Farewell, Nikola | Page 6

fellow's face comes back to me. It haunts me!"
"Miss Trevor has been complaining of the same thing," I said.
"Miss Trevor?" the Duke repeated. "And pray who may Miss Trevor
be?"
"A friend of my wife's," I answered. "She has been travelling with us
for the last few months. I think you will like her. And now come along
with me and I'll show you your room. I suppose your man has
discovered it by this time?"
"Stevens would find it if this hotel were constructed on the same
principle as the maze at Hampton Court," he answered. "He has the
virtue of persistence, and when he wants to find a thing he secures the
person who would be the most likely to tell him, and sticks to him until
his desire has been gratified."
It turned out as he had predicted, and three-quarters of an hour later our
quartet sat down to dinner. My wife and Glenbarth, by virtue of an old
friendship, agreed remarkably well, while Miss Trevor, now somewhat
recovered from her Nikola indisposition, was more like her old self. It
was a beautiful night, and after dinner it was proposed, seconded, and
carried unanimously, that we should charter a gondola and go for a row
upon the canal. On our homeward voyage the gondolier, by some
strange chance, turned into the Rio del Consiglio.
"Perhaps you can tell me which is the Palace Revecce?" I said to the
man.
He pointed to a building we were in the act of approaching.
"There it is, signor," he said. "At one time it was a very great palace,
but now----" here he shrugged his shoulders to enable us to understand
that its glory had departed from it. Not another word was said upon the

subject, but I noticed that all our faces turned in the direction of the
building. With the exception of one solitary window it was in total
darkness. As I looked at the latter I wondered whether Nikola were in
the room, and if so, what he was doing? Was he poring over some of
his curious books, trying some new experiment in chemistry, or putting
to the test some theory such as I had found him at work upon in that
curious house in Port Said? A few minutes later we had left the Rio del
Consiglio behind us, had turned to the right, and were making our way
back by another watery thoroughfare towards the Grand Canal.
"Thanks to your proposition we have had a delightful evening," Miss
Trevor said, as we paused to say good night at the foot of the staircase a
quarter of an hour or so later. "I have enjoyed myself immensely."
"You should not tell him that, dear," said my wife. "You know how
conceited he is already. He will take all the credit, and be unbearable
for days afterwards." Then turning to me she added, "You are going to
smoke, I suppose?"
"I had thought of doing so," I replied; and then added with mock
humility, "if you do not wish it of course I will not do so. I was only
going to keep Glenbarth company."
They laughed and bade us good night, and when we had seen them
depart in the direction of their rooms we lit our cigars and passed into
the balcony outside.
At this hour of the night the Grand Canal looked very still and beautiful,
and we both felt in the humour for confidences.
"Do you know, Hatteras," said Glenbarth, after a few moments' pause
that followed our arrival in the open air, "that Nikola's turning up in
Venice at this particular juncture savours to me a little of the uncanny.
What his mission may be, of course I cannot tell, but that it is some
diabolical thing or another I haven't a doubt."
"One thing is quite certain," I answered, "he would hardly be here
without an object, and, after our dealings with him in the past, I am

prepared to admit that I don't trust him any more than you do."
"And now that he has asked you to call upon him, what are you going
to do?"
I paused before I replied. The question involved greater responsibilities
than were at first glance apparent. Knowing Nikola so well, I had not
the least desire or intention to be drawn into any of the plots or
machinations he was so fond of working against other people. I must
confess, nevertheless, that I could not help feeling a large amount of
curiosity as to the subsequent history of that little stick, to obtain which
he had spent so much money, and had risked so many lives.
"Yes, I think I shall call upon him," I said reflectively, as if I had not