed and tore at her hair hanging down her comely shoulders. Her grief and hysteria were not feigned. " The Diamond from the Sky. The dirty, murder ous little thief de Vaux has it! Who would have thought that little sneak would have the pluck?" she screamed. Then she turned on the shaking man in her fury. "Why didn t you give it to me, as you promised?" she shrieked. And in her futile rage and disappoint ment she beat and tore at herself, till Blair grasped her by the wrists. "Quiet, you she-devil!" he hissed. "De Vaux will not get away with the diamond. People are coming. Remember now, not a word that we suspect Durand! We don t wish too much probing. That s the curse of it, there is where de Vaux has us. Fortunately, he may suspect much about us, but he knows little!" Inspired by this final tragedy of the diamond, the newspapers printed again the stories of John Powell s rapid rise to wealth; the accident that had shattered him in a riot at his mines in the mountains ; the skill- The Garden of the Gods 381 ful treatment of the stranger physician, Durand, which had brought the young millionaire back from the gates of death. Then was repeated the account of the triple tragedy of the deaths of the woman lion tamer; of Santley, the circus proprietor; and of the clown husband of the Lady of Lions all because of the great diamond from nowhere. The recovery of the diamond after it had been stolen by Sankey, the stableman, following the panic at the circus and its sale, were all items which further spiced the sensational stories printed at Du rand s death. Physically, Mr. Powell was in fair health, the papers said, in reviewing the tragic events that centred around the millionaire and the evil-omened jewel. But, the papers added significantly, his nervous condition gave great concern to his friends and associates, and he was to be taken on an auto tour to Colorado. Meanwhile, in the gray of dawn, de Vaux had found shelter at Signora Solari s cafe, rousing that good lady and her daughter from their slumbers to admit him. He had ingratiated himself previously into their greedy graces by cash payments and many promises of largesse in the future. The cunning de Vaux, dwelling in hiding under the name of Lancia, had paved the way toward directing suspicion from his hiding place, and the clamor and the search for him passed over and by the cafe of La Bella Napoli, while he lay in a mean room and chafed at the confinement and drank heavily to stifle his fears. In far away Virginia, Hagar and Esther journeyed 382 The Diamond from the Sky from Richmond down to Fairfax, escorted by their new but firm friend, the kindly, eccentric Smythe. Unlocking the great door of Stanley Hall, Hagar led the way through the hall and into the old library. The windows were unlatched and thrown open, to air the long-closed mansion. Smythe examined the portraits curiously. "Time has passed," he said softly, "since I was in this room. There is Colonel Stanley s portrait, just as he looked the night I attested the heir of Stanley, over twenty years ago!" And the good-hearted lawyer sighed and thought of old age that comes like a thief, to rob us of youth, of hope, of vigor and of those we love. To Hagar also, the place revived old heart aches. There at that door she had stood, in her despairing young motherhood, to be dragged away ere she could cry in her agony that she was being robbed of her first born. Then Hagar kissed Esther and shook off the gloom of these sad memories. She was first to break the silence, as thoughts like these flitted through the mind of each, while old memories awoke and old sor rows came again. "Well," she said, "let us try to be cheerful, though we lose you, our good friend, to-day." "You do not lose me, I trust," said Marmaduke Smythe with quaint gallantry. "True, I must return to England, to attend to matters of the estate of the late Earl of Stanley. The matter of the succession must lie in abeyance for the present. But you may come to England with the fair Miss Esther before long, or I may return to America again, who knows?" "And now," said Hagar, "I understand that there was The Garden of the Gods 383 some alarm manifested by the late Mrs. Lamar Stanley regarding the expenses of my stay at the sanitarium in Richmond. I told you," here she turned to Esther, "that I am a wealthy woman. I am, moderately speak ing. Gipsy-like, I would never trust in banks. After I leased Stanley Hall I hid my wealth in a secure place in this very room, an old hiding-place of which even Colonel Stanley knew nothing." Hagar reached into the chimney and brought from a ledge, hidden behind the front of the fireplace, a long chisel. With this she pried up a strip of time- worn wooden moulding at the end of the hearthstone. This removed, the hearthstone turned on a hidden pivot, one end of the hearthstone descending into a cavity. From this cavity Hagar brought forth pack ages of banknotes from among a number of such. "All this is yours, Esther, my dear," she said softly. "The Hardings had been rich people as gipsies go, but the profligate father of my husband died in poverty. It left my husband bitter and greedy. He remembered enviously the gipsy wealth his father had wasted. So when Arthur was born, and a male heir, even if a false one, was desired at Stanley Hall, Colonel Stanley had no great trouble in getting my husband to sell our new-born boy. "My husband did not live long to enjoy his gipsy fortune. He died and I returned, and in revenge oh, forgive me, Esther, my child I stole you away, to gether with The Diamond from the Sky/ and left my son to grow up the heir of Stanley. "The death of your father that night, Esther, my child, made my wicked deed easy to accomplish. The 384 The Diamond from the Sky two old colored servants, who knew the secret, had been slaves of the cruel Judge Lamar, Blair s father. You had been raised in secret here. The servants would not betray Colonel Stanley while he lived, and they loyally kept the secret till they died. "Doctor Lee, the only other sharer of the secret be sides the two colored servants and myself, was a kind yet timid man. He, too, had hated Judge Lamar and had been led into the Colonel s conspiracy to cheat the son of his enemy of the Stanley Earldom, and the diamond heirloom. "As the years went on," Hagar continued, "I in creased the money which my husband had received from Colonel Stanley, by fortune telling and dealing in horses the source of all legitimate gipsy wealth. And as my profligate son wasted your heritage here, my dear Esther, and as we would accept no repayment from him now, I give you all this with a loving heart, for it is all rightfully yours. "I intend to tell your relatives in Fairfax and Rich mond the truth. Some of them will come to dwell with you here in Stanley Hall. You will take your place in the station of life to which you were born, and I will return to my own people ; for I am a gipsy, and as such cannot remain with Esther Stanley, of Stanley Hall!" "No, no!" cried Esther tearfully, as she threw her arms around the sobbing Hagar. "You are my own dear mother! I will never leave you nor suffer you to leave me. What have the Stanleys done for me, what would they do for me? I ask this and I answer it. They have done nothing for me but ignore me as The Garden of the Gods 385 Doctor Lee s ward and your daughter. They could do nothing for me as Esther Stanley to give me the hap piness the feel of your arms around me gives!" Lawyer Smythe turned and coughed to keep back his tears at this affecting scene. A bulky yellow time- stained, frayed and folded parchment had fallen from among the banknotes Hagar had drawn from the cavity under the hearthstone, and he stooped awkwardly and picked it up with a shaking hand. "This is very curious; I am much interested in old parchments, being a lawyer, you know," said Smythe as he fumbled with the parchment. He felt he was stuttering and talking foolishly at random; but he wished in his tactful way to relieve the emotional ten sion that had followed Hagar s recital. His interrup tion had the desired effect. Hagar smiled faintly and said: "Oh, that? That is the Hardings family-tree. The old gipsy families, especially the gipsies of English stock, such as the Lees, Hardings, Lovells, yes, the Stanleys, have these things. Strange, isn t it? The outside world regards the Romany people only as vaga bond wanderers, but there are Romany degrees of proud lineage. The Lees and Stanleys here in Virginia might be surprised to follow back their family lines to find them lead to gipsy camps on English downs. Who knows, Esther, my dear, but what you have gipsy blood in your veins after all, even if it be ever so little!" "It is a curious old document," repeated Lawyer Smythe, "and, as I said, I am interested in such things. 386 The Diamond from the Sky May I have it? I will keep it carefully and return it in due time." Hagar smiled and spoke half-carelessly. "Keep it as long as you desire, Mr. Smythe," she said. "It may be cause for bringing you back to return it, or for our going to England to get it." They all laughed at the suggestion, and Marmaduke Smythe took the document and prepared to make his adieus. His bachelor reserve was shaken to its very foundations when Esther impulsively threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "You have been a father to me," she cried, "a dear, dear daddy!" Lawyer Smythe was still blushing when he drove away to take the train from Fairfax, positively refus ing to permit the ladies to accompany him to the station. Work is for workingmen. Quabba was a wandering minstrel and, even as a non-union roofer, loathed being mechanical. But he worked with a purpose on the prison roof even though his purpose was not to work. He signalled to Luke Lovell that all was well, the last day of the job, and left the coiled rope with one end fastened around the chimney and the lower end tied to a cord, which hung hidden down over the gutter of the prison roof to Luke s cell window. Desperately had Luke sawed through the bars, and the appointed night came when Quabba waited for him on a bridge that spanned a mean and straggling street not far from the prison. Quabba had a change The Garden of the Gods 387 of clothes for Luke s prison stripes, and to avoid suspi cion he had with him the pony and street piano cart and Clarence, the monkey. The monkey and the pony, Quabba s family, had objected querulously to their master s desertion of art to degenerate into a toiler. Bitterly had they com plained when Quabba returned to the stable in his working garb at eve; and much did the monkey chat ter and the pony neigh pleadings that they take to the open road again, over the hills and far away work and responsibility forgotten and ignored. So Quabba waited at midnight, and Clarence, the monkey, shivered and whimpered and the pony, too, was restless to be on his way. "Patience, my children!" whispered Quabba. "And you, Clarence, my son, would you bite me? You don t understand, my little ones. Patience, we wait for a friend." Listening breathlessly