Americans -- England -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Millionaires -- Fiction
Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the dreadful
midnight activity which was proceeding before his astonished eyes; but
fortunately he restrained himself.
On the washstand he could see certain strangely-shaped utensils and
instruments which Rocco used from time to time. The work seemed to
Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at last Rocco
ceased, gave a sign of satisfaction, whistled several bars from
‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, and came into the bath-room, where he took off
his coat, and very quietly washed his hands. As he stood calmly and
leisurely wiping those long fingers of his, he was less than four feet
from Racksole, and the cooped-up millionaire trembled, holding his
breath, lest Rocco should detect his presence behind the woodwork. But
nothing happened, and Rocco returned unsuspectingly to the bedroom.
Racksole saw him place some sort of white flannel garment over the prone
form on the table, and then lift it bodily on to the great bed, where it
lay awfully still. The hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse
upon which Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister
functions.
But whose corpse? And what functions? Could this be a West End hotel,
Racksole’s own hotel, in the very heart of London, the best-policed city
in the world? It seemed incredible, impossible; yet so it was. Once more
he remembered what Felix Babylon had said to him and realized the truth
of the saying anew. The proprietor of a vast and complicated
establishment like the Grand Babylon could never know a tithe of the
extraordinary and queer occurrences which happened daily under his very
nose; the atmosphere of such a caravanserai must necessarily be an
atmosphere of mystery and problems apparently inexplicable.
Nevertheless, Racksole thought that Fate was carrying things with rather
a high hand when she permitted his chef to spend the night hours over a
man’s corpse in his State bedroom, this sacred apartment which was
supposed to be occupied only by individuals of Royal Blood. Racksole
would not have objected to a certain amount of mystery, but he decidedly
thought that there was a little too much mystery here for his taste. He
thought that even Felix Babylon would have been surprised at this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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