Prince Zaleski

by M. P. Shiel

settlement? Where, but on the heights of that same"Lebanon" on which Sir Jocelin "picked up" his too doubtful scribe andliterary helper?

  'It now becomes evident that Ul-Jabal was one of the sect of theAssassins, and that the object of his sojourn at the manor-house, ofhis financial help to the baronet, of his whole journey perhaps toEngland, was the recovery of the sacred gem which once glittered on thebreast of the founder of his sect. In dread of spoiling all byover-rashness, he waits, perhaps for years, till he makes sure that thestone is the right one by seeing it with his own eyes, and learns thesecret of the spring by which the chalice is opened. He then proceedsto steal it. So far all is clear enough. Now, this too is conceivable,that, intending to commit the theft, he had beforehand provided himselfwith another stone similar in size and shape--these being well known tohim--to the other, in order to substitute it for the real stone, andso, for a time at least, escape detection. It is presumable that thechalice was not often _opened_ by the baronet, and this would thereforehave been a perfectly rational device on the part of Ul-Jabal. Butassuming this to be his mode of thinking, how ludicrously absurdappears all the trouble he took to _engrave_ the false stone in anexactly similar manner to the other. _That_ could not help him inproducing the deception, for that he did not contemplate the stonebeing _seen_, but only _heard_ in the cup, is proved by the fact thathe selected a stone of a different _colour_. This colour, as I shallafterwards show you, was that of a pale, brown-spotted stone. But weare met with something more extraordinary still when we come to thelast stone, the white one--I shall prove that it was white--whichUl-Jabal placed in the cup. Is it possible that he had provided _two_substitutes, and that he had engraved these _two_, without object, inthe same minutely careful manner? Your mind refuses to conceive it; and_having_ done this, declines, in addition, to believe that he hadprepared even one substitute; and I am fully in accord with you in thisconclusion.

  'We may say then that Ul-Jabal had not _prepared_ any substitute; andit may be added that it was a thing altogether beyond the limits of theprobable that he could _by chance_ have possessed two old gems exactlysimilar in every detail down to the very half-obliterated letters ofthe word "Hasn-us-Sabah." I have now shown, you perceive, that he didnot make them purposely, and that he did not possess them accidentally.Nor were they the baronet's, for we have his declaration that he hadnever seen them before. Whence then did the Persian obtain them? Thatpoint will immediately emerge into clearness, when we have sounded hismotive for replacing the one false stone by the other, and, above all,for taking away the valueless stone, and then replacing it. And inorder to lead you up to the comprehension of this motive, I begin bymaking the bold assertion that Ul-Jabal had not in his possession thereal St. Edmundsbury stone at all.

  'You are surprised; for you argue that if we are to take the baronet'sevidence at all, we must take it in this particular also, and hepositively asserts that he saw the Persian take the stone. It is truethat there are indubitable signs of insanity in the document, but it isthe insanity of a diseased mind manifesting itself by fantasticexaggeration of sentiment, rather than of a mind confiding to itselfits own delusions as to matters of fact. There is therefore nothing socertain as that Ul-Jabal did steal the gem; but these two things areequally evident: that by some means or other it very soon passed out ofhis possession, and that when it had so passed, he, for his part,believed it to be in the possession of the baronet. "Now," he cries intriumph, one day as he catches Sir Jocelin in his room--"_now_ you havedelivered all into my hands." "All" what, Sir Jocelin wonders. "All,"of course, meant the stone. He believes that the baronet has doneprecisely what the baronet afterwards believes that _he_ hasdone--hidden away the stone in the most secret of all places, in hisown apartment, to wit. The Persian, sure now at last of victory,accordingly hastens into his chamber, and "locks the door," in order,by an easy search, to secure his prize. When, moreover, the baronet isexamining the house at night with his lens, he believes that Ul-Jabalis spying his movements; when he extends his operations to the park,the other finds pretexts to be near him. Ul-Jabal dogs his footstepslike a shadow. But supposing he had really had the jewel, and haddeposited it in a place of perfect safety--such as, with or withoutlenses, the extensive grounds of the manor-house would certainly haveafforded--his more reasonable _role_ would have been that ofunconscious _nonchalance_, rather than of agonised interest. But, infact, he supposed the owner of the stone to be himself seeking a securehiding-place for it, and is resolved at all costs on knowing thesecret. And again in the vaults beneath the house Sir Jocelin reportsthat Ul-Jabal "holds the lantern near the ground, with his head bentdown": can anything be better descriptive of the attitude of _search_?Yet each is so sure that the other possesses the gem, that neither isable to suspect that both are seekers.

