The Ruby of Kishmoor

By

Howard Pyle

CONTENTS

Prologue

I. Jonathan Rugg

II. The Mysterious Lady with the Silver Veil

III. The Terrific Encounter with the One-eyed Little Gentleman in Black

IV. The Momentous Adventure with the Stranger with the Silver Ear-rings

V. The Unexpected Encounter with the Sea-captain with the Broken Nose

VI. The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil

Epilogue

Prologue

A very famous pirate of his day was Captain Robertson Keitt. 

Before embarking upon his later career of infamy, he was, in thebeginning, very well known as a reputable merchant in the island ofJamaica. Thence entering, first of all, upon the business of theAfrican trade, he presently, by regular degrees, became a pirate, andfinally ended his career as one of the most renowned freebooters ofhistory. 

The remarkable adventure through which he at once reached the pinnacleof success, and became in his profession the most famous figure of hisday, was the capture of the Rajah of Kishmoor's great ship, The Sun ofthe East. In this vessel was the Rajah's favorite Queen, who, togetherwith her attendants, were set upon a pilgrimage to Mecca. The court ofthis great Oriental potentate was, as may be readily supposed, fairlya-glitter with gold and jewels, so that, what with such personaladornments that the Queen and her attendants had fetched with them, besides an ample treasury for the expenses of the expedition, anincredible prize of gold and jewels rewarded the freebooters for theirsuccessful adventure. 

Among the precious stones taken in this great purchase was the splendidruby of Kishmoor. This, as may be known to the reader, was one of theworld's greatest gems, and was unique alike both for its prodigioussize and the splendor of its color. This precious jewel the Rajah ofKishmoor had, upon a certain occasion, bestowed upon his Queen, and atthe time of her capture she wore it as the centre-piece of a sort of acoronet which encircled her forehead and brow. 

The seizure by the pirate of so considerable a person as that of theQueen of Kishmoor, and of the enormous treasure that he found aboardher ship, would alone have been sufficient to have established hisfame. But the capture of so extraordinary a prize as that of theruby--which was, in itself, worth the value of an entire Orientalkingdom--exalted him at once to the very highest pinnacle of renown. 

Having achieved the capture of this incredible prize, our captainscuttled the great ship and left her to sink with all on board. ThreeLascars of the crew alone escaped to bear the news of this tremendousdisaster to an astounded world. 

As may readily be supposed, it was now no longer possible for CaptainKeitt to hope to live in such comparative obscurity as he had beforeenjoyed. His was now too remarkable a figure in the eyes of the world. Several expeditions from various parts were immediately fitted outagainst him, and it presently became no longer compatible with hissafety to remain thus clearly outlined before the eyes of the world. Accordingly, he immediately set about seeking such security as he mightnow hope to find, which he did the more readily since he had now, andat one cast, so entirely fulfilled his most sanguine expectations ofgood-fortune and of fame. 

Thereafter, accordingly, the adventures of our captain became of a moreapocryphal sort. It was known that he reached the West Indies insafety, for he was once seen at Port Royal and twice at Spanish Town, in the island of Jamaica. Thereafter, however, he disappeared; nor wasit until several years later that the world heard anything concerninghim. 

One day a certain Nicholas Duckworthy, who had once been gunner aboardthe pirate captain's own ship, The Good Fortune, was arrested in thetown of Bristol in the very act of attempting to sell to a merchant ofthat place several valuable gems from a quantity which he carried withhim tied up in a red bandanna handkerchief. 

In the confession of which Duckworthy afterward delivered himself hedeclared that Captain Keitt, after his great adventure, having sailedfrom Africa in safety, and so reached the shores of the New World, hadwrecked The Good Fortune on a coral reef off the Windward Islands; thathe then immediately deserted the ship, and together with Duckworthyhimself, the sailing-master (who was a Portuguese), the captain of abrig The Bloody Hand (a consort of Keitt's), and a villainous rascalnamed Hunt (who, occupying no precise position among the pirates, wasat once the instigator of and the partaker in the greatest part ofCaptain Keitt's wickednesses), made his way to the nearest port ofsafety. These five worthies at last fetched the island of Jamaica, bringing with them all of the jewels and some of the gold that had beencaptured from The Sun of the East. 

But, upon coming to a division of their booty, it was presentlydiscovered that the Rajah's ruby had mysteriously disappeared from thecollection of jewels to be divided. The other pirates immediatelysuspected their captain of having secretly purloined it, and, indeed, so certain were they of his turpitude that they immediately set abouttaking means to force a confession from him. 

In this, however, they were so far unsuccessful that the captain, refusing to yield to their importunities, had suffered himself to dieunder their hands, and had so carried the secret of the hiding-place ofthe great ruby--if he possessed such a secret--along with him. 

Duckworthy concluded his confession by declaring that in his opinion hehimself, the Portuguese sailing-master, the captain of The Bloody Hand, and Hunt were the only ones of Captain Keitt's crew who were now alive;for that The Good Fortune must have broken up in a storm, whichimmediately followed their desertion of her; in which event the entirecrew must inevitably have perished. 

It may be added that Duckworthy himself was shortly hanged, so that, ifhis surmise was true, there was now only three left alive of all thatwicked crew that had successfully carried to its completion thegreatest adventure which any pirate in the world had ever, perhaps, embarked upon. 

I. Jonathan Rugg

You may never know what romantic aspirations may lie hidden beneath themost sedate and sober demeanor. 

To have observed Jonathan Rugg, who was a tall, lean, loose-jointedyoung Quaker of a somewhat forbidding aspect, with straight, dark hairand a bony, overhanging forehead set into a frown, a pair of small, deep-set eyes, and a square jaw, no one would for a moment havesuspected that he concealed beneath so serious an exterior any appetitefor romantic adventure. 

Nevertheless, finding himself suddenly transported, as it were, fromthe quiet of so sober a town as that of Philadelphia to the tropicalenchantment of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, the night brilliantwith a full moon that swung in an opal sky, the warm and luminousdarkness replete with the mysteries of a tropical night, and burdenedwith the odors of a land breeze, he suddenly discovered himself to beovertaken with so vehement a desire for some unwonted excitement that, had the opportunity presented itself, he felt himself ready to embraceany adventure with the utmost eagerness, no matter whither it wouldhave conducted him. 

At home (where he was a clerk in the counting-house of a leadingmerchant, by name Jeremiah Doolittle), should such idle fancies havecome to him, he would have looked upon himself as little better than afool, but now that he found himself for the first time in a foreigncountry, surrounded by such strange and unusual sights and sounds, allconducive to extravagant imaginations, the wish for some extraordinaryand altogether unusual experience took possession of him with asingular vehemence to which he had heretofore been altogether astranger. 

In the street where he stood, which was of a shining whiteness andwhich reflected the effulgence of the moonlight with an incredibledistinction, he observed, stretching before him, long lines of whitegarden walls, overtopped by a prodigious luxuriance of tropical foliage. 

In these gardens, and set close to the street, stood severalpretentious villas and mansions, the slatted blinds and curtains of thewindows of which were raised to admit of the freer entrance of the cooland balmy air of the night. From within there issued forth brightlights, together with the exhilarating sound of merry voices laughingand talking, or perhaps a song accompanied by the tinkling music of aspinet or of a guitar. An occasional group of figures, clad in lightand summer-like garments, and adorned with gay and startling colors, passed him through the moonlight; so that what with the brightness andwarmth of the night, together with all these unusual sights and sounds, it appeared to Jonathan Rugg that he was rather the inhabitant of someextraordinary land of enchantment and unreality than a dweller uponthat sober and solid world in which he had heretofore passed his entireexistence. 

