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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20611-8.txt b/20611-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8deea80 --- /dev/null +++ b/20611-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12175 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, by E. Phillips Oppenheim + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo + +Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim + +Illustrator: Will Grefé + +Release Date: February 17, 2007 [EBook #20611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO + + BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM + +AUTHOR OF "THE VANISHED MESSENGER," "A PEOPLE'S MAN," "THE MISCHIEF +MAKER" + + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +WILL GREFÉ + +BOSTON +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY +1915 + +THE COLONIAL PRESS +C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + + +[Illustration: She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed +number fourteen _en plein_.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. An Unexpected Meeting + + II. By Accident or Design + + III. A Warning + + IV. Enter the American + + V. "Who is Mr. Grex?" + + VI. Cakes and Counsels + + VII. The Effrontery of Richard + + VIII. Up the Mountain + + IX. In the Mists + + X. Signs of Trouble + + XI. Hints to Hunterleys + + XII. "I Cannot Go!" + + XIII. Miss Grex at Home + + XIV. Dinner for Two + + XV. International Politics + + XVI. A Bargain with Jean Coulois + + XVII. Duty Interferes Again + + XVIII. A Midnight Conference + + XIX. "Take Me Away!" + + XX. Wily Mr. Draconmeyer + + XXI. Assassination! + + XXII. The Wrong Man + + XXIII. Trouble Brewing + + XXIV. Hunterleys Scents Murder + + XXV. Draconmeyer is Desperate + + XXVI. Extraordinary Love-Making + + XXVII. Playing for High Stakes + + XXVIII. To the Villa Mimosa + + XXIX. For His Country + + XXX. "Supposing I Take This Money" + + XXXI. Nearing a Crisis + + XXXII. An Interesting Meeting + + XXXIII. The Fates Are Kind + + XXXIV. Coffee for One Only + + XXXV. A New Map of the Earth + + XXXVI. Checkmate! + + XXXVII. An Amazing Elopement + +XXXVIII. Honeymooning + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed number fourteen _en +plein_ + +"For the last time, then--to Monte Carlo!" + +"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted + +"What we ask of France is that she looks the other way" + +"That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a cemetery to +which they take him!" + +Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side and Monsieur +Douaille on the other, were in the van. + + + + +MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING + + +The eyes of the man who had looked in upon a scene inordinately, +fantastically brilliant, underwent, after those first few moments of +comparative indifference, a curious transformation. He was contemplating +one of the sights of the world. Crowded around the two roulette tables, +promenading or lounging on the heavily cushioned divans against the +wall, he took note of a conglomeration of people representing, perhaps, +every grade of society, every nationality of importance, yet with a +curious common likeness by reason of their tribute paid to fashion. He +glanced unmoved at a beautiful Englishwoman who was a duchess but looked +otherwise; at an equally beautiful Frenchwoman, who looked like a +duchess but was--otherwise. On every side of him were women gowned by +the great artists of the day, women like flowers, all perfume and +softness and colour. His eyes passed them over almost carelessly. A +little tired with many weeks' travel in countries where the luxuries of +life were few, his senses were dulled to the magnificence of the scene, +his pulses as yet had not responded to its charm and wonder. And then +the change came. He saw a woman standing almost exactly opposite to him +at the nearest roulette table, and he gave a noticeable start. For a +moment his pale, expressionless face was transformed, his secret was at +any one's mercy. That, however, was the affair of an instant only. He +was used to shocks and he survived this one. He moved a little on one +side from his prominent place in the centre of the wide-flung doorway. +He stood by one of the divans and watched. + +She was tall and fair and slight. She wore a high-necked gown of +shimmering grey, a black hat, under which her many coils of hair shone +like gold, and a necklace of pearls around her throat, pearls on which +his eyes had rested with a curious expression. She played, unlike many +of her neighbours, with restraint, yet with interest, almost enthusiasm. +There was none of the strain of the gambler about her smooth, beautiful +face. Her delicately curved lips were free from the grim lines of +concentrated acquisitiveness. She was thirty-two years old but she +looked much younger as she stood there, her lips a little parted in a +pleased smile of anticipation. She was leaning a little over the table +and her eyes were fixed with humorous intentness upon the spinning +wheel. Even amongst that crowd of beautiful women she possessed a +certain individual distinction. She not only looked what she was--an +Englishwoman of good birth--but there was a certain delicate aloofness +about her expression and bearing which gave an added charm to a +personality which seemed to combine the two extremes of provocativeness +and reserve. One would have hesitated to address to her even the chance +remarks which pass so easily between strangers around the tables. + +"Violet here!" the man murmured under his breath. "Violet!" + +There was tragedy in the whisper, a gleam of something like tragedy, +too, in the look which passed between the man and the woman a few +moments later. With her hands full of plaques which she had just won, +she raised her eyes at last from the board. The smile upon her lips was +the delighted smile of a girl. And then, as she was in the act of +sweeping her winnings into her gold bag, she saw the man opposite. The +smile seemed to die from her lips; it appeared, indeed, to pass with all +else of expression from her face. The plaques dropped one by one through +her fingers, into the satchel. Her eyes remained fixed upon him as +though she were looking upon a ghost. The seconds seemed drawn out into +a grim hiatus of time. The croupier's voice, the muttered imprecation of +a loser by her side, the necessity of making some slight movement in +order to allow the passage of an arm from some one in search of +change--some such trifle at last brought her back from the shadows. Her +expression became at once more normal. She did not remove her eyes but +she very slightly inclined her head towards the man. He, in return, +bowed very gravely and without a smile. + +The table in front of her was cleared now. People were beginning to +consider their next coup. The voice of the croupier, with his +parrot-like cry, travelled down the board. + +_"Faites vos jeux, mesdames et messieurs."_ + +The woman made no effort to stake. After a moment's hesitation she +yielded up her place, and moving backwards, seated herself upon an empty +divan. Rapidly the thoughts began to form themselves in her mind. Her +delicate eyebrows drew closer together in a distinct frown. After that +first shock, that queer turmoil of feeling, beyond analysis, yet having +within it some entirely unexpected constituent, she found herself +disposed to be angry. The sensation had not subsided when a moment or +two later she was conscious that the man whose coming had proved so +disturbing was standing before her. + +"Good afternoon," he said, a little stiffly. + +She raised her eyes. The frown was still upon her forehead, although to +a certain extent it was contradicted by a slight tremulousness of the +lips. + +"Good afternoon, Henry!" + +For some reason or other, further speech seemed to him a difficult +matter. He moved towards the vacant place. + +"If you have no objection," he observed, as he seated himself. + +She unfurled her fan--an ancient but wonderful weapon of defence. It +gave her a brief respite. Then she looked at him calmly. + +"Of all places in the world," she murmured, "to meet you here!" + +"Is it so extraordinary?" + +"I find it so," she admitted. "You don't at all fit in, you know. A +scene like this," she added, glancing around, "would scarcely ever be +likely to attract you for its own sake, would it?" + +"It doesn't particularly," he admitted. + +"Then why have you come?" + +He remained silent. The frown upon her forehead deepened. + +"Perhaps," she went on coldly, "I can help you with your reply. You have +come because you are not satisfied with the reports of the private +detective whom you have engaged to watch me. You have come to supplement +them by your own investigation." + +His frown matched hers. The coldness of his tone was rendered even more +bitter by its note of anger. + +"I am surprised that you should have thought me capable of such an +action," he declared. "All I can say is that it is thoroughly in keeping +with your other suspicions of me, and that I find it absolutely +unworthy." + +She laughed a little incredulously, not altogether naturally. + +"My dear Henry," she protested, "I cannot flatter myself that there is +any other person in the world sufficiently interested in my movements to +have me watched." + +"Are you really under the impression that that is the case?" he enquired +grimly. + +"It isn't a matter of impression at all," she retorted. "It is the +truth. I was followed from London, I was watched at Cannes, I am watched +here day by day--by a little man in a brown suit and a Homburg hat, and +with a habit of lounging. He lounges under my windows, he is probably +lounging across the way now. He has lounged within fifty yards of me for +the last three weeks, and to tell you the truth I am tired of him. +Couldn't I have a week's holiday? I'll keep a diary and tell you all +that you want to know." + +"Is it sufficient," he asked, "for me to assure you, upon my word of +honour, that I know nothing of this?" + +She was somewhat startled. She turned and looked at him. His tone was +convincing. He had not the face of a man whose word of honour was a +negligible thing. + +"But, Henry," she protested, "I tell you that there is no doubt about +the matter. I am watched day and night--I, an insignificant person whose +doings can be of no possible interest save to you and you only." + +The man did not at once reply. His thoughts seemed to have wandered off +for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone had lost its note of +resentment. + +"I do not blame you for your suspicion," he said calmly, "although I can +assure you that I have never had any idea of having you watched. It is +not a course which could possibly have suggested itself to me, even in +my most unhappy moments." + +She was puzzled--at once puzzled and interested. + +"I am so glad to hear this," she said, "and of course I believe you, but +there the fact is. I think that you will agree with me that it is +curious." + +"Isn't it possible," he ventured to suggest, "that it is your companions +who are the object of this man's vigilance? You are not, I presume, +alone here?" + +She eyed him a little defiantly. + +"I am here," she announced, "with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +He heard her without any change of expression, but somehow or other it +was easy to see that her news, although more than half expected, had +stung him. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer," he repeated, with slight emphasis on the +latter portion of the sentence. + +"Certainly! I am sorry," she went on, a moment late, "that my companions +do not meet with your approval. That, however, I could scarcely expect, +considering--" + +"Considering what?" he insisted, watching her steadfastly. + +"Considering all things," she replied, after a moment's pause. + +"Mrs. Draconmeyer is still an invalid?" + +"She is still an invalid." + +The slightly satirical note in his question seemed to provoke a certain +defiance in her manner as she turned a little sideways towards him. She +moved her fan slowly backwards and forwards, her head was thrown back, +her manner was almost belligerent. He took up the challenge. He asked +her in plain words the question which his eyes had already demanded. + +"I find myself constrained to ask you," he said, in a studiously +measured tone, "by what means you became possessed of the pearls you are +wearing? I do not seem to remember them as your property." + +Her eyes flashed. + +"Don't you think," she returned, "that you are a little outstepping your +privileges?" + +"Not in the least," he declared. "You are my wife, and although you have +defied me in a certain matter, you are still subject to my authority. I +see you wearing jewels in public of which you were certainly not +possessed a few months ago, and which neither your fortune nor mine--" + +"Let me set your mind at rest," she interrupted icily. "The pearls are +not mine. They belong to Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +"Mrs. Draconmeyer!" + +"I am wearing them," she continued, "at Linda's special request. She is +too unwell to appear in public and she is very seldom able to wear any +of her wonderful jewelry. It gives her pleasure to see them sometimes +upon other people." + +He remained quite silent for several moments. He was, in reality, +passionately angry. Self-restraint, however, had become such a habit of +his that there were no indications of his condition save in the slight +twitchings of his long fingers and a tightening at the corners of his +lips. She, however, recognised the symptoms without difficulty. + +"Since you defy my authority," he said, "may I ask whether my wishes +have any weight with you?" + +"That depends," she replied. + +"It is my earnest wish," he went on, "that you do not wear another +woman's jewelry, either in public or privately." + +She appeared to reflect for a moment. In effect she was struggling +against a conviction that his request was reasonable. + +"I am sorry," she said at last. "I see no harm whatever in my doing so +in this particular instance. It gives great pleasure to poor Mrs. +Draconmeyer to see her jewels and admire them, even if she is unable to +wear them herself. It gives me an intense joy which even a normal man +could scarcely be expected to understand; certainly not you. I am sorry +that I cannot humour you." + +He leaned towards her. + +"Not if I beg you?" + +She looked at him fixedly, looked at him as though she searched for +something in his face, or was pondering over something in his tone. It +was a moment which might have meant much. If she could have seen into +his heart and understood the fierce jealousy which prompted his words, +it might have meant a very great deal. As it was, her contemplation +appeared to be unsatisfactory. + +"I am sorry that you should lay so much stress upon so small a thing," +she said. "You were always unreasonable. Your present request is another +instance of it. I was enjoying myself very much indeed until you came, +and now you wish to deprive me of one of my chief pleasures. I cannot +humour you." + +He turned away. Even then chance might have intervened. The moment her +words had been spoken she realised a certain injustice in them, realised +a little, perhaps, the point of view of this man who was still her +husband. She watched him almost eagerly, hoping to find some sign in his +face that it was not only his stubborn pride which spoke. She failed, +however. He was one of those men who know too well how to wear the mask. + +"May I ask where you are staying here?" he enquired presently. + +"At the Hotel de Paris." + +"It is unfortunate," he observed. "I will move my quarters to-morrow." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"Monte Carlo is full of hotels," she remarked, "but it seems a pity that +you should move. The place is large enough for both of us." + +"It is not long," he retorted, "since you found London itself too small. +I should be very sorry to spoil your holiday." + +Her eyes seemed to dwell for a moment upon the Spanish dancer who sat at +the table opposite them, a woman whose name had once been a household +word, dethroned now, yet still insistent for notice and homage; +commanding them, even, with the wreck of her beauty and the splendour of +her clothes. + +"It seems a queer place, this," she observed, "for domestic +disagreements. Let us try to avoid disputable subjects. Shall I be too +inquisitive if I ask you once more what in the name of all that is +unsuitable brought you to such a place as Monte Carlo?" + +He fenced with her question. Perhaps he resented the slightly ironical +note in her tone. Perhaps there were other reasons. + +"Why should I not come to Monte Carlo?" he enquired. "Parliament is not +particularly amusing when one is in opposition, and I do not hunt. The +whole world amuses itself here." + +"But not you," she replied quickly. "I know you better than that, my +dear Henry. There is nothing here or in this atmosphere which could +possibly attract you for long. There is no work for you to do--work, the +very breath of your body; work, the one thing you live for and were made +for; work, you man of sawdust and red tape." + +"Am I as bad as all that?" he asked quietly. + +She fingered her pearls for a moment. + +"Perhaps I haven't the right to complain," she acknowledged. "I have +gone my own way always. But if one is permitted to look for a moment +into the past, can you tell me a single hour when work was not the +prominent thought in your brain, the idol before which you worshipped? +Why, even our honeymoon was spent canvassing!" + +"The election was an unexpected one," he reminded her. + +"It would have been the same thing," she declared. "The only literature +which you really understand is a Blue Book, and the only music you hear +is the chiming of Big Ben." + +"You speak," he remarked, "as though you resented these things. Yet you +knew before you married me that I had ambitions, that I did not propose +to lead an idle life." + +"Oh, yes, I knew!" she assented drily. "But we are wandering from the +point. I am still wondering what has brought you here. Have you come +direct from England?" + +He shook his head. + +"I came to-day from Bordighera." + +"More and more mysterious," she murmured. "Bordighera, indeed! I thought +you once told me that you hated the Riviera." + +"So I do," he agreed. + +"And yet you are here?" + +"Yet I am here." + +"And you have not come to look after me," she went on, "and the mystery +of the little brown man who watches me is still unexplained." + +"I know nothing about that person," he asserted, "and I had no idea that +you were here." + +"Or you would not have come?" she challenged him. + +"Your presence," he retorted, nettled into forgetting himself for a +moment, "would not have altered my plans in the slightest." + +"Then you have a reason for coming!" she exclaimed quickly. + +He gave no sign of annoyance but his lips were firmly closed. She +watched him steadfastly. + +"I wonder at myself no longer," she continued. "I do not think that any +woman in the world could ever live with a man to whom secrecy is as +great a necessity as the very air he breathes. No wonder, my dear Henry, +the politicians speak so well of you, and so confidently of your +brilliant future!" + +"I am not aware," he observed calmly, "that I have ever been unduly +secretive so far as you are concerned. During the last few months, +however, of our life together, you must remember that you chose to +receive on terms of friendship a person whom I regard--" + +Her eyes suddenly flashed him a warning. He dropped his voice almost to +a whisper. A man was approaching them. + +"As an enemy," he concluded, under his breath. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN + + +The newcomer, who had presented himself now before Hunterleys and his +wife, was a man of somewhat unusual appearance. He was tall, +thickly-built, his black beard and closely-cropped hair were streaked +with grey, he wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and he carried his head a +little thrust forward, as though, even with the aid of his glasses, he +was still short-sighted. He had the air of a foreigner, although his +tone, when he spoke, was without accent. He held out his hand a little +tentatively, an action, however, which Hunterleys appeared to ignore. + +"My dear Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "This is a surprise, indeed! Monte +Carlo is absolutely the last place in the world in which I should have +expected to come across you. The Sporting Club, too! Well, well, well!" + +Hunterleys, standing easily with his hands behind his back, raised his +eyebrows. The two men were of curiously contrasting types. Hunterleys, +slim and distinguished, had still the frame of an athlete, +notwithstanding his colourless cheeks and the worn lines about his eyes. +He was dressed with extreme simplicity. His deep-set eyes and sensitive +mouth were in marked contrast to the other's coarser mould of features +and rather full lips. Yet there was about both men an air of strength, +strength developed, perhaps, in a different manner, but still an +appreciable quality. + +"They say that the whole world is here," Hunterleys remarked. "Why may +not I form a harmless unit of it?" + +"Why not, indeed?" Draconmeyer assented heartily. "The most serious of +us must have our frivolous moments. I hope that you will dine with us +to-night? We shall be quite alone." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Thank you," he said, "I have another engagement pending." + +Mr. Draconmeyer was filled with polite regrets, but he did not renew the +invitation. + +"When did you arrive?" he asked. + +"A few hours ago," Hunterleys replied. + +"By the Luxe? How strange! I went down to meet it." + +"I came from the other side." + +"Ah!" + +Mr. Draconmeyer's ejaculation was interrogative, Hunterleys hesitated +for a moment. Then he continued with a little shrug of the shoulders. + +"I have been staying at San Remo and Bordighera." + +Mr. Draconmeyer was much interested. + +"So that is where you have been burying yourself," he remarked. "I saw +from the papers that you had accepted a six months' pair. Surely, +though, you don't find the Italian Riviera very amusing?" + +"I am abroad for a rest," Hunterleys replied. + +Mr. Draconmeyer smiled curiously. + +"A rest?" he repeated. "That rather belies your reputation, you know. +They say that you are tireless, even when you are out of office." + +Hunterleys turned from the speaker towards his wife. + +"I have not tempted fortune myself yet," he observed. "I think that I +shall have a look into the baccarat room. Do you care to stroll that +way?" + +Lady Hunterleys rose at once to her feet. Mr. Draconmeyer, however, +intervened. He laid his fingers upon Hunterleys' arm. + +"Sir Henry," he begged, "our meeting has been quite unexpected, but in a +sense it is opportune. Will you be good enough to give me five minutes' +conversation?" + +"With pleasure," Hunterleys replied. "My time is quite at your disposal, +if you have anything to say." + +Draconmeyer led the way out of the crowded room, along the passage and +into the little bar. They found a quiet corner and two easy-chairs. +Draconmeyer gave an order to a waiter. For a few moments their +conversation was conventional. + +"I trust that you think your wife looking better for the change?" +Draconmeyer began. "Her companionship is a source of great pleasure and +relief to my poor wife." + +"Does the conversation you wish to have with me refer to Lady +Hunterleys?" her husband asked quietly. "If so, I should like to say a +few preliminary words which would, I hope, place the matter at once +beyond the possibility of any misunderstanding." + +Draconmeyer moved a little uneasily in his place. + +"I have other things to say," he declared, "yet I would gladly hear what +is in your mind at the present moment. You do not, I fear, approve of +this friendship between my wife and Lady Hunterleys." + +Hunterleys was uncompromising, almost curt. + +"I do not," he agreed. "It is probably no secret to you that my wife and +I are temporarily estranged," he continued. "The chief reason for that +estrangement is that I forbade her your house or your acquaintance." + +Draconmeyer was a little taken back. Such extreme directness of speech +was difficult to deal with. + +"My dear Sir Henry," he protested, "you distress me. I do not understand +your attitude in this matter at all." + +"There is no necessity for you to understand it," Hunterleys retorted +coolly. "I claim the right to regulate my wife's visiting list. She +denies that right." + +"Apart from the question of marital control," Mr. Draconmeyer persisted, +"will you tell me why you consider my wife and myself unfit persons to +find a place amongst Lady Hunterleys' acquaintances?" + +"No man is bound to give the reason for his dislikes," Hunterleys +replied. "Of your wife I know nothing. Nobody does. I have every +sympathy with her unfortunate condition, and that is all. You personally +I dislike. I dislike my wife to be seen with you, I dislike having her +name associated with yours in any manner whatsoever. I dislike sitting +with you here myself. I only hope that the five minutes' conversation +which you have asked for will not be exceeded." + +Mr. Draconmeyer had the air of a benevolent person who is deeply pained. + +"Sir Henry," he sighed, "it is not possible for me to disregard such +plain speaking. Forgive me if I am a little taken aback by it. You are +known to be a very skilful diplomatist and you have many weapons in your +armoury. One scarcely expected, however--one's breath is a little taken +away by such candour." + +"I am not aware," Hunterleys said calmly, "that the question of +diplomacy need come in when one's only idea is to regulate the personal +acquaintances of oneself and one's wife." + +Mr. Draconmeyer sat quite still for a moment, stroking his black beard. +His eyes were fixed upon the carpet. He seemed to be struggling with a +problem. + +"You have taken the ground from beneath my feet," he declared. "Your +opinion of me is such that I hesitate to proceed at all in the matter +which I desired to discuss with you." + +"That," Hunterleys replied, "is entirely for you to decide. I am +perfectly willing to listen to anything you have to say--all the more +ready because now there can be no possibility of any misunderstanding +between us." + +"Very well," Mr. Draconmeyer assented, "I will proceed. After all, I am +not sure that the personal element enters into what I was about to say. +I was going to propose not exactly an alliance--that, of course, would +not be possible--but I was certainly going to suggest that you and I +might be of some service to one another." + +"In what way?" + +"I call myself an Englishman," Mr. Draconmeyer went on. "I have made +large sums of money in England, I have grown to love England and English +ways. Yet I came, as you know, from Berlin. The position which I hold in +your city is still the position of president of the greatest German bank +in the world. It is German finance which I have directed, and with +German money I have made my fortune. To be frank with you, however, +after these many years in London I have grown to feel myself very much +of an Englishman." + +Hunterleys was sitting perfectly still. His face was rigid but +expressionless. He was listening intently. + +"On the other hand," Mr. Draconmeyer proceeded slowly, "I wish to be +wholly frank with you. At heart I must remain always a German. The +interests of my country must always be paramount. But listen. In Germany +there are, as you know, two parties, and year by year they are drawing +further apart. I will not allude to factions. I will speak broadly. +There is the war party and there is the peace party. I belong to the +peace party. I belong to it as a German, and I belong to it as a devoted +friend of England, and if the threatened conflict between the two should +come, I should take my stand as a peace-loving German-cum-Englishman +against the war party even of my own country." + +Hunterleys still made no sign. Yet for one who knew him it was easy to +realise that he was listening and thinking with absorbed interest. + +"So far," Draconmeyer pointed out, "I have laid my cards on the table. I +have told you the solemn truth. I regret that it did not occur to me to +do so many months ago in London. Now to proceed. I ask you to emulate my +frankness, and in return I will give you information which should enable +us to work hand in hand for the peace which we both desire." + +"You ask me," Hunterleys said thoughtfully, "to be perfectly frank with +you. In what respect? What is it that you wish from me?" + +"Not political information," Mr. Draconmeyer declared, his eyes blinking +behind his glasses. "For that I certainly should not come to you. I only +wish to ask you a question, and I must ask it so that we may meet on a +common ground of confidence. Are you here in Monte Carlo to look after +your wife, or in search of change of air and scene? Is that your honest +motive for being here? Or is there any other reason in the world which +has prompted you to come to Monte Carlo during this particular month--I +might almost say this particular week?" + +Hunterleys' attitude was that of a man who holds in his hand a puzzle +and is doubtful where to commence in his efforts to solve it. + +"Are you not a little mysterious this afternoon, Mr. Draconmeyer?" he +asked coldly. "Or are you trying to incite a supposititious curiosity? I +really cannot see the drift of your question." + +"Answer it," Mr. Draconmeyer insisted. + +Hunterleys took a cigarette from his case, tapped it upon the table and +lit it in leisurely fashion. + +"If you have any idea," he said, "that I came here to confront my wife, +or to interfere in any way with her movements, let me assure you that +you are mistaken. I had no idea that Lady Hunterleys was in Monte Carlo. +I am here because I have a six months' holiday, and a holiday for the +average Englishman between January and April generally means, as you +must be aware, the Riviera. I have tried Bordighera and San Remo. I have +found them, as I no doubt shall find this place, wearisome. In the end I +suppose I shall drift back to London." + +Mr. Draconmeyer frowned. + +"You left London," he remarked tersely, "on December first. It is to-day +February twentieth. Do you wish me to understand that you have been at +Bordighera and San Remo all that time?" + +"How did you know when I left London?" Hunterleys demanded. + +Mr. Draconmeyer pursed his lips. + +"I heard of your departure from London entirely by accident," he said. +"Your wife, for some reason or other, declined to discuss your +movements. I imagine that she was acting in accordance with your +wishes." + +"I see," Hunterleys observed coolly. "And your present anxiety is to +know where I spent the intervening time, and why I am here in Monte +Carlo? Frankly, Mr. Draconmeyer, I look upon this close interest in my +movements as an impertinence. My travels have been of no importance, but +they concern myself only. I have no confidence to offer respecting them. +If I had, it would not be to you that I should unburden myself." + +"You suspect me, then? You doubt my integrity?" + +"Not at all," Hunterleys assured his questioner. "For anything I know to +the contrary, you are, outside the world of finance, one of the dullest +and most harmless men existing. My own position is simply as I explained +it during the first few sentences we exchanged. I do not like you, I +detest my wife's name being associated with yours, and for that reason, +the less I see of you the better I am pleased." + +Mr. Draconmeyer nodded thoughtfully. He was, to all appearance, studying +the pattern of the carpet. For once in his life he was genuinely +puzzled. Was this man by his side merely a jealous husband, or had he +any idea of the greater game which was being played around them? Had he, +by any chance, arrived to take part in it? Was it wise, in any case, to +pursue the subject further? Yet if he abandoned it at this juncture, it +must be with a sense of failure, and failure was a thing to which he was +not accustomed. + +"Your frankness," he admitted grimly, "is almost exhilarating. Our +personal relations being so clearly defined, I am inclined to go further +even than I had intended. We cannot now possibly misunderstand one +another. Supposing I were to tell you that your arrival in Monte Carlo, +accidental though it may be, is in a sense opportune; that you may, in a +short time meet here one or two politicians, friends of mine, with whom +an interchange of views might be agreeable? Supposing I were to offer my +services as an intermediary? You would like to bring about better +relations with my country, would you not, Sir Henry? You are admittedly +a statesman and an influential man in your Party. I am only a banker, it +is true, but I have been taken into the confidence of those who direct +the destinies of my country." + +Hunterleys' face reflected none of the other's earnestness. He seemed, +indeed, a little bored, and he answered almost irritably. + +"I am much obliged to you," he said, "but Monte Carlo seems scarcely the +place to me for political discussions, added to which I have no official +position. I could not receive or exchange confidences. While my Party is +out of power, there is nothing left for us but to mark time. I dare say +you mean well, Mr. Draconmeyer," he added, rising to his feet, "but I am +here to forget politics altogether, if I can. If you will excuse me, I +think I will look in at the baccarat rooms." + +He was on the point of departure when through the open doorway which +communicated with the baccarat rooms beyond came a man of sufficiently +arresting personality, a man remarkably fat, with close-cropped grey +hair which stuck up like bristles all over his head; a huge, +clean-shaven face which seemed concentrated at that moment in one +tremendous smile of overwhelming good-humour. He held by the hand a +little French girl, dark, small, looking almost like a marionette in her +slim tailor-made costume. He recognised Draconmeyer with enthusiasm. + +"My friend Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, in stentorian tones, "baccarat is +the greatest game in the world. I have won--I, who know nothing about +it, have won a hundred louis. It is amazing! There is no place like this +in the world. We are here to drink a bottle of wine together, +mademoiselle and I, mademoiselle who was at once my instructress and my +mascot. Afterwards we go to the jeweler's. Why not? A fair division of +the spoils--fifty louis for myself, fifty louis for a bracelet for +mademoiselle. And then--" + +He broke off suddenly. His gesture was almost dramatic. + +"I am forgotten!" he cried, holding out his hand to +Hunterleys,--"forgotten already! Sir Henry, there are many who forget me +as a humble Minister of my master, but there are few who forget me +physically. I am Selingman. We met in Berlin, six years ago. You came +with your great Foreign Secretary." + +"I remember you perfectly," Hunterleys assured him, as he submitted to +the newcomer's vigorous handshake. "We shall meet again, I trust." + +Selingman thrust his arm through Hunterleys' as though to prevent his +departure. + +"You shall not run away!" he declared. "I introduce both of you--Mr. +Draconmeyer, the great Anglo-German banker; Sir Henry Hunterleys, the +English politician--to Mademoiselle Estelle Nipon, of the Opera House. +Now we all know one another. We shall be good friends. We will share +that bottle of champagne." + +"One bottle between four!" mademoiselle laughed, poutingly. "And I am +parched! I have taught monsieur baccarat. I am exhausted." + +"A magnum!" Selingman ordered in a voice of thunder, shaking his fist at +the startled waiter. "We seat ourselves here at the round table. +Mademoiselle, we will drink champagne together until the eyes of all of +us sparkle as yours do. We will drink champagne until we do not believe +that there is such a thing as losing at games or in life. We will drink +champagne until we all four believe that we have been brought up +together, that we are bosom friends of a lifetime. See, this is how we +will place ourselves. Mademoiselle, if the others make love to you, take +no notice. It is I who have put fifty louis in one pocket for that +bracelet. Do not trust Sir Henry there; he has a reputation." + +As usual, the overpowering Selingman had his way. Neither Draconmeyer +nor Hunterleys attempted to escape. They took their places at the table. +They drank champagne and they listened to Selingman. All the time he +talked, save when mademoiselle interrupted him. Seated upon a chair +which seemed absurdly inadequate, his great stomach with its vast +expanse of white waistcoat in full view, his short legs doubled up +beneath him, he beamed upon them all with a smile which never failed. + +"It is a wonderful place," he declared, as he lifted his glass for the +fifth time. "We will drink to it, this Monte Carlo. It is here that they +come from all quarters of the world--the ladies who charm away our +hearts," he added, bowing to mademoiselle, "the financiers whose word +can shake the money-markets of the world, and the politicians who +unbend, perhaps, just a little in the sunshine here, however cold and +inflexible they may be under their own austere skies. For the last time, +then--to Monte Carlo! To Monte Carlo, dear mademoiselle!--messieurs!" + +[Illustration: "For the last time, then--to Monte Carlo!"] + +They drank the toast and a few minutes later Hunterleys slipped away. +The two men looked after him. The smile seemed gradually to leave +Selingman's lips, his face was large and impressive. + +"Run and fetch your cloak, dear," he said to the girl. + +She obeyed at once. Selingman leaned across the table towards his +companion. + +"What does Hunterleys do here?" he asked. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"Who knows?" he answered. "Perhaps he has come to look after his wife. +He has been to Bordighera and San Remo." + +"Is that all he told you of his movements?" + +"That is all," Draconmeyer admitted. "He was suspicious. I made no +progress." + +"Bordighera and San Remo!" Selingman muttered under his breath. "For a +day, perhaps, or two." + +"What do you know about him?" Draconmeyer asked, his eyes suddenly +bright beneath his spectacles. "I have been suspicious ever since I met +him, an hour ago. He left England on December first." + +"It is true," Selingman assented. "He crossed to Paris, and--mark the +cunning of it--he returned to England. That same night he travelled to +Germany. We lost him in Vienna and found him again in Sofia. What does +it mean, I wonder? What does it mean?" + +"I have been talking to him for twenty minutes in here before you came," +Draconmeyer said. "I tried to gain his confidence. He told me nothing. +He never even mentioned that journey of his." + +Selingman was sitting drumming upon the table with his broad fingertips. + +"Sofia!" he murmured. "And now--here! Draconmeyer, there is work before +us. I know men, I tell you. I know Hunterleys. I watched him, I listened +to him in Berlin six years ago. He was with his master then but he had +nothing to learn from him. He is of the stuff diplomats are fashioned +of. He has it in his blood. There is work before us, Draconmeyer." + +"If monsieur is ready!" mademoiselle interposed, a little petulantly, +letting the tip of her boa play for a moment on his cheek. + +Selingman finished his wine and rose to his feet. Once more the smile +encompassed his face. Of what account, after all, were the wanderings of +this melancholy Englishman! There was mademoiselle's bracelet to be +bought, and perhaps a few flowers. Selingman pulled down his waistcoat +and accepted his grey Homburg hat from the vestiaire. He held +mademoiselle's fingers as they descended the stairs. He looked like a +school-boy of enormous proportions on his way to a feast. + +"We drank to Monte Carlo in champagne," he declared, as they turned on +to the terrace and descended the stone steps, "but, dear Estelle, we +drink to it from our hearts with every breath we draw of this wonderful +air, every time our feet touch the buoyant ground. Believe me, little +one, the other things are of no account. The true philosophy of life and +living is here in Monte Carlo. You and I will solve it." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WARNING + + +Hunterleys dined alone at a small round table, set in a remote corner of +the great restaurant attached to the Hotel de Paris. The scene around +him was full of colour and interest. A scarlet-coated band made +wonderful music. The toilettes of the women who kept passing backwards +and forwards, on their way to the various tables, were marvellous; in +their way unique. The lights and flowers of the room, its appointments +and adornments, all represented the last word in luxury. Everywhere was +colour, everywhere an almost strained attempt to impress upon the +passerby the fact that this was no ordinary holiday resort but the giant +pleasure-ground of all in the world who had money to throw away and the +capacity for enjoyment. Only once a more somber note seemed struck when +Mrs. Draconmeyer, leaning on her husband's arm and accompanied by a +nurse and Lady Hunterleys, passed to their table. Hunterleys' eyes +followed the little party until they had reached their destination and +taken their places. His wife was wearing black and she had discarded the +pearls which had hung around her neck during the afternoon. She wore +only a collar of diamonds, his gift. Her hair was far less elaborately +coiffured and her toilette less magnificent than the toilettes of the +women by whom she was surrounded. Yet as he looked from his corner +across the room at her, Hunterleys realised as he had realised instantly +twelve years ago when he had first met her, that she was incomparable. +There was no other woman in the whole of that great restaurant with her +air of quiet elegance; no other woman so faultless in the smaller +details of her toilette and person. Hunterleys watched with +expressionless face but with anger growing in his heart, as he saw +Draconmeyer bending towards her, accepting her suggestions about the +dinner, laughing when she laughed, watching almost humbly for her +pleasure or displeasure. It was a cursed mischance which had brought him +to Monte Carlo! + +Hunterleys hurried over his dinner, and without even going to his room +for a hat or coat, walked across the square in the soft twilight of an +unusually warm February evening and took a table outside the Café de +Paris, where he ordered coffee. Around him was a far more cosmopolitan +crowd, increasing every moment in volume. Every language was being +spoken, mostly German. As a rule, such a gathering of people was, in its +way, interesting to Hunterleys. To-night his thoughts were truant. He +forgot his strenuous life of the last three months, the dangers and +discomforts through which he had passed, the curious sequence of events +which had brought him, full of anticipation, nerved for a crisis, to +Monte Carlo of all places in the world. He forgot that he was in the +midst of great events, himself likely to take a hand in them. His +thoughts took, rarely enough for him, a purely personal and sentimental +turn. He thought of the earliest days of his marriage, when he and his +wife had wandered about the gardens of his old home in Wiltshire on +spring evenings such as these, and had talked sometimes lightly, +sometimes seriously, of the future. Almost as he sat there in the midst +of that noisy crowd, he could catch the faint perfume of hyacinths from +the borders along which they had passed and the trimly-cut flower-beds +which fringed the deep green lawn. Almost he could hear the chiming of +the old stable clock, the clear note of a thrush singing. A puff of wind +brought them a waft of fainter odour from the wild violets which +carpeted the woods. Then the darkness crept around them, a star came +out. Hand in hand they turned towards the house and into the library, +where a wood fire was burning on the grate. His thoughts travelled on. A +wave of tenderness had assailed him. Then he was awakened by the +waiter's voice at his elbow. + +"Le café, monsieur." + +He sat up in his chair. His dreaming moments were few and this one had +passed. He set his heel upon that tide of weakening memories, sipped his +coffee and looked out upon the crowd. Three or four times he glanced at +his watch impatiently. Precisely at nine o'clock, a man moved from +somewhere in the throng behind and took the vacant chair by his side. + +"If one could trouble monsieur for a match!" + +Hunterleys turned towards the newcomer as he handed his matchbox. He was +a young man of medium height, with sandy complexion, a little freckled, +and with a straggling fair moustache. He had keen grey eyes and the +faintest trace of a Scotch accent. He edged his chair a little nearer to +Hunterleys. + +"Much obliged," he said. "Wonderful evening, isn't it?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Have you anything to tell me, David?" he asked. + +"We are right in the thick of it," the other replied, his tone a little +lowered. "There is more to tell than I like." + +"Shall we stroll along the Terrace?" Hunterleys suggested. + +"Don't move from your seat," the young man enjoined. "You are watched +here, and so am I, in a way, although it's more my news they want to +censor than anything personal. This crowd of Germans around us, without +a single vacant chair, is the best barrier we can have. Listen. +Selingman is here." + +"I saw him this afternoon at the Sporting Club," Hunterleys murmured. + +"Douaille will be here the day after to-morrow, if he has not already +arrived," the newcomer continued. "It was given out in Paris that he was +going down to Marseilles and from there to Toulon, to spend three days +with the fleet. They sent a paragraph into our office there. As a matter +of fact, he's coming straight on here. I can't learn how, exactly, but I +fancy by motor-car." + +"You're sure that Douaille is coming himself?" Hunterleys asked +anxiously. + +"Absolutely! His wife and family have been bustled down to Mentone, so +as to afford a pretext for his presence here if the papers get hold of +it. I have found out for certain that they came at a moment's notice and +were not expecting to leave home at all. Douaille will have full powers, +and the conference will take place at the Villa Mimosa. That will be the +headquarters of the whole thing.... Look out, Sir Henry. They've got +their eyes on us. The little fellow in brown, close behind, is hand in +glove with the police. They tried to get me into a row last night. It's +only my journalism they suspect, but they'd shove me over the frontier +at the least excuse. They're certain to try something of the sort with +you, if they get any idea that we are on the scent. Sit tight, sir, and +watch. I'm off. You know where to find me." + +The young man raised his hat and left Hunterleys with the polite +farewell of a stranger. His seat was almost immediately seized by a +small man dressed in brown, a man with a black imperial and moustache +curled upwards. As Hunterleys glanced towards him, he raised his Hamburg +hat politely and smiled. + +"Monsieur's friend has departed?" he enquired. "This seat is +disengaged?" + +"As you see," Hunterleys replied. + +The little man smiled his thanks, seated himself with a sigh of content +and ordered coffee from a passing waiter. + +"Monsieur is doubtless a stranger to Monte Carlo?" + +"It is my second visit only," Hunterleys admitted. + +"For myself I am an habitué," the little man continued, "I might almost +say a resident. Therefore, all faces soon become familiar to me. +Directly I saw monsieur, I knew that he was not a frequenter." + +Hunterleys turned a little in his chair and surveyed his neighbour +curiously. The man was neatly dressed and he spoke English with scarcely +any accent. His shoulders and upturned moustache gave him a military +appearance. + +"There is nothing I envy any one so much in life," he proceeded, "as +coming to Monte Carlo for the first or second time. There is so much to +know, to see, to understand." + +Hunterleys made no effort to discourage his companion's obvious attempts +to be friendly. The latter talked with spirit for some time. + +"If it would not be regarded as a liberty," he said at last, as +Hunterleys rose to move off, "may I be permitted to present myself? My +name is Hugot? I am half English, half French. Years ago my health broke +down and I accepted a position in a bank here. Since then I have come in +to money. If I have a hobby in life, it is to show my beloved Monte +Carlo to strangers. If monsieur would do me the honour to spare me a few +hours to-night, later on, I would endeavour to see that he was amused." + +Hunterleys shook his head. He remained, however, perfectly courteous. He +had a conviction that this was the man who had been watching his wife. + +"You are very kind, sir," he replied. "I am here only for a few days and +for the benefit of my health. I dare not risk late hours. We shall meet +again, I trust." + +He strolled off and as he hesitated upon the steps of the Casino he +glanced across towards the Hotel de Paris. At that moment a woman came +out, a light cloak over her evening gown. She was followed by an +attendant. Hunterleys recognised his wife and watched them with a +curious little thrill. They turned towards the Terrace. Very slowly he, +too, moved in the same direction. They passed through the gardens of the +Hotel de Paris, and Hunterleys, keeping to the left, met them upon the +Terrace as they emerged. As they came near he accosted them. + +"Violet," he began. + +She started. + +"I beg your pardon," she said. "I did not recognise you." + +"Haven't you been told," he asked stiffly, "that the Terrace is unsafe +for women after twilight?" + +"Very often," she assented, with that little smile at the corners of her +lips which once he had found so charming and which now half maddened +him. "Unfortunately, I have a propensity for doing things which are +dangerous. Besides, I have my maid." + +"Another woman is no protection," he declared. + +"Susanne can shriek," Lady Hunterleys assured him. "She has wonderful +lungs and she loves to use them. She would shriek at the least +provocation." + +"And meanwhile," Hunterleys observed drily, "while she is indulging in +her vocal exercises, things happen. If you wish to promenade here, +permit me to be your escort." + +She hesitated for a moment, frowning. Then she continued her walk. + +"You are very kind," she assented. "Perhaps you are like me, though, and +feel the restfulness of a quiet place after these throngs and throngs of +people." + +They passed slowly down the broad promenade, deserted now save for one +or two loungers like themselves, and a few other furtive, hurrying +figures. In front of them stretched an arc of glittering lights--the +wonderful Bay of Mentone, with Bordighera on the distant sea-board; +higher up, the twinkling lights from the villas built on the rocky +hills. And at their feet the sea, calm, deep, blue, lapping the narrow +belt of hard sand, scintillating with the reflection of a thousand +lights; on the horizon a blood-red moon, only half emerged from the sea. + +"Since we have met, Henry," Lady Hunterleys said at last, "there is +something which I should like to say to you." + +"Certainly!" + +She glanced behind. Susanne had fallen discreetly into the rear. She was +a new importation and she had no idea as to the identity of the tall, +severe-looking Englishman who walked by her mistress's side. + +"There is something going on in Monte Carlo," Lady Hunterleys went on, +"which I cannot understand. Mr. Draconmeyer knows about it, I believe, +although he is not personally concerned in it. But he will tell me +nothing. I only know that for some reason or other your presence here +seems to be an annoyance to certain people. Why it should be I don't +know, but I want to ask you about it. Will you tell me the truth? Are +you sure that you did not come here to spy upon me?" + +"I certainly did not," Hunterleys answered firmly. "I had no idea that +you were near the place. If I had--" + +She turned her head. The smile was there once more and a queer, soft +light in her eyes. + +"If you had?" she murmured. + +"My visit here, under the present circumstances, would have been more +distasteful than it is," Hunterleys replied stiffly. + +She bit her lip and turned away. When she resumed the conversation, her +tone was completely changed. + +"I speak to you now," she said, "in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer +is, of course, not personally connected with this affair, whatever it +may be, but he is a wonderful man and he hears many things. To-night, +before dinner, he gave me a few words of warning. He did not tell me to +pass them on to you but I feel sure that he hoped I would. You would not +listen to them from him because you do not like him. I am afraid that +you will take very little more heed of what I say, but at least you will +believe that I speak in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer believes +that your presence here is misunderstood. A person whom he describes as +being utterly without principle and of great power is incensed by it. To +speak plainly, you are in danger." + +"I am flattered," Hunterleys remarked, "by this interest on my behalf." + +She turned her head and looked at him. His face, in this cold light +before the moon came up, was almost like the face of some marble statue, +lifeless, set, of almost stonelike severity. She knew the look so well +and she sighed. + +"You need not be," she replied bitterly. "Mine is merely the ordinary +feeling of one human creature for another. In a sense it seems absurd, I +suppose, to speak to you as I am doing. Yet I do know that this place +which looks so beautiful has strange undercurrents. People pass away +here in the most orthodox fashion in the world, outwardly, but their +real ending is often never known at all. Everything is possible here, +and Mr. Draconmeyer honestly believes that you are in danger." + +They had reached the end of the Terrace and they turned back. + +"I thank you very much, Violet," Hunterleys said earnestly. "In return, +may I say something to you? If there is any danger threatening me or +those interests which I guard, the man whom you have chosen to make your +intimate friend is more deeply concerned in it than you think. I told +you once before that Draconmeyer was something more than the great +banker, the king of commerce, as he calls himself. He is ambitious +beyond your imaginings, a schemer in ways you know nothing of, and his +residence in London during the last fifteen years has been the worst +thing that ever happened for England. To me it is a bitter thing that +you should have ignored my warning and accepted his friendship--" + +"It is not Mr. Draconmeyer who is my friend, Henry," she interrupted. +"You continually ignore that fact. It is Mrs. Draconmeyer whom I cannot +desert. I knew her long before I did her husband. We were at school +together, and there was a time before her last illness when we were +inseparable." + +"That may have been so at first," Hunterleys agreed, "but how about +since then? You cannot deny, Violet, that this man Draconmeyer has in +some way impressed or fascinated you. You admire him. You find great +pleasure in his society. Isn't that the truth, now, honestly?" + +Her face was a little troubled. + +"I do certainly find pleasure in his society," she admitted. "I cannot +conceive any one who would not. He is a brilliant, a wonderful musician, +a delightful talker, a generous host and companion. He has treated me +always with the most scrupulous regard, and I feel that I am entirely +reasonable in resenting your mistrust of him." + +"You do resent it still, then?" + +"I do," she asserted emphatically. + +"And if I told you," Hunterleys went on, "that the man was in love with +you. What then?" + +"I should say that you were a fool!" + +Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders. + +"There is no more to be said," he declared, "only, for a clever woman, +Violet, you are sometimes woefully or wilfully blind. I tell you that I +know the type. Sooner or later--before very long, I should think--you +will have the usual scene. I warn you of it now. If you are wise, you +will go back to England." + +"Absurd!" she scoffed. "Why, we have only just come! I want to win some +money--not that your allowance isn't liberal enough," she added hastily, +"but there is a fascination in winning, you know. And besides, I could +not possibly desert Mrs. Draconmeyer. She would not have come at all if +I had not joined them." + +"You are the mistress of your own ways," Hunterleys said. "According to +my promise, I shall attempt to exercise no authority over you in any +way, but I tell you that Draconmeyer is my enemy, and the enemy of all +the things I represent, and I tell you, too, that he is in love with +you. When you realise that these things are firmly established in my +brain, you can perhaps understand how thoroughly distasteful I find your +association with him here. It is all very well to talk about Mrs. +Draconmeyer, but she goes nowhere. The consequence is that he is your +escort on every occasion. I am quite aware that a great many people in +society accept him. I personally am not disposed to. I look upon him as +an unfit companion for my wife and I resent your appearance with him in +public." + +"We will discuss this subject no further," she decided. "From the moment +of our first disagreement, it has been your object to break off my +friendship with the Draconmeyers. Until I have something more than words +to go by, I shall continue to give him my confidence." + +They crossed the stone flags in front of the Opera together, and turned +up towards the Rooms. + +"I think, perhaps, then," he said, "that we may consider the subject +closed. Only," he added, "you will forgive me if I still--" + +He hesitated. She turned her head quickly. Her eyes sought his but +unfortunately he was looking straight ahead and seeing gloomy things. If +he had happened to turn at that moment, he might have concluded his +speech differently. + +"If I still exhibit some interest in your doings." + +"I shall always think it most kind of you," she replied, her face +suddenly hardening. "Have I not done my best to reciprocate? I have even +passed on to you a word of warning, which I think you are very unwise to +ignore." + +They were outside the hotel. Hunterleys paused. + +"I have nothing to fear from the mysterious source you have spoken of," +he assured her. "The only enemy I have in Monte Carlo is Draconmeyer +himself." + +"Enemy!" she repeated scornfully. "Mr. Draconmeyer is much too wrapped +up in his finance, and too big a man, in his way, to have enemies. Oh, +Henry, if only you could get rid of a few of your prejudices, how much +more civilised a human being you would be!" + +He raised his hat. His expression was a little grim. + +"The man without prejudices, my dear Violet," he retorted, "is a man +without instincts.... I wish you luck." + +She ran lightly up the steps and waved her hand. He watched her pass +through the doors into the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ENTER THE AMERICAN + + +Lady Weybourne was lunching on the terrace of Ciro's restaurant with her +brother. She was small, dark, vivacious. Her friends, of whom she had +thousands, all called her Flossie, and she was probably the most popular +American woman who had ever married into the English peerage. Her +brother, Richard Lane, on the other hand, was tall, very +broad-shouldered, with a strong, clean-shaven face, inclined by +disposition to be taciturn. On this particular morning he had less even +than usual to say, and although Lady Weybourne, who was a great +chatterbox, was content as a rule to do most of the talking for herself, +his inattention became at last a little too obvious. He glanced up +eagerly as every newcomer appeared, and his answers to his sister's +criticisms were sometimes almost at random. + +"Dicky, I'm not at all sure that I'm liking you this morning," she +observed finally, looking across at him with a critically questioning +smile. "A certain amount of non-responsiveness to my advances I can put +up with--from a brother--but this morning you are positively +inattentive. Tell me your troubles at once. Has Harris been bothering +you, or did you lose a lot of money last night?" + +Considering that the young man's income was derived from an exceedingly +well-invested capital of nine million dollars, and that Harris was the +all too perfect captain of his yacht lying then in the harbour, whose +worst complaint was that he had never enough work to do, Lady +Weybourne's enquiries might have been considered as merely tentative. +Richard shook his head a little gloomily. + +"Those things aren't likely to trouble me," he remarked. "Harris is all +right, and I've promised him we'll make up a little party and go over to +Cannes in a day or two." + +"What a ripping idea!" Lady Weybourne declared, breaking up her thin +toast between her fingers. "I'd love it, and so would Harry. We could +easily get together a delightful party. The Pelhams are here and simply +dying for a change, and there's Captain Gardner and Frank Clowes, and +lots of nice girls. Couldn't we fix a date, Dick?" + +"Not just yet," her brother replied. + +"And why not?" + +"I am waiting," he told her, "until I can ask the girl I want to go." + +"And why can't you now?" she demanded, with upraised eyebrows. "I'll be +hostess and chaperone all in one." + +"I can't ask her because I don't know her yet," the young man explained +doggedly. + +Lady Weybourne leaned back in her chair and laughed. + +"So that's it!" she exclaimed. "Now I know why you're sitting there like +an owl this morning! In love with a fair unknown, are you, Dick? Be +careful. Monte Carlo is full of young ladies whom it would be just as +well to know a little about before you thought of taking them yachting." + +"This one isn't that sort," the young man said. + +"How do you know that?" she asked, leaning across the table, her head +resting on her clasped hands. + +He looked at her almost contemptuously. + +"How do I know!" he repeated. "There are just one or two things that +happen in this world which a man can be utterly and entirely sure of. +She is one of them. Say, Flossie," he added, the enthusiasm creeping at +last into his tone, "you never saw any one quite like her in all your +life!" + +"Do I know her, I wonder?" Lady Weybourne enquired. + +"That's just what I've asked you here to find out," her brother replied +ingenuously. "I heard her tell the man she was with this morning--her +father, I believe--about an hour ago, that she would be at Ciro's at +half-past one. It's twenty minutes to two now." + +Lady Weybourne laughed heartily. + +"So that's why you dragged me out of bed and made me come to lunch with +you! Dick, what a fraud you are! I was thinking what a dear, +affectionate brother you were, and all the time you were just making use +of me." + +"Sorry," the young man said briskly, "but, after all, we needn't stand +on ceremony, need we? I've always been your pal; gave you a leg up with +the old man, you know, when he wasn't keen on the British alliance." + +She nodded. + +"Oh, I'll do what I can for you," she promised. "If she is any one in +particular I expect I shall know her. What's happening, Dick?" + +The young man's face was almost transformed. His eyes were bright and +very fixed. His lips had come together in a firm, straight line, as +though he were renewing some promise to himself. Lady Weybourne followed +the direction of his gaze. A man and a girl had reached the entrance to +the restaurant and were looking around them as though to select a table. +The chief maître d'hôtel had hastened out to receive them. They were, +without doubt, people of importance. The man was of medium height, with +iron-grey hair and moustache, and a small imperial. He wore light +clothes of perfect cut; patent shoes with white linen gaiters; a black +tie fastened with a pin of opals. He carried himself with an air which +was unmistakable and convincing. The girl by his side was beautiful. She +was simply dressed in a tailor-made gown of white serge. Her black hat +was a miracle of smartness. Her hair was of a very light shade of +golden-brown, her complexion wonderfully fair. Lady Weybourne glanced at +her shoes and gloves, at the bag which she was carrying, and the handle +of her parasol. Then she nodded approvingly. + +"You don't know her?" Richard asked, in a disappointed whisper. + +She shook her head. + +"Sorry," she admitted, "but I don't. They've probably only just +arrived." + +With great ceremony the newcomers were conducted to the best table upon +the terrace. The man was evidently an habitué. He had scarcely taken his +seat before, with a very low bow, the sommelier brought him a small +wine-glass filled with what seemed to be vermouth. While he sipped it he +smoked a Russian cigarette and with a gold pencil wrote out the menu of +his luncheon. In a few minutes the manager himself came hurrying out +from the restaurant. His salute was almost reverential. When, after a +few moments' conversation, he departed, he did so with the air of one +taking leave of royalty. Lady Weybourne, who was an inquisitive little +person, was puzzled. + +"I don't know who they are, Dick," she confessed, "but I know the ways +of this place well, and I can tell you one thing--they are people of +importance. You can tell that by the way they are received. These +restaurant people don't make mistakes." + +"Of course they are people of importance," the young man declared. "Any +one can see that by a glance at the girl. I am sorry you don't know +them," he went on, "but you've got to find out who they are, and pretty +quickly, too. Look here, Flossie. I am a bit useful to you now and then, +aren't I?" + +"Without you, my dear Dick," she murmured, "I should never be able to +manage those awful trustees. You are invaluable, a perfect jewel of a +brother." + +"Well, I'll give you that little electric coupé you were so keen on last +time we were in London, if you'll get me an introduction to that girl +within twenty-four hours." + +Lady Weybourne gasped. + +"What a whirlwind!" she exclaimed. "Dicky, are you, by any chance, in +earnest?" + +"In earnest for the first time in my life," he assured her. "Something +has got hold of me which I'm not going to part with." + +She considered him reflectively. He was twenty-seven years of age, and +notwithstanding the boundless opportunities of his youth and great +wealth he had so far shown an almost singular indifference to the whole +of the opposite sex, from the fascinating chorus girls of London and New +York to the no less enterprising young women of his own order. As she +sat there studying his features, she felt a sensation almost of awe. +There was something entirely different, something stronger in his face. +She thought for a moment of their father as she had known him in her +childhood, the founder of their fortunes, a man who had risen from a +moderate position to immense wealth through sheer force of will, of +pertinacity. For the first time she saw the same look upon her brother's +face. + +"Well," she sighed, "I shall do my best to earn it. I only hope, Dick, +that she is--" + +"She is what?" he demanded, looking at her steadfastly. + +"Oh! not engaged or anything, I mean," Lady Weybourne explained hastily. +"I must admit, Dick, although I don't suppose any sister is particularly +keen upon her brother's young women, that I think you've shown excellent +taste. She is absolutely the best style of any one I've seen in Monte +Carlo." + +"How are you going to manage that introduction?" he asked bluntly. "Have +you made any plans?" + +"I don't suppose it will be difficult," she assured him, lighting a +cigarette and shaking her head at the tray of liqueurs which the +sommelier was offering. "Get me some cream for my coffee, Dick. Now I'll +tell you," she continued, as the waiter disappeared. "You will have to +call that under-maître d'hôtel. You had better give him a substantial +tip and ask him quietly for their names. Then I'll see about the rest." + +"That seems sensible enough," he admitted. + +"And look here, Dick," she went on, "I know how impetuous you are. Don't +do anything foolish. Remember this isn't an ordinary adventure. If you +go rushing in upon it you'll come to grief." + +"I know," he answered shortly. "I was fool enough to hang about the +flower shops and that milliner's this morning. I couldn't help it. I +don't know whether she noticed. I believe she did. Once our eyes did +meet, and although I'll swear she never changed her expression, I felt +that the whole world didn't hold so small a creature as I. Here comes +Charles. I'll ask him." + +He beckoned to the maître d'hôtel and talked for a moment about the +luncheon. Then he ordered a table for the next day, and slipping a louis +into the man's hand, leaned over and whispered in his ear. + +"I want you to tell me the name of the gentleman and young lady who are +sitting over there at the corner table?" + +The maître d'hôtel glanced covertly in the direction indicated. He did +not at once reply. His face was perplexed, almost troubled. + +"I am very sorry, sir," he said hesitatingly, "but our orders are very +strict. Monsieur Ciro does not like anything in the way of gossip about +our clients, and the gentleman is a very honoured patron. The young lady +is his daughter." + +"Quite right," the young man agreed bluntly. "This isn't an ordinary +case, Charles. You go over to the desk there, write me down the name and +bring it, and there's a hundred franc note waiting here for you. No need +for the name to pass your lips." + +The man bowed and retreated. In a few minutes he came back again and +laid a small card upon the table. + +"Monsieur will pardon my reminding him," he begged earnestly, "but if he +will be so good as to never mention this little matter--" + +Richard nodded and waved him away. + +"Sure!" he promised. + +He drew the card towards him and looked at it in a puzzled manner. Then +he passed it to his sister. Her expression, too, was blank. + +"Who in the name of mischief," he exclaimed softly, "is Mr. Grex!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"WHO IS MR. GREX?" + + +Lady Weybourne insisted, after a reasonable amount of time spent over +their coffee, that her brother should pay the bill and leave the +restaurant. They walked slowly across the square. + +"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. + +"There is only one thing to be done," she replied. "I shall speak to +every one I meet this afternoon--I shall be, in fact, most sociable--and +sooner or later in our conversation I shall ask every one if they know +Mr. Grex and his daughter. When I arrive at some one who does, that will +be the first step, won't it?" + +"I wonder whether we shall see some one soon!" he grumbled, looking +around. "Where are all the people to-day!" + +She laughed softly. + +"Just a little impetuous, aren't you?" + +"I should say so," he admitted. "I'd like to be introduced to her before +four o'clock, propose to her this evening, and--and--" + +"And what?" + +"Never mind," he concluded, marching on with his head turned towards the +clouds. "Let's go and sit down upon the Terrace and talk about her." + +"But, my dear Dicky," his sister protested, "I don't want to sit upon +the Terrace. I am going to my dressmaker's across the way there, and +afterwards to Lucie's to try on some hats. Then I am going back to the +hotel for an hour's rest and to prink, and afterwards into the Sporting +Club at four o'clock. That's my programme. I shall be doing what I can +the whole of the time. I shall make discreet enquiries of my dressmaker, +who knows everybody, and I sha'n't let a single acquaintance go by. You +will have to amuse yourself till four o'clock, at any rate. There's Sir +Henry Hunterleys over there, having coffee. Go and talk to him. He may +put you out of your misery. Thanks ever so much for my luncheon, and au +revoir!" + +She turned away with a little nod. Her brother, after a moment's +hesitation, approached the table where Hunterleys was sitting alone. + +"How do you do, Sir Henry?" + +Hunterleys returned his greeting, a little blankly at first. Then he +remembered the young man and held out his hand. + +"Of course! You are Richard Lane, aren't you? Sit down and have some +coffee. What are you doing here?" + +"I've got a little boat in the harbour," Richard replied, as he drew up +a chair. "I've been at Algiers for a time with some friends, and I've +brought them on here. Just been lunching with my sister. Are you alone?" + +Hunterleys hesitated. + +"Yes, I am alone." + +"Wonderful place," the young man went on. "Wonderful crowd of people +here, too. I suppose you know everybody?" he added, warming up as he +approached his subject. + +"On the contrary," Hunterleys answered, "I am almost a stranger here. I +have been staying further down the coast." + +"Happen to know any one of the name of Grex?" Lane asked, with elaborate +carelessness. + +Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He seemed to be considering the +name. + +"Grex," he repeated, knocking the ash from his cigarette. "Rather an +uncommon name, isn't it? Why do you ask?" + +"Oh, I've seen an elderly man and a young lady about once or twice," +Lane explained. "Very interesting-looking people. Some one told me that +their name was Grex." + +"There is a person living under that name, I think," Hunterleys said, +"who has taken the Villa Mimosa for the season." + +"Do you know him personally?" the young man asked eagerly. + +"Personally? No, I can scarcely say that I do." + +Richard Lane sighed. It was disappointment number one. For some reason +or other, too, Hunterleys seemed disposed to change the conversation. + +"The young lady who is always with him," Richard persisted, "would that +be his daughter?" + +Hunterleys turned a little in his seat and surveyed his questioner. He +had met Lane once or twice and rather liked him. + +"Look here, young fellow," he said, good humouredly, "let me ask you a +question for a change. What is the nature of these enquiries of yours?" + +Lane hesitated. Something in Hunterleys' face and manner induced him to +tell the truth. + +"I have fallen head over heels in love with the young lady," he +confessed. "Don't think I am a confounded jackass. I am not in the habit +of doing such things. I'm twenty-seven and I have never gone out of my +way to meet a girl yet. This is something--different. I want to find out +about them and get an introduction." + +Hunterleys shook his head regretfully. + +"I am afraid," he said, "that I can be of no use to you--no practical +use, that is. I can only give you one little piece of advice." + +"Well, what is it?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"If you are in earnest," Hunterleys continued, "and I will do you the +credit to believe that you are, you had better pack up your things, +return to your yacht and take a cruise somewhere." + +"Take a cruise somewhere!" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Get out of Monte Carlo as quickly as you can, and, above all, don't +think anything more of that young lady. Get the idea out of your head as +quickly as you can." + +The young man was sitting upright in his chair. His manner was half +minatory. + +"Say, what do you mean by this?" he demanded. + +"Exactly what I said just now," Hunterleys rejoined. "If you are in +earnest, and I have no doubt that you are, I should clear out." + +"What is it you are trying to make me understand?" Richard asked +bluntly. + +"That you have about as much chance with that young lady," Hunterleys +assured him, "as with that very graceful statue in the square yonder." + +Richard sat for a moment with knitted brows. + +"Then you know who she is, any way?" + +"Whether I do or whether I do not," the older man said gravely, "so far +as I am concerned, the subject is exhausted. I have given you the best +advice you ever had in your life. It's up to you to follow it." + +Richard looked at him blankly. + +"Well, you've got me puzzled," he confessed. + +Hunterleys rose to his feet, and, summoning a waiter, paid his bill. + +"You'll excuse me, won't you?" he begged. "I have an appointment in a +few minutes. If you are wise, young man," he added, patting him on the +shoulder as he turned to go, "you will take my advice." + +Left to himself, Richard Lane strolled around the place towards the +Terrace. He had no fancy for the Rooms and he found a seat as far +removed as possible from the Tir du Pigeons. He sat there with folded +arms, looking out across the sun-dappled sea. His matter-of-fact brain +offered him but one explanation as to the meaning of Hunterleys' words, +and against that explanation his whole being was in passionate revolt. +He represented a type of young man who possesses morals by reason of a +certain unsuspected idealism, mingled with perfect physical sanity. It +seemed to him, as he sat there, that he had been waiting for this day +for years. The old nights in New York and Paris and London floated +before his memory. He pushed them on one side with a shiver, and yet +with a curious feeling of exultation. He recalled a certain sensation +which had been drawn through his life like a thin golden thread, a +sensation which had a habit of especially asserting itself in the midst +of these youthful orgies, a curious sense of waiting for something to +happen, a sensation which had been responsible very often for what his +friends had looked upon as eccentricity. He knew now that this thing had +arrived, and everything else in life seemed to pale by the side of it. +Hunterleys' words had thrown him temporarily into a strange turmoil. +Solitude for a few moments he had felt to be entirely necessary. Yet +directly he was alone, directly he was free to listen to his +convictions, he could have laughed at that first mad surging of his +blood, the fierce, instinctive rebellion against the conclusion to which +Hunterleys' words seemed to point. Now that he was alone, he was not +even angry. No one else could possibly understand! + +Before long he was once more upon his feet, starting out upon his quest +with renewed energy. He had scarcely taken a dozen steps, however, when +he came face to face with Lady Hunterleys and Mr. Draconmeyer. Quite +oblivious of the fact that they seemed inclined to avoid him, he greeted +them both with unusual warmth. + +"Saw your husband just now, Lady Hunterleys," he remarked, a little +puzzled. "I fancied he said he was alone here." + +She smiled. + +"We did not come together," she explained; "in fact, our meeting was +almost accidental. Henry had been at Bordighera and San Remo and I came +out with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +The young man nodded and turned towards Draconmeyer, who was standing a +little on one side as though anxious to proceed. + +"Mr. Draconmeyer doesn't remember me, perhaps. I met him at my sister's, +Lady Weybourne's, just before Christmas." + +"I remember you perfectly," Mr. Draconmeyer assured him courteously. "We +have all been admiring your beautiful yacht in the harbour there." + +"I was thinking of getting up a little cruise before long," Richard +continued. "If so, I hope you'll all join us. Flossie is going to be +hostess, and the Montressors are passengers already." + +They murmured something non-committal. Lady Hunterleys seemed as though +about to pass on but Lane blocked the way. + +"I only arrived the other day from Algiers," he went on, making frantic +efforts to continue the conversation. "I brought Freddy Montressor and +his sister, and Fothergill." + +"Mr. Montressor has come to the Hotel de Paris," Lady Hunterleys +remarked. "What sort of weather did you have in Algiers?" + +"Ripping!" the young man replied absently, entirely oblivious of the +fact that they had been driven away by incessant rain. "This place is +much more fun, though," he added, with sudden inspiration. "Crowds of +interesting people. I suppose you know every one?" + +Lady Hunterleys shook her head. + +"Indeed I do not. Mr. Draconmeyer here is my guide. He is as good as a +walking directory." + +"I wonder if either of you know some people named Grex?" Richard asked, +with studious indifference. + +Mr. Draconmeyer for the first time showed some signs of interest. He +looked at their questioner steadfastly. + +"Grex," he repeated. "A very uncommon name." + +"Very uncommon-looking people," Richard declared. "The man is elderly, +and looks as though he took great care of himself--awfully well turned +out and all that. The daughter is--good-looking." + +Mr. Draconmeyer took off his gold-rimmed spectacles and rubbed them with +his handkerchief. + +"Why do you ask?" he enquired. "Is this just curiosity?" + +"Rather more than that," Richard said boldly. "It's interest." + +Mr. Draconmeyer readjusted his spectacles. + +"Mr. Grex," he announced, "is a gentleman of great wealth and +illustrious birth, who has taken a very magnificent villa and desires +for a time to lead a life of seclusion. That is as much as I or any one +else knows." + +"What about the young lady?" Richard persisted. + +"The young lady," Mr. Draconmeyer answered, "is, as you surmised, his +daughter.... Shall we finish our promenade, Lady Hunterleys?" + +Richard stood grudgingly a little on one side. + +"Mr. Draconmeyer," he said desperately, "do you think there'd be any +chance of my getting an introduction to the young lady?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer at first smiled and then began to laugh, as though +something in the idea tickled him. He looked at the young man and +Richard hated him. + +"Not the slightest in the world, I should think," he declared. "Good +afternoon!" + +Lady Hunterleys joined in her companion's amusement as they continued +their promenade. + +"Is the young man in love, do you suppose?" she enquired lightly. + +"If so," her companion replied, "he has made a somewhat unfortunate +choice. However, it really doesn't matter. Love at his age is nothing +more than a mood. It will pass as all moods pass." + +She turned and looked at him. + +"Do you mean," she asked incredulously, "that youth is incapable of +love?" + +They had paused for a moment, looking out across the bay towards the +glittering white front of Bordighera. Mr. Draconmeyer took off his hat. +Somehow, without it, in that clear light, one realised, notwithstanding +his spectacles, his grizzled black beard of unfashionable shape, his +over-massive forehead and shaggy eyebrows, that his, too, was the face +of one whose feet were not always upon the earth. + +"Perhaps," he answered, "it is a matter of degree, yet I am almost +tempted to answer your question absolutely. I do not believe that youth +can love, because from the first it misapprehends the meaning of the +term. I believe that the gift of loving comes only to those who have +reached the hills." + +She looked at him, a little surprised. Always thoughtful, always +sympathetic, generally stimulating, it was very seldom that she had +heard him speak with so much real feeling. Suddenly he turned his head +from the sea. His eyes seemed to challenge hers. + +"Your question," he continued, "touches upon one of the great tragedies +of life. Upon those who are free from their youth there is a great tax +levied. Nature has decreed that they should feel something which they +call love. They marry, and in this small world of ours they give a +hostage as heavy as a millstone of their chances of happiness. For it is +only in later life, when a man has knowledge as well as passion, when +unless he is fortunate it is too late, that he can know what love is." + +She moved a little uneasily. She felt that something was coming which +she desired to avoid, some confidence, something from which she must +escape. The memory of her husband's warning was vividly present with +her. She felt the magnetism of her companion's words, his compelling +gaze. + +"It is so with me," he went on, leaning a little towards her, "only in +my case--" + +Providence was intervening. Never had the swish of a woman's skirt +sounded so sweet to her before. + +"Here's Dolly Montressor," she interrupted, "coming up to speak to us." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CAKES AND COUNSELS + + +The Sporting Club seemed to fill up that afternoon almost as soon as the +doors were opened. At half-past four, people were standing two or three +deep around the roulette tables. Selingman, very warm, and looking +somewhat annoyed, withdrew himself from the front row of the lower +table, and taking Mr. Grex and Draconmeyer by the arm, led them towards +the tea-room. + +"I have lost six louis!" he exclaimed, fretfully. "I have had the +devil's own luck. I shall play no more for the present. We will have tea +together." + +They appropriated a round table in a distant corner of the restaurant. + +"History," Selingman continued, heaping his plate with rich cakes, "has +been made before now in strange places. Why not here? We sit here in +close touch with one of the most interesting phases of modern life. We +can even hear the voice of fate, the click of the little ball as it +finishes its momentous journey and sinks to rest. Why should we, too, +not speak of fateful things?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer glanced around. + +"For myself," he muttered, "I must say that I prefer a smaller room and +a locked door." + +Selingman demolished a chocolate éclair and shook his head vigorously. + +"The public places for me," he declared. "Now look around. There is no +one, as you will admit, within ear-shot. Very well. What will they say, +those who suspect us, if they see us drinking tea and eating many cakes +together? Certainly not that we conspire, that we make mischief here. On +the other hand, they will say 'There are three great men at play, come +to Monte Carlo to rest from their labours, to throw aside for a time the +burden from their shoulders; to flirt, to play, to eat cakes.' It is a +good place to talk, this, and I have something in my mind which must be +said." + +Mr. Grex sipped his pale, lemon-flavoured tea and toyed with his +cigarette-case. He was eating nothing. + +"Assuming you to be a man of sense, my dear Selingman," he remarked, "I +think that what you have to say is easily surmised. The Englishman!" + +Selingman agreed with ponderous emphasis. + +"We have before us," he declared, "a task of unusual delicacy. Our +friend from Paris may be here at any moment. How we shall fare with him, +heaven only knows! But there is one thing very certain. At the sight of +Hunterleys he will take alarm. He will be like a frightened bird, all +ruffled feathers. He will never settle down to a serious discussion. +Hunterleys knows this. That is why he presents himself without reserve +in public, why he is surrounded with Secret Service men of his own +country, all on the _qui vive_ for the coming of Douaille." + +"It appears tolerably certain," Mr. Draconmeyer said calmly, "that we +must get rid of Hunterleys." + +Mr. Grex looked out of the window for a moment. + +"To some extent," he observed, "I am a stranger here. I come as a guest +to this conference, as our other friend from Paris comes, too. Any small +task which may arise from the necessities of the situation, devolves, I +think I may say without unfairness, upon you, my friend." + +Selingman assented gloomily. + +"That is true," he admitted, "but in Hunterleys we have to do with no +ordinary man. He does not gamble. To the ordinary attractions of Monte +Carlo he is indifferent. He is one of these thin-blooded men with +principles. Cromwell would have made a lay preacher of him." + +"You find difficulties?" Mr. Grex queried, with slightly uplifted +eyebrows. + +"Not difficulties," Selingman continued quickly. "Or if indeed we do +call them difficulties, let us say at once that they are very minor +ones. Only the thing must be done neatly and without ostentation, for +the sake of our friend who comes." + +"My own position," Mr. Draconmeyer intervened, "is, in a way, delicate. +The unexplained disappearance of Sir Henry Hunterleys might, by some +people, be connected with the great friendship which exists between my +wife and his." + +Mr. Grex polished his horn-rimmed eyeglass. Selingman nodded +sympathetically. Neither of them looked at Draconmeyer. Finally +Selingman heaved a sigh and brushed the crumbs from his waistcoat. + +"If one were assured," he murmured thoughtfully, "that Hunterleys' +presence here had a real significance--" + +Draconmeyer pushed his chair forward and leaned across the table. The +heads of the three men were close together. His tone was stealthily +lowered. + +"Let me tell you something, my friend Selingman, which I think should +strengthen any half-formed intention you may have in your brain. +Hunterleys is no ordinary sojourner here. You were quite right when you +told me that his stay at Bordighera and San Remo was a matter of days +only. Now I will tell you something. Three weeks ago he was at +Bukharest. He spent two days with Novisko. From there he went to Sofia. +He was heard of in Athens and Constantinople. My own agent wrote me that +he was in Belgrade. Hunterleys is the bosom friend of the English +Foreign Secretary. That I know for myself. You have your reports. You +can read between the lines. I tell you that Hunterleys is the man who +has paralysed our action amongst the Balkan States. He has played a neat +little game out there. It is he who was the inspiration of Roumania. It +is he who drafted the secret understanding with Turkey. The war which we +hoped for will not take place. From there Hunterleys came in a gunboat +and landed on the Italian coast. He lingered at Bordighera for +appearances only. He is here, if he can, to break up our conference. I +tell you that you none of you appreciate this man. Hunterleys is the +most dangerous Englishman living--" + +"One moment," Selingman interrupted. "To some extent I follow you, but +when you speak of Hunterleys as a power in the present tense, doesn't it +occur to you that his Party is not in office? He is simply a member of +the Opposition. If his Party get in again at the next election, I grant +you that he will be Foreign Minister and a dangerous one, but to-day he +is simply a private person." + +"It is not every one," Mr. Draconmeyer said slowly, "who bows his knee +to the shibboleth of party politics. Remember that I come to you from +London and I have information of which few others are possessed. +Hunterleys is of the stuff of which patriots are made. Party is no +concern of his. He and the present Foreign Secretary are the greatest of +personal friends. I know for a fact that Hunterleys has actually been +consulted and has helped in one or two recent crises. The very +circumstance that he is not of the ruling Party makes a free lance of +him. When his people are in power, he will have to take office and wear +the shackles. To-day, with every quality which would make him the +greatest Foreign Minister England has ever had since Disraeli, he is +nothing more nor less than a roving diplomatist, Emperor of his +country's Secret Service, if you like to put it so. Furthermore, look a +little into that future of which I have spoken. The present English +Government will last, at the most, another two years. I tell you that +when they go out of power, whoever comes in, Hunterleys will go to the +Foreign Office. We shall have to deal with a man who knows, a man--" + +"I am not wholly satisfied with these éclairs," Selingman interrupted, +gazing into the dish. "Maître d'hôtel, come and listen to an awful +complaint," he went on, and, addressing one of the head-waiters. "Your +éclairs are too small, your cream-cakes too irresistible. I eat too much +here. How, I ask you in the name of common sense, can a man dine who +takes tea here! Bring the bill." + +The man, smiling, hastened away. Not a word had passed between the +three, yet the other two understood the situation perfectly. Hunterleys +and Richard Lane had entered the room together and were seated at an +adjoining table. Selingman plunged into a fresh tirade, pointing to the +half-demolished plateful of cakes. + +"I will eat one more," he declared. "We will bilk the management. The +bill is made out. I shall not be observed. Our friend," he continued, +under his breath, "has secured a valuable bodyguard, something very +large and exceedingly powerful." + +Draconmeyer hesitated for a moment. Then he turned to Mr. Grex. + +"You have perhaps observed," he said, "the young man who is seated at +the next table. It may amuse you to hear of a very extraordinary piece +of impertinence of which, only this afternoon, he was guilty. He +accosted me upon the Terrace--he is a young American whom I have met in +London--and asked me for information respecting a Mr. and Miss Grex." + +Mr. Grex looked slowly towards the speaker. There was very little change +in his face, yet Draconmeyer seemed in some way confused. + +"You will understand, I am sure, sir," he continued, a little hastily, +"that I was in no way to blame for the question which the young man +addressed to me. He had the presumption to enquire whether I could +procure for him an introduction to the young lady whom he knew as Miss +Grex. Even at this moment," Draconmeyer went on, lowering his voice, "he +is trying to persuade Hunterleys to let him come over to us." + +"The young man," Mr. Grex said deliberately, "is ignorant. If necessary, +he must be taught his lesson." + +Selingman intervened. He breathed a heavy sigh. + +"Well," he observed, "I perceive that the task at which we have hinted +is to fall upon my shoulders. We must do what we can. I am a +tender-hearted man, and if extremes can be avoided, I shall like my task +better.... And now I have changed my mind. The loss of that six louis +weighs upon me. I shall endeavour to regain it. Let us go." + +They rose and passed out into the roulette rooms. Richard Lane, who +remained in his seat with an effort, watched them pass with a frown upon +his face. + +"Say, Sir Henry," he complained, "I don't quite understand this. Why, +I'd only got to go over to Draconmeyer there and stand and talk for a +moment, and he must have introduced me." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Let me assure you," he said, "that Draconmeyer would have done nothing +of the sort. For one thing, we don't introduce over here as a matter of +course, as you do in America. And for another--well, I won't trouble you +with the other reason.... Look here, Lane, take my advice, there's a +sensible fellow. I am a man of the world, you know, and there are +certain situations in which one can make no mistake. If you are as hard +hit as you say you are, go for a cruise and get over it. Don't hang +around here. No good will come of it." + +The young man set his teeth. He was looking very determined indeed. + +"There isn't anything in this world, short of a bomb," he declared, +"which is going to blow me out of Monte Carlo before I have made the +acquaintance of Miss Grex!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EFFRONTERY OF RICHARD + + +Hunterleys took leave of his companion as soon as they arrived at the +roulette rooms. + +"Take my advice, Lane," he said seriously. "Find something to occupy +your thoughts. Throw a few hundred thousand of your dollars away at the +tables, if you must do something foolish. You'll get into far less +trouble." + +Richard made no direct reply. He watched Hunterleys depart and took up +his place opposite the door to await his sister's arrival. It was a +quarter to five before she appeared and found him waiting for her in the +doorway. + +"Say, you're late, Flossie!" he grumbled. "I thought you were going to +be here soon after four." + +She glanced at the little watch upon her wrist. + +"How the time does slip away!" she sighed. "But really, Dicky, I am late +in your interests as much as anything. I have been paying a few calls. I +went out to the Villa Rosa to see some people who almost live here, and +then I met Lady Crawley and she made me go in and have some tea." + +"Well?" he asked impatiently. "Well?" + +She laid her fingers upon his arm and drew him into a less crowded part +of the room. + +"Dicky," she confessed, "I don't seem to have had a bit of luck. The +Comtesse d'Hausson, who lives at the Villa Rosa, knows them and showed +me from the window the Villa Mimosa, where they live, but she would tell +me absolutely nothing about them. The villa is the finest in Monte +Carlo, and has always been taken before by some one of note. She +declares that they do not mix in the society of the place, but she +admits that she has heard a rumour that Grex is only an assumed name." + +"I begin to believe that myself," he said doggedly. "Hunterleys knows +who they are and won't tell me. So does that fellow Draconmeyer." + +"Sir Henry and Mr. Draconmeyer!" she repeated, raising her eyes. "My +dear Dick, that doesn't sound very reasonable, does it?" + +"I tell you that they do," he persisted. "They as good as told me so. +Hunterleys, especially, left me here only half-an-hour ago, and his last +words were advising me to chuck it. He's a sensible chap enough but he +won't even tell me why. I've had enough of it. I've a good mind to take +the bull by the horns myself. Mr. Grex is here now, somewhere about. He +was sitting with Mr. Draconmeyer and a fat old German a few minutes ago, +at the next table to ours. If I had been alone I should have gone up and +chanced being introduced, but Hunterleys wouldn't let me." + +"Well, so far," Lady Weybourne admitted, "I fear that I haven't done +much towards that electric coupé; but," she added, in a changed tone, +looking across the tables, "there is just one thing, Dicky. Fate +sometimes has a great deal to do with these little affairs. Look over +there." + +Richard left his sister precipitately, without even a word of farewell. +She watched him cross the room, and smiled at the fury of a little +Frenchman whom he nearly knocked over in his hurry to get round to the +other side of the table. A moment later he was standing a few feet away +from the girl who had taken so strange a hold upon his affections. He +himself was conscious of a curious and unfamiliar nervousness. +Physically he felt as though he had been running hard. He set his teeth +and tried to keep cool. He found some plaques in his pocket and began to +stake. Then he became aware that the girl was holding in her hand a note +and endeavouring to attract the attention of the man who was giving +change. + +"_Petite monnaie, s'il vous plaît_," he heard her say, stretching out +the note. + +The man took no notice. Richard held out his hand. + +"Will you allow me to get it changed for you?" he asked. + +Her first impulse at the sound of his voice was evidently one of +resentment. She seemed, indeed, in the act of returning some chilling +reply. Then she glanced half carelessly towards him and her eyes rested +upon his face. Richard was good-looking enough, but the chief +characteristic of his face was a certain honesty, which seemed +accentuated at that moment by his undoubted earnestness. The type was +perhaps strange to her. She was almost startled by what she saw. +Scarcely knowing what she did, she allowed him to take the note from her +fingers. + +"Thank you very much," she murmured. + +Richard procured the change. He would have lifted every one out of the +way if she had been in a hurry. Then he turned round and counted it very +slowly into her hands. From the left one she had removed the glove and +he saw, to his relief, that there was no engagement ring there. He +counted so slowly that towards the end she seemed to become a little +impatient. + +"That is quite all right," she said. "It was very kind of you to +trouble." + +She spoke very correct English with the slightest of foreign accents. He +looked once more into her eyes. + +"It was a pleasure," he declared. + +She smiled faintly, an act of graciousness which absolutely turned his +head. With her hand full of plaques, she moved away and found a place a +little lower down the table. Richard fought with his first instinct and +conquered it. He remained where he was, and when he moved it was in +another direction. He went into the bar and ordered a whisky and soda. +He was as excited as he had been in the old days when he had rowed +stroke in a winning race for his college boat. He felt, somehow or +other, that the first step had been a success. She had been inclined at +first to resent his offer. She had looked at him and changed her mind. +Even when she had turned away, she had smiled. It was ridiculous, but he +felt as though he had taken a great step. Presently Lady Weybourne, on +her way to the baccarat rooms, saw him sitting there and looked in. + +"Well, Dicky," she exclaimed, "what luck?" + +"Sit down, Flossie," he begged. "I've spoken to her." + +"You don't mean,--" she began, horrified. + +"Oh, no, no! Nothing of that sort!" he interrupted. "Don't think I'm +such a blundering ass. She was trying to get change and couldn't reach. +I took the note from her, got the change and gave it to her. She said, +'Thank you.' When she went away, she smiled." + +Lady Weybourne flopped down upon the divan and screamed with laughter. + +"Dicky," she murmured, wiping her eyes, "tell me, is that why you are +sitting there, looking as though you could see right into Heaven? Do you +know that your face was one great beam when I came in?" + +"Can't help it," he answered contentedly. "I've spoken to her and she +smiled." + +Lady Weybourne opened her gold bag and produced a card. + +"Well," she said, "here is another chance for you. Of course, I don't +know that it will come to anything, but you may as well try your luck." + +"What is it?" he asked. + +She thrust a square of gilt-edged cardboard into his hand. + +"It's an invitation," she told him, "from the directors, to attend a +dinner at La Turbie Golf Club-house, up in the mountains, to-night. It +isn't entirely a joke, I can tell you. It takes at least an hour to get +there, climbing all the way, and the place is as likely as not to be +wrapped in clouds, but a great many of the important people are going, +and as I happened to see Mr. Grex's name amongst the list of members, +the other night, there is always a chance that they may be there. If +not, you see, you can soon come back." + +"I'm on," Richard decided. "Give me the ticket. I am awfully obliged to +you, Flossie." + +"If she is there," Lady Weybourne declared, rising, "I shall consider +that it is equivalent to one wheel of the coupé." + +"Have a cocktail instead," he suggested. + +She shook her head. + +"Too early. If we meet later on, I'll have one. What are you going to +do?" + +"Same as I've been doing ever since lunch," he answered,--"hang around +and see if I can meet any one who knows them." + +She laughed and hurried off into the baccarat room, and Richard +presently returned to the table at which the girl was still playing. He +took particular care not to approach her, but he found a place on the +opposite side of the room, from which he could watch her unobserved. She +was still standing and apparently she was losing her money. Once, with a +little petulant frown, she turned away and moved a few yards lower down +the room. The first time she staked in her new position, she won, and a +smile which it seemed to him was the most brilliant he had ever seen, +parted her lips. He stood there looking at her, and in the midst of a +scene where money seemed god of all things, he realised all manner of +strange and pleasant sensations. The fact that he had twenty thousand +francs in his pocket to play with, scarcely occurred to him. He was +watching a little wisp of golden hair by her ear, watching her slightly +wrinkled forehead as she leaned over the table, her little grimace as +she lost and her stake was swept away. She seemed indifferent to all +bystanders. It was obvious that she had very few acquaintances. Where he +stood it was not likely that she would notice him, and he abandoned +himself wholly to the luxury of gazing at her. Then some instinct caused +him to turn his head. He felt that he in his turn was being watched. He +glanced towards the divan set against the wall, by the side of which he +was standing. Mr. Grex was seated there, only a few feet away, smoking a +cigarette. Their eyes met and Richard was conscious of a sudden +embarrassment. He felt like a detected thief, and he acted at that +moment as he often did--entirely on impulse. He leaned down and +resolutely addressed Mr. Grex. + +"I should be glad, sir, if you would allow me to speak to you for a +moment." + +Mr. Grex's expression was one of cold surprise, unmixed with any +curiosity. + +"Do you address me?" he asked. + +His tone was vastly discouraging but it was too late to draw back. + +"I should like to speak to you, if I may," Richard continued. + +"I am not aware," Mr. Grex said, "that I have the privilege of your +acquaintance." + +"You haven't," Richard admitted, "but all the same I want to speak to +you, if I may." + +"Since you have gone so far," Mr. Grex conceded, "you had better finish, +but you must allow me to tell you in advance that I look upon any +address from a perfect stranger as an impertinence." + +"You'll think worse of me before I've finished, then," Richard declared +desperately. "You don't mind if I sit down?" + +"These seats," Mr. Grex replied coldly, "are free to all." + +The young man took his place upon the divan with a sinking heart. There +was something in Mr. Grex's tone which seemed to destroy all his +confidence, a note of something almost alien in the measured contempt of +his speech. + +"I am sorry to give you any offence," Richard began. "I happened to +notice that you were watching me. I was looking at your +daughter--staring at her. I am afraid you thought me impertinent." + +"Your perspicuity," Mr. Grex observed, "seems to be of a higher order +than your manners. You are, perhaps, a stranger to civilised society?" + +"I don't know about that," Richard went on doggedly. "I have been to +college and mixed with the usual sort of people. My birth isn't much to +speak of, perhaps, if you count that for anything." + +Something which was almost like the ghost of a smile, devoid of any +trace of humour, parted Mr. Grex's lips. + +"If I count that for anything!" he repeated, half closing his eyes for a +moment. "Pray proceed, young man." + +"I am an American," Richard continued. "My name is Richard Lane. My +father was very wealthy and I am his heir. My sister is Lady Weybourne. +I was lunching with her at Ciro's to-day when I saw you and your +daughter. I think I can say that I am a respectable person. I have a +great many friends to whom I can refer you." + +"I am not thinking of engaging anybody, that I know of," Mr. Grex +murmured. + +"I want to marry your daughter," Richard declared desperately, feeling +that any further form of explanation would only lead him into greater +trouble. + +Mr. Grex knocked the ash from his cigarette. + +"Is your keeper anywhere in the vicinity?" he asked. + +"I am perfectly sane," Richard assured him. "I know that it sounds +foolish but it isn't really. I am twenty-seven years old and I have +never asked a girl to marry me yet. I have been waiting until--" + +The words died away upon his lips. It was impossible for him to +continue, the cold enmity of this man was too chilling. + +"I am absolutely in earnest," he insisted. "I have been endeavouring all +day to find some mutual friend to introduce me to your daughter. Will +you do so? Will you give me a chance?" + +"I will not," Mr. Grex replied firmly. + +"Why not? Please tell me why not?" Richard begged. "I am not asking for +anything more now than just an opportunity to talk with her." + +"It is not a matter which admits of discussion," Mr. Grex pronounced. "I +have permitted you to say what you wished, notwithstanding the colossal, +the unimaginable impertinence of your suggestion. I request you to leave +me now and I advise you most heartily to indulge no more in the most +preposterous and idiotic idea which ever entered into the head of an +apparently sane young man." + +Richard rose slowly to his feet. + +"Very well, sir," he replied, "I'll go. All the same, what you have said +doesn't make any difference." + +"Does not make any difference?" Mr. Grex repeated, with arched eyebrows. + +"None at all," Richard declared. "I don't know what your objection to me +is, but I hope you'll get over it some day. I'd like to make friends +with you. Perhaps, later on, you may look at the matter differently." + +"Later on?" Mr. Grex murmured. + +"When I have married your daughter," Richard concluded, marching +defiantly away. + +Mr. Grex watched the young man until he had disappeared in the crowd. +Then he leaned hack amongst the cushions of the divan with folded arms. +Little lines had become visible around his eyes, there was a slight +twitching at the corners of his lips. He looked like a man who was +inwardly enjoying some huge joke. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UP THE MOUNTAIN + + +Richard, passing the Hotel de Paris that evening in his wicked-looking +grey racing car, saw Hunterleys standing on the steps and pulled up. + +"Not going up to La Turbie, by any chance?" he enquired. + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I'm going up to the dinner," he replied. "The hotel motor is starting +from here in a few minutes." + +"Come with me," Richard invited. + +Hunterleys looked a little doubtfully at the long, low machine. + +"Are you going to shoot up?" he asked. "It's rather a dangerous road." + +"I'll take care of you," the young man promised. "That hotel 'bus will +be crammed." + +They glided through the streets on to the broad, hard road, and crept +upwards with scarcely a sound, through the blue-black twilight. Around +and in front of them little lights shone out from the villas and small +houses dotted away in the mountains. Almost imperceptibly they passed +into a different atmosphere. The air became cold and exhilarating. The +flavour of the mountain snows gave life to the breeze. Hunterleys +buttoned up his coat but bared his head. + +"My young friend," he said, "this is wonderful." + +"It's a great climb," Richard assented, "and doesn't she just eat it +up!" + +They paused for a moment at La Turbie. Below them was a chain of +glittering lights fringing the Bay of Mentone, and at their feet the +lights of the Casino and Monte Carlo flared up through the scented +darkness. Once more they swung upwards. The road now had become narrower +and the turnings more frequent. They were up above the region of villas +and farmhouses, in a country which seemed to consist only of bleak +hill-side, open to the winds, wrapped in shadows. Now and then they +heard the tinkling of a goat bell; far below they saw the twin lights of +other ascending cars. They reached the plateau at last and drew up +before the club-house, ablaze with cheerful lights. + +"I'll just leave the car under the trees," Richard declared. "No one +will be staying late." + +Hunterleys unwound his scarf and handed his coat and hat to a page-boy. +Then he stood suddenly rigid. He bit his lip. His wife had just issued +from the cloak-room and was drawing on her gloves. She saw him and +hesitated. She, too, turned a little paler. Slowly Hunterleys approached +her. + +"An unexpected pleasure," he murmured. + +"I am here with Mr. Draconmeyer," she told him, almost bluntly. + +Hunterleys bowed. + +"And a party?" he enquired. + +"No," she replied. "I really did not want to come. Mr. Draconmeyer had +promised Monsieur Pericot, the director here, to come and bring Mrs. +Draconmeyer. At the last moment, however, she was not well enough, and +he almost insisted upon my taking her place." + +"Is it necessary to explain?" Hunterleys asked quietly. "You know very +well how I regard this friendship of yours." + +"I am sorry," she said. "If I had known that we were likely to +meet--well, I would not have come here to-night." + +"You were at least considerate," he remarked bitterly. "May I be +permitted to compliment you upon your toilette?" + +"As you pay for my frocks," she answered, "there is certainly no reason +why you shouldn't admire them." + +He bit his lip. There was a certain challenge in her expression which +made him, for a moment, feel weak. She was a very beautiful woman and +she was looking her best. He spoke quickly on another subject. + +"Are you still," he asked, "troubled by the attentions of the person you +spoke to me about?" + +"I am still watched," she replied drily. + +"I have made some enquiries," Hunterleys continued, "and I have come to +the conclusion that you are right." + +"And you still tell me that you have nothing to do with it?" + +"I assure you, upon my honour, that I have nothing whatever to do with +it." + +It was obvious that she was puzzled, but at that moment Mr. Draconmeyer +presented himself. The newcomer simply bowed to Hunterleys and addressed +some remark about the room to Violet. Then Richard came up and they all +passed on into the reception room, where two or three very fussy but +very suave and charming Frenchmen were receiving the guests. A few +minutes afterwards dinner was announced. A black frown was upon +Richard's forehead. + +"She isn't coming!" he muttered. "I say, Sir Henry, you won't mind if we +leave early?" + +"I shall be jolly glad to get away," Hunterleys assented heartily. + +Then he suddenly felt a grip of iron upon his arm. + +"She's come!" Richard murmured ecstatically. "Look at her, all in white! +Just look at the colour of her hair! There she is, going into the +reception room. Jove! I'm glad we are here, after all!" + +Hunterleys smiled a little wearily. They passed on into the _salle ŕ +manger_. The seats at the long dining-tables were not reserved, and they +found a little table for two in a corner, which they annexed. Hunterleys +was in a grim humour, but his companion was in the wildest spirits. +Considering that he was placed where he could see Mr. Grex and his +daughter nearly the whole of the time, he really did contrive to keep +his eyes away from them to a wonderful extent, but he talked of her +unceasingly. + +"Say, I'm sorry for you, Sir Henry!" he declared. "It's just your bad +luck, being here with me while I've got this fit on, but I've got to +talk to some one, so you may as well make up your mind to it. There +never was anything like that girl upon the earth. There never was +anything like the feeling you get," he went on, "when you're absolutely +and entirely convinced, when you know--that there's just one girl who +counts for you in the whole universe. Gee whiz! It does get hold of you! +I suppose you've been through it all, though." + +"Yes, I've been through it!" Hunterleys admitted, with a sigh. + +The young man bit his lip. The story of Hunterleys' matrimonial +differences was already being whispered about. Richard talked polo +vigorously for the next quarter of an hour. It was not until the coffee +and liqueurs arrived that they returned to the subject of Miss Grex. +Then it was Hunterleys himself who introduced it. He was beginning to +rather like this big, self-confident young man, so full of his simple +love affair, so absolutely honest in his purpose, in his outlook upon +life. + +"Lane," he said, "I have given you several hints during the day, haven't +I?" + +"That's so," Richard agreed. "You've done your best to head me off. So +did my future father-in-law. Sort of hopeless task, I can assure you." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Honestly," he continued, "I wouldn't let myself think too much about +her, Lane. I don't want to explain exactly what I mean. There's no real +reason why I shouldn't tell you what I know about Mr. Grex, but for a +good many people's sakes, it's just as well that those few of us who +know keep quiet. I am sure you trust me, and it's just the same, +therefore, if I tell you straight, as man to man, that you're only +laying up for yourself a store of unhappiness by fixing your thoughts so +entirely upon that young woman." + +Richard, for all his sublime confidence, was a little staggered by the +other's earnestness. + +"Look here," he said, "the girl isn't married, to start with?" + +"Not that I know of," Hunterleys confessed. + +"And she's not engaged because I've seen her left hand," Richard +proceeded. "I'm not one of those Americans who go shouting all over the +world that because I've got a few million dollars I am the equal of +anybody, but honestly, Sir Henry, there are a good many prejudices over +this side that you fellows lay too much store by. Grex may be a nobleman +in disguise. I don't care. I am a man. I can give her everything she +needs in life and I am not going to admit, even if she is an aristocrat, +that you croakers are right when you shake your heads and advise me to +give her up. I don't care who she is, Hunterleys. I am going to marry +her." + +Hunterleys helped himself to a liqueur. + +"Young man," he said, "in a sense I admire your independence. In +another, I think you've got all the conceit a man needs for this world. +Let us presume, for a moment, that she is, as you surmise, the daughter +of a nobleman. When it suits her father to throw off his incognito, she +is probably in touch with young men in the highest circles of many +countries. Why should you suppose that you can come along and cut them +all out?" + +"Because I love her," the young man answered simply. "They don't." + +"You must remember," Hunterleys resumed, "that all foreign noblemen are +not what they are represented to be in your comic papers. Austrian and +Russian men of high rank are most of them very highly cultivated, very +accomplished, and very good-looking. You don't know much of the world, +do you? It's a pretty formidable enterprise to come from a New York +office, with only Harvard behind you, and a year or so's travel as a +tourist, and enter the list against men who have had twice your +opportunities. I am talking to you like this, young fellow, for your +good. I hope you realise that. You're used to getting what you want. +That's because you've been brought up in a country where money can do +almost anything. I am behind the scenes here and I can assure you that +your money won't count for much with Mr. Grex." + +"I never thought it would," Richard admitted. "I think when I talk to +her she'll understand that I care more than any of the others. If you +want to know the reason, that's why I'm so hopeful." + +Monsieur le Directeur had risen to his feet. Some one had proposed his +health and he made a graceful little speech of acknowledgment. He +remained standing for a few minutes after the cheers which had greeted +his neat oratorical display had died away. The conclusion of his remarks +came as rather a surprise to his guests. + +"I have to ask you, ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "with many, +many regrets, and begging you to forgive my apparent inhospitality, to +make your arrangements for leaving us as speedily as may be possible. +Our magnificent situation, with which I believe that most of you are +familiar, has but one drawback. We are subject to very dense mountain +mists, and alas! I have to tell you that one of these has come on most +unexpectedly and the descent must be made with the utmost care. Believe +me, there is no risk or any danger," he went on earnestly, "so long as +you instruct your chauffeurs to proceed with all possible caution. At +the same time, as there is very little chance of the mist becoming +absolutely dispelled before daylight, in your own interests I would +suggest that a start be made as soon as possible." + +Every one rose at once, Richard and Hunterleys amongst them. + +"This will test your skill to-night, young man," Hunterleys remarked. +"How's the nerve, eh?" + +Richard smiled almost beatifically. For once he had allowed his eyes to +wander and he was watching the girl with golden hair who was at that +moment receiving the respectful homage of the director. + +"Lunatics, and men who are head over heels in love," he declared, "never +come to any harm. You'll be perfectly safe with me." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN THE MISTS + + +Their first glimpse of the night, as Hunterleys and Lane passed out +through the grudgingly opened door, was sufficiently disconcerting. A +little murmur of dismay broke from the assembled crowd. Nothing was to +be seen but a dense bank of white mist, through which shone the +brilliant lights of the automobiles waiting at the door. Monsieur le +Directeur hastened about, doing his best to reassure everybody. + +"If I thought it was of the slightest use," he declared, "I would ask +you all to stay, but when the clouds once stoop like this, there is not +likely to be any change for twenty-four hours, and we have not, alas! +sleeping accommodation. If the cars are slowly driven and kept to the +inside, it is only a matter of a mile or two before you will drop below +the level of the clouds." + +Hunterleys and Lane made their way out to the front, and with their coat +collars turned up, groped their way to the turf on the other side of the +avenue. From where they stood, looking downwards, the whole world seemed +wrapped in mysterious and somber silence. There was nothing to be seen +but the grey, driving clouds. In less than a minute their hair and +eyebrows were dripping. A slight breeze had sprung up, the cold was +intense. + +"Cheerful sort of place, this," Lane remarked gloomily. "Shall we make a +start?" + +Hunterleys hesitated. + +"Not just yet. Look!" + +He pointed downwards. For a moment the clouds had parted. Thousands of +feet below, like little pinpricks of red fire, they saw the lights of +Monte Carlo. Almost as they looked, the clouds closed up again. It was +as though they had peered into another world. + +"Jove, that was queer!" Lane muttered. "Look! What's that?" + +A long ray of sickly yellow light shone for a moment and was then +suddenly blotted out by a rolling mass of vapour. The clouds had closed +in again once more. The obscurity was denser than ever. + +"The lighthouse," Hunterleys replied. "Do you think it's any use +waiting?" + +"We'll go inside and put on our coats," Lane suggested. "My car is by +the side of the avenue there. I covered it over and left it." + +They found their coats in the hall, wrapped themselves up and lit +cigarettes. Already many of the cars had started and vanished cautiously +into obscurity. Every now and then one could hear the tooting of their +horns from far away below. The chief steward was directing the +departures and insisting upon an interval of three minutes between each. +The two men stood on one side and watched him. He was holding open the +door of a large, exceptionally handsome car. On the other side was a +servant in white livery. Lane gripped his companion's arm. + +"There she goes!" he exclaimed. + +The girl, followed by Mr. Grex, stepped into the landaulette, which was +brilliantly illuminated inside with electric light. Almost immediately +the car glided noiselessly off. The two men watched it until it +disappeared. Then they crossed the road. + +"Now then, Sir Henry," Richard observed grimly, as he turned the handle +of the car and they took their places in the little well-shaped space, +"better say your prayers. I'm going to drive slowly enough but it's an +awful job, this, crawling down the side of a mountain in the dark, with +nothing between you and eternity but your brakes." + +They crept off. As far as the first turn the lights from the club-house +helped them. Immediately afterwards, however, the obscurity was +enveloping. Their faces were wet and shiny with moisture. Even the +fingers of Lane's gloves which gripped the wheel were sodden. He +proceeded at a snail's pace, keeping always on the inside of the road +and only a few inches from the wall or bank. Once he lost his way and +his front wheel struck a small stump, but they were going too slowly for +disaster. Another time he failed to follow the turn of the road and +found himself in a rough cart track. They backed with difficulty and got +right once more. At the fourth turn they came suddenly upon a huge car +which had left the road as they had done and was standing amongst the +pine trees, its lights flaring through the mist. + +"Hullo!" Lane called out, coming to a standstill. "You've missed the +turn." + +"My master is going to stay here all night," the chauffeur shouted back. + +A man put his head from the window and began to talk in rapid French. + +"It is inconceivable," he exclaimed, "that any one should attempt the +descent! We have rugs, my wife and I. We stay here till the clouds +pass." + +"Good night, then!" Lane cried cheerfully. + +"Not sure that you're not wise," Hunterleys added, with a shiver. + +Twice they stopped while Lane rubbed the moisture from his gloves and +lit a fresh cigarette. + +"This is a test for your nerve, young fellow," Hunterleys remarked. "Are +you feeling it?" + +"Not in the least," Lane replied. "I can't make out, though, why that +steward made us all start at intervals of three minutes. Seems to me we +should have been better going together at this pace. Save any one from +getting lost, anyhow." + +They crawled on for another twenty minutes. The routine was always the +same--a hundred yards or perhaps two, an abrupt turn and then a similar +distance the other way. They had one or two slight misadventures but +they made progress. Once, through a rift, they caught a momentary vision +of a carpet of lights at a giddy distance below. + +"We'll make it all right," Lane declared, crawling around another +corner. "Gee! but this is the toughest thing in driving I've ever known! +I can do ninety with this car easier than I can do this three. Hullo, +some one else in trouble!" + +Before them, in the middle of the road, a light was being slowly swung +backwards and forwards. Lane brought the car to a standstill. He had +scarcely done so when they were conscious of the sound of footsteps all +around them. The arms of both men were seized from behind. They were +addressed in guttural French. + +"Messieurs will be pleased to descend." + +"What the--what's wrong?" Lane demanded. + +"Descend at once," was the prompt order. + +By the light of the lantern which the speaker was holding, they caught a +glimpse of a dozen white faces and the dull gleam of metal from the +firearms which his companions were carrying. Hunterleys stepped out. An +escort of two men was at once formed on either side of him. + +"Tell us what it's all about, anyhow?" he asked coolly. + +"Nothing serious," the same guttural voice answered,--"a little affair +which will be settled in a few minutes. As for you, monsieur," the man +continued, turning to Lane, "you will drive your car slowly to the next +turn, and leave it there. Afterwards you will return with me." + +Richard set his teeth and leaned over his wheel. Then it suddenly +flashed into his mind that Mr. Grex and his daughter were already +amongst the captured. He quickly abandoned his first instinct. + +"With pleasure, monsieur," he assented. "Tell me when to stop." + +He drove the car a few yards round the corner, past a line of others. +Their lights were all extinguished and the chauffeurs absent. + +"This is a pleasant sort of picnic!" he grumbled, as he brought his car +to a standstill. "Now what do I do, monsieur?" + +"You return with me, if you please," was the reply. + +Richard stood, for a moment, irresolute. The idea of giving in without a +struggle was most distasteful to this self-reliant young American. Then +he realised that not only was his captor armed but that there were men +behind him and one on either side. + +"Lead the way," he decided tersely. + +They marched him up the hill, a little way across some short turf and +round the back of a rock to a long building which he remembered to have +noticed on his way up. His guide threw open the door and Richard looked +in upon a curious scene. Ranged up against the further wall were about a +dozen of the guests who had preceded him in his departure from the +Club-house. One man only had his hands tied behind him. The others, +apparently, were considered harmless. Mr. Grex was the one man, and +there was a little blood dripping from his right hand. The girl stood by +his side. She was no paler than usual--she showed, indeed, no signs of +terror at all--but her eyes were bright with indignation. One man was +busy stripping the jewels from the women and throwing them into a bag. +In the far corner the little group of chauffeurs was being watched by +two more men, also carrying firearms. Lane looked down the line of +faces. Lady Hunterleys was there, and by her side Draconmeyer. +Hunterleys was a little apart from the others. Freddy Montressor, who +was leaning against the wall, chuckled as Lane came in. + +"So they've got you, too, Dicky, have they?" he remarked. "It's a +hold-up--a bully one, too. Makes one feel quite homesick, eh? How much +have you got on you?" + +"Precious little, thank heavens!" Richard muttered. + +His eyes were fixed upon the brigand who was collecting the jewels, and +who was now approaching Miss Grex. He felt something tingling in his +blood. One of the guests began to talk excitedly. The man who was +apparently the leader, and who was standing at the door with an electric +torch in one hand and a revolver in the other, stepped a little forward. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "once more I beg you not to be alarmed. +So long as you part with your valuables peaceably, you will be at +liberty to depart as soon as every one has been dealt with. If there is +no resistance, there will be no trouble. We do not wish to hurt any +one." + +The collector of jewels had arrived in front of the girl. She unfastened +her necklace and handed it to him. + +"The little pendant around my neck," she remarked calmly, "is valueless. +I desire to keep it." + +"Impossible!" the man replied. "Off with it." + +"But I insist!" she exclaimed. "It is an heirloom." + +The man laughed brutally. His filthy hand was raised to her neck. Even +as he touched her, Lane, with a roar of anger, sent one of his guards +flying on to the floor of the barn, and, snatching the gun from his +hand, sprang forward. + +"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted, bringing it down suddenly upon the +hand of the robber. "These things aren't loaded. There's only one of +these blackguards with a revolver." + +[Illustration: "Come on, you fellows!" he shouted.] + +"And I've got him!" Hunterleys, who had been watching Lane closely, +cried, suddenly swinging his arm around the man's neck and knocking his +revolver up. + +There was a yell of pain from the man with the jewels, whose wrist Lane +had broken, a howl of dismay from the others--pandemonium. + +"At 'em, Freddy!" Lane shouted, seizing the nearest of his assailants by +the neck and throwing him out into the darkness. "To hell with you!" he +added, just escaping a murderous blow and driving his fist into the face +of the man who had aimed it. "Good for you, Hunterleys! There isn't one +of those old guns of theirs that'll go off. They aren't even loaded." + +The barn seemed suddenly to become half empty. Into the darkness the +little band of brigands crept away like rats. In less than half a minute +they had all fled, excepting the one who lay on the ground unconscious +from the effects of Richard's blow, and the leader of the gang, whom +Hunterleys still held by the throat. Richard, with a clasp-knife which +he had drawn from his pocket, cut the cord which they had tied around +Mr. Grex's wrists. His action, however, was altogether mechanical. He +scarcely glanced at what he was doing. Somehow or other, he found the +girl's hands in his. + +"That brute--didn't touch you, did he?" he asked. + +She looked at him. Whether the clouds were still outside or not, Lane +felt that he had passed into Heaven. + +"He did not, thanks to you," she murmured. "But do you mean really that +those guns all the time weren't loaded?" + +"I don't believe they were," Richard declared stoutly. "That chap kept +on playing about with the lock of his old musket and I felt sure that it +was of no use, loaded or not. Anyway, when I saw that brute try to +handle you--well--" + +He stopped, with an awkward little laugh. Mr. Grex tapped a cigarette +upon his case and lit it. + +"I am sure, my young friend, we are all very much indebted to you. The +methods which sometimes are scarcely politic in the ordinary affairs of +life," he continued drily, "are admirable enough in a case like this. We +will just help Hunterleys tie up the leader of the gang. A very plucky +stroke, that of his." + +He crossed the barn. One of the women had fainted, others were busy +collecting their jewelry. The chauffeurs had hurried off to relight the +lamps of the cars. + +"I must tell you this," Richard said, drawing a a little nearer to the +girl. "Please don't be angry with me. I went to your father this +afternoon. I made an idiot of myself--I couldn't help it. I was staring +at you and he noticed it. I didn't want him to think that I was such an +ill-mannered brute as I seemed. I tried to make him understand but he +wouldn't listen to me. I'd like to tell you now--now that I have the +opportunity--that I think you're just--" + +She smiled very faintly. + +"What is it that you wish to tell me?" she asked patiently. + +"That I love you," he wound up abruptly. + +There was a moment's silence, a silence with a background of strange +noises. People were talking, almost shouting to one another with +excitement. Newcomers were being told the news. The man whom Hunterleys +had captured was shrieking and cursing. From beyond came the tooting of +motor-horns as the cars returned. Lane heard nothing. He saw nothing but +the white face of the girl as she stood in the shadows of the barn, with +its walls of roughly threaded pine trunks. + +"But I have scarcely ever spoken to you in my life!" she protested, +looking at him in astonishment. + +"It doesn't make any difference," he replied. "You know I am speaking +the truth. I think, in your heart, that you, too, know that these things +don't matter, now and then. Of course, you don't--you couldn't feel +anything of what I feel, but with me it's there now and for always, and +I want to have a chance, just a chance to make you understand. I'm not +really mad. I'm just--in love with you." + +She smiled at him, still in a friendly manner, but her face had clouded. +There was a look in her eyes almost of trouble, perhaps of regret. + +"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It is only a sudden feeling on your +part, isn't it? You have been so splendid to-night that I can do no more +than thank you very, very much. And as for what you have told me, I +think it is an honour, but I wish you to forget it. It is not wise for +you to think of me in that way. I fear that I cannot even offer you my +friendship." + +Again there was a brief silence. The clamour of exclamations from the +little groups of people still filled the air outside. They could hear +cars coming and going. The man whom Hunterleys and Mr. Grex were tying +up was still groaning and cursing. + +"Are you married?" Richard asked abruptly. + +She shook her head. + +"Engaged?" + +"No!" + +"Do you care very much for any one else?" + +"No!" she told him softly. + +He drew her away. + +"Come outside for one moment," he begged. "I hate to see you in the +place where that beast tried to lay hands upon you. Here is your +necklace." + +He picked it up from her feet and she followed him obediently outside. +People were standing about, shadowy figures in little groups. Some of +the cars had already left, others were being prepared for a start. +Below, once more the clouds had parted and the lights twinkled like +fireflies through the trees. This time they could even see the lights +from the village of La Turbie, less brilliant but almost at their feet. +Richard glanced upwards. There was a star clearly visible. + +"The clouds are lifting," he said. "Listen. If there is no one else, +tell me, why there shouldn't be the slightest chance for me? I am not +clever, I am nobody of any account, but I care for you so wonderfully. I +love you, I always shall love you, more than any one else could. I never +understood before, but I understand now. Just this caring means so +much." + +She stood close to his side. Her manner at the same time seemed to +depress him and yet to fill him with hope. + +"What is your name?" she enquired. + +"Richard Lane," he told her. "I am an American." + +"Then, Mr. Richard Lane," she continued softly, "I shall always think of +you and think of to-night and think of what you have said, and perhaps I +shall be a little sorry that what you have asked me cannot be." + +"Cannot?" he muttered. + +She shook her head almost sadly. + +"Some day," she went on, "as soon as our stay in Monte Carlo is +finished, if you like, I will write and tell you the real reason, in +case you do not find it out before." + +He was silent, looking downwards to where the gathering wind was driving +the clouds before it, to where the lights grew clearer and clearer at +every moment. + +"Does it matter," he asked abruptly, "that I am rich--very rich?" + +"It does not matter at all," she answered. + +"Doesn't it matter," he demanded, turning suddenly upon her and speaking +with a new passion, almost a passion of resentment, "doesn't it matter +that without you life doesn't exist for me any longer? Doesn't it matter +that a man has given you his whole heart, however slight a thing it may +seem to you? What am I to do if you send me away? There isn't anything +left in life." + +"There is what you have always found in it," she reminded him. + +"There isn't," he replied fiercely. "That's just what there isn't. I +should go back to a world that was like a dead city." + +He suddenly felt her hand upon his. + +"Dear Mr. Lane," she begged, "wait for a little time before you nurse +these sad thoughts, and when you know how impossible what you ask is, it +will seem easier. But if you really care to hear something, if it would +really please you sometimes to think of it when you are alone and you +remember this little foolishness of yours, let me tell you, if I may, +that I am sorry--I am very sorry." + +His hand was suddenly pressed, and then, before he could stop her, she +had glided away. He moved a step to follow her and almost at once he was +surrounded. Lady Hunterleys patted him on the shoulder. + +"Really," she exclaimed, "you and Henry were our salvation. I haven't +felt so thrilled for ages. I only wish," she added, dropping her voice a +little, "that it might bring you the luck you deserve." + +He answered vaguely. She turned back to Hunterleys. She was busy tearing +up her handkerchief. + +"I am going to tie up your head," she said. "Please stoop down." + +He obeyed at once. The side of his forehead was bleeding where a bullet +from the revolver of the man he had captured had grazed his temple. + +"Too bad to trouble you," he muttered. + +"It's the least we can do," she declared, laughing nervously. "Forgive +me if my fingers tremble. It is the excitement of the last few minutes." + +Hunterleys stood quite still. Words seemed difficult to him just then. + +"You were very brave, Henry," she said quietly. "Whom--whom are you +going down with?" + +"I am with Richard Lane," he answered, "in his two-seated racer." + +She bit her lip. + +"I did not mean to come alone with Mr. Draconmeyer, really," she +explained. "He thought, up to the last moment, that his wife would be +well enough to come." + +"Did he really believe so, do you think?" Hunterleys asked. + +A voice intervened. Mr. Draconmeyer was standing by their side. + +"Well," he said, "we might as well resume our journey. We all look and +feel, I think, as though we had been taking part in a scene from some +opéra bouffe." + +Lady Hunterleys shivered. She had drawn a little closer to her husband. +Her coat was unfastened. Hunterleys leaned towards her and buttoned it +with strong fingers up to her throat. + +"Thank you," she whispered. "You wouldn't--you couldn't drive down with +us, could you?" + +"Have you plenty of room?" he enquired. + +"Plenty," she declared eagerly. "Mr. Draconmeyer and I are alone." + +For a moment Hunterleys hesitated. Then he caught the smile upon the +face of the man he detested. + +"Thank you," he said, "I don't think I can desert Lane." + +She stiffened at once. Her good night was almost formal. Hunterleys +stepped into the car which Richard had brought up. There was just a +slight mist around them, but the whole country below, though chaotic, +was visible, and the lights on the hill-side, from La Turbie down to the +sea-board, were in plain sight. + +"Our troubles," Hunterleys remarked, as they glided off, "seem to be +over." + +"Maybe," Lane replied grimly. "Mine seem to be only just beginning!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SIGNS OF TROUBLE + + +At ten o'clock the next morning, Hunterleys crossed the sunlit gardens +towards the English bank, to receive what was, perhaps, the greatest +shock of his life. A few minutes later he stood before the mahogany +counter, his eyes fixed upon the half sheet of notepaper which the +manager had laid before him. The words were few enough and simple +enough, yet they constituted for him a message written in the very ink +of tragedy. The notepaper was the notepaper of the Hotel de Paris, the +date the night before, the words few and unmistakable: + + To the Manager of the English Bank. Please hand my letters to + bearer. + + HENRY HUNTERLEYS. + +He read it over, letter by letter, word by word. Then at last he looked +up. His voice sounded, even to himself, unnatural. + +"You were quite right," he said. "This order is a forgery." + +The manager was greatly disturbed. He threw open the door of his private +office. + +"Come and sit down for a moment, will you, Sir Henry?" he invited. "This +is a very serious matter, and I should like to discuss it with you." + +They passed behind into the comfortable little sitting-room, smelling of +morocco leather and roses, with its single high window, its broad +writing-table, its carefully placed easy-chairs. Men had pleaded in here +with all the eloquence at their command, men of every rank and walk in +life, thieves, nobles, ruined men and pseudo-millionaires, always with +the same cry--money; money for the great pleasure-mill which day and +night drew in its own. Hunterleys sank heavily into a chair. The manager +seated himself in an official attitude before his desk. + +"I am sorry to have distressed you with this letter, Sir Henry," he +said. "However, you must admit that things might have been worse. It is +fortunately our invariable custom, when letters are addressed to one of +our clients in our care, to deliver them to no one else under any +circumstances. If you had been ill, for instance, I should have brought +you your correspondence across to the hotel, but I should not have +delivered it to your own secretary. That, as I say, is our invariable +rule, and we find that it has saved many of our clients from +inconvenience. In your case," the manager concluded impressively, "your +communications being, in a sense, official, any such attempt as has been +made would not stand the slightest chance of success. We should be even +more particular than in any ordinary case to see that by no possible +chance could any correspondence addressed to you, fall into other +hands." + +Hunterleys began to recover himself a little. He drew towards himself +the heap of letters which the manager had laid by his side. + +"Please make yourself quite comfortable here," the latter begged. "Read +your letters and answer them, if you like, before you go out. I always +call this," he added, with a smile, "the one inviolable sanctuary of +Monte Carlo." + +"You are very kind," Hunterleys replied. "Are you sure that I am not +detaining you?" + +"Not in the least. Personally, I am not at all busy. Three-quarters of +our business, you see, is merely a matter of routine. I was just going +to shut myself up here and read the _Times_. Have a cigarette? Here's an +envelope opener and a waste-paper basket. Make yourself comfortable." + +Hunterleys glanced through his correspondence, rapidly reading and +destroying the greater portion of it. He came at last to two parchment +envelopes marked "On His Majesty's Service." These he opened and read +their contents slowly and with great care. When he had finished, he +produced a pair of scissors from his waistcoat pocket and cut the +letters into minute fragments. He drew a little sigh of relief when at +last their final destruction was assured, and rose shortly afterwards to +his feet. + +"I shall have to go on to the telegraph office," he said, "to send these +few messages. Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison, for your kindness. If +you do not mind, I should like to take this forged order away with me." + +The manager hesitated. + +"I am not sure that I ought to part with it," he observed doubtfully. + +"Could you recognise the person who presented it--you or your clerk?" + +The manager shook his head. + +"Not a chance," he replied. "It was brought in, unfortunately, before I +arrived. Young Parsons, who was the only one in the bank, explained that +letters were never delivered to an order, and turned away to attend to +some one else who was in a hurry. He simply remembers that it was a man, +and that is all." + +"Then the document is useless to you," Hunterleys pointed out. "You +could never do anything in the matter without evidence of +identification, and that being so, if you don't mind I should like to +have it." + +Mr. Harrison yielded it up. + +"As you wish," he agreed. "It is interesting, if only as a curiosity. +The imitation of your signature is almost perfect." + +Hunterleys took up his hat. Then for a moment, with his hand upon the +door, he hesitated. + +"Mr. Harrison," he said, "I am engaged just now, as you have doubtless +surmised, in certain investigations on behalf of the usual third party +whom we need not name. Those investigations have reached a pitch which +might possibly lead me into a position of some--well, I might almost say +danger. You and I both know that there are weapons in this place which +can be made use of by persons wholly without scruples, which are +scarcely available at home. I want you to keep your eyes open. I have +very few friends here whom I can wholly trust. It is my purpose to call +in here every morning at ten o'clock for my letters, and if I fail to +arrive within half-an-hour of that time without having given you verbal +notice, something will have happened to me. You understand what I mean?" + +"You mean that you are threatened with assassination?" the manager asked +gravely. + +"Practically it amounts to that," Hunterleys admitted. "I received a +warning letter this morning. There is a very important matter on foot +here, Mr. Harrison, a matter so important that to bring it to a +successful conclusion I fancy that those who are engaged in it would not +hesitate to face any risk. I have wired to England for help. If anything +happens that it comes too late, I want you, when you find that I have +disappeared, even if my disappearance is only a temporary matter, to let +them know in London--you know how--at once." + +The manager nodded. + +"I will do so," he promised. "I trust, however," he went on, "that you +are exaggerating the danger. Mr. Billson lived here for many years +without any trouble." + +Hunterleys smiled slightly. + +"I am not a Secret Service man," he explained. "Billson's successor +lives here now, of course, and is working with me, under the usual guise +of newspaper correspondent. I don't think that he will come to any harm. +But I am here in a somewhat different position, and my negotiations in +the east, during the last few weeks, have made me exceedingly unpopular +with some very powerful people. However, it is only an outside chance, +of course, that I wish to guard against. I rely upon you, if I should +fail to come to the bank any one morning without giving you notice, to +do as I have asked." + +Hunterleys left the bank and walked out once more into the sunlight. He +first of all made his way down to the Post Office, where he rapidly +dispatched several cablegrams which he had coded and written out in Mr. +Harrison's private office. Afterwards he went on to the Terrace, and +finding a retired seat at the further end, sat down. Then he drew the +forged order once more from his pocket. Word by word, line by line, he +studied it, and the more he studied it, the more hopeless the whole +thing seemed. The handwriting, with the exception of the signature, +which was a wonderful imitation of his own, was the handwriting of his +wife. She had done this thing at Draconmeyer's instigation, done this +thing against her husband, taken sides absolutely with the man whom he +had come to look upon as his enemy! What inference was he to draw? He +sat there, looking out over the Mediterranean, soft and blue, glittering +with sunlight, breaking upon the yellow stretch of sand in little +foam-flecked waves no higher than his hand. He watched the sunlight +glitter on the white houses which fringed the bay. He looked idly up at +the trim little vineyards on the brown hill-side. It was the beauty spot +of the world. There was no object upon which his eyes could rest, which +was not beautiful. The whole place was like a feast of colour and form +and sunshine. Yet for him the light seemed suddenly to have faded from +life. Danger had only stimulated him, had helped him to cope with the +dull pain which he had carried about with him during the last few +months. He was face to face now with something else. It was worse, this, +than anything he had dreamed. Somehow or other, notwithstanding the +growing estrangement with his wife which had ended in their virtual +separation, he had still believed in her, still had faith in her, still +had hope of an ultimate reconciliation. And behind it all, he had loved +her. It seemed at that moment that a nightmare was being formed around +him. A new horror was creeping into his thoughts. He had felt from the +first a bitter dislike of Draconmeyer. Now, however, he realised that +this feeling had developed into an actual and harrowing jealousy. He +realised that the man was no passive agent. It was Draconmeyer who, with +subtle purpose, was drawing his wife away! Hunterleys sprang to his feet +and walked angrily backwards and forwards along the few yards of +Terrace, which happened at that moment to be almost deserted. Vague +plans of instant revenge upon Draconmeyer floated into his mind. It was +simple enough to take the law into his own hands, to thrash him +publicly, to make Monte Carlo impossible for him. And then, suddenly, he +remembered his duty. They were trusting him in Downing Street. Chance +had put into his hands so many threads of this diabolical plot. It was +for him to checkmate it. He was the only person who could checkmate it. +This was no time for him to think of personal revenge, no time for him +to brood over his own broken life. There was work still to be done--his +country's work.... + +He felt the need of change of scene. The sight of the place with its +placid, enervating beauty, its constant appeal to the senses, was +beginning to have a curious effect upon his nerves. He turned back upon +the Terrace, and by means of the least frequented streets he passed +through the town and up towards the hills. He walked steadily, reckless +of time or direction. He had lunch at a small inn high above the road +from Cannes, and it was past three o'clock when he turned homewards. He +had found his way into the main road now and he trudged along heedless +of the dust with which the constant procession of automobiles covered +him all the while. The exercise had done him good. He was able to keep +his thoughts focussed upon his mission. So far, at any rate, he had held +his own. His dispatches to London had been clear and vivid. He had told +them exactly what he had feared, he had shown them the inside of this +scheme as instinct had revealed it to him, and he had begged for aid. +One man alone, surrounded by enemies, and in a country where all things +were possible, was in a parlous position if once the extent of his +knowledge were surmised. So far, the plot had not yet matured. So far, +though the clouds had gathered and the thunder was muttering, the storm +had not broken. The reason for that he knew--the one person needed, the +one person for whose coming all these plans had been made, had not yet +arrived. There was no telling, however, how long the respite might last. +At any moment might commence this conference, whose avowed purpose was +to break at a single blow, a single treacherous but deadly blow, the +Empire whose downfall Selingman had once publicly declared was the one +great necessity involved by his country's expansion.... + +Hunterleys quenched his thirst at a roadside café, sitting out upon the +pavement and drinking coarse red wine and soda-water. Then he bought a +packet of black cigarettes and continued his journey. He was within +sight of Monte Carlo when for the twentieth time he had to step to the +far side of the pathway to avoid being smothered in dust by an advancing +automobile. This time, by some chance, he glanced around, attracted by +the piercing character of its long-distance whistle. A high-powered grey +touring car came by, travelling at a great pace. Hunterleys stood +perfectly rigid, one hand grasping the wall by the side of which he +stood. Notwithstanding his spectacles and the thick coating of dust upon +his clothes, the solitary passenger of the car was familiar enough to +him. It was the man for whom this plot had been prepared. It was Paul +Douaille, the great Foreign Minister into whose hands even the most +cautious of Premiers had declared himself willing to place the destinies +of his country! + +Hunterleys pursued the road no longer. He took a ticket at the next +station and hurried back to Monte Carlo. He went first to his room, +bathed and changed, and, passing along the private passage, made his way +into the Sporting Club. The first person whom he saw, seated in her +accustomed place at her favourite table, was his wife. She beckoned him +to come over to her. There was a vacant chair by her side to which she +pointed. + +"Thank you," he said, "I won't sit down. I don't think that I care to +play just now. You are fortunate this afternoon, I trust?" + +Something in his face and tone checked that rush of altered feeling of +which she had been more than once passionately conscious since the night +before. + +"I am hideously out of luck," she confessed slowly. "I have been losing +all day. I think that I shall give it up." + +She rose wearily to her feet and he felt a sudden compassion for her. +She was certainly looking tired. Her eyes were weary, she had the air of +an unhappy woman. After all, perhaps she too sometimes knew what +loneliness was. + +"I should like some tea so much," she added, a little piteously. + +He opened his lips to invite her to pass through into the restaurant +with him. Then the memory of that forged order still in his pocket, +flashed into his mind. He hesitated. A cold, familiar voice at his elbow +intervened. + +"Are you quite ready for tea, Lady Hunterleys? I have been in and taken +a table near the window." + +Hunterleys moved at once on one side. Draconmeyer bowed pleasantly. + +"Cheerful time we had last night, hadn't we?" he remarked. "Glad to see +your knock didn't lay you up." + +Hunterleys disregarded his wife's glance. He was suddenly furious. + +"All Monte Carlo seems to be gossiping about that little contretemps," +Draconmeyer continued. "It was a crude sort of hold-up for a +neighbourhood of criminals, but it very nearly came off. Will you have +some tea with us?" + +"Do, Henry," his wife begged. + +Once again he hesitated. Somehow or other, he felt that the moment was +critical. Then a hand was laid quietly upon his arm, a man's voice +whispered in his ear. + +"Monsieur will be so kind as to step this way for a moment--a little +matter of business." + +"Who are you?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"The Commissioner of Police, at monsieur's service." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HINTS TO HUNTERLEYS + + +Hunterleys, in accordance with his request, followed the Commissioner +downstairs into one of the small private rooms on the ground floor. The +latter was very polite but very official. + +"Now what is it that you want?" Hunterleys asked, a little brusquely, as +soon as they were alone. + +The representative of the law was distinctly mysterious. He had a brown +moustache which he continually twirled, and he was all the time dropping +his voice to a whisper. + +"My first introduction to you should explain my mission, Sir Henry," he +said. "I hold a high position in the police here. My business with you, +however, is on behalf of a person whom I will not name, but whose +identity you will doubtless guess." + +"Very well," Hunterleys replied. "Now what is the nature of this +mission, please? In plain words, what do you want with me?" + +"I am here with reference to the affair of last night," the other +declared. + +"The affair of last night?" Hunterleys repeated, frowning. "Well, we all +have to appear or be represented before the magistrates to-morrow +morning. I shall send a lawyer." + +"Quite so! Quite so! But in the meantime, something has transpired. You +and the young American, Mr. Richard Lane, were the only two who offered +any resistance. It was owing to you two, in fact, that the plot was +frustrated. I am quite sure, Sir Henry, that every one agrees with me in +appreciating your courage and presence of mind." + +"Thank you," Hunterleys replied. "Is that what you came to say?" + +The other shook his head. + +"Unfortunately, no, monsieur! I am here to bring you certain +information. The chief of the gang, Armand Martin, the man whom you +attacked, became suddenly worse a few hours ago. The doctors suspect +internal injuries, injuries inflicted during his struggle with you." + +"I am very sorry to hear it," Hunterleys said coolly. "On the other +hand, he asked for anything he got." + +"Unfortunately," the Commissioner continued, "the law of the State is +curiously framed in such matters. If the man should die, as seems more +than likely, your legal position, Sir Henry, would be most +uncomfortable. Your arrest would be a necessity, and there is no law +granting what I believe you call bail to a person directly or indirectly +responsible for the death of another. I am here, therefore, to give you +what I may term an official warning. Your absence as a witness to-morrow +morning will not be commented upon--events of importance have called you +back to England. You will thereby be saved a very large amount of +annoyance, and the authorities here will be spared the most regrettable +necessity of having to deal with you in a manner unbefitting your rank." + +Hunterleys became at once thoughtful. The whole matter was becoming +clear to him. + +"I see," he observed. "This is a warning to me to take my departure. Is +that so?" + +The Commissioner beamed and nodded many times. + +"You have a quick understanding, Sir Henry," he declared. "Your +departure to-night, or early to-morrow morning, would save a good deal +of unpleasantness. I have fulfilled my mission, and I trust that you +will reflect seriously upon the matter. It is the wish of the high +personage whom I represent, that no inconvenience whatever should befall +so distinguished a visitor to the Principality. Good day, monsieur!" + +The official took his leave with a sweep of the hat and many bows. +Hunterleys, after a brief hesitation, walked out into the sun-dappled +street. It was the most fashionable hour of the afternoon. Up in the +square a band was playing. Outside, two or three smart automobiles were +discharging their freight of wonderfully-dressed women and debonair men +from the villas outside. Suddenly a hand fell upon his arm. It was +Richard Lane who greeted him. + +"Say, where are you off to, Sir Henry?" he inquired. + +Hunterleys laughed a little shortly. + +"Really, I scarcely know," he replied. "Back to London, if I am wise, I +suppose." + +"Come into the Club," Richard begged. + +"I have just left," Hunterleys told him. "Besides, I hate the place." + +"Did you happen to notice whether Mr. Grex was in there?" Richard +enquired. + +"I didn't see him," Hunterleys answered. "Neither," he added +significantly, "did I see Miss Grex." + +"Well, I am going in to have a look round, anyway," Richard decided. +"You might come along. There's nothing else to do in this place until +dinner-time." + +Hunterleys suffered himself to be persuaded and remounted the steps. + +"Tell me, Lane," he asked curiously, "have you heard anything about any +of the victims of our little struggle last night--I mean the two men we +tackled?" + +Richard shook his head. + +"I hear that mine has a broken wrist," he said. "Can't say I am feeling +very badly about that!" + +"I've just been told that mine is going to die," Hunterleys continued. + +The young man laughed incredulously. + +"Why, I went over the prison this morning," he declared. "I never saw +such a healthy lot of ruffians in my life. That chap whom you +tackled--the one with the revolver--was smoking cigarettes and using +language--well, I couldn't understand it all, but what I did understand +was enough to melt the bars of his prison." + +"That's odd," Hunterleys remarked drily. "According to the police +commissioner who has just left me, the man is on his death-bed, and my +only chance of escaping serious trouble is to get out of Monte Carlo +to-night." + +"Are you going?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"It would take a great deal more than that to move me just now," he +said, "even if I had not suspected from the first that the man was +lying." + +Richard glanced at his companion a little curiously. + +"I shouldn't have said that you were having such a good time, Sir +Henry," he observed; "in fact I should have thought you would have been +rather glad of an opportunity to slip away." + +Hunterleys looked around them. They had reached the top of the staircase +and were in sight of the dense crowd in the rooms. + +"Come and have a drink," he suggested. "A great many of these people +will have cleared off presently." + +"I'll have a drink, with pleasure," Richard answered, "but I still can't +see why you're stuck on this place." + +They strolled into the bar and found two vacant places. + +"My dear young friend," Hunterleys said, as he ordered their drinks, "if +you were an Englishman instead of an American, I think that I would give +you a hint as to the reason why I do not wish to leave Monte Carlo just +at present." + +"Can't see what difference that makes," Richard declared. "You know I'm +all for the old country." + +"I wonder whether you are," Hunterleys remarked thoughtfully. "I tell +you frankly that if I thought you meant it, I should probably come to +you before long for a little help." + +"If ever you do, I'm your man," Richard assured him heartily. "Any more +scraps going?" + +Hunterleys sipped his whisky and soda thoughtfully. There had been an +exodus from the room to watch some heavy gambling at _Trente et +Quarante_, and for a moment they were almost alone. + +"Lane," he said, "I am going to take you a little into my confidence. In +a way I suppose it is foolish, but to tell you the truth, I am almost +driven to it. You know that I am a Member of Parliament, and you may +have heard that if our Party hadn't gone out a few years ago, I was to +have been Foreign Minister." + +"I've heard that often enough," Lane assented. "I've heard you quoted, +too, as an example of the curse of party politics. Just because you are +forced to call yourself a member of one Party you are debarred from +serving your country in any capacity until that Party is in power." + +"That's quite true," Hunterleys admitted, "and to tell you the truth, +ridiculous though it seems, I don't see how you're to get away from it +in a practical manner. Anyhow, when my people came out I made up my mind +that I wasn't going to just sit still in Opposition and find fault all +the time, especially as we've a real good man at the Foreign Office. I +was quite content to leave things in his hands, but then, you see, +politically that meant that there was nothing for me to do. I thought +matters over and eventually I paired for six months and was supposed to +go off for the benefit of my health. As a matter of fact, I have been in +the Balkan States since Christmas," he added, dropping his voice a +little. + +"What the dickens have you been doing there?" + +"I can't tell you that exactly," Hunterleys replied. "Unfortunately, my +enemies are suspicious and they have taken to watching me closely. They +pretty well know what I am going to tell you--that I have been out there +at the urgent request of the Secret Service Department of the present +Government. I have been in Greece and Servia and Roumania, and, although +I don't think there's a soul in the world knows, I have also been in St. +Petersburg." + +"But what's it all about?" Richard persisted. "What have you been doing +in all these places?" + +"I can only answer you broadly," Hunterleys went on. "There is a +perfectly devilish scheme afloat, directed against the old country. I +have been doing what I can to counteract it. At the last moment, just as +I was leaving Sofia for London, by the merest chance I discovered that +the scene for the culmination of this little plot was to be Monte Carlo, +so I made my way round by Trieste, stayed at Bordighera and San Remo for +a few days to put people off, and finally turned up here." + +"Well, I'm jiggered!" Lane muttered. "And I thought you were just +hanging about for your health or because your wife was here, and were +bored to death for want of something to do." + +"On the contrary," Hunterleys assured him, "I was up all night sending +reports home--very interesting reports, too. I got them away all right, +but there's no denying the fact that there are certain people in Monte +Carlo at the present moment who suspect my presence here, and who would +go to any lengths whatever to get rid of me. It isn't the actual harm I +might do, but they have to deal with a very delicate problem and to make +a bargain with a very sensitive person, and they are terribly afraid +that my presence here, and a meeting between me and that person, might +render all their schemes abortive." + +Richard's face was a study in astonishment. + +"Well," he exclaimed, "this beats everything! I've read of such things, +of course, but one only half believes them. Right under our very noses, +too! Say, what are you going to do about it, Sir Henry?" + +"There is only one thing I can do," Hunterleys replied grimly. "I am +bound to keep my place here. They'll drive me out if they can. I am +convinced that the polite warning I have received to leave Monaco this +afternoon because of last night's affair, is part of the conspiracy. In +plain words, I've got to stick it out." + +"But what good are you doing here, anyway?" + +Hunterleys smiled and glanced carefully around the room. They were still +free from any risk of being overheard. + +"Well," he said, "perhaps you will understand my meaning more clearly if +I tell you that I am the brains of a counterplot. The English Secret +Service has a permanent agent here under the guise of a newspaper +correspondent, who is in daily touch with me, and he in his turn has +several spies at work. I am, however, the dangerous person. The others +are only servants. They make their reports, but they don't understand +their true significance. If these people could remove me before any one +else could arrive to take my place, their chances of bringing off their +coup here would be immensely improved." + +"I suppose it's useless for me to ask if there's anything I can do to +help?" Richard enquired. + +"You've helped already," Hunterleys replied. "I have been nearly three +months without being able to open my lips to a soul. People call me +secretive, but I feel very human sometimes. I know that not a word of +what I have said will pass your lips." + +"Not a chance of it," Richard promised earnestly. "But look here, can't +I do something? If I am not an Englishman, I'm all for the Anglo-Saxons. +I hate these foreigners--that is to say the men," he corrected himself +hastily. + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"Well, I was coming to that," he said. "I do feel hideously alone here, +and what I would like you to do is just this. I would like you to call +at my room at the Hotel de Paris, number 189, every morning at a certain +fixed hour--say half-past ten. Just shake hands with me--that's all. +Nothing shall prevent my being visible to you at that hour. Under no +consideration whatever will I leave any message that I am engaged or +have gone out. If I am not to be seen when you make your call, something +has happened to me." + +"And what am I to do then?" + +"That is the point," Hunterleys continued. "I don't want to bring you +too deeply into this matter. All that you need do is to make your way to +the English Bank, see Mr. Harrison, the manager, and tell him of your +fruitless visit to me. He will give you a letter to my wife and will +know what other steps to take." + +"Is that all?" Richard asked, a little disappointed. "You don't +anticipate any scrapping, or anything of that sort?" + +"I don't know what to anticipate," Hunterleys confessed, a little +wearily. "Things are moving fast now towards the climax. I promise I'll +come to you for help if I need it. You can but refuse." + +"No fear of my refusing," Richard declared heartily. "Not on your life, +sir!" + +Hunterleys rose to his feet with an appreciative little nod. It was +astonishing how cordially he had come to feel towards this young man, +during the last few hours. + +"I'll let you off now," he said. "I know you want to look around the +tables and see if any of our friends of last night are to be found. I, +too, have a little affair which I ought to have treated differently a +few minutes ago. We'll meet later." + +Hunterleys strolled back into the rooms. He came almost at once face to +face with Draconmeyer, whom he was passing with unseeing eyes. +Draconmeyer, however, detained him. + +"I was looking for you, Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "Can you spare me one +moment?" + +They stood a little on one side, out of the way of the moving throng of +people. Draconmeyer was fingering nervously his tie of somewhat vivid +purple. His manner was important. + +"Do you happen, Sir Henry," he asked, "to have had any word from the +prison authorities to-day?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I have just received a message," he replied. "I understand that the man +with whom I had a struggle last night has received some internal +injuries and is likely to die." + +Draconmeyer's manner became more mysterious. He glanced around the room +as though to be sure that they were not overheard. + +"I trust, Sir Henry," he said, "that you will not think me in any way +presumptuous if I speak to you intimately. I have never had the +privilege of your friendship, and in this unfortunate disagreement +between your wife and yourself I have been compelled to accept your +wife's point of view, owing to the friendship between Mrs. Draconmeyer +and herself. I trust you will believe, however, that I have no feelings +of hostility towards you." + +"You are very kind," Hunterleys murmured. + +His face seemed set in graven lines. For all the effect the other's +words had upon him, he might have been wearing a mask. + +"The law here in some respects is very curious," Draconmeyer continued. +"Some of the statutes have been unaltered for a thousand years. I have +been given to understand by a person who knows, that if this man should +die, notwithstanding the circumstances of the case, you might find +yourself in an exceedingly awkward position. If I might venture, +therefore, to give you a word of disinterested advice, I would suggest +that you return to England at once, if only for a week or so." + +His eyes had narrowed. Through his spectacles he was watching intently +for the effect of his words. Hunterleys, however, only nodded +thoughtfully, as though to some extent impressed by the advice he had +received. + +"Very likely you are right," he admitted. "I will discuss the matter +with my wife." + +"She is playing over there," Draconmeyer pointed out. "And while we are +talking in a more or less friendly fashion," he went on earnestly, +"might I give you just one more word of counsel? For the sake of the +friendship which exists between our wives, I feel sure you will believe +that I am disinterested." + +He paused. Hunterleys' expression was now one of polite interest. He +waited, however, for the other to continue. + +"I wish that you could persuade Lady Hunterleys to play for somewhat +lower stakes." + +Hunterleys was genuinely startled for a moment. + +"Do you mean that my wife is gambling beyond her means?" he asked. + +Draconmeyer shrugged his shoulders. + +"How can I tell that? I don't know what her means are, or yours. I only +know that she changes mille notes more often than I change louis, and it +seems to me that her luck is invariably bad. I think, perhaps, just a +word or two from you, who have the right to speak, might be of service." + +"I am very much obliged to you for the hint," Hunterleys said smoothly. +"I will certainly mention the matter to her." + +"And if I don't see you again," Draconmeyer concluded, watching him +closely, "good-bye!" + +Hunterleys did not appear to notice the tentative movement of the +other's hand. He was already on his way to the spot where his wife was +sitting. Draconmeyer watched his progress with inscrutable face. +Selingman, who had been sitting near, rose and joined him. + +"Will he go?" he whispered. "Will our friend take this very reasonable +hint and depart?" + +Draconmeyer's eyes were still fixed upon Hunterleys' slim, +self-possessed figure. His forehead was contorted into a frown. Somehow +or other, he felt that during their brief interview he had failed to +score; he had felt a subtle, underlying note of contempt in Hunterleys' +manner, in his whole attitude. + +"I do not know," he replied grimly. "I only hope that if he stays, we +shall find the means to make him regret it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"I CANNOT GO!" + + +Hunterleys stood for several minutes, watching his wife's play from a +new point of view. She was certainly playing high and with continued +ill-fortune. For the first time, too, he noticed symptoms which +disturbed him. She sat quite motionless, but there was an unfamiliar +glitter in her eyes and a hardness about her mouth. It was not until he +had stood within a few feet of her for nearly a quarter of an hour, that +she chanced to see him. + +"Did you want me?" she asked, with a little start. + +"There is no hurry," he replied. "If you could spare me a few moments +later, I should be glad." + +She rose at once, thrusting her notes and gold into the satchel which +she was carrying, and stood by his side. She was very elegantly dressed +in black and white, but she was pale, and, watching her with a new +intentness, he discovered faint violet lines under her eyes, as though +she had been sleeping ill. + +"I am rather glad you came," she said. "I was having an abominable run +of bad luck, and yet I hated to give up my seat without an excuse. What +did you want, Henry?" + +"I should like," he explained, "to talk to you for a quarter of an hour. +This place is rather crowded and it is getting on my nerves. We seem to +live here, night and day. Would you object to driving with me--say as +far as Mentone and back?" + +"I will come if you wish it," she answered, looking a little surprised. +"Wait while I get my cloak." + +Hunterleys hired an automobile below and they drove off. As soon as they +were out of the main street, he thrust his hand into the breast-pocket +of his coat and smoothed out that half-sheet of notepaper upon his knee. + +"Violet," he said, "please read that." + +She read the few lines instructing the English Bank to hand over Sir +Henry Hunterleys' letters to the bearer. Then she looked up at him with +a puzzled frown. + +"I don't understand." + +"Did you write that?" he enquired. + +She looked at him indignantly. + +"What an absurd question!" she exclaimed. "Your correspondence has no +interest for me." + +Her denial, so natural, so obviously truthful, was a surprise to him. He +felt a sudden impulse of joy, mingled with shame. Perhaps, after all, he +had been altogether too censorious. Once more he directed her attention +to the sheet of paper. There was a marked change in his voice and +manner. + +"Violet," he begged, "please look at it. Accepting without hesitation +your word that you did not write it, doesn't it occur to you that the +body of the letter is a distinct imitation of your handwriting, and the +signature a very clever forgery of mine?" + +"It is rather like my handwriting," she admitted, "and as for the +signature, do you mean to say really that that is not yours?" + +"Certainly not," he assured her. "The whole thing is a forgery." + +"But who in the world should want to get your letters?" she asked +incredulously. "And why should you have them addressed to the bank?" + +He folded up the paper then and put it in his pocket. + +"Violet," he said earnestly, "for the disagreements which have resulted +in our separation I may myself have been to some extent responsible, but +we have promised one another not to refer to them again and I will not +break our compact. All I can say is that there is much in my life which +you know little of, and for which you do not, therefore, make sufficient +allowance." + +"Then you might have treated me," she declared, "with more confidence." + +"It was not possible," he reminded her, "so long as you chose to make an +intimate friend of a man whose every interest in life is in direct +antagonism to mine." + +"Mr. Draconmeyer?" + +"Mr. Draconmeyer," he assented. + +She smiled contemptuously. + +"You misunderstand Mr. Draconmeyer completely," she insisted. "He is +your well-wisher and he is more than half an Englishman. It was he who +started the league between English and German commercial men for the +propagation of peace. He formed one of the deputation who went over to +see the Emperor. He has done more, both by his speeches and letters to +the newspaper, to promote a good understanding between Germany and +England, than any other person. You are very much mistaken about Mr. +Draconmeyer, Henry. Why you cannot realise that he is simply an ordinary +commercial man of high intelligence and most agreeable manners, I cannot +imagine." + +"The fact remains, my dear Violet," Hunterleys said emphatically, "that +it is not possible for me to treat you with the confidence I might +otherwise have done, on account of your friendship with Mr. +Draconmeyer." + +"You are incorrigible!" she exclaimed. "Can we change the subject, +please? I want to know why you showed me that forged letter?" + +"I am coming to that," he told her. "Please be patient. I want to remind +you of something else. So far as I remember, my only request, when I +gave you your liberty and half my income, was that your friendship with +the Draconmeyers should decrease. Almost the first persons I see on my +arrival in Monte Carlo are you and Mr. Draconmeyer. I learn that you +came out with them and that you are staying at the same hotel." + +"Your wish was an unreasonable one," she protested. "Linda and I were +school-girls together. She is my dearest friend and she is a hopeless +invalid. I think that if I were to desert her she would die." + +"I have every sympathy with Mrs. Draconmeyer," he said slowly, "but you +are my wife. I am going to make one more effort--please don't be +uneasy--not to re-establish any relationship between us, but to open +your eyes as to the truth concerning Mr. Draconmeyer. You asked me a +moment ago why I had shown you that forged letter. I will tell you now. +It was Draconmeyer who was the forger." + +She leaned back in her seat. She was looking at him incredulously. + +"You mean to say that Mr. Draconmeyer wrote that order--that he wanted +to get possession of your letters?" + +"Not only that," Hunterleys continued, "but he carried out the business +in such a devilish manner as to make me for a moment believe that it was +you who had helped him. You are wrong about Draconmeyer. The man is a +great schemer, who under the pretence of occupying an important +commercial position in the City of London, is all the time a secret +agent of Germany. He is there in her interests. He studies the public +opinion of the country. He dissects our weaknesses. He is there to point +out the best methods and the opportune time for the inevitable struggle. +He is the worst enemy to-day England has. You think that he is here in +Monte Carlo on a visit of pleasure--for the sake of his wife, perhaps. +Nothing of the sort! He is here at this moment associated with an +iniquitous scheme, the particulars of which I can tell you nothing of. +Furthermore, I repeat what I told you on our first meeting here--that in +his still, cold way he is in love with you." + +"Henry!" she cried. + +"I cannot see how you can remain so wilfully blind," Hunterleys +continued. "I know the man inside out. I warned you against him in +London, I warn you against him now. This forged letter was designed to +draw us further apart. The little brown man who has dogged your +footsteps is a spy employed by him to make you believe that I was having +you watched. You are free still to act as you will, Violet, but if you +have a spark of regard for me or yourself, you will go back to London at +once and drop this odious friendship." + +She leaned back in the car. They had turned round now and were on the +way back to Monte Carlo by the higher road. She sat with her eyes fixed +upon the mountains. Her heart, in a way, had been touched, her +imagination stirred by her husband's words. She felt a return of that +glow of admiration which had thrilled her on the previous night, when he +and Richard Lane alone amongst that motley company had played the part +of men. A curious, almost pathetic wistfulness crept into her heart. If +only he would lean towards her at that moment, if she could see once +more the light in his eyes that had shone there during the days of their +courtship! If only he could remember that it was still his part to play +the lover! If he could be a little less grave, a little less hopelessly +correct and fair! Despite her efforts to disbelieve, there was something +convincing about his words. At any moment during that brief space of +time, a single tremulous word, even a warm clasp of the hand, would have +brought her into his arms. But so much of inspiration was denied him. He +sat waiting for her decision with an eagerness of which he gave no sign. +Nevertheless, the fates were fighting for him. She thought gratefully, +even at that moment, yet with less enthusiasm than ever before, of the +devout homage, the delightful care for her happiness and comfort, the +atmosphere of security with which Draconmeyer seemed always to surround +her. Yet all this was cold and unsatisfying, a poor substitute for the +other things. Henry had been different once. Perhaps it was jealousy +which had altered him. Perhaps his misconception of Draconmeyer's +character had affected his whole outlook. She turned towards him, and +her voice, when she spoke, was no longer querulous. + +"Henry," she said, "I cannot admit the truth of all that you say +concerning Mr. Draconmeyer, but tell me this. If I were willing to leave +this place to-night--" + +She paused. For some reason a sudden embarrassment had seized her. The +words seemed to come with difficulty. She turned ever so slightly away +from him. There was a tinge of colour at last in her pale cheeks. She +seemed to him now, as she leaned a little forward in her seat, +completely beautiful. + +"If I make my excuses and leave Monte Carlo to-night," she went on, +"will you come with me?" + +He gave a little start. Something in his eyes flashed an answer into her +face. And then the flood of memory came. There was his mission. He was +tied hand and foot. + +"It is good of you to offer that, Violet," he declared. "If I could--if +only I could!" + +Already her manner began to change. The fear of his refusal was hateful, +her lips were trembling. + +"You mean," she faltered, "that you will not come? Listen. Don't +misunderstand me. I will order my boxes packed, I will catch the eight +o'clock train either through to London or to Paris--anywhere. I will do +that if you will come. There is my offer. That is my reply to all that +you have said about Mr. Draconmeyer. I shall lose a friend who has been +gentleness and kindness and consideration itself. I will risk that. What +do you say? Will you come?" + +"Violet, I cannot," he replied hoarsely. "No, don't turn away like +that!" he begged. "Don't change so quickly, please! It isn't fair. +Listen. I am not my own master." + +"Not your own master?" she repeated incredulously. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I am here in Monte Carlo not for my own pleasure. I mean +that I have work, a purpose--" + +"Absurd!" she interrupted him, almost harshly. "There is nobody who has +any better claim upon you than I have. You are over-conscientious about +other things. For once remember your duty as a husband." + +He caught her wrist. + +"You must trust me a little," he pleaded. "Believe me that I really +appreciate your offer. If I were free to go, I should not hesitate for a +single second.... Can't you trust me, Violet?" he implored, his voice +softening. + +The woman within her was fighting on his side. She stifled her wounded +feelings, crushed down her disappointment that he had not taken her at +once into his arms and answered her upon her lips. + +"Trust me, then," she replied. "If you refuse my offer, don't hint at +things you have to do. Tell me in plain words why. It is not enough for +you to say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo. Tell me why you cannot. I +have invited you to escort me anywhere you will--I, your wife.... Shall +we go?" + +The woman had wholly triumphed. Her voice had dropped, the light was in +her eyes. She swayed a little towards him. His brain reeled. She was +once more the only woman in the world for him. Once more he fancied that +he could feel the clinging of her arms, the touch of her lips. These +things were promised in her face. + +"I tell you that I cannot go!" he cried sharply. "Believe me--do believe +me, Violet!" + +She pulled down her veil suddenly. He caught at her hand. It lay +passively in his. He pleaded for her confidence, but the moment of +inspiration had gone. She heard him with the air of one who listens no +longer. Presently she stopped him. + +"Don't speak to me for several minutes, please," she begged. "Tell him +to put me down at the hotel. I can't go back to the Club just yet." + +"You mustn't leave me like this," he insisted. + +"Will you tell me why you refuse my offer?" she asked. + +"I have a trust!" + +The automobile had come to a standstill. She rose to her feet. + +"I was once your trust," she reminded him, as she passed into the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MISS GREX AT HOME + + +Richard Lane, as he made his way up the avenue towards the Villa Mimosa, +wondered whether he was not indeed finding his way into fairyland. On +either side of him were drooping mimosa trees, heavy with the snaky, +orange-coloured blossom whose perfumes hung heavy upon the windless air. +In the background, bordering the gardens which were themselves a maze of +colour, were great clumps of glorious purple rhododendrons, drooping +clusters of red and white roses. A sudden turn revealed a long pergola, +smothered in pink blossoms and leading to the edge of the terrace which +overhung the sea. The villa itself, which seemed, indeed, more like a +palace, was covered with vivid purple clematis, and from the open door +of the winter-garden, which was built out from the front of the place in +a great curve, there came, as he drew near, a bewildering breath of +exotic odours. The front-door was wide open, and before he could reach +the bell a butler had appeared. + +"Is Mr. Grex at home?" Richard enquired. + +"Mr. Grex is not at home, sir," was the immediate reply. + +"I should like to see Miss Grex, then," Richard proceeded. + +The man's face was curiously expressionless, but a momentary silence +perhaps betrayed as much surprise as he was capable of showing. + +"Miss Grex is not at home, sir," he announced. + +Richard hesitated and just then she came out from the winter-garden. She +was wearing a pink linen morning gown and a floppy pink hat. She had a +book under her arm and a parasol swinging from her fingers. When she saw +Lane, she stared at him in amazement. He advanced a step or two towards +her, his hat in his hand. + +"I took the liberty of calling to see your father, Miss Grex," he +explained. "As he was not at home, I ventured to enquire for you." + +She was absolutely helpless. It was impossible to ignore his +outstretched hand. Very hesitatingly she held out her fingers, which +Richard grasped and seemed in no hurry at all to release. + +"This is quite the most beautiful place I have seen anywhere near Monte +Carlo," he remarked enthusiastically. + +"I am glad," she murmured, "that you find it attractive." + +He was standing by her side now, his hat under his arm. The butler had +withdrawn a little into the background. She glanced around. + +"Did my father ask you to call, Mr. Lane?" she enquired, dropping her +voice a little. + +"He did not," Richard confessed. "I must say that I gave him plenty of +opportunities but he did not seem to be what I should call hospitably +inclined. In any case, it really doesn't matter. I came to see you." + +She bit her lip, struggling hard to repress a smile. + +"But I did not ask you to call upon me either," she reminded him +gravely. + +"Well, that's true," Lane admitted, a little hesitatingly. "I don't +quite know how things are done over here. Say, are you English, or +French, or what?" he asked, point blank. "I have been puzzling about +that ever since I saw you." + +"I am not sure that my nationality matters," she observed. + +"Well, over on the other side," he continued,--"I mean America, of +course--if we make up our minds that we want to see something of a girl +and there isn't any real reason why one shouldn't, then the initiative +generally rests with the man. Of course, if you are an only daughter, I +can quite understand your father being a bit particular, not caring for +men callers and that sort of thing, but that can't go on for ever, you +know, can it?" + +"Can't it?" she murmured, a little dazed. + +"I have a habit," he confided, "of making up my mind quickly, and when I +decide about a thing, I am rather hard to turn. Well, I made up my mind +about you the first moment we met." + +"About me?" she repeated. + +"About you." + +She turned and looked at him almost wonderingly. He was very big and +very confident; good to look upon, less because of his actual good looks +than because of a certain honesty and tenacity of purpose in his +expression; a strength of jaw, modified and rendered even pleasant by +the kindness and humour of his clear grey eyes. He returned her gaze +without embarrassment and he wondered less than ever at finding himself +there. Her complexion in this clear light seemed more beautiful than +ever. Her rich golden-brown hair was waved becomingly over her forehead. +Her eyebrows were silky and delicately straight, her mouth delightful. +Her figure was girlish, but unusually dignified for her years. + +"You know," he said suddenly, "you look to me just like one of those +beautiful plants you have in the conservatory there, just as though +you'd stepped out of your little glass home and blossomed right here. I +am almost afraid of you." + +She laughed outright this time--a low, musical laugh which had in it +something of foreign intonation. + +"Well, really," she exclaimed, "I had not noticed your fear! I was just +thinking that you were quite the boldest young man I have ever met." + +"Come, that's something!" he declared. "Couldn't we sit down somewhere +in these wonderful gardens of yours and talk?" + +She shook her head. + +"But have I not told you already," she protested, "that I do not receive +callers? Neither does my father. Really, your coming here is quite +unwarrantable. If he should return at this moment and find you here, he +would be very angry indeed. I am afraid that he would even be rude, and +I, too, should suffer for having allowed you to talk with me." + +"Let's hope that he doesn't return just yet, then," Richard observed, +smiling easily. "I am very good-tempered as a rule, but I do not like +people to be rude to me." + +"Fortunately, he cannot return for at least an hour--" she began. + +"Then we'll sit down on that terrace, if you please, for just a quarter +of that time," he begged. + +She opened her lips and closed them again. He was certainly a very +stubborn young man! + +"Well," she sighed, "perhaps it will be the easiest way of getting rid +of you." + +She motioned him to follow her. The butler, from a discreet distance, +watched her as though he were looking at a strange thing. Round the +corner of the villa remote from the winter-garden, was a long stone +terrace upon which many windows opened. Screened from the wind, the sun +here was of almost midsummer strength. There was no sound. The great +house seemed asleep. There was nothing but the droning of a few insects. +Even the birds were songless. The walls were covered with drooping +clematis and roses, roses that twined over the balustrades. Below them +was a tangle of mimosa trees and rhododendrons, and further below still +the blue Mediterranean. She sank into a chair. + +"You may sit here," she said, "just long enough for me to convince you +that your coming was a mistake. Indeed that is so. I do not wish to seem +foolish or unkind, but my father and I are living here with one +unbreakable rule, and that is that we make no acquaintances whatsoever." + +"That sounds rather queer," he remarked. "Don't you find it dull?" + +"If I do," she went on, "it is only for a little time. My father is here +for a certain purpose, and as soon as that is accomplished we shall go +away. For him to accomplish that purpose in a satisfactory manner, it is +necessary that we should live as far apart as possible from the ordinary +visitors here." + +"Sounds like a riddle," he admitted. "Do you mind telling me of what +nationality you are?" + +"I see no reason why I should tell you anything." + +"You speak such correct English," he continued, "but there is just a +little touch of accent. You don't know how attractive it sounds. You +don't know--" + +He hesitated, suddenly losing some part of his immense confidence. + +"What else is there that I do not know?" she asked, with a faintly +amused smile. + +"I have lost my courage," he confessed simply. "I do not want to offend +you, I do not want you to think that I am hopelessly foolish, but you +see I have the misfortune to be in love with you." + +She laughed at him, leaning back in her chair with half-closed eyes. + +"Do people talk like this to casual acquaintances in your country?" she +asked. + +"They speak sometimes a language which is common to all countries," he +replied quickly. "The only thing that is peculiar to my people is that +when we say it, it is the sober and the solemn truth." + +She was silent for a moment. She had plucked one of the blossoms from +the wall and was pulling to pieces its purple petals. + +"Do you know," she said, "that no young man has ever dared to talk to me +as you have done?" + +"That is because no one yet has cared so much as I do," he assured her. +"I can quite understand their being frightened. I am terribly afraid of +you myself. I am afraid of the things I say to you, but I have to say +them because they are in my heart, and if I am only to have a quarter of +an hour with you now, you see I must make the best use of my time. I +must tell you that there isn't any other girl in the world I could ever +look at again, and if you won't promise to marry me some day, I shall be +the most wretched person on earth." + +"I can never, never marry you," she told him emphatically. "There is +nothing which is so impossible as that." + +"Well, that's a pretty bad start," he admitted. + +"It is the end," she said firmly. + +He shook his head. There was a terrible obstinacy in his face. She +frowned at him. + +"You do not mean that you will persist after what I have told you?" + +He looked at her, almost surprised. + +"There isn't anything else for me to do, that I know of," he declared, +"so long as you don't care for any one else. Tell me again, you are sure +that there is no one?" + +"Certainly not," she replied stiffly. "The subject has not yet been made +acceptable to me. You must forgive my adding that in my country it is +not usual for a girl to discuss these matters with a man before her +betrothal." + +"Say, I don't understand that," he murmured, looking at her +thoughtfully. "She can't get engaged before she is asked." + +"The preliminaries," she explained, "are always arranged by one's +parents." + +He smiled pityingly. + +"That sort of thing's no use," he asserted confidently. "You must be +getting past that, in whatever corner of Europe you live. What you mean +to say, then, is that your father has some one up his sleeve whom he'll +trot out for you before long?" + +"Without doubt, some arrangement will be proposed," she agreed. + +"And you'll have to be amiable to some one you've never seen in your +life before, I suppose?" he persisted. + +"Not necessarily. It sometimes happens, in my position," she went on, +raising her head, "that certain sacrifices are necessary." + +"In your position," he repeated quickly. "What does that mean? You +aren't a queen, are you, or anything of that sort?" + +She laughed. + +"No," she confessed, "I am not a queen, and yet--" + +"And yet?" + +"You must go back," she insisted, rising abruptly to her feet. "The +quarter of an hour is up. I do not feel happy, sitting here talking with +you. Really, if my father were to return he would be more angry with me +than he has ever been in his life. This sort of thing is not done +amongst my people." + +"Little lady," he said, gently forcing her back into her place, "believe +me, it's done all the world over, and there isn't any girl can come to +any harm by being told that a man is fond of her when it's the truth, +when he'd give his life for her willingly. It's just like that I feel +about you. I've never felt it before. I could never feel it for any one +else. And I am not going to give you up." + +She was looking at him half fearfully. There was a little colour in her +cheeks, her eyes were suddenly moist. + +"I think," she murmured, "that you talk very nicely. I think I might +even say that I like to hear you talk. But it is so useless. Won't you +go now? Won't you please go now?" + +"When may I come again?" he begged. + +"Never," she replied firmly. "You must never come again. You must not +even think of it. But indeed you would not be admitted. They will +probably tell my father of your visit, as it is, and he will be very +angry." + +"Well, when can I see you, then, and where?" he demanded. "I hope you +understand that I am not in the least disheartened by anything you have +said." + +"I think," she declared, "that you are the most persistent person I ever +met." + +"It is only," he whispered, leaning a little towards her, "because I +care for you so much." + +She was suddenly confused, conscious of a swift desire to get rid of +him. It was as though some one were speaking a new language. All her old +habits and prejudices seemed falling away. + +"I cannot make appointments with you," she protested, her voice shaking. +"I cannot encourage you in any way. It is really quite impossible." + +"If I go now, will you be at the Club to-morrow afternoon?" he pleaded. + +"I am not sure," she replied. "It is very likely that I may be there. I +make no promise." + +He took her hand abruptly, and, stooping down, forced her to look into +his eyes. + +"You will be there to-morrow afternoon, please," he begged, "and you +will give me the rose from your waistband." + +She laughed uneasily. + +"If the rose will buy your departure--" she began. + +"It may do that," he interrupted, as he drew it through his buttonhole, +"but it will assuredly bring me back again." + + * * * * * + +Richard walked down the hill, whistling softly to himself and with a +curious light in his eyes. As he reached the square in front of the +Casino, he was accosted by a stranger who stood in the middle of the +pavement and respectfully removed his hat. + +"You are Mr. Richard Lane, is it not so, monsieur?" + +"You've guessed it in one," Richard admitted. "Have I ever seen you +before?" + +"Never, monsieur, unless you happened to notice me on your visit to the +prison. I have an official position in the Principality. I am +commissioned to speak to you with respect to the little affair in which +you were concerned at La Turbie." + +"Well, I thought we'd thrashed all that out," Lane replied. "Anyway, Sir +Henry Hunterleys and I have engaged a lawyer to look after our +interests." + +"Just so," the little man murmured. "A very clever man indeed is +Monsieur Grisson. Still, there is a view of the matter," he continued, +"which is perhaps hard for you Englishmen and Americans to understand. +Assault of any description is very severely punished here, especially +when it results in bodily injury. Theft of all sorts, on the other hand, +is very common indeed. The man whom you injured is a native of Monte +Carlo. To a certain extent, the Principality is bound to protect him." + +"Why, the fellow was engaged in a flagrant attempt at highway robbery!" +Richard declared, genuinely astonished. + +His companion stretched out his hands. + +"Monsieur," he replied, "every one robs here, whether they are +shop-keepers, restaurant keepers, or loafers upon the streets. The +people expect it. At the adjourned trial next week there will be many +witnesses who are also natives of Monte Carlo. I have been commissioned +to warn monsieur. It would be best, on the whole, if he left Monte Carlo +by the next train." + +"Why in the name of mischief should I do that?" Richard demanded. + +"In the first place," the other pointed out, "because this man, whom you +treated a little roughly, has many friends and associates. They have +sworn revenge. You are even now being followed about, and the police of +the Principality have enough to do without sparing an escort to protect +you against violence. In the second place, I am not at all sure that the +finding of the court next week will be altogether to your satisfaction." + +"Do you mean this?" Richard asked incredulously. + +"Without a doubt, monsieur." + +"Then all I can say," Richard declared, "is that your magistrate or +judge, or whatever he calls himself, is a rotter, and your laws absurd. +I sha'n't budge." + +"It is in your own interests, monsieur, this warning," the other +persisted. "Even if you escape these desperadoes, you still run some +risk of discovering what the inside of a prison in Monaco is like." + +"I think not," Lane answered grimly. "If there's anything of that sort +going about, I shall board my yacht yonder and hoist the Stars and +Stripes. I shall take some getting into prison, I can tell you, and if I +once get there, you'll hear about it." + +"Monsieur will be much wiser to avoid trouble," the official advised. + +Lane placed his hand upon the other's shoulder. + +"My friend," he said, "not you or a dozen like you could make me stir +from this place until I am ready, and just now I am very far from ready. +See? You can go and tell those who sent you, what I say." + +The emissary of the law shrugged his shoulders. His manner was stiff but +resigned. + +"I have delivered my message, monsieur," he announced. "Monsieur +naturally must decide for himself." + +He disappeared with a bow. Richard continued on his way and a few +minutes later ran into Hunterleys. + +"Say, did you ever hear such cheek!" he exclaimed, passing his arm +through the latter's. "A little bounder stopped me in the street and has +been trying to frighten me into leaving Monte Carlo, just because I +broke that robber's wrist. Same Johnny that came to you, I expect. What +are they up to, anyway? What do they want to get rid of us for? They +ought to be jolly grateful." