LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2103, 19 November 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE MYSTERY OF LOEJD BRACKENBHRY: A NOVEL. BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS, Author of "Barbara's History," "'Debenbarn's Vow," &e. ( Continued.) Chapter 111. WHIT MB PROUTING PAW THOUGH THE KEYHOLE. At about nine o'clock in the evening—the evening of the day when Lord Brackenbury made his great purchase—two men, the one coming down, the other going up, met just below the first landing of the main staircase at the Hotel Feder. The one coming down was Bicciotto and Da Costa's head clerk. The one going up was he who had valued the diamonds. The workman stood aside and touched his hat meekly. The head clerk, sleek and self-important, passed him with a condescending 'buona sera;' then looked back to Bee what he would do on reaching the landing.

Ho did just what Signor Giovanelli expected. Instead of attacking the next flight he turned to the left and knocked at the first door In the corridor. It was opened by a tall gentlemanly-looking man with bushy light whiskers, a white cravat, and a gold chain festooned across his waistcoat.

Antonio pulled off his hat, and inquired deferentially for " Mi-lord Bracohi - " He never dreamed that this distinguished looking person was Mi-lord Bracchl's valet. ' Mi-lord Bracchi!' echoed the gentleman with the whiskers, looking down npon him with lofty contempt. 'J Well, I don't know. Is yonr name Antonio ?' Understanding no English, but recognising his own name, the workman nodded affirmatively, and being told to "come in," followed Mi-lord'a valet through a halflighted drawing room where the dessert was yet standing on the table, and to a further door upon which his conductor tapped discreetly. It was opened by Lord Brackenbury In person. * Come in, Antonio,' he said, in his fluent Italian, ' You como early, but your work is ready for you,' It was a desert of a room, full of mirrors and marble topped consoles and guilded furniture ; and it was lit in the usual melancholy way by two or three pairs of yellow waxlights placed here aad there j on sidetables. A moderator lamp on the centre table oa9t, however, a cheerful space of light on the objects immediately within its radius, these being an inkstand, a legal looking document, and the brass bound coffer which Autonio had seen at the banker's. ' Is there anything you will be likely to want';' asked .Lord Brackenbury. The workman, with a quick glance round tho room, suggested ' Mora light;' eo Lord • Brackenbury ordered another lamp, 'After which, Prouting,' ho added, 'I ' shall want nothing more to-night, If any

one aaks for me, I am engaged and cannot be interrupted.' Eespeotfully silent, Mr Fronting withdrew ; but reappearing 'presently with the lamp, requested to know at what hour my lord would take tea. My lord, however, repeated that he needed nothing more. Whereupon Mr Prcuting, ingeniously lingering, straightened the tablecloth, replaced the pens in the inkstand, and adjusted the Ismps. Antonio meanwhile had taken from his pocket and opened upon the table a shabby leathern case full of steel implements of various sizes. These implements, which looked like instruments of torture, awakened such a lively curiosity in Mr Prouting's soul that he found it necessary to regulate the lamps again. • That will do, Frouting,' said Lord Brackenbury impatiently. 'I shall not want you again. You may go.' Mr Proutiag retired with dignity, well knowing that he could find some good and sufficient reason for coming in again presently. Scarcely had he closed the dour, however, when the key grated in the lock. < Being a gentleman of keen susceptibilities, Mr Prouting felt this blow severely. So EeversJy that he was obliged to have recourse to a glass of his lord'3 madeira. Wai ever such a monstrous indignity? With what object was he locked out? What did that brass bound box contain ? Who was Antonio ? What was his trade ? What was he going to do with those wickedlooking tools? What, in short, was the mystery ?

Now, the OEe thing that Mr Prouting loathed was a mystery. A sealed letter, a conversation in a foreign tongue, a locked door were his favorite aversions. Was it not his chartered right to hear everything, to seß everything, to know my lord's business at least as well as my lord knew it himself, if not better? Words are weak to express Mr Prouting's disgust when he found himself locked out on the present occasion.

But a truly great soul is not easily daunted, and the greatness of Mr Prouting's spul led hioj, after a few minutes' consideration, to squat down upon his heels before the door of the saloon, and apply his eye to the keyhole. For not only had experience taught him that a turned key leaves a sure field for observation, but foresight and the natural bent of an inquiring mind had led him to place the ceDtre table of the saloon, and the chair that his master usually occupied, well within range of the keyhole. So to arrange the furniture on arriving at a fresh hotel was Mr Prouting's invariable custom ; and in some of his former situations, it had been the means of procuring him much legitimate entertainment. Not so, however, during the eighteen months that he had served his present master. In Lord Brackenbnry's simple and solitary way of life there was in fact nothing to observe.

