‘Something mysterious?’
‘Yes,’ said Stephen, nodding. ‘The place had been abandoned, you see. We wondered why. Of course it was just curiosity on our part, but we thought it would be interesting to have a look.’
‘Oh, Stephen, how thrilling! Did you find the sapphire yourself?’
‘No, my dear little innocent! You don’t just dig a hole in the ground and find a gem of purest water; that only happens in fairy tales. You’ve got to know where to look.’
‘How do you know where to look?’
‘Because you know what sort of rocks to look for—at least, if you’re a mining engineer you do,’ said Stephen, laughing at her.
‘I know,’ declared Julia. ‘You found a vein of—of whatever it’s called.’
‘Oh, you do know something about it.’
‘We did geology at school and I liked it,’ said Julia defiantly.
‘Bless me! What next? I’m learning a lot about you.’
‘Go on with the story, Stephen. I didn’t mean to interrupt. . . . I’m dying to know how you found the sapphire.’
‘We didn’t find it,’ he said. ‘We poked about for a bit looking at the workings and the more we looked the more we wondered why they had been abandoned. I know a certain amount about corundum; Jim knows a lot more, and——’
‘Corundum?’
‘Sapphires and rubies,’ explained Stephen. ‘They aren’t found in mines, like diamonds, they’re found quite near the surface in different kinds of rocks—crystalline rocks, mostly. Well, as I was saying, we’re both interested in the subject and we agreed that Coribunda was a place where we’d expect to find exceedingly good stones.’
‘But you didn’t find any?’
‘No, we found an old man with a broken leg.’
‘A black man?’
‘Yes, with grey woolly hair. As a matter of fact we very nearly didn’t find him. We had had a look round and eaten our sandwiches and discussed our ideas about the place and we were just coming away. Jim was already mounted on his pony, and I was just mounting, when I thought I heard a groan. Jim said I had imagined it—the place was absolutely deserted—but I thought I had better make sure. So I went back and hunted about, and found him lying in the shadow of a rock.
‘It was touch and go,’ said Stephen thoughtfully. ‘It really was touch and go. What a lot of things hung upon that moment! I can see myself now with one foot in the stirrup and Jim saying, “Come on, Steve. Don’t be an ass,” and me saying, “But I’d better have a look—just in case.” Supposing I hadn’t gone back? What a frightful thought!’
‘You mean you saved his life?’
‘No,’ said Stephen. ‘No, we couldn’t do much, really. He was half-dead with thirst. We gave him water and made a sort of shelter for him and Jim set his leg. Jim is the sort of chap that can turn his hand to anything. Then Jim rode off to our camp to get help and I stayed behind.
‘It was dark by this time, but presently the moon rose from behind the hill and everything was silver and black—awfully eerie—the ruined huts and the tunnels in the hill and the great heaps of rubble! The poor old creature was pretty far through, but he talked a bit off and on. I sat beside him and listened. It was ghastly,’ declared Stephen. ‘Simply ghastly. There was nothing I could do for him except give him a drink now and then out of my water-bottle. He told me he had worked at Coribunda when the place was first started—long long ago, he said, before the evil spirits came.’
‘The evil spirits?’
‘Yes, he said the workings at Coribunda were haunted by devils. I know it sounds silly,’ admitted Stephen, ‘but everything was so quiet and eerie that I almost believed it was true. He said there were sapphires there—beautiful stones—but the devils guarded them and made all sorts of queer things happen so that they shouldn’t be found.’
‘Stephen, how amazing!’
‘All sorts of amazing things happen in Africa. It’s an amazing country. Well, the night wore on and the old chap went on talking. He said he had come back to Coribunda to look for sapphires himself because he was so old that he wasn’t frightened of evil spirits any more. He said he remembered a blue vein where he had been working before the evil spirits frightened everybody away. It was all rather muddled,’ explained Stephen, frowning thoughtfully. ‘Part of the time his mind wandered, and he was sort of delirious, but I gathered that he and his fellow workers had been so terrified by the “devils” that they had deserted in a body one night and made their way home to their own little villages. It must have been a nasty shock for the manager when he woke up in the morning and found them gone.’
‘Tell me about the blue vein,’ said Julia, who was more interested in the sapphire than in the feelings of the manager.
‘Yes,’ agreed Stephen. ‘The old chap had always remembered the blue vein and that’s why he came back. He found his way to the place and started work on his own, but of course it was a foolish thing to do and extremely dangerous——’
‘Why was it dangerous?’ Julia wanted to know.
‘Because the workings had been deserted for years and the ground had sunk a bit and the rocks had become loosened. So it wasn’t surprising that quite suddenly there was an avalanche of rocks and stones which knocked him over and broke his leg. It was quite a natural thing to happen (in fact it was just what I should have expected to happen), but of course he put it down to the “devils.” He kept on saying that the devils had got him because he had taken their stone. Somehow or other he managed to crawl out, but when he found he couldn’t walk he knew he was done for. He dragged himself into the shade of a rock and lay down and waited for death.’
‘Awful!’ said Julia in a whisper.
