CHAPTER IV
"It was before the war. Many strange things have happened in the worldbefore the Boche broke loose with his dream of 'Deutschland ueber Alles.'I had been to Melville Island trying to match a pearl for the Devonshirenecklace, and I went from the pearl fisheries to New Zealand, led thereby rumours of the discovery of some wonderful black pearls. It was,however, a wild-goose chase. These rumours generally are. One of theexperts of the New Zealand Fishery Department had been exploring theHaurakai Gulf, and returned to Auckland with a number of black pearls,which he had found in an oyster-bed on one of the Barrier Islands. Hethought his fortune was made, though, being a fishery expert, he oughtto have known better. They were black pearls right enough, but they camefrom edible oysters, and were valueless as jewels--not worth a shillingeach.
"I put up at the Royal hotel, Auckland, waiting for a ship to take meback to England. I had arranged to return round the Cape, to look at aparcel of diamonds which were expected to arrive at Capetown from thefields in about six weeks' time. The day before I was due to sail, arough-looking man named Moynglass, a miner, came to the hotel to see me.He had heard of me as a mining expert, and he had a business propositionwhich he wanted to place before me.
"He told me he and four others had just returned to Auckland afterputting in six weeks among the volcanic beaches of the North Island,searching--'fossicking,' he called it--for fine gold. These black sandvolcanic beaches are common in parts of New Zealand. The black sand isderived from the crystals of magnetic iron, and there is frequently afair amount of fine gold mingled with them. By the continued action ofthe surf the heavier materials, gold, and ironstone sand, are mingledtogether between high and low water mark, and what appears as a stratumof black sand is found on the surface or buried under the ordinary sand.The gold is usually very fine, and the trouble of sifting and collectingit is great. A man works for wages, and hard-earned wages at that, whogoes in for this kind of mining. But your true miner is ever anadventurer and a gambler, and gold thus won is dearer to his heart thangold which might be earned with less effort and more regularity in theform of sovereigns. You see, there is always the chance of a big find.
"Moynglass and his party had met with fair success along the beaches,but they wanted more than that. Moynglass was anxious to trace the finegold to its source, and find a fortune. He believed, like most miners,that this fine gold is carried along the beds of the larger rivers anddistributed by the action of the sea along the different beaches whereit is found. His theory was that if the drift of the gold sands could betraced to their source, a great quartz reef would be found which wouldmake the discoverers wealthy men. But he and his mates knew nothingabout geology, and they wanted somebody to go with them who could chartthe course, and lead them to the launching point of the gold.
"I had heard this theory before, and was not impressed by it. I shouldprobably have turned down Moynglass's proposition if, in the course ofhis conversation, he had not produced a sample of ruby quartz from hispocket and showed it to me. He said he had found it while exploring oneof the rivers of the Urewera country. I examined the quartz attentively.It was emery rock, and imbedded in the pale green mass were rubycrystals, and true Oriental rubies at that. I realized the valuablenature of the discovery, and questioned the man closely as to where hehad obtained the ruby rock, but he became instantly suspicious, andguarded in his replies. If I joined his party--well and good: he wouldshow me the spot, and we would share and share alike, but he would tellme nothing otherwise.
"I decided to go, and the terms were agreed upon. We set out fromAuckland, the five of us, a week later. We went by coastal steamer to alittle port in the Bay of Plenty, and there we plunged into the UreweraMountains. My companions thought of nothing but the search for thesource of the golden sands, but I was interested only in the ruby rock.There lay the fortune, if I could find it. I carried the specimen ofcorundum in my waistcoat pocket.
"The river we were ascending to its source was called the Araheoa. Itwas a rushing, noisy torrent, winding along a deep and narrow gorge,which in places almost met overhead. Some patches of olivine andserpentine encouraged me to think that we should find a heavy belt ofthe rock somewhere along the upper part of the valley, but my hopes werenot realized. Day after day passed, and I found no more of it. When mycompanions washed the sands of likely stretches of river beach for finegold, I examined the waste for corundum crystals, but I found no signsof them.
"We followed the river until we reached an inaccessible mountain gorgewhich seemed to bar our further progress. But, by diverting our coursesome miles to the northward, we were able to ascend to the upper reachesof the river, and, here, to my delight, I found the banks and rapidsstudded with great green masses of olivine rocks.
"I was anxious to examine these rocks, which extended up the mountainside, and my companions agreed with me that it was advisable to leavethe bed of the river for the spur of the mountains where the riverapparently took its rise. We crossed the stream, and commenced a gradualbut oblique ascent of the spur. But after climbing for some hours wefound our further progress stopped by a wide and deep gully, a sinisterplace, full of masses of dark green rocks. At the foot of one of thelargest of these rocks we came across a large hole descending almostperpendicularly into the earth.
