The Doings of Raffles Haw

Chapter 3

A HOUSE OF WONDERS.

Robert McIntyre's face must have expressed the utter astonishment which

filled his mind at this most unlooked-for announcement. For a moment he

thought that his companion must be joking, but the ease and assurance

with which he lounged up the steps, and the deep respect with which a

richly-clad functionary in the hall swung open the door to admit him,

showed that he spoke in sober earnest. Raffles Haw glanced back, and

seeing the look of absolute amazement upon the young artist's features,

he chuckled quietly to himself.

"You will forgive me, won't you, for not disclosing my identity?" he

said, laying his hand with a friendly gesture upon the other's sleeve.

"Had you known me you would have spoken less freely, and I should not

have had the opportunity of learning your true worth. For example,

you might hardly have been so frank upon the matter of wealth had you

known that you were speaking to the master of the Hall."

"I don't think that I was ever so astonished in my life," gasped Robert.

"Naturally you are. How could you take me for anything but a workman?

So I am. Chemistry is one of my hobbies, and I spend hours a day in my

laboratory yonder. I have only just struck work, and as I had inhaled

some not-over-pleasant gases, I thought that a turn down the road and a

whiff of tobacco might do me good. That was how I came to meet you, and

my toilet, I fear, corresponded only too well with my smoke-grimed face.

But I rather fancy I know you by repute. Your name is Robert McIntyre,

is it not?"

"Yes, though I cannot imagine how you knew."

"Well, I naturally took some little trouble to learn something of my

neighbours. I had heard that there was an artist of that name, and I

presume that artists are not very numerous in Tamfield. But how do you

like the design? I hope it does not offend your trained taste."

"Indeed, it is wonderful--marvellous! You must yourself have an

extraordinary eye for effect."

"Oh, I have no taste at all; not the slightest. I cannot tell good from

bad. There never was such a complete Philistine. But I had the best

man in London down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed it up

between them."

They had been standing just within the folding doors upon a huge mat of

bison skins. In front of them lay a great square court, paved with

many-coloured marbles laid out in a labyrinth of arabesque design.

In the centre a high fountain of carved jade shot five thin feathers of

spray into the air, four of which curved towards each corner of the

court to descend into broad marble basins, while the fifth mounted

straight up to an immense height, and then tinkled back into the central

reservoir. On either side of the court a tall, graceful palm-tree shot

up its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping green leaves some

fifty feet above their heads. All round were a series of Moorish

arches, in jade and serpentine marble, with heavy curtains of the

deepest purple to cover the doors which lay between them. In front, to

right and to left, a broad staircase of marble, carpeted with rich thick

Smyrna rug work, led upwards to the upper storeys, which were arranged

around the central court. The temperature within was warm and yet

fresh, like the air of an English May.

"It's taken from the Alhambra," said Raffles Haw. "The palm-trees are

pretty. They strike right through the building into the ground beneath,

and their roots are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem to

thrive very well."

"What beautifully delicate brass-work!" cried Robert, looking up with

admiring eyes at the bright and infinitely fragile metal trellis screens

which adorned the spaces between the Moorish arches.

"It is rather neat. But it is not brass-work. Brass is not tough

enough to allow them to work it to that degree of fineness. It is gold.

But just come this way with me. You won't mind waiting while I remove

this smoke?"

He led the way to a door upon the left side of the court, which, to

Robert's surprise, swung slowly open as they approached it.

"That is a little improvement which I have adopted," remarked the master

of the house. "As you go up to a door your weight upon the planks

releases a spring which causes the hinges to revolve. Pray step in.

This is my own little sanctum, and furnished after my own heart."

If Robert expected to see some fresh exhibition of wealth and luxury he

was woefully disappointed, for he found himself in a large but bare

room, with a little iron truckle-bed in one corner, a few scattered

wooden chairs, a dingy carpet, and a large table heaped with books,

bottles, papers, and all the other _debris_ which collect around a busy

and untidy man. Motioning his visitor into a chair, Raffles Haw pulled

off his coat, and, turning up the sleeves of his coarse flannel

shirt, he began to plunge and scrub in the warm water which flowed from

a tap in the wall.

