Castles in the Air

  2.

  Not much data to go on, you will, I think, admit, and I Can assureyou, Sir, that had I not possessed that unbounded belief in myselfwhich is the true hall-mark of genius, I would at the outset have feltprofoundly discouraged.

  As it was, I found just the right words of consolation and of hopewherewith to bow my brilliant client out of my humble apartments, andthen to settle down to deep and considered meditation. Nothing, Sir,is so conducive to thought as a long, brisk walk through the crowdedstreets of Paris. So I brushed my coat, put on my hat at a becomingangle, and started on my way.

  I walked as far as Suresnes, and I thought. After that, feelingfatigued, I sat on the terrace of the Cafe Bourbon, overlooking theriver. There I sipped my coffee and thought. I walked back into Parisin the evening, and still thought, and thought, and thought. Afterthat I had some dinner, washed down by an agreeable bottle ofwine--did I mention that the lovely creature had given me a hundredfrancs on account?--then I went for a stroll along the Quai Voltaire,and I may safely say that there is not a single side and tortuousstreet in its vicinity that I did not explore from end to end duringthe course of that never to be forgotten evening.

  But still my mind remained in a chaotic condition. I had not succeededin forming any plan. What a quandary, Sir! Oh! what a quandary! Herewas I, Hector Ratichon, the confidant of kings, the right hand of twoemperors, set to the task of stealing a dog--for that is what I shouldhave to do--from an unscrupulous gang of thieves whose identity, abodeand methods were alike unknown to me. Truly, Sir, you will own thatthis was a herculean task.

  Vaguely my thoughts reverted to Theodore. He might have been of goodcounsel, for he knew more about thieves than I did, but the ungratefulwretch was out of the way on the one occasion when he might have beenof use to me who had done so much for him. Indeed, my reason told methat I need not trouble my head about Theodore. He had vanished; thathe would come back presently was, of course, an indubitable fact;people like Theodore never vanish completely. He would come back anddemand I know not what, his share, perhaps, in a business which was sopromising even if it was still so vague.

  Five thousand francs! A round sum! If I gave Theodore five hundredthe sum would at once appear meagre, unimportant. Four thousand fivehundred francs!--it did not even _sound_ well to my mind.

  So I took care that Theodore vanished from my mental vision ascompletely as he had done for the last two days from my ken, and asthere was nothing more that could be done that evening, I turned myweary footsteps toward my lodgings at Passy.

  All that night, Sir, I lay wakeful and tossing in my bed, alternatelyfuming and rejecting plans for the attainment of that golden goal--therecovery of Mme. de Nole's pet dog. And the whole of the next day Ispent in vain quest. I visited every haunt of ill-fame known to mewithin the city. I walked about with a pistol in my belt, a hunk ofbread and cheese in my pocket, and slowly growing despair in my heart.

  In the evening Mme. la Comtesse de Nole called for news of Carissimo,and I could give her none. She cried, Sir, and implored, and her tearsand entreaties got on to my nerves until I felt ready to fall intohysterics. One more day and all my chances of a bright and wealthyfuture would have vanished. Unless the money was forthcoming on themorrow, the dog would be destroyed, and with him my every hope of thatfive thousand francs. And though she still irradiated charm and luxuryfrom her entire lovely person, I begged her not to come to the officeagain, and promised that as soon as I had any news to impart I wouldat once present myself at her house in the Faubourg St. Germain.

  That night I never slept one wink. Think of it, Sir! The next fewhours were destined to see me either a prosperous man for many days tocome, or a miserable, helpless, disappointed wretch. At eight o'clockI was at my office. Still no news of Theodore. I could now no longerdismiss him from my mind. Something had happened to him, I could haveno doubt. This anxiety, added to the other more serious one, drove meto a state bordering on frenzy. I hardly knew what I was doing. Iwandered all day up and down the Quai Voltaire, and the Quai desGrands Augustins, and in and around the tortuous streets till I wasdog-tired, distracted, half crazy.

  I went to the Morgue, thinking to find there Theodore's dead body, andfound myself vaguely looking for the mutilated corpse of Carissimo.Indeed, after a while Theodore and Carissimo became so inextricablymixed up in my mind that I could not have told you if I was seekingfor the one or for the other and if Mme. la Comtesse de Nole was nowwaiting to clasp her pet dog or my man-of-all-work to her exquisitebosom.

  She in the meanwhile had received a second, yet more peremptory,missive through the same channel as the previous one. A grimy deformedman, with ginger-coloured hair, and wearing a black patch over oneeye, had been seen by one of the servants lolling down the streetwhere Madame lived, and subsequently the concierge discovered that anexceedingly dirty scrap of paper had been thrust under the door of hislodge. The writer of the epistle demanded that Mme. la Comtesse shouldstand in person at six o'clock that same evening at the corner of theRue Guenegaud, behind the Institut de France. Two men, each wearing ablue blouse and peaked cap, would meet her there. She must hand overthe money to one of them, whilst the other would have Carissimo in hisarms. The missive closed with the usual threats that if the policewere mixed up in the affair, or the money not forthcoming, Carissimowould be destroyed.

