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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold
+Bennett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Grand Babylon Hotel
+
+Author: Arnold Bennett
+
+Release Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2813]
+Last Updated: November 1, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE GRAND BABYLON HÔTEL
+
+By Arnold Bennett
+
+
+
+T. Racksole & Daughter
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Chapter One.   THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER
+
+Chapter Two.   HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
+
+Chapter Three.   AT THREE A.M.
+
+Chapter Four.   ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE
+
+Chapter Five.   WHAT OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK
+
+Chapter Six.   IN THE GOLD ROOM
+
+Chapter Seven.   NELLA AND THE PRINCE
+
+Chapter Eight.   ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS
+
+Chapter Nine.   TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER
+
+Chapter Ten.   AT SEA
+
+Chapter Eleven.   THE COURT PAWNBROKER
+
+Chapter Twelve.   ROCCO AND ROOM NO. 111
+
+Chapter Thirteen.   IN THE STATE BEDROOM
+
+Chapter Fourteen.   ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS
+
+Chapter Fifteen.   END OF THE YACHT ADVENTURE
+
+Chapter Sixteen.   THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT
+
+Chapter Seventeen.   THE RELEASE OF PRINCE EUGEN
+
+Chapter Eighteen.   IN THE NIGHT-TIME
+
+Chapter Nineteen.   ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON
+
+Chapter Twenty.   MR SAMPSON LEVI BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING
+
+Chapter Twenty-One.   THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON
+
+Chapter Twenty-Two.   IN THE WINE CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON
+
+Chapter Twenty-Three.   FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR
+
+Chapter Twenty-Four.   THE BOTTLE OF WINE
+
+Chapter Twenty-Five.   THE STEAM LAUNCH
+
+Chapter Twenty-Six.   THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK
+
+Chapter Twenty-Seven.   THE CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON
+
+Chapter Twenty-Eight.      THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE MORE
+
+Chapter Twenty-Nine.   THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE
+
+Chapter Thirty.   CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter One THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER
+
+‘YES, sir?’
+
+Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending
+formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the
+smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the corner by the
+conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June night, and
+dinner was about to be served at the Grand Babylon. Men of all sizes,
+ages, and nationalities, but every one alike arrayed in faultless
+evening dress, were dotted about the large, dim apartment. A faint odour
+of flowers came from the conservatory, and the tinkle of a fountain. The
+waiters, commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental
+rugs, balancing their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and
+receiving and executing orders with that air of profound importance of
+which only really first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere
+was an atmosphere of serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand
+Babylon. It seemed impossible that anything could occur to mar the
+peaceful, aristocratic monotony of existence in that perfectly-managed
+establishment. Yet on that night was to happen the mightiest upheaval
+that the Grand Babylon had ever known.
+
+‘Yes, sir?’ repeated Jules, and this time there was a shade of august
+disapproval in his voice: it was not usual for him to have to address a
+customer twice.
+
+‘Oh!’ said the alert, middle-aged man, looking up at length. Beautifully
+ignorant of the identity of the great Jules, he allowed his grey eyes to
+twinkle as he caught sight of the expression on the waiter’s face.
+‘Bring me an Angel Kiss.’
+
+‘Pardon, sir?’
+
+‘Bring me an Angel Kiss, and be good enough to lose no time.’
+
+‘If it’s an American drink, I fear we don’t keep it, sir.’ The voice of
+Jules fell icily distinct, and several men glanced round uneasily, as if
+to deprecate the slightest disturbance of their calm. The appearance of
+the person to whom Jules was speaking, however, reassured them somewhat,
+for he had all the look of that expert, the travelled Englishman, who
+can differentiate between one hotel and another by instinct, and who
+knows at once where he may make a fuss with propriety, and where it is
+advisable to behave exactly as at the club. The Grand Babylon was a
+hotel in whose smoking-room one behaved as though one was at one’s club.
+
+‘I didn’t suppose you did keep it, but you can mix it, I guess, even in
+this hotel.’
+
+‘This isn’t an American hotel, sir.’ The calculated insolence of the
+words was cleverly masked beneath an accent of humble submission.
+
+The alert, middle-aged man sat up straight, and gazed placidly at Jules,
+who was pulling his famous red side-whiskers.
+
+‘Get a liqueur glass,’ he said, half curtly and half with good-humoured
+tolerance, ‘pour into it equal quantities of maraschino, cream, and
+crême de menthe. Don’t stir it; don’t shake it. Bring it to me. And, I
+say, tell the bar-tender--’
+
+‘Bar-tender, sir?’
+
+‘Tell the bar-tender to make a note of the recipe, as I shall probably
+want an Angel Kiss every evening before dinner so long as this weather
+lasts.’
+
+‘I will send the drink to you, sir,’ said Jules distantly. That was his
+parting shot, by which he indicated that he was not as other waiters
+are, and that any person who treated him with disrespect did so at his
+own peril.
+
+A few minutes later, while the alert, middle-aged man was tasting the
+Angel Kiss, Jules sat in conclave with Miss Spencer, who had charge of
+the bureau of the Grand Babylon. This bureau was a fairly large chamber,
+with two sliding glass partitions which overlooked the entrance-hall and
+the smoking-room. Only a small portion of the clerical work of the great
+hotel was performed there. The place served chiefly as the lair of Miss
+Spencer, who was as well known and as important as Jules himself. Most
+modern hotels have a male clerk to superintend the bureau. But the Grand
+Babylon went its own way. Miss Spencer had been bureau clerk almost
+since the Grand Babylon had first raised its massive chimneys to heaven,
+and she remained in her place despite the vagaries of other hotels.
+Always admirably dressed in plain black silk, with a small diamond
+brooch, immaculate wrist-bands, and frizzed yellow hair, she looked now
+just as she had looked an indefinite number of years ago. Her age--none
+knew it, save herself and perhaps one other, and none cared. The
+gracious and alluring contours of her figure were irreproachable; and in
+the evenings she was a useful ornament of which any hotel might be
+innocently proud. Her knowledge of Bradshaw, of steamship services, and
+the programmes of theatres and music-halls was unrivalled; yet she never
+travelled, she never went to a theatre or a music-hall. She seemed to
+spend the whole of her life in that official lair of hers, imparting
+information to guests, telephoning to the various departments, or
+engaged in intimate conversations with her special friends on the staff,
+as at present.
+
+‘Who’s Number 107?’ Jules asked this black-robed lady.
+
+Miss Spencer examined her ledgers.
+
+‘Mr Theodore Racksole, New York.’
+
+‘I thought he must be a New Yorker,’ said Jules, after a brief,
+significant pause, ‘but he talks as good English as you or me. Says he
+wants an “Angel Kiss”--maraschino and cream, if you please--every night.
+I’ll see he doesn’t stop here too long.’
+
+Miss Spencer smiled grimly in response. The notion of referring to
+Theodore Racksole as a ‘New Yorker’ appealed to her sense of humour, a
+sense in which she was not entirely deficient. She knew, of course, and
+she knew that Jules knew, that this Theodore Racksole must be the unique
+and only Theodore Racksole, the third richest man in the United States,
+and therefore probably in the world. Nevertheless she ranged herself at
+once on the side of Jules.
+
+Just as there was only one Racksole, so there was only one Jules, and
+Miss Spencer instinctively shared the latter’s indignation at the
+spectacle of any person whatsoever, millionaire or Emperor, presuming to
+demand an ‘Angel Kiss’, that unrespectable concoction of maraschino and
+cream, within the precincts of the Grand Babylon. In the world of hotels
+it was currently stated that, next to the proprietor, there were three
+gods at the Grand Babylon--Jules, the head waiter, Miss Spencer, and,
+most powerful of all, Rocco, the renowned chef, who earned two thousand
+a year, and had a chalet on the Lake of Lucerne. All the great hotels in
+Northumberland Avenue and on the Thames Embankment had tried to get
+Rocco away from the Grand Babylon, but without success. Rocco was well
+aware that even he could rise no higher than the maître hotel of the
+Grand Babylon, which, though it never advertised itself, and didn’t
+belong to a limited company, stood an easy first among the hotels of
+Europe--first in expensiveness, first in exclusiveness, first in that
+mysterious quality known as ‘style’.
+
+Situated on the Embankment, the Grand Babylon, despite its noble
+proportions, was somewhat dwarfed by several colossal neighbours. It had
+but three hundred and fifty rooms, whereas there are two hotels within a
+quarter of a mile with six hundred and four hundred rooms respectively.
+On the other hand, the Grand Babylon was the only hotel in London with a
+genuine separate entrance for Royal visitors constantly in use. The
+Grand Babylon counted that day wasted on which it did not entertain, at
+the lowest, a German prince or the Maharajah of some Indian State. When
+Felix Babylon--after whom, and not with any reference to London’s
+nickname, the hotel was christened--when Felix Babylon founded the hotel
+in 1869 he had set himself to cater for Royalty, and that was the secret
+of his triumphant eminence.
+
+The son of a rich Swiss hotel proprietor and financier, he had contrived
+to established a connection with the officials of several European
+Courts, and he had not spared money in that respect. Sundry kings and
+not a few princesses called him Felix, and spoke familiarly of the hotel
+as ‘Felix’s’; and Felix had found that this was very good for trade. The
+Grand Babylon was managed accordingly. The ‘note’ of its policy was
+discretion, always discretion, and quietude, simplicity, remoteness. The
+place was like a palace incognito. There was no gold sign over the roof,
+not even an explanatory word at the entrance. You walked down a small
+side street off the Strand, you saw a plain brown building in front of
+you, with two mahogany swing doors, and an official behind each; the
+doors opened noiselessly; you entered; you were in Felix’s. If you meant
+to be a guest, you, or your courier, gave your card to Miss Spencer.
+Upon no consideration did you ask for the tariff. It was not good form
+to mention prices at the Grand Babylon; the prices were enormous, but
+you never mentioned them. At the conclusion of your stay a bill was
+presented, brief and void of dry details, and you paid it without a
+word. You met with a stately civility, that was all. No one had
+originally asked you to come; no one expressed the hope that you would
+come again. The Grand Babylon was far above such manoeuvres; it defied
+competition by ignoring it; and consequently was nearly always full
+during the season.
+
+If there was one thing more than another that annoyed the Grand Babylon-
+-put its back up, so to speak--it was to be compared with, or to be
+mistaken for, an American hotel. The Grand Babylon was resolutely
+opposed to American methods of eating, drinking, and lodging--but
+especially American methods of drinking. The resentment of Jules, on
+being requested to supply Mr Theodore Racksole with an Angel Kiss, will
+therefore be appreciated.
+
+‘Anybody with Mr Theodore Racksole?’ asked Jules, continuing his
+conversation with Miss Spencer. He put a scornful stress on every
+syllable of the guest’s name.
+
+‘Miss Racksole--she’s in No. 111.’
+
+Jules paused, and stroked his left whisker as it lay on his gleaming
+white collar.
+
+‘She’s where?’ he queried, with a peculiar emphasis.
+
+‘No. 111. I couldn’t help it. There was no other room with a bathroom
+and dressing-room on that floor.’ Miss Spencer’s voice had an appealing
+tone of excuse.
+
+‘Why didn’t you tell Mr Theodore Racksole and Miss Racksole that we were
+unable to accommodate them?’
+
+‘Because Babs was within hearing.’
+
+Only three people in the wide world ever dreamt of applying to Mr Felix
+Babylon the playful but mean abbreviation--Babs: those three were Jules,
+Miss Spencer, and Rocco. Jules had invented it. No one but he would have
+had either the wit or the audacity to do so.
+
+‘You’d better see that Miss Racksole changes her room to-night,’ Jules
+said after another pause. ‘Leave it to me: I’ll fix it. Au revoir! It’s
+three minutes to eight. I shall take charge of the dining-room myself
+to-night.’
+
+And Jules departed, rubbing his fine white hands slowly and
+meditatively. It was a trick of his, to rub his hands with a strange,
+roundabout motion, and the action denoted that some unusual excitement
+was in the air.
+
+At eight o’clock precisely dinner was served in the immense salle
+manger, that chaste yet splendid apartment of white and gold. At a small
+table near one of the windows a young lady sat alone. Her frocks said
+Paris, but her face unmistakably said New York. It was a self-possessed
+and bewitching face, the face of a woman thoroughly accustomed to doing
+exactly what she liked, when she liked, how she liked: the face of a
+woman who had taught hundreds of gilded young men the true art of
+fetching and carrying, and who, by twenty years or so of parental
+spoiling, had come to regard herself as the feminine equivalent of the
+Tsar of All the Russias. Such women are only made in America, and they
+only come to their full bloom in Europe, which they imagine to be a
+continent created by Providence for their diversion.
+
+The young lady by the window glanced disapprovingly at the menu card.
+Then she looked round the dining-room, and, while admiring the diners,
+decided that the room itself was rather small and plain. Then she gazed
+through the open window, and told herself that though the Thames by
+twilight was passable enough, it was by no means level with the Hudson,
+on whose shores her father had a hundred thousand dollar country
+cottage. Then she returned to the menu, and with a pursing of lovely
+lips said that there appeared to be nothing to eat.
+
+‘Sorry to keep you waiting, Nella.’ It was Mr Racksole, the intrepid
+millionaire who had dared to order an Angel Kiss in the smoke-room of
+the Grand Babylon. Nella--her proper name was Helen--smiled at her
+parent cautiously, reserving to herself the right to scold if she should
+feel so inclined.
+
+‘You always are late, father,’ she said.
+
+‘Only on a holiday,’ he added. ‘What is there to eat?’
+
+‘Nothing.’
+
+‘Then let’s have it. I’m hungry. I’m never so hungry as when I’m being
+seriously idle.’
+
+‘Consommé Britannia,’ she began to read out from the menu, ‘Saumon
+d’Ecosse, Sauce Genoise, Aspics de Homard. Oh, heavens! Who wants these
+horrid messes on a night like this?’
+
+‘But, Nella, this is the best cooking in Europe,’ he protested.
+
+‘Say, father,’ she said, with seeming irrelevance, ‘had you forgotten
+it’s my birthday to-morrow?’
+
+‘Have I ever forgotten your birthday, O most costly daughter?’
+
+‘On the whole you’ve been a most satisfactory dad,’ she answered
+sweetly, ‘and to reward you I’ll be content this year with the cheapest
+birthday treat you ever gave me. Only I’ll have it to-night.’
+
+‘Well,’ he said, with the long-suffering patience, the readiness for any
+surprise, of a parent whom Nella had thoroughly trained, ‘what is it?’
+
+‘It’s this. Let’s have filleted steak and a bottle of Bass for dinner
+to-night. It will be simply exquisite. I shall love it.’
+
+‘But my dear Nella,’ he exclaimed, ‘steak and beer at Felix’s! It’s
+impossible! Moreover, young women still under twenty-three cannot be
+permitted to drink Bass.’
+
+‘I said steak and Bass, and as for being twenty-three, shall be going in
+twenty-four to-morrow.’
+
+Miss Racksole set her small white teeth.
+
+There was a gentle cough. Jules stood over them. It must have been out
+of a pure spirit of adventure that he had selected this table for his
+own services. Usually Jules did not personally wait at dinner. He merely
+hovered observant, like a captain on the bridge during the mate’s watch.
+Regular frequenters of the hotel felt themselves honoured when Jules
+attached himself to their tables.
+
+Theodore Racksole hesitated one second, and then issued the order with a
+fine air of carelessness:
+
+‘Filleted steak for two, and a bottle of Bass.’ It was the bravest act
+of Theodore Racksole’s life, and yet at more than one previous crisis a
+high courage had not been lacking to him.
+
+‘It’s not in the menu, sir,’ said Jules the imperturbable.
+
+‘Never mind. Get it. We want it.’
+
+‘Very good, sir.’
+
+Jules walked to the service-door, and, merely affecting to look behind,
+came immediately back again.
+
+‘Mr Rocco’s compliments, sir, and he regrets to be unable to serve steak
+and Bass to-night, sir.’
+
+‘Mr Rocco?’ questioned Racksole lightly.
+
+‘Mr Rocco,’ repeated Jules with firmness.
+
+‘And who is Mr Rocco?’
+
+‘Mr Rocco is our chef, sir.’ Jules had the expression of a man who is
+asked to explain who Shakespeare was.
+
+The two men looked at each other. It seemed incredible that Theodore
+Racksole, the ineffable Racksole, who owned a thousand miles of railway,
+several towns, and sixty votes in Congress, should be defied by a
+waiter, or even by a whole hotel. Yet so it was. When Europe’s effete
+back is against the wall not a regiment of millionaires can turn its
+flank. Jules had the calm expression of a strong man sure of victory.
+His face said: ‘You beat me once, but not this time, my New York
+friend!’
+
+As for Nella, knowing her father, she foresaw interesting events, and
+waited confidently for the steak. She did not feel hungry, and she could
+afford to wait.
+
+‘Excuse me a moment, Nella,’ said Theodore Racksole quietly, ‘I shall be
+back in about two seconds,’ and he strode out of the salle à manger. No
+one in the room recognized the millionaire, for he was unknown to
+London, this being his first visit to Europe for over twenty years. Had
+anyone done so, and caught the expression on his face, that man might
+have trembled for an explosion which should have blown the entire Grand
+Babylon into the Thames.
+
+Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the
+antagonist’s turn. A long and varied experience had taught Jules that a
+guest who embarks on the subjugation of a waiter is almost always lost;
+the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Two HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
+
+NEVERTHELESS, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own
+way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had
+long since fallen into that useful practice--except when his only
+daughter Helen, motherless but high-spirited girl, chose to think that
+his way crossed hers, in which case Theodore capitulated and fell back.
+But when Theodore and his daughter happened to be going one and the same
+road, which was pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle
+that was so ill-advised as to stand in their path. Jules, great and
+observant man though he was, had not noticed the terrible projecting
+chins of both father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would
+have reconsidered the question of the steak and Bass.
+
+Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel, and
+entered Miss Spencer’s sanctum.
+
+‘I want to see Mr Babylon,’ he said, ‘without the delay of an instant.’
+
+Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.
+
+‘I am afraid--,’ she began the usual formula. It was part of her daily
+duty to discourage guests who desired to see Mr Babylon.
+
+‘No, no,’ said Racksole quickly, ‘I don’t want any “I’m afraids.” This
+is business. If you had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have
+slipped you a couple of sovereigns into your hand, and the thing would
+have been done.
+
+As you are not--as you are obviously above bribes--I merely say to you,
+I must see Mr Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost urgency. My
+name is Racksole--Theodore Racksole.’
+
+‘Of New York?’ questioned a voice at the door, with a slight foreign
+accent.
+
+The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short, French-looking
+man, with a bald head, a grey beard, a long and perfectly-built frock
+coat, eye-glasses attached to a minute silver chain, and blue eyes that
+seemed to have the transparent innocence of a maid’s.
+
+‘There is only one,’ said Theodore Racksole succinctly.
+
+‘You wish to see me?’ the new-comer suggested.
+
+‘You are Mr Felix Babylon?’
+
+The man bowed.
+
+‘At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the world,’
+said Racksole. ‘I am consumed and burnt up with a desire to see you, Mr
+Babylon.
+
+I only want a few minutes’ quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my business
+in that time.’
+
+With a gesture Mr Babylon invited the millionaire down a side corridor,
+at the end of which was Mr Babylon’s private room, a miracle of Louis XV
+furniture and tapestry: like most unmarried men with large incomes, Mr
+Babylon had ‘tastes’ of a highly expensive sort.
+
+The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore
+Racksole had met with the usual millionaire’s luck in this adventure,
+for Mr Babylon made a practice of not allowing himself to be interviewed
+by his guests, however distinguished, however wealthy, however
+pertinacious. If he had not chanced to enter Miss Spencer’s office at
+that precise moment, and if he had not been impressed in a somewhat
+peculiar way by the physiognomy of the millionaire, not all Mr
+Racksole’s American energy and ingenuity would have availed for a
+confabulation with the owner of the Grand Babylon Hôtel that night.
+Theodore Racksole, however, was ignorant that a mere accident had served
+him. He took all the credit to himself.
+
+‘I read in the New York papers some months ago,’ Theodore started,
+without even a clearing of the throat, ‘that this hotel of yours, Mr
+Babylon, was to be sold to a limited company, but it appears that the
+sale was not carried out.’
+
+‘It was not,’ answered Mr Babylon frankly, ‘and the reason was that the
+middle-men between the proposed company and myself wished to make a
+large secret profit, and I declined to be a party to such a profit. They
+were firm; I was firm; and so the affair came to nothing.’
+
+‘The agreed price was satisfactory?’
+
+‘Quite.’
+
+‘May I ask what the price was?’
+
+‘Are you a buyer, Mr Racksole?’
+
+‘Are you a seller, Mr Babylon?’
+
+‘I am,’ said Babylon, ‘on terms. The price was four hundred thousand
+pounds, including the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell only on the
+condition that the buyer does not transfer the property to a limited
+company at a higher figure.’
+
+‘I will put one question to you, Mr Babylon,’ said the millionaire.
+‘What have your profits averaged during the last four years?’
+
+‘Thirty-four thousand pounds per annum.’
+
+‘I buy,’ said Theodore Racksole, smiling contentedly; ‘and we will, if
+you please, exchange contract-letters on the spot.’
+
+‘You come quickly to a resolution, Mr Racksole. But perhaps you have
+been considering this question for a long time?’
+
+‘On the contrary,’ Racksole looked at his watch, ‘I have been
+considering it for six minutes.’
+
+Felix Babylon bowed, as one thoroughly accustomed to eccentricity of
+wealth.
+
+‘The beauty of being well-known,’ Racksole continued, ‘is that you
+needn’t trouble about preliminary explanations. You, Mr Babylon,
+probably know all about me. I know a good deal about you. We can take
+each other for granted without reference. Really, it is as simple to buy
+an hotel or a railroad as it is to buy a watch, provided one is equal to
+the transaction.’
+
+‘Precisely,’ agreed Mr Babylon smiling. ‘Shall we draw up the little
+informal contract? There are details to be thought of. But it occurs to
+me that you cannot have dined yet, and might prefer to deal with minor
+questions after dinner.’
+
+‘I have not dined,’ said the millionaire, with emphasis, ‘and in that
+connexion will you do me a favour? Will you send for Mr Rocco?’
+
+‘You wish to see him, naturally.’
+
+‘I do,’ said the millionaire, and added, ‘about my dinner.’
+
+‘Rocco is a great man,’ murmured Mr Babylon as he touched the bell,
+ignoring the last words. ‘My compliments to Mr Rocco,’ he said to the
+page who answered his summons, ‘and if it is quite convenient I should
+be glad to see him here for a moment.’
+
+‘What do you give Rocco?’ Racksole inquired.
+
+‘Two thousand a year and the treatment of an Ambassador.’
+
+‘I shall give him the treatment of an Ambassador and three thousand.’
+
+‘You will be wise,’ said Felix Babylon.
+
+At that moment Rocco came into the room, very softly--a man of forty,
+thin, with long, thin hands, and an inordinately long brown silky
+moustache.
+
+‘Rocco,’ said Felix Babylon, ‘let me introduce Mr Theodore Racksole, of
+New York.’
+
+‘Sharmed,’ said Rocco, bowing. ‘Ze--ze, vat you call it, millionaire?’
+
+‘Exactly,’ Racksole put in, and continued quickly: ‘Mr Rocco, I wish to
+acquaint you before any other person with the fact that I have purchased
+the Grand Babylon Hôtel. If you think well to afford me the privilege of
+retaining your services I shall be happy to offer you a remuneration of
+three thousand a year.’
+
+‘Tree, you said?’
+
+‘Three.’
+
+‘Sharmed.’
+
+‘And now, Mr Rocco, will you oblige me very much by ordering a plain
+beefsteak and a bottle of Bass to be served by Jules--I particularly
+desire Jules--at table No. 17 in the dining-room in ten minutes from
+now? And will you do me the honour of lunching with me to-morrow?’
+
+Mr Rocco gasped, bowed, muttered something in French, and departed.
+
+Five minutes later the buyer and seller of the Grand Babylon Hôtel had
+each signed a curt document, scribbled out on the hotel note-paper.
+Felix Babylon asked no questions, and it was this heroic absence of
+curiosity, of surprise on his part, that more than anything else
+impressed Theodore Racksole. How many hotel proprietors in the world,
+Racksole asked himself, would have let that beef-steak and Bass go by
+without a word of comment.
+
+‘From what date do you wish the purchase to take effect?’ asked Babylon.
+
+‘Oh,’ said Racksole lightly, ‘it doesn’t matter. Shall we say from to-
+night?’
+
+‘As you will. I have long wished to retire. And now that the moment has
+come--and so dramatically--I am ready. I shall return to Switzerland.
+One cannot spend much money there, but it is my native land. I shall be
+the richest man in Switzerland.’ He smiled with a kind of sad amusement.
+
+‘I suppose you are fairly well off?’ said Racksole, in that easy
+familiar style of his, as though the idea had just occurred to him.
+
+‘Besides what I shall receive from you, I have half a million invested.’
+
+‘Then you will be nearly a millionaire?’
+
+Felix Babylon nodded.
+
+‘I congratulate you, my dear sir,’ said Racksole, in the tone of a judge
+addressing a newly-admitted barrister. ‘Nine hundred thousand pounds,
+expressed in francs, will sound very nice--in Switzerland.’
+
+‘Of course to you, Mr Racksole, such a sum would be poverty. Now if one
+might guess at your own wealth?’ Felix Babylon was imitating the other’s
+freedom.
+
+‘I do not know, to five millions or so, what I am worth,’ said Racksole,
+with sincerity, his tone indicating that he would have been glad to give
+the information if it were in his power.
+
+‘You have had anxieties, Mr Racksole?’
+
+‘Still have them. I am now holiday-making in London with my daughter in
+order to get rid of them for a time.’
+
+‘Is the purchase of hotels your notion of relaxation, then?’
+
+Racksole shrugged his shoulders. ‘It is a change from railroads,’ he
+laughed.
+
+‘Ah, my friend, you little know what you have bought.’
+
+‘Oh! yes I do,’ returned Racksole; ‘I have bought just the first hotel
+in the world.’
+
+‘That is true, that is true,’ Babylon admitted, gazing meditatively at
+the antique Persian carpet. ‘There is nothing, anywhere, like my hotel.
+But you will regret the purchase, Mr Racksole. It is no business of
+mine, of course, but I cannot help repeating that you will regret the
+purchase.’
+
+‘I never regret.’
+
+‘Then you will begin very soon--perhaps to-night.’
+
+‘Why do you say that?’
+
+‘Because the Grand Babylon is the Grand Babylon. You think because you
+control a railroad, or an iron-works, or a line of steamers, therefore
+you can control anything. But no. Not the Grand Babylon. There is
+something about the Grand Babylon--’ He threw up his hands.
+
+‘Servants rob you, of course.’
+
+‘Of course. I suppose I lose a hundred pounds a week in that way. But it
+is not that I mean. It is the guests. The guests are too--too
+distinguished.
+
+The great Ambassadors, the great financiers, the great nobles, all the
+men that move the world, put up under my roof. London is the centre of
+everything, and my hotel--your hotel--is the centre of London. Once I
+had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at the same time. Imagine
+that!’
+
+‘A great honour, Mr Babylon. But wherein lies the difficulty?’
+
+‘Mr Racksole,’ was the grim reply, ‘what has become of your shrewdness--
+that shrewdness which has made your fortune so immense that even you
+cannot calculate it? Do you not perceive that the roof which habitually
+shelters all the force, all the authority of the world, must necessarily
+also shelter nameless and numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and
+workers of mischief? The thing is as clear as day--and as dark as night.
+Mr Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded. I never know what is
+going forward.
+
+Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange
+secrets.
+
+You mentioned my servants. They are almost all good servants, skilled,
+competent. But what are they besides? For anything I know my fourth sub-
+chef may be an agent of some European Government. For anything I know my
+invaluable Miss Spencer may be in the pay of a court dressmaker or a
+Frankfort banker. Even Rocco may be someone else in addition to Rocco.’
+
+‘That makes it all the more interesting,’ remarked Theodore Racksole.
+
+‘What a long time you have been, Father,’ said Nella, when he returned
+to table No. 17 in the salle à manger.
+
+‘Only twenty minutes, my dove.’
+
+‘But you said two seconds. There is a difference.’
+
+‘Well, you see, I had to wait for the steak to cook.’
+
+‘Did you have much trouble in getting my birthday treat?’
+
+‘No trouble. But it didn’t come quite as cheap as you said.’
+
+‘What do you mean, Father?’
+
+‘Only that I’ve bought the entire hotel. But don’t split.’
+
+‘Father, you always were a delicious parent. Shall you give me the hotel
+for a birthday present?’
+
+‘No. I shall run it--as an amusement. By the way, who is that chair
+for?’
+
+He noticed that a third cover had been laid at the table.
+
+‘That is for a friend of mine who came in about five minutes ago. Of
+course I told him he must share our steak. He’ll be here in a moment.’
+
+‘May I respectfully inquire his name?’
+
+‘Dimmock--Christian name Reginald; profession, English companion to
+Prince Aribert of Posen. I met him when I was in St Petersburg with
+cousin Hetty last fall. Oh; here he is. Mr Dimmock, this is my dear
+father. He has succeeded with the steak.’
+
+Theodore Racksole found himself confronted by a very young man, with
+deep black eyes, and a fresh, boyish expression. They began to talk.
+
+Jules approached with the steak. Racksole tried to catch the waiter’s
+eye, but could not. The dinner proceeded.
+
+‘Oh, Father!’ cried Nella, ‘what a lot of mustard you have taken!’
+
+‘Have I?’ he said, and then he happened to glance into a mirror on his
+left hand between two windows. He saw the reflection of Jules, who stood
+behind his chair, and he saw Jules give a slow, significant, ominous
+wink to Mr Dimmock--Christian name, Reginald.
+
+He examined his mustard in silence. He thought that perhaps he had
+helped himself rather plenteously to mustard.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Three AT THREE A.M.
+
+MR REGINALD DIMMOCK proved himself, despite his extreme youth, to be a
+man of the world and of experiences, and a practised talker.
+Conversation between him and Nella Racksole seemed never to flag. They
+chattered about St Petersburg, and the ice on the Neva, and the tenor at
+the opera who had been exiled to Siberia, and the quality of Russian
+tea, and the sweetness of Russian champagne, and various other aspects
+of Muscovite existence. Russia exhausted, Nella lightly outlined her own
+doings since she had met the young man in the Tsar’s capital, and this
+recital brought the topic round to London, where it stayed till the
+final piece of steak was eaten. Theodore Racksole noticed that Mr
+Dimmock gave very meagre information about his own movements, either
+past or future. He regarded the youth as a typical hanger-on of Courts,
+and wondered how he had obtained his post of companion to Prince Aribert
+of Posen, and who Prince Aribert of Posen might be. The millionaire
+thought he had once heard of Posen, but he wasn’t sure; he rather
+fancied it was one of those small nondescript German States of which
+five-sixths of the subjects are Palace officials, and the rest charcoal-
+burners or innkeepers. Until the meal was nearly over, Racksole said
+little--perhaps his thoughts were too busy with Jules’ wink to Mr
+Dimmock, but when ices had been followed by coffee, he decided that it
+might be as well, in the interests of the hotel, to discover something
+about his daughter’s friend. He never for an instant questioned her
+right to possess her own friends; he had always left her in the most
+amazing liberty, relying on her inherited good sense to keep her out of
+mischief; but, quite apart from the wink, he was struck by Nella’s
+attitude towards Mr Dimmock, an attitude in which an amiable scorn was
+blended with an evident desire to propitiate and please.
+
+‘Nella tells me, Mr Dimmock, that you hold a confidential position with
+Prince Aribert of Posen,’ said Racksole. ‘You will pardon an American’s
+ignorance, but is Prince Aribert a reigning Prince--what, I believe, you
+call in Europe, a Prince Regnant?’
+
+‘His Highness is not a reigning Prince, nor ever likely to be,’ answered
+Dimmock. ‘The Grand Ducal Throne of Posen is occupied by his Highness’s
+nephew, the Grand Duke Eugen.’
+
+‘Nephew?’ cried Nella with astonishment.
+
+‘Why not, dear lady?’
+
+‘But Prince Aribert is surely very young?’
+
+‘The Prince, by one of those vagaries of chance which occur sometimes in
+the history of families, is precisely the same age as the Grand Duke.
+The late Grand Duke’s father was twice married. Hence this youthfulness
+on the part of an uncle.’
+
+‘How delicious to be the uncle of someone as old as yourself! But I
+suppose it is no fun for Prince Aribert. I suppose he has to be
+frightfully respectful and obedient, and all that, to his nephew?’
+
+‘The Grand Duke and my Serene master are like brothers. At present, of
+course, Prince Aribert is nominally heir to the throne, but as no doubt
+you are aware, the Grand Duke will shortly marry a near relative of the
+Emperor’s, and should there be a family--’ Mr Dimmock stopped and
+shrugged his straight shoulders. ‘The Grand Duke,’ he went on, without
+finishing the last sentence, ‘would much prefer Prince Aribert to be his
+successor. He really doesn’t want to marry. Between ourselves, strictly
+between ourselves, he regards marriage as rather a bore. But, of course,
+being a German Grand Duke, he is bound to marry. He owes it to his
+country, to Posen.’
+
+‘How large is Posen?’ asked Racksole bluntly.
+
+‘Father,’ Nella interposed laughing, ‘you shouldn’t ask such
+inconvenient questions. You ought to have guessed that it isn’t
+etiquette to inquire about the size of a German Dukedom.’
+
+‘I am sure,’ said Dimmock, with a polite smile, ‘that the Grand Duke is
+as much amused as anyone at the size of his territory. I forget the
+exact acreage, but I remember that once Prince Aribert and myself walked
+across it and back again in a single day.’
+
+‘Then the Grand Duke cannot travel very far within his own dominions?
+You may say that the sun does set on his empire?’
+
+‘It does,’ said Dimmock.
+
+‘Unless the weather is cloudy,’ Nella put in. ‘Is the Grand Duke content
+always to stay at home?’
+
+‘On the contrary, he is a great traveller, much more so than Prince
+Aribert.
+
+I may tell you, what no one knows at present, outside this hotel, that
+his Royal Highness the Grand Duke, with a small suite, will be here to-
+morrow.’
+
+‘In London?’ asked Nella.
+
+‘Yes.’
+
+‘In this hotel?’
+
+‘Yes.’
+
+‘Oh! How lovely!’
+
+‘That is why your humble servant is here to-night--a sort of advance
+guard.’
+
+‘But I understood,’ Racksole said, ‘that you were--er--attached to
+Prince Aribert, the uncle.’
+
+‘I am. Prince Aribert will also be here. The Grand Duke and the Prince
+have business about important investments connected with the Grand
+Duke’s marriage settlement.... In the highest quarters, you understand.’
+
+‘For so discreet a person,’ thought Racksole, ‘you are fairly
+communicative.’ Then he said aloud: ‘Shall we go out on the terrace?’
+
+As they crossed the dining-room Jules stopped Mr Dimmock and handed him
+a letter. ‘Just come, sir, by messenger,’ said Jules.
+
+Nella dropped behind for a second with her father. ‘Leave me alone with
+this boy a little--there’s a dear parent,’ she whispered in his ear.
+
+‘I am a mere cypher, an obedient nobody,’ Racksole replied, pinching her
+arm surreptitiously. ‘Treat me as such. Use me as you like. I will go
+and look after my hotel’ And soon afterwards he disappeared.
+
+Nella and Mr Dimmock sat together on the terrace, sipping iced drinks.
+They made a handsome couple, bowered amid plants which blossomed at the
+command of a Chelsea wholesale florist. People who passed by remarked
+privately that from the look of things there was the beginning of a
+romance in that conversation. Perhaps there was, but a more intimate
+acquaintance with the character of Nella Racksole would have been
+necessary in order to predict what precise form that romance would take.
+
+Jules himself served the liquids, and at ten o’clock he brought another
+note. Entreating a thousand pardons, Reginald Dimmock, after he had
+glanced at the note, excused himself on the plea of urgent business for
+his Serene master, uncle of the Grand Duke of Posen. He asked if he
+might fetch Mr Racksole, or escort Miss Racksole to her father. But Miss
+Racksole said gaily that she felt no need of an escort, and should go to
+bed. She added that her father and herself always endeavoured to be
+independent of each other.
+
+Just then Theodore Racksole had found his way once more into Mr
+Babylon’s private room. Before arriving there, however, he had
+discovered that in some mysterious manner the news of the change of
+proprietorship had worked its way down to the lowest strata of the
+hotel’s cosmos. The corridors hummed with it, and even under-servants
+were to be seen discussing the thing, just as though it mattered to
+them.
+
+‘Have a cigar, Mr Racksole,’ said the urbane Mr Babylon, ‘and a mouthful
+of the oldest cognac in all Europe.’
+
+In a few minutes these two were talking eagerly, rapidly. Felix Babylon
+was astonished at Racksole’s capacity for absorbing the details of hotel
+management. And as for Racksole he soon realized that Felix Babylon must
+be a prince of hotel managers. It had never occurred to Racksole before
+that to manage an hotel, even a large hotel, could be a specially
+interesting affair, or that it could make any excessive demands upon the
+brains of the manager; but he came to see that he had underrated the
+possibilities of an hotel. The business of the Grand Babylon was
+enormous. It took Racksole, with all his genius for organization,
+exactly half an hour to master the details of the hotel laundry-work.
+And the laundry-work was but one branch of activity amid scores, and not
+a very large one at that. The machinery of checking supplies, and of
+establishing a mean ratio between the raw stuff received in the kitchen
+and the number of meals served in the salle à manger and the private
+rooms, was very complicated and delicate. When Racksole had grasped it,
+he at once suggested some improvements, and this led to a long
+theoretical discussion, and the discussion led to digressions, and then
+Felix Babylon, in a moment of absent-mindedness, yawned.
+
+Racksole looked at the gilt clock on the high mantelpiece.
+
+‘Great Scott!’ he said. ‘It’s three o’clock. Mr Babylon, accept my
+apologies for having kept you up to such an absurd hour.’
+
+‘I have not spent so pleasant an evening for many years. You have let me
+ride my hobby to my heart’s content. It is I who should apologize.’
+
+Racksole rose.
+
+‘I should like to ask you one question,’ said Babylon. ‘Have you ever
+had anything to do with hotels before?’
+
+‘Never,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘Then you have missed your vocation. You could have been the greatest of
+all hotel-managers. You would have been greater than me, and I am
+unequalled, though I keep only one hotel, and some men have half a
+dozen. Mr Racksole, why have you never run an hotel?’
+
+‘Heaven knows,’ he laughed, ‘but you flatter me, Mr Babylon.’
+
+‘I? Flatter? You do not know me. I flatter no one, except, perhaps, now
+and then an exceptionally distinguished guest. In which case I give
+suitable instructions as to the bill.’
+
+‘Speaking of distinguished guests, I am told that a couple of German
+princes are coming here to-morrow.’
+
+‘That is so.’
+
+‘Does one do anything? Does one receive them formally--stand bowing in
+the entrance-hall, or anything of that sort?’
+
+‘Not necessarily. Not unless one wishes. The modern hotel proprietor is
+not like an innkeeper of the Middle Ages, and even princes do not expect
+to see him unless something should happen to go wrong. As a matter of
+fact, though the Grand Duke of Posen and Prince Aribert have both
+honoured me by staying here before, I have never even set eyes on them.
+You will find all arrangements have been made.’
+
+They talked a little longer, and then Racksole said good night. ‘Let me
+see you to your room. The lifts will be closed and the place will be
+deserted.
+
+As for myself, I sleep here,’ and Mr Babylon pointed to an inner door.
+
+‘No, thanks,’ said Racksole; ‘let me explore my own hotel unaccompanied.
+I believe I can discover my room.’ When he got fairly into the passages,
+Racksole was not so sure that he could discover his own room. The number
+was 107, but he had forgotten whether it was on the first or second
+floor.
+
+Travelling in a lift, one is unconscious of floors. He passed several
+lift-doorways, but he could see no glint of a staircase; in all self-
+respecting hotels staircases have gone out of fashion, and though hotel
+architects still continue, for old sakes’ sake, to build staircases,
+they are tucked away in remote corners where their presence is not
+likely to offend the eye of a spoiled and cosmopolitan public. The hotel
+seemed vast, uncanny, deserted. An electric light glowed here and there
+at long intervals. On the thick carpets, Racksole’s thinly-shod feet
+made no sound, and he wandered at ease to and fro, rather amused, rather
+struck by the peculiar senses of night and mystery which had suddenly
+come over him. He fancied he could hear a thousand snores peacefully
+descending from the upper realms. At length he found a staircase, a very
+dark and narrow one, and presently he was on the first floor. He soon
+discovered that the numbers of the rooms on this floor did not get
+beyond seventy. He encountered another staircase and ascended to the
+second floor. By the decoration of the walls he recognized this floor as
+his proper home, and as he strolled through the long corridor he
+whistled a low, meditative whistle of satisfaction. He thought he heard
+a step in the transverse corridor, and instinctively he obliterated
+himself in a recess which held a service-cabinet and a chair. He did
+hear a step. Peeping cautiously out, he perceived, what he had not
+perceived previously, that a piece of white ribbon had been tied round
+the handle of the door of one of the bedrooms. Then a man came round the
+corner of the transverse corridor, and Racksole drew back. It was Jules-
+-Jules with his hands in his pockets and a slouch hat over his eyes, but
+in other respects attired as usual.
+
+Racksole, at that instant, remembered with a special vividness what
+Felix Babylon had said to him at their first interview. He wished he had
+brought his revolver. He didn’t know why he should feel the desirability
+of a revolver in a London hotel of the most unimpeachable fair fame, but
+he did feel the desirability of such an instrument of attack and
+defence. He privately decided that if Jules went past his recess he
+would take him by the throat and in that attitude put a few plain
+questions to this highly dubious waiter. But Jules had stopped. The
+millionaire made another cautious observation. Jules, with infinite
+gentleness, was turning the handle of the door to which the white ribbon
+was attached. The door slowly yielded and Jules disappeared within the
+room. After a brief interval, the night-prowling Jules reappeared,
+closed the door as softly as he had opened it, removed the ribbon,
+returned upon his steps, and vanished down the transverse corridor.
+
+‘This is quaint,’ said Racksole; ‘quaint to a degree!’
+
+It occurred to him to look at the number of the room, and he stole
+towards it.
+
+‘Well, I’m d--d!’ he murmured wonderingly.
+
+The number was 111, his daughter’s room! He tried to open it, but the
+door was locked. Rushing to his own room, No. 107, he seized one of a
+pair of revolvers (the kind that are made for millionaires) and followed
+after Jules down the transverse corridor. At the end of this corridor
+was a window; the window was open; and Jules was innocently gazing out
+of the window. Ten silent strides, and Theodore Racksole was upon him.
+
+‘One word, my friend,’ the millionaire began, carelessly waving the
+revolver in the air. Jules was indubitably startled, but by an admirable
+exercise of self-control he recovered possession of his faculties in a
+second.
+
+‘Sir?’ said Jules.
+
+‘I just want to be informed, what the deuce you were doing in No. 111 a
+moment ago.’
+
+‘I had been requested to go there,’ was the calm response.
+
+‘You are a liar, and not a very clever one. That is my daughter’s room.
+Now--out with it, before I decide whether to shoot you or throw you into
+the street.’
+
+‘Excuse me, sir, No. 111 is occupied by a gentleman.’
+
+‘I advise you that it is a serious error of judgement to contradict me,
+my friend. Don’t do it again. We will go to the room together, and you
+shall prove that the occupant is a gentleman, and not my daughter.’
+
+‘Impossible, sir,’ said Jules.
+
+‘Scarcely that,’ said Racksole, and he took Jules by the sleeve. The
+millionaire knew for a certainty that Nella occupied No. 111, for he had
+examined the room with her, and himself seen that her trunks and her maid and
+herself had arrived there in safety. ‘Now open the door,’ whispered
+Racksole, when they reached No.111.
+
+‘I must knock.’
+
+‘That is just what you mustn’t do. Open it. No doubt you have your pass-
+key.’
+
+Confronted by the revolver, Jules readily obeyed, yet with a deprecatory
+gesture, as though he would not be responsible for this outrage against
+the decorum of hotel life. Racksole entered. The room was brilliantly
+lighted.
+
+‘A visitor, who insists on seeing you, sir,’ said Jules, and fled.
+
+Mr Reginald Dimmock, still in evening dress, and smoking a cigarette,
+rose hurriedly from a table.
+
+‘Hello, my dear Mr Racksole, this is an unexpected--ah--pleasure.’
+
+‘Where is my daughter? This is her room.’
+
+‘Did I catch what you said, Mr Racksole?’
+
+‘I venture to remark that this is Miss Racksole’s room.’
+
+‘My good sir,’ answered Dimmock, ‘you must be mad to dream of such a
+thing.
+
+Only my respect for your daughter prevents me from expelling you
+forcibly, for such an extraordinary suggestion.’
+
+A small spot half-way down the bridge of the millionaire’s nose turned
+suddenly white.
+
+‘With your permission,’ he said in a low calm voice, ‘I will examine the
+dressing-room and the bath-room.’
+
+‘Just listen to me a moment,’ Dimmock urged, in a milder tone.
+
+‘I’ll listen to you afterwards, my young friend,’ said Racksole, and he
+proceeded to search the bath-room, and the dressing-room, without any
+result whatever. ‘Lest my attitude might be open to misconstruction, Mr
+Dimmock, I may as well tell you that I have the most perfect confidence
+in my daughter, who is as well able to take care of herself as any woman
+I ever met, but since you entered it there have been one or two rather
+mysterious occurrences in this hotel. That is all.’ Feeling a draught of
+air on his shoulder, Racksole turned to the window. ‘For instance,’ he
+added, ‘I perceive that this window is broken, badly broken, and from
+the outside.
+
+Now, how could that have occurred?’
+
+‘If you will kindly hear reason, Mr Racksole,’ said Dimmock in his best
+diplomatic manner, ‘I will endeavour to explain things to you. I
+regarded your first question to me when you entered my room as being
+offensively put, but I now see that you had some justification.’ He
+smiled politely. ‘I was passing along this corridor about eleven
+o’clock, when I found Miss Racksole in a difficulty with the hotel
+servants. Miss Racksole was retiring to rest in this room when a large
+stone, which must have been thrown from the Embankment, broke the
+window, as you see. Apart from the discomfort of the broken window, she
+did not care to remain in the room. She argued that where one stone had
+come another might follow. She therefore insisted on her room being
+changed. The servants said that there was no other room available with a
+dressing-room and bath-room attached, and your daughter made a point of
+these matters. I at once offered to exchange apartments with her. She
+did me the honour to accept my offer. Our respective belongings were
+moved--and that is all. Miss Racksole is at this moment, I trust, asleep
+in No. 124.’
+
+Theodore Racksole looked at the young man for a few seconds in silence.
+
+There was a faint knock at the door.
+
+‘Come in,’ said Racksole loudly.
+
+Someone pushed open the door, but remained standing on the mat. It was
+Nella’s maid, in a dressing-gown.
+
+‘Miss Racksole’s compliments, and a thousand excuses, but a book of hers
+was left on the mantelshelf in this room. She cannot sleep, and wishes
+to read.’
+
+‘Mr Dimmock, I tender my apologies--my formal apologies,’ said Racksole,
+when the girl had gone away with the book. ‘Good night.’
+
+‘Pray don’t mention it,’ said Dimmock suavely--and bowed him out.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Four ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE
+
+NEVERTHELESS, sundry small things weighed on Racksole’s mind. First
+there was Jules’ wink. Then there was the ribbon on the door-handle and
+Jules’ visit to No. 111, and the broken window--broken from the outside.
+Racksole did not forget that the time was 3 a.m. He slept but little
+that night, but he was glad that he had bought the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+It was an acquisition which seemed to promise fun and diversion.
+
+The next morning he came across Mr Babylon early. ‘I have emptied my
+private room of all personal papers,’ said Babylon, ‘and it is now at
+your disposal.
+
+I purpose, if agreeable to yourself, to stay on in the hotel as a guest
+for the present. We have much to settle with regard to the completion of
+the purchase, and also there are things which you might want to ask me.
+Also, to tell the truth, I am not anxious to leave the old place with
+too much suddenness. It will be a wrench to me.’
+
+‘I shall be delighted if you will stay,’ said the millionaire, ‘but it
+must be as my guest, not as the guest of the hotel.’
+
+‘You are very kind.’
+
+‘As for wishing to consult you, no doubt I shall have need to do so, but
+I must say that the show seems to run itself.’
+
+‘Ah!’ said Babylon thoughtfully. ‘I have heard of hotels that run
+themselves. If they do, you may be sure that they obey the laws of
+gravity and run downwards. You will have your hands full. For example,
+have you yet heard about Miss Spencer?’
+
+‘No,’ said Racksole. ‘What of her?’
+
+‘She has mysteriously vanished during the night, and nobody appears to
+be able to throw any light on the affair. Her room is empty, her boxes
+gone.
+
+You will want someone to take her place, and that someone will not be
+very easy to get.’
+
+‘H’m!’ Racksole said, after a pause. ‘Hers is not the only post that
+falls vacant to-day.’
+
+A little later, the millionaire installed himself in the late owner’s
+private room and rang the bell.
+
+‘I want Jules,’ he said to the page.
+
+While waiting for Jules, Racksole considered the question of Miss
+Spencer’s disappearance.
+
+‘Good morning, Jules,’ was his cheerful greeting, when the imperturbable
+waiter arrived.
+
+‘Good morning, sir.’
+
+‘Take a chair.’
+
+‘Thank you, sir.’
+
+‘We have met before this morning, Jules.’
+
+‘Yes, sir, at 3 a.m.’
+
+‘Rather strange about Miss Spencer’s departure, is it not?’ suggested
+Racksole.
+
+‘It is remarkable, sir.’
+
+‘You are aware, of course, that Mr Babylon has transferred all his
+interests in this hotel to me?’
+
+‘I have been informed to that effect, sir.’
+
+‘I suppose you know everything that goes on in the hotel, Jules?’
+
+‘As the head waiter, sir, it is my business to keep a general eye on
+things.’
+
+‘You speak very good English for a foreigner, Jules.’
+
+‘For a foreigner, sir! I am an Englishman, a Hertfordshire man born and
+bred. Perhaps my name has misled you, sir. I am only called Jules
+because the head waiter of any really high-class hotel must have either
+a French or an Italian name.’
+
+‘I see,’ said Racksole. ‘I think you must be rather a clever person,
+Jules.’
+
+‘That is not for me to say, sir.’
+
+‘How long has the hotel enjoyed the advantage of your services?’
+
+‘A little over twenty years.’
+
+‘That is a long time to be in one place. Don’t you think it’s time you
+got out of the rut? You are still young, and might make a reputation for
+yourself in another and wider sphere.’
+
+Racksole looked at the man steadily, and his glance was steadily
+returned.
+
+‘You aren’t satisfied with me, sir?’
+
+‘To be frank, Jules, I think--I think you--er--wink too much. And I
+think that it is regrettable when a head waiter falls into a habit of
+taking white ribbons from the handles of bedroom doors at three in the
+morning.’
+
+Jules started slightly.
+
+‘I see how it is, sir. You wish me to go, and one pretext, if I may use
+the term, is as good as another. Very well, I can’t say that I’m
+surprised. It sometimes happens that there is incompatibility of temper
+between a hotel proprietor and his head waiter, and then, unless one of
+them goes, the hotel is likely to suffer. I will go, Mr Racksole. In
+fact, I had already thought of giving notice.’
+
+The millionaire smiled appreciatively. ‘What wages do you require in
+lieu of notice? It is my intention that you leave the hotel within an
+hour.’
+
+‘I require no wages in lieu of notice, sir. I would scorn to accept
+anything. And I will leave the hotel in fifteen minutes.’
+
+‘Good-day, then. You have my good wishes and my admiration, so long as
+you keep out of my hotel.’
+
+Racksole got up. ‘Good-day, sir. And thank you.’
+
+‘By the way, Jules, it will be useless for you to apply to any other
+first-rate European hotel for a post, because I shall take measures
+which will ensure the rejection of any such application.’
+
+‘Without discussing the question whether or not there aren’t at least
+half a dozen hotels in London alone that would jump for joy at the
+chance of getting me,’ answered Jules, ‘I may tell you, sir, that I
+shall retire from my profession.’
+
+‘Really! You will turn your brains to a different channel.’
+
+‘No, sir. I shall take rooms in Albemarle Street or Jermyn Street, and
+just be content to be a man-about-town. I have saved some twenty
+thousand pounds--a mere trifle, but sufficient for my needs, and I shall
+now proceed to enjoy it. Pardon me for troubling you with my personal
+affairs. And good-day again.’
+
+That afternoon Racksole went with Felix Babylon first to a firm of
+solicitors in the City, and then to a stockbroker, in order to carry out
+the practical details of the purchase of the hotel.
+
+‘I mean to settle in England,’ said Racksole, as they were coming back.
+‘It is the only country--’ and he stopped.
+
+‘The only country?’
+
+‘The only country where you can invest money and spend money with a
+feeling of security. In the United States there is nothing worth
+spending money on, nothing to buy. In France or Italy, there is no real
+security.’
+
+‘But surely you are a true American?’ questioned Babylon.
+
+‘I am a true American,’ said Racksole, ‘but my father, who began by
+being a bedmaker at an Oxford college, and ultimately made ten million
+dollars out of iron in Pittsburg--my father took the wise precaution of
+having me educated in England. I had my three years at Oxford, like any
+son of the upper middle class! It did me good. It has been worth more to
+me than many successful speculations. It taught me that the English
+language is different from, and better than, the American language, and
+that there is something--I haven’t yet found out exactly what--in
+English life that Americans will never get. Why,’ he added, ‘in the
+United States we still bribe our judges and our newspapers. And we talk
+of the eighteenth century as though it was the beginning of the world.
+Yes, I shall transfer my securities to London. I shall build a house in
+Park Lane, and I shall buy some immemorial country seat with a history
+as long as the A. T. and S. railroad, and I shall calmly and gradually
+settle down. D’you know--I am rather a good-natured man for a
+millionaire, and of a social disposition, and yet I haven’t six real
+friends in the whole of New York City. Think of that!’
+
+‘And I,’ said Babylon, ‘have no friends except the friends of my boyhood
+in Lausanne. I have spent thirty years in England, and gained nothing
+but a perfect knowledge of the English language and as much gold coin as
+would fill a rather large box.’
+
+These two plutocrats breathed a simultaneous sigh.
+
+‘Talking of gold coin,’ said Racksole, ‘how much money should you think
+Jules has contrived to amass while he has been with you?’
+
+‘Oh!’ Babylon smiled. ‘I should not like to guess. He has had unique
+opportunities--opportunities.’
+
+‘Should you consider twenty thousand an extraordinary sum under the
+circumstances?’
+
+‘Not at all. Has he been confiding in you?’
+
+‘Somewhat. I have dismissed him.’
+
+‘You have dismissed him?’
+
+‘Why not?’
+
+‘There is no reason why not. But I have felt inclined to dismiss him for
+the past ten years, and never found courage to do it.’
+
+‘It was a perfectly simple proceeding, I assure you. Before I had done
+with him, I rather liked the fellow.’
+
+‘Miss Spencer and Jules--both gone in one day!’ mused Felix Babylon.
+
+‘And no one to take their places,’ said Racksole. ‘And yet the hotel
+continues its way!’
+
+But when Racksole reached the Grand Babylon he found that Miss Spencer’s
+chair in the bureau was occupied by a stately and imperious girl,
+dressed becomingly in black.
+
+‘Heavens, Nella!’ he cried, going to the bureau. ‘What are you doing
+here?’
+
+‘I am taking Mis Spencer’s place. I want to help you with your hotel,
+Dad. I fancy I shall make an excellent hotel clerk. I have arranged with
+a Miss Selina Smith, one of the typists in the office, to put me up to
+all the tips and tricks, and I shall do very well.’
+
+‘But look here, Helen Racksole. We shall have the whole of London
+talking about this thing--the greatest of all American heiresses a hotel
+clerk! And I came here for quiet and rest!’
+
+‘I suppose it was for the sake of quiet and rest that you bought the
+hotel, Papa?’
+
+‘You would insist on the steak,’ he retorted. ‘Get out of this, on the
+instant.’
+
+‘Here I am, here to stay,’ said Nella, and deliberately laughed at her
+parent.
+
+Just then the face of a fair-haired man of about thirty years appeared
+at the bureau window. He was very well-dressed, very aristocratic in his
+pose, and he seemed rather angry.
+
+He looked fixedly at Nella and started back.
+
+‘Ach!’ he exclaimed. ‘You!’
+
+‘Yes, your Highness, it is indeed I. Father, this is his Serene Highness
+Prince Aribert of Posen--one of our most esteemed customers.’
+
+‘You know my name, Fräulein?’ the new-comer murmured in German.
+
+‘Certainly, Prince,’ Nella replied sweetly. ‘You were plain Count
+Steenbock last spring in Paris--doubtless travelling incognito--’
+
+‘Silence,’ he entreated, with a wave of the hand, and his forehead went
+as white as paper.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Five WHAT OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK
+
+IN another moment they were all three talking quite nicely, and with at
+any rate an appearance of being natural. Prince Aribert became suave,
+even deferential to Nella, and more friendly towards Nella’s father than
+their respective positions demanded. The latter amused himself by
+studying this sprig of royalty, the first with whom he had ever come
+into contact. He decided that the young fellow was personable enough,
+‘had no frills on him,’ and would make an exceptionally good commercial
+traveller for a first-class firm. Such was Theodore Racksole’s
+preliminary estimate of the man who might one day be the reigning Grand
+Duke of Posen.
+
+It occurred to Nella, and she smiled at the idea, that the bureau of the
+hotel was scarcely the correct place in which to receive this august
+young man. There he stood, with his head half-way through the bureau
+window, negligently leaning against the woodwork, just as though he were
+a stockbroker or the manager of a New York burlesque company.
+
+‘Is your Highness travelling quite alone?’ she asked.
+
+‘By a series of accidents I am,’ he said. ‘My equerry was to have met me
+at Charing Cross, but he failed to do so--I cannot imagine why.’
+
+‘Mr Dimmock?’ questioned Racksole.
+
+‘Yes, Dimmock. I do not remember that he ever missed an appointment
+before.
+
+You know him? He has been here?’
+
+‘He dined with us last night,’ said Racksole--‘on Nella’s invitation,’
+he added maliciously; ‘but to-day we have seen nothing of him. I know,
+however, that he has engaged the State apartments, and also a suite
+adjoining the State apartments--No. 55. That is so, isn’t it, Nella?’
+
+‘Yes, Papa,’ she said, having first demurely examined a ledger. ‘Your
+Highness would doubtless like to be conducted to your room--apartments I
+mean.’ Then Nella laughed deliberately at the Prince, and said, ‘I don’t
+know who is the proper person to conduct you, and that’s a fact. The
+truth is that Papa and I are rather raw yet in the hotel line. You see,
+we only bought the place last night.’
+
+‘You have bought the hotel!’ exclaimed the Prince.
+
+‘That’s so,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘And Felix Babylon has gone?’
+
+‘He is going, if he has not already gone.’
+
+‘Ah! I see,’ said the Prince; ‘this is one of your American “strokes”.
+You have bought to sell again, is that not it? You are on your holidays,
+but you cannot resist making a few thousands by way of relaxation. I
+have heard of such things.’
+
+‘We sha’n’t sell again, Prince, until we are tired of our bargain.
+Sometimes we tire very quickly, and sometimes we don’t. It depends--eh?
+What?’
+
+Racksole broke off suddenly to attend to a servant in livery who had
+quietly entered the bureau and was making urgent mysterious signs to
+him.
+
+‘If you please, sir,’ the man by frantic gestures implored Mr Theodore
+Racksole to come out.
+
+‘Pray don’t let me detain you, Mr Racksole,’ said the Prince, and
+therefore the proprietor of the Grand Babylon departed after the
+servant, with a queer, curt little bow to Prince Aribert.
+
+‘Mayn’t I come inside?’ said the Prince to Nella immediately the
+millionaire had gone.
+
+‘Impossible, Prince,’ Nella laughed. ‘The rule against visitors entering
+this bureau is frightfully strict.’
+
+‘How do you know the rule is so strict if you only came into possession
+last night?’
+
+‘I know because I made the rule myself this morning, your Highness.’
+
+‘But seriously, Miss Racksole, I want to talk to you.’
+
+‘Do you want to talk to me as Prince Aribert or as the friend--the
+acquaintance--whom I knew in Paris last year?’
+
+‘As the friend, dear lady, if I may use the term.’
+
+‘And you are sure that you would not like first to be conducted to your
+apartments?’
+
+‘Not yet. I will wait till Dimmock comes; he cannot fail to be here
+soon.’
+
+‘Then we will have tea served in father’s private room--the proprietor’s
+private room, you know.’
+
+‘Good!’ he said.
+
+Nella talked through a telephone, and rang several bells, and behaved
+generally in a manner calculated to prove to Princes and to whomever it
+might concern that she was a young woman of business instincts and
+training, and then she stepped down from her chair of office, emerged
+from the bureau, and, preceded by two menials, led Prince Aribert to the
+Louis XV chamber in which her father and Felix Babylon had had their
+long confabulation on the previous evening.
+
+‘What do you want to talk to me about?’ she asked her companion, as she
+poured out for him a second cup of tea. The Prince looked at her for a
+moment as he took the proffered cup, and being a young man of sane,
+healthy, instincts, he could think of nothing for the moment except her
+loveliness.
+
+Nella was indeed beautiful that afternoon. The beauty of even the most
+beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella’s this afternoon
+was at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious, and yet ineffably sweet,
+she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance of life.
+
+‘I have forgotten,’ he said.
+
+‘You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you? You gave me to
+understand that it was something terribly important. But of course I
+knew it couldn’t be, because no man, and especially no Prince, ever
+discussed anything really important with a woman.’
+
+‘Recollect, Miss Racksole, that this afternoon, here, I am not the
+Prince.’
+
+‘You are Count Steenbock, is that it?’
+
+He started. ‘For you only,’ he said, unconsciously lowering his voice.
+‘Miss Racksole, I particularly wish that no one here should know that I
+was in Paris last spring.’
+
+‘An affair of State?’ she smiled.
+
+‘An affair of State,’ he replied soberly. ‘Even Dimmock doesn’t know. It
+was strange that we should be fellow guests at that quiet out-of-the-way
+hotel--strange but delightful. I shall never forget that rainy afternoon
+that we spent together in the Museum of the Trocadéro. Let us talk about
+that.’
+
+‘About the rain, or the museum?’
+
+‘I shall never forget that afternoon,’ he repeated, ignoring the
+lightness of her question.
+
+‘Nor I,’ she murmured corresponding to his mood.
+
+‘You, too enjoyed it?’ he said eagerly.
+
+‘The sculptures were magnificent,’ she replied, hastily glancing at the
+ceiling.
+
+‘Ah! So they were! Tell me, Miss Racksole, how did you discover my
+identity.’
+
+‘I must not say,’ she answered. ‘That is my secret. Do not seek to
+penetrate it. Who knows what horrors you might discover if you probed
+too far?’ She laughed, but she laughed alone. The Prince remained
+pensive--as it were brooding.
+
+‘I never hoped to see you again,’ he said.
+
+‘Why not?’
+
+‘One never sees again those whom one wishes to see.’
+
+‘As for me, I was perfectly convinced that we should meet again.’
+
+‘Why?’
+
+‘Because I always get what I want.’
+
+‘Then you wanted to see me again?’
+
+‘Certainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another man
+who could talk so well about sculpture as the Count Steenbock.’
+
+‘Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?’
+
+‘Of course.’
+
+‘That is because your father is so rich, I suppose?’
+
+‘Oh, no, it isn’t!’ she said. ‘It’s simply because I always do get what
+I want. It’s got nothing to do with Father at all.’
+
+‘But Mr Racksole is extremely wealthy?’
+
+‘Wealthy isn’t the word, Count. There is no word. It’s positively awful
+the amount of dollars poor Papa makes. And the worst of it is he can’t
+help it.
+
+He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power on earth
+could stop those ten millions from growing into twenty. And so it
+continues.
+
+I spend what I can, but I can’t come near coping with it; and of course
+Papa is no use whatever at spending.’
+
+‘And you have no mother?’
+
+‘Who told you I had no mother?’ she asked quietly.
+
+‘I--er--inquired about you,’ he said, with equal candour and humility.
+
+‘In spite of the fact that you never hoped to see me again?’
+
+‘Yes, in spite of that.’
+
+‘How funny!’ she said, and lapsed into a meditative silence.
+
+‘Yours must be a wonderful existence,’ said the Prince. ‘I envy you.’
+
+‘You envy me--what? My father’s wealth?’
+
+‘No,’ he said; ‘your freedom and your responsibilities.’
+
+‘I have no responsibilities,’ she remarked.
+
+‘Pardon me,’ he said; ‘you have, and the time is coming when you will
+feel them.’
+
+‘I’m only a girl,’ she murmured with sudden simplicity. ‘As for you,
+Count, surely you have sufficient responsibilities of your own?’
+
+‘I?’ he said sadly. ‘I have no responsibilities. I am a nobody--a Serene
+Highness who has to pretend to be very important, always taking immense
+care never to do anything that a Serene Highness ought not to do. Bah!’
+
+‘But if your nephew, Prince Eugen, were to die, would you not come to
+the throne, and would you not then have these responsibilities which you
+so much desire?’
+
+‘Eugen die?’ said Prince Aribert, in a curious tone. ‘Impossible. He is
+the perfection of health. In three months he will be married. No, I
+shall never be anything but a Serene Highness, the most despicable of
+God’s creatures.’
+
+‘But what about the State secret which you mentioned? Is not that a
+responsibility?’
+
+‘Ah!’ he said. ‘That is over. That belongs to the past. It was an
+accident in my dull career. I shall never be Count Steenbock again.’
+
+‘Who knows?’ she said. ‘By the way, is not Prince Eugen coming here to-
+day? Mr Dimmock told us so.’
+
+‘See!’ answered the Prince, standing up and bending over her. ‘I am
+going to confide in you. I don’t know why, but I am.’
+
+‘Don’t betray State secrets,’ she warned him, smiling into his face.
+
+But just then the door of the room was unceremoniously opened.
+
+‘Go right in,’ said a voice sharply. It was Theodore Racksole’s. Two men
+entered, bearing a prone form on a stretcher, and Racksole followed
+them.
+
+Nella sprang up. Racksole stared to see his daughter.
+
+‘I didn’t know you were in here, Nell. Here,’ to the two men, ‘out
+again.’
+
+‘Why!’ exclaimed Nella, gazing fearfully at the form on the stretcher,
+‘it’s Mr Dimmock!’
+
+‘It is,’ her father acquiesced. ‘He’s dead,’ he added laconically. ‘I’d
+have broken it to you more gently had I known. Your pardon, Prince.’
+There was a pause.
+
+‘Dimmock dead!’ Prince Aribert whispered under his breath, and he
+kneeled down by the side of the stretcher. ‘What does this mean?’
+
+The poor fellow was just walking across the quadrangle towards the
+portico when he fell down. A commissionaire who saw him says he was
+walking very quickly. At first I thought it was sunstroke, but it
+couldn’t have been, though the weather certainly is rather warm. It must
+be heart disease. But anyhow, he’s dead. We did what we could. I’ve sent
+for a doctor, and for the police. I suppose there’ll have to be an
+inquest.’
+
+Theodore Racksole stopped, and in an awkward solemn silence they all
+gazed at the dead youth. His features were slightly drawn, and his eyes
+closed; that was all. He might have been asleep.
+
+‘My poor Dimmock!’ exclaimed the Prince, his voice broken. ‘And I was
+angry because the lad did not meet me at Charing Cross!’
+
+‘Are you sure he is dead, Father?’ Nella said.
+
+‘You’d better go away, Nella,’ was Racksole’s only reply; but the girl
+stood still, and began to sob quietly. On the previous night she had
+secretly made fun of Reginald Dimmock. She had deliberately set herself
+to get information from him on a topic in which she happened to be
+specially interested and she had got it, laughing the while at his
+youthful crudities--his vanity, his transparent cunning, his absurd
+airs. She had not liked him; she had even distrusted him, and decided
+that he was not ‘nice’. But now, as he lay on the stretcher, these
+things were forgotten. She went so far as to reproach herself for them.
+Such is the strange commanding power of death.
+
+‘Oblige me by taking the poor fellow to my apartments,’ said the Prince,
+with a gesture to the attendants. ‘Surely it is time the doctor came.’
+
+Racksole felt suddenly at that moment he was nothing but a mere hotel
+proprietor with an awkward affair on his hands. For a fraction of a
+second he wished he had never bought the Grand Babylon.
+
+A quarter of an hour later Prince Aribert, Theodore Racksole, a doctor,
+and an inspector of police were in the Prince’s reception-room. They had
+just come from an ante-chamber, in which lay the mortal remains of
+Reginald Dimmock.
+
+‘Well?’ said Racksole, glancing at the doctor.
+
+The doctor was a big, boyish-looking man, with keen, quizzical eyes.
+
+‘It is not heart disease,’ said the doctor.
+
+‘Not heart disease?’
+
+‘No.’
+
+‘Then what is it?’ asked the Prince.
+
+‘I may be able to answer that question after the post-mortem,’ said the
+doctor. ‘I certainly can’t answer it now. The symptoms are unusual to a
+degree.’
+
+The inspector of police began to write in a note-book.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Six IN THE GOLD ROOM
+
+AT the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold Room,
+a huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of it, and
+certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore Racksole knew
+nothing of the affair, except that it was an entertainment offered by a
+Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi to their friends. Who Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi
+were he did not know, nor could anyone tell him anything about them
+except that Mr Sampson Levi was a prominent member of that part of the
+Stock Exchange familiarly called the Kaffir Circus, and that his wife
+was a stout lady with an aquiline nose and many diamonds, and that they
+were very rich and very hospitable. Theodore Racksole did not want a
+ball in his hotel that evening, and just before dinner he had almost a
+mind to issue a decree that the Gold Room was to be closed and the ball
+forbidden, and Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi might name the amount of damages
+suffered by them. His reasons for such a course were threefold--first,
+he felt depressed and uneasy; second, he didn’t like the name of Sampson
+Levi; and, third, he had a desire to show these so-called plutocrats
+that their wealth was nothing to him, that they could not do what they
+chose with Theodore Racksole, and that for two pins Theodore Racksole
+would buy them up, and the whole Kaffir Circus to boot. But something
+warned him that though such a high-handed proceeding might be tolerated
+in America, that land of freedom, it would never be tolerated in
+England. He felt instinctively that in England there are things you
+can’t do, and that this particular thing was one of them. So the ball
+went forward, and neither Mr nor Mrs Sampson Levi had ever the least
+suspicion what a narrow escape they had had of looking very foolish in
+the eyes of the thousand or so guests invited by them to the Gold Room
+of the Grand Babylon that evening.
+
+The Gold Room of the Grand Babylon was built for a ballroom. A balcony,
+supported by arches faced with gilt and lapis-lazulo, ran around it, and
+from this vantage men and maidens and chaperons who could not or would
+not dance might survey the scene. Everyone knew this, and most people
+took advantage of it. What everyone did not know--what no one knew--was
+that higher up than the balcony there was a little barred window in the
+end wall from which the hotel authorities might keep a watchful eye, not
+only on the dancers, but on the occupants of the balcony itself.
+
+It may seem incredible to the uninitiated that the guests at any social
+gathering held in so gorgeous and renowned an apartment as the Gold Room
+of the Grand Babylon should need the observation of a watchful eye. Yet
+so it was. Strange matters and unexpected faces had been descried from
+the little window, and more than one European detective had kept vigil
+there with the most eminently satisfactory results.
+
+At eleven o’clock Theodore Racksole, afflicted by vexation of spirit,
+found himself gazing idly through the little barred window. Nella was
+with him.
+
+Together they had been wandering about the corridors of the hotel, still
+strange to them both, and it was quite by accident that they had lighted
+upon the small room which had a surreptitious view of Mr and Mrs Sampson
+Levi’s ball. Except for the light of the chandelier of the ball-room the
+little cubicle was in darkness. Nella was looking through the window;
+her father stood behind.
+
+‘I wonder which is Mrs Sampson Levi?’ Nella said, ‘and whether she
+matches her name. Wouldn’t you love to have a name like that, Father--
+something that people could take hold of--instead of Racksole?’
+
+The sound of violins and a confused murmur of voices rose gently up to
+them.
+
+‘Umphl’ said Theodore. ‘Curse those evening papers!’ he added,
+inconsequently but with sincerity.
+
+‘Father, you’re very horrid to-night. What have the evening papers been
+doing?’
+
+‘Well, my young madame, they’ve got me in for one, and you for another;
+and they’re manufacturing mysteries like fun. It’s young Dimmock’s death
+that has started ‘em.’
+
+‘Well, Father, you surely didn’t expect to keep yourself out of the
+papers. Besides, as regards newspapers, you ought to be glad you aren’t
+in New York. Just fancy what the dear old Herald would have made out of
+a little transaction like yours of last night.’
+
+‘That’s true,’ assented Racksole. ‘But it’ll be all over New York to-
+morrow morning, all the same. The worst of it is that Babylon has gone
+off to Switzerland.’
+
+‘Why?’
+
+‘Don’t know. Sudden fancy, I guess, for his native heath.’
+
+‘What difference does it make to you?’
+
+‘None. Only I feel sort of lonesome. I feel I want someone to lean up
+against in running this hotel.’
+
+‘Father, if you have that feeling you must be getting ill.’
+
+‘Yes,’ he sighed, ‘I admit it’s unusual with me. But perhaps you haven’t
+grasped the fact, Nella, that we’re in the middle of a rather queer
+business.’
+
+‘You mean about poor Mr Dimmock?’
+
+‘Partly Dimmock and partly other things. First of all, that Miss
+Spencer, or whatever her wretched name is, mysteriously disappears. Then
+there was the stone thrown into your bedroom. Then I caught that rascal
+Jules conspiring with Dimmock at three o’clock in the morning. Then your
+precious Prince Aribert arrives without any suite--which I believe is a
+most peculiar and wicked thing for a Prince to do--and moreover I find
+my daughter on very intimate terms with the said Prince. Then young
+Dimmock goes and dies, and there is to be an inquest; then Prince Eugen
+and his suite, who were expected here for dinner, fail to turn up at
+all--’
+
+‘Prince Eugen has not come?’
+
+‘He has not; and Uncle Aribert is in a deuce of a stew about him, and
+telegraphing all over Europe. Altogether, things are working up pretty
+lively.’
+
+‘Do you really think, Dad, there was anything between Jules and poor Mr
+Dimmock?’
+
+‘Think! I know! I tell you I saw that scamp give Dimmock a wink last
+night at dinner that might have meant--well!’
+
+‘So you caught that wink, did you, Dad?’
+
+‘Why, did you?’
+
+‘Of course, Dad. I was going to tell you about it.’
+
+The millionaire grunted.
+
+‘Look here, Father,’ Nella whispered suddenly, and pointed to the
+balcony immediately below them. ‘Who’s that?’ She indicated a man with a
+bald patch on the back of his head, who was propping himself up against
+the railing of the balcony and gazing immovable into the ball-room.
+
+‘Well, who is it?’
+
+‘Isn’t it Jules?’
+
+‘Gemini! By the beard of the prophet, it is!’
+
+‘Perhaps Mr Jules is a guest of Mrs Sampson Levi.’
+
+‘Guest or no guest, he goes out of this hotel, even if I have to throw
+him out myself.’
+
+Theodore Racksole disappeared without another word, and Nella followed
+him.
+
+But when the millionaire arrived on the balcony floor he could see
+nothing of Jules, neither there nor in the ball-room itself. Saying no
+word aloud, but quietly whispering wicked expletives, he searched
+everywhere in vain, and then, at last, by tortuous stairways and
+corridors returned to his original post of observation, that he might
+survey the place anew from the vantage ground. To his surprise he found
+a man in the dark little room, watching the scene of the ball as
+intently as he himself had been doing a few minutes before. Hearing
+footsteps, the man turned with a start.
+
+It was Jules.
+
+The two exchanged glances in the half light for a second.
+
+‘Good evening, Mr Racksole,’ said Jules calmly. ‘I must apologize for
+being here.’
+
+‘Force of habit, I suppose,’ said Theodore Racksole drily.
+
+‘Just so, sir.’
+
+‘I fancied I had forbidden you to re-enter this hotel?’
+
+‘I thought your order applied only to my professional capacity. I am
+here to-night as the guest of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi.’
+
+‘In your new rôle of man-about-town, eh?’
+
+‘Exactly.’
+
+‘But I don’t allow men-about-town up here, my friend.’
+
+‘For being up here I have already apologized.’
+
+‘Then, having apologized, you had better depart; that is my
+disinterested advice to you.’
+
+‘Good night, sir.’
+
+‘And, I say, Mr Jules, if Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, or any other Hebrews
+or Christians, should again invite you to my hotel you will oblige me by
+declining the invitation. You’ll find that will be the safest course for
+you.’
+
+‘Good night, sir.’
+
+Before midnight struck Theodore Racksole had ascertained that the
+invitation-list of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, though a somewhat lengthy
+one, contained no reference to any such person as Jules.
+
+He sat up very late. To be precise, he sat up all night. He was a man
+who, by dint of training, could comfortably dispense with sleep when he
+felt so inclined, or when circumstances made such a course advisable. He
+walked to and fro in his room, and cogitated as few people beside
+Theodore Racksole could cogitate. At 6 a.m. he took a stroll round the
+business part of his premises, and watched the supplies come in from
+Covent Garden, from Smithfield, from Billingsgate, and from other
+strange places. He found the proceedings of the kitchen department quite
+interesting, and made mental notes of things that he would have altered,
+of men whose wages he would increase and men whose wages he would
+reduce. At 7 a.m. he happened to be standing near the luggage lift, and
+witnessed the descent of vast quantities of luggage, and its
+disappearance into a Carter Paterson van.
+
+‘Whose luggage is that?’ he inquired peremptorily.
+
+The luggage clerk, with an aggrieved expression, explained to him that
+it was the luggage of nobody in particular, that it belonged to various
+guests, and was bound for various destinations; that it was, in fact,
+‘expressed’ luggage despatched in advance, and that a similar quantity
+of it left the hotel every morning about that hour.
+
+Theodore Racksole walked away, and breakfasted upon one cup of tea and
+half a slice of toast.
+
+At ten o’clock he was informed that the inspector of police desired to
+see him. The inspector had come, he said, to superintend the removal of
+the body of Reginald Dimmock to the mortuary adjoining the place of
+inquest, and a suitable vehicle waited at the back entrance of the
+hotel.
+
+The inspector had also brought subpoenas for himself and Prince Aribert
+of Posen and the commissionaire to attend the inquest.
+
+‘I thought Mr Dimmock’s remains were removed last night,’ said Racksole
+wearily.
+
+‘No, sir. The fact is the van was engaged on another job.’
+
+The inspector gave the least hint of a professional smile, and Racksole,
+disgusted, told him curtly to go and perform his duties.
+
+In a few minutes a message came from the inspector requesting Mr
+Racksole to be good enough to come to him on the first floor. Racksole
+went. In the ante-room, where the body of Reginald Dimmock had
+originally been placed, were the inspector and Prince Aribert, and two
+policemen.
+
+‘Well?’ said Racksole, after he and the Prince had exchanged bows. Then
+he saw a coffin laid across two chairs. ‘I see a coffin has been
+obtained,’ he remarked. ‘Quite right’ He approached it. ‘It’s empty,’ he
+observed unthinkingly.
+
+‘Just so,’ said the inspector. ‘The body of the deceased has
+disappeared.
+
+And his Serene Highness Prince Aribert informs me that though he has
+occupied a room immediately opposite, on the other side of the corridor,
+he can throw no light on the affair.’
+
+‘Indeed, I cannot!’ said the Prince, and though he spoke with sufficient
+calmness and dignity, you could see that he was deeply pained, even
+distressed.
+
+‘Well, I’m--’ murmured Racksole, and stopped.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seven NELLA AND THE PRINCE
+
+IT appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous an article
+as a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace, no hint,
+no clue as to the time or the manner of the performance of the deed.
+After the first feeling of surprise, Racksole grew coldly and severely
+angry. He had a mind to dismiss the entire staff of the hotel. He
+personally examined the night-watchman, the chambermaids and all other
+persons who by chance might or ought to know something of the affair;
+but without avail. The corpse of Reginald Dimmock had vanished utterly--
+disappeared like a fleshless spirit.
+
+Of course there were the police. But Theodore Racksole held the police
+in sorry esteem. He acquainted them with the facts, answered their
+queries with a patient weariness, and expected nothing whatever from
+that quarter. He also had several interviews with Prince Aribert of
+Posen, but though the Prince was suavity itself and beyond doubt
+genuinely concerned about the fate of his dead attendant, yet it seemed
+to Racksole that he was keeping something back, that he hesitated to say
+all he knew. Racksole, with characteristic insight, decided that the
+death of Reginald Dimmock was only a minor event, which had occurred, as
+it were, on the fringe of some far more profound mystery. And,
+therefore, he decided to wait, with his eyes very wide open, until
+something else happened that would throw light on the business. At the
+moment he took only one measure--he arranged that the theft of Dimmock’s
+body should not appear in the newspapers. It is astonishing how well a
+secret can be kept, when the possessors of the secret are handled with
+the proper mixture of firmness and persuasion. Racksole managed this
+very neatly. It was a complicated job, and his success in it rather
+pleased him.
+
+At the same time he was conscious of being temporarily worsted by an
+unknown group of schemers, in which he felt convinced that Jules was an
+important item. He could scarcely look Nella in the eyes. The girl had
+evidently expected him to unmask this conspiracy at once, with a single
+stroke of the millionaire’s magic wand. She was thoroughly accustomed,
+in the land of her birth, to seeing him achieve impossible feats. Over
+there he was a ‘boss’; men trembled before his name; when he wished a
+thing to happen--well, it happened; if he desired to know a thing, he
+just knew it. But here, in London, Theodore Racksole was not quite the
+same Theodore Racksole. He dominated New York; but London, for the most
+part, seemed not to take much interest in him; and there were certainly
+various persons in London who were capable of snapping their fingers at
+him--at Theodore Racksole. Neither he nor his daughter could get used to
+that fact.
+
+As for Nella, she concerned herself for a little with the ordinary
+business of the bureau, and watched the incomings and outgoings of
+Prince Aribert with a kindly interest. She perceived, what her father
+had failed to perceive, that His Highness had assumed an attitude of
+reserve merely to hide the secret distraction and dismay which consumed
+him. She saw that the poor fellow had no settled plan in his head, and
+that he was troubled by something which, so far, he had confided to
+nobody. It came to her knowledge that each morning he walked to and fro
+on the Victoria Embankment, alone, and apparently with no object. On the
+third morning she decided that driving exercise on the Embankment would
+be good for her health, and thereupon ordered a carriage and issued
+forth, arrayed in a miraculous putty-coloured gown. Near Blackfriars
+Bridge she met the Prince, and the carriage was drawn up by the
+pavement.
+
+‘Good morning, Prince,’ she greeted him. ‘Are you mistaking this for
+Hyde Park?’
+
+He bowed and smiled.
+
+‘I usually walk here in the mornings,’ he said.
+
+‘You surprise me,’ she returned. ‘I thought I was the only person in
+London who preferred the Embankment, with this view of the river, to the
+dustiness of Hyde Park. I can’t imagine how it is that London will never
+take exercise anywhere except in that ridiculous Park. Now, if they had
+Central Park--’
+
+‘I think the Embankment is the finest spot in all London,’ he said.
+
+She leaned a little out of the landau, bringing her face nearer to his.
+
+‘I do believe we are kindred spirits, you and I,’ she murmured; and
+then, ‘Au revoir, Prince!’
+
+‘One moment, Miss Racksole.’ His quick tones had a note of entreaty.
+
+‘I am in a hurry,’ she fibbed; ‘I am not merely taking exercise this
+morning. You have no idea how busy we are.’
+
+‘Ah! then I will not trouble you. But I leave the Grand Babylon to-
+night.’
+
+‘Do you?’ she said. ‘Then will your Highness do me the honour of
+lunching with me today in Father’s room? Father will be out--he is
+having a day in the City with some stockbroking persons.’
+
+‘I shall be charmed,’ said the Prince, and his face showed that he meant
+it.
+
+Nella drove off.
+
+If the lunch was a success that result was due partly to Rocco, and
+partly to Nella. The Prince said little beyond what the ordinary rules
+of the conversational game demanded. His hostess talked much and talked
+well, but she failed to rouse her guest. When they had had coffee he
+took a rather formal leave of her.
+
+‘Good-bye, Prince,’ she said, ‘but I thought--that is, no I didn’t.
+
+Good-bye.’
+
+‘You thought I wished to discuss something with you. I did; but I have
+decided that I have no right to burden your mind with my affairs.’
+
+‘But suppose--suppose I wish to be burdened?’
+
+‘That is your good nature.’
+
+‘Sit down,’ she said abruptly, ‘and tell me everything; mind,
+everything. I adore secrets.’
+
+Almost before he knew it he was talking to her, rapidly, eagerly.
+
+‘Why should I weary you with my confidences?’ he said. ‘I don’t know, I
+cannot tell; but I feel that I must. I feel that you will understand me
+better than anyone else in the world. And yet why should you understand
+me? Again, I don’t know. Miss Racksole, I will disclose to you the whole
+trouble in a word. Prince Eugen, the hereditary Grand Duke of Posen, has
+disappeared. Four days ago I was to have met him at Ostend. He had
+affairs in London. He wished me to come with him. I sent Dimmock on in
+front, and waited for Eugen. He did not arrive. I telegraphed back to
+Cologne, his last stopping-place, and I learned that he had left there
+in accordance with his programme; I learned also that he had passed
+through Brussels. It must have been between Brussels and the railway
+station at Ostend Quay that he disappeared. He was travelling with a
+single equerry, and the equerry, too, has vanished. I need not explain
+to you, Miss Racksole, that when a person of the importance of my nephew
+contrives to get lost one must proceed cautiously. One cannot advertise
+for him in the London Times. Such a disappearance must be kept secret.
+The people at Posen and at Berlin believe that Eugen is in London, here,
+at this hotel; or, rather, they did so believe. But this morning I
+received a cypher telegram from--from His Majesty the Emperor, a very
+peculiar telegram, asking when Eugen might be expected to return to
+Posen, and requesting that he should go first to Berlin. That telegram
+was addressed to myself. Now, if the Emperor thought that Eugen was
+here, why should he have caused the telegram to be addressed to me? I
+have hesitated for three days, but I can hesitate no longer. I must
+myself go to the Emperor and acquaint him with the facts.’
+
+‘I suppose you’ve just got to keep straight with him?’ Nella was on the
+point of saying, but she checked herself and substituted, ‘The Emperor
+is your chief, is he not? “First among equals”, you call him.’
+
+‘His Majesty is our over-lord,’ said Aribert quietly.
+
+‘Why do you not take immediate steps to inquire as to the whereabouts of
+your Royal nephew?’ she asked simply. The affair seemed to her just then
+so plain and straightforward.
+
+‘Because one of two things may have happened. Either Eugen may have
+been, in plain language, abducted, or he may have had his own reasons
+for changing his programme and keeping in the background--out of reach
+of telegraph and post and railways.’
+
+‘What sort of reasons?’
+
+‘Do not ask me. In the history of every family there are passages--’ He
+stopped.
+
+‘And what was Prince Eugen’s object in coming to London?’
+
+Aribert hesitated.
+
+‘Money,’ he said at length. ‘As a family we are very poor--poorer than
+anyone in Berlin suspects.’
+
+‘Prince Aribert,’ Nella said, ‘shall I tell you what I think?’ She
+leaned back in her chair, and looked at him out of half-closed eyes. His
+pale, thin, distinguished face held her gaze as if by some fascination.
+There could be no mistaking this man for anything else but a Prince.
+
+‘If you will,’ he said.
+
+‘Prince Eugen is the victim of a plot.’
+
+‘You think so?’
+
+‘I am perfectly convinced of it.’
+
+‘But why? What can be the object of a plot against him?’
+
+‘That is a point of which you should know more than me,’ she remarked
+drily.
+
+‘Ah! Perhaps, perhaps,’ he said. ‘But, dear Miss Racksole, why are you
+so sure?’
+
+‘There are several reasons, and they are connected with Mr Dimmock. Did
+you ever suspect, your Highness, that that poor young man was not
+entirely loyal to you?’
+
+‘He was absolutely loyal,’ said the Prince, with all the earnestness of
+conviction.
+
+‘A thousand pardons, but he was not.’
+
+‘Miss Racksole, if any other than yourself made that assertion, I would-
+-I would--’
+
+‘Consign them to the deepest dungeon in Posen?’ she laughed, lightly.
+
+‘Listen.’ And she told him of the incidents which had occurred in the
+night preceding his arrival in the hotel.
+
+‘Do you mean, Miss Racksole, that there was an understanding between
+poor Dimmock and this fellow Jules?’
+
+‘There was an understanding.’
+
+‘Impossible!’
+
+‘Your Highness, the man who wishes to probe a mystery to its root never
+uses the word “impossible”. But I will say this for young Mr Dimmock. I
+think he repented, and I think that it was because he repented that he--
+er--died so suddenly, and that his body was spirited away.’
+
+‘Why has no one told me these things before?’ Aribert exclaimed.
+
+‘Princes seldom hear the truth,’ she said.
+
+He was astonished at her coolness, her firmness of assertion, her air of
+complete acquaintance with the world.
+
+‘Miss Racksole,’ he said, ‘if you will permit me to say it, I have never
+in my life met a woman like you. May I rely on your sympathy--your
+support?’
+
+‘My support, Prince? But how?’
+
+‘I do not know,’ he replied. ‘But you could help me if you would. A
+woman, when she has brain, always has more brain than a man.’
+
+‘Ah!’ she said ruefully, ‘I have no brains, but I do believe I could
+help you.’
+
+What prompted her to make that assertion she could not have explained,
+even to herself. But she made it, and she had a suspicion--a prescience-
+-that it would be justified, though by what means, through what good
+fortune, was still a mystery to her.
+
+‘Go to Berlin,’ she said. ‘I see that you must do that; you have no
+alternative. As for the rest, we shall see. Something will occur. I
+shall be here. My father will be here. You must count us as your
+friends.’
+
+He kissed her hand when he left, and afterwards, when she was alone, she
+kissed the spot his lips had touched again and again. Now, thinking the
+matter out in the calmness of solitude, all seemed strange, unreal,
+uncertain to her. Were conspiracies actually possible nowadays? Did
+queer things actually happen in Europe? And did they actually happen in
+London hotels? She dined with her father that night.
+
+‘I hear Prince Aribert has left,’ said Theodore Racksole.
+
+‘Yes,’ she assented. She said not a word about their interview.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eight ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS
+
+ON the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied by a
+maid and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the Grand Babylon
+Hôtel. She was a plump, little old lady, with white hair and an old-
+fashioned bonnet, and she had a quaint, simple smile of surprise at
+everything in general.
+
+Nevertheless, she gave the impression of belonging to some aristocracy,
+though not the English aristocracy. Her tone to her maid, whom she
+addressed in broken English--the girl being apparently English--was
+distinctly insolent, with the calm, unconscious insolence peculiar to a
+certain type of Continental nobility. The name on the lady’s card ran
+thus: ‘Baroness Zerlinski’. She desired rooms on the third floor. It
+happened that Nella was in the bureau.
+
+‘On the third floor, madam?’ questioned Nella, in her best clerkly
+manner.
+
+‘I did say on de tird floor,’ said the plump little old lady.
+
+‘We have accommodation on the second floor.’
+
+‘I wish to be high up, out of de dust and in de light,’ explained the
+Baroness.
+
+‘We have no suites on the third floor, madam.’
+
+‘Never mind, no mattaire! Have you not two rooms that communicate?’
+
+Nella consulted her books, rather awkwardly.
+
+‘Numbers 122 and 123 communicate.’
+
+‘Or is it 121 and 122?’ the little old lady remarked quickly, and then
+bit her lip.
+
+‘I beg your pardon. I should have said 121 and 122.’
+
+At the moment Nella regarded the Baroness’s correction of her figures as
+a curious chance, but afterwards, when the Baroness had ascended in the
+lift, the thing struck her as somewhat strange. Perhaps the Baroness
+Zerlinski had stayed at the hotel before. For the sake of convenience an
+index of visitors to the hotel was kept and the index extended back for
+thirty years. Nella examined it, but it did not contain the name of
+Zerlinski. Then it was that Nella began to imagine, what had swiftly
+crossed her mind when first the Baroness presented herself at the
+bureau, that the features of the Baroness were remotely familiar to her.
+She thought, not that she had seen the old lady’s face before, but that
+she had seen somewhere, some time, a face of a similar cast. It occurred
+to Nella to look at the ‘Almanach de Gotha’--that record of all the
+mazes of Continental blue blood; but the ‘Almanach de Gotha’ made no
+reference to any barony of Zerlinski. Nella inquired where the Baroness
+meant to take lunch, and was informed that a table had been reserved for
+her in the dining-room, and she at once decided to lunch in the dining-
+room herself. Seated in a corner, half-hidden by a pillar, she could
+survey all the guests, and watch each group as it entered or left.
+Presently the Baroness appeared, dressed in black, with a tiny lace
+shawl, despite the June warmth; very stately, very quaint, and gently
+smiling. Nella observed her intently. The lady ate heartily, working
+without haste and without delay through the elaborate menu of the
+luncheon. Nella noticed that she had beautiful white teeth. Then a
+remarkable thing happened. A cream puff was served to the Baroness by
+way of sweets, and Nella was astonished to see the little lady remove
+the top, and with a spoon quietly take something from the interior which
+looked like a piece of folded paper. No one who had not been watching
+with the eye of a lynx would have noticed anything extraordinary in the
+action; indeed, the chances were nine hundred and ninety-nine to one
+that it would pass unheeded. But, unfortunately for the Baroness, it was
+the thousandth chance that happened. Nella jumped up, and walking over
+to the Baroness, said to her:
+
+‘I’m afraid that the tart is not quite nice, your ladyship.’
+
+‘Thanks, it is delightful,’ said the Baroness coldly; her smile had
+vanished. ‘Who are you? I thought you were de bureau clerk.’
+
+‘My father is the owner of this hotel. I thought there was something in
+the tart which ought not to have been there.’
+
+Nella looked the Baroness full in the face. The piece of folded paper,
+to which a little cream had attached itself, lay under the edge of a
+plate.
+
+‘No, thanks.’ The Baroness smiled her simple smile.
+
+Nella departed. She had noticed one trifling thing besides the paper--
+namely, that the Baroness could pronounce the English ‘th’ sound if she
+chose.
+
+That afternoon, in her own room, Nella sat meditating at the window for
+long time, and then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes brightening.
+
+‘I know,’ she exclaimed, clapping her hands. ‘It’s Miss Spencer,
+disguised!
+
+Why didn’t I think of that before?’ Her thoughts ran instantly to Prince
+Aribert. ‘Perhaps I can help him,’ she said to herself, and gave a
+little sigh. She went down to the office and inquired whether the
+Baroness had given any instructions about dinner. She felt that some
+plan must be formulated. She wanted to get hold of Rocco, and put him in
+the rack. She knew now that Rocco, the unequalled, was also concerned in
+this mysterious affair.
+
+‘The Baroness Zerlinski has left, about a quarter of an hour ago,’ said
+the attendant.
+
+‘But she only arrived this morning.’
+
+‘The Baroness’s maid said that her mistress had received a telegram and
+must leave at once. The Baroness paid the bill, and went away in a four-
+wheeler.’
+
+‘Where to?’
+
+‘The trunks were labelled for Ostend.’
+
+Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was the mere spirit of adventure;
+but that evening Nella was to be seen of all men on the steamer for
+Ostend which leaves Dover at 11 p.m. She told no one of her intentions--
+not even her father, who was not in the hotel when she left. She had
+scribbled a brief note to him to expect her back in a day or two, and
+had posted this at Dover. The steamer was the Marie Henriette, a large
+and luxurious boat, whose state-rooms on deck vie with the glories of
+the Cunard and White Star liners. One of these state-rooms, the best,
+was evidently occupied, for every curtain of its windows was carefully
+drawn. Nella did not hope that the Baroness was on board; it was quite
+possible for the Baroness to have caught the eight o’clock steamer, and
+it was also possible for the Baroness not to have gone to Ostend at all,
+but to some other place in an entirely different direction.
+Nevertheless, Nella had a faint hope that the lady who called herself
+Zerlinski might be in that curtained stateroom, and throughout the
+smooth moonlit voyage she never once relaxed her observation of its
+doors and its windows.
+
+The Maria Henriette arrived in Ostend Harbour punctually at 2 a.m. in
+the morning. There was the usual heterogeneous, gesticulating crowd on
+the quay.
+
+Nella kept her post near the door of the state-room, and at length she
+was rewarded by seeing it open. Four middle-aged Englishmen issued from
+it. From a glimpse of the interior Nella saw that they had spent the
+voyage in card-playing.
+
+It would not be too much to say that she was distinctly annoyed. She
+pretended to be annoyed with circumstances, but really she was annoyed
+with Nella Racksole. At two in the morning, without luggage, without any
+companionship, and without a plan of campaign, she found herself in a
+strange foreign port--a port of evil repute, possessing some of the
+worst-managed hotels in Europe. She strolled on the quay for a few
+minutes, and then she saw the smoke of another steamer in the offing.
+She inquired from an official what that steamer might be, and was told
+that it was the eight o’clock from Dover, which had broken down, put
+into Calais for some slight necessary repairs, and was arriving at its
+destination nearly four hours late. Her mercurial spirits rose again. A
+minute ago she was regarding herself as no better than a ninny engaged
+in a wild-goose chase. Now she felt that after all she had been very
+sagacious and cunning. She was morally sure that she would find the
+Zerlinski woman on this second steamer, and she took all the credit to
+herself in advance. Such is human nature.
+
+The steamer seemed interminably slow in coming into harbour. Nella
+walked on the Digue for a few minutes to watch it the better. The town
+was silent and almost deserted. It had a false and sinister aspect. She
+remembered tales which she had heard of this glittering resort, which in
+the season holds more scoundrels than any place in Europe, save only
+Monte Carlo. She remembered that the gilded adventurers of every nation
+under the sun forgathered there either for business or pleasure, and
+that some of the most wonderful crimes of the latter half of the century
+had been schemed and matured in that haunt of cosmopolitan iniquity.
+
+When the second steamer arrived Nella stood at the end of the gangway,
+close to the ticket-collector. The first person to step on shore was--
+not the Baroness Zerlinski, but Miss Spencer herself! Nella turned aside
+instantly, hiding her face, and Miss Spencer, carrying a small bag,
+hurried with assured footsteps to the Custom House. It seemed as if she
+knew the port of Ostend fairly well. The moon shone like day, and Nella
+had full opportunity to observe her quarry. She could see now quite
+plainly that the Baroness Zerlinski had been only Miss Spencer in
+disguise. There was the same gait, the same movement of the head and of
+the hips; the white hair was easily to be accounted for by a wig, and
+the wrinkles by a paint brush and some grease paints. Miss Spencer,
+whose hair was now its old accustomed yellow, got through the Custom
+House without difficulty, and Nella saw her call a closed carriage and
+say something to the driver. The vehicle drove off. Nella jumped into
+the next carriage--an open one--that came up.
+
+‘Follow that carriage,’ she said succinctly to the driver in French.
+
+‘Bien, madame!’ The driver whipped up his horse, and the animal shot
+forward with a terrific clatter over the cobbles. It appeared that this
+driver was quite accustomed to following other carriages.
+
+‘Now I am fairly in for it!’ said Nella to herself. She laughed
+unsteadily, but her heart was beating with an extraordinary thump.
+
+For some time the pursued vehicle kept well in front. It crossed the
+town nearly from end to end, and plunged into a maze of small streets
+far on the south side of the Kursaal. Then gradually Nella’s equipage
+began to overtake it. The first carriage stopped with a jerk before a
+tall dark house, and Miss Spencer emerged. Nella called to her driver to
+stop, but he, determined to be in at the death, was engaged in whipping
+his horse, and he completely ignored her commands. He drew up
+triumphantly at the tall dark house just at the moment when Miss Spencer
+disappeared into it. The other carriage drove away. Nella, uncertain
+what to do, stepped down from her carriage and gave the driver some
+money. At the same moment a man reopened the door of the house, which
+had closed on Miss Spencer.
+
+‘I want to see Miss Spencer,’ said Nella impulsively. She couldn’t think
+of anything else to say.
+
+‘Miss Spencer?’
+
+‘Yes; she’s just arrived.’
+
+‘It’s O.K., I suppose,’ said the man.
+
+‘I guess so,’ said Nella, and she walked past him into the house. She
+was astonished at her own audacity.
+
+Miss Spencer was just going into a room off the narrow hall. Nella
+followed her into the apartment, which was shabbily furnished in the
+Belgian lodging-house style.
+
+‘Well, Miss Spencer,’ she greeted the former Baroness Zerlinski, ‘I
+guess you didn’t expect to see me. You left our hotel very suddenly this
+afternoon, and you left it very suddenly a few days ago; and so I’ve
+just called to make a few inquiries.’
+
+To do the lady justice, Miss Spencer bore the surprising ordeal very
+well.
+
+She did not flinch; she betrayed no emotion. The sole sign of
+perturbation was in her hurried breathing.
+
+‘You have ceased to be the Baroness Zerlinski,’ Nella continued. ‘May I
+sit down?’
+
+‘Certainly, sit down,’ said Miss Spencer, copying the girl’s tone. ‘You
+are a fairly smart young woman, that I will say. What do you want?
+Weren’t my books all straight?’
+
+‘Your books were all straight. I haven’t come about your books. I have
+come about the murder of Reginald Dimmock, the disappearance of his
+corpse, and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen. I thought you
+might be able to help me in some investigations which I am making.’
+
+Miss Spencer’s eyes gleamed, and she stood up and moved swiftly to the
+mantelpiece.
+
+‘You may be a Yankee, but you’re a fool,’ she said.
+
+She took hold of the bell-rope.
+
+‘Don’t ring that bell if you value your life,’ said Nella.
+
+‘If what?’ Miss Spencer remarked.
+
+‘If you value your life,’ said Nella calmly, and with the words she
+pulled from her pocket a very neat and dainty little revolver.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nine TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER
+
+‘YOU--you’re only doing that to frighten me,’ stammered Miss Spencer, in
+a low, quavering voice.
+
+‘Am I?’ Nella replied, as firmly as she could, though her hand shook
+violently with excitement, could Miss Spencer but have observed it. ‘Am
+I? You said just now that I might be a Yankee girl, but I was a fool.
+Well, I am a Yankee girl, as you call it; and in my country, if they
+don’t teach revolver-shooting in boarding-schools, there are at least a
+lot of girls who can handle a revolver. I happen to be one of them. I
+tell you that if you ring that bell you will suffer.’
+
+Most of this was simple bluff on Nella’s part, and she trembled lest
+Miss Spencer should perceive that it was simple bluff. Happily for her,
+Miss Spencer belonged to that order of women who have every sort of
+courage except physical courage. Miss Spencer could have withstood
+successfully any moral trial, but persuade her that her skin was in
+danger, and she would succumb. Nella at once divined this useful fact,
+and proceeded accordingly, hiding the strangeness of her own sensations
+as well as she could.
+
+‘You had better sit down now,’ said Nella, ‘and I will ask you a few
+questions.’
+
+And Miss Spencer obediently sat down, rather white, and trying to screw
+her lips into a formal smile.
+
+‘Why did you leave the Grand Babylon that night?’ Nella began her
+examination, putting on a stern, barrister-like expression.
+
+‘I had orders to, Miss Racksole.’
+
+‘Whose orders?’
+
+‘Well, I’m--I’m--the fact is, I’m a married woman, and it was my
+husband’s orders.’
+
+‘Who is your husband?’
+
+‘Tom Jackson--Jules, you know, head waiter at the Grand Babylon.’
+
+‘So Jules’s real name is Tom Jackson? Why did he want you to leave
+without giving notice?’
+
+‘I’m sure I don’t know, Miss Racksole. I swear I don’t know. He’s my
+husband, and, of course, I do what he tells me, as you will some day do
+what your husband tells you. Please heaven you’ll get a better husband
+than mine!’
+
+Miss Spencer showed a sign of tears.
+
+Nella fingered the revolver, and put it at full cock. ‘Well,’ she
+repeated, ‘why did he want you to leave?’ She was tremendously surprised
+at her own coolness, and somewhat pleased with it, too.
+
+‘I can’t tell you, I can’t tell you.’
+
+‘You’ve just got to,’ Nella said, in a terrible, remorseless tone.
+
+‘He--he wished me to come over here to Ostend. Something had gone wrong.
+
+Oh! he’s a fearful man, is Tom. If I told you, he’d--’
+
+‘Had something gone wrong in the hotel, or over here?’
+
+‘Both.’
+
+‘Was it about Prince Eugen of Posen?’
+
+‘I don’t know--that is, yes, I think so.’
+
+‘What has your husband to do with Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘I believe he has some--some sort of business with him, some money
+business.’
+
+‘And was Mr Dimmock in this business?’
+
+‘I fancy so, Miss Racksole. I’m telling you all I know, that I swear.’
+
+‘Did your husband and Mr Dimmock have a quarrel that night in Room 111?’
+
+‘They had some difficulty.’
+
+‘And the result of that was that you came to Ostend instantly?’
+
+‘Yes; I suppose so.’
+
+‘And what were you to do in Ostend? What were your instructions from
+this husband of yours?’
+
+Miss Spencer’s head dropped on her arms on the table which separated her
+from Nella, and she appeared to sob violently.
+
+‘Have pity on me,’ she murmured, ‘I can’t tell you any more.’
+
+‘Why?’
+
+‘He’d kill me if he knew.’
+
+‘You’re wandering from the subject,’ observed Nella coldly. ‘This is the
+last time I shall warn you. Let me tell you plainly I’ve got the best
+reasons for being desperate, and if anything happens to you I shall say
+I did it in self-defence. Now, what were you to do in Ostend?’
+
+‘I shall die for this anyhow,’ whined Miss Spencer, and then, with a
+sort of fierce despair, ‘I had to keep watch on Prince Eugen.’
+
+‘Where? In this house?’
+
+Miss Spencer nodded, and, looking up, Nella could see the traces of
+tears in her face.
+
+‘Then Prince Eugen was a prisoner? Some one had captured him at the
+instigation of Jules?’
+
+‘Yes, if you must have it.’
+
+‘Why was it necessary for you specially to come to Ostend?’
+
+‘Oh! Tom trusts me. You see, I know Ostend. Before I took that place at
+the Grand Babylon I had travelled over Europe, and Tom knew that I knew
+a thing or two.’
+
+‘Why did you take the place at the Grand Babylon?’
+
+‘Because Tom told me to. He said I should be useful to him there.’
+
+‘Is your husband an Anarchist, or something of that kind, Miss Spencer?’
+
+‘I don’t know. I’d tell you in a minute if I knew. But he’s one of those
+that keep themselves to themselves.’
+
+‘Do you know if he has ever committed a murder?’
+
+‘Never!’ said Miss Spencer, with righteous repudiation of the mere idea.
+
+‘But Mr Dimmock was murdered. He was poisoned. If he had not been
+poisoned why was his body stolen? It must have been stolen to prevent
+inquiry, to hide traces. Tell me about that.’
+
+‘I take my dying oath,’ said Miss Spencer, standing up a little way from
+the table, ‘I take my dying oath I didn’t know Mr Dimmock was dead till
+I saw it in the newspaper.’
+
+‘You swear you had no suspicion of it?’
+
+‘I swear I hadn’t.’
+
+Nella was inclined to believe the statement. The woman and the girl
+looked at each other in the tawdry, frowsy, lamp-lit room. Miss Spencer
+nervously patted her yellow hair into shape, as if gradually recovering
+her composure and equanimity. The whole affair seemed like a dream to
+Nella, a disturbing, sinister nightmare. She was a little uncertain what
+to say. She felt that she had not yet got hold of any very definite
+information. ‘Where is Prince Eugen now?’ she asked at length.
+
+‘I don’t know, miss.’
+
+‘He isn’t in this house?’
+
+‘No, miss.’
+
+‘Ah! We will see presently.’
+
+‘They took him away, Miss Racksole.’
+
+‘Who took him away? Some of your husband’s friends?’
+
+‘Some of his--acquaintances.’
+
+‘Then there is a gang of you?’
+
+‘A gang of us--a gang! I don’t know what you mean,’ Miss Spencer
+quavered.
+
+‘Oh, but you must know,’ smiled Nella calmly. ‘You can’t possibly be so
+innocent as all that, Mrs Tom Jackson. You can’t play games with me.
+You’ve just got to remember that I’m what you call a Yankee girl.
+There’s one thing that I mean to find out, within the next five minutes,
+and that is--how your charming husband kidnapped Prince Eugen, and why
+he kidnapped him. Let us begin with the second question. You have evaded
+it once.’
+
+Miss Spencer looked into Nella’s face, and then her eyes dropped, and
+her fingers worked nervously with the tablecloth.
+
+‘How can I tell you,’ she said, ‘when I don’t know? You’ve got the whip-
+hand of me, and you’re tormenting me for your own pleasure.’ She wore an
+expression of persecuted innocence.
+
+‘Did Mr Tom Jackson want to get some money out of Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘Money! Not he! Tom’s never short of money.’
+
+‘But I mean a lot of money--tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?’
+
+‘Tom never wanted money from anyone,’ said Miss Spencer doggedly.
+
+‘Then had he some reason for wishing to prevent Prince Eugen from coming
+to London?’
+
+‘Perhaps he had. I don’t know. If you kill me, I don’t know.’ Nella
+stopped to reflect. Then she raised the revolver. It was a mechanical,
+unintentional sort of action, and certainly she had no intention of
+using the weapon, but, strange to say, Miss Spencer again cowered before
+it. Even at that moment Nella wondered that a woman like Miss Spencer
+could be so simple as to think the revolver would actually be used.
+Having absolutely no physical cowardice herself, Nella had the greatest
+difficulty in imagining that other people could be at the mercy of a
+bodily fear. Still, she saw her advantage, and used it relentlessly, and
+with as much theatrical gesture as she could command. She raised the
+revolver till it was level with Miss Spencer’s face, and suddenly a new,
+queer feeling took hold of her. She knew that she would indeed use that
+revolver now, if the miserable woman before her drove her too far. She
+felt afraid--afraid of herself; she was in the grasp of a savage,
+primeval instinct. In a flash she saw Miss Spencer dead at her feet--the
+police--a court of justice--the scaffold. It was horrible.
+
+‘Speak,’ she said hoarsely, and Miss Spencer’s face went whiter.
+
+‘Tom did say,’ the woman whispered rapidly, awesomely, ‘that if Prince
+Eugen got to London it would upset his scheme.’
+
+‘What scheme? What scheme? Answer me.’
+
+‘Heaven help me, I don’t know.’ Miss Spencer sank into a chair. ‘He said
+Mr Dimmock had turned tail, and he should have to settle him and then
+Rocco--’
+
+‘Rocco! What about Rocco?’ Nella could scarcely hear herself. Her grip
+of the revolver tightened.
+
+Miss Spencer’s eyes opened wider; she gazed at Nella with a glassy
+stare.
+
+‘Don’t ask me. It’s death!’ Her eyes were fixed as if in horror.
+
+‘It is,’ said Nella, and the sound of her voice seemed to her to issue
+from the lips of some third person.
+
+‘It’s death,’ repeated Miss Spencer, and gradually her head and
+shoulders sank back, and hung loosely over the chair. Nella was
+conscious of a sudden revulsion. The woman had surely fainted. Dropping
+the revolver she ran round the table. She was herself again--feminine,
+sympathetic, the old Nella. She felt immensely relieved that this had
+happened. But at the same instant Miss Spencer sprang up from the chair
+like a cat, seized the revolver, and with a wild movement of the arm
+flung it against the window. It crashed through the glass, exploding as
+it went, and there was a tense silence.
+
+‘I told you that you were a fool,’ remarked Miss Spencer slowly, ‘coming
+here like a sort of female Jack Sheppard, and trying to get the best of
+me.
+
+We are on equal terms now. You frightened me, but I knew I was a
+cleverer woman than you, and that in the end, if I kept on long enough,
+I should win.
+
+Now it will be my turn.’
+
+Dumbfounded, and overcome with a miserable sense of the truth of Miss
+Spencer’s words, Nella stood still. The idea of her colossal foolishness
+swept through her like a flood. She felt almost ashamed. But even at
+this juncture she had no fear. She faced the woman bravely, her mind
+leaping about in search of some plan. She could think of nothing but a
+bribe--an enormous bribe.
+
+‘I admit you’ve won,’ she said, ‘but I’ve not finished yet. Just
+listen.’
+
+Miss Spencer folded her arms, and glanced at the door, smiling bitterly.
+
+‘You know my father is a millionaire; perhaps you know that he is one of
+the richest men in the world. If I give you my word of honour not to
+reveal anything that you’ve told me, what will you take to let me go
+free?’
+
+‘What sum do you suggest?’ asked Miss Spencer carelessly.
+
+‘Twenty thousand pounds,’ said Nella promptly. She had begun to regard
+the affair as a business operation.
+
+Miss Spencer’s lip curled.
+
+‘A hundred thousand.’
+
+Again Miss Spencer’s lip curled.
+
+‘Well, say a million. I can rely on my father, and so may you.’
+
+‘You think you are worth a million to him?’
+
+‘I do,’ said Nella.
+
+‘And you think we could trust you to see that it was paid?’
+
+‘Of course you could.’
+
+‘And we should not suffer afterwards in any way?’
+
+‘I would give you my word, and my father’s word.’
+
+‘Bah!’ exclaimed Miss Spencer: ‘how do you know I wouldn’t let you go
+free for nothing? You are only a rash, silly girl.’
+
+‘I know you wouldn’t. I can read your face too well.’
+
+‘You are right,’ Miss Spencer replied slowly. ‘I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t
+let you go for all the dollars in America.’
+
+Nella felt cold down the spine, and sat down again in her chair. A
+draught of air from the broken window blew on her cheek. Steps sounded
+in the passage; the door opened, but Nella did not turn round. She could
+not move her eyes from Miss Spencer’s. There was a noise of rushing
+water in her ears. She lost consciousness, and slipped limply to the
+ground.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Ten AT SEA
+
+IT seemed to Nella that she was being rocked gently in a vast cradle,
+which swayed to and fro with a motion at once slow and incredibly
+gentle. This sensation continued for some time, and there was added to
+it the sound of a quick, quiet, muffled beat. Soft, exhilarating breezes
+wafted her forward in spite of herself, and yet she remained in a
+delicious calm. She wondered if her mother was kneeling by her side,
+whispering some lullaby in her childish ears. Then strange colours swam
+before her eyes, her eyelids wavered, and at last she awoke. For a few
+moments her gaze travelled to and fro in a vain search for some clue to
+her surroundings, was aware of nothing except sense of repose and a
+feeling of relief that some mighty and fatal struggle was over; she
+cared not whether she had conquered or suffered defeat in the struggle
+of her soul with some other soul; it was finished, done with, and the
+consciousness of its conclusion satisfied and contented her. Gradually
+her brain, recovering from its obsession, began to grasp the phenomena
+of her surroundings, and she saw that she was on a yacht, and that the
+yacht was moving. The motion of the cradle was the smooth rolling of the
+vessel; the beat was the beat of its screw; the strange colours were the
+cloud tints thrown by the sun as it rose over a distant and receding
+shore in the wake of the yacht; her mother’s lullaby was the crooned
+song of the man at the wheel. Nella all through her life had had many
+experiences of yachting. From the waters of the River Hudson to those
+bluer tides of the Mediterranean Sea, she had yachted in all seasons and
+all weathers. She loved the water, and now it seemed deliciously right
+and proper that she should be on the water again. She raised her head to
+look round, and then let it sink back: she was fatigued, enervated; she
+desired only solitude and calm; she had no care, no anxiety, no
+responsibility: a hundred years might have passed since her meeting with
+Miss Spencer, and the memory of that meeting appeared to have faded into
+the remotest background of her mind.
+
+It was a small yacht, and her practised eye at once told that it
+belonged to the highest aristocracy of pleasure craft. As she reclined
+in the deck-chair (it did not occur to her at that moment to speculate
+as to the identity of the person who had led her therein) she examined
+all visible details of the vessel. The deck was as white and smooth as
+her own hand, and the seams ran along its length like blue veins. All
+the brass-work, from the band round the slender funnel to the concave
+surface of the binnacle, shone like gold.
+
+The tapered masts stretched upwards at a rakish angle, and the rigging
+seemed like spun silk. No sails were set; the yacht was under steam, and
+doing about seven or eight knots. She judged that it was a boat of a
+hundred tons or so, probably Clyde-built, and not more than two or three
+years old.
+
+No one was to be seen on deck except the man at the wheel: this man wore
+a blue jersey; but there was neither name nor initial on the jersey, nor
+was there a name on the white life-buoys lashed to the main rigging, nor
+on the polished dinghy which hung on the starboard davits. She called to
+the man, and called again, in a feeble voice, but the steerer took no
+notice of her, and continued his quiet song as though nothing else
+existed in the universe save the yacht, the sea, the sun, and himself.
+
+Then her eyes swept the outline of the land from which they were
+hastening, and she could just distinguish a lighthouse and a great white
+irregular dome, which she recognized as the Kursaal at Ostend, that
+gorgeous rival of the gaming palace at Monte Carlo. So she was leaving
+Ostend. The rays of the sun fell on her caressingly, like a restorative.
+All around the water was changing from wonderful greys and dark blues to
+still more wonderful pinks and translucent unearthly greens; the magic
+kaleidoscope of dawn was going forward in its accustomed way, regardless
+of the vicissitudes of mortals.
+
+Here and there in the distance she descried a sail--the brown sail of
+some Ostend fishing-boat returning home after a night’s trawling. Then
+the beat of paddles caught her ear, and a steamer blundered past,
+wallowing clumsily among the waves like a tortoise. It was the Swallow
+from London. She could see some of its passengers leaning curiously over
+the aft-rail. A girl in a mackintosh signalled to her, and mechanically
+she answered the salute with her arm. The officer of the bridge of the
+Swallow hailed the yacht, but the man at the wheel offered no reply. In
+another minute the Swallow was nothing but a blot in the distance.
+
+Nella tried to sit straight in the deck-chair, but she found herself
+unable to do so. Throwing off the rug which covered her, she discovered
+that she had been tied to the chair by means of a piece of broad
+webbing. Instantly she was alert, awake, angry; she knew that her perils
+were not over; she felt that possibly they had scarcely yet begun. Her
+lazy contentment, her dreamy sense of peace and repose, vanished
+utterly, and she steeled herself to meet the dangers of a grave and
+difficult situation.
+
+Just at that moment a man came up from below. He was a man of forty or
+so, clad in irreproachable blue, with a peaked yachting cap. He raised
+the cap politely.
+
+‘Good morning,’ he said. ‘Beautiful sunrise, isn’t it?’ The clever and
+calculated insolence of his tone cut her like a lash as she lay bound in
+the chair. Like all people who have lived easy and joyous lives in those
+fair regions where gold smoothes every crease and law keeps a tight hand
+on disorder, she found it hard to realize that there were other regions
+where gold was useless and law without power. Twenty-four hours ago she
+would have declared it impossible that such an experience as she had
+suffered could happen to anyone; she would have talked airily about
+civilization and the nineteenth century, and progress and the police.
+But her experience was teaching her that human nature remains always the
+same, and that beneath the thin crust of security on which we good
+citizens exist the dark and secret forces of crime continue to move,
+just as they did in the days when you couldn’t go from Cheapside to
+Chelsea without being set upon by thieves. Her experience was in a fair
+way to teach her this lesson better than she could have learnt it even
+in the bureaux of the detective police of Paris, London, and St
+Petersburg.
+
+‘Good morning,’ the man repeated, and she glanced at him with a sullen,
+angry gaze.
+
+‘You!’ she exclaimed, ‘You, Mr Thomas Jackson, if that is your name!
+Loose me from this chair, and I will talk to you.’ Her eyes flashed as
+she spoke, and the contempt in them added mightily to her beauty. Mr
+Thomas Jackson, otherwise Jules, erstwhile head waiter at the Grand
+Babylon, considered himself a connoisseur in feminine loveliness, and
+the vision of Nella Racksole smote him like an exquisite blow.
+
+‘With pleasure,’ he replied. ‘I had forgotten that to prevent you from
+falling I had secured you to the chair’; and with a quick movement he
+unfastened the band. Nella stood up, quivering with fiery annoyance and
+scorn.
+
+‘Now,’ she said, fronting him, ‘what is the meaning of this?’
+
+‘You fainted,’ he replied imperturbably. ‘Perhaps you don’t remember.’
+
+The man offered her a deck-chair with a characteristic gesture. Nella
+was obliged to acknowledge, in spite of herself, that the fellow had
+distinction, an air of breeding. No one would have guessed that for
+twenty years he had been an hotel waiter. His long, lithe figure, and
+easy, careless carriage seemed to be the figure and carriage of an
+aristocrat, and his voice was quiet, restrained, and authoritative.
+
+‘That has nothing to do with my being carried off in this yacht of
+yours.’
+
+‘It is not my yacht,’ he said, ‘but that is a minor detail. As to the
+more important matter, forgive me that I remind you that only a few
+hours ago you were threatening a lady in my house with a revolver.’
+
+‘Then it was your house?’
+
+‘Why not? May I not possess a house?’ He smiled.
+
+‘I must request you to put the yacht about at once, instantly, and take
+me back.’ She tried to speak firmly.
+
+‘Ah!’ he said, ‘I am afraid that’s impossible. I didn’t put out to sea
+with the intention of returning at once, instantly.’ In the last words
+he gave a faint imitation of her tone.
+
+‘When I do get back,’ she said, ‘when my father gets to know of this
+affair, it will be an exceedingly bad day for you, Mr Jackson.’
+
+‘But supposing your father doesn’t hear of it--’
+
+‘What?’
+
+‘Supposing you never get back?’
+
+‘Do you mean, then, to have my murder on your conscience?’
+
+‘Talking of murder,’ he said, ‘you came very near to murdering my
+friend, Miss Spencer. At least, so she tells me.’
+
+‘Is Miss Spencer on board?’ Nella asked, seeing perhaps a faint ray of
+hope in the possible presence of a woman.
+
+‘Miss Spencer is not on board. There is no one on board except you and
+myself and a small crew--a very discreet crew, I may add.’
+
+‘I will have nothing more to say to you. You must take your own course.’
+
+‘Thanks for the permission,’ he said. ‘I will send you up some
+breakfast.’
+
+He went to the saloon stairs and whistled, and a Negro boy appeared with
+a tray of chocolate. Nella took it, and, without the slightest
+hesitation, threw it overboard. Mr Jackson walked away a few steps and
+then returned.
+
+‘You have spirit,’ he said, ‘and I admire spirit. It is a rare quality.’
+
+She made no reply. ‘Why did you mix yourself up in my affairs at all?’
+he went on. Again she made no reply, but the question set her thinking:
+why had she mixed herself up in this mysterious business? It was quite
+at variance with the usual methods of her gay and butterfly existence to
+meddle at all with serious things. Had she acted merely from a desire to
+see justice done and wickedness punished? Or was it the desire of
+adventure? Or was it, perhaps, the desire to be of service to His Serene
+Highness Prince Aribert? ‘It is no fault of mine that you are in this
+fix,’ Jules continued. ‘I didn’t bring you into it. You brought yourself
+into it. You and your father--you have been moving along at a pace which
+is rather too rapid.’
+
+‘That remains to be seen,’ she put in coldly.
+
+‘It does,’ he admitted. ‘And I repeat that I can’t help admiring you--
+that is, when you aren’t interfering with my private affairs. That is a
+proceeding which I have never tolerated from anyone--not even from a
+millionaire, nor even from a beautiful woman.’ He bowed. ‘I will tell
+you what I propose to do. I propose to escort you to a place of safety,
+and to keep you there till my operations are concluded, and the
+possibility of interference entirely removed. You spoke just now of
+murder. What a crude notion that was of yours! It is only the amateur
+who practises murder--’
+
+‘What about Reginald Dimmock?’ she interjected quickly.
+
+He paused gravely.
+
+‘Reginald Dimmock,’ he repeated. ‘I had imagined his was a case of heart
+disease. Let me send you up some more chocolate. I’m sure you’re
+hungry.’
+
+‘I will starve before I touch your food,’ she said.
+
+‘Gallant creature!’ he murmured, and his eyes roved over her face. Her
+superb, supercilious beauty overcame him. ‘Ah!’ he said, ‘what a wife
+you would make!’ He approached nearer to her. ‘You and I, Miss Racksole,
+your beauty and wealth and my brains--we could conquer the world. Few
+men are worthy of you, but I am one of the few. Listen! You might do
+worse. Marry me. I am a great man; I shall be greater. I adore you.
+Marry me, and I will save your life. All shall be well. I will begin
+again. The past shall be as though there had been no past.’
+
+‘This is somewhat sudden--Jules,’ she said with biting contempt.
+
+‘Did you expect me to be conventional?’ he retorted. ‘I love you.’
+
+‘Granted,’ she said, for the sake of the argument. ‘Then what will occur
+to your present wife?’
+
+‘My present wife?’
+
+‘Yes, Miss Spencer, as she is called.’
+
+‘She told you I was her husband?’
+
+‘Incidentally she did.’
+
+‘She isn’t.’
+
+‘Perhaps she isn’t. But, nevertheless, I think I won’t marry you.’ Nella
+stood like a statue of scorn before him.
+
+He went still nearer to her. ‘Give me a kiss, then; one kiss--I won’t
+ask for more; one kiss from those lips, and you shall go free. Men have
+ruined themselves for a kiss. I will.’
+
+‘Coward!’ she ejaculated.
+
+‘Coward!’ he repeated. ‘Coward, am I? Then I’ll be a coward, and you
+shall kiss me whether you will or not.’
+
+He put a hand on her shoulder. As she shrank back from his lustrous
+eyes, with an involuntary scream, a figure sprang out of the dinghy a
+few feet away. With a single blow, neatly directed to Mr Jackson’s ear,
+Mr Jackson was stretched senseless on the deck. Prince Aribert of Posen
+stood over him with a revolver. It was probably the greatest surprise of
+Mr Jackson’s whole life.
+
+‘Don’t be alarmed,’ said the Prince to Nella, ‘my being here is the
+simplest thing in the world, and I will explain it as soon as I have
+finished with this fellow.’
+
+Nella could think of nothing to say, but she noticed the revolver in the
+Prince’s hand.
+
+‘Why,’ she remarked, ‘that’s my revolver.’
+
+‘It is,’ he said, ‘and I will explain that, too.’
+
+The man at the wheel gave no heed whatever to the scene.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eleven THE COURT PAWNBROKER
+
+‘MR SAMPSON LEVI wishes to see you, sir.’
+
+These words, spoken by a servant to Theodore Racksole, aroused the
+millionaire from a reverie which had been the reverse of pleasant. The
+fact was, and it is necessary to insist on it, that Mr Racksole, owner
+of the Grand Babylon Hôtel, was by no means in a state of self-
+satisfaction. A mystery had attached itself to his hotel, and with all
+his acumen and knowledge of things in general he was unable to solve
+that mystery. He laughed at the fruitless efforts of the police, but he
+could not honestly say that his own efforts had been less barren. The
+public was talking, for, after all, the disappearance of poor Dimmock’s
+body had got noised abroad in an indirect sort of way, and Theodore
+Racksole did not like the idea of his impeccable hotel being the subject
+of sinister rumours. He wondered, grimly, what the public and the Sunday
+newspapers would say if they were aware of all the other phenomena, not
+yet common property: of Miss Spencer’s disappearance, of Jules’ strange
+visits, and of the non-arrival of Prince Eugen of Posen. Theodore
+Racksole had worried his brain without result. He had conducted an
+elaborate private investigation without result, and he had spent a
+certain amount of money without result. The police said that they had a
+clue; but Racksole remarked that it was always the business of the
+police to have a clue, that they seldom had more than a clue, and that a
+clue without some sequel to it was a pretty stupid business. The only
+sure thing in the whole affair was that a cloud rested over his hotel,
+his beautiful new toy, the finest of its kind. The cloud was not
+interfering with business, but, nevertheless, it was a cloud, and he
+fiercely resented its presence; perhaps it would be more correct to say
+that he fiercely resented his inability to dissipate it.
+
+‘Mr Sampson Levi wishes to see you, sir,’ the servant repeated, having
+received no sign that his master had heard him.
+
+‘So I hear,’ said Racksole. ‘Does he want to see me, personally?’
+
+‘He asked for you, sir.’
+
+‘Perhaps it is Rocco he wants to see, about a menu or something of that
+kind?’
+
+‘I will inquire, sir,’ and the servant made a move to withdraw.
+
+‘Stop,’ Racksole commanded suddenly. ‘Desire Mr Sampson Levi to step
+this way.’
+
+The great stockbroker of the ‘Kaffir Circus’ entered with a simple
+unassuming air. He was a rather short, florid man, dressed like a
+typical Hebraic financier, with too much watch-chain and too little
+waistcoat. In his fat hand he held a gold-headed cane, and an absolutely
+new silk hat--for it was Friday, and Mr Levi purchased a new hat every
+Friday of his life, holiday times only excepted. He breathed heavily and
+sniffed through his nose a good deal, as though he had just performed
+some Herculean physical labour. He glanced at the American millionaire
+with an expression in which a slight embarrassment might have been
+detected, but at the same time his round, red face disclosed a certain
+frank admiration and good nature.
+
+‘Mr Racksole, I believe--Mr Theodore Racksole. Proud to meet you, sir.’
+
+Such were the first words of Mr Sampson Levi. In form they were the
+greeting of a third-rate chimney-sweep, but, strangely enough, Theodore
+Racksole liked their tone. He said to himself that here, precisely where
+no one would have expected to find one, was an honest man.
+
+‘Good day,’ said Racksole briefly. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure--’
+
+‘I expect your time is limited,’ answered Sampson Levi. ‘Anyhow, mine
+is, and so I’ll come straight to the point, Mr Racksole. I’m a plain
+man. I don’t pretend to be a gentleman or any nonsense of that kind. I’m
+a stockbroker, that’s what I am, and I don’t care who knows it. The
+other night I had a ball in this hotel. It cost me a couple of thousand
+and odd pounds, and, by the way, I wrote out a cheque for your bill this
+morning. I don’t like balls, but they’re useful to me, and my little
+wife likes ‘em, and so we give ‘em. Now, I’ve nothing to say against the
+hotel management as regards that ball: it was very decently done, very
+decently, but what I want to know is this--Why did you have a private
+detective among my guests?’
+
+‘A private detective?’ exclaimed Racksole, somewhat surprised at this
+charge.
+
+‘Yes,’ Mr Sampson Levi said firmly, fanning himself in his chair, and
+gazing at Theodore Racksole with the direct earnest expression of a man
+having a grievance. ‘Yes; a private detective. It’s a small matter, I
+know, and I dare say you think you’ve got a right, as proprietor of the
+show, to do what you like in that line; but I’ve just called to tell you
+that I object. I’ve called as a matter of principle. I’m not angry; it’s
+the principle of the thing.’
+
+‘My dear Mr Levi,’ said Racksole, ‘I assure you that, having let the
+Gold Room to a private individual for a private entertainment, I should
+never dream of doing what you suggest.’
+
+‘Straight?’ asked Mr Sampson Levi, using his own picturesque language.
+
+‘Straight,’ said Racksole smiling.
+
+‘There was a gent present at my ball that I didn’t ask. I’ve got a
+wonderful memory for faces, and I know. Several fellows asked me
+afterwards what he was doing there. I was told by someone that he was
+one of your waiters, but I didn’t believe that. I know nothing of the
+Grand Babylon; it’s not quite my style of tavern, but I don’t think
+you’d send one of your own waiters to watch my guests--unless, of
+course, you sent him as a waiter; and this chap didn’t do any waiting,
+though he did his share of drinking.’
+
+‘Perhaps I can throw some light on this mystery,’ said Racksole. ‘I may
+tell you that I was already aware that man had attended your ball
+uninvited.’
+
+‘How did you get to know?’
+
+‘By pure chance, Mr Levi, and not by inquiry. That man was a former
+waiter at this hotel--the head waiter, in fact--Jules. No doubt you have
+heard of him.’
+
+‘Not I,’ said Mr Levi positively.
+
+‘Ah!’ said Racksole, ‘I was informed that everyone knew Jules, but it
+appears not. Well, be that as it may, previously to the night of your
+ball, I had dismissed Jules. I had ordered him never to enter the
+Babylon again.
+
+But on that evening I encountered him here--not in the Gold Room, but in
+the hotel itself. I asked him to explain his presence, and he stated he
+was your guest. That is all I know of the matter, Mr Levi, and I am
+extremely sorry that you should have thought me capable of the enormity
+of placing a private detective among your guests.’
+
+‘This is perfectly satisfactory to me,’ Mr Sampson Levi said, after a
+pause.
+
+‘I only wanted an explanation, and I’ve got it. I was told by some pals
+of mine in the City I might rely on Mr Theodore Racksole going straight
+to the point, and I’m glad they were right. Now as to that feller Jules,
+I shall make my own inquiries as to him. Might I ask you why you
+dismissed him?’
+
+‘I don’t know why I dismissed him.’
+
+‘You don’t know? Oh! come now! I’m only asking because I thought you
+might be able to give me a hint why he turned up uninvited at my ball.
+Sorry if I’m too inquisitive.’
+
+‘Not at all, Mr Levi; but I really don’t know. I only sort of felt that
+he was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it were.
+See?’
+
+Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. ‘If this Jules is
+such a well-known person,’ he said, ‘how could the feller hope to come
+to my ball without being recognized?’
+
+‘Give it up,’ said Racksole promptly.
+
+‘Well, I’ll be moving on,’ was Mr Sampson Levi’s next remark. ‘Good day,
+and thank ye. I suppose you aren’t doing anything in Kaffirs?’
+
+Mr Racksole smiled a negative.
+
+‘I thought not,’ said Levi. ‘Well, I never touch American rails myself,
+and so I reckon we sha’n’t come across each other. Good day.’
+
+‘Good day,’ said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to the
+door.
+
+With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and, gazing at
+Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression, remarked:
+
+‘Strange things been going on here lately, eh?’
+
+The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.
+
+‘Yes,’ Racksole assented. ‘Know anything about them?’
+
+‘Well--no, not exactly,’ said Mr Levi. ‘But I had a fancy you and I
+might be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.’
+
+‘Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,’ Racksole said, attracted by the
+evident straightforwardness of the man’s tone. ‘Now, how can we be of
+service to each other? I flatter myself I’m something of a judge of
+character, especially financial character, and I tell you--if you’ll put
+your cards on the table, I’ll do ditto with mine.’
+
+‘Agreed,’ said Mr Sampson Levi. ‘I’ll begin by explaining my interest in
+your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons from a certain
+Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that summons hasn’t
+arrived. It appears that Prince Eugen hasn’t come to London at all. Now,
+I could have taken my dying davy that he would have been here yesterday
+at the latest.’
+
+‘Why were you so sure?’
+
+‘Question for question,’ said Levi. ‘Let’s clear the ground first, Mr
+Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That’s a conundrum that’s been
+puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past. Why did
+you buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move to be?’
+
+‘There is no next move,’ answered Racksole candidly, ‘and I will tell
+you why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. I bought
+it because of a whim.’ And then Theodore Racksole gave this little Jew,
+whom he had begun to respect, a faithful account of the transaction with
+Mr Felix Babylon. ‘I suppose,’ he added, ‘you find a difficulty in
+appreciating my state of mind when I did the deal.’
+
+‘Not a bit,’ said Mr Levi. ‘I once bought an electric launch on the
+Thames in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the most
+satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it’s a simple accident that you
+own this hotel at the present moment?’
+
+‘A simple accident--all because of a beefsteak and a bottle of Bass.’
+
+‘Um!’ grunted Mr Sampson Levi, stroking his triple chin.
+
+‘To return to Prince Eugen,’ Racksole resumed. ‘I was expecting His
+Highness here. The State apartments had been prepared for him. He was
+due on the very afternoon that young Dimmock died. But he never came,
+and I have not heard why he has failed to arrive; nor have I seen his
+name in the papers. What his business was in London, I don’t know.’
+
+‘I will tell you,’ said Mr Sampson Levi, ‘he was coming to arrange a
+loan.’
+
+‘A State loan?’
+
+‘No--a private loan.’
+
+‘Whom from?’
+
+‘From me, Sampson Levi. You look surprised. If you’d lived in London a
+little longer, you’d know that I was just the person the Prince would
+come to. Perhaps you aren’t aware that down Throgmorton Street way I’m
+called “The Court Pawnbroker”, because I arrange loans for the minor,
+second-class Princes of Europe. I’m a stockbroker, but my real business
+is financing some of the little Courts of Europe. Now, I may tell you
+that the Hereditary Prince of Posen particularly wanted a million, and
+he wanted it by a certain date, and he knew that if the affair wasn’t
+fixed up by a certain time here he wouldn’t be able to get it by that
+certain date. That’s why I’m surprised he isn’t in London.’
+
+‘What did he need a million for?’
+
+‘Debts,’ answered Sampson Levi laconically.
+
+‘His own?’
+
+‘Certainly.’
+
+‘But he isn’t thirty years of age?’
+
+‘What of that? He isn’t the only European Prince who has run up a
+million of debts in a dozen years. To a Prince the thing is as easy as
+eating a sandwich.’
+
+‘And why has he taken this sudden resolution to liquidate them?’
+
+‘Because the Emperor and the lady’s parents won’t let him marry till he
+has done so! And quite right, too! He’s got to show a clean sheet, or
+the Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg will never be Princess of
+Posen. Even now the Emperor has no idea how much Prince Eugen’s debts
+amount to. If he had--!’
+
+‘But would not the Emperor know of this proposed loan?’
+
+‘Not necessarily at once. It could be so managed. Twig?’ Mr Sampson Levi
+laughed. ‘I’ve carried these little affairs through before. After
+marriage it might be allowed to leak out. And you know the Princess
+Anna’s fortune is pretty big! Now, Mr Racksole,’ he added, abruptly
+changing his tone, ‘where do you suppose Prince Eugen has disappeared
+to? Because if he doesn’t turn up to-day he can’t have that million. To-
+day is the last day. To-morrow the money will be appropriated,
+elsewhere. Of course, I’m not alone in this business, and my friends
+have something to say.’
+
+‘You ask me where I think Prince Eugen has disappeared to?’
+
+‘I do.’
+
+‘Then you think it’s a disappearance?’
+
+Sampson Levi nodded. ‘Putting two and two together,’ he said, ‘I do. The
+Dimmock business is very peculiar--very peculiar, indeed. Dimmock was a
+left-handed relation of the Posen family. Twig? Scarcely anyone knows
+that.
+
+He was made secretary and companion to Prince Aribert, just to keep him
+in the domestic circle. His mother was an Irishwoman, whose misfortune
+was that she was too beautiful. Twig?’ (Mr Sampson Levi always used this
+extraordinary word when he was in a communicative mood.) ‘My belief is
+that Dimmock’s death has something to do with the disappearance of
+Prince Eugen.
+
+The only thing that passes me is this: Why should anyone want to make
+Prince Eugen disappear? The poor little Prince hasn’t an enemy in the
+world. If he’s been “copped”, as they say, why has he been “copped”? It
+won’t do anyone any good.’
+
+‘Won’t it?’ repeated Racksole, with a sudden flash.
+
+‘What do you mean?’ asked Mr Levi.
+
+‘I mean this: Suppose some other European pauper Prince was anxious to
+marry Princess Anna and her fortune, wouldn’t that Prince have an
+interest in stopping this loan of yours to Prince Eugen? Wouldn’t he
+have an interest in causing Prince Eugen to disappear--at any rate, for
+a time?’
+
+Sampson Levi thought hard for a few moments.
+
+‘Mr Theodore Racksole,’ he said at length, ‘I do believe you have hit on
+something.’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twelve ROCCO AND ROOM NO. 111
+
+ON the afternoon of the same day--the interview just described had
+occurred in the morning--Racksole was visited by another idea, and he
+said to himself that he ought to have thought of it before. The
+conversation with Mr Sampson Levi had continued for a considerable time,
+and the two men had exchanged various notions, and agreed to meet again,
+but the theory that Reginald Dimmock had probably been a traitor to his
+family--a traitor whose repentance had caused his death--had not been
+thoroughly discussed; the talk had tended rather to Continental
+politics, with a view to discovering what princely family might have an
+interest in the temporary disappearance of Prince Eugen. Now, as
+Racksole considered in detail the particular affair of Reginald Dimmock,
+deceased, he was struck by one point especially, to wit: Why had Dimmock
+and Jules manoeuvred to turn Nella Racksole out of Room No. 111 on that
+first night? That they had so manoeuvred, that the broken window-pane
+was not a mere accident, Racksole felt perfectly sure. He had felt
+perfectly sure all along; but the significance of the facts had not
+struck him. It was plain to him now that there must be something of
+extraordinary and peculiar importance about Room No. 111. After lunch he
+wandered quietly upstairs and looked at Room No. 111; that is to say, he
+looked at the outside of it; it happened to be occupied, but the guest
+was leaving that evening. The thought crossed his mind that there could
+be no object in gazing blankly at the outside of a room; yet he gazed;
+then he wandered quickly down again to the next floor, and in passing
+along the corridor of that floor he stopped, and with an involuntary
+gesture stamped his foot.
+
+‘Great Scott!’ he said, ‘I’ve got hold of something--No. 111 is exactly
+over the State apartments.’
+
+He went to the bureau, and issued instructions that No. 111 was not to
+be re-let to anyone until further orders. At the bureau they gave him
+Nella’s note, which ran thus:
+
+Dearest Papa,--I am going away for a day or two on the trail of a clue.
+
+If I’m not back in three days, begin to inquire for me at Ostend. Till
+then leave me alone.--Your sagacious daughter, NELL.
+
+These few words, in Nella’s large scrawling hand, filled one side of the
+paper. At the bottom was a P.T.O. He turned over, and read the sentence,
+underlined, ‘P.S.--Keep an eye on Rocco.’
+
+‘I wonder what the little creature is up to?’ he murmured, as he tore
+the letter into small fragments, and threw them into the waste-paper
+basket.
+
+Then, without any delay, he took the lift down to the basement, with the
+object of making a preliminary inspection of Rocco in his lair. He could
+scarcely bring himself to believe that this suave and stately gentleman,
+this enthusiast of gastronomy, was concerned in the machinations of
+Jules and other rascals unknown. Nevertheless, from habit, he obeyed his
+daughter, giving her credit for a certain amount of perspicuity and
+cleverness.
+
+The kitchens of the Grand Babylon Hôtel are one of the wonders of
+Europe.
+
+Only three years before the events now under narration Felix Babylon had
+had them newly installed with every device and patent that the ingenuity
+of two continents could supply. They covered nearly an acre of
+superficial space.
+
+They were walled and floored from end to end with tiles and marble,
+which enabled them to be washed down every morning like the deck of a
+man-of-war.
+
+Visitors were sometimes taken to see the potato-paring machine, the
+patent plate-dryer, the Babylon-spit (a contrivance of Felix Babylon’s
+own), the silver-grill, the system of connected stock-pots, and other
+amazing phenomena of the department. Sometimes, if they were fortunate,
+they might also see the artist who sculptured ice into forms of men and
+beasts for table ornaments, or the first napkin-folder in London, or the
+man who daily invented fresh designs for pastry and blancmanges. Twelve
+chefs pursued their labours in those kitchens, helped by ninety
+assistant chefs, and a further army of unconsidered menials. Over all
+these was Rocco, supreme and unapproachable. Half-way along the suite of
+kitchens, Rocco had an apartment of his own, wherein he thought out
+those magnificent combinations, those marvellous feats of succulence and
+originality, which had given him his fame. Visitors never caught a
+glimpse of Rocco in the kitchens, though sometimes, on a special night,
+he would stroll nonchalantly through the dining-room, like the great man
+he was, to receive the compliments of the hotel habitués--people of
+insight who recognized his uniqueness.
+
+Theodore Racksole’s sudden and unusual appearance in the kitchen caused
+a little stir. He nodded to some of the chefs, but said nothing to
+anyone, merely wandering about amid the maze of copper utensils, and
+white-capped workers. At length he saw Rocco, surrounded by several
+admiring chefs. Rocco was bending over a freshly-roasted partridge which
+lay on a blue dish. He plunged a long fork into the back of the bird,
+and raised it in the air with his left hand. In his right he held a long
+glittering carving-knife. He was giving one of his world-famous
+exhibitions of carving. In four swift, unerring, delicate, perfect
+strokes he cleanly severed the limbs of the partridge. It was a
+wonderful achievement--how wondrous none but the really skilful carver
+can properly appreciate. The chefs emitted a hum of applause, and Rocco,
+long, lean, and graceful, retired to his own apartment. Racksole
+followed him. Rocco sat in a chair, one hand over his eyes; he had not
+noticed Theodore Racksole.
+
+‘What are you doing, M. Rocco?’ the millionaire asked smiling. ‘Ah!’
+exclaimed Rocco, starting up with an apology. ‘Pardon! I was inventing a
+new mayonnaise, which I shall need for a certain menu next week.’
+
+‘Do you invent these things without materials, then?’ questioned
+Racksole.
+
+‘Certainly. I do dem in my mind. I tink dem. Why should I want
+materials? I know all flavours. I tink, and tink, and tink, and it is
+done. I write down.
+
+I give the recipe to my best chef--dere you are. I need not even taste,
+I know how it will taste. It is like composing music. De great composers
+do not compose at de piano.’
+
+‘I see,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘It is because I work like dat dat you pay me three thousand a year,’
+Rocco added gravely.
+
+‘Heard about Jules?’ said Racksole abruptly.
+
+‘Jules?’
+
+‘Yes. He’s been arrested in Ostend,’ the millionaire continued, lying
+cleverly at a venture. ‘They say that he and several others are
+implicated in a murder case--the murder of Reginald Dimmock.’
+
+‘Truly?’ drawled Rocco, scarcely hiding a yawn. His indifference was so
+superb, so gorgeous, that Racksole instantly divined that it was assumed
+for the occasion.
+
+‘It seems that, after all, the police are good for something. But this
+is the first time I ever knew them to be worth their salt. There is to
+be a thorough and systematic search of the hotel to-morrow,’ Racksole
+went on. ‘I have mentioned it to you to warn you that so far as you are
+concerned the search is of course merely a matter of form. You will not
+object to the detectives looking through your rooms?’
+
+‘Certainly not,’ and Rocco shrugged his shoulders.
+
+‘I shall ask you to say nothing about this to anyone,’ said Racksole.
+‘The news of Jules’ arrest is quite private to myself. The papers know
+nothing of it. You comprehend?’
+
+Rocco smiled in his grand manner, and Rocco’s master thereupon went
+away.
+
+Racksole was very well satisfied with the little conversation. It was
+perhaps dangerous to tell a series of mere lies to a clever fellow like
+Rocco, and Racksole wondered how he should ultimately explain them to
+this great master-chef if his and Nella’s suspicions should be
+unfounded, and nothing came of them. Nevertheless, Rocco’s manner, a
+strange elusive something in the man’s eyes, had nearly convinced
+Racksole that he was somehow implicated in Jules’ schemes--and probably
+in the death of Reginald Dimmock and the disappearance of Prince Eugen
+of Posen.
+
+That night, or rather about half-past one the next morning, when the
+last noises of the hotel’s life had died down, Racksole made his way to
+Room 111 on the second floor. He locked the door on the inside, and
+proceeded to examine the place, square foot by square foot. Every now
+and then some creak or other sound startled him, and he listened
+intently for a few seconds. The bedroom was furnished in the ordinary
+splendid style of bedrooms at the Grand Babylon Hôtel, and in that
+respect called for no remark. What most interested Racksole was the
+flooring. He pulled up the thick Oriental carpet, and peered along every
+plank, but could discover nothing unusual.
+
+Then he went to the dressing-room, and finally to the bathroom, both of
+which opened out of the main room. But in neither of these smaller
+chambers was he any more successful than in the bedroom itself. Finally
+he came to the bath, which was enclosed in a panelled casing of polished
+wood, after the manner of baths. Some baths have a cupboard beneath the
+taps, with a door at the side, but this one appeared to have none. He
+tapped the panels, but not a single one of them gave forth that ‘curious
+hollow sound’ which usually betokens a secret place. Idly he turned the
+cold-tap of the bath, and the water began to rush in. He turned off the
+cold-tap and turned on the waste-tap, and as he did so his knee, which
+was pressing against the panelling, slipped forward. The panelling had
+given way, and he saw that one large panel was hinged from the inside,
+and caught with a hasp, also on the inside. A large space within the
+casing of the end of the bath was thus revealed. Before doing anything
+else, Racksole tried to repeat the trick with the waste-tap, but he
+failed; it would not work again, nor could he in any way perceive that
+there was any connection between the rod of the waste-tap and the hasp
+of the panel. Racksole could not see into the cavity within the casing,
+and the electric light was fixed, and could not be moved about like a
+candle. He felt in his pockets, and fortunately discovered a box of
+matches. Aided by these, he looked into the cavity, and saw nothing;
+nothing except a rather large hole at the far end--some three feet from
+the casing. With some difficulty he squeezed himself through the open
+panel, and took a half-kneeling, half-sitting posture within. There he
+struck a match, and it was a most unfortunate thing that in striking,
+the box being half open, he set fire to all the matches, and was half
+smothered in the atrocious stink of phosphorus which resulted. One match
+burned clear on the floor of the cavity, and, rubbing his eyes, Racksole
+picked it up, and looked down the hole which he had previously descried.
+It was a hole apparently bottomless, and about eighteen inches square.
+The curious part about the hole was that a rope-ladder hung down it.
+When he saw that rope-ladder Racksole smiled the smile of a happy man.
+
+The match went out.
+
+Should he make a long journey, perhaps to some distant corner of the
+hotel, for a fresh box of matches, or should he attempt to descend that
+rope-ladder in the dark? He decided on the latter course, and he was the
+more strongly moved thereto as he could now distinguish a faint, a very
+faint tinge of light at the bottom of the hole.
+
+With infinite care he compressed himself into the well-like hole, and
+descended the latter. At length he arrived on firm ground, perspiring,
+but quite safe and quite excited. He saw now that the tinge of light
+came through a small hole in the wood. He put his eye to the wood, and
+found that he had a fine view of the State bathroom, and through the
+door of the State bathroom into the State bedroom. At the massive
+marble-topped washstand in the State bedroom a man was visible, bending
+over some object which lay thereon.
+
+The man was Rocco!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Thirteen IN THE STATE BEDROOM
+
+IT was of course plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway which he
+had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between the bathroom of
+No. 111 and the State bathroom on the floor below must have been
+specially designed by some person or persons for the purpose of keeping
+a nefarious watch upon the occupants of the State suite of apartments.
+It was a means of communication at once simple and ingenious. At that
+moment he could not be sure of the precise method employed for it, but
+he surmised that the casing of the waterpipes had been used as a ‘well’,
+while space for the pipes themselves had been found in the thickness of
+the ample brick walls of the Grand Babylon. The eye-hole, through which
+he now had a view of the bedroom, was a very minute one, and probably
+would scarcely be noticed from the exterior. One thing he observed
+concerning it, namely, that it had been made for a man somewhat taller
+than himself; he was obliged to stand on tiptoe in order to get his eye
+in the correct position. He remembered that both Jules and Rocco were
+distinctly above the average height; also that they were both thin men,
+and could have descended the well with comparative ease. Theodore
+Racksole, though not stout, was a well-set man with large bones.
+
+These things flashed through his mind as he gazed, spellbound, at the
+mysterious movements of Rocco. The door between the bathroom and the
+bedroom was wide open, and his own situation was such that his view
+embraced a considerable portion of the bedroom, including the whole of
+the immense and gorgeously-upholstered bedstead, but not including the
+whole of the marble washstand. He could see only half of the washstand,
+and at intervals Rocco passed out of sight as his lithe hands moved over
+the object which lay on the marble. At first Theodore Racksole could not
+decide what this object was, but after a time, as his eyes grew
+accustomed to the position and the light, he made it out.
+
+It was the body of a man. Or, rather, to be more exact, Racksole could
+discern the legs of a man on that half of the table which was visible to
+him. Involuntarily he shuddered, as the conviction forced itself upon
+him that Rocco had some unconscious human being helpless on that cold
+marble surface. The legs never moved. Therefore, the hapless creature
+was either asleep or under the influence of an anaesthetic--or (horrible
+thought!) dead.
+
+Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the dreadful
+midnight activity which was proceeding before his astonished eyes; but
+fortunately he restrained himself.
+
+On the washstand he could see certain strangely-shaped utensils and
+instruments which Rocco used from time to time. The work seemed to
+Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at last Rocco
+ceased, gave a sign of satisfaction, whistled several bars from
+‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, and came into the bath-room, where he took off
+his coat, and very quietly washed his hands. As he stood calmly and
+leisurely wiping those long fingers of his, he was less than four feet
+from Racksole, and the cooped-up millionaire trembled, holding his
+breath, lest Rocco should detect his presence behind the woodwork. But
+nothing happened, and Rocco returned unsuspectingly to the bedroom.
+Racksole saw him place some sort of white flannel garment over the prone
+form on the table, and then lift it bodily on to the great bed, where it
+lay awfully still. The hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse
+upon which Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister
+functions.
+
+But whose corpse? And what functions? Could this be a West End hotel,
+Racksole’s own hotel, in the very heart of London, the best-policed city
+in the world? It seemed incredible, impossible; yet so it was. Once more
+he remembered what Felix Babylon had said to him and realized the truth
+of the saying anew. The proprietor of a vast and complicated
+establishment like the Grand Babylon could never know a tithe of the
+extraordinary and queer occurrences which happened daily under his very
+nose; the atmosphere of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an
+atmosphere of mystery and problems apparently inexplicable.
+Nevertheless, Racksole thought that Fate was carrying things with rather
+a high hand when she permitted his chef to spend the night hours over a
+man’s corpse in his State bedroom, this sacred apartment which was
+supposed to be occupied only by individuals of Royal Blood. Racksole
+would not have objected to a certain amount of mystery, but he decidedly
+thought that there was a little too much mystery here for his taste. He
+thought that even Felix Babylon would have been surprised at this.
+
+The electric chandelier in the centre of the ceiling was not lighted;
+only the two lights on either side of the washstand were switched on,
+and these did not sufficiently illuminate the features of the man on the
+bed to enable Racksole to see them clearly. In vain the millionaire
+strained his eyes; he could only make out that the corpse was probably
+that of a young man. Just as he was wondering what would be the best
+course of action to pursue, he saw Rocco with a square-shaped black box
+in his hand. Then the chef switched off the two electric lights, and the
+State bedroom was in darkness. In that swift darkness Racksole heard
+Rocco spring on to the bed. Another half-dozen moments of suspense, and
+there was a blinding flash of white, which endured for several seconds,
+and showed Rocco standing like an evil spirit over the corpse, the black
+box in one hand and a burning piece of aluminium wire in the other. The
+aluminium wire burnt out, and darkness followed blacker than before.
+
+Rocco had photographed the corpse by flashlight.
+
+But the dazzling flare which had disclosed the features of the dead man
+to the insensible lens of the camera had disclosed them also to Theodore
+Racksole. The dead man was Reginald Dimmock!
+
+Stung into action by this discovery, Racksole tried to find the exit
+from his place of concealment. He felt sure that there existed some way
+out into the State bathroom, but he sought for it fruitlessly, groping
+with both hands and feet. Then he decided that he must ascend the rope-
+ladder, make haste for the first-floor corridor, and intercept Rocco
+when he left the State apartments. It was a painful and difficult
+business to ascend that thin and yielding ladder in such a confined
+space, but Racksole was managing it very nicely, and had nearly reached
+the top, when, by some untoward freak of chance, the ladder broke above
+his weight, and he slipped ignominiously down to the bottom of the
+wooden tube. Smothering an excusable curse, Racksole crouched, baffled.
+Then he saw that the force of his fall had somehow opened a trap-door at
+his feet. He squeezed through, pushed open another tiny door, and in
+another second stood in the State bathroom. He was dishevelled,
+perspiring, rather bewildered; but he was there. In the next second he
+had resumed absolute command of all his faculties.
+
+Strange to say, he had moved so quietly that Rocco had apparently not
+heard him. He stepped noiselessly to the door between the bathroom and
+the bedroom, and stood there in silence. Rocco had switched on again the
+lights over the washstand and was busy with his utensils.
+
+Racksole deliberately coughed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fourteen ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS
+
+ROCCO turned round with the swiftness of a startled tiger, and gave
+Theodore Racksole one long piercing glance.
+
+‘D--n!’ said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and intonation as
+Racksole himself could have accomplished.
+
+The most extraordinary thing about the situation was that at this
+juncture Theodore Racksole did not know what to say. He was so
+dumbfounded by the affair, and especially by Rocco’s absolute and
+sublime calm, that both speech and thought failed him.
+
+‘I give in,’ said Rocco. ‘From the moment you entered this cursed hotel
+I was afraid of you. I told Jules I was afraid of you. I knew there
+would be trouble with a man of your kidney, and I was right; confound
+it! I tell you I give in. I know when I’m beaten. I’ve got no revolver
+and no weapons of any kind. I surrender. Do what you like.’
+
+And with that Rocco sat down on a chair. It was magnificently done. Only
+a truly great man could have done it. Rocco actually kept his dignity.
+
+For answer, Racksole walked slowly into the vast apartment, seized a
+chair, and, dragging it up to Rocco’s chair, sat down opposite to him.
+Thus they faced each other, their knees almost touching, both in evening
+dress. On Rocco’s right hand was the bed, with the corpse of Reginald
+Dimmock. On Racksole’s right hand, and a little behind him, was the
+marble washstand, still littered with Rocco’s implements. The electric
+light shone on Rocco’s left cheek, leaving the other side of his face in
+shadow. Racksole tapped him on the knee twice.
+
+‘So you’re another Englishman masquerading as a foreigner in my hotel,’
+
+Racksole remarked, by way of commencing the interrogation.
+
+‘I’m not,’ answered Rocco quietly. ‘I’m a citizen of the United States.’
+
+‘The deuce you are!’ Racksole exclaimed.
+
+‘Yes, I was born at West Orange, New Jersey, New York State. I call
+myself an Italian because it was in Italy that I first made a name as a
+chef--at Rome. It is better for a great chef like me to be a foreigner.
+Imagine a great chef named Elihu P. Rucker. You can’t imagine it. I
+changed my nationality for the same reason that my friend and colleague,
+Jules, otherwise Mr Jackson, changed his.’
+
+‘So Jules is your friend and colleague, is he?’
+
+‘He was, but from this moment he is no longer. I began to disapprove of
+his methods no less than a week ago, and my disapproval will now take
+active form.’
+
+‘Will it?’ said Racksole. ‘I calculate it just won’t, Mr Elihu P.
+Rucker, citizen of the United States. Before you are very much older
+you’ll be in the kind hands of the police, and your activities, in no
+matter what direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.’
+
+‘It is possible,’ sighed Rocco.
+
+‘In the meantime, I’ll ask you one or two questions for my own private
+satisfaction. You’ve acknowledged that the game is up, and you may as
+well answer them with as much candour as you feel yourself capable of.
+See?’
+
+‘I see,’ replied Rocco calmly, ‘but I guess I can’t answer all
+questions.
+
+I’ll do what I can.’
+
+‘Well,’ said Racksole, clearing his throat, ‘what’s the scheme all
+about? Tell me in a word.’
+
+‘Not in a thousand words. It isn’t my secret, you know.’
+
+‘Why was poor little Dimmock poisoned?’ The millionaire’s voice softened
+as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the unfortunate young man.
+
+‘I don’t know,’ said Rocco. ‘I don’t mind informing you that I objected
+to that part of the business. I wasn’t made aware of it till after it
+was done, and then I tell you it got my dander up considerable.’
+
+‘You mean to say you don’t know why Dimmock was done to death?’
+
+‘I mean to say I couldn’t see the sense of it. Of course he--er--died,
+because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a share
+of it. I don’t mind saying that much, because you probably guessed it
+for yourself. But I solemnly state that I have a conscientious objection
+to murder.’
+
+‘Then it was murder?’
+
+‘It was a kind of murder,’ Rocco admitted. ‘Who did it?’
+
+‘Unfair question,’ said Rocco.
+
+‘Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?’
+
+‘Don’t know, on my honour.’
+
+‘Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?’
+
+‘How long were you in that bathroom?’ Rocco parried with sublime
+impudence.
+
+‘Don’t question me, Mr Rucker,’ said Theodore Racksole. ‘I feel very
+much inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I advise you
+not to irritate me. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?’
+
+‘I’ve been embalming it.’
+
+‘Em--balming it.’
+
+‘Certainly; Richardson’s system of arterial fluid injection, as improved
+by myself. You weren’t aware that I included the art of embalming among
+my accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.’
+
+‘But why?’ asked Racksole, more mystified than ever. ‘Why should you
+trouble to embalm the poor chap’s corpse?’
+
+‘Can’t you see? Doesn’t it strike you? That corpse has to be taken care
+of.
+
+It contains, or rather, it did contain, very serious evidence against
+some person or persons unknown to the police. It may be necessary to
+move it about from place to place. A corpse can’t be hidden for long; a
+corpse betrays itself. One couldn’t throw it in the Thames, for it would
+have been found inside twelve hours. One couldn’t bury it--it wasn’t
+safe. The only thing was to keep it handy and movable, ready for
+emergencies. I needn’t inform you that, without embalming, you can’t
+keep a corpse handy and movable for more than four or five days. It’s
+the kind of thing that won’t keep. And so it was suggested that I should
+embalm it, and I did. Mind you, I still objected to the murder, but I
+couldn’t go back on a colleague, you understand. You do understand that,
+don’t you? Well, here you are, and here it is, and that’s all.’
+
+Rocco leaned back in his chair as though he had said everything that
+ought to be said. He closed his eyes to indicate that so far as he was
+concerned the conversation was also closed. Theodore Racksole stood up.
+
+‘I hope,’ said Rocco, suddenly opening his eyes, ‘I hope you’ll call in
+the police without any delay. It’s getting late, and I don’t like going
+without my night’s rest.’
+
+‘Where do you suppose you’ll get a night’s rest?’ Racksole asked.
+
+‘In the cells, of course. Haven’t I told you I know when I’m beaten. I’m
+not so blind as not to be able to see that there’s at any rate a prima
+facie case against me. I expect I shall get off with a year or two’s
+imprisonment as accessory after the fact--I think that’s what they call
+it. Anyhow, I shall be in a position to prove that I am not implicated
+in the murder of this unfortunate nincompoop.’ He pointed, with a
+strange, scornful gesture of his elbow, to the bed. ‘And now, shall we
+go? Everyone is asleep, but there will be a policeman within call of the
+watchman in the portico. I am at your service. Let us go down together,
+Mr Racksole. I give you my word to go quietly.’
+
+‘Stay a moment,’ said Theodore Racksole curtly; ‘there is no hurry. It
+won’t do you any harm to forego another hour’s sleep, especially as you
+will have no work to do to-morrow. I have one or two more questions to
+put to you.’
+
+‘Well?’ Rocco murmured, with an air of tired resignation, as if to say,
+‘What must be must be.’
+
+‘Where has Dimmock’s corpse been during the last three or four days,
+since he--died?’
+
+‘Oh!’ answered Rocco, apparently surprised at the simplicity of the
+question. ‘It’s been in my room, and one night it was on the roof; once
+it went out of the hotel as luggage, but it came back the next day as a
+case of Demerara sugar. I forget where else it has been, but it’s been
+kept perfectly safe and treated with every consideration.’
+
+‘And who contrived all these manoeuvres?’ asked Racksole as calmly as he
+could.
+
+‘I did. That is to say, I invented them and I saw that they were carried
+out. You see, the suspicions of your police obliged me to be
+particularly spry.’
+
+‘And who carried them out?’
+
+‘Ah! that would be telling tales. But I don’t mind assuring you that my
+accomplices were innocent accomplices. It is absurdly easy for a man
+like me to impose on underlings--absurdly easy.’
+
+‘What did you intend to do with the corpse ultimately?’ Racksole pursued
+his inquiry with immovable countenance.
+
+‘Who knows?’ said Rocco, twisting his beautiful moustache. ‘That would
+have depended on several things--on your police, for instance. But
+probably in the end we should have restored this mortal clay’--again he
+jerked his elbow--‘to the man’s sorrowing relatives.’
+
+‘Do you know who the relatives are?’
+
+‘Certainly. Don’t you? If you don’t I need only hint that Dimmock had a
+Prince for his father.’
+
+‘It seems to me,’ said Racksole, with cold sarcasm, ‘that you behaved
+rather clumsily in choosing this bedroom as the scene of your
+operations.’
+
+‘Not at all,’ said Rocco. ‘There was no other apartment so suitable in
+the whole hotel. Who would have guessed that anything was going on here?
+It was the very place for me.’
+
+‘I guessed,’ said Racksole succinctly.
+
+‘Yes, you guessed, Mr Racksole. But I had not counted on you. You are
+the only smart man in the business. You are an American citizen, and I
+hadn’t reckoned to have to deal with that class of person.’
+
+‘Apparently I frightened you this afternoon?’
+
+‘Not in the least.’
+
+‘You were not afraid of a search?’
+
+‘I knew that no search was intended. I knew that you were trying to
+frighten me. You must really credit me with a little sagacity and
+insight, Mr Racksole. Immediately you began to talk to me in the kitchen
+this afternoon I felt you were on the track. But I was not frightened. I
+merely decided that there was no time to be lost--that I must act
+quickly. I did act quickly, but, it seems, not quickly enough. I grant
+that your rapidity exceeded mine. Let us go downstairs, I beg.’
+
+Rocco rose and moved towards the door. With an instinctive action
+Racksole rushed forward and seized him by the shoulder.
+
+‘No tricks!’ said Racksole. ‘You’re in my custody and don’t forget it.’
+
+Rocco turned on his employer a look of gentle, dignified scorn. ‘Have I
+not informed you,’ he said, ‘that I have the intention of going
+quietly?’
+
+Racksole felt almost ashamed for the moment. It flashed across him that
+a man can be great, even in crime.
+
+‘What an ineffable fool you were,’ said Racksole, stopping him at the
+threshold, ‘with your talents, your unique talents, to get yourself
+mixed up in an affair of this kind. You are ruined. And, by Jove! you
+were a great man in your own line.’
+
+‘Mr Racksole,’ said Rocco very quickly, ‘that is the truest word you
+have spoken this night. I was a great man in my own line. And I am an
+ineffable fool. Alas!’ He brought his long arms to his sides with a
+thud.
+
+‘Why did you do it?’
+
+‘I was fascinated--fascinated by Jules. He, too, is a great man. We had
+great opportunities, here in the Grand Babylon. It was a great game. It
+was worth the candle. The prizes were enormous. You would admit these
+things if you knew the facts. Perhaps some day you will know them, for
+you are a fairly clever person at getting to the root of a matter. Yes,
+I was blinded, hypnotized.’
+
+‘And now you are ruined.’
+
+‘Not ruined, not ruined. Afterwards, in a few years, I shall come up
+again.
+
+A man of genius like me is never ruined till he is dead. Genius is
+always forgiven. I shall be forgiven. Suppose I am sent to prison. When
+I emerge I shall be no gaol-bird. I shall be Rocco--the great Rocco. And
+half the hotels in Europe will invite me to join them.’
+
+‘Let me tell you, as man to man, that you have achieved your own
+degradation. There is no excuse.’
+
+‘I know it,’ said Rocco. ‘Let us go.’
+
+Racksole was distinctly and notably impressed by this man--by this
+master spirit to whom he was to have paid a salary at the rate of three
+thousand pounds a year. He even felt sorry for him. And so, side by
+side, the captor and the captured, they passed into the vast deserted
+corridor of the hotel.
+
+Rocco stopped at the grating of the first lift.
+
+‘It will be locked,’ said Racksole. ‘We must use the stairs to-night.’
+
+‘But I have a key. I always carry one,’ said Rocco, and he pulled one
+out of his pocket, and, unfastening the iron screen, pushed it open.
+Racksole smiled at his readiness and aplomb.
+
+‘After you,’ said Rocco, bowing in his finest manner, and Racksole
+stepped into the lift.
+
+With the swiftness of lighting Rocco pushed forward the iron screen,
+which locked itself automatically. Theodore Racksole was hopelessly a
+prisoner within the lift, while Rocco stood free in the corridor.
+
+‘Good-bye, Mr Racksole,’ he remarked suavely, bowing again, lower than
+before. ‘Good-bye: I hate to take a mean advantage of you in this
+fashion, but really you must allow that you have been very simple. You
+are a clever man, as I have already said, up to a certain point. It is
+past that point that my own cleverness comes in. Again, good-bye. After
+all, I shall have no rest to-night, but perhaps even that will be better
+that sleeping in a police cell. If you make a great noise you may wake
+someone and ultimately get released from this lift. But I advise you to
+compose yourself, and wait till morning. It will be more dignified. For
+the third time, good-bye.’
+
+And with that Rocco, without hastening, walked down the corridor and so
+out of sight.
+
+Racksole said never a word. He was too disgusted with himself to speak.
+He clenched his fists, and put his teeth together, and held his breath.
+In the silence he could hear the dwindling sound of Rocco’s footsteps on
+the thick carpet.
+
+It was the greatest blow of Racksole’s life.
+
+The next morning the high-born guests of the Grand Babylon were aroused
+by a rumour that by some accident the millionaire proprietor of the
+hotel had remained all night locked up in the lift. It was also stated
+that Rocco had quarrelled with his new master and incontinently left the
+place. A duchess said that Rocco’s departure would mean the ruin of the
+hotel, whereupon her husband advised her not to talk nonsense.
+
+As for Racksole, he sent a message for the detective in charge of the
+Dimmock affair, and bravely told him the happenings of the previous
+night.
+
+The narration was a decided ordeal to a man of Racksole’s temperament.
+
+‘A strange story!’ commented Detective Marshall, and he could not avoid
+a smile. ‘The climax was unfortunate, but you have certainly got some
+valuable facts.’
+
+Racksole said nothing.
+
+‘I myself have a clue,’ added the detective. ‘When your message arrived
+I was just coming up to see you. I want you to accompany me to a certain
+spot not far from here. Will you come, now, at once?’
+
+‘With pleasure,’ said Racksole.
+
+At that moment a page entered with a telegram. Racksole opened it read:
+
+‘Please come instantly. Nella. Hôtel Wellington, Ostend.’
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+‘I can’t come,’ he said to the detective. I’m going to Ostend.’
+
+‘To Ostend?’
+
+‘Yes, now.’
+
+‘But really, Mr Racksole,’ protested the detective. ‘My business is
+urgent.’
+
+‘So’s mine,’ said Racksole.
+
+In ten minutes he was on his way to Victoria Station.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Fifteen END OF THE YACHT ADVENTURE
+
+WE must now return to Nella Racksole and Prince Aribert of Posen on
+board the yacht without a name. The Prince’s first business was to make
+Jules, otherwise Mr Tom Jackson, perfectly secure by means of several
+pieces of rope. Although Mr Jackson had been stunned into a complete
+unconsciousness, and there was a contused wound under his ear, no one
+could say how soon he might not come to himself and get very violent. So
+the Prince, having tied his arms and legs, made him fast to a stanchion.
+
+‘I hope he won’t die,’ said Nella. ‘He looks very white.’
+
+‘The Mr Jacksons of this world,’ said Prince Aribert sententiously,
+‘never die till they are hung. By the way, I wonder how it is that no
+one has interfered with us. Perhaps they are discreetly afraid of my
+revolver--of your revolver, I mean.’
+
+Both he and Nella glanced up at the imperturbable steersman, who kept
+the yacht’s head straight out to sea. By this time they were about a
+couple of miles from the Belgian shore.
+
+Addressing him in French, the Prince ordered the sailor to put the yacht
+about, and make again for Ostend Harbour, but the fellow took no notice
+whatever of the summons. The Prince raised the revolver, with the idea
+of frightening the steersman, and then the man began to talk rapidly in
+a mixture of French and Flemish. He said that he had received Jules’
+strict orders not to interfere in any way, no matter what might happen
+on the deck of the yacht. He was the captain of the yacht, and he had to
+make for a certain English port, the name of which he could not divulge:
+he was to keep the vessel at full steam ahead under any and all
+circumstances. He seemed to be a very big, a very strong, and a very
+determined man, and the Prince was at a loss what course of action to
+pursue. He asked several more questions, but the only effect of them was
+to render the man taciturn and ill-humoured.
+
+In vain Prince Aribert explained that Miss Nella Racksole, daughter of
+millionaire Racksole, had been abducted by Mr Tom Jackson; in vain he
+flourished the revolver threateningly; the surly but courageous captain
+said merely that that had nothing to do with him; he had instructions,
+and he should carry them out. He sarcastically begged to remind his
+interlocutor that he was the captain of the yacht.
+
+‘It won’t do to shoot him, I suppose,’ said the Prince to Nella. ‘I
+might bore a hole into his leg, or something of that kind.’
+
+‘It’s rather risky, and rather hard on the poor captain, with his
+extraordinary sense of duty,’ said Nella. ‘And, besides, the whole crew
+might turn on us. No, we must think of something else.’
+
+‘I wonder where the crew is,’ said the Prince.
+
+Just then Mr Jackson, prone and bound on the deck, showed signs of
+recovering from his swoon. His eyes opened, and he gazed vacantly
+around. At length he caught sight of the Prince, who approached him with
+the revolver well in view.
+
+‘It’s you, is it?’ he murmured faintly. ‘What are you doing on board?
+Who’s tied me up like this?’
+
+‘See here!’ replied the Prince, ‘I don’t want to have any arguments, but
+this yacht must return to Ostend at once, where you will be given up to
+the authorities.’
+
+‘Really!’ snarled Mr Tom Jackson. ‘Shall I!’ Then he called out in
+French to the man at the wheel, ‘Hi André! let these two be put off in
+the dinghy.’
+
+It was a peculiar situation. Certain of nothing but the possession of
+Nella’s revolver, the Prince scarcely knew whether to carry the argument
+further, and with stronger measures, or to accept the situation with as
+much dignity as the circumstances would permit.
+
+‘Let us take the dinghy,’ said Nella; ‘we can row ashore in an hour.’
+
+He felt that she was right. To leave the yacht in such a manner seemed
+somewhat ignominious, and it certainly involved the escape of that
+profound villain, Mr Thomas Jackson. But what else could be done? The
+Prince and Nella constituted one party on the vessel; they knew their
+own strength, but they did not know the strength of their opponents.
+They held the hostile ringleader bound and captive, but this man had
+proved himself capable of giving orders, and even to gag him would not
+help them if the captain of the yacht persisted in his obstinate course.
+Moreover, there was a distinct objection to promiscuous shooting. The
+Prince felt that there was no knowing how promiscuous shooting might
+end.
+
+‘We will take the dinghy,’ said the Prince quickly, to the captain.
+
+A bell rang below, and a sailor and the Negro boy appeared on deck. The
+pulsations of the screw grew less rapid. The yacht stopped. The dinghy
+was lowered. As the Prince and Nella prepared to descend into the little
+cock-boat Mr Tom Jackson addressed Nella, all bound as he lay.
+
+‘Good-bye,’ he said, ‘I shall see you again, never fear.’.
+
+In another moment they were in the dinghy, and the dinghy was adrift.
+The yacht’s screw churned the water, and the beautiful vessel slipped
+away from them. As it receded a figure appeared at the stem. It was Mr
+Thomas Jackson.
+
+He had been released by his minions. He held a white handkerchief to his
+ear, and offered a calm, enigmatic smile to the two forlorn but
+victorious occupants of the dinghy. Jules had been defeated for once in
+his life; or perhaps it would be more just to say that he had been out-
+manoeuvred. Men like Jules are incapable of being defeated. It was
+characteristic of his luck that now, in the very hour when he had been
+caught red-handed in a serious crime against society, he should be
+effecting a leisurely escape--an escape which left no clue behind.
+
+The sea was utterly calm and blue in the morning sun. The dinghy rocked
+itself lazily in the swell of the yacht’s departure. As the mist cleared
+away the outline of the shore became more distinct, and it appeared as
+if Ostend was distant scarcely a cable’s length. The white dome of the
+great Kursaal glittered in the pale turquoise sky, and the smoke of
+steamers in the harbour could be plainly distinguished. On the offing
+was a crowd of brown-sailed fishing luggers returning with the night’s
+catch. The many-hued bathing-vans could be counted on the distant beach.
+Everything seemed perfectly normal. It was difficult for either Nella or
+her companion to realize that anything extraordinary had happened within
+the last hour. Yet there was the yacht, not a mile off, to prove to them
+that something very extraordinary had, in fact, happened. The yacht was
+no vision, nor was that sinister watching figure at its stern a vision,
+either.
+
+‘I suppose Jules was too surprised and too feeble to inquire how I came
+to be on board his yacht,’ said the Prince, taking the oars.
+
+‘Oh! How did you?’ asked Nella, her face lighting up. ‘Really, I had
+almost forgotten that part of the affair.’
+
+‘I must begin at the beginning and it will take some time,’ answered the
+Prince. ‘Had we not better postpone the recital till we get ashore?’
+
+‘I will row and you shall talk,’ said Nella. ‘I want to know now.’
+
+He smiled happily at her, but gently declined to yield up the oars.
+
+‘Is it not sufficient that I am here?’ he said.
+
+‘It is sufficient, yes,’ she replied, ‘but I want to know.’
+
+With a long, easy stroke he was pulling the dinghy shorewards. She sat
+in the stern-sheets.
+
+‘There is no rudder,’ he remarked, ‘so you must direct me. Keep the
+boat’s head on the lighthouse. The tide seems to be running in strongly;
+that will help us. The people on shore will think that we have only been
+for a little early morning excursion.’
