Moonfleet, John Meade Falkner [intellectual books to read txt] 📗

arm; but it was too late⁠—the stone flew up in the air, caught the low rays of the setting sun for a moment, and then fell among the flowers. I could not see it as it fell, yet followed with my eyes the line in which it should have fallen, and thought I saw a glimmer where it touched the earth. It was only a flash or sparkle for an instant, just at the stem of that same rushy red-flowered plant, and then nothing more to be seen; but as I faced round I saw the little man’s eyes turned that way too, and perhaps he saw the flash as well as I.

“There’s for your ten crowns!” said Elzevir. “Let us be going, lad.” And he took me by the arm and marched me out of the room and down the stairs.

“Go, and a blight on you!” says Mr. Aldobrand, his voice being not so high as when he cried out last, but in his usual squeak; and then he repeated, “a blight on you,” just for a parting shot as we went through the door.

We passed two more waiting-men on the stairs, but they said nothing to us, and so we came to the street.

We walked along together for some time without a word, and then Elzevir said, “Cheer up, lad, cheer up. Thou saidst thyself thou fearedst there was a curse on the thing, so now it is gone, maybe we are well quit of it.”

Yet I could not say anything, being too much disappointed to find the diamond was a sham, and bitterly cast down at the loss of all our hopes. It was all very well to think there was a curse upon the stone so long as we had it, and to feign that we were ready to part with it; but now it was gone I knew that at heart I never wished to part with it at all, and would have risked any curse to have it back again. There was supper waiting for us when we got back, but I had no stomach for victuals and sat moodily while Elzevir ate, and he not much. But when I sat and brooded over what had happened, a new thought came to my mind and I jumped up and cried, “Elzevir, we are fools! The stone is no sham; ’tis a real diamond!”

He put down his knife and fork, and looked at me, not saying anything, but waiting for me to say more, and yet did not show so much surprise as I expected. Then I reminded him how the old merchant’s face was full of wonder and delight when first he saw the stone, which showed he thought it was real then, and how afterwards, though he schooled his voice to bring out long words to deceive us, he was ready enough to spring to his feet and shriek out loud when Elzevir threw the stone into the garden. I spoke fast, and in talking to him convinced myself, so when I stopped for want of breath I was quite sure that the stone was indeed a diamond, and that Aldobrand had duped us.

Still Elzevir showed little eagerness, and only said⁠—

“ ’Tis like enough that what you say is true, but what would you have us do? The stone is flung away.”

“Yes,” I answered; “but I saw where it fell, and know the very place; let us go back now at once and get it.”

“Do you not think that Aldobrand saw the place too?” asked Elzevir; and then I remembered how, when I turned back to the room after seeing the stone fall, I caught the eyes of the old merchant looking the same way; and how he spoke more quietly after that, and not with the bitter cry he used when Elzevir tossed the jewel out of the window.

“I do not know,” I said doubtfully; “let us go back and see. It fell just by the stem of a red flower that I marked well. What!” I added, seeing him still hesitate and draw back, “do you doubt? Shall we not go and get it?”

Still he did not answer for a minute, and then spoke slowly, as if weighing his words. “I cannot tell. I think that all you say is true, and that this stone is real. Nay, I was half of that mind when I threw it away, and yet I would not say we are not best without it. ’Twas you who first spoke of a curse upon the jewel, and I laughed at that as being a childish tale. But now I cannot tell; forever since we first scented this treasure luck has run against us, John; yes, run against us very strong; and here we are, flying from home, called outlaws, and with blood upon our hands. Not that blood frightens me, for I have stood face to face with men in fair fight, and never felt a deathblow given so weigh on my soul; but these two men came to a tricksy kind of end, and yet I could not help it. ’Tis true that all my life I’ve served the Contraband, but no man ever knew me do a foul action; and now I do not like that men should call me felon, and like it less that they should call thee felon too. Perhaps there may be after all some curse that hangs about this stone, and leads to ruin those that handle it. I cannot say, for I am not a Parson Glennie in these things; but Blackbeard in an evil mood may have tied the treasure up to be a curse to any that use it for themselves. What do we want with this thing at all? I have got money to be touched at need; we may lie quiet this side the Channel, where thou shalt learn an honest trade, and when the mischief has blown over we will go back to Moonfleet.