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"So far as I am concerned," he said, "their reasons for wanting to get +rid of me are fairly obvious, I am afraid, but I must say I don't know +where you come in, unless--" + +He stopped short. + +"Well, unless what?" Richard interposed. "I should just like to know who +it is trying to get me kicked out." + +"Can't you guess?" Hunterleys asked. "There is one person who I think +would be quite as well pleased to see the back of you." + +"Here in Monte Carlo?" + +"Absolutely!" + +Richard was mystified. + +"You are not very bright, I am afraid," Hunterleys observed. "What about +your friend Mr. Grex?" + +Richard whistled softly. + +"Are you serious?" + +"Of course I am," Hunterleys assured him. + +"But has he any pull here, this Mr. Grex?" + +Hunterleys' eyes twinkled for a moment. + +"Yes," he replied, "I think that Mr. Grex has very considerable +influence in this part of the world, and he is a man who, I should say, +was rather used to having his own way." + +"I gathered that I wasn't exactly popular with him this afternoon," +Richard remarked meditatively. "I've been out there to call." + +Hunterleys stopped short upon the pavement. + +"What?" he exclaimed. + +"I have been out to call at the Villa Mimosa," Richard repeated. "I +don't see anything extraordinary in that." + +"Did you see--Miss Fedora?" + +"Rather! And thank you for telling me her name, at any rate. We sat on +the terrace and chatted for a quarter of an hour. She gave me to +understand, though, that the old man was dead against me. It all seems +very mysterious. Anyway, she gave me this rose I am wearing, and I think +she'll be at the Club to-morrow afternoon." + +Hunterleys was silent for a moment. He seemed much impressed. + +"You know, Richard," he declared, "there is something akin to genius in +your methods." + +"That's all very well," the young man protested, "but can you give me a +single solid reason why, considering I am in love with the girl, I +shouldn't go and call upon her? Who is this Mr. Grex, anyway?" + +"I've a good mind to tell you," Hunterleys said meditatively. + +"I don't care whether you do or not," Lane pronounced firmly, as they +parted. "I don't care whether Mr. Grex is the Sultan of Turkey or the +Czar of Russia. I'm going to marry his daughter. That's settled." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DINNER FOR TWO + + +At a few minutes before eight o'clock that evening Lady Hunterleys +descended the steps of the Casino and crossed the square towards the +Hotel de Paris. She walked very slowly and she looked neither to the +right nor to the left. She had the air of seeing no one. She +acknowledged mechanically the low bow of the commissionaire who opened +the door for her. A reception clerk who stood on one side to let her +pass, she ignored altogether. She crossed the hall to the lift and +pressed the bell. Draconmeyer, who had been lounging in an easy-chair +waiting for her, watched her entrance and noticed her abstracted manner +with kindling eyes. He threw away his newspaper and, hastily approaching +her, touched her arm. + +"You are late," he remarked. + +She started. + +"Yes, I am late." + +"I did not see you at the Club." + +"I have been to the Casino instead," she told him. "I thought that it +might change my luck." + +"Successful, I trust?" + +She shook her head. Then she opened her gold satchel and showed him. It +was empty. + +"The luck must turn sometime," he reminded her soothingly. "How long +will you be changing?" + +"I am tired," she confessed. "I thought that to-night I would not dine. +I will have something sent up to my room." + +He was obviously disappointed. + +"Couldn't you dine as you are?" he begged. "You could change later, if +you wished to. It is always such a disappointment when you do not +appear--and to-night," he added, "especially." + +Violet hesitated. She was really longing only to be alone and to rest. +She thought, however, of the poor invalid to whom their meeting at +dinner-time was the one break of the day. + +"Very well," she promised, "I will be down in ten minutes." + +Draconmeyer, as the lift bore her upwards, strolled away. Although the +custom was a strange one to him, he sought out the American bar and +drank a cocktail. Then he lit a cigarette and made his way back into the +lounge, moving restlessly about, his hands behind his back, his forehead +knitted. In his way he had been a great schemer, and in the crowded hall +of the hotel that night, surrounded by a wonderfully cosmopolitan throng +of loungers and passers-by, he lived again through the birth and +development of many of the schemes which his brain had conceived since +he had left his mother-country. One and all they had been successful. He +seemed, indeed, to have been imbued with the gift of success. He had +floated immense loans where other men had failed; he had sustained the +credit of his country on a high level through more than one serious +financial crisis; he had pulled down or built up as his judgment or +fancy had dictated; and all the time the man's relaxations, apart from +the actual trend of great affairs, had been few and slight. Then had +come his acquaintance with Linda's school-friend. He looked back through +the years. At first he had scarcely noticed her visits. Gradually he had +become conscious of a dim feeling of thankfulness to the woman who +always seemed able to soothe his invalid wife. Then, scarcely more than +a year or so ago, he had found himself watching her at unexpected +moments, admiring the soft grace of her movements, the pleasant cadence +of her voice, the turn of her head, the colour of her hair, the elegance +of her clothes, her thin, fashionable figure. Gradually he had begun to +look for her, to welcome her at his table--and from that, the rest. +Finally the birth of this last scheme of his. He had very nearly made a +fatal mistake at the very commencement, had pulled himself right again +only with a supreme effort. His heart beat quicker even now as he +thought of that moment. They had been alone together one evening. She +had sat talking with him after Linda had gone to bed worse than usual, +and in the dim light he had almost lost his head, he had almost said +those words, let her see the things in his eyes for which the time was +not yet ripe. She had kept away for a while after that. He had treated +it as a mistake but he had been very careful not to err again. By +degrees she forgot. The estrangement between husband and wife was part +of his scheme, largely his doing. He was all the time working to make +the breach wider. The visit to Monte Carlo, rather a difficult +accomplishment, he had arranged. He had seen with delight the necessity +for some form of excitement growing up in her, had watched her losses +and only wished that they had been larger. He had encouraged her to play +for higher stakes and found that she needed very little encouragement +indeed. To-night he felt that a crisis was at hand. There was a new look +upon her face. She had probably lost everything. He knew exactly how she +would feel about asking her husband for help. His eyes grew brighter as +he waited for the lift. + +She came at last and they walked together into the dining-room. When she +reached their accustomed table, it was empty, and only their two places +were laid. She looked at him in surprise. + +"But I thought you said that Linda would be so disappointed!" she +reminded him. + +He shook his head. + +"I do not think that I mentioned Linda's name," he protested. "She went +to bed soon after tea in an absolutely hopeless state. I am afraid that +to-night I was selfish. I was thinking of myself. I have had nothing in +the shape of companionship all day. I came and looked at the table, and +the thought of dining alone wearied me. I have to spend a great deal of +time alone, unfortunately. You and I are, perhaps, a little alike in +that respect." + +She seated herself after a moment's hesitation. He moved his chair a +little closer to hers. The pink-shaded lamp seemed to shut them off from +the rest of the room. A waiter poured wine into their glasses. + +"I ordered champagne to-night," he remarked. "You looked so tired when +you came in. Drink a glass at once." + +She obeyed him, smiling faintly. She was, as a matter of fact, craving +for something of the sort. + +"It was thoughtful of you," she declared. "I am tired. I have been +losing all day, and altogether I have had a most depressing time." + +"It is not as it should be, that," he observed, smiling. "This is a city +of pleasure. One was meant to leave one's cares behind here. If any one +in this world," he added, "should be without them, it should be you." + +He looked at her respectfully yet with an admiration which he made no +effort to conceal. There was nothing in the look over-personal. She +accepted it with gratitude. + +"You are always kind," she murmured. + +"This reminds me of some of our evenings in London," he went on, "when +we used to talk music before we went to the Opera. I always found those +evenings so restful and pleasant. Won't you try and forget that you have +lost a few pennies; forget, also, your other worries, whatever they may +be? I have had a letter to-day from the one great writer whom we both +admire. I shall read it to you. And I have a list of the operas for next +week. I see that your husband's little protégée, Felicia Roche, is +here." + +"My husband's protégée?" she repeated. "I don't quite understand." + +He seemed, for a moment, embarrassed. + +"I am sorry," he said. "I had no idea. But your husband will tell you if +you ask him. It was he who paid for her singing education, and her +triumph is his. But the name must be known to you." + +"I have never heard it in connection with my husband," she declared, +frowning slightly. "Henry does not always take me into his confidence." + +"Then I am sorry," he continued penitently, "that I mentioned the +matter. It was clumsy of me. I had an idea that he must have told you +all about her.... Another glass of wine, please, and you will find your +appetite comes. Jules has prepared that salmon trout specially. I'll +read you the letter from Maurice, if you like, and afterwards there is a +story I must tell you." + +The earlier stages of dinner slipped pleasantly away. Draconmeyer was a +born conversationalist,--a good talker and a keen tactician. The food +and the wine, too, did their part. Presently Violet lifted her head, the +colour came back to her cheeks, she too began to talk and laugh. All the +time he was careful not to press home his advantage. He remembered that +one night in the library at Grosvenor Square, when she had turned her +head and looked at him for a moment before leaving. She must be +different now, he told himself fiercely. It was impossible that she +could continue to love a husband who neglected her, a man whose mistaken +sense of dignity kept him away from her! + +"I want you," he begged, as they drew towards the close of the meal, "to +treat me, if you will, just a little more confidentially." + +She glanced up at him quickly, almost suspiciously. + +"What do you mean?" + +"You have troubles of which you do not speak," he went on. "If my +friendship is worth anything, it ought to enable me to share those +troubles with you. You have had a little further disagreement with your +husband, I think, and bad luck at the tables. You ought not to let +either of these things depress you too much. Tell me, do you think that +I could help with Sir Henry?" + +"No one could help," she replied, her tone unconsciously hardening. +"Henry is obstinate, and it is my firm conviction that he has ceased to +care for me at all. This afternoon--this very afternoon," she went on, +leaning across the table, her voice trembling a little, her eyes very +bright, "I offered to go away with him." + +"To leave Monte Carlo?" + +"Yes! He refused. He said that he must stay here, for some mysterious +reason. I begged him to tell me what that reason was, and he was silent. +It was the end. He gives me no confidence. He has refused the one effort +I made at reconciliation. I am convinced that it is useless. We have +parted finally." + +Draconmeyer tried hard to keep the light from his eyes as he leaned +towards her. + +"Dear lady," he said, "if I do not admit that I am sorry--well, there +are reasons. Your husband did well to be mysterious. I can tell you the +reason why he will not leave Monte Carlo. It is because Felicia Roche +makes her début at the Opera House to-morrow night. There! I didn't mean +to tell you but the whole world knows it. Even now I would not have told +you but for other things. It is best that you know the truth. It is my +firm belief that your husband does not deserve your interest, much more +your affection. If only I dared--" + +He paused for a moment. Every word he was compelled to measure. + +"Sometimes," he continued, "your condition reminds me so much of my own. +I think that there is no one so lonely in life as I am. For the last few +years Linda has been fading away, physically and mentally. I touch her +fingers at morning and night, we speak of the slight happenings of the +day. She has no longer any mind or any power of sympathy. Her lips are +as cold as her understanding. For that I know she is not to blame, yet +it has left me very lonely. If I had had a child," he went on, "even if +there were one single soul of whom I was fond, to whom I might look for +sympathy; even if you, my dear friend--you see, I am bold, and I venture +to call you my dear friend--could be a little kinder sometimes, it would +make all the difference in the world." + +She turned her head and looked at him. His teeth came together hastily. +It seemed to him that already she was on her guard. + +"You have something more to say, haven't you?" she asked. + +He hesitated. Her tone was non-committal. It was a moment when he might +have risked everything, but he feared to make a mistake. + +"This is what I mean," he declared, with the appearance of great +frankness. "I am going to speak to you upon the absurd question of +money. I have an income of which, even if I were boundlessly +extravagant, I could not hope to spend half. A speculation, the week +before I left England, brought me a profit of a million marks. But for +the banking interests of my country and the feeling that I am the +trustee for thousands of other people, it would weary me to look for +investments. And you--you came in to-night, looking worn out just +because you had lost a handful or so of those wretched plaques. There, +you see it is coming now. I should like permission to do more than call +myself your friend. I should like permission to be also your banker." + +She looked at him quietly and searchingly. His heart began to beat +faster. At least she was in doubt. He had not wholly lost. His chance, +even, was good. + +"My friend," she said, "I believe that you are honest. I do indeed +recognise your point of view. The thing is an absurdity, but, you know, +all conventions, even the most foolish, have some human and natural +right beneath them. I think that the convention which forbids a woman +accepting money from a man, however close a friend, is like that. +Frankly, my first impulse, a few minutes ago, was to ask you to lend me +a thousand pounds. Now I know that I cannot do it." + +"Do you really mean that?" he asked, in a tone of deep disappointment. +"If you do, I am hurt. It proves that the friendship which to me is so +dear, is to you a very slight thing." + +"You mustn't think that," she pleaded. "And please, Mr. Draconmeyer, +don't think that I don't appreciate all your kindness. Short of +accepting your money, I would do anything to prove it." + +"There need be no question of a gift," he reminded her, in a low tone. +"If I were a perfect stranger, I might still be your banker. You must +have money from somewhere. Are you going to ask your husband?" + +She bit her lip for a moment. If indeed he had known her actual +position, his hopes would have been higher still. + +"I cannot possibly ask Henry for anything," she confessed. "I had made +up my mind to ask him to authorise the lawyers to advance me my next +quarter's allowance. After--what has passed between us, though, +and--considering everything, I don't feel that I can do it." + +"Then may I ask how you really mean to get more money?" he went on +gently. + +She looked at him a little piteously. + +"Honestly, I don't know," she admitted. "I will be quite frank with you. +Henry allows me two thousand, five hundred a year. I brought nine +hundred pounds out with me, and I have nothing more to come until June." + +"And how much have you left of the nine hundred pounds?" he asked. + +"Not enough to pay my hotel bill," she groaned. + +He smiled. + +"Circumstances are too strong for you," he declared. "You must go to a +banker. I claim the right of being that banker. I shall draw up a +promissory note--no, we needn't do that--two or three cheques, perhaps, +dated June, August and October. I shall charge you five per cent. +interest and I shall lend you a thousand pounds." + +Her eyes sparkled. The thought of the money was wonderful to her. A +thousand pounds in mille notes that very night! She thought it all over +rapidly. She would never run such risks again. She would play for small +amounts each day--just enough to amuse herself. Then, if she were lucky, +she would plunge, only she would choose the right moment. Very likely +she would be able to pay the whole amount back in a day or two. If Henry +minded, well, it was his own fault. He should have been different. + +"You put it so kindly," she said gratefully, "that I am afraid I cannot +refuse. You are very, very considerate, Mr. Draconmeyer. It certainly +will be nicer to owe you the money than a stranger." + +"I am only glad that you are going to be reasonable," he +remarked,--"glad, really, for both our sakes. And remember," he went on +cheerfully, "that one isn't young and at Monte Carlo too many times in +one's life. Make up your mind to enjoy yourself. If the luck goes +against you for a little longer, come again. You are bound to win in the +end. Now, if you like, we'll have our coffee outside. I'll go and fetch +the money and you shall make out your cheques." + +He scribbled hastily on a piece of paper for a moment. + +"These are the amounts," he pointed out. "I have charged you five per +cent. per annum interest. As I can deal with money at something under +four, I shall make quite a respectable profit--more than enough," he +added good-naturedly, "to pay for our dinner!" + +She seemed suddenly years younger. The prospect of the evening before +her was enchanting. + +"You really are delightful!" she exclaimed. "You can't think how +differently I shall feel when I go into the Club to-night. I am +perfectly certain that it's having plenty of money that helps one to +win." + +He smiled. + +"And plenty of courage," he added. "Don't waste your time trifling with +small stakes. Bid up for the big things. It is the only way in gambling +and in life." + +He rose to his feet and their eyes met for a moment. Once more she felt +vaguely troubled. She put that disturbing thought away from her, +however. It was foolish to think of drawing back now. If he admired +her--well, so did most men! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +INTERNATIONAL POLITICS + + +The Villa Mimosa flamed with lights from the top story to the +ground-floor. The entrance gates stood wide-open. All along the drive, +lamps flashed from unsuspected places beneath the yellow-flowering +trees. One room only seemed shrouded in darkness and mystery, and around +that one room was concentrated the tense life of the villa. Thick +curtains had been drawn with careful hands. The heavy door had been +securely closed. The French-windows which led out on to the balcony had +been almost barricaded. The four men who were seated around the oval +table had certainly secured for themselves what seemed to be a complete +and absolute isolation. Yet there was, nevertheless, a sense of +uneasiness, an indescribable air of tension in the atmosphere. The +quartette had somehow the appearance of conspirators who had not settled +down to their work. It was the last arrival, the man who sat at Mr. +Grex's right hand, who was responsible for the general unrest. + +Mr. Grex moved a little nervously in the chair which he had just drawn +up to the table. He looked towards Draconmeyer as he opened the +proceedings. + +"Monsieur Douaille," he said, "has come to see us this evening at my own +urgent request. Before we commence any sort of discussion, he has asked +me to make it distinctly understood to you both--to you, Mr. +Draconmeyer, and to you, Herr Selingman--that this is not in any sense +of the word a formal meeting or convention. We are all here, as it +happens, by accident. Our friend Selingman, for instance, who is a past +master in the arts of pleasant living, has not missed a season here for +many years. Draconmeyer is also an habitué. I myself, it is true, have +spent my winters elsewhere, for various reasons, and am comparatively a +stranger, but my visit here was arranged many months ago. You yourself, +Monsieur Douaille, are a good Parisian, and no good Parisian should miss +his yearly pilgrimages to the Mecca of the pleasure-seeker. We meet +together this evening, therefore, purely as friends who have a common +interest at heart." + +The man from whom this atmosphere of nervousness radiated--a man of +medium height, inclined towards corpulence, with small grey imperial, a +thin red ribbon in his buttonhole, and slightly prominent +features--promptly intervened. He had the air of a man wholly +ill-at-ease. All the time Mr. Grex had been speaking, he had been +drumming upon the table with his forefinger. + +"Precisely! Precisely!" he exclaimed. "Above all things, that must be +understood. Ours is a chance meeting. My visit in these parts is in no +way connected with the correspondence I have had with one of our friends +here. Further," Monsieur Douaille continued impressively, "it must be +distinctly understood that any word I may be disposed to utter, either +in the way of statement or criticism, is wholly and entirely unofficial. +I do not even know what the subject of our discussion is to be. I +approach it with the more hesitation because I gather, from some slight +hint which has fallen from our friend here, that it deals with a scheme +which, if ever it should be carried into effect, is to the disadvantage +of a nation with whom we are at present on terms of the greatest +friendship. My presence here, except on the terms I have stated," he +concluded, his voice shaking a little, "would be an unpardonable offence +to that country." + +Monsieur Douaille's somewhat laboured explanation did little to lighten +the atmosphere. It was the genius of Herr Selingman which intervened. He +leaned back in his chair and he patted his waistcoat thoughtfully. + +"I have things to say," he declared, "but I cannot say them. I have +nothing to smoke--no cigarette, no cigar. I arrive here choked with +dust. As yet, the circumstance seems to have escaped our host's notice. +Ah! what is that I see?" he added, rising suddenly to his feet. "My +host, you are acquitted. I look around the table here at which I am +invited to seat myself, and I perceive nothing but a few stumpy pens and +unappetising blotting-paper. By chance I lift my eyes. I see the parting +of the curtains yonder, and behold!" + +He rose and crossed the room, throwing back a curtain at the further +end. In the recess stood a sideboard, laden with all manner of liqueurs +and wines, glasses of every size and shape, sandwiches, pasties, and +fruit. Herr Selingman stood on one side with outstretched hand, in the +manner of a showman. He himself was wrapped for a moment in admiration. + +"For you others I cannot speak," he observed, surveying the label upon a +bottle of hock. "For myself, here is nectar." + +With careful fingers he drew the cork. At a murmured word of invitation +from Mr. Grex, the others rose from their places and also helped +themselves from the sideboard. Selingman took up his position in the +centre of the hearth-rug, with a long tumbler of yellow wine in one hand +and a sandwich in the other. + +"For myself," he continued, taking a huge bite, "I wage war against all +formality. I have been through this sort of thing in Berlin. I have been +through it in Vienna, I have been through it in Rome. I have sat at long +tables with politicians, have drawn little pictures upon the +blotting-paper and been bored to death. In wearisome fashion we have +drafted agreements, we have quarrelled and bickered, we have yawned and +made of ourselves men of parchment. But to-night," he added, taking +another huge bite from his sandwich, "to-night nothing of that sort is +intended. Draconmeyer and I have an idea. Mr. Grex is favourably +inclined towards it. That idea isn't a bit of good to ourselves or any +one else unless Monsieur Douaille here shares our point of view. Here we +are, then, all met together--let us hope for a week or two's enjoyment. +Little by little we must try and see what we can do towards instilling +that idea into the mind of Monsieur Douaille. We may succeed, we may +fail, but let us always remember that our conversations are the +conversations of four friends, met together upon what is nothing more or +less than a holiday. I hate the sight of those sheets of blotting-paper +and clean pens. Who wants to make notes, especially of what we are going +to talk about! The man who cannot carry notes in his head is no +statesman." + +Monsieur Douaille, who had chosen champagne and was smoking a cigarette, +beamed approval. Much of his nervousness had departed. + +"I agree," he declared, "I like well the attitude of our friend +Selingman. There is something much too formal about this table. I am not +here to talk treaties or to upset them. To exchange views, if you +will--no more. Meanwhile, I appreciate this very excellent champagne, +the cigarettes are delicious, and I remove myself to this easy-chair. If +any one would talk world politics, I am ready. Why not? Why should we +pretend that there is any more interesting subject to men like +ourselves, in whom is placed the trust of our country?" + +Mr. Grex nodded his head in assent. + +"The fault is mine," he declared, "but, believe me, it was not +intentional. It was never my wish to give too formal an air to our +little meeting--in fact I never intended to do more than dwell on the +outside edge of great subjects to-night. Unfortunately, Monsieur +Douaille, neither you nor I, whatever our power or influence may be, are +directly responsible for the foreign affairs of our countries. We can, +therefore, speak with entire frankness. Our countries--your country and +mine--are to-day bound together by an alliance. You have something which +almost approaches an alliance with another country. I am going to tell +you in plain words what I think you have been given to understand +indirectly many times during the last few years--that understanding is +not approved of in St. Petersburg." + +Monsieur Douaille knocked the ash from his cigarette. He gazed +thoughtfully into the fire of pine logs which was burning upon the open +hearth. + +"Mr. Grex," he said, "that is plainer speaking than we have ever +received from any official source." + +"I admit it," Mr. Grex replied. "Such a statement on my part may sound a +little startling, but I make it advisedly. I know the feeling--you will +grant that my position entitles me to know the feeling--of the men who +count for anything in Russian politics. Perhaps I do not mean the +titular heads of my Government. There are others who have even more +responsibilities, who count for more. I honestly and truthfully assure +you that I speak for the powers that are behind the Government of Russia +when I tell you that the English dream of a triple alliance between +Russia, England, and France will never be accepted by my country." + +Monsieur Douaille sipped his champagne. + +"This is candour," he remarked, "absolute candour. One speaks quite +plainly, I imagine, before our friend the enemy?" he added, smiling +towards Selingman. + +"Why not?" Selingman demanded. "Why not, indeed? We are not fools here." + +"Then I would ask you, Mr. Grex," Monsieur Douaille continued, "where in +the name of all that is equitable are you to find an alliance more +likely to preserve the status quo in Europe? Both logically and +geographically it absolutely dovetails. Russia is in a position to +absorb the whole attention of Austria and even to invade the north coast +of Germany. The hundred thousand troops or so upon which we could rely +from Great Britain, would be invaluable for many reasons--first, because +a mixture of blood is always good; secondly, because the regular army +which perforce they would have to send us, is of very fine fighting +material; and thirdly, because they could land, to give away a very open +secret to you, my friend Selingman, in a westerly position, and would +very likely succeed thereby in making an outflanking movement towards +the north. I presume that at present the German fleet would not come out +to battle, in which case the English would certainly be able to do great +execution upon the northern coast of Germany. All this, of course, has +been discussed and written about, and the next war been mapped out in a +dozen different ways. I must confess, however, that taking every known +consideration into account, I can find no other distribution of powers +so reasonable or so favourable to my country." + +Mr. Grex nodded. + +"I find no fault with any word of what you have said," he declared, +"except that yours is simply the superficial and obvious idea of the man +in the street as to the course of the next probable war. Now let us go a +little further. I grant all the points which you urge in favour of your +suggested triple alliance. I will even admit that your forecast of a war +taking place under such conditions, is a fairly faithful one. We +proceed, then. The war, if it came to pass, could never be decisive. An +immense amount of blood would be shed, treasure recklessly poured out, +Europe be rendered desolate, for the sake most largely of whom?--of +Japan and America. That is the weakness of the whole thing. A war +carried out on the lines you suggest would be playing the game of these +two countries. Even the victors would be placed at a huge disadvantage +with them, to say nothing of the losers, who must see slipping away from +them forever their place under the sun. It is my opinion--and I have +studied this matter most scientifically and with the help of the Secret +Service of every country, not excepting your own, Herr Selingman--it is +my opinion that this war must be indecisive. The German fleet would be +crippled and not destroyed. The English fleet would retain its +proportionate strength. No French advance into Germany would be +successful, no German advance into France is likely. The war would +languish for lack of funds, through sheer inanition it would flicker +out, and the money of the world would flow into the treasuries of +America. Russia would not be fighting for her living. With her it could +be at best but a half-hearted war. She would do her duty to the +alliance. Nothing more could be hoped from her. You could not expect, +for instance, that she would call up all her reserves, leave the whole +of her eastern frontier unprotected, and throw into mid-Europe such a +force as would in time subjugate Germany. This could be done but it will +not be done. We all know that." + +Monsieur Douaille smoked thoughtfully for several moments. + +"Very well," he pronounced at last, "I am rather inclined to agree with +all that you have said. Yet it seems to me that you evade the great +point. The status quo is what we desire, peace is what the world wants. +If, before such a war as you have spoken of is begun, people realise +what the end of it must be, don't you think that that itself is the +greatest help towards peace? My own opinion is, I tell you frankly, that +for many years to come, at any rate, there will be no war." + +Herr Selingman set down his glass and turned slowly around. + +"Then let me tell you that you are mistaken," he declared solemnly. +"Listen to me, my friend Douaille--my friend, mind, and not the +statesman Douaille. I am a German citizen and you are a French one, and +I tell you that if in three years' time your country does not make up +its mind to strike a blow for Alsace and Lorraine, then in three years' +time Germany will declare war upon you." + +Monsieur Douaille had the expression of a man who doubts. Selingman +frowned. He was suddenly immensely serious. He struck the palm of one +hand a great blow with his clenched fist. + +"Why is it that no one in the world understands," he cried, "what +Germany wants? I tell you, Monsieur Douaille, that we don't hate your +country. We love it. We crowd to Paris. We expand there. It is the +holiday place of every good German. Who wants a ruined France? Not we! +Yet, unless there is a change in the international situation, we shall +go to war with you and I will tell you why. There are no secrets about +this sort of thing. Every politician who is worth his salt knows them. +The only difficulty is to know when a country is in earnest, and how far +it will go. That is the value of our meeting. That is what I am here to +say. We shall go to war with you, Monsieur Douaille, to get Calais, and +when we've got Calais--oh, my God!" Selingman almost reverently +concluded, "then our solemn task will be begun." + +"England!" Monsieur Douaille murmured. + +There was a brief pause. Selingman had seemed, for a moment, to have +passed into the clouds. There was a sort of gloomy rapture upon his +face. He caught up Douaille's last word and repeated it. + +"England! England, and through her...." + +He moved to the sideboard and filled his tumbler with wine. When he came +back to his place, his expression had lightened. + +"Ah, well! dear Monsieur Douaille," he exclaimed, patting the other's +shoulder in friendly fashion, "to-night we merely chatter. To-night we +are here to make friends, to gain each the confidence of the other. To +ourselves let us pretend that we are little boys, playing the game of +our nation--France, Germany, and Russia. Germany and Russia, to be frank +with you, are waiting for one last word from Germany's father, something +splendid and definite to offer. What we would like France to do, while +France loses its money at roulette and flirts with the pretty ladies at +Ciro's, is to try and accustom itself not to an alliance with +Germany--no! Nothing so utopian as that. The lion and the lamb may +remain apart. They may agree to be friends, they may even wave paws at +one another, but I do not suggest that they march side by side. What we +ask of France is that she looks the other way. It is very easy to look +the other way. She might look, for instance--towards Egypt." + +[Illustration: "What we ask of France is that she looks the other way."] + +There was a sudden glitter in the eyes of Monsieur Douaille. Selingman +saw it and pressed on. + +"There are laurels to be won which will never fade," he continued, +setting down his empty tumbler, "laurels to be won by that statesman of +your country, the little boy France, who is big enough and strong enough +to stand with his feet upon the earth and proclaim--'I am for France and +my own people, and my own people only, and I will make them great +through all the centuries by seeing the truth and leading them towards +it, single-purposed, single-minded.' ... But these things are not to be +disposed of so readily as this wonderful Berncastler--I beg its pardon, +Berncastler Doctor--of our host. For to-night I have said my say. I have +whims, perhaps, but with me serious affairs are finished for the night. +I go to the Sporting Club. Mademoiselle keeps my place at the baccarat +table. I feel in the vein. It is a small place, Monte Carlo. Let us make +no appointments. We shall drift together. And, monsieur," he concluded, +laying his hand for a moment upon Douaille's shoulder, "let the thought +sink into your brain. Wipe out that geographical and logical map of +Europe from your mind; see things, if you can, in the new daylight. +Then, when the idea has been there for just a little time--well, we +speak again.... Come, Draconmeyer. I am relying upon your car to get me +into Monte Carlo. My bounteous host, Mr. Grex, good night! I touch your +hand with reverence. The man who possesses such wine and offers it to +his friends, is indeed a prince." + +Mr. Grex rose a little unwillingly from his chair. + +"It is of no use to protest," he remarked, smiling. "Our friend +Selingman will have his way. Besides, as he reminded us, there is one +last word to arrive. Come and breathe the odours of the Riviera, +Monsieur Douaille. This is when I realise that I am not at my villa on +the Black Sea." + +They passed out into the hall and stood on the terrace while the cars +drew up. The light outside seemed faintly violet. The perfume of mimosa +and roses and oleander came to him in long waves, subtle and yet +invigorating. Below, the lights of Monte Carlo, clear and brilliant, +with no northern fog or mist to dull their radiance, shone like gems in +the mantle of night. Selingman sighed as he stepped into the automobile. + +"We are men who deserve well from history," he declared, "who, in the +midst of a present so wonderful, can spare time to plan for the +generations to come!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A BARGAIN WITH JEAN COULOIS + + +Selingman drew out his watch and held it underneath the electric light +set in the back of the automobile. + +"Good!" he declared. "It is not yet half-past eleven." + +"Too early for the Austria," Draconmeyer murmured, a little absently. + +Selingman returned the watch to his pocket. + +"By no means," he objected. "Mademoiselle is doubtless amusing herself +well enough, but if I go now and leave in an hour, she will be peevish. +She might want to accompany us. To-night it would not be convenient. +Tell your chauffeur, Draconmeyer, to take us direct to the rendezvous. +We can at least watch the people there. One is always amused. We will +forget our nervous friend. These little touches, Draconmeyer, my man, +they mark the man of genius, mind you. Did you notice how his eyes lit +up when I whispered that one word 'Egypt'? It is a great game when you +bait your hook with men and fish for empires!" + +Draconmeyer gave an instruction to his chauffeur and leaned back. + +"If we succeed,--" he began. + +"Succeed?" Selingman interrupted. "Why, man alive, he is on our hooks +already! Be at rest, my friend. The affair is half arranged. It remains +only with us to deal with one man." + +Draconmeyer's eyes sparkled beneath his spectacles. A slow smile crept +over his white face. + +"You are right," he agreed. "That man is best out of the way. If he and +Douaille should meet--" + +"They shall not meet," Selingman thundered. "I, Selingman, declare it. +We are here already. Good! The aspect of the place pleases me." + +The two men, arriving so early, received the distinguished consideration +of a bowing maître d'hôtel as they entered the Austria. They were +ushered at once to a round table in a favourable position. Selingman +surrendered his hat and coat to the obsequious vestiaire, pulled down +his waistcoat with a familiar gesture, spread his pudgy hands upon the +table and looked around him with a smile of benevolent approval. + +"I shall amuse myself here," he declared confidently. "Pass the menu to +me, Draconmeyer. You have no more idea how to eat than a rabbit. That is +why you suffer from indigestion. At this hour--why, it is not midnight +yet--one needs sustenance--sustenance, mark you, intelligently selected, +something nourishing yet not heavy. A sheet of paper, waiter. You see, I +like to write out my dishes. It saves trouble and there are no +disappointments, nothing is forgotten. As to the wine, show me the +vintage champagnes.... So! You need not hurry with the meal. We shall +spend some time here." + +Draconmeyer arrested the much impressed maître d'hôtel as he was +hurrying away. + +"Is there dancing here to-night?" he enquired. + +"But certainly, monsieur," the man replied. "A Spanish lady, altogether +ravishing, the equal of Otéro at her best--Signorina Melita." + +"She dances alone?" + +"By no means. There is the young Frenchman, Jean Coulois, who is engaged +for the season. A wonderful pair, indeed! When May comes, they go to the +music-halls in Paris and London." + +Draconmeyer nodded approval. + +"Coulois was the name," he whispered to Selingman, as the man moved +away. + +The place filled up slowly. Presently the supper was served. Selingman +ate with appetite, Draconmeyer only sparingly. The latter, however, +drank more freely than usual. The wine had, nevertheless, curiously +little effect upon him, save for a slight additional brightness of the +eyes. His cheeks remained pale, his manner distrait. He watched the +people enter and pass to their places, without any apparent interest. +Selingman, on the other hand, easily absorbed the spirit of his +surroundings. As the night wore on he drank healths with his neighbours, +beamed upon the pretty little Frenchwoman who was selling flowers, ate +and drank what was set before him with obvious enjoyment. Both men, +however, showed at least an equal interest when Mademoiselle Melita, in +Spanish costume, accompanied by a slim, dark-visaged man, began to +dance. Draconmeyer was no longer restless. He sat with folded arms, +watching the performance with a strangely absorbed air. One thing, +however, was singular. Although Selingman was confessedly a ladies' man, +his eyes, after her first few movements, scarcely rested for a moment +upon the girl. Both Draconmeyer and he watched her companion +steadfastly. When the dance was over they applauded with spirit. +Selingman sat up in his place, a champagne bottle in his hand. He +beckoned to the man, who, with a little deprecating shrug of the +shoulders, swaggered up to their table with some show of condescension. + +"A chair for Monsieur Jean Coulois, the great dancer," Selingman +ordered, "a glass, and another bottle of wine. Monsieur Jean, my +congratulations! But a word in your ear. Her steps do not match yours. +It is you who make the dance. She has no initiative. She can do nothing +but imitate," he added. + +The dancer looked at his host a little curiously. He was slightly built +and without an atom of colour. His black hair was closely cropped, his +eyes of sombre darkness, his demeanour almost sullen. At Selingman's +words, however, he nodded rapidly and seated himself more firmly upon +his chair. It was apparent that although his face remained +expressionless, he was gratified. + +"They notice nothing, these others," he remarked, with a little wave of +the hand. "It is always the woman who counts. You are right, monsieur. +She dances like a stick. She has good calves and she rolls her eyes. The +_canaille_ applaud. It is always like that. Your health, monsieur!" + +He drank his wine without apparent enjoyment, but he drank it like +water. Selingman leaned across the table. + +"Coulois," he whispered, "the wolves bay loudest at night, is it not +so?" + +The man sat quite still. If such a thing had been possible, he might +have grown a shade paler. His eyes glittered. He looked steadfastly at +Selingman. + +"Who are you?" he muttered. + +"The wolves sleep in the daytime," Selingman replied. + +The dancer shrugged his shoulders. He held out his glass to be +replenished. The double password had reassured him. + +"Pardon, monsieur," he said, "these have been anxious hours." + +"The little affair at La Turbie?" Selingman suggested. + +Coulois set down his glass for the first time half finished. His mouth +had taken an evil turn. He leaned across the table. + +"See you," he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, "what happened, happened +justly! Martin is responsible. The whole thing was conducted in the +spirit of a pantomime, a great joke. Who are we, the Wolves, to brandish +empty firearms, to shrink from letting a little blood! Bah!" + +He finished his wine. Selingman nodded approvingly as he refilled his +glass. + +"My friend and I," he confided, "were amongst those who were held up. +Imagine it! We stood against the wall like a row of dummies. Such +treasure as I have never before seen was poured into that sack. Jewels, +my friend, such as only the women of Monte Carlo wear! Packet after +packet of mille notes! Wealth immeasurable! Oh, Coulois, Coulois, it was +an opportunity lost!" + +"Lost!" the dancer echoed fiercely. "It was thrown into the gutter! It +was madness! It was hellish, such ill-fortune! Yet what could I do? If I +had been absent from here--I, Coulois, whom men know of--even the police +would have had no excuse. So it was Martin who must lead. Our armoury +had never been fuller. There were revolvers for every one, ammunition +for a thousand.... Pardon, monsieur, but I cannot talk of this affair. +The anger rises so hot in my heart that I fear to betray myself to those +who may be listening. And besides, you have not come here to talk with +me of it." + +"It is true," Selingman confessed. + +There was a brief silence. The dancer was studying them both. There was +uneasiness in his expression. + +"I do not understand," he enquired hoarsely, "how you came by the +passwords?" + +"Make yourself wholly at ease, my young friend," Selingman begged him +reassuringly. "We are men of the world, my friend and I. We seek our own +ends in life and we have often to make use of the nearest and the best +means for the purpose of securing them. Martin has served me before. A +week ago I should have gone to him. To-night, as you know, he lies in +prison." + +"Martin, indeed!" the dancer jeered. "You would have gone, then, to a +man of sawdust, a chicken-livered bungler! What is it that you want +done? Speak to me. I am a man." + +The leader of the orchestra was essaying upon his violin the tentative +strains of a popular air. The girl had reappeared and was poising +herself upon her toes. The leader of the orchestra summoned Coulois. + +"I must dance," he announced. "Afterwards I will return." + +He leapt lightly to his feet and swung into the room with extended arms. +Draconmeyer looked down at his plate. + +"It is a risk, this, we are running," he muttered. "I do not see, +Selingman, why you could not have hired this fellow through Allen or one +of the others." + +Selingman shook his head. + +"See here, Draconmeyer," he explained, "this is one of the cases where +agents are dangerous. For Allen to have been seen with Jean Coulois here +would have been the same as though I had been seen with him myself. I +cannot, alas! in this place, with my personality, keep my identity +concealed. They know that I am Selingman. They know well that wherever I +move, I have with me men of my Secret Service. I cannot use them against +Hunterleys. Too many are in the know. Here we are simply two visitors +who talk to a dancer. We depart. We do not see him again until +afterwards. Besides, this is where fate is with us. What more natural +than that the Wolves should revenge themselves upon the man who captured +one of their leaders? It was the young American, Richard Lane, who +really started the debacle, but it was Hunterleys who seized Martin. +What more natural than revenge? These fellows hang by one another +always." + +Draconmeyer nodded with grim approval. + +"It was devilish work he did in Sofia," he said softly. "But for him, +much of this would have been unnecessary." + +The dance was over. Both men joined enthusiastically in the applause. +Coulois, with an insolent nod to his admirers, returned to his seat. He +threw himself back in his chair, crossed his legs and held out his empty +glass. Though he had been dancing furiously, there was not a single bead +of perspiration upon his forehead. + +"You are in good condition, my friend," Selingman observed admiringly. + +"I need to be for my work," Coulois replied. "Let us get to business. +There is no need to mince words. What do you want with me? Who is the +quarry?" + +"The man who ruined your little affair at La Turbie and captured your +comrade Martin," Selingman whispered. "You see, you have every +provocation to start with." + +Coulois' eyes glittered. + +"He was an Englishman," he muttered. + +"Quite true," Selingman assented. "His name is Hunterleys--Sir Henry +Hunterleys. He lives at the Hotel de Paris. His room is number 189. He +spends his time upon the Terrace, at the Café de Paris, and in the +Sporting Club. Every morning he goes to the English Bank for his +letters, deals with them in his room, calls at the post-office and takes +a walk, often up into the hills." + +"Come, come, this is not so bad!" Coulois exclaimed. "They laugh at us +in the cafés and down in the wine shops of Monaco, those who know," he +went on, frowning. "They say that the Wolves have become sheep. We shall +see! It is an affair, this, worth considering. What do you pay, Monsieur +le Gros, and for how long do you wish him out of the way?" + +"The pay," Selingman announced, "is two hundred louis, and the man must +be in hospital for at least a fortnight." + +Draconmeyer leaned suddenly forward. His eyes were bright, his hands +gripped the table. + +"Listen!" he whispered in Coulois' ear. "Are the Wolves sheep, indeed, +that they can do no more than twist ankles and break heads? That two +hundred shall be five hundred, Jean Coulois, but it must be a cemetery +to which they take him, and not a hospital!" + +[Illustration: "That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a +cemetery to which they take him!"] + +There was a moment's silence. Selingman sat back in his place. He was +staring at his companion with wide-open eyes. Jean Coulois was +moistening his lips with his tongue, his eyes were brilliant. + +"Five hundred louis!" he repeated under his breath. + +"Is it not enough?" Draconmeyer asked coldly. "I do not believe in half +measures. The man who is wounded may be well before he is welcome. If +five hundred louis is not enough, name your price, but let there be no +doubt. Let me see what the Wolves can do when it is their leader who +handles the knife!" + +The face of the dancer was curiously impassive. He lifted his glass and +drained it. + +"An affair of death!" he exclaimed softly. "We Wolves--we bite, we +wound, we rob. But death--ugh! There are ugly things to be thought of." + +"And pleasant ones," Draconmeyer reminded him. "Five hundred louis is +not enough. It shall be six hundred. A man may do much with six hundred +golden louis." + +Selingman sat forward once more in his place. + +"Look here," he intervened, "you go too far, my friend. You never spoke +to me of this. What have you against Hunterleys?" + +"His nationality," Draconmeyer answered coolly. "I hate all Englishmen!" + +The gaiety had left Selingman's face. He gazed at his companion with a +curious expression. + +"My friend," he murmured, "I fear that you are vindictive." + +"Perhaps," Draconmeyer replied quietly. "In these matters I like to be +on the safe side." + +Jean Coulois struck the table lightly with his small, feminine hand. He +showed all his teeth as though he had been listening to an excellent +joke. + +"It is to be done," he decided. "There is no more to be said." + +Some visitors had taken the next table. Coulois drew his chair a little +closer to Draconmeyer. + +"I accept the engagement," he continued. "We will talk no more. Monsieur +desires my address? It is here,"--scribbling on a piece of paper. "But +monsieur may be warned," he added, with a lightning-like flash in his +eyes as he became conscious of the observation of some passers-by. "I +will not dance in England. I will not leave Monte Carlo before May. Half +that sum--three hundred louis, mind--must come to me on trust; the other +three hundred afterwards. Never fear but that I will give satisfaction. +Keep your part of the bargain," he added, under his breath, "and the +Wolves' fangs are already in this man's throat." + +He danced again. The two men watched him. Draconmeyer's face was as +still and colourless as ever. In Selingman's there was a shade of +something almost like repulsion. He poured himself out a glass of +champagne. + +"Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, "you are a cold-blooded fish, indeed! You +can sit there without blinking and think of this thing which we have +done. Now as for me, I have a heart. I can never see the passing out of +the game of even a bitter opponent, without a shiver. Talk philosophy to +me, Draconmeyer. My nerves are shaken." + +Draconmeyer turned his head. He, too, raised his wine to his lips and +drank deliberately. + +"My friend," he said, "there is no philosophy save one. A child cries +for the star he may not have; the weak man comforts himself in privation +by repeating to himself the dry-as-dust axioms conceived in an alien +brain, and weaving from them the miserable comfort of empty words. The +man who knows life and has found wisdom, pays the price for the thing he +desires, and obtains it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +DUTY INTERFERES AGAIN + + +Hunterleys sat that night alone in a seat at the Opera for a time and +lost himself in a maze of recollections. He seemed to find himself +growing younger as he listened to the music. The days of a more vivid +and ardent sentimentality seemed to reassert themselves. He thought of +the hours when he had sat side by side with his wife, the only woman to +whom he had ever given a thought; of the thrill which even the touch of +her fingers had given him, of the drive home together, the little +confidences and endearments, the glamour which seemed to have been +thrown over life before those unhappy misunderstandings. He remembered +so well the beginning of them all--the terrible pressure of work which +was thrown upon his shoulders, his engrossed days, his disturbed nights; +her patience at first, her subsequent petulance, her final anger. He was +engaged often in departmental work which he could not even explain. She +had taken up with unhappy facility the rôle of a neglected wife. She +declared that he had ceased to care for the lighter ways. There had +certainly been a time when her complaints had been apparently justified, +when the Opera had been banned, theatres were impossible, when she could +not even rely upon his escort to a dinner or to a reception. He had +argued with her very patiently at first but very unsuccessfully. It was +then that her friendship with Linda Draconmeyer had been so vigorously +renewed, a friendship which seemed from the first to have threatened his +happiness. Had it been his fault? he wondered. Had he really been too +much engrossed in his work? His country had made large demands upon him +in those days. Had he ever explained the matter fully and carefully +enough to her? Perhaps not. At any rate, he was the sufferer. He +realised more than ever, as the throbbing of the music stole into his +blood, the loneliness of his life. And yet it seemed so hopeless. +Supposing he threw up his work and let things take their course? The +bare thought chilled him. He recognised it as unworthy. The great song +of mortification from the broken hero rang in his ears. Must every woman +bring to every man the curse of Delilah!... + +He passed out of the building into the cool, starlit night. People were +strolling about in evening clothes, hatless, the women in white opera +cloaks and filmy gowns, their silk-stockinged feet very much in +evidence, resembling almost some strange kind of tropical birds with +their little shrill laughter and graceful movements, as they made their +way towards the Club or round to the Rooms, or to one of the restaurants +for supper. Whilst Hunterleys hesitated, there was a touch upon his arm. +He glanced around. + +"Hullo, David!" he exclaimed. "Were you waiting for me?" + +The young man fell into step by his side. + +"I have been to the hotel," he said, in a low tone. "They thought you +might be here. Can you come up later--say at one o'clock?" + +"Certainly," Hunterleys answered. "Where's Sidney?" + +"He's working now. He'll be home by half-past twelve unless anything +goes wrong. He thinks he'll have something to tell you." + +"I'll come," Hunterleys agreed. "How's Felicia?" + +"All right, but working herself to death," the young man replied. "She +is getting anxious, too. Give her a word of encouragement if you see her +to-night. She was hoping you might have been up to see her." + +"I won't forget," Hunterleys promised. + +The young man drifted silently away, and Hunterleys, after a moment's +hesitation and a glance at his watch, turned towards the Club. He +climbed the broad staircase, surrendered his hat and turned in at the +roulette room. The magic of the music was still in his veins, and he +looked around him almost eagerly. There was no sign of Violet. He +strolled into the baccarat room but she was not there. Perhaps she, too, +had been at the Opera. In the bar he found Richard Lane, sitting moodily +alone. The young man greeted him warmly. + +"Come and have a drink, Sir Henry," he begged. "I've got the hump." + +Hunterleys sat down by his side. + +"Whiskey and apollinaris," he ordered. "What's the matter with you, +Richard?" + +"She isn't here," the young man declared. "I've been to the Rooms and +she isn't there either." + +"What about the Opera?" Hunterleys asked. + +"I started at the Opera," Lane confessed, "took a box so as to be able +to see the whole house. I sat through the first act but there wasn't a +sign of her. Then I took a spin out and had another look at the villa. +It was all lit up as though there were a party. I very nearly marched +in." + +"Just as well you didn't, I think," Hunterleys remarked, smiling. "I see +you're feeling just the same about it." + +The young man did not even vouchsafe an answer. + +"Then you're not going to take advantage of your little warning and +clear out?" Hunterleys continued. + +"Don't you think I'm big enough to take care of myself?" Lane asked, +with a little laugh. "Besides, there's an American Consul here, and +plenty of English witnesses who saw the whole thing. Can't think why +they're trying on such a silly game." + +"Mr. Grex may have influence," Hunterleys suggested. + +"Who the mischief is my prospective father-in-law?" Richard demanded, +almost testily. "There's an atmosphere about that house and the servants +I can't understand a bit." + +"You wouldn't," Hunterleys observed drily. "Well, in a day or two I'll +tell you who Mr. Grex is. I'd rather not to-night." + +"By the way," Lane continued, "your wife was asking if you were here, a +few minutes ago." + +Hunterleys rose quickly to his feet. + +"Where is she?" + +"She was at her usual place at the top roulette table, but she gave it +up just as I passed, said she was going to walk about," the young man +replied. "I don't think she has left yet." + +Hunterleys excused himself hastily. In the little space between the +restaurant and the roulette rooms he came suddenly upon Violet. She was +leaning back in an obscure corner, with her hands clasped helplessly in +her lap before her. She was sitting quite still and his heart sank when +he saw her. The lines under her eyes were unmistakable now; her cheeks, +too, seemed to have grown hollow. Her first look at him almost made him +forget all their differences. There was something piteous in the tremble +of her lips. He drew a chair to her side. + +"Richard told me that you wished to speak to me," he began, as lightly +as he could. + +"I asked if he had seen you, a few minutes ago," she admitted. "I am +afraid that my interest was rather mercenary." + +"You want to borrow some money?" he enquired, taking out his +pocket-book. + +She looked at it, and though her eyes at first were listless, they still +seemed fascinated. + +"I don't think I can play any more to-night," she sighed. + +"You have been losing?" + +"Yes!" + +"Come and have something," he invited. "You look tired." + +She rose willingly enough. They passed out, side by side, into the +little bar. + +"Some champagne?" he suggested. + +She shook her head quickly. The memory of the champagne at dinner-time +came back to her with a sudden sickening insistence. She thought of the +loan, she thought of Draconmeyer with a new uneasiness. It was as though +she had admitted some new complication into her life. + +"Could I have some tea?" she begged. + +He ordered some and sat with her while she drank it. + +"You know," he declared, "if I might be permitted to say so, I think you +are taking the gaming here a little too seriously. If you have been +unlucky, it is very easy to arrange an advance for you. Would you like +some money? If so, I will see to it when I go to the bank to-morrow. I +can let you have a hundred pounds at once, if you like." + +A hundred pounds! If only she dared tell him that she had lost a +thousand within the last two hours! Once more he was fingering his +pocket-book. + +"Come," he went on pleasantly, "you had better have a hundred from me, +for luck." + +He counted out the notes. Her fingers began to shake. + +"I didn't mean to play any more to-night," she faltered, irresolutely. + +"Nor should I," he agreed. "Take my advice, Violet, and go home now. +This will do for you to-morrow." + +She took the money and dropped it into her jewelled bag. + +"Very well," she said, "I won't play any more, but I don't want to go +home yet. It is early, and I can never sleep here if I go to bed. Sit +with me for half-an-hour, and then perhaps you could give me some +supper?" + +He shook his head. + +"I am so sorry," he answered, "but at one o'clock I have an +appointment." + +"An appointment?" + +"Such bad luck," he continued. "It would have given me very great +pleasure to have had supper with you, Violet." + +"An appointment at one o'clock," she repeated slowly. "Isn't that just a +little--unusual?" + +"Perhaps so," he assented. "I can assure you that I am very sorry." + +She leaned suddenly towards him. The aloofness had gone from her manner. +The barrier seemed for a moment to have fallen down. Once more she was +the Violet he remembered. She smiled into his face, and smiled with her +eyes as well as her lips, just the smile he had been thinking of an hour +ago in the Opera House. + +"Don't go, please," she begged. "I am feeling lonely to-night and I am +so tired of everybody and everything. Take me to supper at the Café de +Paris. Then, if you like, we might come back here for half-an-hour. +Or--" + +She hesitated. + +"I am horribly sorry," he declared, in a tone which was full of real +regret. "Indeed, Violet, I am. But I have an appointment which I must +keep, and I can't tell exactly how long it may take me." + +The very fact that the nature of that appointment concerned things which +from the first he had made up his mind must be kept entirely secret, +stiffened his tone. Her manner changed instantly. She had drawn herself +a little away. She considered for a moment. + +"Are you inclined to tell me with whom your appointment is, and for what +purpose?" she asked coldly. "I don't want to be exacting, but after the +request I have made, and your refusal--" + +"I cannot tell you," he interrupted. "I can only ask you to take my word +for it that it is one which I must keep." + +She rose suddenly to her feet. + +"I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I haven't the slightest right to your +confidence. Besides, when I come to think of it, I don't believe that I +am hungry at all. I shall try my luck with your money?" + +"Violet!--" + +She swept away with a little farewell nod, half insolent, half angry. +Hunterleys watched her take her place at the table. For several moments +he stood by her side. She neither looked up nor addressed him. Then he +turned and left the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE + + +Hunterleys remained in the hotel only long enough to change his straw +hat for a cap, put on a long, light overcoat and take an ash stick from +his wardrobe. He left the place by an unfrequented entrance and +commenced at once to climb to the back part of the town. Once or twice +he paused and looked around, to be sure that he was not followed. When +he had arrived as far as the Hotel de Prince de Galles, he crossed the +road. From here he walked very quickly and took three turns in rapid +succession. Finally he pushed open a little gate and passed up a tiled +walk which led between a little border of rose trees to a small white +villa, covered with creepers. A slim, girlish figure came suddenly out +from the porch and danced towards him with outstretched hands. + +"At last!" she exclaimed. "At last! Tell me, my co-guardian, how you are +going to excuse yourself?" + +He took her outstretched hands and looked down into her face. She was +very small and dark, with lustrous brown eyes and a very sensitive +mouth, which just now was quivering with excitement. + +"All the excuses have gone out of my head, Felicia," he declared. "You +look such a little elf in the moonlight that I can't do more than say +that I am sorry. But I have been busy." + +She was suddenly serious. She clasped his arm with both her hands and +turned towards the house. + +"Of course you have," she sighed. "It seems too bad, though, in Monte +Carlo. Sidney and David are like ghouls. I don't ask what it is all +about--I know better--but I wish it were all over, whatever it is." + +"Is Sidney back?" Hunterleys asked eagerly. + +She nodded. + +"He came in half-an-hour ago, looking like a tramp. David is writing as +though he hadn't a moment to spare in life. They are both waiting for +you, I think." + +"And you?" he enquired. "How do the rehearsals go?" + +"The rehearsals are all right," she admitted, looking up at him almost +pathetically. "It's the night itself that seems so awful. I know every +word, I know every note, and yet I can't feel sure. I can't sleep for +thinking about it. Only last night I had a nightmare. I saw all those +rows and rows of faces, and the lights, and my voice went, my tongue was +dry and hard, not a word would come. And you were there--and the +others!" + +He laughed at her. + +"Little girl," he said solemnly, "I shall have to speak to Sidney. One +of those two young men must take you out for a day in the country +to-morrow." + +"They seem so busy," she complained. "They don't seem to have time to +think of me. I suppose I had better let you go in. They'd be furious if +they thought I was keeping you." + +They passed into the villa, and with a farewell pat of the hand +Hunterleys left her and opened a door on the left-hand side of the hall. +The young man who had met him coming out of the Opera was standing with +his hands in his pockets, upon the hearth-rug of an exceedingly +untidy-looking apartment. There was a table covered with papers, another +piled with newspapers. There were books upon the floor, pipes and +tobacco laid about haphazard. A space had been swept clear upon the +larger table for a typewriter, a telephone instrument stood against the +wall. A man whose likeness to Felicia was at once apparent, swung round +in his chair as Hunterleys entered. He had taken off his coat and +waistcoat and his trousers seemed smothered with dust. + +"Regular newspaper correspondent's den," Hunterleys remarked, as he +looked around him. "I never saw such a mess in my life. I wonder Felicia +allows it." + +"We don't let her come in," her brother chuckled. "Is the door closed?" + +"Fast," Hunterleys replied, moving away from it. + +"Things are moving," the other went on. "I took the small car out to-day +on the road to Cannes and I expect I was the first to see Douaille." + +"I saw him myself," Hunterleys announced. "I was out on that road, +walking." + +"Douaille," Roche continued, "went direct to the Villa Mimosa. Grex was +there, waiting for him. Draconmeyer and Selingman both kept out of the +way." + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Reasonable enough, that. Grex was the man to pave the way. Well?" + +"At ten o'clock, Draconmeyer and Selingman arrived. The Villa Mimosa +gets more difficult every day. I have only one friend in the house, +although it is filled with servants. Three-quarters of them only speak +Russian. My man's reliable but he is in a terrible minority. The +conference took place in the library. It lasted about an hour and a +half. Selingman and Draconmeyer came out looking fairly well satisfied. +Half-an-hour later Douaille went on to Mentone, to the Hotel Splendide, +where his wife and daughters are staying. No writing at all was done in +the room." + +"The conference has really begun, then," Hunterleys observed moodily. + +"Without a doubt," Roche declared. "I imagine, though, that the meeting +this evening was devoted to preliminaries. I am hoping next time," he +went on, "to be able to pass on a little of what is said." + +"If we could only get the barest idea as to the nature of the +proposals," Hunterleys said earnestly. "Of course, one can surmise. Our +people are already warned as to the long conferences which have taken +place between Grex and Selingman. They mean something--there's no doubt +about that. And then this invitation to Douaille, and his coming here so +furtively. Everything points the same way, but a few spoken words are +better than all the surmises in the world. It isn't that they are +unreasonable at home, but they must be convinced." + +"It's the devil's own risk," Roche sighed, "but I am hard at it. I was +about the place yesterday as much as I dared. My plans are all ready now +but things looked pretty awkward at the villa to-night. If they are +going to have the grounds patrolled by servants every time they meet, +I'm done. I've cut a pane of glass out of the dome over the library, and +I've got a window-cleaning apparatus round at the back, and a ladder. +The passage along the roof is quite easy and there's a good deal of +cover amongst the chimneys, but if they get a hint, it will be touch and +go." + +Hunterleys nodded. He was busy now, going through the long sheets of +writing which the other young man had silently passed across to him. For +half-an-hour he read, making pencil notes now and then in the margin. +When at last he had finished, he returned them and, sitting down at the +table, drew a packet of press cable sheets towards him and wrote for +some time steadily. When he had finished, he read through the result of +his labours and leaned back thoughtfully in his chair. + +"You will send this off from Cannes with your own, Briston?" he asked. + +The young man assented. + +"The car will be here at three," he announced. "They'll be on their way +by eight." + +"Press message, mind, to the _Daily Post_. If the operator wants to know +what 'Number 1' means after '_Daily Post_,' you can tell him that it +simply indicates to which editorial room the message is to be +delivered." + +"That's a clever idea," Roche mused. "Code dispatches to Downing Street +might cause a little comment." + +"They wouldn't do from here," Hunterleys declared. "They might be safe +enough from Cannes but it's better to run no risks. These will be passed +on to Downing Street, unopened. Be careful to-morrow, Sidney." + +"I can't see that they can do anything but throw me out, Sir Henry," +Roche remarked. "I have my _Daily Post_ authority in my pocket, and my +passport. Besides, I got the man here to announce in the _Monte Carlo +News_ that I was the accredited correspondent for the district, and that +David Briston had been appointed by a syndicate of illustrated papers to +represent them out here. That's in case we get a chance of taking +photographs. I had some idea of going out to interview Monsieur +Douaille." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"I shouldn't. The man's as nervous as he can be now, I am pretty sure of +that. Don't do anything that might put him on his guard. Mind, for all +we know he may be an honest man. To listen to what these fellows have to +say doesn't mean that he's prepared to fall in with their schemes. By +the by, you've nothing about the place, I suppose, if you should be +raided?" + +"Not a thing," was the confident reply. "We are two English newspaper +correspondents, and there isn't a thing to be found anywhere that's not +in keeping, except my rather large make-up outfit and my somewhat mixed +wardrobe. I am not the only newspaper correspondent who goes in for +that, though. Then there's Felicia. They all know who she is and they +all know that she's my sister. Anyhow, even if I do get into trouble up +at the Villa Mimosa, I can't see that I shall be looked upon as anything +more than a prying newspaper correspondent. They can't hang me for +that." + +Hunterleys accepted a cigarette and lit it. + +"I needn't tell you fellows," he said gravely, "that this place is a +little unlike any other in Europe. You may think you're safe enough, but +all the same I wouldn't trust a living soul. By-the-by, I saw Felicia as +I came in. You don't want her to break down, do you?" + +"Good heavens, no!" her brother exclaimed. + +"Break down?" David repeated. "Don't suggest such a thing!" + +"It struck me that she was rather nervy," Hunterleys told them. "One of +you ought to look after her for an hour or two to-morrow." + +"I can't spare a moment," her brother sighed. + +"I'll take her out," Briston declared eagerly. "There's nothing for me +to do to-morrow till Sidney gets back." + +"Well, between you, keep an eye on her," Hunterleys advised. "And, +Sidney, I don't want to make a coward of you, and you and I both know +that if there's danger ahead it's our job to face it, but have a care up +at the Villa Mimosa. I don't fancy the law of this Principality would +see you out of any trouble if they got an idea that you were an English +Secret Service man." + +Roche laughed shortly. + +"Exactly my own idea," he admitted. "However, we've got to see it +through. I sha'n't consider I've done my work unless I hear something of +what Grex and the others have to say to Douaille the next time they +meet." + +Hunterleys found Felicia waiting for him outside. He shook his head +reproachfully. + +"A future prima donna," he said, "should go to bed at ten o'clock." + +She opened the door for him and walked down the path, her hands clasped +in his arm. + +"A future prima donna," she retorted, "can't do always what she likes. +If I go to bed too early I cannot sleep. To-night I am excited and +nervous. There isn't anything likely to bring trouble upon--them, is +there?" + +"Certainly not," he replied promptly. "Your brother is full of +enterprise, as you know. He runs a certain amount of risk in his +eagerness to acquire news, but I never knew a man so well able to take +care of himself." + +"And--and Mr. Briston?" + +"Oh, he's all right, anyway," Hunterleys assured her. "His is the +smaller part." + +She breathed a little sigh of relief. They had reached the gate. She +still had something to say. Below them flared the lights of Monte Carlo. +She looked down at them almost wistfully. + +"Very soon," she murmured, "I shall know my fate. Sir Henry," she added +suddenly, "did I see Lady Hunterleys to-day on the Terrace?" + +"Lady Hunterleys is here," he replied. + +"Am I--ought I to go and see her?" she enquired. "You see, you have done +so much for me, I should like to do what you thought best." + +"Just as you like, child," he replied, a little carelessly. + +She clung to his arm. She seemed unwilling to let him go. + +"Dear co-guardian," she murmured, "to-night I felt for a little time so +happy, as though all the good things in life were close at hand. Then I +watched you come up, and your step seemed so heavy, and you stooped as +though you had a load on your shoulders." + +He patted her hand. + +"Little girl," he advised, "run away in and take care of your throat. +Remember that everything depends upon the next few hours. As for me, +perhaps I am getting a little old." + +"Oh, la, la!" she laughed. "That's what Sidney says when I tease him. I +know I am only the mouse, but I could gnaw through very strong cords. +Look!" + +Her teeth gleamed white in the moonlight. He swung open the gate. + +"Sing your way into the hearts of all these strange people," he bade +her, smiling. "Sing the envy and malice away from them. Sing so that +they believe that England, after all, is the one desirable country." + +"But I am going to sing in French," she pouted. + +"Your name," he reminded her, "that is English. 'The little English +prima donna,' that is what they will be calling you." + +She kissed his hands suddenly as he parted from her and swung off down +the hill. Then she stood at the gate, looking down at the glittering +lights. Would they shine as brightly for her, she wondered, in +twenty-four hours' time? It was so much to strive for, so much to lose, +so wonderfully much to gain. Slowly her eyes travelled upwards. The +symbolism of those higher lights calmed her fear. She drew a great sigh +of happiness. + +"Felicia!" + +She turned around with a soft little laugh. + +"David!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"TAKE ME AWAY!" + + +Richard presented himself the next morning at the Hotel de Paris. + +"Cheero!" he exclaimed, on being shown into Hunterleys' sitting-room. +"All right up to date, I see." + +Hunterleys nodded. He had just come in from the bank and held his +letters in his hand. Richard seated himself on the edge of the table. + +"I slept out on the yacht last night," he said. "Got up at six o'clock +and had a swim. What about a round of golf at La Turbie? We can get down +again by luncheon-time, before the people are about." + +"Afraid I can't," Hunterleys replied. "I have rather an important letter +to go through carefully, and a reply to think out." + +"You're a queer chap, you know," Richard went on. "You always seem to +have something on but I'm hanged if I can see how you pass your time +here in Monte Carlo. This political business, even if you do have to put +in a bit of time at it now and then, can't be going on all the while. +Monte Carlo, too! So far as the women are concerned, they might as well +be off the face of the earth, and I don't think I've ever seen you make +a bet at the tables. How did your wife do last night? I thought she +seemed to be dropping it rather." + +"I think that she lost," Hunterleys replied indifferently. "Her +gambling, however, is like mine, I imagine, on a fairly negligible +scale." + +Richard whistled softly. + +"Well, I don't know," he observed. "I saw her going for maximums +yesterday pretty steadily. A few thousands doesn't last very long at +that little game." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"A few thousands!" he repeated. "I don't suppose Violet has ever lost or +won a hundred pounds in her life." + +Richard abandoned the subject quickly. He was obliged to tell himself +that it was not his business to interfere between husband and wife. + +"Say, Hunterleys," he suggested, "do you think I could do something for +the crowd on my little boat--a luncheon party or a cruise, eh?" + +"I should think every one would enjoy it immensely," Hunterleys +answered. + +"I can count on you, of course, if I arrange anything?" + +"I am afraid not," Hunterleys regretted. "I am too much engrossed now to +make any arrangements." + +"I'm hanged if you don't get more mysterious every moment!" Richard +exclaimed vigorously. "What's it all about? Can't you even be safe in +your room for five minutes without keeping one of those little articles +under your newspaper while you read your letters?" he added, lifting +with his stick the sheet which Hunterleys had hastily thrown over a +small revolver. "What's it all about, eh? Are you plotting to dethrone +the Prince of Monaco and take his place?" + +"Not exactly that," Hunterleys replied, a little wearily. "Lane, old +fellow, you're much better off not to know too much. I have told you +that there's a kind of international conference going on about here and +I've sort of been pitchforked into the affair. Over in your country you +don't know much about this sort of thing, but since I've been out of +harness I've done a good deal of what really amounts to Secret Service +work. One must serve one's country somehow or other, you know, if one +gets the chance." + +Richard was impressed. + +"Gee!" he exclaimed. "The sort of thing that one reads about, eh, and +only half believes. Who's the French Johnny who arrived last night?" + +"Douaille. He's the coming President, they say. I'm thinking of paying +him a visit of ceremony this afternoon." + +There was a knock at the door. A waiter entered with a note upon a +salver. + +"From Madame, monsieur," he announced, presenting it to Hunterleys. + +The latter tore it open and read the few lines hastily: + + _Dear Henry_, + + If you could spare a few minutes, I should be glad if you would + come round to my apartment. + + Yours, + VIOLET. + +Hunterleys twisted the note up in his fingers. + +"Tell Lady Hunterleys that I will be round in a few moments," he +instructed the servant. + +Richard took up his stick and hat. + +"If you have an opportunity," he said, "ask Lady Hunterleys what she +thinks about a little party on the yacht. If one could get the proper +people together--" + +"I'll tell her," Hunterleys promised. "You'd better wait till I get +back." + +He made his way to the other wing of the hotel. For the first time since +he had been staying there, he knocked at the door of his wife's +apartments. Her maid admitted him with a smile. He found Violet sitting +in the little salon before a writing-table. The apartment was +luxuriously furnished and filled with roses. Somehow or other, their +odour irritated him. She rose from her place and hastened towards him. + +"How nice of you to come so promptly!" she exclaimed. "You're sure it +didn't inconvenience you?" + +"Not in the least," he replied. "I was only talking to Richard Lane." + +"You seem to have taken a great fancy to that young man all at once," +she remarked. + +Hunterleys was sitting upon the arm of an easy-chair. He had picked up +one of Violet's slippers and was balancing it in his hand. + +"Oh, I don't know. He is rather refreshing after some of these people. +He still has enthusiasms, and his love affair is quite a poem. Aren't +you up rather early this morning?" + +"I couldn't sleep," she sighed. "I think it has come to me in the night +that I am sick of this place. I wondered--" + +She hesitated. He bent the slipper slowly back, waiting for her to +proceed. + +"The Draconmeyers don't want to go," she went on. "They are here for +another month, at least. Linda would miss me terribly, I suppose, but I +have really given her a lot of my time. I have spent several hours with +her every day since we arrived, and I don't know what it is--perhaps my +bad luck, for one thing--but I have suddenly taken a dislike to the +place. I wondered--" + +She had picked up one of the roses from a vase close at hand, and was +twirling it between her fingers. For some reason or other she seemed ill +at ease. Hunterleys watched her silently. She was very pale, but since +his coming a slight tinge of pink colour had stolen into her cheeks. She +had received him in a very fascinating garment of blue silk, which was +really only a dressing-gown. It seemed to him a long time since he had +seen her in so intimate a fashion. + +"I wondered," she concluded at last, almost abruptly, "whether you would +care to take me away." + +He was, for a moment, bereft of words. Somehow or other, he had been so +certain that she had sent to him to ask for more money, that he had +never even considered any other eventuality. + +"Take you away," he repeated. "Do you really mean take you back to +London, Violet?" + +"Just anywhere you like," she replied. "I am sick of this place and of +everything. I am weary to death of trying to keep Linda cheerful--you +don't realise how depressing it is to be with her; and--and every one +seems to have got a little on my nerves. Mr. Draconmeyer," she added, a +little defiantly, raising her eyes to his, "has been most kind and +delightful, but--somehow I want to get away." + +He sat down on the edge of a couch. She seated herself at the further +end of it. + +"Violet," he said, "you have taken me rather by surprise." + +"Well, you don't mind being taken by surprise once in a while, do you?" +she asked, a little petulantly. "You know I am capricious--you have told +me so often enough. Here is a proof of it. Take me back to London or to +Paris, or wherever you like." + +He was almost overwhelmed. It was unfortunate that she had chosen that +moment to look away and could not see, therefore, the light which glowed +in his eyes. + +"Violet," he assured her earnestly, "there is nothing in the world I +should like so much. I would beg you to have your trunks packed this +morning, but unfortunately I cannot leave Monte Carlo just now." + +"Cannot leave Monte Carlo?" she repeated derisively. "Why, my dear man, +you are a fish out of water here! You don't gamble, you do nothing but +moon about and go to the Opera and worry about your silly politics. What +on earth do you mean when you say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo?" + +"I mean just what I say," he replied. "I cannot leave Monte Carlo for +several days, at any rate." + +She looked at him blankly, a little incredulously. + +"You have talked like this before, Henry," she said, "and it is all too +absurd. You must tell me the truth now. You can have no business here. +You are travelling for pleasure. You can surely leave a place or not at +your own will?" + +"It happens," he sighed, "that I cannot. Will you please be very kind, +Violet, and not ask me too much about this? If there is anything else I +can do," he went on, hesitatingly, "if you will give me a little more of +your time, if you will wait with me for a few days longer--" + +"Can't you understand," she interrupted impatiently, "that it is just +this very moment, this instant, that I want to get away? Something has +gone wrong. I want to leave Monte Carlo. I am not sure that I ever want +to see it again. And I want you to take me.... Please!" + +She held out her hands, swaying a little towards him. He gripped them in +his. She yielded to their pressure until their lips almost met. + +"You'll take me away this morning?" she whispered. + +"I cannot do that," he replied, "but, Violet--" + +She snatched herself away from him. An ungovernable fit of fury seemed +to have seized her. She stood in the centre of the room and stamped her +foot. + +"You cannot!" she repeated. "And you will not give me a reason? Very +well, I have done my best, I have made my appeal. I will stay in Monte +Carlo, then. I will--" + +There was a knock at the door. + +"Come in," she cried. "Who is it?" + +The door was softly opened. Draconmeyer stood upon the threshold. He +looked from one to the other in some surprise. + +"I am sorry," he murmured. "Please excuse me." + +"Come in, Mr. Draconmeyer," she called out to his retreating figure. +"Come in, please. How is Linda this morning?" + +Draconmeyer smiled a little ruefully as he returned. + +"Complaining," he replied, "as usual. I am afraid that she has had +rather a bad night. She is going to try and sleep for an hour or two. I +came to see if you felt disposed for a motor ride this morning?" + +"I should love it," she assented. "I should like to start as soon as +possible. Henry was just going, weren't you?" she added, turning to her +husband. + +He stood his ground. + +"There was something else I wished to say," he declared, glancing at +Draconmeyer. + +The latter moved at once towards the door but Violet stopped him. + +"Not now," she begged. "If there is really anything else, Henry, you can +send up a note, or I dare say we shall meet at the Club to-night. Now, +please, both of you go away. I must change my clothes for motoring. In +half an hour, Mr. Draconmeyer." + +"The car will be ready," he answered. + +Hunterleys hesitated. He looked for a moment at Violet. She returned his +glance of appeal with a hard, fixed stare. Then she turned away. + +"Susanne," she called to her maid, who was in the inner room, "I am +dressing at once. I will show you what to put out." + +She disappeared, closing the connecting door behind her. The two men +walked out to the lift in silence. Draconmeyer rang the bell. + +"You are not leaving Monte Carlo at present, then, Sir Henry?" he +remarked. + +"Not at present," Hunterleys replied calmly. + +They parted without further speech. Hunterleys returned to his room, +where Richard was still waiting. + +"Say, have you got a valet here with you?" the young man enquired. + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Never possessed such a luxury in my life," he declared. + +"Chap came in here directly you were gone--mumbled something about doing +something for you. I didn't altogether like the look of him, so I sat on +the table and watched. He hung around for a moment, and then, when he +saw that I was sticking it out, he went off." + +"Was he wearing the hotel livery?" Hunterleys asked quickly. + +"Plain black clothes," Richard replied. "He looked the valet, right +enough." + +Hunterleys rang the bell. It was answered by a servant in grey livery. + +"Are you the valet on this floor?" Hunterleys enquired. + +"Yes, sir!" + +"There was a man in here just now, said he was my valet or something of +the sort, hung around for a minute or two and then went away. Who was +he?" + +The servant shook his head. He was apparently a German, and stupid. + +"There are no valets on this floor except myself," he declared. + +"Then who could this person have been?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"A tailor, perhaps," the man suggested, "but he would not come unless +you had ordered him. I have been on duty all the time. I have seen no +one about." + +"Very well," Hunterleys said, "I'll report the matter in the office." + +"Some hotel thief, I suppose," Lane remarked, as soon as the door was +closed. "He didn't look like it exactly, though." + +Hunterleys frowned. + +"Not much here to satisfy any one's curiosity," he observed. "Just as +well you were in the room, though." + +"Surrounded by mysteries, aren't you, old chap?" Richard yawned, +lighting a cigarette. + +"I don't know exactly about that," Hunterleys replied, "but I'll tell +you one thing, Lane. There are things going on in Monte Carlo at the +present moment which would bring out the black headlines on the +halfpenny papers if they had an inkling of them. There are people here +who are trying to draw up a new map of Europe, a new map of the world." + +Richard shook his head. + +"I can't get interested in anything, Hunterleys," he declared. "You +could tell me the most amazing things in the world and they'd pass in at +one ear and out at the other. Kind of a blithering idiot, eh? You know +what I did last night after dinner. If you'll believe me, when I got to +the villa, I found the place patrolled as though they were afraid of +dynamiters. I skulked round to the back, got on the beach, and climbed a +little way up towards the rock garden. I hid there and waited to see if +she'd come out on the terrace. She never came, but I caught a glimpse of +her passing from one room to another, and I tell you I'm such a poor +sort of an idiot that I felt repaid for waiting there all that time. I +shall go there again to-night. The boys wanted me to dine--Eddy +Lanchester and Montressor and that lot--a jolly party, too. I sha'n't do +it. I shall have a mouthful alone somewhere and spend the rest of the +evening on those rocks. Something's got to come of this, Hunterleys." + +"Let's go into the lounge for a few moments," Hunterleys suggested. "I +may as well hear all about it." + +They made their way downstairs, and sat there talking, or rather +Hunterleys listened while Richard talked. Then Draconmeyer strolled +across the hall and waited by the lift. Presently he returned with +Violet by his side, followed by her maid, carrying rugs. As they +approached, Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet. Violet was looking up +into her companion's face, talking and laughing. She either did not see +Hunterleys, or affected not to. He stood, for a moment, irresolute. +Then, as she passed, she glanced at him quite blankly and waved her hand +to Richard. The two disappeared. Hunterleys resumed his seat. He had, +somehow or other, the depressing feeling of a man who has lost a great +opportunity. + +"Lady Hunterleys looks well this morning," Lane remarked, absolutely +unconscious of anything unusual. + +Hunterleys watched the car drive off before he answered. + +"She looks very well," he assented gloomily. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WILY MR. DRACONMEYER + + +They had skirted the wonderful bay and climbed the mountainous hill to +the frontier before Violet spoke. All the time Draconmeyer leaned back +by her side, perfectly content. A man of varied subtleties, he +understood and fully appreciated the intrinsic value of silence. Whilst +the Customs officer, however, was making out the deposit note for the +car, she turned to him. + +"Will you tell me something, Mr. Draconmeyer?" + +"Of course!" + +"It is about my husband," she went on. "Henry isn't your friend--you +dislike one another, I know. You men seem to have a sort of freemasonry +which compels you to tell falsehoods about one another, but in this case +I am going to remind you that I have the greater claim, and I am going +to ask you for the sober truth. Henry has once or twice, during the last +few days, hinted to me that his presence in Monte Carlo just now has +some sort of political significance. He is very vague about it all, but +he evidently wants me to believe that he is staying here against his own +inclinations. Now I want to ask you a plain question. Is it likely that +he could have any business whatever to transact for the Government in +Monte Carlo? What I mean is, could there possibly be anything to keep +him in this place which for political reasons he couldn't tell me +about?" + +"I can answer your question finally so far as regards any Government +business," Mr. Draconmeyer assured her. "Your husband's Party is in +Opposition. As a keen politician, he would not be likely to interest +himself in the work of his rival." + +"You are quite sure," she persisted, "you are quite sure that he could +not have a mission of any sort?--that there isn't any meeting of +diplomatists here in which he might be interested?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer smiled with the air of one listening to a child's +prattle. + +"If I were not sure that you are in earnest--!" he began. "However, I +will just answer your question. Nothing of the sort is possible. +Besides, people don't come to Monte Carlo for serious affairs, you +know." + +Her face hardened a little. + +"I suppose," she said, "that you are quite sure of what you told me the +other evening about this young singer--Felicia Roche?" + +"I should not allude to a matter of that sort," he declared, "unless I +had satisfied myself as to the facts. It is true that I owe nothing to +your husband and everything to you, or I should have probably remained +silent. As it is, all that I know is at your service. Felicia Roche is +to make her début at the Opera House to-night. Your husband has been +seen with her repeatedly. He was at her villa at one o'clock this +morning. I have heard it said that he is a little infatuated." + +"Thank you," she murmured, "that is quite enough." + +The formalities were concluded and the car drove on. They paused at the +last turn to gaze downward at the wonderful view--the gorgeous Bay of +Mentone, a thousand feet below, with its wealth of mimosa-embosomed +villas; Monte Carlo glittering on the sea-board; the sweep of Monaco, +red-roofed, picturesque. And behind, the mountains, further away still, +the dim, snow-capped heights. Violet looked, as she was bidden, but her +eyes seemed incapable of appreciation. When the car moved on, she leaned +back in her seat and dropped her veil. She was paler even than when they +had started. + +"I am going to talk to you very little," he said gravely. "I want you +just to rest and breathe this wonderful air. If my reply to your +question troubles you, I am sorry, but you had to know it some day. It +is a wrench, of course, but you must have guessed it. Your husband is a +man of peculiar temperament, but no man could have refused such an offer +as you made him, unless there had been some special reason for it--no +man in the world." + +There was a little tremble in his tone, artistic and not overdone. +Somehow, she felt that his admiration ministered to her self-respect. +She permitted his hand to remain upon hers. The touch of her fingers +very nearly brought the torrent from his lips. He crushed the words +down, however. It was too great a risk. Very soon things would be +different; he could afford to wait. + +They drove on to San Remo and turned into the hotel. + +"You are better away from Monte Carlo for a few hours," he decided. "We +will lunch here and drive back afterwards. You will feel greatly +refreshed." + +She accepted his suggestion without enthusiasm and with very little show +of pleasure. They found a table on the terrace in a retired corner, +surrounded with flowering cactus plants and drooping mimosa, and +overhung by a giant oleander tree. He talked to her easily but in +gossiping fashion only, and always with the greatest respect. It was not +until the arrival of their coffee that he ventured to become at all +personal. + +"Will you forgive me if I talk without reserve for a few moments?" he +began, leaning a little towards her. "You have your troubles, I know. +May I not remind you that you are not alone in your sorrows? Linda, as +you know, has no companionship whatever to offer. She does nothing but +indulge in fretful regrets over her broken health. When I remember, too, +how lonely your days are, and think of your husband and what he might +make of them, then I cannot help realising with absolute vividness the +supreme irony of fate. Here am I, craving for nothing so much on earth +as the sympathy, the affection of--shall I say such a woman as you? And +your husband, who might have the best, remains utterly indifferent, +content with something far below the second best. And there is so much +in life, too," he went on, regretfully. "I cannot tell you how difficult +it is for me to sit still and see you worried about such a trifle as +money. Fancy the joy of giving you money!" + +She awoke a little from her lethargy. She looked at him, startled. + +"You haven't told me yet," he added, "how the game went last night?" + +"I lost every penny of that thousand pounds," she declared. "That is why +I sent for my husband this morning and asked him to take me back to +England. I am getting afraid of the place. My luck seems to have gone +for ever." + +He laughed softly. + +"That doesn't sound like you," he observed. "Besides, what does it +matter? Write me out some more cheques when we get back. Date them this +year or next, or the year after--it really doesn't matter a bit. My +fortune is at your disposal. If it amuses you to lose a thousand pounds +in the afternoon, and twice as much at night, pray do." + +She laughed at him. There was a certain glamour about his words which +appealed to her fancy. + +"Why, you talk like a prince," she murmured, "and yet you know how +impossible it is." + +"Is it?" he asked quietly. + +She rose abruptly from her place. There was something wrong--she felt it +in the atmosphere--something that was almost choking her. + +"Let us go back," she insisted. + +He ordered the car without another word and they started off homewards. +It was not until they were nearing Monte Carlo that he spoke of anything +save the slightest topics. + +"You must have a little more money," he told her, in a matter-of-fact +tone. "That is a necessity. There is no need to worry your husband. I +shall go and bring you a thousand pounds. You can give me the cheques +later." + +She sat looking steadfastly ahead of her. She seemed to see her numbers +spread out before her, to hear the click of the ball, the croupier's +voice, the thrill of victory. + +"I have taken more money from you than I meant to, already, Mr. +Draconmeyer," she protested. "Does Linda know how much you have lent +me?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"What is the use of telling her? She does not understand. She has never +felt the gambling fever, the joy of it, the excitement. She would not be +strong enough. You and I understand. I have felt it in the money-markets +of the world, where one plays with millions, where a mistake might mean +ruin. That is why the tables seem dull for me, but all the same it comes +home to me." + +She felt the fierce stimulus of anxious thought. She knew very well that +notwithstanding his quiet manner, she had reason to fear the man who sat +by her side. She feared his self-restraint, she feared the light which +sometimes gleamed in his eyes when he fancied himself unobserved. He +gave her no cause for complaint. All the time his behaviour had been +irreproachable. And yet she felt, somehow or other, like a bird who is +being hunted by a trapper, a trapper who knows his business, who goes +about it with quiet confidence, with absolute certainty. There was +something like despair in her heart. + +"Well, I suppose I shall have to stay here," she said, "and I can't stay +here without playing. I will take a thousand more, if you will lend it +to me." + +"You shall have it directly we get to the hotel," he told her. "Don't +hurry with the cheques, and don't date them too soon. Remember that you +must have something to live on when you get back." + +"I am going to win," she declared confidently. "I am going to win enough +to pay you back every penny." + +"I won't say that I hope not," he observed, "for your sake, but it will +certainly give me no pleasure to have the money back again. You are such +a wonderful person," he added, dropping his voice, "that I rather like +to feel that I can be a little useful to you." + +They had neared the end of their journey and Mr. Draconmeyer touched her +arm. A faint smile was playing about his lips. Certainly the fates were +befriending him! He said nothing, but her eyes followed the slight +motion of his head. Coming down the steps from Ciro's were her husband +and Felicia Roche. Violet looked at them for a moment. Then she turned +her head away. + +"Most inopportune," she sighed, with a little attempt at gaiety. "Shall +we meet later at the Club?" + +"Assuredly," Mr. Draconmeyer replied. "I will send the money to your +room." + +"Thank you once more," she said, "and thank you, too, for my drive. I +have enjoyed it very much. I am very glad indeed that I had the courage +to make you tell me the truth." + +"I hope," he whispered, as he handed her out, "that you will never lack +the courage to ask me anything." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ASSASSINATION! + + +Selingman, a large cigar between his lips and a happy smile upon his +face, stood in the square before the Casino, watching the pigeons. He +had just enjoyed an excellent lunch, he was exceedingly pleased with a +new light grey suit which he was wearing, and his one unsatisfied desire +was for companionship. Draconmeyer was away motoring with Lady +Hunterleys, Mr. Grex was spending the early part of the day in conclave +with their visitor from France, and Mademoiselle Nipon had gone to Nice +for the day. Selingman had been left to his own devices and was +beginning to find time hang upon his hands. Conversation and +companionship were almost as great necessities with him as wine. He +beamed upon the pigeons and looked around at the people dotted about in +chairs outside the Café de Paris, hoping to find an acquaintance. It +chanced, however, that he saw nothing but strangers. Then his eyes fell +upon a man who was seated with folded arms a short distance away, a man +of respectable but somewhat gloomy appearance, dressed in dark clothes, +with pale cheeks and cavernous eyes. Selingman strolled towards him. + +"How go things, friend Allen?" he enquired, dropping his voice a little. + +The man glanced uneasily around. There was, however, no one in his +immediate vicinity. + +"Badly," he admitted. + +"Still no success, eh?" Selingman asked, drawing up a chair and seating +himself. + +"The man is secretive by nature," was the gloomy reply. "One would +imagine that he knew he was being watched. Everything which he receives +in the way of a written communication is at once torn up. He is the most +difficult order of person to deal with--he is methodical. He has only +the hotel valet to look after his things but everything is always in its +place. Yesterday I went through his waste-paper basket. I took home the +contents but the pieces were no larger than sixpences. I was able to put +together one envelope which he received yesterday morning, which was +franked 'On His Majesty's Service,' and the post-mark of which was +Downing Street." + +Selingman shook his head ponderously and then replied seriously: + +"You must do better than that, my Sherlock Holmes--much better." + +"I can't make bricks without straw," Allen retorted sullenly. + +"There is always straw if one looks in the right place," Selingman +insisted, puffing away at his cigar. "What we want to discover is, +exactly how much does Hunterleys know of certain operations of ours +which are going on here? He is on the watch--that I am sure of. There is +one known agent in the place, and another suspected one, and I am pretty +certain that they are both working at his instigation. What we want to +get hold of is one of his letters to London." + +"I have been in and out of his rooms at all hours," the other said. "I +have gone into the matter thoroughly, so thoroughly that I have taken a +situation with a firm of English tailors here, and I am supposed to go +out and tout for orders. That gives me a free entrée to the hotel. I +have even had a commission from Sir Henry himself. He gave me a coat to +get some buttons sewn on. I am practically free of his room but what's +the good? He doesn't even lead the Monte Carlo life. He doesn't give one +a chance of getting at him through a third person. No notes from ladies, +no flower or jewelry bills, not the shadow of an assignation. The only +photograph upon his table is a photograph of Lady Hunterleys." + +"Better not tell our friend Draconmeyer that," Selingman observed, +smiling to himself. "Well, well, you can do nothing but persevere, +Allen. We are not niggardly masters. If a man fails through no fault of +his own, well, we don't throw him into the street. Nothing parsimonious +about us. No need for you to sit about with a face as long as a fiddle +because you can't succeed all at once. We are the people to kick at it, +not you. Drink a little more wine, my friend. Give yourself a liqueur +after luncheon. Stick a cigar in your mouth and go and sit in the +sunshine. Make friends with some of the ladies. Remember, the sun will +still shine and the music play in fifty years' time, but not for you. +Come and see me when you want some more money." + +"You are very kind, sir," the man replied. "I am going across to the +hotel now. Sir Henry has been about there most of the morning but he has +just gone in to Ciro's to lunch, so I shall have at least half-an-hour." + +"Good luck to you!" Selingman exclaimed heartily. "Who knows but that +the big things may come, even this afternoon? Cheer up, and try and make +yourself believe that a letter may be lying on the table, a letter he +forgot to post, or one sent round from the bank since he left. I am +hopeful for you this afternoon, Allen. I believe you are going to do +well. Come up and see me afterwards, if you will. I am going to my hotel +to lie down for half-an-hour. I am not really tired but I have no friend +here to talk with or anything to do, and it is a wise economy of the +human frame. To-night, mademoiselle will have returned. Just now every +one has deserted me. I will rest until six o'clock. Au revoir, friend +Allen! Au revoir!" + +Selingman climbed the hill and entered the hotel where he was staying. +He mounted to his room, took off his coat, at which he glanced +admiringly for a moment and then hung up behind the door. Finally he +pulled down the blinds and lay down to rest. Very soon he was asleep.... + +The drowsy afternoon wore on. Through the open windows came the sound of +carriages driven along the dusty way, the shouts of the coachmen to +their horses, the jingling of bells, the hooting of motor horns. A lime +tree, whose leaves were stirred by the languorous breeze, kept tapping +against the window. From a further distance came the faint, muffled +voices of promenaders, and the echo of the guns from the Tir du Pigeons. +But through it all, Selingman, lying on his back and snoring loudly, +slept. He was awakened at last by the feeling that some one had entered +the room. He sat up and blinked. + +"Hullo!" he exclaimed. + +A man in the weird disguise of a motor-cyclist was standing at the foot +of the bed. Selingman continued to blink. He was not wholly awake and +his visitor's appearance was unpleasant. + +"Who the devil are you?" he enquired. + +The visitor took off his disfiguring spectacles. + +"Jean Coulois--behold!" was the soft reply. + +Selingman raised himself and slid off the bed. It had seemed rather like +a dream. He was wide-awake now, however. + +"What do you want?" he asked. "What are you here for?" + +Jean Coulois said nothing. Then very slowly from the inside pocket of +his coat he drew a newspaper parcel. It was long and narrow, and in +places there was a stain upon the paper. Selingman stared at it and +stared back at Jean Coulois. + +"What the mischief have you got there?" he demanded. + +Coulois touched the parcel with his yellow forefinger. Selingman saw +then that the stains were of blood. + +"Give me a towel," his visitor directed. "I do not want this upon my +clothes." + +Selingman took a towel from the stand and threw it across the room. + +"You mean," he asked, dropping his voice a little, "that it is +finished?" + +"A quarter of an hour ago," Jean Coulois answered triumphantly. "He had +just come in from luncheon and was sitting at his writing-table. It was +cleverly done--wonderfully. It was all over in a moment--not a cry. You +came to the right place, indeed! And now I go to the country," Coulois +continued. "I have a motor-bicycle outside. I make my way up into the +hills to bury this little memento. There is a farmhouse up in the +mountains, a lonely spot enough, and a girl there who says what I tell +her. It may be as well to be able to say that I have been there for +déjeuner. These little things, monsieur--ah, well! we who understand +think of them. And since I am here," he added, holding out his hand-- + +Selingman nodded and took out his pocket-book. He counted out the notes +in silence and passed them over. The assassin dropped them into his +pocket. + +"Au revoir, Monsieur le Gros!" he exclaimed, waving his hand. "We meet +to-night, I trust. I will show you a new dance--the Dance of Death, I +shall call it. I seem calm, but I am on fire with excitement. To-night I +shall dance as though quicksilver were in my feet. You must not miss it. +You must come, monsieur." + +He closed the door behind him and swaggered off down the passage. +Selingman stood, for a moment, perfectly still. It was a strange thing, +but two big tears were in his eyes. Then he heaved a great sigh and +shook his head. + +"It is part of the game," he said softly to himself, "all part of the +game." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE WRONG MAN + + +Selingman came out into the sunlit streets very much as a man who leaves +a dark and shrouded room. The shock of tragedy was still upon him. There +was a little choke in his throat as he mingled with the careless, +pleasure-loving throng, mostly wending their way now towards the Rooms +or the Terrace. As he crossed the square towards the Hotel de Paris, his +steps grew slower and slower. He looked at the building half-fearfully. +Beautifully dressed women, men of every nationality, were passing in and +out all the time. The commissionaire, with his little group of +satellites, stood sunning himself on the lowest step, a splendid, +complacent figure. There was no sign there of the horror that was hidden +within. Even while he looked up at the windows he felt a hand upon his +arm. Draconmeyer had caught him up and had fallen into step with him. + +"Well, dear philosopher," he exclaimed, "why this subdued aspect? Has +your solitary day depressed you?" + +Selingman turned slowly around. Draconmeyer's eyes beneath his +gold-rimmed spectacles were bright. He was carrying himself with less +than his usual stoop, he wore a red carnation in his buttonhole. He was +in spirits which for him were almost boisterous. + +"Have you been in there?" Selingman asked, in a low tone. + +Draconmeyer glanced at the hotel and back again at his companion. + +"In where?" he demanded. "In the hotel? I left Lady Hunterleys there a +short time ago. I have been up to the bank since." + +"You don't know yet, then?" + +"Know what?" + +There was a momentary silence. Draconmeyer suddenly gripped his +companion by the arm. + +"Go on," he insisted. "Tell me?" + +"It's all over!" Selingman exclaimed hoarsely. "Jean Coulois came to me +a quarter of an hour ago. It is finished. Damnation, Draconmeyer, let go +my arm!" + +Draconmeyer withdrew his fingers. There was no longer any stoop about +him at all. He stood tall and straight, his lips parted, his face turned +upwards, upwards as though he would gaze over the roof of the hotel +before which they were standing, up to the skies. + +"My God, Selingman!" he cried. "My God!" + +The seconds passed. Then Draconmeyer suddenly took his companion by the +arm. + +"Come," he said, "let us take that first seat in the gardens there. Let +us talk. Somehow or other, although I half counted upon this, I scarcely +believed.... Let us sit down. Do you think it is known yet?" + +"Very likely not," Selingman answered, as they crossed the road and +entered the gardens. "Coulois found him in his rooms, seated at the +writing-table. It was all over, he declares, in ten seconds. He came to +me--with the knife. He was on his way to the mountains to hide it." + +They found a seat under a drooping lime tree. They could still see the +hotel and the level stretch of road that led past the post-office and +the Club to Monaco. Draconmeyer sat with his eyes fixed upon the hotel, +through which streams of people were still passing. One of the +under-managers was welcoming the newcomers from a recently arrived +train. + +"You are right," he murmured. "Nothing is known yet. Very likely +they will not know until the valet goes to lay out his clothes for +dinner.... Dead!" + +Selingman, with one hand gripping the iron arm of the seat, watched his +companion's face with a sort of fascinated curiosity. There were beads +of perspiration upon Draconmeyer's forehead, but his expression, in its +way, was curious. There was no horror in his face, no fear, no shadow of +remorse. Some wholly different sentiment seemed to have transformed the +man. He was younger, more virile. He seemed as though he could scarcely +sit still. + +"My friend," Selingman said, "I know that you are one of our children, +that you are one of those who have seen the truth and worked steadfastly +for the great cause with the heart of a patriot and the unswerving +fidelity of a strong man. But tell me the honest truth. There is +something else in your life--you have some other feeling about this man +Hunterleys' death?" + +Draconmeyer removed his eyes from the front of the hotel and turned +slowly towards his companion. There was a transfiguring smile upon his +lips. Again he gave Selingman the impression of complete rejuvenation, +of an elderly man suddenly transformed into something young and +vigorous. + +"There is something else, Selingman," he confessed. "This is the moment +when I dare speak of it. I will tell you first of any living person. +There is a woman over there whom I have set up as an idol, and before +whose shrine I have worshipped. There is a woman over there who has +turned the dull paths of my life into a flowery way. I am a patriot, and +I have worked for my country, Selingman, as you have worked. But I have +worked, also, that I might taste for once before I die the great +passion. Don't stare at me, man! Remember I am not like you. You can +laugh your way through the world, with a kiss here and a bow there, a +ribbon to your lips at night, thrown to the winds in the morning. I +haven't that sort of philosophy. Love doesn't come to me like that. It's +set in my heart amongst the great things. It's set there side by side +with the greatest of all." + +"His wife!" Selingman muttered. + +"Are you so colossal a fool as only to have guessed it at this moment?" +Draconmeyer continued contemptuously. "If he hadn't blundered across our +path here, if he hadn't been my political enemy, I should still some day +have taken him by the throat and killed him. You don't know what risks I +have been running," he went on, with a sudden hoarseness. "In her heart +she half loves him still. If he hadn't been a fool, a prejudiced, +over-conscientious, stiff-necked fool, I should have lost her within the +last twenty-four hours. I have had to fight and scheme as I have never +fought and schemed before, to keep them apart. I have had to pick my way +through shoals innumerable, hold myself down when I have been burning to +grip her by the wrists and tell her that all that a man could offer a +woman was hers. Selingman, this sounds like nonsense, I suppose." + +"No," Selingman murmured, "not nonsense, but it doesn't sound like +Draconmeyer." + +"Well, it's finished," Draconmeyer declared, with a great sigh of +content. "You know now. I enter upon the final stage. I had only one +fear. Jean Coulois has settled that for me. I wonder whether they know. +It seems peaceful enough. No! Look over there," he added, gripping his +companion's arm. "Peter, the concierge, is whispering with the others. +That is one of the managers there, out on the pavement, talking to +them." + +Selingman pointed down the road towards Monaco. + +"See!" he exclaimed. "There is a motor-car coming in a hurry. I fancy +that the alarm must have been given." + +A grey, heavily-built car came along at a great pace and swung round in +front of the Hotel de Paris. The two men stood on the pavement and +watched. A tall, official-looking person, with black, upturned +moustache, in somber uniform and a peaked cap, descended. + +"The Commissioner of Police," Selingman whispered, "and that is a doctor +who has just gone in. He has been found!" + +They crossed the road to the hotel. The concierge removed his hat as +they turned to enter. To all appearances he was unchanged--fat, florid, +splendid. Draconmeyer stepped close to him. + +"Has anything happened here, Peter?" he asked. "I saw the Commissioner +of Police arrive in a great hurry." + +The man hesitated. It was obvious then that he was disturbed. He looked +to the right and to the left. Finally, with a sigh of resignation, he +seemed to make up his mind to tell the truth. + +"It is the English gentleman, Sir Henry Hunterleys," he whispered. "He +has been found stabbed to death in his room." + +"Dead?" Draconmeyer demanded, insistently. + +"Stone dead, sir," the concierge replied. "He was stabbed by some one +who stole in through the bathroom--they say that he couldn't ever have +moved again. The Commissioner of Police is upstairs. The ambulance is +round at the back to take him off to the Mortuary." + +Selingman suddenly seized the man by the arm. His eyes were fixed upon +the topmost step. Violet stood there, smiling down upon them. She was +wearing a black and white gown, and a black hat with white ospreys. It +was the hour of five o'clock tea and many people were passing in and +out. She came gracefully down the steps. The two men remained +speechless. + +"I have been waiting for you, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, smiling. + +Draconmeyer remembered suddenly the packet of notes which he had been to +fetch from the bank. He tried to speak but only faltered. Selingman had +removed his hat but he, too, seemed incapable of coherent speech. She +looked at them both, astonished. + +"Whatever is the matter with you both?" she exclaimed. "Who is coming +with me to the Club? I decided to come this way round to see if I could +change my luck. That underground passage depresses me." + +Draconmeyer moved up a couple of steps. He was quite himself now, grave +but solicitous. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he said, "I am sorry, but there has been a little +accident. I am afraid that your husband has been hurt. If you will come +back to your room for a minute I will tell you about it." + +All the colour died slowly from her face. She swayed a little, but when +Draconmeyer would have supported her she pushed him away. + +"An accident?" she muttered. "I must go and see for myself." + +She turned and re-entered the hotel swiftly. Draconmeyer caught her up +in the hall. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he begged earnestly, "please take my advice. I am +your friend, you know. I want you to go straight to your room. I will +come with you. I will explain to you then--" + +"I am going to Henry," she interrupted, without even a glance towards +him. "I am going to my husband at once. I must see what has happened." + +She rang the bell for the lift, which appeared almost immediately. +Draconmeyer stepped in with her. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he persisted, "I beg of you to do as I ask. Let me +take you to your rooms. I will tell you all that has happened. Your +husband will not be able to see you or speak with you." + +"I shall not get out," she declared, when the lift boy, in obedience to +Draconmeyer's imperative order, stopped at her floor. "If I may not go +on in the lift, I shall walk up the stairs. I am going to my husband." + +"He will not recognise you," Draconmeyer warned her. "I am very sorry +indeed, Lady Hunterleys--I would spare you this shock if I could--but +you must be prepared for very serious things." + +They had reached the next floor now. The boy opened the gate of the lift +and she stepped out. She looked pitifully at Draconmeyer. + +"You aren't going to tell me that he is dead?" she moaned. + +"I am afraid he is," Draconmeyer assented. + +She staggered across the landing, pushing him away from her. There were +four or five people standing outside the door of Hunterleys' apartment. +She appealed to them. + +"Let me go in at once," she ordered. "I am Lady Hunterleys." + +"The door is locked," one of the men declared. + +"Let me go in," she insisted. + +She pushed them on one side and hammered at the door. They could hear +voices inside. In a moment it was opened. It was the Commissioner of the +Police who stood there--tall, severe, official. + +"Madame?" he exclaimed. + +"I am his wife!" she cried. "Let me in--let me in at once!" + +She forced her way into the room. Something was lying on the bed, +covered with a sheet. She looked at it and shrieked. + +"Madame," the Commissioner begged, "pray compose yourself. A tragedy has +happened in this room--but we are not sure. Can you be brave, madame?" + +"I can," she answered. "Of what are you not sure?" + +The Commissioner turned down the sheet a few inches. A man's face was +visible, a ghastly sight. She looked at it and shrieked hysterically. + +"Is that your husband, madame?" the Commissioner asked quickly. + +"Thank God, no!" she cried. "You are sure this is the man?" she went on, +her voice shaking with fierce excitement. "There is no one else--hurt? +No one else stabbed? This is the man they told me was my husband?" + +"He was found there, sitting at your husband's table, madame," the +Commissioner of Police assured her. "There is no one else." + +She suddenly began to cry. + +"It isn't Henry!" she sobbed, groping her way from the room. "Take me +downstairs, please, some one." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +TROUBLE BREWING + + +The maître d'hôtel had presented his bill. The little luncheon party was +almost over. + +"So I take leave," Hunterleys remarked, as he sat down his empty liqueur +glass, "of one of my responsibilities in life." + +"I think I'd like to remain a sort of half ward, please," Felicia +objected, "in case David doesn't treat me properly." + +"If he doesn't," Hunterleys declared, "he will have me to answer to. +Seriously, I think you young people are very wise and very foolish and +very much to be envied. What does Sidney say about it?" + +Felicia made a little grimace. She glanced around but the tables near +them were unoccupied. + +"Sidney is much too engrossed in his mysterious work to concern himself +very much about anything," she replied. "Do you know that he has been +out all night two nights this week already, and he is making no end of +preparations for to-day?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I know that he is very busy just now," he assented gravely. "I must +come up and talk to him this afternoon." + +"We left him writing," Felicia said. "Of course, he declares that it is +for his beloved newspaper, but I am not sure. He scarcely ever goes out +in the daytime. What can he have to write about? David's work is +strenuous enough, and I have told him that if he turns war correspondent +again, I shall break it off." + +"We all have our work to do in life," Hunterleys reminded her. "You have +to sing in _Aďda_ to-night, and you have to do yourself justice for the +sake of a great many people. Your brother has his work to do, also. +Whatever the nature of it may be, he has taken it up and he must go +through with it. It would be of no use his worrying for fear that you +should forget your words or your notes to-night, and there is no purpose +in your fretting because there may be danger in what he has to do. I +promise you that so far as I can prevent it, he shall take no +unnecessary risks. Now, if you like, I will walk home with you young +people, if I sha'n't be terribly in the way. I know that Sidney wants to +see me." + +They left the restaurant, a few minutes later, and strolled up towards +the town. Hunterleys paused outside a jeweler's shop. + +"And now for the important business of the day!" he declared. "I must +buy you an engagement present, on behalf of myself and all your +guardians. Come in and help me choose, both of you. A girl who carries +her gloves in her hand to show her engagement ring, should have a better +bag to hang from that little finger." + +"You really are the most perfect person that ever breathed!" she sighed. +"You know I don't deserve anything of the sort." + +They paid their visit to the jeweler and afterwards drove up to the +villa in a little victoria. Sidney Roche was hard at work in his +shirt-sleeves. He greeted Hunterleys warmly. + +"Glad you've come up!" he exclaimed. "The little girl's told you the +news, I suppose?" + +"Rather!" Hunterleys replied. "I have been lunching with them on the +strength of it." + +"And look!" Felicia cried, holding out the gold bag which hung from her +finger. "Look how I am being spoiled." + +Her brother sighed. + +"Awful nuisance for me," he grumbled, "having to live with an engaged +couple. You couldn't clear out for a little time," he suggested, "both +of you? I want to talk to Hunterleys." + +"We'll go and sit in the garden," Felicia assented. "I suppose I ought +to rest. David shall read my score to me." + +They passed out and Roche closed the door behind them carefully. + +"Anything fresh?" Hunterleys asked. + +"Nothing particular," was the somewhat guarded reply. "That fellow +Frenhofer has been up here." + +"Frenhofer?" Hunterleys repeated, interrogatively. + +"He is the only man I can rely upon at the Villa Mimosa," Roche +explained. "I am afraid to-night it's going to be rather a difficult +job." + +"I always feared it would be," Hunterleys agreed. + +"Frenhofer tells me," Roche continued, "that for some reason or other +their suspicions have been aroused up there. They are all on edge. You +know, the house is cram-full of men-servants and there are to be a dozen +of them on duty in the grounds. Two or three of these fellows are +nothing more or less than private detectives, and they all of them know +what they're about or Grex wouldn't have them." + +Hunterleys looked grave. + +"It sounds awkward," he admitted. + +"The general idea of the plot," Roche went on, walking restlessly up and +down the room, "you and I have already solved, and by this time they +know it in London. But there are two things which I feel they may +discuss to-night, which are of vital importance. The first is the date, +the second is the terms of the offer to Douaille. Then, of course, more +important, perhaps, than either of these, is the matter of Douaille's +general attitude towards the scheme." + +"So far," Hunterleys remarked reflectively, "we haven't the slightest +indication of what that may be. Douaille came pledged to nothing. He +may, after all, stand firm." + +"For the honour of his country, let us hope so," Roche said solemnly. +"Yet I am sure of one thing. They are going to make him a wonderful +offer. He may find himself confronted with a problem which some of the +greatest statesmen in the world have had to face in their time--shall he +study the material benefit of his country, or shall he stand firm for +her honour?" + +"It's a great ethical question," Hunterleys declared, "too great for us +to discuss now, Sidney. Tell me, do you really mean to go on with this +attempt of yours to-night?" + +"I must," Roche replied. "Frenhofer wants me to give up the roof idea, +but there is nothing else worth trying. He brought a fresh plan of the +room with him. There it lies on the table. As you see, the apartment +where the meeting will take place is almost isolated from the rest of +the house. There is only one approach to it, by a corridor leading from +the hall. The east and west sides will be patrolled. On the south there +is a little terrace, but the approach to it is absolutely impossible. +There is a sheer drop of fifty feet on to the beach." + +"You think they have no suspicion about the roof?" Hunterleys asked +doubtfully. + +"Not yet. The pane of glass is cut out and my entrance to the house is +arranged for. Frenhofer will tamper with the electric lights in the +kitchen premises and I shall arrive in response to his telephonic +message, in the clothes of a working-man and with a bag of tools. Then +he smuggles me on to the spiral stairway which leads out on to the roof +where the flag-staff is. I can crawl the rest of the way to my place. +The trouble is that notwithstanding the ledge around, if it is a +perfectly clear night, just a fraction of my body, however flat I lie, +might be seen from the ground." + +Hunterleys studied the plan for a moment and shook his head. + +"It's a terrible risk, this, Roche," he said seriously. + +"I know it," the other admitted, "but what am I to do? They keep sending +me cipher messages from home to spare no effort to send further news, as +you know very well, and two other fellows will be here the day after +to-morrow, to relieve me. I must do what I can. There's one thing, +Felicia's off my mind now. Briston's a good fellow and he'll look after +her." + +"In the event of your capture--" Hunterleys began. + +"The tools I shall take with me," Roche interrupted, "are common +housebreaker's tools. Every shred of clothing I shall be wearing will be +in keeping, the ordinary garments of an _ouvrier_ of the district. If I +am trapped, it will be as a burglar and not as a spy. Of course, if +Douaille opens the proceedings by declaring himself against the scheme, +I shall make myself scarce as quickly as I can." + +"You were quite right when you said just now," Hunterleys observed, +"that Douaille will find himself in a difficult position. There is no +doubt but that he is an honest man. On the other hand, it is a political +axiom that the first duty of any statesman is to his own people. If they +can make Douaille believe that he is going to restore her lost provinces +to France without the shedding of a drop of French blood, simply at +England's expense, he will be confronted with a problem over which any +man might hesitate. He has had all day to think it over. What he may +decide is simply on the knees of the gods." + +Roche sealed up the letter he had been writing, and handed it to +Hunterleys. + +"Well," he said, "I have left everything in order. If there's any +mysterious disappearance from here, it will be the mysterious +disappearance of a newspaper correspondent, and nothing else." + +"Good luck, then, old chap!" Hunterleys wished him. "If you pull through +this time, I think our job will be done. I'll tell them at headquarters +that you deserve a year's holiday." + +Roche smiled a little queerly. + +"Don't forget," he pointed out, "that it was you who scented out the +whole plot. I've simply done the Scotland Yard work. The worst of our +job is," he added, as he opened the door, "that we don't want holidays. +We are like drugged beings. The thing gets hold of us. I suppose if they +gave me a holiday I should spend it in St. Petersburg. That's where we +ought to send our best men just now. So long, Sir Henry." + +They shook hands once more. Roche's face was set in grim lines. They +were both silent for a moment. It was the farewell of men whose eyes are +fixed upon the great things. + +"Good luck to you!" Hunterleys repeated fervently, as he turned and +walked down the tiled way. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +HUNTERLEYS SCENTS MURDER + + +The concierge of the Hotel de Paris was a man of great stature and +imposing appearance. Nevertheless, when Hunterleys crossed the road and +climbed the steps to the hotel, he seemed for a moment like a man +reduced to pulp. He absolutely forgot his usual dignified but courteous +greeting. With mouth a little open and knees which seemed to have +collapsed, he stared at this unexpected apparition as he came into sight +and stared at him as he entered the hotel. Hunterleys glanced behind +with a slight frown. The incident, inexplicable though it was, would +have passed at once from his memory, but that directly he entered the +hotel he was conscious of the very similar behaviour and attitude +towards him of the chief reception clerk. He paused on his way, a little +bewildered, and called the man to him. The clerk, however, was already +rushing towards the office with his coat-tails flying behind him. +Hunterleys crossed the floor and rang the bell for the lift. Directly he +stepped in, the lift man vacated his place, and with his eyes nearly +starting out of his head, seemed about to make a rush for his life. + +"Come back here," Hunterleys ordered sternly. "Take me up to my room at +once." + +The man returned unsteadily and with marked reluctance. He closed the +gate, touched the handle and the lift commenced to ascend. + +"What's the matter with you all here?" Hunterleys demanded, irritably. +"Is there anything wrong with my appearance? Has anything happened?" + +The man made a gesture but said absolutely nothing. The lift had +stopped. He pushed open the door. + +"Monsieur's floor," he faltered. + +Hunterleys stepped out and made his way towards his room. Arrived there, +he was brought to a sudden standstill. A gendarme was stationed outside. + +"What the mischief are you doing here?" Hunterleys demanded. + +The man saluted. + +"By orders of the Director of Police, monsieur." + +"But that is my room," Hunterleys protested. "I wish to enter." + +"No one is permitted to enter, monsieur," the man replied. + +Hunterleys stared blankly at the gendarme. + +"Can't you tell me at least what has happened?" he persisted. "I am Sir +Henry Hunterleys. That is my apartment. Why do I find it locked against +me?" + +"By order of the Director of the Police, monsieur," was the parrot-like +reply. + +Hunterleys turned away impatiently. At that moment the reception clerk +who downstairs had fled at his approach, returned, bringing with him the +manager of the hotel. Hunterleys welcomed the latter with an air of +relief. + +"Monsieur Picard," he exclaimed, "what on earth is the meaning of this? +Why do I find my room closed and this gendarme outside?" + +Monsieur Picard was a tall man, black-bearded, immaculate in appearance +and deportment, with manners and voice of velvet. Yet he, too, had lost +his wonderful imperturbability. He waved away the floor waiter, who had +drawn near. His manner was almost agitated. + +"Monsieur Sir Henry," he explained, "an affair the most regrettable has +happened in your room. I have allotted to you another apartment upon the +same floor. Your things have been removed there. If you will come with +me I will show it to you. It is an apartment better by far than the one +you have been occupying, and the price is the same." + +"But what on earth has happened in my room?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"Monsieur," the hotel manager replied, "some poor demented creature who +has doubtless lost his all, in your absence found his way there and +committed suicide." + +"Found his way into my room?" Hunterleys repeated. "But I locked the +door before I went out. I have the key in my pocket." + +"He entered possibly through the bathroom," the manager went on, +soothingly. "I am deeply grieved that monsieur should be inconvenienced +in any way. This is the apartment I have reserved for monsieur," he +added, throwing open the door of a room at the end of the corridor. "It +is more spacious and in every way more desirable. Monsieur's clothes are +already being put away." + +Hunterleys glanced around the apartment. It was certainly of a far +better type than the one he had been occupying, and two of the floor +valets were already busy with his clothes. + +"Monsieur will be well satisfied here, I am sure," the hotel manager +continued. "May I be permitted to offer my felicitations and to assure +you of my immense relief. There was a rumour--the affair occurring in +monsieur's apartment--that the unfortunate man was yourself, Sir Henry." + +Hunterleys was thoughtful for a moment. He began to understand the +sensation which his appearance had caused. Other ideas, too, were +crowding into his brain. + +"Look here, Monsieur Picard," he said, "of course, I have no objection +to the change of rooms--that's all right--but I should like to know a +little more about the man who you say committed suicide in my apartment. +I should like to see him." + +Monsieur Picard shook his head. + +"It would be a very difficult matter, that, monsieur," he declared. "The +laws of Monaco are stringent in such affairs." + +"That is all very well," Hunterleys protested, "but I cannot understand +what he was doing in my apartment. Can't I go in just for a moment?" + +"Impossible, monsieur! Without the permission of the Commissioner of +Police no one can enter that room." + +"Then I should like," Hunterleys persisted, "to see the Commissioner of +Police." + +Monsieur Picard bowed. + +"Monsieur the Commissioner is on the premises, without a doubt. I will +instruct him of Monsieur Sir Henry's desire." + +"I shall be glad if you will do so at once," Hunterleys said firmly. "I +will wait for him here." + +The manager made his escape and his relief was obvious. Hunterleys sat +on the edge of the bed. + +"Do you know anything about this affair?" he asked the nearer of the two +valets. + +The man shook his head. + +"Nothing at all, monsieur," he answered, without pausing from his +labours. + +"How did the fellow get into my room?" + +"One knows nothing," the other man muttered. + +Hunterleys watched them for a few minutes at their labours. + +"A nice, intelligent couple of fellows you are," he remarked pleasantly. +"Come, here's a louis each. Now can't you tell me something about the +affair?" + +They came forward. Both looked longingly at the coins. + +"Monsieur," the one he had first addressed regretted, "there is indeed +nothing to be known. At this hotel the wages are good. It is the finest +situation a man may gain in Monte Carlo or elsewhere, but if anything +like this happens, there is to be silence. One dares not break the +rule." + +Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders. + +"All right," he said. "I shall find out what I want to know, in time." + +The men returned unwillingly to their tasks. In a moment or two there +was a knock at the door. The Commissioner of Police entered, accompanied +by the hotel manager, who at once introduced him. + +"The Commissioner of Police is here, Sir Henry," he announced. "He will +speak with you immediately." + +The official saluted. + +"Monsieur desires some information?" + +"I do," Hunterleys admitted. "I am told that a man has committed suicide +in my room, and I have heard no plausible explanation as to how he got +there. I want to see him. It is possible that I may recognise him." + +"The fellow is already identified," the Director of Police declared. "I +can satisfy monsieur's curiosity. He was connected with a firm of +English tailors here, who sought business from the gentlemen in the +hotel. He had accordingly sometimes the entrée to their apartments. The +fellow is reported to have saved a little money and to have visited the +tables. He lost everything. He came this morning about his business as +usual, but, overcome by despair, stabbed himself, most regrettably in +the apartments of monsieur." + +"Since you know all about him, perhaps you can tell me his name?" +Hunterleys asked. + +"James Allen. Monsieur may recall him to his memory. He was tall and of +pale complexion, respectable-looking, but a man of discontented +appearance. The intention had probably been in his mind for some time." + +"Is there any objection to my seeing the body?" Hunterleys enquired. + +The official shrugged his shoulders. + +"But, monsieur, all is finished with the poor fellow. The doctor has +given his certificate. He is to be removed at once. He will be buried at +nightfall." + +"A very admirable arrangement, without a doubt," Hunterleys observed, +"and yet, I should like, as I remarked before, to see the body. You know +who I am--Sir Henry Hunterleys. I had a message from your department a +day or two ago which I thought a little unfair." + +The Commissioner sighed. He ignored altogether the conclusion of +Hunterleys' sentence. + +"It is against the rules, monsieur," he regretted. + +"Then to whom shall I apply?" Hunterleys asked, "because I may as well +tell you at once that I am going to insist upon my request being +granted. I will tell you frankly my reason. It is not a matter of +curiosity at all. I should like to feel assured of the fact that this +man Allen really committed suicide." + +"But he is dead, monsieur," the Commissioner protested. + +"Doubtless," Hunterleys agreed, "but there is also the chance that he +was murdered, isn't there?" + +"Murdered!" + +Monsieur Picard held up his hands in horror. The Commissioner of Police +smiled in derision. + +"But, monsieur," the latter pointed out, "who would take the trouble to +murder a poverty-stricken tailor's assistant!" + +"And in my hotel, too!" Monsieur Picard intervened. + +"The thing is impossible," the Commissioner declared. + +"Beyond which it is ridiculous!" Monsieur Picard added. + +Hunterleys sat quite silent for a moment. + +"Monsieur the Commissioner," he said presently, "and Monsieur Picard, I +recognise your point of view. Believe me that I appreciate it and that I +am willing, to a certain extent, to acquiesce in it. At the same time, +there are considerations in this matter which I cannot ignore. I do not +wish to create any disturbance or to make any statements likely to +militate against the popularity of your wonderful hotel, Monsieur +Picard. Nevertheless, for personal reasons only, notwithstanding the +verdict of your doctor, I should like for one moment to examine the +body." + +The Commissioner of Police was thoughtful for a moment. + +"It shall be as monsieur desires," he consented gravely, "bearing in +mind what monsieur has said," he added with emphasis. + +The three men left the room and passed down the corridor. The gendarme +in front of the closed door stood on one side. The Commissioner produced +a key. They all three entered the room and Monsieur Picard closed the +door behind them. Underneath a sheet upon the bed was stretched the +figure of a man. Hunterleys stepped up to it, turned down the sheet and +examined the prostrate figure. Then he replaced the covering reverently. + +"Yes," he said, "that is the man who has called upon me for orders from +the English tailors. His name, I believe, was, as you say, Allen. But +can you tell me, Monsieur the Commissioner, how it was possible for a +man to stab himself from the shoulder downwards through the heart?" + +The Official extended his hands. + +"Monsieur," he declared, "it is not for us. The doctor has given his +certificate." + +Hunterleys smiled a little grimly. + +"I have always understood," he observed, "that things were managed like +this. You may have confidence in me, Monsieur the Commissioner, and you, +Monsieur Picard. I shall not tell the world what I suspect. But for your +private information I will tell you that this man was probably murdered +by an assassin who sought my life. You observe that there is a certain +resemblance." + +The hotel proprietor turned pale. + +"Murdered!" he exclaimed. "Impossible! A murder here--unheard of!" + +The Commissioner dismissed the whole thing airily with a wave of his +hand. + +"The doctor has signed the certificate," he repeated. + +"And I," Hunterleys added, as he led the way out of the room, "am more +than satisfied--I am grateful. So there is nothing more to be said." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DRACONMEYER IS DESPERATE + + +Draconmeyer stood before the window of his room, looking out over the +Mediterranean. There was no finer view to be obtained from any suite in +the hotel, and Monte Carlo had revelled all that day in the golden, +transfiguring sunshine. Yet he looked as a blind man. His eyes saw +nothing of the blue sea or the brown-sailed fishing boats, nor did he +once glance towards the picturesque harbour. He saw only his own future, +the shattered pieces of his carefully-thought-out scheme. The first fury +had passed. His brain was working now. In her room below, Lady +Hunterleys was lying on the couch, half hysterical. Three times she had +sent for her husband. If he should return at that moment, Draconmeyer +knew that the game was up. There would be no bandying words between +them, no involved explanations, no possibility of any further +misunderstanding. All his little tissue of lies and misrepresentations +would crumble hopelessly to pieces. The one feeling in her heart would +be thankfulness. She would open her arms. He saw the end with fatal, +unerring truthfulness. + +His servant returned. Draconmeyer waited eagerly for his message. + +"Lady Hunterleys is lying down, sir," the man announced. "She is very +much upset and begs you to excuse her." + +Draconmeyer waved the man away and walked up and down the apartment, his +hands behind his back, his lips hard-set. He was face to face with a +crisis which baffled him completely, and yet which he felt to be wholly +unworthy of his powers. His brain had never been keener, his sense of +power more inspiring. Yet he had never felt more impotent. It was +woman's hysteria against which he had to fight. The ordinary weapons +were useless. He realised quite well her condition and the dangers +resulting from it. The heart of the woman was once more beating to its +own natural tune. If Hunterleys should present himself within the next +few minutes, not all his ingenuity nor the power of his millions could +save the situation. + +Plans shaped themselves almost automatically in his mind. He passed from +his own apartments, through a connecting door into a large and +beautifully-furnished salon. A woman with grey hair and white face was +lying on a couch by the window. She turned her head as he entered and +looked at him questioningly. Her face was fragile and her features were +sharpened by suffering. She looked at her husband almost as a cowed but +still affectionate animal might look towards a stern master. + +"Do you feel well enough to walk as far as Lady Hunterleys' apartment +with the aid of my arm?" he asked. + +"Of course," she replied. "Does Violet want me?" + +"She is still feeling the shock," Draconmeyer said. "I think that she is +inclined to be hysterical. It would do her good to have you talk with +her." + +The nurse, who had been sitting by her side, assisted her patient to +rise. She leaned on her husband's arm. In her other hand she carried a +black ebony walking-stick. They traversed the corridor, knocked at the +door of Lady Hunterleys' apartment, and in response to a somewhat +hesitating invitation, entered. Violet was lying upon the sofa. She +looked up eagerly at their coming. + +"Linda!" she exclaimed. "How dear of you! I thought that it might have +been Henry," she added, as though to explain the disappointment in her +tone. + +Draconmeyer turned away to hide his expression. + +"Talk to her as lightly as possible," he whispered to his wife, "but +don't leave her alone. I will come back for you in ten minutes." + +He left the two women together and descended into the hall. He found +several of the reception clerks whispering together. The concierge had +only just recovered himself, but the place was beginning to wear its +normal aspect. He whispered an enquiry at the desk. Sir Henry Hunterleys +had just come in and had gone upstairs, he was told. His new room was +number 148. + +"There was a note from his wife," Draconmeyer said, trying hard to +control his voice. "Has he had it?" + +"It is here still, sir," the clerk replied. "I tried to catch Sir Henry +as he passed through, but he was too quick for me. To tell you the +truth," he went on, "there has been a rumour through the hotel that it +was Sir Henry himself who had been found dead in his room, and seeing +him come in was rather a shock for all of us." + +"Naturally," Draconmeyer agreed. "If you will give me the note I will +take it up to him." + +The clerk handed it over without hesitation. Draconmeyer returned +immediately to his own apartments and torn open the envelope. There were +only a few words scrawled across the half-sheet of notepaper: + + Henry, come to me, dear, at once. I have had such a shock. I want + to see you. + + Vi. + +He tore the note viciously into small pieces. Then he went back to Lady +Hunterleys' apartments. She was sitting up now in an easy-chair. Once +more, at the sound of the knock, she looked towards the door eagerly. +Her face fell when Draconmeyer entered. + +"Have you heard anything about Henry?" she asked anxiously. + +"He came back a few minutes ago," Draconmeyer replied, "and has gone out +again." + +"Gone out again?" + +Draconmeyer nodded. + +"I think that he has gone round to the Club. He is a man of splendid +nerve, your husband. He seemed to treat the whole affair as an excellent +joke." + +"A joke!" she repeated blankly. + +"This sort of thing happens so often in Monte Carlo," he observed, in a +matter-of-fact tone. "The hotel people seem all to look upon it as in +the day's work." + +"I wonder if Henry had my note?" she faltered. + +"He was reading one in the hall when I saw him," Draconmeyer told her. +"That would be yours, I should think. He left a message at the desk +which was doubtless meant for you. He has gone on to the Sporting Club +for an hour and will probably be back in time to change for dinner." + +Violet sat quite still for several moments. Something seemed to die +slowly out of her face. Presently she rose to her feet. + +"I suppose," she said, "that I am very foolish to allow myself to be +upset like this." + +"It is quite natural," Draconmeyer assured her soothingly. "What you +should try to do is to forget the whole circumstance. You sit here +brooding about it until it becomes a tragedy. Let us go down to the Club +together. We shall probably see your husband there." + +She hesitated. She seemed still perplexed. + +"I wonder," she murmured, "could I send another message to him? Perhaps +he didn't quite understand." + +"Much better come along to the Club," Draconmeyer advised, +good-humouredly. "You can be there yourself before a message could reach +him." + +"Very well," she assented. "I will be ready in ten minutes...." + +Draconmeyer took his wife back to her room. + +"Did I do as you wished, dear?" she asked him anxiously. + +"Absolutely," he replied. + +He helped her back to her couch and stooped and kissed her. She leaned +back wearily. It was obvious that she had found the exertion of moving +even so far exhausting. Then he returned to his own apartments. Rapidly +he unlocked his dispatch box and took out one or two notes from Violet. +They were all of no importance--answers to invitations, or appointments. +He spread them out, took a sheet of paper and a broad pen. Without +hesitation he wrote: + + Congratulations on your escape, but why do you run such risks! I + wish you would go back to England. + + VIOLET. + +He held the sheet of notepaper a little away from him and looked at it +critically. The imitation was excellent. He thrust the few lines into an +envelope, addressed them to Hunterleys and descended to the hall. He +left the note at the office. + +"Send this up to Sir Henry, will you?" he instructed. "Let him have it +as quickly as possible." + +Once more he crossed the hall and waited close to the lift by which she +would descend. All the time he kept on glancing nervously around. Things +were going his way, but the great danger remained--if they should meet +first by chance in the corridor, or in the lift! Hunterleys might think +it his duty to go at once to his wife's apartment in case she had heard +the rumour of his death. The minutes dragged by. He had climbed the +great ladder slowly. More than once he had felt it sway beneath his +feet. Yet to him those moments seemed almost the longest of his life. +Then at last she came. She was looking very pale, but to his relief he +saw that she was dressed for the Club. She was wearing a grey dress and +black hat. He remembered with a pang of fury that grey was her husband's +favourite colour. + +"I suppose there is no doubt that Henry is at the Club?" she asked, +looking eagerly around the hall. + +"Not the slightest," he assured her. "We can have some tea there and we +are certain to come across him somewhere." + +She made no further difficulty. As they turned into the long passage he +gave a sigh of relief. Every step they took meant safety. He talked to +her as lightly as possible, ignoring the fact that she scarcely replied +to him. They mounted the stairs and entered the Club. She looked +anxiously up and down the crowded rooms. + +"I shall stroll about and look for Henry," she announced. + +"Very well," he agreed. "I will go over to your place and see how the +numbers are going." + +He stood by the roulette table, but he watched her covertly. She passed +through the baccarat room, came out again and walked the whole length of +the larger apartment. She even looked into the restaurant beyond. Then +she came slowly back to where Draconmeyer was standing. She seemed +tired. She scarcely even glanced at the table. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he exclaimed impressively, "this is positively +wicked! Your twenty-nine has turned up twice within the last few +minutes. Do sit down and try your luck and I will go and see if I can +find your husband." + +He pushed a handful of plaques and a bundle of notes into her hand. At +that moment the croupier's voice was heard. + +_"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque."_ + +"Another of my numbers!" she murmured, with a faint show of interest. "I +don't think I want to play, though." + +"Try just a few coups," he begged. "You see, there is a chair here. You +may not have a chance again for hours." + +He was using all his will power. Somehow or other, she found herself +seated in front of the table. The sight of the pile of plaques and the +roll of notes was inspiring. She leaned across and with trembling +fingers backed number fourteen _en plein_, with all the _carrés_ and +_chevaux_. She was playing the game at which she had lost so +persistently. He walked slowly away. Every now and then from a distance +he watched her. She was winning and losing alternately, but she had +settled down now in earnest. He breathed a great sigh of relief and took +a seat upon a divan, whence he could see if she moved. Richard Lane, who +had been standing at the other side of the table, crossed the room and +came over to him. + +"Say, do you know where Sir Henry is?" he enquired. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"I have scarcely seen him all day." + +"I think I'll go round to the hotel and look him up," Lane decided +carelessly. "I'm fed up with this--" + +He stopped short. He was no longer an exceedingly bored and +discontented-looking young man. Draconmeyer glanced at him curiously. He +felt a thrill of sympathy. This stolid young man, then, was capable of +feeling something of the same emotion as was tearing at his own +heart-strings. Lane was gazing with transfigured face towards the open +doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +EXTRAORDINARY LOVE-MAKING + + +Fedora sauntered slowly around the rooms, leaning over and staking a +gold plaque here and there. She was dressed as usual in white, with an +ermine turban hat and stole and an enormous muff. Her hair seemed more +golden than ever beneath its snow-white setting, and her complexion more +dazzling. She seemed utterly unconscious of the admiration which her +appearance evoked, and she passed Lane without apparently observing him. +A moment afterwards, however, he moved to her side and addressed her. + +"Quite a lucky coup of yours, that last, Miss Grex. Are you used to +winning _en plein_ like that?" + +She turned her head and looked at him. Her eyebrows were ever so +slightly uplifted. Her expression was chilling. He remained, however, +absolutely unconscious of any impending trouble. + +"I was sorry not to find you at home this morning," he continued. "I +brought my little racing car round for you to see. I thought you might +have liked to try her." + +"How absurd you are!" she murmured. "You must know perfectly well that +it would have been quite impossible for me to come out with you alone." + +"But why?" + +She sighed. + +"You are quite hopeless, or you pretend to be!" + +"If I am," he replied, "it is because you won't explain things to me +properly. The tables are much too crowded to play comfortably. Won't you +come and sit down for a few minutes?" + +She hesitated. Lane watched her anxiously. He felt, somehow, that a +great deal depended upon her reply. Presently, with the slightest +possible shrug of the shoulders, she turned around and suffered him to +walk by her side to the little antechamber which divided the gambling +rooms from the restaurant. + +"Very well," she decided, "I suppose, after all, one must remember that +you did save us from a great deal of inconvenience the other night. I +will talk to you for a few minutes." + +He found her an easy-chair and he sat by her side. + +"This is bully," he declared. + +"Is what?" she asked, once more raising her eyebrows. + +"American slang," he explained penitently. "I am sorry. I meant that it +was very pleasant to be here alone with you for a few minutes." + +"You may not find it so, after all," she said severely. "I feel that I +have a duty to perform." + +"Well, don't let's bother about that yet, if it means a lecture," he +begged. "You shall tell me how much better the young women of your +country behave than the young women of mine." + +"Thank you," she replied, "I am never interested in the doings of a +democracy. Your country makes no appeal to me at all." + +"Come," he protested, "that's a little too bad. Why, Russia may be a +democracy some day, you know. You very nearly had a republic foisted +upon you after the Japanese war." + +"You are quite mistaken," she assured him. "Russia would never tolerate +a republic." + +"Russia will some day have to do like many other countries," he answered +firmly,--"obey the will of the people." + +"Russia has nothing in common with other countries," she asserted. +"There was never a nation yet in which the aristocracy was so powerful." + +"It's only a matter of time," he declared, nonchalantly. + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You represent ideas of which I do not approve," she told him. + +"I don't care a fig about any ideas," he replied. "I don't care much +about anything in the world except you." + +She turned her head slowly and looked at him. Its angle was +supercilious, her tone frigid. + +"That sort of a speech may pass for polite conversation in your country, +Mr. Lane. We do not understand it in mine." + +"Don't your men ever tell your women that they love them?" he asked +bluntly. + +"If they are of the same order," she said, "if the thing is at all +possible, it may sometimes be done. Marriage, however, is more a matter +of alliance with us. Our servants, I believe, are quite promiscuous in +their love-making." + +He was silent for a moment. She may, perhaps, have felt some +compunction. She spoke to him a little more kindly. + +"We cannot help the ideas of the country in which we are brought up, you +know, Mr. Lane." + +"Of course not," he agreed. "I understand that perfectly. I was just +thinking, though, what a lot I shall have to teach you." + +She was momentarily aghast. She recovered herself quickly, however. + +"Are all the men of your nation so self-confident?" + +"We have to be," he told her. "It's the only way we can get what we +want." + +"And do you always succeed in getting what you want?" + +"Always!" + +"Then unless you wish to be an exception," she advised, "let me beg you +not to try for anything beyond your reach." + +"There is nothing," he declared firmly, "beyond my reach. You are trying +to discourage me. It isn't any use. I am not a prince or a duke or +anything like that, although my ancestors were honest enough, I believe. +I haven't any trappings of that sort to offer you. If you are as +sensible as I think you are, you won't mind that when you come to think +it over. The only thing I am ashamed of is my money, because I didn't +earn it for myself. You can live in palaces still, if you want to, and +if you want to be a queen I'll ferret out a kingdom somewhere and buy +it, but I am afraid you'll have to be Mrs. Lane behind it all, you +know." + +"You really are the most intolerable person," she exclaimed, biting her +lip. "How can I get these absurd ideas out of your mind?" + +"By telling me honestly, looking in my eyes all the time, that you could +never care for me a little bit, however devoted I was," he answered +promptly. "You won't be able to do it. I've only one belief in life +about these things, and that is that when any one cares for a girl as I +care for you, it's absolutely impossible for her to be wholly +indifferent. It isn't much to start with, I know, but the rest will +come. Be honest with me. Is there any one of the men of your country +whom you have met, whom you want to marry?" + +She frowned slightly. She found herself, at that moment, comparing him +with certain young men of her acquaintance. She was astonished to +realise that the comparison was all in his favour. It was for her an +extraordinary moment. She had indeed been brought up in palaces and the +men whom she had known had been reckoned the salt of the earth. Yet, at +that crisis, she was most profoundly conscious that not all the glamour +of those high-sounding names, the picturesque interest of those gorgeous +uniforms, nor the men themselves, magnificent in their way, were able to +make the slightest appeal to her. She remembered some of her own bitter +words when an alliance with one of them had been suggested to her. It +was she, then, who had been the first to ignore the divine heritage of +birth, who had spoken of their drinking habits, pointed to their life of +idle luxury and worse than luxury. The man who was at the present moment +her suitor forced himself upon her recollection. She knew quite well +that he represented a type. They were of the nobility, and they seemed +to her in that one poignant but unwelcome moment, hatefully degenerate, +men no self-respecting girl could ever think of. Family influence, stern +parental words, the call of her order, had half crushed these thoughts. +They came back now, however, with persistent force. + +"You see," Richard Lane went on, "it mayn't be much that I have to offer +you, but in your heart I know you feel what it means to be offered the +love of a man who doesn't want you just because you are of his order, or +because you are the daughter of a Personage, or for any other reason +than because he cares for you as he has cared for no other woman on +earth, and because, without knowing it, he has waited for you." + +She moved restlessly in her chair. Their conversation was not going in +the least along the lines which she had intended. She suddenly +remembered her own disquiet of the day before, her curious longing to +steal off on some excuse to-day. A week ago she would have been content +to have dawdled away the afternoon in the grounds of the villa. +Something different had come. From the moment she had entered the rooms, +although she had never acknowledged it, she had been conscious, +pleasurably conscious of his presence. She was suddenly uneasy. + +"I am afraid," she murmured, "that you are quite hopeless." + +"If you mean that I am without hope, you are wrong," he answered +sturdily. "From the moment I met you I have had but one thought, and +until the last day of my life I shall have but one thought, and that +thought is of you. There may be no end of difficulties, but I come of an +obstinate race. I have patience as well as other things." + +She was avoiding looking at him now. She looked instead at her clasped +hands. + +"I wish I could make you understand," she said, in a low tone, "how +impossible all this is. In England and America I know that it is +different. There, marriages of a certain sort are freely made between +different classes. But in Russia these things are not thought of. +Supposing that all you said were true. Supposing, even, that I had the +slightest disposition to listen to you. Do you realise that there isn't +one of my family who wouldn't cry out in horror at the thought of my +marrying--forgive me--marrying a commoner of your rank in life?" + +"They can cry themselves hoarse, as they'll have to some day," he +replied cheerfully. "As for you, Miss Fedora--you don't mind my calling +you Miss Fedora, do you?--you'll be glad some day that you were born at +the beginning of a new era. You may be a pioneer in the new ways, but +you may take my word for it that you won't be the last. Please have +courage. Please try and be yourself, won't you?" + +"But how do you know what I am?" she protested. "Or even what I am like? +We have spoken only a few words. Nothing has passed between us which +could possibly have inspired you with such feelings as you speak of," +she added, colouring slightly. "It is a fancy of yours, quite too absurd +a fancy. Now that I find myself discussing it with you as though, +indeed, we were talking of it seriously, I am inclined to laugh. You are +just a very foolish young man, Mr. Lane." + +He shook his head. + +"Look here," he said, "I am very good at meaning things, but it's +awfully hard for me to put my thoughts into words. I can't explain how +it's all come about. I don't know why, amongst all the girls I've seen +in my own country, or England, or Paris, or anywhere, there hasn't been +one who could bring me the things which you bring, who could fill my +mind with the thoughts you fill it with, who could make my days stand +still and start again, who could upset the whole machinery of my life so +that when you come I want to dance with happiness, and when you go the +day is over with me. There is no chance of my being able to explain this +to you, because other fellows, much cleverer than I, have been in the +same box, and they've had to come to the conclusion, too, that there +isn't any explanation. I have accepted it. I want you to. I love you, +Fedora, and I will be faithful to you all my life. You shall live where +you choose and how you choose, but you must be my wife. There isn't any +way out of it for either of us." + +She sat quite still for several moments. They were a little behind the +curtain and it chanced that there was no one in their immediate +vicinity. She felt her fingers suddenly gripped. They were released +again almost at once, but a queer sensation of something overmastering +seemed to creep through her whole being at the touch of his hand. She +rose to her feet. + +"I am going away," she declared. + +"I haven't offended you?" he begged. "Please sit down. We haven't half +talked over things yet." + +"We have talked too much," she answered. "I don't know really what has +come over me that I have let you--that I listen to you--" + +"It is because you feel the truth of what I say," he insisted. "Don't +get up, Fedora. Don't go away, dear. Let us have at least these few +minutes together. I'll do exactly as you tell me. I'll come to your +father or I'll carry you off. I have a sister here. She'll be your +friend--" + +"Don't!" the girl stopped him. "Please don't!" + +She sat down in her chair again. Her fingers were twisted together, her +slim form was tense with stifled emotions. + +"Have I been a brute?" he asked softly. "You must forgive me, Fedora. I +am not much used to girls and I am sort of carried away myself, only I +want you to believe that there's the real thing in my heart. I'll make +you just as happy as a woman can be. Don't shake your head, dear. I want +you to trust me and believe in me." + +"I think you're a most extraordinary person," she said at last. "Do you +know, I'm beginning to be really afraid of you." + +"You're not," he insisted. "You're afraid of yourself. You're afraid +because you see the downfall of the old ideas. You're afraid because you +know that you're going to be a renegade. You can see nothing but trouble +ahead just now. I'll take you right away from that." + +There was the rustle of skirts, a soft little laugh. Richard rose to his +feet promptly. He had never been so pleased in all his life to welcome +his sister. + +"Flossie," he exclaimed, "I'm ever so glad you came along! I want to +present Miss Grex to you. This is my sister, Miss Fedora--Lady +Weybourne. I was just going to ask Miss Grex to have some tea with me," +he went on, "but I am not sure that she would have considered it proper. +Do come along and be chaperone." + +Lady Weybourne laughed. + +"I shall be delighted," she declared. "I have seen you here once or +twice before, haven't I, Miss Grex, and some one told me that you were +Russian. I suppose you are not in the least used to the free and easy +ways of us Westerners, but you'll come and have some tea with us, won't +you?" + +The girl hesitated. Fate was too strong for her. + +"I shall be very pleased," she agreed. + +They found a window table and Lane ordered tea. Fedora was inclined to +be silent at first, but Lady Weybourne was quite content to chatter. By +degrees Fedora, too, came back to earth and they had a very gay little +tea-party. At the end of it they all strolled back into the rooms +together. Fedora glanced at the watch upon her wrist and held out her +hand to Lady Weybourne. + +"I am sorry," she said, "but I must hurry away now. It is very kind of +you to ask me to come and see you, Lady Weybourne. I shall be charmed." + +Richard ignored her fingers. + +"I am going to see you down to your car, if I may," he begged. + +They left the room together. She looked at him as they descended the +stairs, almost tremulously. + +"This doesn't mean, you know," she said, "that I--that I agree to all +you have been saying." + +"It needn't mean anything at all, dear," he replied. "This is only the +beginning. I don't expect you to realise all that I have realised quite +so quickly, but I do want you to keep it in your mind that this thing +has come and that it can't be got rid of. I won't do anything foolish. +If it is necessary I will wait, but I am your lover now, as I always +must be." + +He handed her into the car, the footman, in his long white livery, +standing somberly on one side. As they drove off she gave him her +fingers, and he walked back up the steps with the smile upon his lips +that comes to a man only once or twice in his lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES + + +Violet glanced at her watch with an exclamation of dismayed annoyance. +She leaned appealingly towards the croupier. + +"But one coup more, monsieur," she pleaded. "Indeed your clock is fast." + +The croupier shook his head. He was a man of gallantry so far as his +profession permitted, and he was a great admirer of the beautiful +Englishwoman, but the rules of the Club were strict. + +"Madame," he pointed out, "it is already five minutes past eight. It is +absolutely prohibited that we start another coup after eight o'clock. If +madame will return at ten o'clock, the good fortune will without doubt +be hers." + +She looked up at Draconmeyer, who was standing at her elbow. + +"Did you ever know anything more hatefully provoking!" she complained. +"For two hours the luck has been dead against me. But for a few of my +_carrés_ turning up, I don't know what would have happened. And now at +last my numbers arrive. I win _en plein_ and with all the _carrés_ and +_chevaux_. This time it was twenty-seven. I win two _carrés_ and I move +to twenty, and he will not go on." + +"It is the rule," Draconmeyer reminded her. "It is bad fortune, though. +I have been watching the run of the table. Things have been coming more +your way all the time. I think that the end of your ill-luck has +arrived. Tell me, are you hungry?" + +"Not in the least," she answered pettishly. "I hate the very thought of +dinner." + +"Then why do we not go on to the Casino?" Draconmeyer suggested. "We can +have a sandwich and a glass of wine there, and you can continue your +vein." + +She rose to her feet with alacrity. Her face was beaming. + +"My friend," she exclaimed, "you are inspired! It is a brilliant idea. I +know that it will bring me fortune. To the Cercle Privé, by all means. I +am so glad that you are one of those men who are not dependent upon +dinner. But what about Linda?" + +"She is not expecting me, as it happens," Draconmeyer lied smoothly. "I +told her that I might be dining at the Villa Mimosa. I have to be there +later on." + +Violet gathered up her money, stuffed it into her gold bag and hurried +off for her cloak. She reappeared in a few moments and smiled very +graciously at Draconmeyer. + +"It is quite a wonderful idea of yours, this," she declared. "I am +looking forward immensely to my next few coups. I feel in a winning +vein. Very soon," she added, as they stepped out on to the pavement and +she gathered up her skirts, "very soon I am quite sure that I shall be +asking you for my cheques back again." + +He laughed, as though she had been a child speaking of playthings. + +"I am not sure that I shall wish you luck," he said. "I think that I +like to feel that you are a little--just a very little in my debt. Do +you think that I should be a severe creditor?" + +Something in his voice disturbed her vaguely, but she brushed the +thought away. Of course he admired her, but then every woman must have +admirers. It only remained for her to be clever enough to keep him at +arm's length. She had no fear for herself. + +"I haven't thought about the matter at all," she answered carelessly, +"but to me all creditors would be the same, whether they were kind or +unkind. I hate the feeling of owing anything." + +"It is a question," he observed, "how far one can be said to owe +anything to those who are really friends. A husband, for instance. One +can't keep a ledger account with him." + +"A husband is a different matter altogether," she asserted coldly. "Now +I wonder whether we shall find my favourite table full. Anyhow, I am +going to play at the one nearest the entrance on the right-hand side. +There is a little croupier there whom I like." + +They passed up through the entrance and across the floor of the first +suite of rooms to the Cercle Privé. Violet looked eagerly towards the +table of which she had spoken. To her joy there was plenty of room. + +"My favourite seat is empty!" she exclaimed. "I know that I am going to +be lucky." + +"I think that I shall play myself, for a change," Draconmeyer announced, +producing a great roll of notes. + +"Whenever you feel that you would like to go down and have something, +don't mind me, will you?" she begged. "You can come back and talk to me +at any time. I am not in the least hungry yet." + +"Very well," he agreed. "Good luck to you!" They played at opposite +sides of the table. For an hour she won and he lost. Once she called him +over to her side. + +"I scarcely dare to tell you," she whispered, her eyes gleaming, "but I +have won back the first thousand pounds. I shall give it to you +to-night. Here, take it now." + +He shook his head and waved it away. "I haven't the cheques with me," he +protested. "Besides, it is bad luck to part with any of your winnings +while you are still playing." + +He watched her for a minute or two. She still won. + +"Take my advice," he said earnestly. "Play higher. You have had a most +unusual run of bad luck. The tide has turned. Make the most of it. I +have lost ten mille. I am going to have a try your side of the table." + +He found a vacant chair a few places lower down, and commenced playing +in maximums. From the moment of his arrival he began to win, and +simultaneously Violet began to lose. Her good-fortune deserted her +absolutely, and for the first time she showed signs of losing her +self-control. She gave vent to little exclamations of disgust as stake +after stake was swept away. Her eyes were much too bright, there was a +spot of colour in her cheeks. She spoke angrily to a croupier who +delayed handing her some change. Draconmeyer, although he knew perfectly +well what was happening, never seemed to glance in her direction. He +played with absolute recklessness for half-an-hour. When at last he rose +from his seat and joined her, his hands were full of notes. He smiled +ever so faintly as he saw the covetous gleam in her eyes. + +"I'm nearly broken," she gasped. "Leave off playing, please, for a +little time. You've changed my luck." + +He obeyed, standing behind her chair. Three more coups she played and +lost. Then she thrust her hand into her bag and drew it out, empty. She +was suddenly pale. + +"I have lost my last louis," she declared. "I don't understand it. It +seemed as though I must win here." + +"So you will in time," he assured her confidently. "How much will you +have--ten mille or twenty?" + +She shrank back, but the sight of the notes in his hand fascinated her. +She glanced up at him. His pallor was unchanged, there was no sign of +exultation in his face. Only his eyes seemed a little brighter than +usual beneath his gold-rimmed spectacles. + +"No, give me ten," she said. + +She took them from his hand and changed them quickly into plaques. Her +first coup was partially successful. He leaned closer over her. + +"Remember," he pointed out, "that you only need to win once in a dozen +times and you do well. Don't be in such a hurry." + +"Of course," she murmured. "Of course! One forgets that. It is all a +matter of capital." + +He strolled away to another table. When he came back, she was sitting +idle in her place, restless and excited, but still full of confidence. + +"I am a little to the good," she told him, "but I have left off for a +few minutes. The very low numbers are turning up and they are no use to +me." + +"Come and have that sandwich," he begged. "You really ought to take +something." + +"The place shall be kept for madame," the croupier whispered. "I shall +be here for another two hours." + +She nodded and rose. They made their way out of the Rooms and down into +the restaurant on the ground-floor. They found a little table near the +wall and he ordered some pâté sandwiches and champagne. Whilst they +waited she counted up her money, making calculations on a slip of paper. +Draconmeyer leaned back in his chair, watching her. His back was towards +the door and they were at the end table. He permitted himself the luxury +of looking at her almost greedily; of dropping, for a few moments, the +mask which he placed always upon his features in her presence. In his +way the man was an artist, a great collector of pictures and bronzes, a +real lover and seeker after perfection. Often he found himself wandering +towards his little gallery, content to stand about and gloat over some +of his most treasured possessions. Yet the man's personality clashed +often with his artistic pretensions. He scarcely ever found himself +amongst his belongings without realising the existence of a curious +feeling, wholly removed from the pure artistic pleasure of their +contemplation. It was the sense of ownership which thrilled him. +Something of the same sensation was upon him now. She was the sort of +woman he had craved for always--slim, elegant, and what to him, with his +quick powers of observation, counted for so much, she was modish, +reflecting in her presence, her dress and carriage, even her speech, the +best type of the prevailing fashion. She excited comment wherever she +appeared. People, as he knew very well even now, were envying him his +companion. And beneath it all--she, the woman, was there. All his life +he had fought for the big things--political power, immense wealth, the +confidence of his great master--all these had come to him easily. And at +that moment they were like baubles! + +She looked up at last and there was a slight frown upon her forehead. + +"I am still a little down, starting from where I had the ten mille," she +sighed. "I thought--" + +She stopped short. There was a curious change in her face. Her eyes were +fixed upon some person approaching. Draconmeyer turned quickly in his +chair. Almost as he did so, Hunterleys paused before their table. Violet +looked up at him with quivering lips. For a moment it seemed as though +she were stepping out of her sordid surroundings. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "Did you come to look for me? Did you know that +we were here?" + +"How should I?" he answered calmly. "I was strolling around with David +Briston. We are at the Opera." + +"At the Opera," she repeated. + +"My little protégée, Felicia Roche, is singing," he went on, "in _Aďda_. +If she does as well in the next act as she has done in this, her future +is made." + +He was on the point of adding the news of Felicia's engagement to the +young man who had momentarily deserted him. Some evil chance changed his +intention. + +"Why do you call her your little protégée?" she demanded. + +"It isn't quite correct, is it?" he answered, a little absently. "There +are three or four of us who are doing what we can to look after her. Her +father was a prominent member of the Wigwam Club. The girl won the +musical scholarship we have there. She has more than repaid us for our +trouble, I am glad to say." + +"I have no doubt that she has," Violet replied, lifting her eyes. + +There was a moment's silence. The significance of her words was entirely +lost upon Hunterleys. + +"Isn't this rather a new departure of yours?" he asked, glancing +disdainfully towards Draconmeyer. "I thought that you so much preferred +to play at the Club." + +"So I do," she assented, "but I was just beginning to win when the Club +closed at eight o'clock, and so we came on here." + +"Your good fortune continues, I hope?" + +"It varies," she answered hurriedly, "but it will come, I am sure. I +have been very near a big win more than once." + +He seemed on the point of departure. She leaned a little forward. + +"You had my note, Henry?" + +Her tone was almost beseeching. Draconmeyer, who was listening with +stony face, shivered imperceptibly. + +"Thank you, yes," Hunterleys replied, frowning slightly. "I am sorry, +but I am not at liberty to do what you suggest just at present. I wish +you good fortune." + +He turned around and walked back to the other end of the room, where +Briston was standing at the bar. She looked after him for a moment as +though she failed to understand his words. Then her face hardened. +Draconmeyer leaned towards her. + +"Shall we go?" he suggested. + +She rose with alacrity. Side by side they strolled through the rooms +towards the Cercle Privé. + +"I am sorry," Draconmeyer said regretfully, "but I am forced to leave +you now. I will take you back to your place and after that I must go to +the hotel and change. I have a reception to attend. I wish you would +take the rest of my winnings and see what you can do with them." + +She shook her head vigorously. + +"No, thank you," she declared. "I have enough." + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I have twenty-five mille here in my pocket," he continued, "besides +some smaller change. I don't think it is quite fair to leave so much +money about in one's room or to carry it out into the country. Keep it +for me. You won't need to play with it--I can see that your luck is +in--but it always gives one confidence to feel that one has a reserve +stock, something to fall back upon if necessary." + +He drew the notes from his pocket and held them towards her. Her eyes +were fixed upon them covetously. The thought of all that money actually +in her possession was wildly exhilarating. + +"I will take care of them for you, if you like," she said. "I shall not +play with them, though. I owe you quite enough already and my losing +days are over." + +He stuffed the notes carelessly into her bag. + +"Twenty-five mille," he told her. "Remember my advice. If the luck stays +with you, stake maximums. Go for the big things." + +She looked at him curiously as she closed her gold bag with a snap. + +"After all," she declared, with a little laugh, "I am not sure that you +are not the greater gambler of the two to trust me with all this money!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +TO THE VILLA MIMOSA + + +With feet that seemed to touch nothing more substantial than air, her +eyes brilliant, a wonderful colour in her cheeks, Violet passed through +the heavy, dingy rooms and out through the motley crowd into the portico +of the Casino. She was right! She knew that she had been right! How wise +she had been to borrow that money from Mr. Draconmeyer instead of +sitting down and confessing herself vanquished! The last few hours had +been hours of ecstatic happiness. With calm confidence she had sat in +her place and watched her numbers coming up with marvellous persistence. +It was the most wonderful thing in the world, this. She had had no time +to count her winnings, but at least she knew that she could pay back +every penny she owed. Her little gold satchel was stuffed with notes and +plaques. She felt suddenly younger, curiously light-hearted; hungry, +too, and thirsty. She was, in short, experiencing almost a delirium of +pleasure. And just then, on the steps of the Casino, she came face to +face with her husband. + +"Henry!" she called out. "Henry!" + +He turned abruptly around. He was looking troubled, and in his hand were +the fragments of a crushed up note. + +"Come across to the hotel with me," she begged, forgetful of everything +except her own immense relief. "Come and help me count. I have been +winning. I have won back everything." + +He accepted the information with only a polite show of interest. After +all, as she reflected afterwards, he had no idea upon what scale she had +been gambling! + +"I am delighted to hear it," he answered. "I'll see you across the road, +if I may, but I have only a few minutes to spare. I have an +appointment." + +She was acutely disappointed; unreasonably, furiously angry. + +"An appointment!" she exclaimed. "At half-past eleven o'clock at night! +Are you waiting for Felicia Roche?" + +"Is there any reason why I should not?" he asked her gravely. + +She bit her lips hard. They were crossing the road now. After all, it +was only a few months since she had bidden him go his own way and leave +her to regulate her own friendships. + +"No reason at all," she admitted, "only I cannot see why you choose to +advertise yourself with an opera singer--you, an ambitious politician, +who moves with his head in the clouds, and to whom women are no more +than a pastime. Why have you waited all these years to commence a +flirtation under my very nose!" + +He looked at her sternly. + +"I think that you are a little excited, Violet," he said. "You surely +don't realise what you are saying." + +"Excited! Tell me once more--you got my note, the one I wrote this +evening?" + +"Certainly." + +His brief reply was convincing. She remembered the few impulsive lines +which she had written from her heart in that moment of glad relief. +There was no sign in his face that he had been touched. Even at that +moment he had drawn out his watch and was looking at it. + +"Thank you for bringing me here," she said, as they stood upon the steps +of the hotel. "Don't let me keep you." + +"After all," he decided, "I think that I shall go up to my room for a +minute. Good night!" + +She looked after him, a little amazed. She was conscious of a feeling of +slow anger. His aloofness repelled her, was utterly inexplicable. For +once it was she who was being badly treated. Her moment of exhilaration +had passed. She sat down in the lounge; her satchel, filled with mille +franc notes, lay upon her lap unheeded. She sat there thinking, seeing +nothing of the crowds of fashionably dressed women and men passing in +and out of the hotel; of the gaily-lit square outside, the cool green of +the gardens, the café opposite, the brilliantly-lit Casino. She was back +again for a moment in England. The strain of all this life, whipped into +an artificial froth of pleasure by the constant excitement of the one +accepted vice of the world, had suddenly lost its hold upon her. The +inevitable question had presented itself. She was counting values and +realising.... + +When at last she rose wearily to her feet, Hunterleys was passing +through the hall of the hotel, on his way out. She looked at him with +aching heart but she made no effort to stop him. He had changed his +clothes for a dark suit and he was also wearing a long travelling coat +and tweed cap. She watched him wistfully until he had disappeared. Then +she turned away, summoned the lift and went up to her rooms. She rang at +once for her maid. She would take a bath, she decided, and go to bed +early. She would wash all the dust of these places away from her, abjure +all manner of excitement and for once sleep peacefully. In the morning +she would see Henry once more. Deep in her heart there still lingered +some faint shadow of doubt as to Draconmeyer and his attitude towards +her. It was scarcely possible that he could have interfered in any way, +and yet.... She would talk to her husband face to face, she would tell +him the things that were in her heart. + +She rang the bell for the second time. Only the _femme de chambre_ +answered the summons. Madame's maid was not to be found. Madame had not +once retired so early. It was possible that Susanne had gone out. Could +she be of any service? Violet looked at her and hesitated. The woman was +clumsy-fingered and none too tidy. She shook her head and sent her away. +For a moment she thought of undressing herself. Then instead she opened +her satchel and counted the notes. Her breath came more quickly as she +looked at the shower of gold and counted the many oblong strips of paper +with their magic lettering. At last she had it all in heaps. There were +the twenty-five mille he had left with her, and the seventy-five mille +she had borrowed from him. Then towards her own losses there was another +mille, and a matter of five hundred francs in gold. And all this +success, her wonderful recovery, had been done so easily! It was just +because she had had the pluck to go on, because she had followed her +vein. She looked at the money and she walked to the window. Somewhere a +band was playing in the distance. Little parties of men and women in +evening dress were strolling by on their way to the Club. A woman was +laughing as she clung to her escort on the opposite side of the road, by +the gardens. Across at the Café de Paris the people were going in to +supper. The spirit of enjoyment seemed to be in the air--the +light-hearted, fascinating, devil-may-care atmosphere she knew so well. +Violet looked back into the bedroom and she no longer had the impulse to +sleep. Her face had hardened a little. Every one was so happy and she +was so lonely. She stuffed the notes and gold back into her bag, looked +at her hat in the glass and touched her face for a moment with a +powder-puff. Then she left the room, rang for the lift and descended. + +"I am going into the Club for an hour or so, if I am wanted," she told +the concierge as she passed out. + + * * * * * + +Hunterleys, on leaving the hotel, walked rapidly across the square and +found David waiting for him on the opposite side. + +"Felicia will be late," the latter explained. "She has to get all that +beastly black stuff off her face. She is horribly nervous about Sidney +and she doesn't want you to wait. I think perhaps she is right, too. She +told me to tell you that Monsieur Lafont himself came to her room and +congratulated her after the curtain had gone down. She is almost +hysterical between happiness and anxiety about Sidney. Where's your +man?" + +"I asked him to be a little higher up," Hunterleys replied. "There he +is." + +They walked a few steps up the hill and found Richard Lane waiting for +them in his car. The long, grey racer looked almost like some submarine +monster, with its flaring head-lights and torpedo-shaped body which +scarcely cleared the ground. + +"Ready for orders, sir," the young man announced, touching his cap. + +"Is there room for three of us, in case of an emergency?" Hunterleys +asked. + +"The third man has to sit on the floor," Richard pointed out, "but it +isn't so comfortable as it looks." + +Hunterleys clambered in and took the vacant place. David Briston +lingered by a little wistfully. + +"I feel rather a skunk," he grumbled. "I don't see why I shouldn't come +along." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"There isn't the slightest need for it," he declared firmly. "You go +back and look after Felicia. Tell her we'll get Sidney out of this all +right. Get away with you, Lane, now." + +"Where to?" + +"To the Villa Mimosa!" + +Richard whistled as he thrust in his clutch. + +"So that's the game, is it?" he murmured, as they glided off. + +Hunterleys leaned towards him. + +"Lane," he said, "don't forget that I warned you there might be a little +trouble about to-night. If you feel the slightest hesitation about +involving yourself--" + +"Shut up!" Richard interrupted. "Whatever trouble you're ready to face, +I'm all for it, too. Darned queer thing that we should be going to the +Villa Mimosa, though! I am not exactly a popular person with Mr. Grex, I +think." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"I saw your sister this afternoon," he remarked. "You are rather a +wonderful young man." + +"I knew it was all up with me," Richard replied simply, "when I first +saw that girl. Now look here, Hunterleys, we are almost there. Tell me +exactly what it is you want me to do?" + +"I want you," Hunterleys explained, "to risk a smash, if you don't mind. +I want you to run up to the boundaries of the villa gardens, head your +car back for Monte Carlo, and while you are waiting there turn out all +your lights." + +"That's easy enough," Richard assented. "I'll turn out the search-light +altogether, and my others are electric, worked by a button. Is this an +elopement act or what?" + +"There's a meeting going on in that villa," Hunterleys told him, +"between prominent politicians of three countries. You don't have to +bother much about Secret Service over in the States, although there's +more goes on than you know of in that direction. But over here we have +to make regular use of Secret Service men--spies, if you like to call +them so. The meeting to-night is inimical to England. It is part of a +conspiracy against which I am working. Sidney Roche--Felicia Roche's +brother--who lives here as a newspaper correspondent, is in reality one +of our best Secret Service men. He is taking terrible chances to-night +to learn a little more about the plans which these fellows are +discussing. We are here in case he needs our help to get away. We've +cleared the shrubs away, close to the spot at which I am going to ask +you to wait, and taken the spikes off the fence. It's just a thousand to +one chance that if he's hard pressed for it and heads this way, they may +think that they have him in a trap and take it quietly. That is to say, +they'll wait to capture him instead of shooting." + +"Say, you don't mean this seriously?" Richard exclaimed. "They can't do +more than arrest him as a trespasser, or something of that sort, +surely?" + +Hunterleys laughed grimly. + +"These men wouldn't stick at much," he told his companion. "They're hand +in glove with the authorities here. Anything they did would be hushed up +in the name of the law. These things are never allowed to come out. It +doesn't do any one any good to have them gossiped about. If they caught +Sidney and shot him, we should never make a protest. It's all part of +the game, you know. Now that is the spot I want you to stop at, exactly +where the mimosa tree leans over the path. But first of all, I'd turn +out your head-light." + +They slowed down and stopped. Richard extinguished the acetylene +gas-lamp and mounted again to his place. Then he swung the car round and +crawled back upon the reverse until he reached the spot to which +Hunterleys had pointed. + +"You're a good fellow, Richard," Hunterleys said softly. "We may have to +wait an hour or two, and it may be that nothing will happen, but it's +giving the fellow a chance, and it gives him confidence, too, to know +that friends are at hand." + +"I'm in the game for all it's worth, anyway," Lane declared heartily. + +He touched a button and the lights faded away. The two men sat in +silence, both turned a little in their seats towards the villa. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +FOR HIS COUNTRY + + +The minutes glided by as the two men sat together in the perfumed, +shadowy darkness. From their feet the glittering canopy of lights swept +upwards to the mountain-sides, even to the stars, but a chain of slowly +drifting black clouds hung down in front of the moon, and until their +eyes became accustomed to their surroundings it seemed to both of them +as though they were sitting in a very pit of darkness. + +"It is possible," Hunterleys whispered, after some time, "that we may +have to wait for another hour yet." + +Richard was suddenly tense. He sat up, and his foot reached for the +self-starter. + +"I don't think you will," he muttered. "Listen!" + +Almost immediately they were conscious of some commotion in the +direction of the villa, followed by a shot and then a cry. + +"Start the engine," Hunterleys directed hoarsely, standing up in his +place. "I'm afraid they've got him." + +There were two more shots but no further cry. Then they heard the sound +of excited voices and immediately afterwards rapidly approaching +footsteps. A man came crashing through the shrubbery, but when he +reached the fence over which, for a moment, his white face gleamed, he +sank down as though powerless to climb. Hunterleys leapt to the ground +and rushed to the fence. + +"Hold up, Sidney, old fellow," he called softly. "We're here all right. +Hold up for a moment and let me lift you." + +Roche struggled to his feet. His face was ghastly white, the sweat stood +out upon his forehead, his lips moved but no words came. Hunterleys got +him by the arms, set his teeth and lifted. The task would have been too +much for him, but Richard, springing from the car, came to his help. +With an effort they hoisted him over the fence. Almost as they did so +there was the sound of footsteps dashing through the shrubs, and a shot, +the bullet of which tore the bark from the trunk of a tree close at +hand. The car leapt off in fourth speed, Sidney supported in Hunterleys' +arms. A loud shout from behind only brought Richard's foot down upon the +accelerator. + +"Stoop low!" he cried to Hunterleys. "Get your legs in, if you can." + +A bullet struck the back of the car and another whistled over their +heads. Then they dashed around the corner, and Richard, turning on the +lights, jammed down his accelerator. + +"Gee whiz! that's a bloodthirsty crew!" the young man exclaimed, his +eyes fixed upon the road. "Is he hurt?" + +Roche was lying back on the seat. Hunterleys was on his knees, holding +on to the framework of the car. + +"They've got me all right, Hunterleys," Roche faltered. "Listen. +Everything went well with me at first. I could hear--nearly everything. +The Frenchman kept his mouth shut--tight as wax. Grex did most of the +talking. Russia sees nothing in the entente--England has nothing to +offer her. She'd rather keep friends with Germany. Russia wants to move +eastward--all Persia--India. She's only lukewarm, any way, about the +French alliance as things stand at present, and dead off any truck with +England. There's talk of Constantinople, and Germany to march three army +corps through a weak French resistance to Calais. They talked of France +acting to her pledges, putting her recruits in the front, taking a +slight defeat, making a peace on her own account, with Alsace and +Lorraine restored. She can pay. Germany wants the money. +Germany--Germany--" + +The words died away in a little groan. The wounded man's head fell back. +Hunterleys passed his arm around the limp figure. + +"Take the first turn to the right and second to the left, Richard," he +directed. "We'll drive straight to the hospital. I made friends with the +English doctor last night. He promised to be there till three. I paid +him a fee on purpose." + +"First to the right," Richard muttered, swinging around. "Second to the +left, eh?" + +Hunterleys was holding his brandy flask to Roche's lips as they swung +through the white gates and pulled up outside the hospital. The doctor +was faithful to his promise, and Roche, who was now unconscious, was +carried in. In the hall he was laid upon an ambulance and borne off by +two attendants. Hunterleys and Lane sat down to wait in the hall. After +what seemed to them an interminable half-hour, the doctor reappeared. He +came over to them at once. + +"Your friend may live," he announced, "but in any case he will be +unconscious for the next twenty-four hours. There is no need for you to +stay, or for you to fetch the young lady you spoke of, at present. If he +dies, he will die unconscious. I can tell you nothing more until the +afternoon." + +Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet. + +"You'll do everything you can, doctor?" he begged. "Money doesn't +count." + +"Money never counts here," the doctor replied gravely. "We shall save +him if it is possible. You've nothing to tell me, I suppose, as to how +he met with his wound?" + +"Nothing." + +They walked out together into the night. The bank of clouds had drifted +away now and the moon was shining. Below them, barely a quarter of a +mile away, they could see the flare of lights from the Casino. A woman +was laughing hysterically through the open windows of a house on the +other side of the way. Some one was playing a violin in a café at the +corner of the street. + +"Richard," Hunterleys said, "will you see me through? I have to get to +Cannes as fast as I can to send a cable. I daren't send it from here, +even in code." + +"I'll drive you to Cannes like a shot," Richard assented heartily. "Just +a brandy and soda on our way out, and I'll show you some pretty +driving." + +They stopped at the Café de Paris and left the car under the trees. Both +men took a long drink and Richard filled his pocket with cigarettes. +Then they re-entered the car, lit up, and glided off on the road for +Cannes. Richard had become more serious. His boyish manner and +appearance had temporarily gone. He drove, even, with less than his +usual recklessness. + +"That was a fine fellow," he remarked enthusiastically, after a long +pause, "that fellow Roche!" + +"And we've many more like him," Hunterleys declared. "We've men in every +part of the world doing what seems like dirty work, ill-paid work, too, +doing it partly, perhaps, because the excitement grows on them and they +love it, but always, they have to start in cold blood. The papers don't +always tell the truth, you know. There's many a death in foreign cities +you read of as a suicide, or the result of an accident, when it's really +the sacrifice of a hero for his country. It's great work, Richard." + +"Makes me feel kind of ashamed," Richard muttered. "I've never done +anything but play around all my life. Anyway, those sort of things don't +come to us in our country. America's too powerful and too isolated to +need help of that description. We shouldn't have any use for politicians +of your class, or for Secret Service men." + +"If you're in earnest," Hunterleys advised, "you go to Washington and +ask them about it some day. The time's coming, if it hasn't already +arrived, when your country will have to develop a different class of +politicians. You see, whether she wants it or not, she is coming into +touch, through Asia and South America, with European interests, and if +she does, she'll have to adopt their methods more or less. Poor old +Roche! There was something more he wanted to say, and if it's what I've +been expecting, your country was in it." + +"I guess I'll take Fedora over for our honeymoon," Richard decided +softly. "Don't see why I shouldn't come into one of the Embassies. I'm a +bit of a hulk to go about the world doing nothing." + +Hunterleys laughed quietly. + +"My young friend," he said, "aren't you taking your marriage prospects a +little for granted? May I be there when you ask Augustus Nicholas Ivan +Peter, Grand Duke of Vassura, Prince of Melinkoff, cousin of His +Imperial Majesty the Czar, for the hand of his daughter in marriage!" + +"So that's it, is it?" Lane murmured. "Why didn't you tell me before?