On leaving his lordship I descended to the grand entrance to the hotel
with the intention of beating up the Colonel's quarters in Aix.
Although the hotels were certain to be crowded at this, the height of
the season, the town is not really large, the visitors' lists are well
posted with new arrivals, and there are one or two public places where
people always turn up at some time or other in the day. The _cercle_
or _casino_ and its _succursale_ the Villa des Fleurs, with their many
spacious rooms, reading-room, concert-room, baccarat-room, their
restaurants, their beautiful gardens, are thronged at all hours of the
day with the smart folk of all nationalities.
I stood on the top of the steps waiting for the private omnibus that
plies between the hotel and the town below, when I heard my name
called from behind, and turning, was confronted by Jules l'Echelle.
"Hullo!" I cried, eying him suspiciously. "What brings you up here?"
"The Colonel, my master--for I have taken service with him, you must
know--sent me here to inquire whether we could have rooms."
"Why does he choose this hotel of all others?" I asked in a
dissatisfied tone, although in my secret heart I was overjoyed.
"It's the best, isn't it? Haven't you come here?"
"My Lord Blackadder has, but that's another pair of shoes. There's
some difference between him and a beggarly half-pay Colonel who will
very likely have to black the boots to work out his bill. They know
how to charge here."
"The Colonel, I take it, can pay his way as well as most people.
Anyhow, he's coming to stop here."
"For any time?"
"Likely enough. He said something about going through the course,
taking the baths, and among the rest asked me to find out the best
doctor."
"That'll mean a lengthened stay; three weeks at least."
"Well, why shouldn't he? He's his own master."
"Then he's finished with that foolish business about the lady; had
enough of it, I suppose; burnt his fingers and done no earthly good."
"How do I know? It's not my business; but I fancy I have fallen into a
snug berth, a soft job, better than making beds in a sleeping-car and
being shaken to death in express trains."
"Good wages, if it's a fair question?"
"Fifty francs a week, _pour tout potage_."
I looked at him hard, revolving in my mind how best to approach him.
L'Echelle was a Swiss, and with most of his sort it is only a question
of price. How much would it take to buy him?
"Well, how have you fared? Have you succeeded in getting your rooms?
Will your Colonel move up?"
"What would his lordship say? Wouldn't like it much, I expect. Shall I
prevent it? It will be easy to say there are no rooms. I'll do just as
you please."
"You're very obliging."
"I'm willing enough to oblige, as I've always told you--at a price."
"Put a name to it; but don't forget you've had something on account.
Last night I gave you five hundred francs."
"Bah! I want a lot more than that, a thousand francs down and fifty
francs a day so long as I serve you. Do you agree to my terms?"
"My lord won't. He looks both sides of his money, and pays no fancy
prices for a pig in a poke."
"Then I'll take my pigs to another market. Suppose I let the Colonel
know what you've been at, trying to tamper with me. This hotel
wouldn't be big enough to hold him and your patron together."
"Well,"--I hesitated, not willing to appear too anxious,--"let's say,
just for argument's sake, that you got what you ask, or something near
it. I'm not in a position to promise it, no, not the half of it. But
we'll agree what you'd do for us in return?"
"Anything you chose to ask."
"Would you come over to us, belong to us body and soul? Think first of
my lord, put his interests before the Colonel's; tell us what the
Colonel's doing, his game from day to day, read his letters, and tell
us their contents; spy on his actions, watch him at every turn, his
comings and his goings; the houses he calls at, the people he meets,
every move he makes or has in view?"
"If I promise to do all that will you promise not to give me away?
You'll keep your own counsel and protect me from the Colonel? If he
got a whisper I was selling him I'd lose my place and he'd half kill
me into the bargain."
"Not a soul shall know but my lord and myself. I must consult him, or
you won't get the money."
"But there is that other chap, the one who joined us at Culoz, and who
was with you at the Commissariat, a new face to me. One of your own
party, wasn't he?"
"To be sure, Tiler; he's on the job, too, came out when I did from
London. But he's gone, left us half an hour ago."
"For good and all? Sacked, dropped out, or what?"
"Gone to follow up a game of his own. He thinks he knows better than
any one else; believes the lady has harked back, and is following her
to Amberieu, Maçon, Paris, England perhaps. God knows where. It's a
wild goose chase, of course; but my lord leans to it, and so it is to
be tried."
"You don't agree?"
"How can I when I'm satisfied he's wrong? She was seen in the express
for Modane, making for the Mont Cenis tunnel. Of course that's the
true direction. She was aiming for Italy from the first; the other
sister, the divorced lady, is there; we've always known that. Go back
to England! Bah! absolute rot. I'd stick to my opinion against fifty
fools like Tiler."
"It's a bargain, then; I can count upon the cash? How soon shall you
know? I'd like to begin at once; there's something I would tell you
here, and now, that would interest you very much. But money down is my
rule."
"Let me run up and ask his lordship. I won't keep you five minutes."
My lord gave his consent a little grudgingly, but was presently
persuaded that it was to his own advantage to have a spy in the heart
of the enemy's camp. That was soon seen when l'Echelle had pocketed
his notes and gave us the news in exchange.
"Now that I'm my lord's man I don't mind telling you that the Colonel
does not mean to stay long in Aix, not one minute longer than till the
call comes."
"He expects a call?"
"Assuredly. He wants you to think he's a fixture here, but he means to
cut and run after my lady whenever she sends to him. He'll be off then
faster than that," he snapped his fingers, "and you won't find it easy
to catch him."
"That's good. You'll be well worth your money, I can see. Only be
diligent, watch closely, and keep us fully informed. We shall trust
very greatly to you."
"Your trust shall not be misplaced. When I take an employer's pay I
serve him faithfully and to the best of my power," he said with an
engaging frankness that won me completely.
Lord! Lord! what liars men are and what fools! I might have guessed
how much reliance was to be placed upon a man who, to my certain
knowledge, was serving two masters.
Why should he be more faithful to my lord than to the Colonel?