Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STRANGER it known. There are not so very many dealers who can afford to buy them, you see? ‘* But where he kept them—that was the mystery! ‘““ Among other things, I kept track of the servants who were discharged by the com- modore. Some of them might know some- thing. And among others, I tried Louis Kern. He was formerly in the service of the commodore. He had been terribly in- jured. He was in a hospital with one arm amputated when I talked with him. And he denied knowing anything about the Sheik. Yet he denied it with a reservation in his voice. You understand what I mean? Later, I learned that although he was no longer in the service of the commodore, he was receiving a pension from him. When [f heard that I was confident that this man had the secret. “J maneuvered until — had him at my command. When he was helplessly in my power through means which [ need not take your time in describing, I cornered him, pressed him to the wall, so to speak, and demanded to know the hiding place of the Sheik. “He admitted that he knew it. But he declared that sooner than tell me, sooner than offend the terrible commodore, he would kill me and himself afterwards. “And I believed him. The commodore had the ability to inspire a well-nigh su- perstitious reverence in the hearts of his servants—and even in his equals, from time to time. Fear of him was more than the fear of death in Louis Kern. Half white and half black, he has the strength of both races and the weakness of both races. “ At any rate, he swore that although he could not tell me then, he would tell me the instant he knew that the commodore was dead. And therefore I settled down and waited for the commodore’s death. You will begin to understand from this how completely the recovery of the pearl has been my life work. “The news came at last. The commo- dore had died. And when I had the prooi of it I found Louis Kern. He told me at once. The jewels were kept in the com- modore’s globe which, being specially con- AT ‘FHE GATE. 883 structed for the purpose, was in reality a little safe by itself. “In the meantime I waited for the mails and the American newspapers with a ter- rible anxiety. For it seemed impossible that the commodore should have died with- out mentioning the Sheik in his will. And vet I saw, on reflection, that to name the pearl, and to describe how it could be found in the will would simply be to point out the way to a thief to get it. All that he could do, if he wished to keep the pearl as he had done before, was to wait until he was on the point of death and then convey the information by word of mouth. And that, it seems, was exactly what the com- modore did, saving that he waited too long! ‘When I was certain that the pearl had not been mentioned in the will—and if it had come to light there would have been columns in the papers about the unexpect- ed discovery of the treasure, I started straight for New York with Louis Kern. When we arrived I rented an automobile, exploréd the district around the house, and decided, being an amateur thief, that it would not be safe to attempt to get at the elobe in a house where there were so many servants unless I should be there as tem- porary guest and in that manner have ac- cess to the globe. ‘And to foist myself into the house I could only arrive at a most elaborate plan. I bought an old sloop for a song, gave her a coat of white paint so that she would look trim from a distance, and then sailed down the coast with Louis Kern. “We knew all about the waters in Hal- lyt’s Cove before we started, and of course we planned to break up the old boat on the rocks in the center of it. We could then swim ashore, and it would be strange if two shipwrecked strangers could not get shelter for the night in such a mansion as this. “It worked out smoothly. To-night I waited until a reasonable hour, made the attempt, followed the directions of Louis Kern, and got the jewels. But when I ex- amined them J missed one, a beautiful em- erald. Then, after a moment, 1 recalled having heard in the house of the emerald which the commodore had given to his fa- vorite, Miss Dascom. Comic yoo <SEIGO