LOUIS EXPLAINS
Louis returned of his own accord before long.
"Monsieur has been well served?" he asked genially.
"Excellently, Louis," I answered, "so far as the mere question of food
goes. You have not, however, managed to satisfy my curiosity."
"Monsieur?" he asked interrogatively.
"Concerning the Deloras," I answered.
Louis shrugged his shoulders.
"But what should I know?" he asked. "Mr. Delora, he has come here last
year and the year before. He has stayed for a month or so. He
understands what he eats. That is all. Mademoiselle comes for the
first time. I know her not at all."
"What do you think of his disappearance, Louis?" I asked.
"What should I think of it, monsieur? I know nothing."
"Mr. Delora, I am told," I continued, "is a coffee planter in South
America."
"I, too," Louis admitted, "have heard so much."
"How came he to have the _entree_ to the Cafe des Deux Epingles?"
I asked.
Louis smiled.
"I myself," he remarked, "am but a rare visitor there. How should I
tell?"
"Louis," said I, "why not be honest with me? I am certainly not a
person to be afraid of. I am very largely in your hands over the
Tapilow affair, and, as you know, I have seen too much of the world to
consider trifles. I do not believe that Mr. Delora came to London to
sell his crop of coffee. I do not believe that you are ignorant of his
affairs. I do not believe that his disappearance is so much a mystery
to you as it is to the rest of us--say to me and to mademoiselle his
niece."
Louis' face was like the face of a sphinx. He made no
protestations. He denied nothing. He waited simply to see where I was
leading him.
"I am not sure, Louis," I said, "that I do not believe that you had
some object in taking me to the Cafe des Deux Epingles that night. Be
honest with me. I can be a friend. I have influence here and there,
and, as I think you know, I love adventures. Tell me what you know of
this affair. Tell me if you had any motive in taking me to the Cafe
des Deux Epingles that night?"
Louis looked around the room with keen, watchful eyes. Without
abandoning his attitude of graceful attention to what I was saying, he
seemed in those few moments to be absorbing every detail of the
progress of the affairs in the restaurant itself. The arrangement of
the service at some tables a little way off seemed to annoy him. He
frowned and called one of his subordinates, speaking in a rapid
undertone to him, and with many gestures. The man hurried away to obey
his instructions, and Louis turned to me.
"Monsieur," said he, "there are many times when it is not wise or
politic to tell the truth. There are many times, therefore, when I
have to speak falsehoods, but I will confess that I do not like
it. Always I would prefer the truth, if it were possible. When I saw
you at the Opera in Paris I thought of you only as one of my best and
most valued patrons. It was only as we stood there talking that
another idea came into my head. I acted upon it. There was a reason
why I took you to the Cafe des Deux Epingles!"
"Go on, Louis," I said. "Go on."
"I took you there," Louis continued, "because I knew that some time
during the night Tapilow would come. Already I knew what would happen
if you two met."
"You wished it to happen, then?" I exclaimed.
Louis bowed.
"Monsieur," he said, "I did wish it to happen! The person of whom we
have spoken is no friend of mine, or of my friends. He had entered
into a scheme with certain of them, and it was known that he meant to
play them false. He deserved punishment, and I was content that he
should meet it at your hands."
"Is that all, Louis?" I asked.
"Not all, monsieur," he continued. "I said to myself that if monsieur
quarrels with his enemy, and trouble comes of it, it will be I--I and
my friends--who can assist monsieur. Monsieur will owe us something
for this, and the time may come--the time, indeed, may be very close
at hand--when the services of monsieur might be useful."
"Come, Louis," I said, "this is better. Now I am beginning to
understand. Go on a little further, if you please. I acknowledge your
claim upon me. What can I do?"
"Monsieur likes excitement," Louis murmured.
"Indeed I do!" I answered fervently.
Louis hesitated.
"If there were some plot against this man Delora," he said, "to
prevent his carrying out some undertaking, monsieur would help to
frustrate it?"
"With all my heart," I answered. "There is only one thing I would
ask. What is Mr. Delora's undertaking?--To sell his coffee?"
Louis' inimitable smile spread over his face.
"Ah!" he said, "monsieur is pleased to be facetious!"
Then I knew that I was on the point of learning a little, at any rate,
of the truth.
"Mr. Delora has other schemes," Louis said slowly.
"So I imagined," I answered.
I saw Louis half turn his head. There was no change in his tone nor in
his expression. Naturally, therefore, his words sounded a little
strangely.
"My conversation with monsieur, for the moment, is finished," he
said. "There is some one quite close who would give a great deal to
overhear. It follows, therefore, that one says nothing. If monsieur
will grant me a quarter of an hour at any time, in his room, after
four o'clock--"
"At half-past four, Louis," I answered.
