As a fact,
he had not omitted this precaution. The night was so dark that
the spy, who had seen the king but once and never Mr. Rassendyll,
did not recognize who the visitor was, but he rightly conceived
that he should serve his employer by tracking the steps of the
tall man who made so mysterious an arrival and so surreptitious a
departure from the suspected house. Accordingly, as Rudolf turned
the corner and Helena closed the window, a short, thickset figure
started cautiously out of the projecting shadow, and followed in
Rudolf's wake through the storm. The pair, tracker and tracked,
met nobody, save here and there a police constable keeping a most
unwilling beat. Even such were few, and for the most part more
intent on sheltering in the lee of a friendly wall and thereby
keeping a dry stitch or two on them than on taking note of
passers-by. On the pair went. Now Rudolf turned into the
Konigstrasse. As he did so, Bauer, who must have been nearly a
hundred yards behind (for he could not start till the shutters
were closed) quickened his pace and reduced the interval between
them to about seventy yards. This he might well have thought a
safe distance on a night so wild, when the rush of wind and the
pelt of the rain joined to hide the sound of footsteps.
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