himself because he doubted if I had the heart to do it. But the turnkey
showed much ill-humour at the change, and strove to let the plan stand as
it was, and for Elzevir to go down the well. Things that were settled, he
said, should remain settled; he was not one for changes; it was a man's
task this and no child's play; a boy would not have his senses about him,
and might overlook the place. I fixed my eyes on Elzevir to let him know
what I thought, and Master Turnkey's words fell lightly on his ears as
water on a duck's back. Then this ill-eyed man tried to work upon my
fears; saying that the well is deep and the bucket small, I shall get
giddy and be overbalanced. I do not say that these forebodings were
without effect on me, but I had made up my mind that, bad as it might be
to go down, it was yet worse to have Master Elzevir prisoned in the well,
and I remain above. Thus the turnkey perceived at last that he was
speaking to deaf ears, and turned to the business.

Yet there was one fear that still held me, for thinking of what I had
heard of the quarry shafts in Purbeck, how men had gone down to explore,
and there been taken with a sudden giddiness, and never lived to tell
what they had seen; and so I said to Master Elzevir, 'Art sure the well
is clean, and that no deadly gases lurk below?'

'Thou mayst be sure I knew the well was sweet before I let thee talk of
going down,' he answered. 'For yesterday we lowered a candle to the
water, and the flame burned bright and steady; and where the candle
lives, there man lives too. But thou art right: these gases change from
day to day, and we will try the thing again. So bring the candle,
Master Jailer.'

The jailer brought a candle fixed on a wooden triangle, which he was wont
to show strangers who came to see the well, and lowered it on a string.
It was not till then I knew what a task I had before me, for looking over
the parapet, and taking care not to lose my balance, because the parapet
was low, and the floor round it green and slippery with water-splashings,
I watched the candle sink into that cavernous depth, and from a bright
flame turn into a little twinkling star, and then to a mere point of
light. At last it rested on the water, and there was a shimmer where the
wood frame had set ripples moving. We watched it twinkle for a little
while, and the jailer raised the candle from the water, and dropped down
a stone from some he kept there for that purpose. This stone struck the
wall half-way down, and went from side to side, crashing and whirring
till it met the water with a booming plunge; and there rose a groan and
moan from the eddies, like those dreadful sounds of the surge that I
heard on lonely nights in the sea-caverns underneath our hiding-place in
Purbeck. The jailer looked at me then for the first time, and his eyes
had an ugly meaning, as if he said, 'There--that is how you will sound
when you fall from your perch.' But it was no use to frighten, for I had
made up my mind.

They pulled the candle up forthwith and put it in my hand, and I flung
the plasterer's hammer into the bucket, where it hung above the well, and
then got in myself. The turnkey stood at the break-wheel, and Elzevir
leant over the parapet to steady the rope. 'Art sure that thou canst do
it, lad?' he said, speaking low, and put his hand kindly on my shoulder.
'Are head and heart sure? Thou art my diamond, and I would rather lose
all other diamonds in the world than aught should come to thee. So, if
thou doubtest, let me go, or let not any go at all.'

'Never doubt, master,' I said, touched by tenderness, and wrung his
hand. 'My head is sure; I have no broken leg to turn it silly
now'--for I guessed he was thinking of Hoar Head and how I had gone
giddy on the Zigzag.




CHAPTER 15

THE WELL

The grave doth gape and doting death is near--_Shakespeare_


The bucket was large, for all that the turnkey had tried to frighten me
into think it small, and I could crouch in it low enough to feel safe of
not falling out. Moreover, such a venture was not entirely new to me, for
I had once been over Gad Cliff in a basket, to get two peregrines' eggs;
yet none the less I felt ill at ease and fearful, when the bucket began
to sink into that dreadful depth, and the air to grow chilly as I went
down. They lowered me gently enough, so that I was able to take stock of
the way the wall was made, and found that for the most part it was cut
through solid chalk; but here and there, where the chalk failed or was
broken away, they had lined the walls with brick, patching them now on
this side, now on that, and now all round. By degrees the light, which
was dim even overground that rainy day, died out in the well, till all
was black as night but for my candle, and far overhead I could see the
well-mouth, white and round like a lustreless full-moon.

