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THE ADVENTURES
OF A
LADY PEARL-BROKER
CHAPTER I.

"WHAT I want is this," said Mr. Leighton, the prince of pearl merchants, throwing himself back in his chair, and looking severely at me over the top of his glasses:

"I want a lady, a young lady, who is good-looking, smart, and free of encumbrances, who has a nice manner, and a sweet voice, is accustomed to society and yet knows how to hold her own, and who, besides all these, has plenty of pluck."

I meditated for a moment.

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"I have no encumbrances, Mr. Leighton," I said. "I am a widow, as you know, and have few relations, and I am quite sure that I have any amount of courage--but as to the rest of the qualities you are in search of, I--"

"The rest are all right," he interrupted. "I don't require you to tell me that, Mrs. Delamere; I can see it for myself. But"--he leant toward me and tapped my chair with his glasses--"I think it only right to tell you that there is a good deal of risk, which I share with you, and a chance of danger which you must venture by yourself. Are you prepared to do it?"

I reflected again.

"The risk would be both yours and mine?" I questioned. "In what way?"

"In the way of monetary loss," he answered; "it would be possible for you to lose more than you could ever repay, and I should have to bear the brunt of it, because it would be my property. You couldn't guarantee it, and all I can do is to be assured--as I am--of your trustworthiness. The risk remains."

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"And the danger," I concluded, "is entirely mine. Very well, Mr. Leighton, I consent."

"Not so fast," he said; "you must wait till you know what it is. In the first place you would get, as I have already told you, a good income from it, partly in salary, partly in commission, and the work would not be arduous. It would mean two or three hours a day three or four times a week; sometimes less, sometimes more. It would entail your living in town, in a house or rooms of your own, and keeping your own carriage. Now for the work itself. Have you heard of lady pearl-brokers?"

I replied that I had not.

"Well," he said, "it has been tried in Paris, and with great success. There is a certain number of ladies of good position who undertake to be mediums between pearl merchants and their clients. I do not mean to say that you have to solicit orders from your personal friends--not at all. You may occasionally treat with private people, who wish to lay out a large sum in gems; but, as a rule, your business | | 4 would be with the heads of large jewellers firms, and as they are generally of the upper class, it is easier to approach them if you can do so on equal terms. The qualifications I have mentioned are all desirable in order to facilitate good business. And in addition, we find that ladies have an instinct for appraising the value of jewels. We in the trade of course learn how to distinguish between good and bad, but ladies seem to become experts without any training at all. They can almost detect a flaw with their eyes shut. But the risk is that you would have to carry about with you sometimes fifteen or twenty thousand pounds' worth of jewels."

He looked to see if I showed any sign of alarm, but I was gazing at him quite quietly, and he went on:

"Your only plan is to observe absolute secrecy as to your occupation; to choose your servants and house carefully; to drive in your own carriage with a coachman you can depend on, and, under all circumstances, to keep your head."

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"And the jewels," I added. "I am ready to begin work as soon as you like, Mr. Leighton. I can arrange about my carriage in a day or two; and with regard to a house, I should greatly prefer, in any case at first, to stay on at the Howarth Hotel, where I am at present. I have been going in a little for journalism, as you know. I shall give out that I have some literary employment which necessitates my staying in town. I am really safer in many ways at an hotel, especially as I shall always carry the pearls about with me, in a safe place which I shall contrive in my dress. Let me try it at all events."

"Very well," he said; "I will let you manage things in your own way. Only remember that you must always be looking out for an attack. If it once gets known--and London thieves learn these things in the most marvellous way--that a woman is in possession of jewellery to any extent, she is marked at once, and sooner or later they have a try for it."

"It is worth some risk to have an assured income," I said, smiling. "Money is so easy to | | 6 lose, Mr. Leighton; so hard to gain. And poor widows are looked upon in society so often as adventuresses. People seem to think it a disgrace that one's husband should not leave one enough to live on. Well! I will return in a week from to-day, and ask for instructions. and my first instalment of jewels."

