University of Virginia Library

2. CHAPTER II.
Moloch the Jew.

The room into which the commander of the yacht was ushered by the
beautiful young Jewess was of a very different character from the other parts
of the interior of the dwelling already described. It was large and spacious,
and furnished with all the luxury of a nobleman's private chamber. Gold
mingled with crimson met the eye in the drapery of the windows and the richest
colors covered the chairs and ottomans. The general style of the
room and its furniture was oriental rather than English. At a table covered
with an embroidered scarlet cloth sat a man about fifty years of age
dressed in a lose black gown. A brazen antique lamp suspended above
the table cast its beams downward upon his majestic head and features. His
high, column-like forehead shaded with short, black locks; his strong arched
brows, and large, full, piercing black eyes; his high-bridged and slightly
arched nose, and the red fulness and flexibility of his lips betrayed him to belong
to the tribe of Israel. A jet black beard mingled with gray descended
from his chin to his breast. His size was large and his air noble and imposing.
But there was an expression in his eyes of profound avarice, and about his
mouth played deceit and cunning. Physically the Jew was a noble specimen
of his finely formed race; but morally he looked in every lineament the usurer.
As the captain of the yacht entered he was busily summing up a column of
figures in a book before him. He did not look up from his occupation until
he heard the door close again and the step of the visiter advancing towards
him. He then raised his face from his accounts, keeping his forefinger upon
the column he had been calculating, and fixing his glance upon him said with
a strong Jewish accent,

`You are velcom, my lort. Pe pleesh to take a shair! So, you haf come
vor more monish?' he added, with a scarcely perceptible glimmer of satisfaction
in the expression of his eyes.

`You seem to approach the subject abruptly enough, Moloch,' said Dauling
coloring, as if displeased at his business being so readily divined and declared
to him. `The truth is, it is more money I have come for! Nothing else, you
may be assured, would bring me into this infernal quarter.'

As he spoke he drew a high-back, crimson chair towards the table before
the Jew and placing his arms crossed upon the rich table-covering, he regarded
him with a look of anxiety and painful uncertainty.

`You haf de shureties, my lort?' said the Jew with a grave aspect and drawing
down one corner of his mouth in a peculiar and sinister manner.

`You well know I have not, Enoch!' answered Dauling with emphasis, all
the color leaving his cheeks.

`Then you vell knows dat I has not te moniesh,' responded the Jew coldly,
and without moving a muscle of his dark Arabian visage.

`I know that you must let me have money, sureties or no,' answered Dauling
almost fiercely.

`Peace, my lort! Peace in a pargain is more petter nor war! You say you
haf want moneish, put you haf not de sureties; I say I vant te sureties for my
moneish.'

The officer remained a few moments silent, his hand upon his brow. His
face was dark and troubled. At length he spoke.

`I well knew, Jew, that I could not get money of you, nay not a farthing to
save my soul, without security. I was not so ignorant of the cold avarice of
thy own heart, or of thy race! Hear me what I have to say and then do as you
please; for, as I know you have no principle or conscience where gold is concerned,
I am assured what I am about to propose will meet your peculiar views
of things.'

`If, my lort can get te shureties dem ish all tat ish want,' answered Moloch
briefly, and bending his great eyes upon him to listen with them; for he heard
and understood more by the expression of the countenance than by the words
that fell upon his ear.

`You know well, Jew,' said Dauling, gloomily and hesitatingly, `that
have no further means! There,' he continued, pointing to an iron box at the
Jews feet and which he used as a foot-stool, `there is locked up and the key
is at thy girdle, the deed of the only estate I ever owned.'

`The gift of thy noble father the Duke,' said the Jew.

`Such gift as it was! a mere pittance of twenty thousand pounds! But were
it worth a hundred thousand it is no longer mine!'

`If shentlemen's vill play tey must expect to lose deir moneish,' answered
the Jew, with a twinkle of avaricious gains in the corner of his eye.

