The Diva's Ruby

s note of excuse was given to him at once. He read it, looked out of the window, glanced at it again, and threw it into the waste-paper basket without anoth

ain an account of a papyrus recently discovered at Oxyrrhynchus, on which some new fragments of Pindar had been found. No dinner that could be devised, and no company that could be asked to meet him at it, could be half as

'greetings' scrawled beside the address in her large hand. Next to the card, however, there was a thick letter addressed in a commercial writing he remembered but could not at once identify; and thou

hen Logotheti and Van Torp had gone out together until Mr. Pinney had locked up the stone in his safe again, and Baraka and Spiro had been

y's close rather early in the dull season, when few customers are to be expected and the days are not so long as they have been.

knew what she had chosen to tell him, and connived in her deception by speaking of her as a man; and she might have told him anything to account for having some valuable precious stones to dispose of. But, on the other hand, she might not be a Tartar at all. Any one, from the Bosphorus to the Amur, may speak Tartar, and pretend not to understand anything else. She might be nothing but a clever half-bred Levantine from Smyrna, who had fooled them all, and really knew French and even English. Th

f bottle glass of the same size about with her, carefully prepared and wrapped in tissue-paper, ready to be substituted for the gem at any moment. She had watched him go into Pinney's, knowing very well what he was going for; she had waited till he came out, and had then entered and asked to see any rubies Mr. Pinney had, t

of the safe before going home and leaving his shopman to shut up

I wrote out the account with great care, as you may imagine, but I shall be

ed itself, turned it three times to the left and five times to the right, and opened the heavy iron door. The safe was an old-fashioned one that had belonged to his father bef

critically, turning it over with one finger from time to time. He took it to the door of the shop, where

y,' he said, 'and some electric l

light that stood on the counter, an

rand ruby

ogotheti answere

eller, 'that you had bought it without thorou

he Greek, bending over the ruby and scru

himself up with dignity. A minute passed, and Logotheti did not look up; another, and Mr.

ogotheti, looking up, and spe

ey's jaw dropped. 'But--'

several reasons. But it's not the stone I brought you, th

know, sir?' gasp

t, as you were good e

pert belief this is the stone you left with me to be cut, t

ned mine thoroughly before it was stolen, had you? Yo

said Mr. Pinney nervousl

weight, but I cared very much for the water, and I tried the ruby point on it in the usual way, but it was too

single scratch on this one! Mercifu

like, and she wanted me to buy both, but I did not want them, and I took the one I thought a little better in colour. This is the other, for she still had it; and, so far as I know, it is

he ruby was gone, and he did not know where he was to find another, except the one that was now in Pinney's hands, but really belonged to poor Baraka, who could certainly not sell it at present. A mu

of gross carelessness after a lifetime of scrupulous caution. Pinney was certainly very well off, and would not suffer nearly as much by the loss of a few

'I have not only been tricked and plundered, but I hav

heti. 'You know what to do here in England far better than I. In my country a stroke of

eer the old man, but Mr

ter, sir,' he said. 'I

evidently a sort of relief

together, and we will go and do it at once, if you please. Lock up the ruby in the safe again, Mr. Pinney, and we

y put that point as only a well-reg

theti calmly, 'if our dinner is at all likely to keep th

early, and it is said that an Englishman does not fight on an empt

hes in the hansom,'

ly, as he finished the operation of shutting the safe; h

o trace those two young men who

ood to you, sir, whatever price you set upon it. I am deeply humiliated, but nobody shall

' said Logotheti, who saw how much d

and hailed a hans

also, the law had been in need of him as an expert in very grave cases, some of which required the utmost secrecy as well as the greatest possible tact. He knew his way about in places where Logotheti had never be

e law for having placed faith in what Mr. Pinney had testified 'to the best of his belief,' instead of accepting a fairy story which a Tartar girl, caught going about in man's clothes, told through the broken English of a Stamboul interpreter. The law, being good En

ruby, of which the description corresponded remarkably well with the one that had appeared in evidence at the Police Court, to two French dealers in precious stones, who had not bought it, but were bearing it in mind for possible customers, and were informed of Barak's London address, in case they could find a buyer. In the short time since Baraka had been in prison, yards of ciphered telegrams had been exchanged between the London and Paris police; for the Frenchmen maintained that if the Englishmen had not made a mistake, there must have been a big robbery of precious stones somewhere, to account for those that Baraka was selling; b

opping had handed over to the police were all returned; and when Spiro appeared at the hotel to pay the small bill that had been left owing, he held his head as high as an Oriental can when he has got the better of any one, and that is pretty high indeed. Furthermo

s so wonderfully romantic that the reporters went into paroxysms of adjectivitis in every edition of their papers, and scurried about town like mad between the attacks to find out where she was and to interview her. But in this they failed; and the only person they could lay hands on was Logotheti's private secretary, who was a middle-aged Swiss with a vast face that was as perfectly expressionless as a

that he did not know that either. The number of things he did not know was perfectly overwhelming. The reporters came to the conclusion that Logotheti had spirited away the beautiful Tartar; and they made some deductions, but abstained from printing

sage reached her before noon, about the time when Margaret and her companions had come back from their morning walk, and after h

Pinney's, and the whole case fell through at once. If she was declared innocent the stone must be given back to her; he would take it from her as soon as they were alone and return it to his own pocket; and being an Oriental, he would probably beat her for robbing him, but would not let her out of his sight again till he was tired of her. Lady Maud had heard from her late husband how all Turks believed tha

without taking into consideration the possibility that she might be doing harm. But the damage which very actively good people sometimes do quite unintentionally is often grea

imes bring about more ruin in a few months than ten ye

t to Logotheti's lodgings and asked to see him, as regardless of what any one should think of her, if she were re

t know that. The lady could see the secretary, who might, perhaps, tel

dsome in their way: a paper-cutter hewn from at least a third of an elephant's tusk, and heavy enough to fell a man at a blow; an enormous inkstand, apparently made of a solid brick of silver, without ornament, brightly polished, and having a plain round hole in the middle for ink; a blotting-case of the larger folio size, with a Greek inscription on it in raised letters of gold; a trough of imperial jade, two feet long, in which lay a c

ertainly not a scent, and yet was not that of the perfumes or gums which some Orientals like to burn where they live. S

he remained standing. His vast face was fringed with a beard of no particular colour,

have known Monsieur Logotheti some tim

w, madam,' wa

not in

I do not k

ss? Do you not forwar

not forward his

is on his yacht,' s

know whether he

seem to kno

hink I know my busines

athern face was perfectly impassive, and the still, turquoise eyes surveyed her without winking. She had never seen such stolidity in a human being. It

e room, opened the door for her and went on into the little hall to let her out. There was a small table there, on which lay some of Logotheti's hats, and several pairs of gloves were laid out neatly before them. There was one pair, of a lig

d stick with a silver ring. That was enough. Baraka had certainly been in the lodgings and had probably left in them everything that belonged to her disguise. The fact that the gloves and the stick were in the hall, looked very m

of business papers and letters. When he had worked half an hour, he leaned back in his leathern chair to rest, and stared fixedly at the bookcase. P

. I do not know anything. How the dickens should I know wh