XII. A KNOCK-OUT BLOW
The staff of the Royal Palace Hotel were just finishing dinner, and thegreatest animation prevailed in the vast white-tiled servants' hall. Thetone of the conversation varied at different tables, for the servantsjealously observed a strict order of precedence among themselves, butthe present topic was the same at all, the recent sensational robberyfrom Mme. Van den Rosen and the Princess Sonia Danidoff. At one table,smaller than the rest, a party of upper servants sat, under-managers orheads of departments: M. Louis was here, the general manager, M. Mullerthe superintendent of the second floor, M. Ludovic chief valet, M.Maurice head footman, M. Naud chief cashier, and last but not leastMlle. Jeanne the young lady cashier whose special duty it was to takecharge of all the moneys and valuables deposited in the custody of thehotel by guests who wished to relieve themselves of the responsibilityof keeping these in their own rooms. This small and select company wasincreased to-night by the addition of M. Henri Verbier, a man of aboutforty years of age, who had left the branch hotel at Cairo belonging tothe same Company to join the staff at the Royal Palace Hotel in Paris.
"I am afraid, M. Verbier, you will form a very bad opinion of ourestablishment," said M. Muller to him. "It is really a pity that youshould have left the Cairo branch and come here just when theserobberies have put the Royal Palace under a cloud."
Henri Verbier smiled.
"You need not be afraid of my attaching too much importance to that," hesaid. "I've been in hotel life for fifteen years now, in one capacityor another, and, as you may suppose, I've known similar cases before, sothey don't surprise me much. But one thing does surprise me, M. Muller,and that is that no clue has yet been found. I suppose the Board havedone everything that can be done to trace the culprit? The reputation ofthe hotel is at stake."
"I should think they have looked for him!" said M. Louis, with apathetic shrug of his shoulders. "Why, they even upbraided me for havinghad the door opened for the thief! Luckily I had a good friend inMuller, who admitted that he had been completely imposed upon and thathe had given the order for the fellow, whom he supposed to be thesecond-floor waiter, to be allowed to go out. I knew nothing about it."
"And how was I to guess that the man was an impostor?" Muller protested.
"All the same," Henri Verbier retorted, "it is uncommonly annoying foreverybody when things like that happen."
"So long as one has not committed any breach of orders, and so can't bemade a scapegoat of, one mustn't grumble," M. Muller said. "Louis and Idid exactly what our duty required and no one can say anything to us.The magistrate acknowledged that a week ago."
"He does not suspect anybody?" Henri Verbier asked.
"No: nobody," Muller answered.
M. Louis smiled.
"Yes, he did suspect somebody, Verbier," he said, "and that was yourcharming neighbour Mlle. Jeanne there."
Verbier turned towards the young cashier.
"What? The magistrate tried to make out that you were implicated in it?"
The girl had only spoken a few words during the whole of dinner,although Henri Verbier had made several gallant attempts to draw herinto the general conversation. Now she laughingly protested.
"M. Louis only says that to tease me."
But M. Louis stuck to his guns.
"Not a bit of it, Mademoiselle Jeanne: I said it because it is thetruth. The magistrate was on to you: I tell you he was! Why, M. Verbier,he cross-examined her for more than half an hour after the generalconfrontation, while he finished with Muller and me in less than tenminutes."
"Gad, M. Louis, a magistrate is a man, isn't he?" said Henri Verbiergallantly. "The magistrate may have enjoyed talking to Mlle. Jeanne morethan he did to you, if I may suggest it without seeming rude."
There was a general laugh at this sally on the part of the newsuperintendent, and then M. Louis continued:
"Well, if he wanted to make up to her he went a funny way to work, forhe made her angry."
"Did he really?" said Henri Verbier, turning again to the girl. "Why didthe magistrate cross-examine you so much?"
The young cashier shrugged her shoulders.
"We have thrashed it out so often, M. Verbier! But I will tell you thewhole story: during the morning of the day when the robbery wascommitted I had returned to Princess Sonia Danidoff the pocket-bookcontaining a hundred and twenty thousand francs which she had given intomy custody a few days before; I could not refuse to give it to her whenshe asked for it, could I? How was I to know that it would be stolenfrom her the same evening? Customers deposit their valuables with me andI hand them a receipt: they give me back the receipt when they demandtheir valuables, and all I have to do is comply with their request,without asking questions. Isn't that so?"
"But that was not what puzzled the magistrate I suppose," said HenriVerbier. "You are the custodian of all valuables, and you only compliedstrictly with your orders."