+
+‘Will you kindly tell me how it came about that you were able to save my
+life, Prince?’ she said.
+
+‘Save your life, Miss Racksole? I didn’t save your life; I merely
+knocked a man down.’
+
+‘You saved my life,’ she repeated. ‘That villain would have stopped at
+nothing. I saw it in his eye.’
+
+‘Then you were a brave woman, for you showed no fear of death.’ His
+admiring gaze rested full on her. For a moment the oars ceased to move.
+
+She gave a gesture of impatience.
+
+‘It happened that I saw you last night in your carriage,’ he said. ‘The
+fact is, I had not had the audacity to go to Berlin with my story. I
+stopped in Ostend to see whether I could do a little detective work on
+my own account.
+
+It was a piece of good luck that I saw you. I followed the carriage as
+quickly as I could, and I just caught a glimpse of you as you entered
+that awful house. I knew that Jules had something to do with that house.
+I guessed what you were doing. I was afraid for you. Fortunately I had
+surveyed the house pretty thoroughly. There is an entrance to it at the
+back, from a narrow lane. I made my way there. I got into the yard at
+the back, and I stood under the window of the room where you had the
+interview with Miss Spencer. I heard everything that was said. It was a
+courageous enterprise on your part to follow Miss Spencer from the Grand
+Babylon to Ostend. Well, I dared not force an entrance, lest I might
+precipitate matters too suddenly, and involve both of us in a
+difficulty. I merely kept watch. Ah, Miss Racksole! you were magnificent
+with Miss Spencer; as I say, I could hear every word, for the window was
+slightly open. I felt that you needed no assistance from me. And then
+she cheated you with a trick, and the revolver came flying through the
+window. I picked it up, I thought it would probably be useful. There was
+a silence. I did not guess at first that you had fainted. I thought that
+you had escaped. When I found out the truth it was too late for me to
+intervene. There were two men, both desperate, besides Miss Spencer--’
+
+‘Who was the other man?’ asked Nella.
+
+‘I do not know. It was dark. They drove away with you to the harbour.
+Again I followed. I saw them carry you on board. Before the yacht
+weighed anchor I managed to climb unobserved into the dinghy. I lay down
+full length in it, and no one suspected that I was there. I think you
+know the rest.’
+
+‘Was the yacht all ready for sea?’
+
+‘The yacht was all ready for sea. The captain fellow was on the bridge,
+and steam was up.’
+
+‘Then they expected me! How could that be?’
+
+‘They expected some one. I do not think they expected you.’
+
+‘Did the second man go on board?’
+
+‘He helped to carry you along the gangway, but he came back again to the
+carriage. He was the driver.’
+
+‘And no one else saw the business?’
+
+‘The quay was deserted. You see, the last steamer had arrived for the
+night.’
+
+There was a brief silence, and then Nella ejaculated, under her breath.
+
+‘Truly, it is a wonderful world!’
+
+And it was a wonderful world for them, though scarcely perhaps, in the
+sense which Nella Racksole had intended. They had just emerged from a
+highly disconcerting experience. Among other minor inconveniences, they
+had had no breakfast. They were out in the sea in a tiny boat. Neither
+of them knew what the day might bring forth. The man, at least, had the
+most serious anxieties for the safety of his Royal nephew. And yet--and
+yet--neither of them wished that that voyage of the little boat on the
+summer tide should come to an end. Each, perhaps unconsciously, had a
+vague desire that it might last for ever, he lazily pulling, she
+directing his course at intervals by a movement of her distractingly
+pretty head. How was this condition of affairs to be explained? Well,
+they were both young; they both had superb health, and all the ardour of
+youth; and--they were together.
+
+The boat was very small indeed; her face was scarcely a yard from his.
+She, in his eyes, surrounded by the glamour of beauty and vast wealth;
+he, in her eyes, surrounded by the glamour of masculine intrepidity and
+the brilliance of a throne.
+
+But all voyages come to an end, either at the shore or at the bottom of
+the sea, and at length the dinghy passed between the stone jetties of
+the harbour. The Prince rowed to the nearest steps, tied up the boat,
+and they landed. It was six o’clock in the morning, and a day of
+gorgeous sunlight had opened. Few people were about at that early hour.
+
+‘And now, what next?’ said the Prince. ‘I must take you to an hotel.’
+
+‘I am in your hands,’ she acquiesced, with a smile which sent the blood
+racing through his veins. He perceived now that she was tired and
+overcome, suffering from a sudden and natural reaction.
+
+At the Hôtel Wellington the Prince told the sleepy door-keeper that they
+had come by the early train from Bruges, and wanted breakfast at once.
+It was absurdly early, but a common English sovereign will work wonders
+in any Belgian hotel, and in a very brief time Nella and the Prince were
+breakfasting on the verandah of the hotel upon chocolate that had been
+specially and hastily brewed for them.
+
+‘I never tasted such excellent chocolate,’ claimed the Prince.
+
+The statement was wildly untrue, for the Hôtel Wellington is not
+celebrated for its chocolate. Nevertheless Nella replied
+enthusiastically, ‘Nor I.’
+
+Then there was a silence, and Nella, feeling possibly that she had been
+too ecstatic, remarked in a very matter-of-fact tone: ‘I must telegraph
+to Papa instantly.’
+
+Thus it was that Theodore Racksole received the telegram which drew him
+away from Detective Marshall.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Sixteen THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT
+
+‘THERE is one thing, Prince, that we have just got to settle straight
+off,’ said Theodore Racksole.
+
+They were all three seated--Racksole, his daughter, and Prince Aribert--
+round a dinner table in a private room at the Hôtel Wellington. Racksole
+had duly arrived by the afternoon boat, and had been met on the quay by
+the other two. They had dined early, and Racksole had heard the full
+story of the adventures by sea and land of Nella and the Prince. As to
+his own adventure of the previous night he said very little, merely
+explaining, with as little detail as possible, that Dimmock’s body had
+come to light.
+
+‘What is that?’ asked the Prince, in answer to Racksole’s remark.
+
+‘We have got to settle whether we shall tell the police at once all that
+has occurred, or whether we shall proceed on our own responsibility.
+There can be no doubt as to which course we ought to pursue. Every
+consideration of prudence points to the advisability of taking the
+police into our confidence, and leaving the matter entirely in their
+hands.’
+
+‘Oh, Papa!’ Nella burst out in her pouting, impulsive way. ‘You surely
+can’t think of such a thing. Why, the fun has only just begun.’
+
+‘Do you call last night fun?’ questioned Racksole, gazing at her
+solemnly.
+
+‘Yes, I do,’ she said promptly. ‘Now.’
+
+‘Well, I don’t,’ was the millionaire’s laconic response; but perhaps he
+was thinking of his own situation in the lift.
+
+‘Do you not think we might investigate a little further,’ said the
+Prince judiciously, as he cracked a walnut, ‘just a little further--and
+then, if we fail to accomplish anything, there would still be ample
+opportunity to consult the police?’
+
+‘How do you suggest we should begin?’ asked Racksole.
+
+‘Well, there is the house which Miss Racksole so intrepidly entered last
+evening’--he gave her the homage of an admiring glance; ‘you and I, Mr
+Racksole, might examine that abode in detail.’
+
+‘To-night?’
+
+‘Certainly. We might do something.’
+
+‘We might do too much.’
+
+‘For example?’
+
+‘We might shoot someone, or get ourselves mistaken for burglars. If we
+outstepped the law, it would be no excuse for us that we had been acting
+in a good cause.’
+
+‘True,’ said the Prince. ‘Nevertheless--’ He stopped.
+
+‘Nevertheless you have a distaste for bringing the police into the
+business.
+
+You want the hunt all to yourself. You are on fire with the ardour of
+the chase. Is not that it? Accept the advice of an older man, Prince,
+and sleep on this affair. I have little fancy for nocturnal escapades
+two nights together. As for you, Nella, off with you to bed. The Prince
+and I will have a yarn over such fluids as can be obtained in this
+hole.’
+
+‘Papa,’ she said, ‘you are perfectly horrid to-night.’
+
+‘Perhaps I am,’ he said. ‘Decidedly I am very cross with you for coming
+over here all alone. It was monstrous. If I didn’t happen to be the most
+foolish of parents--There! Good-night. It’s nine o’clock. The Prince, I
+am sure, will excuse you.’
+
+If Nella had not really been very tired Prince Aribert might have been
+the witness of a good-natured but stubborn conflict between the
+millionaire and his spirited offspring. As it was, Nella departed with
+surprising docility, and the two men were left alone.
+
+‘Now,’ said Racksole suddenly, changing his tone, ‘I fancy that after
+all I’m your man for a little amateur investigation to-night. And, if I
+must speak the exact truth, I think that to sleep on this affair would
+be about the very worst thing we could do. But I was anxious to keep
+Nella out of harm’s way at any rate till to-morrow. She is a very
+difficult creature to manage, Prince, and I may warn you,’ he laughed
+grimly, ‘that if we do succeed in doing anything to-night we shall catch
+it from her ladyship in the morning. Are you ready to take that risk?’
+
+‘I am,’ the Prince smiled. ‘But Miss Racksole is a young lady of quite
+remarkable nerve.’
+
+‘She is,’ said Racksole drily. ‘I wish sometimes she had less.’
+
+‘I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,’ said the Prince, and
+he looked Miss Racksole’s father full in the face.
+
+‘You honour us, Prince,’ Racksole observed. ‘Let us come to business. Am
+I right in assuming that you have a reason for keeping the police out of
+this business, if it can possibly be done?’
+
+‘Yes,’ said the Prince, and his brow clouded. ‘I am very much afraid
+that my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he would
+wish not to be divulged.’
+
+‘Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?’
+
+‘I do not.’
+
+‘And the reason, if I may ask it?’
+
+‘Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence--is it not so? Some years ago my
+foolish nephew had an affair--an affair with a feminine star of the
+Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have been the very
+pattern of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is concerned scandal
+cannot be avoided in such a matter. I had thought that the affair was
+quite at an end, since my nephew’s betrothal to Princess Anna of
+Eckstein-Schwartzburg is shortly to be announced. But yesterday I saw
+the lady to whom I have referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence
+of her presence here with my nephew’s disappearance is too extraordinary
+to be disregarded.’
+
+‘But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald Dimmock?’
+
+‘It does not square with it. My idea is that the murder of poor Dimmock
+and the disappearance of my nephew are entirely unconnected--unless,
+indeed, this Berlin actress is playing into the hands of the murderers.
+I had not thought of that.’
+
+‘Then what do you propose to do to-night?’
+
+‘I propose to enter the house which Miss Racksole entered last night and
+to find out something definite.’
+
+‘I concur,’ said Racksole. ‘I shall heartily enjoy it. But let me tell
+you, Prince, and pardon me for speaking bluntly, your surmise is
+incorrect. I would wager a hundred thousand dollars that Prince Eugen
+has been kidnapped.’
+
+‘What grounds have you for being so sure?’
+
+‘Ah! said Racksole, ‘that is a long story. Let me begin by asking you
+this.
+
+Are you aware that your nephew, Prince Eugen, owes a million of money?’
+
+‘A million of money!’ cried Prince Aribert astonished. ‘It is
+impossible!’
+
+‘Nevertheless, he does,’ said Racksole calmly. Then he told him all he
+had learnt from Mr Sampson Levi.
+
+‘What have you to say to that?’ Racksole ended. Prince Aribert made no
+reply.
+
+‘What have you to say to that?’ Racksole insisted.
+
+‘Merely that Eugen is ruined, even if he is alive.’
+
+‘Not at all,’ Racksole returned with cheerfulness. ‘Not at all. We shall
+see about that. The special thing that I want to know just now from you
+is this:
+
+Has any previous application ever been made for the hand of the Princess
+Anna?’
+
+‘Yes. Last year. The King of Bosnia sued for it, but his proposal was
+declined.’
+
+‘Why?’
+
+‘Because my nephew was considered to be a more suitable match for her.’
+
+‘Not because the personal character of his Majesty of Bosnia is scarcely
+of the brightest?’
+
+‘No. Unfortunately it is usually impossible to consider questions of
+personal character when a royal match is concerned.’
+
+‘Then, if for any reason the marriage of Princess Anna with your nephew
+was frustrated, the King of Bosnia would have a fair chance in that
+quarter?’
+
+‘He would. The political aspect of things would be perfectly
+satisfactory.’
+
+‘Thanks!’ said Racksole. ‘I will wager another hundred thousand dollars
+that someone in Bosnia--I don’t accuse the King himself--is at the
+bottom of this business. The methods of Balkan politicians have always
+been half-Oriental. Let us go.’
+
+‘Where?’
+
+‘To this precious house of Nella’s adventure.’
+
+‘But surely it is too early?’
+
+‘So it is,’ said Racksole, ‘and we shall want a few things, too. For
+instance, a dark lantern. I think I will go out and forage for a
+lantern.’
+
+‘And a revolver?’ suggested Prince Aribert.
+
+‘Does it mean revolvers?’ The millionaire laughed. ‘It may come to
+that.’ ‘Here you are, then, my friend,’ said Racksole, and he pulled one
+out of his hip pocket. ‘And yours?’
+
+‘I,’ said the Prince, ‘I have your daughter’s.’
+
+‘The deuce you have!’ murmured Racksole to himself.
+
+It was then half past nine. They decided that it would be impolitic to
+begin their operations till after midnight. There were three hours to
+spare.
+
+‘Let us go and see the gambling,’ Racksole suggested. ‘We might
+encounter the Berlin lady.’
+
+The suggestion, in the first instance, was not made seriously, but it
+appeared to both men that they might do worse than spend the intervening
+time in the gorgeous saloon of the Kursaal, where, in the season, as
+much money is won and lost as at Monte Carlo. It was striking ten
+o’clock as they entered the rooms. There was a large company present--a
+company which included some of the most notorious persons in Europe. In
+that multifarious assemblage all were equal. The electric light shone
+coldly and impartially on the just and on the unjust, on the fool and
+the knave, on the European and the Asiatic. As usual, women monopolized
+the best places at the tables.
+
+The scene was familiar enough to Prince Aribert, who had witnessed it
+frequently at Monaco, but Theodore Racksole had never before entered any
+European gaming palace; he had only the haziest idea of the rules of
+play, and he was at once interested. For some time they watched the play
+at the table which happened to be nearest to them. Racksole never moved
+his lips.
+
+With his eyes glued on the table, and ears open for every remark, of the
+players and the croupier, he took his first lesson in roulette. He saw a
+mere youth win fifteen thousand francs, which were stolen in the most
+barefaced manner by a rouged girl scarcely older than the youth; he saw
+two old gamesters stake their coins, and lose, and walk quietly out of
+the place; he saw the bank win fifty thousand francs at a single turn.
+
+‘This is rather good fun,’ he said at length, ‘but the stakes are too
+small to make it really exciting. I’ll try my luck, just for the
+experience. I’m bound to win.’
+
+‘Why?’ asked the Prince.
+
+‘Because I always do, in games of chance,’ Racksole answered with gay
+confidence. ‘It is my fate. Then to-night, you must remember, I shall be
+a beginner, and you know the tyro’s luck.’
+
+In ten minutes the croupier of that table was obliged to suspend
+operations pending the arrival of a further supply of coin.
+
+‘What did I tell you?’ said Racksole, leading the way to another table
+further up the room. A hundred curious glances went after him. One old
+woman, whose gay attire suggested a false youthfulness, begged him in
+French to stake a five-franc piece for her. She offered him the coin. He
+took it, and gave her a hundred-franc note in exchange. She clutched the
+crisp rustling paper, and with hysterical haste scuttled back to her own
+table.
+
+At the second table there was a considerable air of excitement. In the
+forefront of the players was a woman in a low-cut evening dress of black
+silk and a large red picture hat. Her age appeared to be about twenty-
+eight; she had dark eyes, full lips, and a distinctly Jewish nose. She
+was handsome, but her beauty was of that forbidding, sinister order
+which is often called Junoesque. This woman was the centre of
+attraction. People said to each other that she had won a hundred and
+sixty thousand francs that day at the table.
+
+‘You were right,’ Prince Aribert whispered to Theodore Racksole; ‘that
+is the Berlin lady.’
+
+‘The deuce she is! Has she seen you? Will she know you?’
+
+‘She would probably know me, but she hasn’t looked up yet.’
+
+‘Keep behind her, then. I propose to find her a little occupation.’ By
+dint of a carefully-exercised diplomacy, Racksole manoeuvred himself
+into a seat opposite to the lady in the red hat. The fame of his success
+at the other table had followed him, and people regarded him as a
+serious and formidable player. In the first turn the lady put a thousand
+francs on double zero; Racksole put a hundred on number nineteen and a
+thousand on the odd numbers.
+
+Nineteen won. Racksole received four thousand four hundred francs. Nine
+times in succession Racksole backed number nineteen and the odd numbers;
+nine times the lady backed double zero. Nine times Racksole won and the
+lady lost. The other players, perceiving that the affair had resolved
+itself into a duel, stood back for the most part and watched those two.
+Prince Aribert never stirred from his position behind the great red hat.
+The game continued. Racksole lost trifles from time to time, but ninety-
+nine hundredths of the luck was with him. As an English spectator at the
+table remarked, ‘he couldn’t do wrong.’ When midnight struck the lady in
+the red hat was reduced to a thousand francs. Then she fell into a
+winning vein for half an hour, but at one o’clock her resources were
+exhausted. Of the hundred and sixty thousand francs which she was
+reputed to have had early in the evening, Racksole held about ninety
+thousand, and the bank had the rest.
+
+It was a calamity for the Juno of the red hat. She jumped up, stamped
+her foot, and hurried from the room. At a discreet distance Racksole and
+the Prince pursued her.
+
+‘It might be well to ascertain her movements,’ said Racksole.
+
+Outside, in the glare of the great arc lights, and within sound of the
+surf which beats always at the very foot of the Kursaal, the Juno of the
+red hat summoned a fiacre and drove rapidly away. Racksole and the
+Prince took an open carriage and started in pursuit. They had not,
+however, travelled more than half a mile when Prince Aribert stopped the
+carriage, and, bidding Racksole get out, paid the driver and dismissed
+him.
+
+‘I feel sure I know where she is going,’ he explained, ‘and it will be
+better for us to follow on foot.’
+
+‘You mean she is making for the scene of last night’s affair?’ said
+Racksole.
+
+‘Exactly. We shall--what you call, kill two birds with one stone.’
+
+Prince Aribert’s guess was correct. The lady’s carriage stopped in front
+of the house where Nella Racksole and Miss Spencer had had their
+interview on the previous evening, and the lady vanished into the
+building just as the two men appeared at the end of the street. Instead
+of proceeding along that street, the Prince led Racksole to the lane
+which gave on to the backs of the houses, and he counted the houses as
+they went up the lane. In a few minutes they had burglariously climbed
+over a wall, and crept, with infinite caution, up a long, narrow piece
+of ground--half garden, half paved yard, till they crouched under a
+window--a window which was shielded by curtains, but which had been left
+open a little.
+
+‘Listen,’ said the Prince in his lightest whisper, ‘they are talking.’
+
+‘Who?’
+
+‘The Berlin lady and Miss Spencer. I’m sure it’s Miss Spencer’s voice.’
+
+Racksole boldly pushed the french window a little wider open, and put
+his ear to the aperture, through which came a beam of yellow light.
+
+‘Take my place,’ he whispered to the Prince, ‘they’re talking German.
+You’ll understand better.’
+
+Silently they exchanged places under the window, and the Prince listened
+intently.
+
+‘Then you refuse?’ Miss Spencer’s visitor was saying.
+
+There was no answer from Miss Spencer.
+
+‘Not even a thousand francs? I tell you I’ve lost the whole twenty-five
+thousand.’
+
+Again no answer.
+
+‘Then I’ll tell the whole story,’ the lady went on, in an angry rush of
+words. ‘I did what I promised to do. I enticed him here, and you’ve got
+him safe in your vile cellar, poor little man, and you won’t give me a
+paltry thousand francs.’
+
+‘You have already had your price.’ The words were Miss Spencer’s. They
+fell cold and calm on the night air.
+
+‘I want another thousand.’
+
+‘I haven’t it.’
+
+‘Then we’ll see.’
+
+Prince Aribert heard a rustle of flying skirts; then another movement--a
+door banged, and the beam of light through the aperture of the window
+suddenly disappeared. He pushed the window wide open. The room was in
+darkness, and apparently empty.
+
+‘Now for that lantern of yours,’ he said eagerly to Theodore Racksole,
+after he had translated to him the conversation of the two women,
+Racksole produced the dark lantern from the capacious pocket of his dust
+coat, and lighted it. The ray flashed about the ground.
+
+‘What is it?’ exclaimed Prince Aribert with a swift cry, pointing to the
+ground. The lantern threw its light on a perpendicular grating at their
+feet, through which could be discerned a cellar. They both knelt down,
+and peered into the subterranean chamber. On a broken chair a young man
+sat listlessly with closed eyes, his head leaning heavily forward on his
+chest.
+
+In the feeble light of the lantern he had the livid and ghastly
+appearance of a corpse.
+
+‘Who can it be?’ said Racksole.
+
+‘It is Eugen,’ was the Prince’s low answer.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Seventeen THE RELEASE OF PRINCE EUGEN
+
+‘EUGEN,’ Prince Aribert called softly. At the sound of his own name the
+young man in the cellar feebly raised his head and stared up at the
+grating which separated him from his two rescuers. But his features
+showed no recognition. He gazed in an aimless, vague, silly manner for a
+few seconds, his eyes blinking under the glare of the lantern, and then
+his head slowly drooped again on to his chest. He was dressed in a dark
+tweed travelling suit, and Racksole observed that one sleeve--the left--
+was torn across the upper part of the cuff, and that there were stains
+of dirt on the left shoulder. A soiled linen collar, which had lost all
+its starch and was half unbuttoned, partially encircled the captive’s
+neck; his brown boots were unlaced; a cap, a handkerchief, a portion of
+a watch-chain, and a few gold coins lay on the floor. Racksole flashed
+the lantern into the corners of the cellar, but he could discover no
+other furniture except the chair on which the Hereditary Prince of Posen
+sat and a small deal table on which were a plate and a cup.
+
+‘Eugen,’ cried Prince Aribert once more, but this time his forlorn
+nephew made no response whatever, and then Aribert added in a low voice
+to Racksole: ‘Perhaps he cannot see us clearly.’
+
+‘But he must surely recognize your voice,’ said Racksole, in a hard,
+gloomy tone. There was a pause, and the two men above ground looked at
+each other hesitatingly. Each knew that they must enter that cellar and
+get Prince Eugen out of it, and each was somehow afraid to take the next
+step.
+
+‘Thank God he is not dead!’ said Aribert.
+
+‘He may be worse than dead!’ Racksole replied.
+
+‘Worse than--What do you mean?’
+
+‘I mean--he may be mad.’
+
+‘Come,’ Aribert almost shouted, with a sudden access of energy--a wild
+impulse for action. And, snatching the lantern from Racksole, he rushed
+into the dark room where they had heard the conversation of Miss Spencer
+and the lady in the red hat. For a moment Racksole did not stir from the
+threshold of the window. ‘Come,’ Prince Aribert repeated, and there was
+an imperious command in his utterance. ‘What are you afraid of?’
+
+‘I don’t know,’ said Racksole, feeling stupid and queer; ‘I don’t know.’
+
+Then he marched heavily after Prince Aribert into the room. On the
+mantelpiece were a couple of candles which had been blown out, and in a
+mechanical, unthinking way, Racksole lighted them, and the two men
+glanced round the room. It presented no peculiar features: it was just
+an ordinary room, rather small, rather mean, rather shabby, with an ugly
+wallpaper and ugly pictures in ugly frames. Thrown over a chair was a
+man’s evening-dress jacket. The door was closed. Prince Aribert turned
+the knob, but he could not open it.
+
+‘It’s locked,’ he said. ‘Evidently they know we’re here.’
+
+‘Nonsense,’ said Racksole brusquely; ‘how can they know?’ And, taking
+hold of the knob, he violently shook the door, and it opened. ‘I told
+you it wasn’t locked,’ he added, and this small success of opening the
+door seemed to steady the man. It was a curious psychological effect,
+this terrorizing (for it amounted to that) of two courageous full-grown
+men by the mere apparition of a helpless creature in a cellar. Gradually
+they both recovered from it. The next moment they were out in the
+passage which led to the front door of the house. The front door stood
+open. They looked into the street, up and down, but there was not a soul
+in sight. The street, lighted by three gas-lamps only, seemed strangely
+sinister and mysterious.
+
+‘She has gone, that’s clear,’ said Racksole, meaning the woman with the
+red hat.
+
+‘And Miss Spencer after her, do you think?’ questioned Aribert.
+
+‘No. She would stay. She would never dare to leave. Let us find the
+cellar steps.’
+
+The cellar steps were happily not difficult to discover, for in moving a
+pace backwards Prince Aribert had a narrow escape of precipitating
+himself to the bottom of them. The lantern showed that they were built
+on a curve.
+
+Silently Racksole resumed possession of the lantern and went first, the
+Prince close behind him. At the foot was a short passage, and in this
+passage crouched the figure of a woman. Her eyes threw back the rays of
+the lantern, shining like a cat’s at midnight. Then, as the men went
+nearer, they saw that it was Miss Spencer who barred their way. She
+seemed half to kneel on the stone floor, and in one hand she held what
+at first appeared to be a dagger, but which proved to be nothing more
+romantic than a rather long bread-knife.
+
+‘I heard you, I heard you,’ she exclaimed. ‘Get back; you mustn’t come
+here.’
+
+There was a desperate and dangerous look on her face, and her form shook
+with scarcely controlled passionate energy.
+
+‘Now see here, Miss Spencer,’ Racksole said calmly, ‘I guess we’ve had
+enough of this fandango. You’d better get up and clear out, or we’ll
+just have to drag you off.’
+
+He went calmly up to her, the lantern in his hand. Without another word
+she struck the knife into his arm, and the lantern fell extinguished.
+Racksole gave a cry, rather of angry surprise than of pain, and
+retreated a few steps. In the darkness they could still perceive the
+glint of her eyes.
+
+‘I told you you mustn’t come here,’ the woman said. ‘Now get back.’
+
+Racksole positively laughed. It was a queer laugh, but he laughed, and
+he could not help it. The idea of this woman, this bureau clerk,
+stopping his progress and that of Prince Aribert by means of a bread-
+knife aroused his sense of humour. He struck a match, relighted the
+candle, and faced Miss Spencer once more.
+
+‘I’ll do it again,’ she said, with a note of hard resolve.
+
+‘Oh, no, you won’t, my girl,’ said Racksole; and he pulled out his
+revolver, cocked it, raised his hand.
+
+‘Put down that plaything of yours,’ he said firmly.
+
+‘No,’ she answered.
+
+‘I shall shoot.’
+
+She pressed her lips together.
+
+‘I shall shoot,’ he repeated. ‘One--two--three.’
+
+Bang, bang! He had fired twice, purposely missing her. Miss Spencer
+never blenched. Racksole was tremendously surprised--and he would have
+been a thousandfold more surprised could he have contrasted her
+behaviour now with her abject terror on the previous evening when Nella
+had threatened her.
+
+‘You’ve got a bit of pluck,’ he said, ‘but it won’t help you. Why won’t
+you let us pass?’
+
+As a matter of fact, pluck was just what she had not, really; she had
+merely subordinated one terror to another. She was desperately afraid of
+Racksole’s revolver, but she was much more afraid of something else.
+
+‘Why won’t you let us pass?’
+
+‘I daren’t,’ she said, with a plaintive tremor; ‘Tom put me in charge.’
+
+That was all. The men could see tears running down her poor wrinkled
+face.
+
+Theodore Racksole began to take off his light overcoat.
+
+‘I see I must take my coat off to you,’ he said, and he almost smiled.
+Then, with a quick movement, he threw the coat over Miss Spencer’s head
+and flew at her, seizing both her arms, while Prince Aribert assisted.
+
+Her struggles ceased--she was beaten.
+
+‘That’s all right,’ said Racksole: ‘I could never have used that
+revolver--to mean business with it, of course.’
+
+They carried her, unresisting, upstairs and on to the upper floor, where
+they locked her in a bedroom. She lay in the bed as if exhausted.
+
+‘Now for my poor Eugen,’ said Prince Aribert.
+
+‘Don’t you think we’d better search the house first?’ Racksole
+suggested; ‘it will be safer to know just how we stand. We can’t afford
+any ambushes or things of that kind, you know.’
+
+The Prince agreed, and they searched the house from top to bottom, but
+found no one. Then, having locked the front door and the french window
+of the sitting-room, they proceeded again to the cellar.
+
+Here a new obstacle confronted them. The cellar door was, of course,
+locked; there was no sign of a key, and it appeared to be a heavy door.
+They were compelled to return to the bedroom where Miss Spencer was
+incarcerated, in order to demand the key of the cellar from her. She
+still lay without movement on the bed.
+
+‘Tom’s got it,’ she replied, faintly, to their question: ‘Tom’s got it,
+I swear to you. He took it for safety.’
+
+‘Then how do you feed your prisoner?’ Racksole asked sharply.
+
+‘Through the grating,’ she answered.
+
+Both men shuddered. They felt she was speaking the truth. For the third
+time they went to the cellar door. In vain Racksole thrust himself
+against it; he could do no more than shake it.
+
+‘Let’s try both together,’ said Prince Aribert. ‘Now!’ There was a
+crack.
+
+‘Again,’ said Prince Aribert. There was another crack, and then the
+upper hinge gave way. The rest was easy. Over the wreck of the door they
+entered Prince Eugen’s prison.
+
+The captive still sat on his chair. The terrific noise and bustle of
+breaking down the door seemed not to have aroused him from his lethargy,
+but when Prince Aribert spoke to him in German he looked at his uncle.
+
+‘Will you not come with us, Eugen?’ said Prince Aribert; ‘you needn’t
+stay here any longer, you know.’
+
+‘Leave me alone,’ was the strange reply; ‘leave me alone. What do you
+want?’
+
+‘We are here to get you out of this scrape,’ said Aribert gently.
+Racksole stood aside.
+
+‘Who is that fellow?’ said Eugen sharply.
+
+‘That is my friend Mr Racksole, an Englishman--or rather, I should say,
+an American--to whom we owe a great deal. Come and have supper, Eugen.’
+
+‘I won’t,’ answered Eugen doggedly. ‘I’m waiting here for her. You
+didn’t think anyone had kept me here, did you, against my will? I tell
+you I’m waiting for her. She said she’d come.’
+
+‘Who is she?’ Aribert asked, humouring him.
+
+‘She! Why, you know! I forgot, of course, you don’t know. You mustn’t
+ask.
+
+Don’t pry, Uncle Aribert. She was wearing a red hat.’
+
+‘I’ll take you to her, my dear Eugen.’ Prince Aribert put his hands on
+the other’s shoulder, but Eugen shook him off violently, stood up, and
+then sat down again.
+
+Aribert looked at Racksole, and they both looked at Prince Eugen. The
+latter’s face was flushed, and Racksole observed that the left pupil was
+more dilated than the right. The man started, muttered odd, fragmentary
+scraps of sentences, now grumbling, now whining.
+
+‘His mind is unhinged,’ Racksole whispered in English.
+
+‘Hush!’ said Prince Aribert. ‘He understands English.’ But Prince Eugen
+took no notice of the brief colloquy.
+
+‘We had better get him upstairs, somehow,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘Yes,’ Aribert assented. ‘Eugen, the lady with the red hat, the lady you
+are waiting for, is upstairs. She has sent us down to ask you to come
+up. Won’t you come?’
+
+‘Himmel!’ the poor fellow exclaimed, with a kind of weak anger. ‘Why did
+you not say this before?’
+
+He rose, staggered towards Aribert, and fell headlong on the floor. He
+had swooned. The two men raised him, carried him up the stone steps, and
+laid him with infinite care on a sofa. He lay, breathing queerly through
+the nostrils, his eyes closed, his fingers contracted; every now and
+then a convulsion ran through his frame.
+
+‘One of us must fetch a doctor,’ said Prince Aribert.
+
+‘I will,’ said Racksole. At that moment there was a quick, curt rap on
+the french window, and both Racksole and the Prince glanced round
+startled. A girl’s face was pressed against the large window-pane. It
+was Nella’s.
+
+Racksole unfastened the catch, and she entered.
+
+‘I have found you,’ she said lightly; ‘you might have told me. I
+couldn’t sleep. I inquired from the hotel-folks if you had retired, and
+they said no; so I slipped out. I guessed where you were.’ Racksole
+interrupted her with a question as to what she meant by this escapade,
+but she stopped him with a careless gesture. ‘What’s this?’ She pointed
+to the form on the sofa.
+
+‘That is my nephew, Prince Eugen,’ said Aribert.
+
+‘Hurt?’ she inquired coldly. ‘I hope not.’
+
+‘He is ill,’ said Racksole, ‘his brain is turned.’
+
+Nella began to examine the unconscious Prince with the expert movements
+of a girl who had passed through the best hospital course to be obtained
+in New York.
+
+‘He has got brain fever,’ she said. ‘That is all, but it will be enough.
+Do you know if there is a bed anywhere in this remarkable house?’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Eighteen IN THE NIGHT-TIME
+
+‘HE must on no account be moved,’ said the dark little Belgian doctor,
+whose eyes seemed to peer so quizzically through his spectacles; and he
+said it with much positiveness.
+
+That pronouncement rather settled their plans for them. It was certainly
+a professional triumph for Nella, who, previous to the doctor’s arrival,
+had told them the very same thing. Considerable argument had passed
+before the doctor was sent for. Prince Aribert was for keeping the whole
+affair a deep secret among their three selves. Theodore Racksole agreed
+so far, but he suggested further that at no matter what risk they should
+transport the patient over to England at once. Racksole had an idea that
+he should feel safer in that hotel of his, and better able to deal with
+any situation that might arise. Nella scorned the idea. In her quality
+of an amateur nurse, she assured them that Prince Eugen was much more
+seriously ill than either of them suspected, and she urged that they
+should take absolute possession of the house, and keep possession till
+Prince Eugen was convalescent.
+
+‘But what about the Spencer female?’ Racksole had said.
+
+‘Keep her where she is. Keep her a prisoner. And hold the house against
+all comers. If Jules should come back, simply defy him to enter--that is
+all.
+
+There are two of you, so you must keep an eye on the former occupiers,
+if they return, and on Miss Spencer, while I nurse the patient. But
+first, you must send for a doctor.’
+
+‘Doctor!’ Prince Aribert had said, alarmed. ‘Will it not be necessary to
+make some awkward explanation to the doctor?’
+
+‘Not at all!’ she replied. ‘Why should it be? In a place like Ostend
+doctors are far too discreet to ask questions; they see too much to
+retain their curiosity. Besides, do you want your nephew to die?’
+
+Both the men were somewhat taken aback by the girl’s sagacious grasp of
+the situation, and it came about that they began to obey her like
+subordinates.
+
+She told her father to sally forth in search of a doctor, and he went.
+She gave Prince Aribert certain other orders, and he promptly executed
+them.
+
+By the evening of the following day, everything was going smoothly. The
+doctor came and departed several times, and sent medicine, and seemed
+fairly optimistic as to the issue of the illness. An old woman had been
+induced to come in and cook and clean. Miss Spencer was kept out of
+sight on the attic floor, pending some decision as to what to do with
+her. And no one outside the house had asked any questions. The
+inhabitants of that particular street must have been accustomed to
+strange behaviour on the part of their neighbours, unaccountable
+appearances and disappearances, strange flittings and arrivals. This
+strong-minded and active trio--Racksole, Nella, and Prince Aribert--
+might have been the lawful and accustomed tenants of the house, for any
+outward evidence to the contrary.
+
+On the afternoon of the third day Prince Eugen was distinctly and
+seriously worse. Nella had sat up with him the previous night and
+throughout the day.
+
+Her father had spent the morning at the hotel, and Prince Aribert had
+kept watch. The two men were never absent from the house at the same
+time, and one of them always did duty as sentinel at night. On this
+afternoon Prince Aribert and Nella sat together in the patient’s
+bedroom. The doctor had just left. Theodore Racksole was downstairs
+reading the New York Herald. The Prince and Nella were near the window,
+which looked on to the back-garden.
+
+It was a queer shabby little bedroom to shelter the august body of a
+European personage like Prince Eugen of Posen. Curiously enough, both
+Nella and her father, ardent democrats though they were, had been
+somehow impressed by the royalty and importance of the fever-stricken
+Prince--impressed as they had never been by Aribert. They had both felt
+that here, under their care, was a species of individuality quite new to
+them, and different from anything they had previously encountered. Even
+the gestures and tones of his delirium had an air of abrupt yet
+condescending command--an imposing mixture of suavity and haughtiness.
+As for Nella, she had been first struck by the beautiful ‘E’ over a
+crown on the sleeves of his linen, and by the signet ring on his pale,
+emaciated hand. After all, these trifling outward signs are at least as
+effective as others of deeper but less obtrusive significance. The
+Racksoles, too, duly marked the attitude of Prince Aribert to his
+nephew: it was at once paternal and reverential; it disclosed clearly
+that Prince Aribert continued, in spite of everything, to regard his
+nephew as his sovereign lord and master, as a being surrounded by a
+natural and inevitable pomp and awe. This attitude, at the beginning,
+seemed false and unreal to the Americans; it seemed to them to be
+assumed; but gradually they came to perceive that they were mistaken,
+and that though America might have cast out ‘the monarchial
+superstition’, nevertheless that ‘superstition’ had vigorously survived
+in another part of the world.
+
+‘You and Mr Racksole have been extraordinarily kind to me,’ said Prince
+Aribert very quietly, after the two had sat some time in silence.
+
+‘Why? How?’ she asked unaffectedly. ‘We are interested in this affair
+ourselves, you know. It began at our hotel--you mustn’t forget that,
+Prince.’
+
+‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘I forget nothing. But I cannot help feeling that I
+have led you into a strange entanglement. Why should you and Mr Racksole
+be here--you who are supposed to be on a holiday!--hiding in a strange
+house in a foreign country, subject to all sorts of annoyances and all
+sorts of risks, simply because I am anxious to avoid scandal, to avoid
+any sort of talk, in connection with my misguided nephew? It is nothing
+to you that the Hereditary Prince of Posen should be liable to a public
+disgrace. What will it matter to you if the throne of Posen becomes the
+laughing-stock of Europe?’
+
+‘I really don’t know, Prince,’ Nella smiled roguishly. ‘But we Americans
+have, a habit of going right through with anything we have begun.’
+
+‘Ah!’ he said, ‘who knows how this thing will end? All our trouble, our
+anxieties, our watchfulness, may come to nothing. I tell you that when I
+see Eugen lying there, and think that we cannot learn his story until he
+recovers, I am ready to go mad. We might be arranging things, making
+matters smooth, preparing for the future, if only we knew--knew what he
+can tell us. I tell you that I am ready to go mad. If anything should
+happen to you, Miss Racksole, I would kill myself.’
+
+‘But why?’ she questioned. ‘Supposing, that is, that anything could
+happen to me--which it can’t.’
+
+‘Because I have dragged you into this,’ he replied, gazing at her. ‘It
+is nothing to you. You are only being kind.’
+
+‘How do you know it is nothing to me, Prince?’ she asked him quickly.
+
+Just then the sick man made a convulsive movement, and Nella flew to the
+bed and soothed him. From the head of the bed she looked over at Prince
+Aribert, and he returned her bright, excited glance. She was in her
+travelling-frock, with a large white Belgian apron tied over it. Large
+dark circles of fatigue and sleeplessness surrounded her eyes, and to
+the Prince her cheek seemed hollow and thin; her hair lay thick over the
+temples, half covering the ears. Aribert gave no answer to her query--
+merely gazed at her with melancholy intensity.
+
+‘I think I will go and rest,’ she said at last. ‘You will know all about
+the medicine.’
+
+‘Sleep well,’ he said, as he softly opened the door for her. And then he
+was alone with Eugen. It was his turn that night to watch, for they
+still half-expected some strange, sudden visit, or onslaught, or move of
+one kind or another from Jules. Racksole slept in the parlour on the
+ground floor.
+
+Nella had the front bedroom on the first floor; Miss Spencer was immured
+in the attic; the last-named lady had been singularly quiet and
+incurious, taking her food from Nella and asking no questions, the old
+woman went at nights to her own abode in the purlieus of the harbour.
+Hour after hour Aribert sat silent by his nephew’s bed-side, attending
+mechanically to his wants, and every now and then gazing hard into the
+vacant, anguished face, as if trying to extort from that mask the
+secrets which it held. Aribert was tortured by the idea that if he could
+have only half an hour’s, only a quarter of an hour’s, rational speech
+with Prince Eugen, all might be cleared up and put right, and by the
+fact that that rational talk was absolutely impossible on Eugen’s part
+until the fever had run its course. As the minutes crept on to midnight
+the watcher, made nervous by the intense, electrical atmosphere which
+seems always to surround a person who is dangerously ill, grew more and
+more a prey to vague and terrible apprehensions. His mind dwelt
+hysterically on the most fatal possibilities.
+
+He wondered what would occur if by any ill-chance Eugen should die in
+that bed--how he would explain the affair to Posen and to the Emperor,
+how he would justify himself. He saw himself being tried for murder,
+sentenced (him--a Prince of the blood!), led to the scaffold... a scene
+unparalleled in Europe for over a century! ... Then he gazed anew at the
+sick man, and thought he saw death in every drawn feature of that
+agonized face. He could have screamed aloud. His ears heard a peculiar
+resonant boom. He started--it was nothing but the city clock striking
+twelve. But there was another sound--a mysterious shuffle at the door.
+He listened; then jumped from his chair. Nothing now! Nothing! But still
+he felt drawn to the door, and after what seemed an interminable
+interval he went and opened it, his heart beating furiously. Nella lay
+in a heap on the door mat. She was fully dressed, but had apparently
+lost consciousness. He clutched at her slender body, picked her up,
+carried her to the chair by the fire-place, and laid her in it. He had
+forgotten all about Eugen.
+
+‘What is it, my angel?’ he whispered, and then he kissed her--kissed her
+twice. He could only look at her; he did not know what to do to succour
+her.
+
+At last she opened her eyes and sighed.
+
+‘Where am I?’ she asked vaguely, in a tremulous tone as she recognized
+him. ‘Is it you? Did I do anything silly? Did I faint?’
+
+‘What has happened? Were you ill?’ he questioned anxiously. He was
+kneeling at her feet, holding her hand tight.
+
+‘I saw Jules by the side of my bed,’ she murmured; ‘I’m sure I saw him;
+he laughed at me. I had not undressed. I sprang up, frightened, but he
+had gone, and then I ran downstairs--to you.’
+
+‘You were dreaming,’ he soothed her.
+
+‘Was I?’
+
+‘You must have been. I have not heard a sound. No one could have
+entered.
+
+But if you like I will wake Mr Racksole.’
+
+‘Perhaps I was dreaming,’ she admitted. ‘How foolish!’
+
+‘You were over-tired,’ he said, still unconsciously holding her hand.
+They gazed at each other. She smiled at him.
+
+‘You kissed me,’ she said suddenly, and he blushed red and stood up
+before her. ‘Why did you kiss me?’
+
+‘Ah! Miss Racksole,’ he murmured, hurrying the words out. ‘Forgive me.
+It is unforgivable, but forgive me. I was overpowered by my feelings. I
+did not know what I was doing.’
+
+‘Why did you kiss me?’ she repeated.
+
+‘Because--Nella! I love you. I have no right to say it.’
+
+‘Why have you no right to say it?’
+
+‘If Eugen dies, I shall owe a duty to Posen--I shall be its ruler.’
+
+‘Well!’ she said calmly, with an adorable confidence. ‘Papa is worth
+forty millions. Would you not abdicate?’
+
+‘Ah!’ he gave a low cry. ‘Will you force me to say these things? I could
+not shirk my duty to Posen, and the reigning Prince of Posen can only
+marry a Princess.’
+
+‘But Prince Eugen will live,’ she said positively, ‘and if he lives--’
+
+‘Then I shall be free. I would renounce all my rights to make you mine,
+if--if--’
+
+‘If what, Prince?’
+
+‘If you would deign to accept my hand.’
+
+‘Am I, then, rich enough?’
+
+‘Nella!’ He bent down to her.
+
+Then there was a crash of breaking glass. Aribert went to the window and
+opened it. In the starlit gloom he could see that a ladder had been
+raised against the back of the house. He thought he heard footsteps at
+the end of the garden.
+
+‘It was Jules,’ he exclaimed to Nella, and without another word rushed
+upstairs to the attic. The attic was empty. Miss Spencer had
+mysteriously vanished.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Nineteen ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON
+
+THE Royal apartments at the Grand Babylon are famous in the world of
+hotels, and indeed elsewhere, as being, in their own way, unsurpassed.
+Some of the palaces of Germany, and in particular those of the mad
+Ludwig of Bavaria, may possess rooms and saloons which outshine them in
+gorgeous luxury and the mere wild fairy-like extravagance of wealth; but
+there is nothing, anywhere, even on Eighth Avenue, New York, which can
+fairly be called more complete, more perfect, more enticing, or--not
+least important--more comfortable.
+
+The suite consists of six chambers--the ante-room, the saloon or
+audience chamber, the dining-room, the yellow drawing-room (where
+Royalty receives its friends), the library, and the State bedroom--to
+the last of which we have already been introduced. The most important
+and most impressive of these is, of course, the audience chamber, an
+apartment fifty feet long by forty feet broad, with a superb outlook
+over the Thames, the Shot Tower, and the higher signals of the South-
+Western Railway. The decoration of this room is mainly in the German
+taste, since four out of every six of its Royal occupants are of
+Teutonic blood; but its chief glory is its French ceiling, a masterpiece
+by Fragonard, taken bodily from a certain famous palace on the Loire.
+The walls are of panelled oak, with an eight-foot dado of Arras cloth
+imitated from unique Continental examples. The carpet, woven in one
+piece, is an antique specimen of the finest Turkish work, and it was
+obtained, a bargain, by Felix Babylon, from an impecunious Roumanian
+Prince. The silver candelabra, now fitted with electric light, came from
+the Rhine, and each had a separate history. The Royal chair--it is not
+etiquette to call it a throne, though it amounts to a throne--was looted
+by Napoleon from an Austrian city, and bought by Felix Babylon at the
+sale of a French collector. At each corner of the room stands a gigantic
+grotesque vase of German faïence of the sixteenth century. These were
+presented to Felix Babylon by William the First of Germany, upon the
+conclusion of his first incognito visit to London in connection with the
+French trouble of 1875.
+
+There is only one picture in the audience chamber. It is a portrait of
+the luckless but noble Dom Pedro, Emperor of the Brazils. Given to Felix
+Babylon by Dom Pedro himself, it hangs there solitary and sublime as a
+reminder to Kings and Princes that Empires may pass away and greatness
+fall. A certain Prince who was occupying the suite during the Jubilee of
+1887--when the Grand Babylon had seven persons of Royal blood under its
+roof--sent a curt message to Felix that the portrait must be removed.
+Felix respectfully declined to remove it, and the Prince left for
+another hotel, where he was robbed of two thousand pounds’ worth of
+jewellery. The Royal audience chamber of the Grand Babylon, if people
+only knew it, is one of the sights of London, but it is never shown, and
+if you ask the hotel servants about its wonders they will tell you only
+foolish facts concerning it, as that the Turkey carpet costs fifty
+pounds to clean, and that one of the great vases is cracked across the
+pedestal, owing to the rough treatment accorded to it during a riotous
+game of Blind Man’s Buff, played one night by four young Princesses, a
+Balkan King, and his aides-de-camp.
+
+In one of the window recesses of this magnificent apartment, on a
+certain afternoon in late July, stood Prince Aribert of Posen. He was
+faultlessly dressed in the conventional frock-coat of English
+civilization, with a gardenia in his button-hole, and the indispensable
+crease down the front of the trousers. He seemed to be fairly amused,
+and also to expect someone, for at frequent intervals he looked rapidly
+over his shoulder in the direction of the door behind the Royal chair.
+At last a little wizened, stooping old man, with a distinctly German
+cast of countenance, appeared through the door, and laid some papers on
+a small table by the side of the chair.
+
+‘Ah, Hans, my old friend!’ said Aribert, approaching the old man. ‘I
+must have a little talk with you about one or two matters. How do you
+find His Royal Highness?’
+
+The old man saluted, military fashion. ‘Not very well, your Highness,’
+he answered. ‘I’ve been valet to your Highness’s nephew since his
+majority, and I was valet to his Royal father before him, but I never
+saw--’ He stopped, and threw up his wrinkled hands deprecatingly.
+
+‘You never saw what?’ Aribert smiled affectionately on the old fellow.
+You could perceive that these two, so sharply differentiated in rank,
+had been intimate in the past, and would be intimate again.
+
+‘Do you know, my Prince,’ said the old man, ‘that we are to receive the
+financier, Sampson Levi--is that his name?--in the audience chamber?
+Surely, if I may humbly suggest, the library would have been good enough
+for a financier?’
+
+‘One would have thought so,’ agreed Prince Aribert, ‘but perhaps your
+master has a special reason. Tell me,’ he went on, changing the subject
+quickly, ‘how came it that you left the Prince, my nephew, at Ostend,
+and returned to Posen?’
+
+‘His orders, Prince,’ and old Hans, who had had a wide experience of
+Royal whims and knew half the secrets of the Courts of Europe, gave
+Aribert a look which might have meant anything. ‘He sent me back on an--
+an errand, your Highness.’
+
+‘And you were to rejoin him here?’
+
+‘Just so, Highness. And I did rejoin him here, although, to tell the
+truth, I had begun to fear that I might never see my master again.’
+
+‘The Prince has been very ill in Ostend, Hans.’
+
+‘So I have gathered,’ Hans responded drily, slowly rubbing his hands
+together. ‘And his Highness is not yet perfectly recovered.’
+
+‘Not yet. We despaired of his life, Hans, at one time, but thanks to an
+excellent constitution, he came safely through the ordeal.’
+
+‘We must take care of him, your Highness.’
+
+‘Yes, indeed,’ said Aribert solemnly, ‘his life is very precious to
+Posen.’
+
+At that moment, Eugen, Hereditary Prince of Posen, entered the audience
+chamber. He was pale and languid, and his uniform seemed to be a trouble
+to him. His hair had been slightly ruffled, and there was a look of
+uneasiness, almost of alarmed unrest, in his fine dark eyes. He was like
+a man who is afraid to look behind him lest he should see something
+there which ought not to be there. But at the same time, here beyond
+doubt was Royalty. Nothing could have been more striking than the
+contrast between Eugen, a sick man in the shabby house at Ostend, and
+this Prince Eugen in the Royal apartments of the Grand Babylon Hôtel,
+surrounded by the luxury and pomp which modern civilization can offer to
+those born in high places. All the desperate episode of Ostend was now
+hidden, passed over. It was supposed never to have occurred. It existed
+only like a secret shame in the hearts of those who had witnessed it.
+Prince Eugen had recovered; at any rate, he was convalescent, and he had
+been removed to London, where he took up again the dropped thread of his
+princely life. The lady with the red hat, the incorruptible and savage
+Miss Spencer, the unscrupulous and brilliant Jules, the dark, damp
+cellar, the horrible little bedroom--these things were over. Thanks to
+Prince Aribert and the Racksoles, he had emerged from them in safety. He
+was able to resume his public and official career. The Emperor had been
+informed of his safe arrival in London, after an unavoidable delay in
+Ostend; his name once more figured in the Court chronicle of the
+newspapers. In short, everything was smothered over. Only--only Jules,
+Rocco, and Miss Spencer were still at large; and the body of Reginald
+Dimmock lay buried in the domestic mausoleum of the palace at Posen; and
+Prince Eugen had still to interview Mr Sampson Levi.
+
+That various matters lay heavy on the mind of Prince Eugen was beyond
+question. He seemed to have withdrawn within himself. Despite the
+extraordinary experiences through which he had recently passed, events
+which called aloud for explanations and confidence between the nephew
+and the uncle, he would say scarcely a word to Prince Aribert. Any
+allusion, however direct, to the days at Ostend, was ignored by him with
+more or less ingenuity, and Prince Aribert was really no nearer a full
+solution of the mystery of Jules’ plot than he had been on the night
+when he and Racksole visited the gaming tables at Ostend. Eugen was well
+aware that he had been kidnapped through the agency of the woman in the
+red hat, but, doubtless ashamed at having been her dupe, he would not
+proceed in any way with the clearing-up of the matter.
+
+‘You will receive in this room, Eugen?’ Aribert questioned him.
+
+‘Yes,’ was the answer, given pettishly. ‘Why not? Even if I have no
+proper retinue here, surely that is no reason why I should not hold
+audience in a proper manner?... Hans, you can go.’ The old valet
+promptly disappeared.
+
+‘Aribert,’ the Hereditary Prince continued, when they were alone in the
+chamber, ‘you think I am mad.’
+
+‘My dear Eugen,’ said Prince Aribert, startled in spite of himself.
+‘Don’t be absurd.’
+
+‘I say you think I am mad. You think that that attack of brain fever has
+left its permanent mark on me. Well, perhaps I am mad. Who can tell? God
+knows that I have been through enough lately to drive me mad.’
+
+Aribert made no reply. As a matter of strict fact, the thought had
+crossed his mind that Eugen’s brain had not yet recovered its normal
+tone and activity. This speech of his nephew’s, however, had the effect
+of immediately restoring his belief in the latter’s entire sanity. He
+felt convinced that if only he could regain his nephew’s confidence, the
+old brotherly confidence which had existed between them since the years
+when they played together as boys, all might yet be well. But at present
+there appeared to be no sign that Eugen meant to give his confidence to
+anyone.
+
+The young Prince had come up out of the valley of the shadow of death,
+but some of the valley’s shadow had clung to him, and it seemed he was
+unable to dissipate it.
+
+‘By the way,’ said Eugen suddenly, ‘I must reward these Racksoles, I
+suppose. I am indeed grateful to them. If I gave the girl a bracelet,
+and the father a thousand guineas--how would that meet the case?’
+
+‘My dear Eugen!’ exclaimed Aribert aghast. ‘A thousand guineas! Do you
+know that Theodore Racksole could buy up all Posen from end to end
+without making himself a pauper. A thousand guineas! You might as well
+offer him sixpence.’
+
+‘Then what must I offer?’
+
+‘Nothing, except your thanks. Anything else would be an insult. These
+are no ordinary hotel people.’
+
+‘Can’t I give the little girl a bracelet?’ Prince Eugen gave a sinister
+laugh.
+
+Aribert looked at him steadily. ‘No,’ he said.
+
+‘Why did you kiss her--that night?’ asked Prince Eugen carelessly.
+
+‘Kiss whom?’ said Aribert, blushing and angry, despite his most
+determined efforts to keep calm and unconcerned.
+
+‘The Racksole girl.’
+
+‘When do you mean?’
+
+‘I mean,’ said Prince Eugen, ‘that night in Ostend when I was ill. You
+thought I was in a delirium. Perhaps I was. But somehow I remember that
+with extraordinary distinctness. I remember raising my head for a
+fraction of an instant, and just in that fraction of an instant you
+kissed her. Oh, Uncle Aribert!’
+
+‘Listen, Eugen, for God’s sake. I love Nella Racksole. I shall marry
+her.’
+
+‘You!’ There was a long pause, and then Eugen laughed. ‘Ah!’ he said.
+‘They all talk like that to start with. I have talked like that myself,
+dear uncle; it sounds nice, and it means nothing.’
+
+‘In this case it means everything, Eugen,’ said Aribert quietly. Some
+accent of determination in the latter’s tone made Eugen rather more
+serious.
+
+‘You can’t marry her,’ he said. ‘The Emperor won’t permit a morganatic
+marriage.’
+
+‘The Emperor has nothing to do with the affair. I shall renounce my
+rights.
+
+I shall become a plain citizen.’
+
+‘In which case you will have no fortune to speak of.’
+
+‘But my wife will have a fortune. Knowing the sacrifices which I shall
+have made in order to marry her, she will not hesitate to place that
+fortune in my hands for our mutual use,’ said Aribert stiffly.
+
+‘You will decidedly be rich,’ mused Eugen, as his ideas dwelt on
+Theodore Racksole’s reputed wealth. ‘But have you thought of this,’ he
+asked, and his mild eyes glowed again in a sort of madness. ‘Have you
+thought that I am unmarried, and might die at any moment, and then the
+throne will descend to you--to you, Aribert?’
+
+‘The throne will never descend to me, Eugen,’ said Aribert softly, ‘for
+you will live. You are thoroughly convalescent. You have nothing to
+fear.’
+
+‘It is the next seven days that I fear,’ said Eugen.
+
+‘The next seven days! Why?’
+
+‘I do not know. But I fear them. If I can survive them--’
+
+‘Mr Sampson Levi, sire,’ Hans announced in a loud tone.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty MR SAMPSON LEVI BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING
+
+PRINCE EUGEN started. ‘I will see him,’ he said, with a gesture to Hans
+as if to indicate that Mr Sampson Levi might enter at once.
+
+‘I beg one moment first,’ said Aribert, laying a hand gently on his
+nephew’s arm, and giving old Hans a glance which had the effect of
+precipitating that admirably trained servant through the doorway.
+
+‘What is it?’ asked Prince Eugen crossly. ‘Why this sudden seriousness?
+Don’t forget that I have an appointment with Mr Sampson Levi, and must
+not keep him waiting. Someone said that punctuality is the politeness of
+princes.’
+
+‘Eugen,’ said Aribert, ‘I wish you to be as serious as I am. Why cannot
+we have faith in each other? I want to help you. I have helped you. You
+are my titular Sovereign; but on the other hand I have the honour to be
+your uncle:
+
+I have the honour to be the same age as you, and to have been your
+companion from youth up. Give me your confidence. I thought you had
+given it me years ago, but I have lately discovered that you had your
+secrets, even then. And now, since your illness, you are still more
+secretive.’
+
+‘What do you mean, Aribert?’ said Eugen, in a tone which might have been
+either inimical or friendly. ‘What do you want to say?’
+
+‘Well, in the first place, I want to say that you will not succeed with
+the estimable Mr Sampson Levi.’
+
+‘Shall I not?’ said Eugen lightly. ‘How do you know what my business is
+with him?’
+
+‘Suffice it to say that I know. You will never get that million pounds
+out of him.’
+
+Prince Eugen gasped, and then swallowed his excitement. ‘Who has been
+talking? What million?’ His eyes wandered uneasily round the room. ‘Ah!’
+he said, pretending to laugh. ‘I see how it is. I have been chattering
+in my delirium. You mustn’t take any notice of that, Aribert. When one
+has a fever one’s ideas become grotesque and fanciful.’
+
+‘You never talked in your delirium,’ Aribert replied; ‘at least not
+about yourself. I knew about this projected loan before I saw you in
+Ostend.’
+
+‘Who told you?’ demanded Eugen fiercely.
+
+‘Then you admit that you are trying to raise a loan?’
+
+‘I admit nothing. Who told you?’
+
+‘Theodore Racksole, the millionaire. These rich men have no secrets from
+each other. They form a coterie, closer than any coterie of ours. Eugen,
+and far more powerful. They talk, and in talking they rule the world,
+these millionaires. They are the real monarchs.’
+
+‘Curse them!’ said Eugen.
+
+‘Yes, perhaps so. But let me return to your case. Imagine my shame, my
+disgust, when I found that Racksole could tell me more about your
+affairs than I knew myself. Happily, he is a good fellow; one can trust
+him; otherwise I should have been tempted to do something desperate when
+I discovered that all your private history was in his hands. Eugen, let
+us come to the point; why do you want that million? Is it actually true
+that you are so deeply in debt? I have no desire to improve the
+occasion. I merely ask.’
+
+‘And what if I do owe a million?’ said Prince Eugen with assumed valour.
+
+‘Oh, nothing, my dear Eugen, nothing. Only it is rather a large sum to
+have scattered in ten years, is it not? How did you manage it?’
+
+‘Don’t ask me, Aribert. I’ve been a fool. But I swear to you that the
+woman whom you call “the lady in the red hat” is the last of my follies.
+I am about to take a wife, and become a respectable Prince.’
+
+‘Then the engagement with Princess Anna is an accomplished fact?’
+
+‘Practically so. As soon as I have settled with Levi, all will be
+smooth.
+
+Aribert, I wouldn’t lose Anna for the Imperial throne. She is a good and
+pure woman, and I love her as a man might love an angel.’
+
+‘And yet you would deceive her as to your debts, Eugen?’
+
+‘Not her, but her absurd parents, and perhaps the Emperor. They have
+heard rumours, and I must set those rumours at rest by presenting to
+them a clean sheet.’
+
+‘I am glad you have been frank with me, Eugen,’ said Prince Aribert,
+‘but I will be plain with you. You will never marry the Princess Anna.’
+
+‘And why?’ said Eugen, supercilious again.
+
+‘Because her parents will not permit it. Because you will not be able to
+present a clean sheet to them. Because this Sampson Levi will never lend
+you a million.’
+
+‘Explain yourself.’
+
+‘I propose to do so. You were kidnapped--it is a horrid word, but we
+must use it--in Ostend.’
+
+‘True.’
+
+‘Do you know why?’
+
+‘I suppose because that vile old red-hatted woman and her accomplices
+wanted to get some money out of me. Fortunately, thanks to you, they
+didn’t.’
+
+‘Not at all,’ said Aribert. ‘They wanted no money from you. They knew
+well enough that you had no money. They knew you were the naughty
+schoolboy among European Princes, with no sense of responsibility or of
+duty towards your kingdom. Shall I tell you why they kidnapped you?’
+
+‘When you have done abusing me, my dear uncle.’
+
+‘They kidnapped you merely to keep you out of England for a few days,
+merely to compel you to fail in your appointment with Sampson Levi. And
+it appears to me that they succeeded. Assuming that you don’t obtain the
+money from Levi, is there another financier in all Europe from whom you
+can get it--on such strange security as you have to offer?’
+
+‘Possibly there is not,’ said Prince Eugen calmly. ‘But, you see, I
+shall get it from Sampson Levi. Levi promised it, and I know from other
+sources that he is a man of his word. He said that the money, subject to
+certain formalities, would be available till--’
+
+‘Till?’
+
+‘Till the end of June.’
+
+‘And it is now the end of July.’
+
+‘Well, what is a month? He is only too glad to lend the money. He will
+get excellent interest. How on earth have you got into your sage old
+head this notion of a plot against me? The idea is ridiculous. A plot
+against me? What for?’
+
+‘Have you ever thought of Bosnia?’ asked Aribert coldly.
+
+‘What of Bosnia?’
+
+‘I need not tell you that the King of Bosnia is naturally under
+obligations to Austria, to whom he owes his crown. Austria is anxious
+for him to make a good influential marriage.’
+
+‘Well, let him.’
+
+‘He is going to. He is going to marry the Princess Anna.’
+
+‘Not while I live. He made overtures there a year ago, and was
+rebuffed.’
+
+‘Yes; but he will make overtures again, and this time he will not be
+rebuffed. Oh, Eugen! can’t you see that this plot against you is being
+engineered by some persons who know all about your affairs, and whose
+desire is to prevent your marriage with Princess Anna? Only one man in
+Europe can have any motive for wishing to prevent your marriage with
+Princess Anna, and that is the man who means to marry her himself.’
+Eugen went very pale.
+
+‘Then, Aribert, do you mean to convey to me that my detention in Ostend
+was contrived by the agents of the King of Bosnia?’
+
+‘I do.’
+
+‘With a view to stopping my negotiations with Sampson Levi, and so
+putting an end to the possibility of my marriage with Anna?’
+
+Aribert nodded.
+
+‘You are a good friend to me, Aribert. You mean well. But you are
+mistaken.
+
+You have been worrying about nothing.’
+
+‘Have you forgotten about Reginald Dimmock?’
+
+‘I remember you said that he had died.’
+
+‘I said nothing of the sort. I said that he had been assassinated. That
+was part of it, my poor Eugen.’
+
+‘Pooh!’ said Eugen. ‘I don’t believe he was assassinated. And as for
+Sampson Levi, I will bet you a thousand marks that he and I come to
+terms this morning, and that the million is in my hands before I leave
+London.’ Aribert shook his head.
+
+‘You seem to be pretty sure of Mr Levi’s character. Have you had much to
+do with him before?’
+
+‘Well,’ Eugen hesitated a second, ‘a little. What young man in my
+position hasn’t had something to do with Mr Sampson Levi at one time or
+another?’
+
+‘I haven’t,’ said Aribert.
+
+‘You! You are a fossil.’ He rang a silver bell. ‘Hans! I will receive Mr
+Sampson Levi.’
+
+Whereupon Aribert discreetly departed, and Prince Eugen sat down in the
+great velvet chair, and began to look at the papers which Hans had
+previously placed upon the table.
+
+‘Good morning, your Royal Highness,’ said Sampson Levi, bowing as he
+entered. ‘I trust your Royal Highness is well.’
+
+‘Moderately, thanks,’ returned the Prince.
+
+In spite of the fact that he had had as much to do with people of Royal
+blood as any plain man in Europe, Sampson Levi had never yet learned how
+to be at ease with these exalted individuals during the first few
+minutes of an interview. Afterwards, he resumed command of himself and
+his faculties, but at the beginning he was invariably flustered, scarlet
+of face, and inclined to perspiration.
+
+‘We will proceed to business at once,’ said Prince Eugen. ‘Will you take
+a seat, Mr Levi?’
+
+‘I thank your Royal Highness.’
+
+‘Now as to that loan which we had already practically arranged--a
+million, I think it was,’ said the Prince airily.
+
+‘A million,’ Levi acquiesced, toying with his enormous watch chain.
+
+‘Everything is now in order. Here are the papers and I should like to
+finish the matter up at once.’
+
+‘Exactly, your Highness, but--’
+
+‘But what? You months ago expressed the warmest satisfaction at the
+security, though I am quite prepared to admit that the security, is of
+rather an unusual nature. You also agreed to the rate of interest. It is
+not everyone, Mr Levi, who can lend out a million at 5-1/2 per cent. And
+in ten years the whole amount will be paid back. I--er--I believe I
+informed you that the fortune of Princess Anna, who is about to accept
+my hand, will ultimately amount to something like fifty millions of
+marks, which is over two million pounds in your English money.’ Prince
+Eugen stopped. He had no fancy for talking in this confidential manner
+to financiers, but he felt that circumstances demanded it.
+
+‘You see, it’s like this, your Royal Highness,’ began Mr Sampson Levi,
+in his homely English idiom. ‘It’s like this. I said I could keep that
+bit of money available till the end of June, and you were to give me an
+interview here before that date. Not having heard from your Highness,
+and not knowing your Highness’s address, though my German agents made
+every inquiry, I concluded, that you had made other arrangements, money
+being so cheap this last few months.’
+
+‘I was unfortunately detained at Ostend,’ said Prince Eugen, with as
+much haughtiness as he could assume, ‘by--by important business. I have
+made no other arrangements, and I shall have need of the million. If you
+will be so good as to pay it to my London bankers--’
+
+‘I’m very sorry,’ said Mr Sampson Levi, with a tremendous and dazzling
+air of politeness, which surprised even himself, ‘but my syndicate has
+now lent the money elsewhere. It’s in South America--I don’t mind
+telling your Highness that we’ve lent it to the Chilean Government.’
+
+‘Hang the Chilean Government, Mr Levi,’ exclaimed the Prince, and he
+went white. ‘I must have that million. It was an arrangement.’
+
+‘It was an arrangement, I admit,’ said Mr Sampson Levi, ‘but your
+Highness broke the arrangement.’
+
+There was a long silence.
+
+‘Do you mean to say,’ began the Prince with tense calmness, ‘that you
+are not in a position to let me have that million?’
+
+‘I could let your Highness have a million in a couple of years’ time.’
+
+The Prince made a gesture of annoyance. ‘Mr Levi,’ he said, ‘if you do
+not place the money in my hands to-morrow you will ruin one of the
+oldest of reigning families, and, incidentally, you will alter the map
+of Europe. You are not keeping faith, and I had relied on you.’
+
+‘Pardon me, your Highness,’ said little Levi, rising in resentment, ‘it
+is not I who have not kept faith. I beg to repeat that the money is no
+longer at my disposal, and to bid your Highness good morning.’
+
+And Mr Sampson Levi left the audience chamber with an awkward, aggrieved
+bow. It was a scene characteristic of the end of the nineteenth century-
+-an overfed, commonplace, pursy little man who had been born in a
+Brixton semi-detached villa, and whose highest idea of pleasure was a
+Sunday up the river in an expensive electric launch, confronting and
+utterly routing, in a hotel belonging to an American millionaire, the
+representative of a race of men who had fingered every page of European
+history for centuries, and who still, in their native castles, were
+surrounded with every outward circumstance of pomp and power.
+
+‘Aribert,’ said Prince Eugen, a little later, ‘you were right. It is all
+over. I have only one refuge--’
+
+‘You don’t mean--’ Aribert stopped, dumbfounded.
+
+‘Yes, I do,’ he said quickly. ‘I can manage it so that it will look like
+an accident.’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-One THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON
+
+ON the evening of Prince Eugen’s fateful interview with Mr Sampson Levi,
+Theodore Racksole was wandering somewhat aimlessly and uneasily about
+the entrance hall and adjacent corridors of the Grand Babylon. He had
+returned from Ostend only a day or two previously, and had endeavoured
+with all his might to forget the affair which had carried him there--to
+regard it, in fact, as done with. But he found himself unable to do so.
+In vain he remarked, under his breath, that there were some things which
+were best left alone: if his experience as a manipulator of markets, a
+contriver of gigantic schemes in New York, had taught him anything at
+all, it should surely have taught him that. Yet he could not feel
+reconciled to such a position. The mere presence of the princes in his
+hotel roused the fighting instincts of this man, who had never in his
+whole career been beaten. He had, as it were, taken up arms on their
+side, and if the princes of Posen would not continue their own battle,
+nevertheless he, Theodore Racksole, wanted to continue it for them. To a
+certain extent, of course, the battle had been won, for Prince Eugen had
+been rescued from an extremely difficult and dangerous position, and the
+enemy--consisting of Jules, Rocco, Miss Spencer, and perhaps others--had
+been put to flight. But that, he conceived, was not enough; it was very
+far from being enough. That the criminals, for criminals they decidedly
+were, should still be at large, he regarded as an absurd anomaly. And
+there was another point: he had said nothing to the police of all that
+had occurred. He disdained the police, but he could scarcely fail to
+perceive that if the police should by accident gain a clue to the real
+state of the case he might be placed rather awkwardly, for the simple
+reason that in the eyes of the law it amounted to a misdemeanour to
+conceal as much as he had concealed. He asked himself, for the
+thousandth time, why he had adopted a policy of concealment from the
+police, why he had become in any way interested in the Posen matter, and
+why, at this present moment, he should be so anxious to prosecute it
+further? To the first two questions he replied, rather lamely, that he
+had been influenced by Nella, and also by a natural spirit of adventure;
+to the third he replied that he had always been in the habit of carrying
+things through, and was now actuated by a mere childish, obstinate
+desire to carry this one through. Moreover, he was splendidly conscious
+of his perfect ability to carry it through. One additional impulse he
+had, though he did not admit it to himself, being by nature adverse to
+big words, and that was an abstract love of justice, the Anglo-Saxon’s
+deep-found instinct for helping the right side to conquer, even when
+grave risks must thereby be run, with no corresponding advantage.
+
+He was turning these things over in his mind as he walked about the vast
+hotel on that evening of the last day in July. The Society papers had
+been stating for a week past that London was empty, but, in spite of the
+Society papers, London persisted in seeming to be just as full as ever.
+The Grand Babylon was certainly not as crowded as it had been a month
+earlier, but it was doing a very passable business. At the close of the
+season the gay butterflies of the social community have a habit of
+hovering for a day or two in the big hotels before they flutter away to
+castle and country-house, meadow and moor, lake and stream. The great
+basket-chairs in the portico were well filled by old and middle-aged
+gentlemen engaged in enjoying the varied delights of liqueurs, cigars,
+and the full moon which floated so serenely above the Thames. Here and
+there a pretty woman on the arm of a cavalier in immaculate attire swept
+her train as she turned to and fro in the promenade of the terrace.
+Waiters and uniformed commissionaires and gold-braided doorkeepers moved
+noiselessly about; at short intervals the chief of the doorkeepers blew
+his shrill whistle and hansoms drove up with tinkling bell to take away
+a pair of butterflies to some place of amusement or boredom;
+occasionally a private carriage drawn by expensive and self-conscious
+horses put the hansoms to shame by its mere outward glory. It was a hot
+night, a night for the summer woods, and save for the vehicles there was
+no rapid movement of any kind. It seemed as though the world--the world,
+that is to say, of the Grand Babylon--was fully engaged in the solemn
+processes of digestion and small-talk. Even the long row of the
+Embankment gas-lamps, stretching right and left, scarcely trembled in
+the still, warm, caressing air. The stars overhead looked down with many
+blinkings upon the enormous pile of the Grand Babylon, and the moon
+regarded it with bland and changeless face; what they thought of it and
+its inhabitants cannot, unfortunately, be recorded. What Theodore
+Racksole thought of the moon can be recorded: he thought it was a
+nuisance. It somehow fascinated his gaze with its silly stare, and so
+interfered with his complex meditations. He glanced round at the well-
+dressed and satisfied people--his guests, his customers. They appeared
+to ignore him absolutely.
+
+Probably only a very small percentage of them had the least idea that
+this tall spare man, with the iron-grey hair and the thin, firm,
+resolute face, who wore his American-cut evening clothes with such
+careless ease, was the sole proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and
+possibly the richest man in Europe. As has already been stated, Racksole
+was not a celebrity in England.
+
+The guests of the Grand Babylon saw merely a restless male person, whose
+restlessness was rather a disturber of their quietude, but with whom, to
+judge by his countenance, it would be inadvisable to remonstrate.
+Therefore Theodore Racksole continued his perambulations unchallenged,
+and kept saying to himself, ‘I must do something.’ But what? He could
+think of no course to pursue.
+
+At last he walked straight through the hotel and out at the other
+entrance, and so up the little unassuming side street into the roaring
+torrent of the narrow and crowded Strand. He jumped on a Putney bus, and
+paid his fair to Putney, fivepence, and then, finding that the humble
+occupants of the vehicle stared at the spectacle of a man in evening
+dress but without a dustcoat, he jumped off again, oblivious of the fact
+that the conductor jerked a thumb towards him and winked at the
+passengers as who should say, ‘There goes a lunatic.’ He went into a
+tobacconist’s shop and asked for a cigar. The shopman mildly inquired
+what price.
+
+‘What are the best you’ve got?’ asked Theodore Racksole.
+
+‘Five shillings each, sir,’ said the man promptly.
+
+‘Give me a penny one,’ was Theodore Racksole’s laconic request, and he
+walked out of the shop smoking the penny cigar. It was a new sensation
+for him.
+
+He was inhaling the aromatic odours of Eugène Rimmel’s establishment for
+the sale of scents when a gentleman, walking slowly in the opposite
+direction, accosted him with a quiet, ‘Good evening, Mr Racksole.’ The
+millionaire did not at first recognize his interlocutor, who wore a
+travelling overcoat, and was carrying a handbag. Then a slight, pleased
+smile passed over his features, and he held out his hand.
+
+‘Well, Mr Babylon,’ he greeted the other, ‘of all persons in the wide
+world you are the man I would most have wished to meet.’
+
+‘You flatter me,’ said the little Anglicized Swiss.
+
+‘No, I don’t,’ answered Racksole; ‘it isn’t my custom, any more than
+it’s yours. I wanted to have a real good long yarn with you, and lo!
+here you are! Where have you sprung from?’
+
+‘From Lausanne,’ said Felix Babylon. ‘I had finished my duties there, I
+had nothing else to do, and I felt homesick. I felt the nostalgia of
+London, and so I came over, just as you see,’ and he raised the handbag
+for Racksole’s notice. ‘One toothbrush, one razor, two slippers, eh?’ He
+laughed. ‘I was wondering as I walked along where I should stay--me,
+Felix Babylon, homeless in London.’
+
+‘I should advise you to stay at the Grand Babylon,’ Racksole laughed
+back.
+
+‘It is a good hotel, and I know the proprietor personally.’
+
+‘Rather expensive, is it not?’ said Babylon.
+
+‘To you, sir,’ answered Racksole, ‘the inclusive terms will be exactly
+half a crown a week. Do you accept?’
+
+‘I accept,’ said Babylon, and added, ‘You are very good, Mr Racksole.’
+
+They strolled together back to the hotel, saying nothing in particular,
+but feeling very content with each other’s company.
+
+‘Many customers?’ asked Felix Babylon.
+
+‘Very tolerable,’ said Racksole, assuming as much of the air of the
+professional hotel proprietor as he could. ‘I think I may say in the
+storekeeper’s phrase, that if there is any business about I am doing it.
+
+To-night the people are all on the terrace in the portico--it’s so
+confoundedly hot--and the consumption of ice is simply enormous--nearly
+as large as it would be in New York.’
+
+‘In that case,’ said Babylon politely, ‘let me offer you another cigar.’
+
+‘But I have not finished this one.’
+
+‘That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as
+yours, my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the precincts of
+the Grand Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and
+especially when all the guests are assembled in the portico. The fumes
+of it would ruin any hotel.’
+
+Theodore Racksole laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana which Babylon
+gave him, and they entered the hotel arm in arm. But no sooner had they
+mounted the steps than little Felix became the object of numberless
+greetings. It appeared that he had been highly popular among his quondam
+guests. At last they reached the managerial room, where Babylon was
+regaled on a chicken, and Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a
+bottle of Heidsieck Monopole, Carte d’Or.
+
+‘This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,’ said Babylon at length. ‘It
+is a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of
+Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?’
+
+‘Then you have heard?’
+
+‘Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some
+journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon would have to close its doors
+within half a year now that Rocco had deserted it. But of course I knew
+better. I knew that you must have a good reason for allowing Rocco to
+depart, and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a
+substitute.’
+
+‘As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,’ said
+Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; ‘but happily we have found in our
+second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That,
+however, was mere good fortune.’
+
+‘Surely,’ said Babylon, ‘it was indiscreet to trust to mere good fortune
+in such a serious matter?’
+
+‘I didn’t trust to mere good fortune. I didn’t trust to anything except
+Rocco, and he deceived me.’
+
+‘But why did you quarrel with him?’
+
+‘I didn’t quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the State
+bedroom one night--’
+
+‘You what?’ Babylon almost screamed.
+
+‘I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom,’ repeated Racksole
+in his quietest tones.
+
+The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished Babylon’s
+glass.
+
+‘Tell me,’ said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and
+lighting a cigar.
+
+And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen episode,
+with every circumstantial detail so far as he knew it. It was a long and
+complicated recital, and occupied about an hour. During that time little
+Felix never spoke a word, scarcely moved a muscle; only his small eyes
+gazed through the bluish haze of smoke. The clock on the mantelpiece
+tinkled midnight.
+
+‘Time for whisky and soda,’ said Racksole, and got up as if to ring the
+bell; but Babylon waved him back.
+
+‘You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of Prince Eugen
+to-day, but you have not told me the result of that audience,’ said
+Babylon.
+
+‘Because I do not yet know it. But I shall doubtless know to-morrow. In
+the meantime, I feel fairly sure that Levi declined to produce Prince
+Eugen’s required million. I have reason to believe that the money was
+lent elsewhere.’
+
+‘H’m!’ mused Babylon; and then, carelessly, ‘I am not at all surprised
+at that arrangement for spying through the bathroom of the State
+apartments.’
+
+‘Why are you not surprised?’
+
+‘Oh!’ said Babylon, ‘it is such an obvious dodge--so easy to carry out.
+As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these affairs.
+I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I also felt
+that they lay outside my sphere. My business was to provide board and
+lodging of the most sumptuous kind to those who didn’t mind paying for
+it; and I did my business. If anything else went on in the hotel, under
+the rose, I long determined to ignore it unless it should happen to be
+brought before my notice; and it never was brought before my notice.
+However, I admit that there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this
+kind of affair and doubtless you have experienced that.’
+
+‘I have,’ said Racksole simply, ‘though I believe you are laughing at
+me.’
+
+‘By no means,’ Babylon replied. ‘Now what, if I may ask the question, is
+going to be your next step?’
+
+‘That is just what I desire to know myself,’ said Theodore Racksole.
+
+‘Well,’ said Babylon, after a pause, ‘let us begin. In the first place,
+it is possible you may be interested to hear that I happened to see
+Jules to-day.’
+
+‘You did!’ Racksole remarked with much calmness. ‘Where?’
+
+‘Well, it was early this morning, in Paris, just before I left there.
+The meeting was quite accidental, and Jules seemed rather surprised at
+meeting me. He respectfully inquired where I was going, and I said that
+I was going to Switzerland. At that moment I thought I was going to
+Switzerland. It had occurred to me that after all I should be happier
+there, and that I had better turn back and not see London any more.
+However, I changed my mind once again, and decided to come on to London,
+and accept the risks of being miserable there without my hotel. Then I
+asked Jules whither he was bound, and he told me that he was off to
+Constantinople, being interested in a new French hotel there. I wished
+him good luck, and we parted.’
+
+‘Constantinople, eh!’ said Racksole. ‘A highly suitable place for him, I
+should say.’
+
+‘But,’ Babylon resumed, ‘I caught sight of him again.’
+
+‘Where?’
+
+‘At Charing Cross, a few minutes before I had the pleasure of meeting
+you.
+
+Mr Jules had not gone to Constantinople after all. He did not see me, or
+I should have suggested to him that in going from Paris to
+Constantinople it is not usual to travel via London.’
+
+‘The cheek of the fellow!’ exclaimed Theodore Racksole. ‘The gorgeous
+and colossal cheek of the fellow!’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Two IN THE WINE CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON
+
+‘DO you know anything of the antecedents of this Jules,’ asked Theodore
+Racksole, helping himself to whisky.
+
+‘Nothing whatever,’ said Babylon. ‘Until you told me, I don’t think I
+was aware that his true name was Thomas Jackson, though of course I knew
+that it was not Jules. I certainly was not aware that Miss Spencer was
+his wife, but I had long suspected that their relations were somewhat
+more intimate than the nature of their respective duties in the hotel
+absolutely demanded. All that I do know of Jules--he will always be
+called Jules--is that he gradually, by some mysterious personal force,
+acquired a prominent position in the hotel. Decidedly he was the
+cleverest and most intellectual waiter I have ever known, and he was
+specially skilled in the difficult task of retaining his own dignity
+while not interfering with that of other people.
+
+I’m afraid this information is a little too vague to be of any practical
+assistance in the present difficulty.’
+
+‘What is the present difficulty?’ Racksole queried, with a simple air.
+
+‘I should imagine that the present difficulty is to account for the
+man’s presence in London.’
+
+‘That is easily accounted for,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘How? Do you suppose he is anxious to give himself up to justice, or
+that the chains of habit bind him to the hotel?’
+
+‘Neither,’ said Racksole. ‘Jules is going to have another try--that’s
+all.’
+
+‘Another try at what?’
+
+‘At Prince Eugen. Either at his life or his liberty. Most probably the
+former this time; almost certainly the former. He has guessed that we
+are somewhat handicapped by our anxiety to keep Prince Eugen’s
+predicament quite quiet, and he is taking advantage, of that fact. As he
+already is fairly rich, on his own admission, the reward which has been
+offered to him must be enormous, and he is absolutely determined to get
+it. He has several times recently proved himself to be a daring fellow;
+unless I am mistaken he will shortly prove himself to be still more
+daring.’
+
+‘But what can he do? Surely you don’t suggest that he will attempt the
+life of Prince Eugen in this hotel?’
+
+‘Why not? If Reginald Dimmock fell on mere suspicion that he would turn
+out unfaithful to the conspiracy, why not Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘But it would be an unspeakable crime, and do infinite harm to the
+hotel!’
+
+‘True!’ Racksole admitted, smiling. Little Felix Babylon seemed to brace
+himself for the grasping of his monstrous idea.
+
+‘How could it possibly be done?’ he asked at length.
+
+‘Dimmock was poisoned.’
+
+‘Yes, but you had Rocco here then, and Rocco was in the plot. It is
+conceivable that Rocco could have managed it--barely conceivable. But
+without Rocco I cannot think it possible. I cannot even think that Jules
+would attempt it. You see, in a place like the Grand Babylon, as
+probably I needn’t point out to you, food has to pass through so many
+hands that to poison one person without killing perhaps fifty would be a
+most delicate operation. Moreover, Prince Eugen, unless he has changed
+his habits, is always served by his own attendant, old Hans, and
+therefore any attempt to tamper with a cooked dish immediately before
+serving would be hazardous in the extreme.’
+
+‘Granted,’ said Racksole. ‘The wine, however, might be more easily got
+at.
+
+Had you thought of that?’
+
+‘I had not,’ Babylon admitted. ‘You are an ingenious theorist, but I
+happen to know that Prince Eugen always has his wine opened in his own
+presence. No doubt it would be opened by Hans. Therefore the wine theory
+is not tenable, my friend.’
+
+‘I do not see why,’ said Racksole. ‘I know nothing of wine as an expert,
+and I very seldom drink it, but it seems to me that a bottle of wine
+might be tampered with while it was still in the cellar, especially if
+there was an accomplice in the hotel.’
+
+‘You think, then, that you are not yet rid of all your conspirators?’
+
+‘I think that Jules might still have an accomplice within the building.’
+
+‘And that a bottle of wine could be opened and recorked without leaving
+any trace of the operation?’ Babylon was a trifle sarcastic.
+
+‘I don’t see the necessity of opening the bottle in order to poison the
+wine,’ said Racksole. ‘I have never tried to poison anybody by means of
+a bottle of wine, and I don’t lay claim to any natural talent as a
+poisoner, but I think I could devise several ways of managing the trick.
+Of course, I admit I may be entirely mistaken as to Jules’ intentions.’
+
+‘Ah!’ said Felix Babylon. ‘The wine cellars beneath us are one of the
+wonders of London. I hope you are aware, Mr Racksole, that when you
+bought the Grand Babylon you bought what is probably the finest stock of
+wines in England, if not in Europe. In the valuation I reckoned them at
+sixty thousand pounds. And I may say that I always took care that the
+cellars were properly guarded. Even Jules would experience a serious
+difficulty in breaking into the cellars without the connivance of the
+wine-clerk, and the wine-clerk is, or was, incorruptible.’
+
+‘I am ashamed to say that I have not yet inspected my wines,’ smiled
+Racksole; ‘I have never given them a thought. Once or twice I have taken
+the trouble to make a tour of the hotel, but I omitted the cellars in my
+excursions.’
+
+‘Impossible, my dear fellow!’ said Babylon, amused at such a confession,
+to him--a great connoisseur and lover of fine wines--almost incredible.
+‘But really you must see them to-morrow. If I may, I will accompany
+you.’
+
+‘Why not to-night?’ Racksole suggested, calmly.
+
+‘To-night! It is very late: Hubbard will have gone to bed.’
+
+‘And may I ask who is Hubbard? I remember the name but dimly.’
+
+‘Hubbard is the wine-clerk of the Grand Babylon,’ said Felix, with a
+certain emphasis. ‘A sedate man of forty. He has the keys of the
+cellars. He knows every bottle of every bin, its date, its qualities,
+its value. And he’s a teetotaler. Hubbard is a curiosity. No wine can
+leave the cellars without his knowledge, and no person can enter the
+cellars without his knowledge. At least, that is how it was in my time,’
+Babylon added.
+
+‘We will wake him,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘But it is one o’clock in the morning,’ Babylon protested.
+
+‘Never mind--that is, if you consent to accompany me. A cellar is the
+same by night as by day. Therefore, why not now?’
+
+Babylon shrugged his shoulders. ‘As you wish,’ he agreed, with his
+indestructible politeness.
+
+‘And now to find this Mr Hubbard, with his key of the cupboard,’ said
+Racksole, as they walked out of the room together. Although the hour was
+so late, the hotel was not, of course, closed for the night. A few
+guests still remained about in the public rooms, and a few fatigued
+waiters were still in attendance. One of these latter was despatched in
+search of the singular Mr Hubbard, and it fortunately turned out that
+this gentleman had not actually retired, though he was on the point of
+doing so. He brought the keys to Mr Racksole in person, and after he had
+had a little chat with his former master, the proprietor and the ex-
+proprietor of the Grand Babylon Hôtel proceeded on their way to the
+cellars.
+
+These cellars extend over, or rather under, quite half the superficial
+areas of the whole hotel--the longitudinal half which lies next to the
+Strand.
+
+Owing to the fact that the ground slopes sharply from the Strand to the
+river, the Grand Babylon is, so to speak, deeper near the Strand than it
+is near the Thames. Towards the Thames there is, below the entrance
+level, a basement and a sub-basement. Towards the Strand there is
+basement, sub-basement, and the huge wine cellars beneath all. After
+descending the four flights of the service stairs, and traversing a long
+passage running parallel with the kitchen, the two found themselves
+opposite a door, which, on being unlocked, gave access to another flight
+of stairs. At the foot of this was the main entrance to the cellars.
+Outside the entrance was the wine-lift, for the ascension of delicious
+fluids to the upper floors, and, opposite, Mr Hubbard’s little office.
+There was electric light everywhere.
+
+Babylon, who, as being most accustomed to them, held the bunch of keys,
+opened the great door, and then they were in the first cellar--the first
+of a suite of five. Racksole was struck not only by the icy coolness of
+the place, but also by its vastness. Babylon had seized a portable
+electric handlight, attached to a long wire, which lay handy, and,
+waving it about, disclosed the dimensions of the place. By that flashing
+illumination the subterranean chamber looked unutterably weird and
+mysterious, with its rows of numbered bins, stretching away into the
+distance till the radiance was reduced to the occasional far gleam of
+the light on the shoulder of a bottle. Then Babylon switched on the
+fixed electric lights, and Theodore Racksole entered upon a personally-
+conducted tour of what was quite the most interesting part of his own
+property.
+
+To see the innocent enthusiasm of Felix Babylon for these stores of
+exhilarating liquid was what is called in the North ‘a sight for sair
+een’.
+
+He displayed to Racksole’s bewildered gaze, in their due order, all the
+wines of three continents--nay, of four, for the superb and luscious
+Constantia wine of Cape Colony was not wanting in that most catholic
+collection of vintages. Beginning with the unsurpassed products of
+Burgundy, he continued with the clarets of Médoc, Bordeaux, and
+Sauterne; then to the champagnes of Ay, Hautvilliers, and Pierry; then
+to the hocks and moselles of Germany, and the brilliant imitation
+champagnes of Main, Neckar, and Naumburg; then to the famous and
+adorable Tokay of Hungary, and all the Austrian varieties of French
+wines, including Carlowitz and Somlauer; then to the dry sherries of
+Spain, including purest Manzanilla, and Amontillado, and Vino de Pasto;
+then to the wines of Malaga, both sweet and dry, and all the ‘Spanish
+reds’ from Catalonia, including the dark ‘Tent’ so often used
+sacramentally; then to the renowned port of Oporto. Then he proceeded to
+the Italian cellar, and descanted upon the excellence of Barolo from
+Piedmont, of Chianti from Tuscany, of Orvieto from the Roman States, of
+the ‘Tears of Christ’ from Naples, and the commoner Marsala from Sicily.
+And so on, to an extent and with a fullness of detail which cannot be
+rendered here.
+
+At the end of the suite of cellars there was a glazed door, which, as
+could be seen, gave access to a supplemental and smaller cellar, an
+apartment about fifteen or sixteen feet square.
+
+‘Anything special in there?’ asked Racksole curiously, as they stood
+before the door, and looked within at the seined ends of bottles.
+
+‘Ah!’ exclaimed Babylon, almost smacking his lips, ‘therein lies the
+cream of all.’
+
+‘The best champagne, I suppose?’ said Racksole.
+
+‘Yes,’ said Babylon, ‘the best champagne is there--a very special
+Sillery, as exquisite as you will find anywhere. But I see, my friend,
+that you fall into the common error of putting champagne first among
+wines. That distinction belongs to Burgundy. You have old Burgundy in
+that cellar, Mr Racksole, which cost me--how much do you think?--eighty
+pounds a bottle.
+
+Probably it will never be drunk,’ he added with a sigh. ‘It is too
+expensive even for princes and plutocrats.’
+
+‘Yes, it will,’ said Racksole quickly. ‘You and I will have a bottle up
+to-morrow.’
+
+‘Then,’ continued Babylon, still riding his hobby-horse, ‘there is a
+sample of the Rhine wine dated 1706 which caused such a sensation at the
+Vienna Exhibition of 1873. There is also a singularly glorious Persian
+wine from Shiraz, the like of which I have never seen elsewhere. Also
+there is an unrivalled vintage of Romanée-Conti, greatest of all modern
+Burgundies. If I remember right Prince Eugen invariably has a bottle
+when he comes to stay here. It is not on the hotel wine list, of course,
+and only a few customers know of it. We do not precisely hawk it about
+the dining-room.’
+
+‘Indeed!’ said Racksole. ‘Let us go inside.’
+
+They entered the stone apartment, rendered almost sacred by the
+preciousness of its contents, and Racksole looked round with a strangely
+intent and curious air. At the far side was a grating, through which
+came a feeble light.
+
+‘What is that?’ asked the millionaire sharply.
+
+‘That is merely a ventilation grating. Good ventilation is absolutely
+essential.’
+
+‘Looks broken, doesn’t it?’ Racksole suggested and then, putting a
+finger quickly on Babylon’s shoulder, ‘there’s someone in the cellar.
+Can’t you hear breathing, down there, behind that bin?’
+
+The two men stood tense and silent for a while, listening, under the ray
+of the single electric light in the ceiling. Half the cellar was
+involved in gloom. At length Racksole walked firmly down the central
+passage-way between the bins and turned to the corner at the right.
+
+‘Come out, you villain!’ he said in a low, well-nigh vicious tone, and
+dragged up a cowering figure.
+
+He had expected to find a man, but it was his own daughter, Nella
+Racksole, upon whom he had laid angry hands.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Three FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR
+
+‘WELL, Father,’ Nella greeted her astounded parent. ‘You should make
+sure that you have got hold of the right person before you use all that
+terrible muscular force of yours. I do believe you have broken my
+shoulder bone.’ She rubbed her shoulder with a comical expression of
+pain, and then stood up before the two men. The skirt of her dark grey
+dress was torn and dirty, and the usually trim Nella looked as though
+she had been shot down a canvas fire-escape. Mechanically she smoothed
+her frock, and gave a straightening touch to her hair.
+
+‘Good evening, Miss Racksole,’ said Felix Babylon, bowing formally.
+‘This is an unexpected pleasure.’ Felix’s drawing-room manners never
+deserted him upon any occasion whatever.
+
+‘May I inquire what you are doing in my wine cellar, Nella Racksole?’
+said the millionaire a little stiffly He was certainly somewhat annoyed
+at having mistaken his daughter for a criminal; moreover, he hated to be
+surprised, and upon this occasion he had been surprised beyond any
+ordinary surprise; lastly, he was not at all pleased that Nella should
+be observed in that strange predicament by a stranger.
+
+‘I will tell you,’ said Nella. ‘I had been reading rather late in my
+room--the night was so close. I heard Big Ben strike half-past twelve,
+and then I put the book down, and went out on to the balcony of my
+window for a little fresh air before going to bed. I leaned over the
+balcony very quietly--you will remember that I am on the third floor
+now--and looked down below into the little sunk yard which separates the
+wall of the hotel from Salisbury Lane. I was rather astonished to see a
+figure creeping across the yard. I knew there was no entrance into the
+hotel from that yard, and besides, it is fifteen or twenty feet below
+the level of the street. So I watched. The figure went close up against
+the wall, and disappeared from my view. I leaned over the balcony as far
+as I dared, but I couldn’t see him. I could hear him, however.’
+
+‘What could you hear?’ questioned Racksole sharply.
+
+‘It sounded like a sawing noise,’ said Nella; ‘and it went on for quite
+a long time--nearly a quarter of an hour, I should think--a rasping sort
+of noise.’
+
+‘Why on earth didn’t you come and warn me or someone else in the hotel?’
+asked Racksole.
+
+‘Oh, I don’t know, Dad,’ she replied sweetly. ‘I had got interested in
+it, and I thought I would see it out myself. Well, as I was saying, Mr.
+Babylon,’ she continued, addressing her remarks to Felix, with a
+dazzling smile, ‘that noise went on for quite a long time. At last it
+stopped, and the figure reappeared from under the wall, crossed the
+yard, climbed up the opposite wall by some means or other, and so over
+the railings into Salisbury Lane. I felt rather relieved then, because I
+knew he hadn’t actually broken into the hotel. He walked down Salisbury
+Lane very slowly. A policeman was just coming up. “Goodnight, officer,”
+ I heard him say to the policeman, and he asked him for a match. The
+policeman supplied the match, and the other man lighted a cigarette, and
+proceeded further down the lane. By cricking your neck from my window,
+Mr Babylon, you can get a glimpse of the Embankment and the river. I saw
+the man cross the Embankment, and lean over the river wall, where he
+seemed to be talking to some one. He then walked along the Embankment to
+Westminster and that was the last I saw of him. I waited a minute or two
+for him to come back, but he didn’t come back, and so I thought it was
+about time I began to make inquiries into the affair. I went downstairs
+instantly, and out of the hotel, through the quadrangle, into Salisbury
+Lane, and I looked over those railings. There was a ladder on the other
+side, by which it was perfectly easy--once you had got over the
+railings--to climb down into the yard. I was horribly afraid lest
+someone might walk up Salisbury Lane and catch me in the act of
+negotiating those railings, but no one did, and I surmounted them, with
+no worse damage than a torn skirt. I crossed the yard on tiptoe, and I
+found that in the wall, close to the ground and almost exactly under my
+window, there was an iron grating, about one foot by fourteen inches. I
+suspected, as there was no other ironwork near, that the mysterious
+visitor must have been sawing at this grating for private purposes of
+his own. I gave it a good shake, and I was not at all surprised that a
+good part of it came off in my hand, leaving just enough room for a
+person to creep through. I decided that I would creep through, and now
+wish I hadn’t. I don’t know, Mr Babylon, whether you have ever tried to
+creep through a small hole with a skirt on. Have you?’
+
+‘I have not had that pleasure,’ said little Felix, bowing again, and
+absently taking up a bottle which lay to his hand.
+
+‘Well, you are fortunate,’ the imperturbable Nella resumed. ‘For quite
+three minutes I thought I should perish in that grating, Dad, with my
+shoulder inside and the rest of me outside. However, at last, by the
+most amazing and agonizing efforts, I pulled myself through and fell
+into this extraordinary cellar more dead than alive. Then I wondered
+what I should do next. Should I wait for the mysterious visitor to
+return, and stab him with my pocket scissors if he tried to enter, or
+should I raise an alarm? First of all I replaced the broken grating,
+then I struck a match, and I saw that I had got landed in a wilderness
+of bottles. The match went out, and I hadn’t another one. So I sat down
+in the corner to think. I had just decided to wait and see if the
+visitor returned, when I heard footsteps, and then voices; and then you
+came in. I must say I was rather taken aback, especially as I recognized
+the voice of Mr Babylon. You see, I didn’t want to frighten you.
+
+If I had bobbed up from behind the bottles and said “Booh!” you would
+have had a serious shock. I wanted to think of a way of breaking my
+presence gently to you. But you saved me the trouble, Dad. Was I really
+breathing so loudly that you could hear me?’
+
+The girl ended her strange recital, and there was a moment’s silence in
+the cellar. Racksole merely nodded an affirmative to her concluding
+question.
+
+‘Well, Nell, my girl,’ said the millionaire at length, ‘we are much
+obliged for your gymnastic efforts--very much obliged. But now, I think
+you had better go off to bed. There is going to be some serious trouble
+here, I’ll lay my last dollar on that?’
+
+‘But if there is to be a burglary I should so like to see it, Dad,’
+Nella pleaded. ‘I’ve never seen a burglar caught red-handed.’
+
+‘This isn’t a burglary, my dear. I calculate it’s something far worse
+than a burglary.’
+
+‘What?’ she cried. ‘Murder? Arson? Dynamite plot? How perfectly
+splendid!’
+
+‘Mr Babylon informs me that Jules is in London,’ said Racksole quietly.
+
+‘Jules!’ she exclaimed under her breath, and her tone changed instantly
+to the utmost seriousness. ‘Switch off the light, quick!’ Springing to
+the switch, she put the cellar in darkness.
+
+‘What’s that for?’ said her father.
+
+‘If he comes back he would see the light, and be frightened away,’ said
+Nella. ‘That wouldn’t do at all.’
+
+‘It wouldn’t, Miss Racksole,’ said Babylon, and there was in his voice a
+note of admiration for the girl’s sagacity which Racksole heard with
+high paternal pride.
+
+‘Listen, Nella,’ said the latter, drawing his daughter to him in the
+profound gloom of the cellar. ‘We fancy that Jules may be trying to
+tamper with a certain bottle of wine--a bottle which might possibly be
+drunk by Prince Eugen. Now do you think that the man you saw might have
+been Jules?’
+
+‘I hadn’t previously thought of him as being Jules, but immediately you
+mentioned the name I somehow knew that he was. Yes, I am sure it was
+Jules.’
+
+‘Well, just hear what I have to say. There is no time to lose. If he is
+coming at all he will be here very soon--and you can help.’ Racksole
+explained what he thought Jules’ tactics might be. He proposed that if
+the man returned he should not be interfered with, but merely watched
+from the other side of the glass door.
+
+‘You want, as it were, to catch Mr Jules alive?’ said Babylon, who
+seemed rather taken aback at this novel method of dealing with
+criminals. ‘Surely,’ he added, ‘it would be simpler and easier to inform
+the police of your suspicion, and to leave everything to them.’
+
+‘My dear fellow,’ said Racksole, ‘we have already gone much too far
+without the police to make it advisable for us to call them in at this
+somewhat advanced stage of the proceedings. Besides, if you must know
+it, I have a particular desire to capture the scoundrel myself. I will
+leave you and Nella here, since Nella insists on seeing everything, and
+I will arrange things so that once he has entered the cellar Jules will
+not get out of it again--at any rate through the grating. You had better
+place yourselves on the other side of the glass door, in the big cellar;
+you will be in a position to observe from there, I will skip off at
+once. All you have to do is to take note of what the fellow does. If he
+has any accomplices within the hotel we shall probably be able by that
+means to discover who the accomplice is.’
+
+Lighting a match and shading it with his hands, Racksole showed them
+both out of the little cellar. ‘Now if you lock this glass door on the
+outside he can’t escape this way: the panes of glass are too small, and
+the woodwork too stout. So, if he comes into the trap, you two will have
+the pleasure of actually seeing him frantically writhe therein, without
+any personal danger; but perhaps you’d better not show yourselves.’
+
+In another moment Felix Babylon and Nella were left to themselves in the
+darkness of the cellar, listening to the receding footfalls of Theodore
+Racksole. But the sound of these footfalls had not died away before
+another sound greeted their ears--the grating of the small cellar was
+being removed.
+
+‘I hope your father will be in time,’ whispered Felix
+
+‘Hush!’ the girl warned him, and they stooped side by side in tense
+silence.
+
+A man cautiously but very neatly wormed his body through the aperture of
+the grating. The watchers could only see his form indistinctly in the
+darkness.
+
+Then, being fairly within the cellar, he walked without the least
+hesitation to the electric switch and turned on the light. It was
+unmistakably Jules, and he knew the geography of the cellar very well.
+Babylon could with difficulty repress a start as he saw this bold and
+unscrupulous ex-waiter moving with such an air of assurance and
+determination about the precious cellar. Jules went directly to a small
+bin which was numbered 17, and took there from the topmost bottle.
+
+‘The Romanee-Conti--Prince Eugen’s wine!’ Babylon exclaimed under his
+breath.
+
+Jules neatly and quickly removed the seal with an instrument which he
+had clearly brought for the purpose. He then took a little flat box from
+his pocket, which seemed to contain a sort of black salve. Rubbing his
+finger in this, he smeared the top of the neck of the bottle with it,
+just where the cork came against the glass. In another instant he had
+deftly replaced the seal and restored the bottle to its position. He
+then turned off the light, and made for the aperture. When he was half-
+way through Nella exclaimed, ‘He will escape, after all. Dad has not had
+time--we must stop him.’
+
+But Babylon, that embodiment of caution, forcibly, but nevertheless
+politely, restrained this Yankee girl, whom he deemed so rash and
+imprudent, and before she could free herself the lithe form of Jules had
+disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Four THE BOTTLE OF WINE
+
+AS regards Theodore Racksole, who was to have caught his man from the
+outside of the cellar, he made his way as rapidly as possible from the
+wine-cellars, up to the ground floor, out of the hotel by the
+quadrangle, through the quadrangle, and out into the top of Salisbury
+Lane. Now, owing to the vastness of the structure of the Grand Babylon,
+the mere distance thus to be traversed amounted to a little short of a
+quarter of a mile, and, as it included a number of stairs, about two
+dozen turnings, and several passages which at that time of night were in
+darkness more or less complete, Racksole could not have been expected to
+accomplish the journey in less than five minutes. As a matter of fact,
+six minutes had elapsed before he reached the top of Salisbury Lane,
+because he had been delayed nearly a minute by some questions addressed
+to him by a muddled and whisky-laden guest who had got lost in the
+corridors. As everybody knows, there is a sharp short bend in Salisbury
+Lane near the top. Racksole ran round this at good racing speed, but he
+was unfortunate enough to run straight up against the very policeman who
+had not long before so courteously supplied Jules with a match. The
+policeman seemed to be scarcely in so pliant a mood just then.
+
+‘Hullo!’ he said, his naturally suspicious nature being doubtless
+aroused by the spectacle of a bareheaded man in evening dress running
+violently down the lane. ‘What’s this? Where are you for in such a
+hurry?’ and he forcibly detained Theodore Racksole for a moment and
+scrutinized his face.
+
+‘Now, officer,’ said Racksole quietly, ‘none of your larks, if you
+please.
+
+I’ve no time to lose.’
+
+‘Beg your pardon, sir,’ the policeman remarked, though hesitatingly and
+not quite with good temper, and Racksole was allowed to proceed on his
+way. The millionaire’s scheme for trapping Jules was to get down into
+the little sunk yard by means of the ladder, and then to secrete himself
+behind some convenient abutment of brickwork until Mr Tom Jackson should
+have got into the cellar. He therefore nimbly surmounted the railings--
+the railings of his own hotel--and was gingerly descending the ladder,
+when lo! a rough hand seized him by the coat-collar and with a ferocious
+jerk urged him backwards. The fact was, Theodore Racksole had counted
+without the policeman. That guardian of the peace, mistrusting
+Racksole’s manner, quietly followed him down the lane. The sight of the
+millionaire climbing the railings had put him on his mettle, and the
+result was the ignominious capture of Racksole. In vain Theodore
+expostulated, explained, anathematized. Only one thing would satisfy the
+stolid policeman--namely, that Racksole should return with him to the
+hotel and there establish his identity. If Racksole then proved to be
+Racksole, owner of the Grand Babylon, well and good--the policeman
+promised to apologize. So Theodore had no alternative but to accept the
+suggestion. To prove his identity was, of course, the work of only a few
+minutes, after which Racksole, annoyed, but cool as ever, returned to
+his railings, while the policeman went off to another part of his beat,
+where he would be likely to meet a comrade and have a chat.
+
+In the meantime, our friend Jules, sublimely unconscious of the
+altercation going on outside, and of the special risk which he ran, was
+of course actually in the cellar, which he had reached before Racksole
+got to the railings for the first time. It was, indeed, a happy chance
+for Jules that his exit from the cellar coincided with the period during
+which Racksole was absent from the railings. As Racksole came down the
+lane for the second time, he saw a figure walking about fifty yards in
+front of him towards the Embankment. Instantly he divined that it was
+Jules, and that the policeman had thrown him just too late. He ran, and
+Jules, hearing the noise of pursuit, ran also. The ex-waiter was fleet;
+he made direct for a certain spot in the Embankment wall, and, to the
+intense astonishment of Racksole, jumped clean over the wall, as it
+seemed, into the river. ‘Is he so desperate as to commit suicide?’
+Racksole exclaimed as he ran, but a second later the puff and snort of a
+steam launch told him that Jules was not quite driven to suicide. As the
+millionaire crossed the Embankment roadway he saw the funnel of the
+launch move out from under the river-wall. It swerved into midstream and
+headed towards London Bridge. There was a silent mist over the river.
+Racksole was helpless....
+
+Although Racksole had now been twice worsted in a contest of wits within
+the precincts of the Grand Babylon, once by Rocco and once by Jules, he
+could not fairly blame himself for the present miscarriage of his plans-
+-a miscarriage due to the meddlesomeness of an extraneous person,
+combined with pure ill-fortune. He did not, therefore, permit the
+accident to interfere with his sleep that night.
+
+On the following day he sought out Prince Aribert, between whom and
+himself there now existed a feeling of unmistakable, frank friendship,
+and disclosed to him the happenings of the previous night, and
+particularly the tampering with the bottle of Romanée-Conti.
+
+‘I believe you dined with Prince Eugen last night?’
+
+‘I did. And curiously enough we had a bottle of Romanée-Conti, an
+admirable wine, of which Eugen is passionately fond.’
+
+‘And you will dine with him to-night?’
+
+‘Most probably. To-day will, I fear, be our last day here. Eugen wishes
+to return to Posen early to-morrow.’
+
+‘Has it struck you, Prince,’ said Racksole, ‘that if Jules had succeeded
+in poisoning your nephew, he would probably have succeeded also in
+poisoning you?’
+
+‘I had not thought of it,’ laughed Aribert, ‘but it would seem so. It
+appears that so long as he brings down his particular quarry, Jules is
+careless of anything else that may be accidentally involved in the
+destruction. However, we need have no fear on that score now. You know
+the bottle, and you can destroy it at once.’
+
+‘But I do not propose to destroy it,’ said Racksole calmly. ‘If Prince
+Eugen asks for Romanée-Conti to be served to-night, as he probably will,
+I propose that that precise bottle shall be served to him--and to you.’
+
+‘Then you would poison us in spite of ourselves?’
+
+‘Scarcely,’ Racksole smiled. ‘My notion is to discover the accomplices
+within the hotel. I have already inquired as to the wine-clerk, Hubbard.
+Now does it not occur to you as extraordinary that on this particular
+day Mr Hubbard should be ill in bed? Hubbard, I am informed, is
+suffering from an attack of stomach poisoning, which has supervened
+during the night. He says that he does not know what can have caused it.
+His place in the wine cellars will be taken to-day by his assistant, a
+mere youth, but to all appearances a fairly smart youth. I need not say
+that we shall keep an eye on that youth.’
+
+‘One moment,’ Prince Aribert interrupted. ‘I do not quite understand how
+you think the poisoning was to have been effected.’
+
+‘The bottle is now under examination by an expert, who has instructions
+to remove as little as possible of the stuff which Jules put on the rim
+of the mouth of it. It will be secretly replaced in its bin during the
+day. My idea is that by the mere action of pouring out the wine takes up
+some of the poison, which I deem to be very strong, and thus becomes
+fatal as it enters the glass.’
+
+‘But surely the servant in attendance would wipe the mouth of the
+bottle?’
+
+‘Very carelessly, perhaps. And moreover he would be extremely unlikely
+to wipe off all the stuff; some of it has been ingeniously placed just
+on the inside edge of the rim. Besides, suppose he forgot to wipe the
+bottle?’
+
+‘Prince Eugen is always served at dinner by Hans. It is an honour which
+the faithful old fellow reserves for himself.’
+
+‘But suppose Hans--’ Racksole stopped.
+
+‘Hans an accomplice! My dear Racksole, the suggestion is wildly
+impossible.’
+
+That night Prince Aribert dined with his august nephew in the superb
+dining-room of the Royal apartments. Hans served, the dishes being
+brought to the door by other servants. Aribert found his nephew
+despondent and taciturn. On the previous day, when, after the futile
+interview with Sampson Levi, Prince Eugen had despairingly threatened to
+commit suicide, in such a manner as to make it ‘look like an accident’,
+Aribert had compelled him to give his word of honour not to do so.
+
+‘What wine will your Royal Highness take?’ asked old Hans in his
+soothing tones, when the soup was served.
+
+‘Sherry,’ was Prince Eugen’s curt order.
+
+‘And Romanée-Conti afterwards?’ said Hans. Aribert looked up quickly.
+
+‘No, not to-night. I’ll try Sillery to-night,’ said Prince Eugen.
+
+‘I think I’ll have Romanée-Conti, Hans, after all,’ he said. ‘It suits
+me better than champagne.’
+
+The famous and unsurpassable Burgundy was served with the roast. Old
+Hans brought it tenderly in its wicker cradle, inserted the corkscrew
+with mathematical precision, and drew the cork, which he offered for his
+master’s inspection. Eugen nodded, and told him to put it down. Aribert
+watched with intense interest. He could not for an instant believe that
+Hans was not the very soul of fidelity, and yet, despite himself,
+Racksole’s words had caused him a certain uneasiness. At that moment
+Prince Eugen murmured across the table:
+
+‘Aribert, I withdraw my promise. Observe that, I withdraw it.’ Aribert
+shook his head emphatically, without removing his gaze from Hans. The
+white-haired servant perfunctorily dusted his napkin round the neck of
+the bottle of Romanée-Conti, and poured out a glass. Aribert trembled
+from head to foot.
+
+Eugen took up the glass and held it to the light.
+
+‘Don’t drink it,’ said Aribert very quietly. ‘It is poisoned.’
+
+‘Poisoned!’ exclaimed Prince Eugen.
+
+‘Poisoned, sire!’ exclaimed old Hans, with an air of profound amazement
+and concern, and he seized the glass. ‘Impossible, sire. I myself opened
+the bottle. No one else has touched it, and the cork was perfect.’
+
+‘I tell you it is poisoned,’ Aribert repeated.
+
+‘Your Highness will pardon an old man,’ said Hans, ‘but to say that this
+wine is poison is to say that I am a murderer. I will prove to you that
+it is not poisoned. I will drink it.’ And he raised the glass to his
+trembling lips. In that moment Aribert saw that old Hans, at any rate,
+was not an accomplice of Jules. Springing up from his seat, he knocked
+the glass from the aged servitor’s hands, and the fragments of it fell
+with a light tinkling crash partly on the table and partly on the floor.
+The Prince and the servant gazed at one another in a distressing and
+terrible silence.
+
+There was a slight noise, and Aribert looked aside. He saw that Eugen’s
+body had slipped forward limply over the left arm of his chair; the
+Prince’s arms hung straight and lifeless; his eyes were closed; he was
+unconscious.
+
+‘Hans!’ murmured Aribert. ‘Hans! What is this?’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Five THE STEAM LAUNCH
+
+MR TOM JACKSON’s notion of making good his escape from the hotel by
+means of a steam launch was an excellent one, so far as it went, but
+Theodore Racksole, for his part, did not consider that it went quite far
+enough.
+
+Theodore Racksole opined, with peculiar glee, that he now had a tangible
+and definite clue for the catching of the Grand Babylon’s ex-waiter. He
+knew nothing of the Port of London, but he happened to know a good deal
+of the far more complicated, though somewhat smaller, Port of New York,
+and he was sure there ought to be no extraordinary difficulty in getting
+hold of Jules’ steam launch. To those who are not thoroughly familiar
+with it the River Thames and its docks, from London Bridge to Gravesend,
+seems a vast and uncharted wilderness of craft--a wilderness in which it
+would be perfectly easy to hide even a three-master successfully. To
+such people the idea of looking for a steam launch on the river would be
+about equivalent to the idea of looking for a needle in a bundle of hay.
+But the fact is, there are hundreds of men between St Katherine’s Wharf
+and Blackwall who literally know the Thames as the suburban householder
+knows his back-garden--who can recognize thousands of ships and put a
+name to them at a distance of half a mile, who are informed as to every
+movement of vessels on the great stream, who know all the captains, all
+the engineers, all the lightermen, all the pilots, all the licensed
+watermen, and all the unlicensed scoundrels from the Tower to Gravesend,
+and a lot further. By these experts of the Thames the slightest unusual
+event on the water is noticed and discussed--a wherry cannot change
+hands but they will guess shrewdly upon the price paid and the
+intentions of the new owner with regard to it. They have a habit of
+watching the river for the mere interest of the sight, and they talk
+about everything like housewives gathered of an evening round the
+cottage door. If the first mate of a Castle Liner gets the sack they
+will be able to tell you what he said to the captain, what the old man
+said to him, and what both said to the Board, and having finished off
+that affair they will cheerfully turn to discussing whether Bill Stevens
+sank his barge outside the West Indian No.2 by accident or on purpose.
+
+Theodore Racksole had no satisfactory means of identifying the steam
+launch which carried away Mr Tom Jackson. The sky had clouded over soon
+after midnight, and there was also a slight mist, and he had only been
+able to make out that it was a low craft, about sixty feet long,
+probably painted black. He had personally kept a watch all through the
+night on vessels going upstream, and during the next morning he had a
+man to take his place who warned him whenever a steam launch went
+towards Westminster. At noon, after his conversation with Prince
+Aribert, he went down the river in a hired row-boat as far as the Custom
+House, and poked about everywhere, in search of any vessel which could
+by any possibility be the one he was in search of.
+
+But he found nothing. He was, therefore, tolerably sure that the
+mysterious launch lay somewhere below the Custom House. At the Custom
+House stairs, he landed, and asked for a very high official--an official
+inferior only to a Commissioner--whom he had entertained once in New
+York, and who had met him in London on business at Lloyd’s. In the large
+but dingy office of this great man a long conversation took place--a
+conversation in which Racksole had to exercise a certain amount of
+persuasive power, and which ultimately ended in the high official
+ringing his bell.
+
+‘Desire Mr Hazell--room No. 332--to speak to me,’ said the official to
+the boy who answered the summons, and then, turning to Racksole: ‘I need
+hardly repeat, my dear Mr Racksole, that this is strictly unofficial.’
+
+‘Agreed, of course,’ said Racksole.
+
+Mr Hazell entered. He was a young man of about thirty, dressed in blue
+serge, with a pale, keen face, a brown moustache and a rather handsome
+brown beard.
+
+‘Mr Hazell,’ said the high official, ‘let me introduce you to Mr
+Theodore Racksole--you will doubtless be familiar with his name. Mr
+Hazell,’ he went on to Racksole, ‘is one of our outdoor staff--what we
+call an examining officer. Just now he is doing night duty. He has a
+boat on the river and a couple of men, and the right to board and
+examine any craft whatever. What Mr Hazell and his crew don’t know about
+the Thames between here and Gravesend isn’t knowledge.’
+
+‘Glad to meet you, sir,’ said Racksole simply, and they shook hands.
+
+Racksole observed with satisfaction that Mr Hazell was entirely at his
+ease.
+
+‘Now, Hazell,’ the high official continued, ‘Mr Racksole wants you to
+help in a little private expedition on the river to-night. I will give
+you a night’s leave. I sent for you partly because I thought you would
+enjoy the affair and partly because I think I can rely on you to regard
+it as entirely unofficial and not to talk about it. You understand? I
+dare say you will have no cause to regret having obliged Mr Racksole.’
+
+‘I think I grasp the situation,’ said Hazell, with a slight smile.
+
+‘And, by the way,’ added the high official, ‘although the business is
+unofficial, it might be well if you wore your official overcoat. See?’
+
+‘Decidedly,’ said Hazell; ‘I should have done so in any case.’
+
+‘And now, Mr Hazell,’ said Racksole, ‘will you do me the pleasure of
+lunching with me? If you agree, I should like to lunch at the place you
+usually frequent.’
+
+So it came to pass that Theodore Racksole and George Hazell, outdoor
+clerk in the Customs, lunched together at ‘Thomas’s Chop-House’, in the
+city of London, upon mutton-chops and coffee. The millionaire soon
+discovered that he had got hold of a keen-witted man and a person of
+much insight.
+
+‘Tell me,’ said Hazell, when they had reached the cigarette stage, ‘are
+the magazine writers anything like correct?’
+
+‘What do you mean?’ asked Racksole, mystified.
+
+‘Well, you’re a millionaire--“one of the best”, I believe. One often
+sees articles on and interviews with millionaires, which describe their
+private railroad cars, their steam yachts on the Hudson, their marble
+stables, and so on, and so on. Do you happen to have those things?’
+
+‘I have a private car on the New York Central, and I have a two thousand
+ton schooner-yacht--though it isn’t on the Hudson. It happens just now
+to be on East River. And I am bound to admit that the stables of my
+uptown place are fitted with marble.’ Racksole laughed.
+
+‘Ah!’ said Hazell. ‘Now I can believe that I am lunching with a
+millionaire.
+
+It’s strange how facts like those--unimportant in themselves--appeal to
+the imagination. You seem to me a real millionaire now. You’ve given me
+some personal information; I’ll give you some in return. I earn three
+hundred a year, and perhaps sixty pounds a year extra for overtime. I
+live by myself in two rooms in Muscovy Court. I’ve as much money as I
+need, and I always do exactly what I like outside office. As regards the
+office, I do as little work as I can, on principle--it’s a fight between
+us and the Commissioners who shall get the best. They try to do us down,
+and we try to do them down--it’s pretty even on the whole. All’s fair in
+war, you know, and there ain’t no ten commandments in a Government
+office.’
+
+Racksole laughed. ‘Can you get off this afternoon?’ he asked.
+
+‘Certainly,’ said Hazell; ‘I’ll get one of my pals to sign on for me,
+and then I shall be free.’
+
+‘Well,’ said Racksole, ‘I should like you to come down with me to the
+Grand Babylon. Then we can talk over my little affair at length. And may
+we go on your boat? I want to meet your crew.’
+
+‘That will be all right,’ Hazell remarked. ‘My two men are the idlest,
+most soul-less chaps you ever saw. They eat too much, and they have an
+enormous appetite for beer; but they know the river, and they know their
+business, and they will do anything within the fair game if they are
+paid for it, and aren’t asked to hurry.’
+
+That night, just after dark, Theodore Racksole embarked with his new
+friend George Hazell in one of the black-painted Customs wherries,
+manned by a crew of two men--both the later freemen of the river, a
+distinction which carries with it certain privileges unfamiliar to the
+mere landsman. It was a cloudy and oppressive evening, not a star
+showing to illumine the slow tide, now just past its flood. The vast
+forms of steamers at anchor--chiefly those of the General Steam
+Navigation and the Aberdeen Line--heaved themselves high out of the
+water, straining sluggishly at their mooring buoys. On either side the
+naked walls of warehouses rose like grey precipices from the stream,
+holding forth quaint arms of steam-cranes. To the west the Tower Bridge
+spanned the river with its formidable arch, and above that its suspended
+footpath--a hundred and fifty feet from earth.
+
+Down towards the east and the Pool of London a forest of funnels and
+masts was dimly outlined against the sinister sky. Huge barges, each
+steered by a single man at the end of a pair of giant oars, lumbered and
+swirled down-stream at all angles. Occasionally a tug snorted busily
+past, flashing its red and green signals and dragging an unwieldy tail
+of barges in its wake. Then a Margate passenger steamer, its electric
+lights gleaming from every porthole, swerved round to anchor, with its
+load of two thousand fatigued excursionists. Over everything brooded an
+air of mystery--a spirit and feeling of strangeness, remoteness, and the
+inexplicable. As the broad flat little boat bobbed its way under the
+shadow of enormous hulks, beneath stretched hawsers, and past buoys
+covered with green slime, Racksole could scarcely believe that he was in
+the very heart of London--the most prosaic city in the world. He had a
+queer idea that almost anything might happen in this seeming waste of
+waters at this weird hour of ten o’clock. It appeared incredible to him
+that only a mile or two away people were sitting in theatres applauding
+farces, and that at Cannon Street Station, a few yards off, other people
+were calmly taking the train to various highly respectable suburbs whose
+names he was gradually learning. He had the uplifting sensation of being
+in another world which comes to us sometimes amid surroundings violently
+different from our usual surroundings. The most ordinary noises--of men
+calling, of a chain running through a slot, of a distant siren--
+translated themselves to his ears into terrible and haunting sounds,
+full of portentous significance. He looked over the side of the boat
+into the brown water, and asked himself what frightful secrets lay
+hidden in its depth. Then he put his hand into his hip-pocket and
+touched the stock of his Colt revolver--that familiar substance
+comforted him.
+
+The oarsmen had instructions to drop slowly down to the Pool, as the
+wide reach below the Tower is called. These two men had not been
+previously informed of the precise object of the expedition, but now
+that they were safely afloat Hazell judged it expedient to give them
+some notion of it. ‘We expect to come across a rather suspicious steam
+launch,’ he said. ‘My friend here is very anxious to get a sight of her,
+and until he has seen her nothing definite can be done.’
+
+‘What sort of a craft is she, sir?’ asked the stroke oar, a fat-faced
+man who seemed absolutely incapable of any serious exertion.
+
+‘I don’t know,’ Racksole replied; ‘but as near as I can judge, she’s
+about sixty feet in length, and painted black. I fancy I shall recognize
+her when I see her.’
+
+‘Not much to go by, that,’ exclaimed the other man curtly. But he said
+no more. He, as well as his mate, had received from Theodore Racksole
+one English sovereign as a kind of preliminary fee, and an English
+sovereign will do a lot towards silencing the natural sarcastic
+tendencies and free speech of a Thames waterman.
+
+‘There’s one thing I noticed,’ said Racksole suddenly, ‘and I forgot to
+tell you of it, Mr Hazell. Her screw seemed to move with a rather
+irregular, lame sort of beat.’
+
+Both watermen burst into a laugh.
+
+‘Oh,’ said the fat rower, ‘I know what you’re after, sir--it’s Jack
+Everett’s launch, commonly called “Squirm”. She’s got a four-bladed
+propeller, and one blade is broken off short.’
+
+‘Ay, that’s it, sure enough,’ agreed the man in the bows. ‘And if it’s
+her you want, I seed her lying up against Cherry Gardens Pier this very
+morning.’
+
+‘Let us go to Cherry Gardens Pier by all means, as soon as possible,’
+
+Racksole said, and the boat swung across stream and then began to creep
+down by the right bank, feeling its way past wharves, many of which,
+even at that hour, were still busy with their cranes, that descended
+empty into the bellies of ships and came up full. As the two watermen
+gingerly manoeuvred the boat on the ebbing tide, Hazell explained to the
+millionaire that the ‘Squirm’ was one of the most notorious craft on the
+river. It appeared that when anyone had a nefarious or underhand scheme
+afoot which necessitated river work Everett’s launch was always
+available for a suitable monetary consideration. The ‘Squirm’ had got
+itself into a thousand scrapes, and out of those scrapes again with
+safety, if not precisely with honour. The river police kept a watchful
+eye on it, and the chief marvel about the whole thing was that old
+Everett, the owner, had never yet been seriously compromised in any
+illegal escapade. Not once had the officer of the law been able to prove
+anything definite against the proprietor of the ‘Squirm’, though several
+of its quondam hirers were at that very moment in various of Her
+Majesty’s prisons throughout the country. Latterly, however, the launch,
+with its damaged propeller, which Everett consistently refused to have
+repaired, had acquired an evil reputation, even among evil-doers, and
+this fraternity had gradually come to abandon it for less easily
+recognizable craft.
+
+‘Your friend, Mr Tom Jackson,’ said Hazell to Racksole, ‘committed an
+error of discretion when he hired the “Squirm”. A scoundrel of his
+experience and calibre ought certainly to have known better than that.
+You cannot fail to get a clue now.’
+
+By this time the boat was approaching Cherry Gardens Pier, but
+unfortunately a thin night-fog had swept over the river, and objects
+could not be discerned with any clearness beyond a distance of thirty
+yards. As the Customs boat scraped down past the pier all its occupants
+strained eyes for a glimpse of the mysterious launch, but nothing could
+be seen of it. The boat continued to float idly down-stream, the men
+resting on their oars.
+
+Then they narrowly escaped bumping a large Norwegian sailing vessel at
+anchor with her stem pointing down-stream. This ship they passed on the
+port side. Just as they got clear of her bowsprit the fat man cried out
+excitedly, ‘There’s her nose!’ and he put the boat about and began to
+pull back against the tide. And surely the missing ‘Squirm’ was
+comfortably anchored on the starboard quarter of the Norwegian ship,
+hidden neatly between the ship and the shore. The men pulled very
+quietly alongside.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Six THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK
+
+‘I’LL board her to start with,’ said Hazell, whispering to Racksole.
+‘I’ll make out that I suspect they’ve got dutiable goods on board, and
+that will give me a chance to have a good look at her.’
+
+Dressed in his official overcoat and peaked cap, he stepped, rather
+jauntily as Racksole thought, on to the low deck of the launch. ‘Anyone
+aboard?’
+
+Racksole heard him cry out, and a woman’s voice answered. ‘I’m a Customs
+examining officer, and I want to search the launch,’ Hazell shouted, and
+then disappeared down into the little saloon amidships, and Racksole
+heard no more. It seemed to the millionaire that Hazell had been gone
+hours, but at length he returned.
+
+‘Can’t find anything,’ he said, as he jumped into the boat, and then
+privately to Racksole: ‘There’s a woman on board. Looks as if she might
+coincide with your description of Miss Spencer. Steam’s up, but there’s
+no engineer. I asked where the engineer was, and she inquired what
+business that was of mine, and requested me to get through with my own
+business and clear off. Seems rather a smart sort. I poked my nose into
+everything, but I saw no sign of any one else. Perhaps we’d better pull
+away and lie near for a bit, just to see if anything queer occurs.’
+
+‘You’re quite sure he isn’t on board?’ Racksole asked.
+
+‘Quite,’ said Hazell positively: ‘I know how to search a vessel. See
+this,’ and he handed to Racksole a sort of steel skewer, about two feet
+long, with a wooden handle. ‘That,’ he said, ‘is one of the Customs’
+aids to searching.’
+
+‘I suppose it wouldn’t do to go on board and carry off the lady?’
+Racksole suggested doubtfully.
+
+‘Well,’ Hazell began, with equal doubtfulness, ‘as for that--’
+
+‘Where’s ‘e orf?’ It was the man in the bows who interrupted Hazell.
+
+Following the direction of the man’s finger, both Hazell and Racksole
+saw with more or less distinctness a dinghy slip away from the forefoot
+of the Norwegian vessel and disappear downstream into the mist.
+
+‘It’s Jules, I’ll swear,’ cried Racksole. ‘After him, men. Ten pounds
+apiece if we overtake him!’
+
+‘Lay down to it now, boys!’ said Hazell, and the heavy Customs boat shot
+out in pursuit.
+
+‘This is going to be a lark,’ Racksole remarked.
+
+‘Depends on what you call a lark,’ said Hazell; ‘it’s not much of a lark
+tearing down midstream like this in a fog. You never know when you
+mayn’t be in kingdom come with all these barges knocking around. I
+expect that chap hid in the dinghy when he first caught sight of us, and
+then slipped his painter as soon as I’d gone.’
+
+The boat was moving at a rapid pace with the tide. Steering was a matter
+of luck and instinct more than anything else. Every now and then Hazell,
+who held the lines, was obliged to jerk the boat’s head sharply round to
+avoid a barge or an anchored vessel. It seemed to Racksole that vessels
+were anchored all over the stream. He looked about him anxiously, but
+for a long time he could see nothing but mist and vague nautical forms.
+Then suddenly he said, quietly enough, ‘We’re on the right road; I can
+see him ahead.
+
+We’re gaining on him.’ In another minute the dinghy was plainly visible,
+not twenty yards away, and the sculler--sculling frantically now--was
+unmistakably Jules--Jules in a light tweed suit and a bowler hat.
+
+‘You were right,’ Hazell said; ‘this is a lark. I believe I’m getting
+quite excited. It’s more exciting than playing the trombone in an
+orchestra. I’ll run him down, eh?--and then we can drag the chap in from
+the water.’
+
+Racksole nodded, but at that moment a barge, with her red sails set,
+stood out of the fog clean across the bows of the Customs boat, which
+narrowly escaped instant destruction. When they got clear, and the usual
+interchange of calm, nonchalant swearing was over, the dinghy was barely
+to be discerned in the mist, and the fat man was breathing in such a
+manner that his sighs might almost have been heard on the banks.
+Racksole wanted violently to do something, but there was nothing to do;
+he could only sit supine by Hazell’s side in the stern-sheets. Gradually
+they began again to overtake the dinghy, whose one-man crew was
+evidently tiring. As they came up, hand over fist, the dinghy’s nose
+swerved aside, and the tiny craft passed down a water-lane between two
+anchored mineral barges, which lay black and deserted about fifty yards
+from the Surrey shore. ‘To starboard,’ said Racksole. ‘No, man!’
+
+Hazell replied; ‘we can’t get through there. He’s bound to come out
+below; it’s only a feint. I’ll keep our nose straight ahead.’
+
+And they went on, the fat man pounding away, with a face which glistened
+even in the thick gloom. It was an empty dinghy which emerged from
+between the two barges and went drifting and revolving down towards
+Greenwich.
+
+The fat man gasped a word to his comrade, and the Customs boat stopped
+dead.
+
+‘’E’s all right,’ said the man in the bows. ‘If it’s ‘im you want, ‘e’s
+on one o’ them barges, so you’ve only got to step on and take ‘im orf.’
+
+‘That’s all,’ said a voice out of the depths of the nearest barge, and
+it was the voice of Jules, otherwise known as Mr Tom Jackson.
+
+‘’Ear ‘im?’ said the fat man smiling. ‘’E’s a good ‘un, ‘e is. But if I
+was you, Mr Hazell, or you, sir, I shouldn’t step on to that barge so
+quick as all that.’
+
+They backed the boat under the stem of the nearest barge and gazed
+upwards.
+
+‘It’s all right,’ said Racksole to Hazell; ‘I’ve got a revolver. How can
+I clamber up there?’
+
+‘Yes, I dare say you’ve got a revolver all right,’ Hazell replied
+sharply.
+
+‘But you mustn’t use it. There mustn’t be any noise. We should have the
+river police down on us in a twinkling if there was a revolver shot, and
+it would be the ruin of me. If an inquiry was held the Commissioners
+wouldn’t take any official notice of the fact that my superior officer
+had put me on to this job, and I should be requested to leave the
+service.’
+
+‘Have no fear on that score,’ said Racksole. ‘I shall, of course, take
+all responsibility.’
+
+‘It wouldn’t matter how much responsibility you took,’ Hazell retorted;
+‘you wouldn’t put me back into the service, and my career would be at an
+end.’
+
+‘But there are other careers,’ said Racksole, who was really anxious to
+lame his ex-waiter by means of a judiciously-aimed bullet. ‘There are
+other careers.’
+
+‘The Customs is my career,’ said Hazell, ‘so let’s have no shooting.
+We’ll wait about a bit; he can’t escape. You can have my skewer if you
+like’--and he gave Racksole his searching instrument. ‘And you can do
+what you please, provided you do it neatly and don’t make a row over
+it.’
+
+For a few moments the four men were passive in the boat, surrounded by
+swirling mist, with black water beneath them, and towering above them a
+half-loaded barge with a desperate and resourceful man on board.
+Suddenly the mist parted and shrivelled away in patches, as though
+before the breath of some monster. The sky was visible; it was a clear
+sky, and the moon was shining. The transformation was just one of those
+meteorological quick-changes which happen most frequently on a great
+river.
+
+‘That’s a sight better,’ said the fat man. At the same moment a head
+appeared over the edge of the barge. It was Jules’ face--dark, sinister
+and leering.
+
+‘Is it Mr Racksole in that boat?’ he inquired calmly; ‘because if so,
+let Mr Racksole step up. Mr Racksole has caught me, and he can have me
+for the asking. Here I am.’ He stood up to his full height on the barge,
+tall against the night sky, and all the occupants of the boat could see
+that he held firmly clasped in his right hand a short dagger. ‘Now, Mr
+Racksole, you’ve been after me for a long time,’ he continued; ‘here I
+am. Why don’t you step up? If you haven’t got the pluck yourself,
+persuade someone else to step up in your place ... the same fair
+treatment will be accorded to all.’ And Jules laughed a low, penetrating
+laugh.
+
+He was in the midst of this laugh when he lurched suddenly forward.
+
+‘What’r’ you doing of aboard my barge? Off you goes!’ It was a boy’s
+small shrill voice that sounded in the night. A ragged boy’s small form
+had appeared silently behind Jules, and two small arms with a vicious
+shove precipitated him into the water. He fell with a fine gurgling
+splash. It was at once obvious that swimming was not among Jules’
+accomplishments. He floundered wildly and sank. When he reappeared he
+was dragged into the Customs boat. Rope was produced, and in a minute or
+two the man lay ignominiously bound in the bottom of the boat. With the
+aid of a mudlark--a mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on
+the barge than Jules himself--Racksole had won his game. For the first
+time for several weeks the millionaire experienced a sensation of
+equanimity and satisfaction. He leaned over the prostrate form of Jules,
+Hazell’s professional skewer in his hand.
+
+‘What are you going to do with him now?’ asked Hazell.
+
+‘We’ll row up to the landing steps in front of the Grand Babylon. He
+shall be well lodged at my hotel, I promise him.’
+
+Jules spoke no word.
+
+Before Racksole parted company with the Customs man that night Jules had
+been safely transported into the Grand Babylon Hôtel and the two
+watermen had received their £10 apiece.
+
+‘You will sleep here?’ said the millionaire to Mr George Hazell. ‘It is
+late.’
+
+‘With pleasure,’ said Hazell. The next morning he found a sumptuous
+breakfast awaiting him, and in his table-napkin was a Bank of England
+note for a hundred pounds. But, though he did not hear of them till much
+later, many things had happened before Hazell consumed that sumptuous
+breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Seven THE CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON
+
+IT happened that the small bedroom occupied by Jules during the years he
+was head-waiter at the Grand Babylon had remained empty since his sudden
+dismissal by Theodore Racksole. No other head-waiter had been formally
+appointed in his place; and, indeed, the absence of one man--even the
+unique Jules--could scarcely have been noticed in the enormous staff of
+a place like the Grand Babylon. The functions of a head-waiter are
+generally more ornamental, spectacular, and morally impressive than
+useful, and it was so at the great hotel on the Embankment. Racksole
+accordingly had the excellent idea of transporting his prisoner, with as
+much secrecy as possible, to this empty bedroom. There proved to be no
+difficulty in doing so; Jules showed himself perfectly amenable to a
+show of superior force.
+
+Racksole took upstairs with him an old commissionaire who had been
+attached to the outdoor service of the hotel for many years--a grey-
+haired man, wiry as a terrier and strong as a mastiff. Entering the
+bedroom with Jules, whose hands were bound, he told the commissionaire
+to remain outside the door.
+
+Jules’ bedroom was quite an ordinary apartment, though perhaps slightly
+superior to the usual accommodation provided for servants in the
+caravanserais of the West End. It was about fourteen by twelve. It was
+furnished with a bedstead, a small wardrobe, a small washstand and
+dressing-table, and two chairs. There were two hooks behind the door, a
+strip of carpet by the bed, and some cheap ornaments on the iron
+mantelpiece. There was also one electric light. The window was a little
+square one, high up from the floor, and it looked on the inner
+quadrangle.
+
+The room was on the top storey--the eighth--and from it you had a view
+sheer to the ground. Twenty feet below ran a narrow cornice about a foot
+wide; three feet or so above the window another and wider cornice jutted
+out, and above that was the high steep roof of the hotel, though you
+could not see it from the window. As Racksole examined the window and
+the outlook, he said to himself that Jules could not escape by that
+exit, at any rate. He gave a glance up the chimney, and saw that the
+flue was far too small to admit a man’s body.
+
+Then he called in the commissionaire, and together they bound Jules
+firmly to the bedstead, allowing him, however, to lie down. All the
+while the captive never opened his mouth--merely smiled a smile of
+disdain. Finally Racksole removed the ornaments, the carpet, the chairs
+and the hooks, and wrenched away the switch of the electric light. Then
+he and the commissionaire left the room, and Racksole locked the door on
+the outside and put the key in his pocket.
+
+‘You will keep watch here,’ he said to the commissionaire, ‘through the
+night. You can sit on this chair. Don’t go to sleep. If you hear the
+slightest noise in the room blow your cab-whistle; I will arrange to
+answer the signal. If there is no noise do nothing whatever. I don’t
+want this talked about, you understand. I shall trust you; you can trust
+me.’
+
+‘But the servants will see me here when they get up to-morrow,’ said the
+commissionaire, with a faint smile, ‘and they will be pretty certain to
+ask what I’m doing of up here. What shall I say to ‘em?’
+
+‘You’ve been a soldier, haven’t you?’ asked Racksole.
+
+‘I’ve seen three campaigns, sir,’ was the reply, and, with a gesture of
+pardonable pride, the grey-haired fellow pointed to the medals on his
+breast.
+
+‘Well, supposing you were on sentry duty and some meddlesome person in
+camp asked you what you were doing--what should you say?’
+
+‘I should tell him to clear off or take the consequences, and pretty
+quick too.’
+
+‘Do that to-morrow morning, then, if necessary,’ said Racksole, and
+departed.
+
+It was then about one o’clock a.m. The millionaire retired to bed--not
+his own bed, but a bed on the seventh storey. He did not, however, sleep
+very long. Shortly after dawn he was wide awake, and thinking busily
+about Jules.
+
+He was, indeed, very curious to know Jules’ story, and he determined, if
+the thing could be done at all, by persuasion or otherwise, to extract
+it from him. With a man of Theodore Racksole’s temperament there is no
+time like the present, and at six o’clock, as the bright morning sun
+brought gaiety into the window, he dressed and went upstairs again to
+the eighth storey. The commissionaire sat stolid, but alert on his
+chair, and, at the sight of his master, rose and saluted.
+
+‘Anything happened?’ Racksole asked.
+
+‘Nothing, sir.’
+
+‘Servants say anything?’
+
+‘Only a dozen or so of ‘em are up yet, sir. One of ‘em asked what I was
+playing at, and so I told her I was looking after a bull bitch and a
+litter of pups that you was very particular about, sir.’
+
+‘Good,’ said Racksole, as he unlocked the door and entered the room. All
+was exactly as he had left it, except that Jules who had been lying on
+his back, had somehow turned over and was now lying on his face. He
+gazed silently, scowling at the millionaire. Racksole greeted him and
+ostentatiously took a revolver from his hip-pocket and laid it on the
+dressing-table. Then he seated himself on the dressing-table by the side
+of the revolver, his legs dangling an inch or two above the floor.
+
+‘I want to have a talk to you, Jackson,’ he began.
+
+‘You can talk to me as much as you like,’ said Jules. ‘I shan’t
+interfere, you may bet on that.’
+
+‘I should like you to answer some questions.’
+
+‘That’s different,’ said Jules. ‘I’m not going to answer any questions
+while I’m tied up like this. You may bet on that, too.’
+
+‘It will pay you to be reasonable,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘I’m not going to answer any questions while I’m tied up.’
+
+‘I’ll unfasten your legs, if you like,’ Racksole suggested politely,
+‘then you can sit up. It’s no use you pretending you’ve been
+uncomfortable, because I know you haven’t. I calculate you’ve been
+treated very handsomely, my son. There you are!’ and he loosened the
+lower extremities of his prisoner from their bonds. ‘Now I repeat you
+may as well be reasonable. You may as well admit that you’ve been fairly
+beaten in the game and act accordingly. I was determined to beat you, by
+myself, without the police, and I’ve done it.’
+
+‘You’ve done yourself,’ retorted Jules. ‘You’ve gone against the law. If
+you’d had any sense you wouldn’t have meddled; you’d have left
+everything to the police. They’d have muddled about for a year or two,
+and then done nothing. Who’s going to tell the police now? Are you? Are
+you going to give me up to ‘em, and say, “Here, I’ve caught him for
+you”. If you do they’ll ask you to explain several things, and then
+you’ll look foolish. One crime doesn’t excuse another, and you’ll find
+that out.’
+
+With unerring insight, Jules had perceived exactly the difficulty of
+Racksole’s position, and it was certainly a difficulty which Racksole
+did not attempt to minimize to himself. He knew well that it would have
+to be faced. He did not, however, allow Jules to guess his thoughts.
+
+‘Meanwhile,’ he said calmly to the other, ‘you’re here and my prisoner.
+
+You’ve committed a variegated assortment of crimes, and among them is
+murder. You are due to be hung. You know that. There is no reason why I
+should call in the police at all. It will be perfectly easy for me to
+finish you off, as you deserve, myself. I shall only be carrying out
+justice, and robbing the hangman of his fee. Precisely as I brought you
+into the hotel, I can take you out again. A few days ago you borrowed or
+stole a steam yacht at Ostend. What you have done with it I don’t know,
+nor do I care. But I strongly suspect that my daughter had a narrow
+escape of being murdered on your steam yacht. Now I have a steam yacht
+of my own. Suppose I use it as you used yours! Suppose I smuggle you on
+to it, steam out to sea, and then ask you to step off it into the ocean
+one night. Such things have been done.
+
+Such things will be done again. If I acted so, I should at least, have
+the satisfaction of knowing that I had relieved society from the incubus
+of a scoundrel.’
+
+‘But you won’t,’ Jules murmured.
+
+‘No,’ said Racksole steadily, ‘I won’t--if you behave yourself this
+morning. But I swear to you that if you don’t I will never rest till you
+are dead, police or no police. You don’t know Theodore Racksole.’
+
+‘I believe you mean it,’ Jules exclaimed, with an air of surprised
+interest, as though he had discovered something of importance.
+
+‘I believe I do,’ Racksole resumed. ‘Now listen. At the best, you will
+be given up to the police. At the worst, I shall deal with you myself.
+With the police you may have a chance--you may get off with twenty
+years’ penal servitude, because, though it is absolutely certain that
+you murdered Reginald Dimmock, it would be a little difficult to prove
+the case against you. But with me you would have no chance whatever. I
+have a few questions to put to you, and it will depend on how you answer
+them whether I give you up to the police or take the law into my own
+hands. And let me tell you that the latter course would be much simpler
+for me. And I would take it, too, did I not feel that you were a very
+clever and exceptional man; did I not have a sort of sneaking admiration
+for your detestable skill and ingenuity.’
+
+‘You think, then, that I am clever?’ said Jules. ‘You are right. I am. I
+should have been much too clever for you if luck had not been against
+me.
+
+You owe your victory, not to skill, but to luck.’
+
+‘That is what the vanquished always say. Waterloo was a bit of pure luck
+for the English, no doubt, but it was Waterloo all the same.’
+
+Jules yawned elaborately. ‘What do you want to know?’ he inquired, with
+politeness.
+
+‘First and foremost, I want to know the names of your accomplices inside
+this hotel.’
+
+‘I have no more,’ said Jules. ‘Rocco was the last.’
+
+‘Don’t begin by lying to me. If you had no accomplice, how did you
+contrive that one particular bottle of Romanée-Conti should be served to
+his Highness Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘Then you discovered that in time, did you?’ said Jules. ‘I was afraid
+so.
+
+Let me explain that that needed no accomplice. The bottle was topmost in
+the bin, and naturally it would be taken. Moreover, I left it sticking
+out a little further than the rest.’
+
+‘You did not arrange, then, that Hubbard should be taken ill the night
+before last?’
+
+‘I had no idea,’ said Jules, ‘that the excellent Hubbard was not
+enjoying his accustomed health.’
+
+‘Tell me,’ said Racksole, ‘who or what is the origin of your vendetta
+against the life of Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘I had no vendetta against the life of Prince Eugen,’ said Jules, ‘at
+least, not to begin with. I merely undertook, for a consideration, to
+see that Prince Eugen did not have an interview with a certain Mr
+Sampson Levi in London before a certain date, that was all. It seemed
+simple enough. I had been engaged in far more complicated transactions
+before. I was convinced that I could manage it, with the help of Rocco
+and Em--and Miss Spencer.’
+
+‘Is that woman your wife?’
+
+‘She would like to be,’ he sneered. ‘Please don’t interrupt. I had
+completed my arrangements, when you so inconsiderately bought the hotel.
+I don’t mind admitting now that from the very moment when you came
+across me that night in the corridor I was secretly afraid of you,
+though I scarcely admitted the fact even to myself then. I thought it
+safer to shift the scene of our operations to Ostend. I had meant to
+deal with Prince Eugen in this hotel, but I decided, then, to intercept
+him on the Continent, and I despatched Miss Spencer with some
+instructions. Troubles never come singly, and it happened that just then
+that fool Dimmock, who had been in the swim with us, chose to prove
+refractory. The slightest hitch would have upset everything, and I was
+obliged to--to clear him off the scene. He wanted to back out--he had a
+bad attack of conscience, and violent measures were essential. I regret
+his untimely decease, but he brought it on himself. Well, everything was
+going serenely when you and your brilliant daughter, apparently
+determined to meddle, turned up again among us at Ostend. Only twenty-
+four hours, however, had to elapse before the date which had been
+mentioned to me by my employers. I kept poor little Eugen for the
+allotted time, and then you managed to get hold of him. I do not deny
+that you scored there, though, according to my original instructions,
+you scored too late. The time had passed, and so, so far as I knew, it
+didn’t matter a pin whether Prince Eugen saw Mr Sampson Levi or not. But
+my employers were still uneasy. They were uneasy even after little Eugen
+had lain ill in Ostend for several weeks. It appears that they feared
+that even at that date an interview between Prince Eugen and Mr Sampson
+Levi might work harm to them. So they applied to me again. This time
+they wanted Prince Eugen to be--em--finished off entirely. They offered
+high terms.’
+
+‘What terms?’
+
+‘I had received fifty thousand pounds for the first job, of which Rocco
+had half. Rocco was also to be made a member of a certain famous
+European order, if things went right. That was what he coveted far more
+than the money--the vain fellow! For the second job I was offered a
+hundred thousand. A tolerably large sum. I regret that I have not been
+able to earn it.’
+
+‘Do you mean to tell me,’ asked Racksole, horror-struck by this calm
+confession, in spite of his previous knowledge, ‘that you were offered a
+hundred thousand pounds to poison Prince Eugen?’
+
+‘You put it rather crudely,’ said Jules in reply. ‘I prefer to say that
+I was offered a hundred thousand pounds if Prince Eugen should die
+within a reasonable time.’
+
+‘And who were your damnable employers?’
+
+‘That, honestly, I do not know.’
+
+‘You know, I suppose, who paid you the first fifty thousand pounds, and
+who promised you the hundred thousand.’
+
+‘Well,’ said Jules, ‘I know vaguely. I know that he came via Vienna
+from--em--Bosnia. My impression was that the affair had some bearing,
+direct or indirect, on the projected marriage of the King of Bosnia. He
+is a young monarch, scarcely out of political leading-strings, as it
+were, and doubtless his Ministers thought that they had better arrange
+his marriage for him. They tried last year, and failed because the
+Princess whom they had in mind had cast her sparkling eyes on another
+Prince. That Prince happened to be Prince Eugen of Posen. The Ministers
+of the King of Bosnia knew exactly the circumstances of Prince Eugen.
+They knew that he could not marry without liquidating his debts, and
+they knew that he could only liquidate his debts through this Jew,
+Sampson Levi. Unfortunately for me, they ultimately wanted to make too
+sure of Prince Eugen. They were afraid he might after all arrange his
+marriage without the aid of Mr Sampson Levi, and so--well, you know the
+rest.... It is a pity that the poor little innocent King of Bosnia can’t
+have the Princess of his Ministers’ choice.’
+
+‘Then you think that the King himself had no part in this abominable
+crime?’
+
+‘I think decidedly not.’
+
+‘I am glad of that,’ said Racksole simply. ‘And now, the name of your
+immediate employer.’
+
+‘He was merely an agent. He called himself Sleszak--S-l-e-s-z-a-k. But I
+imagine that that wasn’t his real name. I don’t know his real name. An
+old man, he often used to be found at the Hôtel Ritz, Paris.’
+
+‘Mr Sleszak and I will meet,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘Not in this world,’ said Jules quickly. ‘He is dead. I heard only last
+night--just before our little tussle.’
+
+There was a silence.
+
+‘It is well,’ said Racksole at length. ‘Prince Eugen lives, despite all
+plots. After all, justice is done.’
+
+‘Mr Racksole is here, but he can see no one, Miss.’ The words came from
+behind the door, and the voice was the commissionaire’s. Racksole
+started up, and went towards the door.
+
+‘Nonsense,’ was the curt reply, in feminine tones. ‘Move aside
+instantly.’
+
+The door opened, and Nella entered. There were tears in her eyes.
+
+‘Oh! Dad,’ she exclaimed, ‘I’ve only just heard you were in the hotel.
+We looked for you everywhere. Come at once, Prince Eugen is dying--’
+Then she saw the man sitting on the bed, and stopped.
+
+Later, when Jules was alone again, he remarked to himself, ‘I may get
+that hundred thousand.’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Eight THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE MORE
+
+WHEN, immediately after the episode of the bottle of Romanée-Conti in
+the State dining-room, Prince Aribert and old Hans found that Prince
+Eugen had sunk in an unconscious heap over his chair, both the former
+thought, at the first instant, that Eugen must have already tasted the
+poisoned wine. But a moment’s reflection showed that this was not
+possible. If the Hereditary Prince of Posen was dying or dead, his
+condition was due to some other agency than the Romanée-Conti. Aribert
+bent over him, and a powerful odour from the man’s lips at once
+disclosed the cause of the disaster: it was the odour of laudanum.
+Indeed, the smell of that sinister drug seemed now to float heavily over
+the whole table. Across Aribert’s mind there flashed then the true
+explanation. Prince Eugen, taking advantage of Aribert’s attention being
+momentarily diverted; and yielding to a sudden impulse of despair, had
+decided to poison himself, and had carried out his intention on the
+spot.
+
+The laudanum must have been already in his pocket, and this fact went to
+prove that the unfortunate Prince had previously contemplated such a
+proceeding, even after his definite promise. Aribert remembered now with
+painful vividness his nephew’s words: ‘I withdraw my promise. Observe
+that--I withdraw it.’ It must have been instantly after the utterance of
+that formal withdrawal that Eugen attempted to destroy himself.
+
+‘It’s laudanum, Hans,’ Aribert exclaimed, rather helplessly.
+
+‘Surely his Highness has not taken poison?’ said Hans. ‘It is
+impossible!’
+
+‘I fear it is only too possible,’ said the other. ‘It’s laudanum. What
+are we to do? Quick, man!’
+
+‘His Highness must be roused, Prince. He must have an emetic. We had
+better carry him to the bedroom.’
+
+They did, and laid him on the great bed; and then Aribert mixed an
+emetic of mustard and water, and administered it, but without any
+effect. The sufferer lay motionless, with every muscle relaxed. His skin
+was ice-cold to the touch, and the eyelids, half-drawn, showed that the
+pupils were painfully contracted.
+
+‘Go out, and send for a doctor, Hans. Say that Prince Eugen has been
+suddenly taken ill, but that it isn’t serious. The truth must never be
+known.’
+
+‘He must be roused, sire,’ Hans said again, as he hurried from the room.
+
+Aribert lifted his nephew from the bed, shook him, pinched him, flicked
+him cruelly, shouted at him, dragged him about, but to no avail. At
+length he desisted, from mere physical fatigue, and laid the Prince back
+again on the bed. Every minute that elapsed seemed an hour. Alone with
+the unconscious organism in the silence of the great stately chamber,
+under the cold yellow glare of the electric lights, Aribert became a
+prey to the most despairing thoughts. The tragedy of his nephew’s career
+forced itself upon him, and it occurred to him that an early and
+shameful death had all along been inevitable for this good-natured,
+weak-purposed, unhappy child of a historic throne. A little good
+fortune, and his character, so evenly balanced between right and wrong,
+might have followed the proper path, and Eugen might have figured at any
+rate with dignity on the European stage. But now it appeared that all
+was over, the last stroke played. And in this disaster Aribert saw the
+ruin of his own hopes. For Aribert would have to occupy his nephew’s
+throne, and he felt instinctively that nature had not cut him out for a
+throne. By a natural impulse he inwardly rebelled against the prospect
+of monarchy. Monarchy meant so much for which he knew himself to be
+entirely unfitted. It meant a political marriage, which means a forced
+marriage, a union against inclination. And then what of Nella--Nella!
+
+Hans returned. ‘I have sent for the nearest doctor, and also for a
+specialist,’ he said.
+
+‘Good,’ said Aribert. ‘I hope they will hurry.’ Then he sat down and
+wrote a card. ‘Take this yourself to Miss Racksole. If she is out of the
+hotel, ascertain where she is and follow her. Understand, it is of the
+first importance.’
+
+Hans bowed, and departed for the second time, and Aribert was alone
+again.
+
+He gazed at Eugen, and made another frantic attempt to rouse him from
+the deadly stupor, but it was useless. He walked away to the window:
+through the opened casement he could hear the tinkle of passing hansoms
+on the Embankment below, whistles of door-keepers, and the hoot of steam
+tugs on the river. The world went on as usual, it appeared. It was an
+absurd world.
+
+He desired nothing better than to abandon his princely title, and live
+as a plain man, the husband of the finest woman on earth.... But now!...
+
+Pah! How selfish he was, to be thinking of himself when Eugen lay dying.
+Yet--Nella!
+
+The door opened, and a man entered, who was obviously the doctor. A few
+curt questions, and he had grasped the essentials of the case. ‘Oblige
+me by ringing the bell, Prince. I shall want some hot water, and an
+able-bodied man and a nurse.’
+
+‘Who wants a nurse?’ said a voice, and Nella came quietly in. ‘I am a
+nurse,’ she added to the doctor, ‘and at your orders.’
+
+The next two hours were a struggle between life and death. The first
+doctor, a specialist who followed him, Nella, Prince Aribert, and old
+Hans formed, as it were, a league to save the dying man. None else in
+the hotel knew the real seriousness of the case. When a Prince falls
+ill, and especially by his own act, the precise truth is not issued
+broadcast to the universe.
+
+According to official intelligence, a Prince is never seriously ill
+until he is dead. Such is statecraft.
+
+The worst feature of Prince Eugen’s case was that emetics proved futile.
+
+Neither of the doctors could explain their failure, but it was only too
+apparent. The league was reduced to helplessness. At last the great
+specialist from Manchester Square gave it out that there was no chance
+for Prince Eugen unless the natural vigour of his constitution should
+prove capable of throwing off the poison unaided by scientific
+assistance, as a drunkard can sleep off his potion. Everything had been
+tried, even to artificial respiration and the injection of hot coffee.
+Having emitted this pronouncement, the great specialist from Manchester
+Square left. It was one o’clock in the morning. By one of those strange
+and futile coincidences which sometimes startle us by their subtle
+significance, the specialist met Theodore Racksole and his captive as
+they were entering the hotel. Neither had the least suspicion of the
+other’s business.
+
+In the State bedroom the small group of watchers surrounded the bed. The
+slow minutes filed away in dreary procession. Another hour passed. Then
+the figure on the bed, hitherto so motionless, twitched and moved; the
+lips parted.
+
+‘There is hope,’ said the doctor, and administered a stimulant which was
+handed to him by Nella.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the patient had regained consciousness. For the
+ten thousandth time in the history of medicine a sound constitution had
+accomplished a miracle impossible to the accumulated medical skill of
+centuries.
+
+In due course the doctor left, saying that Prince Eugen was ‘on the high
+road to recovery,’ and promising to come again within a few hours.
+Morning had dawned. Nella drew the great curtains, and let in a flood of
+sunlight.
+
+Old Hans, overcome by fatigue, dozed in a chair in a far corner of the
+room.
+
+The reaction had been too much for him. Nella and Prince Aribert looked
+at each other. They had not exchanged a word about themselves, yet each
+knew what the other had been thinking. They clasped hands with a perfect
+understanding. Their brief love-making had been of the silent kind, and
+it was silent now. No word was uttered. A shadow had passed from over
+them, but only their eyes expressed relief and joy.
+
+‘Aribert!’ The faint call came from the bed. Aribert went to the
+bedside, while Nella remained near the window.
+
+‘What is it, Eugen?’ he said. ‘You are better now.’
+
+‘You think so?’ murmured the other. ‘I want you to forgive me for all
+this, Aribert. I must have caused you an intolerable trouble. I did it
+so clumsily; that is what annoys me. Laudanum was a feeble expedient;
+but I could think of nothing else, and I daren’t ask anyone for advice.
+I was obliged to go out and buy the stuff for myself. It was all very
+awkward.
+
+But, thank goodness, it has not been ineffectual.’
+
+‘What do you mean, Eugen? You are better. In a day or so you will be
+perfectly recovered.’
+
+‘I am dying,’ said Eugen quietly. ‘Do not be deceived. I die because I
+wish to die. It is bound to be so. I know by the feel of my heart. In a
+few hours it will be over. The throne of Posen will be yours, Aribert.
+You will fill it more worthily than I have done. Don’t let them know
+over there that I poisoned myself. Swear Hans to secrecy; swear the
+doctors to secrecy; and breathe no word yourself. I have been a fool,
+but I do not wish it to be known that I was also a coward. Perhaps it is
+not cowardice; perhaps it is courage, after all--courage to cut the
+knot. I could not have survived the disgrace of any revelations,
+Aribert, and revelations would have been sure to come. I have made a
+fool of myself, but I am ready to pay for it. We of Posen--we always
+pay--everything except our debts. Ah! those debts! Had it not been for
+those I could have faced her who was to have been my wife, to have
+shared my throne. I could have hidden my past, and begun again. With her
+help I really could have begun again. But Fate has been against me--
+always! always! By the way, what was that plot against me, Aribert? I
+forget, I forget.’
+
+His eyes closed. There was a sudden noise. Old Hans had slipped from his
+chair to the floor. He picked himself up, dazed, and crept shamefacedly
+out of the room.
+
+Aribert took his nephew’s hand.
+
+‘Nonsense, Eugen! You are dreaming. You will be all right soon. Pull
+yourself together.’
+
+‘All because of a million,’ the sick man moaned. ‘One miserable million
+English pounds. The national debt of Posen is fifty millions, and I, the
+Prince of Posen, couldn’t borrow one. If I could have got it, I might
+have held my head up again. Good-bye, Aribert.... Who is that girl?’
+
+Aribert looked up. Nella was standing silent at the foot of the bed, her
+eyes moist. She came round to the bedside, and put her hand on the
+patient’s heart. Scarcely could she feel its pulsation, and to Aribert
+her eyes expressed a sudden despair.
+
+At that moment Hans re-entered the room and beckoned to her.
+
+‘I have heard that Herr Racksole has returned to the hotel,’ he
+whispered, ‘and that he has captured that man Jules, who they say is
+such a villain.’
+
+Several times during the night Nella inquired for her father, but could
+gain no knowledge of his whereabouts. Now, at half-past six in the
+morning, a rumour had mysteriously spread among the servants of the
+hotel about the happenings of the night before. How it had originated no
+one could have determined, but it had originated.
+
+‘Where is my father?’ Nella asked of Hans.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and pointed upwards. ‘Somewhere at the top,
+they say.’
+
+Nella almost ran out of the room. Her interruption of the interview
+between Jules and Theodore Racksole has already been described. As she
+came downstairs with her father she said again, ‘Prince Eugen is dying--
+but I think you can save him.’
+
+‘I?’ exclaimed Theodore.
+
+‘Yes,’ she repeated positively. ‘I will tell you what I want you to do,
+and you must do it.’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-Nine THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE
+
+AS Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father--the
+lifts had not yet begun to work--she drew him into her own room, and
+closed the door.
+
+‘What’s this all about?’ he asked, somewhat mystified, and even alarmed
+by the extreme seriousness of her face.
+
+‘Dad,’ the girl began, ‘you are very rich, aren’t you? very, very rich?’
+She smiled anxiously, timidly. He did not remember to have seen that
+expression on her face before. He wanted to make a facetious reply, but
+checked himself.
+
+‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am. You ought to know that by this time.’
+
+‘How soon could you realize a million pounds?’
+
+‘A million--what?’ he cried. Even he was staggered by her calm reference
+to this gigantic sum. ‘What on earth are you driving at?’
+
+‘A million pounds, I said. That is to say, five million dollars. How
+soon could you realize as much as that?’
+
+‘Oh!’ he answered, ‘in about a month, if I went about it neatly enough.
+I could unload as much as that in a month without scaring Wall Street
+and other places. But it would want some arrangement.’
+
+‘Useless!’ she exclaimed. ‘Couldn’t you do it quicker, if you really had
+to?’
+
+‘If I really had to, I could fix it in a week, but it would make things
+lively, and I should lose on the job.’
+
+‘Couldn’t you,’ she persisted, ‘couldn’t you go down this morning and
+raise a million, somehow, if it was a matter of life and death?’
+
+He hesitated. ‘Look here, Nella,’ he said, ‘what is it you’ve got up
+your sleeve?’
+
+‘Just answer my question, Dad, and try not to think that I’m a stark,
+staring lunatic.’
+
+‘I rather expect I could get a million this morning, even in London. But
+it would cost pretty dear. It might cost me fifty thousand pounds, and
+there would be the dickens of an upset in New York--a sort of grand
+universal slump in my holdings.’
+
+‘Why should New York know anything about it?’
+
+‘Why should New York know anything about it!’ he repeated. ‘My girl,
+when anyone borrows a million sovereigns the whole world knows about it.
+Do you reckon that I can go up to the Governors of the Bank of England
+and say, “Look here, lend Theodore Racksole a million for a few weeks,
+and he’ll give you an IOU and a covering note on stocks”?’
+
+‘But you could get it?’ she asked again.
+
+‘If there’s a million in London I guess I could handle it,’ he replied.
+
+‘Well, Dad,’ and she put her arms round his neck, ‘you’ve just got to go
+out and fix it. See? It’s for me. I’ve never asked you for anything
+really big before. But I do now. And I want it so badly.’
+
+He stared at her. ‘I award you the prize,’ he said, at length. ‘You
+deserve it for colossal and immense coolness. Now you can tell me the
+true inward meaning of all this rigmarole. What is it?’
+
+‘I want it for Prince Eugen,’ she began, at first hesitatingly, with
+pauses.
+
+‘He’s ruined unless he can get a million to pay off his debts. He’s
+dreadfully in love with a Princess, and he can’t marry her because of
+this.
+
+Her parents wouldn’t allow it. He was to have got it from Sampson Levi,
+but he arrived too late--owing to Jules.’
+
+‘I know all about that--perhaps more than you do. But I don’t see how it
+affects you or me.’
+
+‘The point is this, Dad,’ Nella continued. ‘He’s tried to commit
+suicide--he’s so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last night.
+It didn’t kill him straight off--he’s got over the first shock, but he’s
+in a very weak state, and he means to die. And I truly believe he will
+die. Now, if you could let him have that million, Dad, you would save
+his life.’
+
+Nella’s item of news was a considerable and disconcerting surprise to
+Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.
+
+‘I haven’t the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don’t overmuch
+respect your Prince Eugen. I’ve done what I could for him--but only for
+the sake of seeing fair play, and because I object to conspiracies and
+secret murders.
+
+It’s a different thing if he wants to kill himself. What I say is: Let
+him.
+
+Who is responsible for his being in debt to the tune of a million
+pounds? He’s only got himself and his bad habits to thank for that. I
+suppose if he does happen to peg out, the throne of Posen will go to
+Prince Aribert. And a good thing, too! Aribert is worth twenty of his
+nephew.’
+
+‘That’s just it, Dad,’ she said, eagerly following up her chance. ‘I
+want you to save Prince Eugen just because Aribert--Prince Aribert--
+doesn’t wish to occupy the throne. He’d much prefer not to have it.’
+
+‘Much prefer not to have it! Don’t talk nonsense. If he’s honest with
+himself, he’ll admit that he’ll be jolly glad to have it. Thrones are in
+his blood, so to speak.’
+
+‘You are wrong, Father. And the reason is this: If Prince Aribert
+ascended the throne of Posen he would be compelled to marry a Princess.’
+
+‘Well! A Prince ought to marry a Princess.’
+
+‘But he doesn’t want to. He wants to give up all his royal rights, and
+live as a subject. He wants to marry a woman who isn’t a Princess.’
+
+‘Is she rich?’
+
+‘Her father is,’ said the girl. ‘Oh, Dad! can’t you guess? He--he loves
+me.’ Her head fell on Theodore’s shoulder and she began to cry.
+
+The millionaire whistled a very high note. ‘Nell!’ he said at length.
+‘And you? Do you sort of cling to him?’
+
+‘Dad,’ she answered, ‘you are stupid. Do you imagine I should worry
+myself like this if I didn’t?’ She smiled through her tears. She knew
+from her father’s tone that she had accomplished a victory.
+
+‘It’s a mighty queer arrangement,’ Theodore remarked. ‘But of course if
+you think it’ll be of any use, you had better go down and tell your
+Prince Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really needs it. I
+expect there’ll be decent security, or Sampson Levi wouldn’t have mixed
+himself up in it.’
+
+‘Thanks, Dad. Don’t come with me; I may manage better alone.’
+
+She gave a formal little curtsey and disappeared. Racksole, who had the
+talent, so necessary to millionaires, of attending to several matters at
+once, the large with the small, went off to give orders about the
+breakfast and the remuneration of his assistant of the evening before,
+Mr George Hazell. He then sent an invitation to Mr Felix Babylon’s room,
+asking that gentleman to take breakfast with him. After he had related
+to Babylon the history of Jules’ capture, and had a long discussion with
+him upon several points of hotel management, and especially as to the
+guarding of wine-cellars, Racksole put on his hat, sallied forth into
+the Strand, hailed a hansom, and was driven to the City. The order and
+nature of his operations there were too complex and technical to be
+described here.
+
+When Nella returned to the State bedroom both the doctor and the great
+specialist were again in attendance. The two physicians moved away from
+the bedside as she entered, and began to talk quietly together in the
+embrasure of the window.
+
+‘A curious case!’ said the specialist.
+
+‘Yes. Of course, as you say, it’s a neurotic temperament that’s at the
+bottom of the trouble. When you’ve got that and a vigorous constitution
+working one against the other, the results are apt to be distinctly
+curious.
+
+Do you consider there is any hope, Sir Charles?’
+
+‘If I had seen him when he recovered consciousness I should have said
+there was hope. Frankly, when I left last night, or rather this morning,
+I didn’t expect to see the Prince alive again--let alone conscious, and
+able to talk. According to all the rules of the game, he ought to get
+over the shock to the system with perfect ease and certainty. But I
+don’t think he will. I don’t think he wants to. And moreover, I think he
+is still under the influence of suicidal mania. If he had a razor he
+would cut his throat. You must keep his strength up. Inject, if
+necessary. I will come in this afternoon. I am due now at St James’s
+Palace.’ And the specialist hurried away, with an elaborate bow and a
+few hasty words of polite reassurances to Prince Aribert.
+
+When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside. ‘Forget
+everything, doctor,’ he said, ‘except that I am one man and you are
+another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his Highness?
+Tell me the truth.’
+
+‘There is no truth,’ was the doctor’s reply. ‘The future is not in our
+hands, Prince.’
+
+‘But you are hopeful? Yes or no.’
+
+The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. ‘No!’ he said shortly. ‘I am not. I
+am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.’
+
+‘You mean--?’
+
+‘I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have
+observed that.’
+
+‘Only too well,’ said Aribert.
+
+‘And you are aware of the cause?’
+
+Aribert nodded an affirmative.
+
+‘But cannot remove it?’
+
+‘No,’ said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella’s
+finger.
+
+With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
+
+‘If you choose,’ she said, when they were alone, ‘Prince Eugen can be
+saved.
+
+I have arranged it.’
+
+‘You have arranged it?’ He bent over her, almost with an air of alarm.
+‘Go and tell him that the million pounds which is so necessary to his
+happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it will be forthcoming
+today, if that will be any satisfaction to him.’
+
+‘But what do you mean by this, Nella?’
+
+‘I mean what I say, Aribert,’ and she sought his hand and took it in
+hers.
+
+‘Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen’s life, it
+is at his disposal.’
+
+‘But how--how have you managed it? By what miracle?’
+
+‘My father,’ she replied softly, ‘will do anything that I ask him. Do
+not let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will
+be well.
+
+Go!’
+
+‘But we cannot accept this--this enormous, this incredible favour. It is
+impossible.’
+
+‘Aribert,’ she said quickly, ‘remember you are not in Posen holding a
+Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an American
+girl who has always been in the habit of having her own way.’
+
+The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom. The
+doctor was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert approached the
+bedside, his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted him with a faint,
+fatigued smile.
+
+‘Eugen,’ he whispered, ‘listen carefully to me. I have news. With the
+assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for you. It
+is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get better. Do
+you hear me?’
+
+Eugen almost sat up in bed. ‘Tell me I am not delirious,’ he exclaimed.
+
+‘Of course you aren’t,’ Aribert replied. ‘But you mustn’t sit up. You
+must take care of yourself.’
+
+‘Who will lend the money?’ Eugen asked in a feeble, happy whisper.
+
+‘Never mind. You shall hear later. Devote yourself now to getting
+better.’
+
+The change in the patient’s face was extraordinary. His mind seemed to
+have put on an entirely different aspect. The doctor was startled to
+hear him murmur a request for food. As for Aribert, he sat down,
+overcome by the turmoil of his own thoughts. Till that moment he felt
+that he had never appreciated the value and the marvellous power of mere
+money, of the lucre which philosophers pretend to despise and men sell
+their souls for. His heart almost burst in its admiration for that
+extraordinary Nella, who by mere personal force had raised two men out
+of the deepest slough of despair to the blissful heights of hope and
+happiness. ‘These Anglo-Saxons,’ he said to himself, ‘what a race!’
+
+By the afternoon Eugen was noticeably and distinctly better. The
+physicians, puzzled for the third time by the progress of the case,
+announced now that all danger was past. The tone of the announcement
+seemed to Aribert to imply that the fortunate issue was due wholly to
+unrivalled medical skill, but perhaps Aribert was mistaken. Anyhow, he
+was in a most charitable mood, and prepared to forgive anything.
+
+‘Nella,’ he said a little later, when they were by themselves again in
+the ante-chamber, ‘what am I to say to you? How can I thank you? How can
+I thank your father?’
+
+‘You had better not thank my father,’ she said. ‘Dad will affect to
+regard the thing as a purely business transaction, as, of course, it is.
+As for me, you can--you can--’
+
+‘Well?’
+
+‘Kiss me,’ she said. ‘There! Are you sure you’ve formally proposed to
+me, mon prince?’
+
+‘Ah! Nell!’ he exclaimed, putting his arms round her again. ‘Be mine!
+That is all I want!’
+
+‘You’ll find,’ she said, ‘that you’ll want Dad’s consent too!’
+
+‘Will he make difficulties? He could not, Nell--not with you!’
+
+‘Better ask him,’ she said sweetly.
+
+A moment later Racksole himself entered the room. ‘Going on all right?’
+he enquired, pointing to the bedroom. ‘Excellently,’ the lovers answered
+together, and they both blushed.
+
+‘Ah!’ said Racksole. ‘Then, if that’s so, and you can spare a minute,
+I’ve something to show you, Prince.’
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter Thirty CONCLUSION
+
+‘I’VE a great deal to tell you, Prince,’ Racksole began, as soon as they
+were out of the room, ‘and also, as I said, something to show you. Will
+you come to my room? We will talk there first. The whole hotel is
+humming with excitement.’
+
+‘With pleasure,’ said Aribert.
+
+‘Glad his Highness Prince Eugen is recovering,’ Racksole said, urged by
+considerations of politeness.
+
+‘Ah! As to that--’ Aribert began. ‘If you don’t mind, we’ll discuss that
+later, Prince,’ Racksole interrupted him.
+
+They were in the proprietor’s private room.
+
+‘I want to tell you all about last night,’ Racksole resumed, ‘about my
+capture of Jules, and my examination of him this morning.’ And he
+launched into a full account of the whole thing, down to the least
+details. ‘You see,’ he concluded, ‘that our suspicions as to Bosnia were
+tolerably correct. But as regards Bosnia, the more I think about it, the
+surer I feel that nothing can be done to bring their criminal
+politicians to justice.’
+
+‘And as to Jules, what do you propose to do?’
+
+‘Come this way,’ said Racksole, and led Aribert to another room. A sofa
+in this room was covered with a linen cloth. Racksole lifted the cloth--
+he could never deny himself a dramatic moment--and disclosed the body of
+a dead man.
+
+It was Jules, dead, but without a scratch or mark on him.
+
+‘I have sent for the police--not a street constable, but an official
+from Scotland Yard,’ said Racksole.
+
+‘How did this happen?’ Aribert asked, amazed and startled. ‘I understood
+you to say that he was safely immured in the bedroom.’
+
+‘So he was,’ Racksole replied. ‘I went up there this afternoon, chiefly
+to take him some food. The commissionaire was on guard at the door. He
+had heard no noise, nothing unusual. Yet when I entered the room Jules
+was gone.
+
+He had by some means or other loosened his fastenings; he had then
+managed to take the door off the wardrobe. He had moved the bed in front
+of the window, and by pushing the wardrobe door three parts out of the
+window and lodging the inside end of it under the rail at the head of
+the bed, he had provided himself with a sort of insecure platform
+outside the window. All this he did without making the least sound. He
+must then have got through the window, and stood on the little platform.
+With his fingers he would just be able to reach the outer edge of the
+wide cornice under the roof of the hotel. By main strength of arms he
+had swung himself on to this cornice, and so got on to the roof proper.
+He would then have the run of the whole roof.
+
+At the side of the building facing Salisbury Lane there is an iron fire-
+escape, which runs right down from the ridge of the roof into a little
+sunk yard level with the cellars. Jules must have thought that his
+escape was accomplished. But it unfortunately happened that one rung in
+the iron escape-ladder had rusted rotten through being badly painted. It
+gave way, and Jules, not expecting anything of the kind, fell to the
+ground. That was the end of all his cleverness and ingenuity.’
+
+As Racksole ceased, speaking he replaced the linen cloth with a gesture
+from which reverence was not wholly absent.