Before continuing this narrative the reader may here be informed thatour hero had come into this enchanted world as the supercargo of theship SUSANNA HAYES, of Philadelphia; that he had for several yearsproved himself so honest and industrious a servant to the merchanthouse of the worthy Jeremiah Doolittle that that benevolent man hadgiven to his well-deserving clerk this opportunity at once ofgratifying an inclination for foreign travel and of filling a positionof trust that should redound to his individual profit. The SUSANNAHAYES had entered Kingston Harbor that afternoon, and this wasJonathan's first night spent in those tropical latitudes, whither hisfancy and his imagination had so often carried him while he stood overthe desk filing the accounts of invoices from foreign parts. 

It might be finally added that, had he at all conceived how soon and towhat a degree his sudden inclination for adventure was to be gratified, his romantic aspirations might have been somewhat dashed at theprospect that lay before him. 

II. The Mysterious Lady with the Silver Veil

At that moment our hero suddenly became conscious of the fact that asmall wicket in a wooden gate near which he stood had been opened, andthat the eyes of an otherwise concealed countenance were observing himwith the utmost closeness of scrutiny. 

He had hardly time to become aware of this observation of his personwhen the gate itself was opened, and there appeared before him, in themoonlight, the bent and crooked figure of an aged negress. She wasclad in a calamanco raiment, and was further adorned with a variety ofgaudily colored trimmings, vastly suggestive of the tropical world ofwhich she was an inhabitant. Her woolly head was enveloped, after thefashion of her people, in the folds of a gigantic and flaming redturban constructed of an entire pocket-handkerchief. Her face waspock-pitted to an incredible degree, so that what with this deformity, emphasized by the pouting of her prodigious and shapeless lips, and therolling of a pair of eyes as yellow as saffron, Jonathan Rugg thoughtthat he had never beheld a figure at once so extraordinary and sorepulsive. 

It occurred to our hero that here, maybe, was to overtake him such anadventure as that which he had just a moment before been desiring soardently. Nor was he mistaken; for the negress, first looking this wayand then that, with an extremely wary and cunning expression, andapparently having satisfied herself that the street, for the moment, was pretty empty of passers, beckoned to him to draw nearer. When hehad approached close enough to her she caught him by the sleeve, and, instantly drawing him into the garden beyond, shut and bolted the gatewith a quickness and a silence suggestive of the most extravagantsecrecy. 

At the same moment a huge negro suddenly appeared from the shadow ofthe gatepost, and so placed himself between Jonathan and the gate thatany attempt to escape would inevitably have entailed a conflict, uponour hero's part, with the sable and giant guardian. 

Says the negress, looking very intently at our hero: "Be you afeard, Buckra?"

"Why, no, " quothed Jonathan; "for to tell thee the truth, friend, though I am a man of peace, being of that religious order known as theSociety of Friends, I am not so weak in person nor so timid indisposition as to warrant me in being afraid of any one. Indeed, were Iof a mind to escape, I might, without boasting, declare my belief thatI should be able to push my way past even a better man than thy largefriend who stands so threateningly in front of yonder gate. "

At these words the negress broke into so prodigious a grin that, in themoonlight, it appeared as though the whole lower part of her face hadbeen transformed into shining teeth. "You be a brave Buckra, " saysshe, in her gibbering English. "You come wid Melina, and Melina takeyou to pretty lady, who want you to eat supper wid her. "

Thereupon, and allowing our hero no opportunity to decline thisextraordinary invitation, even had he been of a mind to do so, she tookhim by the hand, and led him toward the large and imposing house whichcommanded the garden. "Indeed, " says Jonathan to himself, as hefollowed his sable guide--himself followed in turn by the giganticnegro--"indeed, I am like to have my fill of adventure, if anything isto be judged from such a beginning as this. "

Nor did the interior sumptuousness of the mansion at all belie theimposing character of its exterior, for, entering by way of anilluminated veranda, and so coming into a brilliantly lighted hallwaybeyond, Jonathan beheld himself to be surrounded by such a wealth ofexquisite and well-appointed tastefulness as it had never before beenhis good-fortune to behold. 

Candles of clarified wax sparkled like stars in chandeliers of crystal. These in turn, catching the illumination, glittered in prismaticfragments with all the varied colors of the rainbow, so that a mellowyet brilliant radiance filled the entire apartment. Polished mirrors ofa spotless clearness, framed in golden frames and built into the walls, reflected the waxed floors, the rich Oriental carpets, and thesumptuous paintings that hung against the ivory-tinted paneling, sothat in appearance the beauties of the apartment were continued inbewildering vistas upon every side toward which the beholder directedhis gaze. 

Bidding our hero to be seated, which he did with no small degree ofembarrassment and constraint, and upon the extreme edge of the gilt andsatin-covered chair, the negress who had been his conductor left himfor the time being to his own contemplation. 

Almost before he had an opportunity to compose himself into anythingmore than a part of his ordinary sedateness of demeanor, the silkencurtains at the doorway at the other end of the apartment were suddenlydivided, and Jonathan beheld before him a female figure displaying themost exquisite contour of mould and of proportion. She was cladentirely in white, and was enveloped from head to foot in the folds ofa veil of delicate silver gauze, which, though hiding her countenancefrom recognition, nevertheless permitted sufficient of her beauties tobe discerned to suggest the extreme elegance and loveliness of herlineaments. Advancing toward our hero, and extending to him a taperinghand as white as alabaster, the fingers encircled with a multitude ofjewelled rings, she addressed him thus:

"Sir, " she said, speaking in accents of the most silvery and musicalcadence, "you are no doubt vastly surprised to find yourself thusunexpectedly, and almost as by violence, introduced into the house ofone who is such an entire stranger to you as myself. But though I amunknown to you, I must inform you that I am better acquainted with myvisitor, for my agents have been observing you ever since you landedthis afternoon at the dock, and they have followed you ever since, until a little while ago, when you stopped immediately opposite mygarden gate. These agents have observed you with a closeness ofscrutiny of which you are doubtless entirely unaware. They have eveninformed me that, owing doubtless to your extreme interest in your newsurroundings, you have not as yet supped. Knowing this, and that youmust now be enjoying a very hearty appetite, I have to ask you if youwill do me the extreme favor of sitting at table with me at a repastwhich you will doubtless be surprised to learn has been hastilyprepared entirely in your honor. "

So saying, and giving Jonathan no time for reply, she offered him herhand, and with the most polite insistence conducted him into anexquisitely appointed dining room adjoining. 

Here stood a table covered with a snow-white cloth, and embellishedwith silver and crystal ornaments of every description. Having seatedherself and having indicated to Jonathan to take the chair opposite toher, the two were presently served with a repast such as our hero hadnot thought could have existed out of the pages of certainextraordinary Oriental tales which one time had fallen to his lot toread. 