"Yes," M. Muller broke in, "but Mlle. Jeanne has only told you part ofthe story. Just fancy: only a few minutes before the robbery Mme. Vanden Rosen had asked Mlle. Jeanne to take charge of her diamond necklace,and Mlle. Jeanne had refused!"
"That really was bad luck for you," said Henri Verbier to the girl witha laugh, "and I quite understand that the magistrate thought it ratherodd."
"They are unkind!" she protested. "From the way they put it, M.Verbier, you really might think that I refused to take charge of Mme.Van den Rosen's jewellery in order to make things easy for the thief,which is as much as to say that I was his accomplice."
"That is precisely what the magistrate did think," M. Louisinterpolated.
The girl took no notice of the interruption, but went on with herexplanation to Henri Verbier.
"What happened was this: the rule is that I am at the disposal ofcustomers, to take charge of deposits or to return them to the owners,until nine P.M., and until nine P.M. only. After that, my time is up,and all I have to do is lock my safe and go: I am free until nineo'clock next morning. You know that it does not do to take liberties ina position like mine. So when, on the day of the robbery, Mme. Van denRosen came with her diamond necklace at half-past nine, I was perfectlywithin my rights in refusing to accept the deposit."
"That's right enough," said M. Muller, who, having finished his dessert,was now sipping coffee into which he had tipped sugar until it was asthick as syrup: "but you were disobliging, my dear young lady, and thatwas what struck the magistrate; for really it would not have been muchtrouble to register the new deposit and take charge of Mme. Van denRosen's necklace for her."
"No, it wouldn't," the girl replied; "but when there is a rule it seemsto me that it ought to be obeyed. My time is up at nine o'clock, and Iam forbidden to accept any deposits after nine o'clock: and that's why Irefused that lady's. I was perfectly right; and I should do the sameagain, if the same thing happened."
Henri Verbier was manifestly anxious to conciliate the young cashier. Heexpressed his approval of her conduct now.
"I quite agree with you, it never does to put interpretations uponorders. It was your duty to close your safe at nine o'clock, and you didclose it then, and no one can say anything to you. But, joking apart,what did the magistrate want?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders with a gesture of indifference.
"You see I was right just now: M. Louis is only trying to tease me bysaying that the magistrate cross-examined me severely. As a matter offact I was simply asked what I have just told you, and when I gave allthis explanation, no fault at all was found with me." As she spoke,Mlle. Jeanne folded her napkin carefully, pushed back her chair andshook hands with her two neighbours at table. "Good night," she said. "Iam going up to bed."
Mlle. Jeanne had hardly left the room before Henri Verbier also rosefrom the table and prepared to follow her example.
M. Louis gave M. Muller a friendly dig in his comfortable paunch.
"A pound to a penny," he said, "that friend Verbier means to make up toMlle. Jeanne. Well, I wish him luck! But t
hat young lady is not veryeasy to tame!"
"You didn't succeed," M. Muller replied unkindly, "but it doesn't followthat nobody else will!"
* * * * *
M. Louis was not deceived: Henri Verbier evidently did think hisneighbour at table a very charming young woman.
Mlle. Jeanne had hardly reached her room on the fifth floor of thehotel, and flung open her window to gaze over the magnificent panoramaspread out below her and inhale the still night air, when a gentle tapfell upon the door and, complying with her summons to come in, HenriVerbier entered the room.
"My room is next to yours," he said, "and as I saw you were standingdreaming at your window I thought perhaps you would condescend to smokean Egyptian cigarette. I have brought some back from Cairo: it is verymild tobacco--real ladies' tobacco."
The girl laughed and took a dainty cigarette from the case that HenriVerbier offered her.
"It's very kind of you to think of me," she said. "I don't make a habitof smoking, but I let myself be tempted sometimes."
"If I have been kind, you can show your gratitude very easily," HenriVerbier replied: "by allowing me to stay here a few minutes and smoke acigarette with you."
"By all means," said Mlle. Jeanne. "I love to spend a little time at mywindow at night, to get the air before going to bed. You will prevent mefrom getting tired of my own company, and can tell me all about Cairo."
"I'm afraid I know very little about Cairo," Henri Verbier replied; "yousee I spent almost the whole of my time in the hotel. But as you seem sokind and so friendly disposed I wish you would tell me things."
"But I am a very ignorant young woman."
"You are a woman, and that's enough. Listen: I am a new-comer here, andI am quite aware that my arrival, and my position, will make me someenemies. Now, whom ought I to be on my guard against? Who is there,among the staff, of whom I ought to be careful as doubtful associates? Iask with all the more concern because I will tell you frankly that I hadno personal introduction to the Board: I have not got the same chancethat you have."