+
+When the grave had closed over the dark and tempestuous career of Tom
+Jackson, once the pride of the Grand Babylon, there was little trouble
+for the people whose adventures we have described. Miss Spencer, that
+yellow-haired, faithful slave and attendant of a brilliant scoundrel,
+was never heard of again. Possibly to this day she survives, a mystery
+to her fellow-creatures, in the pension of some cheap foreign boarding-
+house. As for Rocco, he certainly was heard of again. Several years
+after the events set down, it came to the knowledge of Felix Babylon
+that the unrivalled Rocco had reached Buenos Aires, and by his culinary
+skill was there making the fortune of a new and splendid hotel. Babylon
+transmitted the information to Theodore Racksole, and Racksole might,
+had he chosen, have put the forces of the law in motion against him. But
+Racksole, seeing that everything pointed to the fact that Rocco was now
+pursuing his vocation honestly, decided to leave him alone. The one
+difficulty which Racksole experienced after the demise of Jules--and it
+was a difficulty which he had, of course, anticipated--was connected
+with the police. The police, very properly, wanted to know things. They
+desired to be informed what Racksole had been doing in the Dimmock
+affair, between his first visit to Ostend and his sending for them to
+take charge of Jules’ dead body. And Racksole was by no means inclined
+to tell them everything. Beyond question he had transgressed the laws of
+England, and possibly also the laws of Belgium; and the moral excellence
+of his motives in doing so was, of course, in the eyes of legal justice,
+no excuse for such conduct. The inquest upon Jules aroused some bother;
+and about ninety-and-nine separate and distinct rumours. In the end,
+however, a compromise was arrived at. Racksole’s first aim was to pacify
+the inspector whose clue, which by the way was a false one, he had so
+curtly declined to follow up. That done, the rest needed only tact and
+patience. He proved to the satisfaction of the authorities that he had
+acted in a perfectly honest spirit, though with a high hand, and that
+substantial justice had been done. Also, he subtly indicated that, if it
+came to the point, he should defy them to do their worst. Lastly, he was
+able, through the medium of the United States Ambassador, to bring
+certain soothing influences to bear upon the situation.
+
+One afternoon, a fortnight after the recovery of the Hereditary Prince
+of Posen, Aribert, who was still staying at the Grand Babylon, expressed
+a wish to hold converse with the millionaire. Prince Eugen, accompanied
+by Hans and some Court officials whom he had sent for, had departed with
+immense éclat, armed with the comfortable million, to arrange formally
+for his betrothal.
+
+Touching the million, Eugen had given satisfactory personal security,
+and the money was to be paid off in fifteen years.
+
+‘You wish to talk to me, Prince,’ said Racksole to Aribert, when they
+were seated together in the former’s room.
+
+‘I wish to tell you,’ replied Aribert, ‘that it is my intention to
+renounce all my rights and titles as a Royal Prince of Posen, and to be
+known in future as Count Hartz--a rank to which I am entitled through my
+mother.
+
+Also that I have a private income of ten thousand pounds a year, and a
+château and a town house in Posen. I tell you this because I am here to
+ask the hand of your daughter in marriage. I love her, and I am vain
+enough to believe that she loves me. I have already asked her to be my
+wife, and she has consented. We await your approval.’
+
+‘You honour us, Prince,’ said Racksole with a slight smile, ‘and in more
+ways than one. May I ask your reason for renouncing your princely
+titles?’
+
+‘Simply because the idea of a morganatic marriage would be as repugnant
+to me as it would be to yourself and to Nella.’
+
+‘That is good.’ The Prince laughed. ‘I suppose it has occurred to you
+that ten thousand pounds per annum, for a man in your position, is a
+somewhat small income. Nella is frightfully extravagant. I have known
+her to spend sixty thousand dollars in a single year, and have nothing
+to show for it at the end. Why! she would ruin you in twelve months.’
+
+‘Nella must reform her ways,’ Aribert said.
+
+‘If she is content to do so,’ Racksole went on, ‘well and good! I
+consent.’
+
+‘In her name and my own, I thank you,’ said Aribert gravely.
+
+‘And,’ the millionaire continued, ‘so that she may not have to reform
+too fiercely, I shall settle on her absolutely, with reversion to your
+children, if you have any, a lump sum of fifty million dollars, that is
+to say, ten million pounds, in sound, selected railway stock. I reckon
+that is about half my fortune. Nella and I have always shared equally.’
+
+Aribert made no reply. The two men shook hands in silence, and then it
+happened that Nella entered the room.
+
+That night, after dinner, Racksole and his friend Felix Babylon were
+walking together on the terrace of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+
+Felix had begun the conversation.
+
+‘I suppose, Racksole,’ he had said, ‘you aren’t getting tired of the
+Grand Babylon?’
+
+‘Why do you ask?’
+
+‘Because I am getting tired of doing without it. A thousand times since
+I sold it to you I have wished I could undo the bargain. I can’t bear
+idleness. Will you sell?’
+
+‘I might,’ said Racksole, ‘I might be induced to sell.’
+
+‘What will you take, my friend?’ asked Felix
+
+‘What I gave,’ was the quick answer.
+
+‘Eh!’ Felix exclaimed. ‘I sell you my hotel with Jules, with Rocco, with
+Miss Spencer. You go and lose all those three inestimable servants, and
+then offer me the hotel without them at the same price! It is
+monstrous.’ The little man laughed heartily at his own wit.
+‘Nevertheless,’ he added, ‘we will not quarrel about the price. I accept
+your terms.’
+
+And so was brought to a close the complex chain of events which had
+begun when Theodore Racksole ordered a steak and a bottle of Bass at the
+table d’hôte of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Grand Babylon Hotel
+
+Author: Arnold Bennett
+
+Release Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2813]
+Last Updated: November 1, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE GRAND BABYLON HÔTEL
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Arnold Bennett
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <i>T. Racksole &amp; Daughter</i>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter One. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter
+        Two. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter Three. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AT THREE A.M. <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter Four. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ENTRANCE OF THE
+        PRINCE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter Five. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHAT
+        OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter
+        Six. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE GOLD ROOM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007">
+        Chapter Seven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;NELLA AND THE PRINCE <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter Eight. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ARRIVAL AND
+        DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter
+        Nine. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter Ten. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AT SEA <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter Eleven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE COURT
+        PAWNBROKER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter Twelve. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROCCO
+        AND ROOM NO. 111 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter Thirteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE STATE BEDROOM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014">
+        Chapter Fourteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter Fifteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;END OF THE
+        YACHT ADVENTURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter Sixteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter Seventeen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE RELEASE OF
+        PRINCE EUGEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter Eighteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN
+        THE NIGHT-TIME <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter Nineteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter Twenty. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MR SAMPSON LEVI
+        BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021">
+        Chapter Twenty-One. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter Twenty-Two. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE WINE
+        CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter
+        Twenty-Three. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0024"> Chapter Twenty-Four. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE BOTTLE OF
+        WINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0025"> Chapter Twenty-Five. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        STEAM LAUNCH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026"> Chapter Twenty-Six.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0027"> Chapter Twenty-Seven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> Chapter
+        Twenty-Eight. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE
+        MORE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0029"> Chapter Twenty-Nine. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THEODORE
+        IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> Chapter
+        Thirty. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONCLUSION <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter One THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;YES, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending
+      formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the
+      smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the corner by the
+      conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June night, and dinner
+      was about to be served at the Grand Babylon. Men of all sizes, ages, and
+      nationalities, but every one alike arrayed in faultless evening dress,
+      were dotted about the large, dim apartment. A faint odour of flowers came
+      from the conservatory, and the tinkle of a fountain. The waiters,
+      commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing
+      their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing
+      orders with that air of profound importance of which only really
+      first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere was an atmosphere of
+      serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand Babylon. It seemed
+      impossible that anything could occur to mar the peaceful, aristocratic
+      monotony of existence in that perfectly-managed establishment. Yet on that
+      night was to happen the mightiest upheaval that the Grand Babylon had ever
+      known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, sir?&rsquo; repeated Jules, and this time there was a shade of august
+      disapproval in his voice: it was not usual for him to have to address a
+      customer twice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said the alert, middle-aged man, looking up at length. Beautifully
+      ignorant of the identity of the great Jules, he allowed his grey eyes to
+      twinkle as he caught sight of the expression on the waiter&rsquo;s face. &lsquo;Bring
+      me an Angel Kiss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bring me an Angel Kiss, and be good enough to lose no time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s an American drink, I fear we don&rsquo;t keep it, sir.&rsquo; The voice of
+      Jules fell icily distinct, and several men glanced round uneasily, as if
+      to deprecate the slightest disturbance of their calm. The appearance of
+      the person to whom Jules was speaking, however, reassured them somewhat,
+      for he had all the look of that expert, the travelled Englishman, who can
+      differentiate between one hotel and another by instinct, and who knows at
+      once where he may make a fuss with propriety, and where it is advisable to
+      behave exactly as at the club. The Grand Babylon was a hotel in whose
+      smoking-room one behaved as though one was at one&rsquo;s club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t suppose you did keep it, but you can mix it, I guess, even in
+      this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t an American hotel, sir.&rsquo; The calculated insolence of the words
+      was cleverly masked beneath an accent of humble submission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alert, middle-aged man sat up straight, and gazed placidly at Jules,
+      who was pulling his famous red side-whiskers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Get a liqueur glass,&rsquo; he said, half curtly and half with good-humoured
+      tolerance, &lsquo;pour into it equal quantities of maraschino, cream, and crême
+      de menthe. Don&rsquo;t stir it; don&rsquo;t shake it. Bring it to me. And, I say, tell
+      the bar-tender&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bar-tender, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell the bar-tender to make a note of the recipe, as I shall probably
+      want an Angel Kiss every evening before dinner so long as this weather
+      lasts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will send the drink to you, sir,&rsquo; said Jules distantly. That was his
+      parting shot, by which he indicated that he was not as other waiters are,
+      and that any person who treated him with disrespect did so at his own
+      peril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later, while the alert, middle-aged man was tasting the
+      Angel Kiss, Jules sat in conclave with Miss Spencer, who had charge of the
+      bureau of the Grand Babylon. This bureau was a fairly large chamber, with
+      two sliding glass partitions which overlooked the entrance-hall and the
+      smoking-room. Only a small portion of the clerical work of the great hotel
+      was performed there. The place served chiefly as the lair of Miss Spencer,
+      who was as well known and as important as Jules himself. Most modern
+      hotels have a male clerk to superintend the bureau. But the Grand Babylon
+      went its own way. Miss Spencer had been bureau clerk almost since the
+      Grand Babylon had first raised its massive chimneys to heaven, and she
+      remained in her place despite the vagaries of other hotels. Always
+      admirably dressed in plain black silk, with a small diamond brooch,
+      immaculate wrist-bands, and frizzed yellow hair, she looked now just as
+      she had looked an indefinite number of years ago. Her age&mdash;none knew
+      it, save herself and perhaps one other, and none cared. The gracious and
+      alluring contours of her figure were irreproachable; and in the evenings
+      she was a useful ornament of which any hotel might be innocently proud.
+      Her knowledge of Bradshaw, of steamship services, and the programmes of
+      theatres and music-halls was unrivalled; yet she never travelled, she
+      never went to a theatre or a music-hall. She seemed to spend the whole of
+      her life in that official lair of hers, imparting information to guests,
+      telephoning to the various departments, or engaged in intimate
+      conversations with her special friends on the staff, as at present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s Number 107?&rsquo; Jules asked this black-robed lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer examined her ledgers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Theodore Racksole, New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought he must be a New Yorker,&rsquo; said Jules, after a brief,
+      significant pause, &lsquo;but he talks as good English as you or me. Says he
+      wants an &ldquo;Angel Kiss&rdquo;&mdash;maraschino and cream, if you please&mdash;every
+      night. I&rsquo;ll see he doesn&rsquo;t stop here too long.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer smiled grimly in response. The notion of referring to
+      Theodore Racksole as a &lsquo;New Yorker&rsquo; appealed to her sense of humour, a
+      sense in which she was not entirely deficient. She knew, of course, and
+      she knew that Jules knew, that this Theodore Racksole must be the unique
+      and only Theodore Racksole, the third richest man in the United States,
+      and therefore probably in the world. Nevertheless she ranged herself at
+      once on the side of Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as there was only one Racksole, so there was only one Jules, and Miss
+      Spencer instinctively shared the latter&rsquo;s indignation at the spectacle of
+      any person whatsoever, millionaire or Emperor, presuming to demand an
+      &lsquo;Angel Kiss&rsquo;, that unrespectable concoction of maraschino and cream,
+      within the precincts of the Grand Babylon. In the world of hotels it was
+      currently stated that, next to the proprietor, there were three gods at
+      the Grand Babylon&mdash;Jules, the head waiter, Miss Spencer, and, most
+      powerful of all, Rocco, the renowned chef, who earned two thousand a year,
+      and had a chalet on the Lake of Lucerne. All the great hotels in
+      Northumberland Avenue and on the Thames Embankment had tried to get Rocco
+      away from the Grand Babylon, but without success. Rocco was well aware
+      that even he could rise no higher than the maître d’hotel of the Grand
+      Babylon, which, though it never advertised itself, and didn&rsquo;t belong to a
+      limited company, stood an easy first among the hotels of Europe&mdash;first
+      in expensiveness, first in exclusiveness, first in that mysterious quality
+      known as &lsquo;style&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Situated on the Embankment, the Grand Babylon, despite its noble
+      proportions, was somewhat dwarfed by several colossal neighbours. It had
+      but three hundred and fifty rooms, whereas there are two hotels within a
+      quarter of a mile with six hundred and four hundred rooms respectively. On
+      the other hand, the Grand Babylon was the only hotel in London with a
+      genuine separate entrance for Royal visitors constantly in use. The Grand
+      Babylon counted that day wasted on which it did not entertain, at the
+      lowest, a German prince or the Maharajah of some Indian State. When Felix
+      Babylon&mdash;after whom, and not with any reference to London&rsquo;s nickname,
+      the hotel was christened&mdash;when Felix Babylon founded the hotel in
+      1869 he had set himself to cater for Royalty, and that was the secret of
+      his triumphant eminence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of a rich Swiss hotel proprietor and financier, he had contrived
+      to established a connection with the officials of several European Courts,
+      and he had not spared money in that respect. Sundry kings and not a few
+      princesses called him Felix, and spoke familiarly of the hotel as
+      &lsquo;Felix&rsquo;s&rsquo;; and Felix had found that this was very good for trade. The
+      Grand Babylon was managed accordingly. The &lsquo;note&rsquo; of its policy was
+      discretion, always discretion, and quietude, simplicity, remoteness. The
+      place was like a palace incognito. There was no gold sign over the roof,
+      not even an explanatory word at the entrance. You walked down a small side
+      street off the Strand, you saw a plain brown building in front of you,
+      with two mahogany swing doors, and an official behind each; the doors
+      opened noiselessly; you entered; you were in Felix&rsquo;s. If you meant to be a
+      guest, you, or your courier, gave your card to Miss Spencer. Upon no
+      consideration did you ask for the tariff. It was not good form to mention
+      prices at the Grand Babylon; the prices were enormous, but you never
+      mentioned them. At the conclusion of your stay a bill was presented, brief
+      and void of dry details, and you paid it without a word. You met with a
+      stately civility, that was all. No one had originally asked you to come;
+      no one expressed the hope that you would come again. The Grand Babylon was
+      far above such manoeuvres; it defied competition by ignoring it; and
+      consequently was nearly always full during the season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there was one thing more than another that annoyed the Grand Babylon&mdash;put
+      its back up, so to speak&mdash;it was to be compared with, or to be
+      mistaken for, an American hotel. The Grand Babylon was resolutely opposed
+      to American methods of eating, drinking, and lodging&mdash;but especially
+      American methods of drinking. The resentment of Jules, on being requested
+      to supply Mr Theodore Racksole with an Angel Kiss, will therefore be
+      appreciated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anybody with Mr Theodore Racksole?&rsquo; asked Jules, continuing his
+      conversation with Miss Spencer. He put a scornful stress on every syllable
+      of the guest&rsquo;s name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole&mdash;she&rsquo;s in No. 111.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules paused, and stroked his left whisker as it lay on his gleaming white
+      collar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She&rsquo;s where?&rsquo; he queried, with a peculiar emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. 111. I couldn&rsquo;t help it. There was no other room with a bathroom and
+      dressing-room on that floor.&rsquo; Miss Spencer&rsquo;s voice had an appealing tone
+      of excuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you tell Mr Theodore Racksole and Miss Racksole that we were
+      unable to accommodate them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because Babs was within hearing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only three people in the wide world ever dreamt of applying to Mr Felix
+      Babylon the playful but mean abbreviation&mdash;Babs: those three were
+      Jules, Miss Spencer, and Rocco. Jules had invented it. No one but he would
+      have had either the wit or the audacity to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;d better see that Miss Racksole changes her room to-night,&rsquo; Jules
+      said after another pause. &lsquo;Leave it to me: I&rsquo;ll fix it. Au revoir! It&rsquo;s
+      three minutes to eight. I shall take charge of the dining-room myself
+      to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Jules departed, rubbing his fine white hands slowly and meditatively.
+      It was a trick of his, to rub his hands with a strange, roundabout motion,
+      and the action denoted that some unusual excitement was in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eight o&rsquo;clock precisely dinner was served in the immense salle à manger,
+      that chaste yet splendid apartment of white and gold. At a small table
+      near one of the windows a young lady sat alone. Her frocks said Paris, but
+      her face unmistakably said New York. It was a self-possessed and
+      bewitching face, the face of a woman thoroughly accustomed to doing
+      exactly what she liked, when she liked, how she liked: the face of a woman
+      who had taught hundreds of gilded young men the true art of fetching and
+      carrying, and who, by twenty years or so of parental spoiling, had come to
+      regard herself as the feminine equivalent of the Tsar of All the Russias.
+      Such women are only made in America, and they only come to their full
+      bloom in Europe, which they imagine to be a continent created by
+      Providence for their diversion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lady by the window glanced disapprovingly at the menu card. Then
+      she looked round the dining-room, and, while admiring the diners, decided
+      that the room itself was rather small and plain. Then she gazed through
+      the open window, and told herself that though the Thames by twilight was
+      passable enough, it was by no means level with the Hudson, on whose shores
+      her father had a hundred thousand dollar country cottage. Then she
+      returned to the menu, and with a pursing of lovely lips said that there
+      appeared to be nothing to eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sorry to keep you waiting, Nella.&rsquo; It was Mr Racksole, the intrepid
+      millionaire who had dared to order an Angel Kiss in the smoke-room of the
+      Grand Babylon. Nella&mdash;her proper name was Helen&mdash;smiled at her
+      parent cautiously, reserving to herself the right to scold if she should
+      feel so inclined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You always are late, father,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only on a holiday,&rsquo; he added. &lsquo;What is there to eat?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then let&rsquo;s have it. I&rsquo;m hungry. I&rsquo;m never so hungry as when I&rsquo;m being
+      seriously idle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Consommé Britannia,&rsquo; she began to read out from the menu, &lsquo;Saumon
+      d&rsquo;Ecosse, Sauce Genoise, Aspics de Homard. Oh, heavens! Who wants these
+      horrid messes on a night like this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But, Nella, this is the best cooking in Europe,&rsquo; he protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Say, father,&rsquo; she said, with seeming irrelevance, &lsquo;had you forgotten it&rsquo;s
+      my birthday to-morrow?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have I ever forgotten your birthday, O most costly daughter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the whole you&rsquo;ve been a most satisfactory dad,&rsquo; she answered sweetly,
+      &lsquo;and to reward you I&rsquo;ll be content this year with the cheapest birthday
+      treat you ever gave me. Only I&rsquo;ll have it to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; he said, with the long-suffering patience, the readiness for any
+      surprise, of a parent whom Nella had thoroughly trained, &lsquo;what is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s this. Let&rsquo;s have filleted steak and a bottle of Bass for dinner
+      to-night. It will be simply exquisite. I shall love it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my dear Nella,&rsquo; he exclaimed, &lsquo;steak and beer at Felix&rsquo;s! It&rsquo;s
+      impossible! Moreover, young women still under twenty-three cannot be
+      permitted to drink Bass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I said steak and Bass, and as for being twenty-three, shall be going in
+      twenty-four to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Racksole set her small white teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a gentle cough. Jules stood over them. It must have been out of
+      a pure spirit of adventure that he had selected this table for his own
+      services. Usually Jules did not personally wait at dinner. He merely
+      hovered observant, like a captain on the bridge during the mate&rsquo;s watch.
+      Regular frequenters of the hotel felt themselves honoured when Jules
+      attached himself to their tables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole hesitated one second, and then issued the order with a
+      fine air of carelessness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Filleted steak for two, and a bottle of Bass.&rsquo; It was the bravest act of
+      Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s life, and yet at more than one previous crisis a high
+      courage had not been lacking to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s not in the menu, sir,&rsquo; said Jules the imperturbable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind. Get it. We want it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very good, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules walked to the service-door, and, merely affecting to look behind,
+      came immediately back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco&rsquo;s compliments, sir, and he regrets to be unable to serve steak
+      and Bass to-night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco?&rsquo; questioned Racksole lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco,&rsquo; repeated Jules with firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who is Mr Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco is our chef, sir.&rsquo; Jules had the expression of a man who is
+      asked to explain who Shakespeare was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men looked at each other. It seemed incredible that Theodore
+      Racksole, the ineffable Racksole, who owned a thousand miles of railway,
+      several towns, and sixty votes in Congress, should be defied by a waiter,
+      or even by a whole hotel. Yet so it was. When Europe&rsquo;s effete back is
+      against the wall not a regiment of millionaires can turn its flank. Jules
+      had the calm expression of a strong man sure of victory. His face said:
+      &lsquo;You beat me once, but not this time, my New York friend!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Nella, knowing her father, she foresaw interesting events, and
+      waited confidently for the steak. She did not feel hungry, and she could
+      afford to wait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Excuse me a moment, Nella,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole quietly, &lsquo;I shall be
+      back in about two seconds,&rsquo; and he strode out of the salle à manger. No
+      one in the room recognized the millionaire, for he was unknown to London,
+      this being his first visit to Europe for over twenty years. Had anyone
+      done so, and caught the expression on his face, that man might have
+      trembled for an explosion which should have blown the entire Grand Babylon
+      into the Thames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the
+      antagonist&rsquo;s turn. A long and varied experience had taught Jules that a
+      guest who embarks on the subjugation of a waiter is almost always lost;
+      the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Two HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NEVERTHELESS, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own
+      way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had long
+      since fallen into that useful practice&mdash;except when his only daughter
+      Helen, motherless but high-spirited girl, chose to think that his way
+      crossed hers, in which case Theodore capitulated and fell back. But when
+      Theodore and his daughter happened to be going one and the same road,
+      which was pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle that was
+      so ill-advised as to stand in their path. Jules, great and observant man
+      though he was, had not noticed the terrible projecting chins of both
+      father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would have reconsidered
+      the question of the steak and Bass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel, and
+      entered Miss Spencer&rsquo;s sanctum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to see Mr Babylon,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;without the delay of an instant.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am afraid&mdash;,&rsquo; she began the usual formula. It was part of her
+      daily duty to discourage guests who desired to see Mr Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, no,&rsquo; said Racksole quickly, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want any &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraids.&rdquo; This is
+      business. If you had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have slipped
+      you a couple of sovereigns into your hand, and the thing would have been
+      done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As you are not&mdash;as you are obviously above bribes&mdash;I merely say
+      to you, I must see Mr Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost urgency.
+      My name is Racksole&mdash;Theodore Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of New York?&rsquo; questioned a voice at the door, with a slight foreign
+      accent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short, French-looking
+      man, with a bald head, a grey beard, a long and perfectly-built frock
+      coat, eye-glasses attached to a minute silver chain, and blue eyes that
+      seemed to have the transparent innocence of a maid&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is only one,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole succinctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to see me?&rsquo; the new-comer suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are Mr Felix Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the world,&rsquo;
+      said Racksole. &lsquo;I am consumed and burnt up with a desire to see you, Mr
+      Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I only want a few minutes&rsquo; quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my business in
+      that time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a gesture Mr Babylon invited the millionaire down a side corridor, at
+      the end of which was Mr Babylon&rsquo;s private room, a miracle of Louis XV
+      furniture and tapestry: like most unmarried men with large incomes, Mr
+      Babylon had &lsquo;tastes&rsquo; of a highly expensive sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore Racksole
+      had met with the usual millionaire&rsquo;s luck in this adventure, for Mr
+      Babylon made a practice of not allowing himself to be interviewed by his
+      guests, however distinguished, however wealthy, however pertinacious. If
+      he had not chanced to enter Miss Spencer&rsquo;s office at that precise moment,
+      and if he had not been impressed in a somewhat peculiar way by the
+      physiognomy of the millionaire, not all Mr Racksole&rsquo;s American energy and
+      ingenuity would have availed for a confabulation with the owner of the
+      Grand Babylon Hôtel that night. Theodore Racksole, however, was ignorant
+      that a mere accident had served him. He took all the credit to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I read in the New York papers some months ago,&rsquo; Theodore started, without
+      even a clearing of the throat, &lsquo;that this hotel of yours, Mr Babylon, was
+      to be sold to a limited company, but it appears that the sale was not
+      carried out.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was not,&rsquo; answered Mr Babylon frankly, &lsquo;and the reason was that the
+      middle-men between the proposed company and myself wished to make a large
+      secret profit, and I declined to be a party to such a profit. They were
+      firm; I was firm; and so the affair came to nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The agreed price was satisfactory?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Quite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I ask what the price was?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you a buyer, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you a seller, Mr Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;on terms. The price was four hundred thousand
+      pounds, including the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell only on the
+      condition that the buyer does not transfer the property to a limited
+      company at a higher figure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will put one question to you, Mr Babylon,&rsquo; said the millionaire. &lsquo;What
+      have your profits averaged during the last four years?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thirty-four thousand pounds per annum.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I buy,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole, smiling contentedly; &lsquo;and we will, if you
+      please, exchange contract-letters on the spot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You come quickly to a resolution, Mr Racksole. But perhaps you have been
+      considering this question for a long time?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary,&rsquo; Racksole looked at his watch, &lsquo;I have been considering
+      it for six minutes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix Babylon bowed, as one thoroughly accustomed to eccentricity of
+      wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The beauty of being well-known,&rsquo; Racksole continued, &lsquo;is that you needn&rsquo;t
+      trouble about preliminary explanations. You, Mr Babylon, probably know all
+      about me. I know a good deal about you. We can take each other for granted
+      without reference. Really, it is as simple to buy an hotel or a railroad
+      as it is to buy a watch, provided one is equal to the transaction.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Precisely,&rsquo; agreed Mr Babylon smiling. &lsquo;Shall we draw up the little
+      informal contract? There are details to be thought of. But it occurs to me
+      that you cannot have dined yet, and might prefer to deal with minor
+      questions after dinner.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not dined,&rsquo; said the millionaire, with emphasis, &lsquo;and in that
+      connexion will you do me a favour? Will you send for Mr Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to see him, naturally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do,&rsquo; said the millionaire, and added, &lsquo;about my dinner.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco is a great man,&rsquo; murmured Mr Babylon as he touched the bell,
+      ignoring the last words. &lsquo;My compliments to Mr Rocco,&rsquo; he said to the page
+      who answered his summons, &lsquo;and if it is quite convenient I should be glad
+      to see him here for a moment.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you give Rocco?&rsquo; Racksole inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Two thousand a year and the treatment of an Ambassador.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall give him the treatment of an Ambassador and three thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will be wise,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Rocco came into the room, very softly&mdash;a man of forty,
+      thin, with long, thin hands, and an inordinately long brown silky
+      moustache.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon, &lsquo;let me introduce Mr Theodore Racksole, of
+      New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sharmed,&rsquo; said Rocco, bowing. &lsquo;Ze&mdash;ze, vat you call it,
+      millionaire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly,&rsquo; Racksole put in, and continued quickly: &lsquo;Mr Rocco, I wish to
+      acquaint you before any other person with the fact that I have purchased
+      the Grand Babylon Hôtel. If you think well to afford me the privilege of
+      retaining your services I shall be happy to offer you a remuneration of
+      three thousand a year.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tree, you said?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Three.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sharmed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, Mr Rocco, will you oblige me very much by ordering a plain
+      beefsteak and a bottle of Bass to be served by Jules&mdash;I particularly
+      desire Jules&mdash;at table No. 17 in the dining-room in ten minutes from
+      now? And will you do me the honour of lunching with me to-morrow?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Rocco gasped, bowed, muttered something in French, and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes later the buyer and seller of the Grand Babylon Hôtel had
+      each signed a curt document, scribbled out on the hotel note-paper. Felix
+      Babylon asked no questions, and it was this heroic absence of curiosity,
+      of surprise on his part, that more than anything else impressed Theodore
+      Racksole. How many hotel proprietors in the world, Racksole asked himself,
+      would have let that beef-steak and Bass go by without a word of comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From what date do you wish the purchase to take effect?&rsquo; asked Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh,&rsquo; said Racksole lightly, &lsquo;it doesn&rsquo;t matter. Shall we say from
+      to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As you will. I have long wished to retire. And now that the moment has
+      come&mdash;and so dramatically&mdash;I am ready. I shall return to
+      Switzerland. One cannot spend much money there, but it is my native land.
+      I shall be the richest man in Switzerland.&rsquo; He smiled with a kind of sad
+      amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you are fairly well off?&rsquo; said Racksole, in that easy familiar
+      style of his, as though the idea had just occurred to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Besides what I shall receive from you, I have half a million invested.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you will be nearly a millionaire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix Babylon nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I congratulate you, my dear sir,&rsquo; said Racksole, in the tone of a judge
+      addressing a newly-admitted barrister. &lsquo;Nine hundred thousand pounds,
+      expressed in francs, will sound very nice&mdash;in Switzerland.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course to you, Mr Racksole, such a sum would be poverty. Now if one
+      might guess at your own wealth?&rsquo; Felix Babylon was imitating the other&rsquo;s
+      freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know, to five millions or so, what I am worth,&rsquo; said Racksole,
+      with sincerity, his tone indicating that he would have been glad to give
+      the information if it were in his power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have had anxieties, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Still have them. I am now holiday-making in London with my daughter in
+      order to get rid of them for a time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is the purchase of hotels your notion of relaxation, then?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole shrugged his shoulders. &lsquo;It is a change from railroads,&rsquo; he
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, my friend, you little know what you have bought.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! yes I do,&rsquo; returned Racksole; &lsquo;I have bought just the first hotel in
+      the world.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is true, that is true,&rsquo; Babylon admitted, gazing meditatively at the
+      antique Persian carpet. &lsquo;There is nothing, anywhere, like my hotel. But
+      you will regret the purchase, Mr Racksole. It is no business of mine, of
+      course, but I cannot help repeating that you will regret the purchase.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never regret.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you will begin very soon&mdash;perhaps to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you say that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because the Grand Babylon is the Grand Babylon. You think because you
+      control a railroad, or an iron-works, or a line of steamers, therefore you
+      can control anything. But no. Not the Grand Babylon. There is something
+      about the Grand Babylon&mdash;&rsquo; He threw up his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Servants rob you, of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course. I suppose I lose a hundred pounds a week in that way. But it
+      is not that I mean. It is the guests. The guests are too&mdash;too
+      distinguished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great Ambassadors, the great financiers, the great nobles, all the men
+      that move the world, put up under my roof. London is the centre of
+      everything, and my hotel&mdash;your hotel&mdash;is the centre of London.
+      Once I had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at the same time.
+      Imagine that!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A great honour, Mr Babylon. But wherein lies the difficulty?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole,&rsquo; was the grim reply, &lsquo;what has become of your shrewdness&mdash;that
+      shrewdness which has made your fortune so immense that even you cannot
+      calculate it? Do you not perceive that the roof which habitually shelters
+      all the force, all the authority of the world, must necessarily also
+      shelter nameless and numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and
+      workers of mischief? The thing is as clear as day&mdash;and as dark as
+      night. Mr Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded. I never know
+      what is going forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange secrets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You mentioned my servants. They are almost all good servants, skilled,
+      competent. But what are they besides? For anything I know my fourth
+      sub-chef may be an agent of some European Government. For anything I know
+      my invaluable Miss Spencer may be in the pay of a court dressmaker or a
+      Frankfort banker. Even Rocco may be someone else in addition to Rocco.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That makes it all the more interesting,&rsquo; remarked Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What a long time you have been, Father,&rsquo; said Nella, when he returned to
+      table No. 17 in the salle à manger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only twenty minutes, my dove.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you said two seconds. There is a difference.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you see, I had to wait for the steak to cook.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did you have much trouble in getting my birthday treat?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No trouble. But it didn&rsquo;t come quite as cheap as you said.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Father?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only that I&rsquo;ve bought the entire hotel. But don&rsquo;t split.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, you always were a delicious parent. Shall you give me the hotel
+      for a birthday present?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. I shall run it&mdash;as an amusement. By the way, who is that chair
+      for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He noticed that a third cover had been laid at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is for a friend of mine who came in about five minutes ago. Of
+      course I told him he must share our steak. He&rsquo;ll be here in a moment.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I respectfully inquire his name?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock&mdash;Christian name Reginald; profession, English companion to
+      Prince Aribert of Posen. I met him when I was in St Petersburg with cousin
+      Hetty last fall. Oh; here he is. Mr Dimmock, this is my dear father. He
+      has succeeded with the steak.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole found himself confronted by a very young man, with deep
+      black eyes, and a fresh, boyish expression. They began to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules approached with the steak. Racksole tried to catch the waiter&rsquo;s eye,
+      but could not. The dinner proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Father!&rsquo; cried Nella, &lsquo;what a lot of mustard you have taken!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have I?&rsquo; he said, and then he happened to glance into a mirror on his
+      left hand between two windows. He saw the reflection of Jules, who stood
+      behind his chair, and he saw Jules give a slow, significant, ominous wink
+      to Mr Dimmock&mdash;Christian name, Reginald.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He examined his mustard in silence. He thought that perhaps he had helped
+      himself rather plenteously to mustard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Three AT THREE A.M.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MR REGINALD DIMMOCK proved himself, despite his extreme youth, to be a man
+      of the world and of experiences, and a practised talker. Conversation
+      between him and Nella Racksole seemed never to flag. They chattered about
+      St Petersburg, and the ice on the Neva, and the tenor at the opera who had
+      been exiled to Siberia, and the quality of Russian tea, and the sweetness
+      of Russian champagne, and various other aspects of Muscovite existence.
+      Russia exhausted, Nella lightly outlined her own doings since she had met
+      the young man in the Tsar&rsquo;s capital, and this recital brought the topic
+      round to London, where it stayed till the final piece of steak was eaten.
+      Theodore Racksole noticed that Mr Dimmock gave very meagre information
+      about his own movements, either past or future. He regarded the youth as a
+      typical hanger-on of Courts, and wondered how he had obtained his post of
+      companion to Prince Aribert of Posen, and who Prince Aribert of Posen
+      might be. The millionaire thought he had once heard of Posen, but he
+      wasn&rsquo;t sure; he rather fancied it was one of those small nondescript
+      German States of which five-sixths of the subjects are Palace officials,
+      and the rest charcoal-burners or innkeepers. Until the meal was nearly
+      over, Racksole said little&mdash;perhaps his thoughts were too busy with
+      Jules&rsquo; wink to Mr Dimmock, but when ices had been followed by coffee, he
+      decided that it might be as well, in the interests of the hotel, to
+      discover something about his daughter&rsquo;s friend. He never for an instant
+      questioned her right to possess her own friends; he had always left her in
+      the most amazing liberty, relying on her inherited good sense to keep her
+      out of mischief; but, quite apart from the wink, he was struck by Nella&rsquo;s
+      attitude towards Mr Dimmock, an attitude in which an amiable scorn was
+      blended with an evident desire to propitiate and please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella tells me, Mr Dimmock, that you hold a confidential position with
+      Prince Aribert of Posen,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;You will pardon an American&rsquo;s
+      ignorance, but is Prince Aribert a reigning Prince&mdash;what, I believe,
+      you call in Europe, a Prince Regnant?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Highness is not a reigning Prince, nor ever likely to be,&rsquo; answered
+      Dimmock. &lsquo;The Grand Ducal Throne of Posen is occupied by his Highness&rsquo;s
+      nephew, the Grand Duke Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nephew?&rsquo; cried Nella with astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not, dear lady?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Prince Aribert is surely very young?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Prince, by one of those vagaries of chance which occur sometimes in
+      the history of families, is precisely the same age as the Grand Duke. The
+      late Grand Duke&rsquo;s father was twice married. Hence this youthfulness on the
+      part of an uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How delicious to be the uncle of someone as old as yourself! But I
+      suppose it is no fun for Prince Aribert. I suppose he has to be
+      frightfully respectful and obedient, and all that, to his nephew?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Grand Duke and my Serene master are like brothers. At present, of
+      course, Prince Aribert is nominally heir to the throne, but as no doubt
+      you are aware, the Grand Duke will shortly marry a near relative of the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s, and should there be a family&mdash;&rsquo; Mr Dimmock stopped and
+      shrugged his straight shoulders. &lsquo;The Grand Duke,&rsquo; he went on, without
+      finishing the last sentence, &lsquo;would much prefer Prince Aribert to be his
+      successor. He really doesn&rsquo;t want to marry. Between ourselves, strictly
+      between ourselves, he regards marriage as rather a bore. But, of course,
+      being a German Grand Duke, he is bound to marry. He owes it to his
+      country, to Posen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How large is Posen?&rsquo; asked Racksole bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father,&rsquo; Nella interposed laughing, &lsquo;you shouldn&rsquo;t ask such inconvenient
+      questions. You ought to have guessed that it isn&rsquo;t etiquette to inquire
+      about the size of a German Dukedom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure,&rsquo; said Dimmock, with a polite smile, &lsquo;that the Grand Duke is as
+      much amused as anyone at the size of his territory. I forget the exact
+      acreage, but I remember that once Prince Aribert and myself walked across
+      it and back again in a single day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then the Grand Duke cannot travel very far within his own dominions? You
+      may say that the sun does set on his empire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does,&rsquo; said Dimmock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unless the weather is cloudy,&rsquo; Nella put in. &lsquo;Is the Grand Duke content
+      always to stay at home?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary, he is a great traveller, much more so than Prince
+      Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may tell you, what no one knows at present, outside this hotel, that his
+      Royal Highness the Grand Duke, with a small suite, will be here
+      to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In London?&rsquo; asked Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! How lovely!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is why your humble servant is here to-night&mdash;a sort of advance
+      guard.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I understood,&rsquo; Racksole said, &lsquo;that you were&mdash;er&mdash;attached
+      to Prince Aribert, the uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am. Prince Aribert will also be here. The Grand Duke and the Prince
+      have business about important investments connected with the Grand Duke&rsquo;s
+      marriage settlement.... In the highest quarters, you understand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For so discreet a person,&rsquo; thought Racksole, &lsquo;you are fairly
+      communicative.&rsquo; Then he said aloud: &lsquo;Shall we go out on the terrace?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they crossed the dining-room Jules stopped Mr Dimmock and handed him a
+      letter. &lsquo;Just come, sir, by messenger,&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella dropped behind for a second with her father. &lsquo;Leave me alone with
+      this boy a little&mdash;there&rsquo;s a dear parent,&rsquo; she whispered in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am a mere cypher, an obedient nobody,&rsquo; Racksole replied, pinching her
+      arm surreptitiously. &lsquo;Treat me as such. Use me as you like. I will go and
+      look after my hotel&rsquo; And soon afterwards he disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella and Mr Dimmock sat together on the terrace, sipping iced drinks.
+      They made a handsome couple, bowered amid plants which blossomed at the
+      command of a Chelsea wholesale florist. People who passed by remarked
+      privately that from the look of things there was the beginning of a
+      romance in that conversation. Perhaps there was, but a more intimate
+      acquaintance with the character of Nella Racksole would have been
+      necessary in order to predict what precise form that romance would take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules himself served the liquids, and at ten o&rsquo;clock he brought another
+      note. Entreating a thousand pardons, Reginald Dimmock, after he had
+      glanced at the note, excused himself on the plea of urgent business for
+      his Serene master, uncle of the Grand Duke of Posen. He asked if he might
+      fetch Mr Racksole, or escort Miss Racksole to her father. But Miss
+      Racksole said gaily that she felt no need of an escort, and should go to
+      bed. She added that her father and herself always endeavoured to be
+      independent of each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Theodore Racksole had found his way once more into Mr Babylon&rsquo;s
+      private room. Before arriving there, however, he had discovered that in
+      some mysterious manner the news of the change of proprietorship had worked
+      its way down to the lowest strata of the hotel&rsquo;s cosmos. The corridors
+      hummed with it, and even under-servants were to be seen discussing the
+      thing, just as though it mattered to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have a cigar, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said the urbane Mr Babylon, &lsquo;and a mouthful
+      of the oldest cognac in all Europe.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes these two were talking eagerly, rapidly. Felix Babylon
+      was astonished at Racksole&rsquo;s capacity for absorbing the details of hotel
+      management. And as for Racksole he soon realized that Felix Babylon must
+      be a prince of hotel managers. It had never occurred to Racksole before
+      that to manage an hotel, even a large hotel, could be a specially
+      interesting affair, or that it could make any excessive demands upon the
+      brains of the manager; but he came to see that he had underrated the
+      possibilities of an hotel. The business of the Grand Babylon was enormous.
+      It took Racksole, with all his genius for organization, exactly half an
+      hour to master the details of the hotel laundry-work. And the laundry-work
+      was but one branch of activity amid scores, and not a very large one at
+      that. The machinery of checking supplies, and of establishing a mean ratio
+      between the raw stuff received in the kitchen and the number of meals
+      served in the salle à manger and the private rooms, was very complicated
+      and delicate. When Racksole had grasped it, he at once suggested some
+      improvements, and this led to a long theoretical discussion, and the
+      discussion led to digressions, and then Felix Babylon, in a moment of
+      absent-mindedness, yawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole looked at the gilt clock on the high mantelpiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Great Scott!&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s three o&rsquo;clock. Mr Babylon, accept my
+      apologies for having kept you up to such an absurd hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not spent so pleasant an evening for many years. You have let me
+      ride my hobby to my heart&rsquo;s content. It is I who should apologize.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should like to ask you one question,&rsquo; said Babylon. &lsquo;Have you ever had
+      anything to do with hotels before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you have missed your vocation. You could have been the greatest of
+      all hotel-managers. You would have been greater than me, and I am
+      unequalled, though I keep only one hotel, and some men have half a dozen.
+      Mr Racksole, why have you never run an hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven knows,&rsquo; he laughed, &lsquo;but you flatter me, Mr Babylon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I? Flatter? You do not know me. I flatter no one, except, perhaps, now
+      and then an exceptionally distinguished guest. In which case I give
+      suitable instructions as to the bill.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Speaking of distinguished guests, I am told that a couple of German
+      princes are coming here to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Does one do anything? Does one receive them formally&mdash;stand bowing
+      in the entrance-hall, or anything of that sort?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not necessarily. Not unless one wishes. The modern hotel proprietor is
+      not like an innkeeper of the Middle Ages, and even princes do not expect
+      to see him unless something should happen to go wrong. As a matter of
+      fact, though the Grand Duke of Posen and Prince Aribert have both honoured
+      me by staying here before, I have never even set eyes on them. You will
+      find all arrangements have been made.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked a little longer, and then Racksole said good night. &lsquo;Let me
+      see you to your room. The lifts will be closed and the place will be
+      deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for myself, I sleep here,&rsquo; and Mr Babylon pointed to an inner door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, thanks,&rsquo; said Racksole; &lsquo;let me explore my own hotel unaccompanied. I
+      believe I can discover my room.&rsquo; When he got fairly into the passages,
+      Racksole was not so sure that he could discover his own room. The number
+      was 107, but he had forgotten whether it was on the first or second floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Travelling in a lift, one is unconscious of floors. He passed several
+      lift-doorways, but he could see no glint of a staircase; in all
+      self-respecting hotels staircases have gone out of fashion, and though
+      hotel architects still continue, for old sakes&rsquo; sake, to build staircases,
+      they are tucked away in remote corners where their presence is not likely
+      to offend the eye of a spoiled and cosmopolitan public. The hotel seemed
+      vast, uncanny, deserted. An electric light glowed here and there at long
+      intervals. On the thick carpets, Racksole&rsquo;s thinly-shod feet made no
+      sound, and he wandered at ease to and fro, rather amused, rather struck by
+      the peculiar senses of night and mystery which had suddenly come over him.
+      He fancied he could hear a thousand snores peacefully descending from the
+      upper realms. At length he found a staircase, a very dark and narrow one,
+      and presently he was on the first floor. He soon discovered that the
+      numbers of the rooms on this floor did not get beyond seventy. He
+      encountered another staircase and ascended to the second floor. By the
+      decoration of the walls he recognized this floor as his proper home, and
+      as he strolled through the long corridor he whistled a low, meditative
+      whistle of satisfaction. He thought he heard a step in the transverse
+      corridor, and instinctively he obliterated himself in a recess which held
+      a service-cabinet and a chair. He did hear a step. Peeping cautiously out,
+      he perceived, what he had not perceived previously, that a piece of white
+      ribbon had been tied round the handle of the door of one of the bedrooms.
+      Then a man came round the corner of the transverse corridor, and Racksole
+      drew back. It was Jules&mdash;Jules with his hands in his pockets and a
+      slouch hat over his eyes, but in other respects attired as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole, at that instant, remembered with a special vividness what Felix
+      Babylon had said to him at their first interview. He wished he had brought
+      his revolver. He didn&rsquo;t know why he should feel the desirability of a
+      revolver in a London hotel of the most unimpeachable fair fame, but he did
+      feel the desirability of such an instrument of attack and defence. He
+      privately decided that if Jules went past his recess he would take him by
+      the throat and in that attitude put a few plain questions to this highly
+      dubious waiter. But Jules had stopped. The millionaire made another
+      cautious observation. Jules, with infinite gentleness, was turning the
+      handle of the door to which the white ribbon was attached. The door slowly
+      yielded and Jules disappeared within the room. After a brief interval, the
+      night-prowling Jules reappeared, closed the door as softly as he had
+      opened it, removed the ribbon, returned upon his steps, and vanished down
+      the transverse corridor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is quaint,&rsquo; said Racksole; &lsquo;quaint to a degree!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to him to look at the number of the room, and he stole towards
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m d&mdash;d!&rsquo; he murmured wonderingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number was 111, his daughter&rsquo;s room! He tried to open it, but the door
+      was locked. Rushing to his own room, No. 107, he seized one of a pair of
+      revolvers (the kind that are made for millionaires) and followed after
+      Jules down the transverse corridor. At the end of this corridor was a
+      window; the window was open; and Jules was innocently gazing out of the
+      window. Ten silent strides, and Theodore Racksole was upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One word, my friend,&rsquo; the millionaire began, carelessly waving the
+      revolver in the air. Jules was indubitably startled, but by an admirable
+      exercise of self-control he recovered possession of his faculties in a
+      second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir?&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I just want to be informed, what the deuce you were doing in No. 111 a
+      moment ago.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had been requested to go there,&rsquo; was the calm response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a liar, and not a very clever one. That is my daughter&rsquo;s room.
+      Now&mdash;out with it, before I decide whether to shoot you or throw you
+      into the street.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Excuse me, sir, No. 111 is occupied by a gentleman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I advise you that it is a serious error of judgement to contradict me, my
+      friend. Don&rsquo;t do it again. We will go to the room together, and you shall
+      prove that the occupant is a gentleman, and not my daughter.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, sir,&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Scarcely that,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he took Jules by the sleeve. The
+      millionaire knew for a certainty that Nella occupied No. 111, for he had
+      examined the room with her, and himself seen that her trunks and her maid and
+      herself had arrived there in safety. &lsquo;Now open the door,&rsquo; whispered
+      Racksole, when they reached No.111.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must knock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just what you mustn&rsquo;t do. Open it. No doubt you have your
+      pass-key.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Confronted by the revolver, Jules readily obeyed, yet with a deprecatory
+      gesture, as though he would not be responsible for this outrage against
+      the decorum of hotel life. Racksole entered. The room was brilliantly
+      lighted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A visitor, who insists on seeing you, sir,&rsquo; said Jules, and fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Reginald Dimmock, still in evening dress, and smoking a cigarette, rose
+      hurriedly from a table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hello, my dear Mr Racksole, this is an unexpected&mdash;ah&mdash;pleasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where is my daughter? This is her room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did I catch what you said, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I venture to remark that this is Miss Racksole&rsquo;s room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My good sir,&rsquo; answered Dimmock, &lsquo;you must be mad to dream of such a
+      thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only my respect for your daughter prevents me from expelling you forcibly,
+      for such an extraordinary suggestion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small spot half-way down the bridge of the millionaire&rsquo;s nose turned
+      suddenly white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With your permission,&rsquo; he said in a low calm voice, &lsquo;I will examine the
+      dressing-room and the bath-room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just listen to me a moment,&rsquo; Dimmock urged, in a milder tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll listen to you afterwards, my young friend,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he
+      proceeded to search the bath-room, and the dressing-room, without any
+      result whatever. &lsquo;Lest my attitude might be open to misconstruction, Mr
+      Dimmock, I may as well tell you that I have the most perfect confidence in
+      my daughter, who is as well able to take care of herself as any woman I
+      ever met, but since you entered it there have been one or two rather
+      mysterious occurrences in this hotel. That is all.&rsquo; Feeling a draught of
+      air on his shoulder, Racksole turned to the window. &lsquo;For instance,&rsquo; he
+      added, &lsquo;I perceive that this window is broken, badly broken, and from the
+      outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, how could that have occurred?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you will kindly hear reason, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Dimmock in his best
+      diplomatic manner, &lsquo;I will endeavour to explain things to you. I regarded
+      your first question to me when you entered my room as being offensively
+      put, but I now see that you had some justification.&rsquo; He smiled politely.
+      &lsquo;I was passing along this corridor about eleven o&rsquo;clock, when I found Miss
+      Racksole in a difficulty with the hotel servants. Miss Racksole was
+      retiring to rest in this room when a large stone, which must have been
+      thrown from the Embankment, broke the window, as you see. Apart from the
+      discomfort of the broken window, she did not care to remain in the room.
+      She argued that where one stone had come another might follow. She
+      therefore insisted on her room being changed. The servants said that there
+      was no other room available with a dressing-room and bath-room attached,
+      and your daughter made a point of these matters. I at once offered to
+      exchange apartments with her. She did me the honour to accept my offer.
+      Our respective belongings were moved&mdash;and that is all. Miss Racksole
+      is at this moment, I trust, asleep in No. 124.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole looked at the young man for a few seconds in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a faint knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come in,&rsquo; said Racksole loudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Someone pushed open the door, but remained standing on the mat. It was
+      Nella&rsquo;s maid, in a dressing-gown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole&rsquo;s compliments, and a thousand excuses, but a book of hers
+      was left on the mantelshelf in this room. She cannot sleep, and wishes to
+      read.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Dimmock, I tender my apologies&mdash;my formal apologies,&rsquo; said
+      Racksole, when the girl had gone away with the book. &lsquo;Good night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray don&rsquo;t mention it,&rsquo; said Dimmock suavely&mdash;and bowed him out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Four ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NEVERTHELESS, sundry small things weighed on Racksole&rsquo;s mind. First there
+      was Jules&rsquo; wink. Then there was the ribbon on the door-handle and Jules&rsquo;
+      visit to No. 111, and the broken window&mdash;broken from the outside.
+      Racksole did not forget that the time was 3 a.m. He slept but little that
+      night, but he was glad that he had bought the Grand Babylon Hôtel. It was
+      an acquisition which seemed to promise fun and diversion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning he came across Mr Babylon early. &lsquo;I have emptied my
+      private room of all personal papers,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;and it is now at your
+      disposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I purpose, if agreeable to yourself, to stay on in the hotel as a guest
+      for the present. We have much to settle with regard to the completion of
+      the purchase, and also there are things which you might want to ask me.
+      Also, to tell the truth, I am not anxious to leave the old place with too
+      much suddenness. It will be a wrench to me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall be delighted if you will stay,&rsquo; said the millionaire, &lsquo;but it
+      must be as my guest, not as the guest of the hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are very kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As for wishing to consult you, no doubt I shall have need to do so, but I
+      must say that the show seems to run itself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Babylon thoughtfully. &lsquo;I have heard of hotels that run
+      themselves. If they do, you may be sure that they obey the laws of gravity
+      and run downwards. You will have your hands full. For example, have you
+      yet heard about Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;What of her?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She has mysteriously vanished during the night, and nobody appears to be
+      able to throw any light on the affair. Her room is empty, her boxes gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will want someone to take her place, and that someone will not be very
+      easy to get.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;H&rsquo;m!&rsquo; Racksole said, after a pause. &lsquo;Hers is not the only post that falls
+      vacant to-day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little later, the millionaire installed himself in the late owner&rsquo;s
+      private room and rang the bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want Jules,&rsquo; he said to the page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While waiting for Jules, Racksole considered the question of Miss
+      Spencer&rsquo;s disappearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, Jules,&rsquo; was his cheerful greeting, when the imperturbable
+      waiter arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Take a chair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thank you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have met before this morning, Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, sir, at 3 a.m.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rather strange about Miss Spencer&rsquo;s departure, is it not?&rsquo; suggested
+      Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is remarkable, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are aware, of course, that Mr Babylon has transferred all his
+      interests in this hotel to me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have been informed to that effect, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you know everything that goes on in the hotel, Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As the head waiter, sir, it is my business to keep a general eye on
+      things.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You speak very good English for a foreigner, Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For a foreigner, sir! I am an Englishman, a Hertfordshire man born and
+      bred. Perhaps my name has misled you, sir. I am only called Jules because
+      the head waiter of any really high-class hotel must have either a French
+      or an Italian name.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I think you must be rather a clever person,
+      Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is not for me to say, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long has the hotel enjoyed the advantage of your services?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A little over twenty years.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a long time to be in one place. Don&rsquo;t you think it&rsquo;s time you got
+      out of the rut? You are still young, and might make a reputation for
+      yourself in another and wider sphere.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole looked at the man steadily, and his glance was steadily returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You aren&rsquo;t satisfied with me, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To be frank, Jules, I think&mdash;I think you&mdash;er&mdash;wink too
+      much. And I think that it is regrettable when a head waiter falls into a
+      habit of taking white ribbons from the handles of bedroom doors at three
+      in the morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules started slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see how it is, sir. You wish me to go, and one pretext, if I may use
+      the term, is as good as another. Very well, I can&rsquo;t say that I&rsquo;m
+      surprised. It sometimes happens that there is incompatibility of temper
+      between a hotel proprietor and his head waiter, and then, unless one of
+      them goes, the hotel is likely to suffer. I will go, Mr Racksole. In fact,
+      I had already thought of giving notice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire smiled appreciatively. &lsquo;What wages do you require in lieu
+      of notice? It is my intention that you leave the hotel within an hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I require no wages in lieu of notice, sir. I would scorn to accept
+      anything. And I will leave the hotel in fifteen minutes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-day, then. You have my good wishes and my admiration, so long as you
+      keep out of my hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole got up. &lsquo;Good-day, sir. And thank you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By the way, Jules, it will be useless for you to apply to any other
+      first-rate European hotel for a post, because I shall take measures which
+      will ensure the rejection of any such application.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Without discussing the question whether or not there aren&rsquo;t at least half
+      a dozen hotels in London alone that would jump for joy at the chance of
+      getting me,&rsquo; answered Jules, &lsquo;I may tell you, sir, that I shall retire
+      from my profession.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Really! You will turn your brains to a different channel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, sir. I shall take rooms in Albemarle Street or Jermyn Street, and
+      just be content to be a man-about-town. I have saved some twenty thousand
+      pounds&mdash;a mere trifle, but sufficient for my needs, and I shall now
+      proceed to enjoy it. Pardon me for troubling you with my personal affairs.
+      And good-day again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon Racksole went with Felix Babylon first to a firm of
+      solicitors in the City, and then to a stockbroker, in order to carry out
+      the practical details of the purchase of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean to settle in England,&rsquo; said Racksole, as they were coming back.
+      &lsquo;It is the only country&mdash;&rsquo; and he stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The only country?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The only country where you can invest money and spend money with a
+      feeling of security. In the United States there is nothing worth spending
+      money on, nothing to buy. In France or Italy, there is no real security.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely you are a true American?&rsquo; questioned Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am a true American,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;but my father, who began by being
+      a bedmaker at an Oxford college, and ultimately made ten million dollars
+      out of iron in Pittsburg&mdash;my father took the wise precaution of
+      having me educated in England. I had my three years at Oxford, like any
+      son of the upper middle class! It did me good. It has been worth more to
+      me than many successful speculations. It taught me that the English
+      language is different from, and better than, the American language, and
+      that there is something&mdash;I haven&rsquo;t yet found out exactly what&mdash;in
+      English life that Americans will never get. Why,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;in the United
+      States we still bribe our judges and our newspapers. And we talk of the
+      eighteenth century as though it was the beginning of the world. Yes, I
+      shall transfer my securities to London. I shall build a house in Park
+      Lane, and I shall buy some immemorial country seat with a history as long
+      as the A. T. and S. railroad, and I shall calmly and gradually settle
+      down. D&rsquo;you know&mdash;I am rather a good-natured man for a millionaire,
+      and of a social disposition, and yet I haven&rsquo;t six real friends in the
+      whole of New York City. Think of that!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;have no friends except the friends of my boyhood
+      in Lausanne. I have spent thirty years in England, and gained nothing but
+      a perfect knowledge of the English language and as much gold coin as would
+      fill a rather large box.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two plutocrats breathed a simultaneous sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Talking of gold coin,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;how much money should you think
+      Jules has contrived to amass while he has been with you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; Babylon smiled. &lsquo;I should not like to guess. He has had unique
+      opportunities&mdash;opportunities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Should you consider twenty thousand an extraordinary sum under the
+      circumstances?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all. Has he been confiding in you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Somewhat. I have dismissed him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have dismissed him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no reason why not. But I have felt inclined to dismiss him for
+      the past ten years, and never found courage to do it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was a perfectly simple proceeding, I assure you. Before I had done
+      with him, I rather liked the fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer and Jules&mdash;both gone in one day!&rsquo; mused Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And no one to take their places,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;And yet the hotel
+      continues its way!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when Racksole reached the Grand Babylon he found that Miss Spencer&rsquo;s
+      chair in the bureau was occupied by a stately and imperious girl, dressed
+      becomingly in black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heavens, Nella!&rsquo; he cried, going to the bureau. &lsquo;What are you doing
+      here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am taking Mis Spencer&rsquo;s place. I want to help you with your hotel, Dad.
+      I fancy I shall make an excellent hotel clerk. I have arranged with a Miss
+      Selina Smith, one of the typists in the office, to put me up to all the
+      tips and tricks, and I shall do very well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But look here, Helen Racksole. We shall have the whole of London talking
+      about this thing&mdash;the greatest of all American heiresses a hotel
+      clerk! And I came here for quiet and rest!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose it was for the sake of quiet and rest that you bought the
+      hotel, Papa?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You would insist on the steak,&rsquo; he retorted. &lsquo;Get out of this, on the
+      instant.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Here I am, here to stay,&rsquo; said Nella, and deliberately laughed at her
+      parent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the face of a fair-haired man of about thirty years appeared at
+      the bureau window. He was very well-dressed, very aristocratic in his
+      pose, and he seemed rather angry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked fixedly at Nella and started back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ach!&rsquo; he exclaimed. &lsquo;You!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, your Highness, it is indeed I. Father, this is his Serene Highness
+      Prince Aribert of Posen&mdash;one of our most esteemed customers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know my name, Fräulein?&rsquo; the new-comer murmured in German.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly, Prince,&rsquo; Nella replied sweetly. &lsquo;You were plain Count
+      Steenbock last spring in Paris&mdash;doubtless travelling incognito&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Silence,&rsquo; he entreated, with a wave of the hand, and his forehead went as
+      white as paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Five WHAT OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN another moment they were all three talking quite nicely, and with at
+      any rate an appearance of being natural. Prince Aribert became suave, even
+      deferential to Nella, and more friendly towards Nella&rsquo;s father than their
+      respective positions demanded. The latter amused himself by studying this
+      sprig of royalty, the first with whom he had ever come into contact. He
+      decided that the young fellow was personable enough, &lsquo;had no frills on
+      him,&rsquo; and would make an exceptionally good commercial traveller for a
+      first-class firm. Such was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s preliminary estimate of the
+      man who might one day be the reigning Grand Duke of Posen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to Nella, and she smiled at the idea, that the bureau of the
+      hotel was scarcely the correct place in which to receive this august young
+      man. There he stood, with his head half-way through the bureau window,
+      negligently leaning against the woodwork, just as though he were a
+      stockbroker or the manager of a New York burlesque company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is your Highness travelling quite alone?&rsquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By a series of accidents I am,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;My equerry was to have met me
+      at Charing Cross, but he failed to do so&mdash;I cannot imagine why.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Dimmock?&rsquo; questioned Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Dimmock. I do not remember that he ever missed an appointment
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know him? He has been here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He dined with us last night,&rsquo; said Racksole&mdash;&lsquo;on Nella&rsquo;s
+      invitation,&rsquo; he added maliciously; &lsquo;but to-day we have seen nothing of
+      him. I know, however, that he has engaged the State apartments, and also a
+      suite adjoining the State apartments&mdash;No. 55. That is so, isn&rsquo;t it,
+      Nella?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Papa,&rsquo; she said, having first demurely examined a ledger. &lsquo;Your
+      Highness would doubtless like to be conducted to your room&mdash;apartments
+      I mean.&rsquo; Then Nella laughed deliberately at the Prince, and said, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t
+      know who is the proper person to conduct you, and that&rsquo;s a fact. The truth
+      is that Papa and I are rather raw yet in the hotel line. You see, we only
+      bought the place last night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have bought the hotel!&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s so,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Felix Babylon has gone?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is going, if he has not already gone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! I see,&rsquo; said the Prince; &lsquo;this is one of your American &ldquo;strokes&rdquo;. You
+      have bought to sell again, is that not it? You are on your holidays, but
+      you cannot resist making a few thousands by way of relaxation. I have
+      heard of such things.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t sell again, Prince, until we are tired of our bargain.
+      Sometimes we tire very quickly, and sometimes we don&rsquo;t. It depends&mdash;eh?
+      What?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole broke off suddenly to attend to a servant in livery who had
+      quietly entered the bureau and was making urgent mysterious signs to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you please, sir,&rsquo; the man by frantic gestures implored Mr Theodore
+      Racksole to come out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray don&rsquo;t let me detain you, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said the Prince, and
+      therefore the proprietor of the Grand Babylon departed after the servant,
+      with a queer, curt little bow to Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mayn&rsquo;t I come inside?&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella immediately the
+      millionaire had gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, Prince,&rsquo; Nella laughed. &lsquo;The rule against visitors entering
+      this bureau is frightfully strict.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you know the rule is so strict if you only came into possession
+      last night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know because I made the rule myself this morning, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But seriously, Miss Racksole, I want to talk to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you want to talk to me as Prince Aribert or as the friend&mdash;the
+      acquaintance&mdash;whom I knew in Paris last year?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As the friend, dear lady, if I may use the term.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you are sure that you would not like first to be conducted to your
+      apartments?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not yet. I will wait till Dimmock comes; he cannot fail to be here soon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then we will have tea served in father&rsquo;s private room&mdash;the
+      proprietor&rsquo;s private room, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good!&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella talked through a telephone, and rang several bells, and behaved
+      generally in a manner calculated to prove to Princes and to whomever it
+      might concern that she was a young woman of business instincts and
+      training, and then she stepped down from her chair of office, emerged from
+      the bureau, and, preceded by two menials, led Prince Aribert to the Louis
+      XV chamber in which her father and Felix Babylon had had their long
+      confabulation on the previous evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you want to talk to me about?&rsquo; she asked her companion, as she
+      poured out for him a second cup of tea. The Prince looked at her for a
+      moment as he took the proffered cup, and being a young man of sane,
+      healthy, instincts, he could think of nothing for the moment except her
+      loveliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella was indeed beautiful that afternoon. The beauty of even the most
+      beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella&rsquo;s this afternoon
+      was at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious, and yet ineffably sweet,
+      she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have forgotten,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you? You gave me to
+      understand that it was something terribly important. But of course I knew
+      it couldn&rsquo;t be, because no man, and especially no Prince, ever discussed
+      anything really important with a woman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Recollect, Miss Racksole, that this afternoon, here, I am not the
+      Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are Count Steenbock, is that it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He started. &lsquo;For you only,&rsquo; he said, unconsciously lowering his voice.
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole, I particularly wish that no one here should know that I
+      was in Paris last spring.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;An affair of State?&rsquo; she smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;An affair of State,&rsquo; he replied soberly. &lsquo;Even Dimmock doesn&rsquo;t know. It
+      was strange that we should be fellow guests at that quiet out-of-the-way
+      hotel&mdash;strange but delightful. I shall never forget that rainy
+      afternoon that we spent together in the Museum of the Trocadéro. Let us
+      talk about that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;About the rain, or the museum?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall never forget that afternoon,&rsquo; he repeated, ignoring the lightness
+      of her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nor I,&rsquo; she murmured corresponding to his mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You, too enjoyed it?&rsquo; he said eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The sculptures were magnificent,&rsquo; she replied, hastily glancing at the
+      ceiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! So they were! Tell me, Miss Racksole, how did you discover my
+      identity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must not say,&rsquo; she answered. &lsquo;That is my secret. Do not seek to
+      penetrate it. Who knows what horrors you might discover if you probed too
+      far?&rsquo; She laughed, but she laughed alone. The Prince remained pensive&mdash;as
+      it were brooding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never hoped to see you again,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One never sees again those whom one wishes to see.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As for me, I was perfectly convinced that we should meet again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I always get what I want.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you wanted to see me again?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another man who
+      could talk so well about sculpture as the Count Steenbock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is because your father is so rich, I suppose?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, no, it isn&rsquo;t!&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s simply because I always do get what I
+      want. It&rsquo;s got nothing to do with Father at all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Mr Racksole is extremely wealthy?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Wealthy isn&rsquo;t the word, Count. There is no word. It&rsquo;s positively awful
+      the amount of dollars poor Papa makes. And the worst of it is he can&rsquo;t
+      help it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power on earth
+      could stop those ten millions from growing into twenty. And so it
+      continues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spend what I can, but I can&rsquo;t come near coping with it; and of course
+      Papa is no use whatever at spending.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you have no mother?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who told you I had no mother?&rsquo; she asked quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&mdash;er&mdash;inquired about you,&rsquo; he said, with equal candour and
+      humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In spite of the fact that you never hoped to see me again?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, in spite of that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How funny!&rsquo; she said, and lapsed into a meditative silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yours must be a wonderful existence,&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;I envy you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You envy me&mdash;what? My father&rsquo;s wealth?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said; &lsquo;your freedom and your responsibilities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no responsibilities,&rsquo; she remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon me,&rsquo; he said; &lsquo;you have, and the time is coming when you will feel
+      them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m only a girl,&rsquo; she murmured with sudden simplicity. &lsquo;As for you,
+      Count, surely you have sufficient responsibilities of your own?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I?&rsquo; he said sadly. &lsquo;I have no responsibilities. I am a nobody&mdash;a
+      Serene Highness who has to pretend to be very important, always taking
+      immense care never to do anything that a Serene Highness ought not to do.
+      Bah!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But if your nephew, Prince Eugen, were to die, would you not come to the
+      throne, and would you not then have these responsibilities which you so
+      much desire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen die?&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, in a curious tone. &lsquo;Impossible. He is
+      the perfection of health. In three months he will be married. No, I shall
+      never be anything but a Serene Highness, the most despicable of God&rsquo;s
+      creatures.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what about the State secret which you mentioned? Is not that a
+      responsibility?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;That is over. That belongs to the past. It was an accident
+      in my dull career. I shall never be Count Steenbock again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who knows?&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;By the way, is not Prince Eugen coming here
+      to-day? Mr Dimmock told us so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;See!&rsquo; answered the Prince, standing up and bending over her. &lsquo;I am going
+      to confide in you. I don&rsquo;t know why, but I am.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t betray State secrets,&rsquo; she warned him, smiling into his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But just then the door of the room was unceremoniously opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go right in,&rsquo; said a voice sharply. It was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s. Two men
+      entered, bearing a prone form on a stretcher, and Racksole followed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella sprang up. Racksole stared to see his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t know you were in here, Nell. Here,&rsquo; to the two men, &lsquo;out again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why!&rsquo; exclaimed Nella, gazing fearfully at the form on the stretcher,
+      &lsquo;it&rsquo;s Mr Dimmock!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; her father acquiesced. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s dead,&rsquo; he added laconically. &lsquo;I&rsquo;d
+      have broken it to you more gently had I known. Your pardon, Prince.&rsquo; There
+      was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock dead!&rsquo; Prince Aribert whispered under his breath, and he kneeled
+      down by the side of the stretcher. &lsquo;What does this mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow was just walking across the quadrangle towards the portico
+      when he fell down. A commissionaire who saw him says he was walking very
+      quickly. At first I thought it was sunstroke, but it couldn&rsquo;t have been,
+      though the weather certainly is rather warm. It must be heart disease. But
+      anyhow, he&rsquo;s dead. We did what we could. I&rsquo;ve sent for a doctor, and for
+      the police. I suppose there&rsquo;ll have to be an inquest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole stopped, and in an awkward solemn silence they all gazed
+      at the dead youth. His features were slightly drawn, and his eyes closed;
+      that was all. He might have been asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My poor Dimmock!&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince, his voice broken. &lsquo;And I was
+      angry because the lad did not meet me at Charing Cross!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you sure he is dead, Father?&rsquo; Nella said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;d better go away, Nella,&rsquo; was Racksole&rsquo;s only reply; but the girl
+      stood still, and began to sob quietly. On the previous night she had
+      secretly made fun of Reginald Dimmock. She had deliberately set herself to
+      get information from him on a topic in which she happened to be specially
+      interested and she had got it, laughing the while at his youthful
+      crudities&mdash;his vanity, his transparent cunning, his absurd airs. She
+      had not liked him; she had even distrusted him, and decided that he was
+      not &lsquo;nice&rsquo;. But now, as he lay on the stretcher, these things were
+      forgotten. She went so far as to reproach herself for them. Such is the
+      strange commanding power of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oblige me by taking the poor fellow to my apartments,&rsquo; said the Prince,
+      with a gesture to the attendants. &lsquo;Surely it is time the doctor came.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole felt suddenly at that moment he was nothing but a mere hotel
+      proprietor with an awkward affair on his hands. For a fraction of a second
+      he wished he had never bought the Grand Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later Prince Aribert, Theodore Racksole, a doctor,
+      and an inspector of police were in the Prince&rsquo;s reception-room. They had
+      just come from an ante-chamber, in which lay the mortal remains of
+      Reginald Dimmock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; said Racksole, glancing at the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor was a big, boyish-looking man, with keen, quizzical eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is not heart disease,&rsquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not heart disease?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what is it?&rsquo; asked the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I may be able to answer that question after the post-mortem,&rsquo; said the
+      doctor. &lsquo;I certainly can&rsquo;t answer it now. The symptoms are unusual to a
+      degree.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector of police began to write in a note-book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Six IN THE GOLD ROOM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AT the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold Room, a
+      huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of it, and
+      certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore Racksole knew
+      nothing of the affair, except that it was an entertainment offered by a Mr
+      and Mrs Sampson Levi to their friends. Who Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi were he
+      did not know, nor could anyone tell him anything about them except that Mr
+      Sampson Levi was a prominent member of that part of the Stock Exchange
+      familiarly called the Kaffir Circus, and that his wife was a stout lady
+      with an aquiline nose and many diamonds, and that they were very rich and
+      very hospitable. Theodore Racksole did not want a ball in his hotel that
+      evening, and just before dinner he had almost a mind to issue a decree
+      that the Gold Room was to be closed and the ball forbidden, and Mr and Mrs
+      Sampson Levi might name the amount of damages suffered by them. His
+      reasons for such a course were threefold&mdash;first, he felt depressed
+      and uneasy; second, he didn&rsquo;t like the name of Sampson Levi; and, third,
+      he had a desire to show these so-called plutocrats that their wealth was
+      nothing to him, that they could not do what they chose with Theodore
+      Racksole, and that for two pins Theodore Racksole would buy them up, and
+      the whole Kaffir Circus to boot. But something warned him that though such
+      a high-handed proceeding might be tolerated in America, that land of
+      freedom, it would never be tolerated in England. He felt instinctively
+      that in England there are things you can&rsquo;t do, and that this particular
+      thing was one of them. So the ball went forward, and neither Mr nor Mrs
+      Sampson Levi had ever the least suspicion what a narrow escape they had
+      had of looking very foolish in the eyes of the thousand or so guests
+      invited by them to the Gold Room of the Grand Babylon that evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gold Room of the Grand Babylon was built for a ballroom. A balcony,
+      supported by arches faced with gilt and lapis-lazulo, ran around it, and
+      from this vantage men and maidens and chaperons who could not or would not
+      dance might survey the scene. Everyone knew this, and most people took
+      advantage of it. What everyone did not know&mdash;what no one knew&mdash;was
+      that higher up than the balcony there was a little barred window in the
+      end wall from which the hotel authorities might keep a watchful eye, not
+      only on the dancers, but on the occupants of the balcony itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem incredible to the uninitiated that the guests at any social
+      gathering held in so gorgeous and renowned an apartment as the Gold Room
+      of the Grand Babylon should need the observation of a watchful eye. Yet so
+      it was. Strange matters and unexpected faces had been descried from the
+      little window, and more than one European detective had kept vigil there
+      with the most eminently satisfactory results.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eleven o&rsquo;clock Theodore Racksole, afflicted by vexation of spirit,
+      found himself gazing idly through the little barred window. Nella was with
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Together they had been wandering about the corridors of the hotel, still
+      strange to them both, and it was quite by accident that they had lighted
+      upon the small room which had a surreptitious view of Mr and Mrs Sampson
+      Levi&rsquo;s ball. Except for the light of the chandelier of the ball-room the
+      little cubicle was in darkness. Nella was looking through the window; her
+      father stood behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder which is Mrs Sampson Levi?&rsquo; Nella said, &lsquo;and whether she matches
+      her name. Wouldn&rsquo;t you love to have a name like that, Father&mdash;something
+      that people could take hold of&mdash;instead of Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of violins and a confused murmur of voices rose gently up to
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Umphl&rsquo; said Theodore. &lsquo;Curse those evening papers!&rsquo; he added,
+      inconsequently but with sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, you&rsquo;re very horrid to-night. What have the evening papers been
+      doing?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, my young madame, they&rsquo;ve got me in for one, and you for another;
+      and they&rsquo;re manufacturing mysteries like fun. It&rsquo;s young Dimmock&rsquo;s death
+      that has started &lsquo;em.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Father, you surely didn&rsquo;t expect to keep yourself out of the
+      papers. Besides, as regards newspapers, you ought to be glad you aren&rsquo;t in
+      New York. Just fancy what the dear old Herald would have made out of a
+      little transaction like yours of last night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s true,&rsquo; assented Racksole. &lsquo;But it&rsquo;ll be all over New York
+      to-morrow morning, all the same. The worst of it is that Babylon has gone
+      off to Switzerland.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t know. Sudden fancy, I guess, for his native heath.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What difference does it make to you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;None. Only I feel sort of lonesome. I feel I want someone to lean up
+      against in running this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, if you have that feeling you must be getting ill.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; he sighed, &lsquo;I admit it&rsquo;s unusual with me. But perhaps you haven&rsquo;t
+      grasped the fact, Nella, that we&rsquo;re in the middle of a rather queer
+      business.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean about poor Mr Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Partly Dimmock and partly other things. First of all, that Miss Spencer,
+      or whatever her wretched name is, mysteriously disappears. Then there was
+      the stone thrown into your bedroom. Then I caught that rascal Jules
+      conspiring with Dimmock at three o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Then your
+      precious Prince Aribert arrives without any suite&mdash;which I believe is
+      a most peculiar and wicked thing for a Prince to do&mdash;and moreover I
+      find my daughter on very intimate terms with the said Prince. Then young
+      Dimmock goes and dies, and there is to be an inquest; then Prince Eugen
+      and his suite, who were expected here for dinner, fail to turn up at all&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen has not come?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has not; and Uncle Aribert is in a deuce of a stew about him, and
+      telegraphing all over Europe. Altogether, things are working up pretty
+      lively.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you really think, Dad, there was anything between Jules and poor Mr
+      Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Think! I know! I tell you I saw that scamp give Dimmock a wink last night
+      at dinner that might have meant&mdash;well!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So you caught that wink, did you, Dad?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why, did you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course, Dad. I was going to tell you about it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire grunted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Look here, Father,&rsquo; Nella whispered suddenly, and pointed to the balcony
+      immediately below them. &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s that?&rsquo; She indicated a man with a bald
+      patch on the back of his head, who was propping himself up against the
+      railing of the balcony and gazing immovable into the ball-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, who is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Isn&rsquo;t it Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Gemini! By the beard of the prophet, it is!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps Mr Jules is a guest of Mrs Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Guest or no guest, he goes out of this hotel, even if I have to throw him
+      out myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole disappeared without another word, and Nella followed
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the millionaire arrived on the balcony floor he could see nothing
+      of Jules, neither there nor in the ball-room itself. Saying no word aloud,
+      but quietly whispering wicked expletives, he searched everywhere in vain,
+      and then, at last, by tortuous stairways and corridors returned to his
+      original post of observation, that he might survey the place anew from the
+      vantage ground. To his surprise he found a man in the dark little room,
+      watching the scene of the ball as intently as he himself had been doing a
+      few minutes before. Hearing footsteps, the man turned with a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two exchanged glances in the half light for a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good evening, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Jules calmly. &lsquo;I must apologize for
+      being here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Force of habit, I suppose,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fancied I had forbidden you to re-enter this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought your order applied only to my professional capacity. I am here
+      to-night as the guest of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In your new rôle of man-about-town, eh?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I don&rsquo;t allow men-about-town up here, my friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For being up here I have already apologized.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, having apologized, you had better depart; that is my disinterested
+      advice to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And, I say, Mr Jules, if Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, or any other Hebrews or
+      Christians, should again invite you to my hotel you will oblige me by
+      declining the invitation. You&rsquo;ll find that will be the safest course for
+      you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before midnight struck Theodore Racksole had ascertained that the
+      invitation-list of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, though a somewhat lengthy one,
+      contained no reference to any such person as Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat up very late. To be precise, he sat up all night. He was a man who,
+      by dint of training, could comfortably dispense with sleep when he felt so
+      inclined, or when circumstances made such a course advisable. He walked to
+      and fro in his room, and cogitated as few people beside Theodore Racksole
+      could cogitate. At 6 a.m. he took a stroll round the business part of his
+      premises, and watched the supplies come in from Covent Garden, from
+      Smithfield, from Billingsgate, and from other strange places. He found the
+      proceedings of the kitchen department quite interesting, and made mental
+      notes of things that he would have altered, of men whose wages he would
+      increase and men whose wages he would reduce. At 7 a.m. he happened to be
+      standing near the luggage lift, and witnessed the descent of vast
+      quantities of luggage, and its disappearance into a Carter Paterson van.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whose luggage is that?&rsquo; he inquired peremptorily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The luggage clerk, with an aggrieved expression, explained to him that it
+      was the luggage of nobody in particular, that it belonged to various
+      guests, and was bound for various destinations; that it was, in fact,
+      &lsquo;expressed&rsquo; luggage despatched in advance, and that a similar quantity of
+      it left the hotel every morning about that hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole walked away, and breakfasted upon one cup of tea and
+      half a slice of toast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At ten o&rsquo;clock he was informed that the inspector of police desired to see
+      him. The inspector had come, he said, to superintend the removal of the
+      body of Reginald Dimmock to the mortuary adjoining the place of inquest,
+      and a suitable vehicle waited at the back entrance of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector had also brought subpoenas for himself and Prince Aribert of
+      Posen and the commissionaire to attend the inquest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought Mr Dimmock&rsquo;s remains were removed last night,&rsquo; said Racksole
+      wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, sir. The fact is the van was engaged on another job.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector gave the least hint of a professional smile, and Racksole,
+      disgusted, told him curtly to go and perform his duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes a message came from the inspector requesting Mr Racksole
+      to be good enough to come to him on the first floor. Racksole went. In the
+      ante-room, where the body of Reginald Dimmock had originally been placed,
+      were the inspector and Prince Aribert, and two policemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; said Racksole, after he and the Prince had exchanged bows. Then he
+      saw a coffin laid across two chairs. &lsquo;I see a coffin has been obtained,&rsquo;
+      he remarked. &lsquo;Quite right&rsquo; He approached it. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s empty,&rsquo; he observed
+      unthinkingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so,&rsquo; said the inspector. &lsquo;The body of the deceased has disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And his Serene Highness Prince Aribert informs me that though he has
+      occupied a room immediately opposite, on the other side of the corridor,
+      he can throw no light on the affair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed, I cannot!&rsquo; said the Prince, and though he spoke with sufficient
+      calmness and dignity, you could see that he was deeply pained, even
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m&mdash;&rsquo; murmured Racksole, and stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Seven NELLA AND THE PRINCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous an article as
+      a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace, no hint, no
+      clue as to the time or the manner of the performance of the deed. After
+      the first feeling of surprise, Racksole grew coldly and severely angry. He
+      had a mind to dismiss the entire staff of the hotel. He personally
+      examined the night-watchman, the chambermaids and all other persons who by
+      chance might or ought to know something of the affair; but without avail.
+      The corpse of Reginald Dimmock had vanished utterly&mdash;disappeared like
+      a fleshless spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course there were the police. But Theodore Racksole held the police in
+      sorry esteem. He acquainted them with the facts, answered their queries
+      with a patient weariness, and expected nothing whatever from that
+      quarter. He also had several interviews with Prince Aribert of Posen, but
+      though the Prince was suavity itself and beyond doubt genuinely concerned
+      about the fate of his dead attendant, yet it seemed to Racksole that he
+      was keeping something back, that he hesitated to say all he knew.
+      Racksole, with characteristic insight, decided that the death of Reginald
+      Dimmock was only a minor event, which had occurred, as it were, on the
+      fringe of some far more profound mystery. And, therefore, he decided to
+      wait, with his eyes very wide open, until something else happened that
+      would throw light on the business. At the moment he took only one measure&mdash;he
+      arranged that the theft of Dimmock&rsquo;s body should not appear in the
+      newspapers. It is astonishing how well a secret can be kept, when the
+      possessors of the secret are handled with the proper mixture of firmness
+      and persuasion. Racksole managed this very neatly. It was a complicated
+      job, and his success in it rather pleased him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time he was conscious of being temporarily worsted by an
+      unknown group of schemers, in which he felt convinced that Jules was an
+      important item. He could scarcely look Nella in the eyes. The girl had
+      evidently expected him to unmask this conspiracy at once, with a single
+      stroke of the millionaire&rsquo;s magic wand. She was thoroughly accustomed, in
+      the land of her birth, to seeing him achieve impossible feats. Over there
+      he was a &lsquo;boss&rsquo;; men trembled before his name; when he wished a thing to
+      happen&mdash;well, it happened; if he desired to know a thing, he just
+      knew it. But here, in London, Theodore Racksole was not quite the same
+      Theodore Racksole. He dominated New York; but London, for the most part,
+      seemed not to take much interest in him; and there were certainly various
+      persons in London who were capable of snapping their fingers at him&mdash;at
+      Theodore Racksole. Neither he nor his daughter could get used to that
+      fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Nella, she concerned herself for a little with the ordinary
+      business of the bureau, and watched the incomings and outgoings of Prince
+      Aribert with a kindly interest. She perceived, what her father had failed
+      to perceive, that His Highness had assumed an attitude of reserve merely
+      to hide the secret distraction and dismay which consumed him. She saw that
+      the poor fellow had no settled plan in his head, and that he was troubled
+      by something which, so far, he had confided to nobody. It came to her
+      knowledge that each morning he walked to and fro on the Victoria
+      Embankment, alone, and apparently with no object. On the third morning she
+      decided that driving exercise on the Embankment would be good for her
+      health, and thereupon ordered a carriage and issued forth, arrayed in a
+      miraculous putty-coloured gown. Near Blackfriars Bridge she met the
+      Prince, and the carriage was drawn up by the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, Prince,&rsquo; she greeted him. &lsquo;Are you mistaking this for Hyde
+      Park?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bowed and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I usually walk here in the mornings,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You surprise me,&rsquo; she returned. &lsquo;I thought I was the only person in
+      London who preferred the Embankment, with this view of the river, to the
+      dustiness of Hyde Park. I can&rsquo;t imagine how it is that London will never
+      take exercise anywhere except in that ridiculous Park. Now, if they had
+      Central Park&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think the Embankment is the finest spot in all London,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She leaned a little out of the landau, bringing her face nearer to his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do believe we are kindred spirits, you and I,&rsquo; she murmured; and then,
+      &lsquo;Au revoir, Prince!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One moment, Miss Racksole.&rsquo; His quick tones had a note of entreaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am in a hurry,&rsquo; she fibbed; &lsquo;I am not merely taking exercise this
+      morning. You have no idea how busy we are.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! then I will not trouble you. But I leave the Grand Babylon to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you?&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Then will your Highness do me the honour of lunching
+      with me today in Father&rsquo;s room? Father will be out&mdash;he is having a
+      day in the City with some stockbroking persons.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall be charmed,&rsquo; said the Prince, and his face showed that he meant
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella drove off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the lunch was a success that result was due partly to Rocco, and partly
+      to Nella. The Prince said little beyond what the ordinary rules of the
+      conversational game demanded. His hostess talked much and talked well, but
+      she failed to rouse her guest. When they had had coffee he took a rather
+      formal leave of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye, Prince,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;but I thought&mdash;that is, no I didn&rsquo;t.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Good-bye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You thought I wished to discuss something with you. I did; but I have
+      decided that I have no right to burden your mind with my affairs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But suppose&mdash;suppose I wish to be burdened?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is your good nature.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sit down,&rsquo; she said abruptly, &lsquo;and tell me everything; mind, everything.
+      I adore secrets.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost before he knew it he was talking to her, rapidly, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should I weary you with my confidences?&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know, I
+      cannot tell; but I feel that I must. I feel that you will understand me
+      better than anyone else in the world. And yet why should you understand
+      me? Again, I don&rsquo;t know. Miss Racksole, I will disclose to you the whole
+      trouble in a word. Prince Eugen, the hereditary Grand Duke of Posen, has
+      disappeared. Four days ago I was to have met him at Ostend. He had affairs
+      in London. He wished me to come with him. I sent Dimmock on in front, and
+      waited for Eugen. He did not arrive. I telegraphed back to Cologne, his
+      last stopping-place, and I learned that he had left there in accordance
+      with his programme; I learned also that he had passed through Brussels. It
+      must have been between Brussels and the railway station at Ostend Quay
+      that he disappeared. He was travelling with a single equerry, and the
+      equerry, too, has vanished. I need not explain to you, Miss Racksole, that
+      when a person of the importance of my nephew contrives to get lost one
+      must proceed cautiously. One cannot advertise for him in the London Times.
+      Such a disappearance must be kept secret. The people at Posen and at
+      Berlin believe that Eugen is in London, here, at this hotel; or, rather,
+      they did so believe. But this morning I received a cypher telegram from&mdash;from
+      His Majesty the Emperor, a very peculiar telegram, asking when Eugen might
+      be expected to return to Posen, and requesting that he should go first to
+      Berlin. That telegram was addressed to myself. Now, if the Emperor thought
+      that Eugen was here, why should he have caused the telegram to be
+      addressed to me? I have hesitated for three days, but I can hesitate no
+      longer. I must myself go to the Emperor and acquaint him with the facts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you&rsquo;ve just got to keep straight with him?&rsquo; Nella was on the
+      point of saying, but she checked herself and substituted, &lsquo;The Emperor is
+      your chief, is he not? &ldquo;First among equals&rdquo;, you call him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Majesty is our over-lord,&rsquo; said Aribert quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you not take immediate steps to inquire as to the whereabouts of
+      your Royal nephew?&rsquo; she asked simply. The affair seemed to her just then
+      so plain and straightforward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because one of two things may have happened. Either Eugen may have been,
+      in plain language, abducted, or he may have had his own reasons for
+      changing his programme and keeping in the background&mdash;out of reach of
+      telegraph and post and railways.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sort of reasons?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do not ask me. In the history of every family there are passages&mdash;&rsquo;
+      He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what was Prince Eugen&rsquo;s object in coming to London?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Money,&rsquo; he said at length. &lsquo;As a family we are very poor&mdash;poorer
+      than anyone in Berlin suspects.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Aribert,&rsquo; Nella said, &lsquo;shall I tell you what I think?&rsquo; She leaned
+      back in her chair, and looked at him out of half-closed eyes. His pale,
+      thin, distinguished face held her gaze as if by some fascination. There
+      could be no mistaking this man for anything else but a Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you will,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen is the victim of a plot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think so?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am perfectly convinced of it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why? What can be the object of a plot against him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a point of which you should know more than me,&rsquo; she remarked
+      drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Perhaps, perhaps,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;But, dear Miss Racksole, why are you so
+      sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are several reasons, and they are connected with Mr Dimmock. Did
+      you ever suspect, your Highness, that that poor young man was not entirely
+      loyal to you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was absolutely loyal,&rsquo; said the Prince, with all the earnestness of
+      conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A thousand pardons, but he was not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole, if any other than yourself made that assertion, I would&mdash;I
+      would&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Consign them to the deepest dungeon in Posen?&rsquo; she laughed, lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen.&rsquo; And she told him of the incidents which had occurred in the
+      night preceding his arrival in the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean, Miss Racksole, that there was an understanding between poor
+      Dimmock and this fellow Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There was an understanding.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your Highness, the man who wishes to probe a mystery to its root never
+      uses the word &ldquo;impossible&rdquo;. But I will say this for young Mr Dimmock. I
+      think he repented, and I think that it was because he repented that he&mdash;er&mdash;died
+      so suddenly, and that his body was spirited away.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why has no one told me these things before?&rsquo; Aribert exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Princes seldom hear the truth,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was astonished at her coolness, her firmness of assertion, her air of
+      complete acquaintance with the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;if you will permit me to say it, I have never
+      in my life met a woman like you. May I rely on your sympathy&mdash;your
+      support?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My support, Prince? But how?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know,&rsquo; he replied. &lsquo;But you could help me if you would. A woman,
+      when she has brain, always has more brain than a man.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; she said ruefully, &lsquo;I have no brains, but I do believe I could help
+      you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What prompted her to make that assertion she could not have explained,
+      even to herself. But she made it, and she had a suspicion&mdash;a
+      prescience&mdash;that it would be justified, though by what means, through
+      what good fortune, was still a mystery to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go to Berlin,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;I see that you must do that; you have no
+      alternative. As for the rest, we shall see. Something will occur. I shall
+      be here. My father will be here. You must count us as your friends.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her hand when he left, and afterwards, when she was alone, she
+      kissed the spot his lips had touched again and again. Now, thinking the
+      matter out in the calmness of solitude, all seemed strange, unreal,
+      uncertain to her. Were conspiracies actually possible nowadays? Did queer
+      things actually happen in Europe? And did they actually happen in London
+      hotels? She dined with her father that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hear Prince Aribert has left,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; she assented. She said not a word about their interview.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eight ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied by a maid
+      and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+      She was a plump, little old lady, with white hair and an old-fashioned
+      bonnet, and she had a quaint, simple smile of surprise at everything in
+      general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, she gave the impression of belonging to some aristocracy,
+      though not the English aristocracy. Her tone to her maid, whom she
+      addressed in broken English&mdash;the girl being apparently English&mdash;was
+      distinctly insolent, with the calm, unconscious insolence peculiar to a
+      certain type of Continental nobility. The name on the lady&rsquo;s card ran
+      thus: &lsquo;Baroness Zerlinski&rsquo;. She desired rooms on the third floor. It
+      happened that Nella was in the bureau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the third floor, madam?&rsquo; questioned Nella, in her best clerkly manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did say on de tird floor,&rsquo; said the plump little old lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have accommodation on the second floor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to be high up, out of de dust and in de light,&rsquo; explained the
+      Baroness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have no suites on the third floor, madam.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind, no mattaire! Have you not two rooms that communicate?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella consulted her books, rather awkwardly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Numbers 122 and 123 communicate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Or is it 121 and 122?&rsquo; the little old lady remarked quickly, and then bit
+      her lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I beg your pardon. I should have said 121 and 122.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the moment Nella regarded the Baroness&rsquo;s correction of her figures as a
+      curious chance, but afterwards, when the Baroness had ascended in the
+      lift, the thing struck her as somewhat strange. Perhaps the Baroness
+      Zerlinski had stayed at the hotel before. For the sake of convenience an
+      index of visitors to the hotel was kept and the index extended back for
+      thirty years. Nella examined it, but it did not contain the name of
+      Zerlinski. Then it was that Nella began to imagine, what had swiftly
+      crossed her mind when first the Baroness presented herself at the bureau,
+      that the features of the Baroness were remotely familiar to her. She
+      thought, not that she had seen the old lady&rsquo;s face before, but that she
+      had seen somewhere, some time, a face of a similar cast. It occurred to
+      Nella to look at the &lsquo;Almanach de Gotha&rsquo;&mdash;that record of all the
+      mazes of Continental blue blood; but the &lsquo;Almanach de Gotha&rsquo; made no
+      reference to any barony of Zerlinski. Nella inquired where the Baroness
+      meant to take lunch, and was informed that a table had been reserved for
+      her in the dining-room, and she at once decided to lunch in the
+      dining-room herself. Seated in a corner, half-hidden by a pillar, she
+      could survey all the guests, and watch each group as it entered or left.
+      Presently the Baroness appeared, dressed in black, with a tiny lace shawl,
+      despite the June warmth; very stately, very quaint, and gently smiling.
+      Nella observed her intently. The lady ate heartily, working without haste
+      and without delay through the elaborate menu of the luncheon. Nella
+      noticed that she had beautiful white teeth. Then a remarkable thing
+      happened. A cream puff was served to the Baroness by way of sweets, and
+      Nella was astonished to see the little lady remove the top, and with a
+      spoon quietly take something from the interior which looked like a piece
+      of folded paper. No one who had not been watching with the eye of a lynx
+      would have noticed anything extraordinary in the action; indeed, the
+      chances were nine hundred and ninety-nine to one that it would pass
+      unheeded. But, unfortunately for the Baroness, it was the thousandth
+      chance that happened. Nella jumped up, and walking over to the Baroness,
+      said to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m afraid that the tart is not quite nice, your ladyship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks, it is delightful,&rsquo; said the Baroness coldly; her smile had
+      vanished. &lsquo;Who are you? I thought you were de bureau clerk.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My father is the owner of this hotel. I thought there was something in
+      the tart which ought not to have been there.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella looked the Baroness full in the face. The piece of folded paper, to
+      which a little cream had attached itself, lay under the edge of a plate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, thanks.&rsquo; The Baroness smiled her simple smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella departed. She had noticed one trifling thing besides the paper&mdash;namely,
+      that the Baroness could pronounce the English &lsquo;th&rsquo; sound if she chose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon, in her own room, Nella sat meditating at the window for
+      long time, and then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes brightening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know,&rsquo; she exclaimed, clapping her hands. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s Miss Spencer,
+      disguised!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why didn&rsquo;t I think of that before?&rsquo; Her thoughts ran instantly to Prince
+      Aribert. &lsquo;Perhaps I can help him,&rsquo; she said to herself, and gave a little
+      sigh. She went down to the office and inquired whether the Baroness had
+      given any instructions about dinner. She felt that some plan must be
+      formulated. She wanted to get hold of Rocco, and put him in the rack. She
+      knew now that Rocco, the unequalled, was also concerned in this mysterious
+      affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Baroness Zerlinski has left, about a quarter of an hour ago,&rsquo; said
+      the attendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But she only arrived this morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Baroness&rsquo;s maid said that her mistress had received a telegram and
+      must leave at once. The Baroness paid the bill, and went away in a
+      four-wheeler.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+<p>
+     &lsquo;The trunks were labelled for Ostend.&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was the mere spirit of adventure; but
+      that evening Nella was to be seen of all men on the steamer for Ostend
+      which leaves Dover at 11 p.m. She told no one of her intentions&mdash;not
+      even her father, who was not in the hotel when she left. She had scribbled
+      a brief note to him to expect her back in a day or two, and had posted
+      this at Dover. The steamer was the Marie Henriette, a large and luxurious
+      boat, whose state-rooms on deck vie with the glories of the Cunard and
+      White Star liners. One of these state-rooms, the best, was evidently
+      occupied, for every curtain of its windows was carefully drawn. Nella did
+      not hope that the Baroness was on board; it was quite possible for the
+      Baroness to have caught the eight o&rsquo;clock steamer, and it was also
+      possible for the Baroness not to have gone to Ostend at all, but to some
+      other place in an entirely different direction. Nevertheless, Nella had a
+      faint hope that the lady who called herself Zerlinski might be in that
+      curtained stateroom, and throughout the smooth moonlit voyage she never
+      once relaxed her observation of its doors and its windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Maria Henriette arrived in Ostend Harbour punctually at 2 a.m. in the
+      morning. There was the usual heterogeneous, gesticulating crowd on the
+      quay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella kept her post near the door of the state-room, and at length she was
+      rewarded by seeing it open. Four middle-aged Englishmen issued from it.
+      From a glimpse of the interior Nella saw that they had spent the voyage in
+      card-playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would not be too much to say that she was distinctly annoyed. She
+      pretended to be annoyed with circumstances, but really she was annoyed
+      with Nella Racksole. At two in the morning, without luggage, without any
+      companionship, and without a plan of campaign, she found herself in a
+      strange foreign port&mdash;a port of evil repute, possessing some of the
+      worst-managed hotels in Europe. She strolled on the quay for a few
+      minutes, and then she saw the smoke of another steamer in the offing. She
+      inquired from an official what that steamer might be, and was told that it
+      was the eight o&rsquo;clock from Dover, which had broken down, put into Calais
+      for some slight necessary repairs, and was arriving at its destination
+      nearly four hours late. Her mercurial spirits rose again. A minute ago she
+      was regarding herself as no better than a ninny engaged in a wild-goose
+      chase. Now she felt that after all she had been very sagacious and
+      cunning. She was morally sure that she would find the Zerlinski woman on
+      this second steamer, and she took all the credit to herself in advance.
+      Such is human nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steamer seemed interminably slow in coming into harbour. Nella walked
+      on the Digue for a few minutes to watch it the better. The town was silent
+      and almost deserted. It had a false and sinister aspect. She remembered
+      tales which she had heard of this glittering resort, which in the season
+      holds more scoundrels than any place in Europe, save only Monte Carlo. She
+      remembered that the gilded adventurers of every nation under the sun
+      forgathered there either for business or pleasure, and that some of the
+      most wonderful crimes of the latter half of the century had been schemed
+      and matured in that haunt of cosmopolitan iniquity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the second steamer arrived Nella stood at the end of the gangway,
+      close to the ticket-collector. The first person to step on shore was&mdash;not
+      the Baroness Zerlinski, but Miss Spencer herself! Nella turned aside
+      instantly, hiding her face, and Miss Spencer, carrying a small bag,
+      hurried with assured footsteps to the Custom House. It seemed as if she
+      knew the port of Ostend fairly well. The moon shone like day, and Nella
+      had full opportunity to observe her quarry. She could see now quite
+      plainly that the Baroness Zerlinski had been only Miss Spencer in
+      disguise. There was the same gait, the same movement of the head and of
+      the hips; the white hair was easily to be accounted for by a wig, and the
+      wrinkles by a paint brush and some grease paints. Miss Spencer, whose hair
+      was now its old accustomed yellow, got through the Custom House without
+      difficulty, and Nella saw her call a closed carriage and say something to
+      the driver. The vehicle drove off. Nella jumped into the next carriage&mdash;an
+      open one&mdash;that came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Follow that carriage,&rsquo; she said succinctly to the driver in French.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bien, madame!&rsquo; The driver whipped up his horse, and the animal shot
+      forward with a terrific clatter over the cobbles. It appeared that this
+      driver was quite accustomed to following other carriages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now I am fairly in for it!&rsquo; said Nella to herself. She laughed
+      unsteadily, but her heart was beating with an extraordinary thump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some time the pursued vehicle kept well in front. It crossed the town
+      nearly from end to end, and plunged into a maze of small streets far on
+      the south side of the Kursaal. Then gradually Nella&rsquo;s equipage began to
+      overtake it. The first carriage stopped with a jerk before a tall dark
+      house, and Miss Spencer emerged. Nella called to her driver to stop, but
+      he, determined to be in at the death, was engaged in whipping his horse,
+      and he completely ignored her commands. He drew up triumphantly at the
+      tall dark house just at the moment when Miss Spencer disappeared into it.
+      The other carriage drove away. Nella, uncertain what to do, stepped down
+      from her carriage and gave the driver some money. At the same moment a man
+      reopened the door of the house, which had closed on Miss Spencer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to see Miss Spencer,&rsquo; said Nella impulsively. She couldn&rsquo;t think
+      of anything else to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+    &lsquo;Yes; she&rsquo;s just arrived.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s O.K., I suppose,&rsquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I guess so,&rsquo; said Nella, and she walked past him into the house. She was
+      astonished at her own audacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer was just going into a room off the narrow hall. Nella
+      followed her into the apartment, which was shabbily furnished in the
+      Belgian lodging-house style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Miss Spencer,&rsquo; she greeted the former Baroness Zerlinski, &lsquo;I guess
+      you didn&rsquo;t expect to see me. You left our hotel very suddenly this
+      afternoon, and you left it very suddenly a few days ago; and so I&rsquo;ve just
+      called to make a few inquiries.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To do the lady justice, Miss Spencer bore the surprising ordeal very well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not flinch; she betrayed no emotion. The sole sign of perturbation
+      was in her hurried breathing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have ceased to be the Baroness Zerlinski,&rsquo; Nella continued. &lsquo;May I
+      sit down?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly, sit down,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer, copying the girl&rsquo;s tone. &lsquo;You
+      are a fairly smart young woman, that I will say. What do you want? Weren&rsquo;t
+      my books all straight?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your books were all straight. I haven&rsquo;t come about your books. I have
+      come about the murder of Reginald Dimmock, the disappearance of his
+      corpse, and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen. I thought you
+      might be able to help me in some investigations which I am making.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s eyes gleamed, and she stood up and moved swiftly to the
+      mantelpiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You may be a Yankee, but you&rsquo;re a fool,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took hold of the bell-rope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ring that bell if you value your life,&rsquo; said Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If what?&rsquo; Miss Spencer remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you value your life,&rsquo; said Nella calmly, and with the words she pulled
+      from her pocket a very neat and dainty little revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Nine TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;YOU&mdash;you&rsquo;re only doing that to frighten me,&rsquo; stammered Miss Spencer,
+      in a low, quavering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Am I?&rsquo; Nella replied, as firmly as she could, though her hand shook
+      violently with excitement, could Miss Spencer but have observed it. &lsquo;Am I?
+      You said just now that I might be a Yankee girl, but I was a fool. Well, I
+      am a Yankee girl, as you call it; and in my country, if they don&rsquo;t teach
+      revolver-shooting in boarding-schools, there are at least a lot of girls
+      who can handle a revolver. I happen to be one of them. I tell you that if
+      you ring that bell you will suffer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most of this was simple bluff on Nella&rsquo;s part, and she trembled lest Miss
+      Spencer should perceive that it was simple bluff. Happily for her, Miss
+      Spencer belonged to that order of women who have every sort of courage
+      except physical courage. Miss Spencer could have withstood successfully
+      any moral trial, but persuade her that her skin was in danger, and she
+      would succumb. Nella at once divined this useful fact, and proceeded
+      accordingly, hiding the strangeness of her own sensations as well as she
+      could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You had better sit down now,&rsquo; said Nella, &lsquo;and I will ask you a few
+      questions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Miss Spencer obediently sat down, rather white, and trying to screw
+      her lips into a formal smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you leave the Grand Babylon that night?&rsquo; Nella began her
+      examination, putting on a stern, barrister-like expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had orders to, Miss Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whose orders?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m&mdash;I&rsquo;m&mdash;the fact is, I&rsquo;m a married woman, and it was my
+      husband&rsquo;s orders.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is your husband?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘Tom Jackson&mdash;Jules, you know, head waiter at
+      the Grand Babylon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So Jules&rsquo;s real name is Tom Jackson? Why did he want you to leave without
+      giving notice?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sure I don&rsquo;t know, Miss Racksole. I swear I don&rsquo;t know. He&rsquo;s my
+      husband, and, of course, I do what he tells me, as you will some day do
+      what your husband tells you. Please heaven you&rsquo;ll get a better husband
+      than mine!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer showed a sign of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella fingered the revolver, and put it at full cock. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; she
+      repeated, &lsquo;why did he want you to leave?&rsquo; She was tremendously surprised
+      at her own coolness, and somewhat pleased with it, too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you, I can&rsquo;t tell you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve just got to,&rsquo; Nella said, in a terrible, remorseless tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&mdash;he wished me to come over here to Ostend. Something had gone
+      wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh! he&rsquo;s a fearful man, is Tom. If I told you, he&rsquo;d&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Had something gone wrong in the hotel, or over here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Both.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was it about Prince Eugen of Posen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;that is, yes, I think so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What has your husband to do with Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe he has some&mdash;some sort of business with him, some money
+      business.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And was Mr Dimmock in this business?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘I fancy so, Miss Racksole. I&rsquo;m
+      telling you all I know, that I swear.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did your husband and Mr Dimmock have a quarrel that night in Room 111?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They had some difficulty.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And the result of that was that you came to Ostend instantly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes; I suppose so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what were you to do in Ostend? What were your instructions from this
+      husband of yours?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s head dropped on her arms on the table which separated her
+      from Nella, and she appeared to sob violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have pity on me,&rsquo; she murmured, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you any more.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&rsquo;d kill me if he knew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;re wandering from the subject,&rsquo; observed Nella coldly. &lsquo;This is the
+      last time I shall warn you. Let me tell you plainly I&rsquo;ve got the best
+      reasons for being desperate, and if anything happens to you I shall say I
+      did it in self-defence. Now, what were you to do in Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall die for this anyhow,&rsquo; whined Miss Spencer, and then, with a sort
+      of fierce despair, &lsquo;I had to keep watch on Prince Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where? In this house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer nodded, and, looking up, Nella could see the traces of tears
+      in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then Prince Eugen was a prisoner? Some one had captured him at the
+      instigation of Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, if you must have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why was it necessary for you specially to come to Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! Tom trusts me. You see, I know Ostend. Before I took that place at
+      the Grand Babylon I had travelled over Europe, and Tom knew that I knew a
+      thing or two.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you take the place at the Grand Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because Tom told me to. He said I should be useful to him there.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is your husband an Anarchist, or something of that kind, Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;d tell you in a minute if I knew. But he&rsquo;s one of those
+      that keep themselves to themselves.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know if he has ever committed a murder?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘Never!&rsquo; said Miss
+      Spencer, with righteous repudiation of the mere idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Mr Dimmock was murdered. He was poisoned. If he had not been poisoned
+      why was his body stolen? It must have been stolen to prevent inquiry, to
+      hide traces. Tell me about that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I take my dying oath,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer, standing up a little way from
+      the table, &lsquo;I take my dying oath I didn&rsquo;t know Mr Dimmock was dead till I
+      saw it in the newspaper.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You swear you had no suspicion of it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I swear I hadn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella was inclined to believe the statement. The woman and the girl looked
+      at each other in the tawdry, frowsy, lamp-lit room. Miss Spencer nervously
+      patted her yellow hair into shape, as if gradually recovering her
+      composure and equanimity. The whole affair seemed like a dream to Nella, a
+      disturbing, sinister nightmare. She was a little uncertain what to say.
+      She felt that she had not yet got hold of any very definite information.
+      &lsquo;Where is Prince Eugen now?&rsquo; she asked at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know, miss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He isn&rsquo;t in this house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, miss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! We will see presently.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They took him away, Miss Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who took him away? Some of your husband&rsquo;s friends?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Some of his&mdash;acquaintances.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then there is a gang of you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A gang of us&mdash;a gang! I don&rsquo;t know what you mean,&rsquo; Miss Spencer
+      quavered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, but you must know,&rsquo; smiled Nella calmly. &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t possibly be so
+      innocent as all that, Mrs Tom Jackson. You can&rsquo;t play games with me.
+      You&rsquo;ve just got to remember that I&rsquo;m what you call a Yankee girl. There&rsquo;s
+      one thing that I mean to find out, within the next five minutes, and that
+      is&mdash;how your charming husband kidnapped Prince Eugen, and why he
+      kidnapped him. Let us begin with the second question. You have evaded it
+      once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer looked into Nella&rsquo;s face, and then her eyes dropped, and her
+      fingers worked nervously with the tablecloth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How can I tell you,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;when I don&rsquo;t know? You&rsquo;ve got the
+      whip-hand of me, and you&rsquo;re tormenting me for your own pleasure.&rsquo; She wore
+      an expression of persecuted innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did Mr Tom Jackson want to get some money out of Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Money! Not he! Tom&rsquo;s never short of money.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I mean a lot of money&mdash;tens of thousands, hundreds of
+      thousands?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom never wanted money from anyone,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer doggedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then had he some reason for wishing to prevent Prince Eugen from coming
+      to London?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps he had. I don&rsquo;t know. If you kill me, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; Nella
+      stopped to reflect. Then she raised the revolver. It was a mechanical,
+      unintentional sort of action, and certainly she had no intention of using
+      the weapon, but, strange to say, Miss Spencer again cowered before it.
+      Even at that moment Nella wondered that a woman like Miss Spencer could be
+      so simple as to think the revolver would actually be used. Having
+      absolutely no physical cowardice herself, Nella had the greatest
+      difficulty in imagining that other people could be at the mercy of a
+      bodily fear. Still, she saw her advantage, and used it relentlessly, and
+      with as much theatrical gesture as she could command. She raised the
+      revolver till it was level with Miss Spencer&rsquo;s face, and suddenly a new,
+      queer feeling took hold of her. She knew that she would indeed use that
+      revolver now, if the miserable woman before her drove her too far. She
+      felt afraid&mdash;afraid of herself; she was in the grasp of a savage,
+      primeval instinct. In a flash she saw Miss Spencer dead at her feet&mdash;the
+      police&mdash;a court of justice&mdash;the scaffold. It was horrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Speak,&rsquo; she said hoarsely, and Miss Spencer&rsquo;s face went whiter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom did say,&rsquo; the woman whispered rapidly, awesomely, &lsquo;that if Prince
+      Eugen got to London it would upset his scheme.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What scheme? What scheme? Answer me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven help me, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; Miss Spencer sank into a chair. &lsquo;He said
+      Mr Dimmock had turned tail, and he should have to settle him and then
+      Rocco&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco! What about Rocco?&rsquo; Nella could scarcely hear herself. Her grip of
+      the revolver tightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s eyes opened wider; she gazed at Nella with a glassy stare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me. It&rsquo;s death!&rsquo; Her eyes were fixed as if in horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; said Nella, and the sound of her voice seemed to her to issue
+      from the lips of some third person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s death,&rsquo; repeated Miss Spencer, and gradually her head and shoulders
+      sank back, and hung loosely over the chair. Nella was conscious of a
+      sudden revulsion. The woman had surely fainted. Dropping the revolver she
+      ran round the table. She was herself again&mdash;feminine, sympathetic,
+      the old Nella. She felt immensely relieved that this had happened. But at
+      the same instant Miss Spencer sprang up from the chair like a cat, seized
+      the revolver, and with a wild movement of the arm flung it against the
+      window. It crashed through the glass, exploding as it went, and there was
+      a tense silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I told you that you were a fool,&rsquo; remarked Miss Spencer slowly, &lsquo;coming
+      here like a sort of female Jack Sheppard, and trying to get the best of
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are on equal terms now. You frightened me, but I knew I was a cleverer
+      woman than you, and that in the end, if I kept on long enough, I should
+      win.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it will be my turn.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dumbfounded, and overcome with a miserable sense of the truth of Miss
+      Spencer&rsquo;s words, Nella stood still. The idea of her colossal foolishness
+      swept through her like a flood. She felt almost ashamed. But even at this
+      juncture she had no fear. She faced the woman bravely, her mind leaping
+      about in search of some plan. She could think of nothing but a bribe&mdash;an
+      enormous bribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I admit you&rsquo;ve won,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;but I&rsquo;ve not finished yet. Just listen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer folded her arms, and glanced at the door, smiling bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know my father is a millionaire; perhaps you know that he is one of
+      the richest men in the world. If I give you my word of honour not to
+      reveal anything that you&rsquo;ve told me, what will you take to let me go
+      free?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sum do you suggest?&rsquo; asked Miss Spencer carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Twenty thousand pounds,&rsquo; said Nella promptly. She had begun to regard the
+      affair as a business operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s lip curled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Miss Spencer&rsquo;s lip curled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, say a million. I can rely on my father, and so may you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think you are worth a million to him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do,&rsquo; said Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you think we could trust you to see that it was paid?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course you could.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And we should not suffer afterwards in any way?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would give you my word, and my father&rsquo;s word.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bah!&rsquo; exclaimed Miss Spencer: &lsquo;how do you know I wouldn&rsquo;t let you go free
+      for nothing? You are only a rash, silly girl.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know you wouldn&rsquo;t. I can read your face too well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are right,&rsquo; Miss Spencer replied slowly. &lsquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t. I wouldn&rsquo;t let
+      you go for all the dollars in America.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella felt cold down the spine, and sat down again in her chair. A draught
+      of air from the broken window blew on her cheek. Steps sounded in the
+      passage; the door opened, but Nella did not turn round. She could not move
+      her eyes from Miss Spencer&rsquo;s. There was a noise of rushing water in her
+      ears. She lost consciousness, and slipped limply to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Ten AT SEA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT seemed to Nella that she was being rocked gently in a vast cradle,
+      which swayed to and fro with a motion at once slow and incredibly gentle.
+      This sensation continued for some time, and there was added to it the
+      sound of a quick, quiet, muffled beat. Soft, exhilarating breezes wafted
+      her forward in spite of herself, and yet she remained in a delicious calm.
+      She wondered if her mother was kneeling by her side, whispering some
+      lullaby in her childish ears. Then strange colours swam before her eyes,
+      her eyelids wavered, and at last she awoke. For a few moments her gaze
+      travelled to and fro in a vain search for some clue to her surroundings,
+      was aware of nothing except sense of repose and a feeling of relief that
+      some mighty and fatal struggle was over; she cared not whether she had
+      conquered or suffered defeat in the struggle of her soul with some other
+      soul; it was finished, done with, and the consciousness of its conclusion
+      satisfied and contented her. Gradually her brain, recovering from its
+      obsession, began to grasp the phenomena of her surroundings, and she saw
+      that she was on a yacht, and that the yacht was moving. The motion of the
+      cradle was the smooth rolling of the vessel; the beat was the beat of its
+      screw; the strange colours were the cloud tints thrown by the sun as it
+      rose over a distant and receding shore in the wake of the yacht; her
+      mother&rsquo;s lullaby was the crooned song of the man at the wheel. Nella all
+      through her life had had many experiences of yachting. From the waters of
+      the River Hudson to those bluer tides of the Mediterranean Sea, she had
+      yachted in all seasons and all weathers. She loved the water, and now it
+      seemed deliciously right and proper that she should be on the water again.
+      She raised her head to look round, and then let it sink back: she was
+      fatigued, enervated; she desired only solitude and calm; she had no care,
+      no anxiety, no responsibility: a hundred years might have passed since her
+      meeting with Miss Spencer, and the memory of that meeting appeared to have
+      faded into the remotest background of her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a small yacht, and her practised eye at once told that it belonged
+      to the highest aristocracy of pleasure craft. As she reclined in the
+      deck-chair (it did not occur to her at that moment to speculate as to the
+      identity of the person who had led her therein) she examined all visible
+      details of the vessel. The deck was as white and smooth as her own hand,
+      and the seams ran along its length like blue veins. All the brass-work,
+      from the band round the slender funnel to the concave surface of the
+      binnacle, shone like gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tapered masts stretched upwards at a rakish angle, and the rigging
+      seemed like spun silk. No sails were set; the yacht was under steam, and
+      doing about seven or eight knots. She judged that it was a boat of a
+      hundred tons or so, probably Clyde-built, and not more than two or three
+      years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one was to be seen on deck except the man at the wheel: this man wore a
+      blue jersey; but there was neither name nor initial on the jersey, nor was
+      there a name on the white life-buoys lashed to the main rigging, nor on
+      the polished dinghy which hung on the starboard davits. She called to the
+      man, and called again, in a feeble voice, but the steerer took no notice
+      of her, and continued his quiet song as though nothing else existed in the
+      universe save the yacht, the sea, the sun, and himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then her eyes swept the outline of the land from which they were
+      hastening, and she could just distinguish a lighthouse and a great white
+      irregular dome, which she recognized as the Kursaal at Ostend, that
+      gorgeous rival of the gaming palace at Monte Carlo. So she was leaving
+      Ostend. The rays of the sun fell on her caressingly, like a restorative.
+      All around the water was changing from wonderful greys and dark blues to
+      still more wonderful pinks and translucent unearthly greens; the magic
+      kaleidoscope of dawn was going forward in its accustomed way, regardless
+      of the vicissitudes of mortals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here and there in the distance she descried a sail&mdash;the brown sail of
+      some Ostend fishing-boat returning home after a night&rsquo;s trawling. Then the
+      beat of paddles caught her ear, and a steamer blundered past, wallowing
+      clumsily among the waves like a tortoise. It was the Swallow from London.
+      She could see some of its passengers leaning curiously over the aft-rail.
+      A girl in a mackintosh signalled to her, and mechanically she answered the
+      salute with her arm. The officer of the bridge of the Swallow hailed the
+      yacht, but the man at the wheel offered no reply. In another minute the
+      Swallow was nothing but a blot in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella tried to sit straight in the deck-chair, but she found herself
+      unable to do so. Throwing off the rug which covered her, she discovered
+      that she had been tied to the chair by means of a piece of broad webbing.
+      Instantly she was alert, awake, angry; she knew that her perils were not
+      over; she felt that possibly they had scarcely yet begun. Her lazy
+      contentment, her dreamy sense of peace and repose, vanished utterly, and
+      she steeled herself to meet the dangers of a grave and difficult
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment a man came up from below. He was a man of forty or so,
+      clad in irreproachable blue, with a peaked yachting cap. He raised the cap
+      politely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Beautiful sunrise, isn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; The clever and
+      calculated insolence of his tone cut her like a lash as she lay bound in
+      the chair. Like all people who have lived easy and joyous lives in those
+      fair regions where gold smoothes every crease and law keeps a tight hand
+      on disorder, she found it hard to realize that there were other regions
+      where gold was useless and law without power. Twenty-four hours ago she
+      would have declared it impossible that such an experience as she had
+      suffered could happen to anyone; she would have talked airily about
+      civilization and the nineteenth century, and progress and the police. But
+      her experience was teaching her that human nature remains always the same,
+      and that beneath the thin crust of security on which we good citizens
+      exist the dark and secret forces of crime continue to move, just as they
+      did in the days when you couldn&rsquo;t go from Cheapside to Chelsea without
+      being set upon by thieves. Her experience was in a fair way to teach her
+      this lesson better than she could have learnt it even in the bureaux of
+      the detective police of Paris, London, and St Petersburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning,&rsquo; the man repeated, and she glanced at him with a sullen,
+      angry gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You!&rsquo; she exclaimed, &lsquo;You, Mr Thomas Jackson, if that is your name! Loose
+      me from this chair, and I will talk to you.&rsquo; Her eyes flashed as she
+      spoke, and the contempt in them added mightily to her beauty. Mr Thomas
+      Jackson, otherwise Jules, erstwhile head waiter at the Grand Babylon,
+      considered himself a connoisseur in feminine loveliness, and the vision of
+      Nella Racksole smote him like an exquisite blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; he replied. &lsquo;I had forgotten that to prevent you from
+      falling I had secured you to the chair&rsquo;; and with a quick movement he
+      unfastened the band. Nella stood up, quivering with fiery annoyance and
+      scorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now,&rsquo; she said, fronting him, &lsquo;what is the meaning of this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You fainted,&rsquo; he replied imperturbably. &lsquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t remember.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man offered her a deck-chair with a characteristic gesture. Nella was
+      obliged to acknowledge, in spite of herself, that the fellow had
+      distinction, an air of breeding. No one would have guessed that for twenty
+      years he had been an hotel waiter. His long, lithe figure, and easy,
+      careless carriage seemed to be the figure and carriage of an aristocrat,
+      and his voice was quiet, restrained, and authoritative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That has nothing to do with my being carried off in this yacht of yours.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is not my yacht,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but that is a minor detail. As to the more
+      important matter, forgive me that I remind you that only a few hours ago
+      you were threatening a lady in my house with a revolver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then it was your house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not? May I not possess a house?&rsquo; He smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must request you to put the yacht about at once, instantly, and take me
+      back.&rsquo; She tried to speak firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I am afraid that&rsquo;s impossible. I didn&rsquo;t put out to sea
+      with the intention of returning at once, instantly.&rsquo; In the last words he
+      gave a faint imitation of her tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When I do get back,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;when my father gets to know of this
+      affair, it will be an exceedingly bad day for you, Mr Jackson.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But supposing your father doesn&rsquo;t hear of it&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Supposing you never get back?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean, then, to have my murder on your conscience?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Talking of murder,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;you came very near to murdering my friend,
+      Miss Spencer. At least, so she tells me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is Miss Spencer on board?&rsquo; Nella asked, seeing perhaps a faint ray of
+      hope in the possible presence of a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer is not on board. There is no one on board except you and
+      myself and a small crew&mdash;a very discreet crew, I may add.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will have nothing more to say to you. You must take your own course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks for the permission,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I will send you up some breakfast.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the saloon stairs and whistled, and a Negro boy appeared with a
+      tray of chocolate. Nella took it, and, without the slightest hesitation,
+      threw it overboard. Mr Jackson walked away a few steps and then returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have spirit,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;and I admire spirit. It is a rare quality.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no reply. &lsquo;Why did you mix yourself up in my affairs at all?&rsquo; he
+      went on. Again she made no reply, but the question set her thinking: why
+      had she mixed herself up in this mysterious business? It was quite at
+      variance with the usual methods of her gay and butterfly existence to
+      meddle at all with serious things. Had she acted merely from a desire to
+      see justice done and wickedness punished? Or was it the desire of
+      adventure? Or was it, perhaps, the desire to be of service to His Serene
+      Highness Prince Aribert? &lsquo;It is no fault of mine that you are in this
+      fix,&rsquo; Jules continued. &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t bring you into it. You brought yourself
+      into it. You and your father&mdash;you have been moving along at a pace
+      which is rather too rapid.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That remains to be seen,&rsquo; she put in coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does,&rsquo; he admitted. &lsquo;And I repeat that I can&rsquo;t help admiring you&mdash;that
+      is, when you aren&rsquo;t interfering with my private affairs. That is a
+      proceeding which I have never tolerated from anyone&mdash;not even from a
+      millionaire, nor even from a beautiful woman.&rsquo; He bowed. &lsquo;I will tell you
+      what I propose to do. I propose to escort you to a place of safety, and to
+      keep you there till my operations are concluded, and the possibility of
+      interference entirely removed. You spoke just now of murder. What a crude
+      notion that was of yours! It is only the amateur who practises murder&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What about Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo; she interjected quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Reginald Dimmock,&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;I had imagined his was a case of heart
+      disease. Let me send you up some more chocolate. I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re hungry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will starve before I touch your food,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Gallant creature!&rsquo; he murmured, and his eyes roved over her face. Her
+      superb, supercilious beauty overcame him. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;what a wife you
+      would make!&rsquo; He approached nearer to her. &lsquo;You and I, Miss Racksole, your
+      beauty and wealth and my brains&mdash;we could conquer the world. Few men
+      are worthy of you, but I am one of the few. Listen! You might do worse.
+      Marry me. I am a great man; I shall be greater. I adore you. Marry me, and
+      I will save your life. All shall be well. I will begin again. The past
+      shall be as though there had been no past.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is somewhat sudden&mdash;Jules,&rsquo; she said with biting contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did you expect me to be conventional?&rsquo; he retorted. &lsquo;I love you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Granted,&rsquo; she said, for the sake of the argument. &lsquo;Then what will occur
+      to your present wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My present wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Miss Spencer, as she is called.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She told you I was her husband?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Incidentally she did.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She isn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps she isn&rsquo;t. But, nevertheless, I think I won&rsquo;t marry you.&rsquo; Nella
+      stood like a statue of scorn before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went still nearer to her. &lsquo;Give me a kiss, then; one kiss&mdash;I won&rsquo;t
+      ask for more; one kiss from those lips, and you shall go free. Men have
+      ruined themselves for a kiss. I will.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Coward!&rsquo; she ejaculated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Coward!&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;Coward, am I? Then I&rsquo;ll be a coward, and you shall
+      kiss me whether you will or not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put a hand on her shoulder. As she shrank back from his lustrous eyes,
+      with an involuntary scream, a figure sprang out of the dinghy a few feet
+      away. With a single blow, neatly directed to Mr Jackson&rsquo;s ear, Mr Jackson
+      was stretched senseless on the deck. Prince Aribert of Posen stood over
+      him with a revolver. It was probably the greatest surprise of Mr Jackson&rsquo;s
+      whole life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t be alarmed,&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella, &lsquo;my being here is the
+      simplest thing in the world, and I will explain it as soon as I have
+      finished with this fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella could think of nothing to say, but she noticed the revolver in the
+      Prince&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; she remarked, &lsquo;that&rsquo;s my revolver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;and I will explain that, too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man at the wheel gave no heed whatever to the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eleven THE COURT PAWNBROKER
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &lsquo;MR SAMPSON LEVI wishes to see you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      These words, spoken by a servant to Theodore Racksole, aroused the
+      millionaire from a reverie which had been the reverse of pleasant. The
+      fact was, and it is necessary to insist on it, that Mr Racksole, owner of
+      the Grand Babylon Hôtel, was by no means in a state of self-satisfaction.
+      A mystery had attached itself to his hotel, and with all his acumen and
+      knowledge of things in general he was unable to solve that mystery. He
+      laughed at the fruitless efforts of the police, but he could not honestly
+      say that his own efforts had been less barren. The public was talking,
+      for, after all, the disappearance of poor Dimmock&rsquo;s body had got noised
+      abroad in an indirect sort of way, and Theodore Racksole did not like the
+      idea of his impeccable hotel being the subject of sinister rumours. He
+      wondered, grimly, what the public and the Sunday newspapers would say if
+      they were aware of all the other phenomena, not yet common property: of
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s disappearance, of Jules&rsquo; strange visits, and of the
+      non-arrival of Prince Eugen of Posen. Theodore Racksole had worried his
+      brain without result. He had conducted an elaborate private investigation
+      without result, and he had spent a certain amount of money without result.
+      The police said that they had a clue; but Racksole remarked that it was
+      always the business of the police to have a clue, that they seldom had
+      more than a clue, and that a clue without some sequel to it was a pretty
+      stupid business. The only sure thing in the whole affair was that a cloud
+      rested over his hotel, his beautiful new toy, the finest of its kind. The
+      cloud was not interfering with business, but, nevertheless, it was a
+      cloud, and he fiercely resented its presence; perhaps it would be more
+      correct to say that he fiercely resented his inability to dissipate it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sampson Levi wishes to see you, sir,&rsquo; the servant repeated, having
+      received no sign that his master had heard him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So I hear,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Does he want to see me, personally?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He asked for you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps it is Rocco he wants to see, about a menu or something of that
+      kind?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will inquire, sir,&rsquo; and the servant made a move to withdraw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Stop,&rsquo; Racksole commanded suddenly. &lsquo;Desire Mr Sampson Levi to step this
+      way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great stockbroker of the &lsquo;Kaffir Circus&rsquo; entered with a simple
+      unassuming air. He was a rather short, florid man, dressed like a typical
+      Hebraic financier, with too much watch-chain and too little waistcoat. In
+      his fat hand he held a gold-headed cane, and an absolutely new silk hat&mdash;for
+      it was Friday, and Mr Levi purchased a new hat every Friday of his life,
+      holiday times only excepted. He breathed heavily and sniffed through his
+      nose a good deal, as though he had just performed some Herculean physical
+      labour. He glanced at the American millionaire with an expression in which
+      a slight embarrassment might have been detected, but at the same time his
+      round, red face disclosed a certain frank admiration and good nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole, I believe&mdash;Mr Theodore Racksole. Proud to meet you,
+      sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the first words of Mr Sampson Levi. In form they were the
+      greeting of a third-rate chimney-sweep, but, strangely enough, Theodore
+      Racksole liked their tone. He said to himself that here, precisely where
+      no one would have expected to find one, was an honest man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good day,&rsquo; said Racksole briefly. &lsquo;To what do I owe the pleasure&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I expect your time is limited,&rsquo; answered Sampson Levi. &lsquo;Anyhow, mine is,
+      and so I&rsquo;ll come straight to the point, Mr Racksole. I&rsquo;m a plain man. I
+      don&rsquo;t pretend to be a gentleman or any nonsense of that kind. I&rsquo;m a
+      stockbroker, that&rsquo;s what I am, and I don&rsquo;t care who knows it. The other
+      night I had a ball in this hotel. It cost me a couple of thousand and odd
+      pounds, and, by the way, I wrote out a cheque for your bill this morning.
+      I don&rsquo;t like balls, but they&rsquo;re useful to me, and my little wife likes
+      &lsquo;em, and so we give &lsquo;em. Now, I&rsquo;ve nothing to say against the hotel
+      management as regards that ball: it was very decently done, very decently,
+      but what I want to know is this&mdash;Why did you have a private detective
+      among my guests?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A private detective?&rsquo; exclaimed Racksole, somewhat surprised at this
+      charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi said firmly, fanning himself in his chair, and
+      gazing at Theodore Racksole with the direct earnest expression of a man
+      having a grievance. &lsquo;Yes; a private detective. It&rsquo;s a small matter, I
+      know, and I dare say you think you&rsquo;ve got a right, as proprietor of the
+      show, to do what you like in that line; but I&rsquo;ve just called to tell you
+      that I object. I&rsquo;ve called as a matter of principle. I&rsquo;m not angry; it&rsquo;s
+      the principle of the thing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Mr Levi,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I assure you that, having let the Gold
+      Room to a private individual for a private entertainment, I should never
+      dream of doing what you suggest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Straight?&rsquo; asked Mr Sampson Levi, using his own picturesque language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Straight,&rsquo; said Racksole smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There was a gent present at my ball that I didn&rsquo;t ask. I&rsquo;ve got a
+      wonderful memory for faces, and I know. Several fellows asked me
+      afterwards what he was doing there. I was told by someone that he was one
+      of your waiters, but I didn&rsquo;t believe that. I know nothing of the Grand
+      Babylon; it&rsquo;s not quite my style of tavern, but I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;d send
+      one of your own waiters to watch my guests&mdash;unless, of course, you
+      sent him as a waiter; and this chap didn&rsquo;t do any waiting, though he did
+      his share of drinking.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I can throw some light on this mystery,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I may
+      tell you that I was already aware that man had attended your ball
+      uninvited.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How did you get to know?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By pure chance, Mr Levi, and not by inquiry. That man was a former waiter
+      at this hotel&mdash;the head waiter, in fact&mdash;Jules. No doubt you
+      have heard of him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not I,&rsquo; said Mr Levi positively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I was informed that everyone knew Jules, but it
+      appears not. Well, be that as it may, previously to the night of your
+      ball, I had dismissed Jules. I had ordered him never to enter the Babylon
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on that evening I encountered him here&mdash;not in the Gold Room, but
+      in the hotel itself. I asked him to explain his presence, and he stated he
+      was your guest. That is all I know of the matter, Mr Levi, and I am
+      extremely sorry that you should have thought me capable of the enormity of
+      placing a private detective among your guests.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is perfectly satisfactory to me,&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi said, after a
+      pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I only wanted an explanation, and I&rsquo;ve got it. I was told by some pals of
+      mine in the City I might rely on Mr Theodore Racksole going straight to
+      the point, and I&rsquo;m glad they were right. Now as to that feller Jules, I
+      shall make my own inquiries as to him. Might I ask you why you dismissed
+      him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I dismissed him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t know? Oh! come now! I&rsquo;m only asking because I thought you might
+      be able to give me a hint why he turned up uninvited at my ball. Sorry if
+      I&rsquo;m too inquisitive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all, Mr Levi; but I really don&rsquo;t know. I only sort of felt that he
+      was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it were. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. &lsquo;If this Jules is
+      such a well-known person,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;how could the feller hope to come to
+      my ball without being recognized?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Give it up,&rsquo; said Racksole promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll be moving on,&rsquo; was Mr Sampson Levi&rsquo;s next remark. &lsquo;Good day,
+      and thank ye. I suppose you aren&rsquo;t doing anything in Kaffirs?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Racksole smiled a negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought not,&rsquo; said Levi. &lsquo;Well, I never touch American rails myself, and
+      so I reckon we sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t come across each other. Good day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good day,&rsquo; said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and, gazing at
+      Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression, remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Strange things been going on here lately, eh?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Racksole assented. &lsquo;Know anything about them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well&mdash;no, not exactly,&rsquo; said Mr Levi. &lsquo;But I had a fancy you and I
+      might be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,&rsquo; Racksole said, attracted by the
+      evident straightforwardness of the man&rsquo;s tone. &lsquo;Now, how can we be of
+      service to each other? I flatter myself I&rsquo;m something of a judge of
+      character, especially financial character, and I tell you&mdash;if you&rsquo;ll
+      put your cards on the table, I&rsquo;ll do ditto with mine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Agreed,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll begin by explaining my interest in
+      your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons from a certain
+      Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that summons hasn&rsquo;t arrived.
+      It appears that Prince Eugen hasn&rsquo;t come to London at all. Now, I could
+      have taken my dying davy that he would have been here yesterday at the
+      latest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why were you so sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Question for question,&rsquo; said Levi. &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s clear the ground first, Mr
+      Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That&rsquo;s a conundrum that&rsquo;s been
+      puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past. Why did you
+      buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move to be?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no next move,&rsquo; answered Racksole candidly, &lsquo;and I will tell you
+      why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. I bought it
+      because of a whim.&rsquo; And then Theodore Racksole gave this little Jew, whom
+      he had begun to respect, a faithful account of the transaction with Mr
+      Felix Babylon. &lsquo;I suppose,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;you find a difficulty in
+      appreciating my state of mind when I did the deal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not a bit,&rsquo; said Mr Levi. &lsquo;I once bought an electric launch on the Thames
+      in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the most
+      satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it&rsquo;s a simple accident that you
+      own this hotel at the present moment?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A simple accident&mdash;all because of a beefsteak and a bottle of Bass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Um!&rsquo; grunted Mr Sampson Levi, stroking his triple chin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To return to Prince Eugen,&rsquo; Racksole resumed. &lsquo;I was expecting His
+      Highness here. The State apartments had been prepared for him. He was due
+      on the very afternoon that young Dimmock died. But he never came, and I
+      have not heard why he has failed to arrive; nor have I seen his name in
+      the papers. What his business was in London, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will tell you,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, &lsquo;he was coming to arrange a
+      loan.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A State loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No&mdash;a private loan.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whom from?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From me, Sampson Levi. You look surprised. If you&rsquo;d lived in London a
+      little longer, you&rsquo;d know that I was just the person the Prince would come
+      to. Perhaps you aren&rsquo;t aware that down Throgmorton Street way I&rsquo;m called
+      &ldquo;The Court Pawnbroker&rdquo;, because I arrange loans for the minor,
+      second-class Princes of Europe. I&rsquo;m a stockbroker, but my real business is
+      financing some of the little Courts of Europe. Now, I may tell you that
+      the Hereditary Prince of Posen particularly wanted a million, and he
+      wanted it by a certain date, and he knew that if the affair wasn&rsquo;t fixed
+      up by a certain time here he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to get it by that certain
+      date. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m surprised he isn&rsquo;t in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did he need a million for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Debts,&rsquo; answered Sampson Levi laconically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His own?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he isn&rsquo;t thirty years of age?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What of that? He isn&rsquo;t the only European Prince who has run up a million
+      of debts in a dozen years. To a Prince the thing is as easy as eating a
+      sandwich.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why has he taken this sudden resolution to liquidate them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because the Emperor and the lady&rsquo;s parents won&rsquo;t let him marry till he
+      has done so! And quite right, too! He&rsquo;s got to show a clean sheet, or the
+      Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg will never be Princess of Posen.
+      Even now the Emperor has no idea how much Prince Eugen&rsquo;s debts amount to.
+      If he had&mdash;!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But would not the Emperor know of this proposed loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not necessarily at once. It could be so managed. Twig?&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi
+      laughed. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve carried these little affairs through before. After marriage
+      it might be allowed to leak out. And you know the Princess Anna&rsquo;s fortune
+      is pretty big! Now, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; he added, abruptly changing his tone,
+      &lsquo;where do you suppose Prince Eugen has disappeared to? Because if he
+      doesn&rsquo;t turn up to-day he can&rsquo;t have that million. To-day is the last day.
+      To-morrow the money will be appropriated, elsewhere. Of course, I&rsquo;m not
+      alone in this business, and my friends have something to say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You ask me where I think Prince Eugen has disappeared to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you think it&rsquo;s a disappearance?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sampson Levi nodded. &lsquo;Putting two and two together,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I do. The
+      Dimmock business is very peculiar&mdash;very peculiar, indeed. Dimmock was
+      a left-handed relation of the Posen family. Twig? Scarcely anyone knows
+      that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was made secretary and companion to Prince Aribert, just to keep him in
+      the domestic circle. His mother was an Irishwoman, whose misfortune was
+      that she was too beautiful. Twig?&rsquo; (Mr Sampson Levi always used this
+      extraordinary word when he was in a communicative mood.) &lsquo;My belief is
+      that Dimmock&rsquo;s death has something to do with the disappearance of Prince
+      Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only thing that passes me is this: Why should anyone want to make
+      Prince Eugen disappear? The poor little Prince hasn&rsquo;t an enemy in the
+      world. If he&rsquo;s been &ldquo;copped&rdquo;, as they say, why has he been &ldquo;copped&rdquo;? It
+      won&rsquo;t do anyone any good.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Won&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; repeated Racksole, with a sudden flash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean?&rsquo; asked Mr Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean this: Suppose some other European pauper Prince was anxious to
+      marry Princess Anna and her fortune, wouldn&rsquo;t that Prince have an interest
+      in stopping this loan of yours to Prince Eugen? Wouldn&rsquo;t he have an
+      interest in causing Prince Eugen to disappear&mdash;at any rate, for a
+      time?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sampson Levi thought hard for a few moments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Theodore Racksole,&rsquo; he said at length, &lsquo;I do believe you have hit on
+      something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twelve ROCCO AND ROOM NO. 111
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the afternoon of the same day&mdash;the interview just described had
+      occurred in the morning&mdash;Racksole was visited by another idea, and he
+      said to himself that he ought to have thought of it before. The
+      conversation with Mr Sampson Levi had continued for a considerable time,
+      and the two men had exchanged various notions, and agreed to meet again,
+      but the theory that Reginald Dimmock had probably been a traitor to his
+      family&mdash;a traitor whose repentance had caused his death&mdash;had not
+      been thoroughly discussed; the talk had tended rather to Continental
+      politics, with a view to discovering what princely family might have an
+      interest in the temporary disappearance of Prince Eugen. Now, as Racksole
+      considered in detail the particular affair of Reginald Dimmock, deceased,
+      he was struck by one point especially, to wit: Why had Dimmock and Jules
+      manoeuvred to turn Nella Racksole out of Room No. 111 on that first night?
+      That they had so manoeuvred, that the broken window-pane was not a mere
+      accident, Racksole felt perfectly sure. He had felt perfectly sure all
+      along; but the significance of the facts had not struck him. It was plain
+      to him now that there must be something of extraordinary and peculiar
+      importance about Room No. 111. After lunch he wandered quietly upstairs
+      and looked at Room No. 111; that is to say, he looked at the outside of
+      it; it happened to be occupied, but the guest was leaving that evening.
+      The thought crossed his mind that there could be no object in gazing
+      blankly at the outside of a room; yet he gazed; then he wandered quickly
+      down again to the next floor, and in passing along the corridor of that
+      floor he stopped, and with an involuntary gesture stamped his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Great Scott!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got hold of something&mdash;No. 111 is
+      exactly over the State apartments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the bureau, and issued instructions that No. 111 was not to be
+      re-let to anyone until further orders. At the bureau they gave him Nella&rsquo;s
+      note, which ran thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dearest Papa,&mdash;I am going away for a day or two on the trail of a
+      clue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I&rsquo;m not back in three days, begin to inquire for me at Ostend. Till
+      then leave me alone.&mdash;Your sagacious daughter, NELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These few words, in Nella&rsquo;s large scrawling hand, filled one side of the
+      paper. At the bottom was a P.T.O. He turned over, and read the sentence,
+      underlined, &lsquo;P.S.&mdash;Keep an eye on Rocco.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder what the little creature is up to?&rsquo; he murmured, as he tore the
+      letter into small fragments, and threw them into the waste-paper basket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, without any delay, he took the lift down to the basement, with the
+      object of making a preliminary inspection of Rocco in his lair. He could
+      scarcely bring himself to believe that this suave and stately gentleman,
+      this enthusiast of gastronomy, was concerned in the machinations of Jules
+      and other rascals unknown. Nevertheless, from habit, he obeyed his
+      daughter, giving her credit for a certain amount of perspicuity and
+      cleverness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kitchens of the Grand Babylon Hôtel are one of the wonders of Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only three years before the events now under narration Felix Babylon had
+      had them newly installed with every device and patent that the ingenuity
+      of two continents could supply. They covered nearly an acre of superficial
+      space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were walled and floored from end to end with tiles and marble, which
+      enabled them to be washed down every morning like the deck of a
+      man-of-war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Visitors were sometimes taken to see the potato-paring machine, the patent
+      plate-dryer, the Babylon-spit (a contrivance of Felix Babylon&rsquo;s own), the
+      silver-grill, the system of connected stock-pots, and other amazing
+      phenomena of the department. Sometimes, if they were fortunate, they might
+      also see the artist who sculptured ice into forms of men and beasts for
+      table ornaments, or the first napkin-folder in London, or the man who
+      daily invented fresh designs for pastry and blancmanges. Twelve chefs
+      pursued their labours in those kitchens, helped by ninety assistant chefs,
+      and a further army of unconsidered menials. Over all these was Rocco,
+      supreme and unapproachable. Half-way along the suite of kitchens, Rocco
+      had an apartment of his own, wherein he thought out those magnificent
+      combinations, those marvellous feats of succulence and originality, which
+      had given him his fame. Visitors never caught a glimpse of Rocco in the
+      kitchens, though sometimes, on a special night, he would stroll
+      nonchalantly through the dining-room, like the great man he was, to
+      receive the compliments of the hotel habitués&mdash;people of insight who
+      recognized his uniqueness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s sudden and unusual appearance in the kitchen caused a
+      little stir. He nodded to some of the chefs, but said nothing to anyone,
+      merely wandering about amid the maze of copper utensils, and white-capped
+      workers. At length he saw Rocco, surrounded by several admiring chefs.
+      Rocco was bending over a freshly-roasted partridge which lay on a blue
+      dish. He plunged a long fork into the back of the bird, and raised it in
+      the air with his left hand. In his right he held a long glittering
+      carving-knife. He was giving one of his world-famous exhibitions of
+      carving. In four swift, unerring, delicate, perfect strokes he cleanly
+      severed the limbs of the partridge. It was a wonderful achievement&mdash;how
+      wondrous none but the really skilful carver can properly appreciate. The
+      chefs emitted a hum of applause, and Rocco, long, lean, and graceful,
+      retired to his own apartment. Racksole followed him. Rocco sat in a chair,
+      one hand over his eyes; he had not noticed Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are you doing, M. Rocco?&rsquo; the millionaire asked smiling. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo;
+      exclaimed Rocco, starting up with an apology. &lsquo;Pardon! I was inventing a
+      new mayonnaise, which I shall need for a certain menu next week.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you invent these things without materials, then?&rsquo; questioned Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. I do dem in my mind. I tink dem. Why should I want materials?
+      I know all flavours. I tink, and tink, and tink, and it is done. I write
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I give the recipe to my best chef&mdash;dere you are. I need not even
+      taste, I know how it will taste. It is like composing music. De great
+      composers do not compose at de piano.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is because I work like dat dat you pay me three thousand a year,&rsquo;
+      Rocco added gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heard about Jules?&rsquo; said Racksole abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. He&rsquo;s been arrested in Ostend,&rsquo; the millionaire continued, lying
+      cleverly at a venture. &lsquo;They say that he and several others are implicated
+      in a murder case&mdash;the murder of Reginald Dimmock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Truly?&rsquo; drawled Rocco, scarcely hiding a yawn. His indifference was so
+      superb, so gorgeous, that Racksole instantly divined that it was assumed
+      for the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It seems that, after all, the police are good for something. But this is
+      the first time I ever knew them to be worth their salt. There is to be a
+      thorough and systematic search of the hotel to-morrow,&rsquo; Racksole went on.
+      &lsquo;I have mentioned it to you to warn you that so far as you are concerned
+      the search is of course merely a matter of form. You will not object to
+      the detectives looking through your rooms?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly not,&rsquo; and Rocco shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall ask you to say nothing about this to anyone,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;The
+      news of Jules&rsquo; arrest is quite private to myself. The papers know nothing
+      of it. You comprehend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco smiled in his grand manner, and Rocco&rsquo;s master thereupon went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole was very well satisfied with the little conversation. It was
+      perhaps dangerous to tell a series of mere lies to a clever fellow like
+      Rocco, and Racksole wondered how he should ultimately explain them to this
+      great master-chef if his and Nella&rsquo;s suspicions should be unfounded, and
+      nothing came of them. Nevertheless, Rocco&rsquo;s manner, a strange elusive
+      something in the man&rsquo;s eyes, had nearly convinced Racksole that he was
+      somehow implicated in Jules&rsquo; schemes&mdash;and probably in the death of
+      Reginald Dimmock and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, or rather about half-past one the next morning, when the last
+      noises of the hotel&rsquo;s life had died down, Racksole made his way to Room
+      111 on the second floor. He locked the door on the inside, and proceeded
+      to examine the place, square foot by square foot. Every now and then some
+      creak or other sound startled him, and he listened intently for a few
+      seconds. The bedroom was furnished in the ordinary splendid style of
+      bedrooms at the Grand Babylon Hôtel, and in that respect called for no
+      remark. What most interested Racksole was the flooring. He pulled up the
+      thick Oriental carpet, and peered along every plank, but could discover
+      nothing unusual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went to the dressing-room, and finally to the bathroom, both of
+      which opened out of the main room. But in neither of these smaller
+      chambers was he any more successful than in the bedroom itself. Finally he
+      came to the bath, which was enclosed in a panelled casing of polished
+      wood, after the manner of baths. Some baths have a cupboard beneath the
+      taps, with a door at the side, but this one appeared to have none. He
+      tapped the panels, but not a single one of them gave forth that &lsquo;curious
+      hollow sound&rsquo; which usually betokens a secret place. Idly he turned the
+      cold-tap of the bath, and the water began to rush in. He turned off the
+      cold-tap and turned on the waste-tap, and as he did so his knee, which was
+      pressing against the panelling, slipped forward. The panelling had given
+      way, and he saw that one large panel was hinged from the inside, and
+      caught with a hasp, also on the inside. A large space within the casing of
+      the end of the bath was thus revealed. Before doing anything else,
+      Racksole tried to repeat the trick with the waste-tap, but he failed; it
+      would not work again, nor could he in any way perceive that there was any
+      connection between the rod of the waste-tap and the hasp of the panel.
+      Racksole could not see into the cavity within the casing, and the electric
+      light was fixed, and could not be moved about like a candle. He felt in
+      his pockets, and fortunately discovered a box of matches. Aided by these,
+      he looked into the cavity, and saw nothing; nothing except a rather large
+      hole at the far end&mdash;some three feet from the casing. With some
+      difficulty he squeezed himself through the open panel, and took a
+      half-kneeling, half-sitting posture within. There he struck a match, and
+      it was a most unfortunate thing that in striking, the box being half open,
+      he set fire to all the matches, and was half smothered in the atrocious
+      stink of phosphorus which resulted. One match burned clear on the floor of
+      the cavity, and, rubbing his eyes, Racksole picked it up, and looked down
+      the hole which he had previously descried. It was a hole apparently
+      bottomless, and about eighteen inches square. The curious part about the
+      hole was that a rope-ladder hung down it. When he saw that rope-ladder
+      Racksole smiled the smile of a happy man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The match went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should he make a long journey, perhaps to some distant corner of the
+      hotel, for a fresh box of matches, or should he attempt to descend that
+      rope-ladder in the dark? He decided on the latter course, and he was the
+      more strongly moved thereto as he could now distinguish a faint, a very
+      faint tinge of light at the bottom of the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With infinite care he compressed himself into the well-like hole, and
+      descended the latter. At length he arrived on firm ground, perspiring, but
+      quite safe and quite excited. He saw now that the tinge of light came
+      through a small hole in the wood. He put his eye to the wood, and found
+      that he had a fine view of the State bathroom, and through the door of the
+      State bathroom into the State bedroom. At the massive marble-topped
+      washstand in the State bedroom a man was visible, bending over some object
+      which lay thereon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was Rocco!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Thirteen IN THE STATE BEDROOM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was of course plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway which he
+      had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between the bathroom of
+      No. 111 and the State bathroom on the floor below must have been specially
+      designed by some person or persons for the purpose of keeping a nefarious
+      watch upon the occupants of the State suite of apartments. It was a means
+      of communication at once simple and ingenious. At that moment he could not
+      be sure of the precise method employed for it, but he surmised that the
+      casing of the waterpipes had been used as a &lsquo;well&rsquo;, while space for the
+      pipes themselves had been found in the thickness of the ample brick walls
+      of the Grand Babylon. The eye-hole, through which he now had a view of the
+      bedroom, was a very minute one, and probably would scarcely be noticed
+      from the exterior. One thing he observed concerning it, namely, that it
+      had been made for a man somewhat taller than himself; he was obliged to
+      stand on tiptoe in order to get his eye in the correct position. He
+      remembered that both Jules and Rocco were distinctly above the average
+      height; also that they were both thin men, and could have descended the
+      well with comparative ease. Theodore Racksole, though not stout, was a
+      well-set man with large bones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things flashed through his mind as he gazed, spellbound, at the
+      mysterious movements of Rocco. The door between the bathroom and the
+      bedroom was wide open, and his own situation was such that his view
+      embraced a considerable portion of the bedroom, including the whole of the
+      immense and gorgeously-upholstered bedstead, but not including the whole
+      of the marble washstand. He could see only half of the washstand, and at
+      intervals Rocco passed out of sight as his lithe hands moved over the
+      object which lay on the marble. At first Theodore Racksole could not
+      decide what this object was, but after a time, as his eyes grew accustomed
+      to the position and the light, he made it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the body of a man. Or, rather, to be more exact, Racksole could
+      discern the legs of a man on that half of the table which was visible to
+      him. Involuntarily he shuddered, as the conviction forced itself upon him
+      that Rocco had some unconscious human being helpless on that cold marble
+      surface. The legs never moved. Therefore, the hapless creature was either
+      asleep or under the influence of an anaesthetic&mdash;or (horrible
+      thought!) dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the dreadful
+      midnight activity which was proceeding before his astonished eyes; but
+      fortunately he restrained himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the washstand he could see certain strangely-shaped utensils and
+      instruments which Rocco used from time to time. The work seemed to
+      Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at last Rocco
+      ceased, gave a sign of satisfaction, whistled several bars from
+      &lsquo;Cavalleria Rusticana&rsquo;, and came into the bath-room, where he took off his
+      coat, and very quietly washed his hands. As he stood calmly and leisurely
+      wiping those long fingers of his, he was less than four feet from
+      Racksole, and the cooped-up millionaire trembled, holding his breath, lest
+      Rocco should detect his presence behind the woodwork. But nothing
+      happened, and Rocco returned unsuspectingly to the bedroom. Racksole saw
+      him place some sort of white flannel garment over the prone form on the
+      table, and then lift it bodily on to the great bed, where it lay awfully
+      still. The hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse upon which
+      Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister functions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whose corpse? And what functions? Could this be a West End hotel,
+      Racksole&rsquo;s own hotel, in the very heart of London, the best-policed city
+      in the world? It seemed incredible, impossible; yet so it was. Once more
+      he remembered what Felix Babylon had said to him and realized the truth of
+      the saying anew. The proprietor of a vast and complicated establishment
+      like the Grand Babylon could never know a tithe of the extraordinary and
+      queer occurrences which happened daily under his very nose; the atmosphere
+      of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an atmosphere of mystery and
+      problems apparently inexplicable. Nevertheless, Racksole thought that Fate
+      was carrying things with rather a high hand when she permitted his chef to
+      spend the night hours over a man&rsquo;s corpse in his State bedroom, this
+      sacred apartment which was supposed to be occupied only by individuals of
+      Royal Blood. Racksole would not have objected to a certain amount of
+      mystery, but he decidedly thought that there was a little too much mystery
+      here for his taste. He thought that even Felix Babylon would have been
+      surprised at this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The electric chandelier in the centre of the ceiling was not lighted; only
+      the two lights on either side of the washstand were switched on, and these
+      did not sufficiently illuminate the features of the man on the bed to
+      enable Racksole to see them clearly. In vain the millionaire strained his
+      eyes; he could only make out that the corpse was probably that of a young
+      man. Just as he was wondering what would be the best course of action to
+      pursue, he saw Rocco with a square-shaped black box in his hand. Then the
+      chef switched off the two electric lights, and the State bedroom was in
+      darkness. In that swift darkness Racksole heard Rocco spring on to the
+      bed. Another half-dozen moments of suspense, and there was a blinding
+      flash of white, which endured for several seconds, and showed Rocco
+      standing like an evil spirit over the corpse, the black box in one hand
+      and a burning piece of aluminium wire in the other. The aluminium wire
+      burnt out, and darkness followed blacker than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco had photographed the corpse by flashlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the dazzling flare which had disclosed the features of the dead man to
+      the insensible lens of the camera had disclosed them also to Theodore
+      Racksole. The dead man was Reginald Dimmock!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stung into action by this discovery, Racksole tried to find the exit from
+      his place of concealment. He felt sure that there existed some way out
+      into the State bathroom, but he sought for it fruitlessly, groping with
+      both hands and feet. Then he decided that he must ascend the rope-ladder,
+      make haste for the first-floor corridor, and intercept Rocco when he left
+      the State apartments. It was a painful and difficult business to ascend
+      that thin and yielding ladder in such a confined space, but Racksole was
+      managing it very nicely, and had nearly reached the top, when, by some
+      untoward freak of chance, the ladder broke above his weight, and he
+      slipped ignominiously down to the bottom of the wooden tube. Smothering an
+      excusable curse, Racksole crouched, baffled. Then he saw that the force of
+      his fall had somehow opened a trap-door at his feet. He squeezed through,
+      pushed open another tiny door, and in another second stood in the State
+      bathroom. He was dishevelled, perspiring, rather bewildered; but he was
+      there. In the next second he had resumed absolute command of all his
+      faculties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strange to say, he had moved so quietly that Rocco had apparently not
+      heard him. He stepped noiselessly to the door between the bathroom and the
+      bedroom, and stood there in silence. Rocco had switched on again the
+      lights over the washstand and was busy with his utensils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole deliberately coughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Fourteen ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ROCCO turned round with the swiftness of a startled tiger, and gave
+      Theodore Racksole one long piercing glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;D&mdash;n!&rsquo; said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and intonation
+      as Racksole himself could have accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most extraordinary thing about the situation was that at this juncture
+      Theodore Racksole did not know what to say. He was so dumbfounded by the
+      affair, and especially by Rocco&rsquo;s absolute and sublime calm, that both
+      speech and thought failed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I give in,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;From the moment you entered this cursed hotel I
+      was afraid of you. I told Jules I was afraid of you. I knew there would be
+      trouble with a man of your kidney, and I was right; confound it! I tell
+      you I give in. I know when I&rsquo;m beaten. I&rsquo;ve got no revolver and no weapons
+      of any kind. I surrender. Do what you like.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that Rocco sat down on a chair. It was magnificently done. Only a
+      truly great man could have done it. Rocco actually kept his dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For answer, Racksole walked slowly into the vast apartment, seized a
+      chair, and, dragging it up to Rocco&rsquo;s chair, sat down opposite to him.
+      Thus they faced each other, their knees almost touching, both in evening
+      dress. On Rocco&rsquo;s right hand was the bed, with the corpse of Reginald
+      Dimmock. On Racksole&rsquo;s right hand, and a little behind him, was the marble
+      washstand, still littered with Rocco&rsquo;s implements. The electric light
+      shone on Rocco&rsquo;s left cheek, leaving the other side of his face in shadow.
+      Racksole tapped him on the knee twice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So you&rsquo;re another Englishman masquerading as a foreigner in my hotel,&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole remarked, by way of commencing the interrogation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not,&rsquo; answered Rocco quietly. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m a citizen of the United States.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce you are!&rsquo; Racksole exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I was born at West Orange, New Jersey, New York State. I call myself
+      an Italian because it was in Italy that I first made a name as a chef&mdash;at
+      Rome. It is better for a great chef like me to be a foreigner. Imagine a
+      great chef named Elihu P. Rucker. You can&rsquo;t imagine it. I changed my
+      nationality for the same reason that my friend and colleague, Jules,
+      otherwise Mr Jackson, changed his.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So Jules is your friend and colleague, is he?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was, but from this moment he is no longer. I began to disapprove of
+      his methods no less than a week ago, and my disapproval will now take
+      active form.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will it?&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I calculate it just won&rsquo;t, Mr Elihu P. Rucker,
+      citizen of the United States. Before you are very much older you&rsquo;ll be in
+      the kind hands of the police, and your activities, in no matter what
+      direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is possible,&rsquo; sighed Rocco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In the meantime, I&rsquo;ll ask you one or two questions for my own private
+      satisfaction. You&rsquo;ve acknowledged that the game is up, and you may as well
+      answer them with as much candour as you feel yourself capable of. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; replied Rocco calmly, &lsquo;but I guess I can&rsquo;t answer all questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;ll do what I can.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Racksole, clearing his throat, &lsquo;what&rsquo;s the scheme all about?
+      Tell me in a word.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in a thousand words. It isn&rsquo;t my secret, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why was poor little Dimmock poisoned?&rsquo; The millionaire&rsquo;s voice softened
+      as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the unfortunate young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t mind informing you that I objected to
+      that part of the business. I wasn&rsquo;t made aware of it till after it was
+      done, and then I tell you it got my dander up considerable.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean to say you don&rsquo;t know why Dimmock was done to death?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean to say I couldn&rsquo;t see the sense of it. Of course he&mdash;er&mdash;died,
+      because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a share
+      of it. I don&rsquo;t mind saying that much, because you probably guessed it for
+      yourself. But I solemnly state that I have a conscientious objection to
+      murder.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then it was murder?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was a kind of murder,&rsquo; Rocco admitted. &lsquo;Who did it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unfair question,&rsquo; said Rocco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t know, on my honour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock&rsquo;s body?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long were you in that bathroom?&rsquo; Rocco parried with sublime
+      impudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t question me, Mr Rucker,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole. &lsquo;I feel very much
+      inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I advise you not to
+      irritate me. What have you been doing to Dimmock&rsquo;s body?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been embalming it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Em&mdash;balming it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly; Richardson&rsquo;s system of arterial fluid injection, as improved
+      by myself. You weren&rsquo;t aware that I included the art of embalming among my
+      accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why?&rsquo; asked Racksole, more mystified than ever. &lsquo;Why should you
+      trouble to embalm the poor chap&rsquo;s corpse?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t you see? Doesn&rsquo;t it strike you? That corpse has to be taken care
+      of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It contains, or rather, it did contain, very serious evidence against some
+      person or persons unknown to the police. It may be necessary to move it
+      about from place to place. A corpse can&rsquo;t be hidden for long; a corpse
+      betrays itself. One couldn&rsquo;t throw it in the Thames, for it would have
+      been found inside twelve hours. One couldn&rsquo;t bury it&mdash;it wasn&rsquo;t safe.
+      The only thing was to keep it handy and movable, ready for emergencies. I
+      needn&rsquo;t inform you that, without embalming, you can&rsquo;t keep a corpse handy
+      and movable for more than four or five days. It&rsquo;s the kind of thing that
+      won&rsquo;t keep. And so it was suggested that I should embalm it, and I did.
+      Mind you, I still objected to the murder, but I couldn&rsquo;t go back on a
+      colleague, you understand. You do understand that, don&rsquo;t you? Well, here
+      you are, and here it is, and that&rsquo;s all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco leaned back in his chair as though he had said everything that ought
+      to be said. He closed his eyes to indicate that so far as he was concerned
+      the conversation was also closed. Theodore Racksole stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope,&rsquo; said Rocco, suddenly opening his eyes, &lsquo;I hope you&rsquo;ll call in
+      the police without any delay. It&rsquo;s getting late, and I don&rsquo;t like going
+      without my night&rsquo;s rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where do you suppose you&rsquo;ll get a night&rsquo;s rest?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In the cells, of course. Haven&rsquo;t I told you I know when I&rsquo;m beaten. I&rsquo;m
+      not so blind as not to be able to see that there&rsquo;s at any rate a prima
+      facie case against me. I expect I shall get off with a year or two&rsquo;s
+      imprisonment as accessory after the fact&mdash;I think that&rsquo;s what they
+      call it. Anyhow, I shall be in a position to prove that I am not
+      implicated in the murder of this unfortunate nincompoop.&rsquo; He pointed, with
+      a strange, scornful gesture of his elbow, to the bed. &lsquo;And now, shall we
+      go? Everyone is asleep, but there will be a policeman within call of the
+      watchman in the portico. I am at your service. Let us go down together, Mr
+      Racksole. I give you my word to go quietly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Stay a moment,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole curtly; &lsquo;there is no hurry. It
+      won&rsquo;t do you any harm to forego another hour&rsquo;s sleep, especially as you
+      will have no work to do to-morrow. I have one or two more questions to put
+      to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; Rocco murmured, with an air of tired resignation, as if to say,
+      &lsquo;What must be must be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where has Dimmock&rsquo;s corpse been during the last three or four days, since
+      he&mdash;died?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; answered Rocco, apparently surprised at the simplicity of the
+      question. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s been in my room, and one night it was on the roof; once it
+      went out of the hotel as luggage, but it came back the next day as a case
+      of Demerara sugar. I forget where else it has been, but it&rsquo;s been kept
+      perfectly safe and treated with every consideration.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who contrived all these manoeuvres?&rsquo; asked Racksole as calmly as he
+      could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did. That is to say, I invented them and I saw that they were carried
+      out. You see, the suspicions of your police obliged me to be particularly
+      spry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who carried them out?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! that would be telling tales. But I don&rsquo;t mind assuring you that my
+      accomplices were innocent accomplices. It is absurdly easy for a man like
+      me to impose on underlings&mdash;absurdly easy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did you intend to do with the corpse ultimately?&rsquo; Racksole pursued
+      his inquiry with immovable countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who knows?&rsquo; said Rocco, twisting his beautiful moustache. &lsquo;That would
+      have depended on several things&mdash;on your police, for instance. But
+      probably in the end we should have restored this mortal clay&rsquo;&mdash;again
+      he jerked his elbow&mdash;&lsquo;to the man&rsquo;s sorrowing relatives.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know who the relatives are?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. Don&rsquo;t you? If you don&rsquo;t I need only hint that Dimmock had a
+      Prince for his father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It seems to me,&rsquo; said Racksole, with cold sarcasm, &lsquo;that you behaved
+      rather clumsily in choosing this bedroom as the scene of your operations.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;There was no other apartment so suitable in the
+      whole hotel. Who would have guessed that anything was going on here? It
+      was the very place for me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I guessed,&rsquo; said Racksole succinctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, you guessed, Mr Racksole. But I had not counted on you. You are the
+      only smart man in the business. You are an American citizen, and I hadn&rsquo;t
+      reckoned to have to deal with that class of person.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Apparently I frightened you this afternoon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in the least.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were not afraid of a search?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I knew that no search was intended. I knew that you were trying to
+      frighten me. You must really credit me with a little sagacity and insight,
+      Mr Racksole. Immediately you began to talk to me in the kitchen this
+      afternoon I felt you were on the track. But I was not frightened. I merely
+      decided that there was no time to be lost&mdash;that I must act quickly. I
+      did act quickly, but, it seems, not quickly enough. I grant that your
+      rapidity exceeded mine. Let us go downstairs, I beg.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco rose and moved towards the door. With an instinctive action Racksole
+      rushed forward and seized him by the shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No tricks!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;You&rsquo;re in my custody and don&rsquo;t forget it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco turned on his employer a look of gentle, dignified scorn. &lsquo;Have I
+      not informed you,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;that I have the intention of going quietly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole felt almost ashamed for the moment. It flashed across him that a
+      man can be great, even in crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What an ineffable fool you were,&rsquo; said Racksole, stopping him at the
+      threshold, &lsquo;with your talents, your unique talents, to get yourself mixed
+      up in an affair of this kind. You are ruined. And, by Jove! you were a
+      great man in your own line.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Rocco very quickly, &lsquo;that is the truest word you have
+      spoken this night. I was a great man in my own line. And I am an ineffable
+      fool. Alas!&rsquo; He brought his long arms to his sides with a thud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you do it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was fascinated&mdash;fascinated by Jules. He, too, is a great man. We
+      had great opportunities, here in the Grand Babylon. It was a great game.
+      It was worth the candle. The prizes were enormous. You would admit these
+      things if you knew the facts. Perhaps some day you will know them, for you
+      are a fairly clever person at getting to the root of a matter. Yes, I was
+      blinded, hypnotized.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now you are ruined.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not ruined, not ruined. Afterwards, in a few years, I shall come up
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man of genius like me is never ruined till he is dead. Genius is always
+      forgiven. I shall be forgiven. Suppose I am sent to prison. When I emerge
+      I shall be no gaol-bird. I shall be Rocco&mdash;the great Rocco. And half
+      the hotels in Europe will invite me to join them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let me tell you, as man to man, that you have achieved your own
+      degradation. There is no excuse.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know it,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;Let us go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole was distinctly and notably impressed by this man&mdash;by this
+      master spirit to whom he was to have paid a salary at the rate of three
+      thousand pounds a year. He even felt sorry for him. And so, side by side,
+      the captor and the captured, they passed into the vast deserted corridor
+      of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco stopped at the grating of the first lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It will be locked,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;We must use the stairs to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I have a key. I always carry one,&rsquo; said Rocco, and he pulled one out
+      of his pocket, and, unfastening the iron screen, pushed it open. Racksole
+      smiled at his readiness and aplomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;After you,&rsquo; said Rocco, bowing in his finest manner, and Racksole stepped
+      into the lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the swiftness of lighting Rocco pushed forward the iron screen, which
+      locked itself automatically. Theodore Racksole was hopelessly a prisoner
+      within the lift, while Rocco stood free in the corridor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; he remarked suavely, bowing again, lower than
+      before. &lsquo;Good-bye: I hate to take a mean advantage of you in this fashion,
+      but really you must allow that you have been very simple. You are a clever
+      man, as I have already said, up to a certain point. It is past that point
+      that my own cleverness comes in. Again, good-bye. After all, I shall have
+      no rest to-night, but perhaps even that will be better that sleeping in a
+      police cell. If you make a great noise you may wake someone and ultimately
+      get released from this lift. But I advise you to compose yourself, and
+      wait till morning. It will be more dignified. For the third time,
+      good-bye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that Rocco, without hastening, walked down the corridor and so
+      out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said never a word. He was too disgusted with himself to speak. He
+      clenched his fists, and put his teeth together, and held his breath. In
+      the silence he could hear the dwindling sound of Rocco&rsquo;s footsteps on the
+      thick carpet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the greatest blow of Racksole&rsquo;s life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning the high-born guests of the Grand Babylon were aroused by
+      a rumour that by some accident the millionaire proprietor of the hotel had
+      remained all night locked up in the lift. It was also stated that Rocco had
+      quarrelled with his new master and incontinently left the place. A duchess
+      said that Rocco&rsquo;s departure would mean the ruin of the hotel, whereupon
+      her husband advised her not to talk nonsense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Racksole, he sent a message for the detective in charge of the
+      Dimmock affair, and bravely told him the happenings of the previous night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The narration was a decided ordeal to a man of Racksole&rsquo;s temperament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A strange story!&rsquo; commented Detective Marshall, and he could not avoid a
+      smile. &lsquo;The climax was unfortunate, but you have certainly got some
+      valuable facts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I myself have a clue,&rsquo; added the detective. &lsquo;When your message arrived I
+      was just coming up to see you. I want you to accompany me to a certain
+      spot not far from here. Will you come, now, at once?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment a page entered with a telegram. Racksole opened it read:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Please come instantly. Nella. Hôtel Wellington, Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at his watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t come,&rsquo; he said to the detective. I&rsquo;m going to Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But really, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; protested the detective. &lsquo;My business is
+      urgent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So&rsquo;s mine,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In ten minutes he was on his way to Victoria Station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Fifteen END OF THE YACHT ADVENTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WE must now return to Nella Racksole and Prince Aribert of Posen on board
+      the yacht without a name. The Prince&rsquo;s first business was to make Jules,
+      otherwise Mr Tom Jackson, perfectly secure by means of several pieces of
+      rope. Although Mr Jackson had been stunned into a complete
+      unconsciousness, and there was a contused wound under his ear, no one
+      could say how soon he might not come to himself and get very violent. So
+      the Prince, having tied his arms and legs, made him fast to a stanchion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope he won&rsquo;t die,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;He looks very white.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Mr Jacksons of this world,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert sententiously, &lsquo;never
+      die till they are hung. By the way, I wonder how it is that no one has
+      interfered with us. Perhaps they are discreetly afraid of my revolver&mdash;of
+      your revolver, I mean.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both he and Nella glanced up at the imperturbable steersman, who kept the
+      yacht&rsquo;s head straight out to sea. By this time they were about a couple of
+      miles from the Belgian shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Addressing him in French, the Prince ordered the sailor to put the yacht
+      about, and make again for Ostend Harbour, but the fellow took no notice
+      whatever of the summons. The Prince raised the revolver, with the idea of
+      frightening the steersman, and then the man began to talk rapidly in a
+      mixture of French and Flemish. He said that he had received Jules&rsquo; strict
+      orders not to interfere in any way, no matter what might happen on the
+      deck of the yacht. He was the captain of the yacht, and he had to make for
+      a certain English port, the name of which he could not divulge: he was to
+      keep the vessel at full steam ahead under any and all circumstances. He
+      seemed to be a very big, a very strong, and a very determined man, and the
+      Prince was at a loss what course of action to pursue. He asked several
+      more questions, but the only effect of them was to render the man taciturn
+      and ill-humoured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Prince Aribert explained that Miss Nella Racksole, daughter of
+      millionaire Racksole, had been abducted by Mr Tom Jackson; in vain he
+      flourished the revolver threateningly; the surly but courageous captain
+      said merely that that had nothing to do with him; he had instructions, and
+      he should carry them out. He sarcastically begged to remind his
+      interlocutor that he was the captain of the yacht.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It won&rsquo;t do to shoot him, I suppose,&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella. &lsquo;I might
+      bore a hole into his leg, or something of that kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s rather risky, and rather hard on the poor captain, with his
+      extraordinary sense of duty,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;And, besides, the whole crew
+      might turn on us. No, we must think of something else.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder where the crew is,&rsquo; said the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Mr Jackson, prone and bound on the deck, showed signs of
+      recovering from his swoon. His eyes opened, and he gazed vacantly around.
+      At length he caught sight of the Prince, who approached him with the
+      revolver well in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s you, is it?&rsquo; he murmured faintly. &lsquo;What are you doing on board?
+      Who&rsquo;s tied me up like this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;See here!&rsquo; replied the Prince, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want to have any arguments, but
+      this yacht must return to Ostend at once, where you will be given up to
+      the authorities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Really!&rsquo; snarled Mr Tom Jackson. &lsquo;Shall I!&rsquo; Then he called out in French
+      to the man at the wheel, &lsquo;Hi André! let these two be put off in the
+      dinghy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a peculiar situation. Certain of nothing but the possession of
+      Nella&rsquo;s revolver, the Prince scarcely knew whether to carry the argument
+      further, and with stronger measures, or to accept the situation with as
+      much dignity as the circumstances would permit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us take the dinghy,&rsquo; said Nella; &lsquo;we can row ashore in an hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt that she was right. To leave the yacht in such a manner seemed
+      somewhat ignominious, and it certainly involved the escape of that
+      profound villain, Mr Thomas Jackson. But what else could be done? The
+      Prince and Nella constituted one party on the vessel; they knew their own
+      strength, but they did not know the strength of their opponents. They held
+      the hostile ringleader bound and captive, but this man had proved himself
+      capable of giving orders, and even to gag him would not help them if the
+      captain of the yacht persisted in his obstinate course. Moreover, there
+      was a distinct objection to promiscuous shooting. The Prince felt that
+      there was no knowing how promiscuous shooting might end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will take the dinghy,&rsquo; said the Prince quickly, to the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bell rang below, and a sailor and the Negro boy appeared on deck. The
+      pulsations of the screw grew less rapid. The yacht stopped. The dinghy was
+      lowered. As the Prince and Nella prepared to descend into the little
+      cock-boat Mr Tom Jackson addressed Nella, all bound as he lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I shall see you again, never fear.&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another moment they were in the dinghy, and the dinghy was adrift. The
+      yacht&rsquo;s screw churned the water, and the beautiful vessel slipped away from
+      them. As it receded a figure appeared at the stem. It was Mr Thomas
+      Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been released by his minions. He held a white handkerchief to his
+      ear, and offered a calm, enigmatic smile to the two forlorn but victorious
+      occupants of the dinghy. Jules had been defeated for once in his life; or
+      perhaps it would be more just to say that he had been out-manoeuvred. Men
+      like Jules are incapable of being defeated. It was characteristic of his
+      luck that now, in the very hour when he had been caught red-handed in a
+      serious crime against society, he should be effecting a leisurely escape&mdash;an
+      escape which left no clue behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was utterly calm and blue in the morning sun. The dinghy rocked
+      itself lazily in the swell of the yacht&rsquo;s departure. As the mist cleared
+      away the outline of the shore became more distinct, and it appeared as if
+      Ostend was distant scarcely a cable&rsquo;s length. The white dome of the great
+      Kursaal glittered in the pale turquoise sky, and the smoke of steamers in
+      the harbour could be plainly distinguished. On the offing was a crowd of
+      brown-sailed fishing luggers returning with the night&rsquo;s catch. The
+      many-hued bathing-vans could be counted on the distant beach. Everything
+      seemed perfectly normal. It was difficult for either Nella or her
+      companion to realize that anything extraordinary had happened within the
+      last hour. Yet there was the yacht, not a mile off, to prove to them that
+      something very extraordinary had, in fact, happened. The yacht was no
+      vision, nor was that sinister watching figure at its stern a vision,
+      either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose Jules was too surprised and too feeble to inquire how I came to
+      be on board his yacht,&rsquo; said the Prince, taking the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! How did you?&rsquo; asked Nella, her face lighting up. &lsquo;Really, I had
+      almost forgotten that part of the affair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must begin at the beginning and it will take some time,&rsquo; answered the
+      Prince. &lsquo;Had we not better postpone the recital till we get ashore?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will row and you shall talk,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;I want to know now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled happily at her, but gently declined to yield up the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is it not sufficient that I am here?&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is sufficient, yes,&rsquo; she replied, &lsquo;but I want to know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a long, easy stroke he was pulling the dinghy shorewards. She sat in
+      the stern-sheets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no rudder,&rsquo; he remarked, &lsquo;so you must direct me. Keep the boat&rsquo;s
+      head on the lighthouse. The tide seems to be running in strongly; that
+      will help us. The people on shore will think that we have only been for a
+      little early morning excursion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will you kindly tell me how it came about that you were able to save my
+      life, Prince?&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Save your life, Miss Racksole? I didn&rsquo;t save your life; I merely knocked
+      a man down.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You saved my life,&rsquo; she repeated. &lsquo;That villain would have stopped at
+      nothing. I saw it in his eye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you were a brave woman, for you showed no fear of death.&rsquo; His
+      admiring gaze rested full on her. For a moment the oars ceased to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a gesture of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It happened that I saw you last night in your carriage,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;The
+      fact is, I had not had the audacity to go to Berlin with my story. I
+      stopped in Ostend to see whether I could do a little detective work on my
+      own account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a piece of good luck that I saw you. I followed the carriage as
+      quickly as I could, and I just caught a glimpse of you as you entered that
+      awful house. I knew that Jules had something to do with that house. I
+      guessed what you were doing. I was afraid for you. Fortunately I had
+      surveyed the house pretty thoroughly. There is an entrance to it at the
+      back, from a narrow lane. I made my way there. I got into the yard at the
+      back, and I stood under the window of the room where you had the interview
+      with Miss Spencer. I heard everything that was said. It was a courageous
+      enterprise on your part to follow Miss Spencer from the Grand Babylon to
+      Ostend. Well, I dared not force an entrance, lest I might precipitate
+      matters too suddenly, and involve both of us in a difficulty. I merely
+      kept watch. Ah, Miss Racksole! you were magnificent with Miss Spencer; as
+      I say, I could hear every word, for the window was slightly open. I felt
+      that you needed no assistance from me. And then she cheated you with a
+      trick, and the revolver came flying through the window. I picked it up, I
+      thought it would probably be useful. There was a silence. I did not guess
+      at first that you had fainted. I thought that you had escaped. When I
+      found out the truth it was too late for me to intervene. There were two
+      men, both desperate, besides Miss Spencer&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who was the other man?&rsquo; asked Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know. It was dark. They drove away with you to the harbour.
