Jachin Fell

“ JACHIN FELL glanced at his watch.
"Lucie will be here at any minute now," he observed. "I suppose your sense of duty will force you to disclose everything to her?"
Gramont merely nodded, tight-lipped. A knock at the door, and one of his men entered with the sack of mail they had taken as evidence.
"A lady is coming here at any moment," said Gramont. "Allow her to enter."
The other saluted and departed.
"A sense of duty is a terrible thing," and Jachin Fell sighed. "What about the oil company? Are you going to let Miss Ledanois' fortunes go to wrack and ruin?" ”

“ Jachin Fell examined it, brought a paper from beneath his domino, and wrote down a word. The paper was that on which the farewell message of the Midnight Masquer had been written.
"A hard lead, a very hard point indeed!" said Fell. He pocketed the paper again and regarded Gramont steadily as he returned the pencil. "Few men carry so hard a pencil, sir."
"You're quite right," and Gramont smiled. "I borrowed this from Bob Maillard only a moment ago. Its hardness surprised me."
"Oh!" said Jachin Fell, mildly. "By the way, aren't you the Prince de Gramont? ”

“ And the man at the head of it all, the man above Memphis Izzy and his crooks, was Jachin Fell of New Orleans.
Did Lucie Ledanois dream such a thing? No. Gramont dismissed the question at once. Fell was not an unusual type of man. There were many Jachin Fells throughout the country, he reflected. Men who applied their brains to crooked work, who kept themselves above any actual share in the work, and who profited hugely by tribute money from every crook in every crime. ”

“ There was an instant of silence. Jachin Fell regarded his henchman with steady gray eyes. Ben Chacherre met the look with almost a trace of defiance. The chief frowned darkly.
"Yes," said the chief. "That's the size of it, Fell. You're keepin' quiet about the name of the real Masquer; why?"
"Because," said Fell, calmly, "I happen to know that he was in the auditorium at the time of the murder."
Again silence. Ben Chacherre stared at Fell, with amazement and admiration in his gaze. "When the master lies, he lies magnificently!" ”

“ I'll come to-morrow night gladly, Uncle Jachin."
"And we'll take a look at the Proteus ball afterward, if you like. I'll send Ben Chacherre for you with the car, if you're not afraid of him."
Lucie looked gravely into the smiling eyes of Fell.
"I'm not exactly afraid of him," she responded, soberly, "but there is something about him that I can't like. I'm sorry that you're trying to regenerate him, in a way."
Fell shrugged lightly. "All life is an effort, little one! Well, good-bye."
Jachin Fell left the house at three-forty. Twenty minutes later the bell rang again. ”

“ Ansley was silent. Jachin Fell, however, responded with a cold nod of assent.
"Yes," he said in his peculiarly toneless manner. "Yes, we have. At least, I believe it was he——"
"I'm worried," said Maillard, anxiously, hurriedly. He made an expressive gesture of despair. "He's in costume, of course. I've been given to understand that—well, that he has been—well, drinking."
"He has," said Jachin Fell, without any trace of compassion. "A number of the Krewe are occupying one of the rooms in the building, and they must have been visiting it frequently. ”

“ Tell me, do you think that the Midnight Masquer will make an appearance to-night?"
"I have every reason to believe that he will," said Jachin Fell, gravely.
Columbine put one hand to her throat, and shivered a trifle.
"You—you really think so? You are not trying to frighten me?" Her voice was no longer gay. "But—the jewels——"
[pg 18] "Wear them, wear them!" There was command in the tone of Fell. "Were they not given you to wear to-night? Then wear them, by all means. Don't worry, my dear."
Columbine said nothing for a moment; her gaiety seemed to be suddenly extinguished and quenched. ”

“ I bet I could do it, and his whole gang with him—if I knew how. There's the rub! Fell won't hesitate a minute in having me arrested. And as he said, once he got me arrested, I'd be gone. He must be able to exert powerful influence, that man!"
Should he strike or not? If he struck, he might expect the full weight of Jachin Fell's vengeance—unless his blow would include Fell among the victims.
Gramont was still pondering this dilemma when Ben Chacherre arrived. ”

