Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/284

274 "'You did me a good turn, Mr. Wetherell, over that trial,' the invalid said at last. 'And I couldn't make it worth your while.'

"'Oh, you mustn't let that worry you,' I said soothingly. 'You would have paid me if you had been able.'

"'Perhaps I should, perhaps I shouldn't; anyhow I didn't, and I want to make it up to you now. Feel under my pillow and bring out what you find there!'

"I did as he directed me, and brought to light a queer little wooden stick about three and a half inches long, made of some heavy wood and covered all over with Chinese inscriptions; at one end was a little bit of heavy gold cord, much tarnished. I gave it to him, and he looked at it fondly.

"'Do you know the value of this little stick?' he asked after a while.

"'I have no possible notion,' I replied.

"'Make a guess,' he said.

"To humour him I guessed five pounds. He laughed with scorn.

"'Five pounds! Oh, ye gods! Why, as a bit of stick it's not worth fivepence, but for what it really is, there is not money enough in the world to purchase it. If I could get about again I would make myself the richest man in the world with it. If you could only guess one particle of the dangers I've been through to get it you would die of astonishment. And the sarcasm of it all is that now I've got it I can't make use of it. On six different occasions the priests of the Llamaserai, in Peking, have tried to murder me to get hold of it. I brought it down from the centre of China disguised as a wandering beggar. That business connected with the murder of the Chinaman on board the ship, against which you defended me, was on account of it. And