I kept an eye all the time on Elzevir's cord that hung down the
well-side, and when I saw it was coming to a finish, shouted to them to
stop, and they brought the bucket up near level with the end of it, so I
knew I was about eighty feet deep. Then I raised myself, standing up in
the bucket and holding by the rope, and began to look round, knowing not
all the while what I looked for, but thinking to see a hole in the wall,
or perhaps the diamond itself shining out of a cranny. But I could
perceive nothing; and what made it more difficult was, that the walls
here were lined completely with small flat bricks, and looked much the
same all round. I examined these bricks as closely as I might, and took
course by course, looking first at the north side where the plumb-line
hung, and afterwards turning round in the bucket till I was afraid of
getting giddy; but to little purpose. They could see my candle moving
round and round from the well-top, and knew no doubt what I was at, but
Master Turnkey grew impatient, and shouted down, 'What are you doing?
have you found nothing? can you see no treasure?'

'No,' I called back, 'I can see nothing,' and then, 'Are you sure, Master
Block, that you have measured the plummet true to eighty feet?'

I heard them talking together, but could not make out what they said, for
the bim-bom and echo in the well, till Elzevir shouted again, 'They say
this floor has been raised; you must try lower.'

Then the bucket began to move lower, slowly, and I crouched down in it
again, not wishing to look too much into the unfathomable, dark abyss
below. And all the while there rose groanings and moanings from eddies in
the bottom of the well, as if the spirits that kept watch over me jewel
were yammering together that one should be so near it; and clear above
them all I heard Grace's voice, sweet and grave, 'Have a care, have a
care how you touch the treasure; it was evilly come by, and will bring a
curse with it.'

But I had set foot on this way now, and must go through with it, so when
the bucket stopped some six feet lower down, I fell again to diligently
examining the walls. They were still built of the shallow bricks, and
scanning them course by course as before, I could at first see nothing,
but as I moved my eyes downward they were brought up by a mark scratched
on a brick, close to the hanging plummet-line.

Now, however lightly a man may glance through a book, yet if his own
name, or even only one nice it, should be printed on the page, his
eyes will instantly be stopped by it; so too, if his name be mentioned
by others in their speech, though it should be whispered never so low,
his ears will catch it. Thus it was with this mark, for though it was
very slight, so that I think not one in a thousand would ever have
noticed it at all, yet it stopped my eyes and brought up my thoughts
suddenly, because I knew by instinct that it had something to do with
me and what I sought.

The sides of this well are not moist, green, or clammy, like the sides of
some others where damp and noxious exhalations abound, but dry and clean;
for it is said that there are below hidden entrances and exits for the
water, which keep it always moving. So these bricks were also dry and
clean, and this mark as sharp as if made yesterday, though the issue
showed that 'twas put there a very long time ago. Now the mark was not
deeply or regularly graven, but roughly scratched, as I have known boys
score their names, or alphabet letters, or a date, on the alabaster
figures that lie in Moonfleet Church. And here, too, was scored a letter
of the alphabet, a plain 'Y', and would have passed for nothing more
perhaps to any not born in Moonfleet; but to me it was the _cross-pall,_
or black 'Y' of the Mohunes, under whose shadow we were all brought up.
So as soon as I saw that, I knew I was near what I sought, and that
Colonel John Mohune had put this sign there a century ago, either by his
own hands or by those of a servant; and then I thought of Mr. Glennie's
story, that the Colonel's conscience was always unquiet, because of a
servant whom he had put away, and now I seemed to understand something
more of it.

My heart throbbed fiercely, as many another's heart has throbbed when he
has come near the fulfilment of a great desire, whether lawful or guilty,
and I tried to get at the brick. But though by holding on to the rope
with my left hand, I could reach over far enough to touch the brick with
my right 'twas as much as I could do, and so I shouted up the well that
they must bring me nearer in to the side. They understood what I would be
at, and slipped a noose over the well-rope and so drew it in to the side,
and made it fast till I should give the word to loose again. Thus I was
brought close to the well-wall, and the marked brick near about the level
of my face when I stood up in the bucket. There was nothing to show that
this brick had been tampered with, nor did it sound hollow when tapped,
though when I came to look closely at the joints, it seemed as though
there was more cement than usual about the edges. But I never doubted
that what we sought was to be found behind it, and so got to work at
once, fixing the wooden frame of the candle in the fastening of the
chain, and chipping out the mortar setting with the plasterer's hammer.

When they saw above that first I was to be pulled in to the side, and
afterwards fell to work on the wall of the well, they guessed, no doubt,
how matters were, and I had scarce begun chipping when I heard the
turnkey's voice again, sharp and greedy, 'What are you doing? have you
found nothing?' It chafed me that this grasping fellow should be always
shouting to me while Elzevir was content to stay quiet, so I cried back
that I had found nothing, and that he should know what I was doing in
good time.

