Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1914 — The Essayan Statue [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Essayan Statue

An Audacious Hazard of Nikolai, Independent Agent, as Related by His Lieutenant, Summers

By H. M. EGBERT

(Copyright, ISIS, by W. G. Chapman)

I like to remember interludes in Nikolai’s series of conspiracies and vengeance, when he allowed his subtle humor to play like a lambent flame about his imagination, when tragedy turned comedy and success was not purchased by tears. The case of the Essayan statue well illustrates the lightey side of Nikolai’s nature. Everybody in Boston came to know Sssayan after he formed the famous combination in corn. He must have made millions; and from the humble post of editor of a little revolutionary Armenian sheet, he became one of the city’s leading bankers. Simultaneously his views underwent a change, as Nikolai discovered when he called on him. “What?” shouted Essayan. “Contribute fifty thousand dollars to the revolutionary party? You must be crazy.” “Six months ago,” said Nikolai thoughtfully, “you were bawling for vengeance upon Russia through the columns of your newspaper, and begging subscriptions from y6ur Armenian compatriots against the tyrant of your country.”Essayan stroked his paunch, chuckling. "Maybe I did,” he admitted. “But now I am a millionaire. My views have changed.” Nikolai looked round- We were seated in Essayan's private museum, in which he stored his statues. Essayan had gone in for culture. His collection must have been worth millions. Treasures of Greece and Rome adorned his galleries; there was an original Venus of Praxiteles, a Hermes by Phidias; bas-reliefs and friezes had been stripped for the banker from many an ancient tfemple. Nikolai frowned angrily. “You must have spent five millions on that collection of yours,” he said. “Twelve millions,” said Essayan suavely. “And all old, broken things at that. They tell me that my Hermes hadn’t a head. They tell me that they’re just as Valuable when every statue has some part missing. I don’t understand it myself—but they cost twelve millions.” —

Nikolai led him on to talk of his new hobby. It was evident that the Armenian took only a shadowy interest in the art side of his collection. He did not, In fact, remember whether it was his Appollo that had the missing arm or his Jupitor whose leg was gone. “But Berg knows,” said the banker. "Berg’s my art expert In London, and what he says goes. He’s sending me a sample of old Egyptian mummies that’s going to cost me half a million.” “Now, Mr. Essayan,” said Nikolai, "If you can spare twelve millions for your confounded art hobby you can give me fifty thousand for the Armenian cause." blandly. “Yet I’ll wager you that before the year Is out I’ll sell you one of your own statues out of this gallery for three timeß the amount I’ve asked you.” “No, you won’t,” answered the banker placidly, “because I know you, and from this moment my museum’s going to be bolted and barred and guarded, and nobody’s going to enter. See?" Nikolai could with difficulty restrain his indignation when we were outside. “The selfish hog!” he muttered. “He spends twelve millions on that stuff when fifty thousand would rebuild those villages that the Russians burned last year, leaving hundreds of his countrymen homeless. Well, Summers, we’ll win three times that amount and teach the scoundrel a lesson.”

“Nikolai,” I said, “I confess that breaking Into a banker’s house In Boston does not appeal to me. It Isn’t feasible. This Is America, and what can be done In Europe woh’t go here.” ‘Til do the breaking In,” said Nikolais “Or, rather, I shall be carried into the gallery in state and requested to spend the night there alone by Mr. Essayan. All you will be required to do will be to catch the statue in a blanket when I throw It out.” I knew that some audacious scheme had already been devised by my companion, but Nikolai refused to deliver himself of it The year had several months to run and for two months we did nothing, except occasionally to wander in the • neighborhood of the banker's house. Once we encountered Essayan as he was leaving his front door. , “Ha!" he snorted. "When are you going to sell me my own statue, what?" He led us back into the house. "Look!” he said. “You shall be warmly welcomed, gentlemen.” The door that led to the museum had been secured with iron bars, each of which terminated in a padlock. Bssayan showed us a series of electric wires. \

“They communicate with the police department, the private watchman's office, my own room, and the Are department. I shall expect you—soon?” “Some time this year,” Nikolai answered. “Have you got your cargo of ! mummies yet, Mr. Essayan?” \ "Next month I expect them,” an-

swered the' banker. "Now shoo! Go away. , You make me feel tired.” On the following Saturday Nikolai and-1 sailed for England. It was on shipboard that he unfolded his plans. “We must anticipate those mummies,” he said. “Now, Summers, to let in a light upon your brain, I intend to enter Essayan’s house disguised as an Egyptian king.” “A mummy?” I asked, bewildered. “Yes. Mummies can be procured easily in London. I shall simply remove the body, wrap myself in the spiced windings, enclosing a very modern piece of papyrus recounting the history of my undertaking, bore a neat breathing hole in. the case, and ship myself to Boston. You will take me in your stateroom on the voyage back, and I trust that you will let me out of my case at times for a little fresh air and exercise. The difficult part will be after we reach Boston harbor. I shall prepare for a stay* of twenty-four hours or more at the custom house by making myself insensible with opium or some drug, to while away the time and prevent a feeling of cramp from lying in my case. I shall be consigned to Mr. Essayan, our fat Armenian friend, and I have no doubt that he will consider me to be from Berg, his art expert on the other side, and welcome me with open arms. Of course he will deposit me in his museum, where I hope to accomplish my undertaking.” , “But Essayan will recognize the statue,” I objected.

