"Nessa laughed and was giggling about it all the way home."
"I couldn"t help it. It was so utterly ridiculous, Rosa. Her "Oh, my long lost darling!" was just exquisite. And she did it uncommonly well."
"My laughter will have to wait till we"re all out of the wood," said Rosa; "and there"s a long way to go yet."
"Yours won"t, will it?" Nessa asked me.
"Not a bit of it. Let"s laugh while we can. But now what about the workman"s card that I need?"
"Oscar"s getting it," replied Rosa. "I told him to lose no time; and after this affair to-day, the sooner you"re away, the easier I shall feel. It"s getting on my nerves. I"d better go to mother now and calm her down."
We rose and Nessa turned to me with a mischievous smile. "You"ll have me at the wedding, won"t you?" she rallied.
"Whose?"
"Why yours, of course."
"Certainly. It couldn"t take place without you," I replied, laughing, but with a look which made her rather sorry she"d chipped me.
"Why not?" asked Rosa stolidly. Her humour was only Teutonic. "You don"t expect me to be present, I hope?"
"What do you say, Miss Caldicott?"
"Oh, don"t be ridiculous. Rosa doesn"t understand such stupid jokes.
Good-night, Herr La.s.sen." She spoke indifferently, but there was a little pressure of the hand which sent me off home feeling mighty pleased with myself and thinking a lot more about her than the new complications, and so nearly brought me to grief.
It was a dark night, the streets were deserted, and I was plunging along castle-building on the foundation of that hand-pressure when, as I was taking a short cut through a square, a drunken man ran up behind, and lurched into me. He cursed me for getting in his way, and tried to close with me and, before I could shake him off, two others appeared, and one of them aimed a blow at my head with his stick.
Luckily there was just time for me to wriggle out of the way and let the first man have the benefit of the blow. It caught him full on the head, and down he went in a heap. The other two were so astounded by this that they hesitated long enough to give me a chance to attack in my turn. I went for the ruffian who had struck at me, bashed him under the chin hard enough to send him staggering back tripping into the gutter, and was ready for number three. But there was no fight left in him, and he bolted.
His companion in the gutter scrambled to his feet, but his stick had flown out of his hand in the fall, and the moment he found he had to deal with me alone without it, he also thought discretion safer and ran off after the other.
I turned to have a look at the drunken brute who had started the row, or rather the robbery, for that seemed to be the meaning of the affair.
The blow had seemed hard enough to crack his skull; but when I examined him I saw that it had not hurt him seriously. I also discovered something which told me I had not appreciated the true purpose of the attack.
I recognized him at once. He was the fellow who had called on me that morning in the name of Rudolff.
He was able to get up and walk; shakily, it is true, for he was a good deal dazed, and I had to hold him up on the way to my rooms, which were close by. The stairs were a difficulty, but we got up somehow, and a drink of spirits and a rest soon brought him round sufficiently to talk.
"I suppose you were coming to warn me again, Rudolff, eh?" I said.
He stared stupidly at me.
"Don"t try to fool me in that silly fashion, my friend. I know too much about you. So drop it, or you"ll step out of this into the police station. You should choose companions who don"t blab, you know."
That made him begin to sit up and take notice. "I"ve been drunk, haven"t I?"
"No. Not too drunk to play the decoy, my man."
"Don"t understand," he mumbled, shaking his head.
"All right. I haven"t time to fool about with your sort. You can try that on the police;" and I rose and went to the telephone.
"Wait a bit," he cried hurriedly. "I"ll try to remember things."
"Give me the nearest police station," I said into the "phone, but without releasing the receiver.
That was enough for him. "Don"t bring them here," he said with an oath.
"I"ll tell you all I know."
"I only want one thing. Who put you on to me? Tell me that and you can go."
He tried to lie and mentioned a name at random.
"You"re only making a fool of yourself, Rudolff. Lies are no good to me. You came here this morning with a yarn which you could only have got from one man in Berlin, and I know all about it. You were in the Thiergarten this afternoon and pointed me out to you know whom I mean."
It proved a good shot and he squirmed uneasily, although trying a feeble sort of denial. "What"s the use of lying?" I rapped sternly.
"I don"t know what you mean," he muttered.
"We"ll soon settle that."
Taking the precaution to lock the door I turned to the telephone again and asked for von Erstein"s number; and after some preliminaries with some one I took to be his servant, von Erstein answered me.
"Who is it?" he asked sharply.
"Johann La.s.sen. Hope I haven"t disturbed your packing."
"What do you want with me?"
"Nothing; I"ve had quite enough of you already; but there"s a friend of yours here and he"s in a bit of difficulty."
"What the devil are you driving at? Who is he?"
"The man you sent here to-day."
"I don"t know what you mean."
"Oh come, that won"t do. Anyhow he does, and that"s enough for me." I tried to pop in the suggestion of a threat.
"What"s his name?"
"You know that without my telling you; I only know what he called himself. You don"t send men about the place on secret errands without knowing their names, do you?"
"Well, what does he call himself?"
"Rudolff; I don"t know who he is now."
"I never heard of the man, and I"ve had enough of your tomfoolery."