cordially he admired the wife ! How skilfully she could
evade an awkward question ! with what secure effron-
tery she repeated her instructions under the very guns
of the enemy! and on the other hand, how he detested
the husband!
There had been nothing unfamiliar in the morning's
events, for he was continually in the habit of serving
Lady Vandeleur on secret missions, principally connected
with millinery. There was a skeleton in the house, as
he well knew. The bottomless extravagance and the
unknown liabilities of the wife had long since swallowed
her own fortune, and threatened day by day to engulf
that of the husband. Once or twice in every year ex-
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
posure and ruin seemed imminent, and Harry kept trot-
ting round to all sorts of furnishers' shops, telling small
fibs, and paying small advances on the gross amount,
until another term was tided over, and the lady and her
faithful secretary breathed again. For Harry, in a double
capacity, was heart and soul upon that side of the war:
not only did he adore Lady Vandeleur and fear and dis-
like her husband, but he naturally sympathised with the
love of finery, and his own single extravagance was at
the tailor's.
He found the bandbox where it had been described,
arranged his toilet with care, and left the house. The
sun shone brightly; the distance he had to travel was
considerable, and he remembered with dismay that the
General's sudden irruption had prevented Lady Vande-
leur from giving him money for a cab. On this sultry
day there was every chance that his complexion would
suffer severely ; and to walk through so much of London
with a bandbox on his arm was a humiliation almost
insupportable to a youth of his character. He paused,
and took counsel with himself. The Vandeleurs lived
in Eaton Place; his destination was near Netting Hill;
plainly, he might cross the Park by keeping well in the
open and avoiding populous alleys; and he thanked his
stars when he reflected that it was still comparatively
early in the day.
Anxious to be rid of his incubus, he walked some-
what faster than his ordinary, and he was already some
way through Kensington Gardens when, in a solitary
spot among trees, he found himself confronted by the
General.
"I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas," observed Harry,
"3
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
politely falling on one side ; for the other stood directly
in his path.
"Where are you going, sir?" asked the General.
" I am taking a little walk among the trees," replied
the lad.
The General struck the bandbox with his cane.
"With that thing?" he cried; "you lie, sir, and you
know you lie!"
"Indeed, Sir Thomas," returned Harry, "I am not
accustomed to be questioned in so high a key."
"You do not understand your position," said the
General. "You are my servant, and a servant of whom
I have conceived the most serious suspicions. How do
I know but that your box is full of teaspoons ? "
''It contains a silk hat belonging to a friend," said
Harry.
"Very well," replied General Vandeleur. "Then I
want to see your friend's silk hat. I have," he added,
grimly, " a singular curiosity for hats; and I believe you
know me to be somewhat positive."
"I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas, I am exceedingly
grieved," Harry apologised; "but indeed this is a pri-
vate affair."
The General caught him roughly by the shoulder with
one hand, while he raised his cane in the most menac-
ing manner with the other. Harry gave himself up for
lost; but at the same moment Heaven vouchsafed him
an unexpected defender in the person of Charlie Pen-
dragon, who now strode forward from behind the trees.
"Come, come, General, hold your hand," said he,
"this is neither courteous nor manly."
"Aha !" cried the General, wheeling round upon his
114
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
new antagonist, "Mr. Pendragon ! And do you sup-
pose, Mr. Pendragon, that because I have had the mis-
fortune to marry your sister, I shall suffer myself to be
dogged and thwarted by a discredited and bankrupt
libertine like you ? My acquaintance with Lady Van-
deleur, sir, has taken away all my appetite for the other
members of her family. "
"And do you fancy, General Vandeleur," retorted
Charlie, " that because my sister has had the misfortune
to marry you, she there and then forfeited her rights
and privileges as a lady ? I own, sir, that by that action
she did as much as anybody could to derogate from her
position ; but to me she is still a Pendragon. I make it
my business to protect her from ungentlemanly outrage,
and if you were ten times her husband 1 would not per-
mit her liberty to be restrained, nor her private messen-
ger to be violently arrested."
"How is that, Mr. Hartley ?" interrogated the Gen-
eral. "Mr. Pendragon is of my opinion, it appears.
He too suspects that Lady Vandeleur has something to
do with your friend's silk hat."
