Part 12 (1/2)
”I was telling you about the asteroid”, he said. ”Now this body, it was given out, contained diamonds in large evidence, and the mere thought of such a thing bursting in mid-air, and scattering itself about was, I--I confess, a little fascinating to my mind. A man might let his soul gloat upon such a hope till he went lunatic with l.u.s.t! I--I confess, the thought was alluring to me. Diamond, my son: lucid--But when the body burst, and none of it came my way, I drove it from my mind: in fact, I never heard of a trace of it having been seen--hissed itself into gases in mid-air. Except in one instance--one instance.
”When I reached Calais on my homeward way, stopped there a day, awaiting the coming of Rouen, for whom I had nuncio communications, and in the evening went to visit a cottage where I had once been a great favourite with an old fellow called Sante-you know those Calais fishers, with painted sabots, and ochred trousers. And 'What!' said I to Sante, 'the nets already spread at this hour?' 'Nothing to be done to-day, my Father', he answered, and explained that he had attempted to pick up a stone before his door, and--it had burned him: he showed it me: it had the appearance of a piece of ferruginous rock, stuck with pieces of dirty gla.s.s; and it had burned Sante on the midnight of the asteroid's scattering.
”Imagine my excitement: 'The asteroid', I thought, 'may add fifty thousand Jews to the Church'. I asked Sante for the stone--Do you blame me?”
”Go on,” said Hogarth.
”That day two months I had the diamonds lying polished in a casket in my house. My evil destiny, Hogarth, ordained that the casket was the one given me for Paris by the Pope, the number of the new diamonds the same--seven: and one day, about that time, the Vatican organ, the _Osservatore Romano_, published a dreadful article, hinting that I had applied to my own purposes seven diamonds entrusted me for Paris: the Pope, just dead, must have left some record of his gift. My friend, before I had heard a whisper of the attack upon me, the casket, whose lid was mosaicked with the Papal fanon, was secretly searched by a secretary in my house: the seven diamonds were seen.
”Imagine the horror of what followed: I was abandoned by all--superior and inferior; the story of the meteor was received with sneers. The scandal reached the public papers--the public prosecutor. And here now is the wretch, Patrick O'Hara.”
The latter part of this narrative was fiction! The Pope's diamonds O'Hara had duly handed to the Archbishop! and though there was such a man as Sante, no asteroid had ever fallen at his door. In fact, O'Hara was ”serving time” for an a.s.sault upon a lady in a railway compartment between Whitchurch and Salisbury.
But Hogarth spent that night in meditating the pros and cons as to O'Hara's escaping; and, in a moment of destiny, said at last: ”If he is undeservedly doomed--” and swooned to sleep.
The very next day was foggy....
On the march out O'Hara said: ”Here is something like a fog. On the Carinthian Alps, where you have dense woolly fogs, there is a race of goats, which--”
”Would you like to escape?” whispered Hogarth.
”_Who?_”
”You”.
”Hogarth--! My G.o.d--!”
A trembling seized the priest's leathery left cheek, he at that instant seeing a vision of the world--Andalusian wines, hued ices, the opera-house, and great greyhounds of the sea, and a snuff which his gross nose loved at Gorey.
”Hogarth, you are not mocking me?” chattered the priest's jaws, hurrying like a jarred spring.
”I am quite serious. You will have to run for it though”.
”_Run!_ I am not such a young man! Have pity Hogarth”.
”Bah! Be a man”.
The priest approached his mouth to Hogarth's ear: ”_I should die of fright!_ My heart--”
”What would it matter? I thought you had more beans”.
”But have you--a plan?”
”Yes. You must run to the copse--”
”I shall be shot!”
”Probably”.
”I _could_ not--”