The Lord of the Sea Part 28

Nowhere did it reach the eye of a Departmental Head. It went to Siam, to the Prince of Monaco, to Ecuador, and was tossed to c.u.mber a basket, or moulder on a file.

But Hogarth, who knew that it would be instantly forgotten, had written it so as to be able to say that he had written it.

At that time he was lodging in a top room in Bloomsbury, and had an underground den in Leadenhall Street, on its doors the words: "R. Beech & Co." Thither in a brougham he drove daily, lying very low, but holding in that den interviews with all sorts and conditions of men, and feeling his way toward operations of dimensions so immense, that their mere project had a modifying influence upon industry.

x.x.x

MR. BEECH

During six weeks Hogarth lived that life of daily pa.s.sage between Keppel Street and his office, unknown to the general world, but spreading a noise of rumour through certain circles of the business world. All day in the den the gas-jets brawled upon him, he not for minutes casting a glance, if a clerk brought a caller's name. And here was no novice modesty in the tackling of affairs; as O'Hara, who would be there, said: "You must have been _born_ in the City; you have the airs, the very tricks, of Threadneedle Street, you--Jew". In a day the prelate counted seven hundred and thirteen telegrams from the Terni Cannon foundry, many a diamond dealer, polisher, cutter, the Vulcan s.h.i.+pyard of Stettin, the Clydebank, Cramp of Philadelphia, the Russian Finance Minister, San Francisco, Lloyd's, metal brokers, the Neva, and one night, the eve of a dash to Amsterdam, he, with O'Hara, Loveday, and five clerks, sat swotting till morning broke, sustained by gin and soda-water. The priest lived with wide eyes at the easy fleetness with which Hogarth rolled off him the greatest affairs: as when on the day after his return from Holland he stood, his thumbs in his waistcoat armholes, with quite the right air of serene City-king, his tallness possessing considerable natural courtliness, and the De Beers' Secretary sat before him, saying, "Well, Mr. Beech, I have spent the morning with your brokers, and have felt that I must see you personally before calling a meeting. This proposition is so tremendous--"

"I only wish I had some time", said Hogarth, "I would invite you to dine upon the matter; but it is really so simple--everything at bottom is merely twice two are four. And you are not obliged to turn over Kimberley to me: only, in that case, as I have said, I shall be compelled to flood the market with diamonds as cheap as cat's-eyes--"

When De Beers stared, Hogarth shrugged, saying: "I suppose I must convince you--" and, unlocking a safe, he took out an _ecrin_ which contained three stones. De Beers appeared to see t.i.tania peering in their fairy painting.

"Of stones of this water and carating", said Hogarth, "we have two hundred and eleven in the Bank of England, two hundred and thirty-eight in other English and Continental banks, and seventy-five in safe-deposit. The carating of these three is 111-1/2; and in the sixties, such as this one"--he took a stone from among coppers in his pocket--"we have three hundred odd on hand, all flawless, and an equal number cutting. When I point out, what you know, that our mine is as yet without the delicate plant of Kimberley, the stones being simply picked from the blue-earth by three inexpert friends of the firm on the spot, you will recognize that the wealth of a mine can no further go...."

He was rid of the visitor within six minutes, and within three weeks, by knack and organization, had gathered into his hands most of the reins necessary to the control of the world's trade in diamonds.

In an outer room sat O'Hara, writing, reading Theocritus, or a little book on mediaeval embroidery, forefinger on cheek; and anon, absolutely without motive, he would rise, creep, and peep through a keyhole at Hogarth, then on stalking, bowing tiptoe, grinning a rancid grimace of stealth, get back to his seat, and read--the tutor falling over head and ears in love with his pupil: one of those pa.s.sions that end tragically.

One day, as he so sat, the bell _pinged_, the door opened, and O'Hara jumped to find himself face to face with--Frankl, who had come to see the new diamond king, in the firm belief that Mr. Beech was none other than O'Hara; and, "I thought as much!" said he.

"_Sh-h-h_", went O'Hara bitterly--"for G.o.d's sake! he is _in there_--!"

"Who is?"

"_Hogarth!_"

"Well, but--"

"Outside--in the pa.s.sage--"

They stepped out; and Frankl, his eyelids red, said: "I have only this day crawled from bed with the blow you struck my temple, or I should have had you before this--"

"_Sh-h-h_. Your own fault, sir. _You_ played false first--"

"Played false with my own diamonds? You hand me over this day one-half those stones, or I bring a civil action for the whole, hound you to beggary, and drag you back to your convict-cell where you come from".

