livedso long. If I knew who his relatives were, I'd `wire' to them--providing I had the money," he added with a bitter smile.
Then he shrugged his shoulders, and after striking a match to reassurehimself that nothing had been left inside the stove to betray the factthat papers had been burned there, he turned upon his heel and left theroom.
Below, in his dingy little back room on the first floor, he saw theproprietor, and told him what had occurred.
The old man grunted in his armchair and ordered the greasy-looking_valet-de-chambre_ to inform the police, but to first go and search thedead man's effects and ascertain if he had left any money.
"Monsieur Blanc was penniless, like myself," Diamond said. "Neither ofus had eaten all day yesterday."
"No money to pay his bill!" croaked the old Frenchman, who looked morelike a _concierge_ than a hotel proprietor. "And you are also withoutmoney?" he asked glaring.
"I regret that such is the truth," was Diamond's answer with muchpoliteness. "Has not m'sieur noticed in life that honest men are mostlypoor? Thieves and rogues are usually in funds."
"Then I must ask you to leave my hotel at once," said the old mantestily.
The Doctor grinned, and bowed.
"If that is m'sieur's decision, I can do nothing else but obey," was hispolite answer.
"You will leave your luggage, of course."
"M'sieur is quite welcome to all he finds," was the Doctor's response,and with another bow he turned and strode out.
His plan had worked admirably. He had no desire to remain there in thepresent circumstances. To be ordered out was certainly better than toflee.
So he walked gaily down the stairs, and a few minutes later wasstrolling airily down the Rue Lafayette, in the direction of the Opera.
The hotel proprietor and the _valet-de-chambre_ quickly searched thedead man's room, but beyond the bag and its contents found nothing.Afterwards they informed the police.
Meanwhile Raymond Diamond walked on, undecided how to act. He hadalready reached the Place de l'Opera, now bright beneath its manyelectric lamps, before he had made up his mind. He would go once againin search of little Aggie's father, the man who owed him money.
Therefore he turned into the narrow Rue des Petit-Champs, and half-waydown entered a house, passed the _concierge_, and ascended to a flat onthe second floor.
Fully twenty times he had called there before, but the place was shut,as its owner, an Englishman, was absent somewhere in the Midi. When,however, he rang, he heard movement within.
His heart leapt for joy, for when the door opened there stood MrMullet, a tall, thin, red-haired man with a long pale face and areddish, bristly moustache, who, the moment he recognised his visitor,stretched forth his hand in welcome.
"Come in, Doctor," he cried cheerily. "I got back only this morning,and the _concierge_ gave me your card. I expected, however, you'd growntired of waiting, and returned to England. How's my little Aggie?"
"She grows a bonnie girl, Mr Mullet--quite a bonnie girl," answered theugly little man. "Gets on wonderfully well at school. And Lady Gavin,at the Manor, takes quite an interest in her."
"That's right. I'm glad to hear it--very glad. Though I'm a bit of arover, Doctor, I'm always thinking of the child you know. Why--she mustbe nearly thirteen now."
"Nearly. It's fully six years since I took her off your hands."
"Fully."
And the two men sat down in the rather comfortable room of the tall,cadaverous-looking man, a mining engineer, whose adventures would havefilled a volume.
David Mullet, or "Red Mullet" as his friends called him on account ofthe colour of his hair, offered the Doctor a good cigar from his case,poured out two glasses of brandy and soda, and after a chat took out twonotes of a thousand francs from the pocket-book he carried and handedthem to his visitor, receiving a receipt in return.
"I've been a long time paying, I'm afraid, Doctor," laughed the manairily. "But you know what kind of fellow I am! Sometimes I'm flush ofmoney, and at others devilish hard up."
"I'm hard up, or I wouldn't press for this."
"My dear Doctor, it's been owing for two years. And I'm very glad toget out of your debt."
