“Long life to the Colonel,” said the count, smiling. “Amazing news, is it not, that he means to retire? To retire! Just like a doctor, or a butcher, or a plumber⁠—”

“Or any other business man,” finished Nadina. “It should not surprise us. That is what the Colonel has always been⁠—an excellent man of business. He has organized crime as another man might organize a boot factory. Without committing himself, he has planned and directed a series of stupendous coups, embracing every branch of what we might call his ‘profession.’ Jewel robberies, forgery, espionage (the latter very profitable in wartime), sabotage, discreet assassination, there is hardly anything he has not touched. Wisest of all, he knows when to stop. The game begins to be dangerous?⁠—he retires gracefully⁠—with an enormous fortune!”

“H’m!” said the count doubtfully. “It is rather⁠—upsetting for all of us. We are at a loose end, as it were.”