"There should be two Richmonds in the field! That was my grand idea.
Two sets, two parties, each of them consisting of one lady, one maid,
and one baby, exactly similar and indistinguishable. When the time was
ripe we should separate, and each would travel in opposite directions,
and I hoped to show sufficient guile to induce my persecutors to give
chase to the wrong quarry. Run it to the death, while the party got
clear away.

"I had made a nice calculation. Fuentellato was at no great distance
from Parma, on the main line of railway. If she started at once, via
Piacenza to Turin, she could catch the Mont Cenis express through to
Modane and Culoz, where she could change for Geneva, so as to reach me
some time on Tuesday.

"This was exactly what happened. My sister carried out my instructions
to the letter, and I met her here on arrival. I had taken up my
quarters in this hotel because it was so near the station, but I
thought it prudent that Henriette should lodge somewhere else, the
farther the better, and she went to a small place, the Hotel Pierre
Fatio, at the other end of the town.

"It is a long story, Colonel Annesley, but there is not much more, and
yet the most interesting part is to come.

"We now devoted ourselves to the practical carrying out of the scheme,
just we four women; our maids, both clever dressmakers, were of
immense help. It was soon done. You can buy anything in Geneva. There
are plenty of good shops and skilful workers, and we soon provided
ourselves with the clothes, all the disguises really that we
required--the long gray dust cloaks and soft hats and all the rest, so
much alike that we might have been soldiers in the same regiment.
Philpotts and Victorine, my sister's maid, were also made up on a
similar pattern, and a second baby was built up as a dummy that would
have deceived any one.

"Everything was completed by this morning, and I had settled that my
sister, with her dear little Ralph, should get away, but by quite a
new route, while I held my ground against the detectives. I felt sure
they would soon hear of me and run me down. I hoped they would attach
themselves to me, and meant to lead them a fine dance as a blind for
Henriette, who, meanwhile, would have crossed to Lyons and gone south
to Marseilles. The Riviera is a longer and more roundabout road to
Turin, but it was open, and I hoped unimpeded. What do you think of my
diplomacy?"

"Admirable!" I cried, with enthusi