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. He gazed steadfastly along the road in front +of him. + +"It wasn't to my interest to have it known too generally," he said, "and +I am afraid your little love affair didn't strike me as being of much +importance by the side of the other things. But you've earned the truth, +if it's any use to you." + +"Well," Richard observed, "I wasn't counting on having any witnesses, +but you can come along if you like. I suppose," he added, "I shall have +to do him the courtesy of asking his permission, but--" + +"But what?" Hunterleys asked curiously. + +They were on a long stretch of straight, white road. Richard looked for +a moment up to the sky, and Hunterleys, watching him, was amazed at the +transformation. + +"There isn't a Grand Duke or a Prince or an Imperial Majesty alive," he +said, "who could rob me of Fedora!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"SUPPOSING I TAKE THIS MONEY" + + +There was a momentary commotion in the Club. A woman had fainted at one +of the roulette tables. Her chair was quickly drawn back. She was helped +out to the open space at the top of the stairs and placed in an +easy-chair there. Lady Weybourne, who was on the point of leaving with +her husband, hastened back. She stood there while the usual restoratives +were being administered, fanning the unconscious woman with a white +ostrich fan which hung from her waist. Presently Violet opened her eyes. +She recognised Lady Weybourne and smiled weakly. + +"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It was silly of me to stay in here so +long. I went without my dinner, too, which was rather idiotic." + +A man who had announced himself a doctor, bent over her pulse and turned +away. + +"The lady will be quite all right now," he said. "You can give her +brandy and soda if she feels like it. Pardon!" + +He hastened back to his place at the baccarat table. Lady Hunterleys sat +up. + +"It was quite absurd of me," she declared. "I don't know what--" + +She stopped suddenly. The weight was once more upon her heart, the +blankness before her eyes. She remembered! + +"I am quite able to go home now," she added. + +Her gold bag lay upon her lap. It was almost empty. She looked at it +vacantly and then closed the snap. + +"We'll see you back to the hotel," Lady Weybourne said soothingly. "Here +comes Harry with the brandy and soda." + +Lord Weybourne came hurrying from the bar, a tumbler in his hand. + +"How nice of you!" Violet exclaimed gratefully. "Really, I feel that +this is just what I need. I wonder what time it is?" + +"Half past four," Lord Weybourne announced, glancing at his watch. + +She laughed weakly. + +"How stupid of me! I have been between here and the Casino for nearly +twelve hours, and had nothing to eat. No, I won't have anything here, +thanks," she added, as Lord Weybourne started back again for the bar, +muttering something about a sandwich. "I'll have something in my room. +If you are going back to the hotel, perhaps I could come with you." + +They all three left the place together, passing along the private way. + +"I haven't seen your brother all day," Violet remarked to Lady +Weybourne. + +"Richard's gone off somewhere in the car to-night, a most mysterious +expedition," his sister declared. "I began to think that it must be an +elopement, but I see the yacht's there still, and he would surely choose +the yacht in preference to a motor-car, if he were running off with +anybody! Your husband doesn't come into the rooms much?" + +Violet shook her head. + +"He hasn't the gambling instinct," she said quietly. "Perhaps he is just +as well without it. One gets a lot of amusement out of this playing for +small stakes, but it is irritating to lose. Thank you so much for +looking after me," she added, as they reached the hall of the hotel. "I +am quite all right now and my woman will be sitting up for me." + +She passed into the lift. Lady Weybourne looked after her admiringly. + +"Say, she's got some pluck, Harry!" she murmured. "They say she lost +nearly a hundred mille to-night and she never even mentioned her +losings. Irritating, indeed! I wonder what Sir Henry thinks of it. They +are only moderately well off." + +Her husband shrugged his shoulders, after the fashion of his sex. + +"Let us hope," he said, "that it is Sir Henry who suffers." + + * * * * * + +Violet slipped out of her gown and dismissed her maid. In her +dressing-gown she sat before the open window. Everywhere the place +seemed steeped in the faint violet and purple light preceding the dawn. +Away eastwards she could catch a glimpse of the mountains, their peaks +cut sharply against the soft, deep sky; a crystalline glow, the first +herald of the hidden sunrise, hanging about their summits. The gentle +breeze from the Mediterranean was cool and sweet. There were many lights +still gleaming upon the sea, but their effect now seemed tawdry. She sat +there, her head resting upon her hands. She had the feeling of being +somehow detached from the whole world of visible objects, as though, +indeed, she were on her death-bed. Surely it was not possible to pass +any further through life than this! In her thoughts she went back to the +first days of estrangement between her husband and herself. Almost +before she realised it, she found herself struggling against the +tenderness which still survived, which seemed at that moment to be +tearing at her heart-strings. He had ceased to care, she told herself. +It was all too apparent that he had ceased to care. He was amusing +himself elsewhere. Her little impulsive note had not won even a kind +word from him. Her appeals, on one excuse or another, had been +disregarded. She had lost her place in his life, thrown it away, she +told herself bitterly. And in its stead--what! A new fear of Draconmeyer +was stealing over her. He presented himself suddenly as an evil genius. +She went back through the last few days. Her brain seemed unexpectedly +clear, her perceptions unerring. She saw with hateful distinctness how +he had forced this money upon her, how he had encouraged her all the +time to play beyond her means. She realised the cunning with which he +had left that last bundle of notes in her keeping. Well, there the facts +were. She owed him now four thousand pounds. She had no money of her +own, she was already overdrawn with her allowance. There was no chance +of paying him. She realised, with a little shudder, that he did not want +payment, a realisation which had come to her dimly from the first, but +which she had pushed away simply because she had felt sure of winning. +Now there was the price to be paid! She leaned further out of the +window. Away to her left the glow over the mountains was becoming +stained with the faintest of pinks. She looked at it long, with mute and +critical appreciation. She swept with her eyes the line of violet +shadows from the mountain-tops to the sea-board, where the pale lights +of Bordighera still flickered. She looked up again from the dark blue +sea to the paling stars. It was all wonderful--theatrical, perhaps, but +wonderful--and how she hated it! She stood up before the window and with +her clenched fists she beat against the sills. Those long days and +feverish nights through which she had passed slowly unfolded themselves. +In those few moments she seemed to taste again the dull pain of constant +disappointment, the hectic thrills of occasional winnings, the strange, +dull inertia which had taken the place of resignation. She looked into +the street below. How long would she live afterwards, she wondered, if +she threw herself down! She began even to realise the state of mind +which breeds suicides, the brooding over a morrow too hateful to be +faced. + +As she still stood there, the silence of the street below was broken. A +motor-car swung round the corner and swept past the side of the hotel. +She caught at the curtain as she recognised its occupants. Richard Lane +was driving, and by his side sat her husband. The car was covered with +dust, both men seemed weary as though they had been out all night. She +gazed after them with fast-beating heart. She had pictured her husband +at the villa on the hill! Where had he been with Richard Lane? Perhaps, +after all, the things which she had imagined were not true. The car had +stopped now at the front door. It returned a moment later on its way to +the garage, with only Lane driving. She opened her door and stood there +silently. Hunterleys would have to pass the end of the corridor if he +came up by the main lift. She waited with fast beating heart. The +seconds passed. Then she heard the rattle of the lift ascending, its +click as it stopped, and soon afterwards the footsteps of a man. He was +coming--coming past the corner! At that moment she felt that the sound +of his footsteps was like the beating of fate. They came nearer and she +shrank a little back. There was something unfamiliar about them. Whoever +it might be, it was not Henry! And then suddenly Draconmeyer came into +sight. He saw her standing there and stopped short. Then he came rapidly +near. + +"Lady Hunterleys!" he exclaimed softly. "You still up?" + +She hesitated. Then she stood on one side, still grasping the handle of +the door. + +"Do you want to come in?" she asked. "You may. I have something to say +to you. Perhaps I shall sleep better if I say it now." + +He stepped quickly past her. + +"Close the door," he whispered cautiously. + +She obeyed him deliberately. + +"There is no hurry," she said. "This is my sitting-room. I receive whom +I choose here." + +"But it is nearly six o'clock!" he exclaimed. + +"That does not affect me," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "Sit +down." + +He obeyed. There was something changed about her, something which he did +not recognise. She thrust her hands into a box of cigarettes, took one +out and lit it. She leaned against the table, facing him. + +"Listen," she continued, "I have borrowed from you three thousand +pounds. You left with me to-night--I don't know whether you meant to +lend it to me or whether I had it on trust, but you left it in my +charge--another thousand pounds. I have lost it all--all, you +understand--the four thousand pounds and every penny I have of my own." + +He sat quite still. He was watching her through his gold-rimmed +spectacles. There was the slightest possible frown upon his forehead. +The time for talking of money as though it were a trifle had passed. + +"That is a great deal," he said. + +"It is a great deal," she admitted. "I owe it to you and I cannot pay. +What are you going to do?" + +He watched her eagerly. There was a new note in her voice. He paused to +consider what it might mean. A single false step now and he might lose +all that he had striven for. + +"How am I to answer that?" he asked softly. "I will answer it first in +the way that seems most natural. I will beg you to accept your losings +as a little gift from me--as a proof, if you will, of my friendship." + +He had saved the situation. If he had obeyed his first impulse, the +affair would have been finished. He realised it as he watched her face, +and he shuddered at the thought of his escape. His words obviously +disturbed her. + +"It is not possible for me," she protested, "to accept money from you." + +"Not from Linda's husband?" + +She threw her cigarette into the grate and stood looking at him. + +"Do you offer it to me as Linda's husband?" she demanded. + +It was a crisis for which Draconmeyer was scarcely prepared. He was +driven out of his pusillanimous compromise. She was pressing him hard +for the truth. Again the fear of losing her altogether terrified him. + +"If I have other feelings of which I have not spoken," he said quietly, +"have I not kept them to myself? Do I obtrude them upon you even now? I +am content to wait." + +"To wait for what?" she insisted. + +All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him--the +removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health. The way had seemed +so clear only a little time ago, and now the clouds were back again. + +"Until you appreciate the fact," he told her, "that you have no more +sincere friend, that there is no one who values your happiness more than +I do." + +"Supposing I take this money from you," she asked, after a moment's +pause. "Are there any conditions?" + +"None whatever," he answered. + +She turned away with a little sigh. The tragedy which a few minutes ago +she had seen looming up, eluded her. She had courted a dénouement in +vain. He was too clever. + +"You are very generous," she said. "We will speak of this to-morrow. I +called you in because I could not bear the uncertainty of it all. Please +go now." + +He rose slowly to his feet. She gave him her hand lifelessly. He kept it +for a moment. She drew it away and looked at the place where his lips +had touched it, wonderingly. It was as though her fingers had been +scorched with fire. + +"It shall be to-morrow," he whispered, as he passed out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +NEARING A CRISIS + + +From the wilds of Scotland to Monte Carlo, as fast as motor-cars and +train de luxe could bring him, came the right Honourable Meredith +Simpson, a very distinguished member of His Majesty's Government. +Hunterleys, advised of his coming by telegram from Marseilles, met him +at the station, and together the two men made their way at once to +Hunterleys' room across at the Hotel de Paris. Behind locked doors they +spoke for the first time of important matters. + +"It's a great find, this of yours, Hunterleys," the Minister +acknowledged, "and it is corroborated, too, by what we know is happening +around us. We have had all the warning in the world just lately. The +Russian Ambassador is in St. Petersburg on leave of absence--in fact for +the last six months he has been taking his duties remarkably lightly. +Tell me how you first heard of the affair?" + +"I got wind of it in Sofia," Hunterleys explained. "I travelled from +there quite quietly, loitered about the Italian Riviera, and came on +here as a tourist. The only help I could get hold of here was from +Sidney Roche, who, as you know, is one of our Secret Service men. Roche, +I am sorry to say, was shot last night. He may live but he won't be well +enough to take any further hand in the game here, and I have no one to +take his place." + +"Roche shot!" Mr. Simpson exclaimed, in a shocked tone. "How did it +happen?" + +"They found him lying on the roof of the Villa Mimosa, just over the +room where the meeting was taking place," Hunterleys replied. "They +chased him round the grounds and we just got him off in a motor-car, but +not before he'd been hit twice. He was just able to tell me a little. +The first meeting was quite informal and very guarded. Douaille was most +cautious--he was there only to listen. The second meeting was last +night. Grex was in the chair, representing Russia." + +"You mean the Grand Duke Augustus?" Mr. Simpson interrupted. + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Grex is the name he is living under here. He explained Russia's +position. Poor Roche was only able to falter a few words, but what he +said was enough to give us the key-note to the whole thing. The long and +short of it all is that Russia turned her face westward so long as +Constantinople was possible. Now that this war has come about and ended +as it has done, Russia's chance has gone. There is no longer any _quid +pro quo_ for her alliance with France. There is no friendship, of +course, between Russia and Germany, but at any rate Russia has nothing +to fear from Germany, and she knows it. Grex is quite frank. They must +look eastward, he said, and when he says eastward, he means Manchuria, +China, Persia, even India. At the same time, Russia has a conscience, +even though it be a diplomatic conscience. Hence this conference. She +doesn't want France crushed. Germany has a proposition. It has been +enunciated up to a certain point. She confers Alsace and Lorraine and +possibly Egypt upon France, for her neutrality whilst she destroys the +British Fleet. Or failing her neutrality, she wants her to place a weak +army on the frontier, which can fall back without much loss before a +German advance. Germany's objective then will be Calais and not Paris, +and from there she will command the Straits and deal with the British +Fleet at her leisure. Meanwhile, she will conclude peace with France on +highly advantageous terms. Don't you see what it means, Simpson? The +elementary part of the thing is as simple as A B C. Germany has nothing +to gain from Russia, she has nothing to gain from France. England is the +only country who can give her what she wants. That is about as far as +they have got, up to now, but there is something further behind it all. +That, Selingman is to tell them to-night." + +"The most important point about the whole matter, so far as we are +concerned," Mr. Simpson declared, "is Douaille's attitude. You have +received no indication of that, I suppose?" + +"None whatever," Hunterleys answered. "I thought of paying my respects, +but after all, you know, I have no official standing, and personally we +are almost strangers." + +The Minister nodded. + +"It's a difficult position," he confessed. "Have you copies of your +reports to London?" + +"I have copies of them, and full notes of everything that has transpired +so far, in a strong box up at the bank," Hunterleys assented. "We can +stroll up there after lunch and I will place all the documents in your +hands. You can look them through then and decide what is best to be +done." + +The Minister rose to his feet. + +"I shall go round to my rooms, change my clothes," he announced, "and +meet you presently. We'll lunch across at Ciro's, eh? I didn't mean to +come to Monte Carlo this year, but so long as I am here, I may as well +make the best of it. You are not looking as though the change had done +you much good, Hunterleys." + +"The last few days," Hunterleys remarked, a little drily, "have not been +exactly in the nature of a holiday." + +"Are you here alone?" + +"I came alone. I found my wife here by accident. She came through with +the Draconmeyers. They were supposed to stay at Cannes, but altered +their plans. Of course, Draconmeyer meant to come here all the time." + +The Minister frowned. + +"Draconmeyer's one man I should be glad to see out of London," he +declared. "Under the pretext of fostering good-will, and that sort of +thing, between the mercantile classes of our two countries, I think that +that fellow has done about as much mischief as it is possible for any +single man to have accomplished. We'll meet in an hour, Hunterleys. My +man is putting out some things for me and I must have a bath." + +Hunterleys walked up to the hospital, and to his surprise met Selingman +coming away. The latter saluted him with a wave of the hat and a genial +smile. + +"Calling to see our poor invalid?" he enquired blandly. + +Hunterleys, although he knew his man, was a little taken aback. + +"What share in him do you claim?" he asked. + +Selingman sighed. + +"Alas!" he confessed, "I fear that my claim would sound a little +cold-blooded. I think that I was the only man who held his gun straight. +Yet, after all, Roche would be the last to bear me any grudge. He was +playing the game, taking his risks. Uncommonly bad marksmen Grex's +private police were, or he'd be in the morgue instead of the hospital." + +"I gather that our friend is still alive?" Hunterleys remarked. + +"Going on as well as could be expected," Selingman replied. + +"Conscious?" + +Selingman smiled. + +"You see through my little visit of sympathy at once!" he exclaimed. +"Unable to converse, I am assured, and unable to share with his friends +any little information he may have picked up last night. By the way, +whom shall you send to report our little conference to-night? You +wouldn't care to come yourself, would you?" + +"I should like to exceedingly," Hunterleys assured him, "if you'd give +me a safe conduct." + +Selingman withdrew his cigar from his mouth and laid his hand upon the +other's shoulder. + +"My dear friend," he said earnestly, "your safe conduct, if ever I +signed it, would be to the other world. Frankly, we find you rather a +nuisance. We would be better pleased if your Party were in office, and +you with your knees tucked under a desk at Downing Street, attending to +your official business in your official place. Who gave you this roving +commission, eh? Who sent you to talk common sense to the Balkan States, +and how the mischief did you get wind of our little meeting here?" + +"Ah!" Hunterleys replied, "I expect you really know all these things." + +Selingman, with his feet planted firmly upon the pavement, took a fresh +cigar from his waistcoat pocket, bit off the end and lit it. + +"My friend Hunterleys," he continued, "I am enjoying this brief +interchange of confidences. Circumstances have made me, as you see, a +politician, a schemer if you like. Nature meant me to be one of the +frankest, the most truthful, the best-hearted of men. I detest the +tortuous ways of the old diplomacy. The spoken word pleases me best. +That is why I like a few minutes' conversation with the enemy, why I +love to stand here and talk to you with the buttons off our foils. We +are scheming against you and your country, and you know it, and we shall +win. We can't help but win--if not to-day, to-morrow. Your country has +had a marvellously long run of good luck, but it can't last for ever." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"Well," he observed, "there's nothing like confidence. If you are so +sure of success, why couldn't you choose a cleaner way to it than by +tampering with our ally?" + +Selingman patted his companion on the shoulder. + +"Listen, my friend," he said, "there are no such things as allies. An +alliance between two countries is a dead letter so soon as their +interests cease to be identical. Now Austria is our ally because she is +practically Germany. We are both mid-Continental Powers. We both need +the same protection. But England and France! Go back only fifty years, +my dear Hunterleys, and ask yourself--would any living person, living +now and alive then, believe in the lasting nature of such an unnatural +alliance? Wherever you look, in every quarter of the globe, your +interests are opposed. You robbed France of Egypt. She can't have wholly +forgotten. You dominate the Mediterranean through Gibraltar, Malta, and +Cyprus. What does she think of that, I wonder? Isn't a humiliation for +her when she does stop to think of it? You've a thousand years of +quarrels, of fighting and rapine behind you. You can't call yourselves +allies because the thing isn't natural. It never could be. It was only +your mutual, hysterical fear of Germany which drove you into one +another's arms. We fought France once to prove ourselves, and for money. +Just now we don't want either money or territory from France. Perhaps we +don't even want, my dear Englishman, what you think we want, but all the +same, don't blame us for trying to dissolve an unnatural alliance. Was +that Simpson who came by the Luxe this morning?" + +"It was," Hunterleys admitted. + +"The Right Honourable John William Meredith Simpson!" Selingman recited, +waving his cigar. "Well, well, we certainly have made a stir with our +little meetings here. An inspired English Cabinet Minister, +travel-stained and dusty, arrives with his valet and a black +dispatch-box, to foil our schemes. Send him along, my friend. We are not +at all afraid of Mr. Simpson. Perhaps we may even ask him to join us +this evening." + +"I fancy," Hunterleys remarked grimly, "that the Englishman who joins +you this evening will find a home up on the hill here." + +"Or down in the morgue there," Selingman grunted, pointing down to +Monaco. "Take care, Hunterleys--take care, man. One of us hates you. It +isn't I. You are fighting a brave fight and a losing fight, but you are +good metal. Try and remember, when you find that you are beaten, that +life has many consolations for the philosopher." + +He passed on and Hunterleys entered the hospital. Whilst he was waiting +in the little reception-room, Felicia came in. Her face showed signs of +her night's anxiety. + +"Sidney is still unconscious," she announced, her voice shaking a +little. "The doctors seem hopeful--but oh! Sir Henry, it is terrible to +see him lying there just as though he were dead!" + +"Sidney will pull through all right," Hunterleys declared, +encouragingly. "He has a wonderful constitution and he is the luckiest +fellow born. He always gets out of trouble, somehow or other." + +She came slowly up to him. + +"Sir Henry," she said piteously, "I know quite well that Sidney was +willing to take his risks. He went into this thing, knowing it was +dangerous. I want to be brave. What happens must be. But listen. You +won't--you won't rob me of everything in life, will you? You won't send +David after him?" + +Hunterleys smiled reassuringly. + +"I can promise you that," he told her. "This isn't David's job at all. +He has to stick to his post and help out the bluff as a press +correspondent. Don't be afraid, Felicia. You shall have your David." + +She seized his hand and kissed it. + +"You have been so kind to me always, Sir Henry," she sighed. "I can't +tell you how thankful I am to think that you don't want David to go and +run these horrible risks." + +"No fear of that, I promise you," he assured her once more. "David will +be busy enough pulling the strings another way." + +The doctor entered the room and shook hands with Hunterleys. There was +no news, he declared, nothing to be done. The patient must continue in +his present condition for several more hours at least. The symptoms +were, in their way, favourable. Beyond that, nothing could be said. +Felicia and Hunterleys left the hospital together. + +"I wonder," she began, as they turned out of the white gates, "whether +you would mind very much if I told you something?" + +"Of course not!" + +"Yesterday," she continued slowly, "I met Lady Hunterleys. You know, I +have seen her twice when I have been to your house to sing for your +guests. She recognised me, I feel sure, but she didn't seem to want to +see me. She looked surprised when I bowed. I worried about it at first +and then I wondered. You are so very, very secretive just now. Whatever +this affair may be in which you three are all concerned, you never open +your lips about it. Lady Hunterleys probably doesn't know that you have +had to come up to the villa at all hours of the night just to see +Sidney. You don't suppose that by any chance she imagined--that you came +to see me?" + +Hunterleys was struck by the thought. He remembered several chance +remarks of his wife. He remembered, too, the coincidence of his recent +visits to the villa having prevented him in each case from acceding to +some request of Violet's. + +"I am glad you've mentioned this, child," he said frankly. "Now I come +to think of it, my wife certainly did know that I came up to the villa +very late one night, and she seemed upset about it. Of course, she +hasn't the faintest idea about your brother." + +"Well," Felicia declared, with a sigh of relief, "I felt that I had to +tell you. It sounded horribly conceited, in a way, but then she wouldn't +know that you came to see Sidney, or that I was engaged to David. +Misunderstandings do come about so easily, you know, sometimes." + +"This one shall be put right, at any rate," he promised her. "Now, if +you will take my advice, you will go home and lie down until the +evening. You are going to sing again, aren't you?" + +"If there is no change," she replied. "I know that he would like me to. +You haven't minded--what I've said?" + +"Not a bit, child," he assured her; "in fact I think it was very good of +you. Now I'll put you in this carriage and send you home. Think of +nothing except that Sidney is getting better every hour, and sing +to-night as though your voice could reach his bedside. Au revoir!" + +He waved his hand to her as she drove off, and returned to the Hotel de +Paris. He found a refreshed and rejuvenated Simpson smoking a cigarette +upon the steps. + +"To lunch!" the latter exclaimed. "Afterwards I will tell you my plans." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +AN INTERESTING MEETING + + +Hunterleys leaned suddenly forward across the little round table. + +"The question of whether or no you shall pay your respects to Monsieur +Douaille," he remarked, "is solved. Unless I am very much mistaken, we +are going to have an exceedingly interesting luncheon-party on our +right." + +"Monsieur Douaille----" Mr. Simpson began, a little eagerly. + +"And the others," Hunterleys interrupted. "Don't look around for a +moment. This is almost historical." + +Monsieur Ciro himself, bowing and smiling, was ushering a party of +guests to a round table upon the terrace, in the immediate vicinity of +the two men. Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side +and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van. Draconmeyer +followed with Lady Weybourne, and Selingman brought up the rear with the +Comtesse d'Hausson, one of the most prominent leaders of the French +colony in Monte Carlo, and a connection by marriage of Monsieur +Douaille. + +[Illustration: Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one +side and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van.] + +"A luncheon-party for Douaille," Hunterleys murmured, as he bowed, to +his wife and exchanged greetings with some of the others. "I wonder what +they think of their neighbours! A little embarrassing for the chief +guest, I am afraid." + +"I see your wife is in the enemy's camp," his companion observed. +"Draconmeyer is coming to speak to me. This promises to be interesting." + +Draconmeyer and Selingman both came over to greet the English Minister. +Selingman's blue eyes were twinkling with humour, his smile was broad +and irresistible. + +"This should send funds up in every capital of Europe," he declared, as +he shook hands. "When Mr. Meredith Simpson takes a holiday, then the +political barometer points to 'set fair'!" + +"A tribute to my conscientiousness," the Minister replied, smiling. "I +am glad to see that I am not the only hard-worked statesman who feels +able to take a few days' holiday." + +Selingman glanced at the round table and beamed. + +"It is true," he admitted. "Every country seems to have sent its +statesmen holiday-making. And what a playground, too!" he added, +glancing towards Hunterleys with something which was almost a wink. +"Here, political crises seem of little account by the side of the +turning wheel. This is where the world unbends and it is well that there +should be such a place. Shall we see you at the Club or in the rooms +later?" + +"Without a doubt," Mr. Simpson assented. "For what else does one live in +Monte Carlo?" + +"How did you leave things in town?" Mr. Draconmeyer enquired. + +"So-so!" the Minister answered. "A little flat, but then it is a dull +season of the year." + +"Markets about the same, I suppose?" Mr. Draconmeyer asked. + +"I am afraid," Mr. Simpson confessed, "that I only study the city column +from the point of view of what Herr Selingman has just called the +political barometer. Things were a little unsteady when I left. Consols +fell several points yesterday." + +Mr. Draconmeyer frowned. + +"It is incomprehensible," he declared. "A few months ago there was real +danger, one is forced to believe, of a European war. To-day the crisis +is passed, yet the money-markets which bore up so well through the +critical period seem now all the time on the point of collapse. It is +hard for a banker to know how to operate these days. I wish you +gentlemen in Downing Street, Mr. Simpson, would make it easier for us." + +Mr. Simpson shrugged his shoulders. + +"The real truth of the matter is," he said, "that you allow your +money-market to become too sensitive an affair. A whisper will depress +it. A threatening word spoken in the Reichstag or in the House of +Parliament, magnified a hundred-fold before it reaches its destination, +has sometimes a most unwarranted effect upon markets. You mustn't blame +us so much, Mr. Draconmeyer. You jump at conclusions too easily in the +city." + +"Sound common sense," Mr. Draconmeyer agreed. "You are perfectly right +when you say that we are over-sensitive. The banker deplores it as much +as the politician. It's the money-kings, I suppose, who find it +profitable." + +They returned to their table a moment later. As he passed Douaille, +Selingman whispered in his ear. Monsieur Douaille turned around at once +and bowed to Simpson. As he caught the latter's eye he, too, left his +place and came across. Mr. Simpson rose to his feet. The two men bowed +formally before shaking hands. + +"Monsieur Simpson," the Frenchman exclaimed, "it is a pleasure to find +that I am remembered!" + +"Without a doubt, monsieur," was the prompt reply. "Your last visit to +London, on the occasion when we had the pleasure of entertaining you at +the Guildhall, is too recent, and was too memorable an event altogether +for us to have forgotten. Permit me to assure you that your speech on +that occasion was one which no patriotic Englishman is likely to +forget." + +Monsieur Douaille inclined his head in thanks. His manner was not +altogether free from embarrassment. + +"I trust that you are enjoying your holiday here?" he asked. + +"I have only this moment arrived," Mr. Simpson explained. "I am looking +forward to a few days' rest immensely. I trust that I shall have the +pleasure of seeing something of you, Monsieur Douaille. A little +conversation would be most agreeable." + +"In Monte Carlo one meets one's friends all the time," Monsieur Douaille +replied. "I lunch to-day with my friend--our mutual friend, without a +doubt--who calls himself here Mr. Grex." + +Mr. Simpson nodded. + +"If it is permitted," he suggested, "I should like to do myself the +honour of paying my respects to you." + +Monsieur Douaille was flattered. + +"My stay here is short," he regretted, "but your visit will be most +acceptable. I am at the Riviera Palace Hotel." + +"It is one of my theories," Mr. Simpson remarked, "that politicians are +at a serious disadvantage compared with business men, inasmuch as, with +important affairs under their control, they have few opportunities of +meeting those with whom they have dealings. It would be a great pleasure +to me to discuss one or two matters with you." + +Monsieur Douaille departed, with a few charming words of assent. Simpson +looked after him with kindling eyes. + +"This," he murmured, leaning across the table, "is a most extraordinary +meeting. There they sit, those very men whom you suspect of this +devilish scheme, within a few feet of us! Positively thrilling, +Hunterleys!" + +Hunterleys, too, seemed to feel the stimulating effect of a situation so +dramatic. As the meal progressed, he drew his chair a little closer to +the table and leaned over towards his companion. + +"I think," he said, "that we shall both of us remember the coincidence +of this meeting as long as we live. At that luncheon-table, within a few +yards of us, sits Russia, the new Russia, raising his head after a +thousand years' sleep, watching the times, weighing them, realising his +own immeasurable strength, pointing his inevitable finger along the road +which the Russia of to-morrow must tread. There isn't a man in that +great country so much to be feared to-day, from our point of view, as +the Grand Duke Augustus. And look, too, at the same table, within a few +feet, Simpson, of you and of me--Selingman, Selingman who represents the +real Germany; not the war party alone, intoxicated with the clash of +arms, filled with bombastic desires for German triumphs on sea and land, +ever ready to spout in flowery and grandiloquent phrases the glory of +Germany and the Heaven-sent genius of her leaders. I tell you, Simpson, +Selingman is a more dangerous man than that. He sits with folded arms, +in realms of thought above these people. He sits with a map of the world +before him, and he places his finger upon the inevitable spots which +Germany must possess to keep time with the march of the world, to find +new homes for her overflowing millions. He has no military fervour, no +tinselly patriotism. He knows what Germany needs and he will carve her +way towards it. Look at him with his napkin tucked under his chin, +broad-visaged, podgy, a slave, you might think, to the joys of the table +and the grosser things of life. You should see his eyes sometimes when +the right note is struck, watch his mouth when he sits and thinks. He +uses words for an ambush and a barricade. He talks often like a gay +fool, a flood of empty verbiage streams from his lips, and behind, all +the time his brain works." + +"You seem to have studied these people, Hunterleys," Simpson remarked +appreciatively. + +Hunterleys smiled as he continued his luncheon. + +"Forgive me if I was a little prolix," he said, "but, after all, what +would you have? I am out of office but I remain a servant of my country. +My interest is just as keen as though I were in a responsible position." + +"You are well out of it," Simpson sighed. "If half what you suspect is +true, it's the worst fix we've been in for some time." + +"I am afraid there isn't any doubt about it," Hunterleys declared. "Of +course, we've been at a fearful disadvantage. Roche was the only man out +here upon whom I could rely. Now they've accounted for him, we've +scarcely a chance of getting at the truth." + +Mr. Simpson was gloomily silent for some moments. He was thinking of the +time when he had struck his pencil through a recent Secret Service +estimate. + +"Anyhow," Hunterleys went on, "it will be all over in twenty-four hours. +Something will be decided upon--what, I am afraid there is very little +chance of our getting to know. These men will separate--Grex to St. +Petersburg, Selingman to Berlin, Douaille to Paris. Then I think we +shall begin to hear the mutterings of the storm." + +"I think," Mr. Simpson intervened, his eyes fixed upon an approaching +figure, "that there is a young lady talking to the maître d'hôtel, who +is trying to attract your attention." + +Hunterleys turned around in his chair. It was Felicia who was making her +way towards him. He rose at once to his feet. There was a little murmur +of interest amongst the lunchers as she threaded her way past the +tables. It was not often that an English singer in opera had met with so +great a success. Lady Hunterleys, recognising her as she passed, paused +in the middle of a sentence. Her face hardened. Hunterleys had risen +from his place and was watching Felicia's approach anxiously. + +"Is there any news of Sidney?" he asked quickly, as he took her hand. + +"Nothing fresh," she answered in a low voice. "I have brought you a +message--from some one else." + +He held his chair for her but she shook her head. + +"I mustn't stay," she continued. "This is what I wanted to tell you. As +I was crossing the square just now, I recognised the man Frenhofer, from +the Villa Mimosa. Directly he saw me he came across the road. He was +looking for one of us. He dared not come to the villa, he declares, for +fear of being watched. He has something to tell you." + +"Where can I find him?" Hunterleys asked. + +"He has gone to a little bar in the Rue de Chaussures, the Bar de +Montmartre it is called. He is waiting there for you now." + +"You must stay and have some lunch," Hunterleys begged. "I will come +back." + +She shook her head. + +"I have just been across to the Opera House," she explained, "to enquire +about some properties for to-night. I have had all the lunch I want and +I am on my way to the hospital now again. I came here on the chance of +finding you. They told me at the Hotel de Paris that you were lunching +out." + +Hunterleys turned and whispered to Simpson. + +"This is very important," he said. "It concerns the affair in which we +are interested. Linger over your coffee and I will return." + +Mr. Simpson nodded and Hunterleys left the restaurant with Felicia. His +wife, at whom he glanced for a moment, kept her head averted. She was +whispering in the ear of the gallant Monsieur Douaille. Selingman, +catching Draconmeyer's eye, winked at him solemnly. + +"You have all the luck, my silent friend," he murmured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE FATES ARE KIND + + +The Bar de Montmartre was many steps under the level of the street, +dark, smelly, and dilapidated. Its only occupants were a handful of +drivers from the carriage-stand opposite, who stared at Hunterleys in +amazement as he entered, and then rushed forward, almost in a body, to +offer their services. The man behind the bar, however, who had evidently +been forewarned, intervened with a few sharp words, and, lifting the +flap of the counter, ushered Hunterleys into a little room beyond. +Frenhofer was engaged there in amiable badinage with a young lady who +promptly disappeared at Hunterleys' entrance. Frenhofer bowed +respectfully. + +"I must apologise," he said, "for bringing monsieur to such a place. It +is near the end now, and with Monsieur Roche in the hospital I ventured +to address myself to monsieur direct. Here I have the right to enter. I +make my suit to the daughter of the proprietor in order to have a safe +rendezvous when necessary. It is well that monsieur has come quickly. I +have tidings. I can disclose to monsieur the meeting-place for to-night. +If monsieur has fortune and the wit to make use of it, the opportunity I +shall give him is a great one. But pardon me. Before we talk business we +must order something." + +He touched the bell. The proprietor himself thrust in his head, +bullet-shaped, with black moustache and unshaven chin. He wore no +collar, and the remainder of his apparel was negligible. + +"A bottle of your best brandy," Frenhofer ordered. "The best, mind, Pčre +Hanaut." + +The man's acquiescence was as amiable as nature would permit. + +"Monsieur will excuse me," Frenhofer went on, as the door was once more +closed, "but these people have their little ways. To sell a whole bottle +of brandy at five times its value, is to Monsieur le Propriétaire more +agreeable than to offer him rent for the hire of his room. He is outside +all the things in which we are concerned. He believes--pardon me, +monsieur--that we are engaged in a little smuggling transaction. +Monsieur Roche and I have used this place frequently." + +"He can believe what he likes," Hunterleys replied, "so long as he keeps +his mouth shut." + +The brandy was brought--and three glasses. Frenhofer promptly took the +hint and, filling one to the brim, held it out to the landlord. + +"You will drink our health, Pčre Hanaut--my health and the health of +monsieur here, and the health of the fair Annette. Incidentally, you +will drink also to the success of the little scheme which monsieur and I +are planning." + +"In such brandy," the proprietor declared hoarsely, "I would drink to +the devil himself!" + +He threw back his head and the contents of his glass vanished. He set it +down with a little smack of the lips. Once more he looked at the bottle. +Frenhofer filled up his glass, but motioned to the door with his head. + +"You will excuse us, dear friend," he begged, laying his hand +persuasively upon the other's shoulder. "Monsieur and I have little +enough of time." + +The landlord withdrew. Frenhofer walked around the little apartment. +Their privacy was certainly assured. + +"Monsieur," he announced, turning to Hunterleys, "there has been a great +discussion as to the next meeting-place between our friends--the next, +which will be also the last. They are safe enough in reality at the +villa, but Monsieur Douaille is nervous. The affair of last night +terrified him. The reason for these things I, of course, know nothing +of, but it seems that Monsieur Douaille is very anxious indeed to keep +his association with my august master and Herr Selingman as secret as +possible. He has declined most positively to set foot again within the +Villa Mimosa. Many plans have been suggested. This is the one adopted. +For some weeks a German down in Monaco, a shipping agent, has had a +yacht in the harbour for hire. He has approached Mr. Grex several times, +not knowing his identity; ignorant, indeed, of the fact that the Grand +Duke himself possesses one of the finest yachts afloat. However, that is +nothing. Mr. Grex thought suddenly of the yacht. He suggested it to the +others. They were enthusiastic. The yacht is to be hired for a week, or +longer if necessary, and used only to-night. Behold the wonderful +good-fortune of the affair! It is I who have been selected by my master +to proceed to Monaco to make arrangements with the German, Herr Schwann. +I am on my way there at the moment." + +"A yacht?" Hunterleys repeated. + +"There are wonderful things to be thought of," Frenhofer asserted +eagerly. "Consider, monsieur! The yacht of this man Schwann has never +been seen by my master. Consider, too, that aboard her there must be a +dozen hiding-places. The crew has been brought together from anywhere. +They can be bought to a man. There is only one point, monsieur, which +should be arranged before I enter upon this last and, for me, most +troublesome and dangerous enterprise." + +"And that?" Hunterleys enquired. + +"My own position," Frenhofer declared solemnly. "I am not greedy or +covetous. My ambitions have long been fixed. To serve an Imperial +Russian nobleman has been no pleasure for me. St. Petersburg has been a +prison. I have been moved to the right or to the left as a machine. It +is as a machine only I have lived. Always I have longed for Paris. So +month by month I have saved. After to-night I must leave my master's +employ. The risk will be too great if monsieur indeed accepts my +proposition and carries it out. I need but a matter of ten thousand +francs to complete my savings." + +The man's white face shone eagerly in the dim light of the gloomy little +apartment. His eyes glittered. He waited almost breathlessly. + +"Frenhofer," Hunterleys said slowly, "so far as I have been concerned +indirectly in these negotiations with you, my instructions to my agent +have been simple and definite. We have never haggled. Your name was +known to me eight years ago, when you served us in St. Petersburg and +served us well. You have done the same thing now and you have behaved +with rare intelligence. Within the course of an hour I shall transfer +ten thousand francs to the account of François Frenhofer at the English +Bank here." + +The eyes of the man seemed suddenly like pinpricks of fire. + +"Monsieur is a prince," he murmured. "And now for the further details. +If monsieur would run the risk, I would suggest that he accompanies me +to the office of this man Schwann." + +Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He was walking up and down the +narrow apartment. A brilliant idea had taken possession of him. The more +he thought of it, the more feasible it became. + +"Frenhofer," he said at last, "I have a scheme of my own. You are sure +that Mr. Grex has never seen this yacht?" + +"He has never set eyes upon it, monsieur, save to try and single it out +with his field-glasses from the balcony of the villa." + +"And he is to board it to-night?" + +"At ten o'clock to-night, monsieur, it is to lie off the Villa Mimosa. A +pinnace is to fetch Mr. Grex and his friends on board from the private +landing-stage of the Villa Mimosa." + +Hunterleys nodded thoughtfully. + +"Frenhofer," he explained, "my scheme is this. A friend of mine has a +yacht in the harbour. I believe that he would lend it to me. Why should +we not substitute it for the yacht your master imagines that he is +hiring? If so, all difficulties as to placing whom I desire on board and +secreting them are over." + +"It is a great scheme," Frenhofer assented, "but supposing my master +should choose to telephone some small detail to the office of the man +Schwann?" + +"You must hire the yacht of Schwann, just as you were instructed," +Hunterleys pointed out. "You must give orders, though, that it is not to +leave the harbour until telephoned for. Then it will be the yacht which +I shall borrow which will lie off the Villa Mimosa to-night." + +"It is admirable," Frenhofer declared. "The more one thinks of it, the +more one appreciates. This yacht of Schwann's--the _Christable_, he +calls it--was fitted out by a millionaire. My master will be surprised +at nothing in the way of luxury." + +"Tell me again," Hunterleys asked, "at what hour is it to be off the +Villa Mimosa?" + +"At ten o'clock," Frenhofer replied. "A pinnace is to be at the +landing-stage of the villa at that time. Mr. Grex, Monsieur Douaille, +Herr Selingman, and Mr. Draconmeyer will come on board." + +"Very good! Now go on your errand to the man Schwann. You had better +meet me here later in the afternoon--say at four o'clock--and let me +know that all is in order. I will bring you some particulars about my +friend's boat, so that you will know how to answer any questions your +master may put to you." + +"It is admirable," Frenhofer repeated enthusiastically. "Monsieur had +better, perhaps, precede me." + +Hunterleys walked through the streets back to Ciro's Restaurant, filled +with a new exhilaration. His eyes were bright, his brain was working all +the time. The luncheon-party at the next table were still in the midst +of their meal. Mr. Simpson was smoking a meditative cigarette with his +coffee. Hunterleys resumed his place and ordered coffee for himself. + +"I have been to see a poor friend who met with an accident last night," +he announced, speaking as clearly as possible. "I fear that he is very +ill. That was his sister who fetched me away." + +Mr. Simpson nodded sympathetically. Their conversation for a few minutes +was desultory. Then Hunterleys asked for the bill and rose. + +"I will take you round to the Club and get your _carte_," he suggested. +"Afterwards, we can spend the afternoon as you choose." + +The two men strolled out of the place. It was not until after they had +left the arcade and were actually in the street, that Hunterleys gripped +his companion's arm. + +"Simpson," he declared, "the fates have been kind to us. Douaille has a +fit of the nerves. He will go no more to the Villa Mimosa. Seeking about +for the safest meeting-place, Grex has given us a chance. The only one +of his servants who belongs to us is commissioned to hire a yacht on +which they meet to-night." + +"A yacht," Mr. Simpson replied, emptily. + +"I have a friend," Hunterleys continued, "an American. I am convinced +that he will lend me his yacht, which is lying in the harbour here. We +are going to try and exchange. If we succeed, I shall have the run of +the boat. The crew will be at our command, and I shall get to that +conference myself, somehow or other." + +Mr. Simpson felt himself left behind. He could only stare at his +companion. + +"Tell me, Sir Henry," he begged, almost pathetically, "have I walked +into an artificial world? Do you mean to tell me seriously that you, a +Member of Parliament, an ex-Minister, are engaged upon a scheme to get +the Grand Duke Augustus and Douaille and Selingman on board a yacht, and +that you are going to be there, concealed, turned into a spy? I can't +keep up with it. As fiction it seems to me to be in the clouds. As +truth, why, my understanding turns and mocks me. You are talking +fairy-tales." + +Hunterleys smiled tolerantly. + +"The man in the street knows very little of the real happenings in +life," he pronounced. "The truth has a queer way sometimes of spreading +itself out into the realms of fiction. Come across here with me to the +hotel. I have got to move heaven and earth to find my friend." + +"Do with me as you like," Mr. Simpson sighed resignedly. "In a plain +political discussion, or an argument with Monsieur Douaille--well, I am +ready to bear my part. But this sort of thing lifts me off my feet. I +can only trot along at your heels." + +They entered the Hotel de Paris. Hunterleys made a few breathless +enquiries. Nothing, alas! was known of Mr. Richard Lane. He came back, +frowning, to the steps of the hotel. + +"If he is up playing golf at La Turbie," Hunterleys muttered, "we shall +barely have time." + +A reception clerk tapped him on the shoulder. He turned abruptly around. + +"I have just made an enquiry of the floor waiter," the clerk announced. +"He believes that Mr. Lane is still in his room." + +Hunterleys thanked the man and hurried to the lift. In a few moments he +was knocking at the door of Lane's rooms. His heart gave a great jump as +a familiar voice bade him enter. He stepped inside and closed the door +behind him. Richard, in light blue pyjamas, sat up in bed and looked at +his visitor with a huge yawn. + +"Say, old chap, are you in a hurry or anything?" he demanded. + +"Do you know the time?" Hunterleys asked. + +"No idea," the other replied. "The valet called me at eight. I told him +I'd shoot him if he disturbed me again." + +"It's nearly three o'clock!" Hunterleys declared impressively. + +"Can't help it," Richard yawned, throwing off the bed-clothes and +sitting on the edge of the bed. "I am young and delicate and I need my +rest. Seriously, Hunterleys," he added, "you take a chap out and make +him drive you at sixty miles an hour all through the night, you keep him +at it till nearly six in the morning, and you seem to think it a tragedy +to find him in bed at three o'clock in the afternoon. Hang it, I've only +had eight hours' sleep!" + +"I don't care how long you've had," Hunterleys rejoined. "I am only too +thankful to find you. Now listen. Is your brain working? Can you talk +seriously?" + +"I guess so." + +"You remember our talk last night?" + +"Every word of it." + +"The time has come," Hunterleys continued,--"your time, I mean. You said +that if you could take a hand, you'd do it. I am here to beg for your +help." + +"You needn't waste your breath doing that," Richard answered firmly. +"I'm your man. Go on." + +"Listen," Hunterleys proceeded. "Is your yacht in commission?" + +"Ready to sail at ten minutes' notice," the young man assured him +emphatically, "victualled and coaled to the eyelids. To tell you the +truth, I have some idea of abducting Fedora to-day or to-morrow." + +"You'll have to postpone that," Hunterleys told him. "I want to borrow +the yacht." + +"She's yours," Richard assented promptly. "I'll give you a note to the +captain." + +"Look here, I want you to understand this clearly," Hunterleys went on. +"If you lend me the _Minnehaha_, well, you commit yourself a bit. You +see, it's like this. I've one man of my own in Grex's household. He came +to me this morning. Monsieur Douaille objects to cross again the +threshold of the Villa Mimosa. He fears the English newspapers. There +has been a long discussion as to the next meeting-place. Grex suggested +a yacht. To that they all agreed. There is a man named Schwann down in +Monaco has a yacht for hire. Mr. Grex knows about it and he has sent the +man I spoke of into Monaco this afternoon to hire it. They are all going +to embark at ten o'clock to-night. They are going to hold their meeting +in the cabin." + +Lane whistled softly. He was wide awake now. + +"Go on," he murmured. "Go on. Say, this is great!" + +"I want," Hunterleys explained, "your yacht to take the place of the +other. I want it to be off the Villa Mimosa at ten o'clock to-night, +your pinnace to be at the landing-stage of the villa to bring Mr. Grex +and his friends on board. I want you to haul down your American flag, +keep your American sailors out of sight, cover up the Stars and Stripes +in your cabin, have only your foreign stewards on show. Schwann's yacht +is a costly one. No one will know the difference. You must get up now +and show me over the boat. I have to scheme, somehow or other, how we +can hide ourselves on it so that I can overhear the end of this plot." + +The face of Richard Lane was like the face of an ingenuous boy who sees +suddenly a Paradise of sport stretched out before him. His mouth was +open, his eyes gleaming. + +"Gee, but this is glorious!" he exclaimed. "I'm with you all the way. +Why, it's wonderful, man! It's a chapter from the Arabian Nights over +again!" + +He leapt to his feet and rang the bell furiously. Then he rushed to the +telephone. + +"Blue serge clothes," he ordered the valet. "Get my bath ready." + +"Any breakfast, monsieur?" + +"Oh, breakfast be hanged! No, wait a moment. Get me some coffee and a +roll. I'll take it while I dress. Hurry up!... Yes, is that the enquiry +office? This is Mr. Lane. Send round to my chauffeur at the garage at +once and tell him that I want the car at the door in a quarter of an +hour. Righto! ... Sit down, Hunterleys. Smoke or do whatever you want +to. We'll be off to the yacht in no time." + +Hunterleys clapped the young giant on the shoulders as he rushed through +to the bathroom. + +"You're a brick, Richard," he declared. "I'll wait for you down in the +hall. I've a pal there." + +"I'll be down in twenty minutes or earlier," Lane promised. "What a +lark!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +COFFEE FOR ONE ONLY + + +The breaking up of Mr. Grex's luncheon-party was the signal for a +certain amount of man[oe]uvring on the part of one or two of his guests. +Monsieur Douaille, for instance, was anxious to remain the escort of +Lady Hunterleys, whose plans for the afternoon he had ascertained were +unformed. Mr. Grex was anxious to keep apart his daughter and Lady +Weybourne, whose relationship to Richard Lane he had only just +apprehended; while he himself desired a little quiet conversation with +Monsieur Douaille before they paid the visit which had been arranged for +to the Club and the Casino. In the end, Mr. Grex was both successful and +unsuccessful. He carried off Monsieur Douaille for a short ride in his +automobile, but was forced to leave his daughter and Lady Weybourne +alone. Draconmeyer, who had been awaiting his opportunity, remained by +Lady Hunterleys' side. + +"I wonder," he asked, "whether you would step in for a few minutes and +see Linda?" + +She had been looking at the table where her husband and his companion +had been seated. Draconmeyer's voice seemed to bring her back to a +present not altogether agreeable. + +"I am going back to my room for a little time," she replied. "I will +call in and see Linda first, if you like." + +They left the restaurant together and strolled across the Square to the +Hotel de Paris, ascended in the lift, and made their way to +Draconmeyer's suite of rooms in a silence which was almost unbroken. +When they entered the large salon with its French-windows and balcony, +they found the apartment deserted. Violet looked questioningly at her +companion. He closed the door behind him and nodded. + +"Yes," he admitted, "my message was a subterfuge. I have sent Linda over +to Mentone with her nurse. She will not be back until late in the +afternoon. This is the opportunity for which I have been waiting." + +She showed no signs of anger or, indeed, disturbance of any sort. She +laid her tiny white silk parasol upon the table and glanced at him +coolly. + +"Well," she said, "you have your way, then. I am here." + +Draconmeyer looked at her long and anxiously. Skilled though he was in +physiognomy, closely though he had watched, for many months, the lights +and shades, the emotional changes in her expression, he was yet, at that +moment, completely puzzled. She was not angry. Her attitude seemed to +be, in a sense, passive. Yet what did passivity mean? Was it +resignation, consent, or was it simply the armour of normal resistance +in which she had clothed herself? Was he wise, after all, to risk +everything? Then, as he looked at her, as he realised her close and +wonderful presence, he suddenly told himself that it was worth while +risking even Heaven in the future for the joy of holding her for once in +his arms. She had never seemed to him so maddeningly beautiful as at +that moment. It was one of the hottest days of the season and she was +wearing a gown of white muslin, curiously simple, enhancing, somehow or +other, her fascinating slimness, a slimness which had nothing to do with +angularity but possessed its own soft and graceful curves. Her eyes were +bluer even than her turquoise brooch or the gentians in her hat. And +while his heart was aching and throbbing with doubts and hopes, she +suddenly smiled at him. + +"I am going to sit down," she announced carelessly. "Please say to me +just what is in your mind, without reserve. It will be better." + +She threw herself into a low chair near the window. Her hands were +folded in her lap. Her eyes, for some reason, were fixed upon her +wedding ring. Swift to notice even her slightest action, he frowned as +he discerned the direction of her gaze. + +"Violet," he said, "I think that you are right. I think that the time +has come when I must tell you what is in my mind." + +She raised her eyebrows slightly at the sound of her Christian name. He +moved over and stood by her chair. + +"For a good many years," he began slowly, "I have been a man with a +purpose. When it first came into my mind--not willingly--its +accomplishment seemed utterly hopeless. Still, it was there. Strong man +though I am, I could not root it out. I waited. There was nothing else +to do but wait. From that moment my life was divided. My whole-soul +devotion to worldly affairs was severed. I had one dream that was more +wonderful to me, even, than complete success in the great undertaking +which brought me to London. That dream was connected with you, Violet." + +She moved a little uneasily, as though the repetition of her Christian +name grated. This time, however, he was rapt in his subject. + +"I won't make excuses," he went on. "You know what Linda is--what she +has been for ten years. I have tried to be kind to her. As to love, I +never had any. Ours was an alliance between two great monied families, +arranged for us, acquiesced in by both of us as a matter of course. It +seemed to me in those days the most natural and satisfactory form of +marriage. I looked upon myself as others have thought me--a cold, +bloodless man of figures and ambition. It is you who have taught me that +I have as much sentiment and more than other men, a heart and desires +which have made life sometimes hell and sometimes paradise. For two +years I have struggled. Life with me has been a sort of passionate +compromise. For the joy of seeing you sometimes, of listening to you and +watching you, I have borne the agony of having you leave me to take your +place with another man. You don't quite know what that meant, and I am +not going to tell you, but always I have hoped and hoped." + +"And now," she said, looking at him, "I owe you four thousand pounds and +you think, perhaps, that your time has come to speak?" + +He shivered as though she had struck him a blow. + +"You think," he exclaimed, "that I am a man of pounds, shillings, and +pence! Is it my fault that you owe me money?" + +He snatched her cheques from his inner pocket and ripped them in pieces, +lit a match and watched them while they smouldered away. She, too, +watched with emotionless face. + +"Do you think that I want to buy you?" he demanded. "There! You are free +from your money claims. You can leave my room this moment, if you will, +and owe me nothing." + +She made no movement, yet he was vaguely disturbed by a sense of having +made but little progress, a terrible sense of impending failure. His +fingers began to tremble, his face was the face of a man stretched upon +the rack. + +"Perhaps those words of mine were false," he went on. "Perhaps, in a +sense, I do want to buy you, buy the little kindnesses that go with +affection, buy your kind words, the touch sometimes of your fingers, the +pleasant sense of companionship I feel when I am with you. I know how +proud you are. I know how virtuous you are. I know that it's there in +your blood, the Puritan instinct, the craving for the one man to whom +you have given yourself, the involuntary shrinking from the touch of any +other. Good women are like that--wives or mistresses. Mind, in a sense +it's narrow; in a sense it's splendid. Listen to me. I don't want to +declare war against that instinct--yet. I can't. Perhaps, even now, I +have spoken too soon, craved too soon for the little I do ask. Yet God +knows I can keep the seal upon my lips no longer! Don't let us +misunderstand one another for the sake of using plain words. I am not +asking you to be my mistress. I ask you, on my knees, to take from me +what makes life brighter for you. I ask you for the other things +only--for your confidence, for your affection, your companionship. I ask +to see you every day that it is possible, to know that you are wearing +my gifts, surrounded by my flowers, the rough places in your life made +smooth by my efforts. I am your suppliant, Violet. I ask only for the +crumbs that fall from your table, so long as no other man sits by your +side. Violet, can't you give me as much as this?" + +His hand, hot and trembling, sought hers, touched and gripped it. She +drew her fingers away. It was curious how in those few moments she +seemed to be gifted with an immense clear-sightedness. She knew very +well that nothing about the man was honest save the passion of which he +did not speak. She rose to her feet. + +"Well," she said, "I have listened to you very patiently. If I owe you +any excuse for having appeared to encourage any one of those thoughts of +which you speak, here it is. I am like thousands of other women. I +absolutely don't know until the time comes what sort of a creature I am, +how I shall be moved to act under certain circumstances. I tried to +think last night. I couldn't. I felt that I had gone half-way. I had +taken your money. I had taken it, too, understanding what it means to be +in a man's debt. And still I waited. And now I know. I won't even +question your sincerity. I won't even suggest that you would not be +content with what you ask for--" + +"I have sworn it!" he interrupted hoarsely. "To be your favoured friend, +to be allowed near you--your guardian, if you will--" + +The words failed him. Something in her face checked his eloquence. + +"I can tell you this now and for always," she continued. "I have nothing +to give you. What you ask for is just as impossible as though you were +to walk in your picture gallery and kneel before your great masterpiece +and beg Beatrice herself to step down from the canvas. I began to wonder +yesterday," she went on, rising abruptly and moving across the room, +"whether I really was that sort of woman. With your money in my pocket +and the gambling fever in my pulses, I began even to believe it. And now +I know that I am not. Good-bye, Mr. Draconmeyer. I don't blame you. On +the whole, perhaps, you have behaved quite well. I think that you have +chosen to behave well because that wonderful brain of yours told you +that it gave you the best chance. That doesn't really matter, though." + +He took a quick, almost a threatening step towards her. His face was +dark with all the passions which had preyed upon the man. + +"There is a man's last resource," he muttered thickly. + +"And there is a woman's answer to it," she replied, her finger suddenly +resting upon an unsuspected bell in the wall. + +They both heard its summons. Footsteps came hurrying along the corridor. +Draconmeyer turned his head away, struggling to compose himself. A +waiter entered. Lady Hunterleys picked up her parasol and moved towards +the door. The man stood on one side with a bow. + +"Here is the waiter you rang for, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, +looking over his shoulder. "Wasn't it coffee you wanted? Tell Linda I'll +hope to see her sometime this evening." + +She strolled away. The waiter remained patiently upon the threshold. + +"Coffee for one or two, sir?" he enquired. + +Mr. Draconmeyer struggled for a moment against a torrent of words which +scorched his lips. In the end, however, he triumphed. + +"For one, with cream," he ordered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +A NEW MAP OF THE EARTH + + +Selingman, who was leaning back in a leather-padded chair and smoking a +very excellent cigar, looked around at his companions with a smile of +complete approval. + +"Our host," he declared, bowing to Mr. Grex, "has surpassed himself. For +a hired yacht I have seen nothing more magnificent. A Cabinet Moselle, +Flor de Cuba cigars, the best of company, and an isolation beyond all +question. What place could suit us better?" + +There was a little murmur of assent. The four men were seated together +in the wonderfully decorated saloon of what was, beyond doubt, a most +luxurious yacht. Through the open porthole were visible, every few +moments, as the yacht rose and sank on the swell, the long line of +lights which fringed the shore between Monte Carlo and Mentone; the +mountains beyond, with tiny lights flickering like spangles in a black +mantle of darkness; and further round still, the stream of light from +the Casino, reflected far and wide upon the black waters. + +"None," Mr. Grex asserted confidently. "We are at least beyond reach of +these bungling English spies. There is no further fear of eavesdroppers. +We are entirely alone. Each may speak his own mind. There is nothing to +be feared in the way of interruption. I trust, Monsieur Douaille, that +you appreciate the altered circumstances." + +Monsieur Douaille, who was looking very much more at his ease, assented +without hesitation. + +"I must confess," he agreed, "that the isolation we now enjoy is, to a +certain extent, reassuring. Here we need no longer whisper. One may +listen carefully. One may weigh well what is said. Sooner or later we +must come to the crucial point. This, if you like, is a game of +make-believe. Then, in make-believe, Germany has offered to restore +Alsace and Lorraine, has offered to hold all French territory as sacred, +provided France allows her to occupy Calais for one year. What is your +object, Herr Selingman? Do you indeed wish to invade England?" + +Selingman poured himself out a glass of wine from the bottle which stood +at his elbow. + +"Good!" he said. "We have come to plain questions. I answer in plain +speech. I will tell you now, in a few words, all that remains to be +told. Germany has no desire to invade Great Britain. If one may believe +the newspapers, there is scarcely an Englishman alive who would credit +this simple fact, but it is nevertheless true. Commercially, England, +and a certain measure of English prosperity, are necessary to Germany. +Geographically, there are certain risks to be run in an invasion of that +country, which we do not consider worth while. Besides, an invasion, +even a successful one, would result in making an everlasting and a +bitter enemy of Great Britain. We learnt our lesson when we took +territory from France. We do not need to repeat it. Several hundred +thousands of our most worthy citizens are finding an honest and +prosperous living in London. Several thousands of our merchants are in +business there, and prospering. Several hundreds of our shrewdest men of +affairs are making fortunes upon the London Stock Exchange. Therefore, +we do not wish to conquer England. Commercially, that conquest is +already affected. I want you, Monsieur Douaille, to absolutely +understand this, because it may affect your views. What we do require is +to strike a long and lasting blow at the navy of Great Britain. As a +somewhat larger Holland, Great Britain is welcome to a peaceful +existence. When she lords it over the world, talks of an Empire upon +which the sun never sets, then the time arrives when we are forced to +interfere. Great Britain has possessions which she is not strong enough +to hold. Germany is strong enough to wrest them from her, and means to +do so. The English fleet must be destroyed. South Africa, then, will +come to Germany, India to Russia, Egypt to France. The rest follows as a +matter of course." + +"And what is the rest?" Monsieur Douaille asked. + +Herr Selingman was content no longer to sit in his place. He rose to his +feet. His face had fallen into different lines. His eyes flashed, his +words were inspired. + +"The rest," he declared, "is the crux of the whole matter. It is the one +great and settled goal towards which we who have understood have schemed +and fought our way. With the British Navy destroyed, the Monroe Doctrine +is not worth a sheet of writing-paper. South America is Germany's +natural heritage, by every right worth considering. It is our people's +gold which founded the Argentine Republic, the brains of our people +which control its destinies. Our Eldorado is there, Monsieur Douaille. +That is the country which, sooner or later, Germany must possess. We +look nowhere else. We covet no other of our neighbours' possessions. +Only I say that the sooner America makes up her mind to the sacrifice, +the better. Her Monroe Doctrine is all very well for the Northern +States. When she presumes to quote it as a pretext for keeping Germany +from her natural place in South America, she crosses swords with us. Now +you know the truth, and the whole truth. You know, Monsieur Douaille, +what we require from you, and you know your reward. Our host has already +told you, and will tell you again as often as you like, the feeling of +his own country. The Franco-Russian alliance is already doomed. It falls +to pieces through sheer lack of common interests. The entente cordiale +is simply a fetter and a dead weight upon you. Monsieur Douaille, I put +it to you as a man of common sense. Do you think that you, as a +statesman--you see, I will put the burden upon your shoulders, because, +if you choose, you can speak for your country--do you think that you +have a right to refuse from Germany the return of Alsace and Lorraine? +Do you think that you can look your country in the face if you refuse on +her behalf the greatest gift which has ever yet been offered to any +nation--the gift of Egypt? The old alliances are out of date. The +balance of power has shifted. I ask you, Monsieur Douaille, as you value +the prosperity and welfare of your country, to weigh what I have said +and what our great Russian friend has said, word by word. England has +made no sacrifices for you. Why should you sacrifice yourself for her?" + +Monsieur Douaille stroked his little grey imperial. + +"That is well enough," he muttered, "but without the English Navy the +balance of power upon the Continent is entirely upset." + +"The balance of power only according to the present grouping of +interests," Mr. Grex pointed out. "Selingman has shown us how these must +change. Frankly, although no one can fail to realise the immense +importance of South America as a colonising centre, it is my honest +opinion that the nation who scores most by my friend Selingman's plans, +is not Germany but France. Think what it means to her. Instead of being +a secondary Power, she will of her own might absolutely control the +Mediterranean. Egypt, with its vast possibilities, its ever-elastic +boundary, falls to her hand. Malta and Cyprus follow. It is a great +price that Germany is prepared to pay." + +Monsieur Douaille was silent for several moments. It was obvious that he +was deeply impressed. + +"This is a matter," he said, "which must be considered from many points +of view. Supposing that France were willing to bury the hatchet with +Germany, to remain neutral or to place Calais at Germany's disposal. +Even then, do you suppose, Herr Selingman, that it would be an easy +matter to destroy the British Navy?" + +"We have our plans," Selingman declared solemnly. "We know very well +that they can be carried out only at a great loss both of men and ships. +It is a gloomy and terrible task that lies before us, but at the other +end of it is the glory that never fades." + +"If America," Douaille remarked, "were to have an inkling of your real +objective, her own fleet would come to the rescue." + +"Why should America know of our ultimate aims?" Selingman rejoined. "Her +politicians to-day choose to play the part of the ostrich in the desert. +They take no account, or profess to take no account of European +happenings. They have no Secret Service. Their country is governed from +within for herself only. As for the rest, the bogey of a German invasion +has been flaunted so long in England that few people stop to realise the +absolute futility of such a course. London is already colonised by +Germans--colonised, that is to say, in urban and money-making fashion. +English gold is flowing in a never-ending stream into our country. It +would be the most foolish dream an ambitious statesman could conceive to +lay violent hands upon a land teeming with one's own children. Germany +sees further than this. There are richer prizes across the Atlantic, +richer prizes from every point of view." + +"You mentioned South Africa," Monsieur Douaille murmured. + +Selingman shrugged his shoulders. + +"South Africa will make no nation rich," he replied. "Her own people are +too stubborn and powerful, too rooted to the soil." + +Monsieur Douaille for the first time stretched out his hand and drank +some of the wine which stood by his side. His cheeks were very pale. He +had the appearance of a man tortured by conflicting thoughts. + +"I should like to ask you, Selingman," he said, "whether you have made +any definite plans for your conflict with the British Navy? I admit that +the days of England's unique greatness are over. She may not be in a +position to-day, as she has been in former years, to fight the world. At +the same time, her one indomitable power is still, whatever people may +say or think, her navy. Only last month the Cabinet of my country were +considering reports from their secret agents and placing them side by +side with known facts, as to the relative strength of your navy and the +navy of Great Britain. On paper it would seem that a German success was +impossible." + +Selingman smiled--the convincing smile of a man who sees further than +most men. + +"Not under the terms I should propose to you, Monsieur Douaille," he +declared. "Remember that we should hold Calais, and we should be assured +at least of the amiable neutrality of your fleet. We have spoken of +matters so intimate that I do not know whether in this absolute privacy +I should not be justified in going further and disclosing to you our +whole scheme for an attack upon the English Navy. It would need only an +expression of your sympathy with those views which we have discussed, to +induce me to do so." + +Monsieur Douaille hesitated for several moments before he replied. + +"I am a citizen of France," he said, "an envoy without powers to treat. +My own province is to listen." + +"But your personal sympathies?" Selingman persisted. + +"I have sometimes thought," Monsieur Douaille confessed, "that the +present grouping of European Powers must gradually change. If your +country, for instance," he added, turning to Mr. Grex, "indeed embraces +the proposals of Herr Selingman, France must of necessity be driven to +reconsider her position towards England. The Anglo-Saxon race may have +to battle then for her very existence. Yet it is always to be remembered +that in the background are the United States of America, possessing +resources and wealth greater than any other country in the universe." + +"And it must also be remembered," Selingman proclaimed, in a tone of +ponderous conviction, "that she possesses no adequate means of guarding +them, that she is not a military nation, that she has not the strength +to enforce the carrying out of the Monroe Doctrine. Things were all very +well for her before the days of wireless telegraphy, of aeroplanes and +airships, of super-dreadnoughts, and cruisers with the speed of express +trains. She was too far away to be concerned in European turmoils. +To-day science is annihilating distance. America, leaving out of account +altogether her military impotence, would need a fleet three times her +present strength to enforce the Monroe Doctrine for the remainder--not +of this century but of this decade." + +Then the bombshell fell. A strange voice suddenly intervened, a voice +whose American accent seemed more marked than usual. The four men turned +their heads. Selingman sprang to his feet. Mr. Grex's face was marble in +its whiteness. Monsieur Douaille, with a nervous sweep of his right arm, +sent his glass crashing to the floor. They all looked in the same +direction, up to the little music gallery. Leaning over in a careless +attitude, with his arms folded upon the rail, was Richard Lane. + +"Say," he begged, "can I take a hand in this little discussion?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +CHECKMATE! + + +Of the four men, Selingman was the first to recover himself. + +"Who the hell are you, and how did you get up there?" he roared. + +"I am Richard Lane," the young man explained affably, "and there's a way +up from the music-room. You probably didn't notice it. And there's a way +down, as you may perceive," he added, pointing to the spiral staircase. +"I'll join you, if I may." + +There was a dead silence as for a moment Richard disappeared and was +seen immediately afterwards descending the round staircase. Mr. Grex +touched Selingman on the arm and whispered in his ear. Selingman nodded. +There were evil things in the faces of both men as Lane approached them. + +"Will you kindly explain your presence here at once, sir?" Mr. Grex +ordered. + +"I say!" Richard protested. "A joke's a joke, but when you ask a man to +explain his presence on his own boat, you're coming it just a little +thick, eh? To tell you the truth, I had some sort of an idea of asking +you the same question." + +"What do you mean--your own boat?" Draconmeyer demanded. + +He was, perhaps, the first to realise the situation. Richard thrust his +hands into his pockets and sat upon the edge of the table. + +"Seems to me," he remarked, "that you gentlemen have made some sort of a +mistake. Where do you think you are, anyway?" + +"On board Schwann's yacht, the _Christabel_," Selingman replied. + +Richard shook his head. + +"Not a bit of it," he assured them. "This is the steam-yacht, +_Minnehaha_, which brought me over from New York, and of which I am most +assuredly the owner. Now I come to think of it," he went on, "there was +another yacht leaving the harbour at the same time. Can't have happened +that you boarded the wrong boat, eh?" + +Mr. Grex was icily calm, but there was menace of the most dangerous sort +in his look and manner. + +"Nothing of that sort was possible," he declared, "as you are, without +doubt, perfectly well aware. It appears to me that this is a deliberate +plot. The yacht which I and my friends thought that we were boarding +to-night was the _Christabel_, which my servant had instructions to hire +from Schwann of Monaco. I await some explanation from you, sir, as to +your purpose in sending your pinnace to the landing-stage of the Villa +Mimosa and deliberately misleading us as to our destination?" + +"Well, I don't know that I've got much to say about that," Richard +replied easily. + +"You are offering us no explanation?" Selingman demanded. + +"None," Richard assented coolly. + +Selingman suddenly struck the table with his clenched fist. + +"You were not alone up in that gallery!" + +"Getting warm, aren't you?" Richard murmured. + +Selingman turned to Grex. + +"This young man is Hunterleys' friend. They've fixed this up between +them. Listen!" + +A door slammed above their heads. Some one had left the music gallery. + +"Hunterleys himself!" Selingman cried. + +"Sure!" Richard assented. "Bright fellow, Selingman," he continued +amiably. "I wouldn't try that on, if I were you," he added, turning to +Mr. Grex, whose hand was slowly stealing from the back of his coat. +"That sort of thing doesn't do, nowadays. Revolvers belong to the last +decade of intrigue. You're a bit out of date with that little weapon. +Don't be foolish. I am not angry with any of you. I am willing to take +this little joke pleasantly, but----" + +He raised a whistle to his lips and blew it. The door at the further end +of the saloon was opened as though by magic. A steward in the yacht's +uniform appeared. From outside was visible a very formidable line of +sailors. Grex, with a swift gesture, slipped something back into his +pocket, something which glittered like silver. + +"Serve some champagne, Reynolds," Richard ordered the steward who had +come hurrying in, "and bring some cigars." + +The man withdrew. Richard seated himself once more upon the table, +clasping one knee. + +"Look here," he said, "I'll be frank with you. I came into this little +affair for the sake of a pal. It was only by accident that I found my +way up yonder--more to look after him than anything. I never imagined +that you would have anything to say that was interesting to me. Seems I +was wrong, though. You've got things very nicely worked out, Mr. +Selingman." + +Selingman glared at the young man but said nothing. The others, too, +were all remarkably bereft of words. + +"Don't mind my staying for a little chat, do you?" Richard continued +pleasantly. "You see, I am an American and I am kind of interested in +the latter portion of what you had to say. I dare say you're quite right +in some respects. We are a trifle too commercial and a trifle too +cocksure. You see, things have always gone our way. All the same, we've +got the stuff, you know. Just consider this. If I thought there was any +real need for it, and I begin to think that perhaps there may be, I +should be ready to present the United States with a Dreadnought +to-morrow, and I don't know that I should need to spend very much less +myself. And," he went on, "there are thirty or forty others who could +and would do the same. Tidy little fleet we should soon have, you see, +without a penny of taxation. Of course, I know we would need the men, +but we've a grand reserve to draw upon in the West. They are not +bothering about the navy in times of peace, but they'd stream into it +fast enough if there were any real need." + +The chief steward appeared, followed by two or three of his +subordinates. A tray of wine was placed upon the table. Bottles were +opened, but no one made any attempt to drink. Richard filled his own +glass and motioned the men to withdraw. + +"Prefer your own wine?" he remarked. "Well, now, that's too bad. Hope +I'm not boring you?" + +No one spoke or moved. Richard settled himself a little more comfortably +upon the table. + +"I can't tell you all," he proceeded, "how interested I have been, +listening up there. Quite a gift of putting things clearly, if I may be +allowed to say so, you seem to possess, Mr. Selingman. Now here's my +reply as one of the poor Anglo-Saxons from the West who've got to make +room in the best parts of the world for your lubberly German colonists. +If you make a move in the game you've been talking so glibly about, if +my word counts for anything, if my persuasions count for anything--and +I've facts to go on, you know--you'll have the American fleet to deal +with at the same time as the English, and I fancy that will be a trifle +more than you can chew up, eh? I'm going back to America a little +earlier than I anticipated. Of course, they'll laugh at me at first in +Washington. They don't believe much in these round-table conferences and +European plots. But all the same I've got some friends there. We'll try +and remember this amiable little statement of policy of yours, Mr. +Selingman. Nothing like being warned, you know." + +Mr. Grex rose from his place. + +"Sir," he said, "since we have been and are your unwilling guests, will +you be so good as to arrange for us at once to relieve you of our +presence?" + +"Well, I'm not so sure about that," Richard remarked, meditatively. "I +think I'd contribute a good deal to the comfort and happiness of this +generation if I took you all out to sea and dropped you overboard, one +by one." + +"As I presume you have no such intention," Mr. Grex persisted, "I repeat +that we should be glad to be allowed to land." + +Richard abandoned his indolent posture and stood facing them. + +"You came on board, gentlemen, without my invitation," he reminded them. +"You will leave my ship when I choose--and that," he added, "is not just +at present." + +"Do you mean that we are to consider ourselves your prisoners?" +Draconmeyer asked, with an acid smile. + +"Certainly not--my guests," Richard replied, with a bow. "I can assure +you that it will only be a matter of a few hours." + +Monsieur Douaille hammered the table with his fist. + +"Young man," he exclaimed, "I leave with you! I insist upon it that I am +permitted to leave. I am not a party to this conference. I am merely a +guest, a listener, here wholly in my private capacity. I will not be +associated with whatever political scandal may arise from this affair. I +demand permission to leave at once." + +"Seems to me there's something in what you say," Richard admitted. "Very +well, you can come along. I dare say Hunterleys will be glad to have a +chat with you. As for the rest of you," he concluded, as Monsieur +Douaille rose promptly to his feet, "I have a little business to arrange +on land which I think I could manage better whilst you are at sea. I +shall therefore, gentlemen, wish you good evening. Pray consider my +yacht entirely at your disposal. My stewards will be only too happy to +execute any orders--supper, breakfast, or dinner. You have merely to say +the word." + +He turned towards the door, closely followed by Douaille, who, in a +state of great excitement, refused to listen to Selingman's entreaties. + +"No, no!" the former objected, shaking his head. "I will not stay. I +will not be associated with this meeting. You are bunglers, all of you. +I came only to listen, on your solemn assurance of entire secrecy. We +are spied upon at the Villa Mimosa, we are made fools of on board this +yacht. No more unofficial meetings for me!" + +"Quite right, old fellow," Richard declared, as they passed out and on +to the deck. "Set of wrong 'uns, those chaps, even though Mr. Grex is a +Grand Duke. You know Sir Henry Hunterleys, don't you?" + +Hunterleys came forward from the gangway, at the foot of which the +pinnace was waiting. + +"We are taking Monsieur Douaille ashore," Richard explained, as the two +men shook hands. "He really doesn't belong to that gang and he wants to +cut adrift. You understand my orders exactly, captain?" he asked, as +they stepped down the iron gangway. + +"Perfectly, sir," was the prompt reply. "You may rely upon me. I am +afraid they are beginning to make a noise downstairs already!" + +The little pinnace shot out a stream of light across the dark, placid +sea. Douaille was talking earnestly to Hunterleys. + +"Pleasantest few minutes I ever spent in my life," Richard murmured, as +he took out his cigarette case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AN AMAZING ELOPEMENT + + +The sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was cloudless as Richard +turned his automobile into the grounds of the Villa Mimosa, soon after +nine o'clock on the following morning. The yellow-blossomed trees, +slightly stirred by the west wind, formed a golden arch across the +winding avenue. The air was sweet, almost faint with perfume. On the +terrace, holding a pair of field-glasses in her hand and gazing intently +out to sea, was Fedora. At the sound of the motor-horn she turned +quickly. She looked at the visitor in surprise. A shade of pink was in +her face. Lane brought the car to a standstill, jumped out and climbed +the steps of the terrace. + +"What has brought you here?" she asked, in surprise. + +"I have just come to pay you a little visit," he remarked easily. "I was +only afraid you mightn't be up so early." + +She bit her lip. + +"You have no right to come here at all," she said severely, "and to +present yourself at this hour is unheard of." + +"I came early entirely out of consideration for your father," he assured +her. + +She frowned. + +"My father?" she repeated. "Please explain at once what you mean. My +father is on that yacht and I cannot imagine why he does not return." + +"I can tell you," he answered, standing by her side and looking out +seawards. "They are waiting for my orders before they let him off." + +She turned her head and looked at him incredulously. + +"Explain yourself, please," she insisted. + +"With pleasure," he assented. "You see, I just had to make sure of being +allowed to have a few minutes' conversation with you, free from any +interruption. Somehow or other," he added thoughtfully, "I don't believe +your father likes me." + +"I do not think," she replied coldly, "that my father has any feelings +about you at all, except that he thinks you are abominably +presumptuous." + +"Because I want to marry you?" + +She stamped with her foot upon the ground. + +"Please do not say such absurd things! Explain to me at once what you +mean by saying that my father is being kept there by your orders." + +"I'll try," Lane answered. "He boarded that yacht last night in mistake. +He thought that it was a hired one, but it isn't. It's mine. I found him +there last night, entertaining a little party of his friends in the +saloon. They seemed quite comfortable, so I begged them to remain on as +my guests for a short time." + +"To remain?" she murmured, bewildered. "For how long?" + +"Until you've just read this through and thought it over." + +He passed her a document which he had drawn from his pocket. She took it +from him wonderingly. When she had read a few lines, the colour came +streaming into her cheeks. She threw it to the ground. He picked it up +and replaced it in his pocket. + +"But it is preposterous!" she cried. "That is a marriage license!" + +"That's precisely what it is," he admitted. "I thought we'd be married +at Nice. My sister is waiting to go along with us. I said we'd pick her +up at the Hotel de Paris." + +Severe critics of her undoubted beauty had ventured at times to say that +Fedora's face lacked expression. There was, at that moment, no room for +any such criticism. Amazement struggled with indignation in her eyes. +Her lips were quivering, her breath was coming quickly. + +"Do you mean--have you given her or any one to understand that there was +any likelihood of my consenting to such an absurd scheme?" + +"I only told her what I hoped," he said quietly. "That is all I dared +say even to myself. But I want you to listen to me." + +His voice had grown softer. She turned her head and looked at him. He +was much taller than she was, and in his grey tweed suit, his head a +little thrown back, his straw hat clasped in his hands behind him, his +clear grey eyes full of serious purpose, he was certainly not an +unattractive figure to look upon. Unconsciously she found herself +comparing him once more with the men of her world, found herself +realising, even against her will, the charm of his naďve and dogged +honesty, his youth, his tenacity of purpose. She had never been made +love to like this before. + +"Please listen," he begged. "I am afraid that your father must be in a +tearing rage by now, but it can't be helped. He is out there and he +hasn't got an earthly chance of getting back until I give the word. +We've got plenty of time to reach Nice before he can land. I just want +you to realise, Fedora, that you are your own mistress. You can make or +spoil your own life. No one else has any right to interfere. Have you +ever seen any one yet, back in your own country, amongst your own +people, whom you really felt that you cared for--who you really believed +would be willing to lay down his life to make you happy?" + +"No," she confessed simply, "I do not know that I have. Our men are not +like that." + +"It is because," he went on, "there is no one back there who cares as I +do. I have spent some years of my life looking--quite unconsciously, but +looking all the same--for some one like you. Now I have found you I am +glad I have waited. There couldn't be any one else. There never could +be, Fedora. I love you just in the way a man does love once in his life, +if he's lucky. It's a queer sort of feeling, you know," he continued, +leaning a little towards her. "It makes me quite sure that I could make +you happy. It makes me quite sure that if you'll give me your hand and +trust me, and leave everything to me, you'll have just the things in +life that women want. Won't you be brave, Fedora? There are some things +to break through, I know, but they don't amount to much--they don't, +really. And I love you, you know. You can't imagine yet what a wonderful +difference that makes. You'll find out and you'll be glad." + +She stood quite still. Her eyes were still fixed seawards, but she was +looking beyond the yacht, now, to the dim line where sky and sea seemed +to meet. The vision of her past days seemed to be drawn out before her, +a little monotonous, a little wearisome even in their splendour, more +than a little empty. And underneath it all she was listening to the new +music, and her heart was telling her the truth. + +"You don't need to make any plans," he said softly. "Go and put on your +hat and something to wear motoring. Bring a dressing-bag, if you like. +Flossie is waiting for us and she is rather a dear. You can leave +everything else to me." + +She looked timidly into his eyes. A new feeling was upon her. She gave +him her hand almost shyly. Her voice trembled. + +"If I come," she whispered, "you are quite sure that you mean it all? +You are quite sure that you will not change?" + +He raised her hand to his lips. + +"Not in this world, dear," he answered, with sublime confidence, "nor +any other!" + +She stole away from him. He was left alone upon the terrace, alone, but +with the exquisite conviction of her return, promised in that last +half-tremulous, half-smiling look over her shoulder. Then suddenly life +seemed to come to him with a rush, a new life, filled with a new +splendour. He was almost humbly conscious of bigger things than he had +ever realised, a nearness to the clouds, a wonderful, thrilling sense of +complete and absolute happiness.... Reluctantly he came back to earth. +His thoughts became practical. He went to the back of his car, drew out +a rocket on a stick and thrust it firmly into the lawn. Then he started +his engine and almost immediately afterwards she came. She was wearing a +white silk motor-coat and a thick veil. Behind her came a bewildered +French maid, carrying wraps, and a man-servant with a heavy +dressing-case. In silence these things were stowed away. She took her +place in the car. Lane struck a match and stepped on to the lawn. + +"Don't be frightened," he said. "Here goes!" + +A rocket soared up into the sky. Then he seated himself beside her and +they glided off. + +"That means," he explained, "that they'll let your father and the others +off in two hours. Give us plenty of time to get to Nice. Have you--left +any word for him?" + +"I have left a very short message," she answered, "to say that I was +going to marry you. He will never forgive me, and I feel very wicked and +very ungrateful." + +"Anything else?" he whispered, leaning a little towards her. + +She sighed. + +"And very happy," she murmured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +HONEYMOONING + + +Hunterleys saw the Right Honourable Meredith Simpson and Monsieur +Douaille off to Paris early that morning. Then he called round at the +hospital to find that Sidney Roche was out of danger, and went on to the +villa with the good news. On his way back he stayed chatting with the +bank manager until rather later than usual, and afterwards strolled on +to the Terrace, where he looked with some eagerness towards a certain +point in the bay. The _Minnehaha_ had departed. Mr. Grex and his +friends, then, had been set free. Hunterleys returned to the hotel +thoughtfully. At the entrance he came across two or three trunks being +wheeled out, which seemed to him somehow familiar. He stopped to look at +the initials. They were his wife's. + +"Is Lady Hunterleys leaving to-day?" he asked the luggage-porter. + +"By the evening train, sir," the man announced. "She would have caught +the _Côte d'Azur_ this morning but there was no place on the train." + +Hunterleys was perplexed. Some time after luncheon he enquired for Lady +Hunterleys and found that she was not in the hotel. A reception clerk +thought that he had seen her go through on her way to the Sporting Club. +Hunterleys, after some moments of indecision, followed her. He was +puzzled at her impending departure, unable to account for it. The +Draconmeyers, he knew, proposed to stay for another month. He walked +thoughtfully along the private way and climbed the stairs into the Club. +He looked for his wife in her usual place. She was not there. He made a +little promenade of the rooms and eventually he found her amongst the +spectators around the baccarat table. He approached her at once. + +"You are not playing?" + +She started at the sound of his voice. She was dressed very simply in +travelling clothes, and there were lines under her eyes, as though she +were fatigued. + +"No," she admitted, "I am not playing." + +"I understood in the hotel," he continued, "that you were leaving +to-day." + +"I am going back to England," she announced. "It does not amuse me here +any longer." + +He realised at once that something had happened. A curious sense of +excitement stole into his blood. + +"If you are not playing here, will you come and sit down for a few +moments?" he invited. "I should like to talk to you." + +She followed him without a word. He led the way to one of the divans in +the roulette room. + +"Your favourite place," he remarked, "is occupied." + +She nodded. + +"I have given up playing," she told him. + +He looked at her in some surprise. She drew a little breath and kept her +eyes steadily averted. + +"You will probably know sometime or other," she continued, "so I will +tell you now. I have lost four thousand pounds to Mr. Draconmeyer. I am +going back to England to realise my own money, so as to be able to pay +him at once." + +"You borrowed four thousand pounds from Mr. Draconmeyer?" he repeated +incredulously. + +"Yes! It was very foolish, I know, and I have lost every penny of it. I +am not the first woman, I suppose, who has lost her head at Monte +Carlo," she added, a little defiantly. + +"Does Mr. Draconmeyer know that you are leaving?" he asked. + +"Not yet," she answered, after a moment's hesitation. "I had an +interview with him yesterday and I realised at once that the money must +be paid, and without delay. I realised, too, that it was better I should +leave Monte Carlo and break off my association with these people for the +present." + +In a sense it was a sordid story, yet to Hunterleys her words sounded +like music. + +"I am very pleased indeed," he said quietly, "that you feel like that. +Draconmeyer is not a man to whom I should like my wife to owe money for +a moment longer than was absolutely necessary." + +"Your estimate of him was correct," she confessed slowly. "I am sorry, +Henry." + +He rose suddenly to his feet. An inspiration had seized him. + +"Come," he declared, "we will pay Draconmeyer back without sending you +home to sell your securities. Come and stand with me." + +She looked at him in amazement. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "You are not going to play? Don't! Take my +advice and don't!" + +He laughed. + +"We'll see," he replied confidently. "You wouldn't believe that I was a +fatalist, would you? I am, though. Everything that I had hoped for seems +to be happening to-day. You have found out Draconmeyer, we have +checkmated Mr. Grex, I have drunk the health of Felicia and David +Briston--" + +"Felicia and David Briston?" she interrupted quickly. "What do you +mean?" + +"You knew, of course, that they were engaged?" he explained. "I called +round at the villa this morning, after I had been to the hospital, and +found them busy fixing the wedding day." + +She looked at him vaguely. + +"Engaged?" she murmured. "Why, I thought--" + +A spot of colour suddenly burned in her cheeks. She was beginning to +understand. It was Draconmeyer who had put those ideas into her head. +Her heart gave a little leap. + +"Henry!" she whispered. + +He was already at the table, however. He changed five mille notes +deliberately, counted his plaques and turned to her. + +"I am going to play on your principle," he declared. "I have always +thought it an interesting one. See, the last number was twenty-two. I am +going to back twenty and all the _carrés_." + +He covered the board around number twenty. There were a few minutes of +suspense, then the click as the ball fell into the little space. + +"_Vingt-huit, noir, passe et pair!_" the croupier announced. + +Hunterleys' stake was swept away. He only smiled. + +"Our numbers are going to turn up," he insisted cheerfully. "I am +certain of it now. Do you know that this is the first time I have played +since I have been in Monte Carlo?" + +She watched him half in fear. This time he staked on twenty-nine, with +the maximum _en plein_ and all the _carrés_ and _chevaux_. Again the few +moments of suspense, the click of the ball, the croupier's voice. + +_"Vingt-neuf, noir, impair et passe!"_ + +She clutched at his arm. + +"Henry!" she gasped. + +He laughed. + +"Open your bag," he directed. "We'll soon fill it." + +He left his stake untouched. Thirty-one turned up. He won two _carrés_ +and let the table go once without staking. Ten was the next number. +Immediately he placed the maximum on number fourteen, _carrés_ and +_chevaux_. Again the pause, again the croupier's voice. + +_"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque!"_ + +Hunterleys showed no exultation and scarcely any surprise. He gathered +in his winnings and repeated his stake. This time he won one of his +_carrés_. The next time _quatorze_ turned up again. For half-an-hour he +continued, following his few chosen numbers according to the run of the +table. At the end of that time Violet's satchel was full and he was +beginning to collect mille notes for his plaques. He made a little +calculation in his mind and decided that he must already have won more +than the necessary amount. + +"Our last stake," he remarked coolly. + +The preceding number had been twenty-six. He placed the maximum on +twenty-nine, the _carrés_, _chevaux_, the column, colour and last dozen. +He felt Violet's fingers clutching his arm. There was a little buzz of +excitement all round the table as the croupier announced the number. + +_"Vingt-neuf noir, impair et passe!..."_ + +They took their winnings into the anteroom beyond, where Hunterleys +ordered tea. There was a little flush in Violet's cheeks. They counted +the money. There was nearly five thousand pounds. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "I think that that last coup was the most +marvellous win I ever saw!" + +"A most opportune one, at any rate," he replied grimly. "Look who is +coming." + +Draconmeyer had entered the room, and was peering everywhere as though +in search of some one. He suddenly caught sight of them, hesitated for a +moment and then approached. He addressed himself to Violet. + +"I have just seen Linda," he said. "She is broken-hearted at the thought +of your departure." + +"I am sorry to leave her," Violet replied, "but I feel that I have +stayed quite long enough in Monte Carlo. By the bye, Mr. Draconmeyer, +there is that little affair of the money you were kind enough to advance +to me." + +Draconmeyer stood quite still. He looked from husband to wife. + +"Four thousand pounds, my wife tells me," Hunterleys remarked coolly, as +he began to count out the notes. "It is very good of you indeed to have +acted as my wife's banker. Do you mind being paid now? Our movements are +a little uncertain and it will save the trouble of sending you a +cheque." + +Draconmeyer laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh, nor was it in the +least mirthful. + +"Dear me!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten that little matter. As you +will, certainly." + +He accepted the notes and stuffed them into his pocket. + +"By the bye," he continued, "I think that I ought to congratulate you, +Sir Henry. That last little affair of yours was wonderfully +stage-managed. Your country owes you more than it is ever likely to pay. +You have succeeded, at any rate, in delaying the inevitable." + +"I trust," Hunterleys enquired politely, "that you were not detained +upon the yacht for very long?" + +"We landed at the Villa at twelve o'clock this morning," Draconmeyer +replied. "You know, of course, of the little surprise our young American +friend had prepared for Mr. Grex?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"I have heard nothing definite." + +"He was married to the daughter of the Grand Duke Augustus at midday at +Nice," Draconmeyer announced. "His Serene Highness received a telephone +message only a short time ago." + +Violet gave a little cry. She leaned across the table eagerly. + +"You mean that they have eloped?" + +Draconmeyer assented. + +"All Monte Carlo will be talking about it to-morrow," he declared. "The +Grand Duke has been doing all he can to get it hushed up, but it is +useless. I will not detain you any longer. I see that you are about to +have tea." + +"We shall meet, perhaps, in London?" Hunterleys remarked, as Draconmeyer +prepared to depart. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"I think not," he replied. "The doctors have advised me that the climate +of England is bad for my wife's health, and I feel that my own work +there is finished. I have received an offer to go out to South America +for a time. Very likely I shall accept." + +He passed on with a final bow. Violet looked across their table and her +eyes shone. + +"It seems like a fairy tale, Henry," she whispered. "You don't know what +a load on my mind that money has been, and how I was growing to detest +Mr. Draconmeyer." + +He smiled. + +"I was rather hating the beast myself," he admitted. "Tell me, what are +your plans, really?" + +"I hadn't made any," she confessed, "except to get away as quickly as I +could." + +He leaned a little across the table. + +"Elopements are rather in the fashion," he said. "What do you think? +Couldn't we have a little dinner at Ciro's and catch the last train to +Nice; have a look at Richard and his wife and then go on to Cannes, and +make our way back to England later?" + +She looked at him and his face grew younger. There was something in her +eyes which reminded him of the days which for so many weary months he +had been striving to forget. + +"Henry," she murmured, "I have been very foolish. If you can trust me +once more, I think I can promise that I'll never be half so idiotic +again." + +He rose to his feet blithely. + +"It has been my fault just as much," he declared, "and the fault of +circumstances. I couldn't tell you the whole truth, but there has been a +villainous conspiracy going on here. Draconmeyer, Selingman, and the +Grand Duke were all in it and I have been working like a slave. Now it's +all over, finished this morning on Richard's yacht. We've done what we +could. I'm a free lance now and we'll spend the holidays together." + +She gave him her fingers across the table and he held them firmly in +his. Then she, too, rose and they passed out together. There was a +wonderful change in Hunterleys. He seemed to have grown years younger. + +"Come," he exclaimed, "they call this the City of Pleasure, but these +are the first happy moments I have spent in it. We'll gamble in +five-franc pieces for an hour or so. Then we'll go back to the hotel and +have our trunks sent down to the station, dine at Ciro's and wire +Richard. Where are you going to stake your money?" + +"I think I shall begin with number twenty-nine," she laughed. + + * * * * * + +They lunched with Richard and his wife, a few days later, at the Casino +at Cannes. The change in the two young people was most impressive. +Fedora had lost the dignified aloofness of Monte Carlo. She seemed as +though she had found her girlhood. She was brilliantly, supremely happy. +Richard, on the other hand, was more serious. He took Hunterleys on one +side as they waited for the cars. + +"We are on our way to Biarritz," he said, "by easy stages. The yacht +will meet us there and we are going to sail at once for America." + +"Fedora doesn't mind?" Hunterleys asked. + +"Not in the least," Richard declared exultantly. "She knows what my duty +is, and, Hunterleys, I am going to try and do it. The people over there +may need a lot of convincing, but they are going to hear the truth from +me and have it drummed into them. It's going to be 'Wake up, America!' +as well as 'Wake up, England!'" + +"Stick at it, Richard," Hunterleys advised. "Don't mind a little +discouragement. Men who see the truth and aren't afraid to keep on +calling attention to it, get laughed at a great deal. People speak of +them tolerantly, listen to what they say, doubt its reasonableness and +put it at the back of their heads, but in the end it does good. Your +people and mine are slow to believe and slow to understand, but the +truth sinks in if one proclaims it often enough and loudly enough. We +are going through it in our own country just now, with regard to +National Service, for one thing. Here come your cars. You travel in +state, Richard." + +The young man laughed good-naturedly. + +"There's nothing in life which I could give her that Fedora sha'n't +have," he asserted. "We spent the first two days absolutely alone. Now +her maid and my man come along with the luggage in the heavy car, and we +take the little racer. Jolly hard work they have to keep anywhere near +us, I can tell you. Say, may I make a rather impertinent remark, Sir +Henry?" + +"You have earned the right to say anything to me you choose," Hunterleys +replied. "Go ahead." + +"Why, it's only this," Richard continued, a little awkwardly. "I have +never seen Lady Hunterleys look half so ripping, and you seem years +younger." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"To tell you the truth, I feel it. You see, years ago, when we started +out for our honeymoon, there was a crisis after the first week and we +had to rush back to England. We seem to have forgotten to ever finish +that honeymoon of ours. We are doing it now." + +The two women came down the steps, the cynosure of a good many eyes, the +two most beautiful women in the Casino. Richard helped his wife into her +place, wrapped her up and took the steering wheel. + +"Hyčres to-night and Marseilles to-morrow," he announced, "Biarritz on +Saturday. We shall stay there for a week, and then--'Wake up, America!'" + +The cars glided off. Hunterleys and his wife stood on the steps, waving +their hands. + +"Something about those children," Hunterleys declared, as they vanished, +"makes me feel absurdly young. Let's go shopping, Violet. I want to buy +you some flowers and chocolates." + +She smiled happily as she took his arm for a moment. + +"And then?" + +"What would you like to do afterwards?" he asked. + +"I think," she replied, leaning towards him, "that I should like to go +to that nice Englishman who lets villas, and find one right at the edge +of the sea, quite hidden, and lock the gates, and give no one our +address, and have you forget for just one month that there was any work +to do in the world, or any one else in it except me." + +"Just to make up," he laughed softly. + +"Women are like that, you know," she murmured. + +"The man's office is this way," Hunterleys said, turning off the main +street. + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels + +We do not stop to inquire into the measure of his art any more than we +inquire into that of Alexander Dumas. We only realize that here is a +benefactor of tired men and women seeking relaxation.--_Independent_, +New York. + + Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo + An amazing revelation of war in the making. + + The Vanished Messenger + What resulted when the Powers conspired against England. + + A People's Man + How a socialistic leader became involved in international affairs. + + The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton + Oppenheim in a new vein--a pure comedy. + + The Mischief-Maker + A blending of love, romance, and international intrigue. + + The Lighted Way + A mystery story that involves the revolution in Portugal. + + Havoc + An engrossing story of love, mystery, and international intrigue. + + Peter Ruff and the Double-Four + Deals with a shrewd detective and a mysterious secret society. + + The Moving Finger + A mystifying story dealing with a wealthy M. P.'s experiment. + + Berenice + A masterly tale of a strong love that is tragic in its outcome. + + The Prince of Sinners + An engrossing story of English social and political life. + + Anna the Adventuress + A surprising tale of a bold deception. + + The Master Mummer + The strange romance of beautiful Isobel de Sorrens. + + The Mysterious Mr. Sabin + The ingenious story of a bold international intrigue. + + The Yellow Crayon + Mr. Sabin's exciting experiences with a powerful secret society. + + A Millionaire of Yesterday + A gripping story of a wealthy West African miner. + + The Man and His Kingdom + A dramatic tale of adventure in South America. + + The Traitors + A capital romance of love, adventure, and Russian intrigue. + + The Betrayal + A thrilling story of treachery in high diplomatic circles. + + A Sleeping Memory + The story of an unhappy girl who was deprived of her memory. + + Enoch Strone: A Master of Men + A tremendously strong story of a self-made man. + + A Maker of History + A daring tale that "explains" a great historical event. + + The Malefactor + An amazing story of a strange revenge. + + A Lost Leader + A realistic romance woven around a striking personality. + + The Great Secret + Unfolds a stupendous international conspiracy. + + The Avenger + Unravels the deepest of mysteries with consummate power. + + The Long Arm of Mannister + Deals with a wronged man's ingenious revenge. + + The Tempting of Tavernake + In which an unromantic Englishman falls in love and learns something + about women. + + The Governors + A romance of the intrigues of American finance. + + Jeanne of the Marshes + Strange doings at an English house party are here set forth. + + As a Man Lives + Discloses the mystery surrounding the fair occupant of a yellow house. + + The Illustrious Prince + Exposes a Japanese political intrigue in London. + + The Lost Ambassador + A straightforward mystery tale of Paris and London. + + A Daughter of the Marionis + A tale of a beautiful Sicilian whose love interfered with her revenge. + + The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown + An ingenious solution of a murder mystery. + + The Survivor + A striking story of a young Englishman's uphill fight. + + The World's Great Snare + The love romance of a pretty American girl and an English prospector. + + Those Other Days + A collection of gripping and vivid stories. + + For the Queen + Remarkable stories of diplomatic scandals and political intrigue. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, by E. Phillips Oppenheim + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + +***** This file should be named 20611-8.txt or 20611-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/1/20611/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Phillips Oppenheim. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, by E. Phillips Oppenheim + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo + +Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim + +Illustrator: Will Grefé + +Release Date: February 17, 2007 [EBook #20611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO</h1> + +<h2>BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "THE VANISHED MESSENGER," "A PEOPLE'S MAN," "THE MISCHIEF +MAKER"</h3> + +<h4>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br /> +WILL GREFÉ</h4> + +<h4>BOSTON<br /> +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br /> +1915</h4> + + +<h4>THE COLONIAL PRESS<br /> +C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + + +<h3>She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed number fourteen <i>en plein</i>.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">An Unexpected Meeting</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">By Accident or Design</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">A Warning</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">Enter the American</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. "<span class="smcap">Who is Mr. Grex</span>?"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Cakes and Counsels</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">The Effrontery of Richard</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Up the Mountain</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">In the Mists</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">Signs of Trouble</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">Hints to Hunterleys</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. "<span class="smcap">I Cannot Go!</span>"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Miss Grex at Home</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Dinner for Two</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">International Politics</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">A Bargain with Jean Coulois</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">Duty Interferes Again</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">A Midnight Conference</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. "<span class="smcap">Take Me Away!</span>"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">Wily Mr. Draconmeyer</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">Assassination!</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">The Wrong Man</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">Trouble Brewing</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">Hunterleys Scents Murder</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. <span class="smcap">Draconmeyer is Desperate</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. <span class="smcap">Extraordinary Love-Making</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. <span class="smcap">Playing for High Stakes</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. <span class="smcap">To the Villa Mimosa</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. <span class="smcap">For His Country</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. "<span class="smcap">Supposing I Take This Money</span>"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI. <span class="smcap">Nearing a Crisis</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII. <span class="smcap">An Interesting Meeting</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII. <span class="smcap">The Fates Are Kind</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV. <span class="smcap">Coffee for One Only</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV. <span class="smcap">A New Map of the Earth</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI. <span class="smcap">Checkmate!</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII. <span class="smcap">An Amazing Elopement</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII. <span class="smcap">Honeymooning</span></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#E_Phillips_Oppenheims_Novels">E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p><a href="#frontis">She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed number fourteen <i>en +plein</i></a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus1">"For the last time, then—to Monte Carlo!"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus2">"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus3">"What we ask of France is that she looks the other way"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus4">"That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a cemetery to +which they take him!"</a></p> + +<p><a href="#illus5">Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side and Monsieur +Douaille on the other, were in the van.</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>AN UNEXPECTED MEETING</h3> + + +<p>The eyes of the man who had looked in upon a scene inordinately, +fantastically brilliant, underwent, after those first few moments of +comparative indifference, a curious transformation. He was contemplating +one of the sights of the world. Crowded around the two roulette tables, +promenading or lounging on the heavily cushioned divans against the +wall, he took note of a conglomeration of people representing, perhaps, +every grade of society, every nationality of importance, yet with a +curious common likeness by reason of their tribute paid to fashion. He +glanced unmoved at a beautiful Englishwoman who was a duchess but looked +otherwise; at an equally beautiful Frenchwoman, who looked like a +duchess but was—otherwise. On every side of him were women gowned by +the great artists of the day, women like flowers, all perfume and +softness and colour. His eyes passed them over almost carelessly. A +little tired with many weeks' travel in countries where the luxuries of +life were few, his senses were dulled to the magnificence of the scene, +his pulses as yet had not responded to its charm and wonder. And then +the change came. He saw a woman standing almost exactly opposite to him +at the nearest roulette table, and he gave a noticeable start. For a +moment his pale, expressionless face was transformed, his secret was at +any one's mercy. That, however, was the affair of an instant only. He +was used to shocks and he survived this one. He moved a little on one +side from his prominent place in the centre of the wide-flung doorway. +He stood by one of the divans and watched.</p> + +<p>She was tall and fair and slight. She wore a high-necked gown of +shimmering grey, a black hat, under which her many coils of hair shone +like gold, and a necklace of pearls around her throat, pearls on which +his eyes had rested with a curious expression. She played, unlike many +of her neighbours, with restraint, yet with interest, almost enthusiasm. +There was none of the strain of the gambler about her smooth, beautiful +face. Her delicately curved lips were free from the grim lines of +concentrated acquisitiveness. She was thirty-two years old but she +looked much younger as she stood there, her lips a little parted in a +pleased smile of anticipation. She was leaning a little over the table +and her eyes were fixed with humorous intentness upon the spinning +wheel. Even amongst that crowd of beautiful women she possessed a +certain individual distinction. She not only looked what she was—an +Englishwoman of good birth—but there was a certain delicate aloofness +about her expression and bearing which gave an added charm to a +personality which seemed to combine the two extremes of provocativeness +and reserve. One would have hesitated to address to her even the chance +remarks which pass so easily between strangers around the tables.</p> + +<p>"Violet here!" the man murmured under his breath. "Violet!"</p> + +<p>There was tragedy in the whisper, a gleam of something like tragedy, +too, in the look which passed between the man and the woman a few +moments later. With her hands full of plaques which she had just won, +she raised her eyes at last from the board. The smile upon her lips was +the delighted smile of a girl. And then, as she was in the act of +sweeping her winnings into her gold bag, she saw the man opposite. The +smile seemed to die from her lips; it appeared, indeed, to pass with all +else of expression from her face. The plaques dropped one by one through +her fingers, into the satchel. Her eyes remained fixed upon him as +though she were looking upon a ghost. The seconds seemed drawn out into +a grim hiatus of time. The croupier's voice, the muttered imprecation of +a loser by her side, the necessity of making some slight movement in +order to allow the passage of an arm from some one in search of +change—some such trifle at last brought her back from the shadows. Her +expression became at once more normal. She did not remove her eyes but +she very slightly inclined her head towards the man. He, in return, +bowed very gravely and without a smile.</p> + +<p>The table in front of her was cleared now. People were beginning to +consider their next coup. The voice of the croupier, with his +parrot-like cry, travelled down the board.</p> + +<p><i>"Faites vos jeux, mesdames et messieurs."</i></p> + +<p>The woman made no effort to stake. After a moment's hesitation she +yielded up her place, and moving backwards, seated herself upon an empty +divan. Rapidly the thoughts began to form themselves in her mind. Her +delicate eyebrows drew closer together in a distinct frown. After that +first shock, that queer turmoil of feeling, beyond analysis, yet having +within it some entirely unexpected constituent, she found herself +disposed to be angry. The sensation had not subsided when a moment or +two later she was conscious that the man whose coming had proved so +disturbing was standing before her.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," he said, a little stiffly.</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes. The frown was still upon her forehead, although to +a certain extent it was contradicted by a slight tremulousness of the +lips.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon, Henry!"</p> + +<p>For some reason or other, further speech seemed to him a difficult +matter. He moved towards the vacant place.</p> + +<p>"If you have no objection," he observed, as he seated himself.</p> + +<p>She unfurled her fan—an ancient but wonderful weapon of defence. It +gave her a brief respite. Then she looked at him calmly.</p> + +<p>"Of all places in the world," she murmured, "to meet you here!"</p> + +<p>"Is it so extraordinary?"</p> + +<p>"I find it so," she admitted. "You don't at all fit in, you know. A +scene like this," she added, glancing around, "would scarcely ever be +likely to attract you for its own sake, would it?"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't particularly," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"Then why have you come?"</p> + +<p>He remained silent. The frown upon her forehead deepened.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," she went on coldly, "I can help you with your reply. You have +come because you are not satisfied with the reports of the private +detective whom you have engaged to watch me. You have come to supplement +them by your own investigation."</p> + +<p>His frown matched hers. The coldness of his tone was rendered even more +bitter by its note of anger.</p> + +<p>"I am surprised that you should have thought me capable of such an +action," he declared. "All I can say is that it is thoroughly in keeping +with your other suspicions of me, and that I find it absolutely +unworthy."</p> + +<p>She laughed a little incredulously, not altogether naturally.</p> + +<p>"My dear Henry," she protested, "I cannot flatter myself that there is +any other person in the world sufficiently interested in my movements to +have me watched."</p> + +<p>"Are you really under the impression that that is the case?" he enquired +grimly.</p> + +<p>"It isn't a matter of impression at all," she retorted. "It is the +truth. I was followed from London, I was watched at Cannes, I am watched +here day by day—by a little man in a brown suit and a Homburg hat, and +with a habit of lounging. He lounges under my windows, he is probably +lounging across the way now. He has lounged within fifty yards of me for +the last three weeks, and to tell you the truth I am tired of him. +Couldn't I have a week's holiday? I'll keep a diary and tell you all +that you want to know."</p> + +<p>"Is it sufficient," he asked, "for me to assure you, upon my word of +honour, that I know nothing of this?"</p> + +<p>She was somewhat startled. She turned and looked at him. His tone was +convincing. He had not the face of a man whose word of honour was a +negligible thing.</p> + +<p>"But, Henry," she protested, "I tell you that there is no doubt about +the matter. I am watched day and night—I, an insignificant person whose +doings can be of no possible interest save to you and you only."</p> + +<p>The man did not at once reply. His thoughts seemed to have wandered off +for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone had lost its note of +resentment.</p> + +<p>"I do not blame you for your suspicion," he said calmly, "although I can +assure you that I have never had any idea of having you watched. It is +not a course which could possibly have suggested itself to me, even in +my most unhappy moments."</p> + +<p>She was puzzled—at once puzzled and interested.</p> + +<p>"I am so glad to hear this," she said, "and of course I believe you, but +there the fact is. I think that you will agree with me that it is +curious."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it possible," he ventured to suggest, "that it is your companions +who are the object of this man's vigilance? You are not, I presume, +alone here?"</p> + +<p>She eyed him a little defiantly.</p> + +<p>"I am here," she announced, "with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>He heard her without any change of expression, but somehow or other it +was easy to see that her news, although more than half expected, had +stung him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer," he repeated, with slight emphasis on the +latter portion of the sentence.</p> + +<p>"Certainly! I am sorry," she went on, a moment late, "that my companions +do not meet with your approval. That, however, I could scarcely expect, +considering—"</p> + +<p>"Considering what?" he insisted, watching her steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"Considering all things," she replied, after a moment's pause.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Draconmeyer is still an invalid?"</p> + +<p>"She is still an invalid."</p> + +<p>The slightly satirical note in his question seemed to provoke a certain +defiance in her manner as she turned a little sideways towards him. She +moved her fan slowly backwards and forwards, her head was thrown back, +her manner was almost belligerent. He took up the challenge. He asked +her in plain words the question which his eyes had already demanded.</p> + +<p>"I find myself constrained to ask you," he said, in a studiously +measured tone, "by what means you became possessed of the pearls you are +wearing? I do not seem to remember them as your property."</p> + +<p>Her eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think," she returned, "that you are a little outstepping your +privileges?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," he declared. "You are my wife, and although you have +defied me in a certain matter, you are still subject to my authority. I +see you wearing jewels in public of which you were certainly not +possessed a few months ago, and which neither your fortune nor mine—"</p> + +<p>"Let me set your mind at rest," she interrupted icily. "The pearls are +not mine. They belong to Mrs. Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Draconmeyer!"</p> + +<p>"I am wearing them," she continued, "at Linda's special request. She is +too unwell to appear in public and she is very seldom able to wear any +of her wonderful jewelry. It gives her pleasure to see them sometimes +upon other people."</p> + +<p>He remained quite silent for several moments. He was, in reality, +passionately angry. Self-restraint, however, had become such a habit of +his that there were no indications of his condition save in the slight +twitchings of his long fingers and a tightening at the corners of his +lips. She, however, recognised the symptoms without difficulty.</p> + +<p>"Since you defy my authority," he said, "may I ask whether my wishes +have any weight with you?"</p> + +<p>"That depends," she replied.</p> + +<p>"It is my earnest wish," he went on, "that you do not wear another +woman's jewelry, either in public or privately."</p> + +<p>She appeared to reflect for a moment. In effect she was struggling +against a conviction that his request was reasonable.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," she said at last. "I see no harm whatever in my doing so +in this particular instance. It gives great pleasure to poor Mrs. +Draconmeyer to see her jewels and admire them, even if she is unable to +wear them herself. It gives me an intense joy which even a normal man +could scarcely be expected to understand; certainly not you. I am sorry +that I cannot humour you."</p> + +<p>He leaned towards her.</p> + +<p>"Not if I beg you?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him fixedly, looked at him as though she searched for +something in his face, or was pondering over something in his tone. It +was a moment which might have meant much. If she could have seen into +his heart and understood the fierce jealousy which prompted his words, +it might have meant a very great deal. As it was, her contemplation +appeared to be unsatisfactory.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry that you should lay so much stress upon so small a thing," +she said. "You were always unreasonable. Your present request is another +instance of it. I was enjoying myself very much indeed until you came, +and now you wish to deprive me of one of my chief pleasures. I cannot +humour you."</p> + +<p>He turned away. Even then chance might have intervened. The moment her +words had been spoken she realised a certain injustice in them, realised +a little, perhaps, the point of view of this man who was still her +husband. She watched him almost eagerly, hoping to find some sign in his +face that it was not only his stubborn pride which spoke. She failed, +however. He was one of those men who know too well how to wear the mask.</p> + +<p>"May I ask where you are staying here?" he enquired presently.</p> + +<p>"At the Hotel de Paris."</p> + +<p>"It is unfortunate," he observed. "I will move my quarters to-morrow."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Monte Carlo is full of hotels," she remarked, "but it seems a pity that +you should move. The place is large enough for both of us."</p> + +<p>"It is not long," he retorted, "since you found London itself too small. +I should be very sorry to spoil your holiday."</p> + +<p>Her eyes seemed to dwell for a moment upon the Spanish dancer who sat at +the table opposite them, a woman whose name had once been a household +word, dethroned now, yet still insistent for notice and homage; +commanding them, even, with the wreck of her beauty and the splendour of +her clothes.</p> + +<p>"It seems a queer place, this," she observed, "for domestic +disagreements. Let us try to avoid disputable subjects. Shall I be too +inquisitive if I ask you once more what in the name of all that is +unsuitable brought you to such a place as Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>He fenced with her question. Perhaps he resented the slightly ironical +note in her tone. Perhaps there were other reasons.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not come to Monte Carlo?" he enquired. "Parliament is not +particularly amusing when one is in opposition, and I do not hunt. The +whole world amuses itself here."</p> + +<p>"But not you," she replied quickly. "I know you better than that, my +dear Henry. There is nothing here or in this atmosphere which could +possibly attract you for long. There is no work for you to do—work, the +very breath of your body; work, the one thing you live for and were made +for; work, you man of sawdust and red tape."</p> + +<p>"Am I as bad as all that?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>She fingered her pearls for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I haven't the right to complain," she acknowledged. "I have +gone my own way always. But if one is permitted to look for a moment +into the past, can you tell me a single hour when work was not the +prominent thought in your brain, the idol before which you worshipped? +Why, even our honeymoon was spent canvassing!"</p> + +<p>"The election was an unexpected one," he reminded her.</p> + +<p>"It would have been the same thing," she declared. "The only literature +which you really understand is a Blue Book, and the only music you hear +is the chiming of Big Ben."</p> + +<p>"You speak," he remarked, "as though you resented these things. Yet you +knew before you married me that I had ambitions, that I did not propose +to lead an idle life."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I knew!" she assented drily. "But we are wandering from the +point. I am still wondering what has brought you here. Have you come +direct from England?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I came to-day from Bordighera."</p> + +<p>"More and more mysterious," she murmured. "Bordighera, indeed! I thought +you once told me that you hated the Riviera."</p> + +<p>"So I do," he agreed.</p> + +<p>"And yet you are here?"</p> + +<p>"Yet I am here."</p> + +<p>"And you have not come to look after me," she went on, "and the mystery +of the little brown man who watches me is still unexplained."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about that person," he asserted, "and I had no idea that +you were here."</p> + +<p>"Or you would not have come?" she challenged him.</p> + +<p>"Your presence," he retorted, nettled into forgetting himself for a +moment, "would not have altered my plans in the slightest."</p> + +<p>"Then you have a reason for coming!" she exclaimed quickly.</p> + +<p>He gave no sign of annoyance but his lips were firmly closed. She +watched him steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"I wonder at myself no longer," she continued. "I do not think that any +woman in the world could ever live with a man to whom secrecy is as +great a necessity as the very air he breathes. No wonder, my dear Henry, +the politicians speak so well of you, and so confidently of your +brilliant future!"</p> + +<p>"I am not aware," he observed calmly, "that I have ever been unduly +secretive so far as you are concerned. During the last few months, +however, of our life together, you must remember that you chose to +receive on terms of friendship a person whom I regard—"</p> + +<p>Her eyes suddenly flashed him a warning. He dropped his voice almost to +a whisper. A man was approaching them.</p> + +<p>"As an enemy," he concluded, under his breath.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN</h3> + + +<p>The newcomer, who had presented himself now before Hunterleys and his +wife, was a man of somewhat unusual appearance. He was tall, +thickly-built, his black beard and closely-cropped hair were streaked +with grey, he wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and he carried his head a +little thrust forward, as though, even with the aid of his glasses, he +was still short-sighted. He had the air of a foreigner, although his +tone, when he spoke, was without accent. He held out his hand a little +tentatively, an action, however, which Hunterleys appeared to ignore.</p> + +<p>"My dear Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "This is a surprise, indeed! Monte +Carlo is absolutely the last place in the world in which I should have +expected to come across you. The Sporting Club, too! Well, well, well!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys, standing easily with his hands behind his back, raised his +eyebrows. The two men were of curiously contrasting types. Hunterleys, +slim and distinguished, had still the frame of an athlete, +notwithstanding his colourless cheeks and the worn lines about his eyes. +He was dressed with extreme simplicity. His deep-set eyes and sensitive +mouth were in marked contrast to the other's coarser mould of features +and rather full lips. Yet there was about both men an air of strength, +strength developed, perhaps, in a different manner, but still an +appreciable quality.</p> + +<p>"They say that the whole world is here," Hunterleys remarked. "Why may +not I form a harmless unit of it?"</p> + +<p>"Why not, indeed?" Draconmeyer assented heartily. "The most serious of +us must have our frivolous moments. I hope that you will dine with us +to-night? We shall be quite alone."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said, "I have another engagement pending."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer was filled with polite regrets, but he did not renew the +invitation.</p> + +<p>"When did you arrive?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"A few hours ago," Hunterleys replied.</p> + +<p>"By the Luxe? How strange! I went down to meet it."</p> + +<p>"I came from the other side."</p> + +<p>"Ah!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer's ejaculation was interrogative, Hunterleys hesitated +for a moment. Then he continued with a little shrug of the shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I have been staying at San Remo and Bordighera."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer was much interested.</p> + +<p>"So that is where you have been burying yourself," he remarked. "I saw +from the papers that you had accepted a six months' pair. Surely, +though, you don't find the Italian Riviera very amusing?"</p> + +<p>"I am abroad for a rest," Hunterleys replied.</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer smiled curiously.</p> + +<p>"A rest?" he repeated. "That rather belies your reputation, you know. +They say that you are tireless, even when you are out of office."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned from the speaker towards his wife.</p> + +<p>"I have not tempted fortune myself yet," he observed. "I think that I +shall have a look into the baccarat room. Do you care to stroll that +way?"</p> + +<p>Lady Hunterleys rose at once to her feet. Mr. Draconmeyer, however, +intervened. He laid his fingers upon Hunterleys' arm.</p> + +<p>"Sir Henry," he begged, "our meeting has been quite unexpected, but in a +sense it is opportune. Will you be good enough to give me five minutes' +conversation?"</p> + +<p>"With pleasure," Hunterleys replied. "My time is quite at your disposal, +if you have anything to say."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer led the way out of the crowded room, along the passage and +into the little bar. They found a quiet corner and two easy-chairs. +Draconmeyer gave an order to a waiter. For a few moments their +conversation was conventional.</p> + +<p>"I trust that you think your wife looking better for the change?" +Draconmeyer began. "Her companionship is a source of great pleasure and +relief to my poor wife."</p> + +<p>"Does the conversation you wish to have with me refer to Lady +Hunterleys?" her husband asked quietly. "If so, I should like to say a +few preliminary words which would, I hope, place the matter at once +beyond the possibility of any misunderstanding."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer moved a little uneasily in his place.</p> + +<p>"I have other things to say," he declared, "yet I would gladly hear what +is in your mind at the present moment. You do not, I fear, approve of +this friendship between my wife and Lady Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was uncompromising, almost curt.</p> + +<p>"I do not," he agreed. "It is probably no secret to you that my wife and +I are temporarily estranged," he continued. "The chief reason for that +estrangement is that I forbade her your house or your acquaintance."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer was a little taken back. Such extreme directness of speech +was difficult to deal with.</p> + +<p>"My dear Sir Henry," he protested, "you distress me. I do not understand +your attitude in this matter at all."</p> + +<p>"There is no necessity for you to understand it," Hunterleys retorted +coolly. "I claim the right to regulate my wife's visiting list. She +denies that right."</p> + +<p>"Apart from the question of marital control," Mr. Draconmeyer persisted, +"will you tell me why you consider my wife and myself unfit persons to +find a place amongst Lady Hunterleys' acquaintances?"</p> + +<p>"No man is bound to give the reason for his dislikes," Hunterleys +replied. "Of your wife I know nothing. Nobody does. I have every +sympathy with her unfortunate condition, and that is all. You personally +I dislike. I dislike my wife to be seen with you, I dislike having her +name associated with yours in any manner whatsoever. I dislike sitting +with you here myself. I only hope that the five minutes' conversation +which you have asked for will not be exceeded."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer had the air of a benevolent person who is deeply pained.</p> + +<p>"Sir Henry," he sighed, "it is not possible for me to disregard such +plain speaking. Forgive me if I am a little taken aback by it. You are +known to be a very skilful diplomatist and you have many weapons in your +armoury. One scarcely expected, however—one's breath is a little taken +away by such candour."</p> + +<p>"I am not aware," Hunterleys said calmly, "that the question of +diplomacy need come in when one's only idea is to regulate the personal +acquaintances of oneself and one's wife."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer sat quite still for a moment, stroking his black beard. +His eyes were fixed upon the carpet. He seemed to be struggling with a +problem.</p> + +<p>"You have taken the ground from beneath my feet," he declared. "Your +opinion of me is such that I hesitate to proceed at all in the matter +which I desired to discuss with you."</p> + +<p>"That," Hunterleys replied, "is entirely for you to decide. I am +perfectly willing to listen to anything you have to say—all the more +ready because now there can be no possibility of any misunderstanding +between us."</p> + +<p>"Very well," Mr. Draconmeyer assented, "I will proceed. After all, I am +not sure that the personal element enters into what I was about to say. +I was going to propose not exactly an alliance—that, of course, would +not be possible—but I was certainly going to suggest that you and I +might be of some service to one another."</p> + +<p>"In what way?"</p> + +<p>"I call myself an Englishman," Mr. Draconmeyer went on. "I have made +large sums of money in England, I have grown to love England and English +ways. Yet I came, as you know, from Berlin. The position which I hold in +your city is still the position of president of the greatest German bank +in the world. It is German finance which I have directed, and with +German money I have made my fortune. To be frank with you, however, +after these many years in London I have grown to feel myself very much +of an Englishman."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was sitting perfectly still. His face was rigid but +expressionless. He was listening intently.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand," Mr. Draconmeyer proceeded slowly, "I wish to be +wholly frank with you. At heart I must remain always a German. The +interests of my country must always be paramount. But listen. In Germany +there are, as you know, two parties, and year by year they are drawing +further apart. I will not allude to factions. I will speak broadly. +There is the war party and there is the peace party. I belong to the +peace party. I belong to it as a German, and I belong to it as a devoted +friend of England, and if the threatened conflict between the two should +come, I should take my stand as a peace-loving German-cum-Englishman +against the war party even of my own country."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys still made no sign. Yet for one who knew him it was easy to +realise that he was listening and thinking with absorbed interest.</p> + +<p>"So far," Draconmeyer pointed out, "I have laid my cards on the table. I +have told you the solemn truth. I regret that it did not occur to me to +do so many months ago in London. Now to proceed. I ask you to emulate my +frankness, and in return I will give you information which should enable +us to work hand in hand for the peace which we both desire."</p> + +<p>"You ask me," Hunterleys said thoughtfully, "to be perfectly frank with +you. In what respect? What is it that you wish from me?"</p> + +<p>"Not political information," Mr. Draconmeyer declared, his eyes blinking +behind his glasses. "For that I certainly should not come to you. I only +wish to ask you a question, and I must ask it so that we may meet on a +common ground of confidence. Are you here in Monte Carlo to look after +your wife, or in search of change of air and scene? Is that your honest +motive for being here? Or is there any other reason in the world which +has prompted you to come to Monte Carlo during this particular month—I +might almost say this particular week?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys' attitude was that of a man who holds in his hand a puzzle +and is doubtful where to commence in his efforts to solve it.</p> + +<p>"Are you not a little mysterious this afternoon, Mr. Draconmeyer?" he +asked coldly. "Or are you trying to incite a supposititious curiosity? I +really cannot see the drift of your question."</p> + +<p>"Answer it," Mr. Draconmeyer insisted.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys took a cigarette from his case, tapped it upon the table and +lit it in leisurely fashion.</p> + +<p>"If you have any idea," he said, "that I came here to confront my wife, +or to interfere in any way with her movements, let me assure you that +you are mistaken. I had no idea that Lady Hunterleys was in Monte Carlo. +I am here because I have a six months' holiday, and a holiday for the +average Englishman between January and April generally means, as you +must be aware, the Riviera. I have tried Bordighera and San Remo. I have +found them, as I no doubt shall find this place, wearisome. In the end I +suppose I shall drift back to London."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer frowned.</p> + +<p>"You left London," he remarked tersely, "on December first. It is to-day +February twentieth. Do you wish me to understand that you have been at +Bordighera and San Remo all that time?"</p> + +<p>"How did you know when I left London?" Hunterleys demanded.</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer pursed his lips.</p> + +<p>"I heard of your departure from London entirely by accident," he said. +"Your wife, for some reason or other, declined to discuss your +movements. I imagine that she was acting in accordance with your +wishes."</p> + +<p>"I see," Hunterleys observed coolly. "And your present anxiety is to +know where I spent the intervening time, and why I am here in Monte +Carlo? Frankly, Mr. Draconmeyer, I look upon this close interest in my +movements as an impertinence. My travels have been of no importance, but +they concern myself only. I have no confidence to offer respecting them. +If I had, it would not be to you that I should unburden myself."</p> + +<p>"You suspect me, then? You doubt my integrity?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," Hunterleys assured his questioner. "For anything I know to +the contrary, you are, outside the world of finance, one of the dullest +and most harmless men existing. My own position is simply as I explained +it during the first few sentences we exchanged. I do not like you, I +detest my wife's name being associated with yours, and for that reason, +the less I see of you the better I am pleased."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer nodded thoughtfully. He was, to all appearance, studying +the pattern of the carpet. For once in his life he was genuinely +puzzled. Was this man by his side merely a jealous husband, or had he +any idea of the greater game which was being played around them? Had he, +by any chance, arrived to take part in it? Was it wise, in any case, to +pursue the subject further? Yet if he abandoned it at this juncture, it +must be with a sense of failure, and failure was a thing to which he was +not accustomed.</p> + +<p>"Your frankness," he admitted grimly, "is almost exhilarating. Our +personal relations being so clearly defined, I am inclined to go further +even than I had intended. We cannot now possibly misunderstand one +another. Supposing I were to tell you that your arrival in Monte Carlo, +accidental though it may be, is in a sense opportune; that you may, in a +short time meet here one or two politicians, friends of mine, with whom +an interchange of views might be agreeable? Supposing I were to offer my +services as an intermediary? You would like to bring about better +relations with my country, would you not, Sir Henry? You are admittedly +a statesman and an influential man in your Party. I am only a banker, it +is true, but I have been taken into the confidence of those who direct +the destinies of my country."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys' face reflected none of the other's earnestness. He seemed, +indeed, a little bored, and he answered almost irritably.</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to you," he said, "but Monte Carlo seems scarcely the +place to me for political discussions, added to which I have no official +position. I could not receive or exchange confidences. While my Party is +out of power, there is nothing left for us but to mark time. I dare say +you mean well, Mr. Draconmeyer," he added, rising to his feet, "but I am +here to forget politics altogether, if I can. If you will excuse me, I +think I will look in at the baccarat rooms."</p> + +<p>He was on the point of departure when through the open doorway which +communicated with the baccarat rooms beyond came a man of sufficiently +arresting personality, a man remarkably fat, with close-cropped grey +hair which stuck up like bristles all over his head; a huge, +clean-shaven face which seemed concentrated at that moment in one +tremendous smile of overwhelming good-humour. He held by the hand a +little French girl, dark, small, looking almost like a marionette in her +slim tailor-made costume. He recognised Draconmeyer with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"My friend Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, in stentorian tones, "baccarat is +the greatest game in the world. I have won—I, who know nothing about +it, have won a hundred louis. It is amazing! There is no place like this +in the world. We are here to drink a bottle of wine together, +mademoiselle and I, mademoiselle who was at once my instructress and my +mascot. Afterwards we go to the jeweler's. Why not? A fair division of +the spoils—fifty louis for myself, fifty louis for a bracelet for +mademoiselle. And then—"</p> + +<p>He broke off suddenly. His gesture was almost dramatic.</p> + +<p>"I am forgotten!" he cried, holding out his hand to +Hunterleys,—"forgotten already! Sir Henry, there are many who forget me +as a humble Minister of my master, but there are few who forget me +physically. I am Selingman. We met in Berlin, six years ago. You came +with your great Foreign Secretary."</p> + +<p>"I remember you perfectly," Hunterleys assured him, as he submitted to +the newcomer's vigorous handshake. "We shall meet again, I trust."</p> + +<p>Selingman thrust his arm through Hunterleys' as though to prevent his +departure.</p> + +<p>"You shall not run away!" he declared. "I introduce both of you—Mr. +Draconmeyer, the great Anglo-German banker; Sir Henry Hunterleys, the +English politician—to Mademoiselle Estelle Nipon, of the Opera House. +Now we all know one another. We shall be good friends. We will share +that bottle of champagne."</p> + +<p>"One bottle between four!" mademoiselle laughed, poutingly. "And I am +parched! I have taught monsieur baccarat. I am exhausted."</p> + +<p>"A magnum!" Selingman ordered in a voice of thunder, shaking his fist at +the startled waiter. "We seat ourselves here at the round table. +Mademoiselle, we will drink champagne together until the eyes of all of +us sparkle as yours do. We will drink champagne until we do not believe +that there is such a thing as losing at games or in life. We will drink +champagne until we all four believe that we have been brought up +together, that we are bosom friends of a lifetime. See, this is how we +will place ourselves. Mademoiselle, if the others make love to you, take +no notice. It is I who have put fifty louis in one pocket for that +bracelet. Do not trust Sir Henry there; he has a reputation."</p> + +<p>As usual, the overpowering Selingman had his way. Neither Draconmeyer +nor Hunterleys attempted to escape. They took their places at the table. +They drank champagne and they listened to Selingman. All the time he +talked, save when mademoiselle interrupted him. Seated upon a chair +which seemed absurdly inadequate, his great stomach with its vast +expanse of white waistcoat in full view, his short legs doubled up +beneath him, he beamed upon them all with a smile which never failed.</p> + +<p>"It is a wonderful place," he declared, as he lifted his glass for the +fifth time. "We will drink to it, this Monte Carlo. It is here that they +come from all quarters of the world—the ladies who charm away our +hearts," he added, bowing to mademoiselle, "the financiers whose word +can shake the money-markets of the world, and the politicians who +unbend, perhaps, just a little in the sunshine here, however cold and +inflexible they may be under their own austere skies. For the last time, +then—to Monte Carlo! To Monte Carlo, dear mademoiselle!—messieurs!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<h3>"For the last time, then—to Monte Carlo!"</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>They drank the toast and a few minutes later Hunterleys slipped away. +The two men looked after him. The smile seemed gradually to leave +Selingman's lips, his face was large and impressive.</p> + +<p>"Run and fetch your cloak, dear," he said to the girl.</p> + +<p>She obeyed at once. Selingman leaned across the table towards his +companion.</p> + +<p>"What does Hunterleys do here?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" he answered. "Perhaps he has come to look after his wife. +He has been to Bordighera and San Remo."</p> + +<p>"Is that all he told you of his movements?"</p> + +<p>"That is all," Draconmeyer admitted. "He was suspicious. I made no +progress."</p> + +<p>"Bordighera and San Remo!" Selingman muttered under his breath. "For a +day, perhaps, or two."</p> + +<p>"What do you know about him?" Draconmeyer asked, his eyes suddenly +bright beneath his spectacles. "I have been suspicious ever since I met +him, an hour ago. He left England on December first."</p> + +<p>"It is true," Selingman assented. "He crossed to Paris, and—mark the +cunning of it—he returned to England. That same night he travelled to +Germany. We lost him in Vienna and found him again in Sofia. What does +it mean, I wonder? What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"I have been talking to him for twenty minutes in here before you came," +Draconmeyer said. "I tried to gain his confidence. He told me nothing. +He never even mentioned that journey of his."</p> + +<p>Selingman was sitting drumming upon the table with his broad fingertips.</p> + +<p>"Sofia!" he murmured. "And now—here! Draconmeyer, there is work before +us. I know men, I tell you. I know Hunterleys. I watched him, I listened +to him in Berlin six years ago. He was with his master then but he had +nothing to learn from him. He is of the stuff diplomats are fashioned +of. He has it in his blood. There is work before us, Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"If monsieur is ready!" mademoiselle interposed, a little petulantly, +letting the tip of her boa play for a moment on his cheek.</p> + +<p>Selingman finished his wine and rose to his feet. Once more the smile +encompassed his face. Of what account, after all, were the wanderings of +this melancholy Englishman! There was mademoiselle's bracelet to be +bought, and perhaps a few flowers. Selingman pulled down his waistcoat +and accepted his grey Homburg hat from the vestiaire. He held +mademoiselle's fingers as they descended the stairs. He looked like a +school-boy of enormous proportions on his way to a feast.</p> + +<p>"We drank to Monte Carlo in champagne," he declared, as they turned on +to the terrace and descended the stone steps, "but, dear Estelle, we +drink to it from our hearts with every breath we draw of this wonderful +air, every time our feet touch the buoyant ground. Believe me, little +one, the other things are of no account. The true philosophy of life and +living is here in Monte Carlo. You and I will solve it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>A WARNING</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys dined alone at a small round table, set in a remote corner of +the great restaurant attached to the Hotel de Paris. The scene around +him was full of colour and interest. A scarlet-coated band made +wonderful music. The toilettes of the women who kept passing backwards +and forwards, on their way to the various tables, were marvellous; in +their way unique. The lights and flowers of the room, its appointments +and adornments, all represented the last word in luxury. Everywhere was +colour, everywhere an almost strained attempt to impress upon the +passerby the fact that this was no ordinary holiday resort but the giant +pleasure-ground of all in the world who had money to throw away and the +capacity for enjoyment. Only once a more somber note seemed struck when +Mrs. Draconmeyer, leaning on her husband's arm and accompanied by a +nurse and Lady Hunterleys, passed to their table. Hunterleys' eyes +followed the little party until they had reached their destination and +taken their places. His wife was wearing black and she had discarded the +pearls which had hung around her neck during the afternoon. She wore +only a collar of diamonds, his gift. Her hair was far less elaborately +coiffured and her toilette less magnificent than the toilettes of the +women by whom she was surrounded. Yet as he looked from his corner +across the room at her, Hunterleys realised as he had realised instantly +twelve years ago when he had first met her, that she was incomparable. +There was no other woman in the whole of that great restaurant with her +air of quiet elegance; no other woman so faultless in the smaller +details of her toilette and person. Hunterleys watched with +expressionless face but with anger growing in his heart, as he saw +Draconmeyer bending towards her, accepting her suggestions about the +dinner, laughing when she laughed, watching almost humbly for her +pleasure or displeasure. It was a cursed mischance which had brought him +to Monte Carlo!</p> + +<p>Hunterleys hurried over his dinner, and without even going to his room +for a hat or coat, walked across the square in the soft twilight of an +unusually warm February evening and took a table outside the Café de +Paris, where he ordered coffee. Around him was a far more cosmopolitan +crowd, increasing every moment in volume. Every language was being +spoken, mostly German. As a rule, such a gathering of people was, in its +way, interesting to Hunterleys. To-night his thoughts were truant. He +forgot his strenuous life of the last three months, the dangers and +discomforts through which he had passed, the curious sequence of events +which had brought him, full of anticipation, nerved for a crisis, to +Monte Carlo of all places in the world. He forgot that he was in the +midst of great events, himself likely to take a hand in them. His +thoughts took, rarely enough for him, a purely personal and sentimental +turn. He thought of the earliest days of his marriage, when he and his +wife had wandered about the gardens of his old home in Wiltshire on +spring evenings such as these, and had talked sometimes lightly, +sometimes seriously, of the future. Almost as he sat there in the midst +of that noisy crowd, he could catch the faint perfume of hyacinths from +the borders along which they had passed and the trimly-cut flower-beds +which fringed the deep green lawn. Almost he could hear the chiming of +the old stable clock, the clear note of a thrush singing. A puff of wind +brought them a waft of fainter odour from the wild violets which +carpeted the woods. Then the darkness crept around them, a star came +out. Hand in hand they turned towards the house and into the library, +where a wood fire was burning on the grate. His thoughts travelled on. A +wave of tenderness had assailed him. Then he was awakened by the +waiter's voice at his elbow.</p> + +<p>"Le café, monsieur."</p> + +<p>He sat up in his chair. His dreaming moments were few and this one had +passed. He set his heel upon that tide of weakening memories, sipped his +coffee and looked out upon the crowd. Three or four times he glanced at +his watch impatiently. Precisely at nine o'clock, a man moved from +somewhere in the throng behind and took the vacant chair by his side.</p> + +<p>"If one could trouble monsieur for a match!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned towards the newcomer as he handed his matchbox. He was +a young man of medium height, with sandy complexion, a little freckled, +and with a straggling fair moustache. He had keen grey eyes and the +faintest trace of a Scotch accent. He edged his chair a little nearer to +Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>"Much obliged," he said. "Wonderful evening, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"Have you anything to tell me, David?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"We are right in the thick of it," the other replied, his tone a little +lowered. "There is more to tell than I like."</p> + +<p>"Shall we stroll along the Terrace?" Hunterleys suggested.</p> + +<p>"Don't move from your seat," the young man enjoined. "You are watched +here, and so am I, in a way, although it's more my news they want to +censor than anything personal. This crowd of Germans around us, without +a single vacant chair, is the best barrier we can have. Listen. +Selingman is here."</p> + +<p>"I saw him this afternoon at the Sporting Club," Hunterleys murmured.</p> + +<p>"Douaille will be here the day after to-morrow, if he has not already +arrived," the newcomer continued. "It was given out in Paris that he was +going down to Marseilles and from there to Toulon, to spend three days +with the fleet. They sent a paragraph into our office there. As a matter +of fact, he's coming straight on here. I can't learn how, exactly, but I +fancy by motor-car."</p> + +<p>"You're sure that Douaille is coming himself?" Hunterleys asked +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely! His wife and family have been bustled down to Mentone, so +as to afford a pretext for his presence here if the papers get hold of +it. I have found out for certain that they came at a moment's notice and +were not expecting to leave home at all. Douaille will have full powers, +and the conference will take place at the Villa Mimosa. That will be the +headquarters of the whole thing.... Look out, Sir Henry. They've got +their eyes on us. The little fellow in brown, close behind, is hand in +glove with the police. They tried to get me into a row last night. It's +only my journalism they suspect, but they'd shove me over the frontier +at the least excuse. They're certain to try something of the sort with +you, if they get any idea that we are on the scent. Sit tight, sir, and +watch. I'm off. You know where to find me."</p> + +<p>The young man raised his hat and left Hunterleys with the polite +farewell of a stranger. His seat was almost immediately seized by a +small man dressed in brown, a man with a black imperial and moustache +curled upwards. As Hunterleys glanced towards him, he raised his Hamburg +hat politely and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur's friend has departed?" he enquired. "This seat is +disengaged?"</p> + +<p>"As you see," Hunterleys replied.</p> + +<p>The little man smiled his thanks, seated himself with a sigh of content +and ordered coffee from a passing waiter.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur is doubtless a stranger to Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"It is my second visit only," Hunterleys admitted.</p> + +<p>"For myself I am an habitué," the little man continued, "I might almost +say a resident. Therefore, all faces soon become familiar to me. +Directly I saw monsieur, I knew that he was not a frequenter."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned a little in his chair and surveyed his neighbour +curiously. The man was neatly dressed and he spoke English with scarcely +any accent. His shoulders and upturned moustache gave him a military +appearance.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing I envy any one so much in life," he proceeded, "as +coming to Monte Carlo for the first or second time. There is so much to +know, to see, to understand."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys made no effort to discourage his companion's obvious attempts +to be friendly. The latter talked with spirit for some time.</p> + +<p>"If it would not be regarded as a liberty," he said at last, as +Hunterleys rose to move off, "may I be permitted to present myself? My +name is Hugot? I am half English, half French. Years ago my health broke +down and I accepted a position in a bank here. Since then I have come in +to money. If I have a hobby in life, it is to show my beloved Monte +Carlo to strangers. If monsieur would do me the honour to spare me a few +hours to-night, later on, I would endeavour to see that he was amused."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head. He remained, however, perfectly courteous. He +had a conviction that this was the man who had been watching his wife.</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, sir," he replied. "I am here only for a few days and +for the benefit of my health. I dare not risk late hours. We shall meet +again, I trust."</p> + +<p>He strolled off and as he hesitated upon the steps of the Casino he +glanced across towards the Hotel de Paris. At that moment a woman came +out, a light cloak over her evening gown. She was followed by an +attendant. Hunterleys recognised his wife and watched them with a +curious little thrill. They turned towards the Terrace. Very slowly he, +too, moved in the same direction. They passed through the gardens of the +Hotel de Paris, and Hunterleys, keeping to the left, met them upon the +Terrace as they emerged. As they came near he accosted them.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he began.</p> + +<p>She started.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," she said. "I did not recognise you."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you been told," he asked stiffly, "that the Terrace is unsafe +for women after twilight?"</p> + +<p>"Very often," she assented, with that little smile at the corners of her +lips which once he had found so charming and which now half maddened +him. "Unfortunately, I have a propensity for doing things which are +dangerous. Besides, I have my maid."</p> + +<p>"Another woman is no protection," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Susanne can shriek," Lady Hunterleys assured him. "She has wonderful +lungs and she loves to use them. She would shriek at the least +provocation."</p> + +<p>"And meanwhile," Hunterleys observed drily, "while she is indulging in +her vocal exercises, things happen. If you wish to promenade here, +permit me to be your escort."</p> + +<p>She hesitated for a moment, frowning. Then she continued her walk.</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," she assented. "Perhaps you are like me, though, and +feel the restfulness of a quiet place after these throngs and throngs of +people."</p> + +<p>They passed slowly down the broad promenade, deserted now save for one +or two loungers like themselves, and a few other furtive, hurrying +figures. In front of them stretched an arc of glittering lights—the +wonderful Bay of Mentone, with Bordighera on the distant sea-board; +higher up, the twinkling lights from the villas built on the rocky +hills. And at their feet the sea, calm, deep, blue, lapping the narrow +belt of hard sand, scintillating with the reflection of a thousand +lights; on the horizon a blood-red moon, only half emerged from the sea.</p> + +<p>"Since we have met, Henry," Lady Hunterleys said at last, "there is +something which I should like to say to you."</p> + +<p>"Certainly!"</p> + +<p>She glanced behind. Susanne had fallen discreetly into the rear. She was +a new importation and she had no idea as to the identity of the tall, +severe-looking Englishman who walked by her mistress's side.</p> + +<p>"There is something going on in Monte Carlo," Lady Hunterleys went on, +"which I cannot understand. Mr. Draconmeyer knows about it, I believe, +although he is not personally concerned in it. But he will tell me +nothing. I only know that for some reason or other your presence here +seems to be an annoyance to certain people. Why it should be I don't +know, but I want to ask you about it. Will you tell me the truth? Are +you sure that you did not come here to spy upon me?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly did not," Hunterleys answered firmly. "I had no idea that +you were near the place. If I had—"</p> + +<p>She turned her head. The smile was there once more and a queer, soft +light in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"If you had?" she murmured.</p> + +<p>"My visit here, under the present circumstances, would have been more +distasteful than it is," Hunterleys replied stiffly.</p> + +<p>She bit her lip and turned away. When she resumed the conversation, her +tone was completely changed.</p> + +<p>"I speak to you now," she said, "in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer +is, of course, not personally connected with this affair, whatever it +may be, but he is a wonderful man and he hears many things. To-night, +before dinner, he gave me a few words of warning. He did not tell me to +pass them on to you but I feel sure that he hoped I would. You would not +listen to them from him because you do not like him. I am afraid that +you will take very little more heed of what I say, but at least you will +believe that I speak in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer believes +that your presence here is misunderstood. A person whom he describes as +being utterly without principle and of great power is incensed by it. To +speak plainly, you are in danger."</p> + +<p>"I am flattered," Hunterleys remarked, "by this interest on my behalf."</p> + +<p>She turned her head and looked at him. His face, in this cold light +before the moon came up, was almost like the face of some marble statue, +lifeless, set, of almost stonelike severity. She knew the look so well +and she sighed.</p> + +<p>"You need not be," she replied bitterly. "Mine is merely the ordinary +feeling of one human creature for another. In a sense it seems absurd, I +suppose, to speak to you as I am doing. Yet I do know that this place +which looks so beautiful has strange undercurrents. People pass away +here in the most orthodox fashion in the world, outwardly, but their +real ending is often never known at all. Everything is possible here, +and Mr. Draconmeyer honestly believes that you are in danger."</p> + +<p>They had reached the end of the Terrace and they turned back.</p> + +<p>"I thank you very much, Violet," Hunterleys said earnestly. "In return, +may I say something to you? If there is any danger threatening me or +those interests which I guard, the man whom you have chosen to make your +intimate friend is more deeply concerned in it than you think. I told +you once before that Draconmeyer was something more than the great +banker, the king of commerce, as he calls himself. He is ambitious +beyond your imaginings, a schemer in ways you know nothing of, and his +residence in London during the last fifteen years has been the worst +thing that ever happened for England. To me it is a bitter thing that +you should have ignored my warning and accepted his friendship—"</p> + +<p>"It is not Mr. Draconmeyer who is my friend, Henry," she interrupted. +"You continually ignore that fact. It is Mrs. Draconmeyer whom I cannot +desert. I knew her long before I did her husband. We were at school +together, and there was a time before her last illness when we were +inseparable."</p> + +<p>"That may have been so at first," Hunterleys agreed, "but how about +since then? You cannot deny, Violet, that this man Draconmeyer has in +some way impressed or fascinated you. You admire him. You find great +pleasure in his society. Isn't that the truth, now, honestly?"</p> + +<p>Her face was a little troubled.</p> + +<p>"I do certainly find pleasure in his society," she admitted. "I cannot +conceive any one who would not. He is a brilliant, a wonderful musician, +a delightful talker, a generous host and companion. He has treated me +always with the most scrupulous regard, and I feel that I am entirely +reasonable in resenting your mistrust of him."</p> + +<p>"You do resent it still, then?"</p> + +<p>"I do," she asserted emphatically.</p> + +<p>"And if I told you," Hunterleys went on, "that the man was in love with +you. What then?"</p> + +<p>"I should say that you were a fool!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"There is no more to be said," he declared, "only, for a clever woman, +Violet, you are sometimes woefully or wilfully blind. I tell you that I +know the type. Sooner or later—before very long, I should think—you +will have the usual scene. I warn you of it now. If you are wise, you +will go back to England."</p> + +<p>"Absurd!" she scoffed. "Why, we have only just come! I want to win some +money—not that your allowance isn't liberal enough," she added hastily, +"but there is a fascination in winning, you know. And besides, I could +not possibly desert Mrs. Draconmeyer. She would not have come at all if +I had not joined them."</p> + +<p>"You are the mistress of your own ways," Hunterleys said. "According to +my promise, I shall attempt to exercise no authority over you in any +way, but I tell you that Draconmeyer is my enemy, and the enemy of all +the things I represent, and I tell you, too, that he is in love with +you. When you realise that these things are firmly established in my +brain, you can perhaps understand how thoroughly distasteful I find your +association with him here. It is all very well to talk about Mrs. +Draconmeyer, but she goes nowhere. The consequence is that he is your +escort on every occasion. I am quite aware that a great many people in +society accept him. I personally am not disposed to. I look upon him as +an unfit companion for my wife and I resent your appearance with him in +public."</p> + +<p>"We will discuss this subject no further," she decided. "From the moment +of our first disagreement, it has been your object to break off my +friendship with the Draconmeyers. Until I have something more than words +to go by, I shall continue to give him my confidence."</p> + +<p>They crossed the stone flags in front of the Opera together, and turned +up towards the Rooms.</p> + +<p>"I think, perhaps, then," he said, "that we may consider the subject +closed. Only," he added, "you will forgive me if I still—"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. She turned her head quickly. Her eyes sought his but +unfortunately he was looking straight ahead and seeing gloomy things. If +he had happened to turn at that moment, he might have concluded his +speech differently.</p> + +<p>"If I still exhibit some interest in your doings."</p> + +<p>"I shall always think it most kind of you," she replied, her face +suddenly hardening. "Have I not done my best to reciprocate? I have even +passed on to you a word of warning, which I think you are very unwise to +ignore."</p> + +<p>They were outside the hotel. Hunterleys paused.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to fear from the mysterious source you have spoken of," +he assured her. "The only enemy I have in Monte Carlo is Draconmeyer +himself."</p> + +<p>"Enemy!" she repeated scornfully. "Mr. Draconmeyer is much too wrapped +up in his finance, and too big a man, in his way, to have enemies. Oh, +Henry, if only you could get rid of a few of your prejudices, how much +more civilised a human being you would be!"</p> + +<p>He raised his hat. His expression was a little grim.</p> + +<p>"The man without prejudices, my dear Violet," he retorted, "is a man +without instincts.... I wish you luck."</p> + +<p>She ran lightly up the steps and waved her hand. He watched her pass +through the doors into the hotel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>ENTER THE AMERICAN</h3> + + +<p>Lady Weybourne was lunching on the terrace of Ciro's restaurant with her +brother. She was small, dark, vivacious. Her friends, of whom she had +thousands, all called her Flossie, and she was probably the most popular +American woman who had ever married into the English peerage. Her +brother, Richard Lane, on the other hand, was tall, very +broad-shouldered, with a strong, clean-shaven face, inclined by +disposition to be taciturn. On this particular morning he had less even +than usual to say, and although Lady Weybourne, who was a great +chatterbox, was content as a rule to do most of the talking for herself, +his inattention became at last a little too obvious. He glanced up +eagerly as every newcomer appeared, and his answers to his sister's +criticisms were sometimes almost at random.</p> + +<p>"Dicky, I'm not at all sure that I'm liking you this morning," she +observed finally, looking across at him with a critically questioning +smile. "A certain amount of non-responsiveness to my advances I can put +up with—from a brother—but this morning you are positively +inattentive. Tell me your troubles at once. Has Harris been bothering +you, or did you lose a lot of money last night?"</p> + +<p>Considering that the young man's income was derived from an exceedingly +well-invested capital of nine million dollars, and that Harris was the +all too perfect captain of his yacht lying then in the harbour, whose +worst complaint was that he had never enough work to do, Lady +Weybourne's enquiries might have been considered as merely tentative. +Richard shook his head a little gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Those things aren't likely to trouble me," he remarked. "Harris is all +right, and I've promised him we'll make up a little party and go over to +Cannes in a day or two."</p> + +<p>"What a ripping idea!" Lady Weybourne declared, breaking up her thin +toast between her fingers. "I'd love it, and so would Harry. We could +easily get together a delightful party. The Pelhams are here and simply +dying for a change, and there's Captain Gardner and Frank Clowes, and +lots of nice girls. Couldn't we fix a date, Dick?"</p> + +<p>"Not just yet," her brother replied.</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"I am waiting," he told her, "until I can ask the girl I want to go."</p> + +<p>"And why can't you now?" she demanded, with upraised eyebrows. "I'll be +hostess and chaperone all in one."</p> + +<p>"I can't ask her because I don't know her yet," the young man explained +doggedly.</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne leaned back in her chair and laughed.</p> + +<p>"So that's it!" she exclaimed. "Now I know why you're sitting there like +an owl this morning! In love with a fair unknown, are you, Dick? Be +careful. Monte Carlo is full of young ladies whom it would be just as +well to know a little about before you thought of taking them yachting."</p> + +<p>"This one isn't that sort," the young man said.</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?" she asked, leaning across the table, her head +resting on her clasped hands.</p> + +<p>He looked at her almost contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"How do I know!" he repeated. "There are just one or two things that +happen in this world which a man can be utterly and entirely sure of. +She is one of them. Say, Flossie," he added, the enthusiasm creeping at +last into his tone, "you never saw any one quite like her in all your +life!"</p> + +<p>"Do I know her, I wonder?" Lady Weybourne enquired.</p> + +<p>"That's just what I've asked you here to find out," her brother replied +ingenuously. "I heard her tell the man she was with this morning—her +father, I believe—about an hour ago, that she would be at Ciro's at +half-past one. It's twenty minutes to two now."</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"So that's why you dragged me out of bed and made me come to lunch with +you! Dick, what a fraud you are! I was thinking what a dear, +affectionate brother you were, and all the time you were just making use +of me."</p> + +<p>"Sorry," the young man said briskly, "but, after all, we needn't stand +on ceremony, need we? I've always been your pal; gave you a leg up with +the old man, you know, when he wasn't keen on the British alliance."</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll do what I can for you," she promised. "If she is any one in +particular I expect I shall know her. What's happening, Dick?"</p> + +<p>The young man's face was almost transformed. His eyes were bright and +very fixed. His lips had come together in a firm, straight line, as +though he were renewing some promise to himself. Lady Weybourne followed +the direction of his gaze. A man and a girl had reached the entrance to +the restaurant and were looking around them as though to select a table. +The chief maître d'hôtel had hastened out to receive them. They were, +without doubt, people of importance. The man was of medium height, with +iron-grey hair and moustache, and a small imperial. He wore light +clothes of perfect cut; patent shoes with white linen gaiters; a black +tie fastened with a pin of opals. He carried himself with an air which +was unmistakable and convincing. The girl by his side was beautiful. She +was simply dressed in a tailor-made gown of white serge. Her black hat +was a miracle of smartness. Her hair was of a very light shade of +golden-brown, her complexion wonderfully fair. Lady Weybourne glanced at +her shoes and gloves, at the bag which she was carrying, and the handle +of her parasol. Then she nodded approvingly.</p> + +<p>"You don't know her?" Richard asked, in a disappointed whisper.</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Sorry," she admitted, "but I don't. They've probably only just +arrived."</p> + +<p>With great ceremony the newcomers were conducted to the best table upon +the terrace. The man was evidently an habitué. He had scarcely taken his +seat before, with a very low bow, the sommelier brought him a small +wine-glass filled with what seemed to be vermouth. While he sipped it he +smoked a Russian cigarette and with a gold pencil wrote out the menu of +his luncheon. In a few minutes the manager himself came hurrying out +from the restaurant. His salute was almost reverential. When, after a +few moments' conversation, he departed, he did so with the air of one +taking leave of royalty. Lady Weybourne, who was an inquisitive little +person, was puzzled.</p> + +<p>"I don't know who they are, Dick," she confessed, "but I know the ways +of this place well, and I can tell you one thing—they are people of +importance. You can tell that by the way they are received. These +restaurant people don't make mistakes."</p> + +<p>"Of course they are people of importance," the young man declared. "Any +one can see that by a glance at the girl. I am sorry you don't know +them," he went on, "but you've got to find out who they are, and pretty +quickly, too. Look here, Flossie. I am a bit useful to you now and then, +aren't I?"</p> + +<p>"Without you, my dear Dick," she murmured, "I should never be able to +manage those awful trustees. You are invaluable, a perfect jewel of a +brother."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll give you that little electric coupé you were so keen on last +time we were in London, if you'll get me an introduction to that girl +within twenty-four hours."</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne gasped.</p> + +<p>"What a whirlwind!" she exclaimed. "Dicky, are you, by any chance, in +earnest?"</p> + +<p>"In earnest for the first time in my life," he assured her. "Something +has got hold of me which I'm not going to part with."</p> + +<p>She considered him reflectively. He was twenty-seven years of age, and +notwithstanding the boundless opportunities of his youth and great +wealth he had so far shown an almost singular indifference to the whole +of the opposite sex, from the fascinating chorus girls of London and New +York to the no less enterprising young women of his own order. As she +sat there studying his features, she felt a sensation almost of awe. +There was something entirely different, something stronger in his face. +She thought for a moment of their father as she had known him in her +childhood, the founder of their fortunes, a man who had risen from a +moderate position to immense wealth through sheer force of will, of +pertinacity. For the first time she saw the same look upon her brother's +face.</p> + +<p>"Well," she sighed, "I shall do my best to earn it. I only hope, Dick, +that she is—"</p> + +<p>"She is what?" he demanded, looking at her steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"Oh! not engaged or anything, I mean," Lady Weybourne explained hastily. +"I must admit, Dick, although I don't suppose any sister is particularly +keen upon her brother's young women, that I think you've shown excellent +taste. She is absolutely the best style of any one I've seen in Monte +Carlo."</p> + +<p>"How are you going to manage that introduction?" he asked bluntly. "Have +you made any plans?"</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose it will be difficult," she assured him, lighting a +cigarette and shaking her head at the tray of liqueurs which the +sommelier was offering. "Get me some cream for my coffee, Dick. Now I'll +tell you," she continued, as the waiter disappeared. "You will have to +call that under-maître d'hôtel. You had better give him a substantial +tip and ask him quietly for their names. Then I'll see about the rest."</p> + +<p>"That seems sensible enough," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"And look here, Dick," she went on, "I know how impetuous you are. Don't +do anything foolish. Remember this isn't an ordinary adventure. If you +go rushing in upon it you'll come to grief."</p> + +<p>"I know," he answered shortly. "I was fool enough to hang about the +flower shops and that milliner's this morning. I couldn't help it. I +don't know whether she noticed. I believe she did. Once our eyes did +meet, and although I'll swear she never changed her expression, I felt +that the whole world didn't hold so small a creature as I. Here comes +Charles. I'll ask him."</p> + +<p>He beckoned to the maître d'hôtel and talked for a moment about the +luncheon. Then he ordered a table for the next day, and slipping a louis +into the man's hand, leaned over and whispered in his ear.</p> + +<p>"I want you to tell me the name of the gentleman and young lady who are +sitting over there at the corner table?"</p> + +<p>The maître d'hôtel glanced covertly in the direction indicated. He did +not at once reply. His face was perplexed, almost troubled.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, sir," he said hesitatingly, "but our orders are very +strict. Monsieur Ciro does not like anything in the way of gossip about +our clients, and the gentleman is a very honoured patron. The young lady +is his daughter."</p> + +<p>"Quite right," the young man agreed bluntly. "This isn't an ordinary +case, Charles. You go over to the desk there, write me down the name and +bring it, and there's a hundred franc note waiting here for you. No need +for the name to pass your lips."</p> + +<p>The man bowed and retreated. In a few minutes he came back again and +laid a small card upon the table.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur will pardon my reminding him," he begged earnestly, "but if he +will be so good as to never mention this little matter—"</p> + +<p>Richard nodded and waved him away.</p> + +<p>"Sure!" he promised.</p> + +<p>He drew the card towards him and looked at it in a puzzled manner. Then +he passed it to his sister. Her expression, too, was blank.</p> + +<p>"Who in the name of mischief," he exclaimed softly, "is Mr. Grex!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>"WHO IS MR. GREX?"</h3> + + +<p>Lady Weybourne insisted, after a reasonable amount of time spent over +their coffee, that her brother should pay the bill and leave the +restaurant. They walked slowly across the square.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do about it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"There is only one thing to be done," she replied. "I shall speak to +every one I meet this afternoon—I shall be, in fact, most sociable—and +sooner or later in our conversation I shall ask every one if they know +Mr. Grex and his daughter. When I arrive at some one who does, that will +be the first step, won't it?"</p> + +<p>"I wonder whether we shall see some one soon!" he grumbled, looking +around. "Where are all the people to-day!"</p> + +<p>She laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"Just a little impetuous, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"I should say so," he admitted. "I'd like to be introduced to her before +four o'clock, propose to her this evening, and—and—"</p> + +<p>"And what?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind," he concluded, marching on with his head turned towards the +clouds. "Let's go and sit down upon the Terrace and talk about her."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Dicky," his sister protested, "I don't want to sit upon +the Terrace. I am going to my dressmaker's across the way there, and +afterwards to Lucie's to try on some hats. Then I am going back to the +hotel for an hour's rest and to prink, and afterwards into the Sporting +Club at four o'clock. That's my programme. I shall be doing what I can +the whole of the time. I shall make discreet enquiries of my dressmaker, +who knows everybody, and I sha'n't let a single acquaintance go by. You +will have to amuse yourself till four o'clock, at any rate. There's Sir +Henry Hunterleys over there, having coffee. Go and talk to him. He may +put you out of your misery. Thanks ever so much for my luncheon, and au +revoir!"</p> + +<p>She turned away with a little nod. Her brother, after a moment's +hesitation, approached the table where Hunterleys was sitting alone.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Sir Henry?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys returned his greeting, a little blankly at first. Then he +remembered the young man and held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Of course! You are Richard Lane, aren't you? Sit down and have some +coffee. What are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"I've got a little boat in the harbour," Richard replied, as he drew up +a chair. "I've been at Algiers for a time with some friends, and I've +brought them on here. Just been lunching with my sister. Are you alone?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am alone."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful place," the young man went on. "Wonderful crowd of people +here, too. I suppose you know everybody?" he added, warming up as he +approached his subject.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," Hunterleys answered, "I am almost a stranger here. I +have been staying further down the coast."</p> + +<p>"Happen to know any one of the name of Grex?" Lane asked, with elaborate +carelessness.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He seemed to be considering the +name.</p> + +<p>"Grex," he repeated, knocking the ash from his cigarette. "Rather an +uncommon name, isn't it? Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've seen an elderly man and a young lady about once or twice," +Lane explained. "Very interesting-looking people. Some one told me that +their name was Grex."</p> + +<p>"There is a person living under that name, I think," Hunterleys said, +"who has taken the Villa Mimosa for the season."</p> + +<p>"Do you know him personally?" the young man asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Personally? No, I can scarcely say that I do."</p> + +<p>Richard Lane sighed. It was disappointment number one. For some reason +or other, too, Hunterleys seemed disposed to change the conversation.</p> + +<p>"The young lady who is always with him," Richard persisted, "would that +be his daughter?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned a little in his seat and surveyed his questioner. He +had met Lane once or twice and rather liked him.</p> + +<p>"Look here, young fellow," he said, good humouredly, "let me ask you a +question for a change. What is the nature of these enquiries of yours?"</p> + +<p>Lane hesitated. Something in Hunterleys' face and manner induced him to +tell the truth.</p> + +<p>"I have fallen head over heels in love with the young lady," he +confessed. "Don't think I am a confounded jackass. I am not in the habit +of doing such things. I'm twenty-seven and I have never gone out of my +way to meet a girl yet. This is something—different. I want to find out +about them and get an introduction."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head regretfully.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid," he said, "that I can be of no use to you—no practical +use, that is. I can only give you one little piece of advice."