Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1912 — The Grand Babylon Hotel [ARTICLE]

The Grand Babylon Hotel

Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co. CHAPTER XXI. The Return of Felix Babylon. On the evening of Prince Eugen’s fateful interview with Mr. Sampson Levi, Theodore Racksole was wandering somewhat aimlessly and uneasily about the entrance hall and adjacent corridors of the Grand Babylon. He had returned from! Ostend only a day or two previously, and had endeavored with all his might to forget the affair which had carried him there; to regard it, in fact, as done with. But he found himself unable to do so. In vain he remarked under his breath that there were some things which were best left alone; if his experience as a manipulator of markets, a contriver of gigantic schemes in New York had taught him anything at all, it should surely have taught him that. Yet he .could not feql reconciled to such a position. The mere pifeence of the princes in his hotel roused the fighting instincts of this man who had never in his whole career been beaten. To a certain extent the battle had been won, for Prince Eugen had been rescued from an extremely difficult and dangerous position, and the enemy, consisting of Jules, Rocco, Miss Spencer and j>_erhap.s„others, had been put to rout. And there was another had said nothing to the police of all that had occurred. .He disdained the police, but he could scarcely fail to perceive that if the police should by accident gain a clue to the real state of the case, he might be placed rather awkwardly, for the simple reason that in the eyes of the law it amounted, to a misdemeanor to conceal as much as he had concealed. He was turning these things over in his mind as he walked about the vast hotel on that evening of the last day of July. The society papers had been stating for a week past that London was empty, but in spite of the society papers London persisted in seeming to be just as full as ever. The Grand Babylon was certainly not as crowded as it had been a month earlier, but it was doing a very passable business. The great basket chairs in pie portico were well filled by old and middleaged gentlemen engaged in enjoying the varied delights of liqueurs, cigars and the full moon which floated so serenely above the Thames. Here and there a pretty woman on the arm of a cavalier in immaculate attire swept her train as she turned to and fro in the promenade on the terrace. It was a hot night, a night for the summer woods, and save for the vehicles there was no rapid movement jof any kind. The stars overhead looked down with many blinkings upon the enormous pile of the Grand Babylon, and the moon regarded it with bland and, changeless face; what they thought of it and of its inhabitants cannot, unfortunately, be recorded. What Theodore Racksole thought of the moon can be recorded; he thought it a Nuisance. It somehow seemed to fascinate bis gaze with Its silly stare, and so interfered with his complex meditations. He glanced around at the well-dressed and satisfied people, his guests, his

customers. Theodore Racksole continued his perambulations unchallenged, and kept saying to himself: “I must do something.” But what? He could think of no course to pursue. At last he walked straight through the hotel and out at the other entrance, and so up the little unassuming side street into a roaring torrent of the narrow and crowded He went into a tobacconist’s shop and asked for a cigar. The shopman mildly inquired what price. . “What are the best you’ve got?” mildly inquired Racksole. “Five shillings each, sir,” said the man promptly. “Give me a penny one,” was Racksole’s laconic response, and he walked out of the shop smoking the penny cigar. f . It was a new sensation to him. •He was inhaling the aromatic odors of Eugene Rummeil’s establishment for the sale of scents, when a gentleman, - walking slowly in the oppose direction, accosted him with a quiet, “Good evening, Mr. Racksole.” The millionaire did not at first recognize his interlocutor, who wore a traveling overcoat and was carrying a handbag. Then a slight; pleased smile passed over his features, and he held out his hand. “Well, Mr. Babylon!” he exclaimed. "Of all the persons in the wide world,

you are the man I would most have wished to meet. “You flatter me," said the little Anglicized Swiss. “No, I don’t,” answered Racksole. “It isn’t my custom any more than it’s yours. 1 want to have a real,- good, big yarn with you, and lo! here you are. Where have you sprung from?" “From Lausanne,” said Felix Babylon. “I had finished my duties there. I had nothing else to do, and I felt homesick —I felt the nostalgia of London—and so I just came over, as you see,” and he raised the handbag for Racksole’s notice. “I should advise you to stay at the Grand Babylon,” Racksole laughed. “It is a good hotel, I know the proprietor personally.” “Rather expensive, is it not?” observed Babylon. ‘To you, sir,” answered Racksole, “the inclusive terms will be exactly half a crown a week. Do you accept ” “I accept,”,said Babylon, and added: “You are very good, Mr. Racksole.” They strolled together back to the hotel, saying nothing in particular, but feeling very content with each other’s company. “Many customers?” asked Babylon. “Very tolerable,” said Racksole, assuming as much the air of the professional hotel proprietor as he could. “I think I may say, in the storekeeper’s phrase, that if thete’is any business about, I am doing it Tonight the people are all on the terrace in the portico—"it’s so confoundedly hot and the consumption of ice is simpl enormous, nearly as large as it would be in New York.” “In that case,” said* Babylon politely, “let me offer you another cigar.” “But I have not finished this one.” “That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as yours, my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the precincts of the Grand Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the hotel, and especially when all the guests are assembled in the portico. The fumes of it would ruin any hotel.”

