A few minutes later the train steamed into the station of Allahabad, and the two officers, gathering up their cloaks, swords, and other traps, left the sleeping-car.
As soon as the express had again started on its way to Calcutta the man who had displayed such an intense interest in the conversation of Captain Clery and his friend cautiously descended from his berth and began to dress himself as noiselessly as possible. Drawing the blind aside for a moment from the lamp, the dim light thereof revealed the features of Frederick von Waldberg. As soon as he had finished dressing he repaired to the cabinet de toilette of the sleeping-car, taking with him a small leather dressing-case. When he emerged therefrom a few minutes later it was to be seen that he had shaven off the short beard which he had allowed to grow during his stay at Baroda. Anxious, however, to avoid attracting the attention of the conductor to this metamorphosis, he threw a light Inverness cape overcoat over his shoulders, pulled the collar over his ears, and, drawing his soft felt traveling hat low down over his eyes, sat motionless in a corner, apparently fast asleep.
The morning after his arrival at Calcutta, Frederick took passage on a sailing ship bound for Havre. He was dressed in the garb of a workingman, and gave his name as Franz Werner, and his trade as that of a painter and decorator. He informed the skipper that, his health having been broken by a long stay in the murderous climate of Bengal, the doctor had prescribed the long sea voyage round the Cape as his only hope of recovery. He gave this as the reason for his preferring to return to Europe by a sailing ship instead of by one of the mail steamers via the Suez Canal.
Once again Frederick had succeeded in evading capture and arrest for his crimes.
CHAPTER VIII.
A COMPACT WITH ROSE.
Toward the end of September, 1871, Count Frederick von Waldberg, alias Franz Werner, arrived in Paris and took up his quarters at a well-known hotel in the Rue de Rivoli under the name of Baron F. Wolff. He stated that he had just arrived from Japan, a country in which he claimed to have resided for over two years. As he spent his money very liberally he was taken at his word and treated with great respect and consideration at the hotel, where he soon made the acquaintance of several American and English families who proposed to spend the winter at Paris. Frederick's personal appearance had undergone such a change during the twelve months which had elapsed since he left Paris that there was not much fear of his being recognized by any of his former acquaintances. He had grown taller and broader, his face was bronzed by the Indian sun, and his beard, which he had once more allowed to grow during the long sea voyage, caused him to look much older than he was in reality.
One night, some two months after his arrival at Paris, he accompanied three of his new acquaintances to the Jardin Mabille, at that time a well-known rendezvous of the jeunesse doree and of the demi-mondaines of every class.