"We lit our lamps and descended. After some scrambling we foundourselves on a landing-place, from which another low passage of aneasier gradient led into a large cave in the solid rock.
"The surface underneath our feet was covered with a dust so fine that itslipped from beneath us like sand, and rose in thick clouds about us.The cave was high enough to walk upright in, and seemed to run a greatdistance, with many lateral passages and smaller recesses off theprincipal chamber. Moynglass entered one of these passages anddisappeared from view. A few moments afterwards we heard him, in a veryexcited voice, calling us to follow him.
"We proceeded stooping, in Indian file, down the passage, and foundMoynglass in a smaller cave at the end of it, staring intently atsomething which was at first difficult to see in the gloom. Then, by thelight of our lamps, we made out a sapling sticking up between two rocks,with a withered human hand impaled on it by a rusty sheath knife.
"As I was examining it, one of my companions, who had been exploring thecave, gave a cry of astonishment which caused me to look round. In acorner of the cave, revealed by his lamp, lay two skeletons side byside. The hand of one skeleton was missing, and in the eye of the otherthere gleamed a large uncut ruby. We examined the skeletons and searchedthe cave, but found nothing to throw any light on the mystery or revealany clue of identity. There was not a vestige of food or clothing aroundthe remains, and not a scrap of writing--only the two crumblingskeletons, the sapling, the sheath knife, and the ruby.
"What had brought about such a tragedy in the dim recesses of thatprehistoric cave? Who could say? Perhaps the men had been prospectingtogether, and one had found the ruby and hidden in the cave, where hiscompanion had found him and cut off his right hand with some primitiveidea of making his vengeance fit the crime. Then, perhaps, they had beenunable to escape from the cave, and had died together of thirst andhunger. But what is the use of speculating? The secret must ever remainhidden in the cave where the skeletons still lie."
Musard stopped abruptly, and sat staring straight in front of him. Hisstrange eyes had a fixed look, as if gazing into the distance. His brownhand rested lightly on the white tablecloth, and the great ruby on hislittle finger gleamed fitfully in the light.
"You haven't told us all the story yet," said Phil Heredith quietly.
The other looked doubtfully at the ring of intent faces regarding him."I left that part untold for a good reason," he admitted. "It is--well,I thought it a little bit too horrible to relate."
"Oh, do tell us," said the lady journalist enthusiastically. "We are alldying to hear it. It is such an unusual and exciting story that it wouldbe cruel to leave us in suspense about the end."
"Very well, then," said Musard
, as the other ladies chorused theirapproval. "We left the cave, and Moynglass, who considered himself theleader of the expedition, put the ruby in his pocket. That night wecamped at a wild desolate spot, not far from the edge of a cliff abouttwo hundred feet high, at the foot of which the bitter sulphurous watersof the river flowed into a chasm. In the morning we found Moynglasslying dead in his blanket, with the rusty sheath knife he had broughtaway from the cave sticking in his breast. The ruby was gone, and, so,also, was the eldest member of our party--an elderly dark-faced Irishmannamed Doyne, who, the previous day, had angrily disputed Moynglass'sright to carry the ruby.
"We searched for Doyne all that day, but could find no trace of him. Thenext day we tracked across a glacier-like expanse littered with largeblocks of sandstone. It was a grim spot. A horrible, stony, treelesswaste which might have been the birthplace of the earth and the scene ofCreation--a tableland between great mountains, full of masses ofrhodonite contorted into grotesque shapes of stone images; a place whereour lightest whispers came shouting back out of the profound stillnessfrom the huge castellated black rocks bristling on the edge of aprecipice which slit the valley from end to end.
"It was there we found Doyne, staggering along the lip of the gorge. Hehad gone mad in the solitude, and was wandering along bareheaded,tossing his arms in the air as he walked. When I saw him I thought ofCain trying to escape from the wrath of God after killing Abel. He sawus as soon as we saw him, and started to run. We set out in pursuit, buthe fled with great speed, leaping from rock to rock like a mountaingoat. He was getting away from us when he slipped and fell into thechasm with a loud cry. We found a path down the precipice and descended,and discovered him at the foot, battered to death, with the rubyclutched in his hand. That ended the expedition. The others insisted onreturning to the coast without delay, and when we arrived there theygladly sold their shares in the ruby to me."
There was rather a long silence when the explorer had finished hisnarration. The long hand of the clock on the mantelpiece was creepingpast the half-hour, but the circle round the dining-room table had beenso enthralled by the story that nobody had noted the passage of time.
"What a ghastly adventure, Mr. Musard!" began one of the ladies, with amirthless little laugh. "Did you never discover anything more about thetwo dead men in the cave?"
