The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-01-14
THE AFFAIR OF THE RED POCKET.
BOOK.

THE red portefeuille in question was a
certain red morocco note-case. How, in
| the Rue de Jerusalem, it became " an af-
fair" was the story its owner told us.
And on this wise
at was safe enough" Dick Langley
said, Sin my inner breast. pocket when I
left Spa that morning; and it was safe
there too when l reached the Nord ter
minus that evening. But had not been
| five minutes in my customary quarters at
the Grand before l discovered that my
note-case was most dubitably-gone-
looted quietly, you know. The how was
that clean cut through the bottom scam
of the pocket the where must lave been
in the crowd at the station just now.
al don't profess to be much of Judge
! of this sort of thing; but it struck me at
| the time that the fellow who had operated
on me must have been about the top of
his profession-so scarcely perceptible
was the solution of continuity in my gar
ment, SO absolutely unconscious had /
been of his propinquity. Still, / had lost
some fifty thousand francs worth of
French bank paper, not one sou whereof
was / likely to see again. So that it was
with feelings of not wholly unadmixed
admiration that 1 was examining the
traces of the spoilers handiwork when
the door opened and some one came into
the room.
az looked up, expecting to see We're
Lucingham. We're was Second Secretary
here then; an incorrigible farceur, who
had, as such, a difficulty with some vic
timized native to settle next day (which
business had brought me up from the
Bad. But it was not We're on whom the
door had just closed.
at was a slight, wiry little man, with
his black hair cut close to his bullet head,
with q sallow face shaved blue, and
keen, cool eye that took everything in the
room in at glance, and then rested upon
me as though was precisely the person
its owner wished and expected to behold
In fact, I fancied the little man muttered
SIS much to himself
$50 asked him pointedly who he was
instead of what he wanted.
"'Dard, Agent of the Surete,' he an
swered.
al had to ask him what he wanted,
then, you know. His reply to this was
curious.
"In the name of the law 1 arrest you,'
he said.
"Might 1 inquire why P 1 returned.
You, Thompsonne, alias Walkerre,'
the little man pursued. In short,
Thompsonne, with an infinity of aliases.
Why, for your last coup at Spa this
morning.
"He was perfectly in earnest, I could
see; he meant every word he said. l
stared at him. His smile was particularly
irritating to me in my then state Of mind.
The window was open; there was the
making of good fall outside. l admit
my first impulse was to dispose of my visi-
tor summarily that way.
"C'est pas lie peine,' he observed, mis-
reading my eyes; you would only br eak
your neck
"He was so perfectly cool that l had
perforce to get myself in hand again.
"sThat," said to him when had done
it. is the second mistake ysu have made,
Monsieur
f" "Dard,' he put in.
"Monsieur Dard, since have had the
pleasure of your society. 1t was not my
self that was tempted to toss out of that
window. And am not Thompson
"English pickpocket,' this insufferable
Monsieur Dard put in here. 'Ah! you
are not Thompsonne, English pickpockets
ReallyY
"Really not Your last mistake is
rather ghastly one you will find, l should
not wonder
"Allons doncP he responded, shrug
g1ng bis shoulders.
"My dear Monsieur Dard,' went on,
grinning inwardly now, in spite of my
annoyance, and in anticipation of Vere's
entry on the scence, to see how profoundly
convinced my interlocutor was that he had
arrested his Thompsonne, and how charm
ingly he mistook my modest assurance for
the impudence of that hardened criminal;
my dear Monster Dard, it so happens that
in q very few minutes | shall be able to
produce unimpeachable evidence Of my
proper identity
"t Pray do not trouble yourself he de-
precated ironically.
al am not going to trouble myself at
ALL said; my unimpeachable evidence
will walk into this room of its own accord
in about quarter of an hour
"Ahal And he comes from where, your
unimpeachable evidenceT
"From the British Embassy, my dear
Monsieur Dard You will, | presume,
admit, then, your mistake is the ghastly
mistake have ventured to style it? You
wills Very good. And as you have only
a quarter of an hour to wait before you
admit this, and as any esclandre would
hardly improve matters, do me the favor
to sit down, light one of these cigarettes,
and relieve my curiosity as to why, in
your wisdom, you have arrested me as
Thompson, English pickpocket, and what,
supposing l am Thompson aforesaid, /
have been doing at Spa?'
"Monsieur Dard looked at me harder,
shrugged his shoulders higfssr, smiled
more insufferably than he had looked and
shrugged and smiled yet. had, however,
so far impressed him in some way that
when sat down and Lit little roll of
Pheresli tobacco he followed my example.
Then he said,-
"You were at the Redoute at Spa this
morning when play commenced? p
az admitted l was.
"At the roulette table in the smaller
sdues' he continued.
"Excuse me; you are wrong there. 1t
is well known / never touch roulette. l
was at the trente-et-quarante table
"At the same table, pursued the i'm
passible Dard, was standing one Hippo
lyte Bourbon
"Who is he?'
"Whom you must have noticed place
red portefeuille-'
"A red portefeuille p I repeated.
"Containing, it appears, in bank notes,
the sum Of
"Of ffty-odd thousand francs, sup
pose muttered, pensive at the recollec-
ton of my own vanished paper, the result
of that run upon the Rouge that morning.
"No,' Monsieur Dard returned sharp
", mot quite so much as that. About
FORTY thousand francs. A miscount, no
doubt he added.
"By Jove!' calculated in the YER
nacular, unheeding my friends sarcasm.
This is queer A red portefeuille, you
sayg Morocco
"sYour penetration is perfect Mon
sieur Dard replied, with an ironical bow.
"a red morocco portefeuille, Monsieur
Bourbon. as you noticed, placed it in the
ianer breast-pocket of his coat; and
"sWhati The inner breast pocket,
toos' The coincidence was getting more
than queer.
"And you,' pursued Monsieur Dard,
took advantage of the crowd at the door
way to-
"And will be shot, you know, if Mon
sieur Dard didn't pantomime precisely the
maneuver my depaliseur just now must
have employed to cut my red morocco
portefeuille out of my inner breast pock-
et!"
"sGo on said. astonished. What
did do thenF
"tYou rushed precipitately down the
staircase of the Redoute'
"sI wanted to catch the train you know
"sCa se comprehend You jumped
into a panier waiting outside, and caused
yourself to be driven furiously to the sta