to the sound of the retreating steps of the prison guard, Luke pushed out the bars, sawed at the lower end and drew down the rope from its coil on the roof by the cord and lowered it cautiously. He was out and half way down the prison side when he felt the rope give ominously. He was near the ground when the sentry heard the fall of a brick from the old chimney and turned and saw a prisoner escaping. The sentry whistled urgently for the other guards and fired his rifle to alarm the prison. His eager comrades joined him and they were within reach of Luke, whose toes had just touched the ground, when the rope slackened and fell, and with it with a clatter and many heavy thuds the old prison chimney. It had given way 388 The Diamond from the Sky under the weight of the escaping prisoner and it fell upon the guards and overwhelmed them. By a fraction of an inch the avalanche of bricks just missed the startled Luke. Clambering upon the loose pile of heavy debris that gave beneath his feet, he scrambled to the top of the wall, and by some miracle passed over the broken glass and spikes unscathed and dropped down the sheer twenty feet of the prison wall to liberty! Quabba was waiting. From a bag on the piano cart he hastily handed the panting Luke an old coat, trous ers and a hat that had a wig within it. Then, as the footsteps of other searching guards and their cries were heard nearing, Quabba handed a stain compound to Luke that darkened the gipsy s prison-pallid coun tenance and hands, and then they moved on with the pony cart and the monkey two wandering organ grinders. The pursuit reached them and paused. "Did you see an escaped convict go by?" cried the warden. "Si, Signore!" replied the crafty Quabba. His com panion, who is quite lame, it seems, for he hobbles a little ahead, pointed to indicate the direction the fugi tive had taken, and on hurried the man hunt again. The garden of the cafe La Bella Napoli was deserted at this hour of night, but the Signora Solari, proprie tress, answers a discreet clamor below. The Signora had been playing cards with her daughter, Rosa, and the so charming patron Signer Lancia, in the latter s apartment. The so charming Signor Lancia, sad to say, had be come quite overcome with wine. When so overcome The Garden of the Gods 389 the so charming Signer Lancia was indiscreet. He had shown the ravishing Rosa a wondrous diamond whereat she had cried out in delight, though the again discreet if intoxicated Signor had caution to place his fingers upon her rosy lips, the gesture asking silence. Signora Solari had not seen the diamond. It had been displayed after she had gone down to the door way that looked into the garden. Quabba was there and with him was a strange man, quite lame it would seem, for he leaned upon a heavy stick a mattock handle. "This is my cousin, Signora," said the patron Quabba. "He desires a room until he gets a job. Per haps when he has secured employment, you will still honor him by the hospitality of your establishment?" All this Quabba said in Calabrian dialect, which the Signora understood perfectly, although she, as she told everybody, was of a noble Neapolitan family. The cousin being apparently much fatigued, Quabba left him with the Signora and journeyed with his pony and organ cart and his monkey to the stables that are Quabba s domicile as well as theirs. The Signora led the new guest to his humble room, giving him a lamp and wishing him sweet repose, but in the Neapolitan tongue and not in the Calabrese patois , for one must remember who one is, thought the Signora. She returned to her daughter and the so charming Signor Lancia, of the Italian Secret Service. The Chianti flowed, caution was forgotten ; the magnificent jewel was shown again to ravish the eyes of all. In the next room a seemingly lame man listened at the thin partition, his eyes bulging, and he bit his 390 The Diamond from the Sky tongue that he might keep from crying out. For he heard a tipsy voice say : "You may well admire it, my dear friends! It is called, and rightly, The Diamond from the Sky! " John Powell had returned from his automobile trip. He had seen the famed Garden of the Gods in Colo rado. But the trip and the wild scenery had not re stored him. Back home again in the privacy of his apartments he sat crouched in his chair and sorrowed alone. Truly he is a mad millionaire.- In fever delirium he has a dream. Before him floated, with a sad smile, Esther, in Vestal robes. He reached to touch her, but she floated away, yet looked back and sadly smiled. He dreamed he followed on foot and in his speediest car a race of madness. Down great mountains, up and over, and then halting in the wild, weird ruggedness of the great rocks of the Garden of the Gods! So he pursued the fair phantom to the abyss edge of a giddy precipice. He clutched for her ere she fell and fell himself down, down, and then, with a dull shock, he found himself awake. He had fallen over the table where he had slept, his head upon his arms! In far Virginia, the seraph of his dreams prayed for him with all the fervor of a constant heart, but over him here and regarding him with a mocking smile, stood a woman whose face is bold and sensuous Vivian Marston! She had heard the fall of "The Golden Man" and had stolen in upon him. The Garden of the Gods 391 In the cafe La Bella Napoli the so charming Signor Lancia dazzled the eyes of his hostess and fluttered the heart of her daughter with desire for the wondrous diamond. And then from the softly opened door behind them a heavy blow descended. The lamp was smashed, the room was plunged into darkness. Shrieks sounded in the darkness, and heavy hurrying feet through the corridor. A door was burst open and tables and chairs were heard thrown over in the deserted garden un der the arbors below. The Signora brought another lamp in due time, but the so charming Signor Lancia screamed and cursed "The Diamond from the Sky" was gone! CHAPTER XXVII MINE OWN PEOPLE LUKE LOVELL, forgetting his recent hurts in the jail delivery, forgetting his limp which he had assumed to disguise him further, fled out of the Italian boarding house and through the deserted wine garden with the diamond in his grasp again. Even after she had brought another lamp to the so charming Signer Lancia s room, Signora Solari was in excitement. In fact she broke out into loud cries of: "Assassins!" "Robbers!" and "Police!" And, ere she could be restrained, had rushed to the doorway over looking her wine garden and made the night hideous with her screams. Luke Lovell, pausing under a light in the empty street some distance off to reassure himself he still had the diamond, heard her screams and again hid the baleful jewel in one of his pockets and slipped off through the shadows. In the opposite direction, two blocks away, two po licemen, pausing to wait for their midnight relief, also heard the Signora s cries. But when they reached the Establishment Solari, the Signora had been quieted by the counsels of her more composed daughter. They explained to the policemen that there had been a quar- 392 Mine own People 393 rel between two of the patrons, a quarrel that had greatly alarmed the Signora and her daughter, since theirs, as the gentlemen of the police knew, was a most respectable place ! They were not regular patrons who had caused such an unseemly disturbance, the Signora further ex plained. Happily, as the gentlemen of the police knew so well, the Cafe La Bella Napoli would not tolerate custom of this kind. The disturbers were gone, they had fled at the first coming of the so brave police when she had cried out, the Signora added. It was midnight and their relief was waiting for them, so the two policemen were glad to escape from a morning in court with trivial offenders, and they therefore accepted the explanations of the Signora. It was fated that the ill-starred jewel would lose two guests for the cafe La Bella Napoli; for, roused to his danger were he caught, and being irked at his confine ment here, and feeling sure the evil repute of the dia mond was well founded, de Vaux had hurriedly cast off the clothes he had been wearing in hiding for the past several weeks. Dressing himself in his usual and more pleasing attire, the diamond thief, the last of "the pack," dropped that night from a back window of the cafe La Bella Napoli and made off down a deserted alley. A half hour later he registered at a hotel that pleased him better than the establishment of the Sig nora Solari. In his slumbers in the hayloft, Quabba was aroused by the presence of Luke, and in the moonlight tha f streamed through the open window of the loft Luke showed him "The Diamond from the Sky." 394 The Diamond from the Sky Quabba crossed himself and made the sign that fends off the Evil Eye. He had come to believe the great diamond of the Stanleys was the amulet of the Evil One, perhaps the Evil Eye itself, who knows? "You are to take it!" panted Luke. "Take it to Virginia to our mistress Hagar and our little mistress Esther. It belongs to them. I do not want it now, I only want revenge. When I have that, I, too, will return to Virginia and serve Hagar faithfully again. Till then, you take the diamond and be gone. You have money the English lawyer gave you for your return and the shipment of the pony back. Give me the price to ship back the pony, and while you are gone I can for a while be a simple organ man with his monkey, as you were, and who will think to look for me as such?" "No, no!" shuddered Quabba, "I do not wish to have the evil diamond!" "It will not harm you," said Luke, as superstitious as the hunchback. " The Diamond from the Sky is only evil to those who think or do evil. Your heart is good; take it!" But Quabba was loath to do so ; he was not so sure, poor fellow, that his heart was good. But Luke forced the great jewel upon him. Then Quabba had further objections to the plan proposed by Luke. "It is well what you say," he ventured, "all except Clarence. We could not be parted, could we, Clarence, my son? We were parted once for a short while and his little heart nearly broke by reason of it." And the Mine own People 395 monkey, as if he sensed his master s words, whimpered and clung to him. "Well, take the monkey with you then/ said Luke. "It may be all the better for the monkey is known as your other self, while as for the pony and the piano cart, what does it matter? One pony cart and one pony of the sort is much like another, but a monkey that is something that people will remember!" So at dawn, Luke in the guise of a limping itinerant musician drove the pony and the street piano cart out from Los Angeles to a distant place, and in time, shipped the outfit back by express to Quabba at Fair fax, near the gipsy rendezvous. Then Luke hid out in the wilds as a tramp workman, known to the con fraternity as "a blanket stiff" and worked at such jobs as he could get, biding his time till the search for him as an escaped jail-bird should be ended and he could return to Los Angeles for his revenge. When Quabba took the train, his being