O Henry
      
                   Strictly Business
           More Stories of the Four Million



                        VII

                 THE ROBE OF PEACE



Файл с книжной полки Несененко Алексея



Mysteries follow one another so closely in a great city that the 
reading public and the friends of Johnny Bellchambers have 
ceased to marvel at his sudden and unexplained disappearance 
nearly a year ago.  This particular mystery has now been cleared 
up, but the solution is so strange and incredible to the mind of the 
average man that only a select few who were in close touch with 
Bellchambers will give it full credence.

Johnny Bellchambers, as is well known, belonged to the 
intrinsically inner circle of the _'elite_.  Without any of the 
ostentation of the fashionable ones who endeavor to attract notice 
by eccentric display of wealth and show he still was _au fait_ in 
everything that gave deserved lustre to his high position in the 
ranks of society.

Especially did he shine in the matter of dress.  In this he was the 
despair of imitators.  Always correct, exquisitely groomed, and 
possessed of an unlimited wardrobe, he was conceded to be the 
best-dressed man in New York, and, therefore, in America.  There 
was not a tailor in Gotham who would not have deemed it a 
precious boon to have been granted the privilege of making 
Bellchambers' clothes without a cent of pay.  As he wore them, 
they would have been a priceless advertisement.  Trousers were his 
special passion.  Here nothing but perfection would he notice.  He 
would have worn a patch as quickly as he would have overlooked 
a wrinkle.  He kept a man in his apartments always busy pressing 
his ample supply.  His friends said that three hours was the limit of 
time that he would wear these garments without exchanging.

Bellchambers disappeared very suddenly.  For three days his 
absence brought no alarm to his friends, and then they began to 
operate the usual methods of inquiry.  All of them failed.  He had 
left absolutely no trace behind.  Then the search for a motive was 
instituted, but none was found.  He had no enemies, he had no 
debts, there was no woman.  There were several thousand dollars 
in his bank to his credit.  He had never showed any tendency 
toward mental eccentricity; in fact, he was of a particularly calm 
and well-balanced temperament.  Every means of tracing the 
vanished man was made use of, but without avail.  It was one of 
those cases--more numerous in late years--where men seem to 
have gone out like the flame of a candle, leaving not even a trail of 
smoke as a witness.

In May, Tom Eyres and Lancelot Gilliam, two of Bellchambers' 
old friends, went for a little run on the other side.  While pottering 
around in Italy and Switzerland, they happened, one day, to hear of 
a monastery in the Swiss Alps that promised something outside of 
the ordinary tourist-beguiling attractions.  The monastery was 
almost inaccessible to the average sightseer, being on an extremely 
rugged and precipitous spur of the mountains.  The attractions it 
possessed but did not advertise were, first, an exclusive and divine 
cordial made by the monks that was said to far surpass benedictine 
and chartreuse.  Next a huge brass bell so purely and accurately 
cast that it had not ceased sounding since it was first rung three 
hundred years ago.  Finally, it was asserted that no Englishman 
had ever set foot within its walls.  Eyres and Gilliam decided that 
these three reports called for investigation.

It took them two days with the aid of two guides to reach the 
monastery of St. Gondrau.  It stood upon a frozen, wind-swept 
crag with the snow piled about it in treacherous, drifting masses.  
They were hospitably received by the brothers whose duty it was 
to entertain the infrequent guest.  They drank of the precious 
cordial, finding it rarely potent and reviving.  They listened to the 
great, ever-echoing bell, and learned that they were pioneer 
travelers, in those gray stone walls, over the Englishman whose 
restless feet have trodden nearly every corner of the earth.

At three o'clock on the afternoon they arrived, the two young 
Gothamites stood with good Brother Cristofer in the great, cold 
hallway of the monastery to watch the monks march past on their 
way to the refectory.  They came slowly, pacing by twos, with their 
heads bowed, treading noiselessly with sandaled feet upon the 
rough stone flags.  As the procession slowly filed past, Eyres 
suddenly gripped Gilliam by the arm.  "Look," he whispered, 
eagerly, "at the one just opposite you now--the one on this side, 
with his hand at his waist--if that isn't Johnny Bellchambers then I 
never saw him!"

Gilliam saw and recognized the lost glass of fashion.

