The Grand Babylon Hôtel
‘Where is my father?’ Nella asked of Hans.
He shrugged his shoulders, and pointed upwards. ‘Somewhere at the top,
they say.’
Nella almost ran out of the room. Her interruption of the interview
between Jules and Theodore Racksole has already been described. As she
came downstairs with her father she said again, ‘Prince Eugen is dying--
but I think you can save him.’
‘I?’ exclaimed Theodore.
‘Yes,’ she repeated positively. ‘I will tell you what I want you to do,
and you must do it.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine THEODORE IS CALLED TO THE RESCUE
AS Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father--the
lifts had not yet begun to work--she drew him into her own room, and
closed the door.
‘What’s this all about?’ he asked, somewhat mystified, and even alarmed
by the extreme seriousness of her face.
‘Dad,’ the girl began, ‘you are very rich, aren’t you? very, very rich?’
She smiled anxiously, timidly. He did not remember to have seen that
expression on her face before. He wanted to make a facetious reply, but
checked himself.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am. You ought to know that by this time.’
‘How soon could you realize a million pounds?’
‘A million--what?’ he cried. Even he was staggered by her calm reference
to this gigantic sum. ‘What on earth are you driving at?’
‘A million pounds, I said. That is to say, five million dollars. How
soon could you realize as much as that?’
‘Oh!’ he answered, ‘in about a month, if I went about it neatly enough.
I could unload as much as that in a month without scaring Wall Street
and other places. But it would want some arrangement.’
‘Useless!’ she exclaimed. ‘Couldn’t you do it quicker, if you really had
to?’
‘If I really had to, I could fix it in a week, but it would make things
lively, and I should lose on the job.’
‘Couldn’t you,’ she persisted, ‘couldn’t you go down this morning and
raise a million, somehow, if it was a matter of life and death?’
He hesitated. ‘Look here, Nella,’ he said, ‘what is it you’ve got up
your sleeve?’
‘Just answer my question, Dad, and try not to think that I’m a stark,
staring lunatic.’
‘I rather expect I could get a million this morning, even in London. But
it would cost pretty dear. It might cost me fifty thousand pounds, and
there would be the dickens of an upset in New York--a sort of grand
universal slump in my holdings.’
‘Why should New York know anything about it?’
‘Why should New York know anything about it!’ he repeated. ‘My girl,
when anyone borrows a million sovereigns the whole world knows about it.
Do you reckon that I can go up to the Governors of the Bank of England
and say, “Look here, lend Theodore Racksole a million for a few weeks,
and he’ll give you an IOU and a covering note on stocks”?’
‘But you could get it?’ she asked again.
‘If there’s a million in London I guess I could handle it,’ he replied.
‘Well, Dad,’ and she put her arms round his neck, ‘you’ve just got to go
out and fix it. See? It’s for me. I’ve never asked you for anything
really big before. But I do now. And I want it so badly.’
He stared at her. ‘I award you the prize,’ he said, at length. ‘You
deserve it for colossal and immense coolness. Now you can tell me the
true inward meaning of all this rigmarole. What is it?’
‘I want it for Prince Eugen,’ she began, at first hesitatingly, with
pauses.
‘He’s ruined unless he can get a million to pay off his debts. He’s
dreadfully in love with a Princess, and he can’t marry her because of
this.
Her parents wouldn’t allow it. He was to have got it from Sampson Levi,
but he arrived too late--owing to Jules.’
‘I know all about that--perhaps more than you do. But I don’t see how it
affects you or me.’
‘The point is this, Dad,’ Nella continued. ‘He’s tried to commit
suicide--he’s so hipped. Yes, real suicide. He took laudanum last night.
It didn’t kill him straight off--he’s got over the first shock, but he’s
in a very weak state, and he means to die. And I truly believe he will
die. Now, if you could let him have that million, Dad, you would save
his life.’
Nella’s item of news was a considerable and disconcerting surprise to
Racksole, but he hid his feelings fairly well.
‘I haven’t the least desire to save his life, Nell. I don’t overmuch
respect your Prince Eugen. I’ve done what I could for him--but only for
the sake of seeing fair play, and because I object to conspiracies and
secret murders.
It’s a different thing if he wants to kill himself. What I say is: Let
him.
Who is responsible for his being in debt to the tune of a million
pounds? He’s only got himself and his bad habits to thank for that. I
suppose if he does happen to peg out, the throne of Posen will go to
Prince Aribert. And a good thing, too! Aribert is worth twenty of his
nephew.’
‘That’s just it, Dad,’ she said, eagerly following up her chance. ‘I
want you to save Prince Eugen just because Aribert--Prince Aribert--
doesn’t wish to occupy the throne. He’d much prefer not to have it.’
‘Much prefer not to have it! Don’t talk nonsense. If he’s honest with
himself, he’ll admit that he’ll be jolly glad to have it. Thrones are in
his blood, so to speak.’
‘You are wrong, Father. And the reason is this: If Prince Aribert
ascended the throne of Posen he would be compelled to marry a Princess.’
‘Well! A Prince ought to marry a Princess.’
‘But he doesn’t want to. He wants to give up all his royal rights, and
live as a subject. He wants to marry a woman who isn’t a Princess.’
‘Is she rich?’
‘Her father is,’ said the girl. ‘Oh, Dad! can’t you guess? He--he loves
me.’ Her head fell on Theodore’s shoulder and she began to cry.
The millionaire whistled a very high note. ‘Nell!’ he said at length.
‘And you? Do you sort of cling to him?’