  Six o'clock was the hour fixed by these abominable thieves for thefinal doom of Carissimo. It was now close on five. In a little morethan an hour my last hope of five or ten thousand francs and a smileof gratitude from a pair of lovely lips would have gone, never againto return. A great access of righteous rage seized upon me. Idetermined that those miserable thieves, whoever they were, shouldsuffer for the disappointment which I was now enduring. If I was tolose five thousand francs, they at least should not be left free topursue their evil ways. I would communicate with the police; thepolice should meet the miscreants at the corner of the Rue Guenegaud.Carissimo would die; his lovely mistress would be brokenhearted. Iwould be left to mourn yet another illusion of a possible fortune, butthey would suffer in gaol or in New Caledonia the consequences of alltheir misdeeds.

  Fortified by this resolution, I turned my weary footsteps in thedirection of the gendarmerie where I intended to lodge my denunciationof those abominable thieves and blackmailers. The night was dark, thestreets ill-lighted, the air bitterly cold. A thin drizzle, half rain,half snow, was descending, chilling me to the bone.

  I was walking rapidly along the river bank with my coat collar pulledup to my ears, and still instinctively peering up every narrow streetwhich debouches on the quay. Then suddenly I spied Theodore. He wascoming down the Rue Beaune, slouching along with head bent in hisusual way. He appeared to be carrying something, not exactly heavy,but cumbersome, under his left arm. Within the next few minutes hewould have been face to face with me, for I had come to a halt at theangle of the street, determined to have it out with the rascal thenand there in spite of the cold and in spite of my anxiety aboutCarissimo.

  All of a sudden he raised his head and saw me, and in a second heturned on his heel and began to run up the street in the directionwhence he had come. At once I gave chase. I ran after him--and then,Sir, he came for a second within the circle of light projected by astreet lanthorn. But in that one second I had seen that which turnedmy frozen blood into liquid lava--a tail, Sir!--a dog's tail, fluffyand curly, projecting from beneath that recreant's left arm.

  A dog, Sir! a dog! Carissimo! the darling of Mme. la Comtesse deNole's heart! Carissimo, the recovery of whom would mean five thousandfrancs into my pocket! Carissimo! I knew it! For me there existed butone dog in all the world; one dog and one spawn of the devil, onearch-traitor, one limb of Satan! Theodore!

  How he had come by Carissimo I had not time to con-conjecture. Icalled to him. I called his accursed name, using appellations whichfell far short of those which he deserved. But the louder I called thefaster he ran, and I, breathless, panting, ran after him, determinedto run him to earth,
fearful lest I should lose him in the darkness ofthe night. All down the Rue Beaune we ran, and already I could hearbehind me the heavy and more leisured tramp of a couple of gendarmeswho in their turn had started to give chase.

  I tell you, Sir, the sound lent wings to my feet. A chance--a lastchance--was being offered me by a benevolent Fate to earn that fivethousand francs, the keystone to my future fortune. If I had thestrength to seize and hold Theodore until the gendarmes came up, andbefore he had time to do away with the dog, the five thousand francscould still be mine.

  So I ran, Sir, as I had never run before; the beads of perspirationpoured down from my forehead; the breath came stertorous and hot frommy heaving breast.

  Then suddenly Theodore disappeared!

  Disappeared, Sir, as if the earth had swallowed him up! A second ago Ihad seen him dimly, yet distinctly through the veil of snow and rainahead of me, running with that unmistakable shuffling gait of his,hugging the dog closely under his arm. I had seen him--another effortand I might have touched him!--now the long and deserted street laydark and mysterious before me, and behind me I could hear the measuredtramp of the gendarmes and their peremptory call of "Halt, in the nameof the King!"

  But not in vain, Sir, am I called Hector Ratichon; not in vain havekings and emperors reposed confidence in my valour and my presence ofmind. In less time than it takes to relate I had already marked withmy eye the very spot--down the street--where I had last seen Theodore.I hurried forward and saw at once that my surmise had been correct. Atthat very spot, Sir, there was a low doorway which gave on a dark anddank passage. The door itself was open. I did not hesitate. My lifestood in the balance but I did not falter. I might be affrontingwithin the next second or two a gang of desperate thieves, but I didnot quake.

  I turned into that doorway, Sir; the next moment I felt a stunningblow between my eyes. I just remember calling out with all thestrength of my lungs: "Police! Gendarmes! A moi!" Then nothing more.