Soon I had the mortar out of the joints, and the brick loose enough to
prise it forward, by putting the edge of the hammer in the crack. I
lifted it clean out and put it in the bucket, to see later on, in case
of need, if there was a hollow for anything to be hidden in; but never
had occasion to look at it again, for there, behind the brick, was a
little hole in the wall, and in the hole what I sought. I had my fingers
in the wall too quick for words, and brought out a little parchment bag,
for all the world like those dried fish-eggs cast up on the beach that
children call shepherds' purses. Now, shepherds' purses are crisp, and
crackle to the touch, and sometimes I have known a pebble get inside one
and rattle like a pea in a drum; and this little bag that I pulled out
was dry too, and crackling, and had something of the size of a small
pebble that rattled in the inside of it. Only I knew well that this was
no pebble, and set to work to get it out. But though the little bag was
parched and dry, 'twas not so easily torn, and at last I struck off the
corner of it with the sharp edge of my hammer against the bucket. Then I
shook it carefully, and out into my hand there dropped a pure crystal as
big as a walnut. I had never in my life seen a diamond, either large or
small--yet even if I had not known that Blackbeard had buried a diamond,
and if we had not come hither of set purpose to find it, I should not
have doubted that what I had in my hand was a diamond, and this of
matchless size and brilliance. It was cut into many facets, and though
there was little or no light in the well save my candle, there seemed to
be in this stone the light of a thousand fires that flashed out,
sparkling red and blue and green, as I turned it between my fingers. At
first I could think of nothing else, neither how it got there, nor how I
had come to find it, but only of it, the diamond, and that with such a
prize Elzevir and I could live happily ever afterwards, and that I should
be a rich man and able to go back to Moonfleet. So I crouched down in the
bottom of the bucket, being filled entirely with such thoughts, and
turned it over and over again, wondering continually more and more to see
the fiery light fly out of it. I was, as it were, dazed by its
brilliance, and by the possibilities of wealth that it contained, and
had, perhaps, a desire to keep it to myself as long as might be; so that
I thought nothing of the two who were waiting for me at the well-mouth,
till I was suddenly called back by the harsh voice of the turnkey, crying
as before--

'What are you doing? have you found nothing?'

'Yes,' I shouted back, 'I have found the treasure; you can pull me up.'
The words were scarcely out of my mouth before the bucket began to move,
and I went up a great deal faster than I had gone down. Yet in that short
journey other thoughts came to my mind, and I heard Grace's voice again,
sweet and grave, 'Have a care, have a care how you touch the treasure; it
was evilly come by, and will bring a curse with it.' At the same time I
remembered how I had been led to the discovery of this jewel--first, by
Mr. Glennie's stories, second, by my finding the locket, and third, by
Ratsey giving me the hint that the writing was a cipher, and so had come
to the hiding-place without a swerve or stumble; and it seemed to me that
I could not have reached it so straight without a leading hand, but
whether good or evil, who should say?

As I neared the top I heard the turnkey urging the donkey to trot faster
in the wheel, so that the bucket might rise the quicker, but just before
my head was level with the ground he set the break on and fixed me where
I was. I was glad to see the light again, and Elzevir's face looking
kindly on me, but vexed to be brought up thus suddenly just when I was
expecting to set foot on _terra firma_.

The turnkey had stopped me through his covetous eagerness, so that he
might get sooner at the jewel, and now he craned over the low parapet and
reached out his hand to me, crying--'Where is the treasure? where is the
treasure? give me the treasure!'

I held the diamond between finger and thumb of my right hand, and waved
it for Elzevir to see. By stretching out my arm I could have placed it in
the turnkey's hand, and was just going to do so, when I caught his eyes
for the second time that day, and something in them made me stop. There
was a look in his face that brought back to me the memory of an autumn
evening, when I sat in my aunt's parlour reading the book called the
_Arabian Nights_; and how, in the story of the _Wonderful Lamp_,
Aladdin's wicked uncle stands at the top of the stairs when the boy is
coming up out of the underground cavern, and will not let him out, unless
he first gives up the treasure. But Aladdin refused to give up his lamp
until he should stand safe on the ground again, because he guessed that
if he did, his uncle would shut him up in the cavern and leave him to die
there; and the look in the turnkey's eyes made me refuse to hand him the
jewel till I was safe out of the well, for a horrible fear seized me
that, as soon as he had taken it from me, he meant to let me fall down
and drown below.

