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CHAPTER XII.

VIOLATED CORONETS.

AF

FTER the removal of the flag from the Government building the people gradually settled down into a calm acceptance of the situation, hoping for the best. They had no intimation of their impending fate from the inscrutable Mr. Blount. He preserved a silence that ought to have become historical it was so rare and phenomenal in the annals of loquacious politics.

The week following the flag episode I had a decidedly amusing experience. My newspaper correspondence had been finished, down to the recording of the latest scrap of rumour, and I was enjoying a well-earned hour of rest. A card was brought, and the bell-boy-a Portuguese product of the Azores

informed me that my caller was the ex-Chief of Police. I was prepared for anything, and so received my visitor with a composed mien, seated comfortably in my steamer chair on the balcony, with my crutches within reach. He was tall, red-haired, and most polite. He apologised for intruding upon me,

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but had been told that I had recently seen King Kalakaua's coronet, from which it had just been discovered that the jewels had been stolen. I admitted that this was true, and that the date was March 4th, which I remembered because it happened to be Inauguration Day.

"Were the crowns taken out of trunks, and were the trunks locked?"

"They were in small sole-leather cases, and, while I cannot positively affirm it, I think that both cases were locked." I had noted the extreme care with which everything had been put away and secured; the feather cloaks were packed in a chest securely fastened, the door of the room in which the chests were placed being also locked. The decorations, some of which were very valuable, were taken from a safe which was unlocked and locked again before

us.

“What was the condition of the crowns?"

"One large stone was gone, I noticed, and two or three small ones.

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"The large stone was lost several years ago," said the policeman.

Then he asked me if I was a judge of diamonds. I replied modestly that I was not a connaisseuse, but that those in the King's crown did not impress me as being of much value; the opals and the few rubies were rather good, and the metal-work; the gold bands in which they were set, with the orna

THE CROWNS ARE STOLEN.

167

1893.] mentation of taro leaves, were more pleasing than the jewels. The good-natured official then wanted to know if jewellers were in the habit of putting tinfoil behind diamonds when they were set, if the stones were good; and I replied gravely that I did not think so. Then he asked if I thought the jewels could be very valuable, when the entire crown, metal, filigree, workmanship, and all cost only $5,000.

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Besides," he said, "there was the maker's profits. He was a Hebrew, and he got all it was worth out of it, you bet."

It was rather an embarrassing statement, which I did not answer immediately, and the comment as to the maker's thrift I also prudently passed over.

"I am sorry that any reflection as to carelessness should have been cast upon Colonel Robertson," I said; "for both coronets were carefully cared for when I was permitted to see them."

Then I could not help reflecting that I had little expected ever to be called upon to testify concerning the exact condition of a king's coronet when I had last examined it; but that was only one of many unexpected things that happened after my arrival in Hawaii. I made some observation to this effect.

"Yes," remarked my caller, with an instantaneous appreciation of the humorous side of the case, "it is a queer country, hain't it?"

He admitted that it was a mystery which he could

The

not unravel, because the crown of the QueenDowager Kapiolani had been left untouched, but he believed that the thief had been some emissary of the ex-Queen, which proved to be an error. culprit was subsequently found and arrested. was a private soldier in the volunteers, a worthless character, who had hung about the town without any visible means of support. Dropping the subject, the ex-Chief of Police then politely inquired as to my health.

He

"I hated to bother you," he said apologetically, "because I know you are an invalid."

"No," I interrupted, by way of reassuring him and setting him at his ease, "only temporarily disabled not an invalid."

He took his departure, expressing a hope that I might be able to walk within the near future, and he apologised once more for having intruded upon me. I again assured him that it was no intrusion, and regretted that I was unable to furnish him no better clue that might aid him in the recovery of the lost crown.

Within the past week a mongrel mastiff, literally a yellow dog, a trifle smaller than a calf, had taken up his abode in the Hawaiian Hotel; he fared luxuriously on tid-bits from the kitchen, and had two staunch adherents in the Portuguese bell-boys. properly valued the good fortune that had befallen him, and jealously guarded the territory he had

He

1893.]

A DOG FIGHT.

169

acquired. That evening a black dog, his equal in size and strength, invaded his domain, and there was such an encounter as the Hawaiian Hotel had rarely witnessed. The rivals met in the main corridor, and without a moment's hesitation fell upon one another furiously. There were yells and growls and roars, with clinching and biting that were terrible. to witness. It sounded as if a menagerie had broken loose. It was a deed of prowess to attempt to separate the combatants, and most of the guests took refuge in the dining-room or on the stairs.

From a safe point of vantage one of the newspaper correspondents looked down upon the conflict and remarked, "That's the first real fight I have seen since the Revolution began.

The next morning at dawn I was awakened by the chattering of two Chinamen, fruit-vendors, who had seated themselves under my window, waiting for the cook to make his appearance in the kitchen. Their thin, high-pitched voices disturbed me, and I rang for the night clerk, Wing- also a Chinaman. As he rapped against the venetian blinds of my door I rose and went to speak to him. Turning the blind, I looked out, and there stood the "boy" with the yellow dog standing demurely by his side; the brute had a rope, something smaller than a hawser, around his neck, the loose end trailing on the floor of the verandah. After giving my orders as to the talkative Chinamen I asked Wing, "What is the

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