`I know well the risks of play, Moloch. You know I have suffered from
their effects. Cursed be the day I ever adventured the first guinea! But this
is past. I have now only to save myself from ruin.

`Ruin! Has my lort lost all his moneish?'

`I have not a sovereign left of the large sum you let me have when I called
to see you last June!'

`And no estate now?'

`Not an acre!'

`Tish very bat, very mootch bat,' answered Moloch with a sympathising
shake of his head, while a gleam of pleasure secretly passed across his expression.

`Bad! I am ruined, Jew, and you must save me,' cried Dauling with. intense
excitement and placing his hand forcibly and earnestly upon the moneylender's
wrist.

`My lort cannot pe ruined vile te Duke ish livin? He gif my lort a pretty
eshtate, ant if my lort tell him he must haf anudder, te Duke vill gif my lort
anodder pretty eshtate.'

`No. I have seen the Duke my father, Moloch. I have told him that I
was in need of money, but he refused to advance me!'

`Gid you tell te Duke you had mortgage your eshtate?' asked the Jew
quickly.

`Yes; but not to whom? I told him my whole situation and how that the
mad passion for gaming had step by step brought me to it. He answered me
that in giving me what he had, an education befitting my birth, illegitimate
though it was, and on my coming of age presenting me with a property worth
twenty thousand pounds, that he had done enough for a son who had no legal
claim upon him! This was his answer to me, Jew! Moreover, he said that
as his influence has obtained for me the command of the Royal yacht, with a
very handsome pay, that it was enough for him to do; and that I must now depend
on my pay and my character as an officer for my future prospects in my
life!'

`This looksh vary bat,' said Moloch gravely; for he saw now that he had no
further prospect of getting any more gold and silver gains out of the gamester.
He spoke gravely and looked coldly and reserved. Dauling at once perceived
the change in his manner and divined the cause of it with a ready interpretation.

`I have told you frankly the facts relating to myself just as they are,' he

said trying to assume a frank bearing and tone as he addressed the Jew. `This
interview with the Duke took place five weeks ago!'

`But a month after my last loan of five thousand pounds to you. You did
not keep it long my lort!'

`That is my affair. When I saw the Duke I had not a guinea in the world.
After receiving his reply I left him in great rage, though I was careful to disguise
it under an appearance of calm, sorrowful submission to his decision. I
was in debt two thousand pounds at the moment; debts of honor! incurred
within the last three days. It was the necessity of paying these that drove me
to my father!'

`And now you come to me!' said Molock sternly.

`Jew, though I have no means I can make means, therefore return to your
civility, which your race measure as you do gold, by gold! I come to you for
money but not to pay those gambling debts. They are already paid! paid the
very moment they became due! paid within three hours after I quitted my father's
presence!'

`How?' inquired the usurer opening his eyes with a sort of incredulous surprise.

`Enoch,' said the Captain of the Yacht, in a low, deep impressive tone of
voice, `I am about to confide to you a secret. Such confidence doubtless is
not new to you! You are a money-lender! Your conscience is gilded. You
act from self-interest and love of gain! So you keep within the law you do
that which seems righteous in the sight of your own eyes. I am about to tell
you how I got that money the Duke haughtily and cruelly denied me; and also
I am about to inform you how I am to get money from your coffers!'

`With shurities, yesh! mitout dem no!' ejaculated Molock significantly
touching with his thumb the key of his iron-box which hung at his girdle.

`Enoch, you know there is a law in the land against usury!' said Dauling
impressively.

`And you know you have made yourself amendable to this law by your transactions
with me!'

The money-lender drew back his person and fixed his eyes with fierce suspicion
upon the gamester.

`Nay, do not fear, Enoch! no one shall know that you have taken from me
twenty thousand pounds for eight thousand! or loaned me money at forty-two
percent. You confided in my honor, and if I did not regard my own I should
fear the scorn of all honorable men, should I be an informer. Yet it is in my
power to do you mischief! But I only allude to this, that I may have assurrance
of your secrecy in the matter I am about to confide to you. Perhaps,
however,' he added with a haughty contempt, `perhaps I shall find a surer security
in your love of money!'

