by M. P. Shiel
you remember, had been _placed_ there byUl-Jabal) without dropping down stone dead on the spot. I was thus ableto predict the manner and place of the baronet's death--if he _be_dead. Beside him, I said, would probably be found a white stone. ForUl-Jabal, his ghastly impersonation ended, would hurry to the pocket,snatch out the stone, and finding it not the stone he sought, would inall likelihood dash it down, fly away from the corpse as if fromplague, and, I hope, straightway go and--hang himself.'
It was at this point that the black mask of Ham framed itself betweenthe python-skin tapestries of the doorway. I tore from him the paper,now two days old, which he held in his hand, and under the heading,'Sudden death of a Baronet,' read a nearly exact account of the factswhich Zaleski had been detailing to me.
'I can see by your face that I was not altogether at fault,' he said,with one of his musical laughs; 'but there still remains for us todiscover whence Ul-Jabal obtained his two substitutes, his motive forexchanging one for the other, and for stealing the valueless gem; but,above all, we must find where the real stone was all the time thatthese two men so sedulously sought it, and where it now is. Now, let usturn our attention to this stone, and ask, first, what light does theinscription on the cup throw on its nature? The inscription assures usthat if "this stone be stolen," or if it "chaunges dre," the House ofSaul and its head "anoon" (i.e. anon, at once) shall die. "Dre," I mayremind you, is an old English word, used, I think, by Burns, identicalwith the Saxon "_dreogan_," meaning to "suffer." So that the writer atleast contemplated that the stone might "suffer changes." But what kindof changes--external or internal? External change--change ofenvironment--is already provided for when he says, "shulde this Stonstalen bee"; "chaunges," therefore, in _his_ mind, meant internalchanges. But is such a thing possible for any precious stone, and forthis one in particular? As to that, we might answer when we know thename of this one. It nowhere appears in the manuscript, and yet it isimmediately discoverable. For it was a "sky-blue" stone; a sky-blue,sacred stone; a sky-blue, sacred, Persian stone. That at once gives usits name--it was a _turquoise_. But can the turquoise, to the certainknowledge of a mediaeval writer, "chaunges dre"? Let us turn for lightto old Anselm de Boot: that is he in pig-skin on the shelf behind thebronze Hera.'
I handed the volume to Zaleski. He pointed to a passage which read asfollows:
'Assuredly the turquoise doth possess a soul more intelligent than thatof man. But we cannot be wholly sure of the presence of Angels inprecious stones. I do rather opine that the evil spirit doth take uphis abode therein, transforming himself into an angel of light, to theend that we put our trust not in God, but in the precious stone; andthus, perhaps, doth he deceive our spirits by the turquoise: for theturquoise is of two sorts: those which keep their colour, and thosewhich lose it.'[1]
[Footnote 1: 'Assurement la turquoise a une ame plus intelligente quel'ame de l'homme. Mais nous ne pouvons rien establir de certaintouchant la presence des Anges dans les pierres precieuses. Monjugement seroit plustot que le mauvais esprit, qui se transforme enAnge de lumiere se loge dans les pierres precieuses, a fin que l'on nerecoure pas a Dieu, mais que l'on repose sa creance dans la pierreprecieuse; ainsi, peut-etre, il decoit nos esprits par la turquoise:car la turquoise est de deux sortes, les unes qui conservent leurcouleur et les autres qui la perdent.' _Anselm de Boot_, Book II.]
'You thus see,' resumed Zaleski, 'that the turquoise was believed tohave the property of changing its colour--a change which wasuniversally supposed to indicate the fading away and death of itsowner. The good De Boot, alas, believed this to be a property of toomany other stones beside, like the Hebrews in respect of their urim andthummim; but in the case of the turquoise, at least, it is awell-authenticated natural phenomenon, and I have myself seen such aspecimen. In some cases the change is a gradual process; in others itmay occur suddenly within an hour, especially when the gem, long keptin the dark, is exposed to brilliant sunshine. I should say, however,that in this metamorphosis there is always an intermediate stage: thestone first changes from blue to a pale colour spotted with brown, and,lastly, to a pure white. Thus, Ul-Jabal having stolen the stone, findsthat it is of the wrong colour, and soon after replaces it; he supposesthat in the darkness he has selected the wrong chalice, and so takesthe valueless stone from the other. This, too, he replaces, and,infinitely puzzled, makes yet another hopeless trial of the Edmundsburychalice, and, again baffled, again replaces it, concluding now that thebaronet has suspected his designs, and substituted a false stone forthe real one. But after this last replacement, the stone assumes itsfinal hue of white, and thus the baronet is led to think that twostones have been substituted by Ul-Jabal for his own invaluable gem.All this while the gem was lying serenely in its place in the chalice.And thus it came to pass that in the Manor-house of Saul there arose asomewhat considerable Ado about Nothing.'
For a moment Zaleski paused; then, turning round and laying his hand onthe brown forehead of the mummy by his side, he said:
'My friend here could tell you, and he would, a fine tale of theimmensely important part which jewels in all ages have played in humanhistory, human religions, institutions, ideas. He flourished some fivecenturies before the Messiah, was a Memphian priest of Amsu, and, asthe hieroglyphics on his coffin assure me, a prime favourite with oneQueen Amyntas. Beneath these mouldering swaddlings of the grave a greatruby still cherishes its blood-guilty secret on the forefinger of hisright hand. Most curious is it to reflect how in _all_ lands, and at_all_ times, precious minerals have been endowed by men with mysticvirtues. The Persians, for instance, believed that spinelle and thegarnet were harbingers of joy. Have you read the ancient Bishop ofRennes on the subject? Really, I almost think there must be some truthin all this. The instinct of universal man is rarely far at fault.Already you have a semi-comic "gold-cure" for alcoholism, and you haveheard of the geophagism of certain African tribes. What if thescientist of the future be destined to discover that the diamond, andit alone, is a specific for cholera, that powdered rubellite curesfever, and the chryso-beryl gout? It would be in exact conformity withwhat I have hitherto observed of a general trend towards a certaininborn perverseness and whimsicality in Nature.'
_Note_.--As some proof of the fineness of intuition evidenced byZaleski, as distinct from his more conspicuous powers of reasoning, Imay here state that some years after the occurrence of the tragedy Ihave recorded above, the skeleton of a man was discovered in the vaultsof the Manor-house of Saul. I have not the least doubt that it was theskeleton of Ul-Jabal. The teeth were very prominent. A rotten rope wasfound loosely knotted round the vertebrae of his neck.