This supper (which in itself might successfully have tempted the tasteof a Sybarite) was further enhanced by several wines and cordialswhich, filling the room with the aroma of the sunlit grapes from whichthey had been expressed, stimulated the appetite, which without themneeded no such spur. The lady, who ate but sparingly herself, possessed herself with patience until Jonathan's hunger had beenappeased. When, however, she beheld that he weakened in his attacksupon the dessert of sweets with which the banquet was concluded, sheaddressed him upon the business which was evidently entirely occupyingher mind. 

"Sir, " said she, "you are doubtless aware that every one, whether manor woman, is possessed of an enemy. In my own case I must inform youthat I have no less than three who, to compass their ends, would gladlysacrifice my life itself to their purposes. At no time am I safe fromtheir machinations, nor have I any one, " cried she, exhibiting a greatemotion, "to whom I may turn in my need. It was this that led me tohope to find in you a friend in my perils, for, having observed throughmy agents that you are not only honest in disposition and strong inperson, but that you are possessed of a considerable degree of energyand determination, I am most desirous of imposing upon your good-naturea trust of which you cannot for a moment suspect the magnitude. Tellme, are you willing to assist a poor, defenceless female in her hour oftrial?"

"Indeed, friend, " quoth Jonathan, with more vivacity than he usuallyexhibited, with a lenity to which he had heretofore in his lifetimebeen a stranger--being warmed into such a spirit, doubtless, by thegenerous wines of which he had partaken--"indeed, friend, if I couldbut see thy face it would doubtless make my decision in such a matterthe more favorable, since I am inclined to think from the little I canbehold of it, that thy appearance must be extremely comely to the eye. "

"Sir, " said the lady, exhibiting some amusement at this unexpectedsally, "I am, you must know, as God made me. Sometime, perhaps, I maybe very glad to satisfy your curiosity, and exhibit to you my poorcountenance such as it is. But now"--and here she reverted to her moreserious mood--"I must again put it to you: are you willing to help anunprotected woman in a period of very great danger to herself? Shouldyou decline the assistance which I solicit, my slaves shall conduct youto the gate through which you entered, and suffer you to depart inpeace. Should you, upon the other hand, accept the trust, you are toreceive no reward therefor, except the gratitude of one who thusappeals to you in her helplessness. "

For a few moments Jonathan fell silent, for here, indeed, was heentering into an adventure which infinitely surpassed any anticipationthat he could have formed. He was, besides, of a cautious nature, andwas entirely disinclined to embark into any affair so obscure andtangled as that in which he now found himself becoming involved. 

"Friend, " said he, at last, "I may tell thee that thy story has so farmoved me as to give me every inclination to help thee in thydifficulties, but I must also inform thee that I am a man of caution, having never before entered into any business of this sort. Therefore, before giving any promise that may bind my future actions, I must, incommon wisdom, demand to know what are the conditions that thou hast inmind to impose upon me. "

"Indeed, sir, " cried the lady, with great vivacity and with morecheerful accents--as though her mind had been relieved of a burden offear that her companion might at once have declined even aconsideration of her request--"indeed, sir, you will find that thetrust which I would impose upon you is in appearance no such greatmatter as my words may have led you to suppose. 

"You must know that I am possessed of a little trinket which, in thehands of any one who, like yourself, is a stranger in these parts, would possess no significance, but which while in my keeping is fraughtwith infinite menace to me. "

Hereupon, and having so spoken, she clapped her hands, and an attendantimmediately entered, disclosing the person of the same negress who hadfirst introduced Jonathan into the strange adventure in which he nowfound himself involved. This creature, who appeared still moredeformed and repulsive in the brilliantly lighted room than she had inthe moonlight, carried in her hands a white napkin, which she handed toher mistress. This being opened, disclosed a small ivory ball of aboutthe bigness of a lime. Nodding to the negress to withdraw, the ladyhanded him the ivory ball, and Jonathan took it with no small degree ofcuriosity and examined it carefully. It appeared to be of an exceedingantiquity, and of so deep a yellow as to be almost brown in color. Itwas covered over with strange figures and characters of an Orientalsort, which appeared to our hero to be of Chinese workmanship. 

"I must tell you, sir, " said the lady, after she had permitted herguest to examine this for a while in silence, "that though this appearsto you to be of little worth, it is yet of extreme value. After all, however, it is nothing but a curiosity that any one who is interestedin such matters might possess. What I have to ask you is this: Willyou be willing to take this into your charge, to guard it with theutmost care and fidelity--yes, even as the apple of your eye--duringyour continuance in these parts, and to return it to me in safety theday before your departure. By so doing you will render me a servicewhich you may neither understand nor comprehend, but which shall makeme your debtor for my entire life. "

By this time Jonathan had pretty well composed his mind for a reply. 

"Friend, " said he, "such a matter as this is entirely out of myknowledge of business, which is, indeed, that of a clerk in themercantile profession. Nevertheless, I have every inclination to helpthee, though I trust thou mayest have magnified the dangers that besetthee. This appears to me to be a little trifle for such an ado;nevertheless, I will do as thou dost request. I will keep it in safetyand will return it to thee upon this day a week hence, by which time Ihope to have discharged my cargo and be ready to continue my voyage toDemerara. "

At these words the lady, who had been watching him all the time with amost unaccountable eagerness, burst forth into words of such heart-feltgratitude as to entirely overwhelm our hero. When her transports hadbeen somewhat assuaged she permitted him to depart, and the negressconducted him back through the garden, whence she presently showed himthrough the gate whither he had entered and out into the street. 

III. The Terrific Encounter with the One-eyed Little Gentleman in Black

Finding himself once more in the open street, Jonathan Rugg stood for awhile in the moonlight, endeavoring to compose his mind into somewhatof that sobriety that was habitual with him; for, indeed, he was not alittle excited by the unexpected incidents that had just befallen him. From this effort at composure he was aroused by observing that a littlegentleman clad all in black had stopped at a little distance away andwas looking very intently at him. In the brightness of the moonlightour hero could see that the little gentleman possessed but a singleeye, and that he carried a gold-headed cane in his hand. He had hardlytime to observe these particulars, when the other approached him withevery appearance of politeness and cordiality. 

"Sir, " said he, "surely I am not mistaken in recognizing in you thesupercargo of the ship SUSANNA HAYES, which arrived this afternoon atthis port?"

"Indeed, " said Jonathan, "thou art right, friend. That is myoccupation, and that is whence I came. "

"To be sure!" said the little gentleman. "To be sure! To be sure!The SUSANNA HAYES, with a cargo of Indian-corn meal, and from dear goodfriend Jeremiah Doolittle, of Philadelphia. I know your good mastervery well--very well indeed. And have you never heard him speak of hisfriend Mr. Abner Greenway, of Kingston, Jamaica?"

"Why, no, " replied Jonathan, "I have no such recollection of the namenor do I know that any such name hath ever appeared upon our books. "

"To be sure! To be sure!" repeated the little gentleman, briskly, andwith exceeding good-nature. "Indeed, my name is not likely to haveever appeared upon his books, for I am not a business correspondent, but one who, in times past, was his extremely intimate friend. Thereis much I would like to ask about him, and, indeed, I was in hopes thatyou would have been the bearer of a letter from him. But I havelodgings at a little distance from here, so that if it is notrequesting too much of you maybe you will accompany me thither, so thatwe may talk at our leisure. I would gladly accompany you to your shipinstead of urging you to come to my apartments, but I must tell you Iam possessed of a devil of a fever, so that my physician hath forbiddenme to be out of nights. "

"Indeed, " said Jonathan, whom, you may have observed, was of a veryeasy disposition--"indeed, I shall be very glad to accompany thee tothy lodgings. There is nothing I would like better than to serve anyfriend of good Jeremiah Doolittle's. "

And thereupon, and with great amity, the two walked off together, thelittle one-eyed gentleman in black linking his arm confidingly intothat of Jonathan's, and tapping the pavement continually with his caneas he trotted on at a great pace. He was very well acquainted with thetown (of which he was a citizen), and so interesting was his discoursethat they had gone a considerable distance before Jonathan observedthey were entering into a quarter darker and less frequented than thatwhich they had quitted. Tall brick houses stood upon either side, between which stretched a narrow, crooked roadway, with a kennelrunning down the centre. 