+      Again I followed. I saw them carry you on board. Before the yacht weighed
+      anchor I managed to climb unobserved into the dinghy. I lay down full
+      length in it, and no one suspected that I was there. I think you know the
+      rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was the yacht all ready for sea?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The yacht was all ready for sea. The captain fellow was on the bridge,
+      and steam was up.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then they expected me! How could that be?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They expected some one. I do not think they expected you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did the second man go on board?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He helped to carry you along the gangway, but he came back again to the
+      carriage. He was the driver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And no one else saw the business?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The quay was deserted. You see, the last steamer had arrived for the
+      night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a brief silence, and then Nella ejaculated, under her breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Truly, it is a wonderful world!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it was a wonderful world for them, though scarcely perhaps, in the
+      sense which Nella Racksole had intended. They had just emerged from a
+      highly disconcerting experience. Among other minor inconveniences, they
+      had had no breakfast. They were out in the sea in a tiny boat. Neither of
+      them knew what the day might bring forth. The man, at least, had the most
+      serious anxieties for the safety of his Royal nephew. And yet&mdash;and
+      yet&mdash;neither of them wished that that voyage of the little boat on
+      the summer tide should come to an end. Each, perhaps unconsciously, had a
+      vague desire that it might last for ever, he lazily pulling, she directing
+      his course at intervals by a movement of her distractingly pretty head.
+      How was this condition of affairs to be explained? Well, they were both
+      young; they both had superb health, and all the ardour of youth; and&mdash;they
+      were together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat was very small indeed; her face was scarcely a yard from his.
+      She, in his eyes, surrounded by the glamour of beauty and vast wealth; he,
+      in her eyes, surrounded by the glamour of masculine intrepidity and the
+      brilliance of a throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all voyages come to an end, either at the shore or at the bottom of
+      the sea, and at length the dinghy passed between the stone jetties of the
+      harbour. The Prince rowed to the nearest steps, tied up the boat, and they
+      landed. It was six o&rsquo;clock in the morning, and a day of gorgeous sunlight
+      had opened. Few people were about at that early hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, what next?&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;I must take you to an hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am in your hands,&rsquo; she acquiesced, with a smile which sent the blood
+      racing through his veins. He perceived now that she was tired and
+      overcome, suffering from a sudden and natural reaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Hôtel Wellington the Prince told the sleepy door-keeper that they
+      had come by the early train from Bruges, and wanted breakfast at once. It
+      was absurdly early, but a common English sovereign will work wonders in
+      any Belgian hotel, and in a very brief time Nella and the Prince were
+      breakfasting on the verandah of the hotel upon chocolate that had been
+      specially and hastily brewed for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never tasted such excellent chocolate,&rsquo; claimed the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The statement was wildly untrue, for the Hôtel Wellington is not
+      celebrated for its chocolate. Nevertheless Nella replied enthusiastically,
+      &lsquo;Nor I.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a silence, and Nella, feeling possibly that she had been
+      too ecstatic, remarked in a very matter-of-fact tone: &lsquo;I must telegraph to
+      Papa instantly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was that Theodore Racksole received the telegram which drew him
+      away from Detective Marshall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Sixteen THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;THERE is one thing, Prince, that we have just got to settle straight
+      off,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were all three seated&mdash;Racksole, his daughter, and Prince
+      Aribert&mdash;round a dinner table in a private room at the Hôtel
+      Wellington. Racksole had duly arrived by the afternoon boat, and had been
+      met on the quay by the other two. They had dined early, and Racksole had
+      heard the full story of the adventures by sea and land of Nella and the
+      Prince. As to his own adventure of the previous night he said very little,
+      merely explaining, with as little detail as possible, that Dimmock&rsquo;s body
+      had come to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is that?&rsquo; asked the Prince, in answer to Racksole&rsquo;s remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have got to settle whether we shall tell the police at once all that
+      has occurred, or whether we shall proceed on our own responsibility. There
+      can be no doubt as to which course we ought to pursue. Every consideration
+      of prudence points to the advisability of taking the police into our
+      confidence, and leaving the matter entirely in their hands.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Papa!&rsquo; Nella burst out in her pouting, impulsive way. &lsquo;You surely
+      can&rsquo;t think of such a thing. Why, the fun has only just begun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you call last night fun?&rsquo; questioned Racksole, gazing at her solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do,&rsquo; she said promptly. &lsquo;Now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; was the millionaire&rsquo;s laconic response; but perhaps he
+      was thinking of his own situation in the lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you not think we might investigate a little further,&rsquo; said the Prince
+      judiciously, as he cracked a walnut, &lsquo;just a little further&mdash;and
+      then, if we fail to accomplish anything, there would still be ample
+      opportunity to consult the police?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you suggest we should begin?&rsquo; asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, there is the house which Miss Racksole so intrepidly entered last
+      evening&rsquo;&mdash;he gave her the homage of an admiring glance; &lsquo;you and I,
+      Mr Racksole, might examine that abode in detail.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. We might do something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We might do too much.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For example?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We might shoot someone, or get ourselves mistaken for burglars. If we
+      outstepped the law, it would be no excuse for us that we had been acting
+      in a good cause.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True,&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;Nevertheless&mdash;&rsquo; He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nevertheless you have a distaste for bringing the police into the
+      business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You want the hunt all to yourself. You are on fire with the ardour of the
+      chase. Is not that it? Accept the advice of an older man, Prince, and
+      sleep on this affair. I have little fancy for nocturnal escapades two
+      nights together. As for you, Nella, off with you to bed. The Prince and I
+      will have a yarn over such fluids as can be obtained in this hole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Papa,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;you are perfectly horrid to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I am,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Decidedly I am very cross with you for coming
+      over here all alone. It was monstrous. If I didn&rsquo;t happen to be the most
+      foolish of parents&mdash;There! Good-night. It&rsquo;s nine o&rsquo;clock. The Prince,
+      I am sure, will excuse you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Nella had not really been very tired Prince Aribert might have been the
+      witness of a good-natured but stubborn conflict between the millionaire
+      and his spirited offspring. As it was, Nella departed with surprising
+      docility, and the two men were left alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now,&rsquo; said Racksole suddenly, changing his tone, &lsquo;I fancy that after all
+      I&rsquo;m your man for a little amateur investigation to-night. And, if I must
+      speak the exact truth, I think that to sleep on this affair would be about
+      the very worst thing we could do. But I was anxious to keep Nella out of
+      harm&rsquo;s way at any rate till to-morrow. She is a very difficult creature to
+      manage, Prince, and I may warn you,&rsquo; he laughed grimly, &lsquo;that if we do
+      succeed in doing anything to-night we shall catch it from her ladyship in
+      the morning. Are you ready to take that risk?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am,&rsquo; the Prince smiled. &lsquo;But Miss Racksole is a young lady of quite
+      remarkable nerve.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She is,&rsquo; said Racksole drily. &lsquo;I wish sometimes she had less.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said the Prince, and he
+      looked Miss Racksole&rsquo;s father full in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You honour us, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole observed. &lsquo;Let us come to business. Am I
+      right in assuming that you have a reason for keeping the police out of
+      this business, if it can possibly be done?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said the Prince, and his brow clouded. &lsquo;I am very much afraid that
+      my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he would wish not
+      to be divulged.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And the reason, if I may ask it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence&mdash;is it not so? Some years ago my
+      foolish nephew had an affair&mdash;an affair with a feminine star of the
+      Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have been the very pattern
+      of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is concerned scandal cannot be
+      avoided in such a matter. I had thought that the affair was quite at an
+      end, since my nephew&rsquo;s betrothal to Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg
+      is shortly to be announced. But yesterday I saw the lady to whom I have
+      referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence of her presence here with
+      my nephew&rsquo;s disappearance is too extraordinary to be disregarded.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does not square with it. My idea is that the murder of poor Dimmock
+      and the disappearance of my nephew are entirely unconnected&mdash;unless,
+      indeed, this Berlin actress is playing into the hands of the murderers. I
+      had not thought of that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what do you propose to do to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I propose to enter the house which Miss Racksole entered last night and
+      to find out something definite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I concur,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I shall heartily enjoy it. But let me tell
+      you, Prince, and pardon me for speaking bluntly, your surmise is
+      incorrect. I would wager a hundred thousand dollars that Prince Eugen has
+      been kidnapped.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What grounds have you for being so sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! said Racksole, &lsquo;that is a long story. Let me begin by asking you
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Are you aware that your nephew, Prince Eugen, owes a million of money?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million of money!&rsquo; cried Prince Aribert astonished. &lsquo;It is impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nevertheless, he does,&rsquo; said Racksole calmly. Then he told him all he had
+      learnt from Mr Sampson Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What have you to say to that?&rsquo; Racksole ended. Prince Aribert made no
+      reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What have you to say to that?&rsquo; Racksole insisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Merely that Eugen is ruined, even if he is alive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; Racksole returned with cheerfulness. &lsquo;Not at all. We shall
+      see about that. The special thing that I want to know just now from you is
+      this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Has any previous application ever been made for the hand of the Princess
+      Anna?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. Last year. The King of Bosnia sued for it, but his proposal was
+      declined.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because my nephew was considered to be a more suitable match for her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not because the personal character of his Majesty of Bosnia is scarcely
+      of the brightest?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. Unfortunately it is usually impossible to consider questions of
+      personal character when a royal match is concerned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, if for any reason the marriage of Princess Anna with your nephew
+      was frustrated, the King of Bosnia would have a fair chance in that
+      quarter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He would. The political aspect of things would be perfectly
+      satisfactory.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I will wager another hundred thousand dollars
+      that someone in Bosnia&mdash;I don&rsquo;t accuse the King himself&mdash;is at
+      the bottom of this business. The methods of Balkan politicians have always
+      been half-Oriental. Let us go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To this precious house of Nella&rsquo;s adventure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely it is too early?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So it is,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;and we shall want a few things, too. For
+      instance, a dark lantern. I think I will go out and forage for a lantern.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And a revolver?&rsquo; suggested Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Does it mean revolvers?&rsquo; The millionaire laughed. &lsquo;It may come to that.&rsquo;
+      &lsquo;Here you are, then, my friend,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he pulled one out of
+      his hip pocket. &lsquo;And yours?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I,&rsquo; said the Prince, &lsquo;I have your daughter&rsquo;s.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce you have!&rsquo; murmured Racksole to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then half past nine. They decided that it would be impolitic to
+      begin their operations till after midnight. There were three hours to
+      spare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us go and see the gambling,&rsquo; Racksole suggested. &lsquo;We might encounter
+      the Berlin lady.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suggestion, in the first instance, was not made seriously, but it
+      appeared to both men that they might do worse than spend the intervening
+      time in the gorgeous saloon of the Kursaal, where, in the season, as much
+      money is won and lost as at Monte Carlo. It was striking ten o&rsquo;clock as
+      they entered the rooms. There was a large company present&mdash;a company
+      which included some of the most notorious persons in Europe. In that
+      multifarious assemblage all were equal. The electric light shone coldly
+      and impartially on the just and on the unjust, on the fool and the knave,
+      on the European and the Asiatic. As usual, women monopolized the best
+      places at the tables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was familiar enough to Prince Aribert, who had witnessed it
+      frequently at Monaco, but Theodore Racksole had never before entered any
+      European gaming palace; he had only the haziest idea of the rules of play,
+      and he was at once interested. For some time they watched the play at the
+      table which happened to be nearest to them. Racksole never moved his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his eyes glued on the table, and ears open for every remark, of the
+      players and the croupier, he took his first lesson in roulette. He saw a
+      mere youth win fifteen thousand francs, which were stolen in the most
+      barefaced manner by a rouged girl scarcely older than the youth; he saw
+      two old gamesters stake their coins, and lose, and walk quietly out of the
+      place; he saw the bank win fifty thousand francs at a single turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is rather good fun,&rsquo; he said at length, &lsquo;but the stakes are too
+      small to make it really exciting. I&rsquo;ll try my luck, just for the
+      experience. I&rsquo;m bound to win.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo; asked the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I always do, in games of chance,&rsquo; Racksole answered with gay
+      confidence. &lsquo;It is my fate. Then to-night, you must remember, I shall be a
+      beginner, and you know the tyro&rsquo;s luck.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In ten minutes the croupier of that table was obliged to suspend
+      operations pending the arrival of a further supply of coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did I tell you?&rsquo; said Racksole, leading the way to another table
+      further up the room. A hundred curious glances went after him. One old
+      woman, whose gay attire suggested a false youthfulness, begged him in
+      French to stake a five-franc piece for her. She offered him the coin. He
+      took it, and gave her a hundred-franc note in exchange. She clutched the
+      crisp rustling paper, and with hysterical haste scuttled back to her own
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the second table there was a considerable air of excitement. In the
+      forefront of the players was a woman in a low-cut evening dress of black
+      silk and a large red picture hat. Her age appeared to be about
+      twenty-eight; she had dark eyes, full lips, and a distinctly Jewish nose.
+      She was handsome, but her beauty was of that forbidding, sinister order
+      which is often called Junoesque. This woman was the centre of attraction.
+      People said to each other that she had won a hundred and sixty thousand
+      francs that day at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were right,&rsquo; Prince Aribert whispered to Theodore Racksole; &lsquo;that is
+      the Berlin lady.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce she is! Has she seen you? Will she know you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She would probably know me, but she hasn&rsquo;t looked up yet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Keep behind her, then. I propose to find her a little occupation.&rsquo; By
+      dint of a carefully-exercised diplomacy, Racksole manoeuvred himself into
+      a seat opposite to the lady in the red hat. The fame of his success at the
+      other table had followed him, and people regarded him as a serious and
+      formidable player. In the first turn the lady put a thousand francs on
+      double zero; Racksole put a hundred on number nineteen and a thousand on
+      the odd numbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nineteen won. Racksole received four thousand four hundred francs. Nine
+      times in succession Racksole backed number nineteen and the odd numbers;
+      nine times the lady backed double zero. Nine times Racksole won and the
+      lady lost. The other players, perceiving that the affair had resolved
+      itself into a duel, stood back for the most part and watched those two.
+      Prince Aribert never stirred from his position behind the great red hat.
+      The game continued. Racksole lost trifles from time to time, but
+      ninety-nine hundredths of the luck was with him. As an English spectator
+      at the table remarked, &lsquo;he couldn&rsquo;t do wrong.&rsquo; When midnight struck the
+      lady in the red hat was reduced to a thousand francs. Then she fell into a
+      winning vein for half an hour, but at one o&rsquo;clock her resources were
+      exhausted. Of the hundred and sixty thousand francs which she was reputed
+      to have had early in the evening, Racksole held about ninety thousand, and
+      the bank had the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a calamity for the Juno of the red hat. She jumped up, stamped her
+      foot, and hurried from the room. At a discreet distance Racksole and the
+      Prince pursued her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It might be well to ascertain her movements,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside, in the glare of the great arc lights, and within sound of the
+      surf which beats always at the very foot of the Kursaal, the Juno of the
+      red hat summoned a fiacre and drove rapidly away. Racksole and the Prince
+      took an open carriage and started in pursuit. They had not, however,
+      travelled more than half a mile when Prince Aribert stopped the carriage,
+      and, bidding Racksole get out, paid the driver and dismissed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel sure I know where she is going,&rsquo; he explained, &lsquo;and it will be
+      better for us to follow on foot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean she is making for the scene of last night&rsquo;s affair?&rsquo; said
+      Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly. We shall&mdash;what you call, kill two birds with one stone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Aribert&rsquo;s guess was correct. The lady&rsquo;s carriage stopped in front
+      of the house where Nella Racksole and Miss Spencer had had their interview
+      on the previous evening, and the lady vanished into the building just as
+      the two men appeared at the end of the street. Instead of proceeding along
+      that street, the Prince led Racksole to the lane which gave on to the
+      backs of the houses, and he counted the houses as they went up the lane.
+      In a few minutes they had burglariously climbed over a wall, and crept,
+      with infinite caution, up a long, narrow piece of ground&mdash;half
+      garden, half paved yard, till they crouched under a window&mdash;a window
+      which was shielded by curtains, but which had been left open a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen,&rsquo; said the Prince in his lightest whisper, &lsquo;they are talking.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Berlin lady and Miss Spencer. I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s Miss Spencer&rsquo;s voice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole boldly pushed the french window a little wider open, and put his
+      ear to the aperture, through which came a beam of yellow light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Take my place,&rsquo; he whispered to the Prince, &lsquo;they&rsquo;re talking German.
+      You&rsquo;ll understand better.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently they exchanged places under the window, and the Prince listened
+      intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you refuse?&rsquo; Miss Spencer&rsquo;s visitor was saying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no answer from Miss Spencer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not even a thousand francs? I tell you I&rsquo;ve lost the whole twenty-five
+      thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then I&rsquo;ll tell the whole story,&rsquo; the lady went on, in an angry rush of
+      words. &lsquo;I did what I promised to do. I enticed him here, and you&rsquo;ve got
+      him safe in your vile cellar, poor little man, and you won&rsquo;t give me a
+      paltry thousand francs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have already had your price.&rsquo; The words were Miss Spencer&rsquo;s. They
+      fell cold and calm on the night air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want another thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then we&rsquo;ll see.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Aribert heard a rustle of flying skirts; then another movement&mdash;a
+      door banged, and the beam of light through the aperture of the window
+      suddenly disappeared. He pushed the window wide open. The room was in
+      darkness, and apparently empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now for that lantern of yours,&rsquo; he said eagerly to Theodore Racksole,
+      after he had translated to him the conversation of the two women, Racksole
+      produced the dark lantern from the capacious pocket of his dust coat, and
+      lighted it. The ray flashed about the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it?&rsquo; exclaimed Prince Aribert with a swift cry, pointing to the
+      ground. The lantern threw its light on a perpendicular grating at their
+      feet, through which could be discerned a cellar. They both knelt down, and
+      peered into the subterranean chamber. On a broken chair a young man sat
+      listlessly with closed eyes, his head leaning heavily forward on his
+      chest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the feeble light of the lantern he had the livid and ghastly appearance
+      of a corpse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who can it be?&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is Eugen,&rsquo; was the Prince&rsquo;s low answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Seventeen THE RELEASE OF PRINCE EUGEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;EUGEN,&rsquo; Prince Aribert called softly. At the sound of his own name the
+      young man in the cellar feebly raised his head and stared up at the
+      grating which separated him from his two rescuers. But his features showed
+      no recognition. He gazed in an aimless, vague, silly manner for a few
+      seconds, his eyes blinking under the glare of the lantern, and then his
+      head slowly drooped again on to his chest. He was dressed in a dark tweed
+      travelling suit, and Racksole observed that one sleeve&mdash;the left&mdash;was
+      torn across the upper part of the cuff, and that there were stains of dirt
+      on the left shoulder. A soiled linen collar, which had lost all its starch
+      and was half unbuttoned, partially encircled the captive&rsquo;s neck; his brown
+      boots were unlaced; a cap, a handkerchief, a portion of a watch-chain, and
+      a few gold coins lay on the floor. Racksole flashed the lantern into the
+      corners of the cellar, but he could discover no other furniture except the
+      chair on which the Hereditary Prince of Posen sat and a small deal table
+      on which were a plate and a cup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; cried Prince Aribert once more, but this time his forlorn nephew
+      made no response whatever, and then Aribert added in a low voice to
+      Racksole: &lsquo;Perhaps he cannot see us clearly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he must surely recognize your voice,&rsquo; said Racksole, in a hard,
+      gloomy tone. There was a pause, and the two men above ground looked at
+      each other hesitatingly. Each knew that they must enter that cellar and
+      get Prince Eugen out of it, and each was somehow afraid to take the next
+      step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thank God he is not dead!&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He may be worse than dead!&rsquo; Racksole replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Worse than&mdash;What do you mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean&mdash;he may be mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; Aribert almost shouted, with a sudden access of energy&mdash;a
+      wild impulse for action. And, snatching the lantern from Racksole, he
+      rushed into the dark room where they had heard the conversation of Miss
+      Spencer and the lady in the red hat. For a moment Racksole did not stir
+      from the threshold of the window. &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; Prince Aribert repeated, and
+      there was an imperious command in his utterance. &lsquo;What are you afraid of?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; said Racksole, feeling stupid and queer; &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he marched heavily after Prince Aribert into the room. On the
+      mantelpiece were a couple of candles which had been blown out, and in a
+      mechanical, unthinking way, Racksole lighted them, and the two men glanced
+      round the room. It presented no peculiar features: it was just an ordinary
+      room, rather small, rather mean, rather shabby, with an ugly wallpaper and
+      ugly pictures in ugly frames. Thrown over a chair was a man&rsquo;s
+      evening-dress jacket. The door was closed. Prince Aribert turned the knob,
+      but he could not open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s locked,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Evidently they know we&rsquo;re here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense,&rsquo; said Racksole brusquely; &lsquo;how can they know?&rsquo; And, taking hold
+      of the knob, he violently shook the door, and it opened. &lsquo;I told you it
+      wasn&rsquo;t locked,&rsquo; he added, and this small success of opening the door
+      seemed to steady the man. It was a curious psychological effect, this
+      terrorizing (for it amounted to that) of two courageous full-grown men by
+      the mere apparition of a helpless creature in a cellar. Gradually they
+      both recovered from it. The next moment they were out in the passage which
+      led to the front door of the house. The front door stood open. They looked
+      into the street, up and down, but there was not a soul in sight. The
+      street, lighted by three gas-lamps only, seemed strangely sinister and
+      mysterious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She has gone, that&rsquo;s clear,&rsquo; said Racksole, meaning the woman with the
+      red hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Miss Spencer after her, do you think?&rsquo; questioned Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. She would stay. She would never dare to leave. Let us find the cellar
+      steps.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cellar steps were happily not difficult to discover, for in moving a
+      pace backwards Prince Aribert had a narrow escape of precipitating himself
+      to the bottom of them. The lantern showed that they were built on a curve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently Racksole resumed possession of the lantern and went first, the
+      Prince close behind him. At the foot was a short passage, and in this
+      passage crouched the figure of a woman. Her eyes threw back the rays of
+      the lantern, shining like a cat&rsquo;s at midnight. Then, as the men went
+      nearer, they saw that it was Miss Spencer who barred their way. She seemed
+      half to kneel on the stone floor, and in one hand she held what at first
+      appeared to be a dagger, but which proved to be nothing more romantic than
+      a rather long bread-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I heard you, I heard you,&rsquo; she exclaimed. &lsquo;Get back; you mustn&rsquo;t come
+      here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a desperate and dangerous look on her face, and her form shook
+      with scarcely controlled passionate energy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now see here, Miss Spencer,&rsquo; Racksole said calmly, &lsquo;I guess we&rsquo;ve had
+      enough of this fandango. You&rsquo;d better get up and clear out, or we&rsquo;ll just
+      have to drag you off.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went calmly up to her, the lantern in his hand. Without another word
+      she struck the knife into his arm, and the lantern fell extinguished.
+      Racksole gave a cry, rather of angry surprise than of pain, and retreated
+      a few steps. In the darkness they could still perceive the glint of her
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I told you you mustn&rsquo;t come here,&rsquo; the woman said. &lsquo;Now get back.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole positively laughed. It was a queer laugh, but he laughed, and he
+      could not help it. The idea of this woman, this bureau clerk, stopping his
+      progress and that of Prince Aribert by means of a bread-knife aroused his
+      sense of humour. He struck a match, relighted the candle, and faced Miss
+      Spencer once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll do it again,&rsquo; she said, with a note of hard resolve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, no, you won&rsquo;t, my girl,&rsquo; said Racksole; and he pulled out his
+      revolver, cocked it, raised his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Put down that plaything of yours,&rsquo; he said firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall shoot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pressed her lips together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall shoot,&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;One&mdash;two&mdash;three.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bang, bang! He had fired twice, purposely missing her. Miss Spencer never
+      blenched. Racksole was tremendously surprised&mdash;and he would have been
+      a thousandfold more surprised could he have contrasted her behaviour now
+      with her abject terror on the previous evening when Nella had threatened
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got a bit of pluck,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but it won&rsquo;t help you. Why won&rsquo;t
+      you let us pass?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, pluck was just what she had not, really; she had
+      merely subordinated one terror to another. She was desperately afraid of
+      Racksole&rsquo;s revolver, but she was much more afraid of something else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why won&rsquo;t you let us pass?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I daren&rsquo;t,&rsquo; she said, with a plaintive tremor; &lsquo;Tom put me in charge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was all. The men could see tears running down her poor wrinkled face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole began to take off his light overcoat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see I must take my coat off to you,&rsquo; he said, and he almost smiled.
+      Then, with a quick movement, he threw the coat over Miss Spencer&rsquo;s head
+      and flew at her, seizing both her arms, while Prince Aribert assisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her struggles ceased&mdash;she was beaten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said Racksole: &lsquo;I could never have used that revolver&mdash;to
+      mean business with it, of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They carried her, unresisting, upstairs and on to the upper floor, where
+      they locked her in a bedroom. She lay in the bed as if exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now for my poor Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t you think we&rsquo;d better search the house first?&rsquo; Racksole suggested;
+      &lsquo;it will be safer to know just how we stand. We can&rsquo;t afford any ambushes
+      or things of that kind, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince agreed, and they searched the house from top to bottom, but
+      found no one. Then, having locked the front door and the french window of
+      the sitting-room, they proceeded again to the cellar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a new obstacle confronted them. The cellar door was, of course,
+      locked; there was no sign of a key, and it appeared to be a heavy door.
+      They were compelled to return to the bedroom where Miss Spencer was
+      incarcerated, in order to demand the key of the cellar from her. She still
+      lay without movement on the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom&rsquo;s got it,&rsquo; she replied, faintly, to their question: &lsquo;Tom&rsquo;s got it, I
+      swear to you. He took it for safety.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then how do you feed your prisoner?&rsquo; Racksole asked sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Through the grating,&rsquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both men shuddered. They felt she was speaking the truth. For the third
+      time they went to the cellar door. In vain Racksole thrust himself against
+      it; he could do no more than shake it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s try both together,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. &lsquo;Now!&rsquo; There was a crack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Again,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. There was another crack, and then the upper
+      hinge gave way. The rest was easy. Over the wreck of the door they entered
+      Prince Eugen&rsquo;s prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captive still sat on his chair. The terrific noise and bustle of
+      breaking down the door seemed not to have aroused him from his lethargy,
+      but when Prince Aribert spoke to him in German he looked at his uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will you not come with us, Eugen?&rsquo; said Prince Aribert; &lsquo;you needn&rsquo;t stay
+      here any longer, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Leave me alone,&rsquo; was the strange reply; &lsquo;leave me alone. What do you
+      want?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We are here to get you out of this scrape,&rsquo; said Aribert gently. Racksole
+      stood aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is that fellow?&rsquo; said Eugen sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is my friend Mr Racksole, an Englishman&mdash;or rather, I should
+      say, an American&mdash;to whom we owe a great deal. Come and have supper,
+      Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t,&rsquo; answered Eugen doggedly. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m waiting here for her. You didn&rsquo;t
+      think anyone had kept me here, did you, against my will? I tell you I&rsquo;m
+      waiting for her. She said she&rsquo;d come.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is she?&rsquo; Aribert asked, humouring him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She! Why, you know! I forgot, of course, you don&rsquo;t know. You mustn&rsquo;t ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don&rsquo;t pry, Uncle Aribert. She was wearing a red hat.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll take you to her, my dear Eugen.&rsquo; Prince Aribert put his hands on the
+      other&rsquo;s shoulder, but Eugen shook him off violently, stood up, and then
+      sat down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked at Racksole, and they both looked at Prince Eugen. The
+      latter&rsquo;s face was flushed, and Racksole observed that the left pupil was
+      more dilated than the right. The man started, muttered odd, fragmentary
+      scraps of sentences, now grumbling, now whining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His mind is unhinged,&rsquo; Racksole whispered in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hush!&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. &lsquo;He understands English.&rsquo; But Prince Eugen
+      took no notice of the brief colloquy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We had better get him upstairs, somehow,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Aribert assented. &lsquo;Eugen, the lady with the red hat, the lady you
+      are waiting for, is upstairs. She has sent us down to ask you to come up.
+      Won&rsquo;t you come?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Himmel!&rsquo; the poor fellow exclaimed, with a kind of weak anger. &lsquo;Why did
+      you not say this before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose, staggered towards Aribert, and fell headlong on the floor. He had
+      swooned. The two men raised him, carried him up the stone steps, and laid
+      him with infinite care on a sofa. He lay, breathing queerly through the
+      nostrils, his eyes closed, his fingers contracted; every now and then a
+      convulsion ran through his frame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One of us must fetch a doctor,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will,&rsquo; said Racksole. At that moment there was a quick, curt rap on the
+      french window, and both Racksole and the Prince glanced round startled. A
+      girl&rsquo;s face was pressed against the large window-pane. It was Nella&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole unfastened the catch, and she entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have found you,&rsquo; she said lightly; &lsquo;you might have told me. I couldn&rsquo;t
+      sleep. I inquired from the hotel-folks if you had retired, and they said
+      no; so I slipped out. I guessed where you were.&rsquo; Racksole interrupted her
+      with a question as to what she meant by this escapade, but she stopped him
+      with a careless gesture. &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this?&rsquo; She pointed to the form on the
+      sofa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is my nephew, Prince Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hurt?&rsquo; she inquired coldly. &lsquo;I hope not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is ill,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;his brain is turned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella began to examine the unconscious Prince with the expert movements of
+      a girl who had passed through the best hospital course to be obtained in
+      New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has got brain fever,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;That is all, but it will be enough.
+      Do you know if there is a bed anywhere in this remarkable house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eighteen IN THE NIGHT-TIME
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;HE must on no account be moved,&rsquo; said the dark little Belgian doctor,
+      whose eyes seemed to peer so quizzically through his spectacles; and he
+      said it with much positiveness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That pronouncement rather settled their plans for them. It was certainly a
+      professional triumph for Nella, who, previous to the doctor&rsquo;s arrival, had
+      told them the very same thing. Considerable argument had passed before the
+      doctor was sent for. Prince Aribert was for keeping the whole affair a
+      deep secret among their three selves. Theodore Racksole agreed so far, but
+      he suggested further that at no matter what risk they should transport the
+      patient over to England at once. Racksole had an idea that he should feel
+      safer in that hotel of his, and better able to deal with any situation
+      that might arise. Nella scorned the idea. In her quality of an amateur
+      nurse, she assured them that Prince Eugen was much more seriously ill than
+      either of them suspected, and she urged that they should take absolute
+      possession of the house, and keep possession till Prince Eugen was
+      convalescent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what about the Spencer female?&rsquo; Racksole had said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Keep her where she is. Keep her a prisoner. And hold the house against
+      all comers. If Jules should come back, simply defy him to enter&mdash;that
+      is all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are two of you, so you must keep an eye on the former occupiers, if
+      they return, and on Miss Spencer, while I nurse the patient. But first,
+      you must send for a doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Doctor!&rsquo; Prince Aribert had said, alarmed. &lsquo;Will it not be necessary to
+      make some awkward explanation to the doctor?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all!&rsquo; she replied. &lsquo;Why should it be? In a place like Ostend
+      doctors are far too discreet to ask questions; they see too much to retain
+      their curiosity. Besides, do you want your nephew to die?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the men were somewhat taken aback by the girl&rsquo;s sagacious grasp of
+      the situation, and it came about that they began to obey her like
+      subordinates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told her father to sally forth in search of a doctor, and he went. She
+      gave Prince Aribert certain other orders, and he promptly executed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the evening of the following day, everything was going smoothly. The
+      doctor came and departed several times, and sent medicine, and seemed
+      fairly optimistic as to the issue of the illness. An old woman had been
+      induced to come in and cook and clean. Miss Spencer was kept out of sight
+      on the attic floor, pending some decision as to what to do with her. And
+      no one outside the house had asked any questions. The inhabitants of that
+      particular street must have been accustomed to strange behaviour on the
+      part of their neighbours, unaccountable appearances and disappearances,
+      strange flittings and arrivals. This strong-minded and active trio&mdash;Racksole,
+      Nella, and Prince Aribert&mdash;might have been the lawful and accustomed
+      tenants of the house, for any outward evidence to the contrary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the afternoon of the third day Prince Eugen was distinctly and
+      seriously worse. Nella had sat up with him the previous night and
+      throughout the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father had spent the morning at the hotel, and Prince Aribert had kept
+      watch. The two men were never absent from the house at the same time, and
+      one of them always did duty as sentinel at night. On this afternoon Prince
+      Aribert and Nella sat together in the patient&rsquo;s bedroom. The doctor had
+      just left. Theodore Racksole was downstairs reading the New York Herald.
+      The Prince and Nella were near the window, which looked on to the
+      back-garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a queer shabby little bedroom to shelter the august body of a
+      European personage like Prince Eugen of Posen. Curiously enough, both
+      Nella and her father, ardent democrats though they were, had been somehow
+      impressed by the royalty and importance of the fever-stricken Prince&mdash;impressed
+      as they had never been by Aribert. They had both felt that here, under
+      their care, was a species of individuality quite new to them, and
+      different from anything they had previously encountered. Even the gestures
+      and tones of his delirium had an air of abrupt yet condescending command&mdash;an
+      imposing mixture of suavity and haughtiness. As for Nella, she had been
+      first struck by the beautiful &lsquo;E&rsquo; over a crown on the sleeves of his
+      linen, and by the signet ring on his pale, emaciated hand. After all,
+      these trifling outward signs are at least as effective as others of deeper
+      but less obtrusive significance. The Racksoles, too, duly marked the
+      attitude of Prince Aribert to his nephew: it was at once paternal and
+      reverential; it disclosed clearly that Prince Aribert continued, in spite
+      of everything, to regard his nephew as his sovereign lord and master, as a
+      being surrounded by a natural and inevitable pomp and awe. This attitude,
+      at the beginning, seemed false and unreal to the Americans; it seemed to
+      them to be assumed; but gradually they came to perceive that they were
+      mistaken, and that though America might have cast out &lsquo;the monarchial
+      superstition&rsquo;, nevertheless that &lsquo;superstition&rsquo; had vigorously survived in
+      another part of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You and Mr Racksole have been extraordinarily kind to me,&rsquo; said Prince
+      Aribert very quietly, after the two had sat some time in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why? How?&rsquo; she asked unaffectedly. &lsquo;We are interested in this affair
+      ourselves, you know. It began at our hotel&mdash;you mustn&rsquo;t forget that,
+      Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I forget nothing. But I cannot help feeling that I
+      have led you into a strange entanglement. Why should you and Mr Racksole
+      be here&mdash;you who are supposed to be on a holiday!&mdash;hiding in a
+      strange house in a foreign country, subject to all sorts of annoyances and
+      all sorts of risks, simply because I am anxious to avoid scandal, to avoid
+      any sort of talk, in connection with my misguided nephew? It is nothing to
+      you that the Hereditary Prince of Posen should be liable to a public
+      disgrace. What will it matter to you if the throne of Posen becomes the
+      laughing-stock of Europe?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I really don&rsquo;t know, Prince,&rsquo; Nella smiled roguishly. &lsquo;But we Americans
+      have, a habit of going right through with anything we have begun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;who knows how this thing will end? All our trouble, our
+      anxieties, our watchfulness, may come to nothing. I tell you that when I
+      see Eugen lying there, and think that we cannot learn his story until he
+      recovers, I am ready to go mad. We might be arranging things, making
+      matters smooth, preparing for the future, if only we knew&mdash;knew what
+      he can tell us. I tell you that I am ready to go mad. If anything should
+      happen to you, Miss Racksole, I would kill myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why?&rsquo; she questioned. &lsquo;Supposing, that is, that anything could happen
+      to me&mdash;which it can&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I have dragged you into this,&rsquo; he replied, gazing at her. &lsquo;It is
+      nothing to you. You are only being kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you know it is nothing to me, Prince?&rsquo; she asked him quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the sick man made a convulsive movement, and Nella flew to the
+      bed and soothed him. From the head of the bed she looked over at Prince
+      Aribert, and he returned her bright, excited glance. She was in her
+      travelling-frock, with a large white Belgian apron tied over it. Large
+      dark circles of fatigue and sleeplessness surrounded her eyes, and to the
+      Prince her cheek seemed hollow and thin; her hair lay thick over the
+      temples, half covering the ears. Aribert gave no answer to her query&mdash;merely
+      gazed at her with melancholy intensity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I will go and rest,&rsquo; she said at last. &lsquo;You will know all about
+      the medicine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sleep well,&rsquo; he said, as he softly opened the door for her. And then he
+      was alone with Eugen. It was his turn that night to watch, for they still
+      half-expected some strange, sudden visit, or onslaught, or move of one
+      kind or another from Jules. Racksole slept in the parlour on the ground
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella had the front bedroom on the first floor; Miss Spencer was immured
+      in the attic; the last-named lady had been singularly quiet and incurious,
+      taking her food from Nella and asking no questions, the old woman went at
+      nights to her own abode in the purlieus of the harbour. Hour after hour
+      Aribert sat silent by his nephew&rsquo;s bed-side, attending mechanically to his
+      wants, and every now and then gazing hard into the vacant, anguished face,
+      as if trying to extort from that mask the secrets which it held. Aribert
+      was tortured by the idea that if he could have only half an hour&rsquo;s, only a
+      quarter of an hour&rsquo;s, rational speech with Prince Eugen, all might be
+      cleared up and put right, and by the fact that that rational talk was
+      absolutely impossible on Eugen&rsquo;s part until the fever had run its course.
+      As the minutes crept on to midnight the watcher, made nervous by the
+      intense, electrical atmosphere which seems always to surround a person who
+      is dangerously ill, grew more and more a prey to vague and terrible
+      apprehensions. His mind dwelt hysterically on the most fatal
+      possibilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wondered what would occur if by any ill-chance Eugen should die in that
+      bed&mdash;how he would explain the affair to Posen and to the Emperor, how
+      he would justify himself. He saw himself being tried for murder, sentenced
+      (him&mdash;a Prince of the blood!), led to the scaffold... a scene
+      unparalleled in Europe for over a century! ... Then he gazed anew at the
+      sick man, and thought he saw death in every drawn feature of that agonized
+      face. He could have screamed aloud. His ears heard a peculiar resonant
+      boom. He started&mdash;it was nothing but the city clock striking twelve.
+      But there was another sound&mdash;a mysterious shuffle at the door. He
+      listened; then jumped from his chair. Nothing now! Nothing! But still he
+      felt drawn to the door, and after what seemed an interminable interval he
+      went and opened it, his heart beating furiously. Nella lay in a heap on
+      the door mat. She was fully dressed, but had apparently lost
+      consciousness. He clutched at her slender body, picked her up, carried her
+      to the chair by the fire-place, and laid her in it. He had forgotten all
+      about Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it, my angel?&rsquo; he whispered, and then he kissed her&mdash;kissed
+      her twice. He could only look at her; he did not know what to do to
+      succour her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she opened her eyes and sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where am I?&rsquo; she asked vaguely, in a tremulous tone as she recognized
+      him. &lsquo;Is it you? Did I do anything silly? Did I faint?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What has happened? Were you ill?&rsquo; he questioned anxiously. He was
+      kneeling at her feet, holding her hand tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I saw Jules by the side of my bed,&rsquo; she murmured; &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sure I saw him; he
+      laughed at me. I had not undressed. I sprang up, frightened, but he had
+      gone, and then I ran downstairs&mdash;to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were dreaming,&rsquo; he soothed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was I?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must have been. I have not heard a sound. No one could have entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if you like I will wake Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I was dreaming,&rsquo; she admitted. &lsquo;How foolish!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were over-tired,&rsquo; he said, still unconsciously holding her hand. They
+      gazed at each other. She smiled at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You kissed me,&rsquo; she said suddenly, and he blushed red and stood up before
+      her. &lsquo;Why did you kiss me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Miss Racksole,&rsquo; he murmured, hurrying the words out. &lsquo;Forgive me. It
+      is unforgivable, but forgive me. I was overpowered by my feelings. I did
+      not know what I was doing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you kiss me?&rsquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because&mdash;Nella! I love you. I have no right to say it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why have you no right to say it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If Eugen dies, I shall owe a duty to Posen&mdash;I shall be its ruler.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well!&rsquo; she said calmly, with an adorable confidence. &lsquo;Papa is worth forty
+      millions. Would you not abdicate?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he gave a low cry. &lsquo;Will you force me to say these things? I could
+      not shirk my duty to Posen, and the reigning Prince of Posen can only
+      marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Prince Eugen will live,&rsquo; she said positively, &lsquo;and if he lives&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then I shall be free. I would renounce all my rights to make you mine, if&mdash;if&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If what, Prince?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you would deign to accept my hand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Am I, then, rich enough?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella!&rsquo; He bent down to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a crash of breaking glass. Aribert went to the window and
+      opened it. In the starlit gloom he could see that a ladder had been raised
+      against the back of the house. He thought he heard footsteps at the end of
+      the garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was Jules,&rsquo; he exclaimed to Nella, and without another word rushed
+      upstairs to the attic. The attic was empty. Miss Spencer had mysteriously
+      vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Nineteen ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE Royal apartments at the Grand Babylon are famous in the world of
+      hotels, and indeed elsewhere, as being, in their own way, unsurpassed.
+      Some of the palaces of Germany, and in particular those of the mad Ludwig
+      of Bavaria, may possess rooms and saloons which outshine them in gorgeous
+      luxury and the mere wild fairy-like extravagance of wealth; but there is
+      nothing, anywhere, even on Eighth Avenue, New York, which can fairly be
+      called more complete, more perfect, more enticing, or&mdash;not least
+      important&mdash;more comfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suite consists of six chambers&mdash;the ante-room, the saloon or
+      audience chamber, the dining-room, the yellow drawing-room (where Royalty
+      receives its friends), the library, and the State bedroom&mdash;to the
+      last of which we have already been introduced. The most important and most
+      impressive of these is, of course, the audience chamber, an apartment
+      fifty feet long by forty feet broad, with a superb outlook over the
+      Thames, the Shot Tower, and the higher signals of the South-Western
+      Railway. The decoration of this room is mainly in the German taste, since
+      four out of every six of its Royal occupants are of Teutonic blood; but
+      its chief glory is its French ceiling, a masterpiece by Fragonard, taken
+      bodily from a certain famous palace on the Loire. The walls are of
+      panelled oak, with an eight-foot dado of Arras cloth imitated from unique
+      Continental examples. The carpet, woven in one piece, is an antique
+      specimen of the finest Turkish work, and it was obtained, a bargain, by
+      Felix Babylon, from an impecunious Roumanian Prince. The silver
+      candelabra, now fitted with electric light, came from the Rhine, and each
+      had a separate history. The Royal chair&mdash;it is not etiquette to call
+      it a throne, though it amounts to a throne&mdash;was looted by Napoleon
+      from an Austrian city, and bought by Felix Babylon at the sale of a French
+      collector. At each corner of the room stands a gigantic grotesque vase of
+      German faïence of the sixteenth century. These were presented to Felix
+      Babylon by William the First of Germany, upon the conclusion of his first
+      incognito visit to London in connection with the French trouble of 1875.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is only one picture in the audience chamber. It is a portrait of the
+      luckless but noble Dom Pedro, Emperor of the Brazils. Given to Felix
+      Babylon by Dom Pedro himself, it hangs there solitary and sublime as a
+      reminder to Kings and Princes that Empires may pass away and greatness
+      fall. A certain Prince who was occupying the suite during the Jubilee of
+      1887&mdash;when the Grand Babylon had seven persons of Royal blood under
+      its roof&mdash;sent a curt message to Felix that the portrait must be
+      removed. Felix respectfully declined to remove it, and the Prince left for
+      another hotel, where he was robbed of two thousand pounds&rsquo; worth of
+      jewellery. The Royal audience chamber of the Grand Babylon, if people only
+      knew it, is one of the sights of London, but it is never shown, and if you
+      ask the hotel servants about its wonders they will tell you only foolish
+      facts concerning it, as that the Turkey carpet costs fifty pounds to
+      clean, and that one of the great vases is cracked across the pedestal,
+      owing to the rough treatment accorded to it during a riotous game of Blind
+      Man&rsquo;s Buff, played one night by four young Princesses, a Balkan King, and
+      his aides-de-camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of the window recesses of this magnificent apartment, on a certain
+      afternoon in late July, stood Prince Aribert of Posen. He was faultlessly
+      dressed in the conventional frock-coat of English civilization, with a
+      gardenia in his button-hole, and the indispensable crease down the front
+      of the trousers. He seemed to be fairly amused, and also to expect
+      someone, for at frequent intervals he looked rapidly over his shoulder in
+      the direction of the door behind the Royal chair. At last a little
+      wizened, stooping old man, with a distinctly German cast of countenance,
+      appeared through the door, and laid some papers on a small table by the
+      side of the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, Hans, my old friend!&rsquo; said Aribert, approaching the old man. &lsquo;I must
+      have a little talk with you about one or two matters. How do you find His
+      Royal Highness?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man saluted, military fashion. &lsquo;Not very well, your Highness,&rsquo; he
+      answered. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been valet to your Highness&rsquo;s nephew since his majority,
+      and I was valet to his Royal father before him, but I never saw&mdash;&rsquo; He
+      stopped, and threw up his wrinkled hands deprecatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You never saw what?&rsquo; Aribert smiled affectionately on the old fellow. You
+      could perceive that these two, so sharply differentiated in rank, had been
+      intimate in the past, and would be intimate again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know, my Prince,&rsquo; said the old man, &lsquo;that we are to receive the
+      financier, Sampson Levi&mdash;is that his name?&mdash;in the audience
+      chamber? Surely, if I may humbly suggest, the library would have been good
+      enough for a financier?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One would have thought so,&rsquo; agreed Prince Aribert, &lsquo;but perhaps your
+      master has a special reason. Tell me,&rsquo; he went on, changing the subject
+      quickly, &lsquo;how came it that you left the Prince, my nephew, at Ostend, and
+      returned to Posen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His orders, Prince,&rsquo; and old Hans, who had had a wide experience of Royal
+      whims and knew half the secrets of the Courts of Europe, gave Aribert a
+      look which might have meant anything. &lsquo;He sent me back on an&mdash;an
+      errand, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you were to rejoin him here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so, Highness. And I did rejoin him here, although, to tell the
+      truth, I had begun to fear that I might never see my master again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Prince has been very ill in Ostend, Hans.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So I have gathered,&rsquo; Hans responded drily, slowly rubbing his hands
+      together. &lsquo;And his Highness is not yet perfectly recovered.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not yet. We despaired of his life, Hans, at one time, but thanks to an
+      excellent constitution, he came safely through the ordeal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We must take care of him, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, indeed,&rsquo; said Aribert solemnly, &lsquo;his life is very precious to
+      Posen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment, Eugen, Hereditary Prince of Posen, entered the audience
+      chamber. He was pale and languid, and his uniform seemed to be a trouble
+      to him. His hair had been slightly ruffled, and there was a look of
+      uneasiness, almost of alarmed unrest, in his fine dark eyes. He was like a
+      man who is afraid to look behind him lest he should see something there
+      which ought not to be there. But at the same time, here beyond doubt was
+      Royalty. Nothing could have been more striking than the contrast between
+      Eugen, a sick man in the shabby house at Ostend, and this Prince Eugen in
+      the Royal apartments of the Grand Babylon Hôtel, surrounded by the luxury
+      and pomp which modern civilization can offer to those born in high places.
+      All the desperate episode of Ostend was now hidden, passed over. It was
+      supposed never to have occurred. It existed only like a secret shame in
+      the hearts of those who had witnessed it. Prince Eugen had recovered; at
+      any rate, he was convalescent, and he had been removed to London, where he
+      took up again the dropped thread of his princely life. The lady with the
+      red hat, the incorruptible and savage Miss Spencer, the unscrupulous and
+      brilliant Jules, the dark, damp cellar, the horrible little bedroom&mdash;these
+      things were over. Thanks to Prince Aribert and the Racksoles, he had
+      emerged from them in safety. He was able to resume his public and official
+      career. The Emperor had been informed of his safe arrival in London, after
+      an unavoidable delay in Ostend; his name once more figured in the Court
+      chronicle of the newspapers. In short, everything was smothered over. Only&mdash;only
+      Jules, Rocco, and Miss Spencer were still at large; and the body of
+      Reginald Dimmock lay buried in the domestic mausoleum of the palace at
+      Posen; and Prince Eugen had still to interview Mr Sampson Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That various matters lay heavy on the mind of Prince Eugen was beyond
+      question. He seemed to have withdrawn within himself. Despite the
+      extraordinary experiences through which he had recently passed, events
+      which called aloud for explanations and confidence between the nephew and
+      the uncle, he would say scarcely a word to Prince Aribert. Any allusion,
+      however direct, to the days at Ostend, was ignored by him with more or
+      less ingenuity, and Prince Aribert was really no nearer a full solution of
+      the mystery of Jules&rsquo; plot than he had been on the night when he and
+      Racksole visited the gaming tables at Ostend. Eugen was well aware that he
+      had been kidnapped through the agency of the woman in the red hat, but,
+      doubtless ashamed at having been her dupe, he would not proceed in any way
+      with the clearing-up of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will receive in this room, Eugen?&rsquo; Aribert questioned him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; was the answer, given pettishly. &lsquo;Why not? Even if I have no proper
+      retinue here, surely that is no reason why I should not hold audience in a
+      proper manner?... Hans, you can go.&rsquo; The old valet promptly disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; the Hereditary Prince continued, when they were alone in the
+      chamber, &lsquo;you think I am mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, startled in spite of himself. &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t
+      be absurd.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I say you think I am mad. You think that that attack of brain fever has
+      left its permanent mark on me. Well, perhaps I am mad. Who can tell? God
+      knows that I have been through enough lately to drive me mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert made no reply. As a matter of strict fact, the thought had crossed
+      his mind that Eugen&rsquo;s brain had not yet recovered its normal tone and
+      activity. This speech of his nephew&rsquo;s, however, had the effect of
+      immediately restoring his belief in the latter&rsquo;s entire sanity. He felt
+      convinced that if only he could regain his nephew&rsquo;s confidence, the old
+      brotherly confidence which had existed between them since the years when
+      they played together as boys, all might yet be well. But at present there
+      appeared to be no sign that Eugen meant to give his confidence to anyone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Prince had come up out of the valley of the shadow of death, but
+      some of the valley&rsquo;s shadow had clung to him, and it seemed he was unable
+      to dissipate it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By the way,&rsquo; said Eugen suddenly, &lsquo;I must reward these Racksoles, I
+      suppose. I am indeed grateful to them. If I gave the girl a bracelet, and
+      the father a thousand guineas&mdash;how would that meet the case?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Eugen!&rsquo; exclaimed Aribert aghast. &lsquo;A thousand guineas! Do you
+      know that Theodore Racksole could buy up all Posen from end to end without
+      making himself a pauper. A thousand guineas! You might as well offer him
+      sixpence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what must I offer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing, except your thanks. Anything else would be an insult. These are
+      no ordinary hotel people.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t I give the little girl a bracelet?&rsquo; Prince Eugen gave a sinister
+      laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked at him steadily. &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you kiss her&mdash;that night?&rsquo; asked Prince Eugen carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Kiss whom?&rsquo; said Aribert, blushing and angry, despite his most determined
+      efforts to keep calm and unconcerned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Racksole girl.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When do you mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, &lsquo;that night in Ostend when I was ill. You
+      thought I was in a delirium. Perhaps I was. But somehow I remember that
+      with extraordinary distinctness. I remember raising my head for a fraction
+      of an instant, and just in that fraction of an instant you kissed her. Oh,
+      Uncle Aribert!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen, Eugen, for God&rsquo;s sake. I love Nella Racksole. I shall marry her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You!&rsquo; There was a long pause, and then Eugen laughed. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said.
+      &lsquo;They all talk like that to start with. I have talked like that myself,
+      dear uncle; it sounds nice, and it means nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In this case it means everything, Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert quietly. Some
+      accent of determination in the latter&rsquo;s tone made Eugen rather more
+      serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t marry her,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;The Emperor won&rsquo;t permit a morganatic
+      marriage.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Emperor has nothing to do with the affair. I shall renounce my
+      rights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall become a plain citizen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In which case you will have no fortune to speak of.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my wife will have a fortune. Knowing the sacrifices which I shall
+      have made in order to marry her, she will not hesitate to place that
+      fortune in my hands for our mutual use,&rsquo; said Aribert stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will decidedly be rich,&rsquo; mused Eugen, as his ideas dwelt on Theodore
+      Racksole&rsquo;s reputed wealth. &lsquo;But have you thought of this,&rsquo; he asked, and
+      his mild eyes glowed again in a sort of madness. &lsquo;Have you thought that I
+      am unmarried, and might die at any moment, and then the throne will
+      descend to you&mdash;to you, Aribert?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The throne will never descend to me, Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert softly, &lsquo;for
+      you will live. You are thoroughly convalescent. You have nothing to fear.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is the next seven days that I fear,&rsquo; said Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The next seven days! Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know. But I fear them. If I can survive them&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sampson Levi, sire,&rsquo; Hans announced in a loud tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty MR SAMPSON LEVI BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PRINCE EUGEN started. &lsquo;I will see him,&rsquo; he said, with a gesture to Hans as
+      if to indicate that Mr Sampson Levi might enter at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I beg one moment first,&rsquo; said Aribert, laying a hand gently on his
+      nephew&rsquo;s arm, and giving old Hans a glance which had the effect of
+      precipitating that admirably trained servant through the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it?&rsquo; asked Prince Eugen crossly. &lsquo;Why this sudden seriousness?
+      Don&rsquo;t forget that I have an appointment with Mr Sampson Levi, and must not
+      keep him waiting. Someone said that punctuality is the politeness of
+      princes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert, &lsquo;I wish you to be as serious as I am. Why cannot we
+      have faith in each other? I want to help you. I have helped you. You are
+      my titular Sovereign; but on the other hand I have the honour to be your
+      uncle:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honour to be the same age as you, and to have been your
+      companion from youth up. Give me your confidence. I thought you had given
+      it me years ago, but I have lately discovered that you had your secrets,
+      even then. And now, since your illness, you are still more secretive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Aribert?&rsquo; said Eugen, in a tone which might have been
+      either inimical or friendly. &lsquo;What do you want to say?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, in the first place, I want to say that you will not succeed with
+      the estimable Mr Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Shall I not?&rsquo; said Eugen lightly. &lsquo;How do you know what my business is
+      with him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Suffice it to say that I know. You will never get that million pounds out
+      of him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Eugen gasped, and then swallowed his excitement. &lsquo;Who has been
+      talking? What million?&rsquo; His eyes wandered uneasily round the room. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo;
+      he said, pretending to laugh. &lsquo;I see how it is. I have been chattering in
+      my delirium. You mustn&rsquo;t take any notice of that, Aribert. When one has a
+      fever one&rsquo;s ideas become grotesque and fanciful.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You never talked in your delirium,&rsquo; Aribert replied; &lsquo;at least not about
+      yourself. I knew about this projected loan before I saw you in Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who told you?&rsquo; demanded Eugen fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you admit that you are trying to raise a loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I admit nothing. Who told you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Theodore Racksole, the millionaire. These rich men have no secrets from
+      each other. They form a coterie, closer than any coterie of ours. Eugen,
+      and far more powerful. They talk, and in talking they rule the world,
+      these millionaires. They are the real monarchs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Curse them!&rsquo; said Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, perhaps so. But let me return to your case. Imagine my shame, my
+      disgust, when I found that Racksole could tell me more about your affairs
+      than I knew myself. Happily, he is a good fellow; one can trust him;
+      otherwise I should have been tempted to do something desperate when I
+      discovered that all your private history was in his hands. Eugen, let us
+      come to the point; why do you want that million? Is it actually true that
+      you are so deeply in debt? I have no desire to improve the occasion. I
+      merely ask.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what if I do owe a million?&rsquo; said Prince Eugen with assumed valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, nothing, my dear Eugen, nothing. Only it is rather a large sum to
+      have scattered in ten years, is it not? How did you manage it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me, Aribert. I&rsquo;ve been a fool. But I swear to you that the
+      woman whom you call &ldquo;the lady in the red hat&rdquo; is the last of my follies. I
+      am about to take a wife, and become a respectable Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then the engagement with Princess Anna is an accomplished fact?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Practically so. As soon as I have settled with Levi, all will be smooth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert, I wouldn&rsquo;t lose Anna for the Imperial throne. She is a good and
+      pure woman, and I love her as a man might love an angel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And yet you would deceive her as to your debts, Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not her, but her absurd parents, and perhaps the Emperor. They have heard
+      rumours, and I must set those rumours at rest by presenting to them a
+      clean sheet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad you have been frank with me, Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, &lsquo;but
+      I will be plain with you. You will never marry the Princess Anna.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why?&rsquo; said Eugen, supercilious again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because her parents will not permit it. Because you will not be able to
+      present a clean sheet to them. Because this Sampson Levi will never lend
+      you a million.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Explain yourself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I propose to do so. You were kidnapped&mdash;it is a horrid word, but we
+      must use it&mdash;in Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose because that vile old red-hatted woman and her accomplices
+      wanted to get some money out of me. Fortunately, thanks to you, they
+      didn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; said Aribert. &lsquo;They wanted no money from you. They knew well
+      enough that you had no money. They knew you were the naughty schoolboy
+      among European Princes, with no sense of responsibility or of duty towards
+      your kingdom. Shall I tell you why they kidnapped you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When you have done abusing me, my dear uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They kidnapped you merely to keep you out of England for a few days,
+      merely to compel you to fail in your appointment with Sampson Levi. And it
+      appears to me that they succeeded. Assuming that you don&rsquo;t obtain the
+      money from Levi, is there another financier in all Europe from whom you
+      can get it&mdash;on such strange security as you have to offer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Possibly there is not,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen calmly. &lsquo;But, you see, I shall
+      get it from Sampson Levi. Levi promised it, and I know from other sources
+      that he is a man of his word. He said that the money, subject to certain
+      formalities, would be available till&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Till?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Till the end of June.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And it is now the end of July.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, what is a month? He is only too glad to lend the money. He will get
+      excellent interest. How on earth have you got into your sage old head this
+      notion of a plot against me? The idea is ridiculous. A plot against me?
+      What for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have you ever thought of Bosnia?&rsquo; asked Aribert coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What of Bosnia?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I need not tell you that the King of Bosnia is naturally under
+      obligations to Austria, to whom he owes his crown. Austria is anxious for
+      him to make a good influential marriage.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, let him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is going to. He is going to marry the Princess Anna.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not while I live. He made overtures there a year ago, and was rebuffed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes; but he will make overtures again, and this time he will not be
+      rebuffed. Oh, Eugen! can&rsquo;t you see that this plot against you is being
+      engineered by some persons who know all about your affairs, and whose
+      desire is to prevent your marriage with Princess Anna? Only one man in
+      Europe can have any motive for wishing to prevent your marriage with
+      Princess Anna, and that is the man who means to marry her himself.&rsquo; Eugen
+      went very pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, Aribert, do you mean to convey to me that my detention in Ostend
+      was contrived by the agents of the King of Bosnia?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With a view to stopping my negotiations with Sampson Levi, and so putting
+      an end to the possibility of my marriage with Anna?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a good friend to me, Aribert. You mean well. But you are
+      mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have been worrying about nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have you forgotten about Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I remember you said that he had died.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I said nothing of the sort. I said that he had been assassinated. That
+      was part of it, my poor Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pooh!&rsquo; said Eugen. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t believe he was assassinated. And as for
+      Sampson Levi, I will bet you a thousand marks that he and I come to terms
+      this morning, and that the million is in my hands before I leave London.&rsquo;
+      Aribert shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You seem to be pretty sure of Mr Levi&rsquo;s character. Have you had much to
+      do with him before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; Eugen hesitated a second, &lsquo;a little. What young man in my position
+      hasn&rsquo;t had something to do with Mr Sampson Levi at one time or another?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You! You are a fossil.&rsquo; He rang a silver bell. &lsquo;Hans! I will receive Mr
+      Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereupon Aribert discreetly departed, and Prince Eugen sat down in the
+      great velvet chair, and began to look at the papers which Hans had
+      previously placed upon the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, your Royal Highness,&rsquo; said Sampson Levi, bowing as he
+      entered. &lsquo;I trust your Royal Highness is well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Moderately, thanks,&rsquo; returned the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the fact that he had had as much to do with people of Royal
+      blood as any plain man in Europe, Sampson Levi had never yet learned how
+      to be at ease with these exalted individuals during the first few minutes
+      of an interview. Afterwards, he resumed command of himself and his
+      faculties, but at the beginning he was invariably flustered, scarlet of
+      face, and inclined to perspiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will proceed to business at once,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen. &lsquo;Will you take a
+      seat, Mr Levi?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thank your Royal Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now as to that loan which we had already practically arranged&mdash;a
+      million, I think it was,&rsquo; said the Prince airily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million,&rsquo; Levi acquiesced, toying with his enormous watch chain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Everything is now in order. Here are the papers and I should like to
+      finish the matter up at once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly, your Highness, but&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what? You months ago expressed the warmest satisfaction at the
+      security, though I am quite prepared to admit that the security, is of
+      rather an unusual nature. You also agreed to the rate of interest. It is
+      not everyone, Mr Levi, who can lend out a million at 5-1/2 per cent. And
+      in ten years the whole amount will be paid back. I&mdash;er&mdash;I
+      believe I informed you that the fortune of Princess Anna, who is about to
+      accept my hand, will ultimately amount to something like fifty millions of
+      marks, which is over two million pounds in your English money.&rsquo; Prince
+      Eugen stopped. He had no fancy for talking in this confidential manner to
+      financiers, but he felt that circumstances demanded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You see, it&rsquo;s like this, your Royal Highness,&rsquo; began Mr Sampson Levi, in
+      his homely English idiom. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s like this. I said I could keep that bit of
+      money available till the end of June, and you were to give me an interview
+      here before that date. Not having heard from your Highness, and not
+      knowing your Highness&rsquo;s address, though my German agents made every
+      inquiry, I concluded, that you had made other arrangements, money being so
+      cheap this last few months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was unfortunately detained at Ostend,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, with as much
+      haughtiness as he could assume, &lsquo;by&mdash;by important business. I have
+      made no other arrangements, and I shall have need of the million. If you
+      will be so good as to pay it to my London bankers&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m very sorry,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, with a tremendous and dazzling air
+      of politeness, which surprised even himself, &lsquo;but my syndicate has now
+      lent the money elsewhere. It&rsquo;s in South America&mdash;I don&rsquo;t mind telling
+      your Highness that we&rsquo;ve lent it to the Chilean Government.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hang the Chilean Government, Mr Levi,&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince, and he went
+      white. &lsquo;I must have that million. It was an arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was an arrangement, I admit,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, &lsquo;but your Highness
+      broke the arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean to say,&rsquo; began the Prince with tense calmness, &lsquo;that you are
+      not in a position to let me have that million?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I could let your Highness have a million in a couple of years&rsquo; time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince made a gesture of annoyance. &lsquo;Mr Levi,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;if you do not
+      place the money in my hands to-morrow you will ruin one of the oldest of
+      reigning families, and, incidentally, you will alter the map of Europe.
+      You are not keeping faith, and I had relied on you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon me, your Highness,&rsquo; said little Levi, rising in resentment, &lsquo;it is
+      not I who have not kept faith. I beg to repeat that the money is no longer
+      at my disposal, and to bid your Highness good morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mr Sampson Levi left the audience chamber with an awkward, aggrieved
+      bow. It was a scene characteristic of the end of the nineteenth century&mdash;an
+      overfed, commonplace, pursy little man who had been born in a Brixton
+      semi-detached villa, and whose highest idea of pleasure was a Sunday up
+      the river in an expensive electric launch, confronting and utterly
+      routing, in a hotel belonging to an American millionaire, the
+      representative of a race of men who had fingered every page of European
+      history for centuries, and who still, in their native castles, were
+      surrounded with every outward circumstance of pomp and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, a little later, &lsquo;you were right. It is all
+      over. I have only one refuge&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t mean&mdash;&rsquo; Aribert stopped, dumbfounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do,&rsquo; he said quickly. &lsquo;I can manage it so that it will look like
+      an accident.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-One THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the evening of Prince Eugen&rsquo;s fateful interview with Mr Sampson Levi,
+      Theodore Racksole was wandering somewhat aimlessly and uneasily about the
+      entrance hall and adjacent corridors of the Grand Babylon. He had returned
+      from Ostend only a day or two previously, and had endeavoured with all his
+      might to forget the affair which had carried him there&mdash;to regard it,
+      in fact, as done with. But he found himself unable to do so. In vain he
+      remarked, under his breath, that there were some things which were best
+      left alone: if his experience as a manipulator of markets, a contriver of
+      gigantic schemes in New York, had taught him anything at all, it should
+      surely have taught him that. Yet he could not feel reconciled to such a
+      position. The mere presence of the princes in his hotel roused the
+      fighting instincts of this man, who had never in his whole career been
+      beaten. He had, as it were, taken up arms on their side, and if the
+      princes of Posen would not continue their own battle, nevertheless he,
+      Theodore Racksole, wanted to continue it for them. To a certain extent, of
+      course, the battle had been won, for Prince Eugen had been rescued from an
+      extremely difficult and dangerous position, and the enemy&mdash;consisting
+      of Jules, Rocco, Miss Spencer, and perhaps others&mdash;had been put to
+      flight. But that, he conceived, was not enough; it was very far from being
+      enough. That the criminals, for criminals they decidedly were, should
+      still be at large, he regarded as an absurd anomaly. And there was another
+      point: he had said nothing to the police of all that had occurred. He
+      disdained the police, but he could scarcely fail to perceive that if the
+      police should by accident gain a clue to the real state of the case he
+      might be placed rather awkwardly, for the simple reason that in the eyes
+      of the law it amounted to a misdemeanour to conceal as much as he had
+      concealed. He asked himself, for the thousandth time, why he had adopted a
+      policy of concealment from the police, why he had become in any way
+      interested in the Posen matter, and why, at this present moment, he should
+      be so anxious to prosecute it further? To the first two questions he
+      replied, rather lamely, that he had been influenced by Nella, and also by
+      a natural spirit of adventure; to the third he replied that he had always
+      been in the habit of carrying things through, and was now actuated by a
+      mere childish, obstinate desire to carry this one through. Moreover, he
+      was splendidly conscious of his perfect ability to carry it through. One
+      additional impulse he had, though he did not admit it to himself, being by
+      nature adverse to big words, and that was an abstract love of justice, the
+      Anglo-Saxon&rsquo;s deep-found instinct for helping the right side to conquer,
+      even when grave risks must thereby be run, with no corresponding
+      advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was turning these things over in his mind as he walked about the vast
+      hotel on that evening of the last day in July. The Society papers had been
+      stating for a week past that London was empty, but, in spite of the
+      Society papers, London persisted in seeming to be just as full as ever.
+      The Grand Babylon was certainly not as crowded as it had been a month
+      earlier, but it was doing a very passable business. At the close of the
+      season the gay butterflies of the social community have a habit of
+      hovering for a day or two in the big hotels before they flutter away to
+      castle and country-house, meadow and moor, lake and stream. The great
+      basket-chairs in the portico were well filled by old and middle-aged
+      gentlemen engaged in enjoying the varied delights of liqueurs, cigars, and
+      the full moon which floated so serenely above the Thames. Here and there a
+      pretty woman on the arm of a cavalier in immaculate attire swept her train
+      as she turned to and fro in the promenade of the terrace. Waiters and
+      uniformed commissionaires and gold-braided doorkeepers moved noiselessly
+      about; at short intervals the chief of the doorkeepers blew his shrill
+      whistle and hansoms drove up with tinkling bell to take away a pair of
+      butterflies to some place of amusement or boredom; occasionally a private
+      carriage drawn by expensive and self-conscious horses put the hansoms to
+      shame by its mere outward glory. It was a hot night, a night for the
+      summer woods, and save for the vehicles there was no rapid movement of any
+      kind. It seemed as though the world&mdash;the world, that is to say, of
+      the Grand Babylon&mdash;was fully engaged in the solemn processes of
+      digestion and small-talk. Even the long row of the Embankment gas-lamps,
+      stretching right and left, scarcely trembled in the still, warm, caressing
+      air. The stars overhead looked down with many blinkings upon the enormous
+      pile of the Grand Babylon, and the moon regarded it with bland and
+      changeless face; what they thought of it and its inhabitants cannot,
+      unfortunately, be recorded. What Theodore Racksole thought of the moon can
+      be recorded: he thought it was a nuisance. It somehow fascinated his gaze
+      with its silly stare, and so interfered with his complex meditations. He
+      glanced round at the well-dressed and satisfied people&mdash;his guests,
+      his customers. They appeared to ignore him absolutely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably only a very small percentage of them had the least idea that this
+      tall spare man, with the iron-grey hair and the thin, firm, resolute face,
+      who wore his American-cut evening clothes with such careless ease, was the
+      sole proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and possibly the richest man in
+      Europe. As has already been stated, Racksole was not a celebrity in
+      England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guests of the Grand Babylon saw merely a restless male person, whose
+      restlessness was rather a disturber of their quietude, but with whom, to
+      judge by his countenance, it would be inadvisable to remonstrate.
+      Therefore Theodore Racksole continued his perambulations unchallenged, and
+      kept saying to himself, &lsquo;I must do something.&rsquo; But what? He could think of
+      no course to pursue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he walked straight through the hotel and out at the other
+      entrance, and so up the little unassuming side street into the roaring
+      torrent of the narrow and crowded Strand. He jumped on a Putney bus, and
+      paid his fair to Putney, fivepence, and then, finding that the humble
+      occupants of the vehicle stared at the spectacle of a man in evening dress
+      but without a dustcoat, he jumped off again, oblivious of the fact that
+      the conductor jerked a thumb towards him and winked at the passengers as
+      who should say, &lsquo;There goes a lunatic.&rsquo; He went into a tobacconist&rsquo;s shop
+      and asked for a cigar. The shopman mildly inquired what price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are the best you&rsquo;ve got?&rsquo; asked Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Five shillings each, sir,&rsquo; said the man promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Give me a penny one,&rsquo; was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s laconic request, and he
+      walked out of the shop smoking the penny cigar. It was a new sensation for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was inhaling the aromatic odours of Eugène Rimmel&rsquo;s establishment for
+      the sale of scents when a gentleman, walking slowly in the opposite
+      direction, accosted him with a quiet, &lsquo;Good evening, Mr Racksole.&rsquo; The
+      millionaire did not at first recognize his interlocutor, who wore a
+      travelling overcoat, and was carrying a handbag. Then a slight, pleased
+      smile passed over his features, and he held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Mr Babylon,&rsquo; he greeted the other, &lsquo;of all persons in the wide
+      world you are the man I would most have wished to meet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You flatter me,&rsquo; said the little Anglicized Swiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; answered Racksole; &lsquo;it isn&rsquo;t my custom, any more than it&rsquo;s
+      yours. I wanted to have a real good long yarn with you, and lo! here you
+      are! Where have you sprung from?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From Lausanne,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon. &lsquo;I had finished my duties there, I
+      had nothing else to do, and I felt homesick. I felt the nostalgia of
+      London, and so I came over, just as you see,&rsquo; and he raised the handbag
+      for Racksole&rsquo;s notice. &lsquo;One toothbrush, one razor, two slippers, eh?&rsquo; He
+      laughed. &lsquo;I was wondering as I walked along where I should stay&mdash;me,
+      Felix Babylon, homeless in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should advise you to stay at the Grand Babylon,&rsquo; Racksole laughed back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is a good hotel, and I know the proprietor personally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rather expensive, is it not?&rsquo; said Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To you, sir,&rsquo; answered Racksole, &lsquo;the inclusive terms will be exactly
+      half a crown a week. Do you accept?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I accept,&rsquo; said Babylon, and added, &lsquo;You are very good, Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They strolled together back to the hotel, saying nothing in particular,
+      but feeling very content with each other&rsquo;s company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Many customers?&rsquo; asked Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very tolerable,&rsquo; said Racksole, assuming as much of the air of the
+      professional hotel proprietor as he could. &lsquo;I think I may say in the
+      storekeeper&rsquo;s phrase, that if there is any business about I am doing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-night the people are all on the terrace in the portico&mdash;it&rsquo;s so
+      confoundedly hot&mdash;and the consumption of ice is simply enormous&mdash;nearly
+      as large as it would be in New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In that case,&rsquo; said Babylon politely, &lsquo;let me offer you another cigar.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I have not finished this one.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as yours,
+      my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the precincts of the Grand
+      Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and especially
+      when all the guests are assembled in the portico. The fumes of it would
+      ruin any hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana which Babylon
+      gave him, and they entered the hotel arm in arm. But no sooner had they
+      mounted the steps than little Felix became the object of numberless
+      greetings. It appeared that he had been highly popular among his quondam
+      guests. At last they reached the managerial room, where Babylon was
+      regaled on a chicken, and Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a
+      bottle of Heidsieck Monopole, Carte d&rsquo;Or.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,&rsquo; said Babylon at length. &lsquo;It is
+      a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of
+      Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you have heard?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some
+      journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon would have to close its doors
+      within half a year now that Rocco had deserted it. But of course I knew
+      better. I knew that you must have a good reason for allowing Rocco to
+      depart, and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a
+      substitute.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,&rsquo; said
+      Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; &lsquo;but happily we have found in our
+      second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That, however,
+      was mere good fortune.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Surely,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;it was indiscreet to trust to mere good fortune
+      in such a serious matter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t trust to mere good fortune. I didn&rsquo;t trust to anything except
+      Rocco, and he deceived me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why did you quarrel with him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the State
+      bedroom one night&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You what?&rsquo; Babylon almost screamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom,&rsquo; repeated Racksole
+      in his quietest tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished Babylon&rsquo;s
+      glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and
+      lighting a cigar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen episode,
+      with every circumstantial detail so far as he knew it. It was a long and
+      complicated recital, and occupied about an hour. During that time little
+      Felix never spoke a word, scarcely moved a muscle; only his small eyes
+      gazed through the bluish haze of smoke. The clock on the mantelpiece
+      tinkled midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Time for whisky and soda,&rsquo; said Racksole, and got up as if to ring the
+      bell; but Babylon waved him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of Prince Eugen
+      to-day, but you have not told me the result of that audience,&rsquo; said
+      Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I do not yet know it. But I shall doubtless know to-morrow. In
+      the meantime, I feel fairly sure that Levi declined to produce Prince
+      Eugen&rsquo;s required million. I have reason to believe that the money was lent
+      elsewhere.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;H&rsquo;m!&rsquo; mused Babylon; and then, carelessly, &lsquo;I am not at all surprised at
+      that arrangement for spying through the bathroom of the State apartments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why are you not surprised?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;it is such an obvious dodge&mdash;so easy to carry
+      out. As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these
+      affairs. I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I also
+      felt that they lay outside my sphere. My business was to provide board and
+      lodging of the most sumptuous kind to those who didn&rsquo;t mind paying for it;
+      and I did my business. If anything else went on in the hotel, under the
+      rose, I long determined to ignore it unless it should happen to be brought
+      before my notice; and it never was brought before my notice. However, I
+      admit that there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this kind of
+      affair and doubtless you have experienced that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have,&rsquo; said Racksole simply, &lsquo;though I believe you are laughing at me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By no means,&rsquo; Babylon replied. &lsquo;Now what, if I may ask the question, is
+      going to be your next step?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just what I desire to know myself,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Babylon, after a pause, &lsquo;let us begin. In the first place, it
+      is possible you may be interested to hear that I happened to see Jules
+      to-day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did!&rsquo; Racksole remarked with much calmness. &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, it was early this morning, in Paris, just before I left there. The
+      meeting was quite accidental, and Jules seemed rather surprised at meeting
+      me. He respectfully inquired where I was going, and I said that I was
+      going to Switzerland. At that moment I thought I was going to Switzerland.
+      It had occurred to me that after all I should be happier there, and that I
+      had better turn back and not see London any more. However, I changed my
+      mind once again, and decided to come on to London, and accept the risks of
+      being miserable there without my hotel. Then I asked Jules whither he was
+      bound, and he told me that he was off to Constantinople, being interested
+      in a new French hotel there. I wished him good luck, and we parted.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Constantinople, eh!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;A highly suitable place for him, I
+      should say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But,&rsquo; Babylon resumed, &lsquo;I caught sight of him again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At Charing Cross, a few minutes before I had the pleasure of meeting you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Jules had not gone to Constantinople after all. He did not see me, or I
+      should have suggested to him that in going from Paris to Constantinople it
+      is not usual to travel via London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The cheek of the fellow!&rsquo; exclaimed Theodore Racksole. &lsquo;The gorgeous and
+      colossal cheek of the fellow!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Two IN THE WINE CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;DO you know anything of the antecedents of this Jules,&rsquo; asked Theodore
+      Racksole, helping himself to whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing whatever,&rsquo; said Babylon. &lsquo;Until you told me, I don&rsquo;t think I was
+      aware that his true name was Thomas Jackson, though of course I knew that
+      it was not Jules. I certainly was not aware that Miss Spencer was his
+      wife, but I had long suspected that their relations were somewhat more
+      intimate than the nature of their respective duties in the hotel
+      absolutely demanded. All that I do know of Jules&mdash;he will always be
+      called Jules&mdash;is that he gradually, by some mysterious personal
+      force, acquired a prominent position in the hotel. Decidedly he was the
+      cleverest and most intellectual waiter I have ever known, and he was
+      specially skilled in the difficult task of retaining his own dignity while
+      not interfering with that of other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;m afraid this information is a little too vague to be of any practical
+      assistance in the present difficulty.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is the present difficulty?&rsquo; Racksole queried, with a simple air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should imagine that the present difficulty is to account for the man&rsquo;s
+      presence in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is easily accounted for,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How? Do you suppose he is anxious to give himself up to justice, or that
+      the chains of habit bind him to the hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Neither,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Jules is going to have another try&mdash;that&rsquo;s
+      all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another try at what?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At Prince Eugen. Either at his life or his liberty. Most probably the
+      former this time; almost certainly the former. He has guessed that we are
+      somewhat handicapped by our anxiety to keep Prince Eugen&rsquo;s predicament
+      quite quiet, and he is taking advantage, of that fact. As he already is
+      fairly rich, on his own admission, the reward which has been offered to
+      him must be enormous, and he is absolutely determined to get it. He has
+      several times recently proved himself to be a daring fellow; unless I am
+      mistaken he will shortly prove himself to be still more daring.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what can he do? Surely you don&rsquo;t suggest that he will attempt the
+      life of Prince Eugen in this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not? If Reginald Dimmock fell on mere suspicion that he would turn
+      out unfaithful to the conspiracy, why not Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But it would be an unspeakable crime, and do infinite harm to the hotel!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True!&rsquo; Racksole admitted, smiling. Little Felix Babylon seemed to brace
+      himself for the grasping of his monstrous idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How could it possibly be done?&rsquo; he asked at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock was poisoned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, but you had Rocco here then, and Rocco was in the plot. It is
+      conceivable that Rocco could have managed it&mdash;barely conceivable. But
+      without Rocco I cannot think it possible. I cannot even think that Jules
+      would attempt it. You see, in a place like the Grand Babylon, as probably
+      I needn&rsquo;t point out to you, food has to pass through so many hands that to
+      poison one person without killing perhaps fifty would be a most delicate
+      operation. Moreover, Prince Eugen, unless he has changed his habits, is
+      always served by his own attendant, old Hans, and therefore any attempt to
+      tamper with a cooked dish immediately before serving would be hazardous in
+      the extreme.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Granted,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;The wine, however, might be more easily got at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had you thought of that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had not,&rsquo; Babylon admitted. &lsquo;You are an ingenious theorist, but I
+      happen to know that Prince Eugen always has his wine opened in his own
+      presence. No doubt it would be opened by Hans. Therefore the wine theory
+      is not tenable, my friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not see why,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I know nothing of wine as an expert,
+      and I very seldom drink it, but it seems to me that a bottle of wine might
+      be tampered with while it was still in the cellar, especially if there was
+      an accomplice in the hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think, then, that you are not yet rid of all your conspirators?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think that Jules might still have an accomplice within the building.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And that a bottle of wine could be opened and recorked without leaving
+      any trace of the operation?&rsquo; Babylon was a trifle sarcastic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t see the necessity of opening the bottle in order to poison the
+      wine,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I have never tried to poison anybody by means of a
+      bottle of wine, and I don&rsquo;t lay claim to any natural talent as a poisoner,
+      but I think I could devise several ways of managing the trick. Of course,
+      I admit I may be entirely mistaken as to Jules&rsquo; intentions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Felix Babylon. &lsquo;The wine cellars beneath us are one of the
+      wonders of London. I hope you are aware, Mr Racksole, that when you bought
+      the Grand Babylon you bought what is probably the finest stock of wines in
+      England, if not in Europe. In the valuation I reckoned them at sixty
+      thousand pounds. And I may say that I always took care that the cellars
+      were properly guarded. Even Jules would experience a serious difficulty in
+      breaking into the cellars without the connivance of the wine-clerk, and
+      the wine-clerk is, or was, incorruptible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am ashamed to say that I have not yet inspected my wines,&rsquo; smiled
+      Racksole; &lsquo;I have never given them a thought. Once or twice I have taken
+      the trouble to make a tour of the hotel, but I omitted the cellars in my
+      excursions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, my dear fellow!&rsquo; said Babylon, amused at such a confession,
+      to him&mdash;a great connoisseur and lover of fine wines&mdash;almost
+      incredible. &lsquo;But really you must see them to-morrow. If I may, I will
+      accompany you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not to-night?&rsquo; Racksole suggested, calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-night! It is very late: Hubbard will have gone to bed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And may I ask who is Hubbard? I remember the name but dimly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hubbard is the wine-clerk of the Grand Babylon,&rsquo; said Felix, with a
+      certain emphasis. &lsquo;A sedate man of forty. He has the keys of the cellars.
+      He knows every bottle of every bin, its date, its qualities, its value.
+      And he&rsquo;s a teetotaler. Hubbard is a curiosity. No wine can leave the
+      cellars without his knowledge, and no person can enter the cellars without
+      his knowledge. At least, that is how it was in my time,&rsquo; Babylon added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will wake him,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But it is one o&rsquo;clock in the morning,&rsquo; Babylon protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind&mdash;that is, if you consent to accompany me. A cellar is the
+      same by night as by day. Therefore, why not now?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Babylon shrugged his shoulders. &lsquo;As you wish,&rsquo; he agreed, with his
+      indestructible politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now to find this Mr Hubbard, with his key of the cupboard,&rsquo; said
+      Racksole, as they walked out of the room together. Although the hour was
+      so late, the hotel was not, of course, closed for the night. A few guests
+      still remained about in the public rooms, and a few fatigued waiters were
+      still in attendance. One of these latter was despatched in search of the
+      singular Mr Hubbard, and it fortunately turned out that this gentleman had
+      not actually retired, though he was on the point of doing so. He brought
+      the keys to Mr Racksole in person, and after he had had a little chat with
+      his former master, the proprietor and the ex-proprietor of the Grand
+      Babylon Hôtel proceeded on their way to the cellars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These cellars extend over, or rather under, quite half the superficial
+      areas of the whole hotel&mdash;the longitudinal half which lies next to
+      the Strand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Owing to the fact that the ground slopes sharply from the Strand to the
+      river, the Grand Babylon is, so to speak, deeper near the Strand than it
+      is near the Thames. Towards the Thames there is, below the entrance level,
+      a basement and a sub-basement. Towards the Strand there is basement,
+      sub-basement, and the huge wine cellars beneath all. After descending the
+      four flights of the service stairs, and traversing a long passage running
+      parallel with the kitchen, the two found themselves opposite a door,
+      which, on being unlocked, gave access to another flight of stairs. At the
+      foot of this was the main entrance to the cellars. Outside the entrance
+      was the wine-lift, for the ascension of delicious fluids to the upper
+      floors, and, opposite, Mr Hubbard&rsquo;s little office. There was electric
+      light everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Babylon, who, as being most accustomed to them, held the bunch of keys,
+      opened the great door, and then they were in the first cellar&mdash;the
+      first of a suite of five. Racksole was struck not only by the icy coolness
+      of the place, but also by its vastness. Babylon had seized a portable
+      electric handlight, attached to a long wire, which lay handy, and, waving
+      it about, disclosed the dimensions of the place. By that flashing
+      illumination the subterranean chamber looked unutterably weird and
+      mysterious, with its rows of numbered bins, stretching away into the
+      distance till the radiance was reduced to the occasional far gleam of the
+      light on the shoulder of a bottle. Then Babylon switched on the fixed
+      electric lights, and Theodore Racksole entered upon a personally-conducted
+      tour of what was quite the most interesting part of his own property.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see the innocent enthusiasm of Felix Babylon for these stores of
+      exhilarating liquid was what is called in the North &lsquo;a sight for sair
+      een&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He displayed to Racksole&rsquo;s bewildered gaze, in their due order, all the
+      wines of three continents&mdash;nay, of four, for the superb and luscious
+      Constantia wine of Cape Colony was not wanting in that most catholic
+      collection of vintages. Beginning with the unsurpassed products of
+      Burgundy, he continued with the clarets of Médoc, Bordeaux, and Sauterne;
+      then to the champagnes of Ay, Hautvilliers, and Pierry; then to the hocks
+      and moselles of Germany, and the brilliant imitation champagnes of Main,
+      Neckar, and Naumburg; then to the famous and adorable Tokay of Hungary,
+      and all the Austrian varieties of French wines, including Carlowitz and
+      Somlauer; then to the dry sherries of Spain, including purest Manzanilla,
+      and Amontillado, and Vino de Pasto; then to the wines of Malaga, both
+      sweet and dry, and all the &lsquo;Spanish reds&rsquo; from Catalonia, including the
+      dark &lsquo;Tent&rsquo; so often used sacramentally; then to the renowned port of
+      Oporto. Then he proceeded to the Italian cellar, and descanted upon the
+      excellence of Barolo from Piedmont, of Chianti from Tuscany, of Orvieto
+      from the Roman States, of the &lsquo;Tears of Christ&rsquo; from Naples, and the
+      commoner Marsala from Sicily. And so on, to an extent and with a fullness
+      of detail which cannot be rendered here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the suite of cellars there was a glazed door, which, as
+      could be seen, gave access to a supplemental and smaller cellar, an
+      apartment about fifteen or sixteen feet square.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anything special in there?&rsquo; asked Racksole curiously, as they stood
+      before the door, and looked within at the seined ends of bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; exclaimed Babylon, almost smacking his lips, &lsquo;therein lies the cream
+      of all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The best champagne, I suppose?&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;the best champagne is there&mdash;a very special
+      Sillery, as exquisite as you will find anywhere. But I see, my friend,
+      that you fall into the common error of putting champagne first among
+      wines. That distinction belongs to Burgundy. You have old Burgundy in that
+      cellar, Mr Racksole, which cost me&mdash;how much do you think?&mdash;eighty
+      pounds a bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably it will never be drunk,&rsquo; he added with a sigh. &lsquo;It is too
+      expensive even for princes and plutocrats.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, it will,&rsquo; said Racksole quickly. &lsquo;You and I will have a bottle up
+      to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; continued Babylon, still riding his hobby-horse, &lsquo;there is a
+      sample of the Rhine wine dated 1706 which caused such a sensation at the
+      Vienna Exhibition of 1873. There is also a singularly glorious Persian
+      wine from Shiraz, the like of which I have never seen elsewhere. Also
+      there is an unrivalled vintage of Romanée-Conti, greatest of all modern
+      Burgundies. If I remember right Prince Eugen invariably has a bottle when
+      he comes to stay here. It is not on the hotel wine list, of course, and
+      only a few customers know of it. We do not precisely hawk it about the
+      dining-room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Let us go inside.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered the stone apartment, rendered almost sacred by the
+      preciousness of its contents, and Racksole looked round with a strangely
+      intent and curious air. At the far side was a grating, through which came
+      a feeble light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is that?&rsquo; asked the millionaire sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is merely a ventilation grating. Good ventilation is absolutely
+      essential.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Looks broken, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; Racksole suggested and then, putting a finger
+      quickly on Babylon&rsquo;s shoulder, &lsquo;there&rsquo;s someone in the cellar. Can&rsquo;t you
+      hear breathing, down there, behind that bin?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men stood tense and silent for a while, listening, under the ray
+      of the single electric light in the ceiling. Half the cellar was involved
+      in gloom. At length Racksole walked firmly down the central passage-way
+      between the bins and turned to the corner at the right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come out, you villain!&rsquo; he said in a low, well-nigh vicious tone, and
+      dragged up a cowering figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had expected to find a man, but it was his own daughter, Nella
+      Racksole, upon whom he had laid angry hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Three FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;WELL, Father,&rsquo; Nella greeted her astounded parent. &lsquo;You should make sure
+      that you have got hold of the right person before you use all that
+      terrible muscular force of yours. I do believe you have broken my shoulder
+      bone.&rsquo; She rubbed her shoulder with a comical expression of pain, and then
+      stood up before the two men. The skirt of her dark grey dress was torn and
+      dirty, and the usually trim Nella looked as though she had been shot down
+      a canvas fire-escape. Mechanically she smoothed her frock, and gave a
+      straightening touch to her hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good evening, Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon, bowing formally. &lsquo;This
+      is an unexpected pleasure.&rsquo; Felix&rsquo;s drawing-room manners never deserted
+      him upon any occasion whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I inquire what you are doing in my wine cellar, Nella Racksole?&rsquo; said
+      the millionaire a little stiffly He was certainly somewhat annoyed at
+      having mistaken his daughter for a criminal; moreover, he hated to be
+      surprised, and upon this occasion he had been surprised beyond any
+      ordinary surprise; lastly, he was not at all pleased that Nella should be
+      observed in that strange predicament by a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will tell you,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;I had been reading rather late in my room&mdash;the
+      night was so close. I heard Big Ben strike half-past twelve, and then I
+      put the book down, and went out on to the balcony of my window for a
+      little fresh air before going to bed. I leaned over the balcony very
+      quietly&mdash;you will remember that I am on the third floor now&mdash;and
+      looked down below into the little sunk yard which separates the wall of
+      the hotel from Salisbury Lane. I was rather astonished to see a figure
+      creeping across the yard. I knew there was no entrance into the hotel from
+      that yard, and besides, it is fifteen or twenty feet below the level of
+      the street. So I watched. The figure went close up against the wall, and
+      disappeared from my view. I leaned over the balcony as far as I dared, but
+      I couldn&rsquo;t see him. I could hear him, however.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What could you hear?&rsquo; questioned Racksole sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It sounded like a sawing noise,&rsquo; said Nella; &lsquo;and it went on for quite a
+      long time&mdash;nearly a quarter of an hour, I should think&mdash;a
+      rasping sort of noise.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why on earth didn&rsquo;t you come and warn me or someone else in the hotel?&rsquo;
+      asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know, Dad,&rsquo; she replied sweetly. &lsquo;I had got interested in it,
+      and I thought I would see it out myself. Well, as I was saying, Mr.
+      Babylon,&rsquo; she continued, addressing her remarks to Felix, with a dazzling
+      smile, &lsquo;that noise went on for quite a long time. At last it stopped, and
+      the figure reappeared from under the wall, crossed the yard, climbed up
+      the opposite wall by some means or other, and so over the railings into
+      Salisbury Lane. I felt rather relieved then, because I knew he hadn&rsquo;t
+      actually broken into the hotel. He walked down Salisbury Lane very slowly.
+      A policeman was just coming up. &ldquo;Goodnight, officer,&rdquo; I heard him say to
+      the policeman, and he asked him for a match. The policeman supplied the
+      match, and the other man lighted a cigarette, and proceeded further down
+      the lane. By cricking your neck from my window, Mr Babylon, you can get a
+      glimpse of the Embankment and the river. I saw the man cross the
+      Embankment, and lean over the river wall, where he seemed to be talking to
+      some one. He then walked along the Embankment to Westminster and that was
+      the last I saw of him. I waited a minute or two for him to come back, but
+      he didn&rsquo;t come back, and so I thought it was about time I began to make
+      inquiries into the affair. I went downstairs instantly, and out of the
+      hotel, through the quadrangle, into Salisbury Lane, and I looked over
+      those railings. There was a ladder on the other side, by which it was
+      perfectly easy&mdash;once you had got over the railings&mdash;to climb
+      down into the yard. I was horribly afraid lest someone might walk up
+      Salisbury Lane and catch me in the act of negotiating those railings, but
+      no one did, and I surmounted them, with no worse damage than a torn skirt.
+      I crossed the yard on tiptoe, and I found that in the wall, close to the
+      ground and almost exactly under my window, there was an iron grating,
+      about one foot by fourteen inches. I suspected, as there was no other
+      ironwork near, that the mysterious visitor must have been sawing at this
+      grating for private purposes of his own. I gave it a good shake, and I was
+      not at all surprised that a good part of it came off in my hand, leaving
+      just enough room for a person to creep through. I decided that I would
+      creep through, and now wish I hadn&rsquo;t. I don&rsquo;t know, Mr Babylon, whether
+      you have ever tried to creep through a small hole with a skirt on. Have
+      you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not had that pleasure,&rsquo; said little Felix, bowing again, and
+      absently taking up a bottle which lay to his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you are fortunate,&rsquo; the imperturbable Nella resumed. &lsquo;For quite
+      three minutes I thought I should perish in that grating, Dad, with my
+      shoulder inside and the rest of me outside. However, at last, by the most
+      amazing and agonizing efforts, I pulled myself through and fell into this
+      extraordinary cellar more dead than alive. Then I wondered what I should
+      do next. Should I wait for the mysterious visitor to return, and stab him
+      with my pocket scissors if he tried to enter, or should I raise an alarm?
+      First of all I replaced the broken grating, then I struck a match, and I
+      saw that I had got landed in a wilderness of bottles. The match went out,
+      and I hadn&rsquo;t another one. So I sat down in the corner to think. I had just
+      decided to wait and see if the visitor returned, when I heard footsteps,
+      and then voices; and then you came in. I must say I was rather taken
+      aback, especially as I recognized the voice of Mr Babylon. You see, I
+      didn&rsquo;t want to frighten you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I had bobbed up from behind the bottles and said &ldquo;Booh!&rdquo; you would have
+      had a serious shock. I wanted to think of a way of breaking my presence
+      gently to you. But you saved me the trouble, Dad. Was I really breathing
+      so loudly that you could hear me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl ended her strange recital, and there was a moment&rsquo;s silence in
+      the cellar. Racksole merely nodded an affirmative to her concluding
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Nell, my girl,&rsquo; said the millionaire at length, &lsquo;we are much
+      obliged for your gymnastic efforts&mdash;very much obliged. But now, I
+      think you had better go off to bed. There is going to be some serious
+      trouble here, I&rsquo;ll lay my last dollar on that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But if there is to be a burglary I should so like to see it, Dad,&rsquo; Nella
+      pleaded. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen a burglar caught red-handed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t a burglary, my dear. I calculate it&rsquo;s something far worse than
+      a burglary.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What?&rsquo; she cried. &lsquo;Murder? Arson? Dynamite plot? How perfectly splendid!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Babylon informs me that Jules is in London,&rsquo; said Racksole quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Jules!&rsquo; she exclaimed under her breath, and her tone changed instantly to
+      the utmost seriousness. &lsquo;Switch off the light, quick!&rsquo; Springing to the
+      switch, she put the cellar in darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;s that for?&rsquo; said her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If he comes back he would see the light, and be frightened away,&rsquo; said
+      Nella. &lsquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t do at all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t, Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said Babylon, and there was in his voice a
+      note of admiration for the girl&rsquo;s sagacity which Racksole heard with high
+      paternal pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen, Nella,&rsquo; said the latter, drawing his daughter to him in the
+      profound gloom of the cellar. &lsquo;We fancy that Jules may be trying to tamper
+      with a certain bottle of wine&mdash;a bottle which might possibly be drunk
+      by Prince Eugen. Now do you think that the man you saw might have been
+      Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hadn&rsquo;t previously thought of him as being Jules, but immediately you
+      mentioned the name I somehow knew that he was. Yes, I am sure it was
+      Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, just hear what I have to say. There is no time to lose. If he is
+      coming at all he will be here very soon&mdash;and you can help.&rsquo; Racksole
+      explained what he thought Jules&rsquo; tactics might be. He proposed that if the
+      man returned he should not be interfered with, but merely watched from the
+      other side of the glass door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You want, as it were, to catch Mr Jules alive?&rsquo; said Babylon, who seemed
+      rather taken aback at this novel method of dealing with criminals.
+      &lsquo;Surely,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;it would be simpler and easier to inform the police
+      of your suspicion, and to leave everything to them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear fellow,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;we have already gone much too far
+      without the police to make it advisable for us to call them in at this
+      somewhat advanced stage of the proceedings. Besides, if you must know it,
+      I have a particular desire to capture the scoundrel myself. I will leave
+      you and Nella here, since Nella insists on seeing everything, and I will
+      arrange things so that once he has entered the cellar Jules will not get
+      out of it again&mdash;at any rate through the grating. You had better
+      place yourselves on the other side of the glass door, in the big cellar;
+      you will be in a position to observe from there, I will skip off at once.
+      All you have to do is to take note of what the fellow does. If he has any
+      accomplices within the hotel we shall probably be able by that means to
+      discover who the accomplice is.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lighting a match and shading it with his hands, Racksole showed them both
+      out of the little cellar. &lsquo;Now if you lock this glass door on the outside
+      he can&rsquo;t escape this way: the panes of glass are too small, and the
+      woodwork too stout. So, if he comes into the trap, you two will have the
+      pleasure of actually seeing him frantically writhe therein, without any
+      personal danger; but perhaps you&rsquo;d better not show yourselves.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another moment Felix Babylon and Nella were left to themselves in the
+      darkness of the cellar, listening to the receding footfalls of Theodore
+      Racksole. But the sound of these footfalls had not died away before
+      another sound greeted their ears&mdash;the grating of the small cellar was
+      being removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope your father will be in time,&rsquo; whispered Felix
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hush!&rsquo; the girl warned him, and they stooped side by side in tense
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man cautiously but very neatly wormed his body through the aperture of
+      the grating. The watchers could only see his form indistinctly in the
+      darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, being fairly within the cellar, he walked without the least
+      hesitation to the electric switch and turned on the light. It was
+      unmistakably Jules, and he knew the geography of the cellar very well.
+      Babylon could with difficulty repress a start as he saw this bold and
+      unscrupulous ex-waiter moving with such an air of assurance and
+      determination about the precious cellar. Jules went directly to a small
+      bin which was numbered 17, and took there from the topmost bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Romanee-Conti&mdash;Prince Eugen&rsquo;s wine!&rsquo; Babylon exclaimed under his
+      breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules neatly and quickly removed the seal with an instrument which he had
+      clearly brought for the purpose. He then took a little flat box from his
+      pocket, which seemed to contain a sort of black salve. Rubbing his finger
+      in this, he smeared the top of the neck of the bottle with it, just where
+      the cork came against the glass. In another instant he had deftly replaced
+      the seal and restored the bottle to its position. He then turned off the
+      light, and made for the aperture. When he was half-way through Nella
+      exclaimed, &lsquo;He will escape, after all. Dad has not had time&mdash;we must
+      stop him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Babylon, that embodiment of caution, forcibly, but nevertheless
+      politely, restrained this Yankee girl, whom he deemed so rash and
+      imprudent, and before she could free herself the lithe form of Jules had
+      disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Four THE BOTTLE OF WINE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AS regards Theodore Racksole, who was to have caught his man from the
+      outside of the cellar, he made his way as rapidly as possible from the
+      wine-cellars, up to the ground floor, out of the hotel by the quadrangle,
+      through the quadrangle, and out into the top of Salisbury Lane. Now, owing
+      to the vastness of the structure of the Grand Babylon, the mere distance
+      thus to be traversed amounted to a little short of a quarter of a mile,
+      and, as it included a number of stairs, about two dozen turnings, and
+      several passages which at that time of night were in darkness more or less
+      complete, Racksole could not have been expected to accomplish the journey
+      in less than five minutes. As a matter of fact, six minutes had elapsed
+      before he reached the top of Salisbury Lane, because he had been delayed
+      nearly a minute by some questions addressed to him by a muddled and
+      whisky-laden guest who had got lost in the corridors. As everybody knows,
+      there is a sharp short bend in Salisbury Lane near the top. Racksole ran
+      round this at good racing speed, but he was unfortunate enough to run
+      straight up against the very policeman who had not long before so
+      courteously supplied Jules with a match. The policeman seemed to be
+      scarcely in so pliant a mood just then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hullo!&rsquo; he said, his naturally suspicious nature being doubtless aroused
+      by the spectacle of a bareheaded man in evening dress running violently
+      down the lane. &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this? Where are you for in such a hurry?&rsquo; and he
+      forcibly detained Theodore Racksole for a moment and scrutinized his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, officer,&rsquo; said Racksole quietly, &lsquo;none of your larks, if you please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;ve no time to lose.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Beg your pardon, sir,&rsquo; the policeman remarked, though hesitatingly and
+      not quite with good temper, and Racksole was allowed to proceed on his
+      way. The millionaire&rsquo;s scheme for trapping Jules was to get down into the
+      little sunk yard by means of the ladder, and then to secrete himself
+      behind some convenient abutment of brickwork until Mr Tom Jackson should
+      have got into the cellar. He therefore nimbly surmounted the railings&mdash;the
+      railings of his own hotel&mdash;and was gingerly descending the ladder,
+      when lo! a rough hand seized him by the coat-collar and with a ferocious
+      jerk urged him backwards. The fact was, Theodore Racksole had counted
+      without the policeman. That guardian of the peace, mistrusting Racksole&rsquo;s
+      manner, quietly followed him down the lane. The sight of the millionaire
+      climbing the railings had put him on his mettle, and the result was the
+      ignominious capture of Racksole. In vain Theodore expostulated, explained,
+      anathematized. Only one thing would satisfy the stolid policeman&mdash;namely,
+      that Racksole should return with him to the hotel and there establish his
+      identity. If Racksole then proved to be Racksole, owner of the Grand
+      Babylon, well and good&mdash;the policeman promised to apologize. So
+      Theodore had no alternative but to accept the suggestion. To prove his
+      identity was, of course, the work of only a few minutes, after which
+      Racksole, annoyed, but cool as ever, returned to his railings, while the
+      policeman went off to another part of his beat, where he would be likely
+      to meet a comrade and have a chat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, our friend Jules, sublimely unconscious of the
+      altercation going on outside, and of the special risk which he ran, was of
+      course actually in the cellar, which he had reached before Racksole got to
+      the railings for the first time. It was, indeed, a happy chance for Jules
+      that his exit from the cellar coincided with the period during which
+      Racksole was absent from the railings. As Racksole came down the lane for
+      the second time, he saw a figure walking about fifty yards in front of him
+      towards the Embankment. Instantly he divined that it was Jules, and that
+      the policeman had thrown him just too late. He ran, and Jules, hearing the
+      noise of pursuit, ran also. The ex-waiter was fleet; he made direct for a
+      certain spot in the Embankment wall, and, to the intense astonishment of
+      Racksole, jumped clean over the wall, as it seemed, into the river. &lsquo;Is he
+      so desperate as to commit suicide?&rsquo; Racksole exclaimed as he ran, but a
+      second later the puff and snort of a steam launch told him that Jules was
+      not quite driven to suicide. As the millionaire crossed the Embankment
+      roadway he saw the funnel of the launch move out from under the
+      river-wall. It swerved into midstream and headed towards London Bridge.
+      There was a silent mist over the river. Racksole was helpless....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Racksole had now been twice worsted in a contest of wits within
+      the precincts of the Grand Babylon, once by Rocco and once by Jules, he
+      could not fairly blame himself for the present miscarriage of his plans&mdash;a
+      miscarriage due to the meddlesomeness of an extraneous person, combined
+      with pure ill-fortune. He did not, therefore, permit the accident to
+      interfere with his sleep that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following day he sought out Prince Aribert, between whom and
+      himself there now existed a feeling of unmistakable, frank friendship, and
+      disclosed to him the happenings of the previous night, and particularly
+      the tampering with the bottle of Romanée-Conti.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe you dined with Prince Eugen last night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did. And curiously enough we had a bottle of Romanée-Conti, an
+      admirable wine, of which Eugen is passionately fond.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you will dine with him to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Most probably. To-day will, I fear, be our last day here. Eugen wishes to
+      return to Posen early to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Has it struck you, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;that if Jules had succeeded
+      in poisoning your nephew, he would probably have succeeded also in
+      poisoning you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had not thought of it,&rsquo; laughed Aribert, &lsquo;but it would seem so. It
+      appears that so long as he brings down his particular quarry, Jules is
+      careless of anything else that may be accidentally involved in the
+      destruction. However, we need have no fear on that score now. You know the
+      bottle, and you can destroy it at once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I do not propose to destroy it,&rsquo; said Racksole calmly. &lsquo;If Prince
+      Eugen asks for Romanée-Conti to be served to-night, as he probably will, I
+      propose that that precise bottle shall be served to him&mdash;and to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you would poison us in spite of ourselves?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Scarcely,&rsquo; Racksole smiled. &lsquo;My notion is to discover the accomplices
+      within the hotel. I have already inquired as to the wine-clerk, Hubbard.
+      Now does it not occur to you as extraordinary that on this particular day
+      Mr Hubbard should be ill in bed? Hubbard, I am informed, is suffering from
+      an attack of stomach poisoning, which has supervened during the night. He
+      says that he does not know what can have caused it. His place in the wine
+      cellars will be taken to-day by his assistant, a mere youth, but to all
+      appearances a fairly smart youth. I need not say that we shall keep an eye
+      on that youth.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One moment,&rsquo; Prince Aribert interrupted. &lsquo;I do not quite understand how
+      you think the poisoning was to have been effected.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The bottle is now under examination by an expert, who has instructions to
+      remove as little as possible of the stuff which Jules put on the rim of
+      the mouth of it. It will be secretly replaced in its bin during the day.
+      My idea is that by the mere action of pouring out the wine takes up some
+      of the poison, which I deem to be very strong, and thus becomes fatal as
+      it enters the glass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely the servant in attendance would wipe the mouth of the bottle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very carelessly, perhaps. And moreover he would be extremely unlikely to
+      wipe off all the stuff; some of it has been ingeniously placed just on the
+      inside edge of the rim. Besides, suppose he forgot to wipe the bottle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen is always served at dinner by Hans. It is an honour which
+      the faithful old fellow reserves for himself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But suppose Hans&mdash;&rsquo; Racksole stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hans an accomplice! My dear Racksole, the suggestion is wildly
+      impossible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Prince Aribert dined with his august nephew in the superb
+      dining-room of the Royal apartments. Hans served, the dishes being brought
+      to the door by other servants. Aribert found his nephew despondent and
+      taciturn. On the previous day, when, after the futile interview with
+      Sampson Levi, Prince Eugen had despairingly threatened to commit suicide,
+      in such a manner as to make it &lsquo;look like an accident&rsquo;, Aribert had
+      compelled him to give his word of honour not to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What wine will your Royal Highness take?&rsquo; asked old Hans in his soothing
+      tones, when the soup was served.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sherry,&rsquo; was Prince Eugen&rsquo;s curt order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Romanée-Conti afterwards?&rsquo; said Hans. Aribert looked up quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, not to-night. I&rsquo;ll try Sillery to-night,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I&rsquo;ll have Romanée-Conti, Hans, after all,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;It suits me
+      better than champagne.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The famous and unsurpassable Burgundy was served with the roast. Old Hans
+      brought it tenderly in its wicker cradle, inserted the corkscrew with
+      mathematical precision, and drew the cork, which he offered for his
+      master&rsquo;s inspection. Eugen nodded, and told him to put it down. Aribert
+      watched with intense interest. He could not for an instant believe that
+      Hans was not the very soul of fidelity, and yet, despite himself,
+      Racksole&rsquo;s words had caused him a certain uneasiness. At that moment
+      Prince Eugen murmured across the table:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert, I withdraw my promise. Observe that, I withdraw it.&rsquo; Aribert
+      shook his head emphatically, without removing his gaze from Hans. The
+      white-haired servant perfunctorily dusted his napkin round the neck of the
+      bottle of Romanée-Conti, and poured out a glass. Aribert trembled from
+      head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugen took up the glass and held it to the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t drink it,&rsquo; said Aribert very quietly. &lsquo;It is poisoned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Poisoned!&rsquo; exclaimed Prince Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Poisoned, sire!&rsquo; exclaimed old Hans, with an air of profound amazement
+      and concern, and he seized the glass. &lsquo;Impossible, sire. I myself opened
+      the bottle. No one else has touched it, and the cork was perfect.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I tell you it is poisoned,&rsquo; Aribert repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your Highness will pardon an old man,&rsquo; said Hans, &lsquo;but to say that this
+      wine is poison is to say that I am a murderer. I will prove to you that it
+      is not poisoned. I will drink it.&rsquo; And he raised the glass to his
+      trembling lips. In that moment Aribert saw that old Hans, at any rate, was
+      not an accomplice of Jules. Springing up from his seat, he knocked the
+      glass from the aged servitor&rsquo;s hands, and the fragments of it fell with a
+      light tinkling crash partly on the table and partly on the floor. The
+      Prince and the servant gazed at one another in a distressing and terrible
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a slight noise, and Aribert looked aside. He saw that Eugen&rsquo;s
+      body had slipped forward limply over the left arm of his chair; the
+      Prince&rsquo;s arms hung straight and lifeless; his eyes were closed; he was
+      unconscious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hans!&rsquo; murmured Aribert. &lsquo;Hans! What is this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Five THE STEAM LAUNCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MR TOM JACKSON&rsquo;s notion of making good his escape from the hotel by means
+      of a steam launch was an excellent one, so far as it went, but Theodore
+      Racksole, for his part, did not consider that it went quite far enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole opined, with peculiar glee, that he now had a tangible
+      and definite clue for the catching of the Grand Babylon&rsquo;s ex-waiter. He
+      knew nothing of the Port of London, but he happened to know a good deal of
+      the far more complicated, though somewhat smaller, Port of New York, and
+      he was sure there ought to be no extraordinary difficulty in getting hold
+      of Jules&rsquo; steam launch. To those who are not thoroughly familiar with it
+      the River Thames and its docks, from London Bridge to Gravesend, seems a
+      vast and uncharted wilderness of craft&mdash;a wilderness in which it
+      would be perfectly easy to hide even a three-master successfully. To such
+      people the idea of looking for a steam launch on the river would be about
+      equivalent to the idea of looking for a needle in a bundle of hay. But the
+      fact is, there are hundreds of men between St Katherine&rsquo;s Wharf and
+      Blackwall who literally know the Thames as the suburban householder knows
+      his back-garden&mdash;who can recognize thousands of ships and put a name
+      to them at a distance of half a mile, who are informed as to every
+      movement of vessels on the great stream, who know all the captains, all
+      the engineers, all the lightermen, all the pilots, all the licensed
+      watermen, and all the unlicensed scoundrels from the Tower to Gravesend,
+      and a lot further. By these experts of the Thames the slightest unusual
+      event on the water is noticed and discussed&mdash;a wherry cannot change
+      hands but they will guess shrewdly upon the price paid and the intentions
+      of the new owner with regard to it. They have a habit of watching the
+      river for the mere interest of the sight, and they talk about everything
+      like housewives gathered of an evening round the cottage door. If the
+      first mate of a Castle Liner gets the sack they will be able to tell you
+      what he said to the captain, what the old man said to him, and what both
+      said to the Board, and having finished off that affair they will
+      cheerfully turn to discussing whether Bill Stevens sank his barge outside
+      the West Indian No.2 by accident or on purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole had no satisfactory means of identifying the steam
+      launch which carried away Mr Tom Jackson. The sky had clouded over soon
+      after midnight, and there was also a slight mist, and he had only been
+      able to make out that it was a low craft, about sixty feet long, probably
+      painted black. He had personally kept a watch all through the night on
+      vessels going upstream, and during the next morning he had a man to take
+      his place who warned him whenever a steam launch went towards Westminster.
+      At noon, after his conversation with Prince Aribert, he went down the
+      river in a hired row-boat as far as the Custom House, and poked about
+      everywhere, in search of any vessel which could by any possibility be the
+      one he was in search of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he found nothing. He was, therefore, tolerably sure that the
+      mysterious launch lay somewhere below the Custom House. At the Custom
+      House stairs, he landed, and asked for a very high official&mdash;an
+      official inferior only to a Commissioner&mdash;whom he had entertained
+      once in New York, and who had met him in London on business at Lloyd&rsquo;s. In
+      the large but dingy office of this great man a long conversation took
+      place&mdash;a conversation in which Racksole had to exercise a certain
+      amount of persuasive power, and which ultimately ended in the high
+      official ringing his bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Desire Mr Hazell&mdash;room No. 332&mdash;to speak to me,&rsquo; said the
+      official to the boy who answered the summons, and then, turning to
+      Racksole: &lsquo;I need hardly repeat, my dear Mr Racksole, that this is
+      strictly unofficial.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Agreed, of course,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Hazell entered. He was a young man of about thirty, dressed in blue
+      serge, with a pale, keen face, a brown moustache and a rather handsome
+      brown beard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Hazell,&rsquo; said the high official, &lsquo;let me introduce you to Mr Theodore
+      Racksole&mdash;you will doubtless be familiar with his name. Mr Hazell,&rsquo;
+      he went on to Racksole, &lsquo;is one of our outdoor staff&mdash;what we call an
+      examining officer. Just now he is doing night duty. He has a boat on the
+      river and a couple of men, and the right to board and examine any craft
+      whatever. What Mr Hazell and his crew don&rsquo;t know about the Thames between
+      here and Gravesend isn&rsquo;t knowledge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Glad to meet you, sir,&rsquo; said Racksole simply, and they shook hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole observed with satisfaction that Mr Hazell was entirely at his
+      ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, Hazell,&rsquo; the high official continued, &lsquo;Mr Racksole wants you to help
+      in a little private expedition on the river to-night. I will give you a
+      night&rsquo;s leave. I sent for you partly because I thought you would enjoy the
+      affair and partly because I think I can rely on you to regard it as
+      entirely unofficial and not to talk about it. You understand? I dare say
+      you will have no cause to regret having obliged Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I grasp the situation,&rsquo; said Hazell, with a slight smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And, by the way,&rsquo; added the high official, &lsquo;although the business is
+      unofficial, it might be well if you wore your official overcoat. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Decidedly,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;I should have done so in any case.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, Mr Hazell,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;will you do me the pleasure of
+      lunching with me? If you agree, I should like to lunch at the place you
+      usually frequent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it came to pass that Theodore Racksole and George Hazell, outdoor clerk
+      in the Customs, lunched together at &lsquo;Thomas&rsquo;s Chop-House&rsquo;, in the city of
+      London, upon mutton-chops and coffee. The millionaire soon discovered that
+      he had got hold of a keen-witted man and a person of much insight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Hazell, when they had reached the cigarette stage, &lsquo;are
+      the magazine writers anything like correct?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean?&rsquo; asked Racksole, mystified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you&rsquo;re a millionaire&mdash;&ldquo;one of the best&rdquo;, I believe. One often
+      sees articles on and interviews with millionaires, which describe their
+      private railroad cars, their steam yachts on the Hudson, their marble
+      stables, and so on, and so on. Do you happen to have those things?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have a private car on the New York Central, and I have a two thousand
+      ton schooner-yacht&mdash;though it isn&rsquo;t on the Hudson. It happens just
+      now to be on East River. And I am bound to admit that the stables of my
+      uptown place are fitted with marble.&rsquo; Racksole laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Hazell. &lsquo;Now I can believe that I am lunching with a
+      millionaire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It&rsquo;s strange how facts like those&mdash;unimportant in themselves&mdash;appeal
+      to the imagination. You seem to me a real millionaire now. You&rsquo;ve given me
+      some personal information; I&rsquo;ll give you some in return. I earn three
+      hundred a year, and perhaps sixty pounds a year extra for overtime. I live
+      by myself in two rooms in Muscovy Court. I&rsquo;ve as much money as I need, and
+      I always do exactly what I like outside office. As regards the office, I
+      do as little work as I can, on principle&mdash;it&rsquo;s a fight between us and
+      the Commissioners who shall get the best. They try to do us down, and we
+      try to do them down&mdash;it&rsquo;s pretty even on the whole. All&rsquo;s fair in
+      war, you know, and there ain&rsquo;t no ten commandments in a Government
+      office.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole laughed. &lsquo;Can you get off this afternoon?&rsquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll get one of my pals to sign on for me, and
+      then I shall be free.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I should like you to come down with me to the
+      Grand Babylon. Then we can talk over my little affair at length. And may
+      we go on your boat? I want to meet your crew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That will be all right,&rsquo; Hazell remarked. &lsquo;My two men are the idlest,
+      most soul-less chaps you ever saw. They eat too much, and they have an
+      enormous appetite for beer; but they know the river, and they know their
+      business, and they will do anything within the fair game if they are paid
+      for it, and aren&rsquo;t asked to hurry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, just after dark, Theodore Racksole embarked with his new
+      friend George Hazell in one of the black-painted Customs wherries, manned
+      by a crew of two men&mdash;both the later freemen of the river, a
+      distinction which carries with it certain privileges unfamiliar to the
+      mere landsman. It was a cloudy and oppressive evening, not a star showing
+      to illumine the slow tide, now just past its flood. The vast forms of
+      steamers at anchor&mdash;chiefly those of the General Steam Navigation and
+      the Aberdeen Line&mdash;heaved themselves high out of the water, straining
+      sluggishly at their mooring buoys. On either side the naked walls of
+      warehouses rose like grey precipices from the stream, holding forth quaint
+      arms of steam-cranes. To the west the Tower Bridge spanned the river with
+      its formidable arch, and above that its suspended footpath&mdash;a hundred
+      and fifty feet from earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down towards the east and the Pool of London a forest of funnels and masts
+      was dimly outlined against the sinister sky. Huge barges, each steered by
+      a single man at the end of a pair of giant oars, lumbered and swirled
+      down-stream at all angles. Occasionally a tug snorted busily past,
+      flashing its red and green signals and dragging an unwieldy tail of barges
+      in its wake. Then a Margate passenger steamer, its electric lights
+      gleaming from every porthole, swerved round to anchor, with its load of
+      two thousand fatigued excursionists. Over everything brooded an air of
+      mystery&mdash;a spirit and feeling of strangeness, remoteness, and the
+      inexplicable. As the broad flat little boat bobbed its way under the
+      shadow of enormous hulks, beneath stretched hawsers, and past buoys
+      covered with green slime, Racksole could scarcely believe that he was in
+      the very heart of London&mdash;the most prosaic city in the world. He had
+      a queer idea that almost anything might happen in this seeming waste of
+      waters at this weird hour of ten o&rsquo;clock. It appeared incredible to him
+      that only a mile or two away people were sitting in theatres applauding
+      farces, and that at Cannon Street Station, a few yards off, other people
+      were calmly taking the train to various highly respectable suburbs whose
+      names he was gradually learning. He had the uplifting sensation of being
+      in another world which comes to us sometimes amid surroundings violently
+      different from our usual surroundings. The most ordinary noises&mdash;of
+      men calling, of a chain running through a slot, of a distant siren&mdash;translated
+      themselves to his ears into terrible and haunting sounds, full of
+      portentous significance. He looked over the side of the boat into the
+      brown water, and asked himself what frightful secrets lay hidden in its
+      depth. Then he put his hand into his hip-pocket and touched the stock of
+      his Colt revolver&mdash;that familiar substance comforted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The oarsmen had instructions to drop slowly down to the Pool, as the wide
+      reach below the Tower is called. These two men had not been previously
+      informed of the precise object of the expedition, but now that they were
+      safely afloat Hazell judged it expedient to give them some notion of it.
+      &lsquo;We expect to come across a rather suspicious steam launch,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;My
+      friend here is very anxious to get a sight of her, and until he has seen
+      her nothing definite can be done.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sort of a craft is she, sir?&rsquo; asked the stroke oar, a fat-faced man
+      who seemed absolutely incapable of any serious exertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; Racksole replied; &lsquo;but as near as I can judge, she&rsquo;s about
+      sixty feet in length, and painted black. I fancy I shall recognize her
+      when I see her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not much to go by, that,&rsquo; exclaimed the other man curtly. But he said no
+      more. He, as well as his mate, had received from Theodore Racksole one
+      English sovereign as a kind of preliminary fee, and an English sovereign
+      will do a lot towards silencing the natural sarcastic tendencies and free
+      speech of a Thames waterman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There&rsquo;s one thing I noticed,&rsquo; said Racksole suddenly, &lsquo;and I forgot to
+      tell you of it, Mr Hazell. Her screw seemed to move with a rather
+      irregular, lame sort of beat.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both watermen burst into a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh,&rsquo; said the fat rower, &lsquo;I know what you&rsquo;re after, sir&mdash;it&rsquo;s Jack
+      Everett&rsquo;s launch, commonly called &ldquo;Squirm&rdquo;. She&rsquo;s got a four-bladed
+      propeller, and one blade is broken off short.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ay, that&rsquo;s it, sure enough,&rsquo; agreed the man in the bows. &lsquo;And if it&rsquo;s her
+      you want, I seed her lying up against Cherry Gardens Pier this very
+      morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us go to Cherry Gardens Pier by all means, as soon as possible,&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said, and the boat swung across stream and then began to creep
+      down by the right bank, feeling its way past wharves, many of which, even
+      at that hour, were still busy with their cranes, that descended empty into
+      the bellies of ships and came up full. As the two watermen gingerly
+      manoeuvred the boat on the ebbing tide, Hazell explained to the
+      millionaire that the &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; was one of the most notorious craft on the
+      river. It appeared that when anyone had a nefarious or underhand scheme
+      afoot which necessitated river work Everett&rsquo;s launch was always available
+      for a suitable monetary consideration. The &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; had got itself into a
+      thousand scrapes, and out of those scrapes again with safety, if not
+      precisely with honour. The river police kept a watchful eye on it, and the
+      chief marvel about the whole thing was that old Everett, the owner, had
+      never yet been seriously compromised in any illegal escapade. Not once had
+      the officer of the law been able to prove anything definite against the
+      proprietor of the &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo;, though several of its quondam hirers were at
+      that very moment in various of Her Majesty&rsquo;s prisons throughout the
+      country. Latterly, however, the launch, with its damaged propeller, which
+      Everett consistently refused to have repaired, had acquired an evil
+      reputation, even among evil-doers, and this fraternity had gradually come
+      to abandon it for less easily recognizable craft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your friend, Mr Tom Jackson,&rsquo; said Hazell to Racksole, &lsquo;committed an
+      error of discretion when he hired the &ldquo;Squirm&rdquo;. A scoundrel of his
+      experience and calibre ought certainly to have known better than that. You
+      cannot fail to get a clue now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the boat was approaching Cherry Gardens Pier, but
+      unfortunately a thin night-fog had swept over the river, and objects could
+      not be discerned with any clearness beyond a distance of thirty yards. As
+      the Customs boat scraped down past the pier all its occupants strained
+      eyes for a glimpse of the mysterious launch, but nothing could be seen of
+      it. The boat continued to float idly down-stream, the men resting on their
+      oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they narrowly escaped bumping a large Norwegian sailing vessel at
+      anchor with her stem pointing down-stream. This ship they passed on the
+      port side. Just as they got clear of her bowsprit the fat man cried out
+      excitedly, &lsquo;There&rsquo;s her nose!&rsquo; and he put the boat about and began to pull
+      back against the tide. And surely the missing &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; was comfortably
+      anchored on the starboard quarter of the Norwegian ship, hidden neatly
+      between the ship and the shore. The men pulled very quietly alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Six THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;LL board her to start with,&rsquo; said Hazell, whispering to Racksole. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      make out that I suspect they&rsquo;ve got dutiable goods on board, and that will
+      give me a chance to have a good look at her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dressed in his official overcoat and peaked cap, he stepped, rather
+      jauntily as Racksole thought, on to the low deck of the launch. &lsquo;Anyone
+      aboard?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole heard him cry out, and a woman&rsquo;s voice answered. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m a Customs
+      examining officer, and I want to search the launch,&rsquo; Hazell shouted, and
+      then disappeared down into the little saloon amidships, and Racksole heard
+      no more. It seemed to the millionaire that Hazell had been gone hours, but
+      at length he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t find anything,&rsquo; he said, as he jumped into the boat, and then
+      privately to Racksole: &lsquo;There&rsquo;s a woman on board. Looks as if she might
+      coincide with your description of Miss Spencer. Steam&rsquo;s up, but there&rsquo;s no
+      engineer. I asked where the engineer was, and she inquired what business
+      that was of mine, and requested me to get through with my own business and
+      clear off. Seems rather a smart sort. I poked my nose into everything, but
+      I saw no sign of any one else. Perhaps we&rsquo;d better pull away and lie near
+      for a bit, just to see if anything queer occurs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;re quite sure he isn&rsquo;t on board?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Quite,&rsquo; said Hazell positively: &lsquo;I know how to search a vessel. See
+      this,&rsquo; and he handed to Racksole a sort of steel skewer, about two feet
+      long, with a wooden handle. &lsquo;That,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;is one of the Customs&rsquo; aids
+      to searching.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose it wouldn&rsquo;t do to go on board and carry off the lady?&rsquo; Racksole
+      suggested doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; Hazell began, with equal doubtfulness, &lsquo;as for that&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where&rsquo;s &lsquo;e orf?&rsquo; It was the man in the bows who interrupted Hazell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following the direction of the man&rsquo;s finger, both Hazell and Racksole saw
+      with more or less distinctness a dinghy slip away from the forefoot of the
+      Norwegian vessel and disappear downstream into the mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s Jules, I&rsquo;ll swear,&rsquo; cried Racksole. &lsquo;After him, men. Ten pounds
+      apiece if we overtake him!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lay down to it now, boys!&rsquo; said Hazell, and the heavy Customs boat shot
+      out in pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is going to be a lark,&rsquo; Racksole remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Depends on what you call a lark,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;it&rsquo;s not much of a lark
+      tearing down midstream like this in a fog. You never know when you mayn&rsquo;t
+      be in kingdom come with all these barges knocking around. I expect that
+      chap hid in the dinghy when he first caught sight of us, and then slipped
+      his painter as soon as I&rsquo;d gone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat was moving at a rapid pace with the tide. Steering was a matter
+      of luck and instinct more than anything else. Every now and then Hazell,
+      who held the lines, was obliged to jerk the boat&rsquo;s head sharply round to
+      avoid a barge or an anchored vessel. It seemed to Racksole that vessels
+      were anchored all over the stream. He looked about him anxiously, but for
+      a long time he could see nothing but mist and vague nautical forms. Then
+      suddenly he said, quietly enough, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re on the right road; I can see him
+      ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We&rsquo;re gaining on him.&rsquo; In another minute the dinghy was plainly visible,
+      not twenty yards away, and the sculler&mdash;sculling frantically now&mdash;was
+      unmistakably Jules&mdash;Jules in a light tweed suit and a bowler hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were right,&rsquo; Hazell said; &lsquo;this is a lark. I believe I&rsquo;m getting
+      quite excited. It&rsquo;s more exciting than playing the trombone in an
+      orchestra. I&rsquo;ll run him down, eh?&mdash;and then we can drag the chap in
+      from the water.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole nodded, but at that moment a barge, with her red sails set, stood
+      out of the fog clean across the bows of the Customs boat, which narrowly
+      escaped instant destruction. When they got clear, and the usual
+      interchange of calm, nonchalant swearing was over, the dinghy was barely
+      to be discerned in the mist, and the fat man was breathing in such a
+      manner that his sighs might almost have been heard on the banks. Racksole
+      wanted violently to do something, but there was nothing to do; he could
+      only sit supine by Hazell&rsquo;s side in the stern-sheets. Gradually they began
+      again to overtake the dinghy, whose one-man crew was evidently tiring. As
+      they came up, hand over fist, the dinghy&rsquo;s nose swerved aside, and the
+      tiny craft passed down a water-lane between two anchored mineral barges,
+      which lay black and deserted about fifty yards from the Surrey shore. &lsquo;To
+      starboard,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;No, man!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hazell replied; &lsquo;we can&rsquo;t get through there. He&rsquo;s bound to come out below;
+      it&rsquo;s only a feint. I&rsquo;ll keep our nose straight ahead.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And they went on, the fat man pounding away, with a face which glistened
+      even in the thick gloom. It was an empty dinghy which emerged from between
+      the two barges and went drifting and revolving down towards Greenwich.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fat man gasped a word to his comrade, and the Customs boat stopped
+      dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;E&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said the man in the bows. &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s &lsquo;im you want, &lsquo;e&rsquo;s on
+      one o&rsquo; them barges, so you&rsquo;ve only got to step on and take &lsquo;im orf.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s all,&rsquo; said a voice out of the depths of the nearest barge, and it
+      was the voice of Jules, otherwise known as Mr Tom Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;Ear &lsquo;im?&rsquo; said the fat man smiling. &lsquo;&rsquo;E&rsquo;s a good &lsquo;un, &lsquo;e is. But if I
+      was you, Mr Hazell, or you, sir, I shouldn&rsquo;t step on to that barge so
+      quick as all that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They backed the boat under the stem of the nearest barge and gazed
+      upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said Racksole to Hazell; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got a revolver. How can I
+      clamber up there?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I dare say you&rsquo;ve got a revolver all right,&rsquo; Hazell replied sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you mustn&rsquo;t use it. There mustn&rsquo;t be any noise. We should have the
+      river police down on us in a twinkling if there was a revolver shot, and
+      it would be the ruin of me. If an inquiry was held the Commissioners
+      wouldn&rsquo;t take any official notice of the fact that my superior officer had
+      put me on to this job, and I should be requested to leave the service.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have no fear on that score,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I shall, of course, take all
+      responsibility.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t matter how much responsibility you took,&rsquo; Hazell retorted;
+      &lsquo;you wouldn&rsquo;t put me back into the service, and my career would be at an
+      end.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But there are other careers,&rsquo; said Racksole, who was really anxious to
+      lame his ex-waiter by means of a judiciously-aimed bullet. &lsquo;There are
+      other careers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Customs is my career,&rsquo; said Hazell, &lsquo;so let&rsquo;s have no shooting. We&rsquo;ll
+      wait about a bit; he can&rsquo;t escape. You can have my skewer if you like&rsquo;&mdash;and
+      he gave Racksole his searching instrument. &lsquo;And you can do what you
+      please, provided you do it neatly and don&rsquo;t make a row over it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few moments the four men were passive in the boat, surrounded by
+      swirling mist, with black water beneath them, and towering above them a
+      half-loaded barge with a desperate and resourceful man on board. Suddenly
+      the mist parted and shrivelled away in patches, as though before the
+      breath of some monster. The sky was visible; it was a clear sky, and the
+      moon was shining. The transformation was just one of those meteorological
+      quick-changes which happen most frequently on a great river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s a sight better,&rsquo; said the fat man. At the same moment a head
+      appeared over the edge of the barge. It was Jules&rsquo; face&mdash;dark,
+      sinister and leering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is it Mr Racksole in that boat?&rsquo; he inquired calmly; &lsquo;because if so, let
+      Mr Racksole step up. Mr Racksole has caught me, and he can have me for the
+      asking. Here I am.&rsquo; He stood up to his full height on the barge, tall
+      against the night sky, and all the occupants of the boat could see that he
+      held firmly clasped in his right hand a short dagger. &lsquo;Now, Mr Racksole,
+      you&rsquo;ve been after me for a long time,&rsquo; he continued; &lsquo;here I am. Why don&rsquo;t
+      you step up? If you haven&rsquo;t got the pluck yourself, persuade someone else
+      to step up in your place ... the same fair treatment will be accorded to
+      all.&rsquo; And Jules laughed a low, penetrating laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in the midst of this laugh when he lurched suddenly forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;r&rsquo; you doing of aboard my barge? Off you goes!&rsquo; It was a boy&rsquo;s small
+      shrill voice that sounded in the night. A ragged boy&rsquo;s small form had
+      appeared silently behind Jules, and two small arms with a vicious shove
+      precipitated him into the water. He fell with a fine gurgling splash. It
+      was at once obvious that swimming was not among Jules&rsquo; accomplishments. He
+      floundered wildly and sank. When he reappeared he was dragged into the
+      Customs boat. Rope was produced, and in a minute or two the man lay
+      ignominiously bound in the bottom of the boat. With the aid of a mudlark&mdash;a
+      mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on the barge than Jules
+      himself&mdash;Racksole had won his game. For the first time for several
+      weeks the millionaire experienced a sensation of equanimity and
+      satisfaction. He leaned over the prostrate form of Jules, Hazell&rsquo;s
+      professional skewer in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are you going to do with him now?&rsquo; asked Hazell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll row up to the landing steps in front of the Grand Babylon. He shall
+      be well lodged at my hotel, I promise him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules spoke no word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Racksole parted company with the Customs man that night Jules had
+      been safely transported into the Grand Babylon Hôtel and the two watermen
+      had received their £10 apiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will sleep here?&rsquo; said the millionaire to Mr George Hazell. &lsquo;It is
+      late.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Hazell. The next morning he found a sumptuous
+      breakfast awaiting him, and in his table-napkin was a Bank of England note
+      for a hundred pounds. But, though he did not hear of them till much later,
+      many things had happened before Hazell consumed that sumptuous breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Seven THE CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT happened that the small bedroom occupied by Jules during the years he
+      was head-waiter at the Grand Babylon had remained empty since his sudden
+      dismissal by Theodore Racksole. No other head-waiter had been formally
+      appointed in his place; and, indeed, the absence of one man&mdash;even the
+      unique Jules&mdash;could scarcely have been noticed in the enormous staff
+      of a place like the Grand Babylon. The functions of a head-waiter are
+      generally more ornamental, spectacular, and morally impressive than
+      useful, and it was so at the great hotel on the Embankment. Racksole
+      accordingly had the excellent idea of transporting his prisoner, with as
+      much secrecy as possible, to this empty bedroom. There proved to be no
+      difficulty in doing so; Jules showed himself perfectly amenable to a show
+      of superior force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole took upstairs with him an old commissionaire who had been
+      attached to the outdoor service of the hotel for many years&mdash;a
+      grey-haired man, wiry as a terrier and strong as a mastiff. Entering the
+      bedroom with Jules, whose hands were bound, he told the commissionaire to
+      remain outside the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules&rsquo; bedroom was quite an ordinary apartment, though perhaps slightly
+      superior to the usual accommodation provided for servants in the
+      caravanserais of the West End. It was about fourteen by twelve. It was
+      furnished with a bedstead, a small wardrobe, a small washstand and
+      dressing-table, and two chairs. There were two hooks behind the door, a
+      strip of carpet by the bed, and some cheap ornaments on the iron
+      mantelpiece. There was also one electric light. The window was a little
+      square one, high up from the floor, and it looked on the inner quadrangle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room was on the top storey&mdash;the eighth&mdash;and from it you had
+      a view sheer to the ground. Twenty feet below ran a narrow cornice about a
+      foot wide; three feet or so above the window another and wider cornice
+      jutted out, and above that was the high steep roof of the hotel, though
+      you could not see it from the window. As Racksole examined the window and
+      the outlook, he said to himself that Jules could not escape by that exit,
+      at any rate. He gave a glance up the chimney, and saw that the flue was
+      far too small to admit a man&rsquo;s body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he called in the commissionaire, and together they bound Jules firmly
+      to the bedstead, allowing him, however, to lie down. All the while the
+      captive never opened his mouth&mdash;merely smiled a smile of disdain.
+      Finally Racksole removed the ornaments, the carpet, the chairs and the
+      hooks, and wrenched away the switch of the electric light. Then he and the
+      commissionaire left the room, and Racksole locked the door on the outside
+      and put the key in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will keep watch here,&rsquo; he said to the commissionaire, &lsquo;through the
+      night. You can sit on this chair. Don&rsquo;t go to sleep. If you hear the
+      slightest noise in the room blow your cab-whistle; I will arrange to
+      answer the signal. If there is no noise do nothing whatever. I don&rsquo;t want
+      this talked about, you understand. I shall trust you; you can trust me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But the servants will see me here when they get up to-morrow,&rsquo; said the
+      commissionaire, with a faint smile, &lsquo;and they will be pretty certain to
+      ask what I&rsquo;m doing of up here. What shall I say to &lsquo;em?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve been a soldier, haven&rsquo;t you?&rsquo; asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve seen three campaigns, sir,&rsquo; was the reply, and, with a gesture of
+      pardonable pride, the grey-haired fellow pointed to the medals on his
+      breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, supposing you were on sentry duty and some meddlesome person in
+      camp asked you what you were doing&mdash;what should you say?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should tell him to clear off or take the consequences, and pretty quick
+      too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do that to-morrow morning, then, if necessary,&rsquo; said Racksole, and
+      departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then about one o&rsquo;clock a.m. The millionaire retired to bed&mdash;not
+      his own bed, but a bed on the seventh storey. He did not, however, sleep
+      very long. Shortly after dawn he was wide awake, and thinking busily about
+      Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was, indeed, very curious to know Jules&rsquo; story, and he determined, if
+      the thing could be done at all, by persuasion or otherwise, to extract it
+      from him. With a man of Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s temperament there is no time
+      like the present, and at six o&rsquo;clock, as the bright morning sun brought
+      gaiety into the window, he dressed and went upstairs again to the eighth
+      storey. The commissionaire sat stolid, but alert on his chair, and, at the
+      sight of his master, rose and saluted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anything happened?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Servants say anything?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only a dozen or so of &lsquo;em are up yet, sir. One of &lsquo;em asked what I was
+      playing at, and so I told her I was looking after a bull bitch and a
+      litter of pups that you was very particular about, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good,&rsquo; said Racksole, as he unlocked the door and entered the room. All
+      was exactly as he had left it, except that Jules who had been lying on his
+      back, had somehow turned over and was now lying on his face. He gazed
+      silently, scowling at the millionaire. Racksole greeted him and
+      ostentatiously took a revolver from his hip-pocket and laid it on the
+      dressing-table. Then he seated himself on the dressing-table by the side
+      of the revolver, his legs dangling an inch or two above the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to have a talk to you, Jackson,&rsquo; he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can talk to me as much as you like,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I shan&rsquo;t interfere,
+      you may bet on that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should like you to answer some questions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s different,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to answer any questions
+      while I&rsquo;m tied up like this. You may bet on that, too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It will pay you to be reasonable,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to answer any questions while I&rsquo;m tied up.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll unfasten your legs, if you like,&rsquo; Racksole suggested politely, &lsquo;then
+      you can sit up. It&rsquo;s no use you pretending you&rsquo;ve been uncomfortable,
+      because I know you haven&rsquo;t. I calculate you&rsquo;ve been treated very
+      handsomely, my son. There you are!&rsquo; and he loosened the lower extremities
+      of his prisoner from their bonds. &lsquo;Now I repeat you may as well be
+      reasonable. You may as well admit that you&rsquo;ve been fairly beaten in the
+      game and act accordingly. I was determined to beat you, by myself, without
+      the police, and I&rsquo;ve done it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve done yourself,&rsquo; retorted Jules. &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve gone against the law. If
+      you&rsquo;d had any sense you wouldn&rsquo;t have meddled; you&rsquo;d have left everything
+      to the police. They&rsquo;d have muddled about for a year or two, and then done
+      nothing. Who&rsquo;s going to tell the police now? Are you? Are you going to
+      give me up to &lsquo;em, and say, &ldquo;Here, I&rsquo;ve caught him for you&rdquo;. If you do
+      they&rsquo;ll ask you to explain several things, and then you&rsquo;ll look foolish.
+      One crime doesn&rsquo;t excuse another, and you&rsquo;ll find that out.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With unerring insight, Jules had perceived exactly the difficulty of
+      Racksole&rsquo;s position, and it was certainly a difficulty which Racksole did
+      not attempt to minimize to himself. He knew well that it would have to be
+      faced. He did not, however, allow Jules to guess his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Meanwhile,&rsquo; he said calmly to the other, &lsquo;you&rsquo;re here and my prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You&rsquo;ve committed a variegated assortment of crimes, and among them is
+      murder. You are due to be hung. You know that. There is no reason why I
+      should call in the police at all. It will be perfectly easy for me to
+      finish you off, as you deserve, myself. I shall only be carrying out
+      justice, and robbing the hangman of his fee. Precisely as I brought you
+      into the hotel, I can take you out again. A few days ago you borrowed or
+      stole a steam yacht at Ostend. What you have done with it I don&rsquo;t know,
+      nor do I care. But I strongly suspect that my daughter had a narrow escape
+      of being murdered on your steam yacht. Now I have a steam yacht of my own.
+      Suppose I use it as you used yours! Suppose I smuggle you on to it, steam
+      out to sea, and then ask you to step off it into the ocean one night. Such
+      things have been done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such things will be done again. If I acted so, I should at least, have the
+      satisfaction of knowing that I had relieved society from the incubus of a
+      scoundrel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you won&rsquo;t,&rsquo; Jules murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Racksole steadily, &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t&mdash;if you behave yourself this
+      morning. But I swear to you that if you don&rsquo;t I will never rest till you
+      are dead, police or no police. You don&rsquo;t know Theodore Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe you mean it,&rsquo; Jules exclaimed, with an air of surprised
+      interest, as though he had discovered something of importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe I do,&rsquo; Racksole resumed. &lsquo;Now listen. At the best, you will be
+      given up to the police. At the worst, I shall deal with you myself. With
+      the police you may have a chance&mdash;you may get off with twenty years&rsquo;
+      penal servitude, because, though it is absolutely certain that you
+      murdered Reginald Dimmock, it would be a little difficult to prove the
+      case against you. But with me you would have no chance whatever. I have a
+      few questions to put to you, and it will depend on how you answer them
+      whether I give you up to the police or take the law into my own hands. And
+      let me tell you that the latter course would be much simpler for me. And I
+      would take it, too, did I not feel that you were a very clever and
+      exceptional man; did I not have a sort of sneaking admiration for your
+      detestable skill and ingenuity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think, then, that I am clever?&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;You are right. I am. I
+      should have been much too clever for you if luck had not been against me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You owe your victory, not to skill, but to luck.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is what the vanquished always say. Waterloo was a bit of pure luck
+      for the English, no doubt, but it was Waterloo all the same.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules yawned elaborately. &lsquo;What do you want to know?&rsquo; he inquired, with
+      politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;First and foremost, I want to know the names of your accomplices inside
+      this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no more,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;Rocco was the last.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t begin by lying to me. If you had no accomplice, how did you
+      contrive that one particular bottle of Romanée-Conti should be served to
+      his Highness Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you discovered that in time, did you?&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I was afraid so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me explain that that needed no accomplice. The bottle was topmost in
+      the bin, and naturally it would be taken. Moreover, I left it sticking out
+      a little further than the rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did not arrange, then, that Hubbard should be taken ill the night
+      before last?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had no idea,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;that the excellent Hubbard was not enjoying
+      his accustomed health.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;who or what is the origin of your vendetta
+      against the life of Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had no vendetta against the life of Prince Eugen,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;at
+      least, not to begin with. I merely undertook, for a consideration, to see
+      that Prince Eugen did not have an interview with a certain Mr Sampson Levi
+      in London before a certain date, that was all. It seemed simple enough. I
+      had been engaged in far more complicated transactions before. I was
+      convinced that I could manage it, with the help of Rocco and Em&mdash;and
+      Miss Spencer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is that woman your wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She would like to be,&rsquo; he sneered. &lsquo;Please don&rsquo;t interrupt. I had
+      completed my arrangements, when you so inconsiderately bought the hotel. I
+      don&rsquo;t mind admitting now that from the very moment when you came across me
+      that night in the corridor I was secretly afraid of you, though I scarcely
+      admitted the fact even to myself then. I thought it safer to shift the
+      scene of our operations to Ostend. I had meant to deal with Prince Eugen
+      in this hotel, but I decided, then, to intercept him on the Continent, and
+      I despatched Miss Spencer with some instructions. Troubles never come
+      singly, and it happened that just then that fool Dimmock, who had been in
+      the swim with us, chose to prove refractory. The slightest hitch would
+      have upset everything, and I was obliged to&mdash;to clear him off the
+      scene. He wanted to back out&mdash;he had a bad attack of conscience, and
+      violent measures were essential. I regret his untimely decease, but he
+      brought it on himself. Well, everything was going serenely when you and
+      your brilliant daughter, apparently determined to meddle, turned up again
+      among us at Ostend. Only twenty-four hours, however, had to elapse before
+      the date which had been mentioned to me by my employers. I kept poor
+      little Eugen for the allotted time, and then you managed to get hold of
+      him. I do not deny that you scored there, though, according to my original
+      instructions, you scored too late. The time had passed, and so, so far as
+      I knew, it didn&rsquo;t matter a pin whether Prince Eugen saw Mr Sampson Levi or
+      not. But my employers were still uneasy. They were uneasy even after
+      little Eugen had lain ill in Ostend for several weeks. It appears that
+      they feared that even at that date an interview between Prince Eugen and
+      Mr Sampson Levi might work harm to them. So they applied to me again. This
+      time they wanted Prince Eugen to be&mdash;em&mdash;finished off entirely.
+      They offered high terms.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What terms?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had received fifty thousand pounds for the first job, of which Rocco
+      had half. Rocco was also to be made a member of a certain famous European
+      order, if things went right. That was what he coveted far more than the
+      money&mdash;the vain fellow! For the second job I was offered a hundred
+      thousand. A tolerably large sum. I regret that I have not been able to
+      earn it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean to tell me,&rsquo; asked Racksole, horror-struck by this calm
+      confession, in spite of his previous knowledge, &lsquo;that you were offered a
+      hundred thousand pounds to poison Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You put it rather crudely,&rsquo; said Jules in reply. &lsquo;I prefer to say that I
+      was offered a hundred thousand pounds if Prince Eugen should die within a
+      reasonable time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who were your damnable employers?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That, honestly, I do not know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know, I suppose, who paid you the first fifty thousand pounds, and
+      who promised you the hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;I know vaguely. I know that he came via Vienna from&mdash;em&mdash;Bosnia.
+      My impression was that the affair had some bearing, direct or indirect, on
+      the projected marriage of the King of Bosnia. He is a young monarch,
+      scarcely out of political leading-strings, as it were, and doubtless his
+      Ministers thought that they had better arrange his marriage for him. They
+      tried last year, and failed because the Princess whom they had in mind had
+      cast her sparkling eyes on another Prince. That Prince happened to be
+      Prince Eugen of Posen. The Ministers of the King of Bosnia knew exactly
+      the circumstances of Prince Eugen. They knew that he could not marry
+      without liquidating his debts, and they knew that he could only liquidate
+      his debts through this Jew, Sampson Levi. Unfortunately for me, they
+      ultimately wanted to make too sure of Prince Eugen. They were afraid he
+      might after all arrange his marriage without the aid of Mr Sampson Levi,
+      and so&mdash;well, you know the rest.... It is a pity that the poor little
+      innocent King of Bosnia can&rsquo;t have the Princess of his Ministers&rsquo; choice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you think that the King himself had no part in this abominable
+      crime?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think decidedly not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad of that,&rsquo; said Racksole simply. &lsquo;And now, the name of your
+      immediate employer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was merely an agent. He called himself Sleszak&mdash;S-l-e-s-z-a-k.
+      But I imagine that that wasn&rsquo;t his real name. I don&rsquo;t know his real name.
+      An old man, he often used to be found at the Hôtel Ritz, Paris.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sleszak and I will meet,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in this world,&rsquo; said Jules quickly. &lsquo;He is dead. I heard only last
+      night&mdash;just before our little tussle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is well,&rsquo; said Racksole at length. &lsquo;Prince Eugen lives, despite all
+      plots. After all, justice is done.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole is here, but he can see no one, Miss.&rsquo; The words came from
+      behind the door, and the voice was the commissionaire&rsquo;s. Racksole started
+      up, and went towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense,&rsquo; was the curt reply, in feminine tones. &lsquo;Move aside instantly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened, and Nella entered. There were tears in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! Dad,&rsquo; she exclaimed, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve only just heard you were in the hotel. We
+      looked for you everywhere. Come at once, Prince Eugen is dying&mdash;&rsquo;
+      Then she saw the man sitting on the bed, and stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, when Jules was alone again, he remarked to himself, &lsquo;I may get that
+      hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Eight THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE MORE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN, immediately after the episode of the bottle of Romanée-Conti in the
+      State dining-room, Prince Aribert and old Hans found that Prince Eugen had
+      sunk in an unconscious heap over his chair, both the former thought, at
+      the first instant, that Eugen must have already tasted the poisoned wine.
+      But a moment&rsquo;s reflection showed that this was not possible. If the
+      Hereditary Prince of Posen was dying or dead, his condition was due to
+      some other agency than the Romanée-Conti. Aribert bent over him, and a
+      powerful odour from the man&rsquo;s lips at once disclosed the cause of the
+      disaster: it was the odour of laudanum. Indeed, the smell of that sinister
+      drug seemed now to float heavily over the whole table. Across Aribert&rsquo;s
+      mind there flashed then the true explanation. Prince Eugen, taking
+      advantage of Aribert&rsquo;s attention being momentarily diverted; and yielding
+      to a sudden impulse of despair, had decided to poison himself, and had
+      carried out his intention on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The laudanum must have been already in his pocket, and this fact went to
+      prove that the unfortunate Prince had previously contemplated such a
+      proceeding, even after his definite promise. Aribert remembered now with
+      painful vividness his nephew&rsquo;s words: &lsquo;I withdraw my promise. Observe that&mdash;I
+      withdraw it.&rsquo; It must have been instantly after the utterance of that
+      formal withdrawal that Eugen attempted to destroy himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s laudanum, Hans,&rsquo; Aribert exclaimed, rather helplessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Surely his Highness has not taken poison?&rsquo; said Hans. &lsquo;It is impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fear it is only too possible,&rsquo; said the other. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s laudanum. What are
+      we to do? Quick, man!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Highness must be roused, Prince. He must have an emetic. We had
+      better carry him to the bedroom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They did, and laid him on the great bed; and then Aribert mixed an emetic
+      of mustard and water, and administered it, but without any effect. The
+      sufferer lay motionless, with every muscle relaxed. His skin was ice-cold
+      to the touch, and the eyelids, half-drawn, showed that the pupils were
+      painfully contracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go out, and send for a doctor, Hans. Say that Prince Eugen has been
+      suddenly taken ill, but that it isn&rsquo;t serious. The truth must never be
+      known.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He must be roused, sire,&rsquo; Hans said again, as he hurried from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert lifted his nephew from the bed, shook him, pinched him, flicked
+      him cruelly, shouted at him, dragged him about, but to no avail. At length
+      he desisted, from mere physical fatigue, and laid the Prince back again on
+      the bed. Every minute that elapsed seemed an hour. Alone with the
+      unconscious organism in the silence of the great stately chamber, under
+      the cold yellow glare of the electric lights, Aribert became a prey to the
+      most despairing thoughts. The tragedy of his nephew&rsquo;s career forced itself
+      upon him, and it occurred to him that an early and shameful death had all
+      along been inevitable for this good-natured, weak-purposed, unhappy child
+      of a historic throne. A little good fortune, and his character, so evenly
+      balanced between right and wrong, might have followed the proper path, and
+      Eugen might have figured at any rate with dignity on the European stage.
+      But now it appeared that all was over, the last stroke played. And in this
+      disaster Aribert saw the ruin of his own hopes. For Aribert would have to
+      occupy his nephew&rsquo;s throne, and he felt instinctively that nature had not
+      cut him out for a throne. By a natural impulse he inwardly rebelled
+      against the prospect of monarchy. Monarchy meant so much for which he knew
+      himself to be entirely unfitted. It meant a political marriage, which
+      means a forced marriage, a union against inclination. And then what of
+      Nella&mdash;Nella!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans returned. &lsquo;I have sent for the nearest doctor, and also for a
+      specialist,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good,&rsquo; said Aribert. &lsquo;I hope they will hurry.&rsquo; Then he sat down and wrote
+      a card. &lsquo;Take this yourself to Miss Racksole. If she is out of the hotel,
+      ascertain where she is and follow her. Understand, it is of the first
+      importance.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans bowed, and departed for the second time, and Aribert was alone again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at Eugen, and made another frantic attempt to rouse him from the
+      deadly stupor, but it was useless. He walked away to the window: through
+      the opened casement he could hear the tinkle of passing hansoms on the
+      Embankment below, whistles of door-keepers, and the hoot of steam tugs on
+      the river. The world went on as usual, it appeared. It was an absurd
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He desired nothing better than to abandon his princely title, and live as
+      a plain man, the husband of the finest woman on earth.... But now!...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pah! How selfish he was, to be thinking of himself when Eugen lay dying.
+      Yet&mdash;Nella!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened, and a man entered, who was obviously the doctor. A few
+      curt questions, and he had grasped the essentials of the case. &lsquo;Oblige me
+      by ringing the bell, Prince. I shall want some hot water, and an
+      able-bodied man and a nurse.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who wants a nurse?&rsquo; said a voice, and Nella came quietly in. &lsquo;I am a
+      nurse,&rsquo; she added to the doctor, &lsquo;and at your orders.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next two hours were a struggle between life and death. The first
+      doctor, a specialist who followed him, Nella, Prince Aribert, and old Hans
+      formed, as it were, a league to save the dying man. None else in the hotel
+      knew the real seriousness of the case. When a Prince falls ill, and
+      especially by his own act, the precise truth is not issued broadcast to
+      the universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to official intelligence, a Prince is never seriously ill until
+      he is dead. Such is statecraft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The worst feature of Prince Eugen&rsquo;s case was that emetics proved futile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of the doctors could explain their failure, but it was only too
+      apparent. The league was reduced to helplessness. At last the great
+      specialist from Manchester Square gave it out that there was no chance for
+      Prince Eugen unless the natural vigour of his constitution should prove
+      capable of throwing off the poison unaided by scientific assistance, as a
+      drunkard can sleep off his potion. Everything had been tried, even to
+      artificial respiration and the injection of hot coffee. Having emitted
+      this pronouncement, the great specialist from Manchester Square left. It
+      was one o&rsquo;clock in the morning. By one of those strange and futile
+      coincidences which sometimes startle us by their subtle significance, the
+      specialist met Theodore Racksole and his captive as they were entering the
+      hotel. Neither had the least suspicion of the other&rsquo;s business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the State bedroom the small group of watchers surrounded the bed. The
+      slow minutes filed away in dreary procession. Another hour passed. Then
+      the figure on the bed, hitherto so motionless, twitched and moved; the
+      lips parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is hope,&rsquo; said the doctor, and administered a stimulant which was
+      handed to him by Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a quarter of an hour the patient had regained consciousness. For the
+      ten thousandth time in the history of medicine a sound constitution had
+      accomplished a miracle impossible to the accumulated medical skill of
+      centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In due course the doctor left, saying that Prince Eugen was &lsquo;on the high
+      road to recovery,&rsquo; and promising to come again within a few hours. Morning
+      had dawned. Nella drew the great curtains, and let in a flood of sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Hans, overcome by fatigue, dozed in a chair in a far corner of the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reaction had been too much for him. Nella and Prince Aribert looked at
+      each other. They had not exchanged a word about themselves, yet each knew
+      what the other had been thinking. They clasped hands with a perfect
+      understanding. Their brief love-making had been of the silent kind, and it
+      was silent now. No word was uttered. A shadow had passed from over them,
+      but only their eyes expressed relief and joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert!&rsquo; The faint call came from the bed. Aribert went to the bedside,
+      while Nella remained near the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it, Eugen?&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;You are better now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think so?&rsquo; murmured the other. &lsquo;I want you to forgive me for all
+      this, Aribert. I must have caused you an intolerable trouble. I did it so
+      clumsily; that is what annoys me. Laudanum was a feeble expedient; but I
+      could think of nothing else, and I daren&rsquo;t ask anyone for advice. I was
+      obliged to go out and buy the stuff for myself. It was all very awkward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, thank goodness, it has not been ineffectual.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Eugen? You are better. In a day or so you will be
+      perfectly recovered.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am dying,&rsquo; said Eugen quietly. &lsquo;Do not be deceived. I die because I
+      wish to die. It is bound to be so. I know by the feel of my heart. In a
+      few hours it will be over. The throne of Posen will be yours, Aribert. You
+      will fill it more worthily than I have done. Don&rsquo;t let them know over
+      there that I poisoned myself. Swear Hans to secrecy; swear the doctors to
+      secrecy; and breathe no word yourself. I have been a fool, but I do not
+      wish it to be known that I was also a coward. Perhaps it is not cowardice;
+      perhaps it is courage, after all&mdash;courage to cut the knot. I could
+      not have survived the disgrace of any revelations, Aribert, and
+      revelations would have been sure to come. I have made a fool of myself,
+      but I am ready to pay for it. We of Posen&mdash;we always pay&mdash;everything
+      except our debts. Ah! those debts! Had it not been for those I could have
+      faced her who was to have been my wife, to have shared my throne. I could
+      have hidden my past, and begun again. With her help I really could have
+      begun again. But Fate has been against me&mdash;always! always! By the
+      way, what was that plot against me, Aribert? I forget, I forget.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes closed. There was a sudden noise. Old Hans had slipped from his
+      chair to the floor. He picked himself up, dazed, and crept shamefacedly
+      out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert took his nephew&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense, Eugen! You are dreaming. You will be all right soon. Pull
+      yourself together.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;All because of a million,&rsquo; the sick man moaned. &lsquo;One miserable million
+      English pounds. The national debt of Posen is fifty millions, and I, the
+      Prince of Posen, couldn&rsquo;t borrow one. If I could have got it, I might have
+      held my head up again. Good-bye, Aribert.... Who is that girl?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked up. Nella was standing silent at the foot of the bed, her
+      eyes moist. She came round to the bedside, and put her hand on the
+      patient&rsquo;s heart. Scarcely could she feel its pulsation, and to Aribert her
+      eyes expressed a sudden despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Hans re-entered the room and beckoned to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have heard that Herr Racksole has returned to the hotel,&rsquo; he whispered,
+      &lsquo;and that he has captured that man Jules, who they say is such a villain.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several times during the night Nella inquired for her father, but could
+      gain no knowledge of his whereabouts. Now, at half-past six in the
+      morning, a rumour had mysteriously spread among the servants of the hotel
+      about the happenings of the night before. How it had originated no one
+      could have determined, but it had originated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where is my father?&rsquo; Nella asked of Hans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shrugged his shoulders, and pointed upwards. &lsquo;Somewhere at the top,
+      they say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella almost ran out of the room. Her interruption of the interview
+      between Jules and Theodore Racksole has already been described. As she
+      came downstairs with her father she said again, &lsquo;Prince Eugen is dying&mdash;but
+      I think you can save him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I?&rsquo; exclaimed Theodore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; she repeated positively. &lsquo;I will tell you what I want you to do,
+      and you must do it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Nine THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AS Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father&mdash;the
+      lifts had not yet begun to work&mdash;she drew him into her own room, and
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this all about?&rsquo; he asked, somewhat mystified, and even alarmed by
+      the extreme seriousness of her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dad,&rsquo; the girl began, &lsquo;you are very rich, aren&rsquo;t you? very, very rich?&rsquo;
+      She smiled anxiously, timidly. He did not remember to have seen that
+      expression on her face before. He wanted to make a facetious reply, but
+      checked himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I am. You ought to know that by this time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How soon could you realize a million pounds?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million&mdash;what?&rsquo; he cried. Even he was staggered by her calm
+      reference to this gigantic sum. &lsquo;What on earth are you driving at?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million pounds, I said. That is to say, five million dollars. How soon
+      could you realize as much as that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; he answered, &lsquo;in about a month, if I went about it neatly enough. I
+      could unload as much as that in a month without scaring Wall Street and
+      other places. But it would want some arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Useless!&rsquo; she exclaimed. &lsquo;Couldn&rsquo;t you do it quicker, if you really had
+      to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If I really had to, I could fix it in a week, but it would make things
+      lively, and I should lose on the job.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Couldn&rsquo;t you,&rsquo; she persisted, &lsquo;couldn&rsquo;t you go down this morning and
+      raise a million, somehow, if it was a matter of life and death?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated. &lsquo;Look here, Nella,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;what is it you&rsquo;ve got up your
+      sleeve?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just answer my question, Dad, and try not to think that I&rsquo;m a stark,
+      staring lunatic.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I rather expect I could get a million this morning, even in London. But
+      it would cost pretty dear. It might cost me fifty thousand pounds, and
+      there would be the dickens of an upset in New York&mdash;a sort of grand
+      universal slump in my holdings.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should New York know anything about it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should New York know anything about it!&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;My girl, when
+      anyone borrows a million sovereigns the whole world knows about it. Do you
+      reckon that I can go up to the Governors of the Bank of England and say,
+      &ldquo;Look here, lend Theodore Racksole a million for a few weeks, and he&rsquo;ll
+      give you an IOU and a covering note on stocks&rdquo;?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you could get it?&rsquo; she asked again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If there&rsquo;s a million in London I guess I could handle it,&rsquo; he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Dad,&rsquo; and she put her arms round his neck, &lsquo;you&rsquo;ve just got to go
+      out and fix it. See? It&rsquo;s for me. I&rsquo;ve never asked you for anything really
+      big before. But I do now. And I want it so badly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared at her. &lsquo;I award you the prize,&rsquo; he said, at length. &lsquo;You
+      deserve it for colossal and immense coolness. Now you can tell me the true
+      inward meaning of all this rigmarole. What is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want it for Prince Eugen,&rsquo; she began, at first hesitatingly, with
+      pauses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&rsquo;s ruined unless he can get a million to pay off his debts. He&rsquo;s
+      dreadfully in love with a Princess, and he can&rsquo;t marry her because of
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her parents wouldn&rsquo;t allow it. He was to have got it from Sampson Levi,
+      but he arrived too late&mdash;owing to Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know all about that&mdash;perhaps more than you do. But I don&rsquo;t see how
+      it affects you or me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The point is this, Dad,&rsquo; Nella continued. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s tried to commit suicide&mdash;he&rsquo;s
+      so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last night. It didn&rsquo;t kill
+      him straight off&mdash;he&rsquo;s got over the first shock, but he&rsquo;s in a very
+      weak state, and he means to die. And I truly believe he will die. Now, if
+      you could let him have that million, Dad, you would save his life.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella&rsquo;s item of news was a considerable and disconcerting surprise to
+      Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don&rsquo;t overmuch
+      respect your Prince Eugen. I&rsquo;ve done what I could for him&mdash;but only
+      for the sake of seeing fair play, and because I object to conspiracies and
+      secret murders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It&rsquo;s a different thing if he wants to kill himself. What I say is: Let
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who is responsible for his being in debt to the tune of a million pounds?
+      He&rsquo;s only got himself and his bad habits to thank for that. I suppose if
+      he does happen to peg out, the throne of Posen will go to Prince Aribert.
+      And a good thing, too! Aribert is worth twenty of his nephew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s just it, Dad,&rsquo; she said, eagerly following up her chance. &lsquo;I want
+      you to save Prince Eugen just because Aribert&mdash;Prince Aribert&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      wish to occupy the throne. He&rsquo;d much prefer not to have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Much prefer not to have it! Don&rsquo;t talk nonsense. If he&rsquo;s honest with
+      himself, he&rsquo;ll admit that he&rsquo;ll be jolly glad to have it. Thrones are in
+      his blood, so to speak.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are wrong, Father. And the reason is this: If Prince Aribert ascended
+      the throne of Posen he would be compelled to marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well! A Prince ought to marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he doesn&rsquo;t want to. He wants to give up all his royal rights, and
+      live as a subject. He wants to marry a woman who isn&rsquo;t a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is she rich?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Her father is,&rsquo; said the girl. &lsquo;Oh, Dad! can&rsquo;t you guess? He&mdash;he
+      loves me.&rsquo; Her head fell on Theodore&rsquo;s shoulder and she began to cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire whistled a very high note. &lsquo;Nell!&rsquo; he said at length. &lsquo;And
+      you? Do you sort of cling to him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dad,&rsquo; she answered, &lsquo;you are stupid. Do you imagine I should worry myself
+      like this if I didn&rsquo;t?&rsquo; She smiled through her tears. She knew from her
+      father&rsquo;s tone that she had accomplished a victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s a mighty queer arrangement,&rsquo; Theodore remarked. &lsquo;But of course if
+      you think it&rsquo;ll be of any use, you had better go down and tell your Prince
+      Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really needs it. I expect
+      there&rsquo;ll be decent security, or Sampson Levi wouldn&rsquo;t have mixed himself
+      up in it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks, Dad. Don&rsquo;t come with me; I may manage better alone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a formal little curtsey and disappeared. Racksole, who had the
+      talent, so necessary to millionaires, of attending to several matters at
+      once, the large with the small, went off to give orders about the
+      breakfast and the remuneration of his assistant of the evening before, Mr
+      George Hazell. He then sent an invitation to Mr Felix Babylon&rsquo;s room,
+      asking that gentleman to take breakfast with him. After he had related to
+      Babylon the history of Jules&rsquo; capture, and had a long discussion with him
+      upon several points of hotel management, and especially as to the guarding
+      of wine-cellars, Racksole put on his hat, sallied forth into the Strand,
+      hailed a hansom, and was driven to the City. The order and nature of his
+      operations there were too complex and technical to be described here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Nella returned to the State bedroom both the doctor and the great
+      specialist were again in attendance. The two physicians moved away from
+      the bedside as she entered, and began to talk quietly together in the
+      embrasure of the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A curious case!&rsquo; said the specialist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. Of course, as you say, it&rsquo;s a neurotic temperament that&rsquo;s at the
+      bottom of the trouble. When you&rsquo;ve got that and a vigorous constitution
+      working one against the other, the results are apt to be distinctly
+      curious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you consider there is any hope, Sir Charles?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If I had seen him when he recovered consciousness I should have said
+      there was hope. Frankly, when I left last night, or rather this morning, I
+      didn&rsquo;t expect to see the Prince alive again&mdash;let alone conscious, and
+      able to talk. According to all the rules of the game, he ought to get over
+      the shock to the system with perfect ease and certainty. But I don&rsquo;t think
+      he will. I don&rsquo;t think he wants to. And moreover, I think he is still
+      under the influence of suicidal mania. If he had a razor he would cut his
+      throat. You must keep his strength up. Inject, if necessary. I will come
+      in this afternoon. I am due now at St James&rsquo;s Palace.&rsquo; And the specialist
+      hurried away, with an elaborate bow and a few hasty words of polite
+      reassurances to Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside. &lsquo;Forget
+      everything, doctor,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;except that I am one man and you are
+      another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his Highness?
+      Tell me the truth.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no truth,&rsquo; was the doctor&rsquo;s reply. &lsquo;The future is not in our
+      hands, Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you are hopeful? Yes or no.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. &lsquo;No!&rsquo; he said shortly. &lsquo;I am not. I
+      am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean&mdash;?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have
+      observed that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only too well,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you are aware of the cause?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert nodded an affirmative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But cannot remove it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella&rsquo;s finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you choose,&rsquo; she said, when they were alone, &lsquo;Prince Eugen can be
+      saved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have arranged it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have arranged it?&rsquo; He bent over her, almost with an air of alarm. &lsquo;Go
+      and tell him that the million pounds which is so necessary to his
+      happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it will be forthcoming today,
+      if that will be any satisfaction to him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what do you mean by this, Nella?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean what I say, Aribert,&rsquo; and she sought his hand and took it in hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen&rsquo;s life, it is
+      at his disposal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But how&mdash;how have you managed it? By what miracle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My father,&rsquo; she replied softly, &lsquo;will do anything that I ask him. Do not
+      let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will be
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Go!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But we cannot accept this&mdash;this enormous, this incredible favour. It
+      is impossible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; she said quickly, &lsquo;remember you are not in Posen holding a
+      Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an American
+      girl who has always been in the habit of having her own way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom. The doctor
+      was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert approached the bedside,
+      his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted him with a faint, fatigued
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; he whispered, &lsquo;listen carefully to me. I have news. With the
+      assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for you. It
+      is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get better. Do you
+      hear me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugen almost sat up in bed. &lsquo;Tell me I am not delirious,&rsquo; he exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course you aren&rsquo;t,&rsquo; Aribert replied. &lsquo;But you mustn&rsquo;t sit up. You must
+      take care of yourself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who will lend the money?&rsquo; Eugen asked in a feeble, happy whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind. You shall hear later. Devote yourself now to getting better.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change in the patient&rsquo;s face was extraordinary. His mind seemed to
+      have put on an entirely different aspect. The doctor was startled to hear
+      him murmur a request for food. As for Aribert, he sat down, overcome by
+      the turmoil of his own thoughts. Till that moment he felt that he had
+      never appreciated the value and the marvellous power of mere money, of the
+      lucre which philosophers pretend to despise and men sell their souls for.
+      His heart almost burst in its admiration for that extraordinary Nella, who
+      by mere personal force had raised two men out of the deepest slough of
+      despair to the blissful heights of hope and happiness. &lsquo;These
+      Anglo-Saxons,&rsquo; he said to himself, &lsquo;what a race!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the afternoon Eugen was noticeably and distinctly better. The
+      physicians, puzzled for the third time by the progress of the case,
+      announced now that all danger was past. The tone of the announcement
+      seemed to Aribert to imply that the fortunate issue was due wholly to
+      unrivalled medical skill, but perhaps Aribert was mistaken. Anyhow, he was
+      in a most charitable mood, and prepared to forgive anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella,&rsquo; he said a little later, when they were by themselves again in the
+      ante-chamber, &lsquo;what am I to say to you? How can I thank you? How can I
+      thank your father?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You had better not thank my father,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Dad will affect to regard
+      the thing as a purely business transaction, as, of course, it is. As for
+      me, you can&mdash;you can&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Kiss me,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;There! Are you sure you&rsquo;ve formally proposed to me,
+      mon prince?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Nell!&rsquo; he exclaimed, putting his arms round her again. &lsquo;Be mine! That
+      is all I want!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ll find,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;that you&rsquo;ll want Dad&rsquo;s consent too!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will he make difficulties? He could not, Nell&mdash;not with you!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Better ask him,&rsquo; she said sweetly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment later Racksole himself entered the room. &lsquo;Going on all right?&rsquo; he
+      enquired, pointing to the bedroom. &lsquo;Excellently,&rsquo; the lovers answered
+      together, and they both blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Then, if that&rsquo;s so, and you can spare a minute, I&rsquo;ve
+      something to show you, Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Thirty CONCLUSION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;VE a great deal to tell you, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole began, as soon as they
+      were out of the room, &lsquo;and also, as I said, something to show you. Will
+      you come to my room? We will talk there first. The whole hotel is humming
+      with excitement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Glad his Highness Prince Eugen is recovering,&rsquo; Racksole said, urged by
+      considerations of politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! As to that&mdash;&rsquo; Aribert began. &lsquo;If you don&rsquo;t mind, we&rsquo;ll discuss
+      that later, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole interrupted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were in the proprietor&rsquo;s private room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to tell you all about last night,&rsquo; Racksole resumed, &lsquo;about my
+      capture of Jules, and my examination of him this morning.&rsquo; And he launched
+      into a full account of the whole thing, down to the least details. &lsquo;You
+      see,&rsquo; he concluded, &lsquo;that our suspicions as to Bosnia were tolerably
+      correct. But as regards Bosnia, the more I think about it, the surer I
+      feel that nothing can be done to bring their criminal politicians to
+      justice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And as to Jules, what do you propose to do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come this way,&rsquo; said Racksole, and led Aribert to another room. A sofa in
+      this room was covered with a linen cloth. Racksole lifted the cloth&mdash;he
+      could never deny himself a dramatic moment&mdash;and disclosed the body of
+      a dead man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jules, dead, but without a scratch or mark on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have sent for the police&mdash;not a street constable, but an official
+      from Scotland Yard,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How did this happen?&rsquo; Aribert asked, amazed and startled. &lsquo;I understood
+      you to say that he was safely immured in the bedroom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So he was,&rsquo; Racksole replied. &lsquo;I went up there this afternoon, chiefly to
+      take him some food. The commissionaire was on guard at the door. He had
+      heard no noise, nothing unusual. Yet when I entered the room Jules was
+      gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had by some means or other loosened his fastenings; he had then managed
+      to take the door off the wardrobe. He had moved the bed in front of the
+      window, and by pushing the wardrobe door three parts out of the window and
+      lodging the inside end of it under the rail at the head of the bed, he had
+      provided himself with a sort of insecure platform outside the window. All
+      this he did without making the least sound. He must then have got through
+      the window, and stood on the little platform. With his fingers he would
+      just be able to reach the outer edge of the wide cornice under the roof of
+      the hotel. By main strength of arms he had swung himself on to this
+      cornice, and so got on to the roof proper. He would then have the run of
+      the whole roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the side of the building facing Salisbury Lane there is an iron
+      fire-escape, which runs right down from the ridge of the roof into a
+      little sunk yard level with the cellars. Jules must have thought that his
+      escape was accomplished. But it unfortunately happened that one rung in
+      the iron escape-ladder had rusted rotten through being badly painted. It
+      gave way, and Jules, not expecting anything of the kind, fell to the
+      ground. That was the end of all his cleverness and ingenuity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Racksole ceased, speaking he replaced the linen cloth with a gesture
+      from which reverence was not wholly absent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the grave had closed over the dark and tempestuous career of Tom
+      Jackson, once the pride of the Grand Babylon, there was little trouble for
+      the people whose adventures we have described. Miss Spencer, that
+      yellow-haired, faithful slave and attendant of a brilliant scoundrel, was
+      never heard of again. Possibly to this day she survives, a mystery to her
+      fellow-creatures, in the pension of some cheap foreign boarding-house. As
+      for Rocco, he certainly was heard of again. Several years after the events
+      set down, it came to the knowledge of Felix Babylon that the unrivalled
+      Rocco had reached Buenos Aires, and by his culinary skill was there making
+      the fortune of a new and splendid hotel. Babylon transmitted the
+      information to Theodore Racksole, and Racksole might, had he chosen, have
+      put the forces of the law in motion against him. But Racksole, seeing that
+      everything pointed to the fact that Rocco was now pursuing his vocation
+      honestly, decided to leave him alone. The one difficulty which Racksole
+      experienced after the demise of Jules&mdash;and it was a difficulty which
+      he had, of course, anticipated&mdash;was connected with the police. The
+      police, very properly, wanted to know things. They desired to be informed
+      what Racksole had been doing in the Dimmock affair, between his first
+      visit to Ostend and his sending for them to take charge of Jules&rsquo; dead
+      body. And Racksole was by no means inclined to tell them everything.
+      Beyond question he had transgressed the laws of England, and possibly also
+      the laws of Belgium; and the moral excellence of his motives in doing so
+      was, of course, in the eyes of legal justice, no excuse for such conduct.
+      The inquest upon Jules aroused some bother; and about ninety-and-nine
+      separate and distinct rumours. In the end, however, a compromise was
+      arrived at. Racksole&rsquo;s first aim was to pacify the inspector whose clue,
+      which by the way was a false one, he had so curtly declined to follow up.
+      That done, the rest needed only tact and patience. He proved to the
+      satisfaction of the authorities that he had acted in a perfectly honest
+      spirit, though with a high hand, and that substantial justice had been
+      done. Also, he subtly indicated that, if it came to the point, he should
+      defy them to do their worst. Lastly, he was able, through the medium of
+      the United States Ambassador, to bring certain soothing influences to bear
+      upon the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, a fortnight after the recovery of the Hereditary Prince of
+      Posen, Aribert, who was still staying at the Grand Babylon, expressed a
+      wish to hold converse with the millionaire. Prince Eugen, accompanied by
+      Hans and some Court officials whom he had sent for, had departed with
+      immense éclat, armed with the comfortable million, to arrange formally for
+      his betrothal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Touching the million, Eugen had given satisfactory personal security, and
+      the money was to be paid off in fifteen years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to talk to me, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole to Aribert, when they were
+      seated together in the former&rsquo;s room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to tell you,&rsquo; replied Aribert, &lsquo;that it is my intention to
+      renounce all my rights and titles as a Royal Prince of Posen, and to be
+      known in future as Count Hartz&mdash;a rank to which I am entitled through
+      my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also that I have a private income of ten thousand pounds a year, and a
+      château and a town house in Posen. I tell you this because I am here to
+      ask the hand of your daughter in marriage. I love her, and I am vain
+      enough to believe that she loves me. I have already asked her to be my
+      wife, and she has consented. We await your approval.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You honour us, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole with a slight smile, &lsquo;and in more
+      ways than one. May I ask your reason for renouncing your princely titles?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Simply because the idea of a morganatic marriage would be as repugnant to
+      me as it would be to yourself and to Nella.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is good.&rsquo; The Prince laughed. &lsquo;I suppose it has occurred to you that
+      ten thousand pounds per annum, for a man in your position, is a somewhat
+      small income. Nella is frightfully extravagant. I have known her to spend
+      sixty thousand dollars in a single year, and have nothing to show for it
+      at the end. Why! she would ruin you in twelve months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella must reform her ways,&rsquo; Aribert said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If she is content to do so,&rsquo; Racksole went on, &lsquo;well and good! I
+      consent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In her name and my own, I thank you,&rsquo; said Aribert gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And,&rsquo; the millionaire continued, &lsquo;so that she may not have to reform too
+      fiercely, I shall settle on her absolutely, with reversion to your
+      children, if you have any, a lump sum of fifty million dollars, that is to
+      say, ten million pounds, in sound, selected railway stock. I reckon that
+      is about half my fortune. Nella and I have always shared equally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert made no reply. The two men shook hands in silence, and then it
+      happened that Nella entered the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, after dinner, Racksole and his friend Felix Babylon were
+      walking together on the terrace of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix had begun the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose, Racksole,&rsquo; he had said, &lsquo;you aren&rsquo;t getting tired of the Grand
+      Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you ask?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I am getting tired of doing without it. A thousand times since I
+      sold it to you I have wished I could undo the bargain. I can&rsquo;t bear
+      idleness. Will you sell?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I might,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I might be induced to sell.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What will you take, my friend?&rsquo; asked Felix
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What I gave,&rsquo; was the quick answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eh!&rsquo; Felix exclaimed. &lsquo;I sell you my hotel with Jules, with Rocco, with
+      Miss Spencer. You go and lose all those three inestimable servants, and
+      then offer me the hotel without them at the same price! It is monstrous.&rsquo;
+      The little man laughed heartily at his own wit. &lsquo;Nevertheless,&rsquo; he added,
+      &lsquo;we will not quarrel about the price. I accept your terms.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so was brought to a close the complex chain of events which had begun
+      when Theodore Racksole ordered a steak and a bottle of Bass at the table
+      d&rsquo;hôte of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
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+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Grand Babylon Hotel
+
+Author: Arnold Bennett
+
+Release Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2813]
+Last Updated: November 1, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND BABYLON HOTEL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THE GRAND BABYLON HÔTEL
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Arnold Bennett
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      <i>T. Racksole &amp; Daughter</i>
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter One. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter
+        Two. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter Three. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AT THREE A.M. <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter Four. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ENTRANCE OF THE
+        PRINCE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter Five. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;WHAT
+        OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter
+        Six. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE GOLD ROOM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007">
+        Chapter Seven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;NELLA AND THE PRINCE <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter Eight. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ARRIVAL AND
+        DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter
+        Nine. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter Ten. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;AT SEA <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter Eleven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE COURT
+        PAWNBROKER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter Twelve. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROCCO
+        AND ROOM NO. 111 <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter Thirteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE STATE BEDROOM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014">
+        Chapter Fourteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter Fifteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;END OF THE
+        YACHT ADVENTURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter Sixteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter Seventeen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE RELEASE OF
+        PRINCE EUGEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter Eighteen. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN
+        THE NIGHT-TIME <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter Nineteen.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter Twenty. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;MR SAMPSON LEVI
+        BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021">
+        Chapter Twenty-One. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON <br /><br />
+        <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter Twenty-Two. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;IN THE WINE
+        CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter
+        Twenty-Three. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0024"> Chapter Twenty-Four. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE BOTTLE OF
+        WINE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0025"> Chapter Twenty-Five. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        STEAM LAUNCH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0026"> Chapter Twenty-Six.
