He had taken no risks. The diamonds had been put back With his thumb nail he slit the bag and emptied the contents on the bed.
'I see you've been in the diamond business,' laughed Kate.
'Dat, mein dear, I haf, but on der Rand der is no place safe. Der was once a great negro whom der boys cod he could hide der stones. Out of him we a fortune take. We sick make him, he spued up der stones. We give him der purge. He dem down shit; we take dem from his foreskin under, from his ears and his hair and from under his so long toenails. Only von ve miss, it was in his navel, and ven ve flog him it vos out jump. He vos a valkin' Park Lane, mein dear. Den, oh den, ve introduce 'im to Joelstein as der pearl of trustfulness, and he vos der foreman made, and he vos valk out of der compound mit das fortune on him.
'He vos own a great hotel and club in Jo'berg it is now.'
They had the 'one more', Kate on top, slow and passive it was, and they talked business till just the final thrill.
They dozed off, and Herr Kunst awoke with a start and a shout, quite unconscious of where he was, but subconsciously aware that he had not that funny feeling up his arse which guaranteed the safety of his treasure.
Kate laughed.
'It's all right,' she said, "your stones are safe. Now you had better give me all your valuables, and I'll give you a little safe here. You can open an account at the bank later. Now you've got to dress for dinner, so have I. We're all going to the banquet at the young man's. You can wait here and help me dress.'
She rang a bell, and before Herr Kunst could cover his nakedness a magnificent specimen of an island woman was in the room.
'Help this gentleman into his clothes,' said Kate.
Herr Kunst was soon dressed. Pleasantly scented water cooled his fevered brow and soft unguents straightened his tousled hair.
'I dress en grande tenue on these occasions,' said Kate. 'I am supposed to be a business woman and not frivolous.'
And a very grande tenue it was, k plus chic de Paris. A dove-coloured grey dress, daringly decolletee, gave her beautiful arms and shoulders every chance. Her underclothes, shoes and stockings were rose pink.
But when she attacked her jewel box Herr Kunst's eyes stood out of his head.
'This is going to be a gala day,' she said. 'I've got to put 'em all on.'
On her head the maid arranged a fantastic tiara. There were two doves' wings, joined by an amethyst clasp. That made the centre ornament of a crown of black and white pearls. But the collar and bracelets and the rings and the brooches!
She smiled.
'Yes, it wasn't like this when I was only Miss Maudie's maid.'
She wore a diamond and ruby dog-collar, and four ropes of pearls.
A huge sapphire butterfly nestled between her breasts. Her arms were nearly hidden from the elbow down by bracelets. The fingers of both hands were a mass of carefully contrasted rings. The whole effect was startling in its magnificence.
'Now you run off and get ready,' she said, 'and we'll meet at dinner, anyone'll tell you where H Palazzo Tucker is.'
The young man stood alone, in the great reception room of his palace.
It carried no ornaments whatever, save a magnificently painted ceiling. The young man held that all people were at their best when they looked upwards-hence he permitted no other attraction to the eye.
The floor was of polished parqueterie.
The French windows on either side were open to meet the embrace of the summer night, and the full moon was jealous of the clustered glories of the electric globes.
One heard the chatter of the night birds, and the ever recurrent kiss of the lazy surf on the languorous sands below.
The young man was elaborately dressed in a perfectly fitting white duck suit with a scarlet waistcoat, facings and tie. Across his shirt front ran a narrow ribbon of some order, centred with a blazing diamond star. He looked very handsome and debonair. Shortly the other pirates began to arrive, some in the same duck costume as the young man, others in varieties of fancy dress. There was a riot of colour among the dress coats. Presently John Tucker arrived with his pirate guests, all in ordinary tenue save Hannibal McGregor, who clung to his kilt, and Herr Kunst, who was in the full dress uniform of a Prussian Infantry regiment. He looked quite distinguished, and his moustache was twirled upwards with Kaiser-like ferocity.
It was fifteen minutes before the ladies were expected and the servants, Chinese (die young man had once 'done in' an opium junk) and islanders, served aperitifs rapidly and deftly.
The young man made a short speech to the captives.
'In my own house, gentlemen, for the first time I welcome you. I drink with you.'
All glasses were drained.
'Collectively and individually I greet you, sirs. Lord Reginald Cameron, Mr. Silverwood, Mr. Neale, Mr. Moss Hell, and Herr Kunst. You are my guests and yet my prisoners. You have come at your own free choice, granted that you saved your valuables by so doing'-Mr. Neale remembered with a grin that he had been left with £4 1ds. after paying his passage-'and you may consider it Liberty Hall. But it is Liberty Hall with this distinction. Thanks to my friend John Tucker, the wealth of the island has been exploited and we have become immensely rich.
'Now, there is work and enough for you all, and interesting work; you'll like it, and I'm prepared to bet, gentlemen, that you ought all to be very happy here.'
There was a murmur of applause. Herr Kunst knew that he never wanted to leave the place, and Hannibal McGregor, who had bought a drink on his own at the cafe and been served with half a pint of the very best Scotch whisky for tuppence, had no more sighs for the Highlands.
The young man's house party of beauty arrived first. Ushered in by the lady we have met in the other book as Maudie, came little Hony and her Cuban friend, Carrie.
Their costumes were frankly South Seas. Shoes and stockings, and clinging filmy draperies, and that was about all. Both had caught their corset-less waists in with tightly drawn silk ropes. The dominant note of fair-haired little Hony was light blue; of Carrie, the dark-eyed, dead white.
Little Hony wore what little jewellery she had of her own, and some lent. Carrie, the Cuban millionaire's daughter, had quite enough of her own. Maudie was in very Parisian evening dress, with no corsets, only a belt. Her nipples were plainly visible 'neath a little gauze. With her were a dozen other lady pirates, all in daring modern dress.
Then came Naroina, and an audible murmur of appreciation ran over the room.
She was a blaze of jewellery, and very nearly naked. Above her waist she wore nothing save two golden shields for her breasts, and her skirt cut up the side displayed a bit more than leg. The other natives with her affected a similar dress. Lady Tittle was modern, the Sisters Lovett were in short-frocked Music Hall costumes, and Miss Jepps was ravishing in far the plainest and least suggestive dress in the room.
Samura had brought a few of the island exquisites, and the last to appear on the scene was Helena. She had made herself late on purpose. She felt that she stood on trial here.
Her costume was a glorified edition of her morning one, save that over her pantalettes she did wear a skirt, and on her slim, shapely legs she did wear stockings, but as a set-off, the chemise was gone. She wore only two breast plates of wrought copper, united and supported by a silver chain. Her whole dominant note was grey, an eerie, mysterious grey, me short skirt reaching to just above the knee was grey, and all over it was a design of jet-black spiders. Her mass of fluffy dessous was very delicately rose grisatre. Her stockings and shoes were grey, with garters of jet, clasped by a turquoise enamel brooch.
She walked straight up the room, curtsied to Naroina, but took her place by the side of the young man.
A gong boomed out the expectant signal.