The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đź“–
- Author: Bram Stoker
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about enough of it, I tell you. And when I come home, and find the door
of the man I’ve been working for barred, in just the same way and with
the same old answers, it stirs me up the wrong way. Did Mr. Trelawny
leave orders that he would not see me when I should come?”
He paused and excitedly mopped his forehead. The servant answered very
respectfully:
“I am very sorry, sir, if in doing my duty I have given any offence.
But I have my orders, and must obey them. If you would like to leave
any message, I will give it to Miss Trelawny; and if you will leave your
address, she can communicate with you if she wishes.” The answer came
in such a way that it was easy to see that the speaker was a kind-hearted man, and a just one.
“My good fellow, I have no fault to find with you personally; and I am
sorry if I have hurt your feelings. I must be just, even if I am angry.
But it is enough to anger any man to find himself in the position I am.
Time is pressing. There is not an hour—not a minute—to lose! And yet
here I am, kicking my heels for six hours; knowing all the time that
your master will be a hundred times angrier than I am, when he hears how
the time has been fooled away. He would rather be waked out of a
thousand sleeps than not see me just at present-and before it is too
late. My God! it’s simply dreadful, after all I’ve gone through, to
have my work spoiled at the last and be foiled in the very doorway by a
stupid flunkey! Is there no one with sense in the house; or with
authority, even if he hasn’t got sense? I could mighty soon convince
him that your master must be awakened; even if he sleeps like the Seven
Sleepers-”
There was no mistaking the man’s sincerity, or the urgency and
importance of his business; from his point of view at any rate. I
stepped forward.
“Morris,” I said, “you had better tell Miss Trelawny that this gentleman
wants to see her particularly. If she is busy, ask Mrs. Grant to tell
her.”
“Very good, sir!” he answered in a tone of relief, and hurried away.
I took the stranger into the little boudoir across the hall. As we went
he asked me:
“Are you the secretary?”
“No! I am a friend of Miss Trelawny’s. My name is Ross.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Ross, for your kindness!” he said. “My name
is Corbeck. I would give you my card, but they don’t use cards where
I’ve come from. And if I had had any, I suppose they, too, would have
gone last night-”
He stopped suddenly, as though conscious that he had said too much. We
both remained silent; as we waited I took stock of him. A short, sturdy
man, brown as a coffee-berry; possibly inclined to be fat, but now lean
exceedingly. The deep wrinkles in his face and neck were not merely
from time and exposure; there were those unmistakable signs where flesh
or fat has fallen away, and the skin has become loose. The neck was
simply an intricate surface of seams and wrinkles, and sun-scarred with
the burning of the Desert. The Far East, the Tropic Seasons, and the
Desert—each can have its colour mark. But all three are quite
different; and an eye which has once known, can thenceforth easily
distinguish them. The dusky pallor of one; the fierce red-brown of the
other; and of the third, the dark, ingrained burning, as though it had
become a permanent colour. Mr. Corbeck had a big head, massive and
full; with shaggy, dark red-brown hair, but bald on the temples. His
forehead was a fine one, high and broad; with, to use the terms of
physiognomy, the frontal sinus boldly marked. The squareness of it
showed “ratiocination”; and the fulness under the eyes “language”. He
had the short, broad nose that marks energy; the square chin-marked
despite a thick, unkempt beard-and massive jaw that showed great
resolution.
“No bad man for the Desert!” I thought as I looked.
Miss Trelawny came very quickly. When Mr. Corbeck saw her, he seemed
somewhat surprised. But his annoyance and excitement had not
disappeared; quite enough remained to cover up any such secondary and
purely exoteric feeling as surprise. But as she spoke he never took his
eyes off her; and I made a mental note that I would find some early
opportunity of investigating the cause of his surprise. She began with
an apology which quite smoothed down his ruffled feelings:
“Of course, had my Father been well you would not have been kept
waiting. Indeed, had not I been on duty in the sick-room when you
called the first time, I should have seen you at once. Now will you
kindly tell me what is the matter which so presses?” He looked at me and
hesitated. She spoke at once:
“You may say before Mr. Ross anything which you can tell me. He has my
fullest confidence, and is helping me in my trouble. I do not think you
quite understand how serious my Father’s condition is. For three days
he has not waked, or given any sign of consciousness; and I am in
terrible trouble about him. Unhappily I am in great ignorance of my
Father and his life. I only came to live with him a year ago; and I
know nothing whatever of his affairs. I do not even know who you are,
or in what way your business is associated with him.” She said this
with a little deprecating smile, all conventional and altogether
graceful; as though to express in the most genuine way her absurd
ignorance.
