I turned round hastily, and at first I thought it was Miss Frick who had
come back again. But the next moment I discovered that it was a young
girl whom I had not seen before, who stood hesitating on the threshold.
She was also tall, fair, and slight, and with something of the same
grace in her movements. Indeed, both in her movements and carriage she
was wonderfully like Miss Frick. Nor was her face and especially the
shape of her head unlike Miss Frick's, but her hair was much redder, her
lips thinner, and her mouth more sharply moulded. Her eyes were
certainly blue and pretty, but they wore a colder expression.
I thought at first it was Miss Frick's sister, but a glance at the
small, coquettish, servant-maid's cap told me she held a different
position in the house.
With an excuse she hurriedly left the room; she had thought Miss Frick
was there.
Scarcely had she shut the door after her before Miss Frick again
appeared, and as she saw perhaps that I looked a bit puzzled, she gave a
low laugh and said:--
"You have seen my double, I suppose? She didn't know any one was here.
All strangers are astonished at the likeness between Evelina and me. She
is my lady's-maid."
"The likeness does not strike me as being so great," I answered; "do you
think so yourself? I should never make such a mistake as taking her for
you."
"Oh yes, indeed!" she replied; "at first it was almost unpleasant to me.
Her father was, in his line, a well-to-do artisan, but things went badly
with him, and he took to drink. The mother is not a very desirable
person either, and so my uncle, who had known them many years, proposed
that I should take the daughter as my maid."
It was a pleasure to me to talk with this pretty young girl. She was
more natural and free from any affectation than any young woman I had
met. It was easy to see she had plenty of common sense, and was well
educated.
Mr. Frick did not tarry long. He came waddling in, clad in a
large-checked, English pea-jacket, his full-blown face beaming like the
sun. He was not satisfied this time with shaking one of my hands, but
seized both in his gigantic paws. His praise of my skill was quite
overwhelming and it was only by the greatest effort that I got him to
change the subject.
After that followed an invitation to dinner at "Villa Ballarat," as he
called the house. He would like to have a full description of how I had
managed to discover the thieves.
This invitation clashed with my engagements that day, and I should have
felt almost duty bound to refuse it, had I not happened to look at Miss
Frick.
It appeared to me as if I could read something in her face which spoke
of anxious expectation, and--I accepted the invitation.
The dinner went off very well. Old Frick told us how he had first
become possessed of the tortoise; that, however, I will return to later.
Happily there was another person present who could listen to old Frick,
while I had a much more interesting conversation with Miss Frick.
Young Einar, who seemed a fine young fellow, and whose occupation it was
to keep his uncle's books and accounts, alone emptied a bottle of
Pleidsieck monopole, and then stole away immediately after dinner with a
good supply of his uncle's Havana cigars, to have a game of billiards at
the Grand Hotel.
Before I left Villa Ballarat, I had another talk with old Frick, of a
more serious nature. I represented to him how wrong it was to let so
many costly articles as those he had gathered together, lie unprotected
against thieves and burglars.
"You have seen yourself, Mr. Frick," I said, "how you tempt people to
become housebreakers."
Old Frick showed himself for once amenable to advice.
"Come and see me to-morrow," he said; "I should like to have your
opinion as to how I ought to arrange my things. The house here is
becoming too small for me; I expect a guest in a few days. What do you
say to my building a pavilion out in the garden, and arranging it
specially as a museum or as a place of custody for all my curiosities?
If I built the pavilion expressly for this purpose, I ought to be able
to make it sufficiently proof against thieves. I could use iron safes,
iron bars before the windows, electric-alarm apparatus, and suchlike.
So long as I am well and able to move about, I can look after my
things,--as you have seen I did last night; but when I get older, it
will be more difficult. One cannot depend upon the young people in the
house."
By sufficiently encouraging this plan of his, I got him to start the
work, and within a month old Frick had a building constructed in the
garden, about forty yards from the house. A building which should serve
as a depository for all his collection, and at the same time give space
for his office, and containing a fire-proof room for money and important
documents.
This building will, later on, play a part in my story, and I shall
therefore give a short description of it.
It was built nearly square, and divided into two. The whole of the one
half was fitted up to receive Frick's collection. It formed a large
room with no windows, but was lighted from above. Over the skylights
were placed strong gilt iron bars to prevent entrance from above.
The heavy iron shutters, which, being painted white and lacquered,
looked like innocent wooden boards, could be pulled down in front of the
cases when the museum was closed.
These iron shutters were so well balanced with hidden counter weights
that the weakest child could move them up or down. They could be locked
with strong safety locks, of which Bartholomew Frick alone had the keys.
The other half of the house was partitioned into two, forming a larger
and a smaller room. The larger did duty as Mr. Frick's office, and
there his nephew took up his residence in the morning among the heap of
business books. The smaller room, which, on account of the many feet
thick, brick walls, gave very little inside space, served as a
fire-proof room for money and documents.
This room had no windows, and only one very solid, double iron door,
which led into the before-mentioned room used as the museum.
It had been made according to my suggestion; for I reasoned thus: The
office is, as a matter of course, the least-protected room in the
building. It has windows, and necessarily a good many strangers will be
going in and out there. The safest thing is to let the one door to the
fire-proof room, where Frick likes to keep a large sum of ready money,
lead out into the museum. It is only frequented by the people of the
house and guests, and at night it is more secure against burglary than
the office.
All round the garden there was an iron railing, twice as high as a man,
and people who were going to the house had to ring a bell at the iron
gate.
At that time, when I made old Frick's acquaintance, he had invested a
great deal of his money in various enterprises, mostly industrial
undertakings, and especially such as would bring new trade and industry
to the country.
He himself took no part in the management of these undertakings, and the
work in his office was not more than could be managed by himself and his
nephew.
It was not long before I was a regular and, as far as I could perceive,
a welcome guest at the villa; indeed, all through the winter there was
scarcely a day when I did not visit there.
Old Frick was never tired of asking me about news from the police
courts; but I soon realized that it was not so much my stories that
interested him, as the fact that for each of my stories, which I tried
to make as short as possible, he found opportunity to treat us to two or
three of his own, which always took a long time.
He was, however, an admirable story-teller, and we often sat by the hour
together, listening to him with the greatest interest.
Generally the party was limited to old Frick, Sigrid, and myself. Einar
was a gay young fellow, who spent a good deal of his time and his money
with his companions, and he gave us but little of his society. Thus the
three of us spent many pleasant evenings together.
*CHAPTER III*
*MR. REGINALD HOWELL*