The Great God Gold Part 45

"But you desire your own happiness, and can secure it, providing I am silent," he said in a low, clear deliberate voice. "Think what it would mean to you if you gave the alarm--the wrecking of your own life, and the arrest of your friend Mullet! But I give you perfect liberty to choose your future course of action. I have no wish to coerce you."

"You could not, even if you wished!" she declared, yet through her brain surged thoughts of what the loss of Frank would mean to her.

The man before her was a blackguard. He had shown himself as such.

With perfect coolness he could besmirch her fair name in such a manner that it could never again be cleared.

At that moment the girl was fighting for her own honour as well as her father's secret which this man had gained. It was a secret no longer-- it could never be. Their enemies had triumphed!

She set her teeth hard, and tried to think.

Jim Jannaway was quick to notice her change of manner.

"Remember," he remarked, "one word to your father regarding this visit of mine, and your lover and your father shall know the truth!"

"They will know whatever lies you invent regarding me!" she said in a voice of intense bitterness.

He only shrugged his shoulders and smiled. She, a mere innocent girl, had no chance against his quick intellect, sharpened as it had been by years of crafty cunning and double dealing. To the "crooks" and silk-hatted adventurers of London the very name of Jim Jannaway was synonymous of all that was perfection in kid-gloved blackguardism.

"Well," he said a moment later, "I haven't time for further argument, Miss Griffin. I'm sorry I can't stay longer. Perhaps the front door would be a less conspicuous exit for me."

And so saying he stepped out upon the balcony, untied the silken rope from the railing, rolled it up swiftly, and placed it in his pocket.

A moment later he was again standing before her.

She stood glaring at him with a look of bitter hatred, while he recognised that her lips were already effectually sealed.

She dare not risk the suspicions which he could with a word place upon her. Hence he, alas! held her in his power!

"Remember!" he said, "I shall say nothing until you dare to give me away. It is a compact between us. Silence for silence!"

Then, without further word, he moved across to the door, unlocked it, and next second had disappeared noiselessly down the stairs.

And with him had gone the great secret of the hiding-place of the treasure of Israel which her father believed to be his--and his alone!

The girl cast herself into a chair, and gave way to a paroxysm of tears.

Jim Jannaway and his friends had again triumphed.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

SHOWS FURTHER COMPLICATIONS.

At nine o'clock next morning the hunch-backed Doctor, pale and eager, was closeted with the Professor, to whom he related what he had witnessed while watching outside the house in Berkeley Square on the previous night.

In consequence of this, the good-looking Laura was summoned to the study, closely questioned, and returning impudent answers, was summarily dismissed and left the house.

"So it is Sir Felix Challas who is desirous of ascertaining our secret,"

remarked Aminger Griffin, greatly surprised, "He is such a great churchman, and such a high-minded philanthropist, that I can hardly believe that he should employ such methods. Why, only this very week I saw in the papers that he has made a fourth donation to Guy's Hospital of two thousand pounds."

"He is a swindler, hiding himself beneath the cloak of religion,"

declared Diamond emphatically. "I have seen Mullet this morning, and he has promised to call and have a chat with you. He will come to-day, I expect."

"Well," exclaimed the Professor with some hesitation, and with a smile of triumph upon his lips, "we need have no further fear of our enemies, Doctor, for we have forestalled them. Yesterday I succeeded in deciphering the whole record in Ezekiel, and convincing myself of the existence of a similar cipher in Deuteronomy. I have here the complete translation in English." And he placed the doc.u.ment in the Doctor's trembling hands.

The ugly little man read it through eagerly, and then sat staring straight into the Professor's face.

"Then the secret of the treasure of Israel is revealed!" he gasped in a low voice, as though fearing to be overheard. "But is it not probable that your servant listened, and heard you tell Miss Gwen the manner in which the cipher could be read?"

"No doubt. But fearing that, in a matter of this magnitude I might be the victim of treachery, I deviated slightly from the correct key, in such a manner as to throw out the whole reading!" laughed the Professor.

"I told my daughter so afterwards."

"Mullet has told me a good deal. I stayed with him in his rooms last night," the Doctor said. "It appears that Sir Felix Challas's methods are, on occasions, so unscrupulous as to be criminal. In his employ he has a dangerous scoundrel named Jim Jannaway--a thief and gaol-bird, though his exterior is that of a gentleman. He has served several terms of imprisonment for burglary. To this man the philanthropist of Berkeley Square, who received a Baronetcy for his good deeds, leaves his dirty work. From what Mullet told me I should not be surprised that it was he who arranged that your servant should spy upon you."

"Mullet is also an outsider, is he not?" remarked the Professor with some suspicion.

"Of course, but of necessity. Though he may rob the rich, he prides himself on never having done a mean action to a poor person, or a woman."

"Ah! Doctor," laughed Griffin. "I see you believe in degrees of crime--eh?"

"In this case, yes. `Red Mullet' has greatly a.s.sisted us. It was he who telegraphed to me from his retreat in Kent to watch the house in Berkeley Square. And now he has explained to me many points which were hitherto mysteries."

"We need have no fear of our enemies now," remarked the Professor, as at that moment Gwen, looking fresh in her white blouse and navy serge skirt, entered the room brightly and greeted the ugly little hunchback.

"It only remains for us to call Farquhar into conference, and decide how we shall act. Somebody should proceed at once to Jerusalem, decide the exact spot, and purchase the land. We can have time for further operations when once the land on both sides of the hill is ours.

Farquhar has promised that Sir George will find the necessary funds for that, if we so desire."

Gwen, holding her breath, walked to the window and looked out upon the gloomy London street.

Her position was hideous. Her father believed that the great secret was his--and his alone. Frank would believe it--and by remaining silent she would be misleading her lover into a false sense of security.

She knew, alas! that their enemies would hesitate at nothing--that the Treasure of Israel was already lost to them--lost to the Jews for ever!

With her back turned to her father and his visitor she stood listening, her clenched hands trembling. What could she do? How could she act?

Suppose she told the truth, and bore the inevitable blow?

"It's certainly fortunate that you did not explain to Miss Gwen the actual mode of deciphering the record," the Doctor was remarking, "for Sir Felix and Haupt, at any rate, cannot gain the knowledge we have gained."

"Sir Felix--who--dad?" inquired the girl, turning quickly.

"Sir Felix Challas, my dear," was the Professor's reply. "The Doctor has discovered that it is he who is our enemy. He poses as a great philanthropist as you well know. His portrait is in this week's _Tatler_--over yonder."

The girl crossed quickly, took up the paper, and searched the pages eagerly. Then when her gaze fell upon the picture, the journal nearly fell from her nerveless fingers.

She recognised the brutal, red-faced man who had been her inquisitor, and who would have struck her had not Mullet interfered, and stood her champion.

Beneath the portrait was a laudatory notice of the hypocrite's n.o.ble contribution to the funds of charities of London.

"You see, Doctor," her father went on, not noticing the girl's blanched face and horror-struck eyes, "Erich Haupt will only be entirely misled by the statement I made to Gwen. By using the cipher in that manner, he will obtain a jumble of Hebrew letters which represent nothing. No. We need not fear Sir Felix and his anti-Semitic views in the least. We alone know the place of concealment of the sacred treasure of Israel."