"No," replied Musard. "As I said, there were no papers or any clue tothrow light on their identity. The skeletons must have lain there formany years, for the bones were crumbling into decay."
"You have never revisited the spot?" asked Sir Philip.
"I was in the Ureweras two years later with a Maori guide, investigatingcopper deposits for the New Zealand Government, but I did not go back tothe valley."
"Would it not have been possible to give the poor things--the skeletons,I mean--Christian burial?" Mrs. Spicer asked timidly.
"It was impossible to dig a grave in the solid rock. Besides, they havea sepulchre of Nature's which will outlast any human grave," repliedMusard.
"The thing that puzzles me is how the ruby got into the skeleton's eye,"remarked the lady journalist musingly. "If that was the skeleton of theman who killed the other for stealing the ruby, who placed the rubywhere you found it? Obviously, he could not have done it himself, for itmust have been put there after death. Who, then, could it have been?"
"I have no idea," said Musard, in a tone which suggested that he did notcare to discuss the subject further.
"May I look at the ring?" Miss Garton asked.
Musard drew it off his finger and handed it to her in silence. Theothers wanted to see it, so it was passed from hand to hand round thetable, to the accompaniment of many admiring comments on the size andbeauty of the stone. One of the young officers, with an air of muchinterest, asked Musard whether he thought there were other rubies likeit to be found near the spot.
"Hardly in that form," replied Musard. "It is a puzzle to me how the menwho found the ruby managed to get it out of the ruby rock and partiallypolish it. They had no tools or instruments of any kind--at least, wefound none in the cave. Undoubtedly there are rubies in that part of theworld. It was near the valley that Moynglass found his sample ofcorundum, with a ruby crystal in it. On our way back, at the head of thevalley, I came across a belt of magnesian rocks charged with ores ofcopper and iron, and probably containing the matrix of ruby crystals."
"I wonder you wear the thing," said the chubby-faced youth of the FlyingCorps, handing the ring across the table to the explorer.
"Why not?" asked Musard.
"Well, I wouldn't care to wear a ring found in a skeleton's head. Ishould expect the old bus to flop to the ground while I was doing astunt, if I had a thing like that on my finger. Aren't you frightened ofbeing haunted by the original owner?"
"Oh, I don't know," replied Musard indifferently. "There's a horriblehistory attached to most jewels, if it comes to that. I am notsuperstitious." He replaced the ring on his finger, and addedthoughtfully: "I suppose many people would regard it in that light--as agrim sort of relic. Certainly, I shall never forget the valley of rockswhere we found it. It was the strangest place I have ever seen--a 'wastehowling wilderness.' And sometimes I fancy I can still hear the cryDoyne gave as he slipped or jumped from one of the black rocks intospace. I remember how it came ringing back from the cliffs a hundredtimes repeated. It was--"
He broke off suddenly, as a scream pealed through the moat-house--a wildshrill cry, which, coming from somewhere overhead, seemed to fill thedining-room with the shuddering, despairing intensity of its appeal. Itwas the shriek of a woman in terror.
The ladies at the dinner table regarded one another with frightened eyesand blanched faces.
"What was that?" several of them whispered together.
"It came from Violet's room! My God, what has happened?" exclaimed Phil.He sprang to his feet in agitation and pushed back his chair. His facewas white, his mouth drawn, and he fumbled at his throat with a shakinghand, as though the pressure of his collar impeded his breathing. Musardrose from the table and walked to where the young man was standing.
"Don't get upset needlessly, Phil," he said soothingly, placing a handon his shoulder.
Sir Philip had also risen from his seat, and for the briefest possiblespace the three men stood thus, facing each other, as if uncertain howto act. Then the tense silence of the dining-room was broken by the loudreport of a fire-arm.
"Let me go!" cried Phil shrilly, shaking off Musard's arm. He turned andlimped rapidly towards the door, and as he did so his infirmity of bodywas apparent. One of his legs was several inches shorter than the other,and he wore a high boot.
Musard reached the door before him in a few rapid strides, and SirPhilip came hurrying after his son. The rest of the male guestsfollowed, flocking towards the door in a body.
The first sight that Musard's eye fell upon as he passed through thedoorway was the figure of Miss Heredith, rapidly descending thestaircase. By the hall light he could see that her face was pale andagitated. She walked swiftly up to her old friend, and laid a tremblinghand on his arm.
"Oh, Vincent, I was just coming for you--something terrible must havehappened!" she began, in a broken, sobbing voice. "I was going upstairsto my room, when I heard the scream, and then the shot. They must havecome from Violet's room. Will you go up and see, Vincent?"
Musard did not wait for her concluding words. He was already mountingthe staircase, taking two or three of the broad shallow stairs in hisstride. Phil hobbled after him, and Sir Philip and some of the guestsstraggled up in their wake.