Part 54 (2/2)

He pointed across the way, and the policeman smiled.

”They are very often late there, sir,” he said. ”It's a Continental wine business, and there's always one or two of them over time.”

”It's bad business, all the same,” De Grost declared pleasantly. ”Good night, policeman!”

”Good night, sir!”

De Grost crossed the road diagonally, as though about to take the short cut across London Bridge, but as soon as the policeman was out of sight he retraced his steps to the building which they had been discussing, and turning the battered bra.s.s handle of the door, walked calmly in. On his right and left were counting houses framed with gla.s.s; in front, the cavernous and ugly depths of a gloomy warehouse. He knocked upon the window-pane on the right and pa.s.sed forward a step or two, as though to enter the office. The boy, who had been engaged in the left-hand counting house, came gliding from his place, pa.s.sed silently behind the visitor and turned the key of the outer door. What followed seemed to happen as though by some mysteriously directed force. The figures of men came stealing out from the hidden places. The clerk who had been working so hard at his desk calmly divested himself of a false mustache and wig, and, a.s.suming a more familiar appearance, strolled out into the warehouse. De Grost looked around him with absolutely unruffled composure. He was the centre of a little circle of men, respectably dressed, but every one of them hard-featured, with something in their faces which suggested not the ordinary toiler, but the fighting animal--the man who lives by his wits and knows something of danger. On the outskirts of the circle stood Bernadine.

”Really,” De Grost declared, ”this is most unexpected. In the matter of dramatic surprises, my friend Bernadine, you are certainly in a cla.s.s by yourself.”

Bernadine smiled.

”You will understand, of course,” he said, ”that this little entertainment is entirely for your amus.e.m.e.nt--well stage-managed, perhaps, but my supers are not to be taken seriously. Since you are here, Baron, might I ask you to precede me a few steps to the tasting office?

”By all means,” De Grost answered cheerfully. ”It is this way, I believe.”

He walked with unconcerned footsteps down the warehouse, on either side of which were great bins and a wilderness of racking, until he came to a small, gla.s.s-enclosed office, built out from the wall. Without hesitation he entered it, and removing his hat, selected the more comfortable of the two chairs. Bernadine alone of the others followed him inside, closing the door behind. De Grost, who appeared exceedingly comfortable, stretched out his hand and took a small black bottle from a tiny mahogany racking fixed against the wall by his side.

”You will excuse me, my dear Bernadine,” he said, ”but I see my friend Greening has been tasting a few wines. The 'XX' upon the label here signifies approval. With your permission.”

He half filled a gla.s.s and pushed the bottle toward Bernadine.

”Greening's taste is unimpeachable,” De Grost declared, setting down his gla.s.s empty. ”No use being a director of a city business, you know, unless one interests oneself personally in it. Greening's judgment is simply marvelous. I have never tasted a more beautiful wine. If the boom in sherry does come,” he continued complacently, ”we shall be in an excellent position to deal with it.”

Bernadine laughed softly.

”Oh, my friend--Peter Ruff, or Baron de Grost, or whatever you may choose to call yourself,” he said, ”I am indeed wise to have come to the conclusion that you and I are too big to occupy the same little spot on earth!”

De Grost nodded approvingly.

”I was beginning to wonder,” he remarked, ”whether you would not soon arrive at that decision.”

”Having arrived at it,” Bernadine continued, looking intently at his companion, ”the logical sequence naturally occurs to you.”

”Precisely, my dear Bernadine,” De Grost a.s.serted. ”You say to yourself, no doubt, 'One of us two must go!' Being yourself, you would naturally conclude that it must be I. To tell you the truth, I have been expecting some sort of enterprise of this description for a considerable time.”

Bernadine shrugged his shoulders.

”Your expectations,” he said, ”seem scarcely to have provided you with a safe conduct.”

De Grost gazed reflectively into his empty gla.s.s.

”You see,” he explained, ”I am such a lucky person. Your arrangements to-night, however, are, I perceive, unusually complete.”

”I am glad you appreciate them,” Bernadine remarked dryly.

”I would not for a moment,” De Grost continued, ”ask an impertinent or an unnecessary question, but I must confess that I am rather concerned to know the fate of my manager--the gentleman whom you yourself with the aid, I presume, of Mr. Clarkson, so ably represented.”

Bernadine sighed.

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