“ Calls himself Henry Gramont, and would drop the prince stuff altogether if these French people around here would let him. He's supposed to be going into some kind of business, but just now he's having the time of his life. Every old dowager is trying to catch him."
Jachin Fell nodded. "I've no use for nobility; a rotten crowd! But this chap appears interesting. I'll be glad to size him up. Ah, here's my domino now!"
A page brought the domino. Fell, discarding the mask, threw the domino about his shoulders, and the two men left the club in company. ”

“ I'm out of Maillard's company, or shall be out of it soon. The minute I'm out, I'll be free to go into business for myself. It occurred to me that if Jachin Fell had brains enough to run down the Midnight Masquer, he would be a mighty good business partner; because I'm poor on business detail. Also, I think Fell is to be trusted. The things you've told me and written me about him prove that much. He's very strong politically, I have found—although few people know it."
"But he's not interested in oil is he?"
"I don't know; I take for granted that he's interested in making money. Most men are. ”

“ Go ahead! I know that you can't be reached by any of these crooks—I'm merely calling Fell's bluff. We have the chief of police here, and he's sweating. Eh? Sure. Take as long as you like, governor."
He smiled grimly at Jachin Fell as he waited. Two minutes passed—three—four. Then he heard the voice of the governor again.
"Yes?"
"Don't arrest him, Gramont."
"What?" Gramont gasped.
"Don't touch him, I said! Get in all the others, no matter who they are, but leave Fell alone——"
"You damned coward!" shouted Gramont, in a heat of fury. "So this is the way you keep your promises, is it? ”

“ The whole affair had been handled with a clever secrecy, only in order that Fell's oil company might buy the land from Lucie, and that Fell might use the resultant boom to make her financially secure.
"He doesn't believe there's oil here," reflected Gramont, "and he's sincere in the belief. Where Lucie is concerned, I think the man's absolutely unselfish. He'd do anything for her! And yet Jachin Fell is an enemy, a deadly enemy, of society! Hm—these criminals show some queer streaks. You can't call a man like Fell wholly bad, not by a good deal ”

“ Lucie drew a quick breath, "Bob?"
"Yes, I mean Bob. That he has profited by your loss I am not yet in a position to say; but I suspect it. He has his father's cupidity without his father's sense of honour to restrain him. When I have finished with the Masquer, I shall take up his trail."
Jachin Fell rose. "Now I must be off, my dear. By the way, if I have need of you in running down the Masquer, may I call upon your services?"
"Certainly! I'd love to help, Uncle Jachin! We'd be real detectives?"
"Almost." Jachin Fell smiled slightly. "Will you dine with us to-morrow evening, Lucie? ”

“ Thus arose the legend that the Midnight Masquer came and departed by means of airplane—a theory aided ingeniously by his costume. Well, that is all I know or suspect, my dear Lucie! And now——"
"Now, I suppose," said the girl, thoughtfully, "you'll put that awful Creole of yours on the track of Mr. X.? Ben Chacherre is a good chauffeur, and he's amusing enough—but he's a bloodhound! I don't wonder that he used to be a criminal. Even if you have rescued him from a life of crime, you haven't improved his looks."
"Exactly—Ben is at work," assented Jachin Fell. ”

“ Jachin is a man of oppressive respectability; so oppressive, indeed, that some of the scamps of the borough try to get59 him into scrapes by temptations of a very inartificial kind, which he is strong enough to resist. At last, however, it occurs to Jachin that he can easily embezzle part of the usual monthly offerings while saving his character in his own eyes by some obvious sophistry. He is detected and dismissed, and dies after coming upon the parish. These materials for a tragic poem are not very promising ”

“ Virtue—His Triumph—He is yet not invulnerable: is assaulted by Fear of Want, and Avarice—He gradually yields to the Seduction—He reasons with himself and is persuaded—He offends, but with Terror; repeats his Offence; grows familiar with Crime; is detected—His Sufferings and Death.
LETTER XIX.
THE PARISH-CLERK.
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With our late vicar, and his age the same,
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His clerk, hight Jachin, to his office came:
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The like slow speech was his, the like tall slender frame.
But Jachin was the gravest man on ground,
And heard his master's jokes with look profound ”

“ Teach him the folly of insulting your resistless might! As for chat other, I call upon the wild beasts of the jungle to tear the life from his white throat. When he feels their claws rending his flesh, their hoc breath in his face, may his dying thoughts be of the holy ones he has offended!"
About them the natives drew slowly back in superstitious awe as the shaking yogi seemed to swell and dwarf them into insignificance. Janki turned slowly away. Contemptuously leaving the silver coins lying in the road, he strode up the hill as the youngest sahib rejoined his fellows. ”

