The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-13
. remarkable gemsI have ever put hand

az -
said In answer to him. What guarantee
have that it will not be worthless In a
months timer"
you have my word. 1t is q tradition
of our family that he who owns that heir
loom when it begins to fade must sell 1T
or die-and sell it at Its worth If T con-
tinue to possess 1t, the tradition must /
prove itself. for shall die Of sheer star
vation."
"And if another has it?''
'It will regain its lights, have no
doubt of it. for it has gone like this
before when a death has happened among
u.s. If you are content to take my word,
/ will return to you in six months time
and make good any loss you have suffered /
by it. But should want some money
now, tonight, before an hour-could you
let me have it?
eff bought your stone, you could have
the money for it; my man, who is OUT
side, would fetch my chsckbook.
At the word man." he went to
the window and saw Abel standing be-
at the fellow for moment and then
drew down the blinds in a deliberate way
which did not like at all.
''That servant of yours has been set
to watch this house for ten days. he !
said WAS that by your order?
was so completely taken ahack by his |
discovery that I sat for moment dunn I
founded and gave him no answer. He, |
however, seemed trembling with passion. |
WAS it by your orders?" he asked
again, standing over me and almost Mss
ing out his words. |
'It was" I answered after a. pause: |
.sbut, you see, circum stances were sus-
picious.'
Suspicious! Then you did believe me
| to be a rogue. have shot men for less.
| I attempted to explain, but he would
not hear me- He had lost command Of
himself, stalking up and down the room
with great strides until the temper
/ tautened his veins, and his lean hands
seemed nothing but wire and bones. At
| last, he took a revolver from the drawer
| in his table, and deliberately put cart
ridges into it. I stood up at the sight Of
/ 1t and made a step towards the window;
but he pointed the pistol straight at me-
crying:
"sit down, if you wish to live another
mnute-and say, do you still bel1eve me
| to be a swindler?"
The situation was so dangerous, for tho
man was obviously but half-sane, that
do not know what I said in answer to
him; yet he pursued my words fercely,
scarce hearing my reply before he con-
i tinued:
''You have had my house watched and,
as T know now, you have branded my
name before the police as that of a Grim
4 tnal; you shall make atonenent here on
/ the spot by buying that opal, or you do
not leave the room alive!"
It was a desperate trial, and sat for
some minutes as man on the borderland
Of death. Had been sensible then and
i fenced with him in his words should now
possess the opal; but let out the whole
i Of my thoughts-and the jewel went with
them.
1T cannot buy your stone,'' I said, "un-
J til I have your history and your fathers
--'' But I said no more, for at the
mention of his father he cried out like a
! wounded beast and fired the revolver
! straight at my head The shot skinned
my forehead and the powder behind it
) black ened my face; but I had no other
injury, and I sprang upon him
! For some moments the struggle was
appalling I had him gripped about the
waist with my left arm my right clutch
ing the hand wherein he held the pistol.
He, in turn, put his left hand upon nay
! throat and threw his right leg round mine
with a sinewy strength that amazed me.
Thus we were, rocking like two trees
l blown in gale, now swaying towards the
window, now to the door, now crashing
l against the table, or hurting the papers
! and the ink and the ornaments in
a confused heap, as, fighting the
, for the mastery. But I could not cry
out, for his grip about my neck
was the grip of a maniac, and as 1T
1 frightened and frightened the light grew
!. dim before my eyes and felt that I
: was choking. This he knew, and with
: overpowering fury pressed his fingers
: upon my throat until he cut me with his
] nails as with knives. Then, at last, ]
r reeled from the agony of it, and we fell
2 with tremendous force under the window.
: he uppermost.
Of that lifelong minute that followed ]
I remember but little. I know only that
> he knelt upon my chest, still gripping my
. throat with his left hand, and began tc
8 reach out for his revolver, which haG
! dropped beneath the table in our strug.
= gle. I had just seen him reach 1t witt
. his fingertips, and 50 draw it inch By
= inch toward him. when a fearful scream
. rang out In the ROOM and his hand was
= stayed. The scream was from the woman
= who had come to Piccadily the day be-
- fore, and it was followed by terribl
= paroxysm of weeping, and then by
:, heavy fall, as the terrified girl tainted
y He let me go at this and stood straigh
- up but at the first step toward his wifi.
:, he put his foot upon the great opal
q which we had thrown to the ground IL
- our encounter, and he crushed it into
= thousand fragments.
!, When he saw what he had done on
Ia cry, and one alone, escaped from him
~ but before could raise hand to sta,
= him he had turned the pistol to his heal
ID and had blown his brains out
n N
q.
l. The story of the opal Of Carmalovitcl
is almost told. A long inquiry after tn
TT mans death added these facts to the fey
,e I had already cleaned lie was the so
~ OF a banker in Budapest, noble Rus
s. sian, who had emigrated to Hungary an
T taken his wealth with him to embark
ia in his business. He himself had bee
< educated partly In England partly i
a. France; but at the moment when h
r. should have entered the great firm /
it Budapest there came the Argentine crasE
IN and his father was one of those who sue
to cumbed But he did more than succumt
ne he helped himself to the money Of h!
v partners, and, being discovered, was sen
Iis fenced as common felon, and is at TIL
as moment in Hungarian prison.
to Steniloff, the son. was left to clear u
ed the estate, and got from it, when all wa
to settled, a few thousand pounds by tn
lie generosity Of the fathers partners BIZ
ng You'd these he had the OPAL which til
CHI family had possessed for 800 years, buy
re ing it originally in Vienna. This posses
IL sion however, had been, for the sake ,
p some absurd tradition always kept
z profound secret, and when the great cras
RI came the man whose death I had vii
or messed took it as his fortune For som
% years he had lived freely at Rome, {
IS Nice, at Naples where he married: bl
Ice his money being almost spent he brougl
OF, his wife to England and there attempte
Die to sell the jewel. AS he would tell noti
as ing of his history, lest his fathers nan
IL, s1Iff ha