The Under-World
Yes, my friend, you shall have the whole yarn. You don't mind an ex-crook calling you “my friend”? Thanks. I'm glad of it. You have certainly been a good friend since that day you came to see me in my cell in the Santé. And you have certainly stood my friend since. It never occurred to me that possibly you might be acquainted with John and Edith.
I want to tell you the story, because in a few hours I am going to take a dive into the Under-World; for how long I can't tell, It is very possible that I may go from there straight to Heaven. No, don't look pained. I'm not backsliding now out for any more crooked business. I'm going back to settle a score. Here I am at this moment to all appearance a gentleman, lunching at the Automobile Club as though I hadn't a cave in the world. This afternoon I am going out for a spin into the country. I want you to go with me. We will only get as far as the forest of St. Germain, when I will ask you to bring back the car. To-morrow there will be a bushy-whiskered, spectacled “prédicateur”—a sort of itinerant preacher—reading his breviary in the Parc Monceau.
It is sheer good fortune meeting you here. It is possible that our worthy “prédicateur” may need a safe asylum in a hurry. Your old studio in the garden would be perfect for that. When you have heard the story you may feel differently about it, especially as the friar ts apt to come with blood on his muzzle. You don't look startled a bit. Well, here goes, and when I have finished you can tell me, if you like, where you hide the key.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1933, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 90 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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