Theodore Racksols laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana which Babylon gave him, and they entered the hotel arm in arm. But no sooner had they mounted the steps than-little Felix became the object of numberless greetings. It appeared that he had been highly popular among his quondam guests. At last they reached the managerial room, where Babylon was regaled on a chicken and Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a bottle of Heldsleck Monopole, Carte d’Or. “This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,” said Babylon at length. “It is a credit to the house, but why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?” ‘Then you have heard?” “Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some journals prophesied that the hotel would have to close Its doors within a year, now that Rocco had deserted it But, of course, I knew better. I knew that you must have had a good reasorl for allowing Rocco to depart and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a substitute.” “As a matter of fact I bad not made arrangements in advance," said Racksole a little ruefully, “but happily we have found in our second sous chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That, however, was mere good fortune.” “Surely,” said Babylon, “it was indiscreet to trust to mere good fortune in such a* serious matter?” “I didn’t trust to mere good fortune. I didn’t trust to anything, except Rocco, and he deceived me.” ■ “But why did you quarrel with him?” '

“I didn’t quarrel with him. I found him embalming a corpse in the state bedroom one night” “You what?" Babylon almost screamed. "I found him embalming a corpse in the state bedroom,” repeated Racksole in his quietest tones. The two men gazed at each other, and then Racksole replenished Baby- - ' lon’s glass. “Tell me,” said Babylon, settling himself deep in an easy chair and lighting a cigar. And Racksole thereupon recounted to him the whole of the Posen episode, with every circumstantial detail so for as he knew it It was a long and complicated recital and occupied about an hour. During that time little Felix never - spoke a word, scarcely moved a muscle; only his small eyes gleamed through the bluish haze of smoke. The clock on the mantlepiece tinkled midnight “Time for whisky and soda,” said Racksole, and got up as if to ring the bell, but Babylon waved him back. “You have told me that this Sampson Levi had an audience of Prinee Eugen today, but you have not told me the result.of that audience, said. * *■■ . ■- . “Because I do not know it But I shall doubtless learn tomowow. In the meantime I feel fairly sure that i declined to produce Prince Eugelsewhere.”

“H’m!” mused Babylon, and then, carelessly: “I am not at all surprised at that arrangement for spying into the bathroom of the state apartineiftp| “'Why are you not surprised T’ “Oh,” said Babylon. “It is such an obvious dodge, so. easy to carry out As for me, I took special care never to involve myself in these affairs. I knew they existed; I somehow felt that they existed. But I_also feltthat they lay outside my sphere. 4 “My business was to provide board and lodging to those who didn’t mind paying for it M anything else went on in the hotel under the rose, I long ago determined to ignore it, unless it should happen to be brought before my notice, and it never was brought 'before my notice. However, I admit that there is a certain pleasurable excitement in this kind of an affair, and doubtless you have experienced that” “I have,” said Racksole “although I believe you are laughing at me.” < << “By no means,” Babylon replied. “Now what, if I may ask, is going to be your next step?” “That is just what I desire to know myself,” said Racksole. > “Well,” said. Babylon after a pause, “let us begin. In thv first place, it is possible you may be interested to hear that 1 happened to see Julep today.” “You did!” Racksole remarked with much calmness. “Where?”

“Well it was early this morning in Paris, just before I left there. The meeting was quite accidental, and he seemed rather surprised at meeting me. He respectfully inquired where I was going, and I said that I was going to Switzerland. At that moment I thought I was going to Switzerland. “It had occurred to me that, after all, I should be happier there and that I had better turn back and not see London any more. -However, I changed my mind once again and decided to come on to London and accept the risks of being miserable there -without my hotel. Theh I asked Jules whither me was bound, and he told me that he was off to Constantinople, being interested in a new French hotel there. I wished him good luck and we parted.” “Constantinople, eh!” said Racksole. “A highly suitable place for him, I should say." “But,” Babylon resumed, “I caught sight of him again.” “Where?” “At Charing Cross, a few minutes before I had the pleasure of meeting you. Mr. Jules had not gone to Constantinople after all. He did not see me, or I should have suggested to him that in going from Paris to Constantinople it is not usual to travel via London.” “The cheek of the fellow!” exclaimed Racksole. “The gorgeous and colossal cheek of the fellow!” (To be continued