Page:Harris Dickson--Old Reliable in Africa.djvu/185

 called the 'Tangle of Badar Khan'—or 'the Seven and Seventy Rings'?" Durham was no diplomat. His blunt question startled the suave Italian. Favara glanced up quickly, then down again. Then he leaned both elbows on the table and replied: "Ebbene! I will tell you. Why not? Vinizzi had that necklace while we were together in the Congo. It was of no value, but perilous to keep. Vinizzi delighted to do dangerous things."

Colonel Spottiswoode glanced from one man to the other with intense curiosity, which General Durham gratified: "We never learned the history of this heirloom. The hill people of India said it had been a Mahometan emblem captured centuries ago by Badar Khan. It descended in the family of a certain prince from whom it was looted during our troubles. When peace came this prince made a special stipulation that we should return this trinket. That was easy. An Englishman had the curio in Algiers. When we sent for it, the Englishman had disappeared. People whispered he was murdered. Others said no, that the Englishman had journeyed south into the Kabyle country. Later we heard that the Tangle of Badar Khan was in possession of a man named Balthazar Vinizzi in the Belgian Congo. Favara, what became of Vinizzi?"

This was the second awkward question that General Durham had asked. For a moment the