The Adventurers (29 page)

Although she had already made up her mind that she would not go down to the lobby to see the young man, she found herself taking extra special care with her makeup. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were large and darkly blue and shining with a light that had not been there for a long time. She felt young and excited. I'll be just looking, she told herself as she closed the door behind her; I'll look and then go away. Surely there's no harm in that.

She began to feel the fool sitting there in the lobby. She was certain everyone knew exactly why she was there. She looked at her watch and decided to wait ten more minutes. She was just on the verge of getting up and returning to her suite when the two of them came in.

He is young, was her first startled impression. But then she remembered having read somewhere that Frenchmen preferred women older than themselves. He's very tall, was her second. His six foot three seemed even taller standing beside the short bell captain, and his broad shoulders and dark unruly hair did give him a regal look. She guessed his age at about twenty-four. But it was partly her own age that caused her to overestimate. Sergei was actually not quite twenty.

His dark eyes swept the lobby looking for her. Suddenly their eyes met and she saw him flush. The bell captain wasn't lying, she thought in surprise; only a man who really wanted to meet someone would blush like that.

When he turned his eyes away, without thinking, she nodded to the bell captain. In the same moment, overcome at her audacity, she fled to the elevator.

She had never had an affair during all her marriage and it was because of this that there was an air of unreality surrounding them. Time had been suspended, and if it was not love at least there was romance. Now, three weeks later, she met Sergei at the door with a letter in her hand.

Sergei realized it was over and he felt a regret because he had come to like this quiet, intelligent woman very much. "It is time for you to go?" he asked, accepting a drink.

She nodded. "Tomorrow."

"Tonight then we will have to see all of Paris which you have not yet seen. We will be out all night."

She was silent for a moment. "I have seen enough of

Paris."

He put down his drink and held out his arms. She came into them quietly, and he found her cheeks were wet with tears. For a long time they sat silently. The day faded and night came and street by street the lights came on all over the city.

After a while she stirred. "I'd better order something. You must be starved."

"I'm not hungry."

Silence fell again and they looked out at the twinkling lights. "Paris is lovely at night."

He didn't answer. She stirred in his arms. "I was never young," she said. "I know that now." "You will always be young." "Now I will, thanks to you." "I will take you to the boat," he said suddenly.

"No." She shook her head. "It is better to get used to being alone on the boat train."

"I shall miss you." Her eyes were dark. "I'll miss you, too."

"But at least you are going home to your family, to those you love."

"And you?" she asked. "What about you?"

"I don't know. My father wishes me to join him in Germany. I don't want to go but—"

"You mustn't go!"

He shrugged. "It is something to do. It is better than hanging around Paris doing nothing."

"No, it's wrong. What the Nazis are doing is dreadful. You must not become a part of it. President Roosevelt says—"

"Your President is Jewish," he said, interrupting. "My father writes that his name is really Rosenfeld, and that he is allied with the Communists."

She began to laugh, and then saw the puzzled look on his face. "You remind me of my husband. He goes around repeating stupid things like that." Then she saw the hurt expression on his face.

"I'm sorry," she said, instantly contrite, "but you know it's not true. I mean about the President being Jewish." He didn't answer. "You must find a job."

"Where? Who would hire me? There is nothing I can do."

She sensed the peculiar desperation in him and drew him down to her. The quick male warmth of him reached out and engulfed her. Later, much later, she whispered to him shyly, "It was me you wanted to meet that day in the lobby? Not just anyone?"

He sensed her need. "Yes, it was you. From the moment I first saw you."

It was five o'clock in the morning but the bell captain was waiting as Sergei came out of the hotel. "Well? How much did she give you?"

Sergei stared at him a moment, then negligently, almost carelessly, took the check from his pocket. The other grabbed it and gave a loud whistle. "Do you know how much it is for?"

Sergei shook his head. He hadn't even looked. "Five thousand dollars!"

Sergei didn't answer. He was still thinking of the woman he had left in the room.

