Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1912 — The Grand Babylon Hotel [ARTICLE]

The Grand Babylon Hotel

(Copyright The Frank A. Munsey Co.) v CHAPTER XIII. In the State Bedroom.' It was, of course, plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway which lie had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between the bathroom of No. 11l and the state bathroom on the floor below must have been specially designed by some person or persons for the purpose of keeping a nefarious vtatch upon the occupants of the state suite of apartments. It was a means of communication at once simple and ingenious. At that moment he could not be sure of the precise method employed for it, but he surmised that the casing of the water pipes had beep used as a “well,” while space for the pipes themselves had been found in the thickness of the ample brick walls of the Grand Babylon. The eyehole, through which he now had a view of the bedroom, was a very minute one, and probably would scarcely be noticed from the exterior. One thing he observed concerning it, namely, that it had been made for a man somewhat taller than himself. He was obliged to stand on his tiptoes in order to get his eye in the corremembered that both Jules and Rocco were distinctly above the average height: also that they were both thin men and could have descended the well with comparative ease. Theodore Racksole, though he was not stout, was a well-set man, with large bones. He could see only half of the washstand, and at intervals Rocco passed out of sight as his hands moved over the object which lay on the marble. At first Racksole could not decide what this object was, but after a time, as his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he made it out. It was the body of a man, or, rather, to be more exact, Racksole could distinguish the legs of a man on that half of the table which was visible to him. Involuntarily he shuddered as the conviction forced itself upon him that Rocco had some unconscious human being helpless on that cold marble surface. The legs never moved. Therefore the helpless creature was neither asleep or under the influence of an anaesthetic—or (horrible thought) dead. Racksole wanted to call out, to stop by some means or other the dreadful midnight activity which was proceeding before his astonished eye, but fortunately he restrained himself. On the washstand he could see certain strangely shaped utensils and instruments, which Rocco used from time to time. The work seemed to Racksole to continue for interminable hours, and then at last Rocco ceased, a sigh several bars from some piece, and came into the bathroom, where he took off his coat and quietly washed his hands. As he stood calmly and leisurely washing his hands he was less than four feet from Racksole and tyie milliopjaire trembled lest Rocco should detect his presence behind the woodwork. But nothing happened, and Rocco returned unsuspectingly to the bedroom.

Racksole saw him place some sort of wHite flannel garment over the prone form on the tAble and then lift it bodily on the bed, where it lay still. The hidden watcher was sure now that it was a corpse upon which Rocco had been exercising his mysterious and sinister functions. But whose corpse? And what functions! Could this be a west side hotel, Racksole’s own hotel, in the very heart of London, the best policed city In the world, and was the period the end of the nineteenth century? One more he remembered what Felix Babylon had said to him, and realized the truth of the saying anew. The proprietor of a vast and complicated establishment like this should never know a tithe of the extraordinary and queer occurrences which happened daily under his very nose. Nevertheless, Racksole thought that fate was carrying things with rather a high hand when she permitted his chef to spend the night hours over a man’s corpse in this state bedroom, this sacred apartment which was supposed to be occupied only by individuals of royal blood. - - Racksole would not have objected to a certain amount of mystery, but he thought there was a little too much mystery here for his taste. He thought that even Felix Babylon would have been surprised at this. The electric chandelier in the center of the ceiling was not lighted; only the two burners on either side of the washstand were switched on, and these did not sufficiently light the features of the man on the bed to enable Racksole to see his features clearly^ —7 Just as he was wondering what would be the best course to pursue, he saw Rocco with a square-shaped black box in his hand. Then the chef switched off the two electric lights, and the state bedroom was in darkness. Jn that swift darkness Racksole heard Rocco spring on to the bed. Another half dozen moments of suspense, and there was a blinding flash of white, which endured for several seconds and showed Rocco standing like an evil spirit over the corpse, the black box in one hand and a burning piece of aluminum wire in the other. The aluminum wire burned out and darkness followed blacker than before. Rocco had photographed the corpse by flashlight. But the dazzling flare which had disclosed the features of the dead man to the insensible lens of the camera had disclosed them also to Theodore Racksole. The dead man was Reginald Dimmock. Stung into action by this discovery, Racksole tried to find the exit from his place of concealment. He felt sure there existed some way out intfo the state bathroom, but he sought for it fruitlessly, grpping with both hands and feet. Then he decided that he must ascend the rope laddeY, make haste for the first floor corridor and intercept Rocco when he left the state apartment. ... : It was a painful and difficult business to ascend that thin and yielding ladder in such a confined space, but Racksole was managing it very nicely and had nearly reached the top, when, by some untoward freak of chance, the ladder broke under his weight and he slipped ignominously and with harsh impact to the bottom of the wooden tube. Smothering an excusable curse, Racksole crouched, baffled. Then he saw 'that the force of his fall had NINE. somehow opened a trap door at his feet. He squeezed through, pushed opeh another tiny door, and in another second stood in the state bathroom. He was disheveled, perspiring, rather bewildered; but- he was there. In the next second he had resumed absolute command of all his faculties. Strange to say, he had moved so qhletly that Rocco had apparently not heard him. Racksole stepped niseleasly to the door between the bathroom and the bedroom and stood there in silence. Rocco had switched on again the lights over the washstand and was busy with his utensils. ✓ ' Racksole deliberately coughed. o CHAPTER XIV. , Rocco Answers Some Questions. Rocco turned around with the swiftness of a startled tiger and gave Theodore Racksole one loqg piercing glance. “D- n! ” said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and intonation as Racksole himself could have accomplished. The most extraordinary thing about the situation was that at this juncture Theodore Racksole did not know what to say. ,— v *• „ ■ He was so dumfounded by the affair, and especially by Rocco's absolute and sablime calm, that both speech and Thought failed him. “I give in,” said Rocco. “From the moment you entered this cursed hotel I was afraid of you. I told Jules there would be trouble with a man of your kidney.

