The Viking's Skull

by John R. Carling

Lorelie became more perplexed than ever at this discovery. How came Ivar to know that the gem was false, and why was he so anxious to conceal the truth from his father?

Then in a moment everything became clear.

Always pressed for money, and precluded by his father's parsimony from obtaining it, Ivar had formed the plan of appropriating a certain portion of the plate and gems contained in the coffin. To secure himself from detection he had artfully replaced the originals by clever facsimiles, fabricated on the continent by goldsmiths and glass-workers of the class who would ask no inconvenient questions provided that they were well paid for their work. To obtain the necessary counterfeits Ivar must have conveyed the originals to the continent, a very hazardous thing to do, seeing that if the earl had paid a visit of inspection to the treasure during his son's absence, discovery would have been inevitable. The counterfeits being completed, Ivar had brought them concealed in the reliquary to Ravenhall, and had transferred them to the coffin, his remark while doing so—the remark overheard by Godfrey—to wit, "I hope Lorelie will be satisfied," being doubtless drawn from him by the fact that Lorelie was often making monetary demands upon him, a fact which she herself would be the first to admit, though she little dreamed of the means taken by him to supply her costly tastes. She could not avoid the feeling that, to some extent, she was responsible for Ivar's peculations: and, therefore, compliant with his wish, she kept silent, and permitted the earl to remain in his ignorance.

The contents of the coffin were a mixture of the genuine and the spurious. The altar-ring was the genuine article: it would not have paid for the trouble of counterfeiting. The jewelled vase was spurious: on glancing again at this last, Lorelie wondered how she could have taken the metal for gold: it now seemed to her eyes merely like common bronze. The "sapphire cup" was but worthless glass: she almost sighed at the thought that the lovely original should have been exchanged for current coin of the realm. The selling of such a gem was an act little short of sacrilege.

"Well may you linger over it!" cried the earl, thinking that her long retention of the cup was the result of admiration. "Such a gem as that is too lovely for earth, too precious even for an empress to drink from."

"But not for a Ravengar, surely?" said Lorelie.

And taking up the decanter she filled the azure cup with wine, and held it out to him.

"Drink, my lord," she said smiling, and recalling his own words, "''Tis of a choice vintage, one of the rarest of the Madeiras.'"

But from that cup the earl recoiled as from the summons of Death himself.