CHAPTER X
THE TULUN-NUR CHEST
"This box," said Mr. Meyerstein, bending attentively over the carvenbrass coffer upon the table, "is certainly of considerable value, andpossibly almost unique."
Nayland Smith glanced across at me with a slight smile. Mr. Meyersteinran one fat finger tenderly across the heavily embossed figures, which,like barnacles, encrusted the sides and lid of the weird curio whichwe had summoned him to appraise.
"What do you think, Lewison?" he added, glancing over his shoulder atthe clerk who accompanied him.
Lewison, whose flaxen hair and light blue eyes almost served to maskhis Semitic origin, shrugged his shoulders in a fashion incongruousin one of his complexion, though characteristic in one of his name.
"It is as you say, Mr. Meyerstein, an example of early Tulun-Nurwork," he said. "It may be sixteenth century or even earlier. TheKuren treasure-chest in the Hague Collection has points ofsimilarity, but the workmanship of this specimen is infinitely finer."
"In a word, gentlemen," snapped Nayland Smith, rising from thearm-chair in which he had been sitting, and beginning restlessly topace the room, "in a word, you would be prepared to make me asubstantial offer for this box?"
Mr. Meyerstein, his shrewd eyes twinkling behind the pebbles of hispince-nez, straightened himself slowly, turned in the ponderous mannerof a fat man, and readjusted the pince-nez upon his nose. He clearedhis throat.
"I have not yet seen the interior of the box, Mr. Smith," he said.
Smith paused in his perambulation of the carpet and stared hard atthe celebrated art dealer.
"Unfortunately," he replied, "the key is missing."
"Ah!" cried the assistant, Lewison, excitedly, "you are mistaken, sir!Coffers of this description and workmanship are nearly alwayscomplicated conjuring tricks; they rarely open by any such rationalmeans as lock and key. For instance, the Kuren treasure-chest towhich I referred, opens by an intricate process involving the pressingof certain knobs in the design, and the turning of others."
"It was ultimately opened," said Mr. Meyerstein, with a faint note ofprofessional envy in his voice, "by one of Christie's experts."
"Does my memory mislead me," I interrupted, "or was it not regardingthe possession of the chest to which you refer, that the celebratedcase of 'Hague versus Jacobs' arose?"
"You are quite right, Dr. Petrie," said Meyerstein, turning to me."The original owner, a member of the Younghusband Expedition, had beenunable to open the chest. When opened at Christie's it proved tocontain jewels and other valuables. It was a curious case, wasn't it,Lewison?" turning to his clerk.
"Very," agreed the other absently; then--"Have you endeavored to openthis box, Mr. Smith?"
Nayland Smith shook his head grimly.
"From its weight," said Meyerstein, "I am inclined to think that thecontents might prove of interest. With your permission I willendeavor to open it."
Nayland Smith, tugging reflectively at the lobe of his left ear, stoodlooking at the expert. Then--
"I do not care to attempt it at present," he said.
Meyerstein and his clerk stared at the speaker in surprise.
"But you would be mad," cried the former, "if you accepted an offer forthe box, whilst ignorant of the nature of its contents."
"But I have invited no offer," said Smith. "I do not propose to sell."
Meyerstein adjusted his pince-nez again.
"I am a business man," he said, "and I will make a business proposal:A hundred guineas for the box, cash down, and our commission to be tenper cent on the proceeds of the contents. You must remember," raisinga fat forefinger to check Smith, who was about to interrupt him, "thatit may be necessary to force the box in order to open it, therebydecreasing its market value and making it a bad bargain at a hundredguineas."
Nayland Smith met my gaze across the room; again a slight smilecrossed the lean, tanned face.
"I can only reply, Mr. Meyerstein," he said, "in this way: if I desireto place the box on the market, you shall have first refusal, and thesame applies to the contents, if any. For the moment if you will sendme a note of your fee, I shall be obliged." He raised his hand with aconclusive gesture. "I am not prepared to discuss the question of saleany further at present, Mr. Meyerstein."
At that the dealer bowed, took up his hat from the table, and preparedto depart. Lewison opened the door and stood aside.
"Good morning, gentlemen," said Meyerstein.
As Lewison was about to follow him--
"Since you do not intend to open the box," he said, turning, his handupon the door knob, "have you any idea of its contents?"
"None," replied Smith; "but with my present inadequate knowledge ofits history, I do not care to open it."
Lewison smiled skeptically.
"Probably you know best," he said, bowed to us both, and retired.
When the door was closed--
"You see, Petrie," said Smith, beginning to stuff tobacco into hisbriar, "if we are ever short of funds, here's something"--pointing tothe Tulun-Nur box upon the table--"which would retrieve our fallenfortunes."
He uttered one of his rare, boyish laughs, and began to pace thecarpet again, his gaze always set upon our strange treasure. What didit contain?
The manner in which it had come into our possession suggested that itmight contain something of the utmost value to the Yellow group. Forwe knew the house of John Ki to be, if not the head-quarters, certainlya meeting-place of the mysterious organization the Si-Fan; we knewthat Dr. Fu-Manchu used the place--Dr. Fu-Manchu, the uncanny beingwhose existence seemingly proved him immune from natural laws, adeathless incarnation of evil.
My gaze set upon the box, I wondered anew what strange, dark secretsit held; I wondered how many murders and crimes greater than murderblackened its history.
"Smith," I said suddenly, "now that the mystery of the absence of akey-hole is explained, I am sorely tempted to essay the task ofopening the coffer. I think it might help us to a solution of thewhole mystery."
"And I think otherwise!" interrupted my friend grimly. "In a word,Petrie, I look upon this box as a sort of hostage by means of which--who knows--we might one day buy our lives from the enemy.I have a sort of fancy, call it superstition if you will, thatnothing--not even our miraculous good luck--could save us if oncewe ravished its secret."
I stared at him amazedly; this was a new phase in his character.
"I am conscious of something almost like a spiritual unrest," hecontinued. "Formerly you were endowed with a capacity for diviningthe presence of Fu-Manchu or his agents. Some such second-sight wouldappear to have visited me now, and it directs me forcibly to avoidopening the box."
His steps as he paced the floor grew more and more rapid. Herelighted his pipe, which had gone out as usual, and tossed thematch-end into the hearth.
"To-morrow," he said, "I shall lodge the coffer in a place of greatersecurity. Come along, Petrie, Weymouth is expecting us at Scotland Yard."