Discovering nothing of any kind, concerning Sûr Imar and his daughter, after they had quitted Athens, we made up our minds that the proper course was to pay a visit to the Princess Marva, and try to get some inkling of her plans. It was not very likely that a couple of clumsy fellows, like Strogue and my humble self, would prove a match, or even a serious check, for a subtle and ruthless woman, commanding a reckless tribe, and probably well informed of all the plans of her unsuspicious victims. So that if we appeared in our own characters, or even let her know that we were here, our days in this land, or indeed in any other visible except to the eyes of faith, were likely to be brief indeed.
But for the sake of those who mean well, and desire fair play on the whole, whenever it leaves a chance for them, Providence has been gracious enough to lay down one universal rule—that every wicked person has some special weakness, some nick in his black shell for the oyster-knife of justice; so that a simple and straight mind, like Strogue's and mine, may find its way through, and turn the whole to righteous uses.
"I have hit the mark," Jack Nickols said, when he came home to breakfast with his tar-pot; "when the sun comes up these rattling peaks, instead of down over them, is the time to think. I could not see things clear last night, though you know how little I take, Captain, compared with anybody else about. But when the sun came up from under to me, my brains, which are bright now and then, began to work. I thought of you snoozing in the ashes, and I resolved to do my best for you."
"Go on, my son," said the Captain kindly, with the tolerance of a gentleman who is offered lager-froth, instead of solid Bass; "there is no doubt that you have fine ideas. A man who turns out so early picks up something."
"Then what do you say to this?" cried Jack. "You might roll over fifty times, till nine o'clock, as old gentlemen do in England, and yet never find it occur to you. That Clipper of the mountains"—"Cleopatra" was the word in his mind perhaps—"is a terrible oner for money, they say, and we have had a tip or two to that effect. Till we paid her toll, though it is robbery downright, a bullet used to come from some black corner, and my very best hand had a sample through his hat. One must expect that sort of thing of course, in an out-of-way part of the world like this; but luckily they have never been at Wimbledon. I came very near the Queen's Prize once; but I told you all about that, last night. These beggars won't give me a chance. Never mind, it will come some day. But they haven't tried to pot us, since we paid toll. Now why shouldn't you go upon the same tack? Go to Her Majesty, as an opposition company, and offer a premium over our heads."
"Upon my word, you are a clever fellow," said Strogue, looking at him thoughtfully; "I fancied so when I saw the tar-pot. But, Jack, my dear boy, is there any foundation, anything for us to go upon?"
"Yes, there is. And we can make much more of it. I can promise you an interview with the tigress, if you will offer to put stripes of gold on her. You know what those confounded Germans are. No sooner do they hear of any English enterprise than they want to go one better and collar it. They come in, and hoist us out, and get the cream of all our sweat. There was a tremendous man of science, Herr Baddechopps, or Baddechumps, or some such name, poking about here with spectacles last autumn; I have got his card, and you shall have it. We put a rope round him, and two men at either end, and swept him down the hill faster than he came up, and we promised him the loop round his neck if he came back; for I can't stand their jealousy of everything we discover! You go and tell Marva that we have got the place too cheap; that it all belongs to her, and you will pay three times the royalty. Take a notary with you, but sign nothing."
"George, I am up for trying it, if you are," said Strogue. "What is the name of her place—Gomorrah? Doesn't sound very inviting, does it? But the lady won't hurt us, if we leave our cash behind. We can get there in three days, you said last night. Let us beard the tigress in her den. I have never been quite in that part before. There is no such thing as a road, of course. All the better for that sometimes."
Nickols advised us to take no horses, lest we should be murdered for their sake; but to hire a guide, and a tent, and half-a-dozen of his men (whom he would try to spare), as well as our own interpreter, and a Tartar or two who were always hanging about the Russian fort. Thus we should be ten or twelve in number, all well-armed, and capable of giving a good account of some thirty Ossets, if they took our expedition roughly; for they are not good shots, and their guns are very poor.