Charlie saw that he had committed an unpardonable
blunder, which he hastened to repair.
" How, sir ?" he cried ; " I suspect, do you say ? I sus-
pect nothing. Only where I find strength abused and a
man brutalizing his inferiors, I take the liberty to interfere."
As he said these words he made a sign to Harry,
which the latter was too dull or too much troubled "to
understand.
"In what way am I to construe your attitude, sir?"
demanded Vandeleur.
"Why, sir, as you please," returned Pendragon.
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
The General once more raised his cane, and made a
cut for Charlie's head ; but the latter, lame foot and all,
evaded the blow with his umbrella, ran in, and imme-
diately closed with his formidable adversary.
"Run, Harry, run!" he cried; "run, you dolt!"
Harry stood petrified for a moment, watching the two
men sway together in this fierce embrace ; then he turned
and took to his heels. When he cast a glance over his
shoulder he saw the General prostrate under Charlie's
knee, but still making desperate efforts to reverse the
situation ; and the Gardens seemed to have filled with
people, who were running from all directions towards
the scene of fight. This spectacle lent the secretary
wings; and he did not relax his pace until he had gained
the Bayswater road, and plunged at random into an un-
frequented by-street.
To see two gentlemen of his acquaintance thus bru-
tally mauling each other was deeply shocking to Harry.
He desired to forget the sight; he desired, above all, to
put as great a distance as possible between himself and
General Vandeleur; and in his eagerness for this he for-
got everything about his destination, and hurried before
him headlong and trembling. When he remembered
that Lady Vandeleur was the wife of one and sister of
the other of these gladiators, his heart was touched with
sympathy for a woman so distressingly misplaced in
life. Even his own situation in the General's house
looked hardly so pleasing as usual in the light of these
violent transactions.
He had walked some little distance, busied with these
meditations, before a slight collision with another pas-
senger reminded him of the bandbox on his arm.
116
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
"Heavens!" cried he, "where was my head? and
whither have I wandered ? "
Thereupon he consulted the envelope which Lady
Vandeleur had given him. The address was there, but
without a name. Harry was simply directed to ask for
"the gentleman who expected a parcel from Lady Van-
deleur," and if he were not at home to await his return.
The gentleman, added the note, should present a receipt
in the handwriting of the lady herself. All this seemed
mighty mysterious, and Harry was above all astonished
at the omission of the name and the formality of the re-
ceipt. He had thought little of this last when he heard
it dropped in conversation ; but reading it in cold blood,
and taking it in connection with the other strange par-
ticulars, he became convinced that he was engaged in
perilous affairs. For half a moment he had a doubt of
Lady Vandeleur herself; for he found these obscure pro-
ceedings somewhat unworthy of so high a lady, and
became more critical when her secrets were preserved
against himself. But her empire over his spirit was too
complete, he dismissed his suspicions, and blamed him-
self roundly for having so much as entertained them.
In one thing, however, his duty and interest, his gen-
erosity and his terrors, coincided to get rid of the
bandbox with the greatest possible despatch.
He accosted the first policeman and courteously in-
quired his way. It turned out that he was already not
far from his destination, and a walk of a few minutes
brought him to a small house in a lane, freshly painted,
and kept with the most scrupulous attention. The
knocker and bell-pull were highly polished; flowering
pot-herbs garnished the sills of the different windows ;
"7
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
and curtains of some rich material concealed the interior
from the eyes of curious passengers. The place had an
air of repose and secrecy; and Harry was so far caught
with this spirit that he knocked with more than usual
discretion, and was more than usually careful to remove
all impurity from his boots.
A servant-maid of some personal attractions immedi-
ately opened the door, and seemed to regard the secre-
tary with no unkind eyes.
"This is the parcel from Lady Vandeleur," said
Harry.
"I know," replied the maid, with a nod. "But the
gentleman is from home. Will you leave it with me ? "
" I cannot," answered Harry. " I am directed not to
part with it but upon a certain condition, and I must ask
you, I am afraid, to let me wait."
"Well," said she, "I suppose I may let you wait.
I am lonely enough, I can tell you, and you do not look
as though you would eat a girl. But be sure and do not
ask the gentleman's name, for that I am not to tell you."
' ' Do you say so ? " cried Harry. ' ' Why, how strange !
But indeed for some time back I walk among surprises.
