The Argosy | Page 8

realise in his
own mind the foulness of the deed by which alone it could become his
property. Had any man hinted that he was a thief, either in act or
intention, he would have repudiated the term with scorn--would have
repudiated it even in his own mind, for he made a point of hoodwinking

and cozening himself, as though he were some other person whose
good opinion must on no account be forfeited.
Captain Ducie awaited with hidden impatience the hour when it should
please M. Platzoff to fulfil his promise. He had not long to wait. Three
evenings later, as they sat in the smoking-room, said Platzoff:
"To-night you shall see the Great Hara Diamond. No eyes save my own
have seen it for ten years. I must ask you to put yourself for an hour or
two under my instructions. Are you minded so to do?"
"I shall be most happy to carry out your wishes in every way,"
answered Ducie. "Consider me as your slave for the time being."
"Attend, then, if you please. This evening you will retire to your own
rooms at eleven o'clock. Precisely at one-thirty a.m., you will come
back here. You will be good enough to come in your slippers, because
it is not desirable that any of the household should be disturbed by our
proceedings. I have no further orders at present."
"Your lordship's wishes are my commands," answered Ducie, with a
mock salaam.
They sat talking and smoking till eleven; then Ducie left his host as if
for the night. He lay down for a couple of hours on the sofa in his
dressing-room. Precisely at one-thirty he was on his way back to the
smoke-room, his feet encased in a pair of Indian mocassins. A minute
later he was joined by Platzoff in dressing-gown and slippers.
"I need hardly tell you, my dear Ducie," began the latter, "that with a
piece of property in my possession no larger than a pigeon's egg, and
worth so many thousands of pounds, a secure place in which to deposit
that property (since I choose to have it always near me) is an object of
paramount importance. That secure place of deposit I have at Bon
Repos. This you may accept as one reason for my having lived in such
an out-of-the-world spot for so many years. It is a place known to
myself alone. After my death it will become known to one person
only--to the person into whose possession the Diamond will pass when
I shall be no longer among the living. The secret will be told him that

he may have the means of finding the Diamond, but not even to him
will it become known till after my decease. Under these circumstances,
my dear Ducie, you will, I am sure, excuse me for keeping the
hiding-place of the Diamond a secret still--a secret even from you.
Say--will you not?"
With a malediction at his heart, but with a smile on his lips, Captain
Ducie made reply. "Pray offer no excuses, my dear Platzoff, where
none are needed. What I want is to see the Diamond itself, not to know
where it is kept. Such a piece of information would be of no earthly use
to me, and it would involve a responsibility which, under any
circumstances, I should hardly care to assume."
"It is well; you are an English gentleman," said the Russian, with a
ceremonious inclination of the head, "and your words are based on
wisdom and truth. It is necessary that I should blindfold you: oblige me
with your handkerchief."
Ducie with a smile handed over his handkerchief, and Platzoff
proceeded to blindfold him--an operation which was rapidly and
effectually performed by the deft fingers of the Russian.
"Now, give me your hand and come with me, but do not speak till you
are spoken to."
So Ducie laid a finger in the Russian's thin, cold palm, and the latter,
taking a small bronze hand-lamp, conducted his bandaged companion
from the room.
In two minutes after leaving the smoke-room Ducie's geographical
ideas of the place were completely at fault. Platzoff led him through so
many corridors and passages, turning now to the right hand, and now to
the left--he guided him up and down so many flights of stairs, now of
stone and now of wood, that he lost his reckoning entirely and felt as
though he were being conducted through some place far more spacious
than Bon Repos. He counted the number of stairs in each flight that he
went up or down. In two or three cases the numbers tallied, which
induced him to think that Platzoff was conducting him twice over the

same ground, in order perhaps the more effectually to confuse his ideas
as to