accompanied by Clarence, the monkey, necessitated his travelling in the smoking car. Fate takes us separate ways yet sometimes we travel closely with those whose con cerns are ours, and we never know. In the Pullman journeyed the dapper and furtive de Vaux. For the most part he kept his face behind a newspaper and hoped to be unseen and so he saw not. And for sev eral thousand miles de Vaux, "Knave of Clubs," for merly accomplice and jackal to Durand, the "King of Diamonds," travelled in fear of the police and the vengeance of John Powell and the desperate Blair Stanley and all the while the priceless diamond for which he and his dead master-accomplice, Du- 396 The Diamond from the Sky rand, had risked so much travelled on the same train in the rags of a poor hunchback with a monkey! The months passed and time sped on. To keep Ar thur from thinking, to keep him engaged that they might further enmesh and despoil him, Blair and Vivian led the so-caUed John Powell from one dissi pation and wasteful luxury to another. Arthur s strong constitution battled with his drug addiction and the other dissipations more or less successfully; but his will had grown weak and his better self silenced, all of which was beheld by his loyal man-servant, Parker, the one faithful friend remaining by him, with much misgiving and foreboding. At Stanley Hall, Lawyer Smythe having gone about his affairs to England, Esther abode with Hagar. Ha- gar had not fully recovered in health from Blair s mur derous blow, though her mind was again clear and un clouded. She pleaded day by day with Esther that Fairfax and all the world might know the truth at last. Fairfax shunned the two lone women at Stanley Hall. They were regarded as strangers and interlopers. Some tune since Blair s mother had died after a paralytic stroke, and there was no one in that part of Virginia who suspected the truth concerning Esther. Yet mystery clung around Stanley Hall as some evil thing. The murder of Doctor Lee after Esther had been his ward, the flight of Arthur Stanley, believed to be the old doctor s murderer, the disappearance of Blair Stan ley all these things made food for the gossips and caused the gentry of Fairfax to keep aloof. Day by day Hagar realized more fully that this was a cruel injustice to the fair young girl she so dearly Mine own People 397 loved. The constant thought of Esther ostracized in a community where she should have been envied and sought after, and with Arthur the son for whom she had sacrificed and Esther had sacrificed a profligate and a wastrel under a name not his own, preyed upon the devoted Hagar until she at last determined that Esther should be spared further ignominy. As Esther steadfastly had refused to permit Hagar to avow to all the world that she was the true heir of Stanley Hall, Hagar determined to proclaim the truth and flee to her gipsy people. Once Esther s true status was known, Hagar realized there could be no social communion for the gipsy with the mistress of Stanley Hall. One night Hagar made the venture she had de termined on. Her things were secretly packed, her silent gipsy help prepared her for departure in the night. Esther slept, and Hagar crept silently by her bedside to pray and leave a note that would tell Esther of her resolve. But Esther stirred and woke and caught the weeping Hagar at the door of the old mansion, while yet her carriage waited. In loving struggle Esther bore Hagar back to the library that had seen the great tragedy of both their lives. "You shall not leave me! I will die, I will kill my self, if you do!" cried Esther, throwing herself into the arms of Hagar, while the tears welling from these two loving, steadfast hearts gave bitter savor to the part ing. But Hagar was resolved. "This dreadful lie, this living lie of twenty bitter years and more, must die!" said Hagar resolutely. 398 The Diamond from the Sky "Our ways lie apart. The wrong of years I can undo at the breaking of my heart, my darling child!" "And at the breaking of mine!" sobbed Esther. "What are the Stanleys to me, what have they done for me, what will they do for me? What will they do for you? I would rather beg my bread by your side throughout the world, than dwell without you here, or anywhere, with every luxury that could be proffered me. I swear you shall not leave me!" But Hagar wept in silence, yet was resolute. "You are my mother, in the place of her who died when I was born!" continued Esther. "A tender mother through all the happy years we dwelt together, before ambition and desire in others for things that are vain parted us, and brought the sorrow to our hearts that now we feel! I will not let you go, or if you go I shall go with you!" Again she flung herself in the arms of Hagar, who though her own tears blinded her and her own sobs choked her, endeavored to calm the shuddering, heart broken girl. In the struggle, the Bible fell from the table beside them. Hagar picked it up as it fell open upon the floor. "It shall be an omen and a portent," she whispered brokenly. And lo, her hand was upon the Book of Ruth, and her finger at the sixteenth verse of the first chapter. With eyes scarce seeing, the twain chanted that old, sweet, inspired message from one loyal woman s heart to another : Mine own People 399 "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after thee: For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God!" A deep hush fell upon them. Then Hagar spoke: "It is God s will!" she said. And so that night these two, never again to be parted in this life, closed the great door of the stately house behind them, and journeyed on in a deep silent happi ness to where the humble gipsy people awaited them. "Strike camp!" was Hagar s command, when the wild and happy greetings of the wandering folk at the return of their beloved queen and princess had calmed. She pointed westward. No further word was said, but day by day, month after month, the caravan moved ever westward, and Esther knew they journeyed to seek Arthur and to save his soul and bring him back from the living hell wherein he dwelt. In far Los Angeles "the mad millionaire," John Powell, has a new toy. It is an aeroplane of the latest, most complete and costliest type. Drink and drug crazed as he is, the new toy fills the mad millionaire with wild insensate delight. Speed! Speed! He drives it like a demon, flying like the lost soul he is at maddening pace adown the slopes of the wind. "It will fall with him and break his neck some day," says Blair to Vivian, philosophically. Blair is a true prophet, so far as that the machine will fall. He will take good heed that something breaks when all is ready with his other plans. Then he can announce and 400 The Diamond from the Sky prove that John Powell, the mad millionaire, shat tered to death by his aeroplane s fall, is Arthur Stanley, fugitive from justice in Virginia and sometime heir to the Stanley Earldom in England and to "The Diamond from the Sky." Arthur Stanley dead and out of the way, then he, Blair Stanley, possesses these honors as next of kin. Blair keeps to Arthur s business affairs while John Powell keeps to his wild pleasures. Already Blair has diverted funds in secret that will mean the wreck of the Powell enterprises at the death of Powell. Blair only waits, as Vivian waits, for the reappearance of the Stanley heirloom. But where is "The Diamond from the Sky?" Hagar could tell and Esther and Quabba, too. Bet ter still, John Powell knows, for he has it safely hid den. The one cunning thing he does is to keep this secret, for it is more than all else the cause of his present desperate, gloomy moods and evil courses. Quabba delivered it safely to Hagar and Esther, in due time. But these two fell back from it as a thing ac cursed. They returned it by express sealed and care fully marked. With it Hagar transcribed and sent the prayer that Esther s dying mother had first penned and placed within the locket a mother s prayer that the Stanley "Charm Against Harm" should be doubly so. "Oh, Child of my heart! Not a diamond, but a loving mother s prayer is the true Charm against Harm. " Locked in his library Arthur had read this message. Unmanned, and weakling as he now was, he felt that Mine own People 401 the diamond was sanctified by this prayer of a heart broken mother of whom he was unworthy. Though Vivian had woven a spell around him, he felt in his secret soul it would be sacrilege to place the diamond about her fair white throat after it had been blessed by a prayer, even though he was lost too far to heed it. It was then that the first wild idea of self-destruction crossed his disordered mind. He secured a deadly and sudden poison and hid it in the safe in the library, together with the diamond and its wrappings and the message from the heart of his mother the heart he knew he had broken. Knowing as he did that he had wronged Blair by keeping him from his birthright, a deep regard for Blair, wicked as he knew him to be, had grown in Arthur s heart like a weed where there should have been flowers. Dimly, loyally, he trusted Blair, trusted and loved him because he knew he wronged him and was not man enough to tell the truth, now that the truth had grown a living lie through all the years. Vivian, such times as she languished over him, per suaded him that Blair was but her friend and their mutual companion. Blair, constrained, submitted to this scheme, though he little knew in his jealous heart how far the false Vivian carried it. And ever westward the gipsy caravan journeyed bearing the two devoted hearts that sought to save Arthur from his evil associates. The caravan was within a score of miles of Los Angeles, when matters came to a tragic crisis for the mad millionaire. Vivian and Blair were motoring, when John Pow ell s secretary came to his employer s mansion bearing 402 The Diamond from the Sky with him the irrefutable proofs of Blair s treachery, and showing beyond dispute, by the doctored accounts and cancelled checks, how Blair by devious ways had the Powell properties on the point of ruin, and that Blair had waxed rich in his own name. Another friend brought more ill tidings, as is the wont of friends. Parker, John Powell s devoted man-servant, view ing with deep concern the machinations of both Blair and Vivian, had won the confidence of Vivian s spin ster maid. This mature female had cast longing eyes on the dignified and reserved Parker. She had hinted at a secret she held over her mistress s head. Parker affecting to succumb to the wiles of the none too pre possessing jemme de chambre, had been given the secret. It was the marriage certificate of Vivian and Blair, dated at Richmond the year before. This filled the cup of bitterness for John Powell, sometime Arthur Stanley, of Stanley Hall. False friend, false woman and he a weakling, disowned and dishonored a weakling who had betrayed the love of sweet Esther and broken the heart of his an guished mother. He took all these proofs of perfidy, his own and oth ers his own being "The Diamond from the Sky" and his mother s message and laid