The Pagan Madonna - Page 96/141

"You haven't got an extra gun anywhere, have you?"

"We'd be headin' east if I had"--grimly. "I'd have pared down the odds

this mornin'. That hombre with the hop-a-long didn't leave me a quill

toothpick. Was you thinkin' of startin' somethin'?"--hopefully.

"No, but I'd feel more comfortable if Miss Norman could carry a gun."

"Uh-huh. Say, she's all right. No hysterics. Ain't many of 'em that

wouldn't 'a' been snivellin' all day and night in her bunk. Been listenin'

to her readin'. Gee, you'd think we were floatin' round this codfish lake

just for the fun of it! She won't run to cover if a bust-up comes. None

whatever! And I bet she can cook, too. Them kind can always cook."

Conversation lapsed.

Below, Jane was passing through an unusual experience.

Said Cleigh at the start: "I'm going to show you the paintings--there are

fourteen in all. I will tell you the history of each. And above all,

please bear in mind the price of each picture."

"I'll remember."

But she thought the request an odd one, coming from the man as she knew

him.

Most of the treasures were in his own spacious cabin. There was a

Napoleonic corner--a Meissonier on one side and a Detaille on the other.

In a stationary cabinet there were a pair of stirrups, a riding crop, a

book on artillery tactics, a pair of slippers beaded with seed pearls, and

a buckle studded with sapphires.

"What are those?" she asked, attracted.

"They belonged to the Emperor and his first Empress."

"Napoleon?"

"The Corsican. Next to the masters, I've a passion for things genuinely

Napoleonic. The hussar is by Meissonier and the skirmish by Detaille."

"How much is this corner worth?"

"I can't say, except that I would not part with those objects for a

hundred thousand; and there are friends of mine who would pay half that

sum for them--behind my back. This is a Da Vinci."

Half an hour passed. Jane honestly tried to be thrilled by the splendour

of the names she heard, but her eye was always travelling back toward the

slippers and the buckle. The Empress Josephine! Romance and gallantry in

the old, old days!

"The painting in your cabin is by Holbein. It cost me sixteen thousand.

Now let us go out and look at the rug. That is the apple of my eye. It is

the second finest example of the animal rug in the world. A sheet of pure

gold, half an inch thick, covering the rug from end to end, would not

equal its worth."