Page:The Popular Magazine v72 n1 (1924-04-20).djvu/11

 man, and Captain Jimmy listened attentively but was disappointed.

“Per Bacco! I do not know yet; but that I shall learn, for I am to be not only guide but courier for her, and she says she may ask me to do many strange things but that she will pay liberally. I am to be at her command night and day.”

“Sounds interesting,” said the other man, plainly stifling a yawn. “But I can't see what all this has to do with the golden box.”

“Why, it's this way! I did not know it was there and it was she who told me that at no matter what cost the bribe I must get her into the palace of this American, Harnway, and that while there we must try to discover if the box was in his possession. I did not then know that it was the Crusader's relic—not until I saw it, and then”

“What did this young woman do when it was shown to you?”

“It was in a locked cabinet along with other curios of more or less value and she—she stared at it as calmly as if this were the last thing on earth she had been seeking and then suggested that perhaps we had best be going. She thanked the major-domo very politely, telling him that now she could rest content having seen the inside of a real Venetian palace home, and added to the already liberal bribe I had given him. Then we went to our gondola and were rowed away to see a fast motor boat that she wished to rent and use during her stay here. That also looks as if her visit would be prolonged, does it not? I am very glad of employment, for the season is dull and men with wealth and liberality seem to come not.”

After a moment more they got up and sauntered away; but Captain Jimmy sat for a long time staring abstractedly out over the square, and then arose and turned down past the Palace of the Doges, that miracle palace that is declared to be the finest kingly house on earth but which he did not appear to see. He walked down to the great gondola landing at the foot and chose a grizzled old gondolier whose craft he boarded, and straightway fell into fluent conversation, leading the veteran to boast of his knowledge of Venice and its inhabitants.

“I suppose you know the Mascarelli Palace?” inquired Captain Jimmy.

“Si, signor. Well. Most well. I also know its new owner, the rich American.”

“What's his name?” Jimmy asked, with a casual air that concealed his acute interest.

“Harnway. His first name is—a strange name—let me think.”

“Is it by any chance Lemuel?” was the apparently innocent inquiry.

“Si, si, signor. That is it. Lemuel Harnway.”

Captain Jimmy successfully concealed a start of surprise and made no reply. But to himself he said: “Well I'll be hanged! So it's Lemuel, eh? Over here for keeps, too. The old scoundrel!”

ONSIDERABLY to the mystification of the Adventure's cook, a “colored gemmleman from Maryland” who prided himself on the excellence of his service for the owner, that somewhat freakish man announced on the following morning that he would not breakfast aboard ship. Furthermore, he had his launch put into the water and was taken ashore.

The boat made a landing almost in front of the staid old Hotel Danieli on the Riva degli Schiavoni, and Captain Jimmy, remembering having read that it was originally a fourteenth-century palace that in its successive times had been the residence of doges, ambassadors and world's notables, and as a hotel had been known for more than a century, felt like taking off his hat and making it a respectful bow. He paused irresolutely for a moment, grinned, consulted his watch, saw that it was but eight thirty on that bright, sunlit morning, and somewhat to the astonishment of his motor sailor ordered him to find a berth near by and await further orders. Then after a surreptitious glance at his clothing, at the polish of his boots, and a fumble at his tie to reassure himself that it was eminently correct, he strode leisurely across the broad way, swinging his malacca stick and entered the Danieli. He trudged past the obsequious and uniformed door man as if he were an habitué of the place instead of making his first visit, glanced sidewise into the breakfast room, seemed again reassured, and delivered hat and stick to another attendant, announcing that he wished breakfast.

The head waiter greeted him at the entrance and was rendered duly respectful and attentive by a gold coin that somehow found its way into his palm.