them out before him. He was locked in his library alone. The clock neared twelve. At midnight dramatically he will drain a poi soned cup and drink a toast to Death! Hagar and Esther, in Hagar s van, had drawn ahead of the gipsy caravan to hasten on to the end of their journey. A storm had broken upon them, and Quabba, Mine own People 403 who drove the van, guided the horses beneath the shel ter of a great live oak by the wayside. There was a blinding crash ; a bolt of lightning had struck the tree and the van was in flames. Twenty miles away, Hagar s son raised his glass to drain the bitter cup of his life to the dregs and drink his toast to Death. The rain beat upon the window, the lightning flashed and just then the window opened and from the lawn the drenched figure of Luke Lovell stepped into the room. "You gipsy renegade, look at me!" cried Luke. And then he bent low, his eyes glistened all the fiercer, and he reached forth a coarse and brawny hand and grasped again, and for the last time, the great diamond that was gleaming on the table in the lamplight ! CHAPTER XXVIII ON THE WINGS OF THE MORNING STRANGE irony of fate! The gem desired, the great jewel that from a charm against harm had come to be a curse, was grasped again by Luke LovelFs gipsy hands that, strong as they were, were not to hold it! John Powell, once Arthur Stanley, of Stanley Hall, and born son of Hagar Harding, sat collapsed in his chair; as Luke Lovell grasped the diamond the prayer of Hagar fluttered to the table. Luke growled and tore it from Arthur s unresisting grasp, glanced at it and tossed it back in scorn. What it was Luke did not comprehend nor care. "You live soft!" he sneered. "Live soft in your lux ury, while I have wandered like a hunted wolf in the wilds. But now I shall live soft and you shall be my servant and my banker. First, you shall feed me!" And Luke, placing the diamond again in his pocket, sat down and bolted the food that had been brought the master of the house hours ago, but which that soul-shattered wretch had not the desire to taste. As in a daze, as in a dream Arthur sat relaxed, with out hope and without fear. Without hope and without fear ! Yes, he had reached the end of everything. The prayer of his mother had come home as a curse in this 404 On the Wings of the Morning 405 hour of his shame and humiliation. He had been the sorrow and sacrifice of her young motherhood and the heartbreak of her maturity. Esther, whom he had despoiled of birthright and patrimony, her steadfast faith outraged at last, had left him in scorn and con tempt. Blair, for whose sake he had borne unde servedly the brand of Cain Blah*, too, had been false and faithless to every trust! Vivian? The scales had dropped from his eyes. She, too, was false a wanton woman as she always had been. Without fear and without hope! Crushed, dazed, the so-called John Powell gazed at the poisoned glass of brandy with which he had stood to pledge a toast to Death when Luke had burst in upon him. Then his eyes turned upon Luke bolting his food like a ravenous animal. "I look strange to you, huh?" said Luke, answering the gaze and speaking with a mouthful. "They shaved me and they clipped me in the pen, where you and Blair Stanley sent me. The express slip was all the proof that was needed against the poor ignorant gipsy. They shut me up like a rat in a trap from the light and air in a rotten prison for stealing the money that you stole, the money from the train robbery. "Oh, I went back over all our tracks, and I found the dead horse and I found the empty cache. There were clues plain enough, when I got out of prison and went back. "That stolen money you found in the desert was the start of your fortune, Mr. John Powell. The money was repaid by you secretly, but when they caught one 406 The Diamond from the Sky of the poor robbers, as they thought, they sent me to the pen. "I don t look like I used to, do I? That s prison pallor that even the sun of the desert couldn t wholly take away. I m thinner, too, but I ll fatten on you. I ll spare your life, for you are Hagar s son; but if I go to prison again you will go with me, for I have the proofs you found and used the stolen money, and the world shall know you left Virginia as Arthur Stan ley, accused of murder! "Where is your so-called cousin, your pal and fellow crook, Blair Stanley? Out with the fair lady, I sup pose? He shall feed and clothe me and be my banker, too. Durand, who helped you two to railroad me to prison, is dead, I hear. All fine gentlemen, eh, the whole of you? Well, I shall be a gentleman, too, a regular Romany Rye. You know what that means it means a gipsy gentleman! And now that I have fed, come and clothe me. Your flunkies are asleep, so you shall be my flunkey! One Romany Rye as valet to another!" And Luke rose from where he had gorged, and Arthur followed him without a word to his suite of rooms and wardrobe upstairs. The storm had passed, a few heavy raindrops fell from the leaves of the live oak and hissed as they died on the embers of the smoking ruins of Hagar s van. Upon the ground Esther knelt, holding the head of the weakened Hagar; for Hagar was slowly dying. Since their journey westward she had failed and On the Wings of the Morning 407 faded, slowly but surely. Nothing but her deep love for Esther and her strong faith that she could reach her son in time and save him, had held Hagar to life. A harvest of heartaches through the years, sorrow and sacrifice had sapped her spirit and her physical strength. Only a sweet, complacent faith had sustained her. But now the shock of the lightning stroke, the burn ing of the van and the exposure to the storm had hastened her passing. Esther saw death was not far away from Hagar. Resolute in this great sorrow and calamity, Esther whispered to the ever helpful and loyal Quabba to mount one of the van horses and hurry back to the slower moving cavalcade of gipsies and bid them hasten. This Quabba did. The caravan was not far behind them, for nearing Los Angeles Hagar had given orders to move through the night that they might camp the next day on the outskirts of the city that was their journey s end. Hearing Quabba s cries, the gipsies lashed their tired horses and soon Hagar was in the loving care of the women of her tribe, with Esther beside her holding her hand and comforting the dying woman. On the outskirts of the town, driven from their open roadster to the shelter of a roadhouse by the rain, Blair and Vivian drank and dined, little knowing that a score of miles away Hagar and Esther, hand in hand, waited for the end of time and the beginning of eter nity for the elder of the twain, and nearer yet, Hagar s son waited to drink his toast to Death. Up the steps of the roadhouse piazza, scattering the 408 The Diamond from the Sky last raindrops from their apparel, came one Dick Jones, and with him was the lady he addressed as "Gert." It was not the first roadhouse at which these late arrived joy riders had stopped. Mr. Jones was thick of speech, flushed of face and unsteady of gait. The lady he called Gert was more seasoned. She was voic ing the remark that she was as dry as a fish and hungry as a wolf. At the sight of Blair Stanley, Mr. Jones was some what abashed. But some recollection came to him that steadied him and he greeted Blair with an assumed indifference. Blair gave the newcomers a surly, super cilious stare. "Who are they?" asked Vivian. "I don t know the blonde," replied Blair carelessly, "but the boozy gentleman is Dick Jones, who was our shipping clerk at the Good Hope Oil Company offices until I fired him for coming to work after being out the night before, as you see him now." "You didn t fire yourself for that offense, or John Powell/ the boss, I assume?" remarked Vivian sar castically. "No matter what I do the night before, my head is clear and my hands steady the next day," Blair an swered ; "as for John Powell my boss, as you call him since he has taken to dope and flying machines we do not see him at the office. And that reminds me, I am sick of this whole business. I have enough money in my own name. I am tired of hanging on like a parasite to the poor boob till he dopes himself to death. When do we make a getaway?" "When we get The Diamond from the Sky/ " replied On the Wings of the Morning 409 Vivian. "I have set my heart and soul on having it. It 7nust turn up again." Nothing ever happens and everything happens. While Blair drank in gloomy silence and made no an swer to Vivian s last remark, Jones, the tipsy ex-ship ping clerk, sitting at the next table, waxed playful with the lady he called Gert. Upon her ample bosom there hung a flashy lavalliere suspended by a heavy chain. Mr. Jones toyed with it while waiting for the food and drink he had ordered. Suddenly he remarked thickly : "This is a pretty nifty piece of junk, Gert! But you should have seen the big diamond that John Powell got by express. "It came in a sealed package and our head clerk sent me up to Mr. Powell s house with it. Powell opened the package while I stood by and he nearly threw a fit; for there inside was a case and in that case was a letter that stung him hard, and with the letter was a chain and locket about a thousand years old. "And, listen, hi that locket was a diamond as big as an English walnut. I think it was the same diamond that the circus guy gave the lady lion tamer. Then the lion killed the lady and her husband, the clown, killed the circus guy and then shot himself. Remember? "John Powell bought the diamond at the auction of the busted circus, then some gink stole it from him and Powell got it back by express, just as I m telling you. "They say John Powell is crazy. He sure acted crazy when he read the note that came with the big sparkler. He gave me fifty dollars to keep my mouth 410 The Diamond from the Sky shut about it. But I don t have to keep my mouth shut about anything for anybody, for all I got for the way I worked in his office was to be thrown out. Wait till I see Powell, I ll get my job back, all right, and no body won t stop me!" Blair and Vivian sat up as though electrified at the first words about the diamond they had overheard. Now that the tipsy clerk had ceased speaking, Blair stood beside him. "You ll get your job back all right, Jones!" he said hoarsely. "Here s fifty dollars from me. Tell me again about the diamond coming by express." And the clerk repeated his story. Even while he was speaking, Vivian had called the waiter to bring the bill and their auto wraps. Once in their great roadster, Blair put on full speed through the night and cursed fervently. "The cunning dope-fiend!" he cried. "Arthur has The Diamond from the Sky safely hidden from us, right under our noses!" "How will we get it?" asked Vivian eagerly. "Don t pull any more rough stuff, Blair. There has been too much of that. It gets us nothing, not even the dia mond." "Leave that to me!" said Blair fiercely. "The time is ripe. We ve got his money, Durand is dead, de Vaux was evidently paid his price and sent the diamond back. He has skipped far away