The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1015: Chapter 64: Investment Scam

Victor left the cell on the second day, and the Warden brought Arthur his new roommate.

Although logically speaking, in most cases, it is not appropriate for a lone man and woman to share a room. But this is prison, where all Christian morals and public perceptions are irrelevant; you live where the guards assign you.

Today, Miss Clara was evidently not as spirited as she was in the tavern yesterday. Clearly, the overnight interrogation by the prosecutors greatly affected her mental state.

Although she was still wearing the same dress and retained her beauty, she no longer appeared as dazzling as when Arthur first saw her.

Clara.

The cell door opened, and Clara, with heavy eyelids, found someone lying in the straw pile in front of her. Just as she was rejoicing at her good luck to be assigned to such a cell, it vanished in an instant.

Though not everyone in the cell was necessarily a vicious criminal, but those held here were unlikely to be virtuous souls.

Clara trod through the straw to find a quiet spot in the corner of the cell. Just as she was about to sit down, she discovered that the person in the straw pile turned over.

He removed the tailcoat that covered his face and tossed it aside, sat up and stretched lazily, then rubbed his sleepy eyes as he looked out the window at the faintly brightening sky. While yawning, he rummaged through the straw pile searching for his notebook where he wrote articles.

”Oh... it’s you?”

Clara recognized the familiar young man: ”You’ve been locked up too?”

Arthur was stunned for a moment; then suddenly recalled what Victor had told him yesterday, estimating this must be part of the Parisian Sleuth’s arrangement.

Arthur awkwardly laughed twice: ”The police seemed to think I was also involved in the case, so they brought me in for questioning. As they investigated, they discovered the previous crime I committed, so they sent me here.”

”You’ve committed a crime before?” Clara asked in surprise: ”You don’t look like someone who would get into fights in the streets.”

”No, I’m not a criminal.”

Arthur looked a bit sheepish: ”Do you remember I told you before that I owed someone ten thousand francs?”

”Yes! What was that all about?”

”Let me tell you a story.”

Arthur pressed his lips together: ”In Paris, there was a wool spinner with lofty aspirations, many children, deeply loving of his wife, and a firm believer in those republics. Last year, when he noticed the unstable political atmosphere in Paris, he bet his life savings on buying a batch of red wool, working day and night to weave a vast number of caps.

The quantity was enough for every street urchin in Paris to wear one on their head. And indeed, he was right. Last June, the republicans launched an uprising in Paris, and the spinner excitedly believed his caps would surely sell well. But to his great surprise, the republican uprising failed, and after the massacre at the Saint-Merri Chapel, no one dared to wear such caps any longer.

He had a wife and a slew of children, yet his wool hats remained unsold. Even willing to offer discounts, no hat merchant in Paris wanted them. At this moment, he furrowed his brow and devised a plan, like a banker calculating the removal of a ten million share investment in an unreliable enterprise.

He came up with a brilliant idea, like Rothschild among bankers, Napoleon before the Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire, and Wellington in the Battle of Waterloo. He hired a seemingly polite university student at a small tavern, claiming to be a great ship owner from the United States, and paid the student to help procure goods in Paris.

The spinner instructed him to go to a renowned hat store in Paris, where there was a red wool hat on display in the window. The student told the store owner he wanted to buy ten thousand of such hats. The hat shop owner felt like he stumbled upon great fortune, with hopes of a major business deal with the United States. He rushed to the spinner’s home and purchased the hats with cash. And... there’s no need for me to say what happened next.”

The story Arthur told wasn’t his personal experience, nor was it entirely made up.

Because this identity and background were adapted by Victor from a real case.

After being deceived, the major hat merchant reported the case to the Great Paris Police Hall, the case was supervised by Victor, who was serving in the Security Department at the time.

Unfortunately, the spinner and the student he hired took the money and fled Paris early on. Victor eventually found only a note at the spinner’s residence, clearly stating that Victor should take the blame for this, as if he hadn’t worked so hard during last year’s uprising, perhaps the Republic would already be established, and the caps wouldn’t have remained unsold, and he wouldn’t need to resort to such deceit.

Victor was so furious that he swore to capture those scammers, but before he could take action, he was forced into retirement due to power struggles within the Great Paris Police Hall.

Perhaps because he remembered the incident so vividly, when Arthur needed a suitable background, Victor simply adapted this story to vent his feelings.

Upon hearing this story, Clara couldn’t help but admonish the bright young man in her eyes: ”This is the result of your eagerness for quick success. You, like me, saw those people in Paris with their beautiful new dresses, fashionable jewelry, luxurious carriages, and were dazzled by this flashy world, wanting instantly to live the same as them. It is this mindset that allows so many ill-intentioned people to exploit the opportunity.”