just been personally humiliated by his own candidate. Monsieur Watchman had been weak, no doubt. However, there is little doubt that the Friends of the Sunday Law suspected that Watchman had been purposely tempted by enemies of their political endeavor. Now, I should ask you also to look at the American and Commercial Advertiser from one week earlier to get a better view of Ryan's inn and tavern in the days before Snodgrass and Edgar Poe met there."
The first cutting Duponte pointed out to me spoke of
a large and enthusiastic meeting of the Whigs of the Fourth Ward of the city, held at Ryan's Hotel.
"Then Ryan's was not only a polling station," I said, "it was also a place for Whigs of that ward to gather. And the place," I sighed, "fated to be Poe's last passage outside a hospital bed." I thought of the group of Fourth Ward Whigs Duponte and I had observed at the den above the Vigilant engine house, near Ryan's. That was their private place; Ryan's, it appeared, their room for more public gatherings.
"Let us step backward even further," said Duponte, "looking at several days before...when this meeting by the Fourth Ward Whigs was advertised. Read aloud. And note most of all how it is signed below."
I did.
A Mass Meeting of the Whigs of the Fourth Ward will take place at Ryan's Hotel, Lombard Street, opposite the Vigilant Engine House, on Tuesday. Geo. W. Herring, Pres.
Another extract advertised a meeting for October 1, two days before the election, at 7 1/2 o'clock, again at Ryan's Hotel, across from the Engine House, with Full attendance earnestly requested; this one was also signed Geo. W. Herring, Pres.
"George Herring, president," I read again. I remembered Tindley, the burly doorkeeper, obsequiously answering his superior at the Whig club: Mr. George...Mr. George. "The man we saw, that president, it was his Christian name that was George, not his surname...George Herring. Surely he is a relation to Henry Herring, Poe's cousin by marriage! Henry Herring, who was the very man who came first to Poe's side after Snodgrass and refused to board him in his own home."
"Now you see that whatever Poe drank was a small part only of what transpired in his final days, but still is of importance to us to place all else in order. It helps now that we are able to comprehend the whole sequence of events."
"Monsieur Duponte," I said, putting down the newspaper, "do you mean that you do comprehend the whole now? That we are ready to share it with the world before the Baron Dupin speaks out?"
Duponte rose from his chair and walked to the window. "Soon," he said.
Chapter 21
IT WAS SURPRISING, considering the Baron's recent frantic activities, how quiet he had become. He was not to be seen; presumably he was preparing for the lecture in two days' time-it was all Baltimore talked about. I took several circuitous walks around the city, trying to discover which hotel he had moved to.
While I was engaged in this way, my shoulder was tapped.
It was one of the men whom I had seen so many times following the Baron Dupin. Another man stood near him in a similar coat.
"Account for yourself," said the first one, with a concealed accent. "Who are you?"
"Why is that your concern?" I replied. "Shall I ask you the same?"
"This is not a time to be bold, monsieur."
Monsieur. They were French, then.
"We have seen you in past weeks. You seem always to be outside his hotel," he said with suspicion, his eyebrows gesturing in that peculiar French manner Duponte sometimes exhibited.
"Yes, well, there is hardly anything extraordinary about that. Does not one visit his friend often?" A man who had in the past kidnapped, deceived, and intimidated me-to call that a friend!
Caught in their silence, I worried about the implications of my hasty statement. My spying on the Baron, it seemed, had made enemies of these enemies of the Baron! I added, "I know nothing of that man's debts or his creditors, and have not the slightest interest in such matters."
The two men exchanged a quick glance.
"Then tell us which hotel he's putting up at now."
"I do not know," I said honestly.
"Do you have any idea, monsieur, the scope of his troubles? They shall become yours if you try to guard him. Do not protect him."
I turned quickly and began walking away.
"We are not finished with you, monsieur," he called out from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder; they were following.