Between trains, when not engaged in
watching the incoming travelers, he smoked a pipe over various packets of
papers and letters, and these he burned with considerable care. All the
French and German newspaper accounts of the murder of Count von Stroebel
he read carefully; and even more particularly he studied the condition of
affairs in Vienna consequent upon the great statesman's death. Secret
agents from Vienna and detectives from Paris had visited Geneva in their
study of this astounding crime, and had made much fuss and asked many
questions; but Mr. John Armitage paid no heed to them. He had held the
last conversation of length that any one had enjoyed with Count Ferdinand
von Stroebel, but the fact of this interview was known to no one, unless
to one or two hotel servants, and these held a very high opinion of Mr.
Armitage's character, based on his generosity in the matter of gold coin;
and there could, of course, be no possible relationship between so
shocking a tragedy and a chance acquaintance between two travelers. Mr.
Armitage knew nothing that he cared to impart to detectives, and a great
deal that he had no intention of imparting to any one.
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