“Neither Essayan nor Berg himself will recognize it,” Nikolai answered. We readily procured a mummy in London, and, on the nigjat before our return journey, Nikolai gave me my final instructions. * “All - you will have to do,” he said, “will be to wait at the back of the house with a blanket and catch what I shall throw out to you. You will have a pony trap in waiting—or perhaps it would be still better to be in the guise of the collector of yraste from barrels. In this way you will not be under suspicion. You will wait, of course, until the watchman has made his round; then I shall throw down the statue.” -

We unwrapped the mummy, from its fastenings. I confess it was a somewhat gruesome undertaking, and when finally we stood looking down upon the features of that ancient Egyptian, I detected in it an uncanny resemblance to Nikolai. There was the same high forehead, the same eagle npse; moreover, the proportions, shriveled though they were, were little short of Nikolai’s. He laughed. “Reincarnation?” he said, smiling down on the grotesque thing. “Well, ts so, my worthy ancestor in the flesh, we shall put you to good purpose.” We left the mummy in our rooms — there was no way to dispose of it—and Nikolai got into the box. I wrapped the windings round him and placed a pillow beneath his head. Then, having bored a number of holes in the case, which I rubbed with a pigment to make them appear as though they, were the product of time, I put on the lid.

“How do you feel?” I asked. “Well, but stuffy,” came Nikolai’s answer faintly from within the Case. Then he called to me to raise the lid. “For heaven’s sake do not forget to lay by a goodly supply of food for my use in your stateroom,” he said. “As you may have dbserved, I am a great trencherman. Now shut her down.” He tested the air for half an hour and found It breathable. Then' he emerged and we made our final dispositions.

On the following day I boarded the Hispaniola, sailing from Liverpool for Boston. The mummy was hoisted on board, and a little while afterward Nikolai came to life within my stateroom. The voyage across the Atlantic was uneventful, and, although my mummy caused considerable talk among the stewards, nobody suspected that it contained a very much up-to-date passenger. I. had given instructions that the base should be Bhipped to Essayan’s house; I marked the outside as though it had come from Berg, and, having left Nikolai with a supply of water and some concentrated food, I bade him farewell. He had decided, at my instigation, rather to endure the discomfort of the long wait par tiently, than to take a drug. We arrived on Sunday. The case would be delivered on the following morning, Nikolai said, and the customs officers promised to hurry it through. I forget what duty I paid; it was ’ well worth it. On ' Monday night, about the hour of twelve, Nikolai was to emerge from the mummy case, select his statue and throw it down to me.

Then I remembered that the hour would be too early for the advent of the ash-barrel collector. .1 hit on a new plan. I would drive past the back of the house in sight of the watchman, in an automobile; I would pretend that the machine had broken down, and would stop in" the street for repairs. No crowd would be likely to assemble at such an hour in that secluded district; and the watchman would be compelled to make the round of the bouse. 1

This plan I carried into effect. The banker was in the country, I had learned, and the house deserted. It would be the easiest matter to accomplish ray scheme. Soon after midnight I drove up toward Essayan’s house; I duly stopped the machine, uttered an exclamation of anger, scended, and burrowed into the ground beneath it. As I had anticipated, the watchman paused oh his round. “Broken down?” he inquired sympathetically. “I’m not doing this for fun,” I answered, with feigned anger.

He watched me for a while and then resumed his patrol of the house. The moment that he disappeared I sprang from under the machine, seized the blanket I had brought, and whistled twice, the appointed signal. Then, looking up, I saw Nikolai’s head appear from an upper window. Nikolai motioned with his hands; I spread the blanket and braced myself to receive the weight of the statue. To my astonishment, however, I received, not what I had expected, but an oblate sphere, that hurtled heavily through the air and descended into the receptacle. I glanced at it hastily. It was the fore part of a female head —of course in marble..