‘Yes, awful,’ agreed Stephen. ‘But there’s a queer philosophy about those people, a sort of fatalism. They don’t rebel against the inevitable. He knew the “devils” had got him and he accepted his fate quite calmly.’
‘What a good thing you found him!’
‘It was a good thing for me that I found him—the best thing I ever did in my life—but it wasn’t much use to him. It was too late. I don’t know how long he had lain there without food or water—several days at least. When we found him he was too far gone; there was nothing I could do, nothing except sit beside him and give him a drink now and then and wait for Jim.’
*
2
There was silence for a few moments.
At last Julia said, ‘You still haven’t told me how you found the sapphire, Stephen.’
‘The old chap had found it. He had it hidden in his hair.’
‘Hidden in his hair?’ asked Julia incredulously.
‘Yes, it’s a favourite place for hiding things. They keep all sorts of treasures hidden in their woolly matted hair—livestock too, of course,” said Stephen with a little grimace of disgust. ‘However, we won’t think about that. My old man was no exception to the rule. It was just after sunrise; I had been trying to settle him more comfortably and given him a drink, when he began scratching about in his hair. First he produced a small silver pencil-case—goodness knows where he had got it—and then a little compass, quite a cheap one made of brass, and then he produced the sapphire. He put them all into my hand and said they were for me.’
‘Oh, Stephen, how pathetic! It was because you had been kind to him.’
‘Yes, and because he knew he was dying. The sapphire looked like a pebble. I mean it was only because I knew about precious stones that I realised what it was (you can’t tell the value of a stone until it has been cut). But what really interested me was the fact that he had found it in the Coribunda workings. He swore by all his gods that he had found it in the blue vein and he declared that if the ‘devils’ had not made the stones fall down and hurt his leg he could have got more—two or three or five, he said, holding up his fingers.
‘After that he was unconscious for a long time—at least it seemed a long time to me; and Jim came back with some boys and a litter and plenty
of food and water, but by that time he was far too ill to be moved. All we could do was to wait with him till he died. He regained consciousness just before the end and said that he had given his treasures to me—all of them—because I had given him water out of my own water-bottle. That seemed to have made a great impression upon him; he kept saying it over and over again. He said water was the greatest treasure in the world. Well, of course it is, if you’re dying of thirst.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Julia. She added thoughtfully, ‘We take water for granted, don’t we? I mean we don’t really value it enough.’
‘No, we don’t value it nearly enough,’ agreed Stephen emphatically.
At this moment the waiter appeared and cleared away the remains of the meal in a significant manner.
‘I suppose you want us to go?’ asked Stephen.
‘The Ladies’ Lounge would be more comfortable, sir.’
‘Is it full of lounging ladies? Because if so we shall remain here.’
‘No, sir, it’s empty,’ replied the waiter without a smile.
‘Oh well, in that case we’ll go and lounge there ourselves—shall we, Julia?’
Julia nodded and gathered up her bag and gloves and followed Stephen into the Ladies’ Lounge. They sat down together on a very large sofa and Stephen continued his tale.
‘After the old chap died we had another look round the workings. Jim found traces of the blue vein but we didn’t touch it; we had to be careful because the stones kept rolling down in avalanches wherever we went. Jim thought the sapphire looked pretty good, so we decided that the best thing was for me to get leave and come home and have it cut and I could see the directors of Coribunda and tell them about the place and advise them to have the workings properly surveyed . . . and that’s what I did.’
‘That was your business in London?’
‘Yes, that was my business.’
‘They must have been frightfully pleased.’
‘Not at all; they were very stuffy. To tell you the truth they were quite nasty. They wanted to know what right I had to snoop round the Coribunda workings. One of them asked what I was getting out of it. Their attitude annoyed me. My first idea had been to show them the stone but they were so unpleasant that I didn’t. They would just have said I had stolen it; they might have made me give it to them.’
‘They couldn’t!’ cried Julia indignantly. ‘The old man had given it to you. It was yours!’
‘I wasn’t quite sure of the legal aspect,’ said Stephen slowly. ‘I suppose, strictly speaking, the old chap had no right to it; but the whole place was deserted, so anyone who felt inclined could have taken it. The old chap had lost his life in getting the stone and had given it to me with his last breath, so I felt I had a moral right to it, if you see what I mean. Certainly I had more right to it than those stuffed owls in the London office.’
‘Of course you had!’
‘Well anyhow, I kept it in my pocket and didn’t say a word about it. I just told them that Jim and I—both of us mining engineers—were of the opinion that there were sapphires at Coribunda and advised them to get the place surveyed. Then I came away and left them arguing about it.’
‘Are they going to do it?’
‘They’ve done it. They got the surveyor’s report yesterday.’
‘Was it a good report?’ asked Julia eagerly.
‘Excellent—as far as it went. There are sapphires at Coribunda. The surveyor sent a couple of stones which he and his assistants discovered in the famous blue vein. Of course they haven’t been cut yet, but they look pretty good. That made the directors sit up and take notice!’
‘I don’t wonder!’ exclaimed Julia. ‘It’s frightfully thrilling, isn’t it?’ She hesitated and then said slowly, ‘I wonder why the workings were abandoned.’