+        </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK <br /><br /> <a
+        href="#link2HCH0027"> Chapter Twenty-Seven. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+        CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0028"> Chapter
+        Twenty-Eight. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE
+        MORE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0029"> Chapter Twenty-Nine. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;THEODORE
+        IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0030"> Chapter
+        Thirty. </a>&nbsp;&nbsp;CONCLUSION <br /><br />
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter One THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;YES, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending
+      formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the
+      smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the corner by the
+      conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June night, and dinner
+      was about to be served at the Grand Babylon. Men of all sizes, ages, and
+      nationalities, but every one alike arrayed in faultless evening dress,
+      were dotted about the large, dim apartment. A faint odour of flowers came
+      from the conservatory, and the tinkle of a fountain. The waiters,
+      commanded by Jules, moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing
+      their trays with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing
+      orders with that air of profound importance of which only really
+      first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere was an atmosphere of
+      serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand Babylon. It seemed
+      impossible that anything could occur to mar the peaceful, aristocratic
+      monotony of existence in that perfectly-managed establishment. Yet on that
+      night was to happen the mightiest upheaval that the Grand Babylon had ever
+      known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, sir?&rsquo; repeated Jules, and this time there was a shade of august
+      disapproval in his voice: it was not usual for him to have to address a
+      customer twice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said the alert, middle-aged man, looking up at length. Beautifully
+      ignorant of the identity of the great Jules, he allowed his grey eyes to
+      twinkle as he caught sight of the expression on the waiter&rsquo;s face. &lsquo;Bring
+      me an Angel Kiss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bring me an Angel Kiss, and be good enough to lose no time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s an American drink, I fear we don&rsquo;t keep it, sir.&rsquo; The voice of
+      Jules fell icily distinct, and several men glanced round uneasily, as if
+      to deprecate the slightest disturbance of their calm. The appearance of
+      the person to whom Jules was speaking, however, reassured them somewhat,
+      for he had all the look of that expert, the travelled Englishman, who can
+      differentiate between one hotel and another by instinct, and who knows at
+      once where he may make a fuss with propriety, and where it is advisable to
+      behave exactly as at the club. The Grand Babylon was a hotel in whose
+      smoking-room one behaved as though one was at one&rsquo;s club.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t suppose you did keep it, but you can mix it, I guess, even in
+      this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t an American hotel, sir.&rsquo; The calculated insolence of the words
+      was cleverly masked beneath an accent of humble submission.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The alert, middle-aged man sat up straight, and gazed placidly at Jules,
+      who was pulling his famous red side-whiskers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Get a liqueur glass,&rsquo; he said, half curtly and half with good-humoured
+      tolerance, &lsquo;pour into it equal quantities of maraschino, cream, and crême
+      de menthe. Don&rsquo;t stir it; don&rsquo;t shake it. Bring it to me. And, I say, tell
+      the bar-tender&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bar-tender, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell the bar-tender to make a note of the recipe, as I shall probably
+      want an Angel Kiss every evening before dinner so long as this weather
+      lasts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will send the drink to you, sir,&rsquo; said Jules distantly. That was his
+      parting shot, by which he indicated that he was not as other waiters are,
+      and that any person who treated him with disrespect did so at his own
+      peril.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later, while the alert, middle-aged man was tasting the
+      Angel Kiss, Jules sat in conclave with Miss Spencer, who had charge of the
+      bureau of the Grand Babylon. This bureau was a fairly large chamber, with
+      two sliding glass partitions which overlooked the entrance-hall and the
+      smoking-room. Only a small portion of the clerical work of the great hotel
+      was performed there. The place served chiefly as the lair of Miss Spencer,
+      who was as well known and as important as Jules himself. Most modern
+      hotels have a male clerk to superintend the bureau. But the Grand Babylon
+      went its own way. Miss Spencer had been bureau clerk almost since the
+      Grand Babylon had first raised its massive chimneys to heaven, and she
+      remained in her place despite the vagaries of other hotels. Always
+      admirably dressed in plain black silk, with a small diamond brooch,
+      immaculate wrist-bands, and frizzed yellow hair, she looked now just as
+      she had looked an indefinite number of years ago. Her age&mdash;none knew
+      it, save herself and perhaps one other, and none cared. The gracious and
+      alluring contours of her figure were irreproachable; and in the evenings
+      she was a useful ornament of which any hotel might be innocently proud.
+      Her knowledge of Bradshaw, of steamship services, and the programmes of
+      theatres and music-halls was unrivalled; yet she never travelled, she
+      never went to a theatre or a music-hall. She seemed to spend the whole of
+      her life in that official lair of hers, imparting information to guests,
+      telephoning to the various departments, or engaged in intimate
+      conversations with her special friends on the staff, as at present.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s Number 107?&rsquo; Jules asked this black-robed lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer examined her ledgers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Theodore Racksole, New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought he must be a New Yorker,&rsquo; said Jules, after a brief,
+      significant pause, &lsquo;but he talks as good English as you or me. Says he
+      wants an &ldquo;Angel Kiss&rdquo;&mdash;maraschino and cream, if you please&mdash;every
+      night. I&rsquo;ll see he doesn&rsquo;t stop here too long.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer smiled grimly in response. The notion of referring to
+      Theodore Racksole as a &lsquo;New Yorker&rsquo; appealed to her sense of humour, a
+      sense in which she was not entirely deficient. She knew, of course, and
+      she knew that Jules knew, that this Theodore Racksole must be the unique
+      and only Theodore Racksole, the third richest man in the United States,
+      and therefore probably in the world. Nevertheless she ranged herself at
+      once on the side of Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as there was only one Racksole, so there was only one Jules, and Miss
+      Spencer instinctively shared the latter&rsquo;s indignation at the spectacle of
+      any person whatsoever, millionaire or Emperor, presuming to demand an
+      &lsquo;Angel Kiss&rsquo;, that unrespectable concoction of maraschino and cream,
+      within the precincts of the Grand Babylon. In the world of hotels it was
+      currently stated that, next to the proprietor, there were three gods at
+      the Grand Babylon&mdash;Jules, the head waiter, Miss Spencer, and, most
+      powerful of all, Rocco, the renowned chef, who earned two thousand a year,
+      and had a chalet on the Lake of Lucerne. All the great hotels in
+      Northumberland Avenue and on the Thames Embankment had tried to get Rocco
+      away from the Grand Babylon, but without success. Rocco was well aware
+      that even he could rise no higher than the maître d’hotel of the Grand
+      Babylon, which, though it never advertised itself, and didn&rsquo;t belong to a
+      limited company, stood an easy first among the hotels of Europe&mdash;first
+      in expensiveness, first in exclusiveness, first in that mysterious quality
+      known as &lsquo;style&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Situated on the Embankment, the Grand Babylon, despite its noble
+      proportions, was somewhat dwarfed by several colossal neighbours. It had
+      but three hundred and fifty rooms, whereas there are two hotels within a
+      quarter of a mile with six hundred and four hundred rooms respectively. On
+      the other hand, the Grand Babylon was the only hotel in London with a
+      genuine separate entrance for Royal visitors constantly in use. The Grand
+      Babylon counted that day wasted on which it did not entertain, at the
+      lowest, a German prince or the Maharajah of some Indian State. When Felix
+      Babylon&mdash;after whom, and not with any reference to London&rsquo;s nickname,
+      the hotel was christened&mdash;when Felix Babylon founded the hotel in
+      1869 he had set himself to cater for Royalty, and that was the secret of
+      his triumphant eminence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The son of a rich Swiss hotel proprietor and financier, he had contrived
+      to established a connection with the officials of several European Courts,
+      and he had not spared money in that respect. Sundry kings and not a few
+      princesses called him Felix, and spoke familiarly of the hotel as
+      &lsquo;Felix&rsquo;s&rsquo;; and Felix had found that this was very good for trade. The
+      Grand Babylon was managed accordingly. The &lsquo;note&rsquo; of its policy was
+      discretion, always discretion, and quietude, simplicity, remoteness. The
+      place was like a palace incognito. There was no gold sign over the roof,
+      not even an explanatory word at the entrance. You walked down a small side
+      street off the Strand, you saw a plain brown building in front of you,
+      with two mahogany swing doors, and an official behind each; the doors
+      opened noiselessly; you entered; you were in Felix&rsquo;s. If you meant to be a
+      guest, you, or your courier, gave your card to Miss Spencer. Upon no
+      consideration did you ask for the tariff. It was not good form to mention
+      prices at the Grand Babylon; the prices were enormous, but you never
+      mentioned them. At the conclusion of your stay a bill was presented, brief
+      and void of dry details, and you paid it without a word. You met with a
+      stately civility, that was all. No one had originally asked you to come;
+      no one expressed the hope that you would come again. The Grand Babylon was
+      far above such manoeuvres; it defied competition by ignoring it; and
+      consequently was nearly always full during the season.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If there was one thing more than another that annoyed the Grand Babylon&mdash;put
+      its back up, so to speak&mdash;it was to be compared with, or to be
+      mistaken for, an American hotel. The Grand Babylon was resolutely opposed
+      to American methods of eating, drinking, and lodging&mdash;but especially
+      American methods of drinking. The resentment of Jules, on being requested
+      to supply Mr Theodore Racksole with an Angel Kiss, will therefore be
+      appreciated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anybody with Mr Theodore Racksole?&rsquo; asked Jules, continuing his
+      conversation with Miss Spencer. He put a scornful stress on every syllable
+      of the guest&rsquo;s name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole&mdash;she&rsquo;s in No. 111.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules paused, and stroked his left whisker as it lay on his gleaming white
+      collar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She&rsquo;s where?&rsquo; he queried, with a peculiar emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. 111. I couldn&rsquo;t help it. There was no other room with a bathroom and
+      dressing-room on that floor.&rsquo; Miss Spencer&rsquo;s voice had an appealing tone
+      of excuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why didn&rsquo;t you tell Mr Theodore Racksole and Miss Racksole that we were
+      unable to accommodate them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because Babs was within hearing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only three people in the wide world ever dreamt of applying to Mr Felix
+      Babylon the playful but mean abbreviation&mdash;Babs: those three were
+      Jules, Miss Spencer, and Rocco. Jules had invented it. No one but he would
+      have had either the wit or the audacity to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;d better see that Miss Racksole changes her room to-night,&rsquo; Jules
+      said after another pause. &lsquo;Leave it to me: I&rsquo;ll fix it. Au revoir! It&rsquo;s
+      three minutes to eight. I shall take charge of the dining-room myself
+      to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Jules departed, rubbing his fine white hands slowly and meditatively.
+      It was a trick of his, to rub his hands with a strange, roundabout motion,
+      and the action denoted that some unusual excitement was in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eight o&rsquo;clock precisely dinner was served in the immense salle à manger,
+      that chaste yet splendid apartment of white and gold. At a small table
+      near one of the windows a young lady sat alone. Her frocks said Paris, but
+      her face unmistakably said New York. It was a self-possessed and
+      bewitching face, the face of a woman thoroughly accustomed to doing
+      exactly what she liked, when she liked, how she liked: the face of a woman
+      who had taught hundreds of gilded young men the true art of fetching and
+      carrying, and who, by twenty years or so of parental spoiling, had come to
+      regard herself as the feminine equivalent of the Tsar of All the Russias.
+      Such women are only made in America, and they only come to their full
+      bloom in Europe, which they imagine to be a continent created by
+      Providence for their diversion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young lady by the window glanced disapprovingly at the menu card. Then
+      she looked round the dining-room, and, while admiring the diners, decided
+      that the room itself was rather small and plain. Then she gazed through
+      the open window, and told herself that though the Thames by twilight was
+      passable enough, it was by no means level with the Hudson, on whose shores
+      her father had a hundred thousand dollar country cottage. Then she
+      returned to the menu, and with a pursing of lovely lips said that there
+      appeared to be nothing to eat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sorry to keep you waiting, Nella.&rsquo; It was Mr Racksole, the intrepid
+      millionaire who had dared to order an Angel Kiss in the smoke-room of the
+      Grand Babylon. Nella&mdash;her proper name was Helen&mdash;smiled at her
+      parent cautiously, reserving to herself the right to scold if she should
+      feel so inclined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You always are late, father,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only on a holiday,&rsquo; he added. &lsquo;What is there to eat?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then let&rsquo;s have it. I&rsquo;m hungry. I&rsquo;m never so hungry as when I&rsquo;m being
+      seriously idle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Consommé Britannia,&rsquo; she began to read out from the menu, &lsquo;Saumon
+      d&rsquo;Ecosse, Sauce Genoise, Aspics de Homard. Oh, heavens! Who wants these
+      horrid messes on a night like this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But, Nella, this is the best cooking in Europe,&rsquo; he protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Say, father,&rsquo; she said, with seeming irrelevance, &lsquo;had you forgotten it&rsquo;s
+      my birthday to-morrow?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have I ever forgotten your birthday, O most costly daughter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the whole you&rsquo;ve been a most satisfactory dad,&rsquo; she answered sweetly,
+      &lsquo;and to reward you I&rsquo;ll be content this year with the cheapest birthday
+      treat you ever gave me. Only I&rsquo;ll have it to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; he said, with the long-suffering patience, the readiness for any
+      surprise, of a parent whom Nella had thoroughly trained, &lsquo;what is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s this. Let&rsquo;s have filleted steak and a bottle of Bass for dinner
+      to-night. It will be simply exquisite. I shall love it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my dear Nella,&rsquo; he exclaimed, &lsquo;steak and beer at Felix&rsquo;s! It&rsquo;s
+      impossible! Moreover, young women still under twenty-three cannot be
+      permitted to drink Bass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I said steak and Bass, and as for being twenty-three, shall be going in
+      twenty-four to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Racksole set her small white teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a gentle cough. Jules stood over them. It must have been out of
+      a pure spirit of adventure that he had selected this table for his own
+      services. Usually Jules did not personally wait at dinner. He merely
+      hovered observant, like a captain on the bridge during the mate&rsquo;s watch.
+      Regular frequenters of the hotel felt themselves honoured when Jules
+      attached himself to their tables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole hesitated one second, and then issued the order with a
+      fine air of carelessness:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Filleted steak for two, and a bottle of Bass.&rsquo; It was the bravest act of
+      Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s life, and yet at more than one previous crisis a high
+      courage had not been lacking to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s not in the menu, sir,&rsquo; said Jules the imperturbable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind. Get it. We want it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very good, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules walked to the service-door, and, merely affecting to look behind,
+      came immediately back again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco&rsquo;s compliments, sir, and he regrets to be unable to serve steak
+      and Bass to-night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco?&rsquo; questioned Racksole lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco,&rsquo; repeated Jules with firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who is Mr Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Rocco is our chef, sir.&rsquo; Jules had the expression of a man who is
+      asked to explain who Shakespeare was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men looked at each other. It seemed incredible that Theodore
+      Racksole, the ineffable Racksole, who owned a thousand miles of railway,
+      several towns, and sixty votes in Congress, should be defied by a waiter,
+      or even by a whole hotel. Yet so it was. When Europe&rsquo;s effete back is
+      against the wall not a regiment of millionaires can turn its flank. Jules
+      had the calm expression of a strong man sure of victory. His face said:
+      &lsquo;You beat me once, but not this time, my New York friend!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Nella, knowing her father, she foresaw interesting events, and
+      waited confidently for the steak. She did not feel hungry, and she could
+      afford to wait.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Excuse me a moment, Nella,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole quietly, &lsquo;I shall be
+      back in about two seconds,&rsquo; and he strode out of the salle à manger. No
+      one in the room recognized the millionaire, for he was unknown to London,
+      this being his first visit to Europe for over twenty years. Had anyone
+      done so, and caught the expression on his face, that man might have
+      trembled for an explosion which should have blown the entire Grand Babylon
+      into the Thames.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the
+      antagonist&rsquo;s turn. A long and varied experience had taught Jules that a
+      guest who embarks on the subjugation of a waiter is almost always lost;
+      the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Two HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NEVERTHELESS, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own
+      way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had long
+      since fallen into that useful practice&mdash;except when his only daughter
+      Helen, motherless but high-spirited girl, chose to think that his way
+      crossed hers, in which case Theodore capitulated and fell back. But when
+      Theodore and his daughter happened to be going one and the same road,
+      which was pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle that was
+      so ill-advised as to stand in their path. Jules, great and observant man
+      though he was, had not noticed the terrible projecting chins of both
+      father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would have reconsidered
+      the question of the steak and Bass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel, and
+      entered Miss Spencer&rsquo;s sanctum.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to see Mr Babylon,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;without the delay of an instant.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am afraid&mdash;,&rsquo; she began the usual formula. It was part of her
+      daily duty to discourage guests who desired to see Mr Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, no,&rsquo; said Racksole quickly, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want any &ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraids.&rdquo; This is
+      business. If you had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have slipped
+      you a couple of sovereigns into your hand, and the thing would have been
+      done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As you are not&mdash;as you are obviously above bribes&mdash;I merely say
+      to you, I must see Mr Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost urgency.
+      My name is Racksole&mdash;Theodore Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of New York?&rsquo; questioned a voice at the door, with a slight foreign
+      accent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short, French-looking
+      man, with a bald head, a grey beard, a long and perfectly-built frock
+      coat, eye-glasses attached to a minute silver chain, and blue eyes that
+      seemed to have the transparent innocence of a maid&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is only one,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole succinctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to see me?&rsquo; the new-comer suggested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are Mr Felix Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man bowed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the world,&rsquo;
+      said Racksole. &lsquo;I am consumed and burnt up with a desire to see you, Mr
+      Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I only want a few minutes&rsquo; quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my business in
+      that time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a gesture Mr Babylon invited the millionaire down a side corridor, at
+      the end of which was Mr Babylon&rsquo;s private room, a miracle of Louis XV
+      furniture and tapestry: like most unmarried men with large incomes, Mr
+      Babylon had &lsquo;tastes&rsquo; of a highly expensive sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore Racksole
+      had met with the usual millionaire&rsquo;s luck in this adventure, for Mr
+      Babylon made a practice of not allowing himself to be interviewed by his
+      guests, however distinguished, however wealthy, however pertinacious. If
+      he had not chanced to enter Miss Spencer&rsquo;s office at that precise moment,
+      and if he had not been impressed in a somewhat peculiar way by the
+      physiognomy of the millionaire, not all Mr Racksole&rsquo;s American energy and
+      ingenuity would have availed for a confabulation with the owner of the
+      Grand Babylon Hôtel that night. Theodore Racksole, however, was ignorant
+      that a mere accident had served him. He took all the credit to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I read in the New York papers some months ago,&rsquo; Theodore started, without
+      even a clearing of the throat, &lsquo;that this hotel of yours, Mr Babylon, was
+      to be sold to a limited company, but it appears that the sale was not
+      carried out.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was not,&rsquo; answered Mr Babylon frankly, &lsquo;and the reason was that the
+      middle-men between the proposed company and myself wished to make a large
+      secret profit, and I declined to be a party to such a profit. They were
+      firm; I was firm; and so the affair came to nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The agreed price was satisfactory?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Quite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I ask what the price was?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you a buyer, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you a seller, Mr Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;on terms. The price was four hundred thousand
+      pounds, including the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell only on the
+      condition that the buyer does not transfer the property to a limited
+      company at a higher figure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will put one question to you, Mr Babylon,&rsquo; said the millionaire. &lsquo;What
+      have your profits averaged during the last four years?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thirty-four thousand pounds per annum.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I buy,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole, smiling contentedly; &lsquo;and we will, if you
+      please, exchange contract-letters on the spot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You come quickly to a resolution, Mr Racksole. But perhaps you have been
+      considering this question for a long time?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary,&rsquo; Racksole looked at his watch, &lsquo;I have been considering
+      it for six minutes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix Babylon bowed, as one thoroughly accustomed to eccentricity of
+      wealth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The beauty of being well-known,&rsquo; Racksole continued, &lsquo;is that you needn&rsquo;t
+      trouble about preliminary explanations. You, Mr Babylon, probably know all
+      about me. I know a good deal about you. We can take each other for granted
+      without reference. Really, it is as simple to buy an hotel or a railroad
+      as it is to buy a watch, provided one is equal to the transaction.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Precisely,&rsquo; agreed Mr Babylon smiling. &lsquo;Shall we draw up the little
+      informal contract? There are details to be thought of. But it occurs to me
+      that you cannot have dined yet, and might prefer to deal with minor
+      questions after dinner.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not dined,&rsquo; said the millionaire, with emphasis, &lsquo;and in that
+      connexion will you do me a favour? Will you send for Mr Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to see him, naturally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do,&rsquo; said the millionaire, and added, &lsquo;about my dinner.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco is a great man,&rsquo; murmured Mr Babylon as he touched the bell,
+      ignoring the last words. &lsquo;My compliments to Mr Rocco,&rsquo; he said to the page
+      who answered his summons, &lsquo;and if it is quite convenient I should be glad
+      to see him here for a moment.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you give Rocco?&rsquo; Racksole inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Two thousand a year and the treatment of an Ambassador.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall give him the treatment of an Ambassador and three thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will be wise,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Rocco came into the room, very softly&mdash;a man of forty,
+      thin, with long, thin hands, and an inordinately long brown silky
+      moustache.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon, &lsquo;let me introduce Mr Theodore Racksole, of
+      New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sharmed,&rsquo; said Rocco, bowing. &lsquo;Ze&mdash;ze, vat you call it,
+      millionaire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly,&rsquo; Racksole put in, and continued quickly: &lsquo;Mr Rocco, I wish to
+      acquaint you before any other person with the fact that I have purchased
+      the Grand Babylon Hôtel. If you think well to afford me the privilege of
+      retaining your services I shall be happy to offer you a remuneration of
+      three thousand a year.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tree, you said?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Three.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sharmed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, Mr Rocco, will you oblige me very much by ordering a plain
+      beefsteak and a bottle of Bass to be served by Jules&mdash;I particularly
+      desire Jules&mdash;at table No. 17 in the dining-room in ten minutes from
+      now? And will you do me the honour of lunching with me to-morrow?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Rocco gasped, bowed, muttered something in French, and departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five minutes later the buyer and seller of the Grand Babylon Hôtel had
+      each signed a curt document, scribbled out on the hotel note-paper. Felix
+      Babylon asked no questions, and it was this heroic absence of curiosity,
+      of surprise on his part, that more than anything else impressed Theodore
+      Racksole. How many hotel proprietors in the world, Racksole asked himself,
+      would have let that beef-steak and Bass go by without a word of comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From what date do you wish the purchase to take effect?&rsquo; asked Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh,&rsquo; said Racksole lightly, &lsquo;it doesn&rsquo;t matter. Shall we say from
+      to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As you will. I have long wished to retire. And now that the moment has
+      come&mdash;and so dramatically&mdash;I am ready. I shall return to
+      Switzerland. One cannot spend much money there, but it is my native land.
+      I shall be the richest man in Switzerland.&rsquo; He smiled with a kind of sad
+      amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you are fairly well off?&rsquo; said Racksole, in that easy familiar
+      style of his, as though the idea had just occurred to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Besides what I shall receive from you, I have half a million invested.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you will be nearly a millionaire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix Babylon nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I congratulate you, my dear sir,&rsquo; said Racksole, in the tone of a judge
+      addressing a newly-admitted barrister. &lsquo;Nine hundred thousand pounds,
+      expressed in francs, will sound very nice&mdash;in Switzerland.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course to you, Mr Racksole, such a sum would be poverty. Now if one
+      might guess at your own wealth?&rsquo; Felix Babylon was imitating the other&rsquo;s
+      freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know, to five millions or so, what I am worth,&rsquo; said Racksole,
+      with sincerity, his tone indicating that he would have been glad to give
+      the information if it were in his power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have had anxieties, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Still have them. I am now holiday-making in London with my daughter in
+      order to get rid of them for a time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is the purchase of hotels your notion of relaxation, then?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole shrugged his shoulders. &lsquo;It is a change from railroads,&rsquo; he
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, my friend, you little know what you have bought.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! yes I do,&rsquo; returned Racksole; &lsquo;I have bought just the first hotel in
+      the world.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is true, that is true,&rsquo; Babylon admitted, gazing meditatively at the
+      antique Persian carpet. &lsquo;There is nothing, anywhere, like my hotel. But
+      you will regret the purchase, Mr Racksole. It is no business of mine, of
+      course, but I cannot help repeating that you will regret the purchase.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never regret.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you will begin very soon&mdash;perhaps to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you say that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because the Grand Babylon is the Grand Babylon. You think because you
+      control a railroad, or an iron-works, or a line of steamers, therefore you
+      can control anything. But no. Not the Grand Babylon. There is something
+      about the Grand Babylon&mdash;&rsquo; He threw up his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Servants rob you, of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course. I suppose I lose a hundred pounds a week in that way. But it
+      is not that I mean. It is the guests. The guests are too&mdash;too
+      distinguished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great Ambassadors, the great financiers, the great nobles, all the men
+      that move the world, put up under my roof. London is the centre of
+      everything, and my hotel&mdash;your hotel&mdash;is the centre of London.
+      Once I had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at the same time.
+      Imagine that!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A great honour, Mr Babylon. But wherein lies the difficulty?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole,&rsquo; was the grim reply, &lsquo;what has become of your shrewdness&mdash;that
+      shrewdness which has made your fortune so immense that even you cannot
+      calculate it? Do you not perceive that the roof which habitually shelters
+      all the force, all the authority of the world, must necessarily also
+      shelter nameless and numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and
+      workers of mischief? The thing is as clear as day&mdash;and as dark as
+      night. Mr Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded. I never know
+      what is going forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange secrets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You mentioned my servants. They are almost all good servants, skilled,
+      competent. But what are they besides? For anything I know my fourth
+      sub-chef may be an agent of some European Government. For anything I know
+      my invaluable Miss Spencer may be in the pay of a court dressmaker or a
+      Frankfort banker. Even Rocco may be someone else in addition to Rocco.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That makes it all the more interesting,&rsquo; remarked Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What a long time you have been, Father,&rsquo; said Nella, when he returned to
+      table No. 17 in the salle à manger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only twenty minutes, my dove.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you said two seconds. There is a difference.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you see, I had to wait for the steak to cook.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did you have much trouble in getting my birthday treat?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No trouble. But it didn&rsquo;t come quite as cheap as you said.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Father?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only that I&rsquo;ve bought the entire hotel. But don&rsquo;t split.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, you always were a delicious parent. Shall you give me the hotel
+      for a birthday present?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. I shall run it&mdash;as an amusement. By the way, who is that chair
+      for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He noticed that a third cover had been laid at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is for a friend of mine who came in about five minutes ago. Of
+      course I told him he must share our steak. He&rsquo;ll be here in a moment.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I respectfully inquire his name?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock&mdash;Christian name Reginald; profession, English companion to
+      Prince Aribert of Posen. I met him when I was in St Petersburg with cousin
+      Hetty last fall. Oh; here he is. Mr Dimmock, this is my dear father. He
+      has succeeded with the steak.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole found himself confronted by a very young man, with deep
+      black eyes, and a fresh, boyish expression. They began to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules approached with the steak. Racksole tried to catch the waiter&rsquo;s eye,
+      but could not. The dinner proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Father!&rsquo; cried Nella, &lsquo;what a lot of mustard you have taken!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have I?&rsquo; he said, and then he happened to glance into a mirror on his
+      left hand between two windows. He saw the reflection of Jules, who stood
+      behind his chair, and he saw Jules give a slow, significant, ominous wink
+      to Mr Dimmock&mdash;Christian name, Reginald.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He examined his mustard in silence. He thought that perhaps he had helped
+      himself rather plenteously to mustard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Three AT THREE A.M.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MR REGINALD DIMMOCK proved himself, despite his extreme youth, to be a man
+      of the world and of experiences, and a practised talker. Conversation
+      between him and Nella Racksole seemed never to flag. They chattered about
+      St Petersburg, and the ice on the Neva, and the tenor at the opera who had
+      been exiled to Siberia, and the quality of Russian tea, and the sweetness
+      of Russian champagne, and various other aspects of Muscovite existence.
+      Russia exhausted, Nella lightly outlined her own doings since she had met
+      the young man in the Tsar&rsquo;s capital, and this recital brought the topic
+      round to London, where it stayed till the final piece of steak was eaten.
+      Theodore Racksole noticed that Mr Dimmock gave very meagre information
+      about his own movements, either past or future. He regarded the youth as a
+      typical hanger-on of Courts, and wondered how he had obtained his post of
+      companion to Prince Aribert of Posen, and who Prince Aribert of Posen
+      might be. The millionaire thought he had once heard of Posen, but he
+      wasn&rsquo;t sure; he rather fancied it was one of those small nondescript
+      German States of which five-sixths of the subjects are Palace officials,
+      and the rest charcoal-burners or innkeepers. Until the meal was nearly
+      over, Racksole said little&mdash;perhaps his thoughts were too busy with
+      Jules&rsquo; wink to Mr Dimmock, but when ices had been followed by coffee, he
+      decided that it might be as well, in the interests of the hotel, to
+      discover something about his daughter&rsquo;s friend. He never for an instant
+      questioned her right to possess her own friends; he had always left her in
+      the most amazing liberty, relying on her inherited good sense to keep her
+      out of mischief; but, quite apart from the wink, he was struck by Nella&rsquo;s
+      attitude towards Mr Dimmock, an attitude in which an amiable scorn was
+      blended with an evident desire to propitiate and please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella tells me, Mr Dimmock, that you hold a confidential position with
+      Prince Aribert of Posen,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;You will pardon an American&rsquo;s
+      ignorance, but is Prince Aribert a reigning Prince&mdash;what, I believe,
+      you call in Europe, a Prince Regnant?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Highness is not a reigning Prince, nor ever likely to be,&rsquo; answered
+      Dimmock. &lsquo;The Grand Ducal Throne of Posen is occupied by his Highness&rsquo;s
+      nephew, the Grand Duke Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nephew?&rsquo; cried Nella with astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not, dear lady?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Prince Aribert is surely very young?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Prince, by one of those vagaries of chance which occur sometimes in
+      the history of families, is precisely the same age as the Grand Duke. The
+      late Grand Duke&rsquo;s father was twice married. Hence this youthfulness on the
+      part of an uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How delicious to be the uncle of someone as old as yourself! But I
+      suppose it is no fun for Prince Aribert. I suppose he has to be
+      frightfully respectful and obedient, and all that, to his nephew?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Grand Duke and my Serene master are like brothers. At present, of
+      course, Prince Aribert is nominally heir to the throne, but as no doubt
+      you are aware, the Grand Duke will shortly marry a near relative of the
+      Emperor&rsquo;s, and should there be a family&mdash;&rsquo; Mr Dimmock stopped and
+      shrugged his straight shoulders. &lsquo;The Grand Duke,&rsquo; he went on, without
+      finishing the last sentence, &lsquo;would much prefer Prince Aribert to be his
+      successor. He really doesn&rsquo;t want to marry. Between ourselves, strictly
+      between ourselves, he regards marriage as rather a bore. But, of course,
+      being a German Grand Duke, he is bound to marry. He owes it to his
+      country, to Posen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How large is Posen?&rsquo; asked Racksole bluntly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father,&rsquo; Nella interposed laughing, &lsquo;you shouldn&rsquo;t ask such inconvenient
+      questions. You ought to have guessed that it isn&rsquo;t etiquette to inquire
+      about the size of a German Dukedom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am sure,&rsquo; said Dimmock, with a polite smile, &lsquo;that the Grand Duke is as
+      much amused as anyone at the size of his territory. I forget the exact
+      acreage, but I remember that once Prince Aribert and myself walked across
+      it and back again in a single day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then the Grand Duke cannot travel very far within his own dominions? You
+      may say that the sun does set on his empire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does,&rsquo; said Dimmock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unless the weather is cloudy,&rsquo; Nella put in. &lsquo;Is the Grand Duke content
+      always to stay at home?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the contrary, he is a great traveller, much more so than Prince
+      Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I may tell you, what no one knows at present, outside this hotel, that his
+      Royal Highness the Grand Duke, with a small suite, will be here
+      to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In London?&rsquo; asked Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! How lovely!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is why your humble servant is here to-night&mdash;a sort of advance
+      guard.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I understood,&rsquo; Racksole said, &lsquo;that you were&mdash;er&mdash;attached
+      to Prince Aribert, the uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am. Prince Aribert will also be here. The Grand Duke and the Prince
+      have business about important investments connected with the Grand Duke&rsquo;s
+      marriage settlement.... In the highest quarters, you understand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For so discreet a person,&rsquo; thought Racksole, &lsquo;you are fairly
+      communicative.&rsquo; Then he said aloud: &lsquo;Shall we go out on the terrace?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they crossed the dining-room Jules stopped Mr Dimmock and handed him a
+      letter. &lsquo;Just come, sir, by messenger,&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella dropped behind for a second with her father. &lsquo;Leave me alone with
+      this boy a little&mdash;there&rsquo;s a dear parent,&rsquo; she whispered in his ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am a mere cypher, an obedient nobody,&rsquo; Racksole replied, pinching her
+      arm surreptitiously. &lsquo;Treat me as such. Use me as you like. I will go and
+      look after my hotel&rsquo; And soon afterwards he disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella and Mr Dimmock sat together on the terrace, sipping iced drinks.
+      They made a handsome couple, bowered amid plants which blossomed at the
+      command of a Chelsea wholesale florist. People who passed by remarked
+      privately that from the look of things there was the beginning of a
+      romance in that conversation. Perhaps there was, but a more intimate
+      acquaintance with the character of Nella Racksole would have been
+      necessary in order to predict what precise form that romance would take.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules himself served the liquids, and at ten o&rsquo;clock he brought another
+      note. Entreating a thousand pardons, Reginald Dimmock, after he had
+      glanced at the note, excused himself on the plea of urgent business for
+      his Serene master, uncle of the Grand Duke of Posen. He asked if he might
+      fetch Mr Racksole, or escort Miss Racksole to her father. But Miss
+      Racksole said gaily that she felt no need of an escort, and should go to
+      bed. She added that her father and herself always endeavoured to be
+      independent of each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Theodore Racksole had found his way once more into Mr Babylon&rsquo;s
+      private room. Before arriving there, however, he had discovered that in
+      some mysterious manner the news of the change of proprietorship had worked
+      its way down to the lowest strata of the hotel&rsquo;s cosmos. The corridors
+      hummed with it, and even under-servants were to be seen discussing the
+      thing, just as though it mattered to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have a cigar, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said the urbane Mr Babylon, &lsquo;and a mouthful
+      of the oldest cognac in all Europe.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes these two were talking eagerly, rapidly. Felix Babylon
+      was astonished at Racksole&rsquo;s capacity for absorbing the details of hotel
+      management. And as for Racksole he soon realized that Felix Babylon must
+      be a prince of hotel managers. It had never occurred to Racksole before
+      that to manage an hotel, even a large hotel, could be a specially
+      interesting affair, or that it could make any excessive demands upon the
+      brains of the manager; but he came to see that he had underrated the
+      possibilities of an hotel. The business of the Grand Babylon was enormous.
+      It took Racksole, with all his genius for organization, exactly half an
+      hour to master the details of the hotel laundry-work. And the laundry-work
+      was but one branch of activity amid scores, and not a very large one at
+      that. The machinery of checking supplies, and of establishing a mean ratio
+      between the raw stuff received in the kitchen and the number of meals
+      served in the salle à manger and the private rooms, was very complicated
+      and delicate. When Racksole had grasped it, he at once suggested some
+      improvements, and this led to a long theoretical discussion, and the
+      discussion led to digressions, and then Felix Babylon, in a moment of
+      absent-mindedness, yawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole looked at the gilt clock on the high mantelpiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Great Scott!&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s three o&rsquo;clock. Mr Babylon, accept my
+      apologies for having kept you up to such an absurd hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not spent so pleasant an evening for many years. You have let me
+      ride my hobby to my heart&rsquo;s content. It is I who should apologize.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole rose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should like to ask you one question,&rsquo; said Babylon. &lsquo;Have you ever had
+      anything to do with hotels before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you have missed your vocation. You could have been the greatest of
+      all hotel-managers. You would have been greater than me, and I am
+      unequalled, though I keep only one hotel, and some men have half a dozen.
+      Mr Racksole, why have you never run an hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven knows,&rsquo; he laughed, &lsquo;but you flatter me, Mr Babylon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I? Flatter? You do not know me. I flatter no one, except, perhaps, now
+      and then an exceptionally distinguished guest. In which case I give
+      suitable instructions as to the bill.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Speaking of distinguished guests, I am told that a couple of German
+      princes are coming here to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Does one do anything? Does one receive them formally&mdash;stand bowing
+      in the entrance-hall, or anything of that sort?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not necessarily. Not unless one wishes. The modern hotel proprietor is
+      not like an innkeeper of the Middle Ages, and even princes do not expect
+      to see him unless something should happen to go wrong. As a matter of
+      fact, though the Grand Duke of Posen and Prince Aribert have both honoured
+      me by staying here before, I have never even set eyes on them. You will
+      find all arrangements have been made.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked a little longer, and then Racksole said good night. &lsquo;Let me
+      see you to your room. The lifts will be closed and the place will be
+      deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for myself, I sleep here,&rsquo; and Mr Babylon pointed to an inner door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, thanks,&rsquo; said Racksole; &lsquo;let me explore my own hotel unaccompanied. I
+      believe I can discover my room.&rsquo; When he got fairly into the passages,
+      Racksole was not so sure that he could discover his own room. The number
+      was 107, but he had forgotten whether it was on the first or second floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Travelling in a lift, one is unconscious of floors. He passed several
+      lift-doorways, but he could see no glint of a staircase; in all
+      self-respecting hotels staircases have gone out of fashion, and though
+      hotel architects still continue, for old sakes&rsquo; sake, to build staircases,
+      they are tucked away in remote corners where their presence is not likely
+      to offend the eye of a spoiled and cosmopolitan public. The hotel seemed
+      vast, uncanny, deserted. An electric light glowed here and there at long
+      intervals. On the thick carpets, Racksole&rsquo;s thinly-shod feet made no
+      sound, and he wandered at ease to and fro, rather amused, rather struck by
+      the peculiar senses of night and mystery which had suddenly come over him.
+      He fancied he could hear a thousand snores peacefully descending from the
+      upper realms. At length he found a staircase, a very dark and narrow one,
+      and presently he was on the first floor. He soon discovered that the
+      numbers of the rooms on this floor did not get beyond seventy. He
+      encountered another staircase and ascended to the second floor. By the
+      decoration of the walls he recognized this floor as his proper home, and
+      as he strolled through the long corridor he whistled a low, meditative
+      whistle of satisfaction. He thought he heard a step in the transverse
+      corridor, and instinctively he obliterated himself in a recess which held
+      a service-cabinet and a chair. He did hear a step. Peeping cautiously out,
+      he perceived, what he had not perceived previously, that a piece of white
+      ribbon had been tied round the handle of the door of one of the bedrooms.
+      Then a man came round the corner of the transverse corridor, and Racksole
+      drew back. It was Jules&mdash;Jules with his hands in his pockets and a
+      slouch hat over his eyes, but in other respects attired as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole, at that instant, remembered with a special vividness what Felix
+      Babylon had said to him at their first interview. He wished he had brought
+      his revolver. He didn&rsquo;t know why he should feel the desirability of a
+      revolver in a London hotel of the most unimpeachable fair fame, but he did
+      feel the desirability of such an instrument of attack and defence. He
+      privately decided that if Jules went past his recess he would take him by
+      the throat and in that attitude put a few plain questions to this highly
+      dubious waiter. But Jules had stopped. The millionaire made another
+      cautious observation. Jules, with infinite gentleness, was turning the
+      handle of the door to which the white ribbon was attached. The door slowly
+      yielded and Jules disappeared within the room. After a brief interval, the
+      night-prowling Jules reappeared, closed the door as softly as he had
+      opened it, removed the ribbon, returned upon his steps, and vanished down
+      the transverse corridor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is quaint,&rsquo; said Racksole; &lsquo;quaint to a degree!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to him to look at the number of the room, and he stole towards
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m d&mdash;d!&rsquo; he murmured wonderingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The number was 111, his daughter&rsquo;s room! He tried to open it, but the door
+      was locked. Rushing to his own room, No. 107, he seized one of a pair of
+      revolvers (the kind that are made for millionaires) and followed after
+      Jules down the transverse corridor. At the end of this corridor was a
+      window; the window was open; and Jules was innocently gazing out of the
+      window. Ten silent strides, and Theodore Racksole was upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One word, my friend,&rsquo; the millionaire began, carelessly waving the
+      revolver in the air. Jules was indubitably startled, but by an admirable
+      exercise of self-control he recovered possession of his faculties in a
+      second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sir?&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I just want to be informed, what the deuce you were doing in No. 111 a
+      moment ago.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had been requested to go there,&rsquo; was the calm response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a liar, and not a very clever one. That is my daughter&rsquo;s room.
+      Now&mdash;out with it, before I decide whether to shoot you or throw you
+      into the street.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Excuse me, sir, No. 111 is occupied by a gentleman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I advise you that it is a serious error of judgement to contradict me, my
+      friend. Don&rsquo;t do it again. We will go to the room together, and you shall
+      prove that the occupant is a gentleman, and not my daughter.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, sir,&rsquo; said Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Scarcely that,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he took Jules by the sleeve. The
+      millionaire knew for a certainty that Nella occupied No. 111, for he had
+      examined the room with her, and himself seen that her trunks and her maid and
+      herself had arrived there in safety. &lsquo;Now open the door,&rsquo; whispered
+      Racksole, when they reached No.111.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must knock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just what you mustn&rsquo;t do. Open it. No doubt you have your
+      pass-key.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Confronted by the revolver, Jules readily obeyed, yet with a deprecatory
+      gesture, as though he would not be responsible for this outrage against
+      the decorum of hotel life. Racksole entered. The room was brilliantly
+      lighted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A visitor, who insists on seeing you, sir,&rsquo; said Jules, and fled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Reginald Dimmock, still in evening dress, and smoking a cigarette, rose
+      hurriedly from a table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hello, my dear Mr Racksole, this is an unexpected&mdash;ah&mdash;pleasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where is my daughter? This is her room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did I catch what you said, Mr Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I venture to remark that this is Miss Racksole&rsquo;s room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My good sir,&rsquo; answered Dimmock, &lsquo;you must be mad to dream of such a
+      thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only my respect for your daughter prevents me from expelling you forcibly,
+      for such an extraordinary suggestion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small spot half-way down the bridge of the millionaire&rsquo;s nose turned
+      suddenly white.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With your permission,&rsquo; he said in a low calm voice, &lsquo;I will examine the
+      dressing-room and the bath-room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just listen to me a moment,&rsquo; Dimmock urged, in a milder tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll listen to you afterwards, my young friend,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he
+      proceeded to search the bath-room, and the dressing-room, without any
+      result whatever. &lsquo;Lest my attitude might be open to misconstruction, Mr
+      Dimmock, I may as well tell you that I have the most perfect confidence in
+      my daughter, who is as well able to take care of herself as any woman I
+      ever met, but since you entered it there have been one or two rather
+      mysterious occurrences in this hotel. That is all.&rsquo; Feeling a draught of
+      air on his shoulder, Racksole turned to the window. &lsquo;For instance,&rsquo; he
+      added, &lsquo;I perceive that this window is broken, badly broken, and from the
+      outside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, how could that have occurred?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you will kindly hear reason, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Dimmock in his best
+      diplomatic manner, &lsquo;I will endeavour to explain things to you. I regarded
+      your first question to me when you entered my room as being offensively
+      put, but I now see that you had some justification.&rsquo; He smiled politely.
+      &lsquo;I was passing along this corridor about eleven o&rsquo;clock, when I found Miss
+      Racksole in a difficulty with the hotel servants. Miss Racksole was
+      retiring to rest in this room when a large stone, which must have been
+      thrown from the Embankment, broke the window, as you see. Apart from the
+      discomfort of the broken window, she did not care to remain in the room.
+      She argued that where one stone had come another might follow. She
+      therefore insisted on her room being changed. The servants said that there
+      was no other room available with a dressing-room and bath-room attached,
+      and your daughter made a point of these matters. I at once offered to
+      exchange apartments with her. She did me the honour to accept my offer.
+      Our respective belongings were moved&mdash;and that is all. Miss Racksole
+      is at this moment, I trust, asleep in No. 124.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole looked at the young man for a few seconds in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a faint knock at the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come in,&rsquo; said Racksole loudly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Someone pushed open the door, but remained standing on the mat. It was
+      Nella&rsquo;s maid, in a dressing-gown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole&rsquo;s compliments, and a thousand excuses, but a book of hers
+      was left on the mantelshelf in this room. She cannot sleep, and wishes to
+      read.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Dimmock, I tender my apologies&mdash;my formal apologies,&rsquo; said
+      Racksole, when the girl had gone away with the book. &lsquo;Good night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray don&rsquo;t mention it,&rsquo; said Dimmock suavely&mdash;and bowed him out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Four ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      NEVERTHELESS, sundry small things weighed on Racksole&rsquo;s mind. First there
+      was Jules&rsquo; wink. Then there was the ribbon on the door-handle and Jules&rsquo;
+      visit to No. 111, and the broken window&mdash;broken from the outside.
+      Racksole did not forget that the time was 3 a.m. He slept but little that
+      night, but he was glad that he had bought the Grand Babylon Hôtel. It was
+      an acquisition which seemed to promise fun and diversion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning he came across Mr Babylon early. &lsquo;I have emptied my
+      private room of all personal papers,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;and it is now at your
+      disposal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I purpose, if agreeable to yourself, to stay on in the hotel as a guest
+      for the present. We have much to settle with regard to the completion of
+      the purchase, and also there are things which you might want to ask me.
+      Also, to tell the truth, I am not anxious to leave the old place with too
+      much suddenness. It will be a wrench to me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall be delighted if you will stay,&rsquo; said the millionaire, &lsquo;but it
+      must be as my guest, not as the guest of the hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are very kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As for wishing to consult you, no doubt I shall have need to do so, but I
+      must say that the show seems to run itself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Babylon thoughtfully. &lsquo;I have heard of hotels that run
+      themselves. If they do, you may be sure that they obey the laws of gravity
+      and run downwards. You will have your hands full. For example, have you
+      yet heard about Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;What of her?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She has mysteriously vanished during the night, and nobody appears to be
+      able to throw any light on the affair. Her room is empty, her boxes gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will want someone to take her place, and that someone will not be very
+      easy to get.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;H&rsquo;m!&rsquo; Racksole said, after a pause. &lsquo;Hers is not the only post that falls
+      vacant to-day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little later, the millionaire installed himself in the late owner&rsquo;s
+      private room and rang the bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want Jules,&rsquo; he said to the page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While waiting for Jules, Racksole considered the question of Miss
+      Spencer&rsquo;s disappearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, Jules,&rsquo; was his cheerful greeting, when the imperturbable
+      waiter arrived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Take a chair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thank you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have met before this morning, Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, sir, at 3 a.m.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rather strange about Miss Spencer&rsquo;s departure, is it not?&rsquo; suggested
+      Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is remarkable, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are aware, of course, that Mr Babylon has transferred all his
+      interests in this hotel to me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have been informed to that effect, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you know everything that goes on in the hotel, Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As the head waiter, sir, it is my business to keep a general eye on
+      things.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You speak very good English for a foreigner, Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For a foreigner, sir! I am an Englishman, a Hertfordshire man born and
+      bred. Perhaps my name has misled you, sir. I am only called Jules because
+      the head waiter of any really high-class hotel must have either a French
+      or an Italian name.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I think you must be rather a clever person,
+      Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is not for me to say, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long has the hotel enjoyed the advantage of your services?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A little over twenty years.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a long time to be in one place. Don&rsquo;t you think it&rsquo;s time you got
+      out of the rut? You are still young, and might make a reputation for
+      yourself in another and wider sphere.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole looked at the man steadily, and his glance was steadily returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You aren&rsquo;t satisfied with me, sir?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To be frank, Jules, I think&mdash;I think you&mdash;er&mdash;wink too
+      much. And I think that it is regrettable when a head waiter falls into a
+      habit of taking white ribbons from the handles of bedroom doors at three
+      in the morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules started slightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see how it is, sir. You wish me to go, and one pretext, if I may use
+      the term, is as good as another. Very well, I can&rsquo;t say that I&rsquo;m
+      surprised. It sometimes happens that there is incompatibility of temper
+      between a hotel proprietor and his head waiter, and then, unless one of
+      them goes, the hotel is likely to suffer. I will go, Mr Racksole. In fact,
+      I had already thought of giving notice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire smiled appreciatively. &lsquo;What wages do you require in lieu
+      of notice? It is my intention that you leave the hotel within an hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I require no wages in lieu of notice, sir. I would scorn to accept
+      anything. And I will leave the hotel in fifteen minutes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-day, then. You have my good wishes and my admiration, so long as you
+      keep out of my hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole got up. &lsquo;Good-day, sir. And thank you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By the way, Jules, it will be useless for you to apply to any other
+      first-rate European hotel for a post, because I shall take measures which
+      will ensure the rejection of any such application.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Without discussing the question whether or not there aren&rsquo;t at least half
+      a dozen hotels in London alone that would jump for joy at the chance of
+      getting me,&rsquo; answered Jules, &lsquo;I may tell you, sir, that I shall retire
+      from my profession.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Really! You will turn your brains to a different channel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, sir. I shall take rooms in Albemarle Street or Jermyn Street, and
+      just be content to be a man-about-town. I have saved some twenty thousand
+      pounds&mdash;a mere trifle, but sufficient for my needs, and I shall now
+      proceed to enjoy it. Pardon me for troubling you with my personal affairs.
+      And good-day again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon Racksole went with Felix Babylon first to a firm of
+      solicitors in the City, and then to a stockbroker, in order to carry out
+      the practical details of the purchase of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean to settle in England,&rsquo; said Racksole, as they were coming back.
+      &lsquo;It is the only country&mdash;&rsquo; and he stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The only country?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The only country where you can invest money and spend money with a
+      feeling of security. In the United States there is nothing worth spending
+      money on, nothing to buy. In France or Italy, there is no real security.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely you are a true American?&rsquo; questioned Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am a true American,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;but my father, who began by being
+      a bedmaker at an Oxford college, and ultimately made ten million dollars
+      out of iron in Pittsburg&mdash;my father took the wise precaution of
+      having me educated in England. I had my three years at Oxford, like any
+      son of the upper middle class! It did me good. It has been worth more to
+      me than many successful speculations. It taught me that the English
+      language is different from, and better than, the American language, and
+      that there is something&mdash;I haven&rsquo;t yet found out exactly what&mdash;in
+      English life that Americans will never get. Why,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;in the United
+      States we still bribe our judges and our newspapers. And we talk of the
+      eighteenth century as though it was the beginning of the world. Yes, I
+      shall transfer my securities to London. I shall build a house in Park
+      Lane, and I shall buy some immemorial country seat with a history as long
+      as the A. T. and S. railroad, and I shall calmly and gradually settle
+      down. D&rsquo;you know&mdash;I am rather a good-natured man for a millionaire,
+      and of a social disposition, and yet I haven&rsquo;t six real friends in the
+      whole of New York City. Think of that!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And I,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;have no friends except the friends of my boyhood
+      in Lausanne. I have spent thirty years in England, and gained nothing but
+      a perfect knowledge of the English language and as much gold coin as would
+      fill a rather large box.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two plutocrats breathed a simultaneous sigh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Talking of gold coin,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;how much money should you think
+      Jules has contrived to amass while he has been with you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; Babylon smiled. &lsquo;I should not like to guess. He has had unique
+      opportunities&mdash;opportunities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Should you consider twenty thousand an extraordinary sum under the
+      circumstances?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all. Has he been confiding in you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Somewhat. I have dismissed him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have dismissed him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no reason why not. But I have felt inclined to dismiss him for
+      the past ten years, and never found courage to do it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was a perfectly simple proceeding, I assure you. Before I had done
+      with him, I rather liked the fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer and Jules&mdash;both gone in one day!&rsquo; mused Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And no one to take their places,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;And yet the hotel
+      continues its way!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when Racksole reached the Grand Babylon he found that Miss Spencer&rsquo;s
+      chair in the bureau was occupied by a stately and imperious girl, dressed
+      becomingly in black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heavens, Nella!&rsquo; he cried, going to the bureau. &lsquo;What are you doing
+      here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am taking Mis Spencer&rsquo;s place. I want to help you with your hotel, Dad.
+      I fancy I shall make an excellent hotel clerk. I have arranged with a Miss
+      Selina Smith, one of the typists in the office, to put me up to all the
+      tips and tricks, and I shall do very well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But look here, Helen Racksole. We shall have the whole of London talking
+      about this thing&mdash;the greatest of all American heiresses a hotel
+      clerk! And I came here for quiet and rest!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose it was for the sake of quiet and rest that you bought the
+      hotel, Papa?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You would insist on the steak,&rsquo; he retorted. &lsquo;Get out of this, on the
+      instant.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Here I am, here to stay,&rsquo; said Nella, and deliberately laughed at her
+      parent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the face of a fair-haired man of about thirty years appeared at
+      the bureau window. He was very well-dressed, very aristocratic in his
+      pose, and he seemed rather angry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked fixedly at Nella and started back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ach!&rsquo; he exclaimed. &lsquo;You!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, your Highness, it is indeed I. Father, this is his Serene Highness
+      Prince Aribert of Posen&mdash;one of our most esteemed customers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know my name, Fräulein?&rsquo; the new-comer murmured in German.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly, Prince,&rsquo; Nella replied sweetly. &lsquo;You were plain Count
+      Steenbock last spring in Paris&mdash;doubtless travelling incognito&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Silence,&rsquo; he entreated, with a wave of the hand, and his forehead went as
+      white as paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Five WHAT OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IN another moment they were all three talking quite nicely, and with at
+      any rate an appearance of being natural. Prince Aribert became suave, even
+      deferential to Nella, and more friendly towards Nella&rsquo;s father than their
+      respective positions demanded. The latter amused himself by studying this
+      sprig of royalty, the first with whom he had ever come into contact. He
+      decided that the young fellow was personable enough, &lsquo;had no frills on
+      him,&rsquo; and would make an exceptionally good commercial traveller for a
+      first-class firm. Such was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s preliminary estimate of the
+      man who might one day be the reigning Grand Duke of Posen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It occurred to Nella, and she smiled at the idea, that the bureau of the
+      hotel was scarcely the correct place in which to receive this august young
+      man. There he stood, with his head half-way through the bureau window,
+      negligently leaning against the woodwork, just as though he were a
+      stockbroker or the manager of a New York burlesque company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is your Highness travelling quite alone?&rsquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By a series of accidents I am,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;My equerry was to have met me
+      at Charing Cross, but he failed to do so&mdash;I cannot imagine why.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Dimmock?&rsquo; questioned Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Dimmock. I do not remember that he ever missed an appointment
+      before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know him? He has been here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He dined with us last night,&rsquo; said Racksole&mdash;&lsquo;on Nella&rsquo;s
+      invitation,&rsquo; he added maliciously; &lsquo;but to-day we have seen nothing of
+      him. I know, however, that he has engaged the State apartments, and also a
+      suite adjoining the State apartments&mdash;No. 55. That is so, isn&rsquo;t it,
+      Nella?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Papa,&rsquo; she said, having first demurely examined a ledger. &lsquo;Your
+      Highness would doubtless like to be conducted to your room&mdash;apartments
+      I mean.&rsquo; Then Nella laughed deliberately at the Prince, and said, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t
+      know who is the proper person to conduct you, and that&rsquo;s a fact. The truth
+      is that Papa and I are rather raw yet in the hotel line. You see, we only
+      bought the place last night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have bought the hotel!&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s so,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Felix Babylon has gone?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is going, if he has not already gone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! I see,&rsquo; said the Prince; &lsquo;this is one of your American &ldquo;strokes&rdquo;. You
+      have bought to sell again, is that not it? You are on your holidays, but
+      you cannot resist making a few thousands by way of relaxation. I have
+      heard of such things.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t sell again, Prince, until we are tired of our bargain.
+      Sometimes we tire very quickly, and sometimes we don&rsquo;t. It depends&mdash;eh?
+      What?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole broke off suddenly to attend to a servant in livery who had
+      quietly entered the bureau and was making urgent mysterious signs to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you please, sir,&rsquo; the man by frantic gestures implored Mr Theodore
+      Racksole to come out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pray don&rsquo;t let me detain you, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said the Prince, and
+      therefore the proprietor of the Grand Babylon departed after the servant,
+      with a queer, curt little bow to Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mayn&rsquo;t I come inside?&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella immediately the
+      millionaire had gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, Prince,&rsquo; Nella laughed. &lsquo;The rule against visitors entering
+      this bureau is frightfully strict.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you know the rule is so strict if you only came into possession
+      last night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know because I made the rule myself this morning, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But seriously, Miss Racksole, I want to talk to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you want to talk to me as Prince Aribert or as the friend&mdash;the
+      acquaintance&mdash;whom I knew in Paris last year?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As the friend, dear lady, if I may use the term.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you are sure that you would not like first to be conducted to your
+      apartments?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not yet. I will wait till Dimmock comes; he cannot fail to be here soon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then we will have tea served in father&rsquo;s private room&mdash;the
+      proprietor&rsquo;s private room, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good!&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella talked through a telephone, and rang several bells, and behaved
+      generally in a manner calculated to prove to Princes and to whomever it
+      might concern that she was a young woman of business instincts and
+      training, and then she stepped down from her chair of office, emerged from
+      the bureau, and, preceded by two menials, led Prince Aribert to the Louis
+      XV chamber in which her father and Felix Babylon had had their long
+      confabulation on the previous evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you want to talk to me about?&rsquo; she asked her companion, as she
+      poured out for him a second cup of tea. The Prince looked at her for a
+      moment as he took the proffered cup, and being a young man of sane,
+      healthy, instincts, he could think of nothing for the moment except her
+      loveliness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella was indeed beautiful that afternoon. The beauty of even the most
+      beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella&rsquo;s this afternoon
+      was at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious, and yet ineffably sweet,
+      she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have forgotten,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you? You gave me to
+      understand that it was something terribly important. But of course I knew
+      it couldn&rsquo;t be, because no man, and especially no Prince, ever discussed
+      anything really important with a woman.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Recollect, Miss Racksole, that this afternoon, here, I am not the
+      Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are Count Steenbock, is that it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He started. &lsquo;For you only,&rsquo; he said, unconsciously lowering his voice.
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole, I particularly wish that no one here should know that I
+      was in Paris last spring.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;An affair of State?&rsquo; she smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;An affair of State,&rsquo; he replied soberly. &lsquo;Even Dimmock doesn&rsquo;t know. It
+      was strange that we should be fellow guests at that quiet out-of-the-way
+      hotel&mdash;strange but delightful. I shall never forget that rainy
+      afternoon that we spent together in the Museum of the Trocadéro. Let us
+      talk about that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;About the rain, or the museum?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall never forget that afternoon,&rsquo; he repeated, ignoring the lightness
+      of her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nor I,&rsquo; she murmured corresponding to his mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You, too enjoyed it?&rsquo; he said eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The sculptures were magnificent,&rsquo; she replied, hastily glancing at the
+      ceiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! So they were! Tell me, Miss Racksole, how did you discover my
+      identity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must not say,&rsquo; she answered. &lsquo;That is my secret. Do not seek to
+      penetrate it. Who knows what horrors you might discover if you probed too
+      far?&rsquo; She laughed, but she laughed alone. The Prince remained pensive&mdash;as
+      it were brooding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never hoped to see you again,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One never sees again those whom one wishes to see.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As for me, I was perfectly convinced that we should meet again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I always get what I want.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you wanted to see me again?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another man who
+      could talk so well about sculpture as the Count Steenbock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is because your father is so rich, I suppose?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, no, it isn&rsquo;t!&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s simply because I always do get what I
+      want. It&rsquo;s got nothing to do with Father at all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Mr Racksole is extremely wealthy?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Wealthy isn&rsquo;t the word, Count. There is no word. It&rsquo;s positively awful
+      the amount of dollars poor Papa makes. And the worst of it is he can&rsquo;t
+      help it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power on earth
+      could stop those ten millions from growing into twenty. And so it
+      continues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I spend what I can, but I can&rsquo;t come near coping with it; and of course
+      Papa is no use whatever at spending.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you have no mother?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who told you I had no mother?&rsquo; she asked quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&mdash;er&mdash;inquired about you,&rsquo; he said, with equal candour and
+      humility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In spite of the fact that you never hoped to see me again?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, in spite of that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How funny!&rsquo; she said, and lapsed into a meditative silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yours must be a wonderful existence,&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;I envy you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You envy me&mdash;what? My father&rsquo;s wealth?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said; &lsquo;your freedom and your responsibilities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no responsibilities,&rsquo; she remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon me,&rsquo; he said; &lsquo;you have, and the time is coming when you will feel
+      them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m only a girl,&rsquo; she murmured with sudden simplicity. &lsquo;As for you,
+      Count, surely you have sufficient responsibilities of your own?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I?&rsquo; he said sadly. &lsquo;I have no responsibilities. I am a nobody&mdash;a
+      Serene Highness who has to pretend to be very important, always taking
+      immense care never to do anything that a Serene Highness ought not to do.
+      Bah!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But if your nephew, Prince Eugen, were to die, would you not come to the
+      throne, and would you not then have these responsibilities which you so
+      much desire?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen die?&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, in a curious tone. &lsquo;Impossible. He is
+      the perfection of health. In three months he will be married. No, I shall
+      never be anything but a Serene Highness, the most despicable of God&rsquo;s
+      creatures.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what about the State secret which you mentioned? Is not that a
+      responsibility?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;That is over. That belongs to the past. It was an accident
+      in my dull career. I shall never be Count Steenbock again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who knows?&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;By the way, is not Prince Eugen coming here
+      to-day? Mr Dimmock told us so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;See!&rsquo; answered the Prince, standing up and bending over her. &lsquo;I am going
+      to confide in you. I don&rsquo;t know why, but I am.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t betray State secrets,&rsquo; she warned him, smiling into his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But just then the door of the room was unceremoniously opened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go right in,&rsquo; said a voice sharply. It was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s. Two men
+      entered, bearing a prone form on a stretcher, and Racksole followed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella sprang up. Racksole stared to see his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t know you were in here, Nell. Here,&rsquo; to the two men, &lsquo;out again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why!&rsquo; exclaimed Nella, gazing fearfully at the form on the stretcher,
+      &lsquo;it&rsquo;s Mr Dimmock!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; her father acquiesced. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s dead,&rsquo; he added laconically. &lsquo;I&rsquo;d
+      have broken it to you more gently had I known. Your pardon, Prince.&rsquo; There
+      was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock dead!&rsquo; Prince Aribert whispered under his breath, and he kneeled
+      down by the side of the stretcher. &lsquo;What does this mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The poor fellow was just walking across the quadrangle towards the portico
+      when he fell down. A commissionaire who saw him says he was walking very
+      quickly. At first I thought it was sunstroke, but it couldn&rsquo;t have been,
+      though the weather certainly is rather warm. It must be heart disease. But
+      anyhow, he&rsquo;s dead. We did what we could. I&rsquo;ve sent for a doctor, and for
+      the police. I suppose there&rsquo;ll have to be an inquest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole stopped, and in an awkward solemn silence they all gazed
+      at the dead youth. His features were slightly drawn, and his eyes closed;
+      that was all. He might have been asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My poor Dimmock!&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince, his voice broken. &lsquo;And I was
+      angry because the lad did not meet me at Charing Cross!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Are you sure he is dead, Father?&rsquo; Nella said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;d better go away, Nella,&rsquo; was Racksole&rsquo;s only reply; but the girl
+      stood still, and began to sob quietly. On the previous night she had
+      secretly made fun of Reginald Dimmock. She had deliberately set herself to
+      get information from him on a topic in which she happened to be specially
+      interested and she had got it, laughing the while at his youthful
+      crudities&mdash;his vanity, his transparent cunning, his absurd airs. She
+      had not liked him; she had even distrusted him, and decided that he was
+      not &lsquo;nice&rsquo;. But now, as he lay on the stretcher, these things were
+      forgotten. She went so far as to reproach herself for them. Such is the
+      strange commanding power of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oblige me by taking the poor fellow to my apartments,&rsquo; said the Prince,
+      with a gesture to the attendants. &lsquo;Surely it is time the doctor came.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole felt suddenly at that moment he was nothing but a mere hotel
+      proprietor with an awkward affair on his hands. For a fraction of a second
+      he wished he had never bought the Grand Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later Prince Aribert, Theodore Racksole, a doctor,
+      and an inspector of police were in the Prince&rsquo;s reception-room. They had
+      just come from an ante-chamber, in which lay the mortal remains of
+      Reginald Dimmock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; said Racksole, glancing at the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor was a big, boyish-looking man, with keen, quizzical eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is not heart disease,&rsquo; said the doctor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not heart disease?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what is it?&rsquo; asked the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I may be able to answer that question after the post-mortem,&rsquo; said the
+      doctor. &lsquo;I certainly can&rsquo;t answer it now. The symptoms are unusual to a
+      degree.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector of police began to write in a note-book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Six IN THE GOLD ROOM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AT the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold Room, a
+      huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of it, and
+      certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore Racksole knew
+      nothing of the affair, except that it was an entertainment offered by a Mr
+      and Mrs Sampson Levi to their friends. Who Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi were he
+      did not know, nor could anyone tell him anything about them except that Mr
+      Sampson Levi was a prominent member of that part of the Stock Exchange
+      familiarly called the Kaffir Circus, and that his wife was a stout lady
+      with an aquiline nose and many diamonds, and that they were very rich and
+      very hospitable. Theodore Racksole did not want a ball in his hotel that
+      evening, and just before dinner he had almost a mind to issue a decree
+      that the Gold Room was to be closed and the ball forbidden, and Mr and Mrs
+      Sampson Levi might name the amount of damages suffered by them. His
+      reasons for such a course were threefold&mdash;first, he felt depressed
+      and uneasy; second, he didn&rsquo;t like the name of Sampson Levi; and, third,
+      he had a desire to show these so-called plutocrats that their wealth was
+      nothing to him, that they could not do what they chose with Theodore
+      Racksole, and that for two pins Theodore Racksole would buy them up, and
+      the whole Kaffir Circus to boot. But something warned him that though such
+      a high-handed proceeding might be tolerated in America, that land of
+      freedom, it would never be tolerated in England. He felt instinctively
+      that in England there are things you can&rsquo;t do, and that this particular
+      thing was one of them. So the ball went forward, and neither Mr nor Mrs
+      Sampson Levi had ever the least suspicion what a narrow escape they had
+      had of looking very foolish in the eyes of the thousand or so guests
+      invited by them to the Gold Room of the Grand Babylon that evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Gold Room of the Grand Babylon was built for a ballroom. A balcony,
+      supported by arches faced with gilt and lapis-lazulo, ran around it, and
+      from this vantage men and maidens and chaperons who could not or would not
+      dance might survey the scene. Everyone knew this, and most people took
+      advantage of it. What everyone did not know&mdash;what no one knew&mdash;was
+      that higher up than the balcony there was a little barred window in the
+      end wall from which the hotel authorities might keep a watchful eye, not
+      only on the dancers, but on the occupants of the balcony itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may seem incredible to the uninitiated that the guests at any social
+      gathering held in so gorgeous and renowned an apartment as the Gold Room
+      of the Grand Babylon should need the observation of a watchful eye. Yet so
+      it was. Strange matters and unexpected faces had been descried from the
+      little window, and more than one European detective had kept vigil there
+      with the most eminently satisfactory results.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At eleven o&rsquo;clock Theodore Racksole, afflicted by vexation of spirit,
+      found himself gazing idly through the little barred window. Nella was with
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Together they had been wandering about the corridors of the hotel, still
+      strange to them both, and it was quite by accident that they had lighted
+      upon the small room which had a surreptitious view of Mr and Mrs Sampson
+      Levi&rsquo;s ball. Except for the light of the chandelier of the ball-room the
+      little cubicle was in darkness. Nella was looking through the window; her
+      father stood behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder which is Mrs Sampson Levi?&rsquo; Nella said, &lsquo;and whether she matches
+      her name. Wouldn&rsquo;t you love to have a name like that, Father&mdash;something
+      that people could take hold of&mdash;instead of Racksole?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound of violins and a confused murmur of voices rose gently up to
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Umphl&rsquo; said Theodore. &lsquo;Curse those evening papers!&rsquo; he added,
+      inconsequently but with sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, you&rsquo;re very horrid to-night. What have the evening papers been
+      doing?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, my young madame, they&rsquo;ve got me in for one, and you for another;
+      and they&rsquo;re manufacturing mysteries like fun. It&rsquo;s young Dimmock&rsquo;s death
+      that has started &lsquo;em.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Father, you surely didn&rsquo;t expect to keep yourself out of the
+      papers. Besides, as regards newspapers, you ought to be glad you aren&rsquo;t in
+      New York. Just fancy what the dear old Herald would have made out of a
+      little transaction like yours of last night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s true,&rsquo; assented Racksole. &lsquo;But it&rsquo;ll be all over New York
+      to-morrow morning, all the same. The worst of it is that Babylon has gone
+      off to Switzerland.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t know. Sudden fancy, I guess, for his native heath.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What difference does it make to you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;None. Only I feel sort of lonesome. I feel I want someone to lean up
+      against in running this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Father, if you have that feeling you must be getting ill.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; he sighed, &lsquo;I admit it&rsquo;s unusual with me. But perhaps you haven&rsquo;t
+      grasped the fact, Nella, that we&rsquo;re in the middle of a rather queer
+      business.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean about poor Mr Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Partly Dimmock and partly other things. First of all, that Miss Spencer,
+      or whatever her wretched name is, mysteriously disappears. Then there was
+      the stone thrown into your bedroom. Then I caught that rascal Jules
+      conspiring with Dimmock at three o&rsquo;clock in the morning. Then your
+      precious Prince Aribert arrives without any suite&mdash;which I believe is
+      a most peculiar and wicked thing for a Prince to do&mdash;and moreover I
+      find my daughter on very intimate terms with the said Prince. Then young
+      Dimmock goes and dies, and there is to be an inquest; then Prince Eugen
+      and his suite, who were expected here for dinner, fail to turn up at all&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen has not come?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has not; and Uncle Aribert is in a deuce of a stew about him, and
+      telegraphing all over Europe. Altogether, things are working up pretty
+      lively.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you really think, Dad, there was anything between Jules and poor Mr
+      Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Think! I know! I tell you I saw that scamp give Dimmock a wink last night
+      at dinner that might have meant&mdash;well!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So you caught that wink, did you, Dad?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why, did you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course, Dad. I was going to tell you about it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire grunted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Look here, Father,&rsquo; Nella whispered suddenly, and pointed to the balcony
+      immediately below them. &lsquo;Who&rsquo;s that?&rsquo; She indicated a man with a bald
+      patch on the back of his head, who was propping himself up against the
+      railing of the balcony and gazing immovable into the ball-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, who is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Isn&rsquo;t it Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Gemini! By the beard of the prophet, it is!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps Mr Jules is a guest of Mrs Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Guest or no guest, he goes out of this hotel, even if I have to throw him
+      out myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole disappeared without another word, and Nella followed
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when the millionaire arrived on the balcony floor he could see nothing
+      of Jules, neither there nor in the ball-room itself. Saying no word aloud,
+      but quietly whispering wicked expletives, he searched everywhere in vain,
+      and then, at last, by tortuous stairways and corridors returned to his
+      original post of observation, that he might survey the place anew from the
+      vantage ground. To his surprise he found a man in the dark little room,
+      watching the scene of the ball as intently as he himself had been doing a
+      few minutes before. Hearing footsteps, the man turned with a start.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two exchanged glances in the half light for a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good evening, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Jules calmly. &lsquo;I must apologize for
+      being here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Force of habit, I suppose,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fancied I had forbidden you to re-enter this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought your order applied only to my professional capacity. I am here
+      to-night as the guest of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In your new rôle of man-about-town, eh?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I don&rsquo;t allow men-about-town up here, my friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For being up here I have already apologized.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, having apologized, you had better depart; that is my disinterested
+      advice to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And, I say, Mr Jules, if Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, or any other Hebrews or
+      Christians, should again invite you to my hotel you will oblige me by
+      declining the invitation. You&rsquo;ll find that will be the safest course for
+      you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good night, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before midnight struck Theodore Racksole had ascertained that the
+      invitation-list of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, though a somewhat lengthy one,
+      contained no reference to any such person as Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat up very late. To be precise, he sat up all night. He was a man who,
+      by dint of training, could comfortably dispense with sleep when he felt so
+      inclined, or when circumstances made such a course advisable. He walked to
+      and fro in his room, and cogitated as few people beside Theodore Racksole
+      could cogitate. At 6 a.m. he took a stroll round the business part of his
+      premises, and watched the supplies come in from Covent Garden, from
+      Smithfield, from Billingsgate, and from other strange places. He found the
+      proceedings of the kitchen department quite interesting, and made mental
+      notes of things that he would have altered, of men whose wages he would
+      increase and men whose wages he would reduce. At 7 a.m. he happened to be
+      standing near the luggage lift, and witnessed the descent of vast
+      quantities of luggage, and its disappearance into a Carter Paterson van.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whose luggage is that?&rsquo; he inquired peremptorily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The luggage clerk, with an aggrieved expression, explained to him that it
+      was the luggage of nobody in particular, that it belonged to various
+      guests, and was bound for various destinations; that it was, in fact,
+      &lsquo;expressed&rsquo; luggage despatched in advance, and that a similar quantity of
+      it left the hotel every morning about that hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole walked away, and breakfasted upon one cup of tea and
+      half a slice of toast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At ten o&rsquo;clock he was informed that the inspector of police desired to see
+      him. The inspector had come, he said, to superintend the removal of the
+      body of Reginald Dimmock to the mortuary adjoining the place of inquest,
+      and a suitable vehicle waited at the back entrance of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector had also brought subpoenas for himself and Prince Aribert of
+      Posen and the commissionaire to attend the inquest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought Mr Dimmock&rsquo;s remains were removed last night,&rsquo; said Racksole
+      wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, sir. The fact is the van was engaged on another job.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The inspector gave the least hint of a professional smile, and Racksole,
+      disgusted, told him curtly to go and perform his duties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes a message came from the inspector requesting Mr Racksole
+      to be good enough to come to him on the first floor. Racksole went. In the
+      ante-room, where the body of Reginald Dimmock had originally been placed,
+      were the inspector and Prince Aribert, and two policemen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; said Racksole, after he and the Prince had exchanged bows. Then he
+      saw a coffin laid across two chairs. &lsquo;I see a coffin has been obtained,&rsquo;
+      he remarked. &lsquo;Quite right&rsquo; He approached it. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s empty,&rsquo; he observed
+      unthinkingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so,&rsquo; said the inspector. &lsquo;The body of the deceased has disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And his Serene Highness Prince Aribert informs me that though he has
+      occupied a room immediately opposite, on the other side of the corridor,
+      he can throw no light on the affair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed, I cannot!&rsquo; said the Prince, and though he spoke with sufficient
+      calmness and dignity, you could see that he was deeply pained, even
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m&mdash;&rsquo; murmured Racksole, and stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Seven NELLA AND THE PRINCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous an article as
+      a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace, no hint, no
+      clue as to the time or the manner of the performance of the deed. After
+      the first feeling of surprise, Racksole grew coldly and severely angry. He
+      had a mind to dismiss the entire staff of the hotel. He personally
+      examined the night-watchman, the chambermaids and all other persons who by
+      chance might or ought to know something of the affair; but without avail.
+      The corpse of Reginald Dimmock had vanished utterly&mdash;disappeared like
+      a fleshless spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course there were the police. But Theodore Racksole held the police in
+      sorry esteem. He acquainted them with the facts, answered their queries
+      with a patient weariness, and expected nothing whatever from that
+      quarter. He also had several interviews with Prince Aribert of Posen, but
+      though the Prince was suavity itself and beyond doubt genuinely concerned
+      about the fate of his dead attendant, yet it seemed to Racksole that he
+      was keeping something back, that he hesitated to say all he knew.
+      Racksole, with characteristic insight, decided that the death of Reginald
+      Dimmock was only a minor event, which had occurred, as it were, on the
+      fringe of some far more profound mystery. And, therefore, he decided to
+      wait, with his eyes very wide open, until something else happened that
+      would throw light on the business. At the moment he took only one measure&mdash;he
+      arranged that the theft of Dimmock&rsquo;s body should not appear in the
+      newspapers. It is astonishing how well a secret can be kept, when the
+      possessors of the secret are handled with the proper mixture of firmness
+      and persuasion. Racksole managed this very neatly. It was a complicated
+      job, and his success in it rather pleased him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the same time he was conscious of being temporarily worsted by an
+      unknown group of schemers, in which he felt convinced that Jules was an
+      important item. He could scarcely look Nella in the eyes. The girl had
+      evidently expected him to unmask this conspiracy at once, with a single
+      stroke of the millionaire&rsquo;s magic wand. She was thoroughly accustomed, in
+      the land of her birth, to seeing him achieve impossible feats. Over there
+      he was a &lsquo;boss&rsquo;; men trembled before his name; when he wished a thing to
+      happen&mdash;well, it happened; if he desired to know a thing, he just
+      knew it. But here, in London, Theodore Racksole was not quite the same
+      Theodore Racksole. He dominated New York; but London, for the most part,
+      seemed not to take much interest in him; and there were certainly various
+      persons in London who were capable of snapping their fingers at him&mdash;at
+      Theodore Racksole. Neither he nor his daughter could get used to that
+      fact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Nella, she concerned herself for a little with the ordinary
+      business of the bureau, and watched the incomings and outgoings of Prince
+      Aribert with a kindly interest. She perceived, what her father had failed
+      to perceive, that His Highness had assumed an attitude of reserve merely
+      to hide the secret distraction and dismay which consumed him. She saw that
+      the poor fellow had no settled plan in his head, and that he was troubled
+      by something which, so far, he had confided to nobody. It came to her
+      knowledge that each morning he walked to and fro on the Victoria
+      Embankment, alone, and apparently with no object. On the third morning she
+      decided that driving exercise on the Embankment would be good for her
+      health, and thereupon ordered a carriage and issued forth, arrayed in a
+      miraculous putty-coloured gown. Near Blackfriars Bridge she met the
+      Prince, and the carriage was drawn up by the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, Prince,&rsquo; she greeted him. &lsquo;Are you mistaking this for Hyde
+      Park?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bowed and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I usually walk here in the mornings,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You surprise me,&rsquo; she returned. &lsquo;I thought I was the only person in
+      London who preferred the Embankment, with this view of the river, to the
+      dustiness of Hyde Park. I can&rsquo;t imagine how it is that London will never
+      take exercise anywhere except in that ridiculous Park. Now, if they had
+      Central Park&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think the Embankment is the finest spot in all London,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She leaned a little out of the landau, bringing her face nearer to his.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do believe we are kindred spirits, you and I,&rsquo; she murmured; and then,
+      &lsquo;Au revoir, Prince!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One moment, Miss Racksole.&rsquo; His quick tones had a note of entreaty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am in a hurry,&rsquo; she fibbed; &lsquo;I am not merely taking exercise this
+      morning. You have no idea how busy we are.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! then I will not trouble you. But I leave the Grand Babylon to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you?&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Then will your Highness do me the honour of lunching
+      with me today in Father&rsquo;s room? Father will be out&mdash;he is having a
+      day in the City with some stockbroking persons.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall be charmed,&rsquo; said the Prince, and his face showed that he meant
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella drove off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the lunch was a success that result was due partly to Rocco, and partly
+      to Nella. The Prince said little beyond what the ordinary rules of the
+      conversational game demanded. His hostess talked much and talked well, but
+      she failed to rouse her guest. When they had had coffee he took a rather
+      formal leave of her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye, Prince,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;but I thought&mdash;that is, no I didn&rsquo;t.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Good-bye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You thought I wished to discuss something with you. I did; but I have
+      decided that I have no right to burden your mind with my affairs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But suppose&mdash;suppose I wish to be burdened?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is your good nature.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sit down,&rsquo; she said abruptly, &lsquo;and tell me everything; mind, everything.
+      I adore secrets.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost before he knew it he was talking to her, rapidly, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should I weary you with my confidences?&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know, I
+      cannot tell; but I feel that I must. I feel that you will understand me
+      better than anyone else in the world. And yet why should you understand
+      me? Again, I don&rsquo;t know. Miss Racksole, I will disclose to you the whole
+      trouble in a word. Prince Eugen, the hereditary Grand Duke of Posen, has
+      disappeared. Four days ago I was to have met him at Ostend. He had affairs
+      in London. He wished me to come with him. I sent Dimmock on in front, and
+      waited for Eugen. He did not arrive. I telegraphed back to Cologne, his
+      last stopping-place, and I learned that he had left there in accordance
+      with his programme; I learned also that he had passed through Brussels. It
+      must have been between Brussels and the railway station at Ostend Quay
+      that he disappeared. He was travelling with a single equerry, and the
+      equerry, too, has vanished. I need not explain to you, Miss Racksole, that
+      when a person of the importance of my nephew contrives to get lost one
+      must proceed cautiously. One cannot advertise for him in the London Times.
+      Such a disappearance must be kept secret. The people at Posen and at
+      Berlin believe that Eugen is in London, here, at this hotel; or, rather,
+      they did so believe. But this morning I received a cypher telegram from&mdash;from
+      His Majesty the Emperor, a very peculiar telegram, asking when Eugen might
+      be expected to return to Posen, and requesting that he should go first to
+      Berlin. That telegram was addressed to myself. Now, if the Emperor thought
+      that Eugen was here, why should he have caused the telegram to be
+      addressed to me? I have hesitated for three days, but I can hesitate no
+      longer. I must myself go to the Emperor and acquaint him with the facts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose you&rsquo;ve just got to keep straight with him?&rsquo; Nella was on the
+      point of saying, but she checked herself and substituted, &lsquo;The Emperor is
+      your chief, is he not? &ldquo;First among equals&rdquo;, you call him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Majesty is our over-lord,&rsquo; said Aribert quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you not take immediate steps to inquire as to the whereabouts of
+      your Royal nephew?&rsquo; she asked simply. The affair seemed to her just then
+      so plain and straightforward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because one of two things may have happened. Either Eugen may have been,
+      in plain language, abducted, or he may have had his own reasons for
+      changing his programme and keeping in the background&mdash;out of reach of
+      telegraph and post and railways.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sort of reasons?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do not ask me. In the history of every family there are passages&mdash;&rsquo;
+      He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what was Prince Eugen&rsquo;s object in coming to London?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Money,&rsquo; he said at length. &lsquo;As a family we are very poor&mdash;poorer
+      than anyone in Berlin suspects.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Aribert,&rsquo; Nella said, &lsquo;shall I tell you what I think?&rsquo; She leaned
+      back in her chair, and looked at him out of half-closed eyes. His pale,
+      thin, distinguished face held her gaze as if by some fascination. There
+      could be no mistaking this man for anything else but a Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you will,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen is the victim of a plot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think so?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am perfectly convinced of it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why? What can be the object of a plot against him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is a point of which you should know more than me,&rsquo; she remarked
+      drily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Perhaps, perhaps,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;But, dear Miss Racksole, why are you so
+      sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There are several reasons, and they are connected with Mr Dimmock. Did
+      you ever suspect, your Highness, that that poor young man was not entirely
+      loyal to you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was absolutely loyal,&rsquo; said the Prince, with all the earnestness of
+      conviction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A thousand pardons, but he was not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole, if any other than yourself made that assertion, I would&mdash;I
+      would&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Consign them to the deepest dungeon in Posen?&rsquo; she laughed, lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen.&rsquo; And she told him of the incidents which had occurred in the
+      night preceding his arrival in the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean, Miss Racksole, that there was an understanding between poor
+      Dimmock and this fellow Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There was an understanding.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your Highness, the man who wishes to probe a mystery to its root never
+      uses the word &ldquo;impossible&rdquo;. But I will say this for young Mr Dimmock. I
+      think he repented, and I think that it was because he repented that he&mdash;er&mdash;died
+      so suddenly, and that his body was spirited away.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why has no one told me these things before?&rsquo; Aribert exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Princes seldom hear the truth,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was astonished at her coolness, her firmness of assertion, her air of
+      complete acquaintance with the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Racksole,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;if you will permit me to say it, I have never
+      in my life met a woman like you. May I rely on your sympathy&mdash;your
+      support?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My support, Prince? But how?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know,&rsquo; he replied. &lsquo;But you could help me if you would. A woman,
+      when she has brain, always has more brain than a man.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; she said ruefully, &lsquo;I have no brains, but I do believe I could help
+      you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What prompted her to make that assertion she could not have explained,
+      even to herself. But she made it, and she had a suspicion&mdash;a
+      prescience&mdash;that it would be justified, though by what means, through
+      what good fortune, was still a mystery to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go to Berlin,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;I see that you must do that; you have no
+      alternative. As for the rest, we shall see. Something will occur. I shall
+      be here. My father will be here. You must count us as your friends.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He kissed her hand when he left, and afterwards, when she was alone, she
+      kissed the spot his lips had touched again and again. Now, thinking the
+      matter out in the calmness of solitude, all seemed strange, unreal,
+      uncertain to her. Were conspiracies actually possible nowadays? Did queer
+      things actually happen in Europe? And did they actually happen in London
+      hotels? She dined with her father that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hear Prince Aribert has left,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; she assented. She said not a word about their interview.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eight ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE BARONESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied by a maid
+      and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+      She was a plump, little old lady, with white hair and an old-fashioned
+      bonnet, and she had a quaint, simple smile of surprise at everything in
+      general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, she gave the impression of belonging to some aristocracy,
+      though not the English aristocracy. Her tone to her maid, whom she
+      addressed in broken English&mdash;the girl being apparently English&mdash;was
+      distinctly insolent, with the calm, unconscious insolence peculiar to a
+      certain type of Continental nobility. The name on the lady&rsquo;s card ran
+      thus: &lsquo;Baroness Zerlinski&rsquo;. She desired rooms on the third floor. It
+      happened that Nella was in the bureau.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;On the third floor, madam?&rsquo; questioned Nella, in her best clerkly manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did say on de tird floor,&rsquo; said the plump little old lady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have accommodation on the second floor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to be high up, out of de dust and in de light,&rsquo; explained the
+      Baroness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have no suites on the third floor, madam.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind, no mattaire! Have you not two rooms that communicate?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella consulted her books, rather awkwardly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Numbers 122 and 123 communicate.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Or is it 121 and 122?&rsquo; the little old lady remarked quickly, and then bit
+      her lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I beg your pardon. I should have said 121 and 122.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the moment Nella regarded the Baroness&rsquo;s correction of her figures as a
+      curious chance, but afterwards, when the Baroness had ascended in the
+      lift, the thing struck her as somewhat strange. Perhaps the Baroness
+      Zerlinski had stayed at the hotel before. For the sake of convenience an
+      index of visitors to the hotel was kept and the index extended back for
+      thirty years. Nella examined it, but it did not contain the name of
+      Zerlinski. Then it was that Nella began to imagine, what had swiftly
+      crossed her mind when first the Baroness presented herself at the bureau,
+      that the features of the Baroness were remotely familiar to her. She
+      thought, not that she had seen the old lady&rsquo;s face before, but that she
+      had seen somewhere, some time, a face of a similar cast. It occurred to
+      Nella to look at the &lsquo;Almanach de Gotha&rsquo;&mdash;that record of all the
+      mazes of Continental blue blood; but the &lsquo;Almanach de Gotha&rsquo; made no
+      reference to any barony of Zerlinski. Nella inquired where the Baroness
+      meant to take lunch, and was informed that a table had been reserved for
+      her in the dining-room, and she at once decided to lunch in the
+      dining-room herself. Seated in a corner, half-hidden by a pillar, she
+      could survey all the guests, and watch each group as it entered or left.
+      Presently the Baroness appeared, dressed in black, with a tiny lace shawl,
+      despite the June warmth; very stately, very quaint, and gently smiling.
+      Nella observed her intently. The lady ate heartily, working without haste
+      and without delay through the elaborate menu of the luncheon. Nella
+      noticed that she had beautiful white teeth. Then a remarkable thing
+      happened. A cream puff was served to the Baroness by way of sweets, and
+      Nella was astonished to see the little lady remove the top, and with a
+      spoon quietly take something from the interior which looked like a piece
+      of folded paper. No one who had not been watching with the eye of a lynx
+      would have noticed anything extraordinary in the action; indeed, the
+      chances were nine hundred and ninety-nine to one that it would pass
+      unheeded. But, unfortunately for the Baroness, it was the thousandth
+      chance that happened. Nella jumped up, and walking over to the Baroness,
+      said to her:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m afraid that the tart is not quite nice, your ladyship.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks, it is delightful,&rsquo; said the Baroness coldly; her smile had
+      vanished. &lsquo;Who are you? I thought you were de bureau clerk.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My father is the owner of this hotel. I thought there was something in
+      the tart which ought not to have been there.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella looked the Baroness full in the face. The piece of folded paper, to
+      which a little cream had attached itself, lay under the edge of a plate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, thanks.&rsquo; The Baroness smiled her simple smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella departed. She had noticed one trifling thing besides the paper&mdash;namely,
+      that the Baroness could pronounce the English &lsquo;th&rsquo; sound if she chose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That afternoon, in her own room, Nella sat meditating at the window for
+      long time, and then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes brightening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know,&rsquo; she exclaimed, clapping her hands. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s Miss Spencer,
+      disguised!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Why didn&rsquo;t I think of that before?&rsquo; Her thoughts ran instantly to Prince
+      Aribert. &lsquo;Perhaps I can help him,&rsquo; she said to herself, and gave a little
+      sigh. She went down to the office and inquired whether the Baroness had
+      given any instructions about dinner. She felt that some plan must be
+      formulated. She wanted to get hold of Rocco, and put him in the rack. She
+      knew now that Rocco, the unequalled, was also concerned in this mysterious
+      affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Baroness Zerlinski has left, about a quarter of an hour ago,&rsquo; said
+      the attendant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But she only arrived this morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Baroness&rsquo;s maid said that her mistress had received a telegram and
+      must leave at once. The Baroness paid the bill, and went away in a
+      four-wheeler.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+<p>
+     &lsquo;The trunks were labelled for Ostend.&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was the mere spirit of adventure; but
+      that evening Nella was to be seen of all men on the steamer for Ostend
+      which leaves Dover at 11 p.m. She told no one of her intentions&mdash;not
+      even her father, who was not in the hotel when she left. She had scribbled
+      a brief note to him to expect her back in a day or two, and had posted
+      this at Dover. The steamer was the Marie Henriette, a large and luxurious
+      boat, whose state-rooms on deck vie with the glories of the Cunard and
+      White Star liners. One of these state-rooms, the best, was evidently
+      occupied, for every curtain of its windows was carefully drawn. Nella did
+      not hope that the Baroness was on board; it was quite possible for the
+      Baroness to have caught the eight o&rsquo;clock steamer, and it was also
+      possible for the Baroness not to have gone to Ostend at all, but to some
+      other place in an entirely different direction. Nevertheless, Nella had a
+      faint hope that the lady who called herself Zerlinski might be in that
+      curtained stateroom, and throughout the smooth moonlit voyage she never
+      once relaxed her observation of its doors and its windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Maria Henriette arrived in Ostend Harbour punctually at 2 a.m. in the
+      morning. There was the usual heterogeneous, gesticulating crowd on the
+      quay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella kept her post near the door of the state-room, and at length she was
+      rewarded by seeing it open. Four middle-aged Englishmen issued from it.
+      From a glimpse of the interior Nella saw that they had spent the voyage in
+      card-playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would not be too much to say that she was distinctly annoyed. She
+      pretended to be annoyed with circumstances, but really she was annoyed
+      with Nella Racksole. At two in the morning, without luggage, without any
+      companionship, and without a plan of campaign, she found herself in a
+      strange foreign port&mdash;a port of evil repute, possessing some of the
+      worst-managed hotels in Europe. She strolled on the quay for a few
+      minutes, and then she saw the smoke of another steamer in the offing. She
+      inquired from an official what that steamer might be, and was told that it
+      was the eight o&rsquo;clock from Dover, which had broken down, put into Calais
+      for some slight necessary repairs, and was arriving at its destination
+      nearly four hours late. Her mercurial spirits rose again. A minute ago she
+      was regarding herself as no better than a ninny engaged in a wild-goose
+      chase. Now she felt that after all she had been very sagacious and
+      cunning. She was morally sure that she would find the Zerlinski woman on
+      this second steamer, and she took all the credit to herself in advance.
+      Such is human nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steamer seemed interminably slow in coming into harbour. Nella walked
+      on the Digue for a few minutes to watch it the better. The town was silent
+      and almost deserted. It had a false and sinister aspect. She remembered
+      tales which she had heard of this glittering resort, which in the season
+      holds more scoundrels than any place in Europe, save only Monte Carlo. She
+      remembered that the gilded adventurers of every nation under the sun
+      forgathered there either for business or pleasure, and that some of the
+      most wonderful crimes of the latter half of the century had been schemed
+      and matured in that haunt of cosmopolitan iniquity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the second steamer arrived Nella stood at the end of the gangway,
+      close to the ticket-collector. The first person to step on shore was&mdash;not
+      the Baroness Zerlinski, but Miss Spencer herself! Nella turned aside
+      instantly, hiding her face, and Miss Spencer, carrying a small bag,
+      hurried with assured footsteps to the Custom House. It seemed as if she
+      knew the port of Ostend fairly well. The moon shone like day, and Nella
+      had full opportunity to observe her quarry. She could see now quite
+      plainly that the Baroness Zerlinski had been only Miss Spencer in
+      disguise. There was the same gait, the same movement of the head and of
+      the hips; the white hair was easily to be accounted for by a wig, and the
+      wrinkles by a paint brush and some grease paints. Miss Spencer, whose hair
+      was now its old accustomed yellow, got through the Custom House without
+      difficulty, and Nella saw her call a closed carriage and say something to
+      the driver. The vehicle drove off. Nella jumped into the next carriage&mdash;an
+      open one&mdash;that came up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Follow that carriage,&rsquo; she said succinctly to the driver in French.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bien, madame!&rsquo; The driver whipped up his horse, and the animal shot
+      forward with a terrific clatter over the cobbles. It appeared that this
+      driver was quite accustomed to following other carriages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now I am fairly in for it!&rsquo; said Nella to herself. She laughed
+      unsteadily, but her heart was beating with an extraordinary thump.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For some time the pursued vehicle kept well in front. It crossed the town
+      nearly from end to end, and plunged into a maze of small streets far on
+      the south side of the Kursaal. Then gradually Nella&rsquo;s equipage began to
+      overtake it. The first carriage stopped with a jerk before a tall dark
+      house, and Miss Spencer emerged. Nella called to her driver to stop, but
+      he, determined to be in at the death, was engaged in whipping his horse,
+      and he completely ignored her commands. He drew up triumphantly at the
+      tall dark house just at the moment when Miss Spencer disappeared into it.
+      The other carriage drove away. Nella, uncertain what to do, stepped down
+      from her carriage and gave the driver some money. At the same moment a man
+      reopened the door of the house, which had closed on Miss Spencer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to see Miss Spencer,&rsquo; said Nella impulsively. She couldn&rsquo;t think
+      of anything else to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+    &lsquo;Yes; she&rsquo;s just arrived.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s O.K., I suppose,&rsquo; said the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I guess so,&rsquo; said Nella, and she walked past him into the house. She was
+      astonished at her own audacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer was just going into a room off the narrow hall. Nella
+      followed her into the apartment, which was shabbily furnished in the
+      Belgian lodging-house style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Miss Spencer,&rsquo; she greeted the former Baroness Zerlinski, &lsquo;I guess
+      you didn&rsquo;t expect to see me. You left our hotel very suddenly this
+      afternoon, and you left it very suddenly a few days ago; and so I&rsquo;ve just
+      called to make a few inquiries.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To do the lady justice, Miss Spencer bore the surprising ordeal very well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not flinch; she betrayed no emotion. The sole sign of perturbation
+      was in her hurried breathing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have ceased to be the Baroness Zerlinski,&rsquo; Nella continued. &lsquo;May I
+      sit down?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly, sit down,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer, copying the girl&rsquo;s tone. &lsquo;You
+      are a fairly smart young woman, that I will say. What do you want? Weren&rsquo;t
+      my books all straight?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your books were all straight. I haven&rsquo;t come about your books. I have
+      come about the murder of Reginald Dimmock, the disappearance of his
+      corpse, and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen. I thought you
+      might be able to help me in some investigations which I am making.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s eyes gleamed, and she stood up and moved swiftly to the
+      mantelpiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You may be a Yankee, but you&rsquo;re a fool,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took hold of the bell-rope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ring that bell if you value your life,&rsquo; said Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If what?&rsquo; Miss Spencer remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you value your life,&rsquo; said Nella calmly, and with the words she pulled
+      from her pocket a very neat and dainty little revolver.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Nine TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;YOU&mdash;you&rsquo;re only doing that to frighten me,&rsquo; stammered Miss Spencer,
+      in a low, quavering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Am I?&rsquo; Nella replied, as firmly as she could, though her hand shook
+      violently with excitement, could Miss Spencer but have observed it. &lsquo;Am I?
+      You said just now that I might be a Yankee girl, but I was a fool. Well, I
+      am a Yankee girl, as you call it; and in my country, if they don&rsquo;t teach
+      revolver-shooting in boarding-schools, there are at least a lot of girls
+      who can handle a revolver. I happen to be one of them. I tell you that if
+      you ring that bell you will suffer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Most of this was simple bluff on Nella&rsquo;s part, and she trembled lest Miss
+      Spencer should perceive that it was simple bluff. Happily for her, Miss
+      Spencer belonged to that order of women who have every sort of courage
+      except physical courage. Miss Spencer could have withstood successfully
+      any moral trial, but persuade her that her skin was in danger, and she
+      would succumb. Nella at once divined this useful fact, and proceeded
+      accordingly, hiding the strangeness of her own sensations as well as she
+      could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You had better sit down now,&rsquo; said Nella, &lsquo;and I will ask you a few
+      questions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Miss Spencer obediently sat down, rather white, and trying to screw
+      her lips into a formal smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you leave the Grand Babylon that night?&rsquo; Nella began her
+      examination, putting on a stern, barrister-like expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had orders to, Miss Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whose orders?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m&mdash;I&rsquo;m&mdash;the fact is, I&rsquo;m a married woman, and it was my
+      husband&rsquo;s orders.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is your husband?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘Tom Jackson&mdash;Jules, you know, head waiter at
+      the Grand Babylon.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So Jules&rsquo;s real name is Tom Jackson? Why did he want you to leave without
+      giving notice?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sure I don&rsquo;t know, Miss Racksole. I swear I don&rsquo;t know. He&rsquo;s my
+      husband, and, of course, I do what he tells me, as you will some day do
+      what your husband tells you. Please heaven you&rsquo;ll get a better husband
+      than mine!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer showed a sign of tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella fingered the revolver, and put it at full cock. &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; she
+      repeated, &lsquo;why did he want you to leave?&rsquo; She was tremendously surprised
+      at her own coolness, and somewhat pleased with it, too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you, I can&rsquo;t tell you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve just got to,&rsquo; Nella said, in a terrible, remorseless tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&mdash;he wished me to come over here to Ostend. Something had gone
+      wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oh! he&rsquo;s a fearful man, is Tom. If I told you, he&rsquo;d&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Had something gone wrong in the hotel, or over here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Both.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was it about Prince Eugen of Posen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;that is, yes, I think so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What has your husband to do with Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe he has some&mdash;some sort of business with him, some money
+      business.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And was Mr Dimmock in this business?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘I fancy so, Miss Racksole. I&rsquo;m
+      telling you all I know, that I swear.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did your husband and Mr Dimmock have a quarrel that night in Room 111?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They had some difficulty.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And the result of that was that you came to Ostend instantly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes; I suppose so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what were you to do in Ostend? What were your instructions from this
+      husband of yours?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s head dropped on her arms on the table which separated her
+      from Nella, and she appeared to sob violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have pity on me,&rsquo; she murmured, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you any more.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&rsquo;d kill me if he knew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;re wandering from the subject,&rsquo; observed Nella coldly. &lsquo;This is the
+      last time I shall warn you. Let me tell you plainly I&rsquo;ve got the best
+      reasons for being desperate, and if anything happens to you I shall say I
+      did it in self-defence. Now, what were you to do in Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall die for this anyhow,&rsquo; whined Miss Spencer, and then, with a sort
+      of fierce despair, &lsquo;I had to keep watch on Prince Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where? In this house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer nodded, and, looking up, Nella could see the traces of tears
+      in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then Prince Eugen was a prisoner? Some one had captured him at the
+      instigation of Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, if you must have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why was it necessary for you specially to come to Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! Tom trusts me. You see, I know Ostend. Before I took that place at
+      the Grand Babylon I had travelled over Europe, and Tom knew that I knew a
+      thing or two.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you take the place at the Grand Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because Tom told me to. He said I should be useful to him there.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is your husband an Anarchist, or something of that kind, Miss Spencer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;d tell you in a minute if I knew. But he&rsquo;s one of those
+      that keep themselves to themselves.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know if he has ever committed a murder?&rsquo;
+</p>
+    <p>
+‘Never!&rsquo; said Miss
+      Spencer, with righteous repudiation of the mere idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Mr Dimmock was murdered. He was poisoned. If he had not been poisoned
+      why was his body stolen? It must have been stolen to prevent inquiry, to
+      hide traces. Tell me about that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I take my dying oath,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer, standing up a little way from
+      the table, &lsquo;I take my dying oath I didn&rsquo;t know Mr Dimmock was dead till I
+      saw it in the newspaper.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You swear you had no suspicion of it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I swear I hadn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella was inclined to believe the statement. The woman and the girl looked
+      at each other in the tawdry, frowsy, lamp-lit room. Miss Spencer nervously
+      patted her yellow hair into shape, as if gradually recovering her
+      composure and equanimity. The whole affair seemed like a dream to Nella, a
+      disturbing, sinister nightmare. She was a little uncertain what to say.
+      She felt that she had not yet got hold of any very definite information.
+      &lsquo;Where is Prince Eugen now?&rsquo; she asked at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know, miss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He isn&rsquo;t in this house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, miss.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! We will see presently.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They took him away, Miss Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who took him away? Some of your husband&rsquo;s friends?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Some of his&mdash;acquaintances.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then there is a gang of you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A gang of us&mdash;a gang! I don&rsquo;t know what you mean,&rsquo; Miss Spencer
+      quavered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, but you must know,&rsquo; smiled Nella calmly. &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t possibly be so
+      innocent as all that, Mrs Tom Jackson. You can&rsquo;t play games with me.
+      You&rsquo;ve just got to remember that I&rsquo;m what you call a Yankee girl. There&rsquo;s
+      one thing that I mean to find out, within the next five minutes, and that
+      is&mdash;how your charming husband kidnapped Prince Eugen, and why he
+      kidnapped him. Let us begin with the second question. You have evaded it
+      once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer looked into Nella&rsquo;s face, and then her eyes dropped, and her
+      fingers worked nervously with the tablecloth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How can I tell you,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;when I don&rsquo;t know? You&rsquo;ve got the
+      whip-hand of me, and you&rsquo;re tormenting me for your own pleasure.&rsquo; She wore
+      an expression of persecuted innocence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did Mr Tom Jackson want to get some money out of Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Money! Not he! Tom&rsquo;s never short of money.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I mean a lot of money&mdash;tens of thousands, hundreds of
+      thousands?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom never wanted money from anyone,&rsquo; said Miss Spencer doggedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then had he some reason for wishing to prevent Prince Eugen from coming
+      to London?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps he had. I don&rsquo;t know. If you kill me, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; Nella
+      stopped to reflect. Then she raised the revolver. It was a mechanical,
+      unintentional sort of action, and certainly she had no intention of using
+      the weapon, but, strange to say, Miss Spencer again cowered before it.
+      Even at that moment Nella wondered that a woman like Miss Spencer could be
+      so simple as to think the revolver would actually be used. Having
+      absolutely no physical cowardice herself, Nella had the greatest
+      difficulty in imagining that other people could be at the mercy of a
+      bodily fear. Still, she saw her advantage, and used it relentlessly, and
+      with as much theatrical gesture as she could command. She raised the
+      revolver till it was level with Miss Spencer&rsquo;s face, and suddenly a new,
+      queer feeling took hold of her. She knew that she would indeed use that
+      revolver now, if the miserable woman before her drove her too far. She
+      felt afraid&mdash;afraid of herself; she was in the grasp of a savage,
+      primeval instinct. In a flash she saw Miss Spencer dead at her feet&mdash;the
+      police&mdash;a court of justice&mdash;the scaffold. It was horrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Speak,&rsquo; she said hoarsely, and Miss Spencer&rsquo;s face went whiter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom did say,&rsquo; the woman whispered rapidly, awesomely, &lsquo;that if Prince
+      Eugen got to London it would upset his scheme.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What scheme? What scheme? Answer me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heaven help me, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; Miss Spencer sank into a chair. &lsquo;He said
+      Mr Dimmock had turned tail, and he should have to settle him and then
+      Rocco&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rocco! What about Rocco?&rsquo; Nella could scarcely hear herself. Her grip of
+      the revolver tightened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s eyes opened wider; she gazed at Nella with a glassy stare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me. It&rsquo;s death!&rsquo; Her eyes were fixed as if in horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; said Nella, and the sound of her voice seemed to her to issue
+      from the lips of some third person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s death,&rsquo; repeated Miss Spencer, and gradually her head and shoulders
+      sank back, and hung loosely over the chair. Nella was conscious of a
+      sudden revulsion. The woman had surely fainted. Dropping the revolver she
+      ran round the table. She was herself again&mdash;feminine, sympathetic,
+      the old Nella. She felt immensely relieved that this had happened. But at
+      the same instant Miss Spencer sprang up from the chair like a cat, seized
+      the revolver, and with a wild movement of the arm flung it against the
+      window. It crashed through the glass, exploding as it went, and there was
+      a tense silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I told you that you were a fool,&rsquo; remarked Miss Spencer slowly, &lsquo;coming
+      here like a sort of female Jack Sheppard, and trying to get the best of
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are on equal terms now. You frightened me, but I knew I was a cleverer
+      woman than you, and that in the end, if I kept on long enough, I should
+      win.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now it will be my turn.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dumbfounded, and overcome with a miserable sense of the truth of Miss
+      Spencer&rsquo;s words, Nella stood still. The idea of her colossal foolishness
+      swept through her like a flood. She felt almost ashamed. But even at this
+      juncture she had no fear. She faced the woman bravely, her mind leaping
+      about in search of some plan. She could think of nothing but a bribe&mdash;an
+      enormous bribe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I admit you&rsquo;ve won,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;but I&rsquo;ve not finished yet. Just listen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer folded her arms, and glanced at the door, smiling bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know my father is a millionaire; perhaps you know that he is one of
+      the richest men in the world. If I give you my word of honour not to
+      reveal anything that you&rsquo;ve told me, what will you take to let me go
+      free?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sum do you suggest?&rsquo; asked Miss Spencer carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Twenty thousand pounds,&rsquo; said Nella promptly. She had begun to regard the
+      affair as a business operation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s lip curled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Miss Spencer&rsquo;s lip curled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, say a million. I can rely on my father, and so may you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think you are worth a million to him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do,&rsquo; said Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you think we could trust you to see that it was paid?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course you could.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And we should not suffer afterwards in any way?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I would give you my word, and my father&rsquo;s word.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Bah!&rsquo; exclaimed Miss Spencer: &lsquo;how do you know I wouldn&rsquo;t let you go free
+      for nothing? You are only a rash, silly girl.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know you wouldn&rsquo;t. I can read your face too well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are right,&rsquo; Miss Spencer replied slowly. &lsquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t. I wouldn&rsquo;t let
+      you go for all the dollars in America.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella felt cold down the spine, and sat down again in her chair. A draught
+      of air from the broken window blew on her cheek. Steps sounded in the
+      passage; the door opened, but Nella did not turn round. She could not move
+      her eyes from Miss Spencer&rsquo;s. There was a noise of rushing water in her
+      ears. She lost consciousness, and slipped limply to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Ten AT SEA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT seemed to Nella that she was being rocked gently in a vast cradle,
+      which swayed to and fro with a motion at once slow and incredibly gentle.
+      This sensation continued for some time, and there was added to it the
+      sound of a quick, quiet, muffled beat. Soft, exhilarating breezes wafted
+      her forward in spite of herself, and yet she remained in a delicious calm.
+      She wondered if her mother was kneeling by her side, whispering some
+      lullaby in her childish ears. Then strange colours swam before her eyes,
+      her eyelids wavered, and at last she awoke. For a few moments her gaze
+      travelled to and fro in a vain search for some clue to her surroundings,
+      was aware of nothing except sense of repose and a feeling of relief that
+      some mighty and fatal struggle was over; she cared not whether she had
+      conquered or suffered defeat in the struggle of her soul with some other
+      soul; it was finished, done with, and the consciousness of its conclusion
+      satisfied and contented her. Gradually her brain, recovering from its
+      obsession, began to grasp the phenomena of her surroundings, and she saw
+      that she was on a yacht, and that the yacht was moving. The motion of the
+      cradle was the smooth rolling of the vessel; the beat was the beat of its
+      screw; the strange colours were the cloud tints thrown by the sun as it
+      rose over a distant and receding shore in the wake of the yacht; her
+      mother&rsquo;s lullaby was the crooned song of the man at the wheel. Nella all
+      through her life had had many experiences of yachting. From the waters of
+      the River Hudson to those bluer tides of the Mediterranean Sea, she had
+      yachted in all seasons and all weathers. She loved the water, and now it
+      seemed deliciously right and proper that she should be on the water again.
+      She raised her head to look round, and then let it sink back: she was
+      fatigued, enervated; she desired only solitude and calm; she had no care,
+      no anxiety, no responsibility: a hundred years might have passed since her
+      meeting with Miss Spencer, and the memory of that meeting appeared to have
+      faded into the remotest background of her mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a small yacht, and her practised eye at once told that it belonged
+      to the highest aristocracy of pleasure craft. As she reclined in the
+      deck-chair (it did not occur to her at that moment to speculate as to the
+      identity of the person who had led her therein) she examined all visible
+      details of the vessel. The deck was as white and smooth as her own hand,
+      and the seams ran along its length like blue veins. All the brass-work,
+      from the band round the slender funnel to the concave surface of the
+      binnacle, shone like gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tapered masts stretched upwards at a rakish angle, and the rigging
+      seemed like spun silk. No sails were set; the yacht was under steam, and
+      doing about seven or eight knots. She judged that it was a boat of a
+      hundred tons or so, probably Clyde-built, and not more than two or three
+      years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No one was to be seen on deck except the man at the wheel: this man wore a
+      blue jersey; but there was neither name nor initial on the jersey, nor was
+      there a name on the white life-buoys lashed to the main rigging, nor on
+      the polished dinghy which hung on the starboard davits. She called to the
+      man, and called again, in a feeble voice, but the steerer took no notice
+      of her, and continued his quiet song as though nothing else existed in the
+      universe save the yacht, the sea, the sun, and himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then her eyes swept the outline of the land from which they were
+      hastening, and she could just distinguish a lighthouse and a great white
+      irregular dome, which she recognized as the Kursaal at Ostend, that
+      gorgeous rival of the gaming palace at Monte Carlo. So she was leaving
+      Ostend. The rays of the sun fell on her caressingly, like a restorative.
+      All around the water was changing from wonderful greys and dark blues to
+      still more wonderful pinks and translucent unearthly greens; the magic
+      kaleidoscope of dawn was going forward in its accustomed way, regardless
+      of the vicissitudes of mortals.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here and there in the distance she descried a sail&mdash;the brown sail of
+      some Ostend fishing-boat returning home after a night&rsquo;s trawling. Then the
+      beat of paddles caught her ear, and a steamer blundered past, wallowing
+      clumsily among the waves like a tortoise. It was the Swallow from London.
+      She could see some of its passengers leaning curiously over the aft-rail.
+      A girl in a mackintosh signalled to her, and mechanically she answered the
+      salute with her arm. The officer of the bridge of the Swallow hailed the
+      yacht, but the man at the wheel offered no reply. In another minute the
+      Swallow was nothing but a blot in the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella tried to sit straight in the deck-chair, but she found herself
+      unable to do so. Throwing off the rug which covered her, she discovered
+      that she had been tied to the chair by means of a piece of broad webbing.
+      Instantly she was alert, awake, angry; she knew that her perils were not
+      over; she felt that possibly they had scarcely yet begun. Her lazy
+      contentment, her dreamy sense of peace and repose, vanished utterly, and
+      she steeled herself to meet the dangers of a grave and difficult
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just at that moment a man came up from below. He was a man of forty or so,
+      clad in irreproachable blue, with a peaked yachting cap. He raised the cap
+      politely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Beautiful sunrise, isn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; The clever and
+      calculated insolence of his tone cut her like a lash as she lay bound in
+      the chair. Like all people who have lived easy and joyous lives in those
+      fair regions where gold smoothes every crease and law keeps a tight hand
+      on disorder, she found it hard to realize that there were other regions
+      where gold was useless and law without power. Twenty-four hours ago she
+      would have declared it impossible that such an experience as she had
+      suffered could happen to anyone; she would have talked airily about
+      civilization and the nineteenth century, and progress and the police. But
+      her experience was teaching her that human nature remains always the same,
+      and that beneath the thin crust of security on which we good citizens
+      exist the dark and secret forces of crime continue to move, just as they
+      did in the days when you couldn&rsquo;t go from Cheapside to Chelsea without
+      being set upon by thieves. Her experience was in a fair way to teach her
+      this lesson better than she could have learnt it even in the bureaux of
+      the detective police of Paris, London, and St Petersburg.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning,&rsquo; the man repeated, and she glanced at him with a sullen,
+      angry gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You!&rsquo; she exclaimed, &lsquo;You, Mr Thomas Jackson, if that is your name! Loose
+      me from this chair, and I will talk to you.&rsquo; Her eyes flashed as she
+      spoke, and the contempt in them added mightily to her beauty. Mr Thomas
+      Jackson, otherwise Jules, erstwhile head waiter at the Grand Babylon,
+      considered himself a connoisseur in feminine loveliness, and the vision of
+      Nella Racksole smote him like an exquisite blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; he replied. &lsquo;I had forgotten that to prevent you from
+      falling I had secured you to the chair&rsquo;; and with a quick movement he
+      unfastened the band. Nella stood up, quivering with fiery annoyance and
+      scorn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now,&rsquo; she said, fronting him, &lsquo;what is the meaning of this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You fainted,&rsquo; he replied imperturbably. &lsquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t remember.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man offered her a deck-chair with a characteristic gesture. Nella was
+      obliged to acknowledge, in spite of herself, that the fellow had
+      distinction, an air of breeding. No one would have guessed that for twenty
+      years he had been an hotel waiter. His long, lithe figure, and easy,
+      careless carriage seemed to be the figure and carriage of an aristocrat,
+      and his voice was quiet, restrained, and authoritative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That has nothing to do with my being carried off in this yacht of yours.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is not my yacht,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but that is a minor detail. As to the more
+      important matter, forgive me that I remind you that only a few hours ago
+      you were threatening a lady in my house with a revolver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then it was your house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not? May I not possess a house?&rsquo; He smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must request you to put the yacht about at once, instantly, and take me
+      back.&rsquo; She tried to speak firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I am afraid that&rsquo;s impossible. I didn&rsquo;t put out to sea
+      with the intention of returning at once, instantly.&rsquo; In the last words he
+      gave a faint imitation of her tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When I do get back,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;when my father gets to know of this
+      affair, it will be an exceedingly bad day for you, Mr Jackson.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But supposing your father doesn&rsquo;t hear of it&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Supposing you never get back?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean, then, to have my murder on your conscience?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Talking of murder,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;you came very near to murdering my friend,
+      Miss Spencer. At least, so she tells me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is Miss Spencer on board?&rsquo; Nella asked, seeing perhaps a faint ray of
+      hope in the possible presence of a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Miss Spencer is not on board. There is no one on board except you and
+      myself and a small crew&mdash;a very discreet crew, I may add.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will have nothing more to say to you. You must take your own course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks for the permission,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I will send you up some breakfast.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the saloon stairs and whistled, and a Negro boy appeared with a
+      tray of chocolate. Nella took it, and, without the slightest hesitation,
+      threw it overboard. Mr Jackson walked away a few steps and then returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have spirit,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;and I admire spirit. It is a rare quality.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no reply. &lsquo;Why did you mix yourself up in my affairs at all?&rsquo; he
+      went on. Again she made no reply, but the question set her thinking: why
+      had she mixed herself up in this mysterious business? It was quite at
+      variance with the usual methods of her gay and butterfly existence to
+      meddle at all with serious things. Had she acted merely from a desire to
+      see justice done and wickedness punished? Or was it the desire of
+      adventure? Or was it, perhaps, the desire to be of service to His Serene
+      Highness Prince Aribert? &lsquo;It is no fault of mine that you are in this
+      fix,&rsquo; Jules continued. &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t bring you into it. You brought yourself
+      into it. You and your father&mdash;you have been moving along at a pace
+      which is rather too rapid.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That remains to be seen,&rsquo; she put in coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does,&rsquo; he admitted. &lsquo;And I repeat that I can&rsquo;t help admiring you&mdash;that
+      is, when you aren&rsquo;t interfering with my private affairs. That is a
+      proceeding which I have never tolerated from anyone&mdash;not even from a
+      millionaire, nor even from a beautiful woman.&rsquo; He bowed. &lsquo;I will tell you
+      what I propose to do. I propose to escort you to a place of safety, and to
+      keep you there till my operations are concluded, and the possibility of
+      interference entirely removed. You spoke just now of murder. What a crude
+      notion that was of yours! It is only the amateur who practises murder&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What about Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo; she interjected quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Reginald Dimmock,&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;I had imagined his was a case of heart
+      disease. Let me send you up some more chocolate. I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re hungry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will starve before I touch your food,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Gallant creature!&rsquo; he murmured, and his eyes roved over her face. Her
+      superb, supercilious beauty overcame him. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;what a wife you
+      would make!&rsquo; He approached nearer to her. &lsquo;You and I, Miss Racksole, your
+      beauty and wealth and my brains&mdash;we could conquer the world. Few men
+      are worthy of you, but I am one of the few. Listen! You might do worse.
+      Marry me. I am a great man; I shall be greater. I adore you. Marry me, and
+      I will save your life. All shall be well. I will begin again. The past
+      shall be as though there had been no past.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is somewhat sudden&mdash;Jules,&rsquo; she said with biting contempt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did you expect me to be conventional?&rsquo; he retorted. &lsquo;I love you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Granted,&rsquo; she said, for the sake of the argument. &lsquo;Then what will occur
+      to your present wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My present wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, Miss Spencer, as she is called.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She told you I was her husband?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Incidentally she did.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She isn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps she isn&rsquo;t. But, nevertheless, I think I won&rsquo;t marry you.&rsquo; Nella
+      stood like a statue of scorn before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went still nearer to her. &lsquo;Give me a kiss, then; one kiss&mdash;I won&rsquo;t
+      ask for more; one kiss from those lips, and you shall go free. Men have
+      ruined themselves for a kiss. I will.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Coward!&rsquo; she ejaculated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Coward!&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;Coward, am I? Then I&rsquo;ll be a coward, and you shall
+      kiss me whether you will or not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put a hand on her shoulder. As she shrank back from his lustrous eyes,
+      with an involuntary scream, a figure sprang out of the dinghy a few feet
+      away. With a single blow, neatly directed to Mr Jackson&rsquo;s ear, Mr Jackson
+      was stretched senseless on the deck. Prince Aribert of Posen stood over
+      him with a revolver. It was probably the greatest surprise of Mr Jackson&rsquo;s
+      whole life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t be alarmed,&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella, &lsquo;my being here is the
+      simplest thing in the world, and I will explain it as soon as I have
+      finished with this fellow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella could think of nothing to say, but she noticed the revolver in the
+      Prince&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why,&rsquo; she remarked, &lsquo;that&rsquo;s my revolver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;and I will explain that, too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man at the wheel gave no heed whatever to the scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eleven THE COURT PAWNBROKER
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      &lsquo;MR SAMPSON LEVI wishes to see you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      These words, spoken by a servant to Theodore Racksole, aroused the
+      millionaire from a reverie which had been the reverse of pleasant. The
+      fact was, and it is necessary to insist on it, that Mr Racksole, owner of
+      the Grand Babylon Hôtel, was by no means in a state of self-satisfaction.
+      A mystery had attached itself to his hotel, and with all his acumen and
+      knowledge of things in general he was unable to solve that mystery. He
+      laughed at the fruitless efforts of the police, but he could not honestly
+      say that his own efforts had been less barren. The public was talking,
+      for, after all, the disappearance of poor Dimmock&rsquo;s body had got noised
+      abroad in an indirect sort of way, and Theodore Racksole did not like the
+      idea of his impeccable hotel being the subject of sinister rumours. He
+      wondered, grimly, what the public and the Sunday newspapers would say if
+      they were aware of all the other phenomena, not yet common property: of
+      Miss Spencer&rsquo;s disappearance, of Jules&rsquo; strange visits, and of the
+      non-arrival of Prince Eugen of Posen. Theodore Racksole had worried his
+      brain without result. He had conducted an elaborate private investigation
+      without result, and he had spent a certain amount of money without result.
+      The police said that they had a clue; but Racksole remarked that it was
+      always the business of the police to have a clue, that they seldom had
+      more than a clue, and that a clue without some sequel to it was a pretty
+      stupid business. The only sure thing in the whole affair was that a cloud
+      rested over his hotel, his beautiful new toy, the finest of its kind. The
+      cloud was not interfering with business, but, nevertheless, it was a
+      cloud, and he fiercely resented its presence; perhaps it would be more
+      correct to say that he fiercely resented his inability to dissipate it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sampson Levi wishes to see you, sir,&rsquo; the servant repeated, having
+      received no sign that his master had heard him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So I hear,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Does he want to see me, personally?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He asked for you, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps it is Rocco he wants to see, about a menu or something of that
+      kind?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will inquire, sir,&rsquo; and the servant made a move to withdraw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Stop,&rsquo; Racksole commanded suddenly. &lsquo;Desire Mr Sampson Levi to step this
+      way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great stockbroker of the &lsquo;Kaffir Circus&rsquo; entered with a simple
+      unassuming air. He was a rather short, florid man, dressed like a typical
+      Hebraic financier, with too much watch-chain and too little waistcoat. In
+      his fat hand he held a gold-headed cane, and an absolutely new silk hat&mdash;for
+      it was Friday, and Mr Levi purchased a new hat every Friday of his life,
+      holiday times only excepted. He breathed heavily and sniffed through his
+      nose a good deal, as though he had just performed some Herculean physical
+      labour. He glanced at the American millionaire with an expression in which
+      a slight embarrassment might have been detected, but at the same time his
+      round, red face disclosed a certain frank admiration and good nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole, I believe&mdash;Mr Theodore Racksole. Proud to meet you,
+      sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the first words of Mr Sampson Levi. In form they were the
+      greeting of a third-rate chimney-sweep, but, strangely enough, Theodore
+      Racksole liked their tone. He said to himself that here, precisely where
+      no one would have expected to find one, was an honest man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good day,&rsquo; said Racksole briefly. &lsquo;To what do I owe the pleasure&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I expect your time is limited,&rsquo; answered Sampson Levi. &lsquo;Anyhow, mine is,
+      and so I&rsquo;ll come straight to the point, Mr Racksole. I&rsquo;m a plain man. I
+      don&rsquo;t pretend to be a gentleman or any nonsense of that kind. I&rsquo;m a
+      stockbroker, that&rsquo;s what I am, and I don&rsquo;t care who knows it. The other
+      night I had a ball in this hotel. It cost me a couple of thousand and odd
+      pounds, and, by the way, I wrote out a cheque for your bill this morning.
+      I don&rsquo;t like balls, but they&rsquo;re useful to me, and my little wife likes
+      &lsquo;em, and so we give &lsquo;em. Now, I&rsquo;ve nothing to say against the hotel
+      management as regards that ball: it was very decently done, very decently,
+      but what I want to know is this&mdash;Why did you have a private detective
+      among my guests?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A private detective?&rsquo; exclaimed Racksole, somewhat surprised at this
+      charge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi said firmly, fanning himself in his chair, and
+      gazing at Theodore Racksole with the direct earnest expression of a man
+      having a grievance. &lsquo;Yes; a private detective. It&rsquo;s a small matter, I
+      know, and I dare say you think you&rsquo;ve got a right, as proprietor of the
+      show, to do what you like in that line; but I&rsquo;ve just called to tell you
+      that I object. I&rsquo;ve called as a matter of principle. I&rsquo;m not angry; it&rsquo;s
+      the principle of the thing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Mr Levi,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I assure you that, having let the Gold
+      Room to a private individual for a private entertainment, I should never
+      dream of doing what you suggest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Straight?&rsquo; asked Mr Sampson Levi, using his own picturesque language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Straight,&rsquo; said Racksole smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There was a gent present at my ball that I didn&rsquo;t ask. I&rsquo;ve got a
+      wonderful memory for faces, and I know. Several fellows asked me
+      afterwards what he was doing there. I was told by someone that he was one
+      of your waiters, but I didn&rsquo;t believe that. I know nothing of the Grand
+      Babylon; it&rsquo;s not quite my style of tavern, but I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;d send
+      one of your own waiters to watch my guests&mdash;unless, of course, you
+      sent him as a waiter; and this chap didn&rsquo;t do any waiting, though he did
+      his share of drinking.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I can throw some light on this mystery,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I may
+      tell you that I was already aware that man had attended your ball
+      uninvited.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How did you get to know?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By pure chance, Mr Levi, and not by inquiry. That man was a former waiter
+      at this hotel&mdash;the head waiter, in fact&mdash;Jules. No doubt you
+      have heard of him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not I,&rsquo; said Mr Levi positively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I was informed that everyone knew Jules, but it
+      appears not. Well, be that as it may, previously to the night of your
+      ball, I had dismissed Jules. I had ordered him never to enter the Babylon
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But on that evening I encountered him here&mdash;not in the Gold Room, but
+      in the hotel itself. I asked him to explain his presence, and he stated he
+      was your guest. That is all I know of the matter, Mr Levi, and I am
+      extremely sorry that you should have thought me capable of the enormity of
+      placing a private detective among your guests.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is perfectly satisfactory to me,&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi said, after a
+      pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I only wanted an explanation, and I&rsquo;ve got it. I was told by some pals of
+      mine in the City I might rely on Mr Theodore Racksole going straight to
+      the point, and I&rsquo;m glad they were right. Now as to that feller Jules, I
+      shall make my own inquiries as to him. Might I ask you why you dismissed
+      him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know why I dismissed him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t know? Oh! come now! I&rsquo;m only asking because I thought you might
+      be able to give me a hint why he turned up uninvited at my ball. Sorry if
+      I&rsquo;m too inquisitive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all, Mr Levi; but I really don&rsquo;t know. I only sort of felt that he
+      was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it were. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. &lsquo;If this Jules is
+      such a well-known person,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;how could the feller hope to come to
+      my ball without being recognized?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Give it up,&rsquo; said Racksole promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I&rsquo;ll be moving on,&rsquo; was Mr Sampson Levi&rsquo;s next remark. &lsquo;Good day,
+      and thank ye. I suppose you aren&rsquo;t doing anything in Kaffirs?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Racksole smiled a negative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thought not,&rsquo; said Levi. &lsquo;Well, I never touch American rails myself, and
+      so I reckon we sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t come across each other. Good day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good day,&rsquo; said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and, gazing at
+      Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression, remarked:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Strange things been going on here lately, eh?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Racksole assented. &lsquo;Know anything about them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well&mdash;no, not exactly,&rsquo; said Mr Levi. &lsquo;But I had a fancy you and I
+      might be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,&rsquo; Racksole said, attracted by the
+      evident straightforwardness of the man&rsquo;s tone. &lsquo;Now, how can we be of
+      service to each other? I flatter myself I&rsquo;m something of a judge of
+      character, especially financial character, and I tell you&mdash;if you&rsquo;ll
+      put your cards on the table, I&rsquo;ll do ditto with mine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Agreed,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll begin by explaining my interest in
+      your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons from a certain
+      Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that summons hasn&rsquo;t arrived.
+      It appears that Prince Eugen hasn&rsquo;t come to London at all. Now, I could
+      have taken my dying davy that he would have been here yesterday at the
+      latest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why were you so sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Question for question,&rsquo; said Levi. &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s clear the ground first, Mr
+      Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That&rsquo;s a conundrum that&rsquo;s been
+      puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past. Why did you
+      buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move to be?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no next move,&rsquo; answered Racksole candidly, &lsquo;and I will tell you
+      why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. I bought it
+      because of a whim.&rsquo; And then Theodore Racksole gave this little Jew, whom
+      he had begun to respect, a faithful account of the transaction with Mr
+      Felix Babylon. &lsquo;I suppose,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;you find a difficulty in
+      appreciating my state of mind when I did the deal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not a bit,&rsquo; said Mr Levi. &lsquo;I once bought an electric launch on the Thames
+      in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the most
+      satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it&rsquo;s a simple accident that you
+      own this hotel at the present moment?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A simple accident&mdash;all because of a beefsteak and a bottle of Bass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Um!&rsquo; grunted Mr Sampson Levi, stroking his triple chin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To return to Prince Eugen,&rsquo; Racksole resumed. &lsquo;I was expecting His
+      Highness here. The State apartments had been prepared for him. He was due
+      on the very afternoon that young Dimmock died. But he never came, and I
+      have not heard why he has failed to arrive; nor have I seen his name in
+      the papers. What his business was in London, I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will tell you,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, &lsquo;he was coming to arrange a
+      loan.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A State loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No&mdash;a private loan.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Whom from?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From me, Sampson Levi. You look surprised. If you&rsquo;d lived in London a
+      little longer, you&rsquo;d know that I was just the person the Prince would come
+      to. Perhaps you aren&rsquo;t aware that down Throgmorton Street way I&rsquo;m called
+      &ldquo;The Court Pawnbroker&rdquo;, because I arrange loans for the minor,
+      second-class Princes of Europe. I&rsquo;m a stockbroker, but my real business is
+      financing some of the little Courts of Europe. Now, I may tell you that
+      the Hereditary Prince of Posen particularly wanted a million, and he
+      wanted it by a certain date, and he knew that if the affair wasn&rsquo;t fixed
+      up by a certain time here he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to get it by that certain
+      date. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m surprised he isn&rsquo;t in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did he need a million for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Debts,&rsquo; answered Sampson Levi laconically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His own?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he isn&rsquo;t thirty years of age?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What of that? He isn&rsquo;t the only European Prince who has run up a million
+      of debts in a dozen years. To a Prince the thing is as easy as eating a
+      sandwich.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why has he taken this sudden resolution to liquidate them?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because the Emperor and the lady&rsquo;s parents won&rsquo;t let him marry till he
+      has done so! And quite right, too! He&rsquo;s got to show a clean sheet, or the
+      Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg will never be Princess of Posen.
+      Even now the Emperor has no idea how much Prince Eugen&rsquo;s debts amount to.
+      If he had&mdash;!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But would not the Emperor know of this proposed loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not necessarily at once. It could be so managed. Twig?&rsquo; Mr Sampson Levi
+      laughed. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve carried these little affairs through before. After marriage
+      it might be allowed to leak out. And you know the Princess Anna&rsquo;s fortune
+      is pretty big! Now, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; he added, abruptly changing his tone,
+      &lsquo;where do you suppose Prince Eugen has disappeared to? Because if he
+      doesn&rsquo;t turn up to-day he can&rsquo;t have that million. To-day is the last day.
+      To-morrow the money will be appropriated, elsewhere. Of course, I&rsquo;m not
+      alone in this business, and my friends have something to say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You ask me where I think Prince Eugen has disappeared to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you think it&rsquo;s a disappearance?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sampson Levi nodded. &lsquo;Putting two and two together,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I do. The
+      Dimmock business is very peculiar&mdash;very peculiar, indeed. Dimmock was
+      a left-handed relation of the Posen family. Twig? Scarcely anyone knows
+      that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was made secretary and companion to Prince Aribert, just to keep him in
+      the domestic circle. His mother was an Irishwoman, whose misfortune was
+      that she was too beautiful. Twig?&rsquo; (Mr Sampson Levi always used this
+      extraordinary word when he was in a communicative mood.) &lsquo;My belief is
+      that Dimmock&rsquo;s death has something to do with the disappearance of Prince
+      Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The only thing that passes me is this: Why should anyone want to make
+      Prince Eugen disappear? The poor little Prince hasn&rsquo;t an enemy in the
+      world. If he&rsquo;s been &ldquo;copped&rdquo;, as they say, why has he been &ldquo;copped&rdquo;? It
+      won&rsquo;t do anyone any good.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Won&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; repeated Racksole, with a sudden flash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean?&rsquo; asked Mr Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean this: Suppose some other European pauper Prince was anxious to
+      marry Princess Anna and her fortune, wouldn&rsquo;t that Prince have an interest
+      in stopping this loan of yours to Prince Eugen? Wouldn&rsquo;t he have an
+      interest in causing Prince Eugen to disappear&mdash;at any rate, for a
+      time?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sampson Levi thought hard for a few moments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Theodore Racksole,&rsquo; he said at length, &lsquo;I do believe you have hit on
+      something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twelve ROCCO AND ROOM NO. 111
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the afternoon of the same day&mdash;the interview just described had
+      occurred in the morning&mdash;Racksole was visited by another idea, and he
+      said to himself that he ought to have thought of it before. The
+      conversation with Mr Sampson Levi had continued for a considerable time,
+      and the two men had exchanged various notions, and agreed to meet again,
+      but the theory that Reginald Dimmock had probably been a traitor to his
+      family&mdash;a traitor whose repentance had caused his death&mdash;had not
+      been thoroughly discussed; the talk had tended rather to Continental
+      politics, with a view to discovering what princely family might have an
+      interest in the temporary disappearance of Prince Eugen. Now, as Racksole
+      considered in detail the particular affair of Reginald Dimmock, deceased,
+      he was struck by one point especially, to wit: Why had Dimmock and Jules
+      manoeuvred to turn Nella Racksole out of Room No. 111 on that first night?
+      That they had so manoeuvred, that the broken window-pane was not a mere
+      accident, Racksole felt perfectly sure. He had felt perfectly sure all
+      along; but the significance of the facts had not struck him. It was plain
+      to him now that there must be something of extraordinary and peculiar
+      importance about Room No. 111. After lunch he wandered quietly upstairs
+      and looked at Room No. 111; that is to say, he looked at the outside of
+      it; it happened to be occupied, but the guest was leaving that evening.
+      The thought crossed his mind that there could be no object in gazing
+      blankly at the outside of a room; yet he gazed; then he wandered quickly
+      down again to the next floor, and in passing along the corridor of that
+      floor he stopped, and with an involuntary gesture stamped his foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Great Scott!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got hold of something&mdash;No. 111 is
+      exactly over the State apartments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the bureau, and issued instructions that No. 111 was not to be
+      re-let to anyone until further orders. At the bureau they gave him Nella&rsquo;s
+      note, which ran thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dearest Papa,&mdash;I am going away for a day or two on the trail of a
+      clue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I&rsquo;m not back in three days, begin to inquire for me at Ostend. Till
+      then leave me alone.&mdash;Your sagacious daughter, NELL.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These few words, in Nella&rsquo;s large scrawling hand, filled one side of the
+      paper. At the bottom was a P.T.O. He turned over, and read the sentence,
+      underlined, &lsquo;P.S.&mdash;Keep an eye on Rocco.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder what the little creature is up to?&rsquo; he murmured, as he tore the
+      letter into small fragments, and threw them into the waste-paper basket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, without any delay, he took the lift down to the basement, with the
+      object of making a preliminary inspection of Rocco in his lair. He could
+      scarcely bring himself to believe that this suave and stately gentleman,
+      this enthusiast of gastronomy, was concerned in the machinations of Jules
+      and other rascals unknown. Nevertheless, from habit, he obeyed his
+      daughter, giving her credit for a certain amount of perspicuity and
+      cleverness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The kitchens of the Grand Babylon Hôtel are one of the wonders of Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Only three years before the events now under narration Felix Babylon had
+      had them newly installed with every device and patent that the ingenuity
+      of two continents could supply. They covered nearly an acre of superficial
+      space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were walled and floored from end to end with tiles and marble, which
+      enabled them to be washed down every morning like the deck of a
+      man-of-war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Visitors were sometimes taken to see the potato-paring machine, the patent
+      plate-dryer, the Babylon-spit (a contrivance of Felix Babylon&rsquo;s own), the
+      silver-grill, the system of connected stock-pots, and other amazing
+      phenomena of the department. Sometimes, if they were fortunate, they might
+      also see the artist who sculptured ice into forms of men and beasts for
+      table ornaments, or the first napkin-folder in London, or the man who
+      daily invented fresh designs for pastry and blancmanges. Twelve chefs
+      pursued their labours in those kitchens, helped by ninety assistant chefs,
+      and a further army of unconsidered menials. Over all these was Rocco,
+      supreme and unapproachable. Half-way along the suite of kitchens, Rocco
+      had an apartment of his own, wherein he thought out those magnificent
+      combinations, those marvellous feats of succulence and originality, which
+      had given him his fame. Visitors never caught a glimpse of Rocco in the
+      kitchens, though sometimes, on a special night, he would stroll
+      nonchalantly through the dining-room, like the great man he was, to
+      receive the compliments of the hotel habitués&mdash;people of insight who
+      recognized his uniqueness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s sudden and unusual appearance in the kitchen caused a
+      little stir. He nodded to some of the chefs, but said nothing to anyone,
+      merely wandering about amid the maze of copper utensils, and white-capped
+      workers. At length he saw Rocco, surrounded by several admiring chefs.
+      Rocco was bending over a freshly-roasted partridge which lay on a blue
+      dish. He plunged a long fork into the back of the bird, and raised it in
+      the air with his left hand. In his right he held a long glittering
+      carving-knife. He was giving one of his world-famous exhibitions of
+      carving. In four swift, unerring, delicate, perfect strokes he cleanly
+      severed the limbs of the partridge. It was a wonderful achievement&mdash;how
+      wondrous none but the really skilful carver can properly appreciate. The
+      chefs emitted a hum of applause, and Rocco, long, lean, and graceful,
+      retired to his own apartment. Racksole followed him. Rocco sat in a chair,
+      one hand over his eyes; he had not noticed Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are you doing, M. Rocco?&rsquo; the millionaire asked smiling. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo;
+      exclaimed Rocco, starting up with an apology. &lsquo;Pardon! I was inventing a
+      new mayonnaise, which I shall need for a certain menu next week.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you invent these things without materials, then?&rsquo; questioned Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. I do dem in my mind. I tink dem. Why should I want materials?
+      I know all flavours. I tink, and tink, and tink, and it is done. I write
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I give the recipe to my best chef&mdash;dere you are. I need not even
+      taste, I know how it will taste. It is like composing music. De great
+      composers do not compose at de piano.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is because I work like dat dat you pay me three thousand a year,&rsquo;
+      Rocco added gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heard about Jules?&rsquo; said Racksole abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. He&rsquo;s been arrested in Ostend,&rsquo; the millionaire continued, lying
+      cleverly at a venture. &lsquo;They say that he and several others are implicated
+      in a murder case&mdash;the murder of Reginald Dimmock.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Truly?&rsquo; drawled Rocco, scarcely hiding a yawn. His indifference was so
+      superb, so gorgeous, that Racksole instantly divined that it was assumed
+      for the occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It seems that, after all, the police are good for something. But this is
+      the first time I ever knew them to be worth their salt. There is to be a
+      thorough and systematic search of the hotel to-morrow,&rsquo; Racksole went on.
+      &lsquo;I have mentioned it to you to warn you that so far as you are concerned
+      the search is of course merely a matter of form. You will not object to
+      the detectives looking through your rooms?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly not,&rsquo; and Rocco shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall ask you to say nothing about this to anyone,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;The
+      news of Jules&rsquo; arrest is quite private to myself. The papers know nothing
+      of it. You comprehend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco smiled in his grand manner, and Rocco&rsquo;s master thereupon went away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole was very well satisfied with the little conversation. It was
+      perhaps dangerous to tell a series of mere lies to a clever fellow like
+      Rocco, and Racksole wondered how he should ultimately explain them to this
+      great master-chef if his and Nella&rsquo;s suspicions should be unfounded, and
+      nothing came of them. Nevertheless, Rocco&rsquo;s manner, a strange elusive
+      something in the man&rsquo;s eyes, had nearly convinced Racksole that he was
+      somehow implicated in Jules&rsquo; schemes&mdash;and probably in the death of
+      Reginald Dimmock and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, or rather about half-past one the next morning, when the last
+      noises of the hotel&rsquo;s life had died down, Racksole made his way to Room
+      111 on the second floor. He locked the door on the inside, and proceeded
+      to examine the place, square foot by square foot. Every now and then some
+      creak or other sound startled him, and he listened intently for a few
+      seconds. The bedroom was furnished in the ordinary splendid style of
+      bedrooms at the Grand Babylon Hôtel, and in that respect called for no
+      remark. What most interested Racksole was the flooring. He pulled up the
+      thick Oriental carpet, and peered along every plank, but could discover
+      nothing unusual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he went to the dressing-room, and finally to the bathroom, both of
+      which opened out of the main room. But in neither of these smaller
+      chambers was he any more successful than in the bedroom itself. Finally he
+      came to the bath, which was enclosed in a panelled casing of polished
+      wood, after the manner of baths. Some baths have a cupboard beneath the
+      taps, with a door at the side, but this one appeared to have none. He
+      tapped the panels, but not a single one of them gave forth that &lsquo;curious
+      hollow sound&rsquo; which usually betokens a secret place. Idly he turned the
+      cold-tap of the bath, and the water began to rush in. He turned off the
+      cold-tap and turned on the waste-tap, and as he did so his knee, which was
+      pressing against the panelling, slipped forward. The panelling had given
+      way, and he saw that one large panel was hinged from the inside, and
+      caught with a hasp, also on the inside. A large space within the casing of
+      the end of the bath was thus revealed. Before doing anything else,
+      Racksole tried to repeat the trick with the waste-tap, but he failed; it
+      would not work again, nor could he in any way perceive that there was any
+      connection between the rod of the waste-tap and the hasp of the panel.
+      Racksole could not see into the cavity within the casing, and the electric
+      light was fixed, and could not be moved about like a candle. He felt in
+      his pockets, and fortunately discovered a box of matches. Aided by these,
+      he looked into the cavity, and saw nothing; nothing except a rather large
+      hole at the far end&mdash;some three feet from the casing. With some
+      difficulty he squeezed himself through the open panel, and took a
+      half-kneeling, half-sitting posture within. There he struck a match, and
+      it was a most unfortunate thing that in striking, the box being half open,
+      he set fire to all the matches, and was half smothered in the atrocious
+      stink of phosphorus which resulted. One match burned clear on the floor of
+      the cavity, and, rubbing his eyes, Racksole picked it up, and looked down
+      the hole which he had previously descried. It was a hole apparently
+      bottomless, and about eighteen inches square. The curious part about the
+      hole was that a rope-ladder hung down it. When he saw that rope-ladder
+      Racksole smiled the smile of a happy man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The match went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Should he make a long journey, perhaps to some distant corner of the
+      hotel, for a fresh box of matches, or should he attempt to descend that
+      rope-ladder in the dark? He decided on the latter course, and he was the
+      more strongly moved thereto as he could now distinguish a faint, a very
+      faint tinge of light at the bottom of the hole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With infinite care he compressed himself into the well-like hole, and
+      descended the latter. At length he arrived on firm ground, perspiring, but
+      quite safe and quite excited. He saw now that the tinge of light came
+      through a small hole in the wood. He put his eye to the wood, and found
+      that he had a fine view of the State bathroom, and through the door of the
+      State bathroom into the State bedroom. At the massive marble-topped
+      washstand in the State bedroom a man was visible, bending over some object
+      which lay thereon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was Rocco!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Thirteen IN THE STATE BEDROOM
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT was of course plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway which he
+      had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between the bathroom of
+      No. 111 and the State bathroom on the floor below must have been specially
+      designed by some person or persons for the purpose of keeping a nefarious
+      watch upon the occupants of the State suite of apartments. It was a means
+      of communication at once simple and ingenious. At that moment he could not
+      be sure of the precise method employed for it, but he surmised that the
+      casing of the waterpipes had been used as a &lsquo;well&rsquo;, while space for the
+      pipes themselves had been found in the thickness of the ample brick walls
+      of the Grand Babylon. The eye-hole, through which he now had a view of the
+      bedroom, was a very minute one, and probably would scarcely be noticed
+      from the exterior. One thing he observed concerning it, namely, that it
+      had been made for a man somewhat taller than himself; he was obliged to
+      stand on tiptoe in order to get his eye in the correct position. He
+      remembered that both Jules and Rocco were distinctly above the average
+      height; also that they were both thin men, and could have descended the
+      well with comparative ease. Theodore Racksole, though not stout, was a
+      well-set man with large bones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These things flashed through his mind as he gazed, spellbound, at the
+      mysterious movements of Rocco. The door between the bathroom and the
+      bedroom was wide open, and his own situation was such that his view
+      embraced a considerable portion of the bedroom, including the whole of the
+      immense and gorgeously-upholstered bedstead, but not including the whole
+      of the marble washstand. He could see only half of the washstand, and at
+      intervals Rocco passed out of sight as his lithe hands moved over the
+      object which lay on the marble. At first Theodore Racksole could not
+      decide what this object was, but after a time, as his eyes grew accustomed
+      to the position and the light, he made it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the body of a man. Or, rather, to be more exact, Racksole could
+      discern the legs of a man on that half of the table which was visible to
+      him. Involuntarily he shuddered, as the conviction forced itself upon him
+      that Rocco had some unconscious human being helpless on that cold marble
+      surface. The legs never moved. Therefore, the hapless creature was either
+      asleep or under the influence of an anaesthetic&mdash;or (horrible
+      thought!) dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the dreadful
+      midnight activity which was proceeding before his astonished eyes; but
+      fortunately he restrained himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the washstand he could see certain strangely-shaped utensils and
+      instruments which Rocco used from time to time. The work seemed to
+      Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at last Rocco
+      ceased, gave a sign of satisfaction, whistled several bars from
+      &lsquo;Cavalleria Rusticana&rsquo;, and came into the bath-room, where he took off his
+      coat, and very quietly washed his hands. As he stood calmly and leisurely
+      wiping those long fingers of his, he was less than four feet from
+      Racksole, and the cooped-up millionaire trembled, holding his breath, lest
+      Rocco should detect his presence behind the woodwork. But nothing
+      happened, and Rocco returned unsuspectingly to the bedroom. Racksole saw
+      him place some sort of white flannel garment over the prone form on the
+      table, and then lift it bodily on to the great bed, where it lay awfully
+      still. The hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse upon which
+      Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister functions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But whose corpse? And what functions? Could this be a West End hotel,
+      Racksole&rsquo;s own hotel, in the very heart of London, the best-policed city
+      in the world? It seemed incredible, impossible; yet so it was. Once more
+      he remembered what Felix Babylon had said to him and realized the truth of
+      the saying anew. The proprietor of a vast and complicated establishment
+      like the Grand Babylon could never know a tithe of the extraordinary and
+      queer occurrences which happened daily under his very nose; the atmosphere
+      of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an atmosphere of mystery and
+      problems apparently inexplicable. Nevertheless, Racksole thought that Fate
+      was carrying things with rather a high hand when she permitted his chef to
+      spend the night hours over a man&rsquo;s corpse in his State bedroom, this
+      sacred apartment which was supposed to be occupied only by individuals of
+      Royal Blood. Racksole would not have objected to a certain amount of
+      mystery, but he decidedly thought that there was a little too much mystery
+      here for his taste. He thought that even Felix Babylon would have been
+      surprised at this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The electric chandelier in the centre of the ceiling was not lighted; only
+      the two lights on either side of the washstand were switched on, and these
+      did not sufficiently illuminate the features of the man on the bed to
+      enable Racksole to see them clearly. In vain the millionaire strained his
+      eyes; he could only make out that the corpse was probably that of a young
+      man. Just as he was wondering what would be the best course of action to
+      pursue, he saw Rocco with a square-shaped black box in his hand. Then the
+      chef switched off the two electric lights, and the State bedroom was in
+      darkness. In that swift darkness Racksole heard Rocco spring on to the
+      bed. Another half-dozen moments of suspense, and there was a blinding
+      flash of white, which endured for several seconds, and showed Rocco
+      standing like an evil spirit over the corpse, the black box in one hand
+      and a burning piece of aluminium wire in the other. The aluminium wire
+      burnt out, and darkness followed blacker than before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco had photographed the corpse by flashlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the dazzling flare which had disclosed the features of the dead man to
+      the insensible lens of the camera had disclosed them also to Theodore
+      Racksole. The dead man was Reginald Dimmock!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Stung into action by this discovery, Racksole tried to find the exit from
+      his place of concealment. He felt sure that there existed some way out
+      into the State bathroom, but he sought for it fruitlessly, groping with
+      both hands and feet. Then he decided that he must ascend the rope-ladder,
+      make haste for the first-floor corridor, and intercept Rocco when he left
+      the State apartments. It was a painful and difficult business to ascend
+      that thin and yielding ladder in such a confined space, but Racksole was
+      managing it very nicely, and had nearly reached the top, when, by some
+      untoward freak of chance, the ladder broke above his weight, and he
+      slipped ignominiously down to the bottom of the wooden tube. Smothering an
+      excusable curse, Racksole crouched, baffled. Then he saw that the force of
+      his fall had somehow opened a trap-door at his feet. He squeezed through,
+      pushed open another tiny door, and in another second stood in the State
+      bathroom. He was dishevelled, perspiring, rather bewildered; but he was
+      there. In the next second he had resumed absolute command of all his
+      faculties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strange to say, he had moved so quietly that Rocco had apparently not
+      heard him. He stepped noiselessly to the door between the bathroom and the
+      bedroom, and stood there in silence. Rocco had switched on again the
+      lights over the washstand and was busy with his utensils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole deliberately coughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Fourteen ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ROCCO turned round with the swiftness of a startled tiger, and gave
+      Theodore Racksole one long piercing glance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;D&mdash;n!&rsquo; said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and intonation
+      as Racksole himself could have accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most extraordinary thing about the situation was that at this juncture
+      Theodore Racksole did not know what to say. He was so dumbfounded by the
+      affair, and especially by Rocco&rsquo;s absolute and sublime calm, that both
+      speech and thought failed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I give in,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;From the moment you entered this cursed hotel I
+      was afraid of you. I told Jules I was afraid of you. I knew there would be
+      trouble with a man of your kidney, and I was right; confound it! I tell
+      you I give in. I know when I&rsquo;m beaten. I&rsquo;ve got no revolver and no weapons
+      of any kind. I surrender. Do what you like.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that Rocco sat down on a chair. It was magnificently done. Only a
+      truly great man could have done it. Rocco actually kept his dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For answer, Racksole walked slowly into the vast apartment, seized a
+      chair, and, dragging it up to Rocco&rsquo;s chair, sat down opposite to him.
+      Thus they faced each other, their knees almost touching, both in evening
+      dress. On Rocco&rsquo;s right hand was the bed, with the corpse of Reginald
+      Dimmock. On Racksole&rsquo;s right hand, and a little behind him, was the marble
+      washstand, still littered with Rocco&rsquo;s implements. The electric light
+      shone on Rocco&rsquo;s left cheek, leaving the other side of his face in shadow.
+      Racksole tapped him on the knee twice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So you&rsquo;re another Englishman masquerading as a foreigner in my hotel,&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole remarked, by way of commencing the interrogation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not,&rsquo; answered Rocco quietly. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m a citizen of the United States.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce you are!&rsquo; Racksole exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I was born at West Orange, New Jersey, New York State. I call myself
+      an Italian because it was in Italy that I first made a name as a chef&mdash;at
+      Rome. It is better for a great chef like me to be a foreigner. Imagine a
+      great chef named Elihu P. Rucker. You can&rsquo;t imagine it. I changed my
+      nationality for the same reason that my friend and colleague, Jules,
+      otherwise Mr Jackson, changed his.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So Jules is your friend and colleague, is he?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was, but from this moment he is no longer. I began to disapprove of
+      his methods no less than a week ago, and my disapproval will now take
+      active form.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will it?&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I calculate it just won&rsquo;t, Mr Elihu P. Rucker,
+      citizen of the United States. Before you are very much older you&rsquo;ll be in
+      the kind hands of the police, and your activities, in no matter what
+      direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is possible,&rsquo; sighed Rocco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In the meantime, I&rsquo;ll ask you one or two questions for my own private
+      satisfaction. You&rsquo;ve acknowledged that the game is up, and you may as well
+      answer them with as much candour as you feel yourself capable of. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see,&rsquo; replied Rocco calmly, &lsquo;but I guess I can&rsquo;t answer all questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;ll do what I can.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Racksole, clearing his throat, &lsquo;what&rsquo;s the scheme all about?
+      Tell me in a word.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in a thousand words. It isn&rsquo;t my secret, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why was poor little Dimmock poisoned?&rsquo; The millionaire&rsquo;s voice softened
+      as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the unfortunate young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t mind informing you that I objected to
+      that part of the business. I wasn&rsquo;t made aware of it till after it was
+      done, and then I tell you it got my dander up considerable.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean to say you don&rsquo;t know why Dimmock was done to death?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean to say I couldn&rsquo;t see the sense of it. Of course he&mdash;er&mdash;died,
+      because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a share
+      of it. I don&rsquo;t mind saying that much, because you probably guessed it for
+      yourself. But I solemnly state that I have a conscientious objection to
+      murder.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then it was murder?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was a kind of murder,&rsquo; Rocco admitted. &lsquo;Who did it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Unfair question,&rsquo; said Rocco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t know, on my honour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock&rsquo;s body?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How long were you in that bathroom?&rsquo; Rocco parried with sublime
+      impudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t question me, Mr Rucker,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole. &lsquo;I feel very much
+      inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I advise you not to
+      irritate me. What have you been doing to Dimmock&rsquo;s body?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been embalming it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Em&mdash;balming it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly; Richardson&rsquo;s system of arterial fluid injection, as improved
+      by myself. You weren&rsquo;t aware that I included the art of embalming among my
+      accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why?&rsquo; asked Racksole, more mystified than ever. &lsquo;Why should you
+      trouble to embalm the poor chap&rsquo;s corpse?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t you see? Doesn&rsquo;t it strike you? That corpse has to be taken care
+      of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It contains, or rather, it did contain, very serious evidence against some
+      person or persons unknown to the police. It may be necessary to move it
+      about from place to place. A corpse can&rsquo;t be hidden for long; a corpse
+      betrays itself. One couldn&rsquo;t throw it in the Thames, for it would have
+      been found inside twelve hours. One couldn&rsquo;t bury it&mdash;it wasn&rsquo;t safe.
+      The only thing was to keep it handy and movable, ready for emergencies. I
+      needn&rsquo;t inform you that, without embalming, you can&rsquo;t keep a corpse handy
+      and movable for more than four or five days. It&rsquo;s the kind of thing that
+      won&rsquo;t keep. And so it was suggested that I should embalm it, and I did.
+      Mind you, I still objected to the murder, but I couldn&rsquo;t go back on a
+      colleague, you understand. You do understand that, don&rsquo;t you? Well, here
+      you are, and here it is, and that&rsquo;s all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco leaned back in his chair as though he had said everything that ought
+      to be said. He closed his eyes to indicate that so far as he was concerned
+      the conversation was also closed. Theodore Racksole stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope,&rsquo; said Rocco, suddenly opening his eyes, &lsquo;I hope you&rsquo;ll call in
+      the police without any delay. It&rsquo;s getting late, and I don&rsquo;t like going
+      without my night&rsquo;s rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where do you suppose you&rsquo;ll get a night&rsquo;s rest?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In the cells, of course. Haven&rsquo;t I told you I know when I&rsquo;m beaten. I&rsquo;m
+      not so blind as not to be able to see that there&rsquo;s at any rate a prima
+      facie case against me. I expect I shall get off with a year or two&rsquo;s
+      imprisonment as accessory after the fact&mdash;I think that&rsquo;s what they
+      call it. Anyhow, I shall be in a position to prove that I am not
+      implicated in the murder of this unfortunate nincompoop.&rsquo; He pointed, with
+      a strange, scornful gesture of his elbow, to the bed. &lsquo;And now, shall we
+      go? Everyone is asleep, but there will be a policeman within call of the
+      watchman in the portico. I am at your service. Let us go down together, Mr
+      Racksole. I give you my word to go quietly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Stay a moment,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole curtly; &lsquo;there is no hurry. It
+      won&rsquo;t do you any harm to forego another hour&rsquo;s sleep, especially as you
+      will have no work to do to-morrow. I have one or two more questions to put
+      to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo; Rocco murmured, with an air of tired resignation, as if to say,
+      &lsquo;What must be must be.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where has Dimmock&rsquo;s corpse been during the last three or four days, since
+      he&mdash;died?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; answered Rocco, apparently surprised at the simplicity of the
+      question. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s been in my room, and one night it was on the roof; once it
+      went out of the hotel as luggage, but it came back the next day as a case
+      of Demerara sugar. I forget where else it has been, but it&rsquo;s been kept
+      perfectly safe and treated with every consideration.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who contrived all these manoeuvres?&rsquo; asked Racksole as calmly as he
+      could.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did. That is to say, I invented them and I saw that they were carried
+      out. You see, the suspicions of your police obliged me to be particularly
+      spry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who carried them out?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! that would be telling tales. But I don&rsquo;t mind assuring you that my
+      accomplices were innocent accomplices. It is absurdly easy for a man like
+      me to impose on underlings&mdash;absurdly easy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did you intend to do with the corpse ultimately?&rsquo; Racksole pursued
+      his inquiry with immovable countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who knows?&rsquo; said Rocco, twisting his beautiful moustache. &lsquo;That would
+      have depended on several things&mdash;on your police, for instance. But
+      probably in the end we should have restored this mortal clay&rsquo;&mdash;again
+      he jerked his elbow&mdash;&lsquo;to the man&rsquo;s sorrowing relatives.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know who the relatives are?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. Don&rsquo;t you? If you don&rsquo;t I need only hint that Dimmock had a
+      Prince for his father.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It seems to me,&rsquo; said Racksole, with cold sarcasm, &lsquo;that you behaved
+      rather clumsily in choosing this bedroom as the scene of your operations.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;There was no other apartment so suitable in the
+      whole hotel. Who would have guessed that anything was going on here? It
+      was the very place for me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I guessed,&rsquo; said Racksole succinctly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, you guessed, Mr Racksole. But I had not counted on you. You are the
+      only smart man in the business. You are an American citizen, and I hadn&rsquo;t
+      reckoned to have to deal with that class of person.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Apparently I frightened you this afternoon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in the least.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were not afraid of a search?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I knew that no search was intended. I knew that you were trying to
+      frighten me. You must really credit me with a little sagacity and insight,
+      Mr Racksole. Immediately you began to talk to me in the kitchen this
+      afternoon I felt you were on the track. But I was not frightened. I merely
+      decided that there was no time to be lost&mdash;that I must act quickly. I
+      did act quickly, but, it seems, not quickly enough. I grant that your
+      rapidity exceeded mine. Let us go downstairs, I beg.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco rose and moved towards the door. With an instinctive action Racksole
+      rushed forward and seized him by the shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No tricks!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;You&rsquo;re in my custody and don&rsquo;t forget it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco turned on his employer a look of gentle, dignified scorn. &lsquo;Have I
+      not informed you,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;that I have the intention of going quietly?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole felt almost ashamed for the moment. It flashed across him that a
+      man can be great, even in crime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What an ineffable fool you were,&rsquo; said Racksole, stopping him at the
+      threshold, &lsquo;with your talents, your unique talents, to get yourself mixed
+      up in an affair of this kind. You are ruined. And, by Jove! you were a
+      great man in your own line.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole,&rsquo; said Rocco very quickly, &lsquo;that is the truest word you have
+      spoken this night. I was a great man in my own line. And I am an ineffable
+      fool. Alas!&rsquo; He brought his long arms to his sides with a thud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you do it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was fascinated&mdash;fascinated by Jules. He, too, is a great man. We
+      had great opportunities, here in the Grand Babylon. It was a great game.
+      It was worth the candle. The prizes were enormous. You would admit these
+      things if you knew the facts. Perhaps some day you will know them, for you
+      are a fairly clever person at getting to the root of a matter. Yes, I was
+      blinded, hypnotized.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now you are ruined.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not ruined, not ruined. Afterwards, in a few years, I shall come up
+      again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man of genius like me is never ruined till he is dead. Genius is always
+      forgiven. I shall be forgiven. Suppose I am sent to prison. When I emerge
+      I shall be no gaol-bird. I shall be Rocco&mdash;the great Rocco. And half
+      the hotels in Europe will invite me to join them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let me tell you, as man to man, that you have achieved your own
+      degradation. There is no excuse.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know it,&rsquo; said Rocco. &lsquo;Let us go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole was distinctly and notably impressed by this man&mdash;by this
+      master spirit to whom he was to have paid a salary at the rate of three
+      thousand pounds a year. He even felt sorry for him. And so, side by side,
+      the captor and the captured, they passed into the vast deserted corridor
+      of the hotel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rocco stopped at the grating of the first lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It will be locked,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;We must use the stairs to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I have a key. I always carry one,&rsquo; said Rocco, and he pulled one out
+      of his pocket, and, unfastening the iron screen, pushed it open. Racksole
+      smiled at his readiness and aplomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;After you,&rsquo; said Rocco, bowing in his finest manner, and Racksole stepped
+      into the lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the swiftness of lighting Rocco pushed forward the iron screen, which
+      locked itself automatically. Theodore Racksole was hopelessly a prisoner
+      within the lift, while Rocco stood free in the corridor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; he remarked suavely, bowing again, lower than
+      before. &lsquo;Good-bye: I hate to take a mean advantage of you in this fashion,
+      but really you must allow that you have been very simple. You are a clever
+      man, as I have already said, up to a certain point. It is past that point
+      that my own cleverness comes in. Again, good-bye. After all, I shall have
+      no rest to-night, but perhaps even that will be better that sleeping in a
+      police cell. If you make a great noise you may wake someone and ultimately
+      get released from this lift. But I advise you to compose yourself, and
+      wait till morning. It will be more dignified. For the third time,
+      good-bye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And with that Rocco, without hastening, walked down the corridor and so
+      out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said never a word. He was too disgusted with himself to speak. He
+      clenched his fists, and put his teeth together, and held his breath. In
+      the silence he could hear the dwindling sound of Rocco&rsquo;s footsteps on the
+      thick carpet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the greatest blow of Racksole&rsquo;s life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning the high-born guests of the Grand Babylon were aroused by
+      a rumour that by some accident the millionaire proprietor of the hotel had
+      remained all night locked up in the lift. It was also stated that Rocco had
+      quarrelled with his new master and incontinently left the place. A duchess
+      said that Rocco&rsquo;s departure would mean the ruin of the hotel, whereupon
+      her husband advised her not to talk nonsense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Racksole, he sent a message for the detective in charge of the
+      Dimmock affair, and bravely told him the happenings of the previous night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The narration was a decided ordeal to a man of Racksole&rsquo;s temperament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A strange story!&rsquo; commented Detective Marshall, and he could not avoid a
+      smile. &lsquo;The climax was unfortunate, but you have certainly got some
+      valuable facts.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I myself have a clue,&rsquo; added the detective. &lsquo;When your message arrived I
+      was just coming up to see you. I want you to accompany me to a certain
+      spot not far from here. Will you come, now, at once?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment a page entered with a telegram. Racksole opened it read:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Please come instantly. Nella. Hôtel Wellington, Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at his watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t come,&rsquo; he said to the detective. I&rsquo;m going to Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To Ostend?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But really, Mr Racksole,&rsquo; protested the detective. &lsquo;My business is
+      urgent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So&rsquo;s mine,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In ten minutes he was on his way to Victoria Station.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Fifteen END OF THE YACHT ADVENTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WE must now return to Nella Racksole and Prince Aribert of Posen on board
+      the yacht without a name. The Prince&rsquo;s first business was to make Jules,
+      otherwise Mr Tom Jackson, perfectly secure by means of several pieces of
+      rope. Although Mr Jackson had been stunned into a complete
+      unconsciousness, and there was a contused wound under his ear, no one
+      could say how soon he might not come to himself and get very violent. So
+      the Prince, having tied his arms and legs, made him fast to a stanchion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope he won&rsquo;t die,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;He looks very white.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Mr Jacksons of this world,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert sententiously, &lsquo;never
+      die till they are hung. By the way, I wonder how it is that no one has
+      interfered with us. Perhaps they are discreetly afraid of my revolver&mdash;of
+      your revolver, I mean.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both he and Nella glanced up at the imperturbable steersman, who kept the
+      yacht&rsquo;s head straight out to sea. By this time they were about a couple of
+      miles from the Belgian shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Addressing him in French, the Prince ordered the sailor to put the yacht
+      about, and make again for Ostend Harbour, but the fellow took no notice
+      whatever of the summons. The Prince raised the revolver, with the idea of
+      frightening the steersman, and then the man began to talk rapidly in a
+      mixture of French and Flemish. He said that he had received Jules&rsquo; strict
+      orders not to interfere in any way, no matter what might happen on the
+      deck of the yacht. He was the captain of the yacht, and he had to make for
+      a certain English port, the name of which he could not divulge: he was to
+      keep the vessel at full steam ahead under any and all circumstances. He
+      seemed to be a very big, a very strong, and a very determined man, and the
+      Prince was at a loss what course of action to pursue. He asked several
+      more questions, but the only effect of them was to render the man taciturn
+      and ill-humoured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain Prince Aribert explained that Miss Nella Racksole, daughter of
+      millionaire Racksole, had been abducted by Mr Tom Jackson; in vain he
+      flourished the revolver threateningly; the surly but courageous captain
+      said merely that that had nothing to do with him; he had instructions, and
+      he should carry them out. He sarcastically begged to remind his
+      interlocutor that he was the captain of the yacht.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It won&rsquo;t do to shoot him, I suppose,&rsquo; said the Prince to Nella. &lsquo;I might
+      bore a hole into his leg, or something of that kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s rather risky, and rather hard on the poor captain, with his
+      extraordinary sense of duty,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;And, besides, the whole crew
+      might turn on us. No, we must think of something else.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wonder where the crew is,&rsquo; said the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Mr Jackson, prone and bound on the deck, showed signs of
+      recovering from his swoon. His eyes opened, and he gazed vacantly around.
+      At length he caught sight of the Prince, who approached him with the
+      revolver well in view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s you, is it?&rsquo; he murmured faintly. &lsquo;What are you doing on board?
+      Who&rsquo;s tied me up like this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;See here!&rsquo; replied the Prince, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want to have any arguments, but
+      this yacht must return to Ostend at once, where you will be given up to
+      the authorities.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Really!&rsquo; snarled Mr Tom Jackson. &lsquo;Shall I!&rsquo; Then he called out in French
+      to the man at the wheel, &lsquo;Hi André! let these two be put off in the
+      dinghy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a peculiar situation. Certain of nothing but the possession of
+      Nella&rsquo;s revolver, the Prince scarcely knew whether to carry the argument
+      further, and with stronger measures, or to accept the situation with as
+      much dignity as the circumstances would permit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us take the dinghy,&rsquo; said Nella; &lsquo;we can row ashore in an hour.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt that she was right. To leave the yacht in such a manner seemed
+      somewhat ignominious, and it certainly involved the escape of that
+      profound villain, Mr Thomas Jackson. But what else could be done? The
+      Prince and Nella constituted one party on the vessel; they knew their own
+      strength, but they did not know the strength of their opponents. They held
+      the hostile ringleader bound and captive, but this man had proved himself
+      capable of giving orders, and even to gag him would not help them if the
+      captain of the yacht persisted in his obstinate course. Moreover, there
+      was a distinct objection to promiscuous shooting. The Prince felt that
+      there was no knowing how promiscuous shooting might end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will take the dinghy,&rsquo; said the Prince quickly, to the captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A bell rang below, and a sailor and the Negro boy appeared on deck. The
+      pulsations of the screw grew less rapid. The yacht stopped. The dinghy was
+      lowered. As the Prince and Nella prepared to descend into the little
+      cock-boat Mr Tom Jackson addressed Nella, all bound as he lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good-bye,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I shall see you again, never fear.&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another moment they were in the dinghy, and the dinghy was adrift. The
+      yacht&rsquo;s screw churned the water, and the beautiful vessel slipped away from
+      them. As it receded a figure appeared at the stem. It was Mr Thomas
+      Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had been released by his minions. He held a white handkerchief to his
+      ear, and offered a calm, enigmatic smile to the two forlorn but victorious
+      occupants of the dinghy. Jules had been defeated for once in his life; or
+      perhaps it would be more just to say that he had been out-manoeuvred. Men
+      like Jules are incapable of being defeated. It was characteristic of his
+      luck that now, in the very hour when he had been caught red-handed in a
+      serious crime against society, he should be effecting a leisurely escape&mdash;an
+      escape which left no clue behind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was utterly calm and blue in the morning sun. The dinghy rocked
+      itself lazily in the swell of the yacht&rsquo;s departure. As the mist cleared
+      away the outline of the shore became more distinct, and it appeared as if
+      Ostend was distant scarcely a cable&rsquo;s length. The white dome of the great
+      Kursaal glittered in the pale turquoise sky, and the smoke of steamers in
+      the harbour could be plainly distinguished. On the offing was a crowd of
+      brown-sailed fishing luggers returning with the night&rsquo;s catch. The
+      many-hued bathing-vans could be counted on the distant beach. Everything
+      seemed perfectly normal. It was difficult for either Nella or her
+      companion to realize that anything extraordinary had happened within the
+      last hour. Yet there was the yacht, not a mile off, to prove to them that
+      something very extraordinary had, in fact, happened. The yacht was no
+      vision, nor was that sinister watching figure at its stern a vision,
+      either.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose Jules was too surprised and too feeble to inquire how I came to
+      be on board his yacht,&rsquo; said the Prince, taking the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! How did you?&rsquo; asked Nella, her face lighting up. &lsquo;Really, I had
+      almost forgotten that part of the affair.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I must begin at the beginning and it will take some time,&rsquo; answered the
+      Prince. &lsquo;Had we not better postpone the recital till we get ashore?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will row and you shall talk,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;I want to know now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled happily at her, but gently declined to yield up the oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is it not sufficient that I am here?&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is sufficient, yes,&rsquo; she replied, &lsquo;but I want to know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a long, easy stroke he was pulling the dinghy shorewards. She sat in
+      the stern-sheets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no rudder,&rsquo; he remarked, &lsquo;so you must direct me. Keep the boat&rsquo;s
+      head on the lighthouse. The tide seems to be running in strongly; that
+      will help us. The people on shore will think that we have only been for a
+      little early morning excursion.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will you kindly tell me how it came about that you were able to save my
+      life, Prince?&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Save your life, Miss Racksole? I didn&rsquo;t save your life; I merely knocked
+      a man down.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You saved my life,&rsquo; she repeated. &lsquo;That villain would have stopped at
+      nothing. I saw it in his eye.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you were a brave woman, for you showed no fear of death.&rsquo; His
+      admiring gaze rested full on her. For a moment the oars ceased to move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a gesture of impatience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It happened that I saw you last night in your carriage,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;The
+      fact is, I had not had the audacity to go to Berlin with my story. I
+      stopped in Ostend to see whether I could do a little detective work on my
+      own account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a piece of good luck that I saw you. I followed the carriage as
+      quickly as I could, and I just caught a glimpse of you as you entered that
+      awful house. I knew that Jules had something to do with that house. I
+      guessed what you were doing. I was afraid for you. Fortunately I had
+      surveyed the house pretty thoroughly. There is an entrance to it at the
+      back, from a narrow lane. I made my way there. I got into the yard at the
+      back, and I stood under the window of the room where you had the interview
+      with Miss Spencer. I heard everything that was said. It was a courageous
+      enterprise on your part to follow Miss Spencer from the Grand Babylon to
+      Ostend. Well, I dared not force an entrance, lest I might precipitate
+      matters too suddenly, and involve both of us in a difficulty. I merely
+      kept watch. Ah, Miss Racksole! you were magnificent with Miss Spencer; as
+      I say, I could hear every word, for the window was slightly open. I felt
+      that you needed no assistance from me. And then she cheated you with a
+      trick, and the revolver came flying through the window. I picked it up, I
+      thought it would probably be useful. There was a silence. I did not guess
+      at first that you had fainted. I thought that you had escaped. When I
+      found out the truth it was too late for me to intervene. There were two
+      men, both desperate, besides Miss Spencer&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who was the other man?&rsquo; asked Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know. It was dark. They drove away with you to the harbour.
+      Again I followed. I saw them carry you on board. Before the yacht weighed
+      anchor I managed to climb unobserved into the dinghy. I lay down full
+      length in it, and no one suspected that I was there. I think you know the
+      rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was the yacht all ready for sea?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The yacht was all ready for sea. The captain fellow was on the bridge,
+      and steam was up.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then they expected me! How could that be?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They expected some one. I do not think they expected you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Did the second man go on board?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He helped to carry you along the gangway, but he came back again to the
+      carriage. He was the driver.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And no one else saw the business?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The quay was deserted. You see, the last steamer had arrived for the
+      night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a brief silence, and then Nella ejaculated, under her breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Truly, it is a wonderful world!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And it was a wonderful world for them, though scarcely perhaps, in the
+      sense which Nella Racksole had intended. They had just emerged from a
+      highly disconcerting experience. Among other minor inconveniences, they
+      had had no breakfast. They were out in the sea in a tiny boat. Neither of
+      them knew what the day might bring forth. The man, at least, had the most
+      serious anxieties for the safety of his Royal nephew. And yet&mdash;and
+      yet&mdash;neither of them wished that that voyage of the little boat on
+      the summer tide should come to an end. Each, perhaps unconsciously, had a
+      vague desire that it might last for ever, he lazily pulling, she directing
+      his course at intervals by a movement of her distractingly pretty head.
+      How was this condition of affairs to be explained? Well, they were both
+      young; they both had superb health, and all the ardour of youth; and&mdash;they
+      were together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat was very small indeed; her face was scarcely a yard from his.
