Castles in the Air | Page 6

slightest difference between the original
and the copy which I had made.
The work took me a long time. When at last I folded up the papers and
slipped them once more inside my blouse it was close upon two. I
wondered why Theodore had not returned with our luncheon, but on
going to the little anteroom which divides my office from the outer
door, great was my astonishment to see him lolling there on the rickety
chair which he affectioned, and half asleep. I had some difficulty in
rousing him. Apparently he had got rather drunk while he was out, and
had then returned and slept some of his booze off, without thinking that
I might be hungry and needing my luncheon.
"Why didn't you let me know you had come back?" I asked curtly, for
indeed I was very cross with him.
"I thought you were busy," he replied, with what I thought looked like a
leer.

I have never really cared for Theodore, you understand.
However, I partook of our modest luncheon with him in perfect amity
and brotherly love, but my mind was busy all the time. I began to
wonder if Theodore suspected something; if so, I knew that I could not
trust him. He would try and ferret things out, and then demand a share
in my hard-earned emoluments to which he was really not entitled. I
did not feel safe with that bulky packet of papers on me, and I felt that
Theodore's bleary eyes were perpetually fixed upon the bulge in the
left-hand side of my coat. At one moment he looked so strange that I
thought he meant to knock me down.
So my mind was quickly made up.
After luncheon I would go down to my lodgings at Passy, and I knew
of a snug little hiding-place in my room there where the precious
documents would be quite safe until such time as I was to hand
them--or one of them--to M. Charles Saurez.
This plan I put into execution, and with remarkable ingenuity too.
While Theodore was busy clearing up the debris of our luncheon, I not
only gave him the slip, but as I went out I took the precaution of
locking the outer door after me, and taking the key away in my pocket.
I thus made sure that Theodore could not follow me. I then walked to
Passy--a matter of two kilometres--and by four o'clock I had the
satisfaction of stowing the papers safely away under one of the tiles in
the flooring of my room, and then pulling the strip of carpet in front of
my bed snugly over the hiding-place.
Theodore's attic, where he slept, was at the top of the house, whilst my
room was on the ground floor, and so I felt that I could now go back
quite comfortably to my office in the hope that more remunerative
work and more lavish clients would come my way before nightfall.

4.

It was a little after five o'clock when I once more turned the key in the
outer door of my rooms in the Rue Daunou.
Theodore did not seem in the least to resent having been locked in for
two hours. I think he must have been asleep most of the time. Certainly
I heard a good deal of shuffling when first I reached the landing outside
the door; but when I actually walked into the apartment with an air of
quiet unconcern Theodore was sprawling on the chair-bedstead, with
eyes closed, a nose the colour of beetroot, and emitting sounds through
his thin, cracked lips which I could not, Sir, describe graphically in
your presence.
I took no notice of him, however, even though, as I walked past him, I
saw that he opened one bleary eye and watched my every movement. I
went straight into my private room and shut the door after me. And
here, I assure you, my dear Sir, I literally fell into my favourite chair,
overcome with emotion and excitement. Think what I had gone through!
The events of the last few hours would have turned any brain less keen,
less daring than that of Hector Ratichon. And here was I, alone at last,
face to face with the future. What a future, my dear Sir! Fate was
smiling on me at last. At last I was destined to reap a rich reward for all
the skill, the energy, the devotion, which up to this hour I had placed at
the service of my country and my King--or my Emperor, as the case
might be--without thought of my own advantage. Here was I now in
possession of a document--two documents--each one of which was
worth at least a thousand francs to persons whom I could easily