So when he reached down his hand and said, 'Give me the treasure,' I
answered, 'Pull me up then; I cannot show it you in the bucket.'

'Nay, lad,' he said, cozening me, 'tis safer to give it me now, and have
both hands free to help you getting out; these stones are wet and greasy,
and you may chance to slip, and having no hand to save you, fall back in
the well.'

But I was not to be cheated, and said again sturdily, 'No, you must pull
me up first.'

Then he took to scowling, and cried in an angry tone, 'Give me the
treasure, I say, or it will be the worse for you'; but Elzevir would
not let him speak to me that way, and broke in roughly, 'Let the boy up,
he is sure-footed and will not slip. 'Tis his treasure, and he shall do
with it as he likes: only that thou shalt have a third of it when we
have sold it.'

Then he: ''Tis not his treasure--no, nor yours either, but mine, for it
is in my well, and I have let you get it. Yet I will give you a
half-share in it; but as for this boy, what has he to do with it? We will
give him a golden guinea, and he will be richly paid for his pains.'

'Tush,' cries Elzevir, 'let us have no more fooling; this boy shall have
his share, or I will know the reason why.'

'Ay, you shall know the reason, fair enough,' answers the turnkey, 'and
'tis because your name is Block, and there is a price of 50 upon your
head, and 20 upon this boy's. You thought to outwit me, and are yourself
outwitted; and here I have you in a trap, and neither leaves this room,
except with hands tied, and bound for the gallows, unless I first have
the jewel safe in my purse.'

On that I whipped the diamond back quick into the little parchment bag,
and thrust both down snug into my breeches-pocket, meaning to have a
fight for it, anyway, before I let it go. And looking up again, I saw the
turnkey's hand on the butt of his pistol, and cried, 'Beware, beware! he
draws on you.' But before the words were out of my mouth, the turn-key
had his weapon up and levelled full at Elzevir. 'Surrender,' he cries,
'or I shoot you dead, and the 50 is mine,' and never giving time for
answer, fires. Elzevir stood on the other side of the well-mouth, and it
seemed the other could not miss him at such a distance; but as I blinked
my eyes at the flash, I felt the bullet strike the iron chain to which I
was holding, and saw that Elzevir was safe.

The turnkey saw it too, and flinging away his pistol, sprang round the
well and was at Elzevir's throat before he knew whether he was hit or
not. I have said that the turnkey was a tall, strong man, and twenty
years the younger of the two; so doubtless when he made for Elzevir, he
thought he would easily have him broken down and handcuffed, and then
turn to me. But he reckoned without his host, for though Elzevir was the
shorter and older man, he was wonderfully strong, and seasoned as a
salted thong. Then they hugged one another and began a terrible struggle:
for Elzevir knew that he was wrestling for life, and I daresay the
turnkey guessed that the stakes were much the same for him too.

As soon as I saw what they were at, and that the bucket was safe fixed,
I laid hold of the well-chain, and climbing up by it swung myself on to
the top of the parapet, being eager to help Elzevir, and get the turnkey
gagged and bound while we made our escape. But before I was well on the
firm ground again, I saw that little help of mine was needed, for the
turnkey was flagging, and there was a look of anguish and desperate
surprise upon his face, to find that the man he had thought to master so
lightly was strong as a giant. They were swaying to and fro, and the
jailer's grip was slackening, for his muscles were overwrought and
tired; but Elzevir held him firm as a vice, and I saw from his eyes and
the bearing of his body that he was gathering himself up to give his
enemy a fall.

Now I guessed that the fall he would use would be the Compton Toss, for
though I had never seen him give it, yet he was well known for a wrestler
in his younger days, and the Compton Toss for his most certain fall. I
shall not explain the method of it, but those who have seen it used will
know that 'tis a deadly fall, and he who lets himself get thrown that way
even upon grass, is seldom fit to wrestle another bout the same day.
Still 'tis a difficult fall to use, and perhaps Elzevir would never have
been able to give it, had not the other at that moment taken one hand off
the waist, and tried to make a clutch with it at the throat. But the
only way of avoiding that fall, and indeed most others, is to keep both
hands firm between hip and shoulder-blade, and the moment Elzevir felt
one hand off his back, he had the jailer off his feet and gave him
Compton's Toss. I do not know whether Elzevir had been so taxed by the
fierce struggle that he could not put his fullest force into the throw,
or whether the other, being a very strong and heavy man, needed more to
fling him; but so it was, that instead of the turnkey going down straight
as he should, with the back of his head on the floor (for that is the
real damage of the toss), he must needs stagger backwards a pace or two,
trying to regain his footing before he went over.

