“Monsieur,” he said at last, “it seems to me that you have come here to-day with the idea no doubt of enlisting my services in a cause which you have at heart, but also with the firm determination to keep your secrets to yourself. You will, I feel sure, on thinking the matter over, see how impossible you have made it for me to be of much service to you.”
“Can you do nothing then?” asked Lavrovski in despair.
He seemed so dejected, so broken-hearted, that the detective glanced up at him with a certain amount of pity, and said—
“Will you go home, monsieur, and give the matter your full consideration, quietly and deliberately? Read the police news carefully to ascertain that no mysterious death has occurred, or unknown dead body found. I, in the meanwhile, will make what exhaustive inquiries I can, both at the opera house, the fiaker stations, and at the different railways. Your truant may, after all, re-appear in the next day or two. Young men are often led into adventures, that last longer than two or three days. Then come back and see me on Saturday afternoon, but come back armed with the determination to tell me all. If you cannot bring yourself to do that, do not come at all, and in that case, if I, in the meanwhile, have not found the slightest clue, I will consider the matter dropped as far as I am concerned. And now will monsieur excuse me, my time is valuable, and I have many clients to see.”
M. Furet rose, the interview was over. Lavrovski felt there was nothing more to say, that nothing could be done unless he fully made up his mind whether he would confide in a third person or not, and that, for the present, he was not prepared to do. The Frenchman might after all be speaking truly, there was every chance that the Tsarevitch was but pursuing a young man’s adventure, and nothing further could be lost by waiting. If those who had abducted him had meant harm to him, that harm would by now be accomplished, and the three days Lavrovski gave himself as a respite—either for the return of the prodigal, if he was alive and unharmed, or for throwing himself on the Tsar’s doubtful mercy, if evil had come to Nicholas Alexandrovitch—could matter but little.
He took up his hat, and promising M. Furet to think the case over, in the light he had suggested, bowed to the old detective, and soon found himself in the streets once more.
He had determined to wait till Saturday, therefore wait he would, without confiding in anyone, still trusting that this terrible adventure would end happily before then, and in the meanwhile bearing his own burden of anxiety alone.
The only person that would of necessity require some sort of explanation—humble in position though he was—was Nicholas’ valet. However little intelligence the man might possess, it would yet strike him as suspicious that his master should leave the hotel, and stay with friends so unexpectedly, that he did not even arrange for the most ordinary necessities of his toilet to be brought to him. Lavrovski, therefore, determined to tell him the partial truth; the truth, that is to say, such as he himself would wish it to be.
“You must understand, Stepán,” he explained, “that his Imperial Highness has thought fit to absent himself from this hotel for two or three days. But before leaving he gave me the strictest injunctions that we are to keep his absence the most profound secret from everybody, both here and at home. It is not for you, or even I, to question the Tsarevitch’s right to act as he pleases, all we can do is to obey his orders as accurately as we can. To everyone, therefore, his Imperial Highness is confined to his bed with an attack of German measles, which is not serious but might last some days. Now do you quite understand me? and can his Imperial Highness entirely rely upon your fidelity and discretion, both now and in the future?”
“Nicholas Alexandrovitch is my master,” said the Russian simply; “he has always found me faithful when he wanted my help, silent when he required my silence. The words I speak are as much at his commands as the deeds I do; I will say what he wishes, or hold my tongue as he desires.”