The Talisman Ring

Nye drew a long breath. “Begging your pardon, sir, but I’d a deal rather be rid of the young good-for-nothing. My own lads bribed! What next will we have, I’d like to know?”

Sir Tristram was looking at the quizzing-glass in his hand. He said slowly: “So they didn’t find it! I wonder ...” He broke off, and strode suddenly towards the parlour. He was met by demands to know what has happened, and replied briefly: “One of Nye’s stablehands had been bribed to find the Beau’s quizzing-glass. He found this instead.”

“But that’s mine!” said Sir Hugh, regarding it fixedly.

“I know it.”

“Do you mean to tell me I’ve had my room ransacked again?” demanded Sir Hugh.

“No, I think you’ve merely had your pockets turned out. That’s not important.”

“Not important!” ejaculated Sir Hugh, considerably incensed. “And what if I’ve been robbed? I suppose that’s not important either! Burn it, I never was in such a house in my life! It’s for ever full of a set of rascals broken out of Newgate, and what with masked assassins, and Bow Street Runners, and young Lavenham here taking it into his head to live in the cellar, I don’t know where I am from one minute to the next. What’s more, you’re as bad as the rest of them, Sally!”

“You haven’t been robbed,” said Sir Tristram. “What I want to discover is why it is so vital to Basil to regain possession of that glass. Thane, where did you put it? For God’s sake try to remember! I suspect it may be of the utmost importance!”

“It is still in the inn, then!” Miss Thane said. “Hugh, think, I implore you!”

“Are you talking about the quizzing-glass you all said was Basil’s?” inquired Ludovic.

Shield turned. “What do you mean, Ludovic? Did you not recognize it?”

“No, I can’t say that I did,” answered Ludovic. “Not that I’m disputing that it’s his, mind you. I dare say he bought it since my time.”

“That,” said Sir Tristram, “is precisely what I think he did do. It must be found if we have to turn this whole place upside down to do it!”

“You needn’t do that,” said Ludovic calmly. “Thane put it on the mantelshelf in the coffee-room. I saw him do it.”

Sir Tristram wheeled about, and went quickly back to the coffee-room, and stretching up his arm ran his hand along the high mantelpiece. The quizzing-glass was just where Sir Hugh had left it. Shield held it in his hand, looking at it so oddly that Nye, who was standing beside him, ventured to ask if anything were amiss.

Sir Tristram shook his head, and carried the prize back into the parlour.

“You have found it!” exclaimed Eustacie. “But why is it important?”

He put her aside, and sitting down at the table, subjected the quizzing-glass to a minute inspection. The others gathered round him, even Sir Hugh betraying a mild interest.

“Myself I like ’em made slimmer,” remarked Ludovic. “The shaft’s too thick. Clumsy.”

Sir Tristram said dryly: “I think there is a reason.” He had picked up Sir Hugh’s eyeglass, and through its magnifying lens was looking at the heavily-encrusted circlet at the end of the shaft, through which a ribbon was meant to pass. He put Sir Hugh’s glass down and inserted his thumb-nail into a groove on the circlet.

There was a tiny click; the circle parted, and something fell out of it on to the table, rolled a little way, and lay still.

“The talisman ring!” said Sir Tristram.

Chapter Fourteen

A sound almost like a sob broke from Ludovic. His hand shot out across the table and snatched up the ring. “My ring!” he whispered. “My ring!”

“Well, upon my soul, that’s a devilish cunning device!” said Sir Hugh, taking the quizzing-glass out of Shield’s hand. “You see, Sally? The ring fitted into the circlet at the end of the shaft.”

“Yes, dear,” said Miss Thane. “I see it did. When I think how it has been lying where anyone might have found it I feel quite faint with horror.”

Eustacie was looking critically at it. “Is that a talisman ring?” she enquired. “‘I thought it would be quite different! It is nothing but a gold ring with some figures on it!”

“Careful, Eustacie!” said Sir Tristram, with a slight smile. “You will find that Ludovic regards it as sacrosanct.”

Ludovic raised his eyes from adoration of the ring. “By God, I do! There is nothing I can say to you, Tristram, except that I could kiss your feet for what you have done for me!”

“I beg you won’t, however. I have done very little.”

Miss Thane said: “It has been under our very noses. The audacity of it! How could he dare?”

“Why not?” said Sir Tristram. “Would any of us have suspected it had it not been lost, and then searched for in such a desperate fashion?”

An idea occurred to Miss Thane. She turned her eyes towards her brother, and said in moved tones: “So we owe it all to Hugh! My dear, this becomes too much for me. I shall not easily recover from the shock.”

“And everything—but everything!—we did was quite useless!” said Eustacie, quite disgusted.

“I know,” said Miss Thane, sadly shaking her head. “It does not bear thinking of.”