+      She, in his eyes, surrounded by the glamour of beauty and vast wealth; he,
+      in her eyes, surrounded by the glamour of masculine intrepidity and the
+      brilliance of a throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But all voyages come to an end, either at the shore or at the bottom of
+      the sea, and at length the dinghy passed between the stone jetties of the
+      harbour. The Prince rowed to the nearest steps, tied up the boat, and they
+      landed. It was six o&rsquo;clock in the morning, and a day of gorgeous sunlight
+      had opened. Few people were about at that early hour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, what next?&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;I must take you to an hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am in your hands,&rsquo; she acquiesced, with a smile which sent the blood
+      racing through his veins. He perceived now that she was tired and
+      overcome, suffering from a sudden and natural reaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the Hôtel Wellington the Prince told the sleepy door-keeper that they
+      had come by the early train from Bruges, and wanted breakfast at once. It
+      was absurdly early, but a common English sovereign will work wonders in
+      any Belgian hotel, and in a very brief time Nella and the Prince were
+      breakfasting on the verandah of the hotel upon chocolate that had been
+      specially and hastily brewed for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I never tasted such excellent chocolate,&rsquo; claimed the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The statement was wildly untrue, for the Hôtel Wellington is not
+      celebrated for its chocolate. Nevertheless Nella replied enthusiastically,
+      &lsquo;Nor I.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a silence, and Nella, feeling possibly that she had been
+      too ecstatic, remarked in a very matter-of-fact tone: &lsquo;I must telegraph to
+      Papa instantly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was that Theodore Racksole received the telegram which drew him
+      away from Detective Marshall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Sixteen THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;THERE is one thing, Prince, that we have just got to settle straight
+      off,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were all three seated&mdash;Racksole, his daughter, and Prince
+      Aribert&mdash;round a dinner table in a private room at the Hôtel
+      Wellington. Racksole had duly arrived by the afternoon boat, and had been
+      met on the quay by the other two. They had dined early, and Racksole had
+      heard the full story of the adventures by sea and land of Nella and the
+      Prince. As to his own adventure of the previous night he said very little,
+      merely explaining, with as little detail as possible, that Dimmock&rsquo;s body
+      had come to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is that?&rsquo; asked the Prince, in answer to Racksole&rsquo;s remark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We have got to settle whether we shall tell the police at once all that
+      has occurred, or whether we shall proceed on our own responsibility. There
+      can be no doubt as to which course we ought to pursue. Every consideration
+      of prudence points to the advisability of taking the police into our
+      confidence, and leaving the matter entirely in their hands.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, Papa!&rsquo; Nella burst out in her pouting, impulsive way. &lsquo;You surely
+      can&rsquo;t think of such a thing. Why, the fun has only just begun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you call last night fun?&rsquo; questioned Racksole, gazing at her solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do,&rsquo; she said promptly. &lsquo;Now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; was the millionaire&rsquo;s laconic response; but perhaps he
+      was thinking of his own situation in the lift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you not think we might investigate a little further,&rsquo; said the Prince
+      judiciously, as he cracked a walnut, &lsquo;just a little further&mdash;and
+      then, if we fail to accomplish anything, there would still be ample
+      opportunity to consult the police?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you suggest we should begin?&rsquo; asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, there is the house which Miss Racksole so intrepidly entered last
+      evening&rsquo;&mdash;he gave her the homage of an admiring glance; &lsquo;you and I,
+      Mr Racksole, might examine that abode in detail.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly. We might do something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We might do too much.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;For example?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We might shoot someone, or get ourselves mistaken for burglars. If we
+      outstepped the law, it would be no excuse for us that we had been acting
+      in a good cause.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True,&rsquo; said the Prince. &lsquo;Nevertheless&mdash;&rsquo; He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nevertheless you have a distaste for bringing the police into the
+      business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You want the hunt all to yourself. You are on fire with the ardour of the
+      chase. Is not that it? Accept the advice of an older man, Prince, and
+      sleep on this affair. I have little fancy for nocturnal escapades two
+      nights together. As for you, Nella, off with you to bed. The Prince and I
+      will have a yarn over such fluids as can be obtained in this hole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Papa,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;you are perfectly horrid to-night.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I am,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Decidedly I am very cross with you for coming
+      over here all alone. It was monstrous. If I didn&rsquo;t happen to be the most
+      foolish of parents&mdash;There! Good-night. It&rsquo;s nine o&rsquo;clock. The Prince,
+      I am sure, will excuse you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Nella had not really been very tired Prince Aribert might have been the
+      witness of a good-natured but stubborn conflict between the millionaire
+      and his spirited offspring. As it was, Nella departed with surprising
+      docility, and the two men were left alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now,&rsquo; said Racksole suddenly, changing his tone, &lsquo;I fancy that after all
+      I&rsquo;m your man for a little amateur investigation to-night. And, if I must
+      speak the exact truth, I think that to sleep on this affair would be about
+      the very worst thing we could do. But I was anxious to keep Nella out of
+      harm&rsquo;s way at any rate till to-morrow. She is a very difficult creature to
+      manage, Prince, and I may warn you,&rsquo; he laughed grimly, &lsquo;that if we do
+      succeed in doing anything to-night we shall catch it from her ladyship in
+      the morning. Are you ready to take that risk?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am,&rsquo; the Prince smiled. &lsquo;But Miss Racksole is a young lady of quite
+      remarkable nerve.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She is,&rsquo; said Racksole drily. &lsquo;I wish sometimes she had less.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said the Prince, and he
+      looked Miss Racksole&rsquo;s father full in the face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You honour us, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole observed. &lsquo;Let us come to business. Am I
+      right in assuming that you have a reason for keeping the police out of
+      this business, if it can possibly be done?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said the Prince, and his brow clouded. &lsquo;I am very much afraid that
+      my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he would wish not
+      to be divulged.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And the reason, if I may ask it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence&mdash;is it not so? Some years ago my
+      foolish nephew had an affair&mdash;an affair with a feminine star of the
+      Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have been the very pattern
+      of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is concerned scandal cannot be
+      avoided in such a matter. I had thought that the affair was quite at an
+      end, since my nephew&rsquo;s betrothal to Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg
+      is shortly to be announced. But yesterday I saw the lady to whom I have
+      referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence of her presence here with
+      my nephew&rsquo;s disappearance is too extraordinary to be disregarded.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It does not square with it. My idea is that the murder of poor Dimmock
+      and the disappearance of my nephew are entirely unconnected&mdash;unless,
+      indeed, this Berlin actress is playing into the hands of the murderers. I
+      had not thought of that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what do you propose to do to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I propose to enter the house which Miss Racksole entered last night and
+      to find out something definite.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I concur,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I shall heartily enjoy it. But let me tell
+      you, Prince, and pardon me for speaking bluntly, your surmise is
+      incorrect. I would wager a hundred thousand dollars that Prince Eugen has
+      been kidnapped.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What grounds have you for being so sure?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! said Racksole, &lsquo;that is a long story. Let me begin by asking you
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Are you aware that your nephew, Prince Eugen, owes a million of money?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million of money!&rsquo; cried Prince Aribert astonished. &lsquo;It is impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nevertheless, he does,&rsquo; said Racksole calmly. Then he told him all he had
+      learnt from Mr Sampson Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What have you to say to that?&rsquo; Racksole ended. Prince Aribert made no
+      reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What have you to say to that?&rsquo; Racksole insisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Merely that Eugen is ruined, even if he is alive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; Racksole returned with cheerfulness. &lsquo;Not at all. We shall
+      see about that. The special thing that I want to know just now from you is
+      this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Has any previous application ever been made for the hand of the Princess
+      Anna?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. Last year. The King of Bosnia sued for it, but his proposal was
+      declined.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because my nephew was considered to be a more suitable match for her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not because the personal character of his Majesty of Bosnia is scarcely
+      of the brightest?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. Unfortunately it is usually impossible to consider questions of
+      personal character when a royal match is concerned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, if for any reason the marriage of Princess Anna with your nephew
+      was frustrated, the King of Bosnia would have a fair chance in that
+      quarter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He would. The political aspect of things would be perfectly
+      satisfactory.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I will wager another hundred thousand dollars
+      that someone in Bosnia&mdash;I don&rsquo;t accuse the King himself&mdash;is at
+      the bottom of this business. The methods of Balkan politicians have always
+      been half-Oriental. Let us go.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To this precious house of Nella&rsquo;s adventure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely it is too early?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So it is,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;and we shall want a few things, too. For
+      instance, a dark lantern. I think I will go out and forage for a lantern.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And a revolver?&rsquo; suggested Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Does it mean revolvers?&rsquo; The millionaire laughed. &lsquo;It may come to that.&rsquo;
+      &lsquo;Here you are, then, my friend,&rsquo; said Racksole, and he pulled one out of
+      his hip pocket. &lsquo;And yours?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I,&rsquo; said the Prince, &lsquo;I have your daughter&rsquo;s.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce you have!&rsquo; murmured Racksole to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then half past nine. They decided that it would be impolitic to
+      begin their operations till after midnight. There were three hours to
+      spare.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us go and see the gambling,&rsquo; Racksole suggested. &lsquo;We might encounter
+      the Berlin lady.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suggestion, in the first instance, was not made seriously, but it
+      appeared to both men that they might do worse than spend the intervening
+      time in the gorgeous saloon of the Kursaal, where, in the season, as much
+      money is won and lost as at Monte Carlo. It was striking ten o&rsquo;clock as
+      they entered the rooms. There was a large company present&mdash;a company
+      which included some of the most notorious persons in Europe. In that
+      multifarious assemblage all were equal. The electric light shone coldly
+      and impartially on the just and on the unjust, on the fool and the knave,
+      on the European and the Asiatic. As usual, women monopolized the best
+      places at the tables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was familiar enough to Prince Aribert, who had witnessed it
+      frequently at Monaco, but Theodore Racksole had never before entered any
+      European gaming palace; he had only the haziest idea of the rules of play,
+      and he was at once interested. For some time they watched the play at the
+      table which happened to be nearest to them. Racksole never moved his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With his eyes glued on the table, and ears open for every remark, of the
+      players and the croupier, he took his first lesson in roulette. He saw a
+      mere youth win fifteen thousand francs, which were stolen in the most
+      barefaced manner by a rouged girl scarcely older than the youth; he saw
+      two old gamesters stake their coins, and lose, and walk quietly out of the
+      place; he saw the bank win fifty thousand francs at a single turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is rather good fun,&rsquo; he said at length, &lsquo;but the stakes are too
+      small to make it really exciting. I&rsquo;ll try my luck, just for the
+      experience. I&rsquo;m bound to win.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why?&rsquo; asked the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I always do, in games of chance,&rsquo; Racksole answered with gay
+      confidence. &lsquo;It is my fate. Then to-night, you must remember, I shall be a
+      beginner, and you know the tyro&rsquo;s luck.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In ten minutes the croupier of that table was obliged to suspend
+      operations pending the arrival of a further supply of coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What did I tell you?&rsquo; said Racksole, leading the way to another table
+      further up the room. A hundred curious glances went after him. One old
+      woman, whose gay attire suggested a false youthfulness, begged him in
+      French to stake a five-franc piece for her. She offered him the coin. He
+      took it, and gave her a hundred-franc note in exchange. She clutched the
+      crisp rustling paper, and with hysterical haste scuttled back to her own
+      table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the second table there was a considerable air of excitement. In the
+      forefront of the players was a woman in a low-cut evening dress of black
+      silk and a large red picture hat. Her age appeared to be about
+      twenty-eight; she had dark eyes, full lips, and a distinctly Jewish nose.
+      She was handsome, but her beauty was of that forbidding, sinister order
+      which is often called Junoesque. This woman was the centre of attraction.
+      People said to each other that she had won a hundred and sixty thousand
+      francs that day at the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were right,&rsquo; Prince Aribert whispered to Theodore Racksole; &lsquo;that is
+      the Berlin lady.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The deuce she is! Has she seen you? Will she know you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She would probably know me, but she hasn&rsquo;t looked up yet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Keep behind her, then. I propose to find her a little occupation.&rsquo; By
+      dint of a carefully-exercised diplomacy, Racksole manoeuvred himself into
+      a seat opposite to the lady in the red hat. The fame of his success at the
+      other table had followed him, and people regarded him as a serious and
+      formidable player. In the first turn the lady put a thousand francs on
+      double zero; Racksole put a hundred on number nineteen and a thousand on
+      the odd numbers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nineteen won. Racksole received four thousand four hundred francs. Nine
+      times in succession Racksole backed number nineteen and the odd numbers;
+      nine times the lady backed double zero. Nine times Racksole won and the
+      lady lost. The other players, perceiving that the affair had resolved
+      itself into a duel, stood back for the most part and watched those two.
+      Prince Aribert never stirred from his position behind the great red hat.
+      The game continued. Racksole lost trifles from time to time, but
+      ninety-nine hundredths of the luck was with him. As an English spectator
+      at the table remarked, &lsquo;he couldn&rsquo;t do wrong.&rsquo; When midnight struck the
+      lady in the red hat was reduced to a thousand francs. Then she fell into a
+      winning vein for half an hour, but at one o&rsquo;clock her resources were
+      exhausted. Of the hundred and sixty thousand francs which she was reputed
+      to have had early in the evening, Racksole held about ninety thousand, and
+      the bank had the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a calamity for the Juno of the red hat. She jumped up, stamped her
+      foot, and hurried from the room. At a discreet distance Racksole and the
+      Prince pursued her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It might be well to ascertain her movements,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside, in the glare of the great arc lights, and within sound of the
+      surf which beats always at the very foot of the Kursaal, the Juno of the
+      red hat summoned a fiacre and drove rapidly away. Racksole and the Prince
+      took an open carriage and started in pursuit. They had not, however,
+      travelled more than half a mile when Prince Aribert stopped the carriage,
+      and, bidding Racksole get out, paid the driver and dismissed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I feel sure I know where she is going,&rsquo; he explained, &lsquo;and it will be
+      better for us to follow on foot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean she is making for the scene of last night&rsquo;s affair?&rsquo; said
+      Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly. We shall&mdash;what you call, kill two birds with one stone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Aribert&rsquo;s guess was correct. The lady&rsquo;s carriage stopped in front
+      of the house where Nella Racksole and Miss Spencer had had their interview
+      on the previous evening, and the lady vanished into the building just as
+      the two men appeared at the end of the street. Instead of proceeding along
+      that street, the Prince led Racksole to the lane which gave on to the
+      backs of the houses, and he counted the houses as they went up the lane.
+      In a few minutes they had burglariously climbed over a wall, and crept,
+      with infinite caution, up a long, narrow piece of ground&mdash;half
+      garden, half paved yard, till they crouched under a window&mdash;a window
+      which was shielded by curtains, but which had been left open a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen,&rsquo; said the Prince in his lightest whisper, &lsquo;they are talking.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Berlin lady and Miss Spencer. I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s Miss Spencer&rsquo;s voice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole boldly pushed the french window a little wider open, and put his
+      ear to the aperture, through which came a beam of yellow light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Take my place,&rsquo; he whispered to the Prince, &lsquo;they&rsquo;re talking German.
+      You&rsquo;ll understand better.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently they exchanged places under the window, and the Prince listened
+      intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you refuse?&rsquo; Miss Spencer&rsquo;s visitor was saying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no answer from Miss Spencer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not even a thousand francs? I tell you I&rsquo;ve lost the whole twenty-five
+      thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again no answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then I&rsquo;ll tell the whole story,&rsquo; the lady went on, in an angry rush of
+      words. &lsquo;I did what I promised to do. I enticed him here, and you&rsquo;ve got
+      him safe in your vile cellar, poor little man, and you won&rsquo;t give me a
+      paltry thousand francs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have already had your price.&rsquo; The words were Miss Spencer&rsquo;s. They
+      fell cold and calm on the night air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want another thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then we&rsquo;ll see.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Aribert heard a rustle of flying skirts; then another movement&mdash;a
+      door banged, and the beam of light through the aperture of the window
+      suddenly disappeared. He pushed the window wide open. The room was in
+      darkness, and apparently empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now for that lantern of yours,&rsquo; he said eagerly to Theodore Racksole,
+      after he had translated to him the conversation of the two women, Racksole
+      produced the dark lantern from the capacious pocket of his dust coat, and
+      lighted it. The ray flashed about the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it?&rsquo; exclaimed Prince Aribert with a swift cry, pointing to the
+      ground. The lantern threw its light on a perpendicular grating at their
+      feet, through which could be discerned a cellar. They both knelt down, and
+      peered into the subterranean chamber. On a broken chair a young man sat
+      listlessly with closed eyes, his head leaning heavily forward on his
+      chest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the feeble light of the lantern he had the livid and ghastly appearance
+      of a corpse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who can it be?&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is Eugen,&rsquo; was the Prince&rsquo;s low answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Seventeen THE RELEASE OF PRINCE EUGEN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;EUGEN,&rsquo; Prince Aribert called softly. At the sound of his own name the
+      young man in the cellar feebly raised his head and stared up at the
+      grating which separated him from his two rescuers. But his features showed
+      no recognition. He gazed in an aimless, vague, silly manner for a few
+      seconds, his eyes blinking under the glare of the lantern, and then his
+      head slowly drooped again on to his chest. He was dressed in a dark tweed
+      travelling suit, and Racksole observed that one sleeve&mdash;the left&mdash;was
+      torn across the upper part of the cuff, and that there were stains of dirt
+      on the left shoulder. A soiled linen collar, which had lost all its starch
+      and was half unbuttoned, partially encircled the captive&rsquo;s neck; his brown
+      boots were unlaced; a cap, a handkerchief, a portion of a watch-chain, and
+      a few gold coins lay on the floor. Racksole flashed the lantern into the
+      corners of the cellar, but he could discover no other furniture except the
+      chair on which the Hereditary Prince of Posen sat and a small deal table
+      on which were a plate and a cup.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; cried Prince Aribert once more, but this time his forlorn nephew
+      made no response whatever, and then Aribert added in a low voice to
+      Racksole: &lsquo;Perhaps he cannot see us clearly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he must surely recognize your voice,&rsquo; said Racksole, in a hard,
+      gloomy tone. There was a pause, and the two men above ground looked at
+      each other hesitatingly. Each knew that they must enter that cellar and
+      get Prince Eugen out of it, and each was somehow afraid to take the next
+      step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thank God he is not dead!&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He may be worse than dead!&rsquo; Racksole replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Worse than&mdash;What do you mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean&mdash;he may be mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; Aribert almost shouted, with a sudden access of energy&mdash;a
+      wild impulse for action. And, snatching the lantern from Racksole, he
+      rushed into the dark room where they had heard the conversation of Miss
+      Spencer and the lady in the red hat. For a moment Racksole did not stir
+      from the threshold of the window. &lsquo;Come,&rsquo; Prince Aribert repeated, and
+      there was an imperious command in his utterance. &lsquo;What are you afraid of?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; said Racksole, feeling stupid and queer; &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he marched heavily after Prince Aribert into the room. On the
+      mantelpiece were a couple of candles which had been blown out, and in a
+      mechanical, unthinking way, Racksole lighted them, and the two men glanced
+      round the room. It presented no peculiar features: it was just an ordinary
+      room, rather small, rather mean, rather shabby, with an ugly wallpaper and
+      ugly pictures in ugly frames. Thrown over a chair was a man&rsquo;s
+      evening-dress jacket. The door was closed. Prince Aribert turned the knob,
+      but he could not open it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s locked,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Evidently they know we&rsquo;re here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense,&rsquo; said Racksole brusquely; &lsquo;how can they know?&rsquo; And, taking hold
+      of the knob, he violently shook the door, and it opened. &lsquo;I told you it
+      wasn&rsquo;t locked,&rsquo; he added, and this small success of opening the door
+      seemed to steady the man. It was a curious psychological effect, this
+      terrorizing (for it amounted to that) of two courageous full-grown men by
+      the mere apparition of a helpless creature in a cellar. Gradually they
+      both recovered from it. The next moment they were out in the passage which
+      led to the front door of the house. The front door stood open. They looked
+      into the street, up and down, but there was not a soul in sight. The
+      street, lighted by three gas-lamps only, seemed strangely sinister and
+      mysterious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She has gone, that&rsquo;s clear,&rsquo; said Racksole, meaning the woman with the
+      red hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Miss Spencer after her, do you think?&rsquo; questioned Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No. She would stay. She would never dare to leave. Let us find the cellar
+      steps.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cellar steps were happily not difficult to discover, for in moving a
+      pace backwards Prince Aribert had a narrow escape of precipitating himself
+      to the bottom of them. The lantern showed that they were built on a curve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently Racksole resumed possession of the lantern and went first, the
+      Prince close behind him. At the foot was a short passage, and in this
+      passage crouched the figure of a woman. Her eyes threw back the rays of
+      the lantern, shining like a cat&rsquo;s at midnight. Then, as the men went
+      nearer, they saw that it was Miss Spencer who barred their way. She seemed
+      half to kneel on the stone floor, and in one hand she held what at first
+      appeared to be a dagger, but which proved to be nothing more romantic than
+      a rather long bread-knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I heard you, I heard you,&rsquo; she exclaimed. &lsquo;Get back; you mustn&rsquo;t come
+      here.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a desperate and dangerous look on her face, and her form shook
+      with scarcely controlled passionate energy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now see here, Miss Spencer,&rsquo; Racksole said calmly, &lsquo;I guess we&rsquo;ve had
+      enough of this fandango. You&rsquo;d better get up and clear out, or we&rsquo;ll just
+      have to drag you off.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went calmly up to her, the lantern in his hand. Without another word
+      she struck the knife into his arm, and the lantern fell extinguished.
+      Racksole gave a cry, rather of angry surprise than of pain, and retreated
+      a few steps. In the darkness they could still perceive the glint of her
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I told you you mustn&rsquo;t come here,&rsquo; the woman said. &lsquo;Now get back.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole positively laughed. It was a queer laugh, but he laughed, and he
+      could not help it. The idea of this woman, this bureau clerk, stopping his
+      progress and that of Prince Aribert by means of a bread-knife aroused his
+      sense of humour. He struck a match, relighted the candle, and faced Miss
+      Spencer once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll do it again,&rsquo; she said, with a note of hard resolve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, no, you won&rsquo;t, my girl,&rsquo; said Racksole; and he pulled out his
+      revolver, cocked it, raised his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Put down that plaything of yours,&rsquo; he said firmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall shoot.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pressed her lips together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I shall shoot,&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;One&mdash;two&mdash;three.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bang, bang! He had fired twice, purposely missing her. Miss Spencer never
+      blenched. Racksole was tremendously surprised&mdash;and he would have been
+      a thousandfold more surprised could he have contrasted her behaviour now
+      with her abject terror on the previous evening when Nella had threatened
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got a bit of pluck,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;but it won&rsquo;t help you. Why won&rsquo;t
+      you let us pass?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a matter of fact, pluck was just what she had not, really; she had
+      merely subordinated one terror to another. She was desperately afraid of
+      Racksole&rsquo;s revolver, but she was much more afraid of something else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why won&rsquo;t you let us pass?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I daren&rsquo;t,&rsquo; she said, with a plaintive tremor; &lsquo;Tom put me in charge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That was all. The men could see tears running down her poor wrinkled face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole began to take off his light overcoat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I see I must take my coat off to you,&rsquo; he said, and he almost smiled.
+      Then, with a quick movement, he threw the coat over Miss Spencer&rsquo;s head
+      and flew at her, seizing both her arms, while Prince Aribert assisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her struggles ceased&mdash;she was beaten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said Racksole: &lsquo;I could never have used that revolver&mdash;to
+      mean business with it, of course.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They carried her, unresisting, upstairs and on to the upper floor, where
+      they locked her in a bedroom. She lay in the bed as if exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now for my poor Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t you think we&rsquo;d better search the house first?&rsquo; Racksole suggested;
+      &lsquo;it will be safer to know just how we stand. We can&rsquo;t afford any ambushes
+      or things of that kind, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince agreed, and they searched the house from top to bottom, but
+      found no one. Then, having locked the front door and the french window of
+      the sitting-room, they proceeded again to the cellar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a new obstacle confronted them. The cellar door was, of course,
+      locked; there was no sign of a key, and it appeared to be a heavy door.
+      They were compelled to return to the bedroom where Miss Spencer was
+      incarcerated, in order to demand the key of the cellar from her. She still
+      lay without movement on the bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tom&rsquo;s got it,&rsquo; she replied, faintly, to their question: &lsquo;Tom&rsquo;s got it, I
+      swear to you. He took it for safety.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then how do you feed your prisoner?&rsquo; Racksole asked sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Through the grating,&rsquo; she answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both men shuddered. They felt she was speaking the truth. For the third
+      time they went to the cellar door. In vain Racksole thrust himself against
+      it; he could do no more than shake it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s try both together,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. &lsquo;Now!&rsquo; There was a crack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Again,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. There was another crack, and then the upper
+      hinge gave way. The rest was easy. Over the wreck of the door they entered
+      Prince Eugen&rsquo;s prison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The captive still sat on his chair. The terrific noise and bustle of
+      breaking down the door seemed not to have aroused him from his lethargy,
+      but when Prince Aribert spoke to him in German he looked at his uncle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will you not come with us, Eugen?&rsquo; said Prince Aribert; &lsquo;you needn&rsquo;t stay
+      here any longer, you know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Leave me alone,&rsquo; was the strange reply; &lsquo;leave me alone. What do you
+      want?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We are here to get you out of this scrape,&rsquo; said Aribert gently. Racksole
+      stood aside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is that fellow?&rsquo; said Eugen sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is my friend Mr Racksole, an Englishman&mdash;or rather, I should
+      say, an American&mdash;to whom we owe a great deal. Come and have supper,
+      Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t,&rsquo; answered Eugen doggedly. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m waiting here for her. You didn&rsquo;t
+      think anyone had kept me here, did you, against my will? I tell you I&rsquo;m
+      waiting for her. She said she&rsquo;d come.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who is she?&rsquo; Aribert asked, humouring him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She! Why, you know! I forgot, of course, you don&rsquo;t know. You mustn&rsquo;t ask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Don&rsquo;t pry, Uncle Aribert. She was wearing a red hat.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll take you to her, my dear Eugen.&rsquo; Prince Aribert put his hands on the
+      other&rsquo;s shoulder, but Eugen shook him off violently, stood up, and then
+      sat down again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked at Racksole, and they both looked at Prince Eugen. The
+      latter&rsquo;s face was flushed, and Racksole observed that the left pupil was
+      more dilated than the right. The man started, muttered odd, fragmentary
+      scraps of sentences, now grumbling, now whining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His mind is unhinged,&rsquo; Racksole whispered in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hush!&rsquo; said Prince Aribert. &lsquo;He understands English.&rsquo; But Prince Eugen
+      took no notice of the brief colloquy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We had better get him upstairs, somehow,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; Aribert assented. &lsquo;Eugen, the lady with the red hat, the lady you
+      are waiting for, is upstairs. She has sent us down to ask you to come up.
+      Won&rsquo;t you come?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Himmel!&rsquo; the poor fellow exclaimed, with a kind of weak anger. &lsquo;Why did
+      you not say this before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rose, staggered towards Aribert, and fell headlong on the floor. He had
+      swooned. The two men raised him, carried him up the stone steps, and laid
+      him with infinite care on a sofa. He lay, breathing queerly through the
+      nostrils, his eyes closed, his fingers contracted; every now and then a
+      convulsion ran through his frame.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One of us must fetch a doctor,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will,&rsquo; said Racksole. At that moment there was a quick, curt rap on the
+      french window, and both Racksole and the Prince glanced round startled. A
+      girl&rsquo;s face was pressed against the large window-pane. It was Nella&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole unfastened the catch, and she entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have found you,&rsquo; she said lightly; &lsquo;you might have told me. I couldn&rsquo;t
+      sleep. I inquired from the hotel-folks if you had retired, and they said
+      no; so I slipped out. I guessed where you were.&rsquo; Racksole interrupted her
+      with a question as to what she meant by this escapade, but she stopped him
+      with a careless gesture. &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this?&rsquo; She pointed to the form on the
+      sofa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is my nephew, Prince Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hurt?&rsquo; she inquired coldly. &lsquo;I hope not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is ill,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;his brain is turned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella began to examine the unconscious Prince with the expert movements of
+      a girl who had passed through the best hospital course to be obtained in
+      New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He has got brain fever,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;That is all, but it will be enough.
+      Do you know if there is a bed anywhere in this remarkable house?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Eighteen IN THE NIGHT-TIME
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;HE must on no account be moved,&rsquo; said the dark little Belgian doctor,
+      whose eyes seemed to peer so quizzically through his spectacles; and he
+      said it with much positiveness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That pronouncement rather settled their plans for them. It was certainly a
+      professional triumph for Nella, who, previous to the doctor&rsquo;s arrival, had
+      told them the very same thing. Considerable argument had passed before the
+      doctor was sent for. Prince Aribert was for keeping the whole affair a
+      deep secret among their three selves. Theodore Racksole agreed so far, but
+      he suggested further that at no matter what risk they should transport the
+      patient over to England at once. Racksole had an idea that he should feel
+      safer in that hotel of his, and better able to deal with any situation
+      that might arise. Nella scorned the idea. In her quality of an amateur
+      nurse, she assured them that Prince Eugen was much more seriously ill than
+      either of them suspected, and she urged that they should take absolute
+      possession of the house, and keep possession till Prince Eugen was
+      convalescent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what about the Spencer female?&rsquo; Racksole had said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Keep her where she is. Keep her a prisoner. And hold the house against
+      all comers. If Jules should come back, simply defy him to enter&mdash;that
+      is all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are two of you, so you must keep an eye on the former occupiers, if
+      they return, and on Miss Spencer, while I nurse the patient. But first,
+      you must send for a doctor.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Doctor!&rsquo; Prince Aribert had said, alarmed. &lsquo;Will it not be necessary to
+      make some awkward explanation to the doctor?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all!&rsquo; she replied. &lsquo;Why should it be? In a place like Ostend
+      doctors are far too discreet to ask questions; they see too much to retain
+      their curiosity. Besides, do you want your nephew to die?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both the men were somewhat taken aback by the girl&rsquo;s sagacious grasp of
+      the situation, and it came about that they began to obey her like
+      subordinates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She told her father to sally forth in search of a doctor, and he went. She
+      gave Prince Aribert certain other orders, and he promptly executed them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the evening of the following day, everything was going smoothly. The
+      doctor came and departed several times, and sent medicine, and seemed
+      fairly optimistic as to the issue of the illness. An old woman had been
+      induced to come in and cook and clean. Miss Spencer was kept out of sight
+      on the attic floor, pending some decision as to what to do with her. And
+      no one outside the house had asked any questions. The inhabitants of that
+      particular street must have been accustomed to strange behaviour on the
+      part of their neighbours, unaccountable appearances and disappearances,
+      strange flittings and arrivals. This strong-minded and active trio&mdash;Racksole,
+      Nella, and Prince Aribert&mdash;might have been the lawful and accustomed
+      tenants of the house, for any outward evidence to the contrary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the afternoon of the third day Prince Eugen was distinctly and
+      seriously worse. Nella had sat up with him the previous night and
+      throughout the day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her father had spent the morning at the hotel, and Prince Aribert had kept
+      watch. The two men were never absent from the house at the same time, and
+      one of them always did duty as sentinel at night. On this afternoon Prince
+      Aribert and Nella sat together in the patient&rsquo;s bedroom. The doctor had
+      just left. Theodore Racksole was downstairs reading the New York Herald.
+      The Prince and Nella were near the window, which looked on to the
+      back-garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a queer shabby little bedroom to shelter the august body of a
+      European personage like Prince Eugen of Posen. Curiously enough, both
+      Nella and her father, ardent democrats though they were, had been somehow
+      impressed by the royalty and importance of the fever-stricken Prince&mdash;impressed
+      as they had never been by Aribert. They had both felt that here, under
+      their care, was a species of individuality quite new to them, and
+      different from anything they had previously encountered. Even the gestures
+      and tones of his delirium had an air of abrupt yet condescending command&mdash;an
+      imposing mixture of suavity and haughtiness. As for Nella, she had been
+      first struck by the beautiful &lsquo;E&rsquo; over a crown on the sleeves of his
+      linen, and by the signet ring on his pale, emaciated hand. After all,
+      these trifling outward signs are at least as effective as others of deeper
+      but less obtrusive significance. The Racksoles, too, duly marked the
+      attitude of Prince Aribert to his nephew: it was at once paternal and
+      reverential; it disclosed clearly that Prince Aribert continued, in spite
+      of everything, to regard his nephew as his sovereign lord and master, as a
+      being surrounded by a natural and inevitable pomp and awe. This attitude,
+      at the beginning, seemed false and unreal to the Americans; it seemed to
+      them to be assumed; but gradually they came to perceive that they were
+      mistaken, and that though America might have cast out &lsquo;the monarchial
+      superstition&rsquo;, nevertheless that &lsquo;superstition&rsquo; had vigorously survived in
+      another part of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You and Mr Racksole have been extraordinarily kind to me,&rsquo; said Prince
+      Aribert very quietly, after the two had sat some time in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why? How?&rsquo; she asked unaffectedly. &lsquo;We are interested in this affair
+      ourselves, you know. It began at our hotel&mdash;you mustn&rsquo;t forget that,
+      Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;I forget nothing. But I cannot help feeling that I
+      have led you into a strange entanglement. Why should you and Mr Racksole
+      be here&mdash;you who are supposed to be on a holiday!&mdash;hiding in a
+      strange house in a foreign country, subject to all sorts of annoyances and
+      all sorts of risks, simply because I am anxious to avoid scandal, to avoid
+      any sort of talk, in connection with my misguided nephew? It is nothing to
+      you that the Hereditary Prince of Posen should be liable to a public
+      disgrace. What will it matter to you if the throne of Posen becomes the
+      laughing-stock of Europe?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I really don&rsquo;t know, Prince,&rsquo; Nella smiled roguishly. &lsquo;But we Americans
+      have, a habit of going right through with anything we have begun.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;who knows how this thing will end? All our trouble, our
+      anxieties, our watchfulness, may come to nothing. I tell you that when I
+      see Eugen lying there, and think that we cannot learn his story until he
+      recovers, I am ready to go mad. We might be arranging things, making
+      matters smooth, preparing for the future, if only we knew&mdash;knew what
+      he can tell us. I tell you that I am ready to go mad. If anything should
+      happen to you, Miss Racksole, I would kill myself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why?&rsquo; she questioned. &lsquo;Supposing, that is, that anything could happen
+      to me&mdash;which it can&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I have dragged you into this,&rsquo; he replied, gazing at her. &lsquo;It is
+      nothing to you. You are only being kind.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How do you know it is nothing to me, Prince?&rsquo; she asked him quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the sick man made a convulsive movement, and Nella flew to the
+      bed and soothed him. From the head of the bed she looked over at Prince
+      Aribert, and he returned her bright, excited glance. She was in her
+      travelling-frock, with a large white Belgian apron tied over it. Large
+      dark circles of fatigue and sleeplessness surrounded her eyes, and to the
+      Prince her cheek seemed hollow and thin; her hair lay thick over the
+      temples, half covering the ears. Aribert gave no answer to her query&mdash;merely
+      gazed at her with melancholy intensity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I will go and rest,&rsquo; she said at last. &lsquo;You will know all about
+      the medicine.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sleep well,&rsquo; he said, as he softly opened the door for her. And then he
+      was alone with Eugen. It was his turn that night to watch, for they still
+      half-expected some strange, sudden visit, or onslaught, or move of one
+      kind or another from Jules. Racksole slept in the parlour on the ground
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella had the front bedroom on the first floor; Miss Spencer was immured
+      in the attic; the last-named lady had been singularly quiet and incurious,
+      taking her food from Nella and asking no questions, the old woman went at
+      nights to her own abode in the purlieus of the harbour. Hour after hour
+      Aribert sat silent by his nephew&rsquo;s bed-side, attending mechanically to his
+      wants, and every now and then gazing hard into the vacant, anguished face,
+      as if trying to extort from that mask the secrets which it held. Aribert
+      was tortured by the idea that if he could have only half an hour&rsquo;s, only a
+      quarter of an hour&rsquo;s, rational speech with Prince Eugen, all might be
+      cleared up and put right, and by the fact that that rational talk was
+      absolutely impossible on Eugen&rsquo;s part until the fever had run its course.
+      As the minutes crept on to midnight the watcher, made nervous by the
+      intense, electrical atmosphere which seems always to surround a person who
+      is dangerously ill, grew more and more a prey to vague and terrible
+      apprehensions. His mind dwelt hysterically on the most fatal
+      possibilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wondered what would occur if by any ill-chance Eugen should die in that
+      bed&mdash;how he would explain the affair to Posen and to the Emperor, how
+      he would justify himself. He saw himself being tried for murder, sentenced
+      (him&mdash;a Prince of the blood!), led to the scaffold... a scene
+      unparalleled in Europe for over a century! ... Then he gazed anew at the
+      sick man, and thought he saw death in every drawn feature of that agonized
+      face. He could have screamed aloud. His ears heard a peculiar resonant
+      boom. He started&mdash;it was nothing but the city clock striking twelve.
+      But there was another sound&mdash;a mysterious shuffle at the door. He
+      listened; then jumped from his chair. Nothing now! Nothing! But still he
+      felt drawn to the door, and after what seemed an interminable interval he
+      went and opened it, his heart beating furiously. Nella lay in a heap on
+      the door mat. She was fully dressed, but had apparently lost
+      consciousness. He clutched at her slender body, picked her up, carried her
+      to the chair by the fire-place, and laid her in it. He had forgotten all
+      about Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it, my angel?&rsquo; he whispered, and then he kissed her&mdash;kissed
+      her twice. He could only look at her; he did not know what to do to
+      succour her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last she opened her eyes and sighed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where am I?&rsquo; she asked vaguely, in a tremulous tone as she recognized
+      him. &lsquo;Is it you? Did I do anything silly? Did I faint?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What has happened? Were you ill?&rsquo; he questioned anxiously. He was
+      kneeling at her feet, holding her hand tight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I saw Jules by the side of my bed,&rsquo; she murmured; &lsquo;I&rsquo;m sure I saw him; he
+      laughed at me. I had not undressed. I sprang up, frightened, but he had
+      gone, and then I ran downstairs&mdash;to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were dreaming,&rsquo; he soothed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Was I?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You must have been. I have not heard a sound. No one could have entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if you like I will wake Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Perhaps I was dreaming,&rsquo; she admitted. &lsquo;How foolish!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were over-tired,&rsquo; he said, still unconsciously holding her hand. They
+      gazed at each other. She smiled at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You kissed me,&rsquo; she said suddenly, and he blushed red and stood up before
+      her. &lsquo;Why did you kiss me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Miss Racksole,&rsquo; he murmured, hurrying the words out. &lsquo;Forgive me. It
+      is unforgivable, but forgive me. I was overpowered by my feelings. I did
+      not know what I was doing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you kiss me?&rsquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because&mdash;Nella! I love you. I have no right to say it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why have you no right to say it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If Eugen dies, I shall owe a duty to Posen&mdash;I shall be its ruler.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well!&rsquo; she said calmly, with an adorable confidence. &lsquo;Papa is worth forty
+      millions. Would you not abdicate?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he gave a low cry. &lsquo;Will you force me to say these things? I could
+      not shirk my duty to Posen, and the reigning Prince of Posen can only
+      marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But Prince Eugen will live,&rsquo; she said positively, &lsquo;and if he lives&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then I shall be free. I would renounce all my rights to make you mine, if&mdash;if&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If what, Prince?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you would deign to accept my hand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Am I, then, rich enough?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella!&rsquo; He bent down to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there was a crash of breaking glass. Aribert went to the window and
+      opened it. In the starlit gloom he could see that a ladder had been raised
+      against the back of the house. He thought he heard footsteps at the end of
+      the garden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was Jules,&rsquo; he exclaimed to Nella, and without another word rushed
+      upstairs to the attic. The attic was empty. Miss Spencer had mysteriously
+      vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Nineteen ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE Royal apartments at the Grand Babylon are famous in the world of
+      hotels, and indeed elsewhere, as being, in their own way, unsurpassed.
+      Some of the palaces of Germany, and in particular those of the mad Ludwig
+      of Bavaria, may possess rooms and saloons which outshine them in gorgeous
+      luxury and the mere wild fairy-like extravagance of wealth; but there is
+      nothing, anywhere, even on Eighth Avenue, New York, which can fairly be
+      called more complete, more perfect, more enticing, or&mdash;not least
+      important&mdash;more comfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suite consists of six chambers&mdash;the ante-room, the saloon or
+      audience chamber, the dining-room, the yellow drawing-room (where Royalty
+      receives its friends), the library, and the State bedroom&mdash;to the
+      last of which we have already been introduced. The most important and most
+      impressive of these is, of course, the audience chamber, an apartment
+      fifty feet long by forty feet broad, with a superb outlook over the
+      Thames, the Shot Tower, and the higher signals of the South-Western
+      Railway. The decoration of this room is mainly in the German taste, since
+      four out of every six of its Royal occupants are of Teutonic blood; but
+      its chief glory is its French ceiling, a masterpiece by Fragonard, taken
+      bodily from a certain famous palace on the Loire. The walls are of
+      panelled oak, with an eight-foot dado of Arras cloth imitated from unique
+      Continental examples. The carpet, woven in one piece, is an antique
+      specimen of the finest Turkish work, and it was obtained, a bargain, by
+      Felix Babylon, from an impecunious Roumanian Prince. The silver
+      candelabra, now fitted with electric light, came from the Rhine, and each
+      had a separate history. The Royal chair&mdash;it is not etiquette to call
+      it a throne, though it amounts to a throne&mdash;was looted by Napoleon
+      from an Austrian city, and bought by Felix Babylon at the sale of a French
+      collector. At each corner of the room stands a gigantic grotesque vase of
+      German faïence of the sixteenth century. These were presented to Felix
+      Babylon by William the First of Germany, upon the conclusion of his first
+      incognito visit to London in connection with the French trouble of 1875.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is only one picture in the audience chamber. It is a portrait of the
+      luckless but noble Dom Pedro, Emperor of the Brazils. Given to Felix
+      Babylon by Dom Pedro himself, it hangs there solitary and sublime as a
+      reminder to Kings and Princes that Empires may pass away and greatness
+      fall. A certain Prince who was occupying the suite during the Jubilee of
+      1887&mdash;when the Grand Babylon had seven persons of Royal blood under
+      its roof&mdash;sent a curt message to Felix that the portrait must be
+      removed. Felix respectfully declined to remove it, and the Prince left for
+      another hotel, where he was robbed of two thousand pounds&rsquo; worth of
+      jewellery. The Royal audience chamber of the Grand Babylon, if people only
+      knew it, is one of the sights of London, but it is never shown, and if you
+      ask the hotel servants about its wonders they will tell you only foolish
+      facts concerning it, as that the Turkey carpet costs fifty pounds to
+      clean, and that one of the great vases is cracked across the pedestal,
+      owing to the rough treatment accorded to it during a riotous game of Blind
+      Man&rsquo;s Buff, played one night by four young Princesses, a Balkan King, and
+      his aides-de-camp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of the window recesses of this magnificent apartment, on a certain
+      afternoon in late July, stood Prince Aribert of Posen. He was faultlessly
+      dressed in the conventional frock-coat of English civilization, with a
+      gardenia in his button-hole, and the indispensable crease down the front
+      of the trousers. He seemed to be fairly amused, and also to expect
+      someone, for at frequent intervals he looked rapidly over his shoulder in
+      the direction of the door behind the Royal chair. At last a little
+      wizened, stooping old man, with a distinctly German cast of countenance,
+      appeared through the door, and laid some papers on a small table by the
+      side of the chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah, Hans, my old friend!&rsquo; said Aribert, approaching the old man. &lsquo;I must
+      have a little talk with you about one or two matters. How do you find His
+      Royal Highness?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man saluted, military fashion. &lsquo;Not very well, your Highness,&rsquo; he
+      answered. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been valet to your Highness&rsquo;s nephew since his majority,
+      and I was valet to his Royal father before him, but I never saw&mdash;&rsquo; He
+      stopped, and threw up his wrinkled hands deprecatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You never saw what?&rsquo; Aribert smiled affectionately on the old fellow. You
+      could perceive that these two, so sharply differentiated in rank, had been
+      intimate in the past, and would be intimate again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know, my Prince,&rsquo; said the old man, &lsquo;that we are to receive the
+      financier, Sampson Levi&mdash;is that his name?&mdash;in the audience
+      chamber? Surely, if I may humbly suggest, the library would have been good
+      enough for a financier?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One would have thought so,&rsquo; agreed Prince Aribert, &lsquo;but perhaps your
+      master has a special reason. Tell me,&rsquo; he went on, changing the subject
+      quickly, &lsquo;how came it that you left the Prince, my nephew, at Ostend, and
+      returned to Posen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His orders, Prince,&rsquo; and old Hans, who had had a wide experience of Royal
+      whims and knew half the secrets of the Courts of Europe, gave Aribert a
+      look which might have meant anything. &lsquo;He sent me back on an&mdash;an
+      errand, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you were to rejoin him here?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just so, Highness. And I did rejoin him here, although, to tell the
+      truth, I had begun to fear that I might never see my master again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Prince has been very ill in Ostend, Hans.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So I have gathered,&rsquo; Hans responded drily, slowly rubbing his hands
+      together. &lsquo;And his Highness is not yet perfectly recovered.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not yet. We despaired of his life, Hans, at one time, but thanks to an
+      excellent constitution, he came safely through the ordeal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We must take care of him, your Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, indeed,&rsquo; said Aribert solemnly, &lsquo;his life is very precious to
+      Posen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment, Eugen, Hereditary Prince of Posen, entered the audience
+      chamber. He was pale and languid, and his uniform seemed to be a trouble
+      to him. His hair had been slightly ruffled, and there was a look of
+      uneasiness, almost of alarmed unrest, in his fine dark eyes. He was like a
+      man who is afraid to look behind him lest he should see something there
+      which ought not to be there. But at the same time, here beyond doubt was
+      Royalty. Nothing could have been more striking than the contrast between
+      Eugen, a sick man in the shabby house at Ostend, and this Prince Eugen in
+      the Royal apartments of the Grand Babylon Hôtel, surrounded by the luxury
+      and pomp which modern civilization can offer to those born in high places.
+      All the desperate episode of Ostend was now hidden, passed over. It was
+      supposed never to have occurred. It existed only like a secret shame in
+      the hearts of those who had witnessed it. Prince Eugen had recovered; at
+      any rate, he was convalescent, and he had been removed to London, where he
+      took up again the dropped thread of his princely life. The lady with the
+      red hat, the incorruptible and savage Miss Spencer, the unscrupulous and
+      brilliant Jules, the dark, damp cellar, the horrible little bedroom&mdash;these
+      things were over. Thanks to Prince Aribert and the Racksoles, he had
+      emerged from them in safety. He was able to resume his public and official
+      career. The Emperor had been informed of his safe arrival in London, after
+      an unavoidable delay in Ostend; his name once more figured in the Court
+      chronicle of the newspapers. In short, everything was smothered over. Only&mdash;only
+      Jules, Rocco, and Miss Spencer were still at large; and the body of
+      Reginald Dimmock lay buried in the domestic mausoleum of the palace at
+      Posen; and Prince Eugen had still to interview Mr Sampson Levi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That various matters lay heavy on the mind of Prince Eugen was beyond
+      question. He seemed to have withdrawn within himself. Despite the
+      extraordinary experiences through which he had recently passed, events
+      which called aloud for explanations and confidence between the nephew and
+      the uncle, he would say scarcely a word to Prince Aribert. Any allusion,
+      however direct, to the days at Ostend, was ignored by him with more or
+      less ingenuity, and Prince Aribert was really no nearer a full solution of
+      the mystery of Jules&rsquo; plot than he had been on the night when he and
+      Racksole visited the gaming tables at Ostend. Eugen was well aware that he
+      had been kidnapped through the agency of the woman in the red hat, but,
+      doubtless ashamed at having been her dupe, he would not proceed in any way
+      with the clearing-up of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will receive in this room, Eugen?&rsquo; Aribert questioned him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; was the answer, given pettishly. &lsquo;Why not? Even if I have no proper
+      retinue here, surely that is no reason why I should not hold audience in a
+      proper manner?... Hans, you can go.&rsquo; The old valet promptly disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; the Hereditary Prince continued, when they were alone in the
+      chamber, &lsquo;you think I am mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, startled in spite of himself. &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t
+      be absurd.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I say you think I am mad. You think that that attack of brain fever has
+      left its permanent mark on me. Well, perhaps I am mad. Who can tell? God
+      knows that I have been through enough lately to drive me mad.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert made no reply. As a matter of strict fact, the thought had crossed
+      his mind that Eugen&rsquo;s brain had not yet recovered its normal tone and
+      activity. This speech of his nephew&rsquo;s, however, had the effect of
+      immediately restoring his belief in the latter&rsquo;s entire sanity. He felt
+      convinced that if only he could regain his nephew&rsquo;s confidence, the old
+      brotherly confidence which had existed between them since the years when
+      they played together as boys, all might yet be well. But at present there
+      appeared to be no sign that Eugen meant to give his confidence to anyone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young Prince had come up out of the valley of the shadow of death, but
+      some of the valley&rsquo;s shadow had clung to him, and it seemed he was unable
+      to dissipate it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By the way,&rsquo; said Eugen suddenly, &lsquo;I must reward these Racksoles, I
+      suppose. I am indeed grateful to them. If I gave the girl a bracelet, and
+      the father a thousand guineas&mdash;how would that meet the case?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear Eugen!&rsquo; exclaimed Aribert aghast. &lsquo;A thousand guineas! Do you
+      know that Theodore Racksole could buy up all Posen from end to end without
+      making himself a pauper. A thousand guineas! You might as well offer him
+      sixpence.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then what must I offer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing, except your thanks. Anything else would be an insult. These are
+      no ordinary hotel people.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t I give the little girl a bracelet?&rsquo; Prince Eugen gave a sinister
+      laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked at him steadily. &lsquo;No,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why did you kiss her&mdash;that night?&rsquo; asked Prince Eugen carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Kiss whom?&rsquo; said Aribert, blushing and angry, despite his most determined
+      efforts to keep calm and unconcerned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Racksole girl.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When do you mean?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, &lsquo;that night in Ostend when I was ill. You
+      thought I was in a delirium. Perhaps I was. But somehow I remember that
+      with extraordinary distinctness. I remember raising my head for a fraction
+      of an instant, and just in that fraction of an instant you kissed her. Oh,
+      Uncle Aribert!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen, Eugen, for God&rsquo;s sake. I love Nella Racksole. I shall marry her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You!&rsquo; There was a long pause, and then Eugen laughed. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; he said.
+      &lsquo;They all talk like that to start with. I have talked like that myself,
+      dear uncle; it sounds nice, and it means nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In this case it means everything, Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert quietly. Some
+      accent of determination in the latter&rsquo;s tone made Eugen rather more
+      serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t marry her,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;The Emperor won&rsquo;t permit a morganatic
+      marriage.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Emperor has nothing to do with the affair. I shall renounce my
+      rights.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I shall become a plain citizen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In which case you will have no fortune to speak of.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But my wife will have a fortune. Knowing the sacrifices which I shall
+      have made in order to marry her, she will not hesitate to place that
+      fortune in my hands for our mutual use,&rsquo; said Aribert stiffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will decidedly be rich,&rsquo; mused Eugen, as his ideas dwelt on Theodore
+      Racksole&rsquo;s reputed wealth. &lsquo;But have you thought of this,&rsquo; he asked, and
+      his mild eyes glowed again in a sort of madness. &lsquo;Have you thought that I
+      am unmarried, and might die at any moment, and then the throne will
+      descend to you&mdash;to you, Aribert?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The throne will never descend to me, Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert softly, &lsquo;for
+      you will live. You are thoroughly convalescent. You have nothing to fear.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is the next seven days that I fear,&rsquo; said Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The next seven days! Why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not know. But I fear them. If I can survive them&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sampson Levi, sire,&rsquo; Hans announced in a loud tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty MR SAMPSON LEVI BIDS PRINCE EUGEN GOOD MORNING
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      PRINCE EUGEN started. &lsquo;I will see him,&rsquo; he said, with a gesture to Hans as
+      if to indicate that Mr Sampson Levi might enter at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I beg one moment first,&rsquo; said Aribert, laying a hand gently on his
+      nephew&rsquo;s arm, and giving old Hans a glance which had the effect of
+      precipitating that admirably trained servant through the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it?&rsquo; asked Prince Eugen crossly. &lsquo;Why this sudden seriousness?
+      Don&rsquo;t forget that I have an appointment with Mr Sampson Levi, and must not
+      keep him waiting. Someone said that punctuality is the politeness of
+      princes.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; said Aribert, &lsquo;I wish you to be as serious as I am. Why cannot we
+      have faith in each other? I want to help you. I have helped you. You are
+      my titular Sovereign; but on the other hand I have the honour to be your
+      uncle:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have the honour to be the same age as you, and to have been your
+      companion from youth up. Give me your confidence. I thought you had given
+      it me years ago, but I have lately discovered that you had your secrets,
+      even then. And now, since your illness, you are still more secretive.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Aribert?&rsquo; said Eugen, in a tone which might have been
+      either inimical or friendly. &lsquo;What do you want to say?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, in the first place, I want to say that you will not succeed with
+      the estimable Mr Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Shall I not?&rsquo; said Eugen lightly. &lsquo;How do you know what my business is
+      with him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Suffice it to say that I know. You will never get that million pounds out
+      of him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Prince Eugen gasped, and then swallowed his excitement. &lsquo;Who has been
+      talking? What million?&rsquo; His eyes wandered uneasily round the room. &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo;
+      he said, pretending to laugh. &lsquo;I see how it is. I have been chattering in
+      my delirium. You mustn&rsquo;t take any notice of that, Aribert. When one has a
+      fever one&rsquo;s ideas become grotesque and fanciful.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You never talked in your delirium,&rsquo; Aribert replied; &lsquo;at least not about
+      yourself. I knew about this projected loan before I saw you in Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who told you?&rsquo; demanded Eugen fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you admit that you are trying to raise a loan?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I admit nothing. Who told you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Theodore Racksole, the millionaire. These rich men have no secrets from
+      each other. They form a coterie, closer than any coterie of ours. Eugen,
+      and far more powerful. They talk, and in talking they rule the world,
+      these millionaires. They are the real monarchs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Curse them!&rsquo; said Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, perhaps so. But let me return to your case. Imagine my shame, my
+      disgust, when I found that Racksole could tell me more about your affairs
+      than I knew myself. Happily, he is a good fellow; one can trust him;
+      otherwise I should have been tempted to do something desperate when I
+      discovered that all your private history was in his hands. Eugen, let us
+      come to the point; why do you want that million? Is it actually true that
+      you are so deeply in debt? I have no desire to improve the occasion. I
+      merely ask.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And what if I do owe a million?&rsquo; said Prince Eugen with assumed valour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, nothing, my dear Eugen, nothing. Only it is rather a large sum to
+      have scattered in ten years, is it not? How did you manage it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me, Aribert. I&rsquo;ve been a fool. But I swear to you that the
+      woman whom you call &ldquo;the lady in the red hat&rdquo; is the last of my follies. I
+      am about to take a wife, and become a respectable Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then the engagement with Princess Anna is an accomplished fact?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Practically so. As soon as I have settled with Levi, all will be smooth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert, I wouldn&rsquo;t lose Anna for the Imperial throne. She is a good and
+      pure woman, and I love her as a man might love an angel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And yet you would deceive her as to your debts, Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not her, but her absurd parents, and perhaps the Emperor. They have heard
+      rumours, and I must set those rumours at rest by presenting to them a
+      clean sheet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad you have been frank with me, Eugen,&rsquo; said Prince Aribert, &lsquo;but
+      I will be plain with you. You will never marry the Princess Anna.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And why?&rsquo; said Eugen, supercilious again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because her parents will not permit it. Because you will not be able to
+      present a clean sheet to them. Because this Sampson Levi will never lend
+      you a million.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Explain yourself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I propose to do so. You were kidnapped&mdash;it is a horrid word, but we
+      must use it&mdash;in Ostend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you know why?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose because that vile old red-hatted woman and her accomplices
+      wanted to get some money out of me. Fortunately, thanks to you, they
+      didn&rsquo;t.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not at all,&rsquo; said Aribert. &lsquo;They wanted no money from you. They knew well
+      enough that you had no money. They knew you were the naughty schoolboy
+      among European Princes, with no sense of responsibility or of duty towards
+      your kingdom. Shall I tell you why they kidnapped you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;When you have done abusing me, my dear uncle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;They kidnapped you merely to keep you out of England for a few days,
+      merely to compel you to fail in your appointment with Sampson Levi. And it
+      appears to me that they succeeded. Assuming that you don&rsquo;t obtain the
+      money from Levi, is there another financier in all Europe from whom you
+      can get it&mdash;on such strange security as you have to offer?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Possibly there is not,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen calmly. &lsquo;But, you see, I shall
+      get it from Sampson Levi. Levi promised it, and I know from other sources
+      that he is a man of his word. He said that the money, subject to certain
+      formalities, would be available till&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Till?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Till the end of June.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And it is now the end of July.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, what is a month? He is only too glad to lend the money. He will get
+      excellent interest. How on earth have you got into your sage old head this
+      notion of a plot against me? The idea is ridiculous. A plot against me?
+      What for?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have you ever thought of Bosnia?&rsquo; asked Aribert coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What of Bosnia?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I need not tell you that the King of Bosnia is naturally under
+      obligations to Austria, to whom he owes his crown. Austria is anxious for
+      him to make a good influential marriage.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, let him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He is going to. He is going to marry the Princess Anna.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not while I live. He made overtures there a year ago, and was rebuffed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes; but he will make overtures again, and this time he will not be
+      rebuffed. Oh, Eugen! can&rsquo;t you see that this plot against you is being
+      engineered by some persons who know all about your affairs, and whose
+      desire is to prevent your marriage with Princess Anna? Only one man in
+      Europe can have any motive for wishing to prevent your marriage with
+      Princess Anna, and that is the man who means to marry her himself.&rsquo; Eugen
+      went very pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then, Aribert, do you mean to convey to me that my detention in Ostend
+      was contrived by the agents of the King of Bosnia?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With a view to stopping my negotiations with Sampson Levi, and so putting
+      an end to the possibility of my marriage with Anna?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are a good friend to me, Aribert. You mean well. But you are
+      mistaken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have been worrying about nothing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have you forgotten about Reginald Dimmock?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I remember you said that he had died.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I said nothing of the sort. I said that he had been assassinated. That
+      was part of it, my poor Eugen.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pooh!&rsquo; said Eugen. &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t believe he was assassinated. And as for
+      Sampson Levi, I will bet you a thousand marks that he and I come to terms
+      this morning, and that the million is in my hands before I leave London.&rsquo;
+      Aribert shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You seem to be pretty sure of Mr Levi&rsquo;s character. Have you had much to
+      do with him before?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; Eugen hesitated a second, &lsquo;a little. What young man in my position
+      hasn&rsquo;t had something to do with Mr Sampson Levi at one time or another?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You! You are a fossil.&rsquo; He rang a silver bell. &lsquo;Hans! I will receive Mr
+      Sampson Levi.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whereupon Aribert discreetly departed, and Prince Eugen sat down in the
+      great velvet chair, and began to look at the papers which Hans had
+      previously placed upon the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good morning, your Royal Highness,&rsquo; said Sampson Levi, bowing as he
+      entered. &lsquo;I trust your Royal Highness is well.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Moderately, thanks,&rsquo; returned the Prince.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of the fact that he had had as much to do with people of Royal
+      blood as any plain man in Europe, Sampson Levi had never yet learned how
+      to be at ease with these exalted individuals during the first few minutes
+      of an interview. Afterwards, he resumed command of himself and his
+      faculties, but at the beginning he was invariably flustered, scarlet of
+      face, and inclined to perspiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will proceed to business at once,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen. &lsquo;Will you take a
+      seat, Mr Levi?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I thank your Royal Highness.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now as to that loan which we had already practically arranged&mdash;a
+      million, I think it was,&rsquo; said the Prince airily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million,&rsquo; Levi acquiesced, toying with his enormous watch chain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Everything is now in order. Here are the papers and I should like to
+      finish the matter up at once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Exactly, your Highness, but&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what? You months ago expressed the warmest satisfaction at the
+      security, though I am quite prepared to admit that the security, is of
+      rather an unusual nature. You also agreed to the rate of interest. It is
+      not everyone, Mr Levi, who can lend out a million at 5-1/2 per cent. And
+      in ten years the whole amount will be paid back. I&mdash;er&mdash;I
+      believe I informed you that the fortune of Princess Anna, who is about to
+      accept my hand, will ultimately amount to something like fifty millions of
+      marks, which is over two million pounds in your English money.&rsquo; Prince
+      Eugen stopped. He had no fancy for talking in this confidential manner to
+      financiers, but he felt that circumstances demanded it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You see, it&rsquo;s like this, your Royal Highness,&rsquo; began Mr Sampson Levi, in
+      his homely English idiom. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s like this. I said I could keep that bit of
+      money available till the end of June, and you were to give me an interview
+      here before that date. Not having heard from your Highness, and not
+      knowing your Highness&rsquo;s address, though my German agents made every
+      inquiry, I concluded, that you had made other arrangements, money being so
+      cheap this last few months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I was unfortunately detained at Ostend,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, with as much
+      haughtiness as he could assume, &lsquo;by&mdash;by important business. I have
+      made no other arrangements, and I shall have need of the million. If you
+      will be so good as to pay it to my London bankers&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m very sorry,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, with a tremendous and dazzling air
+      of politeness, which surprised even himself, &lsquo;but my syndicate has now
+      lent the money elsewhere. It&rsquo;s in South America&mdash;I don&rsquo;t mind telling
+      your Highness that we&rsquo;ve lent it to the Chilean Government.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hang the Chilean Government, Mr Levi,&rsquo; exclaimed the Prince, and he went
+      white. &lsquo;I must have that million. It was an arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It was an arrangement, I admit,&rsquo; said Mr Sampson Levi, &lsquo;but your Highness
+      broke the arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a long silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean to say,&rsquo; began the Prince with tense calmness, &lsquo;that you are
+      not in a position to let me have that million?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I could let your Highness have a million in a couple of years&rsquo; time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince made a gesture of annoyance. &lsquo;Mr Levi,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;if you do not
+      place the money in my hands to-morrow you will ruin one of the oldest of
+      reigning families, and, incidentally, you will alter the map of Europe.
+      You are not keeping faith, and I had relied on you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Pardon me, your Highness,&rsquo; said little Levi, rising in resentment, &lsquo;it is
+      not I who have not kept faith. I beg to repeat that the money is no longer
+      at my disposal, and to bid your Highness good morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Mr Sampson Levi left the audience chamber with an awkward, aggrieved
+      bow. It was a scene characteristic of the end of the nineteenth century&mdash;an
+      overfed, commonplace, pursy little man who had been born in a Brixton
+      semi-detached villa, and whose highest idea of pleasure was a Sunday up
+      the river in an expensive electric launch, confronting and utterly
+      routing, in a hotel belonging to an American millionaire, the
+      representative of a race of men who had fingered every page of European
+      history for centuries, and who still, in their native castles, were
+      surrounded with every outward circumstance of pomp and power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen, a little later, &lsquo;you were right. It is all
+      over. I have only one refuge&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t mean&mdash;&rsquo; Aribert stopped, dumbfounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I do,&rsquo; he said quickly. &lsquo;I can manage it so that it will look like
+      an accident.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-One THE RETURN OF FÉLIX BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ON the evening of Prince Eugen&rsquo;s fateful interview with Mr Sampson Levi,
+      Theodore Racksole was wandering somewhat aimlessly and uneasily about the
+      entrance hall and adjacent corridors of the Grand Babylon. He had returned
+      from Ostend only a day or two previously, and had endeavoured with all his
+      might to forget the affair which had carried him there&mdash;to regard it,
+      in fact, as done with. But he found himself unable to do so. In vain he
+      remarked, under his breath, that there were some things which were best
+      left alone: if his experience as a manipulator of markets, a contriver of
+      gigantic schemes in New York, had taught him anything at all, it should
+      surely have taught him that. Yet he could not feel reconciled to such a
+      position. The mere presence of the princes in his hotel roused the
+      fighting instincts of this man, who had never in his whole career been
+      beaten. He had, as it were, taken up arms on their side, and if the
+      princes of Posen would not continue their own battle, nevertheless he,
+      Theodore Racksole, wanted to continue it for them. To a certain extent, of
+      course, the battle had been won, for Prince Eugen had been rescued from an
+      extremely difficult and dangerous position, and the enemy&mdash;consisting
+      of Jules, Rocco, Miss Spencer, and perhaps others&mdash;had been put to
+      flight. But that, he conceived, was not enough; it was very far from being
+      enough. That the criminals, for criminals they decidedly were, should
+      still be at large, he regarded as an absurd anomaly. And there was another
+      point: he had said nothing to the police of all that had occurred. He
+      disdained the police, but he could scarcely fail to perceive that if the
+      police should by accident gain a clue to the real state of the case he
+      might be placed rather awkwardly, for the simple reason that in the eyes
+      of the law it amounted to a misdemeanour to conceal as much as he had
+      concealed. He asked himself, for the thousandth time, why he had adopted a
+      policy of concealment from the police, why he had become in any way
+      interested in the Posen matter, and why, at this present moment, he should
+      be so anxious to prosecute it further? To the first two questions he
+      replied, rather lamely, that he had been influenced by Nella, and also by
+      a natural spirit of adventure; to the third he replied that he had always
+      been in the habit of carrying things through, and was now actuated by a
+      mere childish, obstinate desire to carry this one through. Moreover, he
+      was splendidly conscious of his perfect ability to carry it through. One
+      additional impulse he had, though he did not admit it to himself, being by
+      nature adverse to big words, and that was an abstract love of justice, the
+      Anglo-Saxon&rsquo;s deep-found instinct for helping the right side to conquer,
+      even when grave risks must thereby be run, with no corresponding
+      advantage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was turning these things over in his mind as he walked about the vast
+      hotel on that evening of the last day in July. The Society papers had been
+      stating for a week past that London was empty, but, in spite of the
+      Society papers, London persisted in seeming to be just as full as ever.
+      The Grand Babylon was certainly not as crowded as it had been a month
+      earlier, but it was doing a very passable business. At the close of the
+      season the gay butterflies of the social community have a habit of
+      hovering for a day or two in the big hotels before they flutter away to
+      castle and country-house, meadow and moor, lake and stream. The great
+      basket-chairs in the portico were well filled by old and middle-aged
+      gentlemen engaged in enjoying the varied delights of liqueurs, cigars, and
+      the full moon which floated so serenely above the Thames. Here and there a
+      pretty woman on the arm of a cavalier in immaculate attire swept her train
+      as she turned to and fro in the promenade of the terrace. Waiters and
+      uniformed commissionaires and gold-braided doorkeepers moved noiselessly
+      about; at short intervals the chief of the doorkeepers blew his shrill
+      whistle and hansoms drove up with tinkling bell to take away a pair of
+      butterflies to some place of amusement or boredom; occasionally a private
+      carriage drawn by expensive and self-conscious horses put the hansoms to
+      shame by its mere outward glory. It was a hot night, a night for the
+      summer woods, and save for the vehicles there was no rapid movement of any
+      kind. It seemed as though the world&mdash;the world, that is to say, of
+      the Grand Babylon&mdash;was fully engaged in the solemn processes of
+      digestion and small-talk. Even the long row of the Embankment gas-lamps,
+      stretching right and left, scarcely trembled in the still, warm, caressing
+      air. The stars overhead looked down with many blinkings upon the enormous
+      pile of the Grand Babylon, and the moon regarded it with bland and
+      changeless face; what they thought of it and its inhabitants cannot,
+      unfortunately, be recorded. What Theodore Racksole thought of the moon can
+      be recorded: he thought it was a nuisance. It somehow fascinated his gaze
+      with its silly stare, and so interfered with his complex meditations. He
+      glanced round at the well-dressed and satisfied people&mdash;his guests,
+      his customers. They appeared to ignore him absolutely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably only a very small percentage of them had the least idea that this
+      tall spare man, with the iron-grey hair and the thin, firm, resolute face,
+      who wore his American-cut evening clothes with such careless ease, was the
+      sole proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and possibly the richest man in
+      Europe. As has already been stated, Racksole was not a celebrity in
+      England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guests of the Grand Babylon saw merely a restless male person, whose
+      restlessness was rather a disturber of their quietude, but with whom, to
+      judge by his countenance, it would be inadvisable to remonstrate.
+      Therefore Theodore Racksole continued his perambulations unchallenged, and
+      kept saying to himself, &lsquo;I must do something.&rsquo; But what? He could think of
+      no course to pursue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he walked straight through the hotel and out at the other
+      entrance, and so up the little unassuming side street into the roaring
+      torrent of the narrow and crowded Strand. He jumped on a Putney bus, and
+      paid his fair to Putney, fivepence, and then, finding that the humble
+      occupants of the vehicle stared at the spectacle of a man in evening dress
+      but without a dustcoat, he jumped off again, oblivious of the fact that
+      the conductor jerked a thumb towards him and winked at the passengers as
+      who should say, &lsquo;There goes a lunatic.&rsquo; He went into a tobacconist&rsquo;s shop
+      and asked for a cigar. The shopman mildly inquired what price.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are the best you&rsquo;ve got?&rsquo; asked Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Five shillings each, sir,&rsquo; said the man promptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Give me a penny one,&rsquo; was Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s laconic request, and he
+      walked out of the shop smoking the penny cigar. It was a new sensation for
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was inhaling the aromatic odours of Eugène Rimmel&rsquo;s establishment for
+      the sale of scents when a gentleman, walking slowly in the opposite
+      direction, accosted him with a quiet, &lsquo;Good evening, Mr Racksole.&rsquo; The
+      millionaire did not at first recognize his interlocutor, who wore a
+      travelling overcoat, and was carrying a handbag. Then a slight, pleased
+      smile passed over his features, and he held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Mr Babylon,&rsquo; he greeted the other, &lsquo;of all persons in the wide
+      world you are the man I would most have wished to meet.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You flatter me,&rsquo; said the little Anglicized Swiss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, I don&rsquo;t,&rsquo; answered Racksole; &lsquo;it isn&rsquo;t my custom, any more than it&rsquo;s
+      yours. I wanted to have a real good long yarn with you, and lo! here you
+      are! Where have you sprung from?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;From Lausanne,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon. &lsquo;I had finished my duties there, I
+      had nothing else to do, and I felt homesick. I felt the nostalgia of
+      London, and so I came over, just as you see,&rsquo; and he raised the handbag
+      for Racksole&rsquo;s notice. &lsquo;One toothbrush, one razor, two slippers, eh?&rsquo; He
+      laughed. &lsquo;I was wondering as I walked along where I should stay&mdash;me,
+      Felix Babylon, homeless in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should advise you to stay at the Grand Babylon,&rsquo; Racksole laughed back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is a good hotel, and I know the proprietor personally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Rather expensive, is it not?&rsquo; said Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To you, sir,&rsquo; answered Racksole, &lsquo;the inclusive terms will be exactly
+      half a crown a week. Do you accept?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I accept,&rsquo; said Babylon, and added, &lsquo;You are very good, Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They strolled together back to the hotel, saying nothing in particular,
+      but feeling very content with each other&rsquo;s company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Many customers?&rsquo; asked Felix Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very tolerable,&rsquo; said Racksole, assuming as much of the air of the
+      professional hotel proprietor as he could. &lsquo;I think I may say in the
+      storekeeper&rsquo;s phrase, that if there is any business about I am doing it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To-night the people are all on the terrace in the portico&mdash;it&rsquo;s so
+      confoundedly hot&mdash;and the consumption of ice is simply enormous&mdash;nearly
+      as large as it would be in New York.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In that case,&rsquo; said Babylon politely, &lsquo;let me offer you another cigar.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I have not finished this one.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as yours,
+      my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the precincts of the Grand
+      Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and especially
+      when all the guests are assembled in the portico. The fumes of it would
+      ruin any hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana which Babylon
+      gave him, and they entered the hotel arm in arm. But no sooner had they
+      mounted the steps than little Felix became the object of numberless
+      greetings. It appeared that he had been highly popular among his quondam
+      guests. At last they reached the managerial room, where Babylon was
+      regaled on a chicken, and Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a
+      bottle of Heidsieck Monopole, Carte d&rsquo;Or.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,&rsquo; said Babylon at length. &lsquo;It is
+      a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of
+      Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you have heard?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some
+      journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon would have to close its doors
+      within half a year now that Rocco had deserted it. But of course I knew
+      better. I knew that you must have a good reason for allowing Rocco to
+      depart, and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a
+      substitute.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,&rsquo; said
+      Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; &lsquo;but happily we have found in our
+      second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That, however,
+      was mere good fortune.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Surely,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;it was indiscreet to trust to mere good fortune
+      in such a serious matter?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t trust to mere good fortune. I didn&rsquo;t trust to anything except
+      Rocco, and he deceived me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But why did you quarrel with him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the State
+      bedroom one night&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You what?&rsquo; Babylon almost screamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom,&rsquo; repeated Racksole
+      in his quietest tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished Babylon&rsquo;s
+      glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and
+      lighting a cigar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen episode,
+      with every circumstantial detail so far as he knew it. It was a long and
+      complicated recital, and occupied about an hour. During that time little
+      Felix never spoke a word, scarcely moved a muscle; only his small eyes
+      gazed through the bluish haze of smoke. The clock on the mantelpiece
+      tinkled midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Time for whisky and soda,&rsquo; said Racksole, and got up as if to ring the
+      bell; but Babylon waved him back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of Prince Eugen
+      to-day, but you have not told me the result of that audience,&rsquo; said
+      Babylon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I do not yet know it. But I shall doubtless know to-morrow. In
+      the meantime, I feel fairly sure that Levi declined to produce Prince
+      Eugen&rsquo;s required million. I have reason to believe that the money was lent
+      elsewhere.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;H&rsquo;m!&rsquo; mused Babylon; and then, carelessly, &lsquo;I am not at all surprised at
+      that arrangement for spying through the bathroom of the State apartments.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why are you not surprised?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;it is such an obvious dodge&mdash;so easy to carry
+      out. As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these
+      affairs. I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I also
+      felt that they lay outside my sphere. My business was to provide board and
+      lodging of the most sumptuous kind to those who didn&rsquo;t mind paying for it;
+      and I did my business. If anything else went on in the hotel, under the
+      rose, I long determined to ignore it unless it should happen to be brought
+      before my notice; and it never was brought before my notice. However, I
+      admit that there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this kind of
+      affair and doubtless you have experienced that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have,&rsquo; said Racksole simply, &lsquo;though I believe you are laughing at me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;By no means,&rsquo; Babylon replied. &lsquo;Now what, if I may ask the question, is
+      going to be your next step?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is just what I desire to know myself,&rsquo; said Theodore Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Babylon, after a pause, &lsquo;let us begin. In the first place, it
+      is possible you may be interested to hear that I happened to see Jules
+      to-day.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did!&rsquo; Racksole remarked with much calmness. &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, it was early this morning, in Paris, just before I left there. The
+      meeting was quite accidental, and Jules seemed rather surprised at meeting
+      me. He respectfully inquired where I was going, and I said that I was
+      going to Switzerland. At that moment I thought I was going to Switzerland.
+      It had occurred to me that after all I should be happier there, and that I
+      had better turn back and not see London any more. However, I changed my
+      mind once again, and decided to come on to London, and accept the risks of
+      being miserable there without my hotel. Then I asked Jules whither he was
+      bound, and he told me that he was off to Constantinople, being interested
+      in a new French hotel there. I wished him good luck, and we parted.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Constantinople, eh!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;A highly suitable place for him, I
+      should say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But,&rsquo; Babylon resumed, &lsquo;I caught sight of him again.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At Charing Cross, a few minutes before I had the pleasure of meeting you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Jules had not gone to Constantinople after all. He did not see me, or I
+      should have suggested to him that in going from Paris to Constantinople it
+      is not usual to travel via London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The cheek of the fellow!&rsquo; exclaimed Theodore Racksole. &lsquo;The gorgeous and
+      colossal cheek of the fellow!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Two IN THE WINE CELLARS OF THE GRAND BABYLON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;DO you know anything of the antecedents of this Jules,&rsquo; asked Theodore
+      Racksole, helping himself to whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing whatever,&rsquo; said Babylon. &lsquo;Until you told me, I don&rsquo;t think I was
+      aware that his true name was Thomas Jackson, though of course I knew that
+      it was not Jules. I certainly was not aware that Miss Spencer was his
+      wife, but I had long suspected that their relations were somewhat more
+      intimate than the nature of their respective duties in the hotel
+      absolutely demanded. All that I do know of Jules&mdash;he will always be
+      called Jules&mdash;is that he gradually, by some mysterious personal
+      force, acquired a prominent position in the hotel. Decidedly he was the
+      cleverest and most intellectual waiter I have ever known, and he was
+      specially skilled in the difficult task of retaining his own dignity while
+      not interfering with that of other people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;m afraid this information is a little too vague to be of any practical
+      assistance in the present difficulty.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is the present difficulty?&rsquo; Racksole queried, with a simple air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should imagine that the present difficulty is to account for the man&rsquo;s
+      presence in London.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is easily accounted for,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How? Do you suppose he is anxious to give himself up to justice, or that
+      the chains of habit bind him to the hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Neither,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Jules is going to have another try&mdash;that&rsquo;s
+      all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Another try at what?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;At Prince Eugen. Either at his life or his liberty. Most probably the
+      former this time; almost certainly the former. He has guessed that we are
+      somewhat handicapped by our anxiety to keep Prince Eugen&rsquo;s predicament
+      quite quiet, and he is taking advantage, of that fact. As he already is
+      fairly rich, on his own admission, the reward which has been offered to
+      him must be enormous, and he is absolutely determined to get it. He has
+      several times recently proved himself to be a daring fellow; unless I am
+      mistaken he will shortly prove himself to be still more daring.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what can he do? Surely you don&rsquo;t suggest that he will attempt the
+      life of Prince Eugen in this hotel?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not? If Reginald Dimmock fell on mere suspicion that he would turn
+      out unfaithful to the conspiracy, why not Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But it would be an unspeakable crime, and do infinite harm to the hotel!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;True!&rsquo; Racksole admitted, smiling. Little Felix Babylon seemed to brace
+      himself for the grasping of his monstrous idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How could it possibly be done?&rsquo; he asked at length.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dimmock was poisoned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, but you had Rocco here then, and Rocco was in the plot. It is
+      conceivable that Rocco could have managed it&mdash;barely conceivable. But
+      without Rocco I cannot think it possible. I cannot even think that Jules
+      would attempt it. You see, in a place like the Grand Babylon, as probably
+      I needn&rsquo;t point out to you, food has to pass through so many hands that to
+      poison one person without killing perhaps fifty would be a most delicate
+      operation. Moreover, Prince Eugen, unless he has changed his habits, is
+      always served by his own attendant, old Hans, and therefore any attempt to
+      tamper with a cooked dish immediately before serving would be hazardous in
+      the extreme.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Granted,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;The wine, however, might be more easily got at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had you thought of that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had not,&rsquo; Babylon admitted. &lsquo;You are an ingenious theorist, but I
+      happen to know that Prince Eugen always has his wine opened in his own
+      presence. No doubt it would be opened by Hans. Therefore the wine theory
+      is not tenable, my friend.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I do not see why,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I know nothing of wine as an expert,
+      and I very seldom drink it, but it seems to me that a bottle of wine might
+      be tampered with while it was still in the cellar, especially if there was
+      an accomplice in the hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think, then, that you are not yet rid of all your conspirators?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think that Jules might still have an accomplice within the building.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And that a bottle of wine could be opened and recorked without leaving
+      any trace of the operation?&rsquo; Babylon was a trifle sarcastic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t see the necessity of opening the bottle in order to poison the
+      wine,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I have never tried to poison anybody by means of a
+      bottle of wine, and I don&rsquo;t lay claim to any natural talent as a poisoner,
+      but I think I could devise several ways of managing the trick. Of course,
+      I admit I may be entirely mistaken as to Jules&rsquo; intentions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Felix Babylon. &lsquo;The wine cellars beneath us are one of the
+      wonders of London. I hope you are aware, Mr Racksole, that when you bought
+      the Grand Babylon you bought what is probably the finest stock of wines in
+      England, if not in Europe. In the valuation I reckoned them at sixty
+      thousand pounds. And I may say that I always took care that the cellars
+      were properly guarded. Even Jules would experience a serious difficulty in
+      breaking into the cellars without the connivance of the wine-clerk, and
+      the wine-clerk is, or was, incorruptible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am ashamed to say that I have not yet inspected my wines,&rsquo; smiled
+      Racksole; &lsquo;I have never given them a thought. Once or twice I have taken
+      the trouble to make a tour of the hotel, but I omitted the cellars in my
+      excursions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Impossible, my dear fellow!&rsquo; said Babylon, amused at such a confession,
+      to him&mdash;a great connoisseur and lover of fine wines&mdash;almost
+      incredible. &lsquo;But really you must see them to-morrow. If I may, I will
+      accompany you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why not to-night?&rsquo; Racksole suggested, calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;To-night! It is very late: Hubbard will have gone to bed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And may I ask who is Hubbard? I remember the name but dimly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hubbard is the wine-clerk of the Grand Babylon,&rsquo; said Felix, with a
+      certain emphasis. &lsquo;A sedate man of forty. He has the keys of the cellars.
+      He knows every bottle of every bin, its date, its qualities, its value.
+      And he&rsquo;s a teetotaler. Hubbard is a curiosity. No wine can leave the
+      cellars without his knowledge, and no person can enter the cellars without
+      his knowledge. At least, that is how it was in my time,&rsquo; Babylon added.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We will wake him,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But it is one o&rsquo;clock in the morning,&rsquo; Babylon protested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind&mdash;that is, if you consent to accompany me. A cellar is the
+      same by night as by day. Therefore, why not now?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Babylon shrugged his shoulders. &lsquo;As you wish,&rsquo; he agreed, with his
+      indestructible politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now to find this Mr Hubbard, with his key of the cupboard,&rsquo; said
+      Racksole, as they walked out of the room together. Although the hour was
+      so late, the hotel was not, of course, closed for the night. A few guests
+      still remained about in the public rooms, and a few fatigued waiters were
+      still in attendance. One of these latter was despatched in search of the
+      singular Mr Hubbard, and it fortunately turned out that this gentleman had
+      not actually retired, though he was on the point of doing so. He brought
+      the keys to Mr Racksole in person, and after he had had a little chat with
+      his former master, the proprietor and the ex-proprietor of the Grand
+      Babylon Hôtel proceeded on their way to the cellars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These cellars extend over, or rather under, quite half the superficial
+      areas of the whole hotel&mdash;the longitudinal half which lies next to
+      the Strand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Owing to the fact that the ground slopes sharply from the Strand to the
+      river, the Grand Babylon is, so to speak, deeper near the Strand than it
+      is near the Thames. Towards the Thames there is, below the entrance level,
+      a basement and a sub-basement. Towards the Strand there is basement,
+      sub-basement, and the huge wine cellars beneath all. After descending the
+      four flights of the service stairs, and traversing a long passage running
+      parallel with the kitchen, the two found themselves opposite a door,
+      which, on being unlocked, gave access to another flight of stairs. At the
+      foot of this was the main entrance to the cellars. Outside the entrance
+      was the wine-lift, for the ascension of delicious fluids to the upper
+      floors, and, opposite, Mr Hubbard&rsquo;s little office. There was electric
+      light everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Babylon, who, as being most accustomed to them, held the bunch of keys,
+      opened the great door, and then they were in the first cellar&mdash;the
+      first of a suite of five. Racksole was struck not only by the icy coolness
+      of the place, but also by its vastness. Babylon had seized a portable
+      electric handlight, attached to a long wire, which lay handy, and, waving
+      it about, disclosed the dimensions of the place. By that flashing
+      illumination the subterranean chamber looked unutterably weird and
+      mysterious, with its rows of numbered bins, stretching away into the
+      distance till the radiance was reduced to the occasional far gleam of the
+      light on the shoulder of a bottle. Then Babylon switched on the fixed
+      electric lights, and Theodore Racksole entered upon a personally-conducted
+      tour of what was quite the most interesting part of his own property.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see the innocent enthusiasm of Felix Babylon for these stores of
+      exhilarating liquid was what is called in the North &lsquo;a sight for sair
+      een&rsquo;.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He displayed to Racksole&rsquo;s bewildered gaze, in their due order, all the
+      wines of three continents&mdash;nay, of four, for the superb and luscious
+      Constantia wine of Cape Colony was not wanting in that most catholic
+      collection of vintages. Beginning with the unsurpassed products of
+      Burgundy, he continued with the clarets of Médoc, Bordeaux, and Sauterne;
+      then to the champagnes of Ay, Hautvilliers, and Pierry; then to the hocks
+      and moselles of Germany, and the brilliant imitation champagnes of Main,
+      Neckar, and Naumburg; then to the famous and adorable Tokay of Hungary,
+      and all the Austrian varieties of French wines, including Carlowitz and
+      Somlauer; then to the dry sherries of Spain, including purest Manzanilla,
+      and Amontillado, and Vino de Pasto; then to the wines of Malaga, both
+      sweet and dry, and all the &lsquo;Spanish reds&rsquo; from Catalonia, including the
+      dark &lsquo;Tent&rsquo; so often used sacramentally; then to the renowned port of
+      Oporto. Then he proceeded to the Italian cellar, and descanted upon the
+      excellence of Barolo from Piedmont, of Chianti from Tuscany, of Orvieto
+      from the Roman States, of the &lsquo;Tears of Christ&rsquo; from Naples, and the
+      commoner Marsala from Sicily. And so on, to an extent and with a fullness
+      of detail which cannot be rendered here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the suite of cellars there was a glazed door, which, as
+      could be seen, gave access to a supplemental and smaller cellar, an
+      apartment about fifteen or sixteen feet square.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anything special in there?&rsquo; asked Racksole curiously, as they stood
+      before the door, and looked within at the seined ends of bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; exclaimed Babylon, almost smacking his lips, &lsquo;therein lies the cream
+      of all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The best champagne, I suppose?&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; said Babylon, &lsquo;the best champagne is there&mdash;a very special
+      Sillery, as exquisite as you will find anywhere. But I see, my friend,
+      that you fall into the common error of putting champagne first among
+      wines. That distinction belongs to Burgundy. You have old Burgundy in that
+      cellar, Mr Racksole, which cost me&mdash;how much do you think?&mdash;eighty
+      pounds a bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Probably it will never be drunk,&rsquo; he added with a sigh. &lsquo;It is too
+      expensive even for princes and plutocrats.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, it will,&rsquo; said Racksole quickly. &lsquo;You and I will have a bottle up
+      to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then,&rsquo; continued Babylon, still riding his hobby-horse, &lsquo;there is a
+      sample of the Rhine wine dated 1706 which caused such a sensation at the
+      Vienna Exhibition of 1873. There is also a singularly glorious Persian
+      wine from Shiraz, the like of which I have never seen elsewhere. Also
+      there is an unrivalled vintage of Romanée-Conti, greatest of all modern
+      Burgundies. If I remember right Prince Eugen invariably has a bottle when
+      he comes to stay here. It is not on the hotel wine list, of course, and
+      only a few customers know of it. We do not precisely hawk it about the
+      dining-room.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Indeed!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Let us go inside.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They entered the stone apartment, rendered almost sacred by the
+      preciousness of its contents, and Racksole looked round with a strangely
+      intent and curious air. At the far side was a grating, through which came
+      a feeble light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is that?&rsquo; asked the millionaire sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is merely a ventilation grating. Good ventilation is absolutely
+      essential.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Looks broken, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rsquo; Racksole suggested and then, putting a finger
+      quickly on Babylon&rsquo;s shoulder, &lsquo;there&rsquo;s someone in the cellar. Can&rsquo;t you
+      hear breathing, down there, behind that bin?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men stood tense and silent for a while, listening, under the ray
+      of the single electric light in the ceiling. Half the cellar was involved
+      in gloom. At length Racksole walked firmly down the central passage-way
+      between the bins and turned to the corner at the right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come out, you villain!&rsquo; he said in a low, well-nigh vicious tone, and
+      dragged up a cowering figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had expected to find a man, but it was his own daughter, Nella
+      Racksole, upon whom he had laid angry hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Three FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;WELL, Father,&rsquo; Nella greeted her astounded parent. &lsquo;You should make sure
+      that you have got hold of the right person before you use all that
+      terrible muscular force of yours. I do believe you have broken my shoulder
+      bone.&rsquo; She rubbed her shoulder with a comical expression of pain, and then
+      stood up before the two men. The skirt of her dark grey dress was torn and
+      dirty, and the usually trim Nella looked as though she had been shot down
+      a canvas fire-escape. Mechanically she smoothed her frock, and gave a
+      straightening touch to her hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good evening, Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said Felix Babylon, bowing formally. &lsquo;This
+      is an unexpected pleasure.&rsquo; Felix&rsquo;s drawing-room manners never deserted
+      him upon any occasion whatever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;May I inquire what you are doing in my wine cellar, Nella Racksole?&rsquo; said
+      the millionaire a little stiffly He was certainly somewhat annoyed at
+      having mistaken his daughter for a criminal; moreover, he hated to be
+      surprised, and upon this occasion he had been surprised beyond any
+      ordinary surprise; lastly, he was not at all pleased that Nella should be
+      observed in that strange predicament by a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I will tell you,&rsquo; said Nella. &lsquo;I had been reading rather late in my room&mdash;the
+      night was so close. I heard Big Ben strike half-past twelve, and then I
+      put the book down, and went out on to the balcony of my window for a
+      little fresh air before going to bed. I leaned over the balcony very
+      quietly&mdash;you will remember that I am on the third floor now&mdash;and
+      looked down below into the little sunk yard which separates the wall of
+      the hotel from Salisbury Lane. I was rather astonished to see a figure
+      creeping across the yard. I knew there was no entrance into the hotel from
+      that yard, and besides, it is fifteen or twenty feet below the level of
+      the street. So I watched. The figure went close up against the wall, and
+      disappeared from my view. I leaned over the balcony as far as I dared, but
+      I couldn&rsquo;t see him. I could hear him, however.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What could you hear?&rsquo; questioned Racksole sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It sounded like a sawing noise,&rsquo; said Nella; &lsquo;and it went on for quite a
+      long time&mdash;nearly a quarter of an hour, I should think&mdash;a
+      rasping sort of noise.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why on earth didn&rsquo;t you come and warn me or someone else in the hotel?&rsquo;
+      asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh, I don&rsquo;t know, Dad,&rsquo; she replied sweetly. &lsquo;I had got interested in it,
+      and I thought I would see it out myself. Well, as I was saying, Mr.
+      Babylon,&rsquo; she continued, addressing her remarks to Felix, with a dazzling
+      smile, &lsquo;that noise went on for quite a long time. At last it stopped, and
+      the figure reappeared from under the wall, crossed the yard, climbed up
+      the opposite wall by some means or other, and so over the railings into
+      Salisbury Lane. I felt rather relieved then, because I knew he hadn&rsquo;t
+      actually broken into the hotel. He walked down Salisbury Lane very slowly.
+      A policeman was just coming up. &ldquo;Goodnight, officer,&rdquo; I heard him say to
+      the policeman, and he asked him for a match. The policeman supplied the
+      match, and the other man lighted a cigarette, and proceeded further down
+      the lane. By cricking your neck from my window, Mr Babylon, you can get a
+      glimpse of the Embankment and the river. I saw the man cross the
+      Embankment, and lean over the river wall, where he seemed to be talking to
+      some one. He then walked along the Embankment to Westminster and that was
+      the last I saw of him. I waited a minute or two for him to come back, but
+      he didn&rsquo;t come back, and so I thought it was about time I began to make
+      inquiries into the affair. I went downstairs instantly, and out of the
+      hotel, through the quadrangle, into Salisbury Lane, and I looked over
+      those railings. There was a ladder on the other side, by which it was
+      perfectly easy&mdash;once you had got over the railings&mdash;to climb
+      down into the yard. I was horribly afraid lest someone might walk up
+      Salisbury Lane and catch me in the act of negotiating those railings, but
+      no one did, and I surmounted them, with no worse damage than a torn skirt.
+      I crossed the yard on tiptoe, and I found that in the wall, close to the
+      ground and almost exactly under my window, there was an iron grating,
+      about one foot by fourteen inches. I suspected, as there was no other
+      ironwork near, that the mysterious visitor must have been sawing at this
+      grating for private purposes of his own. I gave it a good shake, and I was
+      not at all surprised that a good part of it came off in my hand, leaving
+      just enough room for a person to creep through. I decided that I would
+      creep through, and now wish I hadn&rsquo;t. I don&rsquo;t know, Mr Babylon, whether
+      you have ever tried to creep through a small hole with a skirt on. Have
+      you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have not had that pleasure,&rsquo; said little Felix, bowing again, and
+      absently taking up a bottle which lay to his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you are fortunate,&rsquo; the imperturbable Nella resumed. &lsquo;For quite
+      three minutes I thought I should perish in that grating, Dad, with my
+      shoulder inside and the rest of me outside. However, at last, by the most
+      amazing and agonizing efforts, I pulled myself through and fell into this
+      extraordinary cellar more dead than alive. Then I wondered what I should
+      do next. Should I wait for the mysterious visitor to return, and stab him
+      with my pocket scissors if he tried to enter, or should I raise an alarm?
+      First of all I replaced the broken grating, then I struck a match, and I
+      saw that I had got landed in a wilderness of bottles. The match went out,
+      and I hadn&rsquo;t another one. So I sat down in the corner to think. I had just
+      decided to wait and see if the visitor returned, when I heard footsteps,
+      and then voices; and then you came in. I must say I was rather taken
+      aback, especially as I recognized the voice of Mr Babylon. You see, I
+      didn&rsquo;t want to frighten you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I had bobbed up from behind the bottles and said &ldquo;Booh!&rdquo; you would have
+      had a serious shock. I wanted to think of a way of breaking my presence
+      gently to you. But you saved me the trouble, Dad. Was I really breathing
+      so loudly that you could hear me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl ended her strange recital, and there was a moment&rsquo;s silence in
+      the cellar. Racksole merely nodded an affirmative to her concluding
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Nell, my girl,&rsquo; said the millionaire at length, &lsquo;we are much
+      obliged for your gymnastic efforts&mdash;very much obliged. But now, I
+      think you had better go off to bed. There is going to be some serious
+      trouble here, I&rsquo;ll lay my last dollar on that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But if there is to be a burglary I should so like to see it, Dad,&rsquo; Nella
+      pleaded. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen a burglar caught red-handed.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t a burglary, my dear. I calculate it&rsquo;s something far worse than
+      a burglary.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What?&rsquo; she cried. &lsquo;Murder? Arson? Dynamite plot? How perfectly splendid!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Babylon informs me that Jules is in London,&rsquo; said Racksole quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Jules!&rsquo; she exclaimed under her breath, and her tone changed instantly to
+      the utmost seriousness. &lsquo;Switch off the light, quick!&rsquo; Springing to the
+      switch, she put the cellar in darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;s that for?&rsquo; said her father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If he comes back he would see the light, and be frightened away,&rsquo; said
+      Nella. &lsquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t do at all.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t, Miss Racksole,&rsquo; said Babylon, and there was in his voice a
+      note of admiration for the girl&rsquo;s sagacity which Racksole heard with high
+      paternal pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Listen, Nella,&rsquo; said the latter, drawing his daughter to him in the
+      profound gloom of the cellar. &lsquo;We fancy that Jules may be trying to tamper
+      with a certain bottle of wine&mdash;a bottle which might possibly be drunk
+      by Prince Eugen. Now do you think that the man you saw might have been
+      Jules?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hadn&rsquo;t previously thought of him as being Jules, but immediately you
+      mentioned the name I somehow knew that he was. Yes, I am sure it was
+      Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, just hear what I have to say. There is no time to lose. If he is
+      coming at all he will be here very soon&mdash;and you can help.&rsquo; Racksole
+      explained what he thought Jules&rsquo; tactics might be. He proposed that if the
+      man returned he should not be interfered with, but merely watched from the
+      other side of the glass door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You want, as it were, to catch Mr Jules alive?&rsquo; said Babylon, who seemed
+      rather taken aback at this novel method of dealing with criminals.
+      &lsquo;Surely,&rsquo; he added, &lsquo;it would be simpler and easier to inform the police
+      of your suspicion, and to leave everything to them.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My dear fellow,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;we have already gone much too far
+      without the police to make it advisable for us to call them in at this
+      somewhat advanced stage of the proceedings. Besides, if you must know it,
+      I have a particular desire to capture the scoundrel myself. I will leave
+      you and Nella here, since Nella insists on seeing everything, and I will
+      arrange things so that once he has entered the cellar Jules will not get
+      out of it again&mdash;at any rate through the grating. You had better
+      place yourselves on the other side of the glass door, in the big cellar;
+      you will be in a position to observe from there, I will skip off at once.
+      All you have to do is to take note of what the fellow does. If he has any
+      accomplices within the hotel we shall probably be able by that means to
+      discover who the accomplice is.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lighting a match and shading it with his hands, Racksole showed them both
+      out of the little cellar. &lsquo;Now if you lock this glass door on the outside
+      he can&rsquo;t escape this way: the panes of glass are too small, and the
+      woodwork too stout. So, if he comes into the trap, you two will have the
+      pleasure of actually seeing him frantically writhe therein, without any
+      personal danger; but perhaps you&rsquo;d better not show yourselves.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In another moment Felix Babylon and Nella were left to themselves in the
+      darkness of the cellar, listening to the receding footfalls of Theodore
+      Racksole. But the sound of these footfalls had not died away before
+      another sound greeted their ears&mdash;the grating of the small cellar was
+      being removed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I hope your father will be in time,&rsquo; whispered Felix
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hush!&rsquo; the girl warned him, and they stooped side by side in tense
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man cautiously but very neatly wormed his body through the aperture of
+      the grating. The watchers could only see his form indistinctly in the
+      darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, being fairly within the cellar, he walked without the least
+      hesitation to the electric switch and turned on the light. It was
+      unmistakably Jules, and he knew the geography of the cellar very well.
+      Babylon could with difficulty repress a start as he saw this bold and
+      unscrupulous ex-waiter moving with such an air of assurance and
+      determination about the precious cellar. Jules went directly to a small
+      bin which was numbered 17, and took there from the topmost bottle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Romanee-Conti&mdash;Prince Eugen&rsquo;s wine!&rsquo; Babylon exclaimed under his
+      breath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules neatly and quickly removed the seal with an instrument which he had
+      clearly brought for the purpose. He then took a little flat box from his
+      pocket, which seemed to contain a sort of black salve. Rubbing his finger
+      in this, he smeared the top of the neck of the bottle with it, just where
+      the cork came against the glass. In another instant he had deftly replaced
+      the seal and restored the bottle to its position. He then turned off the
+      light, and made for the aperture. When he was half-way through Nella
+      exclaimed, &lsquo;He will escape, after all. Dad has not had time&mdash;we must
+      stop him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Babylon, that embodiment of caution, forcibly, but nevertheless
+      politely, restrained this Yankee girl, whom he deemed so rash and
+      imprudent, and before she could free herself the lithe form of Jules had
+      disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Four THE BOTTLE OF WINE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AS regards Theodore Racksole, who was to have caught his man from the
+      outside of the cellar, he made his way as rapidly as possible from the
+      wine-cellars, up to the ground floor, out of the hotel by the quadrangle,
+      through the quadrangle, and out into the top of Salisbury Lane. Now, owing
+      to the vastness of the structure of the Grand Babylon, the mere distance
+      thus to be traversed amounted to a little short of a quarter of a mile,
+      and, as it included a number of stairs, about two dozen turnings, and
+      several passages which at that time of night were in darkness more or less
+      complete, Racksole could not have been expected to accomplish the journey
+      in less than five minutes. As a matter of fact, six minutes had elapsed
+      before he reached the top of Salisbury Lane, because he had been delayed
+      nearly a minute by some questions addressed to him by a muddled and
+      whisky-laden guest who had got lost in the corridors. As everybody knows,
+      there is a sharp short bend in Salisbury Lane near the top. Racksole ran
+      round this at good racing speed, but he was unfortunate enough to run
+      straight up against the very policeman who had not long before so
+      courteously supplied Jules with a match. The policeman seemed to be
+      scarcely in so pliant a mood just then.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hullo!&rsquo; he said, his naturally suspicious nature being doubtless aroused
+      by the spectacle of a bareheaded man in evening dress running violently
+      down the lane. &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this? Where are you for in such a hurry?&rsquo; and he
+      forcibly detained Theodore Racksole for a moment and scrutinized his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, officer,&rsquo; said Racksole quietly, &lsquo;none of your larks, if you please.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I&rsquo;ve no time to lose.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Beg your pardon, sir,&rsquo; the policeman remarked, though hesitatingly and
+      not quite with good temper, and Racksole was allowed to proceed on his
+      way. The millionaire&rsquo;s scheme for trapping Jules was to get down into the
+      little sunk yard by means of the ladder, and then to secrete himself
+      behind some convenient abutment of brickwork until Mr Tom Jackson should
+      have got into the cellar. He therefore nimbly surmounted the railings&mdash;the
+      railings of his own hotel&mdash;and was gingerly descending the ladder,
+      when lo! a rough hand seized him by the coat-collar and with a ferocious
+      jerk urged him backwards. The fact was, Theodore Racksole had counted
+      without the policeman. That guardian of the peace, mistrusting Racksole&rsquo;s
+      manner, quietly followed him down the lane. The sight of the millionaire
+      climbing the railings had put him on his mettle, and the result was the
+      ignominious capture of Racksole. In vain Theodore expostulated, explained,
+      anathematized. Only one thing would satisfy the stolid policeman&mdash;namely,
+      that Racksole should return with him to the hotel and there establish his
+      identity. If Racksole then proved to be Racksole, owner of the Grand
+      Babylon, well and good&mdash;the policeman promised to apologize. So
+      Theodore had no alternative but to accept the suggestion. To prove his
+      identity was, of course, the work of only a few minutes, after which
+      Racksole, annoyed, but cool as ever, returned to his railings, while the
+      policeman went off to another part of his beat, where he would be likely
+      to meet a comrade and have a chat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime, our friend Jules, sublimely unconscious of the
+      altercation going on outside, and of the special risk which he ran, was of
+      course actually in the cellar, which he had reached before Racksole got to
+      the railings for the first time. It was, indeed, a happy chance for Jules
+      that his exit from the cellar coincided with the period during which
+      Racksole was absent from the railings. As Racksole came down the lane for
+      the second time, he saw a figure walking about fifty yards in front of him
+      towards the Embankment. Instantly he divined that it was Jules, and that
+      the policeman had thrown him just too late. He ran, and Jules, hearing the
+      noise of pursuit, ran also. The ex-waiter was fleet; he made direct for a
+      certain spot in the Embankment wall, and, to the intense astonishment of
+      Racksole, jumped clean over the wall, as it seemed, into the river. &lsquo;Is he
+      so desperate as to commit suicide?&rsquo; Racksole exclaimed as he ran, but a
+      second later the puff and snort of a steam launch told him that Jules was
+      not quite driven to suicide. As the millionaire crossed the Embankment
+      roadway he saw the funnel of the launch move out from under the
+      river-wall. It swerved into midstream and headed towards London Bridge.
+      There was a silent mist over the river. Racksole was helpless....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Racksole had now been twice worsted in a contest of wits within
+      the precincts of the Grand Babylon, once by Rocco and once by Jules, he
+      could not fairly blame himself for the present miscarriage of his plans&mdash;a
+      miscarriage due to the meddlesomeness of an extraneous person, combined
+      with pure ill-fortune. He did not, therefore, permit the accident to
+      interfere with his sleep that night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following day he sought out Prince Aribert, between whom and
+      himself there now existed a feeling of unmistakable, frank friendship, and
+      disclosed to him the happenings of the previous night, and particularly
+      the tampering with the bottle of Romanée-Conti.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe you dined with Prince Eugen last night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I did. And curiously enough we had a bottle of Romanée-Conti, an
+      admirable wine, of which Eugen is passionately fond.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you will dine with him to-night?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Most probably. To-day will, I fear, be our last day here. Eugen wishes to
+      return to Posen early to-morrow.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Has it struck you, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;that if Jules had succeeded
+      in poisoning your nephew, he would probably have succeeded also in
+      poisoning you?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had not thought of it,&rsquo; laughed Aribert, &lsquo;but it would seem so. It
+      appears that so long as he brings down his particular quarry, Jules is
+      careless of anything else that may be accidentally involved in the
+      destruction. However, we need have no fear on that score now. You know the
+      bottle, and you can destroy it at once.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But I do not propose to destroy it,&rsquo; said Racksole calmly. &lsquo;If Prince
+      Eugen asks for Romanée-Conti to be served to-night, as he probably will, I
+      propose that that precise bottle shall be served to him&mdash;and to you.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you would poison us in spite of ourselves?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Scarcely,&rsquo; Racksole smiled. &lsquo;My notion is to discover the accomplices
+      within the hotel. I have already inquired as to the wine-clerk, Hubbard.
+      Now does it not occur to you as extraordinary that on this particular day
+      Mr Hubbard should be ill in bed? Hubbard, I am informed, is suffering from
+      an attack of stomach poisoning, which has supervened during the night. He
+      says that he does not know what can have caused it. His place in the wine
+      cellars will be taken to-day by his assistant, a mere youth, but to all
+      appearances a fairly smart youth. I need not say that we shall keep an eye
+      on that youth.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;One moment,&rsquo; Prince Aribert interrupted. &lsquo;I do not quite understand how
+      you think the poisoning was to have been effected.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The bottle is now under examination by an expert, who has instructions to
+      remove as little as possible of the stuff which Jules put on the rim of
+      the mouth of it. It will be secretly replaced in its bin during the day.
+      My idea is that by the mere action of pouring out the wine takes up some
+      of the poison, which I deem to be very strong, and thus becomes fatal as
+      it enters the glass.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But surely the servant in attendance would wipe the mouth of the bottle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Very carelessly, perhaps. And moreover he would be extremely unlikely to
+      wipe off all the stuff; some of it has been ingeniously placed just on the
+      inside edge of the rim. Besides, suppose he forgot to wipe the bottle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Prince Eugen is always served at dinner by Hans. It is an honour which
+      the faithful old fellow reserves for himself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But suppose Hans&mdash;&rsquo; Racksole stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hans an accomplice! My dear Racksole, the suggestion is wildly
+      impossible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Prince Aribert dined with his august nephew in the superb
+      dining-room of the Royal apartments. Hans served, the dishes being brought
+      to the door by other servants. Aribert found his nephew despondent and
+      taciturn. On the previous day, when, after the futile interview with
+      Sampson Levi, Prince Eugen had despairingly threatened to commit suicide,
+      in such a manner as to make it &lsquo;look like an accident&rsquo;, Aribert had
+      compelled him to give his word of honour not to do so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What wine will your Royal Highness take?&rsquo; asked old Hans in his soothing
+      tones, when the soup was served.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Sherry,&rsquo; was Prince Eugen&rsquo;s curt order.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And Romanée-Conti afterwards?&rsquo; said Hans. Aribert looked up quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No, not to-night. I&rsquo;ll try Sillery to-night,&rsquo; said Prince Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I&rsquo;ll have Romanée-Conti, Hans, after all,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;It suits me
+      better than champagne.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The famous and unsurpassable Burgundy was served with the roast. Old Hans
+      brought it tenderly in its wicker cradle, inserted the corkscrew with
+      mathematical precision, and drew the cork, which he offered for his
+      master&rsquo;s inspection. Eugen nodded, and told him to put it down. Aribert
+      watched with intense interest. He could not for an instant believe that
+      Hans was not the very soul of fidelity, and yet, despite himself,
+      Racksole&rsquo;s words had caused him a certain uneasiness. At that moment
+      Prince Eugen murmured across the table:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert, I withdraw my promise. Observe that, I withdraw it.&rsquo; Aribert
+      shook his head emphatically, without removing his gaze from Hans. The
+      white-haired servant perfunctorily dusted his napkin round the neck of the
+      bottle of Romanée-Conti, and poured out a glass. Aribert trembled from
+      head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugen took up the glass and held it to the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t drink it,&rsquo; said Aribert very quietly. &lsquo;It is poisoned.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Poisoned!&rsquo; exclaimed Prince Eugen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Poisoned, sire!&rsquo; exclaimed old Hans, with an air of profound amazement
+      and concern, and he seized the glass. &lsquo;Impossible, sire. I myself opened
+      the bottle. No one else has touched it, and the cork was perfect.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I tell you it is poisoned,&rsquo; Aribert repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your Highness will pardon an old man,&rsquo; said Hans, &lsquo;but to say that this
+      wine is poison is to say that I am a murderer. I will prove to you that it
+      is not poisoned. I will drink it.&rsquo; And he raised the glass to his
+      trembling lips. In that moment Aribert saw that old Hans, at any rate, was
+      not an accomplice of Jules. Springing up from his seat, he knocked the
+      glass from the aged servitor&rsquo;s hands, and the fragments of it fell with a
+      light tinkling crash partly on the table and partly on the floor. The
+      Prince and the servant gazed at one another in a distressing and terrible
+      silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a slight noise, and Aribert looked aside. He saw that Eugen&rsquo;s
+      body had slipped forward limply over the left arm of his chair; the
+      Prince&rsquo;s arms hung straight and lifeless; his eyes were closed; he was
+      unconscious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Hans!&rsquo; murmured Aribert. &lsquo;Hans! What is this?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Five THE STEAM LAUNCH
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      MR TOM JACKSON&rsquo;s notion of making good his escape from the hotel by means
+      of a steam launch was an excellent one, so far as it went, but Theodore
+      Racksole, for his part, did not consider that it went quite far enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole opined, with peculiar glee, that he now had a tangible
+      and definite clue for the catching of the Grand Babylon&rsquo;s ex-waiter. He
+      knew nothing of the Port of London, but he happened to know a good deal of
+      the far more complicated, though somewhat smaller, Port of New York, and
+      he was sure there ought to be no extraordinary difficulty in getting hold
+      of Jules&rsquo; steam launch. To those who are not thoroughly familiar with it
+      the River Thames and its docks, from London Bridge to Gravesend, seems a
+      vast and uncharted wilderness of craft&mdash;a wilderness in which it
+      would be perfectly easy to hide even a three-master successfully. To such
+      people the idea of looking for a steam launch on the river would be about
+      equivalent to the idea of looking for a needle in a bundle of hay. But the
+      fact is, there are hundreds of men between St Katherine&rsquo;s Wharf and
+      Blackwall who literally know the Thames as the suburban householder knows
+      his back-garden&mdash;who can recognize thousands of ships and put a name
+      to them at a distance of half a mile, who are informed as to every
+      movement of vessels on the great stream, who know all the captains, all
+      the engineers, all the lightermen, all the pilots, all the licensed
+      watermen, and all the unlicensed scoundrels from the Tower to Gravesend,
+      and a lot further. By these experts of the Thames the slightest unusual
+      event on the water is noticed and discussed&mdash;a wherry cannot change
+      hands but they will guess shrewdly upon the price paid and the intentions
+      of the new owner with regard to it. They have a habit of watching the
+      river for the mere interest of the sight, and they talk about everything
+      like housewives gathered of an evening round the cottage door. If the
+      first mate of a Castle Liner gets the sack they will be able to tell you
+      what he said to the captain, what the old man said to him, and what both
+      said to the Board, and having finished off that affair they will
+      cheerfully turn to discussing whether Bill Stevens sank his barge outside
+      the West Indian No.2 by accident or on purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Theodore Racksole had no satisfactory means of identifying the steam
+      launch which carried away Mr Tom Jackson. The sky had clouded over soon
+      after midnight, and there was also a slight mist, and he had only been
+      able to make out that it was a low craft, about sixty feet long, probably
+      painted black. He had personally kept a watch all through the night on
+      vessels going upstream, and during the next morning he had a man to take
+      his place who warned him whenever a steam launch went towards Westminster.
+      At noon, after his conversation with Prince Aribert, he went down the
+      river in a hired row-boat as far as the Custom House, and poked about
+      everywhere, in search of any vessel which could by any possibility be the
+      one he was in search of.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he found nothing. He was, therefore, tolerably sure that the
+      mysterious launch lay somewhere below the Custom House. At the Custom
+      House stairs, he landed, and asked for a very high official&mdash;an
+      official inferior only to a Commissioner&mdash;whom he had entertained
+      once in New York, and who had met him in London on business at Lloyd&rsquo;s. In
+      the large but dingy office of this great man a long conversation took
+      place&mdash;a conversation in which Racksole had to exercise a certain
+      amount of persuasive power, and which ultimately ended in the high
+      official ringing his bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Desire Mr Hazell&mdash;room No. 332&mdash;to speak to me,&rsquo; said the
+      official to the boy who answered the summons, and then, turning to
+      Racksole: &lsquo;I need hardly repeat, my dear Mr Racksole, that this is
+      strictly unofficial.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Agreed, of course,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr Hazell entered. He was a young man of about thirty, dressed in blue
+      serge, with a pale, keen face, a brown moustache and a rather handsome
+      brown beard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Hazell,&rsquo; said the high official, &lsquo;let me introduce you to Mr Theodore
+      Racksole&mdash;you will doubtless be familiar with his name. Mr Hazell,&rsquo;
+      he went on to Racksole, &lsquo;is one of our outdoor staff&mdash;what we call an
+      examining officer. Just now he is doing night duty. He has a boat on the
+      river and a couple of men, and the right to board and examine any craft
+      whatever. What Mr Hazell and his crew don&rsquo;t know about the Thames between
+      here and Gravesend isn&rsquo;t knowledge.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Glad to meet you, sir,&rsquo; said Racksole simply, and they shook hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole observed with satisfaction that Mr Hazell was entirely at his
+      ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Now, Hazell,&rsquo; the high official continued, &lsquo;Mr Racksole wants you to help
+      in a little private expedition on the river to-night. I will give you a
+      night&rsquo;s leave. I sent for you partly because I thought you would enjoy the
+      affair and partly because I think I can rely on you to regard it as
+      entirely unofficial and not to talk about it. You understand? I dare say
+      you will have no cause to regret having obliged Mr Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think I grasp the situation,&rsquo; said Hazell, with a slight smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And, by the way,&rsquo; added the high official, &lsquo;although the business is
+      unofficial, it might be well if you wore your official overcoat. See?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Decidedly,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;I should have done so in any case.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And now, Mr Hazell,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;will you do me the pleasure of
+      lunching with me? If you agree, I should like to lunch at the place you
+      usually frequent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So it came to pass that Theodore Racksole and George Hazell, outdoor clerk
+      in the Customs, lunched together at &lsquo;Thomas&rsquo;s Chop-House&rsquo;, in the city of
+      London, upon mutton-chops and coffee. The millionaire soon discovered that
+      he had got hold of a keen-witted man and a person of much insight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Hazell, when they had reached the cigarette stage, &lsquo;are
+      the magazine writers anything like correct?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean?&rsquo; asked Racksole, mystified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, you&rsquo;re a millionaire&mdash;&ldquo;one of the best&rdquo;, I believe. One often
+      sees articles on and interviews with millionaires, which describe their
+      private railroad cars, their steam yachts on the Hudson, their marble
+      stables, and so on, and so on. Do you happen to have those things?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have a private car on the New York Central, and I have a two thousand
+      ton schooner-yacht&mdash;though it isn&rsquo;t on the Hudson. It happens just
+      now to be on East River. And I am bound to admit that the stables of my
+      uptown place are fitted with marble.&rsquo; Racksole laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Hazell. &lsquo;Now I can believe that I am lunching with a
+      millionaire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It&rsquo;s strange how facts like those&mdash;unimportant in themselves&mdash;appeal
+      to the imagination. You seem to me a real millionaire now. You&rsquo;ve given me
+      some personal information; I&rsquo;ll give you some in return. I earn three
+      hundred a year, and perhaps sixty pounds a year extra for overtime. I live
+      by myself in two rooms in Muscovy Court. I&rsquo;ve as much money as I need, and
+      I always do exactly what I like outside office. As regards the office, I
+      do as little work as I can, on principle&mdash;it&rsquo;s a fight between us and
+      the Commissioners who shall get the best. They try to do us down, and we
+      try to do them down&mdash;it&rsquo;s pretty even on the whole. All&rsquo;s fair in
+      war, you know, and there ain&rsquo;t no ten commandments in a Government
+      office.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole laughed. &lsquo;Can you get off this afternoon?&rsquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Certainly,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll get one of my pals to sign on for me, and
+      then I shall be free.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I should like you to come down with me to the
+      Grand Babylon. Then we can talk over my little affair at length. And may
+      we go on your boat? I want to meet your crew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That will be all right,&rsquo; Hazell remarked. &lsquo;My two men are the idlest,
+      most soul-less chaps you ever saw. They eat too much, and they have an
+      enormous appetite for beer; but they know the river, and they know their
+      business, and they will do anything within the fair game if they are paid
+      for it, and aren&rsquo;t asked to hurry.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, just after dark, Theodore Racksole embarked with his new
+      friend George Hazell in one of the black-painted Customs wherries, manned
+      by a crew of two men&mdash;both the later freemen of the river, a
+      distinction which carries with it certain privileges unfamiliar to the
+      mere landsman. It was a cloudy and oppressive evening, not a star showing
+      to illumine the slow tide, now just past its flood. The vast forms of
+      steamers at anchor&mdash;chiefly those of the General Steam Navigation and
+      the Aberdeen Line&mdash;heaved themselves high out of the water, straining
+      sluggishly at their mooring buoys. On either side the naked walls of
+      warehouses rose like grey precipices from the stream, holding forth quaint
+      arms of steam-cranes. To the west the Tower Bridge spanned the river with
+      its formidable arch, and above that its suspended footpath&mdash;a hundred
+      and fifty feet from earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down towards the east and the Pool of London a forest of funnels and masts
+      was dimly outlined against the sinister sky. Huge barges, each steered by
+      a single man at the end of a pair of giant oars, lumbered and swirled
+      down-stream at all angles. Occasionally a tug snorted busily past,
+      flashing its red and green signals and dragging an unwieldy tail of barges
+      in its wake. Then a Margate passenger steamer, its electric lights
+      gleaming from every porthole, swerved round to anchor, with its load of
+      two thousand fatigued excursionists. Over everything brooded an air of
+      mystery&mdash;a spirit and feeling of strangeness, remoteness, and the
+      inexplicable. As the broad flat little boat bobbed its way under the
+      shadow of enormous hulks, beneath stretched hawsers, and past buoys
+      covered with green slime, Racksole could scarcely believe that he was in
+      the very heart of London&mdash;the most prosaic city in the world. He had
+      a queer idea that almost anything might happen in this seeming waste of
+      waters at this weird hour of ten o&rsquo;clock. It appeared incredible to him
+      that only a mile or two away people were sitting in theatres applauding
+      farces, and that at Cannon Street Station, a few yards off, other people
+      were calmly taking the train to various highly respectable suburbs whose
+      names he was gradually learning. He had the uplifting sensation of being
+      in another world which comes to us sometimes amid surroundings violently
+      different from our usual surroundings. The most ordinary noises&mdash;of
+      men calling, of a chain running through a slot, of a distant siren&mdash;translated
+      themselves to his ears into terrible and haunting sounds, full of
+      portentous significance. He looked over the side of the boat into the
+      brown water, and asked himself what frightful secrets lay hidden in its
+      depth. Then he put his hand into his hip-pocket and touched the stock of
+      his Colt revolver&mdash;that familiar substance comforted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The oarsmen had instructions to drop slowly down to the Pool, as the wide
+      reach below the Tower is called. These two men had not been previously
+      informed of the precise object of the expedition, but now that they were
+      safely afloat Hazell judged it expedient to give them some notion of it.
+      &lsquo;We expect to come across a rather suspicious steam launch,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;My
+      friend here is very anxious to get a sight of her, and until he has seen
+      her nothing definite can be done.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What sort of a craft is she, sir?&rsquo; asked the stroke oar, a fat-faced man
+      who seemed absolutely incapable of any serious exertion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rsquo; Racksole replied; &lsquo;but as near as I can judge, she&rsquo;s about
+      sixty feet in length, and painted black. I fancy I shall recognize her
+      when I see her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not much to go by, that,&rsquo; exclaimed the other man curtly. But he said no
+      more. He, as well as his mate, had received from Theodore Racksole one
+      English sovereign as a kind of preliminary fee, and an English sovereign
+      will do a lot towards silencing the natural sarcastic tendencies and free
+      speech of a Thames waterman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There&rsquo;s one thing I noticed,&rsquo; said Racksole suddenly, &lsquo;and I forgot to
+      tell you of it, Mr Hazell. Her screw seemed to move with a rather
+      irregular, lame sort of beat.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both watermen burst into a laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh,&rsquo; said the fat rower, &lsquo;I know what you&rsquo;re after, sir&mdash;it&rsquo;s Jack
+      Everett&rsquo;s launch, commonly called &ldquo;Squirm&rdquo;. She&rsquo;s got a four-bladed
+      propeller, and one blade is broken off short.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ay, that&rsquo;s it, sure enough,&rsquo; agreed the man in the bows. &lsquo;And if it&rsquo;s her
+      you want, I seed her lying up against Cherry Gardens Pier this very
+      morning.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Let us go to Cherry Gardens Pier by all means, as soon as possible,&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole said, and the boat swung across stream and then began to creep
+      down by the right bank, feeling its way past wharves, many of which, even
+      at that hour, were still busy with their cranes, that descended empty into
+      the bellies of ships and came up full. As the two watermen gingerly
+      manoeuvred the boat on the ebbing tide, Hazell explained to the
+      millionaire that the &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; was one of the most notorious craft on the
+      river. It appeared that when anyone had a nefarious or underhand scheme
+      afoot which necessitated river work Everett&rsquo;s launch was always available
+      for a suitable monetary consideration. The &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; had got itself into a
+      thousand scrapes, and out of those scrapes again with safety, if not
+      precisely with honour. The river police kept a watchful eye on it, and the
+      chief marvel about the whole thing was that old Everett, the owner, had
+      never yet been seriously compromised in any illegal escapade. Not once had
+      the officer of the law been able to prove anything definite against the
+      proprietor of the &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo;, though several of its quondam hirers were at
+      that very moment in various of Her Majesty&rsquo;s prisons throughout the
+      country. Latterly, however, the launch, with its damaged propeller, which
+      Everett consistently refused to have repaired, had acquired an evil
+      reputation, even among evil-doers, and this fraternity had gradually come
+      to abandon it for less easily recognizable craft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Your friend, Mr Tom Jackson,&rsquo; said Hazell to Racksole, &lsquo;committed an
+      error of discretion when he hired the &ldquo;Squirm&rdquo;. A scoundrel of his
+      experience and calibre ought certainly to have known better than that. You
+      cannot fail to get a clue now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the boat was approaching Cherry Gardens Pier, but
+      unfortunately a thin night-fog had swept over the river, and objects could
+      not be discerned with any clearness beyond a distance of thirty yards. As
+      the Customs boat scraped down past the pier all its occupants strained
+      eyes for a glimpse of the mysterious launch, but nothing could be seen of
+      it. The boat continued to float idly down-stream, the men resting on their
+      oars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they narrowly escaped bumping a large Norwegian sailing vessel at
+      anchor with her stem pointing down-stream. This ship they passed on the
+      port side. Just as they got clear of her bowsprit the fat man cried out
+      excitedly, &lsquo;There&rsquo;s her nose!&rsquo; and he put the boat about and began to pull
+      back against the tide. And surely the missing &lsquo;Squirm&rsquo; was comfortably
+      anchored on the starboard quarter of the Norwegian ship, hidden neatly
+      between the ship and the shore. The men pulled very quietly alongside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Six THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;LL board her to start with,&rsquo; said Hazell, whispering to Racksole. &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll
+      make out that I suspect they&rsquo;ve got dutiable goods on board, and that will
+      give me a chance to have a good look at her.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dressed in his official overcoat and peaked cap, he stepped, rather
+      jauntily as Racksole thought, on to the low deck of the launch. &lsquo;Anyone
+      aboard?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole heard him cry out, and a woman&rsquo;s voice answered. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m a Customs
+      examining officer, and I want to search the launch,&rsquo; Hazell shouted, and
+      then disappeared down into the little saloon amidships, and Racksole heard
+      no more. It seemed to the millionaire that Hazell had been gone hours, but
+      at length he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Can&rsquo;t find anything,&rsquo; he said, as he jumped into the boat, and then
+      privately to Racksole: &lsquo;There&rsquo;s a woman on board. Looks as if she might
+      coincide with your description of Miss Spencer. Steam&rsquo;s up, but there&rsquo;s no
+      engineer. I asked where the engineer was, and she inquired what business
+      that was of mine, and requested me to get through with my own business and
+      clear off. Seems rather a smart sort. I poked my nose into everything, but
+      I saw no sign of any one else. Perhaps we&rsquo;d better pull away and lie near
+      for a bit, just to see if anything queer occurs.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;re quite sure he isn&rsquo;t on board?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Quite,&rsquo; said Hazell positively: &lsquo;I know how to search a vessel. See
+      this,&rsquo; and he handed to Racksole a sort of steel skewer, about two feet
+      long, with a wooden handle. &lsquo;That,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;is one of the Customs&rsquo; aids
+      to searching.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose it wouldn&rsquo;t do to go on board and carry off the lady?&rsquo; Racksole
+      suggested doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; Hazell began, with equal doubtfulness, &lsquo;as for that&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where&rsquo;s &lsquo;e orf?&rsquo; It was the man in the bows who interrupted Hazell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Following the direction of the man&rsquo;s finger, both Hazell and Racksole saw
+      with more or less distinctness a dinghy slip away from the forefoot of the
+      Norwegian vessel and disappear downstream into the mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s Jules, I&rsquo;ll swear,&rsquo; cried Racksole. &lsquo;After him, men. Ten pounds
+      apiece if we overtake him!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Lay down to it now, boys!&rsquo; said Hazell, and the heavy Customs boat shot
+      out in pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;This is going to be a lark,&rsquo; Racksole remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Depends on what you call a lark,&rsquo; said Hazell; &lsquo;it&rsquo;s not much of a lark
+      tearing down midstream like this in a fog. You never know when you mayn&rsquo;t
+      be in kingdom come with all these barges knocking around. I expect that
+      chap hid in the dinghy when he first caught sight of us, and then slipped
+      his painter as soon as I&rsquo;d gone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat was moving at a rapid pace with the tide. Steering was a matter
+      of luck and instinct more than anything else. Every now and then Hazell,
+      who held the lines, was obliged to jerk the boat&rsquo;s head sharply round to
+      avoid a barge or an anchored vessel. It seemed to Racksole that vessels
+      were anchored all over the stream. He looked about him anxiously, but for
+      a long time he could see nothing but mist and vague nautical forms. Then
+      suddenly he said, quietly enough, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re on the right road; I can see him
+      ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We&rsquo;re gaining on him.&rsquo; In another minute the dinghy was plainly visible,
+      not twenty yards away, and the sculler&mdash;sculling frantically now&mdash;was
+      unmistakably Jules&mdash;Jules in a light tweed suit and a bowler hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You were right,&rsquo; Hazell said; &lsquo;this is a lark. I believe I&rsquo;m getting
+      quite excited. It&rsquo;s more exciting than playing the trombone in an
+      orchestra. I&rsquo;ll run him down, eh?&mdash;and then we can drag the chap in
+      from the water.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole nodded, but at that moment a barge, with her red sails set, stood
+      out of the fog clean across the bows of the Customs boat, which narrowly
+      escaped instant destruction. When they got clear, and the usual
+      interchange of calm, nonchalant swearing was over, the dinghy was barely
+      to be discerned in the mist, and the fat man was breathing in such a
+      manner that his sighs might almost have been heard on the banks. Racksole
+      wanted violently to do something, but there was nothing to do; he could
+      only sit supine by Hazell&rsquo;s side in the stern-sheets. Gradually they began
+      again to overtake the dinghy, whose one-man crew was evidently tiring. As
+      they came up, hand over fist, the dinghy&rsquo;s nose swerved aside, and the
+      tiny craft passed down a water-lane between two anchored mineral barges,
+      which lay black and deserted about fifty yards from the Surrey shore. &lsquo;To
+      starboard,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;No, man!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hazell replied; &lsquo;we can&rsquo;t get through there. He&rsquo;s bound to come out below;
+      it&rsquo;s only a feint. I&rsquo;ll keep our nose straight ahead.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And they went on, the fat man pounding away, with a face which glistened
+      even in the thick gloom. It was an empty dinghy which emerged from between
+      the two barges and went drifting and revolving down towards Greenwich.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fat man gasped a word to his comrade, and the Customs boat stopped
+      dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;E&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said the man in the bows. &lsquo;If it&rsquo;s &lsquo;im you want, &lsquo;e&rsquo;s on
+      one o&rsquo; them barges, so you&rsquo;ve only got to step on and take &lsquo;im orf.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s all,&rsquo; said a voice out of the depths of the nearest barge, and it
+      was the voice of Jules, otherwise known as Mr Tom Jackson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;&rsquo;Ear &lsquo;im?&rsquo; said the fat man smiling. &lsquo;&rsquo;E&rsquo;s a good &lsquo;un, &lsquo;e is. But if I
+      was you, Mr Hazell, or you, sir, I shouldn&rsquo;t step on to that barge so
+      quick as all that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They backed the boat under the stem of the nearest barge and gazed
+      upwards.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s all right,&rsquo; said Racksole to Hazell; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got a revolver. How can I
+      clamber up there?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes, I dare say you&rsquo;ve got a revolver all right,&rsquo; Hazell replied sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you mustn&rsquo;t use it. There mustn&rsquo;t be any noise. We should have the
+      river police down on us in a twinkling if there was a revolver shot, and
+      it would be the ruin of me. If an inquiry was held the Commissioners
+      wouldn&rsquo;t take any official notice of the fact that my superior officer had
+      put me on to this job, and I should be requested to leave the service.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Have no fear on that score,&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;I shall, of course, take all
+      responsibility.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t matter how much responsibility you took,&rsquo; Hazell retorted;
+      &lsquo;you wouldn&rsquo;t put me back into the service, and my career would be at an
+      end.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But there are other careers,&rsquo; said Racksole, who was really anxious to
+      lame his ex-waiter by means of a judiciously-aimed bullet. &lsquo;There are
+      other careers.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The Customs is my career,&rsquo; said Hazell, &lsquo;so let&rsquo;s have no shooting. We&rsquo;ll
+      wait about a bit; he can&rsquo;t escape. You can have my skewer if you like&rsquo;&mdash;and
+      he gave Racksole his searching instrument. &lsquo;And you can do what you
+      please, provided you do it neatly and don&rsquo;t make a row over it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a few moments the four men were passive in the boat, surrounded by
+      swirling mist, with black water beneath them, and towering above them a
+      half-loaded barge with a desperate and resourceful man on board. Suddenly
+      the mist parted and shrivelled away in patches, as though before the
+      breath of some monster. The sky was visible; it was a clear sky, and the
+      moon was shining. The transformation was just one of those meteorological
+      quick-changes which happen most frequently on a great river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s a sight better,&rsquo; said the fat man. At the same moment a head
+      appeared over the edge of the barge. It was Jules&rsquo; face&mdash;dark,
+      sinister and leering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is it Mr Racksole in that boat?&rsquo; he inquired calmly; &lsquo;because if so, let
+      Mr Racksole step up. Mr Racksole has caught me, and he can have me for the
+      asking. Here I am.&rsquo; He stood up to his full height on the barge, tall
+      against the night sky, and all the occupants of the boat could see that he
+      held firmly clasped in his right hand a short dagger. &lsquo;Now, Mr Racksole,
+      you&rsquo;ve been after me for a long time,&rsquo; he continued; &lsquo;here I am. Why don&rsquo;t
+      you step up? If you haven&rsquo;t got the pluck yourself, persuade someone else
+      to step up in your place ... the same fair treatment will be accorded to
+      all.&rsquo; And Jules laughed a low, penetrating laugh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was in the midst of this laugh when he lurched suddenly forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;r&rsquo; you doing of aboard my barge? Off you goes!&rsquo; It was a boy&rsquo;s small
+      shrill voice that sounded in the night. A ragged boy&rsquo;s small form had
+      appeared silently behind Jules, and two small arms with a vicious shove
+      precipitated him into the water. He fell with a fine gurgling splash. It
+      was at once obvious that swimming was not among Jules&rsquo; accomplishments. He
+      floundered wildly and sank. When he reappeared he was dragged into the
+      Customs boat. Rope was produced, and in a minute or two the man lay
+      ignominiously bound in the bottom of the boat. With the aid of a mudlark&mdash;a
+      mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on the barge than Jules
+      himself&mdash;Racksole had won his game. For the first time for several
+      weeks the millionaire experienced a sensation of equanimity and
+      satisfaction. He leaned over the prostrate form of Jules, Hazell&rsquo;s
+      professional skewer in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What are you going to do with him now?&rsquo; asked Hazell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll row up to the landing steps in front of the Grand Babylon. He shall
+      be well lodged at my hotel, I promise him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules spoke no word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before Racksole parted company with the Customs man that night Jules had
+      been safely transported into the Grand Babylon Hôtel and the two watermen
+      had received their £10 apiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will sleep here?&rsquo; said the millionaire to Mr George Hazell. &lsquo;It is
+      late.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Hazell. The next morning he found a sumptuous
+      breakfast awaiting him, and in his table-napkin was a Bank of England note
+      for a hundred pounds. But, though he did not hear of them till much later,
+      many things had happened before Hazell consumed that sumptuous breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Seven THE CONFESSION OF MR TOM JACKSON
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT happened that the small bedroom occupied by Jules during the years he
+      was head-waiter at the Grand Babylon had remained empty since his sudden
+      dismissal by Theodore Racksole. No other head-waiter had been formally
+      appointed in his place; and, indeed, the absence of one man&mdash;even the
+      unique Jules&mdash;could scarcely have been noticed in the enormous staff
+      of a place like the Grand Babylon. The functions of a head-waiter are
+      generally more ornamental, spectacular, and morally impressive than
+      useful, and it was so at the great hotel on the Embankment. Racksole
+      accordingly had the excellent idea of transporting his prisoner, with as
+      much secrecy as possible, to this empty bedroom. There proved to be no
+      difficulty in doing so; Jules showed himself perfectly amenable to a show
+      of superior force.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Racksole took upstairs with him an old commissionaire who had been
+      attached to the outdoor service of the hotel for many years&mdash;a
+      grey-haired man, wiry as a terrier and strong as a mastiff. Entering the
+      bedroom with Jules, whose hands were bound, he told the commissionaire to
+      remain outside the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules&rsquo; bedroom was quite an ordinary apartment, though perhaps slightly
+      superior to the usual accommodation provided for servants in the
+      caravanserais of the West End. It was about fourteen by twelve. It was
+      furnished with a bedstead, a small wardrobe, a small washstand and
+      dressing-table, and two chairs. There were two hooks behind the door, a
+      strip of carpet by the bed, and some cheap ornaments on the iron
+      mantelpiece. There was also one electric light. The window was a little
+      square one, high up from the floor, and it looked on the inner quadrangle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room was on the top storey&mdash;the eighth&mdash;and from it you had
+      a view sheer to the ground. Twenty feet below ran a narrow cornice about a
+      foot wide; three feet or so above the window another and wider cornice
+      jutted out, and above that was the high steep roof of the hotel, though
+      you could not see it from the window. As Racksole examined the window and
+      the outlook, he said to himself that Jules could not escape by that exit,
+      at any rate. He gave a glance up the chimney, and saw that the flue was
+      far too small to admit a man&rsquo;s body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he called in the commissionaire, and together they bound Jules firmly
+      to the bedstead, allowing him, however, to lie down. All the while the
+      captive never opened his mouth&mdash;merely smiled a smile of disdain.
+      Finally Racksole removed the ornaments, the carpet, the chairs and the
+      hooks, and wrenched away the switch of the electric light. Then he and the
+      commissionaire left the room, and Racksole locked the door on the outside
+      and put the key in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You will keep watch here,&rsquo; he said to the commissionaire, &lsquo;through the
+      night. You can sit on this chair. Don&rsquo;t go to sleep. If you hear the
+      slightest noise in the room blow your cab-whistle; I will arrange to
+      answer the signal. If there is no noise do nothing whatever. I don&rsquo;t want
+      this talked about, you understand. I shall trust you; you can trust me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But the servants will see me here when they get up to-morrow,&rsquo; said the
+      commissionaire, with a faint smile, &lsquo;and they will be pretty certain to
+      ask what I&rsquo;m doing of up here. What shall I say to &lsquo;em?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve been a soldier, haven&rsquo;t you?&rsquo; asked Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve seen three campaigns, sir,&rsquo; was the reply, and, with a gesture of
+      pardonable pride, the grey-haired fellow pointed to the medals on his
+      breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, supposing you were on sentry duty and some meddlesome person in
+      camp asked you what you were doing&mdash;what should you say?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should tell him to clear off or take the consequences, and pretty quick
+      too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do that to-morrow morning, then, if necessary,&rsquo; said Racksole, and
+      departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was then about one o&rsquo;clock a.m. The millionaire retired to bed&mdash;not
+      his own bed, but a bed on the seventh storey. He did not, however, sleep
+      very long. Shortly after dawn he was wide awake, and thinking busily about
+      Jules.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was, indeed, very curious to know Jules&rsquo; story, and he determined, if
+      the thing could be done at all, by persuasion or otherwise, to extract it
+      from him. With a man of Theodore Racksole&rsquo;s temperament there is no time
+      like the present, and at six o&rsquo;clock, as the bright morning sun brought
+      gaiety into the window, he dressed and went upstairs again to the eighth
+      storey. The commissionaire sat stolid, but alert on his chair, and, at the
+      sight of his master, rose and saluted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Anything happened?&rsquo; Racksole asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nothing, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Servants say anything?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only a dozen or so of &lsquo;em are up yet, sir. One of &lsquo;em asked what I was
+      playing at, and so I told her I was looking after a bull bitch and a
+      litter of pups that you was very particular about, sir.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good,&rsquo; said Racksole, as he unlocked the door and entered the room. All
+      was exactly as he had left it, except that Jules who had been lying on his
+      back, had somehow turned over and was now lying on his face. He gazed
+      silently, scowling at the millionaire. Racksole greeted him and
+      ostentatiously took a revolver from his hip-pocket and laid it on the
+      dressing-table. Then he seated himself on the dressing-table by the side
+      of the revolver, his legs dangling an inch or two above the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to have a talk to you, Jackson,&rsquo; he began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You can talk to me as much as you like,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I shan&rsquo;t interfere,
+      you may bet on that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I should like you to answer some questions.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s different,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to answer any questions
+      while I&rsquo;m tied up like this. You may bet on that, too.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It will pay you to be reasonable,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;m not going to answer any questions while I&rsquo;m tied up.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll unfasten your legs, if you like,&rsquo; Racksole suggested politely, &lsquo;then
+      you can sit up. It&rsquo;s no use you pretending you&rsquo;ve been uncomfortable,
+      because I know you haven&rsquo;t. I calculate you&rsquo;ve been treated very
+      handsomely, my son. There you are!&rsquo; and he loosened the lower extremities
+      of his prisoner from their bonds. &lsquo;Now I repeat you may as well be
+      reasonable. You may as well admit that you&rsquo;ve been fairly beaten in the
+      game and act accordingly. I was determined to beat you, by myself, without
+      the police, and I&rsquo;ve done it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve done yourself,&rsquo; retorted Jules. &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve gone against the law. If
+      you&rsquo;d had any sense you wouldn&rsquo;t have meddled; you&rsquo;d have left everything
+      to the police. They&rsquo;d have muddled about for a year or two, and then done
+      nothing. Who&rsquo;s going to tell the police now? Are you? Are you going to
+      give me up to &lsquo;em, and say, &ldquo;Here, I&rsquo;ve caught him for you&rdquo;. If you do
+      they&rsquo;ll ask you to explain several things, and then you&rsquo;ll look foolish.
+      One crime doesn&rsquo;t excuse another, and you&rsquo;ll find that out.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With unerring insight, Jules had perceived exactly the difficulty of
+      Racksole&rsquo;s position, and it was certainly a difficulty which Racksole did
+      not attempt to minimize to himself. He knew well that it would have to be
+      faced. He did not, however, allow Jules to guess his thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Meanwhile,&rsquo; he said calmly to the other, &lsquo;you&rsquo;re here and my prisoner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You&rsquo;ve committed a variegated assortment of crimes, and among them is
+      murder. You are due to be hung. You know that. There is no reason why I
+      should call in the police at all. It will be perfectly easy for me to
+      finish you off, as you deserve, myself. I shall only be carrying out
+      justice, and robbing the hangman of his fee. Precisely as I brought you
+      into the hotel, I can take you out again. A few days ago you borrowed or
+      stole a steam yacht at Ostend. What you have done with it I don&rsquo;t know,
+      nor do I care. But I strongly suspect that my daughter had a narrow escape
+      of being murdered on your steam yacht. Now I have a steam yacht of my own.
+      Suppose I use it as you used yours! Suppose I smuggle you on to it, steam
+      out to sea, and then ask you to step off it into the ocean one night. Such
+      things have been done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such things will be done again. If I acted so, I should at least, have the
+      satisfaction of knowing that I had relieved society from the incubus of a
+      scoundrel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you won&rsquo;t,&rsquo; Jules murmured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Racksole steadily, &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t&mdash;if you behave yourself this
+      morning. But I swear to you that if you don&rsquo;t I will never rest till you
+      are dead, police or no police. You don&rsquo;t know Theodore Racksole.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe you mean it,&rsquo; Jules exclaimed, with an air of surprised
+      interest, as though he had discovered something of importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I believe I do,&rsquo; Racksole resumed. &lsquo;Now listen. At the best, you will be
+      given up to the police. At the worst, I shall deal with you myself. With
+      the police you may have a chance&mdash;you may get off with twenty years&rsquo;
+      penal servitude, because, though it is absolutely certain that you
+      murdered Reginald Dimmock, it would be a little difficult to prove the
+      case against you. But with me you would have no chance whatever. I have a
+      few questions to put to you, and it will depend on how you answer them
+      whether I give you up to the police or take the law into my own hands. And
+      let me tell you that the latter course would be much simpler for me. And I
+      would take it, too, did I not feel that you were a very clever and
+      exceptional man; did I not have a sort of sneaking admiration for your
+      detestable skill and ingenuity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think, then, that I am clever?&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;You are right. I am. I
+      should have been much too clever for you if luck had not been against me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You owe your victory, not to skill, but to luck.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is what the vanquished always say. Waterloo was a bit of pure luck
+      for the English, no doubt, but it was Waterloo all the same.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jules yawned elaborately. &lsquo;What do you want to know?&rsquo; he inquired, with
+      politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;First and foremost, I want to know the names of your accomplices inside
+      this hotel.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have no more,&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;Rocco was the last.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t begin by lying to me. If you had no accomplice, how did you
+      contrive that one particular bottle of Romanée-Conti should be served to
+      his Highness Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you discovered that in time, did you?&rsquo; said Jules. &lsquo;I was afraid so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let me explain that that needed no accomplice. The bottle was topmost in
+      the bin, and naturally it would be taken. Moreover, I left it sticking out
+      a little further than the rest.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You did not arrange, then, that Hubbard should be taken ill the night
+      before last?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had no idea,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;that the excellent Hubbard was not enjoying
+      his accustomed health.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Tell me,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;who or what is the origin of your vendetta
+      against the life of Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had no vendetta against the life of Prince Eugen,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;at
+      least, not to begin with. I merely undertook, for a consideration, to see
+      that Prince Eugen did not have an interview with a certain Mr Sampson Levi
+      in London before a certain date, that was all. It seemed simple enough. I
+      had been engaged in far more complicated transactions before. I was
+      convinced that I could manage it, with the help of Rocco and Em&mdash;and
+      Miss Spencer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is that woman your wife?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;She would like to be,&rsquo; he sneered. &lsquo;Please don&rsquo;t interrupt. I had
+      completed my arrangements, when you so inconsiderately bought the hotel. I
+      don&rsquo;t mind admitting now that from the very moment when you came across me
+      that night in the corridor I was secretly afraid of you, though I scarcely
+      admitted the fact even to myself then. I thought it safer to shift the
+      scene of our operations to Ostend. I had meant to deal with Prince Eugen
+      in this hotel, but I decided, then, to intercept him on the Continent, and
+      I despatched Miss Spencer with some instructions. Troubles never come
+      singly, and it happened that just then that fool Dimmock, who had been in
+      the swim with us, chose to prove refractory. The slightest hitch would
+      have upset everything, and I was obliged to&mdash;to clear him off the
+      scene. He wanted to back out&mdash;he had a bad attack of conscience, and
+      violent measures were essential. I regret his untimely decease, but he
+      brought it on himself. Well, everything was going serenely when you and
+      your brilliant daughter, apparently determined to meddle, turned up again
+      among us at Ostend. Only twenty-four hours, however, had to elapse before
+      the date which had been mentioned to me by my employers. I kept poor
+      little Eugen for the allotted time, and then you managed to get hold of
+      him. I do not deny that you scored there, though, according to my original
+      instructions, you scored too late. The time had passed, and so, so far as
+      I knew, it didn&rsquo;t matter a pin whether Prince Eugen saw Mr Sampson Levi or
+      not. But my employers were still uneasy. They were uneasy even after
+      little Eugen had lain ill in Ostend for several weeks. It appears that
+      they feared that even at that date an interview between Prince Eugen and
+      Mr Sampson Levi might work harm to them. So they applied to me again. This
+      time they wanted Prince Eugen to be&mdash;em&mdash;finished off entirely.
+      They offered high terms.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What terms?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I had received fifty thousand pounds for the first job, of which Rocco
+      had half. Rocco was also to be made a member of a certain famous European
+      order, if things went right. That was what he coveted far more than the
+      money&mdash;the vain fellow! For the second job I was offered a hundred
+      thousand. A tolerably large sum. I regret that I have not been able to
+      earn it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Do you mean to tell me,&rsquo; asked Racksole, horror-struck by this calm
+      confession, in spite of his previous knowledge, &lsquo;that you were offered a
+      hundred thousand pounds to poison Prince Eugen?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You put it rather crudely,&rsquo; said Jules in reply. &lsquo;I prefer to say that I
+      was offered a hundred thousand pounds if Prince Eugen should die within a
+      reasonable time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And who were your damnable employers?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That, honestly, I do not know.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You know, I suppose, who paid you the first fifty thousand pounds, and
+      who promised you the hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well,&rsquo; said Jules, &lsquo;I know vaguely. I know that he came via Vienna from&mdash;em&mdash;Bosnia.
+      My impression was that the affair had some bearing, direct or indirect, on
+      the projected marriage of the King of Bosnia. He is a young monarch,
+      scarcely out of political leading-strings, as it were, and doubtless his
+      Ministers thought that they had better arrange his marriage for him. They
+      tried last year, and failed because the Princess whom they had in mind had
+      cast her sparkling eyes on another Prince. That Prince happened to be
+      Prince Eugen of Posen. The Ministers of the King of Bosnia knew exactly
+      the circumstances of Prince Eugen. They knew that he could not marry
+      without liquidating his debts, and they knew that he could only liquidate
+      his debts through this Jew, Sampson Levi. Unfortunately for me, they
+      ultimately wanted to make too sure of Prince Eugen. They were afraid he
+      might after all arrange his marriage without the aid of Mr Sampson Levi,
+      and so&mdash;well, you know the rest.... It is a pity that the poor little
+      innocent King of Bosnia can&rsquo;t have the Princess of his Ministers&rsquo; choice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Then you think that the King himself had no part in this abominable
+      crime?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I think decidedly not.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am glad of that,&rsquo; said Racksole simply. &lsquo;And now, the name of your
+      immediate employer.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He was merely an agent. He called himself Sleszak&mdash;S-l-e-s-z-a-k.
+      But I imagine that that wasn&rsquo;t his real name. I don&rsquo;t know his real name.
+      An old man, he often used to be found at the Hôtel Ritz, Paris.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Sleszak and I will meet,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Not in this world,&rsquo; said Jules quickly. &lsquo;He is dead. I heard only last
+      night&mdash;just before our little tussle.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It is well,&rsquo; said Racksole at length. &lsquo;Prince Eugen lives, despite all
+      plots. After all, justice is done.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Mr Racksole is here, but he can see no one, Miss.&rsquo; The words came from
+      behind the door, and the voice was the commissionaire&rsquo;s. Racksole started
+      up, and went towards the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense,&rsquo; was the curt reply, in feminine tones. &lsquo;Move aside instantly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened, and Nella entered. There were tears in her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh! Dad,&rsquo; she exclaimed, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve only just heard you were in the hotel. We
+      looked for you everywhere. Come at once, Prince Eugen is dying&mdash;&rsquo;
+      Then she saw the man sitting on the bed, and stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, when Jules was alone again, he remarked to himself, &lsquo;I may get that
+      hundred thousand.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Eight THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE MORE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHEN, immediately after the episode of the bottle of Romanée-Conti in the
+      State dining-room, Prince Aribert and old Hans found that Prince Eugen had
+      sunk in an unconscious heap over his chair, both the former thought, at
+      the first instant, that Eugen must have already tasted the poisoned wine.
+      But a moment&rsquo;s reflection showed that this was not possible. If the
+      Hereditary Prince of Posen was dying or dead, his condition was due to
+      some other agency than the Romanée-Conti. Aribert bent over him, and a
+      powerful odour from the man&rsquo;s lips at once disclosed the cause of the
+      disaster: it was the odour of laudanum. Indeed, the smell of that sinister
+      drug seemed now to float heavily over the whole table. Across Aribert&rsquo;s
+      mind there flashed then the true explanation. Prince Eugen, taking
+      advantage of Aribert&rsquo;s attention being momentarily diverted; and yielding
+      to a sudden impulse of despair, had decided to poison himself, and had
+      carried out his intention on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The laudanum must have been already in his pocket, and this fact went to
+      prove that the unfortunate Prince had previously contemplated such a
+      proceeding, even after his definite promise. Aribert remembered now with
+      painful vividness his nephew&rsquo;s words: &lsquo;I withdraw my promise. Observe that&mdash;I
+      withdraw it.&rsquo; It must have been instantly after the utterance of that
+      formal withdrawal that Eugen attempted to destroy himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s laudanum, Hans,&rsquo; Aribert exclaimed, rather helplessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Surely his Highness has not taken poison?&rsquo; said Hans. &lsquo;It is impossible!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I fear it is only too possible,&rsquo; said the other. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s laudanum. What are
+      we to do? Quick, man!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;His Highness must be roused, Prince. He must have an emetic. We had
+      better carry him to the bedroom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They did, and laid him on the great bed; and then Aribert mixed an emetic
+      of mustard and water, and administered it, but without any effect. The
+      sufferer lay motionless, with every muscle relaxed. His skin was ice-cold
+      to the touch, and the eyelids, half-drawn, showed that the pupils were
+      painfully contracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Go out, and send for a doctor, Hans. Say that Prince Eugen has been
+      suddenly taken ill, but that it isn&rsquo;t serious. The truth must never be
+      known.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He must be roused, sire,&rsquo; Hans said again, as he hurried from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert lifted his nephew from the bed, shook him, pinched him, flicked
+      him cruelly, shouted at him, dragged him about, but to no avail. At length
+      he desisted, from mere physical fatigue, and laid the Prince back again on
+      the bed. Every minute that elapsed seemed an hour. Alone with the
+      unconscious organism in the silence of the great stately chamber, under
+      the cold yellow glare of the electric lights, Aribert became a prey to the
+      most despairing thoughts. The tragedy of his nephew&rsquo;s career forced itself
+      upon him, and it occurred to him that an early and shameful death had all
+      along been inevitable for this good-natured, weak-purposed, unhappy child
+      of a historic throne. A little good fortune, and his character, so evenly
+      balanced between right and wrong, might have followed the proper path, and
+      Eugen might have figured at any rate with dignity on the European stage.
+      But now it appeared that all was over, the last stroke played. And in this
+      disaster Aribert saw the ruin of his own hopes. For Aribert would have to
+      occupy his nephew&rsquo;s throne, and he felt instinctively that nature had not
+      cut him out for a throne. By a natural impulse he inwardly rebelled
+      against the prospect of monarchy. Monarchy meant so much for which he knew
+      himself to be entirely unfitted. It meant a political marriage, which
+      means a forced marriage, a union against inclination. And then what of
+      Nella&mdash;Nella!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans returned. &lsquo;I have sent for the nearest doctor, and also for a
+      specialist,&rsquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Good,&rsquo; said Aribert. &lsquo;I hope they will hurry.&rsquo; Then he sat down and wrote
+      a card. &lsquo;Take this yourself to Miss Racksole. If she is out of the hotel,
+      ascertain where she is and follow her. Understand, it is of the first
+      importance.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hans bowed, and departed for the second time, and Aribert was alone again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at Eugen, and made another frantic attempt to rouse him from the
+      deadly stupor, but it was useless. He walked away to the window: through
+      the opened casement he could hear the tinkle of passing hansoms on the
+      Embankment below, whistles of door-keepers, and the hoot of steam tugs on
+      the river. The world went on as usual, it appeared. It was an absurd
+      world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He desired nothing better than to abandon his princely title, and live as
+      a plain man, the husband of the finest woman on earth.... But now!...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pah! How selfish he was, to be thinking of himself when Eugen lay dying.
+      Yet&mdash;Nella!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door opened, and a man entered, who was obviously the doctor. A few
+      curt questions, and he had grasped the essentials of the case. &lsquo;Oblige me
+      by ringing the bell, Prince. I shall want some hot water, and an
+      able-bodied man and a nurse.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who wants a nurse?&rsquo; said a voice, and Nella came quietly in. &lsquo;I am a
+      nurse,&rsquo; she added to the doctor, &lsquo;and at your orders.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next two hours were a struggle between life and death. The first
+      doctor, a specialist who followed him, Nella, Prince Aribert, and old Hans
+      formed, as it were, a league to save the dying man. None else in the hotel
+      knew the real seriousness of the case. When a Prince falls ill, and
+      especially by his own act, the precise truth is not issued broadcast to
+      the universe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      According to official intelligence, a Prince is never seriously ill until
+      he is dead. Such is statecraft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The worst feature of Prince Eugen&rsquo;s case was that emetics proved futile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of the doctors could explain their failure, but it was only too
+      apparent. The league was reduced to helplessness. At last the great
+      specialist from Manchester Square gave it out that there was no chance for
+      Prince Eugen unless the natural vigour of his constitution should prove
+      capable of throwing off the poison unaided by scientific assistance, as a
+      drunkard can sleep off his potion. Everything had been tried, even to
+      artificial respiration and the injection of hot coffee. Having emitted
+      this pronouncement, the great specialist from Manchester Square left. It
+      was one o&rsquo;clock in the morning. By one of those strange and futile
+      coincidences which sometimes startle us by their subtle significance, the
+      specialist met Theodore Racksole and his captive as they were entering the
+      hotel. Neither had the least suspicion of the other&rsquo;s business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the State bedroom the small group of watchers surrounded the bed. The
+      slow minutes filed away in dreary procession. Another hour passed. Then
+      the figure on the bed, hitherto so motionless, twitched and moved; the
+      lips parted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is hope,&rsquo; said the doctor, and administered a stimulant which was
+      handed to him by Nella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a quarter of an hour the patient had regained consciousness. For the
+      ten thousandth time in the history of medicine a sound constitution had
+      accomplished a miracle impossible to the accumulated medical skill of
+      centuries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In due course the doctor left, saying that Prince Eugen was &lsquo;on the high
+      road to recovery,&rsquo; and promising to come again within a few hours. Morning
+      had dawned. Nella drew the great curtains, and let in a flood of sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Hans, overcome by fatigue, dozed in a chair in a far corner of the
+      room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reaction had been too much for him. Nella and Prince Aribert looked at
+      each other. They had not exchanged a word about themselves, yet each knew
+      what the other had been thinking. They clasped hands with a perfect
+      understanding. Their brief love-making had been of the silent kind, and it
+      was silent now. No word was uttered. A shadow had passed from over them,
+      but only their eyes expressed relief and joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert!&rsquo; The faint call came from the bed. Aribert went to the bedside,
+      while Nella remained near the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What is it, Eugen?&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;You are better now.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You think so?&rsquo; murmured the other. &lsquo;I want you to forgive me for all
+      this, Aribert. I must have caused you an intolerable trouble. I did it so
+      clumsily; that is what annoys me. Laudanum was a feeble expedient; but I
+      could think of nothing else, and I daren&rsquo;t ask anyone for advice. I was
+      obliged to go out and buy the stuff for myself. It was all very awkward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, thank goodness, it has not been ineffectual.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What do you mean, Eugen? You are better. In a day or so you will be
+      perfectly recovered.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I am dying,&rsquo; said Eugen quietly. &lsquo;Do not be deceived. I die because I
+      wish to die. It is bound to be so. I know by the feel of my heart. In a
+      few hours it will be over. The throne of Posen will be yours, Aribert. You
+      will fill it more worthily than I have done. Don&rsquo;t let them know over
+      there that I poisoned myself. Swear Hans to secrecy; swear the doctors to
+      secrecy; and breathe no word yourself. I have been a fool, but I do not
+      wish it to be known that I was also a coward. Perhaps it is not cowardice;
+      perhaps it is courage, after all&mdash;courage to cut the knot. I could
+      not have survived the disgrace of any revelations, Aribert, and
+      revelations would have been sure to come. I have made a fool of myself,
+      but I am ready to pay for it. We of Posen&mdash;we always pay&mdash;everything
+      except our debts. Ah! those debts! Had it not been for those I could have
+      faced her who was to have been my wife, to have shared my throne. I could
+      have hidden my past, and begun again. With her help I really could have
+      begun again. But Fate has been against me&mdash;always! always! By the
+      way, what was that plot against me, Aribert? I forget, I forget.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes closed. There was a sudden noise. Old Hans had slipped from his
+      chair to the floor. He picked himself up, dazed, and crept shamefacedly
+      out of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert took his nephew&rsquo;s hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nonsense, Eugen! You are dreaming. You will be all right soon. Pull
+      yourself together.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;All because of a million,&rsquo; the sick man moaned. &lsquo;One miserable million
+      English pounds. The national debt of Posen is fifty millions, and I, the
+      Prince of Posen, couldn&rsquo;t borrow one. If I could have got it, I might have
+      held my head up again. Good-bye, Aribert.... Who is that girl?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert looked up. Nella was standing silent at the foot of the bed, her
+      eyes moist. She came round to the bedside, and put her hand on the
+      patient&rsquo;s heart. Scarcely could she feel its pulsation, and to Aribert her
+      eyes expressed a sudden despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment Hans re-entered the room and beckoned to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have heard that Herr Racksole has returned to the hotel,&rsquo; he whispered,
+      &lsquo;and that he has captured that man Jules, who they say is such a villain.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several times during the night Nella inquired for her father, but could
+      gain no knowledge of his whereabouts. Now, at half-past six in the
+      morning, a rumour had mysteriously spread among the servants of the hotel
+      about the happenings of the night before. How it had originated no one
+      could have determined, but it had originated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Where is my father?&rsquo; Nella asked of Hans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shrugged his shoulders, and pointed upwards. &lsquo;Somewhere at the top,
+      they say.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella almost ran out of the room. Her interruption of the interview
+      between Jules and Theodore Racksole has already been described. As she
+      came downstairs with her father she said again, &lsquo;Prince Eugen is dying&mdash;but
+      I think you can save him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I?&rsquo; exclaimed Theodore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; she repeated positively. &lsquo;I will tell you what I want you to do,
+      and you must do it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Twenty-Nine THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      AS Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father&mdash;the
+      lifts had not yet begun to work&mdash;she drew him into her own room, and
+      closed the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What&rsquo;s this all about?&rsquo; he asked, somewhat mystified, and even alarmed by
+      the extreme seriousness of her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dad,&rsquo; the girl began, &lsquo;you are very rich, aren&rsquo;t you? very, very rich?&rsquo;
+      She smiled anxiously, timidly. He did not remember to have seen that
+      expression on her face before. He wanted to make a facetious reply, but
+      checked himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;I am. You ought to know that by this time.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How soon could you realize a million pounds?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million&mdash;what?&rsquo; he cried. Even he was staggered by her calm
+      reference to this gigantic sum. &lsquo;What on earth are you driving at?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A million pounds, I said. That is to say, five million dollars. How soon
+      could you realize as much as that?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; he answered, &lsquo;in about a month, if I went about it neatly enough. I
+      could unload as much as that in a month without scaring Wall Street and
+      other places. But it would want some arrangement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Useless!&rsquo; she exclaimed. &lsquo;Couldn&rsquo;t you do it quicker, if you really had
+      to?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If I really had to, I could fix it in a week, but it would make things
+      lively, and I should lose on the job.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Couldn&rsquo;t you,&rsquo; she persisted, &lsquo;couldn&rsquo;t you go down this morning and
+      raise a million, somehow, if it was a matter of life and death?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated. &lsquo;Look here, Nella,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;what is it you&rsquo;ve got up your
+      sleeve?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just answer my question, Dad, and try not to think that I&rsquo;m a stark,
+      staring lunatic.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I rather expect I could get a million this morning, even in London. But
+      it would cost pretty dear. It might cost me fifty thousand pounds, and
+      there would be the dickens of an upset in New York&mdash;a sort of grand
+      universal slump in my holdings.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should New York know anything about it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why should New York know anything about it!&rsquo; he repeated. &lsquo;My girl, when
+      anyone borrows a million sovereigns the whole world knows about it. Do you
+      reckon that I can go up to the Governors of the Bank of England and say,
+      &ldquo;Look here, lend Theodore Racksole a million for a few weeks, and he&rsquo;ll
+      give you an IOU and a covering note on stocks&rdquo;?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you could get it?&rsquo; she asked again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If there&rsquo;s a million in London I guess I could handle it,&rsquo; he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well, Dad,&rsquo; and she put her arms round his neck, &lsquo;you&rsquo;ve just got to go
+      out and fix it. See? It&rsquo;s for me. I&rsquo;ve never asked you for anything really
+      big before. But I do now. And I want it so badly.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared at her. &lsquo;I award you the prize,&rsquo; he said, at length. &lsquo;You
+      deserve it for colossal and immense coolness. Now you can tell me the true
+      inward meaning of all this rigmarole. What is it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want it for Prince Eugen,&rsquo; she began, at first hesitatingly, with
+      pauses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;He&rsquo;s ruined unless he can get a million to pay off his debts. He&rsquo;s
+      dreadfully in love with a Princess, and he can&rsquo;t marry her because of
+      this.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her parents wouldn&rsquo;t allow it. He was to have got it from Sampson Levi,
+      but he arrived too late&mdash;owing to Jules.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I know all about that&mdash;perhaps more than you do. But I don&rsquo;t see how
+      it affects you or me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;The point is this, Dad,&rsquo; Nella continued. &lsquo;He&rsquo;s tried to commit suicide&mdash;he&rsquo;s
+      so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last night. It didn&rsquo;t kill
+      him straight off&mdash;he&rsquo;s got over the first shock, but he&rsquo;s in a very
+      weak state, and he means to die. And I truly believe he will die. Now, if
+      you could let him have that million, Dad, you would save his life.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nella&rsquo;s item of news was a considerable and disconcerting surprise to
+      Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I haven&rsquo;t the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don&rsquo;t overmuch
+      respect your Prince Eugen. I&rsquo;ve done what I could for him&mdash;but only
+      for the sake of seeing fair play, and because I object to conspiracies and
+      secret murders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It&rsquo;s a different thing if he wants to kill himself. What I say is: Let
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who is responsible for his being in debt to the tune of a million pounds?
+      He&rsquo;s only got himself and his bad habits to thank for that. I suppose if
+      he does happen to peg out, the throne of Posen will go to Prince Aribert.
+      And a good thing, too! Aribert is worth twenty of his nephew.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That&rsquo;s just it, Dad,&rsquo; she said, eagerly following up her chance. &lsquo;I want
+      you to save Prince Eugen just because Aribert&mdash;Prince Aribert&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t
+      wish to occupy the throne. He&rsquo;d much prefer not to have it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Much prefer not to have it! Don&rsquo;t talk nonsense. If he&rsquo;s honest with
+      himself, he&rsquo;ll admit that he&rsquo;ll be jolly glad to have it. Thrones are in
+      his blood, so to speak.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You are wrong, Father. And the reason is this: If Prince Aribert ascended
+      the throne of Posen he would be compelled to marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well! A Prince ought to marry a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But he doesn&rsquo;t want to. He wants to give up all his royal rights, and
+      live as a subject. He wants to marry a woman who isn&rsquo;t a Princess.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Is she rich?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Her father is,&rsquo; said the girl. &lsquo;Oh, Dad! can&rsquo;t you guess? He&mdash;he
+      loves me.&rsquo; Her head fell on Theodore&rsquo;s shoulder and she began to cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The millionaire whistled a very high note. &lsquo;Nell!&rsquo; he said at length. &lsquo;And
+      you? Do you sort of cling to him?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Dad,&rsquo; she answered, &lsquo;you are stupid. Do you imagine I should worry myself
+      like this if I didn&rsquo;t?&rsquo; She smiled through her tears. She knew from her
+      father&rsquo;s tone that she had accomplished a victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;It&rsquo;s a mighty queer arrangement,&rsquo; Theodore remarked. &lsquo;But of course if
+      you think it&rsquo;ll be of any use, you had better go down and tell your Prince
+      Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really needs it. I expect
+      there&rsquo;ll be decent security, or Sampson Levi wouldn&rsquo;t have mixed himself
+      up in it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Thanks, Dad. Don&rsquo;t come with me; I may manage better alone.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a formal little curtsey and disappeared. Racksole, who had the
+      talent, so necessary to millionaires, of attending to several matters at
+      once, the large with the small, went off to give orders about the
+      breakfast and the remuneration of his assistant of the evening before, Mr
+      George Hazell. He then sent an invitation to Mr Felix Babylon&rsquo;s room,
+      asking that gentleman to take breakfast with him. After he had related to
+      Babylon the history of Jules&rsquo; capture, and had a long discussion with him
+      upon several points of hotel management, and especially as to the guarding
+      of wine-cellars, Racksole put on his hat, sallied forth into the Strand,
+      hailed a hansom, and was driven to the City. The order and nature of his
+      operations there were too complex and technical to be described here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Nella returned to the State bedroom both the doctor and the great
+      specialist were again in attendance. The two physicians moved away from
+      the bedside as she entered, and began to talk quietly together in the
+      embrasure of the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;A curious case!&rsquo; said the specialist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Yes. Of course, as you say, it&rsquo;s a neurotic temperament that&rsquo;s at the
+      bottom of the trouble. When you&rsquo;ve got that and a vigorous constitution
+      working one against the other, the results are apt to be distinctly
+      curious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you consider there is any hope, Sir Charles?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If I had seen him when he recovered consciousness I should have said
+      there was hope. Frankly, when I left last night, or rather this morning, I
+      didn&rsquo;t expect to see the Prince alive again&mdash;let alone conscious, and
+      able to talk. According to all the rules of the game, he ought to get over
+      the shock to the system with perfect ease and certainty. But I don&rsquo;t think
+      he will. I don&rsquo;t think he wants to. And moreover, I think he is still
+      under the influence of suicidal mania. If he had a razor he would cut his
+      throat. You must keep his strength up. Inject, if necessary. I will come
+      in this afternoon. I am due now at St James&rsquo;s Palace.&rsquo; And the specialist
+      hurried away, with an elaborate bow and a few hasty words of polite
+      reassurances to Prince Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside. &lsquo;Forget
+      everything, doctor,&rsquo; he said, &lsquo;except that I am one man and you are
+      another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his Highness?
+      Tell me the truth.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;There is no truth,&rsquo; was the doctor&rsquo;s reply. &lsquo;The future is not in our
+      hands, Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But you are hopeful? Yes or no.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. &lsquo;No!&rsquo; he said shortly. &lsquo;I am not. I
+      am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You mean&mdash;?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have
+      observed that.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Only too well,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And you are aware of the cause?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert nodded an affirmative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But cannot remove it?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella&rsquo;s finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If you choose,&rsquo; she said, when they were alone, &lsquo;Prince Eugen can be
+      saved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have arranged it.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You have arranged it?&rsquo; He bent over her, almost with an air of alarm. &lsquo;Go
+      and tell him that the million pounds which is so necessary to his
+      happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it will be forthcoming today,
+      if that will be any satisfaction to him.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But what do you mean by this, Nella?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I mean what I say, Aribert,&rsquo; and she sought his hand and took it in hers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen&rsquo;s life, it is
+      at his disposal.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But how&mdash;how have you managed it? By what miracle?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;My father,&rsquo; she replied softly, &lsquo;will do anything that I ask him. Do not
+      let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will be
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Go!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;But we cannot accept this&mdash;this enormous, this incredible favour. It
+      is impossible.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Aribert,&rsquo; she said quickly, &lsquo;remember you are not in Posen holding a
+      Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an American
+      girl who has always been in the habit of having her own way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom. The doctor
+      was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert approached the bedside,
+      his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted him with a faint, fatigued
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eugen,&rsquo; he whispered, &lsquo;listen carefully to me. I have news. With the
+      assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for you. It
+      is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get better. Do you
+      hear me?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugen almost sat up in bed. &lsquo;Tell me I am not delirious,&rsquo; he exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Of course you aren&rsquo;t,&rsquo; Aribert replied. &lsquo;But you mustn&rsquo;t sit up. You must
+      take care of yourself.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Who will lend the money?&rsquo; Eugen asked in a feeble, happy whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Never mind. You shall hear later. Devote yourself now to getting better.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The change in the patient&rsquo;s face was extraordinary. His mind seemed to
+      have put on an entirely different aspect. The doctor was startled to hear
+      him murmur a request for food. As for Aribert, he sat down, overcome by
+      the turmoil of his own thoughts. Till that moment he felt that he had
+      never appreciated the value and the marvellous power of mere money, of the
+      lucre which philosophers pretend to despise and men sell their souls for.
+      His heart almost burst in its admiration for that extraordinary Nella, who
+      by mere personal force had raised two men out of the deepest slough of
+      despair to the blissful heights of hope and happiness. &lsquo;These
+      Anglo-Saxons,&rsquo; he said to himself, &lsquo;what a race!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the afternoon Eugen was noticeably and distinctly better. The
+      physicians, puzzled for the third time by the progress of the case,
+      announced now that all danger was past. The tone of the announcement
+      seemed to Aribert to imply that the fortunate issue was due wholly to
+      unrivalled medical skill, but perhaps Aribert was mistaken. Anyhow, he was
+      in a most charitable mood, and prepared to forgive anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella,&rsquo; he said a little later, when they were by themselves again in the
+      ante-chamber, &lsquo;what am I to say to you? How can I thank you? How can I
+      thank your father?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You had better not thank my father,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Dad will affect to regard
+      the thing as a purely business transaction, as, of course, it is. As for
+      me, you can&mdash;you can&mdash;&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Well?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Kiss me,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;There! Are you sure you&rsquo;ve formally proposed to me,
+      mon prince?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! Nell!&rsquo; he exclaimed, putting his arms round her again. &lsquo;Be mine! That
+      is all I want!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You&rsquo;ll find,&rsquo; she said, &lsquo;that you&rsquo;ll want Dad&rsquo;s consent too!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Will he make difficulties? He could not, Nell&mdash;not with you!&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Better ask him,&rsquo; she said sweetly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A moment later Racksole himself entered the room. &lsquo;Going on all right?&rsquo; he
+      enquired, pointing to the bedroom. &lsquo;Excellently,&rsquo; the lovers answered
+      together, and they both blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah!&rsquo; said Racksole. &lsquo;Then, if that&rsquo;s so, and you can spare a minute, I&rsquo;ve
+      something to show you, Prince.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter Thirty CONCLUSION
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I&rsquo;VE a great deal to tell you, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole began, as soon as they
+      were out of the room, &lsquo;and also, as I said, something to show you. Will
+      you come to my room? We will talk there first. The whole hotel is humming
+      with excitement.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;With pleasure,&rsquo; said Aribert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Glad his Highness Prince Eugen is recovering,&rsquo; Racksole said, urged by
+      considerations of politeness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Ah! As to that&mdash;&rsquo; Aribert began. &lsquo;If you don&rsquo;t mind, we&rsquo;ll discuss
+      that later, Prince,&rsquo; Racksole interrupted him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were in the proprietor&rsquo;s private room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I want to tell you all about last night,&rsquo; Racksole resumed, &lsquo;about my
+      capture of Jules, and my examination of him this morning.&rsquo; And he launched
+      into a full account of the whole thing, down to the least details. &lsquo;You
+      see,&rsquo; he concluded, &lsquo;that our suspicions as to Bosnia were tolerably
+      correct. But as regards Bosnia, the more I think about it, the surer I
+      feel that nothing can be done to bring their criminal politicians to
+      justice.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And as to Jules, what do you propose to do?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Come this way,&rsquo; said Racksole, and led Aribert to another room. A sofa in
+      this room was covered with a linen cloth. Racksole lifted the cloth&mdash;he
+      could never deny himself a dramatic moment&mdash;and disclosed the body of
+      a dead man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Jules, dead, but without a scratch or mark on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I have sent for the police&mdash;not a street constable, but an official
+      from Scotland Yard,&rsquo; said Racksole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;How did this happen?&rsquo; Aribert asked, amazed and startled. &lsquo;I understood
+      you to say that he was safely immured in the bedroom.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;So he was,&rsquo; Racksole replied. &lsquo;I went up there this afternoon, chiefly to
+      take him some food. The commissionaire was on guard at the door. He had
+      heard no noise, nothing unusual. Yet when I entered the room Jules was
+      gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had by some means or other loosened his fastenings; he had then managed
+      to take the door off the wardrobe. He had moved the bed in front of the
+      window, and by pushing the wardrobe door three parts out of the window and
+      lodging the inside end of it under the rail at the head of the bed, he had
+      provided himself with a sort of insecure platform outside the window. All
+      this he did without making the least sound. He must then have got through
+      the window, and stood on the little platform. With his fingers he would
+      just be able to reach the outer edge of the wide cornice under the roof of
+      the hotel. By main strength of arms he had swung himself on to this
+      cornice, and so got on to the roof proper. He would then have the run of
+      the whole roof.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the side of the building facing Salisbury Lane there is an iron
+      fire-escape, which runs right down from the ridge of the roof into a
+      little sunk yard level with the cellars. Jules must have thought that his
+      escape was accomplished. But it unfortunately happened that one rung in
+      the iron escape-ladder had rusted rotten through being badly painted. It
+      gave way, and Jules, not expecting anything of the kind, fell to the
+      ground. That was the end of all his cleverness and ingenuity.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Racksole ceased, speaking he replaced the linen cloth with a gesture
+      from which reverence was not wholly absent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the grave had closed over the dark and tempestuous career of Tom
+      Jackson, once the pride of the Grand Babylon, there was little trouble for
+      the people whose adventures we have described. Miss Spencer, that
+      yellow-haired, faithful slave and attendant of a brilliant scoundrel, was
+      never heard of again. Possibly to this day she survives, a mystery to her
+      fellow-creatures, in the pension of some cheap foreign boarding-house. As
+      for Rocco, he certainly was heard of again. Several years after the events
+      set down, it came to the knowledge of Felix Babylon that the unrivalled
+      Rocco had reached Buenos Aires, and by his culinary skill was there making
+      the fortune of a new and splendid hotel. Babylon transmitted the
+      information to Theodore Racksole, and Racksole might, had he chosen, have
+      put the forces of the law in motion against him. But Racksole, seeing that
+      everything pointed to the fact that Rocco was now pursuing his vocation
+      honestly, decided to leave him alone. The one difficulty which Racksole
+      experienced after the demise of Jules&mdash;and it was a difficulty which
+      he had, of course, anticipated&mdash;was connected with the police. The
+      police, very properly, wanted to know things. They desired to be informed
+      what Racksole had been doing in the Dimmock affair, between his first
+      visit to Ostend and his sending for them to take charge of Jules&rsquo; dead
+      body. And Racksole was by no means inclined to tell them everything.
+      Beyond question he had transgressed the laws of England, and possibly also
+      the laws of Belgium; and the moral excellence of his motives in doing so
+      was, of course, in the eyes of legal justice, no excuse for such conduct.
+      The inquest upon Jules aroused some bother; and about ninety-and-nine
+      separate and distinct rumours. In the end, however, a compromise was
+      arrived at. Racksole&rsquo;s first aim was to pacify the inspector whose clue,
+      which by the way was a false one, he had so curtly declined to follow up.
+      That done, the rest needed only tact and patience. He proved to the
+      satisfaction of the authorities that he had acted in a perfectly honest
+      spirit, though with a high hand, and that substantial justice had been
+      done. Also, he subtly indicated that, if it came to the point, he should
+      defy them to do their worst. Lastly, he was able, through the medium of
+      the United States Ambassador, to bring certain soothing influences to bear
+      upon the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One afternoon, a fortnight after the recovery of the Hereditary Prince of
+      Posen, Aribert, who was still staying at the Grand Babylon, expressed a
+      wish to hold converse with the millionaire. Prince Eugen, accompanied by
+      Hans and some Court officials whom he had sent for, had departed with
+      immense éclat, armed with the comfortable million, to arrange formally for
+      his betrothal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Touching the million, Eugen had given satisfactory personal security, and
+      the money was to be paid off in fifteen years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You wish to talk to me, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole to Aribert, when they were
+      seated together in the former&rsquo;s room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I wish to tell you,&rsquo; replied Aribert, &lsquo;that it is my intention to
+      renounce all my rights and titles as a Royal Prince of Posen, and to be
+      known in future as Count Hartz&mdash;a rank to which I am entitled through
+      my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also that I have a private income of ten thousand pounds a year, and a
+      château and a town house in Posen. I tell you this because I am here to
+      ask the hand of your daughter in marriage. I love her, and I am vain
+      enough to believe that she loves me. I have already asked her to be my
+      wife, and she has consented. We await your approval.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;You honour us, Prince,&rsquo; said Racksole with a slight smile, &lsquo;and in more
+      ways than one. May I ask your reason for renouncing your princely titles?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Simply because the idea of a morganatic marriage would be as repugnant to
+      me as it would be to yourself and to Nella.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;That is good.&rsquo; The Prince laughed. &lsquo;I suppose it has occurred to you that
+      ten thousand pounds per annum, for a man in your position, is a somewhat
+      small income. Nella is frightfully extravagant. I have known her to spend
+      sixty thousand dollars in a single year, and have nothing to show for it
+      at the end. Why! she would ruin you in twelve months.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Nella must reform her ways,&rsquo; Aribert said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;If she is content to do so,&rsquo; Racksole went on, &lsquo;well and good! I
+      consent.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;In her name and my own, I thank you,&rsquo; said Aribert gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;And,&rsquo; the millionaire continued, &lsquo;so that she may not have to reform too
+      fiercely, I shall settle on her absolutely, with reversion to your
+      children, if you have any, a lump sum of fifty million dollars, that is to
+      say, ten million pounds, in sound, selected railway stock. I reckon that
+      is about half my fortune. Nella and I have always shared equally.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aribert made no reply. The two men shook hands in silence, and then it
+      happened that Nella entered the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, after dinner, Racksole and his friend Felix Babylon were
+      walking together on the terrace of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Felix had begun the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I suppose, Racksole,&rsquo; he had said, &lsquo;you aren&rsquo;t getting tired of the Grand
+      Babylon?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Why do you ask?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Because I am getting tired of doing without it. A thousand times since I
+      sold it to you I have wished I could undo the bargain. I can&rsquo;t bear
+      idleness. Will you sell?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;I might,&rsquo; said Racksole, &lsquo;I might be induced to sell.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What will you take, my friend?&rsquo; asked Felix
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;What I gave,&rsquo; was the quick answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &lsquo;Eh!&rsquo; Felix exclaimed. &lsquo;I sell you my hotel with Jules, with Rocco, with
+      Miss Spencer. You go and lose all those three inestimable servants, and
+      then offer me the hotel without them at the same price! It is monstrous.&rsquo;
+      The little man laughed heartily at his own wit. &lsquo;Nevertheless,&rsquo; he added,
+      &lsquo;we will not quarrel about the price. I accept your terms.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so was brought to a close the complex chain of events which had begun
+      when Theodore Racksole ordered a steak and a bottle of Bass at the table
+      d&rsquo;hôte of the Grand Babylon Hôtel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
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+Prepared by David Reed haradda@aol.com or davidr@inconnect.com
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+
+
+The Grand Babylon Hotel
+
+by Arnold Bennett 
+
+
+
+
+T. Racksole & Daughter
+
+
+
+
+Chapter One THE MILLIONAIRE AND THE WAITER
+
+
+'YES, sir?'