In front of one of these houses--a tall and gloomy structure--ourhero's conductor stopped and, opening the door with a key, beckoned forhim to enter. Jonathan having complied, his new-found friend led theway up a flight of steps, against which Jonathan's feet beat noisily inthe darkness, and at length, having ascended two stairways and havingreached a landing, he opened a door at the end of the passage andushered Jonathan into an apartment, unlighted, except for theMoonshine, which, coming in through a partly open shutter, lay in abrilliant patch of light upon the floor. 

His conductor having struck a light with a flint and steel, our hero bythe illumination of a single candle presently discovered himself to bein a bedchamber furnished with no small degree of comfort, and evenelegance, and having every appearance of a bachelor's chamber. 

"You will pardon me, " said his new acquaintance, "if I shut theseshutters and the window, for that devilish fever of which I spoke is ofsuch a sort that I must keep the night air even out from my room, orelse I shall be shaking the bones out of my joints and chattering theteeth out of my head by to-morrow morning. "

So saying he was as good as his word, and not only drew the shuttersto, but shot the heavy iron bolt into its place. Having accomplishedthis he bade our hero to be seated, and placing before him someexceedingly superior rum, together with some equally excellent tobacco, they presently fell into the friendliest discourse imaginable. In thecourse of their talk, which after awhile became exceedinglyconfidential, Jonathan confided to his new friend the circumstances ofthe adventure into which he had been led by the beautiful stranger, andto all that he said concerning his adventure his interlocutor listenedwith the closest and most scrupulously riveted attention. 

"Upon my word, " said he, when Jonathan had concluded, "I hope that youmay not have been made the victim of some foolish hoax. Let me see whatit is she has confided to you. "

"That I will, " replied Jonathan. And thereupon he thrust his hand intohis breeches-pocket and brought forth the ivory ball. 

No sooner did the one eye of the little gentleman in black light uponthe object than a most singular and extraordinary convulsion appearedto seize upon him. Had a bullet penetrated his heart he could not havestarted more violently, nor have sat more rigidly and breathlesslystaring. 

Mastering his emotion with the utmost difficulty as Jonathan replacedthe ball in his pocket, he drew a deep and profound breath and wipedthe palm of his hand across his forehead as though arousing himselffrom a dream. 

"And you, " he said, of a sudden, "are, I understand it, a Quaker. Doyou, then, never carry a weapon, even in such a place as this, where atany moment in the dark a Spanish knife may be stuck betwixt your ribs?"

"Why, no, " said Jonathan, somewhat surprised that so foreign a topicshould have been so suddenly introduced into the discourse. "I am a manof peace and not of blood. The people of the Society of Friends nevercarry weapons, either of offence or defence. "

As Jonathan concluded his reply the little gentleman suddenly arosefrom his chair and moved briskly around to the other side of the room. Our hero, watching him with some surprise, beheld him clap to the doorand with a single movement shoot the bolt and turn the key therein. The next instant he turned to Jonathan a visage transformed as suddenlyas though he had dropped a mask from his face. The gossiping andpolite little old bachelor was there no longer, but in his stead a manwith a countenance convulsed with some furious and nameless passion. 

"That ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and raucous voice. "That ivoryball! Give it to me upon the instant!"

As he spoke he whipped out from his bosom a long, keen Spanish knifethat in its every appearance spoke without equivocation of the mostmurderous possibilities. 

The malignant passions that distorted every lineament of thecountenance of the little old gentleman in black filled our hero withsuch astonishment that he knew not whether he were asleep or awake; butwhen he beheld the other advancing with the naked and shining knife inhis hand his reason returned to him like a flash. Leaping to his feet, he lost no time in putting the table between himself and his suddenenemy. 

"Indeed, friend, " he cried, in a voice penetrated with terror--"indeed, friend, thou hadst best keep thy distance from me, for though I am aman of peace and a shunner of bloodshed, I promise thee that I will notstand still to be murdered without outcry or without endeavoring todefend my life!"

"Cry as loud as you please!" exclaimed the other. "No one is near thisplace to hear you! Cry until you are hoarse; no one in thisneighborhood will stop to ask what is the matter with you. I tell youI am determined to possess myself of that ivory ball, and have it Ishall, even though I am obliged to cut out your heart to get it!" Ashe spoke he grinned with so extraordinary and devilish a distortion ofhis countenance, and with such an appearance of every intention ofcarrying out his threat as to send the goose-flesh creeping like icyfingers up and down our hero's spine with the most incredible rapidityand acuteness. 

Nevertheless, mastering his fears, Jonathan contrived to speak up witha pretty good appearance of spirit. "Indeed, friend, " he said, "thouappearest to forget that I am a man of twice thy bulk and half thyyears, and that though thou hast a knife I am determined to defendmyself to the last extremity. I am not going to give thee that whichthou demandest of me, and for thy sake I advise thee to open the doorand let me go free as I entered, or else harm may befall thee. "

"Fool!" cried the other, hardly giving him time to end. "Do you, then, think that I have time to chatter with you while two villains are lyingin wait for me, perhaps at the very door? Blame your own self for yourdeath!" And, gnashing his teeth with an indescribable menace, andresting his hand upon the table, he vaulted with incredible agilityclean across it and upon our hero, who, entirely unprepared for such anextraordinary attack, was flung back against the wall, with an arm asstrong as steel clutching his throat and a knife flashing in his veryeyes with dreadful portent of instant death. 

With an instinct to preserve his life, he caught his assailant by thewrist, and, bending it away from himself, set every fibre of his bodyin a superhuman effort to guard and protect himself. The other, thoughso much older and smaller, seemed to be composed entirely of fibres ofsteel, and, in his murderous endeavors, put forth a strength soextraordinary that for a moment our hero felt his heart melt within himwith terror for his life. The spittal appeared to dry up within hismouth, and his hair to creep and rise upon his head. With a vehementcry of despair and anguish, he put forth one stupendous effort fordefence, and, clapping his heel behind the other's leg, and throwinghis whole weight forward, he fairly tripped his antagonist backward ashe stood. Together they fell upon the floor, locked in the mostdesperate embrace, and overturning a chair with a prodigious clatter intheir descent--our hero upon the top and the little gentleman in blackbeneath him. 

As they struck the floor the little man in black emitted a mostpiercing and terrible scream, and instantly relaxing his efforts ofattack, fell to beating the floor with the back of his hands anddrubbing with his heels upon the rug in which he had become entangled. 

Our hero leaped to his feet, and with dilating eyes and expanding brainand swimming sight stared down upon the other like one turned to astone. 

