Читать книгу The Ostrekoff Jewels онлайн

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"Alexis," he apologised to the huge figure still towering over him, "forgive me. I must know the feel of warm water. Wait only a quarter of an hour and we will talk seriously. In a quarter of an hour I will face the world. Look at the steam!"

Alexis retreated and held the door ajar.

"The Little Master will see that there are towels there," he pointed out. "There is soap—there are many things. I shall wait in the bedroom."

Then he closed the door, and a few minutes later there was nothing to be seen in that huge bath but the head of Wilfred Haven, with an ecstatic smile upon his face, dabbing at himself with a rough bath towel instead of a sponge.

The hotel clerk, half an hour later, realised that he had taken a right decision. Six feet of splendid young manhood, wrapped in a bathcloth dressing gown received him when he returned a little doubtfully to the suite. Wilfred Haven, with a clean body, was a man again. He spoke with a tone of authority.

"Is that the waiter?" he asked, glancing towards a bowing figure upon the threshold. "Whisky and soda—quickly.... The coiffeur? Good. Get to work as soon as possible on me, please. I must consider what I am going to do about clothes."