</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it?" Richard asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>"If you are in earnest," Hunterleys continued, "and I will do you the +credit to believe that you are, you had better pack up your things, +return to your yacht and take a cruise somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Take a cruise somewhere!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"Get out of Monte Carlo as quickly as you can, and, above all, don't +think anything more of that young lady. Get the idea out of your head as +quickly as you can."</p> + +<p>The young man was sitting upright in his chair. His manner was half +minatory.</p> + +<p>"Say, what do you mean by this?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Exactly what I said just now," Hunterleys rejoined. "If you are in +earnest, and I have no doubt that you are, I should clear out."</p> + +<p>"What is it you are trying to make me understand?" Richard asked +bluntly.</p> + +<p>"That you have about as much chance with that young lady," Hunterleys +assured him, "as with that very graceful statue in the square yonder."</p> + +<p>Richard sat for a moment with knitted brows.</p> + +<p>"Then you know who she is, any way?"</p> + +<p>"Whether I do or whether I do not," the older man said gravely, "so far +as I am concerned, the subject is exhausted. I have given you the best +advice you ever had in your life. It's up to you to follow it."</p> + +<p>Richard looked at him blankly.</p> + +<p>"Well, you've got me puzzled," he confessed.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys rose to his feet, and, summoning a waiter, paid his bill.</p> + +<p>"You'll excuse me, won't you?" he begged. "I have an appointment in a +few minutes. If you are wise, young man," he added, patting him on the +shoulder as he turned to go, "you will take my advice."</p> + +<p>Left to himself, Richard Lane strolled around the place towards the +Terrace. He had no fancy for the Rooms and he found a seat as far +removed as possible from the Tir du Pigeons. He sat there with folded +arms, looking out across the sun-dappled sea. His matter-of-fact brain +offered him but one explanation as to the meaning of Hunterleys' words, +and against that explanation his whole being was in passionate revolt. +He represented a type of young man who possesses morals by reason of a +certain unsuspected idealism, mingled with perfect physical sanity. It +seemed to him, as he sat there, that he had been waiting for this day +for years. The old nights in New York and Paris and London floated +before his memory. He pushed them on one side with a shiver, and yet +with a curious feeling of exultation. He recalled a certain sensation +which had been drawn through his life like a thin golden thread, a +sensation which had a habit of especially asserting itself in the midst +of these youthful orgies, a curious sense of waiting for something to +happen, a sensation which had been responsible very often for what his +friends had looked upon as eccentricity. He knew now that this thing had +arrived, and everything else in life seemed to pale by the side of it. +Hunterleys' words had thrown him temporarily into a strange turmoil. +Solitude for a few moments he had felt to be entirely necessary. Yet +directly he was alone, directly he was free to listen to his +convictions, he could have laughed at that first mad surging of his +blood, the fierce, instinctive rebellion against the conclusion to which +Hunterleys' words seemed to point. Now that he was alone, he was not +even angry. No one else could possibly understand!</p> + +<p>Before long he was once more upon his feet, starting out upon his quest +with renewed energy. He had scarcely taken a dozen steps, however, when +he came face to face with Lady Hunterleys and Mr. Draconmeyer. Quite +oblivious of the fact that they seemed inclined to avoid him, he greeted +them both with unusual warmth.</p> + +<p>"Saw your husband just now, Lady Hunterleys," he remarked, a little +puzzled. "I fancied he said he was alone here."</p> + +<p>She smiled.</p> + +<p>"We did not come together," she explained; "in fact, our meeting was +almost accidental. Henry had been at Bordighera and San Remo and I came +out with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>The young man nodded and turned towards Draconmeyer, who was standing a +little on one side as though anxious to proceed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Draconmeyer doesn't remember me, perhaps. I met him at my sister's, +Lady Weybourne's, just before Christmas."</p> + +<p>"I remember you perfectly," Mr. Draconmeyer assured him courteously. "We +have all been admiring your beautiful yacht in the harbour there."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of getting up a little cruise before long," Richard +continued. "If so, I hope you'll all join us. Flossie is going to be +hostess, and the Montressors are passengers already."</p> + +<p>They murmured something non-committal. Lady Hunterleys seemed as though +about to pass on but Lane blocked the way.</p> + +<p>"I only arrived the other day from Algiers," he went on, making frantic +efforts to continue the conversation. "I brought Freddy Montressor and +his sister, and Fothergill."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Montressor has come to the Hotel de Paris," Lady Hunterleys +remarked. "What sort of weather did you have in Algiers?"</p> + +<p>"Ripping!" the young man replied absently, entirely oblivious of the +fact that they had been driven away by incessant rain. "This place is +much more fun, though," he added, with sudden inspiration. "Crowds of +interesting people. I suppose you know every one?"</p> + +<p>Lady Hunterleys shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do not. Mr. Draconmeyer here is my guide. He is as good as a +walking directory."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if either of you know some people named Grex?" Richard asked, +with studious indifference.</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer for the first time showed some signs of interest. He +looked at their questioner steadfastly.</p> + +<p>"Grex," he repeated. "A very uncommon name."</p> + +<p>"Very uncommon-looking people," Richard declared. "The man is elderly, +and looks as though he took great care of himself—awfully well turned +out and all that. The daughter is—good-looking."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer took off his gold-rimmed spectacles and rubbed them with +his handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Why do you ask?" he enquired. "Is this just curiosity?"</p> + +<p>"Rather more than that," Richard said boldly. "It's interest."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer readjusted his spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Grex," he announced, "is a gentleman of great wealth and +illustrious birth, who has taken a very magnificent villa and desires +for a time to lead a life of seclusion. That is as much as I or any one +else knows."</p> + +<p>"What about the young lady?" Richard persisted.</p> + +<p>"The young lady," Mr. Draconmeyer answered, "is, as you surmised, his +daughter.... Shall we finish our promenade, Lady Hunterleys?"</p> + +<p>Richard stood grudgingly a little on one side.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Draconmeyer," he said desperately, "do you think there'd be any +chance of my getting an introduction to the young lady?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer at first smiled and then began to laugh, as though +something in the idea tickled him. He looked at the young man and +Richard hated him.</p> + +<p>"Not the slightest in the world, I should think," he declared. "Good +afternoon!"</p> + +<p>Lady Hunterleys joined in her companion's amusement as they continued +their promenade.</p> + +<p>"Is the young man in love, do you suppose?" she enquired lightly.</p> + +<p>"If so," her companion replied, "he has made a somewhat unfortunate +choice. However, it really doesn't matter. Love at his age is nothing +more than a mood. It will pass as all moods pass."</p> + +<p>She turned and looked at him.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," she asked incredulously, "that youth is incapable of +love?"</p> + +<p>They had paused for a moment, looking out across the bay towards the +glittering white front of Bordighera. Mr. Draconmeyer took off his hat. +Somehow, without it, in that clear light, one realised, notwithstanding +his spectacles, his grizzled black beard of unfashionable shape, his +over-massive forehead and shaggy eyebrows, that his, too, was the face +of one whose feet were not always upon the earth.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," he answered, "it is a matter of degree, yet I am almost +tempted to answer your question absolutely. I do not believe that youth +can love, because from the first it misapprehends the meaning of the +term. I believe that the gift of loving comes only to those who have +reached the hills."</p> + +<p>She looked at him, a little surprised. Always thoughtful, always +sympathetic, generally stimulating, it was very seldom that she had +heard him speak with so much real feeling. Suddenly he turned his head +from the sea. His eyes seemed to challenge hers.</p> + +<p>"Your question," he continued, "touches upon one of the great tragedies +of life. Upon those who are free from their youth there is a great tax +levied. Nature has decreed that they should feel something which they +call love. They marry, and in this small world of ours they give a +hostage as heavy as a millstone of their chances of happiness. For it is +only in later life, when a man has knowledge as well as passion, when +unless he is fortunate it is too late, that he can know what love is."</p> + +<p>She moved a little uneasily. She felt that something was coming which +she desired to avoid, some confidence, something from which she must +escape. The memory of her husband's warning was vividly present with +her. She felt the magnetism of her companion's words, his compelling +gaze.</p> + +<p>"It is so with me," he went on, leaning a little towards her, "only in +my case—"</p> + +<p>Providence was intervening. Never had the swish of a woman's skirt +sounded so sweet to her before.</p> + +<p>"Here's Dolly Montressor," she interrupted, "coming up to speak to us."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>CAKES AND COUNSELS</h3> + + +<p>The Sporting Club seemed to fill up that afternoon almost as soon as the +doors were opened. At half-past four, people were standing two or three +deep around the roulette tables. Selingman, very warm, and looking +somewhat annoyed, withdrew himself from the front row of the lower +table, and taking Mr. Grex and Draconmeyer by the arm, led them towards +the tea-room.</p> + +<p>"I have lost six louis!" he exclaimed, fretfully. "I have had the +devil's own luck. I shall play no more for the present. We will have tea +together."</p> + +<p>They appropriated a round table in a distant corner of the restaurant.</p> + +<p>"History," Selingman continued, heaping his plate with rich cakes, "has +been made before now in strange places. Why not here? We sit here in +close touch with one of the most interesting phases of modern life. We +can even hear the voice of fate, the click of the little ball as it +finishes its momentous journey and sinks to rest. Why should we, too, +not speak of fateful things?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer glanced around.</p> + +<p>"For myself," he muttered, "I must say that I prefer a smaller room and +a locked door."</p> + +<p>Selingman demolished a chocolate éclair and shook his head vigorously.</p> + +<p>"The public places for me," he declared. "Now look around. There is no +one, as you will admit, within ear-shot. Very well. What will they say, +those who suspect us, if they see us drinking tea and eating many cakes +together? Certainly not that we conspire, that we make mischief here. On +the other hand, they will say 'There are three great men at play, come +to Monte Carlo to rest from their labours, to throw aside for a time the +burden from their shoulders; to flirt, to play, to eat cakes.' It is a +good place to talk, this, and I have something in my mind which must be +said."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex sipped his pale, lemon-flavoured tea and toyed with his +cigarette-case. He was eating nothing.</p> + +<p>"Assuming you to be a man of sense, my dear Selingman," he remarked, "I +think that what you have to say is easily surmised. The Englishman!"</p> + +<p>Selingman agreed with ponderous emphasis.</p> + +<p>"We have before us," he declared, "a task of unusual delicacy. Our +friend from Paris may be here at any moment. How we shall fare with him, +heaven only knows! But there is one thing very certain. At the sight of +Hunterleys he will take alarm. He will be like a frightened bird, all +ruffled feathers. He will never settle down to a serious discussion. +Hunterleys knows this. That is why he presents himself without reserve +in public, why he is surrounded with Secret Service men of his own +country, all on the <i>qui vive</i> for the coming of Douaille."</p> + +<p>"It appears tolerably certain," Mr. Draconmeyer said calmly, "that we +must get rid of Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex looked out of the window for a moment.</p> + +<p>"To some extent," he observed, "I am a stranger here. I come as a guest +to this conference, as our other friend from Paris comes, too. Any small +task which may arise from the necessities of the situation, devolves, I +think I may say without unfairness, upon you, my friend."</p> + +<p>Selingman assented gloomily.</p> + +<p>"That is true," he admitted, "but in Hunterleys we have to do with no +ordinary man. He does not gamble. To the ordinary attractions of Monte +Carlo he is indifferent. He is one of these thin-blooded men with +principles. Cromwell would have made a lay preacher of him."</p> + +<p>"You find difficulties?" Mr. Grex queried, with slightly uplifted +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Not difficulties," Selingman continued quickly. "Or if indeed we do +call them difficulties, let us say at once that they are very minor +ones. Only the thing must be done neatly and without ostentation, for +the sake of our friend who comes."</p> + +<p>"My own position," Mr. Draconmeyer intervened, "is, in a way, delicate. +The unexplained disappearance of Sir Henry Hunterleys might, by some +people, be connected with the great friendship which exists between my +wife and his."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex polished his horn-rimmed eyeglass. Selingman nodded +sympathetically. Neither of them looked at Draconmeyer. Finally +Selingman heaved a sigh and brushed the crumbs from his waistcoat.</p> + +<p>"If one were assured," he murmured thoughtfully, "that Hunterleys' +presence here had a real significance—"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer pushed his chair forward and leaned across the table. The +heads of the three men were close together. His tone was stealthily +lowered.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you something, my friend Selingman, which I think should +strengthen any half-formed intention you may have in your brain. +Hunterleys is no ordinary sojourner here. You were quite right when you +told me that his stay at Bordighera and San Remo was a matter of days +only. Now I will tell you something. Three weeks ago he was at +Bukharest. He spent two days with Novisko. From there he went to Sofia. +He was heard of in Athens and Constantinople. My own agent wrote me that +he was in Belgrade. Hunterleys is the bosom friend of the English +Foreign Secretary. That I know for myself. You have your reports. You +can read between the lines. I tell you that Hunterleys is the man who +has paralysed our action amongst the Balkan States. He has played a neat +little game out there. It is he who was the inspiration of Roumania. It +is he who drafted the secret understanding with Turkey. The war which we +hoped for will not take place. From there Hunterleys came in a gunboat +and landed on the Italian coast. He lingered at Bordighera for +appearances only. He is here, if he can, to break up our conference. I +tell you that you none of you appreciate this man. Hunterleys is the +most dangerous Englishman living—"</p> + +<p>"One moment," Selingman interrupted. "To some extent I follow you, but +when you speak of Hunterleys as a power in the present tense, doesn't it +occur to you that his Party is not in office? He is simply a member of +the Opposition. If his Party get in again at the next election, I grant +you that he will be Foreign Minister and a dangerous one, but to-day he +is simply a private person."</p> + +<p>"It is not every one," Mr. Draconmeyer said slowly, "who bows his knee +to the shibboleth of party politics. Remember that I come to you from +London and I have information of which few others are possessed. +Hunterleys is of the stuff of which patriots are made. Party is no +concern of his. He and the present Foreign Secretary are the greatest of +personal friends. I know for a fact that Hunterleys has actually been +consulted and has helped in one or two recent crises. The very +circumstance that he is not of the ruling Party makes a free lance of +him. When his people are in power, he will have to take office and wear +the shackles. To-day, with every quality which would make him the +greatest Foreign Minister England has ever had since Disraeli, he is +nothing more nor less than a roving diplomatist, Emperor of his +country's Secret Service, if you like to put it so. Furthermore, look a +little into that future of which I have spoken. The present English +Government will last, at the most, another two years. I tell you that +when they go out of power, whoever comes in, Hunterleys will go to the +Foreign Office. We shall have to deal with a man who knows, a man—"</p> + +<p>"I am not wholly satisfied with these éclairs," Selingman interrupted, +gazing into the dish. "Maître d'hôtel, come and listen to an awful +complaint," he went on, and, addressing one of the head-waiters. "Your +éclairs are too small, your cream-cakes too irresistible. I eat too much +here. How, I ask you in the name of common sense, can a man dine who +takes tea here! Bring the bill."</p> + +<p>The man, smiling, hastened away. Not a word had passed between the +three, yet the other two understood the situation perfectly. Hunterleys +and Richard Lane had entered the room together and were seated at an +adjoining table. Selingman plunged into a fresh tirade, pointing to the +half-demolished plateful of cakes.</p> + +<p>"I will eat one more," he declared. "We will bilk the management. The +bill is made out. I shall not be observed. Our friend," he continued, +under his breath, "has secured a valuable bodyguard, something very +large and exceedingly powerful."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer hesitated for a moment. Then he turned to Mr. Grex.</p> + +<p>"You have perhaps observed," he said, "the young man who is seated at +the next table. It may amuse you to hear of a very extraordinary piece +of impertinence of which, only this afternoon, he was guilty. He +accosted me upon the Terrace—he is a young American whom I have met in +London—and asked me for information respecting a Mr. and Miss Grex."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex looked slowly towards the speaker. There was very little change +in his face, yet Draconmeyer seemed in some way confused.</p> + +<p>"You will understand, I am sure, sir," he continued, a little hastily, +"that I was in no way to blame for the question which the young man +addressed to me. He had the presumption to enquire whether I could +procure for him an introduction to the young lady whom he knew as Miss +Grex. Even at this moment," Draconmeyer went on, lowering his voice, "he +is trying to persuade Hunterleys to let him come over to us."</p> + +<p>"The young man," Mr. Grex said deliberately, "is ignorant. If necessary, +he must be taught his lesson."</p> + +<p>Selingman intervened. He breathed a heavy sigh.</p> + +<p>"Well," he observed, "I perceive that the task at which we have hinted +is to fall upon my shoulders. We must do what we can. I am a +tender-hearted man, and if extremes can be avoided, I shall like my task +better.... And now I have changed my mind. The loss of that six louis +weighs upon me. I shall endeavour to regain it. Let us go."</p> + +<p>They rose and passed out into the roulette rooms. Richard Lane, who +remained in his seat with an effort, watched them pass with a frown upon +his face.</p> + +<p>"Say, Sir Henry," he complained, "I don't quite understand this. Why, +I'd only got to go over to Draconmeyer there and stand and talk for a +moment, and he must have introduced me."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Let me assure you," he said, "that Draconmeyer would have done nothing +of the sort. For one thing, we don't introduce over here as a matter of +course, as you do in America. And for another—well, I won't trouble you +with the other reason.... Look here, Lane, take my advice, there's a +sensible fellow. I am a man of the world, you know, and there are +certain situations in which one can make no mistake. If you are as hard +hit as you say you are, go for a cruise and get over it. Don't hang +around here. No good will come of it."</p> + +<p>The young man set his teeth. He was looking very determined indeed.</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything in this world, short of a bomb," he declared, +"which is going to blow me out of Monte Carlo before I have made the +acquaintance of Miss Grex!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE EFFRONTERY OF RICHARD</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys took leave of his companion as soon as they arrived at the +roulette rooms.</p> + +<p>"Take my advice, Lane," he said seriously. "Find something to occupy +your thoughts. Throw a few hundred thousand of your dollars away at the +tables, if you must do something foolish. You'll get into far less +trouble."</p> + +<p>Richard made no direct reply. He watched Hunterleys depart and took up +his place opposite the door to await his sister's arrival. It was a +quarter to five before she appeared and found him waiting for her in the +doorway.</p> + +<p>"Say, you're late, Flossie!" he grumbled. "I thought you were going to +be here soon after four."</p> + +<p>She glanced at the little watch upon her wrist.</p> + +<p>"How the time does slip away!" she sighed. "But really, Dicky, I am late +in your interests as much as anything. I have been paying a few calls. I +went out to the Villa Rosa to see some people who almost live here, and +then I met Lady Crawley and she made me go in and have some tea."</p> + +<p>"Well?" he asked impatiently. "Well?"</p> + +<p>She laid her fingers upon his arm and drew him into a less crowded part +of the room.</p> + +<p>"Dicky," she confessed, "I don't seem to have had a bit of luck. The +Comtesse d'Hausson, who lives at the Villa Rosa, knows them and showed +me from the window the Villa Mimosa, where they live, but she would tell +me absolutely nothing about them. The villa is the finest in Monte +Carlo, and has always been taken before by some one of note. She +declares that they do not mix in the society of the place, but she +admits that she has heard a rumour that Grex is only an assumed name."</p> + +<p>"I begin to believe that myself," he said doggedly. "Hunterleys knows +who they are and won't tell me. So does that fellow Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"Sir Henry and Mr. Draconmeyer!" she repeated, raising her eyes. "My +dear Dick, that doesn't sound very reasonable, does it?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you that they do," he persisted. "They as good as told me so. +Hunterleys, especially, left me here only half-an-hour ago, and his last +words were advising me to chuck it. He's a sensible chap enough but he +won't even tell me why. I've had enough of it. I've a good mind to take +the bull by the horns myself. Mr. Grex is here now, somewhere about. He +was sitting with Mr. Draconmeyer and a fat old German a few minutes ago, +at the next table to ours. If I had been alone I should have gone up and +chanced being introduced, but Hunterleys wouldn't let me."</p> + +<p>"Well, so far," Lady Weybourne admitted, "I fear that I haven't done +much towards that electric coupé; but," she added, in a changed tone, +looking across the tables, "there is just one thing, Dicky. Fate +sometimes has a great deal to do with these little affairs. Look over +there."</p> + +<p>Richard left his sister precipitately, without even a word of farewell. +She watched him cross the room, and smiled at the fury of a little +Frenchman whom he nearly knocked over in his hurry to get round to the +other side of the table. A moment later he was standing a few feet away +from the girl who had taken so strange a hold upon his affections. He +himself was conscious of a curious and unfamiliar nervousness. +Physically he felt as though he had been running hard. He set his teeth +and tried to keep cool. He found some plaques in his pocket and began to +stake. Then he became aware that the girl was holding in her hand a note +and endeavouring to attract the attention of the man who was giving +change.</p> + +<p>"<i>Petite monnaie, s'il vous plaît</i>," he heard her say, stretching out +the note.</p> + +<p>The man took no notice. Richard held out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Will you allow me to get it changed for you?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Her first impulse at the sound of his voice was evidently one of +resentment. She seemed, indeed, in the act of returning some chilling +reply. Then she glanced half carelessly towards him and her eyes rested +upon his face. Richard was good-looking enough, but the chief +characteristic of his face was a certain honesty, which seemed +accentuated at that moment by his undoubted earnestness. The type was +perhaps strange to her. She was almost startled by what she saw. +Scarcely knowing what she did, she allowed him to take the note from her +fingers.</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much," she murmured.</p> + +<p>Richard procured the change. He would have lifted every one out of the +way if she had been in a hurry. Then he turned round and counted it very +slowly into her hands. From the left one she had removed the glove and +he saw, to his relief, that there was no engagement ring there. He +counted so slowly that towards the end she seemed to become a little +impatient.</p> + +<p>"That is quite all right," she said. "It was very kind of you to +trouble."</p> + +<p>She spoke very correct English with the slightest of foreign accents. He +looked once more into her eyes.</p> + +<p>"It was a pleasure," he declared.</p> + +<p>She smiled faintly, an act of graciousness which absolutely turned his +head. With her hand full of plaques, she moved away and found a place a +little lower down the table. Richard fought with his first instinct and +conquered it. He remained where he was, and when he moved it was in +another direction. He went into the bar and ordered a whisky and soda. +He was as excited as he had been in the old days when he had rowed +stroke in a winning race for his college boat. He felt, somehow or +other, that the first step had been a success. She had been inclined at +first to resent his offer. She had looked at him and changed her mind. +Even when she had turned away, she had smiled. It was ridiculous, but he +felt as though he had taken a great step. Presently Lady Weybourne, on +her way to the baccarat rooms, saw him sitting there and looked in.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dicky," she exclaimed, "what luck?"</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Flossie," he begged. "I've spoken to her."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean,—" she began, horrified.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! Nothing of that sort!" he interrupted. "Don't think I'm +such a blundering ass. She was trying to get change and couldn't reach. +I took the note from her, got the change and gave it to her. She said, +'Thank you.' When she went away, she smiled."</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne flopped down upon the divan and screamed with laughter.</p> + +<p>"Dicky," she murmured, wiping her eyes, "tell me, is that why you are +sitting there, looking as though you could see right into Heaven? Do you +know that your face was one great beam when I came in?"</p> + +<p>"Can't help it," he answered contentedly. "I've spoken to her and she +smiled."</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne opened her gold bag and produced a card.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "here is another chance for you. Of course, I don't +know that it will come to anything, but you may as well try your luck."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She thrust a square of gilt-edged cardboard into his hand.</p> + +<p>"It's an invitation," she told him, "from the directors, to attend a +dinner at La Turbie Golf Club-house, up in the mountains, to-night. It +isn't entirely a joke, I can tell you. It takes at least an hour to get +there, climbing all the way, and the place is as likely as not to be +wrapped in clouds, but a great many of the important people are going, +and as I happened to see Mr. Grex's name amongst the list of members, +the other night, there is always a chance that they may be there. If +not, you see, you can soon come back."</p> + +<p>"I'm on," Richard decided. "Give me the ticket. I am awfully obliged to +you, Flossie."</p> + +<p>"If she is there," Lady Weybourne declared, rising, "I shall consider +that it is equivalent to one wheel of the coupé."</p> + +<p>"Have a cocktail instead," he suggested.</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Too early. If we meet later on, I'll have one. What are you going to +do?"</p> + +<p>"Same as I've been doing ever since lunch," he answered,—"hang around +and see if I can meet any one who knows them."</p> + +<p>She laughed and hurried off into the baccarat room, and Richard +presently returned to the table at which the girl was still playing. He +took particular care not to approach her, but he found a place on the +opposite side of the room, from which he could watch her unobserved. She +was still standing and apparently she was losing her money. Once, with a +little petulant frown, she turned away and moved a few yards lower down +the room. The first time she staked in her new position, she won, and a +smile which it seemed to him was the most brilliant he had ever seen, +parted her lips. He stood there looking at her, and in the midst of a +scene where money seemed god of all things, he realised all manner of +strange and pleasant sensations. The fact that he had twenty thousand +francs in his pocket to play with, scarcely occurred to him. He was +watching a little wisp of golden hair by her ear, watching her slightly +wrinkled forehead as she leaned over the table, her little grimace as +she lost and her stake was swept away. She seemed indifferent to all +bystanders. It was obvious that she had very few acquaintances. Where he +stood it was not likely that she would notice him, and he abandoned +himself wholly to the luxury of gazing at her. Then some instinct caused +him to turn his head. He felt that he in his turn was being watched. He +glanced towards the divan set against the wall, by the side of which he +was standing. Mr. Grex was seated there, only a few feet away, smoking a +cigarette. Their eyes met and Richard was conscious of a sudden +embarrassment. He felt like a detected thief, and he acted at that +moment as he often did—entirely on impulse. He leaned down and +resolutely addressed Mr. Grex.</p> + +<p>"I should be glad, sir, if you would allow me to speak to you for a +moment."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex's expression was one of cold surprise, unmixed with any +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Do you address me?" he asked.</p> + +<p>His tone was vastly discouraging but it was too late to draw back.</p> + +<p>"I should like to speak to you, if I may," Richard continued.</p> + +<p>"I am not aware," Mr. Grex said, "that I have the privilege of your +acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"You haven't," Richard admitted, "but all the same I want to speak to +you, if I may."</p> + +<p>"Since you have gone so far," Mr. Grex conceded, "you had better finish, +but you must allow me to tell you in advance that I look upon any +address from a perfect stranger as an impertinence."</p> + +<p>"You'll think worse of me before I've finished, then," Richard declared +desperately. "You don't mind if I sit down?"</p> + +<p>"These seats," Mr. Grex replied coldly, "are free to all."</p> + +<p>The young man took his place upon the divan with a sinking heart. There +was something in Mr. Grex's tone which seemed to destroy all his +confidence, a note of something almost alien in the measured contempt of +his speech.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to give you any offence," Richard began. "I happened to +notice that you were watching me. I was looking at your +daughter—staring at her. I am afraid you thought me impertinent."</p> + +<p>"Your perspicuity," Mr. Grex observed, "seems to be of a higher order +than your manners. You are, perhaps, a stranger to civilised society?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," Richard went on doggedly. "I have been to +college and mixed with the usual sort of people. My birth isn't much to +speak of, perhaps, if you count that for anything."</p> + +<p>Something which was almost like the ghost of a smile, devoid of any +trace of humour, parted Mr. Grex's lips.</p> + +<p>"If I count that for anything!" he repeated, half closing his eyes for a +moment. "Pray proceed, young man."</p> + +<p>"I am an American," Richard continued. "My name is Richard Lane. My +father was very wealthy and I am his heir. My sister is Lady Weybourne. +I was lunching with her at Ciro's to-day when I saw you and your +daughter. I think I can say that I am a respectable person. I have a +great many friends to whom I can refer you."</p> + +<p>"I am not thinking of engaging anybody, that I know of," Mr. Grex +murmured.</p> + +<p>"I want to marry your daughter," Richard declared desperately, feeling +that any further form of explanation would only lead him into greater +trouble.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex knocked the ash from his cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Is your keeper anywhere in the vicinity?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I am perfectly sane," Richard assured him. "I know that it sounds +foolish but it isn't really. I am twenty-seven years old and I have +never asked a girl to marry me yet. I have been waiting until—"</p> + +<p>The words died away upon his lips. It was impossible for him to +continue, the cold enmity of this man was too chilling.</p> + +<p>"I am absolutely in earnest," he insisted. "I have been endeavouring all +day to find some mutual friend to introduce me to your daughter. Will +you do so? Will you give me a chance?"</p> + +<p>"I will not," Mr. Grex replied firmly.</p> + +<p>"Why not? Please tell me why not?" Richard begged. "I am not asking for +anything more now than just an opportunity to talk with her."</p> + +<p>"It is not a matter which admits of discussion," Mr. Grex pronounced. "I +have permitted you to say what you wished, notwithstanding the colossal, +the unimaginable impertinence of your suggestion. I request you to leave +me now and I advise you most heartily to indulge no more in the most +preposterous and idiotic idea which ever entered into the head of an +apparently sane young man."</p> + +<p>Richard rose slowly to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir," he replied, "I'll go. All the same, what you have said +doesn't make any difference."</p> + +<p>"Does not make any difference?" Mr. Grex repeated, with arched eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"None at all," Richard declared. "I don't know what your objection to me +is, but I hope you'll get over it some day. I'd like to make friends +with you. Perhaps, later on, you may look at the matter differently."</p> + +<p>"Later on?" Mr. Grex murmured.</p> + +<p>"When I have married your daughter," Richard concluded, marching +defiantly away.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex watched the young man until he had disappeared in the crowd. +Then he leaned hack amongst the cushions of the divan with folded arms. +Little lines had become visible around his eyes, there was a slight +twitching at the corners of his lips. He looked like a man who was +inwardly enjoying some huge joke.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>UP THE MOUNTAIN</h3> + + +<p>Richard, passing the Hotel de Paris that evening in his wicked-looking +grey racing car, saw Hunterleys standing on the steps and pulled up.</p> + +<p>"Not going up to La Turbie, by any chance?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"I'm going up to the dinner," he replied. "The hotel motor is starting +from here in a few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Come with me," Richard invited.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys looked a little doubtfully at the long, low machine.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to shoot up?" he asked. "It's rather a dangerous road."</p> + +<p>"I'll take care of you," the young man promised. "That hotel 'bus will +be crammed."</p> + +<p>They glided through the streets on to the broad, hard road, and crept +upwards with scarcely a sound, through the blue-black twilight. Around +and in front of them little lights shone out from the villas and small +houses dotted away in the mountains. Almost imperceptibly they passed +into a different atmosphere. The air became cold and exhilarating. The +flavour of the mountain snows gave life to the breeze. Hunterleys +buttoned up his coat but bared his head.</p> + +<p>"My young friend," he said, "this is wonderful."</p> + +<p>"It's a great climb," Richard assented, "and doesn't she just eat it +up!"</p> + +<p>They paused for a moment at La Turbie. Below them was a chain of +glittering lights fringing the Bay of Mentone, and at their feet the +lights of the Casino and Monte Carlo flared up through the scented +darkness. Once more they swung upwards. The road now had become narrower +and the turnings more frequent. They were up above the region of villas +and farmhouses, in a country which seemed to consist only of bleak +hill-side, open to the winds, wrapped in shadows. Now and then they +heard the tinkling of a goat bell; far below they saw the twin lights of +other ascending cars. They reached the plateau at last and drew up +before the club-house, ablaze with cheerful lights.</p> + +<p>"I'll just leave the car under the trees," Richard declared. "No one +will be staying late."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys unwound his scarf and handed his coat and hat to a page-boy. +Then he stood suddenly rigid. He bit his lip. His wife had just issued +from the cloak-room and was drawing on her gloves. She saw him and +hesitated. She, too, turned a little paler. Slowly Hunterleys approached +her.</p> + +<p>"An unexpected pleasure," he murmured.</p> + +<p>"I am here with Mr. Draconmeyer," she told him, almost bluntly.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys bowed.</p> + +<p>"And a party?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"No," she replied. "I really did not want to come. Mr. Draconmeyer had +promised Monsieur Pericot, the director here, to come and bring Mrs. +Draconmeyer. At the last moment, however, she was not well enough, and +he almost insisted upon my taking her place."</p> + +<p>"Is it necessary to explain?" Hunterleys asked quietly. "You know very +well how I regard this friendship of yours."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," she said. "If I had known that we were likely to +meet—well, I would not have come here to-night."</p> + +<p>"You were at least considerate," he remarked bitterly. "May I be +permitted to compliment you upon your toilette?"</p> + +<p>"As you pay for my frocks," she answered, "there is certainly no reason +why you shouldn't admire them."</p> + +<p>He bit his lip. There was a certain challenge in her expression which +made him, for a moment, feel weak. She was a very beautiful woman and +she was looking her best. He spoke quickly on another subject.</p> + +<p>"Are you still," he asked, "troubled by the attentions of the person you +spoke to me about?"</p> + +<p>"I am still watched," she replied drily.</p> + +<p>"I have made some enquiries," Hunterleys continued, "and I have come to +the conclusion that you are right."</p> + +<p>"And you still tell me that you have nothing to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"I assure you, upon my honour, that I have nothing whatever to do with +it."</p> + +<p>It was obvious that she was puzzled, but at that moment Mr. Draconmeyer +presented himself. The newcomer simply bowed to Hunterleys and addressed +some remark about the room to Violet. Then Richard came up and they all +passed on into the reception room, where two or three very fussy but +very suave and charming Frenchmen were receiving the guests. A few +minutes afterwards dinner was announced. A black frown was upon +Richard's forehead.</p> + +<p>"She isn't coming!" he muttered. "I say, Sir Henry, you won't mind if we +leave early?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be jolly glad to get away," Hunterleys assented heartily.</p> + +<p>Then he suddenly felt a grip of iron upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"She's come!" Richard murmured ecstatically. "Look at her, all in white! +Just look at the colour of her hair! There she is, going into the +reception room. Jove! I'm glad we are here, after all!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled a little wearily. They passed on into the <i>salle à +manger</i>. The seats at the long dining-tables were not reserved, and they +found a little table for two in a corner, which they annexed. Hunterleys +was in a grim humour, but his companion was in the wildest spirits. +Considering that he was placed where he could see Mr. Grex and his +daughter nearly the whole of the time, he really did contrive to keep +his eyes away from them to a wonderful extent, but he talked of her +unceasingly.</p> + +<p>"Say, I'm sorry for you, Sir Henry!" he declared. "It's just your bad +luck, being here with me while I've got this fit on, but I've got to +talk to some one, so you may as well make up your mind to it. There +never was anything like that girl upon the earth. There never was +anything like the feeling you get," he went on, "when you're absolutely +and entirely convinced, when you know—that there's just one girl who +counts for you in the whole universe. Gee whiz! It does get hold of you! +I suppose you've been through it all, though."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've been through it!" Hunterleys admitted, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>The young man bit his lip. The story of Hunterleys' matrimonial +differences was already being whispered about. Richard talked polo +vigorously for the next quarter of an hour. It was not until the coffee +and liqueurs arrived that they returned to the subject of Miss Grex. +Then it was Hunterleys himself who introduced it. He was beginning to +rather like this big, self-confident young man, so full of his simple +love affair, so absolutely honest in his purpose, in his outlook upon +life.</p> + +<p>"Lane," he said, "I have given you several hints during the day, haven't +I?"</p> + +<p>"That's so," Richard agreed. "You've done your best to head me off. So +did my future father-in-law. Sort of hopeless task, I can assure you."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Honestly," he continued, "I wouldn't let myself think too much about +her, Lane. I don't want to explain exactly what I mean. There's no real +reason why I shouldn't tell you what I know about Mr. Grex, but for a +good many people's sakes, it's just as well that those few of us who +know keep quiet. I am sure you trust me, and it's just the same, +therefore, if I tell you straight, as man to man, that you're only +laying up for yourself a store of unhappiness by fixing your thoughts so +entirely upon that young woman."</p> + +<p>Richard, for all his sublime confidence, was a little staggered by the +other's earnestness.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, "the girl isn't married, to start with?"</p> + +<p>"Not that I know of," Hunterleys confessed.</p> + +<p>"And she's not engaged because I've seen her left hand," Richard +proceeded. "I'm not one of those Americans who go shouting all over the +world that because I've got a few million dollars I am the equal of +anybody, but honestly, Sir Henry, there are a good many prejudices over +this side that you fellows lay too much store by. Grex may be a nobleman +in disguise. I don't care. I am a man. I can give her everything she +needs in life and I am not going to admit, even if she is an aristocrat, +that you croakers are right when you shake your heads and advise me to +give her up. I don't care who she is, Hunterleys. I am going to marry +her."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys helped himself to a liqueur.</p> + +<p>"Young man," he said, "in a sense I admire your independence. In +another, I think you've got all the conceit a man needs for this world. +Let us presume, for a moment, that she is, as you surmise, the daughter +of a nobleman. When it suits her father to throw off his incognito, she +is probably in touch with young men in the highest circles of many +countries. Why should you suppose that you can come along and cut them +all out?"</p> + +<p>"Because I love her," the young man answered simply. "They don't."</p> + +<p>"You must remember," Hunterleys resumed, "that all foreign noblemen are +not what they are represented to be in your comic papers. Austrian and +Russian men of high rank are most of them very highly cultivated, very +accomplished, and very good-looking. You don't know much of the world, +do you? It's a pretty formidable enterprise to come from a New York +office, with only Harvard behind you, and a year or so's travel as a +tourist, and enter the list against men who have had twice your +opportunities. I am talking to you like this, young fellow, for your +good. I hope you realise that. You're used to getting what you want. +That's because you've been brought up in a country where money can do +almost anything. I am behind the scenes here and I can assure you that +your money won't count for much with Mr. Grex."</p> + +<p>"I never thought it would," Richard admitted. "I think when I talk to +her she'll understand that I care more than any of the others. If you +want to know the reason, that's why I'm so hopeful."</p> + +<p>Monsieur le Directeur had risen to his feet. Some one had proposed his +health and he made a graceful little speech of acknowledgment. He +remained standing for a few minutes after the cheers which had greeted +his neat oratorical display had died away. The conclusion of his remarks +came as rather a surprise to his guests.</p> + +<p>"I have to ask you, ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "with many, +many regrets, and begging you to forgive my apparent inhospitality, to +make your arrangements for leaving us as speedily as may be possible. +Our magnificent situation, with which I believe that most of you are +familiar, has but one drawback. We are subject to very dense mountain +mists, and alas! I have to tell you that one of these has come on most +unexpectedly and the descent must be made with the utmost care. Believe +me, there is no risk or any danger," he went on earnestly, "so long as +you instruct your chauffeurs to proceed with all possible caution. At +the same time, as there is very little chance of the mist becoming +absolutely dispelled before daylight, in your own interests I would +suggest that a start be made as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>Every one rose at once, Richard and Hunterleys amongst them.</p> + +<p>"This will test your skill to-night, young man," Hunterleys remarked. +"How's the nerve, eh?"</p> + +<p>Richard smiled almost beatifically. For once he had allowed his eyes to +wander and he was watching the girl with golden hair who was at that +moment receiving the respectful homage of the director.</p> + +<p>"Lunatics, and men who are head over heels in love," he declared, "never +come to any harm. You'll be perfectly safe with me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>IN THE MISTS</h3> + + +<p>Their first glimpse of the night, as Hunterleys and Lane passed out +through the grudgingly opened door, was sufficiently disconcerting. A +little murmur of dismay broke from the assembled crowd. Nothing was to +be seen but a dense bank of white mist, through which shone the +brilliant lights of the automobiles waiting at the door. Monsieur le +Directeur hastened about, doing his best to reassure everybody.</p> + +<p>"If I thought it was of the slightest use," he declared, "I would ask +you all to stay, but when the clouds once stoop like this, there is not +likely to be any change for twenty-four hours, and we have not, alas! +sleeping accommodation. If the cars are slowly driven and kept to the +inside, it is only a matter of a mile or two before you will drop below +the level of the clouds."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys and Lane made their way out to the front, and with their coat +collars turned up, groped their way to the turf on the other side of the +avenue. From where they stood, looking downwards, the whole world seemed +wrapped in mysterious and somber silence. There was nothing to be seen +but the grey, driving clouds. In less than a minute their hair and +eyebrows were dripping. A slight breeze had sprung up, the cold was +intense.</p> + +<p>"Cheerful sort of place, this," Lane remarked gloomily. "Shall we make a +start?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Not just yet. Look!"</p> + +<p>He pointed downwards. For a moment the clouds had parted. Thousands of +feet below, like little pinpricks of red fire, they saw the lights of +Monte Carlo. Almost as they looked, the clouds closed up again. It was +as though they had peered into another world.</p> + +<p>"Jove, that was queer!" Lane muttered. "Look! What's that?"</p> + +<p>A long ray of sickly yellow light shone for a moment and was then +suddenly blotted out by a rolling mass of vapour. The clouds had closed +in again once more. The obscurity was denser than ever.</p> + +<p>"The lighthouse," Hunterleys replied. "Do you think it's any use +waiting?"</p> + +<p>"We'll go inside and put on our coats," Lane suggested. "My car is by +the side of the avenue there. I covered it over and left it."</p> + +<p>They found their coats in the hall, wrapped themselves up and lit +cigarettes. Already many of the cars had started and vanished cautiously +into obscurity. Every now and then one could hear the tooting of their +horns from far away below. The chief steward was directing the +departures and insisting upon an interval of three minutes between each. +The two men stood on one side and watched him. He was holding open the +door of a large, exceptionally handsome car. On the other side was a +servant in white livery. Lane gripped his companion's arm.</p> + +<p>"There she goes!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>The girl, followed by Mr. Grex, stepped into the landaulette, which was +brilliantly illuminated inside with electric light. Almost immediately +the car glided noiselessly off. The two men watched it until it +disappeared. Then they crossed the road.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Sir Henry," Richard observed grimly, as he turned the handle +of the car and they took their places in the little well-shaped space, +"better say your prayers. I'm going to drive slowly enough but it's an +awful job, this, crawling down the side of a mountain in the dark, with +nothing between you and eternity but your brakes."</p> + +<p>They crept off. As far as the first turn the lights from the club-house +helped them. Immediately afterwards, however, the obscurity was +enveloping. Their faces were wet and shiny with moisture. Even the +fingers of Lane's gloves which gripped the wheel were sodden. He +proceeded at a snail's pace, keeping always on the inside of the road +and only a few inches from the wall or bank. Once he lost his way and +his front wheel struck a small stump, but they were going too slowly for +disaster. Another time he failed to follow the turn of the road and +found himself in a rough cart track. They backed with difficulty and got +right once more. At the fourth turn they came suddenly upon a huge car +which had left the road as they had done and was standing amongst the +pine trees, its lights flaring through the mist.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" Lane called out, coming to a standstill. "You've missed the +turn."</p> + +<p>"My master is going to stay here all night," the chauffeur shouted back.</p> + +<p>A man put his head from the window and began to talk in rapid French.</p> + +<p>"It is inconceivable," he exclaimed, "that any one should attempt the +descent! We have rugs, my wife and I. We stay here till the clouds +pass."</p> + +<p>"Good night, then!" Lane cried cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Not sure that you're not wise," Hunterleys added, with a shiver.</p> + +<p>Twice they stopped while Lane rubbed the moisture from his gloves and +lit a fresh cigarette.</p> + +<p>"This is a test for your nerve, young fellow," Hunterleys remarked. "Are +you feeling it?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," Lane replied. "I can't make out, though, why that +steward made us all start at intervals of three minutes. Seems to me we +should have been better going together at this pace. Save any one from +getting lost, anyhow."</p> + +<p>They crawled on for another twenty minutes. The routine was always the +same—a hundred yards or perhaps two, an abrupt turn and then a similar +distance the other way. They had one or two slight misadventures but +they made progress. Once, through a rift, they caught a momentary vision +of a carpet of lights at a giddy distance below.</p> + +<p>"We'll make it all right," Lane declared, crawling around another +corner. "Gee! but this is the toughest thing in driving I've ever known! +I can do ninety with this car easier than I can do this three. Hullo, +some one else in trouble!"</p> + +<p>Before them, in the middle of the road, a light was being slowly swung +backwards and forwards. Lane brought the car to a standstill. He had +scarcely done so when they were conscious of the sound of footsteps all +around them. The arms of both men were seized from behind. They were +addressed in guttural French.</p> + +<p>"Messieurs will be pleased to descend."</p> + +<p>"What the—what's wrong?" Lane demanded.</p> + +<p>"Descend at once," was the prompt order.</p> + +<p>By the light of the lantern which the speaker was holding, they caught a +glimpse of a dozen white faces and the dull gleam of metal from the +firearms which his companions were carrying. Hunterleys stepped out. An +escort of two men was at once formed on either side of him.</p> + +<p>"Tell us what it's all about, anyhow?" he asked coolly.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious," the same guttural voice answered,—"a little affair +which will be settled in a few minutes. As for you, monsieur," the man +continued, turning to Lane, "you will drive your car slowly to the next +turn, and leave it there. Afterwards you will return with me."</p> + +<p>Richard set his teeth and leaned over his wheel. Then it suddenly +flashed into his mind that Mr. Grex and his daughter were already +amongst the captured. He quickly abandoned his first instinct.</p> + +<p>"With pleasure, monsieur," he assented. "Tell me when to stop."</p> + +<p>He drove the car a few yards round the corner, past a line of others. +Their lights were all extinguished and the chauffeurs absent.</p> + +<p>"This is a pleasant sort of picnic!" he grumbled, as he brought his car +to a standstill. "Now what do I do, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"You return with me, if you please," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Richard stood, for a moment, irresolute. The idea of giving in without a +struggle was most distasteful to this self-reliant young American. Then +he realised that not only was his captor armed but that there were men +behind him and one on either side.</p> + +<p>"Lead the way," he decided tersely.</p> + +<p>They marched him up the hill, a little way across some short turf and +round the back of a rock to a long building which he remembered to have +noticed on his way up. His guide threw open the door and Richard looked +in upon a curious scene. Ranged up against the further wall were about a +dozen of the guests who had preceded him in his departure from the +Club-house. One man only had his hands tied behind him. The others, +apparently, were considered harmless. Mr. Grex was the one man, and +there was a little blood dripping from his right hand. The girl stood by +his side. She was no paler than usual—she showed, indeed, no signs of +terror at all—but her eyes were bright with indignation. One man was +busy stripping the jewels from the women and throwing them into a bag. +In the far corner the little group of chauffeurs was being watched by +two more men, also carrying firearms. Lane looked down the line of +faces. Lady Hunterleys was there, and by her side Draconmeyer. +Hunterleys was a little apart from the others. Freddy Montressor, who +was leaning against the wall, chuckled as Lane came in.</p> + +<p>"So they've got you, too, Dicky, have they?" he remarked. "It's a +hold-up—a bully one, too. Makes one feel quite homesick, eh? How much +have you got on you?"</p> + +<p>"Precious little, thank heavens!" Richard muttered.</p> + +<p>His eyes were fixed upon the brigand who was collecting the jewels, and +who was now approaching Miss Grex. He felt something tingling in his +blood. One of the guests began to talk excitedly. The man who was +apparently the leader, and who was standing at the door with an electric +torch in one hand and a revolver in the other, stepped a little forward.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "once more I beg you not to be alarmed. +So long as you part with your valuables peaceably, you will be at +liberty to depart as soon as every one has been dealt with. If there is +no resistance, there will be no trouble. We do not wish to hurt any +one."</p> + +<p>The collector of jewels had arrived in front of the girl. She unfastened +her necklace and handed it to him.</p> + +<p>"The little pendant around my neck," she remarked calmly, "is valueless. +I desire to keep it."</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" the man replied. "Off with it."</p> + +<p>"But I insist!" she exclaimed. "It is an heirloom."</p> + +<p>The man laughed brutally. His filthy hand was raised to her neck. Even +as he touched her, Lane, with a roar of anger, sent one of his guards +flying on to the floor of the barn, and, snatching the gun from his +hand, sprang forward.</p> + +<p>"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted, bringing it down suddenly upon the +hand of the robber. "These things aren't loaded. There's only one of +these blackguards with a revolver."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<h3>"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"And I've got him!" Hunterleys, who had been watching Lane closely, +cried, suddenly swinging his arm around the man's neck and knocking his +revolver up.</p> + +<p>There was a yell of pain from the man with the jewels, whose wrist Lane +had broken, a howl of dismay from the others—pandemonium.</p> + +<p>"At 'em, Freddy!" Lane shouted, seizing the nearest of his assailants by +the neck and throwing him out into the darkness. "To hell with you!" he +added, just escaping a murderous blow and driving his fist into the face +of the man who had aimed it. "Good for you, Hunterleys! There isn't one +of those old guns of theirs that'll go off. They aren't even loaded."</p> + +<p>The barn seemed suddenly to become half empty. Into the darkness the +little band of brigands crept away like rats. In less than half a minute +they had all fled, excepting the one who lay on the ground unconscious +from the effects of Richard's blow, and the leader of the gang, whom +Hunterleys still held by the throat. Richard, with a clasp-knife which +he had drawn from his pocket, cut the cord which they had tied around +Mr. Grex's wrists. His action, however, was altogether mechanical. He +scarcely glanced at what he was doing. Somehow or other, he found the +girl's hands in his.</p> + +<p>"That brute—didn't touch you, did he?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She looked at him. Whether the clouds were still outside or not, Lane +felt that he had passed into Heaven.</p> + +<p>"He did not, thanks to you," she murmured. "But do you mean really that +those guns all the time weren't loaded?"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe they were," Richard declared stoutly. "That chap kept +on playing about with the lock of his old musket and I felt sure that it +was of no use, loaded or not. Anyway, when I saw that brute try to +handle you—well—"</p> + +<p>He stopped, with an awkward little laugh. Mr. Grex tapped a cigarette +upon his case and lit it.</p> + +<p>"I am sure, my young friend, we are all very much indebted to you. The +methods which sometimes are scarcely politic in the ordinary affairs of +life," he continued drily, "are admirable enough in a case like this. We +will just help Hunterleys tie up the leader of the gang. A very plucky +stroke, that of his."</p> + +<p>He crossed the barn. One of the women had fainted, others were busy +collecting their jewelry. The chauffeurs had hurried off to relight the +lamps of the cars.</p> + +<p>"I must tell you this," Richard said, drawing a a little nearer to the +girl. "Please don't be angry with me. I went to your father this +afternoon. I made an idiot of myself—I couldn't help it. I was staring +at you and he noticed it. I didn't want him to think that I was such an +ill-mannered brute as I seemed. I tried to make him understand but he +wouldn't listen to me. I'd like to tell you now—now that I have the +opportunity—that I think you're just—"</p> + +<p>She smiled very faintly.</p> + +<p>"What is it that you wish to tell me?" she asked patiently.</p> + +<p>"That I love you," he wound up abruptly.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence, a silence with a background of strange +noises. People were talking, almost shouting to one another with +excitement. Newcomers were being told the news. The man whom Hunterleys +had captured was shrieking and cursing. From beyond came the tooting of +motor-horns as the cars returned. Lane heard nothing. He saw nothing but +the white face of the girl as she stood in the shadows of the barn, with +its walls of roughly threaded pine trunks.</p> + +<p>"But I have scarcely ever spoken to you in my life!" she protested, +looking at him in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't make any difference," he replied. "You know I am speaking +the truth. I think, in your heart, that you, too, know that these things +don't matter, now and then. Of course, you don't—you couldn't feel +anything of what I feel, but with me it's there now and for always, and +I want to have a chance, just a chance to make you understand. I'm not +really mad. I'm just—in love with you."</p> + +<p>She smiled at him, still in a friendly manner, but her face had clouded. +There was a look in her eyes almost of trouble, perhaps of regret.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It is only a sudden feeling on your +part, isn't it? You have been so splendid to-night that I can do no more +than thank you very, very much. And as for what you have told me, I +think it is an honour, but I wish you to forget it. It is not wise for +you to think of me in that way. I fear that I cannot even offer you my +friendship."</p> + +<p>Again there was a brief silence. The clamour of exclamations from the +little groups of people still filled the air outside. They could hear +cars coming and going. The man whom Hunterleys and Mr. Grex were tying +up was still groaning and cursing.</p> + +<p>"Are you married?" Richard asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Engaged?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>"Do you care very much for any one else?"</p> + +<p>"No!" she told him softly.</p> + +<p>He drew her away.</p> + +<p>"Come outside for one moment," he begged. "I hate to see you in the +place where that beast tried to lay hands upon you. Here is your +necklace."</p> + +<p>He picked it up from her feet and she followed him obediently outside. +People were standing about, shadowy figures in little groups. Some of +the cars had already left, others were being prepared for a start. +Below, once more the clouds had parted and the lights twinkled like +fireflies through the trees. This time they could even see the lights +from the village of La Turbie, less brilliant but almost at their feet. +Richard glanced upwards. There was a star clearly visible.</p> + +<p>"The clouds are lifting," he said. "Listen. If there is no one else, +tell me, why there shouldn't be the slightest chance for me? I am not +clever, I am nobody of any account, but I care for you so wonderfully. I +love you, I always shall love you, more than any one else could. I never +understood before, but I understand now. Just this caring means so +much."</p> + +<p>She stood close to his side. Her manner at the same time seemed to +depress him and yet to fill him with hope.</p> + +<p>"What is your name?" she enquired.</p> + +<p>"Richard Lane," he told her. "I am an American."</p> + +<p>"Then, Mr. Richard Lane," she continued softly, "I shall always think of +you and think of to-night and think of what you have said, and perhaps I +shall be a little sorry that what you have asked me cannot be."</p> + +<p>"Cannot?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>She shook her head almost sadly.</p> + +<p>"Some day," she went on, "as soon as our stay in Monte Carlo is +finished, if you like, I will write and tell you the real reason, in +case you do not find it out before."</p> + +<p>He was silent, looking downwards to where the gathering wind was driving +the clouds before it, to where the lights grew clearer and clearer at +every moment.</p> + +<p>"Does it matter," he asked abruptly, "that I am rich—very rich?"</p> + +<p>"It does not matter at all," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it matter," he demanded, turning suddenly upon her and speaking +with a new passion, almost a passion of resentment, "doesn't it matter +that without you life doesn't exist for me any longer? Doesn't it matter +that a man has given you his whole heart, however slight a thing it may +seem to you? What am I to do if you send me away? There isn't anything +left in life."</p> + +<p>"There is what you have always found in it," she reminded him.</p> + +<p>"There isn't," he replied fiercely. "That's just what there isn't. I +should go back to a world that was like a dead city."</p> + +<p>He suddenly felt her hand upon his.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mr. Lane," she begged, "wait for a little time before you nurse +these sad thoughts, and when you know how impossible what you ask is, it +will seem easier. But if you really care to hear something, if it would +really please you sometimes to think of it when you are alone and you +remember this little foolishness of yours, let me tell you, if I may, +that I am sorry—I am very sorry."</p> + +<p>His hand was suddenly pressed, and then, before he could stop her, she +had glided away. He moved a step to follow her and almost at once he was +surrounded. Lady Hunterleys patted him on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Really," she exclaimed, "you and Henry were our salvation. I haven't +felt so thrilled for ages. I only wish," she added, dropping her voice a +little, "that it might bring you the luck you deserve."</p> + +<p>He answered vaguely. She turned back to Hunterleys. She was busy tearing +up her handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"I am going to tie up your head," she said. "Please stoop down."</p> + +<p>He obeyed at once. The side of his forehead was bleeding where a bullet +from the revolver of the man he had captured had grazed his temple.</p> + +<p>"Too bad to trouble you," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"It's the least we can do," she declared, laughing nervously. "Forgive +me if my fingers tremble. It is the excitement of the last few minutes."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys stood quite still. Words seemed difficult to him just then.</p> + +<p>"You were very brave, Henry," she said quietly. "Whom—whom are you +going down with?"</p> + +<p>"I am with Richard Lane," he answered, "in his two-seated racer."</p> + +<p>She bit her lip.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean to come alone with Mr. Draconmeyer, really," she +explained. "He thought, up to the last moment, that his wife would be +well enough to come."</p> + +<p>"Did he really believe so, do you think?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>A voice intervened. Mr. Draconmeyer was standing by their side.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "we might as well resume our journey. We all look and +feel, I think, as though we had been taking part in a scene from some +opéra bouffe."</p> + +<p>Lady Hunterleys shivered. She had drawn a little closer to her husband. +Her coat was unfastened. Hunterleys leaned towards her and buttoned it +with strong fingers up to her throat.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she whispered. "You wouldn't—you couldn't drive down with +us, could you?"</p> + +<p>"Have you plenty of room?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"Plenty," she declared eagerly. "Mr. Draconmeyer and I are alone."</p> + +<p>For a moment Hunterleys hesitated. Then he caught the smile upon the +face of the man he detested.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said, "I don't think I can desert Lane."</p> + +<p>She stiffened at once. Her good night was almost formal. Hunterleys +stepped into the car which Richard had brought up. There was just a +slight mist around them, but the whole country below, though chaotic, +was visible, and the lights on the hill-side, from La Turbie down to the +sea-board, were in plain sight.</p> + +<p>"Our troubles," Hunterleys remarked, as they glided off, "seem to be +over."</p> + +<p>"Maybe," Lane replied grimly. "Mine seem to be only just beginning!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>SIGNS OF TROUBLE</h3> + + +<p>At ten o'clock the next morning, Hunterleys crossed the sunlit gardens +towards the English bank, to receive what was, perhaps, the greatest +shock of his life. A few minutes later he stood before the mahogany +counter, his eyes fixed upon the half sheet of notepaper which the +manager had laid before him. The words were few enough and simple +enough, yet they constituted for him a message written in the very ink +of tragedy. The notepaper was the notepaper of the Hotel de Paris, the +date the night before, the words few and unmistakable:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>To the Manager of the English Bank. Please hand my letters to +bearer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henry Hunterleys</span>.</p></div> + +<p>He read it over, letter by letter, word by word. Then at last he looked +up. His voice sounded, even to himself, unnatural.</p> + +<p>"You were quite right," he said. "This order is a forgery."</p> + +<p>The manager was greatly disturbed. He threw open the door of his private +office.</p> + +<p>"Come and sit down for a moment, will you, Sir Henry?" he invited. "This +is a very serious matter, and I should like to discuss it with you."</p> + +<p>They passed behind into the comfortable little sitting-room, smelling of +morocco leather and roses, with its single high window, its broad +writing-table, its carefully placed easy-chairs. Men had pleaded in here +with all the eloquence at their command, men of every rank and walk in +life, thieves, nobles, ruined men and pseudo-millionaires, always with +the same cry—money; money for the great pleasure-mill which day and +night drew in its own. Hunterleys sank heavily into a chair. The manager +seated himself in an official attitude before his desk.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to have distressed you with this letter, Sir Henry," he +said. "However, you must admit that things might have been worse. It is +fortunately our invariable custom, when letters are addressed to one of +our clients in our care, to deliver them to no one else under any +circumstances. If you had been ill, for instance, I should have brought +you your correspondence across to the hotel, but I should not have +delivered it to your own secretary. That, as I say, is our invariable +rule, and we find that it has saved many of our clients from +inconvenience. In your case," the manager concluded impressively, "your +communications being, in a sense, official, any such attempt as has been +made would not stand the slightest chance of success. We should be even +more particular than in any ordinary case to see that by no possible +chance could any correspondence addressed to you, fall into other +hands."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys began to recover himself a little. He drew towards himself +the heap of letters which the manager had laid by his side.</p> + +<p>"Please make yourself quite comfortable here," the latter begged. "Read +your letters and answer them, if you like, before you go out. I always +call this," he added, with a smile, "the one inviolable sanctuary of +Monte Carlo."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," Hunterleys replied. "Are you sure that I am not +detaining you?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least. Personally, I am not at all busy. Three-quarters of +our business, you see, is merely a matter of routine. I was just going +to shut myself up here and read the <i>Times</i>. Have a cigarette? Here's an +envelope opener and a waste-paper basket. Make yourself comfortable."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys glanced through his correspondence, rapidly reading and +destroying the greater portion of it. He came at last to two parchment +envelopes marked "On His Majesty's Service." These he opened and read +their contents slowly and with great care. When he had finished, he +produced a pair of scissors from his waistcoat pocket and cut the +letters into minute fragments. He drew a little sigh of relief when at +last their final destruction was assured, and rose shortly afterwards to +his feet.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to go on to the telegraph office," he said, "to send these +few messages. Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison, for your kindness. If +you do not mind, I should like to take this forged order away with me."</p> + +<p>The manager hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that I ought to part with it," he observed doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Could you recognise the person who presented it—you or your clerk?"</p> + +<p>The manager shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Not a chance," he replied. "It was brought in, unfortunately, before I +arrived. Young Parsons, who was the only one in the bank, explained that +letters were never delivered to an order, and turned away to attend to +some one else who was in a hurry. He simply remembers that it was a man, +and that is all."</p> + +<p>"Then the document is useless to you," Hunterleys pointed out. "You +could never do anything in the matter without evidence of +identification, and that being so, if you don't mind I should like to +have it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Harrison yielded it up.</p> + +<p>"As you wish," he agreed. "It is interesting, if only as a curiosity. +The imitation of your signature is almost perfect."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys took up his hat. Then for a moment, with his hand upon the +door, he hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Harrison," he said, "I am engaged just now, as you have doubtless +surmised, in certain investigations on behalf of the usual third party +whom we need not name. Those investigations have reached a pitch which +might possibly lead me into a position of some—well, I might almost say +danger. You and I both know that there are weapons in this place which +can be made use of by persons wholly without scruples, which are +scarcely available at home. I want you to keep your eyes open. I have +very few friends here whom I can wholly trust. It is my purpose to call +in here every morning at ten o'clock for my letters, and if I fail to +arrive within half-an-hour of that time without having given you verbal +notice, something will have happened to me. You understand what I mean?"</p> + +<p>"You mean that you are threatened with assassination?" the manager asked +gravely.</p> + +<p>"Practically it amounts to that," Hunterleys admitted. "I received a +warning letter this morning. There is a very important matter on foot +here, Mr. Harrison, a matter so important that to bring it to a +successful conclusion I fancy that those who are engaged in it would not +hesitate to face any risk. I have wired to England for help. If anything +happens that it comes too late, I want you, when you find that I have +disappeared, even if my disappearance is only a temporary matter, to let +them know in London—you know how—at once."</p> + +<p>The manager nodded.</p> + +<p>"I will do so," he promised. "I trust, however," he went on, "that you +are exaggerating the danger. Mr. Billson lived here for many years +without any trouble."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled slightly.</p> + +<p>"I am not a Secret Service man," he explained. "Billson's successor +lives here now, of course, and is working with me, under the usual guise +of newspaper correspondent. I don't think that he will come to any harm. +But I am here in a somewhat different position, and my negotiations in +the east, during the last few weeks, have made me exceedingly unpopular +with some very powerful people. However, it is only an outside chance, +of course, that I wish to guard against. I rely upon you, if I should +fail to come to the bank any one morning without giving you notice, to +do as I have asked."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys left the bank and walked out once more into the sunlight. He +first of all made his way down to the Post Office, where he rapidly +dispatched several cablegrams which he had coded and written out in Mr. +Harrison's private office. Afterwards he went on to the Terrace, and +finding a retired seat at the further end, sat down. Then he drew the +forged order once more from his pocket. Word by word, line by line, he +studied it, and the more he studied it, the more hopeless the whole +thing seemed. The handwriting, with the exception of the signature, +which was a wonderful imitation of his own, was the handwriting of his +wife. She had done this thing at Draconmeyer's instigation, done this +thing against her husband, taken sides absolutely with the man whom he +had come to look upon as his enemy! What inference was he to draw? He +sat there, looking out over the Mediterranean, soft and blue, glittering +with sunlight, breaking upon the yellow stretch of sand in little +foam-flecked waves no higher than his hand. He watched the sunlight +glitter on the white houses which fringed the bay. He looked idly up at +the trim little vineyards on the brown hill-side. It was the beauty spot +of the world. There was no object upon which his eyes could rest, which +was not beautiful. The whole place was like a feast of colour and form +and sunshine. Yet for him the light seemed suddenly to have faded from +life. Danger had only stimulated him, had helped him to cope with the +dull pain which he had carried about with him during the last few +months. He was face to face now with something else. It was worse, this, +than anything he had dreamed. Somehow or other, notwithstanding the +growing estrangement with his wife which had ended in their virtual +separation, he had still believed in her, still had faith in her, still +had hope of an ultimate reconciliation. And behind it all, he had loved +her. It seemed at that moment that a nightmare was being formed around +him. A new horror was creeping into his thoughts. He had felt from the +first a bitter dislike of Draconmeyer. Now, however, he realised that +this feeling had developed into an actual and harrowing jealousy. He +realised that the man was no passive agent. It was Draconmeyer who, with +subtle purpose, was drawing his wife away! Hunterleys sprang to his feet +and walked angrily backwards and forwards along the few yards of +Terrace, which happened at that moment to be almost deserted. Vague +plans of instant revenge upon Draconmeyer floated into his mind. It was +simple enough to take the law into his own hands, to thrash him +publicly, to make Monte Carlo impossible for him. And then, suddenly, he +remembered his duty. They were trusting him in Downing Street. Chance +had put into his hands so many threads of this diabolical plot. It was +for him to checkmate it. He was the only person who could checkmate it. +This was no time for him to think of personal revenge, no time for him +to brood over his own broken life. There was work still to be done—his +country's work....</p> + +<p>He felt the need of change of scene. The sight of the place with its +placid, enervating beauty, its constant appeal to the senses, was +beginning to have a curious effect upon his nerves. He turned back upon +the Terrace, and by means of the least frequented streets he passed +through the town and up towards the hills. He walked steadily, reckless +of time or direction. He had lunch at a small inn high above the road +from Cannes, and it was past three o'clock when he turned homewards. He +had found his way into the main road now and he trudged along heedless +of the dust with which the constant procession of automobiles covered +him all the while. The exercise had done him good. He was able to keep +his thoughts focussed upon his mission. So far, at any rate, he had held +his own. His dispatches to London had been clear and vivid. He had told +them exactly what he had feared, he had shown them the inside of this +scheme as instinct had revealed it to him, and he had begged for aid. +One man alone, surrounded by enemies, and in a country where all things +were possible, was in a parlous position if once the extent of his +knowledge were surmised. So far, the plot had not yet matured. So far, +though the clouds had gathered and the thunder was muttering, the storm +had not broken. The reason for that he knew—the one person needed, the +one person for whose coming all these plans had been made, had not yet +arrived. There was no telling, however, how long the respite might last. +At any moment might commence this conference, whose avowed purpose was +to break at a single blow, a single treacherous but deadly blow, the +Empire whose downfall Selingman had once publicly declared was the one +great necessity involved by his country's expansion....</p> + +<p>Hunterleys quenched his thirst at a roadside café, sitting out upon the +pavement and drinking coarse red wine and soda-water. Then he bought a +packet of black cigarettes and continued his journey. He was within +sight of Monte Carlo when for the twentieth time he had to step to the +far side of the pathway to avoid being smothered in dust by an advancing +automobile. This time, by some chance, he glanced around, attracted by +the piercing character of its long-distance whistle. A high-powered grey +touring car came by, travelling at a great pace. Hunterleys stood +perfectly rigid, one hand grasping the wall by the side of which he +stood. Notwithstanding his spectacles and the thick coating of dust upon +his clothes, the solitary passenger of the car was familiar enough to +him. It was the man for whom this plot had been prepared. It was Paul +Douaille, the great Foreign Minister into whose hands even the most +cautious of Premiers had declared himself willing to place the destinies +of his country!</p> + +<p>Hunterleys pursued the road no longer. He took a ticket at the next +station and hurried back to Monte Carlo. He went first to his room, +bathed and changed, and, passing along the private passage, made his way +into the Sporting Club. The first person whom he saw, seated in her +accustomed place at her favourite table, was his wife. She beckoned him +to come over to her. There was a vacant chair by her side to which she +pointed.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," he said, "I won't sit down. I don't think that I care to +play just now. You are fortunate this afternoon, I trust?"</p> + +<p>Something in his face and tone checked that rush of altered feeling of +which she had been more than once passionately conscious since the night +before.</p> + +<p>"I am hideously out of luck," she confessed slowly. "I have been losing +all day. I think that I shall give it up."</p> + +<p>She rose wearily to her feet and he felt a sudden compassion for her. +She was certainly looking tired. Her eyes were weary, she had the air of +an unhappy woman. After all, perhaps she too sometimes knew what +loneliness was.</p> + +<p>"I should like some tea so much," she added, a little piteously.</p> + +<p>He opened his lips to invite her to pass through into the restaurant +with him. Then the memory of that forged order still in his pocket, +flashed into his mind. He hesitated. A cold, familiar voice at his elbow +intervened.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite ready for tea, Lady Hunterleys? I have been in and taken +a table near the window."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys moved at once on one side. Draconmeyer bowed pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"Cheerful time we had last night, hadn't we?" he remarked. "Glad to see +your knock didn't lay you up."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys disregarded his wife's glance. He was suddenly furious.</p> + +<p>"All Monte Carlo seems to be gossiping about that little contretemps," +Draconmeyer continued. "It was a crude sort of hold-up for a +neighbourhood of criminals, but it very nearly came off. Will you have +some tea with us?"</p> + +<p>"Do, Henry," his wife begged.</p> + +<p>Once again he hesitated. Somehow or other, he felt that the moment was +critical. Then a hand was laid quietly upon his arm, a man's voice +whispered in his ear.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur will be so kind as to step this way for a moment—a little +matter of business."</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" Hunterleys demanded.</p> + +<p>"The Commissioner of Police, at monsieur's service."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>HINTS TO HUNTERLEYS</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys, in accordance with his request, followed the Commissioner +downstairs into one of the small private rooms on the ground floor. The +latter was very polite but very official.</p> + +<p>"Now what is it that you want?" Hunterleys asked, a little brusquely, as +soon as they were alone.</p> + +<p>The representative of the law was distinctly mysterious. He had a brown +moustache which he continually twirled, and he was all the time dropping +his voice to a whisper.</p> + +<p>"My first introduction to you should explain my mission, Sir Henry," he +said. "I hold a high position in the police here. My business with you, +however, is on behalf of a person whom I will not name, but whose +identity you will doubtless guess."</p> + +<p>"Very well," Hunterleys replied. "Now what is the nature of this +mission, please? In plain words, what do you want with me?"</p> + +<p>"I am here with reference to the affair of last night," the other +declared.</p> + +<p>"The affair of last night?" Hunterleys repeated, frowning. "Well, we all +have to appear or be represented before the magistrates to-morrow +morning. I shall send a lawyer."</p> + +<p>"Quite so! Quite so! But in the meantime, something has transpired. You +and the young American, Mr. Richard Lane, were the only two who offered +any resistance. It was owing to you two, in fact, that the plot was +frustrated. I am quite sure, Sir Henry, that every one agrees with me in +appreciating your courage and presence of mind."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Hunterleys replied. "Is that what you came to say?"</p> + +<p>The other shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, no, monsieur! I am here to bring you certain +information. The chief of the gang, Armand Martin, the man whom you +attacked, became suddenly worse a few hours ago. The doctors suspect +internal injuries, injuries inflicted during his struggle with you."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry to hear it," Hunterleys said coolly. "On the other +hand, he asked for anything he got."</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately," the Commissioner continued, "the law of the State is +curiously framed in such matters. If the man should die, as seems more +than likely, your legal position, Sir Henry, would be most +uncomfortable. Your arrest would be a necessity, and there is no law +granting what I believe you call bail to a person directly or indirectly +responsible for the death of another. I am here, therefore, to give you +what I may term an official warning. Your absence as a witness to-morrow +morning will not be commented upon—events of importance have called you +back to England. You will thereby be saved a very large amount of +annoyance, and the authorities here will be spared the most regrettable +necessity of having to deal with you in a manner unbefitting your rank."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys became at once thoughtful. The whole matter was becoming +clear to him.</p> + +<p>"I see," he observed. "This is a warning to me to take my departure. Is +that so?"</p> + +<p>The Commissioner beamed and nodded many times.</p> + +<p>"You have a quick understanding, Sir Henry," he declared. "Your +departure to-night, or early to-morrow morning, would save a good deal +of unpleasantness. I have fulfilled my mission, and I trust that you +will reflect seriously upon the matter. It is the wish of the high +personage whom I represent, that no inconvenience whatever should befall +so distinguished a visitor to the Principality. Good day, monsieur!"</p> + +<p>The official took his leave with a sweep of the hat and many bows. +Hunterleys, after a brief hesitation, walked out into the sun-dappled +street. It was the most fashionable hour of the afternoon. Up in the +square a band was playing. Outside, two or three smart automobiles were +discharging their freight of wonderfully-dressed women and debonair men +from the villas outside. Suddenly a hand fell upon his arm. It was +Richard Lane who greeted him.</p> + +<p>"Say, where are you off to, Sir Henry?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys laughed a little shortly.</p> + +<p>"Really, I scarcely know," he replied. "Back to London, if I am wise, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"Come into the Club," Richard begged.</p> + +<p>"I have just left," Hunterleys told him. "Besides, I hate the place."</p> + +<p>"Did you happen to notice whether Mr. Grex was in there?" Richard +enquired.</p> + +<p>"I didn't see him," Hunterleys answered. "Neither," he added +significantly, "did I see Miss Grex."</p> + +<p>"Well, I am going in to have a look round, anyway," Richard decided. +"You might come along. There's nothing else to do in this place until +dinner-time."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys suffered himself to be persuaded and remounted the steps.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Lane," he asked curiously, "have you heard anything about any +of the victims of our little struggle last night—I mean the two men we +tackled?"</p> + +<p>Richard shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I hear that mine has a broken wrist," he said. "Can't say I am feeling +very badly about that!"</p> + +<p>"I've just been told that mine is going to die," Hunterleys continued.</p> + +<p>The young man laughed incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Why, I went over the prison this morning," he declared. "I never saw +such a healthy lot of ruffians in my life. That chap whom you +tackled—the one with the revolver—was smoking cigarettes and using +language—well, I couldn't understand it all, but what I did understand +was enough to melt the bars of his prison."</p> + +<p>"That's odd," Hunterleys remarked drily. "According to the police +commissioner who has just left me, the man is on his death-bed, and my +only chance of escaping serious trouble is to get out of Monte Carlo +to-night."</p> + +<p>"Are you going?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It would take a great deal more than that to move me just now," he +said, "even if I had not suspected from the first that the man was +lying."</p> + +<p>Richard glanced at his companion a little curiously.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have said that you were having such a good time, Sir +Henry," he observed; "in fact I should have thought you would have been +rather glad of an opportunity to slip away."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys looked around them. They had reached the top of the staircase +and were in sight of the dense crowd in the rooms.</p> + +<p>"Come and have a drink," he suggested. "A great many of these people +will have cleared off presently."</p> + +<p>"I'll have a drink, with pleasure," Richard answered, "but I still can't +see why you're stuck on this place."</p> + +<p>They strolled into the bar and found two vacant places.</p> + +<p>"My dear young friend," Hunterleys said, as he ordered their drinks, "if +you were an Englishman instead of an American, I think that I would give +you a hint as to the reason why I do not wish to leave Monte Carlo just +at present."</p> + +<p>"Can't see what difference that makes," Richard declared. "You know I'm +all for the old country."</p> + +<p>"I wonder whether you are," Hunterleys remarked thoughtfully. "I tell +you frankly that if I thought you meant it, I should probably come to +you before long for a little help."</p> + +<p>"If ever you do, I'm your man," Richard assured him heartily. "Any more +scraps going?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys sipped his whisky and soda thoughtfully. There had been an +exodus from the room to watch some heavy gambling at <i>Trente et +Quarante</i>, and for a moment they were almost alone.</p> + +<p>"Lane," he said, "I am going to take you a little into my confidence. In +a way I suppose it is foolish, but to tell you the truth, I am almost +driven to it. You know that I am a Member of Parliament, and you may +have heard that if our Party hadn't gone out a few years ago, I was to +have been Foreign Minister."</p> + +<p>"I've heard that often enough," Lane assented. "I've heard you quoted, +too, as an example of the curse of party politics. Just because you are +forced to call yourself a member of one Party you are debarred from +serving your country in any capacity until that Party is in power."</p> + +<p>"That's quite true," Hunterleys admitted, "and to tell you the truth, +ridiculous though it seems, I don't see how you're to get away from it +in a practical manner. Anyhow, when my people came out I made up my mind +that I wasn't going to just sit still in Opposition and find fault all +the time, especially as we've a real good man at the Foreign Office. I +was quite content to leave things in his hands, but then, you see, +politically that meant that there was nothing for me to do. I thought +matters over and eventually I paired for six months and was supposed to +go off for the benefit of my health. As a matter of fact, I have been in +the Balkan States since Christmas," he added, dropping his voice a +little.</p> + +<p>"What the dickens have you been doing there?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you that exactly," Hunterleys replied. "Unfortunately, my +enemies are suspicious and they have taken to watching me closely. They +pretty well know what I am going to tell you—that I have been out there +at the urgent request of the Secret Service Department of the present +Government. I have been in Greece and Servia and Roumania, and, although +I don't think there's a soul in the world knows, I have also been in St. +Petersburg."</p> + +<p>"But what's it all about?" Richard persisted. "What have you been doing +in all these places?"</p> + +<p>"I can only answer you broadly," Hunterleys went on. "There is a +perfectly devilish scheme afloat, directed against the old country. I +have been doing what I can to counteract it. At the last moment, just as +I was leaving Sofia for London, by the merest chance I discovered that +the scene for the culmination of this little plot was to be Monte Carlo, +so I made my way round by Trieste, stayed at Bordighera and San Remo for +a few days to put people off, and finally turned up here."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm jiggered!" Lane muttered. "And I thought you were just +hanging about for your health or because your wife was here, and were +bored to death for want of something to do."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," Hunterleys assured him, "I was up all night sending +reports home—very interesting reports, too. I got them away all right, +but there's no denying the fact that there are certain people in Monte +Carlo at the present moment who suspect my presence here, and who would +go to any lengths whatever to get rid of me. It isn't the actual harm I +might do, but they have to deal with a very delicate problem and to make +a bargain with a very sensitive person, and they are terribly afraid +that my presence here, and a meeting between me and that person, might +render all their schemes abortive."</p> + +<p>Richard's face was a study in astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Well," he exclaimed, "this beats everything! I've read of such things, +of course, but one only half believes them. Right under our very noses, +too! Say, what are you going to do about it, Sir Henry?"</p> + +<p>"There is only one thing I can do," Hunterleys replied grimly. "I am +bound to keep my place here. They'll drive me out if they can. I am +convinced that the polite warning I have received to leave Monaco this +afternoon because of last night's affair, is part of the conspiracy. In +plain words, I've got to stick it out."</p> + +<p>"But what good are you doing here, anyway?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled and glanced carefully around the room. They were still +free from any risk of being overheard.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "perhaps you will understand my meaning more clearly if +I tell you that I am the brains of a counterplot. The English Secret +Service has a permanent agent here under the guise of a newspaper +correspondent, who is in daily touch with me, and he in his turn has +several spies at work. I am, however, the dangerous person. The others +are only servants. They make their reports, but they don't understand +their true significance. If these people could remove me before any one +else could arrive to take my place, their chances of bringing off their +coup here would be immensely improved."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it's useless for me to ask if there's anything I can do to +help?" Richard enquired.</p> + +<p>"You've helped already," Hunterleys replied. "I have been nearly three +months without being able to open my lips to a soul. People call me +secretive, but I feel very human sometimes. I know that not a word of +what I have said will pass your lips."</p> + +<p>"Not a chance of it," Richard promised earnestly. "But look here, can't +I do something? If I am not an Englishman, I'm all for the Anglo-Saxons. +I hate these foreigners—that is to say the men," he corrected himself +hastily.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled.</p> + +<p>"Well, I was coming to that," he said. "I do feel hideously alone here, +and what I would like you to do is just this. I would like you to call +at my room at the Hotel de Paris, number 189, every morning at a certain +fixed hour—say half-past ten. Just shake hands with me—that's all. +Nothing shall prevent my being visible to you at that hour. Under no +consideration whatever will I leave any message that I am engaged or +have gone out. If I am not to be seen when you make your call, something +has happened to me."</p> + +<p>"And what am I to do then?"</p> + +<p>"That is the point," Hunterleys continued. "I don't want to bring you +too deeply into this matter. All that you need do is to make your way to +the English Bank, see Mr. Harrison, the manager, and tell him of your +fruitless visit to me. He will give you a letter to my wife and will +know what other steps to take."</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" Richard asked, a little disappointed. "You don't +anticipate any scrapping, or anything of that sort?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to anticipate," Hunterleys confessed, a little +wearily. "Things are moving fast now towards the climax. I promise I'll +come to you for help if I need it. You can but refuse."</p> + +<p>"No fear of my refusing," Richard declared heartily. "Not on your life, +sir!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys rose to his feet with an appreciative little nod. It was +astonishing how cordially he had come to feel towards this young man, +during the last few hours.</p> + +<p>"I'll let you off now," he said. "I know you want to look around the +tables and see if any of our friends of last night are to be found. I, +too, have a little affair which I ought to have treated differently a +few minutes ago. We'll meet later."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys strolled back into the rooms. He came almost at once face to +face with Draconmeyer, whom he was passing with unseeing eyes. +Draconmeyer, however, detained him.</p> + +<p>"I was looking for you, Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "Can you spare me one +moment?"</p> + +<p>They stood a little on one side, out of the way of the moving throng of +people. Draconmeyer was fingering nervously his tie of somewhat vivid +purple. His manner was important.</p> + +<p>"Do you happen, Sir Henry," he asked, "to have had any word from the +prison authorities to-day?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"I have just received a message," he replied. "I understand that the man +with whom I had a struggle last night has received some internal +injuries and is likely to die."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer's manner became more mysterious. He glanced around the room +as though to be sure that they were not overheard.</p> + +<p>"I trust, Sir Henry," he said, "that you will not think me in any way +presumptuous if I speak to you intimately. I have never had the +privilege of your friendship, and in this unfortunate disagreement +between your wife and yourself I have been compelled to accept your +wife's point of view, owing to the friendship between Mrs. Draconmeyer +and herself. I trust you will believe, however, that I have no feelings +of hostility towards you."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," Hunterleys murmured.</p> + +<p>His face seemed set in graven lines. For all the effect the other's +words had upon him, he might have been wearing a mask.</p> + +<p>"The law here in some respects is very curious," Draconmeyer continued. +"Some of the statutes have been unaltered for a thousand years. I have +been given to understand by a person who knows, that if this man should +die, notwithstanding the circumstances of the case, you might find +yourself in an exceedingly awkward position. If I might venture, +therefore, to give you a word of disinterested advice, I would suggest +that you return to England at once, if only for a week or so."</p> + +<p>His eyes had narrowed. Through his spectacles he was watching intently +for the effect of his words. Hunterleys, however, only nodded +thoughtfully, as though to some extent impressed by the advice he had +received.</p> + +<p>"Very likely you are right," he admitted. "I will discuss the matter +with my wife."</p> + +<p>"She is playing over there," Draconmeyer pointed out. "And while we are +talking in a more or less friendly fashion," he went on earnestly, +"might I give you just one more word of counsel? For the sake of the +friendship which exists between our wives, I feel sure you will believe +that I am disinterested."</p> + +<p>He paused. Hunterleys' expression was now one of polite interest. He +waited, however, for the other to continue.</p> + +<p>"I wish that you could persuade Lady Hunterleys to play for somewhat +lower stakes."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was genuinely startled for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that my wife is gambling beyond her means?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"How can I tell that? I don't know what her means are, or yours. I only +know that she changes mille notes more often than I change louis, and it +seems to me that her luck is invariably bad. I think, perhaps, just a +word or two from you, who have the right to speak, might be of service."</p> + +<p>"I am very much obliged to you for the hint," Hunterleys said smoothly. +"I will certainly mention the matter to her."</p> + +<p>"And if I don't see you again," Draconmeyer concluded, watching him +closely, "good-bye!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys did not appear to notice the tentative movement of the +other's hand. He was already on his way to the spot where his wife was +sitting. Draconmeyer watched his progress with inscrutable face. +Selingman, who had been sitting near, rose and joined him.</p> + +<p>"Will he go?" he whispered. "Will our friend take this very reasonable +hint and depart?"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer's eyes were still fixed upon Hunterleys' slim, +self-possessed figure. His forehead was contorted into a frown. Somehow +or other, he felt that during their brief interview he had failed to +score; he had felt a subtle, underlying note of contempt in Hunterleys' +manner, in his whole attitude.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," he replied grimly. "I only hope that if he stays, we +shall find the means to make him regret it!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>"I CANNOT GO!"</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys stood for several minutes, watching his wife's play from a +new point of view. She was certainly playing high and with continued +ill-fortune. For the first time, too, he noticed symptoms which +disturbed him. She sat quite motionless, but there was an unfamiliar +glitter in her eyes and a hardness about her mouth. It was not until he +had stood within a few feet of her for nearly a quarter of an hour, that +she chanced to see him.</p> + +<p>"Did you want me?" she asked, with a little start.</p> + +<p>"There is no hurry," he replied. "If you could spare me a few moments +later, I should be glad."</p> + +<p>She rose at once, thrusting her notes and gold into the satchel which +she was carrying, and stood by his side. She was very elegantly dressed +in black and white, but she was pale, and, watching her with a new +intentness, he discovered faint violet lines under her eyes, as though +she had been sleeping ill.</p> + +<p>"I am rather glad you came," she said. "I was having an abominable run +of bad luck, and yet I hated to give up my seat without an excuse. What +did you want, Henry?"</p> + +<p>"I should like," he explained, "to talk to you for a quarter of an hour. +This place is rather crowded and it is getting on my nerves. We seem to +live here, night and day. Would you object to driving with me—say as +far as Mentone and back?"</p> + +<p>"I will come if you wish it," she answered, looking a little surprised. +"Wait while I get my cloak."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys hired an automobile below and they drove off. As soon as they +were out of the main street, he thrust his hand into the breast-pocket +of his coat and smoothed out that half-sheet of notepaper upon his knee.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he said, "please read that."</p> + +<p>She read the few lines instructing the English Bank to hand over Sir +Henry Hunterleys' letters to the bearer. Then she looked up at him with +a puzzled frown.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"Did you write that?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>She looked at him indignantly.</p> + +<p>"What an absurd question!" she exclaimed. "Your correspondence has no +interest for me."</p> + +<p>Her denial, so natural, so obviously truthful, was a surprise to him. He +felt a sudden impulse of joy, mingled with shame. Perhaps, after all, he +had been altogether too censorious. Once more he directed her attention +to the sheet of paper. There was a marked change in his voice and +manner.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he begged, "please look at it. Accepting without hesitation +your word that you did not write it, doesn't it occur to you that the +body of the letter is a distinct imitation of your handwriting, and the +signature a very clever forgery of mine?"</p> + +<p>"It is rather like my handwriting," she admitted, "and as for the +signature, do you mean to say really that that is not yours?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," he assured her. "The whole thing is a forgery."</p> + +<p>"But who in the world should want to get your letters?" she asked +incredulously. "And why should you have them addressed to the bank?"</p> + +<p>He folded up the paper then and put it in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he said earnestly, "for the disagreements which have resulted +in our separation I may myself have been to some extent responsible, but +we have promised one another not to refer to them again and I will not +break our compact. All I can say is that there is much in my life which +you know little of, and for which you do not, therefore, make sufficient +allowance."</p> + +<p>"Then you might have treated me," she declared, "with more confidence."</p> + +<p>"It was not possible," he reminded her, "so long as you chose to make an +intimate friend of a man whose every interest in life is in direct +antagonism to mine."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Draconmeyer?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Draconmeyer," he assented.</p> + +<p>She smiled contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"You misunderstand Mr. Draconmeyer completely," she insisted. "He is +your well-wisher and he is more than half an Englishman. It was he who +started the league between English and German commercial men for the +propagation of peace. He formed one of the deputation who went over to +see the Emperor. He has done more, both by his speeches and letters to +the newspaper, to promote a good understanding between Germany and +England, than any other person. You are very much mistaken about Mr. +Draconmeyer, Henry. Why you cannot realise that he is simply an ordinary +commercial man of high intelligence and most agreeable manners, I cannot +imagine."</p> + +<p>"The fact remains, my dear Violet," Hunterleys said emphatically, "that +it is not possible for me to treat you with the confidence I might +otherwise have done, on account of your friendship with Mr. +Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"You are incorrigible!" she exclaimed. "Can we change the subject, +please? I want to know why you showed me that forged letter?"</p> + +<p>"I am coming to that," he told her. "Please be patient. I want to remind +you of something else. So far as I remember, my only request, when I +gave you your liberty and half my income, was that your friendship with +the Draconmeyers should decrease. Almost the first persons I see on my +arrival in Monte Carlo are you and Mr. Draconmeyer. I learn that you +came out with them and that you are staying at the same hotel."</p> + +<p>"Your wish was an unreasonable one," she protested. "Linda and I were +school-girls together. She is my dearest friend and she is a hopeless +invalid. I think that if I were to desert her she would die."</p> + +<p>"I have every sympathy with Mrs. Draconmeyer," he said slowly, "but you +are my wife. I am going to make one more effort—please don't be +uneasy—not to re-establish any relationship between us, but to open +your eyes as to the truth concerning Mr. Draconmeyer. You asked me a +moment ago why I had shown you that forged letter. I will tell you now. +It was Draconmeyer who was the forger."</p> + +<p>She leaned back in her seat. She was looking at him incredulously.</p> + +<p>"You mean to say that Mr. Draconmeyer wrote that order—that he wanted +to get possession of your letters?"</p> + +<p>"Not only that," Hunterleys continued, "but he carried out the business +in such a devilish manner as to make me for a moment believe that it was +you who had helped him. You are wrong about Draconmeyer. The man is a +great schemer, who under the pretence of occupying an important +commercial position in the City of London, is all the time a secret +agent of Germany. He is there in her interests. He studies the public +opinion of the country. He dissects our weaknesses. He is there to point +out the best methods and the opportune time for the inevitable struggle. +He is the worst enemy to-day England has. You think that he is here in +Monte Carlo on a visit of pleasure—for the sake of his wife, perhaps. +Nothing of the sort! He is here at this moment associated with an +iniquitous scheme, the particulars of which I can tell you nothing of. +Furthermore, I repeat what I told you on our first meeting here—that in +his still, cold way he is in love with you."</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she cried.</p> + +<p>"I cannot see how you can remain so wilfully blind," Hunterleys +continued. "I know the man inside out. I warned you against him in +London, I warn you against him now. This forged letter was designed to +draw us further apart. The little brown man who has dogged your +footsteps is a spy employed by him to make you believe that I was having +you watched. You are free still to act as you will, Violet, but if you +have a spark of regard for me or yourself, you will go back to London at +once and drop this odious friendship."</p> + +<p>She leaned back in the car. They had turned round now and were on the +way back to Monte Carlo by the higher road. She sat with her eyes fixed +upon the mountains. Her heart, in a way, had been touched, her +imagination stirred by her husband's words. She felt a return of that +glow of admiration which had thrilled her on the previous night, when he +and Richard Lane alone amongst that motley company had played the part +of men. A curious, almost pathetic wistfulness crept into her heart. If +only he would lean towards her at that moment, if she could see once +more the light in his eyes that had shone there during the days of their +courtship! If only he could remember that it was still his part to play +the lover! If he could be a little less grave, a little less hopelessly +correct and fair! Despite her efforts to disbelieve, there was something +convincing about his words. At any moment during that brief space of +time, a single tremulous word, even a warm clasp of the hand, would have +brought her into his arms. But so much of inspiration was denied him. He +sat waiting for her decision with an eagerness of which he gave no sign. +Nevertheless, the fates were fighting for him. She thought gratefully, +even at that moment, yet with less enthusiasm than ever before, of the +devout homage, the delightful care for her happiness and comfort, the +atmosphere of security with which Draconmeyer seemed always to surround +her. Yet all this was cold and unsatisfying, a poor substitute for the +other things. Henry had been different once. Perhaps it was jealousy +which had altered him. Perhaps his misconception of Draconmeyer's +character had affected his whole outlook. She turned towards him, and +her voice, when she spoke, was no longer querulous.</p> + +<p>"Henry," she said, "I cannot admit the truth of all that you say +concerning Mr. Draconmeyer, but tell me this. If I were willing to leave +this place to-night—"</p> + +<p>She paused. For some reason a sudden embarrassment had seized her. The +words seemed to come with difficulty. She turned ever so slightly away +from him. There was a tinge of colour at last in her pale cheeks. She +seemed to him now, as she leaned a little forward in her seat, +completely beautiful.</p> + +<p>"If I make my excuses and leave Monte Carlo to-night," she went on, +"will you come with me?"</p> + +<p>He gave a little start. Something in his eyes flashed an answer into her +face. And then the flood of memory came. There was his mission. He was +tied hand and foot.</p> + +<p>"It is good of you to offer that, Violet," he declared. "If I could—if +only I could!"</p> + +<p>Already her manner began to change. The fear of his refusal was hateful, +her lips were trembling.</p> + +<p>"You mean," she faltered, "that you will not come? Listen. Don't +misunderstand me. I will order my boxes packed, I will catch the eight +o'clock train either through to London or to Paris—anywhere. I will do +that if you will come. There is my offer. That is my reply to all that +you have said about Mr. Draconmeyer. I shall lose a friend who has been +gentleness and kindness and consideration itself. I will risk that. What +do you say? Will you come?"</p> + +<p>"Violet, I cannot," he replied hoarsely. "No, don't turn away like +that!" he begged. "Don't change so quickly, please! It isn't fair. +Listen. I am not my own master."</p> + +<p>"Not your own master?" she repeated incredulously. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean that I am here in Monte Carlo not for my own pleasure. I mean +that I have work, a purpose—"</p> + +<p>"Absurd!" she interrupted him, almost harshly. "There is nobody who has +any better claim upon you than I have. You are over-conscientious about +other things. For once remember your duty as a husband."</p> + +<p>He caught her wrist.</p> + +<p>"You must trust me a little," he pleaded. "Believe me that I really +appreciate your offer. If I were free to go, I should not hesitate for a +single second.... Can't you trust me, Violet?" he implored, his voice +softening.</p> + +<p>The woman within her was fighting on his side. She stifled her wounded +feelings, crushed down her disappointment that he had not taken her at +once into his arms and answered her upon her lips.</p> + +<p>"Trust me, then," she replied. "If you refuse my offer, don't hint at +things you have to do. Tell me in plain words why. It is not enough for +you to say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo. Tell me why you cannot. I +have invited you to escort me anywhere you will—I, your wife.... Shall +we go?"</p> + +<p>The woman had wholly triumphed. Her voice had dropped, the light was in +her eyes. She swayed a little towards him. His brain reeled. She was +once more the only woman in the world for him. Once more he fancied that +he could feel the clinging of her arms, the touch of her lips. These +things were promised in her face.</p> + +<p>"I tell you that I cannot go!" he cried sharply. "Believe me—do believe +me, Violet!"</p> + +<p>She pulled down her veil suddenly. He caught at her hand. It lay +passively in his. He pleaded for her confidence, but the moment of +inspiration had gone. She heard him with the air of one who listens no +longer. Presently she stopped him.</p> + +<p>"Don't speak to me for several minutes, please," she begged. "Tell him +to put me down at the hotel. I can't go back to the Club just yet."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't leave me like this," he insisted.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me why you refuse my offer?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I have a trust!"</p> + +<p>The automobile had come to a standstill. She rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I was once your trust," she reminded him, as she passed into the hotel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>MISS GREX AT HOME</h3> + + +<p>Richard Lane, as he made his way up the avenue towards the Villa Mimosa, +wondered whether he was not indeed finding his way into fairyland. On +either side of him were drooping mimosa trees, heavy with the snaky, +orange-coloured blossom whose perfumes hung heavy upon the windless air. +In the background, bordering the gardens which were themselves a maze of +colour, were great clumps of glorious purple rhododendrons, drooping +clusters of red and white roses. A sudden turn revealed a long pergola, +smothered in pink blossoms and leading to the edge of the terrace which +overhung the sea. The villa itself, which seemed, indeed, more like a +palace, was covered with vivid purple clematis, and from the open door +of the winter-garden, which was built out from the front of the place in +a great curve, there came, as he drew near, a bewildering breath of +exotic odours. The front-door was wide open, and before he could reach +the bell a butler had appeared.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Grex at home?" Richard enquired.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Grex is not at home, sir," was the immediate reply.</p> + +<p>"I should like to see Miss Grex, then," Richard proceeded.</p> + +<p>The man's face was curiously expressionless, but a momentary silence +perhaps betrayed as much surprise as he was capable of showing.</p> + +<p>"Miss Grex is not at home, sir," he announced.</p> + +<p>Richard hesitated and just then she came out from the winter-garden. She +was wearing a pink linen morning gown and a floppy pink hat. She had a +book under her arm and a parasol swinging from her fingers. When she saw +Lane, she stared at him in amazement. He advanced a step or two towards +her, his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I took the liberty of calling to see your father, Miss Grex," he +explained. "As he was not at home, I ventured to enquire for you."</p> + +<p>She was absolutely helpless. It was impossible to ignore his +outstretched hand. Very hesitatingly she held out her fingers, which +Richard grasped and seemed in no hurry at all to release.</p> + +<p>"This is quite the most beautiful place I have seen anywhere near Monte +Carlo," he remarked enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"I am glad," she murmured, "that you find it attractive."</p> + +<p>He was standing by her side now, his hat under his arm. The butler had +withdrawn a little into the background. She glanced around.</p> + +<p>"Did my father ask you to call, Mr. Lane?" she enquired, dropping her +voice a little.</p> + +<p>"He did not," Richard confessed. "I must say that I gave him plenty of +opportunities but he did not seem to be what I should call hospitably +inclined. In any case, it really doesn't matter. I came to see you."</p> + +<p>She bit her lip, struggling hard to repress a smile.</p> + +<p>"But I did not ask you to call upon me either," she reminded him +gravely.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's true," Lane admitted, a little hesitatingly. "I don't +quite know how things are done over here. Say, are you English, or +French, or what?" he asked, point blank. "I have been puzzling about +that ever since I saw you."</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that my nationality matters," she observed.</p> + +<p>"Well, over on the other side," he continued,—"I mean America, of +course—if we make up our minds that we want to see something of a girl +and there isn't any real reason why one shouldn't, then the initiative +generally rests with the man. Of course, if you are an only daughter, I +can quite understand your father being a bit particular, not caring for +men callers and that sort of thing, but that can't go on for ever, you +know, can it?"</p> + +<p>"Can't it?" she murmured, a little dazed.</p> + +<p>"I have a habit," he confided, "of making up my mind quickly, and when I +decide about a thing, I am rather hard to turn. Well, I made up my mind +about you the first moment we met."</p> + +<p>"About me?" she repeated.</p> + +<p>"About you."</p> + +<p>She turned and looked at him almost wonderingly. He was very big and +very confident; good to look upon, less because of his actual good looks +than because of a certain honesty and tenacity of purpose in his +expression; a strength of jaw, modified and rendered even pleasant by +the kindness and humour of his clear grey eyes. He returned her gaze +without embarrassment and he wondered less than ever at finding himself +there. Her complexion in this clear light seemed more beautiful than +ever. Her rich golden-brown hair was waved becomingly over her forehead. +Her eyebrows were silky and delicately straight, her mouth delightful. +Her figure was girlish, but unusually dignified for her years.</p> + +<p>"You know," he said suddenly, "you look to me just like one of those +beautiful plants you have in the conservatory there, just as though +you'd stepped out of your little glass home and blossomed right here. I +am almost afraid of you."</p> + +<p>She laughed outright this time—a low, musical laugh which had in it +something of foreign intonation.</p> + +<p>"Well, really," she exclaimed, "I had not noticed your fear! I was just +thinking that you were quite the boldest young man I have ever met."</p> + +<p>"Come, that's something!" he declared. "Couldn't we sit down somewhere +in these wonderful gardens of yours and talk?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"But have I not told you already," she protested, "that I do not receive +callers? Neither does my father. Really, your coming here is quite +unwarrantable. If he should return at this moment and find you here, he +would be very angry indeed. I am afraid that he would even be rude, and +I, too, should suffer for having allowed you to talk with me."</p> + +<p>"Let's hope that he doesn't return just yet, then," Richard observed, +smiling easily. "I am very good-tempered as a rule, but I do not like +people to be rude to me."</p> + +<p>"Fortunately, he cannot return for at least an hour—" she began.</p> + +<p>"Then we'll sit down on that terrace, if you please, for just a quarter +of that time," he begged.</p> + +<p>She opened her lips and closed them again. He was certainly a very +stubborn young man!</p> + +<p>"Well," she sighed, "perhaps it will be the easiest way of getting rid +of you."</p> + +<p>She motioned him to follow her. The butler, from a discreet distance, +watched her as though he were looking at a strange thing. Round the +corner of the villa remote from the winter-garden, was a long stone +terrace upon which many windows opened. Screened from the wind, the sun +here was of almost midsummer strength. There was no sound. The great +house seemed asleep. There was nothing but the droning of a few insects. +Even the birds were songless. The walls were covered with drooping +clematis and roses, roses that twined over the balustrades. Below them +was a tangle of mimosa trees and rhododendrons, and further below still +the blue Mediterranean. She sank into a chair.</p> + +<p>"You may sit here," she said, "just long enough for me to convince you +that your coming was a mistake. Indeed that is so. I do not wish to seem +foolish or unkind, but my father and I are living here with one +unbreakable rule, and that is that we make no acquaintances whatsoever."</p> + +<p>"That sounds rather queer," he remarked. "Don't you find it dull?"</p> + +<p>"If I do," she went on, "it is only for a little time. My father is here +for a certain purpose, and as soon as that is accomplished we shall go +away. For him to accomplish that purpose in a satisfactory manner, it is +necessary that we should live as far apart as possible from the ordinary +visitors here."</p> + +<p>"Sounds like a riddle," he admitted. "Do you mind telling me of what +nationality you are?"</p> + +<p>"I see no reason why I should tell you anything."</p> + +<p>"You speak such correct English," he continued, "but there is just a +little touch of accent. You don't know how attractive it sounds. You +don't know—"</p> + +<p>He hesitated, suddenly losing some part of his immense confidence.</p> + +<p>"What else is there that I do not know?" she asked, with a faintly +amused smile.</p> + +<p>"I have lost my courage," he confessed simply. "I do not want to offend +you, I do not want you to think that I am hopelessly foolish, but you +see I have the misfortune to be in love with you."</p> + +<p>She laughed at him, leaning back in her chair with half-closed eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do people talk like this to casual acquaintances in your country?" she +asked.</p> + +<p>"They speak sometimes a language which is common to all countries," he +replied quickly. "The only thing that is peculiar to my people is that +when we say it, it is the sober and the solemn truth."</p> + +<p>She was silent for a moment. She had plucked one of the blossoms from +the wall and was pulling to pieces its purple petals.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," she said, "that no young man has ever dared to talk to me +as you have done?"</p> + +<p>"That is because no one yet has cared so much as I do," he assured her. +"I can quite understand their being frightened. I am terribly afraid of +you myself. I am afraid of the things I say to you, but I have to say +them because they are in my heart, and if I am only to have a quarter of +an hour with you now, you see I must make the best use of my time. I +must tell you that there isn't any other girl in the world I could ever +look at again, and if you won't promise to marry me some day, I shall be +the most wretched person on earth."</p> + +<p>"I can never, never marry you," she told him emphatically. "There is +nothing which is so impossible as that."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's a pretty bad start," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"It is the end," she said firmly.</p> + +<p>He shook his head. There was a terrible obstinacy in his face. She +frowned at him.</p> + +<p>"You do not mean that you will persist after what I have told you?"</p> + +<p>He looked at her, almost surprised.</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything else for me to do, that I know of," he declared, +"so long as you don't care for any one else. Tell me again, you are sure +that there is no one?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," she replied stiffly. "The subject has not yet been made +acceptable to me. You must forgive my adding that in my country it is +not usual for a girl to discuss these matters with a man before her +betrothal."</p> + +<p>"Say, I don't understand that," he murmured, looking at her +thoughtfully. "She can't get engaged before she is asked."</p> + +<p>"The preliminaries," she explained, "are always arranged by one's +parents."</p> + +<p>He smiled pityingly.</p> + +<p>"That sort of thing's no use," he asserted confidently. "You must be +getting past that, in whatever corner of Europe you live. What you mean +to say, then, is that your father has some one up his sleeve whom he'll +trot out for you before long?"</p> + +<p>"Without doubt, some arrangement will be proposed," she agreed.</p> + +<p>"And you'll have to be amiable to some one you've never seen in your +life before, I suppose?" he persisted.</p> + +<p>"Not necessarily. It sometimes happens, in my position," she went on, +raising her head, "that certain sacrifices are necessary."</p> + +<p>"In your position," he repeated quickly. "What does that mean? You +aren't a queen, are you, or anything of that sort?"</p> + +<p>She laughed.</p> + +<p>"No," she confessed, "I am not a queen, and yet—"</p> + +<p>"And yet?"</p> + +<p>"You must go back," she insisted, rising abruptly to her feet. "The +quarter of an hour is up. I do not feel happy, sitting here talking with +you. Really, if my father were to return he would be more angry with me +than he has ever been in his life. This sort of thing is not done +amongst my people."</p> + +<p>"Little lady," he said, gently forcing her back into her place, "believe +me, it's done all the world over, and there isn't any girl can come to +any harm by being told that a man is fond of her when it's the truth, +when he'd give his life for her willingly. It's just like that I feel +about you. I've never felt it before. I could never feel it for any one +else. And I am not going to give you up."</p> + +<p>She was looking at him half fearfully. There was a little colour in her +cheeks, her eyes were suddenly moist.</p> + +<p>"I think," she murmured, "that you talk very nicely. I think I might +even say that I like to hear you talk. But it is so useless. Won't you +go now? Won't you please go now?"</p> + +<p>"When may I come again?" he begged.</p> + +<p>"Never," she replied firmly. "You must never come again. You must not +even think of it. But indeed you would not be admitted. They will +probably tell my father of your visit, as it is, and he will be very +angry."</p> + +<p>"Well, when can I see you, then, and where?" he demanded. "I hope you +understand that I am not in the least disheartened by anything you have +said."</p> + +<p>"I think," she declared, "that you are the most persistent person I ever +met."</p> + +<p>"It is only," he whispered, leaning a little towards her, "because I +care for you so much."</p> + +<p>She was suddenly confused, conscious of a swift desire to get rid of +him. It was as though some one were speaking a new language. All her old +habits and prejudices seemed falling away.</p> + +<p>"I cannot make appointments with you," she protested, her voice shaking. +"I cannot encourage you in any way. It is really quite impossible."</p> + +<p>"If I go now, will you be at the Club to-morrow afternoon?" he pleaded.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure," she replied. "It is very likely that I may be there. I +make no promise."</p> + +<p>He took her hand abruptly, and, stooping down, forced her to look into +his eyes.</p> + +<p>"You will be there to-morrow afternoon, please," he begged, "and you +will give me the rose from your waistband."</p> + +<p>She laughed uneasily.</p> + +<p>"If the rose will buy your departure—" she began.</p> + +<p>"It may do that," he interrupted, as he drew it through his buttonhole, +"but it will assuredly bring me back again."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Richard walked down the hill, whistling softly to himself and with a +curious light in his eyes. As he reached the square in front of the +Casino, he was accosted by a stranger who stood in the middle of the +pavement and respectfully removed his hat.</p> + +<p>"You are Mr. Richard Lane, is it not so, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"You've guessed it in one," Richard admitted. "Have I ever seen you +before?"</p> + +<p>"Never, monsieur, unless you happened to notice me on your visit to the +prison. I have an official position in the Principality. I am +commissioned to speak to you with respect to the little affair in which +you were concerned at La Turbie."</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought we'd thrashed all that out," Lane replied. "Anyway, Sir +Henry Hunterleys and I have engaged a lawyer to look after our +interests."</p> + +<p>"Just so," the little man murmured. "A very clever man indeed is +Monsieur Grisson. Still, there is a view of the matter," he continued, +"which is perhaps hard for you Englishmen and Americans to understand. +Assault of any description is very severely punished here, especially +when it results in bodily injury. Theft of all sorts, on the other hand, +is very common indeed. The man whom you injured is a native of Monte +Carlo. To a certain extent, the Principality is bound to protect him."</p> + +<p>"Why, the fellow was engaged in a flagrant attempt at highway robbery!" +Richard declared, genuinely astonished.</p> + +<p>His companion stretched out his hands.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," he replied, "every one robs here, whether they are +shop-keepers, restaurant keepers, or loafers upon the streets. The +people expect it. At the adjourned trial next week there will be many +witnesses who are also natives of Monte Carlo. I have been commissioned +to warn monsieur. It would be best, on the whole, if he left Monte Carlo +by the next train."</p> + +<p>"Why in the name of mischief should I do that?" Richard demanded.</p> + +<p>"In the first place," the other pointed out, "because this man, whom you +treated a little roughly, has many friends and associates. They have +sworn revenge. You are even now being followed about, and the police of +the Principality have enough to do without sparing an escort to protect +you against violence. In the second place, I am not at all sure that the +finding of the court next week will be altogether to your satisfaction."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean this?" Richard asked incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Without a doubt, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"Then all I can say," Richard declared, "is that your magistrate or +judge, or whatever he calls himself, is a rotter, and your laws absurd. +I sha'n't budge."</p> + +<p>"It is in your own interests, monsieur, this warning," the other +persisted. "Even if you escape these desperadoes, you still run some +risk of discovering what the inside of a prison in Monaco is like."</p> + +<p>"I think not," Lane answered grimly. "If there's anything of that sort +going about, I shall board my yacht yonder and hoist the Stars and +Stripes. I shall take some getting into prison, I can tell you, and if I +once get there, you'll hear about it."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur will be much wiser to avoid trouble," the official advised.</p> + +<p>Lane placed his hand upon the other's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"My friend," he said, "not you or a dozen like you could make me stir +from this place until I am ready, and just now I am very far from ready. +See? You can go and tell those who sent you, what I say."</p> + +<p>The emissary of the law shrugged his shoulders. His manner was stiff but +resigned.</p> + +<p>"I have delivered my message, monsieur," he announced. "Monsieur +naturally must decide for himself."</p> + +<p>He disappeared with a bow. Richard continued on his way and a few +minutes later ran into Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>"Say, did you ever hear such cheek!" he exclaimed, passing his arm +through the latter's. "A little bounder stopped me in the street and has +been trying to frighten me into leaving Monte Carlo, just because I +broke that robber's wrist. Same Johnny that came to you, I expect. What +are they up to, anyway? What do they want to get rid of us for? They +ought to be jolly grateful."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"So far as I am concerned," he said, "their reasons for wanting to get +rid of me are fairly obvious, I am afraid, but I must say I don't know +where you come in, unless—"</p> + +<p>He stopped short.</p> + +<p>"Well, unless what?" Richard interposed. "I should just like to know who +it is trying to get me kicked out."</p> + +<p>"Can't you guess?" Hunterleys asked. "There is one person who I think +would be quite as well pleased to see the back of you."</p> + +<p>"Here in Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely!"</p> + +<p>Richard was mystified.</p> + +<p>"You are not very bright, I am afraid," Hunterleys observed. "What about +your friend Mr. Grex?"</p> + +<p>Richard whistled softly.</p> + +<p>"Are you serious?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I am," Hunterleys assured him.</p> + +<p>"But has he any pull here, this Mr. Grex?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys' eyes twinkled for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied, "I think that Mr. Grex has very considerable +influence in this part of the world, and he is a man who, I should say, +was rather used to having his own way."</p> + +<p>"I gathered that I wasn't exactly popular with him this afternoon," +Richard remarked meditatively. "I've been out there to call."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys stopped short upon the pavement.</p> + +<p>"What?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"I have been out to call at the Villa Mimosa," Richard repeated. "I +don't see anything extraordinary in that."</p> + +<p>"Did you see—Miss Fedora?"</p> + +<p>"Rather! And thank you for telling me her name, at any rate. We sat on +the terrace and chatted for a quarter of an hour. She gave me to +understand, though, that the old man was dead against me. It all seems +very mysterious. Anyway, she gave me this rose I am wearing, and I think +she'll be at the Club to-morrow afternoon."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was silent for a moment. He seemed much impressed.</p> + +<p>"You know, Richard," he declared, "there is something akin to genius in +your methods."</p> + +<p>"That's all very well," the young man protested, "but can you give me a +single solid reason why, considering I am in love with the girl, I +shouldn't go and call upon her? Who is this Mr. Grex, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"I've a good mind to tell you," Hunterleys said meditatively.</p> + +<p>"I don't care whether you do or not," Lane pronounced firmly, as they +parted. "I don't care whether Mr. Grex is the Sultan of Turkey or the +Czar of Russia. I'm going to marry his daughter. That's settled."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>DINNER FOR TWO</h3> + + +<p>At a few minutes before eight o'clock that evening Lady Hunterleys +descended the steps of the Casino and crossed the square towards the +Hotel de Paris. She walked very slowly and she looked neither to the +right nor to the left. She had the air of seeing no one. She +acknowledged mechanically the low bow of the commissionaire who opened +the door for her. A reception clerk who stood on one side to let her +pass, she ignored altogether. She crossed the hall to the lift and +pressed the bell. Draconmeyer, who had been lounging in an easy-chair +waiting for her, watched her entrance and noticed her abstracted manner +with kindling eyes. He threw away his newspaper and, hastily approaching +her, touched her arm.</p> + +<p>"You are late," he remarked.</p> + +<p>She started.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am late."</p> + +<p>"I did not see you at the Club."</p> + +<p>"I have been to the Casino instead," she told him. "I thought that it +might change my luck."</p> + +<p>"Successful, I trust?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. Then she opened her gold satchel and showed him. It +was empty.</p> + +<p>"The luck must turn sometime," he reminded her soothingly. "How long +will you be changing?"</p> + +<p>"I am tired," she confessed. "I thought that to-night I would not dine. +I will have something sent up to my room."</p> + +<p>He was obviously disappointed.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you dine as you are?" he begged. "You could change later, if +you wished to. It is always such a disappointment when you do not +appear—and to-night," he added, "especially."</p> + +<p>Violet hesitated. She was really longing only to be alone and to rest. +She thought, however, of the poor invalid to whom their meeting at +dinner-time was the one break of the day.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she promised, "I will be down in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer, as the lift bore her upwards, strolled away. Although the +custom was a strange one to him, he sought out the American bar and +drank a cocktail. Then he lit a cigarette and made his way back into the +lounge, moving restlessly about, his hands behind his back, his forehead +knitted. In his way he had been a great schemer, and in the crowded hall +of the hotel that night, surrounded by a wonderfully cosmopolitan throng +of loungers and passers-by, he lived again through the birth and +development of many of the schemes which his brain had conceived since +he had left his mother-country. One and all they had been successful. He +seemed, indeed, to have been imbued with the gift of success. He had +floated immense loans where other men had failed; he had sustained the +credit of his country on a high level through more than one serious +financial crisis; he had pulled down or built up as his judgment or +fancy had dictated; and all the time the man's relaxations, apart from +the actual trend of great affairs, had been few and slight. Then had +come his acquaintance with Linda's school-friend. He looked back through +the years. At first he had scarcely noticed her visits. Gradually he had +become conscious of a dim feeling of thankfulness to the woman who +always seemed able to soothe his invalid wife. Then, scarcely more than +a year or so ago, he had found himself watching her at unexpected +moments, admiring the soft grace of her movements, the pleasant cadence +of her voice, the turn of her head, the colour of her hair, the elegance +of her clothes, her thin, fashionable figure. Gradually he had begun to +look for her, to welcome her at his table—and from that, the rest. +Finally the birth of this last scheme of his. He had very nearly made a +fatal mistake at the very commencement, had pulled himself right again +only with a supreme effort. His heart beat quicker even now as he +thought of that moment. They had been alone together one evening. She +had sat talking with him after Linda had gone to bed worse than usual, +and in the dim light he had almost lost his head, he had almost said +those words, let her see the things in his eyes for which the time was +not yet ripe. She had kept away for a while after that. He had treated +it as a mistake but he had been very careful not to err again. By +degrees she forgot. The estrangement between husband and wife was part +of his scheme, largely his doing. He was all the time working to make +the breach wider. The visit to Monte Carlo, rather a difficult +accomplishment, he had arranged. He had seen with delight the necessity +for some form of excitement growing up in her, had watched her losses +and only wished that they had been larger. He had encouraged her to play +for higher stakes and found that she needed very little encouragement +indeed. To-night he felt that a crisis was at hand. There was a new look +upon her face. She had probably lost everything. He knew exactly how she +would feel about asking her husband for help. His eyes grew brighter as +he waited for the lift.</p> + +<p>She came at last and they walked together into the dining-room. When she +reached their accustomed table, it was empty, and only their two places +were laid. She looked at him in surprise.</p> + +<p>"But I thought you said that Linda would be so disappointed!" she +reminded him.</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I do not think that I mentioned Linda's name," he protested. "She went +to bed soon after tea in an absolutely hopeless state. I am afraid that +to-night I was selfish. I was thinking of myself. I have had nothing in +the shape of companionship all day. I came and looked at the table, and +the thought of dining alone wearied me. I have to spend a great deal of +time alone, unfortunately. You and I are, perhaps, a little alike in +that respect."</p> + +<p>She seated herself after a moment's hesitation. He moved his chair a +little closer to hers. The pink-shaded lamp seemed to shut them off from +the rest of the room. A waiter poured wine into their glasses.</p> + +<p>"I ordered champagne to-night," he remarked. "You looked so tired when +you came in. Drink a glass at once."</p> + +<p>She obeyed him, smiling faintly. She was, as a matter of fact, craving +for something of the sort.</p> + +<p>"It was thoughtful of you," she declared. "I am tired. I have been +losing all day, and altogether I have had a most depressing time."</p> + +<p>"It is not as it should be, that," he observed, smiling. "This is a city +of pleasure. One was meant to leave one's cares behind here. If any one +in this world," he added, "should be without them, it should be you."</p> + +<p>He looked at her respectfully yet with an admiration which he made no +effort to conceal. There was nothing in the look over-personal. She +accepted it with gratitude.</p> + +<p>"You are always kind," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"This reminds me of some of our evenings in London," he went on, "when +we used to talk music before we went to the Opera. I always found those +evenings so restful and pleasant. Won't you try and forget that you have +lost a few pennies; forget, also, your other worries, whatever they may +be? I have had a letter to-day from the one great writer whom we both +admire. I shall read it to you. And I have a list of the operas for next +week. I see that your husband's little protégée, Felicia Roche, is +here."</p> + +<p>"My husband's protégée?" she repeated. "I don't quite understand."</p> + +<p>He seemed, for a moment, embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," he said. "I had no idea. But your husband will tell you if +you ask him. It was he who paid for her singing education, and her +triumph is his. But the name must be known to you."</p> + +<p>"I have never heard it in connection with my husband," she declared, +frowning slightly. "Henry does not always take me into his confidence."</p> + +<p>"Then I am sorry," he continued penitently, "that I mentioned the +matter. It was clumsy of me. I had an idea that he must have told you +all about her.... Another glass of wine, please, and you will find your +appetite comes. Jules has prepared that salmon trout specially. I'll +read you the letter from Maurice, if you like, and afterwards there is a +story I must tell you."</p> + +<p>The earlier stages of dinner slipped pleasantly away. Draconmeyer was a +born conversationalist,—a good talker and a keen tactician. The food +and the wine, too, did their part. Presently Violet lifted her head, the +colour came back to her cheeks, she too began to talk and laugh. All the +time he was careful not to press home his advantage. He remembered that +one night in the library at Grosvenor Square, when she had turned her +head and looked at him for a moment before leaving. She must be +different now, he told himself fiercely. It was impossible that she +could continue to love a husband who neglected her, a man whose mistaken +sense of dignity kept him away from her!</p> + +<p>"I want you," he begged, as they drew towards the close of the meal, "to +treat me, if you will, just a little more confidentially."</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him quickly, almost suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"You have troubles of which you do not speak," he went on. "If my +friendship is worth anything, it ought to enable me to share those +troubles with you. You have had a little further disagreement with your +husband, I think, and bad luck at the tables. You ought not to let +either of these things depress you too much. Tell me, do you think that +I could help with Sir Henry?"</p> + +<p>"No one could help," she replied, her tone unconsciously hardening. +"Henry is obstinate, and it is my firm conviction that he has ceased to +care for me at all. This afternoon—this very afternoon," she went on, +leaning across the table, her voice trembling a little, her eyes very +bright, "I offered to go away with him."</p> + +<p>"To leave Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! He refused. He said that he must stay here, for some mysterious +reason. I begged him to tell me what that reason was, and he was silent. +It was the end. He gives me no confidence. He has refused the one effort +I made at reconciliation. I am convinced that it is useless. We have +parted finally."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer tried hard to keep the light from his eyes as he leaned +towards her.</p> + +<p>"Dear lady," he said, "if I do not admit that I am sorry—well, there +are reasons. Your husband did well to be mysterious. I can tell you the +reason why he will not leave Monte Carlo. It is because Felicia Roche +makes her début at the Opera House to-morrow night. There! I didn't mean +to tell you but the whole world knows it. Even now I would not have told +you but for other things. It is best that you know the truth. It is my +firm belief that your husband does not deserve your interest, much more +your affection. If only I dared—"</p> + +<p>He paused for a moment. Every word he was compelled to measure.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," he continued, "your condition reminds me so much of my own. +I think that there is no one so lonely in life as I am. For the last few +years Linda has been fading away, physically and mentally. I touch her +fingers at morning and night, we speak of the slight happenings of the +day. She has no longer any mind or any power of sympathy. Her lips are +as cold as her understanding. For that I know she is not to blame, yet +it has left me very lonely. If I had had a child," he went on, "even if +there were one single soul of whom I was fond, to whom I might look for +sympathy; even if you, my dear friend—you see, I am bold, and I venture +to call you my dear friend—could be a little kinder sometimes, it would +make all the difference in the world."</p> + +<p>She turned her head and looked at him. His teeth came together hastily. +It seemed to him that already she was on her guard.</p> + +<p>"You have something more to say, haven't you?" she asked.</p> + +<p>He hesitated. Her tone was non-committal. It was a moment when he might +have risked everything, but he feared to make a mistake.</p> + +<p>"This is what I mean," he declared, with the appearance of great +frankness. "I am going to speak to you upon the absurd question of +money. I have an income of which, even if I were boundlessly +extravagant, I could not hope to spend half. A speculation, the week +before I left England, brought me a profit of a million marks. But for +the banking interests of my country and the feeling that I am the +trustee for thousands of other people, it would weary me to look for +investments. And you—you came in to-night, looking worn out just +because you had lost a handful or so of those wretched plaques. There, +you see it is coming now. I should like permission to do more than call +myself your friend. I should like permission to be also your banker."</p> + +<p>She looked at him quietly and searchingly. His heart began to beat +faster. At least she was in doubt. He had not wholly lost. His chance, +even, was good.</p> + +<p>"My friend," she said, "I believe that you are honest. I do indeed +recognise your point of view. The thing is an absurdity, but, you know, +all conventions, even the most foolish, have some human and natural +right beneath them. I think that the convention which forbids a woman +accepting money from a man, however close a friend, is like that. +Frankly, my first impulse, a few minutes ago, was to ask you to lend me +a thousand pounds. Now I know that I cannot do it."</p> + +<p>"Do you really mean that?" he asked, in a tone of deep disappointment. +"If you do, I am hurt. It proves that the friendship which to me is so +dear, is to you a very slight thing."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't think that," she pleaded. "And please, Mr. Draconmeyer, +don't think that I don't appreciate all your kindness. Short of +accepting your money, I would do anything to prove it."</p> + +<p>"There need be no question of a gift," he reminded her, in a low tone. +"If I were a perfect stranger, I might still be your banker. You must +have money from somewhere. Are you going to ask your husband?"</p> + +<p>She bit her lip for a moment. If indeed he had known her actual +position, his hopes would have been higher still.</p> + +<p>"I cannot possibly ask Henry for anything," she confessed. "I had made +up my mind to ask him to authorise the lawyers to advance me my next +quarter's allowance. After—what has passed between us, though, +and—considering everything, I don't feel that I can do it."</p> + +<p>"Then may I ask how you really mean to get more money?" he went on +gently.</p> + +<p>She looked at him a little piteously.</p> + +<p>"Honestly, I don't know," she admitted. "I will be quite frank with you. +Henry allows me two thousand, five hundred a year. I brought nine +hundred pounds out with me, and I have nothing more to come until June."</p> + +<p>"And how much have you left of the nine hundred pounds?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not enough to pay my hotel bill," she groaned.</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"Circumstances are too strong for you," he declared. "You must go to a +banker. I claim the right of being that banker. I shall draw up a +promissory note—no, we needn't do that—two or three cheques, perhaps, +dated June, August and October. I shall charge you five per cent. +interest and I shall lend you a thousand pounds."</p> + +<p>Her eyes sparkled. The thought of the money was wonderful to her. A +thousand pounds in mille notes that very night! She thought it all over +rapidly. She would never run such risks again. She would play for small +amounts each day—just enough to amuse herself. Then, if she were lucky, +she would plunge, only she would choose the right moment. Very likely +she would be able to pay the whole amount back in a day or two. If Henry +minded, well, it was his own fault. He should have been different.</p> + +<p>"You put it so kindly," she said gratefully, "that I am afraid I cannot +refuse. You are very, very considerate, Mr. Draconmeyer. It certainly +will be nicer to owe you the money than a stranger."</p> + +<p>"I am only glad that you are going to be reasonable," he +remarked,—"glad, really, for both our sakes. And remember," he went on +cheerfully, "that one isn't young and at Monte Carlo too many times in +one's life. Make up your mind to enjoy yourself. If the luck goes +against you for a little longer, come again. You are bound to win in the +end. Now, if you like, we'll have our coffee outside. I'll go and fetch +the money and you shall make out your cheques."</p> + +<p>He scribbled hastily on a piece of paper for a moment.</p> + +<p>"These are the amounts," he pointed out. "I have charged you five per +cent. per annum interest. As I can deal with money at something under +four, I shall make quite a respectable profit—more than enough," he +added good-naturedly, "to pay for our dinner!"</p> + +<p>She seemed suddenly years younger. The prospect of the evening before +her was enchanting.</p> + +<p>"You really are delightful!" she exclaimed. "You can't think how +differently I shall feel when I go into the Club to-night. I am +perfectly certain that it's having plenty of money that helps one to +win."</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"And plenty of courage," he added. "Don't waste your time trifling with +small stakes. Bid up for the big things. It is the only way in gambling +and in life."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet and their eyes met for a moment. Once more she felt +vaguely troubled. She put that disturbing thought away from her, +however. It was foolish to think of drawing back now. If he admired +her—well, so did most men!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>INTERNATIONAL POLITICS</h3> + + +<p>The Villa Mimosa flamed with lights from the top story to the +ground-floor. The entrance gates stood wide-open. All along the drive, +lamps flashed from unsuspected places beneath the yellow-flowering +trees. One room only seemed shrouded in darkness and mystery, and around +that one room was concentrated the tense life of the villa. Thick +curtains had been drawn with careful hands. The heavy door had been +securely closed. The French-windows which led out on to the balcony had +been almost barricaded. The four men who were seated around the oval +table had certainly secured for themselves what seemed to be a complete +and absolute isolation. Yet there was, nevertheless, a sense of +uneasiness, an indescribable air of tension in the atmosphere. The +quartette had somehow the appearance of conspirators who had not settled +down to their work. It was the last arrival, the man who sat at Mr. +Grex's right hand, who was responsible for the general unrest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex moved a little nervously in the chair which he had just drawn +up to the table. He looked towards Draconmeyer as he opened the +proceedings.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Douaille," he said, "has come to see us this evening at my own +urgent request. Before we commence any sort of discussion, he has asked +me to make it distinctly understood to you both—to you, Mr. +Draconmeyer, and to you, Herr Selingman—that this is not in any sense +of the word a formal meeting or convention. We are all here, as it +happens, by accident. Our friend Selingman, for instance, who is a past +master in the arts of pleasant living, has not missed a season here for +many years. Draconmeyer is also an habitué. I myself, it is true, have +spent my winters elsewhere, for various reasons, and am comparatively a +stranger, but my visit here was arranged many months ago. You yourself, +Monsieur Douaille, are a good Parisian, and no good Parisian should miss +his yearly pilgrimages to the Mecca of the pleasure-seeker. We meet +together this evening, therefore, purely as friends who have a common +interest at heart."</p> + +<p>The man from whom this atmosphere of nervousness radiated—a man of +medium height, inclined towards corpulence, with small grey imperial, a +thin red ribbon in his buttonhole, and slightly prominent +features—promptly intervened. He had the air of a man wholly +ill-at-ease. All the time Mr. Grex had been speaking, he had been +drumming upon the table with his forefinger.</p> + +<p>"Precisely! Precisely!" he exclaimed. "Above all things, that must be +understood. Ours is a chance meeting. My visit in these parts is in no +way connected with the correspondence I have had with one of our friends +here. Further," Monsieur Douaille continued impressively, "it must be +distinctly understood that any word I may be disposed to utter, either +in the way of statement or criticism, is wholly and entirely unofficial. +I do not even know what the subject of our discussion is to be. I +approach it with the more hesitation because I gather, from some slight +hint which has fallen from our friend here, that it deals with a scheme +which, if ever it should be carried into effect, is to the disadvantage +of a nation with whom we are at present on terms of the greatest +friendship. My presence here, except on the terms I have stated," he +concluded, his voice shaking a little, "would be an unpardonable offence +to that country."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille's somewhat laboured explanation did little to lighten +the atmosphere. It was the genius of Herr Selingman which intervened. He +leaned back in his chair and he patted his waistcoat thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"I have things to say," he declared, "but I cannot say them. I have +nothing to smoke—no cigarette, no cigar. I arrive here choked with +dust. As yet, the circumstance seems to have escaped our host's notice. +Ah! what is that I see?" he added, rising suddenly to his feet. "My +host, you are acquitted. I look around the table here at which I am +invited to seat myself, and I perceive nothing but a few stumpy pens and +unappetising blotting-paper. By chance I lift my eyes. I see the parting +of the curtains yonder, and behold!"</p> + +<p>He rose and crossed the room, throwing back a curtain at the further +end. In the recess stood a sideboard, laden with all manner of liqueurs +and wines, glasses of every size and shape, sandwiches, pasties, and +fruit. Herr Selingman stood on one side with outstretched hand, in the +manner of a showman. He himself was wrapped for a moment in admiration.</p> + +<p>"For you others I cannot speak," he observed, surveying the label upon a +bottle of hock. "For myself, here is nectar."</p> + +<p>With careful fingers he drew the cork. At a murmured word of invitation +from Mr. Grex, the others rose from their places and also helped +themselves from the sideboard. Selingman took up his position in the +centre of the hearth-rug, with a long tumbler of yellow wine in one hand +and a sandwich in the other.</p> + +<p>"For myself," he continued, taking a huge bite, "I wage war against all +formality. I have been through this sort of thing in Berlin. I have been +through it in Vienna, I have been through it in Rome. I have sat at long +tables with politicians, have drawn little pictures upon the +blotting-paper and been bored to death. In wearisome fashion we have +drafted agreements, we have quarrelled and bickered, we have yawned and +made of ourselves men of parchment. But to-night," he added, taking +another huge bite from his sandwich, "to-night nothing of that sort is +intended. Draconmeyer and I have an idea. Mr. Grex is favourably +inclined towards it. That idea isn't a bit of good to ourselves or any +one else unless Monsieur Douaille here shares our point of view. Here we +are, then, all met together—let us hope for a week or two's enjoyment. +Little by little we must try and see what we can do towards instilling +that idea into the mind of Monsieur Douaille. We may succeed, we may +fail, but let us always remember that our conversations are the +conversations of four friends, met together upon what is nothing more or +less than a holiday. I hate the sight of those sheets of blotting-paper +and clean pens. Who wants to make notes, especially of what we are going +to talk about! The man who cannot carry notes in his head is no +statesman."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille, who had chosen champagne and was smoking a cigarette, +beamed approval. Much of his nervousness had departed.</p> + +<p>"I agree," he declared, "I like well the attitude of our friend +Selingman. There is something much too formal about this table. I am not +here to talk treaties or to upset them. To exchange views, if you +will—no more. Meanwhile, I appreciate this very excellent champagne, +the cigarettes are delicious, and I remove myself to this easy-chair. If +any one would talk world politics, I am ready. Why not? Why should we +pretend that there is any more interesting subject to men like +ourselves, in whom is placed the trust of our country?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex nodded his head in assent.</p> + +<p>"The fault is mine," he declared, "but, believe me, it was not +intentional. It was never my wish to give too formal an air to our +little meeting—in fact I never intended to do more than dwell on the +outside edge of great subjects to-night. Unfortunately, Monsieur +Douaille, neither you nor I, whatever our power or influence may be, are +directly responsible for the foreign affairs of our countries. We can, +therefore, speak with entire frankness. Our countries—your country and +mine—are to-day bound together by an alliance. You have something which +almost approaches an alliance with another country. I am going to tell +you in plain words what I think you have been given to understand +indirectly many times during the last few years—that understanding is +not approved of in St. Petersburg."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille knocked the ash from his cigarette. He gazed +thoughtfully into the fire of pine logs which was burning upon the open +hearth.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Grex," he said, "that is plainer speaking than we have ever +received from any official source."</p> + +<p>"I admit it," Mr. Grex replied. "Such a statement on my part may sound a +little startling, but I make it advisedly. I know the feeling—you will +grant that my position entitles me to know the feeling—of the men who +count for anything in Russian politics. Perhaps I do not mean the +titular heads of my Government. There are others who have even more +responsibilities, who count for more. I honestly and truthfully assure +you that I speak for the powers that are behind the Government of Russia +when I tell you that the English dream of a triple alliance between +Russia, England, and France will never be accepted by my country."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille sipped his champagne.</p> + +<p>"This is candour," he remarked, "absolute candour. One speaks quite +plainly, I imagine, before our friend the enemy?" he added, smiling +towards Selingman.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Selingman demanded. "Why not, indeed? We are not fools here."</p> + +<p>"Then I would ask you, Mr. Grex," Monsieur Douaille continued, "where in +the name of all that is equitable are you to find an alliance more +likely to preserve the status quo in Europe? Both logically and +geographically it absolutely dovetails. Russia is in a position to +absorb the whole attention of Austria and even to invade the north coast +of Germany. The hundred thousand troops or so upon which we could rely +from Great Britain, would be invaluable for many reasons—first, because +a mixture of blood is always good; secondly, because the regular army +which perforce they would have to send us, is of very fine fighting +material; and thirdly, because they could land, to give away a very open +secret to you, my friend Selingman, in a westerly position, and would +very likely succeed thereby in making an outflanking movement towards +the north. I presume that at present the German fleet would not come out +to battle, in which case the English would certainly be able to do great +execution upon the northern coast of Germany. All this, of course, has +been discussed and written about, and the next war been mapped out in a +dozen different ways. I must confess, however, that taking every known +consideration into account, I can find no other distribution of powers +so reasonable or so favourable to my country."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex nodded.</p> + +<p>"I find no fault with any word of what you have said," he declared, +"except that yours is simply the superficial and obvious idea of the man +in the street as to the course of the next probable war. Now let us go a +little further. I grant all the points which you urge in favour of your +suggested triple alliance. I will even admit that your forecast of a war +taking place under such conditions, is a fairly faithful one. We +proceed, then. The war, if it came to pass, could never be decisive. An +immense amount of blood would be shed, treasure recklessly poured out, +Europe be rendered desolate, for the sake most largely of whom?—of +Japan and America. That is the weakness of the whole thing. A war +carried out on the lines you suggest would be playing the game of these +two countries. Even the victors would be placed at a huge disadvantage +with them, to say nothing of the losers, who must see slipping away from +them forever their place under the sun. It is my opinion—and I have +studied this matter most scientifically and with the help of the Secret +Service of every country, not excepting your own, Herr Selingman—it is +my opinion that this war must be indecisive. The German fleet would be +crippled and not destroyed. The English fleet would retain its +proportionate strength. No French advance into Germany would be +successful, no German advance into France is likely. The war would +languish for lack of funds, through sheer inanition it would flicker +out, and the money of the world would flow into the treasuries of +America. Russia would not be fighting for her living. With her it could +be at best but a half-hearted war. She would do her duty to the +alliance. Nothing more could be hoped from her. You could not expect, +for instance, that she would call up all her reserves, leave the whole +of her eastern frontier unprotected, and throw into mid-Europe such a +force as would in time subjugate Germany. This could be done but it will +not be done. We all know that."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille smoked thoughtfully for several moments.</p> + +<p>"Very well," he pronounced at last, "I am rather inclined to agree with +all that you have said. Yet it seems to me that you evade the great +point. The status quo is what we desire, peace is what the world wants. +If, before such a war as you have spoken of is begun, people realise +what the end of it must be, don't you think that that itself is the +greatest help towards peace? My own opinion is, I tell you frankly, that +for many years to come, at any rate, there will be no war."</p> + +<p>Herr Selingman set down his glass and turned slowly around.</p> + +<p>"Then let me tell you that you are mistaken," he declared solemnly. +"Listen to me, my friend Douaille—my friend, mind, and not the +statesman Douaille. I am a German citizen and you are a French one, and +I tell you that if in three years' time your country does not make up +its mind to strike a blow for Alsace and Lorraine, then in three years' +time Germany will declare war upon you."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille had the expression of a man who doubts. Selingman +frowned. He was suddenly immensely serious. He struck the palm of one +hand a great blow with his clenched fist.</p> + +<p>"Why is it that no one in the world understands," he cried, "what +Germany wants? I tell you, Monsieur Douaille, that we don't hate your +country. We love it. We crowd to Paris. We expand there. It is the +holiday place of every good German. Who wants a ruined France? Not we! +Yet, unless there is a change in the international situation, we shall +go to war with you and I will tell you why. There are no secrets about +this sort of thing. Every politician who is worth his salt knows them. +The only difficulty is to know when a country is in earnest, and how far +it will go. That is the value of our meeting. That is what I am here to +say. We shall go to war with you, Monsieur Douaille, to get Calais, and +when we've got Calais—oh, my God!" Selingman almost reverently +concluded, "then our solemn task will be begun."</p> + +<p>"England!" Monsieur Douaille murmured.</p> + +<p>There was a brief pause. Selingman had seemed, for a moment, to have +passed into the clouds. There was a sort of gloomy rapture upon his +face. He caught up Douaille's last word and repeated it.</p> + +<p>"England! England, and through her...."</p> + +<p>He moved to the sideboard and filled his tumbler with wine. When he came +back to his place, his expression had lightened.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well! dear Monsieur Douaille," he exclaimed, patting the other's +shoulder in friendly fashion, "to-night we merely chatter. To-night we +are here to make friends, to gain each the confidence of the other. To +ourselves let us pretend that we are little boys, playing the game of +our nation—France, Germany, and Russia. Germany and Russia, to be frank +with you, are waiting for one last word from Germany's father, something +splendid and definite to offer. What we would like France to do, while +France loses its money at roulette and flirts with the pretty ladies at +Ciro's, is to try and accustom itself not to an alliance with +Germany—no! Nothing so utopian as that. The lion and the lamb may +remain apart. They may agree to be friends, they may even wave paws at +one another, but I do not suggest that they march side by side. What we +ask of France is that she looks the other way. It is very easy to look +the other way. She might look, for instance—towards Egypt."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<h3>"What we ask of France is that she looks the other way."</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>There was a sudden glitter in the eyes of Monsieur Douaille. Selingman +saw it and pressed on.</p> + +<p>"There are laurels to be won which will never fade," he continued, +setting down his empty tumbler, "laurels to be won by that statesman of +your country, the little boy France, who is big enough and strong enough +to stand with his feet upon the earth and proclaim—'I am for France and +my own people, and my own people only, and I will make them great +through all the centuries by seeing the truth and leading them towards +it, single-purposed, single-minded.' ... But these things are not to be +disposed of so readily as this wonderful Berncastler—I beg its pardon, +Berncastler Doctor—of our host. For to-night I have said my say. I have +whims, perhaps, but with me serious affairs are finished for the night. +I go to the Sporting Club. Mademoiselle keeps my place at the baccarat +table. I feel in the vein. It is a small place, Monte Carlo. Let us make +no appointments. We shall drift together. And, monsieur," he concluded, +laying his hand for a moment upon Douaille's shoulder, "let the thought +sink into your brain. Wipe out that geographical and logical map of +Europe from your mind; see things, if you can, in the new daylight. +Then, when the idea has been there for just a little time—well, we +speak again.... Come, Draconmeyer. I am relying upon your car to get me +into Monte Carlo. My bounteous host, Mr. Grex, good night! I touch your +hand with reverence. The man who possesses such wine and offers it to +his friends, is indeed a prince."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex rose a little unwillingly from his chair.</p> + +<p>"It is of no use to protest," he remarked, smiling. "Our friend +Selingman will have his way. Besides, as he reminded us, there is one +last word to arrive. Come and breathe the odours of the Riviera, +Monsieur Douaille. This is when I realise that I am not at my villa on +the Black Sea."</p> + +<p>They passed out into the hall and stood on the terrace while the cars +drew up. The light outside seemed faintly violet. The perfume of mimosa +and roses and oleander came to him in long waves, subtle and yet +invigorating. Below, the lights of Monte Carlo, clear and brilliant, +with no northern fog or mist to dull their radiance, shone like gems in +the mantle of night. Selingman sighed as he stepped into the automobile.</p> + +<p>"We are men who deserve well from history," he declared, "who, in the +midst of a present so wonderful, can spare time to plan for the +generations to come!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>A BARGAIN WITH JEAN COULOIS</h3> + + +<p>Selingman drew out his watch and held it underneath the electric light +set in the back of the automobile.</p> + +<p>"Good!" he declared. "It is not yet half-past eleven."</p> + +<p>"Too early for the Austria," Draconmeyer murmured, a little absently.</p> + +<p>Selingman returned the watch to his pocket.</p> + +<p>"By no means," he objected. "Mademoiselle is doubtless amusing herself +well enough, but if I go now and leave in an hour, she will be peevish. +She might want to accompany us. To-night it would not be convenient. +Tell your chauffeur, Draconmeyer, to take us direct to the rendezvous. +We can at least watch the people there. One is always amused. We will +forget our nervous friend. These little touches, Draconmeyer, my man, +they mark the man of genius, mind you. Did you notice how his eyes lit +up when I whispered that one word 'Egypt'? It is a great game when you +bait your hook with men and fish for empires!"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer gave an instruction to his chauffeur and leaned back.</p> + +<p>"If we succeed,—" he began.</p> + +<p>"Succeed?" Selingman interrupted. "Why, man alive, he is on our hooks +already! Be at rest, my friend. The affair is half arranged. It remains +only with us to deal with one man."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer's eyes sparkled beneath his spectacles. A slow smile crept +over his white face.</p> + +<p>"You are right," he agreed. "That man is best out of the way. If he and +Douaille should meet—"</p> + +<p>"They shall not meet," Selingman thundered. "I, Selingman, declare it. +We are here already. Good! The aspect of the place pleases me."</p> + +<p>The two men, arriving so early, received the distinguished consideration +of a bowing maître d'hôtel as they entered the Austria. They were +ushered at once to a round table in a favourable position. Selingman +surrendered his hat and coat to the obsequious vestiaire, pulled down +his waistcoat with a familiar gesture, spread his pudgy hands upon the +table and looked around him with a smile of benevolent approval.</p> + +<p>"I shall amuse myself here," he declared confidently. "Pass the menu to +me, Draconmeyer. You have no more idea how to eat than a rabbit. That is +why you suffer from indigestion. At this hour—why, it is not midnight +yet—one needs sustenance—sustenance, mark you, intelligently selected, +something nourishing yet not heavy. A sheet of paper, waiter. You see, I +like to write out my dishes. It saves trouble and there are no +disappointments, nothing is forgotten. As to the wine, show me the +vintage champagnes.... So! You need not hurry with the meal. We shall +spend some time here."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer arrested the much impressed maître d'hôtel as he was +hurrying away.</p> + +<p>"Is there dancing here to-night?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"But certainly, monsieur," the man replied. "A Spanish lady, altogether +ravishing, the equal of Otéro at her best—Signorina Melita."</p> + +<p>"She dances alone?"</p> + +<p>"By no means. There is the young Frenchman, Jean Coulois, who is engaged +for the season. A wonderful pair, indeed! When May comes, they go to the +music-halls in Paris and London."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer nodded approval.</p> + +<p>"Coulois was the name," he whispered to Selingman, as the man moved +away.</p> + +<p>The place filled up slowly. Presently the supper was served. Selingman +ate with appetite, Draconmeyer only sparingly. The latter, however, +drank more freely than usual. The wine had, nevertheless, curiously +little effect upon him, save for a slight additional brightness of the +eyes. His cheeks remained pale, his manner distrait. He watched the +people enter and pass to their places, without any apparent interest. +Selingman, on the other hand, easily absorbed the spirit of his +surroundings. As the night wore on he drank healths with his neighbours, +beamed upon the pretty little Frenchwoman who was selling flowers, ate +and drank what was set before him with obvious enjoyment. Both men, +however, showed at least an equal interest when Mademoiselle Melita, in +Spanish costume, accompanied by a slim, dark-visaged man, began to +dance. Draconmeyer was no longer restless. He sat with folded arms, +watching the performance with a strangely absorbed air. One thing, +however, was singular. Although Selingman was confessedly a ladies' man, +his eyes, after her first few movements, scarcely rested for a moment +upon the girl. Both Draconmeyer and he watched her companion +steadfastly. When the dance was over they applauded with spirit. +Selingman sat up in his place, a champagne bottle in his hand. He +beckoned to the man, who, with a little deprecating shrug of the +shoulders, swaggered up to their table with some show of condescension.</p> + +<p>"A chair for Monsieur Jean Coulois, the great dancer," Selingman +ordered, "a glass, and another bottle of wine. Monsieur Jean, my +congratulations! But a word in your ear. Her steps do not match yours. +It is you who make the dance. She has no initiative. She can do nothing +but imitate," he added.</p> + +<p>The dancer looked at his host a little curiously. He was slightly built +and without an atom of colour. His black hair was closely cropped, his +eyes of sombre darkness, his demeanour almost sullen. At Selingman's +words, however, he nodded rapidly and seated himself more firmly upon +his chair. It was apparent that although his face remained +expressionless, he was gratified.</p> + +<p>"They notice nothing, these others," he remarked, with a little wave of +the hand. "It is always the woman who counts. You are right, monsieur. +She dances like a stick. She has good calves and she rolls her eyes. The +<i>canaille</i> applaud. It is always like that. Your health, monsieur!"</p> + +<p>He drank his wine without apparent enjoyment, but he drank it like +water. Selingman leaned across the table.</p> + +<p>"Coulois," he whispered, "the wolves bay loudest at night, is it not +so?"</p> + +<p>The man sat quite still. If such a thing had been possible, he might +have grown a shade paler. His eyes glittered. He looked steadfastly at +Selingman.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>"The wolves sleep in the daytime," Selingman replied.</p> + +<p>The dancer shrugged his shoulders. He held out his glass to be +replenished. The double password had reassured him.</p> + +<p>"Pardon, monsieur," he said, "these have been anxious hours."</p> + +<p>"The little affair at La Turbie?" Selingman suggested.</p> + +<p>Coulois set down his glass for the first time half finished. His mouth +had taken an evil turn. He leaned across the table.</p> + +<p>"See you," he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, "what happened, happened +justly! Martin is responsible. The whole thing was conducted in the +spirit of a pantomime, a great joke. Who are we, the Wolves, to brandish +empty firearms, to shrink from letting a little blood! Bah!"</p> + +<p>He finished his wine. Selingman nodded approvingly as he refilled his +glass.</p> + +<p>"My friend and I," he confided, "were amongst those who were held up. +Imagine it! We stood against the wall like a row of dummies. Such +treasure as I have never before seen was poured into that sack. Jewels, +my friend, such as only the women of Monte Carlo wear! Packet after +packet of mille notes! Wealth immeasurable! Oh, Coulois, Coulois, it was +an opportunity lost!"</p> + +<p>"Lost!" the dancer echoed fiercely. "It was thrown into the gutter! It +was madness! It was hellish, such ill-fortune! Yet what could I do? If I +had been absent from here—I, Coulois, whom men know of—even the police +would have had no excuse. So it was Martin who must lead. Our armoury +had never been fuller. There were revolvers for every one, ammunition +for a thousand.... Pardon, monsieur, but I cannot talk of this affair. +The anger rises so hot in my heart that I fear to betray myself to those +who may be listening. And besides, you have not come here to talk with +me of it."</p> + +<p>"It is true," Selingman confessed.</p> + +<p>There was a brief silence. The dancer was studying them both. There was +uneasiness in his expression.</p> + +<p>"I do not understand," he enquired hoarsely, "how you came by the +passwords?"</p> + +<p>"Make yourself wholly at ease, my young friend," Selingman begged him +reassuringly. "We are men of the world, my friend and I. We seek our own +ends in life and we have often to make use of the nearest and the best +means for the purpose of securing them. Martin has served me before. A +week ago I should have gone to him. To-night, as you know, he lies in +prison."</p> + +<p>"Martin, indeed!" the dancer jeered. "You would have gone, then, to a +man of sawdust, a chicken-livered bungler! What is it that you want +done? Speak to me. I am a man."</p> + +<p>The leader of the orchestra was essaying upon his violin the tentative +strains of a popular air. The girl had reappeared and was poising +herself upon her toes. The leader of the orchestra summoned Coulois.</p> + +<p>"I must dance," he announced. "Afterwards I will return."</p> + +<p>He leapt lightly to his feet and swung into the room with extended arms. +Draconmeyer looked down at his plate.</p> + +<p>"It is a risk, this, we are running," he muttered. "I do not see, +Selingman, why you could not have hired this fellow through Allen or one +of the others."</p> + +<p>Selingman shook his head.</p> + +<p>"See here, Draconmeyer," he explained, "this is one of the cases where +agents are dangerous. For Allen to have been seen with Jean Coulois here +would have been the same as though I had been seen with him myself. I +cannot, alas! in this place, with my personality, keep my identity +concealed. They know that I am Selingman. They know well that wherever I +move, I have with me men of my Secret Service. I cannot use them against +Hunterleys. Too many are in the know. Here we are simply two visitors +who talk to a dancer. We depart. We do not see him again until +afterwards. Besides, this is where fate is with us. What more natural +than that the Wolves should revenge themselves upon the man who captured +one of their leaders? It was the young American, Richard Lane, who +really started the debacle, but it was Hunterleys who seized Martin. +What more natural than revenge? These fellows hang by one another +always."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer nodded with grim approval.</p> + +<p>"It was devilish work he did in Sofia," he said softly. "But for him, +much of this would have been unnecessary."</p> + +<p>The dance was over. Both men joined enthusiastically in the applause. +Coulois, with an insolent nod to his admirers, returned to his seat. He +threw himself back in his chair, crossed his legs and held out his empty +glass. Though he had been dancing furiously, there was not a single bead +of perspiration upon his forehead.</p> + +<p>"You are in good condition, my friend," Selingman observed admiringly.</p> + +<p>"I need to be for my work," Coulois replied. "Let us get to business. +There is no need to mince words. What do you want with me? Who is the +quarry?"</p> + +<p>"The man who ruined your little affair at La Turbie and captured your +comrade Martin," Selingman whispered. "You see, you have every +provocation to start with."</p> + +<p>Coulois' eyes glittered.</p> + +<p>"He was an Englishman," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Quite true," Selingman assented. "His name is Hunterleys—Sir Henry +Hunterleys. He lives at the Hotel de Paris. His room is number 189. He +spends his time upon the Terrace, at the Café de Paris, and in the +Sporting Club. Every morning he goes to the English Bank for his +letters, deals with them in his room, calls at the post-office and takes +a walk, often up into the hills."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, this is not so bad!" Coulois exclaimed. "They laugh at us +in the cafés and down in the wine shops of Monaco, those who know," he +went on, frowning. "They say that the Wolves have become sheep. We shall +see! It is an affair, this, worth considering. What do you pay, Monsieur +le Gros, and for how long do you wish him out of the way?"</p> + +<p>"The pay," Selingman announced, "is two hundred louis, and the man must +be in hospital for at least a fortnight."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer leaned suddenly forward. His eyes were bright, his hands +gripped the table.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" he whispered in Coulois' ear. "Are the Wolves sheep, indeed, +that they can do no more than twist ankles and break heads? That two +hundred shall be five hundred, Jean Coulois, but it must be a cemetery +to which they take him, and not a hospital!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<h3>"That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a +cemetery to which they take him!"</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>There was a moment's silence. Selingman sat back in his place. He was +staring at his companion with wide-open eyes. Jean Coulois was +moistening his lips with his tongue, his eyes were brilliant.</p> + +<p>"Five hundred louis!" he repeated under his breath.</p> + +<p>"Is it not enough?" Draconmeyer asked coldly. "I do not believe in half +measures. The man who is wounded may be well before he is welcome. If +five hundred louis is not enough, name your price, but let there be no +doubt. Let me see what the Wolves can do when it is their leader who +handles the knife!"</p> + +<p>The face of the dancer was curiously impassive. He lifted his glass and +drained it.</p> + +<p>"An affair of death!" he exclaimed softly. "We Wolves—we bite, we +wound, we rob. But death—ugh! There are ugly things to be thought of."</p> + +<p>"And pleasant ones," Draconmeyer reminded him. "Five hundred louis is +not enough. It shall be six hundred. A man may do much with six hundred +golden louis."</p> + +<p>Selingman sat forward once more in his place.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he intervened, "you go too far, my friend. You never spoke +to me of this. What have you against Hunterleys?"</p> + +<p>"His nationality," Draconmeyer answered coolly. "I hate all Englishmen!"</p> + +<p>The gaiety had left Selingman's face. He gazed at his companion with a +curious expression.</p> + +<p>"My friend," he murmured, "I fear that you are vindictive."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Draconmeyer replied quietly. "In these matters I like to be +on the safe side."</p> + +<p>Jean Coulois struck the table lightly with his small, feminine hand. He +showed all his teeth as though he had been listening to an excellent +joke.</p> + +<p>"It is to be done," he decided. "There is no more to be said."</p> + +<p>Some visitors had taken the next table. Coulois drew his chair a little +closer to Draconmeyer.</p> + +<p>"I accept the engagement," he continued. "We will talk no more. Monsieur +desires my address? It is here,"—scribbling on a piece of paper. "But +monsieur may be warned," he added, with a lightning-like flash in his +eyes as he became conscious of the observation of some passers-by. "I +will not dance in England. I will not leave Monte Carlo before May. Half +that sum—three hundred louis, mind—must come to me on trust; the other +three hundred afterwards. Never fear but that I will give satisfaction. +Keep your part of the bargain," he added, under his breath, "and the +Wolves' fangs are already in this man's throat."</p> + +<p>He danced again. The two men watched him. Draconmeyer's face was as +still and colourless as ever. In Selingman's there was a shade of +something almost like repulsion. He poured himself out a glass of +champagne.</p> + +<p>"Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, "you are a cold-blooded fish, indeed! You +can sit there without blinking and think of this thing which we have +done. Now as for me, I have a heart. I can never see the passing out of +the game of even a bitter opponent, without a shiver. Talk philosophy to +me, Draconmeyer. My nerves are shaken."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer turned his head. He, too, raised his wine to his lips and +drank deliberately.</p> + +<p>"My friend," he said, "there is no philosophy save one. A child cries +for the star he may not have; the weak man comforts himself in privation +by repeating to himself the dry-as-dust axioms conceived in an alien +brain, and weaving from them the miserable comfort of empty words. The +man who knows life and has found wisdom, pays the price for the thing he +desires, and obtains it!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>DUTY INTERFERES AGAIN</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys sat that night alone in a seat at the Opera for a time and +lost himself in a maze of recollections. He seemed to find himself +growing younger as he listened to the music. The days of a more vivid +and ardent sentimentality seemed to reassert themselves. He thought of +the hours when he had sat side by side with his wife, the only woman to +whom he had ever given a thought; of the thrill which even the touch of +her fingers had given him, of the drive home together, the little +confidences and endearments, the glamour which seemed to have been +thrown over life before those unhappy misunderstandings. He remembered +so well the beginning of them all—the terrible pressure of work which +was thrown upon his shoulders, his engrossed days, his disturbed nights; +her patience at first, her subsequent petulance, her final anger. He was +engaged often in departmental work which he could not even explain. She +had taken up with unhappy facility the rôle of a neglected wife. She +declared that he had ceased to care for the lighter ways. There had +certainly been a time when her complaints had been apparently justified, +when the Opera had been banned, theatres were impossible, when she could +not even rely upon his escort to a dinner or to a reception. He had +argued with her very patiently at first but very unsuccessfully. It was +then that her friendship with Linda Draconmeyer had been so vigorously +renewed, a friendship which seemed from the first to have threatened his +happiness. Had it been his fault? he wondered. Had he really been too +much engrossed in his work? His country had made large demands upon him +in those days. Had he ever explained the matter fully and carefully +enough to her? Perhaps not. At any rate, he was the sufferer. He +realised more than ever, as the throbbing of the music stole into his +blood, the loneliness of his life. And yet it seemed so hopeless. +Supposing he threw up his work and let things take their course? The +bare thought chilled him. He recognised it as unworthy. The great song +of mortification from the broken hero rang in his ears. Must every woman +bring to every man the curse of Delilah!...</p> + +<p>He passed out of the building into the cool, starlit night. People were +strolling about in evening clothes, hatless, the women in white opera +cloaks and filmy gowns, their silk-stockinged feet very much in +evidence, resembling almost some strange kind of tropical birds with +their little shrill laughter and graceful movements, as they made their +way towards the Club or round to the Rooms, or to one of the restaurants +for supper. Whilst Hunterleys hesitated, there was a touch upon his arm. +He glanced around.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, David!" he exclaimed. "Were you waiting for me?"</p> + +<p>The young man fell into step by his side.</p> + +<p>"I have been to the hotel," he said, in a low tone. "They thought you +might be here. Can you come up later—say at one o'clock?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," Hunterleys answered. "Where's Sidney?"</p> + +<p>"He's working now. He'll be home by half-past twelve unless anything +goes wrong. He thinks he'll have something to tell you."</p> + +<p>"I'll come," Hunterleys agreed. "How's Felicia?"</p> + +<p>"All right, but working herself to death," the young man replied. "She +is getting anxious, too. Give her a word of encouragement if you see her +to-night. She was hoping you might have been up to see her."</p> + +<p>"I won't forget," Hunterleys promised.</p> + +<p>The young man drifted silently away, and Hunterleys, after a moment's +hesitation and a glance at his watch, turned towards the Club. He +climbed the broad staircase, surrendered his hat and turned in at the +roulette room. The magic of the music was still in his veins, and he +looked around him almost eagerly. There was no sign of Violet. He +strolled into the baccarat room but she was not there. Perhaps she, too, +had been at the Opera. In the bar he found Richard Lane, sitting moodily +alone. The young man greeted him warmly.</p> + +<p>"Come and have a drink, Sir Henry," he begged. "I've got the hump."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys sat down by his side.</p> + +<p>"Whiskey and apollinaris," he ordered. "What's the matter with you, +Richard?"</p> + +<p>"She isn't here," the young man declared. "I've been to the Rooms and +she isn't there either."</p> + +<p>"What about the Opera?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"I started at the Opera," Lane confessed, "took a box so as to be able +to see the whole house. I sat through the first act but there wasn't a +sign of her. Then I took a spin out and had another look at the villa. +It was all lit up as though there were a party. I very nearly marched +in."</p> + +<p>"Just as well you didn't, I think," Hunterleys remarked, smiling. "I see +you're feeling just the same about it."</p> + +<p>The young man did not even vouchsafe an answer.</p> + +<p>"Then you're not going to take advantage of your little warning and +clear out?" Hunterleys continued.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think I'm big enough to take care of myself?" Lane asked, +with a little laugh. "Besides, there's an American Consul here, and +plenty of English witnesses who saw the whole thing. Can't think why +they're trying on such a silly game."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Grex may have influence," Hunterleys suggested.</p> + +<p>"Who the mischief is my prospective father-in-law?" Richard demanded, +almost testily. "There's an atmosphere about that house and the servants +I can't understand a bit."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't," Hunterleys observed drily. "Well, in a day or two I'll +tell you who Mr. Grex is. I'd rather not to-night."</p> + +<p>"By the way," Lane continued, "your wife was asking if you were here, a +few minutes ago."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys rose quickly to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Where is she?"</p> + +<p>"She was at her usual place at the top roulette table, but she gave it +up just as I passed, said she was going to walk about," the young man +replied. "I don't think she has left yet."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys excused himself hastily. In the little space between the +restaurant and the roulette rooms he came suddenly upon Violet. She was +leaning back in an obscure corner, with her hands clasped helplessly in +her lap before her. She was sitting quite still and his heart sank when +he saw her. The lines under her eyes were unmistakable now; her cheeks, +too, seemed to have grown hollow. Her first look at him almost made him +forget all their differences. There was something piteous in the tremble +of her lips. He drew a chair to her side.</p> + +<p>"Richard told me that you wished to speak to me," he began, as lightly +as he could.</p> + +<p>"I asked if he had seen you, a few minutes ago," she admitted. "I am +afraid that my interest was rather mercenary."</p> + +<p>"You want to borrow some money?" he enquired, taking out his +pocket-book.</p> + +<p>She looked at it, and though her eyes at first were listless, they still +seemed fascinated.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I can play any more to-night," she sighed.</p> + +<p>"You have been losing?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>"Come and have something," he invited. "You look tired."</p> + +<p>She rose willingly enough. They passed out, side by side, into the +little bar.</p> + +<p>"Some champagne?" he suggested.</p> + +<p>She shook her head quickly. The memory of the champagne at dinner-time +came back to her with a sudden sickening insistence. She thought of the +loan, she thought of Draconmeyer with a new uneasiness. It was as though +she had admitted some new complication into her life.