The Flaming Jewel
Page 5
from the breast of his tunic and laid it against her mouth.
"Hold it there," he said.
Mechanically she raised her hand to support the compress. Stormont wentback to the shore, recovered her rifle from the shallow water, andreturned with it.
As she made no motion to take it, he stood it against the tree to whichhe had tied her.
Then he came close to her where she stood holding his handkerchiefagainst her mouth and looking at him out of steady eyes as deeply blueas gentian blossoms.
"Eve," he said, "you win. But you won't forgive me. ... I wish wecould be friends, some day. ... We never can, now. ... Good-bye."
Neither spoke again. Then, of a sudden, the girl's eyes filled; andTrooper Stormont caught her free hand and kissed it; -- kissed it againand again, -- dropped it and went striding away through the underbrushwhich was now all rosy with the rays of the sunset.
* * * * *
After he had disappeared, the girl, Eve, went to the cleft in the rocksabove.
"Come out," she said contemptuously. "It's a good thing you hid,because there was a real man after you; and God help you if he everfinds you!"
Hal Smith came out.
"Pack in your meat," said the girl curtly, and flung his rifle acrossher shoulder.
Through the ruddy afterglow she left the way homeward, a man'shandkerchief pressed to her wounded mouth, her eyes preoccupied with thestrangest thoughts that ever had stirred her virgin mind.
Behind her walked Darragh with his load of venison and his alias, - andhis tongue in his cheek.
Thus began the preliminaries toward the ultimate undoing of Mike Clinch.Fate, Chance, and Destiny had undertaken the job in earnest.
* * * * *
Episode Two
The Ruling Passion
* * * * *
I
Nobody understood how Jose Quintana had slipped through the SecretService net spread for him at every port.
The United States authorities did not know why Quintana had come toAmerica. They realised merely that he arrived for no good purpose; andthey had meant to arrest and hold him for extradition if requested; fordeportation as an undesirable alien anyway.
Only two men in America knew that Quintana had come to the United Statesfor the purpose of recovering the famous "Flaming Jewel," stolen by himfrom the Grand Duchess Theodorica of Esthonia; and stolen from Quintana,in turn, by a private soldier in an American Forestry Regiment, on leavein Paris. This soldier's name, probably, was Michael Clinch.
One of the men who knew why Quintana might come to America was JamesDarragh, recently of the Military Intelligence, but now passing as ahold-up man under the name of Hal Smith, and actually in the employmentof Clinch at his disreputable "hotel" at Star Pond in the North Woods.
The other man who knew why Quintana had come to America was EmanuelSard, a Levantine diamond broker of New York, Quintana's agent inAmerica.
* * * * *
Now, as the October days passed without any report of Quintana'sdetention, Darragh, known as Hal Smith at Clinch's dump, began tosuspect that Quintana had already slid into America through the meshesof the police.
If so, this desperate international criminal could be expected atClinch's under some guise or other, piloted thither by Emanuel Sard.
So Hal Smith, whose duty was to wash dishes, do chores, and also tosupply Clinch's with "mountain beef" -- or deer taken illegally -- madeit convenient to prowl every day in the vicinity of the Ghost Lake road.
He was perfectly familiar with Emanuel Sard's squat features and parrotnose, having robbed Mr. Sard of Quintana's cipher and of $4,000 atpistol point. And one morning, while roving around the guide's quartersat Ghost Lake Inn, Smith beheld Sard himself on the hotel veranda, incompany with five strangers of foreign aspect.
During the midday dinner Smith, on pretense of enquiring for a guide'slicense, got a look at the Inn ledger. Sard's signature was on it,followed by the names of Henri Picquet, Nicolas Salzar, VictorGeorgiades, Harry Beck, and Jose Sanchez. And Smith went back throughthe wilderness to Star Pond, convinced that one of these gentlemen wasQuintana, and the remainder, Quintana's gang; and that they were here todo murder if necessary in their remorseless quest of "The FlamingJewel." Two million dollars once had been offered for the FlamingJewel; and had been refused.