"You see how simple my own tastes are," he remarked, as he mopped his

dripping face and hair with the towel. "This is the only room in my

great house where I find myself in a congenial atmosphere. It is homely

to me. I can read here and smoke my pipe in peace. Anything like

luxury is abhorrent to me."

"Really, I should not have though it," observed Robert.

"It is a fact, I assure you. You see, even with your views as to the

worthlessness of wealth, views which, I am sure, are very sensible and

much to your credit, you must allow that if a man should happen to be

the possessor of vast--well, let us say of considerable--sums of money,

it is his duty to get that money into circulation, so that the community

may be the better for it. There is the secret of my fine feathers.

I have to exert all my ingenuity in order to spend my income, and yet

keep the money in legitimate channels. For example, it is very easy to

give money away, and no doubt I could dispose of my surplus, or part of

my surplus, in that fashion, but I have no wish to pauperise anyone, or

to do mischief by indiscriminate charity. I must exact some sort of

money's worth for all the money which I lay out You see my point, don't

you?"

"Entirely; though really it is something novel to hear a man complain of

the difficulty of spending his income."

"I assure you that it is a very serious difficulty with me. But I have

hit upon some plans--some very pretty plans. Will you wash your hands?

Well, then, perhaps you would care to have a look round. Just come into

this corner of the room, and sit upon this chair. So. Now I will sit

upon this one, and we are ready to start."

The angle of the chamber in which they sat was painted for about six

feet in each direction of a dark chocolate-brown, and was furnished with

two red plush seats protruding from the walls, and in striking contrast

with the simplicity of the rest of the apartment.

"This," remarked Raffles Haw, "is a lift, though it is so closely joined

to the rest of the room that without the change in colour it might

puzzle you to find the division. It is made to run either horizontally

or vertically. This line of knobs represents the various rooms.

You can see 'Dining,' 'Smoking,' 'Billiard,' 'Library' and so on, upon

them. I will show you the upward action. I press this one with

'Kitchen' upon it."

There was a sense of motion, a very slight jar, and Robert, without

moving from his seat, was conscious that the room had vanished, and that

a large arched oaken door stood in the place which it had occupied.

"That is the kitchen door," said Raffles Haw. "I have my kitchen at the

top of the house. I cannot tolerate the smell of cooking. We have come

up eighty feet in a very few seconds. Now I press again and here we are

in my room once more."

Robert McIntyre stared about him in astonishment.

"The wonders of science are greater than those of magic" he remarked.

"Yes, it is a pretty little mechanism. Now we try the horizontal.

I press the 'Dining' knob and here we are, you see. Step towards the

door, and you will find it open in front of you."

Robert did as he was bid, and found himself with his companion in a

large and lofty room, while the lift, the instant that it was freed from

their weight, flashed back to its original position. With his feet

sinking into the soft rich carpet, as though he were ankle-deep in some

mossy bank, he stared about him at the great pictures which lined the

walls.

"Surely, surely, I see Raphael's touch there" he cried, pointing up at

the one which faced him.

"Yes, it is a Raphael, and I believe one of his best. I had a very

exciting bid for it with the French Government. They wanted it for the

Louvre, but of course at an auction the longest purse must win."

"And this 'Arrest of Catiline' must be a Rubens. One cannot mistake

his splendid men and his infamous women."

"Yes, it is a Rubens. The other two are a Velasquez and a Teniers, fair

specimens of the Spanish and of the Dutch schools. I have only old

masters here. The moderns are in the billiard-room. The furniture here

is a little curious. In fact, I fancy that it is unique. It is made of

ebony and narwhals' horns. You see that the legs of everything are of

spiral ivory, both the table and the chairs. It cost the upholsterer

some little pains, for the supply of these things is a strictly limited

one. Curiously enough, the Chinese Emperor had given a large order for

narwhals' horns to repair some ancient pagoda, which was fenced in with

them, but I outbid him in the market, and his celestial highness has had

to wait. There is a lift here in the corner, but we do not need it.

Pray step through this door. This is the billiard-room," he continued

as they advanced into the adjoining room. "You see I have a few recent

pictures of merit upon the walls. Here is a Corot, two Meissoniers, a

Bouguereau, a Millais, an Orchardson, and two Alma-Tademas. It seems to

me to be a pity to hang pictures over these walls of carved oak.

