Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 21, 1922 — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FORTUNE UNAWARES. a time on the gunwale, arranged each body for one beastly moment in my arms and then let go. They rushed to the tén-fathom bottom with almost incredible speed, towed by the heavy drums, leaving a wash of aeration and strings of bubbles from the filling containers that disappeared before I shipped oars and tugged back to the light. There had been no tattoo marks on them, nothing of much distinction, save that sheared-off foot. What I had found I put down in my diary. The boat was well built and looked more like a yacht’s tender than an ordinary davit pendant. A name had been painted on the bows, but this had been deliberately scraped away. All I could make out—and I was not absolutely certain of that, was Z—EA. There seemed to have been seven letters in the name, of which I had the first, fourth and last. But, puzzle as I might, I could not think of any name that would fit that. And the lettering was in good Roman. I dismissed that after I had trimmed and filled and polished and swept, had a dip in my rock-bath and, at last, something to eat. I was pretty tired and I sat down before Changwu, the godling, whom I had left to guard the jewel, and took the gem up again. Fortune unawares! I did not know much about rubies or about gem values, but it was plain to see that this ruby had been most exquisitely cut and was of unusual size. I knew that with increasing size and accompanying clarity, the price of such jewels could not be calculated by ordinary methods. A ruby like this, being already cut, must have a history. Right there I brought myself up with a round turn. It was not mine! Palpably it had not belonged of right to either of those brutish-faced men of the boat. And it did not belong to me! It seemed that its color faded as the thought went home. Here was fortune in- deed, but not my fortune. I had merely found some one else’s and must restore it to him. The godling seemed to grin at me as if to say: ‘“ Hard luck, and none of my bringing.” I put the thing down and looked up rubies in the encyclopedia. It didn’t tell 17 me much about values, but I gathered that this great crystal of alumina, of a red trans- parent variety of corundum, was the most valuable of gem stones, that it had prob- ably been found in the Mogok District of Eastern Mandalay and, to my eyes, seemed the best tint of pigeon’s blood. It lay on my table with the afternoon sun touching it, sending out auroralike rays while some- thing inside kept saying: ‘Don’t be a fool, Ned Kennedy. It might be worth thousands of dollars, ten, twenty, fifty! Are you going to chuck that away and spend more trying to find out to whom it belongs. It came to you—out of the sea. It’s yours. Look at it, the color of wine, of blood, of love, of life. That’s what it is, crystallized, concentrated life. Yours!” I shoved the thing away finally, out of ‘sight, in the little lacquered box the godling had arrived in. It was hardly large enough to contain it, and I had to take out En Sue’s folded verse. I went out on the gallery, where soft breezes were now blow- ing. To-morrow, or a week from to-mor- row—for the Dutch packets were not fussy about schedule—my relief would come. I should have to explain the boat. But I de- cided I would not explain about the ruby. I knew my Orient too well. The jewel would be promptly preempted, and that would be the end of it as far as the real owner, or myself, or any one but certain high Dutch officials was concerned. It would be swallowed up in investigation. I lit my pipe and lay in my hammock. The wind was like satin to my face and cooling. My fever of excitement died down little by little. How did I know the thing was flawless, after all? I had probably vastly exaggerated its value. It might be off color. I made up my mind to submit it to Lung Hi, and if it was really of great worth, ask Li Yuen about it. I began to wish I had never seen it. It proved that my philosophy was only a veneer, not a saturation. For the zest and the lust for all the old things had come back to me as the red eye of the jewel had winked in the sun. I wanted wine and women and song and boon companions. I craved the fleshpots. But I sobered down after. a while, with the ruby shut up in the box. comiclboooks C©