"You must have a cock of steel." The bell captain laughed vulgarly. "You must have screwed her out of her mind."

Sergei looked at him. It wasn't that at all. He knew why the check had been so large. It was so that he could remain in Paris and not have to join his father.

The bell captain drew closer to him. "Was she any good? Some of these Americans are made for it." Sergei looked at him coldly.

"Well, it doesn't matter, tomorrow she will be gone. There is another woman in the hotel who has seen you in the lobby. When she asked I told her you would be free after today. She would like you to join her for dinner tomorrow night."

Abruptly Sergei walked away. The bell captain looked after him, still holding the check in his hand, and called, "She wants you to wear your dinner jacket because afterward you are to escort her to a soiree at a friend's house."

CHAPTER 15

Dax looked up from the letter. "It seems we are not to go home after all."

"Then we are to stay here?" Fat Cat asked.

Dax shook his head. "No. El Presidente has decided that I should follow Father's wishes and go to college. But not to Sandhurst, to Harvard."

Fat Cat's face was puzzled.

"In the United States."

"Los Estados Vnidos!" Fat Cat exploded. "Has el Presidente gone out of his mind? They hate us! They will kill us!"

"El Presidente knows what he is doing. It is one of the best universities in the world."

Marcel, who was also standing by the desk, said, "Isn't that where your friend Robert is going?"

Dax nodded.

Fat Cat got to his feet. "I don't like it. It is a land filled with gangsters and Indians. We will all be murdered in our sleep. I have seen their films."

Dax laughed. "Can it be that the fat one is afraid?"

Fat Cat drew himself up proudly. "Never!" He started toward the door, then paused. "But I shall never sleep without my knife under my pillow!"

Marcel waited until the door closed behind him, then turned to Dax. "I have been meaning to speak with you for some time," he said hesitantly.

"About what?"

"I am planning to leave the consulate."

"I see."

In a way it did not come as a surprise. Dax had wondered how much longer Marcel would stay for the sort of wages paid by Corteguay. In a way it was lucky for them he had remained as long as he had.

"Naturally I will stay long enough to help the new consul to become acquainted with the routine."

"My country will be most grateful. Have you any plans?"

Marcel shook his head. "I'm almost thirty; it is time I tried something new. Exactly what I do not know. But if I do not go now, I never shall."

Actually, that wasn't exactly the truth. The deal had already been made with the baron and Christopoulos. The gambler's nephew wasn't happy with the shipping lines; he wanted to return to the excitement of the gambling rooms. The tailleur had decided to bring him back to France but not until he had spent one more year with the shipping lines. Marcel was going to Macao ostensibly to run the casino, but actually he was going to China to learn the business. He was also supposed to buy as many freighters as he could lay his hands upon.

Marcel had accumulated quite a bit of money of his own that they knew nothing about, and he planned to use this as a down payment. Only after he had secured title would he pass a ship along to the syndicate, and even then it would not be sold to them outright. Only leased on a long term. The rentals would be enough to cover the payments as they came due, and eventually the ships would belong to him. He was certain he would have no trouble convincing the syndicate of the advantages of this. It would reduce their initial investment; they might even be grateful to him for discovering this way of conserving their capital.

Dax's voice brought him out of his momentary reverie. "We will have to find someone to replace you." Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Perhaps my friend Sergei would be interested. He was talking to me only last month about needing a job."

But Sergei was nowhere to be found. The concierge at his apartment said that one day during that week he had packed up all his things and moved out without leaving a forwarding address. The only conclusion that Dax could come to was that his friend had gone to join his father in Germany.

Sergei was bored. Nothing bored him more than gambling. Whether it was cards or roulette, the mere fact that one had to sit and wait was intolerable to him. Already the old woman had forgotten him in her absorption.

This one was not like the American. This was a very wise, very old, very rich Frenchwoman who knew exactly what she wanted. She simply wanted the company of a handsome young man, and Sergei filled the bill. The moment she had seen him in the hotel lobby she had been certain he would.