and need not be reckoned with. The so-called John Powell is no good to him self or any one else; he is better dead. When he is dead I can tell who he really was, and the Earldom in England will be mine. You will be a peeress, Vi." On the Wings of the Morning 411 "Get me the diamond first," answered Vivian tensely. "There won t be any trouble about that," replied Blair. "The diamond is hidden in the house and we will find it after Arthur Stanley, alias John Powell/ is dead!" As he spoke he stopped the machine, for they had reached the aviation field and the hangar where John Powell, amateur aeronaut, kept his latest toy, his aeroplane. Blair took a tire iron from the tool-box, wrenched the hasp from the door and entered the hangar. A file was on the work bench beneath the electric light Blair switched on. Just a little tampering with the stay brace wires, but sufficient. The next time John Powell took a flight, Death would ride beside him ! Vivian asked no questions. But she shuddered. For the man who was to die had been in her arms and her caresses had beguiled him. But she must choose, and as between the masterful Blair and the weakling doomed to die there was but one choice for with Arthur Stanley dead and Blair Stanley come into his heritage all would be hers, she knew. In the luxurious chambers of John Powell, Luke Lovell, gipsy and escaped convict, stands attired, if not in purple and fine linen, at least in fine linen and tailored clothes of a cut and texture as only million aires or at least the very rich may have. Arthur stood dumbly by. He had handed Luke the apparel in dazed silence the clothes, the fine kid boots, the snowy shirt and even English gloves. 412 The Diamond from the Sky Luke laughed as he gazed at his gloved hands, and from them to his entire reflection in the cheval glass. "And now I am the Romany Rye, for sure!" he cried. "But where s my rings and my watch and my scarf pin? Why, here they are on the bureau! You are a careless valet, Powell. Suppose some ex-convict would walk right through my library window and come upstairs and coolly take them?" And Luke threw back his head and laughed again, for, as he spoke, he had taken the costly ring from the hand of the unresisting John Powell, removed his glove and put on the ring and replaced the glove, all with the mock actions of a dandy, such as Luke had seen in cheap vaudeville at some time. He took the gold repeater and its diamond-studded chain from the dressing table, he stuck the costly star sapphire pin from the cushion into the gay necktie he had selected. Finding Arthur s monogramed wallet, well filled with banknotes and some private papers, in the upper drawer of the dressing case, Luke had taken it also and remarked: "I ll have a bank account soon, but just at present I ll use the ready cash. And now, if you don t mind, for it is getting toward morning, I will leave you. No, I won t go out the front door," he added, as they walked from the room and down the grand staircase in the silent mansion. "I ll go out the way I came. It s good luck." In the library Arthur sank again into the easy-chair. Not one word had he spoken. He was ready to part with the blackmailer as he was ready to part with life itself without fear and without hope. At the On the Wings of the Morning 413 thought his eyes fell upon the brandy glass, the poi soned chalice with which he was to drink his toast to Death. Luke s eyes followed his. "Why, I declare ! " he cried, with an air of clumsy playfulness. "I actually forgot to take my brandy with my coffee!" He picked up the glass. "At parting," he said, "the Romany Rye drinks your good health!" Arthur stirred as though to stop him. But he was without fear and without hope. This was destiny. What man may read the Book of his Fate? It was gipsy kismet that Luke and not he was to pledge the toast to Death! Luke drained the brandy at a gulp, then licked his lips. "Queer stuff that!" he said. "Why, damn it, it burns like acid!" He looked at Hagar s son and, plain as words, he read what was in the dark eyes of the other. "It was a trap !" he shrieked. "Damn your grinning, treacherous face, it was a trap, a gipsy trick! You have poisoned me!" And reeling and cursing and grasping at himself as though to stay the agony that burned at his vitals, Luke staggered through the low window to the lawn and across the grass plot to the driveway at the back of the mansion. And then a great glare of light played upon him like a mighty beam of incandescence, and with a rasp ing shriek from the electric horn Blair s heavy road ster tore around the corner at the rear of the great mansion and in a flash had struck the poisoned man, 414 The Diamond from the Sky crushing in his face and leaving him a huddled, quiv ering mass in the roadway! John Powell clutched at his heart. In the agony of the moment his soul seemed to leap from him as he peered from behind the window shade at this last tragic toll-taking of Death, the guardian of "The Dia mond from the Sky"! There was a shriek from Vivian as the swift auto struck the man. Then a grinding of the brakes and the car stopped with a jerk and Blair ran back to the huddled-up heap in the roadway. One glance at the crushed, disfigured face and Blair in merciful pity, strange to him, placed his coat over it to hide the dreadful sight. He bent down. There was every evidence in the attire of the victim s identity. The wallet had fallen from the breast coat pocket of the dead man. Blair knew it. He called for Vivian, and as she ran toward him he tore from the breast of the dead man "The Diamond from the Sky," while the halted auto throbbed and panted as though it gloated over what it had done. "A gipsy trick!" the dying man had cried. There were other gipsy tricks. John Powell was dead; with him should Arthur Stanley pass! The now nameless man ran to his room and hastily donned a heavy, dark suit of clothes. The cries of Vivian and Blair had roused the house and the nameless man heard the half-dressed servants rushing down the stairs and out by the front door to the back of the house. Unseen he passed to the li brary, and then as they bore the corpse of him they thought "John Powell" to the front and into his man- On the Wings of the Morning 415 sion for the last time, the man who had been Arthur Stanley and John Powell alike, slipped from the win dow, stole across the lawn and made his way through the murk before dawn to the hangar. Bringing out the great birdlike machine, he rose with it and climbed up the stairway of the wind and rode upon the wings of the morning! On the wings of the morning, and far below a gipsy caravan ! "Esther!" he cried. "Esther, my beloved, and Hagar, my dear mother!" And then, on the wings of the morning, something snapped. Down, down he plunged. He saw, in the bright light of day, the gipsies swarming out, and he could discern the slight figure of Esther. Then he felt the air rise up on either side as he sank like a plummet. And so he went down, down see ing, he believed, the outstretched arms and upturned face of Esther without fear and without hope. At the mansion of the late John Powell a wreath of flowers is on the door. The newspapers screech sen sationally of his death and the strange story Blair has disclosed that the mad millionaire, who took poison and threw himself in the way of an onrushing auto mobile, was not "John Powell," but Arthur Stanley fugitive from justice in Virginia and heir to an Eng lish Earldom and "The Diamond from the Sky"! A gipsy hunchback riding to the dead man s house on a travel-tired horse is told all this. He turns sadly away. How shall he take such a message to a dying mother? CHAPTER XXIX A DEAL WITH DESTINY WE all deal with destiny, wittingly or not. He who had been Arthur Stanley and John Powell alike wastrel and profli gate and yet fondly beloved, had mounted the stairway of the wind and rode upon the wings of the morning, without fear and without hope. He had dealt with destiny and had won. By some miracle of the commonplace the falling aeroplane had struck a low, thick sturdy tree and the man plunging to death had been thrown up into the canvas wing of the bird machine and so, except that he was stunned by the jar, had escaped unharmed. The wondering gipsies chafed his hands and brow, one put a brandy flask to his lips and forced a few of its fiery drops between the clenched teeth. All the while Esther held his head upon her lap and a great joy filled her being, for she knew he lived and had come back to her free from sin and selfishness. And so when he opened his eyes he looked into Esther s and they both read what their lips could not utter forgiveness, love and happiness! They bore Arthur back to the nearby gipsy camp in wondering silence, and then Esther relieved the gipsy woman watching by the couch of Hagar and 416 A Deal with Destiny 417 whispered to the dying woman : "Can you bear a great happiness?" A smile transfigured the wan face of Hagar. "I know the good news you bring," she murmured. "Arthur, my dear son, is here!" Prescient in the face of death, Hagar also knew that the husk of evil had fallen from Arthur, and that the wings of the morning had wafted clean strength to his soul. He leaned his head against that loving, tired breast and knew full, deep and satisfying that a mother s prayer was indeed a charm against harm, above all diamonds! In those few moments of deep rapture, Hagar realized at last that all her sorrows and sacrifices had not been in vain. Her son, parted from her since his birth hour, was in her arms at last, the man she had always hoped that he would grow to be. She laid Esther s hand in his and breathed a final blessing upon these two she loved above all others and so this gentle yet heroic soul passed to its reward. This was the news that Quabba came back to learn. This was the news that wrenched his faithful, humble soul. But Esther and Arthur did not weep. They felt that Hagar had passed in joy beyond comprehen sion, and Esther had no cause for tears and Arthur had cause too deep for them. Together they gazed upon the calm face of Hagar, while Arthur again pledged his vows to be true of heart and soul as the dead had wished. After Hagar had been laid to rest, the gipsies led by Arthur, now calling himself by the name of Harding, journeyed on back to fair Virginia to their mountain 418 The Diamond from the Sky rendezvous in the Blue Ridge. The journey was long and slow and yet a happy one for the fond lovers. As if, in truth, the evil husk had fallen from him in the plunge from the clouds that Blair s treacherous tampering with the aeroplane had caused, Arthur had found the drug addiction and its desire pass from him. If it was by a struggle with the flesh, he did not show it. His eyes grew bright, his tanned face glowed with happiness, and ever through sun and shade Esther, his beloved, rode by his side, her tender hand in his. So while these happy lovers journey across a na tion s breadth with the simple gipsy folk, how fares it with the great of earth? How fares it with Blair Stanley and his fair wife, Vivian