The Pagan Madonna - Page 60/141

"And I solemnly swear that you shan't catch me. I'm through with the old

game of playing the genie in the bottle for predatory millionaires.

Henceforth I'm on my own. I'm romantic--yes, sir--I'm romantic from heel

to cowlick; and now I'm going to give rein to this stifled longing."

"You will come to a halter round your neck. I have always paid your price

on the nail, Cunningham."

"You had to. Hang it, passions are the very devil, aren't they? Sooner or

later one jumps upon your back and rides you like the Old Man of the

Sea."

Cleigh heard the rumble of steam.

"Objects of art!" went on Cunningham. "It eats into your vitals to hear

that some rival has picked up a Correggio or an ancient Kirman or a bit of

Persian plaque. You talk of halters. Lord lumme, how obliquely you look at

facts! Take that royal Persian there--the second-best animal rug on

earth--is there no murder behind the woof and warp of it? What? Talk

sense, Cleigh, talk sense! You cable me: Get such and such. I get it. What

the devil do you care how it was got, so long as it eventually becomes

yours? It's a case of the devil biting his own tail--pot calling kettle

black."

"How much do you want?"

"No, Cleigh, it's the romantic idea."

"I will give you fifty thousand for the rug."

"I'm sorry. No use now of telling you the plot; you wouldn't believe me,

as the song goes. Dinner at seven. Will you dine in the salon with me, or

will you dine in the solemn grandeur of your own cabin, in company with Da

Vinci, Teniers, and that Carlo Dolci the Italian Government has been

hunting high and low for?"

"I will risk the salon."

"To keep an eye on me as long as possible. That's fair enough. You heard

what I said to those boys. Well, every mother's son of 'em will toe the

mark. There will be no change at all in the routine. Simply we lay a new

course that will carry us outside and round Formosa, down to the South Sea

and across to the Catwick. I'll give you one clear idea. A million and

immunity would not stir me, Cleigh."

"What's the game--if it's beyond ransom?"

Cunningham laughed boyishly.

"It's big, and you'll laugh, too, when I tell you."

"On which side of the mouth?"

"That's up to you."

"Is it the rug?"