+
+Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was
+bending formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just
+entered the smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the
+corner by the conservatory. It was 7.45 on a particularly sultry June
+night, and dinner was about to be served at the Grand Babylon.
+Men of all sizes, ages, and nationalities, but every one alike
+arrayed in faultless evening dress, were dotted about the large, dim
+apartment. A faint odour of flowers came from the conservatory,
+and the tinkle of a fountain. The waiters, commanded by Jules,
+moved softly across the thick Oriental rugs, balancing their trays
+with the dexterity of jugglers, and receiving and executing orders
+with that air of profound importance of which only really
+first-class waiters have the secret. The atmosphere was an
+atmosphere of serenity and repose, characteristic of the Grand
+Babylon. It seemed impossible that anything could occur to mar
+the peaceful, aristocratic monotony of existence in that
+perfectly-managed establishment. Yet on that night was to happen
+the mightiest upheaval that the Grand Babylon had ever known.
+
+'Yes, sir?' repeated Jules, and this time there was a shade of august
+disapproval in his voice: it was not usual for him to have to
+address a customer twice.
+
+'Oh!' said the alert, middle-aged man, looking up at length.
+Beautifully ignorant of the identity of the great Jules, he allowed
+his grey eyes to twinkle as he caught sight of the expression on the
+waiter's face. 'Bring me an Angel Kiss.'
+
+'Pardon, sir?'
+
+'Bring me an Angel Kiss, and be good enough to lose no time.'
+
+'If it's an American drink, I fear we don't keep it, sir.' The voice of
+Jules fell icily distinct, and several men glanced round uneasily, as
+if to deprecate the slightest disturbance of their calm. The
+appearance of the person to whom Jules was speaking, however,
+reassured them somewhat, for he had all the look of that expert,
+the travelled Englishman, who can differentiate between one hotel
+and another by instinct, and who knows at once where he may
+make a fuss with propriety, and where it is advisable to behave
+exactly as at the club. The Grand Babylon was a hotel in whose
+smoking-room one behaved as though one was at one's club.
+
+'I didn't suppose you did keep it, but you can mix it, I guess, even
+in this hotel.'
+
+'This isn't an American hotel, sir.' The calculated insolence of the
+words was cleverly masked beneath an accent of humble
+submission.
+
+The alert, middle-aged man sat up straight, and gazed placidly at
+Jules, who was pulling his famous red side-whiskers.
+
+'Get a liqueur glass,' he said, half curtly and half with
+good-humoured tolerance, 'pour into it equal quantities of
+maraschino, cream, and cr�me de menthe. Don't stir it; don't
+shake it. Bring it to me. And, I say, tell the bar-tender - '
+
+'Bar-tender, sir?'
+
+'Tell the bar-tender to make a note of the recipe, as I shall probably
+want an Angel Kiss every evening before dinner so long as this
+weather lasts.'
+
+'I will send the drink to you, sir,' said Jules distantly. That was his
+parting shot, by which he indicated that he was not as other waiters
+are, and that any person who treated him with disrespect did so at
+his own peril.
+
+ A few minutes later, while the alert, middle-aged man was tasting
+the Angel Kiss, Jules sat in conclave with Miss Spencer, who had
+charge of the bureau of the Grand Babylon. This bureau was a
+fairly large chamber, with two sliding glass partitions which
+overlooked the entrance-hall and the smoking-room. Only a small
+portion of the clerical work of the great hotel was performed there.
+The place served chiefly as the lair of Miss Spencer, who was as
+well known and as important as Jules himself. Most modern hotels
+have a male clerk to superintend the bureau. But the Grand
+Babylon went its own way. Miss Spencer had been bureau clerk
+almost since the Grand Babylon had first raised its massive
+chimneys to heaven, and she remained in her place despite the
+vagaries of other hotels. Always admirably dressed in plain black
+silk, with a small diamond brooch, immaculate wrist-bands, and
+frizzed yellow hair, she looked now just as she had looked an
+indefinite number of years ago. Her age - none knew it, save
+herself and perhaps one other, and none cared. The gracious and
+alluring contours of her figure were irreproachable; and in the
+evenings she was a useful ornament of which any hotel might be
+innocently proud. Her knowledge of Bradshaw, of steamship
+services, and the programmes of theatres and music-halls was
+unrivalled; yet she never travelled, she never went to a theatre or a
+music-hall. She seemed to spend the whole of her life in that
+official lair of hers, imparting information to guests, telephoning
+to the various departments, or engaged in intimate conversations
+with her special friends on the staff, as at present.
+
+ 'Who's Number 107?' Jules asked this black-robed lady.
+
+Miss Spencer examined her ledgers.
+
+'Mr Theodore Racksole, New York.'
+
+'I thought he must be a New Yorker,' said Jules, after a brief,
+significant pause, 'but he talks as good English as you or me. Says
+he wants an "Angel Kiss" - maraschino and cream, if you please -
+every night. I'll see he doesn't stop here too long.'
+
+Miss Spencer smiled grimly in response. The notion of referring to
+Theodore Racksole as a 'New Yorker' appealed to her sense of
+humour, a sense in which she was not entirely deficient. She knew,
+of course, and she knew that Jules knew, that this Theodore
+Racksole must be the unique and only Theodore Racksole, the
+third richest man in the United States, and therefore probably in
+the world. Nevertheless she ranged herself at once on the side of
+Jules.
+
+Just as there was only one Racksole, so there was only one Jules,
+and Miss Spencer instinctively shared the latter's indignation at the
+spectacle of any person whatsoever, millionaire or Emperor,
+presuming to demand an 'Angel Kiss', that unrespectable
+concoction of maraschino and cream, within the precincts of the
+Grand Babylon. In the world of hotels it was currently stated that,
+next to the proprietor, there were three gods at the Grand Babylon
+- Jules, the head waiter, Miss Spencer, and, most powerful of all,
+Rocco, the renowned chef, who earned two thousand a year, and
+had a chalet on the Lake of Lucerne. All the great hotels in
+Northumberland Avenue and on the Thames Embankment had
+tried to get Rocco away from the Grand Babylon, but without
+success. Rocco was well aware that even he could rise no higher
+than the ma�tre h�tel of the Grand Babylon, which, though it never
+advertised itself, and didn't belong to a limited company, stood an
+easy first among the hotels of Europe - first in expensiveness, first
+in exclusiveness, first in that mysterious quality known as 'style'.
+
+Situated on the Embankment, the Grand Babylon, despite its noble
+proportions, was somewhat dwarfed by several colossal
+neighbours. It had but three hundred and fifty rooms, whereas
+there are two hotels within a quarter of a mile with six hundred
+and four hundred rooms respectively. On the other hand, the Grand
+Babylon was the only hotel in London with a genuine separate
+entrance for Royal visitors constantly in use. The Grand Babylon
+counted that day wasted on which it did not entertain, at the
+lowest, a German prince or the Maharajah of some Indian State.
+When Felix  Babylon - after whom, and not with any reference to
+London's nickname, the hotel was christened - when Felix 
+Babylon founded the hotel in 1869 he had set himself to cater for
+Royalty, and that was the secret of his triumphant eminence.
+
+The son of a rich Swiss hotel proprietor and financier, he had
+contrived to established a connection with the officials of several
+European Courts, and he had not spared money in that respect.
+Sundry kings and not a few princesses called him Felix , and spoke
+familiarly of the hotel as 'Felix 's'; and Felix  had found that this
+was very good for trade. The Grand Babylon was managed
+accordingly. The 'note' of its policy was discretion, always
+discretion, and quietude, simplicity, remoteness. The place was
+like a palace incognito. There was no gold sign over the roof, not
+even an explanatory word at the entrance. You walked down a
+small side street off the Strand, you saw a plain brown building in
+front of you, with two mahogany swing doors, and an official
+behind each; the doors opened noiselessly; you entered; you were
+in Felix 's. If you meant to be a guest, you, or your courier, gave
+your card to Miss Spencer. Upon no consideration did you ask for
+the tariff. It was not good form to mention prices at the Grand
+Babylon; the prices were enormous, but you never mentioned
+them. At the conclusion of your stay a bill was presented, brief and
+void of dry details, and you paid it without a word. You met with.
+a stately civility, that was all. No one had originally asked you to
+come; no one expressed the hope that you would come again. The
+Grand Babylon was far above such manoeuvres; it defied
+competition by ignoring it; and consequently was nearly always
+full during the season.
+
+If there was one thing more than another that annoyed the Grand
+Babylon - put its back up, so to speak - it was to be compared with,
+or to be mistaken for, an American hotel. The Grand Babylon was
+resolutely opposed to American methods of eating, drinking, and
+lodging - but especially American methods of drinking. The
+resentment of Jules, on being requested to supply Mr Theodore
+Racksole with an Angel Kiss, will therefore be appreciated.
+
+'Anybody with Mr Theodore Racksole?' asked Jules, continuing his
+conversation with Miss Spencer. He put a scornful stress on every
+syllable of the guest's name.
+
+'Miss Racksole - she's in No. 111.'
+
+Jules paused, and stroked his left whisker as it lay on his gleaming
+white collar.
+
+'She's where?' he queried, with a peculiar emphasis.
+
+'No. 111. I couldn't help it. There was no other room with a
+bathroom and dressing-room on that floor.' Miss Spencer's voice
+had an appealing tone of excuse.
+
+'Why didn't you tell Mr Theodore Racksole and Miss Racksole that
+we were unable to accommodate them?'
+
+'Because Babs was within hearing.'
+
+Only three people in the wide world ever dreamt of applying to Mr
+Felix  Babylon the playful but mean abbreviation - Babs: those
+three were Jules, Miss Spencer, and Rocco. Jules had invented it.
+No one but he would have had either the wit or the audacity to do
+so.
+
+'You'd better see that Miss Racksole changes her room to-night,'
+Jules said after another pause. 'Leave it to me: I'll fix it. Au revoir!
+It's three minutes to eight. I shall take charge of the dining-room
+myself to-night.'
+
+And Jules departed, rubbing his fine white hands slowly and
+meditatively. It was a trick of his, to rub his hands with a strange,
+roundabout motion, and the action denoted that some unusual
+excitement was in the air.
+
+At eight o'clock precisely dinner was served in the immense salle
+manger, that chaste yet splendid apartment of white and gold. At a
+small table near one of the windows a young lady sat alone. Her
+frocks said Paris, but her face unmistakably said New York. It was
+a self-possessed and bewitching face, the face of a woman
+thoroughly accustomed to doing exactly what she liked, when she
+liked, how she liked: the face of a woman who had taught
+hundreds of gilded young men the true art of fetching and carrying,
+and who, by twenty years or so of parental spoiling, had come to
+regard herself as the feminine equivalent of the Tsar of All the
+Russias. Such women are only made in America, and they only
+come to their full bloom in Europe, which they imagine to be a
+continent created by Providence for their diversion.
+
+The young lady by the window glanced disapprovingly at the menu
+card. Then she looked round the dining-room, and, while admiring
+the diners, decided that the room itself was rather small and plain.
+Then she gazed through the open window, and told herself that
+though the Thames by twilight was passable enough, it was by no
+means level with the Hudson, on whose shores her father had a
+hundred thousand dollar country cottage. Then she returned to the
+menu, and with a pursing of lovely lips said that there appeared to
+be nothing to eat.
+
+'Sorry to keep you waiting, Nella.' It was Mr Racksole, the intrepid
+millionaire who had dared to order an Angel Kiss in the
+smoke-room of the Grand Babylon. Nella - her proper name was
+Helen - smiled at her parent cautiously, reserving to herself the
+right to scold if she should feel so inclined.
+
+'You always are late, father,' she said.
+
+'Only on a holiday,' he added. 'What is there to eat?'
+
+'Nothing.'
+
+'Then let's have it. I'm hungry. I'm never so hungry as when I'm
+being seriously idle.'
+
+'Consomm� Britannia,' she began to read out from the menu,
+'Saumon d'Ecosse, Sauce Genoise, Aspics de Homard. Oh,
+heavens! Who wants these horrid messes on a night like this?'
+
+'But, Nella, this is the best cooking in Europe,' he protested.
+
+'Say, father,' she said, with seeming irrelevance, 'had you forgotten
+it's my birthday to-morrow?'
+
+'Have I ever forgotten your birthday, O most costly daughter?'
+
+'On the whole you've been a most satisfactory dad,' she answered
+sweetly, 'and to reward you I'll be content this year with the
+cheapest birthday treat you ever gave me. Only I'll have it to-night.'
+
+'Well,' he said, with the long-suffering patience, the readiness for
+any surprise, of a parent whom Nella had thoroughly trained, 'what
+is it?'
+
+'It's this. Let's have filleted steak and a bottle of Bass for dinner
+to-night. It will be simply exquisite. I shall love it.'
+
+'But my dear Nella,' he exclaimed, 'steak and beer at Felix 's! It's
+impossible! Moreover, young women still under twenty-three
+cannot be permitted to drink Bass.'
+
+'I said steak and Bass, and as for being twenty-three, shall be going
+in twenty-four to-morrow.'
+
+Miss Racksole set her small white teeth.
+
+There was a gentle cough. Jules stood over them. It must have
+been out of a pure spirit of adventure that he had selected this table
+for his own services. Usually Jules did not personally wait at
+dinner. He merely hovered observant, like a captain on the bridge
+during the mate's watch. Regular frequenters of the hotel felt
+themselves honoured when Jules attached himself to their tables.
+
+Theodore Racksole hesitated one second, and then issued the order
+with a fine air of carelessness:
+
+'Filleted steak for two, and a bottle of Bass.' It was the bravest act
+of Theodore Racksole's life, and yet at more than one previous
+crisis a high courage had not been lacking to him.
+
+'It's not in the menu, sir,' said Jules the imperturbable.
+
+'Never mind. Get it. We want it.'
+
+'Very good, sir.'
+
+Jules walked to the service-door, and, merely affecting to look
+behind, came immediately back again.
+
+'Mr Rocco's compliments, sir, and he regrets to be unable to serve
+steak and Bass to-night, sir.'
+
+'Mr Rocco?' questioned Racksole lightly.
+
+'Mr Rocco,' repeated Jules with firmness.
+
+'And who is Mr Rocco?'
+
+'Mr Rocco is our chef, sir.' Jules had the expression of a man who
+is asked to explain who Shakespeare was.
+
+The two men looked at each other. It seemed incredible that
+Theodore Racksole, the ineffable Racksole, who owned a thousand
+miles of railway, several towns, and sixty votes in Congress,
+should be defied by a waiter, or even by a whole hotel. Yet so it
+was. When Europe's effete back is against the wall not a regiment
+of millionaires can turn its flank. Jules had the calm expression of
+a strong man sure of victory. His face said: 'You beat me once, but
+not this time, my New York friend!'
+
+As for Nella, knowing her father, she foresaw interesting events,
+and waited confidently for the steak. She did not feel hungry, and
+she could afford to wait.
+
+'Excuse me a moment, Nella,' said Theodore Racksole quietly, 'I
+shall be back in about two seconds,' and he strode out of the salle �
+manger. No one in the room recognized the millionaire, for he was
+unknown to London, this being his first visit to Europe for over
+twenty years. Had anyone done so, and caught the expression on
+his face, that man might have trembled for an explosion which
+should have blown the entire Grand Babylon into the Thames.
+
+Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the
+antagonist's turn. A long and varied experience had taught Jules
+that a guest who embarks on the subjugation of a waiter is almost
+always lost; the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.
+
+Chapter Two HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
+
+NEVERTHELESS, there are men with a confirmed habit of
+getting their own way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and
+Theodore Racksole had long since fallen into that useful practice -
+except when his only daughter Helen, motherless but high-spirited
+girl, chose to think that his way crossed hers, in which case
+Theodore capitulated and fell back. But when Theodore and his
+daughter happened to be going one and the same road, which was
+pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle that was
+so ill-advised as to stand in their path. Jules, great and observant
+man though he was, had not noticed the terrible projecting chins of
+both father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would have
+reconsidered the question of the steak and Bass.
+
+Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel,
+and entered Miss Spencer's sanctum.
+
+'I want to see Mr Babylon,' he said, 'without the delay of an
+instant.'
+
+Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.
+
+'I am afraid - ,' she began the usual formula. It was part of her daily
+duty to discourage guests who desired to see Mr Babylon.
+
+'No, no,' said Racksole quickly, 'I don't want any "I'm afraids." This
+is business. If you had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have
+slipped you a couple of sovereigns into your hand, and the thing
+would have been done.
+
+As you are not - as you are obviously above bribes - I merely say to
+you, I must see Mr Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost
+urgency. My name is Racksole - Theodore Racksole.'
+
+'Of New York?' questioned a voice at the door, with a slight
+foreign accent.
+
+ The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short,
+French-looking man, with a bald head, a grey beard, a long and
+perfectly-built frock coat, eye-glasses attached to a minute silver
+chain, and blue eyes that seemed to have the transparent innocence
+of a maid's.
+
+'There is only one,' said Theodore Racksole succinctly.
+
+'You wish to see me?' the new-comer suggested.
+
+'You are Mr Felix  Babylon?'
+
+The man bowed.
+
+'At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the
+world,' said Racksole. 'I am consumed and burnt up with a desire
+to see you, Mr Babylon.
+
+I only want a few minutes' quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my
+business in that time.'
+
+With a gesture Mr Babylon invited the millionaire down a side
+corridor, at the end of which was Mr Babylon's private room, a
+miracle of Louis XV furniture and tapestry: like most unmarried
+men with large incomes, Mr Babylon had 'tastes' of a highly
+expensive sort.
+
+The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore
+Racksole had met with the usual millionaire's luck in this
+adventure, for Mr Babylon made a practice of not allowing himself
+to be interviewed by his guests, however distinguished, however
+wealthy, however pertinacious. If he had not chanced to enter Miss
+Spencer's office at that precise moment, and if he had not been
+impressed in a somewhat peculiar way by the physiognomy of the
+millionaire, not all Mr Racksole's American energy and ingenuity
+would have availed for a confabulation with the owner of the
+Grand Babylon Hotel that night. Theodore Racksole, however, was
+ignorant that a mere accident had served him. He took all the
+credit to himself.
+
+'I read in the New York papers some months ago,' Theodore
+started, without even a clearing of the throat, 'that this hotel of
+yours, Mr Babylon, was to be sold to a limited company, but it
+appears that the sale was not carried out.'
+
+'It was not,' answered Mr Babylon frankly, 'and the reason was that
+the middle-men between the proposed company and myself wished
+to make a large secret profit, and I declined to be a party to such a
+profit. They were firm; I was firm; and so the affair came to
+nothing.'
+
+'The agreed price was satisfactory?'
+
+'Quite.'
+
+'May I ask what the price was?'
+
+'Are you a buyer, Mr Racksole?'
+
+'Are you a seller, Mr Babylon?'
+
+'I am,' said Babylon, 'on terms. The price was four hundred
+thousand pounds, including the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell
+only on the condition that the buyer does not transfer the property
+to a limited company at a higher figure.'
+
+'I will put one question to you, Mr Babylon,' said the millionaire.
+'What have your profits averaged during the last four years?'
+
+'Thirty-four thousand pounds per annum.'
+
+'I buy,' said Theodore Racksole, smiling contentedly; 'and we will,
+if you please, exchange contract-letters on the spot.'
+
+'You come quickly to a resolution, Mr Racksole. But perhaps you
+have been considering this question for a long time?'
+
+'On the contrary,' Racksole looked at his watch, 'I have been
+considering it for six minutes.'
+
+Felix  Babylon bowed, as one thoroughly accustomed to
+eccentricity of wealth.
+
+ 'The beauty of being well-known,' Racksole continued, 'is that you
+needn't trouble about preliminary explanations. You, Mr Babylon,
+probably know all about me. I know a good deal about you. We
+can take each other for granted without reference. Really, it is as
+simple to buy an hotel or a railroad as it is to buy a watch,
+provided one is equal to the transaction.'
+
+'Precisely,' agreed Mr Babylon smiling. 'Shall we draw up the little
+informal contract? There are details to be thought of. But it occurs
+to me that you cannot have dined yet, and might prefer to deal with
+minor questions after dinner.'
+
+'I have not dined,' said the millionaire, with emphasis, 'and in that
+connexion will you do me a favour? Will you send for Mr Rocco?'
+
+'You wish to see him, naturally.'
+
+'I do,' said the millionaire, and added, 'about my dinner.'
+
+'Rocco is a great man,' murmured Mr Babylon as he touched the
+bell, ignoring the last words. 'My compliments to Mr Rocco,' he
+said to the page who answered his summons, 'and if it is quite
+convenient I should be glad to see him here for a moment.'
+
+'What do you give Rocco?' Racksole inquired.
+
+'Two thousand a year and the treatment of an Ambassador.'
+
+'I shall give him the treatment of an Ambassador and three
+thousand.'
+
+'You will be wise,' said Felix  Babylon.
+
+At that moment Rocco came into the room, very softly - a man of
+forty, thin, with long, thin hands, and an inordinately long brown
+silky moustache.
+
+'Rocco,' said Felix  Babylon, 'let me introduce Mr Theodore
+Racksole, of New York.'
+
+'Sharmed,' said Rocco, bowing. 'Ze - ze, vat you call it,
+millionaire?'
+
+'Exactly,' Racksole put in, and continued quickly: 'Mr Rocco, I
+wish to acquaint you before any other person with the fact that I
+have purchased the Grand Babylon Hotel. If you think well to
+afford me the privilege of retaining your services I shall be happy
+to offer you a remuneration of three thousand a year.'
+
+'Tree, you said?'
+
+'Three.'
+
+'Sharmed.'
+
+'And now, Mr Rocco, will you oblige me very much by ordering a
+plain beefsteak and a bottle of Bass to be served by Jules - I
+particularly desire Jules - at table No. 17 in the dining-room in ten
+minutes from now? And will you do me the honour of lunching
+with me to-morrow?'
+
+Mr Rocco gasped, bowed, muttered something in French, and
+departed.
+
+Five minutes later the buyer and seller of the Grand Babylon Hotel
+had each signed a curt document, scribbled out on the hotel
+note-paper. Felix  Babylon asked no questions, and it was this
+heroic absence of curiosity, of surprise on his part, that more than
+anything else impressed Theodore Racksole. How many hotel
+proprietors in the world, Racksole asked himself, would have let
+that beef-steak and Bass go by without a word of comment.
+
+'From what date do you wish the purchase to take effect?' asked
+Babylon.
+
+'Oh,' said Racksole lightly, 'it doesn't matter. Shall we say from
+to-night?'
+
+'As you will. I have long wished to retire. And now that the
+moment has come - and so dramatically - I am ready. I shall return
+to Switzerland. One cannot spend much money there, but it is my
+native land. I shall be the richest man in Switzerland.' He smiled
+with a kind of sad amusement.
+
+'I suppose you are fairly well off?' said Racksole, in that easy
+familiar style of his, as though the idea had just occurred to him.
+
+'Besides what I shall receive from you, I have half a million
+invested.'
+
+'Then you will be nearly a millionaire?'
+
+Felix  Babylon nodded.
+
+'I congratulate you, my dear sir,' said Racksole, in the tone of a
+judge addressing a newly-admitted barrister. 'Nine hundred
+thousand pounds, expressed in francs, will sound very nice - in
+Switzerland.'
+
+'Of course to you, Mr Racksole, such a sum would be poverty.
+Now if one might guess at your own wealth?' Felix  Babylon was
+imitating the other's freedom.
+
+'I do not know, to five millions or so, what I am worth,' said
+Racksole, with sincerity, his tone indicating that he would have
+been glad to give the information if it were in his power.
+
+'You have had anxieties, Mr Racksole?'
+
+'Still have them. I am now holiday-making in London with my
+daughter in order to get rid of them for a time.'
+
+'Is the purchase of hotels your notion of relaxation, then?'
+
+Racksole shrugged his shoulders. 'It is a change from railroads,' he
+laughed.
+
+'Ah, my friend, you little know what you have bought.'
+
+'Oh! yes I do,' returned Racksole; 'I have bought just the first hotel
+in the world.'
+
+'That is true, that is true,' Babylon admitted, gazing meditatively at
+the antique Persian carpet. 'There is nothing, anywhere, like my
+hotel. But you will regret the purchase, Mr Racksole. It is no
+business of mine, of course, but I cannot help repeating that you
+will regret the purchase.'
+
+'I never regret.'
+
+'Then you will begin very soon - perhaps to-night.'
+
+'Why do you say that?'
+
+'Because the Grand Babylon is the Grand Babylon. You think
+because you control a railroad, or an iron-works, or a line of
+steamers, therefore you can control anything. But no. Not the
+Grand Babylon. There is something about the Grand Babylon - ' He
+threw up his hands.
+
+'Servants rob you, of course.'
+
+'Of course. I suppose I lose a hundred pounds a week in that way.
+But it is not that I mean. It is the guests. The guests are too - too
+distinguished.
+
+The great Ambassadors, the great financiers, the great nobles, all
+the men that move the world, put up under my roof. London is the
+centre of everything, and my hotel - your hotel - is the centre of
+London. Once I had a King and a Dowager Empress staying here at
+the same time. Imagine that!'
+
+'A great honour, Mr Babylon. But wherein lies the difficulty?'
+
+'Mr Racksole,' was the grim reply, 'what has become of your
+shrewdness - that shrewdness which has made your fortune so
+immense that even you cannot calculate it? Do you not perceive
+that the roof which habitually shelters all the force, all the
+authority of the world, must necessarily also shelter nameless and
+numberless plotters, schemers, evil-doers, and workers of
+mischief? The thing is as clear as day - and as dark as night. Mr
+Racksole, I never know by whom I am surrounded. I never know
+what is going forward.
+
+Only sometimes I get hints, glimpses of strange acts and strange
+secrets.
+
+You mentioned my servants. They are almost all good servants,
+skilled, competent. But what are they besides? For anything I know
+my fourth sub-chef may be an agent of some European
+Government. For anything I know my invaluable Miss Spencer
+may be in the pay of a court dressmaker or a Frankfort banker.
+Even Rocco may be someone else in addition to Rocco.'
+
+'That makes it all the more interesting,' remarked Theodore
+Racksole.
+
+
+
+ 'What a long time you have been, Father,' said Nella, when he
+returned to table No. 17 in the salle manger.
+
+'Only twenty minutes, my dove.'
+
+'But you said two seconds. There is a difference.'
+
+'Well, you see, I had to wait for the steak to cook.'
+
+'Did you have much trouble in getting my birthday treat?'
+
+'No trouble. But it didn't come quite as cheap as you said.'
+
+'What do you mean, Father?'
+
+'Only that I've bought the entire hotel. But don't split.'
+
+'Father, you always were a delicious parent. Shall you give me the
+hotel for a birthday present?'
+
+'No. I shall run it - as an amusement. By the way, who is that chair
+for?'
+
+He noticed that a third cover had been laid at the table.
+
+'That is for a friend of mine who came in about five minutes ago.
+Of course I told him he must share our steak. He'll be here in a
+moment.'
+
+'May I respectfully inquire his name?'
+
+'Dimmock - Christian name Reginald; profession, English
+companion to Prince Aribert of Posen. I met him when I was in St
+Petersburg with cousin Hetty last fall. Oh; here he is. Mr
+Dimmock, this is my dear father. He has succeeded with the steak.'
+
+Theodore Racksole found himself confronted by a very young
+man, with deep black eyes, and a fresh, boyish expression. They
+began to talk.
+
+Jules approached with the steak. Racksole tried to catch the
+waiter's eye, but could not. The dinner proceeded.
+
+'Oh, Father!' cried Nella, 'what a lot of mustard you have taken!'
+
+'Have I?' he said, and then he happened to glance into a mirror on
+his left hand between two windows. He saw the reflection of Jules,
+who stood behind his chair, and he saw Jules give a slow,
+significant, ominous wink to Mr Dimmock - Christian name,
+Reginald.
+
+He examined his mustard in silence. He thought that perhaps he
+had helped himself rather plenteously to mustard.
+
+Chapter Three AT THREE A.M.
+
+MR REGINALD DIMMOCK proved himself, despite his extreme
+youth, to be a man of the world and of experiences, and a practised
+talker. Conversation between him and Nella Racksole seemed
+never to flag. They chattered about St Petersburg, and the ice on
+the Neva, and the tenor at the opera who had been exiled to
+Siberia, and the quality of Russian tea, and the sweetness of
+Russian champagne, and various other aspects of Muscovite
+existence. Russia exhausted, Nella lightly outlined her own doings
+since she had met the young man in the Tsar's capital, and this
+recital brought the topic round to London, where it stayed till the
+final piece of steak was eaten. Theodore Racksole noticed that Mr
+Dimmock gave very meagre information about his own
+movements, either past or future. He regarded the youth as a
+typical hanger-on of Courts, and wondered how he had obtained
+his post of companion to Prince Aribert of Posen, and who Prince
+Aribert of Posen might be. The millionaire thought he had once
+heard of Posen, but he wasn't sure; he rather fancied it was one of
+those small nondescript German States of which five-sixths of the
+subjects are Palace officials, and the rest charcoal-burners or
+innkeepers. Until the meal was nearly over, Racksole said little -
+perhaps his thoughts were too busy with Jules' wink to Mr
+Dimmock, but when ices had been followed by coffee, he decided
+that it might be as well, in the interests of the hotel, to discover
+something about his daughter's friend. He never for an instant
+questioned her right to possess her own friends; he had always left
+her in the most amazing liberty, relying on her inherited good
+sense to keep her out of mischief; but, quite apart from the wink,
+he was struck by Nella's attitude towards Mr Dimmock, an attitude
+in which an amiable scorn was blended with an evident desire to
+propitiate and please.
+
+'Nella tells me, Mr Dimmock, that you hold a confidential position
+with Prince Aribert of Posen,' said Racksole. 'You will pardon an
+American's ignorance, but is Prince Aribert a reigning Prince -
+what, I believe, you call in Europe, a Prince Regnant?'
+
+'His Highness is not a reigning Prince, nor ever likely to be,'
+answered Dimmock. 'The Grand Ducal Throne of Posen is
+occupied by his Highness's nephew, the Grand Duke Eugen.'
+
+'Nephew?' cried Nella with astonishment.
+
+'Why not, dear lady?'
+
+'But Prince Aribert is surely very young?'
+
+'The Prince, by one of those vagaries of chance which occur
+sometimes in the history of families, is precisely the same age as
+the Grand Duke. The late Grand Duke's father was twice married.
+Hence this youthfulness on the part of an uncle.'
+
+'How delicious to be the uncle of someone as old as yourself! But I
+suppose it is no fun for Prince Aribert. I suppose he has to be
+frightfully respectful and obedient, and all that, to his nephew?'
+
+'The Grand Duke and my Serene master are like brothers. At
+present, of course, Prince Aribert is nominally heir to the throne,
+but as no doubt you are aware, the Grand Duke will shortly marry
+a near relative of the Emperor's, and should there be a family - ' Mr
+Dimmock stopped and shrugged his straight shoulders. 'The Grand
+Duke,' he went on, without finishing the last sentence, 'would
+much prefer Prince Aribert to be his successor. He really doesn't
+want to marry. Between ourselves, strictly between ourselves, he
+regards marriage as rather a bore. But, of course, being a German
+Grand Duke, he is bound to marry. He owes it to his country, to
+Posen.'
+
+'How large is Posen?' asked Racksole bluntly.
+
+'Father,' Nella interposed laughing, 'you shouldn't ask such
+inconvenient questions. You ought to have guessed that it isn't
+etiquette to inquire about the size of a German Dukedom.'
+
+'I am sure,' said Dimmock, with a polite smile, 'that the Grand
+Duke is as much amused as anyone at the size of his territory. I
+forget the exact acreage, but I remember that once Prince Aribert
+and myself walked across it and back again in a single day.'
+
+'Then the Grand Duke cannot travel very far within his own
+dominions? You may say that the sun does set on his empire?'
+
+'It does,' said Dimmock.
+
+'Unless the weather is cloudy,' Nella put in. 'Is the Grand Duke
+content always to stay at home?'
+
+'On the contrary, he is a great traveller, much more so than Prince
+Aribert.
+
+I may tell you, what no one knows at present, outside this hotel,
+that his Royal Highness the Grand Duke, with a small suite, will be
+here to-morrow.'
+
+'In London?' asked Nella.
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'In this hotel?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'Oh! How lovely!'
+
+'That is why your humble servant is here to-night - a sort of
+advance guard.'
+
+'But I understood,' Racksole said, 'that you were - er - attached to
+Prince Aribert, the uncle.'
+
+'I am. Prince Aribert will also be here. The Grand Duke and the
+Prince have business about important investments connected with
+the Grand Duke's marriage settlement. . . . In the highest quarters,
+you understand.'
+
+'For so discreet a person,' thought Racksole, 'you are fairly
+communicative.' Then he said aloud: 'Shall we go out on the
+terrace?'
+
+As they crossed the dining-room Jules stopped Mr Dimmock and
+handed him a letter. 'Just come, sir, by messenger,' said Jules.
+
+Nella dropped behind for a second with her father. 'Leave me
+alone with this boy a little - there's a dear parent,' she whispered in
+his ear.
+
+'I am a mere cypher, an obedient nobody,' Racksole replied,
+pinching her arm surreptitiously. 'Treat me as such. Use me as you
+like. I will go and look after my hoteL' And soon afterwards he
+disappeared.
+
+Nella and Mr Dimmock sat together on the terrace, sipping iced
+drinks. They made a handsome couple, bowered amid plants which
+blossomed at the command of a Chelsea wholesale florist. People
+who passed by remarked privately that from the look of things
+there was the beginning of a romance m that conversation. Perhaps
+there was, but a more intimate acquaintance with the character of
+Nella Racksole would have been necessary in order to predict what
+precise form that romance would take.
+
+Jules himself served the liquids, and at ten o'clock he brought
+another note. Entreating a thousand pardons, Reginald Dimmock,
+after he had glanced at the note, excused himself on the plea of
+urgent business for his Serene master, uncle of the Grand Duke of
+Posen. He asked if he might fetch Mr Racksole, or escort Miss
+Racksole to her father. But Miss Racksole said gaily that she felt
+no need of an escort, and should go to bed. She added that her
+father and herself always endeavoured to be independent of each
+other.
+
+Just then Theodore Racksole had found his way once more into Mr
+Babylon's private room. Before arriving there, however, he had
+discovered that in some mysterious manner the news of the change
+of proprietorship had worked its way down to the lowest strata of
+the hotel's cosmos. The corridors hummed with it, and even
+under-servants were to be seen discussing the thing, just as though
+it mattered to them.
+
+'Have a cigar, Mr Racksole,' said the urbane Mr Babylon, 'and a
+mouthful of the oldest cognac in all Europe.'
+
+In a few minutes these two were talking eagerly, rapidly. Felix 
+Babylon was astonished at Racksole's capacity for absorbing the
+details of hotel management. And as for Racksole he soon realized
+that Felix  Babylon must be a prince of hotel managers. It had
+never occurred to Racksole before that to manage an hotel, even a
+large hotel, could be a specially interesting affair, or that it could
+make any excessive demands upon the brains of the manager; but
+he came to see that he had underrated the possibilities of an hotel.
+The business of the Grand Babylon was enormous. It took
+Racksole, with all his genius for organization, exactly half an hour
+to master the details of the hotel laundry-work. And the
+laundry-work was but one branch of activity amid scores, and not a
+very large one at that. The machinery of checking supplies, and of
+establishing a mean ratio between the raw stuff received in the
+kitchen and the number of meals served in the salle � manger and
+the private rooms, was very complicated and delicate. When
+Racksole had grasped it, he at once suggested some improvements,
+and this led to a long theoretical discussion, and the discussion led
+to digressions, and then Felix  Babylon, in a moment of
+absent-mindedness, yawned.
+
+Racksole looked at the gilt clock on the high mantelpiece.
+
+'Great Scott!' he said. 'It's three o'clock. Mr Babylon, accept my
+apologies for having kept you up to such an absurd hour.'
+
+'I have not spent so pleasant an evening for many years. You have
+let me ride my hobby to my heart's content. It is I who should
+apologize.'
+
+Racksole rose.
+
+'I should like to ask you one question,' said Babylon. 'Have you
+ever had anything to do with hotels before?'
+
+'Never,' said Racksole.
+
+'Then you have missed your vocation. You could have been the
+greatest of all hotel-managers. You would have been greater than
+me, and I am unequalled, though I keep only one hotel, and some
+men have half a dozen. Mr Racksole, why have you never run an
+hotel?'
+
+'Heaven knows,' he laughed, 'but you flatter me, Mr Babylon.'
+
+'I? Flatter? You do not know me. I flatter no one, except, perhaps,
+now and then an exceptionally distinguished guest. In which case I
+give suitable instructions as to the bill.'
+
+'Speaking of distinguished guests, I am told that a couple of
+German princes are coming here to-morrow.'
+
+'That is so.'
+
+'Does one do anything? Does one receive them formally - stand
+bowing in the entrance-hall, or anything of that sort?'
+
+'Not necessarily. Not unless one wishes. The modern hotel
+proprietor is not like an innkeeper of the Middle Ages, and even
+princes do not expect to see him unless something should happen
+to go wrong. As a matter of fact, though the Grand Duke of Posen
+and Prince Aribert have both honoured me by staying here before,
+I have never even set eyes on them. You will find all arrangements
+have been made.'
+
+They talked a little longer, and then Racksole said good night. 'Let
+me see you to your room. The lifts will be closed and the place
+will be deserted.
+
+As for myself, I sleep here,' and Mr Babylon pointed to an inner
+door.
+
+'No, thanks,' said Racksole; 'let me explore my own hotel
+unaccompanied. I believe I can discover my room.' When he got
+fairly into the passages, Racksole was not so sure that he could
+discover his own room. The number was 107, but he had forgotten
+whether it was on the first or second floor.
+
+Travelling in a lift, one is unconscious of floors. He passed several
+lift-doorways, but he could see no glint of a staircase; in all
+self-respecting hotels staircases have gone out of fashion, and
+though hotel architects still continue, for old sakes' sake, to build
+staircases, they are tucked away in remote corners where their
+presence is not likely to offend the eye of a spoiled and
+cosmopolitan public. The hotel seemed vast, uncanny, deserted.
+An electric light glowed here and there at long intervals. On the
+thick carpets, Racksole's thinly-shod feet made no sound, and he
+wandered at ease to and fro, rather amused, rather struck by the
+peculiar senses of night and mystery which had suddenly come
+over him. He fancied he could hear a thousand snores peacefully
+descending from the upper realms. At length he found a staircase,
+a very dark and narrow one, and presently he was on the first floor.
+He soon discovered that the numbers of the rooms on this floor did
+not get beyond seventy. He encountered another staircase and
+ascended to the second floor. By the decoration of the walls he
+recognized this floor as his proper home, and as he strolled
+through the long corridor he whistled a low, meditative whistle of
+satisfaction. He thought he heard a step in the transverse corridor,
+and instinctively he obliterated himself in a recess which held a
+service-cabinet and a chair. He did hear a step. Peeping cautiously
+out, he perceived, what he had not perceived previously, that a
+piece of white ribbon had been tied round the handle of the door of
+one of the bedrooms. Then a man came round the corner of the
+transverse corridor, and Racksole drew back. It was Jules - Jules
+with his hands in his pockets and a slouch hat over his eyes, but in
+other respects attired as usual.
+
+Racksole, at that instant, remembered with a special vividness
+what Felix  Babylon had said to him at their first interview. He
+wished he had brought his revolver. He didn't know why he should
+feel the desirability of a revolver in a London hotel of the most
+unimpeachable fair fame, but he did feel the desirability of such an
+instrument of attack and defence. He privately decided that if Jules
+went past his recess he would take him by the throat and in that
+attitude put a few plain questions to this highly dubious waiter. But
+Jules had stopped. The millionaire made another cautious
+observation. Jules, with infinite gentleness, was turning the handle
+of the door to which the white ribbon was attached. The door
+slowly yielded and Jules disappeared within the room. After a brief
+interval, the night-prowling Jules reappeared, closed the door as
+softly as he had opened it, removed the ribbon, returned upon his
+steps, and vanished down the transverse corridor.
+
+'This is quaint,' said Racksole; 'quaint to a degree!'
+
+It occurred to him to look at the number of the room, and he stole
+towards it.
+
+'Well, I'm d - d!' he murmured wonderingly.
+
+The number was 111, his daughter's room! He tried to open it, but
+the door was locked. Rushing to his own room, No. 107, he seized
+one of a pair of revolvers (the kind that are made for millionaires)
+and followed after Jules down the transverse corridor. At the end
+of this corridor was a window; the window was open; and Jules
+was innocently gazing out of the window. Ten silent strides, and
+Theodore Racksole was upon him.
+
+'One word, my friend,' the millionaire began, carelessly waving the
+revolver in the air. Jules was indubitably startled, but by an
+admirable exercise of self-control he recovered possession of his
+faculties in a second.
+
+'Sir?' said Jules.
+
+'I just want to be informed, what the deuce you were doing in No.
+111 a moment ago.'
+
+'I had been requested to go there,' was the calm response.
+
+'You are a liar, and not a very clever one. That is my daughter's
+room. Now - out with it, before I decide whether to shoot you or
+throw you into the street.'
+
+'Excuse me, sir, No. 111 is occupied by a gentleman.'
+
+'I advise you that it is a serious error of judgement to contradict
+me, my friend. Don't do it again. We will go to the room together,
+and you shall prove that the occupant is a gentleman, and not my
+daughter.'
+
+'Impossible, sir,' said Jules.
+
+'Scarcely that,' said Racksole, and he took Jules by the sleeve. The
+millionaire knew for a certainty that Nella occupied No. 111, for
+he had examined the room her, and himself seen that her trunks
+and her maid and herself had arrived there in safety. 'Now open the
+door,' whispered Racksole, when they reached No.111.
+
+'I must knock.'
+
+'That is just what you mustn't do. Open it. No doubt you have your
+pass-key.'
+
+Confronted by the revolver, Jules readily obeyed, yet with a
+deprecatory gesture, as though he would not be responsible for this
+outrage against the decorum of hotel life. Racksole entered. The
+room was brilliantly lighted.
+
+'A visitor, who insists on seeing you, sir,' said Jules, and fled.
+
+Mr Reginald Dimmock, still in evening dress, and smoking a
+cigarette, rose hurriedly from a table.
+
+'Hello, my dear Mr Racksole, this is an unexpected - ah - pleasure.'
+
+'Where is my daughter? This is her room.'
+
+'Did I catch what you said, Mr Racksole?'
+
+'I venture to remark that this is Miss Racksole's room.'
+
+'My good sir,' answered Dimmock, 'you must be mad to dream of
+such a thing.
+
+Only my respect for your daughter prevents me from expelling you
+forcibly, for such an extraordinary suggestion.'
+
+A small spot half-way down the bridge of the millionaire's nose
+turned suddenly white.
+
+'With your permission,' he said in a low calm voice, 'I will examine
+the dressing-room and the bath-room.'
+
+'Just listen to me a moment,' Dimmock urged, in a milder tone.
+
+'I'll listen to you afterwards, my young friend,' said Racksole, and
+he proceeded to search the bath-room, and the dressing-room,
+without any result whatever. 'Lest my attitude might be open to
+misconstruction, Mr Dimmock, I may as well tell you that I have
+the most perfect confidence in my daughter, who is as well able to
+take care of herself as any woman I ever met, but since you entered
+it there have been one or two rather mysterious occurrences in this
+hotel. That is all.' Feeling a draught of air on his shoulder,
+Racksole turned to the window. 'For instance,' he added, 'I perceive
+that this window is broken, badly broken, and from the outside.
+
+Now, how could that have occurred?'
+
+'If you will kindly hear reason, Mr Racksole,' said Dimmock in his
+best diplomatic manner, 'I will endeavour to explain things to you.
+I regarded your first question to me when you entered my room as
+being offensively put, but I now see that you had some
+justification.' He smiled politely. 'I was passing along this corridor
+about eleven o'clock, when I found Miss Racksole in a difficulty
+with the hotel servants. Miss Racksole was retiring to rest in this
+room when a large stone, which must have been thrown from the
+Embankment, broke the window, as you see. Apart from the
+discomfort of the broken window, she did not care to remain in the
+room. She argued that where one stone had come another might
+follow. She therefore insisted on her room being changed. The
+servants said that there was no other room available with a
+dressing-room and bath-room attached, and your daughter made a
+point of these matters. I at once offered to exchange apartments
+with her. She did me the honour to accept my offer. Our respective
+belongings were moved - and that is all. Miss Racksole is at this
+moment, I trust, asleep in No. 124.'
+
+Theodore Racksole looked at the young man for a few seconds in
+silence.
+
+There was a faint knock at the door.
+
+'Come in,' said Racksole loudly.
+
+Someone pushed open the door, but remained standing on the mat.
+It was Nella's maid, in a dressing-gown.
+
+'Miss Racksole's compliments, and a thousand excuses, but a book
+of hers was left on the mantelshelf in this room. She cannot sleep,
+and wishes to read.'
+
+ 'Mr Dimmock, I tender my apologies - my formal apologies,' said
+Racksole, when the girl had gone away with the book. 'Good
+night.'
+
+'Pray don't mention it,' said Dimmock suavely - and bowed him
+out.
+
+Chapter Four ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE
+
+NEVERTHELESS, sundry small things weighed on Racksole's
+mind. First there was Jules' wink. Then there was the ribbon on the
+door-handle and Jules'
+
+visit to No. 111, and the broken window - broken from the outside.
+Racksole did not forget that the time was 3 a.m. He slept but little
+that night, but he was glad that he had bought the Grand Babylon
+Hotel. It was an acquisition which seemed to promise fun and
+diversion.
+
+The next morning he came across Mr Babylon early. 'I have
+emptied my private room of all personal papers,' said Babylon,
+'and it is now at your disposal.
+
+I purpose, if agreeable to yourself, to stay on in the hotel as a guest
+for the present. We have much to settle with regard to the
+completion of the purchase, and also there are things which you
+might want to ask me. Also, to tell the truth, I am not anxious to
+leave the old place with too much suddenness. It will be a wrench
+to me.'
+
+'I shall be delighted if you will stay,' said the millionaire, 'but it
+must be as my guest, not as the guest of the hotel.'
+
+'You are very kind.'
+
+'As for wishing to consult you, no doubt I shall have need to do so,
+but I must say that the show seems to run itself.'
+
+'Ah!' said Babylon thoughtfully. 'I have heard of hotels that run
+themselves. If they do, you may be sure that they obey the laws of
+gravity and run downwards. You will have your hands full. For
+example, have you yet heard about Miss Spencer?'
+
+'No,' said Racksole. 'What of her?'
+
+'She has mysteriously vanished during the night, and nobody
+appears to be able to throw any light on the affair. Her room is
+empty, her boxes gone.
+
+You will want someone to take her place, and that someone will
+not be very easy to get.'
+
+'H'm!' Racksole said, after a pause. 'Hers is not the only post that
+falls vacant to-day.'
+
+A little later, the millionaire installed himself in the late owner's
+private room and rang the bell.
+
+'I want Jules,' he said to the page.
+
+While waiting for Jules, Racksole considered the question of Miss
+Spencer's disappearance.
+
+'Good morning, Jules,' was his cheerful greeting, when the
+imperturbable waiter arrived.
+
+'Good morning, sir.'
+
+'Take a chair.'
+
+'Thank you, sir.'
+
+'We have met before this morning, Jules.'
+
+'Yes, sir, at 3 a.m.'
+
+'Rather strange about Miss Spencer's departure, is it not?'
+suggested Racksole.
+
+'It is remarkable, sir.'
+
+'You are aware, of course, that Mr Babylon has transferred all his
+interests in this hotel to me?'
+
+'I have been informed to that effect, sir.'
+
+'I suppose you know everything that goes on in the hotel, Jules?'
+
+'As the head waiter, sir, it is my business to keep a general eye on
+things.'
+
+'You speak very good English for a foreigner, Jules.'
+
+'For a foreigner, sir! I am an Englishman, a Hertfordshire man born
+and bred. Perhaps my name has misled you, sir. I am only called
+Jules because the head waiter of any really high-class hotel must
+have either a French or an Italian name.'
+
+'I see,' said Racksole. 'I think you must be rather a clever person,
+Jules.'
+
+ 'That is not for me to say, sir.'
+
+'How long has the hotel enjoyed the advantage of your services?'
+
+'A little over twenty years.'
+
+'That is a long time to be in one place. Don't you think it's time you
+got out of the rut? You are still young, and might make a
+reputation for yourself in another and wider sphere.'
+
+Racksole looked at the man steadily, and his glance was steadily
+returned.
+
+'You aren't satisfied with me, sir?'
+
+'To be frank, Jules, I think - I think you - er - wink too much. And I
+think that it is regrettable when a head waiter falls into a habit of
+taking white ribbons from the handles of bedroom doors at three in
+the morning.'
+
+Jules started slightly.
+
+'I see how it is, sir. You wish me to go, and one pretext, if I may
+use the term, is as good as another. Very well, I can't say that I'm
+surprised. It sometimes happens that there is incompatibility of
+temper between a hotel proprietor and his head waiter, and then,
+unless one of them goes, the hotel is likely to suffer. I will go, Mr
+Racksole. In fact, I had already thought of giving notice.'
+
+The millionaire smiled appreciatively. 'What wages do you require
+in lieu of notice? It is my intention that you leave the hotel within
+an hour.'
+
+'I require no wages in lieu of notice, sir. I would scorn to accept
+anything. And I will leave the hotel in fifteen minutes.'
+
+'Good-day, then. You have my good wishes and my admiration, so
+long as you keep out of my hotel.'
+
+Racksole got up. 'Good-day, sir. And thank you.'
+
+'By the way, Jules, it will be useless for you to apply to any other
+first-rate European hotel for a post, because I shall take measures
+which will ensure the rejection of any such application.'
+
+'Without discussing the question whether or not there aren't at least
+half a dozen hotels in London alone that would jump for joy at the
+chance of getting me,' answered Jules, 'I may tell you, sir, that I
+shall retire from my profession.'
+
+'Really! You will turn your brains to a different channel.'
+
+'No, sir. I shall take rooms in Albemarle Street or Jermyn Street,
+and just be content to be a man-about-town. I have saved some
+twenty thousand pounds - a mere trifle, but sufficient for my
+needs, and I shall now proceed to enjoy it. Pardon me for troubling
+you with my personal affairs. And good-day again.'
+
+That afternoon Racksole went with Felix  Babylon first to a firm of
+solicitors in the City, and then to a stockbroker, in order to carry
+out the practical details of the purchase of the hotel.
+
+'I mean to settle in England,' said Racksole, as they were coming
+back. 'It is the only country - ' and he stopped.
+
+'The only country?'
+
+'The, only country where you can invest money and spend money
+with a feeling of security. In the United States there is nothing
+worth spending money on, nothing to buy. In France or Italy, there
+is no real security.'
+
+'But surely you are a true American?' questioned Babylon.
+
+'I am a true American,' said Racksole, 'but my father, who began by
+being a bedmaker at an Oxford college, and ultimately made ten
+million dollars out of iron in Pittsburg - my father took the wise
+precaution of having me educated in England. I had my three years
+at Oxford, like any son of the upper middle class! It did me good.
+It has been worth more to me than many successful speculations. It
+taught me that the English language is different from, and better
+than, the American language, and that there is something - I
+haven't yet found out exactly what - in English life that Americans
+will never get. Why,' he added, 'in the United States we still bribe
+our judges and our newspapers. And we talk of the eighteenth
+century as though it was the beginning of the world. Yes, I shall
+transfer my securities to London. I shall build a house in Park
+Lane, and I shall buy some immemorial country seat with a history
+as long as the A. T. and S. railroad, and I shall calmly and
+gradually settle down. D'you know - I am rather a good-natured
+man for a millionaire, and of a social disposition, and yet I haven't
+six real friends in the whole of New York City. Think of that!'
+
+'And I,' said Babylon, 'have no friends except the friends of my
+boyhood in Lausanne. I have spent thirty years in England, and
+gained nothing but a perfect knowledge of the English language
+and as much gold coin as would fill a rather large box.'
+
+These two plutocrats breathed a simultaneous sigh.
+
+'Talking of gold coin,' said Racksole, 'how much money should you
+think Jules has contrived to amass while he has been with you?'
+
+'Oh!' Babylon smiled. 'I should not like to guess. He has had unique
+opportunities - opportunities.'
+
+'Should you consider twenty thousand an extraordinary sum under
+the circumstances?'
+
+'Not at all. Has he been confiding in you?'
+
+'Somewhat. I have dismissed him.'
+
+'You have dismissed him?'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'There is no reason why not. But I have felt inclined to dismiss him
+for the past ten years, and never found courage to do it.'
+
+'It was a perfectly simple proceeding, I assure you. Before I had
+done with him, I rather liked the fellow.'
+
+'Miss Spencer and Jules - both gone in one day!' mused Felix 
+Babylon.
+
+'And no one to take their places,' said Racksole. 'And yet the hotel
+continues its way!'
+
+But when Racksole reached the Grand Babylon he found that Miss
+Spencer's chair in the bureau was occupied by a stately and
+imperious girl, dressed becomingly in black.
+
+'Heavens, Nella!' he cried, going to the bureau. 'What are you doing
+here?'
+
+'I am taking Mis Spencer's place. I want to help you with your
+hotel, Dad. I fancy I shall make an excellent hotel clerk. I have
+arranged with a Miss Selina Smith, one of the typists in the office,
+to put me up to all the tips and tricks, and I shall do very well.'
+
+'But look here, Helen Racksole. We shall have the whole of
+London talking about this thing - the greatest of all American
+heiresses a hotel clerk! And I came here for quiet and rest!'
+
+'I suppose it was for the sake of quiet and rest that you bought the
+hotel, Papa?'
+
+'You would insist on the steak,' he retorted. 'Get out of this, on the
+instant.'
+
+'Here I am, here to stay,' said Nella, and deliberately laughed at her
+parent.
+
+Just then the face of a fair-haired man of about thirty years
+appeared at the bureau window. He was very well-dressed, very
+aristocratic in his pose, and he seemed rather angry.
+
+He looked fixedly at Nella and started back.
+
+'Ach!' he exclaimed. 'You!'
+
+'Yes, your Highness, it is indeed I. Father, this is his Serene
+Highness Prince Aribert of Posen - one of our most esteemed
+customers.'
+
+'You know my name, Fr�ulein?' the new-comer murmured in
+German.
+
+'Certainly, Prince,' Nella replied sweetly. 'You were plain Count
+Steenbock last spring in Paris - doubtless travelling incognito - '
+
+'Silence,' he entreated, with a wave of the hand, and his forehead
+went as white as paper.
+
+Chapter Five WHAT OCCURRED TO REGINALD DIMMOCK
+
+IN another moment they were all three talking quite nicely, and
+with at any rate an appearance of being natural. Prince Aribert
+became suave, even deferential to Nella, and more friendly
+towards Nella's father than their respective positions demanded.
+The latter amused himself by studying this sprig of royalty, the
+first with whom he had ever come into contact. He decided that the
+young fellow was personable enough, 'had no frills on him,'
+
+and would make an exceptionally good commercial traveller for a
+first-class firm. Such was Theodore Racksole's preliminary
+estimate of the man who might one day be the reigning Grand
+Duke of Posen.
+
+It occurred to Nella, and she smiled at the idea, that the bureau of
+the hotel was scarcely the correct place in which to receive this
+august young man. There he stood, with his head half-way through
+the bureau window, negligently leaning against the woodwork, just
+as though he were a stockbroker or the manager of a New York
+burlesque company.
+
+'Is your Highness travelling quite alone?' she asked.
+
+'By a series of accidents I am,' he said. 'My equerry was to have
+met me at Charing Cross, but he failed to do so - I cannot imagine
+why.'
+
+'Mr Dimmock?' questioned Racksole.
+
+'Yes, Dimmock. I do not remember that he ever missed an
+appointment before.
+
+You know him? He has been here?'
+
+'He dined with us last night,' said Racksole - 'on Nella's invitation,'
+he added maliciously; 'but to-day we have seen nothing of him. I
+know, however, that he has engaged the State apartments, and also
+a suite adjoining the State apartments - No. 55. That is so, isn't it,
+Nella?'
+
+'Yes, Papa,' she said, having first demurely examined a ledger.
+'Your Highness would doubtless like to be conducted to your room
+- apartments I mean.' Then Nella laughed deliberately at the
+Prince, and said, 'I don't know who is the proper person to conduct
+you, and that's a fact. The truth is that Papa and I are rather raw yet
+in the hotel line. You see, we only bought the place last night.'
+
+'You have bought the hotel!' exclaimed the Prince.
+
+'That's so,' said Racksole.
+
+'And Felix  Babylon has gone?'
+
+'He is going, if he has not already gone.'
+
+'Ah! I see,' said the Prince; 'this is one of your American "strokes".
+You have bought to sell again, is that not it? You are on your
+holidays, but you cannot resist making a few thousands by way of
+relaxation. I have heard of such things.'
+
+'We sha'n't sell again, Prince, until we are tired of our bargain.
+Sometimes we tire very quickly, and sometimes we don't. It
+depends - eh? What?'
+
+Racksole broke off suddenly to attend to a servant in livery who
+had quietly entered the bureau and was making urgent mysterious
+signs to him.
+
+'If you please, sir,' the man by frantic gestures implored Mr
+Theodore Racksole to come out.
+
+'Pray don't let me detain you, Mr Racksole,' said the Prince, and
+therefore the proprietor of the Grand Babylon departed after the
+servant, with a queer, curt little bow to Prince Aribert.
+
+'Mayn't I come inside?' said the Prince to Nella immediately the
+millionaire had gone.
+
+'Impossible, Prince,' Nella laughed. 'The rule against visitors
+entering this bureau is frightfully strict.'
+
+'How do you know the rule is so strict if you only came into
+possession last night?'
+
+'I know because I made the rule myself this morning, your
+Highness.'
+
+'But seriously, Miss Racksole, I want to talk to you.'
+
+'Do you want to talk to me as Prince Aribert or as the friend - the
+acquaintance - whom I knew in Paris' last year?'
+
+'As the friend, dear lady, if I may use the term.'
+
+'And you are sure that you would not like first to be conducted to
+your apartments?'
+
+'Not yet. I will wait till Dimmock comes; he cannot fail to be here
+soon.'
+
+'Then we will have tea served in father's private room - the
+proprietor's private room, you know.'
+
+'Good!' he said.
+
+Nella talked through a telephone, and rang several bells, and
+behaved generally in a manner calculated to prove to Princes and
+to whomever it might concern that she was a young woman of
+business instincts and training, and then she stepped down from
+her chair of office, emerged from the bureau, and, preceded by two
+menials, led Prince Aribert to the Louis XV chamber in which her
+father and Felix  Babylon had had their long confabulation on the
+previous evening.
+
+'What do you want to talk to me about?' she asked her companion,
+as she poured out for him a second cup of tea. The Prince looked
+at her for a moment as he took the proffered cup, and being a
+young man of sane, healthy, instincts, he could think of nothing for
+the moment except her loveliness.
+
+Nella was indeed beautiful that afternoon. The beauty of even the
+most beautiful woman ebbs and flows from hour to hour. Nella's
+this afternoon was at the flood. Vivacious, alert, imperious, and yet
+ineffably sweet, she seemed to radiate the very joy and exuberance
+of life.
+
+'I have forgotten,' he said.
+
+'You have forgotten! That is surely very wrong of you? You gave
+me to understand that it was something terribly important. But of
+course I knew it couldn't be, because no man, and especially no
+Prince, ever discussed anything really important with a woman.'
+
+'Recollect, Miss Racksole, that this aftemoon, here, I am not the
+Prince.'
+
+'You are Count Steenbock, is that it?'
+
+He started. 'For you only,' he said, unconsciously lowering his
+voice. 'Miss Racksole, I particularly wish that no one here should
+know that I was in Paris last spring.'
+
+'An affair of State?' she smiled.
+
+'An affair of State,' he replied soberly. 'Even Dimmock doesn't
+know. It was strange that we should be fellow guests at that quiet
+out-of-the-way hotel - strange but delightful. I shall never forget
+that rainy afternoon that we spent together in the Museum of the
+Trocad�ro. Let us talk about that.'
+
+'About the rain, or the museum?'
+
+'I shall never forget that afternoon,' he repeated, ignoring the
+lightness of her question.
+
+'Nor I,' she murmured corresponding to his mood.
+
+'You, too enjoyed it?' he said eagerly.
+
+'The sculptures were magnificent,' she replied, hastily glancing at
+the ceiling.
+
+'Ah! So they were! Tell me, Miss Racksole, how did you discover
+my identity.'
+
+'I must not say,' she answered. 'That is my secret. Do not seek to
+penetrate it. Who knows what horrors you might discover if you
+probed too far?' She laughed, but she laughed alone. The Prince
+remained pensive - as it were brooding.
+
+'I never hoped to see you again,' he said.
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'One never sees again those whom one wishes to see.'
+
+'As for me, I was perfectly convinced that we should meet again.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Because I always get what I want.'
+
+'Then you wanted to see me again?'
+
+'Certainly. You interested me extremely. I have never met another
+man who could talk so well about sculpture as the Count
+Steenbock.'
+
+'Do you really always get what you want, Miss Racksole?'
+
+'Of course.'
+
+'That is because your father is so rich, I suppose?'
+
+'Oh, no, it isn't!' she said. 'It's simply because I always do get what I
+want. It's got nothing to do with Father at all.'
+
+'But Mr Racksole is extremely wealthy?'
+
+'Wealthy isn't the word, Count. There is no word. It's positively
+awful the amount of dollars poor Papa makes. And the worst of it
+is he can't help it.
+
+He told me once that when a man had made ten millions no power
+on earth could stop those ten millions from growing into twenty.
+And so it continues.
+
+I spend what I can, but I can't come near coping with it; and of
+course Papa is no use whatever at spending.'
+
+'And you have no mother?'
+
+'Who told you I had no mother?' she asked quietly.
+
+'I - er - inquired about you,' he said, with equal candour and
+humility.
+
+'In spite of the fact that you never hoped to see me again?'
+
+'Yes, in spite of that.'
+
+'How funny!' she said, and lapsed into a meditative silence.
+
+'Yours must be a wonderful existence,' said the Prince. 'I envy you.'
+
+'You envy me - what? My father's wealth?'
+
+'No,' he said; 'your freedom and your responsibilities.'
+
+'I have no responsibilities,' she remarked.
+
+'Pardon me,' he said; 'you have, and the time is coming when you
+will feel them.'
+
+'I'm only a girl,' she murmured with sudden simplicity. 'As for you,
+Count, surely you have sufficient responsibilities of your own?'
+
+'I?' he said sadly. 'I have no responsibilties. I am a nobody - a
+Serene Highness who has to pretend to be very important, always
+taking immense care never to do anything that a Serene Highness
+ought not to do. Bah!'
+
+'But if your nephew, Prince Eugen, were to die, would you not
+come to the throne, and would you not then have these
+responsibilities which you so much desire?'
+
+'Eugen die?' said Prince Aribert, in a curious tone. 'Impossible. He
+is the perfection of health. In three months he will be married. No,
+I shall never be anything but a Serene Highness, the most
+despicable of God's creatures.'
+
+'But what about the State secret which you mentioned? Is not that a
+responsibility?'
+
+'Ah!' he said. 'That is over. That belongs to the past. It was an
+accident in my dull career. I shall never be Count Steenbock
+again.'
+
+'Who knows?' she said. 'By the way, is not Prince Eugen coming
+here to-day? Mr Dimmock told us so.'
+
+'See!' answered the Prince, standing up and bending over her. 'I am
+going to confide in you. I don't know why, but I am.'
+
+'Don't betray State secrets,' she warned him, smiling into his face.
+
+But just then the door of the room was unceremoniously opened.
+
+'Go right in,' said a voice sharply. It was Theodore Racksole's. Two
+men entered, bearing a prone form on a stretcher, and Racksole
+followed them.
+
+Nella sprang up. Racksole stared to see his daughter.
+
+'I didn't know you were in here, Nell. Here,' to the two men, 'out
+again.'
+
+'Why!' exclaimed Nella, gazing fearfully at the form on the
+stretcher, 'it's Mr Dimmock!'
+
+'It is,' her father acquiesced. 'He's dead,' he added laconically. 'I'd
+have broken it to you more gently had I known. Your pardon,
+Prince.' There was a pause.
+
+'Dimmock dead!' Prince Aribert whispered under his breath, and he
+kneeled down by the side of the stretcher. 'What does this mean?'
+
+The poor fellow was just walking across the quadrangle towards
+the portico when he fell down. A commissionaire who saw him
+says he was walking very quickly. At first I thought it was
+sunstroke, but it couldn't have been, though the weather certainly
+is rather warm. It must be heart disease. But anyhow, he's dead.
+We did what we could. I've sent for a doctor, and for the police. I
+suppose there'll have to be an inquest.'
+
+Theodore Racksole stopped, and in an awkward solemn silence
+they all gazed at the dead youth. His features were slightly drawn,
+and his eyes closed; that was all. He might have been asleep.
+
+'My poor Dimmock!' exclaimed the Prince, his voice broken. 'And
+I was angry because the lad did not meet me at Charing Cross!'
+
+'Are you sure he is dead, Father?' Nella said.
+
+'You'd better go away, Nella,' was Racksole's only reply; but the
+girl stood still, and began to sob quietly. On the previous night she
+had secretly made fun of Reginald Dimmock. She had deliberately
+set herself to get information from him on a topic in which she
+happened to be specially interested and she had got it, laughing the
+while at his youthful crudities - his vanity, his transparent cunning,
+his abusurd airs. She had not liked him; she had even distrusted
+him, and decided that he was not 'nice'. But now, as he lay on the
+stretcher, these things were forgotten. She went so far as to
+reproach herself for them. Such is the strange commanding power
+of death.
+
+'Oblige me by taking the poor fellow to my apartments,' said the
+Prince, with a gesture to the attendants. 'Surely it is time the doctor
+came.'
+
+Racksole felt suddenly at that moment he was nothing but a mere
+hotel proprietor with an awkward affair on his hands. For a
+fraction of a second he wished he had never bought the Grand
+Babylon.
+
+A quarter of an hour later Prince Aribert, Theodore Racksole, a
+doctor, and an inspector of police were in the Prince's
+reception-room. They had just come from an ante-chamber, in
+which lay the mortal remains of Reginald Dimmock.
+
+'Well?' said Racksole, glancing at the doctor.
+
+The doctor was a big, boyish-looking man, with keen, quizzical
+eyes.
+
+'It is not heart disease,' said the doctor.
+
+'Not heart disease?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Then what is it?' asked the Prince.
+
+'I may be able to answer that question after the post-mortem,' said
+the doctor. 'I certainly can't answer it now. The symptoms are
+unusual to a degree.'
+
+The inspector of police began to write in a note-book.
+
+Chapter Six IN THE GOLD ROOM
+
+AT the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold
+Room, a huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of
+it, and certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore
+Racksole knew nothing of the affair, except that it was an
+entertainment offered by a Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi to their
+friends. Who Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi were he did not know, nor
+could anyone tell him anything about them except that Mr
+Sampson Levi was a prominent member of that part of the Stock
+Exchange familiarly called the Kaffir Circus, and that his wife was
+a stout lady with an aquiline nose and many diamonds, and that
+they were very rich and very hospitable. Theodore Racksole did
+not want a ball in his hotel that evening, and just before dinner he
+had almost a mind to issue a decree that the Gold Room was to be
+closed and the ball forbidden, and Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi
+might name the amount of damages suffered by them. His reasons
+for such a course were threefold - first, he felt depressed and
+uneasy; second, he didn't like the name of Sampson Levi; and,
+third, he had a desire to show these so-called plutocrats that their
+wealth was nothing to him, that they could not do what they chose
+with Theodore Racksole, and that for two pins Theodore Racksole
+would buy them up, and the whole Kaffir Circus to boot. But
+something wamed him that though such a high-handed proceeding
+might be tolerated in America, that land of freedom, it would
+never be tolerated in England. He felt instinctively that in England
+there are things you can't do, and that this particular thing was one
+of them. So the ball went forward, and neither Mr nor Mrs
+Sampson Levi had ever the least suspicion what a narrow escape
+they had had of looking very foolish in the eyes of the thousand or
+so guests invited by them to the Gold Room of the Grand Babylon
+that evening.
+
+The Gold Room of the Grand Babylon was built for a ballroom. A
+balcony, supported by arches faced with gilt and lapis-lazulo, ran
+around it, and from this vantage men and maidens and chaperons
+who could not or would not dance might survey the scene.
+Everyone knew this, and most people took advantage of it. What
+everyone did not know - what no one knew - was that higher up
+than the balcony there was a little barred window in the end wall
+from which the hotel authorities might keep a watchful eye, not
+only on the dancers, but on the occupants of the balcony itself.
+
+It may seem incredible to the uninitiated that the guests at any
+social gathering held in so gorgeous and renowned an apartment as
+the Gold Room of the Grand Babylon should need the observation
+of a watchful eye. Yet so it was. Strange matters and unexpected
+faces had been descried from the little window, and more than one
+European detective had kept vigil there with the most eminently
+satisfactory results.
+
+At eleven o'clock Theodore Racksole, afflicted by vexation of
+spirit, found himself gazing idly through the little barred window.
+Nella was with him.
+
+Together they had been wandering about the corridors of the hotel,
+still strange to them both, and it was quite by accident that they
+had lighted upon the small room which had a surreptitious view of
+Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi's ball. Except for the light of the
+chandelier of the ball-room the little cubicle was in darkness.
+Nella was looking through the window; her father stood behind.
+
+'I wonder which is Mrs Sampson Levi?' Nella said, 'and whether
+she matches her name. Wouldn't you love to have a name like that,
+Father - something that people could take hold of - instead of
+Racksole?'
+
+The sound of violins and a confused murmur of voices rose gently
+up to them.
+
+ 'Umphl' said Theodore. 'Curse those evening papers!' he added,
+inconsequently but with sincerity.
+
+'Father, you're very horrid to-night. What have the evening papers
+been doing?'
+
+'Well, my young madame, they've got me in for one, and you for
+another; and they're manufacturing mysteries like fun. It's young
+Dimmock's death that has started 'em.'
+
+'Well, Father, you surely didn't expect to keep yourself out of the
+papers.
+
+Besides, as regards newspapers, you ought to be glad you aren't in
+New York.
+
+Just fancy what the dear old Herald would have made out of a little
+transaction like yours of last night'
+
+'That's true,' assented Racksole. 'But it'll be all over New York
+to-morrow morning, all the same. The worst of it is that Babylon
+has gone off to Switzerland.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Don't know. Sudden fancy, I guess, for his native heath.'
+
+'What difference does it make to you?'
+
+'None. Only I feel sort of lonesome. I feel I want someone to lean
+up against in running this hotel.'
+
+'Father, if you have that feeling you must be getting ill.'
+
+'Yes,' he sighed, 'I admit it's unusual with me. But perhaps you
+haven't grasped the fact, Nella, that we're in the middle of a rather
+queer business.'
+
+'You mean about poor Mr Dimmock?'
+
+'Partly Dimmock and partly other things. First of all, that Miss
+Spencer, or whatever her wretched name is, mysteriously
+disappears. Then there was the stone thrown into your bedroom.
+Then I caught that rascal Jules conspiring with Dimmock at three
+o'clock in the morning. Then your precious Prince Aribert arrives
+without any suite - which I believe is a most peculiar and wicked
+thing for a Prince to do - and moreover I find my daughter on very
+intimate terms with the said Prince. Then young Dimmock goes
+and dies, and there is to be an inquest; then Prince Eugen and his
+suite, who were expected here for dinner, fail to turn up at all - '
+
+'Prince Eugen has not come?'
+
+'He has not; and Uncle Aribert is in a deuce of a stew about him,
+and telegraphing all over Europe. Altogether, things are working
+up pretty lively.'
+
+'Do you really think, Dad, there was anything between Jules and
+poor Mr Dimmock?'
+
+'Think! I know! I tell you I saw that scamp give Dimmock a wink
+last night at dinner that might have meant - well!'
+
+'So you caught that wink, did you, Dad?'
+
+'Why, did you?'
+
+'Of course, Dad. I was going to tell you about it.'
+
+The millionaire grunted.
+
+'Look here, Father,' Nella whispered suddenly, and pointed to the
+balcony immediately below them. 'Who's that?' She indicated a
+man with a bald patch on the back of his head, who was propping
+himself up against the railing of the balcony and gazing
+immovable into the ball-room.
+
+'Well, who is it?'
+
+'Isn't it Jules?'
+
+'Gemini! By the beard of the prophet, it is!'
+
+'Perhaps Mr Jules is a guest of Mrs Sampson Levi.'
+
+'Guest or no guest, he goes out of this hotel, even if I have to throw
+him out myself.'
+
+Theodore Racksole disappeared without another word, and Nella
+followed him.
+
+But when the millionaire arrived on the balcony floor he could see
+nothing of Jules, neither there nor in the ball-room itself. Saying
+no word aloud, but quietly whispering wicked expletives, he
+searched everywhere in vain, and then, at last, by tortuous
+stairways and corridors returned to his original post of observation,
+that he might survey the place anew from the vantage ground. To
+his surprise he found a man in the dark little room, watching the
+scene of the ball as intently as he himself had been doing a few
+minutes before. Hearing footsteps, the man turned with a start.
+
+It was Jules.
+
+The two exchanged glances in the half light for a second.
+
+'Good evening, Mr Racksole,' said Jules calmly. 'I must apologize
+for being here.'
+
+'Force of habit, I suppose,' said Theodore Racksole drily.
+
+'Just so, sir.'
+
+'I fancied I had forbidden you to re-enter this hotel?'
+
+'I thought your order applied only to my professional capacity. I am
+here to-night as the guest of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi.'
+
+'In your new r�le of man-about-town, eh?'
+
+'Exactly.'
+
+'But I don't allow men-about-town up here, my friend.'
+
+'For being up here I have already apologized.'
+
+'Then, having apologized, you had better depart; that is my
+disinterested advice to you.'
+
+'Good night, sir.'
+
+'And, I say, Mr Jules, if Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, or any other
+Hebrews or Christians, should again invite you to my hotel you
+will oblige me by declining the invitation. You'll find that will be
+the safest course for you.'
+
+'Good night, sir.'
+
+Before midnight struck Theodore Racksole had ascertained that
+the invitation-list of Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi, though a
+somewhat lengthy one, contained no reference to any such person
+as Jules.
+
+He sat up very late. To be precise, he sat up all night. He was a
+man who, by dint of training, could comfortably dispense with
+sleep when he felt so inclined, or when circumstances made such a
+course advisable. He walked to and fro in his room, and cogitated
+as few people beside Theodore Racksole could cogitate. At 6 a.m.
+he took a stroll round the business part of his premises, and
+watched the supplies come in from Covent Garden, from
+Smithfield, from Billingsgate, and from other strange places. He
+found the proceedings of the kitchen department quite interesting,
+and made mental notes of things that he would have altered, of
+men whose wages he would increase and men whose wages he
+would reduce. At 7 a.m. he happened to be standing near the
+luggage lift, and witnessed the descent of vast quantities of
+luggage, and its disappearance into a Carter Paterson van.
+
+'Whose luggage is that?' he inquired peremptorily.
+
+The luggage clerk, with an aggrieved expression, explained to him
+that it was the luggage of nobody in particular, that it belonged to
+various guests, and was bound for various destinations; that it was,
+in fact, 'expressed'
+
+luggage despatched in advance, and that a similar quantity of it left
+the hotel every morning about that hour.
+
+Theodore Racksole walked away, and breakfasted upon one cup of
+tea and half a slice of toast.
+
+At ten o'clock he was informed that the inspector of police desired
+to see him. The inspector had come, he said, to superintend the
+removal of the body of Reginald Dimmock to the mortuary
+adjoining the place of inquest, and a suitable vehicle waited at the
+back entrance of the hotel.
+
+The inspector had also brought subpoenas for himself and Prince
+Aribert of Posen and the commissionaire to attend the inquest.
+
+'I thought Mr Dimmock's remains were removed last night,' said
+Racksole wearily.
+
+'No, sir. The fact is the van was engaged on another job.'
+
+The inspector gave the least hint of a professional smile, and
+Racksole, disgusted, told him curtly to go and perform his duties.
+
+In a few minutes a message came from the inspector requesting Mr
+Racksole to be good enough to come to him on the first floor.
+Racksole went. In the ante-room, where the body of Reginald
+Dimmock had originally been placed, were the inspector and
+Prince Aribert, and two policemen.
+
+'Well?' said Racksole, after he and the Prince had exchanged bows.
+Then he saw a coffin laid across two chairs. 'I see a coffin has been
+obtained,' he remarked. 'Quite right' He approached it. 'It's empty,'
+he observed unthinkingly.
+
+'Just so,' said the inspector. 'The body of the deceased has
+disappeared.
+
+And his Serene Highness Prince Aribert informs me that though he
+has occupied a room immediately opposite, on the other side of the
+corridor, he can throw no light on the affair.'
+
+'Indeed, I cannot!' said the Prince, and though he spoke with
+sufficient calmness and dignity, you could see that he was deeply
+pained, even distressed.
+
+'Well, I'm - ' murmured Racksole, and stopped.
+
+Chapter Seven NELLA AND THE PRINCE
+
+IT appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous an
+article as a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace,
+no hint, no clue as to the time or the manner of the performance of
+the deed. After the first feeling of surprise, Racksole grew coldly
+and severely angry. He had a mind to dismiss the entire staff of the
+hotel. He personally examined the night-watchman, the
+chambermaids and all other persons who by chance might or ought
+to know something of the affair; but without avail. The corpse of
+Reginald Dimmock had vanished utterly - disappeared like a
+fleshless spirit.
+
+Of course there were the police. But Theodore Racksole held the
+police in sorry esteem. He acquainted them with the facts,
+answered their queries with a patient weariness, and expected,
+nothing whatever from that quarter. He also had several interviews
+with Prince Aribert of Posen, but though the Prince was suavity
+itself and beyond doubt genuinely concerned about the fate of his
+dead attendant, yet it seemed to Racksole that he was keeping
+something back, that he hesitated to say all he knew. Racksole,
+with characteristic insight, decided that the death of Reginald
+Dimmock was only a minor event, which had occurred, as it were,
+on the fringe of some far more profound mystery. And, therefore,
+he decided to wait, with his eyes very wide open, until something
+else happened that would throw light on the business. At the
+moment he took only one measure - he arranged that the theft of
+Dimmock's body should not appear in the newspapers. It is
+astonishing how well a secret can be kept, when the possessors of
+the secret are handled with the proper mixture of firmness and
+persuasion. Racksole managed this very neatly. It was a
+complicated job, and his success in it rather pleased him.
+
+At the same time he was conscious of being temporarily worsted
+by an unknown group of schemers, in which he felt convinced that
+Jules was an important item. He could scarcely look Nella in the
+eyes. The girl had evidently expected him to unmask this
+conspiracy at once, with a single stroke of the millionaire's magic
+wand. She was thoroughly accustomed, in the land of her birth, to
+seeing him achieve impossible feats. Over there he was a 'boss';
+men trembled before his name; when he wished a thing to happen -
+well, it happened; if he desired to know a thing, he just knew it.
+But here, in London, Theodore Racksole was not quite the same
+Theodore Racksole. He dominated New York; but London, for the
+most part, seemed not to take much interest in him; and there were
+certainly various persons in London who were capable of snapping
+their fingers at him - at Theodore Racksole. Neither he nor his
+daughter could get used to that fact.
+
+As for Nella, she concerned herself for a little with the ordinary
+business of the bureau, and watched the incomings and outgoings
+of Prince Aribert with a kindly interest. She perceived, what her
+father had failed to perceive, that His Highness had assumed an
+attitude of reserve merely to hide the secret distraction and dismay
+which consumed him. She saw that the poor fellow had no settled
+plan in his head, and that he was troubled by something which, so
+far, he had confided to nobody. It came to her knowledge that each
+morning he walked to and fro on the Victoria Embankment, alone,
+and apparently with no object. On the third morning she decided
+that driving exercise on the Embankment would be good for her
+health, and thereupon ordered a carriage and issued forth, arrayed
+in a miraculous putty-coloured gown. Near Blackfriars Bridge she
+met the Prince, and the carriage was drawn up by the pavement.
+
+'Good morning, Prince,' she greeted him. 'Are you mistaking this
+for Hyde Park?'
+
+He bowed and smiled.
+
+'I usually walk here in the mornings,' he said.
+
+'You surprise me,' she returned. 'I thought I was the only person in
+London who preferred the Embankment, with this view of the
+river, to the dustiness of Hyde Park. I can't imagine how it is that
+London will never take exercise anywhere except in that ridiculous
+Park. Now, if they had Central Park - '
+
+'I think the Embankment is the finest spot in all London,' he said.
+
+She leaned a little out of the landau, bringing her face nearer to
+his.
+
+'I do believe we are kindred spirits, you and I,' she murmured; and
+then, 'Au revoir, Prince!'
+
+'One moment, Miss Racksole.' His quick tones had a note of
+entreaty.
+
+'I am in a hurry,' she fibbed; 'I am not merely taking exercise this
+morning. You have no idea how busy we are.'
+
+'Ah! then I will not trouble you. But I leave the Grand Babylon
+to-night'
+
+'Do you?' she said. 'Then will your Highness do me the honour of
+lunching with me today in Father's room? Father will be out - he is
+having a day in the City with some stockbroking persons.'
+
+'I shall be charmed,' said the Prince, and his face showed that he
+meant it.
+
+ Nella drove off.
+
+If the lunch was a success that result was due partly to Rocco, and
+partly to Nella. The Prince said little beyond what the ordinary
+rules of the conversational game demanded. His hostess talked
+much and talked well, but she failed to rouse her guest. When they
+had had coffee he took a rather formal leave of her.
+
+'Good-bye, Prince,' she said, 'but I thought - that is, no I didn't.
+
+Good-bye.'
+
+'You thought I wished to discuss something with you. I did; but I
+have decided that I have no right to burden your mind with my
+affairs.'
+
+'But suppose - suppose I wish to be burdened?'
+
+'That is your good nature.'
+
+'Sit down,' she said abruptly, 'and tell me everything; mind,
+everything. I adore secrets.'
+
+Almost before he knew it he was talking to her, rapidly, eagerly.
+
+'Why should I weary you with my confidences?' he said. 'I don't
+know, I cannot tell; but I feel that I must. I feel that you will
+understand me better than anyone else in the world. And yet why
+should you understand me? Again, I don't know. Miss Racksole, I
+will disclose to you the whole trouble in a word. Prince Eugen, the
+hereditary Grand Duke of Posen, has disappeared. Four days ago I
+was to have met him at Ostend. He had affairs in London. He
+wished me to come with him. I sent Dimmock on in front, and
+waited for Eugen. He did not arrive. I telegraphed back to
+Cologne, his last stopping-place, and I learned that he had left
+there in accordance with his programme; I leamed also that he had
+passed through Brussels. It must have been between Brussels and
+the railway station at Ostend Quay that he disappeared. He was
+travelling with a single equerry, and the equerry, too, has vanished.
+I need not explain to you, Miss Racksole, that when a person of the
+importance of my nephew contrives to get lost one must proceed
+cautiously. One cannot advertise for him in the London Times.
+Such a disappearance must be kept secret. The people at Posen and
+at Berlin believe that Eugen is in London, here, at this hotel; or,
+rather, they did so believe. But this morning I received a cypher
+telegram from - from His Majesty the Emperor, a very peculiar
+telegram, asking when Eugen might be expected to return to
+Posen, and requesting that he should go first to Berlin. That
+telegram was addressed to myself. Now, if the Emperor thought
+that Eugen was here, why should he have caused the telegram to
+be addressed to me? I have hesitated for three days, but I can
+hesitate no longer. I must myself go to the Emperor and acquaint
+him with the facts.'
+
+'I suppose you've just got to keep straight with him?' Nella was on
+the point of saying, but she checked herself and substituted, 'The
+Emperor is your chief, is he not? "First among equals", you call
+him.'
+
+'His Majesty is our over-lord,' said Aribert quietly.
+
+'Why do you not take immediate steps to inquire as to the
+whereabouts of your Royal nephew?' she asked simply. The affair
+seemed to her just then so plain and straightforward.
+
+'Because one of two things may have happened. Either Eugen may
+have been, in plain language, abducted, or he may have had his
+own reasons for changing his programme and keeping in the
+background - out of reach of telegraph and post and railways.'
+
+'What sort of reasons?'
+
+'Do not ask me. In the history of every family there are passages - '
+He stopped.
+
+'And what was Prince Eugen's object in coming to London?'
+
+Aribert hesitated.
+
+'Money,' he said at length. 'As a family we are very poor - poorer
+than anyone in Berlin suspects.'
+
+'Prince Aribert,' Nella said, 'shall I tell you what I think?' She
+leaned back in her chair, and looked at him out of half-closed eyes.
+His pale, thin, distinguished face held her gaze as if by some
+fascination. There could be no mistaking this man for anything
+else but a Prince.
+
+'If you will,' he said.
+
+'Prince Eugen is the victim of a plot.'
+
+'You think so?'
+
+'I am perfectly convinced of it.'
+
+'But why? What can be the object of a plot against him?'
+
+'That is a point of which you should know more than me,' she
+remarked drily.
+
+ 'Ah! Perhaps, perhaps,' he said. 'But, dear Miss Racksole, why are
+you so sure?'
+
+'There are several reasons, and they are connected with Mr
+Dimmock. Did you ever suspect, your Highness, that that poor
+young man was not entirely loyal to you?'
+
+'He was absolutely loyal,' said the Prince, with all the earnestness
+of conviction.
+
+'A thousand pardons, but he was not.'
+
+'Miss Racksole, if any other than yourself made that assertion, I
+would - I would - '
+
+'Consign them to the deepest dungeon in Posen?' she laughed,
+lightly.
+
+'Listen.' And she told him of the incidents which had occurred in
+the night preceding his arrival in the hotel.
+
+'Do you mean, Miss Racksole, that there was an understanding
+between poor Dimmock and this fellow Jules?'
+
+'There was an understanding.'
+
+'Impossible!'
+
+'Your Highness, the man who wishes to probe a mystery to its root
+never uses the word "impossible". But I will say this for young Mr
+Dimmock. I think he repented, and I think that it was because he
+repented that he - er - died so suddenly, and that his body was
+spirited away.'
+
+'Why has no one told me these things before?' Aribert exclaimed.
+
+'Princes seldom hear the truth,' she said.
+
+He was astonished at her coolness, her firmness of assertion, her
+air of complete acquaintance with the world.
+
+'Miss Racksole,' he said, 'if you will permit me to say it, I have
+never in my life met a woman like you. May I rely on your
+sympathy - your support?'
+
+'My support, Prince? But how?'
+
+'I do not know,' he replied. 'But you could help me if you would. A
+woman, when she has brain, always has more brain than a man.'
+
+'Ah!' she said ruefully, 'I have no brains, but I do believe I could
+help you.'
+
+What prompted her to make that assertion she could not have
+explained, even to herself. But she made it, and she had a
+suspicion - a prescience - that it would be justified, though by what
+means, through what good fortune, was still a mystery to her.
+
+'Go to Berlin,' she said. 'I see that you must do that; you have no
+alternative. As for the rest, we shall see. Something will occur. I
+shall be here. My father will be here. You must count us as your
+friends.'
+
+He kissed her hand when he left, and afterwards, when she was
+alone, she kissed the spot his lips had touched again and again.
+Now, thinking the matter out in the calmness of solitude, all
+seemed strange, unreal, uncertain to her. Were conspiracies
+actually possible nowadays? Did queer things actually happen in
+Europe? And did they actually happen in London hotels? She
+dined with her father that night.
+
+'I hear Prince Aribert has left,' said Theodore Racksole.
+
+'Yes,' she assented. She said not a word about their interview.
+
+Chapter Eight ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF THE
+BARONESS
+
+ON the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied
+by a maid and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the
+Grand Babylon Hotel. She was a plump, little old lady, with white
+hair and an old-fashioned bonnet, and she had a quaint, simple
+smile of surprise at everything in general.
+
+Nevertheless, she gave the impression of belonging to some
+aristocracy, though not the English aristocracy. Her tone to her
+maid, whom she addressed in broken English - the girl being
+apparently English - was distinctly insolent, with the calm,
+unconscious insolence peculiar to a certain type of Continental
+nobility. The name on the lady's card ran thus: 'Baroness Zerlinski'.
+She desired rooms on the third floor. It happened that Nella was in
+the bureau.
+
+'On the third floor, madam?' questioned Nella, in her best clerkly
+manner.
+
+'I did say on de tird floor,' said the plump little old lady.
+
+'We have accommodation on the second floor.'
+
+'I wish to be high up, out of de dust and in de light,' explained the
+Baroness.
+
+'We have no suites on the third floor, madam.'
+
+'Never mind, no mattaire! Have you not two rooms that
+communicate?'
+
+Nella consulted her books, rather awkwardly.
+
+'Numbers 122 and 123 communicate.'
+
+'Or is it 121 and 122? the little old lady remarked quickly, and then
+bit her lip.
+
+'I beg your pardon. I should have said 121 and 122.'
+
+At the moment Nella regarded the Baroness's correction of her
+figures as a curious chance, but afterwards, when the Baroness had
+ascended in the lift, the thing struck her as somewhat strange.
+Perhaps the Baroness Zerlinski had stayed at the hotel before. For
+the sake of convenience an index of visitors to the hotel was kept
+and the index extended back for thirty years. Nella examined it,
+but it did not contain the name of Zerlinski. Then it was that Nella
+began to imagine, what had swiftly crossed her mind when first the
+Baroness presented herself at the bureau, that the features of the
+Baroness were remotely familiar to her. She thought, not that she
+had seen the old lady's face before, but that she had seen
+somewhere, some time, a face of a similar cast. It occurred to
+Nella to look at the 'Almanach de Gotha' - that record of all the
+mazes of Continental blue blood; but the 'Almanach de Gotha'
+made no reference to any barony of Zerlinski. Nella inquired
+where the Baroness meant to take lunch, and was informed that a
+table had been reserved for her in the dining-room, and she at once
+decided to lunch in the dining-room herself. Seated in a corner,
+half-hidden by a pillar, she could survey all the guests, and watch
+each group as it entered or left. Presently the Baroness appeared,
+dressed in black, with a tiny lace shawl, despite the June warmth;
+very stately, very quaint, and gently smiling. Nella observed her
+intently. The lady ate heartily, working without haste and without
+delay through the elaborate menu of the luncheon. Nella noticed
+that she had beautiful white teeth. Then a remarkable thing
+happened. A cream puff was served to the Baroness by way of
+sweets, and Nella was astonished to see the little lady remove the
+top, and with a spoon quietly take something from the interior
+which looked like a piece of folded paper. No one who had not
+been watching with the eye of a lynx would have noticed anything
+extraordinary in the action; indeed, the chances were nine hundred
+and ninety-nine to one that it would pass unheeded. But,
+unfortunately for the Baroness, it was the thousandth chance that
+happened. Nella jumped up, and walking over to the Baroness,
+said to her:
+
+'I'm afraid that the tart is not quite nice, your ladyship.'
+
+'Thanks, it is delightful,' said the Baroness coldly; her smile had
+vanished. 'Who are you? I thought you were de bureau clerk.'
+
+'My father is the owner of this hoteL I thought there was something
+in the tart which ought not to have been there.'
+
+Nella looked the Baroness full in the face. The piece of folded
+paper, to which a little cream had attached itself, lay under the
+edge of a plate.
+
+'No, thanks.' The Baroness smiled her simple smile.
+
+Nella departed. She had noticed one trifling thing besides the
+paper - namely, that the Baroness could pronounce the English 'th'
+sound if she chose.
+
+That afternoon, in her own room, Nella sat meditating at the
+window for long time, and then she suddenly sprang up, her eyes
+brightening.
+
+'I know,' she exclaimed, clapping her hands. 'It's Miss Spencer,
+disguised!
+
+Why didn't I think of that before?' Her thoughts ran instantly to
+Prince Aribert. 'Perhaps I can help him,' she said to herself, and
+gave a little sigh. She went down to the office and inquired
+whether the Baroness had given any instructions about dinner. She
+felt that some plan must be formulated. She wanted to get hold of
+Rocco, and put him in the rack. She knew now that Rocco, the
+unequalled, was also concerned in this mysterious affair.
+
+'The Baroness Zerlinski has left, about a quarter of an hour ago,'
+said the attendant.
+
+'But she only arrived this morning.'
+
+'The Baroness's maid said that her mistress had received a telegram
+and must leave at once. The Baroness paid the bill, and went away
+in a four-wheeler.'
+
+ 'Where to? 'The trunks were labelled for Ostend.'
+
+Perhaps it was instinct, perhaps it was the mere spirit of adventure;
+but that evening Nella was to be seen of all men on the steamer for
+Ostend which leaves Dover at 11 p.m. She told no one of her
+intentions - not even her father, who was not in the hotel when she
+left. She had scribbled a brief note to him to expect her back in a
+day or two, and had posted this at Dover. The steamer was the
+Marie Henriette, a large and luxurious boat, whose state-rooms on
+deck vie with the glories of the Cunard and White Star liners. One
+of these state-rooms, the best, was evidently occupied, for every
+curtain of its windows was carefully drawn. Nella did not hope
+that the Baroness was on board; it was quite possible for the
+Baroness to have caught the eight o'clock steamer, and it was also
+possible for the Baroness not to have gone to Ostend at all, but to
+some other place in an entirely different direction. Nevertheless,
+Nella had a faint hope that the lady who called herself Zerlinski
+might be in that curtained stateroom, and throughout the smooth
+moonlit voyage she never once relaxed her observation of its doors
+and its windows.
+
+The Maria Henriette arrived in Ostend Harbour punctually at 2
+a.m. in the morning. There was the usual heterogeneous,
+gesticulating crowd on the quay.
+
+Nella kept her post near the door of the state-room, and at length
+she was rewarded by seeing it open. Four middle-aged Englishmen
+issued from it. From a glimpse of the interior Nella saw that they
+had spent the voyage in card-playing.
+
+It would not be too much to say that she was distinctly annoyed.
+She pretended to be annoyed with circumstances, but really she
+was annoyed with Nella Racksole. At two in the morning, without
+luggage, without any companionship, and without a plan of
+campaign, she found herself in a strange foreign port - a port of
+evil repute, possessing some of the worst-managed hotels in
+Europe. She strolled on the quay for a few minutes, and then she
+saw the smoke of another steamer in the offing. She inquired from
+an official what that steamer might be, and was told that it was the
+eight o'clock from Dover, which had broken down, put into Calais
+for some slight necessary repairs, and was arriving at its
+destination nearly four hours late. Her mercurial spirits rose again.
+A minute ago she was regarding herself as no better than a ninny
+engaged in a wild-goose chase. Now she felt that after all she had
+been very sagacious and cunning. She was morally sure that she
+would find the Zerlinski woman on this second steamer, and she
+took all the credit to herself in advance. Such is human nature.
+
+The steamer seemed interminably slow in coming into harbour.
+Nella walked on the Digue for a few minutes to watch it the better.
+The town was silent and almost deserted. It had a false and sinister
+aspect. She remembered tales which she had heard of this
+glittering resort, which in the season holds more scoundrels than
+any place in Europe, save only Monte Carlo. She remembered that
+the gilded adventures of every nation under the sun forgathered
+there either for business or pleasure, and that some of the most
+wonderful crimes of the latter half of the century had been
+schemed and matured in that haunt of cosmopolitan iniquity.
+
+When the second steamer arrived Nella stood at the end of the
+gangway, close to the ticket-collector. The first person to step on
+shore was - not the Baroness Zerlinski, but Miss Spencer herself!
+Nella turned aside instantly, hiding her face, and Miss Spencer,
+carrying a small bag, hurried with assured footsteps to the Custom
+House. It seemed as if she knew the port of Ostend fairly well. The
+moon shone like day, and Nella had full opportunity to observe her
+quarry. She could see now quite plainly that the Baroness Zerlinski
+had been only Miss Spencer in disguise. There was the same gait,
+the same movement of the head and of the hips; the white hair was
+easily to be accounted for by a wig, and the wrinkles by a paint
+brush and some grease paints. Miss Spencer, whose hair was now
+its old accustomed yellow, got through the Custom House without
+difficulty, and Nella saw her call a closed carriage and say
+something to the driver. The vehicle drove off. Nella jumped into
+the next carriage - an open one - that came up.
+
+'Follow that carriage,' she said succinctly to the driver in French.
+
+'Bien, madame!' The driver whipped up his horse, and the animal
+shot forward with a terrific clatter over the cobbles. It appeared
+that this driver was quite accustomed to following other carriages.
+
+'Now I am fairly in for it!' said Nella to herself. She laughed
+unsteadily, but her heart was beating with an extraordinary thump.
+
+For some time the pursued vehicle kept well in front. It crossed the
+town nearly from end to end, and plunged into a maze of small
+streets far on the south side of the Kursaal. Then gradually Nella's
+equipage began to overtake it. The first carriage stopped with a
+jerk before a tall dark house, and Miss Spencer emerged. Nella
+called to her driver to stop, but he, determined to be in at the
+death, was engaged in whipping his horse, and he completely
+ignored her commands. He drew up triumphantly at the tall dark
+house just at the moment when Miss Spencer disappeared into it.
+The other carriage drove away. Nella, uncertain what to do,
+stepped down from her carriage and gave the driver some money.
+At the same moment a man reopened the door of the house, which
+had closed on Miss Spencer.
+
+'I want to see Miss Spencer,' said Nella impulsively. She couldn't
+think of anything else to say.
+
+'Miss Spencer? 'Yes; she's just arrived.'
+
+'It's O.K., I suppose,' said the man.
+
+'I guess so,' said Nella, and she walked past him into the house.
+She was astonished at her own audacity.
+
+Miss Spencer was just going into a room off the narrow hall. Nella
+followed her into the apartment, which was shabbily furnished in
+the Belgian lodging-house style.
+
+'Well, Miss Spencer,' she greeted the former Baroness Zerlinski, 'I
+guess you didn't expect to see me. You left our hotel very suddenly
+this afternoon, and you left it very suddenly a few days ago; and so
+I've just called to make a few inquiries.'
+
+To do the lady justice, Miss Spencer bore the surprising ordeal
+very well.
+
+She did not flinch; she betrayed no emotion. The sole sign of
+perturbation was in her hurried breathing.
+
+'You have ceased to be the Baroness Zerlinski,' Nella continued.
+'May I sit down?'
+
+'Certainly, sit down,' said Miss Spencer, copying the girl's tone.
+'You are a fairly smart young woman, that I will say. What do you
+want? Weren't my books all straight?'
+
+'Your books were all straight. I haven't come about your books. I
+have come about the murder of Reginald Dimmock, the
+disappearance of his corpse, and the disappearance of Prince
+Eugen of Posen. I thought you might be able to help me in some
+investigations which I am making.'
+
+Miss Spencer's eyes gleamed, and she stood up and moved swiftly
+to the mantelpiece.
+
+'You may be a Yankee, but you're a fool,' she said.
+
+She took hold of the bell-rope.
+
+'Don't ring that bell if you value your life,' said Nella.
+
+'If what?' Miss Spencer remarked.
+
+'If you value your life,' said Nella calmly, and with the words she
+pulled from her pocket a very neat and dainty little revolver.
+
+Chapter Nine TWO WOMEN AND THE REVOLVER
+
+'YOU - you're only doing that to frighten me,' stammered Miss
+Spencer, in a low, quavering voice.
+
+'Am I?' Nella replied, as firmly as she could, though her hand
+shook violently with excitement, could Miss Spencer but have
+observed it. 'Am I? You said just now that I might be a Yankee
+girl, but I was a fool. Well, I am a Yankee girl, as you call it; and
+in my country, if they don't teach revolver-shooting in
+boarding-schools, there are at least a lot of girls who can handle a
+revolver. I happen to be one of them. I tell you that if you ring that
+bell you will suffer.'
+
+Most of this was simple bluff on Nella's part, and she trembled lest
+Miss Spencer should perceive that it was simple bluff. Happily for
+her, Miss Spencer belonged to that order of women who have
+every sort of courage except physical courage. Miss Spencer could
+have withstood successfully any moral trial, but persuade her that
+her skin was in danger, and she would succumb. Nella at once
+divined this useful fact, and proceeded accordingly, hiding the
+strangeness of her own sensations as well as she could.
+
+'You had better sit down now,' said Nella, 'and I will ask you a few
+questions.'
+
+And Miss Spencer obediently sat down, rather white, and trying to
+screw her lips into a formal smile.
+
+'Why did you leave the Grand Babylon that night?' Nella began her
+examination, putting on a stern, barrister-like expression.
+
+'I had orders to, Miss Racksole.'
+
+'Whose orders?'
+
+'Well, I'm - I'm - the fact is, I'm a married woman, and it was my
+husband's orders.'
+
+'Who is your husband? 'Tom Jackson - Jules, you know, head
+waiter at the Grand Babylon.'
+
+'So Jules's real name is Tom Jackson? Why did he want you to
+leave without giving notice?'
+
+'I'm sure I don't know, Miss Racksole. I swear I don't know. He's
+my husband, and, of course, I do what he tells me, as you will
+some day do what your husband tells you. Please heaven you'll get
+a better husband than mine!'
+
+Miss Spencer showed a sign of tears.
+
+Nella fingered the revolver, and put it at full cock. 'Well,' she
+repeated, 'why did he want you to leave?' She was tremendously
+surprised at her own coolness, and somewhat pleased with it, too.
+
+'I can't tell you, I can't tell you.'
+
+'You've just got to,' Nella said, in a terrible, remorseless tone.
+
+'He - he wished me to come over here to Ostend. Something had
+gone wrong.
+
+Oh! he's a fearful man, is Tom. If I told you, he'd - '
+
+'Had something gone wrong in the hotel, or over here?'
+
+'Both.'
+
+'Was it about Prince Eugen of Posen?'
+
+'I don't know - that is, yes, I think so.'
+
+'What has your husband to do with Prince Eugen?'
+
+'I believe he has some - some sort of business with him, some
+money business.'
+
+'And was Mr Dimmock in this business? 'I fancy so, Miss
+Racksole. I'm telling you all I know, that I swear.'
+
+'Did your husband and Mr Dimmock have a quarrel that night in
+Room 111?'
+
+'They had some difficulty.'
+
+'And the result of that was that you came to Ostend instantly?'
+
+'Yes; I suppose so.'
+
+'And what were you to do in Ostend? What were your instructions
+from this husband of yours?'
+
+Miss Spencer's head dropped on her arms on the table which
+separated her from Nella, and she appeared to sob violently.
+
+'Have pity on me,' she murmured, 'I can't tell you any more.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'He'd kill me if he knew.'
+
+'You're wandering from the subject,' observed Nella coldly. 'This is
+the last time I shall warn you. Let me tell you plainly I've got the
+best reasons for being desperate, and if anything happens to you I
+shall say I did it in sell-defence. Now, what were you to do in
+Ostend?'
+
+'I shall die for this anyhow,' whined Miss Spencer, and then, with a
+sort of fierce despair, 'I had to keep watch on Prince Eugen.'
+
+'Where? In this house?'
+
+Miss Spencer nodded, and, looking up, Nella could see the traces
+of tears in her face.
+
+'Then Prince Eugen was a prisoner? Some one had captured him at
+the instigation of Jules?'
+
+'Yes, if you must have it.'
+
+'Why was it necessary for you specially to come to Ostend?'
+
+'Oh! Tom trusts me. You see, I know Ostend. Before I took that
+place at the Grand Babylon I had travelled over Europe, and Tom
+knew that I knew a thing or two.'
+
+'Why did you take the place at the Grand Babylon?'
+
+'Because Tom told me to. He said I should be useful to him there.'
+
+'Is your husband an Anarchist, or something of that kind, Miss
+Spencer?'
+
+'I don't know. I'd tell you in a minute if I knew. But he's one of
+those that keep themselves to themselves.'
+
+'Do you know if he has ever committed a murder? 'Never!' said
+Miss Spencer, with righteous repudiation of the mere idea.
+
+'But Mr Dimmock was murdered. He was poisoned. If he had not
+been poisoned why was his body stolen? It must have been stolen
+to prevent inquiry, to hide traces. Tell me about that.'
+
+'I take my dying oath,' said Miss Spencer, standing up a little way
+from the table, 'I take my dying oath I didn't know Mr Dimmock
+was dead till I saw it in the newspaper.'
+
+'You swear you had no suspicion of it?'
+
+'I swear I hadn't.'
+
+Nella was inclined to believe the statement. The woman and the
+girl looked at each other in the tawdry, frowsy, lamp-lit room.
+Miss Spencer nervously patted her yellow hair into shape, as if
+gradually recovering her composure and equanimity. The whole
+affair seemed like a dream to Nella, a disturbing, sinister
+nightmare. She was a little uncertain what to say. She felt that she
+had not yet got hold of any very definite information. 'Where is
+Prince Eugen now?' she asked at length.
+
+'I don't know, miss.'
+
+'He isn't in this house?'
+
+'No, miss.'
+
+'Ah! We will see presently.'
+
+'They took him away, Miss Racksole.'
+
+'Who took him away? Some of your husband's friends?'
+
+'Some of his - acquaintances.'
+
+'Then there is a gang of you?'
+
+'A gang of us - a gang! I don't know what you mean,' Miss Spencer
+quavered.
+
+'Oh, but you must know,' smiled Nella calmly. 'You can't possibly
+be so innocent as all that, Mrs Tom Jackson. You can't play games
+with me. You've just got to remember that I'm what you call a
+Yankee girl. There's one thing that I mean to find out, within the
+next five minutes, and that is - how your charming husband
+kidnapped Prince Eugen, and why he kidnapped him. Let us begin
+with the second question. You have evaded it once.'
+
+Miss Spencer looked into Nella's face, and then her eyes dropped,
+and her fingers worked nervously with the tablecloth.
+
+'How can I tell you,' she said, 'when I don't know? You've got the
+whip-hand of me, and you're tormenting me for your own
+pleasure.' She wore an expression of persecuted innocence.
+
+'Did Mr Tom Jackson want to get some money out of Prince
+Eugen?'
+
+'Money! Not he! Tom's never short of money.'
+
+'But I mean a lot of money - tens of thousands, hundreds of
+thousands?'
+
+'Tom never wanted money from anyone,' said Miss Spencer
+doggedly.
+
+'Then had he some reason for wishing to prevent Prince Eugen
+from coming to London?'
+
+'Perhaps he had. I don't know. If you kill me, I don't know.' Nella
+stopped to reflect. Then she raised the revolver. It was a
+mechanical, unintentional sort of action, and certainly she had no
+intention of using the weapon, but, strange to say, Miss Spencer
+again cowered before it. Even at that moment Nella wondered that
+a woman like Miss Spencer could be so simple as to think the
+revolver would actually be used. Having absolutely no physical
+cowardice herself, Nella had the greatest difficulty in imagining
+that other people could be at the mercy of a bodily fear. Still, she
+saw her advantage, and used it relentlessly, and with as much
+theatrical gesture as she could command. She raised the revolver
+till it was level with Miss Spencer's face, and suddenly a new,
+queer feeling took hold of her. She knew that she would indeed
+use that revolver now, if the miserable woman before her drove
+her too far. She felt afraid - afraid of herself; she was in the grasp
+of a savage, primeval instinct. In a flash she saw Miss Spencer
+dead at her feet - the police - a court of justice - the scaffold. It was
+horrible.
+
+'Speak,' she said hoarsely, and Miss Spencer's face went whiter.
+
+'Tom did say,' the woman whispered rapidly, awesomely, 'that if
+Prince Eugen got to London it would upset his scheme.'
+
+'What scheme? What scheme? Answer me.'
+
+'Heaven help me, I don't know.' Miss Spencer sank into a chair. 'He
+said Mr Dimmock had turned tail, and he should have to settle him
+and then Rocco - '
+
+ 'Rocco! What about Rocco?' Nella could scarcely hear herself. Her
+grip of the revolver tightened.
+
+Miss Spencer's eyes opened wider; she gazed at Nella with a glassy
+stare.
+
+'Don't ask me. It's death!' Her eyes were fixed as if in horror.
+
+'It is,' said Nella, and the sound of her voice seemed to her to issue
+from the lips of some third person.
+
+'It's death,' repeated Miss Spencer, and gradually her head and
+shoulders sank back, and hung loosely over the chair. Nella was
+conscious of a sudden revulsion. The woman had surely fainted.
+Dropping the revolver she ran round the table. She was herself
+again - feminine, sympathetic, the old Nella. She felt immensely
+relieved that this had happened. But at the same instant Miss
+Spencer sprang up from the chair like a cat, seized the revolver,
+and with a wild movement of the arm flung it against the window.
+It crashed through the glass, exploding as it went, and there was a
+tense silence.
+
+'I told you that you were a fool,' remarked Miss Spencer slowly,
+'coming here like a sort of female Jack Sheppard, and trying to get
+the best of me.
+
+We are on equal terms now. You frightened me, but I knew I was a
+cleverer woman than you, and that in the end, if I kept on long
+enough, I should win.
+
+Now it will be my turn.'
+
+Dumbfounded, and overcome with a miserable sense of the truth
+of Miss Spencer's words, Nella stood still. The idea of her colossal
+foolishness swept through her like a flood. She felt almost
+ashamed. But even at this juncture she had no fear. She faced the
+woman bravely, her mind leaping about in search of some plan.
+She could think of nothing but a bribe - an enormous bribe.
+
+'I admit you've won,' she said, 'but I've not finished yet. Just listen.'
+
+Miss Spencer folded her arms, and glanced at the door, smiling
+bitterly.
+
+'You know my father is a millionaire; perhaps you know that he is
+one of the richest men in the world. If I give you my word of
+honour not to reveal anything that you've told me, what will you
+take to let me go free?'
+
+'What sum do you suggest?' asked Miss Spencer carelessly.
+
+'Twenty thousand pounds,' said Nella promptly. She had begun to
+regard the affair as a business operation.
+
+Miss Spencer's lip curled.
+
+'A hundred thousand.'
+
+Again Miss Spencer's lip curled.
+
+'Well, say a million. I can rely on my father, and so may you.'
+
+'You think you are worth a million to him?'
+
+'I do,' said Nella.
+
+'And you think we could trust you to see that it was paid?'
+
+'Of course you could.'
+
+'And we should not suffer afterwards in any way?'
+
+'I would give you my word, and my father's word.'
+
+'Bah!' exclaimed Miss Spencer: 'how do you know I wouldn't let
+you go free for nothing? You are only a rash, silly girl.'
+
+'I know you wouldn't. I can read your face too well.'
+
+'You are right,' Miss Spencer replied slowly. 'I wouldn't. I wouldn't
+let you go for all the dollars in America.'
+
+Nella felt cold down the spine, and sat down again in her chair. A
+draught of air from the broken window blew on her cheek. Steps
+sounded in the passage; the door opened, but Nella did not turn
+round. She could not move her eyes from Miss Spencer's. There
+was a noise of rushing water in her ears. She lost consciousness,
+and slipped limply to the ground.
+
+Chapter Ten AT SEA
+
+IT seemed to Nella that she was being rocked gently in a vast
+cradle, which swayed to and fro with a motion at once slow and
+incredibly gentle. This sensation continued for some time, and
+there was added to it the sound of a quick, quiet, muffled beat.
+Soft, exhilarating breezes wafted her forward in spite of herself,
+and yet she remained in a delicious calm. She wondered if her
+mother was kneeling by her side, whispering some lullaby in her
+childish ears. Then strange colours swam before her eyes, her
+eyelids wavered, and at last she awoke. For a few moments her
+gaze travelled to and fro in a vain search for some clue to her
+surroundings. was aware of nothing except sense of repose and a
+feeling of relief that some mighty and fatal struggle was over; she
+cared not whether she had conquered or suffered defeat in the
+struggle of her soul with some other soul; it was finished, done
+with, and the consciousness of its conclusion satisfied and
+contented her. Gradually her brain, recovering from its obsession,
+began to grasp the phenomena of her surroundings, and she saw
+that she was on a yacht, and that the yacht was moving. The
+motion of the cradle was the smooth rolling of the vessel; the beat
+was the beat of its screw; the strange colours were the cloud tints
+thrown by the sun as it rose over a distant and receding shore in the
+wake of the yacht; her mother's lullaby was the crooned song of
+the man at the wheel. Nella all through her life had had many
+experiences of yachting. From the waters of the River Hudson to
+those bluer tides of the Mediterranean Sea, she had yachted in all
+seasons and all weathers. She loved the water, and now it seemed
+deliciously right and proper that she should be on the water again.
+She raised her head to look round, and then let it sink back:
+
+she was fatigued, enervated; she desired only solitude and calm;
+she had no care, no anxiety, no responsibility: a hundred years
+might have passed since her meeting with Miss Spencer, and the
+memory of that meeting appeared to have faded into the remotest
+background of her mind.
+
+It was a small yacht, and her practised eye at once told that it
+belonged to the highest aristocracy of pleasure craft. As she
+reclined in the deck-chair (it did not occur to her at that moment to
+speculate as to the identity of the person who had led her therein)
+she examined all visible details of the vessel. The deck was as
+white and smooth as her own hand, and the seams ran along its
+length like blue veins. All the brass-work, from the band round the
+slender funnel to the concave surface of the binnacle, shone like
+gold.
+
+The tapered masts stretched upwards at a rakish angle, and the
+rigging seemed like spun silk. No sails were set; the yacht was
+under steam, and doing about seven or eight knots. She judged that
+it was a boat of a hundred tons or so, probably Clyde-built, and not
+more than two or three years old.
+
+No one was to be seen on deck except the man at the wheel: this
+man wore a blue jersey; but there was neither name nor initial on
+the jersey, nor was there a name on the white life-buoys lashed to
+the main rigging, nor on the polished dinghy which hung on the
+starboard davits. She called to the man, and called again, in a
+feeble voice, but the steerer took no notice of her, and continued
+his quiet song as though nothing else existed in the universe save
+the yacht, the sea, the sun, and himself.
+
+Then her eyes swept the outline of the land from which they were
+hastening, and she could just distinguish a lighthouse and a great
+white irregular dome, which she recognized as the Kursaal at
+Ostend, that gorgeous rival of the gaming palace at Monte Carlo.
+So she was leaving Ostend. The rays of the sun fell on her
+caressingly, like a restorative. All around the water was changing
+from wonderful greys and dark blues to still more wonderful pinks
+and translucent unearthly greens; the magic kaleidoscope of dawn
+was going forward in its accustomed way, regardless of the
+vicissitudes of mortals.
+
+Here and there in the distance she descried a sail - the brown sail
+of some Ostend fishing-boat returning home after a night's
+trawling. Then the beat of paddles caught her ear, and a steamer
+blundered past, wallowing clumsily among the waves like a
+tortoise. It was the Swallow from London. She could see some of
+its passengers leaning curiously over the aft-rail. A girl in a
+mackintosh signalled to her, and mechanically she answered the
+salute with her arm. The officer of the bridge of the Swallow
+hailed the yacht, but the man at the wheel offered no reply. In
+another minute the Swallow was nothing but a blot in the distance.
+
+Nella tried to sit straight in the deck-chair, but she found herself
+unable to do so. Throwing off the rug which covered her, she
+discovered that she had been tied to the chair by means of a piece
+of broad webbing. Instantly she was alert, awake, angry; she knew
+that her perils were not over; she felt that possibly they had
+scarcely yet begun. Her lazy contentment, her dreamy sense of
+peace and repose, vanished utterly, and she steeled herself to meet
+the dangers of a grave and difficult situation.
+
+Just at that moment a man came up from below. He was a man of
+forty or so, clad in irreproachable blue, with a peaked yachting
+cap. He raised the cap politely.
+
+'Good morning,' he said. 'Beautiful sunrise, isn't it?' The clever and
+calculated insolence of his tone cut her like a lash as she lay bound
+in the chair. Like all people who have lived easy and joyous lives
+in those fair regions where gold smoothes every crease and law
+keeps a tight hand on disorder, she found it hard to realize that
+there were other regions where gold was useless and law without
+power. Twenty-four hours ago she would have declared it
+impossible that such an experience as she had suffered could
+happen to anyone; she would have talked airily about civilization
+and the nineteenth century, and progress and the police. But her
+experience was teaching her that human nature remains always the
+same, and that beneath the thin crust of security on which we good
+citizens exist the dark and secret forces of crime continue to move,
+just as they did in the days when you couldn't go from Cheapside
+to Chelsea without being set upon by thieves. Her experience was
+in a fair way to teach her this lesson better than she could have
+learnt it even in the bureaux of the detective police of Paris,
+London, and St Petersburg.
+
+'Good morning,' the man repeated, and she glanced at him with a
+sullen, angry gaze.
+
+'You!' she exclaimed, 'You, Mr Thomas Jackson, if that is your
+name! Loose me from this chair, and I will talk to you.' Her eyes
+flashed as she spoke, and the contempt in them added mightily to
+her beauty. Mr Thomas Jackson, otherwise Jules, erstwhile head
+waiter at the Grand Babylon, considered himself a connoisseur in
+feminine loveliness, and the vision of Nella Racksole smote him
+like an exquisite blow.
+
+'With pleasure,' he replied. 'I had forgotten that to prevent you from
+falling I had secured you to the chair'; and with a quick movement
+he unfastened the band. Nella stood up, quivering with fiery
+annoyance and scorn.
+
+'Now,' she said, fronting him, 'what is the meaning of this?'
+
+'You fainted,' he replied imperturbably. 'Perhaps you don't
+remember.'
+
+The man offered her a deck-chair with a characteristic gesture.
+Nella was obliged to acknowledge, in spite of herself, that the
+fellow had distinction, an air of breeding. No one would have
+guessed that for twenty years he had been an hotel waiter. His
+long, lithe figure, and easy, careless carriage seemed to be the
+figure and carriage of an aristocrat, and his voice was quiet,
+restrained, and authoritative.
+
+'That has nothing to do with my being carried off in this yacht of
+yours.'
+
+'It is not my yacht,' he said, 'but that is a minor detail. As to the
+more important matter, forgive me that I remind you that only a
+few hours ago you were threatening a lady in my house with a
+revolver.'
+
+'Then it was your house?'
+
+'Why not? May I not possess a house?' He smiled.
+
+'I must request you to put the yacht about at once, instantly, and
+take me back.' She tried to speak firmly.
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'I am afraid that's impossible. I didn't put out to sea
+with the intention of returning at once, instantly.' In the last words
+he gave a faint imitation of her tone.
+
+'When I do get back,' she said, 'when my father gets to know of this
+affair, it will be an exceedingly bad day for you, Mr Jackson.'
+
+'But supposing your father doesn't hear of it - '
+
+'What?'
+
+'Supposing you never get back?'
+
+'Do you mean, then, to have my murder on your conscience?'
+
+'Talking of murder,' he said, 'you came very near to murdering my
+friend, Miss Spencer. At least, so she tells me.'
+
+'Is Miss Spencer on board?' Nella asked, seeing perhaps a faint ray
+of hope in the possible presence of a woman.
+
+'Miss Spencer is not on board. There is no one on board except you
+and myself and a small crew - a very discreet crew, I may add.'
+
+'I will have nothing more to say to you. You must take your own
+course.'
+
+Thanks for the permission,' he said. 'I will send you up some
+breakfast.'
+
+He went to the saloon stairs and whistled, and a Negro boy
+appeared with a tray of chocolate. Nella took it, and, without the
+slightest hesitation, threw it overboard. Mr Jackson walked away a
+few steps and then returned.
+
+'You have spirit,' he said, 'and I admire spirit. It is a rare quality.'
+
+She made no reply. 'Why did you mix yourself up in my affairs at
+all?' he went on. Again she made no reply, but the question set her
+thinking: why had she mixed herself up in this mysterious
+business? It was quite at variance with the usual methods of her
+gay and butterfly existence to meddle at all with serious things.
+Had she acted merely from a desire to see justice done and
+wickedness punished? Or was it the desire of adventure? Or was it,
+perhaps, the desire to be of service to His Serene Highness Prince
+Aribert? 'It is no fault of mine that you are in this fix,' Jules
+continued. 'I didn't bring you into it. You brought yourself into it.
+You and your father - you have been moving along at a pace which
+is rather too rapid.'
+
+'That remains to be seen,' she put in coldly.
+
+'It does,' he admitted. 'And I repeat that I can't help admiring you -
+that is, when you aren't interfering with my private affairs. That is
+a proceeding which I have never tolerated from anyone - not even
+from a millionaire, nor even from a beautiful woman.' He bowed. 'I
+will tell you what I propose to do. I propose to escort you to a
+place of safety, and to keep you there till my operations are
+concluded, and the possibility of interference entirely removed.
+You spoke just now of murder. What a crude notion that was of
+yours! It is only the amateur who practises murder - '
+
+'What about Reginald Dimmock?' she interjected quickly.
+
+He paused gravely.
+
+'Reginald Dimmock,' he repeated. 'I had imagined his was a case of
+heart disease. Let me send you up some more chocolate. I'm sure
+you're hungry.'
+
+'I will starve before I touch your food,' she said.
+
+'Gallant creature!' he murmured, and his eyes roved over her face.
+Her superb, supercilious beauty overcame him. 'Ah!' he said, 'what
+a wife you would make!' He approached nearer to her. 'You and I,
+Miss Racksole, your beauty and wealth and my brains - we could
+conquer the world. Few men are worthy of you, but I am one of the
+few. Listen! You might do worse. Marry me. I am a great man; I
+shall be greater. I adore you. Marry me, and I will save your life.
+All shall be well. I will begin again. The past shall be as though
+there had been no past.'
+
+'This is somewhat sudden - Jules,' she said with biting contempt.
+
+'Did you expect me to be conventional?' he retorted. 'I love you.'
+
+'Granted,' she said, for the sake of the argument. 'Then what will
+occur to your present wife?'
+
+'My present wife?'
+
+'Yes, Miss Spencer, as she is called.'
+
+'She told you I was her husband?'
+
+'Incidentally she did.'
+
+'She isn't.'
+
+'Perhaps she isn't. But, nevertheless, I think I won't marry you.'
+Nella stood like a statue of scorn before him.
+
+He went still nearer to her. 'Give me a kiss, then; one kiss - I won't
+ask for more; one kiss from those lips, and you shall go free. Men
+have ruined themselves for a kiss. I will.'
+
+'Coward!' she ejaculated.
+
+'Coward!' he repeated. 'Coward, am I? Then I'll be a coward, and
+you shall kiss me whether you will or not.'
+
+He put a hand on her shoulder. As she shrank back from his
+lustrous eyes, with an involuntary scream, a figure sprang out of
+the dinghy a few feet away. With a single blow, neatly directed to
+Mr Jackson's ear, Mr Jackson was stretched senseless on the deck.
+Prince Aribert of Posen stood over him with a revolver. It was
+probably the greatest surprise of Mr Jackson's whole life.
+
+'Don't be alarmed,' said the Prince to Nella, 'my being here is the
+simplest thing in the world, and I will explain it as soon as I have
+finished with this fellow.'
+
+Nella could think of nothing to say, but she noticed the revolver in
+the Prince's hand.
+
+'Why,' she remarked, 'that's my revolver.'
+
+'It is,' he said, 'and I will explain that, too.'
+
+The man at the wheel gave no heed whatever to the scene.
+
+Chapter Eleven THE COURT PAWNBROKER
+
+'MR SAMPSON LEVI wishes to see you, sir.'
+
+These words, spoken by a servant to Theodore Racksole, aroused
+the millionaire from a reverie which had been the reverse of
+pleasant. The fact was, and it is necessary to insist on it, that Mr
+Racksole, owner of the Grand Babylon Hotel, was by no means in
+a state of self-satisfaction. A mystery had attached itself to his
+hotel, and with all his acumen and knowledge of things in general
+he was unable to solve that mystery. He laughed at the fruitless
+efforts of the police, but he could not honestly say that his own
+efforts had been less barren. The public was talking, for, after all,
+the disappearance of poor Dimmock's body had got noised abroad
+in an indirect sort of way, and Theodore Racksole did not like the
+idea of his impeccable hotel being the subject of sinister rumours.
+He wondered, grimly, what the public and the Sunday newspapers
+would say if they were aware of all the other phenomena, not yet
+common property: of Miss Spencer's disappearance, of Jules'
+strange visits, and of the non-arrival of Prince Eugen of Posen.
+Theodore Racksole had worried his brain without result. He had
+conducted an elaborate private investigation without result, and he
+had spent a certain amount of money without result. The police
+said that they had a clue; but Racksole remarked that it was always
+the business of the police to have a clue, that they seldom had
+more than a clue, and that a clue without some sequel to it was a
+pretty stupid business. The only sure thing in the whole affair was
+that a cloud rested over his hotel, his beautiful new toy, the finest
+of its kind. The cloud was not interfering with business, but,
+nevertheless, it was a cloud, and he fiercely resented its presence;
+perhaps it would be more correct to say that he fiercely resented
+his inability to dissipate it.
+
+'Mr Sampson Levi wishes to see you, sir,' the servant repeated,
+having received no sign that his master had heard him.
+
+'So I hear,' said Racksole. 'Does he want to see me, personally?'
+
+'He asked for you, sir.'
+
+'Perhaps it is Rocco he wants to see, about a menu or something of
+that kind?'
+
+'I will inquire, sir,' and the servant made a move to withdraw.
+
+'Stop,' Racksole commanded suddenly. 'Desire Mr Sampson Levi
+to step this way.'
+
+The great stockbroker of the 'Kaffir Circus' entered with a simple
+unassuming air. He was a rather short, florid man, dressed like a
+typical Hebraic financier, with too much watch-chain and too little
+waistcoat. In his fat hand he held a gold-headed cane, and an
+absolutely new silk hat - for it was Friday, and Mr Levi purchased
+a new hat every Friday of his life, holiday times only excepted. He
+breathed heavily and sniffed through his nose a good deal, as
+though he had just performed some Herculean physical labour. He
+glanced at the American millionaire with an expression in which a
+slight embarrassment might have been detected, but at the same
+time his round, red face disclosed a certain frank admiration and
+good nature.
+
+'Mr Racksole, I believe - Mr Theodore Racksole. Proud to meet
+you, sir.'
+
+Such were the first words of Mr Sampson Levi. In form they were
+the greeting of a third-rate chimney-sweep, but, strangely enough,
+Theodore Racksole liked their tone. He said to himself that here,
+precisely where no one would have expected to find one, was an
+honest man.
+
+'Good day,' said Racksole briefly. 'To what do I owe the pleasure - '
+
+'I expect your time is limited,' answered Sampson Levi. 'Anyhow,
+mine is, and so I'll come straight to the point, Mr Racksole. I'm a
+plain man. I don't pretend to be a gentleman or any nonsense of
+that kind. I'm a stockbroker, that's what I am, and I don't care who
+knows it. The other night I had a ball in this hotel. It cost me a
+couple of thousand and odd pounds, and, by the way, I wrote out a
+cheque for your bill this morning. I don't like balls, but they're
+useful to me, and my little wife likes 'em, and so we give 'em.
+Now, I've nothing to say against the hotel management as regards
+that ball: it was very decently done, very decently, but what I want
+to know is this - Why did you have a private detective among my
+guests?'
+
+'A private detective?' exclaimed Racksole, somewhat surprised at
+this charge.
+
+'Yes,' Mr Sampson Levi said firmly, fanning himself in his chair,
+and gazing at Theodore Racksole with the direct earnest
+expression of a man having a grievance. 'Yes; a private detective.
+It's a small matter, I know, and I dare say you think you've got a
+right, as proprietor of the show, to do what you like in that line;
+but I've just called to tell you that I object. I've called as a matter of
+principle. I'm not angry; it's the principle of the thing.'
+
+'My dear Mr Levi,' said Racksole, 'I assure you that, having let the
+Gold Room to a private individual for a private entertainment, I
+should never dream of doing what you suggest.'
+
+'Straight?' asked Mr Sampson Levi, using his own picturesque
+language.
+
+'Straight,' said Racksole smiling.
+
+'There was a gent present at my ball that I didn't ask. I've got a
+wonderful memory for faces, and I know. Several fellows asked
+me afterwards what he was doing there. I was told by someone that
+he was one of your waiters, but I didn't believe that. I know
+nothing of the Grand Babylon; it's not quite my style of tavern, but
+I don't think you'd send one of your own waiters to watch my
+guests - unless, of course, you sent him as a waiter; and this chap
+didn't do any waiting, though he did his share of drinking.'
+
+'Perhaps I can throw some light on this mystery,' said Racksole. 'I
+may tell you that I was already aware that man had attended your
+ball uninvited.'
+
+'How did you get to know?'
+
+'By pure chance, Mr Levi, and not by inquiry. That man was a
+former waiter at this hotel - the head waiter, in fact - Jules. No
+doubt you have heard of him.'
+
+'Not I,' said Mr Levi positively.
+
+'Ah!' said Racksole, 'I was informed that everyone knew Jules, but
+it appears not. Well, be that as it may, previously to the night of
+your ball, I had dismissed Jules. I had ordered him never to enter
+the Babylon again.
+
+But on that evening I encountered him here - not in the Gold
+Room, but in the hotel itself. I asked him to explain his presence,
+and he stated he was your guest. That is all I know of the matter,
+Mr Levi, and I am extremely sorry that you should have thought
+me capable of the enormity of placing a private detective among
+your guests.'
+
+'This is perfectly satisfactory to me,' Mr Sampson Levi said, after a
+pause.
+
+'I only wanted an explanation, and I've got it. I was told by some
+pals of mine in the City I might rely on Mr Theodore Racksole
+going straight to the point, and I'm glad they were right. Now as to
+that feller Jules, I shall make my own inquiries as to him. Might I
+ask you why you dismissed him?'
+
+'I don't know why I dismissed him.'
+
+'You don't know? Oh! come now! I'm only asking because I
+thought you might be able to give me a hint why he turned up
+uninvited at my ball. Sorry if I'm too inquisitive.'
+
+'Not at all, Mr Levi; but I really don't know. I only sort of felt that
+he was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it
+were. See?'
+
+Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. 'If this
+Jules is such a well-known person,' he said, 'how could the feller
+hope to come to my ball without being recognized?'
+
+'Give it up,' said Racksole promptly.
+
+'Well, I'll be moving on,' was Mr Sampson Levi's next remark.
+'Good day, and thank ye. I suppose you aren't doing anything in
+Kaffirs?'
+
+Mr Racksole smiled a negative.
+
+'I thought not,' said Levi. Well, I never touch American rails
+myself, and so I reckon we sha'n't come across each other. Good
+day.'
+
+'Good day,' said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to
+the door.
+
+With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and,
+gazing at Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression,
+remarked:
+
+'Strange things been going on here lately, eh?'
+
+The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.
+
+'Yes,' Racksole assented. 'Know anything about them?'
+
+'Well - no, not exactly,' said Mr Levi. 'But I had a fancy you and I
+might be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.'
+
+'Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,' Racksole said, attracted
+by the evident straightforwardness of the man's tone. 'Now, how
+can we be of service to each other? I flatter myself I'm something
+of a judge of character, especially financial character, and I tell
+you - if you'll put your cards on the table, I'll do ditto with mine.'
+
+'Agreed,' said Mr Sampson Levi. 'I'll begin by explaining my
+interest in your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons
+from a certain Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that
+summons hasn't arrived. It appears that Prince Eugen hasn't come
+to London at all. Now, I could have taken my dying davy that he
+would have been here yesterday at the latest.'
+
+'Why were you so sure?'
+
+'Question for question,' said Levi. 'Let's clear the ground first, Mr
+Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That's a conundrum that's
+been puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past.
+Why did you buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move
+to be?'
+
+'There is no next move,' answered Racksole candidly, 'and I will
+tell you why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. I
+bought it because of a whim.' And then Theodore Racksole gave
+this little Jew, whom he had begun to respect, a faithful account of
+the transaction with Mr Felix  Babylon. 'I suppose,' he added, 'you
+find a difficulty in appreciating my state of mind when I did the
+deal.'
+
+'Not a bit,' said Mr Levi. 'I once bought an electric launch on the
+Thames in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the
+most satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it's a simple
+accident that you own this hotel at the present moment?'
+
+'A simple accident - all because of a beefsteak and a bottle of
+Bass.'
+
+'Um!' grunted Mr Sampson Levi, stroking his triple chin.
+
+'To return to Prince Eugen,' Racksole resumed. 'I was expecting
+His Highness here. The State apartments had been prepared for
+him. He was due on the very afternoon that young Dimmock died.
+But he never came, and I have not heard why he has failed to
+arrive; nor have I seen his name in the papers. What his business
+was in London, I don't know.'
+
+'I will tell you,' said Mr Sampson Levi, 'he was coming to arrange a
+loan.'
+
+'A State loan?'
+
+'No - a private loan.'
+
+'Whom from?'
+
+'From me, Sampson Levi. You look surprised. If you'd lived in
+London a little longer, you'd know that I was just the person the
+Prince would come to. Perhaps you aren't aware that down
+Throgmorton Street way I'm called "The Court Pawnbroker",
+because I arrange loans for the minor, second-class Princes of
+Europe. I'm a stockbroker, but my real business is financing some
+of the little Courts of Europe. Now, I may tell you that the
+Hereditary Prince of Posen particularly wanted a million, and he
+wanted it by a certain date, and he knew that if the affair wasn't
+fixed up by a certain time here he wouldn't be able to get it by that
+certain date. That's why I'm surprised he isn't in London.'
+
+'What did he need a million for?'
+
+'Debts,' answered Sampson Levi laconically.
+
+'His own?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'But he isn't thirty years of age?'
+
+'What of that? He isn't the only European Prince who has run up a
+million of debts in a dozen years. To a Prince the thing is as easy
+as eating a sandwich.'
+
+'And why has he taken this sudden resolution to liquidate them?'
+
+'Because the Emperor and the lady's parents won't let him marry
+till he has done so! And quite right, too! He's got to show a clean
+sheet, or the Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg will never
+be Princess of Posen. Even now the Emperor has no idea how
+much Prince Eugen's debts amount to. If he had - !'
+
+'But would not the Emperor know of this proposed loan?'
+
+'Not necessarily at once. It could be so managed. Twig?' Mr
+Sampson Levi laughed. 'I've carried these little affairs through
+before. After marriage it might be allowed to leak out. And you
+know the Princess Anna's fortune is pretty big! Now, Mr Racksole,'
+he added, abruptly changing his tone, 'where do you suppose
+Prince Eugen has disappeared to? Because if he doesn't turn up
+to-day he can't have that million. To-day is the last day.
+To-morrow the money will be appropriated, elsewhere. Of course,
+I'm not alone in this business, and my friends have something to
+say.'
+
+'You ask me where I think Prince Eugen has disappeared to?'
+
+'I do.'
+
+'Then you think it's a disappearance?'
+
+Sampson Levi nodded. 'Putting two and two together,' he said, 'I
+do. The Dimmock business is very peculiar - very peculiar, indeed.
+Dimmock was a left-handed relation of the Posen family. Twig?
+Scarcely anyone knows that.
+
+He was made secretary and companion to Prince Aribert, just to
+keep him in the domestic circle. His mother was an Irishwoman,
+whose misfortune was that she was too beautiful. Twig?' (Mr
+Sampson Levi always used this extraordinary word when he was in
+a communicative mood.) 'My belief is that Dimmock's death has
+something to do with the disappearance of Prince Eugen.
+
+The only thing that passes me is this: Why should anyone want to
+make Prince Eugen disappear? The poor little Prince hasn't an
+enemy in the world. If he's been "copped", as they say, why has he
+been "copped"? It won't do anyone any good.'
+
+'Won't it?' repeated Racksole, with a sudden flash.
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Mr Levi.
+
+'I mean this: Suppose some other European pauper Prince was
+anxious to marry Princess Anna and her fortune, wouldn't that
+Prince have an interest in stopping this loan of yours to Prince
+Eugen? Wouldn't he have an interest in causing Prince Eugen to
+disappear - at any rate, for a time?'
+
+Sampson Levi thought hard for a few moments.
+
+'Mr Theodore Racksole,' he said at length, 'I do believe you have
+hit on something.'
+
+Chapter Twelve ROCCO AND ROOM NO. 111
+
+ON the afternoon of the same day - the interview just described
+had occurred in the morning - Racksole was visited by another
+idea, and he said to himself that he ought to have thought of it
+before. The conversation with Mr Sampson Levi had continued for
+a considerable time, and the two men had exchanged various
+notions, and agreed to meet again, but the theory that Reginald
+Dimmock had probably been a traitor to his family - a traitor
+whose repentance had caused his death - had not been thoroughly
+discussed; the talk had tended rather to Continental politics, with a
+view to discovering what princely family might have an interest in
+the temporary disappearance of Prince Eugen. Now, as Racksole
+considered in detail the particular affair of Reginald Dimmock,
+deceased, he was struck by one point especially, to wit: Why had
+Dimmock and Jules manoeuvred to turn Nella Racksole out of
+Room No. 111 on that first night? That they had so manoeuvred,
+that the broken window-pane was not a mere accident, Racksole
+felt perfectly sure. He had felt perfectly sure all along; but the
+significance of the facts had not struck him. It was plain to him
+now that there must be something of extraordinary and peculiar
+importance about Room No. 111. After lunch he wandered quietly
+upstairs and looked at Room No. 111; that is to say, he looked at
+the outside of it; it happened to be occupied, but the guest was
+leaving that evening. The thought crossed his mind that there
+could be no object in gazing blankly at the outside of a room; yet
+he gazed; then he wandered quickly down again to the next floor,
+and in passing along the corridor of that floor he stopped, and with
+an involuntary gesture stamped his foot.
+
+'Great Scott!' he said, 'I've got hold of something - No. 111 is
+exactly over the State apartments.'
+
+He went to the bureau, and issued instructions that No. 111 was
+not to be re-let to anyone until further orders. At the bureau they
+gave him Nella's note, which ran thus:
+
+Dearest Papa, - I am going away for a day or two on the trail of a
+due.
+
+If I'm not back in three days, begin to inquire for me at Ostend. Till
+then leave me alone. - Your sagacious daughter, NELL.
+
+These few words, in Nella's large scrawling hand, filled one side of
+the paper. At the bottom was a P.T.O. He turned over, and read the
+sentence, underlined, 'P.S. - Keep an eye on Rocco.'
+
+'I wonder what the little creature is up to?' he murmured, as he tore
+the letter into small fragments, and threw them into the
+waste-paper basket.
+
+Then, without any delay, he took the lift down to the basement,
+with the object of making a preliminary inspection of Rocco in his
+lair. He could scarcely bring himself to believe that this suave and
+stately gentleman, this enthusiast of gastronomy, was concerned in
+the machinations of Jules and other rascals unknown.
+Nevertheless, from habit, he obeyed his daughter, giving her credit
+for a certain amount of perspicuity and cleverness.
+
+The kitchens of the Grand Babylon Hotel are one of the wonders
+of Europe.
+
+Only three years before the events now under narration Felix 
+Babylon had had them newly installed with every device and
+patent that the ingenuity of two continents could supply. They
+covered nearly an acre of superficial space.
+
+They were walled and floored from end to end with tiles and
+marble, which enabled them to be washed down every morning
+like the deck of a man-of-war.
+
+Visitors were sometimes taken to see the potato-paring machine,
+the patent plate-dryer, the Babylon-spit (a contrivance of Felix 
+Babylon's own), the silver-grill, the system of connected
+stock-pots, and other amazing phenomena of the department.
+Sometimes, if they were fortunate, they might also see the artist
+who sculptured ice into forms of men and beasts for table
+ornaments, or the first napkin-folder in London, or the man who
+daily invented fresh designs for pastry and blancmanges. Twelve
+chefs pursued their labours in those kitchens, helped by ninety
+assistant chefs, and a further army of unconsidered menials. Over
+all these was Rocco, supreme and unapproachable. Half-way along
+the suite of kitchens, Rocco had an apartment of his own, wherein
+he thought out those magnificent combinations, those marvellous
+feats of succulence and originality, which had given him his fame.
+Vistors never caught a glimpse of Rocco in the kitchens, though
+sometimes, on a special night, he would stroll nonchalantly
+through the dining-room, like the great man he was, to receive the
+compliments of the hotel habitu�s - people of insight who
+recognized his uniqueness.
+
+Theodore Racksole's sudden and unusual appearance in the kitchen
+caused a little stir. He nodded to some of the chefs, but said
+nothing to anyone, merely wandering about amid the maze of
+copper utensils, and white-capped workers. At length he saw
+Rocco, surrounded by several admiring chefs. Rocco was bending
+over a freshly-roasted partridge which lay on a blue dish. He
+plunged a long fork into the back of the bird, and raised it in the
+air with his left hand. In his right he held a long glittering
+carving-knife. He was giving one of his world-famous exhibitions
+of carving. In four swift, unerring, delicate, perfect strokes he
+cleanly severed the limbs of the partridge. It was a wonderful
+achievement - how wondrous none but the really skilful carver can
+properly appreciate. The chefs emitted a hum of applause, and
+Rocco, long, lean, and graceful, retired to his own apartment.
+Racksole followed him. Rocco sat in a chair, one hand over his
+eyes; he had not noticed Theodore Racksole.
+
+'What are you doing, M. Rocco?' the millionaire asked smiling.
+'Ah!'
+
+exclaimed Rocco, starting up with an apology. 'Pardon! I was
+inventing a new mayonnaise, which I shall need for a certain menu
+next week.'
+
+'Do you invent these things without materials, then?' questioned
+Racksole.
+
+'Certainly. I do dem in my mind. I tink dem. Why should I want
+materials? I know all flavours. I tink, and tink, and tink, and it is
+done. I write down.
+
+I give the recipe to my best chef - dere you are. I need not even
+taste, I know how it will taste. It is like composing music. De great
+composers do not compose at de piano.'
+
+'I see,' said Racksole.
+
+'It is because I work like dat dat you pay me three thousand a year,'
+Rocco added gravely.
+
+'Heard about Jules?' said Racksole abruptly.
+
+'Jules?'
+
+'Yes. He's been arrested in Ostend,' the millionaire continued, lying
+cleverly at a venture. 'They say that he and several others are
+implicated in a murder case - the murder of Reginald Dimmock.'
+
+'Truly?' drawled Rocco, scarcely hiding a yawn. His indifference
+was so superb, so gorgeous, that Racksole instantly divined that it
+was assumed for the occasion.
+
+'It seems that, after all, the police are good for something. But this
+is the first time I ever knew them to be worth their salt. There is to
+be a thorough and systematic search of the hotel to-morrow,'
+Racksole went on. 'I have mentioned it to you to warn you that so
+far as you are concerned the search is of course merely a matter of
+form. You will not object to the detectives looking through your
+rooms?'
+
+'Certainly not,' and Rocco shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'I shall ask you to say nothing about this to anyone,' said Racksole.
+'The news of Jules' arrest is quite private to myself. The papers
+know nothing of it. You comprehend?'
+
+Rocco smiled in his grand manner, and Rocco's master thereupon
+went away.
+
+Racksole was very well satisfied with the little conversation. It was
+perhaps dangerous to tell a series of mere lies to a clever fellow
+like Rocco, and Racksole wondered how he should ultimately
+explain them to this great master-chef if his and Nella's suspicions
+should be unfounded, and nothing came of them. Nevertheless,
+Rocco's manner, a strange elusive something in the man's eyes, had
+nearly convinced Racksole that he was somehow implicated in
+Jules' schemes - and probably in the death of Reginald Dimmock
+and the disappearance of Prince Eugen of Posen.
+
+That night, or rather about half-past one the next morning, when
+the last noises of the hotel's life had died down, Racksole made his
+way to Room 111 on the second floor. He locked the door on the
+inside, and proceeded to examine the place, square foot by square
+foot. Every now and then some creak or other sound startled him,
+and he listened intently for a few seconds. The bedroom was
+furnished in the ordinary splendid style of bedrooms at the Grand
+Babylon Hotel, and in that respect called for no remark. What most
+interested Racksole was the flooring. He pulled up the thick
+Oriental carpet, and peered along every plank, but could discover
+nothing unusual.
+
+Then he went to the dressing-room, and finally to the bathroom,
+both of which opened out of the main room. But in neither of these
+smaller chambers was he any more successful than in the bedroom
+itself. Finally he came to the bath, which was enclosed in a
+panelled casing of polished wood, after the manner of baths. Some
+baths have a cupboard beneath the taps, with a door at the side, but
+this one appeared to have none. He tapped the panels, but not a
+single one of them gave forth that 'curious hollow sound' which
+usually betokens a secret place. Idly he turned the cold-tap of the
+bath, and the water began to rush in. He turned off the cold-tap and
+turned on the waste-tap, and as he did so his knee, which was
+pressing against the panelling, slipped forward. The panelling had
+given way, and he saw that one large panel was hinged from the
+inside, and caught with a hasp, also on the inside. A large space
+within the casing of the end of the bath was thus revealed. Before
+doing anything else, Racksole tried to repeat the trick with the
+waste-tap, but he failed; it would not work again, nor could he in
+any way perceive that there was any connection between the rod of
+the waste-tap and the hasp of the panel. Racksole could not see
+into the cavity within the casing, and the electric light was fixed,
+and could not be moved about like a candle. He felt in his pockets,
+and fortunately discovered a box of matches. Aided by these, he
+looked into the cavity, and saw nothing; nothing except a rather
+large hole at the far end - some three feet from the casing. With
+some difficulty he squeezed himself through the open panel, and
+took a half-kneeling, half-sitting posture within. There he struck a
+match, and it was a most unfortunate thing that in striking, the box
+being half open, he set fire to all the matches, and was half
+smothered in the atrocious stink of phosphorus which resulted.
+One match burned clear on the floor of the cavity, and, rubbing his
+eyes, Racksole picked it up, and looked down the hole which he
+had previously descried. It was a hole apparently bottomless, and
+about eighteen inches square. The curious part about the hole was
+that a rope-ladder hung down it. When he saw that rope-ladder
+Racksole smiled the smile of a happy man.
+
+The match went out.
+
+Should he make a long journey, perhaps to some distant corner of
+the hotel, for a fresh box of matches, or should he attempt to
+descend that rope-ladder in the dark? He decided on the latter
+course, and he was the more strongly moved thereto as he could
+now distinguish a faint, a very faint tinge of light at the bottom of
+the hole.
+
+With infinite care he compressed himself into the well-like hole,
+and descended the latter. At length he arrived on firm ground,
+perspiring, but quite safe and quite excited. He saw now that the
+tinge of light came through a small hole in the wood. He put his
+eye to the wood, and found that he had a fine view of the State
+bathroom, and through the door of the State bathroom into the
+State bedroom. At the massive marble-topped washstand in the
+State bedroom a man was visible, bending over some object which
+lay thereon.
+
+The man was Rocco!
+
+Chapter Thirteen IN THE STATE BEDROOM
+
+IT was of course plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway
+which he had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between
+the bathroom of No. 111 and the State bathroom on the floor
+below must have been specially designed by some person or
+persons for the purpose of keeping a nefarious watch upon the
+occupants of the State suite of apartments. It was a means of
+communication at once simple and ingenious. At that moment he
+could not be sure of the precise method employed for it, but he
+surmised that the casing of the waterpipes had been used as a
+'well', while space for the pipes themselves had been found in the
+thickness of the ample brick walls of the Grand Babylon. The
+eye-hole, through which he now had a view of the bedroom, was a
+very minute one, and probably would scarcely be noticed from the
+exterior. One thing he observed concerning it, namely, that it had
+been made for a man somewhat taller than himself; he was obliged
+to stand on tiptoe in order to get his eye in the correct position. He
+remembered that both Jules and Rocco were distinctly above the
+average height; also that they were both thin men, and could have
+descended the well with comparative ease. Theodore Racksole,
+though not stout, was a well-set man with large bones.
+
+These things flashed through his mind as he gazed, spellbound, at
+the mysterious movements of Rocco. The door between the
+bathroom and the bedroom was wide open, and his own situation
+was such that his view embraced a considerable portion of the
+bedroom, including the whole of the immense and
+gorgeously-upholstered bedstead, but not including the whole of
+the marble washstand. He could see only half of the washstand,
+and at intervals Rocco passed out of sight as his lithe hands moved
+over the object which lay on the marble. At first Theodore
+Racksole could not decide what this object was, but after a time, as
+his eyes grew accustomed to the position and the light, he made it
+out.
+
+It was the body of a man. Or, rather, to be more exact, Racksole
+could discern the legs of a man on that half of the table which was
+visible to him. Involuntarily he shuddered, as the conviction forced
+itself upon him that Rocco had some unconscious human being
+helpless on that cold marble surface. The legs never moved.
+Therefore, the hapless creature was either asleep or under the
+influence of an anaesthetic - or (horrible thought!) dead.
+
+Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the
+dreadful midnight activity which was proceeding before his
+astonished eyes; but fortunately he restrained himself.
+
+On the washstand he could see certain strangely-shaped utensils
+and instruments which Rocco used from time to time. The work
+seemed to Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at
+last Rocco ceased, gave a sign of satisfaction, whistled several bars
+from 'Cavalleria Rusticana', and came into the bath-room, where
+he took off his coat, and very quietly washed his hands. As he
+stood calmly and leisurely wiping those long fingers of his, he was
+less than four feet from Racksole, and the cooped-up millionaire
+trembled, holding his breath, lest Rocco should detect his presence
+behind the woodwork. But nothing happened, and Rocco returned
+unsuspectingly to the bedroom. Racksole saw him place some sort
+of white flannel garment over the prone form on the table, and
+then lift it bodily on to the great bed, where it lay awfully still. The
+hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse upon which
+Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister functions.
+
+But whose corpse? And what functions? Could this be a West End
+hotel, Racksole's own hotel, in the very heart of London, the
+best-policed city in the world? It seemed incredible, impossible;
+yet so it was. Once more he remembered what Felix  Babylon had
+said to him and realized the truth of the saying anew. The
+proprietor of a vast and complicated establishment like the Grand
+Babylon could never know a tithe of the extraordinary and queer
+occurrences which happened daily under his very nose; the
+atmosphere of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an
+atmosphere of mystery and problems apparently inexplicable.
+Nevertheless, Racksole thought that Fate was carrying things with
+rather a high hand when she permitted his chef to spend the night
+hours over a man's corpse in his State bedroom, this sacred
+apartment which was supposed to be occupied only by individuals
+of Royal Blood. Racksole would not have objected to a certain
+amount of mystery, but he decidedly thought that there was a little
+too much mystery here for his taste. He thought that even Felix 
+Babylon would have been surprised at this.
+
+The electric chandelier in the centre of the ceiling was not lighted;
+only the two lights on either side of the washstand were switched
+on, and these did not sufficiently illuminate the features of the man
+on the bed to enable Racksole to see them clearly. In vain the
+millionaire strained his eyes; he could only make out that the
+corpse was probably that of a young man. Just as he was
+wondering what would be the best course of action to pursue, he
+saw Rocco with a square-shaped black box in his hand. Then the
+chef switched off the two electric lights, and the State bedroom
+was in darkness. In that swift darkness Racksole heard Rocco
+spring on to the bed. Another half-dozen moments of suspense,
+and there was a blinding flash of white, which endured for several
+seconds, and showed Rocco standing like an evil spirit over the
+corpse, the black box in one hand and a burning piece of
+aluminium wire in the other. The aluminium wire burnt out, and
+darkness followed blacker than before.
+
+Rocco had photographed the corpse by flashlight.
+
+But the dazzling flare which had disclosed the features of the dead
+man to the insensible lens of the camera had disclosed them also
+to Theodore Racksole. The dead man was Reginald Dimmock!
+
+Stung into action by this discovery, Racksole tried to find the exit
+from his place of concealment. He felt sure that there existed some
+way out into the State bathroom, but he sought for it fruitlessly,
+groping with both hands and feet. Then he decided that he must
+ascend the rope-ladder, make haste for the first-floor corridor, and
+intercept Rocco when he left the State apartments. It was a painful
+and difficult business to ascend that thin and yielding ladder in
+such a confined space, but Racksole was managing it very nicely,
+and had nearly reached the top, when, by some untoward freak of
+chance, the ladder broke above his weight, and he slipped
+ignominiously down to the bottom of the wooden tube. Smothering
+an excusable curse, Racksole crouched, baffled. Then he saw that
+the force of his fall had somehow opened a trap-door at his feet.
+He squeezed through, pushed open another tiny door, and in
+another second stood in the State bathroom. He was dishevelled,
+perspiring, rather bewildered; but he was there. In the next second
+he had resumed absolute command of all his faculties.
+
+Strange to say, he had moved so quietly that Rocco had apparently
+not heard him. He stepped noiselessly to the door between the
+bathroom and the bedroom, and stood there in silence. Rocco had
+switched on again the lights over the washstand and was busy with
+his utensils.
+
+Racksole deliberately coughed.
+
+Chapter Fourteen ROCCO ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS
+
+ROCCO turned round with the swiftness of a startled tiger, and
+gave Theodore Racksole one long piercing glance.
+
+'D--n!' said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and
+intonation as Racksole himself could have accomplished.
+
+The most extraordinary thing about the situation was that at this
+juncture Theodore Racksole did not know what to say. He was so
+dumbfounded by the affair, and especially by Rocco's absolute and
+sublime calm, that both speech and thought failed him.
+
+'I give in,' said Rocco. 'From the moment you entered this cursed
+hotel I was afraid of you. I told Jules I was afraid of you. I knew
+there would be trouble with a man of your kidney, and I was right;
+confound it! I tell you I give in. I know when I'm beaten. I've got
+no revolver and no weapons of any kind. I surrender. Do what you
+like.'
+
+And with that Rocco sat down on a chair. It was magnificently
+done. Only a truly great man could have done it. Rocco actually
+kept his dignity.
+
+For answer, Racksole walked slowly into the vast apartment,
+seized a chair, and, dragging it up to Rocco's chair, sat down
+opposite to him. Thus they faced each other, their knees almost
+touching, both in evening dress. On Rocco's right hand was the
+bed, with the corpse of Reginald Dimmock. On Racksole's right
+hand, and a little behind him, was the marble washstand, still
+littered with Rocco's implements. The electric light shone on
+Rocco's left cheek, leaving the other side of his face in shadow.
+Racksole tapped him on the knee twice.
+
+'So you're another Englishman masquerading as a foreigner in my
+hotel,'
+
+Racksole remarked, by way of commencing the interrogation.
+
+'I'm not,' answered Rocco quietly. 'I'm a citizen of the United
+States.'
+
+'The deuce you are!' Racksole exclaimed.
+
+'Yes, I was born at West Orange, New Jersey, New York State. I
+call myself an Italian because it was in Italy that I first made a
+name as a chef - at Rome. It is better for a great chef like me to be
+a foreigner. Imagine a great chef named Elihu P. Rucker. You can't
+imagine it. I changed my nationality for the same reason that my
+friend and colleague, Jules, otherwise Mr Jackson, changed his.'
+
+'So Jules is your friend and colleague, is he?'
+
+'He was, but from this moment he is no longer. I began to
+disapprove of his methods no less than a week ago, and my
+disapproval will now take active form.'
+
+'Will it?' said Racksole. 'I calculate it just won't, Mr Elihu P.
+Rucker, citizen of the United States. Before you are very much
+older you'll be in the kind hands of the police, and your activities,
+in no matter what direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.'
+
+'It is possible,' sighed Rocco.
+
+'In the meantime, I'll ask you one or two questions for my own
+private satisfaction. You've acknowledged that the game is up, and
+you may as well answer them with as much candour as you feel
+yourself capable of. See?'
+
+'I see,' replied Rocco calmly, 'but I guess I can't answer all
+questions.
+
+I'll do what I can.'
+
+'Well,' said Racksole, clearing his throat, 'what's the scheme all
+about? Tell me in a word.'
+
+'Not in a thousand words. It isn't my secret, you know.'
+
+'Why was poor little Dimmock poisoned?' The millionaire's voice
+softened as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the
+unfortunate young man.
+
+'I don't know,' said Rocco. 'I don't mind informing you that I
+objected to that part of the business. I wasn't made aware of it till
+after it was done, and then I tell you it got my dander up
+considerable.'
+
+'You mean to say you don't know why Dimmock was done to
+death?'
+
+'I mean to say I couldn't see the sense of it. Of course he - er - died,
+because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a
+share of it. I don't mind saying that much, because you probably
+guessed it for yourself. But I solemnly state that I have a
+conscientious objection to murder.'
+
+'Then it was murder?'
+
+'It was a kind of murder,' Rocco admitted. Who did it?'
+
+'Unfair question,' said Rocco.
+
+'Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?'
+
+'Don't know, on my honour.'
+
+'Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock's
+body?'
+
+'How long were you in that bathroom?' Rocco parried with sublime
+impudence.
+
+'Don't question me, Mr Rucker,' said Theodore Racksole. 'I feel
+very much inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I
+advise you not to irritate me. What have you been doing to
+Dimmock's body?'
+
+'I've been embalming it.'
+
+'Em - balming it.'
+
+'Certainly; Richardson's system of arterial fluid injection, as
+improved by myself. You weren't aware that I included the art of
+embalming among my accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.'
+
+'But why?' asked Racksole, more mystified than ever. 'Why should
+you trouble to embalm the poor chap's corpse?'
+
+'Can't you see? Doesn't it strike you? That corpse has to be taken
+care of.
+
+It contains, or rather, it did contain, very serious evidence against
+some person or persons unknown to the police. It may be
+necessary to move it about from place to place. A corpse can't be
+hidden for long; a corpse betrays itself. One couldn't throw it in the
+Thames, for it would have been found inside twelve hours. One
+couldn't bury it - it wasn't safe. The only thing was to keep it handy
+and movable, ready for emergencies. I needn't inform you that,
+without embalming, you can't keep a corpse handy and movable
+for more than four or five days. It's the kind of thing that won't
+keep. And so it was suggested that I should embalm it, and I did.
+Mind you, I still objected to the murder, but I couldn't go back on a
+colleague, you understand. You do understand that, don't you?
+Well, here you are, and here it is, and that's all.'
+
+Rocco leaned back in his chair as though he had said everything
+that ought to be said. He closed his eyes to indicate that so far as
+he was concerned the conversation was also closed. Theodore
+Racksole stood up.
+
+'I hope,' said Rocco, suddenly opening his eyes, 'I hope you'll call
+in the police without any delay. It's getting late, and I don't like
+going without my night's rest.'
+
+'Where do you suppose you'll get a night's rest?' Racksole asked.
+
+'In the cells, of course. Haven't I told you I know when I'm beaten.
+I'm not so blind as not to be able to see that there's at any rate a
+prima facie case against me. I expect I shall get off with a year or
+two's imprisonment as accessory after the fact - I think that's what
+they call it. Anyhow, I shall be in a position to prove that I am not
+implicated in the murder of this unfortunate nincompoop.' He
+pointed, with a strange, scornful gesture of his elbow, to the bed.
+'And now, shall we go? Everyone is asleep, but there will be a
+policeman within call of the watchman in the portico. I am at your
+service. Let us go down together, Mr Racksole. I give you my word
+to go quietly.'
+
+'Stay a moment,' said Theodore Racksole curtly; 'there is no hurry.
+It won't do you any harm to forego another hour's sleep, especially
+as you will have no work to do to-morrow. I have one or two more
+questions to put to you.'
+
+'Well?' Rocco murmured, with an air of tired resignation, as if to
+say, 'What must be must be.'
+
+'Where has Dimmock's corpse been during the last three or four
+days, since he - died?'
+
+'Oh!' answered Rocco, apparently surprised at the simplicity of the
+question. 'It's been in my room, and one night it was on the roof;
+once it went out of the hotel as luggage, but it came back the next
+day as a case of Demerara sugar. I forgot where else it has been,
+but it's been kept perfectly safe and treated with every
+consideration.'
+
+'And who contrived all these manoeuvres?' asked Racksole as
+calmly as he could.
+
+'I did. That is to say, I invented them and I saw that they were
+carried out. You see, the suspicions of your police obliged me to
+be particularly spry.'
+
+'And who carried them out?'
+
+'Ah! that would be telling tales. But I don't mind assuring you that
+my accomplices were innocent accomplices. It is absurdly easy for
+a man like me to impose on underlings - absurdly easy.'
+
+'What did you intend to do with the corpse ultimately?' Racksole
+pursued his inquiry with immovable countenance.
+
+'Who knows?' said Rocco, twisting his beautiful moustache. 'That
+would have depended on several things - on your police, for
+instance. But probably in the end we should have restored this
+mortal clay' - again he jerked his elbow - 'to the man's sorrowing
+relatives.'
+
+'Do you know who the relatives are?'
+
+'Certainly. Don't you? If you don't I need only hint that Dimmock
+had a Prince for his father.'
+
+'It seems to me,' said Racksole, with cold sarcasm, 'that you
+behaved rather clumsily in choosing this bedroom as the scene of
+your operations.'
+
+'Not at all,' said Rocco. 'There was no other apartment so suitable
+in the whole hotel. Who would have guessed that anything was
+going on here? It was the very place for me.'
+
+'I guessed,' said Racksole succinctly.
+
+'Yes, you guessed, Mr Racksole. But I had not counted on you.
+You are the only smart man in the business. You are an American
+citizen, and I hadn't reckoned to have to deal with that class of
+person.'
+
+'Apparently I frightened you this afternoon?'
+
+'Not in the least.'
+
+'You were not afraid of a search?'
+
+'I knew that no search was intended. I knew that you were trying to
+frighten me. You must really credit me with a little sagacity and
+insight, Mr Racksole. Immediately you began to talk to me in the
+kitchen this afternoon I felt you were on the track. But I was not
+frightened. I merely decided that there was no time to be lost - that
+I must act quickly. I did act quickly, but, it seems, not quickly
+enough. I grant that your rapidity exceeded mine. Let us go
+downstairs, I beg.'
+
+Rocco rose and moved towards the door. With an instinctive
+action Racksole rushed forward and seized him by the shoulder.
+
+'No tricks!' said Racksole. 'You're in my custody and don't forget
+it.'
+
+Rocco turned on his employer a look of gentle, dignified scorn.
+'Have I not informed you,' he said, 'that I have the intention of
+going quietly?'
+
+Racksole felt almost ashamed for the moment. It flashed across
+him that a man can be great, even in crime.
+
+'What an ineffable fool you were,' said Racksole, stopping him at
+the threshold, 'with your talents, your unique talents, to get
+yourself mixed up in an affair of this kind. You are ruined. And, by
+Jove! you were a great man in your own line.'
+
+'Mr Racksole,' said Rocco very quickly, 'that is the truest word you
+have spoken this night. I was a great man in my own line. And I
+am an ineffable fool. Alas!' He brought his long arms to his sides
+with a thud.
+
+'Why did you do it?'
+
+'I was fascinated - fascinated by Jules. He, too, is a great man. We
+had great opportunities, here in the Grand Babylon. It was a great
+game. It was worth the candle. The prizes were enormous. You
+would admit these things if you knew the facts. Perhaps some day
+you will know them, for you are a fairly clever person at getting to
+the root of a matter. Yes, I was blinded, hypnotized.'
+
+'And now you are ruined.'
+
+'Not ruined, not ruined. Afterwards, in a few years, I shall come up
+again.
+
+A man of genius like me is never ruined till he is dead. Genius is
+always forgiven. I shall be forgiven. Suppose I am sent to prison.
+When I emerge I shall be no gaol-bird. I shall be Rocco - the great
+Rocco. And half the hotels in Europe will invite me to join them.'
+
+'Let me tell you, as man to man, that you have achieved your own
+degradation. There is no excuse.'
+
+'I know it,' said Rocco. 'Let us go.'
+
+Racksole was distinctly and notably impressed by this man - by
+this master spirit to whom he was to have paid a salary at the rate
+of three thousand pounds a year. He even felt sorry for him. And
+so, side by side, the captor and the captured, they passed into the
+vast deserted corridor of the hotel.
+
+Rocco stopped at the grating of the first lift.
+
+'It will be locked,' said Racksole. 'We must use the stairs to-night.'
+
+'But I have a key. I always carry one,' said Rocco, and he pulled
+one out of his pocket, and, unfastening the iron screen, pushed it
+open. Racksole smiled at his readiness and aplomb.
+
+'After you,' said Rocco, bowing in his finest manner, and Racksole
+stepped into the lift.
+
+With the swiftness of lighting Rocco pushed forward the iron
+screen, which locked itself automatically. Theodore Racksole was
+hopelessly a prisoner within the lift, while Rocco stood free in the
+corridor.
+
+'Good-bye, Mr Racksole,' he remarked suavely, bowing again,
+lower than before. 'Good-bye: I hate to take a mean advantage of
+you in this fashion, but really you must allow that you have been
+very simple. You are a clever man, as I have already said, up to a
+certain point. It is past that point that my own cleverness comes in.
+Again, good-bye. After all, I shall have no rest to-night, but
+perhaps even that will be better that sleeping in a police cell. If you
+make a great noise you may wake someone and ultimately get
+released from this lift. But I advise you to compose yourself, and
+wait till morning. It will be more dignified. For the third time,
+good-bye.'
+
+And with that Rocco, without hastening, walked down the corridor
+and so out of sight.
+
+Racksole said never a word. He was too disgusted with himself to
+speak. He clenched his fists, and put his teeth together, and held
+his breath. In the silence he could hear the dwindling sound of
+Rocco's footsteps on the thick carpet.
+
+It was the greatest blow of Racksole's life.
+
+The next morning the high-born guests of the Grand Babylon were
+aroused by a rumour that by some accident the millionaire
+proprietor of the hotel had remained all night locked up m the lift.
+It was also stated that Rocco had quarrelled with his new master
+and incontinently left the place. A duchess said that Rocco's
+departure would mean the ruin of the hotel, whereupon her
+husband advised her not to talk nonsense.
+
+As for Racksole, he sent a message for the detective in charge of
+the Dimmock affair, and bravely told him the happenings of the
+previous night.
+
+The narration was a decided ordeal to a man of Racksole's
+temperament.
+
+'A strange story!' commented Detective Marshall, and he could not
+avoid a smile. 'The climax was unfortunate, but you have certainly
+got some valuable facts.'
+
+Racksole said nothing.
+
+'I myself have a clue,' added the detective. When your message
+arrived I was just coming up to see you. I want you to accompany
+me to a certain spot not far from here. Will you come, now, at
+once?'
+
+'With pleasure,' said Racksole.
+
+At that moment a page entered with a telegram. Racksole opened
+it read:
+
+'Please come instantly. Nella. Hotel Wellington, Ostend.'
+
+He looked at his watch.
+
+'I can't come,' he said to the detective. Tm going to Ostend.'
+
+'To Ostend?'
+
+'Yes, now.'
+
+'But really, Mr Racksole,' protested the detective. 'My business is
+urgent.'
+
+ 'So's mine,' said Racksole.
+
+In ten minutes he was on his way to Victoria Station.
+
+Chapter Fifteen END OF THE YACHT ADVENTURE
+
+WE must now return to Nella Racksole and Prince Aribert of
+Posen on board the yacht without a name. The Prince's first
+business was to make Jules, otherwise Mr Tom Jackson, perfectly
+secure by means of several pieces of rope. Although Mr Jackson
+had been stunned into a complete unconsciousness, and there was
+a contused wound under his ear, no one could say how soon he
+might not come to himself and get very violent. So the Prince,
+having tied his arms and legs, made him fast to a stanchion.
+
+'I hope he won't die,' said Nella. 'He looks very white.'
+
+'The Mr Jacksons of this world,' said Prince Aribert sententiously,
+'never die till they are hung. By the way, I wonder how it is that no
+one has interfered with us. Perhaps they are discreetly afraid of my
+revolver - of your revolver, I mean.'
+
+Both he and Nella glanced up at the imperturbable steersman, who
+kept the yacht's head straight out to sea. By this time they were
+about a couple of miles from the Belgian shore.
+
+Addressing him in French, the Prince ordered the sailor to put the
+yacht about, and make again for Ostend Harbour, but the fellow
+took no notice whatever of the summons. The Prince raised the
+revolver, with the idea of frightening the steersman, and then the
+man began to talk rapidly in a mixture of French and Flemish. He
+said that he had received Jules' strict orders not to interfere in any
+way, no matter what might happen on the deck of the yacht. He
+was the captain of the yacht, and he had to make for a certain
+English port, the name of which he could not divulge: he was to
+keep the vessel at full steam ahead under any and all
+circumstances. He seemed to be a very big, a very strong, and a
+very determined man, and the Prince was at a loss what course of
+action to pursue. He asked several more questions, but the only
+effect of them was to render the man taciturn and ill-humoured.
+
+In vain Prince Aribert explained that Miss Nella Racksole,
+daughter of millionaire Racksole, had been abducted by Mr Tom
+Jackson; in vain he flourished the revolver threateningly; the surly
+but courageous captain said merely that that had nothing to do
+with him; he had instructions, and he should carry them out. He
+sarcastically begged to remind his interlocutor that he was the
+captain of the yacht.
+
+'It won't do to shoot him, I suppose,' said the Prince to Nella. 'I
+might bore a hole into his leg, or something of that kind.'
+
+'It's rather risky, and rather hard on the poor captain, with his
+extraordinary sense of duty,' said Nella. 'And, besides, the whole
+crew might turn on us. No, we must think of something else.'
+
+'I wonder where the crew is,' said the Prince.
+
+Just then Mr Jackson, prone and bound on the deck, showed signs
+of recovering from his swoon. His eyes opened, and he gazed
+vacantly around. At length he caught sight of the Prince, who
+approached him with the revolver well in view.
+
+'It's you, is it?' he murmured faintly. 'What are you doing on board?
+Who's tied me up like this?'
+
+'See here!' replied the Prince, 'I don't want to have any arguments,
+but this yacht must return to Ostend at once, where you will be
+given up to the authorities.'
+
+'Really!' snarled Mr Tom Jackson. 'Shall I!' Then he called out in
+French to the man at the wheel, 'Hi Andr�! let these two be put off
+in the dinghy.'
+
+It was a peculiar situation. Certain of nothing but the possession of
+Nella's revolver, the Prince scarcely knew whether to carry the
+argument further, and with stronger measures, or to accept the
+situation with as much dignity as the circumstances would permit.
+
+'Let us take the dinghy,' said Nella; 'we can row ashore in an hour.'
+
+He felt that she was right. To leave the yacht in such a manner
+seemed somewhat ignominious, and it certainly involved the
+escape of that profound villain, Mr Thomas Jackson. But what else
+could be done? The Prince and Nella constituted one party on the
+vessel; they knew their own strength, but they did not know the
+strength of their opponents. They held the hostile ringleader bound
+and captive, but this man had proved himself capable of giving
+orders, and even to gag him would not help them if the captain of
+the yacht persisted in his obstinate course. Moreover, there was a
+distinct objection to promiscuous shooting; the Prince felt that;
+there was no knowing how promiscuous shooting might end.
+
+'We will take the dinghy,' said the Prince quickly, to the captain.
+
+A bell rang below, and a sailor and the Negro boy appeared on
+deck. The pulsations of the screw grew less rapid. The yacht
+stopped. The dinghy was lowered. As the Prince and Nella
+prepared to descend into the little cock-boat Mr Tom Jackson
+addressed Nella, all bound as he lay.
+
+'Good-bye,' he said, 'I shall see you again, never fear.' .
+
+In another moment they were in the dinghy, and the dinghy was
+adrift. The yacht's screw chumed the water, and the beautiful
+vessel slipped away from them. As it receded a figure appeared at
+the stem. It was Mr Thomas Jackson.
+
+He had been released by his minions. He held a white
+handkerchief to his ear, and offered a calm, enigmatic smile to the
+two forlorn but victorious occupants of the dinghy. Jules had been
+defeated for once in his life; or perhaps it would be more just to
+say that he had been out-manoeuvred. Men like Jules are incapable
+of being defeated. It was characteristic of his luck that now, in the
+very hour when he had been caught red-handed in a serious crime
+against society, he should be effecting a leisurely escape - an
+escape which left no clue behind.
+
+The sea was utterly calm and blue in the morning sun. The dinghy
+rocked itself lazily in the swell of the yacht's departure. As the mist
+cleared away the outline of the shore became more distinct, and it
+appeared as if Ostend was distant scarcely a cable's length. The
+white dome of the great Kursaal glittered in the pale turquoise sky,
+and the smoke of steamers in the harbour could be plainly
+distinguished. On the offing was a crowd of brown-sailed fishing
+luggers returning with the night's catch. The many-hued
+bathing-vans could be counted on the distant beach. Everything
+seemed perfectly normal. It was difficult for either Nella or her
+companion to realize that anything extraordinary had happened
+within the last hour. Yet there was the yacht, not a mile off, to
+prove to them that something very extraordinary had, in fact,
+happened. The yacht was no vision, nor was that sinister watching
+figure at its stern a vision, either.
+
+'I suppose Jules was too surprised and too feeble to inquire how I
+came to be on board his yacht,' said the Prince, taking the oars.
+
+'Oh! How did you?' asked Nella, her face lighting up. 'Really, I had
+almost forgotten that part of the affair.'
+
+'I must begin at the beginning and it will take some time,' answered
+the Prince. 'Had we not better postpone the recital till we get
+ashore?'
+
+'I will row and you shall talk,' said Nella. 'I want to know now.'
+
+He smiled happily at her, but gently declined to yield up the oars.
+
+'Is it not sufficient that I am here?' he said.
+
+'It is sufficient, yes,' she replied, 'but I want to know.'
+
+With a long, easy stroke he was pulling the dinghy shorewards.
+She sat in the stern-sheets.
+
+'There is no rudder,' he remarked, 'so you must direct me. Keep the
+boat's head on the lighthouse. The tide seems to be running in
+strongly; that will help us. The people on shore will think that we
+have only been for a little early morning excursion.'
+
+'Will you kindly tell me how it came about that you were able to
+save my life, Prince?' she said.
+
+'Save your life, Miss Racksole? I didn't save your life; I merely
+knocked a man down.'
+
+'You saved my life,' she repeated. 'That villain would have stopped
+at nothing. I saw it in his eye.'
+
+'Then you were a brave woman, for you showed no fear of death.'
+His admiring gaze rested full on her. For a moment the oars ceased
+to move.
+
+She gave a gesture of impatience.
+
+'It happened that I saw you last night in your carriage,' he said. 'The
+fact is, I had not had the audacity to go to Berlin with my story. I
+stopped in Ostend to see whether I could do a little detective work
+on my own account.
+
+It was a piece of good luck that I saw you. I followed the carriage
+as quickly as I could, and I just caught a glimpse of you as you
+entered that awful house. I knew that Jules had something to do
+with that house. I guessed what you were doing. I was afraid for
+you. Fortunately I had surveyed the house pretty thoroughly. There
+is an entrance to it at the back, from a narrow lane. I made my way
+there. I got into the yard at the back, and I stood under the window
+of the room where you had the interview with Miss Spencer. I
+heard everything that was said. It was a courageous enterprise on
+your part to follow Miss Spencer from the Grand Babylon to
+Ostend. Well, I dared not force an entrance, lest I might precipitate
+matters too suddenly, and involve both of us in a difficulty. I
+merely kept watch. Ah, Miss Racksole! you were magnificent with
+Miss Spencer; as I say, I could hear every word, for the window
+was slightly open. I felt that you needed no assistance from me.
+And then she cheated you with a trick, and the revolver came
+flying through the window. I picked it up, I thought it would
+probably be useful. There was a silence. I did not guess at first that
+you had fainted. I thought that you had escaped. When I found out
+the truth it was too late for me to intervene. There were two men,
+both desperate, besides Miss Spencer - '
+
+'Who was the other man?' asked Nella.
+
+'I do not know. It was dark. They drove away with you to the
+harbour. Again I followed. I saw them carry you on board. Before
+the yacht weighed anchor I managed to climb unobserved into the
+dinghy. I lay down full length in it, and no one suspected that I was
+there. I think you know the rest.'
+
+'Was the yacht all ready for sea?'
+
+'The yacht was all ready for sea. The captain fellow was on the
+bridge, and steam was up.'
+
+'Then they expected me! How could that be?'
+
+'They expected some one. I do not think they expected you.'
+
+'Did the second man go on board?'
+
+'He helped to carry you along the gangway, but he came back again
+to the carriage. He was the driver.'
+
+'And no one else saw the business?'
+
+'The quay was deserted. You see, the last steamer had arrived for
+the night.'
+
+There was a brief silence, and then Nella ejaculated, under her
+breath.
+
+'Truly, it is a wonderful world!'