One question I think I may surely ask without indiscre-
tion : Is he the master of this house ? "
" He is a lodger, and not eight days old at that," re-
turned the maid. ' 'And now a question for a question :
Do you know Lady Vandeleur?"
"I am her private secretary," replied Harry, with a
glow of modest pride.
"She is pretty, is she not ?" pursued the servant
"Oh, beautiful!" cried Harry; "wonderfully lovely,
and not less good and kind! "
lit
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
' ' You look kind enough yourself, ' ' she retorted ; ' ' and
I wager you are worth a dozen Lady Vandeleurs."
Harry was properly scandalised.
" I ! " he cried. ' ' I am only a secretary ! "
" Do you mean that for me ?" said the girl. " Be-
cause I am only a housemaid, if you please." And then,
relenting at the sight of Harry's obvious confusion, " I
know you mean nothing of the sort," she added; "and
I like your looks; but I think nothing of your Lady Van-
deleur. Oh, these mistresses!" she cried. "To send
out a real gentleman like you with a bandbox in
broad day ! "
During this talk they had remained in their original
positions she on the doorstep, he on the sidewalk,
bareheaded for the sake of coolness, and with the band-
box on his arm. But upon this last speech Harry, who
was unable to support such point-blank compliments to
his appearance, nor the encouraging look with which
they were accompanied, began to change his attitude,
and glance from left to right in perturbation. In so
doing he turned his face towards the lower end of the
lane, and there, to his indescribable dismay, his eyes en-
countered those of General Vandeleur. The General,
in a prodigious fluster of heat, hurry, and indignation,
had been scouring the streets in chase of his brother-in-
law ; but so soon as he caught a glimpse of the delinquent
secretary his purpose changed, his anger flowed into a
new channel, and he turned on his heel and came tearing
up the lane with truculent gestures and vociferations.
Harry made but one bolt of it into the house, driving
the maid before him ; and the door was slammed in his
pursuer's countenance.
119
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
" Is there a bar ? Will it lock ? " asked Harry, while
a salvo on the knocker made the house echo from wall
to wall.
"Why, what is wrong with you ?" asked the maid.
" Is it this old gentleman ? "
" If he gets hold of me," whispered Harry, " I am as
good as dead. He has been pursuing me all day, carries
a sword-stick, and is an Indian military officer."
"These are fine manners," cried the maid. "And
what, if you please, may be his name ? "
" It is the General, my master, " answered Harry. " He
is after this bandbox."
" Did not I tell you ? " cried the maid in triumph. " I
told you I thought worse than nothing of your Lady Van-
deleur; and if you had an eye in your head you might
see what she is for yourself. An ungrateful minx, I will
be bound for that ! "
The General renewed his attack upon the knocker,
and his passion growing with delay, began to kick and
beat upon the panels of the door.
"It is lucky," observed the girl, "that I am alone in
the house ; your General may hammer until he is weary,
and there is none to open for him. Follow me ! "
So saying, she led Harry into the kitchen, where she
made him sit down, and stood by him herself in an af-
fectionate attitude, with a hand upon his shoulder. The
din at the door, so far from abating, continued to increase
in volume, and at each blow the unhappy secretary was
shaken to the heart.
"What is your name ?" asked the girl.
"Harry Hartley," he replied.
' ' Mine, " she went on, ' ' is Prudence. Do you like it ? "
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
"Very much," said Harry. " But hear for a moment
how the General beats upon the door. He will certainly
break it in, and then, in heaven's name, what have I to
look for but death?"
"You put yourself very much about with no occa-
sion," answered Prudence. " Let your General knock,
he will do no more than blister his hands. Do you think
I would keep you here if I were not sure to save you ?
Oh, no, I am a good friend to those that please me ! and
we have a back door upon another lane. But," she
added, checking him, for he had got upon his feet im-
mediately on this welcome news, "but I will not show
where it is unless you kiss me. Will you, Harry ?"
"That I will, "he cried, remembering his gallantry,
"not for your back door, but because you are good and
pretty. "
And he administered two or three cordial salutes,
which were returned to him in kind.
Then Prudence led him to the back gate, and put her
hand upon the key.
" Will you come and see me ?" she asked.