I laid it down stupidly and glanced up again. Once more an object descended. This time it was a leg—a marble leg, worthy of an Apollo. I caught it and hastened beneath the automobile again, concealing my treasures, jußt in time to hear the watchman’s tramp as he came round the

corner. J pretended to be very busy with the machine. He halted for a moment, glanced at me, and again resumed his beat. > * But why was Nikolai cutting up the statue piecemeal? The next object that came down to me was a single hand. I looked up; I thought I saw Nikolai smiling. The situation was an absurd one. “Don’t cut It up so fine,” I whispered. Ido not know whether he heard. A single finger next came down; but an instant later I was staggering under the weight of a torso and the hind part of a head, which seemed to me to be the complimentary pie'ce of the first one that had descended. Again I sought the safety of the Attorn of the automobile. The watchman paused so long this time that 1 thought best to crawl out “It’s the carbureter,” I explained, with a very dim understanding of the meaning of the term. “And I think my spark plug's fouled. Do you know of any repair shop in the neighborhood?”

“Not at this time of the night,” answered the watchman, gloating, as it seemed to me, over my misfortune. This was his revenge for my previous reception of hlB sympathetic Inquiries. “Oh, well, I’ll start the blamed thing somehow," I answered, and began fumbling the mechanism again. He passed on upon his beat and I looked up to Nikolai. A fore-arm came whizzing through the air; an arm; a second leg; then the greater part of a trunk; finally two ears. And then, an I still waited, I saw Nikolai perched upon the wiadowslH. I motioned him back and crawled beneath the automobile again. This time the watchman hardly looked at me. When he was gone I bundled

the ltemsinto the machine. I looked up. Nikolai was throwing out a rppe. I caught the end as he signaled me and waited, my heart beating fast, for his descent. He came down at a terrific pace and landed heavily upon the ground, bis hands bleeding from the contact with the rope. A filmy white dust had settled all over him, giving him the appearance of a miller. He sprang into the machine. ( “Let her go. Summers,” he cried, and, even as he spoke, the watchman came back before his time and in an opposite direction. ~He had evidently suspected something. One glance at Nikolai was sufficient tof his suspicions to leap into full activity. He snatched a whistle from his neck and placed it to his lips.

Before he could blow Nikolai bad seized him by the throat and graßped his hands. “Into the auto with him, Summers,” he cried in a low, penetrating whisper. “Give a hand.” I pulled the struggling man inside. “Now let her go,” —Nikolai —cried, “Hurry, man.” V And then a lamentable aspect fit our situation made Itself manifest. The automobile had actually broken down. I had disarranged the gear in some manner. It would not stir. No Sound came from the bnglne. “Crank her, crank her,” cried Nikolai, still struggling with the watchman, whose powerful strength was almost a match for his own. “Here! Take him and I’ll start the engine.” He forced him into my arms and

leaped out again. The moment that he had deft the automobile my antagonist disengaged himself with ease and blew a shrill, prolonged blast upon his whistle. A moment later I heard the thump of a policeman’s nightstick upon the pavement, two or three blocks away.

The watchman’s strength was more than mine. The only fortunate circumstance was that as yet he had not seen the broken pieces of the statue in the tonneau. In front, ttikolal was cranking furiously. The watchman called and shouts re-echoed from the Btreet Then the engine began to chug and Nikolai leaped in, just as the watchman gained the street.'

A policeman had darted up and, as the wheels began to move, he grasped at my collar. 1 shook him off. We left him and the watchman behind. A moment later we were traversing the street at full speed and congratulating ourselves that we had shaken off our pursuers. We were premature. I heard a chug, chug, chug behind us. As I turned my head I saw the policeman leap upon the watchman’s motorbicycle and shoot in our direction. Now followed a pretty chase. The mOtor-bicycle was as swift as the automobile. Time and again the policeman caught us; but one turn of the wheel and our huger bulk turned in upon him dangerously, threatening J to shake him from his perch. He whistled all the while. Crowds came pouring out ofwide streets. Once he drew his revolver, but a deft movement in his direction caused a slight collision, and, in saving himself, our pursuer lost his weapon. By now we were speeding through Boston's streets, the city streets, whico were as light as day and filled with theater crowds.

Soon we should be oompeHed to bait. Multitudes took up the chase. We turned off along the Common, shot across the grass, and sped along the deserted glades beneath the old trees; and all the while the policemen followed us, riding now behind; now at our sides. We could not shake him off. Suddenly a desperate expedient occurred to me. I turned, and, groping among the fragments of the dismembered statue, I found the leg. I seized it by the ankle and, taking aim, flung it with all my might at our pursuer. It struck him squarely beneath the chin. He swerved and toppled from his machine, and went crashing with it upon the ground. Nikolai pulled the machine to a standstill, sprang out, and picked up our useful weapon. He brought it back broken into two parts but still serviceable.' The policeman remained stunned upon the ground.

