“Yes, sir?” Jules, the celebrated head waiter of the Grand Babylon, was bending formally towards the alert, middle-aged man who had just entered the smoking-room and dropped into a basket-chair in the...

Nevertheless, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own way, even as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had long since fallen into that useful practice⁠—except when hi...

Mr. Reginald Dimmock proved himself, despite his extreme youth, to be a man of the world and of experiences, and a practised talker. Conversation between him and Nella Racksole seemed never to flag. T...

Nevertheless, sundry small things weighed on Racksole’s mind. First there was Jules’ wink. Then there was the ribbon on the door-handle and Jules’ visit to No. 111, and the broken window⁠—broken from ...

In another moment they were all three talking quite nicely, and with at any rate an appearance of being natural. Prince Aribert became suave, even deferential to Nella, and more friendly towards Nella...

At the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold Room, a huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of it, and certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore R...

It appeared impossible to Theodore Racksole that so cumbrous an article as a corpse could be removed out of his hotel, with no trace, no hint, no clue as to the time or the manner of the performance o...

On the following morning, just before lunch, a lady, accompanied by a maid and a considerable quantity of luggage, came to the Grand Babylon Hotel. She was a plump, little old lady, with white hair an...

“You⁠—you’re only doing that to frighten me,” stammered Miss Spencer, in a low, quavering voice. “Am I?” Nella replied, as firmly as she could, though her hand shook violently with excitement, could M...

It seemed to Nella that she was being rocked gently in a vast cradle, which swayed to and fro with a motion at once slow and incredibly gentle. This sensation continued for some time, and there was ad...

“Mr. Sampson Levi wishes to see you, sir.” These words, spoken by a servant to Theodore Racksole, aroused the millionaire from a reverie which had been the reverse of pleasant. The fact was, and it is...

On the afternoon of the same day⁠—the interview just described had occurred in the morning⁠—Racksole was visited by another idea, and he said to himself that he ought to have thought of it before. The...

It was of course plain to Racksole that the peculiar passageway which he had, at great personal inconvenience, discovered between the bathroom of No. 111 and the State bathroom on the floor below must...

Rocco turned round with the swiftness of a startled tiger, and gave Theodore Racksole one long piercing glance. “Damn!” said Rocco, with as pure an Anglo-Saxon accent and intonation as Racksole himsel...

We must now return to Nella Racksole and Prince Aribert of Posen on board the yacht without a name. The Prince’s first business was to make Jules, otherwise Mr. Tom Jackson, perfectly secure by means ...

“There is one thing, Prince, that we have just got to settle straight off,” said Theodore Racksole. They were all three seated⁠—Racksole, his daughter, and Prince Aribert⁠—round a dinner table in a pr...

“Eugen,” Prince Aribert called softly. At the sound of his own name the young man in the cellar feebly raised his head and stared up at the grating which separated him from his two rescuers. But his f...

“He must on no account be moved,” said the dark little Belgian doctor, whose eyes seemed to peer so quizzically through his spectacles; and he said it with much positiveness. That pronouncement rather...

The Royal apartments at the Grand Babylon are famous in the world of hotels, and indeed elsewhere, as being, in their own way, unsurpassed. Some of the palaces of Germany, and in particular those of t...

Prince Eugen started. “I will see him,” he said, with a gesture to Hans as if to indicate that Mr. Sampson Levi might enter at once. “I beg one moment first,” said Aribert, laying a hand gently on his...

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 Ba...

“Do you know anything of the antecedents of this Jules,” asked Theodore Racksole, helping himself to whisky. “Nothing whatever,” said Babylon. “Until you told me, I don’t think I was aware that his tr...

“Well, Father,” Nella greeted her astounded parent. “You should make sure that you have got hold of the right person before you use all that terrible muscular force of yours. I do believe you have bro...

As regards Theodore Racksole, who was to have caught his man from the outside of the cellar, he made his way as rapidly as possible from the wine-cellars, up to the ground floor, out of the hotel by t...

Mr. Tom Jackson’s notion of making good his escape from the hotel by means of a steam launch was an excellent one, so far as it went, but Theodore Racksole, for his part, did not consider that it went...

“I’ll board her to start with,” said Hazell, whispering to Racksole. “I’ll make out that I suspect they’ve got dutiable goods on board, and that will give me a chance to have a good look at her.” Dres...

It happened that the small bedroom occupied by Jules during the years he was headwaiter at the Grand Babylon had remained empty since his sudden dismissal by Theodore Racksole. No other headwaiter had...

When, immediately after the episode of the bottle of Romanée-Conti in the State dining-room, Prince Aribert and old Hans found that Prince Eugen had sunk in an unconscious heap over his chair, both th...

As Nella passed downstairs from the top storey with her father⁠—the lifts had not yet begun to work⁠—she drew him into her own room, and closed the door. “What’s this all about?” he asked, somewhat my...

“I’ve a great deal to tell you, Prince,” Racksole began, as soon as they were out of the room, “and also, as I said, something to show you. Will you come to my room? We will talk there first. The whol...