that the Merchant Prince awaited his return, his little eyes open
all night and glittering with greed; he knew how his daughter lay
chained up and screaming night and day. Ah, Thangobrind knew. And
had he not been out on business he had almost allowed himself one or
two little laughs. But business was business, and the diamond that he
sought still lay on the lap of Hlo-hlo, where it had been for the last two
million years since Hlo-hlo created the world and gave unto it all things
except that precious stone called Dead Man's Diamond. The jewel was
often stolen, but it had a knack of coming back again to the lap of
Hlo-hlo. Thangobrind knew this, but he was no common jeweller and
hoped to outwit Hlo-hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lust
and that they are vanity.
How nimbly he threaded his way thought he pits of Snood!--now like a
botanist, scrutinising the ground; now like a dancer, leaping from
crumbling edges. It was quite dark when he went by the towers of Tor,
where archers shoot ivory arrows at strangers lest any foreigner should
alter their laws, which are bad, but not to be altered by mere aliens. At
night they shoot by the sound of the strangers' feet. O, Thangobrind,
was ever a jeweller like you! He dragged two stones behind him by
long cords, and at these the archers shot. Tempting indeed was the
snare that they set in Woth, the emeralds loose-set in the city's gate; but
Thangobrind discerned the golden cord that climbed the wall from each
and the weights that would topple upon him if he touched one, and so
he left them, though he left them weeping, and at last came to Theth.
There all men worship Hlo-hlo; though they are willing to believe in
other gods, as missionaries attest, but only as creatures of the chase for
the hunting of Hlo-hlo, who wears Their halos, so these people say, on
golden hooks along his hunting-belt. And from Theth he came to the
city of Moung and the temple of Moung-ga-ling, and entered and saw
the spider-idol, Hlo-hlo, sitting there with Dead Man's Diamond
glittering on his lap, and looking for all the world like a full moon, but
a full moon seen by a lunatic who had slept too long in its rays, for
there was in Dead Man's Diamond a certain sinister look and a boding
of things to happen that are better not mentioned here. The face of the
spider-idol was lit by that fatal gem; there was no other light. In spite of
his shocking limbs and that demoniac body, his face was serene and
apparently unconscious.
A little fear came into the mind of Thangobrind the jeweller, a passing
tremor--no more; business was business and he hoped for the best.
Thangobrind offered honey to Hlo-hlo and prostrated himself before
him. Oh, he was cunning! When the priests stole out of the darkness to
lap up the honey they were stretched senseless on the temple floor, for
there was a drug in the honey that was offered to Hlo-hlo. And
Thangobrind the jeweller picked Dead Man's Diamond up and put it on
his shoulder and trudged away from the shrine; and Hlo-hlo the
spider-idol said nothing at all, but he laughed softly as the jeweller shut
the door. When the priests awoke out of the grip of the drug that was
offered with the honey to Hlo-hlo, they rushed to a little secret room
with an outlet on the stars and cast a horoscope of the thief. Something
that they saw in the horoscope seemed to satisfy the priests.
It was not like Thangobrind to go back by the road by which he had
come. No, he went by another road, even though it led to the narrow
way, night-house and spider-forest.
The city of Moung went towering by behind him, balcony above
balcony, eclipsing half the stars, as he trudged away. Though when a
soft pittering as of velvet feet arose behind him he refused to
acknowledge that it might be what he feared, yet the instincts of his
trade told him that it is not well when any noise whatever follows a
diamond by night, and this was one of the largest that had ever come to
him in the way of business. When he came to the narrow way that leads
to spider-forest, Dead Man's Diamond feeling cold and heavy, and the
velvety footfall seeming fearfully close, the jeweller stopped and
almost hesitated. He looked behind him; there was nothing there. He
listened attentively; there was no sound now. Then he thought of the
screams of the Merchant Prince's daughter, whose soul was the
diamond's price, and smiled and went stoutly on.
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