Look at those birds hopping and singing in the branches. They really

seem to move and twitter, don't they?"

"They are perfect. I never saw such exquisite work. But why do you

call it a billiard-room, Mr. Haw? I do not see any board."

"Oh, a board is such a clumsy uncompromising piece of furniture. It is

always in the way unless you actually need to use it. In this case the

board is covered by that square of polished maple which you see let into

the floor. Now I put my foot upon this motor. You see!" As he spoke,

the central portion of the flooring flew up, and a most beautiful

tortoise-shell-plated billiard-table rose up to its proper position.

He pressed a second spring, and a bagatelle-table appeared in the same

fashion. "You may have card-tables or what you will by setting the

levers in motion," he remarked. "But all this is very trifling.

Perhaps we may find something in the museum which may be of more

interest to you."

He led the way into another chamber, which was furnished in antique

style, with hangings of the rarest and richest tapestry. The floor was

a mosaic of coloured marbles, scattered over with mats of costly fur.

There was little furniture, but a number of Louis Quatorze cabinets

of ebony and silver with delicately-painted plaques were ranged round

the apartment.

"It is perhaps hardly fair to dignify it by the name of a museum," said

Raffles Haw. "It consists merely of a few elegant trifles which I have

picked up here and there. Gems are my strongest point. I fancy that

there, perhaps, I might challenge comparison with any private collector

in the world. I lock them up, for even the best servants may be

tempted."

He took a silver key from his watch chain, and began to unlock and draw

out the drawers. A cry of wonder and of admiration burst from Robert

McIntyre, as his eyes rested upon case after case filled with the most

magnificent stones. The deep still red of the rubies, the clear

scintillating green of the emeralds, the hard glitter of the diamonds,

the many shifting shades of beryls, of amethysts, of onyxes, of

cats'-eyes, of opals, of agates, of cornelians seemed to fill the whole

chamber with a vague twinkling, many-coloured light. Long slabs of the

beautiful blue lapis lazuli, magnificent bloodstones, specimens of pink

and red and white coral, long strings of lustrous pearls, all these were

tossed out by their owner as a careless schoolboy might pour marbles

from his bag.

"This isn't bad," he said, holding up a great glowing yellow mass as

large as his own head. "It is really a very fine piece of amber. It was

forwarded to me by my agent at the Baltic. Twenty-eight pounds, it

weighs. I never heard of so fine a one. I have no very large

brilliants--there were no very large ones in the market--but my average

is good. Pretty toys, are they not?" He picked up a double handful of

emeralds from a drawer, and then let them trickle slowly back into

the heap.

"Good heavens!" cried Robert, as he gazed from case to case. "It is an

immense fortune in itself. Surely a hundred thousand pounds would

hardly buy so splendid a collection."

"I don't think that you would do for a valuer of precious stones," said

Raffles Haw, laughing. "Why, the contents of that one little drawer of

brilliants could not be bought for the sum which you name. I have a

memo. here of what I have expended up to date on my collection, though I

have agents at work who will probably make very considerable additions

to it within the next few weeks. As matters stand, however, I have

spent--let me see-pearls one forty thousand; emeralds, seven fifty;

rubies, eight forty; brilliants, nine twenty; onyxes--I have several

very nice onyxes-two thirty. Other gems, carbuncles, agates--hum! Yes,

it figures out at just over four million seven hundred and forty

thousand. I dare say that we may say five millions, for I have not

counted the odd money."

"Good gracious!" cried the young artist, with staring eyes.

"I have a certain feeling of duty in the matter. You see the cutting,

polishing, and general sale of stones is one of those industries which

is entirely dependent upon wealth. If we do not support it, it must

languish, which means misfortune to a considerable number of people.

The same applies to the gold filigree work which you noticed in the

court. Wealth has its responsibilities, and the encouragement of these

handicrafts are among the most obvious of them. Here is a nice ruby.

It is Burmese, and the fifth largest in existence. I am inclined to

think that if it were uncut it would be the second, but of course

cutting takes away a great deal." He held up the blazing red stone,

about the size of a chestnut, between his finger and thumb for a moment,

and then threw it carelessly back into its drawer. "Come into the

smoking-room," he said; "you will need some little refreshment, for they

say that sight-seeing is the most exhausting occupation in the world."