`Vat secret ish given to me in pusiness I never petray, my lort,' answered
Molock with a countenance wholly unmoved by the insulting words and manner
of the Duke's son.

`Know then, Enoch,' said Dauling, lowering his voice and approaching his
lips to the Jew's ear, `that I obtained the money by drawing a check for it in
the Duke's name!'

`Forged a draft? exclaimed the usurer with a look of astonishment.

`Yes,' answered Dauling bolding. `What else could I do? I was owing
debts of honor to the amount, as I told you, of two thousand pounds! They
had to be paid within three hours, for I had spent several hours in searching
for the Duke to get an interview! Debts of honor are imperious! I left the
palace of my father with my decision formed; and in a coffee-house not far
distant, drew a check of three thousand pounds on the Duke's banker. I had
no fears of detection from the signature for I knew it was perfect; and as I
presented it myself I knew it would not be closely scrutinized!'

`You were a very pold man, my lort, to offer the draft yourself! It vas very
dansherous, my lort!'

`I had no alternative. The draft was cashed. I paid my debts of honor and
felt relieved.'

`Vary moosh, I tare say, my lort,' said the money-lender with a slight shrug
of the shoulders.

`With the other thousand I repaired to the L— Rooms to play for the
purpose of winning enough to replace the amount of the draft at once. I succeeded
in my wishes and the next day replaced the sum I had drawn, and by a
dextereous manœuvre got possession of the forged draft, which else would
have been retained on file against me.'

`You vere fortunate, my lort,' said the usurer, who had listened with interest
to his money operations; for those who boldly managed, were always entertaining
to him.

`Yes, it might have gone hard with me had it met the Duke's eye. But I
was shortly in want of more funds, and having one night gone ashore after a
week's pleasure trip with the yacht to Portsmouth, at the place to play. I lost
every thing. I had not a half-crown left. I had to stay in Portsmouth some
two days longer as the Queen and her party, whom I had taken down, were not
yet ready to return. I could not be two days in Portsmouth without money.
So I resolved to try the Duke again.'

`Vas he in Portshmouth, my lort?' asked Moloch dryly. `I tink if he vas
you would get no monish no more as pefore.'

`No, the Duke was at his seat near London. But I had no intention of
making a personal application. My proud spirit had been too keenly wounded
before. No, Enoch, this is what I did! I made a draft on his Grace for
five thousand pounds, drawing it in my own name and forging the Duke's acceptance
to it. This draft I made at thirty days. Well, I got the money upon
it in Portsmouth and the draft was sent to a banker here for collection! As
my ill-fortune would have it the Queen's daughter the princess Amelie was
taken ill at Portsmouth and the Royal Party decided on returning to Windsor
by land. Two weeks of my draft's time had already passed when this decision
was made, and I then weighed to sail round to London alone. But I lost
my foretopmast in a gale and was forced to put into Cowes to repair. With
all the haste I could press matters, it was a week before I could leave there,
and adverse winds made it four days more before I reached the Thames. From
the Pilot I received a packet which I found to be from the Secretary of state,
ordering me to proceed up the river with the yacht and anchor off against the
Tower until further orders. I have been at my anchorage now this is the
third night without receiving any orders, although I have reported myself.
The truth is I have my fears that my forgery is discovered and that I may see
the inside of the Tower. I know it is for the Duke's interest to get me out of
the way; and as he would not like to bring me and his family matters up before
the criminal tribunal, he may have taken advantage of his discovery and
engaged for me a snug birth for life in one of the dungeons of the Tower.
He has only to breathe his wish and the thing is done at his will! This is
however, perhaps, only an unfounded notion of my own fears. But the fact is
that my draft is due to-morrow and that if it is not paid then the Duke must
hear of it before night.'

`You did vary ill, my lort, to gif your own name to it! Any oder name, mit
de Duke's acceptances was just as goot. 'Tis was vary wrong.'