"What the deuce," said he, wonderingly, "is old Bell doing here?  
Tommy, it surely can't be he!  Never heard of Bell having a turn 
for the religious.  Fact is, I've heard him say things when a four-in-
hand didn't seem to tie up just right that would bring him up for 
court-martial before any church."

"It's Bell, without a doubt," said Eyres, firmly, "or I'm pretty badly 
in need of an oculist.  But think of Johnny Bellchambers, the 
Royal High Chancellor of swell togs and the Mahatma of pink 
teas, up here in cold storage doing penance in a snuff-colored 
bathrobe!  I can't get it straight in my mind.  Let's ask the jolly old 
boy that's doing honors."

Brother Cristofer was appealed to for information.  By that time 
the monks had passed into the refectory.  He could not tell to 
which one they referred.  Bellchambers?  Ah, the brothers of St. 
Gondrau abandoned their worldly names when they took the vows.  
Did the gentlemen wish to speak with one of the brothers?  If they 
would come to the refectory and indicate the one they wished to 
see, the reverend abbot in authority would, doubtless, permit it.

Eyres and Gilliam went into the dining hall and pointed out to 
Brother Cristofer the man they had seen.  Yes, it was Johnny 
Bellchambers.  They saw his face plainly now, as he sat among the 
dingy brothers, never looking up, eating broth from a coarse, 
brown bowl.

Permission to speak to one of the brothers was granted to the two 
travelers by the abbot, and they waited in a reception room for him 
to come.  When he did come, treading softly in his sandals, both 
Eyres and Gilliam looked at him in perplexity and astonishment.  
It was Johnny Bellchambers, but he had a different look.  Upon his 
smooth-shaven face was an expression of ineffable peace, of 
rapturous attainment, of perfect and complete happiness.  His form 
was proudly erect, his eyes shone with a serene and gracious light.  
He was as neat and well-groomed as in the old New York days, but 
how differently was he clad!  Now he seemed clothed in but a 
single garment--a long robe of rough brown cloth, gathered by a 
cord at the waist, and falling in straight, loose folds nearly to his 
feet.  He shook hands with his visitors with his old ease and grace 
of manner.  If there was any embarrassment in that meeting it was 
not manifested by Johnny Bellchambers.  The room had no seats; 
they stood to converse.

"Glad to see you, old man," said Eyres, somewhat awkwardly.  
"Wasn't expecting to find you up here.  Not a bad idea though, 
after all.  Society's an awful sham.  Must be a relief to shake the 
giddy whirl and retire to--er--contemplation and--er--prayer and 
hymns, and those things.

"Oh, cut that, Tommy," said Bellchambers, cheerfully.  "Don't be 
afraid that I'll pass around the plate.  I go through these thing-um-
bobs with the rest of these old boys because they are the rules.  I'm 
Brother Ambrose here, you know.  I'm given just ten minutes to 
talk to you fellows.  That's rather a new design in waistcoats you 
have on, isn't it, Gilliam?  Are they wearing those things on 
Broadway now?"

"It's the same old Johnny," said Gilliam, joyfully.  "What the devil-
-I mean why-- Oh, confound it! what did you do it for, old man?"

"Peel the bathrobe," pleaded Eyres, almost tearfully, "and go back 
with us.  The old crowd'll go wild to see you.  This isn't in your 
line, Bell.  I know half a dozen girls that wore the willow on the 
quiet when you shook us in that unaccountable way.  Hand in your 
resignation, or get a dispensation, or whatever you have to do to 
get a release from this ice factory.  You'll get catarrh here, Johnny-
-and-- My God! you haven't any socks on!"

Bellchambers looked down at his sandaled feet and smiled.

"You fellows don't understand," he said, soothingly.  "It's nice of 
you to want me to go back, but the old life will never know me 
again.  I have reached here the goal of all my ambitions.  I am 
entirely happy and contented.  Here I shall remain for the 
remainder of my days.  You see this robe that I wear?"  
Bellchambers caressingly touched the straight-hanging garment:  
"At last I have found something that will not bag at the knees.  I 
have attained--"

At that moment the deep boom of the great brass bell reverberated 
through the monastery.  It must have been a summons to 
immediate devotions, for Brother Ambrose bowed his head, turned 
and left the chamber without another word.  A slight wave of his 
hand as he passed through the stone doorway seemed to say a 
farewell to his old friends.  They left the monastery without seeing 
him again.

And this is the story that Tommy Eyres and Lancelot Gilliam 
brought back with them from their latest European tour.