Part 22 (1/2)

This was not the place where Grenville had placed the deadly tube, which he knew must therefore have been moved--doubtless when the fuse was pulled and broken by the creature taking refuge in the tree.

All about the spot where the kill had been the shrubbery was shredded.

The boar's remains had been blown away when the gap was made in the sod. The trail, Grenville saw, must be repaired or a new one must be made about the place.

He returned to the tiger, and was suddenly elated to behold the metal collar, half-hidden by the fur about his neck. He had quite forgotten this bauble, thus singularly employed, and, kneeling down to inspect it closely, not only found it was ma.s.sive gold and set with costly jewels, but also discovered he must break or force a heavy link to take it from the creature.

It was not until he had brought two sharp-edged rocks to his needs that the collar was finally freed. Its weight and worth then amazed him.

The band was fully two inches in width, with the edges curved up and turned under, in a simple and hammer-marked finish. It was all hand-wrought, each blow that the smith had struck with his tool being faintly recorded in the metal. The jewels--three sapphires, three rubies, and one diamond--were simply and solidly set with bands that barely clasped their bases. The rubies only were cabochon cut, the other stones gleaming with facets.

There was not a mark upon the collar's outer surface to show what was meant by its presence here in such extraordinary keeping. But Grenville presently bethought him to glance at the inner circ.u.mference.

He was not in the least astonished, but he was a bit concerned, to discover a number of those mystic symbols, deeply graved in the gold, that had once been tattooed on the man sitting dead in the barque.

Here were the three hills, bounded by the water, and one with the tree on its summit, while on either side the cartouch appeared, bounded by crude drawings of the tiger. That the brute had been liberated here upon the island as a sort of sacred guardian of the cave that was mentioned by the writing found secreted with the map, Grenville could not, or did not, doubt. There was nothing more to be found engraved on the gold.

He finally slipped the heavy band about his own smooth, sun-tanned neck and went at the task of securing Elaine's promised robe. This toil was far more difficult than even his lack of proper appliances had led him to antic.i.p.ate. Although he had sharpened his stub of a knife-blade to a very respectable cutting-edge, it was far too small for the business.

His doggedness and application were the a.s.sets on which he had most to count, and without them here he must have failed. As it was, he remained so long away that Elaine, who was up, was alarmed. And, when at last he appeared below with the heavy, striped skin across his shoulder, she started abruptly, till she saw he was not another tiger.

”I thought you might like to see the size of his hide,” he said, as he brought it to the terrace, ”before I take it down by the sh.o.r.e for tanning. I shall soak it a while in a mixture of brine and saltpeter.

Both are highly preservative---and the best the island affords.”

”He was simply tremendous!” Elaine replied, when the skin had been spread on the rocks. ”What have you got about your neck?”

”Oh, this?” said Grenville, removing the golden collar. ”This is a symbol of royalty that his Bengal highness wore--your property now, as a trophy of the hunt.”

She took it a little uncertainly as he held it forth in his hand.

”Why--it's gold!” she said. ”These jewels---- The tiger was wearing this?”

”About his kingly neck.”

”But how--unless someone put it on?”

”Undoubtedly someone did. He must have been a captive once, and probably escaped.”

It could serve no good end to acquaint her with his actual suspicions, which might be ill-founded, after all.

”It's beautiful,” she continued, gazing in admiration on the collar's simple ma.s.siveness. ”But it's not for me, I'm sure.” She held it out for him to take. But he bent above the skin.

”Then pitch it away,” he instructed, laconically. ”Toss it into the sea.”

She colored, looking at him strangely. She could not throw away his property--anything of such great intrinsic value. She was baffled again, as he managed so frequently. Her hand and the golden circlet fell at her side. She could think of no appropriate speech of final rejection. A whimsical notion only arose to her groping mind.

”Fancy me wearing this priceless band of splendor,” she said, ”and eating with a stick!”

”It will just about fit around your waist,” he conjectured, taking it from her as he rose. With easy strength he bent it in his hands, to make it more snugly conform to her slender and graceful little body.

Why should he not bend it thus, she thought, who had wrenched it from a tiger? She felt how weak and inadequate was her own diminis.h.i.+ng struggle. But to wear this band--a symbol, almost, of Grenville's owners.h.i.+p---- A hot recurrence of her former pride came surging to her bosom.