He beheld instantly what had occurred, and that he had, without sointending, killed a fellow-man. The knife, turned away from his ownperson, had in their fall been plunged into the bosom of the other, andhe now lay quivering in the last throes of death. As Jonathan gazed hebeheld a thin red stream trickle out from the parted and grinning lips;he beheld the eyes turn inward; he beheld the eyelids contract; hebeheld the figure stretch itself; he beheld it become still in death. 

IV. The Momentous Adventure with the Stranger with the Silver Ear-rings

So our hero stood stunned and bedazed, gazing down upon his victim, like a man turned into a stone. His brain appeared to him to expandlike a bubble, the blood surged and bummed in his ears with everygigantic beat of his heart, his vision swam, and his trembling handswere bedewed with a cold and repugnant sweat. The dead figure upon thefloor at his feet gazed at him with a wide, glassy stare, and in theconfusion of his mind it appeared to Jonathan that he was, indeed, amurderer. 

What monstrous thing was this that had befallen him who, but a momentbefore, had been so entirely innocent of the guilt of blood? What washe now to do in such an extremity as this, with his victim lying deadat his feet, a poniard in his heart? Who would believe him to beguiltless of crime with such a dreadful evidence as this presentedagainst him? How was he, a stranger in a foreign land, to totallydefend himself against an accusing of mistaken justice? At thesethoughts a developed terror gripped at his vitals and a sweat as coldas ice bedewed his entire body. No, he must tarry for no explanation ordefense! He must immediately fly from this terrible place, or else, should he be discovered, his doom would certainly be sealed!

At that moment, and in the very extremity of his apprehensions, therefell of a sudden a knock upon the door, sounding so loud and sostartling upon the silence of the room that every shattered nerve inour hero's frame tingled and thrilled in answer to it. He stoodpetrified, scarcely so much as daring to breathe; and then, observingthat his mouth was agape, he moistened his dry and parching lips, anddrew his jaws together with a snap. 

Again there fell the same loud, insistent knock upon the panel, followed by the imperative words: "Open within!"

The wretched Jonathan flung about him a glance at once of terror and ofdespair, but there was for him no possible escape. He was shut tightin the room with his dead victim, like a rat in a trap. Nothingremained for him but to obey the summons from without. Indeed, in thevery extremity of his distraction, he possessed reason enough toperceive that the longer he delayed opening the door the less innocenthe might hope to appear in the eyes of whoever stood without. 

With the uncertain and spasmodic movements of an ill-constructedautomaton, he crossed the room, and stepping very carefully over theprostrate body upon the floor, and with a hesitating reluctance that hecould in no degree master, he unlocked, unbolted, and opened the door. 

The figure that outlined itself in the light of the candle, against theblackness of the passageway without was of such a singular and foreignaspect as to fit extremely well into the extraordinary tragedy of whichJonathan was at once the victim and the cause. 

It was that of a lean, tall man with a thin, yellow countenance, embellished with a long, black mustache, and having a pair offorbidding, deeply set, and extremely restless black eyes. A crimsonhandkerchief beneath a lace cocked hat was tied tightly around thehead, and a pair of silver earrings, which caught the light of thecandle, gleamed and twinkled against the inky darkness of thepassageway beyond. 

This extraordinary being, without favoring our hero with any word ofapology for his intrusion, immediately thrust himself forward into theroom, and stretching his long, lean, bird-like neck so as to direct hisgaze over the intervening table, fixed a gaping and concentrated stareupon the figure lying still and motionless in the centre of the room. 

"Vat you do dare, " said he, with a guttural and foreign accent, andthereupon, without waiting for a reply, came forward and knelt downbeside the dead man. After thrusting his hand into the silent andshrunken bosom, he presently looked up and fixed his penetrating eyesupon our hero's countenance, who, benumbed and bedazed with hisdespair, still stood like one enchained in the bonds of a nightmare. "He vas dead!" said the stranger, and Jonathan nodded his head in reply. 

"Vy you keel ze man?" inquired his interlocutor. 

"Indeed, " cried Jonathan, finding a voice at last, but one so hoarsethat he could hardly recognize it for his own, "I know not what to makeof the affair! But, indeed, I do assure thee, friend, that I amentirely innocent of what thou seest. "

The stranger still kept his piercing gaze fixed upon our hero'scountenance, and Jonathan, feeling that something further was demandedof him, continued: "I am, indeed, a victim of a most extravagant andextraordinary adventure. This evening, coming an entire stranger tothis country, I was introduced into the house of a beautiful female, who bestowed upon me a charge that appeared to me to be at onceinsignificant and absurd. Behold this little ivory ball, " said he, drawing the globe from his pocket, and displaying it between his thumband finger. "It is this that appears to have brought all this disasterupon me; for, coming from the house of the young woman, the man whomthou now beholdest lying dead upon the floor induced me to come to thisplace. Having inveigled me hither, he demanded of me to give him atonce this insignificant trifle. Upon my refusing to do so, heassaulted me with every appearance of a mad and furious inclination todeprive me of my life!"

At the sight of the ivory ball the stranger quickly arose from hiskneeling posture and fixed upon our hero a gaze the most extraordinarythat he had ever encountered. His eyes dilated like those of a cat, the breath expelled itself from his bosom in so deep and profound anexpiration that it appeared as though it might never return again. Norwas it until Jonathan had replaced the ball in his pocket that heappeared to awaken from the trance that the sight of the object hadsent him into. But no sooner had the cause of this strange demeanordisappeared into our hero's breeches-pocket than he arose as with anelectric shock. In an instant he became transformed as by the touch ofmagic. A sudden and baleful light flamed into his eyes, his face grewas red as blood, and he clapped his hand to his pocket with a suddenand violent motion. "Ze ball!" he cried, in a hoarse and stridentvoice. "Ze ball! Give me ze ball!" And upon the next instant ourhero beheld the round and shining nozzle of a pistol pointed directlyagainst his forehead. 

For a moment he stood as though transfixed; then in the mortal perilthat faced him, he uttered a roar that sounded in his own ears like theoutcry of a wild beast, and thereupon flung himself bodily upon theother with the violence and the fury of a madman. 

The stranger drew the trigger, and the powder flashed in the pan. Hedropped the weapon, clattering, and in an instant tried to draw anotherfrom his other pocket. Before he could direct his aim, however, ourhero had caught him by both wrists, and, bending his hand backward, prevented the chance of any shot from taking immediate effect upon hisperson. Then followed a struggle of extraordinary ferocity andfrenzy--the stranger endeavoring to free his hand, and Jonathanstriving with all the energy of despair to prevent him from effectinghis murderous purpose. 

In the struggle our hero became thrust against the edge of the table. He felt as though his back were breaking, and became conscious that insuch a situation he could hope to defend himself only a few momentslonger. The stranger's face was pressed close to his own. His hotbreath, strong with the odor of garlic, fanned our hero's cheek, whilehis lips, distended into a ferocious and ferine grin, displayed hissharp teeth shining in the candlelight. 

"Give me ze ball!" he said, in a harsh and furious whisper. 