"Think it well over," said Mr. Leighton, as, he shook hands; "put yourself in a pearl-broker's place--imagine yourself carrying about a small fortune with you, and think how you would act in the event of anything untoward happening to you."

I thought it a very good plan, and decided to adopt his suggestion, although I knew that nothing would now deter me from undertaking the work. As he showed me into the square courtyard that led to his office, I involuntarily glanced round in all directions to see if there were any suspicious-looking person about, or if my presence there were attracting any notice. The buildings all round the court looked mostly like counting-houses, or wholesale warehouses. There was very little sign of | | 7 life; a clerk diligently adding up ledgers behind a very dingy window, two or three boys dodging each other round the posts that stood at intervals across the entrance to the square; a flower-woman, with a dilapidated basket, sitting in the gutter trying to rock an unruly baby to sleep. I went slowly down the steps.

Supposing that I was holding the jewels in my muff, instead of the very meagre purse it contained, would it be safe to cross the court and make my way to the thoroughfare beyond?

Quite safe, I decided mentally; and as I did so I glanced up at the house opposite. High up on the fifth story was an open window, and hanging out of it a little way, as though held there, was an Oriental-looking curtain.

Some movement in the curtain attracted my eye, and I looked still more closely. Half hidden by its folds, which he was clutching with one hand so as to shield him from observation, was a man with a strange, wild face, and matted black hair. He had a dark skin, and a Hindoo cast of feature, and he | | 8 might have been anything from a fakir to a cloth merchant. I had seen such faces amongst the native workers, or the jugglers, at exhibitions; it was a familiar type; yet something in his fixed regard vaguely troubled me. We looked steadfastly at one another for a moment, then he dropped the curtain so that it concealed him. I walked away down the court with the absolute certainty in my mind that, as soon as my back was turned, he peeped out again after me.

I resolutely put him out of my thoughts; it would not do, I told myself, to be nervous because people looked at me, when I was soon going to undertake so great a responsibility. I must learn to be equable, and while noticing everything, not to give undue weight to trifles.

I took a cab and drove back to the Howarth Hotel, where, as I had often stayed from time to time before I was a widow and afterwards, I felt quite at home.

For the next few days I occupied myself entirely in preparations for my new under | | 9 taking, keeping always in my mind the thought of possible danger. But my nerves remained quite steady, and by the end of the week I was more determined than ever to go through it, and to make it a success. I had bought a neat little brougham, and a charming horse, and arranged to keep them in a private stable which was to let close by; and I had found a coachman who seemed the one of all others to be desired. Steady, sober, unmarried, with the very highest references, and carrying such a good character written across his honest face, I felt I was absolutely safe in his hands. He was to live over the stable, and intended, as he put it, to keep himself to himself; and I was very glad to hear it.

I had contrived secret pockets in various unexpected places in my dress, those I was especially pleased with being some small oblong ones in the lower part of my sleeves, on the inner side of the wrists under the cuffs. It would be impossible for me to lose anything out of them, and quite impossible for anyone to cut out the pockets while I had my senses | | 10 about me. With regard to keeping the jewels at night, I bought a small safe, but, for fear of attracting attention, I did not have it fastened to the wall of my room or leave it out en evidence; instead, I placed it inside my trunk, which served as a settee in a corner of my bedroom, and was always covered with a rug; and screwed it right through the bottom of my trunk to the floor.

Then I enclosed the key in a brooch, the back of which opened with a secret spring. The receptacle had been originally intended for a portrait or a lock of hair, and the spring was concealed under one of the letters of my name, "Mollie," written in small brilliants across the front of the brooch. I had been in the habit of wearing it every day, and there would be nothing unusual therefore in my doing so. It fastened with a safety pin, and a small chain attached to it went round my neck.

It was a proud though an anxious moment for me when, at the end of my next interview with Mr. Leighton, I emerged from the office | | 11 with pearls to the value of £11,000 concealed about me.

There were amongst them some specially fine ones, which he had first suggested should wait until I had had a little practice in my profession, but at my earnest entreaty he yielded them to me at last. I have always hated having things made easy for me--there is then no satisfaction in accomplishing them.

