“My dear Hume, perhaps this whim, as you call it, is not vague or visionary to me,” he replied quietly.
“But,” I expostulated, “you have no proofs of your treasure. Why is it not behind the glass cases in St. Mark’s yonder? Why are not your canvases in the museums? Why are not your antiquities in the shops?”
He looked at me with a strangely thoughtful expression.
“What we have never had we do not miss,” he mused. “No one missed the Venus de Milo, or the Frieze of the Parthenon, or the Kohinoor. Yet we call them to-day three of the wonders of the world.”
“Because there are but three of them,” I said impatiently.[impatiently.] “I am afraid you must look far and wide before you find the lucky fourth.”
“No doubt,” he said indifferently, “no doubt.” And then with apparent irrelevance, “Now one would not think that crowns were so easily lost.”
“And have they been?” I asked curiously.
“Only the other day eight were found at one digging, not far from Toledo. They had been lost for a thousand years. There was a find for you. Then the crown of the Emperor of Austria, the holy crown, the szenta korona, has been lost and found no less than three times. The last time (not half a century ago) it disappeared after the defeat of Kossuth. Some said it had been taken to London; some, that it was broken up and the jewels sold in Constantinople. But for a few florins a peasant returned it as mysteriously as it had disappeared. Foolish peasant!”
“Mr. St. Hilary,” expostulated Mrs. Gordon severely, “you would not have had him do otherwise?”
“I suppose not. But upon my word, sometimes I think that one might as well go in for big things as for little. There is the Gnaga Boh, the Dragon Lord, the most perfect ruby in the world. A half-witted creature, the widow of King Theebaw, wears it. We are great friends, that old hag and I, and I could have stolen it from her a thousand times. Some day perhaps she will give it to me. And that notorious Indian prince, Gwaikor of Baroda, has half a dozen stones of price. He, too, is a crony of mine. Nothing would be easier than to steal one of them.”