At the moment there rang in Jonathan's ears the sudden and astoundingdetonation of a pistol-shot, and for a moment he wondered whether hehad received a mortal wound without being aware of it. Then suddenlyhe beheld an extraordinary and dreadful transformation take place inthe countenance thrust so close to his own; the eyes winked severaltimes with incredible rapidity, and then rolled upward and inward; thejaws gaped into a dreadful and cavernous yawn; the pistol fell with aclatter to the floor, and the next moment the muscles, so rigid but aninstant before, relaxed into a limp and listless flaccidity. Thejoints collapsed, and the entire man fell into an indistinguishableheap upon and across the dead figure stretched out upon the floor, while at the same time a pungent and blinding cloud of gunpowder smokefilled the apartment. For a few moments the hands twitchedconvulsively; the neck stretched itself to an abominable length; thelong, lean legs slowly and gradually relaxed, and every fibre of thebody gradually collapsed into the lassitude of death. A spot of bloodappeared and grew upon the collar at the throat, and in the same degreethe color ebbed from the face leaving it of a dull and leaden pallor. 

All these terrible and formidable changes of aspect our hero stoodwatching with a motionless and riveted attention, and as though theywere to him matters of the utmost consequence and importance; and onlywhen the last flicker of life had departed from his second victim didhe lift his gaze from this terrible scene of dissolution to stare abouthim, this way and that, his eyes blinded, and his breath stifled by thethick cloud of sulphurous smoke that obscured the objects about him ina pungent cloud. 

V. The Unexpected Encounter with the Sea-captain with the Broken Nose

If our hero had been distracted and bedazed by the first catastrophethat had befallen, this second and even more dreadful and violentoccurrence appeared to take away from him, for the moment, every powerof thought and of sensation. All that perturbation of emotion that hadbefore convulsed him he discovered to have disappeared, and in itsstead a benumbed and blinded intelligence alone remained to him. As hestood in the presence of this second death, of which he had been asinnocent and as unwilling an instrument as he had of the first, hecould observe no signs either of remorse or of horror within him. Hepicked up his hat, which had fallen upon the floor in the firstencounter, and, brushing away the dust with the cuff of his coat sleevewith extraordinary care, adjusted the beaver upon his head with theutmost nicety. Then turning, still stupefied as with the fumes of somepowerful drug, he prepared to quit the scene of tragic terrors that hadthus unexpectedly accumulated upon him. 

But ere he could put his design into execution his ears were startledby the sound of loud and hurried footsteps which, coming from below, ascended the stairs with a prodigious clatter and bustle of speed. Atthe landing these footsteps paused for a while, and then approached, more cautious and deliberate, toward the room where the double tragedyhad been enacted, and where our hero yet stood silent and inert. 

All this while Jonathan made no endeavor to escape, but stood passiveand submissive to what might occur. He felt himself the victim ofcircumstances over which he himself had no control. Gazing at thepartly opened door, he awaited for whatever adventure might next befallhim. Once again the footsteps paused, this time at the very threshold, and then the door was slowly pushed open from without. 

As our hero gazed at the aperture there presently became disclosed tohis view the strong and robust figure of one who was evidently of aseafaring habit. From the gold braid upon his hat, the seals danglingfrom the ribbon at his fob, and a certain particularity of custom, hewas evidently one of no small consideration in his profession. He wasof a strong and powerful build, with a head set close to his shoulders, and upon a round, short bull neck. He wore a black cravat, looselytied into a knot, and a red waistcoat elaborately trimmed with goldbraid; a leather belt with a brass buckle and hanger, and hugesea-boots completed a costume singularly suggestive of his occupationin life. His face was round and broad, like that of a cat, and acomplexion stained, by constant exposure to the sun and wind, to acolor of newly polished mahogany. But a countenance which otherwisemight have been humorous, in this case was rendered singularlyrepulsive by the fact that his nose had been broken so flat to his facethat all that remained to distinguish that feature were two circularorifices where the nostrils should have been. His eyes were by nomeans so sinister as the rest of his visage, being of a light-graycolor and exceedingly vivacious--even good-natured in the merryrestlessness of their glance--albeit they were well-nigh hidden beneatha black bush of overhanging eyebrows. When he spoke, his voice was sodeep and resonant that it was as though it issued from a barrel ratherthan from the breast of a human being. 

"How now, my hearty!" cried he, in stentorian tones, so loud that theyseemed to stun the tensely drawn drums of our hero's ears. "How now, myhearty! What's to-do here? Who is shooting pistols at this hour ofthe night?" Then, catching sight of the figures lying in a huddle uponthe floor, his great, thick lips parted into a gape of wonder and hisgray eyes rolled in his head like two balls, so that what with his flatface and the round holes of his nostrils he presented an appearancewhich, under other circumstances, would have been at once ludicrous andgrotesque. 

"By the blood!" cried he, "to be sure it is murder that has happenedhere. "

"Not murder!" cried Jonathan, in a shrill and panting voice. "Notmurder! It was all an accident, and I am as innocent as a baby. "

The new-comer looked at him and then at the two figures upon the floor, and then back at him again with eyes at once quizzical and cunning. Then his face broke into a grin that might hardly be called ofdrollery. "Accident!" quoth he. "By the blood! d'ye see 'tis astrange accident, indeed, that lays two men by the heels and lets thethird go without a scratch!" Delivering himself thus, he came forwardinto the room, and, taking the last victim of Jonathan's adventure bythe arm, with as little compunction as he would have handled a sack ofgrain he dragged the limp and helpless figure from where it lay to thefloor beside the first victim. Then, lifting the lighted candle, hebent over the two prostrate bodies, holding the illumination close tothe lineaments first of one and then of the other. He looked at themvery carefully for a long while, with the closest and most intentscrutiny, and in perfect silence. "They are both as dead, " says he, "as Davy Jones, and, whoever you be, I protest that you have done yourbusiness the most completest that I ever saw in all of my life. "

"Indeed, " cried Jonathan, in the same shrill and panting voice, "it wasthemselves who did it. First one of them attacked me and then theother, and I did but try to keep them from murdering me. This one fellon his knife, and that one shot himself in his efforts to destroy me. "

"That, " says the seaman, "you may very well tell to a dry-lander, andmaybe he will believe you; but you cannot so easily pull the wool overthe eyes of Captain Benny Willitts. And what, if I may be so bold asfor to ask you, was the reason for their attacking so harmless a man asyou proclaim yourself to be?"

"That I know not, " cried Jonathan; "but I am entirely willing to tellthee all the circumstances. Thou must know that I am a member of theSociety of Friends. This day I landed here in Kingston, and met ayoung woman of very comely appearance, who intrusted me with thislittle ivory ball, which she requested me to keep for her a few days. The sight of this ball--in which I can detect nothing that could belikely to arouse any feelings of violence--appears to have driven thesetwo men entirely mad, so that they instantly made the most ferociousand murderous assault upon me. See! wouldst thou have believed that sosmall a thing as this would have caused so much trouble?" And as hespoke he held up to the gaze of the other the cause of the doubletragedy that had befallen. But no sooner had Captain Willitts's eyeslighted upon the ball than the most singular change passed over hiscountenance. The color appeared to grow dull and yellow in his ruddycheeks, his fat lips dropped apart, and his eyes stared with a fixedand glassy glare. He arose to his feet and, still with the expressionof astonishment and wonder upon his face, gazed first at our hero andthen at the ivory ball in his hands, as though he were deprived both ofreason and of speech. At last, as our hero slipped the trifle back inhis pocket again, the mariner slowly recovered himself, though with aprodigious effort, and drew a deep and profound breath as to the verybottom of his lungs. He wiped, with the corner of his black silkcravat, his brow, upon which the sweat appeared to have gathered. "Well, messmate, " says he, at last, with a sudden change of voice, "youhave, indeed, had a most wonderful adventure. " Then with another deepbreath: "Well, by the blood! I may tell you plainly that I am no poorhand at the reading of faces. Well, I think you to be honest, and I aminclined to believe every word you tell me. By the blood! I amprodigiously sorry for you, and am inclined to help you out of yourscrape. 

