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At this point the letter fell from Marshal Hulot's hands; he looked at his brother; he saw that there was no need to examine the evidence. But he looked for Johann Fischer's letter, and after reading it at a glance, held it out to Hector: "DEAR NEPHEW, When you read this letter, I shall have ceased to live. "Be quite easy, no proof can be found to incriminate you.
His eyes were innocent even of any question. Fischer's forehead was wrinkled, and his brows drawn close together. "I am Nikasti," the other acknowledged "Kato Nikasti. Mr. Van Teyl has just engaged me as his valet." "You can take off the gloves," Fischer told him. "I am Oscar Fischer." "Oscar Fischer," Nikasti repeated. "Yes! ... Burning something when I came in weren't you?
"You wouldn't believe me," he reminded her, "but it really was one of Fischer's little jokes. It very nearly came off, too. As a matter of fact," he went on, "Fischer isn't really clever. He is too obstinate, too convinced in his own mind that things must go the way he wants them to, that Fate is the servant of his will.
Everything was to have gone his way, after all. And now it was too late. Fischer knew, and Fischer was a cruel man!... The unnatural silence came to an end. Only Fischer's voice seemed to come from a long way off. "Drink your wine, James Van Teyl," he advised, "and listen to me. You've been under obligations to me from the start. I meant you to be.
It was cleverer to have marked down the Flying Stars and the very day of Fischer's coming. But there's no cleverness, but mere genius, in what followed. Stealing the stones, I suppose, was nothing to you. You could have done it by sleight of hand in a hundred other ways besides that pretence of putting a paper donkey's tail to Fischer's coat. But in the rest you eclipsed yourself."
"What a journey!" cried the Frau Fischer. "And nothing to eat in the train nothing solid. I assure you the sides of my stomach are flapping together. But I must not spoil my appetite for dinner just a cup of coffee in my room. Bertha," turning to the youngest of the five, "how changed! What a bust! Frau Hartmann, I congratulate you." Once again the Widow seized Frau Fischer's hands.
You will finish telling me your experiences another time, won't you?" she called out over her shoulder. "There is so much that I still want to hear." Fischer's reply was almost ungracious. He watched their departure in silence, and afterwards leaned further back in his chair. With long, nervous fingers he drew a black cigar from his case and lit it. Then he folded his arms.
Patty and Marian took the back seat of the open carriage, Mr. Hepworth and Kenneth Harper sat facing them. As Marian had already become very much interested in her new fad of authorship, and as under Miss Fischer's tuition she was rapidly developing into a real little blue-stocking, it is not strange that the conversation turned in that direction.
He chose, however, to consider that Fischer's letter had thrown ridicule upon his character, and he resented it in terms as violent as he afterwards used of the French admiral, Latouche Tréville, who asserted that he had retired before a superior force; as though Nelson, by any flight of imagination, could have been suspected of over-caution.
"I've gambled with Fischer's money, lost it, forged a transfer of his certificates to meet my liabilities, and I am in his power. He could have me hammered and chucked into Sing Sing, if he wanted to. That's all there is about it." Pamela stood the shock well. She turned to Fischer. "How much of this are you responsible for?" she asked. "That," he objected, "is an impotent question.
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