"There should be two Richmonds in the field! That was my grand idea.
Two sets, two parties, each of them consisting of one lady, one maid,
and one baby, exactly similar and indistinguishable. When the time was
ripe we should separate, and each would travel in opposite directions,
and I hoped to show sufficient guile to induce my persecutors to give
chase to the wrong quarry. Run it to the death, while the party got
clear away.
"I had made a nice calculation. Fuentellato was at no great distance
from Parma, on the main line of railway. If she started at once, via
Piacenza to Turin, she could catch the Mont Cenis express through to
Modane and Culoz, where she could change for Geneva, so as to reach me
some time on Tuesday.
"This was exactly what happened. My sister carried out my instructions
to the letter, and I met her here on arrival. I had taken up my
quarters in this hotel because it was so near the station, but I
thought it prudent that Henriette should lodge somewhere else, the
farther the better, and she went to a small place, the Hôtel Pierre
Fatio, at the other end of the town.
"It is a long story, Colonel Annesley, but there is not much more, and
yet the most interesting part is to come.
"We now devoted ourselves to the practical carrying out of the scheme,
just we four women; our maids, both clever dressmakers, were of
immense help. It was soon done. You can buy anything in Geneva. There
are plenty of good shops and skilful workers, and we soon provided
ourselves with the clothes, all the disguises really that we
required--the long gray dust cloaks and soft hats and all the rest, so
much alike that we might have been soldiers in the same regiment.
Philpotts and Victorine, my sister's maid, were also made up on a
similar pattern, and a second baby was built up as a dummy that would
have deceived any one.
"Everything was completed by this morning, and I had settled that my
sister, with her dear little Ralph, should get away, but by quite a
new route, while I held my ground against the detectives. I felt sure
they would soon hear of me and run me down. I hoped they would attach
themselves to me, and meant to lead them a fine dance as a blind for
Henriette, who, meanwhile, would have crossed to Lyons and gone south
to Marseilles. The Riviera is a longer and more roundabout road to
Turin, but it was open, and I hoped unimpeded. What do you think of my
diplomacy?"
"Admirable!" I cried, with enthusiasm. "Your cleverness, Lady Claire,
is colossal. Go on, I beg of you. Surely you have succeeded?"
"Alas! no. Everything was cut and dried and this evening we scored the
first point in the game. Henriette went on this evening to Amberieu,
the junction for Lyons. She went straight from her hotel, alone, for
of course I was obliged to keep close, or the trick would have been
discovered, and it was in part.
"For I must tell you that to-day one of the detectives appeared in
Geneva, not the first man, but a second, who attached himself to me at
Basle. I met him plump on the Mont Blanc Bridge and turned tail, but
he came after me. I jumped into a passing tram, so did he, and to
throw him off his guard I talked to him, and made friends with him,
and advised him to come and stay at this hotel. Then I got out and
left him, making my way to the Pierre Fatio Hôtel by a circuitous
route, dodging in and out among the narrow streets till I nearly lost
myself.
"I thought I had eluded him, and he certainly was nowhere near when I
went into the hotel. But I suppose he followed me, he must have, and
found out something, for I know now that he went to Amberieu after
Henriette--"
"You are perfectly sure?"
"She has telegraphed to me from Amberieu; I got it not an hour ago.
The man accosted her, taking her for me. He would have it she was Mrs.
Blair, and told her to her face that he did not mean to lose sight of
her again. So you see--"
"If she goes round by Lyons to Marseilles, then, he would be at her
heels, and the scheme breaks down in that respect?"
"Not only that, I don't see that he could interfere with her, or do
her much harm, and at Marseilles she might change her plans entirely.
There are ever so many ways of escape from a seaport. She might take
ship and embark on board the first steamer bound to the East, for
India or Ceylon, the Antipodes or far Cathay."
"Well, why not?"
"Henriette, my sister, has given way. Her courage has failed her at
this, the most critical moment, when she is within a hair's breadth of
success. She is afraid to go on alone with little Ralph, and is
running back to me by the first train to-morrow morning, at five or
six o'clock."
"Coming here? Into the very mouths of all the others!"
"Just so, and all my great scheme will be ruined. They cannot but find
out, and there is no knowing what they may do. Lord Blackadder, I
know, is capable of anything. I assure you, Colonel Annesley, I am in
despair. What _can_ I do?"
She looked at me in piteous appeal, the tears brimming over, her hands
stretched towards me with a gesture at once pathetic and enchanting.
"Say, rather, what can _we_ do, Lady Claire," I corrected her. "This
is my business, too, if you will allow me to say so, and I offer you
my advice for what it is worth."
"Yes, I will take it thankfully, I promise you."
"The only safe course now is the boldest. You must make another
exchange with your sister, Lady Blackadder--"
"Call her Lady Henriette Standish. She has dropped the other
entirely."
"By all means. Lady Henriette then has determined to take the first
train from Amberieu at--Have you a Bradshaw? Thank you--at 5.52
A.M., which will get her to Culoz at 6.48. You must, if
possible, exchange babies, and at the same time exchange _rôles_. I
feel sure that you, at any rate, are not afraid of going to Marseilles
with the real baby."
"Hardly!" she laughed scornfully. "But Henriette--what is to become of
her?"
"That shall be my affair. It is secondary, really. The first and
all-important is for you to secure the little Ralph and escape with
him. It will have to be done under the very eyes of the enemy, for
there is every reason to fear they will be going on, too. The other
detective, this Tiler--I have heard them call him by that name--will
have told them of her ladyship's movements, and will have summoned
them, Falfani at least, to his side."
"If I go on by that early train they will, no doubt, do the same. I
must not be seen by them. They would fathom the trick of the two
parties and the exchange."
"Yet you must go on by that train. It's the only way."
"Of course I might change my appearance a little, but not enough to
deceive them. Cannot I go across to the station before them and hide
in some compartment specially reserved for us?"
"It might be managed. We might secure the whole of the seats."
"Money is no object."
"It will do most things, especially in Switzerland. Leave it to me,
Lady Claire. All you have to do is to be ready to-morrow morning, very
early, remember. Before 5 A.M."
"If necessary I'll sit up all night."
"Well, then, that's settled. I'll knock at your door and see you get
some coffee."
"Philpotts shall make it; no one in the hotel must know. There will be
the bill."
"I will see to that. I'll come back after you're ensconced, with the
blinds drawn. Sick lady on the way, via Culoz to Aix-les-Bains, must
not be disturbed. It won't matter my being seen on the road, all the
better really if my lord is there, for I have a little plan of my own,
Lady Claire--no, please don't ask me yet--but it will help matters, I
think."
"You are, indeed, my true and faithful friend," she said, as she put
out her hand and wished me good night. She left it in mine for just a
second, and I flattered myself that its warm pressure was meant to
assure me that I had established a substantial claim to her regard.