  'But, after all, there is far better evidence of the non-possession ofthe stone by the Persian than all this--and that is the murder of thebaronet, for I can almost promise you that our messenger will return ina few minutes. Now, it seems to me that Ul-Jabal was not reallymurderous, averse rather to murder; thus the baronet is often in hispower, swoons in his arms, lies under the influence of narcotics insemi-sleep while the Persian is in his room, and yet no injury is donehim. Still, when the clear necessity to murder--the clear means ofgaining the stone--presents itself to Ul-Jabal, he does not hesitate amoment--indeed, he has already made elaborate preparations for thatvery necessity. And when was it that this necessity presented itself?It was when the baronet put the false stone in the pocket of a loosegown for the purpose of confronting the Persian with it. But what kindof pocket? I think you will agree with me, that male garments,admitting of the designation "gown," have usually only outerpockets--large, square pockets, simply sewed on to the outside of therobe. But a stone of that size _must_ have made such a pocket bulgeoutwards. Ul-Jabal must have noticed it. Never before has he beenperfectly sure that the baronet carried the long-desired gem about onhis body; but now at last he knows beyond all doubt. To obtain it,there are several courses open to him: he may rush there and then onthe weak old man and tear the stone from him; he may ply him withnarcotics, and extract it from the pocket during sleep. But in thesethere is a small chance of failure; there is a certainty of near orultimate detection, pursuit--and this is a land of Law, swift andfairly sure. No, the old man must die: only thus--thus surely, and thussecretly--can the outraged dignity of Hasn-us-Sabah be appeased. On thevery next day he leaves the house--no more shall the mistrustfulbaronet, who is "hiding something from him," see his face. He carrieswith him a small parcel. Let me tell you what was in that parcel: itcontained the baronet's fur cap, one of his "brown gowns," and asnow-white beard and wig. Of the cap we can be sure; for from the factthat, on leaving his room at midnight to follow the Persian through the_house_, he put it on his head, I gather that he wore it habituallyduring all his waking hours; yet after Ul-Jabal has left him he wanders_far and wide_ "with uncovered head." Can you not picture thedistracted old man seeking ever and anon with absent mind for hislong-accustomed head-gear, and seeking in vain? Of the gown, too, wemay be equally certain: for it was the procuring of this that ledUl-Jabal to the baronet's trunk; we now know that he did not go thereto _hide_ the stone, for he had it not to hide; nor to _seek_ it, forhe would be unable to believe the baronet childish enough to deposit itin so obvious a place. As for the wig and beard, they had beenpreviously seen in his room. But before he leaves the house Ul-Jabalhas one more work to do: once more the two eat and drink together as in"the old days of love"; once more the baronet is drunken with a deepsleep, and when he wakes, his skin is "brown as the leaves of autumn."That is the evidence of which I spake in the beginning as giving us ahint of the exact shade of the Oriental's colour--it was theyellowish-brown of a sered leaf. And now that the face of the baronethas been smeared with this indelible pigment, all is ready for thetragedy, and Ul-Jabal departs. He will return, but not immediately, forhe will at least give the eyes of his victim time to grow accustomed tothe change of colour in his
face; nor will he tarry long, for there isno telling whether, or whither, the stone may not disappear from thatouter pocket. I therefore surmise that the tragedy took place a day ortwo ago. I remembered the feebleness of the old man, his highlyneurotic condition; I thought of those "fibrillary twitchings,"indicating the onset of a well-known nervous disorder sure to end insudden death; I recalled his belief that on account of the loss of thestone, in which he felt his life bound up, the chariot of death wasurgent on his footsteps; I bore in mind his memory of his grandfatherdying in agony just seventy years ago after seeing his own wraith bythe churchyard-wall; I knew that such a man could not be struck by thesudden, the terrific shock of seeing _himself_ sitting in the chairbefore the mirror (the chair,