“And you loved it best of all your stones ?”
There was never one like it. I’d never known that green flash in a stone before. You had to watch for it. It was something that was rare, and you’d got to be ready for it. It was like no other green and if you missed it you might not get the opportunity again. “
“Did you never find out who took it ?’ I had my suspicions. In fact everything pointed to him, the young devil. By God, if I could lay my hands on him . ” He seemed to be lost for words, which was rare with him, and he was for the moment unaware of me. I guessed he was back in that time when he had opened the box and found the opal gone.
I went over to him, took his cup and brought it over to refill it; and when I handed it back to him I said softly:
“How did it happen, Ben ?”
“It was here,” he said, ‘in this house. ” He pointed over his shoulder to the room we had just left.
“I hadn’t had the place long then. I was anxious to show it off for I had a great pride in it. It was more than just a house. That's how you’d feel about a place like this. I reckon your family felt it. Well, their loss was my gain. I used to have people to stay here because I wanted to say: ” Look what I’ve got. This is what all these years of toil and disappointments have got for me.
Success at last” Some of them had never seen a place like this. It was pride, pride going before a fall, as they say. Look what I’ve got.
Look at my mansion. Look at my opals. We went in there . ” He pointed to the study door. There were four of us and on this occasion I brought out my opals just as I have for you and that was the last I saw of the Green Flash at Sunset. I put her back in her box and put that in the safe. The next time I went there, the box was in its place all the opals were there except one-the Green Flash at Sunset.”
“Who had stolen it?”
“Someone who knew the combination of the safe. It must have been.”
“And didn’t you know who it was ? There was one young man. He disappeared. I never saw him again, although I searched for him. He was dearly the one who had the Green Rash.”
“What a wicked thing to do There are wicked people in the world.
Never forget it. Funny thing was, I’d never have thought it of him. He had that dedication, that determination which almost always ends in success. But when he set eyes on the Green Flash, that was his downfall. You see, there’ll never be another like her. She’s the Queen of Opals. The way you had to look for the flash and it never came for some, you see what I mean. And I’d lost her forever. “
“Surely the police could find him.” - “He was far away in next to no time. Sometimes I tell myself that one of these days I’m going to find him and the Hash.”
“Do you think he sold it?”
“It wouldn’t have been easy. She’d have been recognized. Every dealer knew her and would have reported the sale. He may have taken her with him … just to keep her to himself. She had a terrible fascination for everyone who saw her. In spite of all the tales of bad luck, everyone who laid eyes on her wanted her.”
“What tales, Ben? ” Well, you know how these things get round. She was unlucky, they said. There’d been one or two people who’d owned her and misfortune had come to them. The Green Flash meant death they used to say. “
“So you didn’t find it in the first place, then ?”
“Oh dear me no. It had passed through other hands before mine. You might say I won it.”
“How did you do that?”
“I was always a bit of a gambler. Take a chance, that’s me. I’d always keep a reserve though. I’ve never gambled to my last coin, like some.
I liked to be rich and then do my gambling from there, if you know what I mean. There was old Harry Wilkins who’d got this stone, and from the moment he showed it to me I wanted it. I’d fallen under its spell, you might say, and I was bent on getting it. Ill luck dogged Harry. They said it was the stone. His son had never been much good and one night he went out and never came back. He was found with his neck broken. He’d always drunk too much. Old Harry went to pieces after that. He was a great gambler. He’d take a bet on anything. A couple of raindrops falling down a window pane.
“I’ll bet you a hundred quid the right one gets to the bottom first,” he’d say. He just couldn’t help it. Well, I wanted that stone and it was about all he’d got because this son of his had robbed him right and left before he died. To cut a long story short he staked the Green Flash for a fortune. I took the gamble and won. He shot himself a few weeks later.
Disaster follows the Green Flash, they used to say. “
“And what about you ?”
“I wouldn’t believe in the curse.”
“You lost the stone so perhaps you escaped it ” One day she’ll be back where she belongs. “
You talk about the Green Hash as though she were a woman. “
That’s how she was to me. I loved her. I used to take her out and look at her when I was downcast. I’d watch for the’ flash and I used to say to myself: “Times will change. You’ll find happiness as well as stones, old Ben. ” That's what she’s telling you.”
Suddenly it seemed as though he could no longer bear to talk of his loss and he started telling me of the days when he had been a young man and had done what he called ‘a bit of fossicking’ and how he had first felt the lure of the opal. Then he said he reckoned I’d like to see the house, and as he was not able to get around as fast as he’d like, he’d tell one of the servants to take me.
Much as I disliked leaving him, I did want to see the house, and as I hesitated-which seemed to please him-he said:
“You’ll come again. We must make a point of these meetings, for there’s one thing that’s certain sure. You and I have quite taken a fancy to each other. I hope you agree with my feelings.”
“Oh I do, and if I can come again and hear more, I’d love to see the house now.”
“Of course you would and so you shall. Then you can think what it would have been like if you’d lived your life here as you would have done if one of these get-rich-quick johnnies hadn’t come along and grabbed the ancestral home.”
“I shall always be glad of that now,” I assured him, and he looked very pleased.
He pulled a bell-rope and Wilmot appeared immediately.
“Miss Clavering would like to see the house,” said Ben.
“One of you must show her round.”
“Very good, sir,” murmured Wilmot.
“Just a minute,” cried Ben.
“Let Hannah do it. Yes, Hannah’s the one.”
“As you say, sir.”
I went to Ben’s chair and took his hand. Thank you. I have enjoyed it so much. May I really come again? Next Wednesday. Same time. “
Thank you. “
His face looked strange for a second. If he had been anyone else I should have said he was about to cry. Then he said:
“Off with you. Hannah will show you round.”
I wondered why he had selected Hannah. She was the one who interested me most She was a tall, spare woman with rather gaunt features and large dark eyes which seemed to bore right into me. She was clearly gratified that she was the one who had been chosen to show me round.