“I shall be back in Vienna on Saturday,” said the latter, “and if I bring the candlesticks with me, I will bring you the money I promised on that very day.”
And pulling his hat over his eyes Volenski walked out of the shop, taking no further notice of the Jew, who followed him to the door, bowing obsequiously, and still irrelevantly calling to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to witness to his complete innocence.
CHAPTER XIII.
On arriving at his hotel Volenski found a telegram from Baron de Hermansthal, asking for his immediate presence at the detective office. Wishing to avoid anything that might in any way seem suspicious, he went at once, although he had ceased to care now what the police were doing in the matter; whatever they did, could not affect the candlesticks, as he would be in London long before the promptest investigations could possibly lead to the discovery of Grünebaum’s agent abroad. Baron de Hermansthal had, however, quite a great deal of news for him; the night before, the woman Grete Ottlinger had been arrested outside the “Kaiser Franz” for being drunk and disorderly, and had been induced this morning, by the examining magistrate, to reveal the name of Moses Grünebaum, a well-known dealer on the Kolowrátring, as the receiver of all the stolen property she and her accomplices brought into the city. The man would probably be arrested that afternoon.
“I thought you would be relieved to hear this,” the amiable baron added; “if you like to call at my office later in the day, I might give you a special permission to view the suspected articles in Grünebaum’s shop, and if his Eminence’s candlesticks are among them, and the police satisfied as to your claim to them, they might be handed over to you in the course of a few days.”
Oh! all this bureaucracy and red-tapeism, how thankful Volenski was that he was independent of it! A few days indeed! time to allow Madame Demidoff, who naturally would be communicated with at the same time as himself, to claim the candlesticks as part of her stolen property. In a few days Volenski hoped to be in Petersburg, back from London, the fatal papers handed over to Taranïew, and then his own connection severed from the brotherhood. To that he was fully resolved. The last few days had taught him a lesson that would take a lifetime to forget.
“I am exceedingly obliged to your Excellency,” he remarked somewhat drily, “for the trouble you have taken in this business; as I am obliged to quit town for a few days I will leave the matter now entirely in your hands.”
“I don’t think you can do better,” said Baron de Hermansthal. “It is now merely a question of time, for your property is in the charge of the police, no doubt, along with the other goods in Grünebaum’s shop, and I will give strict orders that no candlestick is to be tampered with, till you or Madame Demidoff have identified those belonging to his Eminence.”
“I suppose,” said Iván tentatively, “that Madame Demidoff has been communicated with?”
He was anxious to hear what her movements had been so far, how near she had been on his track.