+
+And it was a wonderful world for them, though scarcely perhaps,
+in the sense which Nella Racksole had intended. They had just
+emerged from a highly disconcerting experience. Among other
+minor inconveniences, they had had no breakfast. They were out in
+the sea in a tiny boat. Neither of them knew what the day might
+bring forth. The man, at least, had the most serious anxieties for
+the safety of his Royal nephew. And yet - and yet - neither of them
+wished that that voyage of the little boat on the summer tide
+should come to an end. Each, perhaps unconsciously, had a vague
+desire that it might last for ever, he lazily pulling, she directing his
+course at intervals by a movement of her distractingly pretty head.
+How was this condition of affairs to be explained? Well, they were
+both young; they both had superb health, and all the ardour of
+youth; and - they were together.
+
+The boat was very small indeed; her face was scarcely a yard from
+his. She, in his eyes, surrounded by the glamour of beauty and vast
+wealth; he, in her eyes, surrounded by the glamour of masculine
+intrepidity and the brilliance of a throne.
+
+But all voyages come to an end, either at the shore or at the bottom
+of the sea, and at length the dinghy passed between the stone
+jetties of the harbour. The Prince rowed to the nearest steps, tied
+up the boat, and they landed. It was six o'clock in the morning, and
+a day of gorgeous sunlight had opened. Few people were about at
+that early hour.
+
+'And now, what next?' said the Prince. 'I must take you to an hotel.'
+
+'I am in your hands,' she acquiesced, with a smile which sent the
+blood racing through his veins. He perceived now that she was
+tired and overcome, suffering from a sudden and natural reaction.
+
+At the H�tel Wellington the Prince told the sleepy door-keeper that
+they had come by the early train from Bruges, and wanted
+breakfast at once. It was absurdly early, but a common English
+sovereign will work wonders in any Belgian hotel, and in a very
+brief time Nella and the Prince were breakfasting on the verandah
+of the hotel upon chocolate that had been specially and hastily
+brewed for them.
+
+'I never tasted such excellent chocolate,' claimed the Prince.
+
+The statement was wildly untrue, for the H�tel Wellington is not
+celebrated for its chocolate. Nevertheless Nella replied
+enthusiastically, 'Nor I.'
+
+Then there was a silence, and Nella, feeling possibly that she had
+been too ecstatic, remarked in a very matter-of-fact tone: 'I must
+telegraph to Papa instantly.'
+
+Thus it was that Theodore Racksole received the telegram which
+drew him away from Detective Marshall.
+
+Chapter Sixteen THE WOMAN WITH THE RED HAT 
+
+'THERE is one thing, Prince, that we have just got to settle straight
+off,'
+
+said Theodore Racksole.
+
+They were all three seated - Racksole, his daughter, and Prince
+Aribert - round a dinner table in a private room at the H�tel
+Wellington. Racksole had duly arrived by the afternoon boat, and
+had been met on the quay by the other two. They had dined early,
+and Racksole had heard the full story of the adventures by sea and
+land of Nella and the Prince. As to his own adventure of the
+previous night he said very little, merely explaining, with as little
+detail as possible, that Dimmock's body had come to light.
+
+'What is that?' asked the Prince, in answer to Racksole's remark.
+
+'We have got to settle whether we shall tell the police at once all
+that has occurred, or whether we shall proceed on our own
+responsibility. There can be no doubt as to which course we ought
+to pursue. Every consideration of prudence points to the
+advisability of taking the police into our confidence, and leaving
+the matter entirely in their hands.'
+
+'Oh, Papa!' Nella burst out in her pouting, impulsive way. 'You
+surely can't think of such a thing. Why, the fun has only just
+begun.'
+
+'Do you call last night fun?' questioned Racksole, gazing at her
+solemnly.
+
+'Yes, I do,' she said promptly. 'Now.'
+
+'Well, I don't,' was the millionaire's laconic response; but perhaps
+he was thinking of his own situation in the lift.
+
+'Do you not think we might investigate a little further,' said the
+Prince judiciously, as he cracked a walnut, 'just a little further -
+and then, if we fail to accomplish anything, there would still be
+ample opportunity to consult the police?'
+
+'How do you suggest we should begin?' asked Racksole.
+
+'Well, there is the house which Miss Racksole so intrepidly entered
+last evening' - he gave her the homage of an admiring glance; 'you
+and I, Mr Racksole, might examine that abode in detail.'
+
+'To-night?'
+
+'Certainly. We might do something.'
+
+'We might do too much.'
+
+'For example?'
+
+'We might shoot someone, or get ourselves mistaken for burglars.
+If we outstepped the law, it would be no excuse for us that we had
+been acting in a good cause.'
+
+'True,' said the Prince. 'Nevertheless - ' He stopped.
+
+'Nevertheless you have a distaste for bringing the police into the
+business.
+
+You want the hunt all to yourself. You are on fire with the ardour
+of the chase. Is not that it? Accept the advice of an older man,
+Prince, and sleep on this affair. I have little fancy for nocturnal
+escapades two nights together. As for you, Nella, off with you to
+bed. The Prince and I will have a yarn over such fluids as can be
+obtained in this hole.'
+
+'Papa,' she said, 'you are perfectly horrid to-night.'
+
+'Perhaps I am,' he said. 'Decidedly I am very cross with you for
+coming over here all alone. It was monstrous. If I didn't happen to
+be the most foolish of parents - There! Good-night. It's nine
+o'clock. The Prince, I am sure, will excuse you.'
+
+If Nella had not really been very tired Prince Aribert might have
+been the witness of a good-natured but stubborn conflict between
+the millionaire and his spirited offspring. As it was, Nella departed
+with surprising docility, and the two men were left alone.
+
+'Now,' said Racksole suddenly, changing his tone, 'I fancy that after
+all I'm your man for a little amateur investigation to-night. And, if
+I must speak the exact truth, I think that to sleep on this affair
+would be about the very worst thing we could do. But I was
+anxious to keep Nella out of harm's way at any rate till to-morrow.
+She is a very difficult creature to manage, Prince, and I may warn
+you,' he laughed grimly, 'that if we do succeed in doing anything
+to-night we shall catch it from her ladyship in the morning. Are
+you ready to take that risk?'
+
+'I am,' the Prince smiled. 'But Miss Racksole is a young lady of
+quite remarkable nerve.'
+
+'She is,' said Racksole drily. 'I wish sometimes she had less.'
+
+'I have the highest admiration for Miss Racksole,' said the Prince,
+and he looked Miss Racksole's father full in the face.
+
+'You honour us, Prince,' Racksole observed. 'Let us come to
+business. Am I right in assuming that you have a reason for
+keeping the police out of this business, if it can possibly be done?'
+
+'Yes,' said the Prince, and his brow clouded. 'I am very much afraid
+that my poor nephew has involved himself in some scrape that he
+would wish not to be divulged.'
+
+'Then you do not believe that he is the victim of foul play?'
+
+'I do not.'
+
+'And the reason, if I may ask it?'
+
+'Mr Racksole, we speak in confidence - is it not so? Some years
+ago my foolish nephew had an affair - an affair with a feminine
+star of the Berlin stage. For anything I know, the lady may have
+been the very pattern of her sex, but where a reigning Prince is
+concerned scandal cannot be avoided in such a matter. I had
+thought that the affair was quite at an end, since my nephew's
+betrothal to Princess Anna of Eckstein-Schwartzburg is shortly to
+be announced. But yesterday I saw the lady to whom I have
+referred driving on the Digue. The coincidence of her presence
+here with my nephew's disappearance is too extraordinary to be
+disregarded.'
+
+'But how does this theory square with the murder of Reginald
+Dimmock?'
+
+'It does not square with it. My idea is that the murder of poor
+Dimmock and the disappearance of my nephew are entirely
+unconnected - unless, indeed, this Berlin actress is playing into the
+hands of the murderers. I had not thought of that.'
+
+'Then what do you propose to do to-night?'
+
+'I propose to enter the house which Miss Racksole entered last
+night and to find out something definite.'
+
+'I concur,' said Racksole. 'I shall heartily enjoy it. But let me tell
+you, Prince, and pardon me for speaking bluntly, your surmise is
+incorrect. I would wager a hundred thousand dollars that Prince
+Eugen has been kidnapped.'
+
+'What grounds have you for being so sure?'
+
+'Ah! said Racksole, 'that is a long story. Let me begin by asking
+you this.
+
+Are you aware that your nephew, Prince Eugen, owes a million of
+money?'
+
+'A million of money!' cried Prince Aribert astonished. 'It is
+impossible!'
+
+'Nevertheless, he does,' said Racksole calmly. Then he told him all
+he had learnt from Mr Sampson Levi.
+
+'What have you to say to that?' Racksole ended. Prince Aribert
+made no reply.
+
+'What have you to say to that?' Racksole insisted.
+
+'Merely that Eugen is ruined, even if he is alive.'
+
+'Not at all,' Racksole returned with cheerfulness. 'Not at all. We
+shall see about that. The special thing that I want to know just now
+from you is this:
+
+Has any previous application ever been made for the hand of the
+Princess Anna?'
+
+'Yes. Last year. The King of Bosnia sued for it, but his proposal
+was declined.'
+
+'Why?'
+
+'Because my nephew was considered to be a more suitable match
+for her.'
+
+'Not because the personal character of his Majesty of Bosnia is
+scarcely of the brightest?'
+
+'No. Unfortunately it is usually impossible to consider questions of
+personal character when a royal match is concerned.'
+
+'Then, if for any reason the marriage of Princess Anna with your
+nephew was frustrated, the King of Bosnia would have a fair
+chance in that quarter?'
+
+'He would. The political aspect of things would be perfectly
+satisfactory.'
+
+'Thanks!' said Racksole. 'I will wager another hundred thousand
+dollars that someone in Bosnia - I don't accuse the King himself -
+is at the bottom of this business. The methods of Balkan
+politicians have always been half-Oriental. Let us go.'
+
+'Where?'
+
+'To this precious house of Nella's adventure.'
+
+'But surely it is too early?'
+
+'So it is,' said Racksole, 'and we shall want a few things, too. For
+instance, a dark lantern. I think I will go out and forage for a
+lantern.'
+
+'And a revolver?' suggested Prince Aribert.
+
+'Does it mean revolvers?' The millionaire laughed. 'It may come to
+that.' 'Here you are, then, my friend,' said Racksole, and he pulled
+one out of his hip pocket. 'And yours?'
+
+'I,' said the Prince, 'I have your daughter's.'
+
+'The deuce you have!' murmured Racksole to himself.
+
+It was then half past nine. They decided that it would be impolitic
+to begin their operations till after midnight. There were three hours
+to spare.
+
+'Let us go and see the gambling,' Racksole suggested. 'We might
+encounter the Berlin lady.'
+
+The suggestion, in the first instance, was not made seriously, but it
+appeared to both men that they might do worse than spend the
+intervening time in the gorgeous saloon of the Kursaal, where, in
+the season, as much money is won and lost as at Monte Carlo. It
+was striking ten o'clock as they entered the rooms. There was a
+large company present - a company which included some of the
+most notorious persons in Europe. In that multifarious assemblage
+all were equal. The electric light shone coldly and impartially on
+the just and on the unjust, on the fool and the knave, on the
+European and the Asiatic. As usual, women monopolized the best
+places at the tables.
+
+The scene was familiar enough to Prince Aribert, who had
+witnessed it frequently at Monaco, but Theodore Racksole had
+never before entered any European gaming palace; he had only the
+haziest idea of the rules of play, and he was at once interested. For
+some time they watched the play at the table which happened to be
+nearest to them. Racksole never moved his lips.
+
+With his eyes glued on the table, and ears open for every remark,
+of the players and the croupier, he took his first lesson in roulette.
+He saw a mere youth win fifteen thousand francs, which were
+stolen in the most barefaced mariner by a rouged girl scarcely
+older than the youth; he saw two old gamesters stake their coins,
+and lose, and walk quietly out of the place; he saw the bank win
+fifty thousand francs at a single turn.
+
+'This is rather good fun,' he said at length, 'but the stakes are too
+small to make it really exciting. I'll try my luck, just for the
+experience. I'm bound to win.'
+
+'Why?' asked the Prince.
+
+'Because I always do, in games of chance,' Racksole answered with
+gay confidence. 'It is my fate. Then to-night, you must remember, I
+shall be a beginner, and you know the tyro's luck.'
+
+In ten minutes the croupier of that table was obliged to suspend
+operations pending the arrival of a further supply of coin.
+
+'What did I tell you?' said Racksole, leading the way to another
+table further up the room. A hundred curious glances went after
+him. One old woman, whose gay attire suggested a false
+youthfulness, begged him in French to stake a five-franc piece for
+her. She offered him the coin. He took it, and gave her a
+hundred-franc note in exchange. She clutched the crisp rustling
+paper, and with hysterical haste scuttled back to her own table.
+
+At the second table there was a considerable air of excitement. In
+the forefront of the players was a woman in a low-cut evening
+dress of black silk and a large red picture hat. Her age appeared to
+be about twenty-eight; she had dark eyes, full lips, and a distinctly
+Jewish nose. She was handsome, but her beauty was of that
+forbidding, sinister order which is often called Junoesque. This
+woman was the centre of attraction. People said to each other that
+she had won a hundred and sixty thousand francs that day at the
+table.
+
+'You were right,' Prince Aribert whispered to Theodore Racksole;
+'that is the Berlin lady.'
+
+'The deuce she is! Has she seen you? Will she know you?'
+
+'She would probably know me, but she hasn't looked up yet.'
+
+'Keep behind her, then. I propose to find her a little occupation.' By
+dint of a carefully-exercised diplomacy, Racksole manoeuvred
+himself into a seat opposite to the lady in the red hat. The fame of
+his success at the other table had followed him, and people
+regarded him as a serious and formidable player. In the first turn
+the lady put a thousand francs on double zero; Racksole put a
+hundred on number nineteen and a thousand on the odd numbers.
+
+Nineteen won. Racksole received four thousand four hundred
+francs. Nine times in succession Racksole backed number nineteen
+and the odd numbers; nine times the lady backed double zero.
+Nine times Racksole won and the lady lost. The other players,
+perceiving that the affair had resolved itself into a duel, stood back
+for the most part and watched those two. Prince Aribert never
+stirred from his position behind the great red hat. The game
+continued. Racksole lost trifles from time to time, but ninety-nine
+hundredths of the luck was with him. As an English spectator at
+the table remarked, 'he couldn't do wrong.' When midnight struck
+the lady in the red hat was reduced to a thousand francs. Then she
+fell into a winning vein for half an hour, but at one o'clock her
+resources were exhausted. Of the hundred and sixty thousand
+francs which she was reputed to have had early in the evening,
+Racksole held about ninety thousand, and the bank had the rest.
+
+It was a calamity for the Juno of the red hat. She jumped up,
+stamped her foot, and hurried from the room. At a discreet
+distance Racksole and the Prince pursued her.
+
+'It might be well to ascertain her movements,' said Racksole.
+
+Outside, in the glare of the great arc lights, and within sound of the
+surf which beats always at the very foot of the Kursaal, the Juno of
+the red hat summoned a fiacre and drove rapidly away. Racksole
+and the Prince took an open carriage and started in pursuit. They
+had not, however, travelled more than half a mile when Prince
+Aribert stopped the carriage, and, bidding Racksole get out, paid
+the driver and dismissed him.
+
+'I feel sure I know where she is going,' he explained, 'and it will be
+better for us to follow on foot.'
+
+'You mean she is making for the scene of last night's affair?' said
+Racksole.
+
+'Exactly. We shall - what you call, kill two birds with one stone.'
+
+Prince Aribert's guess was correct. The lady's carriage stopped in
+front of the house where Nella Racksole and Miss Spencer had had
+their interview on the previous evening, and the lady vanished into
+the building just as the two men appeared at the end of the street.
+Instead of proceeding along that street, the Prince led Racksole to
+the lane which gave on to the backs of the houses, and he counted
+the houses as they went up the lane. In a few minutes they had
+burglariously climbed over a wall, and crept, with infinite caution,
+up a long, narrow piece of ground - half garden, half paved yard,
+till they crouched under a window - a window which was shielded
+by curtains, but which had been left open a little.
+
+'Listen,' said the Prince in his lightest whisper, 'they are talking.'
+
+'Who?'
+
+'The Berlin lady and Miss Spencer. I'm sure it's Miss Spencer's
+voice.'
+
+Racksole boldly pushed the french window a little wider open, and
+put his ear to the aperture, through which came a beam of yellow
+light.
+
+'Take my place,' he whispered to the Prince, 'they're talking
+German. You'll understand better.'
+
+Silently they exchanged places under the window, and the Prince
+listened intently.
+
+'Then you refuse?' Miss Spencer's visitor was saying.
+
+There was no answer from Miss Spencer.
+
+'Not even a thousand francs? I tell you I've lost the whole
+twenty-five thousand.'
+
+Again no answer.
+
+'Then I'll tell the whole story,' the lady went on, in an angry rush of
+words. 'I did what I promised to do. I enticed him here, and you've
+got him safe in your vile cellar, poor little man, and you won't give
+me a paltry thousand francs.'
+
+'You have already had your price.' The words were Miss Spencer's.
+They fell cold and calm on the night air.
+
+'I want another thousand.'
+
+'I haven't it.'
+
+'Then we'll see.'
+
+Prince Aribert heard a rustle of flying skirts; then another
+movement - a door banged, and the beam of light through the
+aperture of the window suddenly disappeared. He pushed the
+window wide open. The room was in darkness, and apparently
+empty.
+
+'Now for that lantern of yours,' he said eagerly to Theodore
+Racksole, after he had translated to him the conversation of the
+two women, Racksole produced the dark lantern from the
+capacious pocket of his dust coat, and lighted it. The ray flashed
+about the ground.
+
+'What is it?' exclaimed Prince Aribert with a swift cry, pointing to
+the ground. The lantern threw its light on a perpendicular grating
+at their feet, through which could be discerned a cellar. They both
+knelt down, and peered into the subterranean chamber. On a
+broken chair a young man sat listlessly with closed eyes, his head
+leaning heavily forward on his chest.
+
+In the feeble light of the lantern he had the livid and ghastly
+appearance of a corpse.
+
+'Who can it be?' said Racksole.
+
+'It is Eugen,' was the Prince's low answer.
+
+Chapter Seventeen THE RELEASE OF PRINCE EUGEN
+
+'EUGEN,' Prince Aribert called softly. At the sound of his own
+name the young man in the cellar feebly raised his head and stared
+up at the grating which separated him from his two rescuers. But
+his features showed no recognition. He gazed in an aimless, vague,
+silly manner for a few seconds, his eyes blinking under the glare of
+the lantern, and then his head slowly drooped again on to his chest.
+He was dressed in a dark tweed travelling suit, and Racksole
+observed that one sleeve - the left - was torn across the upper part
+of the cuff, and that there were stains of dirt on the left shoulder. A
+soiled linen collar, which had lost all its starch and was half
+unbuttoned, partially encircled the captive's neck; his brown boots
+were unlaced; a cap, a handkerchief, a portion of a watch-chain,
+and a few gold coins lay on the floor. Racksole flashed the lantern
+into the corners of the cellar, but he could discover no other
+furniture except the chair on which the Hereditary Prince of Posen
+sat and a small deal table on which were a plate and a cup.
+
+'Eugen,' cried Prince Aribert once more, but this time his forlorn
+nephew made no response whatever, and then Aribert added in a
+low voice to Racksole: 'Perhaps he cannot see us clearly.'
+
+'But he must surely recognize your voice,' said Racksole, in a hard,
+gloomy tone. There was a pause, and the two men above ground
+looked at each other hesitatingly. Each knew that they must enter
+that cellar and get Prince Eugen out of it, and each was somehow
+afraid to take the next step.
+
+'Thank God he is not dead!' said Aribert.
+
+'He may be worse than dead!' Racksole replied.
+
+'Worse than - What do you mean?'
+
+'I mean - he may be mad.'
+
+'Come,' Aribert almost shouted, with a sudden access of energy - a
+wild impulse for action. And, snatching the lantern from Racksole,
+he rushed into the dark room where they had heard the
+conversation of Miss Spencer and the lady in the red hat. For a
+moment Racksole did not stir from the threshold of the window.
+'Come,' Prince Aribert repeated, and there was an imperious
+command in his utterance. 'What are you afraid of?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Racksole, feeling stupid and queer; 'I don't
+know.'
+
+Then he marched heavily after Prince Aribert into the room. On
+the mantelpiece were a couple of candles which had been blown
+out, and in a mechanical, unthinking way, Racksole lighted them,
+and the two men glanced round the room. It presented no peculiar
+features: it was just an ordinary room, rather small, rather mean,
+rather shabby, with an ugly wallpaper and ugly pictures in ugly
+frames. Thrown over a chair was a man's evening-dress jacket. The
+door was closed. Prince Aribert turned the knob, but he could not
+open it.
+
+'It's locked,' he said. 'Evidently they know we're here.'
+
+'Nonsense,' said Racksole brusquely; 'how can they know?' And,
+taking hold of the knob, he violently shook the door, and it opened.
+'I told you it wasn't locked,' he added, and this small success of
+opening the door seemed to steady the man. It was a curious
+psychological effect, this terrorizing (for it amounted to that) of
+two courageous full-grown men by the mere apparition of a
+helpless creature in a cellar. Gradually they both recovered from it.
+The next moment they were out in the passage which led to the
+front door of the house. The front door stood open. They looked
+into the street, up and down, but there was not a soul in sight. The
+street, lighted by three gas-lamps only, seemed strangely sinister
+and mysterious.
+
+'She has gone, that's clear,' said Racksole, meaning the woman
+with the red hat.
+
+'And Miss Spencer after her, do you think?' questioned Aribert.
+
+'No. She would stay. She would never dare to leave. Let us find the
+cellar steps.'
+
+The cellar steps were happily not difficult to discover, for in
+moving a pace backwards Prince Aribert had a narrow escape of
+precipitating himself to the bottom of them. The lantern showed
+that they were built on a curve.
+
+Silently Racksole resumed possession of the lantern and went first,
+the Prince close behind him. At the foot was a short passage, and
+in this passage crouched the figure of a woman. Her eyes threw
+back the rays of the lantern, shining like a cat's at midnight. Then,
+as the men went nearer, they saw that it was Miss Spencer who
+barred their way. She seemed half to kneel on the stone floor, and
+in one hand she held what at first appeared to be a dagger, but
+which proved to be nothing more romantic than a rather long
+bread-knife.
+
+'I heard you, I heard you,' she exclaimed. 'Get back; you mustn't
+come here.'
+
+There was a desperate and dangerous look on her face, and her
+form shook with scarcely controlled passionate energy.
+
+'Now see here, Miss Spencer,' Racksole said calmly, 'I guess we've
+had enough of this fandango. You'd better get up and clear out, or
+we'll just have to drag you off.'
+
+He went calmly up to her, the lantern in his hand. Without another
+word she struck the knife into his arm, and the lantern fell
+extinguished. Racksole gave a cry, rather of angry surprise than of
+pain, and retreated a few steps. In the darkness they could still
+perceive the glint of her eyes.
+
+'I told you you mustn't come here,' the woman said. 'Now get back.'
+
+Racksole positively laughed. It was a queer laugh, but he laughed,
+and he could not help it. The idea of this woman, this bureau clerk,
+stopping his progress and that of Prince Aribert by means of a
+bread-knife aroused his sense of humour. He struck a match,
+relighted the candle, and faced Miss Spencer once more.
+
+'I'll do it again,' she said, with a note of hard resolve.
+
+'Oh, no, you won't, my girl,' said Racksole; and he pulled out his
+revolver, cocked it, raised his hand.
+
+'Put down that plaything of yours,' he said firmly.
+
+'No,' she answered.
+
+'I shall shoot.'
+
+She pressed her lips together.
+
+'I shall shoot,' he repeated. 'One - two - three.'
+
+Bang, bang! He had fired twice, purposely missing her. Miss
+Spencer never blenched. Racksole was tremendously surprised -
+and he would have been a thousandfold more surprised could he
+have contrasted her behaviour now with her abject terror on the
+previous evening when Nella had threatened her.
+
+'You've got a bit of pluck,' he said, 'but it won't help you. Why
+won't you let us pass?'
+
+As a matter of fact, pluck was just what she had not, really; she
+had merely subordinated one terror to another. She was
+desperately afraid of Racksole's revolver, but she was much more
+afraid of something else.
+
+'Why won't you let us pass?'
+
+'I daren't,' she said, with a plaintive tremor; 'Tom put me in charge.'
+
+That was all. The men could see tears running down her poor
+wrinkled face.
+
+Theodore Racksole began to take off his light overcoat.
+
+'I see I must take my coat off to you,' he said, and he almost
+smiled. Then, with a quick movement, he threw the coat over Miss
+Spencer's head and flew at her, seizing both her arms, while Prince
+Aribert assisted.
+
+Her struggles ceased - she was beaten.
+
+'That's all right,' said Racksole: 'I could never have used that
+revolver - to mean business with it, of course.'
+
+They carried her, unresisting, upstairs and on to the upper floor,
+where they locked her in a bedroom. She lay in the bed as if
+exhausted.
+
+'Now for my poor Eugen,' said Prince Aribert.
+
+'Don't you think we'd better search the house first?' Racksole
+suggested; 'it will be safer to know just how we stand. We can't
+afford any ambushes or things of that kind, you know.'
+
+The Prince agreed, and they searched the house from top to
+bottom, but found no one. Then, having locked the front door and
+the french window of the sitting-room, they proceeded again to the
+cellar.
+
+Here a new obstacle confronted them. The cellar door was, of
+course, locked; there was no sign of a key, and it appeared to be a
+heavy door. They were compelled to return to the bedroom where
+Miss Spencer was incarcerated, in order to demand the key of the
+cellar from her. She still lay without movement on the bed.
+
+'Tom's got it,' she replied, faintly, to their question: 'Tom's got it, I
+swear to you. He took it for safety.'
+
+'Then how do you feed your prisoner?' Racksole asked sharply.
+
+'Through the grating,' she answered.
+
+Both men shuddered. They felt she was speaking the truth. For the
+third time they went to the cellar door. In vain Racksole thrust
+himself against it; he could do no more than shake it.
+
+'Let's try both together,' said Prince Aribert. 'Now!' There was a
+crack.
+
+'Again,' said Prince Aribert. There was another crack, and then the
+upper hinge gave way. The rest was easy. Over the wreck of the
+door they entered Prince Eugen's prison.
+
+The captive still sat on his chair. The terrific noise and bustle of
+breaking down the door seemed not to have aroused him from his
+lethargy, but when Prince Aribert spoke to him in German he
+looked at his uncle.
+
+'Will you not come with us, Eugen?' said Prince Aribert; 'you
+needn't stay here any longer, you know.'
+
+'Leave me alone,' was the strange reply; 'leave me alone. What do
+you want?'
+
+ 'We are here to get you out of this scrape,' said Aribert gently.
+Racksole stood aside.
+
+'Who is that fellow?' said Eugen sharply.
+
+'That is my friend Mr Racksole, an Englishman - or rather, I should
+say, an American - to whom we owe a great deal. Come and have
+supper, Eugen.'
+
+'I won't,' answered Eugen doggedly. 'I'm waiting here for her. You
+didn't think anyone had kept me here, did you, against my will? I
+tell you I'm waiting for her. She said she'd come.'
+
+'Who is she?' Aribert asked, humouring him.
+
+'She! Why, you know! I forgot, of course, you don't know. You
+mustn't ask.
+
+Don't pry, Uncle Aribert. She was wearing a red hat.'
+
+'I'll take you to her, my dear Eugen.' Prince Aribert put his hands
+on the other's shoulder, but Eugen shook him off violently, stood
+up, and then sat down again.
+
+Aribert looked at Racksole, and they both looked at Prince Eugen.
+The latter's face was flushed, and Racksole observed that the left
+pupil was more dilated than the right. The man started, muttered
+odd, fragmentary scraps of sentences, now grumbling, now
+whining.
+
+'His mind is unhinged,' Racksole whispered in English.
+
+'Hush!' said Prince Aribert. 'He understands English.' But Prince
+Eugen took no notice of the brief colloquy.
+
+'We had better get him upstairs, somehow,' said Racksole.
+
+'Yes,' Aribert assented. 'Eugen, the lady with the red hat, the lady
+you are waiting for, is upstairs. She has sent us down to ask you to
+come up. Won't you come?'
+
+'Himmel!' the poor fellow exclaimed, with a kind of weak anger.
+'Why did you not say this before?'
+
+He rose, staggered towards Aribert, and fell headlong on the floor.
+He had swooned. The two men raised him, carried him up the
+stone steps, and laid him with infinite care on a sofa. He lay,
+breathing queerly through the nostrils, his eyes closed, his fingers
+contracted; every now and then a convulsion ran through his
+frame.
+
+'One of us must fetch a doctor,' said Prince Aribert.
+
+'I will,' said Racksole. At that moment there was a quick, curt rap
+on the french window, and both Racksole and the Prince glanced
+round startled. A girl's face was pressed against the large
+window-pane. It was Nella's.
+
+Racksole unfastened the catch, and she entered.
+
+'I have found you,' she said lightly; 'you might have told me. I
+couldn't sleep. I inquired from the hotel-folks if you had retired,
+and they said no; so I slipped out. I guessed where you were.'
+Racksole interrupted her with a question as to what she meant by
+this escapade, but she stopped him with a careless gesture. What's
+this?' She pointed to the form on the sofa.
+
+'That is my nephew, Prince Eugen,' said Aribert.
+
+'Hurt?' she inquired coldly. 'I hope not.'
+
+'He is ill,' said Racksole, 'his brain is turned.'
+
+Nella began to examine the unconscious Prince with the expert
+movements of a girl who had passed through the best hospital
+course to be obtained in New York.
+
+'He has got brain fever,' she said. 'That is all, but it will be enough.
+Do you know if there is a bed anywhere in this remarkable house?'
+
+Chapter Eighteen IN THE NIGHT-TIME
+
+'HE must on no account be moved,' said the dark little Belgian
+doctor, whose eyes seemed to peer so quizzically through his
+spectacles; and he said it with much positiveness.
+
+That pronouncement rather settled their plans for them. It was
+certainly a professional triumph for Nella, who, previous to the
+doctor's arrival, had told them the very same thing. Considerable
+argument had passed before the doctor was sent for. Prince Aribert
+was for keeping the whole affair a deep secret among their three
+selves. Theodore Racksole agreed so far, but he suggested further
+that at no matter what risk they should transport the patient over to
+England at once. Racksole had an idea that he should feel safer in
+that hotel of his, and better able to deal with any situation that
+might arise. Nella scorned the idea. In her quality of an amateur
+nurse, she assured them that Prince Eugen was much more
+seriously ill than either of them suspected, and she urged that they
+should take absolute possession of the house, and keep possession
+till Prince Eugen was convalescent.
+
+'But what about the Spencer female?' Racksole had said.
+
+'Keep her where she is. Keep her a prisoner. And hold the house
+against all comers. If Jules should come back, simply defy him to
+enter - that is all.
+
+There are two of you, so you must keep an eye on the former
+occupiers, if they return, and on Miss Spencer, while I nurse the
+patient. But first, you must send for a doctor.'
+
+'Doctor!' Prince Aribert had said, alarmed. 'Will it not be necessary
+to make some awkward explanation to the doctor?'
+
+'Not at all!' she replied. 'Why should it be? In a place like Ostend
+doctors are far too discreet to ask questions; they see too much to
+retain their curiosity. Besides, do you want your nephew to die?'
+
+Both the men were somewhat taken aback by the girl's sagacious
+grasp of the situation, and it came about that they began to obey
+her like subordinates.
+
+She told her father to sally forth in search of a doctor, and he went.
+She gave Prince Aribert certain other orders, and he promptly
+executed them.
+
+By the evening of the following day, everything was going
+smoothly. The doctor came and departed several times, and sent
+medicine, and seemed fairly optimistic as to the issue of the
+illness. An old woman had been induced to come in and cook and
+clean. Miss Spencer was kept out of sight on the attic floor,
+pending some decision as to what to do with her. And no one
+outside the house had asked any questions. The inhabitants of that
+particular street must have been accustomed to strange behaviour
+on the part of their neighbours, unaccountable appearances and
+disappearances, strange flittings and arrivals. This strong-minded
+and active trio - Racksole, Nella, and Prince Aribert - might have
+been the lawful and accustomed tenants of the house, for any
+outward evidence to the contrary.
+
+On the afternoon of the third day Prince Eugen was distinctly and
+seriously worse. Nella had sat up with him the previous night and
+throughout the day.
+
+Her father had spent the morning at the hotel, and Prince Aribert
+had kept watch. The two men were never absent from the house at
+the same time, and one of them always did duty as sentinel at
+night. On this afternoon Prince Aribert and Nella sat together in
+the patient's bedroom. The doctor had just left. Theodore Racksole
+was downstairs reading the New York Herald. The Prince and
+Nella were near the window, which looked on to the back-garden.
+
+It was a queer shabby little bedroom to shelter the august body of a
+European personage like Prince Eugen of Posen. Curiously
+enough, both Nella and her father, ardent democrats though they
+were, had been somehow impressed by the royalty and importance
+of the fever-stricken Prince - impressed as they had never been by
+Aribert. They had both felt that here, under their care, was a
+species of individuality quite new to them, and different from
+anything they had previously encountered. Even the gestures and
+tones of his delirium had an air of abrupt yet condescending
+command - an imposing mixture of suavity and haughtiness. As for
+Nella, she had been first struck by the beautiful 'E' over a crown on
+the sleeves of his linen, and by the signet ring on his pale,
+emaciated hand. After all, these trifling outward signs are at least
+as effective as others of deeper but less obtrusive significance. The
+Racksoles, too, duly marked the attitude of Prince Aribert to his
+nephew: it was at once paternal and reverential; it disclosed clearly
+that Prince Aribert continued, in spite of everything, to regard his
+nephew as his sovereign lord and master, as a being surrounded by
+a natural and inevitable pomp and awe. This attitude, at the
+beginning, seemed false and unreal to the Americans; it seemed to
+them to be assumed; but gradually they came to perceive that they
+were mistaken, and that though America might have cast out 'the
+monarchial superstition', nevertheless that 'superstition' had
+vigorously survived in another part of the world.
+
+'You and Mr Racksole have been extraordinarily kind to me,' said
+Prince Aribert very quietly, after the two had sat some time in
+silence.
+
+'Why? How?' she asked unaffectedly. 'We are interested in this
+affair ourselves, you know. It began at our hotel - you mustn't
+forget that, Prince.'
+
+'I don't,' he said. 'I forget nothing. But I cannot help feeling that I
+have led you into a strange entanglement. Why should you and Mr
+Racksole be here - you who are supposed to be on a holiday! -
+hiding in a strange house in a foreign country, subject to all sorts
+of annoyances and all sorts of risks, simply because I am anxious
+to avoid scandal, to avoid any sort of talk, in connection with my
+misguided nephew? It is nothing to you that the Hereditary Prince
+of Posen should be liable to a public disgrace. What will it matter
+to you if the throne of Posen becomes the laughing-stock of
+Europe?'
+
+'I really don't know, Prince,' Nella smiled roguishly. 'But we
+Americans have, a habit of going right through with anything we
+have begun.'
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'who knows how this thing will end? All our trouble,
+our anxieties, our watchfulness, may come to nothing. I tell you
+that when I see Eugen lying there, and think that we cannot learn
+his story until he recovers, I am ready to go mad. We might be
+arranging things, making matters smooth, preparing for the future,
+if only we knew - knew what he can tell us. I tell you that I am
+ready to go mad. If anything should happen to you, Miss Racksole,
+I would kill myself.'
+
+'But why?' she questioned. 'Supposing, that is, that anything could
+happen to me - which it can't.'
+
+'Because I have dragged you into this,' he replied, gazing at her. 'It
+is nothing to you. You are only being kind.'
+
+'How do you know it is nothing to me, Prince?' she asked him
+quickly.
+
+Just then the sick man made a convulsive movement, and Nella
+flew to the bed and soothed him. From the head of the bed she
+looked over at Prince Aribert, and he returned her bright, excited
+glance. She was in her travelling-frock, with a large white Belgian
+apron tied over it. Large dark circles of fatigue and sleeplessness
+surrounded her eyes, and to the Prince her cheek seemed hollow
+and thin; her hair lay thick over the temples, half covering the ears.
+Aribert gave no answer to her query - merely gazed at her with
+melancholy intensity.
+
+'I think I will go and rest,' she said at last. 'You will know all about
+the medicine.'
+
+'Sleep well,' he said, as he softly opened the door for her. And then
+he was alone with Eugen. It was his turn that night to watch, for
+they still half-expected some strange, sudden visit, or onslaught, or
+move of one kind or another from Jules. Racksole slept in the
+parlour on the ground floor.
+
+Nella had the front bedroom on the first floor; Miss Spencer was
+immured in the attic; the last-named lady had been singularly quiet
+and incurious, taking her food from Nella and asking no questions,
+the old woman went at nights to her own abode in the purlieus of
+the harbour. Hour after hour Aribert sat silent by his nephew's
+bed-side, attending mechanically to his wants, and every now and
+then gazing hard into the vacant, anguished face, as if trying to
+extort from that mask the secrets which it held. Aribert was
+tortured by the idea that if he could have only half an hour's, only a
+quarter of an hour's, rational speech with Prince Eugen, all might
+be cleared up and put right, and by the fact that that rational talk
+was absolutely impossible on Eugen's part until the fever had run
+its course. As the minutes crept on to midnight the watcher, made
+nervous by the intense, electrical atmosphere which seems always
+to surround a person who is dangerously ill, grew more and more a
+prey to vague and terrible apprehensions. His mind dwelt
+hysterically on the most fatal possibilities.
+
+He wondered what would occur if by any ill-chance Eugen should
+die in that bed - how he would explain the affair to Posen and to
+the Emperor, how he would justify himself. He saw himself being
+tried for murder, sentenced (him - a Prince of the blood!), led to
+the scaffold . . . a scene unparalleled in Europe for over a century!
+. . . Then he gazed anew at the sick man, and thought he saw death
+in every drawn feature of that agonized face. He could have
+screamed aloud. His ears heard a peculiar resonant boom. He
+started - it was nothing but the city clock striking twelve. But there
+was another sound - a mysterious shuffle at the door. He listened;
+then jumped from his chair. Nothing now! Nothing! But still he
+felt drawn to the door, and after what seemed an interminable
+interval he went and opened it, his heart beating furiously. Nella
+lay in a heap on the door mat. She was fully dressed, but had
+apparently lost consciousness. He clutched at her slender body,
+picked her up, carried her to the chair by the fire-place, and laid
+her in it. He had forgotten all about Eugen.
+
+'What is it, my angel?' he whispered, and then he kissed her -
+kissed her twice. He could only look at her; he did not know what
+to do to succour her.
+
+ At last she opened her eyes and sighed.
+
+'Where am I?' she asked. vaguely, in a tremulous tone. as she
+recognized him. 'Is it you? Did I do anything silly? Did I faint?'
+
+'What has happened? Were you ill?' he questioned anxiously. He
+was kneeling at her feet, holding her hand tight.
+
+'I saw Jules by the side of my bed,' she murmured; 'I'm sure I saw
+him; he laughed at me. I had not undressed. I sprang up,
+frightened, but he had gone, and then I ran downstairs - to you.'
+
+'You were dreaming,' he soothed her.
+
+'Was I?'
+
+'You must have been. I have not heard a sound. No one could have
+entered.
+
+But if you like I will wake Mr Racksole.'
+
+'Perhaps I was dreaming,' she admitted. 'How foolish!'
+
+'You were over-tired,' he said, still unconsciously holding her hand.
+They gazed at each other. She smiled at him.
+
+'You kissed me,' she said suddenly, and he blushed red and stood
+up before her. 'Why did you kiss me?'
+
+'Ah! Miss Racksole,' he murmured, hurrying the words out.
+'Forgive me. It is unforgivable, but forgive me. I was overpowered
+by my feelings. I did not know what I was doing.'
+
+'Why did you kiss me?' she repeated.
+
+'Because - Nella! I love you. I have no right to say it.'
+
+'Why have you no right to say it?'
+
+'If Eugen dies, I shall owe a duty to Posen - I shall be its ruler.'
+
+'Well!' she said calmly, with an adorable confidence. 'Papa is worth
+forty millions. Would you not abdicate?'
+
+'Ah!' he gave a low cry. 'Will you force me to say these things? I
+could not shirk my duty to Posen, and the reigning Prince of Posen
+can only marry a Princess.'
+
+'But Prince Eugen will live,' she said positively, 'and if he lives - '
+
+'Then I shall be free. I would renounce all my rights to make you
+mine, if - if - '
+
+'If what, Prince?'
+
+'If you would deign to accept my hand.'
+
+'Am I, then, rich enough?'
+
+'Nella!' He bent down to her.
+
+Then there was a crash of breaking glass. Aribert went to the
+window and opened it. In the starlit gloom he could see that a
+ladder had been raised against the back of the house. He thought
+he heard footsteps at the end of the garden.
+
+'It was Jules,' he exclaimed to Nella, and without another word
+rushed upstairs to the attic. The attic was empty. Miss Spencer had
+mysteriously vanished.
+
+Chapter Nineteen ROYALTY AT THE GRAND BABYLON
+
+THE Royal apartments at the Grand Babylon are famous in the
+world of hotels, and indeed elsewhere, as being, in their own way,
+unsurpassed. Some of the palaces of Germany, and in particular
+those of the mad Ludwig of Bavaria, may possess rooms and
+saloons which outshine them in gorgeous luxury and the mere wild
+fairy-like extravagance of wealth; but there is nothing, anywhere,
+even on Eighth Avenue, New York, which can fairly be called
+more complete, more perfect, more enticing, or - not least
+important - more comfortable.
+
+The suite consists of six chambers - the ante-room, the saloon or
+audience chamber, the dining-room, the yellow drawing-room
+(where Royalty receives its friends), the library, and the State
+bedroom - to the last of which we have already been introduced.
+The most important and most impressive of these is, of course, the
+audience chamber, an apartment fifty feet long by forty feet broad,
+with a superb outlook over the Thames, the Shot Tower, and the
+higher signals of the South-Western Railway. The decoration of
+this room is mainly in the German taste, since four out of every six
+of its Royal occupants are of Teutonic blood; but its chief glory is
+its French ceiling, a masterpiece by Fragonard, taken bodily from a
+certain famous palace on the Loire. The walls are of panelled oak,
+with an eight-foot dado of Arras cloth imitated from unique
+Continental examples. The carpet, woven in one piece, is an
+antique specimen of the finest Turkish work, and it was obtained, a
+bargain, by Felix  Babylon, from an impecunious Roumanian
+Prince. The silver candelabra, now fitted with electric light, came
+from the Rhine, and each had a separate history. The Royal chair -
+it is not etiquette to call it a throne, though it amounts to a throne -
+was looted by Napoleon from an Austrian city, and bought by Felix 
+Babylon at the sale of a French collector. At each corner of the
+room stands a gigantic grotesque vase of German fa�ence of the
+sixteenth century. These were presented to Felix  Babylon by
+William the First of Germany, upon the conclusion of his first
+incognito visit to London in connection with the French trouble of
+1875.
+
+There is only one picture in the audience chamber. It is a portrait
+of the luckless but noble Dom Pedro, Emperor of the Brazils.
+Given to Felix  Babylon by Dom Pedro himself, it hangs there
+solitary and sublime as a reminder to Kings and Princes that
+Empires may pass away and greatness fall. A certain Prince who
+was occupying the suite during the Jubilee of 1887 - when the
+Grand Babylon had seven persons of Royal blood under its roof -
+sent a curt message to Felix  that the portrait must be removed.
+Felix  respectfully declined to remove it, and the Prince left for
+another hotel, where he was robbed of two thousand pounds' worth
+of jewellery. The Royal audience chamber of the Grand Babylon,
+if people only knew it, is one of the sights of London, but it is
+never shown, and if you ask the hotel servants about its wonders
+they will tell you only foolish facts concerning it, as that the
+Turkey carpet costs fifty pounds to clean, and that one of the great
+vases is cracked across the pedestal, owing to the rough treatment
+accorded to it during a riotous game of Blind Man's Buff, played
+one night by four young Princesses, a Balkan King, and his
+aides-de-camp.
+
+In one of the window recesses of this magnificent apartment, on a
+certain afternoon in late July, stood Prince Aribert of Posen. He
+was faultlessly dressed in the conventional frock-coat of English
+civilization, with a gardenia in his button-hole, and the
+indispensable crease down the front of the trousers. He seemed to
+be fairly amused, and also to expect someone, for at frequent
+intervals he looked rapidly over his shoulder in the direction of the
+door behind the Royal chair. At last a little wizened, stooping old
+man, with a distinctly German cast of countenance, appeared
+through the door, and laid some papers on a small table by the side
+of the chair.
+
+'Ah, Hans, my old friend!' said Aribert, approaching the old man. 'I
+must have a little talk with you about one or two matters. How do
+you find His Royal Highness?'
+
+The old man saluted, military fashion. 'Not very well, your
+Highness,' he answered. 'I've been valet to your Highness's nephew
+since his majority, and I was valet to his Royal father before him,
+but I never saw - ' He stopped, and threw up his wrinkled hands
+deprecatingly.
+
+'You never saw what?' Aribert smiled affectionately on the old
+fellow. You could perceive that these two, so sharply
+differentiated in rank, had been intimate in the past, and would be
+intimate again.
+
+'Do you know, my Prince,' said the old man, 'that we are to receive
+the financier, Sampson Levi - is that his name? - in the audience
+chamber? Surely, if I may humbly suggest, the library would have
+been good enough for a financier?'
+
+'One would have thought so,' agreed Prince Aribert, 'but perhaps
+your master has a special reason. Tell me,' he went on, changing
+the subject quickly, 'how came it that you left the Prince, my
+nephew, at Ostend, and returned to Posen?'
+
+'His orders, Prince,' and old Hans, who had had a wide experience
+of Royal whims and knew half the secrets of the Courts of Europe,
+gave Aribert a look which might have meant anything. 'He sent me
+back on an - an errand, your Highness.'
+
+'And you were to rejoin him here?'
+
+'Just so, Highness. And I did rejoin him here, although, to tell the
+truth, I had begun to fear that I might never see my master again.'
+
+'The Prince has been very ill in Ostend, Hans.'
+
+'So I have gathered,' Hans responded drily, slowly rubbing his
+hands together. 'And his Highness is not yet perfectly recovered.'
+
+'Not yet. We despaired of his life, Hans, at one time, but thanks to
+an excellent constitution, he came safely through the ordeal.'
+
+'We must take care of him, your Highness.'
+
+'Yes, indeed,' said Aribert solemnly, 'his life is very precious to
+Posen.'
+
+At that moment, Eugen, Hereditary Prince of Posen, entered the
+audience chamber. He was pale and languid, and his uniform
+seemed to be a trouble to him. His hair had been slightly ruffled,
+and there was a look of uneasiness, almost of alarmed unrest, in
+his fine dark eyes. He was like a man who is afraid to look behind
+him lest he should see something there which ought not to be
+there. But at the same time, here beyond doubt was Royalty.
+Nothing could have been more striking than the contrast between
+Eugen, a sick man in the shabby house at Ostend, and this Prince
+Eugen in the Royal apartments of the Grand Babylon Hotel,
+surrounded by the luxury and pomp which modern civilization can
+offer to those born in high places. All the desperate episode of
+Ostend was now hidden, passed over. It was supposed never to
+have occurred. It existed only like a secret shame in the hearts of
+those who had witnessed it. Prince Eugen had recovered; at any
+rate, he was convalescent, and he had been removed to London,
+where he took up again the dropped thread of his princely life. The
+lady with the red hat, the incorruptible and savage Miss Spencer,
+the unscrupulous and brilliant Jules, the dark, damp cellar, the
+horrible little bedroom - these things were over. Thanks to Prince
+Aribert and the Racksoles, he had emerged from them in safety.
+He was able to resume his public and official career. The Emperor
+had been informed of his safe arrival in London, after an
+unavoidable delay in Ostend; his name once more figured in the
+Court chronicle of the newspapers. In short, everything was
+smothered over. Only - only Jules, Rocco, and Miss Spencer were
+still at large; and the body of Reginald Dimmock lay buried in the
+domestic mausoleum of the palace at Posen; and Prince Eugen had
+still to interview Mr Sampson Levi.
+
+That various matters lay heavy on the mind of Prince Eugen was
+beyond question. He seemed to have withdrawn within himself.
+Despite the extraordinary experiences through which he had
+recently passed, events which called aloud for explanations and
+confidence between the nephew and the uncle, he would say
+scarcely a word to Prince Aribert. Any allusion, however direct, to
+the days at Ostend, was ignored by him with more or less
+ingenuity, and Prince Aribert was really no nearer a full solution of
+the mystery of Jules' plot than he had been on the night when he
+and Racksole visited the gaming tables at Ostend. Eugen was well
+aware that he had been kidnapped through the agency of the
+woman in the red hat, but, doubtless ashamed at having been her
+dupe, he would not proceed in any way with the clearing-up of the
+matter.
+
+'You will receive in this room, Eugen?' Aribert questioned him.
+
+'Yes,' was the answer, given pettishly. 'Why not? Even if I have no
+proper retinue here, surely that is no reason why I should not hold
+audience in a proper manner? . . . Hans, you can go.' The old valet
+promptly disappeared.
+
+'Aribert,' the Hereditary Prince continued, when they were alone in
+the chamber, 'you think I am mad.'
+
+'My dear Eugen,' said Prince Aribert, startled in spite of himself.
+'Don't be absurd.'
+
+'I say you think I am mad. You think that that attack of brain fever
+has left its permanent mark on me. Well, perhaps I am mad. Who
+can tell? God knows that I have been through enough lately to
+drive me mad.'
+
+Aribert made no reply. As a matter of strict fact, the thought had
+crossed his mind that Eugen's brain had not yet recovered its
+normal tone and activity. This speech of his nephew's, however,
+had the effect of immediately restoring his belief in the latter's
+entire sanity. He felt convinced that if only he could regain his
+nephew's confidence, the old brotherly confidence which had
+existed between them since the years when they played together as
+boys, all might yet be well. But at present there appeared to be no
+sign that Eugen meant to give his confidence to anyone.
+
+The young Prince had come up out of the valley of the shadow of
+death, but some of the valley's shadow had clung to him, and it
+seemed he was unable to dissipate it.
+
+'By the way,' said Eugen suddenly, 'I must reward these Racksoles,
+I suppose. I am indeed grateful to them. If I gave the girl a
+bracelet, and the father a thousand guineas - how would that meet
+the case?'
+
+'My dear Eugen!' exclaimed Aribert aghast. 'A thousand guineas!
+Do you know that Theodore Racksole could buy up all Posen from
+end to end without making himself a pauper. A thousand guineas!
+You might as well offer him sixpence.'
+
+ 'Then what must I offer?'
+
+'Nothing, except your thanks. Anything else would be an insult.
+These are no ordinary hotel people.'
+
+'Can't I give the little girl a bracelet?' Prince Eugen gave a sinister
+laugh.
+
+Aribert looked at him steadily. 'No,' he said.
+
+'Why did you kiss her - that night?' asked Prince Eugen carelessly.
+
+'Kiss whom?' said Aribert, blushing and angry, despite his most
+determined efforts to keep calm and unconcerned.
+
+'The Racksole girl.'
+
+'When do you mean?'
+
+'I mean,' said Prince Eugen, 'that night in Ostend when I was ill.
+You thought I was in a delirium. Perhaps I was. But somehow I
+remember that with extraordinary distinctness. I remember raising
+my head for a fraction of an instant, and just in that fraction of an
+instant you kissed her. Oh, Uncle Aribert!'
+
+'Listen, Eugen, for God's sake. I love Nella Racksole. I shall marry
+her.'
+
+'You!' There was a long pause, and then Eugen laughed. 'Ah!' he
+said. 'They all talk like that to start with. I have talked like that
+myself, dear uncle; it sounds nice, and it means nothing.'
+
+'In this case it means everything, Eugen,' said Aribert quietly.
+Some accent of determination in the latter's tone made Eugen
+rather more serious.
+
+'You can't marry her,' he said. 'The Emperor won't permit a
+morganatic marriage.'
+
+'The Emperor has nothing to do with the affair. I shall renounce
+my rights.
+
+I shall become a plain citizen.'
+
+'In which case you will have no fortune to speak of.'
+
+'But my wife will have a fortune. Knowing the sacrifices which I
+shall have made in order to marry her, she will not hesitate to
+place that fortune in my hands for our mutual use,' said Aribert
+stiffly.
+
+'You will decidedly be rich,' mused Eugen, as his ideas dwelt on
+Theodore Racksole's reputed wealth. 'But have you thought of this,'
+he asked, and his mild eyes glowed again in a sort of madness.
+'Have you thought that I am unmarried, and might die at any
+moment, and then the throne will descend to you - to you, Aribert?'
+
+'The throne will never descend to me, Eugen,' said Aribert softly,
+'for you will live. You are thoroughly convalescent. You have
+nothing to fear.'
+
+'It is the next seven days that I fear,' said Eugen.
+
+'The next seven days! Why?'
+
+'I do not know. But I fear them. If I can survive them - '
+
+'Mr Sampson Levi, sire,' Hans announced in a loud tone.
+
+Chapter Twenty MR SAMPSON LEVI BIDS PRINCE EUGEN
+GOOD MORNING
+
+PRINCE EUGEN started. 'I will see him,' he said, with a gesture to
+Hans as if to indicate that Mr Sampson Levi might enter at once.
+
+'I beg one moment first,' said Aribert, laying a hand gently on his
+nephew's arm, and giving old Hans a glance which had the effect
+of precipitating that admirably trained servant through the
+doorway.
+
+'What is it?' asked Prince Eugen crossly. 'Why this sudden
+seriousness? Don't forget that I have an appointment with Mr
+Sampson Levi, and must not keep him waiting. Someone said that
+punctuality is the politeness of princes.'
+
+'Eugen,' said Aribert, 'I wish you to be as serious as I am. Why
+cannot we have faith in each other? I want to help you. I have
+helped you. You are my titular Sovereign; but on the other hand I
+have the honour to be your uncle:
+
+I have the honour to be the same age as you, and to have been your
+companion from youth up. Give me your confidence. I thought you
+had given it me years ago, but I have lately discovered that you had
+your secrets, even then. And now, since your illness, you are still
+more secretive.'
+
+'What do you mean, Aribert?' said Eugen, in a tone which might
+have been either inimical or friendly. 'What do you want to say?'
+
+'Well, in the first place, I want to say that you will not succeed
+with the estimable Mr Sampson Levi.'
+
+'Shall I not?' said Eugen lightly. 'How do you know what my
+business is with him?'
+
+'Suffice it to say that I know. You will never get that million
+pounds out of him.'
+
+Prince Eugen gasped, and then swallowed his excitement. 'Who
+has been talking? What million?' His eyes wandered uneasily
+round the room. 'Ah!' he said, pretending to laugh. 'I see how it is. I
+have been chattering in my delirium. You mustn't take any notice
+of that, Aribert. When one has a fever one's ideas become
+grotesque and fanciful.'
+
+'You never talked in your delirium,' Aribert replied; 'at least not
+about yourself. I knew about this projected loan before I saw you
+in Ostend.'
+
+'Who told you?' demanded Eugen fiercely.
+
+'Then you admit that you are trying to raise a loan?'
+
+'I admit nothing. Who told you?'
+
+'Theodore Racksole, the millionaire. These rich men have no
+secrets from each other. They form a coterie, closer than any
+coterie of ours. Eugen, and far more powerful. They talk, and in
+talking they rule the world, these millionaires. They are the real
+monarchs.'
+
+'Curse them!' said Eugen.
+
+'Yes, perhaps so. But let me return to your case. Imagine my
+shame, my disgust, when I found that Racksole could tell me more
+about your affairs than I knew myself. Happily, he is a good
+fellow; one can trust him; otherwise I should have been tempted to
+do something desperate when I discovered that all your private
+history was in his hands. Eugen, let us come to the point; why do
+you want that million? Is it actually true that you are so deeply in
+debt? I have no desire to improve the occasion. I merely ask.'
+
+'And what if I do owe a million?' said Prince Eugen with assumed
+valour.
+
+'Oh, nothing, my dear Eugen, nothing. Only it is rather a large sum
+to have scattered in ten years, is it not? How did you manage it?'
+
+'Don't ask me, Aribert. I've been a fool. But I swear to you that the
+woman whom you call "the lady in the red hat" is the last of my
+follies. I am about to take a wife, and become a respectable
+Prince.'
+
+'Then the engagement with Princess Anna is an accomplished
+fact?'
+
+'Practically so. As soon as I have settled with Levi, all will be
+smooth.
+
+Aribert, I wouldn't lose Anna for the Imperial throne. She is a good
+and pure woman, and I love her as a man might love an angel.'
+
+'And yet you would deceive her as to your debts, Eugen?'
+
+'Not her, but her absurd parents, and perhaps the Emperor. They
+have heard rumours, and I must set those rumours at rest by
+presenting to them a clean sheet.'
+
+'I am glad you have been frank with me, Eugen,' said Prince
+Aribert, 'but I will be plain with you. You will never marry the
+Princess Anna.'
+
+'And why?' said Eugen, supercilious again.
+
+'Because her parents will not permit it. Because you will not be
+able to present a clean sheet to them. Because this Sampson Levi
+will never lend you a million.'
+
+'Explain yourself.'
+
+'I propose to do so. You were kidnapped - it is a horrid word, but
+we must use it - in Ostend.'
+
+'True.'
+
+'Do you know why?'
+
+'I suppose because that vile old red-hatted woman and her
+accomplices wanted to get some money out of me. Fortunately,
+thanks to you, they didn't.'
+
+'Not at all,' said Aribert. 'They wanted no money from you. They
+knew well enough that you had no money. They knew you were
+the naughty schoolboy among European Princes, with no sense of
+responsibility or of duty towards your kingdom. Shall I tell you
+why they kidnapped you?'
+
+'When you have done abusing me, my dear uncle.'
+
+'They kidnapped you merely to keep you out of England for a few
+days, merely to compel you to fail in your appointment with
+Sampson Levi. And it appears to me that they succeeded.
+Assuming that you don't obtain the money from Levi, is there
+another financier in all Europe from whom you can get it - on such
+strange security as you have to offer?'
+
+'Possibly there is not,' said Prince Eugen calmly. 'But, you see, I
+shall get it from Sampson Levi. Levi promised it, and I know from
+other sources that he is a man of his word. He said that the money,
+subject to certain formalities, would be available till - '
+
+'Till?'
+
+'Till the end of June.'
+
+'And it is now the end of July.'
+
+'Well, what is a month? He is only too glad to lend the money. He
+will get excellent interest. How on earth have you got into your
+sage old head this notion of a plot against me? The idea is
+ridiculous. A plot against me? What for?'
+
+'Have you ever thought of Bosnia?' asked Aribert coldly.
+
+'What of Bosnia?'
+
+'I need not tell you that the King of Bosnia is naturally under
+obligations to Austria, to whom he owes his crown. Austria is
+anxious for him to make a good influential marriage.'
+
+'Well, let him.'
+
+'He is going to. He is going to marry the Princess Anna.'
+
+'Not while I live. He made overtures there a year ago, and was
+rebuffed.'
+
+'Yes; but he will make overtures again, and this time he will not be
+rebuffed. Oh, Eugen! can't you see that this plot against you is
+being engineered by some persons who know all about your
+affairs, and whose desire is to prevent your marriage with Princess
+Anna? Only one man in Europe can have any motive for wishing
+to prevent your marriage with Princess Anna, and that is the man
+who means to marry her himself.' Eugen went very pale.
+
+'Then, Aribert, do you mean to oonvey to me that my detention in
+Ostend was contrived by the agents of the King of Bosnia?'
+
+'I do.'
+
+'With a view to stopping my negotiations with Sampson Levi, and
+so putting an end to the possibility of my marriage with Anna?'
+
+Aribert nodded.
+
+'You are a good friend to me, Aribert. You mean well. But you are
+mistaken.
+
+You have been worrying about nothing.'
+
+'Have you forgotten about Reginald Dimmock?'
+
+'I remember you said that he had died.'
+
+'I said nothing of the sort. I said that he had been assassinated. That
+was part of it, my poor Eugen.'
+
+'Pooh!' said Eugen. 'I don't believe he was assassinated. And as for
+Sampson Levi, I will bet you a thousand marks that he and I come
+to terms this morning, and that the million is in my hands before I
+leave London.' Aribert shook his head.
+
+'You seem to be pretty sure of Mr Levi's character. Have you had
+much to do with him before?'
+
+'Well,' Eugen hesitated a second, 'a little. What young man in my
+position hasn't had something to do with Mr Sampson Levi at one
+time or another?'
+
+'I haven't,' said Aribert.
+
+'You! You are a fossil.' He rang a silver bell. 'Hans! I will receive
+Mr Sampson Levi.'
+
+Whereupon Aribert discreetly departed, and Prince Eugen sat
+down in the great velvet chair, and began to look at the papers
+which Hans had previously placed upon the table.
+
+'Good morning, your Royal Highness,' said Sampson Levi, bowing
+as he entered. 'I trust your Royal Highness is well.'
+
+'Moderately, thanks,' returned the Prince.
+
+In spite of the fact that he had had as much to do with people of
+Royal blood as any plain man in Europe, Sampson Levi had never
+yet learned how to be at ease with these exalted individuals during
+the first few minutes of an interview. Afterwards, he resumed
+command of himself and his faculties, but at the beginning he was
+invariably flustered, scarlet of face, and inclined to perspiration.
+
+'We will proceed to business at once,' said Prince Eugen. 'Will you
+take a seat, Mr Levi?'
+
+'I thank your Royal Highness.'
+
+'Now as to that loan which we had already practically arranged - a
+million, I think it was,' said the Prince airily.
+
+'A million,' Levi acquiesced, toying with his enormous watch
+chain.
+
+'Everything is now in order. Here are the papers and I should like
+to finish the matter up at once.'
+
+'Exactly, your Highness, but - '
+
+'But what? You months ago expressed the warmest satisfaction at
+the security, though I am quite prepared to admit that the security,
+is of rather an unusual nature. You also agreed to the rate of
+interest. It is not everyone, Mr Levi, who can lend out a million at
+5-1/2 per cent. And in ten years the whole amount will be paid
+back. I - er - I believe I informed you that the fortune of Princess
+Anna, who is about to accept my hand, will ultimately amount to
+something like fifty millions of marks, which is over two million
+pounds in your English money.' Prince Eugen stopped. He had no
+fancy for talking in this confidential manner to financiers, but he
+felt that circumstances demanded it.
+
+'You see, it's like this, your Royal Highness,' began Mr Sampson
+Levi, in his homely English idiom. 'It's like this. I said I could keep
+that bit of money available till the end of June, and you were to
+give me an interview here before that date. Not having heard from
+your Highness, and not knowing your Highness's address, though
+my German agents made every inquiry, I concluded, that you had
+made other arrangements, money being so cheap this last few
+months.'
+
+'I was unfortunately detained at Ostend,' said Prince Eugen, with as
+much haughtiness as he could assume, 'by - by important business.
+I have made no other arangements, and I shall have need of the
+million. If you will be so good as to pay it to my London bankers - '
+
+'I'm very sorry,' said Mr Sampson Levi, with a tremendous and
+dazzling air of politeness, which surprised even himself, 'but my
+syndicate has now lent the money elsewhere. It's in South America
+- I don't mind telling your Highness that we've lent it to the Chilean
+Government.'
+
+'Hang the Chilean Government, Mr Levi,' exclaimed the Prince,
+and he went white. 'I must have that million. It was an
+arrangement.'
+
+'It was an arrangement, I admit,' said Mr Sampson Levi, 'but your
+Highness broke the arrangement.'
+
+There was a long silence.
+
+'Do you mean to say,' began the Prince with tense calmness, 'that
+you are not in a position to let me have that million?'
+
+'I could let your Highness have a million in a couple of years' time.'
+
+The Prince made a gesture of annoyance. 'Mr Levi,' he said, 'if you
+do not place the money in my hands to-morrow you will ruin one
+of the oldest of reigning families, and, incidentally, you will alter
+the map of Europe. You are not keeping faith, and I had relied on
+you.'
+
+'Pardon me, your Highness,' said little Levi, rising in resentment, 'it
+is not I who have not kept faith. I beg to repeat that the money is
+no longer at my disposal, and to bid your Highness good morning.'
+
+And Mr Sampson Levi left the audience chamber with an
+awkward, aggrieved bow. It was a scene characteristic of the end
+of the nineteenth century - an overfed, commonplace, pursy little
+man who had been born in a Brixton semi-detached villa, and
+whose highest idea of pleasure was a Sunday up the river in an
+expensive electric launch, confronting and utterly routing, in a
+hotel belonging to an American millionaire, the representative of a
+race of men who had fingered every page of European history for
+centuries, and who still, in their native castles, were surrounded
+with every outward circumstance of pomp and power.
+
+'Aribert,' said Prince Eugen, a little later, 'you were right. It is all
+over. I have only one refuge - '
+
+'You don't mean - ' Aribert stopped, dumbfounded.
+
+'Yes, I do,' he said quickly. 'I can manage it so that it will look like
+an accident.'
+
+
+
+Chapter Twenty-One THE RETURN OF F�LIX BABYLON
+
+ON the evening of Prince Eugen's fateful interview with Mr
+Sampson Levi, Theodore Racksole was wandering somewhat
+aimlessly and uneasily about the entrance hail and adjacent
+corridors of the Grand Babylon. He had returned from Ostend only
+a day or two previously, and had endeavoured with all his might to
+forget the affair which had carried him there - to regard it, in fact,
+as done with. But he found himself unable to do so. In vain he
+remarked, under his breath, that there were some things which
+were best left alone: if his experience as a manipulator of markets,
+a contriver of gigantic schemes in New York, had taught him
+anything at all, it should surely have taught him that. Yet he could
+not feel reconciled to such a position. The mere presence of the
+princes in his hotel roused the fighting instincts of this man, who
+had never in his whole career been beaten. He had, as it were,
+taken up arms on their side, and if the princes of Posen would not
+continue their own battle, nevertheless he, Theodore Racksole,
+wanted to continue it for them. To a certain extent, of course, the
+battle had been won, for Prince Eugen had been rescued from an
+extremely difficult and dangerous position, and the enemy -
+consisting of Jules, Rocco, Miss Spencer, and perhaps others - had
+been put to flight. But that, he conceived, was not enough; it was
+very far from being enough. That the criminals, for criminals they
+decidedly were, should still be at large, he regarded as an absurd
+anomaly. And there was another point: he had said nothing to the
+police of all that had occurred. He disdained the police, but he
+could scarcely fail to perceive that if the police should by accident
+gain a clue to the real state of the case he might be placed rather
+awkwardly, for the simple reason that in the eyes of the law it
+amounted to a misdemeanour to conceal as much as he had
+concealed. He asked himself, for the thousandth time, why he had
+adopted a policy of concealment from the police, why he had
+become in any way interested in the Posen matter, and why, at this
+present moment, he should be so anxious to prosecute it further?
+To the first two questions he replied, rather lamely, that he had
+been influenced by Nella, and also by a natural spirit of adventure;
+to the third he replied that he had always been in the habit of
+carrying things through, and was now actuated by a mere childish,
+obstinate desire to carry this one through. Moreover, he was
+spendidly conscious of his perfect ability to carry it through. One
+additional impulse he had, though he did not admit it to himself,
+being by nature adverse to big words, and that was an abstract love
+of justice, the Anglo-Saxon's deep-found instinct for helping the
+right side to conquer, even when grave risks must thereby be run,
+with no corresponding advantage.
+
+He was turning these things over in his mind as he walked about
+the vast hotel on that evening of the last day in July. The Society
+papers had been stating for a week past that London was empty,
+but, in spite of the Society papers, London persisted in seeming to
+be just as full as ever. The Grand Babylon was certainly not as
+crowded as it had been a month earlier, but it was doing a very
+passable business. At the close of the season the gay butterflies of
+the social community have a habit of hovering for a day or two in
+the big hotels before they flutter away to castle and country-house,
+meadow and moor, lake and stream. The great basket-chairs in the
+portico were well filled by old and middle-aged gentlemen
+engaged in enjoying the varied delights of liqueurs, cigars, and the
+full moon which floated so serenely above the Thames. Here and
+there a pretty woman on the arm of a cavalier in immaculate attire
+swept her train as she turned to and fro in the promenade of the
+terrace. Waiters and uniformed commissionaires and gold-braided
+doorkeepers moved noiselessly about; at short intervals the chief
+of the doorkeepers blew his shrill whistle and hansoms drove up
+with tinkling bell to take away a pair of butterflies to some place
+of amusement or boredom; occasionally a private carriage drawn
+by expensive and self-conscious horses put the hansoms to shame
+by its mere outward glory. It was a hot night, a night for the
+summer woods, and save for the vehicles there was no rapid
+movement of any kind. It seemed as though the world - the world,
+that is to say, of the Grand Babylon - was fully engaged in the
+solemn processes of digestion and small-talk. Even the long row of
+the Embankment gas-lamps, stretching right and left, scarcely
+trembled in the still, warm, caressing air. The stars overhead
+looked down with many blinkings upon the enormous pile of the
+Grand Babylon, and the moon regarded it with bland and
+changeless face; what they thought of it and its inhabitants cannot,
+unfortunately, be recorded. What Theodore Racksole thought of
+the moon can be recorded: he thought it was a nuisance. It
+somehow fascinated his gaze with its silly stare, and so interfered
+with his complex meditations. He glanced round at the
+well-dressed and satisfied people - his guests, his customers. They
+appeared to ignore him absolutely.
+
+Probably only a very small percentage of them had the least idea
+that this tall spare man, with the iron-grey hair and the thin, firm,
+resolute face, who wore his American-cut evening clothes with
+such careless ease, was the sole proprietor of the Grand Babylon,
+and possibly the richest man in Europe. As has already been stated,
+Racksole was not a celebrity in England.
+
+The guests of the Grand Babylon saw merely a restless male
+person, whose restlessness was rather a disturber of their quietude,
+but with whom, to judge by his countenance, it would be
+inadvisable to remonstrate. Therefore Theodore Racksole
+continued his perambulations unchallenged, and kept saying to
+himself, 'I must do something.' But what? He could think of no
+course to pursue.
+
+At last he walked straight through the hotel and out at the other
+entrance, and so up the little unassuming side street into the
+roaring torrent of the narrow and crowded Strand. He jumped on a
+Putney bus, and paid his fair to Putney, fivepence, and then,
+finding that the humble occupants of the vehicle stared at the
+spectacle of a man in evening dress but without a dustcoat, he
+jumped off again, oblivious of the fact that the conductor jerked a
+thumb towards him and winked at the passengers as who should
+say, 'There goes a lunatic.' He went into a tobacconist's shop and
+asked for a cigar. The shopman mildly inquired what price.
+
+'What are the best you've got?' asked Theodore Racksole.
+
+'Five shillings each, sir,' said the man promptly.
+
+'Give me a penny one,' was Theodore Racksole's laconic request,
+and he walked out of the shop smoking the penny cigar. It was a
+new sensation for him.
+
+He was inhaling the aromatic odours of Eug�ne Rimmel's
+establishment for the sale of scents when a gentleman, walking
+slowly in the opposite direction, accosted him with a quiet, 'Good
+evening, Mr Racksole.' The millionaire did not at first recognize
+his interlocutor, who wore a travelling overcoat, and was carrying
+a handbag. Then a slight, pleased smile passed over his features,
+and he held out his hand.
+
+'Well, Mr Babylon,' he greeted the other, 'of all persons in the wide
+world you are the man I would most have wished to meet.'
+
+'You flatter me,' said the little Anglicized Swiss.
+
+'No, I don't,' answered Racksole; 'it isn't my custom, any more than
+it's yours. I wanted to have a real good long yarn with you, and lo!
+here you are! Where have you sprung from?'
+
+'From Lausanne,' said Felix  Babylon. 'I had finished my duties
+there, I had nothing else to do, and I felt homesick. I felt the
+nostalgia of London, and so I came over, just as you see,' and he
+raised the handbag for Racksole's notice. 'One toothbrush, one
+razor, two slippers, ehl' He laughed. 'I was wondering as I walked
+along where I should stay - me, Felix  Babylon, homeless in
+London.'
+
+'I should advise you to stay at the Grand Babylon,' Racksole
+laughed back.
+
+'It is a good hotel, and I know the proprietor personally.'
+
+'Rather expensive, is it not?' said Babylon.
+
+'To you, sir,' answered Racksole, 'the inclusive terms will be
+exactly half a crown a week. Do you accept?'
+
+'I accept,' said Babylon, and added, 'You are very good, Mr
+Racksole.'
+
+They strolled together back to the hotel, saying nothing in
+particular, but feeling very content with each other's company.
+
+'Many customers?' asked Felix  Babylon.
+
+'Very tolerable,' said Racksole, assuming as much of the air of the
+professional hotel proprietor as he could. 'I think I may say in the
+storekeeper's phrase, that if there is any business about I am doing
+it.
+
+To-night the people are all on the terrace in the portico - it's so
+confoundedly hot - and the consumption of ice is simply enormous
+- nearly as large as it would be in New York.'
+
+'In that case,' said Babylon politely, 'let me offer you another cigar.'
+
+'But I have not finished this one.'
+
+'That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as
+yours, my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the
+precincts of the Grand Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the
+Grand Babylon, and especially when all the guests are assembled
+in the portico. The fumes of it would ruin any hotel.'
+
+Theodore Racksole laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana
+which Babylon gave him, and they entered the hotel arm in arm.
+But no sooner had they mounted the steps than little Felix  became
+the object of numberless greetings. It appeared that he had been
+highly popular among his quondam guests. At last they reached the
+managerial room, where Babylon was regaled on a chicken, and
+Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a bottle of Heidsieck
+Monopole, Carte d'Or.
+
+'This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,' said Babylon at length. 'It
+is a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the
+name of Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?'
+
+'Then you have heard?'
+
+'Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the
+Continent. Some journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon
+would have to close its doors within half a year now that Rocco
+had deserted it. But of course I knew better. I knew that you must
+have a good reason for allowing Rocco to depart, and that you
+must have made arrangements in advance for a substitute.'
+
+'As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,' said
+Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; 'but happily we have found in
+our second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That,
+however, was mere good fortune.'
+
+'Surely,' said Babylon, 'it was indiscreet to trust to mere good
+fortune in such a serious matter?'
+
+'I didn't trust to mere good fortune. I didn't trust to anything except
+Rocco, and he deceived me.'
+
+'But why did you quarrel with him?'
+
+'I didn't quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the
+State bedroom one night - '
+
+'You what?' Babylon almost screamed.
+
+'I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom,' repeated
+Racksole in his quietest tones.
+
+The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished
+Babylon's glass.
+
+'Tell me,' said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and
+lighting a cigar.
+
+And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen
+episode, with every circumstantial detail so far as he knew it. It
+was a long and complicated recital, and occupied about an hour.
+During that time little Felix  never spoke a word, scarcely moved a
+muscle; only his small eyes gazed through the bluish haze of
+smoke. The clock on the mantelpiece tinkled midnight.
+
+'Time for whisky and soda,' said Racksole, and got up as if to ring
+the bell; but Babylon waved him back.
+
+'You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of
+Prince Eugen to-day, but you have not told me the result of that
+audience,' said Babylon.
+
+ 'Because I do not yet know it. But I shall doubtless know
+to-morrow. In the meantime, I feel fairly sure that Levi declined to
+produce Prince Eugen's required million. I have reason to believe
+that the money was lent elsewhere.'
+
+'H'm!' mused Babylon; and then, carelessly, 'I am not at all
+surprised at that arrangement for spying through the bathroom of
+the State apartments.'
+
+'Why are you not surprised?'
+
+'Oh!' said Babylon, 'it is such an obvious dodge - so easy to carry
+out. As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these
+affairs. I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I
+also felt that they lay outside my sphere. My business was to
+provide board and lodging of the most sumptuous kind to those
+who didn't mind paying for it; and I did my business. If anything
+else went on in the hotel, under the rose, I long determined to
+ignore it unless it should happen to be brought before my notice;
+and it never was brought before my notice. However, I admit that
+there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this kind of affair and
+doubtless you have experienced that.'
+
+'I have,' said Racksole simply, 'though I believe you are laughing at
+me.'
+
+'By no means,' Babylon replied. 'Now what, if I may ask the
+question, is going to be your next step?'
+
+'That is just what I desire to know myself,' said Theodore
+Racksole.
+
+'Well,' said Babylon, after a pause, 'let us begin. In the first place, it
+is possible you may be interested to hear that I happened to see
+Jules to-day.'
+
+'You did!' Racksole remarked with much calmness. 'Where?'
+
+'Well, it was early this morning, in Paris, just before I left there.
+The meeting was quite accidental, and Jules seemed rather
+surprised at meeting me. He respectfully inquired where I was
+going, and I said that I was going to Switzerland. At that moment I
+thought I was going to Switzerland. It had occurred to me that after
+all I should be happier there, and that I had better turn back and
+not see London any more. However, I changed my mind once
+again, and decided to come on to London, and accept the risks of
+being miserable there without my hotel. Then I asked Jules
+whither he was bound, and he told me that he was off to
+Constantinople, being interested in a new French hotel there. I
+wished him good luck, and we parted.'
+
+'Constantinople, eh!' said Racksole. 'A highly suitable place for
+him, I should say.'
+
+'But,' Babylon resumed, 'I caught sight of him again.'
+
+'Where?'
+
+'At Charing Cross, a few minutes before I had the pleasure of
+meeting you.
+
+Mr Jules had not gone to Constantinople after all. He did not see
+me, or I should have suggested to him that in going from Paris to
+Constantinople it is not usual to travel via London.'
+
+'The cheek of the fellow!' exclaimed Theodore Racksole. 'The
+gorgeous and colossal cheek of the fellow!'
+
+Chapter Twenty-Two IN THE WINE CELLARS OF THE GRAND
+BABYLON
+
+'DO you know anything of the antecedents of this Jules,' asked
+Theodore Racksole, helping himself to whisky.
+
+'Nothing whatever,' said Babylon. 'Until you told me, I don't think I
+was aware that his true name was Thomas Jackson, though of
+course I knew that it was not Jules. I certainly was not aware that
+Miss Spencer was his wife, but I had long suspected that their
+relations were somewhat more intimate than the nature of their
+respective duties in the hotel absolutely demanded. All that I do
+know of Jules - he will always be called Jules - is that he
+gradually, by some mysterious personal force, acquired a
+prominent position in the hotel. Decidedly he was the cleverest
+and most intellectual waiter I have ever known, and he was
+specially skilled in the difficult task of retaining his own dignity
+while not interfering with that of other people.
+
+I'm afraid this information is a little too vague to be of any
+practical assistance in the present difficulty.'
+
+'What is the present difficulty?' Racksole queried, with a simple
+air.
+
+'I should imagine that the present difficulty is to account for the
+man's presence in London.'
+
+'That is easily accounted for,' said Racksole.
+
+'How? Do you suppose he is anxious to give himself up to justice,
+or that the chains of habit bind him to the hotel?'
+
+'Neither,' said Racksole. 'Jules is going to have another try - that's
+all.'
+
+ 'Another try at what?'
+
+'At Prince Eugen. Either at his life or his liberty. Most probably the
+former this time; almost certainly the former. He has guessed that
+we are somewhat handicapped by our anxiety to keep Prince
+Eugen's predicament quite quiet, and he is taking advantage, of
+that fact. As he already is fairly rich, on his own admission, the
+reward which has been offered to him must be enormous, and he is
+absolutely determined to get it. He has several times recently
+proved himself to be a daring fellow; unless I am mistaken he will
+shortly prove himself to be still more daring.'
+
+'But what can he do? Surely you don't suggest that he will attempt
+the life of Prince Eugen in this hotel?'
+
+'Why not? If Reginald Dimmock fell on mere suspicion that he
+would turn out unfaithful to the conspiracy, why not Prince
+Eugen?'
+
+'But it would be an unspeakable crime, and do infinite harm to the
+hotel!'
+
+'True!' Racksole admitted, smiling. Little Felix  Babylon seemed to
+brace himself for the grasping of his monstrous idea.
+
+'How could it possibly be done?' he asked at length.
+
+'Dimmock was poisoned.'
+
+'Yes, but you had Rocco here then, and Rocco was in the plot. It is
+conceivable that Rocco could have managed it - barely
+conceivable. But without Rocco I cannot think it possible. I cannot
+even think that Jules would attempt it. You see, in a place like the
+Grand Babylon, as probably I needn't point out to you, food has to
+pass through so many hands that to poison one person without
+killing perhaps fifty would be a most delicate operation. Moreover,
+Prince Eugen, unless he has changed his habits, is always served
+by his own attendant, old Hans, and therefore any attempt to
+tamper with a cooked dish immediately before serving would be
+hazardous in the extreme.'
+
+'Granted,' said Racksole. 'The wine, however, might be more easily
+got at.
+
+Had you thought of that?'
+
+'I had not,' Babylon admitted. 'You are an ingenious theorist, but I
+happen to know that Prince Eugen always has his wine opened in
+his own presence. No doubt it would be opened by Hans.
+Therefore the wine theory is not tenable, my friend.'
+
+'I do not see why,' said Racksole. 'I know nothing of wine as an
+expert, and I very seldom drink it, but it seems to me that a bottle
+of wine might be tampered with while it was still in the cellar,
+especially if there was an accomplice in the hotel.'
+
+'You think, then, that you are not yet rid of all your conspirators?'
+
+'I think that Jules might still have an accomplice within the
+building.'
+
+'And that a bottle of wine could be opened and recorked without
+leaving any trace of the operation?' Babylon was a trifle sarcastic.
+
+'I don't see the necessity of opening the bottle in order to poison
+the wine,' said Racksole. 'I have never tried to poison anybody by
+means of a bottle of wine, and I don't lay claim to any natural
+talent as a poisoner, but I think I could devise several ways of
+managing the trick. Of course, I admit I may be entirely mistaken
+as to Jules' intentions.'
+
+'Ah!' said Felix  Babylon. 'The wine cellars beneath us are one of
+the wonders of London. I hope you are aware, Mr Racksole, that
+when you bought the Grand Babylon you bought what is probably
+the finest stock of wines in England, if not in Europe. In the
+valuation I reckoned them at sixty thousand pounds. And I may say
+that I always took care that the cellars were properly guarded.
+Even Jules would experience a serious difficulty in breaking into
+the cellars without the connivance of the wine-clerk, and the
+wine-clerk is, or was, incorruptible.'
+
+'I am ashamed to say that I have not yet inspected my wines,'
+smiled Racksole; 'I have never given them a thought. Once or
+twice I have taken the trouble to make a tour of the hotel, but I
+omitted the cellars in my excursions.'
+
+'Impossible, my dear fellow!' said Babylon, amused at such a
+confession, to him - a great connoisseur and lover of fine wines -
+almost incredible. 'But really you must see them to-morrow. If I
+may, I will accompany you.'
+
+'Why not to-night?' Racksole suggested, calmly.
+
+'To-night! It is very late: Hubbard will have gone to bed.'
+
+'And may I ask who is Hubbard? I remember the name but dimly.'
+
+'Hubbard is the wine-clerk of the Grand Babylon,' said Felix , with
+a certain emphasis. 'A sedate man of forty. He has the keys of the
+cellars. He knows every bottle of every bin, its date, its qualities,
+its value. And he's a teetotaler. Hubbard is a curiosity. No wine can
+leave the cellars without his knowledge, and no person can enter
+the cellars without his knowledge. At least, that is how it was in
+my time,' Babylon added.
+
+'We will wake him,' said Racksole.
+
+'But it is one o'clock in the morning,' Babylon protested.
+
+'Never mind - that is, if you consent to accompany me. A cellar is
+the same by night as by day. Therefore, why not now?'
+
+Babylon shrugged his shoulders. 'As you wish,' he agreed, with his
+indestructible politeness.
+
+'And now to find this Mr Hubbard, with his key of the cupboard,'
+said Racksole, as they walked out of the room together. Although
+the hour was so late, the hotel was not, of course, closed for the
+night. A few guests still remained about in the public rooms, and a
+few fatigued waiters were still in attendance. One of these latter
+was despatched in search of the singular Mr Hubbard, and it
+fortunately turned out that this gentleman had not actually retired,
+though he was on the point of doing so. He brought the keys to Mr
+Racksole in person, and after he had had a little chat with his
+former master, the proprietor and the ex-proprietor of the Grand
+Babylon Hotel proceeded on their way to the cellars.
+
+These cellars extend over, or rather under, quite half the
+superficial areas of the whole hotel - the longitudinal half which
+lies next to the Strand.
+
+Owing to the fact that the ground slopes sharply from the Strand to
+the river, the Grand Babylon is, so to speak, deeper near the Strand
+than it is near the Thames. Towards the Thames there is, below the
+entrance level, a basement and a sub-basement. Towards the
+Strand there is basement, sub-basement, and the huge wine cellars
+beneath all. After descending the four flights of the service stairs,
+and traversing a long passage running parallel with the kitchen, the
+two found themselves opposite a door, which, on being unlocked,
+gave access to another flight of stairs. At the foot of this was the
+main entrance to the cellars. Outside the entrance was the
+wine-lift, for the ascension of delicious fluids to the upper floors,
+and, opposite, Mr Hubbard's little office. There was electric light
+everywhere.
+
+Babylon, who, as being most accustomed to them, held the bunch
+of keys, opened the great door, and then they were in the first
+cellar - the first of a suite of five. Racksole was struck not only by
+the icy coolness of the place, but also by its vastness. Babylon had
+seized a portable electric handlight, attached to a long wire, which
+lay handy, and, waving it about, disclosed the dimensions of the
+place. By that flashing illumination the subterranean chamber
+looked unutterably weird and mysterious, with its rows of
+numbered bins, stretching away into the distance till the radiance
+was reduced to the occasional far gleam of the light on the
+shoulder of a bottle. Then Babylon switched on the fixed electric
+lights, and Theodore Racksole entered upon a
+personally-conducted tour of what was quite the most interesting
+part of his own property.
+
+To see the innocent enthusiasm of Felix  Babylon for these stores
+of exhilarating liquid was what is called in the North 'a sight for
+sair een'.
+
+He displayed to Racksole's bewildered gaze, in their due order, all
+the wines of three continents - nay, of four, for the superb and
+luscious Constantia wine of Cape Colony was not wanting in that
+most catholic collection of vintages. Beginning with the
+unsurpassed products of Burgundy, he continued with the clarets
+of M�doc, Bordeaux, and Sauterne; then to the champagnes of Ay,
+Hautvilliers, and Pierry; then to the hocks and moselles of
+Germany, and the brilliant imitation champagnes of Main, Neckar,
+and Naumburg; then to the famous and adorable Tokay of
+Hungary, and all the Austrian varieties of French wines, including
+Carlowitz and Somlauer; then to the dry sherries of Spain,
+including purest Manzanilla, and Amontillado, and Vino de Pasto;
+then to the wines of Malaga, both sweet and dry, and all the
+'Spanish reds' from Catalonia, including the dark 'Tent' so often
+used sacramentally; then to the renowned port of Oporto. Then he
+proceeded to the Italian cellar, and descanted upon the excellence
+of Barolo from Piedmont, of Chianti from Tuscany, of Orvieto
+from the Roman States, of the 'Tears of Christ' from Naples, and
+the commoner Marsala from Sicily. And so on, to an extent and
+with a fullness of detail which cannot be rendered here.
+
+At the end of the suite of cellars there was a glazed door, which, as
+could be seen, gave access to a supplemental and smaller cellar, an
+apartment about fifteen or sixteen feet square.
+
+'Anything special in there?' asked Racksole curiously, as they stood
+before the door, and looked within at the seined ends of bottles.
+
+'Ah!' exclaimed Babylon, almost smacking his lips, 'therein lies the
+cream of all.'
+
+'The best champagne, I suppose?' said Racksole.
+
+'Yes,' said Babylon, 'the best champagne is there - a very special
+Sillery, as exquisite as you will find anywhere. But I see, my
+friend, that you fall into the common error of putting champagne
+first among wines. That distinction belongs to Burgundy. You have
+old Burgundy in that cellar, Mr Racksole, which cost me - how
+much do you think? - eighty pounds a bottle.
+
+Probably it will never be drunk,' he added with a sigh. 'It is too
+expensive even for princes and plutocrats.'
+
+'Yes, it will,' said Racksole quickly. 'You and I will have a bottle
+up to-morrow.'
+
+'Then,' continued Babylon, still riding his hobby-horse, 'there is a
+sample of the Rhine wine dated 1706 which caused such a
+sensation at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. There is also a
+singularly glorious Persian wine from Shiraz, the like of which I
+have never seen elsewhere. Also there is an unrivalled vintage of
+Roman�e-Conti, greatest of all modern Burgundies. If I remember
+right Prince Eugen invariably has a bottle when he comes to stay
+here. It is not on the hotel wine list, of course, and only a few
+customers know of it. We do not precisely hawk it about the
+dining-room.'
+
+'Indeed!' said Racksole. 'Let us go inside.'
+
+They entered the stone apartment, rendered almost sacred by the
+preciousness of its contents, and Racksole looked round with a
+strangely intent and curious air. At the far side was a grating,
+through which came a feeble light.
+
+'What is that?' asked the millionaire sharply.
+
+'That is merely a ventilation grating. Good ventilation is absolutely
+essential.'
+
+'Looks broken, doesn't it?' Racksole suggested and then, putting a
+finger quickly on Babylon's shoulder, 'there's someone in the
+cellar. Can't you hear breathing, down there, behind that bin?'
+
+The two men stood tense and silent for a while, listening, under
+the ray of the single electric light in the ceiling. Half the cellar was
+involved in gloom. At length Racksole walked firmly down the
+central passage-way between the bins and turned to the corner at
+the right.
+
+'Come out, you villain!' he said in a low, well-nigh vicious tone,
+and dragged up a cowering figure.
+
+He had expected to find a man, but it was his own daughter, Nella
+Racksole, upon whom he had laid angry hands.
+
+Chapter Twenty-Three FURTHER EVENTS IN THE CELLAR
+
+'WELL, Father,' Nella greeted her astounded parent. 'You should
+make sure that you have got hold of the right person before you
+use all that terrible muscular force of yours. I do believe you have
+broken my shoulder bone.' She rubbed her shoulder with a comical
+expression of pain, and then stood up before the two men. The
+skirt of her dark grey dress was torn and dirty, and the usually trim
+Nella looked as though she had been shot down a canvas
+fire-escape. Mechanically she smoothed her frock, and gave a
+straightening touch to her hair.
+
+'Good evening, Miss Racksole,' said Felix  Babylon, bowing
+formally. 'This is an unexpected pleasure.' Felix 's drawing-room
+manners never deserted him upon any occasion whatever.
+
+'May I inquire what you are doing in my wine cellar, Nella
+Racksole?' said the millionaire a little stiffly He was certainly
+somewhat annoyed at having mistaken his daughter for a criminal;
+moreover, he hated to be surprised, and upon this occasion he had
+been surprised beyond any ordinary surprise; lastly, he was not at
+all pleased that Nella should be observed in that strange
+predicament by a stranger.
+
+'I will tell you,' said Nella. 'I had been reading rather late in my
+room - the night was so close. I heard Big Ben strike half-past
+twelve, and then I put the book down, and went out on to the
+balcony of my window for a little fresh air before going to bed. I
+leaned over the balcony very quietly - you will remember that I am
+on the third floor now - and looked down below into the little sunk
+yard which separates the wall of the hotel from Salisbury Lane. I
+was rather astonished to see a figure creeping across the yard. I
+knew there was no entrance into the hotel from that yard, and
+besides, it is fifteen or twenty feet below the level of the street. So
+I watched. The figure went close up against the wall, and
+disappeared from my view. I leaned over the balcony as far as I
+dared, but I couldn't see him. I could hear him, however.'
+
+'What could you hear?' questioned Racksole sharply.
+
+'It sounded like a sawing noise,' said Nella; 'and it went on for
+quite a long time - nearly a quarter of an hour, I should think - a
+rasping sort of noise.'
+
+'Why on earth didn't you come and warn me or someone else in the
+hotel?'
+
+asked Racksole.
+
+'Oh, I don't know, Dad,' she replied sweetly. 'I had got interested in
+it, and I thought I would see it out myself. Well, as I was saying,
+Mr Babylon,'
+
+she continued, addressing her remarks to Felix , with a dazzling
+smile, 'that noise went on for quite a long time. At last it stopped,
+and the figure reappeared from under the wall, crossed the yard,
+climbed up the opposite wall by some means or other, and so over
+the railings into Salisbury Lane. I felt rather relieved then, because
+I knew he hadn't actually broken into the hotel. He walked down
+Salisbury Lane very slowly. A policeman was just coming up.
+"Goodnight, officer," I heard him say to the policeman, and he
+asked him for a match. The policeman supplied the match, and the
+other man lighted a cigarette, and proceeded further down the lane.
+By cricking your neck from my window, Mr Babylon, you can get
+a glimpse of the Embankment and the river. I saw the man cross
+the Embankment, and lean over the river wall, where he seemed to
+be talking to some one. He then walked along the Embankment to
+Westminster and that was the last I saw of him. I waited a minute
+or two for him to come back, but he didn't come back, and so I
+thought it was about time I began to make inquiries into the affair.
+I went downstairs instantly, and out of the hotel, through the
+quadrangle, into Salisbury Lane, and I looked over those railings.
+There was a ladder on the other side, by which it was perfectly
+easy - once you had got over the railings - to climb down into the
+yard. I was horribly afraid lest someone might walk up Salisbury
+Lane and catch me in the act of negotiating those railings, but no
+one did, and I surmounted them, with no worse damage than a torn
+skirt. I crossed the yard on tiptoe, and I found that in the wall,
+close to the ground and almost exactly under my window, there
+was an iron grating, about one foot by fourteen inches. I suspected,
+as there was no other ironwork near, that the mysterious visitor
+must have been sawing at this grating for private purposes of his
+own. I gave it a good shake, and I was not at all surprised that a
+good part of it came off in my hand, leaving just enough room for
+a person to creep through. I decided that I would creep through,
+and now wish I hadn't. I don't know, Mr Babylon, whether you
+have ever tried to creep through a small hole with a skirt on. Have
+you?'
+
+'I have not had that pleasure,' said little Felix , bowing again, and
+absently taking up a bottle which lay to his hand.
+
+'Well, you are fortunate,' the imperturbable Nella resumed. 'For
+quite three minutes I thought I should perish in that grating, Dad,
+with my shoulder inside and the rest of me outside. However, at
+last, by the most amazing and agonizing efforts, I pulled myself
+through and fell into this extraordinary cellar more dead than alive.
+Then I wondered what I should do next. Should I wait for the
+mysterious visitor to return, and stab him with my pocket scissors
+if he tried to enter, or should I raise an alarm? First of all I
+replaced the broken grating, then I struck a match, and I saw that I
+had got landed in a wilderness of bottles. The match went out, and
+I hadn't another one. So I sat down in the corner to think. I had just
+decided to wait and see if the visitor returned, when I heard
+footsteps, and then voices; and then you came in. I must say I was
+rather taken aback, especially as I recognized the voice of Mr
+Babylon. You see, I didn't want to frighten you.
+
+If I had bobbed up from behind the bottles and said "Booh!" you
+would have had a serious shock. I wanted to think of a way of
+breaking my presence gently to you. But you saved me the trouble,
+Dad. Was I really breathing so loudly that you could hear me?'
+
+The girl ended her strange recital, and there was a moment's
+silence in the cellar. Racksole merely nodded an affirmative to her
+concluding question.
+
+'Well, Nell, my girl,' said the millionaire at length, 'we are much
+obliged for your gymnastic efforts - very much obliged. But now, I
+think you had better go off to bed. There is going to be some
+serious trouble here, I'll lay my last dollar on that?'
+
+'But if there is to be a burglary I should so like to see it, Dad,' Nella
+pleaded. 'I've never seen a burglar caught red-handed.'
+
+'This isn't a burglary, my dear. I calculate it's something far worse
+than a burglary.'
+
+'What?' she cried. 'Murder? Arson? Dynamite plot? How perfectly
+splendid!'
+
+'Mr Babylon informs me that Jules is in London,' said Racksole
+quietly.
+
+'Jules!' she exclaimed under her breath, and her tone changed
+instantly to the utmost seriousness. 'Switch off the light, quick!'
+Springing to the switch, she put the cellar in darkness.
+
+'What's that for?' said her father.
+
+'If he comes back he would see the light, and be frightened away,'
+said Nella. 'That wouldn't do at all.'
+
+'It wouldn't, Miss Racksole,' said Babylon, and there was in his
+voice a note of admiration for the girl's sagacity which Racksole
+heard with high paternal pride.
+
+'Listen, Nella,' said the latter, drawing his daughter to him in the
+profound gloom of the cellar. 'We fancy that Jules may be trying to
+tamper with a certain bottle of wine - a bottle which might
+possibly be drunk by Prince Eugen. Now do you think that the man
+you saw might have been Jules?'
+
+'I hadn't previously thought of him as being Jules, but immediately
+you mentioned the name I somehow knew that he was. Yes, I am
+sure it was Jules.'
+
+ 'Well, just hear what I have to say. There is no time to lose. If he
+is coming at all he will be here very soon - and you can help.'
+Racksole explained what he thought Jules' tactics might be. He
+proposed that if the man returned he should not be interfered with,
+but merely watched from the other side of the glass door.
+
+'You want, as it were, to catch Mr Jules alive?' said Babylon, who
+seemed rather taken aback at this novel method of dealing with
+criminals. 'Surely,'
+
+he added, 'it would be simpler and easier to inform the police of
+your suspicion, and to leave everything to them.'
+
+'My dear fellow,' said Racksole, 'we have already gone much too
+far without the police to make it advisable for us to call them in at
+this somewhat advanced stage of the proceedings. Besides, if you
+must know it, I have a particular desire to capture the scoundrel
+myself. I will leave you and Nella here, since Nella insists on
+seeing everything, and I will arrange things so that once he has
+entered the cellar Jules will not get out of it again - at any rate
+through the grating. You had better place yourselves on the other
+side of the glass door, in the big cellar; you will be in a position to
+observe from there, I will skip off at once. All you have to do is to
+take note of what the fellow does. If he has any accomplices
+within the hotel we shall probably be able by that means to
+discover who the accomplice is.'
+
+Lighting a match and shading it with his hands, Racksole showed
+them both out of the little cellar. 'Now if you lock this glass door
+on the outside he can't escape this way: the panes of glass are too
+small, and the woodwork too stout. So, if he comes into the trap,
+you two will have the pleasure of actually seeing him frantically
+writhe therein, without any personal danger; but perhaps you'd
+better not show yourselves.'
+
+In another moment Felix  Babylon and Nella were left to
+themselves in the darkness of the cellar, listening to the receding
+footfalls of Theodore Racksole. But the sound of these footfalls
+had not died away before another sound greeted their ears - the
+grating of the small cellar was being removed.
+
+'I hope your father will be in time,' whispered Felix
+
+'Hush!' the girl warned him, and they stooped side by side in tense
+silence.
+
+ A man cautiously but very neatly wormed his body through the
+aperture of the grating. The watchers could only see his form
+indistinctly in the darkness.
+
+Then, being fairly within the cellar, he walked without the least
+hesitation to the electric switch and turned on the light. It was
+unmistakably Jules, and he knew the geography of the cellar very
+well. Babylon could with difficulty repress a start as he saw this
+bold and unscrupulous ex-waiter moving with such an air of
+assurance and determination about the precious cellar. Jules went
+directly to a small bin which was numbered 17, and took there
+from the topmost bottle.
+
+'The Romanee-Conti - Prince Eugen's wine!' Babylon exclaimed
+under his breath.
+
+Jules neatly and quickly removed the seal with an instrument
+which he had clearly brought for the purpose. He then took a little
+flat box from his pocket, which seemed to contain a sort of black
+salve. Rubbing his finger in this, he smeared the top of the neck of
+the bottle with it, just where the cork came against the glass. In
+another instant he had deftly replaced the seal and restored the
+bottle to its position. He then turned off the light, and made for the
+aperture. When he was half-way through Nella exclaimed, 'He will
+escape, after all. Dad has not had time - we must stop him.'
+
+But Babylon, that embodiment of caution, forcibly, but
+nevertheless politely, restrained this Yankee girl, whom he deemed
+so rash and imprudent, and before she could free herself the lithe
+form of Jules had disappeared.
+
+Chapter Twenty-Four THE BOTTLE OF WINE
+
+AS regards Theodore Racksole, who was to have caught his man
+from the outside of the cellar, he made his way as rapidly as
+possible from the wine-cellars, up to the ground floor, out of the
+hotel by the quadrangle, through the quadrangle, and out into the
+top of Salisbury Lane. Now, owing to the vastness of the structure
+of the Grand Babylon, the mere distance thus to be traversed
+amounted to a little short of a quarter of a mile, and, as it included
+a number of stairs, about two dozen turnings, and several passages
+which at that time of night were in darkness more or less
+complete, Racksole could not have been expected to accomplish
+the journey in less than five minutes. As a matter of fact, six
+minutes had elapsed before he reached the top of Salisbury Lane,
+because he had been delayed nearly a minute by some questions
+addressed to him by a muddled and whisky-laden guest who had
+got lost in the corridors. As everybody knows, there is a sharp
+short bend in Salisbury Lane near the top. Racksole ran round this
+at good racing speed, but he was unfortunate enough to run straight
+up against the very policeman who had not long before so
+courteously supplied Jules with a match. The policeman seemed to
+be scarcely in so pliant a mood just then.
+
+'Hullo!' he said, his naturally suspicious nature being doubtless
+aroused by the spectacle of a bareheaded man in evening dress
+running violently down the lane. 'What's this? Where are you for in
+such a hurry?' and he forcibly detained Theodore Racksole for a
+moment and scrutinized his face.
+
+'Now, officer,' said Racksole quietly, 'none of your larks, if you
+please.
+
+I've no time to lose.'
+
+'Beg your pardon, sir,' the policeman remarked, though hesitatingly
+and not quite with good temper, and Racksole was allowed to
+proceed on his way. The millionaire's scheme for trapping Jules
+was to get down into the little sunk yard by means of the ladder,
+and then to secrete himself behind some convenient abutment of
+brickwork until Mr Tom Jackson should have got into the cellar.
+He therefore nimbly surmounted the railings - the railings of his
+own hotel - and was gingerly descending the ladder, when lo! a
+rough hand seized him by the coat-collar and with a ferocious jerk
+urged him backwards. The fact was, Theodore Racksole had
+counted without the policeman. That guardian of the peace,
+mistrusting Racksole's manner, quietly followed him down the
+lane. The sight of the millionaire climbing the railings had put him
+on his mettle, and the result was the ignominious capture of
+Racksole. In vain Theodore expostulated, explained,
+anathematized. Only one thing would satisfy the stolid policeman -
+namely, that Racksole should return with him to the hotel and
+there establish his identity. If Racksole then proved to be
+Racksole, owner of the Grand Babylon, well and good - the
+policeman promised to apologize. So Theodore had no alternative
+but to accept the suggestion. To prove his identity was, of course,
+the work of only a few minutes, after which Racksole, annoyed,
+but cool as ever, returned to his railings, while the policeman went
+off to another part of his beat, where he would be likely to meet a
+comrade and have a chat.
+
+In the meantime, our friend Jules, sublimely unconscious of the
+altercation going on outside, and of the special risk which he ran,
+was of course actually in the cellar, which he had reached before
+Racksole got to the railings for the first time. It was, indeed, a
+happy chance for Jules that his exit from the cellar coincided with
+the period during which Racksole was absent from the railings. As
+Racksole came down the lane for the second time, he saw a figure
+walking about fifty yards in front of him towards the Embankment.
+Instantly he divined that it was Jules, and that the policeman had
+thrown him just too late. He ran, and Jules, hearing the noise of
+pursuit, ran also. The ex-waiter was fleet; he made direct for a
+certain spot in the Embankment wall, and, to the intense
+astonishment of Racksole, jumped clean over the wall, as it
+seemed, into the river. 'Is he so desperate as to commit suicide?'
+Racksole exclaimed as he ran, but a second later the puff and snort
+of a steam launch told him that Jules was not quite driven to
+suicide. As the millionaire crossed the Embankment roadway he
+saw the funnel of the launch move out from under the river-wall. It
+swerved into midstream and headed towards London Bridge. There
+was a silent mist over the river. Racksole was helpless. . . .
+
+Although Racksole had now been twice worsted in a contest of
+wits within the precincts of the Grand Babylon, once by Rocco and
+once by Jules, he could not fairly blame himself for the present
+miscarriage of his plans - a miscarriage due to the
+meddlesomeness of an extraneous person, combined with pure
+ill-fortune. He did not, therefore, permit the accident to interfere
+with his sleep that night.
+
+On the following day he sought out Prince Aribert, between whom
+and himself there now existed a feeling of unmistakable, frank
+friendship, and disclosed to him the happenings of the previous
+night, and particularly the tampering with the bottle of
+Roman�e-Conti.
+
+'I believe you dined with Prince Eugen last night?'
+
+'I did. And curiously enough we had a bottle of Roman�e-Conti,
+an admirable wine, of which Eugen is passionately fond.'
+
+'And you will dine with him to-night?'
+
+'Most probably. To-day will, I fear, be our last day here. Eugen
+wishes to return to Posen early to-morrow.'
+
+'Has it struck you, Prince,' said Racksole, 'that if Jules had
+succeeded in poisoning your nephew, he would probably have
+succeeded also in poisoning you?'
+
+'I had not thought of it,' laughed Aribert, 'but it would seem so. It
+appears that so long as he brings down his particular quarry, Jules
+is careless of anything else that may be accidentally involved in
+the destruction. However, we need have no fear on that score now.
+You know the bottle, and you can destroy it at once.'
+
+'But I do not propose to destroy it,' said Racksole calmly. 'If Prince
+Eugen asks for Roman�e-Conti to be served to-night, as he
+probably will, I propose that that precise bottle shall be served to
+him - and to you.'
+
+'Then you would poison us in spite of ourselves?'
+
+'Scarcely,' Racksole smiled. 'My notion is to discover the
+accomplices within the hotel. I have already inquired as to the
+wine-clerk, Hubbard. Now does it not occur to you as
+extraordinary that on this particular day Mr Hubbard should be ill
+in bed? Hubbard, I am informed, is suffering from an attack of
+stomach poisoning, which has supervened during the night. He
+says that he does not know what can have caused it. His place in
+the wine cellars will be taken to-day by his assistant, a mere youth,
+but to all appearances a fairly smart youth. I need not say that we
+shall keep an eye on that youth.'
+
+'One moment,' Prince Aribert interrupted. 'I do not quite
+understand how you think the poisoning was to have been
+effected.'
+
+'The bottle is now under examination by an expert, who has
+instructions to remove as little as possible of the stuff which Jules
+put on the rim of the mouth of it. It will be secretly replaced in its
+bin during the day. My idea is that by the mere action of pouring
+out the wine takes up some of the poison, which I deem to be very
+strong, and thus becomes fatal as it enters the glass.'
+
+'But surely the servant in attendance would wipe the mouth of the
+bottle?'
+
+'Very carelessly, perhaps. And moreover he would be extremely
+unlikely to wipe off all the stuff; some of it has been ingeniously
+placed just on the inside edge of the rim. Besides, suppose he
+forgot to wipe the bottle?'
+
+'Prince Eugen is always served at dinner by Hans. It is an honour
+which the faithful old fellow reserves for himself.'
+
+'But suppose Hans - ' Racksole stopped.
+
+'Hans an accomplice! My dear Racksole, the suggestion is wildly
+impossible.'
+
+ That night Prince Aribert dined with his august nephew in the
+superb dining-room of the Royal apartments. Hans served, the
+dishes being brought to the door by other servants. Aribert found
+his nephew despondent and taciturn. On the previous day, when,
+after the futile interview with Sampson Levi, Prince Eugen had
+despairingly threatened to commit suicide, in such a manner as to
+make it 'look like an accident', Aribert had compelled him to give
+his word of honour not to do so.
+
+'What wine will your Royal Highness take?' asked old Hans in his
+soothing tones, when the soup was served.
+
+'Sherry,' was Prince Eugen's curt order.
+
+'And Roman�e-Conti afterwards?' said Hans. Aribert looked up
+quickly.
+
+'No, not to-night. I'll try Sillery to-night,' said Prince Eugen.
+
+'I think I'll have Roman�e-Conti, Hans, after all,' he said. 'It suits
+me better than champagne.'
+
+The famous and unsurpassable Burgundy was served with the
+roast. Old Hans brought it tenderly in its wicker cradle, inserted
+the corkscrew with mathematical precision, and drew the cork,
+which he offered for his master's inspection. Eugen nodded, and
+told him to put it down. Aribert watched with intense interest. He
+could not for an instant believe that Hans was not the very soul of
+fidelity, and yet, despite himself, Racksole's words had caused him
+a certain uneasiness. At that moment Prince Eugen murmured
+across the table:
+
+'Aribert, I withdraw my promise. Observe that, I withdraw it.'
+Aribert shook his head emphatically, without removing his gaze
+from Hans. The white-haired servant perfunctorily dusted his
+napkin round the neck of the bottle of Roman�e-Conti, and
+poured out a glass. Aribert trembled from head to foot.
+
+Eugen took up the glass and held it to the light.
+
+'Don't drink it,' said Aribert very quietly. 'It is poisoned.'
+
+'Poisoned!' exclaimed Prince Eugen.
+
+'Poisoned, sire!' exclaimed old Hans, with an air of profound
+amazement and concern, and he seized the glass. 'Impossible, sire.
+I myself opened the bottle. No one else has touched it, and the
+cork was perfect.'
+
+'I tell you it is poisoned,' Aribert repeated.
+
+'Your Highness will pardon an old man,' said Hans, 'but to say that
+this wine is poison is to say that I am a murderer. I will prove to
+you that it is not poisoned. I will drink it.' And he raised the glass
+to his trembling lips. In that moment Aribert saw that old Hans, at
+any rate, was not an accomplice of Jules. Springing up from his
+seat, he knocked the glass from the aged servitor's hands, and the
+fragments of it fell with a light tinkling crash partly on the table
+and partly on the floor. The Prince and the servant gazed at one
+another in a distressing and terrible silence.
+
+There was a slight noise, and Aribert looked aside. He saw that
+Eugen's body had slipped forward limply over the left arm of his
+chair; the Prince's arms hung straight and lifeless; his eyes were
+closed; he was unconscious.
+
+'Hans!' murmured Aribert. 'Hans! What is this?'
+
+Chapter Twenty-Five THE STEAM LAUNCH
+
+MR TOM JACKSON's notion of making good his escape from the
+hotel by means of a steam launch was an excellent one, so far as it
+went, but Theodore Racksole, for his part, did not consider that it
+went quite far enough.
+
+Theodore Racksole opined, with peculiar glee, that he now had a
+tangible and definite clue for the catching of the Grand Babylon's
+ex-waiter. He knew nothing of the Port of London, but he
+happened to know a good deal of the far more complicated, though
+somewhat smaller, Port of New York, and he sure there ought to
+be no extraordinary difficulty in getting hold of Jules'
+
+steam launch. To those who are not thoroughly familiar with it the
+River Thames and its docks, from London Bridge to Gravesend,
+seems a vast and uncharted wilderness of craft - a wilderness in
+which it would be perfectly easy to hide even a three-master
+successfully. To such people the idea of looking for a steam launch
+on the river would be about equivalent to the idea of looking for a
+needle in a bundle of hay. But the fact is, there are hundreds of
+men between St Katherine's Wharf and Blackwall who literally
+know the Thames as the suburban householder knows his
+back-garden - who can recognize thousands of ships and put a
+name to them at a distance of half a mile, who are informed as to
+every movement of vessels on the great stream, who know all the
+captains, all the engineers, all the lightermen, all the pilots, all the
+licensed watermen, and all the unlicensed scoundrels from the
+Tower to Gravesend, and a lot further. By these experts of the
+Thames the slightest unusual event on the water is noticed and
+discussed - a wherry cannot change hands but they will guess
+shrewdly upon the price paid and the intentions of the new owner
+with regard to it. They have a habit of watching the river for the
+mere interest of the sight, and they talk about everything like
+housewives gathered of an evening round the cottage door. If the
+first mate of a Castle Liner gets the sack they will be able to tell
+you what he said to the captain, what the old man said to him, and
+what both said to the Board, and having finished off that affair
+they will cheerfully turn to discussing whether Bill Stevens sank
+his barge outside the West Indian No.2 by accident or on purpose.
+
+Theodore Racksole had no satisfactory means of identifying the
+steam launch which carried away Mr Tom Jackson. The sky had
+clouded over soon after midnight, and there was also a slight mist,
+and he had only been able to make out that it was a low craft,
+about sixty feet long, probably painted black. He had personally
+kept a watch all through the night on vessels going upstream, and
+during the next morning he had a man to take his place who
+warned him whenever a steam launch went towards Westminster.
+At noon, after his conversation with Prince Aribert, he went down
+the river in a hired row-boat as far as the Custom House, and
+poked about everywhere, in search of any vessel which could by
+any possibility be the one he was in search of.
+
+But he found nothing. He was, therefore, tolerably sure that the
+mysterious launch lay somewhere below the Custom House. At the
+Custom House stairs, he landed, and asked for a very high official
+- an official inferior only to a Commissioner - whom he had
+entertained once in New York, and who had met him in London on
+business at Lloyd's. In the large but dingy office of this great man a
+long conversation took place - a conversation in which Racksole
+had to exercise a certain amount of persuasive power, and which
+ultimately ended in the high official ringing his bell.
+
+'Desire Mr Hazell - room No. 332 - to speak to me,' said the
+official to the boy who answered the summons, and then, turning
+to Racksole: 'I need hardly repeat, my dear Mr Racksole, that this
+is strictly unofficial.'
+
+'Agreed, of course,' said Racksole.
+
+Mr Hazell entered. He was a young man of about thirty, dressed in
+blue serge, with a pale, keen face, a brown moustache and a rather
+handsome brown beard.
+
+'Mr Hazell,' said the high official, 'let me introduce you to Mr
+Theodore Racksole - you will doubtless be familiar with his name.
+Mr Hazell,' he went on to Racksole, 'is one of our outdoor staff -
+what we call an examining officer. Just now he is doing night duty.
+He has a boat on the river and a couple of men, and the right to
+board and examine any craft whatever. What Mr Hazell and his
+crew don't know about the Thames between here and Gravesend
+isn't knowledge.'
+
+'Glad to meet you, sir,' said Racksole simply, and they shook
+hands.
+
+Racksole observed with satisfaction that Mr Hazell was entirely at
+his ease.
+
+ 'Now, Hazell,' the high official continued, 'Mr Racksole wants you
+to help in a little private expedition on the river to-night. I will
+give you a night's leave. I sent for you partly because I thought you
+would enjoy the affair and partly because I think I can rely on you
+to regard it as entirely unofficial and not to talk about it. You
+understand? I dare say you will have no cause to regret having
+obliged Mr Racksole.'
+
+'I think I grasp the situation,' said Hazell, with a slight smile.
+
+'And, by the way,' added the high official, 'although the business is
+unofficial, it might be well if you wore your official overcoat.
+See?'
+
+'Decidedly,' said Hazell; 'I should have done so in any case.'
+
+'And now, Mr Hazell,' said Racksole, 'will you do me the pleasure
+of lunching with me? If you agree, I should like to lunch at the
+place you usually frequent.'
+
+So it came to pass that Theodore Racksole and George Hazell,
+outdoor clerk in the Customs, lunched together at 'Thomas's
+Chop-House', in the city of London, upon mutton-chops and
+coffee. The millionaire soon discovered that he had got hold of a
+keen-witted man and a person of much insight.
+
+'Tell me,' said Hazell, when they had reached the cigarette stage,
+'are the magazine writers anything like correct?'
+
+'What do you mean?' asked Racksole, mystified.
+
+'Well, you're a millionaire - "one of the best", I believe. One often
+sees articles on and interviews with millionaires, which describe
+their private railroad cars, their steam yachts on the Hudson, their
+marble stables, and so on, and so on. Do you happen to have those
+things?'
+
+'I have a private car on the New York Central, and I have a two
+thousand ton schooner-yacht - though it isn't on the Hudson. It
+happens just now to be on East River. And I am bound to admit
+that the stables of my uptown place are fitted with marble.'
+Racksole laughed.
+
+'Ah!' said Hazell. 'Now I can believe that I am lunching with a
+millionaire.
+
+It's strange how facts like those - unimportant in themselves -
+appeal to the imagination. You seem to me a real millionaire now.
+You've given me some personal information; I'll give you some in
+return. I earn three hundred a year, and perhaps sixty pounds a year
+extra for overtime. I live by myself in two rooms in Muscovy
+Court. I've as much money as I need, and I always do exactly what
+I like outside office. As regards the office, I do as little work as I
+can, on principle - it's a fight between us and the Commissioners
+who shall get the best. They try to do us down, and we try to do
+them down - it's pretty even on the whole. All's fair in war, you
+know, and there ain't no ten commandments in a Government
+office.'
+
+Racksole laughed. 'Can you get off this afternoon?' he asked.
+
+'Certainly,' said Hazell; 'I'll get one of my pals to sign on for me,
+and then I shall be free.'
+
+'Well,' said Racksole, 'I should like you to come down with me to
+the Grand Babylon. Then we can talk over my little affair at
+length. And may we go on your boat? I want to meet your crew.'
+
+'That will be all right,' Hazell remarked. 'My two men are the
+idlest, most soul-less chaps you ever saw. They eat too much, and
+they have an enormous appetite for beer; but they know the river,
+and they know their business, and they will do anything within the
+fair game if they are paid for it, and aren't asked to hurry.'
+
+That night, just after dark, Theodore Racksole embarked with his
+new friend George Hazell in one of the black-painted Customs
+wherries, manned by a crew of two men - both the later freemen of
+the river, a distinction which carries with it certain privileges
+unfamiliar to the mere landsman. It was a cloudy and oppressive
+evening, not a star showing to illumine the slow tide, now just past
+its flood. The vast forms of steamers at anchor - chiefly those of
+the General Steam Navigation and the Aberdeen Line - heaved
+themselves high out of the water, straining sluggishly at their
+mooring buoys. On either side the naked walls of warehouses rose
+like grey precipices from the stream, holding forth quaint arms of
+steam-cranes. To the west the Tower Bridge spanned the river with
+its formidable arch, and above that its suspended footpath - a
+hundred and fifty feet from earth.
+
+Down towards the east and the Pool of London a forest of funnels
+and masts was dimly outlined against the sinister sky. Huge barges,
+each steered by a single man at the end of a pair of giant oars,
+lumbered and swirled down-stream at all angles. Occasionally a
+tug snorted busily past, flashing its red and green signals and
+dragging an unwieldy tail of barges in its wake. Then a Margate
+passenger steamer, its electric lights gleaming from every porthole,
+swerved round to anchor, with its load of two thousand fatigued
+excursionists. Over everything brooded an air of mystery - a spirit
+and feeling of strangeness, remoteness, and the inexplicable. As
+the broad flat little boat bobbed its way under the shadow of
+enormous hulks, beneath stretched hawsers, and past buoys
+covered with green slime, Racksole could scarcely believe that he
+was in the very heart of London - the most prosaic city in the
+world. He had a queer idea that almost anything might happen in
+this seeming waste of waters at this weird hour of ten o'clock. It
+appeared incredible to him that only a mile or two away people
+were sitting in theatres applauding farces, and that at Cannon
+Street Station, a few yards off, other people were calmly taking the
+train to various highly respectable suburbs whose names he was
+gradually learning. He had the uplifting sensation of being in
+another world which comes to us sometimes amid surroundings
+violently different from our usual surroundings. The most ordinary
+noises - of men calling, of a chain running through a slot, of a
+distant siren - translated themselves to his ears into terrible and
+haunting sounds, full of portentous significance. He looked over
+the side of the boat into the brown water, and asked himself what
+frightful secrets lay hidden in its depth. Then he put his hand into
+his hip-pocket and touched the stock of his Colt revolver - that
+familiar substance comforted him.
+
+The oarsmen had instructions to drop slowly down to the Pool, as
+the wide reach below the Tower is called. These two men had not
+been previously informed of the precise object of the expedition,
+but now that they were safely afloat Hazell judged it expedient to
+give them some notion of it. 'We expect to come across a rather
+suspicious steam launch,' he said. 'My friend here is very anxious
+to get a sight of her, and until he has seen her nothing definite can
+be done.'
+
+'What sort of a craft is she, sir?' asked the stroke oar, a fat-faced
+man who seemed absolutely incapable of any serious exertion.
+
+'I don't know,' Racksole replied; 'but as near as I can judge, she's
+about sixty feet in length, and painted black. I fancy I shall
+recognize her when I see her.'
+
+'Not much to go by, that,' exclaimed the other man curtly. But he
+said no more. He, as well as his mate, had received from Theodore
+Racksole one English sovereign as a kind of preliminary fee, and
+an English sovereign will do a lot towards silencing the natural
+sarcastic tendencies and free speech of a Thames waterman.
+
+'There's one thing I noticed,' said Racksole suddenly, 'and I forgot
+to tell you of it, Mr Hazell. Her screw seemed to move with a
+rather irregular, lame sort of beat.'
+
+Both watermen burst into a laugh.
+
+'Oh,' said the fat rower, 'I know what you're after, sir - it's Jack
+Everett's launch, commonly called "Squirm". She's got a
+four-bladed propeller, and one blade is broken off short.'
+
+'Ay, that's it, sure enough,' agreed the man in the bows. 'And if it's
+her you want, I seed her lying up against Cherry Gardens Pier this
+very morning.'
+
+'Let us go to Cherry Gardens Pier by all means, as soon as
+possible,'
+
+Racksole said, and the boat swung across stream and then began to
+creep down by the right bank, feeling its way past wharves, many
+of which, even at that hour, were still busy with their cranes, that
+descended empty into the bellies of ships and came up full. As the
+two watermen gingerly manoeuvred the boat on the ebbing tide,
+Hazell explained to the millionaire that the 'Squirm' was one of the
+most notorious craft on the river. It appeared that when anyone had
+a nefarious or underhand scheme afoot which necessitated river
+work Everett's launch was always available for a suitable monetary
+consideration. The 'Squirm' had got itself into a thousand scrapes,
+and out of those scrapes again with safety, if not precisely with
+honour. The river police kept a watchful eye on it, and the chief
+marvel about the whole thing was that old Everett, the owner, had
+never yet been seriously compromised in any illegal escapade. Not
+once had the officer of the law been able to prove anything definite
+against the proprietor of the 'Squirm', though several of its
+quondam hirers were at that very moment in various of Her
+Majesty's prisons throughout the country. Latterly, however, the
+launch, with its damaged propeller, which Everett consistently
+refused to have repaired, had acquired an evil reputation, even
+among evil-doers, and this fraternity had gradually come to
+abandon it for less easily recognizable craft.
+
+'Your friend, Mr Tom Jackson,' said Hazell to Racksole,
+'committed an error of discretion when he hired the "Squirm". A
+scoundrel of his experience and calibre ought certainly to have
+known better than that. You cannot fail to get a clue now.'
+
+By this time the boat was approaching Cherry Gardens Pier, but
+unfortunately a thin night-fog had swept over the river, and objects
+could not be discerned with any clearness beyond a distance of
+thirty yards. As the Customs boat scraped down past the pier all its
+occupants strained eyes for a glimpse of the mysterious launch, but
+nothing could be seen of it. The boat continued to float idly
+down-stream, the men resting on their oars.
+
+Then they narrowly escaped bumping a large Norwegian sailing
+vessel at anchor with her stem pointing down-stream. This ship
+they passed on the port side. Just as they got clear of her bowsprit
+the fat man cried out excitedly, 'There's her nose!' and he put the
+boat about and began to pull back against the tide. And surely the
+missing 'Squirm' was comfortably anchored on the starboard
+quarter of the Norwegian ship, hidden neatly between the ship and
+the shore. The men pulled very quietly alongside.
+
+Chapter Twenty-Six THE NIGHT CHASE AND THE MUDLARK
+
+'I'LL board her to start with,' said Hazell, whispering to Racksole.
+'I'll make out that I suspect they've got dutiable goods on board,
+and that will give me a chance to have a good look at her.'
+
+Dressed in his official overcoat and peaked cap, he stepped, rather
+jauntily as Racksole thought, on to the low deck of the launch.
+'Anyone aboard?'
+
+Racksole heard him cry out, and a woman's voice answered. 'I'm a
+Customs examining officer, and I want to search the launch,'
+Hazell shouted, and then disappeared down into the little saloon
+amidships, and Racksole heard no more. It seemed to the
+millionaire that Hazell had been gone hours, but at length he
+returned.
+
+'Can't find anything,' he said, as he jumped into the boat, and then
+privately to Racksole: 'There's a woman on board. Looks as if she
+might coincide with your description of Miss Spencer. Steam's up,
+but there's no engineer. I asked where the engineer was, and she
+inquired what business that was of mine, and requested me to get
+through with my own business and clear off. Seems rather a smart
+sort. I poked my nose into everything, but I saw no sign of any one
+else. Perhaps we'd better pull away and lie near for a bit, just to see
+if anything queer occurs.'
+
+'You're quite sure he isn't on board?' Racksole asked.
+
+'Quite,' said Hazell positively: 'I know how to search a vessel. See
+this,'
+
+and he handed to Racksole a sort of steel skewer, about two feet
+long, with a wooden handle. 'That,' he said, 'is one of the Customs'
+aids to searching.'
+
+'I suppose it wouldn't do to go on board and carry off the lady?'
+Racksole suggested doubtfully.
+
+'Well,' Hazell began, with equal doubtfulness, 'as for that - '
+
+'Where's 'e orf?' It was the man in the bows who interrupted Hazell.
+
+Following the direction of the man's finger, both Hazell and
+Racksole saw with more or less distinctness a dinghy slip away
+from the forefoot of the Norwegian vessel and disappear
+downstream into the mist.
+
+'It's Jules, I'll swear,' cried Racksole. 'After him, men. Ten pounds
+apiece if we overtake him!'
+
+'Lay down to it now, boys!' said Hazell, and the heavy Customs
+boat shot out in pursuit.
+
+'This is going to be a lark,' Racksole remarked.
+
+'Depends on what you call a lark,' said Hazell; 'it's not much of a
+lark tearing down midstream like this in a fog. You never know
+when you mayn't be in kingdom come with all these barges
+knocking around. I expect that chap hid in the dinghy when he first
+caught sight of us, and then slipped his painter as soon as I'd gone.'
+
+The boat was moving at a rapid pace with the tide. Steering was a
+matter of luck and instinct more than anything else. Every now and
+then Hazell, who held the lines, was obliged to jerk the boat's head
+sharply round to avoid a barge or an anchored vessel. It seemed to
+Racksole that vessels were anchored all over the stream. He
+looked about him anxiously, but for a long time he could see
+nothing but mist and vague nautical forms. Then suddenly he said,
+quietly enough, 'We're on the right road; I can see him ahead.
+
+We're gaining on him.' In another minute the dinghy was plainly
+visible, not twenty yards away, and the sculler - sculling frantically
+now - was unmistakably Jules - Jules in a light tweed suit and a
+bowler hat.
+
+'You were right,' Hazell said; 'this is a lark. I believe I'm getting
+quite excited. It's more exciting than playing the trombone in an
+orchestra. I'll run him down, eh? - and then we can drag the chap in
+from the water.'
+
+Racksole nodded, but at that moment a barge, with her red sails
+set, stood out of the fog clean across the bows of the Customs boat,
+which narrowly escaped instant destruction. When they got clear,
+and the usual interchange of calm, nonchalant swearing was over,
+the dinghy was barely to be discerned in the mist, and the fat man
+was breathing in such a manner that his sighs might almost have
+been heard on the banks. Racksole wanted violently to do
+something, but there was nothing to do; he could only sit supine by
+Hazell's side in the stern-sheets. Gradually they began again to
+overtake the dinghy, whose one-man crew was evidently tiring. As
+they came up, hand over fist, the dinghy's nose swerved aside, and
+the tiny craft passed down a water-lane between two anchored
+mineral barges, which lay black and deserted about fifty yards
+from the Surrey shore. 'To starboard,' said Racksole. 'No, man!'
+
+Hazell replied; 'we can't get through there. He's bound to come Out
+below; it's only a feint. I'll keep our nose straight ahead.'
+
+And they went on, the fat man pounding away, with a face which
+glistened even in the thick gloom. It was an empty dinghy which
+emerged from between the two barges and went drifting and
+revolving down towards Greenwich.
+
+The fat man gasped a word to his comrade, and the Customs boat
+stopped dead.
+
+ ''E's all right,' said the man in the bows. 'If it's 'im you want, 'e's on
+one o' them barges, so you've only got to step on and take 'im orf.'
+
+'That's all,' said a voice out of the depths of the nearest barge, and
+it was the voice of Jules, otherwise known as Mr Tom Jackson.
+
+"Ear 'im?' said the fat man smiling. ''E's a good 'un, 'e is. But if I
+was you, Mr Hazell, or you, sir, I shouldn't step on to that barge so
+quick as all that.'
+
+They backed the boat under the stem of the nearest barge and
+gazed upwards.
+
+'It's all right,' said Racksole to Hazell; 'I've got a revolver. How can
+I clamber up there?'
+
+'Yes, I dare say you've got a revolver all right,' Hazell replied
+sharply.
+
+'But you mustn't use it. There mustn't be any noise. We should
+have the river police down on us in a twinkling if there was a
+revolver shot, and it would be the ruin of me. If an inquiry was
+held the Commissioners wouldn't take any official notice of the
+fact that my superior officer had put me on to this job, and I should
+be requested to leave the service.'
+
+'Have no fear on that score,' said Racksole. 'I shall, of course, take
+all responsibility.'
+
+'It wouldn't matter how much responsibility you took,' Hazell
+retorted; 'you wouldn't put me back into the service, and my career
+would be at an end.'
+
+'But there are other careers,' said Racksole, who was really anxious
+to lame his ex-waiter by means of a judiciously-aimed bullet.
+'There are other careers.'
+
+'The Customs is my career,' said Hazell, 'so let's have no shooting.
+We'll wait about a bit; he can't escape. You can have my skewer if
+you like' - and he gave Racksole his searching instrument. 'And
+you can do what you please, provided you do it neatly and don't
+make a row over it.'
+
+For a few moments the four men were passive in the boat,
+surrounded by swirling mist, with black water beneath them, and
+towering above them a half-loaded barge with a desperate and
+resourceful man on board. Suddenly the mist parted and shrivelled
+away in patches, as though before the breath of some monster. The
+sky was visible; it was a clear sky, and the moon was shining. The
+transformation was just one of those meteorological quick-changes
+which happen most frequently on a great river.
+
+'That's a sight better,' said the fat man. At the same moment a head
+appeared over the edge of the barge. It was Jules' face - dark,
+sinister and leering.
+
+'Is it Mr Racksole in that boat?' he inquired calmly; 'because if so,
+let Mr Racksole step up. Mr Racksole has caught me, and he can
+have me for the asking. Here I am.' He stood up to his full height
+on the barge, tall against the night sky, and all the occupants of the
+boat could see that he held firmly clasped in his right hand a short
+dagger. 'Now, Mr Racksole, you've been after me for a long time,'
+he continued; 'here I am. Why don't you step up? If you haven't got
+the pluck yourself, persuade someone else to step up in your place
+. . . the same fair treatment will be accorded to all.' And Jules
+laughed a low, penetrating laugh.
+
+He was in the midst of this laugh when he lurched suddenly
+forward.
+
+'What'r' you doing of aboard my barge? Off you goes!' It was a
+boy's small shrill voice that sounded in the night. A ragged boy's
+small form had appeared silently behind Jules, and two small arms
+with a vicious shove precipitated him into the water. He fell with a
+fine gurgling splash. It was at once obvious that swimming was not
+among Jules' accomplishments. He floundered wildly and sank.
+When he reappeared he was dragged into the Customs boat. Rope
+was produced, and in a minute or two the man lay ignominiously
+bound in the bottom of the boat. With the aid of a mudlark - a
+mere barge boy, who probably had no more right on the barge than
+Jules himself - Racksole had won his game. For the first time for
+several weeks the millionaire experienced a sensation of
+equanimity and satisfaction. He leaned over the prostrate form of
+Jules, Hazell's professional skewer in his hand.
+
+'What are you going to do with him now?' asked Hazell.
+
+'We'll row up to the landing steps in front of the Grand Babylon.
+He shall be well lodged at my hotel, I promise him.'
+
+Jules spoke no word.
+
+Before Racksole parted company with the Customs man that night
+Jules had been safely transported into the Grand Babylon Hotel
+and the two watermen had received their �10 apiece.
+
+'You will sleep here?' said the millionaire to Mr George Hazell. 'It
+is late.'
+
+'With pleasure,' said Hazell. The next morning he found a
+sumptuous breakfast awaiting him, and in his table-napkin was a
+Bank of England note for a hundred pounds. But, though he did
+not hear of them till much later, many things had happened before
+Hazell consumed that sumptuous breakfast.
+
+Chapter Twenty-Seven THE CONFESSION OF MR TOM
+JACKSON
+
+IT happened that the small bedroom occupied by Jules during the
+years he was head-waiter at the Grand Babylon had remained
+empty since his sudden dismissal by Theodore Racksole. No other
+head-waiter had been formally appointed in his place; and, indeed,
+the absence of one man - even the unique Jules - could scarcely
+have been noticed in the enormous staff of a place like the Grand
+Babylon. The functions of a head-waiter are generally more
+ornamental, spectacular, and morally impressive than useful, and it
+was so at the great hotel on the Embankment. Racksole
+accordingly had the excellent idea of transporting his prisoner,
+with as much secrecy as possible, to this empty bedroom. There
+proved to be no difficulty in doing so; Jules showed himself
+perfectly amenable to a show of superior force.
+
+Racksole took upstairs with him an old commissionaire who had
+been attached to the outdoor service of the hotel for many years - a
+grey-haired man, wiry as a terrier and strong as a mastiff. Entering
+the bedroom with Jules, whose hands were bound, he told the
+commissionaire to remain outside the door.
+
+Jules' bedroom was quite an ordinary apartment, though perhaps
+slightly superior to the usual accommodation provided for servants
+in the caravanserais of the West End. It was about fourteen by
+twelve. It was furnished with a bedstead, a small wardrobe, a -mall
+washstand and dressing-table, and two chairs. There were two
+hooks behind the door, a strip of carpet by the bed, and some
+cheap ornaments on the iron mantelpiece. There was also one
+electric light. The window was a little square one, high up from
+the floor, and it looked on the inner quadrangle.
+
+The room was on the top storey - the eighth - and from it you had a
+view sheer to the ground. Twenty feet below ran a narrow cornice
+about a foot wide; three feet or so above the window another and
+wider cornice jutted out, and above that was the high steep roof of
+the hotel, though you could not see it from the window. As
+Racksole examined the window and the outlook, he said to himself
+that Jules could not escape by that exit, at any rate. He gave a
+glance up the chimney, and saw that the flue was far too small to
+admit a man's body.
+
+Then he called in the commissionaire, and together they bound
+Jules firmly to the bedstead, allowing him, however, to lie down.
+All the while the captive never opened his mouth - merely smiled a
+smile of disdain. Finally Racksole removed the ornaments, the
+carpet, the chairs and the hooks, and wrenched away the switch of
+the electric light. Then he and the commissionaire left the room,
+and Racksole locked the door on the outside and put the key in his
+pocket.
+
+'You will keep watch here,' he said to the commissionaire, 'through
+the night. You can sit on this chair. Don't go to sleep. If you hear
+the slightest noise in the room blow your cab-whistle; I will
+arrange to answer the signal. If there is no noise do nothing
+whatever. I don't want this talked about, you understand. I shall
+trust you; you can trust me.'
+
+'But the servants will see me here when they get up to-morrow,'
+said the commissionaire, with a faint smile, 'and they will be pretty
+certain to ask what I'm doing of up here. What shall I say to 'em?'
+
+'You've been a soldier, haven't you?' asked Racksole.
+
+'I've seen three campaigns, sir,' was the reply, and, with a gesture
+of pardonable pride, the grey-haired fellow pointed to the medals
+on his breast.
+
+'Well, supposing you were on sentry duty and some meddlesome
+person in camp asked you what you were doing - what should you
+say?'
+
+'I should tell him to clear off or take the consequences, and pretty
+quick too.'
+
+'Do that to-morrow morning, then, if necessary,' said Racksole, and
+departed.
+
+It was then about one o'clock a.m. The millionaire retired to bed -
+not his own bed, but a bed on the seventh storey. He did not,
+however, sleep very long. Shortly after dawn he was wide awake,
+and thinking busily about Jules.
+
+He was, indeed, very curious to know Jules' story, and he
+determined, if the thing could be done at all, by persuasion or
+otherwise, to extract it from him. With a man of Theodore
+Racksole's temperament there is no time like the present, and at
+six o'clock, as the bright morning sun brought gaiety into the
+window, he dressed and went upstairs again to the eighth storey.
+The commissionaire sat stolid, but alert on his chair, and, at the
+sight of his master, rose and saluted.
+
+'Anything happened?' Racksole asked.
+
+'Nothing, sir.'
+
+'Servants say anything?'
+
+'Only a dozen or so of 'em are up yet, sir. One of 'em asked what I
+was playing at, and so I told her I was looking after a bull bitch
+and a litter of pups that you was very particular about, sir.'
+
+'Good,' said Racksole, as he unlocked the door and entered the
+room. All was exactly as he had left it, except that Jules who had
+been lying on his back, had somehow turned over and was now
+lying on his face. He gazed silently, scowling at the millionaire.
+Racksole greeted him and ostentatiously took a revolver from his
+hip-pocket and laid it on the dressing-table. Then he seated himself
+on the dressing-table by the side of the revolver, his legs dangling
+an inch or two above the floor.
+
+'I want to have a talk to you, Jackson,' he began.
+
+'You can talk to me as much as you like,' said Jules. 'I shan't
+interfere, you may bet on that.'
+
+'I should like you to answer some questions.'
+
+'That's different,' said Jules. 'I'm not going to answer any questions
+while I'm tied up like this. You may bet on that, too.'
+
+'It will pay you to be reasonable,' said Racksole.
+
+'I'm not going to answer any questions while I'm tied up.'
+
+'I'll unfasten your legs, if you like,' Racksole suggested politely,
+'then you can sit up. It's no use you pretending you've been
+uncomfortable, because I know you haven't. I calculate you've been
+treated very handsomely, my son. There you are!' and he loosened
+the lower extremities of his prisoner from their bonds. 'Now I
+repeat you may as well be reasonable. You may as well admit that
+you've been fairly beaten in the game and act accordingly. I was
+determined to beat you, by myself, without the police, and I've
+done it.'
+
+'You've done yourself,' retorted Jules. 'You've gone against the law.
+If you'd had any sense you wouldn't have meddled; you'd have left
+everything to the police. They'd have muddled about for a year or
+two, and then done nothing. Who's going to tell the police now?
+Are you? Are you going to give me up to 'em, and say, "Here, I've
+caught him for you". If you do they'll ask you to explain several
+things, and then you'll look foolish. One crime doesn't excuse
+another, and you'll find that out.'
+
+With unerring insight, Jules had perceived exactly the difficulty of
+Racksole's position, and it was certainly a difficulty which
+Racksole did not attempt to minimize to himself. He knew well
+that it would have to be faced. He did not, however, allow Jules to
+guess his thoughts.
+
+'Meanwhile,' he said calmly to the other, 'you're here and my
+prisoner.
+
+You've committed a variegated assortment of crimes, and among
+them is murder. You are due to be hung. You know that. There is
+no reason why I should call in the police at all. It will be perfectly
+easy for me to finish you off, as you deserve, myself. I shall only
+be carrying out justice, and robbing the hangman of his fee.
+Precisely as I brought you into the hotel, I can take you out again.
+A few days ago you borrowed or stole a steam yacht at Ostend.
+What you have done with it I don't know, nor do I care. But I
+strongly suspect that my daughter had a narrow escape of being
+murdered on your steam yacht. Now I have a steam yacht of my
+own. Suppose I use it as you used yours! Suppose I smuggle you on
+to it, steam out to sea, and then ask you to step off it into the ocean
+one night. Such things have been done.
+
+Such things will be done again. If I acted so, I should at least, have
+the satisfaction of knowing that I had relieved society from the
+incubus of a scoundrel.'
+
+'But you won't,' Jules murmured.
+
+'No,' said Racksole steadily, 'I won't - if you behave yourself this
+morning. But I swear to you that if you don't I will never rest till
+you are dead, police or no police. You don't know Theodore
+Racksole.'
+
+'I believe you mean it,' Jules exclaimed, with an air of surprised
+interest, as though he had discovered something of importance.
+
+'I believe I do,' Racksole resumed. 'Now listen. At the best, you
+will be given up to the police. At the worst, I shall deal with you
+myself. With the police you may have a chance - you may get off
+with twenty years' penal servitude, because, though it is absolutely
+certain that you murdered Reginald Dimmock, it would be a little
+difficult to prove the case against you. But with me you would
+have no chance whatever. I have a few questions to put to you, and
+it will depend on how you answer them whether I give you up to
+the police or take the law into my own hands. And let me tell you
+that the latter course would be much simpler for me. And I would
+take it, too, did I not feel that you were a very clever and
+exceptional man; did I not have a sort of sneaking admiration for
+your detestable skill and ingenuity.'
+
+ 'You think, then, that I am clever?' said Jules. 'You are right. I am.
+I should have been much too clever for you if luck had not been
+against me.
+
+You owe your victory, not to skill, but to luck.'
+
+'That is what the vanquished always say. Waterloo was a bit of
+pure luck for the English, no doubt, but it was Waterloo all the
+same.'
+
+Jules yawned elaborately. 'What do you want to know?' he
+inquired, with politeness.
+
+'First and foremost, I want to know the names of your accomplices
+inside this hotel.'
+
+'I have no more,' said Jules. 'Rocco was the last.'
+
+'Don't begin by lying to me. If you had no accomplice, how did you
+contrive that one particular bottle of Roman�e-Conti should be
+served to his Highness Prince Eugen?'
+
+'Then you discovered that in time, did you?' said Jules. 'I was afraid
+so.
+
+Let me explain that that needed no accomplice. The bottle was
+topmost in the bin, and naturally it would be taken. Moreover, I
+left it sticking out a little further than the rest.'
+
+'You did not arrange, then, that Hubbard should be taken ill the
+night before last?'
+
+'I had no idea,' said Jules, 'that the excellent Hubbard was not
+enjoying his accustomed health.'
+
+'Tell me,' said Racksole, 'who or what is the origin of your vendetta
+against the life of Prince Eugen?'
+
+'I had no vendetta against the life of Prince Eugen,' said Jules, 'at
+least, not to begin with. I merely undertook, for a consideration, to
+see that Prince Eugen did not have an interview with a certain Mr
+Sampson Levi in London before a certain date, that was all. It
+seemed simple enough. I had been engaged in far more
+complicated transactions before. I was convinced that I could
+manage it, with the help of Rocco and Em - and Miss Spencer.'
+
+'Is that woman your wife?'
+
+'She would like to be,' he sneered. 'Please don't interrupt. I had
+completed my arrangements, when you so inconsiderately bought
+the hotel. I don't mind admitting now that from the very moment
+when you came across me that night in the corridor I was secretly
+afraid of you, though I scarcely admitted the fact even to myself
+then. I thought it safer to shift the scene of our operations to
+Ostend. I had meant to deal with Prince Eugen in this hotel, but I
+decided, then, to intercept him on the Continent, and I despatched
+Miss Spencer with some instructions. Troubles never come singly,
+and it happened that just then that fool Dimmock, who had been in
+the swim with us, chose to prove refractory. The slightest hitch
+would have upset everything, and I was obliged to - to clear him
+off the scene. He wanted to back out - he had a bad attack of
+conscience, and violent measures were essential. I regret his
+untimely decease, but he brought it on himself. Well, everything
+was going serenely when you and your brilliant daughter,
+apparently determined to meddle, turned up again among us at
+Ostend. Only twenty-four hours, however, had to elapse before the
+date which had been mentioned to me by my employers. I kept
+poor little Eugen for the allotted time, and then you managed to
+get hold of him. I do not deny that you scored there, though,
+according to my original instructions, you scored too late. The
+time had passed, and so, so far as I knew, it didn't matter a pin
+whether Prince Eugen saw Mr Sampson Levi or not. But my
+employers were still uneasy. They were uneasy even after little
+Eugen had lain ill in Ostend for several weeks. It appears that they
+feared that even at that date an interview between Prince Eugen
+and Mr Sampson Levi might work harm to them. So they applied
+to me again. This time they wanted Prince Eugen to be - em -
+finished off entirely. They offered high terms.'
+
+'What terms?'
+
+'I had received fifty thousand pounds for the first job, of which
+Rocco had half. Rocco was also to be made a member of a certain
+famous European order, if things went right. That was what he
+coveted far more than the money - the vain fellow! For the second
+job I was offered a hundred thousand. A tolerably large sum. I
+regret that I have not been able to earn it.'
+
+'Do you mean to tell me,' asked Racksole, horror-struck by this
+calm confession, in spite of his previous knowledge, 'that you were
+offered a hundred thousand pounds to poison Prince Eugen?'
+
+'You put it rather crudely,' said Jules in reply. 'I prefer to say that I
+was offered a hundred thousand pounds if Prince Eugen should die
+within a reasonable time.'
+
+'And who were your damnable employers?'
+
+'That, honestly, I do not know.'
+
+'You know, I suppose, who paid you the first fifty thousand
+pounds, and who promised you the hundred thousand.'
+
+'Well,' said Jules, 'I know vaguely. I know that he came via Vienna
+from - em - Bosnia. My impression was that the affair had some
+bearing, direct or indirect, on the projected marriage of the King of
+Bosnia. He is a young monarch, scarcely out of political
+leading-strings, as it were, and doubtless his Ministers thought that
+they had better arrange his marriage for him. They tried last year,
+and failed because the Princess whom they had in mind had cast
+her sparkling eyes on another Prince. That Prince happened to be
+Prince Eugen of Posen. The Ministers of the King of Bosnia knew
+exactly the circumstances of Prince Eugen. They knew that he
+could not marry without liquidating his debts, and they knew that
+he could only liquidate his debts through this Jew, Sampson Levi.
+Unfortunately for me, they ultimately wanted to make too sure of
+Prince Eugen. They were afraid he might after all arrange his
+marriage without the aid of Mr Sampson Levi, and so - well, you
+know the rest. . . . It is a pity that the poor little innocent King of
+Bosnia can't have the Princess of his Ministers' choice.'
+
+'Then you think that the King himself had no part in this
+abominable crime?'
+
+ 'I think decidedly not.'
+
+'I am glad of that,' said Racksole simply. 'And now, the name of
+your immediate employer.'
+
+'He was merely an agent. He called himself Sleszak - S-l-e-s-z-a-k.
+But I imagine that that wasn't his real name. I don't know his real
+name. An old man, he often used to be found at the H�tel Ritz,
+Paris.'
+
+'Mr Sleszak and I will meet,' said Racksole.
+
+'Not in this world,' said Jules quickly. 'He is dead. I heard only last
+night - just before our little tussle.'
+
+There was a silence.
+
+'It is well,' said Racksole at length. 'Prince Eugen lives, despite all
+plots. After all, justice is done.'
+
+'Mr Racksole is here, but he can see no one, Miss.' The words
+came from behind the door, and the voice was the
+commissionaire's. Racksole started up, and went towards the door.
+
+'Nonsense,' was the curt reply, in feminine tones. 'Move aside
+instantly.'
+
+The door opened, and Nella entered. There were tears in her eyes.
+
+'Oh! Dad,' she exclaimed, 'I've only just heard you were in the
+hotel. We looked for you everywhere. Come at once, Prince Eugen
+is dying - ' Then she saw the man sitting on the bed, and stopped.
+
+Later, when Jules was alone again, he remarked to himself, 'I may
+get that hundred thousand.'
+
+Chapter Twenty-Eight THE STATE BEDROOM ONCE MORE
+
+WHEN, immediately after the episode of the bottle of
+Roman�e-Conti in the State dining-room, Prince Aribert and old
+Hans found that Prince Eugen had sunk in an unconscious heap
+over his chair, both the former thought, at the first instant, that
+Eugen must have already tasted the poisoned wine. But a moment's
+reflection showed that this was not possible. If the Hereditary
+Prince of Posen was dying or dead, his condition was due to some
+other agency than the Roman�e-Conti. Aribert bent over him, and
+a powerful odour from the man's lips at once disclosed the cause of
+the disaster: it was the odour of laudanum. Indeed, the smell of
+that sinister drug seemed now to float heavily over the whole table.
+Across Aribert's mind there flashed then the true explanation.
+Prince Eugen, taking advantage of Aribert's attention being
+momentarily diverted; and yielding to a sudden impulse of despair,
+had decided to poison himself, and had carried out his intention on
+the spot.
+
+The laudanum must have been already in his pocket, and this fact
+went to prove that the unfortunate Prince had previously
+contemplated such a proceeding, even after his definite promise.
+Aribert remembered now with painful vividness his nephew's
+words: 'I withdraw my promise. Observe that - I withdraw it.' It
+must have been instantly after the utterance of that formal
+withdrawal that Eugen attempted to destroy himself.
+
+'It's laudanum, Hans,' Aribert exclaimed, rather helplessly.
+
+'Surely his Highness has not taken poison?' said Hans. 'It is
+impossible!'
+
+'I fear it is only too possible,' said the other. 'It's laudanum. What
+are we to do? Quick, man!'
+
+'His Highness must be roused, Prince. He must have an emetic. We
+had better carry him to the bedroom.'
+
+They did, and laid him on the great bed; and then Aribert mixed an
+emetic of mustard and water, and administered it, but without any
+effect. The sufferer lay motionless, with every muscle relaxed. His
+skin was ice-cold to the touch, and the eyelids, half-drawn, showed
+that the pupils were painfully contracted.
+
+'Go out, and send for a doctor, Hans. Say that Prince Eugen has
+been suddenly taken ill, but that it isn't serious. The truth must
+never be known.'
+
+'He must be roused, sire,' Hans said again, as he hurried from the
+room.
+
+Aribert lifted his nephew from the bed, shook him, pinched him,
+flicked him cruelly, shouted at him, dragged him about, but to no
+avail. At length he desisted, from mere physical fatigue, and laid
+the Prince back again on the bed. Every minute that elapsed
+seemed an hour. Alone with the unconscious organism in the
+silence of the great stately chamber, under the cold yellow glare of
+the electric lights, Aribert became a prey to the most despairing
+thoughts. The tragedy of his nephew's career forced itself upon
+him, and it occurred to him that an early and shameful death had
+all along been inevitable for this good-natured, weak-purposed,
+unhappy child of a historic throne. A little good fortune, and his
+character, so evenly balanced between right and wrong, might
+have followed the proper path, and Eugen might have figured at
+any rate with dignity on the European stage. But now it appeared
+that all was over, the last stroke played. And in this disaster
+Aribert saw the ruin of his own hopes. For Aribert would have to
+occupy his nephew's throne, and he felt instinctively that nature
+had not cut him out for a throne. By a natural impulse he inwardly
+rebelled against the prospect of monarchy. Monarchy meant so
+much for which he knew himself to be entirely unfitted. It meant a
+political marriage, which means a forced marriage, a union against
+inclination. And then what of Nella - Nella!
+
+Hans returned. 'I have sent for the nearest doctor, and also for a
+specialist,' he said.
+
+'Good,' said Aribert. 'I hope they will hurry.' Then he sat down and
+wrote a card. 'Take this yourself to Miss Racksole. If she is out of
+the hotel, ascertain where she is and follow her. Understand, it is
+of the first importance.'
+
+Hans bowed, and departed for the second time, and Aribert was
+alone again.
+
+He gazed at Eugen, and made another frantic attempt to rouse him
+from the deadly stupor, but it was useless. He walked away to the
+window: through the opened casement he could hear the tinkle of
+passing hansoms on the Embankment below, whistles of
+door-keepers, and the hoot of steam tugs on the river. The world
+went on as usual, it appeared. It was an absurd world.
+
+He desired nothing better than to abandon his princely title, and
+live as a plain man, the husband of the finest woman on earth. . . .
+But now! . . .
+
+Pah! How selfish he was, to be thinking of himself when Eugen lay
+dying. Yet - Nella!
+
+The door opened, and a man entered, who was obviously the
+doctor. A few curt questions, and he had grasped the essentials of
+the case. 'Oblige me by ringing the bell, Prince. I shall want some
+hot water, and an able-bodied man and a nurse.'
+
+'Who wants a nurse?' said a voice, and Nella came quietly in. 'I am
+a nurse,' she added to the doctor, 'and at your orders.'
+
+The next two hours were a struggle between life and death. The
+first doctor, a specialist who followed him, Nella, Prince Aribert,
+and old Hans formed, as it were, a league to save the dying man.
+None else in the hotel knew the real seriousness of the case. When
+a Prince falls ill, and especially by his own act, the precise truth is
+not issued broadcast to the universe.
+
+According to official intelligence, a Prince is never seriously ill
+until he is dead. Such is statecraft.
+
+The worst feature of Prince Eugen's case was that emetics proved
+futile.
+
+Neither of the doctors could explain their failure, but it was only
+too apparent. The league was reduced to helplessness. At last the
+great specialist from Manchester Square gave it out that there was
+no chance for Prince Eugen unless the natural vigour of his
+constitution should prove capable of throwing off the poison
+unaided by scientific assistance, as a drunkard can sleep off his
+potion. Everything had been tried, even to artificial respiration and
+the injection of hot coffee. Having emitted this pronouncement,
+the great specialist from Manchester Square left. It was one o'clock
+in the morning. By one of those strange and futile coincidences
+which sometimes startle us by their subtle significance, the
+specialist met Theodore Racksole and his captive as they were
+entering the hotel. Neither had the least suspicion of the other's
+business.
+
+In the State bedroom the small group of watchers surrounded the
+bed. The slow minutes filed away in dreary procession. Another
+hour passed. Then the figure on the bed, hitherto so motionless,
+twitched and moved; the lips parted.
+
+'There is hope,' said the doctor, and administered a stimulant
+which was handed to him by Nella.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the patient had regained consciousness. For
+the ten thousandth time in the history of medicine a sound
+constitution had accomplished a miracle impossible to the
+accumulated medical skill of centuries.
+
+In due course the doctor left, saying that Prince Eugen was 'on the
+high road to recovery,' and promising to come again within a few
+hours. Morning had dawned. Nella drew the great curtains, and let
+in a flood of sunlight.
+
+Old Hans, overcome by fatigue, dozed in a chair in a far corner of
+the room.
+
+The reaction had been too much for him. Nella and Prince Aribert
+looked at each other. They had not exchanged a word about
+themselves, yet each knew what the other had been thinking. They
+clasped hands with a perfect understanding. Their brief
+love-making had been of the silent kind, and it was silent now. No
+word was uttered. A shadow had passed from over them, but only
+their eyes expressed relief and joy.
+
+'Aribert!' The faint call came from the bed. Aribert went to the
+bedside, while Nella remained near the window.
+
+'What is it, Eugen?' he said. 'You are better now.'
+
+'You think so?' murmured the other. 'I want you to forgive me for
+all this, Aribert. I must have caused you an intolerable trouble. I
+did it so clumsily; that is what annoys me. Laudanum was a feeble
+expedient; but I could think of nothing else, and I daren't ask
+anyone for advice. I was obliged to go out and buy the stuff for
+myself. It was all very awkward.
+
+But, thank goodness, it has not been ineffectual.'
+
+'What do you mean, Eugen? You are better. In a day or so you will
+be perfectly recovered.'
+
+'I am dying,' said Eugen quietly. 'Do not be deceived. I die because
+I wish to die. It is bound to be so. I know by the feel of my heart.
+In a few hours it will be over. The throne of Posen will be yours,
+Aribert. You will fill it more worthily than I have done. Don't let
+them know over there that I poisoned myself. Swear Hans to
+secrecy; swear the doctors to secrecy; and breathe no word
+yourself. I have been a fool, but I do not wish it to be known that I
+was also a coward. Perhaps it is not cowardice; perhaps it is
+courage, after all - courage to cut the knot. I could not have
+survived the disgrace of any revelations, Aribert, and revelations
+would have been sure to come. I have made a fool of myself, but I
+am ready to pay for it. We of Posen - we always pay - everything
+except our debts. Ah! those debts! Had it not been for those I could
+have faced her who was to have been my wife, to have shared my
+throne. I could have hidden my past, and begun again. With her
+help I really could have begun again. But Fate has been against me
+- always! always! By the way, what was that plot against me,
+Aribert? I forget, I forget.'
+
+His eyes closed. There was a sudden noise. Old Hans had slipped
+from his chair to the floor. He picked himself up, dazed, and crept
+shamefacedly out of the room.
+
+Aribert took his nephew's hand.
+
+'Nonsense, Eugen! You are dreaming. You will be all right soon.
+Pull yourself together.'
+
+'All because of a million,' the sick man moaned. 'One miserable
+million English pounds. The national debt of Posen is fifty
+millions, and I, the Prince of Posen, couldn't borrow one. If I could
+have got it, I might have held my head up again. Good-bye,
+Aribert... . Who is that girl?'
+
+Aribert looked up. Nella was standing silent at the foot of the bed,
+her eyes moist. She came round to the bedside, and put her hand
+on the patient's heart. Scarcely could she feel its pulsation, and to
+Aribert her eyes expressed a sudden despair.
+
+At that moment Hans re-entered the room and beckoned to her.
+
+'I have heard that Herr Racksole has returned to the hotel,' he
+whispered, 'and that he has captured that man Jules, who they say
+is such a villain.'
+
+Several times during the night Nella inquired for her father, but
+could gain no knowledge of his whereabouts. Now, at half-past six
+in the morning, a rumour had mysteriously spread among the
+servants of the hotel about the happenings of the night before. How
+it had originated no one could have determined, but it had
+originated.
+
+'Where is my father?' Nella asked of Hans.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, and pointed upwards. 'Somewhere at
+the top, they say.'
+
+Nella almost ran out of the room. Her interruption of the interview
+between Jules and Theodore Racksole has already been described.
+As she came downstairs with her father she said again, 'Prince
+Eugen is dying - but I think you can save him.'
+
+'I?' exclaimed Theodore.
+
+'Yes,' she repeated positively. 'I will tell you what I want you to do,
+and you must do it.'
+
+Chapter Twenty-Nine THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE
+RESCUE
+
+AS Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father -
+the lifts had not yet begun to work - she drew him into her own
+room, and closed the door.
+
+'What's this all about?' he asked, somewhat mystified, and even
+alarmed by the extreme seriousness of her face.
+
+'Dad,' the girl began. 'you are very rich, aren't you? very, very rich?'
+She smiled anxiously, timidly. He did not remember to have seen
+that expression on her face before. He wanted to make a facetious
+reply, but checked himself.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'I am. You ought to know that by this time.'
+
+'How soon could you realize a million pounds?'
+
+'A million - what?' he cried. Even he was staggered by her calm
+reference to this gigantic sum. 'What on earth are you driving at?'
+
+'A million pounds, I said. That is to say, five million dollars. How
+soon could you realize as much as that?'
+
+'Oh!' he answered, 'in about a month, if I went about it neatly
+enough. I could unload as much as that in a month without scaring
+Wall Street and other places. But it would want some
+arrangement.'
+
+'Useless!' she exclaimed. 'Couldn't you do it quicker, if you really
+had to?'
+
+'If I really had to, I could fix it in a week, but it would make things
+lively, and I should lose on the job.'
+
+'Couldn't you,' she persisted, 'couldn't you go down this morning
+and raise a million, somehow, if it was a matter of life and death?'
+
+He hesitated. 'Look here, Nella,' he said, 'what is it you've got up
+your sleeve?'
+
+'Just answer my question, Dad, and try not to think that I'm a stark,
+staring lunatic.'
+
+'I rather expect I could get a million this morning, even in London.
+But it would cost pretty dear. It might cost me fifty thousand
+pounds, and there would be the dickens of an upset in New York -
+a sort of grand universal slump in my holdings.'
+
+'Why should New York know anything about it?'
+
+'Why should New York know anything about it!' he repeated. 'My
+girl, when anyone borrows a million sovereigns the whole world
+knows about it. Do you reckon that I can go up to the Governors of
+the Bank of England and say, "Look here, lend Theodore Racksole
+a million for a few weeks, and he'll give you an IOU and a
+covering note on stocks"?'
+
+'But you could get it?' she asked again.
+
+'If there's a million in London I guess I could handle it,' he replied.
+
+'Well, Dad,' and she put her arms round his neck, 'you've just got to
+go out and fix it. See? It's for me. I've never asked you for anything
+really big before. But I do now. And I want it so badly.'
+
+He stared at her. 'I award you the prize,' he said, at length. 'You
+deserve it for colossal and immense coolness. Now you can tell me
+the true inward meaning of all this rigmarole. What is it?'
+
+'I want it for Prince Eugen,' she began, at first hesitatingly, with
+pauses.
+
+'He's ruined unless he can get a million to pay off his debts. He's
+dreadfully in love with a Princess, and he can't marry her because
+of this.
+
+Her parents wouldn't allow it. He was to have got it from Sampson
+Levi, but he arrived too late - owing to Jules.'
+
+'I know all about that - perhaps more than you do. But I don't see
+how it affects you or me.'
+
+'The point is this, Dad,' Nella continued. 'He's tried to commit
+suicide - he's so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last
+night. It didn't kill him straight off - he's got over the first shock,
+but he's in a very weak state, and he means to die. And I truly
+believe he will die. Now, if you could let him have that million,
+Dad, you would save his life.'
+
+Nella's item of news was a considerable and disconcerting surprise
+to Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.
+
+'I haven't the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don't overmuch
+respect your Prince Eugen. I've done what I could for him - but
+only for the sake of seeing fair play, and because I object to
+conspiracies and secret murders.
+
+It's a different thing if he wants to kill himself. What I say is: Let
+him.
+
+Who is responsible for his being in debt to the tune of a million
+pounds? He's only got himself and his bad habits to thank for that.
+I suppose if he does happen to peg out, the throne of Posen will go
+to Prince Aribert. And a good thing, too! Aribert is worth twenty of
+his nephew.'
+
+'That's just it, Dad,' she said, eagerly following up her chance. 'I
+want you to save Prince Eugen just because Aribert - Prince
+Aribert - doesn't wish to occupy the throne. He'd much prefer not
+to have it.'
+
+'Much prefer not to have it! Don't talk nonsense. If he's honest with
+himself, he'll admit that he'll be jolly glad to have it. Thrones are in
+his blood, so to speak.'
+
+'You are wrong, Father. And the reason is this: If Prince Aribert
+ascended the throne of Posen he would be compelled to marry a
+Princess.'
+
+'Well! A Prince ought to marry a Princess.'
+
+'But he doesn't want to. He wants to give up all his royal rights, and
+live as a subject. He wants to marry a woman who isn't a Princess.'
+
+'Is she rich?'
+
+'Her father is,' said the girl. 'Oh, Dad! can't you guess? He - he
+loves me.' Her head fell on Theodore's shoulder and she began to
+cry.
+
+The millionaire whistled a very high note. 'Nell!' he said at length.
+'And you?. Do you sort of cling to him?'
+
+'Dad,' she answered, 'you are stupid. Do you imagine I should
+worry myself like this if I didn't?' She smiled through her tears.
+She knew from her father's tone that she had accomplished a
+victory.
+
+'It's a mighty queer arrangement,' Theodore remarked. 'But of
+course if you think it'll be of any use, you had better go down and
+tell your Prince Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really
+needs it. I expect there'll be decent security, or Sampson Levi
+wouldn't have mixed himself up in it.'
+
+'Thanks, Dad. Don't come with me; I may manage better alone.'
+
+She gave a formal little curtsey and disappeared. Racksole, who
+had the talent, so necessary to millionaires, of attending to several
+matters at once, the large with the small, went off to give orders
+about the breakfast and the remuneration of his assistant of the
+evening before, Mr George Hazell. He then sent an invitation to
+Mr Felix  Babylon's room, asking that gentleman to take breakfast
+with him. After he had related to Babylon the history of Jules'
+capture, and had a long discussion with him upon several points of
+hotel management, and especially as to the guarding of
+wine-cellars, Racksole put on his hat, sallied forth into the Strand,
+hailed a hansom, and was driven to the City. The order and nature
+of his operations there were, too complex and technical to be
+described here.
+
+When Nella returned to the State bedroom both the doctor and the
+great specialist were again in attendance. The two physicians
+moved away from the bedside as she entered, and began to talk
+quietly together in the embrasure of the window.
+
+'A curious case!' said the specialist.
+
+'Yes. Of course, as you say, it's a neurotic temperament that's at the
+bottom of the trouble. When you've got that and a vigorous
+constitution working one against the other, the results are apt to be
+distinctly curious.
+
+Do you consider there is any hope, Sir Charles?'
+
+'If I had seen him when he recovered consciousness I should have
+said there was hope. Frankly, when I left last night, or rather this
+morning, I didn't expect to see the Prince alive again - let alone
+conscious, and able to talk. According to all the rules of the game,
+he ought to get over the shock to the system with perfect ease and
+certainty. But I don't think he will. I don't think he wants to. And
+moreover, I think he is still under the influence of suicidal mania.
+If he had a razor he would cut his throat. You must keep his
+strength up. Inject, if necessary. I will come in this afternoon. I am
+due now at St James's Palace.' And the specialist hurried away,
+with an elaborate bow and a few hasty words of polite
+reassurances to Prince Aribert.
+
+When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside.
+'Forget everything, doctor,' he said, 'except that I am one man and
+you are another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his
+Highness? Tell me the truth.'
+
+'There is no truth,' was the doctor's reply. 'The future is not in our
+hands, Prince.'
+
+'But you are hopeful? Yes or no.'
+
+The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. 'No!' he said shortly. 'I am not.
+I am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.'
+
+'You mean - ?'
+
+'I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must
+have observed that.'
+
+'Only too well,' said Aribert.
+
+'And you are aware of the cause?'
+
+Aribert nodded an affirmative.
+
+'But cannot remove it?'
+
+'No,' said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella's
+finger.
+
+With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
+
+'If you choose,' she said, when they were alone, 'Prince Eugen can
+be saved.
+
+I have arranged it.'
+
+'You have arranged it?' He bent over her, almost with an air of
+alarm. 'Go and tell him that the million pounds which is so
+necessary to his happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it
+will be forthcoming today, if that will be any satisfaction to him.'
+
+'But what do you mean by this, Nella?'
+
+'I mean what I say, Aribert,' and she sought his hand and took it in
+hers.
+
+'Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen's life, it
+is at his disposal.'
+
+'But how - how have you managed it? By what miracle?'
+
+'My father,' she replied softly, 'will do anything that I ask him. Do
+not let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will
+be well.
+
+Go!'
+
+'But we cannot accept this - this enormous, this incredible favour.
+It is impossible.'
+
+'Aribert,' she said quickly, 'remember you are not in Posen holding
+a Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an
+American girl who has always been in the habit of having her own
+way.'
+
+The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom.
+The doctor was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert
+approached the bedside, his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted
+him with a faint, fatigued smile.
+
+ 'Eugen,' he whispered, 'listen carefully to me. I have news. With
+the assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for
+you. It is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get
+better. Do you hear me?'
+
+Eugen almost sat up in bed. 'Tell me I am not delirious,' he
+exclaimed.
+
+'Of course you aren't,' Aribert replied. 'But you mustn't sit up. You
+must take care of yourself.'
+
+'Who will lend the money?' Eugen asked in a feeble, happy
+whisper.
+
+'Never mind. You shall hear later. Devote yourself now to getting
+better.'
+
+The change in the patient's face was extraordinary. His mind
+seemed to have put on an entirely different aspect. The doctor was
+startled to hear him murmur a request for food. As for Aribert, he
+sat down, overcome by the turmoil of his own thoughts. Till that
+moment he felt that he had never appreciated the value and the
+marvellous power of mere money, of the lucre which philosophers
+pretend to despise and men sell their souls for. His heart almost
+burst in its admiration for that extraordinary Nella, who by mere
+personal force had raised two men out of the deepest slough of
+despair to the blissful heights of hope and happiness. 'These
+Anglo-Saxons,' he said to himself, 'what a race!'
+
+By the afternoon Eugen was noticeably and distinctly better. The
+physicians, puzzled for the third time by the progress of the case,
+announced now that all danger was past. The tone of the
+announcement seemed to Aribert to imply that the fortunate issue
+was due wholly to unrivalled medical skill, but perhaps Aribert
+was mistaken. Anyhow, he was in a most charitable mood, and
+prepared to forgive anything.
+
+'Nella,' he said a little later, when they were by themselves again in
+the ante-chamber, 'what am I to say to you? How can I thank you?
+How can I thank your father?'
+
+'You had better not thank my father,' she said. 'Dad will affect to
+regard the thing as a purely business transaction, as, of course, it
+is. As for me, you can - you can - '
+
+'Well?'
+
+'Kiss me,' she said. 'There! Are you sure you've formally proposed
+to me, mon prince?'
+
+'Ah! Nell!' he exclaimed, putting his arms round her again. 'Be
+mine! That is all I want!'
+
+'You'll find,' she said, 'that you'll want Dad's consent too!'
+
+'Will he make difficulties? He could not, Nell - not with you!'
+
+'Better ask him,' she said sweetly.
+
+A moment later Racksole himself entered the room. 'Going on all
+right?' he enquired, pointing to the bedroom. 'Excellently,' the
+lovers answered together, and they both blushed.
+
+'Ah!' said Racksole. 'Then, if that's so, and you can spare a minute,
+I've something to show you, Prince.'
+
+Chapter Thirty CONCLUSION
+
+'I'VE a great deal to tell you, Prince,' Racksole began, as soon as
+they were out of the room, 'and also, as I said, something to show
+you. Will you come to my room? We will talk there first. The
+whole hotel is humming with excitement.'
+
+'With pleasure,' said Aribert.
+
+'Glad his Highness Prince Eugen is recovering,' Racksole said,
+urged by considerations of politeness.
+
+'Ah! As to that - ' Aribert began. 'If you don't mind, we'll discuss
+that later, Prince,' Racksole interrupted him.
+
+They were in the proprietor's private room.
+
+'I want to tell you all about last night,' Racksole resumed, 'about
+my capture of Jules, and my examination of him this morning.'
+And he launched into a full acount of the whole thing, down to the
+least details. 'You see,'
+
+he concluded, 'that our suspicions as to Bosnia were tolerably
+correct. But as regards Bosnia, the more I think about it, the surer I
+feel that nothing can be done to bring their criminal politicians to
+justice.'
+
+'And as to Jules, what do you propose to do?'
+
+'Come this way,' said Racksole, and led Aribert to another room. A
+sofa in this room was covered with a linen cloth. Racksole lifted
+the cloth - he could never deny himself a dramatic moment - and
+disclosed the body of a dead man.
+
+It was Jules, dead, but without a scratch or mark on him.
+
+'I have sent for the police - not a street constable, but an official
+from Scotland Yard,' said Racksole.
+
+'How did this happen?' Aribert asked, amazed and startled. 'I
+understood you to say that he was safely immured in the bedroom.'
+
+'So he was,' Racksole replied. 'I went up there this afternoon,
+chiefly to take him some food. The commissionaire was on guard
+at the door. He had heard no noise, nothing unusual. Yet when I
+entered the room Jules was gone.
+
+He had by some means or other loosened his fastenings; he had
+then managed to take the door off the wardrobe. He had moved the
+bed in front of the window, and by pushing the wardrobe door
+three parts out of the window and lodging the inside end of it
+under the rail at the head of the bed, he had provided himself with
+a sort of insecure platform outside the window. All this he did
+without making the least sound. He must then have got through the
+window, and stood on the little platform. With his fingers he
+would just be able to reach the outer edge of the wide cornice
+under the roof of the hotel. By main strength of arms he had swung
+himself on to this cornice, and so got on to the roof proper. He
+would then have the run of the whole roof.
+
+At the side of the building facing Salisbury Lane there is an iron
+fire-escape, which runs right down from the ridge of the roof into a
+little sunk yard level with the cellars. Jules must have thought that
+his escape was accomplished. But it unfortunately happened that
+one rung in the iron escape-ladder had rusted rotten through being
+badly painted. It gave way, and Jules, not expecting anything of the
+kind, fell to the ground. That was the end of all his cleverness and
+ingenuity.'
+
+As Racksole ceased, speaking he replaced the linen cloth with a
+gesture from which reverence was not wholly absent.
+
+When the grave had closed over the dark and tempestuous career
+of Tom Jackson, once the pride of the Grand Babylon, there was
+little trouble for the people whose adventures we have described.
+Miss Spencer, that yellow-haired, faithful slave and attendant of a
+brilliant scoundrel, was never heard of again. Possibly to this day
+she survives, a mystery to her fellow-creatures, in the pension of
+some cheap foreign boarding-house. As for Rocco, he certainly
+was heard of again. Several years after the events set down, it
+came to the knowledge of Felix  Babylon that the unrivalled Rocco
+had reached Buenos Aires, and by his culinary skill was there
+making the fortune of a new and splendid hotel. Babylon
+transmitted the information to Theodore Racksole, and Racksole
+might, had he chosen, have put the forces of the law in motion
+against him. But Racksole, seeing that everything pointed to the
+fact that Rocco was now pursuing his vocation honestly, decided
+to leave him alone. The one difficulty which Racksole experienced
+after the demise of Jules - and it was a difficulty which he had, of
+course, anticipated - was connected with the police. The police,
+very properly, wanted to know things. They desired to be informed
+what Racksole had been doing in the Dimmock affair, between his
+first visit to Ostend and his sending for them to take charge of
+Jules' dead body. And Racksole was by no means inclined to tell
+them everything. Beyond question he had transgressed the laws of
+England, and possibly also the laws of Belgium; and the moral
+excellence of his motives in doing so was, of course, in the eyes of
+legal justice, no excuse for such conduct. The inquest upon Jules
+aroused some bother; and about ninety-and-nine separate and
+distinct rumours. In the end, however, a compromise was arrived
+at. Racksole's first aim was to pacify the inspector whose clue,
+which by the way was a false one, he had so curtly declined to
+follow up. That done, the rest needed only tact and patience. He
+proved to the satisfaction of the authorities that he had acted in a
+perfectly honest spirit, though with a high hand, and that
+substantial justice had been done. Also, he subtly indicated that, if
+it came to the point, he should defy them to do their worst. Lastly,
+he was able, through the medium of the United States
+Ambassador, to bring certain soothing influences to bear upon the
+situation.
+
+One afternoon, a fortnight after the recovery of the Hereditary
+Prince of Posen, Aribert, who was still staying at the Grand
+Babylon, expressed a wish to hold converse with the millionaire.
+Prince Eugen, accompanied by Hans and some Court officials
+whom he had sent for, had departed with immense �clat, armed
+with the comfortable million, to arrange formally for his betrothal.
+
+Touching the million, Eugen had given satisfactory personal
+security, and the money was to be paid off in fifteen years.
+
+'You wish to talk to me, Prince,' said Racksole to Aribert, when
+they were seated together in the former's room.
+
+'I wish to tell you,' replied Aribert, 'that it is my intention to
+renounce all my rights and titles as a Royal Prince of Posen, and to
+be known in future as Count Hartz - a rank to which I am entitled
+through my mother.
+
+Also that I have a private income of ten thousand pounds a year,
+and a ch�teau and a town house in Posen. I tell you this because I
+am here to ask the hand of your daughter in marriage. I love her,
+and I am vain enough to believe that she loves me. I have already
+asked her to be my wife, and she has consented. We await your
+approval.'
+
+'You honour us, Prince,' said Racksole with a slight smile, 'and in
+more ways than one, May I ask your reason for renouncing your
+princely titles?'
+
+'Simply because the idea of a morganatic marriage would be as
+repugnant to me as it would be to yourself and to Nella.'
+
+'That is good.' The Prince laughed. 'I suppose it has occurred to you
+that ten thousand pounds per annum, for a man in your position, is
+a somewhat small income. Nella is frightfully extravagant. I have
+known her to spend sixty thousand dollars in a single year, and
+have nothing to show for it at the end. Why! she would ruin you in
+twelve months.'
+
+'Nella must reform her ways,' Aribert said.
+
+'If she is content to do so,' Racksole went on, 'well and good! I
+consent.'
+
+'In her name and my own, I thank you,' said Aribert gravely.
+
+'And,' the millionaire continued, 'so that she may not have to
+reform too fiercely, I shall settle on her absolutely, with reversion
+to your children, if you have any, a lump sum of fifty million
+dollars, that is to say, ten million pounds, in sound, selected
+railway stock. I reckon that is about half my fortune. Nella and I
+have always shared equally.'
+
+Aribert made no reply. The two men shook hands in silence, and
+then it happened that Nella entered the room.
+
+That night, after dinner, Racksole and his friend Felix  Babylon
+were walking together on the terrace of the Grand Babylon Hotel.
+
+Felix  had begun the conversation.
+
+'I suppose, Racksole,' he had said, 'you aren't getting tired of the
+Grand Babylon?'
+
+'Why do you ask?'
+
+'Because I am getting tired of doing without it. A thousand times
+since I sold it to you I have wished I could undo the bargain. I can't
+bear idleness. Will you sell?'
+
+'I might,' said Racksole, 'I might be induced to sell.'
+
+'What will you take, my friend?' asked Felix
+
+'What I gave,' was the quick answer.
+
+'Eh!' Felix exclaimed. 'I sell you my hotel with Jules, with Rocco,
+with Miss Spencer. You go and lose all those three inestimable
+servants, and then offer me the hotel without them at the same
+price! It is monstrous.' The little man laughed heartily at his own
+wit. 'Nevertheless,' he added, 'we will not quarrel about the price. I
+accept your terms.'
+
+And so was brought to a close the complex chain of events which
+had begun when Theodore Racksole ordered a steak and a bottle of
+Bass at the table d'h�te of the Grand Babylon Hotel.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett
+
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