It was a simple and straightforward arrangement. Sergei was to be her companion. His salary was two thousand francs a day, and she was to pay all his expenses including clothing. Two days later they had left for Monte Carlo.

The casino held two sessions a day and she attended both. Sometimes Sergei would wonder at her grim determination to throw away her money but after a while he no longer thought about it. There seemed to be a never-ending fount. Two weeks had gone by and she hadn't once stopped. Now they were beginning their third at another matinee session.

Idly Sergei drifted away from the table and out onto the terrace. He looked down into the harbor. The white yachts sparkled on the clear blue water, and the palace gleamed pink on the hill beyond. Slowly he walked down the steps into the garden.

The fragrance of the flowers was strong in his nostrils after the thin, aseptic air of the casino. He walked to the edge of the garden and stood, his hands in his pockets, looking glumly out over the water.

"It's very beautiful, isn't it?"

The voice came from behind him. Sergei turned in surprise. It was an almost unwritten rule that one never spoke to strangers on the grounds of the casino. An old man was sitting there on a bench, his hands neatly folded over the gold knob of a walking stick, his white hair and neatly trimmed beard blending almost invisibly into the off white of his silk suit. Sergei did not have to be told who the old man was, though he had never seen him before.

The old man, rumor had it, was the world's largest munitions dealer, and it was also said that he owned the casino in whose gardens he now sat. His yacht was the largest and whitest in the harbor.

Automatically Sergei answered in Russian. "It is very beautiful, Sir Peter."

"You're Sergei Nikovitch?"

"Da."

"What do you hear from your father, Count Ivan?"

"Nothing, Sir Peter. I have received only one letter, shortly after he left for Berlin."

The old man's eyes went past him to the harbor. He nodded gently and his eyes seemed to look into the distance. "I don't see why those fools waste their time gambling in there when there is so much beauty out here."

Sergei did not answer.

Sir Peter's eyes came back to him. "Your father, too, is wasting his time," he said, in that same soft voice. "The Mother Russia we loved is lost and gone forever, and we shall never get her back."

Sergei remained silent.

"But then your father is a Cossack," Sir Peter continued, "and what else is a Cossack to do but fight? Even when the battle is already lost he must continue to do so."

The old man's voice suddenly lost its philosophical tone, the blue eyes became sharp and piercing, and the gentle voice hardened. "But at least your father has his reasons for what he is doing. What are yours?"

Sergei was too surprised by this sudden change to answer. He merely gawked.

"You're here with that stupid old biddy who has so much money she does not know what to do with it. So she wastes her days in places like these. And for two thousand francs a day you dance attendance on her like a puppet."

There was nothing the old man did not seem to know. Sergei could only stare at him.

"I am ashamed of you, Sergei Nikovitch!" the old man said indignantly, rising to his feet. "Ashamed!"

Sergei found his voice. "But what else was I to do?"

"You could have gone to work as your father did. He was not ashamed of honest labor."

As the old man turned and started off, two men mysteriously appeared and placed themselves on either side of him. Sergei stared at them in surprise. But Sir Peter was not surprised. His bodyguards were always near him.

"I'll expect you at dinner tonight," he said over his shoulder. "Seven o'clock. Be on time; I'm an old man and I eat early."

The white house with its columns of marble and marbled floors was perched at the very crest of the highest mountain in Monaco. It stood higher even than the pink palace of the

Grimaldis, who were the titular rulers of the little country, for even they accepted the fact that Sir Peter was entitled to look down on them. It was his tax money that paid all the bills.

Sergei looked across the huge mahogany table at the old man, then down the shining expanse at Sir Peter's young French wife. She sat there quietly, her diamonds and pearls glowing in the light of the candles. All through the meal she had scarcely spoken three words.

"My sons are dead," the old man said suddenly, "and I need a young man I can trust. Someone whose legs are stronger than mine and can go where I no longer can. The hours will be long, the work often dreary and exhausting, the pay little. But I offer the opportunity of learning. Would you be interested?"