“You see you’d better read it to us in self-defence,” remarked the chief of staff. “Go ahead!”
“Promise, and I’ll give it back,” said Bob, from the door. “Refuse, and I send it to the ‘American.’”
“It wasn’t for publication, anyway,” explained Dockbridge.
“Of course not,” answered Bob. “We’ll pass on it. Perhaps we’ll send it in for that Five-Thousand-Dollar competition.”
“Well, shut up, and I will. Give it here!” Dockbridge recovered the manuscript and returned to his armchair. The others disposed themselves upon the lounge.
“Oyez! Oyez!” cried Bob. “All persons desiring to hear the great American novel, draw near, give your attention and ye shall be heard.”
“Keep still!” ordered the chief of staff. “Go ahead, Jack. I’ll make him shut up.”
“Mind you do,” said Dockbridge. “It’s about that big diamond, you know. The story begins in this room.”
“Well, begin it,” laughed Bob.
His companions pulled his head down on the chief’s lap and smothered him with a handkerchief.
“Well,” said Dockbridge rather sheepishly, “here goes.”
THE MAXIMILIAN DIAMOND
A stout, jovial-looking person, with reddish hair, sandy complexion, and watery blue eyes, stood waiting in my office, his wrist attached by means of a nickel-plated handcuff to that of a keeper. My two visitors conducted themselves with remarkable unanimity, and with but a single motion sank into the chairs I offered.
“Well, what’s the trouble?” I inquired genially.
The keeper jerked his thumb in the direction of the other, who grinned apologetically and hitched in my direction. Bending toward me, he whispered: “I am the victim of one of the most remarkable conspiracies in history. My story involves personages of the highest rank, and is stranger than one of Dumas’ romances. I am a bill-poster.”
Not knowing whether he intended to include himself among the illustrious persons alluded to, I nodded encouragingly and produced some cigars.
“My name is Riggs,” continued the prisoner, as he bit off the end of his cigar and expelled it through the window. “Got a match?”
The keeper drew a handful from his pocket. I lit a cigar for myself and assumed an attitude of attention.
“My wife is little Flossie Riggs. Don’t know her? Why, she dances at Proctor’s, and all over. I was doing well at my trade, and would have been doing better, if it hadn’t been for that confounded diamond. It was this way. There was a fellow named Tenney, who posted bills with me about five years back, and he finally got a job down in the City of Mexico with a railroad, and I used to correspond with him.
“Among other things, he told me about a great big diamond that the Emperor Maximilian used to wear in the middle of his crown. According to Tenney, it was one of the biggest on record. He said that Maximilian was so stuck on it that he had it taken out and made into a pendant for the Empress Carlotta, and that she used to wear it around at all the court functions, and so on. About the same time he took two other diamonds out of the crown and made them into finger-rings for himself.
“After a while the Mexicans got tired of having an empire and put Maximilian out of business. They stood him and two of his generals up in the parade ground at Queretaro and shot ’em. Now when he was stood up to get shot he had those two rings on his fingers, and the funny part of it was that when the people rushed up to see whether he was dead or not, both the rings were gone. Just about that time, while Carlotta was in prison, the diamond with the big pendant disappeared too. It weighed thirty-three carats. I got all this from Tenney. I don’t know where he found out about it. But it all happened way back in ’67.
“Somehow or other I used to think quite a lot about that diamond—partly because I was sorry for Max, who looked to have come out at the small end; and there didn’t seem to be any occasion for shooting him anyhow, that I could see.
“Well, I went on bill-posting, and got a good job with the Hair Restorer folks and was doing well, as I said, until one day I happened to take up a paper and read that there were two Mexicans out in St. Louis trying to sell an enormous diamond, but that the dealers there were all afraid to buy it. Finally the police got suspicious, and the Mexicans disappeared. Then all of a sudden it came over me that this must be the diamond that Tenney had wrote about, for all that it had been lost for nearly forty years, and I made up my mind that the Mexicans, having failed in St. Louis, would probably come to New York. I knew they had no right to the diamond anyway, first because it belonged to Maximilian’s heirs, and second because it hadn’t paid no duty; and I said to myself, ‘Next time I write to Tenney he will hear something that will make him sit up.’ So every morning, when I started out with my paste-pot and roll of posters, I would keep my eye peeled for the two Mexicans.