He looked steadily at her for perhaps a quarter of a minute; then he
spoke, beginning at once as though his mind were made up and his
confidence established:
“My name is Eugene Corbeck. I am a Master of Arts and Doctor of Laws
and Master of Surgery of Cambridge; Doctor of Letters of Oxford; Doctor
of Science and Doctor of Languages of London University; Doctor of
Philosophy of Berlin; Doctor of Oriental Languages of Paris. I have
some other degrees, honorary and otherwise, but I need not trouble you
with them. Those I have name will show you that I am sufficiently
feathered with diplomas to fly into even a sick-room. Early in life-fortunately for my interests and pleasures, but unfortunately for my
pocket-I fell in with Egyptology. I must have been bitten by some
powerful scarab, for I took it bad. I went out tomb-hunting; and
managed to get a living of a sort, and to learn some things that you
can’t get out of books. I was in pretty low water when I met your
Father, who was doing some explorations on his own account; and since
then I haven’t found that I have many unsatisfied wants. He is a real
patron of the arts; no mad Egyptologist can ever hope for a better
chief!”
He spoke with feeling; and I was glad to see that Miss Trelawny coloured
up with pleasure at the praise of her father. I could not help
noticing, however, that Mr. Corbeck was, in a measure, speaking as if
against time. I took it that he wished, while speaking, to study his
ground; to see how far he would be justified in taking into confidence
the two strangers before him. As he went on, I could see that his
confidence kept increasing. When I thought of it afterward, and
remembered what he had said, I realised that the measure of the
information which he gave us marked his growing trust.
“i have been several times out on expeditions in Egypt for your Father;
and I have always found it a delight to work for him. Many of his
treasures-and he has some rare ones, I tell you-he has procured through
me, either by my exploration or by purchase-or-or-otherwise. Your
Father, Miss Trelawny, has a rare knowledge. He sometimes makes up his
mind that he wants to find a particular thing, of whose existence-if it
still exists-he has become aware; and he will follow it all over the
world till he gets it. I’ve been on just such a chase now.”
He stopped suddenly, as suddenly as thought his mouth had been shut by
the jerk of a string. We waited; when he went on he spoke with a
caution that was new to him, as though he wished to forestall our asking
any questions:
“I am not at liberty to mentions anything of my mission; where it was
to, what it was for, or anything at all about it. Such matters are in
confidence between Mr. Trelawny and myself; I am pledged to absolute
secrecy.”
He paused, and an embarrassed look crept over his face. Suddenly he
said:
“You are sure, Miss Trelawny, your Father is not well enough to see me
today?”
A look of wonderment was on her face in turn. But it cleared at once;—
she stood up, saying in a tone in which dignity and graciousness were
blended:
“Come and see for yourself!” She moved toward her father’s room; he
followed, and I brought up the rear.
Mr. Corbeck entered the sick-room as though he knew it. There is an
unconscious attitude or bearing to persons in new surroundings which
there is no mistaking. Even in his anxiety to see his powerful friend,
he glanced for a moment round the room, as at a familiar place. Then
all his attention became fixed on the bed. I watched him narrowly, for
somehow I felt that on this man depended much of our enlightenment
regarding the strange matter in which we were involved.
It was not that I doubted him. The man was of transparent honesty; it
was this very quality which we had to dread. He was of that courageous,
fixed trueness to his undertaking, that if he should deem it his duty to
guard a secret he would do it to the last. The case before us was, at
least, an unusual one; and it would, consequently, require more liberal
recognition of bounds of the duty of secrecy than would hold under
ordinary conditions. To us, ignorance was helplessness. If we could
learn anything of the past we might at least form some idea of the
conditions antecedent to the attack; and might, so, achieve some means
of helping the patient to recovery. There were curios whish might be
removed… .My thoughts were beginning to whirl once again; I pulled
myself up sharply and watched. There was a look of infinite pity on the
sun-stained, rugged face as he gazed at his friend, lying so helpless.
The sternness of Mr. Trelawny’s face had not relaxed in sleep; but
somehow it made the helplessness more marked. It would not have
troubled one to see a weak or an ordinary face under such conditions;
but this purposeful, masterful man, lying before us wrapped in
impenetrable sleep, had all the pathos of a great ruin. The sight was
not a new one to us; but I could see that Miss Trelawny, like myself,
was moved afresh by it in the presence of the stranger. Mr. Corbeck’s
face grew stern. All the pity died away; and in its stead came a grim,
hard look which boded ill for whoever had been the cause of this mighty
downfall. This look in turn gave place to one of decision; the volcanic
energy of the man was working to some definite purpose.
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