At home he hunted, shot, and amused himself leas than any of his neighbors ; went very little into society; hated London ; spent his evenings for the most part in his library; and was mainly given to long walks with no other companion than his dog, his book, or his gun. Abroad, he had drifted from Paris to Cannes, from Cannes to Nice, from Nice to Genoa, in just the ssme humdrum fashion. He made no acquaintances, avoided the people he knew, and as soon as he found himself within reach of the coast, instead of his usual solitary rambles, lived half his time drifting about in an open boat He did not even spend his money freely. Not that he was either poor or miserly, but apparently because he took too little interest in the things that travellers usually covet. A more uninteresting and a more unprofitable master, from Mr Prouting's point of view, it would have been difficult to find between the Land's iind and Berwick-upon-Tweed. He would wear the same old suit for two years, and wa3 worth nothing to his valet in the way of perquisites. He had not even any secrets for Mr Prouting to find out—neither debts, billets-doux, nor complications of any kind. His private correspondence was of the most common-place description, and consisted of a few lines now and then to his steward, hia lawyer, or his younger brother, and a letter once a week to his affianced bride.

To-day, then, after a year and a half of insufferable monotony, Mr Fronting scented a mystery.

What he first saw on patting his eye to the keyhole was Lord Brackenbury standing by the table with his back towards the door; the workman sitting opposite, the brass-bound coffer between them. Lord Braokenbnry had apparently just unlocked the coffer and was in the act of taking oat the contents of the first tray. One by one he lifted the jewels from their velvet bed and laid them before Antonio on the table. One by one he emptied and removed each tray in succession. Mr Fronting gasped for breath as his eye caught the glitter of the diamonds. Antonio then took a bracelet from the heap, and his little magnifying glass from his waistcoat pocket; selected a delicate little pair of steel forceps from among his tools, screwed the glass into his right eye, and proceeded very rapidly to bend and cut assunder the silver setting which held the stones together.

Mr Prouting watched them drop out upon the table; saw Lord Brackenbury count them and Antonio divide them into three little heaps, sorting them apparently according to their size This done, another and another jewel was subjected to the same process ; the workman performing his task with surprising dexterity, and the precious little heaps becoming momentarily larger. By and by, bracelets, tiara, and aigrette having been broken up in succession, Antonio began upon a handful of the smaller objects. •Does the Sign ore wish this old ring taken to pieces ?' he asked. ' The stones are small, and will be worth very little.' It was an old-fashioned portrait ring, shield-shaped, set round with a single row of small brilliants and surmounted by a orown.

Lord Brackenbury put it on his finger, drew the lamp nearer, and, recognising the Spanish gift of which Signor Moro had told him, examined it with some interest. * You are right,' he said. 'ltis a curious old ring ; but the diamonds are valueless. I will keep it as it is. ' Mr Fronting was no Italian scholar, but he noted the looks and gestures, and made a shrewd gnees at their meaning. Lord Brackenbury meanwhile kept the ring npon his finger, and Antonio went on with his work. Pausing every now and then, he enquired, apparently, whether certain of the smaller jewels should be spared or not; and when answered broke them up. So by degrees the glittering pile diminished, the three little heaps increased, and the table became strewn with scraps of jagged silver. X ast as he worked, it was long past midnight when Antonio sorted the last diamonds. Seeing him in the act of replacing his tools in their case and Lord Brackenbury taking out his purse, Mr Prouting withdrew, closing the door noiselessly behind him and retreating upstairs to the next landing. There he waited, secure against observation, and, by the dim light cf the oil lamp which glimmered after midnight in the corridor, saw Antonio presently go down into the hall, and with a muttered 'Buona note ' to the night porter, pass out into the street.

About ten minutes later Mr Prouting, armed with a tray containing lemons, sugar, a tumbler and a water caraffe, walked boldly into the saloon, and surprised Lord Brackenbury in the act of making up his diamonds into a number of small packets, one of which he was at that moment folding and sealing. He looked up impatiently. ' I said I should not want you again tonight, ' he said frowning. ' Beg pardon, my lord ; but meating Mr Antonio just now in the 'all, I concluded your lordship was not gone to bed, and thought you would like your lemonade as usual.' Mr Prouting, speaking and moving with even more than his accustomed deliberation, took note of everything upon the table. Nothing escaped hira ; neither the sealed packets nor the pile 3 of diamonds y nor the belt of chamois leather which lay beside them, and in which his master, when travelling, was wont to carry money and bills of exchange. It needed no preternatural sagacity to divine at once that Lord Brackenbury preparing to stock the bolt with diamonds, and to carry his treasure upon his person. Mr Prouting observed also that the legal-looking document wm gone, and tliat the brass-bound coffer had been remc.ved to one of the side tables. (To lecontinned.)