“But I didn’t hear any more about the diamond for a long time, and I had ’most forgot all about it, until one day I was plastering up one of those yellow-headed Hair Restorer girls in Madison Square, when I saw two chaps cross over Twenty-third Street toward the Park. They were the very gazeebos I’d been looking for. Both were dark and thin and short, and, queerer still, one of them carried a big red case in his hand.
“With my heart rattling against my teeth, I jumped down from the ladder and started after them. They hurried along the street until they came to a jeweller’s on Broadway, about a block from the Square. They went in, and I peeked through the window. Presently out they came in a great hurry. They still had the red case, and I made a dash for the door and rushed in. There was the store-keeper with eyes bulgin’ half-way out of his head.
“‘Say,’ says I, ‘did those men try to sell you a diamond?’
“‘Yes,’ says he, ‘the biggest I ever saw. They wanted forty thousand dollars for it, and I offered them fifteen thousand, but they wouldn’t take it.’
“I didn’t give him time for another word, but turned around and made another jump for the door. The Mexicans were almost out of sight, but I could still see them walking toward the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and I hustled after them tight as I could, picked up two cops on the way down, and, just as they were turning in at the entrance, we pounced on ’em.
“‘You’re under arrest!’ I yelled, so excited I didn’t really know what I was doing. The fellow with the red case dodged back and handed it over to a big chap who had joined them. This one didn’t appear to want to take it, and seemed quite peevish at what was happening. He turned out afterward to have been a General Dosbosco of the Haytien Junta. Well, the cops grabbed all three of them and collared the leather case. Sure enough, so help me—! There inside was the big diamond, and not only that, but a necklace with eighteen stones, and two enormous solitaire rings. The big stone was yellowish, but the others were pure white, sparklin’ like one of those electric Pickle signs with fifty-seven varieties. By that time the hurry-up wagon had come, and pretty soon the whole crew of us, diamonds, Mexicans, cops, paste-pot, and me, were clattering to the police-station for fair. There I told ’em all about the diamond, and they telephoned over to Colonel Dudley, at the Custom-house, and the upshot of the whole matter was that the two Mexicans were held on a charge of smuggling diamonds into the United States.
“If you don’t believe what I tell you,” said Riggs, noticing, perhaps, a suggestion of incredulity in my face, “just look at these”; and fumbling in his pocket, he produced some very soiled and crumpled clippings, containing pictures of Maximilian, the Empress Carlotta, and of a very large diamond which appeared to be about the size of the “Regent.” It was then that I dimly remembered reading something of a diamond seizure a short time before, and it was with a renewed interest that I listened to the continuation of my client’s story.
“Well,” said Riggs, “that was strange, now, wasn’t it?
“You can imagine how I felt when I went home and told little Flo
ssie about the diamond; that I was entitled to a fifty percent informer’s reward; how I was going to give up bill-posting and just be her manager, and how we could take a bigger flat, and all that; and I thought so much about it, and talked so much about it, that I began to feel like I was Rockefeller already, which may account in part for what happened afterward.”
At this point the keeper moved uneasily, and I pushed him another cigar.
“Well,” continued Riggs, “I just walked on air that afternoon after leaving the Custom-house, and went around blabbing like a poor fool about my good luck. On the way home I stopped in to take a drink. There were a lot of my acquaintances there, and I had something with most of them, and then the first thing I knew everything swam before my eyes. I groped my way into the street and started toward home, but I had only taken a few steps when a gang of strong-arm men attacked me, knocked me down, and robbed me. I struggled to my feet and followed them. They turned and attacked me again. I drew my knife, and then everything got dark, and the next thing I knew I was in the police-station.