Marston? Have they not everything their hearts have desired? They have all the wealth of John Powell, for Blair was next of kin when it was proved that the supposedly dead John Powell was Arthur Stanley, fugitive. They have "The Diamond from the Sky" and the Stanley Earldom, for to these things, long desired, Blair also is heir, as next of kin. And Luke Lovell, with a face crushed beyond recog nition, lies in a Western graveyard with the name of Arthur Stanley on his tomb. The physicians who examined the dead man knew nothing of the drug addictions of John Powell; they sought for no marks of these. The wounds and scars on Luke s body from his escape from prison and other hard knocks he had endured in life, were believed to be the marks of injuries that Arthur Stanley, alias "John Powell," had sustained in the brawl and riot at his mines that had incapacitated him, while he had A Deal with Destiny 419 been under the care of Durand. Blair and Vivian shunned proximity to the dead nor looked upon the crushed, encoffined form again. Then, before Blake, the detective, or Abe Bloom, the Richmond gambler the first deeming justice should be done and the latter desiring the diamond could make a move, Blair and Vivian crossed the continent from Los Angeles and sailed for England. So Blair and Vivian journeyed to London and were received, with some ill grace, by Marmaduke Smythe. But Marmaduke Smythe did his duty as he saw it. He had all the credentials, and in due time Blair took his seat in the House of Lords. This brief and some what bald ceremony was not at all satisfying to the luxury and display-loving Vivian. She had been in the Peeresses Gallery in afternoon attire and had seen Blair introduced to the Lord Chancellor by a fat and stupid old Baron of the Realm, whom Smythe had secured to be Blair s sponsor. The robes an earl wears on taking his seat in the House of Lords are neither graceful nor becoming. It was the first bitterness to Vivian, who had imagined an occasion of great splendor. Blair wore an ordinary morning suit under his robes for it was the custom, Smythe had assured them, and when one is a Peer one must do everything according to custom. Then when Vivian and Blair were to be presented at court, which meant something more satisfying in costume and ceremony, King Edward VII. died and King George V. reigned in his stead. There was the usual period of mourning and no Royal Drawing Room until after the Coronation. 420 The Diamond from the Sky The Coronation! That was worth the waiting; for it meant the only occasion a Peer and his noble Lady may wear their coronets and the more graceful and beautiful Coronation robes. Here, too, "The Dia mond from the Sky" could be worn, literally as the adventurer, Sir Arthur Stanley, who found it in a meteor three centuries before, had desired "when a descendant of my body shall be called to the English Earldom of the Stanleys!" So while Vivian and Blair were feverishly longing for the glories in which they were to take part, and while day by day the suspicion and distrust be tween them and Marmaduke Smythe grew in intensity, let us return to America among the humble gipsy folk. The gipsies had reached Virginia and the neighbor hood of Fairfax. The caravan moved on under the leadership of Quabba, now headman for Arthur and Esther. Skirting around Fairfax, Arthur and Esther rode in the twilight and stood at the entrance gates of Stanley Hall. The place was barred and bolted and fast falling to decay. Weeds flourished on the once well-kept lawns and flower beds. A weather- stained, discolored sign, "To LET!" was hung by rusty nails to one of the great pillars. A whippoorwill called mournfully from the shrubbery in the gathering twi light. "Mistress of Stanley Hall, Esther, my wife-to-be, I salute you!" said Arthur in deep earnestness, as he drew Esther to him. "Too long have you been cheated of your birthright. I am not guilty of any wrong, except to you, and you have forgiven me. Blair Stan ley is guilty of the death of Doctor Lee and I feel sure A Deal with Destiny 421 that Blake has the proofs. The time has come when, for your sake, the truth must be known, and you must take your place in this stately home of your people where I dwelt so long an impostor, to foster the ambi tions of the dead and to augment their feuds and hatreds." Esther shuddered and threw herself into his arms. "No, Arthur!" she cried. "I have never been happy here! Let the dead and their secrets rest in the grave. Rich and of high position, you knew no happiness nor would I. That we should live at Stanley Hall was not your dying mother s wish, I know. "Looking into the face of death, she saw clearly. All she desired was that we should be happy together. When last within this gloomy house with her, I asked for a sign, and it was given to me. And I repeat this to you as we repeated it together that night: Entreat me not to leave thee nor to return from following after thee: For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; Thy People shall be my Peo ple and thy God my God. And so, as the twilight turned to darkness, these two rode away from Stanley Hall to dwell, unknown and obscure, among the simple gipsy people who loved them well. Here Detective Blake, from Richmond, found them, and here he brought a copy of the proofs of Blair s guilt the finger-print markings from the murder scene, the library where Blair had slain the kind old doctor in his first attempt to gain "The Diamond from the Sky." Blake pleaded with them to halt Blair in the hour 422 The Diamond from the Sky of his supposed triumph. But Esther and Arthur refused. "Let Blair have the Powell millions, let him have Stanley Hall, let him have the Earldom in England and The Diamond from the Sky/ " said Arthur; "we have more than all these things, for in casting them aside we have found love and happiness ! " "Your mother, Hagar Harding, was my best friend. She gave me my start in life," said Blake huskily. "I will abide by your wish. Abe Bloom suspects much ; but Bloom dare not move unless I say so, and I can hold him quiet. Even near Fairfax, you may never be recognized in the gipsy Arthur Harding by the peo ple who knew you as Arthur Stanley. The few short years have changed you, but it is different with Miss Stanley here. Who could not know her? You cannot keep the secret on this account, I know." "This is a sheltered place to which only the gipsies know the way only the gipsies, with the exception of yourself," replied Arthur. "You know the way be cause my mother taught you, and you know the Romany password that admits you past the outer vans. This is the old rendezvous of my mother. The gip sies own the land. We will not be here long, only for our wedding, which will be a gipsy one. None but a Romany can be at the wedding, none but you, for you were adopted into the tribe as a boy, I am told." "Yes, I was picked up by your mother, a starved and wretched lad, a runaway from a miserable almshouse in the Middle West," replied Blake softly. "I was adopted into Hagar s tribe, fed, clothed and educated A Deal with Destiny 423 by your mother. But I cannot come to the wedding. I think you are wrong and I could not bear to see the mistress of Stanley Hall wedded as a gipsy, when she should be wedded as her mother was the way her people have been. You will pardon me for speaking from my heart?" Esther smiled. "You are too serious, Mr. Blake," she said. "It is the only way I would be wed. You may be an adopted gipsy, and Arthur may be a born one, but of us three I am the real Romany; and I will have the wedding of a gipsy queen and none other!" But in the privacy of his sanctum in his Richmond agency the next day Blake smiled to himself as he said: "Blair Stanley, you destroyed one set of proofs when you struck down Hagar and wrested them from her. Arthur destroyed the set I took to him, but Tom Blake has the originals!" Then he sighed and gazed at a portrait of Hagar that hung upon the wall of his sanctum. The pic ture was inscribed from Hagar to Blake. The eyes of the portrait seemed living ones in the earnest gaze of the detective. "You are dead," he said, "but your spirit lives, I know. Whatever was the wish of your stead fast heart that thing shall be accomplished, and per haps I yet shall be the instrument of it!" He spoke prophetically. In far-away London, Mar- maduke Smythe writhed in secret protest at the title having come to Blair and Vivian. He had seen Blair take his seat in the House of Lords and no word from Blake had come to prevent it, although he had cabled the Richmond detective to send proofs of Blair s guilt 424 The Diamond from the Sky and secure a requisition. Blake had gone about this latter task; but, influential as he was, he found the Virginia jurists were averse to moving in the matter. It was only after long delay he secured, with all the secrecy possible, a warrant for Blair and a requisition to return him to America, and with these he journeyed personally to England. Meanwhile, in the fastness of the Blue Ridge there was a royal wedding, the nuptials of royalty in Romany. King Arthur married Queen Esther, and gipsies from all over the land gathered together for the event. There was a May-pole and there was music and there were garlands. The vans were garlanded, the little children strewed flowers and the elder gipsies bore branches of blossoms to form a scented archway for the royal young couple. The goats and horses were garlanded. Quabba wore a garland and a big bridal favor and led the gipsy musicians, who played all the while the merry Romany wedding strains. Clarence, the monkey, had a wedding favor and wore a garland and was made to beat the triangle, though, in sooth, Clarence was cynically indifferent, being a bachelor by instinct. And so the May-pole ribbands were twined and so the wedding dance went on, and so at sunset the royal pair, King Arthur and Queen Esther, jumped over the gipsy broomstick held by Quabba and so they were married. But because Esther was a Stanley of the blood, a minister was brought from Richmond to marry them in the conventional manner. And the minister came and went and wondered. A Deal with Destiny 425 After the ceremony, the merry gipsies lighted the happy pair to the royal van with flambeaux and re turned to dance and drink and sing beneath the moon light by the May-pole. But the royal pair stole away unseen and clambered up the sheer hillside, and on a great rock pinnacle they sat embraced watching the moon, like a shield of silver on the wall of heaven, hanging over the dim vale below. On such a night the dapper Count de Vaux, once "Knave of Clubs of the Diamond Pack," sat in his bachelor chambers in London and read again the Coro nation story which told that on the morrow George V. and Queen Mary would be crowned with pomp in Westminster Abbey. He read again that Blair, Earl of Stanley, and his fair Countess, who was Vivian Mar- ston, would be among the privileged and high-born present. "The American Earl," so said the newspaper, "will wear the famous Virginia jewel, The Diamond