"The first thing to do, " he continued, "is to get rid of these two deadmen, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no trouble inhandling. One of them we will wrap up in the carpet here, and t'otherwe can roll into yonder bed-curtain. You shall carry the one and I theother, and, the harbor being at no great distance, we can easily bringthem thither and tumble them overboard, and no one will be the wiser ofwhat has happened. For your own safety, as you may easily see, you canhardly go away and leave these objects here to be found by thefirst-comer, and to arise up in evidence against you. "

This reasoning, in our hero's present bewildered state, appeared to himto be so extremely just that he raised not the least objection to it. Accordingly, each of the two silent, voiceless victims of the evening'soccurrences were wrapped into a bundle that from without appeared to beneither portentous nor terrible in appearance. 

Thereupon, Jonathan shouldering the rug containing the little gentlemanin black, and the sea-captain doing the like for the other, theypresently made their way down the stairs through the darkness, and soout into the street. Here the sea-captain became the conductor of theexpedition, and leading the way down several alleys and along certainby-streets--now and then stopping to rest, for the burdens were bothheavy and clumsy to carry--they both came out at last to the harborfront, without any one having questioned them or having appeared tosuspect them of anything wrong. At the water-side was an open wharfextending a pretty good distance out into the harbor. Thither thecaptain led the way and Jonathan followed. So they made their way outalong the wharf or pier, stumbling now and then over loose boards, until they came at last to where the water was of a sufficient depthfor their purpose. Here the captain, bending his shoulders, shot hisburden out into the dark, mysterious waters, and Jonathan, followinghis example, did the same. Each body sank with a sullen and leadensplash into the element where, the casings which swathed them becomingloosened, the rug and the curtain rose to the surface and driftedslowly away with the tide. 

As Jonathan stood gazing dully at the disappearance of these lastevidences of his two inadvertent murders, he was suddenly andvehemently aroused by feeling a pair of arms of enormous strength flungabout him from behind. In their embrace his elbows were instantlypinned tight to his side, and he stood for a moment helpless andastounded, while the voice of the sea-captain, rumbling in his veryear, exclaimed: "Ye bloody, murthering Quaker, I'll have that ivoryball, or I'll have your life!"

These words produced the same effect upon Jonathan as though a doucheof cold water had suddenly been flung over him. He began instantly tostruggle to free himself, and that with a frantic and vehement violencebegotten at once of terror and despair. So prodigious were his effortsthat more than once he had nearly torn himself free, but still thepowerful arms of his captor held him as in a vise of iron. Meantime, our hero's assailant made frequent though ineffectual attempts tothrust a hand into the breeches-pocket where the ivory ball was hidden, swearing the while under his breath with a terrifying and monstrousstring of oaths. At last, finding himself foiled in every suchattempt, and losing all patience at the struggles of his victim, heendeavored to lift Jonathan off of his feet, as though to dash himbodily upon the ground. In this he would doubtless have succeeded hadhe not caught his heel in the crack of a loose board of the wharf. Instantly they both fell, violently prostrate, the captain beneath andJonathan above him, though still encircled in his iron embrace. Ourhero felt the back of his head strike violently upon the flat face ofthe other, and he heard the captain's skull sound with a terrific cracklike that of a breaking egg upon some post or billet of wood, againstwhich he must have struck. In their frantic struggles they hadapproached extremely near the edge of the wharf, so that the nextinstant, with an enormous and thunderous splash, Jonathan found himselfplunged into the waters of the harbor, and the arms of his assailantloosened from about his body. 

The shock of the water brought him instantly to his senses, and, beinga fairly good swimmer, he had not the least difficulty in reaching andclutching the cross-piece of a wooden ladder that, coated with slimysea-moss, led from the water-level to the wharf above. 

After reaching the safety of the dry land once more, Jonathan gazedabout him as though to discern whence the next attack might bedelivered upon him. But he stood entirely alone upon the dock--notanother living soul was in sight. The surface of the water exhibitedsome commotion, as though disturbed by something struggling beneath;but the sea-captain, who had doubtless been stunned by the tremendouscrack upon his head, never arose again out of the element that hadengulfed him. 

The moonlight shone with a peaceful and resplendent illumination, and, excepting certain remote noises from the distant town not a sound brokethe silence and the peacefulness of the balmy, tropical night. Thelimpid water, illuminated by the resplendent moonlight, lapped againstthe wharf. All the world was calm, serene, and enveloped in a profoundand entire repose. 

Jonathan looked up at the round and brilliant globe of light floatingin the sky above his head, and wondered whether it were, indeed, possible that all that had befallen him was a reality and not sometremendous hallucination. Then suddenly arousing himself to a renewedrealization of that which had occurred, he turned and ran like onepossessed, up along the wharf, and so into the moonlit town once more. 

VI. The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil

Nor did he check his precipitous flight until suddenly, being ledperhaps by some strange influence of which he was not at all themaster, he discovered himself to be standing before the garden-gatewhere not more than an hour before he had first entered upon the seriesof monstrous adventures that had led to such tremendous conclusions. 

People were still passing and repassing, and one of these groups--aparty of young ladies and gentlemen--paused upon the opposite side ofthe street to observe, with no small curiosity and amusement, hisdripping and bedraggled aspect. But only one thought and one intentionpossessed our hero--to relieve himself as quickly as possible of thattrust which he had taken up so thoughtlessly, and with such monstrousresults to himself and to his victims. He ran to the gate of thegarden and began beating and kicking upon it with a vehemence that hecould neither master nor control. He was aware that the entireneighborhood was becoming aroused, for he beheld lights moving and loudvoices of inquiry; yet he gave not the least thought to the disturbancehe was creating, but continued without intermission his uproariouspounding upon the gate. 

At length, in answer to the sound of his vehement blows, the littlewicket was opened and a pair of eyes appeared thereat. The nextinstant the gate was cast ajar very hastily, and the pock-pittednegress appeared. She caught him by the sleeve of his coat and drewhim quickly into the garden. "Buckra, Buckra!" she cried. "What youdoing? You wake de whole town!" Then, observing his drippinggarments: "You been in de water. You catch de fever and shake till youdie. "

"Thy mistress!" cried Jonathan, almost sobbing in the excess of hisemotion; "take me to her upon the instant, or I cannot answer for mynot going entirely mad!"

When our hero was again introduced to the lady, he found her clad in aloose and an elegant negligee, infinitely becoming to her gracefulfigure, and still covered with the veil of silver gauze that had beforeenveloped her. 

"Friend, " he cried, vehemently, approaching her and holding out towardher the little ivory ball, "take again this which thou gavest me! Ithas brought death to three men, and I know not what terrible fate maybefall me if I keep it longer in my possession. 

