The King of Diamonds: A Tale of Mystery and AdventureTracy, Louis
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The King of Diamonds: A Tale of Mystery and Adventure
Tracy, Louis
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
"I will see to it. Do you--er--take wine?"
Philip laughed, that pleasant whole-souled laugh of his which instantly
secured him friends.
"Not yet, Monsieur----"
"Foret is my name."
"Well, Monsieur Foret, I am far too young as yet for either wine or
tobacco. I promised my mother I would touch neither until I am
twenty-one, and I will keep my word. I think I would like some _café au
lait_."
"I understand. Your _déjeuner_ will be sent up in ten minutes. By the
time you have finished, I will have people here from two or three
establishments who will meet all your requirements in the shape of
clothes and the rest."
An hour's talk and the payment of checks on account worked wonders.
Before many days had passed, Philip was amply provided with raiment. His
presence in the hotel, too, attracted no comment whatever. People who
saw him coming or going, instantly assumed that he was staying with his
people, while the manager took care that gossip among the employees was
promptly stopped.
As for the ragged youth with the diamonds, he was forgotten, apparently.
The newspapers dropped him, believing, indeed, that Isaacstein had
worked some ingenious advertising dodge on his own account, and Messrs.
Sharpe & Smith never dreamed of looking for the lost Philip Anson, the
derelict from Johnson's Mews, in the Pall Mall Hotel, the most luxurious
and expensive establishment in London.
That afternoon, Philip visited the Safe Deposit Company. He had little
difficulty, of course, in securing a small strong-room. He encountered
the wonted surprise at his youth, but the excellent argument of a
banking account and the payment of a year's rent in advance soon cleared
the air.
He transferred four of his portmanteaux to this secure environment--the
fifth was sent to his hotel. When the light failed, he drove to the East
End, and made a round of pawnbrokers' shops. Although some of the
tickets were time-expired, he recovered nearly all his mother's
belongings, excepting her watch.
The odd coincidence recalled the inspector's implied promise that he
should receive one as a recognition of his gallantry.
How remote, how far removed from each other, the main events in his life
seemed to be at this eventful epoch. As he went westward in a hansom, he
could hardly bring himself to believe that barely twenty-four hours had
elapsed since he traveled to the Mile End Road in company with Mrs.
Wrigley.
And the curious thing was that he felt in no sense awed by the
possession of thousands of pounds and the tenancy of palatial chambers
in a great hotel. His career had been too checkered, its recent
developments too stupendous, to cause him any undue emotion. Existence,
for the hour, was a species of well-ordered dream, in which imagination
was untrammeled save by the need to exercise his wits in order to keep
the phantasy within the bounds, not of his own brain, but of other
men's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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