Part 36 (1/2)
Holleran's jaw sagged.
CHAPTER XXII
THE ADMIRAL BEGINS TO DOUBT
”What's this you're telling me, Flanagan?” said the admiral perturbed.
”Ask Holleran here, sir; he wus with me when th' waiter said Picard wus a dook. I've suspicioned his han's this long while, sir.”
”Yes, sir; Picard it was,” averred Holleran.
”Bah! Mistaken ident.i.ty.”
”I'm sure, sir,” insisted Holleran. ”Picard has a whisker-mole on his chin, sir, like these forriners grow, sir. Picard, sir, an' no mistake.”
”But what would a duke . . .”
”Ay, sir; that's the question,” interrupted Flanagan; and added in a whisper: ”Y' c'n buy a dozen dooks for a couple o' million francs, sir.
Th' first-officer, Holleran here, an' me; n.o.body else knows what we're after, sir; unless you gentlemen abaft, sir, talked careless. I say 'tis serious, Commodore. _He_ knows what we're lookin' fer.”
Holleran nudged his chief. ”Tell th' commodore what we saw on th' way here.”
”Picard hobn.o.bbin' with Mr. Breitmann, sir.”
Breitmann? The admiral's smile thinned and disappeared. There might be something in this. Two million francs did not appeal to him, but he realized that to others they stood for a great fortune, one worthy of hazards. He would talk this over with Cathewe and Fitzgerald and learn what they thought about the matter. If this fellow Picard was a duke and had s.h.i.+pped as an ordinary hand foreward . . . Peace went out of the admiral's jaw and Flanagan's heart beat high as he saw the old war-knots gather. Oh, for a row like old times! For twenty years he had fought nothing bigger than a drunken stevedore. Suppose this was the beginning of a fine rumpus? He grinned, and the admiral, noting the same, frowned. He wished he had left the women at Ma.r.s.eilles.
”Say nothing to any one,” he warned. ”But if this man Picard comes aboard again, keep him there.”
”Yessir.”
”That'll be all.”
”What d' y' think?” asked Holleran, on the return to the _Place des Palmiers_, for the two were still hungry.
”Think? There's a fight, bucko!” jubilantly.
”These pleasure-boats sure become monotonous.” Holleran rubbed his dark hands. ”When d' y' think it'll begin?”
”I wish ut wus t'day.”
”I've seen y' do some fine work with th' peg.”
They had really seen Picard and Breitmann talking together. The acquaintances.h.i.+p might have dated from the sailing of the _Laura_, and again it mightn't. At least, M. Ferraud, who overheard the major part of the conversation, later in the day, was convinced that Picard had joined the crew of the _Laura_ for no other purpose than to be in touch with Breitmann. There were some details, however, which would be acceptable. He followed them to the Rue Fesch, to a _trattoria_, but entered from the rear. M. Ferraud never a.s.sumed any disguises, but depended solely upon his adroitness in occupying the smallest s.p.a.ce possible. So, while the two conspirators sat at a table on the sidewalk, M. Ferraud chose his inside, under the grilled window which was directly above them.
”Everything is in readiness,” said Picard.
”Thanks to you, duke.”
”To-night you and your old boatman Pietro will leave for Atone. The admiral and his party will start early to-morrow morning. No matter what may happen, he will find no drivers till morning. The drivers all understand what they are to do on the way back from Evisa. I almost came to blows with that man Flanagan. I wasn't expecting him ash.o.r.e.