“Honest, I mean it.” Rex patted Simon’s arm affectionately. “I don’t know two other guys who’d risk getting into this place to get another fellah out I was never so glad of anything in my life as when I saw your ugly mug just now,” Rex grimaced. “Another month or so of this and I’d have had to wring the neck of one of these fool guards, just to make life more interesting.”
Simon chuckled. “Wouldn’t have been much good our coming if you had!”
“No. I reckon it would have been a free ad. in the wrong end of the hatched, matched, and dispatched column of the New York Times for this child. Still, praises be you’ve come. I guess we’d better separate now.”
“Yes. I’ll get back. We’ll be waiting for you at five.”
“Sure —” Van Ryn moved away with a last grin.
“See-yer-later, Simon — round about cocktail time!”
Simon rejoined the Rabbi. They visited three more of the barracks and then left the prison. Simon’s heart was high with the good news that he was bringing to the Duke. True, Rex was lean and cadaverous now, but well and cheerful.
The Duke, meanwhile, had been exercising his stiff limbs. The long drive from Turinsk had been a great strain on him. He thought, ruefully, of his marble bathroom at Curzon Street, and the gentle ministrations of the excellent Max, but not for long. If it had been his habit in recent years to spend much of his time idling in the pleasant places of the earth, he had, during his earlier life, been soldier, hunter, and explorer, and the experiences of those strenuous days stood him in good stead now. At one period he had had a Japanese manservant, from whom he had learnt many things about the human body. Among them was the secret of certain exercises, which relaxed the muscles and relieved their strain. He ceased therefore to think of Lubin’s bath essence, and applied himself to these continual and gentle evolutions, much to the astonishment of the morning gathering of students in the school of the synagogue.
On Simon’s return the two retired to a quiet corner, and began to make their plans.
The sleigh seemed to be their only means of escape, and very glad they were that they had not abandoned it the previous night.