Americans -- England -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Millionaires -- Fiction
When the grave had closed over the dark and tempestuous career of Tom
Jackson, once the pride of the Grand Babylon, there was little trouble
for the people whose adventures we have described. Miss Spencer, that
yellow-haired, faithful slave and attendant of a brilliant scoundrel,
was never heard of again. Possibly to this day she survives, a mystery
to her fellow-creatures, in the pension of some cheap foreign boarding-
house. As for Rocco, he certainly was heard of again. Several years
after the events set down, it came to the knowledge of Felix Babylon
that the unrivalled Rocco had reached Buenos Aires, and by his culinary
skill was there making the fortune of a new and splendid hotel. Babylon
transmitted the information to Theodore Racksole, and Racksole might,
had he chosen, have put the forces of the law in motion against him. But
Racksole, seeing that everything pointed to the fact that Rocco was now
pursuing his vocation honestly, decided to leave him alone. The one
difficulty which Racksole experienced after the demise of Jules--and it
was a difficulty which he had, of course, anticipated--was connected
with the police. The police, very properly, wanted to know things. They
desired to be informed what Racksole had been doing in the Dimmock
affair, between his first visit to Ostend and his sending for them to
take charge of Jules’ dead body. And Racksole was by no means inclined
to tell them everything. Beyond question he had transgressed the laws of
England, and possibly also the laws of Belgium; and the moral excellence
of his motives in doing so was, of course, in the eyes of legal justice,
no excuse for such conduct. The inquest upon Jules aroused some bother;
and about ninety-and-nine separate and distinct rumours. In the end,
however, a compromise was arrived at. Racksole’s first aim was to pacify
the inspector whose clue, which by the way was a false one, he had so
curtly declined to follow up. That done, the rest needed only tact and
patience. He proved to the satisfaction of the authorities that he had
acted in a perfectly honest spirit, though with a high hand, and that
substantial justice had been done. Also, he subtly indicated that, if it
came to the point, he should defy them to do their worst. Lastly, he was
able, through the medium of the United States Ambassador, to bring
certain soothing influences to bear upon the situation.
One afternoon, a fortnight after the recovery of the Hereditary Prince
of Posen, Aribert, who was still staying at the Grand Babylon, expressed
a wish to hold converse with the millionaire. Prince Eugen, accompanied
by Hans and some Court officials whom he had sent for, had departed with
immense éclat, armed with the comfortable million, to arrange formally
for his betrothal.
Touching the million, Eugen had given satisfactory personal security,
and the money was to be paid off in fifteen years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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