"I will indeed," said Harry. "Do not I owe you
my life ? "
"And now," she added, opening the door, "run as
hard as you can, for I shall let in the General."
Harry scarcely required this advice ; fear had him by
the forelock; and he addressed himself diligently to
flight. A few steps, and he believed he would return
to Lady Vandeleur in honour and safety. But these few
steps had not been taken before he heard a man's voice,
hailing him by name with many execrations, and, look-
ing over his shoulder, he beheld Charlie Pendragon wav-
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
ing him with both arms to return. The shock of this
new incident was so sudden and profound, and Harry
was already worked into so high a state of nervous
tension, that he could think of nothing better than to
accelerate his pace, and continue running. He should
certainly have remembered the scene in Kensington Gar-
dens; he should have certainly have concluded that,
where the General was his enemy, Charlie Pendragon
could be no other than a friend. But such was the fever
and perturbation of his mind that he was struck by none
of these considerations, and only continued to run the
faster up the lane.
Charlie, by the sound of his voice and the vile terms
that he hurled after the secretary, was obviously beside
himself with rage. He, too, ran his very best; but, try
as he might, the physical advantages were not upon his
side, and his outcries and the fall of his lame foot on the
macadam began to fall farther and farther into the wake.
Harry's hopes began once more to arise. The lane
was both steep and narrow, but it was exceedingly soli-
tary, bordered on either hand by garden walls, overhung
with foliage ; and, for as far as the fugitive could see in
front of him, there was neither a creature moving nor an
open door. Providence, weary of persecution, was now
offering him an open field for his escape.
Alas! as he came abreast of a garden door under a
tuft of chestnuts, it was suddenly drawn back, and he
could see inside, upon a garden path, the figure of a
butcher's boy with his tray upon his arm. He had
hardly recognised the fact before he was some steps be-
yond upon the other side. But the fellow had had time
to observe him ; he was evidently much surprised to see
122
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
a gentleman go by at so unusual a pace; and he came
out into the lane and began to call after Harry with
shouts of ironical encouragement.
His appearance gave a new idea to Charlie Pendragon,
who, although he was now sadly out of breath, once
more upraised his voice.
"Stop thief ! " he cried.
And immediately the butcher's boy had taken up the
cry and joined in the pursuit.
This was a bitter moment for the hunted secretary.
It is true that his terror enabled him once more to improve
his pace, and gain with every step on his pursuers ; but
he was well aware that he was near the end of his re-
sources, and should he meet anyone coming the other
way, his predicament in the narrow lane would be
desperate indeed.
"I must find a place of concealment," he thought,
"and that within the next few seconds, or all is over
with me in this world."
Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind than the
lane took a sudden turning; and he found himself
hidden from his enemies. There are circumstances in
which even the least energetic of mankind learn to be-
have with vigour and decision ; and the more cautious
forget their prudence and embrace foolhardy resolutions.
This was one of those occasions for Harry Hartley ; and
those who knew him best would have been the most
astonished at the lad's audacity. He stopped dead,
flung the bandbox over a garden wall, and leaping up-
ward with incredible agility and seizing the copestone
with his hands, he tumbled headlong after it into the
garden.
123
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
He came to himself a moment afterwards, seated in a
border of small rosebushes. His hands and knees were
cut and bleeding, for the wall had been protected against
such an escalade by a liberal provision of old bottles;
and he was conscious of a general dislocation and a
painful swimming in the head. Facing him across the
garden, which was in admirable order, and set with
flowers of the most delicious perfume, he beheld the back
of a house. It was of considerable extent, and plainly
habitable; but, in odd contrast to the grounds, it was
crazy, ill-kept, and of a mean appearance. On all other
sides the circuit of the garden wall appeared unbroken.
He took in these features of the scene with mechan-
ical glances, but his mind was still unable to piece to-
gether or draw a rational conclusion from what he saw.
And when he heard footsteps advancing on the gravel,
although he turned his eyes in that direction, it was with
no thought either for defence or flight.
The new-comer was a large, coarse, and very sordid
personage, in gardening clothes, and with a watering-
pot in his left hand. One less confused would have
been affected with some alarm at the sight of this man's
huge proportions and black and lowering eyes. But
Harry was too gravely shaken by his fall to be so much
as terrified ; and if he was unable to divert his glances
from the gardener, he remained absolutely passive, and
suffered him to draw near, to take him by the shoulder,
and to plant him roughly on his feet, without a motion
of resistance.