Then, speeding up the machine, we regained the streets, and a few moments after were leaving the city in our rear as we tore out toward the country. We were safe. But, looking at the pieces of the statue, I wondered how Nikolai proposed to sell them to Hasayan. “I shall not sell them to Essayan; I shall sell them in London to his agent Berg” Nikolai explained to me on the following day, as we sat together in our Boston lodgings. “But Berg is an art expert; you can’t deceive Berg,” I exclaimed. “Berg knows all the statues which he

has purchased for Essayan. You can’t sell him the same again.” Nikolai laughed. “My dear Summers, perhaps I should have initiated you into the whole secret at the beginning,” he said. “Well, I will do so now.” And then he told me.

His story began with his arrival at the custom bouse. After what seemed an immeasurable period in the obscurity of his case he found himself lifted upon a cart and conveyed to Essayan’s house. The banker had left a deputy in charge while he was away, a shrewd fellow who was instructed to admit nobody to the museum under any pretext at all. So well did he fulfill his instructions that he dismissed the carrier a nd, with the aid of the watchman, carried the supposed mummy into the museum, with much undoing of bolts and bars. He placed Nikolai and; his coffin upon the ground’ in the mummy room and retired, chuckling over his shrewdness. After waiting till evening, to assure himself that he would not be disturbed, Nikolai opened the case and emerged.

Cautiously he explored the chamber. He found that it opened into the house by means of ah unlocked door. Clearly the banker did not apprehend attack from within; and for the safety of his house he trusted bis watchman. Nikolai'.! first act was to discover the upper window from which he could get into touch with me. His second was to rearrange the contents of the mummy case, so that, when it was opened, the absence of any body would arouse suspicion of trickery on the dealer's part rather than suggest that it had been used as a medium for bui* glary. Having done this Nikolai entered the statue gallery. “1 had already formed my schema

Summers;'’ be said, "N I what struck me at once was the very mutilated condition of Essayan’s statues. Hardly a one but lacked some member of the body. And then I remembered Essayan’s comment upon this fact, and how he had boasted that he did not. know one from the other—knew only that he had paid out twelve million dollars for them. “Now, this was my scheme. I did not intend to steal a statue. I planned to steal parts of several Statues; to chop a leg from one that had two legs, an arm from one that had two arms; a torso from a statue that was otherwise complete; fingers and legs and Care and other members to make up my complete art object “Summers, my plan succeeded beyond expectation. I have robbed Essayan of an entire statue ; yet so skillfully has It been done that the ignorant fool will never discover that he has lost anything.” To this the papers bore witness on the following day. I call this extract from the Boston Record-Mirror. “A daring robbery was attempted last night at the house of Mr. Essayan, the well-known banker. The thieves made their appearance in an automobile, and had almost succeeded in effecting an entrance when they were surprised by the night watchman. A desperate straggle followed, but the night watchman having foiled their attempt to kidnap him in their machine, succeeded in drawing his whistle and in warning the police. Officer Z 270, gave chase upon bis motor-cycle and followed the burglars as far as the Common, when he was struck by some missile and felled unconscious. The thieves succeeded in escaping and so far have not been traced, though it is thought that the identity of at least one of them is known to Mr. Essayan—who had, in fact, been led to expect just such an attempt. It is believed that Mr. Essayan’s art gallery was the object of the attempt However, a careful examination by Mr. Essayan revealed the fact that the gallery was never entered.” A month later Nikolai and I were in London, in the guise of art agents from the Levant We Interested Mr. Berg in onr new statue. "Dug up near Candia, Crete,” said Nikolai, in broken English. "The mutilated condition Is ascribed to the factthat the statue was demolished 7 and buried by an earthquake about the time of Augustus.” “It has been pieced together creditably,” said Berg, examining It with extraordinary interest. “A truly remarkable piece of work. ,1 should say that it had been made experimentally by one versed In the various schools of the civilized world about the time of Christ. Other statues, for instance, show the influence of some special school, but this head seems to have been modeled after the school of Phidias; here we have one leg of contemporary Cretan sculpture and its fellow of Roman work. Possibly a composite, prepared by pupils in the local school. As a curiosity it should be of vast Interest; but I am not prepared to offer an exorbitant amount. How much do you want for it?” “Two hundred thousand dollars, American,” Nikolai answered- “ Call it a hundred and fifty thousand and 11l purchase It,” said Berg. Nikolai agreed reluctantly. "By the way,” he continued, when Berg had signed in Essayan’s name, "Is that the Mr. Essayan who received the mysterious, empty mummy case last month, as reported in the art papers? I think 1 have a clue to the sender. Tell him. to look Inside and find whether there is not something written in English upon a piece of papyrus.”

"NOT A penny," ANSWERED ESSAYAN.