CHAPTER III.
MR. MOLE—THE THREE DEVILS AND THEIR DEVILMENT—THE CONTESSA'S
JEWELS—AN ALARM.
"Mr. Mole—Mr. Mole!"
It was Harvey's voice.
Now Mr. Mole was convinced at once that Dick was at the bottom of this comical conspiracy in which he had been made to look so ridiculous. So he resolved at first not to make any reply.
But Harvey was guided to the spot by information which had been furnished him concerning Mr. Mole, and soon he appeared in sight.
"Mr. Mole—Mr. Mole!" exclaimed Dick, in grave reproof.
"Help me up, Harvey," said Mole, "and don't be a fool."
"Well, that's polite."
"Quite as polite as you can expect."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, you know what I mean well enough."
"I'm hanged if I do!" protested Harvey, stoutly.
His manner caught Mr. Mole immediately.
So this led the old gentleman to reflect.
If Dick did not know, it would be as well to keep the adventure to himself.
"Is it possible, Harvey, that you don't know what has occurred?"
"No."
"You don't know about Marietta?"
"No."
This decided Mole.
"Marietta is here."
"Never!" said Dick, in accents of deep mystery.
"A fact."
"Never! And who the dickens is Marietta when she is at home?"
"Mrs. Harkaway's maid, to be sure."
Dick burst out laughing at this.
"Why, Mr. Mole," he cried, "what a sly old fox you are."
Mr. Mole stared again.
"I don't quite understand what you are driving at, Mr. Harvey," said he.
"Don't you, though?—well, I do, old Slyboots."
"Harvey!"
"Oh, don't you try to come the old soldier over me."
"Sir!" said Mr. Mole, rearing himself up to his full height upon his timbers, "I don't understand your slangy allusions to the ancient military."
"Why, it is clear enough that you brought her."
"I what?" almost shrieked Mr. Mole, indignantly.
"Brought her, and your poor wife ought to know of it."
"Sir?" said Mole, "if you are bent on insulting me, I shall leave your company."
"Go it, Mole," said Dick, laughing until the tears came into his eyes; "go it. The fact is, you have been sneaking about after that little girl for a long while past; there can be no doubt about it."
"Harvey, I repudiate your vile insinuations with scorn, The fact is, that in your anxiety to fix some wickedness never contemplated upon me, you forget all the most important part of the tale."
"What?"
"Why, that girl has left the villa unprotected."
"Nonsense! there's old Constantino there."
"Useless."
"And Mike."
"He barks, but don't bite."
"Besides; you may be mistaken," urged Dick.
"Not I. I knew her at once, and what's more, she recognised me."
"The deuce!"
"And she bolted directly I pronounced her name."
"How was she dressed?"
Mr. Mole gave a hurried description of Marietta's dress, and they want off in search through the house and grounds after the flighty Marietta.
* * * * *
In another part of the grounds three men met.
"Hunston."
"Toro."
"Captain."
"Here."
"All safe?"
"Yes."
"Good!"
"What have you learnt, Toro?"
"Not much."
"And you, captain?"
"Nothing, or next to nothing," was the reply.
"And you, Hunston?"
"I have gained knowledge," answered the latter; "good, useful knowledge."
The other two laughed heartily at this reply.
"You were always of a studious turn of mind, Hunston."
"Ha, ha, ha!"
[Illustration: "'WHAT HAVE YOU DISCOVERED?' ASKED THE CAPTAIN"—ADV IN GREECE, VOL II, PAGE 21]
It may be as well to mention that they had sought a secluded part of the contessa's gardens, and met now by appointment.
They were all three arrayed in that peculiar style of costume which the prince of darkness is popularly supposed to don when he makes his appearance to German students, in certain weird and wild works of fiction, or in the supernatural drama.
It sounded really remarkable to hear these three men, disguised as devils, discussing matters generally in such an offhand manner.
The dresses of all three were alike nearly in every particular.
The only mark of distinction between them was a small straight feather they wore in their caps.
One wore a yellow feather.
Another had a feather of brilliant red.
The third one's feather was of a bright emerald green.
Now these feathers were small, but yet, by reason of the conspicuous colours, could be seen at a considerable distance.
"What is it you have discovered?" asked the captain.
"Out with it, Hunston," said Toro, in his old impatient way.
"Well, in the first place," was Hunston's reply, "our letters to old Mole and to the girl Marietta were perfectly successful."
"Of course."
"The vanity of the one, and the conceit of the other, made it an easy matter."
"It did."
"I saw the interview from a snug place of concealment, and took care to let her know it."
"How?"
"By humming her song which you heard her sing up at the villa."
The latter looked somewhat alarmed at this.
"Was that prudent?"
"Of course she did not see me, only we must get a thorough hold over this girl, so as to have her as an accomplice in the enemy's camp always."
"Good."
"Now let us get back to the ball-room, and see what is to be picked up there."
Back they went, and arrived in the large ball-room just as a dance was being got up.