</p> + +<p>"Could I have some tea?" she begged.</p> + +<p>He ordered some and sat with her while she drank it.</p> + +<p>"You know," he declared, "if I might be permitted to say so, I think you +are taking the gaming here a little too seriously. If you have been +unlucky, it is very easy to arrange an advance for you. Would you like +some money? If so, I will see to it when I go to the bank to-morrow. I +can let you have a hundred pounds at once, if you like."</p> + +<p>A hundred pounds! If only she dared tell him that she had lost a +thousand within the last two hours! Once more he was fingering his +pocket-book.</p> + +<p>"Come," he went on pleasantly, "you had better have a hundred from me, +for luck."</p> + +<p>He counted out the notes. Her fingers began to shake.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to play any more to-night," she faltered, irresolutely.</p> + +<p>"Nor should I," he agreed. "Take my advice, Violet, and go home now. +This will do for you to-morrow."</p> + +<p>She took the money and dropped it into her jewelled bag.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said, "I won't play any more, but I don't want to go +home yet. It is early, and I can never sleep here if I go to bed. Sit +with me for half-an-hour, and then perhaps you could give me some +supper?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry," he answered, "but at one o'clock I have an +appointment."</p> + +<p>"An appointment?"</p> + +<p>"Such bad luck," he continued. "It would have given me very great +pleasure to have had supper with you, Violet."</p> + +<p>"An appointment at one o'clock," she repeated slowly. "Isn't that just a +little—unusual?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so," he assented. "I can assure you that I am very sorry."</p> + +<p>She leaned suddenly towards him. The aloofness had gone from her manner. +The barrier seemed for a moment to have fallen down. Once more she was +the Violet he remembered. She smiled into his face, and smiled with her +eyes as well as her lips, just the smile he had been thinking of an hour +ago in the Opera House.</p> + +<p>"Don't go, please," she begged. "I am feeling lonely to-night and I am +so tired of everybody and everything. Take me to supper at the Café de +Paris. Then, if you like, we might come back here for half-an-hour. +Or—"</p> + +<p>She hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I am horribly sorry," he declared, in a tone which was full of real +regret. "Indeed, Violet, I am. But I have an appointment which I must +keep, and I can't tell exactly how long it may take me."</p> + +<p>The very fact that the nature of that appointment concerned things which +from the first he had made up his mind must be kept entirely secret, +stiffened his tone. Her manner changed instantly. She had drawn herself +a little away. She considered for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Are you inclined to tell me with whom your appointment is, and for what +purpose?" she asked coldly. "I don't want to be exacting, but after the +request I have made, and your refusal—"</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell you," he interrupted. "I can only ask you to take my word +for it that it is one which I must keep."</p> + +<p>She rose suddenly to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I haven't the slightest right to your +confidence. Besides, when I come to think of it, I don't believe that I +am hungry at all. I shall try my luck with your money?"</p> + +<p>"Violet!—"</p> + +<p>She swept away with a little farewell nod, half insolent, half angry. +Hunterleys watched her take her place at the table. For several moments +he stood by her side. She neither looked up nor addressed him. Then he +turned and left the place.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>A MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys remained in the hotel only long enough to change his straw +hat for a cap, put on a long, light overcoat and take an ash stick from +his wardrobe. He left the place by an unfrequented entrance and +commenced at once to climb to the back part of the town. Once or twice +he paused and looked around, to be sure that he was not followed. When +he had arrived as far as the Hotel de Prince de Galles, he crossed the +road. From here he walked very quickly and took three turns in rapid +succession. Finally he pushed open a little gate and passed up a tiled +walk which led between a little border of rose trees to a small white +villa, covered with creepers. A slim, girlish figure came suddenly out +from the porch and danced towards him with outstretched hands.</p> + +<p>"At last!" she exclaimed. "At last! Tell me, my co-guardian, how you are +going to excuse yourself?"</p> + +<p>He took her outstretched hands and looked down into her face. She was +very small and dark, with lustrous brown eyes and a very sensitive +mouth, which just now was quivering with excitement.</p> + +<p>"All the excuses have gone out of my head, Felicia," he declared. "You +look such a little elf in the moonlight that I can't do more than say +that I am sorry. But I have been busy."</p> + +<p>She was suddenly serious. She clasped his arm with both her hands and +turned towards the house.</p> + +<p>"Of course you have," she sighed. "It seems too bad, though, in Monte +Carlo. Sidney and David are like ghouls. I don't ask what it is all +about—I know better—but I wish it were all over, whatever it is."</p> + +<p>"Is Sidney back?" Hunterleys asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"He came in half-an-hour ago, looking like a tramp. David is writing as +though he hadn't a moment to spare in life. They are both waiting for +you, I think."</p> + +<p>"And you?" he enquired. "How do the rehearsals go?"</p> + +<p>"The rehearsals are all right," she admitted, looking up at him almost +pathetically. "It's the night itself that seems so awful. I know every +word, I know every note, and yet I can't feel sure. I can't sleep for +thinking about it. Only last night I had a nightmare. I saw all those +rows and rows of faces, and the lights, and my voice went, my tongue was +dry and hard, not a word would come. And you were there—and the +others!"</p> + +<p>He laughed at her.</p> + +<p>"Little girl," he said solemnly, "I shall have to speak to Sidney. One +of those two young men must take you out for a day in the country +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"They seem so busy," she complained. "They don't seem to have time to +think of me. I suppose I had better let you go in. They'd be furious if +they thought I was keeping you."</p> + +<p>They passed into the villa, and with a farewell pat of the hand +Hunterleys left her and opened a door on the left-hand side of the hall. +The young man who had met him coming out of the Opera was standing with +his hands in his pockets, upon the hearth-rug of an exceedingly +untidy-looking apartment. There was a table covered with papers, another +piled with newspapers. There were books upon the floor, pipes and +tobacco laid about haphazard. A space had been swept clear upon the +larger table for a typewriter, a telephone instrument stood against the +wall. A man whose likeness to Felicia was at once apparent, swung round +in his chair as Hunterleys entered. He had taken off his coat and +waistcoat and his trousers seemed smothered with dust.</p> + +<p>"Regular newspaper correspondent's den," Hunterleys remarked, as he +looked around him. "I never saw such a mess in my life. I wonder Felicia +allows it."</p> + +<p>"We don't let her come in," her brother chuckled. "Is the door closed?"</p> + +<p>"Fast," Hunterleys replied, moving away from it.</p> + +<p>"Things are moving," the other went on. "I took the small car out to-day +on the road to Cannes and I expect I was the first to see Douaille."</p> + +<p>"I saw him myself," Hunterleys announced. "I was out on that road, +walking."</p> + +<p>"Douaille," Roche continued, "went direct to the Villa Mimosa. Grex was +there, waiting for him. Draconmeyer and Selingman both kept out of the +way."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"Reasonable enough, that. Grex was the man to pave the way. Well?"</p> + +<p>"At ten o'clock, Draconmeyer and Selingman arrived. The Villa Mimosa +gets more difficult every day. I have only one friend in the house, +although it is filled with servants. Three-quarters of them only speak +Russian. My man's reliable but he is in a terrible minority. The +conference took place in the library. It lasted about an hour and a +half. Selingman and Draconmeyer came out looking fairly well satisfied. +Half-an-hour later Douaille went on to Mentone, to the Hotel Splendide, +where his wife and daughters are staying. No writing at all was done in +the room."</p> + +<p>"The conference has really begun, then," Hunterleys observed moodily.</p> + +<p>"Without a doubt," Roche declared. "I imagine, though, that the meeting +this evening was devoted to preliminaries. I am hoping next time," he +went on, "to be able to pass on a little of what is said."</p> + +<p>"If we could only get the barest idea as to the nature of the +proposals," Hunterleys said earnestly. "Of course, one can surmise. Our +people are already warned as to the long conferences which have taken +place between Grex and Selingman. They mean something—there's no doubt +about that. And then this invitation to Douaille, and his coming here so +furtively. Everything points the same way, but a few spoken words are +better than all the surmises in the world. It isn't that they are +unreasonable at home, but they must be convinced."</p> + +<p>"It's the devil's own risk," Roche sighed, "but I am hard at it. I was +about the place yesterday as much as I dared. My plans are all ready now +but things looked pretty awkward at the villa to-night. If they are +going to have the grounds patrolled by servants every time they meet, +I'm done. I've cut a pane of glass out of the dome over the library, and +I've got a window-cleaning apparatus round at the back, and a ladder. +The passage along the roof is quite easy and there's a good deal of +cover amongst the chimneys, but if they get a hint, it will be touch and +go."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded. He was busy now, going through the long sheets of +writing which the other young man had silently passed across to him. For +half-an-hour he read, making pencil notes now and then in the margin. +When at last he had finished, he returned them and, sitting down at the +table, drew a packet of press cable sheets towards him and wrote for +some time steadily. When he had finished, he read through the result of +his labours and leaned back thoughtfully in his chair.</p> + +<p>"You will send this off from Cannes with your own, Briston?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The young man assented.</p> + +<p>"The car will be here at three," he announced. "They'll be on their way +by eight."</p> + +<p>"Press message, mind, to the <i>Daily Post</i>. If the operator wants to know +what 'Number 1' means after '<i>Daily Post</i>,' you can tell him that it +simply indicates to which editorial room the message is to be +delivered."</p> + +<p>"That's a clever idea," Roche mused. "Code dispatches to Downing Street +might cause a little comment."</p> + +<p>"They wouldn't do from here," Hunterleys declared. "They might be safe +enough from Cannes but it's better to run no risks. These will be passed +on to Downing Street, unopened. Be careful to-morrow, Sidney."</p> + +<p>"I can't see that they can do anything but throw me out, Sir Henry," +Roche remarked. "I have my <i>Daily Post</i> authority in my pocket, and my +passport. Besides, I got the man here to announce in the <i>Monte Carlo +News</i> that I was the accredited correspondent for the district, and that +David Briston had been appointed by a syndicate of illustrated papers to +represent them out here. That's in case we get a chance of taking +photographs. I had some idea of going out to interview Monsieur +Douaille."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't. The man's as nervous as he can be now, I am pretty sure of +that. Don't do anything that might put him on his guard. Mind, for all +we know he may be an honest man. To listen to what these fellows have to +say doesn't mean that he's prepared to fall in with their schemes. By +the by, you've nothing about the place, I suppose, if you should be +raided?"</p> + +<p>"Not a thing," was the confident reply. "We are two English newspaper +correspondents, and there isn't a thing to be found anywhere that's not +in keeping, except my rather large make-up outfit and my somewhat mixed +wardrobe. I am not the only newspaper correspondent who goes in for +that, though. Then there's Felicia. They all know who she is and they +all know that she's my sister. Anyhow, even if I do get into trouble up +at the Villa Mimosa, I can't see that I shall be looked upon as anything +more than a prying newspaper correspondent. They can't hang me for +that."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys accepted a cigarette and lit it.</p> + +<p>"I needn't tell you fellows," he said gravely, "that this place is a +little unlike any other in Europe. You may think you're safe enough, but +all the same I wouldn't trust a living soul. By-the-by, I saw Felicia as +I came in. You don't want her to break down, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, no!" her brother exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Break down?" David repeated. "Don't suggest such a thing!"</p> + +<p>"It struck me that she was rather nervy," Hunterleys told them. "One of +you ought to look after her for an hour or two to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I can't spare a moment," her brother sighed.</p> + +<p>"I'll take her out," Briston declared eagerly. "There's nothing for me +to do to-morrow till Sidney gets back."</p> + +<p>"Well, between you, keep an eye on her," Hunterleys advised. "And, +Sidney, I don't want to make a coward of you, and you and I both know +that if there's danger ahead it's our job to face it, but have a care up +at the Villa Mimosa. I don't fancy the law of this Principality would +see you out of any trouble if they got an idea that you were an English +Secret Service man."</p> + +<p>Roche laughed shortly.</p> + +<p>"Exactly my own idea," he admitted. "However, we've got to see it +through. I sha'n't consider I've done my work unless I hear something of +what Grex and the others have to say to Douaille the next time they +meet."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys found Felicia waiting for him outside. He shook his head +reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"A future prima donna," he said, "should go to bed at ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>She opened the door for him and walked down the path, her hands clasped +in his arm.</p> + +<p>"A future prima donna," she retorted, "can't do always what she likes. +If I go to bed too early I cannot sleep. To-night I am excited and +nervous. There isn't anything likely to bring trouble upon—them, is +there?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," he replied promptly. "Your brother is full of +enterprise, as you know. He runs a certain amount of risk in his +eagerness to acquire news, but I never knew a man so well able to take +care of himself."</p> + +<p>"And—and Mr. Briston?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's all right, anyway," Hunterleys assured her. "His is the +smaller part."</p> + +<p>She breathed a little sigh of relief. They had reached the gate. She +still had something to say. Below them flared the lights of Monte Carlo. +She looked down at them almost wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Very soon," she murmured, "I shall know my fate. Sir Henry," she added +suddenly, "did I see Lady Hunterleys to-day on the Terrace?"</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys is here," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Am I—ought I to go and see her?" she enquired. "You see, you have done +so much for me, I should like to do what you thought best."</p> + +<p>"Just as you like, child," he replied, a little carelessly.</p> + +<p>She clung to his arm. She seemed unwilling to let him go.</p> + +<p>"Dear co-guardian," she murmured, "to-night I felt for a little time so +happy, as though all the good things in life were close at hand. Then I +watched you come up, and your step seemed so heavy, and you stooped as +though you had a load on your shoulders."</p> + +<p>He patted her hand.</p> + +<p>"Little girl," he advised, "run away in and take care of your throat. +Remember that everything depends upon the next few hours. As for me, +perhaps I am getting a little old."</p> + +<p>"Oh, la, la!" she laughed. "That's what Sidney says when I tease him. I +know I am only the mouse, but I could gnaw through very strong cords. +Look!"</p> + +<p>Her teeth gleamed white in the moonlight. He swung open the gate.</p> + +<p>"Sing your way into the hearts of all these strange people," he bade +her, smiling. "Sing the envy and malice away from them. Sing so that +they believe that England, after all, is the one desirable country."</p> + +<p>"But I am going to sing in French," she pouted.</p> + +<p>"Your name," he reminded her, "that is English. 'The little English +prima donna,' that is what they will be calling you."</p> + +<p>She kissed his hands suddenly as he parted from her and swung off down +the hill. Then she stood at the gate, looking down at the glittering +lights. Would they shine as brightly for her, she wondered, in +twenty-four hours' time? It was so much to strive for, so much to lose, +so wonderfully much to gain. Slowly her eyes travelled upwards. The +symbolism of those higher lights calmed her fear. She drew a great sigh +of happiness.</p> + +<p>"Felicia!"</p> + +<p>She turned around with a soft little laugh.</p> + +<p>"David!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>"TAKE ME AWAY!"</h3> + + +<p>Richard presented himself the next morning at the Hotel de Paris.</p> + +<p>"Cheero!" he exclaimed, on being shown into Hunterleys' sitting-room. +"All right up to date, I see."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded. He had just come in from the bank and held his +letters in his hand. Richard seated himself on the edge of the table.</p> + +<p>"I slept out on the yacht last night," he said. "Got up at six o'clock +and had a swim. What about a round of golf at La Turbie? We can get down +again by luncheon-time, before the people are about."</p> + +<p>"Afraid I can't," Hunterleys replied. "I have rather an important letter +to go through carefully, and a reply to think out."</p> + +<p>"You're a queer chap, you know," Richard went on. "You always seem to +have something on but I'm hanged if I can see how you pass your time +here in Monte Carlo. This political business, even if you do have to put +in a bit of time at it now and then, can't be going on all the while. +Monte Carlo, too! So far as the women are concerned, they might as well +be off the face of the earth, and I don't think I've ever seen you make +a bet at the tables. How did your wife do last night? I thought she +seemed to be dropping it rather."</p> + +<p>"I think that she lost," Hunterleys replied indifferently. "Her +gambling, however, is like mine, I imagine, on a fairly negligible +scale."</p> + +<p>Richard whistled softly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," he observed. "I saw her going for maximums +yesterday pretty steadily. A few thousands doesn't last very long at +that little game."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled.</p> + +<p>"A few thousands!" he repeated. "I don't suppose Violet has ever lost or +won a hundred pounds in her life."</p> + +<p>Richard abandoned the subject quickly. He was obliged to tell himself +that it was not his business to interfere between husband and wife.</p> + +<p>"Say, Hunterleys," he suggested, "do you think I could do something for +the crowd on my little boat—a luncheon party or a cruise, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I should think every one would enjoy it immensely," Hunterleys +answered.</p> + +<p>"I can count on you, of course, if I arrange anything?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not," Hunterleys regretted. "I am too much engrossed now to +make any arrangements."</p> + +<p>"I'm hanged if you don't get more mysterious every moment!" Richard +exclaimed vigorously. "What's it all about? Can't you even be safe in +your room for five minutes without keeping one of those little articles +under your newspaper while you read your letters?" he added, lifting +with his stick the sheet which Hunterleys had hastily thrown over a +small revolver. "What's it all about, eh? Are you plotting to dethrone +the Prince of Monaco and take his place?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly that," Hunterleys replied, a little wearily. "Lane, old +fellow, you're much better off not to know too much. I have told you +that there's a kind of international conference going on about here and +I've sort of been pitchforked into the affair. Over in your country you +don't know much about this sort of thing, but since I've been out of +harness I've done a good deal of what really amounts to Secret Service +work. One must serve one's country somehow or other, you know, if one +gets the chance."</p> + +<p>Richard was impressed.</p> + +<p>"Gee!" he exclaimed. "The sort of thing that one reads about, eh, and +only half believes. Who's the French Johnny who arrived last night?"</p> + +<p>"Douaille. He's the coming President, they say. I'm thinking of paying +him a visit of ceremony this afternoon."</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door. A waiter entered with a note upon a +salver.</p> + +<p>"From Madame, monsieur," he announced, presenting it to Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>The latter tore it open and read the few lines hastily:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>Dear Henry,</i></p> + +<p>If you could spare a few minutes, I should be glad if you would +come round to my apartment.</p> + +<p>Yours,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Violet</span>.</p> +</div> + +<p>Hunterleys twisted the note up in his fingers.</p> + +<p>"Tell Lady Hunterleys that I will be round in a few moments," he +instructed the servant.</p> + +<p>Richard took up his stick and hat.</p> + +<p>"If you have an opportunity," he said, "ask Lady Hunterleys what she +thinks about a little party on the yacht. If one could get the proper +people together—"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell her," Hunterleys promised. "You'd better wait till I get +back."</p> + +<p>He made his way to the other wing of the hotel. For the first time since +he had been staying there, he knocked at the door of his wife's +apartments. Her maid admitted him with a smile. He found Violet sitting +in the little salon before a writing-table. The apartment was +luxuriously furnished and filled with roses. Somehow or other, their +odour irritated him. She rose from her place and hastened towards him.</p> + +<p>"How nice of you to come so promptly!" she exclaimed. "You're sure it +didn't inconvenience you?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," he replied. "I was only talking to Richard Lane."</p> + +<p>"You seem to have taken a great fancy to that young man all at once," +she remarked.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was sitting upon the arm of an easy-chair. He had picked up +one of Violet's slippers and was balancing it in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. He is rather refreshing after some of these people. +He still has enthusiasms, and his love affair is quite a poem. Aren't +you up rather early this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't sleep," she sighed. "I think it has come to me in the night +that I am sick of this place. I wondered—"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. He bent the slipper slowly back, waiting for her to +proceed.</p> + +<p>"The Draconmeyers don't want to go," she went on. "They are here for +another month, at least. Linda would miss me terribly, I suppose, but I +have really given her a lot of my time. I have spent several hours with +her every day since we arrived, and I don't know what it is—perhaps my +bad luck, for one thing—but I have suddenly taken a dislike to the +place. I wondered—"</p> + +<p>She had picked up one of the roses from a vase close at hand, and was +twirling it between her fingers. For some reason or other she seemed ill +at ease. Hunterleys watched her silently. She was very pale, but since +his coming a slight tinge of pink colour had stolen into her cheeks. She +had received him in a very fascinating garment of blue silk, which was +really only a dressing-gown. It seemed to him a long time since he had +seen her in so intimate a fashion.</p> + +<p>"I wondered," she concluded at last, almost abruptly, "whether you would +care to take me away."</p> + +<p>He was, for a moment, bereft of words. Somehow or other, he had been so +certain that she had sent to him to ask for more money, that he had +never even considered any other eventuality.</p> + +<p>"Take you away," he repeated. "Do you really mean take you back to +London, Violet?"</p> + +<p>"Just anywhere you like," she replied. "I am sick of this place and of +everything. I am weary to death of trying to keep Linda cheerful—you +don't realise how depressing it is to be with her; and—and every one +seems to have got a little on my nerves. Mr. Draconmeyer," she added, a +little defiantly, raising her eyes to his, "has been most kind and +delightful, but—somehow I want to get away."</p> + +<p>He sat down on the edge of a couch. She seated herself at the further +end of it.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he said, "you have taken me rather by surprise."</p> + +<p>"Well, you don't mind being taken by surprise once in a while, do you?" +she asked, a little petulantly. "You know I am capricious—you have told +me so often enough. Here is a proof of it. Take me back to London or to +Paris, or wherever you like."</p> + +<p>He was almost overwhelmed. It was unfortunate that she had chosen that +moment to look away and could not see, therefore, the light which glowed +in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he assured her earnestly, "there is nothing in the world I +should like so much. I would beg you to have your trunks packed this +morning, but unfortunately I cannot leave Monte Carlo just now."</p> + +<p>"Cannot leave Monte Carlo?" she repeated derisively. "Why, my dear man, +you are a fish out of water here! You don't gamble, you do nothing but +moon about and go to the Opera and worry about your silly politics. What +on earth do you mean when you say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"I mean just what I say," he replied. "I cannot leave Monte Carlo for +several days, at any rate."</p> + +<p>She looked at him blankly, a little incredulously.</p> + +<p>"You have talked like this before, Henry," she said, "and it is all too +absurd. You must tell me the truth now. You can have no business here. +You are travelling for pleasure. You can surely leave a place or not at +your own will?"</p> + +<p>"It happens," he sighed, "that I cannot. Will you please be very kind, +Violet, and not ask me too much about this? If there is anything else I +can do," he went on, hesitatingly, "if you will give me a little more of +your time, if you will wait with me for a few days longer—"</p> + +<p>"Can't you understand," she interrupted impatiently, "that it is just +this very moment, this instant, that I want to get away? Something has +gone wrong. I want to leave Monte Carlo. I am not sure that I ever want +to see it again. And I want you to take me.... Please!"</p> + +<p>She held out her hands, swaying a little towards him. He gripped them in +his. She yielded to their pressure until their lips almost met.</p> + +<p>"You'll take me away this morning?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"I cannot do that," he replied, "but, Violet—"</p> + +<p>She snatched herself away from him. An ungovernable fit of fury seemed +to have seized her. She stood in the centre of the room and stamped her +foot.</p> + +<p>"You cannot!" she repeated. "And you will not give me a reason? Very +well, I have done my best, I have made my appeal. I will stay in Monte +Carlo, then. I will—"</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door.</p> + +<p>"Come in," she cried. "Who is it?"</p> + +<p>The door was softly opened. Draconmeyer stood upon the threshold. He +looked from one to the other in some surprise.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," he murmured. "Please excuse me."</p> + +<p>"Come in, Mr. Draconmeyer," she called out to his retreating figure. +"Come in, please. How is Linda this morning?"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer smiled a little ruefully as he returned.</p> + +<p>"Complaining," he replied, "as usual. I am afraid that she has had +rather a bad night. She is going to try and sleep for an hour or two. I +came to see if you felt disposed for a motor ride this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I should love it," she assented. "I should like to start as soon as +possible. Henry was just going, weren't you?" she added, turning to her +husband.</p> + +<p>He stood his ground.</p> + +<p>"There was something else I wished to say," he declared, glancing at +Draconmeyer.</p> + +<p>The latter moved at once towards the door but Violet stopped him.</p> + +<p>"Not now," she begged. "If there is really anything else, Henry, you can +send up a note, or I dare say we shall meet at the Club to-night. Now, +please, both of you go away. I must change my clothes for motoring. In +half an hour, Mr. Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"The car will be ready," he answered.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys hesitated. He looked for a moment at Violet. She returned his +glance of appeal with a hard, fixed stare. Then she turned away.</p> + +<p>"Susanne," she called to her maid, who was in the inner room, "I am +dressing at once. I will show you what to put out."</p> + +<p>She disappeared, closing the connecting door behind her. The two men +walked out to the lift in silence. Draconmeyer rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"You are not leaving Monte Carlo at present, then, Sir Henry?" he +remarked.</p> + +<p>"Not at present," Hunterleys replied calmly.</p> + +<p>They parted without further speech. Hunterleys returned to his room, +where Richard was still waiting.</p> + +<p>"Say, have you got a valet here with you?" the young man enquired.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Never possessed such a luxury in my life," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Chap came in here directly you were gone—mumbled something about doing +something for you. I didn't altogether like the look of him, so I sat on +the table and watched. He hung around for a moment, and then, when he +saw that I was sticking it out, he went off."</p> + +<p>"Was he wearing the hotel livery?" Hunterleys asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"Plain black clothes," Richard replied. "He looked the valet, right +enough."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys rang the bell. It was answered by a servant in grey livery.</p> + +<p>"Are you the valet on this floor?" Hunterleys enquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!"</p> + +<p>"There was a man in here just now, said he was my valet or something of +the sort, hung around for a minute or two and then went away. Who was +he?"</p> + +<p>The servant shook his head. He was apparently a German, and stupid.</p> + +<p>"There are no valets on this floor except myself," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Then who could this person have been?" Hunterleys demanded.</p> + +<p>"A tailor, perhaps," the man suggested, "but he would not come unless +you had ordered him. I have been on duty all the time. I have seen no +one about."</p> + +<p>"Very well," Hunterleys said, "I'll report the matter in the office."</p> + +<p>"Some hotel thief, I suppose," Lane remarked, as soon as the door was +closed. "He didn't look like it exactly, though."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys frowned.</p> + +<p>"Not much here to satisfy any one's curiosity," he observed. "Just as +well you were in the room, though."</p> + +<p>"Surrounded by mysteries, aren't you, old chap?" Richard yawned, +lighting a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"I don't know exactly about that," Hunterleys replied, "but I'll tell +you one thing, Lane. There are things going on in Monte Carlo at the +present moment which would bring out the black headlines on the +halfpenny papers if they had an inkling of them. There are people here +who are trying to draw up a new map of Europe, a new map of the world."</p> + +<p>Richard shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I can't get interested in anything, Hunterleys," he declared. "You +could tell me the most amazing things in the world and they'd pass in at +one ear and out at the other. Kind of a blithering idiot, eh? You know +what I did last night after dinner. If you'll believe me, when I got to +the villa, I found the place patrolled as though they were afraid of +dynamiters. I skulked round to the back, got on the beach, and climbed a +little way up towards the rock garden. I hid there and waited to see if +she'd come out on the terrace. She never came, but I caught a glimpse of +her passing from one room to another, and I tell you I'm such a poor +sort of an idiot that I felt repaid for waiting there all that time. I +shall go there again to-night. The boys wanted me to dine—Eddy +Lanchester and Montressor and that lot—a jolly party, too. I sha'n't do +it. I shall have a mouthful alone somewhere and spend the rest of the +evening on those rocks. Something's got to come of this, Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>"Let's go into the lounge for a few moments," Hunterleys suggested. "I +may as well hear all about it."</p> + +<p>They made their way downstairs, and sat there talking, or rather +Hunterleys listened while Richard talked. Then Draconmeyer strolled +across the hall and waited by the lift. Presently he returned with +Violet by his side, followed by her maid, carrying rugs. As they +approached, Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet. Violet was looking up +into her companion's face, talking and laughing. She either did not see +Hunterleys, or affected not to. He stood, for a moment, irresolute. +Then, as she passed, she glanced at him quite blankly and waved her hand +to Richard. The two disappeared. Hunterleys resumed his seat. He had, +somehow or other, the depressing feeling of a man who has lost a great +opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys looks well this morning," Lane remarked, absolutely +unconscious of anything unusual.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys watched the car drive off before he answered.</p> + +<p>"She looks very well," he assented gloomily.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>WILY MR. DRACONMEYER</h3> + + +<p>They had skirted the wonderful bay and climbed the mountainous hill to +the frontier before Violet spoke. All the time Draconmeyer leaned back +by her side, perfectly content. A man of varied subtleties, he +understood and fully appreciated the intrinsic value of silence. Whilst +the Customs officer, however, was making out the deposit note for the +car, she turned to him.</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me something, Mr. Draconmeyer?"</p> + +<p>"Of course!"</p> + +<p>"It is about my husband," she went on. "Henry isn't your friend—you +dislike one another, I know. You men seem to have a sort of freemasonry +which compels you to tell falsehoods about one another, but in this case +I am going to remind you that I have the greater claim, and I am going +to ask you for the sober truth. Henry has once or twice, during the last +few days, hinted to me that his presence in Monte Carlo just now has +some sort of political significance. He is very vague about it all, but +he evidently wants me to believe that he is staying here against his own +inclinations. Now I want to ask you a plain question. Is it likely that +he could have any business whatever to transact for the Government in +Monte Carlo? What I mean is, could there possibly be anything to keep +him in this place which for political reasons he couldn't tell me +about?"</p> + +<p>"I can answer your question finally so far as regards any Government +business," Mr. Draconmeyer assured her. "Your husband's Party is in +Opposition. As a keen politician, he would not be likely to interest +himself in the work of his rival."</p> + +<p>"You are quite sure," she persisted, "you are quite sure that he could +not have a mission of any sort?—that there isn't any meeting of +diplomatists here in which he might be interested?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer smiled with the air of one listening to a child's +prattle.</p> + +<p>"If I were not sure that you are in earnest—!" he began. "However, I +will just answer your question. Nothing of the sort is possible. +Besides, people don't come to Monte Carlo for serious affairs, you +know."</p> + +<p>Her face hardened a little.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," she said, "that you are quite sure of what you told me the +other evening about this young singer—Felicia Roche?"</p> + +<p>"I should not allude to a matter of that sort," he declared, "unless I +had satisfied myself as to the facts. It is true that I owe nothing to +your husband and everything to you, or I should have probably remained +silent. As it is, all that I know is at your service. Felicia Roche is +to make her début at the Opera House to-night. Your husband has been +seen with her repeatedly. He was at her villa at one o'clock this +morning. I have heard it said that he is a little infatuated."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she murmured, "that is quite enough."</p> + +<p>The formalities were concluded and the car drove on. They paused at the +last turn to gaze downward at the wonderful view—the gorgeous Bay of +Mentone, a thousand feet below, with its wealth of mimosa-embosomed +villas; Monte Carlo glittering on the sea-board; the sweep of Monaco, +red-roofed, picturesque. And behind, the mountains, further away still, +the dim, snow-capped heights. Violet looked, as she was bidden, but her +eyes seemed incapable of appreciation. When the car moved on, she leaned +back in her seat and dropped her veil. She was paler even than when they +had started.</p> + +<p>"I am going to talk to you very little," he said gravely. "I want you +just to rest and breathe this wonderful air. If my reply to your +question troubles you, I am sorry, but you had to know it some day. It +is a wrench, of course, but you must have guessed it. Your husband is a +man of peculiar temperament, but no man could have refused such an offer +as you made him, unless there had been some special reason for it—no +man in the world."</p> + +<p>There was a little tremble in his tone, artistic and not overdone. +Somehow, she felt that his admiration ministered to her self-respect. +She permitted his hand to remain upon hers. The touch of her fingers +very nearly brought the torrent from his lips. He crushed the words +down, however. It was too great a risk. Very soon things would be +different; he could afford to wait.</p> + +<p>They drove on to San Remo and turned into the hotel.</p> + +<p>"You are better away from Monte Carlo for a few hours," he decided. "We +will lunch here and drive back afterwards. You will feel greatly +refreshed."</p> + +<p>She accepted his suggestion without enthusiasm and with very little show +of pleasure. They found a table on the terrace in a retired corner, +surrounded with flowering cactus plants and drooping mimosa, and +overhung by a giant oleander tree. He talked to her easily but in +gossiping fashion only, and always with the greatest respect. It was not +until the arrival of their coffee that he ventured to become at all +personal.</p> + +<p>"Will you forgive me if I talk without reserve for a few moments?" he +began, leaning a little towards her. "You have your troubles, I know. +May I not remind you that you are not alone in your sorrows? Linda, as +you know, has no companionship whatever to offer. She does nothing but +indulge in fretful regrets over her broken health. When I remember, too, +how lonely your days are, and think of your husband and what he might +make of them, then I cannot help realising with absolute vividness the +supreme irony of fate. Here am I, craving for nothing so much on earth +as the sympathy, the affection of—shall I say such a woman as you? And +your husband, who might have the best, remains utterly indifferent, +content with something far below the second best. And there is so much +in life, too," he went on, regretfully. "I cannot tell you how difficult +it is for me to sit still and see you worried about such a trifle as +money. Fancy the joy of giving you money!"</p> + +<p>She awoke a little from her lethargy. She looked at him, startled.</p> + +<p>"You haven't told me yet," he added, "how the game went last night?"</p> + +<p>"I lost every penny of that thousand pounds," she declared. "That is why +I sent for my husband this morning and asked him to take me back to +England. I am getting afraid of the place. My luck seems to have gone +for ever."</p> + +<p>He laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"That doesn't sound like you," he observed. "Besides, what does it +matter? Write me out some more cheques when we get back. Date them this +year or next, or the year after—it really doesn't matter a bit. My +fortune is at your disposal. If it amuses you to lose a thousand pounds +in the afternoon, and twice as much at night, pray do."</p> + +<p>She laughed at him. There was a certain glamour about his words which +appealed to her fancy.</p> + +<p>"Why, you talk like a prince," she murmured, "and yet you know how +impossible it is."</p> + +<p>"Is it?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>She rose abruptly from her place. There was something wrong—she felt it +in the atmosphere—something that was almost choking her.</p> + +<p>"Let us go back," she insisted.</p> + +<p>He ordered the car without another word and they started off homewards. +It was not until they were nearing Monte Carlo that he spoke of anything +save the slightest topics.</p> + +<p>"You must have a little more money," he told her, in a matter-of-fact +tone. "That is a necessity. There is no need to worry your husband. I +shall go and bring you a thousand pounds. You can give me the cheques +later."</p> + +<p>She sat looking steadfastly ahead of her. She seemed to see her numbers +spread out before her, to hear the click of the ball, the croupier's +voice, the thrill of victory.</p> + +<p>"I have taken more money from you than I meant to, already, Mr. +Draconmeyer," she protested. "Does Linda know how much you have lent +me?"</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"What is the use of telling her? She does not understand. She has never +felt the gambling fever, the joy of it, the excitement. She would not be +strong enough. You and I understand. I have felt it in the money-markets +of the world, where one plays with millions, where a mistake might mean +ruin. That is why the tables seem dull for me, but all the same it comes +home to me."</p> + +<p>She felt the fierce stimulus of anxious thought. She knew very well that +notwithstanding his quiet manner, she had reason to fear the man who sat +by her side. She feared his self-restraint, she feared the light which +sometimes gleamed in his eyes when he fancied himself unobserved. He +gave her no cause for complaint. All the time his behaviour had been +irreproachable. And yet she felt, somehow or other, like a bird who is +being hunted by a trapper, a trapper who knows his business, who goes +about it with quiet confidence, with absolute certainty. There was +something like despair in her heart.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose I shall have to stay here," she said, "and I can't stay +here without playing. I will take a thousand more, if you will lend it +to me."</p> + +<p>"You shall have it directly we get to the hotel," he told her. "Don't +hurry with the cheques, and don't date them too soon. Remember that you +must have something to live on when you get back."</p> + +<p>"I am going to win," she declared confidently. "I am going to win enough +to pay you back every penny."</p> + +<p>"I won't say that I hope not," he observed, "for your sake, but it will +certainly give me no pleasure to have the money back again. You are such +a wonderful person," he added, dropping his voice, "that I rather like +to feel that I can be a little useful to you."</p> + +<p>They had neared the end of their journey and Mr. Draconmeyer touched her +arm. A faint smile was playing about his lips. Certainly the fates were +befriending him! He said nothing, but her eyes followed the slight +motion of his head. Coming down the steps from Ciro's were her husband +and Felicia Roche. Violet looked at them for a moment. Then she turned +her head away.</p> + +<p>"Most inopportune," she sighed, with a little attempt at gaiety. "Shall +we meet later at the Club?"</p> + +<p>"Assuredly," Mr. Draconmeyer replied. "I will send the money to your +room."</p> + +<p>"Thank you once more," she said, "and thank you, too, for my drive. I +have enjoyed it very much. I am very glad indeed that I had the courage +to make you tell me the truth."</p> + +<p>"I hope," he whispered, as he handed her out, "that you will never lack +the courage to ask me anything."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>ASSASSINATION!</h3> + + +<p>Selingman, a large cigar between his lips and a happy smile upon his +face, stood in the square before the Casino, watching the pigeons. He +had just enjoyed an excellent lunch, he was exceedingly pleased with a +new light grey suit which he was wearing, and his one unsatisfied desire +was for companionship. Draconmeyer was away motoring with Lady +Hunterleys, Mr. Grex was spending the early part of the day in conclave +with their visitor from France, and Mademoiselle Nipon had gone to Nice +for the day. Selingman had been left to his own devices and was +beginning to find time hang upon his hands. Conversation and +companionship were almost as great necessities with him as wine. He +beamed upon the pigeons and looked around at the people dotted about in +chairs outside the Café de Paris, hoping to find an acquaintance. It +chanced, however, that he saw nothing but strangers. Then his eyes fell +upon a man who was seated with folded arms a short distance away, a man +of respectable but somewhat gloomy appearance, dressed in dark clothes, +with pale cheeks and cavernous eyes. Selingman strolled towards him.</p> + +<p>"How go things, friend Allen?" he enquired, dropping his voice a little.</p> + +<p>The man glanced uneasily around. There was, however, no one in his +immediate vicinity.</p> + +<p>"Badly," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"Still no success, eh?" Selingman asked, drawing up a chair and seating +himself.</p> + +<p>"The man is secretive by nature," was the gloomy reply. "One would +imagine that he knew he was being watched. Everything which he receives +in the way of a written communication is at once torn up. He is the most +difficult order of person to deal with—he is methodical. He has only +the hotel valet to look after his things but everything is always in its +place. Yesterday I went through his waste-paper basket. I took home the +contents but the pieces were no larger than sixpences. I was able to put +together one envelope which he received yesterday morning, which was +franked 'On His Majesty's Service,' and the post-mark of which was +Downing Street."</p> + +<p>Selingman shook his head ponderously and then replied seriously:</p> + +<p>"You must do better than that, my Sherlock Holmes—much better."</p> + +<p>"I can't make bricks without straw," Allen retorted sullenly.</p> + +<p>"There is always straw if one looks in the right place," Selingman +insisted, puffing away at his cigar. "What we want to discover is, +exactly how much does Hunterleys know of certain operations of ours +which are going on here? He is on the watch—that I am sure of. There is +one known agent in the place, and another suspected one, and I am pretty +certain that they are both working at his instigation. What we want to +get hold of is one of his letters to London."</p> + +<p>"I have been in and out of his rooms at all hours," the other said. "I +have gone into the matter thoroughly, so thoroughly that I have taken a +situation with a firm of English tailors here, and I am supposed to go +out and tout for orders. That gives me a free entrée to the hotel. I +have even had a commission from Sir Henry himself. He gave me a coat to +get some buttons sewn on. I am practically free of his room but what's +the good? He doesn't even lead the Monte Carlo life. He doesn't give one +a chance of getting at him through a third person. No notes from ladies, +no flower or jewelry bills, not the shadow of an assignation. The only +photograph upon his table is a photograph of Lady Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>"Better not tell our friend Draconmeyer that," Selingman observed, +smiling to himself. "Well, well, you can do nothing but persevere, +Allen. We are not niggardly masters. If a man fails through no fault of +his own, well, we don't throw him into the street. Nothing parsimonious +about us. No need for you to sit about with a face as long as a fiddle +because you can't succeed all at once. We are the people to kick at it, +not you. Drink a little more wine, my friend. Give yourself a liqueur +after luncheon. Stick a cigar in your mouth and go and sit in the +sunshine. Make friends with some of the ladies. Remember, the sun will +still shine and the music play in fifty years' time, but not for you. +Come and see me when you want some more money."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, sir," the man replied. "I am going across to the +hotel now. Sir Henry has been about there most of the morning but he has +just gone in to Ciro's to lunch, so I shall have at least half-an-hour."</p> + +<p>"Good luck to you!" Selingman exclaimed heartily. "Who knows but that +the big things may come, even this afternoon? Cheer up, and try and make +yourself believe that a letter may be lying on the table, a letter he +forgot to post, or one sent round from the bank since he left. I am +hopeful for you this afternoon, Allen. I believe you are going to do +well. Come up and see me afterwards, if you will. I am going to my hotel +to lie down for half-an-hour. I am not really tired but I have no friend +here to talk with or anything to do, and it is a wise economy of the +human frame. To-night, mademoiselle will have returned. Just now every +one has deserted me. I will rest until six o'clock. Au revoir, friend +Allen! Au revoir!"</p> + +<p>Selingman climbed the hill and entered the hotel where he was staying. +He mounted to his room, took off his coat, at which he glanced +admiringly for a moment and then hung up behind the door. Finally he +pulled down the blinds and lay down to rest. Very soon he was asleep....</p> + +<p>The drowsy afternoon wore on. Through the open windows came the sound of +carriages driven along the dusty way, the shouts of the coachmen to +their horses, the jingling of bells, the hooting of motor horns. A lime +tree, whose leaves were stirred by the languorous breeze, kept tapping +against the window. From a further distance came the faint, muffled +voices of promenaders, and the echo of the guns from the Tir du Pigeons. +But through it all, Selingman, lying on his back and snoring loudly, +slept. He was awakened at last by the feeling that some one had entered +the room. He sat up and blinked.</p> + +<p>"Hullo!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>A man in the weird disguise of a motor-cyclist was standing at the foot +of the bed. Selingman continued to blink. He was not wholly awake and +his visitor's appearance was unpleasant.</p> + +<p>"Who the devil are you?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>The visitor took off his disfiguring spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Jean Coulois—behold!" was the soft reply.</p> + +<p>Selingman raised himself and slid off the bed. It had seemed rather like +a dream. He was wide-awake now, however.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" he asked. "What are you here for?"</p> + +<p>Jean Coulois said nothing. Then very slowly from the inside pocket of +his coat he drew a newspaper parcel. It was long and narrow, and in +places there was a stain upon the paper. Selingman stared at it and +stared back at Jean Coulois.</p> + +<p>"What the mischief have you got there?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>Coulois touched the parcel with his yellow forefinger. Selingman saw +then that the stains were of blood.</p> + +<p>"Give me a towel," his visitor directed. "I do not want this upon my +clothes."</p> + +<p>Selingman took a towel from the stand and threw it across the room.</p> + +<p>"You mean," he asked, dropping his voice a little, "that it is +finished?"</p> + +<p>"A quarter of an hour ago," Jean Coulois answered triumphantly. "He had +just come in from luncheon and was sitting at his writing-table. It was +cleverly done—wonderfully. It was all over in a moment—not a cry. You +came to the right place, indeed! And now I go to the country," Coulois +continued. "I have a motor-bicycle outside. I make my way up into the +hills to bury this little memento. There is a farmhouse up in the +mountains, a lonely spot enough, and a girl there who says what I tell +her. It may be as well to be able to say that I have been there for +déjeuner. These little things, monsieur—ah, well! we who understand +think of them. And since I am here," he added, holding out his hand—</p> + +<p>Selingman nodded and took out his pocket-book. He counted out the notes +in silence and passed them over. The assassin dropped them into his +pocket.</p> + +<p>"Au revoir, Monsieur le Gros!" he exclaimed, waving his hand. "We meet +to-night, I trust. I will show you a new dance—the Dance of Death, I +shall call it. I seem calm, but I am on fire with excitement. To-night I +shall dance as though quicksilver were in my feet. You must not miss it. +You must come, monsieur."</p> + +<p>He closed the door behind him and swaggered off down the passage. +Selingman stood, for a moment, perfectly still. It was a strange thing, +but two big tears were in his eyes. Then he heaved a great sigh and +shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It is part of the game," he said softly to himself, "all part of the +game."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE WRONG MAN</h3> + + +<p>Selingman came out into the sunlit streets very much as a man who leaves +a dark and shrouded room. The shock of tragedy was still upon him. There +was a little choke in his throat as he mingled with the careless, +pleasure-loving throng, mostly wending their way now towards the Rooms +or the Terrace. As he crossed the square towards the Hotel de Paris, his +steps grew slower and slower. He looked at the building half-fearfully. +Beautifully dressed women, men of every nationality, were passing in and +out all the time. The commissionaire, with his little group of +satellites, stood sunning himself on the lowest step, a splendid, +complacent figure. There was no sign there of the horror that was hidden +within. Even while he looked up at the windows he felt a hand upon his +arm. Draconmeyer had caught him up and had fallen into step with him.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear philosopher," he exclaimed, "why this subdued aspect? Has +your solitary day depressed you?"</p> + +<p>Selingman turned slowly around. Draconmeyer's eyes beneath his +gold-rimmed spectacles were bright. He was carrying himself with less +than his usual stoop, he wore a red carnation in his buttonhole. He was +in spirits which for him were almost boisterous.</p> + +<p>"Have you been in there?" Selingman asked, in a low tone.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer glanced at the hotel and back again at his companion.</p> + +<p>"In where?" he demanded. "In the hotel? I left Lady Hunterleys there a +short time ago. I have been up to the bank since."</p> + +<p>"You don't know yet, then?"</p> + +<p>"Know what?"</p> + +<p>There was a momentary silence. Draconmeyer suddenly gripped his +companion by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Go on," he insisted. "Tell me?"</p> + +<p>"It's all over!" Selingman exclaimed hoarsely. "Jean Coulois came to me +a quarter of an hour ago. It is finished. Damnation, Draconmeyer, let go +my arm!"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer withdrew his fingers. There was no longer any stoop about +him at all. He stood tall and straight, his lips parted, his face turned +upwards, upwards as though he would gaze over the roof of the hotel +before which they were standing, up to the skies.</p> + +<p>"My God, Selingman!" he cried. "My God!"</p> + +<p>The seconds passed. Then Draconmeyer suddenly took his companion by the +arm.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "let us take that first seat in the gardens there. Let +us talk. Somehow or other, although I half counted upon this, I scarcely +believed.... Let us sit down. Do you think it is known yet?"</p> + +<p>"Very likely not," Selingman answered, as they crossed the road and +entered the gardens. "Coulois found him in his rooms, seated at the +writing-table. It was all over, he declares, in ten seconds. He came to +me—with the knife. He was on his way to the mountains to hide it."</p> + +<p>They found a seat under a drooping lime tree. They could still see the +hotel and the level stretch of road that led past the post-office and +the Club to Monaco. Draconmeyer sat with his eyes fixed upon the hotel, +through which streams of people were still passing. One of the +under-managers was welcoming the newcomers from a recently arrived +train.</p> + +<p>"You are right," he murmured. "Nothing is known yet. Very likely +they will not know until the valet goes to lay out his clothes for +dinner.... Dead!"</p> + +<p>Selingman, with one hand gripping the iron arm of the seat, watched his +companion's face with a sort of fascinated curiosity. There were beads +of perspiration upon Draconmeyer's forehead, but his expression, in its +way, was curious. There was no horror in his face, no fear, no shadow of +remorse. Some wholly different sentiment seemed to have transformed the +man. He was younger, more virile. He seemed as though he could scarcely +sit still.</p> + +<p>"My friend," Selingman said, "I know that you are one of our children, +that you are one of those who have seen the truth and worked steadfastly +for the great cause with the heart of a patriot and the unswerving +fidelity of a strong man. But tell me the honest truth. There is +something else in your life—you have some other feeling about this man +Hunterleys' death?"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer removed his eyes from the front of the hotel and turned +slowly towards his companion. There was a transfiguring smile upon his +lips. Again he gave Selingman the impression of complete rejuvenation, +of an elderly man suddenly transformed into something young and +vigorous.</p> + +<p>"There is something else, Selingman," he confessed. "This is the moment +when I dare speak of it. I will tell you first of any living person. +There is a woman over there whom I have set up as an idol, and before +whose shrine I have worshipped. There is a woman over there who has +turned the dull paths of my life into a flowery way. I am a patriot, and +I have worked for my country, Selingman, as you have worked. But I have +worked, also, that I might taste for once before I die the great +passion. Don't stare at me, man! Remember I am not like you. You can +laugh your way through the world, with a kiss here and a bow there, a +ribbon to your lips at night, thrown to the winds in the morning. I +haven't that sort of philosophy. Love doesn't come to me like that. It's +set in my heart amongst the great things. It's set there side by side +with the greatest of all."</p> + +<p>"His wife!" Selingman muttered.</p> + +<p>"Are you so colossal a fool as only to have guessed it at this moment?" +Draconmeyer continued contemptuously. "If he hadn't blundered across our +path here, if he hadn't been my political enemy, I should still some day +have taken him by the throat and killed him. You don't know what risks I +have been running," he went on, with a sudden hoarseness. "In her heart +she half loves him still. If he hadn't been a fool, a prejudiced, +over-conscientious, stiff-necked fool, I should have lost her within the +last twenty-four hours. I have had to fight and scheme as I have never +fought and schemed before, to keep them apart. I have had to pick my way +through shoals innumerable, hold myself down when I have been burning to +grip her by the wrists and tell her that all that a man could offer a +woman was hers. Selingman, this sounds like nonsense, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"No," Selingman murmured, "not nonsense, but it doesn't sound like +Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's finished," Draconmeyer declared, with a great sigh of +content. "You know now. I enter upon the final stage. I had only one +fear. Jean Coulois has settled that for me. I wonder whether they know. +It seems peaceful enough. No! Look over there," he added, gripping his +companion's arm. "Peter, the concierge, is whispering with the others. +That is one of the managers there, out on the pavement, talking to +them."</p> + +<p>Selingman pointed down the road towards Monaco.</p> + +<p>"See!" he exclaimed. "There is a motor-car coming in a hurry. I fancy +that the alarm must have been given."</p> + +<p>A grey, heavily-built car came along at a great pace and swung round in +front of the Hotel de Paris. The two men stood on the pavement and +watched. A tall, official-looking person, with black, upturned +moustache, in somber uniform and a peaked cap, descended.</p> + +<p>"The Commissioner of Police," Selingman whispered, "and that is a doctor +who has just gone in. He has been found!"</p> + +<p>They crossed the road to the hotel. The concierge removed his hat as +they turned to enter. To all appearances he was unchanged—fat, florid, +splendid. Draconmeyer stepped close to him.</p> + +<p>"Has anything happened here, Peter?" he asked. "I saw the Commissioner +of Police arrive in a great hurry."</p> + +<p>The man hesitated. It was obvious then that he was disturbed. He looked +to the right and to the left. Finally, with a sigh of resignation, he +seemed to make up his mind to tell the truth.</p> + +<p>"It is the English gentleman, Sir Henry Hunterleys," he whispered. "He +has been found stabbed to death in his room."</p> + +<p>"Dead?" Draconmeyer demanded, insistently.</p> + +<p>"Stone dead, sir," the concierge replied. "He was stabbed by some one +who stole in through the bathroom—they say that he couldn't ever have +moved again. The Commissioner of Police is upstairs. The ambulance is +round at the back to take him off to the Mortuary."</p> + +<p>Selingman suddenly seized the man by the arm. His eyes were fixed upon +the topmost step. Violet stood there, smiling down upon them. She was +wearing a black and white gown, and a black hat with white ospreys. It +was the hour of five o'clock tea and many people were passing in and +out. She came gracefully down the steps. The two men remained +speechless.</p> + +<p>"I have been waiting for you, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, smiling.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer remembered suddenly the packet of notes which he had been to +fetch from the bank. He tried to speak but only faltered. Selingman had +removed his hat but he, too, seemed incapable of coherent speech. She +looked at them both, astonished.</p> + +<p>"Whatever is the matter with you both?" she exclaimed. "Who is coming +with me to the Club? I decided to come this way round to see if I could +change my luck. That underground passage depresses me."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer moved up a couple of steps. He was quite himself now, grave +but solicitous.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys," he said, "I am sorry, but there has been a little +accident. I am afraid that your husband has been hurt. If you will come +back to your room for a minute I will tell you about it."</p> + +<p>All the colour died slowly from her face. She swayed a little, but when +Draconmeyer would have supported her she pushed him away.</p> + +<p>"An accident?" she muttered. "I must go and see for myself."</p> + +<p>She turned and re-entered the hotel swiftly. Draconmeyer caught her up +in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys," he begged earnestly, "please take my advice. I am +your friend, you know. I want you to go straight to your room. I will +come with you. I will explain to you then—"</p> + +<p>"I am going to Henry," she interrupted, without even a glance towards +him. "I am going to my husband at once. I must see what has happened."</p> + +<p>She rang the bell for the lift, which appeared almost immediately. +Draconmeyer stepped in with her.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys," he persisted, "I beg of you to do as I ask. Let me +take you to your rooms. I will tell you all that has happened. Your +husband will not be able to see you or speak with you."</p> + +<p>"I shall not get out," she declared, when the lift boy, in obedience to +Draconmeyer's imperative order, stopped at her floor. "If I may not go +on in the lift, I shall walk up the stairs. I am going to my husband."</p> + +<p>"He will not recognise you," Draconmeyer warned her. "I am very sorry +indeed, Lady Hunterleys—I would spare you this shock if I could—but +you must be prepared for very serious things."</p> + +<p>They had reached the next floor now. The boy opened the gate of the lift +and she stepped out. She looked pitifully at Draconmeyer.</p> + +<p>"You aren't going to tell me that he is dead?" she moaned.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he is," Draconmeyer assented.</p> + +<p>She staggered across the landing, pushing him away from her. There were +four or five people standing outside the door of Hunterleys' apartment. +She appealed to them.</p> + +<p>"Let me go in at once," she ordered. "I am Lady Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>"The door is locked," one of the men declared.</p> + +<p>"Let me go in," she insisted.</p> + +<p>She pushed them on one side and hammered at the door. They could hear +voices inside. In a moment it was opened. It was the Commissioner of the +Police who stood there—tall, severe, official.</p> + +<p>"Madame?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"I am his wife!" she cried. "Let me in—let me in at once!"</p> + +<p>She forced her way into the room. Something was lying on the bed, +covered with a sheet. She looked at it and shrieked.</p> + +<p>"Madame," the Commissioner begged, "pray compose yourself. A tragedy has +happened in this room—but we are not sure. Can you be brave, madame?"</p> + +<p>"I can," she answered. "Of what are you not sure?"</p> + +<p>The Commissioner turned down the sheet a few inches. A man's face was +visible, a ghastly sight. She looked at it and shrieked hysterically.</p> + +<p>"Is that your husband, madame?" the Commissioner asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"Thank God, no!" she cried. "You are sure this is the man?" she went on, +her voice shaking with fierce excitement. "There is no one else—hurt? +No one else stabbed? This is the man they told me was my husband?"</p> + +<p>"He was found there, sitting at your husband's table, madame," the +Commissioner of Police assured her. "There is no one else."</p> + +<p>She suddenly began to cry.</p> + +<p>"It isn't Henry!" she sobbed, groping her way from the room. "Take me +downstairs, please, some one."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>TROUBLE BREWING</h3> + + +<p>The maître d'hôtel had presented his bill. The little luncheon party was +almost over.</p> + +<p>"So I take leave," Hunterleys remarked, as he sat down his empty liqueur +glass, "of one of my responsibilities in life."</p> + +<p>"I think I'd like to remain a sort of half ward, please," Felicia +objected, "in case David doesn't treat me properly."</p> + +<p>"If he doesn't," Hunterleys declared, "he will have me to answer to. +Seriously, I think you young people are very wise and very foolish and +very much to be envied. What does Sidney say about it?"</p> + +<p>Felicia made a little grimace. She glanced around but the tables near +them were unoccupied.</p> + +<p>"Sidney is much too engrossed in his mysterious work to concern himself +very much about anything," she replied. "Do you know that he has been +out all night two nights this week already, and he is making no end of +preparations for to-day?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"I know that he is very busy just now," he assented gravely. "I must +come up and talk to him this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"We left him writing," Felicia said. "Of course, he declares that it is +for his beloved newspaper, but I am not sure. He scarcely ever goes out +in the daytime. What can he have to write about? David's work is +strenuous enough, and I have told him that if he turns war correspondent +again, I shall break it off."</p> + +<p>"We all have our work to do in life," Hunterleys reminded her. "You have +to sing in <i>Aïda</i> to-night, and you have to do yourself justice for the +sake of a great many people. Your brother has his work to do, also. +Whatever the nature of it may be, he has taken it up and he must go +through with it. It would be of no use his worrying for fear that you +should forget your words or your notes to-night, and there is no purpose +in your fretting because there may be danger in what he has to do. I +promise you that so far as I can prevent it, he shall take no +unnecessary risks. Now, if you like, I will walk home with you young +people, if I sha'n't be terribly in the way. I know that Sidney wants to +see me."</p> + +<p>They left the restaurant, a few minutes later, and strolled up towards +the town. Hunterleys paused outside a jeweler's shop.</p> + +<p>"And now for the important business of the day!" he declared. "I must +buy you an engagement present, on behalf of myself and all your +guardians. Come in and help me choose, both of you. A girl who carries +her gloves in her hand to show her engagement ring, should have a better +bag to hang from that little finger."</p> + +<p>"You really are the most perfect person that ever breathed!" she sighed. +"You know I don't deserve anything of the sort."</p> + +<p>They paid their visit to the jeweler and afterwards drove up to the +villa in a little victoria. Sidney Roche was hard at work in his +shirt-sleeves. He greeted Hunterleys warmly.</p> + +<p>"Glad you've come up!" he exclaimed. "The little girl's told you the +news, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Rather!" Hunterleys replied. "I have been lunching with them on the +strength of it."</p> + +<p>"And look!" Felicia cried, holding out the gold bag which hung from her +finger. "Look how I am being spoiled."</p> + +<p>Her brother sighed.</p> + +<p>"Awful nuisance for me," he grumbled, "having to live with an engaged +couple. You couldn't clear out for a little time," he suggested, "both +of you? I want to talk to Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>"We'll go and sit in the garden," Felicia assented. "I suppose I ought +to rest. David shall read my score to me."</p> + +<p>They passed out and Roche closed the door behind them carefully.</p> + +<p>"Anything fresh?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing particular," was the somewhat guarded reply. "That fellow +Frenhofer has been up here."</p> + +<p>"Frenhofer?" Hunterleys repeated, interrogatively.</p> + +<p>"He is the only man I can rely upon at the Villa Mimosa," Roche +explained. "I am afraid to-night it's going to be rather a difficult +job."</p> + +<p>"I always feared it would be," Hunterleys agreed.</p> + +<p>"Frenhofer tells me," Roche continued, "that for some reason or other +their suspicions have been aroused up there. They are all on edge. You +know, the house is cram-full of men-servants and there are to be a dozen +of them on duty in the grounds. Two or three of these fellows are +nothing more or less than private detectives, and they all of them know +what they're about or Grex wouldn't have them."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys looked grave.</p> + +<p>"It sounds awkward," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"The general idea of the plot," Roche went on, walking restlessly up and +down the room, "you and I have already solved, and by this time they +know it in London. But there are two things which I feel they may +discuss to-night, which are of vital importance. The first is the date, +the second is the terms of the offer to Douaille. Then, of course, more +important, perhaps, than either of these, is the matter of Douaille's +general attitude towards the scheme."</p> + +<p>"So far," Hunterleys remarked reflectively, "we haven't the slightest +indication of what that may be. Douaille came pledged to nothing. He +may, after all, stand firm."</p> + +<p>"For the honour of his country, let us hope so," Roche said solemnly. +"Yet I am sure of one thing. They are going to make him a wonderful +offer. He may find himself confronted with a problem which some of the +greatest statesmen in the world have had to face in their time—shall he +study the material benefit of his country, or shall he stand firm for +her honour?"</p> + +<p>"It's a great ethical question," Hunterleys declared, "too great for us +to discuss now, Sidney. Tell me, do you really mean to go on with this +attempt of yours to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I must," Roche replied. "Frenhofer wants me to give up the roof idea, +but there is nothing else worth trying. He brought a fresh plan of the +room with him. There it lies on the table. As you see, the apartment +where the meeting will take place is almost isolated from the rest of +the house. There is only one approach to it, by a corridor leading from +the hall. The east and west sides will be patrolled. On the south there +is a little terrace, but the approach to it is absolutely impossible. +There is a sheer drop of fifty feet on to the beach."</p> + +<p>"You think they have no suspicion about the roof?" Hunterleys asked +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Not yet. The pane of glass is cut out and my entrance to the house is +arranged for. Frenhofer will tamper with the electric lights in the +kitchen premises and I shall arrive in response to his telephonic +message, in the clothes of a working-man and with a bag of tools. Then +he smuggles me on to the spiral stairway which leads out on to the roof +where the flag-staff is. I can crawl the rest of the way to my place. +The trouble is that notwithstanding the ledge around, if it is a +perfectly clear night, just a fraction of my body, however flat I lie, +might be seen from the ground."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys studied the plan for a moment and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It's a terrible risk, this, Roche," he said seriously.</p> + +<p>"I know it," the other admitted, "but what am I to do? They keep sending +me cipher messages from home to spare no effort to send further news, as +you know very well, and two other fellows will be here the day after +to-morrow, to relieve me. I must do what I can. There's one thing, +Felicia's off my mind now. Briston's a good fellow and he'll look after +her."</p> + +<p>"In the event of your capture—" Hunterleys began.</p> + +<p>"The tools I shall take with me," Roche interrupted, "are common +housebreaker's tools. Every shred of clothing I shall be wearing will be +in keeping, the ordinary garments of an <i>ouvrier</i> of the district. If I +am trapped, it will be as a burglar and not as a spy. Of course, if +Douaille opens the proceedings by declaring himself against the scheme, +I shall make myself scarce as quickly as I can."</p> + +<p>"You were quite right when you said just now," Hunterleys observed, +"that Douaille will find himself in a difficult position. There is no +doubt but that he is an honest man. On the other hand, it is a political +axiom that the first duty of any statesman is to his own people. If they +can make Douaille believe that he is going to restore her lost provinces +to France without the shedding of a drop of French blood, simply at +England's expense, he will be confronted with a problem over which any +man might hesitate. He has had all day to think it over. What he may +decide is simply on the knees of the gods."</p> + +<p>Roche sealed up the letter he had been writing, and handed it to +Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I have left everything in order. If there's any +mysterious disappearance from here, it will be the mysterious +disappearance of a newspaper correspondent, and nothing else."</p> + +<p>"Good luck, then, old chap!" Hunterleys wished him. "If you pull through +this time, I think our job will be done. I'll tell them at headquarters +that you deserve a year's holiday."</p> + +<p>Roche smiled a little queerly.</p> + +<p>"Don't forget," he pointed out, "that it was you who scented out the +whole plot. I've simply done the Scotland Yard work. The worst of our +job is," he added, as he opened the door, "that we don't want holidays. +We are like drugged beings. The thing gets hold of us. I suppose if they +gave me a holiday I should spend it in St. Petersburg. That's where we +ought to send our best men just now. So long, Sir Henry."</p> + +<p>They shook hands once more. Roche's face was set in grim lines. They +were both silent for a moment. It was the farewell of men whose eyes are +fixed upon the great things.</p> + +<p>"Good luck to you!" Hunterleys repeated fervently, as he turned and +walked down the tiled way.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>HUNTERLEYS SCENTS MURDER</h3> + + +<p>The concierge of the Hotel de Paris was a man of great stature and +imposing appearance. Nevertheless, when Hunterleys crossed the road and +climbed the steps to the hotel, he seemed for a moment like a man +reduced to pulp. He absolutely forgot his usual dignified but courteous +greeting. With mouth a little open and knees which seemed to have +collapsed, he stared at this unexpected apparition as he came into sight +and stared at him as he entered the hotel. Hunterleys glanced behind +with a slight frown. The incident, inexplicable though it was, would +have passed at once from his memory, but that directly he entered the +hotel he was conscious of the very similar behaviour and attitude +towards him of the chief reception clerk. He paused on his way, a little +bewildered, and called the man to him. The clerk, however, was already +rushing towards the office with his coat-tails flying behind him. +Hunterleys crossed the floor and rang the bell for the lift. Directly he +stepped in, the lift man vacated his place, and with his eyes nearly +starting out of his head, seemed about to make a rush for his life.</p> + +<p>"Come back here," Hunterleys ordered sternly. "Take me up to my room at +once."</p> + +<p>The man returned unsteadily and with marked reluctance. He closed the +gate, touched the handle and the lift commenced to ascend.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you all here?" Hunterleys demanded, irritably. +"Is there anything wrong with my appearance? Has anything happened?"</p> + +<p>The man made a gesture but said absolutely nothing. The lift had +stopped. He pushed open the door.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur's floor," he faltered.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys stepped out and made his way towards his room. Arrived there, +he was brought to a sudden standstill. A gendarme was stationed outside.</p> + +<p>"What the mischief are you doing here?" Hunterleys demanded.</p> + +<p>The man saluted.</p> + +<p>"By orders of the Director of Police, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"But that is my room," Hunterleys protested. "I wish to enter."</p> + +<p>"No one is permitted to enter, monsieur," the man replied.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys stared blankly at the gendarme.</p> + +<p>"Can't you tell me at least what has happened?" he persisted. "I am Sir +Henry Hunterleys. That is my apartment. Why do I find it locked against +me?"</p> + +<p>"By order of the Director of the Police, monsieur," was the parrot-like +reply.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned away impatiently. At that moment the reception clerk +who downstairs had fled at his approach, returned, bringing with him the +manager of the hotel. Hunterleys welcomed the latter with an air of +relief.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Picard," he exclaimed, "what on earth is the meaning of this? +Why do I find my room closed and this gendarme outside?"</p> + +<p>Monsieur Picard was a tall man, black-bearded, immaculate in appearance +and deportment, with manners and voice of velvet. Yet he, too, had lost +his wonderful imperturbability. He waved away the floor waiter, who had +drawn near. His manner was almost agitated.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Sir Henry," he explained, "an affair the most regrettable has +happened in your room. I have allotted to you another apartment upon the +same floor. Your things have been removed there. If you will come with +me I will show it to you. It is an apartment better by far than the one +you have been occupying, and the price is the same."</p> + +<p>"But what on earth has happened in my room?" Hunterleys demanded.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," the hotel manager replied, "some poor demented creature who +has doubtless lost his all, in your absence found his way there and +committed suicide."</p> + +<p>"Found his way into my room?" Hunterleys repeated. "But I locked the +door before I went out. I have the key in my pocket."</p> + +<p>"He entered possibly through the bathroom," the manager went on, +soothingly. "I am deeply grieved that monsieur should be inconvenienced +in any way. This is the apartment I have reserved for monsieur," he +added, throwing open the door of a room at the end of the corridor. "It +is more spacious and in every way more desirable. Monsieur's clothes are +already being put away."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys glanced around the apartment. It was certainly of a far +better type than the one he had been occupying, and two of the floor +valets were already busy with his clothes.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur will be well satisfied here, I am sure," the hotel manager +continued. "May I be permitted to offer my felicitations and to assure +you of my immense relief. There was a rumour—the affair occurring in +monsieur's apartment—that the unfortunate man was yourself, Sir Henry."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was thoughtful for a moment. He began to understand the +sensation which his appearance had caused. Other ideas, too, were +crowding into his brain.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Monsieur Picard," he said, "of course, I have no objection +to the change of rooms—that's all right—but I should like to know a +little more about the man who you say committed suicide in my apartment. +I should like to see him."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Picard shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It would be a very difficult matter, that, monsieur," he declared. "The +laws of Monaco are stringent in such affairs."</p> + +<p>"That is all very well," Hunterleys protested, "but I cannot understand +what he was doing in my apartment. Can't I go in just for a moment?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible, monsieur! Without the permission of the Commissioner of +Police no one can enter that room."</p> + +<p>"Then I should like," Hunterleys persisted, "to see the Commissioner of +Police."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Picard bowed.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur the Commissioner is on the premises, without a doubt. I will +instruct him of Monsieur Sir Henry's desire."</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad if you will do so at once," Hunterleys said firmly. "I +will wait for him here."</p> + +<p>The manager made his escape and his relief was obvious. Hunterleys sat +on the edge of the bed.</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything about this affair?" he asked the nearer of the two +valets.</p> + +<p>The man shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all, monsieur," he answered, without pausing from his +labours.</p> + +<p>"How did the fellow get into my room?"</p> + +<p>"One knows nothing," the other man muttered.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys watched them for a few minutes at their labours.</p> + +<p>"A nice, intelligent couple of fellows you are," he remarked pleasantly. +"Come, here's a louis each. Now can't you tell me something about the +affair?"</p> + +<p>They came forward. Both looked longingly at the coins.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," the one he had first addressed regretted, "there is indeed +nothing to be known. At this hotel the wages are good. It is the finest +situation a man may gain in Monte Carlo or elsewhere, but if anything +like this happens, there is to be silence. One dares not break the +rule."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said. "I shall find out what I want to know, in time."</p> + +<p>The men returned unwillingly to their tasks. In a moment or two there +was a knock at the door. The Commissioner of Police entered, accompanied +by the hotel manager, who at once introduced him.</p> + +<p>"The Commissioner of Police is here, Sir Henry," he announced. "He will +speak with you immediately."</p> + +<p>The official saluted.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur desires some information?"</p> + +<p>"I do," Hunterleys admitted. "I am told that a man has committed suicide +in my room, and I have heard no plausible explanation as to how he got +there. I want to see him. It is possible that I may recognise him."</p> + +<p>"The fellow is already identified," the Director of Police declared. "I +can satisfy monsieur's curiosity. He was connected with a firm of +English tailors here, who sought business from the gentlemen in the +hotel. He had accordingly sometimes the entrée to their apartments. The +fellow is reported to have saved a little money and to have visited the +tables. He lost everything. He came this morning about his business as +usual, but, overcome by despair, stabbed himself, most regrettably in +the apartments of monsieur."</p> + +<p>"Since you know all about him, perhaps you can tell me his name?" +Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"James Allen. Monsieur may recall him to his memory. He was tall and of +pale complexion, respectable-looking, but a man of discontented +appearance. The intention had probably been in his mind for some time."</p> + +<p>"Is there any objection to my seeing the body?" Hunterleys enquired.</p> + +<p>The official shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"But, monsieur, all is finished with the poor fellow. The doctor has +given his certificate. He is to be removed at once. He will be buried at +nightfall."</p> + +<p>"A very admirable arrangement, without a doubt," Hunterleys observed, +"and yet, I should like, as I remarked before, to see the body. You know +who I am—Sir Henry Hunterleys. I had a message from your department a +day or two ago which I thought a little unfair."</p> + +<p>The Commissioner sighed. He ignored altogether the conclusion of +Hunterleys' sentence.</p> + +<p>"It is against the rules, monsieur," he regretted.</p> + +<p>"Then to whom shall I apply?" Hunterleys asked, "because I may as well +tell you at once that I am going to insist upon my request being +granted. I will tell you frankly my reason. It is not a matter of +curiosity at all. I should like to feel assured of the fact that this +man Allen really committed suicide."</p> + +<p>"But he is dead, monsieur," the Commissioner protested.</p> + +<p>"Doubtless," Hunterleys agreed, "but there is also the chance that he +was murdered, isn't there?"</p> + +<p>"Murdered!"</p> + +<p>Monsieur Picard held up his hands in horror. The Commissioner of Police +smiled in derision.</p> + +<p>"But, monsieur," the latter pointed out, "who would take the trouble to +murder a poverty-stricken tailor's assistant!"</p> + +<p>"And in my hotel, too!" Monsieur Picard intervened.</p> + +<p>"The thing is impossible," the Commissioner declared.</p> + +<p>"Beyond which it is ridiculous!" Monsieur Picard added.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys sat quite silent for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur the Commissioner," he said presently, "and Monsieur Picard, I +recognise your point of view. Believe me that I appreciate it and that I +am willing, to a certain extent, to acquiesce in it. At the same time, +there are considerations in this matter which I cannot ignore. I do not +wish to create any disturbance or to make any statements likely to +militate against the popularity of your wonderful hotel, Monsieur +Picard. Nevertheless, for personal reasons only, notwithstanding the +verdict of your doctor, I should like for one moment to examine the +body."</p> + +<p>The Commissioner of Police was thoughtful for a moment.</p> + +<p>"It shall be as monsieur desires," he consented gravely, "bearing in +mind what monsieur has said," he added with emphasis.</p> + +<p>The three men left the room and passed down the corridor. The gendarme +in front of the closed door stood on one side. The Commissioner produced +a key. They all three entered the room and Monsieur Picard closed the +door behind them. Underneath a sheet upon the bed was stretched the +figure of a man. Hunterleys stepped up to it, turned down the sheet and +examined the prostrate figure. Then he replaced the covering reverently.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "that is the man who has called upon me for orders from +the English tailors. His name, I believe, was, as you say, Allen. But +can you tell me, Monsieur the Commissioner, how it was possible for a +man to stab himself from the shoulder downwards through the heart?"</p> + +<p>The Official extended his hands.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," he declared, "it is not for us. The doctor has given his +certificate."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled a little grimly.</p> + +<p>"I have always understood," he observed, "that things were managed like +this. You may have confidence in me, Monsieur the Commissioner, and you, +Monsieur Picard. I shall not tell the world what I suspect. But for your +private information I will tell you that this man was probably murdered +by an assassin who sought my life. You observe that there is a certain +resemblance."</p> + +<p>The hotel proprietor turned pale.</p> + +<p>"Murdered!" he exclaimed. "Impossible! A murder here—unheard of!"</p> + +<p>The Commissioner dismissed the whole thing airily with a wave of his +hand.</p> + +<p>"The doctor has signed the certificate," he repeated.</p> + +<p>"And I," Hunterleys added, as he led the way out of the room, "am more +than satisfied—I am grateful. So there is nothing more to be said."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>DRACONMEYER IS DESPERATE</h3> + + +<p>Draconmeyer stood before the window of his room, looking out over the +Mediterranean. There was no finer view to be obtained from any suite in +the hotel, and Monte Carlo had revelled all that day in the golden, +transfiguring sunshine. Yet he looked as a blind man. His eyes saw +nothing of the blue sea or the brown-sailed fishing boats, nor did he +once glance towards the picturesque harbour. He saw only his own future, +the shattered pieces of his carefully-thought-out scheme. The first fury +had passed. His brain was working now. In her room below, Lady +Hunterleys was lying on the couch, half hysterical. Three times she had +sent for her husband. If he should return at that moment, Draconmeyer +knew that the game was up. There would be no bandying words between +them, no involved explanations, no possibility of any further +misunderstanding. All his little tissue of lies and misrepresentations +would crumble hopelessly to pieces. The one feeling in her heart would +be thankfulness. She would open her arms. He saw the end with fatal, +unerring truthfulness.</p> + +<p>His servant returned. Draconmeyer waited eagerly for his message.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys is lying down, sir," the man announced. "She is very +much upset and begs you to excuse her."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer waved the man away and walked up and down the apartment, his +hands behind his back, his lips hard-set. He was face to face with a +crisis which baffled him completely, and yet which he felt to be wholly +unworthy of his powers. His brain had never been keener, his sense of +power more inspiring. Yet he had never felt more impotent. It was +woman's hysteria against which he had to fight. The ordinary weapons +were useless. He realised quite well her condition and the dangers +resulting from it. The heart of the woman was once more beating to its +own natural tune. If Hunterleys should present himself within the next +few minutes, not all his ingenuity nor the power of his millions could +save the situation.</p> + +<p>Plans shaped themselves almost automatically in his mind. He passed from +his own apartments, through a connecting door into a large and +beautifully-furnished salon. A woman with grey hair and white face was +lying on a couch by the window. She turned her head as he entered and +looked at him questioningly. Her face was fragile and her features were +sharpened by suffering. She looked at her husband almost as a cowed but +still affectionate animal might look towards a stern master.</p> + +<p>"Do you feel well enough to walk as far as Lady Hunterleys' apartment +with the aid of my arm?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she replied. "Does Violet want me?"</p> + +<p>"She is still feeling the shock," Draconmeyer said. "I think that she is +inclined to be hysterical. It would do her good to have you talk with +her."</p> + +<p>The nurse, who had been sitting by her side, assisted her patient to +rise. She leaned on her husband's arm. In her other hand she carried a +black ebony walking-stick. They traversed the corridor, knocked at the +door of Lady Hunterleys' apartment, and in response to a somewhat +hesitating invitation, entered. Violet was lying upon the sofa. She +looked up eagerly at their coming.</p> + +<p>"Linda!" she exclaimed. "How dear of you! I thought that it might have +been Henry," she added, as though to explain the disappointment in her +tone.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer turned away to hide his expression.</p> + +<p>"Talk to her as lightly as possible," he whispered to his wife, "but +don't leave her alone. I will come back for you in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>He left the two women together and descended into the hall. He found +several of the reception clerks whispering together. The concierge had +only just recovered himself, but the place was beginning to wear its +normal aspect. He whispered an enquiry at the desk. Sir Henry Hunterleys +had just come in and had gone upstairs, he was told. His new room was +number 148.</p> + +<p>"There was a note from his wife," Draconmeyer said, trying hard to +control his voice. "Has he had it?"</p> + +<p>"It is here still, sir," the clerk replied. "I tried to catch Sir Henry +as he passed through, but he was too quick for me. To tell you the +truth," he went on, "there has been a rumour through the hotel that it +was Sir Henry himself who had been found dead in his room, and seeing +him come in was rather a shock for all of us."</p> + +<p>"Naturally," Draconmeyer agreed. "If you will give me the note I will +take it up to him."</p> + +<p>The clerk handed it over without hesitation. Draconmeyer returned +immediately to his own apartments and torn open the envelope. There were +only a few words scrawled across the half-sheet of notepaper:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Henry, come to me, dear, at once. I have had such a shock. I want +to see you.</p> + +<p>Vi.</p></div> + +<p>He tore the note viciously into small pieces. Then he went back to Lady +Hunterleys' apartments. She was sitting up now in an easy-chair. Once +more, at the sound of the knock, she looked towards the door eagerly. +Her face fell when Draconmeyer entered.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard anything about Henry?" she asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"He came back a few minutes ago," Draconmeyer replied, "and has gone out +again."</p> + +<p>"Gone out again?"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer nodded.</p> + +<p>"I think that he has gone round to the Club. He is a man of splendid +nerve, your husband. He seemed to treat the whole affair as an excellent +joke."</p> + +<p>"A joke!" she repeated blankly.</p> + +<p>"This sort of thing happens so often in Monte Carlo," he observed, in a +matter-of-fact tone. "The hotel people seem all to look upon it as in +the day's work."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Henry had my note?" she faltered.</p> + +<p>"He was reading one in the hall when I saw him," Draconmeyer told her. +"That would be yours, I should think. He left a message at the desk +which was doubtless meant for you. He has gone on to the Sporting Club +for an hour and will probably be back in time to change for dinner."</p> + +<p>Violet sat quite still for several moments. Something seemed to die +slowly out of her face. Presently she rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," she said, "that I am very foolish to allow myself to be +upset like this."</p> + +<p>"It is quite natural," Draconmeyer assured her soothingly. "What you +should try to do is to forget the whole circumstance. You sit here +brooding about it until it becomes a tragedy. Let us go down to the Club +together. We shall probably see your husband there."</p> + +<p>She hesitated. She seemed still perplexed.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," she murmured, "could I send another message to him? Perhaps +he didn't quite understand."</p> + +<p>"Much better come along to the Club," Draconmeyer advised, +good-humouredly. "You can be there yourself before a message could reach +him."</p> + +<p>"Very well," she assented. "I will be ready in ten minutes...."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer took his wife back to her room.</p> + +<p>"Did I do as you wished, dear?" she asked him anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely," he replied.</p> + +<p>He helped her back to her couch and stooped and kissed her. She leaned +back wearily. It was obvious that she had found the exertion of moving +even so far exhausting. Then he returned to his own apartments. Rapidly +he unlocked his dispatch box and took out one or two notes from Violet. +They were all of no importance—answers to invitations, or appointments. +He spread them out, took a sheet of paper and a broad pen. Without +hesitation he wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Congratulations on your escape, but why do you run such risks! I +wish you would go back to England.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Violet</span>.</p></div> + +<p>He held the sheet of notepaper a little away from him and looked at it +critically. The imitation was excellent. He thrust the few lines into an +envelope, addressed them to Hunterleys and descended to the hall. He +left the note at the office.</p> + +<p>"Send this up to Sir Henry, will you?" he instructed. "Let him have it +as quickly as possible."</p> + +<p>Once more he crossed the hall and waited close to the lift by which she +would descend. All the time he kept on glancing nervously around. Things +were going his way, but the great danger remained—if they should meet +first by chance in the corridor, or in the lift! Hunterleys might think +it his duty to go at once to his wife's apartment in case she had heard +the rumour of his death. The minutes dragged by. He had climbed the +great ladder slowly. More than once he had felt it sway beneath his +feet. Yet to him those moments seemed almost the longest of his life. +Then at last she came. She was looking very pale, but to his relief he +saw that she was dressed for the Club. She was wearing a grey dress and +black hat. He remembered with a pang of fury that grey was her husband's +favourite colour.</p> + +<p>"I suppose there is no doubt that Henry is at the Club?" she asked, +looking eagerly around the hall.</p> + +<p>"Not the slightest," he assured her. "We can have some tea there and we +are certain to come across him somewhere."</p> + +<p>She made no further difficulty. As they turned into the long passage he +gave a sigh of relief. Every step they took meant safety. He talked to +her as lightly as possible, ignoring the fact that she scarcely replied +to him. They mounted the stairs and entered the Club. She looked +anxiously up and down the crowded rooms.</p> + +<p>"I shall stroll about and look for Henry," she announced.</p> + +<p>"Very well," he agreed. "I will go over to your place and see how the +numbers are going."</p> + +<p>He stood by the roulette table, but he watched her covertly. She passed +through the baccarat room, came out again and walked the whole length of +the larger apartment. She even looked into the restaurant beyond. Then +she came slowly back to where Draconmeyer was standing. She seemed +tired. She scarcely even glanced at the table.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys," he exclaimed impressively, "this is positively +wicked! Your twenty-nine has turned up twice within the last few +minutes. Do sit down and try your luck and I will go and see if I can +find your husband."</p> + +<p>He pushed a handful of plaques and a bundle of notes into her hand. At +that moment the croupier's voice was heard.</p> + +<p><i>"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque."</i></p> + +<p>"Another of my numbers!" she murmured, with a faint show of interest. "I +don't think I want to play, though."</p> + +<p>"Try just a few coups," he begged. "You see, there is a chair here. You +may not have a chance again for hours."</p> + +<p>He was using all his will power. Somehow or other, she found herself +seated in front of the table. The sight of the pile of plaques and the +roll of notes was inspiring. She leaned across and with trembling +fingers backed number fourteen <i>en plein</i>, with all the <i>carrés</i> and +<i>chevaux</i>. She was playing the game at which she had lost so +persistently. He walked slowly away. Every now and then from a distance +he watched her. She was winning and losing alternately, but she had +settled down now in earnest. He breathed a great sigh of relief and took +a seat upon a divan, whence he could see if she moved. Richard Lane, who +had been standing at the other side of the table, crossed the room and +came over to him.</p> + +<p>"Say, do you know where Sir Henry is?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I have scarcely seen him all day."</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go round to the hotel and look him up," Lane decided +carelessly. "I'm fed up with this—"</p> + +<p>He stopped short. He was no longer an exceedingly bored and +discontented-looking young man. Draconmeyer glanced at him curiously. He +felt a thrill of sympathy. This stolid young man, then, was capable of +feeling something of the same emotion as was tearing at his own +heart-strings. Lane was gazing with transfigured face towards the open +doorway.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>EXTRAORDINARY LOVE-MAKING</h3> + + +<p>Fedora sauntered slowly around the rooms, leaning over and staking a +gold plaque here and there. She was dressed as usual in white, with an +ermine turban hat and stole and an enormous muff. Her hair seemed more +golden than ever beneath its snow-white setting, and her complexion more +dazzling. She seemed utterly unconscious of the admiration which her +appearance evoked, and she passed Lane without apparently observing him. +A moment afterwards, however, he moved to her side and addressed her.</p> + +<p>"Quite a lucky coup of yours, that last, Miss Grex. Are you used to +winning <i>en plein</i> like that?"</p> + +<p>She turned her head and looked at him. Her eyebrows were ever so +slightly uplifted. Her expression was chilling. He remained, however, +absolutely unconscious of any impending trouble.</p> + +<p>"I was sorry not to find you at home this morning," he continued. "I +brought my little racing car round for you to see. I thought you might +have liked to try her."</p> + +<p>"How absurd you are!" she murmured. "You must know perfectly well that +it would have been quite impossible for me to come out with you alone."</p> + +<p>"But why?"</p> + +<p>She sighed.</p> + +<p>"You are quite hopeless, or you pretend to be!"</p> + +<p>"If I am," he replied, "it is because you won't explain things to me +properly. The tables are much too crowded to play comfortably. Won't you +come and sit down for a few minutes?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. Lane watched her anxiously. He felt, somehow, that a +great deal depended upon her reply. Presently, with the slightest +possible shrug of the shoulders, she turned around and suffered him to +walk by her side to the little antechamber which divided the gambling +rooms from the restaurant.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she decided, "I suppose, after all, one must remember that +you did save us from a great deal of inconvenience the other night. I +will talk to you for a few minutes."</p> + +<p>He found her an easy-chair and he sat by her side.</p> + +<p>"This is bully," he declared.</p> + +<p>"Is what?" she asked, once more raising her eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"American slang," he explained penitently. "I am sorry. I meant that it +was very pleasant to be here alone with you for a few minutes."</p> + +<p>"You may not find it so, after all," she said severely. "I feel that I +have a duty to perform."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't let's bother about that yet, if it means a lecture," he +begged. "You shall tell me how much better the young women of your +country behave than the young women of mine."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she replied, "I am never interested in the doings of a +democracy. Your country makes no appeal to me at all."</p> + +<p>"Come," he protested, "that's a little too bad. Why, Russia may be a +democracy some day, you know. You very nearly had a republic foisted +upon you after the Japanese war."</p> + +<p>"You are quite mistaken," she assured him. "Russia would never tolerate +a republic."</p> + +<p>"Russia will some day have to do like many other countries," he answered +firmly,—"obey the will of the people."</p> + +<p>"Russia has nothing in common with other countries," she asserted. +"There was never a nation yet in which the aristocracy was so powerful."</p> + +<p>"It's only a matter of time," he declared, nonchalantly.</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"You represent ideas of which I do not approve," she told him.</p> + +<p>"I don't care a fig about any ideas," he replied. "I don't care much +about anything in the world except you."</p> + +<p>She turned her head slowly and looked at him. Its angle was +supercilious, her tone frigid.</p> + +<p>"That sort of a speech may pass for polite conversation in your country, +Mr. Lane. We do not understand it in mine."</p> + +<p>"Don't your men ever tell your women that they love them?" he asked +bluntly.</p> + +<p>"If they are of the same order," she said, "if the thing is at all +possible, it may sometimes be done. Marriage, however, is more a matter +of alliance with us. Our servants, I believe, are quite promiscuous in +their love-making."</p> + +<p>He was silent for a moment. She may, perhaps, have felt some +compunction. She spoke to him a little more kindly.</p> + +<p>"We cannot help the ideas of the country in which we are brought up, you +know, Mr. Lane."</p> + +<p>"Of course not," he agreed. "I understand that perfectly. I was just +thinking, though, what a lot I shall have to teach you."</p> + +<p>She was momentarily aghast. She recovered herself quickly, however.</p> + +<p>"Are all the men of your nation so self-confident?"</p> + +<p>"We have to be," he told her. "It's the only way we can get what we +want."</p> + +<p>"And do you always succeed in getting what you want?"</p> + +<p>"Always!"</p> + +<p>"Then unless you wish to be an exception," she advised, "let me beg you +not to try for anything beyond your reach."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing," he declared firmly, "beyond my reach. You are trying +to discourage me. It isn't any use. I am not a prince or a duke or +anything like that, although my ancestors were honest enough, I believe. +I haven't any trappings of that sort to offer you. If you are as +sensible as I think you are, you won't mind that when you come to think +it over. The only thing I am ashamed of is my money, because I didn't +earn it for myself. You can live in palaces still, if you want to, and +if you want to be a queen I'll ferret out a kingdom somewhere and buy +it, but I am afraid you'll have to be Mrs. Lane behind it all, you +know."</p> + +<p>"You really are the most intolerable person," she exclaimed, biting her +lip. "How can I get these absurd ideas out of your mind?"</p> + +<p>"By telling me honestly, looking in my eyes all the time, that you could +never care for me a little bit, however devoted I was," he answered +promptly. "You won't be able to do it. I've only one belief in life +about these things, and that is that when any one cares for a girl as I +care for you, it's absolutely impossible for her to be wholly +indifferent. It isn't much to start with, I know, but the rest will +come. Be honest with me. Is there any one of the men of your country +whom you have met, whom you want to marry?"</p> + +<p>She frowned slightly. She found herself, at that moment, comparing him +with certain young men of her acquaintance. She was astonished to +realise that the comparison was all in his favour. It was for her an +extraordinary moment. She had indeed been brought up in palaces and the +men whom she had known had been reckoned the salt of the earth. Yet, at +that crisis, she was most profoundly conscious that not all the glamour +of those high-sounding names, the picturesque interest of those gorgeous +uniforms, nor the men themselves, magnificent in their way, were able to +make the slightest appeal to her. She remembered some of her own bitter +words when an alliance with one of them had been suggested to her. It +was she, then, who had been the first to ignore the divine heritage of +birth, who had spoken of their drinking habits, pointed to their life of +idle luxury and worse than luxury. The man who was at the present moment +her suitor forced himself upon her recollection. She knew quite well +that he represented a type. They were of the nobility, and they seemed +to her in that one poignant but unwelcome moment, hatefully degenerate, +men no self-respecting girl could ever think of. Family influence, stern +parental words, the call of her order, had half crushed these thoughts. +They came back now, however, with persistent force.</p> + +<p>"You see," Richard Lane went on, "it mayn't be much that I have to offer +you, but in your heart I know you feel what it means to be offered the +love of a man who doesn't want you just because you are of his order, or +because you are the daughter of a Personage, or for any other reason +than because he cares for you as he has cared for no other woman on +earth, and because, without knowing it, he has waited for you."</p> + +<p>She moved restlessly in her chair. Their conversation was not going in +the least along the lines which she had intended. She suddenly +remembered her own disquiet of the day before, her curious longing to +steal off on some excuse to-day. A week ago she would have been content +to have dawdled away the afternoon in the grounds of the villa. +Something different had come. From the moment she had entered the rooms, +although she had never acknowledged it, she had been conscious, +pleasurably conscious of his presence. She was suddenly uneasy.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid," she murmured, "that you are quite hopeless."</p> + +<p>"If you mean that I am without hope, you are wrong," he answered +sturdily. "From the moment I met you I have had but one thought, and +until the last day of my life I shall have but one thought, and that +thought is of you. There may be no end of difficulties, but I come of an +obstinate race. I have patience as well as other things."</p> + +<p>She was avoiding looking at him now. She looked instead at her clasped +hands.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could make you understand," she said, in a low tone, "how +impossible all this is. In England and America I know that it is +different. There, marriages of a certain sort are freely made between +different classes. But in Russia these things are not thought of. +Supposing that all you said were true. Supposing, even, that I had the +slightest disposition to listen to you. Do you realise that there isn't +one of my family who wouldn't cry out in horror at the thought of my +marrying—forgive me—marrying a commoner of your rank in life?"</p> + +<p>"They can cry themselves hoarse, as they'll have to some day," he +replied cheerfully. "As for you, Miss Fedora—you don't mind my calling +you Miss Fedora, do you?—you'll be glad some day that you were born at +the beginning of a new era. You may be a pioneer in the new ways, but +you may take my word for it that you won't be the last. Please have +courage. Please try and be yourself, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"But how do you know what I am?" she protested. "Or even what I am like? +We have spoken only a few words. Nothing has passed between us which +could possibly have inspired you with such feelings as you speak of," +she added, colouring slightly. "It is a fancy of yours, quite too absurd +a fancy. Now that I find myself discussing it with you as though, +indeed, we were talking of it seriously, I am inclined to laugh. You are +just a very foolish young man, Mr. Lane."</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, "I am very good at meaning things, but it's +awfully hard for me to put my thoughts into words. I can't explain how +it's all come about. I don't know why, amongst all the girls I've seen +in my own country, or England, or Paris, or anywhere, there hasn't been +one who could bring me the things which you bring, who could fill my +mind with the thoughts you fill it with, who could make my days stand +still and start again, who could upset the whole machinery of my life so +that when you come I want to dance with happiness, and when you go the +day is over with me. There is no chance of my being able to explain this +to you, because other fellows, much cleverer than I, have been in the +same box, and they've had to come to the conclusion, too, that there +isn't any explanation. I have accepted it. I want you to. I love you, +Fedora, and I will be faithful to you all my life. You shall live where +you choose and how you choose, but you must be my wife. There isn't any +way out of it for either of us."</p> + +<p>She sat quite still for several moments. They were a little behind the +curtain and it chanced that there was no one in their immediate +vicinity. She felt her fingers suddenly gripped. They were released +again almost at once, but a queer sensation of something overmastering +seemed to creep through her whole being at the touch of his hand. She +rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"I am going away," she declared.</p> + +<p>"I haven't offended you?" he begged. "Please sit down. We haven't half +talked over things yet."</p> + +<p>"We have talked too much," she answered. "I don't know really what has +come over me that I have let you—that I listen to you—"</p> + +<p>"It is because you feel the truth of what I say," he insisted. "Don't +get up, Fedora. Don't go away, dear. Let us have at least these few +minutes together. I'll do exactly as you tell me. I'll come to your +father or I'll carry you off. I have a sister here. She'll be your +friend—"</p> + +<p>"Don't!" the girl stopped him. "Please don't!"</p> + +<p>She sat down in her chair again. Her fingers were twisted together, her +slim form was tense with stifled emotions.</p> + +<p>"Have I been a brute?" he asked softly. "You must forgive me, Fedora. I +am not much used to girls and I am sort of carried away myself, only I +want you to believe that there's the real thing in my heart. I'll make +you just as happy as a woman can be. Don't shake your head, dear. I want +you to trust me and believe in me."</p> + +<p>"I think you're a most extraordinary person," she said at last. "Do you +know, I'm beginning to be really afraid of you."</p> + +<p>"You're not," he insisted. "You're afraid of yourself. You're afraid +because you see the downfall of the old ideas. You're afraid because you +know that you're going to be a renegade. You can see nothing but trouble +ahead just now. I'll take you right away from that."</p> + +<p>There was the rustle of skirts, a soft little laugh. Richard rose to his +feet promptly. He had never been so pleased in all his life to welcome +his sister.</p> + +<p>"Flossie," he exclaimed, "I'm ever so glad you came along! I want to +present Miss Grex to you. This is my sister, Miss Fedora—Lady +Weybourne. I was just going to ask Miss Grex to have some tea with me," +he went on, "but I am not sure that she would have considered it proper. +Do come along and be chaperone."</p> + +<p>Lady Weybourne laughed.</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted," she declared. "I have seen you here once or +twice before, haven't I, Miss Grex, and some one told me that you were +Russian. I suppose you are not in the least used to the free and easy +ways of us Westerners, but you'll come and have some tea with us, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>The girl hesitated. Fate was too strong for her.</p> + +<p>"I shall be very pleased," she agreed.</p> + +<p>They found a window table and Lane ordered tea. Fedora was inclined to +be silent at first, but Lady Weybourne was quite content to chatter. By +degrees Fedora, too, came back to earth and they had a very gay little +tea-party. At the end of it they all strolled back into the rooms +together. Fedora glanced at the watch upon her wrist and held out her +hand to Lady Weybourne.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," she said, "but I must hurry away now. It is very kind of +you to ask me to come and see you, Lady Weybourne. I shall be charmed."</p> + +<p>Richard ignored her fingers.</p> + +<p>"I am going to see you down to your car, if I may," he begged.</p> + +<p>They left the room together. She looked at him as they descended the +stairs, almost tremulously.</p> + +<p>"This doesn't mean, you know," she said, "that I—that I agree to all +you have been saying."</p> + +<p>"It needn't mean anything at all, dear," he replied. "This is only the +beginning. I don't expect you to realise all that I have realised quite +so quickly, but I do want you to keep it in your mind that this thing +has come and that it can't be got rid of. I won't do anything foolish. +If it is necessary I will wait, but I am your lover now, as I always +must be."</p> + +<p>He handed her into the car, the footman, in his long white livery, +standing somberly on one side. As they drove off she gave him her +fingers, and he walked back up the steps with the smile upon his lips +that comes to a man only once or twice in his lifetime.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES</h3> + + +<p>Violet glanced at her watch with an exclamation of dismayed annoyance. +She leaned appealingly towards the croupier.</p> + +<p>"But one coup more, monsieur," she pleaded. "Indeed your clock is fast."</p> + +<p>The croupier shook his head. He was a man of gallantry so far as his +profession permitted, and he was a great admirer of the beautiful +Englishwoman, but the rules of the Club were strict.</p> + +<p>"Madame," he pointed out, "it is already five minutes past eight. It is +absolutely prohibited that we start another coup after eight o'clock. If +madame will return at ten o'clock, the good fortune will without doubt +be hers."</p> + +<p>She looked up at Draconmeyer, who was standing at her elbow.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know anything more hatefully provoking!" she complained. +"For two hours the luck has been dead against me. But for a few of my +<i>carrés</i> turning up, I don't know what would have happened. And now at +last my numbers arrive. I win <i>en plein</i> and with all the <i>carrés</i> and +<i>chevaux</i>. This time it was twenty-seven. I win two <i>carrés</i> and I move +to twenty, and he will not go on."</p> + +<p>"It is the rule," Draconmeyer reminded her. "It is bad fortune, though. +I have been watching the run of the table. Things have been coming more +your way all the time. I think that the end of your ill-luck has +arrived. Tell me, are you hungry?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," she answered pettishly. "I hate the very thought of +dinner."</p> + +<p>"Then why do we not go on to the Casino?" Draconmeyer suggested. "We can +have a sandwich and a glass of wine there, and you can continue your +vein."</p> + +<p>She rose to her feet with alacrity. Her face was beaming.</p> + +<p>"My friend," she exclaimed, "you are inspired! It is a brilliant idea. I +know that it will bring me fortune. To the Cercle Privé, by all means. I +am so glad that you are one of those men who are not dependent upon +dinner. But what about Linda?"</p> + +<p>"She is not expecting me, as it happens," Draconmeyer lied smoothly. "I +told her that I might be dining at the Villa Mimosa. I have to be there +later on."</p> + +<p>Violet gathered up her money, stuffed it into her gold bag and hurried +off for her cloak. She reappeared in a few moments and smiled very +graciously at Draconmeyer.</p> + +<p>"It is quite a wonderful idea of yours, this," she declared. "I am +looking forward immensely to my next few coups. I feel in a winning +vein. Very soon," she added, as they stepped out on to the pavement and +she gathered up her skirts, "very soon I am quite sure that I shall be +asking you for my cheques back again."</p> + +<p>He laughed, as though she had been a child speaking of playthings.</p> + +<p>"I am not sure that I shall wish you luck," he said. "I think that I +like to feel that you are a little—just a very little in my debt. Do +you think that I should be a severe creditor?"</p> + +<p>Something in his voice disturbed her vaguely, but she brushed the +thought away. Of course he admired her, but then every woman must have +admirers. It only remained for her to be clever enough to keep him at +arm's length. She had no fear for herself.</p> + +<p>"I haven't thought about the matter at all," she answered carelessly, +"but to me all creditors would be the same, whether they were kind or +unkind. I hate the feeling of owing anything."</p> + +<p>"It is a question," he observed, "how far one can be said to owe +anything to those who are really friends. A husband, for instance. One +can't keep a ledger account with him."</p> + +<p>"A husband is a different matter altogether," she asserted coldly. "Now +I wonder whether we shall find my favourite table full. Anyhow, I am +going to play at the one nearest the entrance on the right-hand side. +There is a little croupier there whom I like."</p> + +<p>They passed up through the entrance and across the floor of the first +suite of rooms to the Cercle Privé. Violet looked eagerly towards the +table of which she had spoken. To her joy there was plenty of room.</p> + +<p>"My favourite seat is empty!" she exclaimed. "I know that I am going to +be lucky."</p> + +<p>"I think that I shall play myself, for a change," Draconmeyer announced, +producing a great roll of notes.</p> + +<p>"Whenever you feel that you would like to go down and have something, +don't mind me, will you?" she begged. "You can come back and talk to me +at any time. I am not in the least hungry yet."</p> + +<p>"Very well," he agreed. "Good luck to you!" They played at opposite +sides of the table. For an hour she won and he lost. Once she called him +over to her side.</p> + +<p>"I scarcely dare to tell you," she whispered, her eyes gleaming, "but I +have won back the first thousand pounds. I shall give it to you +to-night. Here, take it now."</p> + +<p>He shook his head and waved it away. "I haven't the cheques with me," he +protested. "Besides, it is bad luck to part with any of your winnings +while you are still playing."</p> + +<p>He watched her for a minute or two. She still won.</p> + +<p>"Take my advice," he said earnestly. "Play higher. You have had a most +unusual run of bad luck. The tide has turned. Make the most of it. I +have lost ten mille. I am going to have a try your side of the table."</p> + +<p>He found a vacant chair a few places lower down, and commenced playing +in maximums. From the moment of his arrival he began to win, and +simultaneously Violet began to lose. Her good-fortune deserted her +absolutely, and for the first time she showed signs of losing her +self-control. She gave vent to little exclamations of disgust as stake +after stake was swept away. Her eyes were much too bright, there was a +spot of colour in her cheeks. She spoke angrily to a croupier who +delayed handing her some change. Draconmeyer, although he knew perfectly +well what was happening, never seemed to glance in her direction. He +played with absolute recklessness for half-an-hour. When at last he rose +from his seat and joined her, his hands were full of notes. He smiled +ever so faintly as he saw the covetous gleam in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm nearly broken," she gasped. "Leave off playing, please, for a +little time. You've changed my luck."</p> + +<p>He obeyed, standing behind her chair. Three more coups she played and +lost. Then she thrust her hand into her bag and drew it out, empty. She +was suddenly pale.</p> + +<p>"I have lost my last louis," she declared. "I don't understand it. It +seemed as though I must win here."</p> + +<p>"So you will in time," he assured her confidently. "How much will you +have—ten mille or twenty?"</p> + +<p>She shrank back, but the sight of the notes in his hand fascinated her. +She glanced up at him. His pallor was unchanged, there was no sign of +exultation in his face. Only his eyes seemed a little brighter than +usual beneath his gold-rimmed spectacles.</p> + +<p>"No, give me ten," she said.</p> + +<p>She took them from his hand and changed them quickly into plaques. Her +first coup was partially successful. He leaned closer over her.</p> + +<p>"Remember," he pointed out, "that you only need to win once in a dozen +times and you do well. Don't be in such a hurry."</p> + +<p>"Of course," she murmured. "Of course! One forgets that. It is all a +matter of capital."</p> + +<p>He strolled away to another table. When he came back, she was sitting +idle in her place, restless and excited, but still full of confidence.</p> + +<p>"I am a little to the good," she told him, "but I have left off for a +few minutes. The very low numbers are turning up and they are no use to +me."</p> + +<p>"Come and have that sandwich," he begged. "You really ought to take +something."</p> + +<p>"The place shall be kept for madame," the croupier whispered. "I shall +be here for another two hours."</p> + +<p>She nodded and rose. They made their way out of the Rooms and down into +the restaurant on the ground-floor. They found a little table near the +wall and he ordered some pâté sandwiches and champagne. Whilst they +waited she counted up her money, making calculations on a slip of paper. +Draconmeyer leaned back in his chair, watching her. His back was towards +the door and they were at the end table. He permitted himself the luxury +of looking at her almost greedily; of dropping, for a few moments, the +mask which he placed always upon his features in her presence. In his +way the man was an artist, a great collector of pictures and bronzes, a +real lover and seeker after perfection. Often he found himself wandering +towards his little gallery, content to stand about and gloat over some +of his most treasured possessions. Yet the man's personality clashed +often with his artistic pretensions. He scarcely ever found himself +amongst his belongings without realising the existence of a curious +feeling, wholly removed from the pure artistic pleasure of their +contemplation. It was the sense of ownership which thrilled him. +Something of the same sensation was upon him now. She was the sort of +woman he had craved for always—slim, elegant, and what to him, with his +quick powers of observation, counted for so much, she was modish, +reflecting in her presence, her dress and carriage, even her speech, the +best type of the prevailing fashion. She excited comment wherever she +appeared. People, as he knew very well even now, were envying him his +companion. And beneath it all—she, the woman, was there. All his life +he had fought for the big things—political power, immense wealth, the +confidence of his great master—all these had come to him easily. And at +that moment they were like baubles!</p> + +<p>She looked up at last and there was a slight frown upon her forehead.</p> + +<p>"I am still a little down, starting from where I had the ten mille," she +sighed. "I thought—"</p> + +<p>She stopped short. There was a curious change in her face. Her eyes were +fixed upon some person approaching. Draconmeyer turned quickly in his +chair. Almost as he did so, Hunterleys paused before their table. Violet +looked up at him with quivering lips. For a moment it seemed as though +she were stepping out of her sordid surroundings.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she exclaimed. "Did you come to look for me? Did you know that +we were here?"</p> + +<p>"How should I?" he answered calmly. "I was strolling around with David +Briston. We are at the Opera."</p> + +<p>"At the Opera," she repeated.</p> + +<p>"My little protégée, Felicia Roche, is singing," he went on, "in <i>Aïda</i>. +If she does as well in the next act as she has done in this, her future +is made."</p> + +<p>He was on the point of adding the news of Felicia's engagement to the +young man who had momentarily deserted him. Some evil chance changed his +intention.</p> + +<p>"Why do you call her your little protégée?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>"It isn't quite correct, is it?" he answered, a little absently. "There +are three or four of us who are doing what we can to look after her. Her +father was a prominent member of the Wigwam Club. The girl won the +musical scholarship we have there. She has more than repaid us for our +trouble, I am glad to say."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt that she has," Violet replied, lifting her eyes.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence. The significance of her words was entirely +lost upon Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this rather a new departure of yours?" he asked, glancing +disdainfully towards Draconmeyer. "I thought that you so much preferred +to play at the Club."</p> + +<p>"So I do," she assented, "but I was just beginning to win when the Club +closed at eight o'clock, and so we came on here."</p> + +<p>"Your good fortune continues, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"It varies," she answered hurriedly, "but it will come, I am sure. I +have been very near a big win more than once."</p> + +<p>He seemed on the point of departure. She leaned a little forward.</p> + +<p>"You had my note, Henry?"</p> + +<p>Her tone was almost beseeching. Draconmeyer, who was listening with +stony face, shivered imperceptibly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, yes," Hunterleys replied, frowning slightly. "I am sorry, +but I am not at liberty to do what you suggest just at present. I wish +you good fortune."</p> + +<p>He turned around and walked back to the other end of the room, where +Briston was standing at the bar. She looked after him for a moment as +though she failed to understand his words. Then her face hardened. +Draconmeyer leaned towards her.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go?" he suggested.</p> + +<p>She rose with alacrity. Side by side they strolled through the rooms +towards the Cercle Privé.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry," Draconmeyer said regretfully, "but I am forced to leave +you now. I will take you back to your place and after that I must go to +the hotel and change. I have a reception to attend. I wish you would +take the rest of my winnings and see what you can do with them."</p> + +<p>She shook her head vigorously.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," she declared. "I have enough."</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I have twenty-five mille here in my pocket," he continued, "besides +some smaller change. I don't think it is quite fair to leave so much +money about in one's room or to carry it out into the country. Keep it +for me. You won't need to play with it—I can see that your luck is +in—but it always gives one confidence to feel that one has a reserve +stock, something to fall back upon if necessary."</p> + +<p>He drew the notes from his pocket and held them towards her. Her eyes +were fixed upon them covetously. The thought of all that money actually +in her possession was wildly exhilarating.</p> + +<p>"I will take care of them for you, if you like," she said. "I shall not +play with them, though. I owe you quite enough already and my losing +days are over."</p> + +<p>He stuffed the notes carelessly into her bag.</p> + +<p>"Twenty-five mille," he told her. "Remember my advice. If the luck stays +with you, stake maximums. Go for the big things."</p> + +<p>She looked at him curiously as she closed her gold bag with a snap.</p> + +<p>"After all," she declared, with a little laugh, "I am not sure that you +are not the greater gambler of the two to trust me with all this money!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>TO THE VILLA MIMOSA</h3> + + +<p>With feet that seemed to touch nothing more substantial than air, her +eyes brilliant, a wonderful colour in her cheeks, Violet passed through +the heavy, dingy rooms and out through the motley crowd into the portico +of the Casino. She was right! She knew that she had been right! How wise +she had been to borrow that money from Mr. Draconmeyer instead of +sitting down and confessing herself vanquished! The last few hours had +been hours of ecstatic happiness. With calm confidence she had sat in +her place and watched her numbers coming up with marvellous persistence. +It was the most wonderful thing in the world, this. She had had no time +to count her winnings, but at least she knew that she could pay back +every penny she owed. Her little gold satchel was stuffed with notes and +plaques. She felt suddenly younger, curiously light-hearted; hungry, +too, and thirsty. She was, in short, experiencing almost a delirium of +pleasure. And just then, on the steps of the Casino, she came face to +face with her husband.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she called out. "Henry!"</p> + +<p>He turned abruptly around. He was looking troubled, and in his hand were +the fragments of a crushed up note.</p> + +<p>"Come across to the hotel with me," she begged, forgetful of everything +except her own immense relief. "Come and help me count. I have been +winning. I have won back everything."</p> + +<p>He accepted the information with only a polite show of interest. After +all, as she reflected afterwards, he had no idea upon what scale she had +been gambling!</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to hear it," he answered. "I'll see you across the road, +if I may, but I have only a few minutes to spare. I have an +appointment."</p> + +<p>She was acutely disappointed; unreasonably, furiously angry.</p> + +<p>"An appointment!" she exclaimed. "At half-past eleven o'clock at night! +Are you waiting for Felicia Roche?"</p> + +<p>"Is there any reason why I should not?" he asked her gravely.</p> + +<p>She bit her lips hard. They were crossing the road now. After all, it +was only a few months since she had bidden him go his own way and leave +her to regulate her own friendships.</p> + +<p>"No reason at all," she admitted, "only I cannot see why you choose to +advertise yourself with an opera singer—you, an ambitious politician, +who moves with his head in the clouds, and to whom women are no more +than a pastime. Why have you waited all these years to commence a +flirtation under my very nose!"</p> + +<p>He looked at her sternly.</p> + +<p>"I think that you are a little excited, Violet," he said. "You surely +don't realise what you are saying."</p> + +<p>"Excited! Tell me once more—you got my note, the one I wrote this +evening?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>His brief reply was convincing. She remembered the few impulsive lines +which she had written from her heart in that moment of glad relief. +There was no sign in his face that he had been touched. Even at that +moment he had drawn out his watch and was looking at it.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for bringing me here," she said, as they stood upon the steps +of the hotel. "Don't let me keep you."</p> + +<p>"After all," he decided, "I think that I shall go up to my room for a +minute. Good night!"</p> + +<p>She looked after him, a little amazed. She was conscious of a feeling of +slow anger. His aloofness repelled her, was utterly inexplicable. For +once it was she who was being badly treated. Her moment of exhilaration +had passed. She sat down in the lounge; her satchel, filled with mille +franc notes, lay upon her lap unheeded. She sat there thinking, seeing +nothing of the crowds of fashionably dressed women and men passing in +and out of the hotel; of the gaily-lit square outside, the cool green of +the gardens, the café opposite, the brilliantly-lit Casino. She was back +again for a moment in England. The strain of all this life, whipped into +an artificial froth of pleasure by the constant excitement of the one +accepted vice of the world, had suddenly lost its hold upon her. The +inevitable question had presented itself. She was counting values and +realising....</p> + +<p>When at last she rose wearily to her feet, Hunterleys was passing +through the hall of the hotel, on his way out. She looked at him with +aching heart but she made no effort to stop him. He had changed his +clothes for a dark suit and he was also wearing a long travelling coat +and tweed cap. She watched him wistfully until he had disappeared. Then +she turned away, summoned the lift and went up to her rooms. She rang at +once for her maid. She would take a bath, she decided, and go to bed +early. She would wash all the dust of these places away from her, abjure +all manner of excitement and for once sleep peacefully. In the morning +she would see Henry once more. Deep in her heart there still lingered +some faint shadow of doubt as to Draconmeyer and his attitude towards +her. It was scarcely possible that he could have interfered in any way, +and yet.... She would talk to her husband face to face, she would tell +him the things that were in her heart.</p> + +<p>She rang the bell for the second time. Only the <i>femme de chambre</i> +answered the summons. Madame's maid was not to be found. Madame had not +once retired so early. It was possible that Susanne had gone out. Could +she be of any service? Violet looked at her and hesitated. The woman was +clumsy-fingered and none too tidy. She shook her head and sent her away. +For a moment she thought of undressing herself. Then instead she opened +her satchel and counted the notes. Her breath came more quickly as she +looked at the shower of gold and counted the many oblong strips of paper +with their magic lettering. At last she had it all in heaps. There were +the twenty-five mille he had left with her, and the seventy-five mille +she had borrowed from him. Then towards her own losses there was another +mille, and a matter of five hundred francs in gold. And all this +success, her wonderful recovery, had been done so easily! It was just +because she had had the pluck to go on, because she had followed her +vein. She looked at the money and she walked to the window. Somewhere a +band was playing in the distance. Little parties of men and women in +evening dress were strolling by on their way to the Club. A woman was +laughing as she clung to her escort on the opposite side of the road, by +the gardens. Across at the Café de Paris the people were going in to +supper. The spirit of enjoyment seemed to be in the air—the +light-hearted, fascinating, devil-may-care atmosphere she knew so well. +Violet looked back into the bedroom and she no longer had the impulse to +sleep. Her face had hardened a little. Every one was so happy and she +was so lonely. She stuffed the notes and gold back into her bag, looked +at her hat in the glass and touched her face for a moment with a +powder-puff. Then she left the room, rang for the lift and descended.</p> + +<p>"I am going into the Club for an hour or so, if I am wanted," she told +the concierge as she passed out.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Hunterleys, on leaving the hotel, walked rapidly across the square and +found David waiting for him on the opposite side.</p> + +<p>"Felicia will be late," the latter explained. "She has to get all that +beastly black stuff off her face. She is horribly nervous about Sidney +and she doesn't want you to wait. I think perhaps she is right, too. She +told me to tell you that Monsieur Lafont himself came to her room and +congratulated her after the curtain had gone down. She is almost +hysterical between happiness and anxiety about Sidney. Where's your +man?"</p> + +<p>"I asked him to be a little higher up," Hunterleys replied. "There he +is."</p> + +<p>They walked a few steps up the hill and found Richard Lane waiting for +them in his car. The long, grey racer looked almost like some submarine +monster, with its flaring head-lights and torpedo-shaped body which +scarcely cleared the ground.</p> + +<p>"Ready for orders, sir," the young man announced, touching his cap.</p> + +<p>"Is there room for three of us, in case of an emergency?" Hunterleys +asked.</p> + +<p>"The third man has to sit on the floor," Richard pointed out, "but it +isn't so comfortable as it looks."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys clambered in and took the vacant place. David Briston +lingered by a little wistfully.</p> + +<p>"I feel rather a skunk," he grumbled. "I don't see why I shouldn't come +along."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"There isn't the slightest need for it," he declared firmly. "You go +back and look after Felicia. Tell her we'll get Sidney out of this all +right. Get away with you, Lane, now."</p> + +<p>"Where to?"</p> + +<p>"To the Villa Mimosa!"</p> + +<p>Richard whistled as he thrust in his clutch.</p> + +<p>"So that's the game, is it?" he murmured, as they glided off.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys leaned towards him.</p> + +<p>"Lane," he said, "don't forget that I warned you there might be a little +trouble about to-night. If you feel the slightest hesitation about +involving yourself—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" Richard interrupted. "Whatever trouble you're ready to face, +I'm all for it, too. Darned queer thing that we should be going to the +Villa Mimosa, though! I am not exactly a popular person with Mr. Grex, I +think."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled.</p> + +<p>"I saw your sister this afternoon," he remarked. "You are rather a +wonderful young man."</p> + +<p>"I knew it was all up with me," Richard replied simply, "when I first +saw that girl. Now look here, Hunterleys, we are almost there. Tell me +exactly what it is you want me to do?"</p> + +<p>"I want you," Hunterleys explained, "to risk a smash, if you don't mind. +I want you to run up to the boundaries of the villa gardens, head your +car back for Monte Carlo, and while you are waiting there turn out all +your lights."</p> + +<p>"That's easy enough," Richard assented. "I'll turn out the search-light +altogether, and my others are electric, worked by a button. Is this an +elopement act or what?"</p> + +<p>"There's a meeting going on in that villa," Hunterleys told him, +"between prominent politicians of three countries. You don't have to +bother much about Secret Service over in the States, although there's +more goes on than you know of in that direction. But over here we have +to make regular use of Secret Service men—spies, if you like to call +them so. The meeting to-night is inimical to England. It is part of a +conspiracy against which I am working. Sidney Roche—Felicia Roche's +brother—who lives here as a newspaper correspondent, is in reality one +of our best Secret Service men. He is taking terrible chances to-night +to learn a little more about the plans which these fellows are +discussing. We are here in case he needs our help to get away. We've +cleared the shrubs away, close to the spot at which I am going to ask +you to wait, and taken the spikes off the fence. It's just a thousand to +one chance that if he's hard pressed for it and heads this way, they may +think that they have him in a trap and take it quietly. That is to say, +they'll wait to capture him instead of shooting."</p> + +<p>"Say, you don't mean this seriously?" Richard exclaimed. "They can't do +more than arrest him as a trespasser, or something of that sort, +surely?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys laughed grimly.</p> + +<p>"These men wouldn't stick at much," he told his companion. "They're hand +in glove with the authorities here. Anything they did would be hushed up +in the name of the law. These things are never allowed to come out. It +doesn't do any one any good to have them gossiped about. If they caught +Sidney and shot him, we should never make a protest. It's all part of +the game, you know. Now that is the spot I want you to stop at, exactly +where the mimosa tree leans over the path. But first of all, I'd turn +out your head-light."</p> + +<p>They slowed down and stopped. Richard extinguished the acetylene +gas-lamp and mounted again to his place. Then he swung the car round and +crawled back upon the reverse until he reached the spot to which +Hunterleys had pointed.</p> + +<p>"You're a good fellow, Richard," Hunterleys said softly. "We may have to +wait an hour or two, and it may be that nothing will happen, but it's +giving the fellow a chance, and it gives him confidence, too, to know +that friends are at hand."</p> + +<p>"I'm in the game for all it's worth, anyway," Lane declared heartily.</p> + +<p>He touched a button and the lights faded away. The two men sat in +silence, both turned a little in their seats towards the villa.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>FOR HIS COUNTRY</h3> + + +<p>The minutes glided by as the two men sat together in the perfumed, +shadowy darkness. From their feet the glittering canopy of lights swept +upwards to the mountain-sides, even to the stars, but a chain of slowly +drifting black clouds hung down in front of the moon, and until their +eyes became accustomed to their surroundings it seemed to both of them +as though they were sitting in a very pit of darkness.</p> + +<p>"It is possible," Hunterleys whispered, after some time, "that we may +have to wait for another hour yet."</p> + +<p>Richard was suddenly tense. He sat up, and his foot reached for the +self-starter.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you will," he muttered. "Listen!"</p> + +<p>Almost immediately they were conscious of some commotion in the +direction of the villa, followed by a shot and then a cry.</p> + +<p>"Start the engine," Hunterleys directed hoarsely, standing up in his +place. "I'm afraid they've got him."</p> + +<p>There were two more shots but no further cry. Then they heard the sound +of excited voices and immediately afterwards rapidly approaching +footsteps. A man came crashing through the shrubbery, but when he +reached the fence over which, for a moment, his white face gleamed, he +sank down as though powerless to climb. Hunterleys leapt to the ground +and rushed to the fence.</p> + +<p>"Hold up, Sidney, old fellow," he called softly. "We're here all right. +Hold up for a moment and let me lift you."</p> + +<p>Roche struggled to his feet. His face was ghastly white, the sweat stood +out upon his forehead, his lips moved but no words came. Hunterleys got +him by the arms, set his teeth and lifted. The task would have been too +much for him, but Richard, springing from the car, came to his help. +With an effort they hoisted him over the fence. Almost as they did so +there was the sound of footsteps dashing through the shrubs, and a shot, +the bullet of which tore the bark from the trunk of a tree close at +hand. The car leapt off in fourth speed, Sidney supported in Hunterleys' +arms. A loud shout from behind only brought Richard's foot down upon the +accelerator.</p> + +<p>"Stoop low!" he cried to Hunterleys. "Get your legs in, if you can."</p> + +<p>A bullet struck the back of the car and another whistled over their +heads. Then they dashed around the corner, and Richard, turning on the +lights, jammed down his accelerator.</p> + +<p>"Gee whiz! that's a bloodthirsty crew!" the young man exclaimed, his +eyes fixed upon the road. "Is he hurt?"</p> + +<p>Roche was lying back on the seat. Hunterleys was on his knees, holding +on to the framework of the car.</p> + +<p>"They've got me all right, Hunterleys," Roche faltered. "Listen. +Everything went well with me at first. I could hear—nearly everything. +The Frenchman kept his mouth shut—tight as wax. Grex did most of the +talking. Russia sees nothing in the entente—England has nothing to +offer her. She'd rather keep friends with Germany. Russia wants to move +eastward—all Persia—India. She's only lukewarm, any way, about the +French alliance as things stand at present, and dead off any truck with +England. There's talk of Constantinople, and Germany to march three army +corps through a weak French resistance to Calais. They talked of France +acting to her pledges, putting her recruits in the front, taking a +slight defeat, making a peace on her own account, with Alsace and +Lorraine restored. She can pay. Germany wants the money. +Germany—Germany—"</p> + +<p>The words died away in a little groan. The wounded man's head fell back. +Hunterleys passed his arm around the limp figure.</p> + +<p>"Take the first turn to the right and second to the left, Richard," he +directed. "We'll drive straight to the hospital. I made friends with the +English doctor last night. He promised to be there till three. I paid +him a fee on purpose."</p> + +<p>"First to the right," Richard muttered, swinging around. "Second to the +left, eh?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was holding his brandy flask to Roche's lips as they swung +through the white gates and pulled up outside the hospital. The doctor +was faithful to his promise, and Roche, who was now unconscious, was +carried in. In the hall he was laid upon an ambulance and borne off by +two attendants. Hunterleys and Lane sat down to wait in the hall. After +what seemed to them an interminable half-hour, the doctor reappeared. He +came over to them at once.</p> + +<p>"Your friend may live," he announced, "but in any case he will be +unconscious for the next twenty-four hours. There is no need for you to +stay, or for you to fetch the young lady you spoke of, at present. If he +dies, he will die unconscious. I can tell you nothing more until the +afternoon."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet.</p> + +<p>"You'll do everything you can, doctor?" he begged. "Money doesn't +count."</p> + +<p>"Money never counts here," the doctor replied gravely. "We shall save +him if it is possible. You've nothing to tell me, I suppose, as to how +he met with his wound?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>They walked out together into the night. The bank of clouds had drifted +away now and the moon was shining. Below them, barely a quarter of a +mile away, they could see the flare of lights from the Casino. A woman +was laughing hysterically through the open windows of a house on the +other side of the way. Some one was playing a violin in a café at the +corner of the street.</p> + +<p>"Richard," Hunterleys said, "will you see me through? I have to get to +Cannes as fast as I can to send a cable. I daren't send it from here, +even in code."</p> + +<p>"I'll drive you to Cannes like a shot," Richard assented heartily. "Just +a brandy and soda on our way out, and I'll show you some pretty +driving."</p> + +<p>They stopped at the Café de Paris and left the car under the trees. Both +men took a long drink and Richard filled his pocket with cigarettes. +Then they re-entered the car, lit up, and glided off on the road for +Cannes. Richard had become more serious. His boyish manner and +appearance had temporarily gone. He drove, even, with less than his +usual recklessness.</p> + +<p>"That was a fine fellow," he remarked enthusiastically, after a long +pause, "that fellow Roche!"</p> + +<p>"And we've many more like him," Hunterleys declared. "We've men in every +part of the world doing what seems like dirty work, ill-paid work, too, +doing it partly, perhaps, because the excitement grows on them and they +love it, but always, they have to start in cold blood. The papers don't +always tell the truth, you know. There's many a death in foreign cities +you read of as a suicide, or the result of an accident, when it's really +the sacrifice of a hero for his country. It's great work, Richard."</p> + +<p>"Makes me feel kind of ashamed," Richard muttered. "I've never done +anything but play around all my life. Anyway, those sort of things don't +come to us in our country. America's too powerful and too isolated to +need help of that description. We shouldn't have any use for politicians +of your class, or for Secret Service men."</p> + +<p>"If you're in earnest," Hunterleys advised, "you go to Washington and +ask them about it some day. The time's coming, if it hasn't already +arrived, when your country will have to develop a different class of +politicians. You see, whether she wants it or not, she is coming into +touch, through Asia and South America, with European interests, and if +she does, she'll have to adopt their methods more or less. Poor old +Roche! There was something more he wanted to say, and if it's what I've +been expecting, your country was in it."</p> + +<p>"I guess I'll take Fedora over for our honeymoon," Richard decided +softly. "Don't see why I shouldn't come into one of the Embassies. I'm a +bit of a hulk to go about the world doing nothing."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys laughed quietly.</p> + +<p>"My young friend," he said, "aren't you taking your marriage prospects a +little for granted? May I be there when you ask Augustus Nicholas Ivan +Peter, Grand Duke of Vassura, Prince of Melinkoff, cousin of His +Imperial Majesty the Czar, for the hand of his daughter in marriage!"</p> + +<p>"So that's it, is it?" Lane murmured. "Why didn't you tell me before?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head. He gazed steadfastly along the road in front +of him.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't to my interest to have it known too generally," he said, "and +I am afraid your little love affair didn't strike me as being of much +importance by the side of the other things. But you've earned the truth, +if it's any use to you."</p> + +<p>"Well," Richard observed, "I wasn't counting on having any witnesses, +but you can come along if you like. I suppose," he added, "I shall have +to do him the courtesy of asking his permission, but—"</p> + +<p>"But what?" Hunterleys asked curiously.</p> + +<p>They were on a long stretch of straight, white road. Richard looked for +a moment up to the sky, and Hunterleys, watching him, was amazed at the +transformation.</p> + +<p>"There isn't a Grand Duke or a Prince or an Imperial Majesty alive," he +said, "who could rob me of Fedora!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>"SUPPOSING I TAKE THIS MONEY"</h3> + + +<p>There was a momentary commotion in the Club. A woman had fainted at one +of the roulette tables. Her chair was quickly drawn back. She was helped +out to the open space at the top of the stairs and placed in an +easy-chair there. Lady Weybourne, who was on the point of leaving with +her husband, hastened back. She stood there while the usual restoratives +were being administered, fanning the unconscious woman with a white +ostrich fan which hung from her waist. Presently Violet opened her eyes. +She recognised Lady Weybourne and smiled weakly.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It was silly of me to stay in here so +long. I went without my dinner, too, which was rather idiotic."</p> + +<p>A man who had announced himself a doctor, bent over her pulse and turned +away.</p> + +<p>"The lady will be quite all right now," he said. "You can give her +brandy and soda if she feels like it. Pardon!"</p> + +<p>He hastened back to his place at the baccarat table. Lady Hunterleys sat +up.</p> + +<p>"It was quite absurd of me," she declared. "I don't know what—"</p> + +<p>She stopped suddenly. The weight was once more upon her heart, the +blankness before her eyes. She remembered!</p> + +<p>"I am quite able to go home now," she added.</p> + +<p>Her gold bag lay upon her lap. It was almost empty. She looked at it +vacantly and then closed the snap.</p> + +<p>"We'll see you back to the hotel," Lady Weybourne said soothingly. "Here +comes Harry with the brandy and soda."</p> + +<p>Lord Weybourne came hurrying from the bar, a tumbler in his hand.</p> + +<p>"How nice of you!" Violet exclaimed gratefully. "Really, I feel that +this is just what I need. I wonder what time it is?"</p> + +<p>"Half past four," Lord Weybourne announced, glancing at his watch.</p> + +<p>She laughed weakly.</p> + +<p>"How stupid of me! I have been between here and the Casino for nearly +twelve hours, and had nothing to eat. No, I won't have anything here, +thanks," she added, as Lord Weybourne started back again for the bar, +muttering something about a sandwich. "I'll have something in my room. +If you are going back to the hotel, perhaps I could come with you."</p> + +<p>They all three left the place together, passing along the private way.</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen your brother all day," Violet remarked to Lady +Weybourne.</p> + +<p>"Richard's gone off somewhere in the car to-night, a most mysterious +expedition," his sister declared. "I began to think that it must be an +elopement, but I see the yacht's there still, and he would surely choose +the yacht in preference to a motor-car, if he were running off with +anybody! Your husband doesn't come into the rooms much?"</p> + +<p>Violet shook her head.</p> + +<p>"He hasn't the gambling instinct," she said quietly. "Perhaps he is just +as well without it. One gets a lot of amusement out of this playing for +small stakes, but it is irritating to lose. Thank you so much for +looking after me," she added, as they reached the hall of the hotel. "I +am quite all right now and my woman will be sitting up for me."</p> + +<p>She passed into the lift. Lady Weybourne looked after her admiringly.</p> + +<p>"Say, she's got some pluck, Harry!" she murmured. "They say she lost +nearly a hundred mille to-night and she never even mentioned her +losings. Irritating, indeed! I wonder what Sir Henry thinks of it. They +are only moderately well off."</p> + +<p>Her husband shrugged his shoulders, after the fashion of his sex.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope," he said, "that it is Sir Henry who suffers."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Violet slipped out of her gown and dismissed her maid. In her +dressing-gown she sat before the open window. Everywhere the place +seemed steeped in the faint violet and purple light preceding the dawn. +Away eastwards she could catch a glimpse of the mountains, their peaks +cut sharply against the soft, deep sky; a crystalline glow, the first +herald of the hidden sunrise, hanging about their summits. The gentle +breeze from the Mediterranean was cool and sweet. There were many lights +still gleaming upon the sea, but their effect now seemed tawdry. She sat +there, her head resting upon her hands. She had the feeling of being +somehow detached from the whole world of visible objects, as though, +indeed, she were on her death-bed. Surely it was not possible to pass +any further through life than this! In her thoughts she went back to the +first days of estrangement between her husband and herself. Almost +before she realised it, she found herself struggling against the +tenderness which still survived, which seemed at that moment to be +tearing at her heart-strings. He had ceased to care, she told herself. +It was all too apparent that he had ceased to care. He was amusing +himself elsewhere. Her little impulsive note had not won even a kind +word from him. Her appeals, on one excuse or another, had been +disregarded. She had lost her place in his life, thrown it away, she +told herself bitterly. And in its stead—what! A new fear of Draconmeyer +was stealing over her. He presented himself suddenly as an evil genius. +She went back through the last few days. Her brain seemed unexpectedly +clear, her perceptions unerring. She saw with hateful distinctness how +he had forced this money upon her, how he had encouraged her all the +time to play beyond her means. She realised the cunning with which he +had left that last bundle of notes in her keeping. Well, there the facts +were. She owed him now four thousand pounds. She had no money of her +own, she was already overdrawn with her allowance. There was no chance +of paying him. She realised, with a little shudder, that he did not want +payment, a realisation which had come to her dimly from the first, but +which she had pushed away simply because she had felt sure of winning. +Now there was the price to be paid! She leaned further out of the +window. Away to her left the glow over the mountains was becoming +stained with the faintest of pinks. She looked at it long, with mute and +critical appreciation. She swept with her eyes the line of violet +shadows from the mountain-tops to the sea-board, where the pale lights +of Bordighera still flickered. She looked up again from the dark blue +sea to the paling stars. It was all wonderful—theatrical, perhaps, but +wonderful—and how she hated it! She stood up before the window and with +her clenched fists she beat against the sills. Those long days and +feverish nights through which she had passed slowly unfolded themselves. +In those few moments she seemed to taste again the dull pain of constant +disappointment, the hectic thrills of occasional winnings, the strange, +dull inertia which had taken the place of resignation. She looked into +the street below. How long would she live afterwards, she wondered, if +she threw herself down! She began even to realise the state of mind +which breeds suicides, the brooding over a morrow too hateful to be +faced.</p> + +<p>As she still stood there, the silence of the street below was broken. A +motor-car swung round the corner and swept past the side of the hotel. +She caught at the curtain as she recognised its occupants. Richard Lane +was driving, and by his side sat her husband. The car was covered with +dust, both men seemed weary as though they had been out all night. She +gazed after them with fast-beating heart. She had pictured her husband +at the villa on the hill! Where had he been with Richard Lane? Perhaps, +after all, the things which she had imagined were not true. The car had +stopped now at the front door. It returned a moment later on its way to +the garage, with only Lane driving. She opened her door and stood there +silently. Hunterleys would have to pass the end of the corridor if he +came up by the main lift. She waited with fast beating heart. The +seconds passed. Then she heard the rattle of the lift ascending, its +click as it stopped, and soon afterwards the footsteps of a man. He was +coming—coming past the corner! At that moment she felt that the sound +of his footsteps was like the beating of fate. They came nearer and she +shrank a little back. There was something unfamiliar about them. Whoever +it might be, it was not Henry! And then suddenly Draconmeyer came into +sight. He saw her standing there and stopped short. Then he came rapidly +near.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hunterleys!" he exclaimed softly. "You still up?"</p> + +<p>She hesitated. Then she stood on one side, still grasping the handle of +the door.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to come in?" she asked. "You may. I have something to say +to you. Perhaps I shall sleep better if I say it now."</p> + +<p>He stepped quickly past her.</p> + +<p>"Close the door," he whispered cautiously.</p> + +<p>She obeyed him deliberately.</p> + +<p>"There is no hurry," she said. "This is my sitting-room. I receive whom +I choose here."</p> + +<p>"But it is nearly six o'clock!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"That does not affect me," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "Sit +down."</p> + +<p>He obeyed. There was something changed about her, something which he did +not recognise. She thrust her hands into a box of cigarettes, took one +out and lit it. She leaned against the table, facing him.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she continued, "I have borrowed from you three thousand +pounds. You left with me to-night—I don't know whether you meant to +lend it to me or whether I had it on trust, but you left it in my +charge—another thousand pounds. I have lost it all—all, you +understand—the four thousand pounds and every penny I have of my own."</p> + +<p>He sat quite still. He was watching her through his gold-rimmed +spectacles. There was the slightest possible frown upon his forehead. +The time for talking of money as though it were a trifle had passed.</p> + +<p>"That is a great deal," he said.</p> + +<p>"It is a great deal," she admitted. "I owe it to you and I cannot pay. +What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>He watched her eagerly. There was a new note in her voice. He paused to +consider what it might mean. A single false step now and he might lose +all that he had striven for.</p> + +<p>"How am I to answer that?" he asked softly. "I will answer it first in +the way that seems most natural. I will beg you to accept your losings +as a little gift from me—as a proof, if you will, of my friendship."</p> + +<p>He had saved the situation. If he had obeyed his first impulse, the +affair would have been finished. He realised it as he watched her face, +and he shuddered at the thought of his escape. His words obviously +disturbed her.</p> + +<p>"It is not possible for me," she protested, "to accept money from you."</p> + +<p>"Not from Linda's husband?"</p> + +<p>She threw her cigarette into the grate and stood looking at him.</p> + +<p>"Do you offer it to me as Linda's husband?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>It was a crisis for which Draconmeyer was scarcely prepared. He was +driven out of his pusillanimous compromise. She was pressing him hard +for the truth. Again the fear of losing her altogether terrified him.</p> + +<p>"If I have other feelings of which I have not spoken," he said quietly, +"have I not kept them to myself? Do I obtrude them upon you even now? I +am content to wait."</p> + +<p>"To wait for what?" she insisted.</p> + +<p>All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him—the +removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health. The way had seemed +so clear only a little time ago, and now the clouds were back again.</p> + +<p>"Until you appreciate the fact," he told her, "that you have no more +sincere friend, that there is no one who values your happiness more than +I do."</p> + +<p>"Supposing I take this money from you," she asked, after a moment's +pause. "Are there any conditions?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever," he answered.</p> + +<p>She turned away with a little sigh. The tragedy which a few minutes ago +she had seen looming up, eluded her. She had courted a dénouement in +vain. He was too clever.</p> + +<p>"You are very generous," she said. "We will speak of this to-morrow. I +called you in because I could not bear the uncertainty of it all. Please +go now."</p> + +<p>He rose slowly to his feet. She gave him her hand lifelessly. He kept it +for a moment. She drew it away and looked at the place where his lips +had touched it, wonderingly. It was as though her fingers had been +scorched with fire.</p> + +<p>"It shall be to-morrow," he whispered, as he passed out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>NEARING A CRISIS</h3> + + +<p>From the wilds of Scotland to Monte Carlo, as fast as motor-cars and +train de luxe could bring him, came the right Honourable Meredith +Simpson, a very distinguished member of His Majesty's Government. +Hunterleys, advised of his coming by telegram from Marseilles, met him +at the station, and together the two men made their way at once to +Hunterleys' room across at the Hotel de Paris. Behind locked doors they +spoke for the first time of important matters.</p> + +<p>"It's a great find, this of yours, Hunterleys," the Minister +acknowledged, "and it is corroborated, too, by what we know is happening +around us. We have had all the warning in the world just lately. The +Russian Ambassador is in St. Petersburg on leave of absence—in fact for +the last six months he has been taking his duties remarkably lightly. +Tell me how you first heard of the affair?"</p> + +<p>"I got wind of it in Sofia," Hunterleys explained. "I travelled from +there quite quietly, loitered about the Italian Riviera, and came on +here as a tourist. The only help I could get hold of here was from +Sidney Roche, who, as you know, is one of our Secret Service men. Roche, +I am sorry to say, was shot last night. He may live but he won't be well +enough to take any further hand in the game here, and I have no one to +take his place."</p> + +<p>"Roche shot!" Mr. Simpson exclaimed, in a shocked tone. "How did it +happen?"</p> + +<p>"They found him lying on the roof of the Villa Mimosa, just over the +room where the meeting was taking place," Hunterleys replied. "They +chased him round the grounds and we just got him off in a motor-car, but +not before he'd been hit twice. He was just able to tell me a little. +The first meeting was quite informal and very guarded. Douaille was most +cautious—he was there only to listen. The second meeting was last +night. Grex was in the chair, representing Russia."</p> + +<p>"You mean the Grand Duke Augustus?" Mr. Simpson interrupted.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded.</p> + +<p>"Grex is the name he is living under here. He explained Russia's +position. Poor Roche was only able to falter a few words, but what he +said was enough to give us the key-note to the whole thing. The long and +short of it all is that Russia turned her face westward so long as +Constantinople was possible. Now that this war has come about and ended +as it has done, Russia's chance has gone. There is no longer any <i>quid +pro quo</i> for her alliance with France. There is no friendship, of +course, between Russia and Germany, but at any rate Russia has nothing +to fear from Germany, and she knows it. Grex is quite frank. They must +look eastward, he said, and when he says eastward, he means Manchuria, +China, Persia, even India. At the same time, Russia has a conscience, +even though it be a diplomatic conscience. Hence this conference. She +doesn't want France crushed. Germany has a proposition. It has been +enunciated up to a certain point. She confers Alsace and Lorraine and +possibly Egypt upon France, for her neutrality whilst she destroys the +British Fleet. Or failing her neutrality, she wants her to place a weak +army on the frontier, which can fall back without much loss before a +German advance. Germany's objective then will be Calais and not Paris, +and from there she will command the Straits and deal with the British +Fleet at her leisure. Meanwhile, she will conclude peace with France on +highly advantageous terms. Don't you see what it means, Simpson? The +elementary part of the thing is as simple as A B C. Germany has nothing +to gain from Russia, she has nothing to gain from France. England is the +only country who can give her what she wants. That is about as far as +they have got, up to now, but there is something further behind it all. +That, Selingman is to tell them to-night."</p> + +<p>"The most important point about the whole matter, so far as we are +concerned," Mr. Simpson declared, "is Douaille's attitude. You have +received no indication of that, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever," Hunterleys answered. "I thought of paying my respects, +but after all, you know, I have no official standing, and personally we +are almost strangers."</p> + +<p>The Minister nodded.</p> + +<p>"It's a difficult position," he confessed. "Have you copies of your +reports to London?"</p> + +<p>"I have copies of them, and full notes of everything that has transpired +so far, in a strong box up at the bank," Hunterleys assented. "We can +stroll up there after lunch and I will place all the documents in your +hands. You can look them through then and decide what is best to be +done."</p> + +<p>The Minister rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"I shall go round to my rooms, change my clothes," he announced, "and +meet you presently. We'll lunch across at Ciro's, eh? I didn't mean to +come to Monte Carlo this year, but so long as I am here, I may as well +make the best of it. You are not looking as though the change had done +you much good, Hunterleys."</p> + +<p>"The last few days," Hunterleys remarked, a little drily, "have not been +exactly in the nature of a holiday."</p> + +<p>"Are you here alone?"</p> + +<p>"I came alone. I found my wife here by accident. She came through with +the Draconmeyers. They were supposed to stay at Cannes, but altered +their plans. Of course, Draconmeyer meant to come here all the time."</p> + +<p>The Minister frowned.</p> + +<p>"Draconmeyer's one man I should be glad to see out of London," he +declared. "Under the pretext of fostering good-will, and that sort of +thing, between the mercantile classes of our two countries, I think that +that fellow has done about as much mischief as it is possible for any +single man to have accomplished. We'll meet in an hour, Hunterleys. My +man is putting out some things for me and I must have a bath."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys walked up to the hospital, and to his surprise met Selingman +coming away. The latter saluted him with a wave of the hat and a genial +smile.</p> + +<p>"Calling to see our poor invalid?" he enquired blandly.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys, although he knew his man, was a little taken aback.</p> + +<p>"What share in him do you claim?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Selingman sighed.</p> + +<p>"Alas!" he confessed, "I fear that my claim would sound a little +cold-blooded. I think that I was the only man who held his gun straight. +Yet, after all, Roche would be the last to bear me any grudge. He was +playing the game, taking his risks. Uncommonly bad marksmen Grex's +private police were, or he'd be in the morgue instead of the hospital."</p> + +<p>"I gather that our friend is still alive?" Hunterleys remarked.</p> + +<p>"Going on as well as could be expected," Selingman replied.</p> + +<p>"Conscious?"</p> + +<p>Selingman smiled.</p> + +<p>"You see through my little visit of sympathy at once!" he exclaimed. +"Unable to converse, I am assured, and unable to share with his friends +any little information he may have picked up last night. By the way, +whom shall you send to report our little conference to-night? You +wouldn't care to come yourself, would you?"</p> + +<p>"I should like to exceedingly," Hunterleys assured him, "if you'd give +me a safe conduct."</p> + +<p>Selingman withdrew his cigar from his mouth and laid his hand upon the +other's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"My dear friend," he said earnestly, "your safe conduct, if ever I +signed it, would be to the other world. Frankly, we find you rather a +nuisance. We would be better pleased if your Party were in office, and +you with your knees tucked under a desk at Downing Street, attending to +your official business in your official place. Who gave you this roving +commission, eh? Who sent you to talk common sense to the Balkan States, +and how the mischief did you get wind of our little meeting here?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" Hunterleys replied, "I expect you really know all these things."</p> + +<p>Selingman, with his feet planted firmly upon the pavement, took a fresh +cigar from his waistcoat pocket, bit off the end and lit it.</p> + +<p>"My friend Hunterleys," he continued, "I am enjoying this brief +interchange of confidences. Circumstances have made me, as you see, a +politician, a schemer if you like. Nature meant me to be one of the +frankest, the most truthful, the best-hearted of men. I detest the +tortuous ways of the old diplomacy. The spoken word pleases me best. +That is why I like a few minutes' conversation with the enemy, why I +love to stand here and talk to you with the buttons off our foils. We +are scheming against you and your country, and you know it, and we shall +win. We can't help but win—if not to-day, to-morrow. Your country has +had a marvellously long run of good luck, but it can't last for ever."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled.</p> + +<p>"Well," he observed, "there's nothing like confidence. If you are so +sure of success, why couldn't you choose a cleaner way to it than by +tampering with our ally?"</p> + +<p>Selingman patted his companion on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Listen, my friend," he said, "there are no such things as allies. An +alliance between two countries is a dead letter so soon as their +interests cease to be identical. Now Austria is our ally because she is +practically Germany. We are both mid-Continental Powers. We both need +the same protection. But England and France! Go back only fifty years, +my dear Hunterleys, and ask yourself—would any living person, living +now and alive then, believe in the lasting nature of such an unnatural +alliance? Wherever you look, in every quarter of the globe, your +interests are opposed. You robbed France of Egypt. She can't have wholly +forgotten. You dominate the Mediterranean through Gibraltar, Malta, and +Cyprus. What does she think of that, I wonder? Isn't a humiliation for +her when she does stop to think of it? You've a thousand years of +quarrels, of fighting and rapine behind you. You can't call yourselves +allies because the thing isn't natural. It never could be. It was only +your mutual, hysterical fear of Germany which drove you into one +another's arms. We fought France once to prove ourselves, and for money. +Just now we don't want either money or territory from France. Perhaps we +don't even want, my dear Englishman, what you think we want, but all the +same, don't blame us for trying to dissolve an unnatural alliance. Was +that Simpson who came by the Luxe this morning?"</p> + +<p>"It was," Hunterleys admitted.</p> + +<p>"The Right Honourable John William Meredith Simpson!" Selingman recited, +waving his cigar. "Well, well, we certainly have made a stir with our +little meetings here. An inspired English Cabinet Minister, +travel-stained and dusty, arrives with his valet and a black +dispatch-box, to foil our schemes. Send him along, my friend. We are not +at all afraid of Mr. Simpson. Perhaps we may even ask him to join us +this evening."</p> + +<p>"I fancy," Hunterleys remarked grimly, "that the Englishman who joins +you this evening will find a home up on the hill here."</p> + +<p>"Or down in the morgue there," Selingman grunted, pointing down to +Monaco. "Take care, Hunterleys—take care, man. One of us hates you. It +isn't I. You are fighting a brave fight and a losing fight, but you are +good metal. Try and remember, when you find that you are beaten, that +life has many consolations for the philosopher."</p> + +<p>He passed on and Hunterleys entered the hospital. Whilst he was waiting +in the little reception-room, Felicia came in. Her face showed signs of +her night's anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Sidney is still unconscious," she announced, her voice shaking a +little. "The doctors seem hopeful—but oh! Sir Henry, it is terrible to +see him lying there just as though he were dead!"</p> + +<p>"Sidney will pull through all right," Hunterleys declared, +encouragingly. "He has a wonderful constitution and he is the luckiest +fellow born. He always gets out of trouble, somehow or other."</p> + +<p>She came slowly up to him.</p> + +<p>"Sir Henry," she said piteously, "I know quite well that Sidney was +willing to take his risks. He went into this thing, knowing it was +dangerous. I want to be brave. What happens must be. But listen. You +won't—you won't rob me of everything in life, will you? You won't send +David after him?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled reassuringly.</p> + +<p>"I can promise you that," he told her. "This isn't David's job at all. +He has to stick to his post and help out the bluff as a press +correspondent. Don't be afraid, Felicia. You shall have your David."</p> + +<p>She seized his hand and kissed it.</p> + +<p>"You have been so kind to me always, Sir Henry," she sighed. "I can't +tell you how thankful I am to think that you don't want David to go and +run these horrible risks."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that, I promise you," he assured her once more. "David will +be busy enough pulling the strings another way."</p> + +<p>The doctor entered the room and shook hands with Hunterleys. There was +no news, he declared, nothing to be done. The patient must continue in +his present condition for several more hours at least. The symptoms +were, in their way, favourable. Beyond that, nothing could be said. +Felicia and Hunterleys left the hospital together.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," she began, as they turned out of the white gates, "whether +you would mind very much if I told you something?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not!"</p> + +<p>"Yesterday," she continued slowly, "I met Lady Hunterleys. You know, I +have seen her twice when I have been to your house to sing for your +guests. She recognised me, I feel sure, but she didn't seem to want to +see me. She looked surprised when I bowed. I worried about it at first +and then I wondered. You are so very, very secretive just now. Whatever +this affair may be in which you three are all concerned, you never open +your lips about it. Lady Hunterleys probably doesn't know that you have +had to come up to the villa at all hours of the night just to see +Sidney. You don't suppose that by any chance she imagined—that you came +to see me?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was struck by the thought. He remembered several chance +remarks of his wife. He remembered, too, the coincidence of his recent +visits to the villa having prevented him in each case from acceding to +some request of Violet's.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you've mentioned this, child," he said frankly. "Now I come +to think of it, my wife certainly did know that I came up to the villa +very late one night, and she seemed upset about it. Of course, she +hasn't the faintest idea about your brother."</p> + +<p>"Well," Felicia declared, with a sigh of relief, "I felt that I had to +tell you. It sounded horribly conceited, in a way, but then she wouldn't +know that you came to see Sidney, or that I was engaged to David. +Misunderstandings do come about so easily, you know, sometimes."</p> + +<p>"This one shall be put right, at any rate," he promised her. "Now, if +you will take my advice, you will go home and lie down until the +evening. You are going to sing again, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"If there is no change," she replied. "I know that he would like me to. +You haven't minded—what I've said?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit, child," he assured her; "in fact I think it was very good of +you. Now I'll put you in this carriage and send you home. Think of +nothing except that Sidney is getting better every hour, and sing +to-night as though your voice could reach his bedside. Au revoir!"</p> + +<p>He waved his hand to her as she drove off, and returned to the Hotel de +Paris. He found a refreshed and rejuvenated Simpson smoking a cigarette +upon the steps.</p> + +<p>"To lunch!" the latter exclaimed. "Afterwards I will tell you my plans."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<h3>AN INTERESTING MEETING</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys leaned suddenly forward across the little round table.</p> + +<p>"The question of whether or no you shall pay your respects to Monsieur +Douaille," he remarked, "is solved. Unless I am very much mistaken, we +are going to have an exceedingly interesting luncheon-party on our +right."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Douaille——" Mr. Simpson began, a little eagerly.</p> + +<p>"And the others," Hunterleys interrupted. "Don't look around for a +moment. This is almost historical."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Ciro himself, bowing and smiling, was ushering a party of +guests to a round table upon the terrace, in the immediate vicinity of +the two men. Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side +and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van. Draconmeyer +followed with Lady Weybourne, and Selingman brought up the rear with the +Comtesse d'Hausson, one of the most prominent leaders of the French +colony in Monte Carlo, and a connection by marriage of Monsieur +Douaille.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="illus5" id="illus5"></a> +<img src="images/illus5.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<h3>Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one +side and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>"A luncheon-party for Douaille," Hunterleys murmured, as he bowed, to +his wife and exchanged greetings with some of the others. "I wonder what +they think of their neighbours! A little embarrassing for the chief +guest, I am afraid."</p> + +<p>"I see your wife is in the enemy's camp," his companion observed. +"Draconmeyer is coming to speak to me. This promises to be interesting."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer and Selingman both came over to greet the English Minister. +Selingman's blue eyes were twinkling with humour, his smile was broad +and irresistible.</p> + +<p>"This should send funds up in every capital of Europe," he declared, as +he shook hands. "When Mr. Meredith Simpson takes a holiday, then the +political barometer points to 'set fair'!"</p> + +<p>"A tribute to my conscientiousness," the Minister replied, smiling. "I +am glad to see that I am not the only hard-worked statesman who feels +able to take a few days' holiday."</p> + +<p>Selingman glanced at the round table and beamed.</p> + +<p>"It is true," he admitted. "Every country seems to have sent its +statesmen holiday-making. And what a playground, too!" he added, +glancing towards Hunterleys with something which was almost a wink. +"Here, political crises seem of little account by the side of the +turning wheel. This is where the world unbends and it is well that there +should be such a place. Shall we see you at the Club or in the rooms +later?"</p> + +<p>"Without a doubt," Mr. Simpson assented. "For what else does one live in +Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>"How did you leave things in town?" Mr. Draconmeyer enquired.</p> + +<p>"So-so!" the Minister answered. "A little flat, but then it is a dull +season of the year."</p> + +<p>"Markets about the same, I suppose?" Mr. Draconmeyer asked.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid," Mr. Simpson confessed, "that I only study the city column +from the point of view of what Herr Selingman has just called the +political barometer. Things were a little unsteady when I left. Consols +fell several points yesterday."</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer frowned.</p> + +<p>"It is incomprehensible," he declared. "A few months ago there was real +danger, one is forced to believe, of a European war. To-day the crisis +is passed, yet the money-markets which bore up so well through the +critical period seem now all the time on the point of collapse. It is +hard for a banker to know how to operate these days. I wish you +gentlemen in Downing Street, Mr. Simpson, would make it easier for us."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"The real truth of the matter is," he said, "that you allow your +money-market to become too sensitive an affair. A whisper will depress +it. A threatening word spoken in the Reichstag or in the House of +Parliament, magnified a hundred-fold before it reaches its destination, +has sometimes a most unwarranted effect upon markets. You mustn't blame +us so much, Mr. Draconmeyer. You jump at conclusions too easily in the +city."</p> + +<p>"Sound common sense," Mr. Draconmeyer agreed. "You are perfectly right +when you say that we are over-sensitive. The banker deplores it as much +as the politician. It's the money-kings, I suppose, who find it +profitable."</p> + +<p>They returned to their table a moment later. As he passed Douaille, +Selingman whispered in his ear. Monsieur Douaille turned around at once +and bowed to Simpson. As he caught the latter's eye he, too, left his +place and came across. Mr. Simpson rose to his feet. The two men bowed +formally before shaking hands.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Simpson," the Frenchman exclaimed, "it is a pleasure to find +that I am remembered!"</p> + +<p>"Without a doubt, monsieur," was the prompt reply. "Your last visit to +London, on the occasion when we had the pleasure of entertaining you at +the Guildhall, is too recent, and was too memorable an event altogether +for us to have forgotten. Permit me to assure you that your speech on +that occasion was one which no patriotic Englishman is likely to +forget."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille inclined his head in thanks. His manner was not +altogether free from embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"I trust that you are enjoying your holiday here?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I have only this moment arrived," Mr. Simpson explained. "I am looking +forward to a few days' rest immensely. I trust that I shall have the +pleasure of seeing something of you, Monsieur Douaille. A little +conversation would be most agreeable."</p> + +<p>"In Monte Carlo one meets one's friends all the time," Monsieur Douaille +replied. "I lunch to-day with my friend—our mutual friend, without a +doubt—who calls himself here Mr. Grex."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson nodded.</p> + +<p>"If it is permitted," he suggested, "I should like to do myself the +honour of paying my respects to you."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille was flattered.</p> + +<p>"My stay here is short," he regretted, "but your visit will be most +acceptable. I am at the Riviera Palace Hotel."</p> + +<p>"It is one of my theories," Mr. Simpson remarked, "that politicians are +at a serious disadvantage compared with business men, inasmuch as, with +important affairs under their control, they have few opportunities of +meeting those with whom they have dealings. It would be a great pleasure +to me to discuss one or two matters with you."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille departed, with a few charming words of assent. Simpson +looked after him with kindling eyes.</p> + +<p>"This," he murmured, leaning across the table, "is a most extraordinary +meeting. There they sit, those very men whom you suspect of this +devilish scheme, within a few feet of us! Positively thrilling, +Hunterleys!"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys, too, seemed to feel the stimulating effect of a situation so +dramatic. As the meal progressed, he drew his chair a little closer to +the table and leaned over towards his companion.</p> + +<p>"I think," he said, "that we shall both of us remember the coincidence +of this meeting as long as we live. At that luncheon-table, within a few +yards of us, sits Russia, the new Russia, raising his head after a +thousand years' sleep, watching the times, weighing them, realising his +own immeasurable strength, pointing his inevitable finger along the road +which the Russia of to-morrow must tread. There isn't a man in that +great country so much to be feared to-day, from our point of view, as +the Grand Duke Augustus. And look, too, at the same table, within a few +feet, Simpson, of you and of me—Selingman, Selingman who represents the +real Germany; not the war party alone, intoxicated with the clash of +arms, filled with bombastic desires for German triumphs on sea and land, +ever ready to spout in flowery and grandiloquent phrases the glory of +Germany and the Heaven-sent genius of her leaders. I tell you, Simpson, +Selingman is a more dangerous man than that. He sits with folded arms, +in realms of thought above these people. He sits with a map of the world +before him, and he places his finger upon the inevitable spots which +Germany must possess to keep time with the march of the world, to find +new homes for her overflowing millions. He has no military fervour, no +tinselly patriotism. He knows what Germany needs and he will carve her +way towards it. Look at him with his napkin tucked under his chin, +broad-visaged, podgy, a slave, you might think, to the joys of the table +and the grosser things of life. You should see his eyes sometimes when +the right note is struck, watch his mouth when he sits and thinks. He +uses words for an ambush and a barricade. He talks often like a gay +fool, a flood of empty verbiage streams from his lips, and behind, all +the time his brain works."</p> + +<p>"You seem to have studied these people, Hunterleys," Simpson remarked +appreciatively.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled as he continued his luncheon.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me if I was a little prolix," he said, "but, after all, what +would you have? I am out of office but I remain a servant of my country. +My interest is just as keen as though I were in a responsible position."</p> + +<p>"You are well out of it," Simpson sighed. "If half what you suspect is +true, it's the worst fix we've been in for some time."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid there isn't any doubt about it," Hunterleys declared. "Of +course, we've been at a fearful disadvantage. Roche was the only man out +here upon whom I could rely. Now they've accounted for him, we've +scarcely a chance of getting at the truth."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson was gloomily silent for some moments. He was thinking of the +time when he had struck his pencil through a recent Secret Service +estimate.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow," Hunterleys went on, "it will be all over in twenty-four hours. +Something will be decided upon—what, I am afraid there is very little +chance of our getting to know. These men will separate—Grex to St. +Petersburg, Selingman to Berlin, Douaille to Paris. Then I think we +shall begin to hear the mutterings of the storm."</p> + +<p>"I think," Mr. Simpson intervened, his eyes fixed upon an approaching +figure, "that there is a young lady talking to the maître d'hôtel, who +is trying to attract your attention."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned around in his chair. It was Felicia who was making her +way towards him. He rose at once to his feet. There was a little murmur +of interest amongst the lunchers as she threaded her way past the +tables. It was not often that an English singer in opera had met with so +great a success. Lady Hunterleys, recognising her as she passed, paused +in the middle of a sentence. Her face hardened. Hunterleys had risen +from his place and was watching Felicia's approach anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Is there any news of Sidney?" he asked quickly, as he took her hand.</p> + +<p>"Nothing fresh," she answered in a low voice. "I have brought you a +message—from some one else."</p> + +<p>He held his chair for her but she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't stay," she continued. "This is what I wanted to tell you. As +I was crossing the square just now, I recognised the man Frenhofer, from +the Villa Mimosa. Directly he saw me he came across the road. He was +looking for one of us. He dared not come to the villa, he declares, for +fear of being watched. He has something to tell you."</p> + +<p>"Where can I find him?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"He has gone to a little bar in the Rue de Chaussures, the Bar de +Montmartre it is called. He is waiting there for you now."</p> + +<p>"You must stay and have some lunch," Hunterleys begged. "I will come +back."</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I have just been across to the Opera House," she explained, "to enquire +about some properties for to-night. I have had all the lunch I want and +I am on my way to the hospital now again. I came here on the chance of +finding you. They told me at the Hotel de Paris that you were lunching +out."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys turned and whispered to Simpson.</p> + +<p>"This is very important," he said. "It concerns the affair in which we +are interested. Linger over your coffee and I will return."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson nodded and Hunterleys left the restaurant with Felicia. His +wife, at whom he glanced for a moment, kept her head averted. She was +whispering in the ear of the gallant Monsieur Douaille. Selingman, +catching Draconmeyer's eye, winked at him solemnly.</p> + +<p>"You have all the luck, my silent friend," he murmured.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE FATES ARE KIND</h3> + + +<p>The Bar de Montmartre was many steps under the level of the street, +dark, smelly, and dilapidated. Its only occupants were a handful of +drivers from the carriage-stand opposite, who stared at Hunterleys in +amazement as he entered, and then rushed forward, almost in a body, to +offer their services. The man behind the bar, however, who had evidently +been forewarned, intervened with a few sharp words, and, lifting the +flap of the counter, ushered Hunterleys into a little room beyond. +Frenhofer was engaged there in amiable badinage with a young lady who +promptly disappeared at Hunterleys' entrance. Frenhofer bowed +respectfully.</p> + +<p>"I must apologise," he said, "for bringing monsieur to such a place. It +is near the end now, and with Monsieur Roche in the hospital I ventured +to address myself to monsieur direct. Here I have the right to enter. I +make my suit to the daughter of the proprietor in order to have a safe +rendezvous when necessary. It is well that monsieur has come quickly. I +have tidings. I can disclose to monsieur the meeting-place for to-night. +If monsieur has fortune and the wit to make use of it, the opportunity I +shall give him is a great one. But pardon me. Before we talk business we +must order something."</p> + +<p>He touched the bell. The proprietor himself thrust in his head, +bullet-shaped, with black moustache and unshaven chin. He wore no +collar, and the remainder of his apparel was negligible.</p> + +<p>"A bottle of your best brandy," Frenhofer ordered. "The best, mind, Père +Hanaut."</p> + +<p>The man's acquiescence was as amiable as nature would permit.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur will excuse me," Frenhofer went on, as the door was once more +closed, "but these people have their little ways. To sell a whole bottle +of brandy at five times its value, is to Monsieur le Propriétaire more +agreeable than to offer him rent for the hire of his room. He is outside +all the things in which we are concerned. He believes—pardon me, +monsieur—that we are engaged in a little smuggling transaction. +Monsieur Roche and I have used this place frequently."</p> + +<p>"He can believe what he likes," Hunterleys replied, "so long as he keeps +his mouth shut."</p> + +<p>The brandy was brought—and three glasses. Frenhofer promptly took the +hint and, filling one to the brim, held it out to the landlord.</p> + +<p>"You will drink our health, Père Hanaut—my health and the health of +monsieur here, and the health of the fair Annette. Incidentally, you +will drink also to the success of the little scheme which monsieur and I +are planning."</p> + +<p>"In such brandy," the proprietor declared hoarsely, "I would drink to +the devil himself!"</p> + +<p>He threw back his head and the contents of his glass vanished. He set it +down with a little smack of the lips. Once more he looked at the bottle. +Frenhofer filled up his glass, but motioned to the door with his head.</p> + +<p>"You will excuse us, dear friend," he begged, laying his hand +persuasively upon the other's shoulder. "Monsieur and I have little +enough of time."</p> + +<p>The landlord withdrew. Frenhofer walked around the little apartment. +Their privacy was certainly assured.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," he announced, turning to Hunterleys, "there has been a great +discussion as to the next meeting-place between our friends—the next, +which will be also the last. They are safe enough in reality at the +villa, but Monsieur Douaille is nervous. The affair of last night +terrified him. The reason for these things I, of course, know nothing +of, but it seems that Monsieur Douaille is very anxious indeed to keep +his association with my august master and Herr Selingman as secret as +possible. He has declined most positively to set foot again within the +Villa Mimosa. Many plans have been suggested. This is the one adopted. +For some weeks a German down in Monaco, a shipping agent, has had a +yacht in the harbour for hire. He has approached Mr. Grex several times, +not knowing his identity; ignorant, indeed, of the fact that the Grand +Duke himself possesses one of the finest yachts afloat. However, that is +nothing. Mr. Grex thought suddenly of the yacht. He suggested it to the +others. They were enthusiastic. The yacht is to be hired for a week, or +longer if necessary, and used only to-night. Behold the wonderful +good-fortune of the affair! It is I who have been selected by my master +to proceed to Monaco to make arrangements with the German, Herr Schwann. +I am on my way there at the moment."