“I’ll admit that this part of it does seem a little queer.” Riggs dropped his voice mysteriously and leaned toward me. “But I have no doubt that I was drugged and beaten for the purpose of getting me locked up in the Tombs as part of a well-planned scheme. You will see for yourself later on.
“Next morning, while I was waiting examination in the prison pen, a man came along who said he was a lawyer and would take my case. I said, All right, but that he would have to wait for his pay. He laughed, and said he guessed there would be no trouble about that; and the next thing I knew I was up before the Judge. My lawyer went up and whispered something to him, and the magistrate said:
“‘Five hundred dollars bail for trial.’
“‘Look here,’ I spoke up, ‘ain’t I going to have a chance to tell my story?’
“‘Keep quiet,’ said the lawyer from behind his hand; ‘this is just a form. You won’t never have to be tried. It’s just to get you out.’
“So I said nothing, and went back to the pen and waited; and the next thing I knew the hurry-up wagon had taken me to the Tombs. I tell you it was pretty tough bein’ chucked in with a lot of thieves and burglars. The bill of fare ain’t above par, you know, and the company’s worse. I sat in my cell and waited and waited for my lawyer to show up, for he had said he’d be right over. But he didn’t come, and I had to spend the night there. Next morning the keeper told me that my lawyer was in the counsel-room. So down I went with two niggers, who also had an appointment with their lawyers. It’s a nasty, unventilated hole, and they lock you and the attorneys all in together. Ever been there?”
I shook my head.
“‘Well,’ says he, ‘now have you got a bondsman?’
“‘A what?’ says I.
“‘A bondsman—someone to go bail for you.’
“‘No,’ I answered, for I knew nothing about such things.
“‘What! I thought you told me you had a lot of friends who had money! You haven’t been trifling with me, have you?’
“I knew I hadn’t told him anything of the sort, but I thought that maybe he had forgotten; so I said I hadn’t any friends who had any money, and knew no one to go bail for me.
“‘Bad! Very bad!’ said he. ‘You’ve got to have money to get out. Isn’t there anyone who owes you money, or haven’t you got some claim or something?’
“Then all of a sudden it flashed over me about the diamond and my fifty percent of the reward, and then something in his eye made me think again. It seemed to me that I had seen him before somewhere. I couldn’t remember just where, but the more I hesitated the surer I was. Then it came over me that a few days in jail, more or less, made mighty little difference when I was going to be a rich man so soon, and I decided I had better hang on to what I’d got.
“‘No,’ said I, ‘I ain’t got nothin’.’
“‘You lie!’ says he, growing very red. ‘You lie! You’ve got a claim against the United States Government.’
“Then he saw he’d made a break.
“‘Why, they all told me you caught a smuggler, or something, and had a claim against the Government for a hundred dollars.’
“‘A hundred!’ I yelled. ‘Twenty thousand!’
“‘Oh!’ said he, ‘as much as that? Why, I’ll get you out this afternoon.’
“‘How?’ said I.
“‘Well, you will have to assign your claim so I can raise the money on it. It’s a mere form.’
“But the thought came into my mind, Better stay there ten years than let him have the claim; so I said that I didn’t understand such things, and I’d just wait until I could be tried.
“‘Tried?’ said he. ‘Why, you won’t be tried for months.’
“My heart sank right down into my boots.
“‘Don’t be a fool!’ he went on. ‘Here you are, sick and in prison, and if you don’t raise money to get a bondsman you’ll stay here a long time. You might die. And if you assign that claim to me, I have a pull with the Judge and I’ll have you out by supper-time.’
“‘I guess I’ll wait awhile,’ said I.
“‘Think it over, anyway. Now I tell you what I’ll do. Tomorrow you go up for pleading. You have to say whether you are guilty or not guilty. I’ll act as your lawyer and see you through that part of it for nothing, and then if you still don’t want to assign the claim, why, you can do as you choose.’
