The Book of Wonder Read online

  DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER

  When Thangobrind the jeweller heard the ominous cough, he turned atonce upon that narrow way. A thief was he, of very high repute, beingpatronized by the lofty and elect, for he stole nothing smaller thanthe Moomoo's egg, and in all his life stole only four kinds ofstone--the ruby, the diamond, the emerald, and the sapphire; and, asjewellers go, his honesty was great. Now there was a Merchant Princewho had come to Thangobrind and had offered his daughter's soul forthe diamond that is larger than the human head and was to be found onthe lap of the spider-idol, Hlo-hlo, in his temple of Moung-ga-ling;for he had heard that Thangobrind was a thief to be trusted.

  Thangobrind oiled his body and slipped out of his shop, and wentsecretly through byways, and got as far as Snarp, before anybody knewthat he was out on business again or missed his sword from its placeunder the counter. Thence he moved only by night, hiding by day andrubbing the edges of his sword, which he called Mouse because it wasswift and nimble. The jeweller had subtle methods of travelling;nobody saw him cross the plains of Zid; nobody saw him come to Murskor Tlun. O, but he loved shadows! Once the moon peeping outunexpectedly from a tempest had betrayed an ordinary jeweller; not sodid it undo Thangobrind: the watchman only saw a crouching shape thatsnarled and laughed: "'Tis but a hyena," they said. Once in the cityof Ag one of the guardians seized him, but Thangobrind was oiled andslipped from his hand; you scarcely heard his bare feet patter away.He knew that the Merchant Prince awaited his return, his little eyesopen all night and glittering with greed; he knew how his daughter laychained up and screaming night and day. Ah, Thangobrind knew. And hadhe not been out on business he had almost allowed himself one or twolittle laughs. But business was business, and the diamond that hesought still lay on the lap of Hlo-hlo, where it had been for the lasttwo million years since Hlo-hlo created the world and gave unto it allthings except that precious stone called Dead Man's Diamond. The jewelwas often stolen, but it had a knack of coming back again to the lapof Hlo-hlo. Thangobrind knew this, but he was no common jeweller andhoped to outwit Hlo-hlo, perceiving not the trend of ambition and lustand that they are vanity.

  How nimbly he threaded his way through he pits of Snood!--now like abotanist, scrutinising the ground; now like a dancer, leaping fromcrumbling edges. It was quite dark when he went by the towers of Tor,where archers shoot ivory arrows at strangers lest any foreigner shouldalter their laws, which are bad, but not to be altered by mere aliens.At night they shoot by the sound of the strangers' feet. O, Thangobrind,Thangobrind, was ever a jeweller like you! He dragged two stones behindhim by long cords, and at these the archers shot. Tempting indeed wasthe snare that they set in Woth, the emeralds loose-set in the city'sgate; but Thangobrind discerned the golden cord that climbed the wallfrom each and the weights that would topple upon him if he touched one,and so he left them, though he left them weeping, and at last came toTheth. There all men worship Hlo-hlo; though they are willing to believein other gods, as missionaries attest, but only as creatures of thechase for the hunting of Hlo-hlo, who wears Their halos, so these peoplesay, on golden hooks along his hunting-belt. And from Theth he came tothe city of Moung and the temple of Moung-ga-ling, and entered and sawthe spider-idol, Hlo-hlo, sitting there with Dead Man's Diamondglittering on his lap, and looking for all the world like a full moon,but a full moon seen by a lunatic who had slept too long in its rays,for there was in Dead Man's Diamond a certain sinister look and a bodingof things to happen that are better not mentioned here. The face of thespider-idol was lit by that fatal gem; there was no other light. Inspite of his shocking limbs and that demoniac body, his face was sereneand apparently unconscious.

  A little fear came into the mind of Thangobrind the jeweller, apassing tremor--no more; business was business and he hoped for thebest. Thangobrind offered honey to Hlo-hlo and prostrated himselfbefore him. Oh, he was cunning! When the priests stole out of thedarkness to lap up the honey they were stretched senseless on thetemple floor, for there was a drug in the honey that was offered toHlo-hlo. And Thangobrind the jeweller picked Dead Man's Diamond up andput it on his shoulder and trudged away from the shrine; and Hlo-hlothe spider-idol said nothing at all, but he laughed softly as thejeweller shut the door. When the priests awoke out of the grip of thedrug that was offered with the honey to Hlo-hlo, they rushed to alittle secret room with an outlet on the stars and cast a horoscope ofthe thief. Something that they saw in the horoscope seemed to satisfythe priests.

  It was not like Thangobrind to go back by the road by which he hadcome. No, he went by another road, even though it led to the narrowway, night-house and spider-forest.

  The city of Moung went towering by behind him, balcony above balcony,eclipsing half the stars, as he trudged away with his diamond. Thoughwhen a soft pittering as of velvet feet arose behind him he refused toacknowledge that it might be what he feared, yet the instincts of histrade told him that it is not well when any noise whatever follows adiamond by night, and this was one of the largest that had ever come tohim in the way of business. When he came to the narrow way that leads tospider-forest, Dead Man's Diamond feeling cold and heavy, and thevelvety footfall seeming fearfully close, the jeweller stopped andalmost hesitated. He looked behind him; there was nothing there. Helistened attentively; there was no sound now. Then he thought of thescreams of the Merchant Prince's daughter, whose soul was the diamond'sprice, and smiled and went stoutly on. There watched him, apathetically,over the narrow way, that grim and dubious woman whose house is the Night.Thangobrind, hearing no longer the sound of suspicious feet, felt easiernow. He was all but come to the end of the narrow way, when the womanlistlessly uttered that ominous cough.

  The cough was too full of meaning to be disregarded. Thangobrind turnedround and saw at once what he feared. The spider-idol had not stayed athome. The jeweller put his diamond gently upon the ground and drew hissword called Mouse. And then began that famous fight upon the narrow wayin which the grim old woman whose house was Night seemed to take solittle interest. To the spider-idol you saw at once it was all ahorrible joke. To the jeweller it was grim earnest. He fought and pantedand was pushed back slowly along the narrow way, but he wounded Hlo-hloall the while with terrible long gashes all over his deep, soft bodytill Mouse was slimy with blood. But at last the persistent laughter ofHlo-hlo was too much for the jeweller's nerves, and, once more woundinghis demoniac foe, he sank aghast and exhausted by the door of the housecalled Night at the feet of the grim old woman, who having uttered oncethat ominous cough interfered no further with the course of events. Andthere carried Thangobrind the jeweller away those whose duty it was, tothe house where the two men hang, and taking down from his hook theleft-hand one of the two, they put that venturous jeweller in his place;so that there fell on him the doom that he feared, as all men knowthough it is so long since, and there abated somewhat the ire of theenvious gods.

  And the only daughter of the Merchant Prince felt so little gratitudefor this great deliverance that she took to respectability of amilitant kind, and became aggressively dull, and called her home theEnglish Riviera, and had platitudes worked in worsted upon hertea-cosy, and in the end never died, but passed away at her residence.