</p> + +<p>"A yacht?" Hunterleys repeated.</p> + +<p>"There are wonderful things to be thought of," Frenhofer asserted +eagerly. "Consider, monsieur! The yacht of this man Schwann has never +been seen by my master. Consider, too, that aboard her there must be a +dozen hiding-places. The crew has been brought together from anywhere. +They can be bought to a man. There is only one point, monsieur, which +should be arranged before I enter upon this last and, for me, most +troublesome and dangerous enterprise."</p> + +<p>"And that?" Hunterleys enquired.</p> + +<p>"My own position," Frenhofer declared solemnly. "I am not greedy or +covetous. My ambitions have long been fixed. To serve an Imperial +Russian nobleman has been no pleasure for me. St. Petersburg has been a +prison. I have been moved to the right or to the left as a machine. It +is as a machine only I have lived. Always I have longed for Paris. So +month by month I have saved. After to-night I must leave my master's +employ. The risk will be too great if monsieur indeed accepts my +proposition and carries it out. I need but a matter of ten thousand +francs to complete my savings."</p> + +<p>The man's white face shone eagerly in the dim light of the gloomy little +apartment. His eyes glittered. He waited almost breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Frenhofer," Hunterleys said slowly, "so far as I have been concerned +indirectly in these negotiations with you, my instructions to my agent +have been simple and definite. We have never haggled. Your name was +known to me eight years ago, when you served us in St. Petersburg and +served us well. You have done the same thing now and you have behaved +with rare intelligence. Within the course of an hour I shall transfer +ten thousand francs to the account of François Frenhofer at the English +Bank here."</p> + +<p>The eyes of the man seemed suddenly like pinpricks of fire.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur is a prince," he murmured. "And now for the further details. +If monsieur would run the risk, I would suggest that he accompanies me +to the office of this man Schwann."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He was walking up and down the +narrow apartment. A brilliant idea had taken possession of him. The more +he thought of it, the more feasible it became.</p> + +<p>"Frenhofer," he said at last, "I have a scheme of my own. You are sure +that Mr. Grex has never seen this yacht?"</p> + +<p>"He has never set eyes upon it, monsieur, save to try and single it out +with his field-glasses from the balcony of the villa."</p> + +<p>"And he is to board it to-night?"</p> + +<p>"At ten o'clock to-night, monsieur, it is to lie off the Villa Mimosa. A +pinnace is to fetch Mr. Grex and his friends on board from the private +landing-stage of the Villa Mimosa."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys nodded thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Frenhofer," he explained, "my scheme is this. A friend of mine has a +yacht in the harbour. I believe that he would lend it to me. Why should +we not substitute it for the yacht your master imagines that he is +hiring? If so, all difficulties as to placing whom I desire on board and +secreting them are over."</p> + +<p>"It is a great scheme," Frenhofer assented, "but supposing my master +should choose to telephone some small detail to the office of the man +Schwann?"</p> + +<p>"You must hire the yacht of Schwann, just as you were instructed," +Hunterleys pointed out. "You must give orders, though, that it is not to +leave the harbour until telephoned for. Then it will be the yacht which +I shall borrow which will lie off the Villa Mimosa to-night."</p> + +<p>"It is admirable," Frenhofer declared. "The more one thinks of it, the +more one appreciates. This yacht of Schwann's—the <i>Christable</i>, he +calls it—was fitted out by a millionaire. My master will be surprised +at nothing in the way of luxury."</p> + +<p>"Tell me again," Hunterleys asked, "at what hour is it to be off the +Villa Mimosa?"</p> + +<p>"At ten o'clock," Frenhofer replied. "A pinnace is to be at the +landing-stage of the villa at that time. Mr. Grex, Monsieur Douaille, +Herr Selingman, and Mr. Draconmeyer will come on board."</p> + +<p>"Very good! Now go on your errand to the man Schwann. You had better +meet me here later in the afternoon—say at four o'clock—and let me +know that all is in order. I will bring you some particulars about my +friend's boat, so that you will know how to answer any questions your +master may put to you."</p> + +<p>"It is admirable," Frenhofer repeated enthusiastically. "Monsieur had +better, perhaps, precede me."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys walked through the streets back to Ciro's Restaurant, filled +with a new exhilaration. His eyes were bright, his brain was working all +the time. The luncheon-party at the next table were still in the midst +of their meal. Mr. Simpson was smoking a meditative cigarette with his +coffee. Hunterleys resumed his place and ordered coffee for himself.</p> + +<p>"I have been to see a poor friend who met with an accident last night," +he announced, speaking as clearly as possible. "I fear that he is very +ill. That was his sister who fetched me away."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson nodded sympathetically. Their conversation for a few minutes +was desultory. Then Hunterleys asked for the bill and rose.</p> + +<p>"I will take you round to the Club and get your <i>carte</i>," he suggested. +"Afterwards, we can spend the afternoon as you choose."</p> + +<p>The two men strolled out of the place. It was not until after they had +left the arcade and were actually in the street, that Hunterleys gripped +his companion's arm.</p> + +<p>"Simpson," he declared, "the fates have been kind to us. Douaille has a +fit of the nerves. He will go no more to the Villa Mimosa. Seeking about +for the safest meeting-place, Grex has given us a chance. The only one +of his servants who belongs to us is commissioned to hire a yacht on +which they meet to-night."</p> + +<p>"A yacht," Mr. Simpson replied, emptily.</p> + +<p>"I have a friend," Hunterleys continued, "an American. I am convinced +that he will lend me his yacht, which is lying in the harbour here. We +are going to try and exchange. If we succeed, I shall have the run of +the boat. The crew will be at our command, and I shall get to that +conference myself, somehow or other."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson felt himself left behind. He could only stare at his +companion.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Sir Henry," he begged, almost pathetically, "have I walked +into an artificial world? Do you mean to tell me seriously that you, a +Member of Parliament, an ex-Minister, are engaged upon a scheme to get +the Grand Duke Augustus and Douaille and Selingman on board a yacht, and +that you are going to be there, concealed, turned into a spy? I can't +keep up with it. As fiction it seems to me to be in the clouds. As +truth, why, my understanding turns and mocks me. You are talking +fairy-tales."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled tolerantly.</p> + +<p>"The man in the street knows very little of the real happenings in +life," he pronounced. "The truth has a queer way sometimes of spreading +itself out into the realms of fiction. Come across here with me to the +hotel. I have got to move heaven and earth to find my friend."</p> + +<p>"Do with me as you like," Mr. Simpson sighed resignedly. "In a plain +political discussion, or an argument with Monsieur Douaille—well, I am +ready to bear my part. But this sort of thing lifts me off my feet. I +can only trot along at your heels."</p> + +<p>They entered the Hotel de Paris. Hunterleys made a few breathless +enquiries. Nothing, alas! was known of Mr. Richard Lane. He came back, +frowning, to the steps of the hotel.</p> + +<p>"If he is up playing golf at La Turbie," Hunterleys muttered, "we shall +barely have time."</p> + +<p>A reception clerk tapped him on the shoulder. He turned abruptly around.</p> + +<p>"I have just made an enquiry of the floor waiter," the clerk announced. +"He believes that Mr. Lane is still in his room."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys thanked the man and hurried to the lift. In a few moments he +was knocking at the door of Lane's rooms. His heart gave a great jump as +a familiar voice bade him enter. He stepped inside and closed the door +behind him. Richard, in light blue pyjamas, sat up in bed and looked at +his visitor with a huge yawn.</p> + +<p>"Say, old chap, are you in a hurry or anything?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Do you know the time?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"No idea," the other replied. "The valet called me at eight. I told him +I'd shoot him if he disturbed me again."</p> + +<p>"It's nearly three o'clock!" Hunterleys declared impressively.</p> + +<p>"Can't help it," Richard yawned, throwing off the bed-clothes and +sitting on the edge of the bed. "I am young and delicate and I need my +rest. Seriously, Hunterleys," he added, "you take a chap out and make +him drive you at sixty miles an hour all through the night, you keep him +at it till nearly six in the morning, and you seem to think it a tragedy +to find him in bed at three o'clock in the afternoon. Hang it, I've only +had eight hours' sleep!"</p> + +<p>"I don't care how long you've had," Hunterleys rejoined. "I am only too +thankful to find you. Now listen. Is your brain working? Can you talk +seriously?"</p> + +<p>"I guess so."</p> + +<p>"You remember our talk last night?"</p> + +<p>"Every word of it."</p> + +<p>"The time has come," Hunterleys continued,—"your time, I mean. You said +that if you could take a hand, you'd do it. I am here to beg for your +help."</p> + +<p>"You needn't waste your breath doing that," Richard answered firmly. +"I'm your man. Go on."</p> + +<p>"Listen," Hunterleys proceeded. "Is your yacht in commission?"</p> + +<p>"Ready to sail at ten minutes' notice," the young man assured him +emphatically, "victualled and coaled to the eyelids. To tell you the +truth, I have some idea of abducting Fedora to-day or to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to postpone that," Hunterleys told him. "I want to borrow +the yacht."</p> + +<p>"She's yours," Richard assented promptly. "I'll give you a note to the +captain."</p> + +<p>"Look here, I want you to understand this clearly," Hunterleys went on. +"If you lend me the <i>Minnehaha</i>, well, you commit yourself a bit. You +see, it's like this. I've one man of my own in Grex's household. He came +to me this morning. Monsieur Douaille objects to cross again the +threshold of the Villa Mimosa. He fears the English newspapers. There +has been a long discussion as to the next meeting-place. Grex suggested +a yacht. To that they all agreed. There is a man named Schwann down in +Monaco has a yacht for hire. Mr. Grex knows about it and he has sent the +man I spoke of into Monaco this afternoon to hire it. They are all going +to embark at ten o'clock to-night. They are going to hold their meeting +in the cabin."</p> + +<p>Lane whistled softly. He was wide awake now.</p> + +<p>"Go on," he murmured. "Go on. Say, this is great!"</p> + +<p>"I want," Hunterleys explained, "your yacht to take the place of the +other. I want it to be off the Villa Mimosa at ten o'clock to-night, +your pinnace to be at the landing-stage of the villa to bring Mr. Grex +and his friends on board. I want you to haul down your American flag, +keep your American sailors out of sight, cover up the Stars and Stripes +in your cabin, have only your foreign stewards on show. Schwann's yacht +is a costly one. No one will know the difference. You must get up now +and show me over the boat. I have to scheme, somehow or other, how we +can hide ourselves on it so that I can overhear the end of this plot."</p> + +<p>The face of Richard Lane was like the face of an ingenuous boy who sees +suddenly a Paradise of sport stretched out before him. His mouth was +open, his eyes gleaming.</p> + +<p>"Gee, but this is glorious!" he exclaimed. "I'm with you all the way. +Why, it's wonderful, man! It's a chapter from the Arabian Nights over +again!"</p> + +<p>He leapt to his feet and rang the bell furiously. Then he rushed to the +telephone.</p> + +<p>"Blue serge clothes," he ordered the valet. "Get my bath ready."</p> + +<p>"Any breakfast, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, breakfast be hanged! No, wait a moment. Get me some coffee and a +roll. I'll take it while I dress. Hurry up!... Yes, is that the enquiry +office? This is Mr. Lane. Send round to my chauffeur at the garage at +once and tell him that I want the car at the door in a quarter of an +hour. Righto! ... Sit down, Hunterleys. Smoke or do whatever you want +to. We'll be off to the yacht in no time."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys clapped the young giant on the shoulders as he rushed through +to the bathroom.</p> + +<p>"You're a brick, Richard," he declared. "I'll wait for you down in the +hall. I've a pal there."</p> + +<p>"I'll be down in twenty minutes or earlier," Lane promised. "What a +lark!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>COFFEE FOR ONE ONLY</h3> + + +<p>The breaking up of Mr. Grex's luncheon-party was the signal for a +certain amount of man[oe]uvring on the part of one or two of his guests. +Monsieur Douaille, for instance, was anxious to remain the escort of +Lady Hunterleys, whose plans for the afternoon he had ascertained were +unformed. Mr. Grex was anxious to keep apart his daughter and Lady +Weybourne, whose relationship to Richard Lane he had only just +apprehended; while he himself desired a little quiet conversation with +Monsieur Douaille before they paid the visit which had been arranged for +to the Club and the Casino. In the end, Mr. Grex was both successful and +unsuccessful. He carried off Monsieur Douaille for a short ride in his +automobile, but was forced to leave his daughter and Lady Weybourne +alone. Draconmeyer, who had been awaiting his opportunity, remained by +Lady Hunterleys' side.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," he asked, "whether you would step in for a few minutes and +see Linda?"</p> + +<p>She had been looking at the table where her husband and his companion +had been seated. Draconmeyer's voice seemed to bring her back to a +present not altogether agreeable.</p> + +<p>"I am going back to my room for a little time," she replied. "I will +call in and see Linda first, if you like."</p> + +<p>They left the restaurant together and strolled across the Square to the +Hotel de Paris, ascended in the lift, and made their way to +Draconmeyer's suite of rooms in a silence which was almost unbroken. +When they entered the large salon with its French-windows and balcony, +they found the apartment deserted. Violet looked questioningly at her +companion. He closed the door behind him and nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he admitted, "my message was a subterfuge. I have sent Linda over +to Mentone with her nurse. She will not be back until late in the +afternoon. This is the opportunity for which I have been waiting."</p> + +<p>She showed no signs of anger or, indeed, disturbance of any sort. She +laid her tiny white silk parasol upon the table and glanced at him +coolly.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "you have your way, then. I am here."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer looked at her long and anxiously. Skilled though he was in +physiognomy, closely though he had watched, for many months, the lights +and shades, the emotional changes in her expression, he was yet, at that +moment, completely puzzled. She was not angry. Her attitude seemed to +be, in a sense, passive. Yet what did passivity mean? Was it +resignation, consent, or was it simply the armour of normal resistance +in which she had clothed herself? Was he wise, after all, to risk +everything? Then, as he looked at her, as he realised her close and +wonderful presence, he suddenly told himself that it was worth while +risking even Heaven in the future for the joy of holding her for once in +his arms. She had never seemed to him so maddeningly beautiful as at +that moment. It was one of the hottest days of the season and she was +wearing a gown of white muslin, curiously simple, enhancing, somehow or +other, her fascinating slimness, a slimness which had nothing to do with +angularity but possessed its own soft and graceful curves. Her eyes were +bluer even than her turquoise brooch or the gentians in her hat. And +while his heart was aching and throbbing with doubts and hopes, she +suddenly smiled at him.</p> + +<p>"I am going to sit down," she announced carelessly. "Please say to me +just what is in your mind, without reserve. It will be better."</p> + +<p>She threw herself into a low chair near the window. Her hands were +folded in her lap. Her eyes, for some reason, were fixed upon her +wedding ring. Swift to notice even her slightest action, he frowned as +he discerned the direction of her gaze.</p> + +<p>"Violet," he said, "I think that you are right. I think that the time +has come when I must tell you what is in my mind."</p> + +<p>She raised her eyebrows slightly at the sound of her Christian name. He +moved over and stood by her chair.</p> + +<p>"For a good many years," he began slowly, "I have been a man with a +purpose. When it first came into my mind—not willingly—its +accomplishment seemed utterly hopeless. Still, it was there. Strong man +though I am, I could not root it out. I waited. There was nothing else +to do but wait. From that moment my life was divided. My whole-soul +devotion to worldly affairs was severed. I had one dream that was more +wonderful to me, even, than complete success in the great undertaking +which brought me to London. That dream was connected with you, Violet."</p> + +<p>She moved a little uneasily, as though the repetition of her Christian +name grated. This time, however, he was rapt in his subject.</p> + +<p>"I won't make excuses," he went on. "You know what Linda is—what she +has been for ten years. I have tried to be kind to her. As to love, I +never had any. Ours was an alliance between two great monied families, +arranged for us, acquiesced in by both of us as a matter of course. It +seemed to me in those days the most natural and satisfactory form of +marriage. I looked upon myself as others have thought me—a cold, +bloodless man of figures and ambition. It is you who have taught me that +I have as much sentiment and more than other men, a heart and desires +which have made life sometimes hell and sometimes paradise. For two +years I have struggled. Life with me has been a sort of passionate +compromise. For the joy of seeing you sometimes, of listening to you and +watching you, I have borne the agony of having you leave me to take your +place with another man. You don't quite know what that meant, and I am +not going to tell you, but always I have hoped and hoped."</p> + +<p>"And now," she said, looking at him, "I owe you four thousand pounds and +you think, perhaps, that your time has come to speak?"</p> + +<p>He shivered as though she had struck him a blow.</p> + +<p>"You think," he exclaimed, "that I am a man of pounds, shillings, and +pence! Is it my fault that you owe me money?"</p> + +<p>He snatched her cheques from his inner pocket and ripped them in pieces, +lit a match and watched them while they smouldered away. She, too, +watched with emotionless face.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that I want to buy you?" he demanded. "There! You are free +from your money claims. You can leave my room this moment, if you will, +and owe me nothing."</p> + +<p>She made no movement, yet he was vaguely disturbed by a sense of having +made but little progress, a terrible sense of impending failure. His +fingers began to tremble, his face was the face of a man stretched upon +the rack.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps those words of mine were false," he went on. "Perhaps, in a +sense, I do want to buy you, buy the little kindnesses that go with +affection, buy your kind words, the touch sometimes of your fingers, the +pleasant sense of companionship I feel when I am with you. I know how +proud you are. I know how virtuous you are. I know that it's there in +your blood, the Puritan instinct, the craving for the one man to whom +you have given yourself, the involuntary shrinking from the touch of any +other. Good women are like that—wives or mistresses. Mind, in a sense +it's narrow; in a sense it's splendid. Listen to me. I don't want to +declare war against that instinct—yet. I can't. Perhaps, even now, I +have spoken too soon, craved too soon for the little I do ask. Yet God +knows I can keep the seal upon my lips no longer! Don't let us +misunderstand one another for the sake of using plain words. I am not +asking you to be my mistress. I ask you, on my knees, to take from me +what makes life brighter for you. I ask you for the other things +only—for your confidence, for your affection, your companionship. I ask +to see you every day that it is possible, to know that you are wearing +my gifts, surrounded by my flowers, the rough places in your life made +smooth by my efforts. I am your suppliant, Violet. I ask only for the +crumbs that fall from your table, so long as no other man sits by your +side. Violet, can't you give me as much as this?"</p> + +<p>His hand, hot and trembling, sought hers, touched and gripped it. She +drew her fingers away. It was curious how in those few moments she +seemed to be gifted with an immense clear-sightedness. She knew very +well that nothing about the man was honest save the passion of which he +did not speak. She rose to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "I have listened to you very patiently. If I owe you +any excuse for having appeared to encourage any one of those thoughts of +which you speak, here it is. I am like thousands of other women. I +absolutely don't know until the time comes what sort of a creature I am, +how I shall be moved to act under certain circumstances. I tried to +think last night. I couldn't. I felt that I had gone half-way. I had +taken your money. I had taken it, too, understanding what it means to be +in a man's debt. And still I waited. And now I know. I won't even +question your sincerity. I won't even suggest that you would not be +content with what you ask for—"</p> + +<p>"I have sworn it!" he interrupted hoarsely. "To be your favoured friend, +to be allowed near you—your guardian, if you will—"</p> + +<p>The words failed him. Something in her face checked his eloquence.</p> + +<p>"I can tell you this now and for always," she continued. "I have nothing +to give you. What you ask for is just as impossible as though you were +to walk in your picture gallery and kneel before your great masterpiece +and beg Beatrice herself to step down from the canvas. I began to wonder +yesterday," she went on, rising abruptly and moving across the room, +"whether I really was that sort of woman. With your money in my pocket +and the gambling fever in my pulses, I began even to believe it. And now +I know that I am not. Good-bye, Mr. Draconmeyer. I don't blame you. On +the whole, perhaps, you have behaved quite well. I think that you have +chosen to behave well because that wonderful brain of yours told you +that it gave you the best chance. That doesn't really matter, though."</p> + +<p>He took a quick, almost a threatening step towards her. His face was +dark with all the passions which had preyed upon the man.</p> + +<p>"There is a man's last resource," he muttered thickly.</p> + +<p>"And there is a woman's answer to it," she replied, her finger suddenly +resting upon an unsuspected bell in the wall.</p> + +<p>They both heard its summons. Footsteps came hurrying along the corridor. +Draconmeyer turned his head away, struggling to compose himself. A +waiter entered. Lady Hunterleys picked up her parasol and moved towards +the door. The man stood on one side with a bow.</p> + +<p>"Here is the waiter you rang for, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, +looking over his shoulder. "Wasn't it coffee you wanted? Tell Linda I'll +hope to see her sometime this evening."</p> + +<p>She strolled away. The waiter remained patiently upon the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Coffee for one or two, sir?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>Mr. Draconmeyer struggled for a moment against a torrent of words which +scorched his lips. In the end, however, he triumphed.</p> + +<p>"For one, with cream," he ordered.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<h3>A NEW MAP OF THE EARTH</h3> + + +<p>Selingman, who was leaning back in a leather-padded chair and smoking a +very excellent cigar, looked around at his companions with a smile of +complete approval.</p> + +<p>"Our host," he declared, bowing to Mr. Grex, "has surpassed himself. For +a hired yacht I have seen nothing more magnificent. A Cabinet Moselle, +Flor de Cuba cigars, the best of company, and an isolation beyond all +question. What place could suit us better?"</p> + +<p>There was a little murmur of assent. The four men were seated together +in the wonderfully decorated saloon of what was, beyond doubt, a most +luxurious yacht. Through the open porthole were visible, every few +moments, as the yacht rose and sank on the swell, the long line of +lights which fringed the shore between Monte Carlo and Mentone; the +mountains beyond, with tiny lights flickering like spangles in a black +mantle of darkness; and further round still, the stream of light from +the Casino, reflected far and wide upon the black waters.</p> + +<p>"None," Mr. Grex asserted confidently. "We are at least beyond reach of +these bungling English spies. There is no further fear of eavesdroppers. +We are entirely alone. Each may speak his own mind. There is nothing to +be feared in the way of interruption. I trust, Monsieur Douaille, that +you appreciate the altered circumstances."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille, who was looking very much more at his ease, assented +without hesitation.</p> + +<p>"I must confess," he agreed, "that the isolation we now enjoy is, to a +certain extent, reassuring. Here we need no longer whisper. One may +listen carefully. One may weigh well what is said. Sooner or later we +must come to the crucial point. This, if you like, is a game of +make-believe. Then, in make-believe, Germany has offered to restore +Alsace and Lorraine, has offered to hold all French territory as sacred, +provided France allows her to occupy Calais for one year. What is your +object, Herr Selingman? Do you indeed wish to invade England?"</p> + +<p>Selingman poured himself out a glass of wine from the bottle which stood +at his elbow.</p> + +<p>"Good!" he said. "We have come to plain questions. I answer in plain +speech. I will tell you now, in a few words, all that remains to be +told. Germany has no desire to invade Great Britain. If one may believe +the newspapers, there is scarcely an Englishman alive who would credit +this simple fact, but it is nevertheless true. Commercially, England, +and a certain measure of English prosperity, are necessary to Germany. +Geographically, there are certain risks to be run in an invasion of that +country, which we do not consider worth while. Besides, an invasion, +even a successful one, would result in making an everlasting and a +bitter enemy of Great Britain. We learnt our lesson when we took +territory from France. We do not need to repeat it. Several hundred +thousands of our most worthy citizens are finding an honest and +prosperous living in London. Several thousands of our merchants are in +business there, and prospering. Several hundreds of our shrewdest men of +affairs are making fortunes upon the London Stock Exchange. Therefore, +we do not wish to conquer England. Commercially, that conquest is +already affected. I want you, Monsieur Douaille, to absolutely +understand this, because it may affect your views. What we do require is +to strike a long and lasting blow at the navy of Great Britain. As a +somewhat larger Holland, Great Britain is welcome to a peaceful +existence. When she lords it over the world, talks of an Empire upon +which the sun never sets, then the time arrives when we are forced to +interfere. Great Britain has possessions which she is not strong enough +to hold. Germany is strong enough to wrest them from her, and means to +do so. The English fleet must be destroyed. South Africa, then, will +come to Germany, India to Russia, Egypt to France. The rest follows as a +matter of course."</p> + +<p>"And what is the rest?" Monsieur Douaille asked.</p> + +<p>Herr Selingman was content no longer to sit in his place. He rose to his +feet. His face had fallen into different lines. His eyes flashed, his +words were inspired.</p> + +<p>"The rest," he declared, "is the crux of the whole matter. It is the one +great and settled goal towards which we who have understood have schemed +and fought our way. With the British Navy destroyed, the Monroe Doctrine +is not worth a sheet of writing-paper. South America is Germany's +natural heritage, by every right worth considering. It is our people's +gold which founded the Argentine Republic, the brains of our people +which control its destinies. Our Eldorado is there, Monsieur Douaille. +That is the country which, sooner or later, Germany must possess. We +look nowhere else. We covet no other of our neighbours' possessions. +Only I say that the sooner America makes up her mind to the sacrifice, +the better. Her Monroe Doctrine is all very well for the Northern +States. When she presumes to quote it as a pretext for keeping Germany +from her natural place in South America, she crosses swords with us. Now +you know the truth, and the whole truth. You know, Monsieur Douaille, +what we require from you, and you know your reward. Our host has already +told you, and will tell you again as often as you like, the feeling of +his own country. The Franco-Russian alliance is already doomed. It falls +to pieces through sheer lack of common interests. The entente cordiale +is simply a fetter and a dead weight upon you. Monsieur Douaille, I put +it to you as a man of common sense. Do you think that you, as a +statesman—you see, I will put the burden upon your shoulders, because, +if you choose, you can speak for your country—do you think that you +have a right to refuse from Germany the return of Alsace and Lorraine? +Do you think that you can look your country in the face if you refuse on +her behalf the greatest gift which has ever yet been offered to any +nation—the gift of Egypt? The old alliances are out of date. The +balance of power has shifted. I ask you, Monsieur Douaille, as you value +the prosperity and welfare of your country, to weigh what I have said +and what our great Russian friend has said, word by word. England has +made no sacrifices for you. Why should you sacrifice yourself for her?"</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille stroked his little grey imperial.</p> + +<p>"That is well enough," he muttered, "but without the English Navy the +balance of power upon the Continent is entirely upset."</p> + +<p>"The balance of power only according to the present grouping of +interests," Mr. Grex pointed out. "Selingman has shown us how these must +change. Frankly, although no one can fail to realise the immense +importance of South America as a colonising centre, it is my honest +opinion that the nation who scores most by my friend Selingman's plans, +is not Germany but France. Think what it means to her. Instead of being +a secondary Power, she will of her own might absolutely control the +Mediterranean. Egypt, with its vast possibilities, its ever-elastic +boundary, falls to her hand. Malta and Cyprus follow. It is a great +price that Germany is prepared to pay."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille was silent for several moments. It was obvious that he +was deeply impressed.</p> + +<p>"This is a matter," he said, "which must be considered from many points +of view. Supposing that France were willing to bury the hatchet with +Germany, to remain neutral or to place Calais at Germany's disposal. +Even then, do you suppose, Herr Selingman, that it would be an easy +matter to destroy the British Navy?"</p> + +<p>"We have our plans," Selingman declared solemnly. "We know very well +that they can be carried out only at a great loss both of men and ships. +It is a gloomy and terrible task that lies before us, but at the other +end of it is the glory that never fades."</p> + +<p>"If America," Douaille remarked, "were to have an inkling of your real +objective, her own fleet would come to the rescue."</p> + +<p>"Why should America know of our ultimate aims?" Selingman rejoined. "Her +politicians to-day choose to play the part of the ostrich in the desert. +They take no account, or profess to take no account of European +happenings. They have no Secret Service. Their country is governed from +within for herself only. As for the rest, the bogey of a German invasion +has been flaunted so long in England that few people stop to realise the +absolute futility of such a course. London is already colonised by +Germans—colonised, that is to say, in urban and money-making fashion. +English gold is flowing in a never-ending stream into our country. It +would be the most foolish dream an ambitious statesman could conceive to +lay violent hands upon a land teeming with one's own children. Germany +sees further than this. There are richer prizes across the Atlantic, +richer prizes from every point of view."</p> + +<p>"You mentioned South Africa," Monsieur Douaille murmured.</p> + +<p>Selingman shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"South Africa will make no nation rich," he replied. "Her own people are +too stubborn and powerful, too rooted to the soil."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille for the first time stretched out his hand and drank +some of the wine which stood by his side. His cheeks were very pale. He +had the appearance of a man tortured by conflicting thoughts.</p> + +<p>"I should like to ask you, Selingman," he said, "whether you have made +any definite plans for your conflict with the British Navy? I admit that +the days of England's unique greatness are over. She may not be in a +position to-day, as she has been in former years, to fight the world. At +the same time, her one indomitable power is still, whatever people may +say or think, her navy. Only last month the Cabinet of my country were +considering reports from their secret agents and placing them side by +side with known facts, as to the relative strength of your navy and the +navy of Great Britain. On paper it would seem that a German success was +impossible."</p> + +<p>Selingman smiled—the convincing smile of a man who sees further than +most men.</p> + +<p>"Not under the terms I should propose to you, Monsieur Douaille," he +declared. "Remember that we should hold Calais, and we should be assured +at least of the amiable neutrality of your fleet. We have spoken of +matters so intimate that I do not know whether in this absolute privacy +I should not be justified in going further and disclosing to you our +whole scheme for an attack upon the English Navy. It would need only an +expression of your sympathy with those views which we have discussed, to +induce me to do so."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille hesitated for several moments before he replied.</p> + +<p>"I am a citizen of France," he said, "an envoy without powers to treat. +My own province is to listen."</p> + +<p>"But your personal sympathies?" Selingman persisted.</p> + +<p>"I have sometimes thought," Monsieur Douaille confessed, "that the +present grouping of European Powers must gradually change. If your +country, for instance," he added, turning to Mr. Grex, "indeed embraces +the proposals of Herr Selingman, France must of necessity be driven to +reconsider her position towards England. The Anglo-Saxon race may have +to battle then for her very existence. Yet it is always to be remembered +that in the background are the United States of America, possessing +resources and wealth greater than any other country in the universe."</p> + +<p>"And it must also be remembered," Selingman proclaimed, in a tone of +ponderous conviction, "that she possesses no adequate means of guarding +them, that she is not a military nation, that she has not the strength +to enforce the carrying out of the Monroe Doctrine. Things were all very +well for her before the days of wireless telegraphy, of aeroplanes and +airships, of super-dreadnoughts, and cruisers with the speed of express +trains. She was too far away to be concerned in European turmoils. +To-day science is annihilating distance. America, leaving out of account +altogether her military impotence, would need a fleet three times her +present strength to enforce the Monroe Doctrine for the remainder—not +of this century but of this decade."</p> + +<p>Then the bombshell fell. A strange voice suddenly intervened, a voice +whose American accent seemed more marked than usual. The four men turned +their heads. Selingman sprang to his feet. Mr. Grex's face was marble in +its whiteness. Monsieur Douaille, with a nervous sweep of his right arm, +sent his glass crashing to the floor. They all looked in the same +direction, up to the little music gallery. Leaning over in a careless +attitude, with his arms folded upon the rail, was Richard Lane.</p> + +<p>"Say," he begged, "can I take a hand in this little discussion?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>CHECKMATE!</h3> + + +<p>Of the four men, Selingman was the first to recover himself.</p> + +<p>"Who the hell are you, and how did you get up there?" he roared.</p> + +<p>"I am Richard Lane," the young man explained affably, "and there's a way +up from the music-room. You probably didn't notice it. And there's a way +down, as you may perceive," he added, pointing to the spiral staircase. +"I'll join you, if I may."</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence as for a moment Richard disappeared and was +seen immediately afterwards descending the round staircase. Mr. Grex +touched Selingman on the arm and whispered in his ear. Selingman nodded. +There were evil things in the faces of both men as Lane approached them.</p> + +<p>"Will you kindly explain your presence here at once, sir?" Mr. Grex +ordered.</p> + +<p>"I say!" Richard protested. "A joke's a joke, but when you ask a man to +explain his presence on his own boat, you're coming it just a little +thick, eh? To tell you the truth, I had some sort of an idea of asking +you the same question."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean—your own boat?" Draconmeyer demanded.</p> + +<p>He was, perhaps, the first to realise the situation. Richard thrust his +hands into his pockets and sat upon the edge of the table.</p> + +<p>"Seems to me," he remarked, "that you gentlemen have made some sort of a +mistake. Where do you think you are, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"On board Schwann's yacht, the <i>Christabel</i>," Selingman replied.</p> + +<p>Richard shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," he assured them. "This is the steam-yacht, +<i>Minnehaha</i>, which brought me over from New York, and of which I am most +assuredly the owner. Now I come to think of it," he went on, "there was +another yacht leaving the harbour at the same time. Can't have happened +that you boarded the wrong boat, eh?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex was icily calm, but there was menace of the most dangerous sort +in his look and manner.</p> + +<p>"Nothing of that sort was possible," he declared, "as you are, without +doubt, perfectly well aware. It appears to me that this is a deliberate +plot. The yacht which I and my friends thought that we were boarding +to-night was the <i>Christabel</i>, which my servant had instructions to hire +from Schwann of Monaco. I await some explanation from you, sir, as to +your purpose in sending your pinnace to the landing-stage of the Villa +Mimosa and deliberately misleading us as to our destination?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know that I've got much to say about that," Richard +replied easily.</p> + +<p>"You are offering us no explanation?" Selingman demanded.</p> + +<p>"None," Richard assented coolly.</p> + +<p>Selingman suddenly struck the table with his clenched fist.</p> + +<p>"You were not alone up in that gallery!"</p> + +<p>"Getting warm, aren't you?" Richard murmured.</p> + +<p>Selingman turned to Grex.</p> + +<p>"This young man is Hunterleys' friend. They've fixed this up between +them. Listen!"</p> + +<p>A door slammed above their heads. Some one had left the music gallery.</p> + +<p>"Hunterleys himself!" Selingman cried.</p> + +<p>"Sure!" Richard assented. "Bright fellow, Selingman," he continued +amiably. "I wouldn't try that on, if I were you," he added, turning to +Mr. Grex, whose hand was slowly stealing from the back of his coat. +"That sort of thing doesn't do, nowadays. Revolvers belong to the last +decade of intrigue. You're a bit out of date with that little weapon. +Don't be foolish. I am not angry with any of you. I am willing to take +this little joke pleasantly, but——"</p> + +<p>He raised a whistle to his lips and blew it. The door at the further end +of the saloon was opened as though by magic. A steward in the yacht's +uniform appeared. From outside was visible a very formidable line of +sailors. Grex, with a swift gesture, slipped something back into his +pocket, something which glittered like silver.</p> + +<p>"Serve some champagne, Reynolds," Richard ordered the steward who had +come hurrying in, "and bring some cigars."</p> + +<p>The man withdrew. Richard seated himself once more upon the table, +clasping one knee.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he said, "I'll be frank with you. I came into this little +affair for the sake of a pal. It was only by accident that I found my +way up yonder—more to look after him than anything. I never imagined +that you would have anything to say that was interesting to me. Seems I +was wrong, though. You've got things very nicely worked out, Mr. +Selingman."</p> + +<p>Selingman glared at the young man but said nothing. The others, too, +were all remarkably bereft of words.</p> + +<p>"Don't mind my staying for a little chat, do you?" Richard continued +pleasantly. "You see, I am an American and I am kind of interested in +the latter portion of what you had to say. I dare say you're quite right +in some respects. We are a trifle too commercial and a trifle too +cocksure. You see, things have always gone our way. All the same, we've +got the stuff, you know. Just consider this. If I thought there was any +real need for it, and I begin to think that perhaps there may be, I +should be ready to present the United States with a Dreadnought +to-morrow, and I don't know that I should need to spend very much less +myself. And," he went on, "there are thirty or forty others who could +and would do the same. Tidy little fleet we should soon have, you see, +without a penny of taxation. Of course, I know we would need the men, +but we've a grand reserve to draw upon in the West. They are not +bothering about the navy in times of peace, but they'd stream into it +fast enough if there were any real need."</p> + +<p>The chief steward appeared, followed by two or three of his +subordinates. A tray of wine was placed upon the table. Bottles were +opened, but no one made any attempt to drink. Richard filled his own +glass and motioned the men to withdraw.</p> + +<p>"Prefer your own wine?" he remarked. "Well, now, that's too bad. Hope +I'm not boring you?"</p> + +<p>No one spoke or moved. Richard settled himself a little more comfortably +upon the table.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you all," he proceeded, "how interested I have been, +listening up there. Quite a gift of putting things clearly, if I may be +allowed to say so, you seem to possess, Mr. Selingman. Now here's my +reply as one of the poor Anglo-Saxons from the West who've got to make +room in the best parts of the world for your lubberly German colonists. +If you make a move in the game you've been talking so glibly about, if +my word counts for anything, if my persuasions count for anything—and +I've facts to go on, you know—you'll have the American fleet to deal +with at the same time as the English, and I fancy that will be a trifle +more than you can chew up, eh? I'm going back to America a little +earlier than I anticipated. Of course, they'll laugh at me at first in +Washington. They don't believe much in these round-table conferences and +European plots. But all the same I've got some friends there. We'll try +and remember this amiable little statement of policy of yours, Mr. +Selingman. Nothing like being warned, you know."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grex rose from his place.</p> + +<p>"Sir," he said, "since we have been and are your unwilling guests, will +you be so good as to arrange for us at once to relieve you of our +presence?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm not so sure about that," Richard remarked, meditatively. "I +think I'd contribute a good deal to the comfort and happiness of this +generation if I took you all out to sea and dropped you overboard, one +by one."</p> + +<p>"As I presume you have no such intention," Mr. Grex persisted, "I repeat +that we should be glad to be allowed to land."</p> + +<p>Richard abandoned his indolent posture and stood facing them.</p> + +<p>"You came on board, gentlemen, without my invitation," he reminded them. +"You will leave my ship when I choose—and that," he added, "is not just +at present."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that we are to consider ourselves your prisoners?" +Draconmeyer asked, with an acid smile.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not—my guests," Richard replied, with a bow. "I can assure +you that it will only be a matter of a few hours."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Douaille hammered the table with his fist.</p> + +<p>"Young man," he exclaimed, "I leave with you! I insist upon it that I am +permitted to leave. I am not a party to this conference. I am merely a +guest, a listener, here wholly in my private capacity. I will not be +associated with whatever political scandal may arise from this affair. I +demand permission to leave at once."</p> + +<p>"Seems to me there's something in what you say," Richard admitted. "Very +well, you can come along. I dare say Hunterleys will be glad to have a +chat with you. As for the rest of you," he concluded, as Monsieur +Douaille rose promptly to his feet, "I have a little business to arrange +on land which I think I could manage better whilst you are at sea. I +shall therefore, gentlemen, wish you good evening. Pray consider my +yacht entirely at your disposal. My stewards will be only too happy to +execute any orders—supper, breakfast, or dinner. You have merely to say +the word."</p> + +<p>He turned towards the door, closely followed by Douaille, who, in a +state of great excitement, refused to listen to Selingman's entreaties.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" the former objected, shaking his head. "I will not stay. I +will not be associated with this meeting. You are bunglers, all of you. +I came only to listen, on your solemn assurance of entire secrecy. We +are spied upon at the Villa Mimosa, we are made fools of on board this +yacht. No more unofficial meetings for me!"</p> + +<p>"Quite right, old fellow," Richard declared, as they passed out and on +to the deck. "Set of wrong 'uns, those chaps, even though Mr. Grex is a +Grand Duke. You know Sir Henry Hunterleys, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys came forward from the gangway, at the foot of which the +pinnace was waiting.</p> + +<p>"We are taking Monsieur Douaille ashore," Richard explained, as the two +men shook hands. "He really doesn't belong to that gang and he wants to +cut adrift. You understand my orders exactly, captain?" he asked, as +they stepped down the iron gangway.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly, sir," was the prompt reply. "You may rely upon me. I am +afraid they are beginning to make a noise downstairs already!"</p> + +<p>The little pinnace shot out a stream of light across the dark, placid +sea. Douaille was talking earnestly to Hunterleys.</p> + +<p>"Pleasantest few minutes I ever spent in my life," Richard murmured, as +he took out his cigarette case.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>AN AMAZING ELOPEMENT</h3> + + +<p>The sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was cloudless as Richard +turned his automobile into the grounds of the Villa Mimosa, soon after +nine o'clock on the following morning. The yellow-blossomed trees, +slightly stirred by the west wind, formed a golden arch across the +winding avenue. The air was sweet, almost faint with perfume. On the +terrace, holding a pair of field-glasses in her hand and gazing intently +out to sea, was Fedora. At the sound of the motor-horn she turned +quickly. She looked at the visitor in surprise. A shade of pink was in +her face. Lane brought the car to a standstill, jumped out and climbed +the steps of the terrace.</p> + +<p>"What has brought you here?" she asked, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I have just come to pay you a little visit," he remarked easily. "I was +only afraid you mightn't be up so early."</p> + +<p>She bit her lip.</p> + +<p>"You have no right to come here at all," she said severely, "and to +present yourself at this hour is unheard of."</p> + +<p>"I came early entirely out of consideration for your father," he assured +her.</p> + +<p>She frowned.</p> + +<p>"My father?" she repeated. "Please explain at once what you mean. My +father is on that yacht and I cannot imagine why he does not return."</p> + +<p>"I can tell you," he answered, standing by her side and looking out +seawards. "They are waiting for my orders before they let him off."</p> + +<p>She turned her head and looked at him incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Explain yourself, please," she insisted.</p> + +<p>"With pleasure," he assented. "You see, I just had to make sure of being +allowed to have a few minutes' conversation with you, free from any +interruption. Somehow or other," he added thoughtfully, "I don't believe +your father likes me."</p> + +<p>"I do not think," she replied coldly, "that my father has any feelings +about you at all, except that he thinks you are abominably +presumptuous."</p> + +<p>"Because I want to marry you?"</p> + +<p>She stamped with her foot upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Please do not say such absurd things! Explain to me at once what you +mean by saying that my father is being kept there by your orders."</p> + +<p>"I'll try," Lane answered. "He boarded that yacht last night in mistake. +He thought that it was a hired one, but it isn't. It's mine. I found him +there last night, entertaining a little party of his friends in the +saloon. They seemed quite comfortable, so I begged them to remain on as +my guests for a short time."</p> + +<p>"To remain?" she murmured, bewildered. "For how long?"</p> + +<p>"Until you've just read this through and thought it over."</p> + +<p>He passed her a document which he had drawn from his pocket. She took it +from him wonderingly. When she had read a few lines, the colour came +streaming into her cheeks. She threw it to the ground. He picked it up +and replaced it in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"But it is preposterous!" she cried. "That is a marriage license!"</p> + +<p>"That's precisely what it is," he admitted. "I thought we'd be married +at Nice. My sister is waiting to go along with us. I said we'd pick her +up at the Hotel de Paris."</p> + +<p>Severe critics of her undoubted beauty had ventured at times to say that +Fedora's face lacked expression. There was, at that moment, no room for +any such criticism. Amazement struggled with indignation in her eyes. +Her lips were quivering, her breath was coming quickly.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean—have you given her or any one to understand that there was +any likelihood of my consenting to such an absurd scheme?"</p> + +<p>"I only told her what I hoped," he said quietly. "That is all I dared +say even to myself. But I want you to listen to me."</p> + +<p>His voice had grown softer. She turned her head and looked at him. He +was much taller than she was, and in his grey tweed suit, his head a +little thrown back, his straw hat clasped in his hands behind him, his +clear grey eyes full of serious purpose, he was certainly not an +unattractive figure to look upon. Unconsciously she found herself +comparing him once more with the men of her world, found herself +realising, even against her will, the charm of his naïve and dogged +honesty, his youth, his tenacity of purpose. She had never been made +love to like this before.</p> + +<p>"Please listen," he begged. "I am afraid that your father must be in a +tearing rage by now, but it can't be helped. He is out there and he +hasn't got an earthly chance of getting back until I give the word. +We've got plenty of time to reach Nice before he can land. I just want +you to realise, Fedora, that you are your own mistress. You can make or +spoil your own life. No one else has any right to interfere. Have you +ever seen any one yet, back in your own country, amongst your own +people, whom you really felt that you cared for—who you really believed +would be willing to lay down his life to make you happy?"</p> + +<p>"No," she confessed simply, "I do not know that I have. Our men are not +like that."</p> + +<p>"It is because," he went on, "there is no one back there who cares as I +do. I have spent some years of my life looking—quite unconsciously, but +looking all the same—for some one like you. Now I have found you I am +glad I have waited. There couldn't be any one else. There never could +be, Fedora. I love you just in the way a man does love once in his life, +if he's lucky. It's a queer sort of feeling, you know," he continued, +leaning a little towards her. "It makes me quite sure that I could make +you happy. It makes me quite sure that if you'll give me your hand and +trust me, and leave everything to me, you'll have just the things in +life that women want. Won't you be brave, Fedora? There are some things +to break through, I know, but they don't amount to much—they don't, +really. And I love you, you know. You can't imagine yet what a wonderful +difference that makes. You'll find out and you'll be glad."</p> + +<p>She stood quite still. Her eyes were still fixed seawards, but she was +looking beyond the yacht, now, to the dim line where sky and sea seemed +to meet. The vision of her past days seemed to be drawn out before her, +a little monotonous, a little wearisome even in their splendour, more +than a little empty. And underneath it all she was listening to the new +music, and her heart was telling her the truth.</p> + +<p>"You don't need to make any plans," he said softly. "Go and put on your +hat and something to wear motoring. Bring a dressing-bag, if you like. +Flossie is waiting for us and she is rather a dear. You can leave +everything else to me."</p> + +<p>She looked timidly into his eyes. A new feeling was upon her. She gave +him her hand almost shyly. Her voice trembled.</p> + +<p>"If I come," she whispered, "you are quite sure that you mean it all? +You are quite sure that you will not change?"</p> + +<p>He raised her hand to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Not in this world, dear," he answered, with sublime confidence, "nor +any other!"</p> + +<p>She stole away from him. He was left alone upon the terrace, alone, but +with the exquisite conviction of her return, promised in that last +half-tremulous, half-smiling look over her shoulder. Then suddenly life +seemed to come to him with a rush, a new life, filled with a new +splendour. He was almost humbly conscious of bigger things than he had +ever realised, a nearness to the clouds, a wonderful, thrilling sense of +complete and absolute happiness.... Reluctantly he came back to earth. +His thoughts became practical. He went to the back of his car, drew out +a rocket on a stick and thrust it firmly into the lawn. Then he started +his engine and almost immediately afterwards she came. She was wearing a +white silk motor-coat and a thick veil. Behind her came a bewildered +French maid, carrying wraps, and a man-servant with a heavy +dressing-case. In silence these things were stowed away. She took her +place in the car. Lane struck a match and stepped on to the lawn.</p> + +<p>"Don't be frightened," he said. "Here goes!"</p> + +<p>A rocket soared up into the sky. Then he seated himself beside her and +they glided off.</p> + +<p>"That means," he explained, "that they'll let your father and the others +off in two hours. Give us plenty of time to get to Nice. Have you—left +any word for him?"</p> + +<p>"I have left a very short message," she answered, "to say that I was +going to marry you. He will never forgive me, and I feel very wicked and +very ungrateful."</p> + +<p>"Anything else?" he whispered, leaning a little towards her.</p> + +<p>She sighed.</p> + +<p>"And very happy," she murmured.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + +<h3>HONEYMOONING</h3> + + +<p>Hunterleys saw the Right Honourable Meredith Simpson and Monsieur +Douaille off to Paris early that morning. Then he called round at the +hospital to find that Sidney Roche was out of danger, and went on to the +villa with the good news. On his way back he stayed chatting with the +bank manager until rather later than usual, and afterwards strolled on +to the Terrace, where he looked with some eagerness towards a certain +point in the bay. The <i>Minnehaha</i> had departed. Mr. Grex and his +friends, then, had been set free. Hunterleys returned to the hotel +thoughtfully. At the entrance he came across two or three trunks being +wheeled out, which seemed to him somehow familiar. He stopped to look at +the initials. They were his wife's.</p> + +<p>"Is Lady Hunterleys leaving to-day?" he asked the luggage-porter.</p> + +<p>"By the evening train, sir," the man announced. "She would have caught +the <i>Côte d'Azur</i> this morning but there was no place on the train."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys was perplexed. Some time after luncheon he enquired for Lady +Hunterleys and found that she was not in the hotel. A reception clerk +thought that he had seen her go through on her way to the Sporting Club. +Hunterleys, after some moments of indecision, followed her. He was +puzzled at her impending departure, unable to account for it. The +Draconmeyers, he knew, proposed to stay for another month. He walked +thoughtfully along the private way and climbed the stairs into the Club. +He looked for his wife in her usual place. She was not there. He made a +little promenade of the rooms and eventually he found her amongst the +spectators around the baccarat table. He approached her at once.</p> + +<p>"You are not playing?"</p> + +<p>She started at the sound of his voice. She was dressed very simply in +travelling clothes, and there were lines under her eyes, as though she +were fatigued.</p> + +<p>"No," she admitted, "I am not playing."</p> + +<p>"I understood in the hotel," he continued, "that you were leaving +to-day."</p> + +<p>"I am going back to England," she announced. "It does not amuse me here +any longer."</p> + +<p>He realised at once that something had happened. A curious sense of +excitement stole into his blood.</p> + +<p>"If you are not playing here, will you come and sit down for a few +moments?" he invited. "I should like to talk to you."</p> + +<p>She followed him without a word. He led the way to one of the divans in +the roulette room.</p> + +<p>"Your favourite place," he remarked, "is occupied."</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"I have given up playing," she told him.</p> + +<p>He looked at her in some surprise. She drew a little breath and kept her +eyes steadily averted.</p> + +<p>"You will probably know sometime or other," she continued, "so I will +tell you now. I have lost four thousand pounds to Mr. Draconmeyer. I am +going back to England to realise my own money, so as to be able to pay +him at once."</p> + +<p>"You borrowed four thousand pounds from Mr. Draconmeyer?" he repeated +incredulously.</p> + +<p>"Yes! It was very foolish, I know, and I have lost every penny of it. I +am not the first woman, I suppose, who has lost her head at Monte +Carlo," she added, a little defiantly.</p> + +<p>"Does Mr. Draconmeyer know that you are leaving?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not yet," she answered, after a moment's hesitation. "I had an +interview with him yesterday and I realised at once that the money must +be paid, and without delay. I realised, too, that it was better I should +leave Monte Carlo and break off my association with these people for the +present."</p> + +<p>In a sense it was a sordid story, yet to Hunterleys her words sounded +like music.</p> + +<p>"I am very pleased indeed," he said quietly, "that you feel like that. +Draconmeyer is not a man to whom I should like my wife to owe money for +a moment longer than was absolutely necessary."</p> + +<p>"Your estimate of him was correct," she confessed slowly. "I am sorry, +Henry."</p> + +<p>He rose suddenly to his feet. An inspiration had seized him.</p> + +<p>"Come," he declared, "we will pay Draconmeyer back without sending you +home to sell your securities. Come and stand with me."</p> + +<p>She looked at him in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she exclaimed. "You are not going to play? Don't! Take my +advice and don't!"</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"We'll see," he replied confidently. "You wouldn't believe that I was a +fatalist, would you? I am, though. Everything that I had hoped for seems +to be happening to-day. You have found out Draconmeyer, we have +checkmated Mr. Grex, I have drunk the health of Felicia and David +Briston—"</p> + +<p>"Felicia and David Briston?" she interrupted quickly. "What do you +mean?"</p> + +<p>"You knew, of course, that they were engaged?" he explained. "I called +round at the villa this morning, after I had been to the hospital, and +found them busy fixing the wedding day."</p> + +<p>She looked at him vaguely.</p> + +<p>"Engaged?" she murmured. "Why, I thought—"</p> + +<p>A spot of colour suddenly burned in her cheeks. She was beginning to +understand. It was Draconmeyer who had put those ideas into her head. +Her heart gave a little leap.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>He was already at the table, however. He changed five mille notes +deliberately, counted his plaques and turned to her.</p> + +<p>"I am going to play on your principle," he declared. "I have always +thought it an interesting one. See, the last number was twenty-two. I am +going to back twenty and all the <i>carrés</i>."</p> + +<p>He covered the board around number twenty. There were a few minutes of +suspense, then the click as the ball fell into the little space.</p> + +<p>"<i>Vingt-huit, noir, passe et pair!</i>" the croupier announced.</p> + +<p>Hunterleys' stake was swept away. He only smiled.</p> + +<p>"Our numbers are going to turn up," he insisted cheerfully. "I am +certain of it now. Do you know that this is the first time I have played +since I have been in Monte Carlo?"</p> + +<p>She watched him half in fear. This time he staked on twenty-nine, with +the maximum <i>en plein</i> and all the <i>carrés</i> and <i>chevaux</i>. Again the few +moments of suspense, the click of the ball, the croupier's voice.</p> + +<p><i>"Vingt-neuf, noir, impair et passe!"</i></p> + +<p>She clutched at his arm.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she gasped.</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Open your bag," he directed. "We'll soon fill it."</p> + +<p>He left his stake untouched. Thirty-one turned up. He won two <i>carrés</i> +and let the table go once without staking. Ten was the next number. +Immediately he placed the maximum on number fourteen, <i>carrés</i> and +<i>chevaux</i>. Again the pause, again the croupier's voice.</p> + +<p><i>"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque!"</i></p> + +<p>Hunterleys showed no exultation and scarcely any surprise. He gathered +in his winnings and repeated his stake. This time he won one of his +<i>carrés</i>. The next time <i>quatorze</i> turned up again. For half-an-hour he +continued, following his few chosen numbers according to the run of the +table. At the end of that time Violet's satchel was full and he was +beginning to collect mille notes for his plaques. He made a little +calculation in his mind and decided that he must already have won more +than the necessary amount.</p> + +<p>"Our last stake," he remarked coolly.</p> + +<p>The preceding number had been twenty-six. He placed the maximum on +twenty-nine, the <i>carrés</i>, <i>chevaux</i>, the column, colour and last dozen. +He felt Violet's fingers clutching his arm. There was a little buzz of +excitement all round the table as the croupier announced the number.</p> + +<p><i>"Vingt-neuf noir, impair et passe!..."</i></p> + +<p>They took their winnings into the anteroom beyond, where Hunterleys +ordered tea. There was a little flush in Violet's cheeks. They counted +the money. There was nearly five thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>"Henry!" she exclaimed. "I think that that last coup was the most +marvellous win I ever saw!"</p> + +<p>"A most opportune one, at any rate," he replied grimly. "Look who is +coming."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer had entered the room, and was peering everywhere as though +in search of some one. He suddenly caught sight of them, hesitated for a +moment and then approached. He addressed himself to Violet.</p> + +<p>"I have just seen Linda," he said. "She is broken-hearted at the thought +of your departure."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to leave her," Violet replied, "but I feel that I have +stayed quite long enough in Monte Carlo. By the bye, Mr. Draconmeyer, +there is that little affair of the money you were kind enough to advance +to me."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer stood quite still. He looked from husband to wife.</p> + +<p>"Four thousand pounds, my wife tells me," Hunterleys remarked coolly, as +he began to count out the notes. "It is very good of you indeed to have +acted as my wife's banker. Do you mind being paid now? Our movements are +a little uncertain and it will save the trouble of sending you a +cheque."</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh, nor was it in the +least mirthful.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten that little matter. As you +will, certainly."</p> + +<p>He accepted the notes and stuffed them into his pocket.</p> + +<p>"By the bye," he continued, "I think that I ought to congratulate you, +Sir Henry. That last little affair of yours was wonderfully +stage-managed. Your country owes you more than it is ever likely to pay. +You have succeeded, at any rate, in delaying the inevitable."</p> + +<p>"I trust," Hunterleys enquired politely, "that you were not detained +upon the yacht for very long?"</p> + +<p>"We landed at the Villa at twelve o'clock this morning," Draconmeyer +replied. "You know, of course, of the little surprise our young American +friend had prepared for Mr. Grex?"</p> + +<p>Hunterleys shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I have heard nothing definite."</p> + +<p>"He was married to the daughter of the Grand Duke Augustus at midday at +Nice," Draconmeyer announced. "His Serene Highness received a telephone +message only a short time ago."</p> + +<p>Violet gave a little cry. She leaned across the table eagerly.</p> + +<p>"You mean that they have eloped?"</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer assented.</p> + +<p>"All Monte Carlo will be talking about it to-morrow," he declared. "The +Grand Duke has been doing all he can to get it hushed up, but it is +useless. I will not detain you any longer. I see that you are about to +have tea."</p> + +<p>"We shall meet, perhaps, in London?" Hunterleys remarked, as Draconmeyer +prepared to depart.</p> + +<p>Draconmeyer shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I think not," he replied. "The doctors have advised me that the climate +of England is bad for my wife's health, and I feel that my own work +there is finished. I have received an offer to go out to South America +for a time. Very likely I shall accept."</p> + +<p>He passed on with a final bow. Violet looked across their table and her +eyes shone.</p> + +<p>"It seems like a fairy tale, Henry," she whispered. "You don't know what +a load on my mind that money has been, and how I was growing to detest +Mr. Draconmeyer."</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"I was rather hating the beast myself," he admitted. "Tell me, what are +your plans, really?"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't made any," she confessed, "except to get away as quickly as I +could."</p> + +<p>He leaned a little across the table.</p> + +<p>"Elopements are rather in the fashion," he said. "What do you think? +Couldn't we have a little dinner at Ciro's and catch the last train to +Nice; have a look at Richard and his wife and then go on to Cannes, and +make our way back to England later?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him and his face grew younger. There was something in her +eyes which reminded him of the days which for so many weary months he +had been striving to forget.</p> + +<p>"Henry," she murmured, "I have been very foolish. If you can trust me +once more, I think I can promise that I'll never be half so idiotic +again."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet blithely.</p> + +<p>"It has been my fault just as much," he declared, "and the fault of +circumstances. I couldn't tell you the whole truth, but there has been a +villainous conspiracy going on here. Draconmeyer, Selingman, and the +Grand Duke were all in it and I have been working like a slave. Now it's +all over, finished this morning on Richard's yacht. We've done what we +could. I'm a free lance now and we'll spend the holidays together."</p> + +<p>She gave him her fingers across the table and he held them firmly in +his. Then she, too, rose and they passed out together. There was a +wonderful change in Hunterleys. He seemed to have grown years younger.</p> + +<p>"Come," he exclaimed, "they call this the City of Pleasure, but these +are the first happy moments I have spent in it. We'll gamble in +five-franc pieces for an hour or so. Then we'll go back to the hotel and +have our trunks sent down to the station, dine at Ciro's and wire +Richard. Where are you going to stake your money?"</p> + +<p>"I think I shall begin with number twenty-nine," she laughed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They lunched with Richard and his wife, a few days later, at the Casino +at Cannes. The change in the two young people was most impressive. +Fedora had lost the dignified aloofness of Monte Carlo. She seemed as +though she had found her girlhood. She was brilliantly, supremely happy. +Richard, on the other hand, was more serious. He took Hunterleys on one +side as they waited for the cars.</p> + +<p>"We are on our way to Biarritz," he said, "by easy stages. The yacht +will meet us there and we are going to sail at once for America."</p> + +<p>"Fedora doesn't mind?" Hunterleys asked.</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," Richard declared exultantly. "She knows what my duty +is, and, Hunterleys, I am going to try and do it. The people over there +may need a lot of convincing, but they are going to hear the truth from +me and have it drummed into them. It's going to be 'Wake up, America!' +as well as 'Wake up, England!'"</p> + +<p>"Stick at it, Richard," Hunterleys advised. "Don't mind a little +discouragement. Men who see the truth and aren't afraid to keep on +calling attention to it, get laughed at a great deal. People speak of +them tolerantly, listen to what they say, doubt its reasonableness and +put it at the back of their heads, but in the end it does good. Your +people and mine are slow to believe and slow to understand, but the +truth sinks in if one proclaims it often enough and loudly enough. We +are going through it in our own country just now, with regard to +National Service, for one thing. Here come your cars. You travel in +state, Richard."</p> + +<p>The young man laughed good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing in life which I could give her that Fedora sha'n't +have," he asserted. "We spent the first two days absolutely alone. Now +her maid and my man come along with the luggage in the heavy car, and we +take the little racer. Jolly hard work they have to keep anywhere near +us, I can tell you. Say, may I make a rather impertinent remark, Sir +Henry?"</p> + +<p>"You have earned the right to say anything to me you choose," Hunterleys +replied. "Go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's only this," Richard continued, a little awkwardly. "I have +never seen Lady Hunterleys look half so ripping, and you seem years +younger."</p> + +<p>Hunterleys smiled.</p> + +<p>"To tell you the truth, I feel it. You see, years ago, when we started +out for our honeymoon, there was a crisis after the first week and we +had to rush back to England. We seem to have forgotten to ever finish +that honeymoon of ours. We are doing it now."</p> + +<p>The two women came down the steps, the cynosure of a good many eyes, the +two most beautiful women in the Casino. Richard helped his wife into her +place, wrapped her up and took the steering wheel.</p> + +<p>"Hyères to-night and Marseilles to-morrow," he announced, "Biarritz on +Saturday. We shall stay there for a week, and then—'Wake up, America!'"</p> + +<p>The cars glided off. Hunterleys and his wife stood on the steps, waving +their hands.</p> + +<p>"Something about those children," Hunterleys declared, as they vanished, +"makes me feel absurdly young. Let's go shopping, Violet. I want to buy +you some flowers and chocolates."</p> + +<p>She smiled happily as she took his arm for a moment.</p> + +<p>"And then?"</p> + +<p>"What would you like to do afterwards?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I think," she replied, leaning towards him, "that I should like to go +to that nice Englishman who lets villas, and find one right at the edge +of the sea, quite hidden, and lock the gates, and give no one our +address, and have you forget for just one month that there was any work +to do in the world, or any one else in it except me."</p> + +<p>"Just to make up," he laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"Women are like that, you know," she murmured.</p> + +<p>"The man's office is this way," Hunterleys said, turning off the main +street.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="E_Phillips_Oppenheims_Novels" id="E_Phillips_Oppenheims_Novels"></a>E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels</h2> + +<p>We do not stop to inquire into the measure of his art any more than we +inquire into that of Alexander Dumas. We only realize that here is a +benefactor of tired men and women seeking relaxation.—<i>Independent</i>, +New York.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An amazing revelation of war in the making.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Vanished Messenger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What resulted when the Powers conspired against England.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A People's Man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How a socialistic leader became involved in international affairs.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oppenheim in a new vein—a pure comedy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Mischief-Maker<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A blending of love, romance, and international intrigue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Lighted Way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mystery story that involves the revolution in Portugal.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Havoc<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An engrossing story of love, mystery, and international intrigue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peter Ruff and the Double-Four<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deals with a shrewd detective and a mysterious secret society.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Moving Finger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A mystifying story dealing with a wealthy M. P.'s experiment.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Berenice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A masterly tale of a strong love that is tragic in its outcome.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Prince of Sinners<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An engrossing story of English social and political life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Anna the Adventuress<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A surprising tale of a bold deception.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Master Mummer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The strange romance of beautiful Isobel de Sorrens.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Mysterious Mr. Sabin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The ingenious story of a bold international intrigue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Yellow Crayon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mr. Sabin's exciting experiences with a powerful secret society.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Millionaire of Yesterday<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A gripping story of a wealthy West African miner.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Man and His Kingdom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A dramatic tale of adventure in South America.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Traitors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A capital romance of love, adventure, and Russian intrigue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Betrayal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thrilling story of treachery in high diplomatic circles.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Sleeping Memory<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The story of an unhappy girl who was deprived of her memory.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Enoch Strone: A Master of Men<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tremendously strong story of a self-made man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Maker of History<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A daring tale that "explains" a great historical event.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Malefactor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An amazing story of a strange revenge.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Lost Leader<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A realistic romance woven around a striking personality.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Great Secret<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unfolds a stupendous international conspiracy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Avenger<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unravels the deepest of mysteries with consummate power.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Long Arm of Mannister<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deals with a wronged man's ingenious revenge.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Tempting of Tavernake<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In which an unromantic Englishman falls in love and learns something<br /></span> +<span class="i0">about women.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Governors<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A romance of the intrigues of American finance.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Jeanne of the Marshes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange doings at an English house party are here set forth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As a Man Lives<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Discloses the mystery surrounding the fair occupant of a yellow house.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Illustrious Prince<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exposes a Japanese political intrigue in London.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Lost Ambassador<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A straightforward mystery tale of Paris and London.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Daughter of the Marionis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tale of a beautiful Sicilian whose love interfered with her revenge.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An ingenious solution of a murder mystery.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Survivor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A striking story of a young Englishman's uphill fight.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The World's Great Snare<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The love romance of a pretty American girl and an English prospector.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Those Other Days<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A collection of gripping and vivid stories.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the Queen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Remarkable stories of diplomatic scandals and political intrigue.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, by E. Phillips Oppenheim + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + +***** This file should be named 20611-h.htm or 20611-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/1/20611/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Phillips Oppenheim + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo + +Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim + +Illustrator: Will Grefe + +Release Date: February 17, 2007 [EBook #20611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO + + BY E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM + +AUTHOR OF "THE VANISHED MESSENGER," "A PEOPLE'S MAN," "THE MISCHIEF +MAKER" + + + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +WILL GREFE + +BOSTON +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY +1915 + +THE COLONIAL PRESS +C. H. SIMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + + +[Illustration: She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed +number fourteen _en plein_.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. An Unexpected Meeting + + II. By Accident or Design + + III. A Warning + + IV. Enter the American + + V. "Who is Mr. Grex?" + + VI. Cakes and Counsels + + VII. The Effrontery of Richard + + VIII. Up the Mountain + + IX. In the Mists + + X. Signs of Trouble + + XI. Hints to Hunterleys + + XII. "I Cannot Go!" + + XIII. Miss Grex at Home + + XIV. Dinner for Two + + XV. International Politics + + XVI. A Bargain with Jean Coulois + + XVII. Duty Interferes Again + + XVIII. A Midnight Conference + + XIX. "Take Me Away!" + + XX. Wily Mr. Draconmeyer + + XXI. Assassination! + + XXII. The Wrong Man + + XXIII. Trouble Brewing + + XXIV. Hunterleys Scents Murder + + XXV. Draconmeyer is Desperate + + XXVI. Extraordinary Love-Making + + XXVII. Playing for High Stakes + + XXVIII. To the Villa Mimosa + + XXIX. For His Country + + XXX. "Supposing I Take This Money" + + XXXI. Nearing a Crisis + + XXXII. An Interesting Meeting + + XXXIII. The Fates Are Kind + + XXXIV. Coffee for One Only + + XXXV. A New Map of the Earth + + XXXVI. Checkmate! + + XXXVII. An Amazing Elopement + +XXXVIII. Honeymooning + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +She leaned across and with trembling fingers backed number fourteen _en +plein_ + +"For the last time, then--to Monte Carlo!" + +"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted + +"What we ask of France is that she looks the other way" + +"That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a cemetery to +which they take him!" + +Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side and Monsieur +Douaille on the other, were in the van. + + + + +MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN UNEXPECTED MEETING + + +The eyes of the man who had looked in upon a scene inordinately, +fantastically brilliant, underwent, after those first few moments of +comparative indifference, a curious transformation. He was contemplating +one of the sights of the world. Crowded around the two roulette tables, +promenading or lounging on the heavily cushioned divans against the +wall, he took note of a conglomeration of people representing, perhaps, +every grade of society, every nationality of importance, yet with a +curious common likeness by reason of their tribute paid to fashion. He +glanced unmoved at a beautiful Englishwoman who was a duchess but looked +otherwise; at an equally beautiful Frenchwoman, who looked like a +duchess but was--otherwise. On every side of him were women gowned by +the great artists of the day, women like flowers, all perfume and +softness and colour. His eyes passed them over almost carelessly. A +little tired with many weeks' travel in countries where the luxuries of +life were few, his senses were dulled to the magnificence of the scene, +his pulses as yet had not responded to its charm and wonder. And then +the change came. He saw a woman standing almost exactly opposite to him +at the nearest roulette table, and he gave a noticeable start. For a +moment his pale, expressionless face was transformed, his secret was at +any one's mercy. That, however, was the affair of an instant only. He +was used to shocks and he survived this one. He moved a little on one +side from his prominent place in the centre of the wide-flung doorway. +He stood by one of the divans and watched. + +She was tall and fair and slight. She wore a high-necked gown of +shimmering grey, a black hat, under which her many coils of hair shone +like gold, and a necklace of pearls around her throat, pearls on which +his eyes had rested with a curious expression. She played, unlike many +of her neighbours, with restraint, yet with interest, almost enthusiasm. +There was none of the strain of the gambler about her smooth, beautiful +face. Her delicately curved lips were free from the grim lines of +concentrated acquisitiveness. She was thirty-two years old but she +looked much younger as she stood there, her lips a little parted in a +pleased smile of anticipation. She was leaning a little over the table +and her eyes were fixed with humorous intentness upon the spinning +wheel. Even amongst that crowd of beautiful women she possessed a +certain individual distinction. She not only looked what she was--an +Englishwoman of good birth--but there was a certain delicate aloofness +about her expression and bearing which gave an added charm to a +personality which seemed to combine the two extremes of provocativeness +and reserve. One would have hesitated to address to her even the chance +remarks which pass so easily between strangers around the tables. + +"Violet here!" the man murmured under his breath. "Violet!" + +There was tragedy in the whisper, a gleam of something like tragedy, +too, in the look which passed between the man and the woman a few +moments later. With her hands full of plaques which she had just won, +she raised her eyes at last from the board. The smile upon her lips was +the delighted smile of a girl. And then, as she was in the act of +sweeping her winnings into her gold bag, she saw the man opposite. The +smile seemed to die from her lips; it appeared, indeed, to pass with all +else of expression from her face. The plaques dropped one by one through +her fingers, into the satchel. Her eyes remained fixed upon him as +though she were looking upon a ghost. The seconds seemed drawn out into +a grim hiatus of time. The croupier's voice, the muttered imprecation of +a loser by her side, the necessity of making some slight movement in +order to allow the passage of an arm from some one in search of +change--some such trifle at last brought her back from the shadows. Her +expression became at once more normal. She did not remove her eyes but +she very slightly inclined her head towards the man. He, in return, +bowed very gravely and without a smile. + +The table in front of her was cleared now. People were beginning to +consider their next coup. The voice of the croupier, with his +parrot-like cry, travelled down the board. + +_"Faites vos jeux, mesdames et messieurs."_ + +The woman made no effort to stake. After a moment's hesitation she +yielded up her place, and moving backwards, seated herself upon an empty +divan. Rapidly the thoughts began to form themselves in her mind. Her +delicate eyebrows drew closer together in a distinct frown. After that +first shock, that queer turmoil of feeling, beyond analysis, yet having +within it some entirely unexpected constituent, she found herself +disposed to be angry. The sensation had not subsided when a moment or +two later she was conscious that the man whose coming had proved so +disturbing was standing before her. + +"Good afternoon," he said, a little stiffly. + +She raised her eyes. The frown was still upon her forehead, although to +a certain extent it was contradicted by a slight tremulousness of the +lips. + +"Good afternoon, Henry!" + +For some reason or other, further speech seemed to him a difficult +matter. He moved towards the vacant place. + +"If you have no objection," he observed, as he seated himself. + +She unfurled her fan--an ancient but wonderful weapon of defence. It +gave her a brief respite. Then she looked at him calmly. + +"Of all places in the world," she murmured, "to meet you here!" + +"Is it so extraordinary?" + +"I find it so," she admitted. "You don't at all fit in, you know. A +scene like this," she added, glancing around, "would scarcely ever be +likely to attract you for its own sake, would it?" + +"It doesn't particularly," he admitted. + +"Then why have you come?" + +He remained silent. The frown upon her forehead deepened. + +"Perhaps," she went on coldly, "I can help you with your reply. You have +come because you are not satisfied with the reports of the private +detective whom you have engaged to watch me. You have come to supplement +them by your own investigation." + +His frown matched hers. The coldness of his tone was rendered even more +bitter by its note of anger. + +"I am surprised that you should have thought me capable of such an +action," he declared. "All I can say is that it is thoroughly in keeping +with your other suspicions of me, and that I find it absolutely +unworthy." + +She laughed a little incredulously, not altogether naturally. + +"My dear Henry," she protested, "I cannot flatter myself that there is +any other person in the world sufficiently interested in my movements to +have me watched." + +"Are you really under the impression that that is the case?" he enquired +grimly. + +"It isn't a matter of impression at all," she retorted. "It is the +truth. I was followed from London, I was watched at Cannes, I am watched +here day by day--by a little man in a brown suit and a Homburg hat, and +with a habit of lounging. He lounges under my windows, he is probably +lounging across the way now. He has lounged within fifty yards of me for +the last three weeks, and to tell you the truth I am tired of him. +Couldn't I have a week's holiday? I'll keep a diary and tell you all +that you want to know." + +"Is it sufficient," he asked, "for me to assure you, upon my word of +honour, that I know nothing of this?" + +She was somewhat startled. She turned and looked at him. His tone was +convincing. He had not the face of a man whose word of honour was a +negligible thing. + +"But, Henry," she protested, "I tell you that there is no doubt about +the matter. I am watched day and night--I, an insignificant person whose +doings can be of no possible interest save to you and you only." + +The man did not at once reply. His thoughts seemed to have wandered off +for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone had lost its note of +resentment. + +"I do not blame you for your suspicion," he said calmly, "although I can +assure you that I have never had any idea of having you watched. It is +not a course which could possibly have suggested itself to me, even in +my most unhappy moments." + +She was puzzled--at once puzzled and interested. + +"I am so glad to hear this," she said, "and of course I believe you, but +there the fact is. I think that you will agree with me that it is +curious." + +"Isn't it possible," he ventured to suggest, "that it is your companions +who are the object of this man's vigilance? You are not, I presume, +alone here?" + +She eyed him a little defiantly. + +"I am here," she announced, "with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +He heard her without any change of expression, but somehow or other it +was easy to see that her news, although more than half expected, had +stung him. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer," he repeated, with slight emphasis on the +latter portion of the sentence. + +"Certainly! I am sorry," she went on, a moment late, "that my companions +do not meet with your approval. That, however, I could scarcely expect, +considering--" + +"Considering what?" he insisted, watching her steadfastly. + +"Considering all things," she replied, after a moment's pause. + +"Mrs. Draconmeyer is still an invalid?" + +"She is still an invalid." + +The slightly satirical note in his question seemed to provoke a certain +defiance in her manner as she turned a little sideways towards him. She +moved her fan slowly backwards and forwards, her head was thrown back, +her manner was almost belligerent. He took up the challenge. He asked +her in plain words the question which his eyes had already demanded. + +"I find myself constrained to ask you," he said, in a studiously +measured tone, "by what means you became possessed of the pearls you are +wearing? I do not seem to remember them as your property." + +Her eyes flashed. + +"Don't you think," she returned, "that you are a little outstepping your +privileges?" + +"Not in the least," he declared. "You are my wife, and although you have +defied me in a certain matter, you are still subject to my authority. I +see you wearing jewels in public of which you were certainly not +possessed a few months ago, and which neither your fortune nor mine--" + +"Let me set your mind at rest," she interrupted icily. "The pearls are +not mine. They belong to Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +"Mrs. Draconmeyer!" + +"I am wearing them," she continued, "at Linda's special request. She is +too unwell to appear in public and she is very seldom able to wear any +of her wonderful jewelry. It gives her pleasure to see them sometimes +upon other people." + +He remained quite silent for several moments. He was, in reality, +passionately angry. Self-restraint, however, had become such a habit of +his that there were no indications of his condition save in the slight +twitchings of his long fingers and a tightening at the corners of his +lips. She, however, recognised the symptoms without difficulty. + +"Since you defy my authority," he said, "may I ask whether my wishes +have any weight with you?" + +"That depends," she replied. + +"It is my earnest wish," he went on, "that you do not wear another +woman's jewelry, either in public or privately." + +She appeared to reflect for a moment. In effect she was struggling +against a conviction that his request was reasonable. + +"I am sorry," she said at last. "I see no harm whatever in my doing so +in this particular instance. It gives great pleasure to poor Mrs. +Draconmeyer to see her jewels and admire them, even if she is unable to +wear them herself. It gives me an intense joy which even a normal man +could scarcely be expected to understand; certainly not you. I am sorry +that I cannot humour you." + +He leaned towards her. + +"Not if I beg you?" + +She looked at him fixedly, looked at him as though she searched for +something in his face, or was pondering over something in his tone. It +was a moment which might have meant much. If she could have seen into +his heart and understood the fierce jealousy which prompted his words, +it might have meant a very great deal. As it was, her contemplation +appeared to be unsatisfactory. + +"I am sorry that you should lay so much stress upon so small a thing," +she said. "You were always unreasonable. Your present request is another +instance of it. I was enjoying myself very much indeed until you came, +and now you wish to deprive me of one of my chief pleasures. I cannot +humour you." + +He turned away. Even then chance might have intervened. The moment her +words had been spoken she realised a certain injustice in them, realised +a little, perhaps, the point of view of this man who was still her +husband. She watched him almost eagerly, hoping to find some sign in his +face that it was not only his stubborn pride which spoke. She failed, +however. He was one of those men who know too well how to wear the mask. + +"May I ask where you are staying here?" he enquired presently. + +"At the Hotel de Paris." + +"It is unfortunate," he observed. "I will move my quarters to-morrow." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"Monte Carlo is full of hotels," she remarked, "but it seems a pity that +you should move. The place is large enough for both of us." + +"It is not long," he retorted, "since you found London itself too small. +I should be very sorry to spoil your holiday." + +Her eyes seemed to dwell for a moment upon the Spanish dancer who sat at +the table opposite them, a woman whose name had once been a household +word, dethroned now, yet still insistent for notice and homage; +commanding them, even, with the wreck of her beauty and the splendour of +her clothes. + +"It seems a queer place, this," she observed, "for domestic +disagreements. Let us try to avoid disputable subjects. Shall I be too +inquisitive if I ask you once more what in the name of all that is +unsuitable brought you to such a place as Monte Carlo?" + +He fenced with her question. Perhaps he resented the slightly ironical +note in her tone. Perhaps there were other reasons. + +"Why should I not come to Monte Carlo?" he enquired. "Parliament is not +particularly amusing when one is in opposition, and I do not hunt. The +whole world amuses itself here." + +"But not you," she replied quickly. "I know you better than that, my +dear Henry. There is nothing here or in this atmosphere which could +possibly attract you for long. There is no work for you to do--work, the +very breath of your body; work, the one thing you live for and were made +for; work, you man of sawdust and red tape." + +"Am I as bad as all that?" he asked quietly. + +She fingered her pearls for a moment. + +"Perhaps I haven't the right to complain," she acknowledged. "I have +gone my own way always. But if one is permitted to look for a moment +into the past, can you tell me a single hour when work was not the +prominent thought in your brain, the idol before which you worshipped? +Why, even our honeymoon was spent canvassing!" + +"The election was an unexpected one," he reminded her. + +"It would have been the same thing," she declared. "The only literature +which you really understand is a Blue Book, and the only music you hear +is the chiming of Big Ben." + +"You speak," he remarked, "as though you resented these things. Yet you +knew before you married me that I had ambitions, that I did not propose +to lead an idle life." + +"Oh, yes, I knew!" she assented drily. "But we are wandering from the +point. I am still wondering what has brought you here. Have you come +direct from England?" + +He shook his head. + +"I came to-day from Bordighera." + +"More and more mysterious," she murmured. "Bordighera, indeed! I thought +you once told me that you hated the Riviera." + +"So I do," he agreed. + +"And yet you are here?" + +"Yet I am here." + +"And you have not come to look after me," she went on, "and the mystery +of the little brown man who watches me is still unexplained." + +"I know nothing about that person," he asserted, "and I had no idea that +you were here." + +"Or you would not have come?" she challenged him. + +"Your presence," he retorted, nettled into forgetting himself for a +moment, "would not have altered my plans in the slightest." + +"Then you have a reason for coming!" she exclaimed quickly. + +He gave no sign of annoyance but his lips were firmly closed. She +watched him steadfastly. + +"I wonder at myself no longer," she continued. "I do not think that any +woman in the world could ever live with a man to whom secrecy is as +great a necessity as the very air he breathes. No wonder, my dear Henry, +the politicians speak so well of you, and so confidently of your +brilliant future!" + +"I am not aware," he observed calmly, "that I have ever been unduly +secretive so far as you are concerned. During the last few months, +however, of our life together, you must remember that you chose to +receive on terms of friendship a person whom I regard--" + +Her eyes suddenly flashed him a warning. He dropped his voice almost to +a whisper. A man was approaching them. + +"As an enemy," he concluded, under his breath. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN + + +The newcomer, who had presented himself now before Hunterleys and his +wife, was a man of somewhat unusual appearance. He was tall, +thickly-built, his black beard and closely-cropped hair were streaked +with grey, he wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and he carried his head a +little thrust forward, as though, even with the aid of his glasses, he +was still short-sighted. He had the air of a foreigner, although his +tone, when he spoke, was without accent. He held out his hand a little +tentatively, an action, however, which Hunterleys appeared to ignore. + +"My dear Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "This is a surprise, indeed! Monte +Carlo is absolutely the last place in the world in which I should have +expected to come across you. The Sporting Club, too! Well, well, well!" + +Hunterleys, standing easily with his hands behind his back, raised his +eyebrows. The two men were of curiously contrasting types. Hunterleys, +slim and distinguished, had still the frame of an athlete, +notwithstanding his colourless cheeks and the worn lines about his eyes. +He was dressed with extreme simplicity. His deep-set eyes and sensitive +mouth were in marked contrast to the other's coarser mould of features +and rather full lips. Yet there was about both men an air of strength, +strength developed, perhaps, in a different manner, but still an +appreciable quality. + +"They say that the whole world is here," Hunterleys remarked. "Why may +not I form a harmless unit of it?" + +"Why not, indeed?" Draconmeyer assented heartily. "The most serious of +us must have our frivolous moments. I hope that you will dine with us +to-night? We shall be quite alone." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Thank you," he said, "I have another engagement pending." + +Mr. Draconmeyer was filled with polite regrets, but he did not renew the +invitation. + +"When did you arrive?" he asked. + +"A few hours ago," Hunterleys replied. + +"By the Luxe? How strange! I went down to meet it." + +"I came from the other side." + +"Ah!" + +Mr. Draconmeyer's ejaculation was interrogative, Hunterleys hesitated +for a moment. Then he continued with a little shrug of the shoulders. + +"I have been staying at San Remo and Bordighera." + +Mr. Draconmeyer was much interested. + +"So that is where you have been burying yourself," he remarked. "I saw +from the papers that you had accepted a six months' pair. Surely, +though, you don't find the Italian Riviera very amusing?" + +"I am abroad for a rest," Hunterleys replied. + +Mr. Draconmeyer smiled curiously. + +"A rest?" he repeated. "That rather belies your reputation, you know. +They say that you are tireless, even when you are out of office." + +Hunterleys turned from the speaker towards his wife. + +"I have not tempted fortune myself yet," he observed. "I think that I +shall have a look into the baccarat room. Do you care to stroll that +way?" + +Lady Hunterleys rose at once to her feet. Mr. Draconmeyer, however, +intervened. He laid his fingers upon Hunterleys' arm. + +"Sir Henry," he begged, "our meeting has been quite unexpected, but in a +sense it is opportune. Will you be good enough to give me five minutes' +conversation?" + +"With pleasure," Hunterleys replied. "My time is quite at your disposal, +if you have anything to say." + +Draconmeyer led the way out of the crowded room, along the passage and +into the little bar. They found a quiet corner and two easy-chairs. +Draconmeyer gave an order to a waiter. For a few moments their +conversation was conventional. + +"I trust that you think your wife looking better for the change?" +Draconmeyer began. "Her companionship is a source of great pleasure and +relief to my poor wife." + +"Does the conversation you wish to have with me refer to Lady +Hunterleys?" her husband asked quietly. "If so, I should like to say a +few preliminary words which would, I hope, place the matter at once +beyond the possibility of any misunderstanding." + +Draconmeyer moved a little uneasily in his place. + +"I have other things to say," he declared, "yet I would gladly hear what +is in your mind at the present moment. You do not, I fear, approve of +this friendship between my wife and Lady Hunterleys." + +Hunterleys was uncompromising, almost curt. + +"I do not," he agreed. "It is probably no secret to you that my wife and +I are temporarily estranged," he continued. "The chief reason for that +estrangement is that I forbade her your house or your acquaintance." + +Draconmeyer was a little taken back. Such extreme directness of speech +was difficult to deal with. + +"My dear Sir Henry," he protested, "you distress me. I do not understand +your attitude in this matter at all." + +"There is no necessity for you to understand it," Hunterleys retorted +coolly. "I claim the right to regulate my wife's visiting list. She +denies that right." + +"Apart from the question of marital control," Mr. Draconmeyer persisted, +"will you tell me why you consider my wife and myself unfit persons to +find a place amongst Lady Hunterleys' acquaintances?" + +"No man is bound to give the reason for his dislikes," Hunterleys +replied. "Of your wife I know nothing. Nobody does. I have every +sympathy with her unfortunate condition, and that is all. You personally +I dislike. I dislike my wife to be seen with you, I dislike having her +name associated with yours in any manner whatsoever. I dislike sitting +with you here myself. I only hope that the five minutes' conversation +which you have asked for will not be exceeded." + +Mr. Draconmeyer had the air of a benevolent person who is deeply pained. + +"Sir Henry," he sighed, "it is not possible for me to disregard such +plain speaking. Forgive me if I am a little taken aback by it. You are +known to be a very skilful diplomatist and you have many weapons in your +armoury. One scarcely expected, however--one's breath is a little taken +away by such candour." + +"I am not aware," Hunterleys said calmly, "that the question of +diplomacy need come in when one's only idea is to regulate the personal +acquaintances of oneself and one's wife." + +Mr. Draconmeyer sat quite still for a moment, stroking his black beard. +His eyes were fixed upon the carpet. He seemed to be struggling with a +problem. + +"You have taken the ground from beneath my feet," he declared. "Your +opinion of me is such that I hesitate to proceed at all in the matter +which I desired to discuss with you." + +"That," Hunterleys replied, "is entirely for you to decide. I am +perfectly willing to listen to anything you have to say--all the more +ready because now there can be no possibility of any misunderstanding +between us." + +"Very well," Mr. Draconmeyer assented, "I will proceed. After all, I am +not sure that the personal element enters into what I was about to say. +I was going to propose not exactly an alliance--that, of course, would +not be possible--but I was certainly going to suggest that you and I +might be of some service to one another." + +"In what way?" + +"I call myself an Englishman," Mr. Draconmeyer went on. "I have made +large sums of money in England, I have grown to love England and English +ways. Yet I came, as you know, from Berlin. The position which I hold in +your city is still the position of president of the greatest German bank +in the world. It is German finance which I have directed, and with +German money I have made my fortune. To be frank with you, however, +after these many years in London I have grown to feel myself very much +of an Englishman." + +Hunterleys was sitting perfectly still. His face was rigid but +expressionless. He was listening intently. + +"On the other hand," Mr. Draconmeyer proceeded slowly, "I wish to be +wholly frank with you. At heart I must remain always a German. The +interests of my country must always be paramount. But listen. In Germany +there are, as you know, two parties, and year by year they are drawing +further apart. I will not allude to factions. I will speak broadly. +There is the war party and there is the peace party. I belong to the +peace party. I belong to it as a German, and I belong to it as a devoted +friend of England, and if the threatened conflict between the two should +come, I should take my stand as a peace-loving German-cum-Englishman +against the war party even of my own country." + +Hunterleys still made no sign. Yet for one who knew him it was easy to +realise that he was listening and thinking with absorbed interest. + +"So far," Draconmeyer pointed out, "I have laid my cards on the table. I +have told you the solemn truth. I regret that it did not occur to me to +do so many months ago in London. Now to proceed. I ask you to emulate my +frankness, and in return I will give you information which should enable +us to work hand in hand for the peace which we both desire." + +"You ask me," Hunterleys said thoughtfully, "to be perfectly frank with +you. In what respect? What is it that you wish from me?" + +"Not political information," Mr. Draconmeyer declared, his eyes blinking +behind his glasses. "For that I certainly should not come to you. I only +wish to ask you a question, and I must ask it so that we may meet on a +common ground of confidence. Are you here in Monte Carlo to look after +your wife, or in search of change of air and scene? Is that your honest +motive for being here? Or is there any other reason in the world which +has prompted you to come to Monte Carlo during this particular month--I +might almost say this particular week?" + +Hunterleys' attitude was that of a man who holds in his hand a puzzle +and is doubtful where to commence in his efforts to solve it. + +"Are you not a little mysterious this afternoon, Mr. Draconmeyer?" he +asked coldly. "Or are you trying to incite a supposititious curiosity? I +really cannot see the drift of your question." + +"Answer it," Mr. Draconmeyer insisted. + +Hunterleys took a cigarette from his case, tapped it upon the table and +lit it in leisurely fashion. + +"If you have any idea," he said, "that I came here to confront my wife, +or to interfere in any way with her movements, let me assure you that +you are mistaken. I had no idea that Lady Hunterleys was in Monte Carlo. +I am here because I have a six months' holiday, and a holiday for the +average Englishman between January and April generally means, as you +must be aware, the Riviera. I have tried Bordighera and San Remo. I have +found them, as I no doubt shall find this place, wearisome. In the end I +suppose I shall drift back to London." + +Mr. Draconmeyer frowned. + +"You left London," he remarked tersely, "on December first. It is to-day +February twentieth. Do you wish me to understand that you have been at +Bordighera and San Remo all that time?" + +"How did you know when I left London?" Hunterleys demanded. + +Mr. Draconmeyer pursed his lips. + +"I heard of your departure from London entirely by accident," he said. +"Your wife, for some reason or other, declined to discuss your +movements. I imagine that she was acting in accordance with your +wishes." + +"I see," Hunterleys observed coolly. "And your present anxiety is to +know where I spent the intervening time, and why I am here in Monte +Carlo? Frankly, Mr. Draconmeyer, I look upon this close interest in my +movements as an impertinence. My travels have been of no importance, but +they concern myself only. I have no confidence to offer respecting them. +If I had, it would not be to you that I should unburden myself." + +"You suspect me, then? You doubt my integrity?" + +"Not at all," Hunterleys assured his questioner. "For anything I know to +the contrary, you are, outside the world of finance, one of the dullest +and most harmless men existing. My own position is simply as I explained +it during the first few sentences we exchanged. I do not like you, I +detest my wife's name being associated with yours, and for that reason, +the less I see of you the better I am pleased." + +Mr. Draconmeyer nodded thoughtfully. He was, to all appearance, studying +the pattern of the carpet. For once in his life he was genuinely +puzzled. Was this man by his side merely a jealous husband, or had he +any idea of the greater game which was being played around them? Had he, +by any chance, arrived to take part in it? Was it wise, in any case, to +pursue the subject further? Yet if he abandoned it at this juncture, it +must be with a sense of failure, and failure was a thing to which he was +not accustomed. + +"Your frankness," he admitted grimly, "is almost exhilarating. Our +personal relations being so clearly defined, I am inclined to go further +even than I had intended. We cannot now possibly misunderstand one +another. Supposing I were to tell you that your arrival in Monte Carlo, +accidental though it may be, is in a sense opportune; that you may, in a +short time meet here one or two politicians, friends of mine, with whom +an interchange of views might be agreeable? Supposing I were to offer my +services as an intermediary? You would like to bring about better +relations with my country, would you not, Sir Henry? You are admittedly +a statesman and an influential man in your Party. I am only a banker, it +is true, but I have been taken into the confidence of those who direct +the destinies of my country." + +Hunterleys' face reflected none of the other's earnestness. He seemed, +indeed, a little bored, and he answered almost irritably. + +"I am much obliged to you," he said, "but Monte Carlo seems scarcely the +place to me for political discussions, added to which I have no official +position. I could not receive or exchange confidences. While my Party is +out of power, there is nothing left for us but to mark time. I dare say +you mean well, Mr. Draconmeyer," he added, rising to his feet, "but I am +here to forget politics altogether, if I can. If you will excuse me, I +think I will look in at the baccarat rooms." + +He was on the point of departure when through the open doorway which +communicated with the baccarat rooms beyond came a man of sufficiently +arresting personality, a man remarkably fat, with close-cropped grey +hair which stuck up like bristles all over his head; a huge, +clean-shaven face which seemed concentrated at that moment in one +tremendous smile of overwhelming good-humour. He held by the hand a +little French girl, dark, small, looking almost like a marionette in her +slim tailor-made costume. He recognised Draconmeyer with enthusiasm. + +"My friend Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, in stentorian tones, "baccarat is +the greatest game in the world. I have won--I, who know nothing about +it, have won a hundred louis. It is amazing! There is no place like this +in the world. We are here to drink a bottle of wine together, +mademoiselle and I, mademoiselle who was at once my instructress and my +mascot. Afterwards we go to the jeweler's. Why not? A fair division of +the spoils--fifty louis for myself, fifty louis for a bracelet for +mademoiselle. And then--" + +He broke off suddenly. His gesture was almost dramatic. + +"I am forgotten!" he cried, holding out his hand to +Hunterleys,--"forgotten already! Sir Henry, there are many who forget me +as a humble Minister of my master, but there are few who forget me +physically. I am Selingman. We met in Berlin, six years ago. You came +with your great Foreign Secretary." + +"I remember you perfectly," Hunterleys assured him, as he submitted to +the newcomer's vigorous handshake. "We shall meet again, I trust." + +Selingman thrust his arm through Hunterleys' as though to prevent his +departure. + +"You shall not run away!" he declared. "I introduce both of you--Mr. +Draconmeyer, the great Anglo-German banker; Sir Henry Hunterleys, the +English politician--to Mademoiselle Estelle Nipon, of the Opera House. +Now we all know one another. We shall be good friends. We will share +that bottle of champagne." + +"One bottle between four!" mademoiselle laughed, poutingly. "And I am +parched! I have taught monsieur baccarat. I am exhausted." + +"A magnum!" Selingman ordered in a voice of thunder, shaking his fist at +the startled waiter. "We seat ourselves here at the round table. +Mademoiselle, we will drink champagne together until the eyes of all of +us sparkle as yours do. We will drink champagne until we do not believe +that there is such a thing as losing at games or in life. We will drink +champagne until we all four believe that we have been brought up +together, that we are bosom friends of a lifetime. See, this is how we +will place ourselves. Mademoiselle, if the others make love to you, take +no notice. It is I who have put fifty louis in one pocket for that +bracelet. Do not trust Sir Henry there; he has a reputation." + +As usual, the overpowering Selingman had his way. Neither Draconmeyer +nor Hunterleys attempted to escape. They took their places at the table. +They drank champagne and they listened to Selingman. All the time he +talked, save when mademoiselle interrupted him. Seated upon a chair +which seemed absurdly inadequate, his great stomach with its vast +expanse of white waistcoat in full view, his short legs doubled up +beneath him, he beamed upon them all with a smile which never failed. + +"It is a wonderful place," he declared, as he lifted his glass for the +fifth time. "We will drink to it, this Monte Carlo. It is here that they +come from all quarters of the world--the ladies who charm away our +hearts," he added, bowing to mademoiselle, "the financiers whose word +can shake the money-markets of the world, and the politicians who +unbend, perhaps, just a little in the sunshine here, however cold and +inflexible they may be under their own austere skies. For the last time, +then--to Monte Carlo! To Monte Carlo, dear mademoiselle!--messieurs!" + +[Illustration: "For the last time, then--to Monte Carlo!"] + +They drank the toast and a few minutes later Hunterleys slipped away. +The two men looked after him. The smile seemed gradually to leave +Selingman's lips, his face was large and impressive. + +"Run and fetch your cloak, dear," he said to the girl. + +She obeyed at once. Selingman leaned across the table towards his +companion. + +"What does Hunterleys do here?" he asked. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"Who knows?" he answered. "Perhaps he has come to look after his wife. +He has been to Bordighera and San Remo." + +"Is that all he told you of his movements?" + +"That is all," Draconmeyer admitted. "He was suspicious. I made no +progress." + +"Bordighera and San Remo!" Selingman muttered under his breath. "For a +day, perhaps, or two." + +"What do you know about him?" Draconmeyer asked, his eyes suddenly +bright beneath his spectacles. "I have been suspicious ever since I met +him, an hour ago. He left England on December first." + +"It is true," Selingman assented. "He crossed to Paris, and--mark the +cunning of it--he returned to England. That same night he travelled to +Germany. We lost him in Vienna and found him again in Sofia. What does +it mean, I wonder? What does it mean?" + +"I have been talking to him for twenty minutes in here before you came," +Draconmeyer said. "I tried to gain his confidence. He told me nothing. +He never even mentioned that journey of his." + +Selingman was sitting drumming upon the table with his broad fingertips. + +"Sofia!" he murmured. "And now--here! Draconmeyer, there is work before +us. I know men, I tell you. I know Hunterleys. I watched him, I listened +to him in Berlin six years ago. He was with his master then but he had +nothing to learn from him. He is of the stuff diplomats are fashioned +of. He has it in his blood. There is work before us, Draconmeyer." + +"If monsieur is ready!" mademoiselle interposed, a little petulantly, +letting the tip of her boa play for a moment on his cheek. + +Selingman finished his wine and rose to his feet. Once more the smile +encompassed his face. Of what account, after all, were the wanderings of +this melancholy Englishman! There was mademoiselle's bracelet to be +bought, and perhaps a few flowers. Selingman pulled down his waistcoat +and accepted his grey Homburg hat from the vestiaire. He held +mademoiselle's fingers as they descended the stairs. He looked like a +school-boy of enormous proportions on his way to a feast. + +"We drank to Monte Carlo in champagne," he declared, as they turned on +to the terrace and descended the stone steps, "but, dear Estelle, we +drink to it from our hearts with every breath we draw of this wonderful +air, every time our feet touch the buoyant ground. Believe me, little +one, the other things are of no account. The true philosophy of life and +living is here in Monte Carlo. You and I will solve it." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WARNING + + +Hunterleys dined alone at a small round table, set in a remote corner of +the great restaurant attached to the Hotel de Paris. The scene around +him was full of colour and interest. A scarlet-coated band made +wonderful music. The toilettes of the women who kept passing backwards +and forwards, on their way to the various tables, were marvellous; in +their way unique. The lights and flowers of the room, its appointments +and adornments, all represented the last word in luxury. Everywhere was +colour, everywhere an almost strained attempt to impress upon the +passerby the fact that this was no ordinary holiday resort but the giant +pleasure-ground of all in the world who had money to throw away and the +capacity for enjoyment. Only once a more somber note seemed struck when +Mrs. Draconmeyer, leaning on her husband's arm and accompanied by a +nurse and Lady Hunterleys, passed to their table. Hunterleys' eyes +followed the little party until they had reached their destination and +taken their places. His wife was wearing black and she had discarded the +pearls which had hung around her neck during the afternoon. She wore +only a collar of diamonds, his gift. Her hair was far less elaborately +coiffured and her toilette less magnificent than the toilettes of the +women by whom she was surrounded. Yet as he looked from his corner +across the room at her, Hunterleys realised as he had realised instantly +twelve years ago when he had first met her, that she was incomparable. +There was no other woman in the whole of that great restaurant with her +air of quiet elegance; no other woman so faultless in the smaller +details of her toilette and person. Hunterleys watched with +expressionless face but with anger growing in his heart, as he saw +Draconmeyer bending towards her, accepting her suggestions about the +dinner, laughing when she laughed, watching almost humbly for her +pleasure or displeasure. It was a cursed mischance which had brought him +to Monte Carlo! + +Hunterleys hurried over his dinner, and without even going to his room +for a hat or coat, walked across the square in the soft twilight of an +unusually warm February evening and took a table outside the Cafe de +Paris, where he ordered coffee. Around him was a far more cosmopolitan +crowd, increasing every moment in volume. Every language was being +spoken, mostly German. As a rule, such a gathering of people was, in its +way, interesting to Hunterleys. To-night his thoughts were truant. He +forgot his strenuous life of the last three months, the dangers and +discomforts through which he had passed, the curious sequence of events +which had brought him, full of anticipation, nerved for a crisis, to +Monte Carlo of all places in the world. He forgot that he was in the +midst of great events, himself likely to take a hand in them. His +thoughts took, rarely enough for him, a purely personal and sentimental +turn. He thought of the earliest days of his marriage, when he and his +wife had wandered about the gardens of his old home in Wiltshire on +spring evenings such as these, and had talked sometimes lightly, +sometimes seriously, of the future. Almost as he sat there in the midst +of that noisy crowd, he could catch the faint perfume of hyacinths from +the borders along which they had passed and the trimly-cut flower-beds +which fringed the deep green lawn. Almost he could hear the chiming of +the old stable clock, the clear note of a thrush singing. A puff of wind +brought them a waft of fainter odour from the wild violets which +carpeted the woods. Then the darkness crept around them, a star came +out. Hand in hand they turned towards the house and into the library, +where a wood fire was burning on the grate. His thoughts travelled on. A +wave of tenderness had assailed him. Then he was awakened by the +waiter's voice at his elbow. + +"Le cafe, monsieur." + +He sat up in his chair. His dreaming moments were few and this one had +passed. He set his heel upon that tide of weakening memories, sipped his +coffee and looked out upon the crowd. Three or four times he glanced at +his watch impatiently. Precisely at nine o'clock, a man moved from +somewhere in the throng behind and took the vacant chair by his side. + +"If one could trouble monsieur for a match!" + +Hunterleys turned towards the newcomer as he handed his matchbox. He was +a young man of medium height, with sandy complexion, a little freckled, +and with a straggling fair moustache. He had keen grey eyes and the +faintest trace of a Scotch accent. He edged his chair a little nearer to +Hunterleys. + +"Much obliged," he said. "Wonderful evening, isn't it?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Have you anything to tell me, David?" he asked. + +"We are right in the thick of it," the other replied, his tone a little +lowered. "There is more to tell than I like." + +"Shall we stroll along the Terrace?" Hunterleys suggested. + +"Don't move from your seat," the young man enjoined. "You are watched +here, and so am I, in a way, although it's more my news they want to +censor than anything personal. This crowd of Germans around us, without +a single vacant chair, is the best barrier we can have. Listen. +Selingman is here." + +"I saw him this afternoon at the Sporting Club," Hunterleys murmured. + +"Douaille will be here the day after to-morrow, if he has not already +arrived," the newcomer continued. "It was given out in Paris that he was +going down to Marseilles and from there to Toulon, to spend three days +with the fleet. They sent a paragraph into our office there. As a matter +of fact, he's coming straight on here. I can't learn how, exactly, but I +fancy by motor-car." + +"You're sure that Douaille is coming himself?" Hunterleys asked +anxiously. + +"Absolutely! His wife and family have been bustled down to Mentone, so +as to afford a pretext for his presence here if the papers get hold of +it. I have found out for certain that they came at a moment's notice and +were not expecting to leave home at all. Douaille will have full powers, +and the conference will take place at the Villa Mimosa. That will be the +headquarters of the whole thing.... Look out, Sir Henry. They've got +their eyes on us. The little fellow in brown, close behind, is hand in +glove with the police. They tried to get me into a row last night. It's +only my journalism they suspect, but they'd shove me over the frontier +at the least excuse. They're certain to try something of the sort with +you, if they get any idea that we are on the scent. Sit tight, sir, and +watch. I'm off. You know where to find me." + +The young man raised his hat and left Hunterleys with the polite +farewell of a stranger. His seat was almost immediately seized by a +small man dressed in brown, a man with a black imperial and moustache +curled upwards. As Hunterleys glanced towards him, he raised his Hamburg +hat politely and smiled. + +"Monsieur's friend has departed?" he enquired. "This seat is +disengaged?" + +"As you see," Hunterleys replied. + +The little man smiled his thanks, seated himself with a sigh of content +and ordered coffee from a passing waiter. + +"Monsieur is doubtless a stranger to Monte Carlo?" + +"It is my second visit only," Hunterleys admitted. + +"For myself I am an habitue," the little man continued, "I might almost +say a resident. Therefore, all faces soon become familiar to me. +Directly I saw monsieur, I knew that he was not a frequenter." + +Hunterleys turned a little in his chair and surveyed his neighbour +curiously. The man was neatly dressed and he spoke English with scarcely +any accent. His shoulders and upturned moustache gave him a military +appearance. + +"There is nothing I envy any one so much in life," he proceeded, "as +coming to Monte Carlo for the first or second time. There is so much to +know, to see, to understand." + +Hunterleys made no effort to discourage his companion's obvious attempts +to be friendly. The latter talked with spirit for some time. + +"If it would not be regarded as a liberty," he said at last, as +Hunterleys rose to move off, "may I be permitted to present myself? My +name is Hugot? I am half English, half French. Years ago my health broke +down and I accepted a position in a bank here. Since then I have come in +to money. If I have a hobby in life, it is to show my beloved Monte +Carlo to strangers. If monsieur would do me the honour to spare me a few +hours to-night, later on, I would endeavour to see that he was amused." + +Hunterleys shook his head. He remained, however, perfectly courteous. He +had a conviction that this was the man who had been watching his wife. + +"You are very kind, sir," he replied. "I am here only for a few days and +for the benefit of my health. I dare not risk late hours. We shall meet +again, I trust." + +He strolled off and as he hesitated upon the steps of the Casino he +glanced across towards the Hotel de Paris. At that moment a woman came +out, a light cloak over her evening gown. She was followed by an +attendant. Hunterleys recognised his wife and watched them with a +curious little thrill. They turned towards the Terrace. Very slowly he, +too, moved in the same direction. They passed through the gardens of the +Hotel de Paris, and Hunterleys, keeping to the left, met them upon the +Terrace as they emerged. As they came near he accosted them. + +"Violet," he began. + +She started. + +"I beg your pardon," she said. "I did not recognise you." + +"Haven't you been told," he asked stiffly, "that the Terrace is unsafe +for women after twilight?" + +"Very often," she assented, with that little smile at the corners of her +lips which once he had found so charming and which now half maddened +him. "Unfortunately, I have a propensity for doing things which are +dangerous. Besides, I have my maid." + +"Another woman is no protection," he declared. + +"Susanne can shriek," Lady Hunterleys assured him. "She has wonderful +lungs and she loves to use them. She would shriek at the least +provocation." + +"And meanwhile," Hunterleys observed drily, "while she is indulging in +her vocal exercises, things happen. If you wish to promenade here, +permit me to be your escort." + +She hesitated for a moment, frowning. Then she continued her walk. + +"You are very kind," she assented. "Perhaps you are like me, though, and +feel the restfulness of a quiet place after these throngs and throngs of +people." + +They passed slowly down the broad promenade, deserted now save for one +or two loungers like themselves, and a few other furtive, hurrying +figures. In front of them stretched an arc of glittering lights--the +wonderful Bay of Mentone, with Bordighera on the distant sea-board; +higher up, the twinkling lights from the villas built on the rocky +hills. And at their feet the sea, calm, deep, blue, lapping the narrow +belt of hard sand, scintillating with the reflection of a thousand +lights; on the horizon a blood-red moon, only half emerged from the sea. + +"Since we have met, Henry," Lady Hunterleys said at last, "there is +something which I should like to say to you." + +"Certainly!" + +She glanced behind. Susanne had fallen discreetly into the rear. She was +a new importation and she had no idea as to the identity of the tall, +severe-looking Englishman who walked by her mistress's side. + +"There is something going on in Monte Carlo," Lady Hunterleys went on, +"which I cannot understand. Mr. Draconmeyer knows about it, I believe, +although he is not personally concerned in it. But he will tell me +nothing. I only know that for some reason or other your presence here +seems to be an annoyance to certain people. Why it should be I don't +know, but I want to ask you about it. Will you tell me the truth? Are +you sure that you did not come here to spy upon me?" + +"I certainly did not," Hunterleys answered firmly. "I had no idea that +you were near the place. If I had--" + +She turned her head. The smile was there once more and a queer, soft +light in her eyes. + +"If you had?" she murmured. + +"My visit here, under the present circumstances, would have been more +distasteful than it is," Hunterleys replied stiffly. + +She bit her lip and turned away. When she resumed the conversation, her +tone was completely changed. + +"I speak to you now," she said, "in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer +is, of course, not personally connected with this affair, whatever it +may be, but he is a wonderful man and he hears many things. To-night, +before dinner, he gave me a few words of warning. He did not tell me to +pass them on to you but I feel sure that he hoped I would. You would not +listen to them from him because you do not like him. I am afraid that +you will take very little more heed of what I say, but at least you will +believe that I speak in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer believes +that your presence here is misunderstood. A person whom he describes as +being utterly without principle and of great power is incensed by it. To +speak plainly, you are in danger." + +"I am flattered," Hunterleys remarked, "by this interest on my behalf." + +She turned her head and looked at him. His face, in this cold light +before the moon came up, was almost like the face of some marble statue, +lifeless, set, of almost stonelike severity. She knew the look so well +and she sighed. + +"You need not be," she replied bitterly. "Mine is merely the ordinary +feeling of one human creature for another. In a sense it seems absurd, I +suppose, to speak to you as I am doing. Yet I do know that this place +which looks so beautiful has strange undercurrents. People pass away +here in the most orthodox fashion in the world, outwardly, but their +real ending is often never known at all. Everything is possible here, +and Mr. Draconmeyer honestly believes that you are in danger." + +They had reached the end of the Terrace and they turned back. + +"I thank you very much, Violet," Hunterleys said earnestly. "In return, +may I say something to you? If there is any danger threatening me or +those interests which I guard, the man whom you have chosen to make your +intimate friend is more deeply concerned in it than you think. I told +you once before that Draconmeyer was something more than the great +banker, the king of commerce, as he calls himself. He is ambitious +beyond your imaginings, a schemer in ways you know nothing of, and his +residence in London during the last fifteen years has been the worst +thing that ever happened for England. To me it is a bitter thing that +you should have ignored my warning and accepted his friendship--" + +"It is not Mr. Draconmeyer who is my friend, Henry," she interrupted. +"You continually ignore that fact. It is Mrs. Draconmeyer whom I cannot +desert. I knew her long before I did her husband. We were at school +together, and there was a time before her last illness when we were +inseparable." + +"That may have been so at first," Hunterleys agreed, "but how about +since then? You cannot deny, Violet, that this man Draconmeyer has in +some way impressed or fascinated you. You admire him. You find great +pleasure in his society. Isn't that the truth, now, honestly?" + +Her face was a little troubled. + +"I do certainly find pleasure in his society," she admitted. "I cannot +conceive any one who would not. He is a brilliant, a wonderful musician, +a delightful talker, a generous host and companion. He has treated me +always with the most scrupulous regard, and I feel that I am entirely +reasonable in resenting your mistrust of him." + +"You do resent it still, then?" + +"I do," she asserted emphatically. + +"And if I told you," Hunterleys went on, "that the man was in love with +you. What then?" + +"I should say that you were a fool!" + +Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders. + +"There is no more to be said," he declared, "only, for a clever woman, +Violet, you are sometimes woefully or wilfully blind. I tell you that I +know the type. Sooner or later--before very long, I should think--you +will have the usual scene. I warn you of it now. If you are wise, you +will go back to England." + +"Absurd!" she scoffed. "Why, we have only just come! I want to win some +money--not that your allowance isn't liberal enough," she added hastily, +"but there is a fascination in winning, you know. And besides, I could +not possibly desert Mrs. Draconmeyer. She would not have come at all if +I had not joined them." + +"You are the mistress of your own ways," Hunterleys said. "According to +my promise, I shall attempt to exercise no authority over you in any +way, but I tell you that Draconmeyer is my enemy, and the enemy of all +the things I represent, and I tell you, too, that he is in love with +you. When you realise that these things are firmly established in my +brain, you can perhaps understand how thoroughly distasteful I find your +association with him here. It is all very well to talk about Mrs. +Draconmeyer, but she goes nowhere. The consequence is that he is your +escort on every occasion. I am quite aware that a great many people in +society accept him. I personally am not disposed to. I look upon him as +an unfit companion for my wife and I resent your appearance with him in +public." + +"We will discuss this subject no further," she decided. "From the moment +of our first disagreement, it has been your object to break off my +friendship with the Draconmeyers. Until I have something more than words +to go by, I shall continue to give him my confidence." + +They crossed the stone flags in front of the Opera together, and turned +up towards the Rooms. + +"I think, perhaps, then," he said, "that we may consider the subject +closed. Only," he added, "you will forgive me if I still--" + +He hesitated. She turned her head quickly. Her eyes sought his but +unfortunately he was looking straight ahead and seeing gloomy things. If +he had happened to turn at that moment, he might have concluded his +speech differently. + +"If I still exhibit some interest in your doings." + +"I shall always think it most kind of you," she replied, her face +suddenly hardening. "Have I not done my best to reciprocate? I have even +passed on to you a word of warning, which I think you are very unwise to +ignore." + +They were outside the hotel. Hunterleys paused. + +"I have nothing to fear from the mysterious source you have spoken of," +he assured her. "The only enemy I have in Monte Carlo is Draconmeyer +himself." + +"Enemy!" she repeated scornfully. "Mr. Draconmeyer is much too wrapped +up in his finance, and too big a man, in his way, to have enemies. Oh, +Henry, if only you could get rid of a few of your prejudices, how much +more civilised a human being you would be!" + +He raised his hat. His expression was a little grim. + +"The man without prejudices, my dear Violet," he retorted, "is a man +without instincts.... I wish you luck." + +She ran lightly up the steps and waved her hand. He watched her pass +through the doors into the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ENTER THE AMERICAN + + +Lady Weybourne was lunching on the terrace of Ciro's restaurant with her +brother. She was small, dark, vivacious. Her friends, of whom she had +thousands, all called her Flossie, and she was probably the most popular +American woman who had ever married into the English peerage. Her +brother, Richard Lane, on the other hand, was tall, very +broad-shouldered, with a strong, clean-shaven face, inclined by +disposition to be taciturn. On this particular morning he had less even +than usual to say, and although Lady Weybourne, who was a great +chatterbox, was content as a rule to do most of the talking for herself, +his inattention became at last a little too obvious. He glanced up +eagerly as every newcomer appeared, and his answers to his sister's +criticisms were sometimes almost at random. + +"Dicky, I'm not at all sure that I'm liking you this morning," she +observed finally, looking across at him with a critically questioning +smile. "A certain amount of non-responsiveness to my advances I can put +up with--from a brother--but this morning you are positively +inattentive. Tell me your troubles at once. Has Harris been bothering +you, or did you lose a lot of money last night?" + +Considering that the young man's income was derived from an exceedingly +well-invested capital of nine million dollars, and that Harris was the +all too perfect captain of his yacht lying then in the harbour, whose +worst complaint was that he had never enough work to do, Lady +Weybourne's enquiries might have been considered as merely tentative. +Richard shook his head a little gloomily. + +"Those things aren't likely to trouble me," he remarked. "Harris is all +right, and I've promised him we'll make up a little party and go over to +Cannes in a day or two." + +"What a ripping idea!" Lady Weybourne declared, breaking up her thin +toast between her fingers. "I'd love it, and so would Harry. We could +easily get together a delightful party. The Pelhams are here and simply +dying for a change, and there's Captain Gardner and Frank Clowes, and +lots of nice girls. Couldn't we fix a date, Dick?" + +"Not just yet," her brother replied. + +"And why not?" + +"I am waiting," he told her, "until I can ask the girl I want to go." + +"And why can't you now?" she demanded, with upraised eyebrows. "I'll be +hostess and chaperone all in one." + +"I can't ask her because I don't know her yet," the young man explained +doggedly. + +Lady Weybourne leaned back in her chair and laughed. + +"So that's it!" she exclaimed. "Now I know why you're sitting there like +an owl this morning! In love with a fair unknown, are you, Dick? Be +careful. Monte Carlo is full of young ladies whom it would be just as +well to know a little about before you thought of taking them yachting." + +"This one isn't that sort," the young man said. + +"How do you know that?" she asked, leaning across the table, her head +resting on her clasped hands. + +He looked at her almost contemptuously. + +"How do I know!" he repeated. "There are just one or two things that +happen in this world which a man can be utterly and entirely sure of. +She is one of them. Say, Flossie," he added, the enthusiasm creeping at +last into his tone, "you never saw any one quite like her in all your +life!" + +"Do I know her, I wonder?" Lady Weybourne enquired. + +"That's just what I've asked you here to find out," her brother replied +ingenuously. "I heard her tell the man she was with this morning--her +father, I believe--about an hour ago, that she would be at Ciro's at +half-past one. It's twenty minutes to two now." + +Lady Weybourne laughed heartily. + +"So that's why you dragged me out of bed and made me come to lunch with +you! Dick, what a fraud you are! I was thinking what a dear, +affectionate brother you were, and all the time you were just making use +of me." + +"Sorry," the young man said briskly, "but, after all, we needn't stand +on ceremony, need we? I've always been your pal; gave you a leg up with +the old man, you know, when he wasn't keen on the British alliance." + +She nodded. + +"Oh, I'll do what I can for you," she promised. "If she is any one in +particular I expect I shall know her. What's happening, Dick?" + +The young man's face was almost transformed. His eyes were bright and +very fixed. His lips had come together in a firm, straight line, as +though he were renewing some promise to himself. Lady Weybourne followed +the direction of his gaze. A man and a girl had reached the entrance to +the restaurant and were looking around them as though to select a table. +The chief maitre d'hotel had hastened out to receive them. They were, +without doubt, people of importance. The man was of medium height, with +iron-grey hair and moustache, and a small imperial. He wore light +clothes of perfect cut; patent shoes with white linen gaiters; a black +tie fastened with a pin of opals. He carried himself with an air which +was unmistakable and convincing. The girl by his side was beautiful. She +was simply dressed in a tailor-made gown of white serge. Her black hat +was a miracle of smartness. Her hair was of a very light shade of +golden-brown, her complexion wonderfully fair. Lady Weybourne glanced at +her shoes and gloves, at the bag which she was carrying, and the handle +of her parasol. Then she nodded approvingly. + +"You don't know her?" Richard asked, in a disappointed whisper. + +She shook her head. + +"Sorry," she admitted, "but I don't. They've probably only just +arrived." + +With great ceremony the newcomers were conducted to the best table upon +the terrace. The man was evidently an habitue. He had scarcely taken his +seat before, with a very low bow, the sommelier brought him a small +wine-glass filled with what seemed to be vermouth. While he sipped it he +smoked a Russian cigarette and with a gold pencil wrote out the menu of +his luncheon. In a few minutes the manager himself came hurrying out +from the restaurant. His salute was almost reverential. When, after a +few moments' conversation, he departed, he did so with the air of one +taking leave of royalty. Lady Weybourne, who was an inquisitive little +person, was puzzled. + +"I don't know who they are, Dick," she confessed, "but I know the ways +of this place well, and I can tell you one thing--they are people of +importance. You can tell that by the way they are received. These +restaurant people don't make mistakes." + +"Of course they are people of importance," the young man declared. "Any +one can see that by a glance at the girl. I am sorry you don't know +them," he went on, "but you've got to find out who they are, and pretty +quickly, too. Look here, Flossie. I am a bit useful to you now and then, +aren't I?" + +"Without you, my dear Dick," she murmured, "I should never be able to +manage those awful trustees. You are invaluable, a perfect jewel of a +brother." + +"Well, I'll give you that little electric coupe you were so keen on last +time we were in London, if you'll get me an introduction to that girl +within twenty-four hours." + +Lady Weybourne gasped. + +"What a whirlwind!" she exclaimed. "Dicky, are you, by any chance, in +earnest?" + +"In earnest for the first time in my life," he assured her. "Something +has got hold of me which I'm not going to part with." + +She considered him reflectively. He was twenty-seven years of age, and +notwithstanding the boundless opportunities of his youth and great +wealth he had so far shown an almost singular indifference to the whole +of the opposite sex, from the fascinating chorus girls of London and New +York to the no less enterprising young women of his own order. As she +sat there studying his features, she felt a sensation almost of awe. +There was something entirely different, something stronger in his face. +She thought for a moment of their father as she had known him in her +childhood, the founder of their fortunes, a man who had risen from a +moderate position to immense wealth through sheer force of will, of +pertinacity. For the first time she saw the same look upon her brother's +face. + +"Well," she sighed, "I shall do my best to earn it. I only hope, Dick, +that she is--" + +"She is what?" he demanded, looking at her steadfastly. + +"Oh! not engaged or anything, I mean," Lady Weybourne explained hastily. +"I must admit, Dick, although I don't suppose any sister is particularly +keen upon her brother's young women, that I think you've shown excellent +taste. She is absolutely the best style of any one I've seen in Monte +Carlo." + +"How are you going to manage that introduction?" he asked bluntly. "Have +you made any plans?" + +"I don't suppose it will be difficult," she assured him, lighting a +cigarette and shaking her head at the tray of liqueurs which the +sommelier was offering. "Get me some cream for my coffee, Dick. Now I'll +tell you," she continued, as the waiter disappeared. "You will have to +call that under-maitre d'hotel. You had better give him a substantial +tip and ask him quietly for their names. Then I'll see about the rest." + +"That seems sensible enough," he admitted. + +"And look here, Dick," she went on, "I know how impetuous you are. Don't +do anything foolish. Remember this isn't an ordinary adventure. If you +go rushing in upon it you'll come to grief." + +"I know," he answered shortly. "I was fool enough to hang about the +flower shops and that milliner's this morning. I couldn't help it. I +don't know whether she noticed. I believe she did. Once our eyes did +meet, and although I'll swear she never changed her expression, I felt +that the whole world didn't hold so small a creature as I. Here comes +Charles. I'll ask him." + +He beckoned to the maitre d'hotel and talked for a moment about the +luncheon. Then he ordered a table for the next day, and slipping a louis +into the man's hand, leaned over and whispered in his ear. + +"I want you to tell me the name of the gentleman and young lady who are +sitting over there at the corner table?" + +The maitre d'hotel glanced covertly in the direction indicated. He did +not at once reply. His face was perplexed, almost troubled. + +"I am very sorry, sir," he said hesitatingly, "but our orders are very +strict. Monsieur Ciro does not like anything in the way of gossip about +our clients, and the gentleman is a very honoured patron. The young lady +is his daughter." + +"Quite right," the young man agreed bluntly. "This isn't an ordinary +case, Charles. You go over to the desk there, write me down the name and +bring it, and there's a hundred franc note waiting here for you. No need +for the name to pass your lips." + +The man bowed and retreated. In a few minutes he came back again and +laid a small card upon the table. + +"Monsieur will pardon my reminding him," he begged earnestly, "but if he +will be so good as to never mention this little matter--" + +Richard nodded and waved him away. + +"Sure!" he promised. + +He drew the card towards him and looked at it in a puzzled manner. Then +he passed it to his sister. Her expression, too, was blank. + +"Who in the name of mischief," he exclaimed softly, "is Mr. Grex!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"WHO IS MR. GREX?" + + +Lady Weybourne insisted, after a reasonable amount of time spent over +their coffee, that her brother should pay the bill and leave the +restaurant. They walked slowly across the square. + +"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. + +"There is only one thing to be done," she replied. "I shall speak to +every one I meet this afternoon--I shall be, in fact, most sociable--and +sooner or later in our conversation I shall ask every one if they know +Mr. Grex and his daughter. When I arrive at some one who does, that will +be the first step, won't it?" + +"I wonder whether we shall see some one soon!" he grumbled, looking +around. "Where are all the people to-day!" + +She laughed softly. + +"Just a little impetuous, aren't you?" + +"I should say so," he admitted. "I'd like to be introduced to her before +four o'clock, propose to her this evening, and--and--" + +"And what?" + +"Never mind," he concluded, marching on with his head turned towards the +clouds. "Let's go and sit down upon the Terrace and talk about her." + +"But, my dear Dicky," his sister protested, "I don't want to sit upon +the Terrace. I am going to my dressmaker's across the way there, and +afterwards to Lucie's to try on some hats. Then I am going back to the +hotel for an hour's rest and to prink, and afterwards into the Sporting +Club at four o'clock. That's my programme. I shall be doing what I can +the whole of the time. I shall make discreet enquiries of my dressmaker, +who knows everybody, and I sha'n't let a single acquaintance go by. You +will have to amuse yourself till four o'clock, at any rate. There's Sir +Henry Hunterleys over there, having coffee. Go and talk to him. He may +put you out of your misery. Thanks ever so much for my luncheon, and au +revoir!" + +She turned away with a little nod. Her brother, after a moment's +hesitation, approached the table where Hunterleys was sitting alone. + +"How do you do, Sir Henry?" + +Hunterleys returned his greeting, a little blankly at first. Then he +remembered the young man and held out his hand. + +"Of course! You are Richard Lane, aren't you? Sit down and have some +coffee. What are you doing here?" + +"I've got a little boat in the harbour," Richard replied, as he drew up +a chair. "I've been at Algiers for a time with some friends, and I've +brought them on here. Just been lunching with my sister. Are you alone?" + +Hunterleys hesitated. + +"Yes, I am alone." + +"Wonderful place," the young man went on. "Wonderful crowd of people +here, too. I suppose you know everybody?" he added, warming up as he +approached his subject. + +"On the contrary," Hunterleys answered, "I am almost a stranger here. I +have been staying further down the coast." + +"Happen to know any one of the name of Grex?" Lane asked, with elaborate +carelessness. + +Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He seemed to be considering the +name. + +"Grex," he repeated, knocking the ash from his cigarette. "Rather an +uncommon name, isn't it? Why do you ask?" + +"Oh, I've seen an elderly man and a young lady about once or twice," +Lane explained. "Very interesting-looking people. Some one told me that +their name was Grex." + +"There is a person living under that name, I think," Hunterleys said, +"who has taken the Villa Mimosa for the season." + +"Do you know him personally?" the young man asked eagerly. + +"Personally? No, I can scarcely say that I do." + +Richard Lane sighed. It was disappointment number one. For some reason +or other, too, Hunterleys seemed disposed to change the conversation. + +"The young lady who is always with him," Richard persisted, "would that +be his daughter?" + +Hunterleys turned a little in his seat and surveyed his questioner. He +had met Lane once or twice and rather liked him. + +"Look here, young fellow," he said, good humouredly, "let me ask you a +question for a change. What is the nature of these enquiries of yours?" + +Lane hesitated. Something in Hunterleys' face and manner induced him to +tell the truth. + +"I have fallen head over heels in love with the young lady," he +confessed. "Don't think I am a confounded jackass. I am not in the habit +of doing such things. I'm twenty-seven and I have never gone out of my +way to meet a girl yet. This is something--different. I want to find out +about them and get an introduction." + +Hunterleys shook his head regretfully. + +"I am afraid," he said, "that I can be of no use to you--no practical +use, that is. I can only give you one little piece of advice." + +"Well, what is it?" Richard asked eagerly. + +"If you are in earnest," Hunterleys continued, "and I will do you the +credit to believe that you are, you had better pack up your things, +return to your yacht and take a cruise somewhere." + +"Take a cruise somewhere!" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Get out of Monte Carlo as quickly as you can, and, above all, don't +think anything more of that young lady. Get the idea out of your head as +quickly as you can." + +The young man was sitting upright in his chair. His manner was half +minatory. + +"Say, what do you mean by this?" he demanded. + +"Exactly what I said just now," Hunterleys rejoined. "If you are in +earnest, and I have no doubt that you are, I should clear out." + +"What is it you are trying to make me understand?" Richard asked +bluntly. + +"That you have about as much chance with that young lady," Hunterleys +assured him, "as with that very graceful statue in the square yonder." + +Richard sat for a moment with knitted brows. + +"Then you know who she is, any way?" + +"Whether I do or whether I do not," the older man said gravely, "so far +as I am concerned, the subject is exhausted. I have given you the best +advice you ever had in your life. It's up to you to follow it." + +Richard looked at him blankly. + +"Well, you've got me puzzled," he confessed. + +Hunterleys rose to his feet, and, summoning a waiter, paid his bill. + +"You'll excuse me, won't you?" he begged. "I have an appointment in a +few minutes. If you are wise, young man," he added, patting him on the +shoulder as he turned to go, "you will take my advice." + +Left to himself, Richard Lane strolled around the place towards the +Terrace. He had no fancy for the Rooms and he found a seat as far +removed as possible from the Tir du Pigeons. He sat there with folded +arms, looking out across the sun-dappled sea. His matter-of-fact brain +offered him but one explanation as to the meaning of Hunterleys' words, +and against that explanation his whole being was in passionate revolt. +He represented a type of young man who possesses morals by reason of a +certain unsuspected idealism, mingled with perfect physical sanity. It +seemed to him, as he sat there, that he had been waiting for this day +for years. The old nights in New York and Paris and London floated +before his memory. He pushed them on one side with a shiver, and yet +with a curious feeling of exultation. He recalled a certain sensation +which had been drawn through his life like a thin golden thread, a +sensation which had a habit of especially asserting itself in the midst +of these youthful orgies, a curious sense of waiting for something to +happen, a sensation which had been responsible very often for what his +friends had looked upon as eccentricity. He knew now that this thing had +arrived, and everything else in life seemed to pale by the side of it. +Hunterleys' words had thrown him temporarily into a strange turmoil. +Solitude for a few moments he had felt to be entirely necessary. Yet +directly he was alone, directly he was free to listen to his +convictions, he could have laughed at that first mad surging of his +blood, the fierce, instinctive rebellion against the conclusion to which +Hunterleys' words seemed to point. Now that he was alone, he was not +even angry. No one else could possibly understand! + +Before long he was once more upon his feet, starting out upon his quest +with renewed energy. He had scarcely taken a dozen steps, however, when +he came face to face with Lady Hunterleys and Mr. Draconmeyer. Quite +oblivious of the fact that they seemed inclined to avoid him, he greeted +them both with unusual warmth. + +"Saw your husband just now, Lady Hunterleys," he remarked, a little +puzzled. "I fancied he said he was alone here." + +She smiled. + +"We did not come together," she explained; "in fact, our meeting was +almost accidental. Henry had been at Bordighera and San Remo and I came +out with Mr. and Mrs. Draconmeyer." + +The young man nodded and turned towards Draconmeyer, who was standing a +little on one side as though anxious to proceed. + +"Mr. Draconmeyer doesn't remember me, perhaps. I met him at my sister's, +Lady Weybourne's, just before Christmas." + +"I remember you perfectly," Mr. Draconmeyer assured him courteously. "We +have all been admiring your beautiful yacht in the harbour there." + +"I was thinking of getting up a little cruise before long," Richard +continued. "If so, I hope you'll all join us. Flossie is going to be +hostess, and the Montressors are passengers already." + +They murmured something non-committal. Lady Hunterleys seemed as though +about to pass on but Lane blocked the way. + +"I only arrived the other day from Algiers," he went on, making frantic +efforts to continue the conversation. "I brought Freddy Montressor and +his sister, and Fothergill." + +"Mr. Montressor has come to the Hotel de Paris," Lady Hunterleys +remarked. "What sort of weather did you have in Algiers?" + +"Ripping!" the young man replied absently, entirely oblivious of the +fact that they had been driven away by incessant rain. "This place is +much more fun, though," he added, with sudden inspiration. "Crowds of +interesting people. I suppose you know every one?" + +Lady Hunterleys shook her head. + +"Indeed I do not. Mr. Draconmeyer here is my guide. He is as good as a +walking directory." + +"I wonder if either of you know some people named Grex?" Richard asked, +with studious indifference. + +Mr. Draconmeyer for the first time showed some signs of interest. He +looked at their questioner steadfastly. + +"Grex," he repeated. "A very uncommon name." + +"Very uncommon-looking people," Richard declared. "The man is elderly, +and looks as though he took great care of himself--awfully well turned +out and all that. The daughter is--good-looking." + +Mr. Draconmeyer took off his gold-rimmed spectacles and rubbed them with +his handkerchief. + +"Why do you ask?" he enquired. "Is this just curiosity?" + +"Rather more than that," Richard said boldly. "It's interest." + +Mr. Draconmeyer readjusted his spectacles. + +"Mr. Grex," he announced, "is a gentleman of great wealth and +illustrious birth, who has taken a very magnificent villa and desires +for a time to lead a life of seclusion. That is as much as I or any one +else knows." + +"What about the young lady?" Richard persisted. + +"The young lady," Mr. Draconmeyer answered, "is, as you surmised, his +daughter.... Shall we finish our promenade, Lady Hunterleys?" + +Richard stood grudgingly a little on one side. + +"Mr. Draconmeyer," he said desperately, "do you think there'd be any +chance of my getting an introduction to the young lady?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer at first smiled and then began to laugh, as though +something in the idea tickled him. He looked at the young man and +Richard hated him. + +"Not the slightest in the world, I should think," he declared. "Good +afternoon!" + +Lady Hunterleys joined in her companion's amusement as they continued +their promenade. + +"Is the young man in love, do you suppose?" she enquired lightly. + +"If so," her companion replied, "he has made a somewhat unfortunate +choice. However, it really doesn't matter. Love at his age is nothing +more than a mood. It will pass as all moods pass." + +She turned and looked at him. + +"Do you mean," she asked incredulously, "that youth is incapable of +love?" + +They had paused for a moment, looking out across the bay towards the +glittering white front of Bordighera. Mr. Draconmeyer took off his hat. +Somehow, without it, in that clear light, one realised, notwithstanding +his spectacles, his grizzled black beard of unfashionable shape, his +over-massive forehead and shaggy eyebrows, that his, too, was the face +of one whose feet were not always upon the earth. + +"Perhaps," he answered, "it is a matter of degree, yet I am almost +tempted to answer your question absolutely. I do not believe that youth +can love, because from the first it misapprehends the meaning of the +term. I believe that the gift of loving comes only to those who have +reached the hills." + +She looked at him, a little surprised. Always thoughtful, always +sympathetic, generally stimulating, it was very seldom that she had +heard him speak with so much real feeling. Suddenly he turned his head +from the sea. His eyes seemed to challenge hers. + +"Your question," he continued, "touches upon one of the great tragedies +of life. Upon those who are free from their youth there is a great tax +levied. Nature has decreed that they should feel something which they +call love. They marry, and in this small world of ours they give a +hostage as heavy as a millstone of their chances of happiness. For it is +only in later life, when a man has knowledge as well as passion, when +unless he is fortunate it is too late, that he can know what love is." + +She moved a little uneasily. She felt that something was coming which +she desired to avoid, some confidence, something from which she must +escape. The memory of her husband's warning was vividly present with +her. She felt the magnetism of her companion's words, his compelling +gaze. + +"It is so with me," he went on, leaning a little towards her, "only in +my case--" + +Providence was intervening. Never had the swish of a woman's skirt +sounded so sweet to her before. + +"Here's Dolly Montressor," she interrupted, "coming up to speak to us." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CAKES AND COUNSELS + + +The Sporting Club seemed to fill up that afternoon almost as soon as the +doors were opened. At half-past four, people were standing two or three +deep around the roulette tables. Selingman, very warm, and looking +somewhat annoyed, withdrew himself from the front row of the lower +table, and taking Mr. Grex and Draconmeyer by the arm, led them towards +the tea-room. + +"I have lost six louis!" he exclaimed, fretfully. "I have had the +devil's own luck. I shall play no more for the present. We will have tea +together." + +They appropriated a round table in a distant corner of the restaurant. + +"History," Selingman continued, heaping his plate with rich cakes, "has +been made before now in strange places. Why not here? We sit here in +close touch with one of the most interesting phases of modern life. We +can even hear the voice of fate, the click of the little ball as it +finishes its momentous journey and sinks to rest. Why should we, too, +not speak of fateful things?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer glanced around. + +"For myself," he muttered, "I must say that I prefer a smaller room and +a locked door." + +Selingman demolished a chocolate eclair and shook his head vigorously. + +"The public places for me," he declared. "Now look around. There is no +one, as you will admit, within ear-shot. Very well. What will they say, +those who suspect us, if they see us drinking tea and eating many cakes +together? Certainly not that we conspire, that we make mischief here. On +the other hand, they will say 'There are three great men at play, come +to Monte Carlo to rest from their labours, to throw aside for a time the +burden from their shoulders; to flirt, to play, to eat cakes.' It is a +good place to talk, this, and I have something in my mind which must be +said." + +Mr. Grex sipped his pale, lemon-flavoured tea and toyed with his +cigarette-case. He was eating nothing. + +"Assuming you to be a man of sense, my dear Selingman," he remarked, "I +think that what you have to say is easily surmised. The Englishman!" + +Selingman agreed with ponderous emphasis. + +"We have before us," he declared, "a task of unusual delicacy. Our +friend from Paris may be here at any moment. How we shall fare with him, +heaven only knows! But there is one thing very certain. At the sight of +Hunterleys he will take alarm. He will be like a frightened bird, all +ruffled feathers. He will never settle down to a serious discussion. +Hunterleys knows this. That is why he presents himself without reserve +in public, why he is surrounded with Secret Service men of his own +country, all on the _qui vive_ for the coming of Douaille." + +"It appears tolerably certain," Mr. Draconmeyer said calmly, "that we +must get rid of Hunterleys." + +Mr. Grex looked out of the window for a moment. + +"To some extent," he observed, "I am a stranger here. I come as a guest +to this conference, as our other friend from Paris comes, too. Any small +task which may arise from the necessities of the situation, devolves, I +think I may say without unfairness, upon you, my friend." + +Selingman assented gloomily. + +"That is true," he admitted, "but in Hunterleys we have to do with no +ordinary man. He does not gamble. To the ordinary attractions of Monte +Carlo he is indifferent. He is one of these thin-blooded men with +principles. Cromwell would have made a lay preacher of him." + +"You find difficulties?" Mr. Grex queried, with slightly uplifted +eyebrows. + +"Not difficulties," Selingman continued quickly. "Or if indeed we do +call them difficulties, let us say at once that they are very minor +ones. Only the thing must be done neatly and without ostentation, for +the sake of our friend who comes." + +"My own position," Mr. Draconmeyer intervened, "is, in a way, delicate. +The unexplained disappearance of Sir Henry Hunterleys might, by some +people, be connected with the great friendship which exists between my +wife and his." + +Mr. Grex polished his horn-rimmed eyeglass. Selingman nodded +sympathetically. Neither of them looked at Draconmeyer. Finally +Selingman heaved a sigh and brushed the crumbs from his waistcoat. + +"If one were assured," he murmured thoughtfully, "that Hunterleys' +presence here had a real significance--" + +Draconmeyer pushed his chair forward and leaned across the table. The +heads of the three men were close together. His tone was stealthily +lowered. + +"Let me tell you something, my friend Selingman, which I think should +strengthen any half-formed intention you may have in your brain. +Hunterleys is no ordinary sojourner here. You were quite right when you +told me that his stay at Bordighera and San Remo was a matter of days +only. Now I will tell you something. Three weeks ago he was at +Bukharest. He spent two days with Novisko. From there he went to Sofia. +He was heard of in Athens and Constantinople. My own agent wrote me that +he was in Belgrade. Hunterleys is the bosom friend of the English +Foreign Secretary. That I know for myself. You have your reports. You +can read between the lines. I tell you that Hunterleys is the man who +has paralysed our action amongst the Balkan States. He has played a neat +little game out there. It is he who was the inspiration of Roumania. It +is he who drafted the secret understanding with Turkey. The war which we +hoped for will not take place. From there Hunterleys came in a gunboat +and landed on the Italian coast. He lingered at Bordighera for +appearances only. He is here, if he can, to break up our conference. I +tell you that you none of you appreciate this man. Hunterleys is the +most dangerous Englishman living--" + +"One moment," Selingman interrupted. "To some extent I follow you, but +when you speak of Hunterleys as a power in the present tense, doesn't it +occur to you that his Party is not in office? He is simply a member of +the Opposition. If his Party get in again at the next election, I grant +you that he will be Foreign Minister and a dangerous one, but to-day he +is simply a private person." + +"It is not every one," Mr. Draconmeyer said slowly, "who bows his knee +to the shibboleth of party politics. Remember that I come to you from +London and I have information of which few others are possessed. +Hunterleys is of the stuff of which patriots are made. Party is no +concern of his. He and the present Foreign Secretary are the greatest of +personal friends. I know for a fact that Hunterleys has actually been +consulted and has helped in one or two recent crises. The very +circumstance that he is not of the ruling Party makes a free lance of +him. When his people are in power, he will have to take office and wear +the shackles. To-day, with every quality which would make him the +greatest Foreign Minister England has ever had since Disraeli, he is +nothing more nor less than a roving diplomatist, Emperor of his +country's Secret Service, if you like to put it so. Furthermore, look a +little into that future of which I have spoken. The present English +Government will last, at the most, another two years. I tell you that +when they go out of power, whoever comes in, Hunterleys will go to the +Foreign Office. We shall have to deal with a man who knows, a man--" + +"I am not wholly satisfied with these eclairs," Selingman interrupted, +gazing into the dish. "Maitre d'hotel, come and listen to an awful +complaint," he went on, and, addressing one of the head-waiters. "Your +eclairs are too small, your cream-cakes too irresistible. I eat too much +here. How, I ask you in the name of common sense, can a man dine who +takes tea here! Bring the bill." + +The man, smiling, hastened away. Not a word had passed between the +three, yet the other two understood the situation perfectly. Hunterleys +and Richard Lane had entered the room together and were seated at an +adjoining table. Selingman plunged into a fresh tirade, pointing to the +half-demolished plateful of cakes. + +"I will eat one more," he declared. "We will bilk the management. The +bill is made out. I shall not be observed. Our friend," he continued, +under his breath, "has secured a valuable bodyguard, something very +large and exceedingly powerful." + +Draconmeyer hesitated for a moment. Then he turned to Mr. Grex. + +"You have perhaps observed," he said, "the young man who is seated at +the next table. It may amuse you to hear of a very extraordinary piece +of impertinence of which, only this afternoon, he was guilty. He +accosted me upon the Terrace--he is a young American whom I have met in +London--and asked me for information respecting a Mr. and Miss Grex." + +Mr. Grex looked slowly towards the speaker. There was very little change +in his face, yet Draconmeyer seemed in some way confused. + +"You will understand, I am sure, sir," he continued, a little hastily, +"that I was in no way to blame for the question which the young man +addressed to me. He had the presumption to enquire whether I could +procure for him an introduction to the young lady whom he knew as Miss +Grex. Even at this moment," Draconmeyer went on, lowering his voice, "he +is trying to persuade Hunterleys to let him come over to us." + +"The young man," Mr. Grex said deliberately, "is ignorant. If necessary, +he must be taught his lesson." + +Selingman intervened. He breathed a heavy sigh. + +"Well," he observed, "I perceive that the task at which we have hinted +is to fall upon my shoulders. We must do what we can. I am a +tender-hearted man, and if extremes can be avoided, I shall like my task +better.... And now I have changed my mind. The loss of that six louis +weighs upon me. I shall endeavour to regain it. Let us go." + +They rose and passed out into the roulette rooms. Richard Lane, who +remained in his seat with an effort, watched them pass with a frown upon +his face. + +"Say, Sir Henry," he complained, "I don't quite understand this. Why, +I'd only got to go over to Draconmeyer there and stand and talk for a +moment, and he must have introduced me." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Let me assure you," he said, "that Draconmeyer would have done nothing +of the sort. For one thing, we don't introduce over here as a matter of +course, as you do in America. And for another--well, I won't trouble you +with the other reason.... Look here, Lane, take my advice, there's a +sensible fellow. I am a man of the world, you know, and there are +certain situations in which one can make no mistake. If you are as hard +hit as you say you are, go for a cruise and get over it. Don't hang +around here. No good will come of it." + +The young man set his teeth. He was looking very determined indeed. + +"There isn't anything in this world, short of a bomb," he declared, +"which is going to blow me out of Monte Carlo before I have made the +acquaintance of Miss Grex!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EFFRONTERY OF RICHARD + + +Hunterleys took leave of his companion as soon as they arrived at the +roulette rooms. + +"Take my advice, Lane," he said seriously. "Find something to occupy +your thoughts. Throw a few hundred thousand of your dollars away at the +tables, if you must do something foolish. You'll get into far less +trouble." + +Richard made no direct reply. He watched Hunterleys depart and took up +his place opposite the door to await his sister's arrival. It was a +quarter to five before she appeared and found him waiting for her in the +doorway. + +"Say, you're late, Flossie!" he grumbled. "I thought you were going to +be here soon after four." + +She glanced at the little watch upon her wrist. + +"How the time does slip away!" she sighed. "But really, Dicky, I am late +in your interests as much as anything. I have been paying a few calls. I +went out to the Villa Rosa to see some people who almost live here, and +then I met Lady Crawley and she made me go in and have some tea." + +"Well?" he asked impatiently. "Well?" + +She laid her fingers upon his arm and drew him into a less crowded part +of the room. + +"Dicky," she confessed, "I don't seem to have had a bit of luck. The +Comtesse d'Hausson, who lives at the Villa Rosa, knows them and showed +me from the window the Villa Mimosa, where they live, but she would tell +me absolutely nothing about them. The villa is the finest in Monte +Carlo, and has always been taken before by some one of note. She +declares that they do not mix in the society of the place, but she +admits that she has heard a rumour that Grex is only an assumed name." + +"I begin to believe that myself," he said doggedly. "Hunterleys knows +who they are and won't tell me. So does that fellow Draconmeyer." + +"Sir Henry and Mr. Draconmeyer!" she repeated, raising her eyes. "My +dear Dick, that doesn't sound very reasonable, does it?" + +"I tell you that they do," he persisted. "They as good as told me so. +Hunterleys, especially, left me here only half-an-hour ago, and his last +words were advising me to chuck it. He's a sensible chap enough but he +won't even tell me why. I've had enough of it. I've a good mind to take +the bull by the horns myself. Mr. Grex is here now, somewhere about. He +was sitting with Mr. Draconmeyer and a fat old German a few minutes ago, +at the next table to ours. If I had been alone I should have gone up and +chanced being introduced, but Hunterleys wouldn't let me." + +"Well, so far," Lady Weybourne admitted, "I fear that I haven't done +much towards that electric coupe; but," she added, in a changed tone, +looking across the tables, "there is just one thing, Dicky. Fate +sometimes has a great deal to do with these little affairs. Look over +there." + +Richard left his sister precipitately, without even a word of farewell. +She watched him cross the room, and smiled at the fury of a little +Frenchman whom he nearly knocked over in his hurry to get round to the +other side of the table. A moment later he was standing a few feet away +from the girl who had taken so strange a hold upon his affections. He +himself was conscious of a curious and unfamiliar nervousness. +Physically he felt as though he had been running hard. He set his teeth +and tried to keep cool. He found some plaques in his pocket and began to +stake. Then he became aware that the girl was holding in her hand a note +and endeavouring to attract the attention of the man who was giving +change. + +"_Petite monnaie, s'il vous plait_," he heard her say, stretching out +the note. + +The man took no notice. Richard held out his hand. + +"Will you allow me to get it changed for you?" he asked. + +Her first impulse at the sound of his voice was evidently one of +resentment. She seemed, indeed, in the act of returning some chilling +reply. Then she glanced half carelessly towards him and her eyes rested +upon his face. Richard was good-looking enough, but the chief +characteristic of his face was a certain honesty, which seemed +accentuated at that moment by his undoubted earnestness. The type was +perhaps strange to her. She was almost startled by what she saw. +Scarcely knowing what she did, she allowed him to take the note from her +fingers. + +"Thank you very much," she murmured. + +Richard procured the change. He would have lifted every one out of the +way if she had been in a hurry. Then he turned round and counted it very +slowly into her hands. From the left one she had removed the glove and +he saw, to his relief, that there was no engagement ring there. He +counted so slowly that towards the end she seemed to become a little +impatient. + +"That is quite all right," she said. "It was very kind of you to +trouble." + +She spoke very correct English with the slightest of foreign accents. He +looked once more into her eyes. + +"It was a pleasure," he declared. + +She smiled faintly, an act of graciousness which absolutely turned his +head. With her hand full of plaques, she moved away and found a place a +little lower down the table. Richard fought with his first instinct and +conquered it. He remained where he was, and when he moved it was in +another direction. He went into the bar and ordered a whisky and soda. +He was as excited as he had been in the old days when he had rowed +stroke in a winning race for his college boat. He felt, somehow or +other, that the first step had been a success. She had been inclined at +first to resent his offer. She had looked at him and changed her mind. +Even when she had turned away, she had smiled. It was ridiculous, but he +felt as though he had taken a great step. Presently Lady Weybourne, on +her way to the baccarat rooms, saw him sitting there and looked in. + +"Well, Dicky," she exclaimed, "what luck?" + +"Sit down, Flossie," he begged. "I've spoken to her." + +"You don't mean,--" she began, horrified. + +"Oh, no, no! Nothing of that sort!" he interrupted. "Don't think I'm +such a blundering ass. She was trying to get change and couldn't reach. +I took the note from her, got the change and gave it to her. She said, +'Thank you.' When she went away, she smiled." + +Lady Weybourne flopped down upon the divan and screamed with laughter. + +"Dicky," she murmured, wiping her eyes, "tell me, is that why you are +sitting there, looking as though you could see right into Heaven? Do you +know that your face was one great beam when I came in?" + +"Can't help it," he answered contentedly. "I've spoken to her and she +smiled." + +Lady Weybourne opened her gold bag and produced a card. + +"Well," she said, "here is another chance for you. Of course, I don't +know that it will come to anything, but you may as well try your luck." + +"What is it?" he asked. + +She thrust a square of gilt-edged cardboard into his hand. + +"It's an invitation," she told him, "from the directors, to attend a +dinner at La Turbie Golf Club-house, up in the mountains, to-night. It +isn't entirely a joke, I can tell you. It takes at least an hour to get +there, climbing all the way, and the place is as likely as not to be +wrapped in clouds, but a great many of the important people are going, +and as I happened to see Mr. Grex's name amongst the list of members, +the other night, there is always a chance that they may be there. If +not, you see, you can soon come back." + +"I'm on," Richard decided. "Give me the ticket. I am awfully obliged to +you, Flossie." + +"If she is there," Lady Weybourne declared, rising, "I shall consider +that it is equivalent to one wheel of the coupe." + +"Have a cocktail instead," he suggested. + +She shook her head. + +"Too early. If we meet later on, I'll have one. What are you going to +do?" + +"Same as I've been doing ever since lunch," he answered,--"hang around +and see if I can meet any one who knows them." + +She laughed and hurried off into the baccarat room, and Richard +presently returned to the table at which the girl was still playing. He +took particular care not to approach her, but he found a place on the +opposite side of the room, from which he could watch her unobserved. She +was still standing and apparently she was losing her money. Once, with a +little petulant frown, she turned away and moved a few yards lower down +the room. The first time she staked in her new position, she won, and a +smile which it seemed to him was the most brilliant he had ever seen, +parted her lips. He stood there looking at her, and in the midst of a +scene where money seemed god of all things, he realised all manner of +strange and pleasant sensations. The fact that he had twenty thousand +francs in his pocket to play with, scarcely occurred to him. He was +watching a little wisp of golden hair by her ear, watching her slightly +wrinkled forehead as she leaned over the table, her little grimace as +she lost and her stake was swept away. She seemed indifferent to all +bystanders. It was obvious that she had very few acquaintances. Where he +stood it was not likely that she would notice him, and he abandoned +himself wholly to the luxury of gazing at her. Then some instinct caused +him to turn his head. He felt that he in his turn was being watched. He +glanced towards the divan set against the wall, by the side of which he +was standing. Mr. Grex was seated there, only a few feet away, smoking a +cigarette. Their eyes met and Richard was conscious of a sudden +embarrassment. He felt like a detected thief, and he acted at that +moment as he often did--entirely on impulse. He leaned down and +resolutely addressed Mr. Grex. + +"I should be glad, sir, if you would allow me to speak to you for a +moment." + +Mr. Grex's expression was one of cold surprise, unmixed with any +curiosity. + +"Do you address me?" he asked. + +His tone was vastly discouraging but it was too late to draw back. + +"I should like to speak to you, if I may," Richard continued. + +"I am not aware," Mr. Grex said, "that I have the privilege of your +acquaintance." + +"You haven't," Richard admitted, "but all the same I want to speak to +you, if I may." + +"Since you have gone so far," Mr. Grex conceded, "you had better finish, +but you must allow me to tell you in advance that I look upon any +address from a perfect stranger as an impertinence." + +"You'll think worse of me before I've finished, then," Richard declared +desperately. "You don't mind if I sit down?" + +"These seats," Mr. Grex replied coldly, "are free to all." + +The young man took his place upon the divan with a sinking heart. There +was something in Mr. Grex's tone which seemed to destroy all his +confidence, a note of something almost alien in the measured contempt of +his speech. + +"I am sorry to give you any offence," Richard began. "I happened to +notice that you were watching me. I was looking at your +daughter--staring at her. I am afraid you thought me impertinent." + +"Your perspicuity," Mr. Grex observed, "seems to be of a higher order +than your manners. You are, perhaps, a stranger to civilised society?" + +"I don't know about that," Richard went on doggedly. "I have been to +college and mixed with the usual sort of people. My birth isn't much to +speak of, perhaps, if you count that for anything." + +Something which was almost like the ghost of a smile, devoid of any +trace of humour, parted Mr. Grex's lips. + +"If I count that for anything!" he repeated, half closing his eyes for a +moment. "Pray proceed, young man." + +"I am an American," Richard continued. "My name is Richard Lane. My +father was very wealthy and I am his heir. My sister is Lady Weybourne. +I was lunching with her at Ciro's to-day when I saw you and your +daughter. I think I can say that I am a respectable person. I have a +great many friends to whom I can refer you." + +"I am not thinking of engaging anybody, that I know of," Mr. Grex +murmured. + +"I want to marry your daughter," Richard declared desperately, feeling +that any further form of explanation would only lead him into greater +trouble. + +Mr. Grex knocked the ash from his cigarette. + +"Is your keeper anywhere in the vicinity?" he asked. + +"I am perfectly sane," Richard assured him. "I know that it sounds +foolish but it isn't really. I am twenty-seven years old and I have +never asked a girl to marry me yet. I have been waiting until--" + +The words died away upon his lips. It was impossible for him to +continue, the cold enmity of this man was too chilling. + +"I am absolutely in earnest," he insisted. "I have been endeavouring all +day to find some mutual friend to introduce me to your daughter. Will +you do so? Will you give me a chance?" + +"I will not," Mr. Grex replied firmly. + +"Why not? Please tell me why not?" Richard begged. "I am not asking for +anything more now than just an opportunity to talk with her." + +"It is not a matter which admits of discussion," Mr. Grex pronounced. "I +have permitted you to say what you wished, notwithstanding the colossal, +the unimaginable impertinence of your suggestion. I request you to leave +me now and I advise you most heartily to indulge no more in the most +preposterous and idiotic idea which ever entered into the head of an +apparently sane young man." + +Richard rose slowly to his feet. + +"Very well, sir," he replied, "I'll go. All the same, what you have said +doesn't make any difference." + +"Does not make any difference?" Mr. Grex repeated, with arched eyebrows. + +"None at all," Richard declared. "I don't know what your objection to me +is, but I hope you'll get over it some day. I'd like to make friends +with you. Perhaps, later on, you may look at the matter differently." + +"Later on?" Mr. Grex murmured. + +"When I have married your daughter," Richard concluded, marching +defiantly away. + +Mr. Grex watched the young man until he had disappeared in the crowd. +Then he leaned hack amongst the cushions of the divan with folded arms. +Little lines had become visible around his eyes, there was a slight +twitching at the corners of his lips. He looked like a man who was +inwardly enjoying some huge joke. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UP THE MOUNTAIN + + +Richard, passing the Hotel de Paris that evening in his wicked-looking +grey racing car, saw Hunterleys standing on the steps and pulled up. + +"Not going up to La Turbie, by any chance?" he enquired. + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I'm going up to the dinner," he replied. "The hotel motor is starting +from here in a few minutes." + +"Come with me," Richard invited. + +Hunterleys looked a little doubtfully at the long, low machine. + +"Are you going to shoot up?" he asked. "It's rather a dangerous road." + +"I'll take care of you," the young man promised. "That hotel 'bus will +be crammed." + +They glided through the streets on to the broad, hard road, and crept +upwards with scarcely a sound, through the blue-black twilight. Around +and in front of them little lights shone out from the villas and small +houses dotted away in the mountains. Almost imperceptibly they passed +into a different atmosphere. The air became cold and exhilarating. The +flavour of the mountain snows gave life to the breeze. Hunterleys +buttoned up his coat but bared his head. + +"My young friend," he said, "this is wonderful." + +"It's a great climb," Richard assented, "and doesn't she just eat it +up!" + +They paused for a moment at La Turbie. Below them was a chain of +glittering lights fringing the Bay of Mentone, and at their feet the +lights of the Casino and Monte Carlo flared up through the scented +darkness. Once more they swung upwards. The road now had become narrower +and the turnings more frequent. They were up above the region of villas +and farmhouses, in a country which seemed to consist only of bleak +hill-side, open to the winds, wrapped in shadows. Now and then they +heard the tinkling of a goat bell; far below they saw the twin lights of +other ascending cars. They reached the plateau at last and drew up +before the club-house, ablaze with cheerful lights. + +"I'll just leave the car under the trees," Richard declared. "No one +will be staying late." + +Hunterleys unwound his scarf and handed his coat and hat to a page-boy. +Then he stood suddenly rigid. He bit his lip. His wife had just issued +from the cloak-room and was drawing on her gloves. She saw him and +hesitated. She, too, turned a little paler. Slowly Hunterleys approached +her. + +"An unexpected pleasure," he murmured. + +"I am here with Mr. Draconmeyer," she told him, almost bluntly. + +Hunterleys bowed. + +"And a party?" he enquired. + +"No," she replied. "I really did not want to come. Mr. Draconmeyer had +promised Monsieur Pericot, the director here, to come and bring Mrs. +Draconmeyer. At the last moment, however, she was not well enough, and +he almost insisted upon my taking her place." + +"Is it necessary to explain?" Hunterleys asked quietly. "You know very +well how I regard this friendship of yours." + +"I am sorry," she said. "If I had known that we were likely to +meet--well, I would not have come here to-night." + +"You were at least considerate," he remarked bitterly. "May I be +permitted to compliment you upon your toilette?" + +"As you pay for my frocks," she answered, "there is certainly no reason +why you shouldn't admire them." + +He bit his lip. There was a certain challenge in her expression which +made him, for a moment, feel weak. She was a very beautiful woman and +she was looking her best. He spoke quickly on another subject. + +"Are you still," he asked, "troubled by the attentions of the person you +spoke to me about?" + +"I am still watched," she replied drily. + +"I have made some enquiries," Hunterleys continued, "and I have come to +the conclusion that you are right." + +"And you still tell me that you have nothing to do with it?" + +"I assure you, upon my honour, that I have nothing whatever to do with +it." + +It was obvious that she was puzzled, but at that moment Mr. Draconmeyer +presented himself. The newcomer simply bowed to Hunterleys and addressed +some remark about the room to Violet. Then Richard came up and they all +passed on into the reception room, where two or three very fussy but +very suave and charming Frenchmen were receiving the guests. A few +minutes afterwards dinner was announced. A black frown was upon +Richard's forehead. + +"She isn't coming!" he muttered. "I say, Sir Henry, you won't mind if we +leave early?" + +"I shall be jolly glad to get away," Hunterleys assented heartily. + +Then he suddenly felt a grip of iron upon his arm. + +"She's come!" Richard murmured ecstatically. "Look at her, all in white! +Just look at the colour of her hair! There she is, going into the +reception room. Jove! I'm glad we are here, after all!" + +Hunterleys smiled a little wearily. They passed on into the _salle a +manger_. The seats at the long dining-tables were not reserved, and they +found a little table for two in a corner, which they annexed. Hunterleys +was in a grim humour, but his companion was in the wildest spirits. +Considering that he was placed where he could see Mr. Grex and his +daughter nearly the whole of the time, he really did contrive to keep +his eyes away from them to a wonderful extent, but he talked of her +unceasingly. + +"Say, I'm sorry for you, Sir Henry!" he declared. "It's just your bad +luck, being here with me while I've got this fit on, but I've got to +talk to some one, so you may as well make up your mind to it. There +never was anything like that girl upon the earth. There never was +anything like the feeling you get," he went on, "when you're absolutely +and entirely convinced, when you know--that there's just one girl who +counts for you in the whole universe. Gee whiz! It does get hold of you! +I suppose you've been through it all, though." + +"Yes, I've been through it!" Hunterleys admitted, with a sigh. + +The young man bit his lip. The story of Hunterleys' matrimonial +differences was already being whispered about. Richard talked polo +vigorously for the next quarter of an hour. It was not until the coffee +and liqueurs arrived that they returned to the subject of Miss Grex. +Then it was Hunterleys himself who introduced it. He was beginning to +rather like this big, self-confident young man, so full of his simple +love affair, so absolutely honest in his purpose, in his outlook upon +life. + +"Lane," he said, "I have given you several hints during the day, haven't +I?" + +"That's so," Richard agreed. "You've done your best to head me off. So +did my future father-in-law. Sort of hopeless task, I can assure you." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Honestly," he continued, "I wouldn't let myself think too much about +her, Lane. I don't want to explain exactly what I mean. There's no real +reason why I shouldn't tell you what I know about Mr. Grex, but for a +good many people's sakes, it's just as well that those few of us who +know keep quiet. I am sure you trust me, and it's just the same, +therefore, if I tell you straight, as man to man, that you're only +laying up for yourself a store of unhappiness by fixing your thoughts so +entirely upon that young woman." + +Richard, for all his sublime confidence, was a little staggered by the +other's earnestness. + +"Look here," he said, "the girl isn't married, to start with?" + +"Not that I know of," Hunterleys confessed. + +"And she's not engaged because I've seen her left hand," Richard +proceeded. "I'm not one of those Americans who go shouting all over the +world that because I've got a few million dollars I am the equal of +anybody, but honestly, Sir Henry, there are a good many prejudices over +this side that you fellows lay too much store by. Grex may be a nobleman +in disguise. I don't care. I am a man. I can give her everything she +needs in life and I am not going to admit, even if she is an aristocrat, +that you croakers are right when you shake your heads and advise me to +give her up. I don't care who she is, Hunterleys. I am going to marry +her." + +Hunterleys helped himself to a liqueur. + +"Young man," he said, "in a sense I admire your independence. In +another, I think you've got all the conceit a man needs for this world. +Let us presume, for a moment, that she is, as you surmise, the daughter +of a nobleman. When it suits her father to throw off his incognito, she +is probably in touch with young men in the highest circles of many +countries. Why should you suppose that you can come along and cut them +all out?" + +"Because I love her," the young man answered simply. "They don't." + +"You must remember," Hunterleys resumed, "that all foreign noblemen are +not what they are represented to be in your comic papers. Austrian and +Russian men of high rank are most of them very highly cultivated, very +accomplished, and very good-looking. You don't know much of the world, +do you? It's a pretty formidable enterprise to come from a New York +office, with only Harvard behind you, and a year or so's travel as a +tourist, and enter the list against men who have had twice your +opportunities. I am talking to you like this, young fellow, for your +good. I hope you realise that. You're used to getting what you want. +That's because you've been brought up in a country where money can do +almost anything. I am behind the scenes here and I can assure you that +your money won't count for much with Mr. Grex." + +"I never thought it would," Richard admitted. "I think when I talk to +her she'll understand that I care more than any of the others. If you +want to know the reason, that's why I'm so hopeful." + +Monsieur le Directeur had risen to his feet. Some one had proposed his +health and he made a graceful little speech of acknowledgment. He +remained standing for a few minutes after the cheers which had greeted +his neat oratorical display had died away. The conclusion of his remarks +came as rather a surprise to his guests. + +"I have to ask you, ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "with many, +many regrets, and begging you to forgive my apparent inhospitality, to +make your arrangements for leaving us as speedily as may be possible. +Our magnificent situation, with which I believe that most of you are +familiar, has but one drawback. We are subject to very dense mountain +mists, and alas! I have to tell you that one of these has come on most +unexpectedly and the descent must be made with the utmost care. Believe +me, there is no risk or any danger," he went on earnestly, "so long as +you instruct your chauffeurs to proceed with all possible caution. At +the same time, as there is very little chance of the mist becoming +absolutely dispelled before daylight, in your own interests I would +suggest that a start be made as soon as possible." + +Every one rose at once, Richard and Hunterleys amongst them. + +"This will test your skill to-night, young man," Hunterleys remarked. +"How's the nerve, eh?" + +Richard smiled almost beatifically. For once he had allowed his eyes to +wander and he was watching the girl with golden hair who was at that +moment receiving the respectful homage of the director. + +"Lunatics, and men who are head over heels in love," he declared, "never +come to any harm. You'll be perfectly safe with me." