The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-18

Crew IdoPr He threw the name out
as If that In itself explained everything
but the three women. at least, were
blank.
why celebrated?" Clara objected
The stones were only sapphires."
Kerr smiled at this measure of fame.
Quite So" he nodded to her, but
there are several sorts of value about
that ring. Its age, for one"
He had the attention of the table,
as If they sensed behind his words
more even than Judge Butler could
have told them.
And then the superstition about
it. It's rather a pretty tale said
Kerr, looking at Flora. You've seen
backward into a circle, with head
OF sapphire; two yellow stones for the
cheeks and the brain of him of the
one blue. Just as piece of carving
it is SO fine that Cellini. couldn't have
equaled it, but no one knows when
or where il was made. The first that
is KNOWN the Shah Jehan had 1t in his
treasure house. The story is he stole
it, but, however that may be, he gave
it as a betrothal girt to his wife
possibly the most beautiful'--his eye
brows signaled to Flora his uncer-
tainty of that fact-'without doubt
the best loved woman in the world.
When she died it was buried with her
not in the tomb itself, but in the
Tai Mahal; and for a century os so 1t
lay there and gathered legends about it
as thick as dust. 1t was believed to
be a talisman of good fortune-espe-
cially in love.
1T had age; 1T had intrinsic value;
it had beauty, and that one other quail
ity no man can resist-it was the only
thing of its kind in the world. At all
events, it was too much for old Neville
Crew, when he saw 1t there some
couple of hundred years ago. When he
left India he got it, but lucky mar
riages came with it, and the Crews
would not take the house of lords for
it. Their women have worn it ever
since"
For a moment the wonder of the
tale and che curious spark of excite
ment 1t had produced in the teller kept
the listeners silent Clara was the first
to return to facts. "Then Bessie" she
prompted eagerly.
Kerr turned his glass in meaitative
fingers. "She wore it as young
Chatworth's wife" He held them all in
an Increasing tension, as if he drew
them toward him.
The elder Chatworth, Lord Crew, is
a bachelor but, of course, the ring re-
verted to him on Chatworths' death
And Lord only knows" the judge
broke in, how 1t got shipped with
Bessie's property. Crew was out of
England at the time. He kept the
wires hot about 1t. and they managed
to keep the fact of what the ring was
quiet-but it got out today when Pur-
die found it was gone. You see he
was showing it-and without special
permission.
Flora had a bewildered feeling that
this judicial summing up of facts
wasn't the sort of thing the evening
had led up to. She couldn't see. IL
this was what it amounted to, why
Harry had changed his mind about
telling them at the dinner table. She
could not even understand where this
belonged in the march of events in
their story. but Clara took it up,
clipped 1t out, and fitted 1t into its
place.
enormous pressure, brought to bear to
recover it?''
soh-o-ohi' Butler drew out the
syllable with unctuous relish. They'll
rip the town inside cut They'll do
worse There'n be a string of detect
ives across the country-yes, and at
intervals to China-so tight you
couldn't step from Kalamazoo to Osh-
kosh without running into one. The
thing is too big to be- covered. The
chap who took 1t will play a lone
game: and to do that-Lord knows
there aren't many who couid-to do
that he'd have to be a-a-r
Farrell Wand?" Flora flung it out
as a challenge among these prosaic
people; but the effect OF 1t was even
sharper than she had expected She
fancied she saw them all start; that
Harry squared himself, that Kerr met
it as II he swallowed it with almost
facial grimace; that Judge Butler
blinked it hard in the face-tha most