"Well, Mr Mullet," Diamond said, "eighty pounds is a lot to me justnow. I haven't had a square meal for days, and to tell the truth I'vejust been ordered out of my hotel."
"My dear fellow, that's happened to me dozens of times," laughed theother. "I never feel sorry for the proprietor. I only regret that Ican't give tips to the servants. I suppose you'll go back home--eh?"
"To-night, or by the first service in the morning."
"By Jove, I'd like to see my little Aggie. I wonder," exclaimed theman, "I wonder if I could manage to get across?"
"It isn't far," urged the Doctor.
But "Red Mullet" hesitated. He had a cause to hesitate. There was ahidden reason why for the past three years he had not put foot onEnglish soil.
He shook his head sadly as he recognised that discretion was the betterpart of valour. He was too wary a man to run his neck into a noose.
"No," he said, "I think that in a few weeks I'll ask you to bring littleAggie over here to see me. You won't mind the trip--eh?"
"Not at all," was the reply. "Aggie will hardly know her father, Iexpect. She looks upon me as her parent."
"That was what we arranged, Doctor. She was to take your name, and youwere to bring her up as your own daughter. I have a reason for that."
"So you told me six years ago."
"Red Mullet" nodded, and stretched out his long legs lazily as hecontemplated the smoke of his cigar ascending to the ceiling.Recollections of his child had struck a sympathetic chord in his memory.There were incidents in his life that he would fain have forgotten.One of them was now recalled.
Quickly, however, the shadow passed, and his brow cleared. He becamethe same easy-going, humorous man he always had been, possessing a merry_bonhomie_ and a fund of stories regarding his own amusing experiencesin various out-of-the-way corners of the world.
At last the Doctor, with eighty pounds in his pocket, rose and wishedhis friend adieu.
Then he walked to a _brasserie_ in the Avenue de l'Opera, where he dinedwell, concluding his meal with coffee and a liqueur, and at nine o'clockhe left the Gare du Nord for Calais and London.
The reason of his sudden flight from Paris was the fear of havingcontravened the law by not calling in a French medical man when he knewthat the case of the mysterious Blanc was hopeless. Detention wouldmean trouble and much expense. Therefore he deemed it best to getacross to England at the earliest possible moment.
At six o'clock next morning he found himself in a small hotel called theNorfolk in Surrey Street, Strand, where he had on one or two occasionsstayed. The waiter having brought up his breakfast, he locked the doorand, going to the table, he took from his pocket the packet of charredpaper and broken tinder which he had abstracted from the stove in Paris.
With infinite care he opened the handkerchief and spread it out. Thetinder had broken into tiny fragments and some had been reduced to blackpowder, while the half-charred paper split as he attempted to open it.
He had switched on the light, for the London dawn had not yet spread.Then, seating himself at the table, he proceeded to examine and decipherthe remains of the papers which the dying man believed he had entirelydestroyed.
For some time he could make nothing of the lines of written words, whichhad neither beginning nor end.
Suddenly, however, he held his breath. He sat erect, statuesque, hisdark eyes staring at the paper.
Then he re-read the written lines eagerly.
"Great Heavens! How strange!" he cried. "How utterly astounding! Thatman who refused his name had learned the greatest and most importantsecret this modern world of ours contains! And it is in myhands--_mine_! My God! Is it true--is it really true what this manalleges?"
He paused and again re-read the smoke-blackened, half-burned p
ages. Forsome moments he sat with his mouth open in utter astonishment. He couldscarcely believe his own eyes.
"His secret--his amazing secret, one unheard of--is mine!" he gasped,glancing around the room, as though half-fearful lest he had beenoverheard. "I shall be a rich man--one of the richest in all Europe!Before six months is out the whole world will be at the feet of RaymondDiamond!"
CHAPTER THREE.
SHOWS ONE OF THE FRAGMENTS.
"Well," declared the Doctor, speaking to himself, "even my success inintra-laryngeal operations was not half so interesting as this!"
And again he bent to examine the