Edgar Jepson

“ NOW and then the human heart goes out, really goes out, to a thing, a made thing; and this would seem to happen when there is a kinship between the spirit of the maker of the thing and the spirit that goes out to it. There must have been some such kinship between the spirit of John Henry Thoresway and the spirit of the maker of the jade vase, for his heart went out to it. ”

“ Myra smiled at him and went back to her divan; and they talked for rather more than an hour—about luck and strange coincidences and jade and crystal and chalcedony. It is not often that three people meet for the first time and find themselves so much in sympathy; and when John Henry rose to go with a check for a thousand pounds in his pocket, Morden Masters invited him to dine with them on the Sunday. ”

“ The shutter of smoothness rolled up from over Mr. Sing's face and he banged on the table. The door opened, and there entered a big European and two Chinamen.
“They've got a jade vase. Take it from them!” said Mr. Sing in a grating voice.
John Henry hesitated for a three seconds. No; it was no use handing over the vase till he had recovered Morden Masters. He caught Myra's arm, drew her, almost jerked her, into the right-hand corner, and faced the attackers.
The European, a big man, came forward, crouching a little, but with an easy swing; the two Chinamen hung a little behind him. ”

“ I will buy it back from you for the three pounds seven shillings and the sixpence. It is not right to pay the price of jade for soapstone. No.”
His prolixity had given John Henry's natural instinct to protect his treasure time to get fully roused. He smiled amiably and said, “It's very good of you, Mr. Sing; but you needn't worry about me. I didn't buy any soapstone vase. I don't collect soapstone.”
In a breath the smoothness had gone from Mr. Sing's face, the sleepiness from his eyes. A very greedy man was glaring at John Henry. ”

“ Then he said, “The Chinese do it, of course; that green stuff that women are so fond of. It isn't jade, of course, but jadeite, that green stuff. But I do know a man——”
“Come on,” said John Henry.
A taxi took them to his flat for the Luck of the Mings, and on to a pleasant villa on the edge of Regent's Park. They were shown into a room adorned with medieval church plate. In it they found Mr. Boyle, a pale and gloomy gentleman of forty with a rather truculent air. He received them gloomily. William Jones told him what they wanted; John Henry gave him the Luck of the Mings. ”

“ As she did so there came a rush from the outside, and seven or eight men, Chinamen all, burst into the passage and in their rush carried the three of them down it and back into the room, though John Henry, with one arm round Myra's waist, applied several short-arm jolts with the loaded end of the life preserver to those he could reach. ”

“ She was the possessor of the charming voice.
“It's known as the Luck of the Mings—the joss-stick holder from which the Ming emperors took the joss sticks they burned in front of their gods in the temple in the palace since the very beginning of the dynasty,” said Morden Masters slowly. “It was carved by a holy man, and an uncommonly accomplished holy man he must have been—a great artist—between 1346 and 1368, He spent twenty-two years on it, working on it off and on, I suppose. ”

“ Besides, during the last two years he had been acquiring a more valuable experience, experience in Oriental objects of art. They were more interesting than a garden, more beautiful than flowers—at least he found them more beautiful—and they were certainly far more profitable. Also they looked a path to meeting Myra Masters.
For it would be difficult to meet her. He did not move in the same circle as she; in fact, he did not move in any circle. But he had to make his call after dining at Gordon House ”

“ He set the jade vase a yard away from the important pieces on the shelf and went on with his unpacking. John Henry looked at it; it was growing on him.
Presently William Jones paused and scratched his head and said, “Rum, I calls it.”
“What?” said John Henry.
“These 'ere cases of Sing's. The stuff in 'em's always imperial. If ever there's a dragon on any of it it's a five-clawed emperor's dragon. An' I'll lay odds that all this stuff is imperial pieces. And there ain't no emperors any more, Where does it come from? And 'ow does 'e get 'old of it?” ”

“ Carisbrook Carruthers in cold and haughty accents.
“Then you took it wrong,” said John Henry firmly. “I'm not going to let that piece of jade out of my hands till I know that it's perfectly safe to do so. I don't want to be called on by Mr. Sing's real heirs to replace it.”
Mr. Carisbrook Carruthers mounted the high horse at once and with alacrity. The assurance of a man of his standing was enough for anyone, and he must insist on the vase being handed over to him at once. John Henry invited him to continue to insist as long as he liked. Mr. ”

“ They want the vase; and the prices they are offering for it are rising. Mr. Sing has got up to three thousand, the two Chinamen have got up to five, and the last Chinaman got up to seven. I think that all of them want to become emperors. But I can't see my way to letting them have the Luck of the Mings to start trouble with. China's quite a distressful enough country as it is without dynastic commotions. ”

“ They plunged into speculations about the business; which of the Chinamen who had tried to buy the vase had kidnaped her father, and how had he done it? The car ran south, then east through the city and along the interminable dinginess of the Commercial Road, into the even dingier East India Dock Road. Halfway down that road it turned to enter one of the dingiest streets in the world. John Henry stopped it. Two policemen were standing a little way down the road; he got out of the car and went to them. ”

“ The big dealers'll come 'ere for them—four thousand apiece they'll give for them two vases. I shall send it along to Gleneby's with the other stuff that's going there; and it'll fetch something under a fiver, unless there 'appens to be a couple of collectors there who knows what's what and bids each other up. ”

“ If it ain't Black John!” he exclaimed.
“Harris—Frank Harris,” said John Henry, recognizing the most troublesome private he had ever handled, an impudent ruffian, but a first-class fighter.
“It's me, sir, all right,” said Harris; and turning to Mr. ”