I glanced up at the window where I had seen my Oriental friend; it was closed, and there was no sign of anyone within.

But as I passed through the posts at the end of the court, a curious figure, half English and half Eastern-looking, turned out of the street, and was apparently going to pass me.

A pair of black eyes flashed into mine, and the man turned quickly and retraced his steps into the crowded street, where I lost sight of him in a moment.

This was the second time I had met his glance. I wondered what the third would bring me. I felt a sort of superstition about it. Those eyes had a knack of haunting one. | | 12 They had pursued me before, both in my waking and sleeping dreams, after I had seen them the first time. I felt sure I was destined to be brought into contact with their owner in the future, and thought of him more than once.

But the business that occupied me during the next fortnight or three weeks helped to banish the remembrance of him from my mind, and an occurrence that happened at the end of that time drove him completely from it for a period. I was beginning to get accustomed to all the ins and outs of my new trade, and to find an exhilaration in the variety of experiences that it brought me; and the proverbial good luck that always waits on beginners had also not failed to attend my first efforts.

Mr. Leighton was so pleased with me that he doubled by commission on a transaction I carried through with a well-known jeweller who was noted for being difficult of approach. He said that I had shown great skill and tact, and made an opening for future business, and | | 13 insisted on my profiting by it as well as himself.

I had almost ceased to be nervous about my valuable charge, and on the day that preceded the occurrence I speak of, I felt particularly cheerful and confident.

Mr. Leighton had intrusted to me a more valuable cargo than usual; there were some black pearls of great price amongst the white ones, and also a pink one of rare beauty that had already gained a name for itself. I had made up my mind to surprise him when next I demanded an interview, by telling him that I had placed them all--I had one or two clients in my mind's eye, and amongst them an Australian millionaire, whose latest fad, I had been told, was the collection of quaint or unique gems.

The pink pearl should be his; I had fully decided on that.

One small incident occurred on the morning of that day, but I did not attach any importance to it. I passed a man twice once in the Strand, once in Regent Street; and | | 14 noticing that he looked attentively at me, wondered why his face seemed familiar, and where I could have seen him before.

Later I remembered that I had passed him on the hotel staircase one day in the early part of the week, and concluded that this was the reason for his apparent recognition of me, and mine of him. He had a pale, fair, determined face, with a very unpleasant expression; that was all that I remarked about him.

I was rather tired when I went to bed that night, and I felt almost inclined to leave the pearls, just as they were, in the hiding places of my dress until the morning. But it was my rule to look at them, count them, and so make sure of their safety, every night, and I would not let myself break through it. I found them as I expected, all there, safe and sound.

Some sudden caprice made me stop when I was about to open my trunk and put them inside the safe, and I changed my mind, and placed them instead in a writing-case, the key of which I placed under the pillow with my | | 15 trunk key, as well as the brooch containing my safe key.

I looked to my window to see that the fastening was right, fixed on to it, as usual, a small patent immoveable hasp, locked my door, and placed a wedge against it, looked into my wardrobe and under my bed, lit my night-light, and five minutes afterwards I was deeply and soundly asleep.

I dreamt that I was wandering at the bottom of the sea, and that all around me lay wondrous gems of every hue and shape; strange creatures floated near me with jewelled eyes; long seaweeds, fringed with pearls and diamonds, clear and bright as drops of water, brushed against my face, and twined themselves in my hair--it was a very Paradise of pearls. I thought I gathered some of all kinds until my hands and arms were laden, and soaring upwards with them through the clear water, reached the top of the ocean, and felt the fresh wind blowing on my face.

And then quite suddenly I realised that I was wide awake, that the room was in total | | 16 darkness, and that a cold air was coming from the direction of the window.

I strained my eyes towards the vague outline of the curtain, I strained my ears to catch the faintest sound, and in the silence, a hand came stealing gently, stealthily, amongst the folds of the sheet round my neck, feeling for my face, and an almost imperceptible rustle told me that someone was kneeling beside me.