from the Sky which, according to family tradition, was found in a fallen meteor by a Colonial ancestor. The Earl and Countess of Stanley came up from Stanley Castle, Warwickshire, and are at their London home, Stanley House, Mayfair," concluded the paragraph. And de Vaux laid aside the paper and went out. He took a cab and drove to the neighborhood of May- fair. Dismissing the cab, de Vaux watched and loi tered till late. He was fortunate enough to behold from his hiding-place some interesting shadows against a win dow curtain of My Lady Stanley s chamber the 426 The Diamond from the Sky silhouetted reflection of his lordship, the Earl, clasp ing "The Diamond from the Sky" around the shapely throat of the Countess of Stanley! The next day was the Coronation. The Earl and his Lady were up early having themselves attired in their Coronation robes, for the crush would be great and they must be at Westminster Abbey in good time. Lawyer Smythe in his room in the house was not happy. He had received his conge from the noble Earl, my Lord Blair; and besides, he had not heard from Blake, the Richmond detective. "I long in my soul," mused the eccentric lawyer, "to have his lordship arrested in the very doorway of the Abbey and dragged to Newgate in fetters, though that would make the dead-and-gone Earls of Stanley turn in their stately graves!" Just then a servant tapped at his chamber door and announced that the postman was below with a regis tered package for him, so taking his hat, without which he never stirred outdoors, Smythe descended to the entrance hall. Called to Lady Stanley s boudoir as he passed along, the lackey informed her ladyship of the registered mail package for Smythe. Fearful of some bitter disap pointment, fearful of his criminal past in America, Blair, Earl of Stanley, leaving the lackey to do some service for the Countess Vivian, hurried down the staircase to intercept any ill-omened message that might have come from America for Smythe. On his breast there glittered the famous diamond. The servants usually loitering in the hall had been drawn by curiosity to follow the family lawyer to A Deal with Destiny 427 the postman who was waiting with the receipt slip and the registered package. As Blair, ninth Earl of Stanley, reached the land ing and had turned to come down the last stairs into the hall, the suit of armor of Sir Geoffrey Stanley, of Agincourt, was behind him. When he had turned and whilst he stood on the top stair for a moment, looking down into the hall, one of the mailed arms is suddenly uplifted and as suddenly descends again, bringing down the battle mace it holds with crushing force upon the coroneted head of the American Earl. Down the stricken man falls headlong. The clat tering, clanking figure in the armor came down the stairs, bent over the crumpled, bleeding, prostrate Blau% and an outstretched mailed hand seized the great dia mond from his breast. CHAPTER XXX THE AMERICAN EARL SHUT outside, Smythe and the servants of Stan ley House hammered at the bolted door, while they could hear the shrieks of Lady Vivian re sounding through the house. Smythe, keener than the servants, though not renowned for quickness of wit, sensed that some murderous intruder, cause of the commotion within, had shut and bolted the front door. He ran hurriedly to the back of the house just in time to see de Vaux, who had discarded the armor in which he had concealed himself, jump from one of the back windows on the stair landing, the open window swinging back and snapping itself shut again. Charging swiftly down upon the unknown intruder, the lanky man of law made a perfect low tackle, al though he was no exponent of football. In any case, he grabbed the hurrying de Vaux below the knees, and down went thief and lawyer. The great diamond, which de Vaux still clutched, fell from his hand at the impact and was thus jerked through the air and dropped unnoticed into the up turned hat that had fallen upon the ground from the lawyer s pate. Meanwhile Vivian, in her coronation robes, was bending over the stricken form of Blair. Instinctively 428 The American Earl 429 Vivian realized what had happened. She hardly needed to place her hand upon his breast "The Dia mond from the Sky" was gone! The servant who had been carrying out the tea tray from her boudoir, when the sound of Blair s fall in the hall below and the clanging down of the discarded armor on the landing had told her that some tragedy had befallen the American Earl, ran to the door past the Countess and the bleeding Earl prone on the tessellated hall floor. With nervous fingers the footman unbolted the door, and his frightened fellow-servants, shoving and pushing and beating on the outside, fell in, almost on top of their noble master. Blair by this time was recovering from the dreadful blow that had been dealt him by the mailed figure with the battle-mace. The cushioned coronet had saved him from serious injury. The blood trickled down his ghastly face and stained and smeared his shirt front, and also stained the ermine of his Corona tion robes. With a sickening pang at her heart, Vivian realized there would be no pomp and ceremony for Blair, Earl of Stanley, and his fair Countess, to grace this day. George, King of Great Britain, Emperor of India and Ruler of Dominions beyond the Seas, would be crowned to-day surrounded by the nobles of his realm, but the American Earl of Stanley and his Lady would not be there. Something of this must have passed through Blair s dulled, aching consciousness. "Stop him! He struck 430 The Diamond from the Sky me down! The diamond is gone!" He gasped and fumbled at his blood-stained finery as he spoke. The window on the landing had closed back in its place. Seemingly the armored assailant had vanished as if by magic, only the heap of old mail accoutrements on the floor told how the murderous intruder had been hidden. The servants stood open-mouthed and help less as Blair rose to his feet, assisted by Vivian, and then he roused himself to drive them out by his fierce commands and curses. The struggle at the back of the house was strenu ous but brief. The doughty lawyer was no match for the younger and more muscular de Vaux. Throwing Smythe aside and striking and kicking him viciously, de Vaux sprang to his feet and made off, just as the servants of Stanley House, followed by the Earl and his Lady, came upon the scene. Suspicious and ever distrustful of Smythe, Blair refused to believe the lawyer had attempted to stay the mysterious assailant who had struck him down and borne away the Stanley heirloom. Forgetting his grievous wound and the blood that trickled down his livid face, Blair screamed hoarsely in his wild frenzy of anger and chagrin. "Pack your things!" he shrieked. "You were in the plot, you were an accomplice, and I ll have your life for it!" By the dazed, astounded look on the face of Smythe, Vivian knew that Blair s wild accusations were ground less. She calmed her lord as best she could and stanched his wounds with the priceless lace handker chief she was to have waved in applause at the crown ing of a mighty monarch and his consort. But intui- The American Earl 431 tively Vivian felt the end was at hand. Their house of sand was crumbling retribution long overdue was at hand ! Vivian paled, a chill went through her being. "Come, come!" she whispered. "Come, dear, let us go into the house, you are badly hurt and the diamond is gone. Never mind, we will recover it ! Everything will be all right; yes, everything will be all right!" And for the first time in her wicked life, that pity which is akin to love filled her heart with a deep affection. After all, wicked as he was, Blair was a man who had fought his way, unscrupulously and des perately, it is true, but he had fought and never whim pered and for her! And in this ill hour preceding more evil days to come, Vivian felt a deep affection for the stricken man be side her, which was never to falter or weaken. In distant Virginia, there is great love and hap piness in the joyous hearts of Esther and Arthur in the sweet, dear year that has passed. At the gipsy rendezvous, unvisited by the outside world, Arthur and Esther, man and wife, have seen the happy year speed by and in its course bring their hearts desire a child. Again another joyous gipsy ceremony for the Chris tening of the little gipsy Prince. Again comes the same minister who was brought to officiate at their wedding. This time there is no such wild revelry as at the May-pole wedding which so amazed and in terested the good man. But once again the gipsy musi cians play and once again Quabba is wild with joy. At the hillside fountain that gushes in a crystal 432 The Diamond from the Sky stream into the hollow trough that is Nature s own Christening font, the minister dips his fingers and sprinkles the son of Esther and Arthur and says: "I christen thee Arthur Stanley Harding!" Then, after the Christening feast and the strange gipsy rites by which a man-child is taken into the tribe, the good parson departs, wondering, as he has won dered before, what strange gipsies are these who are ruled in love and kindness by a young king and queen bearing every evidence in speech and action of edu cation and refinement. But that is their secret, and the good man respects it and goes as he has come and says no word to any one. In London, the Coronation of George V. and Queen Mary has passed into history. The chairs reserved for the Earl of Stanley and his Countess were vacant until in the crush of the ceremony the ushers permitted them to be occupied by dignitaries who thus had been nearer their Sovereigns at the crowning. The pursuit of the murderous thief had halted when Blair had been helped back to his chamber in Stan ley House. The still bewildered Smythe, dully smart ing under the unjust accusation of Blair, had searched for and found his hat and had placed it upon his head. He winced as he felt a sharp, heavy object fall down within the crown and rap him smartly on the skull. The servants and the Earl and Countess had left him standing alone upon his inglorious battle-field. In stinctively he removed his hat to see what it was that had rapped him so smartly. He scratched his head and then in mild surprise felt his fingers entangled in The American Earl 433 a jewelled chain. Drawing it down he gazed at it dumfounded. "My word!" he said, "if it isn t the bally old Dia mond from the Sky !" Stupid, as Blair might think, yet wise as the ser pent, as Blair might also think, Marmaduke Smythe took the great jewel and placed it carefully in the inside breast pocket of his frock coat and then but toned that most respectable garment tightly around his attenuated form. One afternoon a few days later when Smythe re turned to his room half bed-chamber, half library and office, quarters sacred to him as family lawyer of the Earls of Stanley for over thirty years he found the present Earl busied among the papers and documents on his desk. The curious old parchment Hagar had given him the gipsy family tree of the Hardings had been tossed