It was those few staggering paces that ruined him, for with the last he
came upon the stones close to the well-mouth, that had been made wet and
slippery by continual spilling there of water. Then up flew his heels,
and he fell backwards with all his weight.

As soon as I saw how near the well-mouth he was got, I shouted out and
ran to save him; but Elzevir saw it quicker than I, and springing forward
seized him by the belt just when he turned over. The parapet wall was
very low, and caught the turnkey behind the knee as he staggered,
tripping him over into the well-mouth. He gave a bitter cry, and there
was a wrench on his face when he knew where he was come, and 'twas then
Elzevir caught him by the belt. For a moment I thought he was saved,
seeing Elzevir setting his body low back with heels pressed firm against
the parapet wall to stand the strain. Then the belt gave way at the
fastening, and Elzevir fell sprawling on the floor. But the other went
backwards down the well.

I got to the parapet just as he fell head first into that black abyss.
There was a second of silence, then a dreadful noise like a coconut
being broken on a pavement--for we once had coconuts in plenty at
Moonfleet, when the _Bataviaman_ came on the beach, then a deep echoing
blow, where he rebounded and struck the wall again, and last of all, the
thud and thundering splash, when he reached the water at the bottom. I
held my breath for sheer horror, and listened to see if he would cry,
though I knew at heart he would never cry again, after that first
sickening smash; but there was no sound or voice, except the moaning
voices of the water eddies that I had heard before.

Elzevir slung himself into the bucket. 'You can handle the break,' he
said to me; 'let me down quick into the well.' I took the break-lever,
lowering him as quickly as I durst, till I heard the bucket touch water
at the bottom, and then stood by and listened. All was still, and yet I
started once, and could not help looking round over my shoulder, for it
seemed as if I was not alone in the well-house; and though I could see no
one, yet I had a fancy of a tall black-bearded man, with coppery face,
chasing another round and round the well-mouth. Both vanished from my
fancy just as the pursuer had his hand on the pursued; but Mr. Glennie's
story came back again to my mind, how that Colonel Mohune's conscience
was always unquiet because of a servant he had put away, and I guessed
now that the turnkey was not the first man these walls had seen go
headlong down the well.

Elzevir had been in the well so long that I began to fear something had
happened to him, when he shouted to me to bring him up. So I fixed the
clutch, and set the donkey going in the tread-wheel; and the patient
drudge started on his round, recking nothing whether it was a bucket of
water he brought up, or a live man, or a dead man, while I looked over
the parapet, and waited with a cramping suspense to see whether Elzevir
would be alone, or have something with him. But when the bucket came in
sight there was only Elzevir in it, so I knew the turnkey had never come
to the top of the water again, and, indeed, there was but little chance
he should after that first knock. Elzevir said nothing to me, till I
spoke: 'Let us fling the jewel down the well after him, Master Block; it
was evilly come by, and will bring a curse with it.'

He hesitated for a moment while I half-hoped yet half-feared he was going
to do as I asked, but then said:

'No, no; thou art not fit to keep so precious a thing. Give it me. It is
thy treasure, and I will never touch penny of it; but fling it down the
well thou shalt not; for this man has lost his life for it, and we have
risked ours for it--ay, and may lose them for it too, perhaps.'

So I gave him the jewel.




CHAPTER 16

THE JEWEL

All that glisters is not gold--_Shakespeare_


There was the turnkey's belt lying on the floor, with the keys and
manacles fixed to it, just as it had failed and come off him at the fatal
moment. Elzevir picked it up, tried the keys till he found the right
one, and unlocked the door of the well-house.

'There are other locks to open before we get out,' I said.

'Ay,' he answered, 'but it is more than our life is worth to be seen with
these keys, so send them down the well, after their master.'

I took them back and flung them, belt and keys and handcuffs, clanking
down against the sides into the blackness and the hidden water at the
bottom. Then we took pail and hammer, brush and ropes, and turned our
backs upon that hateful place. There was the little court to cross before
we came to the doors of the banquet-hall. They were locked, but we
knocked until a guard opened them. He knew us for the plasterer-men, who
had passed an hour before, and only asked, 'Where is Ephraim?' meaning
the turnkey. 'He is stopping behind in the well-house,' Elzevir said, and
so we passed on through the hall, where the prisoners were making what
breakfast they might of odds and ends, with a savoury smell of cooking
and a great patter of French.