“Apd I was right, confound it! I tell you I give in. I know when I’m beaten. I’ve got no revolver and no weapon of any kind. I surrender. Do what you like.” And with that Rocco sat down on a chair. It was magnificently done. Only a truly great man could have done it. Rocco actually kept his dignity. For answer, Racksole walked slowly into apartment, siezed a chair, and, dragging it up to Rocco’s chair, sat down opposite him. Thhs they faced each other, their knees almost touching, both in evening dress. On Rocco’s right hand was the bed, with the corpse of Reginald Dimmock. On Racksole’s right hand, and a little behind him, was the marble washstand, still littered with Rocco’s implements. The electric light -shone;} on Rocco’s left cheek, leaving the other side of his face in shadow. Racksole tapped him on the knee twice. “So you’re another Englishmanmasquerading as a foreigner in my hotel ?” Racksole remarked by way of commencing the interrogation. “I’m not,” answered Rocco quickly. “I’m a citizen of the United States.” deuce you are!” Racksole exclaimed. “Yes,” I was born at West Orange, N. J. I call myself an Italian, because it was in Italy that I first made a name as a chef —at Rome. It Is better for a great chef like me to be a foreigner “Imagine a great chef named Eletin P. Rucker. I defy you to imagine it. I changed my nationality for the same reason that my friends and eollegue, Jules, otherwise Mr. Jackson, changed his.” “So Jules Is your friend and colleague, is he?” “He was, but from this moment he is so no longer. I began to disapprove of his methods no less than a week ago, and my disapproval will now take an active form.” “Will it?” said Racksole. “I calculate It just won’t, Mr. Eletin P. Rucker, citizen of the United States. Before you are very much older you’ll be in the kind hands of the police, and your activities,- In no matter what, direction, will come to an abrupt conclusion.” “It is possible,” sighed Rpcco. “In the meantime,, I’ll ask you one or two questions for my own private satisfaction. You’ve acknowledged that the game is up, and so you may as well answer Ahem with as much candor as you feel yourself capable of. See?” “I see,” replied Rocco calmly, “but I guess I can’t answer all questions. I’ll do what I can.” “Well," said Racksole, clearing his throat, “what’s the whole scheme all about? Tell me in a word.” '“Not in a thousand words. It isn’t my secret, you know.” “Why was poor littlie Dimmock poisoned?” The millionaire’s voice softened as he looked for an instant at the corpse of the unfortunate young man. “I don’t know,” said Rocco. “I don't mind informing you that I objected to that part of the business. I wasn’t made aware of it till it was done, and then, I tell you, it got my dander up considerable.” “Yen mean to say ymi donl. know why Dimmock was done to death?” “I mean to say I couldn’t see the sense of it. Of course, he—er—died because he sort of cried off the scheme, having previously taken a share In it. I don’t mind saying that much, because you probably guessed It for yourself. But I solemnly swear that I have a conscientious objection to murder.” “Then it was murder ” “It was a kind of murder,” Rocco admitted. “Who did it?” “Unfair question,” said Rocco. “Who else is in this precious scheme besides Jules and yourself?” “Don’t know, on my honor.” “Well, then, tell me this. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?” “How long were you in the bathroom?” Rocco parried with sublime iqipudence. “Don’t question me, Mr. Rucker,” said Racksole. “I feel very much Inclined to break your back across my knee. Therefore I advise you not to irritate me. What have you been doing to Dimmock’s body?” “I’ve been embalming it” “Embalming it?” “Certainly—Richardson’s system of arterial fluid injection, as improved by myself. You weren’t aware that I included the art of embalming among my accomplishments. Nevertheless, it is so.” * “But why?” asked“Racksole, more mystified than ever. “Why should you trouble to embalm it?*' ’ “Can’t you see? Doesn’t it strike you? That corpse has to be taken care of. It contains, or rather, it did contain, very serious evidence against

