The Argosy | Page 6

him
undisturbed till midnight. If by that time he has not come round
naturally and of his own accord, I carry him to bed and then administer
to him a certain draught, which has the effect of sending him into a
natural and healthy sleep, from which he awakes next morning
thoroughly refreshed."
"Then you will come to-night at twelve, and see how your master is by
that time?" said Ducie.
"It is part of my duty to do so," answered Cleon.
"Then I will wait here till that time," said the Captain. Cleon bowed and
disappeared.
So Ducie kept watch and ward for four hours, during the whole of
which time Platzoff lay, except for his breathing, like one dead. As the
last stroke of midnight struck Cleon reappeared. His master showed not
the slightest symptom of returning consciousness. Having examined
him narrowly for a moment or two, he turned to Ducie.

"You must pardon me, sir, for leaving you alone," he said, "but I must
now take my master off to bed. He will scarcely wake up for
conversation to-night."
"Proceed as though I were not here," said Ducie. "I will just finish this
weed, and then I too will turn in."
Platzoff's private rooms, forming a suite four in number, were on the
ground floor of Bon Repos. From the main corridor the first that you
entered was the smoking-room already described. Next to that was the
dressing-room, from which you passed into the bed-room. The last of
the four was a small square room, fitted up with book-shelves, and used
as a private library and study.
Cleon, who was a strong, muscular fellow, lifted Platzoff's shrivelled
body as easily as he might have done that of a child, and so carried him
out of the room.
Ducie met his host at the breakfast-table next morning. The latter
seemed as well as usual, and was much amused when Ducie told him of
his alarm, and how he had summoned Cleon under the impression that
Platzoff had been taken dangerously ill.
Platzoff rarely indulged in the luxury of drashkil-smoking oftener than
once a week. His constitution was delicate, and a too frequent use of so
dangerous a drug would have tended to shatter still further his already
enfeebled health. Besides, as he said, he wished to keep it as a luxury,
and not, by a too frequent indulgence in it, to take off the fine edge of
enjoyment and render it commonplace. Ducie had several subsequent
opportunities of witnessing the process of drashkil-smoking and its
effects, but one description will serve for all. On every occasion the
same formula was gone through, precisely as first seen by Ducie. The
pipe was charged and lighted by Cleon (after he became ill, by the new
servant Jasmin). Precisely at midnight Cleon returned, and either
conducted or carried his master to bed, as the necessities of the case
might require. It was his knowledge of the latter fact that stood Ducie
in such good stead later on, when he came to elaborate the details of his
scheme for stealing the Great Hara Diamond.

But as yet his scheme was in embryo. His visit was drawing to a close,
and he was still without the slightest clue to the hiding-place of the
Diamond.
CHAPTER XV.
THE DIAMOND.
Captain Ducie had been six weeks at Bon Repos; his visit would come
to a close in the course of three or four days, but he was still as ignorant
of the hiding-place of the Diamond as on that evening when he learned
for the first time that M. Platzoff had such a treasure in his possession.
Since the completion of his translation of the stolen MS. he had
dreamed day and night of the Diamond. It was said to be worth a
hundred and fifty thousand pounds. If he could only succeed in
appropriating it, what a different life would be his in time to come! In
such a case, he would of course be obliged to leave England for ever.
But he was quite prepared to do that. He was without any tie of kindred
or friendship that need bind him to his native land. Once safe in another
hemisphere, he would dispose of the Diamond, and the proceeds would
enable him to live as a gentleman ought to live for the remainder of his
days. Truly, a pleasant dream.
But it was only a dream after all, as he himself in his cooler moments
was quite ready to acknowledge. It was nothing but a dream even when
Platzoff wrung from him an unreluctant consent to extend his visit at
Bon Repos for another six weeks. If he stayed for six months, there
seemed no likelihood that at the end of that time he would