At the outer gate was another guard to be passed, but they opened for us
without question, cursing Ephraim under their breath, that he did not
take the pains to let his own men out. Then the wicket of the great gates
swung-to behind us, and we went into the open again. As soon as we were
out of sight we quickened our pace, and the weather having much bettered,
and a fresh breeze springing up, we came back to the Bugle about ten in
the forenoon.

I believe that neither of us spoke a word during that walk, and though
Elzevir had not yet seen the diamond, he never even took the pains to
draw it out of the little parchment bag, in which it still lay hid in his
pocket. Yet if I did not speak I thought, and my thoughts were sad
enough. For here were we a second time, flying for our lives, and if we
had not the full guilt of blood upon our hands, yet blood was surely
there. So this flight was very bitter to me, because the scene of death
of which I had been witness this morning seemed to take me farther still
away from all my old happy life, and to stand like another dreadful
obstacle between Grace and me. In the Family Bible lying on the table in
my aunt's best parlour was a picture of Cain, which I had often looked at
with fear on wet Sunday afternoons. It showed Cain striding along in the
midst of a boundless desert, with his sons and their wives striding
behind him, and their little children carried slung on poles. There was a
quick, swinging motion in the bodies of all, as though they must needs
always stride as fast as they might, and never rest, and their faces were
set hard, and thin with eternal wandering and disquiet. But the thinnest
and most restless-looking and hardest face was Cain's, and on the middle
of his forehead there was a dark spot, which God had set to show that
none might touch him, because he was the first murderer, and cursed for
ever. This had always been to me a dreadful picture, though I could not
choose but look at it, and was sorry indeed for Cain, for all he was so
wicked, because it seemed so hard to have to wander up and down the world
all his life long, and never be able to come to moorings. And yet this
very thing had come upon me now, for here we were, with the blood of two
men on our hands, wanderers on the face of the earth, who durst never go
home; and if the mark of Cain was not on my forehead already, I felt it
might come out there at any minute.

When we reached the Bugle I went upstairs and flung myself upon the bed
to try to rest a little and think, but Elzevir shut himself in with the
landlord, and I could hear them talking earnestly in the room under me.
After a while he came up and said that he had considered with the
landlord how we could best get away, telling him that we must be off at
once, but letting him suppose that we were eager to leave the place
because some of the Excise had got wind of our whereabouts. He had said
nothing to our host about the turnkey, wishing as few persons as possible
to know of that matter, but doubted not that we should by all means
hasten our departure from the island, for that as soon as the turnkey was
missed inquiry would certainly be made for the plasterers with whom he
was last seen.

Yet in this thing at least Fortune favoured us, for there was now lying
at Cowes, and ready to sail that night, a Dutch couper that had run a
cargo of Hollands on the other side of the island, and was going back to
Scheveningen freighted with wool. Our landlord knew the Dutch captain
well, having often done business for him, and so could give us letters of
recommendation which would ensure us a passage to the Low Countries. Thus
in the afternoon we were on the road, making our way from Newport to
Cowes in a new disguise, for we had changed our clothes again, and now
wore the common sailor dress of blue.

The clouds had returned after the rain, and the afternoon was wet, and
worse than the morning, so I shall not say anything of another weary and
silent walk. We arrived on Cowes quay by eight in the evening, and found
the couper ready to make sail, and waiting only for the tide to set out.
Her name was the _Gouden Droom_, and she was a little larger than the
_Bonaventure_, but had a smaller crew, and was not near so well found.
Elzevir exchanged a few words with the captain, and gave him the
landlord's letter, and after that they let us come on board, but said
nothing to us. We judged that we were best out of the way, so went below;
and finding her laden deep, and even the cabin full of bales of wool,
flung ourselves on them to rest. I was so tired and heavy with sleep that
my eyes closed almost before I was lain down, and never opened till the
next morning was well advanced.

I shall not say anything about our voyage, nor how we came safe to
Scheveningen, because it has little to do with this story. Elzevir had
settled that we should go to Holland, not only because the couper was
waiting to sail thither for we might doubtless have found other boats
before long to take us elsewhere--but also because he had learned at
Newport that the Hague was the first market in the world for diamonds.
This he told me after we were safe housed in a little tavern in the town,
which was frequented by seamen, but those of the better class, such as
mates and skippers of small vessels. Here we lay for several days while
Elzevir made such inquiry as he could without waking suspicion as to who
were the best dealers in precious stones, and the most able to pay a good
price for a valuable jewel. It was lucky, too, for us that Elzevir could
speak the Dutch language--not well indeed, but enough to make himself
understood, and to understand others. When I asked where he had learned
it, he told me that he came of Dutch blood on his mother's side, and so
got his name of Elzevir; and that he could once speak in Dutch as readily
as in English, only that his mother dying when he was yet a boy he lost
something of the facility.