‘Yes, why? That’s the question,’ said Stephen. He added, ‘But Julia, all this is frightfully secret . . . top secret. You understand, don’t you? Not a word to anyone on your life.’
‘Not a word.’
There was silence.
‘Stephen, I’ve decided,’ said Julia at last. ‘I want to buy those shares. What am I to do? I’m frightfully ignorant about business.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely certain,’ she declared. Now that she had decided she was beginning to feel excited about it; what fun it would be to buy shares in those sapphires! She had the money Retta had given her and her father’s cheque; she also had a little in her current account at the bank. She would put it all into the sapphires, every penny. What fun it would be!
‘You had better do it through your bank,’ said Stephen in thoughtful tones. ‘Go and see the manager on Monday morning and ask him to get a stockbroker to buy shares in the Coribunda Sapphire Company. He’ll probably take a fit.’
‘A fit?’
‘It’s a moribund concern.’
‘Oh yes, I see,’ said Julia, smiling. ‘Nobody knows about it, of course. I’ll take a bottle of smelling salts with me for Mr. Silver.’
Stephen smiled too. ‘What a good name for the manager of a bank! But you’ll be careful what you say to him, won’t you, Julia? Don’t mention my name.’
‘I’ll be very careful indeed. Thank you awfully much, Stephen. It was kind of you to tell me, and——’
‘You can thank me when you’ve made your pile—and you will make a pile, if you do exactly as I say. Buy them on Monday morning and hang onto them until I tell you to sell. Then sell them straight away.’
‘Sell them?’ asked Julia in surprise.
‘Yes, but not until I tell you, see?’
‘It seems funny——’ began Julia.
‘It isn’t funny. It’s business,’ declared Stephen. ‘Be sure to go and see Mr. Silver early on Monday morning and say you want them at once. He’ll make an awful fuss about it. He’ll say you’re mad . . . or at least he’ll say in a very serious voice, “I think it would be a very undesirable investment, Miss Harburn.”’
‘Well, I suppose I can do what I like with my own money,’ said Julia, laughing.
Chapter Ten
‘But, Mr. Silver, I can do what I like with my own money, can’t I?’ said Julia.
It was Monday morning; she was sitting in Mr. Silver’s comfortable office at the bank and was finding him every bit as difficult as Stephen had predicted. He had not actually taken a fit when he heard her request but he had said in a serious voice, ‘I shouldn’t advise it, Miss Harburn. In my opinion it would be a very undesirable investment. I feel sure your father wouldn’t approve.’
Of course it would have been easier if she could have told him why she wished to put her money into the Coribunda Sapphire Company—but of course she couldn’t! She could only keep on saying that she wanted to do it. At last she had become slightly annoyed with Mr. Silver and had asked him whether or not she could do as she liked with her own money.
‘Yes, of course,’ agreed Mr. Silver. ‘I’m just trying to warn you that the shares are practically worthless, so unless you have inside information . . .’ He paused and looked at her.
Her face was absolutely blank.
‘Perhaps your father advised you to buy them.’
Julia smiled. The idea of her father advising her to buy shares in a moribund sapphire company was really very amusing indeed.
Mr. Silver saw the smile and misread it. ‘That would be different,’ he said.
‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you,’ said Julia. ‘I just want to buy shares in it, and I want to buy them at once—this morning. If you can’t do it for me perhaps you could tell me where to go.’
‘I can do it through our brokers,’ he replied, heaving a sigh of defeat.
‘At once?’
‘Yes, I can ring them up immediately. How many shares do you want?’
‘As many as I can buy for a hundred pounds.’
‘A hundred pounds! Don’t you think that’s rather a large sum to risk in such a——’
‘If I had mor
e I would risk more.’
He gazed at her in a baffled way; at one moment she seemed foolish to the point of idiocy and the next moment she seemed very much all there, but it was obvious that she was supremely confident—or perhaps stubborn was the word—he had done his best but he had not been able to shake her determination.
‘I’m sure you must be very busy,’ said Julia, and she tapped her foot on the floor as much as to say that if he were not busy she was.
Mr. Silver sighed. ‘But Miss Harburn, that will mean that your account will be slightly overdrawn.’
‘Oh dear!’ she exclaimed. ‘Does it matter frightfully?’
It did not matter, of course; Mr. Harburn’s account was in a very healthy condition and this was his only child, and what was more, he had signed a bank order to pay thirty pounds on the first of every month into his daughter’s account. Only one thing was worrying Mr. Silver: would Mr. Harburn be annoyed when he learnt that his daughter had been allowed to throw away a hundred pounds?
But wait a moment, thought Mr. Silver. Perhaps Mr. Harburn had inside information about Coribunda. How else could the girl have heard about it except from her father? He remembered the enigmatic smile . . . yes, that must be the explanation. And if so, thought Mr. Silver, if Mr. Harburn (who was an extremely cautious man) were advising his daughter to buy Coribundas, it might be worth while for Mr. Silver to do the same. Yes, definitely! Foolish not to! thought Mr. Silver.
The Blue Sapphire Page 7