`I see it was now!'

`Vary. If you bad put anodder name, den te Duke vould nevar know it vas
you!'

`But you forget that without some responsible name I could not have got
the draft done. I had no person but myself. The broker I knew would take
my draft without question!'

`I see, I see! Vat you say is correct, my lort. You could not vell done oter
vays! Tish a pad pusiness!'

`You must help me out of it,' cried Dauling with anxiety.

`It is a vary pad pusiness,' repeated Enoch a second time, shaking his head
very gravely. `Haf you no moneish, my lort?'

`I lost every pound I had received at Portsmouth, except two hundred, before
I left there. That two hundred I left to play with when I got to London.'

`And tis moneish—tis doo huntret pounts! Haf you lost tis too?'

`All! I was fortunate the first night of my arrival and won! But last night I
lost every thing. To-morrow the draft comes due! I drew it with the hopes
of being able to win enough to meet it before its maturity! But you have seen

how I am at fault,' he said bitterly; and rising he paced the rich carpet of the
Jew's private chamber with a hurried step.

`Vhy dit you not draw on te government ant set te amount down to damashes?'
asked the wily banker.

`Ha! you are as deep as I am, Moloch,' exclaimed the captain of the yacht
stopping and laughing with a sardonic expression, as he regarded Enoch's tace.
`Know, oh. Jew; that I have done this thing already from Cowes; but I did
it only for three hundred and fifty pounds over the damages the gale did the
yacht! If I could have drawn for five thousand with safety, or any chance of
its being paid, I would have done it you may depend.'

`Vat dit my lort do mit te tree hundret ant vivty pounts?'

`Lost every farthing of it before I left that port.'

`My lort loves play vary moosh.'

`It is a passion with me! But, I swear to you, Moloch, if you will help me
pay this sum to-morrow I will never play again.'

`Vat interest has te Jew in my lort's play? 'Tis just te same to me if my
lort play or my lort stop play. I haf no interest in te matter ony as I gets all
my moneish vish I has got, pleash fader Abraham!'

`True. I ought to know that on the contrary you thrive on other men's vices
and follies. But I must have money to-morrow, Moloch. The broker holds
the draft and unless it is paid before two o'clock it will be presented to the
Duke. He only would want such a plea for getting well rid of me! His
daughter, my legitimate sister, is now coming forward in her tenth year, and
he thinks I might not honor the relationship! In a word he would not hesitate
either to give me up to the authorities as a forger, or by consent of the King
place me secretly in the Tower. I never see the King's boat quit the stairs
but I think it is coming on board for me! Help me to get this draft off my
hands and I will do anything for you, Enoch?'

`Te Christian plead humbly to te Jew vhen he would haf money; and curses
him vhen he no more needs him! Vat can the Jew do? Shew me how I can
let you haf money?'

`I want five thousand pounds. Security I have none. Nay, do not smile
so sneeringly! Listen! The money I must have to-morrow, else I am a
ruined man! Bastard though I am yet. I am a gentleman and men treat me as
such. I have royal blood in my veins and am proud of it. Before the world I
would keep it untarnished by any low crime. Nor would I give my father
cause to get rid of me by having him make the discovery of my forgery. To
conceal it I am ready to commit a greater! Moloch, you have money, and by
money you live. More, more, MORE is your cry! You ask not for the sources
of the golden stream that flows into your coffers. You care not whence it
comes, be it from Palestine or Pagandom, so as you are enriched. Now to get
the money I want I am ready here, with this pen I have seized in my grasp to
put the Duke's name to paper in any shape and to any amount under twenty
thousand pounds that you may draw up! You shall cash it, and for your pay
receive a thousand pounds down beside the usual discount.'

Moloch's eyes brightened and his whole manner instantly changed.

`Vill my lort make a draft for twenty tousant in his own name and endorse
it mit te Duke's?'

`I will do it,' answered the captain of the yacht, with emphasis, his features
lighting up with hope as he fastened his gaze earnestly upon the face of the
Jew.