As the days passed, the memory of that dreadful morning at Carisbrooke
became dimmer to me, and my mind more cheerful or composed. I got the
diamond back from Elzevir, and had it out many times, both by day and by
night, and every time it seemed more brilliant and wonderful than the
last. Often of nights, after all the house was gone to rest, I would
lock the door of the room, and sit with a candle burning on the table,
and turn the diamond over in my hands. It was, as I have said, as big as
a pigeon's egg or walnut, delicately cut and faceted all over, perfect
and flawless, without speck or stain, and yet, for all it was so clear
and colourless, there flew out from the depth of it such flashes and
sparkles of red, blue, and green, as made one wonder whence these tints
could come. Thus while I sat and watched it I would tell Elzevir stories
from the _Arabian Nights_, of wondrous jewels, though I believe there
never was a stone that the eagles brought up from the Valley of
Diamonds, no, nor any in the Caliph's crown itself, that could excel
this gem of ours.

You may be sure that at such times we talked much of the value that was
to be put upon the stone, and what was likely to be got for it, but never
could settle, not having any experience of such things. Only, I was sure
that it must be worth thousands of pounds, and so sat and rubbed my
hands, saying that though life was like a game of hazard, and our throws
had hitherto been bad enough, yet we had made something of this last. But
all the while a strange change was coming over us both, and our parts
seemed turned about. For whereas a few days before it was I who wished to
fling the diamond away, feeling overwrought and heavy-hearted in that
awful well-house, and Elzevir who held me from it; now it was he that
seemed to set little store by it, and I to whom it was all in all. He
seldom cared to look much at the jewel, and one night when I was praising
it to him, spoke out:

'Set not thy heart too much upon this stone. It is thine, and thine to
deal with. Never a penny will I touch that we may get for it. Yet,
were I thou, and reached great wealth with it, and so came back one
day to Moonfleet, I would not spend it all on my own ends, but put
aside a part to build the poor-houses again, as men say Blackbeard
meant to do with it'

I did not know what made him speak like this, and was not willing, even
in fancy, to agree to what he counselled; for with that gem before me,
lustrous, and all the brighter for lying on a rough deal table, I could
only think of the wealth it was to bring to us, and how I would most
certainly go back one day to Moonfleet and marry Grace. So I never
answered Elzevir, but took the diamond and slipped it back in the silver
locket, which still hung round my neck, for that was the safest place for
it that we could think of.

We spent some days in wandering round the town making inquiries, and
learnt that most of the diamond-buyers lived near one another in a
certain little street, whose name I have forgotten, but that the richest
and best known of them was one Krispijn Aldobrand. He was a Jew by birth,
but had lived all his life in the Hague, and besides having bought and
sold some of the finest stones, was said to ask few questions, and to
trouble little whence stones came, so they were but good. Thus, after
much thought and many changes of purpose, we chose this Aldobrand, and
settled we would put the matter to the touch with him.

We took an evening in late summer for our venture, and came to
Aldobrand's house about an hour before sundown. I remember the place
well, though I have not seen it for so long, and am certainly never like
to see it again. It was a low house of two stories standing back a little
from the street, with some wooden palings and a grass plot before it, and
a stone-flagged path leading up to the door. The front of it was
whitewashed, with green shutters, and had a shiny-leaved magnolia trained
round about the windows. These jewellers had no shops, though sometimes
they set a single necklace or bracelet in a bottom window, but put up
notices proclaiming their trade. Thus there was over Aldobrand's door a
board stuck out to say that he bought and sold jewels, and would lend
money on diamonds or other valuables.

A sturdy serving-man opened the door, and when he heard our business was
to sell a jewel, left us in a stone-floored hall or lobby, while he went
upstairs to ask whether his master would see us. A few minutes later the
stairs creaked, and Aldobrand himself came down. He was a little wizened
man with yellow skin and deep wrinkles, not less than seventy years old;
and I saw he wore shoes of polished leather, silver-buckled, and
tilted-heeled to add to his stature. He began speaking to us from the
landing, not coming down into the hall, but leaning over the handrail:

'Well, my sons, what would you with me? I hear you have a jewel to sell,
but you must know I do not purchase sailors' flotsam. So if 'tis a
moonstone or catseye, or some pin-head diamonds, keep them to make
brooches for your sweethearts, for Aldobrand buys no toys like that.'

