‘This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,’ said Babylon at length. ‘It is a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?’
‘Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon would have to close its doors within half a year now that Rocco had deserted it. But of course I knew better. I knew that you must have a good reason for allowing Rocco to depart, and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a substitute.’
‘As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,’ said Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; ‘but happily we have found in our second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That, however, was mere good fortune.’
‘Surely,’ said Babylon, ‘it was indiscreet to trust to mere good fortune in such a serious matter?’
‘I didn’t trust to mere good fortune. I didn’t trust to anything except Rocco, and he deceived me.’
‘I didn’t quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom one night--’
‘I found him embalming a corpse in the State bedroom,’ repeated Racksole in his quietest tones.
The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished Babylon’s glass.
‘Tell me,’ said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and lighting a cigar.
And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen episode, with every circumstantial detail so far as he knew it. It was a long and complicated recital, and occupied about an hour. During that time little Felix never spoke a word, scarcely moved a muscle; only his small eyes gazed through the bluish haze of smoke. The clock on the mantelpiece tinkled midnight.
‘Time for whisky and soda,’ said Racksole, and got up as if to ring the bell; but Babylon waved him back.
‘You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of Prince Eugen to-day, but you have not told me the result of that audience,’ said Babylon.
‘Because I do not yet know it. But I shall doubtless know to-morrow. In the meantime, I feel fairly sure that Levi declined to produce Prince Eugen’s required million. I have reason to believe that the money was lent elsewhere.’
‘H’m!’ mused Babylon; and then, carelessly, ‘I am not at all surprised at that arrangement for spying through the bathroom of the State apartments.’