‘Dad,’ she answered, ‘you are stupid. Do you imagine I should worry
myself like this if I didn’t?’ She smiled through her tears. She knew
from her father’s tone that she had accomplished a victory.
‘It’s a mighty queer arrangement,’ Theodore remarked. ‘But of course if
you think it’ll be of any use, you had better go down and tell your
Prince Eugen that that million can be fixed up, if he really needs it. I
expect there’ll be decent security, or Sampson Levi wouldn’t have mixed
himself up in it.’
‘Thanks, Dad. Don’t come with me; I may manage better alone.’
She gave a formal little curtsey and disappeared. Racksole, who had the
talent, so necessary to millionaires, of attending to several matters at
once, the large with the small, went off to give orders about the
breakfast and the remuneration of his assistant of the evening before,
Mr George Hazell. He then sent an invitation to Mr Felix Babylon’s room,
asking that gentleman to take breakfast with him. After he had related
to Babylon the history of Jules’ capture, and had a long discussion with
him upon several points of hotel management, and especially as to the
guarding of wine-cellars, Racksole put on his hat, sallied forth into
the Strand, hailed a hansom, and was driven to the City. The order and
nature of his operations there were too complex and technical to be
described here.
When Nella returned to the State bedroom both the doctor and the great
specialist were again in attendance. The two physicians moved away from
the bedside as she entered, and began to talk quietly together in the
embrasure of the window.
‘A curious case!’ said the specialist.
‘Yes. Of course, as you say, it’s a neurotic temperament that’s at the
bottom of the trouble. When you’ve got that and a vigorous constitution
working one against the other, the results are apt to be distinctly
curious.
Do you consider there is any hope, Sir Charles?’
‘If I had seen him when he recovered consciousness I should have said
there was hope. Frankly, when I left last night, or rather this morning,
I didn’t expect to see the Prince alive again--let alone conscious, and
able to talk. According to all the rules of the game, he ought to get
over the shock to the system with perfect ease and certainty. But I
don’t think he will. I don’t think he wants to. And moreover, I think he
is still under the influence of suicidal mania. If he had a razor he
would cut his throat. You must keep his strength up. Inject, if
necessary. I will come in this afternoon. I am due now at St James’s
Palace.’ And the specialist hurried away, with an elaborate bow and a
few hasty words of polite reassurances to Prince Aribert.
When he had gone Prince Aribert took the other doctor aside. ‘Forget
everything, doctor,’ he said, ‘except that I am one man and you are
another, and tell me the truth. Shall you be able to save his Highness?
Tell me the truth.’
‘There is no truth,’ was the doctor’s reply. ‘The future is not in our
hands, Prince.’
‘But you are hopeful? Yes or no.’
The doctor looked at Prince Aribert. ‘No!’ he said shortly. ‘I am not. I
am never hopeful when the patient is not on my side.’
‘You mean--?’
‘I mean that his Royal Highness has no desire to live. You must have
observed that.’
‘Only too well,’ said Aribert.
‘And you are aware of the cause?’
Aribert nodded an affirmative.
‘But cannot remove it?’
‘No,’ said Aribert. He felt a touch on his sleeve. It was Nella’s
finger.
With a gesture she beckoned him towards the ante-room.
‘If you choose,’ she said, when they were alone, ‘Prince Eugen can be
saved.
I have arranged it.’
‘You have arranged it?’ He bent over her, almost with an air of alarm.
‘Go and tell him that the million pounds which is so necessary to his
happiness will be forthcoming. Tell him that it will be forthcoming
today, if that will be any satisfaction to him.’
‘But what do you mean by this, Nella?’
‘I mean what I say, Aribert,’ and she sought his hand and took it in
hers.
‘Just what I say. If a million pounds will save Prince Eugen’s life, it
is at his disposal.’
‘But how--how have you managed it? By what miracle?’
‘My father,’ she replied softly, ‘will do anything that I ask him. Do
not let us waste time. Go and tell Eugen it is arranged, that all will
be well.
Go!’
‘But we cannot accept this--this enormous, this incredible favour. It is
impossible.’
‘Aribert,’ she said quickly, ‘remember you are not in Posen holding a
Court reception. You are in England and you are talking to an American
girl who has always been in the habit of having her own way.’
The Prince threw up his hands and went back in to the bedroom. The
doctor was at a table writing out a prescription. Aribert approached the
bedside, his heart beating furiously. Eugen greeted him with a faint,
fatigued smile.
‘Eugen,’ he whispered, ‘listen carefully to me. I have news. With the
assistance of friends I have arranged to borrow that million for you. It
is quite settled, and you may rely on it. But you must get better. Do
you hear me?’
Eugen almost sat up in bed. ‘Tell me I am not delirious,’ he exclaimed.
‘Of course you aren’t,’ Aribert replied. ‘But you mustn’t sit up. You
must take care of yourself.’
‘Who will lend the money?’ Eugen asked in a feeble, happy whisper.
‘Never mind. You shall hear later. Devote yourself now to getting
better.’
The change in the patient’s face was extraordinary. His mind seemed to
have put on an entirely different aspect. The doctor was startled to
hear him murmur a request for food. As for Aribert, he sat down,
overcome by the turmoil of his own thoughts. Till that moment he felt
that he had never appreciated the value and the marvellous power of mere
money, of the lucre which philosophers pretend to despise and men sell
their souls for. His heart almost burst in its admiration for that
extraordinary Nella, who by mere personal force had raised two men out
of the deepest slough of despair to the blissful heights of hope and