some person or persons yet unknown to the police. It may be necessary to move it about from place to place. “A corpse can’t be hidden for long; a corpse betrays itself. One couldn’t throw it in the Thames, for it would have been found inside of 12 hours. One couldn’t bury it—it wasn’t safe. The only thing, was to keep it handy and movable —ready for emergencies. “I needn’t inform you that, without embalming, you can’t keep a corpse handy and movable for more than four or five days. It’s the kind of thing that won't keep. And so it was suggested that I embalm it, and I did. “Mind you, I still objected to the murder, but I couldn’t go back on a colleague. You do understand that don’t you? Well, here you are and here it is, and that’s all.” Rocco leaned back in his chair as though he had said everything that ought to be said; so far as he was concerned, the conversation was also closed. Theodore Racksole stood up. “I hope,” said Rocco suddenly opening his eye—“l hope you’ll call iri the police without any delay. It’s getting late, and I don’t like going without my night’s rest” —rnr : “Where do you suppose you’ll get your night’s rest ” Racksole asked. “In the cells, of course. Haven’t 1 told you I know when I’m beaten? I’m not so blind as not to be able to see that there’s at any rate a prima facie case against me. I expect I shall get off with a year or two’s imprisonment as accessory after the sact —I think that’s what they call it. Anyhow,l shall be in a position to prove that I am not implicated in the murder of this unfortunate nincompoop.” He pointed with a strange, scornful gesture of his elbow to the bed. “And now, shall we go? Everyone is asleep, but there will he a policeman within call of the watchman in the portico. I am at your- service, Mr. Racksole. I give you my word to go quietly.” “Stay a moment,” Racksole curtly. “There is no hurry. It won’t do you any harm to forego another hour’s sleep, as you will have no work to do tomorrow. I have one or two more questions to put to you.” “Well?” Rocco said,, with an air of tired resignation as if to say, “What must be must be.” “Where has Dimmock’s corpse been during the last three or four days, since he —died?” “Oh!’.’ answered Rocco, apparently surprised at the simplicity of the question. “It’s been in my room, and one night it was on the roof; once it went out of the hotel as luggage, but It came back the next day as Demerara sugar. I forget where else is has been, but it’s been kept perfectly safe and treated with every consideration.” “And who contrived all these maneuvers?” asked Raeksole. “I did; that is to say, I invented them and I saw that they were carried out. You see, the suspicions of your police obliged me to be particularly spry.” “And who carried them out?” “Ah! That would be telling tales. But I don’t mind assuring you that my accomplices were Innocent. It is absurdly easy for a man like me to innrose _on - underlings—absurdly easy.” “What did you intend to do with the corpse ultimately?” Racksole pursued his inquiry with an immovable countenance. “Who knows?” said Rocco, twisting his beautiful mustache. “That would have depended on several things—on your police, for instance. But probably in the end we should have restored this mortal clay”—again he jerked his elbow—“to the man’s sorrowing relatives.” “Do you know who The relatives are?” “Certainly. Don’t you? If you don’t, I need only to hint that Dimmock had a prince for his father,” - (To be continued . s - ■ ■ Poor appetite Is a sure sign of impaired digestion. A few doses of Chamberlain’s Stomach and Liver Tablets will strengthen your digestion and Improve your appetitp. Thousands have been benefited by taking these Tablets. For sale by all dealers. , c , <} Steps looking to the formation of a new political party were taken by the National Manufacturer’s Association, in session at New York City. John Kirby, Jr., president of the’association, spoke in favor of a new party and a committee was named to draft resolutions and to plan ways and means of inaugurating the movement The Castle Automobile Lamp company, of Amesbury, Mass., has purchased the factory building formerly occupied by the Richmond Manufacturing company, at Richmond, this state, and will move its plant to Richmond at once. The plant employs 300 men. _ President Frank C. Ritter, of the Indiana State Baseball league, has announced that, in the wishes of the veterans, there will be no games on Memorial day. It is believed that Indiana is the first of the many to take such action.