He had a thin and squeaky voice, and spoke to us in our own tongue,
guessing no doubt that we were English from our faces. 'Twas true he
handled the language badly enough, yet I was glad he used it, for so I
could follow all that was said.

'No toys like that,' he said again, repeating his last words, and Elzevir
answered: 'May it please your worship, we are sailors from over sea, and
this boy has a diamond that he would sell.'

I had the gem in my hand all ready, and when the old man squeaked
peevishly, 'Out with it then, let's see, let's see,' I reached it out to
him. He stretched down over the banisters, and took it; holding out his
palm hollowed, as if 'twas some little paltry stone that might otherwise
fall and be lost. It nettled me to have him thus underrate our treasure,
even though he had never seen it, and so I plumped it down into his hand
as if it were as big as a pumpkin. Now the hall was a dim place, being
lit only by a half-circle of glass over the door, and so I could not see
very well; yet in reaching down he brought his head near mine, and I
could swear his face changed when he felt the size of the stone in his
hand, and turned from impatience and contempt to wonder and delight. He
took the jewel quickly from his palm, and held it up between finger and
thumb, and when he spoke again, his voice was changed as well as his
face, and had lost most of the sharp impatience.

'There is not light enough to see in this dark place--follow me,' and he
turned back and went upstairs rapidly, holding the stone in his hand; and
we close at his heels, being anxious not to lose sight of him now that he
had our diamond, for all he was so rich and well known a man.

Thus we came to another landing, and there he flung open the door of a
room which looked out west, and had the light of the setting sun
streaming in full flood through the window. The change from the dimness
of the stairs to this level red blaze was so quick that for a minute I
could make out nothing, but turning my back to the window saw presently
that the room was panelled all through with painted wood, with a bed let
into the wall on one side, and shelves round the others, on which were
many small coffers and strong-boxes of iron. The jeweller was sitting at
a table with his face to the sun, holding the diamond up against the
light, and gazing into it closely, so that I could see every working of
his face. The hard and cunning look had come back to it, and he turned
suddenly upon me and asked quite sharply, 'What is your name, boy? Whence
do you come?'

Now I was not used to walk under false names, and he took me unawares,
so I must needs blurt out, 'My name is John Trenchard, sir, and I come
from Moonfleet, in Dorset.'

A second later I could have bitten off my tongue for having said as much,
and saw Elzevir frowning at me to make me hold my peace. But 'twas too
late then, for the merchant was writing down my answer in a parchment
ledger. And though it would seem to most but a little thing that he
should thus take down my name and birthplace, and only vexed us at the
time, because we would not have it known at all whence we came; yet in
the overrulings of Providence it was ordered that this note in Mr.
Aldobrand's book should hereafter change the issue of my life.

'From Moonfleet, in Dorset,' he repeated to himself, as he finished
writing my answer. 'And how did John Trenchard come by this?' and he
tapped the diamond as it lay on the table before him.

Then Elzevir broke in quickly, fearing no doubt lest I should be betrayed
into saying more: 'Nay, sir, we are not come to play at questions and
answers, but to know whether your worship will buy this diamond, and at
what price. We have no time to tell long histories, and so must only say
that we are English sailors, and that the stone is fairly come by.' And
he let his fingers play with the diamond on the table, as if he feared it
might slip away from him.

'Softly, softly,' said the old man; 'all stones are fairly come by; but
had you told me whence you got this, I might have spared myself some
tedious tests, which now I must crave pardon for making.'

He opened a cupboard in the panelling, and took out from it a little
pair of scales, some crystals, a blackstone, and a bottle full of a
green liquid. Then he sat down again, drew the diamond gently from
Elzevir's fingers, which were loth to part with it, and began using his
scales; balancing the diamond carefully, now against a crystal, now
against some small brass weights. I stood with my back to the sunset,
watching the red light fall upon this old man as he weighed the diamond,
rubbed it on the black-stone, or let fall on it a drop of the liquor,
and so could see the wonder and emotion fade away from his face, and
only hard craftiness left in it.

I watched him meddling till I could bear to watch no longer, feeling a
fierce feverish suspense as to what he might say, and my pulse beating
so quick that I could scarce stand still. For was not the decisive
moment very nigh when we should know, from these parched-up lips, the
value of the jewel, and whether it was worth risking life for, whether
the fabric of our hopes was built on sure foundation or on slippery