I hadn’t gone twenty paces before he came running after me to say that if ever I wanted to disguise myself again I was to come to him and use his rooms, and that he would always keep the razors in order for the purpose.
“Mais c’est dur, tout de même,” he added, sympathetically, as I promised.
The last I saw of him, he turned and waved his hand. “Adieu, mon vieux!” he cried. “Bonne chance!”
CHAPTER XXI
IN MY DISGUISE I AM MISTAKEN FOR LORD B.—A CLUB ACQUAINTANCE—TEDDY AT THE LAW COURTS—MRS. WINGHAM—THE DEFENCE AND THE ACQUITTAL—WE BOLT
Behold me, then, in sexagenarian disguise, trudging back into Monte Carlo, with my mackintosh and umbrella. It was barely nine o’clock in the morning when I started; and, soon after ten, there I was standing once more in front of the Casino buildings, out of which, but a few hours before, I had so triumphantly rushed.
Strange to say, there was no sign of anything extraordinary having occurred; there were the usual people sitting about reading the papers on the seats round the flower-beds, the usual attendants loafing on the steps, guarding the entrance. Over the building flapped, as ever, the dingy Monaco flag.
My first feeling was of intense annoyance and disgust that, notwithstanding our complete success, the nefarious business was apparently being carried on as usual. What on earth did it all mean? Were sixty thousand pounds as naught to them? Were they placidly going to put up with their loss, rather than advertise their misfortune? or, under this apparent calm, were there really depths of trouble and vengeance stirring—already rising—to ingulf poor Teddy, whom I never doubted from the first was captured, and now shortly about to appear before the Prince’s judges away up at Monaco, bent in painful submission at the criminal bar!
I sat down for a few moments to consider what should be done, and look about me for some one to whom I could apply for trustworthy information: what was thought of us, and what steps the authorities proposed to take.
There was an old gentlemen, an Englishman, evidently, sitting on my seat; and, as one garrulous old person to another might, I proceeded to try him cautiously with a few questions. Did he know, could he tell me, at what hour the rooms opened?