"'Very well, then,' I went on, 'he rang me up some minutes later and asked me if I would take his place for the first hour or so, and he would be here by the end of the first act.'

"'But it is most unheard of,' Ella Barlow e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, 'I don't know you--I've never seen you before!'

"'That is, of course, very regrettable,' I said, 'but I will do all I can for the past. I've something to say that I'm sure will interest you. Have I your permission?'--and without waiting for her reply I sat next to her. The box was a big one, big enough to hold half a dozen people, and we sat in the extreme front of it. The lights were not full up, as the orchestra had not started playing. I kept her attention fixed on my face so that she was unaware what was taking place, immediately behind her.

"'What is it?' she said, 'whatever can you have to say that can be of any possible interest to me?'

"'Why,' I replied, 'to begin with I know something about your character!'

"'Then you're a fortune teller!' she exclaimed eagerly, 'can you read hands?'

"'I can read everything,' I said looking hard at her, 'hands, head, and feet. I am psychometrist, dentist, physician, metaphysician all in one!'

"'I don't understand,' she said looking queer, 'what is the meaning of all this?'

"'It means,' I said slowly, 'that I have discovered who sent those anonymous letters to Herbert Delmas!'

"'Anonymous letters! how dare you!' she cried, 'what have anonymous letters to do with me?'

"'A very great deal, madam,' I replied, 'shall I remind you of their contents and the occasions on which you wrote them?' I did so. I recited every word in them and told her the hour, day and place--namely, when and where each was written, and I summed up by asking what she would pay me not to tell Delmas.

"For some minutes she was too overcome to say anything; she sat grim and silent, her pale eyes glaring at me, her freckled fingers toying with the diamonds. She was baffled and perplexed--she did not know what course to pursue!

"'Well,' I repeated, 'what have you to say? Do you deny it?'

"She roused herself with an effort. 'No,' she said venomously, 'I don't deny it. Denial would be useless. How did you find out? Through one of the maids, I suppose. They were bribed to spy on me!'

"'How I discovered it is of no consequence,' I said, 'but what is of consequence to you as much as to me--is the payment for hushing it up!'

"'Payment!' she cried, raising her voice to a positive shriek in her excitement, 'pay _you_--you nasty, beastly, cadging toad. You--' but I can't repeat all she said, it would make you both blush! I let her go on till she had worn herself out and then I said, 'Well, Miss Barlow, why all this fuss--why these fireworks! It can't do you any good. We must come to business sooner or later. If you don't pay me handsomely I shall tell Miss Roberts as well as Mr. Delmas.'

"'Mr. Delmas won't believe you,' she hissed, 'you've no proofs at all!'

"'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but I've proofs of this. I know you have two deformed toes on your left foot, that all your teeth are false, and that you go to that charlatan, Howard Prince, in Californian Street to be faked up. I must be brutal--it's no use being anything else to women of your sort. You've got a certain species of eczema, and you flatter yourself that no one but you and Prince are aware of it. What have you got to say now, Miss Barlow?' But Ella Barlow had fainted.

When she came to, which I managed after vigorous application of salts and water--the effects of the latter on her complexion I leave you to imagine--I again broached the subject.

"'What is it you propose?' she said feebly.

"'Why this,' I said, 'you hand me over all those diamonds, and your defects will--as far as I am concerned--always remain a secret.

Refuse, and Miss Roberts and Mr. Delmas shall know all there is to be known at once.'

"For some minutes she sat with her face buried in her hands--shivering. Then she looked up at me--and Jerusalem! it was like looking at an old woman. 'Take them,' she said, 'take them! I shall never wear them again, anyhow. Take them--and leave me.'

"Well, you fellows, I steeled my heart, and slipped every Jack one that was on her into my pocket.

"'You won't tell them,' she whispered, catching hold of me by the arm, 'you swear you won't.' I won't try and remember exactly what I answered--but outside the door of the box Delmas joined me. He had been concealed within and had heard everything that pa.s.sed.

"'I can't say how grateful I am to you,' he said. 'It's a bit low down, perhaps, but, then, we were dealing with a low-down person. You thoroughly deserve those diamonds--will you accept an offer for them from me? I should like to buy them for Miss Roberts and present them to her on our reconciliation.' We came to terms then and there, and he 'phoned through to me an hour ago to say that he had made it up with Miss Roberts, that she was delighted with the diamonds, and that they are going to be married next month."

"So out of evil good comes," Hamar said, "the maxim for us, remember, is--out of evil evil alone must come. What are you going to do to-day, you two?"

"Rest!" said Kelson, "I'm tired."

"Eat!" said Curtis, "I'm hungry!"

"Now look here, this won't do," Hamar remarked, "you've earned your rest, Matt, but you haven't, Ed. You can't go on eating eternally."

"Can't I?" Curtis snapped, "I'm not so sure of that, I've years to make up for."

"Then do the thing in moderation, for goodness sake!" Hamar expostulated, "and recollect we must, at all costs, act together. We have now twelve thousand dollars between us in the bank--that is to say, the capital of the Firm of Hamar, Curtis and Kelson represents that amount. It is our ambition to increase that amount--and to go on increasing it till we can fairly claim to be the richest Firm in the world. Now to do that we must work, and work hard, if we are to live at the pace Ed is setting us--but there is no reason why we should remain here, and I propose that we move elsewhere. I've got a scheme in my head, rather a colossal one I admit, but not altogether impossible."

"What is it?" Kelson asked.

"Yes, out with it," Curtis grunted.

"It is this," Hamar said, "I suggest that we go to London--London in England--I guess it's the richest town in the world--and there set up as sorcerers--The Sorcery Company Ltd. We should begin with divination and juggling, and go on, according to the seven stages. We should of course sell our cures and spells, and there is not the slightest doubt but that we should make an enormous pile, with which we would gradually buy up, not merely London, but the whole of England."

"That's rather a tall order," Kelson murmured.

"A small one, you mean," Curtis sneered, "you could put the whole of England twice over in California, and from what I've heard I don't go much on London. I reckon it isn't much bigger than San Francisco."

"Still you wouldn't mind being joint owner of it," Hamar laughed."

"No, perhaps not," Curtis said rather dubiously. "I guess we could buy the crown and wear it in turn. Sam Westlake up at Meidler's always used to say the Britishers would sell their souls if any one bid high enough. They think of nothing but money over there. When shall we go?"

"At the end of our week," Hamar said, "that is to say on Wednesday--in three days' time."

"First cla.s.s all the way, of course," Curtis said, "I'll see to the arrangements for the catering and berths."

"All right!" Hamar laughed, as he filled three gla.s.ses with champagne.

"Here, drink, you fellows, 'Long life, health and prosperity--to Hamar, Curtis and Kelson, the Modern Sorcery Company Ltd.'"

CHAPTER VIII

TWO DREAMS

"Do you believe in dreams?" Gladys Martin inquired, as, fresh from a stroll in the garden, she joined her aunt, Miss Templeton, in the breakfast room at Pine Cottage.

"I believe in fairies," Miss Templeton rejoined, smiling indulgently as she looked at the fair face beside her. "What was the dream, dearie?"

Gladys laughed a little mischievously. "I don't quite know whether I ought to tell you," she said. "It might shock you."

"Perhaps I'm not so easily shocked as you imagine," Miss Templeton replied. "What was it?"