"Don't lift your voice, I beg of you. Tut, you rave. You can't bring a civil action against a great millionaire who doesn't care to defend; and as for me, I do a.s.sure you, I haven't fifty pounds to-day. _It is Hogarth who is Mr. Beech!_"

"_Who?_"--Frankl obtruded a startled ear, frowning his eyes small.

"Hogarth. He has the diamonds back!"

"Which diamonds? How did he get 'em?"

"He is--_in_--_there_: better go and ask him! He got them by black art--by the aid of the legion of mediaeval witches which wait on him--_G.o.d_ knows how he got them! _You_ gave them to him! _I_ gave them to him! but he's got them--_in--there_! Better go and ask him--don't be afraid--just for the roaring fun of it--"

"Hogarth?"

"Yes--Hogarth, Hogarth".

"Cheated the gallows? And out of prison? And rolling in my wealth, my riches, my diamonds? Oh, no!--is that fair? A dog? Is that how the world is run? G.o.d of Israel!"

"There is this to be said for him: that he _deserves_ to be rich--"

"Who? So you are taking his part now?"

"Tut--!"

"There is no _tut_ about it! You confess that you are nothing more than a penniless hanger-on: well, then, I have _you_! back to prison you go this hour---!"

O'Hara's cheek trembled; but he said: "A sufficiently vain threat, sir: I am Hogarth's tutor: he won't let me be taken. Don't waste your time, you impotent Jew--"

"Tutor? That's good! What you teaching him?--murder? _outrage?_ He _ought_ to have a tutor, he! That's good! Tutor! Well, suppose I drop a line first post to your nice _pupil_ to let him know that it was his _tutor_ who stole his diamonds--"

At this threat O'Hara felt himself outflanked; and though his eyes surveyed the Jew unflinchingly during a silence, inwardly he had succ.u.mbed.

"A man in Hogarth's situation", he slowly said, "is always liable to attack. Why should two sharp old fellows like you and me, whose interests are identical, quarrel?"--and instantly Frankl took note of that surrender, that weak spot, and knew that the man was his.

"Well", said he, "so true--two old gaol-birds like you and me, eh? So true, so true. But what beats me--who runs Beech's? Hogarth is only a young farmer: he can't operate all the big things I hear about this Mr.

Beech--"

"Tut, you do not conceive the man as he is at all", said O'Hara: "perhaps you cannot. High finance, the first day he looked into it, ceased to mystify him, for he goes always to the ground of things, touches bottom, where first principles lie, and first principles are simple as two and two. It was because he had discovered a first principle that he escaped from Colmoor. And he is as nimble as six twisting minnows: what you or I learned in a year he learns in an hour, and if he does not know the usual way, not an instant does he hesitate to invent a way. You know about Owthwaite's: how the recent shake-out of the market threatened their collapse, like so many others'. Owthwaite's, in fact, had already declared, when Hogarth decided to help them over.

And how? Not Bills! He filled up a call-in of two millions and a half by the India Council, resettled loans and short-discount business, cheapened money, and in twelve hours his _proteges_ were off the rocks.

And now I hear--"

"But why not buy a chapel, and preach about him? I hate--"

"Stop! O Lord--he is calling--"

"Here's my card; I want to see you to-night at that address at eight".

And that night at Frankl's town-house in Hanover Square Jew and prelate conferred, O'Hara for some time resisting, but finally again taking sides against his saviour. He disclosed that Hogarth, beyond doubt, kept a few diamonds in a goat-hair trunk in his room--enough to make two ordinary fortunes, and also carried two or three, with some hundred-pound notes on his person; and this was made the basis of a scheme for bringing about the arrest of Hogarth, the first step being to get from Hogarth the sum he carried about him, leaving him in a situation where he would find himself powerless to bribe.

This Frankl undertook; and O'Hara promised to lend Harris, and some friends of Harris.

Now, during these weeks Hogarth was living in some fear, haunted by insecurity and a vision of Colmoor; and, remembering the theft at Thring, with a consciousness of Frankl somewhere in him, he went not only with diamonds on his person, but a revolver as well, and a _punal_ of Toledo.

But three evenings after the conference in Hanover Square, he received this letter:

"Dearest Richard:

"It is long since we have met. This is to let you know that I have heard of your getting out, and your coming into great things, which has made my heart rejoice. I, alas, am just the other way about. I am staying for the next two days at Woodfield Cottage, Wylie Street, Finchley Road, N. I understand that you are lying low, so better not come to see me perhaps, but send me something.