Clinch probably possessed it. Smith was now convinced of that. But hewas there to rob Clinch of it himself. For he had promised the littleGrand Duchess to help recover her Erosite jewel; and now that he hadfinally traced its probably possession to Clinch, he was wondering howthis recovery was to be accomplished.
To arrest Clinch meant ruin to Eve Strayer. Besides he knew now thatClinch would die in prison before revealing the hiding place of theFlaming Jewel.
Also, how could it be proven that Clinch had the Erosite gem? Thecipher from Quintana was not sufficient evidence.
No; the only way was to watch Clinch, prevent any robbery by Quintana'sgang, somehow discover where the Flaming Jewel had been concealed, takeit, and restore it to the beggared young girl whose only financialresource now lay in the possible recovery of this almost priceless gem.
* * * * *
Toward evening Hal Smith shot two dear near Owl Marsh. To poach on hisown property appealed to his sense of humour. And Clinch, neverdreaming that Hal Smith was the James Darragh who had inherited Harrod'svast preserve, damned all millionaires for every buck brought in, andbecame friendlier to Smith.
* * * * *
II
Clinch's dump was the disposal plant in which collected the human sewageof the wilderness.
It being Saturday, the scum of the North Woods was gathering at the StarPond resort. A venison and chicken supper was promised -- and a danceif any women appeared.
Jake Kloon had run in some Canadian hooch; Darragh, alias Hal Smith,contributed two fat deer and Clinch cooked them. By ten o'clock thatmorning many of the men were growing noise; some were already drunk bynoon. Shortly after midday dinner the first fight started --extinguished only after Clinch had beaten several of the backwoodsaristocracy insensible.
Towering amid the wreck of the battle, his light grey eyes a-glitter,Clinch dominated, swinging his iron fists.
When the combat ended and the fallen lay starkly where they fell, Clinchsad in his pleasant, level voice:
"Take them out and stick their heads in the pond. And don't go for toget me mad, boys, or I'm liable to act up rough."
They bore forth the sleepers for immersion in Star Pond. Clinchrelighted his cigar and repeated the rulings which had caused thefracas:
"You gotta play square cards here or you don' play none in my house. Noliving thumb-nail can nick no cards in my place and get away with it.Three kings and two trays is better than three chickens and two eggs.If you don't like it, g'wan home."
He went out in his shirt sleeves to see how the knock-outs werereviving, and met Hal Smith returning from the pond, who reportedprogress toward consciousness. They walked back to the "hotel"together.
"Say, young fella," said Clinch in his soft, agreeable way, "you want tokeep your eye peeled to-night."
"Why?" inquired Smith.
"Well, there'll be a lot o' folks here. There'll be strangers, too. ...Don't forget the State Troopers are looking for you."
"Do the State Troopers ever play detective?" asked Smith, smiling.
"Sure. They've been in here rigged out like peddlers and lumber-jacksand timber lookers."
"Did they ever get anything on you?"
"Not a thing."
"Can you always spot them, Mike?"
"No. But when a stranger shows up here who don't know nobody, he neversees nothing and he don't never learn nothing. He gets no hootch outame. No, nor no craps and no cards. He gets his supper; that's what hegets ... and a dance, if there's ladies -- and if any girl favours him.That's all the change any stranger gets out of Mike Clinch."
They had paused on the rough veranda in the hot October sunshine.<
br />
"Mike," suggested Smith carelessly, "wouldn't it pay you better to gostraight?"
Clinch's small grey eyes, which had been roaming over the prospect oflake and forest, focussed on Smith's smiling features.
"What's that to you?" he asked.
"I'll be out of a job," remarked Smith, laughing, "if they ever landyou."
Clinch's level gaze measured him; his mind was busy measuring him too."Who the hell are you, anyway?" he asked. "_I_ don't know. You stickup a man on the Ghost Lake Road and hide out here when the StateTroopers come after you. And now you ask me if it pays better to gostraight. Why didn't _you_ go straight if you think it pays?"
"I haven't got a daughter to worry about," explained Smith. "If theyget me it