Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-01-03
THE IRON PIRATE
"A Plain Tale Of Strange
Happenings on the Sea
By MAX PEMBERTON
600
CHAPTER V.-(Continued.)

II went to hc3, my brain ahame with
speculation; put out the candle; lit 1t
again. | could not have slept if king :
ransom went with the sleeping and so
lay fretful blameful. vowing the whole
problem a plague and cheat. This idle
wandering might have lasted until dawn,
had it not been for my neighbor in the
room to my left, who began to talk with
low buzz as of a night-inseet hummng
In bed curtain. The surging of the
voice amused me; ! lay quite still and
listened to it. Now it rose loud CLEAN
ed a word. and was pleased; now it fell
and fretted; but anon another voice was
added TO the first. and, if the one had
pleased me. the second thrilled me. 1t
was the voice of my friend at the dock.
Two words spoken by this man
brought me to my feet two more to the
thin wooden door which divided our
rooms. With feverish impatience | knelt
10 pry through the keyhole. 1t was stuffed
with paper. | listened with an ear long
trained to listening. although the men
spoke that few words reached me. The
snip had not sailed, then, for here was
the rutiian. who watched her, wasting rest
In the first hours to hold a parley; and
If parley, with whom? Why, with those
who paid him for the work, | did not
doubt
AT the end of an hour the voices ceas-
ed | judged that my neighbor had gone
to bed. | took from my satchel brace
and bit. and an oiled saw. In ten mil
utes l cut hole in the partition and put
my eye to it. A burly, black bearded
man sat in a reverie before a dressing
table, and | saw that there was spread
upon the table a great heap of jewels.
And beside the jewels was a big bulldog
revolver.
who was this man? asked. and why
did he sit in an Italian hotel lingering
Jewels, and giving a meeting place at Md
night to a common murderer from dock
yard? Were the jewels his own? Had he
come by them honestly? He stirred in his
chair and then sat bolt upright. | thought
he looked to have some tremor of nervous
ness upon him; clutching hastily at the
Jewels to put them in a great leather case,
which again he shut in a larger iron box,
locking both, and placing the key under
his pillow. After that he threw off his
clothes with some impatience, and, leav-
tng the lamp which burned upon his dress
tng table, he dropped upon his bed.
Being assured that my man slept, |
put back with some cold glue which was
always in my tool chest, the piece | had
cut from the door, and then picked the
lock with one grip of my small pincers.
My revolver | carried in the belt at my
waist. for my hands were occupied with
soft cloth and a bottle of chloroform.
j had big felt slippers on my feet; and
went straight to his bed. where | let him
breathe the drug for few moments. |
got at his keys and his jewels, and saw
what wished There, true enough, were
precious stones of all values, Brazilian
diamonds, Cape stones tinged with yellow,
the finer class of Indian turquoise pink
pearls, black pearls-all these loosely
wrapped in tissue paper; but a magniti-
cent parcel | brought up at last neck
lace of opals and diamonds, and as l held
them to the lamp and examined the curl
Gus grouping of the stones, and the
strange eastern form of the clasp, | knew
that | had seen the bundle before. The
roDviction was instantaneous, powerful
convincing; yet even with my aptitude for
recalling names, places and things, | could
mot in my mind place these jewels. None
sbe less was | assured that the one solid
clue | had yet taken hold OF was in my
keeping and, as quick glance round the
chamber told me no more, put up the
baubles in their case again. replaced the
kew and quilted the chamber.
Il lay upon my bed and brought the
whole of my recollection back upon the
Jewels. Where had I seen them in what
circumstances in whose hands? Again
and again | Travelled old ground, exhumed
buried cases, dwelt upon names of for
gotten criminals, and of big world people.
An hours intense mental concentration
told me nothing, but in my dreaming |
got what wakefulness had denied TO me.
There in my sleep was the whole history
of the stones written for me. | remem-
barad the Liverpool landing stage the de-
-,arture Of the Star liner City of ST. Pc
tersburg. for sew York the arrest of the
notorious Jewel thief Carl Reichsmann {;
che discovery of the opal and diamond
necklace upon him the restoration Of it
to-to-the brain failed for a moment
then with loud cry Of delight, which
-oused me. l pronounced the words; to
LADY Hardon of 202A Berkeley Square,
London.
II repeated the name again and again,
,nuttering it as l got into my clothes. |
fethought me of the man IN the next
soom. | listened. There was no sound.
lie had gone then, and had Lady Hardon' 5
ievels. My memory Travelled quickly on
- Lady Hardons end for | remembered
then that she went down in the great
.taamer Alexandria, which was lost in
rhe Bay of Biscay twelve months before
7 discovered the golden ship in the dock
ward at Spezia; and l recalled the fact,
inowu worldwide, that her famous jewels
had gone with her to her end. How came
st then. that this man who knew the
-ufians in the dock yard below, yet pos
sesspd hundred thousand pounds worth
OF iewelry. how came it that he had got
that which the world thought to be lying
on the sands of the bay? | left my hotel
and mounted to the hill top for tidings Of
5he great vessel. But she had sailed, and
.ha dock which had held her was empty.
This discovery did not daunt me, for
7 had expected it. | waited only to as
certain officially what ships had left Spe-
zia during the past twenty-four hours.
They told me at the Customs that the
Rrazilian war vessel built by SignOr Vez-