“That seemed fair enough, so I agreed. I spent another night in the cells, and next day about thirty of us were taken across the bridge into the court-room. One by one we were led up to the bar, and the clerk asked us were we guilty or not guilty. The ones that said they were guilty went off to Sing Sing or Blackwell’s Island. It scared the life out of me. I was afraid that I might not be able to say ‘not,’ and so get sent off too, but pretty soon I saw my lawyer.
“‘P. Llewellyn Riggs!’
“Up jumped Mr. Lawyer and says, ‘Not guilty.’
“‘What day?’ asked the clerk.
“‘The 21st,’ says Mr. Lawyer.
“I was dumb for a minute.
“‘Look here,’ I whispered. ‘Today’s only the first—that’s three weeks.’
“‘Keep quiet,’ shouted an officer, and gave me a punch in the back.
“‘It’s all right,’ whispered Mr. Lawyer. ‘It’s only a form.’ And they hustled me out back to the Tombs.
“I didn’t hear anything all that day or the next. It seemed as if I should go mad. But at last I was notified that my lawyer was there again, and down I went glad enough for the change. By that time I was feeling pretty seedy.
“‘Well, young man,’ said he, ‘can we do business?’
“‘That depends,’ I answered.
“‘Come, no fooling, now; if you want to get out, give me an assignment of your claim.’
“‘Never,’ I replied.
“‘Then to hell with you!’ he shouted; ‘you can rot here alone and try your case by yourself, and I hope you’ll get twenty years.’
“I almost sank through the floor. Twenty years!”
Riggs had become quite dramatic, and was again leaning forward looking me straight in the eyes.
“Well, I stood fast, and he cursed me out and left me, and I began to feel that after all maybe I was a fool. I hadn’t let my wife know where I was, but now I wrote to her, and she came right down and comforted me. A brave little woman she is, too. And what was more, she said that a nice young lawyer had just moved into our house and had the flat below, and she would go and get him.
“So next morning—I had been in there a week—the young lawyer came. I liked him from the start. When I told him my first lawyer’s name he just leaned back and laughed.
“‘Old Todd?’ he says; ‘why, he’s the worst robber in the outfit. If he had gotten that assignment he�
�d have let you lie here forever and been in Paris by this time. You’re a lucky man,’ says he.
“Well, I thought so too, and laughed with him.
“‘But,’ he continued, ‘you’re in an embarrassing position. You can’t get out without money, and you can’t collect your claim. You’ll have to assign it to someone. You can’t assign it to your wife. That wouldn’t be valid. Haven’t you got some friend?’
“‘I’m afraid not,’ said I.
“‘That’s unfortunate,’ he remarked, looking out where the window ought to be. ‘Very unfortunate. I might lend you a couple of hundred myself,’ he added. ‘I will, too!’
“The blood jumped right up in my throat.
“‘God bless you!’ said I, ‘you’re a true friend!’
“He laid his hand on my shoulder.
“‘You’re in hard luck, old man, but you’re going to win out. I’ll stand by you. Here’s a five. I’ll go out and get the rest right off.’
“Then all of a sudden I began to feel like a king. I could see myself in a new suit, having a bottle up at the Haymarket. I realized that I was a twenty-thousand-dollar millionaire. And just to show my chest, I said:
“‘Why, you’re an honest man and a true friend. You take my claim and go and collect it this afternoon,’ says I.
“‘No,’ he hesitated, ‘it’s too much responsibility. I’ll trust you for the money and you can pay me afterward.’
“But with that, ass that I was, I fell to begging him to take the claim, and saying he must take it, just to show he believed I trusted him; and so after a while he reluctantly yielded and filled out a paper, and I signed it and got in the warden as a witness, and he rose to go.
“‘Well, till this afternoon,’ says he.
“‘Au revoir,’ I laughed, ‘get yourself a bottle of wine for me,’ says I. And off he goes.
The Victorian Villains Megapack Page 57