upon the floor contemptuously by Blair, who regarded it as some personal old trumpery of Smythe s. "Pack up your things and get!" said Blair. "Your own things, and nothing but your own things, remem ber!" Smythe answered dutifully but crisply: "As your Lordship wishes!" and picked up the parchment of the Harding gipsy genesis from the floor. His bags were packed already, and he shouldered the gun he had carried in the wilds of America and was turning to remove the deer head the cherished souvenir of his second visit to the Yankee jungles when Blair s 434 The Diamond from the Sky exclamation, "Leave that alone!" caused him to wheel around, startled. The gun went off, pointed backward over Smythe s shoulder, and the heavy charge of shot struck the deer head fair between the eyes. The impact loosened whatever fastened it to the wooden mount. It dropped forward, held at the lower part of the neck to the mount as though by a hinge. A little puff of dust marked the breakaway, and then from within the hol low neck a little package of yellow parchment, bound with faded tape, fell to the floor. Smythe picked it up and saw it was annotated in ancient angular handwriting, the ink faded to rust color by age. The lawyer s eyes opened wide as he scanned the faded markings: Ve marriage tines Of my first Rachel Carding, J\ Gypsie Ittayde, USfto Bore me H Son, But Ceft me in Dudgeon flnd Caste Off my name, Returning Co fier Own People UWb Ve ftilde. nor mould Sbe See me more. "flrtbur Stanley. "ye Ring s Province of Uirginia, 6, 1620 fl. D." "What was that? Hand it here!" snarled Blair. The mild-mannered Marmaduke was roused to re volt. "I jolly well will do nothing of the sort!" he retorted. "I bought that deer head at the auction at Stanley Hall, Virginia, and carried it over the whole bally United States. It and all in it are mine!" Blair moved forward as if to take the paper, but Smythe shoved a table between himself and the angry The American Earl 435 Earl, pinning the latter to the wall in a most undig nified position. At other times Blair easily could have freed himself and throttled the contumacious Smythe. But he was weak from the injury he had received and he pressed his hand to his throbbing head and re garded the rebellious lawyer furiously. And then the door opened and a group of firm-faced men entered. "I beg your pardon, my Lord," said the first of the intruders. "I am Inspector Forde of Scotland Yard. This is an American detective, and he has brought proper requisition papers, and this warrant has been issued against you!" A heavy-set man who towered behind the dapper inspector stepped forward. "I arrest you for the murder of Doctor Henry Lee in Virginia three years ago!" he said. Blair moaned and staggered back against the wall. This, then, was the end. It was Blake. The Rich mond detective, the friend of Hagar, had struck at last! Without a word Blair stepped forward and held out his hands. For once in his life he was cowed, beaten. "Oh, not that, my lord!" said the little inspector agi tatedly. "It wouldn t be necessary to put handcuffs on a man of your station or anything of that sort, my lord. Doubtless there is some terrible mistake which will be rectified, my lord; and I hope you will not hold it against us, my lord, that we were compelled to do our duty!" Vivian had heard the strange tread of the men upon the stairs, and the startled butler had burst in upon 436 The Diamond from the Sky her with the crushing information that officers from Scotland Yard had asked for his lordship, and it was not concerning the thief who had assaulted his lord ship, they had said, "for," the trembling butler added, "that was the first thing I asked them, my lady!" Vivian ran from her boudoir, her beautiful hair in disorder around her fair shoulders. One glance told her that Fate, Weaver of Destinies, had called Blair to account for his crimes. She shrieked and fell into his arms. In prosperity, in their wild schemings, she had not loved him as she did now in the hour of his downfall and humiliation. At a nod from the inspector, Blair s valet brought his hat, stick and overcoat. One last passionate, part ing embrace and Blair walked with his captors down the stairs as a felon where he lately had trod as a noble of the realm! De Vaux escaped scot free but without the diamond. Wondering if he had been recognized under the vizor of the helmet, or by Smythe, he hid for several days and then got out his motor car and gave his chauf feur orders to speed for Dover, where he would take boat and escape to France. But it was fated de Vaux should not gain Paris for some time yet to come, nor alone, for as his car sped swiftly through Mayfair it struck a taxicab with ter rific force at the corner of a street. The heavy fender on de Vaux s big, open car saved it from injury, but the lighter taxicab went over on its side and the uni formed bobby and the driver, on the front seat, were thrown stunned to the street. From the uppermost door of the overturned taxicab The American Earl 437 a stalwart figure clambered. It was Blair, sometime Earl of Stanley! In his hand he held a heavy walking-stick, and act ing with swift intuition, he turned and thrust the stick through the handle of the door and behind the taxime ter, fastening the door hard and tight. Within, the muffled cries of several men could be heard. De Vaux sprang from his auto and faced Blair in surprise for one brief moment. And then the fellow ship of the desperate was swiftly invoked. "The traps have got me save me!" cried Blair. And the two desperate adventurers sprang into the big, undamaged car, which, at a sign from de Vaux, the chauffeur backed from the wrecked, overturned taxi. The big car was turned in the broad street and darted away. Ten minutes later, from the rooms of de Vaux, Blair sent the latter, his sworn ally now such are the strange decrees of destiny to Vivian with a note. It read : "Our old friend, de Vaux, has saved me. You hold the fort as Countess of Stanley. De Vaux and I will search for the diamond. We are not beaten yet! "Lovingly, "BLAIB." It may be understood that in all the desperate in timacy that followed, de Vaux never let Blair or Vivian know that he was the mysterious mailed assailant who had struck down Blair in his Coronation robes and borne away the great jewel, only to drop it in his flight. 438 The Diamond from the Sky Stupid in some things, but with the wisdom of the serpent in others, Smythe studied the strange docu ments, evidently placed in hiding in the deer head by the adventurer Colonist, the first Sir Arthur Stanley, in Virginia, three centuries before. The Harding gipsy family tree gave strange confirmation to the other an tique documents. There was a Rachel Harding born in Kentish Town, England, in 1600. A son was born to her, christened Matthew, after her own father. Then descended from this Matthew, through all the generations, the Matthew born in Virginia in 1860. This Matthew Harding married one Hagar Lee, of another gipsy tribe in America. There was noted a son born to these two, but the record was blotted here on the parchment of the gipsy genesis. A month after the Earl of Stanley s sensational ar rest and still more sensational escape, Vivian, Countess of Stanley, migrated secretly to Paris and from there journeyed to the Riviera and joined Blair and de Vaux. Some months later Smythe sailed for America with much on his mind. He searched the ancient Colonial records in obscure Virginia parishes and, with the wisdom of the serpent, gathered all his proofs. These proofs were that Arthur Stanley, born son of Hagar and Matt Harding, was strangely Arthur Stan ley in name and right and the descendant in a direct line of the adventurer, Sir Arthur Stanley and there fore rightfully also the heir to the Stanley Earldom and "The Diamond from the Sky" ! These proofs and the diamond Smythe brought to Esther and Arthur. "It s all romantic, my dears," said Smythe, after their The American Earl 439 happy greetings were over. "It s pleasant, no doubt, to be a jolly king and queen of the gipsies and to dwell in Arcadian and primitive simplicity with these odd people, don t you know? But you have a duty to perform. A duty to your lineage, and a greater duty to your child! You must accept your rank and The Diamond from the Sky that I here restore to you." "We want none of these things for ourselves or for our child," said Arthur, drawing Esther to him ten derly. "Station and wealth bring nothing but sorrow and heartache. The Diamond from the Sky has been a curse and not a charm against harm. It cannot be thrown back to the sky, so let us cast it into the sea and rid the earth of its evil presence. As for the Earl dom, for myself and my son I would rather we remain plain American citizens than English Earls." And Esther earnestly agreed. "But your lordship," expostulated Smythe, while Arthur smiled at the title, "your lordship may remain an American citizen and still legally hold a British title. I can cite you an instance, several of them." And Smythe did so. The skeptical may consult Burke s Peerage for the precedents in question. "Be sides," Smythe went on, "you deal double injustice to her ladyship. Her ladyship should at least be mistress of Stanley Hall, as was her mother!" And so the world and station called Arthur and Esther Stanley back to Stanley Hall, and thus the wrongs of many a grievous year were righted. Per chance the dead, whose living hearts had loved and hated, were more at ease for this, beneath the grave yard turf. 440 The Diamond from the Sky The guilt of Blair, a fugitive somewhere on the Continent, had been made known some months ago by Blake. Arthur, freed from all suspicion of the murder of Doctor Lee, received at Stanley Hall, with Esther and their infant son, every heartfelt greeting a gener ous-minded Virginia welcome could offer. A great reception was given them by the high-born of Fairfax and by the humble. Stanley Hall, brave in flags, saw happy throngs upon its lawns and within its stately walls again. Vying with the Fairfax band, the gipsy orchestra, led by Quabba, now ruler in Romany instead of King Arthur and Queen Esther, who abdi cated in his favor, played again the wild Romany wed ding strains. Arthur and Esther, with the ever-atten tive Smythe beside them, held the little American Earl in their arms. On his baby breast gleamed the great jewel of the Stanleys and ever his sweet young mother murmured to herself and to him "O child of my heart, not a diamond but a mother s prayer is the true charm against harm 1 !" And so love and peace dwell again at Stanley HalL The little American Earl, son of Arthur and Esther, has "The Diamond from the Sky," and all ends hap pily as Hagar prayed except that somewhere in the world, hidden and perhaps waiting to strike, is the desperate and bitter Blair. With him is his cunning ally, de Vaux, and also Vivian, she who is the incarna tion of desire for "The Diamond from the Sky" and all it meant to her. THE EXD University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. i A 000818181 o