“ With difficulty could I believe that such peasant hearts could love.
Soon I had an opportunity to be convinced. I heard about Janko’s affair. The Zadruga was to be settled. To him fell the largest share of the land, but just on that account, no argument could be reached with the rest of the family. They knew how to impel the lawyers to some new subterfuge to hinder the allotment. Janko was all but crazy. He was especially upset because Jagica’s father favored Tono, and reproached him with the delay of the allotment. ”

“ Ali Pasha said no more, but turned towards Mukhtar Bey.
"Thou art the most crafty," said he; "go then to the captains of the Suliotes and invite them to assemble with their forces at Janina with all despatch. Spare neither promises nor assurances nor fair winds."
Mukhtar Bey's face turned quite angry, and, wagging his head, still heavy from his overnight debauch, he answered, sullenly: "In the mountains the snow is now thawing; every stream is swollen into a river; naught but a bird can find a place for its foot on the dry ground; how, then, can armies move hither and thither? ”

“ By this time the Janissary was beside himself with rage at so much opposition.
"Thou worm! thou crossed-leg, crouching huckster, thou pack-thread pedlar! if thou dost not let me go immediately, I will cut off thy hands, thy feet, thine ears, and thy nose, and then hang thee up."
"And if thou leave not go of my guest, I will fell thee to the earth with this stick of mine."
"What, thou wilt fell me? Me? A fellow like thou threaten to strike Halil Pelivan with a stick? Strike away then, thou dog, thou dishonourable brute-beast, thou dregs of a Mussulman! ”

“ Just when the beys had consumed the price of the last slave they had to sell, such wealth poured in upon them, in heaps, in floods, as we only hear of in old fairy tales; and fairy tales, as we all know very well, have no truth in them at all.
One day, as Ali Pasha was walking to and fro on the bastions of Janina, he perceived among the [Pg 172] garden-beds in the court-yard below a gardener engaged in planting tulips.
Tepelenti knew all the servants in the fortress thoroughly, down to the very lowest. He not only knew them by name, but he knew what they had to do and how they did it. ”

“ But the rank and file were of a different opinion; they would joyfully retire from the fortress if they were assured of a free forgiveness. Gaskho Bey had only to stretch out his hand and the fortress of Janina, the impregnable fortress with its two hundred cannons and its enormous mass of treasure, would be his.
Early in the morning the gray moonless flag, the sign of death, was waving on the red tower of Janina, and the guns overlooking the water fired three and thirty volleys, whose echo proclaimed among the mountains that Ali Tepelenti was dead. ”

“ The mob tore the dervish to pieces and distributed his bleeding limbs as trophies, and then, like wild beasts who have scented blood, they attacked the castles of the great men. Whom should they fall upon first? That was the only question.
Suddenly one of the priests of Begtash tore down from the corner of the street a copy of the fetva which proclaimed the reform and showed it to the mob. "Behold!" cried he, "here, foremost amongst the names of the destroyers of the Faith stands the name of the Janissary Aga! The leader of the Janissaries has himself betrayed his own children. Death to him!" ”

“ A MAN IN THE MIDST OF DANGERS
The Pasha of Janina, for thirty successive days, received nothing but ill tidings; and twice within the period of two waxing moons did his own power as steadily wane.
The first Job's-messenger which reached him was the Arnaut horseman, who had escaped from Stambul, and whom the Sultan's Tartars had pursued as far as Adrianople. This man told him that the attempt on the life of Gaskho Bey had failed, and that the captured assassins had revealed the name of their employer.
"Behold, I have wounded myself with my own sword," exclaimed Ali. ”

“ I agree, but I would know his name. Is he whom you desire fit for the post?"
"We want Kurshid," explained Kara Makan, perceiving that the Sultan had not read the document.
"And the Janissaries demand other rewards for themselves. 'Tis only natural: I grant them. They cannot be expected to storm the Seraglio for nothing. The chief treasurer will pay you whatever you require. This third article, too, I see, demands the capture of Janina. Be it so. I grant it. Most probably the whole Janissary host will want to go against Ali Pasha." ”