The three diabolical companions deemed it prudent now to separate, that no undue attention might be drawn upon their movements.
And they went sauntering about the rooms, each upon the look-out for any slice of luck which might turn up.
Hunston had added a long red cloak to his costume, so as to envelope his figure and cover his arm, for fear of accidentally running across Harkaway or Harvey, or in fact, any of the party.
In this cloak he was wrapped, and silently watching two young and lovely girls, whose grace and elegance were commanding universal admiration.
One was fair as a lily, with light, golden, wavy hair, and full blue eyes.
This beautiful girl it was who excited Hunston's curiosity
"Who can she be? Perhaps Harvey's daughter," he thought
Now these two were equally lovely to gaze upon, the beauty of each being of a totally different character.
"If we can but spirit little Emily away to the mountains," said Hunston to himself, "I shall be able to repay them for all I have suffered. Nay, more, I shall be able to satisfy the greed of Mathias and the band, by making the accursed Harkaway disgorge some of his enormous wealth."
A hand was placed upon his shoulder.
"Hah!"
"It is I," said a voice in his ear.
And looking up, he beheld the devil in the red feather.
"Mathias."
"Hush! I have to rejoin a lady now, to whom I am engaged for the dance."
"The dance!"
Mathias nodded.
"She accepted at once a dance with the devil; I'll lead her a devil of a dance."
And the brigand captain laughed hugely at his own conceit.
But Hunston was not in laughing humour.
"I'm glad to find you so merry, captain."
The Greek did not observe his gloomy manner; he only replied—"You will be merry, too, when I tell you the cause."
"I have no thought for the pleasures of these fools," said Hunston, gruffly; "I only think of business."
"I too."
"And yet you are going to dance, Captain Mathias."
"For business reasons, solely," said the Greek.
"Ho ho!"
"My partner is positively bristling with diamonds," said the brigand, significantly.
Hunston was interested immediately.
"Diamonds?"
"Aye! diamonds; and such diamonds, too. There is one as big as a nut, I swear."
"I must see this lady."
"You shall."
"Where is she to be seen?"
"Come with me," said the captain.
Away they went, squeezing through the crowds of dancers and maskers, until they came to the smaller ball-room, where a lady stood in conversation with a big man, admirably got up as a knight of the olden time.
The lady Hunston recognised at a glance, from the description which Mathias had given of her jewels.
Her finely-rounded arms were encircled by bracelets, set with the richest diamonds, that matched a necklet of priceless worth apparently.
She wore a tiara, too, of the same costly making and setting.
The dance began.
It was a waltz.
Now the gallant Mathias acquitted himself to perfection in the dance, carrying his fair and richly-attired partner through the crowded room without getting at all jostled by the dancers.
Hunston followed their movements with the greatest possible interest, and as they shot past him for the third time round the room, he contrived to take from the Greek captain's hand one of the lady's bracelets which he had with some dexterity removed.
The next round he was less successful.
As they shot past, the brigand's hand was outstretched, but Hunston missed it, and a glittering object dropped to the floor. Hunston stooped to recover it, when—
"The lady has dropped something," said a voice in his ear.
"What lady?" he demanded, recovering himself quickly,
"The contessa."
"Ah! I see. But was it the contessa?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. It is the lady dancing with your half-brother."
"Eh!"
Hunston started a little after these words.
They sounded very unpleasantly in his ear.
He had evidently been associated with Mathias by the speaker.
Now the latter was a strange-looking little being.
A stunted man, with broad, square shoulders, and got up to represent the description which Victor Hugo has given us of his creation of Quasimodo.
"That is the contessa?" said Hunston, recovering his presence of mind.
"Yes."
"I am very glad of it, for I shall be able to restore this to its proper owner."
"Of course."
Hunston arose, and with a slight inclination of the head, crossed the room, as if in search of the contessa.
The dwarf regarded him eagerly as he went.
"That's a rum one," he said to himself. "He means to pocket the contessa's bracelet. What a swindle! I thought there was something more devilish about him than his dress."
* * * * *
Hunston fled precipitately to the gardens.
Close by the spot where he had previously met his companions in crime, there was a man awaiting him with a big bundle.
"Matteo, is it you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good; give me the other dress out. Quick! I must change, and be back before my absence can be noticed."
As he spoke, he had already torn from the hands of the man Matteo a pair of trunks of blue cloth slashed with amber silk, and quick as an eye could wink, he was into them.
And then he fastened on a similarly coloured mantle.
"Tell me, Matteo, does that change me?"
"Yes, perfectly."
"Good! take this."
"What, jewels?"
"Hush! hear all, see all, and say nothing. Away with you, now."
"Yes. Where to?"
"Back to the mountains, where we can always guard what we ourselves have made."
"True."
Just then there was a commotion in the ball-room, and a voice was heard to cry out—
"The contessa has lost her richest diamonds and other precious stones. There are robbers here. No one must leave the grounds."
"By Heaven!" ejaculated Hunston; "we are lost."