"How do you know I had any introduction?" the girl enquired.
"Gad, I'm sure of it," Henri Verbier answered: he was leaning his elbowson the window-sill and gradually drawing closer to the young cashier. "Idon't suppose that an important position like the one you hold,requiring absolute integrity and competence, is given without fullestinvestigation. Your work is not tiring, but that does not mean it wouldbe entrusted to anybody."
"You are quite right, M. Verbier: I did have an introduction to theBoard: and I had first-rate testimonials too."
"Have you been in business long? Two years--three years?"
"Yes," Mlle. Jeanne replied, purposely refraining from being explicit.
"I only asked because I fancy I have seen you before somewhere. Irecognise your eyes!" Henri Verbier smiled, and looked meaningly at thegirl. "Mlle. Jeanne, on summer nights like this, when you are looking ata lovely view like this, don't you have a funny sort of feeling?"
"No. What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't know. But you see, I'm a sentimental chap unfortunately,and I really suffer a lot from always living in lonely isolation,without any affection: there are times when I feel as if love were anabsolute necessity."
The cashier looked at him ironically.
"That's all foolishness. Love is only stupid, and ought to be guardedagainst as the worst possible mistake. Love always means misery forworking people like us."
"It is you who are foolish," Henri Verbier protested gently, "or elseyou are mischievous. No: love is not stupid for working people like us;on the contrary, it is the only means we have of attaining perfecthappiness. Lovers are rich!"
"In wealth that lets them die of hunger," she scoffed.
"No, no," he answered: "no. Look here: all to-day you and I have beenworking hard, earning our living; well, suppose you were not laughing atme but we were really lovers, would not this be the time to enjoy theliving we have earned?" and as the girl did not reply, Henri Verbier,who like an experienced wooer had been drawing closer to her all thetime, until now his shoulder was touching hers, took her hand. "Wouldnot this be sweet?" he said. "I should take your little fingers intomine--like this; I should look at them so tenderly, and raise them to mylips----"
But the girl wrested herself away.
"Let me go! I won't have it! Do you understand?" And then, to mitigatethe sharpness of her rebuke, and also to change the conversation, shesaid: "It is beginning to turn cold. I will put a cloak over myshoulders," and she moved away from the window to unhook a cloak from apeg on the wall.
Henri Verbier watched her without moving.
"How unkind you are!" he said reproachfully, disregarding the angrygleam in her eyes. "Can it really be wrong to enjoy a kiss, on a lovelynight like this? If you are cold, Mademoiselle Jeanne, there is a betterway of getting warm than by putting a wrap over one's shoulders: andthat is by resting in someone else's arms."
He put out his arms as he spoke, ready to catch the girl as she cameacross the room, and was on the very point of taking her into his armsas he had suggested, when she broke from his grasp with a sudden turnand, furious with rage, dealt him a tremendous blow right on thetemple. With a stifled groan, Henri Verbier dropped unconscious to thefloor.
Mlle. Jeanne stared at him for a moment, as if dumbfounded. Then withquite amazing rapidity the young cashier sprang to the window andhurriedly closed it. She took down her hat from a hook on the wall, andput it on with a single gesture, opened a drawer and took out a littlebag, and then, after listening for a minute to make sure that there wasnobody in the passage outside her room, she opened her door, went out,rapidly turned the key behind her and ran down the stairs.
Two minutes later Mlle. Jeanne smilingly passed the porter on duty andwished him good night.
"Bye-bye," she said. "I'm going out to get a little fresh air!"
* * * * *
Slowly, as if emerging from some extraordinary dream, Henri Verbierbegan to recover from his brief unconsciousness: he could not understandat first what had happened to him, why he was lying on the floor, whyhis head ached so much, or why his blood-shot eyes saw everythingthrough a mist. He gradually struggled into a sitting posture and lookedaround the room.
"Nobody here!" he muttered. Then as if the sound of his own voice hadbrought him back to life, he got up and hurried to the door and shook itfuriously. "Locked!" he growled angrily. "And I can call till I'm blackin the face! No one has come upstairs yet. I'm trapped!" He turnedtowards the window, with some idea of calling for help, but as he passedthe mirror over the mantelpiece he caught sight of his own reflectionand saw the bruise on his forehead, with a tiny stream of bloodbeginning to trickle from a cut in the skin. He went close to the glassand looked at himself in dismay. "Juve though I am," he murmured, "I'velet myself be knocked out by a woman!" And then Juve, for Juve it was,cleverly disguised, uttered a sudden oath, clenching his fists andgrinding his teeth in rage. "Confound it all, I'll take my oath thatblow was never dealt by any woman!"