And he is my man from that moment. I have lost the
book, of course, but I have smuggled my troops within the fort, I have
laid the train, I have transmitted the infection. The serpent is in the
garden. Time will do the work." The allusion was to Cooper's bookplate,
a red serpent about a golden staff.
"Not that I leave it altogether to time," says Cooper. "Once I have
handed over the book to Hobson, I make it a point to call on him at
least once a week. Do you see why? Left to himself, Hobson might soon
outlive the first flush of his enthusiasm for that book. But if Hobson
expects me to drop in at any moment, he is afraid I may find the book on
his library table and ask him whether he has read it. So he hides the
book in his bedroom. Then he is indeed mine. Some night he will be out
of sorts and find it hard to go to sleep. His eye will fall on the book
lying there on his table, and he will pick it up, at the same time
lighting a cigar. I shall never see that book again. But, I leave it to
you, who needs that book more, I or Hobson?"
But Cooper did not tell all. I know he has made use of shrewder tactics.
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