My heart seemed to stop beating for one second, and then, with an awful surging rush of sickening terror, throbbed to suffocation; the pulses in my throat and head beat like iron sledge-hammers; I was too paralysed to scream or move, and like lightning the thought flashed through my brain of how absolutely helpless I was, through my own agency. The door was not only locked, but wedged--even if I made myself heard, they would have to force an entrance. I might pay the penalty of my life for the sake of saving the pearls.

As the stealthy fingers reached my lips, and drew aside the sheet, a deadly faintness seized me; I was almost unconscious, when, with a | | 17 new thrill of horror, I recognised the strong, sharp smell of chloroform, and knew that something cold and wet was lying across my face.

The shock recalled me to new life and courage. I have never been rendered insensible by chloroform; I am strangely unsusceptible to it, as I knew from more than one experience of it.

For a minute or two there was a loud singing in my ears, a feeling of alternately diminishing and swelling, with a sensation of floating in air; then the effect had passed off, and I was absolutely myself. My eyes, accustomed to the darkness, could discern over the edge of the handkerchief a shadow that was bending over my trunk; the keys had evidently been removed from my pillow; the tray had been lifted out; the thief was now opening the safe. With a sigh of relief, I remembered that the jewels were not there; every moment's delay was precious to me. He would, of course, find the key of the writing-desk--unless he had missed taking it from under my pillow--and would try that next.

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Against the dark space of the open window I could see the silhouette of a man's form, leaning on the ledge outside, apparently resting on a ladder. The other man raised himself from the trunk, looked towards the bed and approaching me, drew something from his pocket. I remembered with a shudder that I had heard if you wanted to bring people round who were under the influence of a drug, a sharp cut with a knife was efficacious.

He was close to me--he had removed the handkerchief; his fingers were at my throat lightly pressing it; his other hand was raised. I could bear it no longer--something in my brain seemed to snap. I opened my lips to scream, when shrill and clear from the room above me rang out an awful cry in a woman's voice, "Murder--Help!" The man made one bound to the window, and gaining the sill, stood there hesitating, and as shriek after shriek echoed through the hotel, and a sound of hurrying steps and voices arose, he dropped his feet over the ledge, and disappeared.

I sprang out of bed, and staggered to the | | 19 door, but my limbs failed me. I could see the brightness of the electric light shining through the chinks; I could hear the shrieks upstairs dying away to hysterical sobs and laughter; I could distinguish that the voices and steps were coming towards my room, and that someone was repeating my number, 13, over and over again.

I felt that I should die there in the darkness, with that dreadful open window, in which I fancied I could still see the outline of a man's form close to me. They were knocking, they were calling to me to open the door.

With a supreme effort I pushed the wedge aside, dragged myself up to my knees, and turned the key, and as a flood of light and an excited crowd of people burst in, I fell back senseless.

For many days I was too weak and ill to think much of that terrible night, but gradually it recalled itself to me, and they told me how I was saved.

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The lady who occupied the room above mine was in the habit--for which I invoke fervent blessings on her head--of sleeping with her window wide open, and mercifully had, on this particular night, forgotten to open it. She therefore arose at about two o'clock in the morning, and threw it up, putting out her head at the same time to see if it was raining. Perceiving to her horror the crouching figure of a man on the sill beneath, she proceeded to shriek until assistance came.

The thieves, of whom no trace has ever been found, had laid their plans well; they must have concealed themselves during the day on the roof, and had fastened a rope ladder to one of the chimneys; then descending, had neatly cut out a pane from my window, removed my patent hasp, and opened it.

I did not wish, of course, for my future safety, to betray my occupation to the public and I assured the hotel manager and the police that I possessed only a few valuable jewels, and that I thought the thieves might have mistaken my room for that of someone else. I had little | | 21 doubt in my own mind that the man I had met on the hotel stairs and in the Strand had been shadowing me, and had discovered that I was worth robbing.

Mr. Leighton was so upset when he heard of my adventure, that he wished me to resign my post at once.

But I pleaded so hard to be allowed to continue, that eventually I won him over; as a concession to his fears for me, I gave up the hotel, and took a flat in Victoria Street.

"No thieves can get at me here without my knowing it," I said; "I shall be quite safe now."

But I spoke a little too soon.