The Springfield herald., 1912-04-26


down the room with great strides un-
til the temper tautened his veins. and
his lean hands seemed nothing but
wire and bones. At last, he took
revolver from the drawer in his table.
and deliberately put cartridges into
1t. l stood up at the sight of 1t and
made step towards the window; but
he pointed the pistol straight at me,
saying:
"Sit down. II you wish to live an
other minute-and, say, do you still
believe me to be swindler?"
The situation was SO dangerous. for
the man was obviously but half sane,
that do not know what l said in an
swer to him; yet he pursued my words
flercely, scarce hearing my reply be-
fore he continued:
"You have had my house watched.
and, as / know now. you have brand
ed my name before the police as that
of criminal: you shall make atone
ment here on the spot by buying the
opal, or you do not leave the room
alivei"
1t was a desperate trial, and I sat
for some minutes as man on the
borderland Of death. Had l been
sensible then and fenced with him In
his words l should now possess the
opal; but l let out the whole of my
thoughts-and the Jewel went with
them.
II cannot buy your stone," said.
until l have your history and your
fathers" But / 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 1t blackened my face:
but 1 had no other injury, and
sprang upon him.
For some moments the struggle was
appalling. l had him gripped about
the waist with my left arm, my right
clutching the hand wherein he held
the pistol. He. in turn, put his left
hand upon my throat and threw his
right leg around mine with a sinewy
strength that amazed me. Thus we
were. rocking like two trees blown in
gale. now swaying towards the win
dow, now to the door, now crashing
against the table. or hurting the pa
in a confused heap. as, fighting the
ground foot by foot, we battled for
the mastery. But l could not cry
out, for his grip about my neck was
the grip of maniac; and as 1t tight
ened and tightened, the light grew
dim before my eyes and felt that 1
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, 1 reeled from the agony of it:
and we fell with tremendous force
under the window, he uppermost.
OF that lifelong minute that follow
ed, remember but little. l knew only
that he knelt upon my chest, still
gripping my throat with his left hand.
and began to reach out for his re-
volver. which had dropped beneath
the table in our struggle. / had just
seen him reach 1t with his finger-tips,
and SO draw 1t inch by inch towards
him, when fearful scream rang out
in the room, and his hand was stayed.
The scream was from the woman who
had come to Piccadilly the day before,
and 1t was followed by terrible par
oxysm of weeping, and then by a
heavy fall. as the terrified girl tainted.
He let me go at this, and stood
straight up; but at the first step to-
wards his wife he put his foot upon
the great opal, which we had thrown
to the ground in our encounter, and
he crushed 1t into thousand frag.
ments.
~ ,LN& 4,
one cry, and one alone, escaped from
him; but before l could raise hand
to stay him, he had turned the pistol
to his head, and had blown his brains
out.
The story of the opal of Carmalo-
witch is almost told. A long inquiry
after the mans death added these
facts to the few l had already CLEAN
ed. He was the son Of a banker in
Buda-Pesth, noble Russian, who had
emigrated to Hungary and taken his
wealth with him to embark it in his
business. He himself had been edu-
Gated partly in England, partly in
France; but at the moment when he
should have entered the great firm in
Buda-Pesth, there came the Argen-
tine crash, and his father was one of
those who succumbed But he did
more than succumb, he helped himself
to the money Of his partners. and be-
ing discovered. was sentenced as a
common felon. and is at this moment
in Hungarian prison.
Steniloff, the son, was left to
clear up the estate, and got from it.,
when all was settled. few thousand
pounds. by the generosity of the IA
ther's partners. Beyond these he had
the opal, which the family had pos
sessed for 300 years, buying 1t orig
inally in Vienna. This possession,
however, had been. for the sake Of
some absurd tradition, always kept a
profound secret. and when the great
crash came, the man whose death
had witnessed took 1t as his fortune.
For some years he had lived freely
at Rome. at Nice, at Naples. where he
married; but his money being almost
spent, he brought his wife to Eng
land. and there attempted to sell the
Jewel. AS he would tell nothing Of his
history, lest his fathers name should
suffer, he found no buyer. and dragged
nm from month IN month uOinu deeDar