'Ah!' said Racksole, 'I was informed that everyone knew Jules, but it appears not. Well, be that as it may, previously to the night of your ball, I had dismissed Jules. I had ordered him never to enter the Babylon again.
But on that evening I encountered him here - not in the Gold Room, but in the hotel itself. I asked him to explain his presence, and he stated he was your guest. That is all I know of the matter, Mr Levi, and I am extremely sorry that you should have thought me capable of the enormity of placing a private detective among your guests.'
'This is perfectly satisfactory to me,' Mr Sampson Levi said, after a pause.
'I only wanted an explanation, and I've got it. I was told by some pals of mine in the City I might rely on Mr Theodore Racksole going straight to the point, and I'm glad they were right. Now as to that feller Jules, I shall make my own inquiries as to him. Might Iask you why you dismissed him?'
'I don't know why I dismissed him.'
'You don't know? Oh! come now! I'm only asking because Ithought you might be able to give me a hint why he turned up uninvited at my ball. Sorry if I'm too inquisitive.'
'Not at all, Mr Levi; but I really don't know. I only sort of felt that he was a suspicious character. I dismissed him on instinct, as it were. See?'
Without answering this question Mr Levi asked another. 'If this Jules is such a well-known person,' he said, 'how could the feller hope to come to my ball without being recognized?'
'Give it up,' said Racksole promptly.
'Well, I'll be moving on,' was Mr Sampson Levi's next remark.
'Good day, and thank ye. I suppose you aren't doing anything in Kaffirs?'
Mr Racksole smiled a negative.
'I thought not,' said Levi. Well, I never touch American rails myself, and so I reckon we sha'n't come across each other. Good day.'
'Good day,' said Racksole politely, following Mr Sampson Levi to the door.
With his hand on the handle of the door, Mr Levi stopped, and, gazing at Theodore Racksole with a shrewd, quizzical expression, remarked:
'Strange things been going on here lately, eh?'
The two men looked very hard at each other for several seconds.
'Yes,' Racksole assented. 'Know anything about them?'
'Well - no, not exactly,' said Mr Levi. 'But I had a fancy you and Imight be useful to each other; I had a kind of fancy to that effect.'
'Come back and sit down again, Mr Levi,' Racksole said, attracted by the evident straightforwardness of the man's tone. 'Now, how can we be of service to each other? I flatter myself I'm something of a judge of character, especially financial character, and I tell you - if you'll put your cards on the table, I'll do ditto with mine.'
'Agreed,' said Mr Sampson Levi. 'I'll begin by explaining my interest in your hotel. I have been expecting to receive a summons from a certain Prince Eugen of Posen to attend him here, and that summons hasn't arrived. It appears that Prince Eugen hasn't come to London at all. Now, I could have taken my dying davy that he would have been here yesterday at the latest.'
'Why were you so sure?'
'Question for question,' said Levi. 'Let's clear the ground first, Mr Racksole. Why did you buy this hotel? That's a conundrum that's been puzzling a lot of our fellows in the City for some days past.
Why did you buy the Grand Babylon? And what is the next move to be?'
'There is no next move,' answered Racksole candidly, 'and I will tell you why I bought the hotel; there need be no secret about it. Ibought it because of a whim.' And then Theodore Racksole gave this little Jew, whom he had begun to respect, a faithful account of the transaction with Mr Felix Babylon. 'I suppose,' he added, 'you find a difficulty in appreciating my state of mind when I did the deal.'
'Not a bit,' said Mr Levi. 'I once bought an electric launch on the Thames in a very similar way, and it turned out to be one of the most satisfactory purchases I ever made. Then it's a simple accident that you own this hotel at the present moment?'