Louis gave a final little twist to my tablecloth and departed with a
bow. I saw then that at the table next to mine, hidden from me, for
the moment, by Louis himself, was seated the man who had stood by our
side at Charing Cross!
After luncheon I took a taxicab, called on my tailor, looked in at the
club, and bought some cigarettes. The whole of London seemed covered
with dust sheets, to smell of paint. My club was in the hands of
furbishers. My tobacconist was in his house-boat on the Thames. I met
only one or two acquaintances, who seemed so sorry for themselves that
their depression was only heightened by recognizing me. The streets
were given over to a strangely clad crowd of pilgrims from other
lands,--American women with short coats, _pince nez_, and
Baedekers, dragging along their mankind in neat suits and outrageous
hats. One seemed to recognize nothing familiar even in the
shop-windows. I was glad enough to get back to the Milan, especially
so as in the lift I came upon Felicia. She started a little at seeing
me, and seemed a little nervous. When the lift stopped at her floor I
got out too.
"Let me walk with you to your room," I said. "It is nearly four
o'clock."
"If you please," she answered. "I wanted to speak to you, Capitaine
Rotherby. There was something I forgot to say before I went out this
morning."
I sighed.
"There is always a good deal that I forget to say when I am with you!"
I answered.
She smiled.
"You, too!" she exclaimed. "You are beginning to say the foolish
things! But never mind, we do not joke now. I speak seriously.
Louis--Louis is back, eh?"
"Certainly," I answered. "He was in the cafe at luncheon time."
"Capitaine Rotherby," she said, as we passed into her room together,
"Louis is a very strange person. I think that he has some idea in his
head about you just now. Will you promise me this,--that you will be
careful?"
"Careful?" I repeated. "I don't quite understand; but I'll promise all
the same."
She took hold of the lapels of my coat as though to pull me down a
little towards her. I felt my heart beat quickly, for the deep blue
light was in her eyes.
"Ah, Capitaine Rotherby," she said, "you do not understand! This man
Louis--he is not only what he seems! I think that he took you to the
Cafe des Deux Epingles that night with a purpose. He thinks, perhaps,
that you are in his power, eh, because you did fight with the other
man and hurt him badly? And Louis knows!"
"Please go on," I said.
"I want you to be careful," she said. "If he asks you to do anything
for him, be sure that it is something which you ought to do,--which
you may do honorably! You see, Capitaine Rotherby," she went on,
"Louis and his friends are not men like you. They are more
subtle,--they have, perhaps, more brain,--but I do not think that they
are honest! Louis may try to frighten you into becoming like them. He
may try very many inducements," she went on, looking up at me. "You
must not listen. You must promise me that you will not listen."
"I promise with all my heart," I answered, "that neither Louis nor any
one else in the world shall make me do anything which I feel to be
dishonorable."
"Louis is very crafty," she whispered. "He may make a thing seem as
though it were all right when it is not, you understand?"
"Yes, I understand!" I answered. "But tell me, how did you get to know
so much about Louis?"
"It does not matter--that," she answered, a little impatiently. "I
have heard of Louis from others. I know the sort of man he is. I think
that he will make some proposal to you. Will you be careful?"
"I promise," I answered "May I see you again to-day? Remember," I
pleaded, "that I am staying here only for your sake. I ought to have
gone to Norfolk this afternoon."
She drew a little sigh.
"I wonder!" she said, half to herself. "I think, perhaps,--yes, we
will dine together, monsieur, you and I!" she said. "You must take me
somewhere where it is quite quiet--where no one will see us!"
"Not down in the cafe, then?" I asked smiling.
She held up her hands in horror.
"But no!" she declared. "If it is possible, let us get away somewhere
without Louis knowing."
"It can be arranged," I assured her. "May I come in and see you later
on, and you shall tell me where to meet you?"
She thought for a minute.
"At seven o'clock," she answered. "Please go away now. I have a
dressmaker coming to see me."
I turned away, but I had scarcely gone half a dozen paces before she
called me back.
"Capitaine Rotherby," she said, "there is something to tell you."
I waited expectantly.
"Yes?" I murmured.
She avoided meeting my eyes.
"You need not trouble any further about my uncle," she said. "He has
returned."
"Returned!" I exclaimed. "When?"
"A very short time ago," she answered. "He is very unwell. It will not
be possible for any one to see him for a short time. But he has
returned!"
"I am very glad indeed," I assured her.
Her face showed no signs of exultation or relief. I could not help
being puzzled at her demeanor. She gave me no further explanation.
There was a ring at the door, and she motioned me away.
"The dressmaker!" she exclaimed.
I went upstairs to my rooms to wait for Louis.