登陆注册
15465800000062

第62章 Chapter Twenty-Three(2)

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, Ithink 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.

同类推荐
  • 请缨日记

    请缨日记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 宗门十规论

    宗门十规论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 古列女传

    古列女传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • A DREAM OF JOHN BALL

    A DREAM OF JOHN BALL

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 五部六册

    五部六册

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 猎头教你赢天下

    猎头教你赢天下

    你可能只是不知道该怎样去改变,怎样去规划职业未来。这都没有关系,只要你内心有这个愿望,本书就可以帮到你!从书中你可以找到那个积极的自我、那些可以帮你达成目标的行之有效的方法、那些职业生涯中可能遇到的陷阱和弯路……
  • 我在柯南世界

    我在柯南世界

    一个好吃懒惰的普通青年,一觉醒来发现自己穿到了柯南世界,好死不活的还是组织新培养的杀手,在发现哀殿后一起逃离的故事
  • 真仙血脉

    真仙血脉

    【三生门,蕴涵八方世界,掌控它的人可以掌握本源命数的力量!】------------------------------苏衍快挂的时候进入一门内世界,里面一老人说他可以掌握本源命数,还是啥真仙血脉,可劲造了...苏衍当时就懵逼了。啥玩意儿?------------------------------而,不为人知的,苏衍的血脉之谜,竟是虚空界最大的隐秘,待到苏衍踏碎虚空之时才缓缓揭开...
  • 重生之无限打脸

    重生之无限打脸

    【收藏的期末都考了一百分】天下我第二狂,无人敢称第一,敢称第一的人都被我杀了。神王借元神重生到叶家废材之子身上,世人皆以为他是废物,却不知他是神王,世人企图揭开他的真面目,却不知他的底牌深不可测。他以张狂热血直面世间之敌。故事从一段精彩的家族权利争夺展开……
  • 冰帝永恒

    冰帝永恒

    赤、橙、黄、绿、青、蓝、紫、银、白,九种不同的颜色,决定的将是不同的等级!魔法、武技,碧榕林中,绝世天才,悄然而生。颠覆世人的观念,冰系魔法,不会祸害人间!
  • 九极大帝

    九极大帝

    神异之争三百年,生灵涂炭三百载,神、异界为争夺人界九洲,展开了近三百年的斗争。少年张天忌惨遭波及,得幸劫后余生,但怒意未泯,学得祖上传承,修炼魔龙神功,誓要卷土重来,踏平神异!
  • 黑色星期日记

    黑色星期日记

    自我的17岁生日之后,我的身边发生了一系列超乎科学的事情。首先是如同真实的梦游,再是被别人和一个出了车祸的男子交换左眼,然后捡到一个名为《黑色笔记》的日记本……里面记载了许多意外和事故,这些东西不像是来自以前的,反而像是来自未来,因为它们一次又一次地实现……
  • 江湖中人转过身来

    江湖中人转过身来

    他,霸气十足,却恨不得把她捧到天上去。风轩四起,‘人若有情必会亡?’她执著着,却一点点的被他抹去一直以来的坚定;他宠爱着,却一点点的回忆起当年之事。“喂,你没看见本姑娘在忙吗!?”曾经他们的相见……“嗯,你别离开我好不……”如今他们的不舍。但是纸包不住火,他的使命、他的痴缠……她的倾城,她的如愿……这些却在那时灰飞烟灭。感情的羁绊和家族的纠葛,身为这一代,他又将如何选择?
  • TFBOYS与她们的夕阳西下

    TFBOYS与她们的夕阳西下

    “呆瓜,让我再抱你一次,以朋友的方式。”--王俊凯“可乐,你明明知道我喜欢你,为什么总是逃避?”--王源“蠢猪,是个路痴就别乱跑啊!害我天天找你!”--易烊千玺文章走治愈清新风,喜欢加入一些逗比和小污,不喜欢也请别恶意评论,谢谢配合!每一个加书架,评论,投票,喜欢此书,喜欢夕子的小可爱,爱你们哦!mua~
  • 终之幻想

    终之幻想

    当漆黑的羽毛再次落下,我无力挽回。那就让一切逝去。【大概会有百合?】