"What is it you say?" cried she, in a piercing voice. "Did you say ithath caused the death of three men? Quick! Tell me what has happened, for I feel somehow a presage that you bring me news of safety andrelease from all my dangers. "

"I know not what thou meanest!" cried Jonathan, still panting withagitation. "But this I do know: that when I went away from thee Ideparted an innocent man, and now I come back to thee burdened with theweight of three lives, which, though innocent I have been instrumentalin taking. "

"Explain!" exclaimed the lady, tapping the floor with her foot. "Explain! explain! explain!"

"That I will, " cried Jonathan, "and as soon as I am able! When I leftthee and went out into the street I was accosted by a little gentlemanclad in black. "

"Indeed!" cried the lady; "and had he but one eye, and did he carry agold-headed cane?"

"Exactly, " said Jonathan; "and he claimed acquaintance with friendJeremiah Doolittle. "

"He never knew him!" cried the lady, vehemently; "and I must tell youthat he was a villain named Hunt, who at one time was the intimateconsort of the pirate Keitt. He it was who plunged a deadly knife intohis captain's bosom, and so murdered him in this very house. Hehimself or his agents, must have been watching my gate when you wentforth. "

"I know not how that may be, " said Jonathan, "but he took me to hisapartment, and there, obtaining a knowledge of the trust thou didstburden me with, he demanded it of me, and upon my refusing to deliverit to him he presently fell to attacking me with a dagger. In myefforts to protect my life I inadvertently caused him to plunge theknife into his own bosom and to kill himself. "

"And what then?" cried the lady, who appeared well-nigh distractedwith her emotions. 

"Then, " said Jonathan, "there came a strange man--a foreigner--who uponhis part assaulted me with a pistol, with every intention of murderingme and thus obtaining possession of that same little trifle. "

"And did he, " exclaimed the lady, "have long, black mustachios, and didhe have silver ear-rings in his ears?"

"Yes, " said Jonathan, "he did. "

"That, " cried the lady, "could have been none other than CaptainKeitt's Portuguese sailing-master, who must have been spying upon Hunt!Tell me what happened next!"

"He would have taken my life, " said Jonathan, "but in the struggle thatfollowed he shot himself accidentally with his own pistol, and died atmy very feet. I do not know what would have happened to me if asea-captain had not come and proffered his assistance. "

"A sea-captain!" she exclaimed; "and had he a flat face and a brokennose?"

"Indeed he had, " replied Jonathan. 

"That, " said the lady, "must have been Captain Keitt's piratepartner--Captain Willitts, of The Bloody Hand. He was doubtless spyingupon the Portuguese. "

"He induced me, " said Jonathan, "to carry the two bodies down to thewharf. Having inveigled me there--where, I suppose, he thought no onecould interfere--he assaulted me, and endeavored to take the ivory ballaway from me. In my efforts to escape we both fell into the water, andhe, striking his head upon the edge of the wharf, was first stunned andthen drowned. "

"Thank God!" cried the lady, with a transport of fervor, and claspingher jewelled hands together. "At last I am free of those who haveheretofore persecuted me and threatened my very life itself! You haveasked to behold my face; I will now show it to you! Heretofore I havebeen obliged to keep it concealed lest, recognizing me, my enemiesshould have slain me. " As she spoke she drew aside her veil, anddisclosed to the vision of our hero a countenance of the mostextraordinary and striking beauty. Her luminous eyes were like thoseof a Jawa, and set beneath exquisitely arched and pencilled brows. Herforehead was like lustrous ivory and her lips like rose-leaves. Herhair, which was as soft as the finest silk, was fastened up in massesof ravishing abundance. "I am, " said she, "the daughter of thatunfortunate Captain Keitt, who, though weak and a pirate, was not sowicked, I would have you know, as he has been painted. He would, doubtless, have been an honest man had he not been led astray by thevillain Hunt, who so nearly compassed your own destruction. Hereturned to this island before his death, and made me the sole heir ofall that great fortune which he had gathered--perhaps not by the mosthonest means--in the waters of the Indian Ocean. But the greatesttreasure of all that fortune bequeathed to me was a single jewel whichyou yourself have just now defended with a courage and a fidelity thatI cannot sufficiently extol. It is that priceless gem known as theRuby of Kishmoor. I will show it to you. " Hereupon she took thelittle ivory ball in her hand, and, with a turn of her beautifulwrists, unscrewed a lid so nicely and cunningly adjusted that no eyecould have detected where it was joined to the parent globe. Within wasa fleece of raw silk containing an object which she presently displayedbefore the astonished gaze of our hero. It was a red stone of aboutthe bigness of a plover's egg, and which glowed and flamed with such anexquisite and ruddy brilliancy as to dazzle even Jonathan'sinexperienced eyes. Indeed, he did not need to be informed of thepriceless value of the treasure, which he beheld in the rosy palmextended toward him. How long he gazed at this extraordinary jewel heknew not, but he was aroused from his contemplation by the sound of thelady's voice addressing him. "The three villains, " said she, "who havethis day met their deserts in a violent and bloody death, had by anaccident obtained knowledge that this jewel was in my possession. Since then my life has hung upon a thread, and every step that I havetaken has been watched by these enemies, the most cruel and relentlessthat it was ever the lot of any unfortunate to possess. From themortal dangers of their machinations you have saved me, exhibiting acourage and a determination that cannot be sufficiently applauded. Inthis you have earned my deepest admiration and regard. I wouldrather, " she cried, "intrust my life and my happiness to you than intothe keeping of any man whom I have ever known! I cannot hope to rewardyou in such a way as to recompense you for the perils into which mynecessities have thrust you; but yet"--and here she hesitated, asthough seeking for words in which to express herself--"but yet if youare willing to accept of this jewel, and all of the fortune thatbelongs to me, together with the person of poor Evaline Keitt herself, not only the stone and the wealth, but the woman also, are yours todispose of as you see fit!"

Our hero was so struck aback at this unexpected turn that he knew notupon the instant what reply to make. "Friend, " said he, at last, "Ithank thee extremely for thy offer, and, though I would not beungracious, it is yet borne in upon me to testify to thee that as tothe stone itself and the fortune--of which thou speakest, and of whichI very well know the history--I have no inclination to receive eitherthe one or the other, both the fruits of theft, rapine, and murder. The jewel I have myself beheld three times stained, as it were, withthe blood of my fellow-man, so that it now has so little value in mysight that I would not give a peppercorn to possess it. Indeed, thereis no inducement in the world that could persuade me to accept it, oreven to take it again into my hand. As to the rest of thy generousoffer, I have only to say that I am, four months hence, to be marriedto a very comely young woman of Kensington, in Pennsylvania, by nameMartha Dobbs, and therefore I am not at all at liberty to consider myinclinations in any other direction. "

Having so delivered himself, Jonathan bowed with such ease as his stiffand awkward joints might command, and thereupon withdrew from thepresence of the charmer, who, with cheeks suffused with blushes andwith eyes averted, made no endeavor to detain him. 

So ended the only adventure of moment that ever happened to him in allhis life. For thereafter he contented himself with such excitement ashis mercantile profession and his extremely peaceful existence mightafford. 

Epilogue

In conclusion it may be said that when the worthy Jonathan Rugg wasmarried to Martha Dobbs, upon the following June, some mysteriousfriend presented to the bride a rope of pearls of such considerablevalue that when they were realized into money our hero was enabled toenter into partnership with his former patron the worthy JeremiahDoolittle, and that, having made such a beginning, he by-and-by aroseto become, in his day, one of the leading merchants of his native townof Philadelphia.