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN THE MISTS + + +Their first glimpse of the night, as Hunterleys and Lane passed out +through the grudgingly opened door, was sufficiently disconcerting. A +little murmur of dismay broke from the assembled crowd. Nothing was to +be seen but a dense bank of white mist, through which shone the +brilliant lights of the automobiles waiting at the door. Monsieur le +Directeur hastened about, doing his best to reassure everybody. + +"If I thought it was of the slightest use," he declared, "I would ask +you all to stay, but when the clouds once stoop like this, there is not +likely to be any change for twenty-four hours, and we have not, alas! +sleeping accommodation. If the cars are slowly driven and kept to the +inside, it is only a matter of a mile or two before you will drop below +the level of the clouds." + +Hunterleys and Lane made their way out to the front, and with their coat +collars turned up, groped their way to the turf on the other side of the +avenue. From where they stood, looking downwards, the whole world seemed +wrapped in mysterious and somber silence. There was nothing to be seen +but the grey, driving clouds. In less than a minute their hair and +eyebrows were dripping. A slight breeze had sprung up, the cold was +intense. + +"Cheerful sort of place, this," Lane remarked gloomily. "Shall we make a +start?" + +Hunterleys hesitated. + +"Not just yet. Look!" + +He pointed downwards. For a moment the clouds had parted. Thousands of +feet below, like little pinpricks of red fire, they saw the lights of +Monte Carlo. Almost as they looked, the clouds closed up again. It was +as though they had peered into another world. + +"Jove, that was queer!" Lane muttered. "Look! What's that?" + +A long ray of sickly yellow light shone for a moment and was then +suddenly blotted out by a rolling mass of vapour. The clouds had closed +in again once more. The obscurity was denser than ever. + +"The lighthouse," Hunterleys replied. "Do you think it's any use +waiting?" + +"We'll go inside and put on our coats," Lane suggested. "My car is by +the side of the avenue there. I covered it over and left it." + +They found their coats in the hall, wrapped themselves up and lit +cigarettes. Already many of the cars had started and vanished cautiously +into obscurity. Every now and then one could hear the tooting of their +horns from far away below. The chief steward was directing the +departures and insisting upon an interval of three minutes between each. +The two men stood on one side and watched him. He was holding open the +door of a large, exceptionally handsome car. On the other side was a +servant in white livery. Lane gripped his companion's arm. + +"There she goes!" he exclaimed. + +The girl, followed by Mr. Grex, stepped into the landaulette, which was +brilliantly illuminated inside with electric light. Almost immediately +the car glided noiselessly off. The two men watched it until it +disappeared. Then they crossed the road. + +"Now then, Sir Henry," Richard observed grimly, as he turned the handle +of the car and they took their places in the little well-shaped space, +"better say your prayers. I'm going to drive slowly enough but it's an +awful job, this, crawling down the side of a mountain in the dark, with +nothing between you and eternity but your brakes." + +They crept off. As far as the first turn the lights from the club-house +helped them. Immediately afterwards, however, the obscurity was +enveloping. Their faces were wet and shiny with moisture. Even the +fingers of Lane's gloves which gripped the wheel were sodden. He +proceeded at a snail's pace, keeping always on the inside of the road +and only a few inches from the wall or bank. Once he lost his way and +his front wheel struck a small stump, but they were going too slowly for +disaster. Another time he failed to follow the turn of the road and +found himself in a rough cart track. They backed with difficulty and got +right once more. At the fourth turn they came suddenly upon a huge car +which had left the road as they had done and was standing amongst the +pine trees, its lights flaring through the mist. + +"Hullo!" Lane called out, coming to a standstill. "You've missed the +turn." + +"My master is going to stay here all night," the chauffeur shouted back. + +A man put his head from the window and began to talk in rapid French. + +"It is inconceivable," he exclaimed, "that any one should attempt the +descent! We have rugs, my wife and I. We stay here till the clouds +pass." + +"Good night, then!" Lane cried cheerfully. + +"Not sure that you're not wise," Hunterleys added, with a shiver. + +Twice they stopped while Lane rubbed the moisture from his gloves and +lit a fresh cigarette. + +"This is a test for your nerve, young fellow," Hunterleys remarked. "Are +you feeling it?" + +"Not in the least," Lane replied. "I can't make out, though, why that +steward made us all start at intervals of three minutes. Seems to me we +should have been better going together at this pace. Save any one from +getting lost, anyhow." + +They crawled on for another twenty minutes. The routine was always the +same--a hundred yards or perhaps two, an abrupt turn and then a similar +distance the other way. They had one or two slight misadventures but +they made progress. Once, through a rift, they caught a momentary vision +of a carpet of lights at a giddy distance below. + +"We'll make it all right," Lane declared, crawling around another +corner. "Gee! but this is the toughest thing in driving I've ever known! +I can do ninety with this car easier than I can do this three. Hullo, +some one else in trouble!" + +Before them, in the middle of the road, a light was being slowly swung +backwards and forwards. Lane brought the car to a standstill. He had +scarcely done so when they were conscious of the sound of footsteps all +around them. The arms of both men were seized from behind. They were +addressed in guttural French. + +"Messieurs will be pleased to descend." + +"What the--what's wrong?" Lane demanded. + +"Descend at once," was the prompt order. + +By the light of the lantern which the speaker was holding, they caught a +glimpse of a dozen white faces and the dull gleam of metal from the +firearms which his companions were carrying. Hunterleys stepped out. An +escort of two men was at once formed on either side of him. + +"Tell us what it's all about, anyhow?" he asked coolly. + +"Nothing serious," the same guttural voice answered,--"a little affair +which will be settled in a few minutes. As for you, monsieur," the man +continued, turning to Lane, "you will drive your car slowly to the next +turn, and leave it there. Afterwards you will return with me." + +Richard set his teeth and leaned over his wheel. Then it suddenly +flashed into his mind that Mr. Grex and his daughter were already +amongst the captured. He quickly abandoned his first instinct. + +"With pleasure, monsieur," he assented. "Tell me when to stop." + +He drove the car a few yards round the corner, past a line of others. +Their lights were all extinguished and the chauffeurs absent. + +"This is a pleasant sort of picnic!" he grumbled, as he brought his car +to a standstill. "Now what do I do, monsieur?" + +"You return with me, if you please," was the reply. + +Richard stood, for a moment, irresolute. The idea of giving in without a +struggle was most distasteful to this self-reliant young American. Then +he realised that not only was his captor armed but that there were men +behind him and one on either side. + +"Lead the way," he decided tersely. + +They marched him up the hill, a little way across some short turf and +round the back of a rock to a long building which he remembered to have +noticed on his way up. His guide threw open the door and Richard looked +in upon a curious scene. Ranged up against the further wall were about a +dozen of the guests who had preceded him in his departure from the +Club-house. One man only had his hands tied behind him. The others, +apparently, were considered harmless. Mr. Grex was the one man, and +there was a little blood dripping from his right hand. The girl stood by +his side. She was no paler than usual--she showed, indeed, no signs of +terror at all--but her eyes were bright with indignation. One man was +busy stripping the jewels from the women and throwing them into a bag. +In the far corner the little group of chauffeurs was being watched by +two more men, also carrying firearms. Lane looked down the line of +faces. Lady Hunterleys was there, and by her side Draconmeyer. +Hunterleys was a little apart from the others. Freddy Montressor, who +was leaning against the wall, chuckled as Lane came in. + +"So they've got you, too, Dicky, have they?" he remarked. "It's a +hold-up--a bully one, too. Makes one feel quite homesick, eh? How much +have you got on you?" + +"Precious little, thank heavens!" Richard muttered. + +His eyes were fixed upon the brigand who was collecting the jewels, and +who was now approaching Miss Grex. He felt something tingling in his +blood. One of the guests began to talk excitedly. The man who was +apparently the leader, and who was standing at the door with an electric +torch in one hand and a revolver in the other, stepped a little forward. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "once more I beg you not to be alarmed. +So long as you part with your valuables peaceably, you will be at +liberty to depart as soon as every one has been dealt with. If there is +no resistance, there will be no trouble. We do not wish to hurt any +one." + +The collector of jewels had arrived in front of the girl. She unfastened +her necklace and handed it to him. + +"The little pendant around my neck," she remarked calmly, "is valueless. +I desire to keep it." + +"Impossible!" the man replied. "Off with it." + +"But I insist!" she exclaimed. "It is an heirloom." + +The man laughed brutally. His filthy hand was raised to her neck. Even +as he touched her, Lane, with a roar of anger, sent one of his guards +flying on to the floor of the barn, and, snatching the gun from his +hand, sprang forward. + +"Come on, you fellows!" he shouted, bringing it down suddenly upon the +hand of the robber. "These things aren't loaded. There's only one of +these blackguards with a revolver." + +[Illustration: "Come on, you fellows!" he shouted.] + +"And I've got him!" Hunterleys, who had been watching Lane closely, +cried, suddenly swinging his arm around the man's neck and knocking his +revolver up. + +There was a yell of pain from the man with the jewels, whose wrist Lane +had broken, a howl of dismay from the others--pandemonium. + +"At 'em, Freddy!" Lane shouted, seizing the nearest of his assailants by +the neck and throwing him out into the darkness. "To hell with you!" he +added, just escaping a murderous blow and driving his fist into the face +of the man who had aimed it. "Good for you, Hunterleys! There isn't one +of those old guns of theirs that'll go off. They aren't even loaded." + +The barn seemed suddenly to become half empty. Into the darkness the +little band of brigands crept away like rats. In less than half a minute +they had all fled, excepting the one who lay on the ground unconscious +from the effects of Richard's blow, and the leader of the gang, whom +Hunterleys still held by the throat. Richard, with a clasp-knife which +he had drawn from his pocket, cut the cord which they had tied around +Mr. Grex's wrists. His action, however, was altogether mechanical. He +scarcely glanced at what he was doing. Somehow or other, he found the +girl's hands in his. + +"That brute--didn't touch you, did he?" he asked. + +She looked at him. Whether the clouds were still outside or not, Lane +felt that he had passed into Heaven. + +"He did not, thanks to you," she murmured. "But do you mean really that +those guns all the time weren't loaded?" + +"I don't believe they were," Richard declared stoutly. "That chap kept +on playing about with the lock of his old musket and I felt sure that it +was of no use, loaded or not. Anyway, when I saw that brute try to +handle you--well--" + +He stopped, with an awkward little laugh. Mr. Grex tapped a cigarette +upon his case and lit it. + +"I am sure, my young friend, we are all very much indebted to you. The +methods which sometimes are scarcely politic in the ordinary affairs of +life," he continued drily, "are admirable enough in a case like this. We +will just help Hunterleys tie up the leader of the gang. A very plucky +stroke, that of his." + +He crossed the barn. One of the women had fainted, others were busy +collecting their jewelry. The chauffeurs had hurried off to relight the +lamps of the cars. + +"I must tell you this," Richard said, drawing a a little nearer to the +girl. "Please don't be angry with me. I went to your father this +afternoon. I made an idiot of myself--I couldn't help it. I was staring +at you and he noticed it. I didn't want him to think that I was such an +ill-mannered brute as I seemed. I tried to make him understand but he +wouldn't listen to me. I'd like to tell you now--now that I have the +opportunity--that I think you're just--" + +She smiled very faintly. + +"What is it that you wish to tell me?" she asked patiently. + +"That I love you," he wound up abruptly. + +There was a moment's silence, a silence with a background of strange +noises. People were talking, almost shouting to one another with +excitement. Newcomers were being told the news. The man whom Hunterleys +had captured was shrieking and cursing. From beyond came the tooting of +motor-horns as the cars returned. Lane heard nothing. He saw nothing but +the white face of the girl as she stood in the shadows of the barn, with +its walls of roughly threaded pine trunks. + +"But I have scarcely ever spoken to you in my life!" she protested, +looking at him in astonishment. + +"It doesn't make any difference," he replied. "You know I am speaking +the truth. I think, in your heart, that you, too, know that these things +don't matter, now and then. Of course, you don't--you couldn't feel +anything of what I feel, but with me it's there now and for always, and +I want to have a chance, just a chance to make you understand. I'm not +really mad. I'm just--in love with you." + +She smiled at him, still in a friendly manner, but her face had clouded. +There was a look in her eyes almost of trouble, perhaps of regret. + +"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It is only a sudden feeling on your +part, isn't it? You have been so splendid to-night that I can do no more +than thank you very, very much. And as for what you have told me, I +think it is an honour, but I wish you to forget it. It is not wise for +you to think of me in that way. I fear that I cannot even offer you my +friendship." + +Again there was a brief silence. The clamour of exclamations from the +little groups of people still filled the air outside. They could hear +cars coming and going. The man whom Hunterleys and Mr. Grex were tying +up was still groaning and cursing. + +"Are you married?" Richard asked abruptly. + +She shook her head. + +"Engaged?" + +"No!" + +"Do you care very much for any one else?" + +"No!" she told him softly. + +He drew her away. + +"Come outside for one moment," he begged. "I hate to see you in the +place where that beast tried to lay hands upon you. Here is your +necklace." + +He picked it up from her feet and she followed him obediently outside. +People were standing about, shadowy figures in little groups. Some of +the cars had already left, others were being prepared for a start. +Below, once more the clouds had parted and the lights twinkled like +fireflies through the trees. This time they could even see the lights +from the village of La Turbie, less brilliant but almost at their feet. +Richard glanced upwards. There was a star clearly visible. + +"The clouds are lifting," he said. "Listen. If there is no one else, +tell me, why there shouldn't be the slightest chance for me? I am not +clever, I am nobody of any account, but I care for you so wonderfully. I +love you, I always shall love you, more than any one else could. I never +understood before, but I understand now. Just this caring means so +much." + +She stood close to his side. Her manner at the same time seemed to +depress him and yet to fill him with hope. + +"What is your name?" she enquired. + +"Richard Lane," he told her. "I am an American." + +"Then, Mr. Richard Lane," she continued softly, "I shall always think of +you and think of to-night and think of what you have said, and perhaps I +shall be a little sorry that what you have asked me cannot be." + +"Cannot?" he muttered. + +She shook her head almost sadly. + +"Some day," she went on, "as soon as our stay in Monte Carlo is +finished, if you like, I will write and tell you the real reason, in +case you do not find it out before." + +He was silent, looking downwards to where the gathering wind was driving +the clouds before it, to where the lights grew clearer and clearer at +every moment. + +"Does it matter," he asked abruptly, "that I am rich--very rich?" + +"It does not matter at all," she answered. + +"Doesn't it matter," he demanded, turning suddenly upon her and speaking +with a new passion, almost a passion of resentment, "doesn't it matter +that without you life doesn't exist for me any longer? Doesn't it matter +that a man has given you his whole heart, however slight a thing it may +seem to you? What am I to do if you send me away? There isn't anything +left in life." + +"There is what you have always found in it," she reminded him. + +"There isn't," he replied fiercely. "That's just what there isn't. I +should go back to a world that was like a dead city." + +He suddenly felt her hand upon his. + +"Dear Mr. Lane," she begged, "wait for a little time before you nurse +these sad thoughts, and when you know how impossible what you ask is, it +will seem easier. But if you really care to hear something, if it would +really please you sometimes to think of it when you are alone and you +remember this little foolishness of yours, let me tell you, if I may, +that I am sorry--I am very sorry." + +His hand was suddenly pressed, and then, before he could stop her, she +had glided away. He moved a step to follow her and almost at once he was +surrounded. Lady Hunterleys patted him on the shoulder. + +"Really," she exclaimed, "you and Henry were our salvation. I haven't +felt so thrilled for ages. I only wish," she added, dropping her voice a +little, "that it might bring you the luck you deserve." + +He answered vaguely. She turned back to Hunterleys. She was busy tearing +up her handkerchief. + +"I am going to tie up your head," she said. "Please stoop down." + +He obeyed at once. The side of his forehead was bleeding where a bullet +from the revolver of the man he had captured had grazed his temple. + +"Too bad to trouble you," he muttered. + +"It's the least we can do," she declared, laughing nervously. "Forgive +me if my fingers tremble. It is the excitement of the last few minutes." + +Hunterleys stood quite still. Words seemed difficult to him just then. + +"You were very brave, Henry," she said quietly. "Whom--whom are you +going down with?" + +"I am with Richard Lane," he answered, "in his two-seated racer." + +She bit her lip. + +"I did not mean to come alone with Mr. Draconmeyer, really," she +explained. "He thought, up to the last moment, that his wife would be +well enough to come." + +"Did he really believe so, do you think?" Hunterleys asked. + +A voice intervened. Mr. Draconmeyer was standing by their side. + +"Well," he said, "we might as well resume our journey. We all look and +feel, I think, as though we had been taking part in a scene from some +opera bouffe." + +Lady Hunterleys shivered. She had drawn a little closer to her husband. +Her coat was unfastened. Hunterleys leaned towards her and buttoned it +with strong fingers up to her throat. + +"Thank you," she whispered. "You wouldn't--you couldn't drive down with +us, could you?" + +"Have you plenty of room?" he enquired. + +"Plenty," she declared eagerly. "Mr. Draconmeyer and I are alone." + +For a moment Hunterleys hesitated. Then he caught the smile upon the +face of the man he detested. + +"Thank you," he said, "I don't think I can desert Lane." + +She stiffened at once. Her good night was almost formal. Hunterleys +stepped into the car which Richard had brought up. There was just a +slight mist around them, but the whole country below, though chaotic, +was visible, and the lights on the hill-side, from La Turbie down to the +sea-board, were in plain sight. + +"Our troubles," Hunterleys remarked, as they glided off, "seem to be +over." + +"Maybe," Lane replied grimly. "Mine seem to be only just beginning!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SIGNS OF TROUBLE + + +At ten o'clock the next morning, Hunterleys crossed the sunlit gardens +towards the English bank, to receive what was, perhaps, the greatest +shock of his life. A few minutes later he stood before the mahogany +counter, his eyes fixed upon the half sheet of notepaper which the +manager had laid before him. The words were few enough and simple +enough, yet they constituted for him a message written in the very ink +of tragedy. The notepaper was the notepaper of the Hotel de Paris, the +date the night before, the words few and unmistakable: + + To the Manager of the English Bank. Please hand my letters to + bearer. + + HENRY HUNTERLEYS. + +He read it over, letter by letter, word by word. Then at last he looked +up. His voice sounded, even to himself, unnatural. + +"You were quite right," he said. "This order is a forgery." + +The manager was greatly disturbed. He threw open the door of his private +office. + +"Come and sit down for a moment, will you, Sir Henry?" he invited. "This +is a very serious matter, and I should like to discuss it with you." + +They passed behind into the comfortable little sitting-room, smelling of +morocco leather and roses, with its single high window, its broad +writing-table, its carefully placed easy-chairs. Men had pleaded in here +with all the eloquence at their command, men of every rank and walk in +life, thieves, nobles, ruined men and pseudo-millionaires, always with +the same cry--money; money for the great pleasure-mill which day and +night drew in its own. Hunterleys sank heavily into a chair. The manager +seated himself in an official attitude before his desk. + +"I am sorry to have distressed you with this letter, Sir Henry," he +said. "However, you must admit that things might have been worse. It is +fortunately our invariable custom, when letters are addressed to one of +our clients in our care, to deliver them to no one else under any +circumstances. If you had been ill, for instance, I should have brought +you your correspondence across to the hotel, but I should not have +delivered it to your own secretary. That, as I say, is our invariable +rule, and we find that it has saved many of our clients from +inconvenience. In your case," the manager concluded impressively, "your +communications being, in a sense, official, any such attempt as has been +made would not stand the slightest chance of success. We should be even +more particular than in any ordinary case to see that by no possible +chance could any correspondence addressed to you, fall into other +hands." + +Hunterleys began to recover himself a little. He drew towards himself +the heap of letters which the manager had laid by his side. + +"Please make yourself quite comfortable here," the latter begged. "Read +your letters and answer them, if you like, before you go out. I always +call this," he added, with a smile, "the one inviolable sanctuary of +Monte Carlo." + +"You are very kind," Hunterleys replied. "Are you sure that I am not +detaining you?" + +"Not in the least. Personally, I am not at all busy. Three-quarters of +our business, you see, is merely a matter of routine. I was just going +to shut myself up here and read the _Times_. Have a cigarette? Here's an +envelope opener and a waste-paper basket. Make yourself comfortable." + +Hunterleys glanced through his correspondence, rapidly reading and +destroying the greater portion of it. He came at last to two parchment +envelopes marked "On His Majesty's Service." These he opened and read +their contents slowly and with great care. When he had finished, he +produced a pair of scissors from his waistcoat pocket and cut the +letters into minute fragments. He drew a little sigh of relief when at +last their final destruction was assured, and rose shortly afterwards to +his feet. + +"I shall have to go on to the telegraph office," he said, "to send these +few messages. Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison, for your kindness. If +you do not mind, I should like to take this forged order away with me." + +The manager hesitated. + +"I am not sure that I ought to part with it," he observed doubtfully. + +"Could you recognise the person who presented it--you or your clerk?" + +The manager shook his head. + +"Not a chance," he replied. "It was brought in, unfortunately, before I +arrived. Young Parsons, who was the only one in the bank, explained that +letters were never delivered to an order, and turned away to attend to +some one else who was in a hurry. He simply remembers that it was a man, +and that is all." + +"Then the document is useless to you," Hunterleys pointed out. "You +could never do anything in the matter without evidence of +identification, and that being so, if you don't mind I should like to +have it." + +Mr. Harrison yielded it up. + +"As you wish," he agreed. "It is interesting, if only as a curiosity. +The imitation of your signature is almost perfect." + +Hunterleys took up his hat. Then for a moment, with his hand upon the +door, he hesitated. + +"Mr. Harrison," he said, "I am engaged just now, as you have doubtless +surmised, in certain investigations on behalf of the usual third party +whom we need not name. Those investigations have reached a pitch which +might possibly lead me into a position of some--well, I might almost say +danger. You and I both know that there are weapons in this place which +can be made use of by persons wholly without scruples, which are +scarcely available at home. I want you to keep your eyes open. I have +very few friends here whom I can wholly trust. It is my purpose to call +in here every morning at ten o'clock for my letters, and if I fail to +arrive within half-an-hour of that time without having given you verbal +notice, something will have happened to me. You understand what I mean?" + +"You mean that you are threatened with assassination?" the manager asked +gravely. + +"Practically it amounts to that," Hunterleys admitted. "I received a +warning letter this morning. There is a very important matter on foot +here, Mr. Harrison, a matter so important that to bring it to a +successful conclusion I fancy that those who are engaged in it would not +hesitate to face any risk. I have wired to England for help. If anything +happens that it comes too late, I want you, when you find that I have +disappeared, even if my disappearance is only a temporary matter, to let +them know in London--you know how--at once." + +The manager nodded. + +"I will do so," he promised. "I trust, however," he went on, "that you +are exaggerating the danger. Mr. Billson lived here for many years +without any trouble." + +Hunterleys smiled slightly. + +"I am not a Secret Service man," he explained. "Billson's successor +lives here now, of course, and is working with me, under the usual guise +of newspaper correspondent. I don't think that he will come to any harm. +But I am here in a somewhat different position, and my negotiations in +the east, during the last few weeks, have made me exceedingly unpopular +with some very powerful people. However, it is only an outside chance, +of course, that I wish to guard against. I rely upon you, if I should +fail to come to the bank any one morning without giving you notice, to +do as I have asked." + +Hunterleys left the bank and walked out once more into the sunlight. He +first of all made his way down to the Post Office, where he rapidly +dispatched several cablegrams which he had coded and written out in Mr. +Harrison's private office. Afterwards he went on to the Terrace, and +finding a retired seat at the further end, sat down. Then he drew the +forged order once more from his pocket. Word by word, line by line, he +studied it, and the more he studied it, the more hopeless the whole +thing seemed. The handwriting, with the exception of the signature, +which was a wonderful imitation of his own, was the handwriting of his +wife. She had done this thing at Draconmeyer's instigation, done this +thing against her husband, taken sides absolutely with the man whom he +had come to look upon as his enemy! What inference was he to draw? He +sat there, looking out over the Mediterranean, soft and blue, glittering +with sunlight, breaking upon the yellow stretch of sand in little +foam-flecked waves no higher than his hand. He watched the sunlight +glitter on the white houses which fringed the bay. He looked idly up at +the trim little vineyards on the brown hill-side. It was the beauty spot +of the world. There was no object upon which his eyes could rest, which +was not beautiful. The whole place was like a feast of colour and form +and sunshine. Yet for him the light seemed suddenly to have faded from +life. Danger had only stimulated him, had helped him to cope with the +dull pain which he had carried about with him during the last few +months. He was face to face now with something else. It was worse, this, +than anything he had dreamed. Somehow or other, notwithstanding the +growing estrangement with his wife which had ended in their virtual +separation, he had still believed in her, still had faith in her, still +had hope of an ultimate reconciliation. And behind it all, he had loved +her. It seemed at that moment that a nightmare was being formed around +him. A new horror was creeping into his thoughts. He had felt from the +first a bitter dislike of Draconmeyer. Now, however, he realised that +this feeling had developed into an actual and harrowing jealousy. He +realised that the man was no passive agent. It was Draconmeyer who, with +subtle purpose, was drawing his wife away! Hunterleys sprang to his feet +and walked angrily backwards and forwards along the few yards of +Terrace, which happened at that moment to be almost deserted. Vague +plans of instant revenge upon Draconmeyer floated into his mind. It was +simple enough to take the law into his own hands, to thrash him +publicly, to make Monte Carlo impossible for him. And then, suddenly, he +remembered his duty. They were trusting him in Downing Street. Chance +had put into his hands so many threads of this diabolical plot. It was +for him to checkmate it. He was the only person who could checkmate it. +This was no time for him to think of personal revenge, no time for him +to brood over his own broken life. There was work still to be done--his +country's work.... + +He felt the need of change of scene. The sight of the place with its +placid, enervating beauty, its constant appeal to the senses, was +beginning to have a curious effect upon his nerves. He turned back upon +the Terrace, and by means of the least frequented streets he passed +through the town and up towards the hills. He walked steadily, reckless +of time or direction. He had lunch at a small inn high above the road +from Cannes, and it was past three o'clock when he turned homewards. He +had found his way into the main road now and he trudged along heedless +of the dust with which the constant procession of automobiles covered +him all the while. The exercise had done him good. He was able to keep +his thoughts focussed upon his mission. So far, at any rate, he had held +his own. His dispatches to London had been clear and vivid. He had told +them exactly what he had feared, he had shown them the inside of this +scheme as instinct had revealed it to him, and he had begged for aid. +One man alone, surrounded by enemies, and in a country where all things +were possible, was in a parlous position if once the extent of his +knowledge were surmised. So far, the plot had not yet matured. So far, +though the clouds had gathered and the thunder was muttering, the storm +had not broken. The reason for that he knew--the one person needed, the +one person for whose coming all these plans had been made, had not yet +arrived. There was no telling, however, how long the respite might last. +At any moment might commence this conference, whose avowed purpose was +to break at a single blow, a single treacherous but deadly blow, the +Empire whose downfall Selingman had once publicly declared was the one +great necessity involved by his country's expansion.... + +Hunterleys quenched his thirst at a roadside cafe, sitting out upon the +pavement and drinking coarse red wine and soda-water. Then he bought a +packet of black cigarettes and continued his journey. He was within +sight of Monte Carlo when for the twentieth time he had to step to the +far side of the pathway to avoid being smothered in dust by an advancing +automobile. This time, by some chance, he glanced around, attracted by +the piercing character of its long-distance whistle. A high-powered grey +touring car came by, travelling at a great pace. Hunterleys stood +perfectly rigid, one hand grasping the wall by the side of which he +stood. Notwithstanding his spectacles and the thick coating of dust upon +his clothes, the solitary passenger of the car was familiar enough to +him. It was the man for whom this plot had been prepared. It was Paul +Douaille, the great Foreign Minister into whose hands even the most +cautious of Premiers had declared himself willing to place the destinies +of his country! + +Hunterleys pursued the road no longer. He took a ticket at the next +station and hurried back to Monte Carlo. He went first to his room, +bathed and changed, and, passing along the private passage, made his way +into the Sporting Club. The first person whom he saw, seated in her +accustomed place at her favourite table, was his wife. She beckoned him +to come over to her. There was a vacant chair by her side to which she +pointed. + +"Thank you," he said, "I won't sit down. I don't think that I care to +play just now. You are fortunate this afternoon, I trust?" + +Something in his face and tone checked that rush of altered feeling of +which she had been more than once passionately conscious since the night +before. + +"I am hideously out of luck," she confessed slowly. "I have been losing +all day. I think that I shall give it up." + +She rose wearily to her feet and he felt a sudden compassion for her. +She was certainly looking tired. Her eyes were weary, she had the air of +an unhappy woman. After all, perhaps she too sometimes knew what +loneliness was. + +"I should like some tea so much," she added, a little piteously. + +He opened his lips to invite her to pass through into the restaurant +with him. Then the memory of that forged order still in his pocket, +flashed into his mind. He hesitated. A cold, familiar voice at his elbow +intervened. + +"Are you quite ready for tea, Lady Hunterleys? I have been in and taken +a table near the window." + +Hunterleys moved at once on one side. Draconmeyer bowed pleasantly. + +"Cheerful time we had last night, hadn't we?" he remarked. "Glad to see +your knock didn't lay you up." + +Hunterleys disregarded his wife's glance. He was suddenly furious. + +"All Monte Carlo seems to be gossiping about that little contretemps," +Draconmeyer continued. "It was a crude sort of hold-up for a +neighbourhood of criminals, but it very nearly came off. Will you have +some tea with us?" + +"Do, Henry," his wife begged. + +Once again he hesitated. Somehow or other, he felt that the moment was +critical. Then a hand was laid quietly upon his arm, a man's voice +whispered in his ear. + +"Monsieur will be so kind as to step this way for a moment--a little +matter of business." + +"Who are you?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"The Commissioner of Police, at monsieur's service." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HINTS TO HUNTERLEYS + + +Hunterleys, in accordance with his request, followed the Commissioner +downstairs into one of the small private rooms on the ground floor. The +latter was very polite but very official. + +"Now what is it that you want?" Hunterleys asked, a little brusquely, as +soon as they were alone. + +The representative of the law was distinctly mysterious. He had a brown +moustache which he continually twirled, and he was all the time dropping +his voice to a whisper. + +"My first introduction to you should explain my mission, Sir Henry," he +said. "I hold a high position in the police here. My business with you, +however, is on behalf of a person whom I will not name, but whose +identity you will doubtless guess." + +"Very well," Hunterleys replied. "Now what is the nature of this +mission, please? In plain words, what do you want with me?" + +"I am here with reference to the affair of last night," the other +declared. + +"The affair of last night?" Hunterleys repeated, frowning. "Well, we all +have to appear or be represented before the magistrates to-morrow +morning. I shall send a lawyer." + +"Quite so! Quite so! But in the meantime, something has transpired. You +and the young American, Mr. Richard Lane, were the only two who offered +any resistance. It was owing to you two, in fact, that the plot was +frustrated. I am quite sure, Sir Henry, that every one agrees with me in +appreciating your courage and presence of mind." + +"Thank you," Hunterleys replied. "Is that what you came to say?" + +The other shook his head. + +"Unfortunately, no, monsieur! I am here to bring you certain +information. The chief of the gang, Armand Martin, the man whom you +attacked, became suddenly worse a few hours ago. The doctors suspect +internal injuries, injuries inflicted during his struggle with you." + +"I am very sorry to hear it," Hunterleys said coolly. "On the other +hand, he asked for anything he got." + +"Unfortunately," the Commissioner continued, "the law of the State is +curiously framed in such matters. If the man should die, as seems more +than likely, your legal position, Sir Henry, would be most +uncomfortable. Your arrest would be a necessity, and there is no law +granting what I believe you call bail to a person directly or indirectly +responsible for the death of another. I am here, therefore, to give you +what I may term an official warning. Your absence as a witness to-morrow +morning will not be commented upon--events of importance have called you +back to England. You will thereby be saved a very large amount of +annoyance, and the authorities here will be spared the most regrettable +necessity of having to deal with you in a manner unbefitting your rank." + +Hunterleys became at once thoughtful. The whole matter was becoming +clear to him. + +"I see," he observed. "This is a warning to me to take my departure. Is +that so?" + +The Commissioner beamed and nodded many times. + +"You have a quick understanding, Sir Henry," he declared. "Your +departure to-night, or early to-morrow morning, would save a good deal +of unpleasantness. I have fulfilled my mission, and I trust that you +will reflect seriously upon the matter. It is the wish of the high +personage whom I represent, that no inconvenience whatever should befall +so distinguished a visitor to the Principality. Good day, monsieur!" + +The official took his leave with a sweep of the hat and many bows. +Hunterleys, after a brief hesitation, walked out into the sun-dappled +street. It was the most fashionable hour of the afternoon. Up in the +square a band was playing. Outside, two or three smart automobiles were +discharging their freight of wonderfully-dressed women and debonair men +from the villas outside. Suddenly a hand fell upon his arm. It was +Richard Lane who greeted him. + +"Say, where are you off to, Sir Henry?" he inquired. + +Hunterleys laughed a little shortly. + +"Really, I scarcely know," he replied. "Back to London, if I am wise, I +suppose." + +"Come into the Club," Richard begged. + +"I have just left," Hunterleys told him. "Besides, I hate the place." + +"Did you happen to notice whether Mr. Grex was in there?" Richard +enquired. + +"I didn't see him," Hunterleys answered. "Neither," he added +significantly, "did I see Miss Grex." + +"Well, I am going in to have a look round, anyway," Richard decided. +"You might come along. There's nothing else to do in this place until +dinner-time." + +Hunterleys suffered himself to be persuaded and remounted the steps. + +"Tell me, Lane," he asked curiously, "have you heard anything about any +of the victims of our little struggle last night--I mean the two men we +tackled?" + +Richard shook his head. + +"I hear that mine has a broken wrist," he said. "Can't say I am feeling +very badly about that!" + +"I've just been told that mine is going to die," Hunterleys continued. + +The young man laughed incredulously. + +"Why, I went over the prison this morning," he declared. "I never saw +such a healthy lot of ruffians in my life. That chap whom you +tackled--the one with the revolver--was smoking cigarettes and using +language--well, I couldn't understand it all, but what I did understand +was enough to melt the bars of his prison." + +"That's odd," Hunterleys remarked drily. "According to the police +commissioner who has just left me, the man is on his death-bed, and my +only chance of escaping serious trouble is to get out of Monte Carlo +to-night." + +"Are you going?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"It would take a great deal more than that to move me just now," he +said, "even if I had not suspected from the first that the man was +lying." + +Richard glanced at his companion a little curiously. + +"I shouldn't have said that you were having such a good time, Sir +Henry," he observed; "in fact I should have thought you would have been +rather glad of an opportunity to slip away." + +Hunterleys looked around them. They had reached the top of the staircase +and were in sight of the dense crowd in the rooms. + +"Come and have a drink," he suggested. "A great many of these people +will have cleared off presently." + +"I'll have a drink, with pleasure," Richard answered, "but I still can't +see why you're stuck on this place." + +They strolled into the bar and found two vacant places. + +"My dear young friend," Hunterleys said, as he ordered their drinks, "if +you were an Englishman instead of an American, I think that I would give +you a hint as to the reason why I do not wish to leave Monte Carlo just +at present." + +"Can't see what difference that makes," Richard declared. "You know I'm +all for the old country." + +"I wonder whether you are," Hunterleys remarked thoughtfully. "I tell +you frankly that if I thought you meant it, I should probably come to +you before long for a little help." + +"If ever you do, I'm your man," Richard assured him heartily. "Any more +scraps going?" + +Hunterleys sipped his whisky and soda thoughtfully. There had been an +exodus from the room to watch some heavy gambling at _Trente et +Quarante_, and for a moment they were almost alone. + +"Lane," he said, "I am going to take you a little into my confidence. In +a way I suppose it is foolish, but to tell you the truth, I am almost +driven to it. You know that I am a Member of Parliament, and you may +have heard that if our Party hadn't gone out a few years ago, I was to +have been Foreign Minister." + +"I've heard that often enough," Lane assented. "I've heard you quoted, +too, as an example of the curse of party politics. Just because you are +forced to call yourself a member of one Party you are debarred from +serving your country in any capacity until that Party is in power." + +"That's quite true," Hunterleys admitted, "and to tell you the truth, +ridiculous though it seems, I don't see how you're to get away from it +in a practical manner. Anyhow, when my people came out I made up my mind +that I wasn't going to just sit still in Opposition and find fault all +the time, especially as we've a real good man at the Foreign Office. I +was quite content to leave things in his hands, but then, you see, +politically that meant that there was nothing for me to do. I thought +matters over and eventually I paired for six months and was supposed to +go off for the benefit of my health. As a matter of fact, I have been in +the Balkan States since Christmas," he added, dropping his voice a +little. + +"What the dickens have you been doing there?" + +"I can't tell you that exactly," Hunterleys replied. "Unfortunately, my +enemies are suspicious and they have taken to watching me closely. They +pretty well know what I am going to tell you--that I have been out there +at the urgent request of the Secret Service Department of the present +Government. I have been in Greece and Servia and Roumania, and, although +I don't think there's a soul in the world knows, I have also been in St. +Petersburg." + +"But what's it all about?" Richard persisted. "What have you been doing +in all these places?" + +"I can only answer you broadly," Hunterleys went on. "There is a +perfectly devilish scheme afloat, directed against the old country. I +have been doing what I can to counteract it. At the last moment, just as +I was leaving Sofia for London, by the merest chance I discovered that +the scene for the culmination of this little plot was to be Monte Carlo, +so I made my way round by Trieste, stayed at Bordighera and San Remo for +a few days to put people off, and finally turned up here." + +"Well, I'm jiggered!" Lane muttered. "And I thought you were just +hanging about for your health or because your wife was here, and were +bored to death for want of something to do." + +"On the contrary," Hunterleys assured him, "I was up all night sending +reports home--very interesting reports, too. I got them away all right, +but there's no denying the fact that there are certain people in Monte +Carlo at the present moment who suspect my presence here, and who would +go to any lengths whatever to get rid of me. It isn't the actual harm I +might do, but they have to deal with a very delicate problem and to make +a bargain with a very sensitive person, and they are terribly afraid +that my presence here, and a meeting between me and that person, might +render all their schemes abortive." + +Richard's face was a study in astonishment. + +"Well," he exclaimed, "this beats everything! I've read of such things, +of course, but one only half believes them. Right under our very noses, +too! Say, what are you going to do about it, Sir Henry?" + +"There is only one thing I can do," Hunterleys replied grimly. "I am +bound to keep my place here. They'll drive me out if they can. I am +convinced that the polite warning I have received to leave Monaco this +afternoon because of last night's affair, is part of the conspiracy. In +plain words, I've got to stick it out." + +"But what good are you doing here, anyway?" + +Hunterleys smiled and glanced carefully around the room. They were still +free from any risk of being overheard. + +"Well," he said, "perhaps you will understand my meaning more clearly if +I tell you that I am the brains of a counterplot. The English Secret +Service has a permanent agent here under the guise of a newspaper +correspondent, who is in daily touch with me, and he in his turn has +several spies at work. I am, however, the dangerous person. The others +are only servants. They make their reports, but they don't understand +their true significance. If these people could remove me before any one +else could arrive to take my place, their chances of bringing off their +coup here would be immensely improved." + +"I suppose it's useless for me to ask if there's anything I can do to +help?" Richard enquired. + +"You've helped already," Hunterleys replied. "I have been nearly three +months without being able to open my lips to a soul. People call me +secretive, but I feel very human sometimes. I know that not a word of +what I have said will pass your lips." + +"Not a chance of it," Richard promised earnestly. "But look here, can't +I do something? If I am not an Englishman, I'm all for the Anglo-Saxons. +I hate these foreigners--that is to say the men," he corrected himself +hastily. + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"Well, I was coming to that," he said. "I do feel hideously alone here, +and what I would like you to do is just this. I would like you to call +at my room at the Hotel de Paris, number 189, every morning at a certain +fixed hour--say half-past ten. Just shake hands with me--that's all. +Nothing shall prevent my being visible to you at that hour. Under no +consideration whatever will I leave any message that I am engaged or +have gone out. If I am not to be seen when you make your call, something +has happened to me." + +"And what am I to do then?" + +"That is the point," Hunterleys continued. "I don't want to bring you +too deeply into this matter. All that you need do is to make your way to +the English Bank, see Mr. Harrison, the manager, and tell him of your +fruitless visit to me. He will give you a letter to my wife and will +know what other steps to take." + +"Is that all?" Richard asked, a little disappointed. "You don't +anticipate any scrapping, or anything of that sort?" + +"I don't know what to anticipate," Hunterleys confessed, a little +wearily. "Things are moving fast now towards the climax. I promise I'll +come to you for help if I need it. You can but refuse." + +"No fear of my refusing," Richard declared heartily. "Not on your life, +sir!" + +Hunterleys rose to his feet with an appreciative little nod. It was +astonishing how cordially he had come to feel towards this young man, +during the last few hours. + +"I'll let you off now," he said. "I know you want to look around the +tables and see if any of our friends of last night are to be found. I, +too, have a little affair which I ought to have treated differently a +few minutes ago. We'll meet later." + +Hunterleys strolled back into the rooms. He came almost at once face to +face with Draconmeyer, whom he was passing with unseeing eyes. +Draconmeyer, however, detained him. + +"I was looking for you, Sir Henry!" he exclaimed. "Can you spare me one +moment?" + +They stood a little on one side, out of the way of the moving throng of +people. Draconmeyer was fingering nervously his tie of somewhat vivid +purple. His manner was important. + +"Do you happen, Sir Henry," he asked, "to have had any word from the +prison authorities to-day?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I have just received a message," he replied. "I understand that the man +with whom I had a struggle last night has received some internal +injuries and is likely to die." + +Draconmeyer's manner became more mysterious. He glanced around the room +as though to be sure that they were not overheard. + +"I trust, Sir Henry," he said, "that you will not think me in any way +presumptuous if I speak to you intimately. I have never had the +privilege of your friendship, and in this unfortunate disagreement +between your wife and yourself I have been compelled to accept your +wife's point of view, owing to the friendship between Mrs. Draconmeyer +and herself. I trust you will believe, however, that I have no feelings +of hostility towards you." + +"You are very kind," Hunterleys murmured. + +His face seemed set in graven lines. For all the effect the other's +words had upon him, he might have been wearing a mask. + +"The law here in some respects is very curious," Draconmeyer continued. +"Some of the statutes have been unaltered for a thousand years. I have +been given to understand by a person who knows, that if this man should +die, notwithstanding the circumstances of the case, you might find +yourself in an exceedingly awkward position. If I might venture, +therefore, to give you a word of disinterested advice, I would suggest +that you return to England at once, if only for a week or so." + +His eyes had narrowed. Through his spectacles he was watching intently +for the effect of his words. Hunterleys, however, only nodded +thoughtfully, as though to some extent impressed by the advice he had +received. + +"Very likely you are right," he admitted. "I will discuss the matter +with my wife." + +"She is playing over there," Draconmeyer pointed out. "And while we are +talking in a more or less friendly fashion," he went on earnestly, +"might I give you just one more word of counsel? For the sake of the +friendship which exists between our wives, I feel sure you will believe +that I am disinterested." + +He paused. Hunterleys' expression was now one of polite interest. He +waited, however, for the other to continue. + +"I wish that you could persuade Lady Hunterleys to play for somewhat +lower stakes." + +Hunterleys was genuinely startled for a moment. + +"Do you mean that my wife is gambling beyond her means?" he asked. + +Draconmeyer shrugged his shoulders. + +"How can I tell that? I don't know what her means are, or yours. I only +know that she changes mille notes more often than I change louis, and it +seems to me that her luck is invariably bad. I think, perhaps, just a +word or two from you, who have the right to speak, might be of service." + +"I am very much obliged to you for the hint," Hunterleys said smoothly. +"I will certainly mention the matter to her." + +"And if I don't see you again," Draconmeyer concluded, watching him +closely, "good-bye!" + +Hunterleys did not appear to notice the tentative movement of the +other's hand. He was already on his way to the spot where his wife was +sitting. Draconmeyer watched his progress with inscrutable face. +Selingman, who had been sitting near, rose and joined him. + +"Will he go?" he whispered. "Will our friend take this very reasonable +hint and depart?" + +Draconmeyer's eyes were still fixed upon Hunterleys' slim, +self-possessed figure. His forehead was contorted into a frown. Somehow +or other, he felt that during their brief interview he had failed to +score; he had felt a subtle, underlying note of contempt in Hunterleys' +manner, in his whole attitude. + +"I do not know," he replied grimly. "I only hope that if he stays, we +shall find the means to make him regret it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +"I CANNOT GO!" + + +Hunterleys stood for several minutes, watching his wife's play from a +new point of view. She was certainly playing high and with continued +ill-fortune. For the first time, too, he noticed symptoms which +disturbed him. She sat quite motionless, but there was an unfamiliar +glitter in her eyes and a hardness about her mouth. It was not until he +had stood within a few feet of her for nearly a quarter of an hour, that +she chanced to see him. + +"Did you want me?" she asked, with a little start. + +"There is no hurry," he replied. "If you could spare me a few moments +later, I should be glad." + +She rose at once, thrusting her notes and gold into the satchel which +she was carrying, and stood by his side. She was very elegantly dressed +in black and white, but she was pale, and, watching her with a new +intentness, he discovered faint violet lines under her eyes, as though +she had been sleeping ill. + +"I am rather glad you came," she said. "I was having an abominable run +of bad luck, and yet I hated to give up my seat without an excuse. What +did you want, Henry?" + +"I should like," he explained, "to talk to you for a quarter of an hour. +This place is rather crowded and it is getting on my nerves. We seem to +live here, night and day. Would you object to driving with me--say as +far as Mentone and back?" + +"I will come if you wish it," she answered, looking a little surprised. +"Wait while I get my cloak." + +Hunterleys hired an automobile below and they drove off. As soon as they +were out of the main street, he thrust his hand into the breast-pocket +of his coat and smoothed out that half-sheet of notepaper upon his knee. + +"Violet," he said, "please read that." + +She read the few lines instructing the English Bank to hand over Sir +Henry Hunterleys' letters to the bearer. Then she looked up at him with +a puzzled frown. + +"I don't understand." + +"Did you write that?" he enquired. + +She looked at him indignantly. + +"What an absurd question!" she exclaimed. "Your correspondence has no +interest for me." + +Her denial, so natural, so obviously truthful, was a surprise to him. He +felt a sudden impulse of joy, mingled with shame. Perhaps, after all, he +had been altogether too censorious. Once more he directed her attention +to the sheet of paper. There was a marked change in his voice and +manner. + +"Violet," he begged, "please look at it. Accepting without hesitation +your word that you did not write it, doesn't it occur to you that the +body of the letter is a distinct imitation of your handwriting, and the +signature a very clever forgery of mine?" + +"It is rather like my handwriting," she admitted, "and as for the +signature, do you mean to say really that that is not yours?" + +"Certainly not," he assured her. "The whole thing is a forgery." + +"But who in the world should want to get your letters?" she asked +incredulously. "And why should you have them addressed to the bank?" + +He folded up the paper then and put it in his pocket. + +"Violet," he said earnestly, "for the disagreements which have resulted +in our separation I may myself have been to some extent responsible, but +we have promised one another not to refer to them again and I will not +break our compact. All I can say is that there is much in my life which +you know little of, and for which you do not, therefore, make sufficient +allowance." + +"Then you might have treated me," she declared, "with more confidence." + +"It was not possible," he reminded her, "so long as you chose to make an +intimate friend of a man whose every interest in life is in direct +antagonism to mine." + +"Mr. Draconmeyer?" + +"Mr. Draconmeyer," he assented. + +She smiled contemptuously. + +"You misunderstand Mr. Draconmeyer completely," she insisted. "He is +your well-wisher and he is more than half an Englishman. It was he who +started the league between English and German commercial men for the +propagation of peace. He formed one of the deputation who went over to +see the Emperor. He has done more, both by his speeches and letters to +the newspaper, to promote a good understanding between Germany and +England, than any other person. You are very much mistaken about Mr. +Draconmeyer, Henry. Why you cannot realise that he is simply an ordinary +commercial man of high intelligence and most agreeable manners, I cannot +imagine." + +"The fact remains, my dear Violet," Hunterleys said emphatically, "that +it is not possible for me to treat you with the confidence I might +otherwise have done, on account of your friendship with Mr. +Draconmeyer." + +"You are incorrigible!" she exclaimed. "Can we change the subject, +please? I want to know why you showed me that forged letter?" + +"I am coming to that," he told her. "Please be patient. I want to remind +you of something else. So far as I remember, my only request, when I +gave you your liberty and half my income, was that your friendship with +the Draconmeyers should decrease. Almost the first persons I see on my +arrival in Monte Carlo are you and Mr. Draconmeyer. I learn that you +came out with them and that you are staying at the same hotel." + +"Your wish was an unreasonable one," she protested. "Linda and I were +school-girls together. She is my dearest friend and she is a hopeless +invalid. I think that if I were to desert her she would die." + +"I have every sympathy with Mrs. Draconmeyer," he said slowly, "but you +are my wife. I am going to make one more effort--please don't be +uneasy--not to re-establish any relationship between us, but to open +your eyes as to the truth concerning Mr. Draconmeyer. You asked me a +moment ago why I had shown you that forged letter. I will tell you now. +It was Draconmeyer who was the forger." + +She leaned back in her seat. She was looking at him incredulously. + +"You mean to say that Mr. Draconmeyer wrote that order--that he wanted +to get possession of your letters?" + +"Not only that," Hunterleys continued, "but he carried out the business +in such a devilish manner as to make me for a moment believe that it was +you who had helped him. You are wrong about Draconmeyer. The man is a +great schemer, who under the pretence of occupying an important +commercial position in the City of London, is all the time a secret +agent of Germany. He is there in her interests. He studies the public +opinion of the country. He dissects our weaknesses. He is there to point +out the best methods and the opportune time for the inevitable struggle. +He is the worst enemy to-day England has. You think that he is here in +Monte Carlo on a visit of pleasure--for the sake of his wife, perhaps. +Nothing of the sort! He is here at this moment associated with an +iniquitous scheme, the particulars of which I can tell you nothing of. +Furthermore, I repeat what I told you on our first meeting here--that in +his still, cold way he is in love with you." + +"Henry!" she cried. + +"I cannot see how you can remain so wilfully blind," Hunterleys +continued. "I know the man inside out. I warned you against him in +London, I warn you against him now. This forged letter was designed to +draw us further apart. The little brown man who has dogged your +footsteps is a spy employed by him to make you believe that I was having +you watched. You are free still to act as you will, Violet, but if you +have a spark of regard for me or yourself, you will go back to London at +once and drop this odious friendship." + +She leaned back in the car. They had turned round now and were on the +way back to Monte Carlo by the higher road. She sat with her eyes fixed +upon the mountains. Her heart, in a way, had been touched, her +imagination stirred by her husband's words. She felt a return of that +glow of admiration which had thrilled her on the previous night, when he +and Richard Lane alone amongst that motley company had played the part +of men. A curious, almost pathetic wistfulness crept into her heart. If +only he would lean towards her at that moment, if she could see once +more the light in his eyes that had shone there during the days of their +courtship! If only he could remember that it was still his part to play +the lover! If he could be a little less grave, a little less hopelessly +correct and fair! Despite her efforts to disbelieve, there was something +convincing about his words. At any moment during that brief space of +time, a single tremulous word, even a warm clasp of the hand, would have +brought her into his arms. But so much of inspiration was denied him. He +sat waiting for her decision with an eagerness of which he gave no sign. +Nevertheless, the fates were fighting for him. She thought gratefully, +even at that moment, yet with less enthusiasm than ever before, of the +devout homage, the delightful care for her happiness and comfort, the +atmosphere of security with which Draconmeyer seemed always to surround +her. Yet all this was cold and unsatisfying, a poor substitute for the +other things. Henry had been different once. Perhaps it was jealousy +which had altered him. Perhaps his misconception of Draconmeyer's +character had affected his whole outlook. She turned towards him, and +her voice, when she spoke, was no longer querulous. + +"Henry," she said, "I cannot admit the truth of all that you say +concerning Mr. Draconmeyer, but tell me this. If I were willing to leave +this place to-night--" + +She paused. For some reason a sudden embarrassment had seized her. The +words seemed to come with difficulty. She turned ever so slightly away +from him. There was a tinge of colour at last in her pale cheeks. She +seemed to him now, as she leaned a little forward in her seat, +completely beautiful. + +"If I make my excuses and leave Monte Carlo to-night," she went on, +"will you come with me?" + +He gave a little start. Something in his eyes flashed an answer into her +face. And then the flood of memory came. There was his mission. He was +tied hand and foot. + +"It is good of you to offer that, Violet," he declared. "If I could--if +only I could!" + +Already her manner began to change. The fear of his refusal was hateful, +her lips were trembling. + +"You mean," she faltered, "that you will not come? Listen. Don't +misunderstand me. I will order my boxes packed, I will catch the eight +o'clock train either through to London or to Paris--anywhere. I will do +that if you will come. There is my offer. That is my reply to all that +you have said about Mr. Draconmeyer. I shall lose a friend who has been +gentleness and kindness and consideration itself. I will risk that. What +do you say? Will you come?" + +"Violet, I cannot," he replied hoarsely. "No, don't turn away like +that!" he begged. "Don't change so quickly, please! It isn't fair. +Listen. I am not my own master." + +"Not your own master?" she repeated incredulously. "What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I am here in Monte Carlo not for my own pleasure. I mean +that I have work, a purpose--" + +"Absurd!" she interrupted him, almost harshly. "There is nobody who has +any better claim upon you than I have. You are over-conscientious about +other things. For once remember your duty as a husband." + +He caught her wrist. + +"You must trust me a little," he pleaded. "Believe me that I really +appreciate your offer. If I were free to go, I should not hesitate for a +single second.... Can't you trust me, Violet?" he implored, his voice +softening. + +The woman within her was fighting on his side. She stifled her wounded +feelings, crushed down her disappointment that he had not taken her at +once into his arms and answered her upon her lips. + +"Trust me, then," she replied. "If you refuse my offer, don't hint at +things you have to do. Tell me in plain words why. It is not enough for +you to say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo. Tell me why you cannot. I +have invited you to escort me anywhere you will--I, your wife.... Shall +we go?" + +The woman had wholly triumphed. Her voice had dropped, the light was in +her eyes. She swayed a little towards him. His brain reeled. She was +once more the only woman in the world for him. Once more he fancied that +he could feel the clinging of her arms, the touch of her lips. These +things were promised in her face. + +"I tell you that I cannot go!" he cried sharply. "Believe me--do believe +me, Violet!" + +She pulled down her veil suddenly. He caught at her hand. It lay +passively in his. He pleaded for her confidence, but the moment of +inspiration had gone. She heard him with the air of one who listens no +longer. Presently she stopped him. + +"Don't speak to me for several minutes, please," she begged. "Tell him +to put me down at the hotel. I can't go back to the Club just yet." + +"You mustn't leave me like this," he insisted. + +"Will you tell me why you refuse my offer?" she asked. + +"I have a trust!" + +The automobile had come to a standstill. She rose to her feet. + +"I was once your trust," she reminded him, as she passed into the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MISS GREX AT HOME + + +Richard Lane, as he made his way up the avenue towards the Villa Mimosa, +wondered whether he was not indeed finding his way into fairyland. On +either side of him were drooping mimosa trees, heavy with the snaky, +orange-coloured blossom whose perfumes hung heavy upon the windless air. +In the background, bordering the gardens which were themselves a maze of +colour, were great clumps of glorious purple rhododendrons, drooping +clusters of red and white roses. A sudden turn revealed a long pergola, +smothered in pink blossoms and leading to the edge of the terrace which +overhung the sea. The villa itself, which seemed, indeed, more like a +palace, was covered with vivid purple clematis, and from the open door +of the winter-garden, which was built out from the front of the place in +a great curve, there came, as he drew near, a bewildering breath of +exotic odours. The front-door was wide open, and before he could reach +the bell a butler had appeared. + +"Is Mr. Grex at home?" Richard enquired. + +"Mr. Grex is not at home, sir," was the immediate reply. + +"I should like to see Miss Grex, then," Richard proceeded. + +The man's face was curiously expressionless, but a momentary silence +perhaps betrayed as much surprise as he was capable of showing. + +"Miss Grex is not at home, sir," he announced. + +Richard hesitated and just then she came out from the winter-garden. She +was wearing a pink linen morning gown and a floppy pink hat. She had a +book under her arm and a parasol swinging from her fingers. When she saw +Lane, she stared at him in amazement. He advanced a step or two towards +her, his hat in his hand. + +"I took the liberty of calling to see your father, Miss Grex," he +explained. "As he was not at home, I ventured to enquire for you." + +She was absolutely helpless. It was impossible to ignore his +outstretched hand. Very hesitatingly she held out her fingers, which +Richard grasped and seemed in no hurry at all to release. + +"This is quite the most beautiful place I have seen anywhere near Monte +Carlo," he remarked enthusiastically. + +"I am glad," she murmured, "that you find it attractive." + +He was standing by her side now, his hat under his arm. The butler had +withdrawn a little into the background. She glanced around. + +"Did my father ask you to call, Mr. Lane?" she enquired, dropping her +voice a little. + +"He did not," Richard confessed. "I must say that I gave him plenty of +opportunities but he did not seem to be what I should call hospitably +inclined. In any case, it really doesn't matter. I came to see you." + +She bit her lip, struggling hard to repress a smile. + +"But I did not ask you to call upon me either," she reminded him +gravely. + +"Well, that's true," Lane admitted, a little hesitatingly. "I don't +quite know how things are done over here. Say, are you English, or +French, or what?" he asked, point blank. "I have been puzzling about +that ever since I saw you." + +"I am not sure that my nationality matters," she observed. + +"Well, over on the other side," he continued,--"I mean America, of +course--if we make up our minds that we want to see something of a girl +and there isn't any real reason why one shouldn't, then the initiative +generally rests with the man. Of course, if you are an only daughter, I +can quite understand your father being a bit particular, not caring for +men callers and that sort of thing, but that can't go on for ever, you +know, can it?" + +"Can't it?" she murmured, a little dazed. + +"I have a habit," he confided, "of making up my mind quickly, and when I +decide about a thing, I am rather hard to turn. Well, I made up my mind +about you the first moment we met." + +"About me?" she repeated. + +"About you." + +She turned and looked at him almost wonderingly. He was very big and +very confident; good to look upon, less because of his actual good looks +than because of a certain honesty and tenacity of purpose in his +expression; a strength of jaw, modified and rendered even pleasant by +the kindness and humour of his clear grey eyes. He returned her gaze +without embarrassment and he wondered less than ever at finding himself +there. Her complexion in this clear light seemed more beautiful than +ever. Her rich golden-brown hair was waved becomingly over her forehead. +Her eyebrows were silky and delicately straight, her mouth delightful. +Her figure was girlish, but unusually dignified for her years. + +"You know," he said suddenly, "you look to me just like one of those +beautiful plants you have in the conservatory there, just as though +you'd stepped out of your little glass home and blossomed right here. I +am almost afraid of you." + +She laughed outright this time--a low, musical laugh which had in it +something of foreign intonation. + +"Well, really," she exclaimed, "I had not noticed your fear! I was just +thinking that you were quite the boldest young man I have ever met." + +"Come, that's something!" he declared. "Couldn't we sit down somewhere +in these wonderful gardens of yours and talk?" + +She shook her head. + +"But have I not told you already," she protested, "that I do not receive +callers? Neither does my father. Really, your coming here is quite +unwarrantable. If he should return at this moment and find you here, he +would be very angry indeed. I am afraid that he would even be rude, and +I, too, should suffer for having allowed you to talk with me." + +"Let's hope that he doesn't return just yet, then," Richard observed, +smiling easily. "I am very good-tempered as a rule, but I do not like +people to be rude to me." + +"Fortunately, he cannot return for at least an hour--" she began. + +"Then we'll sit down on that terrace, if you please, for just a quarter +of that time," he begged. + +She opened her lips and closed them again. He was certainly a very +stubborn young man! + +"Well," she sighed, "perhaps it will be the easiest way of getting rid +of you." + +She motioned him to follow her. The butler, from a discreet distance, +watched her as though he were looking at a strange thing. Round the +corner of the villa remote from the winter-garden, was a long stone +terrace upon which many windows opened. Screened from the wind, the sun +here was of almost midsummer strength. There was no sound. The great +house seemed asleep. There was nothing but the droning of a few insects. +Even the birds were songless. The walls were covered with drooping +clematis and roses, roses that twined over the balustrades. Below them +was a tangle of mimosa trees and rhododendrons, and further below still +the blue Mediterranean. She sank into a chair. + +"You may sit here," she said, "just long enough for me to convince you +that your coming was a mistake. Indeed that is so. I do not wish to seem +foolish or unkind, but my father and I are living here with one +unbreakable rule, and that is that we make no acquaintances whatsoever." + +"That sounds rather queer," he remarked. "Don't you find it dull?" + +"If I do," she went on, "it is only for a little time. My father is here +for a certain purpose, and as soon as that is accomplished we shall go +away. For him to accomplish that purpose in a satisfactory manner, it is +necessary that we should live as far apart as possible from the ordinary +visitors here." + +"Sounds like a riddle," he admitted. "Do you mind telling me of what +nationality you are?" + +"I see no reason why I should tell you anything." + +"You speak such correct English," he continued, "but there is just a +little touch of accent. You don't know how attractive it sounds. You +don't know--" + +He hesitated, suddenly losing some part of his immense confidence. + +"What else is there that I do not know?" she asked, with a faintly +amused smile. + +"I have lost my courage," he confessed simply. "I do not want to offend +you, I do not want you to think that I am hopelessly foolish, but you +see I have the misfortune to be in love with you." + +She laughed at him, leaning back in her chair with half-closed eyes. + +"Do people talk like this to casual acquaintances in your country?" she +asked. + +"They speak sometimes a language which is common to all countries," he +replied quickly. "The only thing that is peculiar to my people is that +when we say it, it is the sober and the solemn truth." + +She was silent for a moment. She had plucked one of the blossoms from +the wall and was pulling to pieces its purple petals. + +"Do you know," she said, "that no young man has ever dared to talk to me +as you have done?" + +"That is because no one yet has cared so much as I do," he assured her. +"I can quite understand their being frightened. I am terribly afraid of +you myself. I am afraid of the things I say to you, but I have to say +them because they are in my heart, and if I am only to have a quarter of +an hour with you now, you see I must make the best use of my time. I +must tell you that there isn't any other girl in the world I could ever +look at again, and if you won't promise to marry me some day, I shall be +the most wretched person on earth." + +"I can never, never marry you," she told him emphatically. "There is +nothing which is so impossible as that." + +"Well, that's a pretty bad start," he admitted. + +"It is the end," she said firmly. + +He shook his head. There was a terrible obstinacy in his face. She +frowned at him. + +"You do not mean that you will persist after what I have told you?" + +He looked at her, almost surprised. + +"There isn't anything else for me to do, that I know of," he declared, +"so long as you don't care for any one else. Tell me again, you are sure +that there is no one?" + +"Certainly not," she replied stiffly. "The subject has not yet been made +acceptable to me. You must forgive my adding that in my country it is +not usual for a girl to discuss these matters with a man before her +betrothal." + +"Say, I don't understand that," he murmured, looking at her +thoughtfully. "She can't get engaged before she is asked." + +"The preliminaries," she explained, "are always arranged by one's +parents." + +He smiled pityingly. + +"That sort of thing's no use," he asserted confidently. "You must be +getting past that, in whatever corner of Europe you live. What you mean +to say, then, is that your father has some one up his sleeve whom he'll +trot out for you before long?" + +"Without doubt, some arrangement will be proposed," she agreed. + +"And you'll have to be amiable to some one you've never seen in your +life before, I suppose?" he persisted. + +"Not necessarily. It sometimes happens, in my position," she went on, +raising her head, "that certain sacrifices are necessary." + +"In your position," he repeated quickly. "What does that mean? You +aren't a queen, are you, or anything of that sort?" + +She laughed. + +"No," she confessed, "I am not a queen, and yet--" + +"And yet?" + +"You must go back," she insisted, rising abruptly to her feet. "The +quarter of an hour is up. I do not feel happy, sitting here talking with +you. Really, if my father were to return he would be more angry with me +than he has ever been in his life. This sort of thing is not done +amongst my people." + +"Little lady," he said, gently forcing her back into her place, "believe +me, it's done all the world over, and there isn't any girl can come to +any harm by being told that a man is fond of her when it's the truth, +when he'd give his life for her willingly. It's just like that I feel +about you. I've never felt it before. I could never feel it for any one +else. And I am not going to give you up." + +She was looking at him half fearfully. There was a little colour in her +cheeks, her eyes were suddenly moist. + +"I think," she murmured, "that you talk very nicely. I think I might +even say that I like to hear you talk. But it is so useless. Won't you +go now? Won't you please go now?" + +"When may I come again?" he begged. + +"Never," she replied firmly. "You must never come again. You must not +even think of it. But indeed you would not be admitted. They will +probably tell my father of your visit, as it is, and he will be very +angry." + +"Well, when can I see you, then, and where?" he demanded. "I hope you +understand that I am not in the least disheartened by anything you have +said." + +"I think," she declared, "that you are the most persistent person I ever +met." + +"It is only," he whispered, leaning a little towards her, "because I +care for you so much." + +She was suddenly confused, conscious of a swift desire to get rid of +him. It was as though some one were speaking a new language. All her old +habits and prejudices seemed falling away. + +"I cannot make appointments with you," she protested, her voice shaking. +"I cannot encourage you in any way. It is really quite impossible." + +"If I go now, will you be at the Club to-morrow afternoon?" he pleaded. + +"I am not sure," she replied. "It is very likely that I may be there. I +make no promise." + +He took her hand abruptly, and, stooping down, forced her to look into +his eyes. + +"You will be there to-morrow afternoon, please," he begged, "and you +will give me the rose from your waistband." + +She laughed uneasily. + +"If the rose will buy your departure--" she began. + +"It may do that," he interrupted, as he drew it through his buttonhole, +"but it will assuredly bring me back again." + + * * * * * + +Richard walked down the hill, whistling softly to himself and with a +curious light in his eyes. As he reached the square in front of the +Casino, he was accosted by a stranger who stood in the middle of the +pavement and respectfully removed his hat. + +"You are Mr. Richard Lane, is it not so, monsieur?" + +"You've guessed it in one," Richard admitted. "Have I ever seen you +before?" + +"Never, monsieur, unless you happened to notice me on your visit to the +prison. I have an official position in the Principality. I am +commissioned to speak to you with respect to the little affair in which +you were concerned at La Turbie." + +"Well, I thought we'd thrashed all that out," Lane replied. "Anyway, Sir +Henry Hunterleys and I have engaged a lawyer to look after our +interests." + +"Just so," the little man murmured. "A very clever man indeed is +Monsieur Grisson. Still, there is a view of the matter," he continued, +"which is perhaps hard for you Englishmen and Americans to understand. +Assault of any description is very severely punished here, especially +when it results in bodily injury. Theft of all sorts, on the other hand, +is very common indeed. The man whom you injured is a native of Monte +Carlo. To a certain extent, the Principality is bound to protect him." + +"Why, the fellow was engaged in a flagrant attempt at highway robbery!" +Richard declared, genuinely astonished. + +His companion stretched out his hands. + +"Monsieur," he replied, "every one robs here, whether they are +shop-keepers, restaurant keepers, or loafers upon the streets. The +people expect it. At the adjourned trial next week there will be many +witnesses who are also natives of Monte Carlo. I have been commissioned +to warn monsieur. It would be best, on the whole, if he left Monte Carlo +by the next train." + +"Why in the name of mischief should I do that?" Richard demanded. + +"In the first place," the other pointed out, "because this man, whom you +treated a little roughly, has many friends and associates. They have +sworn revenge. You are even now being followed about, and the police of +the Principality have enough to do without sparing an escort to protect +you against violence. In the second place, I am not at all sure that the +finding of the court next week will be altogether to your satisfaction." + +"Do you mean this?" Richard asked incredulously. + +"Without a doubt, monsieur." + +"Then all I can say," Richard declared, "is that your magistrate or +judge, or whatever he calls himself, is a rotter, and your laws absurd. +I sha'n't budge." + +"It is in your own interests, monsieur, this warning," the other +persisted. "Even if you escape these desperadoes, you still run some +risk of discovering what the inside of a prison in Monaco is like." + +"I think not," Lane answered grimly. "If there's anything of that sort +going about, I shall board my yacht yonder and hoist the Stars and +Stripes. I shall take some getting into prison, I can tell you, and if I +once get there, you'll hear about it." + +"Monsieur will be much wiser to avoid trouble," the official advised. + +Lane placed his hand upon the other's shoulder. + +"My friend," he said, "not you or a dozen like you could make me stir +from this place until I am ready, and just now I am very far from ready. +See? You can go and tell those who sent you, what I say." + +The emissary of the law shrugged his shoulders. His manner was stiff but +resigned. + +"I have delivered my message, monsieur," he announced. "Monsieur +naturally must decide for himself." + +He disappeared with a bow. Richard continued on his way and a few +minutes later ran into Hunterleys. + +"Say, did you ever hear such cheek!" he exclaimed, passing his arm +through the latter's. "A little bounder stopped me in the street and has +been trying to frighten me into leaving Monte Carlo, just because I +broke that robber's wrist. Same Johnny that came to you, I expect. What +are they up to, anyway? What do they want to get rid of us for? They +ought to be jolly grateful." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"So far as I am concerned," he said, "their reasons for wanting to get +rid of me are fairly obvious, I am afraid, but I must say I don't know +where you come in, unless--" + +He stopped short. + +"Well, unless what?" Richard interposed. "I should just like to know who +it is trying to get me kicked out." + +"Can't you guess?" Hunterleys asked. "There is one person who I think +would be quite as well pleased to see the back of you." + +"Here in Monte Carlo?" + +"Absolutely!" + +Richard was mystified. + +"You are not very bright, I am afraid," Hunterleys observed. "What about +your friend Mr. Grex?" + +Richard whistled softly. + +"Are you serious?" + +"Of course I am," Hunterleys assured him. + +"But has he any pull here, this Mr. Grex?" + +Hunterleys' eyes twinkled for a moment. + +"Yes," he replied, "I think that Mr. Grex has very considerable +influence in this part of the world, and he is a man who, I should say, +was rather used to having his own way." + +"I gathered that I wasn't exactly popular with him this afternoon," +Richard remarked meditatively. "I've been out there to call." + +Hunterleys stopped short upon the pavement. + +"What?" he exclaimed. + +"I have been out to call at the Villa Mimosa," Richard repeated. "I +don't see anything extraordinary in that." + +"Did you see--Miss Fedora?" + +"Rather! And thank you for telling me her name, at any rate. We sat on +the terrace and chatted for a quarter of an hour. She gave me to +understand, though, that the old man was dead against me. It all seems +very mysterious. Anyway, she gave me this rose I am wearing, and I think +she'll be at the Club to-morrow afternoon." + +Hunterleys was silent for a moment. He seemed much impressed. + +"You know, Richard," he declared, "there is something akin to genius in +your methods." + +"That's all very well," the young man protested, "but can you give me a +single solid reason why, considering I am in love with the girl, I +shouldn't go and call upon her? Who is this Mr. Grex, anyway?" + +"I've a good mind to tell you," Hunterleys said meditatively. + +"I don't care whether you do or not," Lane pronounced firmly, as they +parted. "I don't care whether Mr. Grex is the Sultan of Turkey or the +Czar of Russia. I'm going to marry his daughter. That's settled." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DINNER FOR TWO + + +At a few minutes before eight o'clock that evening Lady Hunterleys +descended the steps of the Casino and crossed the square towards the +Hotel de Paris. She walked very slowly and she looked neither to the +right nor to the left. She had the air of seeing no one. She +acknowledged mechanically the low bow of the commissionaire who opened +the door for her. A reception clerk who stood on one side to let her +pass, she ignored altogether. She crossed the hall to the lift and +pressed the bell. Draconmeyer, who had been lounging in an easy-chair +waiting for her, watched her entrance and noticed her abstracted manner +with kindling eyes. He threw away his newspaper and, hastily approaching +her, touched her arm. + +"You are late," he remarked. + +She started. + +"Yes, I am late." + +"I did not see you at the Club." + +"I have been to the Casino instead," she told him. "I thought that it +might change my luck." + +"Successful, I trust?" + +She shook her head. Then she opened her gold satchel and showed him. It +was empty. + +"The luck must turn sometime," he reminded her soothingly. "How long +will you be changing?" + +"I am tired," she confessed. "I thought that to-night I would not dine. +I will have something sent up to my room." + +He was obviously disappointed. + +"Couldn't you dine as you are?" he begged. "You could change later, if +you wished to. It is always such a disappointment when you do not +appear--and to-night," he added, "especially." + +Violet hesitated. She was really longing only to be alone and to rest. +She thought, however, of the poor invalid to whom their meeting at +dinner-time was the one break of the day. + +"Very well," she promised, "I will be down in ten minutes." + +Draconmeyer, as the lift bore her upwards, strolled away. Although the +custom was a strange one to him, he sought out the American bar and +drank a cocktail. Then he lit a cigarette and made his way back into the +lounge, moving restlessly about, his hands behind his back, his forehead +knitted. In his way he had been a great schemer, and in the crowded hall +of the hotel that night, surrounded by a wonderfully cosmopolitan throng +of loungers and passers-by, he lived again through the birth and +development of many of the schemes which his brain had conceived since +he had left his mother-country. One and all they had been successful. He +seemed, indeed, to have been imbued with the gift of success. He had +floated immense loans where other men had failed; he had sustained the +credit of his country on a high level through more than one serious +financial crisis; he had pulled down or built up as his judgment or +fancy had dictated; and all the time the man's relaxations, apart from +the actual trend of great affairs, had been few and slight. Then had +come his acquaintance with Linda's school-friend. He looked back through +the years. At first he had scarcely noticed her visits. Gradually he had +become conscious of a dim feeling of thankfulness to the woman who +always seemed able to soothe his invalid wife. Then, scarcely more than +a year or so ago, he had found himself watching her at unexpected +moments, admiring the soft grace of her movements, the pleasant cadence +of her voice, the turn of her head, the colour of her hair, the elegance +of her clothes, her thin, fashionable figure. Gradually he had begun to +look for her, to welcome her at his table--and from that, the rest. +Finally the birth of this last scheme of his. He had very nearly made a +fatal mistake at the very commencement, had pulled himself right again +only with a supreme effort. His heart beat quicker even now as he +thought of that moment. They had been alone together one evening. She +had sat talking with him after Linda had gone to bed worse than usual, +and in the dim light he had almost lost his head, he had almost said +those words, let her see the things in his eyes for which the time was +not yet ripe. She had kept away for a while after that. He had treated +it as a mistake but he had been very careful not to err again. By +degrees she forgot. The estrangement between husband and wife was part +of his scheme, largely his doing. He was all the time working to make +the breach wider. The visit to Monte Carlo, rather a difficult +accomplishment, he had arranged. He had seen with delight the necessity +for some form of excitement growing up in her, had watched her losses +and only wished that they had been larger. He had encouraged her to play +for higher stakes and found that she needed very little encouragement +indeed. To-night he felt that a crisis was at hand. There was a new look +upon her face. She had probably lost everything. He knew exactly how she +would feel about asking her husband for help. His eyes grew brighter as +he waited for the lift. + +She came at last and they walked together into the dining-room. When she +reached their accustomed table, it was empty, and only their two places +were laid. She looked at him in surprise. + +"But I thought you said that Linda would be so disappointed!" she +reminded him. + +He shook his head. + +"I do not think that I mentioned Linda's name," he protested. "She went +to bed soon after tea in an absolutely hopeless state. I am afraid that +to-night I was selfish. I was thinking of myself. I have had nothing in +the shape of companionship all day. I came and looked at the table, and +the thought of dining alone wearied me. I have to spend a great deal of +time alone, unfortunately. You and I are, perhaps, a little alike in +that respect." + +She seated herself after a moment's hesitation. He moved his chair a +little closer to hers. The pink-shaded lamp seemed to shut them off from +the rest of the room. A waiter poured wine into their glasses. + +"I ordered champagne to-night," he remarked. "You looked so tired when +you came in. Drink a glass at once." + +She obeyed him, smiling faintly. She was, as a matter of fact, craving +for something of the sort. + +"It was thoughtful of you," she declared. "I am tired. I have been +losing all day, and altogether I have had a most depressing time." + +"It is not as it should be, that," he observed, smiling. "This is a city +of pleasure. One was meant to leave one's cares behind here. If any one +in this world," he added, "should be without them, it should be you." + +He looked at her respectfully yet with an admiration which he made no +effort to conceal. There was nothing in the look over-personal. She +accepted it with gratitude. + +"You are always kind," she murmured. + +"This reminds me of some of our evenings in London," he went on, "when +we used to talk music before we went to the Opera. I always found those +evenings so restful and pleasant. Won't you try and forget that you have +lost a few pennies; forget, also, your other worries, whatever they may +be? I have had a letter to-day from the one great writer whom we both +admire. I shall read it to you. And I have a list of the operas for next +week. I see that your husband's little protegee, Felicia Roche, is +here." + +"My husband's protegee?" she repeated. "I don't quite understand." + +He seemed, for a moment, embarrassed. + +"I am sorry," he said. "I had no idea. But your husband will tell you if +you ask him. It was he who paid for her singing education, and her +triumph is his. But the name must be known to you." + +"I have never heard it in connection with my husband," she declared, +frowning slightly. "Henry does not always take me into his confidence." + +"Then I am sorry," he continued penitently, "that I mentioned the +matter. It was clumsy of me. I had an idea that he must have told you +all about her.... Another glass of wine, please, and you will find your +appetite comes. Jules has prepared that salmon trout specially. I'll +read you the letter from Maurice, if you like, and afterwards there is a +story I must tell you." + +The earlier stages of dinner slipped pleasantly away. Draconmeyer was a +born conversationalist,--a good talker and a keen tactician. The food +and the wine, too, did their part. Presently Violet lifted her head, the +colour came back to her cheeks, she too began to talk and laugh. All the +time he was careful not to press home his advantage. He remembered that +one night in the library at Grosvenor Square, when she had turned her +head and looked at him for a moment before leaving. She must be +different now, he told himself fiercely. It was impossible that she +could continue to love a husband who neglected her, a man whose mistaken +sense of dignity kept him away from her! + +"I want you," he begged, as they drew towards the close of the meal, "to +treat me, if you will, just a little more confidentially." + +She glanced up at him quickly, almost suspiciously. + +"What do you mean?" + +"You have troubles of which you do not speak," he went on. "If my +friendship is worth anything, it ought to enable me to share those +troubles with you. You have had a little further disagreement with your +husband, I think, and bad luck at the tables. You ought not to let +either of these things depress you too much. Tell me, do you think that +I could help with Sir Henry?" + +"No one could help," she replied, her tone unconsciously hardening. +"Henry is obstinate, and it is my firm conviction that he has ceased to +care for me at all. This afternoon--this very afternoon," she went on, +leaning across the table, her voice trembling a little, her eyes very +bright, "I offered to go away with him." + +"To leave Monte Carlo?" + +"Yes! He refused. He said that he must stay here, for some mysterious +reason. I begged him to tell me what that reason was, and he was silent. +It was the end. He gives me no confidence. He has refused the one effort +I made at reconciliation. I am convinced that it is useless. We have +parted finally." + +Draconmeyer tried hard to keep the light from his eyes as he leaned +towards her. + +"Dear lady," he said, "if I do not admit that I am sorry--well, there +are reasons. Your husband did well to be mysterious. I can tell you the +reason why he will not leave Monte Carlo. It is because Felicia Roche +makes her debut at the Opera House to-morrow night. There! I didn't mean +to tell you but the whole world knows it. Even now I would not have told +you but for other things. It is best that you know the truth. It is my +firm belief that your husband does not deserve your interest, much more +your affection. If only I dared--" + +He paused for a moment. Every word he was compelled to measure. + +"Sometimes," he continued, "your condition reminds me so much of my own. +I think that there is no one so lonely in life as I am. For the last few +years Linda has been fading away, physically and mentally. I touch her +fingers at morning and night, we speak of the slight happenings of the +day. She has no longer any mind or any power of sympathy. Her lips are +as cold as her understanding. For that I know she is not to blame, yet +it has left me very lonely. If I had had a child," he went on, "even if +there were one single soul of whom I was fond, to whom I might look for +sympathy; even if you, my dear friend--you see, I am bold, and I venture +to call you my dear friend--could be a little kinder sometimes, it would +make all the difference in the world." + +She turned her head and looked at him. His teeth came together hastily. +It seemed to him that already she was on her guard. + +"You have something more to say, haven't you?" she asked. + +He hesitated. Her tone was non-committal. It was a moment when he might +have risked everything, but he feared to make a mistake. + +"This is what I mean," he declared, with the appearance of great +frankness. "I am going to speak to you upon the absurd question of +money. I have an income of which, even if I were boundlessly +extravagant, I could not hope to spend half. A speculation, the week +before I left England, brought me a profit of a million marks. But for +the banking interests of my country and the feeling that I am the +trustee for thousands of other people, it would weary me to look for +investments. And you--you came in to-night, looking worn out just +because you had lost a handful or so of those wretched plaques. There, +you see it is coming now. I should like permission to do more than call +myself your friend. I should like permission to be also your banker." + +She looked at him quietly and searchingly. His heart began to beat +faster. At least she was in doubt. He had not wholly lost. His chance, +even, was good. + +"My friend," she said, "I believe that you are honest. I do indeed +recognise your point of view. The thing is an absurdity, but, you know, +all conventions, even the most foolish, have some human and natural +right beneath them. I think that the convention which forbids a woman +accepting money from a man, however close a friend, is like that. +Frankly, my first impulse, a few minutes ago, was to ask you to lend me +a thousand pounds. Now I know that I cannot do it." + +"Do you really mean that?" he asked, in a tone of deep disappointment. +"If you do, I am hurt. It proves that the friendship which to me is so +dear, is to you a very slight thing." + +"You mustn't think that," she pleaded. "And please, Mr. Draconmeyer, +don't think that I don't appreciate all your kindness. Short of +accepting your money, I would do anything to prove it." + +"There need be no question of a gift," he reminded her, in a low tone. +"If I were a perfect stranger, I might still be your banker. You must +have money from somewhere. Are you going to ask your husband?" + +She bit her lip for a moment. If indeed he had known her actual +position, his hopes would have been higher still. + +"I cannot possibly ask Henry for anything," she confessed. "I had made +up my mind to ask him to authorise the lawyers to advance me my next +quarter's allowance. After--what has passed between us, though, +and--considering everything, I don't feel that I can do it." + +"Then may I ask how you really mean to get more money?" he went on +gently. + +She looked at him a little piteously. + +"Honestly, I don't know," she admitted. "I will be quite frank with you. +Henry allows me two thousand, five hundred a year. I brought nine +hundred pounds out with me, and I have nothing more to come until June." + +"And how much have you left of the nine hundred pounds?" he asked. + +"Not enough to pay my hotel bill," she groaned. + +He smiled. + +"Circumstances are too strong for you," he declared. "You must go to a +banker. I claim the right of being that banker. I shall draw up a +promissory note--no, we needn't do that--two or three cheques, perhaps, +dated June, August and October. I shall charge you five per cent. +interest and I shall lend you a thousand pounds." + +Her eyes sparkled. The thought of the money was wonderful to her. A +thousand pounds in mille notes that very night! She thought it all over +rapidly. She would never run such risks again. She would play for small +amounts each day--just enough to amuse herself. Then, if she were lucky, +she would plunge, only she would choose the right moment. Very likely +she would be able to pay the whole amount back in a day or two. If Henry +minded, well, it was his own fault. He should have been different. + +"You put it so kindly," she said gratefully, "that I am afraid I cannot +refuse. You are very, very considerate, Mr. Draconmeyer. It certainly +will be nicer to owe you the money than a stranger." + +"I am only glad that you are going to be reasonable," he +remarked,--"glad, really, for both our sakes. And remember," he went on +cheerfully, "that one isn't young and at Monte Carlo too many times in +one's life. Make up your mind to enjoy yourself. If the luck goes +against you for a little longer, come again. You are bound to win in the +end. Now, if you like, we'll have our coffee outside. I'll go and fetch +the money and you shall make out your cheques." + +He scribbled hastily on a piece of paper for a moment. + +"These are the amounts," he pointed out. "I have charged you five per +cent. per annum interest. As I can deal with money at something under +four, I shall make quite a respectable profit--more than enough," he +added good-naturedly, "to pay for our dinner!" + +She seemed suddenly years younger. The prospect of the evening before +her was enchanting. + +"You really are delightful!" she exclaimed. "You can't think how +differently I shall feel when I go into the Club to-night. I am +perfectly certain that it's having plenty of money that helps one to +win." + +He smiled. + +"And plenty of courage," he added. "Don't waste your time trifling with +small stakes. Bid up for the big things. It is the only way in gambling +and in life." + +He rose to his feet and their eyes met for a moment. Once more she felt +vaguely troubled. She put that disturbing thought away from her, +however. It was foolish to think of drawing back now. If he admired +her--well, so did most men! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +INTERNATIONAL POLITICS + + +The Villa Mimosa flamed with lights from the top story to the +ground-floor. The entrance gates stood wide-open. All along the drive, +lamps flashed from unsuspected places beneath the yellow-flowering +trees. One room only seemed shrouded in darkness and mystery, and around +that one room was concentrated the tense life of the villa. Thick +curtains had been drawn with careful hands. The heavy door had been +securely closed. The French-windows which led out on to the balcony had +been almost barricaded. The four men who were seated around the oval +table had certainly secured for themselves what seemed to be a complete +and absolute isolation. Yet there was, nevertheless, a sense of +uneasiness, an indescribable air of tension in the atmosphere. The +quartette had somehow the appearance of conspirators who had not settled +down to their work. It was the last arrival, the man who sat at Mr. +Grex's right hand, who was responsible for the general unrest. + +Mr. Grex moved a little nervously in the chair which he had just drawn +up to the table. He looked towards Draconmeyer as he opened the +proceedings. + +"Monsieur Douaille," he said, "has come to see us this evening at my own +urgent request. Before we commence any sort of discussion, he has asked +me to make it distinctly understood to you both--to you, Mr. +Draconmeyer, and to you, Herr Selingman--that this is not in any sense +of the word a formal meeting or convention. We are all here, as it +happens, by accident. Our friend Selingman, for instance, who is a past +master in the arts of pleasant living, has not missed a season here for +many years. Draconmeyer is also an habitue. I myself, it is true, have +spent my winters elsewhere, for various reasons, and am comparatively a +stranger, but my visit here was arranged many months ago. You yourself, +Monsieur Douaille, are a good Parisian, and no good Parisian should miss +his yearly pilgrimages to the Mecca of the pleasure-seeker. We meet +together this evening, therefore, purely as friends who have a common +interest at heart." + +The man from whom this atmosphere of nervousness radiated--a man of +medium height, inclined towards corpulence, with small grey imperial, a +thin red ribbon in his buttonhole, and slightly prominent +features--promptly intervened. He had the air of a man wholly +ill-at-ease. All the time Mr. Grex had been speaking, he had been +drumming upon the table with his forefinger. + +"Precisely! Precisely!" he exclaimed. "Above all things, that must be +understood. Ours is a chance meeting. My visit in these parts is in no +way connected with the correspondence I have had with one of our friends +here. Further," Monsieur Douaille continued impressively, "it must be +distinctly understood that any word I may be disposed to utter, either +in the way of statement or criticism, is wholly and entirely unofficial. +I do not even know what the subject of our discussion is to be. I +approach it with the more hesitation because I gather, from some slight +hint which has fallen from our friend here, that it deals with a scheme +which, if ever it should be carried into effect, is to the disadvantage +of a nation with whom we are at present on terms of the greatest +friendship. My presence here, except on the terms I have stated," he +concluded, his voice shaking a little, "would be an unpardonable offence +to that country." + +Monsieur Douaille's somewhat laboured explanation did little to lighten +the atmosphere. It was the genius of Herr Selingman which intervened. He +leaned back in his chair and he patted his waistcoat thoughtfully. + +"I have things to say," he declared, "but I cannot say them. I have +nothing to smoke--no cigarette, no cigar. I arrive here choked with +dust. As yet, the circumstance seems to have escaped our host's notice. +Ah! what is that I see?" he added, rising suddenly to his feet. "My +host, you are acquitted. I look around the table here at which I am +invited to seat myself, and I perceive nothing but a few stumpy pens and +unappetising blotting-paper. By chance I lift my eyes. I see the parting +of the curtains yonder, and behold!" + +He rose and crossed the room, throwing back a curtain at the further +end. In the recess stood a sideboard, laden with all manner of liqueurs +and wines, glasses of every size and shape, sandwiches, pasties, and +fruit. Herr Selingman stood on one side with outstretched hand, in the +manner of a showman. He himself was wrapped for a moment in admiration. + +"For you others I cannot speak," he observed, surveying the label upon a +bottle of hock. "For myself, here is nectar." + +With careful fingers he drew the cork. At a murmured word of invitation +from Mr. Grex, the others rose from their places and also helped +themselves from the sideboard. Selingman took up his position in the +centre of the hearth-rug, with a long tumbler of yellow wine in one hand +and a sandwich in the other. + +"For myself," he continued, taking a huge bite, "I wage war against all +formality. I have been through this sort of thing in Berlin. I have been +through it in Vienna, I have been through it in Rome. I have sat at long +tables with politicians, have drawn little pictures upon the +blotting-paper and been bored to death. In wearisome fashion we have +drafted agreements, we have quarrelled and bickered, we have yawned and +made of ourselves men of parchment. But to-night," he added, taking +another huge bite from his sandwich, "to-night nothing of that sort is +intended. Draconmeyer and I have an idea. Mr. Grex is favourably +inclined towards it. That idea isn't a bit of good to ourselves or any +one else unless Monsieur Douaille here shares our point of view. Here we +are, then, all met together--let us hope for a week or two's enjoyment. +Little by little we must try and see what we can do towards instilling +that idea into the mind of Monsieur Douaille. We may succeed, we may +fail, but let us always remember that our conversations are the +conversations of four friends, met together upon what is nothing more or +less than a holiday. I hate the sight of those sheets of blotting-paper +and clean pens. Who wants to make notes, especially of what we are going +to talk about! The man who cannot carry notes in his head is no +statesman." + +Monsieur Douaille, who had chosen champagne and was smoking a cigarette, +beamed approval. Much of his nervousness had departed. + +"I agree," he declared, "I like well the attitude of our friend +Selingman. There is something much too formal about this table. I am not +here to talk treaties or to upset them. To exchange views, if you +will--no more. Meanwhile, I appreciate this very excellent champagne, +the cigarettes are delicious, and I remove myself to this easy-chair. If +any one would talk world politics, I am ready. Why not? Why should we +pretend that there is any more interesting subject to men like +ourselves, in whom is placed the trust of our country?" + +Mr. Grex nodded his head in assent. + +"The fault is mine," he declared, "but, believe me, it was not +intentional. It was never my wish to give too formal an air to our +little meeting--in fact I never intended to do more than dwell on the +outside edge of great subjects to-night. Unfortunately, Monsieur +Douaille, neither you nor I, whatever our power or influence may be, are +directly responsible for the foreign affairs of our countries. We can, +therefore, speak with entire frankness. Our countries--your country and +mine--are to-day bound together by an alliance. You have something which +almost approaches an alliance with another country. I am going to tell +you in plain words what I think you have been given to understand +indirectly many times during the last few years--that understanding is +not approved of in St. Petersburg." + +Monsieur Douaille knocked the ash from his cigarette. He gazed +thoughtfully into the fire of pine logs which was burning upon the open +hearth. + +"Mr. Grex," he said, "that is plainer speaking than we have ever +received from any official source." + +"I admit it," Mr. Grex replied. "Such a statement on my part may sound a +little startling, but I make it advisedly. I know the feeling--you will +grant that my position entitles me to know the feeling--of the men who +count for anything in Russian politics. Perhaps I do not mean the +titular heads of my Government. There are others who have even more +responsibilities, who count for more. I honestly and truthfully assure +you that I speak for the powers that are behind the Government of Russia +when I tell you that the English dream of a triple alliance between +Russia, England, and France will never be accepted by my country." + +Monsieur Douaille sipped his champagne. + +"This is candour," he remarked, "absolute candour. One speaks quite +plainly, I imagine, before our friend the enemy?" he added, smiling +towards Selingman. + +"Why not?" Selingman demanded. "Why not, indeed? We are not fools here." + +"Then I would ask you, Mr. Grex," Monsieur Douaille continued, "where in +the name of all that is equitable are you to find an alliance more +likely to preserve the status quo in Europe? Both logically and +geographically it absolutely dovetails. Russia is in a position to +absorb the whole attention of Austria and even to invade the north coast +of Germany. The hundred thousand troops or so upon which we could rely +from Great Britain, would be invaluable for many reasons--first, because +a mixture of blood is always good; secondly, because the regular army +which perforce they would have to send us, is of very fine fighting +material; and thirdly, because they could land, to give away a very open +secret to you, my friend Selingman, in a westerly position, and would +very likely succeed thereby in making an outflanking movement towards +the north. I presume that at present the German fleet would not come out +to battle, in which case the English would certainly be able to do great +execution upon the northern coast of Germany. All this, of course, has +been discussed and written about, and the next war been mapped out in a +dozen different ways. I must confess, however, that taking every known +consideration into account, I can find no other distribution of powers +so reasonable or so favourable to my country." + +Mr. Grex nodded. + +"I find no fault with any word of what you have said," he declared, +"except that yours is simply the superficial and obvious idea of the man +in the street as to the course of the next probable war. Now let us go a +little further. I grant all the points which you urge in favour of your +suggested triple alliance. I will even admit that your forecast of a war +taking place under such conditions, is a fairly faithful one. We +proceed, then. The war, if it came to pass, could never be decisive. An +immense amount of blood would be shed, treasure recklessly poured out, +Europe be rendered desolate, for the sake most largely of whom?--of +Japan and America. That is the weakness of the whole thing. A war +carried out on the lines you suggest would be playing the game of these +two countries. Even the victors would be placed at a huge disadvantage +with them, to say nothing of the losers, who must see slipping away from +them forever their place under the sun. It is my opinion--and I have +studied this matter most scientifically and with the help of the Secret +Service of every country, not excepting your own, Herr Selingman--it is +my opinion that this war must be indecisive. The German fleet would be +crippled and not destroyed. The English fleet would retain its +proportionate strength. No French advance into Germany would be +successful, no German advance into France is likely. The war would +languish for lack of funds, through sheer inanition it would flicker +out, and the money of the world would flow into the treasuries of +America. Russia would not be fighting for her living. With her it could +be at best but a half-hearted war. She would do her duty to the +alliance. Nothing more could be hoped from her. You could not expect, +for instance, that she would call up all her reserves, leave the whole +of her eastern frontier unprotected, and throw into mid-Europe such a +force as would in time subjugate Germany. This could be done but it will +not be done. We all know that." + +Monsieur Douaille smoked thoughtfully for several moments. + +"Very well," he pronounced at last, "I am rather inclined to agree with +all that you have said. Yet it seems to me that you evade the great +point. The status quo is what we desire, peace is what the world wants. +If, before such a war as you have spoken of is begun, people realise +what the end of it must be, don't you think that that itself is the +greatest help towards peace? My own opinion is, I tell you frankly, that +for many years to come, at any rate, there will be no war." + +Herr Selingman set down his glass and turned slowly around. + +"Then let me tell you that you are mistaken," he declared solemnly. +"Listen to me, my friend Douaille--my friend, mind, and not the +statesman Douaille. I am a German citizen and you are a French one, and +I tell you that if in three years' time your country does not make up +its mind to strike a blow for Alsace and Lorraine, then in three years' +time Germany will declare war upon you." + +Monsieur Douaille had the expression of a man who doubts. Selingman +frowned. He was suddenly immensely serious. He struck the palm of one +hand a great blow with his clenched fist. + +"Why is it that no one in the world understands," he cried, "what +Germany wants? I tell you, Monsieur Douaille, that we don't hate your +country. We love it. We crowd to Paris. We expand there. It is the +holiday place of every good German. Who wants a ruined France? Not we! +Yet, unless there is a change in the international situation, we shall +go to war with you and I will tell you why. There are no secrets about +this sort of thing. Every politician who is worth his salt knows them. +The only difficulty is to know when a country is in earnest, and how far +it will go. That is the value of our meeting. That is what I am here to +say. We shall go to war with you, Monsieur Douaille, to get Calais, and +when we've got Calais--oh, my God!" Selingman almost reverently +concluded, "then our solemn task will be begun." + +"England!" Monsieur Douaille murmured. + +There was a brief pause. Selingman had seemed, for a moment, to have +passed into the clouds. There was a sort of gloomy rapture upon his +face. He caught up Douaille's last word and repeated it. + +"England! England, and through her...." + +He moved to the sideboard and filled his tumbler with wine. When he came +back to his place, his expression had lightened. + +"Ah, well! dear Monsieur Douaille," he exclaimed, patting the other's +shoulder in friendly fashion, "to-night we merely chatter. To-night we +are here to make friends, to gain each the confidence of the other. To +ourselves let us pretend that we are little boys, playing the game of +our nation--France, Germany, and Russia. Germany and Russia, to be frank +with you, are waiting for one last word from Germany's father, something +splendid and definite to offer. What we would like France to do, while +France loses its money at roulette and flirts with the pretty ladies at +Ciro's, is to try and accustom itself not to an alliance with +Germany--no! Nothing so utopian as that. The lion and the lamb may +remain apart. They may agree to be friends, they may even wave paws at +one another, but I do not suggest that they march side by side. What we +ask of France is that she looks the other way. It is very easy to look +the other way. She might look, for instance--towards Egypt." + +[Illustration: "What we ask of France is that she looks the other way."] + +There was a sudden glitter in the eyes of Monsieur Douaille. Selingman +saw it and pressed on. + +"There are laurels to be won which will never fade," he continued, +setting down his empty tumbler, "laurels to be won by that statesman of +your country, the little boy France, who is big enough and strong enough +to stand with his feet upon the earth and proclaim--'I am for France and +my own people, and my own people only, and I will make them great +through all the centuries by seeing the truth and leading them towards +it, single-purposed, single-minded.' ... But these things are not to be +disposed of so readily as this wonderful Berncastler--I beg its pardon, +Berncastler Doctor--of our host. For to-night I have said my say. I have +whims, perhaps, but with me serious affairs are finished for the night. +I go to the Sporting Club. Mademoiselle keeps my place at the baccarat +table. I feel in the vein. It is a small place, Monte Carlo. Let us make +no appointments. We shall drift together. And, monsieur," he concluded, +laying his hand for a moment upon Douaille's shoulder, "let the thought +sink into your brain. Wipe out that geographical and logical map of +Europe from your mind; see things, if you can, in the new daylight. +Then, when the idea has been there for just a little time--well, we +speak again.... Come, Draconmeyer. I am relying upon your car to get me +into Monte Carlo. My bounteous host, Mr. Grex, good night! I touch your +hand with reverence. The man who possesses such wine and offers it to +his friends, is indeed a prince." + +Mr. Grex rose a little unwillingly from his chair. + +"It is of no use to protest," he remarked, smiling. "Our friend +Selingman will have his way. Besides, as he reminded us, there is one +last word to arrive. Come and breathe the odours of the Riviera, +Monsieur Douaille. This is when I realise that I am not at my villa on +the Black Sea." + +They passed out into the hall and stood on the terrace while the cars +drew up. The light outside seemed faintly violet. The perfume of mimosa +and roses and oleander came to him in long waves, subtle and yet +invigorating. Below, the lights of Monte Carlo, clear and brilliant, +with no northern fog or mist to dull their radiance, shone like gems in +the mantle of night. Selingman sighed as he stepped into the automobile. + +"We are men who deserve well from history," he declared, "who, in the +midst of a present so wonderful, can spare time to plan for the +generations to come!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A BARGAIN WITH JEAN COULOIS + + +Selingman drew out his watch and held it underneath the electric light +set in the back of the automobile. + +"Good!" he declared. "It is not yet half-past eleven." + +"Too early for the Austria," Draconmeyer murmured, a little absently. + +Selingman returned the watch to his pocket. + +"By no means," he objected. "Mademoiselle is doubtless amusing herself +well enough, but if I go now and leave in an hour, she will be peevish. +She might want to accompany us. To-night it would not be convenient. +Tell your chauffeur, Draconmeyer, to take us direct to the rendezvous. +We can at least watch the people there. One is always amused. We will +forget our nervous friend. These little touches, Draconmeyer, my man, +they mark the man of genius, mind you. Did you notice how his eyes lit +up when I whispered that one word 'Egypt'? It is a great game when you +bait your hook with men and fish for empires!" + +Draconmeyer gave an instruction to his chauffeur and leaned back. + +"If we succeed,--" he began. + +"Succeed?" Selingman interrupted. "Why, man alive, he is on our hooks +already! Be at rest, my friend. The affair is half arranged. It remains +only with us to deal with one man." + +Draconmeyer's eyes sparkled beneath his spectacles. A slow smile crept +over his white face. + +"You are right," he agreed. "That man is best out of the way. If he and +Douaille should meet--" + +"They shall not meet," Selingman thundered. "I, Selingman, declare it. +We are here already. Good! The aspect of the place pleases me." + +The two men, arriving so early, received the distinguished consideration +of a bowing maitre d'hotel as they entered the Austria. They were +ushered at once to a round table in a favourable position. Selingman +surrendered his hat and coat to the obsequious vestiaire, pulled down +his waistcoat with a familiar gesture, spread his pudgy hands upon the +table and looked around him with a smile of benevolent approval. + +"I shall amuse myself here," he declared confidently. "Pass the menu to +me, Draconmeyer. You have no more idea how to eat than a rabbit. That is +why you suffer from indigestion. At this hour--why, it is not midnight +yet--one needs sustenance--sustenance, mark you, intelligently selected, +something nourishing yet not heavy. A sheet of paper, waiter. You see, I +like to write out my dishes. It saves trouble and there are no +disappointments, nothing is forgotten. As to the wine, show me the +vintage champagnes.... So! You need not hurry with the meal. We shall +spend some time here." + +Draconmeyer arrested the much impressed maitre d'hotel as he was +hurrying away. + +"Is there dancing here to-night?" he enquired. + +"But certainly, monsieur," the man replied. "A Spanish lady, altogether +ravishing, the equal of Otero at her best--Signorina Melita." + +"She dances alone?" + +"By no means. There is the young Frenchman, Jean Coulois, who is engaged +for the season. A wonderful pair, indeed! When May comes, they go to the +music-halls in Paris and London." + +Draconmeyer nodded approval. + +"Coulois was the name," he whispered to Selingman, as the man moved +away. + +The place filled up slowly. Presently the supper was served. Selingman +ate with appetite, Draconmeyer only sparingly. The latter, however, +drank more freely than usual. The wine had, nevertheless, curiously +little effect upon him, save for a slight additional brightness of the +eyes. His cheeks remained pale, his manner distrait. He watched the +people enter and pass to their places, without any apparent interest. +Selingman, on the other hand, easily absorbed the spirit of his +surroundings. As the night wore on he drank healths with his neighbours, +beamed upon the pretty little Frenchwoman who was selling flowers, ate +and drank what was set before him with obvious enjoyment. Both men, +however, showed at least an equal interest when Mademoiselle Melita, in +Spanish costume, accompanied by a slim, dark-visaged man, began to +dance. Draconmeyer was no longer restless. He sat with folded arms, +watching the performance with a strangely absorbed air. One thing, +however, was singular. Although Selingman was confessedly a ladies' man, +his eyes, after her first few movements, scarcely rested for a moment +upon the girl. Both Draconmeyer and he watched her companion +steadfastly. When the dance was over they applauded with spirit. +Selingman sat up in his place, a champagne bottle in his hand. He +beckoned to the man, who, with a little deprecating shrug of the +shoulders, swaggered up to their table with some show of condescension. + +"A chair for Monsieur Jean Coulois, the great dancer," Selingman +ordered, "a glass, and another bottle of wine. Monsieur Jean, my +congratulations! But a word in your ear. Her steps do not match yours. +It is you who make the dance. She has no initiative. She can do nothing +but imitate," he added. + +The dancer looked at his host a little curiously. He was slightly built +and without an atom of colour. His black hair was closely cropped, his +eyes of sombre darkness, his demeanour almost sullen. At Selingman's +words, however, he nodded rapidly and seated himself more firmly upon +his chair. It was apparent that although his face remained +expressionless, he was gratified. + +"They notice nothing, these others," he remarked, with a little wave of +the hand. "It is always the woman who counts. You are right, monsieur. +She dances like a stick. She has good calves and she rolls her eyes. The +_canaille_ applaud. It is always like that. Your health, monsieur!" + +He drank his wine without apparent enjoyment, but he drank it like +water. Selingman leaned across the table. + +"Coulois," he whispered, "the wolves bay loudest at night, is it not +so?" + +The man sat quite still. If such a thing had been possible, he might +have grown a shade paler. His eyes glittered. He looked steadfastly at +Selingman. + +"Who are you?" he muttered. + +"The wolves sleep in the daytime," Selingman replied. + +The dancer shrugged his shoulders. He held out his glass to be +replenished. The double password had reassured him. + +"Pardon, monsieur," he said, "these have been anxious hours." + +"The little affair at La Turbie?" Selingman suggested. + +Coulois set down his glass for the first time half finished. His mouth +had taken an evil turn. He leaned across the table. + +"See you," he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper, "what happened, happened +justly! Martin is responsible. The whole thing was conducted in the +spirit of a pantomime, a great joke. Who are we, the Wolves, to brandish +empty firearms, to shrink from letting a little blood! Bah!" + +He finished his wine. Selingman nodded approvingly as he refilled his +glass. + +"My friend and I," he confided, "were amongst those who were held up. +Imagine it! We stood against the wall like a row of dummies. Such +treasure as I have never before seen was poured into that sack. Jewels, +my friend, such as only the women of Monte Carlo wear! Packet after +packet of mille notes! Wealth immeasurable! Oh, Coulois, Coulois, it was +an opportunity lost!" + +"Lost!" the dancer echoed fiercely. "It was thrown into the gutter! It +was madness! It was hellish, such ill-fortune! Yet what could I do? If I +had been absent from here--I, Coulois, whom men know of--even the police +would have had no excuse. So it was Martin who must lead. Our armoury +had never been fuller. There were revolvers for every one, ammunition +for a thousand.... Pardon, monsieur, but I cannot talk of this affair. +The anger rises so hot in my heart that I fear to betray myself to those +who may be listening. And besides, you have not come here to talk with +me of it." + +"It is true," Selingman confessed. + +There was a brief silence. The dancer was studying them both. There was +uneasiness in his expression. + +"I do not understand," he enquired hoarsely, "how you came by the +passwords?" + +"Make yourself wholly at ease, my young friend," Selingman begged him +reassuringly. "We are men of the world, my friend and I. We seek our own +ends in life and we have often to make use of the nearest and the best +means for the purpose of securing them. Martin has served me before. A +week ago I should have gone to him. To-night, as you know, he lies in +prison." + +"Martin, indeed!" the dancer jeered. "You would have gone, then, to a +man of sawdust, a chicken-livered bungler! What is it that you want +done? Speak to me. I am a man." + +The leader of the orchestra was essaying upon his violin the tentative +strains of a popular air. The girl had reappeared and was poising +herself upon her toes. The leader of the orchestra summoned Coulois. + +"I must dance," he announced. "Afterwards I will return." + +He leapt lightly to his feet and swung into the room with extended arms. +Draconmeyer looked down at his plate. + +"It is a risk, this, we are running," he muttered. "I do not see, +Selingman, why you could not have hired this fellow through Allen or one +of the others." + +Selingman shook his head. + +"See here, Draconmeyer," he explained, "this is one of the cases where +agents are dangerous. For Allen to have been seen with Jean Coulois here +would have been the same as though I had been seen with him myself. I +cannot, alas! in this place, with my personality, keep my identity +concealed. They know that I am Selingman. They know well that wherever I +move, I have with me men of my Secret Service. I cannot use them against +Hunterleys. Too many are in the know. Here we are simply two visitors +who talk to a dancer. We depart. We do not see him again until +afterwards. Besides, this is where fate is with us. What more natural +than that the Wolves should revenge themselves upon the man who captured +one of their leaders? It was the young American, Richard Lane, who +really started the debacle, but it was Hunterleys who seized Martin. +What more natural than revenge? These fellows hang by one another +always." + +Draconmeyer nodded with grim approval. + +"It was devilish work he did in Sofia," he said softly. "But for him, +much of this would have been unnecessary." + +The dance was over. Both men joined enthusiastically in the applause. +Coulois, with an insolent nod to his admirers, returned to his seat. He +threw himself back in his chair, crossed his legs and held out his empty +glass. Though he had been dancing furiously, there was not a single bead +of perspiration upon his forehead. + +"You are in good condition, my friend," Selingman observed admiringly. + +"I need to be for my work," Coulois replied. "Let us get to business. +There is no need to mince words. What do you want with me? Who is the +quarry?" + +"The man who ruined your little affair at La Turbie and captured your +comrade Martin," Selingman whispered. "You see, you have every +provocation to start with." + +Coulois' eyes glittered. + +"He was an Englishman," he muttered. + +"Quite true," Selingman assented. "His name is Hunterleys--Sir Henry +Hunterleys. He lives at the Hotel de Paris. His room is number 189. He +spends his time upon the Terrace, at the Cafe de Paris, and in the +Sporting Club. Every morning he goes to the English Bank for his +letters, deals with them in his room, calls at the post-office and takes +a walk, often up into the hills." + +"Come, come, this is not so bad!" Coulois exclaimed. "They laugh at us +in the cafes and down in the wine shops of Monaco, those who know," he +went on, frowning. "They say that the Wolves have become sheep. We shall +see! It is an affair, this, worth considering. What do you pay, Monsieur +le Gros, and for how long do you wish him out of the way?" + +"The pay," Selingman announced, "is two hundred louis, and the man must +be in hospital for at least a fortnight." + +Draconmeyer leaned suddenly forward. His eyes were bright, his hands +gripped the table. + +"Listen!" he whispered in Coulois' ear. "Are the Wolves sheep, indeed, +that they can do no more than twist ankles and break heads? That two +hundred shall be five hundred, Jean Coulois, but it must be a cemetery +to which they take him, and not a hospital!" + +[Illustration: "That two hundred shall be five hundred, but it must be a +cemetery to which they take him!"] + +There was a moment's silence. Selingman sat back in his place. He was +staring at his companion with wide-open eyes. Jean Coulois was +moistening his lips with his tongue, his eyes were brilliant. + +"Five hundred louis!" he repeated under his breath. + +"Is it not enough?" Draconmeyer asked coldly. "I do not believe in half +measures. The man who is wounded may be well before he is welcome. If +five hundred louis is not enough, name your price, but let there be no +doubt. Let me see what the Wolves can do when it is their leader who +handles the knife!" + +The face of the dancer was curiously impassive. He lifted his glass and +drained it. + +"An affair of death!" he exclaimed softly. "We Wolves--we bite, we +wound, we rob. But death--ugh! There are ugly things to be thought of." + +"And pleasant ones," Draconmeyer reminded him. "Five hundred louis is +not enough. It shall be six hundred. A man may do much with six hundred +golden louis." + +Selingman sat forward once more in his place. + +"Look here," he intervened, "you go too far, my friend. You never spoke +to me of this. What have you against Hunterleys?" + +"His nationality," Draconmeyer answered coolly. "I hate all Englishmen!" + +The gaiety had left Selingman's face. He gazed at his companion with a +curious expression. + +"My friend," he murmured, "I fear that you are vindictive." + +"Perhaps," Draconmeyer replied quietly. "In these matters I like to be +on the safe side." + +Jean Coulois struck the table lightly with his small, feminine hand. He +showed all his teeth as though he had been listening to an excellent +joke. + +"It is to be done," he decided. "There is no more to be said." + +Some visitors had taken the next table. Coulois drew his chair a little +closer to Draconmeyer. + +"I accept the engagement," he continued. "We will talk no more. Monsieur +desires my address? It is here,"--scribbling on a piece of paper. "But +monsieur may be warned," he added, with a lightning-like flash in his +eyes as he became conscious of the observation of some passers-by. "I +will not dance in England. I will not leave Monte Carlo before May. Half +that sum--three hundred louis, mind--must come to me on trust; the other +three hundred afterwards. Never fear but that I will give satisfaction. +Keep your part of the bargain," he added, under his breath, "and the +Wolves' fangs are already in this man's throat." + +He danced again. The two men watched him. Draconmeyer's face was as +still and colourless as ever. In Selingman's there was a shade of +something almost like repulsion. He poured himself out a glass of +champagne. + +"Draconmeyer," he exclaimed, "you are a cold-blooded fish, indeed! You +can sit there without blinking and think of this thing which we have +done. Now as for me, I have a heart. I can never see the passing out of +the game of even a bitter opponent, without a shiver. Talk philosophy to +me, Draconmeyer. My nerves are shaken." + +Draconmeyer turned his head. He, too, raised his wine to his lips and +drank deliberately. + +"My friend," he said, "there is no philosophy save one. A child cries +for the star he may not have; the weak man comforts himself in privation +by repeating to himself the dry-as-dust axioms conceived in an alien +brain, and weaving from them the miserable comfort of empty words. The +man who knows life and has found wisdom, pays the price for the thing he +desires, and obtains it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +DUTY INTERFERES AGAIN + + +Hunterleys sat that night alone in a seat at the Opera for a time and +lost himself in a maze of recollections. He seemed to find himself +growing younger as he listened to the music. The days of a more vivid +and ardent sentimentality seemed to reassert themselves. He thought of +the hours when he had sat side by side with his wife, the only woman to +whom he had ever given a thought; of the thrill which even the touch of +her fingers had given him, of the drive home together, the little +confidences and endearments, the glamour which seemed to have been +thrown over life before those unhappy misunderstandings. He remembered +so well the beginning of them all--the terrible pressure of work which +was thrown upon his shoulders, his engrossed days, his disturbed nights; +her patience at first, her subsequent petulance, her final anger. He was +engaged often in departmental work which he could not even explain. She +had taken up with unhappy facility the role of a neglected wife. She +declared that he had ceased to care for the lighter ways. There had +certainly been a time when her complaints had been apparently justified, +when the Opera had been banned, theatres were impossible, when she could +not even rely upon his escort to a dinner or to a reception. He had +argued with her very patiently at first but very unsuccessfully. It was +then that her friendship with Linda Draconmeyer had been so vigorously +renewed, a friendship which seemed from the first to have threatened his +happiness. Had it been his fault? he wondered. Had he really been too +much engrossed in his work? His country had made large demands upon him +in those days. Had he ever explained the matter fully and carefully +enough to her? Perhaps not. At any rate, he was the sufferer. He +realised more than ever, as the throbbing of the music stole into his +blood, the loneliness of his life. And yet it seemed so hopeless. +Supposing he threw up his work and let things take their course? The +bare thought chilled him. He recognised it as unworthy. The great song +of mortification from the broken hero rang in his ears. Must every woman +bring to every man the curse of Delilah!... + +He passed out of the building into the cool, starlit night. People were +strolling about in evening clothes, hatless, the women in white opera +cloaks and filmy gowns, their silk-stockinged feet very much in +evidence, resembling almost some strange kind of tropical birds with +their little shrill laughter and graceful movements, as they made their +way towards the Club or round to the Rooms, or to one of the restaurants +for supper. Whilst Hunterleys hesitated, there was a touch upon his arm. +He glanced around. + +"Hullo, David!" he exclaimed. "Were you waiting for me?" + +The young man fell into step by his side. + +"I have been to the hotel," he said, in a low tone. "They thought you +might be here. Can you come up later--say at one o'clock?" + +"Certainly," Hunterleys answered. "Where's Sidney?" + +"He's working now. He'll be home by half-past twelve unless anything +goes wrong. He thinks he'll have something to tell you." + +"I'll come," Hunterleys agreed. "How's Felicia?" + +"All right, but working herself to death," the young man replied. "She +is getting anxious, too. Give her a word of encouragement if you see her +to-night. She was hoping you might have been up to see her." + +"I won't forget," Hunterleys promised. + +The young man drifted silently away, and Hunterleys, after a moment's +hesitation and a glance at his watch, turned towards the Club. He +climbed the broad staircase, surrendered his hat and turned in at the +roulette room. The magic of the music was still in his veins, and he +looked around him almost eagerly. There was no sign of Violet. He +strolled into the baccarat room but she was not there. Perhaps she, too, +had been at the Opera. In the bar he found Richard Lane, sitting moodily +alone. The young man greeted him warmly. + +"Come and have a drink, Sir Henry," he begged. "I've got the hump." + +Hunterleys sat down by his side. + +"Whiskey and apollinaris," he ordered. "What's the matter with you, +Richard?" + +"She isn't here," the young man declared. "I've been to the Rooms and +she isn't there either." + +"What about the Opera?" Hunterleys asked. + +"I started at the Opera," Lane confessed, "took a box so as to be able +to see the whole house. I sat through the first act but there wasn't a +sign of her. Then I took a spin out and had another look at the villa. +It was all lit up as though there were a party. I very nearly marched +in." + +"Just as well you didn't, I think," Hunterleys remarked, smiling. "I see +you're feeling just the same about it." + +The young man did not even vouchsafe an answer. + +"Then you're not going to take advantage of your little warning and +clear out?" Hunterleys continued. + +"Don't you think I'm big enough to take care of myself?" Lane asked, +with a little laugh. "Besides, there's an American Consul here, and +plenty of English witnesses who saw the whole thing. Can't think why +they're trying on such a silly game." + +"Mr. Grex may have influence," Hunterleys suggested. + +"Who the mischief is my prospective father-in-law?" Richard demanded, +almost testily. "There's an atmosphere about that house and the servants +I can't understand a bit." + +"You wouldn't," Hunterleys observed drily. "Well, in a day or two I'll +tell you who Mr. Grex is. I'd rather not to-night." + +"By the way," Lane continued, "your wife was asking if you were here, a +few minutes ago." + +Hunterleys rose quickly to his feet. + +"Where is she?" + +"She was at her usual place at the top roulette table, but she gave it +up just as I passed, said she was going to walk about," the young man +replied. "I don't think she has left yet." + +Hunterleys excused himself hastily. In the little space between the +restaurant and the roulette rooms he came suddenly upon Violet. She was +leaning back in an obscure corner, with her hands clasped helplessly in +her lap before her. She was sitting quite still and his heart sank when +he saw her. The lines under her eyes were unmistakable now; her cheeks, +too, seemed to have grown hollow. Her first look at him almost made him +forget all their differences. There was something piteous in the tremble +of her lips. He drew a chair to her side. + +"Richard told me that you wished to speak to me," he began, as lightly +as he could. + +"I asked if he had seen you, a few minutes ago," she admitted. "I am +afraid that my interest was rather mercenary." + +"You want to borrow some money?" he enquired, taking out his +pocket-book. + +She looked at it, and though her eyes at first were listless, they still +seemed fascinated. + +"I don't think I can play any more to-night," she sighed. + +"You have been losing?" + +"Yes!" + +"Come and have something," he invited. "You look tired." + +She rose willingly enough. They passed out, side by side, into the +little bar. + +"Some champagne?" he suggested. + +She shook her head quickly. The memory of the champagne at dinner-time +came back to her with a sudden sickening insistence. She thought of the +loan, she thought of Draconmeyer with a new uneasiness. It was as though +she had admitted some new complication into her life. + +"Could I have some tea?" she begged. + +He ordered some and sat with her while she drank it. + +"You know," he declared, "if I might be permitted to say so, I think you +are taking the gaming here a little too seriously. If you have been +unlucky, it is very easy to arrange an advance for you. Would you like +some money? If so, I will see to it when I go to the bank to-morrow. I +can let you have a hundred pounds at once, if you like." + +A hundred pounds! If only she dared tell him that she had lost a +thousand within the last two hours! Once more he was fingering his +pocket-book. + +"Come," he went on pleasantly, "you had better have a hundred from me, +for luck." + +He counted out the notes. Her fingers began to shake. + +"I didn't mean to play any more to-night," she faltered, irresolutely. + +"Nor should I," he agreed. "Take my advice, Violet, and go home now. +This will do for you to-morrow." + +She took the money and dropped it into her jewelled bag. + +"Very well," she said, "I won't play any more, but I don't want to go +home yet. It is early, and I can never sleep here if I go to bed. Sit +with me for half-an-hour, and then perhaps you could give me some +supper?" + +He shook his head. + +"I am so sorry," he answered, "but at one o'clock I have an +appointment." + +"An appointment?" + +"Such bad luck," he continued. "It would have given me very great +pleasure to have had supper with you, Violet." + +"An appointment at one o'clock," she repeated slowly. "Isn't that just a +little--unusual?" + +"Perhaps so," he assented. "I can assure you that I am very sorry." + +She leaned suddenly towards him. The aloofness had gone from her manner. +The barrier seemed for a moment to have fallen down. Once more she was +the Violet he remembered. She smiled into his face, and smiled with her +eyes as well as her lips, just the smile he had been thinking of an hour +ago in the Opera House. + +"Don't go, please," she begged. "I am feeling lonely to-night and I am +so tired of everybody and everything. Take me to supper at the Cafe de +Paris. Then, if you like, we might come back here for half-an-hour. +Or--" + +She hesitated. + +"I am horribly sorry," he declared, in a tone which was full of real +regret. "Indeed, Violet, I am. But I have an appointment which I must +keep, and I can't tell exactly how long it may take me." + +The very fact that the nature of that appointment concerned things which +from the first he had made up his mind must be kept entirely secret, +stiffened his tone. Her manner changed instantly. She had drawn herself +a little away. She considered for a moment. + +"Are you inclined to tell me with whom your appointment is, and for what +purpose?" she asked coldly. "I don't want to be exacting, but after the +request I have made, and your refusal--" + +"I cannot tell you," he interrupted. "I can only ask you to take my word +for it that it is one which I must keep." + +She rose suddenly to her feet. + +"I forgot!" she exclaimed. "I haven't the slightest right to your +confidence. Besides, when I come to think of it, I don't believe that I +am hungry at all. I shall try my luck with your money?" + +"Violet!--" + +She swept away with a little farewell nod, half insolent, half angry. +Hunterleys watched her take her place at the table. For several moments +he stood by her side. She neither looked up nor addressed him. Then he +turned and left the place. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE + + +Hunterleys remained in the hotel only long enough to change his straw +hat for a cap, put on a long, light overcoat and take an ash stick from +his wardrobe. He left the place by an unfrequented entrance and +commenced at once to climb to the back part of the town. Once or twice +he paused and looked around, to be sure that he was not followed. When +he had arrived as far as the Hotel de Prince de Galles, he crossed the +road. From here he walked very quickly and took three turns in rapid +succession. Finally he pushed open a little gate and passed up a tiled +walk which led between a little border of rose trees to a small white +villa, covered with creepers. A slim, girlish figure came suddenly out +from the porch and danced towards him with outstretched hands. + +"At last!" she exclaimed. "At last! Tell me, my co-guardian, how you are +going to excuse yourself?" + +He took her outstretched hands and looked down into her face. She was +very small and dark, with lustrous brown eyes and a very sensitive +mouth, which just now was quivering with excitement. + +"All the excuses have gone out of my head, Felicia," he declared. "You +look such a little elf in the moonlight that I can't do more than say +that I am sorry. But I have been busy." + +She was suddenly serious. She clasped his arm with both her hands and +turned towards the house. + +"Of course you have," she sighed. "It seems too bad, though, in Monte +Carlo. Sidney and David are like ghouls. I don't ask what it is all +about--I know better--but I wish it were all over, whatever it is." + +"Is Sidney back?" Hunterleys asked eagerly. + +She nodded. + +"He came in half-an-hour ago, looking like a tramp. David is writing as +though he hadn't a moment to spare in life. They are both waiting for +you, I think." + +"And you?" he enquired. "How do the rehearsals go?" + +"The rehearsals are all right," she admitted, looking up at him almost +pathetically. "It's the night itself that seems so awful. I know every +word, I know every note, and yet I can't feel sure. I can't sleep for +thinking about it. Only last night I had a nightmare. I saw all those +rows and rows of faces, and the lights, and my voice went, my tongue was +dry and hard, not a word would come. And you were there--and the +others!" + +He laughed at her. + +"Little girl," he said solemnly, "I shall have to speak to Sidney. One +of those two young men must take you out for a day in the country +to-morrow." + +"They seem so busy," she complained. "They don't seem to have time to +think of me. I suppose I had better let you go in. They'd be furious if +they thought I was keeping you." + +They passed into the villa, and with a farewell pat of the hand +Hunterleys left her and opened a door on the left-hand side of the hall. +The young man who had met him coming out of the Opera was standing with +his hands in his pockets, upon the hearth-rug of an exceedingly +untidy-looking apartment. There was a table covered with papers, another +piled with newspapers. There were books upon the floor, pipes and +tobacco laid about haphazard. A space had been swept clear upon the +larger table for a typewriter, a telephone instrument stood against the +wall. A man whose likeness to Felicia was at once apparent, swung round +in his chair as Hunterleys entered. He had taken off his coat and +waistcoat and his trousers seemed smothered with dust. + +"Regular newspaper correspondent's den," Hunterleys remarked, as he +looked around him. "I never saw such a mess in my life. I wonder Felicia +allows it." + +"We don't let her come in," her brother chuckled. "Is the door closed?" + +"Fast," Hunterleys replied, moving away from it. + +"Things are moving," the other went on. "I took the small car out to-day +on the road to Cannes and I expect I was the first to see Douaille." + +"I saw him myself," Hunterleys announced. "I was out on that road, +walking." + +"Douaille," Roche continued, "went direct to the Villa Mimosa. Grex was +there, waiting for him. Draconmeyer and Selingman both kept out of the +way." + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Reasonable enough, that. Grex was the man to pave the way. Well?" + +"At ten o'clock, Draconmeyer and Selingman arrived. The Villa Mimosa +gets more difficult every day. I have only one friend in the house, +although it is filled with servants. Three-quarters of them only speak +Russian. My man's reliable but he is in a terrible minority. The +conference took place in the library. It lasted about an hour and a +half. Selingman and Draconmeyer came out looking fairly well satisfied. +Half-an-hour later Douaille went on to Mentone, to the Hotel Splendide, +where his wife and daughters are staying. No writing at all was done in +the room." + +"The conference has really begun, then," Hunterleys observed moodily. + +"Without a doubt," Roche declared. "I imagine, though, that the meeting +this evening was devoted to preliminaries. I am hoping next time," he +went on, "to be able to pass on a little of what is said." + +"If we could only get the barest idea as to the nature of the +proposals," Hunterleys said earnestly. "Of course, one can surmise. Our +people are already warned as to the long conferences which have taken +place between Grex and Selingman. They mean something--there's no doubt +about that. And then this invitation to Douaille, and his coming here so +furtively. Everything points the same way, but a few spoken words are +better than all the surmises in the world. It isn't that they are +unreasonable at home, but they must be convinced." + +"It's the devil's own risk," Roche sighed, "but I am hard at it. I was +about the place yesterday as much as I dared. My plans are all ready now +but things looked pretty awkward at the villa to-night. If they are +going to have the grounds patrolled by servants every time they meet, +I'm done. I've cut a pane of glass out of the dome over the library, and +I've got a window-cleaning apparatus round at the back, and a ladder. +The passage along the roof is quite easy and there's a good deal of +cover amongst the chimneys, but if they get a hint, it will be touch and +go." + +Hunterleys nodded. He was busy now, going through the long sheets of +writing which the other young man had silently passed across to him. For +half-an-hour he read, making pencil notes now and then in the margin. +When at last he had finished, he returned them and, sitting down at the +table, drew a packet of press cable sheets towards him and wrote for +some time steadily. When he had finished, he read through the result of +his labours and leaned back thoughtfully in his chair. + +"You will send this off from Cannes with your own, Briston?" he asked. + +The young man assented. + +"The car will be here at three," he announced. "They'll be on their way +by eight." + +"Press message, mind, to the _Daily Post_. If the operator wants to know +what 'Number 1' means after '_Daily Post_,' you can tell him that it +simply indicates to which editorial room the message is to be +delivered." + +"That's a clever idea," Roche mused. "Code dispatches to Downing Street +might cause a little comment." + +"They wouldn't do from here," Hunterleys declared. "They might be safe +enough from Cannes but it's better to run no risks. These will be passed +on to Downing Street, unopened. Be careful to-morrow, Sidney." + +"I can't see that they can do anything but throw me out, Sir Henry," +Roche remarked. "I have my _Daily Post_ authority in my pocket, and my +passport. Besides, I got the man here to announce in the _Monte Carlo +News_ that I was the accredited correspondent for the district, and that +David Briston had been appointed by a syndicate of illustrated papers to +represent them out here. That's in case we get a chance of taking +photographs. I had some idea of going out to interview Monsieur +Douaille." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"I shouldn't. The man's as nervous as he can be now, I am pretty sure of +that. Don't do anything that might put him on his guard. Mind, for all +we know he may be an honest man. To listen to what these fellows have to +say doesn't mean that he's prepared to fall in with their schemes. By +the by, you've nothing about the place, I suppose, if you should be +raided?" + +"Not a thing," was the confident reply. "We are two English newspaper +correspondents, and there isn't a thing to be found anywhere that's not +in keeping, except my rather large make-up outfit and my somewhat mixed +wardrobe. I am not the only newspaper correspondent who goes in for +that, though. Then there's Felicia. They all know who she is and they +all know that she's my sister. Anyhow, even if I do get into trouble up +at the Villa Mimosa, I can't see that I shall be looked upon as anything +more than a prying newspaper correspondent. They can't hang me for +that." + +Hunterleys accepted a cigarette and lit it. + +"I needn't tell you fellows," he said gravely, "that this place is a +little unlike any other in Europe. You may think you're safe enough, but +all the same I wouldn't trust a living soul. By-the-by, I saw Felicia as +I came in. You don't want her to break down, do you?" + +"Good heavens, no!" her brother exclaimed. + +"Break down?" David repeated. "Don't suggest such a thing!" + +"It struck me that she was rather nervy," Hunterleys told them. "One of +you ought to look after her for an hour or two to-morrow." + +"I can't spare a moment," her brother sighed. + +"I'll take her out," Briston declared eagerly. "There's nothing for me +to do to-morrow till Sidney gets back." + +"Well, between you, keep an eye on her," Hunterleys advised. "And, +Sidney, I don't want to make a coward of you, and you and I both know +that if there's danger ahead it's our job to face it, but have a care up +at the Villa Mimosa. I don't fancy the law of this Principality would +see you out of any trouble if they got an idea that you were an English +Secret Service man." + +Roche laughed shortly. + +"Exactly my own idea," he admitted. "However, we've got to see it +through. I sha'n't consider I've done my work unless I hear something of +what Grex and the others have to say to Douaille the next time they +meet." + +Hunterleys found Felicia waiting for him outside. He shook his head +reproachfully. + +"A future prima donna," he said, "should go to bed at ten o'clock." + +She opened the door for him and walked down the path, her hands clasped +in his arm. + +"A future prima donna," she retorted, "can't do always what she likes. +If I go to bed too early I cannot sleep. To-night I am excited and +nervous. There isn't anything likely to bring trouble upon--them, is +there?" + +"Certainly not," he replied promptly. "Your brother is full of +enterprise, as you know. He runs a certain amount of risk in his +eagerness to acquire news, but I never knew a man so well able to take +care of himself." + +"And--and Mr. Briston?" + +"Oh, he's all right, anyway," Hunterleys assured her. "His is the +smaller part." + +She breathed a little sigh of relief. They had reached the gate. She +still had something to say. Below them flared the lights of Monte Carlo. +She looked down at them almost wistfully. + +"Very soon," she murmured, "I shall know my fate. Sir Henry," she added +suddenly, "did I see Lady Hunterleys to-day on the Terrace?" + +"Lady Hunterleys is here," he replied. + +"Am I--ought I to go and see her?" she enquired. "You see, you have done +so much for me, I should like to do what you thought best." + +"Just as you like, child," he replied, a little carelessly. + +She clung to his arm. She seemed unwilling to let him go. + +"Dear co-guardian," she murmured, "to-night I felt for a little time so +happy, as though all the good things in life were close at hand. Then I +watched you come up, and your step seemed so heavy, and you stooped as +though you had a load on your shoulders." + +He patted her hand. + +"Little girl," he advised, "run away in and take care of your throat. +Remember that everything depends upon the next few hours. As for me, +perhaps I am getting a little old." + +"Oh, la, la!" she laughed. "That's what Sidney says when I tease him. I +know I am only the mouse, but I could gnaw through very strong cords. +Look!" + +Her teeth gleamed white in the moonlight. He swung open the gate. + +"Sing your way into the hearts of all these strange people," he bade +her, smiling. "Sing the envy and malice away from them. Sing so that +they believe that England, after all, is the one desirable country." + +"But I am going to sing in French," she pouted. + +"Your name," he reminded her, "that is English. 'The little English +prima donna,' that is what they will be calling you." + +She kissed his hands suddenly as he parted from her and swung off down +the hill. Then she stood at the gate, looking down at the glittering +lights. Would they shine as brightly for her, she wondered, in +twenty-four hours' time? It was so much to strive for, so much to lose, +so wonderfully much to gain. Slowly her eyes travelled upwards. The +symbolism of those higher lights calmed her fear. She drew a great sigh +of happiness. + +"Felicia!" + +She turned around with a soft little laugh. + +"David!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"TAKE ME AWAY!" + + +Richard presented himself the next morning at the Hotel de Paris. + +"Cheero!" he exclaimed, on being shown into Hunterleys' sitting-room. +"All right up to date, I see." + +Hunterleys nodded. He had just come in from the bank and held his +letters in his hand. Richard seated himself on the edge of the table. + +"I slept out on the yacht last night," he said. "Got up at six o'clock +and had a swim. What about a round of golf at La Turbie? We can get down +again by luncheon-time, before the people are about." + +"Afraid I can't," Hunterleys replied. "I have rather an important letter +to go through carefully, and a reply to think out." + +"You're a queer chap, you know," Richard went on. "You always seem to +have something on but I'm hanged if I can see how you pass your time +here in Monte Carlo. This political business, even if you do have to put +in a bit of time at it now and then, can't be going on all the while. +Monte Carlo, too! So far as the women are concerned, they might as well +be off the face of the earth, and I don't think I've ever seen you make +a bet at the tables. How did your wife do last night? I thought she +seemed to be dropping it rather." + +"I think that she lost," Hunterleys replied indifferently. "Her +gambling, however, is like mine, I imagine, on a fairly negligible +scale." + +Richard whistled softly. + +"Well, I don't know," he observed. "I saw her going for maximums +yesterday pretty steadily. A few thousands doesn't last very long at +that little game." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"A few thousands!" he repeated. "I don't suppose Violet has ever lost or +won a hundred pounds in her life." + +Richard abandoned the subject quickly. He was obliged to tell himself +that it was not his business to interfere between husband and wife. + +"Say, Hunterleys," he suggested, "do you think I could do something for +the crowd on my little boat--a luncheon party or a cruise, eh?" + +"I should think every one would enjoy it immensely," Hunterleys +answered. + +"I can count on you, of course, if I arrange anything?" + +"I am afraid not," Hunterleys regretted. "I am too much engrossed now to +make any arrangements." + +"I'm hanged if you don't get more mysterious every moment!" Richard +exclaimed vigorously. "What's it all about? Can't you even be safe in +your room for five minutes without keeping one of those little articles +under your newspaper while you read your letters?" he added, lifting +with his stick the sheet which Hunterleys had hastily thrown over a +small revolver. "What's it all about, eh? Are you plotting to dethrone +the Prince of Monaco and take his place?" + +"Not exactly that," Hunterleys replied, a little wearily. "Lane, old +fellow, you're much better off not to know too much. I have told you +that there's a kind of international conference going on about here and +I've sort of been pitchforked into the affair. Over in your country you +don't know much about this sort of thing, but since I've been out of +harness I've done a good deal of what really amounts to Secret Service +work. One must serve one's country somehow or other, you know, if one +gets the chance." + +Richard was impressed. + +"Gee!" he exclaimed. "The sort of thing that one reads about, eh, and +only half believes. Who's the French Johnny who arrived last night?" + +"Douaille. He's the coming President, they say. I'm thinking of paying +him a visit of ceremony this afternoon." + +There was a knock at the door. A waiter entered with a note upon a +salver. + +"From Madame, monsieur," he announced, presenting it to Hunterleys. + +The latter tore it open and read the few lines hastily: + + _Dear Henry_, + + If you could spare a few minutes, I should be glad if you would + come round to my apartment. + + Yours, + VIOLET. + +Hunterleys twisted the note up in his fingers. + +"Tell Lady Hunterleys that I will be round in a few moments," he +instructed the servant. + +Richard took up his stick and hat. + +"If you have an opportunity," he said, "ask Lady Hunterleys what she +thinks about a little party on the yacht. If one could get the proper +people together--" + +"I'll tell her," Hunterleys promised. "You'd better wait till I get +back." + +He made his way to the other wing of the hotel. For the first time since +he had been staying there, he knocked at the door of his wife's +apartments. Her maid admitted him with a smile. He found Violet sitting +in the little salon before a writing-table. The apartment was +luxuriously furnished and filled with roses. Somehow or other, their +odour irritated him. She rose from her place and hastened towards him. + +"How nice of you to come so promptly!" she exclaimed. "You're sure it +didn't inconvenience you?" + +"Not in the least," he replied. "I was only talking to Richard Lane." + +"You seem to have taken a great fancy to that young man all at once," +she remarked. + +Hunterleys was sitting upon the arm of an easy-chair. He had picked up +one of Violet's slippers and was balancing it in his hand. + +"Oh, I don't know. He is rather refreshing after some of these people. +He still has enthusiasms, and his love affair is quite a poem. Aren't +you up rather early this morning?" + +"I couldn't sleep," she sighed. "I think it has come to me in the night +that I am sick of this place. I wondered--" + +She hesitated. He bent the slipper slowly back, waiting for her to +proceed. + +"The Draconmeyers don't want to go," she went on. "They are here for +another month, at least. Linda would miss me terribly, I suppose, but I +have really given her a lot of my time. I have spent several hours with +her every day since we arrived, and I don't know what it is--perhaps my +bad luck, for one thing--but I have suddenly taken a dislike to the +place. I wondered--" + +She had picked up one of the roses from a vase close at hand, and was +twirling it between her fingers. For some reason or other she seemed ill +at ease. Hunterleys watched her silently. She was very pale, but since +his coming a slight tinge of pink colour had stolen into her cheeks. She +had received him in a very fascinating garment of blue silk, which was +really only a dressing-gown. It seemed to him a long time since he had +seen her in so intimate a fashion. + +"I wondered," she concluded at last, almost abruptly, "whether you would +care to take me away." + +He was, for a moment, bereft of words. Somehow or other, he had been so +certain that she had sent to him to ask for more money, that he had +never even considered any other eventuality. + +"Take you away," he repeated. "Do you really mean take you back to +London, Violet?" + +"Just anywhere you like," she replied. "I am sick of this place and of +everything. I am weary to death of trying to keep Linda cheerful--you +don't realise how depressing it is to be with her; and--and every one +seems to have got a little on my nerves. Mr. Draconmeyer," she added, a +little defiantly, raising her eyes to his, "has been most kind and +delightful, but--somehow I want to get away." + +He sat down on the edge of a couch. She seated herself at the further +end of it. + +"Violet," he said, "you have taken me rather by surprise." + +"Well, you don't mind being taken by surprise once in a while, do you?" +she asked, a little petulantly. "You know I am capricious--you have told +me so often enough. Here is a proof of it. Take me back to London or to +Paris, or wherever you like." + +He was almost overwhelmed. It was unfortunate that she had chosen that +moment to look away and could not see, therefore, the light which glowed +in his eyes. + +"Violet," he assured her earnestly, "there is nothing in the world I +should like so much. I would beg you to have your trunks packed this +morning, but unfortunately I cannot leave Monte Carlo just now." + +"Cannot leave Monte Carlo?" she repeated derisively. "Why, my dear man, +you are a fish out of water here! You don't gamble, you do nothing but +moon about and go to the Opera and worry about your silly politics. What +on earth do you mean when you say that you cannot leave Monte Carlo?" + +"I mean just what I say," he replied. "I cannot leave Monte Carlo for +several days, at any rate." + +She looked at him blankly, a little incredulously. + +"You have talked like this before, Henry," she said, "and it is all too +absurd. You must tell me the truth now. You can have no business here. +You are travelling for pleasure. You can surely leave a place or not at +your own will?" + +"It happens," he sighed, "that I cannot. Will you please be very kind, +Violet, and not ask me too much about this? If there is anything else I +can do," he went on, hesitatingly, "if you will give me a little more of +your time, if you will wait with me for a few days longer--" + +"Can't you understand," she interrupted impatiently, "that it is just +this very moment, this instant, that I want to get away? Something has +gone wrong. I want to leave Monte Carlo. I am not sure that I ever want +to see it again. And I want you to take me.... Please!" + +She held out her hands, swaying a little towards him. He gripped them in +his. She yielded to their pressure until their lips almost met. + +"You'll take me away this morning?" she whispered. + +"I cannot do that," he replied, "but, Violet--" + +She snatched herself away from him. An ungovernable fit of fury seemed +to have seized her. She stood in the centre of the room and stamped her +foot. + +"You cannot!" she repeated. "And you will not give me a reason? Very +well, I have done my best, I have made my appeal. I will stay in Monte +Carlo, then. I will--" + +There was a knock at the door. + +"Come in," she cried. "Who is it?" + +The door was softly opened. Draconmeyer stood upon the threshold. He +looked from one to the other in some surprise. + +"I am sorry," he murmured. "Please excuse me." + +"Come in, Mr. Draconmeyer," she called out to his retreating figure. +"Come in, please. How is Linda this morning?" + +Draconmeyer smiled a little ruefully as he returned. + +"Complaining," he replied, "as usual. I am afraid that she has had +rather a bad night. She is going to try and sleep for an hour or two. I +came to see if you felt disposed for a motor ride this morning?" + +"I should love it," she assented. "I should like to start as soon as +possible. Henry was just going, weren't you?" she added, turning to her +husband. + +He stood his ground. + +"There was something else I wished to say," he declared, glancing at +Draconmeyer. + +The latter moved at once towards the door but Violet stopped him. + +"Not now," she begged. "If there is really anything else, Henry, you can +send up a note, or I dare say we shall meet at the Club to-night. Now, +please, both of you go away. I must change my clothes for motoring. In +half an hour, Mr. Draconmeyer." + +"The car will be ready," he answered. + +Hunterleys hesitated. He looked for a moment at Violet. She returned his +glance of appeal with a hard, fixed stare. Then she turned away. + +"Susanne," she called to her maid, who was in the inner room, "I am +dressing at once. I will show you what to put out." + +She disappeared, closing the connecting door behind her. The two men +walked out to the lift in silence. Draconmeyer rang the bell. + +"You are not leaving Monte Carlo at present, then, Sir Henry?" he +remarked. + +"Not at present," Hunterleys replied calmly. + +They parted without further speech. Hunterleys returned to his room, +where Richard was still waiting. + +"Say, have you got a valet here with you?" the young man enquired. + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"Never possessed such a luxury in my life," he declared. + +"Chap came in here directly you were gone--mumbled something about doing +something for you. I didn't altogether like the look of him, so I sat on +the table and watched. He hung around for a moment, and then, when he +saw that I was sticking it out, he went off." + +"Was he wearing the hotel livery?" Hunterleys asked quickly. + +"Plain black clothes," Richard replied. "He looked the valet, right +enough." + +Hunterleys rang the bell. It was answered by a servant in grey livery. + +"Are you the valet on this floor?" Hunterleys enquired. + +"Yes, sir!" + +"There was a man in here just now, said he was my valet or something of +the sort, hung around for a minute or two and then went away. Who was +he?" + +The servant shook his head. He was apparently a German, and stupid. + +"There are no valets on this floor except myself," he declared. + +"Then who could this person have been?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"A tailor, perhaps," the man suggested, "but he would not come unless +you had ordered him. I have been on duty all the time. I have seen no +one about." + +"Very well," Hunterleys said, "I'll report the matter in the office." + +"Some hotel thief, I suppose," Lane remarked, as soon as the door was +closed. "He didn't look like it exactly, though." + +Hunterleys frowned. + +"Not much here to satisfy any one's curiosity," he observed. "Just as +well you were in the room, though." + +"Surrounded by mysteries, aren't you, old chap?" Richard yawned, +lighting a cigarette. + +"I don't know exactly about that," Hunterleys replied, "but I'll tell +you one thing, Lane. There are things going on in Monte Carlo at the +present moment which would bring out the black headlines on the +halfpenny papers if they had an inkling of them. There are people here +who are trying to draw up a new map of Europe, a new map of the world." + +Richard shook his head. + +"I can't get interested in anything, Hunterleys," he declared. "You +could tell me the most amazing things in the world and they'd pass in at +one ear and out at the other. Kind of a blithering idiot, eh? You know +what I did last night after dinner. If you'll believe me, when I got to +the villa, I found the place patrolled as though they were afraid of +dynamiters. I skulked round to the back, got on the beach, and climbed a +little way up towards the rock garden. I hid there and waited to see if +she'd come out on the terrace. She never came, but I caught a glimpse of +her passing from one room to another, and I tell you I'm such a poor +sort of an idiot that I felt repaid for waiting there all that time. I +shall go there again to-night. The boys wanted me to dine--Eddy +Lanchester and Montressor and that lot--a jolly party, too. I sha'n't do +it. I shall have a mouthful alone somewhere and spend the rest of the +evening on those rocks. Something's got to come of this, Hunterleys." + +"Let's go into the lounge for a few moments," Hunterleys suggested. "I +may as well hear all about it." + +They made their way downstairs, and sat there talking, or rather +Hunterleys listened while Richard talked. Then Draconmeyer strolled +across the hall and waited by the lift. Presently he returned with +Violet by his side, followed by her maid, carrying rugs. As they +approached, Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet. Violet was looking up +into her companion's face, talking and laughing. She either did not see +Hunterleys, or affected not to. He stood, for a moment, irresolute. +Then, as she passed, she glanced at him quite blankly and waved her hand +to Richard. The two disappeared. Hunterleys resumed his seat. He had, +somehow or other, the depressing feeling of a man who has lost a great +opportunity. + +"Lady Hunterleys looks well this morning," Lane remarked, absolutely +unconscious of anything unusual. + +Hunterleys watched the car drive off before he answered. + +"She looks very well," he assented gloomily. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +WILY MR. DRACONMEYER + + +They had skirted the wonderful bay and climbed the mountainous hill to +the frontier before Violet spoke. All the time Draconmeyer leaned back +by her side, perfectly content. A man of varied subtleties, he +understood and fully appreciated the intrinsic value of silence. Whilst +the Customs officer, however, was making out the deposit note for the +car, she turned to him. + +"Will you tell me something, Mr. Draconmeyer?" + +"Of course!" + +"It is about my husband," she went on. "Henry isn't your friend--you +dislike one another, I know. You men seem to have a sort of freemasonry +which compels you to tell falsehoods about one another, but in this case +I am going to remind you that I have the greater claim, and I am going +to ask you for the sober truth. Henry has once or twice, during the last +few days, hinted to me that his presence in Monte Carlo just now has +some sort of political significance. He is very vague about it all, but +he evidently wants me to believe that he is staying here against his own +inclinations. Now I want to ask you a plain question. Is it likely that +he could have any business whatever to transact for the Government in +Monte Carlo? What I mean is, could there possibly be anything to keep +him in this place which for political reasons he couldn't tell me +about?" + +"I can answer your question finally so far as regards any Government +business," Mr. Draconmeyer assured her. "Your husband's Party is in +Opposition. As a keen politician, he would not be likely to interest +himself in the work of his rival." + +"You are quite sure," she persisted, "you are quite sure that he could +not have a mission of any sort?--that there isn't any meeting of +diplomatists here in which he might be interested?" + +Mr. Draconmeyer smiled with the air of one listening to a child's +prattle. + +"If I were not sure that you are in earnest--!" he began. "However, I +will just answer your question. Nothing of the sort is possible. +Besides, people don't come to Monte Carlo for serious affairs, you +know." + +Her face hardened a little. + +"I suppose," she said, "that you are quite sure of what you told me the +other evening about this young singer--Felicia Roche?" + +"I should not allude to a matter of that sort," he declared, "unless I +had satisfied myself as to the facts. It is true that I owe nothing to +your husband and everything to you, or I should have probably remained +silent. As it is, all that I know is at your service. Felicia Roche is +to make her debut at the Opera House to-night. Your husband has been +seen with her repeatedly. He was at her villa at one o'clock this +morning. I have heard it said that he is a little infatuated." + +"Thank you," she murmured, "that is quite enough." + +The formalities were concluded and the car drove on. They paused at the +last turn to gaze downward at the wonderful view--the gorgeous Bay of +Mentone, a thousand feet below, with its wealth of mimosa-embosomed +villas; Monte Carlo glittering on the sea-board; the sweep of Monaco, +red-roofed, picturesque. And behind, the mountains, further away still, +the dim, snow-capped heights. Violet looked, as she was bidden, but her +eyes seemed incapable of appreciation. When the car moved on, she leaned +back in her seat and dropped her veil. She was paler even than when they +had started. + +"I am going to talk to you very little," he said gravely. "I want you +just to rest and breathe this wonderful air. If my reply to your +question troubles you, I am sorry, but you had to know it some day. It +is a wrench, of course, but you must have guessed it. Your husband is a +man of peculiar temperament, but no man could have refused such an offer +as you made him, unless there had been some special reason for it--no +man in the world." + +There was a little tremble in his tone, artistic and not overdone. +Somehow, she felt that his admiration ministered to her self-respect. +She permitted his hand to remain upon hers. The touch of her fingers +very nearly brought the torrent from his lips. He crushed the words +down, however. It was too great a risk. Very soon things would be +different; he could afford to wait. + +They drove on to San Remo and turned into the hotel. + +"You are better away from Monte Carlo for a few hours," he decided. "We +will lunch here and drive back afterwards. You will feel greatly +refreshed." + +She accepted his suggestion without enthusiasm and with very little show +of pleasure. They found a table on the terrace in a retired corner, +surrounded with flowering cactus plants and drooping mimosa, and +overhung by a giant oleander tree. He talked to her easily but in +gossiping fashion only, and always with the greatest respect. It was not +until the arrival of their coffee that he ventured to become at all +personal. + +"Will you forgive me if I talk without reserve for a few moments?" he +began, leaning a little towards her. "You have your troubles, I know. +May I not remind you that you are not alone in your sorrows? Linda, as +you know, has no companionship whatever to offer. She does nothing but +indulge in fretful regrets over her broken health. When I remember, too, +how lonely your days are, and think of your husband and what he might +make of them, then I cannot help realising with absolute vividness the +supreme irony of fate. Here am I, craving for nothing so much on earth +as the sympathy, the affection of--shall I say such a woman as you? And +your husband, who might have the best, remains utterly indifferent, +content with something far below the second best. And there is so much +in life, too," he went on, regretfully. "I cannot tell you how difficult +it is for me to sit still and see you worried about such a trifle as +money. Fancy the joy of giving you money!" + +She awoke a little from her lethargy. She looked at him, startled. + +"You haven't told me yet," he added, "how the game went last night?" + +"I lost every penny of that thousand pounds," she declared. "That is why +I sent for my husband this morning and asked him to take me back to +England. I am getting afraid of the place. My luck seems to have gone +for ever." + +He laughed softly. + +"That doesn't sound like you," he observed. "Besides, what does it +matter? Write me out some more cheques when we get back. Date them this +year or next, or the year after--it really doesn't matter a bit. My +fortune is at your disposal. If it amuses you to lose a thousand pounds +in the afternoon, and twice as much at night, pray do." + +She laughed at him. There was a certain glamour about his words which +appealed to her fancy. + +"Why, you talk like a prince," she murmured, "and yet you know how +impossible it is." + +"Is it?" he asked quietly. + +She rose abruptly from her place. There was something wrong--she felt it +in the atmosphere--something that was almost choking her. + +"Let us go back," she insisted. + +He ordered the car without another word and they started off homewards. +It was not until they were nearing Monte Carlo that he spoke of anything +save the slightest topics. + +"You must have a little more money," he told her, in a matter-of-fact +tone. "That is a necessity. There is no need to worry your husband. I +shall go and bring you a thousand pounds. You can give me the cheques +later." + +She sat looking steadfastly ahead of her. She seemed to see her numbers +spread out before her, to hear the click of the ball, the croupier's +voice, the thrill of victory. + +"I have taken more money from you than I meant to, already, Mr. +Draconmeyer," she protested. "Does Linda know how much you have lent +me?" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"What is the use of telling her? She does not understand. She has never +felt the gambling fever, the joy of it, the excitement. She would not be +strong enough. You and I understand. I have felt it in the money-markets +of the world, where one plays with millions, where a mistake might mean +ruin. That is why the tables seem dull for me, but all the same it comes +home to me." + +She felt the fierce stimulus of anxious thought. She knew very well that +notwithstanding his quiet manner, she had reason to fear the man who sat +by her side. She feared his self-restraint, she feared the light which +sometimes gleamed in his eyes when he fancied himself unobserved. He +gave her no cause for complaint. All the time his behaviour had been +irreproachable. And yet she felt, somehow or other, like a bird who is +being hunted by a trapper, a trapper who knows his business, who goes +about it with quiet confidence, with absolute certainty. There was +something like despair in her heart. + +"Well, I suppose I shall have to stay here," she said, "and I can't stay +here without playing. I will take a thousand more, if you will lend it +to me." + +"You shall have it directly we get to the hotel," he told her. "Don't +hurry with the cheques, and don't date them too soon. Remember that you +must have something to live on when you get back." + +"I am going to win," she declared confidently. "I am going to win enough +to pay you back every penny." + +"I won't say that I hope not," he observed, "for your sake, but it will +certainly give me no pleasure to have the money back again. You are such +a wonderful person," he added, dropping his voice, "that I rather like +to feel that I can be a little useful to you." + +They had neared the end of their journey and Mr. Draconmeyer touched her +arm. A faint smile was playing about his lips. Certainly the fates were +befriending him! He said nothing, but her eyes followed the slight +motion of his head. Coming down the steps from Ciro's were her husband +and Felicia Roche. Violet looked at them for a moment. Then she turned +her head away. + +"Most inopportune," she sighed, with a little attempt at gaiety. "Shall +we meet later at the Club?" + +"Assuredly," Mr. Draconmeyer replied. "I will send the money to your +room." + +"Thank you once more," she said, "and thank you, too, for my drive. I +have enjoyed it very much. I am very glad indeed that I had the courage +to make you tell me the truth." + +"I hope," he whispered, as he handed her out, "that you will never lack +the courage to ask me anything." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +ASSASSINATION! + + +Selingman, a large cigar between his lips and a happy smile upon his +face, stood in the square before the Casino, watching the pigeons. He +had just enjoyed an excellent lunch, he was exceedingly pleased with a +new light grey suit which he was wearing, and his one unsatisfied desire +was for companionship. Draconmeyer was away motoring with Lady +Hunterleys, Mr. Grex was spending the early part of the day in conclave +with their visitor from France, and Mademoiselle Nipon had gone to Nice +for the day. Selingman had been left to his own devices and was +beginning to find time hang upon his hands. Conversation and +companionship were almost as great necessities with him as wine. He +beamed upon the pigeons and looked around at the people dotted about in +chairs outside the Cafe de Paris, hoping to find an acquaintance. It +chanced, however, that he saw nothing but strangers. Then his eyes fell +upon a man who was seated with folded arms a short distance away, a man +of respectable but somewhat gloomy appearance, dressed in dark clothes, +with pale cheeks and cavernous eyes. Selingman strolled towards him. + +"How go things, friend Allen?" he enquired, dropping his voice a little. + +The man glanced uneasily around. There was, however, no one in his +immediate vicinity. + +"Badly," he admitted. + +"Still no success, eh?" Selingman asked, drawing up a chair and seating +himself. + +"The man is secretive by nature," was the gloomy reply. "One would +imagine that he knew he was being watched. Everything which he receives +in the way of a written communication is at once torn up. He is the most +difficult order of person to deal with--he is methodical. He has only +the hotel valet to look after his things but everything is always in its +place. Yesterday I went through his waste-paper basket. I took home the +contents but the pieces were no larger than sixpences. I was able to put +together one envelope which he received yesterday morning, which was +franked 'On His Majesty's Service,' and the post-mark of which was +Downing Street." + +Selingman shook his head ponderously and then replied seriously: + +"You must do better than that, my Sherlock Holmes--much better." + +"I can't make bricks without straw," Allen retorted sullenly. + +"There is always straw if one looks in the right place," Selingman +insisted, puffing away at his cigar. "What we want to discover is, +exactly how much does Hunterleys know of certain operations of ours +which are going on here? He is on the watch--that I am sure of. There is +one known agent in the place, and another suspected one, and I am pretty +certain that they are both working at his instigation. What we want to +get hold of is one of his letters to London." + +"I have been in and out of his rooms at all hours," the other said. "I +have gone into the matter thoroughly, so thoroughly that I have taken a +situation with a firm of English tailors here, and I am supposed to go +out and tout for orders. That gives me a free entree to the hotel. I +have even had a commission from Sir Henry himself. He gave me a coat to +get some buttons sewn on. I am practically free of his room but what's +the good? He doesn't even lead the Monte Carlo life. He doesn't give one +a chance of getting at him through a third person. No notes from ladies, +no flower or jewelry bills, not the shadow of an assignation. The only +photograph upon his table is a photograph of Lady Hunterleys." + +"Better not tell our friend Draconmeyer that," Selingman observed, +smiling to himself. "Well, well, you can do nothing but persevere, +Allen. We are not niggardly masters. If a man fails through no fault of +his own, well, we don't throw him into the street. Nothing parsimonious +about us. No need for you to sit about with a face as long as a fiddle +because you can't succeed all at once. We are the people to kick at it, +not you. Drink a little more wine, my friend. Give yourself a liqueur +after luncheon. Stick a cigar in your mouth and go and sit in the +sunshine. Make friends with some of the ladies. Remember, the sun will +still shine and the music play in fifty years' time, but not for you. +Come and see me when you want some more money." + +"You are very kind, sir," the man replied. "I am going across to the +hotel now. Sir Henry has been about there most of the morning but he has +just gone in to Ciro's to lunch, so I shall have at least half-an-hour." + +"Good luck to you!" Selingman exclaimed heartily. "Who knows but that +the big things may come, even this afternoon? Cheer up, and try and make +yourself believe that a letter may be lying on the table, a letter he +forgot to post, or one sent round from the bank since he left. I am +hopeful for you this afternoon, Allen. I believe you are going to do +well. Come up and see me afterwards, if you will. I am going to my hotel +to lie down for half-an-hour. I am not really tired but I have no friend +here to talk with or anything to do, and it is a wise economy of the +human frame. To-night, mademoiselle will have returned. Just now every +one has deserted me. I will rest until six o'clock. Au revoir, friend +Allen! Au revoir!" + +Selingman climbed the hill and entered the hotel where he was staying. +He mounted to his room, took off his coat, at which he glanced +admiringly for a moment and then hung up behind the door. Finally he +pulled down the blinds and lay down to rest. Very soon he was asleep.... + +The drowsy afternoon wore on. Through the open windows came the sound of +carriages driven along the dusty way, the shouts of the coachmen to +their horses, the jingling of bells, the hooting of motor horns. A lime +tree, whose leaves were stirred by the languorous breeze, kept tapping +against the window. From a further distance came the faint, muffled +voices of promenaders, and the echo of the guns from the Tir du Pigeons. +But through it all, Selingman, lying on his back and snoring loudly, +slept. He was awakened at last by the feeling that some one had entered +the room. He sat up and blinked. + +"Hullo!" he exclaimed. + +A man in the weird disguise of a motor-cyclist was standing at the foot +of the bed. Selingman continued to blink. He was not wholly awake and +his visitor's appearance was unpleasant. + +"Who the devil are you?" he enquired. + +The visitor took off his disfiguring spectacles. + +"Jean Coulois--behold!" was the soft reply. + +Selingman raised himself and slid off the bed. It had seemed rather like +a dream. He was wide-awake now, however. + +"What do you want?" he asked. "What are you here for?" + +Jean Coulois said nothing. Then very slowly from the inside pocket of +his coat he drew a newspaper parcel. It was long and narrow, and in +places there was a stain upon the paper. Selingman stared at it and +stared back at Jean Coulois. + +"What the mischief have you got there?" he demanded. + +Coulois touched the parcel with his yellow forefinger. Selingman saw +then that the stains were of blood. + +"Give me a towel," his visitor directed. "I do not want this upon my +clothes." + +Selingman took a towel from the stand and threw it across the room. + +"You mean," he asked, dropping his voice a little, "that it is +finished?" + +"A quarter of an hour ago," Jean Coulois answered triumphantly. "He had +just come in from luncheon and was sitting at his writing-table. It was +cleverly done--wonderfully. It was all over in a moment--not a cry. You +came to the right place, indeed! And now I go to the country," Coulois +continued. "I have a motor-bicycle outside. I make my way up into the +hills to bury this little memento. There is a farmhouse up in the +mountains, a lonely spot enough, and a girl there who says what I tell +her. It may be as well to be able to say that I have been there for +dejeuner. These little things, monsieur--ah, well! we who understand +think of them. And since I am here," he added, holding out his hand-- + +Selingman nodded and took out his pocket-book. He counted out the notes +in silence and passed them over. The assassin dropped them into his +pocket. + +"Au revoir, Monsieur le Gros!" he exclaimed, waving his hand. "We meet +to-night, I trust. I will show you a new dance--the Dance of Death, I +shall call it. I seem calm, but I am on fire with excitement. To-night I +shall dance as though quicksilver were in my feet. You must not miss it. +You must come, monsieur." + +He closed the door behind him and swaggered off down the passage. +Selingman stood, for a moment, perfectly still. It was a strange thing, +but two big tears were in his eyes. Then he heaved a great sigh and +shook his head. + +"It is part of the game," he said softly to himself, "all part of the +game." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE WRONG MAN + + +Selingman came out into the sunlit streets very much as a man who leaves +a dark and shrouded room. The shock of tragedy was still upon him. There +was a little choke in his throat as he mingled with the careless, +pleasure-loving throng, mostly wending their way now towards the Rooms +or the Terrace. As he crossed the square towards the Hotel de Paris, his +steps grew slower and slower. He looked at the building half-fearfully. +Beautifully dressed women, men of every nationality, were passing in and +out all the time. The commissionaire, with his little group of +satellites, stood sunning himself on the lowest step, a splendid, +complacent figure. There was no sign there of the horror that was hidden +within. Even while he looked up at the windows he felt a hand upon his +arm. Draconmeyer had caught him up and had fallen into step with him. + +"Well, dear philosopher," he exclaimed, "why this subdued aspect? Has +your solitary day depressed you?" + +Selingman turned slowly around. Draconmeyer's eyes beneath his +gold-rimmed spectacles were bright. He was carrying himself with less +than his usual stoop, he wore a red carnation in his buttonhole. He was +in spirits which for him were almost boisterous. + +"Have you been in there?" Selingman asked, in a low tone. + +Draconmeyer glanced at the hotel and back again at his companion. + +"In where?" he demanded. "In the hotel? I left Lady Hunterleys there a +short time ago. I have been up to the bank since." + +"You don't know yet, then?" + +"Know what?" + +There was a momentary silence. Draconmeyer suddenly gripped his +companion by the arm. + +"Go on," he insisted. "Tell me?" + +"It's all over!" Selingman exclaimed hoarsely. "Jean Coulois came to me +a quarter of an hour ago. It is finished. Damnation, Draconmeyer, let go +my arm!" + +Draconmeyer withdrew his fingers. There was no longer any stoop about +him at all. He stood tall and straight, his lips parted, his face turned +upwards, upwards as though he would gaze over the roof of the hotel +before which they were standing, up to the skies. + +"My God, Selingman!" he cried. "My God!" + +The seconds passed. Then Draconmeyer suddenly took his companion by the +arm. + +"Come," he said, "let us take that first seat in the gardens there. Let +us talk. Somehow or other, although I half counted upon this, I scarcely +believed.... Let us sit down. Do you think it is known yet?" + +"Very likely not," Selingman answered, as they crossed the road and +entered the gardens. "Coulois found him in his rooms, seated at the +writing-table. It was all over, he declares, in ten seconds. He came to +me--with the knife. He was on his way to the mountains to hide it." + +They found a seat under a drooping lime tree. They could still see the +hotel and the level stretch of road that led past the post-office and +the Club to Monaco. Draconmeyer sat with his eyes fixed upon the hotel, +through which streams of people were still passing. One of the +under-managers was welcoming the newcomers from a recently arrived +train. + +"You are right," he murmured. "Nothing is known yet. Very likely +they will not know until the valet goes to lay out his clothes for +dinner.... Dead!" + +Selingman, with one hand gripping the iron arm of the seat, watched his +companion's face with a sort of fascinated curiosity. There were beads +of perspiration upon Draconmeyer's forehead, but his expression, in its +way, was curious. There was no horror in his face, no fear, no shadow of +remorse. Some wholly different sentiment seemed to have transformed the +man. He was younger, more virile. He seemed as though he could scarcely +sit still. + +"My friend," Selingman said, "I know that you are one of our children, +that you are one of those who have seen the truth and worked steadfastly +for the great cause with the heart of a patriot and the unswerving +fidelity of a strong man. But tell me the honest truth. There is +something else in your life--you have some other feeling about this man +Hunterleys' death?" + +Draconmeyer removed his eyes from the front of the hotel and turned +slowly towards his companion. There was a transfiguring smile upon his +lips. Again he gave Selingman the impression of complete rejuvenation, +of an elderly man suddenly transformed into something young and +vigorous. + +"There is something else, Selingman," he confessed. "This is the moment +when I dare speak of it. I will tell you first of any living person. +There is a woman over there whom I have set up as an idol, and before +whose shrine I have worshipped. There is a woman over there who has +turned the dull paths of my life into a flowery way. I am a patriot, and +I have worked for my country, Selingman, as you have worked. But I have +worked, also, that I might taste for once before I die the great +passion. Don't stare at me, man! Remember I am not like you. You can +laugh your way through the world, with a kiss here and a bow there, a +ribbon to your lips at night, thrown to the winds in the morning. I +haven't that sort of philosophy. Love doesn't come to me like that. It's +set in my heart amongst the great things. It's set there side by side +with the greatest of all." + +"His wife!" Selingman muttered. + +"Are you so colossal a fool as only to have guessed it at this moment?" +Draconmeyer continued contemptuously. "If he hadn't blundered across our +path here, if he hadn't been my political enemy, I should still some day +have taken him by the throat and killed him. You don't know what risks I +have been running," he went on, with a sudden hoarseness. "In her heart +she half loves him still. If he hadn't been a fool, a prejudiced, +over-conscientious, stiff-necked fool, I should have lost her within the +last twenty-four hours. I have had to fight and scheme as I have never +fought and schemed before, to keep them apart. I have had to pick my way +through shoals innumerable, hold myself down when I have been burning to +grip her by the wrists and tell her that all that a man could offer a +woman was hers. Selingman, this sounds like nonsense, I suppose." + +"No," Selingman murmured, "not nonsense, but it doesn't sound like +Draconmeyer." + +"Well, it's finished," Draconmeyer declared, with a great sigh of +content. "You know now. I enter upon the final stage. I had only one +fear. Jean Coulois has settled that for me. I wonder whether they know. +It seems peaceful enough. No! Look over there," he added, gripping his +companion's arm. "Peter, the concierge, is whispering with the others. +That is one of the managers there, out on the pavement, talking to +them." + +Selingman pointed down the road towards Monaco. + +"See!" he exclaimed. "There is a motor-car coming in a hurry. I fancy +that the alarm must have been given." + +A grey, heavily-built car came along at a great pace and swung round in +front of the Hotel de Paris. The two men stood on the pavement and +watched. A tall, official-looking person, with black, upturned +moustache, in somber uniform and a peaked cap, descended. + +"The Commissioner of Police," Selingman whispered, "and that is a doctor +who has just gone in. He has been found!" + +They crossed the road to the hotel. The concierge removed his hat as +they turned to enter. To all appearances he was unchanged--fat, florid, +splendid. Draconmeyer stepped close to him. + +"Has anything happened here, Peter?" he asked. "I saw the Commissioner +of Police arrive in a great hurry." + +The man hesitated. It was obvious then that he was disturbed. He looked +to the right and to the left. Finally, with a sigh of resignation, he +seemed to make up his mind to tell the truth. + +"It is the English gentleman, Sir Henry Hunterleys," he whispered. "He +has been found stabbed to death in his room." + +"Dead?" Draconmeyer demanded, insistently. + +"Stone dead, sir," the concierge replied. "He was stabbed by some one +who stole in through the bathroom--they say that he couldn't ever have +moved again. The Commissioner of Police is upstairs. The ambulance is +round at the back to take him off to the Mortuary." + +Selingman suddenly seized the man by the arm. His eyes were fixed upon +the topmost step. Violet stood there, smiling down upon them. She was +wearing a black and white gown, and a black hat with white ospreys. It +was the hour of five o'clock tea and many people were passing in and +out. She came gracefully down the steps. The two men remained +speechless. + +"I have been waiting for you, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, smiling. + +Draconmeyer remembered suddenly the packet of notes which he had been to +fetch from the bank. He tried to speak but only faltered. Selingman had +removed his hat but he, too, seemed incapable of coherent speech. She +looked at them both, astonished. + +"Whatever is the matter with you both?" she exclaimed. "Who is coming +with me to the Club? I decided to come this way round to see if I could +change my luck. That underground passage depresses me." + +Draconmeyer moved up a couple of steps. He was quite himself now, grave +but solicitous. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he said, "I am sorry, but there has been a little +accident. I am afraid that your husband has been hurt. If you will come +back to your room for a minute I will tell you about it." + +All the colour died slowly from her face. She swayed a little, but when +Draconmeyer would have supported her she pushed him away. + +"An accident?" she muttered. "I must go and see for myself." + +She turned and re-entered the hotel swiftly. Draconmeyer caught her up +in the hall. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he begged earnestly, "please take my advice. I am +your friend, you know. I want you to go straight to your room. I will +come with you. I will explain to you then--" + +"I am going to Henry," she interrupted, without even a glance towards +him. "I am going to my husband at once. I must see what has happened." + +She rang the bell for the lift, which appeared almost immediately. +Draconmeyer stepped in with her. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he persisted, "I beg of you to do as I ask. Let me +take you to your rooms. I will tell you all that has happened. Your +husband will not be able to see you or speak with you." + +"I shall not get out," she declared, when the lift boy, in obedience to +Draconmeyer's imperative order, stopped at her floor. "If I may not go +on in the lift, I shall walk up the stairs. I am going to my husband." + +"He will not recognise you," Draconmeyer warned her. "I am very sorry +indeed, Lady Hunterleys--I would spare you this shock if I could--but +you must be prepared for very serious things." + +They had reached the next floor now. The boy opened the gate of the lift +and she stepped out. She looked pitifully at Draconmeyer. + +"You aren't going to tell me that he is dead?" she moaned. + +"I am afraid he is," Draconmeyer assented. + +She staggered across the landing, pushing him away from her. There were +four or five people standing outside the door of Hunterleys' apartment. +She appealed to them. + +"Let me go in at once," she ordered. "I am Lady Hunterleys." + +"The door is locked," one of the men declared. + +"Let me go in," she insisted. + +She pushed them on one side and hammered at the door. They could hear +voices inside. In a moment it was opened. It was the Commissioner of the +Police who stood there--tall, severe, official. + +"Madame?" he exclaimed. + +"I am his wife!" she cried. "Let me in--let me in at once!" + +She forced her way into the room. Something was lying on the bed, +covered with a sheet. She looked at it and shrieked. + +"Madame," the Commissioner begged, "pray compose yourself. A tragedy has +happened in this room--but we are not sure. Can you be brave, madame?" + +"I can," she answered. "Of what are you not sure?" + +The Commissioner turned down the sheet a few inches. A man's face was +visible, a ghastly sight. She looked at it and shrieked hysterically. + +"Is that your husband, madame?" the Commissioner asked quickly. + +"Thank God, no!" she cried. "You are sure this is the man?" she went on, +her voice shaking with fierce excitement. "There is no one else--hurt? +No one else stabbed? This is the man they told me was my husband?" + +"He was found there, sitting at your husband's table, madame," the +Commissioner of Police assured her. "There is no one else." + +She suddenly began to cry. + +"It isn't Henry!" she sobbed, groping her way from the room. "Take me +downstairs, please, some one." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +TROUBLE BREWING + + +The maitre d'hotel had presented his bill. The little luncheon party was +almost over. + +"So I take leave," Hunterleys remarked, as he sat down his empty liqueur +glass, "of one of my responsibilities in life." + +"I think I'd like to remain a sort of half ward, please," Felicia +objected, "in case David doesn't treat me properly." + +"If he doesn't," Hunterleys declared, "he will have me to answer to. +Seriously, I think you young people are very wise and very foolish and +very much to be envied. What does Sidney say about it?" + +Felicia made a little grimace. She glanced around but the tables near +them were unoccupied. + +"Sidney is much too engrossed in his mysterious work to concern himself +very much about anything," she replied. "Do you know that he has been +out all night two nights this week already, and he is making no end of +preparations for to-day?" + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"I know that he is very busy just now," he assented gravely. "I must +come up and talk to him this afternoon." + +"We left him writing," Felicia said. "Of course, he declares that it is +for his beloved newspaper, but I am not sure. He scarcely ever goes out +in the daytime. What can he have to write about? David's work is +strenuous enough, and I have told him that if he turns war correspondent +again, I shall break it off." + +"We all have our work to do in life," Hunterleys reminded her. "You have +to sing in _Aida_ to-night, and you have to do yourself justice for the +sake of a great many people. Your brother has his work to do, also. +Whatever the nature of it may be, he has taken it up and he must go +through with it. It would be of no use his worrying for fear that you +should forget your words or your notes to-night, and there is no purpose +in your fretting because there may be danger in what he has to do. I +promise you that so far as I can prevent it, he shall take no +unnecessary risks. Now, if you like, I will walk home with you young +people, if I sha'n't be terribly in the way. I know that Sidney wants to +see me." + +They left the restaurant, a few minutes later, and strolled up towards +the town. Hunterleys paused outside a jeweler's shop. + +"And now for the important business of the day!" he declared. "I must +buy you an engagement present, on behalf of myself and all your +guardians. Come in and help me choose, both of you. A girl who carries +her gloves in her hand to show her engagement ring, should have a better +bag to hang from that little finger." + +"You really are the most perfect person that ever breathed!" she sighed. +"You know I don't deserve anything of the sort." + +They paid their visit to the jeweler and afterwards drove up to the +villa in a little victoria. Sidney Roche was hard at work in his +shirt-sleeves. He greeted Hunterleys warmly. + +"Glad you've come up!" he exclaimed. "The little girl's told you the +news, I suppose?" + +"Rather!" Hunterleys replied. "I have been lunching with them on the +strength of it." + +"And look!" Felicia cried, holding out the gold bag which hung from her +finger. "Look how I am being spoiled." + +Her brother sighed. + +"Awful nuisance for me," he grumbled, "having to live with an engaged +couple. You couldn't clear out for a little time," he suggested, "both +of you? I want to talk to Hunterleys." + +"We'll go and sit in the garden," Felicia assented. "I suppose I ought +to rest. David shall read my score to me." + +They passed out and Roche closed the door behind them carefully. + +"Anything fresh?" Hunterleys asked. + +"Nothing particular," was the somewhat guarded reply. "That fellow +Frenhofer has been up here." + +"Frenhofer?" Hunterleys repeated, interrogatively. + +"He is the only man I can rely upon at the Villa Mimosa," Roche +explained. "I am afraid to-night it's going to be rather a difficult +job." + +"I always feared it would be," Hunterleys agreed. + +"Frenhofer tells me," Roche continued, "that for some reason or other +their suspicions have been aroused up there. They are all on edge. You +know, the house is cram-full of men-servants and there are to be a dozen +of them on duty in the grounds. Two or three of these fellows are +nothing more or less than private detectives, and they all of them know +what they're about or Grex wouldn't have them." + +Hunterleys looked grave. + +"It sounds awkward," he admitted. + +"The general idea of the plot," Roche went on, walking restlessly up and +down the room, "you and I have already solved, and by this time they +know it in London. But there are two things which I feel they may +discuss to-night, which are of vital importance. The first is the date, +the second is the terms of the offer to Douaille. Then, of course, more +important, perhaps, than either of these, is the matter of Douaille's +general attitude towards the scheme." + +"So far," Hunterleys remarked reflectively, "we haven't the slightest +indication of what that may be. Douaille came pledged to nothing. He +may, after all, stand firm." + +"For the honour of his country, let us hope so," Roche said solemnly. +"Yet I am sure of one thing. They are going to make him a wonderful +offer. He may find himself confronted with a problem which some of the +greatest statesmen in the world have had to face in their time--shall he +study the material benefit of his country, or shall he stand firm for +her honour?" + +"It's a great ethical question," Hunterleys declared, "too great for us +to discuss now, Sidney. Tell me, do you really mean to go on with this +attempt of yours to-night?" + +"I must," Roche replied. "Frenhofer wants me to give up the roof idea, +but there is nothing else worth trying. He brought a fresh plan of the +room with him. There it lies on the table. As you see, the apartment +where the meeting will take place is almost isolated from the rest of +the house. There is only one approach to it, by a corridor leading from +the hall. The east and west sides will be patrolled. On the south there +is a little terrace, but the approach to it is absolutely impossible. +There is a sheer drop of fifty feet on to the beach." + +"You think they have no suspicion about the roof?" Hunterleys asked +doubtfully. + +"Not yet. The pane of glass is cut out and my entrance to the house is +arranged for. Frenhofer will tamper with the electric lights in the +kitchen premises and I shall arrive in response to his telephonic +message, in the clothes of a working-man and with a bag of tools. Then +he smuggles me on to the spiral stairway which leads out on to the roof +where the flag-staff is. I can crawl the rest of the way to my place. +The trouble is that notwithstanding the ledge around, if it is a +perfectly clear night, just a fraction of my body, however flat I lie, +might be seen from the ground." + +Hunterleys studied the plan for a moment and shook his head. + +"It's a terrible risk, this, Roche," he said seriously. + +"I know it," the other admitted, "but what am I to do? They keep sending +me cipher messages from home to spare no effort to send further news, as +you know very well, and two other fellows will be here the day after +to-morrow, to relieve me. I must do what I can. There's one thing, +Felicia's off my mind now. Briston's a good fellow and he'll look after +her." + +"In the event of your capture--" Hunterleys began. + +"The tools I shall take with me," Roche interrupted, "are common +housebreaker's tools. Every shred of clothing I shall be wearing will be +in keeping, the ordinary garments of an _ouvrier_ of the district. If I +am trapped, it will be as a burglar and not as a spy. Of course, if +Douaille opens the proceedings by declaring himself against the scheme, +I shall make myself scarce as quickly as I can." + +"You were quite right when you said just now," Hunterleys observed, +"that Douaille will find himself in a difficult position. There is no +doubt but that he is an honest man. On the other hand, it is a political +axiom that the first duty of any statesman is to his own people. If they +can make Douaille believe that he is going to restore her lost provinces +to France without the shedding of a drop of French blood, simply at +England's expense, he will be confronted with a problem over which any +man might hesitate. He has had all day to think it over. What he may +decide is simply on the knees of the gods." + +Roche sealed up the letter he had been writing, and handed it to +Hunterleys. + +"Well," he said, "I have left everything in order. If there's any +mysterious disappearance from here, it will be the mysterious +disappearance of a newspaper correspondent, and nothing else." + +"Good luck, then, old chap!" Hunterleys wished him. "If you pull through +this time, I think our job will be done. I'll tell them at headquarters +that you deserve a year's holiday." + +Roche smiled a little queerly. + +"Don't forget," he pointed out, "that it was you who scented out the +whole plot. I've simply done the Scotland Yard work. The worst of our +job is," he added, as he opened the door, "that we don't want holidays. +We are like drugged beings. The thing gets hold of us. I suppose if they +gave me a holiday I should spend it in St. Petersburg. That's where we +ought to send our best men just now. So long, Sir Henry." + +They shook hands once more. Roche's face was set in grim lines. They +were both silent for a moment. It was the farewell of men whose eyes are +fixed upon the great things. + +"Good luck to you!" Hunterleys repeated fervently, as he turned and +walked down the tiled way. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +HUNTERLEYS SCENTS MURDER + + +The concierge of the Hotel de Paris was a man of great stature and +imposing appearance. Nevertheless, when Hunterleys crossed the road and +climbed the steps to the hotel, he seemed for a moment like a man +reduced to pulp. He absolutely forgot his usual dignified but courteous +greeting. With mouth a little open and knees which seemed to have +collapsed, he stared at this unexpected apparition as he came into sight +and stared at him as he entered the hotel. Hunterleys glanced behind +with a slight frown. The incident, inexplicable though it was, would +have passed at once from his memory, but that directly he entered the +hotel he was conscious of the very similar behaviour and attitude +towards him of the chief reception clerk. He paused on his way, a little +bewildered, and called the man to him. The clerk, however, was already +rushing towards the office with his coat-tails flying behind him. +Hunterleys crossed the floor and rang the bell for the lift. Directly he +stepped in, the lift man vacated his place, and with his eyes nearly +starting out of his head, seemed about to make a rush for his life. + +"Come back here," Hunterleys ordered sternly. "Take me up to my room at +once." + +The man returned unsteadily and with marked reluctance. He closed the +gate, touched the handle and the lift commenced to ascend. + +"What's the matter with you all here?" Hunterleys demanded, irritably. +"Is there anything wrong with my appearance? Has anything happened?" + +The man made a gesture but said absolutely nothing. The lift had +stopped. He pushed open the door. + +"Monsieur's floor," he faltered. + +Hunterleys stepped out and made his way towards his room. Arrived there, +he was brought to a sudden standstill. A gendarme was stationed outside. + +"What the mischief are you doing here?" Hunterleys demanded. + +The man saluted. + +"By orders of the Director of Police, monsieur." + +"But that is my room," Hunterleys protested. "I wish to enter." + +"No one is permitted to enter, monsieur," the man replied. + +Hunterleys stared blankly at the gendarme. + +"Can't you tell me at least what has happened?" he persisted. "I am Sir +Henry Hunterleys. That is my apartment. Why do I find it locked against +me?" + +"By order of the Director of the Police, monsieur," was the parrot-like +reply. + +Hunterleys turned away impatiently. At that moment the reception clerk +who downstairs had fled at his approach, returned, bringing with him the +manager of the hotel. Hunterleys welcomed the latter with an air of +relief. + +"Monsieur Picard," he exclaimed, "what on earth is the meaning of this? +Why do I find my room closed and this gendarme outside?" + +Monsieur Picard was a tall man, black-bearded, immaculate in appearance +and deportment, with manners and voice of velvet. Yet he, too, had lost +his wonderful imperturbability. He waved away the floor waiter, who had +drawn near. His manner was almost agitated. + +"Monsieur Sir Henry," he explained, "an affair the most regrettable has +happened in your room. I have allotted to you another apartment upon the +same floor. Your things have been removed there. If you will come with +me I will show it to you. It is an apartment better by far than the one +you have been occupying, and the price is the same." + +"But what on earth has happened in my room?" Hunterleys demanded. + +"Monsieur," the hotel manager replied, "some poor demented creature who +has doubtless lost his all, in your absence found his way there and +committed suicide." + +"Found his way into my room?" Hunterleys repeated. "But I locked the +door before I went out. I have the key in my pocket." + +"He entered possibly through the bathroom," the manager went on, +soothingly. "I am deeply grieved that monsieur should be inconvenienced +in any way. This is the apartment I have reserved for monsieur," he +added, throwing open the door of a room at the end of the corridor. "It +is more spacious and in every way more desirable. Monsieur's clothes are +already being put away." + +Hunterleys glanced around the apartment. It was certainly of a far +better type than the one he had been occupying, and two of the floor +valets were already busy with his clothes. + +"Monsieur will be well satisfied here, I am sure," the hotel manager +continued. "May I be permitted to offer my felicitations and to assure +you of my immense relief. There was a rumour--the affair occurring in +monsieur's apartment--that the unfortunate man was yourself, Sir Henry." + +Hunterleys was thoughtful for a moment. He began to understand the +sensation which his appearance had caused. Other ideas, too, were +crowding into his brain. + +"Look here, Monsieur Picard," he said, "of course, I have no objection +to the change of rooms--that's all right--but I should like to know a +little more about the man who you say committed suicide in my apartment. +I should like to see him." + +Monsieur Picard shook his head. + +"It would be a very difficult matter, that, monsieur," he declared. "The +laws of Monaco are stringent in such affairs." + +"That is all very well," Hunterleys protested, "but I cannot understand +what he was doing in my apartment. Can't I go in just for a moment?" + +"Impossible, monsieur! Without the permission of the Commissioner of +Police no one can enter that room." + +"Then I should like," Hunterleys persisted, "to see the Commissioner of +Police." + +Monsieur Picard bowed. + +"Monsieur the Commissioner is on the premises, without a doubt. I will +instruct him of Monsieur Sir Henry's desire." + +"I shall be glad if you will do so at once," Hunterleys said firmly. "I +will wait for him here." + +The manager made his escape and his relief was obvious. Hunterleys sat +on the edge of the bed. + +"Do you know anything about this affair?" he asked the nearer of the two +valets. + +The man shook his head. + +"Nothing at all, monsieur," he answered, without pausing from his +labours. + +"How did the fellow get into my room?" + +"One knows nothing," the other man muttered. + +Hunterleys watched them for a few minutes at their labours. + +"A nice, intelligent couple of fellows you are," he remarked pleasantly. +"Come, here's a louis each. Now can't you tell me something about the +affair?" + +They came forward. Both looked longingly at the coins. + +"Monsieur," the one he had first addressed regretted, "there is indeed +nothing to be known. At this hotel the wages are good. It is the finest +situation a man may gain in Monte Carlo or elsewhere, but if anything +like this happens, there is to be silence. One dares not break the +rule." + +Hunterleys shrugged his shoulders. + +"All right," he said. "I shall find out what I want to know, in time." + +The men returned unwillingly to their tasks. In a moment or two there +was a knock at the door. The Commissioner of Police entered, accompanied +by the hotel manager, who at once introduced him. + +"The Commissioner of Police is here, Sir Henry," he announced. "He will +speak with you immediately." + +The official saluted. + +"Monsieur desires some information?" + +"I do," Hunterleys admitted. "I am told that a man has committed suicide +in my room, and I have heard no plausible explanation as to how he got +there. I want to see him. It is possible that I may recognise him." + +"The fellow is already identified," the Director of Police declared. "I +can satisfy monsieur's curiosity. He was connected with a firm of +English tailors here, who sought business from the gentlemen in the +hotel. He had accordingly sometimes the entree to their apartments. The +fellow is reported to have saved a little money and to have visited the +tables. He lost everything. He came this morning about his business as +usual, but, overcome by despair, stabbed himself, most regrettably in +the apartments of monsieur." + +"Since you know all about him, perhaps you can tell me his name?" +Hunterleys asked. + +"James Allen. Monsieur may recall him to his memory. He was tall and of +pale complexion, respectable-looking, but a man of discontented +appearance. The intention had probably been in his mind for some time." + +"Is there any objection to my seeing the body?" Hunterleys enquired. + +The official shrugged his shoulders. + +"But, monsieur, all is finished with the poor fellow. The doctor has +given his certificate. He is to be removed at once. He will be buried at +nightfall." + +"A very admirable arrangement, without a doubt," Hunterleys observed, +"and yet, I should like, as I remarked before, to see the body. You know +who I am--Sir Henry Hunterleys. I had a message from your department a +day or two ago which I thought a little unfair." + +The Commissioner sighed. He ignored altogether the conclusion of +Hunterleys' sentence. + +"It is against the rules, monsieur," he regretted. + +"Then to whom shall I apply?" Hunterleys asked, "because I may as well +tell you at once that I am going to insist upon my request being +granted. I will tell you frankly my reason. It is not a matter of +curiosity at all. I should like to feel assured of the fact that this +man Allen really committed suicide." + +"But he is dead, monsieur," the Commissioner protested. + +"Doubtless," Hunterleys agreed, "but there is also the chance that he +was murdered, isn't there?" + +"Murdered!" + +Monsieur Picard held up his hands in horror. The Commissioner of Police +smiled in derision. + +"But, monsieur," the latter pointed out, "who would take the trouble to +murder a poverty-stricken tailor's assistant!" + +"And in my hotel, too!" Monsieur Picard intervened. + +"The thing is impossible," the Commissioner declared. + +"Beyond which it is ridiculous!" Monsieur Picard added. + +Hunterleys sat quite silent for a moment. + +"Monsieur the Commissioner," he said presently, "and Monsieur Picard, I +recognise your point of view. Believe me that I appreciate it and that I +am willing, to a certain extent, to acquiesce in it. At the same time, +there are considerations in this matter which I cannot ignore. I do not +wish to create any disturbance or to make any statements likely to +militate against the popularity of your wonderful hotel, Monsieur +Picard. Nevertheless, for personal reasons only, notwithstanding the +verdict of your doctor, I should like for one moment to examine the +body." + +The Commissioner of Police was thoughtful for a moment. + +"It shall be as monsieur desires," he consented gravely, "bearing in +mind what monsieur has said," he added with emphasis. + +The three men left the room and passed down the corridor. The gendarme +in front of the closed door stood on one side. The Commissioner produced +a key. They all three entered the room and Monsieur Picard closed the +door behind them. Underneath a sheet upon the bed was stretched the +figure of a man. Hunterleys stepped up to it, turned down the sheet and +examined the prostrate figure. Then he replaced the covering reverently. + +"Yes," he said, "that is the man who has called upon me for orders from +the English tailors. His name, I believe, was, as you say, Allen. But +can you tell me, Monsieur the Commissioner, how it was possible for a +man to stab himself from the shoulder downwards through the heart?" + +The Official extended his hands. + +"Monsieur," he declared, "it is not for us. The doctor has given his +certificate." + +Hunterleys smiled a little grimly. + +"I have always understood," he observed, "that things were managed like +this. You may have confidence in me, Monsieur the Commissioner, and you, +Monsieur Picard. I shall not tell the world what I suspect. But for your +private information I will tell you that this man was probably murdered +by an assassin who sought my life. You observe that there is a certain +resemblance." + +The hotel proprietor turned pale. + +"Murdered!" he exclaimed. "Impossible! A murder here--unheard of!" + +The Commissioner dismissed the whole thing airily with a wave of his +hand. + +"The doctor has signed the certificate," he repeated. + +"And I," Hunterleys added, as he led the way out of the room, "am more +than satisfied--I am grateful. So there is nothing more to be said." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +DRACONMEYER IS DESPERATE + + +Draconmeyer stood before the window of his room, looking out over the +Mediterranean. There was no finer view to be obtained from any suite in +the hotel, and Monte Carlo had revelled all that day in the golden, +transfiguring sunshine. Yet he looked as a blind man. His eyes saw +nothing of the blue sea or the brown-sailed fishing boats, nor did he +once glance towards the picturesque harbour. He saw only his own future, +the shattered pieces of his carefully-thought-out scheme. The first fury +had passed. His brain was working now. In her room below, Lady +Hunterleys was lying on the couch, half hysterical. Three times she had +sent for her husband. If he should return at that moment, Draconmeyer +knew that the game was up. There would be no bandying words between +them, no involved explanations, no possibility of any further +misunderstanding. All his little tissue of lies and misrepresentations +would crumble hopelessly to pieces. The one feeling in her heart would +be thankfulness. She would open her arms. He saw the end with fatal, +unerring truthfulness. + +His servant returned. Draconmeyer waited eagerly for his message. + +"Lady Hunterleys is lying down, sir," the man announced. "She is very +much upset and begs you to excuse her." + +Draconmeyer waved the man away and walked up and down the apartment, his +hands behind his back, his lips hard-set. He was face to face with a +crisis which baffled him completely, and yet which he felt to be wholly +unworthy of his powers. His brain had never been keener, his sense of +power more inspiring. Yet he had never felt more impotent. It was +woman's hysteria against which he had to fight. The ordinary weapons +were useless. He realised quite well her condition and the dangers +resulting from it. The heart of the woman was once more beating to its +own natural tune. If Hunterleys should present himself within the next +few minutes, not all his ingenuity nor the power of his millions could +save the situation. + +Plans shaped themselves almost automatically in his mind. He passed from +his own apartments, through a connecting door into a large and +beautifully-furnished salon. A woman with grey hair and white face was +lying on a couch by the window. She turned her head as he entered and +looked at him questioningly. Her face was fragile and her features were +sharpened by suffering. She looked at her husband almost as a cowed but +still affectionate animal might look towards a stern master. + +"Do you feel well enough to walk as far as Lady Hunterleys' apartment +with the aid of my arm?" he asked. + +"Of course," she replied. "Does Violet want me?" + +"She is still feeling the shock," Draconmeyer said. "I think that she is +inclined to be hysterical. It would do her good to have you talk with +her." + +The nurse, who had been sitting by her side, assisted her patient to +rise. She leaned on her husband's arm. In her other hand she carried a +black ebony walking-stick. They traversed the corridor, knocked at the +door of Lady Hunterleys' apartment, and in response to a somewhat +hesitating invitation, entered. Violet was lying upon the sofa. She +looked up eagerly at their coming. + +"Linda!" she exclaimed. "How dear of you! I thought that it might have +been Henry," she added, as though to explain the disappointment in her +tone. + +Draconmeyer turned away to hide his expression. + +"Talk to her as lightly as possible," he whispered to his wife, "but +don't leave her alone. I will come back for you in ten minutes." + +He left the two women together and descended into the hall. He found +several of the reception clerks whispering together. The concierge had +only just recovered himself, but the place was beginning to wear its +normal aspect. He whispered an enquiry at the desk. Sir Henry Hunterleys +had just come in and had gone upstairs, he was told. His new room was +number 148. + +"There was a note from his wife," Draconmeyer said, trying hard to +control his voice. "Has he had it?" + +"It is here still, sir," the clerk replied. "I tried to catch Sir Henry +as he passed through, but he was too quick for me. To tell you the +truth," he went on, "there has been a rumour through the hotel that it +was Sir Henry himself who had been found dead in his room, and seeing +him come in was rather a shock for all of us." + +"Naturally," Draconmeyer agreed. "If you will give me the note I will +take it up to him." + +The clerk handed it over without hesitation. Draconmeyer returned +immediately to his own apartments and torn open the envelope. There were +only a few words scrawled across the half-sheet of notepaper: + + Henry, come to me, dear, at once. I have had such a shock. I want + to see you. + + Vi. + +He tore the note viciously into small pieces. Then he went back to Lady +Hunterleys' apartments. She was sitting up now in an easy-chair. Once +more, at the sound of the knock, she looked towards the door eagerly. +Her face fell when Draconmeyer entered. + +"Have you heard anything about Henry?" she asked anxiously. + +"He came back a few minutes ago," Draconmeyer replied, "and has gone out +again." + +"Gone out again?" + +Draconmeyer nodded. + +"I think that he has gone round to the Club. He is a man of splendid +nerve, your husband. He seemed to treat the whole affair as an excellent +joke." + +"A joke!" she repeated blankly. + +"This sort of thing happens so often in Monte Carlo," he observed, in a +matter-of-fact tone. "The hotel people seem all to look upon it as in +the day's work." + +"I wonder if Henry had my note?" she faltered. + +"He was reading one in the hall when I saw him," Draconmeyer told her. +"That would be yours, I should think. He left a message at the desk +which was doubtless meant for you. He has gone on to the Sporting Club +for an hour and will probably be back in time to change for dinner." + +Violet sat quite still for several moments. Something seemed to die +slowly out of her face. Presently she rose to her feet. + +"I suppose," she said, "that I am very foolish to allow myself to be +upset like this." + +"It is quite natural," Draconmeyer assured her soothingly. "What you +should try to do is to forget the whole circumstance. You sit here +brooding about it until it becomes a tragedy. Let us go down to the Club +together. We shall probably see your husband there." + +She hesitated. She seemed still perplexed. + +"I wonder," she murmured, "could I send another message to him? Perhaps +he didn't quite understand." + +"Much better come along to the Club," Draconmeyer advised, +good-humouredly. "You can be there yourself before a message could reach +him." + +"Very well," she assented. "I will be ready in ten minutes...." + +Draconmeyer took his wife back to her room. + +"Did I do as you wished, dear?" she asked him anxiously. + +"Absolutely," he replied. + +He helped her back to her couch and stooped and kissed her. She leaned +back wearily. It was obvious that she had found the exertion of moving +even so far exhausting. Then he returned to his own apartments. Rapidly +he unlocked his dispatch box and took out one or two notes from Violet. +They were all of no importance--answers to invitations, or appointments. +He spread them out, took a sheet of paper and a broad pen. Without +hesitation he wrote: + + Congratulations on your escape, but why do you run such risks! I + wish you would go back to England. + + VIOLET. + +He held the sheet of notepaper a little away from him and looked at it +critically. The imitation was excellent. He thrust the few lines into an +envelope, addressed them to Hunterleys and descended to the hall. He +left the note at the office. + +"Send this up to Sir Henry, will you?" he instructed. "Let him have it +as quickly as possible." + +Once more he crossed the hall and waited close to the lift by which she +would descend. All the time he kept on glancing nervously around. Things +were going his way, but the great danger remained--if they should meet +first by chance in the corridor, or in the lift! Hunterleys might think +it his duty to go at once to his wife's apartment in case she had heard +the rumour of his death. The minutes dragged by. He had climbed the +great ladder slowly. More than once he had felt it sway beneath his +feet. Yet to him those moments seemed almost the longest of his life. +Then at last she came. She was looking very pale, but to his relief he +saw that she was dressed for the Club. She was wearing a grey dress and +black hat. He remembered with a pang of fury that grey was her husband's +favourite colour. + +"I suppose there is no doubt that Henry is at the Club?" she asked, +looking eagerly around the hall. + +"Not the slightest," he assured her. "We can have some tea there and we +are certain to come across him somewhere." + +She made no further difficulty. As they turned into the long passage he +gave a sigh of relief. Every step they took meant safety. He talked to +her as lightly as possible, ignoring the fact that she scarcely replied +to him. They mounted the stairs and entered the Club. She looked +anxiously up and down the crowded rooms. + +"I shall stroll about and look for Henry," she announced. + +"Very well," he agreed. "I will go over to your place and see how the +numbers are going." + +He stood by the roulette table, but he watched her covertly. She passed +through the baccarat room, came out again and walked the whole length of +the larger apartment. She even looked into the restaurant beyond. Then +she came slowly back to where Draconmeyer was standing. She seemed +tired. She scarcely even glanced at the table. + +"Lady Hunterleys," he exclaimed impressively, "this is positively +wicked! Your twenty-nine has turned up twice within the last few +minutes. Do sit down and try your luck and I will go and see if I can +find your husband." + +He pushed a handful of plaques and a bundle of notes into her hand. At +that moment the croupier's voice was heard. + +_"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque."_ + +"Another of my numbers!" she murmured, with a faint show of interest. "I +don't think I want to play, though." + +"Try just a few coups," he begged. "You see, there is a chair here. You +may not have a chance again for hours." + +He was using all his will power. Somehow or other, she found herself +seated in front of the table. The sight of the pile of plaques and the +roll of notes was inspiring. She leaned across and with trembling +fingers backed number fourteen _en plein_, with all the _carres_ and +_chevaux_. She was playing the game at which she had lost so +persistently. He walked slowly away. Every now and then from a distance +he watched her. She was winning and losing alternately, but she had +settled down now in earnest. He breathed a great sigh of relief and took +a seat upon a divan, whence he could see if she moved. Richard Lane, who +had been standing at the other side of the table, crossed the room and +came over to him. + +"Say, do you know where Sir Henry is?" he enquired. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"I have scarcely seen him all day." + +"I think I'll go round to the hotel and look him up," Lane decided +carelessly. "I'm fed up with this--" + +He stopped short. He was no longer an exceedingly bored and +discontented-looking young man. Draconmeyer glanced at him curiously. He +felt a thrill of sympathy. This stolid young man, then, was capable of +feeling something of the same emotion as was tearing at his own +heart-strings. Lane was gazing with transfigured face towards the open +doorway. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +EXTRAORDINARY LOVE-MAKING + + +Fedora sauntered slowly around the rooms, leaning over and staking a +gold plaque here and there. She was dressed as usual in white, with an +ermine turban hat and stole and an enormous muff. Her hair seemed more +golden than ever beneath its snow-white setting, and her complexion more +dazzling. She seemed utterly unconscious of the admiration which her +appearance evoked, and she passed Lane without apparently observing him. +A moment afterwards, however, he moved to her side and addressed her. + +"Quite a lucky coup of yours, that last, Miss Grex. Are you used to +winning _en plein_ like that?" + +She turned her head and looked at him. Her eyebrows were ever so +slightly uplifted. Her expression was chilling. He remained, however, +absolutely unconscious of any impending trouble. + +"I was sorry not to find you at home this morning," he continued. "I +brought my little racing car round for you to see. I thought you might +have liked to try her." + +"How absurd you are!" she murmured. "You must know perfectly well that +it would have been quite impossible for me to come out with you alone." + +"But why?" + +She sighed. + +"You are quite hopeless, or you pretend to be!" + +"If I am," he replied, "it is because you won't explain things to me +properly. The tables are much too crowded to play comfortably. Won't you +come and sit down for a few minutes?" + +She hesitated. Lane watched her anxiously. He felt, somehow, that a +great deal depended upon her reply. Presently, with the slightest +possible shrug of the shoulders, she turned around and suffered him to +walk by her side to the little antechamber which divided the gambling +rooms from the restaurant. + +"Very well," she decided, "I suppose, after all, one must remember that +you did save us from a great deal of inconvenience the other night. I +will talk to you for a few minutes." + +He found her an easy-chair and he sat by her side. + +"This is bully," he declared. + +"Is what?" she asked, once more raising her eyebrows. + +"American slang," he explained penitently. "I am sorry. I meant that it +was very pleasant to be here alone with you for a few minutes." + +"You may not find it so, after all," she said severely. "I feel that I +have a duty to perform." + +"Well, don't let's bother about that yet, if it means a lecture," he +begged. "You shall tell me how much better the young women of your +country behave than the young women of mine." + +"Thank you," she replied, "I am never interested in the doings of a +democracy. Your country makes no appeal to me at all." + +"Come," he protested, "that's a little too bad. Why, Russia may be a +democracy some day, you know. You very nearly had a republic foisted +upon you after the Japanese war." + +"You are quite mistaken," she assured him. "Russia would never tolerate +a republic." + +"Russia will some day have to do like many other countries," he answered +firmly,--"obey the will of the people." + +"Russia has nothing in common with other countries," she asserted. +"There was never a nation yet in which the aristocracy was so powerful." + +"It's only a matter of time," he declared, nonchalantly. + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You represent ideas of which I do not approve," she told him. + +"I don't care a fig about any ideas," he replied. "I don't care much +about anything in the world except you." + +She turned her head slowly and looked at him. Its angle was +supercilious, her tone frigid. + +"That sort of a speech may pass for polite conversation in your country, +Mr. Lane. We do not understand it in mine." + +"Don't your men ever tell your women that they love them?" he asked +bluntly. + +"If they are of the same order," she said, "if the thing is at all +possible, it may sometimes be done. Marriage, however, is more a matter +of alliance with us. Our servants, I believe, are quite promiscuous in +their love-making." + +He was silent for a moment. She may, perhaps, have felt some +compunction. She spoke to him a little more kindly. + +"We cannot help the ideas of the country in which we are brought up, you +know, Mr. Lane." + +"Of course not," he agreed. "I understand that perfectly. I was just +thinking, though, what a lot I shall have to teach you." + +She was momentarily aghast. She recovered herself quickly, however. + +"Are all the men of your nation so self-confident?" + +"We have to be," he told her. "It's the only way we can get what we +want." + +"And do you always succeed in getting what you want?" + +"Always!" + +"Then unless you wish to be an exception," she advised, "let me beg you +not to try for anything beyond your reach." + +"There is nothing," he declared firmly, "beyond my reach. You are trying +to discourage me. It isn't any use. I am not a prince or a duke or +anything like that, although my ancestors were honest enough, I believe. +I haven't any trappings of that sort to offer you. If you are as +sensible as I think you are, you won't mind that when you come to think +it over. The only thing I am ashamed of is my money, because I didn't +earn it for myself. You can live in palaces still, if you want to, and +if you want to be a queen I'll ferret out a kingdom somewhere and buy +it, but I am afraid you'll have to be Mrs. Lane behind it all, you +know." + +"You really are the most intolerable person," she exclaimed, biting her +lip. "How can I get these absurd ideas out of your mind?" + +"By telling me honestly, looking in my eyes all the time, that you could +never care for me a little bit, however devoted I was," he answered +promptly. "You won't be able to do it. I've only one belief in life +about these things, and that is that when any one cares for a girl as I +care for you, it's absolutely impossible for her to be wholly +indifferent. It isn't much to start with, I know, but the rest will +come. Be honest with me. Is there any one of the men of your country +whom you have met, whom you want to marry?" + +She frowned slightly. She found herself, at that moment, comparing him +with certain young men of her acquaintance. She was astonished to +realise that the comparison was all in his favour. It was for her an +extraordinary moment. She had indeed been brought up in palaces and the +men whom she had known had been reckoned the salt of the earth. Yet, at +that crisis, she was most profoundly conscious that not all the glamour +of those high-sounding names, the picturesque interest of those gorgeous +uniforms, nor the men themselves, magnificent in their way, were able to +make the slightest appeal to her. She remembered some of her own bitter +words when an alliance with one of them had been suggested to her. It +was she, then, who had been the first to ignore the divine heritage of +birth, who had spoken of their drinking habits, pointed to their life of +idle luxury and worse than luxury. The man who was at the present moment +her suitor forced himself upon her recollection. She knew quite well +that he represented a type. They were of the nobility, and they seemed +to her in that one poignant but unwelcome moment, hatefully degenerate, +men no self-respecting girl could ever think of. Family influence, stern +parental words, the call of her order, had half crushed these thoughts. +They came back now, however, with persistent force. + +"You see," Richard Lane went on, "it mayn't be much that I have to offer +you, but in your heart I know you feel what it means to be offered the +love of a man who doesn't want you just because you are of his order, or +because you are the daughter of a Personage, or for any other reason +than because he cares for you as he has cared for no other woman on +earth, and because, without knowing it, he has waited for you." + +She moved restlessly in her chair. Their conversation was not going in +the least along the lines which she had intended. She suddenly +remembered her own disquiet of the day before, her curious longing to +steal off on some excuse to-day. A week ago she would have been content +to have dawdled away the afternoon in the grounds of the villa. +Something different had come. From the moment she had entered the rooms, +although she had never acknowledged it, she had been conscious, +pleasurably conscious of his presence. She was suddenly uneasy. + +"I am afraid," she murmured, "that you are quite hopeless." + +"If you mean that I am without hope, you are wrong," he answered +sturdily. "From the moment I met you I have had but one thought, and +until the last day of my life I shall have but one thought, and that +thought is of you. There may be no end of difficulties, but I come of an +obstinate race. I have patience as well as other things." + +She was avoiding looking at him now. She looked instead at her clasped +hands. + +"I wish I could make you understand," she said, in a low tone, "how +impossible all this is. In England and America I know that it is +different. There, marriages of a certain sort are freely made between +different classes. But in Russia these things are not thought of. +Supposing that all you said were true. Supposing, even, that I had the +slightest disposition to listen to you. Do you realise that there isn't +one of my family who wouldn't cry out in horror at the thought of my +marrying--forgive me--marrying a commoner of your rank in life?" + +"They can cry themselves hoarse, as they'll have to some day," he +replied cheerfully. "As for you, Miss Fedora--you don't mind my calling +you Miss Fedora, do you?--you'll be glad some day that you were born at +the beginning of a new era. You may be a pioneer in the new ways, but +you may take my word for it that you won't be the last. Please have +courage. Please try and be yourself, won't you?" + +"But how do you know what I am?" she protested. "Or even what I am like? +We have spoken only a few words. Nothing has passed between us which +could possibly have inspired you with such feelings as you speak of," +she added, colouring slightly. "It is a fancy of yours, quite too absurd +a fancy. Now that I find myself discussing it with you as though, +indeed, we were talking of it seriously, I am inclined to laugh. You are +just a very foolish young man, Mr. Lane." + +He shook his head. + +"Look here," he said, "I am very good at meaning things, but it's +awfully hard for me to put my thoughts into words. I can't explain how +it's all come about. I don't know why, amongst all the girls I've seen +in my own country, or England, or Paris, or anywhere, there hasn't been +one who could bring me the things which you bring, who could fill my +mind with the thoughts you fill it with, who could make my days stand +still and start again, who could upset the whole machinery of my life so +that when you come I want to dance with happiness, and when you go the +day is over with me. There is no chance of my being able to explain this +to you, because other fellows, much cleverer than I, have been in the +same box, and they've had to come to the conclusion, too, that there +isn't any explanation. I have accepted it. I want you to. I love you, +Fedora, and I will be faithful to you all my life. You shall live where +you choose and how you choose, but you must be my wife. There isn't any +way out of it for either of us." + +She sat quite still for several moments. They were a little behind the +curtain and it chanced that there was no one in their immediate +vicinity. She felt her fingers suddenly gripped. They were released +again almost at once, but a queer sensation of something overmastering +seemed to creep through her whole being at the touch of his hand. She +rose to her feet. + +"I am going away," she declared. + +"I haven't offended you?" he begged. "Please sit down. We haven't half +talked over things yet." + +"We have talked too much," she answered. "I don't know really what has +come over me that I have let you--that I listen to you--" + +"It is because you feel the truth of what I say," he insisted. "Don't +get up, Fedora. Don't go away, dear. Let us have at least these few +minutes together. I'll do exactly as you tell me. I'll come to your +father or I'll carry you off. I have a sister here. She'll be your +friend--" + +"Don't!" the girl stopped him. "Please don't!" + +She sat down in her chair again. Her fingers were twisted together, her +slim form was tense with stifled emotions. + +"Have I been a brute?" he asked softly. "You must forgive me, Fedora. I +am not much used to girls and I am sort of carried away myself, only I +want you to believe that there's the real thing in my heart. I'll make +you just as happy as a woman can be. Don't shake your head, dear. I want +you to trust me and believe in me." + +"I think you're a most extraordinary person," she said at last. "Do you +know, I'm beginning to be really afraid of you." + +"You're not," he insisted. "You're afraid of yourself. You're afraid +because you see the downfall of the old ideas. You're afraid because you +know that you're going to be a renegade. You can see nothing but trouble +ahead just now. I'll take you right away from that." + +There was the rustle of skirts, a soft little laugh. Richard rose to his +feet promptly. He had never been so pleased in all his life to welcome +his sister. + +"Flossie," he exclaimed, "I'm ever so glad you came along! I want to +present Miss Grex to you. This is my sister, Miss Fedora--Lady +Weybourne. I was just going to ask Miss Grex to have some tea with me," +he went on, "but I am not sure that she would have considered it proper. +Do come along and be chaperone." + +Lady Weybourne laughed. + +"I shall be delighted," she declared. "I have seen you here once or +twice before, haven't I, Miss Grex, and some one told me that you were +Russian. I suppose you are not in the least used to the free and easy +ways of us Westerners, but you'll come and have some tea with us, won't +you?" + +The girl hesitated. Fate was too strong for her. + +"I shall be very pleased," she agreed. + +They found a window table and Lane ordered tea. Fedora was inclined to +be silent at first, but Lady Weybourne was quite content to chatter. By +degrees Fedora, too, came back to earth and they had a very gay little +tea-party. At the end of it they all strolled back into the rooms +together. Fedora glanced at the watch upon her wrist and held out her +hand to Lady Weybourne. + +"I am sorry," she said, "but I must hurry away now. It is very kind of +you to ask me to come and see you, Lady Weybourne. I shall be charmed." + +Richard ignored her fingers. + +"I am going to see you down to your car, if I may," he begged. + +They left the room together. She looked at him as they descended the +stairs, almost tremulously. + +"This doesn't mean, you know," she said, "that I--that I agree to all +you have been saying." + +"It needn't mean anything at all, dear," he replied. "This is only the +beginning. I don't expect you to realise all that I have realised quite +so quickly, but I do want you to keep it in your mind that this thing +has come and that it can't be got rid of. I won't do anything foolish. +If it is necessary I will wait, but I am your lover now, as I always +must be." + +He handed her into the car, the footman, in his long white livery, +standing somberly on one side. As they drove off she gave him her +fingers, and he walked back up the steps with the smile upon his lips +that comes to a man only once or twice in his lifetime. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES + + +Violet glanced at her watch with an exclamation of dismayed annoyance. +She leaned appealingly towards the croupier. + +"But one coup more, monsieur," she pleaded. "Indeed your clock is fast." + +The croupier shook his head. He was a man of gallantry so far as his +profession permitted, and he was a great admirer of the beautiful +Englishwoman, but the rules of the Club were strict. + +"Madame," he pointed out, "it is already five minutes past eight. It is +absolutely prohibited that we start another coup after eight o'clock. If +madame will return at ten o'clock, the good fortune will without doubt +be hers." + +She looked up at Draconmeyer, who was standing at her elbow. + +"Did you ever know anything more hatefully provoking!" she complained. +"For two hours the luck has been dead against me. But for a few of my +_carres_ turning up, I don't know what would have happened. And now at +last my numbers arrive. I win _en plein_ and with all the _carres_ and +_chevaux_. This time it was twenty-seven. I win two _carres_ and I move +to twenty, and he will not go on." + +"It is the rule," Draconmeyer reminded her. "It is bad fortune, though. +I have been watching the run of the table. Things have been coming more +your way all the time. I think that the end of your ill-luck has +arrived. Tell me, are you hungry?" + +"Not in the least," she answered pettishly. "I hate the very thought of +dinner." + +"Then why do we not go on to the Casino?" Draconmeyer suggested. "We can +have a sandwich and a glass of wine there, and you can continue your +vein." + +She rose to her feet with alacrity. Her face was beaming. + +"My friend," she exclaimed, "you are inspired! It is a brilliant idea. I +know that it will bring me fortune. To the Cercle Prive, by all means. I +am so glad that you are one of those men who are not dependent upon +dinner. But what about Linda?" + +"She is not expecting me, as it happens," Draconmeyer lied smoothly. "I +told her that I might be dining at the Villa Mimosa. I have to be there +later on." + +Violet gathered up her money, stuffed it into her gold bag and hurried +off for her cloak. She reappeared in a few moments and smiled very +graciously at Draconmeyer. + +"It is quite a wonderful idea of yours, this," she declared. "I am +looking forward immensely to my next few coups. I feel in a winning +vein. Very soon," she added, as they stepped out on to the pavement and +she gathered up her skirts, "very soon I am quite sure that I shall be +asking you for my cheques back again." + +He laughed, as though she had been a child speaking of playthings. + +"I am not sure that I shall wish you luck," he said. "I think that I +like to feel that you are a little--just a very little in my debt. Do +you think that I should be a severe creditor?" + +Something in his voice disturbed her vaguely, but she brushed the +thought away. Of course he admired her, but then every woman must have +admirers. It only remained for her to be clever enough to keep him at +arm's length. She had no fear for herself. + +"I haven't thought about the matter at all," she answered carelessly, +"but to me all creditors would be the same, whether they were kind or +unkind. I hate the feeling of owing anything." + +"It is a question," he observed, "how far one can be said to owe +anything to those who are really friends. A husband, for instance. One +can't keep a ledger account with him." + +"A husband is a different matter altogether," she asserted coldly. "Now +I wonder whether we shall find my favourite table full. Anyhow, I am +going to play at the one nearest the entrance on the right-hand side. +There is a little croupier there whom I like." + +They passed up through the entrance and across the floor of the first +suite of rooms to the Cercle Prive. Violet looked eagerly towards the +table of which she had spoken. To her joy there was plenty of room. + +"My favourite seat is empty!" she exclaimed. "I know that I am going to +be lucky." + +"I think that I shall play myself, for a change," Draconmeyer announced, +producing a great roll of notes. + +"Whenever you feel that you would like to go down and have something, +don't mind me, will you?" she begged. "You can come back and talk to me +at any time. I am not in the least hungry yet." + +"Very well," he agreed. "Good luck to you!" They played at opposite +sides of the table. For an hour she won and he lost. Once she called him +over to her side. + +"I scarcely dare to tell you," she whispered, her eyes gleaming, "but I +have won back the first thousand pounds. I shall give it to you +to-night. Here, take it now." + +He shook his head and waved it away. "I haven't the cheques with me," he +protested. "Besides, it is bad luck to part with any of your winnings +while you are still playing." + +He watched her for a minute or two. She still won. + +"Take my advice," he said earnestly. "Play higher. You have had a most +unusual run of bad luck. The tide has turned. Make the most of it. I +have lost ten mille. I am going to have a try your side of the table." + +He found a vacant chair a few places lower down, and commenced playing +in maximums. From the moment of his arrival he began to win, and +simultaneously Violet began to lose. Her good-fortune deserted her +absolutely, and for the first time she showed signs of losing her +self-control. She gave vent to little exclamations of disgust as stake +after stake was swept away. Her eyes were much too bright, there was a +spot of colour in her cheeks. She spoke angrily to a croupier who +delayed handing her some change. Draconmeyer, although he knew perfectly +well what was happening, never seemed to glance in her direction. He +played with absolute recklessness for half-an-hour. When at last he rose +from his seat and joined her, his hands were full of notes. He smiled +ever so faintly as he saw the covetous gleam in her eyes. + +"I'm nearly broken," she gasped. "Leave off playing, please, for a +little time. You've changed my luck." + +He obeyed, standing behind her chair. Three more coups she played and +lost. Then she thrust her hand into her bag and drew it out, empty. She +was suddenly pale. + +"I have lost my last louis," she declared. "I don't understand it. It +seemed as though I must win here." + +"So you will in time," he assured her confidently. "How much will you +have--ten mille or twenty?" + +She shrank back, but the sight of the notes in his hand fascinated her. +She glanced up at him. His pallor was unchanged, there was no sign of +exultation in his face. Only his eyes seemed a little brighter than +usual beneath his gold-rimmed spectacles. + +"No, give me ten," she said. + +She took them from his hand and changed them quickly into plaques. Her +first coup was partially successful. He leaned closer over her. + +"Remember," he pointed out, "that you only need to win once in a dozen +times and you do well. Don't be in such a hurry." + +"Of course," she murmured. "Of course! One forgets that. It is all a +matter of capital." + +He strolled away to another table. When he came back, she was sitting +idle in her place, restless and excited, but still full of confidence. + +"I am a little to the good," she told him, "but I have left off for a +few minutes. The very low numbers are turning up and they are no use to +me." + +"Come and have that sandwich," he begged. "You really ought to take +something." + +"The place shall be kept for madame," the croupier whispered. "I shall +be here for another two hours." + +She nodded and rose. They made their way out of the Rooms and down into +the restaurant on the ground-floor. They found a little table near the +wall and he ordered some pate sandwiches and champagne. Whilst they +waited she counted up her money, making calculations on a slip of paper. +Draconmeyer leaned back in his chair, watching her. His back was towards +the door and they were at the end table. He permitted himself the luxury +of looking at her almost greedily; of dropping, for a few moments, the +mask which he placed always upon his features in her presence. In his +way the man was an artist, a great collector of pictures and bronzes, a +real lover and seeker after perfection. Often he found himself wandering +towards his little gallery, content to stand about and gloat over some +of his most treasured possessions. Yet the man's personality clashed +often with his artistic pretensions. He scarcely ever found himself +amongst his belongings without realising the existence of a curious +feeling, wholly removed from the pure artistic pleasure of their +contemplation. It was the sense of ownership which thrilled him. +Something of the same sensation was upon him now. She was the sort of +woman he had craved for always--slim, elegant, and what to him, with his +quick powers of observation, counted for so much, she was modish, +reflecting in her presence, her dress and carriage, even her speech, the +best type of the prevailing fashion. She excited comment wherever she +appeared. People, as he knew very well even now, were envying him his +companion. And beneath it all--she, the woman, was there. All his life +he had fought for the big things--political power, immense wealth, the +confidence of his great master--all these had come to him easily. And at +that moment they were like baubles! + +She looked up at last and there was a slight frown upon her forehead. + +"I am still a little down, starting from where I had the ten mille," she +sighed. "I thought--" + +She stopped short. There was a curious change in her face. Her eyes were +fixed upon some person approaching. Draconmeyer turned quickly in his +chair. Almost as he did so, Hunterleys paused before their table. Violet +looked up at him with quivering lips. For a moment it seemed as though +she were stepping out of her sordid surroundings. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "Did you come to look for me? Did you know that +we were here?" + +"How should I?" he answered calmly. "I was strolling around with David +Briston. We are at the Opera." + +"At the Opera," she repeated. + +"My little protegee, Felicia Roche, is singing," he went on, "in _Aida_. +If she does as well in the next act as she has done in this, her future +is made." + +He was on the point of adding the news of Felicia's engagement to the +young man who had momentarily deserted him. Some evil chance changed his +intention. + +"Why do you call her your little protegee?" she demanded. + +"It isn't quite correct, is it?" he answered, a little absently. "There +are three or four of us who are doing what we can to look after her. Her +father was a prominent member of the Wigwam Club. The girl won the +musical scholarship we have there. She has more than repaid us for our +trouble, I am glad to say." + +"I have no doubt that she has," Violet replied, lifting her eyes. + +There was a moment's silence. The significance of her words was entirely +lost upon Hunterleys. + +"Isn't this rather a new departure of yours?" he asked, glancing +disdainfully towards Draconmeyer. "I thought that you so much preferred +to play at the Club." + +"So I do," she assented, "but I was just beginning to win when the Club +closed at eight o'clock, and so we came on here." + +"Your good fortune continues, I hope?" + +"It varies," she answered hurriedly, "but it will come, I am sure. I +have been very near a big win more than once." + +He seemed on the point of departure. She leaned a little forward. + +"You had my note, Henry?" + +Her tone was almost beseeching. Draconmeyer, who was listening with +stony face, shivered imperceptibly. + +"Thank you, yes," Hunterleys replied, frowning slightly. "I am sorry, +but I am not at liberty to do what you suggest just at present. I wish +you good fortune." + +He turned around and walked back to the other end of the room, where +Briston was standing at the bar. She looked after him for a moment as +though she failed to understand his words. Then her face hardened. +Draconmeyer leaned towards her. + +"Shall we go?" he suggested. + +She rose with alacrity. Side by side they strolled through the rooms +towards the Cercle Prive. + +"I am sorry," Draconmeyer said regretfully, "but I am forced to leave +you now. I will take you back to your place and after that I must go to +the hotel and change. I have a reception to attend. I wish you would +take the rest of my winnings and see what you can do with them." + +She shook her head vigorously. + +"No, thank you," she declared. "I have enough." + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I have twenty-five mille here in my pocket," he continued, "besides +some smaller change. I don't think it is quite fair to leave so much +money about in one's room or to carry it out into the country. Keep it +for me. You won't need to play with it--I can see that your luck is +in--but it always gives one confidence to feel that one has a reserve +stock, something to fall back upon if necessary." + +He drew the notes from his pocket and held them towards her. Her eyes +were fixed upon them covetously. The thought of all that money actually +in her possession was wildly exhilarating. + +"I will take care of them for you, if you like," she said. "I shall not +play with them, though. I owe you quite enough already and my losing +days are over." + +He stuffed the notes carelessly into her bag. + +"Twenty-five mille," he told her. "Remember my advice. If the luck stays +with you, stake maximums. Go for the big things." + +She looked at him curiously as she closed her gold bag with a snap. + +"After all," she declared, with a little laugh, "I am not sure that you +are not the greater gambler of the two to trust me with all this money!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +TO THE VILLA MIMOSA + + +With feet that seemed to touch nothing more substantial than air, her +eyes brilliant, a wonderful colour in her cheeks, Violet passed through +the heavy, dingy rooms and out through the motley crowd into the portico +of the Casino. She was right! She knew that she had been right! How wise +she had been to borrow that money from Mr. Draconmeyer instead of +sitting down and confessing herself vanquished! The last few hours had +been hours of ecstatic happiness. With calm confidence she had sat in +her place and watched her numbers coming up with marvellous persistence. +It was the most wonderful thing in the world, this. She had had no time +to count her winnings, but at least she knew that she could pay back +every penny she owed. Her little gold satchel was stuffed with notes and +plaques. She felt suddenly younger, curiously light-hearted; hungry, +too, and thirsty. She was, in short, experiencing almost a delirium of +pleasure. And just then, on the steps of the Casino, she came face to +face with her husband. + +"Henry!" she called out. "Henry!" + +He turned abruptly around. He was looking troubled, and in his hand were +the fragments of a crushed up note. + +"Come across to the hotel with me," she begged, forgetful of everything +except her own immense relief. "Come and help me count. I have been +winning. I have won back everything." + +He accepted the information with only a polite show of interest. After +all, as she reflected afterwards, he had no idea upon what scale she had +been gambling! + +"I am delighted to hear it," he answered. "I'll see you across the road, +if I may, but I have only a few minutes to spare. I have an +appointment." + +She was acutely disappointed; unreasonably, furiously angry. + +"An appointment!" she exclaimed. "At half-past eleven o'clock at night! +Are you waiting for Felicia Roche?" + +"Is there any reason why I should not?" he asked her gravely. + +She bit her lips hard. They were crossing the road now. After all, it +was only a few months since she had bidden him go his own way and leave +her to regulate her own friendships. + +"No reason at all," she admitted, "only I cannot see why you choose to +advertise yourself with an opera singer--you, an ambitious politician, +who moves with his head in the clouds, and to whom women are no more +than a pastime. Why have you waited all these years to commence a +flirtation under my very nose!" + +He looked at her sternly. + +"I think that you are a little excited, Violet," he said. "You surely +don't realise what you are saying." + +"Excited! Tell me once more--you got my note, the one I wrote this +evening?" + +"Certainly." + +His brief reply was convincing. She remembered the few impulsive lines +which she had written from her heart in that moment of glad relief. +There was no sign in his face that he had been touched. Even at that +moment he had drawn out his watch and was looking at it. + +"Thank you for bringing me here," she said, as they stood upon the steps +of the hotel. "Don't let me keep you." + +"After all," he decided, "I think that I shall go up to my room for a +minute. Good night!" + +She looked after him, a little amazed. She was conscious of a feeling of +slow anger. His aloofness repelled her, was utterly inexplicable. For +once it was she who was being badly treated. Her moment of exhilaration +had passed. She sat down in the lounge; her satchel, filled with mille +franc notes, lay upon her lap unheeded. She sat there thinking, seeing +nothing of the crowds of fashionably dressed women and men passing in +and out of the hotel; of the gaily-lit square outside, the cool green of +the gardens, the cafe opposite, the brilliantly-lit Casino. She was back +again for a moment in England. The strain of all this life, whipped into +an artificial froth of pleasure by the constant excitement of the one +accepted vice of the world, had suddenly lost its hold upon her. The +inevitable question had presented itself. She was counting values and +realising.... + +When at last she rose wearily to her feet, Hunterleys was passing +through the hall of the hotel, on his way out. She looked at him with +aching heart but she made no effort to stop him. He had changed his +clothes for a dark suit and he was also wearing a long travelling coat +and tweed cap. She watched him wistfully until he had disappeared. Then +she turned away, summoned the lift and went up to her rooms. She rang at +once for her maid. She would take a bath, she decided, and go to bed +early. She would wash all the dust of these places away from her, abjure +all manner of excitement and for once sleep peacefully. In the morning +she would see Henry once more. Deep in her heart there still lingered +some faint shadow of doubt as to Draconmeyer and his attitude towards +her. It was scarcely possible that he could have interfered in any way, +and yet.... She would talk to her husband face to face, she would tell +him the things that were in her heart. + +She rang the bell for the second time. Only the _femme de chambre_ +answered the summons. Madame's maid was not to be found. Madame had not +once retired so early. It was possible that Susanne had gone out. Could +she be of any service? Violet looked at her and hesitated. The woman was +clumsy-fingered and none too tidy. She shook her head and sent her away. +For a moment she thought of undressing herself. Then instead she opened +her satchel and counted the notes. Her breath came more quickly as she +looked at the shower of gold and counted the many oblong strips of paper +with their magic lettering. At last she had it all in heaps. There were +the twenty-five mille he had left with her, and the seventy-five mille +she had borrowed from him. Then towards her own losses there was another +mille, and a matter of five hundred francs in gold. And all this +success, her wonderful recovery, had been done so easily! It was just +because she had had the pluck to go on, because she had followed her +vein. She looked at the money and she walked to the window. Somewhere a +band was playing in the distance. Little parties of men and women in +evening dress were strolling by on their way to the Club. A woman was +laughing as she clung to her escort on the opposite side of the road, by +the gardens. Across at the Cafe de Paris the people were going in to +supper. The spirit of enjoyment seemed to be in the air--the +light-hearted, fascinating, devil-may-care atmosphere she knew so well. +Violet looked back into the bedroom and she no longer had the impulse to +sleep. Her face had hardened a little. Every one was so happy and she +was so lonely. She stuffed the notes and gold back into her bag, looked +at her hat in the glass and touched her face for a moment with a +powder-puff. Then she left the room, rang for the lift and descended. + +"I am going into the Club for an hour or so, if I am wanted," she told +the concierge as she passed out. + + * * * * * + +Hunterleys, on leaving the hotel, walked rapidly across the square and +found David waiting for him on the opposite side. + +"Felicia will be late," the latter explained. "She has to get all that +beastly black stuff off her face. She is horribly nervous about Sidney +and she doesn't want you to wait. I think perhaps she is right, too. She +told me to tell you that Monsieur Lafont himself came to her room and +congratulated her after the curtain had gone down. She is almost +hysterical between happiness and anxiety about Sidney. Where's your +man?" + +"I asked him to be a little higher up," Hunterleys replied. "There he +is." + +They walked a few steps up the hill and found Richard Lane waiting for +them in his car. The long, grey racer looked almost like some submarine +monster, with its flaring head-lights and torpedo-shaped body which +scarcely cleared the ground. + +"Ready for orders, sir," the young man announced, touching his cap. + +"Is there room for three of us, in case of an emergency?" Hunterleys +asked. + +"The third man has to sit on the floor," Richard pointed out, "but it +isn't so comfortable as it looks." + +Hunterleys clambered in and took the vacant place. David Briston +lingered by a little wistfully. + +"I feel rather a skunk," he grumbled. "I don't see why I shouldn't come +along." + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"There isn't the slightest need for it," he declared firmly. "You go +back and look after Felicia. Tell her we'll get Sidney out of this all +right. Get away with you, Lane, now." + +"Where to?" + +"To the Villa Mimosa!" + +Richard whistled as he thrust in his clutch. + +"So that's the game, is it?" he murmured, as they glided off. + +Hunterleys leaned towards him. + +"Lane," he said, "don't forget that I warned you there might be a little +trouble about to-night. If you feel the slightest hesitation about +involving yourself--" + +"Shut up!" Richard interrupted. "Whatever trouble you're ready to face, +I'm all for it, too. Darned queer thing that we should be going to the +Villa Mimosa, though! I am not exactly a popular person with Mr. Grex, I +think." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"I saw your sister this afternoon," he remarked. "You are rather a +wonderful young man." + +"I knew it was all up with me," Richard replied simply, "when I first +saw that girl. Now look here, Hunterleys, we are almost there. Tell me +exactly what it is you want me to do?" + +"I want you," Hunterleys explained, "to risk a smash, if you don't mind. +I want you to run up to the boundaries of the villa gardens, head your +car back for Monte Carlo, and while you are waiting there turn out all +your lights." + +"That's easy enough," Richard assented. "I'll turn out the search-light +altogether, and my others are electric, worked by a button. Is this an +elopement act or what?" + +"There's a meeting going on in that villa," Hunterleys told him, +"between prominent politicians of three countries. You don't have to +bother much about Secret Service over in the States, although there's +more goes on than you know of in that direction. But over here we have +to make regular use of Secret Service men--spies, if you like to call +them so. The meeting to-night is inimical to England. It is part of a +conspiracy against which I am working. Sidney Roche--Felicia Roche's +brother--who lives here as a newspaper correspondent, is in reality one +of our best Secret Service men. He is taking terrible chances to-night +to learn a little more about the plans which these fellows are +discussing. We are here in case he needs our help to get away. We've +cleared the shrubs away, close to the spot at which I am going to ask +you to wait, and taken the spikes off the fence. It's just a thousand to +one chance that if he's hard pressed for it and heads this way, they may +think that they have him in a trap and take it quietly. That is to say, +they'll wait to capture him instead of shooting." + +"Say, you don't mean this seriously?" Richard exclaimed. "They can't do +more than arrest him as a trespasser, or something of that sort, +surely?" + +Hunterleys laughed grimly. + +"These men wouldn't stick at much," he told his companion. "They're hand +in glove with the authorities here. Anything they did would be hushed up +in the name of the law. These things are never allowed to come out. It +doesn't do any one any good to have them gossiped about. If they caught +Sidney and shot him, we should never make a protest. It's all part of +the game, you know. Now that is the spot I want you to stop at, exactly +where the mimosa tree leans over the path. But first of all, I'd turn +out your head-light." + +They slowed down and stopped. Richard extinguished the acetylene +gas-lamp and mounted again to his place. Then he swung the car round and +crawled back upon the reverse until he reached the spot to which +Hunterleys had pointed. + +"You're a good fellow, Richard," Hunterleys said softly. "We may have to +wait an hour or two, and it may be that nothing will happen, but it's +giving the fellow a chance, and it gives him confidence, too, to know +that friends are at hand." + +"I'm in the game for all it's worth, anyway," Lane declared heartily. + +He touched a button and the lights faded away. The two men sat in +silence, both turned a little in their seats towards the villa. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +FOR HIS COUNTRY + + +The minutes glided by as the two men sat together in the perfumed, +shadowy darkness. From their feet the glittering canopy of lights swept +upwards to the mountain-sides, even to the stars, but a chain of slowly +drifting black clouds hung down in front of the moon, and until their +eyes became accustomed to their surroundings it seemed to both of them +as though they were sitting in a very pit of darkness. + +"It is possible," Hunterleys whispered, after some time, "that we may +have to wait for another hour yet." + +Richard was suddenly tense. He sat up, and his foot reached for the +self-starter. + +"I don't think you will," he muttered. "Listen!" + +Almost immediately they were conscious of some commotion in the +direction of the villa, followed by a shot and then a cry. + +"Start the engine," Hunterleys directed hoarsely, standing up in his +place. "I'm afraid they've got him." + +There were two more shots but no further cry. Then they heard the sound +of excited voices and immediately afterwards rapidly approaching +footsteps. A man came crashing through the shrubbery, but when he +reached the fence over which, for a moment, his white face gleamed, he +sank down as though powerless to climb. Hunterleys leapt to the ground +and rushed to the fence. + +"Hold up, Sidney, old fellow," he called softly. "We're here all right. +Hold up for a moment and let me lift you." + +Roche struggled to his feet. His face was ghastly white, the sweat stood +out upon his forehead, his lips moved but no words came. Hunterleys got +him by the arms, set his teeth and lifted. The task would have been too +much for him, but Richard, springing from the car, came to his help. +With an effort they hoisted him over the fence. Almost as they did so +there was the sound of footsteps dashing through the shrubs, and a shot, +the bullet of which tore the bark from the trunk of a tree close at +hand. The car leapt off in fourth speed, Sidney supported in Hunterleys' +arms. A loud shout from behind only brought Richard's foot down upon the +accelerator. + +"Stoop low!" he cried to Hunterleys. "Get your legs in, if you can." + +A bullet struck the back of the car and another whistled over their +heads. Then they dashed around the corner, and Richard, turning on the +lights, jammed down his accelerator. + +"Gee whiz! that's a bloodthirsty crew!" the young man exclaimed, his +eyes fixed upon the road. "Is he hurt?" + +Roche was lying back on the seat. Hunterleys was on his knees, holding +on to the framework of the car. + +"They've got me all right, Hunterleys," Roche faltered. "Listen. +Everything went well with me at first. I could hear--nearly everything. +The Frenchman kept his mouth shut--tight as wax. Grex did most of the +talking. Russia sees nothing in the entente--England has nothing to +offer her. She'd rather keep friends with Germany. Russia wants to move +eastward--all Persia--India. She's only lukewarm, any way, about the +French alliance as things stand at present, and dead off any truck with +England. There's talk of Constantinople, and Germany to march three army +corps through a weak French resistance to Calais. They talked of France +acting to her pledges, putting her recruits in the front, taking a +slight defeat, making a peace on her own account, with Alsace and +Lorraine restored. She can pay. Germany wants the money. +Germany--Germany--" + +The words died away in a little groan. The wounded man's head fell back. +Hunterleys passed his arm around the limp figure. + +"Take the first turn to the right and second to the left, Richard," he +directed. "We'll drive straight to the hospital. I made friends with the +English doctor last night. He promised to be there till three. I paid +him a fee on purpose." + +"First to the right," Richard muttered, swinging around. "Second to the +left, eh?" + +Hunterleys was holding his brandy flask to Roche's lips as they swung +through the white gates and pulled up outside the hospital. The doctor +was faithful to his promise, and Roche, who was now unconscious, was +carried in. In the hall he was laid upon an ambulance and borne off by +two attendants. Hunterleys and Lane sat down to wait in the hall. After +what seemed to them an interminable half-hour, the doctor reappeared. He +came over to them at once. + +"Your friend may live," he announced, "but in any case he will be +unconscious for the next twenty-four hours. There is no need for you to +stay, or for you to fetch the young lady you spoke of, at present. If he +dies, he will die unconscious. I can tell you nothing more until the +afternoon." + +Hunterleys rose slowly to his feet. + +"You'll do everything you can, doctor?" he begged. "Money doesn't +count." + +"Money never counts here," the doctor replied gravely. "We shall save +him if it is possible. You've nothing to tell me, I suppose, as to how +he met with his wound?" + +"Nothing." + +They walked out together into the night. The bank of clouds had drifted +away now and the moon was shining. Below them, barely a quarter of a +mile away, they could see the flare of lights from the Casino. A woman +was laughing hysterically through the open windows of a house on the +other side of the way. Some one was playing a violin in a cafe at the +corner of the street. + +"Richard," Hunterleys said, "will you see me through? I have to get to +Cannes as fast as I can to send a cable. I daren't send it from here, +even in code." + +"I'll drive you to Cannes like a shot," Richard assented heartily. "Just +a brandy and soda on our way out, and I'll show you some pretty +driving." + +They stopped at the Cafe de Paris and left the car under the trees. Both +men took a long drink and Richard filled his pocket with cigarettes. +Then they re-entered the car, lit up, and glided off on the road for +Cannes. Richard had become more serious. His boyish manner and +appearance had temporarily gone. He drove, even, with less than his +usual recklessness. + +"That was a fine fellow," he remarked enthusiastically, after a long +pause, "that fellow Roche!" + +"And we've many more like him," Hunterleys declared. "We've men in every +part of the world doing what seems like dirty work, ill-paid work, too, +doing it partly, perhaps, because the excitement grows on them and they +love it, but always, they have to start in cold blood. The papers don't +always tell the truth, you know. There's many a death in foreign cities +you read of as a suicide, or the result of an accident, when it's really +the sacrifice of a hero for his country. It's great work, Richard." + +"Makes me feel kind of ashamed," Richard muttered. "I've never done +anything but play around all my life. Anyway, those sort of things don't +come to us in our country. America's too powerful and too isolated to +need help of that description. We shouldn't have any use for politicians +of your class, or for Secret Service men." + +"If you're in earnest," Hunterleys advised, "you go to Washington and +ask them about it some day. The time's coming, if it hasn't already +arrived, when your country will have to develop a different class of +politicians. You see, whether she wants it or not, she is coming into +touch, through Asia and South America, with European interests, and if +she does, she'll have to adopt their methods more or less. Poor old +Roche! There was something more he wanted to say, and if it's what I've +been expecting, your country was in it." + +"I guess I'll take Fedora over for our honeymoon," Richard decided +softly. "Don't see why I shouldn't come into one of the Embassies. I'm a +bit of a hulk to go about the world doing nothing." + +Hunterleys laughed quietly. + +"My young friend," he said, "aren't you taking your marriage prospects a +little for granted? May I be there when you ask Augustus Nicholas Ivan +Peter, Grand Duke of Vassura, Prince of Melinkoff, cousin of His +Imperial Majesty the Czar, for the hand of his daughter in marriage!" + +"So that's it, is it?" Lane murmured. "Why didn't you tell me before?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. He gazed steadfastly along the road in front +of him. + +"It wasn't to my interest to have it known too generally," he said, "and +I am afraid your little love affair didn't strike me as being of much +importance by the side of the other things. But you've earned the truth, +if it's any use to you." + +"Well," Richard observed, "I wasn't counting on having any witnesses, +but you can come along if you like. I suppose," he added, "I shall have +to do him the courtesy of asking his permission, but--" + +"But what?" Hunterleys asked curiously. + +They were on a long stretch of straight, white road. Richard looked for +a moment up to the sky, and Hunterleys, watching him, was amazed at the +transformation. + +"There isn't a Grand Duke or a Prince or an Imperial Majesty alive," he +said, "who could rob me of Fedora!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +"SUPPOSING I TAKE THIS MONEY" + + +There was a momentary commotion in the Club. A woman had fainted at one +of the roulette tables. Her chair was quickly drawn back. She was helped +out to the open space at the top of the stairs and placed in an +easy-chair there. Lady Weybourne, who was on the point of leaving with +her husband, hastened back. She stood there while the usual restoratives +were being administered, fanning the unconscious woman with a white +ostrich fan which hung from her waist. Presently Violet opened her eyes. +She recognised Lady Weybourne and smiled weakly. + +"I am so sorry," she murmured. "It was silly of me to stay in here so +long. I went without my dinner, too, which was rather idiotic." + +A man who had announced himself a doctor, bent over her pulse and turned +away. + +"The lady will be quite all right now," he said. "You can give her +brandy and soda if she feels like it. Pardon!" + +He hastened back to his place at the baccarat table. Lady Hunterleys sat +up. + +"It was quite absurd of me," she declared. "I don't know what--" + +She stopped suddenly. The weight was once more upon her heart, the +blankness before her eyes. She remembered! + +"I am quite able to go home now," she added. + +Her gold bag lay upon her lap. It was almost empty. She looked at it +vacantly and then closed the snap. + +"We'll see you back to the hotel," Lady Weybourne said soothingly. "Here +comes Harry with the brandy and soda." + +Lord Weybourne came hurrying from the bar, a tumbler in his hand. + +"How nice of you!" Violet exclaimed gratefully. "Really, I feel that +this is just what I need. I wonder what time it is?" + +"Half past four," Lord Weybourne announced, glancing at his watch. + +She laughed weakly. + +"How stupid of me! I have been between here and the Casino for nearly +twelve hours, and had nothing to eat. No, I won't have anything here, +thanks," she added, as Lord Weybourne started back again for the bar, +muttering something about a sandwich. "I'll have something in my room. +If you are going back to the hotel, perhaps I could come with you." + +They all three left the place together, passing along the private way. + +"I haven't seen your brother all day," Violet remarked to Lady +Weybourne. + +"Richard's gone off somewhere in the car to-night, a most mysterious +expedition," his sister declared. "I began to think that it must be an +elopement, but I see the yacht's there still, and he would surely choose +the yacht in preference to a motor-car, if he were running off with +anybody! Your husband doesn't come into the rooms much?" + +Violet shook her head. + +"He hasn't the gambling instinct," she said quietly. "Perhaps he is just +as well without it. One gets a lot of amusement out of this playing for +small stakes, but it is irritating to lose. Thank you so much for +looking after me," she added, as they reached the hall of the hotel. "I +am quite all right now and my woman will be sitting up for me." + +She passed into the lift. Lady Weybourne looked after her admiringly. + +"Say, she's got some pluck, Harry!" she murmured. "They say she lost +nearly a hundred mille to-night and she never even mentioned her +losings. Irritating, indeed! I wonder what Sir Henry thinks of it. They +are only moderately well off." + +Her husband shrugged his shoulders, after the fashion of his sex. + +"Let us hope," he said, "that it is Sir Henry who suffers." + + * * * * * + +Violet slipped out of her gown and dismissed her maid. In her +dressing-gown she sat before the open window. Everywhere the place +seemed steeped in the faint violet and purple light preceding the dawn. +Away eastwards she could catch a glimpse of the mountains, their peaks +cut sharply against the soft, deep sky; a crystalline glow, the first +herald of the hidden sunrise, hanging about their summits. The gentle +breeze from the Mediterranean was cool and sweet. There were many lights +still gleaming upon the sea, but their effect now seemed tawdry. She sat +there, her head resting upon her hands. She had the feeling of being +somehow detached from the whole world of visible objects, as though, +indeed, she were on her death-bed. Surely it was not possible to pass +any further through life than this! In her thoughts she went back to the +first days of estrangement between her husband and herself. Almost +before she realised it, she found herself struggling against the +tenderness which still survived, which seemed at that moment to be +tearing at her heart-strings. He had ceased to care, she told herself. +It was all too apparent that he had ceased to care. He was amusing +himself elsewhere. Her little impulsive note had not won even a kind +word from him. Her appeals, on one excuse or another, had been +disregarded. She had lost her place in his life, thrown it away, she +told herself bitterly. And in its stead--what! A new fear of Draconmeyer +was stealing over her. He presented himself suddenly as an evil genius. +She went back through the last few days. Her brain seemed unexpectedly +clear, her perceptions unerring. She saw with hateful distinctness how +he had forced this money upon her, how he had encouraged her all the +time to play beyond her means. She realised the cunning with which he +had left that last bundle of notes in her keeping. Well, there the facts +were. She owed him now four thousand pounds. She had no money of her +own, she was already overdrawn with her allowance. There was no chance +of paying him. She realised, with a little shudder, that he did not want +payment, a realisation which had come to her dimly from the first, but +which she had pushed away simply because she had felt sure of winning. +Now there was the price to be paid! She leaned further out of the +window. Away to her left the glow over the mountains was becoming +stained with the faintest of pinks. She looked at it long, with mute and +critical appreciation. She swept with her eyes the line of violet +shadows from the mountain-tops to the sea-board, where the pale lights +of Bordighera still flickered. She looked up again from the dark blue +sea to the paling stars. It was all wonderful--theatrical, perhaps, but +wonderful--and how she hated it! She stood up before the window and with +her clenched fists she beat against the sills. Those long days and +feverish nights through which she had passed slowly unfolded themselves. +In those few moments she seemed to taste again the dull pain of constant +disappointment, the hectic thrills of occasional winnings, the strange, +dull inertia which had taken the place of resignation. She looked into +the street below. How long would she live afterwards, she wondered, if +she threw herself down! She began even to realise the state of mind +which breeds suicides, the brooding over a morrow too hateful to be +faced. + +As she still stood there, the silence of the street below was broken. A +motor-car swung round the corner and swept past the side of the hotel. +She caught at the curtain as she recognised its occupants. Richard Lane +was driving, and by his side sat her husband. The car was covered with +dust, both men seemed weary as though they had been out all night. She +gazed after them with fast-beating heart. She had pictured her husband +at the villa on the hill! Where had he been with Richard Lane? Perhaps, +after all, the things which she had imagined were not true. The car had +stopped now at the front door. It returned a moment later on its way to +the garage, with only Lane driving. She opened her door and stood there +silently. Hunterleys would have to pass the end of the corridor if he +came up by the main lift. She waited with fast beating heart. The +seconds passed. Then she heard the rattle of the lift ascending, its +click as it stopped, and soon afterwards the footsteps of a man. He was +coming--coming past the corner! At that moment she felt that the sound +of his footsteps was like the beating of fate. They came nearer and she +shrank a little back. There was something unfamiliar about them. Whoever +it might be, it was not Henry! And then suddenly Draconmeyer came into +sight. He saw her standing there and stopped short. Then he came rapidly +near. + +"Lady Hunterleys!" he exclaimed softly. "You still up?" + +She hesitated. Then she stood on one side, still grasping the handle of +the door. + +"Do you want to come in?" she asked. "You may. I have something to say +to you. Perhaps I shall sleep better if I say it now." + +He stepped quickly past her. + +"Close the door," he whispered cautiously. + +She obeyed him deliberately. + +"There is no hurry," she said. "This is my sitting-room. I receive whom +I choose here." + +"But it is nearly six o'clock!" he exclaimed. + +"That does not affect me," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "Sit +down." + +He obeyed. There was something changed about her, something which he did +not recognise. She thrust her hands into a box of cigarettes, took one +out and lit it. She leaned against the table, facing him. + +"Listen," she continued, "I have borrowed from you three thousand +pounds. You left with me to-night--I don't know whether you meant to +lend it to me or whether I had it on trust, but you left it in my +charge--another thousand pounds. I have lost it all--all, you +understand--the four thousand pounds and every penny I have of my own." + +He sat quite still. He was watching her through his gold-rimmed +spectacles. There was the slightest possible frown upon his forehead. +The time for talking of money as though it were a trifle had passed. + +"That is a great deal," he said. + +"It is a great deal," she admitted. "I owe it to you and I cannot pay. +What are you going to do?" + +He watched her eagerly. There was a new note in her voice. He paused to +consider what it might mean. A single false step now and he might lose +all that he had striven for. + +"How am I to answer that?" he asked softly. "I will answer it first in +the way that seems most natural. I will beg you to accept your losings +as a little gift from me--as a proof, if you will, of my friendship." + +He had saved the situation. If he had obeyed his first impulse, the +affair would have been finished. He realised it as he watched her face, +and he shuddered at the thought of his escape. His words obviously +disturbed her. + +"It is not possible for me," she protested, "to accept money from you." + +"Not from Linda's husband?" + +She threw her cigarette into the grate and stood looking at him. + +"Do you offer it to me as Linda's husband?" she demanded. + +It was a crisis for which Draconmeyer was scarcely prepared. He was +driven out of his pusillanimous compromise. She was pressing him hard +for the truth. Again the fear of losing her altogether terrified him. + +"If I have other feelings of which I have not spoken," he said quietly, +"have I not kept them to myself? Do I obtrude them upon you even now? I +am content to wait." + +"To wait for what?" she insisted. + +All that had been in his mind seemed suddenly miraged before him--the +removal of Hunterleys, his own wife's failing health. The way had seemed +so clear only a little time ago, and now the clouds were back again. + +"Until you appreciate the fact," he told her, "that you have no more +sincere friend, that there is no one who values your happiness more than +I do." + +"Supposing I take this money from you," she asked, after a moment's +pause. "Are there any conditions?" + +"None whatever," he answered. + +She turned away with a little sigh. The tragedy which a few minutes ago +she had seen looming up, eluded her. She had courted a denouement in +vain. He was too clever. + +"You are very generous," she said. "We will speak of this to-morrow. I +called you in because I could not bear the uncertainty of it all. Please +go now." + +He rose slowly to his feet. She gave him her hand lifelessly. He kept it +for a moment. She drew it away and looked at the place where his lips +had touched it, wonderingly. It was as though her fingers had been +scorched with fire. + +"It shall be to-morrow," he whispered, as he passed out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +NEARING A CRISIS + + +From the wilds of Scotland to Monte Carlo, as fast as motor-cars and +train de luxe could bring him, came the right Honourable Meredith +Simpson, a very distinguished member of His Majesty's Government. +Hunterleys, advised of his coming by telegram from Marseilles, met him +at the station, and together the two men made their way at once to +Hunterleys' room across at the Hotel de Paris. Behind locked doors they +spoke for the first time of important matters. + +"It's a great find, this of yours, Hunterleys," the Minister +acknowledged, "and it is corroborated, too, by what we know is happening +around us. We have had all the warning in the world just lately. The +Russian Ambassador is in St. Petersburg on leave of absence--in fact for +the last six months he has been taking his duties remarkably lightly. +Tell me how you first heard of the affair?" + +"I got wind of it in Sofia," Hunterleys explained. "I travelled from +there quite quietly, loitered about the Italian Riviera, and came on +here as a tourist. The only help I could get hold of here was from +Sidney Roche, who, as you know, is one of our Secret Service men. Roche, +I am sorry to say, was shot last night. He may live but he won't be well +enough to take any further hand in the game here, and I have no one to +take his place." + +"Roche shot!" Mr. Simpson exclaimed, in a shocked tone. "How did it +happen?" + +"They found him lying on the roof of the Villa Mimosa, just over the +room where the meeting was taking place," Hunterleys replied. "They +chased him round the grounds and we just got him off in a motor-car, but +not before he'd been hit twice. He was just able to tell me a little. +The first meeting was quite informal and very guarded. Douaille was most +cautious--he was there only to listen. The second meeting was last +night. Grex was in the chair, representing Russia." + +"You mean the Grand Duke Augustus?" Mr. Simpson interrupted. + +Hunterleys nodded. + +"Grex is the name he is living under here. He explained Russia's +position. Poor Roche was only able to falter a few words, but what he +said was enough to give us the key-note to the whole thing. The long and +short of it all is that Russia turned her face westward so long as +Constantinople was possible. Now that this war has come about and ended +as it has done, Russia's chance has gone. There is no longer any _quid +pro quo_ for her alliance with France. There is no friendship, of +course, between Russia and Germany, but at any rate Russia has nothing +to fear from Germany, and she knows it. Grex is quite frank. They must +look eastward, he said, and when he says eastward, he means Manchuria, +China, Persia, even India. At the same time, Russia has a conscience, +even though it be a diplomatic conscience. Hence this conference. She +doesn't want France crushed. Germany has a proposition. It has been +enunciated up to a certain point. She confers Alsace and Lorraine and +possibly Egypt upon France, for her neutrality whilst she destroys the +British Fleet. Or failing her neutrality, she wants her to place a weak +army on the frontier, which can fall back without much loss before a +German advance. Germany's objective then will be Calais and not Paris, +and from there she will command the Straits and deal with the British +Fleet at her leisure. Meanwhile, she will conclude peace with France on +highly advantageous terms. Don't you see what it means, Simpson? The +elementary part of the thing is as simple as A B C. Germany has nothing +to gain from Russia, she has nothing to gain from France. England is the +only country who can give her what she wants. That is about as far as +they have got, up to now, but there is something further behind it all. +That, Selingman is to tell them to-night." + +"The most important point about the whole matter, so far as we are +concerned," Mr. Simpson declared, "is Douaille's attitude. You have +received no indication of that, I suppose?" + +"None whatever," Hunterleys answered. "I thought of paying my respects, +but after all, you know, I have no official standing, and personally we +are almost strangers." + +The Minister nodded. + +"It's a difficult position," he confessed. "Have you copies of your +reports to London?" + +"I have copies of them, and full notes of everything that has transpired +so far, in a strong box up at the bank," Hunterleys assented. "We can +stroll up there after lunch and I will place all the documents in your +hands. You can look them through then and decide what is best to be +done." + +The Minister rose to his feet. + +"I shall go round to my rooms, change my clothes," he announced, "and +meet you presently. We'll lunch across at Ciro's, eh? I didn't mean to +come to Monte Carlo this year, but so long as I am here, I may as well +make the best of it. You are not looking as though the change had done +you much good, Hunterleys." + +"The last few days," Hunterleys remarked, a little drily, "have not been +exactly in the nature of a holiday." + +"Are you here alone?" + +"I came alone. I found my wife here by accident. She came through with +the Draconmeyers. They were supposed to stay at Cannes, but altered +their plans. Of course, Draconmeyer meant to come here all the time." + +The Minister frowned. + +"Draconmeyer's one man I should be glad to see out of London," he +declared. "Under the pretext of fostering good-will, and that sort of +thing, between the mercantile classes of our two countries, I think that +that fellow has done about as much mischief as it is possible for any +single man to have accomplished. We'll meet in an hour, Hunterleys. My +man is putting out some things for me and I must have a bath." + +Hunterleys walked up to the hospital, and to his surprise met Selingman +coming away. The latter saluted him with a wave of the hat and a genial +smile. + +"Calling to see our poor invalid?" he enquired blandly. + +Hunterleys, although he knew his man, was a little taken aback. + +"What share in him do you claim?" he asked. + +Selingman sighed. + +"Alas!" he confessed, "I fear that my claim would sound a little +cold-blooded. I think that I was the only man who held his gun straight. +Yet, after all, Roche would be the last to bear me any grudge. He was +playing the game, taking his risks. Uncommonly bad marksmen Grex's +private police were, or he'd be in the morgue instead of the hospital." + +"I gather that our friend is still alive?" Hunterleys remarked. + +"Going on as well as could be expected," Selingman replied. + +"Conscious?" + +Selingman smiled. + +"You see through my little visit of sympathy at once!" he exclaimed. +"Unable to converse, I am assured, and unable to share with his friends +any little information he may have picked up last night. By the way, +whom shall you send to report our little conference to-night? You +wouldn't care to come yourself, would you?" + +"I should like to exceedingly," Hunterleys assured him, "if you'd give +me a safe conduct." + +Selingman withdrew his cigar from his mouth and laid his hand upon the +other's shoulder. + +"My dear friend," he said earnestly, "your safe conduct, if ever I +signed it, would be to the other world. Frankly, we find you rather a +nuisance. We would be better pleased if your Party were in office, and +you with your knees tucked under a desk at Downing Street, attending to +your official business in your official place. Who gave you this roving +commission, eh? Who sent you to talk common sense to the Balkan States, +and how the mischief did you get wind of our little meeting here?" + +"Ah!" Hunterleys replied, "I expect you really know all these things." + +Selingman, with his feet planted firmly upon the pavement, took a fresh +cigar from his waistcoat pocket, bit off the end and lit it. + +"My friend Hunterleys," he continued, "I am enjoying this brief +interchange of confidences. Circumstances have made me, as you see, a +politician, a schemer if you like. Nature meant me to be one of the +frankest, the most truthful, the best-hearted of men. I detest the +tortuous ways of the old diplomacy. The spoken word pleases me best. +That is why I like a few minutes' conversation with the enemy, why I +love to stand here and talk to you with the buttons off our foils. We +are scheming against you and your country, and you know it, and we shall +win. We can't help but win--if not to-day, to-morrow. Your country has +had a marvellously long run of good luck, but it can't last for ever." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"Well," he observed, "there's nothing like confidence. If you are so +sure of success, why couldn't you choose a cleaner way to it than by +tampering with our ally?" + +Selingman patted his companion on the shoulder. + +"Listen, my friend," he said, "there are no such things as allies. An +alliance between two countries is a dead letter so soon as their +interests cease to be identical. Now Austria is our ally because she is +practically Germany. We are both mid-Continental Powers. We both need +the same protection. But England and France! Go back only fifty years, +my dear Hunterleys, and ask yourself--would any living person, living +now and alive then, believe in the lasting nature of such an unnatural +alliance? Wherever you look, in every quarter of the globe, your +interests are opposed. You robbed France of Egypt. She can't have wholly +forgotten. You dominate the Mediterranean through Gibraltar, Malta, and +Cyprus. What does she think of that, I wonder? Isn't a humiliation for +her when she does stop to think of it? You've a thousand years of +quarrels, of fighting and rapine behind you. You can't call yourselves +allies because the thing isn't natural. It never could be. It was only +your mutual, hysterical fear of Germany which drove you into one +another's arms. We fought France once to prove ourselves, and for money. +Just now we don't want either money or territory from France. Perhaps we +don't even want, my dear Englishman, what you think we want, but all the +same, don't blame us for trying to dissolve an unnatural alliance. Was +that Simpson who came by the Luxe this morning?" + +"It was," Hunterleys admitted. + +"The Right Honourable John William Meredith Simpson!" Selingman recited, +waving his cigar. "Well, well, we certainly have made a stir with our +little meetings here. An inspired English Cabinet Minister, +travel-stained and dusty, arrives with his valet and a black +dispatch-box, to foil our schemes. Send him along, my friend. We are not +at all afraid of Mr. Simpson. Perhaps we may even ask him to join us +this evening." + +"I fancy," Hunterleys remarked grimly, "that the Englishman who joins +you this evening will find a home up on the hill here." + +"Or down in the morgue there," Selingman grunted, pointing down to +Monaco. "Take care, Hunterleys--take care, man. One of us hates you. It +isn't I. You are fighting a brave fight and a losing fight, but you are +good metal. Try and remember, when you find that you are beaten, that +life has many consolations for the philosopher." + +He passed on and Hunterleys entered the hospital. Whilst he was waiting +in the little reception-room, Felicia came in. Her face showed signs of +her night's anxiety. + +"Sidney is still unconscious," she announced, her voice shaking a +little. "The doctors seem hopeful--but oh! Sir Henry, it is terrible to +see him lying there just as though he were dead!" + +"Sidney will pull through all right," Hunterleys declared, +encouragingly. "He has a wonderful constitution and he is the luckiest +fellow born. He always gets out of trouble, somehow or other." + +She came slowly up to him. + +"Sir Henry," she said piteously, "I know quite well that Sidney was +willing to take his risks. He went into this thing, knowing it was +dangerous. I want to be brave. What happens must be. But listen. You +won't--you won't rob me of everything in life, will you? You won't send +David after him?" + +Hunterleys smiled reassuringly. + +"I can promise you that," he told her. "This isn't David's job at all. +He has to stick to his post and help out the bluff as a press +correspondent. Don't be afraid, Felicia. You shall have your David." + +She seized his hand and kissed it. + +"You have been so kind to me always, Sir Henry," she sighed. "I can't +tell you how thankful I am to think that you don't want David to go and +run these horrible risks." + +"No fear of that, I promise you," he assured her once more. "David will +be busy enough pulling the strings another way." + +The doctor entered the room and shook hands with Hunterleys. There was +no news, he declared, nothing to be done. The patient must continue in +his present condition for several more hours at least. The symptoms +were, in their way, favourable. Beyond that, nothing could be said. +Felicia and Hunterleys left the hospital together. + +"I wonder," she began, as they turned out of the white gates, "whether +you would mind very much if I told you something?" + +"Of course not!" + +"Yesterday," she continued slowly, "I met Lady Hunterleys. You know, I +have seen her twice when I have been to your house to sing for your +guests. She recognised me, I feel sure, but she didn't seem to want to +see me. She looked surprised when I bowed. I worried about it at first +and then I wondered. You are so very, very secretive just now. Whatever +this affair may be in which you three are all concerned, you never open +your lips about it. Lady Hunterleys probably doesn't know that you have +had to come up to the villa at all hours of the night just to see +Sidney. You don't suppose that by any chance she imagined--that you came +to see me?" + +Hunterleys was struck by the thought. He remembered several chance +remarks of his wife. He remembered, too, the coincidence of his recent +visits to the villa having prevented him in each case from acceding to +some request of Violet's. + +"I am glad you've mentioned this, child," he said frankly. "Now I come +to think of it, my wife certainly did know that I came up to the villa +very late one night, and she seemed upset about it. Of course, she +hasn't the faintest idea about your brother." + +"Well," Felicia declared, with a sigh of relief, "I felt that I had to +tell you. It sounded horribly conceited, in a way, but then she wouldn't +know that you came to see Sidney, or that I was engaged to David. +Misunderstandings do come about so easily, you know, sometimes." + +"This one shall be put right, at any rate," he promised her. "Now, if +you will take my advice, you will go home and lie down until the +evening. You are going to sing again, aren't you?" + +"If there is no change," she replied. "I know that he would like me to. +You haven't minded--what I've said?" + +"Not a bit, child," he assured her; "in fact I think it was very good of +you. Now I'll put you in this carriage and send you home. Think of +nothing except that Sidney is getting better every hour, and sing +to-night as though your voice could reach his bedside. Au revoir!" + +He waved his hand to her as she drove off, and returned to the Hotel de +Paris. He found a refreshed and rejuvenated Simpson smoking a cigarette +upon the steps. + +"To lunch!" the latter exclaimed. "Afterwards I will tell you my plans." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +AN INTERESTING MEETING + + +Hunterleys leaned suddenly forward across the little round table. + +"The question of whether or no you shall pay your respects to Monsieur +Douaille," he remarked, "is solved. Unless I am very much mistaken, we +are going to have an exceedingly interesting luncheon-party on our +right." + +"Monsieur Douaille----" Mr. Simpson began, a little eagerly. + +"And the others," Hunterleys interrupted. "Don't look around for a +moment. This is almost historical." + +Monsieur Ciro himself, bowing and smiling, was ushering a party of +guests to a round table upon the terrace, in the immediate vicinity of +the two men. Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one side +and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van. Draconmeyer +followed with Lady Weybourne, and Selingman brought up the rear with the +Comtesse d'Hausson, one of the most prominent leaders of the French +colony in Monte Carlo, and a connection by marriage of Monsieur +Douaille. + +[Illustration: Mr. Grex, with his daughter and Lady Hunterleys on one +side and Monsieur Douaille on the other, were in the van.] + +"A luncheon-party for Douaille," Hunterleys murmured, as he bowed, to +his wife and exchanged greetings with some of the others. "I wonder what +they think of their neighbours! A little embarrassing for the chief +guest, I am afraid." + +"I see your wife is in the enemy's camp," his companion observed. +"Draconmeyer is coming to speak to me. This promises to be interesting." + +Draconmeyer and Selingman both came over to greet the English Minister. +Selingman's blue eyes were twinkling with humour, his smile was broad +and irresistible. + +"This should send funds up in every capital of Europe," he declared, as +he shook hands. "When Mr. Meredith Simpson takes a holiday, then the +political barometer points to 'set fair'!" + +"A tribute to my conscientiousness," the Minister replied, smiling. "I +am glad to see that I am not the only hard-worked statesman who feels +able to take a few days' holiday." + +Selingman glanced at the round table and beamed. + +"It is true," he admitted. "Every country seems to have sent its +statesmen holiday-making. And what a playground, too!" he added, +glancing towards Hunterleys with something which was almost a wink. +"Here, political crises seem of little account by the side of the +turning wheel. This is where the world unbends and it is well that there +should be such a place. Shall we see you at the Club or in the rooms +later?" + +"Without a doubt," Mr. Simpson assented. "For what else does one live in +Monte Carlo?" + +"How did you leave things in town?" Mr. Draconmeyer enquired. + +"So-so!" the Minister answered. "A little flat, but then it is a dull +season of the year." + +"Markets about the same, I suppose?" Mr. Draconmeyer asked. + +"I am afraid," Mr. Simpson confessed, "that I only study the city column +from the point of view of what Herr Selingman has just called the +political barometer. Things were a little unsteady when I left. Consols +fell several points yesterday." + +Mr. Draconmeyer frowned. + +"It is incomprehensible," he declared. "A few months ago there was real +danger, one is forced to believe, of a European war. To-day the crisis +is passed, yet the money-markets which bore up so well through the +critical period seem now all the time on the point of collapse. It is +hard for a banker to know how to operate these days. I wish you +gentlemen in Downing Street, Mr. Simpson, would make it easier for us." + +Mr. Simpson shrugged his shoulders. + +"The real truth of the matter is," he said, "that you allow your +money-market to become too sensitive an affair. A whisper will depress +it. A threatening word spoken in the Reichstag or in the House of +Parliament, magnified a hundred-fold before it reaches its destination, +has sometimes a most unwarranted effect upon markets. You mustn't blame +us so much, Mr. Draconmeyer. You jump at conclusions too easily in the +city." + +"Sound common sense," Mr. Draconmeyer agreed. "You are perfectly right +when you say that we are over-sensitive. The banker deplores it as much +as the politician. It's the money-kings, I suppose, who find it +profitable." + +They returned to their table a moment later. As he passed Douaille, +Selingman whispered in his ear. Monsieur Douaille turned around at once +and bowed to Simpson. As he caught the latter's eye he, too, left his +place and came across. Mr. Simpson rose to his feet. The two men bowed +formally before shaking hands. + +"Monsieur Simpson," the Frenchman exclaimed, "it is a pleasure to find +that I am remembered!" + +"Without a doubt, monsieur," was the prompt reply. "Your last visit to +London, on the occasion when we had the pleasure of entertaining you at +the Guildhall, is too recent, and was too memorable an event altogether +for us to have forgotten. Permit me to assure you that your speech on +that occasion was one which no patriotic Englishman is likely to +forget." + +Monsieur Douaille inclined his head in thanks. His manner was not +altogether free from embarrassment. + +"I trust that you are enjoying your holiday here?" he asked. + +"I have only this moment arrived," Mr. Simpson explained. "I am looking +forward to a few days' rest immensely. I trust that I shall have the +pleasure of seeing something of you, Monsieur Douaille. A little +conversation would be most agreeable." + +"In Monte Carlo one meets one's friends all the time," Monsieur Douaille +replied. "I lunch to-day with my friend--our mutual friend, without a +doubt--who calls himself here Mr. Grex." + +Mr. Simpson nodded. + +"If it is permitted," he suggested, "I should like to do myself the +honour of paying my respects to you." + +Monsieur Douaille was flattered. + +"My stay here is short," he regretted, "but your visit will be most +acceptable. I am at the Riviera Palace Hotel." + +"It is one of my theories," Mr. Simpson remarked, "that politicians are +at a serious disadvantage compared with business men, inasmuch as, with +important affairs under their control, they have few opportunities of +meeting those with whom they have dealings. It would be a great pleasure +to me to discuss one or two matters with you." + +Monsieur Douaille departed, with a few charming words of assent. Simpson +looked after him with kindling eyes. + +"This," he murmured, leaning across the table, "is a most extraordinary +meeting. There they sit, those very men whom you suspect of this +devilish scheme, within a few feet of us! Positively thrilling, +Hunterleys!" + +Hunterleys, too, seemed to feel the stimulating effect of a situation so +dramatic. As the meal progressed, he drew his chair a little closer to +the table and leaned over towards his companion. + +"I think," he said, "that we shall both of us remember the coincidence +of this meeting as long as we live. At that luncheon-table, within a few +yards of us, sits Russia, the new Russia, raising his head after a +thousand years' sleep, watching the times, weighing them, realising his +own immeasurable strength, pointing his inevitable finger along the road +which the Russia of to-morrow must tread. There isn't a man in that +great country so much to be feared to-day, from our point of view, as +the Grand Duke Augustus. And look, too, at the same table, within a few +feet, Simpson, of you and of me--Selingman, Selingman who represents the +real Germany; not the war party alone, intoxicated with the clash of +arms, filled with bombastic desires for German triumphs on sea and land, +ever ready to spout in flowery and grandiloquent phrases the glory of +Germany and the Heaven-sent genius of her leaders. I tell you, Simpson, +Selingman is a more dangerous man than that. He sits with folded arms, +in realms of thought above these people. He sits with a map of the world +before him, and he places his finger upon the inevitable spots which +Germany must possess to keep time with the march of the world, to find +new homes for her overflowing millions. He has no military fervour, no +tinselly patriotism. He knows what Germany needs and he will carve her +way towards it. Look at him with his napkin tucked under his chin, +broad-visaged, podgy, a slave, you might think, to the joys of the table +and the grosser things of life. You should see his eyes sometimes when +the right note is struck, watch his mouth when he sits and thinks. He +uses words for an ambush and a barricade. He talks often like a gay +fool, a flood of empty verbiage streams from his lips, and behind, all +the time his brain works." + +"You seem to have studied these people, Hunterleys," Simpson remarked +appreciatively. + +Hunterleys smiled as he continued his luncheon. + +"Forgive me if I was a little prolix," he said, "but, after all, what +would you have? I am out of office but I remain a servant of my country. +My interest is just as keen as though I were in a responsible position." + +"You are well out of it," Simpson sighed. "If half what you suspect is +true, it's the worst fix we've been in for some time." + +"I am afraid there isn't any doubt about it," Hunterleys declared. "Of +course, we've been at a fearful disadvantage. Roche was the only man out +here upon whom I could rely. Now they've accounted for him, we've +scarcely a chance of getting at the truth." + +Mr. Simpson was gloomily silent for some moments. He was thinking of the +time when he had struck his pencil through a recent Secret Service +estimate. + +"Anyhow," Hunterleys went on, "it will be all over in twenty-four hours. +Something will be decided upon--what, I am afraid there is very little +chance of our getting to know. These men will separate--Grex to St. +Petersburg, Selingman to Berlin, Douaille to Paris. Then I think we +shall begin to hear the mutterings of the storm." + +"I think," Mr. Simpson intervened, his eyes fixed upon an approaching +figure, "that there is a young lady talking to the maitre d'hotel, who +is trying to attract your attention." + +Hunterleys turned around in his chair. It was Felicia who was making her +way towards him. He rose at once to his feet. There was a little murmur +of interest amongst the lunchers as she threaded her way past the +tables. It was not often that an English singer in opera had met with so +great a success. Lady Hunterleys, recognising her as she passed, paused +in the middle of a sentence. Her face hardened. Hunterleys had risen +from his place and was watching Felicia's approach anxiously. + +"Is there any news of Sidney?" he asked quickly, as he took her hand. + +"Nothing fresh," she answered in a low voice. "I have brought you a +message--from some one else." + +He held his chair for her but she shook her head. + +"I mustn't stay," she continued. "This is what I wanted to tell you. As +I was crossing the square just now, I recognised the man Frenhofer, from +the Villa Mimosa. Directly he saw me he came across the road. He was +looking for one of us. He dared not come to the villa, he declares, for +fear of being watched. He has something to tell you." + +"Where can I find him?" Hunterleys asked. + +"He has gone to a little bar in the Rue de Chaussures, the Bar de +Montmartre it is called. He is waiting there for you now." + +"You must stay and have some lunch," Hunterleys begged. "I will come +back." + +She shook her head. + +"I have just been across to the Opera House," she explained, "to enquire +about some properties for to-night. I have had all the lunch I want and +I am on my way to the hospital now again. I came here on the chance of +finding you. They told me at the Hotel de Paris that you were lunching +out." + +Hunterleys turned and whispered to Simpson. + +"This is very important," he said. "It concerns the affair in which we +are interested. Linger over your coffee and I will return." + +Mr. Simpson nodded and Hunterleys left the restaurant with Felicia. His +wife, at whom he glanced for a moment, kept her head averted. She was +whispering in the ear of the gallant Monsieur Douaille. Selingman, +catching Draconmeyer's eye, winked at him solemnly. + +"You have all the luck, my silent friend," he murmured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE FATES ARE KIND + + +The Bar de Montmartre was many steps under the level of the street, +dark, smelly, and dilapidated. Its only occupants were a handful of +drivers from the carriage-stand opposite, who stared at Hunterleys in +amazement as he entered, and then rushed forward, almost in a body, to +offer their services. The man behind the bar, however, who had evidently +been forewarned, intervened with a few sharp words, and, lifting the +flap of the counter, ushered Hunterleys into a little room beyond. +Frenhofer was engaged there in amiable badinage with a young lady who +promptly disappeared at Hunterleys' entrance. Frenhofer bowed +respectfully. + +"I must apologise," he said, "for bringing monsieur to such a place. It +is near the end now, and with Monsieur Roche in the hospital I ventured +to address myself to monsieur direct. Here I have the right to enter. I +make my suit to the daughter of the proprietor in order to have a safe +rendezvous when necessary. It is well that monsieur has come quickly. I +have tidings. I can disclose to monsieur the meeting-place for to-night. +If monsieur has fortune and the wit to make use of it, the opportunity I +shall give him is a great one. But pardon me. Before we talk business we +must order something." + +He touched the bell. The proprietor himself thrust in his head, +bullet-shaped, with black moustache and unshaven chin. He wore no +collar, and the remainder of his apparel was negligible. + +"A bottle of your best brandy," Frenhofer ordered. "The best, mind, Pere +Hanaut." + +The man's acquiescence was as amiable as nature would permit. + +"Monsieur will excuse me," Frenhofer went on, as the door was once more +closed, "but these people have their little ways. To sell a whole bottle +of brandy at five times its value, is to Monsieur le Proprietaire more +agreeable than to offer him rent for the hire of his room. He is outside +all the things in which we are concerned. He believes--pardon me, +monsieur--that we are engaged in a little smuggling transaction. +Monsieur Roche and I have used this place frequently." + +"He can believe what he likes," Hunterleys replied, "so long as he keeps +his mouth shut." + +The brandy was brought--and three glasses. Frenhofer promptly took the +hint and, filling one to the brim, held it out to the landlord. + +"You will drink our health, Pere Hanaut--my health and the health of +monsieur here, and the health of the fair Annette. Incidentally, you +will drink also to the success of the little scheme which monsieur and I +are planning." + +"In such brandy," the proprietor declared hoarsely, "I would drink to +the devil himself!" + +He threw back his head and the contents of his glass vanished. He set it +down with a little smack of the lips. Once more he looked at the bottle. +Frenhofer filled up his glass, but motioned to the door with his head. + +"You will excuse us, dear friend," he begged, laying his hand +persuasively upon the other's shoulder. "Monsieur and I have little +enough of time." + +The landlord withdrew. Frenhofer walked around the little apartment. +Their privacy was certainly assured. + +"Monsieur," he announced, turning to Hunterleys, "there has been a great +discussion as to the next meeting-place between our friends--the next, +which will be also the last. They are safe enough in reality at the +villa, but Monsieur Douaille is nervous. The affair of last night +terrified him. The reason for these things I, of course, know nothing +of, but it seems that Monsieur Douaille is very anxious indeed to keep +his association with my august master and Herr Selingman as secret as +possible. He has declined most positively to set foot again within the +Villa Mimosa. Many plans have been suggested. This is the one adopted. +For some weeks a German down in Monaco, a shipping agent, has had a +yacht in the harbour for hire. He has approached Mr. Grex several times, +not knowing his identity; ignorant, indeed, of the fact that the Grand +Duke himself possesses one of the finest yachts afloat. However, that is +nothing. Mr. Grex thought suddenly of the yacht. He suggested it to the +others. They were enthusiastic. The yacht is to be hired for a week, or +longer if necessary, and used only to-night. Behold the wonderful +good-fortune of the affair! It is I who have been selected by my master +to proceed to Monaco to make arrangements with the German, Herr Schwann. +I am on my way there at the moment." + +"A yacht?" Hunterleys repeated. + +"There are wonderful things to be thought of," Frenhofer asserted +eagerly. "Consider, monsieur! The yacht of this man Schwann has never +been seen by my master. Consider, too, that aboard her there must be a +dozen hiding-places. The crew has been brought together from anywhere. +They can be bought to a man. There is only one point, monsieur, which +should be arranged before I enter upon this last and, for me, most +troublesome and dangerous enterprise." + +"And that?" Hunterleys enquired. + +"My own position," Frenhofer declared solemnly. "I am not greedy or +covetous. My ambitions have long been fixed. To serve an Imperial +Russian nobleman has been no pleasure for me. St. Petersburg has been a +prison. I have been moved to the right or to the left as a machine. It +is as a machine only I have lived. Always I have longed for Paris. So +month by month I have saved. After to-night I must leave my master's +employ. The risk will be too great if monsieur indeed accepts my +proposition and carries it out. I need but a matter of ten thousand +francs to complete my savings." + +The man's white face shone eagerly in the dim light of the gloomy little +apartment. His eyes glittered. He waited almost breathlessly. + +"Frenhofer," Hunterleys said slowly, "so far as I have been concerned +indirectly in these negotiations with you, my instructions to my agent +have been simple and definite. We have never haggled. Your name was +known to me eight years ago, when you served us in St. Petersburg and +served us well. You have done the same thing now and you have behaved +with rare intelligence. Within the course of an hour I shall transfer +ten thousand francs to the account of Francois Frenhofer at the English +Bank here." + +The eyes of the man seemed suddenly like pinpricks of fire. + +"Monsieur is a prince," he murmured. "And now for the further details. +If monsieur would run the risk, I would suggest that he accompanies me +to the office of this man Schwann." + +Hunterleys made no immediate reply. He was walking up and down the +narrow apartment. A brilliant idea had taken possession of him. The more +he thought of it, the more feasible it became. + +"Frenhofer," he said at last, "I have a scheme of my own. You are sure +that Mr. Grex has never seen this yacht?" + +"He has never set eyes upon it, monsieur, save to try and single it out +with his field-glasses from the balcony of the villa." + +"And he is to board it to-night?" + +"At ten o'clock to-night, monsieur, it is to lie off the Villa Mimosa. A +pinnace is to fetch Mr. Grex and his friends on board from the private +landing-stage of the Villa Mimosa." + +Hunterleys nodded thoughtfully. + +"Frenhofer," he explained, "my scheme is this. A friend of mine has a +yacht in the harbour. I believe that he would lend it to me. Why should +we not substitute it for the yacht your master imagines that he is +hiring? If so, all difficulties as to placing whom I desire on board and +secreting them are over." + +"It is a great scheme," Frenhofer assented, "but supposing my master +should choose to telephone some small detail to the office of the man +Schwann?" + +"You must hire the yacht of Schwann, just as you were instructed," +Hunterleys pointed out. "You must give orders, though, that it is not to +leave the harbour until telephoned for. Then it will be the yacht which +I shall borrow which will lie off the Villa Mimosa to-night." + +"It is admirable," Frenhofer declared. "The more one thinks of it, the +more one appreciates. This yacht of Schwann's--the _Christable_, he +calls it--was fitted out by a millionaire. My master will be surprised +at nothing in the way of luxury." + +"Tell me again," Hunterleys asked, "at what hour is it to be off the +Villa Mimosa?" + +"At ten o'clock," Frenhofer replied. "A pinnace is to be at the +landing-stage of the villa at that time. Mr. Grex, Monsieur Douaille, +Herr Selingman, and Mr. Draconmeyer will come on board." + +"Very good! Now go on your errand to the man Schwann. You had better +meet me here later in the afternoon--say at four o'clock--and let me +know that all is in order. I will bring you some particulars about my +friend's boat, so that you will know how to answer any questions your +master may put to you." + +"It is admirable," Frenhofer repeated enthusiastically. "Monsieur had +better, perhaps, precede me." + +Hunterleys walked through the streets back to Ciro's Restaurant, filled +with a new exhilaration. His eyes were bright, his brain was working all +the time. The luncheon-party at the next table were still in the midst +of their meal. Mr. Simpson was smoking a meditative cigarette with his +coffee. Hunterleys resumed his place and ordered coffee for himself. + +"I have been to see a poor friend who met with an accident last night," +he announced, speaking as clearly as possible. "I fear that he is very +ill. That was his sister who fetched me away." + +Mr. Simpson nodded sympathetically. Their conversation for a few minutes +was desultory. Then Hunterleys asked for the bill and rose. + +"I will take you round to the Club and get your _carte_," he suggested. +"Afterwards, we can spend the afternoon as you choose." + +The two men strolled out of the place. It was not until after they had +left the arcade and were actually in the street, that Hunterleys gripped +his companion's arm. + +"Simpson," he declared, "the fates have been kind to us. Douaille has a +fit of the nerves. He will go no more to the Villa Mimosa. Seeking about +for the safest meeting-place, Grex has given us a chance. The only one +of his servants who belongs to us is commissioned to hire a yacht on +which they meet to-night." + +"A yacht," Mr. Simpson replied, emptily. + +"I have a friend," Hunterleys continued, "an American. I am convinced +that he will lend me his yacht, which is lying in the harbour here. We +are going to try and exchange. If we succeed, I shall have the run of +the boat. The crew will be at our command, and I shall get to that +conference myself, somehow or other." + +Mr. Simpson felt himself left behind. He could only stare at his +companion. + +"Tell me, Sir Henry," he begged, almost pathetically, "have I walked +into an artificial world? Do you mean to tell me seriously that you, a +Member of Parliament, an ex-Minister, are engaged upon a scheme to get +the Grand Duke Augustus and Douaille and Selingman on board a yacht, and +that you are going to be there, concealed, turned into a spy? I can't +keep up with it. As fiction it seems to me to be in the clouds. As +truth, why, my understanding turns and mocks me. You are talking +fairy-tales." + +Hunterleys smiled tolerantly. + +"The man in the street knows very little of the real happenings in +life," he pronounced. "The truth has a queer way sometimes of spreading +itself out into the realms of fiction. Come across here with me to the +hotel. I have got to move heaven and earth to find my friend." + +"Do with me as you like," Mr. Simpson sighed resignedly. "In a plain +political discussion, or an argument with Monsieur Douaille--well, I am +ready to bear my part. But this sort of thing lifts me off my feet. I +can only trot along at your heels." + +They entered the Hotel de Paris. Hunterleys made a few breathless +enquiries. Nothing, alas! was known of Mr. Richard Lane. He came back, +frowning, to the steps of the hotel. + +"If he is up playing golf at La Turbie," Hunterleys muttered, "we shall +barely have time." + +A reception clerk tapped him on the shoulder. He turned abruptly around. + +"I have just made an enquiry of the floor waiter," the clerk announced. +"He believes that Mr. Lane is still in his room." + +Hunterleys thanked the man and hurried to the lift. In a few moments he +was knocking at the door of Lane's rooms. His heart gave a great jump as +a familiar voice bade him enter. He stepped inside and closed the door +behind him. Richard, in light blue pyjamas, sat up in bed and looked at +his visitor with a huge yawn. + +"Say, old chap, are you in a hurry or anything?" he demanded. + +"Do you know the time?" Hunterleys asked. + +"No idea," the other replied. "The valet called me at eight. I told him +I'd shoot him if he disturbed me again." + +"It's nearly three o'clock!" Hunterleys declared impressively. + +"Can't help it," Richard yawned, throwing off the bed-clothes and +sitting on the edge of the bed. "I am young and delicate and I need my +rest. Seriously, Hunterleys," he added, "you take a chap out and make +him drive you at sixty miles an hour all through the night, you keep him +at it till nearly six in the morning, and you seem to think it a tragedy +to find him in bed at three o'clock in the afternoon. Hang it, I've only +had eight hours' sleep!" + +"I don't care how long you've had," Hunterleys rejoined. "I am only too +thankful to find you. Now listen. Is your brain working? Can you talk +seriously?" + +"I guess so." + +"You remember our talk last night?" + +"Every word of it." + +"The time has come," Hunterleys continued,--"your time, I mean. You said +that if you could take a hand, you'd do it. I am here to beg for your +help." + +"You needn't waste your breath doing that," Richard answered firmly. +"I'm your man. Go on." + +"Listen," Hunterleys proceeded. "Is your yacht in commission?" + +"Ready to sail at ten minutes' notice," the young man assured him +emphatically, "victualled and coaled to the eyelids. To tell you the +truth, I have some idea of abducting Fedora to-day or to-morrow." + +"You'll have to postpone that," Hunterleys told him. "I want to borrow +the yacht." + +"She's yours," Richard assented promptly. "I'll give you a note to the +captain." + +"Look here, I want you to understand this clearly," Hunterleys went on. +"If you lend me the _Minnehaha_, well, you commit yourself a bit. You +see, it's like this. I've one man of my own in Grex's household. He came +to me this morning. Monsieur Douaille objects to cross again the +threshold of the Villa Mimosa. He fears the English newspapers. There +has been a long discussion as to the next meeting-place. Grex suggested +a yacht. To that they all agreed. There is a man named Schwann down in +Monaco has a yacht for hire. Mr. Grex knows about it and he has sent the +man I spoke of into Monaco this afternoon to hire it. They are all going +to embark at ten o'clock to-night. They are going to hold their meeting +in the cabin." + +Lane whistled softly. He was wide awake now. + +"Go on," he murmured. "Go on. Say, this is great!" + +"I want," Hunterleys explained, "your yacht to take the place of the +other. I want it to be off the Villa Mimosa at ten o'clock to-night, +your pinnace to be at the landing-stage of the villa to bring Mr. Grex +and his friends on board. I want you to haul down your American flag, +keep your American sailors out of sight, cover up the Stars and Stripes +in your cabin, have only your foreign stewards on show. Schwann's yacht +is a costly one. No one will know the difference. You must get up now +and show me over the boat. I have to scheme, somehow or other, how we +can hide ourselves on it so that I can overhear the end of this plot." + +The face of Richard Lane was like the face of an ingenuous boy who sees +suddenly a Paradise of sport stretched out before him. His mouth was +open, his eyes gleaming. + +"Gee, but this is glorious!" he exclaimed. "I'm with you all the way. +Why, it's wonderful, man! It's a chapter from the Arabian Nights over +again!" + +He leapt to his feet and rang the bell furiously. Then he rushed to the +telephone. + +"Blue serge clothes," he ordered the valet. "Get my bath ready." + +"Any breakfast, monsieur?" + +"Oh, breakfast be hanged! No, wait a moment. Get me some coffee and a +roll. I'll take it while I dress. Hurry up!... Yes, is that the enquiry +office? This is Mr. Lane. Send round to my chauffeur at the garage at +once and tell him that I want the car at the door in a quarter of an +hour. Righto! ... Sit down, Hunterleys. Smoke or do whatever you want +to. We'll be off to the yacht in no time." + +Hunterleys clapped the young giant on the shoulders as he rushed through +to the bathroom. + +"You're a brick, Richard," he declared. "I'll wait for you down in the +hall. I've a pal there." + +"I'll be down in twenty minutes or earlier," Lane promised. "What a +lark!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +COFFEE FOR ONE ONLY + + +The breaking up of Mr. Grex's luncheon-party was the signal for a +certain amount of man[oe]uvring on the part of one or two of his guests. +Monsieur Douaille, for instance, was anxious to remain the escort of +Lady Hunterleys, whose plans for the afternoon he had ascertained were +unformed. Mr. Grex was anxious to keep apart his daughter and Lady +Weybourne, whose relationship to Richard Lane he had only just +apprehended; while he himself desired a little quiet conversation with +Monsieur Douaille before they paid the visit which had been arranged for +to the Club and the Casino. In the end, Mr. Grex was both successful and +unsuccessful. He carried off Monsieur Douaille for a short ride in his +automobile, but was forced to leave his daughter and Lady Weybourne +alone. Draconmeyer, who had been awaiting his opportunity, remained by +Lady Hunterleys' side. + +"I wonder," he asked, "whether you would step in for a few minutes and +see Linda?" + +She had been looking at the table where her husband and his companion +had been seated. Draconmeyer's voice seemed to bring her back to a +present not altogether agreeable. + +"I am going back to my room for a little time," she replied. "I will +call in and see Linda first, if you like." + +They left the restaurant together and strolled across the Square to the +Hotel de Paris, ascended in the lift, and made their way to +Draconmeyer's suite of rooms in a silence which was almost unbroken. +When they entered the large salon with its French-windows and balcony, +they found the apartment deserted. Violet looked questioningly at her +companion. He closed the door behind him and nodded. + +"Yes," he admitted, "my message was a subterfuge. I have sent Linda over +to Mentone with her nurse. She will not be back until late in the +afternoon. This is the opportunity for which I have been waiting." + +She showed no signs of anger or, indeed, disturbance of any sort. She +laid her tiny white silk parasol upon the table and glanced at him +coolly. + +"Well," she said, "you have your way, then. I am here." + +Draconmeyer looked at her long and anxiously. Skilled though he was in +physiognomy, closely though he had watched, for many months, the lights +and shades, the emotional changes in her expression, he was yet, at that +moment, completely puzzled. She was not angry. Her attitude seemed to +be, in a sense, passive. Yet what did passivity mean? Was it +resignation, consent, or was it simply the armour of normal resistance +in which she had clothed herself? Was he wise, after all, to risk +everything? Then, as he looked at her, as he realised her close and +wonderful presence, he suddenly told himself that it was worth while +risking even Heaven in the future for the joy of holding her for once in +his arms. She had never seemed to him so maddeningly beautiful as at +that moment. It was one of the hottest days of the season and she was +wearing a gown of white muslin, curiously simple, enhancing, somehow or +other, her fascinating slimness, a slimness which had nothing to do with +angularity but possessed its own soft and graceful curves. Her eyes were +bluer even than her turquoise brooch or the gentians in her hat. And +while his heart was aching and throbbing with doubts and hopes, she +suddenly smiled at him. + +"I am going to sit down," she announced carelessly. "Please say to me +just what is in your mind, without reserve. It will be better." + +She threw herself into a low chair near the window. Her hands were +folded in her lap. Her eyes, for some reason, were fixed upon her +wedding ring. Swift to notice even her slightest action, he frowned as +he discerned the direction of her gaze. + +"Violet," he said, "I think that you are right. I think that the time +has come when I must tell you what is in my mind." + +She raised her eyebrows slightly at the sound of her Christian name. He +moved over and stood by her chair. + +"For a good many years," he began slowly, "I have been a man with a +purpose. When it first came into my mind--not willingly--its +accomplishment seemed utterly hopeless. Still, it was there. Strong man +though I am, I could not root it out. I waited. There was nothing else +to do but wait. From that moment my life was divided. My whole-soul +devotion to worldly affairs was severed. I had one dream that was more +wonderful to me, even, than complete success in the great undertaking +which brought me to London. That dream was connected with you, Violet." + +She moved a little uneasily, as though the repetition of her Christian +name grated. This time, however, he was rapt in his subject. + +"I won't make excuses," he went on. "You know what Linda is--what she +has been for ten years. I have tried to be kind to her. As to love, I +never had any. Ours was an alliance between two great monied families, +arranged for us, acquiesced in by both of us as a matter of course. It +seemed to me in those days the most natural and satisfactory form of +marriage. I looked upon myself as others have thought me--a cold, +bloodless man of figures and ambition. It is you who have taught me that +I have as much sentiment and more than other men, a heart and desires +which have made life sometimes hell and sometimes paradise. For two +years I have struggled. Life with me has been a sort of passionate +compromise. For the joy of seeing you sometimes, of listening to you and +watching you, I have borne the agony of having you leave me to take your +place with another man. You don't quite know what that meant, and I am +not going to tell you, but always I have hoped and hoped." + +"And now," she said, looking at him, "I owe you four thousand pounds and +you think, perhaps, that your time has come to speak?" + +He shivered as though she had struck him a blow. + +"You think," he exclaimed, "that I am a man of pounds, shillings, and +pence! Is it my fault that you owe me money?" + +He snatched her cheques from his inner pocket and ripped them in pieces, +lit a match and watched them while they smouldered away. She, too, +watched with emotionless face. + +"Do you think that I want to buy you?" he demanded. "There! You are free +from your money claims. You can leave my room this moment, if you will, +and owe me nothing." + +She made no movement, yet he was vaguely disturbed by a sense of having +made but little progress, a terrible sense of impending failure. His +fingers began to tremble, his face was the face of a man stretched upon +the rack. + +"Perhaps those words of mine were false," he went on. "Perhaps, in a +sense, I do want to buy you, buy the little kindnesses that go with +affection, buy your kind words, the touch sometimes of your fingers, the +pleasant sense of companionship I feel when I am with you. I know how +proud you are. I know how virtuous you are. I know that it's there in +your blood, the Puritan instinct, the craving for the one man to whom +you have given yourself, the involuntary shrinking from the touch of any +other. Good women are like that--wives or mistresses. Mind, in a sense +it's narrow; in a sense it's splendid. Listen to me. I don't want to +declare war against that instinct--yet. I can't. Perhaps, even now, I +have spoken too soon, craved too soon for the little I do ask. Yet God +knows I can keep the seal upon my lips no longer! Don't let us +misunderstand one another for the sake of using plain words. I am not +asking you to be my mistress. I ask you, on my knees, to take from me +what makes life brighter for you. I ask you for the other things +only--for your confidence, for your affection, your companionship. I ask +to see you every day that it is possible, to know that you are wearing +my gifts, surrounded by my flowers, the rough places in your life made +smooth by my efforts. I am your suppliant, Violet. I ask only for the +crumbs that fall from your table, so long as no other man sits by your +side. Violet, can't you give me as much as this?" + +His hand, hot and trembling, sought hers, touched and gripped it. She +drew her fingers away. It was curious how in those few moments she +seemed to be gifted with an immense clear-sightedness. She knew very +well that nothing about the man was honest save the passion of which he +did not speak. She rose to her feet. + +"Well," she said, "I have listened to you very patiently. If I owe you +any excuse for having appeared to encourage any one of those thoughts of +which you speak, here it is. I am like thousands of other women. I +absolutely don't know until the time comes what sort of a creature I am, +how I shall be moved to act under certain circumstances. I tried to +think last night. I couldn't. I felt that I had gone half-way. I had +taken your money. I had taken it, too, understanding what it means to be +in a man's debt. And still I waited. And now I know. I won't even +question your sincerity. I won't even suggest that you would not be +content with what you ask for--" + +"I have sworn it!" he interrupted hoarsely. "To be your favoured friend, +to be allowed near you--your guardian, if you will--" + +The words failed him. Something in her face checked his eloquence. + +"I can tell you this now and for always," she continued. "I have nothing +to give you. What you ask for is just as impossible as though you were +to walk in your picture gallery and kneel before your great masterpiece +and beg Beatrice herself to step down from the canvas. I began to wonder +yesterday," she went on, rising abruptly and moving across the room, +"whether I really was that sort of woman. With your money in my pocket +and the gambling fever in my pulses, I began even to believe it. And now +I know that I am not. Good-bye, Mr. Draconmeyer. I don't blame you. On +the whole, perhaps, you have behaved quite well. I think that you have +chosen to behave well because that wonderful brain of yours told you +that it gave you the best chance. That doesn't really matter, though." + +He took a quick, almost a threatening step towards her. His face was +dark with all the passions which had preyed upon the man. + +"There is a man's last resource," he muttered thickly. + +"And there is a woman's answer to it," she replied, her finger suddenly +resting upon an unsuspected bell in the wall. + +They both heard its summons. Footsteps came hurrying along the corridor. +Draconmeyer turned his head away, struggling to compose himself. A +waiter entered. Lady Hunterleys picked up her parasol and moved towards +the door. The man stood on one side with a bow. + +"Here is the waiter you rang for, Mr. Draconmeyer," she remarked, +looking over his shoulder. "Wasn't it coffee you wanted? Tell Linda I'll +hope to see her sometime this evening." + +She strolled away. The waiter remained patiently upon the threshold. + +"Coffee for one or two, sir?" he enquired. + +Mr. Draconmeyer struggled for a moment against a torrent of words which +scorched his lips. In the end, however, he triumphed. + +"For one, with cream," he ordered. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +A NEW MAP OF THE EARTH + + +Selingman, who was leaning back in a leather-padded chair and smoking a +very excellent cigar, looked around at his companions with a smile of +complete approval. + +"Our host," he declared, bowing to Mr. Grex, "has surpassed himself. For +a hired yacht I have seen nothing more magnificent. A Cabinet Moselle, +Flor de Cuba cigars, the best of company, and an isolation beyond all +question. What place could suit us better?" + +There was a little murmur of assent. The four men were seated together +in the wonderfully decorated saloon of what was, beyond doubt, a most +luxurious yacht. Through the open porthole were visible, every few +moments, as the yacht rose and sank on the swell, the long line of +lights which fringed the shore between Monte Carlo and Mentone; the +mountains beyond, with tiny lights flickering like spangles in a black +mantle of darkness; and further round still, the stream of light from +the Casino, reflected far and wide upon the black waters. + +"None," Mr. Grex asserted confidently. "We are at least beyond reach of +these bungling English spies. There is no further fear of eavesdroppers. +We are entirely alone. Each may speak his own mind. There is nothing to +be feared in the way of interruption. I trust, Monsieur Douaille, that +you appreciate the altered circumstances." + +Monsieur Douaille, who was looking very much more at his ease, assented +without hesitation. + +"I must confess," he agreed, "that the isolation we now enjoy is, to a +certain extent, reassuring. Here we need no longer whisper. One may +listen carefully. One may weigh well what is said. Sooner or later we +must come to the crucial point. This, if you like, is a game of +make-believe. Then, in make-believe, Germany has offered to restore +Alsace and Lorraine, has offered to hold all French territory as sacred, +provided France allows her to occupy Calais for one year. What is your +object, Herr Selingman? Do you indeed wish to invade England?" + +Selingman poured himself out a glass of wine from the bottle which stood +at his elbow. + +"Good!" he said. "We have come to plain questions. I answer in plain +speech. I will tell you now, in a few words, all that remains to be +told. Germany has no desire to invade Great Britain. If one may believe +the newspapers, there is scarcely an Englishman alive who would credit +this simple fact, but it is nevertheless true. Commercially, England, +and a certain measure of English prosperity, are necessary to Germany. +Geographically, there are certain risks to be run in an invasion of that +country, which we do not consider worth while. Besides, an invasion, +even a successful one, would result in making an everlasting and a +bitter enemy of Great Britain. We learnt our lesson when we took +territory from France. We do not need to repeat it. Several hundred +thousands of our most worthy citizens are finding an honest and +prosperous living in London. Several thousands of our merchants are in +business there, and prospering. Several hundreds of our shrewdest men of +affairs are making fortunes upon the London Stock Exchange. Therefore, +we do not wish to conquer England. Commercially, that conquest is +already affected. I want you, Monsieur Douaille, to absolutely +understand this, because it may affect your views. What we do require is +to strike a long and lasting blow at the navy of Great Britain. As a +somewhat larger Holland, Great Britain is welcome to a peaceful +existence. When she lords it over the world, talks of an Empire upon +which the sun never sets, then the time arrives when we are forced to +interfere. Great Britain has possessions which she is not strong enough +to hold. Germany is strong enough to wrest them from her, and means to +do so. The English fleet must be destroyed. South Africa, then, will +come to Germany, India to Russia, Egypt to France. The rest follows as a +matter of course." + +"And what is the rest?" Monsieur Douaille asked. + +Herr Selingman was content no longer to sit in his place. He rose to his +feet. His face had fallen into different lines. His eyes flashed, his +words were inspired. + +"The rest," he declared, "is the crux of the whole matter. It is the one +great and settled goal towards which we who have understood have schemed +and fought our way. With the British Navy destroyed, the Monroe Doctrine +is not worth a sheet of writing-paper. South America is Germany's +natural heritage, by every right worth considering. It is our people's +gold which founded the Argentine Republic, the brains of our people +which control its destinies. Our Eldorado is there, Monsieur Douaille. +That is the country which, sooner or later, Germany must possess. We +look nowhere else. We covet no other of our neighbours' possessions. +Only I say that the sooner America makes up her mind to the sacrifice, +the better. Her Monroe Doctrine is all very well for the Northern +States. When she presumes to quote it as a pretext for keeping Germany +from her natural place in South America, she crosses swords with us. Now +you know the truth, and the whole truth. You know, Monsieur Douaille, +what we require from you, and you know your reward. Our host has already +told you, and will tell you again as often as you like, the feeling of +his own country. The Franco-Russian alliance is already doomed. It falls +to pieces through sheer lack of common interests. The entente cordiale +is simply a fetter and a dead weight upon you. Monsieur Douaille, I put +it to you as a man of common sense. Do you think that you, as a +statesman--you see, I will put the burden upon your shoulders, because, +if you choose, you can speak for your country--do you think that you +have a right to refuse from Germany the return of Alsace and Lorraine? +Do you think that you can look your country in the face if you refuse on +her behalf the greatest gift which has ever yet been offered to any +nation--the gift of Egypt? The old alliances are out of date. The +balance of power has shifted. I ask you, Monsieur Douaille, as you value +the prosperity and welfare of your country, to weigh what I have said +and what our great Russian friend has said, word by word. England has +made no sacrifices for you. Why should you sacrifice yourself for her?" + +Monsieur Douaille stroked his little grey imperial. + +"That is well enough," he muttered, "but without the English Navy the +balance of power upon the Continent is entirely upset." + +"The balance of power only according to the present grouping of +interests," Mr. Grex pointed out. "Selingman has shown us how these must +change. Frankly, although no one can fail to realise the immense +importance of South America as a colonising centre, it is my honest +opinion that the nation who scores most by my friend Selingman's plans, +is not Germany but France. Think what it means to her. Instead of being +a secondary Power, she will of her own might absolutely control the +Mediterranean. Egypt, with its vast possibilities, its ever-elastic +boundary, falls to her hand. Malta and Cyprus follow. It is a great +price that Germany is prepared to pay." + +Monsieur Douaille was silent for several moments. It was obvious that he +was deeply impressed. + +"This is a matter," he said, "which must be considered from many points +of view. Supposing that France were willing to bury the hatchet with +Germany, to remain neutral or to place Calais at Germany's disposal. +Even then, do you suppose, Herr Selingman, that it would be an easy +matter to destroy the British Navy?" + +"We have our plans," Selingman declared solemnly. "We know very well +that they can be carried out only at a great loss both of men and ships. +It is a gloomy and terrible task that lies before us, but at the other +end of it is the glory that never fades." + +"If America," Douaille remarked, "were to have an inkling of your real +objective, her own fleet would come to the rescue." + +"Why should America know of our ultimate aims?" Selingman rejoined. "Her +politicians to-day choose to play the part of the ostrich in the desert. +They take no account, or profess to take no account of European +happenings. They have no Secret Service. Their country is governed from +within for herself only. As for the rest, the bogey of a German invasion +has been flaunted so long in England that few people stop to realise the +absolute futility of such a course. London is already colonised by +Germans--colonised, that is to say, in urban and money-making fashion. +English gold is flowing in a never-ending stream into our country. It +would be the most foolish dream an ambitious statesman could conceive to +lay violent hands upon a land teeming with one's own children. Germany +sees further than this. There are richer prizes across the Atlantic, +richer prizes from every point of view." + +"You mentioned South Africa," Monsieur Douaille murmured. + +Selingman shrugged his shoulders. + +"South Africa will make no nation rich," he replied. "Her own people are +too stubborn and powerful, too rooted to the soil." + +Monsieur Douaille for the first time stretched out his hand and drank +some of the wine which stood by his side. His cheeks were very pale. He +had the appearance of a man tortured by conflicting thoughts. + +"I should like to ask you, Selingman," he said, "whether you have made +any definite plans for your conflict with the British Navy? I admit that +the days of England's unique greatness are over. She may not be in a +position to-day, as she has been in former years, to fight the world. At +the same time, her one indomitable power is still, whatever people may +say or think, her navy. Only last month the Cabinet of my country were +considering reports from their secret agents and placing them side by +side with known facts, as to the relative strength of your navy and the +navy of Great Britain. On paper it would seem that a German success was +impossible." + +Selingman smiled--the convincing smile of a man who sees further than +most men. + +"Not under the terms I should propose to you, Monsieur Douaille," he +declared. "Remember that we should hold Calais, and we should be assured +at least of the amiable neutrality of your fleet. We have spoken of +matters so intimate that I do not know whether in this absolute privacy +I should not be justified in going further and disclosing to you our +whole scheme for an attack upon the English Navy. It would need only an +expression of your sympathy with those views which we have discussed, to +induce me to do so." + +Monsieur Douaille hesitated for several moments before he replied. + +"I am a citizen of France," he said, "an envoy without powers to treat. +My own province is to listen." + +"But your personal sympathies?" Selingman persisted. + +"I have sometimes thought," Monsieur Douaille confessed, "that the +present grouping of European Powers must gradually change. If your +country, for instance," he added, turning to Mr. Grex, "indeed embraces +the proposals of Herr Selingman, France must of necessity be driven to +reconsider her position towards England. The Anglo-Saxon race may have +to battle then for her very existence. Yet it is always to be remembered +that in the background are the United States of America, possessing +resources and wealth greater than any other country in the universe." + +"And it must also be remembered," Selingman proclaimed, in a tone of +ponderous conviction, "that she possesses no adequate means of guarding +them, that she is not a military nation, that she has not the strength +to enforce the carrying out of the Monroe Doctrine. Things were all very +well for her before the days of wireless telegraphy, of aeroplanes and +airships, of super-dreadnoughts, and cruisers with the speed of express +trains. She was too far away to be concerned in European turmoils. +To-day science is annihilating distance. America, leaving out of account +altogether her military impotence, would need a fleet three times her +present strength to enforce the Monroe Doctrine for the remainder--not +of this century but of this decade." + +Then the bombshell fell. A strange voice suddenly intervened, a voice +whose American accent seemed more marked than usual. The four men turned +their heads. Selingman sprang to his feet. Mr. Grex's face was marble in +its whiteness. Monsieur Douaille, with a nervous sweep of his right arm, +sent his glass crashing to the floor. They all looked in the same +direction, up to the little music gallery. Leaning over in a careless +attitude, with his arms folded upon the rail, was Richard Lane. + +"Say," he begged, "can I take a hand in this little discussion?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +CHECKMATE! + + +Of the four men, Selingman was the first to recover himself. + +"Who the hell are you, and how did you get up there?" he roared. + +"I am Richard Lane," the young man explained affably, "and there's a way +up from the music-room. You probably didn't notice it. And there's a way +down, as you may perceive," he added, pointing to the spiral staircase. +"I'll join you, if I may." + +There was a dead silence as for a moment Richard disappeared and was +seen immediately afterwards descending the round staircase. Mr. Grex +touched Selingman on the arm and whispered in his ear. Selingman nodded. +There were evil things in the faces of both men as Lane approached them. + +"Will you kindly explain your presence here at once, sir?" Mr. Grex +ordered. + +"I say!" Richard protested. "A joke's a joke, but when you ask a man to +explain his presence on his own boat, you're coming it just a little +thick, eh? To tell you the truth, I had some sort of an idea of asking +you the same question." + +"What do you mean--your own boat?" Draconmeyer demanded. + +He was, perhaps, the first to realise the situation. Richard thrust his +hands into his pockets and sat upon the edge of the table. + +"Seems to me," he remarked, "that you gentlemen have made some sort of a +mistake. Where do you think you are, anyway?" + +"On board Schwann's yacht, the _Christabel_," Selingman replied. + +Richard shook his head. + +"Not a bit of it," he assured them. "This is the steam-yacht, +_Minnehaha_, which brought me over from New York, and of which I am most +assuredly the owner. Now I come to think of it," he went on, "there was +another yacht leaving the harbour at the same time. Can't have happened +that you boarded the wrong boat, eh?" + +Mr. Grex was icily calm, but there was menace of the most dangerous sort +in his look and manner. + +"Nothing of that sort was possible," he declared, "as you are, without +doubt, perfectly well aware. It appears to me that this is a deliberate +plot. The yacht which I and my friends thought that we were boarding +to-night was the _Christabel_, which my servant had instructions to hire +from Schwann of Monaco. I await some explanation from you, sir, as to +your purpose in sending your pinnace to the landing-stage of the Villa +Mimosa and deliberately misleading us as to our destination?" + +"Well, I don't know that I've got much to say about that," Richard +replied easily. + +"You are offering us no explanation?" Selingman demanded. + +"None," Richard assented coolly. + +Selingman suddenly struck the table with his clenched fist. + +"You were not alone up in that gallery!" + +"Getting warm, aren't you?" Richard murmured. + +Selingman turned to Grex. + +"This young man is Hunterleys' friend. They've fixed this up between +them. Listen!" + +A door slammed above their heads. Some one had left the music gallery. + +"Hunterleys himself!" Selingman cried. + +"Sure!" Richard assented. "Bright fellow, Selingman," he continued +amiably. "I wouldn't try that on, if I were you," he added, turning to +Mr. Grex, whose hand was slowly stealing from the back of his coat. +"That sort of thing doesn't do, nowadays. Revolvers belong to the last +decade of intrigue. You're a bit out of date with that little weapon. +Don't be foolish. I am not angry with any of you. I am willing to take +this little joke pleasantly, but----" + +He raised a whistle to his lips and blew it. The door at the further end +of the saloon was opened as though by magic. A steward in the yacht's +uniform appeared. From outside was visible a very formidable line of +sailors. Grex, with a swift gesture, slipped something back into his +pocket, something which glittered like silver. + +"Serve some champagne, Reynolds," Richard ordered the steward who had +come hurrying in, "and bring some cigars." + +The man withdrew. Richard seated himself once more upon the table, +clasping one knee. + +"Look here," he said, "I'll be frank with you. I came into this little +affair for the sake of a pal. It was only by accident that I found my +way up yonder--more to look after him than anything. I never imagined +that you would have anything to say that was interesting to me. Seems I +was wrong, though. You've got things very nicely worked out, Mr. +Selingman." + +Selingman glared at the young man but said nothing. The others, too, +were all remarkably bereft of words. + +"Don't mind my staying for a little chat, do you?" Richard continued +pleasantly. "You see, I am an American and I am kind of interested in +the latter portion of what you had to say. I dare say you're quite right +in some respects. We are a trifle too commercial and a trifle too +cocksure. You see, things have always gone our way. All the same, we've +got the stuff, you know. Just consider this. If I thought there was any +real need for it, and I begin to think that perhaps there may be, I +should be ready to present the United States with a Dreadnought +to-morrow, and I don't know that I should need to spend very much less +myself. And," he went on, "there are thirty or forty others who could +and would do the same. Tidy little fleet we should soon have, you see, +without a penny of taxation. Of course, I know we would need the men, +but we've a grand reserve to draw upon in the West. They are not +bothering about the navy in times of peace, but they'd stream into it +fast enough if there were any real need." + +The chief steward appeared, followed by two or three of his +subordinates. A tray of wine was placed upon the table. Bottles were +opened, but no one made any attempt to drink. Richard filled his own +glass and motioned the men to withdraw. + +"Prefer your own wine?" he remarked. "Well, now, that's too bad. Hope +I'm not boring you?" + +No one spoke or moved. Richard settled himself a little more comfortably +upon the table. + +"I can't tell you all," he proceeded, "how interested I have been, +listening up there. Quite a gift of putting things clearly, if I may be +allowed to say so, you seem to possess, Mr. Selingman. Now here's my +reply as one of the poor Anglo-Saxons from the West who've got to make +room in the best parts of the world for your lubberly German colonists. +If you make a move in the game you've been talking so glibly about, if +my word counts for anything, if my persuasions count for anything--and +I've facts to go on, you know--you'll have the American fleet to deal +with at the same time as the English, and I fancy that will be a trifle +more than you can chew up, eh? I'm going back to America a little +earlier than I anticipated. Of course, they'll laugh at me at first in +Washington. They don't believe much in these round-table conferences and +European plots. But all the same I've got some friends there. We'll try +and remember this amiable little statement of policy of yours, Mr. +Selingman. Nothing like being warned, you know." + +Mr. Grex rose from his place. + +"Sir," he said, "since we have been and are your unwilling guests, will +you be so good as to arrange for us at once to relieve you of our +presence?" + +"Well, I'm not so sure about that," Richard remarked, meditatively. "I +think I'd contribute a good deal to the comfort and happiness of this +generation if I took you all out to sea and dropped you overboard, one +by one." + +"As I presume you have no such intention," Mr. Grex persisted, "I repeat +that we should be glad to be allowed to land." + +Richard abandoned his indolent posture and stood facing them. + +"You came on board, gentlemen, without my invitation," he reminded them. +"You will leave my ship when I choose--and that," he added, "is not just +at present." + +"Do you mean that we are to consider ourselves your prisoners?" +Draconmeyer asked, with an acid smile. + +"Certainly not--my guests," Richard replied, with a bow. "I can assure +you that it will only be a matter of a few hours." + +Monsieur Douaille hammered the table with his fist. + +"Young man," he exclaimed, "I leave with you! I insist upon it that I am +permitted to leave. I am not a party to this conference. I am merely a +guest, a listener, here wholly in my private capacity. I will not be +associated with whatever political scandal may arise from this affair. I +demand permission to leave at once." + +"Seems to me there's something in what you say," Richard admitted. "Very +well, you can come along. I dare say Hunterleys will be glad to have a +chat with you. As for the rest of you," he concluded, as Monsieur +Douaille rose promptly to his feet, "I have a little business to arrange +on land which I think I could manage better whilst you are at sea. I +shall therefore, gentlemen, wish you good evening. Pray consider my +yacht entirely at your disposal. My stewards will be only too happy to +execute any orders--supper, breakfast, or dinner. You have merely to say +the word." + +He turned towards the door, closely followed by Douaille, who, in a +state of great excitement, refused to listen to Selingman's entreaties. + +"No, no!" the former objected, shaking his head. "I will not stay. I +will not be associated with this meeting. You are bunglers, all of you. +I came only to listen, on your solemn assurance of entire secrecy. We +are spied upon at the Villa Mimosa, we are made fools of on board this +yacht. No more unofficial meetings for me!" + +"Quite right, old fellow," Richard declared, as they passed out and on +to the deck. "Set of wrong 'uns, those chaps, even though Mr. Grex is a +Grand Duke. You know Sir Henry Hunterleys, don't you?" + +Hunterleys came forward from the gangway, at the foot of which the +pinnace was waiting. + +"We are taking Monsieur Douaille ashore," Richard explained, as the two +men shook hands. "He really doesn't belong to that gang and he wants to +cut adrift. You understand my orders exactly, captain?" he asked, as +they stepped down the iron gangway. + +"Perfectly, sir," was the prompt reply. "You may rely upon me. I am +afraid they are beginning to make a noise downstairs already!" + +The little pinnace shot out a stream of light across the dark, placid +sea. Douaille was talking earnestly to Hunterleys. + +"Pleasantest few minutes I ever spent in my life," Richard murmured, as +he took out his cigarette case. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AN AMAZING ELOPEMENT + + +The sun was shining brilliantly and the sky was cloudless as Richard +turned his automobile into the grounds of the Villa Mimosa, soon after +nine o'clock on the following morning. The yellow-blossomed trees, +slightly stirred by the west wind, formed a golden arch across the +winding avenue. The air was sweet, almost faint with perfume. On the +terrace, holding a pair of field-glasses in her hand and gazing intently +out to sea, was Fedora. At the sound of the motor-horn she turned +quickly. She looked at the visitor in surprise. A shade of pink was in +her face. Lane brought the car to a standstill, jumped out and climbed +the steps of the terrace. + +"What has brought you here?" she asked, in surprise. + +"I have just come to pay you a little visit," he remarked easily. "I was +only afraid you mightn't be up so early." + +She bit her lip. + +"You have no right to come here at all," she said severely, "and to +present yourself at this hour is unheard of." + +"I came early entirely out of consideration for your father," he assured +her. + +She frowned. + +"My father?" she repeated. "Please explain at once what you mean. My +father is on that yacht and I cannot imagine why he does not return." + +"I can tell you," he answered, standing by her side and looking out +seawards. "They are waiting for my orders before they let him off." + +She turned her head and looked at him incredulously. + +"Explain yourself, please," she insisted. + +"With pleasure," he assented. "You see, I just had to make sure of being +allowed to have a few minutes' conversation with you, free from any +interruption. Somehow or other," he added thoughtfully, "I don't believe +your father likes me." + +"I do not think," she replied coldly, "that my father has any feelings +about you at all, except that he thinks you are abominably +presumptuous." + +"Because I want to marry you?" + +She stamped with her foot upon the ground. + +"Please do not say such absurd things! Explain to me at once what you +mean by saying that my father is being kept there by your orders." + +"I'll try," Lane answered. "He boarded that yacht last night in mistake. +He thought that it was a hired one, but it isn't. It's mine. I found him +there last night, entertaining a little party of his friends in the +saloon. They seemed quite comfortable, so I begged them to remain on as +my guests for a short time." + +"To remain?" she murmured, bewildered. "For how long?" + +"Until you've just read this through and thought it over." + +He passed her a document which he had drawn from his pocket. She took it +from him wonderingly. When she had read a few lines, the colour came +streaming into her cheeks. She threw it to the ground. He picked it up +and replaced it in his pocket. + +"But it is preposterous!" she cried. "That is a marriage license!" + +"That's precisely what it is," he admitted. "I thought we'd be married +at Nice. My sister is waiting to go along with us. I said we'd pick her +up at the Hotel de Paris." + +Severe critics of her undoubted beauty had ventured at times to say that +Fedora's face lacked expression. There was, at that moment, no room for +any such criticism. Amazement struggled with indignation in her eyes. +Her lips were quivering, her breath was coming quickly. + +"Do you mean--have you given her or any one to understand that there was +any likelihood of my consenting to such an absurd scheme?" + +"I only told her what I hoped," he said quietly. "That is all I dared +say even to myself. But I want you to listen to me." + +His voice had grown softer. She turned her head and looked at him. He +was much taller than she was, and in his grey tweed suit, his head a +little thrown back, his straw hat clasped in his hands behind him, his +clear grey eyes full of serious purpose, he was certainly not an +unattractive figure to look upon. Unconsciously she found herself +comparing him once more with the men of her world, found herself +realising, even against her will, the charm of his naive and dogged +honesty, his youth, his tenacity of purpose. She had never been made +love to like this before. + +"Please listen," he begged. "I am afraid that your father must be in a +tearing rage by now, but it can't be helped. He is out there and he +hasn't got an earthly chance of getting back until I give the word. +We've got plenty of time to reach Nice before he can land. I just want +you to realise, Fedora, that you are your own mistress. You can make or +spoil your own life. No one else has any right to interfere. Have you +ever seen any one yet, back in your own country, amongst your own +people, whom you really felt that you cared for--who you really believed +would be willing to lay down his life to make you happy?" + +"No," she confessed simply, "I do not know that I have. Our men are not +like that." + +"It is because," he went on, "there is no one back there who cares as I +do. I have spent some years of my life looking--quite unconsciously, but +looking all the same--for some one like you. Now I have found you I am +glad I have waited. There couldn't be any one else. There never could +be, Fedora. I love you just in the way a man does love once in his life, +if he's lucky. It's a queer sort of feeling, you know," he continued, +leaning a little towards her. "It makes me quite sure that I could make +you happy. It makes me quite sure that if you'll give me your hand and +trust me, and leave everything to me, you'll have just the things in +life that women want. Won't you be brave, Fedora? There are some things +to break through, I know, but they don't amount to much--they don't, +really. And I love you, you know. You can't imagine yet what a wonderful +difference that makes. You'll find out and you'll be glad." + +She stood quite still. Her eyes were still fixed seawards, but she was +looking beyond the yacht, now, to the dim line where sky and sea seemed +to meet. The vision of her past days seemed to be drawn out before her, +a little monotonous, a little wearisome even in their splendour, more +than a little empty. And underneath it all she was listening to the new +music, and her heart was telling her the truth. + +"You don't need to make any plans," he said softly. "Go and put on your +hat and something to wear motoring. Bring a dressing-bag, if you like. +Flossie is waiting for us and she is rather a dear. You can leave +everything else to me." + +She looked timidly into his eyes. A new feeling was upon her. She gave +him her hand almost shyly. Her voice trembled. + +"If I come," she whispered, "you are quite sure that you mean it all? +You are quite sure that you will not change?" + +He raised her hand to his lips. + +"Not in this world, dear," he answered, with sublime confidence, "nor +any other!" + +She stole away from him. He was left alone upon the terrace, alone, but +with the exquisite conviction of her return, promised in that last +half-tremulous, half-smiling look over her shoulder. Then suddenly life +seemed to come to him with a rush, a new life, filled with a new +splendour. He was almost humbly conscious of bigger things than he had +ever realised, a nearness to the clouds, a wonderful, thrilling sense of +complete and absolute happiness.... Reluctantly he came back to earth. +His thoughts became practical. He went to the back of his car, drew out +a rocket on a stick and thrust it firmly into the lawn. Then he started +his engine and almost immediately afterwards she came. She was wearing a +white silk motor-coat and a thick veil. Behind her came a bewildered +French maid, carrying wraps, and a man-servant with a heavy +dressing-case. In silence these things were stowed away. She took her +place in the car. Lane struck a match and stepped on to the lawn. + +"Don't be frightened," he said. "Here goes!" + +A rocket soared up into the sky. Then he seated himself beside her and +they glided off. + +"That means," he explained, "that they'll let your father and the others +off in two hours. Give us plenty of time to get to Nice. Have you--left +any word for him?" + +"I have left a very short message," she answered, "to say that I was +going to marry you. He will never forgive me, and I feel very wicked and +very ungrateful." + +"Anything else?" he whispered, leaning a little towards her. + +She sighed. + +"And very happy," she murmured. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +HONEYMOONING + + +Hunterleys saw the Right Honourable Meredith Simpson and Monsieur +Douaille off to Paris early that morning. Then he called round at the +hospital to find that Sidney Roche was out of danger, and went on to the +villa with the good news. On his way back he stayed chatting with the +bank manager until rather later than usual, and afterwards strolled on +to the Terrace, where he looked with some eagerness towards a certain +point in the bay. The _Minnehaha_ had departed. Mr. Grex and his +friends, then, had been set free. Hunterleys returned to the hotel +thoughtfully. At the entrance he came across two or three trunks being +wheeled out, which seemed to him somehow familiar. He stopped to look at +the initials. They were his wife's. + +"Is Lady Hunterleys leaving to-day?" he asked the luggage-porter. + +"By the evening train, sir," the man announced. "She would have caught +the _Cote d'Azur_ this morning but there was no place on the train." + +Hunterleys was perplexed. Some time after luncheon he enquired for Lady +Hunterleys and found that she was not in the hotel. A reception clerk +thought that he had seen her go through on her way to the Sporting Club. +Hunterleys, after some moments of indecision, followed her. He was +puzzled at her impending departure, unable to account for it. The +Draconmeyers, he knew, proposed to stay for another month. He walked +thoughtfully along the private way and climbed the stairs into the Club. +He looked for his wife in her usual place. She was not there. He made a +little promenade of the rooms and eventually he found her amongst the +spectators around the baccarat table. He approached her at once. + +"You are not playing?" + +She started at the sound of his voice. She was dressed very simply in +travelling clothes, and there were lines under her eyes, as though she +were fatigued. + +"No," she admitted, "I am not playing." + +"I understood in the hotel," he continued, "that you were leaving +to-day." + +"I am going back to England," she announced. "It does not amuse me here +any longer." + +He realised at once that something had happened. A curious sense of +excitement stole into his blood. + +"If you are not playing here, will you come and sit down for a few +moments?" he invited. "I should like to talk to you." + +She followed him without a word. He led the way to one of the divans in +the roulette room. + +"Your favourite place," he remarked, "is occupied." + +She nodded. + +"I have given up playing," she told him. + +He looked at her in some surprise. She drew a little breath and kept her +eyes steadily averted. + +"You will probably know sometime or other," she continued, "so I will +tell you now. I have lost four thousand pounds to Mr. Draconmeyer. I am +going back to England to realise my own money, so as to be able to pay +him at once." + +"You borrowed four thousand pounds from Mr. Draconmeyer?" he repeated +incredulously. + +"Yes! It was very foolish, I know, and I have lost every penny of it. I +am not the first woman, I suppose, who has lost her head at Monte +Carlo," she added, a little defiantly. + +"Does Mr. Draconmeyer know that you are leaving?" he asked. + +"Not yet," she answered, after a moment's hesitation. "I had an +interview with him yesterday and I realised at once that the money must +be paid, and without delay. I realised, too, that it was better I should +leave Monte Carlo and break off my association with these people for the +present." + +In a sense it was a sordid story, yet to Hunterleys her words sounded +like music. + +"I am very pleased indeed," he said quietly, "that you feel like that. +Draconmeyer is not a man to whom I should like my wife to owe money for +a moment longer than was absolutely necessary." + +"Your estimate of him was correct," she confessed slowly. "I am sorry, +Henry." + +He rose suddenly to his feet. An inspiration had seized him. + +"Come," he declared, "we will pay Draconmeyer back without sending you +home to sell your securities. Come and stand with me." + +She looked at him in amazement. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "You are not going to play? Don't! Take my +advice and don't!" + +He laughed. + +"We'll see," he replied confidently. "You wouldn't believe that I was a +fatalist, would you? I am, though. Everything that I had hoped for seems +to be happening to-day. You have found out Draconmeyer, we have +checkmated Mr. Grex, I have drunk the health of Felicia and David +Briston--" + +"Felicia and David Briston?" she interrupted quickly. "What do you +mean?" + +"You knew, of course, that they were engaged?" he explained. "I called +round at the villa this morning, after I had been to the hospital, and +found them busy fixing the wedding day." + +She looked at him vaguely. + +"Engaged?" she murmured. "Why, I thought--" + +A spot of colour suddenly burned in her cheeks. She was beginning to +understand. It was Draconmeyer who had put those ideas into her head. +Her heart gave a little leap. + +"Henry!" she whispered. + +He was already at the table, however. He changed five mille notes +deliberately, counted his plaques and turned to her. + +"I am going to play on your principle," he declared. "I have always +thought it an interesting one. See, the last number was twenty-two. I am +going to back twenty and all the _carres_." + +He covered the board around number twenty. There were a few minutes of +suspense, then the click as the ball fell into the little space. + +"_Vingt-huit, noir, passe et pair!_" the croupier announced. + +Hunterleys' stake was swept away. He only smiled. + +"Our numbers are going to turn up," he insisted cheerfully. "I am +certain of it now. Do you know that this is the first time I have played +since I have been in Monte Carlo?" + +She watched him half in fear. This time he staked on twenty-nine, with +the maximum _en plein_ and all the _carres_ and _chevaux_. Again the few +moments of suspense, the click of the ball, the croupier's voice. + +_"Vingt-neuf, noir, impair et passe!"_ + +She clutched at his arm. + +"Henry!" she gasped. + +He laughed. + +"Open your bag," he directed. "We'll soon fill it." + +He left his stake untouched. Thirty-one turned up. He won two _carres_ +and let the table go once without staking. Ten was the next number. +Immediately he placed the maximum on number fourteen, _carres_ and +_chevaux_. Again the pause, again the croupier's voice. + +_"Quatorze rouge, pair et manque!"_ + +Hunterleys showed no exultation and scarcely any surprise. He gathered +in his winnings and repeated his stake. This time he won one of his +_carres_. The next time _quatorze_ turned up again. For half-an-hour he +continued, following his few chosen numbers according to the run of the +table. At the end of that time Violet's satchel was full and he was +beginning to collect mille notes for his plaques. He made a little +calculation in his mind and decided that he must already have won more +than the necessary amount. + +"Our last stake," he remarked coolly. + +The preceding number had been twenty-six. He placed the maximum on +twenty-nine, the _carres_, _chevaux_, the column, colour and last dozen. +He felt Violet's fingers clutching his arm. There was a little buzz of +excitement all round the table as the croupier announced the number. + +_"Vingt-neuf noir, impair et passe!..."_ + +They took their winnings into the anteroom beyond, where Hunterleys +ordered tea. There was a little flush in Violet's cheeks. They counted +the money. There was nearly five thousand pounds. + +"Henry!" she exclaimed. "I think that that last coup was the most +marvellous win I ever saw!" + +"A most opportune one, at any rate," he replied grimly. "Look who is +coming." + +Draconmeyer had entered the room, and was peering everywhere as though +in search of some one. He suddenly caught sight of them, hesitated for a +moment and then approached. He addressed himself to Violet. + +"I have just seen Linda," he said. "She is broken-hearted at the thought +of your departure." + +"I am sorry to leave her," Violet replied, "but I feel that I have +stayed quite long enough in Monte Carlo. By the bye, Mr. Draconmeyer, +there is that little affair of the money you were kind enough to advance +to me." + +Draconmeyer stood quite still. He looked from husband to wife. + +"Four thousand pounds, my wife tells me," Hunterleys remarked coolly, as +he began to count out the notes. "It is very good of you indeed to have +acted as my wife's banker. Do you mind being paid now? Our movements are +a little uncertain and it will save the trouble of sending you a +cheque." + +Draconmeyer laughed. It was not a pleasant laugh, nor was it in the +least mirthful. + +"Dear me!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten that little matter. As you +will, certainly." + +He accepted the notes and stuffed them into his pocket. + +"By the bye," he continued, "I think that I ought to congratulate you, +Sir Henry. That last little affair of yours was wonderfully +stage-managed. Your country owes you more than it is ever likely to pay. +You have succeeded, at any rate, in delaying the inevitable." + +"I trust," Hunterleys enquired politely, "that you were not detained +upon the yacht for very long?" + +"We landed at the Villa at twelve o'clock this morning," Draconmeyer +replied. "You know, of course, of the little surprise our young American +friend had prepared for Mr. Grex?" + +Hunterleys shook his head. + +"I have heard nothing definite." + +"He was married to the daughter of the Grand Duke Augustus at midday at +Nice," Draconmeyer announced. "His Serene Highness received a telephone +message only a short time ago." + +Violet gave a little cry. She leaned across the table eagerly. + +"You mean that they have eloped?" + +Draconmeyer assented. + +"All Monte Carlo will be talking about it to-morrow," he declared. "The +Grand Duke has been doing all he can to get it hushed up, but it is +useless. I will not detain you any longer. I see that you are about to +have tea." + +"We shall meet, perhaps, in London?" Hunterleys remarked, as Draconmeyer +prepared to depart. + +Draconmeyer shook his head. + +"I think not," he replied. "The doctors have advised me that the climate +of England is bad for my wife's health, and I feel that my own work +there is finished. I have received an offer to go out to South America +for a time. Very likely I shall accept." + +He passed on with a final bow. Violet looked across their table and her +eyes shone. + +"It seems like a fairy tale, Henry," she whispered. "You don't know what +a load on my mind that money has been, and how I was growing to detest +Mr. Draconmeyer." + +He smiled. + +"I was rather hating the beast myself," he admitted. "Tell me, what are +your plans, really?" + +"I hadn't made any," she confessed, "except to get away as quickly as I +could." + +He leaned a little across the table. + +"Elopements are rather in the fashion," he said. "What do you think? +Couldn't we have a little dinner at Ciro's and catch the last train to +Nice; have a look at Richard and his wife and then go on to Cannes, and +make our way back to England later?" + +She looked at him and his face grew younger. There was something in her +eyes which reminded him of the days which for so many weary months he +had been striving to forget. + +"Henry," she murmured, "I have been very foolish. If you can trust me +once more, I think I can promise that I'll never be half so idiotic +again." + +He rose to his feet blithely. + +"It has been my fault just as much," he declared, "and the fault of +circumstances. I couldn't tell you the whole truth, but there has been a +villainous conspiracy going on here. Draconmeyer, Selingman, and the +Grand Duke were all in it and I have been working like a slave. Now it's +all over, finished this morning on Richard's yacht. We've done what we +could. I'm a free lance now and we'll spend the holidays together." + +She gave him her fingers across the table and he held them firmly in +his. Then she, too, rose and they passed out together. There was a +wonderful change in Hunterleys. He seemed to have grown years younger. + +"Come," he exclaimed, "they call this the City of Pleasure, but these +are the first happy moments I have spent in it. We'll gamble in +five-franc pieces for an hour or so. Then we'll go back to the hotel and +have our trunks sent down to the station, dine at Ciro's and wire +Richard. Where are you going to stake your money?" + +"I think I shall begin with number twenty-nine," she laughed. + + * * * * * + +They lunched with Richard and his wife, a few days later, at the Casino +at Cannes. The change in the two young people was most impressive. +Fedora had lost the dignified aloofness of Monte Carlo. She seemed as +though she had found her girlhood. She was brilliantly, supremely happy. +Richard, on the other hand, was more serious. He took Hunterleys on one +side as they waited for the cars. + +"We are on our way to Biarritz," he said, "by easy stages. The yacht +will meet us there and we are going to sail at once for America." + +"Fedora doesn't mind?" Hunterleys asked. + +"Not in the least," Richard declared exultantly. "She knows what my duty +is, and, Hunterleys, I am going to try and do it. The people over there +may need a lot of convincing, but they are going to hear the truth from +me and have it drummed into them. It's going to be 'Wake up, America!' +as well as 'Wake up, England!'" + +"Stick at it, Richard," Hunterleys advised. "Don't mind a little +discouragement. Men who see the truth and aren't afraid to keep on +calling attention to it, get laughed at a great deal. People speak of +them tolerantly, listen to what they say, doubt its reasonableness and +put it at the back of their heads, but in the end it does good. Your +people and mine are slow to believe and slow to understand, but the +truth sinks in if one proclaims it often enough and loudly enough. We +are going through it in our own country just now, with regard to +National Service, for one thing. Here come your cars. You travel in +state, Richard." + +The young man laughed good-naturedly. + +"There's nothing in life which I could give her that Fedora sha'n't +have," he asserted. "We spent the first two days absolutely alone. Now +her maid and my man come along with the luggage in the heavy car, and we +take the little racer. Jolly hard work they have to keep anywhere near +us, I can tell you. Say, may I make a rather impertinent remark, Sir +Henry?" + +"You have earned the right to say anything to me you choose," Hunterleys +replied. "Go ahead." + +"Why, it's only this," Richard continued, a little awkwardly. "I have +never seen Lady Hunterleys look half so ripping, and you seem years +younger." + +Hunterleys smiled. + +"To tell you the truth, I feel it. You see, years ago, when we started +out for our honeymoon, there was a crisis after the first week and we +had to rush back to England. We seem to have forgotten to ever finish +that honeymoon of ours. We are doing it now." + +The two women came down the steps, the cynosure of a good many eyes, the +two most beautiful women in the Casino. Richard helped his wife into her +place, wrapped her up and took the steering wheel. + +"Hyeres to-night and Marseilles to-morrow," he announced, "Biarritz on +Saturday. We shall stay there for a week, and then--'Wake up, America!'" + +The cars glided off. Hunterleys and his wife stood on the steps, waving +their hands. + +"Something about those children," Hunterleys declared, as they vanished, +"makes me feel absurdly young. Let's go shopping, Violet. I want to buy +you some flowers and chocolates." + +She smiled happily as she took his arm for a moment. + +"And then?" + +"What would you like to do afterwards?" he asked. + +"I think," she replied, leaning towards him, "that I should like to go +to that nice Englishman who lets villas, and find one right at the edge +of the sea, quite hidden, and lock the gates, and give no one our +address, and have you forget for just one month that there was any work +to do in the world, or any one else in it except me." + +"Just to make up," he laughed softly. + +"Women are like that, you know," she murmured. + +"The man's office is this way," Hunterleys said, turning off the main +street. + + +THE END + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +E. Phillips Oppenheim's Novels + +We do not stop to inquire into the measure of his art any more than we +inquire into that of Alexander Dumas. We only realize that here is a +benefactor of tired men and women seeking relaxation.--_Independent_, +New York. + + Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo + An amazing revelation of war in the making. + + The Vanished Messenger + What resulted when the Powers conspired against England. + + A People's Man + How a socialistic leader became involved in international affairs. + + The Double Life of Mr. Alfred Burton + Oppenheim in a new vein--a pure comedy. + + The Mischief-Maker + A blending of love, romance, and international intrigue. + + The Lighted Way + A mystery story that involves the revolution in Portugal. + + Havoc + An engrossing story of love, mystery, and international intrigue. + + Peter Ruff and the Double-Four + Deals with a shrewd detective and a mysterious secret society. + + The Moving Finger + A mystifying story dealing with a wealthy M. P.'s experiment. + + Berenice + A masterly tale of a strong love that is tragic in its outcome. + + The Prince of Sinners + An engrossing story of English social and political life. + + Anna the Adventuress + A surprising tale of a bold deception. + + The Master Mummer + The strange romance of beautiful Isobel de Sorrens. + + The Mysterious Mr. Sabin + The ingenious story of a bold international intrigue. + + The Yellow Crayon + Mr. Sabin's exciting experiences with a powerful secret society. + + A Millionaire of Yesterday + A gripping story of a wealthy West African miner. + + The Man and His Kingdom + A dramatic tale of adventure in South America. + + The Traitors + A capital romance of love, adventure, and Russian intrigue. + + The Betrayal + A thrilling story of treachery in high diplomatic circles. + + A Sleeping Memory + The story of an unhappy girl who was deprived of her memory. + + Enoch Strone: A Master of Men + A tremendously strong story of a self-made man. + + A Maker of History + A daring tale that "explains" a great historical event. + + The Malefactor + An amazing story of a strange revenge. + + A Lost Leader + A realistic romance woven around a striking personality. + + The Great Secret + Unfolds a stupendous international conspiracy. + + The Avenger + Unravels the deepest of mysteries with consummate power. + + The Long Arm of Mannister + Deals with a wronged man's ingenious revenge. + + The Tempting of Tavernake + In which an unromantic Englishman falls in love and learns something + about women. + + The Governors + A romance of the intrigues of American finance. + + Jeanne of the Marshes + Strange doings at an English house party are here set forth. + + As a Man Lives + Discloses the mystery surrounding the fair occupant of a yellow house. + + The Illustrious Prince + Exposes a Japanese political intrigue in London. + + The Lost Ambassador + A straightforward mystery tale of Paris and London. + + A Daughter of the Marionis + A tale of a beautiful Sicilian whose love interfered with her revenge. + + The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown + An ingenious solution of a murder mystery. + + The Survivor + A striking story of a young Englishman's uphill fight. + + The World's Great Snare + The love romance of a pretty American girl and an English prospector. + + Those Other Days + A collection of gripping and vivid stories. + + For the Queen + Remarkable stories of diplomatic scandals and political intrigue. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo, by E. Phillips Oppenheim + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO *** + +***** This file should be named 20611.txt or 20611.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/6/1/20611/ + +Produced by Steven desJardins, Mary Meehan, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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