For a moment the two stared into each other's eyes,
Harry fascinated, the man filled with wrath and a cruel,
sneering humour.
124
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
"Who are you ? " he demanded at last. " Who are
you to come flying over my wall and break my Gloire
de Dijons ? What is your name ?" he added, shaking
him; " and what may be your business here ?"
Harry could not as much as proffer a word in expla-
nation.
But just at that moment Pendragon and the butcher's
boy went clumping past, and the sound of their feet and
their hoarse cries echoed loudly in the narrow lane.
The gardener had received his answer; and he looked
down into Harry's face with an obnoxious smile.
"A thief!" he said. "Upon my word, and a very
good thing you must make of it ; for I see you dressed
like a gentleman from top to toe. Are you not ashamed
to go about the world in such a trim, with honest folk,
I dare say, glad to buy your cast-off finery second-hand ?
Speak up, you dog," the man went on; "you can un-
derstand English, I suppose ; and I mean to have a bit
of talk with you before I march you to the station."
"Indeed, sir," said Harry, "this is all a dreadful mis-
conception ; and if you will go with me to Sir Thomas
Vandeleur's in Eaton Place, I can promise that all will
be made plain. The most upright person, as I now per-
ceive, can be led into suspicious positions."
" My little man," replied the gardener, " I will go with
you no farther than the station-house in the next street.
The inspector, no doubt, will be glad to take a stroll with
you as far as Eaton Place, and have a bit of afternoon tea
with your great acquaintances. Or would you prefer to
go direct to the Home Secretary ? Sir Thomas Vande-
leur, indeed! Perhaps you think I don't know a gen-
tleman when I see one, from a common run-the-hedge
125
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
like you ? Clothes or no clothes, I can read you like a
book. Here is a shirt that maybe cost as much as my
Sunday hat; and that coat, I take it, has never seen the
inside of Rag-fair, and then your boots "
The man, whose eyes had fallen upon the ground,
stopped short in his insulting commentary, and remained
for a moment looking intently upon something at his
feet. When he spoke his voice was strangely altered.
"What, in God's name," said he, "is all this ?"
Harry, following the direction of the man's eyes, be-
held a spectacle that struck him dumb with terror and
amazement. In his fall he had descended vertically upon
the bandbox and burst it open from end to end ; thence
a great treasure of diamonds had poured forth, and now
lay abroad, part trodden in the soil, part scattered on the
surface in regal and glittering profusion. There was a
magnificent coronet which he had often admired on
Lady Vandeleur; there were rings and brooches, ear-
drops and bracelets, and even unset brilliants rolling
here and there among the rosebushes like drops of morn-
ing dew. A princely fortune lay between the two men
upon the ground a fortune in the most inviting, solid,
and durable form, capable of being carried in an apron,
beautiful in itself, and scattering the sunlight in a mil-
lion rainbow flashes.
"Good God ! " said Harry, " I am lost ! "
His mind raced backward into the past with the in-
calculable velocity of thought, and he began to compre-
hend his day's adventures, to conceive them as a whole,
and to recognise the sad imbroglio in which his own
character and fortunes had become involved. He looked
round him, as if for help, but he was alone in the gar-
126
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
den, with his scattered diamonds and his redoubtable
interlocutor; and when he gave ear, there was no sound
but the rustle of the leaves and the hurried pulsation of
his heart. It was little wonder if the young man felt
himself a little deserted by his spirits, and with a broken
voice repeated his last ejaculation
"I am lost !"
The gardener peered in all directions with an air of
guilt; but there was no face at any of the windows, and
he seemed to breathe again.
"Pick up a heart, "he said, "you fool! The worst of
it is done. Why could you not say at first there was
enough for two? Two!" he repeated, "aye, and for
two hundred ! But come away from here, where we
may be observed; and, for the love of wisdom, straighten
out your hat and brush your clothes. You could not
travel two steps the figure of fun you look just now."
While Harry mechanically adopted these suggestions,
the gardener, getting upon his knees, hastily drew to-
gether the scattered jewels and returned them to the
bandbox. The touch of these costly crystals sent a
shiver of emotion through the man's stalwart frame;